वासुदेव

वासुदेव आऽऽला वासुदेऽऽऽऽव आऽऽला होऽऽऽऽ
सकाळच्या पाऽऽऽऽरी हरिनाम बोला

खणखणीत आवाज.पण तितकाच सुरेल. लहानपणा पासून कित्येत वासुदेब बघितले, ऐकले; पण असा सुरांची जाण असलेला पाहिल्यांदाच. सकाळी ६-६:१५च्या दरम्यान गाढ झोपेत असलेला मी खाडकन जागा झालो. त्यानं उठा पांडुरंगा म्हणेपर्यंत झोप डोळ्यावरुन पूर्ण उतरली होती. एकदा वाटलं पटकन ध्वनीमुद्रित करावं आणि youtube वर टाकावं पण आळस आडवा आला आणि मी गादीवर लोळत त्याचं गाणं ऐकत तसाच पडून राहिलो.

आवाज इतका खणखणीत की त्याला माईकची गरज नाही. गाणं म्हणत म्हणत तो दूरवर गेला तरीही त्याचा आवाज येतच होता. जून्याकाळी, राजा-रजवाड्यांच्या काळात, ज्यावेळी माईक किंवा amplifiers नव्हते, त्या काळात असता तर ह्याच्यावर वासुदेब व्हायची पाळी आली नसती कदाचित इतका सुंदर आणि standout आवाज.

(वासु)देव करो आणि हा वासुदेव कुणा जाणकार (आणि 'पोहोच' असलेल्या) माणसाच्या कानावर पडो.

Power, Religion and Social Inhibitions

I have been wondering this for quite sometime now. Why do we have such a huge premium on morality? Where does it connect? Why is a girl/guy who sleeps around, looked down upon with disgust? It's just a physical need. What's wrong with satisfying it? Do we look down upon people who eat dinner at one restaurant and sweets from another? Why do we have this big taboo surrounding anything related to sex? Are we as a society so immature that we cannot handle openness about sexuality? Are we bound so much by religion and religious preachings that we haven't thought about alternative way of life, and fear that way might lead to chaos? fear of the unknown?

We are a land where Kamsutra originated. We are a land where Khajuraho was sculpted. Our Ramayana and Mahabharata are ripe with stories with hidden references, like Ahilya's story, and Yayati's story, Indra's lust, Kamdev's adventures etc. Considering all these, it's difficult to understand why we have inhibitions about sex and sexuality? Are we being controlled under the pretext of religious preachings?

All the powerful and creative people behave uninhibited. May those be actors, diplomats, celebrities, musicians (case in point is an 'illegitimate' child of a Sitaar maestro), sportsman. I wont even mention politicians.

Why then only the middle class considers that staying 'pure' is a way to save the culture? Europeans had a culture as well. The French, for example, come across as some of the most outgoing and free-est people when it comes to openness, sexuality and life. French directors have been handling taboo subjects way ahead of their times, since the mid 20th century. The subjects were controvertial, and sometimes tilted towards soft core porn as well. But they had the openness and courage to try it. Their society didn't burn them for that. And despite this, their culture isn't going anywhere, and is as intact as it was before.

I have an inkling that these probably sound like randomly hewn fabric of crude thoughts, but when you see an Emmannuel exploring her sexuality, or when you see some Dreamers enagaging in acts that border on incest, or a when a Laure lets go off social inhibitions and engages in exhibitionism and free sex, you can't help but appreciate the ahead-of-its-time boldness of French cinema, and lament the fact that even a simple and practical concept like live-in relationships doesn't find acceptance in our society.

Tata Docomo Rocks (er ... not really)

Within 2 days of getting a Docomo SIM card, I am a total convert to Tata Docomo now. Never knew grass was so green on the other side.

First the plans are plain and simple and competitively priced. Then there are no differences in network coverage I could spot between using a Docomo prepaid service and Idea's postpaid service. The 2G GPRS plan that Docomo has come up with recently, is a killer. Rs.65/- for 2.5GB per month is wayyyyyyyy better than the Rs.200/- for 500MBs per month that I was paying to Idea since ages.

Most importantly things happen lightening quick and fast with Docomo. My new Blackberry (a humble 8830 world edition) was up and running in mere 3hrs after sending a subscription SMS. I didn't have to go anywhere, nor pester anyone even though it was late in the night. And out of those 3hrs, 2hrs were wasted due to some n/w issue that I was updated about in advance. Otherwise things would have got setup in merely an hour! That's lighetening quick in my book. And that too without any hassels. The executives who instructed me in setting up my Blackberry for registration, who setup service book remotely to my handset, all sounded highly professional and top notch, unlike Idea.

I have been using a Docomo 3G e-stick for months now, and already had a real good experience so far with it. And now after these awesome prepay plans and quality Blackberry setup experience, I am entirely sold on porting my main postpaid Idea number to Docomo prepay for good. There with Idea I have been paying a rupee for minute since last 5yrs and they never came up with any migration plan for me even after years of second-billing explosion in India. On the contrary, they still charge me Rs.49/- for caller line identification!!

Over last 5yrs, all they came up with, for me, were some ponzy schemes which appeared good on the face of it, but later made me regret for subscribing after I realised the catch. Besides, pathetic website, patchy customer service, terribly late introduction of 3G, absolute lack of imagination and creativity with billing plans and those B-grade Bachchan TV commercials which always embarrass me for having an Idea connection; all of these factors are making me think of dropping this Idea connection of 5yrs and port my mobile number to Docomo on the next tick of a second.

It's gonna happen soon for sure.

EDIT: (5Aug2011)
On a hindsight, it was a bit premature to come out gaga over Docomo. I came to know it after using it for a week or so on the blackberry. First, the blackberry was not powerful enough; and second, the Docomo network was not consistent either. So the blackberry kept losing its data connection time and again, and when-in-doubt-pull-it-out policy vis-a-vis blackberry battery didn't work effectively to restore that data connection either. So finally, I ended up disconnecting the BIS altogether. Tried Docomo GPRS instead. But it was neither consistent nor quick. Idea card in the blackberry on the other hand, gave much better GPRS data. And it was consistent too. Not sure if this better QoS was because my Idea connection is postpaid.

So all in all, Docomo has much better plans, very affordable addons and good customer service. It's great when all you want from your phone is calls and SMS. If you want GPRS (2G), at least Docomo prepaid was not upto the mark. Wonder if Docomo post-paid has better QoS that this.

Anyway, time-being, since data is a lot dearer to me than calls and texts, I am going to hang on to Idea. Can't risk bad GPRS connectivity for lesser expenses.

लिनक्स, विंडोज आणि कुसुमाग्रज

Linux आणि Windows या दोन Operating systems आहेत हे आपल्याला माहिती असेलच. Windows वापरणारे आणि linux वापरून पुन्हा नाईलाजास्तव windows platform वर परतावं लागलेले लोक windows ला किती दात-ओठ खाऊन नावं ठेवतात त्याचीही आपल्याला कल्पना असेल. पण मी आत्ता जो एक वेगळा angle तुम्हाला सांगणार आहे तो मात्र नक्कीच तुम्हाला नविन असेल याची खात्री आहे मला.

मराठीचा अभ्यास ज्यांनी केलाय किंवा ज्यांना साहित्याची थोडीफार का होइना जाण आहे, त्यांना कुसुमाग्रजांच्या कविता माहित असायला काही हरकत नाही. आता तुम्ही म्हणाल linux/windows आणि कुसुमाग्रजांच्या कविता यांचा काय संबंध आहे? संबंध आहे. कुसुमाग्रजांच्या कवितांचा कुठलाही पूर्वग्रह न ठेवता बारकाईने अभ्यास केल्यास असं दिसून येईल की, तुमच्या-आमच्या सारख्या मर्त्य मानवांनाच नाही तर कुसुमाग्रजांसारख्या दैवी कवीला देखिल windows चा प्रचंड उबग आला होता अणि त्यांचं सुद्धा linux वर खूप प्रेम होतं.

एक उदाहरणच घ्या ना. त्यांच्या 'पृथ्वीचं प्रेमगीत' या कवितेमधलं एक कडवं पहा -

'परि भव्य ते तेज पाहून पूजून
घेऊ गळ्याशी कसे काजवे
नको क्षुद्र शृंगार तो दुर्बळांचा
तुझि दूरता त्याहुनी साहवे'

आता वर वर पाहता हे एक प्रेमगीत वाटतं. पृथ्वीनं सूर्याला लिहिलेलं. कुसुमाग्रजांनी कवितेला नावही तसंच दिलंय पहा. जेणेकरून कुणा सोम्या-गोम्याला संशय येऊ नये. पण खरा अर्थ लावायचा झाला तर कुसुमाग्रजांनी या ओळी linux ला संबोधून लिहिल्या असाव्यात असं दिसतं.

पहिल्या ओळीत ते म्हणतात -

'परि भव्य ते तेज पाहून पूजून'

कुसुमाग्रज linux च्या stability, reliability, developer-friendliness, opensource philosophy यांसारख्या गुणांनी किती प्रभावित झाले असावेत ते यावरून लक्षात येतं. पुढं जाउन ते विचारतात की linux मधे एवढे सगळे गुण असताना -

'घेऊ गळ्याशी कसे काजवे'

इथं 'काजवे' म्हणजे windows असा अर्थ त्यांना अभिप्रेत असावा. Linux एवढं powerful आणि reliable असताना, windows सारखी powerless, buggy, closed-source आणि monopolistic system कशी वापरायची असा साहजिक प्रश्न ते विचारतात आणि म्हणतात -

'नको क्षुद्र शृंगार तो दुर्बळांचा'

इथं दुर्बळ म्हणजे पुन्हा windows. घडीघडीला छोट्या छोट्या कारणांवरून crash आणि restart होणार्‍या windows ला ते अतिशय मर्मिकरित्या दुर्बळ म्हणून संबोधतात. त्याही पुढे जाऊन ते windows ने पुरवलेल्या भड़क graphical effects, GUI, screen-saver अशा डोळ्यांचं समाधान करणार्‍या पण व्यावहारिक जीवनात काडीचाही उपयोग नसणार्‍या facilities ना 'क्षुद्र शृंगार' अशी शेलकी उपमा देऊन म्हणतात -

'तुझी दूरता त्याहुनी साहवे'

म्हणजे linux जरी तिकडं दूर अमेरिकेतल्या server वर run होंत असेल आणि इथून भारतातून त्या linux server ला connect करायसाठी जरी PuTTY चा वापर करावा लागत असेल तरीही दुर्बळांच्या (windows च्या) क्षुद्र शृंगारापेक्षा (भड़क GUI पेक्षा) ते तेजःपुंज आणि powerful असं PuTTY चं काळं command-line terminal केंव्हाही बेहेत्तर! या ओळीवरून कुसुमाग्रजांनी त्याकाळात देखिल उत्सुकतेपोटी अणि linux प्रेमापोटी PuTTY वापरून दूरदेशीच्या एखाद्या linux server ला connect केलं असण्याची दाट शक्यता वाटते. असो.

या खळबळजनक संशोधनाबद्दल वाचल्यानंतर तुमच्या मनात या संशोधाकबद्दल नितान्त आदर निर्माण होणं साहजिक आहे. पण तुम्हाला हे वाचून आश्चर्य वाटेल की या गुणवान संशोधकाला बारावीच्या परीक्षेत मराठीमधे १०० पैकी ३५ गुण मिळाले होते. IT field मधे दिवसभर घाम गाळुन काम करणार्‍या, आणि थकून-भागून घरी आल्यानंतर देखिल अथक संशोधन करून कुसुमाग्रजांच्या कवितांकडे बघण्याची एक वेगळी नजर जगाला देणार्‍या होतकरू मराठी अभ्यासकाला बारावीसारख्या महत्वाच्या वर्षी मातृभाषेच्या परीक्षेत काठावर उत्तीर्ण करणार्‍या त्या परिक्षकाचा धिक्कार असो! आईनस्टाईनला सुद्धा लहानपणी गणितात खुप कमी गुण मिळायचे म्हणे. पण तो निदान तिकडं यूरोपात तरी होता. इथं भर महाराष्ट्रात झालेल्या या एका मराठी-भाषिकाच्या गळचेपिचा मुद्दा राज ठाकरेंनी संसदेत उपस्थित करावा अशी माझी इच्छा आहे. असो. यावर परत केंव्हा तरी बोलू.

तर हा लेख वाचल्यानंतर तुम्हाला हिंसाचार करायची बुद्धि झाल्यास तो बौद्द्धिक पातळीवर करावा. ज्यावर हा लेख वाचताय तो संगणकही तुमचाच आणि तुमच्या डोक्यावरचे केसही तुमचेच हे ध्यानात असुद्या.


टीप:
या कवितेतील इतर कडव्यांचे अणि कुसुमाग्रजांच्या इतर कवितांचे linux अणि windows शी संबंधित अन्वयार्थ - यावरपुढील संशोधन सुरु आहे. या घडीला या एका कडव्याशिवाय इतर काही प्रकाशित करता येणार नाही. संशोधन पूर्ण होताचयोग्यवेळी सर्व गोष्टी उघड करण्यात येतील. चिकित्सा करण्याचा मोह आवरल्याबददल धन्यवाद.

Fed Up Big Time with Idea Cellular - Part 3

Continued from part 2. This is about the status as of today, 6th March 2010; and further course of action to reduce my reliance on Idea.

After going through the harrowing times with the Idea fiasco, even though the services have resumed and are stable now, I have been feeling that I was over-loyal to Idea and was almost at their mercy due to this over-reliance. And then there is not a single written reply from Idea despite my 3 emails.

So I am thinking it's time I move on to a different service provider and then eventually discontinue this Idea number after forwarding my calls to the new number for a month or two.

So after a bit of star-gazing, I short-listed few options - Virgin, Tata Docomo and BSNL.
I liked Virgin's youth-friendly whacky style, but Virgin calls them Einstein-types who understand OS names and a little tech details. So it didnt look like they will understand what GPRS is ;) .
I liked Docomo's simplified 1p/s billing schemes and GPRS is also available. But was not sure about coverage, and there were way too many negative vibes about bad billing practices regarding GPRS. Holy cow! I dont want a Deja Vu!

I really like what BSNL is offering. And I had quite a few positive vibes about going with BSNL -

1. Govt company, so more or less nobody cares sooo much about profit that they would tweak the system to exploit customers. Good and bad both.
2. Have had very good prior experiences with BSNL, landline and broadband both. Have high regards for BSNL broadband.
3. Govt company, so RTI applies. If something seems fishy, you can ask questions and can be *assured by law* for a reply.
4. If you dont agree, take RTI info to consumer court, and make your case. A lot easier than dealing with a private company which can manipulate info.
5. Coverage - no matter whether you are on the Lakshmi road or on the top of Harishchandragad, chances are very high BSNL will cover you up there. In fact more chances in the later case where all cellphone networks will be dead ... except BSNL. ;)
6. Excellent 1p/s billing scheme -

• Plan Costs: Not more that Rs.150/-, yearly.
• Billing: 1p/s all over India for BSNL cell/landline and 1.2p/s for all other networks.
• Roaming: Same charges as normal!! Except only incoming calls are charged at 1p/s which is still a lot reasonable.
• GPRS: 1p/10KB!!!! That means Rs.1/MB which is AWESOME. Just what the doctor ordered for me.

This is just way too cost efficient as compared to my current Idea scheme, where my regular bills are to the tune of Rs.500/month. Here with the BSNL prepaid card Rs.500 will suffice me for a whole year for god's sake! I was unnecessorily blowing money just because I wanted to keep the number and the service was satisfactory till date. Didnt care enough to check what other service providers were offering! And that spells a very important lesson for any business - when you have a high-paying loyal customer, keep him happy all the time. Dont give him even the slightest of a reason to check out what others are offering. It's a recipe for losing him to your competitors.

Anyways, here are few links worth pondering over -

1. BSNL tariff charges
A little difficult to make out anything at the first glance, due to govt style presentation. But hang around and you will get a hang of it. ;)

2. National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
Official Indian govt site about consumer courts. Contains full text of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and other related rules and regulations.
This case of Idea Cellular denying me access to a service which I have already paid for, I believe, comes under unfair trade practices as defined under Chapter I, section 2.c.(i) and 2.c.(iii) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

3. Consumer Advocate
Success/failure stories for different parties who went to consumer court; and a short case analysis. Must read.

4. International Consumer Rights Protection Council (ICRPC)
Claims to be an NGO helping consumers in presenting their case without the need for a lawyer. Charges a token membership fees of Rs.250/- Havent gone into details of it. But worth checking it out while in need.


[UPDATE: 7th March, 2010]
For once, Idea did reply, yesterday late evening. But no prizes for guessing what it would be. Wothless business words. No acknowledgement of the problem, neither any assurance about non-recurrence.

==============================================================================================
"Dear Mr. Kulkarni,

Greetings of the Day.

With reference to your e-mail and telecon with Ms. XYZ, we wish to inform you that services to your mobile number have been restored.

Should you require any further assistance feel free to contact our Customer Care Helpline number 9822012345 or e-mail us at 9822012345@idea.adityabirla.com

Thanks & Regards,
ABC
Idea Cellular Ltd.
Maharashtra & Goa

“Idea offers Customer Care through SMS, get complete information on Billed/Unbilled amt, Bill plans details and many more details with an instant SMS on your mobile. Type " CARE " & send it to 50505 (toll free number ).”

Disclaimer

All the tariff plans/services are subject to regulatory body approval. Company reserves the rights to modify/change/discontinue services/plans based on guidelines received from time to time."
==============================================================================================

Fed Up Big Time with Idea Cellular - Part 2

Continuing with the part one. This is what happened on the next day (i.e. on the morning of 5th March 2010)

In the morning again I received an SMS saying my services are barred for lack of payment. And indeed my outgoing calls were barred. GPRS was already barred. That was too much for me. So here is the 2nd email that I sent to Idea Cellular, to the same addresses. This company doesnt reply to any mails you write, neither does it have a mechanism to escalate the issue to somebody at higher position, like a nodal officer. You are absolutely at their mercy.

=======================================================================================
"I was expecting to get an official reply on this. But I didnt.

Now my outgoing calls are again barred. Second time since yesterday. And this is it for me.
You will spend crores on advertisements but you wont care a dime about long term postpaid customers who are regularly paying you at a higher rates than normal. In fact you will go out of your way to trouble them like anything. Nice business strategy.

I am a hell of a disgruntled customer now who used to be immensely loyal just a week ago. And I am not coming back. But ofcourse you dont care.

Please discontinue my GPRS service. I will confirm about discontinuing this number altogether in next few days.
I hope to get back the deposit that I paid at the time of getting this lifetime connection.

Shreyas Kulkarni
Sr Software Engineer,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX, Pune
Cell: +NN N NN NN NN NNN"
=======================================================================================

Then in an hour or two, I got a call from an XXX lady who worked at Idea's Sharada Centre office in Pune. She apologized literlly 100 times which was gross and unnecessory. When you have an irritated customer due to *your* fault, apologizing doesnt work. To cool him down, you should take corrective action and then convey the same. Apologies wouldnt bring my GPRS up again, nor would I be able to use those apologies to make calls.

She did tell me action is being take to correct the system and this problem wont occur in future. She also promised me a reply to the mail. I asked her to acknowledge the problem in the reply. And I guess that made her all nervous and I didnt get the reply! It's plain irresponsible and fraudulant to know that a customer has suffered from your own mistake and still not be open enough to accept the problem and commit root-cause resolution. I just dont trust these guys anymore.

My outgoing calls resumed in an hour but GPRS was still down by 4pm. So I wrote another mail clarifying the fact that mere apologizing and giving wordly promises wont work. I didnt mean to sound cocky but I wanted to send a message, loud and clear, that however sweet and sugary you talk, I wont take this sir-system-is-that-way BS again in future. I am paying hefty charges for the service and it's not wrong if I demand quality, reliability and some sense in return.

Here is the third mail -

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"I did get a call in the afternoon from XXXX (Sharada Centre office). I was assured that the services will be restored and the system will changed to consider my GPRS prepayment.

My outgoing calls have resumed, but the GPRS is still down. And I was promised a reply to this mail, which is still missing. Please reply.

I am holding up my plans of switching the service provider on the precondition of immediate resumption of my services (both voice and data) and no reoccurance of this same issue in the future. And for that, I would like to have a written acknowledgement of the problem and a written assurance mentioning this issue wont occur in future. If the fix in the system is going tot take time, I would like to know how much. I have had (and still having) too much of an unnecessory trouble to trust any wordly assurances.

And please let me know by when I can expect my GPRS service to resume.

Shreyas Kulkarni
Sr Software Engineer,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX, Pune
Cell: +NN N NN NN NN NNN"
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Fed Up Big Time with Idea Cellular

After being a very satisfied customer with Idea Cellular for last few years, recently I have started getting highly frustrated and annoyed at the ways of Idea. Especially with their approach of going out of their way to trouble the most loyal of their customers.

Their advertising campaigns are totally un-cool and give away their sense of urgency in getting new business. Their so-called social-initiatives all look like a fraud to me. The facilities they provide look like a mask to fool the public, the complaint-registration dialogue on their website, which just doesnt allow you to register your complaint by throwing error while submitting - a case in point. And then their unstoppable tele-marketing calls! When I tried to register for Do-Not-Disturb on their website, like other services, it didnt just work. As I said, it's there just to fool the public. Then I called up their customer-service to register for DND, and to my astonishment, I was charged 50p/min for that call. 50 paise are no big deal, but business-ethics is what I am trying to get at. And then again, when I told the guy to add me to the Do-Not-Disturb registry, he told me it would take 45 days!!!! Can it get anymore scandalous than that? Take this - the frequency of tele-marketing calls increased after that.

And with this bit of history, now, to my disbelief, they have barred my GPRS service for all the wrong reasons. Rather than mincing words in telling what happened, I think I would rather share the actual mail I wrote to all their email addresses I could find and find relevant. A first for me to publically share my email, but I think in these cases of customer-apathy, it makes a big sense to make it all public. Jago grahak jago.

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"Hi

I have been using Idea postpaid connection since last 4-5 years i.e. since I bought my first mobile. I have never been late on bill payment for one single bill till date.

Recently my frustration with Idea has been growing by leaps and bounds.

My GPRS is not working since yesterday, and if I understand it correctly, it's barred. Why? Because my 'usage' has gone beyond my credit-limit. I got hundred calls for paying my bill in advance as the credit limit was exhausted.

I activated GPRS service couple of years ago. I pay Rs.200 for an allocated usage-quota of 500MB per month. The strange thing is I am charged for GPRS usage throughout the month, and then at the end the bill is generated with a GPRS charge of Rs. 200. When I activated GPRS I was charged Rs.200 in advance, before I even started using it. So that means it's advance-billing as far as GPRS goes. So effectively, whenever I use GPRS, I have already paid for the usage. SO I fail to see what kind of sense it makes to again charge me for the usage throughout the month!! Another really annoying side-effect of this non-sense is I cannot know my true usage during any time of the month, as the figure is swollen up with false GPRS charges. At the time of GPRS activation itself, I had raised this concern, loud and clear and I was shamelessly told - this is how the system is. What kind of company are you if you cant have a logical system in place for that single most important aspect of any business - billing!? and cant make amends when you know the system is doind wrong? *You* own the system right? Who do you think you are kidding?

Now I have explained this numerous times to all the 'customer-care'(!) people calling me up for bill payment in advance. Everybody assures me that I wont be troubled again. But then in next few hours there is this yet-another-customer-care-guy asking me when I will pay up. And the next day I receive an SMS saying my services are barred.

All this headache and trouble without even a single fault from my side. Effectively, I am being denied a service even after paying in full for it, which makes a good case if I approach a consumer court.

Is this a punishment for being a long term customer with Idea? Dont you guys have even enough business-sense to provide at least normal service to such long-term post-paid cash-cows?

I would better see some quick action in this regard. I want my GPRS activated and working ASAP and I want the system corrected such as to take into account my pre-payment for GPRS. When I do a *147# I want to see my real usage; not some figure blown up by charges for a service that has already been paid for. I am a software engineer myself and have seen enough complex systems to know this is easily doable; so spare me that sir-the-system-is-that-way BS.

Believe me, if I dont see anything convicing done in this regard, I will take it as total apathy, and will not hesitate to jump the ship and switch to some other service provider. And I wont even wait for number-portability.

Shreyas Kulkarni
Sr Software Engineer,
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXX, Pune
Cell: +NN N NN NN NN NNN"
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[UPDATE: 4 Mar 2010, 11pm]
By 2pm I realised not only my GPRS, but now my outgoing calls were also barred. Lost my temper. Blasted that poor customer-care guy. Outgoing calls were resumed in an hour. GPRS was still barred.
Got a call from a girl from Sangli office. This call was in response to the mail. The mail had reached Sangli office. This time gave her a gyan session on all this in Marathi, and got the same reply - sir-i-agree-u-shouldnt-be-charged-but-this-is-as-per-the-system. BS! You know it's wrong and rather than correcting it you expect the customer to pay interim bill amount in thousands of rupees to increase his credit limit??
I told her to discontinue my GPRS from the next billing cycle. Now I am on the lookout for a service provider with 1p/s plan with good GPRS. Tata DOCOMO, BSNL, Vodaphone and maybe Virgin are what I am targetting. I am done with Idea Cellular now.
By the way, the girl said she would reply to my mail, but I am still awaiting that official reply.