THE CRAPBOOK

Okay its been a long holiday on the blog world. I guess I need to come back. But is there anything to write about these days? Raja took half the news world with 2G scam. Some leading journalist (not very leading now) took the other half. ha isn’t it funny that initially media wrote as ‘SOME LEADING JOURNALISTS’ and then slowly moved to Some journalists of leading media house ……

And these halfs were encircled by wikileaks. I guess this gave the other two some relief.

Lets move on (like all Indians) to what’s troubling the common man like you and me.  The other day I needed a Railway station transfer . Now Meru cabs (which I heavily relied on for the past 3 years) started charging a convenience charge of Rs 50(I still use Rs because I don’t have the Rupee sign on my office 2010 yet) for their convenience.  I guess they charge it so that discount frenzy Indians would stop calling their call centre (we don’t like paying an extra Rupee anywhere but would pay to play a 30 Rs game at a mall for 10 times (which would last hardly 3 mins each).

Anyways back to the point, so they started charging because they don’t want everyone to call them. But wait a min doesn’t their business work that way? People should call them right? Yes, so they request everyone to use their website book cabs. Like any other Indian ,to save that Rs 50 (which I would easily give to a Traffic constable if he stop me and say I have a Kerala registration vehicle) I booked the cab online on Monday. I needed the cab for Tuesday. The confirmation read “You cab has been confirmed for Tuesday 1900). Cool I thought. The excitement did not last long. On Monday I got a call at 1830 from a guy who claimed to be a Meru cab driver.

“But I booked the cab for Tuesday” I said

“You booked for 1900…. “ He said

I called the CC and told them of the mix up.

“Sir we only accept bookings made 24 hrs before” they said.

“Your website accepted the booking” I said.

Luckily they did not charge me for the cancellation. I wrote a letter to the email id mentioned in their website asking them not to accept online booking made more than 24 hours in advance. They acknowledged.

I had 24 hours and I called Easy Cabs (as I did not want to take the risk with Meru again). They confirmed the booking.

Tue 18:30 –The sms they promised did not arrive.

18:40

I called the CC. He said the cab is on its way.

“Give me the driver number”  I asked.

“I don’t have that information” He said.

“Give me the vehicle number” I asked.

“I don’t have that information” he said.

“How else would you know that  the car is on its way?”  I asked.

“You will get an sms in 2 mins Sir” he said. “Hold on I will talk to the dispatcher now”

Too Too Too Song which also had some self praises in it.

18:48

I am still on hold.

“Sir, the cab is on its way” he said

“Hey you told me the sms would reach in 2 mins. You put me on hold for 5 mins. Can you just let me know if the cab is available or not. I have my entire family including a kid and we need to get to the railway station by 2100.” I said.

“Sir the cab is on its way” he said.

Click.

19:15

I called a local cab guy who came in 15 mins. On my way I got the sms that Easy cab executive was talking about it read

“Sorry for the inconvenience there were no cabs plying in your area and your booking has been cancelled”

The question is, if the confirmation they give when you book is not a confirmation but only a HOPE they would probably have to rename it to HOPE SMS.

It should read “We hope that we have made the booking. We certainly hope to send you cab hopefully by the chosen time. We hope that you call us again”

In their language I confirm that I will use Easy cabs again.

The law mandates that the two passengers who occupy the front seats has to wear a seat belt. Well its only a law, which is seldom enforced. I have seen many of the young in flashy cars wearing it. But the older generation never wear it. I guess it because they are not used to the seat belts in their time and consider it to be an irritant.

Seat belt has its on woes. Once I went home and took my dad’s 800 out. As a reflex I put on the seat belt everytime I enter a vehicle, or atleast my hands search for it. I put on the seat belt. After coming back I realized that I have a Slanting ‘L’ mark on my shirt. The seat belt was never used and dust was accumulating on it.  After that I gave the law a skip while using his old 800.

My office mandates that all employees and cab drivers wear seat belts when they exit from the building. The security folks make sure that all are strapped in. The minute the cab drive out of the building premises, the cab driver removes the seat belt in a easy fast motion. “Difficult hai” he said to me once. I stayed strapped in.

The cab driver at my wife’s company wouldn’t even bother to buckle. He will just pull the belt over his chest and drive with one hand. Once the car moves out of the building he just let go of the belt !

I recently had an argument with a relative of mine on using helmets and seat belts. His argument was that helmets and seat belts are an irritant. He went to the extent of saying that there is no use of getting a preserved head if the rest of your body got thrashed in an accident.

I guess there is no point in enforcing these laws. It should be what the people should be taking as precautions.

Consider this scenario, an Indian check the gas connection, check if the fan/bulbs are running, check if the iron is ON before locking his house. And then he pulls the ‘Godrej’ lock twice to see if it was locked right. Then he ride on his bike without a helmet. We cover all gadgets in cover/plastic. (check this post out) to protect it.

I guess we take many precautions to take care of our belongings than ourselves!

*Update : The relative I talked about is an advocate.

 There was nothing unusual about my cab driver for today ( he was driving the car with one hand on the steering wheel and one on his cell phone, after quickly overtaking the car in the front, he switched gears while handing me the route sheet.. In the mean time he managed to shows signs (in an obscene manner) to a motor cyclist who cut in front of us. All while trying to open a packet of PAN.) 

Whew.

 But there was something unusual about him, that why I am writing this blog after all. In spite of doing all this in one rapid action he managed to go under the dash board to turn some squeaking knob. And each time he did that, the meter turned 2KM.

“Are bhaiyya, what are you doing” I asked.

 “Nothing” he replied startled.  

When he did that for the third time I asked him “Is there any thing wrong with the meter?” 

 He said “Yes” and said that, that’s the reason why he has to run it manually!!!!! 

Most of the companies have outsourced their transport division. Mostly some third party vendor arranges the cab for the companies, the third party keeps a route sheet with these cab drivers who have to log in the meter reading when they move out of the company facility and when they come back after the pick up. 

My cabbie was just trying to make some quick money; he would just turn the meter to some extra 10 KMs for each trip because this will go unnoticed. Well not now!