BSNL - A Welcome Change

Its a general perception that government owned enterprises are perhaps the worst place for consumers in India and I think there are good enough reasons to believe that it is quite true. I flew Air India twice from US to India and to be honest, I could have slapped the flight attendants for their callousness, horrible attitude and rude behaviour. My last few trips to the BSNL office, however, have been a revelation of sorts and are certainly playing a big part to change my outlook.

I applied for a broadband connection and got it in 4 days flat when the general activation time was 7 days. A month later, I was not able to connect to the net for 3-4 days. When I went to complain, the person taking the complain actually scolded me for not complaining earlier because if I had done so, they could have solved my problem a lot earlier. Surprise!! I then had to upgrade my monthly plan. I applied on the last day of the month and was well beyond the date by which the application should be given for the effect to take place in the coming month. Surprise again!! The person took my application and said, "Don't worry, Sir. The upgraded plan will be effective from tomorrow."

What happened today, however, was the mother of all surprises. An incorrect bill is probably one of those issue that takes ages to resolve. But voila!! In less than 30 minutes, I walked out of the BSNL office with a receipt stating that I had indeed over payed and that the amount will be adjusted in the next bill. I can say with some confidence that even a privately owned telephone company would have taken atleast 7 days to solve the problem.

For those who think that the change was brought in by the youth bandwagon that is joining the government organizations, be ready for another shock. In all the above incidents, the persons responsible for acceptance of the issue and its resolution were in their forties and fifties; people with bald head and round spectacles; people whom we chide for their slowness and ineffectiveness.

Maybe its time we change our notions about the ingredients of a good customer experience. Public/private ownership and youth/elder might make some difference but I guess, at the end of the day, its the person who handles the customer who is responsible for making or breaking the experience. I sincerely hope that the change sweeping through BSNL engulfs other public sector organisations also and change the way we perceive them and the people working in them. Its time they deserve some appreciation.

BSNL, take a bow.

Education - The Silent Killer

If I am not wrong, March is probably the most dreaded month in the life of a kid in India. While Nature heralds the onset of spring and flowers are all set to splash their myriad colours, happiness and life is sucked out of children who are about to appear for the final term or board exams. It's the time of the year when newspaper carry the death of student to my breakfast table.

Education is perhaps the most capable weapon Indian society has ever got to hut down children. A kid is hardly two when they are pushed in the never ending dungeon called education. It's the start of schools, books, tuitions and the fatal expectations of getting 100 or A in every subject. Watch a kid go school and you will find that the childhood is crushed somewhere between those heavy books, gasping for air.

Parental expectations and social pressure make for a fatal cocktail that never allows the kid to emerge from the hangover of books. You always need to perform better than the rest. You have to be the topper. If you are not, you are nothing. Parents wants their kids to be brilliant so that they can show off their performances in social gatherings while society looks down on normal performers as losers. No wonder, many succumb to the pressure and end their life.

My 6-year old niece was down with fever and could not prepare for her exams well. Although she scored 90%, here teacher labelled her a poor student. Reason: others had scored more than her. I was shocked and disgusted. I had no words to express myself. I just wished I could slap the teacher right away.

The society refuse to believe that there can only one who can top a class and not everyone. That you do not need to score 90% and above to show that you are intelligent. That education is not the only attribute that helps you succeed in life. That singing, dancing, music and sports too can be a career and not just engineering, medical and management. Education is important but success is not the slave of intelligent alone. Look around you and you will find that the most successful people have never been in the toppers in their class.

If you think I am being too romantic or idealist, think again. I have topped both my school and my college and I can say with conviction that at the end of the day, your soft skills and attitude are more important that your report card. Toppers hardly do anything spectacular.

More commit suicide each year because of fear of exams or from the shame of failure than those killed from bomb blasts across India cities last year. Life comes cheap in India and until the death is spectacular, it is hardly noticed.

Do we want our kids to end their life as a headline in newspaper? If not, its time that we break the inhuman social norms and let our kids live.

Blogging: Is this the End?

I started this blog with the idea of presenting my thoughts no matter how radical, unconventional, stupid or unreasonable they are. After the Supreme Court's judgement today on blogger Ajith vs Shiv Sena, I am not too sure on my blog's future or its utility.

I am scared today, like the day after 26/11. When I walked back to office the next day morning, I had a feeling that someone might just walk out of nowhere and riddle my body with bullets. Today, I do not know when I might just offend public sentiments and HAVE to appear in the court for criminal proceedings.

Ajith had only started a community in Orkut on Shiv Sena where people posted their views on the political party. Going by its track record, it was not surprising then that some of the comments were strong and harsh. Rubbed the wrong way, its youth wing secretary lodged a criminal case against the 19-year old. So far, its a day-to-day affair. The shock was to come.

In a mother of all surprises, the esteemed Supreme Court not only refused to quash the criminal proceedings against the boy but also ordered him to appear in Maharashtra court as he has hurt public (which public?) sentiments.

Of late, Supreme Count has been a champion in protecting civil liberties and taking on the Legislature heads-on in matter of public concern. This decision, however, has the power to undo every good it has done. I do not remember a more irrational judgement being passed in recent memory.

It appears to me that the honourable Court thinks that since the politicians are (supposedly) elected by the public, only they can hurt public sentiments. May be it forgot that most of the politicians do not have sentiments at all. MNS, in name of regional pride, can kick out all non-Maharashtrians. GJM can order the name of State in office addresses to be changes to Gorkhaland because it wants a new state. No one checks Sri Ram Sena as they are 'protecting' Indian culture. Christians are burned in Orissa, Hindus in J&K, Muslims in UP & Gujrat. Apparently, although the public was brutalized, no public sentiment was hurt. No politician was punished by the Supreme Court. Jai ho!!

A youth just provided a forum where people voiced their opinion and the Court was more than happy to classify this as hurting public sentiments. With the same principles, there should be a ban on public debates, public speeches and newspaper alike. There will always be someone some where who will not agree with what you say and sentiments being hurt.

True, I have a right to speech so long as it does not hurt others. But then, should the rule not apply to everyone alike? Why single out a boy who will not be able to defend himself with the hungry wolves lurching in his background? Why not stop the politicians who think it is a fashion statement to make inflationary speeches?

May be the honourable Supreme Court can answer my plight. Let me know if the days of expressing my opinion are over or do I need to get approval from the Supreme Court before posting to my blog.

Oh, before I end, I have a small request. Very humbly, I apologise to any individual or the Supreme Court if I have hurt any public sentiments. Please, please, please do not get hurt. You can prevent one more criminal case from being added to the judiciary's ever increasing burden on pending cases.

Of a general strike and breath of fresh air

22nd January, 2009: Another bandh,another disruption to normal life and yet again, another docile acceptance of unreasonable whims and retardant thinking of a person/group who refuses to accept another person's right to peaceful and dignified life.

Sometime back, there seemed to be some sort of frustration at regular strikes and a perceptible opposition to it. With time, however, it seems that people have given up. To feel good, we can say that there are a lot of people who make it a point to oppose bandhs and come to work. Delve slightly beneath the surface and it is not difficult to fathom the reason. Either compensate on weekend or take a leave. Throw in the option of working on a strike without compensating or pay-cut and a different picture will emerge altogether.

However, I was in for a welcome change of thought on my way to office today. The bandh had been called to protest the conversion of polluting 2-stroke autos to environment-friendly 4-stoke variants. The road was pretty empty; countable pedestrians and vehicles. Instead of frustration of frequent strikes, I felt nice. Surprised? So was I. I was wondering what was the cause of it when a gush of cool air cleared all the mystery.

There was a refreshing freshness in the air. It was light, fresh and cool; a spectacular contrast to the heavy, dusty and smoky metropolis air that I am used to. I wanted to breathe rather than cover my nose with a handkerchief. There was a bright sunlight which felt warm rather than hurting. I felt that I was in a different city all together.

I was happy, felt positive and there was an immediate desire to walk rather than to take an auto. Down the way, a person was watering the roadside plants and in a little puddle of water that has formed, a sparrow enjoyed its morning bath. The water drops flying around sparkled brightly like pearls. Sounds poetic I know but it was a sight that one would yearn for.

When I returned from office in the evening, the watered leaves had not grayed out with pollution soot and the reddish-orange sunset had filled the sky above.

A smile broke on my lips. Silently, I prayed for another strike.

India - An aspiring superpower?

Every now and then you can hear someone say that India is going to be the next superpower; the 21st century will mark the rise of a new confident India that will be ready to take the world by storm. Hope is in the air and over a billion people are looking forward to the D-day, except a few, including me.

Call me a pessimist if you like but ignoring obvious facts is not optimism either; its suicidal at best.

A nation that wants to direct the actors on a world stage should be able to get its own house under order first. A nation that wants to become a superpower cannot be a beggar. It has to be confident of itself. And yet, these ideas seem to be so remote to India today.

India's heart was bled with impunity and yet all that India's politicians (Does India have leaders?) can do is to beg the world to put pressure on another nation to stop its aid to the extremists. What has it done on its own? Well, its keeping all options open. What are these options? Your guess is as good as mine.

When we have fever, we take medicines to recover and prevent further infection. Then, to get over weakness, vitamins are taken and daily exercise is suggested to make the body resistant to further attacks. We don't write petitions to bacterias or viruses. Is not the situation similar? How can our politicians be so ignorant of such simple facts? You can't leave your house open and then beg the world to ask burglars not to break in. Heights of stupidity, dude!!!!!

Since the advent of extremism, India has done painfully little to stop its growth apart from incoherent knee-jerk reactions. There is no concerted effort to fence our borders, strengthen our intelligence systems or use our economic clout to reign in those who work against us. We have not been able even to stop our home-grown extremism. All we have done is to find excuses and over a period of time, this has morphed one common excuse so that the politicians are sparred the effort to invent a better one.

"This is the work of foreign agencies. Our condolences are with the bereaved family in this difficult hour. We will bring the guilty to law and will not allow this incident to be repeated again. The government has announced a compensation of 5 lakhs to the next kin of dead.” Sounds cliche? Don't be surprised if the government puts the blame on ISI for the next earthquake or flood.

And we expect such a nation to be a superpower. Nice joke. We can't even decide the future of our own people let alone the world. Wake up to the truth and stop living in dream. A bunch of visionless, incompetent and selfish politicians can never make India a superpower; neither today nor tomorrow.

Superpower; that reminds me of the tag 'Developed countries'. It will be safe to assume that the basic criterion for a country to be called a superpower is that it should be developed. Well, are we not a group of people where every group fights for a backward caste status?

Let's be honest and ask ourselves. Do we even want to be a superpower?