Nithin Kamath’s Weblog

Travel Date:	13-January-2008
Location:	Devarayana Durga (68 kms from Bangalore, 94Kms from Bangalore via Tumkur, 14Kms from Tumkur).
Mobile:	Network available at the certain places like the bottom of the hills and some places near the top (Airtel and Reliance).
Bus:	Direct bus available from KSRTC bus stand Bangalore Platform No: 3 at 8:00 am in the morning. Return direct buses are available at 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm.

Devarayana Durga (DD) is dotted with two main temples mainly the ‘Yoganarasimha’ Temple and the ‘Bhoganarasimha’ Temple. The hilltop gives a splendid view of the surrounding areas. About 3-4Kms from DD is another place called ‘Namada Chilume’.

From Wikipedia entry, the history of DD is as under:

The place was originally known as Anebiddasari then as Jadakana Durga after a chief named Jadaka and finally as Devarayana Durga subsequent to its capture by Mysore king Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar.

Tradition relates that a robber chief named Andhaka or Lingaka had his stronghold here, and he was subdued by sumati, a prince, whose father, Hemachandra, was the king of Karnata and ruled from Yadupattana. On accomplishing the enterprise on which he had set forth, Sumathi is said to have established the city of Bhumandana near the present Nelamangala and taken up residence there for the protection of that part of his fathers kingdom.

Under the Hoysalas, there seems to have been, on the hill, a town called Anebiddasari or the precipice where the elephant fell. A rogue elephant, which the sthala purana describes as a Gandharva suddenly appeared before the town to the great consternation of the people and after doing considerable mischief, tried to walk up the steep rock on the west, when it slipped, fell back and was killed. The hill is accordingly called as Karigiri in the Puranas.

Under the Vijayanagara Kings, the use of the same name continued, and a large tank, named Bukkasamudra, was formed after throwing an embankment across the gorge from which the river Jayamangali has its source. Remains of the embankment and of the adjacent town can still be traced.

Coming to the details of the trip, early in the morning I and my friend missed the direct bus which leaves Bangalore at 8:00 am, as we were unaware of the timing we reached there at 8:05 am and the bus had left by then. We then took one of the numerous KSRTC buses which head to Tumkur (Cost Rs 36/- per head). The journey was quite fine, infact the middle section of the journey was quite wonderful due to very good road condition.

We finally reached Tumkur at 10:10 am. When we enquired at the bus stand only to find that the next direct bus is at 12:30pm. After a bit of looking around we found out that there are private buses to a place which is about 6Kms from DD. Hence we took the risk of having to walk around 6Kms and took the private bus (Cost Rs. 5/- per head) which left at 10:30am. We reached the cross road we were supposed to start walking at around 11:00 am. We began our long walk, but within a few minutes a kind gentleman offered us a lift in his car. He was a rice mill owner and he enquired about us and gave us a lot of information about the place.

We quickly reached the ‘Bhoganarasimha’ temple situated at the foot, we went inside the temple had a quick look around. Had Idli (Cost Rs. 10/- per plate consisting of 3 Idliys) at a small shop near the temple and our gentleman again offered us a lift to the top of the hills. The vehicles can go a good 2Kms through the zig zag road towards the top. But to reach the temple one has to climb a good few hundred steps. Here again we had a quick look at the temple, the temple is good and we had a good time there.

Outside the temple is a small pond and beside that is the way to go right to the top of the hills. We ventured on the pathways, no steps here and went towards the top, we had to navigate through some rocks, narrow pathways before reaching the top. The top of the hill has some building structure which I am unable to say what. It looks like a place where the person keeping watch would rest.

This place offered splendid view of the places around and it was quite a wonderful experience to be able to stand there with the cold breeze blowing. It took me to a totally different world all together. It was an experience which cannot be put down in words. People say what do you get by going up the hills, I say you have to climb one and see the view from the top to really understand the true feeling.

At around 2:00 pm we headed down the hills towards the bottom of the hills where we had first gone. This is the place where the buses stand. We quickly had our lunch (Puliogare - Cost Rs. 15/- per plate) at the same place where we had Idli’s in the morning. We though of heading back to Bangalore by the 3:30 bus. But finally at around 2:45pm we decided to walk the 3-4Kms to ‘Namada Chilume’, how could we miss this place which is so near by and we had so much time in our hands.

Hence we walked….walked…and walked….the roads were deserted expect for the old vehicles which were passings by. We had a great time walking through the area which was fully covered by trees, hence we did not feel the sun much. We were hoping to see the Yellow throated Bulbul which can be found here, but alas we could not spot any on the way.

We reached ‘Namada Chilume’ at around 3:20pm. . Myth has it that Rama on his way to Lanka halted here. As he did not find water anywhere around to wet the “nAma” (a kind of paste Hindus apply on their forehead), he shot an arrow into the ground, and a spring sprang and thus the name ‘Namada Chilume’. The spring can be still seen as a small stream of water coming out of the ground. The actual source is completely barricaded, hence they have made another hole into which the water flows from where people can collect the water. There is also an foot impression of Lord Sri Rama near that, which I surprisingly missed out and did not notice. There is also a deer park in the same campus. The entry fees to the place is Rs.3 per head.

Just opposite to ‘Namada Chilume’ is a nursery of medicinal plants which is being maintained by the forest department. This place is also good, but we could not stay longer as we had to catch a private bus (Cost Rs. 6/- per head) going to Tumkur which arrived here sharp at 4:30pm by which we reached Tumkur by 5:00pm. We had juice to gain some energy and quieten our thirst and left Tumkur by KSRTC bus (Cost Rs. 36/- per head) at 5:20pm. We reached Bangalore by 7:30 pm.

Tips/Suggestions

• Always take the direct bus available as they do via the nearest route, unlike us who went via Tumkur.
• If you are going by a private vehicle there are other places which can be visited near by, one which I can recollect is ‘Sivagange’, please ask around and you will surely find quite a few options.
• The total expenses incurred by us for the journey was Rs. 131/- per head including the tickets and the food. Hence it is quite a cheap trip if you go by bus. Still cheaper if you can pack and take you food along. Though the small shop offering food is quite reasonably priced.
• Do not just go till the temple at the top and return, instead climb further to the top for the ultimate experience.

‘Mekedatu’ is the place where the Kaveri (Cauvery) River flows through a narrow ravine. Legend has it that the channel was so narrow that sheep would jump across, and hence the name Mekedatu (Meke = sheep/goat, datu = cross in Kannada), more on this a bit later.

Mekedatu is about 93Kms from Bangalore. The first 89Kms till Sangam can be undertaken in a vehicle, but for the last 4Kms we need to cross a river and either take a different transport bus or go walking.

I and my friends had booked a Qualis for the journey. We started on our journey at 9:10 AM. The route to reach Sangam is via Kanakapura. Since we were unsure about the availability of food at Sangam, we had our breakfast at a hotel in Kanakapura, I am unable to recall the name of the hotel, it was some sort of Upahara.

We moved on after breakfast and most of the initial part of the journey was good, but the last 20kms or so was bad, but it may be due to the fact that they were in the process of tarring the road. But anyway the journey was not too tiring; and we reached Sangam at around 11:30 am.

You may be wondering about why the place has been named ‘Sangam’, well this is because this is the place of confluence of two rivers – Arkavathi and Kaveri (Cauvery). It is a nice place to relax and enjoy. We wanted to stay here, but this ‘Goat’s Cross’ enticed us, why would a place where Goats crossed become famous?

So we crossed the river which separates the two banks. Now we could either take a Bus or walk for 4 Km to reach the spot. We decided the later and went walking. The walking part was not as much fun as we had expected as the sun was really belting down on us and the tree cover over the road was really not something to speak about. But since the road runs parallel with the river, we were offered some fantastic views, the rock formations were just majestic to say the least. We had an urge to go to the bank, which we did at one location, but since we wanted to reach the Mekedatu point early we continued on.

Finally we reached the point, what we saw left us spell bound, we were just waiting to see if someone would come and say ‘Bakra’!!! if you know what I meant. The meaning is so simple right, the place were Goats used to jump across, If you come here you would agree that the place is so precariously up the slope that at this point I suspect even the goats would fear to venture leave alone jump!!

Enough with the literal meaning, moving ahead this is the point where the Cauvery comes through the Narrow gorge. The scenery is quite pleasing and the rock formations are just breath taking. But one should be very careful not to go to near the edge as the rocks are slippery to say the least. We sat around here for quite a while before heading back. If you came expecting to just across just like the goats used to do, you will be disappointed to say the least. But it is worth a visit if you have come till Sangam.

We were extremely tired, so we hopped onto a Special Bus which would take us back to Sangam, I am mentioning Special Bus since even though the charge is Rs 20 for 4 Kms! they charged us Rs 25 each, saying that Rs 20 is for round trip people who would be charged Rs 40. You actually need to see the bus to realise how special it is and how suited it is for the journey. We finally reached back to Sangam around 3:00 pm after a 10 horrific minutes on the bus.

We crossed the river again, and headed to the ‘Hotel Tender Coconut’!!! for the lunch. If you are planning to go into the water and would like to change into something more suited then you change here. We had a heavy lunch; and around 4:00pm we headed back to the river to chill out.

Before we moved into the river, our cab driver mentioned that there were crocodiles in a particular part of the river and asked us not to venture in that part. He mentioned that on 2nd of Jan which is just a couple of days back, the croc had caught a person and dragged the person underwater and it was just today i.e. on 6th that the croc released the body and it came up. The person was going to be cremated today. To how much extent it is true we do not know, but we believe it was true sine there are quite a few warnings posted all over the place about crocs existing here. At the max the driver must have added a bit of spice to the story that’s all.

We spent nearly two hours in the waters, before we decided to call it the day and we started to head homeward. We reached back Bangalore at 8:30pm, with a travel time of about 2hr 15min.

All in all, it was a bit different kind of experience when compared to the other two places that I ventured last week. A good place to spend time with friends, although there is nothing much to explore except the rocks.

Tips/Suggestions/Observations

• Mekedatu is 4 Km away from Sangam; which in turn is about 89 Km from Bangalore.
• You can either walk or take a bus, the bus would cost you Rs 20 per head.
• Food items mainly fish items are available on the road side.
• There is a restaurant at Sungam called ‘Tender Coconut’ where you can have your lunch.
• Nothing much to see except water and beautiful rock formations at Sangam, and the gorge at Mekedatu.
• Take lots of water!!!
• Crocodiles exits in the water at one particular portion, so be careful and do not venture out to remote places.

Savanadurga (Magadi Tq) is a Tall Granite Hill (11 Km from Magadi) formed by the union of two high peaks (4,024 feet MSL) called locally as the Kari Gudda (Black hill) and Billi Gudda (White hill). This is a very popular location with walkers, hikers and climbers due to the pure natural adventure it provides. It also has a famous old temple of Narasimha Swamy. The temple is located at the bottom of the foothills. The main temple has an adjacent temple dedicated to Laxmi.

Now coming to the details of the trip, we wanted to start well and early, but got delayed a bit, and we finally reached the Kalasipalya bus stand 10 mins before 9:00 am. We immediately got into an KSRTC bus going to Magadi. The distance to Magadi is 50kms, and the ticket cost us Rs 20/- per head. Around 10:50 we got down at a place which I can recall as Hospet and took a bus to Nayakanapalya. The distance to this place is around 8 Kms and the ticket was Rs 6/- per head. We got down at a place known as the Nayakanapalya Gate and took an rickshaw to cover the last 4 Kms of the journey this cost us Rs 10/- per head. We reached the foot of the hills around 11:40 am.

The first sight of the massive hill that lay in front of me just floored all the thoughts I had in mind; that it would be an easy trip where we could climb a hill without much difficulty. The hill is just too huge, and the journey to the top is difficult but at the same time the other people around who were also climbing with us seem to have a great sense of humor and made climbing a lot more fun.

Though we wanted to go till the hill top, we aborted the climb mid way mainly due to time constraints and our ill preparedness (inappropriate foot wear for the climb/decent) for this climb. We thought it would be best to climb early in the morning and best when we are well prepared for this climb. Hence we went ahead with information gathering to have a proper climb the next time round. We found that it take 2-3 hours for the climb/decent of the hill. There is also a direct bus from Bangalore which reaches here at 8:00 am, which would be ideal for our next trip.

On the climb up always follow the arrows marked on the large stones for the know routes. And also follow the electricity line, which has the proper way to the top. And have a nice sense of humor along, helps a lot. For example, while we were just hanging around midway and considering returning down, we meet a person who was coming down. We asked him if he went to the very top, he told yes. To which we asked what is there on the top. His reply there was nothing much just the electricity poles and the Basava statue!!

Though we could not go to the very top, but still the views were absolutely superb and fantastic. The fun and excitement was much more than what we felt at Tippu’s Drop (Nandi Hills). We stayed there mid way for some time, talking to people and enjoying the view. We also had our packed lunch which we had carried and then finally descended down and visited the two temples which were at the bottom of the hills. We still had quite some time before the 3:30 direct bus, so we decided to walk the 4 Kms to Nayakanapalya from where hoped to catch some other bus or the same bus whichever came earlier. Finally at Nayakanapalya we ended up getting the direct bus. The bus went to Magadi and started from Magadi at 4:00pm and we reached Kalasipalya at 6:00pm.

All in all a very good trip, would have had been excellent if we were better prepared. But we really enjoyed every bit of it and will go again soon and complete the climb sometime soon. So if you are looking for adventure and that too in the most natural form with limited budget then this would really suit you well.

Facts/Suggestions:

• Savandurga is 60 Kms away from Bangalore.
• Kalasipalya -> Magadi (50 km) -> Nayakanapalya (8km) -> Savanadurga (4km).
• There are private as well as KSRTC buses. In these few are direct buses, but many buses are there to Magadi which run at regular intervals.
• It is best if you carry the food items/lunch from Bangalore itself, since there are no hotels as such at the foot of the hills.
• If you are not sure of how to go, then there are small boys who can be found around the Narasimha Swamy Temple who will take you till the top and back for a sum of Rs 50/-.
• The over all cost for this trip came to around Rs. 100/- including the food items which we purchased in Bangalore. Excluding the food it would come to around Rs. 65/- for the travel cost.

Nandi Hills (Nandi Betta) is situated about 60 Kms from Bangalore and was my and my friends destination for the day. Till yesterday late evening we had not decided where we would be heading; then finally we settled on Nandi Hills. Here is how the things went…

Early morning at 8:00 am we reached Majestic Bus Terminus, and then moved over to the KSRTC bus stand Platform 10 from where we took the direct bus to Nandi Hills which leaves the terminus at 8:30. The bus goes via Doddabellapur and costs us Rs. 34/- per head. The journey was pleasant and we reached the bottom of the hills also known as the Nandi Hill Cross at around 10:30 where the driver stopped the bus for tea. After 10-15 mins, we were back on road for the last 8 kms of the journey which was completely uphill and reached the top at 11:00 am.

We then purchased the entrance tickets which were minimally priced at Rs 3/- per head. The first think you see as soon as you enter is the Amrit Sarovar which is a small tank, nothing much to see here, so we moved on.

Instead of taking the motor-able road to the top, we took the walking path situated to the left of the tank. This turned out to be a very good choice as we soon found our self walking along the fort walls which gave us some really amazing views of the land below.

As we continued we came to ‘Gandhi Nilaya’, the rest house where Gandhiji had stayed long long ago, though people are not allowed inside, the view which could be had from the garden area justified the choice for Gandiji’s stay here.

The next stop was at ‘Nehru Nilaya’, this has been nicely maintained; but again no entry inside the building. But it does provide some good photographic opportunities. There is also some seating and playing arrangements on the sides where we relaxed for sometime before moving ahead.

Moving ahead we went to ‘Yoginandishwara Temple’ and then moved on to have our lunch at ‘Hotel Ranjitha’ (only other alternative was ‘Hotel Mayur’).

After lunch we went to a spot called “Tipu’s Drop” right behind the temple, apparently because Tipu Sultan used to punish people by throwing people down from this place. The spot and the views it offered was just too breath taking. The spot which I am talking is somewhat blocked. But the other side it is completely open; though we were on the safer side and did not navigate our self to the very edge there were some fanatics who took them self to the very edge. We even saw two lovers sitting on the rocks at the very edge and one false move would have been the last anyone would have seen of them. The most amazing thing was that there were parents who wanted to take snaps of the kids aged around 3-5 years, who let them alone near the edge!!! Are people really this foolish or just too ignorant of the risks and the dangers involved; or are they under the influence of “Nothing can happen to us” syndrome.

After roaming around a bit more we headed back to the bus stop, and found one just arriving, that to a direct one to Bangalore. This time around the charge was Rs.43/- per head, since the bus route for this bus was to pass through Chikkabellapura, hence the total distance was 86kms. We left Nandi Hills at 4:15pm and reached KSRTC terminus exactly at 7:15 pm.

Overall the Nandi hills is a good spot for picnic and for a day away for the city life. And it is an inexpensive way to chill out, we incurred an expense of 150/- per head for the whole trip, around half was it for the food items which are quite expensive on the hill. Have a great time.

Facts:

• Nandi Hills is located 60 Kms from Bangalore.
• Direct bus to Nandi Hills is at 8:30 am from KSRTC bus stop platform number 10.
• The top of the hills is approx 4851 Feet (1479 Mtrs) above mean sea level.
• Places to visit: Gandhi Nilaya, Nehru Nilaya, Yoginandishwara Temple, Tipu’s Drop.
• Two hotels on the top (Ranjitha and Mayura)

Suggestions:

• It is better to take any food items which you want to eat from Bangalore itself, everything sold in the hills is priced around 30% above MRP, example Lays MRP Rs. 20/- is sold for Rs. 25/-, Ice cream MRP 18/- is sold at 25/- !!!
• Walk around and explore for the best experience.

People have been asking me time and time again on how do I create and send out the newsletters (in the past Lintux Newsletter, Weekly Picks, HaHaHaa and now Felicity), and each time I tell one, some else asks again. So I thought it would be in the best interest of all that I put this on my blog so that I can give the link to anyone who asks. Coming to the process it is a quite simple one, by the time you finish reading this you will be amazed at how simple it is!!!

To begin with you will have to create an HTML page with you content you want to send, for this you can use the tools of your liking. I personally use:
* ‘gedit’, an simple text editor to code the HTML content.
* ‘Firefox’ web browser to preview the HTML pages
* GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program for playing around with images.

Once you have an HTML page ready, you will require an email client through which you can send the page. I personally recommend ‘Mozilla Thunderbird’. Initially once you will require to configure the client to be able to receive and send mail. For this you would require an email service provider who provides SMTP/POP3 service. One of the good ones I use is GMail, Yahoo and Rediff do not provide this functionality in their free versions. To see how to configure Thunderbird for GMail visit this page or this page.

Once configured, just go to compose a new message (Ctrl+N) and in this window enter the ‘To’ and subject fields. Once this is done the focus will be in the message composition window, here goto Insert -> HTML and copy - paste the whole HTML code of the page you created initially. Thats it, just click the send button and you are done.

Hope to see many cool and creative email from you all soon….

Wonder la, the amusement park on the outskirts of Bangalore was the hangout place this past Saturday. The group included Aditi, Gaurav, Mathan, Priyanka, Pooja, Vineet, Vineet (not a mistake, two of them!), Vinita, Vivek and myself. Since the place was on the outskirts we had hired a tempo for the trip, set off on it at 11:30 am and reached Wonder la at around noon.

Our first reaction was just amazing, the parking lot and the area outside the park was really beautiful and well maintained, Kudos to the management. Each of us shelled out Rs.600/- for the entrance ticket and went into the amusement park. When we entered inside the park, the whole scene inside (the souvenir shops, the food stalls, the theme areas etc) all reminded me of ‘Roller Coaster Tycoon 2‘ a game which I played some 5-6 years back, which was all about managing an whole amusement park. All the rides mentioned and which were visible clearly bought back memories of the hours I spent playing this game.

We quickly got a locker, stacked our belongings into it and headed to the dry rides (the whole park is divided into two area, dry rides and wet rides). There were lots of rides and time was less, so we hurried through almost all of them as soon as possible. Some were good, some were kiddish, and some were amazing. As per the group the best rides were ‘Mixer’, ‘Drop Zone’ and one more (I can’t recollect the name of the ride), so if you are there don’t miss these rides. Also the ‘Sky Walker’ (Giant wheel on top of a very very long tower) is worth it, but due to the height the giant wheel moves very slow.

It was almost 2:30 by the time we finished with the dry rides so we had lunch at one of the in-house restaurants. After the food, quickly changed for the water rides and the first on the target was ‘Water Splash’. The ride was so cool that we took the ride 3-4 times continuously. Then moved on to slides, waves, rain disco before winding up the day in the lazy river. Took some rest and headed back to Bangalore, had dinner and I believe most of us ended up viewing India knock out Aussie to book a place in the final of the T20-20 WC finals where they will be facing the arch rival Pakistan!

All in all, it was a great trip and a memorable experience, thanks all for the great time.

Google Labs has come out with a new and cool tool for Indians. It is called ‘Indic Transliteration’, here is what it does as Google puts it:

Google Indic Transliteration offers an option for converting Roman characters to the Devan?gar? characters used in Hindi. This lets you type Hindi words phonetically in English script and still have them appear in their correct alphabet. Note that this is not the same as translation — it is the sound of the words that are converted from one alphabet to the other, not their meaning.

This is a great tool, considering that most of us would have till now used some sort of software to get this type of result. The good thing is that it converts the text word on word basis, so it convert to Devan?gar? once a word is entered and a space is keyed. See below for an example.

Once the Hindi word appears, if you are not happy with the word displayed, you can click on it and change the word from the various ones displayed or change it manually. It is great that Google keeps coming out with such good tools, especially like these which can be run from the web directly. Also another great aspect is that Google also has a dedicated section in Labs for India related products.

Visit Google Indic Transliteration

Recently I got the USB cable for my mobile phone (Nokia 6030) and was looking out for some cool open source and linux related wallpapers for the same. I found some desktop wallpapers and resized them to the phone display size of 128×128. Here are a few of the good one, if you know of any free site which offer similar wallpapers please do let me know through comments.

Also note that these are not designed by me, and the following may be copyrighted, if so the author can let me know and I will remove it from here immediately.

FM radio has taken the fancy of almost everyone, with music available 24×7, it is easy to get plug in your earphones and listen to the songs and the blabbering of the RJ’s. If you go anywhere in Bangalore you will see people listening to radio, not just people walking in streets, but those inside shops, buses and where ever you can imagine.

There are currently 10+ FM radio channels in Bangalore which offer music in English, Hindi and of course the local language Kannada. Then you have film music, classical music and also educational programs. But one genre I am missing is that of news.

There is no news channel available, only music and education. There is a news broadcast on the AIR FM broadcast every hour, but it is a pain to wait. I still don’t know why no news channel has been launched, may be because government does not allow private players to broadcast news.

I don’t understand one thing, when you have so many private news channel, why cant we have then air an radio channel. If you are unaware of the FM channels available in Bangalore, please scroll down. Hoping to have a news channel soon….Till then….classical music is the way to go.

List of FM radio stations in Bangalore along with their tag lines:

Channel Name	Frequency	Tagline	Website
S FM	93.50MHz	Mast Maja Madi	http://www.sunnetwork.org/fm/default.htm
Big FM	92.7MHz	Keli Kelisi Life Nimmadagisi	http://www.big927fm.com/
Radio City	91.10MHz	Dive In	http://www.radiocity.in/
Radio Mirchi	98.30MHz	Sakkat Hot Maga	http://www.enil.co.in/radio.html
Radio Indigo (English)	91.90MHz	The Colour of Music	http://www.radioindigo.fm/
FM Rainbow	101.30MHz		http://www.allindiaradio.org/
Vividh Bharathi	102.85MHz		http://www.allindiaradio.org/
Radio One	94.30MHz	Hit Mele Hit Mele Hit Mele Hit	http://www.radioone.in/
Fever FM	104.00MHz	It Is All About The Music	http://www.fever.fm/
Amrutha Varshini	100.10MHz		(Available only from 6pm to 10pm)
Gyanvani	107.20MHz	Education At Your Doorstep	http://www.iiita.ac.in/research/gyanvani.html

When was the last time you bought some electronic item and had to go back to the shop the next day to get it replaced because it was not working properly. I am sure it was not long back. So whats up with the companies, with the high tech machines they should have been producing products with world class quality, but it is getting worse. Are customers made the scrap goat, so that the companies can eliminate the quality control process, since they believe replacing a defective product is much cheaper than testing for quality.

Take my own example, about three months back I bought a computer mouse manufactured by a reputed peripheral maker. But when I open the box and connect the mouse to the PC, the left button was not working at all. So the next day I had to go back to the shop and get it replaced.

Another example would be of my friend, who had a Reliance mobile connection and bought a new Classic phone about two months backs. And ever since then he has been regretting his decision of buying that phone. The initial problems were that of phone switching off automatically, phone heating up etc.

He went to the one and only authorized service center in Bangalore which was about 10 Kms from his house to get it repaired. The service center just updated the software and it almost seemed to work, but alas within a week he started getting the same problems again.

He again went to the service center, but this time instead of repairing they issued him a DOA (Dead On Arrival) certificate stating that the mobile would not be repaired and he would get it replaced at any Reliance outlet. This is where more problems got added, when he went to one of the Reliance web worlds he was told they did not have the phone in stock, but when he casually asked the sales section the cost and the availability of the phone in stock, he was told it was available.

So took it up with the manager of the store, the manager became aggressive; and harshly cum in an angry voice asked the sales woman whether she had asked him before replying, then told her who knows about it you or I.These words were more than enough to get the answer ‘No’.

So my friend proceeded to another web world, few more Kms away, there after much waiting he was told the serial number mentioned on the DOA certificate was not valid and more over the DOA certificate was not as per the format specified. My friend argued that it was issued by the one and only authorised service center, but to no avail and was sent back.

The following Saturday, he again approached the service center. They told that the format is correct and the web world manager is wrong and must be mentioning about the format for LG/Motorola phones which is different. But for Classic phones this was the format, when queried about the wrong serial number, he told that only a digit was different and that was as per what was followed while entering the digits and he would not do anything about it and assured that the web world will accept it, if not he could be called and he would tell them about it.

So again he went to the web world and after waiting for a long time, the manager told that he was OK with the DOA certificate format and he was ready to change the phone if the serial number mentioned was changed to the correct one. After much discussion and debating with the service center over the phone, he had to return back with the problematic phone.

After a couple of more tries he finally managed to get it changed. It worked fine for about two-three weeks before it also got began malfunctioning, this time the display would not come on at all. After his past experiences and wasting more than five of his Saturdays on this, he decided to go easy and is using it only to receive calls. He also told me this is the only thing he can do. And he will soon be shifting to some other phone or may be some other service provider altogether.

These are just a couple of instances when products have been giving problems and we the consumers have had to take the extra trouble of getting them rectified. The problem is not in getting the replacement, but the time that is wasted, the trouble you have to take to explain the shopkeeper about the defect and various other things. There are lots of such instances, have you had any such problems do let me know by scribbling in the comments.