Macro

Honesty, still the best policy?

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It was around 11.00 pm when I headed out of Olive Garden restaurant to my car in the parking lot, this sunday night. As I sat in my car I noticed that there was something sticking out of wiper on windshield. My first guess was it could be another of those irritating flyers. But it didn’t seem like it – there was something definitely hand written on it. Was it a parking ticket? I shivered at the thought – it was dark in the parking lot, and mine was the only car out there in the lot. Maybe I parked beyond the time limit? Maybe I should not have parked in this space at all? I had definitely not parked incorrectly, which was a relief, so that ruled out wrong parking. On an ordinary day, i would have simply started the car, and driven away, letting the wind take care of the flyer. But this one seemed different, and I had to see it. Getting out of car again, I reached for the paper stuck between the wipers.

It was a hand written note which read:

“I am so sorry I bumped into your car. It was dark and I was in a SUV, so I couldn’t see how far I was backing out. Please call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX, and I am XXXXX. I am so sorry again”.

It was then I looked at my car around and noticed it – my rear fender had bent in and clipped out of the bumper. There was a big hole in that space and I could see the internals inside. Clearly, the impact had been hard, and surely of an SUV. Not again, I muttered angrily. Less than a month, and this was my second accident on the car. Muttering expletives at whoever it was who had done it I read the note again. And it occurred to me: That person was at least honest enough to leave a note about it.

I called up the number but it went to a voice mail. With nothing left to do, I called in the cops, got a report and went my way. Next morning, I got a call back from the person – it was a lady, and she again apologized for damaging my car. I was promptly given all her insurance information, and assured her complete assistance in getting my car fixed. Today my insurance company informed me that everything had been taken care off, and her insurance will fix my car.

Except for the name, I don’t know anything about her, though I do know that she was probably very honest. I put myself in her shoes and thought, if I had been in her shoes, would I have done the same? Perhaps there were people in the parking lot when this happened, hence she left me a note maybe? Or maybe it was dark, and she could have run away without anybody noticing, but she decided to stop and be honest about it. Would I have done such a thing if this had happened to me? If there was nobody in the parking lot when I bumped into a car, would I be honest enough to leave a note like this lady did and assume my responsibility.

The thing is, I really dont know if I would do it or not. Maybe I would. May be I wouldn’t. That’s why I appreciate and thank the lady, who did.

Kaho Na Pyaar Hain on America’s Got Talent

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I hate this show – but when someone told me about someone dancing to the famous Ek Pal Ka Jeena on this show, I had to dig it up and watch!! And here is the video of the same.

There’s a Paki guy called Kasheef who danced to the tune – and oh oh dear!! Is he bad or is he bad? I can’t believe this guy actually thinks he should even compete – jeez, what was this guy thinking!!!

h-uLMjZISEA

Of course he was so bad, the crowd had to cheer him on, and he was put through to the next level. What do you think? Makings of next Sanjaya Malakar here?

Proactive Customer Relationship – Part 2

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More than six months ago, I had penned a post on what proactive customer relationship means to me, as a response to David Churbuck’s (VP Web Marketing, Lenovo) post on losing me as a customer because of a defective Laptop that refused to be repaired (A detailed review of which i covered on blogcritics, and spent an entire month writing about). Almost six months later, I am forced to pen down another incident that has happened to me in the past few weeks, and needed a post, partly because I wanted to revisit my post on customer relationships.

But this time around, its not a crib, its not a rant, but simply a praise of how proactive customer relationship matters in today’s world. And it came from a company whom I have only heard mixed reviews: Progressive Auto Insurance.

First a backgrounder: A few months ago I moved from Geico auto insurance to Progressive auto insurance because Geico refused to reduce my premium even after being their customer for over two years. What’s more, Progressive’s coverage was at least thrice as better than Geico’s for nearly 200 bucks less. It was a no-brainer for me to shift to Progressive. I was forewarned by friends against it, colleagues didn’t think changing from Geico to Progressive was an exciting idea and such, but the offer was too good to resist. And I was pissed that when I did want to cancel my insurance, Geico wanted to price match Progressive to keep me around. (So much for being a loyal customer!)

To cut the long story short, exactly three weeks ago, I met with an accident, where my car was in a bad shape and non-driveable. Luckily it happened in a parking lot, and nobody was injured, but my car was in a bad shape – the rear door completely broken, glass shattered, the front side view mirror broken, wheels misaligned and paint scrapped. This was the first time ever I have been involved in an accident, and having no idea at all, the first thing I did after insurances were exchanged with other driver was to call my insurance: Progressive.

That was the only call I ever made to Progressive. From that point on, not once did I ever have to dial to contact anybody at Progressive for my car repair, insurance claim, rental etc. What’s more it was the proactive nature of not just my claim agent, but everyone involved in the chain that left me highly impressed.

Why am I writing this post? To clearly illustrate the points I mentioned in that post and how I think Progressive scored on all counts. I had written:

I will use Lenovo as an example to talk about pro-active customer relationship a bit, and what Lenovo could have done, or could do in future. This applies to how I see pro-active customer satisfaction in general too.

> Set Expectations. Then follow on it
> Do your research before you talk to the customer
> Retain the customer, not his money. Think outside the box.
> Don’t keep fixing the same thing again and again
> Customer is the king
> Customers build brand

After my first call to Progressive, within 10 minutes my insurance agent gave me a call, in spite being told on phone that my agent would get back to me in another 2 hours. Why did he call? To let me know he had already got my case, and he was running a bit late, so he would call me in another 2 hours.

As promised he called me up in 2 hours to ask me if I could hold another 1 hour for him as he was late, profusely apologizing for the delay. After a hour he called me up, gave me my options – my car would be towed that day to a body shop near my place, I would be given a rental car to move around and I will be posted on further updates.

It is quite impressive the speed at which everything was handled. The accident occurred at 1.00pm in afternoon; by 4.00pm I was contacted by Enterprise rental for a car rental. By five my car had been towed. By the time day had ended, I was already at peace that my vehicle was being taken care of.

By next day afternoon, I was contacted by yet another sub-ordinate of my agent who was at the body shop with complete details on what was wrong with the car and expected time frame to fix it, and till then I could drive the rental. If I had an issue I could always exchange the rental anytime. I was given a time frame of 2 weeks to get the car in order.

Believe it or not, I got a call back from the subordinate every 4 days to give me an update on how things were going with the repair and what status my car was in; not once I had to bother about calling anybody up for the status.

Finally after two weeks when I did go to pick up my car, the body shop discovered a problem that had gone unnoticed. And it would take another two days to fix the problem. I was fine as I already had a rental with me. I left without my car.

In another hour, my subordinate was already on the phone apologizing for the whole delay and unexpected problems in the car. She promised to keep me completely in loop about when my car would be repaired. Eventually the bodyshop took another 7 days to fix the problem, and trust me I got a call every second day of the week by the subordinate informing me about the car.

Today, I went and picked up the car in the evening. It is looking absolutely stunning. And I just got off a call from the subordinate on the phone who wanted to know if everything was fine and up to my expectations in my car. Heck, it was much better than I thought it would be.

Note – I did not make one single call after my initial call. To me, this IS proactive customer service. Not once I was kept out of loop at any stage.

In between the whole process, the insurance companies also needed to do their research regarding the accident. When the agent wanted a clear explanation of what had happened, it was reassuring to know that he knew the exact area where I had the accident. Heck he even knew the parking lot and the building I was in. How? On his way back from work the previous day he had stopped by my building at night and checked out the area. Our communications went off absolutely smoothly – I didn’t even meet him as everything was explained and understood on the phone. I was like – wow – that was great!

Three weeks later, today sitting in my car, the first thing that came to my mind was – “I have to blog about this!”

Did Progressive do all the points I mentioned?

Set Expectations. Then follow on it – YES
Do your research before you talk to the customer – YES
Retain the customer, not his money. Think outside the box. – YES
Don’t keep fixing the same thing again and again – YES
Customer is the king – YES
Customers build brand – YES

At the end of it all, yes, I do know that I can expect my premiums to go up because of this accident, or maybe not. But even if it did, would I remain with Progressive? Absolutely hell, yes. And I have asked at least three of my friends to switch after such a pleasant experience.

Great job David Markey (my insurance agent); Thank you!!

Houston

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I initially wanted to do a long post on my trip to Houston, but let me try something different this time. I think I will just jot down random stuff and hope it conveys what I want to say about the trip. You can call these “observations” if you’d like.

At Baltimore International Airport: I reach at 5.00pm for my 7.30pm flight. Waste my time tasting a tasteless bagel, stand in line for 10 minutes in a coffee shop to find out they don’t have ice to make frozen mochas, and then look at the departure timetable to realize my flight is 3.5 hours late. I try to get on an earlier flight and put my name on the standby list. I am the 4th one on the list. The 3 before me in the list made it.

Flight delayed due to “Air Traffic Control” problems they said. Inside, they apologize for weather delays.

Land in Houston at 1.30am in the morning; Houston is as boring as ever. Question myself – “exactly why am I visiting this boretown for the 3rd time?” Time to convince my friend to move out of there… at least for my sake.

It rains wildly on Saturday. We travelled for an hour and a half in one direction to visit the most exciting place in town – The Mall.

Only because we’ve covered everything there is around Houston in the last two visits. If rain gods had not obliged, perhaps we could have done Austin, where my friends inform, lies some hope for Texas.

What kind of city has three downtowns?! Too hot as well. Too Humid to even breathe. None of the downtowns are remotely exciting. Why are people so obese in this city? Does anyone walk … like go for a stroll in this city? I don’t think so.

Sunday weather is no better. Though clears up in afternoon – we go to Kemah and do sailing. However high winds prohibit us from setting our front sail. After a good five minutes of the boat tilted 20 degrees and touching water on the side, we call it quits. We still sail quietly and head back. We’ve had enough scares.

We pack enough stuff for our sailing trip – all the drinks, the colas, the food and the likes. We don’t have anything on board.

Its bad weather on Monday. That doesn’t deter us from our appetite – its been decided that we are going to have a Gujarathi Thaali. I cannot wait. Unfortunately, the restaurant (also named Thaali) is closed for Memorial day. Though the sign on board says “Closed Tuesdays”.

Dejected we look at couple of other Indian restaurants, and finally settle on “authentic Indian-Chinese restaurant”. Quick look at buffet – lots of chinka options, we decide to eat. Food is as terrible as it gets, and its Sambhar being the only saving grace. Don’t know why it advertizes itself as authentic Chinese-Indian joint. It was neither Indian nor Chinese. Felt more like solid Vietnamese soup. Yuk!

Head to Hot Breads to have some Tiramisu. I note that Hot Breads in D.C area is much neater, much nicer and much better. My friend smirks – “Of course, how can anything be good in Houston at all?”

Checking out at house, the flight was on time. At the airport the flight is couple of hours delayed. My connecting flights are missed as a result. All permutations and combinations of various other connections lead to nothing. Eventually flight cancelled due to weather. I am stuck in Houston.

Next day is no better in flights, though its sunny – problem lists as “Waiting for Crew” on website. I lose my patience, get on another airline.

Airline also boards a bunch of U.S Army guys. An onlooker asked – “Heading for the sandbox?”. Few soldiers look away, while one of them manages a meek “Yes” behind his visibly fake smile. “Best of Luck and stay safe” passengers tell ’em.

The soldiers get off at connection airport. We are not supposed to change flights – thank God.

An old lady changes her seat and sits next to me, a seat vacated by a soldier. She weeps, and says – “I feel so sorry for these army guys; so young and they’re being packed to hell”. I offer my niceties and she continues – “My son’s in army; he just returned from Iraq. I am just glad that he did, but I can’t control myself seeing these young men being sent there…”

I have no words to offer her. I wanted to.

Something’s wrong – the plane was supposed to take off half hour ago, but hasn’t. “Check Engine” light is ON the pilot says and they need to umm…check engine; it immediately quenches any of our desires to fly again in that plane. “We found no problems with the aircraft” the pilot announces gleefully before we fly again. I don’t want to travel in that plane again.

The SuperShuttle guy picks up 8 people in his taxi-bus. The driver talks about optimized route and leaving me last in the list, even though I was the first to get on the bus and wait for others to arrive. I figure a little bit of anger and no tip threat works wonder. I am left third.

Tired, groggy and delighted to be back in Washington D.C. Its sunny and dry – just as I like it. 3 visits in last 4 years later, I think Houston is same as ever: Absolutely dead and dull. My friend needs to get out of there!

The outdoor swimming pool is finally open!! Something to look forward to finally!!

Temple

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I went to a temple after what seemed like few months now. And I am glad i did. It gives me hope. It also give me hope that no matter how western our culture might become, some things will not change. Ever.

Including:

  • The moment the priest comes out with the prasad plate, everyone must converge onto him at once to get the prasad as quickly as possible. Never mind that there are only 20 people around and the prasad in his hands could easily feed 50.

  • Somebody has to crib after getting the “teerth” that priests should also give them a tissue paper to wipe their hands of the holy water. [Why must then I ask, should you not get one from home itself when u fully know u are going to be in a temple?!!]

-The ABCD kids have no idea why or who they are praying in front of. Decorated in prettiest Indian dresses (Kurta-Pyjama for boys, Lehengas for girls), they must at once show others how “Indian” they are, and at th e same time follow their parent’s rituals – “Pray to this god for this, This god for that, This one for this issue….” and so on. Never mind that the kid has absolutely no idea what he/she is doing there.

  • A full fledged discussion must ensue in the Temple canteen between 2 couples of how much they can eat? “Lets take 4 channa-puris, 4 yogurt rice and 4 sambar rice. No yaar, 4 will be too much – lets take 3 and share. No-No 3 might be too much, plus I am not that big of sambar fan. How about 4 channas, 2 sambar and 2 Yogurt rice then? Ek kaam karthe hain…Lets make it 3 Channas, 3 yogurt and 2 sambar….” – I had lost count what numbers they settled on finally!

  • Only luxurious vehicles owners get exclusive Car Pujas. Civic, Camry, Corolla – these are petty cars, hence, they can be combined and blessed in 1 Puja. However Lexus, BMW, Benz deserve special attention; hence they are handled singularly. And oh, those items who are trying to show off their new cars – Get over it!!! These days every third desi owns a BMW!

And lastly:

  • The hymn of chants, the smell of camphor and the clinging of bells always brings about a nostalgic feeling. It drives me back home.

Somehow in midst of chaos though, I am always at peace in a temple. I wish I could go there more regularly.

Apple or Dell?

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…I want to move from this:

Dell E1505

to this:

MacBook Pro

The thing is, after the disastrous Lenovo episode,I was very unsure of how my DELL would turn out after hearing a plethora of negative comments. My experience with DELL stuff though has been very pleasant. I have never owned a DELL before (though they swarm my office space), and even though I think the e1505 model is quite bulky in nature, its a great piece of a computing device. I bought an e1505 this January.

The fact that I haven’t cribbed about e1505 should tell you that its actually working very very well he-he 🙂 So well, in fact I am considering not making the jump to Mac at all – Yes, I do want a Macbook Pro badly, but once this machine has come over – I get the feeling – do I really need it? Its fast, and guess what, I like Vista as well :). I think Microsoft is finally getting some things right.

My e1505 has it all – 2 gigs of ram (667FSB), core 2 duo processor(1.6Ghz), 100 gigs of storage, wireless and bluetooth and all the 9 yards. And I paid under 800$ for all this. I absolutely love their D830s as well – if someone doesn’t mind shelling another 300 bucks, then I did say the D820 or D830’s are one heck of a machine as well.

So the onus is on Apple – please me apple fanboys!! Why should I get a Apple instead of a DELL?

Don’t give me the BS about OSX and Vista and blah blah. Strictly from a computing point of view 🙂

Please Help!

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I normally don’t pay attention to such emails, nor do I propagate such emails, but this one is different. This one is very real, and concerns a fellow mate of mine from my school days, St. Xaviers Loyola from Ahmedabad. Jasnit Singh right now needs all the monetary help he can find for him to stay alive. There are a lot of people involved in this fund raising drive – many of them were my classmates from my Xaviers years (A list of people is at the end of this post). I used to take tuitions with some of them after school as well. Its more the reason its personal to me.

Please read through the email and spread the word – be it blogs, emails, anything. If you can be of any help, that would be great as well! Thanks a lot. Needless to say I am proud of all my friends back home who are doing their best to help to Jasnit.

Lets help Jasnit.

The gift of life! We all know how precious this is and Jasnit Singh Wadhwa, is no stranger to this fact. At the prime of his life, just 27 years of age, Jasnit is suffering from chronic liver infection. To live on, Jasnit urgently requires a liver transplant. The sooner it happens, the better.

To meet the entire medical costs, Jasnit would require atleast Rs. 60-70 lac to get the liver transplant done in India. This would include the operation and pre and post medical expenses while in the hospital.

Jasnit’s mother and father are ready to donate their liver but are unable to meet the expenditure that would be required as they have already spent close to Rs. 50 lacs for the medical treatment of his chronic liver disease till date since the year 2000. Unfortunately, the family also does not have a medical insurance. The only way Jasnit can get the gift of life is if we could all donate and pool in the resources required. Needless to say, it’s the tiny
drops of water that make a mighty ocean. In this case, every small step could and will save Jasnit’s life.
Let’s help him live on.

For details on how to contribute please contact one of
the following people.

Please spread the word.

Dear Friends,
This email is a continuation to the previous email sent, requesting friends to combine effort to save Jasnit.

To collect funds and to keep proper/documented track of the same, we have worked out a very good and workable solutions with Ramanbhai Foundation. Hence please make cheques in the name of “Ramanbhai Foundation“. Please try and avoid cash donations as much as possible, but if cash is the only way then please hand it over only to one of the people listed below.

All those who donate money by cheque will get a receipt, by which they can claim 50% tax exemption under provision 80G of the Income Tax Laws. Those who donate cash cannot avail of this exemption.

Also this trust like most in the country cannot accept foreign exchange in terms of cheque or wire transfer. Hence for those outside India, I would request you to talk to family/friends in India who can give the trust cash/cheque on your behalf. They will also be able to avail of tax exemption on the cheque amount.

Please spread this information.

If you need any further information or clarifications please do not hesitate to get in touch with any of us.

Thanking you for your support.

Helpline nos and email: [Pleae remove AT_AT_AT and replace by @]

Sharvil Patel
+91-9979123456
sharvil13 AT_AT_AT gmail.com

Pravit Parikh
+91-9898092862
pravit39 AT_AT_AT yahoo.com

Shital Lakhani
+91-9825022978
shitallakhani AT_AT_AT yahoo.com

Jigar Shah
+91-9426181182
j_y_shah AT_AT_AT yahoo.com

Vishal Surti
+91-9824000484
vishal.surti AT_AT_AT gmail.com

Ambrish Vaodaria
+91-9825012233
ambrishvadodaria AT_AT_AT gmail.com

Jay Gandhi
+91-9879011881
jvgandhi AT_AT_AT hotmail.com

World Cup 2007 Memorable Moments

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~ The Bob Woolmer Murder. Enough has been said about this. Given the lethargic way everyone involved in this case is trying to bring people to justice, I think the killer will die of old age before the authorities will get to him.

~ Greg’s process down the drain. For all the six hat thinking caps, and kho-khos and team building exercise, Greg Chappell turned up as a sorry figure in Indian Cricket. Not only was he a bad coach, but his antics with media proved he was worse than a Hollywood starlet when it came to generating controversies. Thanks to his process, India exited the world cup, even before it really started.

~ Inzaman Ul-Haq bows out. As a member of a rival country team, I hated him. Yet, in his elements, Inzaman Ul Haq was a joy to watch. It was quite ridiculous that in the finals McGrath and Brian Lara got a lot of talking, but no mention of this great batsmen was ever made in the presentation.

~ Brian Lara. One of the best in the history of the game bowed out. A perhaps with more flair than Tendulkar (who should have technically retired after this world cup, but the sorryface wont), left the game.

~ Glenn McGrath. I hate this man. I simply hate him. Yet, I wont deny he was probably one of the most lethal bowlers ever. In a way I am glad he’s gone.

~ Stephen Fleming. He is all that a captain should be. I had pinned my hopes that they would be in finals this time. Yet it was not to be.

~ South Africa. A brilliant team ruined to pieces. I had so hoped it was their time to win a final.

~ The endless Australia vs Sub-Continent finals. 96 – Aus Vs SL, 99 – Aus vs Pak, 2003 – Aus vs Ind, 2007 – Aus vs SL. Why the hell are other countries even playing cricket?!!

~ Shambles of an end. What an absolute disaster in the finals. In a way a perfect end for Australians. It couldn’t have got any worse.

A world cup filled with such memories, how could anything be memorable about this world cup?

It was a sad sad sad world cup.

I am glad its over.

Bowling for Virginia Tech

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A few miles away from my place is a shooting range where hobbyists can go and practice their shooting skills. All you have to do to be enable to shoot is to have a valid license, go through a training video on gun safety, answer a ridiculously simple multiple choice exam, and you are set to go. The first time I went with a friend of mine, I went through the whole exercise and even cleared the exam, but when the moment arrived, I decided, I couldn’t pick up the gun. Something was just not right about the scenario, something about how easy it ultimately became to handle a gun made me feel anxious and depressed. Sure, the idea of handling a real gun and shooting in a range sounded like an adrenaline rushing fun, but was such a hobby worth it? I decided at that point, it was not. I never picked up the gun and lost any desire to visit the place again. We did go there once again with other friends, but this time I chose to be a spectator. And my feeling the second time didn’t change either.

I just did not want to touch a gun. And there is probably no way I am ever going to touch a gun in my life.

As you might have read it about by now, thirty three people were killed in a shooting incident at Virginia Tech campus. How? An Asian with 2 semi-automatic in his hand entered the engineering building, entered a classroom and started shooting to shocked students. More were injured in the ensuing carnage. A university where students study now reduced to a battleground.

What was the weapon used? A gun.

Something is seriously wrong with this country and its gun laws. Something about how easy it is to be armed in this country is wrong. I lived in a country for a good 23 years of my life, with four times more population, and yet not once, not once I have heard of something like this. In the last 6 years I have lived here, hearing a news about school shooting has become a normal routine. A moment of shock, despair and anger ensues, and then within a few days of the news, life returned to normalcy.

Just in the last few years: Red Lake School Massacre (2005), Dawson College Shooting (2006), Amish School Shooting (2006), Platte Canyon High School Shootings (2006) and now Virginia Tech.

In all these cases, one thing remains common. The shootings were not by mature old men who had lost their minds. They were all by young under age people who had lost their mind, and had a gun in their hand. Exactly how do such underage people get those guns? How do these underage people get their hands on a gun and are able to come to a school to shoot their schoolmates. How in the world do they get access to such dangerous weapons?

Sadly, instead of asking such questions, the news channels have relegated this piece of news to history and sensationalized it as “The worst shootings in US History”. The line “The worst shootings in US history” is repeated again and again, and again, as if to remind everyone seeing the news that something important and historical has happened, and we are to be a part of it. Something momentous has happened, something that has challenged the history, and the newsmakers must stress that fact upon us. The News media reports on and on how this was a time of “healing to begin”, “making sense of madness”, and a “time for introspection”, while Bush claims the “peace of a sanctuary is lost”.

Debates will follow this incident, for guns, against guns, and NRA will do its best that such debates keep out of reach of common public. Heck some morons will even pursue the idea that because others students were not armed, and this gunmen was, the shooter was able to do such a carnage. Examples will be given how crime rate in Australia went up by 300% once the government withdrew guns from the public, and remind people that though Sweden has higher per capita number of guns per person , one almost never hears of any such sort from the country [Source: Freakonomics]. (Thereby implying, its not guns that are the problem, its the people. And guns only increase safety not decrease it).

How foolish and stupid can it get? There is no freaking reason anybody should have any access to any sort of weapon at all. Not adults. Not in the least, underage kids. Nobody in a normal society should have anything to do with a gun. A normal society is built on foundation of trust and mutual respect, not on the basis of fear that someone is out to get them, hence they need to protect themselves at all costs.

I wish I could express myself more clearly, but I won’t. There is no freaking point.

But I can point you to Bowling for Columbine. If at the end of the documentary you do not ask yourself “Why haven’t we abolished guns in our society?“, then you probably don’t think of today’s shootings as a big deal either.


Sadly it is people like you who need to change first. Or we’ll keep hearing such news again, and again.

Kannada? Yeh kya hain?!

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Scene today at an Indian-Pakistani store (run by a Paki) where I went to get my lunch from:

Me (looking at the stack of Tamil and Telugu DVDs behind the counter): Aapke paas koi Kannada DVD hain kya?

Her (with a quizzed expression): Kannada? Yeh Kya Hain?!

Me (a little flabbergasted, but quickly realize she’s a Paki, hence she probably wouldn’t know): Kannada – ek aur South Indian language hain – jaise Tamil, Telugu hain vaise. Aapke paas Tamil Telugu DVD hain tho maine socha aapke paas Kannada bhi ho saktha hain.

Her: Nahi, hum sirf Tamil-Telugu DVD rakthe hain. Ye Kenadda bolthe kaha hain?

Me: Bangalore pata hain aapko? (her nodding in recognition) – Woha Kannada hi bolthe hain – Bangalore karnataka mein aata hain, aur waha Kannada bola jaatha hain.

Her (looking surprised): Hain ji? Main tho samjhi ke Bangalore to TamilNaad mein aata hain? Waha tho sab Tamil bolthe hain naa?!

Me: Yeh aapko kissne bataya?!

Her: Henji, hamare ek do baar jo TamilTelugu log aate hain naa DVD lene woh keh rahe the. Mujhe tho lagaa Bangalore tho Tamilnaad mein hi hain!

Sigh. Identity issues again. It feels sad when cultural identity of a place is hijacked by some misnomers and propagated as false propaganda. Why is it so difficult for people to accept the cultural identity of a place? Amusingly, in contrast I haven’t met any Gujaratis (from Mumbai or elsewhere) who have claimed Mumbai belongs to Gujarat. And this is not the first time I’ve heard of such a incident involving identity issues of Bangalore either.

Not that I am big fan of Bangalore as a city anyways, but heck, let it be what it is.

Some people really need to grow up!

In other stories, Shilpa Shetty who finds herself in another controversy surrounding her Richard Gere kiss made a statement that she wouldn’t apologize.

Meanwhile, Shilpa held an impromptu press conference and exclaimed that she was ‘shocked’ by the protests. “India has the second highest number of HIV patients in the world. Yet, we are talking about the kissing incident rather than the HIV cause. We should not waste national time on such trivial issues.”

But here’s a funny part:

The actress refused to apologise for the incident. “Apology! For what? Did he kiss on my lips?

It seems Shilpa is suffering a cultural crisis of her own. While kissing on her cheek did not seem to go against the rules, her questioning that “Did he kiss on my lips?” seem to suggest that if indeed had Gere kissed Shilpa on her lips, she too might have considered it offensive, undignified and against the culture. I wonder why.

Though good point Shilpa – some people in Mumbai, especially these Shiv Sainiks need to grow up as well. Idiots – that’s all they are.

There – 2 rants, 1 post. Enjoy the rest of your day 😀