June 12th is World Anti-Child Labour Day

Did you know that India has the highest number of child laborers in the world? Forced out of school, and compelled to work by circumstances and systems that deprive them of several Child Rights.

As people who believe in Child Rights, we hold that any child who is below the age of 14 yrs should be in School, not at Work Support CRY in its stand against Child labor CRY is organizing a Photo Signature Campaign from 12th June to 15th August 2009. And is seeking your support.

All you need to do is

Click Photos….. Yours, your friends holding a placard with the following message ‘ Send Children to School, Not to Work’ in as creative a manner as possible. Upload them on Education - every child's Right (CRY) on Facebook.

And ...

We at CRY will collect these photo signatures and use them to build pressure on the government to address the root causes of Child Labour and to implement effective/efficient rehabilitation policies. And build awareness on the issue.

To know more about CRY and the work that CRY does click here

Vodafone Woes

The zoo zoo is making news, but what actually needs to make news about vodafone right now is the pathetic service they provide and the rude customer care associates they have employed. Vodafone needs to rethink its tag line happy to help since for past 1 month they have been very unhappy to help or rather too indifferent to even care about the customers problem and have caused more anguish.

The story goes thus. as a very loyal vodafone customer, I refused to take an IDEA or LOOP connection as soon as I landed in Mumbai. After nearly 10 months of being a pre-paid connection customer I decided to change to post paid and approached a Vodafone Mini Store to change my connection. I curse my stars for this decision. The nice smiling customer care associate and the store owner or who ever he was confirmed that they would activate my connetion in just a day and made me pay for a 400/- Rs post paid sim. They also asked me to insert the sim the next day as the phone can only be activated if it is done so. the next morning I got a call from vodafone customer care stating that the address verification had been done and my line would be activated that evening. a day went past and my line was not activated. I called up customer care and they assured that the line would be activated in 2 days. I waited for 2 days and no one called me to state why the line was not activated or when the line would be activated
I called up the customer care number 111 only to be told that they cant activate my account since the address proof was not valid which I thought sounded foolish since they verified and confirmed my existence and I had provided them with my rent agreement copy, my marriage certificate and my pan card copy. When i stated that, the lady on the phone said that the franking on my rent agreement had to be done on all pages. well sadly the Govt of India believes in franking only on the first page and hence I had no choice but to accept what the govt says. This irritated me and I asked them why they had confirmed that my line would be active by the previous nite if there was a problem. The call was transferred to their supervisor and the lady rudely told me that it was not her problem but I had to check with the store where I purchased the sim card. Yeah Right!!! so Vodafone states that giving wrong information to a customer thru their customer service line is not their problem but someone elses.
I went back to the store only to be asked to submit an NOC and identity proof of the owner of the house which we have rented, which I did after a week. Next I was given the same assurance and i waited for nearly a week for verification and activation. No one from vodafone called me to inform the status till I got bugged of waiting and called them.The customer service associate as usual told me that my documents were not enuf and asked me to submit a ration card.The last I knew ration cards are applied for by people who want to avail the govt approved antyodaya scheme and fortunately I dont belong there. I had clearly asked while applying if bank documents can be applied for as proof, which the guys rejected. The Customer service associate Raj Sagar had no knowledge about what I was talking and also refused to connect me to the duty manager or his supervisor who could help me with this. on top of it he was rude and abused and raised his voice to state that He would not transfer to call and I can do whatever I please and disconnected the call. So much for being "happy to help" In the end I was frustrated and my husband decided to call on my behalf. The call was transferred 5 times and everytime we had to state the problen that we faced to each and every one of them. In the end my husband spoke to a supervisor named alex who wasnt of much help. when my husband stated that if they could not accept a genuine rent agreement document which the govt doesnt frank on all pages but puts the franking seal on only one page, we have no alternative but to forge the document and present it to them. The stupid supervisor said" Yes Sir!!!" shocked by this my husband asked again if he approved of submitting forged documents and the answer was the same. My husband repeated the same thing again and asked again if the Supervisor and vodafone endorsed submitting fake documents to get a new connection. The supervisor said," yes Sir I agree with you".
So if you are planning to apply for a new vodafone connection, be prepared to undergo such torture and meet such dumb associates who do not believe in their own company tag line. I would be glad if vodafone spends more money on training their associates than on advertising IPL Matches. As far as my phone application is concerned. I am going to stop my pre-paid vodafone connection and shift to IDEA or LOOP who in my opinion have better connectivity in mumbai than Vodafone.

Social responsibility- My two pence.

I wonder if being socially responsible has become a new fashion accesory. I can see so many celebs endorsing different social projects these days. Though the look of it is all good. I hope that this " being socially responsible fad" doesnt fade off and brings in some change in attitudes of people. 

A day back I had this discussion with someone about an In- store promotion. The whole theme of the in store promotion was to help kids enjoy a festival and an elaborate plan was being made to include the "less fortunate beings". The idea was of a promotion wherein the underprivileged children would be asked to come to a store , show their face and play with the" more privileged" kids  and take picures with them. This whole event was supposed to " bring a smile" on the face of the "underprivileged". The whole idea left me speechless. not with awe but with anger. 

Would taking pictures one day of the year, making an "underprivileged" kid stand in a store, showcase his/her poverty and be more aware of the difference between him/her self and the rich kid playing with them ,be a way of bringing a smile on the "underprivileged", marginalised kid??

What shocked me was the whole thought process of what will be a successful way of initiating interaction with the " less fortunate". IMO this whole plan ended up projecting the "less fortunate" as the zoo monkey. People come to visit this creature once in a year, play and interact with it and the story of interaction temporarily stopped till another festive opportunity arrived, making the " more privileged" to go on his annual visit.

( There are more thoughts which need to be moderated and thought over before being spilt on this paper. The emotions are being controlled cos angry mind sometimes cant reason well. hence this post would be continued later.)

vermilion

The green bangles jingle,
The fragrant henna
still fresh on my palms,
The turmeric smeared
thread smiles
Anklets tingle
Undescribeable happiness
The vermilion
on my forehead.

Tagged Again: Know your alphabets

Tagged by Prashant
A - Available?
Anytime for animals.
B – Best Friend:
Chidanand Patwardhan. & Deepak Alse. Two people who have stood by me come rain or sunshine.
C – Cake or Pie?
Cake any day, Yummier when it comes with nice cream icing.
D – Drink of Choice:
Fresh Fruit Juice & Wine ( Not together of course)
E – Essential thing used every day:
Money.
F – Favourite Colour:
Lavender
G – Gummi Bears or Worms:
Pass.
H – Hometown:
Mumbai & Bangalore. Love them both
I – Indulgence:
Poetry & Photography.
J – January or February:
February, I am a die hard romantic
K – Kids and Names:
I love Kids both Human & Animal. Names??? let me think. I like unique ones, very rarely found, like mine and my husbands name.
L – Life:
Life is beautiful
M – Marriage:
A little bit of everything, love, sharing, compromise, fights, nudges, snuggles.....
N – Number of siblings:
One and I couldnt have asked for anyone better than the one I have.
O – Oranges or Apples:
Apples, Oranges are not good for the throat of a Radio Jockey :D
P – Phobia:
I see dead people.
Q – Quote:
The ones which mom keeps on telling every single day to me. and there are many to note down here.
R - Reason to Smile:
Innocence.
S – Season:
All of them, they are all beautiful in their own way.
T – Tag three people
Whoever wants to write this tag can feel free to do so.
U – Unknown fact about me:
I can churn out the best Carrot halwa, Now people who know me very well and believe that I am worst cook possible, this is a fact. Ask the number of relatives who have tasted my own recipe of carrot halwa,they can vouch for the carrot halwa I make :D
V – Vegetable you do not like:
Brinjal & Thondekai.
W – Worst Habit:
Biting Nails.
X-rays you have had:
Many, I have been disasters favorite child.
Y – Your favourite food:
Fruit Salad.
Z – Zodiac:
Libra.

Happy Womans Day

Happy Womans day,

Here is some food for thought. I happened to talk to a so called highly educated liberal man today only to conclude thus

"A succesful woman has achieved it because of her body." said the man.
Men who think that women can only win with their bodies are actually exposing their own character flaw and reiterate that even today, maximum percentage of men educated or otherwise still refuse to accept women as their equal and still want her to be their door mat.:

I for one refuse to be so