Money and Ego

I keep 7 to 8 posts in hand to publish in my blog. I publish them whenever I wanted to or find some free time. Actually this must be the 9th post from my recent one if it was not posted today. But I felt like publishing this as soon as possible as the incident in this post has some lucid impact on my mind.
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It is general thing that bus conductors either don’t give the change or give a round figure change collectively to 2 or 3 passengers – it is upto them how they settle the transactions. Today morning I was on my way to office in bus. Similar incident happened and see what the scene turned into!

She was gifted with stunning beauty and looking something like a gift pack or a decoration item – more than neatly dressed and apparel conscious. The guy was looking very pale and thin, his shirt was not much ironed and the shoe were not neatly polished – must be a fresher or less than 2 years experienced guy.
As ‘the’ guy’s and lady’s stop was approaching they asked conductor to stop the bus. Conductor whistled loudly signaling the driver to stop the bus and gave them a 10 rupees note asking them to settle the ‘change’ themselves. The bus started to decelerate. The guy smiled and told very coolly, “Madam, you can keep the change, if you insist me to take change; I know you and your cubicle! I can come!” Before she was about to tell something the door got opened; he stepped down and walked 4 to 5 feet. Much to lot of passenger’s dismay she shouted, “You can keep this note!” Continuing his walk, the guy slightly turned back and signaled by raising his hand a little telling, “its okay madam, no problem!” The lady again shouted, “You just come and take your money! I don’t need your 3 rupees change!”

As many passengers were stepping down, the bus was on a small halt for more than 40 seconds. The guy got pissed off! He just looked back and stepped back 3 feet and told “You can donate my 3 rupees to any beggar on my name – Dinesh.” We, passengers threw some laughs as we could hear what he ‘shouted in low voice’. He along with us just plucked her last stupid nerve! She just went weird. She just raised her left hand into air holding the 10 rupee note and picked another note (Not clearly seen, must be Rs.50) with her right hand from her handbag. She dropped both the notes and yelled, “You can just do the donation on your name – Dinesh – with my money and go heaven!” and left.

The guy turned really pale and stepped back looking into the bus, at passengers. He took both the notes and kept in his pocket. No one of us/passenger knew what he did with the money – either he would have went to her seat giving her back the money with a tight slap or would have donated in her name praying God to change her mind!

But what struck me in that incident was…
1. How would be the scene if it involved a poor guy and a poor lady? I think they would have gone to a “tapri” and would have asked for a change!
2. Is she earning that much money what she is not supposed to earn at that age?
3. What made her to do that weird thing?
4. Did the guy’s statement “madam, you can keep the change” make her to feel bad or inferior as he is younger than her?
5. Finally, what went wrong in that situation – passenger’s launghs?

I want you all to make an effort to write the naked truth what you have learnt from the incident.

The Great Indian Missed Calls :)

This is not an Indian remake film of ‘One Missed Call’. This missed call is an ‘entity’ that is burning Indian telecom companies. Yes, it is ‘our’ regular missed call. I did lots and lots of research on this to write this simple small post!

Everyone of us know about the telecom revolution that has been ‘happenning’ in India. It is on its incredible pace! India has a base of tens of millions of mobile-phone customers! I know friends who maintain 3 mobile phones – personal, official and for ‘job searching.’ At least 70% of Indian mobile users use the concept of ‘gimme a missed call!’ In India, this missed call has incredible meaning!

“A missed call is a telephone call that is not answered by its intended recipient prior to the termination of ringing on the recipient’s end.”

Is this the only meaning…? No… Not at all! It means a lot like…

1. Call me back
2. Wife gives missed call conveying her hubby that she started from office and…
3. Hubby tells her with a missed call that he is already waiting at the restaurant for more than 30 minutes. (ladies dudes, ladies!)
4. Grandson/daughter asks his/her grandpa to start from home to accompany him/her.
5. Popular usage of missed calls while in office, is to call back our friend from the landline which the employer pays for and hence save money for our dearest friends. We do it most of the times!
6. Credit card guys: missed call, “Your company security is not allowing inside, please meet me outside the campus.” Actually the banks ask them to give missed calls!
7. Missed calls to friends after late night party, telling them “reached home safely.”

Actually these missed calls generate no revenue for service providers. Besides they cause band width loss for no reason! You can think (if you are not an Indian), why not SMS? SMS takes some time to type and search contacts to send the message! Of course, I have friends who type SMSs without even looking at the mobile!

So… that’s about missed calls! If you have other more usages, please enlighten all our readers by sharing yours too!

Happy missed calling!

P.S: Even Airtel CEO gives missed calls. Click here to read

It’s a different kind of recession!

Yes, it’s a different kind of recession!

Recently I had been going through New York Times polls.  One of the polls was about recession.  It was telephonic poll.

It was interesting to know now-a-days Americans started spending more time with family, gardening, cooking and reading etc. Parents are suggesting their children to buy inexpensive toys.

They are telling they do not have trust in government policies and banks and so they started savings too!  Until they get bashed by the recession, they were scolding Asians for their expenditure-habits, particularly Japanese calling them conjuse.  America should look its back first to comment on others!

Anyhow, America has been learning from east and continues!  Good going!  God bless you America!

Late night Tea

I got up from my sleep at 01:50AM and went into kitchen searching for something to eat!  I was feeling damn hungry!  I could find nothing.  I went into Bhaskar’s room, he was reading something on his laptop.  I told him that I was hungry!  He asked me to check in the kitchen if something was there to eat!  I looked at him sarcastically.  He understood and continued reading.

I asked him if he was interested to go out for some tea or something to eat.  He told yes and with in minutes we were out!  We locked our apartment, Prasad and Rambabu were asleep!

We walked at least 3 Kilometers to reach Jayadeva Center.  We asked petrol bunk guys, ATM security guards whether we can find any tea stall near by.  No luck!  We continued our walk discussing about movies!  As a last try we went to an autodriver and enquired!  He told some directions!  We went!  We found!

I had tea and bread.  Bhaskar had Omelette and tea.

While coming back, we discussed about the late night weird decision to have tea!  Around 02:10 AM in the morning asking ATM security guards and petrol bunk guys about tea stall etc. etc.  In fact we enjoyed our walk!  We were not feeling sleepy!  Bangalore chilled climate took away already!

It was memorable night!  I thought of sharing you this with you all!  As soon as I reached my room, I opened my notebook and writing this post!  Now time is 03:45 AM.  Simple joys!  Simple moments!

This is the tea stall where we had tea!