What is beauty?

Many a times, this discussion keeps coming up...what is beauty?!

Sadly, most of us end up only admiring admiring the physical part of it. But there are some "beautiful minds" out there too. But, alas..they are not so much "sought after."
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif.
Today, I stumbled upon this article. All the points are relevant in today's world and according to me, all these 'fairness' cream commercials should be just banned with immediate effect.

Quoting a line from the above article.."But perhaps we should also attempt, at least occasionally, to praise not just their looks, but also their brains,..." This immediately reminded me of this brilliant commercial

I think the ad says it all :)

Just WOW service from ICICI

Last week, I gave an ICICI cheque to another bank for payment of a loan. Initially, this cheque was given as a PDC,but later I took it back from the bank and deposited it again last week. This time though, I just had to add the A/C number on the payee column.

Next day, I received a call from ICICI inquiring about this cheque. I told them its a genuine cheque given by me only. The executive asked me if the same needs to be cleared or not and I replied in the affirmative. He told me that he has called as the cheque had two different inks used on the payee column and hence, it was a confirmation call!

I am super impressed by the alertness of this person :) How I wish that all ICICI executives were so proactive and alert.

THUMBS UP!

The BEST buses

For the uninitiated, the word BEST is not an adjective but an acronym given for the Govt. bus service which runs in Mumbai. BEST stands for 'The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking'. I was a regular traveler in the bus when I use to visit city during my breaks in engineering or when I use to work.

Once I went for my MBA, then the visit to the city became sparse and even less traveling by bus. The only change I noticed over the years was installation of Vodafone payment drop boxes inside the buses.

But today, I was forced to travel given the bad situation of parking when I was supposed to go. And to my utter surprise, I saw printed tickets being doled out by the conductors using a handheld device. My friend tells me that it helps to save time and conductor does not need to check fare and then issue one. Now, he just punches in origin and destination and voila; ticket is printed. Also, at the end of accounting has become easier with introduction of technology.

Another visible difference was installation of LCD screens which were running ads on them. And the best addition was fire extinguishers on board. I just hope that they work needed! :D

Coincidences in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

Since the Cricket World Cup was being held in India, Indian team was in great touch, this was possibly the last tournament for Sachin Tendulkar (though I would like to see him go on and on...), everyone wanted to witness an Indian victory.

But sometimes, rather uneventful events throw up interesting coincidences or patterns and looking in hindsight, following are such events in this World Cup.

1. Sehwag scoring a score of 175 against Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament. This was exactly the same score scored by Kapil Dev in the 1983 World cup match v/s Zimbabwe.

2. India tied a match with England. MS Dhoni as a captain had a tied match in IPL, World Cup T20 and Champion League in the editions which he won.

3. After defeating Pakistan, I personally saw a pattern and posted on facebook here "India defeating teams in EXACTLY the same order in which they were crowned champions in the past - West Indies (75,79), Australia (87), Pakistan (92)....wasnt SL the winner in 96 ;)"

4. In the meanwhile, another coincidence came up which said that calenders of the year 1983 and 2011 are same.

5. And a day before the final, SMS forward told me that all captains whose last or first name started with 'S' were being evicted - Shahid Afridi, Strauss, Smith, Sammy and so next in line is Sangkarra.\

6. I had posted this on facebook before the world cup

Cricket WC - Sachin - India

1. 1992 - did not open - out after first round
2. 1996 - opener, highest scorer - losing semi-finalist
3. 1999 - did not open - lost in super 6s
4. 2003 - opener, highest scorer - losing finalist
5. 2007 - did not open - out after first round
6. 2011 - will open....!! :)

Though, it was updated after the WC as Sachin was India's highest scorer, tournament's second highest scorer and of course, India WON!

Harassment continues by India Today

After troubling me intially, India Today kept on pestering me. Finally, I decided to terminate the subscription with them. But alas, even that is not happening smoothly. Finally, I was advised by one of them to go to court if I was having so much problem and hence I sent a letter to them regarding the same.

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I subscribed to India Today in name of my mother. This was done online and a confirmation letter dated 23rd June, 2010 (photocopy attached) confirming the amount of Rs. 1,200 for one year and assigning the subscription number was sent. And this is where my ordeal starts.

It was promised that the first magazine will be delivered from issue dated 12th July, 2010 but sadly this did not happen. After waiting for some time, the helpline was contacted. If I say that they were cooperative and helpful, then it will be an appreciation from my side. Just nothing was done to rectify the same. Kindly refer to the mails sent. The same are attached. I felt as if I am banging my head to the wall. After wanting to cancel subscription and infinite follow-ups, finally first issue landed on my doorstep in mid-Aug. Since there was a delay of 6 weeks, my subscription was extended by 6 weeks at the ending date. I would like to point out that this was also NOT done by India Today on a pro-active basis but only after I insisted on getting the same done. This was confirmed over e-mail and the same is attached.

The first magazine was delivered by the distributor himself and his contact number was taken by me for a ‘just in case’ scenario. But, alas, I was so wrong! Not a week I remember where I NOT had to call him requesting him to deliver the magazine. The magazine was delivered on a Friday or a Saturday of the week as compared to it hitting the stands on a Monday. On asking the same, I was told that it is the norm. Though completely not acceptable to me, I still continued to live with it.
Come Diwali in the first week of November, I received the issue dated Nov 1, 2010 on which the Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was on cover given his recent hit “Dabangg”. After that, magazine stopped coming. Personally, I was traveling and I inferred that weekly calls not being made have led to this failure. Upon calling the distributor, his reply left me shell-shocked! He was at native place and was given as an excuse of this. What kind of screwed-up distribution is this? You want me to believe that distribution at the last mile is person dependent?

This really left me irritated and hence, I decided to finally stop my subscription from India Today. Kindly understand that magazine not subscribed for adding woes in one’s life. I called up helpline to complain but the waiting period too tested my patience. After working my ways through, I was finally able to get the number of Mr. X in Mumbai. After explaining the case, he assured me to look into the case. He did back to me requesting for one more chance. I clearly explained that I have made up my mind to get it canceled and hence I just wanted to know the procedure. I was also told that it will take 3-4 weeks to get my refund. He also assured me that I just need to mention the cancellation part on mail and he will send a separate mail to take care of the same. I mailed for cancellation on Nov 27, 2010 which is attached. But, it seems that India Today has made up its mind to harass me more. I was again asked a ‘reason’ to cancel and similar non-sensical stuff was thrown at me. Kindly see the chain mail attached for details.

For example, upon demanding a breakup of refund, I got an immature and naïve reply that system generates it. Do you think such an answer is acceptable by any standard? Also, I was told that start date has been taken as July and end date as December for calculating the refund. The new start date of August came from your end and it was sad to see that records were not updated! Moreover, as already mentioned last issue received was Nov 1, 2010. This was clearly told to Mr. X in the telephonic conversation and he agreed in principle.

Even after follow-ups, I keep getting standard replies and no answer to my case. I followed it up with Mr. X too but sadly nothing came out. We are sitting in January now and still no communication on my correct refund which should be around Rs. 950 as per calculation sent by me on e-mails.

I last talked to Mr. X and was told that my case is being ‘considered’. What is there to consider here? I clearly told him that I am running out of patience and he gave me the advice to go to court. This telephonic conversation took place on Jan 7, 2011.

Upon his direction, I am writing this letter as a first step of filing a court case. Either refund my Rs. 950 (approx) as per correct calculation with interest@15% w.e.f Nov 1, 2010 + Rs. 1,000 due to harassment caused to me or let us sort out with the path suggested by Mr. X.

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I hope they sincerely act on this letter of mine.

Honesty pays!

Given the fact that I travel so much by autorickshaw, I am bound to meet some interesting people in Mumbaiand Delhi.

Today morning, I hired one to come to office. Since, I am used to travel the route daily, I know how much it costs to reach office from home given the traffic conditions. Midway only, I realised that meter of this person is fast by all standards.
So, I interjected him!

Me: "Boss, aapka meter fast hai." (Boss, your meter is running fast)
He: "Maloom hai. Aap wohi dijiye to sahi hota hai." (I know. You pay whatever is the correct fare)

I was taken back by his brutal honesty and handed him some extra bucks on my way out. Its not everyday I meet such 'honest' people ;)

P.S. - Adviced him to get his meter fixed asap too!

Height of copy-paste

Though I am not really a big fan of our National Daily The Times of India, but the least I expect from this plagiarism!

But this time, they have exceeded my expectations and have done exactly that.

Article in TOI, Mumbai, Dec 21, 2010 - http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM%2F2010%2F12%2F21&PageLabel=25&EntityId=Ar02502&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar#Early_years_and_personal_life

And yes, Wiki had it up first as I had almost by-hearted the Sachin Tendulkar page :)

P.S. - Both links were last accessed on Dec 22,2010 at the time of writing this.

Luck By Chance!

Last night, I happen to meet a very old neighbour of ours with whom last meeting was more than 5 years ago. Since then, we sadly lost touch and yesterday's meeting rekindled that bond once more. More than anything else, it was pure luck which made us meet and that too on the road...quite literally. I was just coming back from a nearby HDFC ATM (which I never visit though) and didi (our old neighbour) jus got off a car on the road. I was surprised to see her and took some time to confirm if she was the same person! Finally, I was sure that she is same person and she was equally surprised and happy to see me. She came home and it was great to be in touch again.

But, why do I say that this was a pure lucky meeting...thats the best part. As I mentioned, there is no reason for me to go that HDFC ATM ever. But on Friday, my boss was supposed to collect someone's salary cheque (a person posted in Hyderabad) and hand over to someone, who would have in turn deposited it HDFC account of that Hyderabad guy. Now, unluckily this 'someone' was absent on Friday due to eye flu and since I was sitting there, my boss told me to do the needful and hence, I ended up being at the ATM at that time.

As for our neighbour, she was on the way for a client dinner with her boss in his car. But one of her friends who was in town for some work missed her flight to Bangalore (thanks to traffic!) and called up to tell didi that she will be coming to her house to stay over. This made didi abandon her dinner plan and decided to get off then and there as her house was in the opposite direction as compared where was headed!

And so, we met! I dont really remember such a lucky coincidence happening before :)

Dynamic Pricing in Cinema Halls

In the digital era, everyone wants to beat the ‘queue’ and hence, online ticketing is such a hit in the country – be it Airlines, shows, IPL matches, trains or movies. But as the case is, not all programs are planned in advance and hence, most often than not, we see people rushing in at airports or railway stations at the last minute to buy a ticket. But this is more true for a movie ticket as such plans are spontaneous! Alas, not always there is time to book a ticket online in such a scenario. So, people rush to the cinema hall to catch THE movie but thanks to traffic (especially in cities) and Murphy’s Law, people are late. The ticket price is the same (average Rs. 150 in a decent multiplex) and sometimes people prefer to spend time in the mall or a coffee shop. What the cinema hall has not realized that it has lost a great opportunity!

Assuming an average movie length of 135 minutes, no one minds missing first 5 minutes and will be ready to shell out the complete price for the movie. But generally, after 5-10 minutes, people are not interested in going in for the movie even if decent seats are available. At the same time, if the cinema halls drops the price to say a 100 (on base of 150), I feel they can make a decent sale!

I feel there is some catch here which I am not able to figure out and hence I have not seen this approach being taken in the country. Or maybe, if it is happening then I have not encountered it till now.

Passport blues

After a horrific experience in Calcutta Passport office, I found out the procedure to apply for a passport in the Mumbai office. Apparently, it is compulsory to take an appointment in Mumbai passport office, so had to go through the same. Got an appointment for 12 noon for a date which was 10 days away (earliest available) and was advised to reach 15 minutes earlier. Once I reached there, I was astonished to see the number of people who were waiting before me. Basically, what they had done is that ‘appointment time’ enables one to be a part of the line which runs upto the required counter. Well, I got in the line but seeing the rush, I was pretty sure of not reaching the counter before 4 in the evening.

Finally, after standing in the line for 4 long hours (after seeing a 45 minute lunch break), my turn finally came. The lady started checking my documents and told me that I am short of one address proof!!! I was shell shocked as I had checked and rechecked the requirements given on the website. I told her that it is as per the website, but this fell on deaf ears and told me to come back the next day with the complete documents. I requested her to at least check my other documents and tell me if everything else is in order, which was indeed the case. But, I had to come back the next day as my one more request to consider my application did not move her!

I was also told that there is no need to take a new appointment and my old application stands valid for 10 days albeit, I need to go another counter if I am not coming on my appointment date. When I went after 2 days, I was instructed to go a general line which looked after cases of coming on non-appointed days. Here again, the wait was an arduous task as I reached at 10 when the office opened and turn came at 3:30 in the afternoon. The lady asked something in regional language which I did not understand and requested her to either talk in English or Hindi. At this, she got furious that why don’t you learn Marathi and random stuff like that. Now, why is that a problem!!! Well, I controlled my anger and told her that I will soon learn the language :P Next, she told that since my passport is damaged (which was smudged due to water), so I won’t be issued a 60 page booklet (I asked for the same instead of 36 page one) as that is a rule! I was little surprised but since it was a ‘rule’ there was nothing I could do. She cleared my application and was sent to cash counter. Here, the cashier asked for a fee of Rs. 2,500 whereas the fee is Rs. 1,000 for a 36 page booklet and Rs. 1,500 booklet! When I opposed the same, I was told that mine is ‘damaged passport re-issue’ case and hence the fee. I told her that it is a ‘expiry re-issue’ case! After some investigation, it was discovered that the first counter lady and had done a blunder in reading my application…how irresponsible are these people. Again, I had to go to the main counter and some corrections were made. Now, a new thing came up. Since she had written that my passport was damaged, now I needed an affidavit for the same from a police station which essentially meant that I need to come back again. Now, I lost my temper and told her that no-way this is gonna happen and I want to meet their senior. I went to the passport officer and had to give a small application and finally my 60 page booklet application was submitted. The whole thing took around an hour. What a criminal wastage of time I thought!

The next step is police verification in which the individual needs to go the area police station once their application reaches there. This usually takes 3 weeks but my application reached after more than a month, followed which police came for enquiry after 2 weeks at my place! I was told to visit the police station where the verification offer was working in the slowest possible speed. Since, he had to harass me, so he came up with this weird excuse that ‘road name’ was missing from my application and hence same would be rejected. I told him that there is no need to get into all this nonsense now…so in return he asked me for a ‘gift’. When I asked what specifically was needed by him, he kept quite! Well, in the meanwhile my documents were checked and I was told to meet his senior also (part of procedure). The next evening I went to meet his senior which was not a problem at all but once we came out he again asked for his ‘gift’ and again the talks went into negotiation mode. He threatened me that he is rejecting my application but then I after some more discussions, my application was finally approved!

Even after that it took more than 6 weeks (normally 2 weeks) for my new passport to come my place.

I recently read this article and was not surprised by it. When such lazy and greedy people are involved in the passport issue system, numbers are bound to come down (Verbatim from the article - in fact, last year saw a reduction in the absolute number of new passports issued). Luckily, I was not working when I had to renew my passport but for working people, it means loss of 2 full working days for standing in the line! How sad and pathetic situation is that….

India Today!

Ya, I am talking about the magazine but at the same time, it reflects the state of our country’s attitude too.

I subscribed to the magazine using the online portal and was informed that subscription will start from 5th July onwards. When the magazine did not reach us even by 8th, I called up the helpline and asked the issue. They had no answer apart from ‘getting back to me.” Next week again, no magazine arrived at my place and this time my mother called the helpline, but got the same answer! The situation remained same till 20th, I decided to cancel the subscription and called the ‘help’line for the same.

I asked the executive on how to cancel the subscription and out of their process, he asked the issue, apologized and similar stuff. When I persisted for the refund, his reply was “Sir, you have called only once, why the cancellation??” This reply of his really angered me and gave him a piece of my mind. What do they expect, that I should keep calling them!!!

Well, the e-mail for cancellation is already underway and now the same request of non-cancellation keeps coming over the mail. I have not changed my stand on the issue and now waiting for my money to be refunded.

Such careless and insensitive attitude is really disgusting and that too from a group of stature of India Today…

LIC Roxxx

When all payments are moving towards the online mode, it was little surprised to know that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) had started an option to pay premium over the net. At the same time, I had my apprehensions of it working to perfection. Nevertheless, I decided to create an account and go through the portal.

It’s a pretty neat work, I must say. The menu so created is crisp and clear and the instructions are prominently displayed on the site. Policies taken in my name were added without any issues here. Then, I tried to create an account for my father too. There is a provision for creating profile for spouse and kids too in an account. So, I was trying to add some policies taken in the name of my mother but the system was continuously throwing an error and was not able to add it.

I called up the helpline and they told me to mail the issue. I sent out the mail and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply within an hour and that too, on a Saturday! I was able to issue after this after exploiting a loophole in the programming logic :D

Overall, nice work by LIC!

‘Welcome’ by Vodafone

I took a Vodafone corporate connection as I moved to Mumbai for my job. After all the verification was done, my number was activated in a day or so. In all the while, I did receive calls from them informing me about the billing cycle, call rates, helpline numbers etc.

But after a week or so after the activation, I received a SMS from them which read like this “Kindly call on XXXXXXXX (a landline number) and fix up a appointment so that we can welcome you to Vodafone.” Now, this was unheard of (atleast for me!) but on second thoughts, Vodafone did care for the time and privacy of its user.

Nevertheless, I did try the number to fix up an appointment but alas, was not able to get through even after trying multiple times. I thought, maybe there are too many people who wanted to be ‘welcomed’! ;)

Amazing Grace!!!

In the last few months, my travel by auto rickshaw has drastically reduced as I drive myself now. But today morning, as the car was needed at home, I had to restore to the good old auto for reaching the office. I got one which was standing on the road in front of my building only but the driver was busy in buying ‘dhaap’(coconut water) from a road side vendor. I asked him if he is ready to go and he told me to sit. He continued to be busy in buying the coconuts and it was good 5 minutes before we started our journey as he buying in bulk and it took time to search, cut (partially) and pack them.

When we were just 2 kms away from my destination, he took a turn to the gas station for filling CNG. I protested a bit as it takes quite some time to fill the same. Moreover, there are perpetual queues at these places. Since, he had already taken the turn, I moved out of the auto and waited outside the pump (as this is the rule! – is it????)

Upon reaching the office, according to the meter reading, I calculated and told him that its Rs. 78. He was fine with it but told me that I should pay him 70 bucks only. I was taken aback a bit and asked the reason. He told me that since he made me wait initially and at the gas station (which was NOT counting in the waiting time as initially journey had not started it and he stopped the meter while at the gas station), so he was charging less as these activities wasted my time. I told him that it is fine and he should take the full fare only. But he was adamant to take less…this was something I had never faced before! So I finally told him that take atleast Rs. 75, to which he agreed and left.

In the end, I was moved by his thoughtfulness and this incident again showcased that still there are many people who are considerate in the world!

The Irony continues...

As mentioned here, the same was the case in the final placements too. This post is not to criticize anyone or any industry/ organisation but just to let people know that life is not rosy as it seems to be!

During the final placements, few of the I-Banks also came for recruitment. But, the shortlisting criteria was a little confusing to see. If one had a bank internship, a shortlist was more or less assured. But on the other hand, a ranker (read top 5) who was not an intern in a bank (though a PPO holder from a leading FMCG) could not make it to any of the ahortlists.

According to me, its quite unfair as again the performance during the MBA is counting at all! It is not that grabbing a bank intern is an easy task but to large extent, it depends on one's pre-MBA track record...

"Strange" is the only word that comes to my mind after witnessing all this!

Traveling on the Burning Train

After shifting base to Mumbai for over a decade, I never got a chance to travel to Pune though I had an opportunity to use the Mumbai-Pune expressway for my 2 trips to Lonavla and Khandala. But when recently, I had to stay in Pune for 2 weeks for my job, I got to see the city.

Since it was a 2 week stay, I decided to come back to Mumbai over the weekend to my home. Pune Mumbai travel was done using Indrayani Express but for the return journey, I booked on the very well known Deccan Queen Express from CST. It is indeed fast train skipping some important station like Dadar with clean coaches and courteous staff. Everything was on track and we were cruising on time. Just a kilometer or so, our train stopped. Since it was an abrupt stop or something, I thought maybe its a routine signal stop. I was engrossed in the music and did not sense anything wrong but a lot of people were moving in and out of the compartment.

After 15 minutes or so, when the train did not move, I got a little curious and asked my co-passenger if there is any issue. I was shell-shocked by his answer. He told me that the ENGINE WAS ON FIRE!

Knowing that this is an unheard incident, I decided to get down and walk to the engine to see it. The thick smoke coming out from the engine had engulfed the complete area. It was more than 20 minutes already and no fire-tender was in site. Some of the pictures of the same are here.
After an hour or so, the first fire tender arrived but the fire was just too much to handle. In the next hour or so, 6 more fire tenders came in and doused the fire. After that, a new engine came to our rescue and we started our journey back on. The only saving grace was that lights and the AC was working in the compartment.

A total of three and a half hours were wasted. Add to that the delay of other trains on the same line and cancellation of local trains which run on Kalyan-Karjat line. This incident clearly highlighted the pathetic emergency handling skills of the railways. This fire did get some space in the press!

7 Cs of Life@IIM-C

Following my post on Ps of MBA, here is my post on the Cs of MBA life and especially true for IIM Calcutta!

1. Crashers - These are basically sessions for information dissemination about anything and everything. They are generally conducted by placement team for giving out requisite information, or by Student Council for knowledge ramp up for the incoming batch, or by the seniors for juniors for the summer placements regarding CV making, subject knowledge, interview prep et al and finally by the subject experts before the exams so that whole batch is able to scrap through the upcoming rough waters..!!!

2. Competitions - For people who want to showcase their talent in any field, there is no dearth for platform to do so. All the major B-Schools in the country have their cultural and business festivals annually, which is a huge opportunity to participate in various facets in functional events like marketing, HR, finance etc and also in talent events like dance and music etc. Adding to that, there are sports meet which happen with XL, IIM-B and IIFT-Kolkata, so sport enthusiasts also have opportunities to showcase their competencies.

3. Curriculum - The backbone of any B-School! Curriculum in the first year is pretty much fixed but a lot of options are available in the second year to choose from. Also, the first year subjects keep undergoing changes according to the new knowledge generated in the outside world.

4. Case studies form an integral part of pedagogy. Though, it is not 100% case-based in C, most of the subjects cover a decent number of cases for practical understanding. On a personal note, more than anything else, these case studies add to one's general knowledge a lot! If one fails to analyse the case, the key take-away can be the GK enhancement. Also, case studies are used as a tool during examination times by some of the faculty. Exams sometimes just consist of the case and questions are related to them. Also, case can be distributed a night before or during the exam.

5. Campus life is possible because of the residential nature of the program. The sense of time table is clearly broken when staying in a campus. With deadlines sometimes being 3 in the morning to 7 am, the sleep cycle goes for a toss. Also, staying in the campus 24*7 makes it possible to have things running throughout the day and night too! One never feels lonely once inside, as always there is atleast other person who is awake at any time of the day.

6. Culture of any B-School is imbibed in every soul who has been a part of the institute. It may be the inter-hostel competitions or the intra-hostel ones to exam taking strategies or treating a sister institute ;) or dealing with a particular prof! But my personal take away has been never-say-die attitude of so many people around which made me believe nothing is really impossible.

7. CV - No discussion about MBA is complete without mentioning about placements. And, nothing holds more value than one's CV, as this is the first impression a company receives about an individual. Trust me, sometimes it is not easy to pen down your life of about 23-25 years in one page highlighting the peaks of one's journey on this planet. But, the effort put on CV is a major determinant for the things to follow...

Height of Copy-Paste

I received a mail some minutes ago from i-mint, to which I was forced to enroll as a ICICI Bank Credit Card Holder. This was because ICICI bank transferred all the reward points earned directly to them, although after doubling them :P

Well, on reading the mail, I could not help but laugh at the carelessness of the person who was responsible for sending it! Please see it for yourself and enjoy :)

HSBC = HaraSsment Banking Corporation

Though I was pretty impressed by HSBC, the way it treats its customers, but events in the past few months have left a bad taste in my mouth and hence I have canceled my credit card with the bank!

The issue started way back in Sept/ Oct 2009 when I received my credit card statement and had to pay up by Oct 3. I dropped in the cheque by 28/ 29 Sept in one of the ATMs. Also, I dropped a cheque for credit card of another bank on the same day. The cheque of the latter got cleared on Oct 4 but strangely HSBC did not encash the cheque. I received a call from HSBC on Oct 4 informing me about the same. I told them that cheque is already dropped and they should receive the money anytime now. Nevertheless, the cheque got cleared the next day and everything was fine (atleast I thought so...)

The drama was awaiting me in the next month's statement. I was slapped late payment charges and finance charges and some interest charges on the amount, which were coming out to be a total over some 6000 INR. I immediately called up the helpline and told them the issue that the delay was from their side and I had dropped the cheque on time. But the executive told me that he was helpless in reversing the charges. I demanded to speak to the manager who was RUDE to say the least. I told them to cancel my card with immediate effect and told them clearly that I will pay whatever I have used my card for and no way I was going to pay for the inefficiency of the bank!

After this, I stopped receiving any communication from the bank and more importantly, I was not receiving any e-statements. As I was away from home, e-statement were only way to communicate with me.

In Feb 2010, I started getting calls from the bank informing me that there is an outstanding on my card. On repeated inquiry, I gathered that the fine so levied in Oct statement were going into the non-payment mode and further interest, finance and non-payment fines were getting levied. I made it very clear to person over the phone that no way I am responsible for it and I am not going to make the payment. These phone calls were coming on a daily basis and daily same conversation was taking place. Since, I was not budging from my stand, I was advised to mail the bank on info@hsbc.co.in to deal with my issue.

I first mailed them in March giving the background and detailing about everything. Also, I demanded soft copies of the statements for the past 4-5 months and to my amazement I discovered that the bank had started levying charges for Reward Points Redemption! I had no problem in paying them but I was not informed about it. Well, as always HSBC was not ready to reverse a single penny but the correspondence continued and as a 'service gesture' they reversed non-payment fine for 3 months. My mails sent henceforth were getting replied in standard manner which pissed me off to the maximum and I was forced to write a strong mail which is below.

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I sincerely hope that my mail is read completely, thoroughly and is
first understood by HSBC. It seems that that no attention is being
paid to finer nuances here and hence again and again I am receiving
standard replies which are of no use.

I paid payment for Oct 2009 for what I had the used card for. It had
late payment charges and finance charges for prior month which are the
root cause of this dispute as I had dropped cheque on time, but bank
was late in encashing it! HSBC took a stance as if I dont know how to
make a payment and all and blatantly did not entertain any request
even though the fault is not mine. I DID NOT make the payment for late
charges and finance charges and hence the difference. If bank can do
simple additions, then one can easily conclude that I paid payment for
what I HAD USED MY CARD FOR, correct to the last paise.

Also, from where are these bonus redemption fee being levied!!!!! I
WAS NEVER INFORMED ABOUT SUCH A DEVELOPMENT. How do you expect me to
pay it! AND I REPEAT, I WAS NEVER EVER EVER INFORMED ABOUT THESE
CHARGES. I have redeemed bonus points many times in the past and I am
hearing this for the first time. Also, it seems that this charge was
levied in Dec 2009 statement which seems to have failed to reach me.
It would be great if a soft copy is sent (though I am supposed to
receive soft copy every month which I am not from time immemorial).

Kindly do not harp on reversal of some charges on the pretext of
'service gesture'. After doing a dis-service, then harassing the
customer and reversing a part of the amount is no good. Dont repeat
what I know. I have thanked for it already and will do it again now.
THANKS! But this is not solving the problem.

I am repeating myself here - Every paise for which my card was USED
has been paid back to the bank. All these outstanding amount is a
result of YOUR INEFFICIENCY beginning Sept/ Oct 2009. I am no way
going to pay these finance charges and whatever fancy names you want
to give them.

Please feel free to write to me if further clarifications are needed.

********************

After this mail, I was told to wait for 5 days and finally HSBC did reverse the whole amount :) After this, I also made the payment for Reward Point Redemption as end of the day it was a legitimate charge!

All said and done...HSBC has lost a customer!!!

4 Ps of MBA

Anyone who is remotely interested in MBA must have heard about 4Ps of marketing and no MBA discussion is complete with this Philip Kotler framework. But here I will list the 4Ps of MBA itself. And anyone who has gone this course will (hopefully!) agree to these ones.

1. Presentations – Power point presentations become the order of the day for an MBA student. Everyone seems to use it at the drop of hat. Most of the books have their chapters in ppt format now, all (almost all) professors use them for teaching, companies use them big time for luring students to join their organisation, some subject require us to make ppts for a particular class and some profs are just too smart when they ask everyone to make it and pick up anyone randomly to present his/her presentation! At the end of the day, we become just too ‘good’ in making presentations and attending them. In the first few weeks of MBA, making a presentation eats up like few hours but by the end of it, it does not take more than 15 minutes ;) with number of slides not being a criteria. And ya, even the quality improves. At the end of 2 years, making a presentation is a piece of cake but cannot say the same for the attending part :P Just another thing here – subjects like statistics and courses in finance which are supposed to be ‘quant’ oriented also taught through this medium.

2. Projects and Peer group – Now, there should be a reason also to make a presentation...right?! Projects are those reasons in a B-School. All courses have their own evaluation criteria and more often than not, projects are a part of it, supplementing exams (mid-term or end-term or both) or case write-ups etc. Very rarely, projects are done individually and hence we work in groups of size of typically 3 to sometimes 10 also! When we work in a group, that is when the diversity part of a batch kicks in and we are able to appreciate each other’s viewpoint and experience. When working in a group, I personally realised my own strengths and weaknesses. The infinite brain storming sessions, conflict management times, crisis handling etc are all learnt in a project. From deciding on a topic to contents to be covered to work allocation to its final closure – each is a mission in itself. Working in different groups allows one to interact with some amazing individuals who are pretty sharp, peaked in whatever they have undertaken and yet so humble. I believe, it is true to say that learning is there in the classroom, no doubt about that but in a B-School peer group takes the learning to another level all-together. Adding to this, working on projects also enhances the learning. Over the course of 2 years, everyone does at least 20 projects on various functions of marketing or finance or strategy. This contributes to the knowledge gained beyond books, as it is said.

3. Placements – Let’s face it, 99.99% students come to a B-School for placements. So it is not surprising that placements, rather the allied activities, do take up a lot of time. It all starts when we enter the B-School as summer placements are the first BIG thing to happen on campus. CV making is the first step towards placements. I never realised that writing about me in an A4 sheet would turn out to be such a difficult task. Mentoring from seniors, help from our batchmates and sometimes alums from companies really helps one to create THE CV, albeit after typically 20 to 25 iterations. Coupled with that there are company presentations to attend, ‘gyaan’ sessions on sectors for internships, preparation sessions, mock interviews and what not. Of course, the placement process days are an experience in themselves. It is a test of confidence, resilience and one’s toughness (mental, physical, and psychological). The same process happens for the finals and the laterals (people with prior work experience) although it is comparatively less stressful and less grilling. This is due to the fact that some people get PPOs (pre-placement offers) or some don’t take participate for higher studies or entrepreneurship or going back to original organisations. The excitement and thrill witnessed during those days is just phenomenal and is really an experience of a lifetime.

4. Perpetual fight between I-bankers and consults – This is something which really left me amused in the complete stay in IIM Calcutta. Investment banking and consulting firms really vouch for talent in the B-School and the way it is done is really hilarious. The references made to other professions in a presentation or the way ‘take-aways’ are pitched vis-a-vis competing industries is a treat to watch.

Well, there are many facets of life in a B-School which would be covered in my next post – 7Cs of MBA!