BSNL Customers.. be ware of fake Sales Reps

Yesterday, my Father-in-law told me something that made me to write this entry. A neatly dressed BSNL Sales Rep came to our house yesterday. He forced my Father-in-law to look at the new telephone instrument with new features.

The new instrument was nice one with additional features. The scheme was something like this. – Immediately the BSNL customer has to give Rs.1000/- cash to the Sales Rep. Rep will take the instrument to BSNL office and the customer will get Rs. 800/- refund on the old instrument. In this way, for just Rs. 200/-, customer will get new instrument with good features. But, my father-in-law wasn’t insterested. Sales Rep left without any returns.

Then, next day my Father-in-law went to BSNL office to pay the telephone bill. There, he found a board alerting its customers to be aware of cheaters coming home as BSNL sales rep and cheating people telling that the old instruments can be exchanged with new one. They had mentioned that they don’t have any Door-to-door sales reps as of now!!!

So.. if someone comes home telling that the telephone instrument can be exchanged with new one with less cost, be careful. Contact your nearest BSNL office.

Thinking while riding…

It takes almost 1 hr 30 min to my office and almost same while returning. That is my Meditation time. I had read that while meditating, one starts getting random thoughts and then, the person has to tame all off them and start concentrating on one thing.. This is something similar. When I ride my Activa, I get so many thoughts. I want to write a few here.. Have fun reading them.

• Life is like the Roads.. that we ride vehicles on. Some times, everything goes fine - like you get green signal everywhere. Some times, you have to stop at every signals, which makes you frustrated.. but finally you reach home - however big the signal time or Traffic jam is.
• Life is uncertain. Even if you are not at fault, there is lot of chances of meeting with an accident. I will not be sure of returning home till I step inside the house.
• All that I preach cannot be followed. I used to advice people the same when I used to ride Scooty which never used to cross 40. The moment I reach 40, it used to make such a sound that I would get scared and control the speed. Now, with Activa and empty road (sometimes) ahead, its really tough to control the speed. I test my patience..
• Being happy with whatever I have. When I leave my home or office, I feel bad about the distance I have to travel (18 Km). But, the moment I start my Activa, I feel as though I am a permanent Rider and my feet never touches the ground.
• I see the real world when I ride. Especially in signals. There will be so many people around.. like me. Total strangers. Few will be watching others. Few talking over phones. Few trying to make others move a little further in the tightly knit traffic jam. And a few trying to irritate others. Funny world!!!
• I understand politician’s mentality when I ride. Yes.. The Bus drivers, Auto drivers and all those who drive.. most of them (say most of us) think the Road is our private property. When riding or driving a single vehicle can get you "so much attitude”, how about Politecians or Govt. officers? They have power in hand.. Isn't that enough to cool you down if you are burning within, seeing the politics around?
  
  I know these are funny to write. Being crazy, some times make you feel good. What say?

Rythm Unplugged..

In our office, after a fest, "Thomson Habba" which brought out many talents, management decided to help out employees doing something of their interest along with their regular work. So, they started forming different talent communities like Music, dance, Photography. First day, we were around 10 or 12 from two different buildings gathered in one room during lunch time. None of us would have known more than 2 people in that group. Few seemed reserved, few outgoing. As ususal, I was just one in the team. We decided to have a session on coming week each of singing in front of the group so that we can decide how to go about it. The 2nd session was really good. We did not feel as one team though. Many seemed to be in their own world.
I was on leave during Deepavali and when I came back, I got to know that in the Music community meeting, they had paired myself with Kalyani for a Classical song. Though I have learnt Carnatic music, I have lost touch now and that too what I had learnt was basic. I was not sure if I could sing a "classical number". Kalyani was new to me. Was just thinking how it will go. But, it turned out to be sooooooo nice :-).
She has learnt Classical for more than 10 years and has completed her Senior exam. She had good grip over her voice and I was wondering if its going to be fine if I sing with her - herself being so good in alap or akara and I sing classical song as a light music or Bhavageethe. Very soon, I felt comfortable learning from her and u know what.. we performed on Thursday - Thatz 6th December 2007. Everyone said our coordination was good. BTW, our band is named as "Rythm unplugged".
The launch was done during lunch hour - 1.30 PM. We were little nervous as we knew how important the "First impression" is!! We had 6 numbers including a song played on Veena. People occupied whole cafetaria and were not getting up from their seat and rest were standing and watching our program.We have other two buildings. We had got request to play in both of them.Played one and one pending for today evening.
There is one saying in Kannada which translates into "Appreciation is all an artist needs.." Yes.. that makes our day..

And.. we both sang 'Gam ganapathe namo namo' in Raga Hamsadhwani and Roopaka thala.

Story telling to the baby that is not born yet!!!

Whenever my brother does something naughty or funny, Amma (my Mom) used to smile and say "I shouldn't have read story of Krishna when ur brother was in my womb". She meant that the story a pregnant lady reads reaches baby and affects the baby's behavior in future. That was one belief our ancestors had. A few articles I read in magazines were talking of scientific proof for the same. I could recall all these when I met my friend Suni.

Suni is my college friend who now teaches Yoga and Kannada language in a School situated in Bangalore. She is going to be Mom by next month. It was a long time since we met. Like any middle class family, she has "necessity" to earn. In the initial months of pregnancy, she had a few problems. Doctor suggested her to keep her worries away and take proper rest.

She got adjusted to the new situation and started going to school with some rest in between during lunch hours. Her school management was kind enough to support her. I met her during 5th month and at that time, she could feel the baby's movement inside. She was so happy. What made me astonished was that she reads stories to her baby even before it's born!!

Age old people in the family and the Doctor too had told her that the baby could hear what ever she talks and thinks. She had avoided thinking negative and she bought a book for her baby having bed time stories. She used to read them slowly with a soft voice so that the baby can follow :-).

Most of the times, as I have seen, working women have to put up with lot of troubles during pregnancy. There will be necessity to “work” for most of them and the jobs demand more concentration and that period will be really stressful. But, Suni proved it otherwise. She enjoyed this period with different way of thinking.

I think I should not forget the way the kids in her class supported her. She is a "class teacher" for one class (say 5th Std or 6th). And they try not to make her tired. They avoid talking too much in the class, get her books/ attendance sheet / evaluated papers so that she can avoid carrying heavy things :-). Isn't that nice? They want their teacher to be healthy and happy.

She is going to be a Mom very soon. I wish her good luck and let her baby bring her much more happiness.

She showed me that people can be happy irrespective of the situations they have. There are many more people who have inspired me and will tell those stories later. Babies learn from the things they listen during their stay in mother’s womb - I will confirm this after a few years J.