Airtel Service worse than our public services??

Over the last few months i noticed that i was consistently crossing my 4 GB usage limit. So I placed a request for an increased broadband usage limit with the Airtel Customer Care center.

They duly made note of my request and confirmed that the service would be enabled within 5 working days. And that someone would call me to confirm the same. Its been 3 weeks since this.

I have given up hopes that they will ever do it. Today out of sheer frustration, i decided to post a complaint online on their website. Guess what that resulted in. A page that says sorry we cannot process your request. What does this mean? They cannot even accept a complaint. Then why create a page for complaints at all???

Its simply making a mockery of the indian public... Shame on you Airtel!!

BangNoos !!

If there is one thing that unites all Bangaloreans it is the nostalgia and longing for the old Bangalore, with its wide roads and great weather.Indeed, that Bangalore is a thing of the past, and the Bengaluru of today is a monster devouring into our resources every day, growing at such a rapid pace that all our resources: roads, basic civic amenities like water, electricity, drainage, housing and pavements are all waiting to burst under the tremendous pressure.
With the political climate looking extremely favourable and a new Government ready to turn the tide around for this city, everythings being turned upside down to get things in order. Large infrastructure projects, each with their own bunch of litigations, integrated plans to improve the city by BBMP, roadworks, drainage works, Parks, Lakes, Power, Water everythings under the scanner.
Bangalore is making its last ditch effort to salvage its image as the Garden City with great weather and great infrastructure.
It occured to me that it would be great to track these changes to Bangalore, as it tries to pull itself out of the muck its stuck in.
It is with this intention that the blog BangNooS!, short for Bangalore Noos(News), was brought to life.
I hope it will meet its objective of tracking the Civic Life in Bangalore and reach out to all those Bangaloreans across the world, attract comments and be a source of active participation from all those who love this Green City.
All your suggestions and comments are most welcome!.

Now, thread ceremony via Internet

CHENNAI: Overseas Indians who wish to go through the annual ritual of changing the sacred thread (poonool) on August 5 (for Yajur Veda adherents), need not worry about finding a guru to perform the Upakarma rituals.

All they need to do now is to log on to www.traditionalwisdom.in, and they can find a guru to chant the right mantras.

Designed by two Chennai-based persons, S K Sundararajan, who is concerned about preserving the country’s traditions and heritage, and Ramkumar Ramamurthy, an IT professional, the web initiative will help Brahmins living in four time zones — Australia, Middle-East, the USA and Europe — to go through the Anushthanam with ease at home in front of their PCs.

All one has to do to avail of the services of a guru back home is to register with the website (there is no charge) and keep ready the items required for the ceremony, including the sacred thread, at the time specified on theonline portal.

Although there is a school of thought that anyone going out of this Karma Bhoomi (India) loses the eligibility to perform such rituals, this initiative provides an opportunity for all Brahmins to perform Upakarma all over the world even if finding a guru to chant the mantras in their area is a stupendous task.

Details about the day’s events are available on the website, which also seeks a purely voluntary donation as vadhiyar dakshinai ( a token for the services performed by the guru) and for continuing its research and service in preserving the Indian heritage.

Swoopo seems to have got it right

The concept is not new or novel, I am sure we may have seen it in one form or the other. But swoopo may have got the execution just right. The potential the site offers is amazing and the numbers once you start crunching them are mind boggling.

Its so simple in concept that you will hit yourself in the head for not doing it yourself. :)
But then its always the case after its been done by someone. Check out Swoopo here.

Unlocked iPhone 3GS is not Unlocked after all!!!

Earlier this year when Apple announced that the unlocked version of the iPhone was available, I thought I could grab one at last. But with the new iPhone 3GS in the offing at that point I decided to wait it out.
So last week I went to the nearby Apple Store with grand plans of picking up my iPhone. Apple ofcourse had other plans for me. I was told that even though the iPhone was available unlocked for $699 only, I could still use it only with an AT&T network. And further, it was locked to the geography as well.
That would mean I would not be able to use that unlocked iPhone, that i would have paid $699 for, with Apple Partners in other parts of the world :T Mobile in UK or Hutchison in India for example.
So what is Apple's idea of an unlocked phone?
According to the guy at the Apple store, the unlocked iPhone caters to people who would like to gift someone with an iphone but without a data plan.That person would ofcourse still have to have an AT&T plan to use the iphone!!
Somebody's got something wrong here. Apple, come on!!
The Apple store i went to is in St Johns Town Center, Jacksonville, Florida.

Bangalore needs a few Quick Wins!!!

A few decades ago, a mention of Bangalore would have extracted comments like nice town, peace ful town, pensioners paradise etc. Go back just a few years, and Bangalore earned itself new adjectives like IT City, Silicon Valley of India. It even managed to add itself to the Oxfored dictionary as a verb.

Today, the mention of Bangalore, will only generate clamouring for Infrastructure, roads, pollution and so on.

But you may think this is despite the fact that Bangalore has quite a few Mega projects being rolled out. But this is not so. I feel this is because of the fact that Bangalore has so many Mega infrastructure projects that are going on together, with no end in sight.

The only win Bangalore has to show is the International Airport, which was itself delayed by several decades.

What Bangalore needs is a cohesive Mega Plan, which includes all the large Mega projects like the Metro, and several small projects.

The government has to bear in mind that people can put up with only so much. If we wait for all the Mega Projects to end, it may be too late and Bangalore may lose its stature as the IT Capital to nearby cities or even countries.

It is important that a small win is planned every 6 months, that people can celebrate. It will earn the government the support and backing it requires from the public over the next 5 years.

The plan to move the Race Course outside the city and building a World Trade Centre means yet another mega project that will not have anything to show for 3-4 years. Where as converting the Race Course to a Park, can be a quick win. It will also give Bangalore much needed lung space in the heart of the city.

Similarly, the Metro will take a few years to complete. However, something like a mono rail may be easier to implement. Kicking this off in parallel, will ensure a few monorail successes in between every phase of the Metro. This will give the public, a much needed boost while Bangalore undergoes this phase of rapid transformation.