Marathi Mansa Jaga Ho!

With all the uproar after MNIK and the agitation against the non-marathi manoos, I was intrigued to see the MTDC (Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation) website having only 2 language options. No, it’s not English & Marathi. No, its not even English & Hindi. Its English & Japanese!

Visit the MTDC Website

Whats the whole deal with creating a fuss about the whole ‘promote marathi’ and getting more and more opportunities for Maharashtrians? They cant even control their own state’s tourism website to have a Marathi language option. Sena, are you listening?

Whose Mumbai is it?

Well, I have been in Mumbai for over 10 years now, coming from an Army background, life was always on the move. Been to some 10 schools across the country, places like Tezpur, Dimapur etc are not new to me. I can proudly say that I belong to India!


But what's the deal with all the ruckus that the Shiv Sena is creating? Why do they really think that they are the only ones who care about their State or its people? I have been here for a while now, after finishing my 12th from Lucknow, I came to Bombay for my graduation. Studied at Vivekanand College Chembur and finished my BMM (Bachleor's in Mass Media) and moved to Pune for 2 years to finish my MBA.


But, I came back to Bombay, to start my career! And I have been welcomed by one and all. But at this point, I would also like to add that the people who welcomed me were non-Maharashtrians! I have some friends who are from this land. Yes, they are the natives (Maharashtrians) who truly also believe in the cause of the Sena! It's shocking, it's bizzare.

I like SRK's stand on the whole issue, just because he is a celebrity, doesnt mean he can be targeted! Doesnt really mean that he has to bend down to the whims and fancies! I really liked what he said in an interview with Rajdeep Sardeasi, "I belong to this city, the city doesnt belong to me".

I want to pose a question to the so called custodians and guardians of this city, if you care so much about Maharashtra and take so much pride in being the 'owners' of this city, why the F**K don't you do anything about the dismal state of infrastructure and amenities of this city? The roads, the traffic, the civic services. There are way to many examples of bad planning and unfinished development work in this city, i can go on and on and on about it, but i shall save it for another day.

I guess claiming stake on something doesnt make it rightfully yours, you need to understand it. If you actually want to claim this city to be yours, then you get up and do something for this city.

I belong to India first and anywhere else later, This feeling comes only when you have stayed in other parts of the country. The frogs of the well will remain as they are, its the bigger fish who will come and conquer!

Law Guru

There are many occasions when we battle companies and individuals (I am battling 3 companies right now).

We always want to get a legal perspective and understand how we can take a legal standpoint on the issue and charge damages to this entities.

Well, here is the solution - Law Guru

They provide FREE legal advise on the issues that concern you. It's simple. Go to https://www.lawguru.com/answers/ask and fill in the question, put you country, email address and pin code and submit it.

There are quite a few lawyers who will answer your query (sometimes in the span of a couple of hours).

Go ahead and try it. It's a very good website.

Letters to the 3 Musketeers!

Inspired by Karthik's blog post Social media lessons from a 70+ year old man! I have understood the need of sending personalised communication in addition to the Social Media ranting.

So, taking a cue from the blog, I managed to find the contact details of the Station Head of Red FM in Mumbai, The Managing Director & Head of Marketing at Travelocity and Zonal Office of Amul India.

 In addition to explaining my situation, I have also sent Travelocity an invoice, charging them for harassment and misinformation.

If anyone wants to read those letters, do let me know, I shall share them else, will keep you updated on the responses.

Let's see what these letters do, considering these brands and companies have show complete lack of ownership.

Aman Ki Asha, an Indo-Pak Peace Project

After a long time, I came across a nice campaign! Worth a watch!

Red FM Bajate Raho! Kiski Baji? (Part 2)

After almost a week of all the RED FM madness, someone from the RED FM team decided to reply on the Facebook Fan Page saying something like "hi everyone...we understand your grievances ...but you need to know the fact that der are hundreds of callers in the boardline at the same time.Its your luck if we pick your call as we cant figure out who is it actually calling. @ Leena...at the end of the day its not about sending 100 messages but about gettng any one message selected for a pass.. Sorry about that but all we can say is that keep msging and I am sure you will b a winner soon...." 

To which i replied "Its not about not winning on the contest, its about the process you guys follow to select winners. You call someone and shortlist them even though there is no other round of questions, why shortlist someone at all? Call me only when I Have won the prize or else don't call at all!"

Well, they replied back to my comment saying "Hi sahil , I hope you had received a call from my team and it was clarified to you why that call was made and why you ditn receive the prize. Shortlisting of listeners doesnt mean he or she is a confirmed winner. Nevertheless we appreciate that you voiced your concern and we are there to take care of allthese.thnks for choosing red fm" 

And after this, I was removed as a fan of their Fan Page and my previous comment was deleted! And now i am not allowed to comment on any message on the Red FM Wall!

When they first contacted me, I was nice enough to remove any brand names in the previous post! But now, the previous post is back as it was initially published!

Sorry guys! You asked for it!

The Recliner Hunt!

A few months ago I and my wife had this brainwave that we need to get 2 recliners for our living room! Then began the hunt for finding a cheap yet comfortable recliner in Mumbai!

The obvious choice was a search on Google, and the results weren’t very helpful as most of the results were for trade websites which had organizations that import recliners from China or other parts of the world.

My wife is hugely influenced by the TV Series Friends. So then began the hunt for a LA-Z Boy! The hunt for a La-Z Boy took us on a web journey to Gurgaon. But then again it was a post on a classifieds website. No luck here too. We read a lot of articles online about La-Z Boy’s being available in India via Stanley Boutique. So then began a journey to Andheri East to the Stanley Boutique.

They sure have La-Z Boys. Starting at Rs. 30,000/- for a fabric upholstered one, going to Rs. 1.4 Lakhs for leather upholstered recliner! Way beyond the league. We were looking at something in the range of 18k-23k. The hunt continued to all other furniture shops on the Western Suburbs of Mumbai. Home Stop (Shoppers Stop’s home accessory store) had some on sale for Rs. 28,000 but composite material and a little rickety (meaning it was stock clearance piece). Next stop, Home Centre (Lifestyle’s Home accessory division). They had more variety in terms of specifications and colours but starting at Rs. 28,000 they too were a beyond the budget.

Then someone told us about Star & Style Furniture Pvt. Ltd. In Goregaon and we headed there to find that this guy manufactures them! Wow! Well he told us about the various models available. He has manual ones in single seater, 2 seater and 3 seater with a rocker and non rocker mechanism. Then there were the Automatic (motorized) ones which were predominantly single seater. The manual ones were priced between 19k-23k for a single one and the motorized ones were priced at Rs. 32k onwards. But he made us an offer of Rs. 28k for a leather upholstered model (He said he had made a consignment of 100 of them and there was a reduction in the order so he has a few pieces spare). The best part about this guy was that you can get them as per your requirement in terms of colours and materials.

We made our next stop at Hypercity and saw some manual recliners with a rocker mechanism and micro fiber upholstery for Rs. 18k, just about perfect for our budget.

Well, the story doesn’t end here. Now we had the option of getting a motorized leather recliner! Hmmm, a little over budget, but more comfortable than any of the other ones we had seen! So after a week of contemplation over the extra 12k we would have to spend (considering we had previously decided to get the manual ones from Star & Style at 20k a piece) we decided to go for it.

But then we pushed a little further and we got him to give us a recliner for 26k and that made the deal even more tempting! We made the payment and asked the guy to deliver the recliners right away the same day!

Hurrrraaaaay!

PS – Anyone looking to get recliners for themselves can call Monish from Star & Style Furniture Pvt. Ltd on 9821013384. Their Address is A Wing 4th Floor Durian Estate

Goregaon Mulund Link Road, Goregaon E, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400063 | Website 

Other places are

EBONY FURNITURE | 270- 2146/2147,Motilal Nagar No.1, New Link Road, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400104 | Ph: +91 22 2876 5391 | fax: +91 22 2876 5391 | alt: +91 22 264506869 | Website 

Recliners India Ltd | Wasim Shaikh, Kishan Prasad & Co. Ltd. 3rd floor, Jiji house, 17, Damodardas Sukhadvala Marg, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001. Cell: 93238 03216 Tel:022 - 2207 9341

My Amul Story!

I bought a 6 pack of Amul Cool Cafe from Star Bazaar (A Tata Trent Enterprise) in Andheri West, Mumbai.

So, I proceeded to enjoy the coffee flavoured milk in the comfort of my living room last night. Everything was fine and going good, till I reached the end of the bottle. There were a couple of pieces of broken glass at the bottom! One big piece and some smaller granules. I was shocked!

The customer service bashing spree that I am on, did not stop me from logging on to the Amul website and get some contact details. I got an email id and a feedback form, so I rattled off an email to them saying that they need to improve the quality checks on their products. 

Not surprisingly, I got a call from someone in the Amul office in Mumbai this afternoon, they asked me for details on the purchase, the place of purchase and my address, saying that someone from the survey office will call me today and will visit my home at my time of convenience and take details of the problem.

That’s a good start I must say! I guess the actual level of customer service will be known only after someone calls me and takes this forward.

Till Then!

Travelocity India - The Travel less preferred (Part 2)

The Travelocity battle continues (Part 1 here). It's been 20 odd days now since the battle began. The customer care refuses to accept their mistake. After some 8-10 mails exchanged between them and me & some 20 odd mails exchanged between them and my wife, we are back to square one!

As a last resort, I took the help of Social Networking. In an hope to be heard I scouted Facbook, Twitter & LinkedIn for some contact or a person higher up in the hierarchy. LinkedIn worked, I got in touch with the Head of Marketing for Travelocity India and sent him a message on 28th Dec, asking for help.

On 29th Dec 09, I got a reply from him asking me what the problem was and if I could share the details with him. The task of reciting my story all over again began with an email to Mr. Head of Marketing. As funny as it may seem, there was no response from him on this issue.

Then, on 2nd Jan 2010, I got a call from Mr. Amit from Travelocity telling me that that call is in regard to the call back I had requested. So I plainly asked him if he was aware of the issue and if he would help me resolve it. Well, he said yes he is fully aware and will help me out. He started rattling the same line (Sir, as you are aware, the terms and conditions clearly state that we have the right to cancel a ticket if 2 eVouchers are used) which I think has been repeated by their customer care department some 100 times now.

My reply was again the standard one, which I have repeated about 200 times (Please try and understand, it was a problem with your website and I DID NOT use 2 eVouchers!). Then ensued a conversation for 8 mins which as all about trying to convince me that it was my fault and Travelocity had all rights to cancel my ticket!

After battling Amit for 8 mins, he told me he would get his supervisor Mr. Avijit on the call who will be able to help me out better. So, then after a 4 min hold Mr. Avijit came on the line. After the exchange of pleasantries, I asked him if he was aware of the situation or would I have to repeat the story again? H said he was aware and would do all that it took to help me, but then he threw the same line at me the 101st time!

I was shocked! I told him the same story yet again! And also that I am really disgusted by the service Travelocity is offering and they have no right to call themselves 'Customer Care'. Then after another 5 mins of explaining to him the harassment that I underwent because of 2 wrong debits and the Rs. 1000/- they charged me for no fault of mine, I told him that if he cannot help me, then this conversation isn't heading anywhere!

He told me that he was sorry for the inconvenience and promised to get back to me by Monday (today, 04 Jan 2010) after getting in touch with his Senior Management and figuring a way out to resolve this issue.

But, Travelocity customer care are true to their word! They never get back and they never call back! I am still waiting in hope to hear from them!

I am irritated and frustrated with their attitude! This isn't customer care, it's more like customer harassment! I will also put the email conversation that we have been having with their customer care department! They seem to be a bunch of retarded people who neither know how to read English nor comprehend it!

Isn't there a way that I can send an invoice to them and charge them for the canceled ticket, 2 wrong debits & the mental harassment? I will wait for their call and this time I will record that conversation and put it up here for everyone to hear!