One Day In Life

I hate to say this but things are not really going very spicy/interesting/rocking/explosive in life. My work-experience is increasing every week. I'm getting more and more used to Bangalore. I'm getting increasingly skeptical about the 'sharpness' of my brain. Speaking about this, I guess I will have to quote some examples. I was just making a simple calculation this afternoon. What is 9204-1253-650? That took me close to 1½ minutes but boy! my calculation was correct. It is 7301. No new posts were seen on my blog in the recent past. One of the reasons for that might be that nothing actually is so interesting/exciting that it is making me write anything new. Then I think about my reappearance for CAT. Well... possible? At times I feel that if I stay in Bangalore for a year more I can avoid all the distractions at home and make it. But I already started missing home. The last weekend I was at home for 4 days and it all of it passed just in a jiffy! I am suddenly forgetting words and I terribly fight within to recall the word. 'Jiffy', just a few minutes ago was one such word. 'Whippy' was coming instead of that! 'Compere' was one yesterday. I had to recall that for a long time. 'Ampere' finally helped me with that! For quite sometime, reading books is another thing that I completely lost touch with. Maybe not enough books to read? No, I don't think so. I just started off with Omertà. (Flicked off from my BIL's collection)

The last few months in office were a little hectic. The team size contracted from 27 to 5. That explains the increase in the work-load. At times you have to stay overnight in the office to meet the deadlines. Not that anything disastrous would happen if you don't, but just to be in the good books of everyone. You know, you kind of start to live for others when you are in a job. Dependencies increase and so do the clashes. Mood swings big time and so do the false smiles on your face.

On one of the recent Fridays, I thought of staying overnight so that I could avoid coming over to the office on the weekend. Naveen said he would accompany me for the same reason and we made up our minds that we would stay overnight. The time was 10 in the night by then. It was raining heavily. (And another reason to stay in the office!) I was feeling hungry and we went to a nearby restaurant, Mayuri. The restaurant is famous for pappu (Dal). True, you get amazing pappu there. But we were not fortunate enough! The server said pappu was over. We had whatever was available and we were back in the office. It was around 11, still raining. I was determined to complete the unfinished work. At around 12, Naveen left to the dormitory. The sleepy look was evident on his face. 5 minutes later, he was back saying that the dormitory was full. Now I was determined to finish my work, but not so much that I would forego my sleep. So we cursed our ill-fate and decided to start to our respective houses in a couple of minutes. It was still raining. We came out of the campus and started searching for autos. Miraculously, an auto driver accepted saying that he would drop us at double the original fare. Wow! at 12 midnight; Bangalore; double the original fare was definitely cheap! As soon as we got in, the meter started running double the original speed. So effectively we would end up paying 4 times the original fare like jackasses. Immediately after figuring out that it was a jacked meter, I got into a fight with him, got down half way and ended up paying 25 bucks! I walked back the remaining distance. Naveen hired another auto to his place. As soon as I entered my room, Hari, my room-mate said that the power had then been off for 4 hours. The entire colony was lighted except our building. The rest of the night was a sad experience with a lot of clapping around in pursuit of killing the mosquitoes. (Even the mosquitoes were there only that night because of the rain!)

First it was the bad news of coming down to the office for the weekend; then the heavy rain outside; then the finished dal in bad hunger; then the occupied dormitory; then the fight with the auto-driver; then the power-cut; the dark night!

Added to all these small frustrations in life you keep getting calls from different banks/agencies/operators irritating you at the really wrong time. You can be patient to a certain level, but at times, the hurdles are broken!
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"Good morning sir, I'm Jayashri calling from ABN AMRO. We are offering free credit cards; would you like to go for one sir?"

"Thanks a lot Jayashri, but I'm not really interested in one now."

"That’s OK sir, but please get back to us on this number incase you think you need one. Have a great day ahead!"

"Thank you. Have a great day too..."
-Click-
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"Good morning sir, I'm Vinay calling from ABN AMRO. We are offering free credit cards; would you like to go for one sir?"

"No thank you, I already have one."

"That’s OK sir. Bye."

"Bye."
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After 3 more calls from ABN AMRO:
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"Good morning sir, I'm Swathi calling from ABN AMRO. We are offering free credit cards; would you like to go for one sir?"

"Good morning Swathi. Could I say something before we speak about the credit card business?"

"Sure sir."

"Apart from you, I was already called by 5 other people from your bank asking the same question except that your names are changed. Don't you have a list maintained which keeps track of who are disturbed and who are not?"

"I'm sorry sir... I really didn't know this. I'll make sure we don't call you again unless you want us to."

"Thanks a lot. That's really nice of you."

"Thanks a lot sir, have a great day ahead."
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The next day:
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"Good morning sir, I'm Raj calling from ABN AMRO. We are offering free credit cards; would you like to go for one sir?"

"No thanks Raj, but can we speak --"

-Click-
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Business. Respect. Calls. Call Center. Money. Disturbance.

As though this is not enough, you get calls from Hutch as soon as they deliver the 'Hutch bill'. Everyday! As though you would run away without paying their million-dollar bill! I was in such a situation recently. The bill amount was 1253 and the credit limit was 1250. Immediately I get a call from Hutch. And observe the 'Hutch' added before every 'Bill' that comes in the conversation. Respect for their 'Bill' or something?

"Hello, am I speaking to Mr. iamrisk.blogspot.com?"

"Yes. Ravi here."

"Sir, this is a call from Hutch. Your Hutch bill has been delivered to you. Could you please pay your Hutch bill by this evening sir?"

For this same intro, I had three different replies on three consecutive days:

1. "Yeah sure. I'll do it this evening."

2. "Yeah, I'm paying it online now. Don’t worry. I'm not running anywhere..."

3. "One sec... I'll call Ravi..."

I finally went today to the Hutch centre to pay the bill. The payment gateway was down and so was my phone. They have blocked all sorts of outgoing calls. I have paid the amount and the bill would be accepted as soon as the server is up and running. And it's only after that I can make any call. It's been 6 hours since I paid my bill and the phone still shows no sign of any call-making. Mom called up this evening and asked if I have reached safely and if the train was on time. At the end of the call, I said I would call home again in the night. One of my ex-roommates called up and asked why I did not lift his phone (at 6:15 in the morning!!!) and if I was ignoring him. Mr. Creative Shocker has given 7 missed calls. Vej called up and was 'moderately pissed off' that I did not call her after reaching Bangalore. I promised Chaitanya that I would be calling him this night!

Another day ends with the routine chores. A colleague of mine just said a "Bye Ravi!". I have to fix a major issue and report about that to my manager by tomorrow. It's 9:05 PM in my comp. I have to get back to my PG. It’s 1½ KM from here. I have to take an auto for that. A bargain fight with most of the auto drivers again. All this for the not-so-very-tasty-but-no-other-go food in my PG!

Wish me all the very best and all the fun. Will see ya'round.

P.S: To all the rock lovers, check this out: Band of Gypsys