Jeyaganesh's Blog

This is related to my previous post. I thought I was the only one affected by ticketgenie.in’s dispatch [or courier delay in delivering] of IPL tickets. Is it not their responsibility to ensure the delivery on time? I got five emails and 3 phone calls regarding the same problem from different persons. One person enquired how to get the refund. No way man!. For all the cases, they are not able to get proper replies from Ticketgenie either through email or phone. I googled “ticketgenie ipl tickets” and shocked to see number of  complaints from other buyers which topped the list. It seems no one [who selected courier option] got the tickets on time.

P.S : I am yet to receive the tickets for April 1st match. Well done DTDC. Keep the good work.

Navigated to kkr.com for buying tickets for match between KKR and DC scheduled on 01/04/2010 and clicked ‘buy tickets’.  My Browser was redirected to ticketgenie.com.

I selected the courier option out of two options provided: 1. Home printing — have to claim the original tickets from the match venue, 2. Courier option — tickets will reach your home 3 days before match schedule through Blue Cart Courier. Instructions in website clearly mentioned the tickets will be dispatched through Blue Dart Courier. And once dispatched, the docket number of the courier will be e-mailed to the buyer.

The match schedule and my schedule in Kolkata — for official purpose — happened to be in the same week. Also for IPL version 1,  I desperately tried to attend KKR match at Kolkata. But I missed. Since they [Ticketgenie] promised it [ticker delivery] will reach me in 3 days in advance (i.e.) before 29/03/2010, I booked the tickets. At that time, my departure from Trichy to Kolkata is not planned.

But it happened that I have to be there in Kolkata on 26/03/2010. This makes my selected courier option void because I given the delivery address at Trichy.  I emailed to Ticketgenie requesting for the change in delivery details. But no prompt and proper reply is given by them. I tried calling them, they simply said “Email the details and we’ll see what we can do.”

Then my departure date came and I am now here in Kolkata watching the same match in TV.

Today morning I called Ms.Shruthi, ticket dispatch division, Ticketgenie, Kolkata and enquired about the ticket. They said they already dispatched it on 27/03/2010 through DTDC couriers.

“Then why you not properly replied my emails and not sent me the docket nos.”

“Sir that is Bangalore peoples work.  I’ll give u a number. Please speak with him regarding this.”

“That doesn’t matter anyway. I can’t get the tickets now. I am already in Kolkata. Is there any other way to watch the match? I got the printout of the e-ticket and my photo ID with which I booked it.  That is what required for Home printing option, Right?  Can I change it to that option now? “

“No, that is valid only when you selected the Home printing option while booking.  If you selected that option, we could’ve holded the tickets with us and u can redeem it at the match venue. You have to buy new tickets at the counter if that your tickets are not with you.”

“Then you… ok, they must’ve sent me at least the docket no. at right time.  At website it is mentioned the courier will be Blue Dart but now you sent it by DTDC courier.  Why?”  I know about their incompetency [DTDC couriers] and experienced it many times. If it mentioned other than Blue Dart, I could’ve changed the plan.

“For that you have to speak with them. Please note down the no. sir”

Man! Her voice was so sweet. I noted down and called the other person.

“Sir, I just spoke with Ms. Shruthi regarding a ticket for the match scheduled today. I selected the courier option while booking. But I haven’t yet received the tickets to my address. Even if it reaches the destination today I can’t go and fetch it. Tell me the alternative solution to watch the watch”

“Ok sir. Give me your contact number and booking reference number. I will give you a call after discussing with my boss within 15 minutes”

After TWO HRS he called me

“Sir, the concerned person for that matter is Ms. Shruthi. You have to speak with her.”

“I already spoke with her. She is hopeless. Alteast give me your manager number. Let me see at least he understands the situation”

“Sir you have to speak with Ms. Shruthi and you are not supposed to speak with anybody else.”

“GO TO HELL MAN.” His voice was also too bad.

I disconnected the call and spent another hour firing DTDC courier for still keeping the fucking tickets with them – which they are supposed to deliver it two days before.

Life will teach you many things even if u r not willing to learn.  Some of the lessons we regret and some we cherish. I don’t know what to do with this lesson.

Aaaaw. DADA is rocking in this match. Six. Six. Six… Go to hell Ticketgenie, go to hell DTDC, go to hell …………………………..

Unfortunate Ganguly and Shahrukh. They are going to miss me.

“Iniya thai thiru naal mattrum Tamil Puthandu nal valthukal”

This is the first new year celebrated after the Tamilnadu government changed the date from April 14th to Jan 14th. Very unique change in history. The question of  ”How a government can change the historically celebrated ‘chithirai’ month, as tamil new year, to ‘thai’” still persists. Fortunately no big opposes raised for this change.

One who changed it is great veteran “Kalaingar Karunanithi” no doubt he will have valid reason for his actions. He brought “Bogi”, “Ulavar Thirunal” and “Makar Sankaranthi” into the equation. If “thai” month is celebrated as start of the year, “Makar Sankaranthi” and Ulavar thirunal  falls on it, marking as a fresh start. And “Bogi”, the bonfire falls on the “margazhi” month last day, perfect ending of the year.

Spent the day with close relatives at chennai. Went to some temples. No doubt, there is really heartfelt happiness, being with relatives especially while festival times.

 "Although the brain accounts for only 2% of our body weight, it uses over 20% of all the oxygen, 25% of all blood flow, over 30% of the water the body takes in and 40% of all the nutrients consumed. If the brain is dehydrated by just 5%, the neurotransmitter activity is reduced by 30%. This results in fuzzy thinking, fatigue stymied decision making, impaired short term memory, and diminished focus and concentration. Sensible nutritional habits are vital in keeping the brain fuelled with the energy required to operate at its optimum capacity."

- Excerpt from the book I am reading now "Unleashing the Brilliance" by Brian E Walsh

Proud to announce I am one of the many who skip their breakfast for no reason . Our point is "We are not going to die because of it". There may be other reasons, busy schedule, laziness, etcetera, etcetera. Reading the above paragraph may changed your views, like it changed mine, if you are one like me.

Its nice they provided free internet services at airports. I am now posting this from Mumbai Airport, free internet service kiosk sponsored by Airtel. Really Nice way to spend time.

It may look foolish and childish to post this. But thats why blogs are meant for.

Oops. someone is waiting for his turn.

Trichy – Chennai, Chennai – Mumbai, Mumbai – Rajkot, Rajkot – Mumbai, Mumbai – Chennai, Chennai- Trichy is my travelling schedule regarding an official meeting for 4 days and still two days left in that voyage. Lets get to the mistake what I made without dwelling much into my travelling schedule.

I booked tickets through cleartrip. For Rajkot – Mumbai flight (IC146) 7:15pm was Departure time and 8:15pm was Arrival Time. Believing that it will reach on time to mumbai I booked ticket for Mumbai – Chennai flight (9W 469) with Departure Time 9:45PM same day. Unfortunately the two carriers are different. First was Air India and Latter was Jet Airways.

When we (me and my boss) reached Rajkot, we were shocked to know that rajkot – mumbai flight is rescheduled with one hour delay, So we were left with only 30 minutes to change flights at mumbai. Luckily both are allotted the same terminal in mumbai. So we were hopefull and when enquired jet airways they said it may be possible if the first flight reaches there on time. We checked in. At waiting room, other sad news came, that the rajkot- mumbai flight is further delayed by 45 minutes because of Air Traffic Congestion and weather conditions at mumbai.

So we realized that there is no way to catch the next flight at mumbai. Air India officials are really hopeless and not helping. They not even tried to assist us. They simply said since you booked the tickets with different carrier, nothing is in our control. After consulting with JetAirways(I spoke with the stunningly beautiful girl, fully qualified to be a bollywood actress, she was very assistive. again there is huge difference between private and public agencies)  and Cleartrip, we decided to reschedule the flight from mumbai – chennai next day (i.e. today). Thanks to cleartrip, what a service!, i did the rescheduling over phone. Eventhough the call lasted for 35 to 40 minutes (emotional burts were vented to them),  they were patient. Another tradegy there, my first call to them disconnected due to insufficeint balance(he he, ). I was in emotional stress at that time. And the minimum boarding charges will take alleast rs. 5000 in a decent hotel at mumbai. What the hell is going on in mumbai, hotels are too costly when compared to any other cities in india. 

I believed in Air India and Cleartrip very much. My past air travels were limited and nothing was interrupted and went well. Thanks to my friend alias uncle and thier friends in mumbai who permitted and made us stay in thier home and for allowing to use thier internet (i m posting it from there).

Lessons learnt
     – Dont believe in schedules in INDIA whatsoever. Give enough gap between your travel if your booking with different carriers
     – Always book tickets with same flight carrier if you want your transitition time to be lesser
     – Thinks done in hurry will always end up in or have some sort of problems. I had only two days to plan this travel.
     – Money spent to penalties, etc may be reduced if properly planned    
     – Check whether you have sufficient balance in your mobile ( if prepaid) for emergency situations like this.

More than mistake.. I will take this as a learning experience. If you properly look at your life with an optimistic eye, you will realize that. Some of the advantages were I came to know the procedures involved in rescheduling and got the oppurtunity to meet that cute lady.

Huh. This is the third or fourth time I am forgetting to renew the domain name. Unfortunately, my domain registrar not sent renewal alert mail this time. Back to on-line after 12 days.

Today is a sad day because I lost my mobile phone. Its Nokia 5300 Xpress Music. I must tell the story, I can’t bear that pain inside me. Here it goes. I was travelling from Trichy to Jalandhar by Andhaman Express. Yesterday, before sleeping on upper berth, I kept my mobile adjacent to me, hiding it actually and slept. As I always do, I over slept. Some bastard took it while I was sleeping. Today morning, after waking up, searched all over my coupe, I can’t find it. I lost my soul. Actually it was taken away from me. I felt like one of my close relation is dead.

Yesterday night itself battery is totally down. so i can’t call and search. I can’t do anything there other than scolding the unknown person, who took it, with whatever comes to mind and mouth. After I reached the guest house, where I am staying in Jalandhar, called my own number. The same bastard attended the call and spoke. When enquired, he told he was in Jammu. When I told him that was my mobile he disconnected and switched off.

Since I am in other state. I can’t even complain it to police. Even if I complain it may change my schedule of stay here. All I did was I locked my mobile number so that I can retain the balance after getting other SIM card with same number.

Instead of living this way, those people can earn by begging the beggars. Lot comes to my mind. To maintain decency I am not writing all those here. Nothing will bring my phone back to me anyway. Engirundhaaaaalum vaaallgaaaaaaaaaa..

I applied for BSNL’s Junior Telecom Officer posts which got some 3000+ vacancies. The requirements for applying is

1. Neatly typed application form as in provided format
2. Three passport sized photographs out of which one must be pasted in the application form and duly attested.
3. Two self addressed office envelopes. Each one for sending back acknowledgement and Hall Ticket(for written exam) by them.
4. DD for Rs.750/- in favor of BSNL Circle Authority.

The above mentioned four things must be sent by registered post to respective BSNL telecom circle head office.

Guess What mistake I probably did. The thing is I don’t know the meaning of the word “duly” at that time. Instead of duly attesting the photo in the application form I self attested and sent it..

Even two of my friends called me to confirm their doubts about the same issue(pity! they too don’t know the meaning) before posting it. Since I self attested mine I suggested them to do so. They did and sent the applications to head office. In fact I was lazy to refer and correct.

Today one of that friend called me and informed me about this mistake we did after verifying with the BSNL authorities. I feel guilty now for ruining the opportunity for myself and peoples who believed in me because of wrong assumption and laziness. This situation may be avoided if I referred it to someone.

I got two options now.

1. Believe in luck and wait for their positive reply(very rarely works for me).
2. Send the application form again. There is a possibility of application rejection due to duplicate entries, only two days left for deadline and I have to spend extra money

I think second option is worth choosing. Valuable lessons comes with high price tag.

This event happened some five or six months afore. Suddenly, it came to mind and thought of writing it as a blog post.

I was working late in office. Since production was busy that time, We, staffs in office,  decided to work for two shifts. The office is located in residential area surrounded by houses conveniently spaced. At the back side of factory, a house is there. The two building is separated by a compound wall. our workshop section is located  just 3 to 4 meters from our compound wall. Our machinist was working in there generating noises with drill press and welding machine.

Other peoples were working in Production section and Assembly section which is little far from the Workshop. I was doing something in Design Section adjacent to production area. Everyone was concentrated towards their work. Suddenly, a loud sound made all of us run towards workshop. We were in panic, suspected of machinist being subjected to accident.

For god sake, nothing happened to him and realized the sound came from the house backside. The roof of the room, in the house, adjacent to the compound wall is covered by asbestos and that was disoriented. Fire was visible from inside the house. We rushed in, jumping over the compound and hurriedly watched through the dormer window and whatever openings in the house, eager to know about the cause. Fortunately, no one is inside the house and heard from neighbors that owners went for vacation.

We thought it as gas cylinder explosion and fire was spreading to the nearby rooms. We tried to control it by routing water from our company. We cant control it. So, I called 100 from my mobile. The call was responsibly answered and they took note of the location. Within the next 10 minutes a patrol of 10 to 15 police men along with the fire fighting equipments reached the spot. They were also responsible enough to call me twice before their arrival, enquiring about the status.

The fire was neutralized by them and the cause was confirmed as gas cylinder blast and shockingly another new cylinder was there nearby the blasted cylinder. If that was subjected to fire little more, that would have also blasted. If the blast was little severe our company might be affected. Then they took control of the house and continued with their procedures and requested civilians to leave.

I never imagined such promptness from them. We left the office without finishing our intended work.  For a week from that incident we avoided having late night shifts.