Happy to help??

Last month, i was totally blown away by the awesome ad campaign vodafone pulled off.... the new jingle, the same hutch puppy(me got nostalgic links to it)... and the sweet little girl. The ad was perfect.

And not for the first time in my life, I made a consumer decision, based on an ad campaign alone...

I wasn't so sure of how happily they wud be handing out their service...
But i felt, having entertained me so much with the "Everyday I want to fly, stay by my side..." tune, they had done their part.

So there I was at the Vodafone store, buying a new sim. Took me under 10 mins to get the formalities done, and within 3 hrs, i was browsing through the vodafone GPRS. To say the least, I was impressed...
The good times went on for almost a week. No complaints...

And then, it was time I needed help!! On one fine Saturday morning, my phone services were killed. Without a warning, or a call, My cell is rendered into a record player, which plays the same smg for every action : "Services to this number have been barred. Please contact Vodafone Care"...

Before this, the only calls from Vodafone I had received, were about offers for me to subscribe to the latest Punjabi IndiPop caller tunes.... Though this wasn't as bad as the offers for the overly spicy Kandu tunes, back in college. (This is in no way, an insult to any ethnic group, or their tastes. These are entirely my own views, though I dont take much responsibility of them...)

Well, before I drift away any further, from the narrative... here goes my fate full call :

she : Hello sir, I am happy to help you. I'm Navneet(*Name changed. I don't want women suing me already. Actually I NEVER want that), what can i do for you?


Me : (The voice almost took away half the pain...) Uhhm... My number is foo. And for some reason you have blocked my sim.

she : oh.. sir, I am happy to help you, are you sure your sim is tightly fit in the right place?


Me : ofcourse i'm sure... how do u think I am calling you. My outgoing/incoming calls n sms are barred.

she : I m happy to help you sir. Let me check with my database (*read : my boyfrnd is on the other line, wud have asked him to wait, but you are too boring!!)

##### after some 5 mins of gibberish music#####

she : sir, I am happy to tell you that your vodafone connection is working perfectly. would you like know about our special plan for cheap calls to the Gulf??

me(irritated now) : what will do with your special plan, when my sim doesnt work. I am telling you, I cant do anything with it.


She(not so happy now) : you can atleast listen to the plan sir. You should go check with the vodafone centre you bought the sim at. Is there any thing else you would want help with. I would be happy to help you.

Me : Nothing else, just get my connection working again....

She : Thanking you for calling Vodafone Care. We are always happy to help.

Alas, the mirror had cracked... Behind that multi million dollar campaign, was this inefficient support system indeed...

This wasn't the lone call. in the next 10 days, I made many calls, narrated my cell number, address and all personal info a dozen times, talked to a superior, and his superior, visited the vodafone store twice, was given a request number ,then a complaint number... but my cell never rang...


When I was finally about to give up, I got THE CALLL. "Sir we are happy to inform you that ur connection has been restored. It was a fault with our system regarding your documents. would you like to know about our other plans to rob you off your money??"

I'm still wondering, who is the bigger criminal. Is it them, who spend more money shooting ads at exotic locals, than invest in an efficient support service, or is it we, who actually buy into the spineless show of glamour and gloss.


I still don't have an answer, though I am currently wondering, if after all those convos, I should ask Navneet for a coffee...

Speaking of coffee, thats yet another story... The hope of "a lot that can happen over coffee", keeps pulling us to it... this one's for another day.. BYE!!

one helluva zooming trip

All of you still think, Flash is for cheap thrills, and youtube videos alone, think again!!
I call this serious art. This hyper zoom sample created by the folks at zoomquilt, speaks for itself. This is an artist's imaginataion come to life. For centuries, artists might have visualised to create a work they could travel into... and Flash gives them the power to do exactly that.
Kudos to the team involved. Me just spent half an hour zooming in and out of this. gives you the creeps. If not the motion, then the very weird art work would get to you for sure!!!

My house on google maps....

After years of waiting, and lots of zooming in and out.... and lots of searches on wikimapia and google maps and google earth. It happened.
Finally the secret spy satellites and flying gadgetry that google employs to see over the world, got to my humble abode too.
Well, having your privacy invaded aint smthing to be proud about.... but well, this has become some kind of an issue of pride and self respect. Atleast between me and my pal Abhi. cuz he cud show me the exact spot he used to pee all his childhood, while my whole town was some green blob for google.
So here it is...

Opera 9.5 is out now

The new Opera Desktop Browser.... Code named Kerstel, is out now...
Download Here
Awesome looks n great functionality here... so go ahead... take it for a spin!!!

50 things to do before you're 30

1. Have a really stupid accident which necessitates a hospital visit
2. Shoot something
3. Take a weekend break more than 1000 miles from home
4. Boot Linux on your home PC
5. Get lost in a country where you don't speak the language
6. Spend more than your monthly income on a pocket sized gadget
7. Post bail for a friend
8. Break a really large plate glass window
9. Make a parachute jump
10. Use a whole roll of gaffa tape in one day
11. Make a pointless modification to your house
12. Neck a pint of peppermint oil
13. #######censored################
14. Buy a samurai sword
15. Delay paying a bill until the summons arrives
16. Destroy a speed camera
17. Refill an inkjet cartridge
18. Say something obscene on national television
19. Do a J turn in order to beat somebody to a parking space
20. Break a sledgehammer
21. Make a bomb
22. Smash a CRT
23. Require medical treatment as a consequence ###########censored again.... but i hope u get the drift
24. Tip a waiter with something other than money
25. Light a fire with petrol
26. Kidnap someone
27. Park inside a motorway service station
28. Own a convertible.
29. Live abroad.
30. Drive at more than 140mph.
31. Get something for free through a masterpiece of complaining
32. Give yourself a mains electric shock.
33. Completely dismantle an object larger than yourself
34. Write off a car
35. Fall asleep outside and get a really hilarious sunburn
36. Get drunk on Absinthe
37. Stay up all night listening to a girl have an emotional crisis
38. Lick the terminals of a 9 volt battery
39. Take part in motorsport
40. Stay at the office for more than 24 hours
41. Set off a fire extinguisher
42. Drive at least 600 miles in a day on two lane roads
43. Hotwire a car
44. Watch all the Monty Python films In one sitting
45. call an ex-girlfriend by mistake
46. Dial 999
47. Commit a faux pas which means that a friend will never speak to you again
48. Make a bet you couldn't afford to lose
49. Read a 500 page book in one sitting
50. Escape a perfectly justified parking ticket.

Whats life all about...

Life isn't about keeping score...
It's not about how many friends you have.
Or how many people call you, or how accepted or unaccepted you are.
Not about if you have plans this weekend, or if you're alone.
It isn't about who you're dating, or who you used to date,
how many people you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all.
It isn't about who your family is, or how much money they have.
Or what kind of car they drive.....

It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are.
Not about what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on,
or the kind of music you listen to....
It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, brown, or green.
Or if your skin is too light or too dark.

Its not about how good you are at "your" sport.
Not about what grades you get,
how smart you are, or how smart everyone else thinks you are.
Not the least about how smart “standardized tests” say you are.
It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper,
and seeing who will accept the “written you".

Life just ain’t about any of these.....

But life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It's about keeping or betraying trust.
It's about friendship, used as sanctity, or as a weapon.
It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening.
It's about what judgments you pass and why.
And who your judgments are spread to.

It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention.
It's about jealousy, fear, pain, ignorance, and revenge.
It's about carrying inner hate and love,
letting it grow and spreading it.

But most of all,
it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts
in such a way that could never have occurred alone....
Only you choose the way these hearts are affected,
and those choices are what life is all about....