Desicritics Category: Culture: Consumerism

A Lesson Finally Learned

Purba — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:10:55 EDT

Once upon a time people bought gadgets that lasted them a lifetime, well almost. Refrigerators, television sets, we almost grew up with them. They did retire, hurt, once in a while but after a brief hospitalisation would resume duty without a murmur of protest.

Our first family car was a second hand, sky blue, Premier Padmini. It was tantrumy, would start at will and stop without warning causing distress, embarrassment and traffic jams. We had many a good Samaritan coming to our rescue, helping us out of sticky situations. Those days Delhi still had some nice people. When we finally sold it off, my Maa actually mourned for it. She loves mourning, animate inanimate notwithstanding.

Our first colour television, a Sony, lasted almost 25 years. Its images had become blurry, the controls cranky, but my parents refused to let go of it. They now have a 53 inch monster which conks off with alarming regularity.

Now that I have a household of my own to run, the gadgets have multiplied, look fancier, have mind boggling functions and come in daring colours. I can remove lint in a jiffy, colour my whites a ghastly orange in the washing machine and place my cup of tea on the warmer lest it get cold. I get cooled, warmed, entertained at the click of a button. But the life time bond is a thing of the past.

The Ray household does not acquire gadgets in haste. We follow a specific order. It starts with a thought. Yes, we need to upgrade our music system. Once the thought has germinated we nurture it. Sometimes we mull over it for over a year. The husband researches, compares and researches some more. We finally settle down for a state of the art music system. But the pleasure doesn’t even last a season. Within months a sleeker model with never-before-seen features makes a glitzy splash in the market, making our existing one look redundant. We start pondering again.

God forbid if any appliance conks off. I have been residing in Gurgaon for the last six years. Many errant appliances later, I can say with conviction that the millennium city has by far the worst technicians this side of the equator. But, the eternal optimist I am, I seldom learn from my past mistakes. I am always in the fond hope of an experience that will not be traumatic and have me close to a nervous breakdown. Every time it is the same sob story: a breakdown, frantic calls to the service centre, the reassurance that things will be taken care of in a jiffy (I wish they wouldn’t say that). It takes half a dozen trips by the technician, two dozen calls in varying decibel levels, threats, arguments, to finally get things back on track. By the end of it I have a hoarse throat and Rathore, Salim and Pandey jee in my speed dial list. Each ordeal later I sit and wonder, wouldn’t things have been much simpler if we had just dumped the damn thing and bought a newer model!

Ironically life is not meant to be simple, it gets insipid otherwise. We thrive on ordeals and challenges, we crib and we cope.

The spice came from unexpected quarters this time. My otherwise well behaved washing machine conked off after managing eight years of glitch free service. One freezing wintry morning, it let out a series of alarms and the heating function stopped working. Since it didn’t appear to be a major fault I decided to call the service centre and made the stupidest mistake of my life. To be fair the service engineer arrived promptly for diagnosing the problem. The circuit board needs to be replaced he announced. It will be fixed in an hour or two. Seven hours and a lot of chaos later it was discovered that the thermostat needed to be changed as well.

When you need something desperately it is always located in a far off city. This time it was Pondicherry. The thermostat finally did arrive after a week of reminders. Thank God, I can finally warm wash my laundry again, I mused. Famous last thoughts. Like King Bruce the technician kept trying to fix the apparently minor problem, and I kept rekindling my hopes. I would switch on the machine, a few minutes later the circuit board would get all hot and sultry and go up in smoke. My teeth had become blunt with all that gritting, my hair sparse from all that pulling. A second opinion was sought. It was discovered that we now needed a new thermistor as well.

A lot of heartburn and a few thousand rupees later our washing machine is finally working. It has become noisy, the heating element is temperamental. And here I am pondering yet again, would it not had been simpler had we just dumped the damn thing!

Last week our geyser started leaking again. I did not call the service centre, instead the husband dismantled it and we sold it to our scrap dealer for a princely amount of Rs 60. We have finally learned our lesson.

Tag me a Price

Halima Khan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:04:12 EDT

Nothing in life comes without a price attached to it not even life itself. Does anyone beg to differ? Then I suggest you need to go check with your parents how much giving you life cost them. However, I am doubtful if you are interested in that so here are some tags, which might be more relevant to your existence:

The first in this category has to be phone connections, from luxury, they have become a much desired and sought out need. In the last few years, we have become lucky with choices; from pink and blue Telenor tawk shawk to red Jazz to bright orange and green Ufone there is also the blue and white Zong. The telecommunication has become so increasingly aggressive recently that other than pricing strategy they have to be very creative with marketing too. Well no one is complaining about that for sure; after all, it is a delight to get to see ‘bootilicious’ models dancing to irritatingly catchy tunes.

The sim cards are widely available now and at affordable rates too. It does not come as a surprise that everyone has to have two or even three nowadays, especially with dual sim phone sets gaining popularity. Nonetheless, it is major good news that governments finally realized its responsibility and the NIC copy as a requirement to issue sims is being strictly followed. The standard sim rate has been 500 with either free credit or talk time or a limited number of sms or all three in some cases. The summers wavered the sim prices for instance Warid sims are available at Rs.150 only. Ufone is giving three sim options, two are priced at Rs.130 only, and one costs Rs.150 only. Zong is the only phone company offering a phone set and a sim combo deal under Rs.2000 only. However, no need to rush this offer is valid for limited period which doesn’t end.

Prepaid service gives us ample choice in selecting the billing system that suits our calling requirements. There is the one-second billing, the thirty seconds billing, and the regular one-minute billing. In addition, there is also per hour billing packages with all services charging approximately Rs. 5 per hour. However, most of these low call rates apply to the same network calls. This trend has changed recently with phone services becoming more consumers’ friendly than ever.

Phone is not just a communication gadget anymore it is a whole entertainment parcel. Voice quality and connectivity is very important for cellular service providers, but to keep pace in this cutthroat competition value added services are of keen significance as well. Mobile TV, radio, web browsing, chatting, song dedication, quizzes, games, competitions, lucky draws and so on and so forth. Viola, your very own Pandora box!

Be it lovers sighing their nights away or friends trying to catch up on lost time or socialites sniffing for the up and happening or employees trying to do their job cellular services have definitely proved bigger blessing than nuisance. Moreover, it is a relief to see this blessing becoming progressively more affordable.

At the end of the day it hardly matters what code proceeds your number till you have a mobile set in your hand to flash in people’s faces especially if you have a pair of car keys dangling in your other hand. Yes the ultimate dream that every prestigious member of ever generation thinks obligatory to pursue, and thank God, for economies of scale that it is not a too far off possibility. There is no limit to how much you can spend on shoes and bags, agreed? Unanimously, of course! Conversely, I insist there is no limit to how extravagant you can get with your car too. Sky is the limit with how luxurious technology can make your four-wheelers.

Honda is a beauty but undisputedly it is the most unaffordable beauty in the market especially for just starting-off youngsters. The Accord 2.4 I-VTEC is quoted at Rs. 3,599,000.00; there is no way in heaven or hell that I am adding only to that figure. That one is for recommending to your daddy especially if he can afford the ever-rising petrol prices. If you plan to pursue this extravaganza, you had better hurry since ‘the unit price is subject to change without notice & at the discretion of Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Limited.’ Though I am sure the helpful salesperson will remind you that the price prevailing at the time delivery of the vehicle will be charged. The luckiest you can get at Honda showroom is at Rs. 985,000.00 and you just bought yourself a City (manual transmission).

The new Corolla that hit the market just this year has four models including Altis1.8 VVTI (AT) and 2OD Saloon diesels, all four supporting sunroof, and they fall between Rs. 1,600,000 and Rs. 1,800,000. Toyota has fairer economical cars to its credit as well; there is Cuore available between Rs. 400,000 and Rs. 500,000 only depending on which color and model you pick.

Suzuki is not far behind in sales and car quality. There is the good old Mehran, even though it’s a little old fashioned it’s as reliable as ever. Then there is also the Cultus, which goes slightly higher but is in keeping with evolving trends. It costs around Rs. 700,000 only. Alto is available at an affordable Rs. 500,000 approximately. Even the slightly luxurious Liana is priced averagely at Rs. 900,000 only. The sporty jeep is the Suzuki car to cross the Rs. 1, 000,000 mark and that too only slightly.

Most banks offer leasing opportunity nowadays at fairly easier terms, if none of the above fit your budget.

Whichever models of whichever brand you end up buying its essential to remember, that with great power of that key comes great responsibility. Being careful on the road is part of your civic sense just as carefully taking care of your car’s maintenance is. This is not just for your safety but also for everyone else’s. Like every other product, the handbook that comes with it is important. Go through the warranty manual and fully understand your consumer rights to avail the after sale services to your best advantage.

Oh a point of information please morally all cars should come without horns.

Well by now, we have painted the picture with the mobile and a set of car keys but it’s not complete yet now is it? To be perfectly equipped for survival in this current age plastic money has become an important ingredient, cannot stress the importance enough so I will move on to what alternatives are available in the ‘sabzi mandi’. International banks have long realized how fruitful Pakistan is as a potentially very ripe sales base. The security threats are nothing compared to how rewarding the gullibility of people here can be. No offence in being an easy prey is there.

ABN now known as the Royal Bank of Scotland has been in the market for quite some time now. They are the only ones co branding their credit cards. There is the collaboration with Air blue which gets you free air travel when you mange to reach required reward points. Then there are also Ufone benefits of free talk time and line rent. HSBC has the standard silver, gold, and platinum credit cards. However the major incentive that using their card has is the more you use it in your shopping, traveling etc the more the bank saves for your child’s education. That is definitely a tempting reward point system. MCB bends more towards the debit card options so you get to spend only what you have. Hardly any fun eh! HBL follows the market trend with the green card and the gold card. The credit card acquiring process has no doubt simplified a great deal and the terms are more convenient with greater stress on wider opportunities for its users.

Most banks share the benefits they offer; also, there are more or less standard features. Even the credit card membership fees are as good as same with the option being Rs.2000/- and Rs.4000/-. However, the Platinum Card fee ranges from Rs. 5000/- to Rs.15, 000/- depending on what limit the bank has assigned you. The fringe benefits on credit cards are more or less regular as well with insurance given especially on travel and with discounts offered with redemption partners.

With wants and needs switching sides, fast price tags have taken a relative connotation; only you can decide what your budget accommodates. Nevertheless, there is definitely something for everyone now. Happy affording!

Abusing the British Welfare State

DesiGirl — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:38:59 EDT

The BBC’s Famous, Rich and Jobless (telecast at 9.00 pm on March 10, 2010) seems another in the long list of “Celebrity tourism”, as the Guardian puts it, to grace our television. A bunch of “celebs” visited various members of the public who are living purely on benefits to see if they can help them.

That the rationale behind the show was shaky as hell is another topic altogether. What I want to discuss is the issue raised by one of the celebs, Diarmuid Gavin, as he visited a big family receiving £29,500 a year from the state. 28-year-old Mum and 29-year-old dad are both jobless and mum is pregnant with her sixth child. They live in a massive six-bedroom detached house and the dad hadn’t had a paying job in seven years.

Of course, this small fact doesn’t deter him from having more and more babies, that the taxpayer pays for. When Diarmuid asks the wife what she feels about sponging off the state, she points to her husband and goes “it is his fault! He wants a big family.”

That left me speechless.

How can you have a child without figuring out how you are going to provide for its future? When you yourself do not have a job, how can you have more and more children?

Answer: Quite easy. Get the state to pay for it.

There was some sob story in the offing, of course, why the dad hadn’t got off his backside and found himself a paying job in 7 years but I don’t buy it. Both husband and wife used to do menial jobs before and chances of them pulling in £30000 a year are slim. But now, thanks to the gazillion kids, they not only have the money, they even have other perks like rent, council tax etc that are paid by the state, aka, taxpaying mugs like you and me.

Apparently, the sick bastard labelled ‘British Fritzl’ was “driven by child benefit greed” and kept raping his daughters and having babies with them because he got child benefits! Ba$tard wants a plush lifestyle and instead of going out there and working his butt for it, he impregnates his daughters repeatedly and bills the state for the childcare.

If these are not examples of gross abuse of the British welfare state system, I do not know what is.

I say give the benefits to the old, the infirm, those who cannot fend for themselves. The OAPs who die every winter because they cannot afford to pay their heating bills, give them the money. The disabled person who cannot go out there and earn her daily bread, give her the money to look after herself. The others, able-bodied ones who are sitting in the comfort of their six-bed taxpayer-funded life, get over yourself and go out there and get a paying job.

I used to work for a social research agency and one of my projects was working on the incapacity benefits – who was receiving them, how much and what was their status. The findings made my blood boil. Whilst there were genuine applicants, there were many who, despite their claims to go out there and work if given a chance, would rather sit comfortably and watch the benefit cheques come in month after month.

I say the simplest way to reduce the massive deficit is to completely rehaul the benefits system. If guys like the father-of-five-with-one-on-the-way had to pay their own way, I am sure they would stop whingeing and get a vasectomy first and a job next.

An Unpleasant Experience at the Local Big Bazaar

DeeptiA — Sat, 6 Mar 2010 17:43:59 EST

As part of a renewed quest for attaining fitness, we decided that we should have all the equipment available, so a Yoga mat was needed. On a Saturday evening, we were resting at home, and decided that we might as well go out and do some shopping, and the motion was passed in record time (although hubby was somewhat reluctant, but without a good reason, was squashed).

So we went to a couple of sports shops, but were not satisfied with either the quality or price of the Yoga mats on offer. Then we remembered that the Big Bazaar nearby also had Yoga mats, and the car was turned in that direction; neither of us remembered that these were the 2 days where Big Bazaar had launched their scheme where you could turn in your old items for exchange, get coupons, and then use those coupons against new purchases. When we saw a queue that was longer than usual, some guesswork and some posters revealed the truth.
We gritted our teeth, decided to buy the Yoga mat, and also a few other items that we needed (after all, we were already here and might as well do some of the grocery shopping). After around 20 minutes, we were done and decided to get onto billing, hoping that the queue would have reduced. Well, no luck. The queue was the same length. We picked the queue that was the shortest, and stood, taking a look at neighboring queues to decide if one of them was shorter. You need to remember that we are fervent believers in Murphy's laws, one of which is that whichever line you are in, it will take the most time.

One elderly lady was getting her stuff billed, and the combination of the billing clerk and the lady were Superman in reverse, with everything seeming to happen in slow motion. I swear, it must have taken them 10 minutes after all the stuff was checked out, to just do the money transfer. She had coupons, she had exchange coupons, she had money, and was trying to use all three to pay, and the clerk was getting badly confused. The queue behind him was getting impatient, with some people starting to mutter. One could not figure out why, when Big Bazaar knew that a lot more people are going to show up, some of the billing counters were unmanned, and they did not have enough people to bag the sold stuff. Not good management.

Then the final disaster. Combine a lady prone to quarreling with some weird policies, and you get a disaster. Big Bazaar would give 2 kg of sugar free with every bill more than Rs. 1200, but if you handed in a bill of Rs. 2500, you still got only 2 kg sugar; this struck me as really weird. It did not take people long to figure out that if you got 2 bills made for Rs. 1200 and Rs. 1300, you would get 4 kg sugar, and this is what this lady was doing. Unfortunately, she did not split her stuff before reaching the counter, and at run time, was moving stuff into billing or away from billing, depending on the value (after all, getting a bill for a Rupee more than Rs. 1200 was a waste); at the same time, after every item was scanned, she would want to know the price, and the discounted price. You can imagine what this was doing to the time it took for billing. I was beginning to turn red and visualized screaming, but then hubby stopped me and counseled patience.

What really complicated matters was that some clothes allowed the exchange coupons, while for other clothes, the exchange coupons were not valid; and the salesman at the clothes counter had promised that all exchange coupons were valid at all items, while for the billing clerk, his machine did not show those offers, and he refused to mark those coupons against some of the items. At this point, clothes were flying here and there, and I was not sure whether any of them really knew which clothes had been billed, which not, and so on.

Then a man behind me decided to do the screaming act wonderfully, screaming at the billing clerk and the lady both; of course, the lady found a new target in the shape of this man, and soon had him a quivering wreck. All I wanted to do was to get out of there, and finally a new clerk arrived, announced that he could not do anything since he had to follow the offers coming on his computer, and practically shooed them out of the place; and would you believe the number of people admiring his actions, even though the mistake was probably with the store people.

Spring-ing a Surprise

Purba — Thu, 4 Mar 2010 08:33:37 EST

Spring arrived without notice, sans any fanfare. Just a week back I was cosily wrapped in a shawl enjoying a night out with friends. It is another matter that I was the only one in anything remotely woollen. Delhi fashionistas are content shivering in their chiffons. And now here I am sweating profusely, complaining loudly to whoever is willing to listen as to how hot it has become. Gosh! I can’t even bear to look at my full sleeved tees.

A few days back, I went to our local shopping centre, “The Galleria”. The atmosphere was festive, with Holi just round the corner. I spotted quite a few people strolling around in their shorts and tees. My corduroys felt rather overdressed. “Why? It’s only February” I mused aloud to the husband.

Of course by now I was feeling mildly disturbed, I wanted to wear my shorts and tees too, weather be damned. So what do I do? I spent the entire weekend (two whole days to be precise) trying to unpack my summer wardrobe. Actually it’s a pretty complicated procedure. When you are living in a high rise apartment, space is the first casualty. My parents live in this huge three-storied bungalow and there are dedicated rooms and cupboards to store clothes that haven’t been worn the last twenty years. This is not an attempt to be funny, for a change I am dead serious. The kilometre long loft is used to store Diwali gifts accumulated over the last decade or more. Now that I have my own nest, I no longer have this privilege and my wardrobe has to be split according to seasons.

To unpack, one has to pack away stuff just to create space. And when you put away stuff, you can’t help but wonder at the sheer volume of apparel you have managed to accumulate in just one season. How the hell did I manage 4 pullovers in rust, even though it’s my favourite colour? Fine, aubergine (the colour, not the veggie) is hot this season, but did I really need that wrap, boots, dress and a bolero jacket in that colour? Actually I blame Gurgaon, the mall capital and my credit cards. The millennium city unleashes the shopaholic in you. The glittering stores with their tantalizing displays beckon at you, you walk in hypnotized, feel the textures, feast your eyes on the new collection, spot a pair of Jodhpurs in your favourite colour, try it on, it fits you like a dream. Ah, Nirvana! I loathe need-based shopping, it seems so mundane. For me it’s about surrendering to my impulses. Sauntering into a mall, inhaling the fresh aroma of coffee, sniffing at tantalizing jars and tubes with exotic ingredients at a Body Shop store, gently filling that enduring little basket with knick knacks and opening my eyes wide in horror when the cashier finally presents the bill to me. For such indulgences, thank god there’s always MasterCard.

Confronted with a pile from my latest indiscretions, I make yet another “no more shopping, I have enough” resolution. Every year I follow this ritual. Silently curse myself, wonder how I can create space for my ever expanding eclectic wardrobe. I weed out stuff and look for unsuspecting individuals I can pass on to - usually my maids.

So it’s that time of the year again, I am atop the ladder reaching out for the loft making careful pyramids of attires from a season gone by. I lug the 100 kilo (at least it felt that heavy) mattress off my bed and stuff some more woollies in my divan. But the incorrigible me is already plotting and planning my next conquest in the shopping precincts. I could definitely do with a few more skirts this season and I need a pair of tracks my dance classes, should I make a quick trip to Mango to check out their spring summer collection? Thank god my cramped closets can’t hear me think or else they would have collapsed in frustration by now.

Propaganda, Patriotism and Profits

Ruchi — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:28:07 EST

I was in a small village in Rajasthan on January 26, the Indian Republic Day. Children ran through the village shouting in chorus, “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai, mera bharat mahan” and the like. These are children who will see little opportunity in their life; barring exceptions, each will spend his life as unskilled labor, marginalized and exploited in a globalizing India. Yet they ran, loudly, overtly, persistently patriotic.

On a talk show on Maoism, the wife of the slain cop, Francis Induvar emphatically claimed that her husband’s blood bled for the nation and she will be proud if her son too joined the police. Newspapers regularly carry obituaries and reports of jawans killed in combat, the odd blast – the death in “service of the nation” bestowing martyrdom on them.

That the State is separate from the people is a given. That the state will work in the interests of the people is not. In fact, often, the converse is. Therefore overt patriotism is a poor and middleclass virtue because unquestioning allegiance is convenient: to maintain peace and an appearance of order and frame paucity of options as considered sacrifice for the good of the country.

Patriotism is not innate, but inculcated and institutionalized by the State. Inculcated through dogmatic education and embedded through whimsical handouts to indoctrinate the poor to see the State (and its actors) as benefactors. Corrupt incompetent buffoons are repeatedly elected because they are framed as patrons and not accountable representatives. It’s significant that in a patriarchal society, Gandhi is revered as bapu and Nehru as chacha, thus killing all avenues to question their decisions. Every aspect of the poor person’s life is circumscribed by some state handout. Grain is distributed in fitful spurts from a dysfunctional PDS, eligibility for which is summarily given or retracted. Education and health from dysfunctional state infrastructure is delivered with disdain. Further, the right to work comes with the Mahatama Gandhi moniker. Roads come at the behest of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. House to live in as Indira Gandhi Avas Yojana. The local MLAs and MPs spend tax monies but litter their constituencies with their name markers.

Patriotism means love and devotion for one’s country. Yet how does one define a nation, when the concept is reshaped as soon as borders are redrawn? Pakistan and Bangladesh were originally part of India but their “otherness” now is unquestioned and the accepted account is that one is exporting terrorism and the other illegal immigrants to India. Scores of our first-line soldiers die unaccounted deaths, their death framed as martyrdom in shallow consolation. But whose beliefs are our soldiers defending? Enlistment in first-line combat positions is overwhelmingly an outcome of complete paucity of employment opportunities not the courage of conviction. What does conviction even mean in the context of an army? Even if individual wars have clear aggressor and aggrieved parties, what about the battles within and individual bullets exchanged? What when the US/UK pressure us to deploy forces in Iraq, the UN for “peacekeeping”? What about when we pit these cadets against our own people? Often the bullets and blows exchanged are not defending the sovereign concept of a nation or even a principle, but pitting the poor against the poor.

If earlier the State used patriotic fervor as an administrative tactic, big business is now co-opting national consciousness for private profit. Patriotism is love for the collective, an all-embracing identity and hence a unifying force. A patriotic populace is submissive, servile and now conveniently unified in a single market. With one stroke in 1991, the entire country unasked became a single unified market for global companies.

American consumer-products giant, P&G is envisaging ambitious growth based in part, by expanding into the Indian rural markets, a strategy mirrored by virtually all consumer-goods companies now that they’ve saturated the urban markets. Our obsession with cricket is now a private industry with global players. Sports and entertainment are moving from participative recreation to centralized consumption, all in the guise of Brand India. That SRK should choose anti-Muslim sentiment in the context of post 9/11 America and not the homegrown examples of the Muslim pogrom in Mumbai/Gujarat is an example of exploiting national identity for business profit. The Islamic identity in the former is fused with the Indian identity keeping intact the entire country’s potential as a market whereas domestic examples will inconveniently divide the national market, that too with the majority Hindu market on the wrong side of the marketing device.

Meanwhile, the rich and powerful are unencumbered by patriotism, having already graduated to becoming “world citizens”. They claim pride in their Indian identity but go about their business with distance, protection and right of way from their own people. The Indian identity is parlayed into a prerogative to direct and exploit national resources and expand sphere of influence outside of national boundaries. In a country riven by class inequities and appalling human development indicators, the poor cannot harness the collective strength of the country. Patriotism then is a bottoms-up centralizing force, used to subsume economically weaker class interests by more powerful state interests, and in neoliberal India by corporate interests.
Kennedy stirringly said, “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”. He was wrong – a citizen’s right to state accountability takes precedence over the state’s demand for allegiance.

What an Idea?

Suresh Naig — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:29:37 EST

I exclaimed “What an Idea?” in disgust, because of its foolishness and lack of forethought. My son was in possession of a prepaid SIM from the service provider Idea Cellular, which along with the handset he had lost a couple of days back. When I called up the number, surprisingly someone answered and I sincerely felt that the handset and SIM were in the hands of some Good Samaritan. However I was jolted when the person arrogantly answered that the phone and the number belonged to her, which she was in possession for over a year.

I immediately called the customer care division to register the loss and block the number. I was in for a second round of shock. The call was transferred to an executive, and after listening to my complaint he said a prepaid cell number cannot be blocked, as per the company rules. Instead he gave me a docket number acknowledging my complaint reporting loss of SIM. I also learnt to my consternation that any person can pay and augment the talk time which will not be refused by idea cellular, in spite of the docket number.

If a handset with a SIM which is lost cannot be blocked, and can be used by any person whose identity could never be established, is it not a farce to demand ID proof while activating the connection. Is it not a possibility, that any person with criminal intent can acquire a SIM and later report loss, so that he can be absolved of a crime, still the SIM continues to be used by his associate?

I feel the Government had banned the sale of prepaid SIM cards in Kashmir, due to this loophole. It is time the Government changes the rules to plug this loophole, lest criminals will continue to rejoice, “What an Idea?”

My Name is Khan Mumbai Release - Free Speech or Free Market?

Ruchi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:23:10 EST

The release of Shahrukh Khan's latest movie, My Name is Khan (MNIK) eclipsed all news for about a week. The biggest story in Saturday's newspapers was without doubt its enthusiastic reception. The story was covered on the front page, various back pages and of course, the op-eds. The general tone was celebratory and unanimously supportive of SRK. The act of watching a movie was extrapolated to taking a stand for independence and free speech. And SRK's refusal to apologize deemed heroic, the one act that would serve as a tipping point for restoring democracy in Mumbai against Shiv Sena's regressive xenophobia and hooliganism. A la, Rosa Parks if you will, whose refusal to give up her seat on the public bus sparked the civil rights movement.

The real story though is not about freedom of speech or democracy or Shiv Sena's violent jingoism. At the heart of this episode is good business - and a little demo of the shape of things to come in an increasingly neo-liberal India.

SRK is a consummate businessman expanding his financial interests from film actor to producer to television, panoramic endorsements and now privatized sport. In 2008, Newsweek named as one of the 50 most powerful people in the world, one of the only two from India (Sonia Gandhi being the other). Despite this, time and again when asked of his political opinions his stock response has been that he wants only to "make people smile". For an intelligent, informed individual with significant money and influence and an alleged believer and proponent of democracy to be so consistently and overtly apolitical has to be a calculated economic decision. In this light, his refusal to retract his IPL statement too has to be deemed a personal economic decision. And the consequences would only have been economic - the money lost due to its limited initial release in Mumbai (no one expected Sena's theater vandalism to extend to the movie goers), akin to the losses incurred by traders/shopkeepers when a political party calls for a bandh against some government policy or inaction.

And yet our national news rallied behind SRK with multiple sympathetic interviews, clips and broadcast of his vaguely messianic tweets. Rajdeep Sardesai, editor of CNN-IBN exhorted every Mumbaiker to "go watch MNIK in the theatres, its a small, but important way of taking a stand" and Barkha Dutt (NDTV) earnestly claimed that "im [sic] standing up for a belief". Mumbai government deployed over 21,000 policemen to guard theatres screening MNIK and preemptively arrested over 900 Shiv Sainiks. Nary a squeak from any of our news networks about this shocking display of state repression and targeting based on political affiliation.

For Shiv Sena, this was a calculated political move - the churlish actions of a regional political party with a fragmented support base after Raj Thackeray's defection. Putting this party in its place requires not Mumbaikers flocking to the theatres to watch MNIK but media blackout. A party of this small size can't rely only on its little official mouthpiece, "Saamna" and needs the media platform for survival. However, the lurching illogic of the Thackerays is good drama, which always translates to good TRPs.

Ratings were the primary interest, not freedom of speech or taking a collective stand against divisive/undemocratic intimidation. There have been numerous other instances of clamps on freedom of speech and nowhere near this kind of sustained coverage to drive public behavior. 94-year old Husain is in exile in Dubai. Taslima Nasrin was expelled from India in 2008. Deepa Mehta's movies, Fire and Water both came under Sena and other Hindu right-wingers' ire. While the above have the right to free speech in common with MNIK's release, they lack easy marketability. And easy marketing is at the heart of this campaign: the effortless connection with India's two loves, cricket and Bollywood, a media savvy celebrity, polarizing Pakistan, a comic book goon and the perception of participation by painless retweets and mere consumption. The Save Our Tiger campaign is another example of a high gloss initiative to distract the public. Yes, there are 1411 tigers left in India and urgent measures are required - but the real solution does not lie in citizen involvement as manifested by the campaign's entreaty of "speak up, blog, sms - every little bit counts". Each is completely useless to curb poaching and/or manage sanctuaries. Neither is tiger conservation hampered by lack of funds since even the allocated funds have not been completely utilized by many sanctuaries.

The real fight for freedom of speech and democracy is the fight against our desperate poverty. Yet there is frighteningly little focus and interest in governance, the prioritization and allocation of the country's resources for its people. And there are serious issues at stake. The Food Security Act (FSA) is on the anvil. What does the FSA say about India? There are people in our country who don't even have enough food for basic sustenance. That their numbers are so large that the States and Center have spent months trying to figure out eligibility criteria and a sharing arrangement that they can afford. We also have the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which entitles each rural household hundred days of unskilled work at minimum wage. This Act is testimony to the fact that we've taken an entire people of our country and thrown them out of the economy. These two legislations go at the heart of democracy and what it means to live in a just and humane society; both are going through serious upheavals. However, what is the percentage of airtime and column space afforded to either? Even worse, why is there no national passion for them?

We need to reevaluate our national priorities. Arts and sports are the underpinnings of the country's culture, and integral to national consciousness. We should rightly be passionate and proud of both. However, mere consumption cannot drive culture. And we cannot claim to be proud Indians, yet ignore Bharat.

TV Review: Colors Bingo Fails to Click

Aaman Lamba — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:39:58 EST

Colors Bingo premiered after a melange of promos over the last month, including a muddled Twitter campaign termed @iamaarami - that had little connection with the show. This wasn't the last thing to go wrong with the show, which is Abhishek Bachchan's television debut.

To put it baldly, Colors Bingo is the worst, most ill-conceived poorly produced product-promo show ever on television. Amitabh Bachchan rendered a few dialogues, random people stood up and a trusty sidekick seemed to have no role to play other than interrupt proceedings randomly. The other sidekick was even less relevant than a gangster's moll to the main action.

The first episode garnered viewership with the presence of the Big B, but the repeated Paa shtick seemed tired and overdone. The game is stacked against the viewer/audience, with the celebrity guest standing to win over Rs. 25 lakhs while they can get only Rs. 1 lakh. Psychologically, seeing the celeb win doesn't do much for the viewers or the audience. Amitabh Bachchan did give his winnings away to charity, setting an excellent example, but there's no guarantee other celebs will do this.

Online reactions seemed to be universally negative, ranging from opinions that the show was boring to views that it was confusing. People seemed to be clicking away to other channels, such as Star Plus' Music Ka Maha Muqqabla, which featured Shah Rukh Khan. Some pretty good singers were on the show when we switched to it.

It seems unlikely Colors Bingo will sustain beyond the first season, but the fan following is sure to give it quite a bit of momentum.

Post-liberalization India - A Free For All?

Ruchi — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:39:08 EST

My Airtel Broadband was down (second time in a month) so I called the Bharti Airtel customer service number from my Airtel mobile. For about two hours, I couldn’t get through ‘cause the “network was busy”. Finally four hours later when I tried again, I got through. By “got through”, I mean, I got through to the irritating menu system. I punched in my account number, reason for calling, type of problem and finally over five minutes of this annoying IVR later, a real live person came online. And her first question to me is, “what is your account number?”

What the hell is wrong with this company? All this song and dance on their stupid menu is just a delaying tactic? Why should the customer provide the same information twice? That too in its entirety! And lo behold, after giving my account number, she asked me the reason for my call. After being told that my broadband was down, her immediate question was when I last paid my bill, the snide implication being that perhaps my payment delinquency was the reason for non-service.

First, that may well be the reason. However, shouldn’t a telecom company of Airtel’s size have at least sorted out these basic customer service questions? Should these questions need to be asked to the customer instead of being shown on the customer service rep’s screen as soon as I call? After I told her to look it up herself, it took her a good minute to figure out that my payment in fact was not overdue. And then about seven minutes after I was connected, did she actually get to (attempting) to solving my problem. Attempt ‘cause problem was not solved. All I got was a reference number and an unapologetic four hour wait time. So about eight hours of work day downtime, pretty much the whole day.

Where’s the mea culpa? There’s none. This is the same company that will send reminder text messages for bill payments, even before the payment is due! And a day late will attract late fee charges. However, there’s no refund for service downtime. There’s also no refund if they add some “service” to your account without your permission. Those annoying “hello tunes” is a classic example. Suddenly callers are hearing some embarrassing song instead of the classing ring tone; yet can you get a refund without a ridiculously long phone call with some untrained newbie on the other side? The thing is, each such transgression costs the customer very little and thus disincents the long annoying phonecall; however, the volumes make a large amount of money for the company.

This kind of annoying in-your-face, bordering or outright illegal “marketing” and deterrent reparation processes is not isolated to Airtel. All service companies that have grown helter-skelter in the past few years, notably telecom and financial services companies have done so on the back of predatory marketing, ill-equipped infrastructure, and of course speed-trained (hence untrained) customer service representatives who are unable to handle even the slightest deviation from whatever crap script they get to read from. Where the customer is at fault either due to neglect or due to plain ignorance (in the case of many new users of service), customer will pay. If the company is at fault, even then the user will pay.

This raises a serious question. In a country where the population is not previously exposed to organized retail and/or service, who should bear the cost of educating and organizing the customer? Post-liberalization, large multinational companies flocked to India salivating at the prospect of one of the world’s largest consumer base. However, since per-capita incomes are so low here, profits are driven by volume as opposed to high margins. This means that the marginal value of each customer is very little and hence, it makes dollar/rupee sense to reduce after sales-service to a bare minimum to the point of ignoring the customer. However, it is not acceptable for these companies to reduce their after sales service standards (to reduce costs) to such an extent that a new user would almost surely get lost in the maze. If adequate levels of customer service are not profitable, then they shouldn’t be in the business; taking advantage of an unexposed and unorganized populace is pure predatory.