aditya kumar's weblog

I have a friend who has been on the lookout for a boradband Internet connection at home. He stays in the posh Koramangala section of the city. Since my experience with Airtel Broadband had been satisfactory, I suggested him to go for it.

On his behalf, I started corresponding with this person from Airtel who was supposed to take care of the “prospective customers” in the Koramangala Area.

After I sent the request, I was told a “Feasibility study” would be conducted. A few days and a few emails later, I had the “result” of their feasibility study in my inbox. That I could not understand most of their official/telecom lingo was another matter altogether.

When I read the excel sheet which contained their analysis, I had this overall idea that something was wrong and they were not too eager to let me have the connection. Why would that happen? Airtel does exist in Koramangala, it’s the hotspot of the city.

I had misunderstood maybe. So I let the Airtel person tell it to me. Well, the “sub-pillar” was “choked” he told me on email. It meant they had a lot of customers in Koramangala. So many that they could not handle. And then came the bomb: We would request you to go to another Internet provider.

There, I thought. Now, thats provoking. You’ve just given me the ticket to go to your bosses up there, lad. They ought to know, someone down there is actually shooing people away. What’s more, you’d be famous on my blog too.

So this is the email, I had the pleasure of writing.

A few days back I had an email correspondence with one of your ******* managers. I had asked him for a connection in Koramangala, Bangalore. After some days, he had told me about a feasibility report which said that the “Sub-pillar” was choked and also suggested me to go to any other service provider.

I feel sad about the state of affairs in your company since in effect, you are asking me to go to another service provider, i.e, your competitor. It is very unusual for a company to redirect it’s prospective customers to the competition.

As per your advice, I have gone ahead and taken a connection from another service provider, which happens to be Airtel’s competitor in the market. They were more than ready to accept me as a customer.

I hope you realise the effect this could have to your organization.

Thank you,

xxx

Of course, it’s my friend who has gone to another service provider. Me, I have been off-Airtel for the past so many months now. That’s because they don’t provide service in this part of the city. But even if they did, would they provide me a connection? I doubt it.

A 20 minute stay in the mall nearest to my house (and one of the biggest in the city) during the not-so-peak hours reveals how people are accepting the Mall culture. (Also, How I am going about accepting the same.)

Curiosity brings them here. The Advertisement and Marketing department of the respective brand takes care of the rest. Lets talk about the first point, Curiosity.

A few examples here could be a better way to explain this.

A man carries his 5 year old son on his shoulders, gets him an ice-cream cone (From McDonalds) and walks towards the outer boundary of the building and sits there. He has just come out of the mall and he has one rapidly melting ice-cream cone to show for his shopping. In his shirt pocket, he carries the brochure of the Nokia N-Series phone. In the rare moments that the son fails to get his papa’s attention, the papa is busy staring, with wide eyes, the crowd that the mammoth building keeps churning inside.

During almost every visit to the mall, I need to use the escalator. And everytime I see someone struggle trying to use it. They are afraid of putting their feet on this moving carpet of metal. They are overwhelmed by the brands that surround them, all of a sudden, but they keep coming in thousands.

They are afraid but they are curious too. It’s like learning to swim. Because they like it when they survive those little anxious moments.

So this is the face of the changing India. The Big-town and The Small-town India coming to terms with the Great Mall Culture.

Once they get in, the advertisements take control. Have you noticed how every single minute you spend on the street is full of advertisements? Lets go back to the Mall for a moment here. I see a giant Shahrukh Khan asking me to have a Cola. On a huge billboard, a woman tells me to buy this particular brand of Jeans. You can’t just miss the woman, such is the attention her figure demands. You know, I think it’s funny how nowadays they manage to advertise about clothes without letting the models who advertise for it, wear any.

Then, there are on-the-spot saloon-style-haircuts from a shampoo company. One malt product company (no, not beer) wants you to try their new offering in ice-cold milk. A few stalls ahead, a mobile phone, for just Rs.22,000. Just? They would have laughed if a decade back someone had even suggested the idea of selling a phone for this amount. And even if they all got convinced about it, no one would have believed that people would actually buy it. But people are buying it you know.

They take personal loans to buy a phone nowadays.

The feeling I get in the 20 minutes I manage to stay in this very stressful place is that everyone wants my money. Everyone. They want me to come, open my wallet and spend some cash or swipe the plastic. But if I agree to the job, they’ll take everything.

So, I’m backing out.

Barcamp is an event held globally for techie people to join in, talk technology and come up with interesting ideas. Barcamps usually happen at the city level and Barcamp Bangalore, Bangalore’s first ever, is scheduled to be held at Yahoo! Bangalore, on the 22nd of April.

India’s first Barcamp was held in Delhi on the 4th of March. (Many claim that they ‘beat’ Bangalore to it. Well, I just like to think that Barcamp is not a competition.) In fact, I think Delhi’s Barcamp was the first in Asia. (Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

The whole idea of an event like this is very interesting. I feel techies usually have some very interesting ideas inside their minds but the channels to let them out are absent. Those ideas die in the usual 10-to-8 job, add to it, the laziness inherited by each one of us. A conference (they actually prefer to call it unconference) like this could be the perfect launching pad for those ideas that could die a slow death inside a lazy geek’s brain.

Another thing that impresses me about Barcamp is that everyone needs to contribute and play a part in the event. One could help organizing it, help by giving a presentation, help someone else who is giving a presentation or could just help arranging for beer. Just can’t be a pure spectator. Everyone is a participant in his/her own way.

Though the event is open for anyone and everyone, the seats are limited and are available at first-come-first-serve basis. Bangalore’s Barcamp has a capacity for 100 campers and as expected, it’s all full. (I am camper #39 :)

Of course, I will be covering the event, making notes and posting them here :)

Links:
Barcamp Bangalore
Barcamp Delhi
Wikipedia on Barcamp

Here it is, the testimonial of my travelling and some experiences during the past year and a half in Bangalore!

I must mention here, a couple of pictures have not been taken by me. I wish to thank those who have let these photos be a part of my diary of experiences. They know who they are.

It was wonderful to witness the following images ‘in real’. Capturing these pictures was a magnificent experience. Every single one of them.

Travelling through Maharashtra


The puppy in Kasauli


Out there in Andhra


Above the clouds: Mahabaleshwar


More Mahabaleshwar


The Church in Goa


The Blessing of Pondicherry!


Bullet the Blue Sky: SuryaKirans in formation: AeroIndia Bangalore 2005


Colouring the sky with the tricolor: SuryaKirans in formation: AeroIndia Bangalore 2005


Blending Colors: India versus Pakistan, March 2005, Bangalore


And the best: To have the honour of photographing the Little Master!

A sense of security, of course.

Yesterday’s Sunday Magazine of The Hindu carries a very thought provoking, well-researched article by Kalpana Sharma. The article is titled “What Bush did not know” and contrary to the impression this title may give you, this is not an article focussing on Bush Jr’s recent visit to India.

Instead, the article throws open an issue that often has provoked debates but more often than not, has failed to find solid conclusions.

Consider this — Of the 14000 people interviewed in Delhi, 50% of women do not feel safe in the city. Nine out of ten women who used public transport felt unsafe about it. 45% of women felt unsafe at their workplace.

These are staggering figures. These are disturbing figures.

There is more. Delhi records the highest percentage of reported crime against women. Mind my words here, reported crime.

Keep in mind, a big part of these crimes go unreported. Obviously, there is more to it than what meets the eye.

So what can be done? A lot can be done if only the cities are planned keeping in mind the threats faced by the most vulnerable of the society. Poor people and women working late hours among them.

As the author rightly points out, three factors need to be considered — The Environment, The Poor and The most vulnerable. Roads could be well lit for example. We could do with more emergency services. Going to the Police and invoking the law should be encouraged.

But obviously, as evident, Malls and shopping centres are the money churners now and the Government, take any State Government, has half a dozen of these projects going on in the main cities.

There is nothing wrong and I don’t have anything against it, but I always have felt, the basic needs of the city should come first. What is the point of having glittery, seven floor shopping centres if a city doesn’t have well lit roads. Even in Bangalore, the city where I live, a lot of the colony roads, or whatever is left of them, are enveloped in darkness after sunset. Clearly, a lot can be done about it but in the past one year that I have been here, I have seen negligble development regarding the city’s infrastructure.

Then of course, is the factor of the mental attitude of people. In a hypothetical situation where we may have the same city conditions in both Delhi and Bombay, women in Bombay are bound to feel safer than their counterparts in Delhi. As the author rightly points out again, the difference here is in the ‘way women in public spaces are viewed in the north and the south’.

Meanwhile, please read the article here.

In my graduation days, I listened to the audio tape of “Mtv Unplugged: Bryan Adams” so much that it finally broke down and I had to buy a new one.

I also once owned the URL www.summerof69.net. I spent a lot of time and efforts to make a website dedicated to the singer :)

So, when I was told that the Canadian was touring India, and Bangalore to be specific, I thought, wow.

Oh, the pleasures of living in this city. Last year, Sting and now Bryan Adams.

I am going for the concert in the evening :)

This, below, in 2001, one of my dedications to the rock star. 0.5mm 2B on Plain Paper :)

Last night, in Bangalore, a suspected terrorist attack, and the government has stepped into action now. But why were the security arrangements “light”, when New Delhi Police had already warned the State Government, of something like this happening, beforehand? Why is the security situation being reviewed by the state now, after the attack has happened? Why was this not done when the warning was issued? Why do incidents like these have to happen for the Government to wake up and take “precautionary” measures?