Airtel CBE customer care

sucks!!
One day I am getting this msg on my phone. "30 rs has been deducted from your account for Airtel Mobile TV" WTH. i never did activate or watch anything on phone. I had just enquired abt their new 3g service..planned not to take comparing the tariff with other providers. When i checked my last 5 transactions i was shocked. For the previous 2 weeks also 40Rs, n 30 Rs was deducted resp..I called the customer care and told the issue. They checked and told Airtel TV is not showing in their system for my connection. So i asked them to stop deducting my balance if thats the case..they said they've deactivated it (Don't know what to deactivate when something is not activated :D) balance won't be reduced again. Trusting her words, i forgot about this issue thinking it would be taken care off until my balance became very low. again i checked last 5 transactions (If some one doesnt know to check this; send Last to 121) again the same shock..Again called one customer care and explained everything in detail from beginning. He said it was registered..i quoted him the previous registered experience :-p He said balance will be added back on this date & time and sent me a complaint no. for my reference. The date passed and I again called one representative and explained things..he said he'll connect to his supervisor (may be he thought.. he can't handle me) I waited n waited n waited listening to the new airtel jingle..age old trick of customer care centers, putting some one on hold without connecting :( :(
two things: 1. I am not sure whether representative understands english or not..when i interrupt to his/her tamil welcome in english their tone suddenly changes. 2. customer care call is chargeable, so if i call them again my balance is getting reduced..

I have decided to keep my balance low this time..and see how they'll deduct :D :-o

we miss you MJ!!

Its never late to make a post for Michael Jackson the legend, the king of pop!
I have many personal memories from my childhood connected with MJ..he was the only english performer i knew at that time. When i was staying in flat my neighbour JP chettan, who was an ardant fan of MJ..had the hit songs collection..used to play it loud often,and dance to it for us :) and when i was in final years of school, i used to borrow casettes from my friend Zubin and play it at home. and then later during college time i collected his tour videos from a CD shop, and still have those videos in my collection..
Now I've no contacts with JP chettan, I don't live in that flat anymore, Zubin is in the US. Music lives with memories..as we can recollect those old moments we have enjoyed with those tunes.
Michael, you still live in our heart with those memories!

the cycle repeats..

After leaving MarBaselios, and 10 months of vacation I am back again as a lecturer. joined PA Aziz college of engineering yesterday. Its a picturesque location, n cool atmosphere but have to ride 15kms to n fro daily. as of now have to deal with the S5 students, and might not get a class until next week since they're busy with the lab exams. and Iam sitting in front of the pc browsing..got bored thought of bringing up the blog again. anyways didn't have anything interesting to note down for many months..lets hope i get something for coming days.

Days of boredom.

July 31st was my last day as a lecturer, and i said goodbye to my 2nd job and 'not that lovely' Mar Baselios Engg college. No, Iam not getting into details of college or reason for that statement; but now somehow i miss this college. maybe bcos of the friends i got there, in the form of students or lecturers, free services we lecturers do, princi KMR, costly canteen with delicious food and yes few other things which i prefer not to write in a public blog.
Saturday morning visited my native place Vaikom to see my grandmother whos in a serious condition..and the trip was our 1st long trip in our own car. and i was behind the steering wheel for almost 140 kms in a stretch. We returned back the next day by evening. I'm having a slight cold and now sitting at home, nothing much to do, even if there is..I'm pretty lazy to :) .wasting majority of time in orkut.. not even interested to watch any movie from my gud collection of dvds or do something productive..then thought of scribbling something in my blog.
Today I've to go to MarBaselios to clear the dues, and to my lovely CET to collect the contingency fund for my Mtech course.. and ya University to check the results :( again I'm lazy; I've guitar class in the evening, but less practice makes me think of bunking the class..
getting up late in the morning, having breakfast..sitting in front of tv or computer, taking a break for lunch/sleeping..going out in the evening, dinner, going to bed. thats my daily routine now..really boring rite?

Destination Kumarakom

May 1st..an unforgettable day for me. we staff at MBT had planned to go for a 1 day trip to Kumarakom, and had arranged a 50 seater to start at 6.15 frm Trivandrum. Just few days before the date my friend Pratheesh put forward the idea of going in a 2-wheeler, instantly i agreed and the plan was made to make the whole trip in his diesel bullet. we didn't inform anyone abt this plan. on that day we waited with the other staff at Kesavadasapuram, and the bus arrived..and we told we're not coming in bus, wud like to come in bike. Tour coordinator Pradeep sir was taken by surprise by that comment, but did'nt hesitate and gave the green signal. we started frm there at around 6.15 am, me riding the bike closely following the bus. Around 8 we reached Kottarakara,
and had breakfast frm a hotel that we had earlier arranged..Met most of the staff who were earlier inside the bus; many of them adviced to keep the bike somewhere n travel with them in bus..but we were thrilled by the ride in distance covered.
Again we started Pratheesh taking the driver's seat, now before the bus..and decided to cover the distance at a stretch without any stop for photoshoots or anything else. we could'nt find any signboards to Kumarakom in many places, and when we reached Adoor most people had no idea where Kumarakom is or which direction Kottayam is..we moved on covering Panthalam, Chengannur, the sun slowly started to show its true colour. it was too hot, we decided to have some refreshment..

After the short break we again started and covered Thiruvalla, Changanashery, and reached Kottayam. saw a sign board showing 16 kms to Kumarakom. The road to Kumarakom was a narrow one, with heavy traffic..poor tourism promotion! we reached our destination at around 11..
by that time we were covered up with dust and fried in the hot sun. didn't waste much time, just after refreshment we headed towards our houseboat. The houseboat was pretty huge to contain the 50 of us easily, with a single bedroom.
It was a great feeling travelling through the lake be it the beautiful scenaries outside

or the fun games we played inside the boat. most of us had a camera clicking all the time. meanwhile a mouth watering tasty meal was getting prepared for us in the kitchen..Chicken roast & fish curry being the specials. later we halted at a shore; fresh live fish were available,
and some of us slowly slipped inside the toddy shop attached with it..had enough of the fresh toddy available, to get that small kick of the pure toddy.

Back to boat, again we had some games like tumbola, and dumbsherads. we had hot tea and biscuit and got packed up by around 5.00 in the evening.
We chose to take the NH route back to Trivandrum. On our way back we visited the Alleppey beach,
and by 11.30 in the night reached back home safely, but tired after the long journey in the night opposing the bright headlines all through.

experiments with guitar

Playing a musical instrument was in my dreams for a long time. didn't get enough time, opportunity or inspiration to get the right start. Thanks to my friend Manu for the motivation..and helped me in selecting right guitar for me; bought a Pluto acoustic guitar and started learning guitar from March 22 '08. Ragesh sir at Nadabrahma is my guru..Its more interesting after i started, but understood its not that easy to learn and it'll take a long time to play songs like the ones in my dream! Listening to Ragesh sir playing the familiar hit songs beautifully is the inspiration for a student like me! Check this space later, will try to get a video of him, playing some of my favourites..

When Tendulkar cried...

Team India is set to return home but most players have yet to recover from the sight of Sachin Tendulkar openly shedding tears after the loss to Sri Lanka on Friday.

Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthick, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag (top L) watch the action from the pavilion as their team loses to Sri Lanka

Tendulkar had tears streaming down his cheeks after Munaf Patel was caught on the squareleg fence by Chaminda Vaas. It brought to end India's disastrous chase of Sri Lanka's reasonable target and more or less shut them out of the 2007 World Cup.
Tendulkar, who had contributed nothing to India's chase earlier in the day, being clean bowled by Dilhara Fernando, first tried to control his emotions but unable to do so, locked himself in the bathroom lest he made a spectacle of self in the public.
A couple of junior cricketers in the side were so taken aback by the sight that they themselves started to cry.
It's little secret that Tendulkar desperately wanted to do well in this World Cup and be a part of the winning team. The "little master" in his glorious career more or less achieved everything he set out to do, but his World Cup dream is unlikely to be realized now.
Rahul Dravid, by all accounts, was himself tearful while Sourav Ganguly, behind his glasses, sat stunned on his seat.

Rahul Dravid gestures during the Man of the Match ceremony after losing their match to Sri Lanka

Rahul Dravid addresses a press conference after losing the Group B Cricket World Cup match against Sri Lanka

Coach Greg Chappell had given up on the team during the match. As soon as Mahendra Singh Dhoni was out, going back and finding himself plumb in front to Muthiah Muralitharan, he got up and switched off the television.
As far as he was concerned, there was little else to see.
His vision and work of past 18 months had come crashing down in a matter of a week.