Monday, October 27, 2008

Spooky?

This one was really silly, honestly!

 

One of my friends in office called me on my cell, said she was trying my office extension but someone else picked up. I told her that's not possible because all the time I was at my desk.

I tried to call my office number from my cell, and yess! Someone else picked up!

I then tried calling my cell from office extension and it showed some entirely different number! For office extensions your first 4 digits don't change only the last four. But this new number was completely new! If the first number got changed or even being going to change I am sure we would have been informed in advance!

I thought of calling some concerned person after I return from a meeting.

After coming back from a meeting I decided to reconfirm the story and called from Office extension on cell. Well this time the number was right!

 

The whole scenario similar to "Airtel Ooops" I had posted earlier. Wireless to wireless, landlines bhi?

 

So, aisa bhi hota hai!

Next time someone tells u, I had called u but no one picked, or someone else picked, don't be surprised!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Kissa Telephone ka

My Dad narrated his experience about Telephone exchange officials…

Here how it goes…

 We brought a new house in Raviwar Peth around 1977. We shifted here from our Guruwar Peth place. My uncle shifted to the old Guruwar Peth place.

We had a telephone at home which was allocated to the firm named G & B where my dad was partner. The firm provided residential telephones for all the partners. The firm was dissolved in 1974. According to the oral deal that was done all the residential phones were given to the corresponding partners.  

After shifting to new place dad wanted to apply for relocation of the telephone. He sent a peon from his office to submit the form. The peon went and submitted it. The telephone exchange employee there asked the peon who is Mr. Shah from G & B firm. The peon replied that the firm is resolved and Mr. shah is now partner in firm B & S.  The telephone exchange employee wrote the comment on form to get “Dissolve deed” for the firm. Peon came back and told so to my dad.

Now the trouble started…

There was no Dissolve deed. Indian law allows to waiver of dissolve deed and allows oral commitments when there are no debatable issues between partners. My dad went to telephone exchange, told the employee that he doesn’t have any such deed, showed him the law book that no written deed is required. But the employee said no but the deed is necessary for transfer. Phew…

Dad consulted a lawyer who suggested to make affidavits from all partners that they don’t have objection if you take your residential telephone with you to your new place. There were 4 partners in G & B including dad. Dad requested each one to make affidavit. He took all 3 affidavits to telephone exchange. But the employee refused to took them too. No I need the deed. After 4 years of dissolving make a deed? Dad went to all higher levels in that exchange but to no avail.

Ahh… Hopeless…

Complicatedly,

Dad had brought Raviwar Peth house from Mr. Gandi. My uncle worked with Mr. Gandhi. The Gandhi firm used to provide residential phones to all the employees. So he needed to provide one to my uncle. His own phone was not transferred from Raviwar peth house to his new place. So what he suggested to my Dad is you use my phone and instead of providing a new phone to your brother let him use your phone in Guruwar Peth. OK.

We operated like this for 6 years.

One day my dad met some telephone exchange officer. Dad told him what had happened. The officer says if you have partnership deed that is sufficient if you have all 3 affidavits that’s more than sufficient. Dissolve deed is not needed. Make a fresh new request in telephone exchange. Dad did and the telephone was transferred in no time.

The regular employees from government services do know there mundane work but will be completely unaware about the exception rules. More so they don’t know the law. And when someone tries to make them understand, they refuse.

Well this sure was the story way back in 1977. Hope with competition from TATA and Reliance now things have changed and are changing for better.   

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Language Divide

Few days back there was this Jaya Bacchan Vs Raj Thakare episode.

Good example of "Making mountain out of mole" :D

Almost everyone sympathized with Bacchans. Rightly so.    

 However, for Raj Thakare who seems to be strong believer of "Any publicity is good publicity" it was one more opportunity. The point he is raising however is not completely baseless. Taking that point of view…

 Raj Thakare's concern for migrating non Maharatrians in the state is not without reason. Increasing un-employment for the local people and reduction in cost of labor is cause of worry for US, Europe and all the so called developed countries too. No. of H1 visas are restricted, migrations rules are stringent and Embassy officials are whimsical. So if they get paranoid then why not Maharashtra. Politicians need to acknowledge this and say "Yes, there is a problem" and try to seek solutions instead of playing politics around the issue including Thakare!

Problem is not so much with migrating Middle class or upper class families. When they migrate they build a house, pay taxes and become part of that state. Others will stay in shabby places spend as less as possible here and send all money they earn back home. No taxes and problem of unemployment for locals + reduction in cost of labor again creating problem for locals who have to sustain in the high cost of living here and also look after their families. Non tax payers put more pressure on the infrastructure which not already in very great state.

It's very unfortunate that different states in same nation would face such a problem. It needs to be discussed why people are migrating, create employment in own states and in mean time have some rules in place to protect the local interests.