Meru Cabs - Never Again

I had been booking with Meru Cabs for my intra-city travels specially where being in time was of primary importance. And their reliability had been the major factor in being a loyal customer for years now. In fact, even though the number of such services have multiplied, Meru has been the service of choice for me. Only when they haven't been able to confirm a booking request would I look for alternatives.

However, one incident in the past week has changed the entire perception. 

Had to take a flight in the morning. Keeping in mind the rush hour traffic and potential weather related exigencies, the cab was booked a day in advance. And was happy in the knowledge that the booking request had been confirmed via both sms and e-mail.

On the morning of the flight, at the fixed time, got ready to go but no cab came and neither was there any message. A little worried about missing the flight, I called up Meru. After being on hold for a few minutes, the message is conveyed that no cabs are available. And a cab "might" be arranged if someone becomes available. On being asked why was the booking confirmed, was told the slots were available at the time of booking. But now no cab is available. Now whatever this was supposed to mean. 

A furious me then took the luggage and walked over to the nearest taxi stand (some 0.5 km away) and managed to hail a black and yellow cab. A few minutes later got a call from one Meru driver but I just said no thanks. Given the half an hour delay in the drama, was lucky to reach the airport barely in time and managed to board my flight.

What really pissed me off, thought, was not the cab not turning up, but the fact that Meru Cabs made no effort in communicating the issue. And there was absolutely no apology from their side. Taking a customer for granted. The chief reason for taking a Meru had been reliability but they had failed completely in this regard. Hence have decided that will not be using the Meru services in the future. After all there are multiple operators in this business now.

Now I also needed to vent out my anger. So during my taxi ride to the airport, tweeted about it. Got a couple of responses that a Meru not turning up inspite of a "confirmed" booking is not an uncommon issue (though it happened to me for the first time). After some time got a reply from Meru Cares handle asking to for issue details. However, I had already resolved the issue and had also resolved never again to use Meru's services. And getting a standardized automated response from a bot doesn't actually help in any issue resolution.

So Good-bye Meru Cabs, you won't be taking me for a ride ever again.

Encounters of the Weird Kind - Indian Currency

Travel - the best way of learning about this big bad world and its ways. Sharing with readers a "weird" experience that I had recently.

City - Bangkok. 

It was evening time and we were passing time in one of the shopping malls in the main market. While walking around a man stops us. He is accompanied by a lady and a kid. What follows is a pretty weird conversation.

Him: "Excuse me"

Me: "Yes"

Him: "Which place are you from"

Me: "India" [no alarms here]

Him: "Which part of India?"

Me: "Mumbai" [no alarm bells yet]

Him: "I am from Dubai.And would be visiting Mumbai soon. Can you tell me where I can buy sarees from?"

Me: [slightly confused but] "there are many such shops all over Mumbai"

Him: "Ok. What currency you use in India?"

Me: "Rupees" [now am curious on the way the conversation is steering]

Him: "So is it like the Pakistani Rupee or different?"

Me: "It is different" [Confusion deepens]

Him: "Can I see the currency?"

Me: "Don't have any at the moment" [which was the truth as only Thai Baht present at that time. But now alarm bells have started ringing]

Him: "Please check you may have some"

Me: [Slightly perturbed now]: "No i don't" [And am not going to take out my wallet here in front of you]

Him: "You must be having some. My friend told me that I needed to get dollars stamped to convert them to rupees and thats why I wanted to look at the currency"

Me: "I don't think so" [Now alarm bells became sirens]

Him: "I want to see the rupees"

Me: "Well I don't have any" [Situation becoming increasingly uncomfortable]

Him: "Its Ok & Thanks"

Me: "OK"

End of conversation. All this while neither the lady nor the kid said a word. And then both parties walked away. We tried to disappear as fast as possible from there.

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just genuine curiosity on his part. Or maybe it was some scam which I managed to successfully avoid.

But I certainly was left perturbed by this almost desperation to see Indian Rupees in a foreign country.

Anyone else with a similar story?

Deja Vu - Issued In Public Interest

It felt like the opening scene from Hangover II. It had happened again. The questions were why me? And again?

Losing a mobile is not a nice experience. Losing repeatedly is even worse. Feels like I have been "marked" as a serial victim.

Now to the event itself. Got onto a BEST bus as per my daily schedule. After some time, say 15 minutes, decided to check the phone. And the phone had disappeared. As simple as that. Heart sank with the feeling of deja vu.

Asked the neighbouring passenger to dial my number. As expected, phone was switched off. The thieves are quick, both at nicking the phone, and manually removing the battery.  Tried to recollect the incidence of the theft.  This is probably how it had happened.

A large sized fellow was the first to get onto the bus. Near the top step, lots of coins "slipped" out of his hand which he stopped to collect blocking the way. Meanwhile I was directly behind him on the next step, with both hands on the bus handles for balance. Felt a sudden surge behind me due to others trying to get on. Probably this was the moment when the phone was nicked. Also noticed that the big fellow who had dropped the coins got down after a couple of stops. Pretty sure this was an organised operation. One person creates a distraction while blocking up the path and someone else uses this precise moment to pick the pocket.

Another bitter lesson learnt. Do Not get distracted in crowded, public places even when the distraction is right in front of your eye. "Constant vigilance" is the only way to keep your belongings safe.

Losing a phone is major nuisance. The worst bit is that the cost of the phone itself is the least concern. The value of the personalization and memories attached with the phone is much greater than just the phone cost. Contacts, messages, pictures, your personal high scores in various games are intangibles which have no use to the thieves but cant be replaced.

And a suggestion - Always keep the phone locked with a pin/password. You might never see your lost phone again. But at least your "personal" data will not be accessible to anyone else.

Sharing this, so that others maybe alert in such scenario.

P.S. Hoping & Praying that this tragically epic trilogy of losing phones has reached its conclusion.

The Inhuman Humans

Statutory Warning - Some gruesome details to follow. So if cant stand blood and gore, please stop reading the post right now.

Still reading. All right. Do not complain that I didn't warn you.

Sometime last week, at 3 in the night, I suddenly find myself awake. Wonder why. The answer comes in a few seconds. A sharp pain in the lower right jaw. Cause unknown. Recedes a bit after an hour or so, followed by  fitful sleep.

Dentist visited. Cause found to be wisdom tooth trying to butt into its neighour. Neighour tooth protests and defends its turf. This showdown leads to pain. Painkillers taken. An OPG done which confirms need for extraction [Aside - I liked the earlier description - Dental Panoramic Radiograph].

Extraction scheduled. Now for the gory part.

4 injections deep into the mouth. Drilling of part of the tooth. The gum cut with a blade. Pliers used in an attempt to pull it out. Attempt fails, so part of bone cut into. Then tooth pulled off with pliers. Ends with 2 sutures inside the  mouth. All this while the mouth is pulled as wide as possible and all sorts of dangerous items are put in (Syringes, drills, blades, pliers, sucker pipe, cotton wool, dentist's fingers, needle, thread).

An hour long procedure. Me is numbed, swollen, slurred speech and exhausted. While the dentist pleased with successfully handling a bit off complex case like this. And I was proudly shown the extracted, bloodied tooth as well.

In conclusion - Doctors/Dentists are healers (the pain is quite under control) but they cant be humans.

P.S. - One positive side of the procedure - Ice cream - loads of it.

Flying High...or not...

13th February, 2006 - A pretty important meeting. And the beginning of a life-altering affair.

But this post is about the events which happened the next day.



14th February, 2006.

After the events of 13th, I was returning to my then residence in Duliajan. Had a flight booked from Calcutta to Dibrugarh hopping at Guwahati. Unfortunately, ULFA had decided to have a state wide 12-hour bandh on that very day (and the day before as well). And when ULFA declares a bandh, it means Assam is shut down. While checking-in at the Calcutta airport, I was informed that Dibrugarh airport was shut down as ground crew could not reach the place. This had led to the cancellation of the Guwahati-Dibrugarh leg of the journey. I was given an option to cancel or go to Guwahati. I had to return urgently so took the latter option while thinking of options for the journey onwards.

The flight to Guwahati was uneventful. Then had to get off at Guwahati airport itself. Was wondering about the options ahead. The whole state was closed down, so even overnight buses wouldn't have been running. And nothing was going to open before 6 P.M. till the bandh ended (One point to be noted here, in Assam the bandhs are called off exactly at the time mentioned). While I was thinking about the options, the airline ground crew began collecting the passengers who were in the same predicament. Also at the same time I received a call from the airline, detailing my options. The offers included a ticket two days after with stay arranged for in the interim. However, I had to report back to work as early as possible. So the caller promised to look into some alternative arrangements.

In the mean time, the airport manager had already started making alternate arrangements. Refunds for those who wanted it or else transport to Dibrugarh via road. I preffered the second option. This option was also confirmed by the airline office via call. However as the bandh was still on for a few hours more road journey couldn't be started immediately. Thanks to the staff, the next few hours at the airport were as comfortable as could be possible in the cirucmstances. In the evening, our vehicles had arrived and an overnight journey followed. And they ensured that the passengers were taken to their actual destinations and not just the airport. For me it was my rooms in Duliajan which was a further 60 km away from Dibrugarh airport.

This was a good experince on customer relationship management which years in B-school wouldn't have provided. The airline in question? Kinghfisher who really treated customers as guests.

Why am I writing this today? Well, two reasons. (a) I had promised to write about this experience someday (taken over 5 years though), and (b) reading about the troubles at the Kingfisher Airlines with fears of the airlines being shut down. That day's experiences had got Kingfisher a fan for life in me. This is a story that I have oft-repeated, whenever talk of airline services arises. And I certainly look forward to travelling on Kingfisher again. Hoping Mr. Mallya and company are able to sort out this trouble.

P.S. The life-altering event was the interview for IIM-Indore. Sometimes I do wonder what would have happened if the bandh had begun on 12th instead of 13th & 14th and I had missed that interview...

When the Phone Went AWOL...

"Its not just a phone, its You", so says Priyanka Chopra in an ad for a mobile company. Couldn't have been a more apt description of what the cell phone has become to our lives. And as with all good things, you only realize its importance when it goes missing. And I had the first hand experience over the past 24 hour period.

Yester evening, climbed on to the public bus to take me home. After some time checked my pockets to realise that my cell phone is no longer there. So asked around, then borrowed a fellow traveler's phone to dial my number and heard the following words, "आपण डायल कियेला नंबर बंद आहे" (The number you called is switched off). Definetely hadn't switched it off myself. So the obvious conclusion someone had nicked it and switched it off. On any given day losing something is bad. But having lost a newly bought smartphone was pretty devastating. Reached home, used the world wide web to ask a few friends to keep trying my number. All of them reported the same "switched off" message. Pretty much confirming that it had not been misplaced but stolen.

While sitting at home, realised that no one could call me up if they wanted to. I was pretty much untraceable. Now this was a thought which was at the same instance very liberating and very scary. What if somebody was trying to call me. What would they be thinking? (And someone actually was and was getting very worried). Amongst the random thoughts which came in during this period was how was I going to order pizza? (Ok some misplaced priorities here). Thoughts also went to the amount of personal info I had on my phone that could be accessed. Pretty scary.

Now for things to do in case of losing a phone.

• File an FIR with the police. But be sure you go to correct police station. I went into 3 different ones before being able to file the report. Learning - The police have very well defined jurisdiction areas and they follow it very strictly. You cant, just CANT, file a report anywhere else. The closest station from the incident need NOT be the correct one as I found out today morning.
• Next step. Get the SIM blocked. No thief will have the phone ON after taking it. But it needs to be done to get your old number activated on the new one. A process which may take a day or two.
• Register your phone IMEI number. Would not help in getting your phone back but still is a good idea.
• If you are accessing mails, twitter, social networking by your phone, CHANGE your passwords immediately.
• And most importantly. Inform your loved ones immediately. Lack of access in these heavily connected days is very unnerving.

P.S. And forget about the handset. Very unlikely you are ever going to see it again. Probably the ideal time to move on to the next one.

My Good Deed of the Day

I did something good today. And I was left with an awesome feeling which needed to be shared with a little write-up.

A blood donation camp had been organised in office today. Initially I was quite apprehensive about it. I had  given blood earlier in drive oragnized in my college, but the experience was quite a painful one. The memories of that had prevented me from taking part in any such activities again. So inspite of knowing about the drive, I wasn't quite interested in participating in it. But a colleague of mine somehow managed to convince me into going. Rather he talked me into accompanying him to the camp. Reluctantly I agreed to accompany him but no more than that. Once we reached the venue, saw quite a people taking part. The sight of so many people voluntarily donating blood was a good enough inspiration. So picked up the form and filled it and went over to the complete the formalities.

Blood pressure checked, found ok, a pin prick to the finger and the haemoglobin count was found ok. And off I was to donate with a collection bag in hand. A slight wait while the others finished up. And then I was flat on the bed, with a tube inserted into my left arm while a smiley ball was in the hand for pressure and circulation (A suggestion - use opposite hands for checking the haemoglobin and donating). Within a few minutes the bag filled up and the tube was removed (the most painful part of the entire exercise). A injection point covered with a bit of plaster and all that remained was a slight prickling pain in the left arm. Apart from that nothing else. Photographs also duly taken for memories (and for facebook :P)

Left the place after some coffee and biscuits and back to my desk within the hour. 

Why am I writing all this. Because I hope it might encourage other people to clear their apprehensions and donate blood. The pain involved is very small and nothing compared to the awesome feeling you get off having done something good.