Man’s best friend…

My daughter has a new superhero. Or super heroine. Every night I tell Myra stories of this super heroine and she is all ears, picking every word, wide eyed, watching the pictures unfold as I tell her one of the many adventures of Zeboo. Yes, Zeboo, my pet dog, my friend, my sister.

Years ago, eighteen years to be precise, I fell in love with the world’s most adorable puppy. It was love at first sight for me. As I was walking up to my friend Prashant’s room, there by the stairway, Lucy, his cute Spitz, and Ricky, his giant Alsatian, sat with their litter. Lucy was fiercely protective of her pups. Seven of them, all white and brown, and Zeboo slept her time away. The next day I returned to see her, sleeping again, curled up by her mom. As much I hated taking her away from her Lucy, I was thrilled that Zeboo was going to be with us.

Zeboo was immediately accepted in the family, she didn’t have to try hard, the moment she looked at you with those puppy eyes, you would fall. Then began her many adventures, growing up in a over-protective family. It helped her that we lived on the ground floor, and has the whole courtyard and mom’s garden to play in. For a untrained canine, she was immaculately well behaved. She never messed up the house; she would always use the bathroom, always ate in her bowl, slept in her rug and knew all the communication skills well.

She knew the good guys from the bad, and always reserved her fiercest barks for the real nasty guys. And she knew friends. She could be as playful as she could be shut off. And then she did all the cute stuff like chasing sparrows and crows, running after the cricket ball and growling if anybody wanted it from us. She even played cricket with us three brothers. She’d ride on us on the bike, she would pressurise my dad for the walk every night, even if it was raining. Yes, she could be pushy. And she could be a vegetarian for days at end, devouring tomatoes, cucumbers and bananas. She’d stay up late in the night till she was convinced that there was nobody coming to harm us and then snuggle up close with one of us in our beds.  

Of the many stories that I tell Myra about Zeboo, the one she has decided to call “Zeboo and the dirty boy”, the one where she fought a boy bravely who had broken our window pane with a cricket ball and snatched it away from him. The other one is “Zeboo and the crow” where, Zeboo chases the crow that is damaging mom’s garden. And when I tell her “Zeboo and the doctor”, Myra is pained because the doctor gives her a big injection. She looks forward to a story every night, and it is not difficult for me to narrate one to her, because Zeboo has had so many wonderful tales.

Zeboo left us six years back, before my daughter was born. And every time I saw Zeboo’s photograph, or watch a canine movie, I can’t help having tears in my eyes thinking that she is no more with us.

But she is there; she’s still with us. She belongs here. And she lives on. In the stories I tell Myra, and in Myra’s heart.

Are we really free?

This independence day, I pray that we can one day be truly free. Free from the pseudo-secular system, from the corrupt system, from the clutches of the political system focussed on its own benefit than the country’s, free from the sense of hopelessness that has crept up in society, from the Matrix like situation where these is a sense of false freedom and security.

I wonder when our great freedom fighters fought for freedom what they would have had in mind. Would they look at NOW and be proud of getting us freedom? And freedom from what? From the British Governance? And for what?

Would they say, yes, this is what we had wished for the people of this great country? Would they be proud that millions still are illiterate because of poor educational programs? Or be happy to know that hundreds and thousands of innocents are trapped in jails while the politicians with their criminal records and their equally criminal goons roam scot free? Is this the freedom that they wanted us to inherit where public servants rule over the people? Where people get killed for raising social issues? Is this the system they wanted when they said that every Indian could decide his own fate?

No, we are not free. Not truly free. All our freedom fighters wanted was people to have the power. So that each one could have a better life. But we don’t. The best minds leave the country in search of a better life. And not so better minds as well. Less than half the population votes for this democracy. Why? Are they lazy? Or bored? Or they have no sense of any belief left in the ones in power? And why do we have refer to the elected politicians as the ones in power? One vote can make a difference, but history has shown that votes can be bought. Morals, anyone?

We live in a Matrix like system. We have been instilled with the false sense of freedom, by those manipulating the system. We live, we die. The system never does.

Seventymm Movie Rentals – Rent-a-pain!

Yeh kahani sunkar aapke aakhon mein aasoo aa jayenge. It’s a tragedy, a romance gone wrong and full of suffering. Read on…

It was a sleepy day when I subscribed to seventymm.com movie rentals. They had a fantastic offer which waived off the security deposit. It sounded good, so I promptly made the payment using my credit card on their IVR. Wow, I thought, a movie everyday – one of my choice!! As I sat dreaming, I got a call from them immediately informing that the transaction didn’t go through due to some issue and I would have to re-do the transaction. I did, only to discover a few days later that I had been billed twice. Despite providing the high lords sitting in seventymm with proof of my credit card statement, they refused to believe that they had billed me twice, but thanks to my bank, somehow the transaction was cancelled.

Then the story began, me adding to the wishlists and watching movie. One day it rained in Mumbai, and I didn’t get the movie. I was told flooding (?) was the reason. That the person could not reach my place due to flooding – hah! Anyways, I made through scratched discs, late deliveries etc till the fateful day of August 13. I received a badly damaged disc from seventymm. I called them thrice on Thursday, 13 August.

Call 1 – To inform Customer Service that I have received a bad DVD of Incredibles and need immediate replacement. I was told that nothing could be done. But as a special gesture (?) of a manual intervention to resend the movie is being done and I will be given another one next day, but only a VCD. Reluctantly, I accepted.

Call 2: I changed my mind on this movie since it was such a letdown. I called them back within an hour to cancel the manual intervention to resend the movie since I didn’t want Incredibles again. It was confirmed that this was cancelled.

Call 3: To re-confirm the cancellation to resend the movie. It was confirmed that this was cancelled and when I send a SMS for delivery, I would get the next available movie from my wishlist.

August 14 – Voila! I got the same movie inspite of 2 instructions. What happened?

Now, having lost it, I called back to demand a replacement the moment I received the confirmation SMS. I was told nothing can be done about it, and that they didn’t have any authority!!! I was also told that someone will call me by 12, and as I write this, no one has even bothered to call back!!!

None of the supervisors or seniors are ever available to speak to customers. Worse still, in spite of having put in a formal complaint, I have been informed that no complaint numbers are issued!! How can these be tracked then? I am surprised that Seventymm has not even basic processes in place to handle/process complaints or escalate them to seniors.

Seventymm have wasted two paid days when I could have watched to movies and I could’nt watch any!!! And for absolutely no fault of mine.

And like a deserted beloved, I continue to wait for the promised call.

The End (doesn’t seem too near!)