Strike of Thunderbolt...

Sachin is getting engaged on coming 11th...

I have been a silent observer to this whole process that extended over a span of few months...
right from thinking about getting married...
till the engagement...

I remember those long discussions on chat debating over what qualities the girl should possess...
right from the looks n figure to the nature n education...

the concept of flowchart... and the finalization and publishing of(among ourselves)...
"Steps to be followed during selection...."
"Remote short listing process" carried out...
Resulting in a "Short list" that is to be checked out....

Talks of a vacation…
That was supposed to be full of "Interviews"....
Wherein I had to Book a time slot in that "busy schedule"...
Just to meet my friend...

But when he landed in Mumbai...

I m observing something else...
The whole plans for that Interview process are gone for a toss....
The process abandoned....
Schedule Discarded....
The interviews are over....
First candidate selected...

For me it appears to be a case of the "Strike of the Thunderbolt"...
Something that happened to Mike Carleone in Sicily... (Refer The Godfather)...
Sometimes ppl call it "Love at first sight"....

Now he seems busy "Mumbai <--> Pune"...
Call from a friend gets cut at 9 00 bcos...
"He is Expecting Someone's call"...

And all of a sudden...
The appointment I had got in this “busy schedulee” has also become
"Subject to availability....”

When I try to find out reasons behind abandoned process....
I got news of "meeting of parents to finalize details"...
And a probable date of engagement....

That date coincides with "Time slot" I got from "his busy schedule"...
The function is at Pune...
It is really good that I will be making a trip to Pune...
And meet some old friends too...

I wonder if this is what happened to plans of such a consistent person....
I would rather not talk about probable fate of mine... :-O

Around Hyderabad in 4 hrs...

While returning from Jeddah on 25th Oct I did not get any Mumbai flight so I had to board on a Hyderabad flight since I was too eager to be at home. So I preferred make an additional trip from Hyderabad to Mumbai instead of waiting for Mumbai flight that was after 2 days. This was going to be my first visit to Hyderabad

As usual the flight was a bit delayed and landed in Hyderabad at 10 30 instead of 9 00... This made me miss the 10 30 flight (which was a remote possibility)... I checked with other airlines counters but no immediate flight... next flight was Indian airlines at 16 00... I booked ticket...

Now i had a million dollar question... what to do for 4 hrs till I check in for Mumbai flight at 15 00? I thought of checking into a hotel and spend some time watching TV etc...So I booked a prepaid auto and headed for a nearby hotel the auto driver knew... but he rates were very high... we checked all nearby hotels but it was all the same...and I was not ready for paying 600-700 rs for a 4 hrs stay.

So i struck a deal with the auto driver... anyway I was to spend 300-400 rs even if i had gone for heaper hotels.. So I asked the autowala to take me around the city…and show some landmarks as well as the marketplace and all for 400 rs.

After i enjoyed the famous Hyderaabadi chicken biryani...We managed to visit a few places like the famous Char Minar.... some lake with a Buddha statue in the middle.... also I visited the Birla temple... and finally we made a trip to high tech city after spending some time just roaming around the city central areas and all...

It was clearly evident that Chandrababu had done a lot for this city... at least the areas that i went around had all good infrastructure of roads flyovers and all...also before landing i could see that the city had a fair presence of greenery. I could not hold from comparing this with the crumbling infrastructure of Bangalore... as well as worst infrastructure of Pune.

I felt really bad when i saw the Char Minar... When we think of Hyderabad the first image that comes into mind is of the Char Minar like we think of Gateway of India for Mumbai or say Red Fort or India Gate for Delhi... but all these monuments are taken care of very well but this char Minar was a sad exception...

Too many names carved on the walls all over....the steps that lead upstairs as well as all the corners were red...testifying the "Paan" culture and the interesting part was that they were charging 100 rs per head for foreign nationals to visit this monument...

The typical south Indian tradition of "Vyakti pooja" was also evident in the form of a lot of statues scattered all over the city...Hyderabad is a Muslim dominated city... and this being the month of Ramadan.. i was expecting a special look for the city like we generally observer in Diwali or Dashera in other cities , but to my surprise there was no such thing...city had no festive looks....

After roaming around till 3 pm I came back to the airport only to hear that the flight is delayed by an hour… but those 4 hours spent had given me a good idea about the city and it’s culture…

Call from ICICI

Some days ago I received a call from ICICI. It was about some Cash loans schemes. the usual telemarketing stuff… I really enjoy talking to these call center and Tele Marketing people and troubling them with a lot of questions.

The same thing I did here to :-) for about 20-25 minutes, I was asking questions about
Everything... from the amount... interest rate then.. The documents and all...
In short it was something which one of my colleagues termed as ragging on phone after it was over.

After this episode we went to canteen. After some time, to my surprise….the phone rang again... it was same number... same gal...

She had called me back to say thanks... apparently what all I did was a welcome change for her from the routine job wherein most of the people don't even listen to fully and just put the phone down. I took the opportunity to ask a few more questions to find out the nature of job and other info about the way these services operate.

Next day...she called again. This time it was for chatting only ;-) we talked for about 10-15 minutes. Again in the evening also she called. I managed to gather a good deal of info about her profession and it clearly gave the idea of the cut throat competition these companies face.

She was working in an environment where salary was highly dependent on the performance. A very small base salary and everything above the basic salary was dependent on how many customers they bring in for the bank through telemarketing. You bring in 10 customers and you get a salary of about 4000. Here too control and monitoring was very strict. I got the glimpse of it very next day.

On the third day I received a call from the same service. This time someone else was on phone. As usual they started telling the usual stuff about the scheme and all and the direct questions about my employment. It was clear that they were expecting a customer interested in loans. But in response I asked, "What is a flat interest rate?”. Then without a single word, phone was slammed down.

Then I suddenly realized, the four calls made to same number had brought the number under scanner and they were checking it out. This must have put the poor gal in trouble.

For me this entire episode highlights the fierce competition the Indian banks are facing as well as the new service industry that is thriving on of this competition because they provide cheap services like this one.

And most importantly a new Indian business culture where your progress is mainly dependent on your performance...a major shift from the concept of "sarkari noukari..."

The BHN Experience...

The events of yesterday remind me of another such experience when I felt a good deal of pressure. The story goes back to the days when I was working with L&T.
We were on a hydro testing mission of newly installed oil and gas pipelines. Taking the ship from Platform to platform, we were carrying out testing one after the other.

We were at BHN.... yes... the same one that was destroyed during this rainy season. During the course of testing we had left some material at previous places of testing. So I got down to BHN along with some crew members to carry out the preparatory work for testing. And the ship left to collect that material from other platforms. We knew it would take long before the ship returns so we had adequate food provisions with us too.

We had finished work at the lowermost deck. (it is lust 3-4 meters above sea level...tyaala spider deck ki sailor deck ase kahitari naav asate... aata aathavat nahi...). we were just roaming around and chatting while we were waiting for the ship to come back. One of the crew members was a fat man. At one place the grating was badly corroded. And he happened to put his foot there (oh lord Murphy...).

The grating gave away and he was laying there with one foot gone inside. We pulled him up. His testicles were badly hit. So to ease his pain we carried out the basic exercises like making him bend.... and all. After some time he felt good and we were back to chatting.

After around an hour he was in severe pain. And it was becoming unbearable. Now we were at the lowest level. The only way to go upper decks where we could take help from ONGC doctors was either to go upstairs and call them or to take the man upstairs. I was not feeling like leaving him and going upstairs to search the doctor. It would have been late. And the man was certainly not in a position to go upstairs.

I was the in charge of the crew and onus was on me to decide the further course. I went to the barge of some other company that was working there too for some other project. I met the doctor there and asked for help. He agreed and so we took the injured man to that barge. The doctor him some medicines and tea and asked to rest for some time on the barge. But the pain was not easing and to our horror we found that his testicles were growing in size.

Now the doctor was under pressure. He was afraid that the man would certainly die. He did not wanted him to die him on the barge and then get involved in further inquiries. So he asked me to move him from the barge immediately.

Now there was nowhere to go....
It was not possible to take him up in the BHN complex..... Our ship was at least 2 hours away.... and the only available shelter...this barge was not allowing to stay.
I thought for a min. about what to do then I went to the radio room of the barge and called the BHN control room asking for medical evacuation chopper.

Thankfully the barge had a helipad. I still remember the time.... after completion of all formalities the chopper left at 4 55 pm. I then called my boss in Powai on radio and informed him about the accident. He immediately went to Juhu aerodrome to take care of further things.

Later that night we came to know that he was admitted to Nanavati Hospital where the operation had begun at 6 00 pm. His life was saved.
A delay of an hour... and he would have been dead....

Ajab Desh Ajab Niyam...

20 Oct 2005... I was supposed to return to India from Saudi Arabia. Seat Booking confirm-reconfirm zale hote. Sakali 9 00 chi flight. Savayee pramane mi sakali (ki bhalyaa pahate!!!) savva saha la Jeddah airport var hajar hoto. Arthaat airport paryant cha pravaas pan as usual smooth navhata. Rastyaat ek don thikaani nehami pramane bags ughadun dakhavavyaa lagalyaa hotyaa. Hyaa tight security cha parinaam mhanoon Aajkaal mi sudhaarlo aahe. Airport madhye ghuse paryant bag la kulup lavatach nahi :-)

Boarding pass ghetala....luggage submit kele... avadhe sopaskaar urakalyaavar mi Immigration counter var gelo. I gave him the documents & passport. To my surprice he said you can not leave country at this moment. Your visa is expired. First get it extended and then you can leave the country.

I was 101% sure that I was well within my visa expiry. I was leaving after 4 months whereas my visa was for 6 months. So I showed him the slip where it said validity 6 months and then showed him the stamp on passport for date of entering the country.
As a response that guy pointed to some Arabic script on the slip and said as per this your visa is expired. Arthaat haa sarvaa prakaar thoda modakyaa todakyaa english madhye aani thoda sign language madhye challa hota.

I met his boss. Thankfully his boss was ok with English. He looked at the record on his monitor. Saw the name of the sponsor and then his way of talking changed (tase aamhi mothyaa lokaanche pahune...) he just said there is something wrong with your visa stamping. Just contact the officers from National Commercial Bank and they will take care of it after which you can leave.

I asked if there was some way out... so he went to his boss with me who again was “English Maafi” (don’t know english) kind of person. So the final outcome was that i can not leave the country today.

As a last resort I called my friend from bank Naveen who had a good experience of staying in Saudi Arabia, and asked for his advice. He told that just get luggage out and come back. “Wahaan pe kuchh nahi hone wala.”

So I asked the officer what I need to do now to cancel the ticket and get luggage back. He gave enough instructions about where to go and what to do and I was able to get through all that stuff. I got luggage back after flight departure and was back to hotel. In between i had some hard time explaining this scenario back home.

I had a word with bank project manager. He said check out for flight bookings after Saturday. The rules here keep on changing and we will get this matter cleared on Saturday and then u leave. This was ok. But today on 21st Oct I have a bigger problem in front of me.

All the economy class reservations are full till Nov. 10.... Yesterday was last available reservation. Now I have 3 options left. Wait till Nov. 10 and then go back..... Or get ticket upgraded to First class.... Or try for ticket from some other airlines.

First option is virtually ruled out because I desperately want to be home before 28th Oct. The second and third option can be tried. But here again the second option will require that i pay the diff. of fare from my pocket since I m not entitled for first class travel as per company rules. Getting seat with another airline was also a very faint possibility because this is month of Ramadan and a lot of people are going back to India on vacation because the last week of Ramadan is a week long holiday.

Now i must wait till Saturday because Thursday and Friday are holidays here. And check out of latest available reservation after the visa matter is cleared, prepared to shell out some extra money for first class seat.

But somehow when I look back at yesterday’s incidents...it makes me believe there is a good reason behind everything that happens. It was good that this thing happened on 20th... now I have 7-8 days to fall back. If this was on 25 or 26 then there were high chances that i would have missed Diwali because by then the Ramadan holidays would have started. Also now i know the procedure of canceling the ticket after getting boarding pass and procedures taking the luggage out of the cargo bay. And most of all, i would never have thought of traveling by first class (at least in immediate future) if not for this situation

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward
-- Vernon Law

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.
--Aldus Huxley