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News Briefs

Stories From Around The World And India Updated Every Week



Slick, organised loot by Airtel

Bombay: I decided to switch my mobile operator to Airtel. I went to their gallery, duly filled the form and paid them Rs 600 in cash (500 for activation and 100 for the Sim card). In fact they insisted I pay only in cash and that they don’t accept cheques (generating black money here?). They also insisted I provide proof of income, proof of age, proof that my billing address was indeed what I had mentioned in the form and proof of residence. (LoL, I stopped being a nomad many moons ago). After I photocopied all the documents, Airtel said they were not in their format. When I asked them what their format was, they were clueless. The only mumble I got was that “these documents are not in our format”. Frustrated, I decided to withdraw from Airtel. That is when they stooped to loot. I was told I would get a refund of 500 “by cheque” in a month and that they are deducting 100 for the Sim card. The card was not activated and I had not even inserted it in my phone. I was forced to pay 100 for a totally worthless piece of plastic. A stinker e-mail, predictably, was not answered. Even a thousand customers a day like this is pretty cool illegal income.

2006 greetings and good cheer to all of you.


It has been awfully long. True, I have also gotten a little longer in the tooth but this hiatus has been solely due to nothing but pure lethargy. In retrospect, a tad shameful but then, well, worse has known to happen.

I am working on a new load of bull. For now though, on offer is fresh News Briefs.


The Bulls Are Uploading

The stock market had reached dizzying, record heights last year and continues its ascent even today. Never has the Sensitive Index (Sensex) crossed 9600. Many who piled on during early 2005, made lots of moolah. Some are still at it whereas several are contemplating getting on the groovy train. While many punters believe beatitude will take some time, the I-told-you-so’s caution. True, as with any indice, there will be oscillations. Be that as it may, the indicators are that with a healthy economy, political stability and the country having braved calamities, things will continue to look up.

Pathetic News Channels

Television news channels have acquired and reached truly pathetic levels of mediocrity. They have gone down to such abysmal lows that of the 10 channels of Hindi and English news that I have not blocked on my telly, you cant watch any one of them for more than one full minute at any given time. They probably exchange notes for how can you explain almost all of them airing the same trash at the same time? There is nothing to differentiate one report from another. All cameras seem to be from a single angle even to the point where the pixels momentarily blur. No new perspective. No new footage. And woe should a sensation occur. They will go on and on and on ranting about the incident all day, all afternoon, again on prime time to finally have “analysts” discussing the same topic late into the night. And add to this the downright asinine folly of all reporters offering their worthless, unsolicited, two-bit opinions at the end of the sound byte. Hello ! Give me the juice whole, sole and arsehole.


The Doctor

I spent last year watching almost all the amazing exploits of The Doctor. Should one go off tangent, it would definitely not be folly to ask oneself: What’s wrong with Valentino Rossi? This Italian Yamaha rider has set a scorching pace at all the MotoGPs to beat everybody pants down. The problem with The Doctor (as Rossi is christened) is that he rides very, very fast, does not skid, is superbly in control of his bike and invariably keeps chopping off a second a lap. He has zoomed to some truly extraordinary wins and chequered flags in 2005. What a thrilling rider Valentino Rossi is to watch. Take a bow Signor.

2005 In India

Eventful year if you could call it that. However most major events that made news were catastrophes. There were floods, earthquakes, floods again, the terrible tsunami and then yet another earthquake. Thousands and thousands lost their lives. So many their homes. However, what made many of us extremely proud was that we tackled and overcame all this with dexterity never yet seen around here. Not only did we do a hellava lot to alleviate the misery we also helped many neighbours and some as far as Indonesia (the epicentre). All this on our very own, sans any help from other nations (The Prime Minister’s office did not have space to store relief material offered by Indians.)
The Bombay flood proved the city has a wonderful and caring heart too.