Do Not Disturb
I get unsolicited calls all the time. I even attend to calls of the guy who had this number before I got it. When I was driving to office yesterday, ulta-pulta Nitin got this thing into my head. 20,000 bux for reporting unsolicited calls!
I got one from ICICI-Lombard, trying to sell me an insurance I already have. I mean how foolish is that. I already have a policy from them only! Anyway, I got the call one, told them I wasn't interested, and I got a call again, and logged into the "Do not disturb" activation. To my surprize, I registered for the service 6 months ago. Wait a second!! That means I'm entitled to a fine!
So I went right ahead and registered a complaint. And this is going to be my new hobby. Lets see if I can make a living out of it!
Labels: Economics, Life, Society
My quote and I quote
Don't count your chickens while they are being culled....Labels: Food, Humor, Life, Thought
Is Delhi taking its toll?
I have been commuting frequently between Noida and South Delhi off late, and taking the DND Flyway is really convenient. Apart from the little stop at the toll plaza, the drive is smooth and enjoyable, the distance is shorter and it saves a lot of time. I always thought that the DND people were doing a nice service to the nation, even though they charge a little exorbitantly. They actually made a Net Profit of 659 Lakhs in the quarter ending December 07, which is up more than 100% year on year. Great. They even publish a code of ethics and stuff on their website. Nice.My opinion about the company however took a U-Turn following 2 observations. I was driving towards Delhi, and nearing the Toll-Plaza when I saw an Ambulance approach in the same direction, with its siren blazing and emergency light on. Now, I have noticed that in the last few years, people have become conscientious enough to give way to Ambulances, even at the cost of slowing down or stopping on the side. Most of the cars did just that, they tucked the cars into the extreme side of the lane, and gave enough space for the ambulance to proceed to the Toll Plaza first. Then, at the toll plaza, the guy handling the booth decided to have a lengthy conversation with the ambulance driver, and this lasted atleast a minute. It takes a normal car about 10 seconds to pay and pass.
I was obviously not pleased with the conduct of the guy incharge, and I chose to vent my anger at the guy handling the booth in my lane. This is the conversation that ensued:
Me (Angry) : "Bhaiya Ambulance se bhi paise lete ho kya?" Do you even charge ambulances?
Booth Guy : "Sir Patient hota hai to nahi lete.." Sir we don't charge them when there is a Patient inside.
Me : "to itni der kyun lag rahi hai" Then why is it taking so long.
Booth Guy: "Sir gaadi ka number note karna hota hai" Sir, we have to note down the registration number of the car.
I pay and leave, as disgusted as can be.
The next day, while going to office, I see this:
a new redlight has been put up for turning right towards the new toll plaza meant to service the Mayur Vihar area. NTBCL made sure that the traffic was smoothly controlled when the overbridge was being made over the toll road, and none of their customers was inconvenienced. They even waited long enough for everything to be perfectly complete (in their area of course) before opening passage in this direction (The opposite direction had been opened earlier as it did not require the ovebridge). Net effect: A new red light on Noida Link road, in the narrowest (2 lane) part. I had been expecting a traffic jam at the light the day it opened, and that is just what happened. Unfortunately, drivers in Delhi have a habit of forming 2 lanes to turn right. This leaves just one lane on the extreme left for cars to move towards Noida. Moreover, 007's will take the leftmost lane and cut across to wait infront of the 2 right-turn lanes, and stick their ass out to block all traffic. POOF.
Now, there should have been a slip road in place before opening the traffic. Turns out that there is a plan to make that slip road, and I'm not sure who is making it. There is a large concrete wall in place that will most probably hold the landfill in place. But who is doing it. If NTBCL is doing it, why were they allowed to open traffic before completing the slip road. If MCD/PWD is making it, why were they napping all this time?
End result, the DND Flyway is causing some nasty traffic snarls outside their territory. I hold them responsible!
And are toll roads the answer? Anyone who has travelled to Gurgaon on the new toll road recently (after the opening of the toll plaza) will probably give you a nice long lecture about how useless it is! Do images speak louder than words? I'll leave you with this image..
Courtesy TOI.
It takes upto 1 hour to cross this toll plaza. Delhi to Gurgaon in 10 mins?? I guess the absurd toll of 16 rupees is to blame. How can you expect people to shell out 16 bucks and move on quickly. Why is it not 17.25 then?
Labels: Economics, Life, Politics, Society, Travel
Ouch!
Denying the obvious to not hurt someones feelings, hurts a lot more :(
Labels: Communication, Economics, Humor, Life
Bal Kutir
I never we
nt to an orphanage, at least not with the sole purpose of interacting with the kids, until yesterday. My mother used to cringe at any suggestion of my doing so, because she somehow finds it downright upsetting. Even I was somehow convinced that I would be a little upset to meet some underprivileged kids. That, however was not the case. I've been part of some food donation campaigns, but the interaction with kids there is limited to distributing some basic food items, and those kids aren't really orphans. We mostly help out the nomadic labourers with their food supply. I am personally not convinced with this form of Social giving, because I feel it serves a very short term and narrow purpose, but that discussion I can leave for later.Yesterday, about 7 of us from office went to 'Bal Kutir', an orphanage run by a nice old lady in her own house. We went with the intention of holding a small drawing contest for the kids, and using their drawings to decorate our floor this Diwali, and we did just that (Yea, no
surprize). But I did come back with a very different view of these children. I did not feel any pity whatsoever. Maybe because they themselves were not reeling in self pity as I had imagined. They were just back from school when we got there, and so we had some amount of trouble getting them out, and getting them started. I was a little apprehensive at first, and I didn't know what to say. So we sat them down and distributed the coloring pencils and stuff, and asked them to make any drawing about Diwali. Some started with geometrical designs, and some with diyas, and most of the tiny tots started with a contorted version of whatever the person sitting next to them was drawing. It was fun watching them draw, and helping them out. I drew a diya for 'Golu', so that he could color it in, but he did not think very highly of my artistic talents and chose to politely turn his drawing sheet over and start afresh!Another one of the few boys there initially drew a boy holding a pataka in his hand and trying to light it with a candle, but chose to erase it when I patronizingly told him that it wasn't the most prudent method to light crackers! (yeah yeah, I'm boring.)
The kids seemed mostly unperturbed by our presence, which was probably because they interact with hordes of people all the time with rising guilt of low CSR. But they seemed to be well behaved and intelligent lot, and it was a lot of fun interacting with them. I hope to go again soon and spend some time playing cricket with them. :)
PS. There was also a guy who traced out a duck on his sheet, and along with one of the more demented people from office, insisted that it was a "Murga", and so he claimed to have made the advertisement for "Murga Chaap Patakas". Weird the people in my office I tell you :p
Labels: Education, Food, Life, Society
