It has been a long time since I last blogged, I was just waiting for something which would ring the right cord for me to get back. And here were are, BSNL and their staff always help me getting something to write about, hope to get back with at least one post a week.

Around mid-February I had disconnected my BSNL NIC card connection and had moved to broadband offering from the same provider. Now 4 months down the lane, I am yet to get the Security Deposit and the 10 days additional amount I had paid as rent back.

Getting back the money which was paid as security deposit is looking as much tough as it was to get the device working when I initially took the connection, at that time I had to run around their office every other day asking them for them to get it working. The whole thing is documented read – BSNL NIC Card and Customer Support.

Now that I am facing these many issues in getting back my own money, I thought of documenting this too. The story thus far is:

Feb 19, 2010 : I give a letter to BSNL CSC, Shakarapuram to disconnect my NIC device and handover the device to them.

May 29, 2010 10:30am: Three months are over so head over to their accounts department in DVG road to ask them when I can expect my money back. Once I reach there, they make me wait for 15 minutes and then tell me that for NIC card (which falls under WLL) I would have to contact their office in Palace Road. They point me towards the wall which has the numbers to be contacted. The numbers were 22355772, 22355771 and 22355773. There was an additional number of a JAO 22931179.

May 29, 2010 11:30am: I called at 22355772 to be told that the file has not arrived and they cannot do anything till the file reaches them and the line was disconnected without any opportunity for me to speak.

May 29, 2010 11:45am : Still with hopes I contacted the Junior Accounts Officer’s number (22931179). The person who received the call who I think was the JAO told me that he was not sure and needed to check, so asked me to call back after 10 minutes.

May 29, 2010 12:00pm – 1:00pm : I keep on trying, the number is always busy.

May 29, 2010 4:00pm – 4:30pm : The number is still busy.

May 29, 2010 4:45pm : Finally manage to get through and was told that they have not received the file and they cannot do anything till they receive the file. He tells me that he will send a note to the department from where he is to get the file and at the same time asked me to call them at the numbers 22205392 and 22875567. As it was already 5pm, I thought there was no point in calling the number so kept it pending for the coming week.

June 19th 4:15pm: After missing out on calling them on 5th June and 12th June. I called the JAO directly again. This time he asked me if I had called earlier, I told yes, he told that the file had not yet come and he cannot do anything till the file is received. He mentioned that there are many such complaints and he keeps sending these details to the department concerned but for action it is best if I call them. So he again gives me the number 22205392.

June 19th 4:30pm: Called 22205392, a lady picked up the call and even before I could tell my issue completely; cutting me off she told me to contact the number 22282000 which is of her assistant. Called the number but no one picked up, kept calling till 5pm, but no luck.

So much struggle, already spent over 2 hours of my time on this. Now wonder what would have happened if I do the same to them and do not pay the bill for a couple of months, will they sleep on it. No way, they have 10% penalty if one misses a payment date and disconnection follows. So why this laziness to return back the money they taken from people?

Only thing that makes me laugh each time I visit one of their offices or call them is that they always have network problem or their servers will be too slow for the office staff to work. This for a company which goes by the tag line “Connection India”. A quick suggestion to folks at BSNL, start internally so that people do not have to run around from one office to another to get their grievances addressed then think about India.

That’s the story till now, Next time I call if they give me another number I know which number to ask for “Consumer Court”. What do you think folks, when will I get back my money?

Last week my BSNL CDMA based internet connection (NIC Card) was giving very slow speeds of around 1KBps. So I needed to call the BSNL people to register a complaint. Here are the telephone numbers that I came across (for my future reference):

[1] 080 – 28450010
[2] 080 – 28450410
[3] 080 – 28450420

All the numbers seem to be diverted to some other number and were mainly busy all the time. After a couple of tries a person lifted the phone (with number end 010). He listened to my problem and told me to report it to another number, which is mentioned below:
080 – 22385969

The above number looks to be some call center but might be of a technician, don’t know. He told me a solution wherein I needed to take my data card to their Customer Service Center and get some configuration changes done. I didn’t care to implement as I was sure it was not the problem. So I asked him if that does not work what should I do? His reply was upgrade to EVDO.

The solutions provided involved just looking at the issue at customer end instead of looking at the issue as some problem with their infrastructure, hence they provide options which involve me running around to the Customer Service Center or buying a new EVDO device.

Anyways since yesterday I am back to normal speed. So no issues at the moment.

Reservation/Quota! The two words which you will hear a lot in India, where ever you go these are the words you cannot escape. Right from school till you die you will have to live with this, why? Becuase with more and more catagories being created what is left for the so called ‘General’ category is marching towards nill. I would not be surprised if we soon reach a stage where there will be only 5% available to ‘General Category’ and the rest will be reserved for one of the various catagories, in process paving way to ‘Reservation’ based community like in olden times, just the names would be different, now it would be SC/ST/OBC etc.

Let me take the example here, for the BBMP (local) polls here in Bangalore there are 198 wards/seats out of which 127 have some sort of reservation linked to them!! It may be either SC/ST/BC/Women etc, which leaves only a mearge 71 for the ‘General’!! Then there is a news article in today’s paper which tells that the Madras High Court has asked the nationalised banks to promote to officer cadre the people who have joined under the reserved quota. The banks had put forward the point that the promotions should be based on merit cum seniority and not quota, but the HC didn’t fully agree with this. So this bring me to the point “Where are we heading?”

It is not that I am fully against the concept of reserved quota for certain section of the society. I feel it should be only available at max till the end of Graduation, after that there should be no Reservation concept at all. There is no point in giving jobs to people who do not have the required skills by overriding people who have slogged it out and are denied the opportunity just because of the quota system. When this happens the person with skills is discouraged and encouragement is given to people who can under quota get a job even though they are not apt to do the job. I do not say that everyone who get a job under quota do not work properly but a reasonable portion spoil it for all. So at the end everyone suffers, the people are denied proper service and every thing gets delayed.

I think the time had come for India to look forward to a new way to provide opportunities without using the Reservation quota system. But with politician who are here to promote their own selfish desires rather than people causes it looks like a dream that the system would change.

What do you all think about the reservation/quota system in India?

Atul Chitnis introducing Philip Tellis at FOSS.in 2009

For a first timer like me being at such a event can be a bit overwhelming, but thanks to Laxminarayana Kamath I got to meet up with lot of people right from Baiju, Santosh, Debayan, Sham, Tony, Ankur, Deepak, Anil, Hardik, Vignesh and lots more…sorry folks I am not able to mention all your names but I sure remember you.

FOSS.in has lots of talks and workouts, I attended a few of them and to sum them all up I would quote what Philip Tellis had quoted in his ‘Shut up and hack’ keynote “Have Itch, Scratch”, that is what the conference is all about and the tag line of the event ‘Show me the code’ is justified. If you were at the workouts and seen the number of them this year you could have understood what the Itch can do.

One more thing that made this years FOSS.in special and convinient was that it was held at NIMHANS Convention Center with three auditoriums for talks, one whole floor for the workouts – WOW! Thats how it should be.

So I will wrapup this quick writeup on FOSS.in 2009 with a BIG Thank You to the Team FOSS.in for organising such a big event in such a smooth manner.

Recession Card! Yes, Recession is over but the cards are still around. In case you are wondering what I am talking about, don’t strain you head or trouble Google, let me explain.

At my work place for any occasion like Birthday, Send off, etc. out team used to give Greeting Cards, but with the onset on recession at the start of the year, the team size came down rapidly and so did the funds collected, so a new concept of Recession Card came into picture where we used to give hand drawn card, it came with advantage of customisation and it helps to have an artist in the team who can actually implement it.

Last friday was my final day in the company, and surprise! surprise! Along with the normal card I got a Recession Card too! So what does it look like, see below.

Thanks for the card guys. It is totally a unique piece, but still I am unsure who is this ‘Trisha’ and ‘Pooja’, and what are they doing in my card. Please clarify.