Travails of a picked pocket :(

Exams and a bit of shopping done it was almost time to start back to Chennai from the Capital City. Rushed from Pallika Bazaar to Collector's place for a quick bite and to pack up my bags. Collector took a while, but, managed to cook up something good for me. It was kinda getting late for the train and I had to rush back on the Metro from Karol Bagh to the New Delhi Station via Rajiv Chowk. Rajiv Chowk was crowded as always, I dunno if I lost it on the escalator or at the exit of the Metro... But someone had picked my pocket and I had about 30 minutes to catch the train to Chennai.

As soon as I reached the platform of the train to Chennai I started calling up my banks. I had the customer care numbers of both my credit cards so I started off with them first. Both Deutsche Bank and HDFC took less than two minutes each to block my cards. I'm used to Deutsche bank's great service, but, I must admit I was and am surprised at HDFC's quick work... the bank is slow in everything else :-/

I didn't have ICICI's customer care number, neither did any of my friends or anyone in my whole compartment... Called Anuj in Chennai who took a while to get me the number. As I started calling ICICI bank the train started off... I had to listen to the stupid music while on hold for almost 6 minutes and it was more irritating than the noise the train was making. The executive was asking me stupid questions instead of blocking the card. By the time the thief who picked my pocket had swiped my card at a cinema hall!!! The executive refused to move a finger against the culprit as long as I didn't give him an FIR number. I pleaded with him to do something but to no avail... I tried explaining that I was on a train to Chennai and he couldn't have been more inconsiderate... In the noise the train was making he also tried advising me against storing my card number on my phone!!! :-/ It took me almost ten-12 minutes and the call got cut off without signal as the moron at the other end was still advising me!

36 hours later: Me at Chennai... I called all my banks. HDFC and Deutsche bank have already dispatched replacement cards... ICICI tells me that the moron at the Delhi Call centre had only blocked my card and not dispatched new card. The call centre guy at Chennai tried to convince me that I could lodge an FIR about what happened at Delhi in any Chennai police station and also gave me a false promise that all the money would be refunded!

No wonder people have problem trusting ICICI bank with their money and they have to pay Sharukh Khan to endorse them!

24 hours later (that's like 2 working days) I'm in for more shock when my HDFC card arrived. I still can't believe that the bank which take 5 days to credit a cheque dropped at their own bank can act so fast...

1.5K down the drain and a lesson about trust learnt from the 'Hum Nahin Hain na' bank: ICICI!

Another feather in the cap: News Editor!

Recently, I was invited to join the Editorial board of The Receptor: India's first Career Guidance Mag for young Doctors published by Kalam Books, I was only too happy to join in :) The inaugural issue of The Receptor is out! The Receptor is a unique, interactive monthly magazine specially designed for the young doctors. A powerful punch in terms of customized content, this magazine brings a smart and superior learning experience from one of the best medical publisher.

Features:
News: A mix of local, international, national news that bears relevance for the young doctors
Exam Diary: Notifications about various entrance exams along with details
Mock Test: Each issue carries a mock test of either national institutes or state entrance exams
Recent Papers: Every issue carries a Recent Question paper with answers of either national institutes or state entrance exams
High Yield Topics: Most important topics from various subjects are explained in an easy understandable way.
Ask the expert? Readers queries regarding various exams and opportunities India and abroad answered here
Toppers Interview: Interview with toppers in various exams in India and overseas
Quiz: One can win exciting prizes by participating in the every month quiz
Overseas Guidance: The magazine publishes articles about opportunities in various countries

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

What is that scatters my thoughts in a hundred directions...
What is that holds me together...

What is that makes my Heart beat in Rage...
What is that gives me the Placcidity I seek...

Gmail Rocks!

If the ever expanding mailbox, Conversations view, Google Chat, Labels, IMAP and the email account that wouldn't get deleted weren't enough. These guys keep making it better and better every day. Gmail Labs allows Gmail users to create add-ons to Gmail and these guys will implement the most popular ones for everyone else. How much more cool can it get?

And Gmail is still in Beta! The possibilities are endless for best email service in the world

- A grateful Googlaholic :)

The One-eyed Blogger

8 hours at the Hospital, travelling, studying, Bhumi work... if all this wasn't enough. I joined 12 hour classes in the weekends :(

So I quit my job to concentrate more on my exams, guess what... More time for BHUMI and the IPL!

Left with nowhere to steal time from it's my Physical diary, Blogs, Email checking, news paper reading and the like that have suffered. No More! :)

Also, since my micro Blog on Twitter has taken off (see side-bar) it feels so nice to tell the world what's going on in my life. But it's a little sad the people I really wanna 'follow' are not yet on Twitter:'( Till then I 'Tweet' on...

Since my spectacles broke in the morning, I've had little else to do, so am putting my self-imposed house arrest to good use by updating my blog!

One Thousand Days

A Thousand Days after the Crash and Burn;
A Thousand Nights with little Purpose;
A Thousand Dreams down the drain;
In the rubble a flicker has burst into flames!

What's so special?

Marriage an inevitable part of life for most people...

But, Is the change in people post-marriage, inevitable too?

How does a single event, important though it might be, alter the dynamics of every other relationship... Both Family & friends? How is it that suddenly some new relationships become more important than many older ones?

Do people realize the change?

Will I change too?

Will I realize the change?

One answer

Is being polite more important than being truthful?
Is lying to yourself less important than lying to others?
Is a friend's request more important than being truthful?
Is any price too much to pay for being and doing the right thing?

Boulevard of broken dreams

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Til then I'll walk alone

Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line of the edge
And where I walk alone

Read between the lines what's
Fucked up and every things all right
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive
And I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Til then I'll walk alone

Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh

I walk this empty street
On the Blvd. of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a..

My shadows the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Til then I'll walk alone!

Green Day - American Idiot

When Hutch Pulled the plug on me

Day Before yesterday evening, suddenly calls wouldn't go through, messages failed. Thinking something was wrong with my phone I dozed off, but the problem remained in the morning. No amount of re-inserting the SIM or fiddling with my phone had any effect. Even though I knew I had a balance of over Rs.700 and at least 5 months of validity I couldn't check that either. Calls to Customer Care wouldn't go through either. Convinced that something was wrong with my phone, I called Hutch care from my land line just to check.

Hutch Care (Automated Voice): Hi Welcome to Hutch Care, English/ Tamil, Enter your Mobile phone Number
Me: Beep Beep Beep Beep
Hutch Care Call Centre Operator (HC): My name is Y..., May I have your name & Telephone number please
Me: I just entered it... What was the point of all that
HC: Hmm... May I have your name & Telephone number please...
Me (Reluctantly): Dr.Prahalathan, 9884188018

HC: Yes Mr.Prahalathan, what's your problem?
Me: Call / Msg not goin
HC: Did you submit Photo identification
Me: Yeah, last week at Hutch Shop
HC: Your details are incomplete
Me: What? I submitted Copies of Driver's License & Medical Council Registration
HC: You have to re-submit Photo Identification
Me: What?
HC: It has Chennai-18, but no Teynampet
Me: Both Driver's License & Medical Council Registration mention Teynampet, Chennai - 18
HC: No sir, there is no Teynampet
Me: How can that be missing in copies of both documents?
HC: You have to re-submit Photo Identification
Me: Chennai- 18 is Teynampet, What seems to be your problem?
HC: Sir, You've to re-submit...

Banged the phone and started off to the Hutch Shop

The place had just opened, only one Hutch Care Executive was there, yet there were at least 10 irate customers before me. I joined the queue and added my number to the growing list. The executive (HCE) couldn't handle the numbers, she called a Manager (HCM)
HCE: All these people have submitted forms, yet got disconnected
HCM: We have lakhs of customers, they may have missed a few forms
Crowd: If you cant handle, then why do you get new customers? We can always go to some other company...
HCM: hmm... Not like that, We tried calling your numbers must have been unreachable
Crowd: We get Spammed with Caller Tune and other messages and calls from Hutch
HCM: Calm down, We tried calling your numbers must have been unreachable
Me: So you're implying your network is bad, mobiles are unreachable within city
HCM: hmm...
Me: When u can send us all the crap as Spam Messages, can't you message us that you will be disconnecting?
HCM: We tried calling your numbers must have been unreachable
Me: £$%^, When are you gonna re-connect
Crowd: Almost 15 now, all yelling
HCE: Now, I'm releasing all lines...

Note how the Hutch Care Call Centre Operator and the manager kept repeating their lines... Do they teach these people to mug up standard lines?
My phone started ringing, I walked out without bothering to thank them, as more people joined the crowd...

The Indian Railways, the Army and my first experience at Bribery!

Me and my friend K were returning from New Delhi to Chennai after our exams at Chandigarh. After a looong bus ride to New Delhi we found ourselves standing at the end of a short queue at the current booking counter of the New Delhi Railway station.

Standing in the queue was quite uneventful except for a guy or two who tried to jump the queue inviting abusive language from the others. Then there were the women who refused to stand in a queue and considered themselves too big for such formalities. The guy at the counter was fair he sent back every one of those women. Standing in the queue was so uneventful, that even after an hour we found our queue was shorter by just 6-7!

While inside the counter there was so much activity that it could have been easily mistaken for a tout's office, but for the location. There were people walking in at frequent intervals, slips of 'paper' were passed around and the guy sitting behind the counter had booked around 15 - 20 tickets in the same time we had been standing!

As we got closer to the counter we learnt that we had to cough up a few extra notes to get the tickets. Those who did not utter the magic password were told that the chart has not arrived, and to come later! K asked me if I had any 'experience' at bribing, though both had none we were emboldened by those around us and we decided to go ahead.

By the time our turn came someone senior had come into the counter and was watching over things with hawk eyes. So when our turn came we uttered 'Sir urgent, we're ready to pay extra' The counter guy still told us to wait. An hour later when the 'hawk eye' left suddenly the chart appeared by magic and we were all given tickets after paying him some bribe.

Our bribing didn't end there, when we rushed to the train, We found, there were many like us who had obtained current tickets by bribing the counter people but through the back entrance. The TTE came a little while later, we had to then pay a bribe to get a berth to sleep! We shared the cabin with a few army men who were returning home for their holidays which was already delayed by the snow fall in Kashmir causing them to forfeit their previously reserved tickets. We learnt, that even they, had to bribe their way to get into the train and then also to get a berth!

It's bad that our country's government officials are neck deep into bribery and corruption that they're bold enough to accept bribes over the counter in full public view. It's even worse that most departments of our government have powerless vigilance departments.

It's bad that we don't remember or respect the men who brave rough weather and the enemy to protect us with their lives. It's shameful, that our government officials who lead cosy lives, have to suck bribes out of these poor army men also.

So at the end of the day, even before I have earned enough to become a tax paying citizen, I have already bribed twice and become a bribe paying Indian citizen!

Leave that child alone!

I was glancing through The Hindu’s supplement for children, the Young World and saw a whole page advertisement to educate children on sexual abuse. The NGO that brought out the advertisement also conducted an exhibition at Spencer Plaza, on the occasion of World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse. It’s great to see so much awareness in a country that normally hides sexuality under the carpet.

In fact, it was a few personal encounters with people who continue to suffer from psychological problems well into adulthood because they had been traumatised in childhood that led me to decide on Psychiatry as my choice of future specialisation long before any of my peers. Further clinical encounters and the knowledge of the scale of the problem and the preventability of future mental problems, reaffirmed my decision to pursue Child Psychiatry.

Though most of the research in this area have concentrated entirely on women, boys are no exception and you’ll be shocked to know that we live in a world where even parents may sexually abuse their own children! Some brutal tales are sure to send shudders down the spine of any average person and be a cause of endless pain and rage. Some of these data maybe shocking, but the truth does hurt...

· A World Health Organization report in 1999 stated that 1 in 10 children is sexually abused;
· A survey of 350 schoolgirls in New Delhi in 1997 revealed that 63% had experienced sexual abuse by family members;
· Another 1997 study on middle and upper class women from Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Goa revealed that 76% of respondents had been sexually abused as children, with 71% been abused either by relatives or by someone they knew and trusted;
· A 1996 study on students in Bangalore stated that 47% of the respondents had been sexually abused;
· A 2006 study by Tulir in Chennai found that 42% of the 2211 children surveyed, mostly adolescents, had been abused;

Stunned? Feel like puking? Or does it remind you of a dark day you always wanted to forget?

In any case it's very important that you teach your child how to recognise, protect from and report sexual abuse. It's also important for you to learn to recognise and listen to your child's problems.

Useful Web links:
Tulir - Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse: A great site & a must read!
Tulir's Blog
Indian Council for Child Welfare,Chennai

Flowers from my Mom's Garden

Collage of Flowers on Blog, originally uploaded by prahalathan.

Thought you'd seen it all? Head over to my photo blog Garden Flowers for Flowers, Flowers and more Flowers!