The Speed breakers of Defence Colony

Defence Colony, Chennai was a place where peace and tranquility reigned supreme, even though located in the city. All this changed with the start of construction of the cloverleaf grade separator at Guindy. There used to just a roundabout (called rountanna in TamilNadu) there, and to cope up with the ever increasing flow of traffic, the government decided to build a grade separator. You know like any road construction, further congestion of traffic happened. Then the commuters started taking shortcuts through Defence Colony. Lorry traffic is not permitted, but the other vehicles, just because the road is empty, would go at super duper speeds. Then the residents came up with an idea. They put up speed breakers. Such huge, unscientifically sized ones, that low base cars like Zens and old cars, Kinetic Hondas and other scooterettes whose shock absorbers were a little old, had their base scraped each time it went over a speed breaker. The road stretches to only a kilometer, but there are 6 speed breakers on it. Vodafone sponsored some roadsigns and the colony eagerly took it up. They have put up a lot of roadsigns, and someone with a permanent marker, wrote on all the “speed breaker “ roadsigns. Do check out the pics :)

The Police Story

Guess most of you would have heard of Sodexho coupons. Well for those who havent, in India its common for most of the office's to give these coupons to employees, so as to avail tax benefits on the amount. These can be used in restaurants, to buy food / vegs and so on from select outlets.. Well you must be wondering where this is leading to???

What are the uses of the Sodexho coupons??
1. To eat at restaurants
2. To buy fruits and vegetables
3. To bribe policemen

Yes, you read right.
This Saturday, George , my cousin, Tarun and me went to Reliance Fresh located in Ashok Nagar, for our regular home stuff shopping. The roads are real wide and people for years have been parking at the side. Well we too parked our car and went shopping, as we always do. When we had paid our veg bills and were at the non- veg section, buying fish, there was an announcement on the speaker informing that the traffic policemen had come and those who had parked bikes and cars had to remove them.
George, baby and me went out to see the state of our car. George's purse was totally empty as we were planning to go to the ATM on the way back and we just had the Sodexho coupons. We had paid Rs.1300/- at Reliance and was left with coupons worth Rs.200/- only.
I was carrying baby and saw the police guy put a lock through the rim of the tyre, locking the car. He told me that we had to pay a fine of Rs. 150 /- for parking on the road.
Meanwhile George went to meet the policeman (the regular looking one- tall, huge mustache, huge pot belly ) who was heading the ' operation ', to inform him that he had to release the lock for him to go to the ATM to get the money for the fine, and that he had only the coupons. The policeman then asked him what the coupons were and to give him Rs.100/- worth coupons. George was shocked. He then asked George the uses of of it and where it was accepted and so on. He gave the policeman the coupon and was walking towards me. The policeman was also walking with George and very politely told me that we could take the car. I thought he saw my almost 8 month pregnant tummy and was showing some karuna (pity). Then only George told me the story of the Sodexho bribe. I was shocked. This was the first time I had come across a policeman so openly asking for a bribe. It was almost funny.
So bad is the state of our policemen !

Tarun starts to write...

We have a tradition in Kerala, where, before a child is sent to school, he has to be '' initiated '' into learning. Traditionally, the child's right index finger is held by a learned person and made to write '' hari shri gana padhayae namaha '' on spread out rice (uncooked, of course :)) or sand. Then the mothers minnu / thali, is dipped in honey and same thing written on the baby's tongue.This is called 'Ezhuthinu Iruthu' (Sitting to write) or ' Vidhyarambam' (Start of education). I know this is practiced by the Christians and the Hindus of Kerala. Not too sure about the Muslims. And one more interesting thing is that no one is not supposed to hold the hand of the child and write, until this event happens. The child though, can write or scribble wherever he wants.

People who live out of Kerala too, try to adhere to this tradition. Malayala Manorama, on Vijayadashami day, organizes an event where you can take your child and make him write for the first time.

Tarun baby on Sunday the 25th wrote on rice, his hand held by my college professor and Head of Dpt., Dr. S K Sunderraj. Tarun was so excited, and unlike what i thought, didnt create a fuss. All went on well.

Rice was spread out on a tray and Dr.SKS, held his hand and wrote ' God is Love ' . Since he is from TamilNadu, he was very interested in this, though we had to guide him step by step :). We skipped the honey writing because we thought that would be a bit too much. And as Dakshina (Fees) Tarun gave him a neck tie . Tarun is starting play school on June 6th. Another event to look forward to.

The Cashew Accident

My mom was cutting raw cashews in their shell, and for an audience, she had Tarun. She had got those cashews from Kerala, some months back and she was going make theeyal (a curry) out of it. Well, the phone rang and she left the cashews and went to attend it. Then she came back and carried on with her work
After some time, Tarun went and told her that an ant had bitten his stomach and that it was itching. Mom inspected his stomach, and didn’t see anything. Then the little fellow went to sleep. Mummy just to check, lifted up his shirt, and she was shocked to see, pink burn like marks on his stomach. Only then did she realize that our little man had taken the cashew shells, when she had gone to attend the call, and placed it on his stomach. She then applied coconut oil to it – the panacea for all things of this kind.
The juice / sap like thing from the raw cashew, stains hands when touched, or if placed anywhere else, gives your skin a burnt appearance. Then the skin peels off and has to grow afresh.
In the evening after work when I went to pick him up from moms place, the fellow very proudly displayed his marks and told me (in all his toddler imagination) ''Ammachi cooker kondu polichatha'' (Grandmom did this using the pressure cooker). How we laughed. So much for my mom looking after him the whole day…

The Car

We bought a new car. We went and collected it from the Hyundai showroom yesterday. It was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, but the registration didn’t happen, so we got it yesterday.
It’s a black Hyundai Santro Xing. We sold our old Maruti Zen and choose a Santro. When the old car went, I felt so so sad, as though a part of me had gone. This morning too when George dropped me at the office, I could not help thinking of the Zen.
The showroom people, I guess, as a customer satisfaction initiative, gave a picture of us, the sales person and the car, all in 5 minutes :) . I think it is a good initiative..

In the scanned picture, the number plate looks like it has some halo, glowy kind of an effect. Its just reflection of the light i guess, as it was close to 9.00 PM. And if you look closely, you can see Tarun eyeing away the bigger cars in the other direction. His favourite was a sporty red Getz, which unfortunatey wasn't ours, because it didn't fit our budget :)
Anyway, the new car is the latest excitement in our life and best part is Tarun baby is hyper excited about it!!

BSNL Broadbad - A long story

This was a incident that occupied our mind for a long long time and caused us a lot of mental trauma. I guess, had it been any other country, the telephone company would have got sued.
One day, when we checked our broadband usage, we saw it was Rs.6000/- We didnt have time for a week to go to the office to register a complaint. As the office was close to mine, i went to complain and the person told me that the bill was not 6000/- and that the bill was Rs.20000/-I was shocked.
Well, i guess instead of typing the whole story, i will copy paste the letter George sent BSNL.

11/03/08
From
George Koshi
**********
***********
Chennai – ******


To
GM – Chennai Telephones
Dear Sir
Sub: Excess metering for Broadband Connection telephone No: *******– Consumer Number: **********

With reference to the above mentioned telephone number, we have received a bill dated 10/02/2008, amounting to Rs.23984.00.
Please note that the complaint letters have been given to the AO, the AGM, the DGM-Finance, on 7/2/08, 12/2/08 and 3/3/08, respectively. We gave the first letter on seeing the billed internet usage, in the BSNL site. The letter that was handed to the AO was collected and given to AGM on 12/2/08. As in the previous letters, I would like to present the issue again.
This telephone was installed on 17th of December 2007; the telephone was dead for over 40-45 days in the first two month on and off. I tried calling up the automatic complaint registry and the message we received was that our telephone number did not exit. At that point in time, we had already received and paid our first bill. I have called up 1500 a number of times and registered complaints, which they informed was manual entries of complaints and that the fault would be rectified. Only after my spouse came to your office and met the Junior Technical Officer and the Accounts Officer, did the line become functional.
In the meanwhile, one day when the phone was dead, I checked our internet usage amount from the data.bsnl.in site. The ID for usage check I had procured with great difficulty from the 1500 office. We were shocked to see a billing amount of Rs.6000.00 (Earlier the data.bsnl.in site used to reflect the cost for usage too) We stopped using the net then on.
My wife came to your office on 7 /2 /2008, to complain about the dead phone as well as the excess billing of internet usage. She was further shaken, when the AOTR told her that the internet billing due was Rs. 20000.00.
Sir, I can reassure you that we are aware of uploading and downloading data from the net and its consequences. Both of us work at office that provides us with free internet access. Furthermore, my company has provided me with a laptop with a Reliance connection (free) too.
I can assure you that we have not used the internet to this extend as my wife and me are aware of the Rs.250/ month plan we are in. We have also used your services previously, for confirmation where you can check the usage of the ******* number, where we have used the internet facility under the same plan (At that time the download limit was 400 mb and we never crossed the 400 mb limit).
In the mean while on 3/3/08, we met the AGM – Finance and he directed me to the AGM - Technical who put me to the AOTR-II who put me to the AO, again advising to issue the provisional bill. We have received the second shock at that point of time where she said that the broadband usage for the month of February was approximately 35 GB download. We have not switched on the modem and the computer for the whole of February month.
We met the CRO South after meeting the AOTR and in his presence we have changed the broadband password. (The facility to change this password was not available early)
We have been meeting a lot of your officers in your office, in this regard from February. Even today I called up the CRO and was told to call the AE and the AE directed me to call the AO, who never picked up the line (she could have been busy), but ultimately, I have not met with any success. This issue is us a lot of mental trauma, I request you to kindly use your esteemed office and resolve this issue.
Thank you and Regards,

George Koshi.


CC: DGM – Finance/DGM-C&A- Technical/AOTR-II/CRO-South/AO


We received three bills from BSNL, totalling upto Rs.70000/-. Th downloads were happening at 1 AM / 4AM and in the early morning hours. As a last resort, we went and met the GM. The lady told us that she would check and let us know. A few days later when i called, she asked me if i had been to Calcutta (A city in the East of India) or if i knew anyone from Calcutta. I didnt know anyone... She told me that our username and password was used by someone there. Well they waived off the whole amount and we just had to pay the rent. An ordeal.
I would never forget the stupid AGM - Finance and the AGM- Technical. Customer service a big ZERO. They spoke like we were at fault and we literally walked out of the AGM- Technical's room. And the tech fellow's seceratary.. a real tied up bull dog. She just would not let us in and had to fight our way into his cabin.
All these people in BSNL, are still in the government mindset. They have such huge cabins, with 2 split AC's per room, eating up all the tax payers money. And they love to see people suffer.

April....What a month - A Gripe

April had been a vey very bad month. First I was down with a stomach infection and then baby. He had to be hospitalized for 2 days. Then George caught a viral infection and was down for a week. And last Thursday I got it too. Fever, body pain, and throat infection. Then baby caught it. He’s been running a high temperature for the last 6 days. Today is the only day he got up in the morning without fever. Poor baby, he' so tired of medicines and so am I. Both of us being sick at the same time is terrible. My parents were there to help us.. thankfully. Yesterday too, took baby to the doc again and have given his blood sample for tests. Tomorrow we have to go again. I hope, God willing, there’s nothing wrong. His pediatrician is still convinced that’s its viral and not to worry. I hope he’s right. I went through 2 courses of antibiotics, for the damn virus to go. I have lost 2.5 kgs and baby over 2 kgs. This is the worst time I have ever had in life :(

For Julia

I was tagged by Jewels to put up the photo of my refrigerator last week, but didnt have time to check blogs or even put up the photos i took. Office was very hectic, and its going be this way till this month end. Here are the photos :)

Children’s Park

One weekend we took Tarun to the Children’s Park, Guindy. I was under the impression that it was a lousy place, cramped with people. Actually it is not. For all those guys who live in Chennai, you should go to the park. There are a animals and birds in the park. They include monkeys, wild dogs, deers, parakeets, snakes, peacocks, emu, crocodile, ducks, and so on. It’s a really neatly maintained place. There are slides, and swings for children too..There is lots of space for kids to run around and have fun. For adults too it’s a nice place to walk.. in the heart of the city. Tarun had a lot of fun, and he keeps saying that he wants to go to Guindy Park..

A Spoilt Valentine Day evening @ Cornucopia

George and I had decided to go out for dinner yesterday, a break from the routine on Valentine’s Day. When I cam to office, my friend Suchitra and me suddenly decided, we would all go out for dinner. I called up a few hotels and to my dismay, all tables were booked. We called up Hotel Green Park, Residency Towers and so on…and finally we got a table at The Residency. This is a very old 4 /5 star hotel, so we were not too happy. We were also suspicious as to how come it was not fully booked.
Then we decided to ask one of our colleagues. She suggested a restaurant called Cornucopia, on Cenotaph Road, Teynampet, which served continental food. She told us that the food was excellent, the veggies were so fresh that u can taste the freshness, the ambience was so good, the service so excellent and so on. We then called up our husband’s and informed them of the venue.
At office, we also read up on the newspaper review on Cornucopia.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/11/13/stories/2003111301030300.htm
After office we went to the restaurant. It was an old mansion that was converted to a restaurant. There were these dull yellow lights. We kept sitting there for quite some time. Then finally the waiter came. We ordered soup and starters. Suchitra and Satish are vegetarians. We ordered food in accordance to that. The non-veg soup was ok. The veg one was so bad. It tasted like plain starch fattened with cream. Then came the starters. The veg dumplings were good. The batter fried shrimp was very average. Then we waited and waited and then the waiter came for the main course, and we mentioned that we wanted the food very spicy.(We Indians love spicy food..) They ordered veg cutlet with kidney beans and we some chicken breast in cream or some stuff like that. The cutlet was very bad.. and our chicken dish very very average. Contrary to what we read in the newspaper, the servings were not all that huge. Well then we ate it and were still hungry. We waited for another half hour and then the waiter came. We ordered our desserts. They ordered a brownie with chocolate sauce, George a chocolate mint brownie in rum sauce, and me a vanilla ice cream mud pie. Then the desserts came and this too was average. George’s dessert tasted like brownie and chocolate sauce with Colgate tooth paste, theirs like some hot brownie with a little dab of cream and mine like a huge chunk of vanilla ice cream with a dab of dry chocolate that was supposedly mud pie.
This was the worst meal all of us had tasted. We regretted not having gone to The Residency. The Dhabba Express is located bang opposite this restaurant. The Dhabba serves such lovely Punjabi food. We could have had tandoori items and so on.. Well….We were extremely disappointed and went home, totally dissatisfied and saddened on Valentines Day. Ya may be it was one of those “ bad food day”, where we made the wrong choices…Yes and we surely wanted to beat up our colleague :-)