Disappointing Experience !

One of the major challenging tasks during festive times is booking a Train ticket in order to plan your travel. That too during Diwali , one of the important festivals of the year its very difficult to get a ticket in Bus as well.

To plan my travel in advance I had tried to book a ticket on 18th July 2009 itself. This was the day on which ticket bookings opened for Diwali. Since I logged on to booking website 30mins late the bookings from Bangalore city to Trichy was over by that time. I was not permitted to book a ticket. So I cleverly booked a ticket in Mysore Quota which is from Maddur to Trichy. Maddur is a station just one before Bangalore City railway station. When I received the ticket I got an additional information in my email from railways saying "For CHANGE OF BOARDING STATION & CHANGE IN NAME customer can now approach the nearest Railway Reservation Office with the Electronic Reservation Slip print out and photo identity proof mentioned in the Electronic Reservation Slip at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure of train as per existing Railway rules."

As per this information , I started today for taking printout of my ticket from Maddur to Trichy. The Internet center uncle charged me browsing charges for taking just a printout from website for 2 mins. After that with high hopes proceeded to railway reservation counter available in BDA complex , Koramangala.

There were totally 5 counters and I was happy that the average queue length of all the counters was just one person per queue. I approached the third counter with a high hope that I can get this work done in 5 mins. The employee who takes care of the reservation in that counter was about 40 years old. I explained him my query clearly. He told its impossible to change the boarding point from Maddur to Bangalore city. I had provided him with the e-ticket printout and my driving license proof. I got totally disappointed with the way he replied to me. I was told Bangalore quota and Mysore quota are different. He can't change the boarding point from Mysore quota station (Maddur) to Bangalore quota station (Bangalore Cantonment)

From the counter itself I called up customer care of indian railways and explained them my query. I got surprised by the reply I got from them. I was told that I can reach out to any computerized reservation center and request the chief reservation officer for changing the boarding point. So I asked the uncle over the reservation counter I wish to meet the chief reservation officer of that center. He told he is not available. The chief reservation officer of that center might have assumed Saturdays are holiday to him probably.

My second query was whether I can change the name of the additional person traveling with me. He told its impossible to edit the name as well. I guess he was not in a mood to work on a saturday evening. I didn't give up even at that point. I again called up customer care and asked the second query whether I can change the name of the additional person traveling with me. The reply was if the additional person is a blood relation to me , I can change their name. After the call was done again I asked the uncle over the reservation counter , Is it possible to change the name ? He was watching and listening to the conversation I had with the customer care executive. Finally , I gave up and came out of the reservation center.It was a totally disappointing experience to me.

If we book a TATKAL ticket and cancel it , we can't get complete refund. Imagine if someone forgets to change the boarding point at the time of booking. They are gone if they need to meet a chief reservation officer ! Because these Govt officers are unavailable most of the times. They might be busy with their personal work which is more important to them during official hours.

On the other side of the coin , these railway reservation counter employees might change the boarding point / name for an agent for a financial advantage to them. They will also help to their friends and relatives.

Never believe a government policy completely ! You might get disappointed completely . If we wish to get some work done in Government Offices , we still need to know someone in that office. The only way is you should be in a position to afford some additional money which will add to their secondary account with unique PAN no with complete Tax exemption.

Square Root Day

In every calender year we use to celebrate many special DAYs..

But day before yesterday (3rd March 2009 (or) 03/03/09 ) was "Square Root Day".

"Square Root Day" is a peculiar day.. Because unlike other special days this won't come in every calender year.

Logically "Square Root Day" occurs only nine times in each century.

For the 21st Century already 3 such days are gone

01/01/01
02/02/04
03/03/09

The upcoming Square Root Days for 21st Century are
04/04/16
05/05/25
06/06/36
07/07/49
08/08/64
09/09/81

I don't know about the predictions made by astrologers on this day.

Probably some one may say

• If you do some thing today it will get Squared.
• If you Invest 4 Lakhs in Stocks you ll lose 2 Lakhs
• If you are born on Square root day then some crap they will say
  

Jokes apart.. How long are we planning to believe these things ??

My Intention is not to hurt the values and beliefs of people .

But we should believe in things which have proper justifications. Have you ever tried questioning / challenging such things ??

From my view , Square Root Day has got a Mathematical Significance. I love that pattern.

Apart from that whatever happens to a person on any day , it highly depends on his/her efforts. If we have positive attitude , planning and focus on the "goal post" we can achieve things !!

This is my view !! Thanks Square Root Day for making me to contribute this post.. :-)

OSCAR - The Road ahead of A.R.Rahman

A.R.Rahman - Allah Rakha Rahman @ A.S. Dileep Kumar

If there is a way to describe the shape of music in 21st century , I would say Rahman has got a significant part in describing it !! They say music is a gift . It comes by some instinct . But for people like A.R.Rahman its in their blood.

The world heard of this music director's name through the great Indian Film Director , Manirathnam in the form of the Tamil Movie ROJA. A.R.Rahman gave a big blockbuster at his first shot. Since Manirathnam chose ARR for ROJA, ARR is having this tremendous career in Music . Its tough to identify the talent in ourselves . But the story behind this fantastic music director is very motivating .

ARR's father Late K.A. Sekhar, was a famous musician , conductor and arranger in malyalam movie industry . His father had been a direct and indirect motivation for his musical career . Everyone will have a positive or negative impact through their father at their early ages . Believe me ARR was able to play harmonium (a musical instrument) with its keys covered by a cloth.Many musicians / Gurus had astonished at his amazing talent . Every successful person must be having a tough past history. Unfortunately Dileep had lost his father at the age of 9 .

After that Dileep entered Illayaraja's Music Troop as a Keyboard Player at the age of 11 . His mother (Kasturi) had encouraged Dileep to pursue muscial education . He joined in one of the prestigious institutions of Chennai. Due to some reasons unfortunately Dileep was a drop out from some of the famous institutions at chennai.

But still his musical thirst did nt come down . He was playing keyboard for some of the famous musical symbols of indian soil such as M.S.Viswanathan , Zakir Hussain , Kunnakudi Vydhyanathan etc., Illyaraja , The Mastero had an significant impact in his musical career . Illaiyaraja had changed many of his perceptions . From my view indirectly many senior people in the industry have a significant impact in shaping up our career . In Indian Culture they use to call it as "The impact of Guru"

After that Dileep became AR Rahman. At one point of time everyone takes a bold decision of their own . Though there are still lots of mediocre about Dileep becoming AR Rahman , he never cares about them . The problem with this country is people are not in a position to differentiate between industry image and personal life.

AR Rahman started delivering his best in commercial Ads . Some of his well known master pieces are Leo Coffee, Boost (Secret of Master Blaster's energy ) , TITAN etc., It was these master pieces which identified the talent in him. Believe me AR Rahman got introduced to Manirathnam at an award function . It was the BEST COMMERCIAL ADs award for his Leo Coffee Ad .

AR Rahman entered as a music director into the industry in 1992 for the tamil film ROJA . He started bagging lots of awards for his innovative work . AR Rahman had played a significant role in bringing out quality musical track output to the end album . Of course Audio Engineering VETRAN Late Sridhar sir must be a strong reason for that.

Apart from seeing music as a profession he had added more value to it by delivering inspiring albums like

VANDE MATRAM ,
ROJA (TAMILAH TAMILAH) ,
BOMBAY (ITHU ENGAL BARATHAM) ,
DIL SE RE ,
LAGAAN ,
KANNATHIL MUTHAMITTAL (VELLAI POOKAL),

We can realize the message through the depth of ARR's voice in those songs . Thanks ARR !! You should continue to deliver your best !!

The inspirational thing about ARR is that he also helps the society by involving into various NGO's . Some of the significant awards ARR had bagged so far are Golden Globe Award , Padmashri , National Film Award , National Lata Mangeshkar Award, Kaliamamani Award etc.,

The road ahead of AR Rahman in still long . Golden Globe & Padmashri are not enough to felicitate this great musical symbol of the country . The most peculiar aspect of AR Rahman till date is his originality in the music . He acts as a perfect example for the entire music industry to deliver quality own compositions through their innovations .

AR Rahman should continue to compose inspirational albums will address many international problems such as WAR AGAINST TERROR , GLOBAL WARMING etc., All of us should feel proud to live on a soil which had produced this talented Music Director .

GOLDEN GLOBE IS NOT ENOUGH ..

OSCAR - THE ROAD AHEAD OF AR RAHMAN !!