ICICI BANK--SHODDY SERVICE

A few days back I went to ICICI BANK on MG ROAD to cash a cheque. As I entered the air conditioned bank, a security guard with a rifle on his shoulder asked me what I want and I told him I want to cash a cheque. Immediately a lady staff appeared at my side, took out a print out of my token number, gave it to me and requested me to sit pointing out to a row of chairs.
I sat down and looked around. The bank was fully air conditioned and a lady cleaner was wiping the already shining floor. The bank appeared to work efficiently. They were smartly dressed. The manager was sitting in a closed cabin. He had a noticeably big stomach. I thought he must be paid well and must be eating and drinking well. Ofcourse, he was not exercising. He appeared to be busy. He opened one drawer and closed it with a bang. Then he opened another drawer and again closed it with a bang. Then he shifted some papers from one side of the table to the other side of the table. He again shifted some papers from the other side to this side. Then peered out of the glass partitioned cabin. After some time came out of the cabin, mumbled some thing to the lady sitting outside and walked out of the bank with his big stomach. As I watched all this drama played by the manager 10 minutes of my time had alreadly elapsed sitting inside the bank doing nothing.
I then shifted my at attention to the calling of the token number. There was a metallic sound and a token number will appear on the CRT monitor. The customer with that number will go to the counter. I watched this for quite some time. The whole process appeared to be very efficient. I passed some more time watching the CRT monitor and admiring all the new generation banks. Another 10 minutes passed. My token number was not appearing on the monitor.
I was getting impatient. 20 minutes have passed and my I was not being called. I have been to many banks in my life time and I have never waited so long to cash a cheque. I looke at my watch again and 30 minutes had passed. Something snapped inside me. I became furious. I went straight to the MAY I HELP YOU counter and told loudly to the man that I have wasted 30 minutes inside the bank for cashing a cheque and I demanded to know the reason. He told me to go to one of the cash counter and ask. I went to the nearest counter and repeated the same thing very loudly. All the bank customers were looking at me. The cashier took my token and gave the cash without a word. I said thank you and walked out briskly.

BUYER BEWARE

A few years back, I wanted to buy an LCD PROJECTOR. After going through the literature of many brands, I finaly decided to buy PHILIPS PROJECTOR. They had indicated that the lamp in the projector will work for 6000 hours while other companies like Sony, Hithachi, Cannon, Ask, Panasonic etc. assured that their lamps will work for only 3000 to 4000 hours. Based on the written assurance by the multinational company PHILIPS, I bought twoprojectors at a very high price.
To my shock the lamps of both the projectors worked only for about 1000 hours. The dealer said that he could not help me in any way because the warranty is only for 3 months or 500 hours which ever is earlier. I was absolutely helpless. How can I fight a multinational company in a court of law because I didn't have the resources. So I coughed up Rs.54000 and replaced both the lamps.
Once again the replaced lamp of one PHILIPS projector stopped working just after 1000 hours. Actually there is a cracking sound and smoke comes out of the projector and you know the lamp is gone.
Now I don't want to replace the lamp at high cost of Rs.27000. I want to buy another projector not from PHILIPS but from some other company which will not make preposterous promises to hood wink gullible buyers. I was explaining my bad experience to a salesman of another dealer. He told me that PHILIPS took me for a jolly good ride. He asked me whether I will believe a company which advertised a car that will run for 45 km. per litre whereas other companies advertised their cars will run for only 15 or 18 km. per litre.

PAINTING THE GATE

There is a common gate at the entrance of our building through which all of us have to pass to enter our flats. The gate was painted many years back and it was badly rusted. The residents were at logger heads with each other and they could not take a decion to paint the gate.
Therefore, one day I decided to paint the gate myself. As I was painting, the following comments were made by the residents:
" You should scrape the gate, apply primer and then paint."
"Oh the painter has come."
"We need sombody to paint our house."
"Are you the owner of a flat or a tenent?"
"If you pay Rs.50 you can get somebody to paint."
"You should not use blue and white. The best colour will be black."
To my surprise not one resident offered to help.

WAITER

I walked into a vegetarian restaurant near north overbridge, ordered for iddilies, sambar and tea. An arrogant looking waiter brought my breakfast and I started eating. After a few silent minutes, I heard a loud voice behind me. " Why are you taking such a long time to bring my breakfast. Are you making all this delay because I ordered for only two iddilies?" The arrogant waiter showed a disgusted face at the customer. The customer became furious. He screamed, " why are you looking at me with disgust. I am paying only for the iddilis and not for your monkey face. If you show that monkey face again I will give you good kicks. You be careful." The waiter quickly brought his iddilis.

Woman Cook

There is a small wayside restaurent near our flat. A muslim woman comes to cook here. She comes at 6.30 in the morning and works till about 3.30 in the evening. She is the second wife of a muslim man who works in a public transport bus. She has three children and they are looked after by her parents in Kodungalloor. She seemed to be having a never ending source of energy and she worked continuously. She had sips of tea while working. She was paid Rs.175 per day. She made puri. iddli, dosa. puttu. potato curry, egg curry, peas curry in the morning for breakfast and for lunch she cooked rice(choru), fish curry, sambar, avial. moru,pickle, beef curry. For evening snacks she made bonda. banana fry, undan pori. She always appeared to be friendly, cheerful, and always ready to help. However, the owner was a sick man and could not get enough manual help to serve the customers and wash up the plates and tumblers.So one day he decided to rent out the hotel to another man for a daily rent of Rs.200. The poor woman lost her job. I wonder what she is doing now and how she is supporting her three childern. Her husband does 't earn enough money to support two wives and five children.

Words of Wisdom

Smooth road never makes good driver, Silent sea never makes good sailor, Clear sky never makes good pilot, Problem free life never makes a successful person.

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into thin air.

We spend our days waiting for the ideal path to appear in front of us-----But we forget that paths are made by walking, not by waiting.

Watchman's son

We have a watchman to look after our building. His youngest son belonged to gang which was involved in beating up people for money. The son found this was an easy way to make money and enjoy his life without doing any work.He did not listen to his father or mother who repeatedly told him to get out of the gang and earn his living doing some decent job. One day the a rival gang attacked him.They beat him up very badly and chopped off one hand. His father who is a poor watchman earning about Rs2500 a month had to run from pillar to post to get enough money to meet the son's hospital expenses. The son's gang did not help him. The watchman's daughter in law had some gold ornaments given to her by her parents at the time of her wedding . She voluntarily gave the gold to be sold to meet the operation expenses. The watchman went to each flat with folded hands and tears in his eyes begging for generous contribution. Many flat owners took pity on him and gave him money. Some scolded him for not bringing up his son properly and refused to give him anything. Now the operation is over and the son is slowly getting well. However,he doesn't know what job he can do to earn a living.

Electricity

Kerala State Electricity Board is a monpoly supplier of electricity in the State. The fluctuations in supply are so high that costly electrical equipments at home get damaged. Recently the mother board of my 29inch TV got burnt because of sudden high voltage. I had connected the TV to a UPS and yet I could not protect the TV. In the process the UPS also got damaged. I had to spend Rs.4000 to get a new mother board and a stabliser. The struggle I had with the TV manufacturer is another story. Will the Electricity Board compensated me? I lost so much money for no fault of mine. Besides,the frequent breakdown in electricity supply is very disturbing and annoying. Sometimes electricity is switched off 3 or 4 times in a day that you feel you are living in old stone age. None of the electrical appliances such as fan, fridge, Tv, mixie, iron box,electric bulb, computer etc. can be used. You feel helpless and nothing can be done. Nobody can be blamed because no one will take reponsibility and if you try to fix the responsibility on some one you will get into trouble. So just grin and bear it. Sometimes you should know how your ancestors lived.

News Paper

I subscribe to three newspapers. I get up around 5.30 or 6 in the morning without an alarm clock, make a cup of tea and wait for the newspapers to be delivered at my door. Sitting on my sofa I can hear the papers being dropped. Normaly, young boys deliver the papers since they want to earn some money to meet their expenses without troubling their parents. The papers are usualy delivered arount 6.30 AM. If I don't get the papers at this time I get upset. I start pacing the hall up and down, open the door several times to see whether the papers have been dropped without my knowlege and even scold the boy when he comes late. I even threaten the news paper agent to cancel the subscription.I am not particulary interested in reading every thing in the paper. Mostly I scan through the headlines and see if there is anything worth reading. Whether I read the papers or not I must get them in time and that too at6.30 in the morning without fail. I detest holidays for newspapers. I feel uneasy,disturbed and that something is missing for the whole day.
People get addicted to so many things and I think I am addicted to newspaper.

Accident

Today a private bus banged a car and was trying to drive away. The car driver chased the bus and brought it to a stop. The driver of the bus was saying that it was not his fault the bus banged the car because the bus cannot stop like a car suddenly on the spot but it always movers a little forward. Therefore the bus driver cannot be blamed for the accident. The car driver insisted that the bus driver should pay for the damages to the car and he asked for Rs.500 to repair the car. Finally after a lot of shouting, haggling and bargaining the bus driver pais Rs.300.
The bus drivers in Ernakulam are notorious for rash driving and causing fatal accidents. The police is incapable of controlling them. The Private Bus Association is very powerful and they can go on lightning strikes causing great difficulties for the travelling public.










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Miracle

Today I received an SMS from a friend of mine containg a prayer to Mother Mary and asking me to send it to 7 persons today itself so that I will experience a miracle tomorrow. Initially I was reluctant to comply with his request because I was doubtfull of the miracle taking place. After a few hours I thought I needed a miracle in my life very badly and I sent the prayer to 12 people. I now hope and pray that a miracle will take place tomorrow. I know faith will move mountains.

Security Guard

To day I met a young man of 23 years working as a security guard in a branch of a huge company. He was a very pleasant young man with good behaviour. He was upset at the time I met him. When I asked him what was bothering him, he explained that he was scolded by the manager of the branch for doing double duty. He told me that he would quit the job that very moment but for the fact that he needed money to meet the operation expenses of his father who had a heart problem.
On probing further he told me that he has to put up with a lot of trouble to retain the job. For example the agency for which he was working had rented a house with three bed rooms , a hall and two toilets. There were 45 security guards living in that house. He can never sleep in the house because it was overcrowded and somebody or the other kept walking in and out of the house all the time in the night He had to get up at 3 in the morning so that he can shave, bathe etc and reach the workspot in time.
While we were talking there was a call from his father and it was time for me to go.

Exercise

As you grow older it is absolutely important to keep yourself active and do some physical work every day. You can sweep and swab the floor, wipe the furniture, clean the fans, paint the walls, doors and windows etc. You health will decline if you spend too much time reading newspapers. have endless cups of coffee or tea and watch too much television. It is better to go for a brisk walk both morning and evening and possibly get some job to keep your mind and body busy and also earn some money. They say an idle mind is devils workshop. They also say that it is better to wear out than to rust out. Use it or lose it is another saying. I recently read that all animals.except human beings, know that the true purpose of life is to enjoy it.

Rag picker

To day is mission Sunday.At the Church there was an aution sale of many useful items.I bought a framed picture with a prayer to the Guardian Angel.
On the way back I was surprised to note that a small shack where two old rag picker couple lived for years was no more. The stray dogs and cats which used to hang around the tiny shack were also missing. On enquiry I found out that the old man died three months ago and his wife also died few days back. I used to give my old clothes to this couple. Sometimes I gave them little money. I felt very sad. About a week ago while I was walking to the bus stop this old woman was there in front of me and I gave her Rs10 and she blessed me and muttered something. Of course she never asked me for money at anytime but I gave her of my own free will because I felt sorry for her. She was very poor but very hard working. When her husband was sick and unable to work, she used to get up early morning, collect various items thrown in the waste bins around the colony, sell them to the scrap merchnt, and with the money she used to cook food and feed the old man. The way side hotel owner said that she allways paid for what she bought.A proud poor woman who always held her head high and never complained of her miserable condition. May her soul rest in eternal peace.

Buying shares

Yesterday I went to the stock broker and purchased some shares @Rs.104 per share. After a few hours the share price went down to Rs.92 per share and in the procees I lost Rs12 per share in a matter of few hours. This was primarily because I listened to the adivice of a young man who had very little experience in stock market business and I bought the shares when the prices were going up. I did not use my common sense. I was carried away by the impulse that I should buy before the prices went very high. Nomaly you should buy when the prices are going down. Any way you have to learn from mistakes. There is a saying "ACT IN HASTE AND REPENT AT LEISURE"