An open letter of appreciation to Airtel Services.

I have been using an Airtel Post paid connection over the past few months and the world class service provided by these fellas has been nothing short of blissful.

Hence I wanted to share my story with you all too. Justly so, after all no good deed should be left unappreciated.

Find below my appreciation for the excellent experience with Airtel services and the absolutely accurate information disseminated by their well-meaning "customer care representatives". All this while I was trying to get ISD activated on my Airtel connection.

1. When I first called the customer care at 121, the call was received by one Mr. Venkat who initially asked me to give the security deposit of 1500/-. When I made him to speak with a colleague of mine who was on a Company CUG – Corporate User Group - plan too and had got his number activated without any such absolutely necessary formalities, this guy asked me to just send across as a salary slip as “for CUG connections this initial security deposit is waived”. These were his exact words.

But I am sure this was a pure slip of tongue from a well trained representative.

2. I sent a salary slip with the request as indicated. Maybe this did not reach them? Anyways, spookily enough I got an auto reply saying that my association with Airtel was valued and they would get back to me in four hours.


No one did. I am sure they intended to. Just forgot about it, I think.

3. Then when I called to enquire about this status with 121 again in the evening, they told me that apart from the salary slip they need a letter from my office coordinator and hence they did not process this request on Wednesday.

I am so sorry my mistake that I am not exactly blessed with clairvoyance as to what all documents they might need. I am assuming here that these guys wanted the customers to guess their requirements without their explicitly having to tell so as I had specifically asked the guy in the morning if they needed anything apart from the Salary slip. He said a categorical NO at that time. His lack on willingness to make me run around out of extreme concern for my fatigue led to a day’s delay in this process. No worries, we Indians are accustomed to waiting.

4. Again, yesterday morning I sent across a mail this time with a proof of employment and the salary slip. This results in another mail from an esteemed person, another very sympathetic “customer care” representative who after making me run around for documents of various kinds get back to me with a lovely and adorable mail saying the activation cannot be done!!! If I wanted an ISD connection to be activated, I should send them a salary slip and letter from the coordinator.

My mistake- I attached a comic strip from Garfield series that shows up at my PC as my latest salary slip. But never mind, ISD no ISD, I have had a good time with the guys at Airtel. As it is I do not have much entertainment in life and all this processing kept me busy and happy for the last few days.

5. Since this ISD activation was taking this long, again as per the “suggestions” made by a well caring “customer care” representatives, I opted for a virtual calling card of denomination 500/-. The very extremely well trained and well informed representative of Airtel was asked about the call tariffs to Sydney, Australia. He took his own sweet time to check the information.

No, I am not complaining about the long waiting period. How can I? All this while taking care of my boredom, he made me listen to the latest AR Rahman’s tunes for Airtel. Ah, sweet music…

6. Then I was told that calls to any number in Australia costs 3.40/- only as opposed to the 6.40/- for a direct call. When I finally got the PIN and called the number I was trying to reach, within 50 minutes of conversation, the call got cut.

I agree that time flies when one is talking to a loved one but not so much so that you don’t hear 100 minutes zooming past. Right?

7. Now I am not great at mathematics but tell me something. 500 rupees at the rate of 3.40 per minute should give around 140 minutes of talk time, right? Please correct me if I am wrong. As I said my math isn’t that great.

8. So to clarify this I called a lovely representative of Airtel who again made me listen to Rahman and after around 10 minutes of a blissful concert for one, informed me that as per the information he has, calls to US/Canada are charged at 3.40 and gulf and Australia are charged at 8.90/- per minute.

Ah! So much for an advance notice. And so much for a consistent information base.

The best thing about Airtel is that everyone knows of the past record of documents sent and never do two people give two different sets of data information for the same query. Airtel – I need to let you know this! With such a valued association with you, I feel absolutely privileged.

But the fact is I have been never been cared for so much by anyone in the past and hence cannot take this much of care and concern.

Hence keeping in line with the ingrate species that we humans are expected to be, I request you to kindly cancel my Airtel connection. But the least I can do is to let the rest of the world know of the superb world class treatment you guys provide to us, the customers.

And the excellent service we can expect when we opt to check Airtel out. Thanks for all your time and effort. You guys have been so lovely and so very considerate.

Impossible?

Love this quote from the Adidas campaign... What brevity, nai?

Impossible is a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they are given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. Impossible is an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. Impossible is a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is NOTHING ! :)

A new identity? Nah!!

With nothing left to do since morning, played around with the dashboard. Considered moving to the wordpress, changing the blog title, link, tinkered around the templates.
In the end, the blog doesn't seem to have changed much. I mean did not let it change much. The link remains archanaamperayani, title is changed from archanaamperayani to Archana? and the template seems to be a tad different from what I had chosen it to be earlier.
Realised one thing in the whole process. Radical changes are not just my cuppatea. No matter how vehemently I may deny it, no matter how much I would want it to be untrue, I am a true conformist. Tch, how I hate that word and how I hate it as an adjective to sum up yours truly but alas!, its exactly what I realise I am :)
So, here we are... The blog, the blogger, the posts, everything is in the same flavor as always! At least for some time to come.

Random musings...

Days where one no longer needs to bother about waking up early, going to work at nina a.m sharp, getting things done, worrying sick about the deliverables and earning brownie points... Has everyone gone through the period of hash in life? It seems like this time to nothingness is merely the lull before the storm. Life now seems to be more or less static with nothing to do at work, nothing to do at home and nothing to do yet for the wedding.

One month down the line however, project will move to the S.I.T stage, relatives and people and wedding cards and wedding shopping and the relentless sending out of invitees, ALL of it will tumble down ALL AT ONCE. :)
God! - either He doesnt know the theory of distribution or he merely intends to make jugglers out of simple folks. I mean, here I am, on a Saturday morning, wondering what to do next... And one month ago I was running around getting twenty things done at a time.
How best can I put this time to use? A long holiday, a retreat into woods with nothing but nature and wilderness around? Just throw my feet up and rest? Lets see... In the meanwhile the good old blog is here to keep me company.

Latest passion...

Whats with Tabu and excellent music? Be it "Payalein chunmum" - Viraasat, "Boondon se baatein" - Takshak, "Yeh lamha" - Filhaal, "Paani paani re" - Maachis or any of the other innumerable melodies, each of her movies feature a hauntingly melodious song.

So I was not surprised to hear the title track of her latest movie "Cheeni Kum". Like any other everlastingly good song, it grows on you with each round of hearing. The first time I liked it, second time I noticed how non-strenuous and calming the beats where, third time the lyrics made me go Wow! and there on I was hooked. That I was reminded of hubby dearest and his aloofness is another reason too but to be fair the song is wonderful as well...

So all of you music buffs there, sample this piece sometime without fail. Till then:

Khwaab rangin hai, Iss jahaan ke,
Dekhle dekhle, Tu sajaake
Apne saaye se, Tu nikal ke
Dekhle dekhle, Tu badal ke
Rango ke hai mele, Khushiyon ke hai rele
Dhadkhan mein pehera kyun hai, Kyun, kyun -- Love this absolutely!!!
Cheeni kum hai,Cheeni kum hai
Thodi thodi tujhe mein hai kum
Kum kum hai kum kum, Dheere dheere, haule haule,
Door door hogi problem, humdum o humdum
Sunle kabhi, kehti hai kya, dil ki sada bhi