How twitter was born?

First is my complaint which is self explanatory, and then the response from CORE follows.

—– Original Message —– From:
To:
Cc:
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 5:57 PM
Subject: New Complaint Received from 27 March 2008 – CORE Centre

Dear Complaint Team, CORE Centre

There is a complaint updated.
Title : Irregularities in billing: TOTAL Mall
Complaint ID : 12953
Name : Sayan Ghosh
Email : sayandeep52@gmail.com
Adddress : 125/1, HAL Post, Konena Agrahara
City : Karnataka
State :
Zip : 560017
Phone : 08041106480
Subject : 22
Business : TOTAL Mall
Individual :
Address : Airport Road (Near Murugeshpallya Bus Stand)
City : Bangalore
State :
Zip : 560017
Phone :
Complaint: In TOTAL Mall”s food court or grocery section, whatever
product one buys, if there is a decimal portion attached to the M.R.P,
then the billing system rounds it off to the next greater whole number.
Say I buy a product worth Rs. 47.50, then if I give a 50 rupee note to the
cashier, Rs. 2 would be returned. The bill says Net Bill Amount as Rs.
47.50 but Amount Returned to Customer is Rs. 2. So they are not returning
my 50p balance!
This happens with card payment as well as cash payment.

I have informed about this malpractice to the floor manager twice, and
they gave me a lame excuse of faulty billing system. In both the cases, my
50p balance was not returned.
Consequences : TOTAL Mall is a huge place and is frequented by many people
everyday who come here to buy their monthly items. Surprisingly, most
items” net price comes to an amount of x.50 rupee, which is duly rounded
off to the next integer. So [number of heads having decimal in their
billed amount X 0.50p] is a very big amount. I am really shocked to learn
that they”ve been doing this with impunity from the time it was
inaugurated, i.e around 3 months ago.
This is a clear case of hoodwinking, for which they should be duly
punished. Please do the needful.
————————————————————————

Core Centre: Complaints/Core S4/02/1966 03 FEB 2009
Sri Ramachandra
Controller of Legal Metrology (Weights & Measures)
Government of Karnataka,
No.1, Ali Askar Road,
P.B. No. 175, Bangalore,
Karnataka – 560 052

Subject: Forwarding of Complaint
Dear Sir/Madam

We are in receipt of a complaint from Mr. Sayan Ghosh Karnataka, which is attached, and is self-explanatory.

Please note that we are the official agency of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Department of Consumer Affairs, Govt. of India, New Delhi, to facilitate resolution of such complaints promptly. (For details kindly visit our website www.core.nic.in)

It is urged that the matter may kindly be examined and the grievance redressed promptly. Action taken in the matter may kindly be communicated to the petitioned under intimation to the undersigned.

Kindly mention the reference number Core S4/02/1966 for any future correspondence with us.

Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,

Girraj Singh
Sr. Manager Complaints
Tele No –0120-4235448

Cc: The Under Secretary
Ministry of Consumer Affairs,
Food & Public Distribution,
Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi

Cc: The Proprietor
TOTAL Mall
Airport Road (Near Murugeshpallya Bus Stand)
Bangalore-560017
—————————————————————————————————–
I always believe that something could be done, and it would be grand if we can direct our rumblings to people who are empowered to take decision that would make something better. No wonder a lot of time may pass, but as my Mum says….”Something that is wrong cannot persist for a long time”. Lets see what happens next.

Here is TechCrunch’s take on it. See my bits down here….even my blog titles are coming up.

Welcome to deep-web!

From the last two days every time I am seeing those grotesque videos of hoodlums beating and manhandling women…I am thinking to spit Muthalik on his face before replying that….Ok, Indian women wouldn’t deign to dance wearing revealing clothes, pub-hopping and other western *vices*…so that some idiot wearing khadi doesn’t cry to teach them a lesson by flogging them. No, our constitution doesn’t vouchsafe the sanctity of women from the whims of politicians. In our country, there is no democratic way of providing safety to the commoners from a frenzied mob.

And the media has to nowadays butt in to make sure somebody gets arrested. Until and unless some provoking video doesn’t gets aired…government would stay mum. I reckon the Police needs to be *informed* to take an action, especially when there’s a mob involved, because there might be political implications for which they might get some heat. And who wants heat anyway? The most important thing is to keep a job…a job is what identifies a person as an individual. Who wants to lose it? I think most people in my country struggles to keep their job from being taken away by others.

One of the eminent judges has expounded that a Terrorist needs to be tried under ‘animal laws’…I don’t know if there is a law against animals, or the Indian penal system is planning to categorize the populace into angel, demon, no-gooders etc and that there would be specific laws for each one of them….BUT if that happens, then there should definitely be a category called *Politicians*. They are not normal people….so why do we have same laws for them and us? Anyways they get away with squabbles and mayhem, so a set of separate laws especially for them won’t make things any bad, actually there is a fringe chance of things getting better.

Terrorists come rare (and eventually are arrested or shot), but we have to live with these roaches everyday, and they live with impunity and are immune to mass disgust. But we still give enough room to the politicians….I can mock and ridicule them for fucking up, but hey…I won’t go to politics, and so would many like me, so flinging mud at people who are managing us, would only make the managing difficult. I really try hard to understand them before getting angry or pointing at them for every social problem; but I can’t digest members of some political party shoving us in some narrow alley.

What is imperiling our country, is a bunch of hardliners forming a political party…an equivalent of Taliban they are. Their way of ruling is by following some ironclad rules that force people to follow a line even when they don’t approve it. I dread the BJP would come to power…at least Congress or CPIM are not religious to the core, so I don’t think they will commit an act in power that would further segregate people.

As I said, that this post serves no purpose other than helping me to explore some things we could do to stop this political muscle flexing which is so rampant nowadays in India. Hope we find better ways to channel our anger into action.

If only there was an internationally recognized sound that alleviates stress, brings laughter, lowers blood pressure, clears a room, helps bring peace to the middle east and is enjoyed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Well Folks… there is.. and it’s FART NOW. Simply scroll to your preferred sound effect and hit Fart Now. The World will be a better place.”

Spread the IFart message if it appeals to you. IFart is currently the #1 downloaded app on the Apple Store. Read about the guy at Scobleizer on Joel Comm, who masterminded this killer app.

For Nokia owners, there’s a freeware I found in Moshe, called Cippi – the farting chipmunk. It’s loaded with some fart sounds, there ain’t many options but hey…it’s good. You could also pass the wind by sending a fart to a friend…who would appreciate it of course

Image Courtesy: IFart

Journeys with strangers test your compatibility level, and how to put aside your ego and preferences above someone’s whim. Yeah it feels bad to compromise, but hey ‘I did it my way’ is something totally virtual. In real life we have to make trade-offs every single day – because if life goes my way, it’ll be a million times worser than Chimps ruling over the planet with flamethrowers. How about you?

In a normal day we are beset with choices – I don’t like my cafeteria food, I go have it elsewhere; the bus is crowded, I take another one; I hate someone’s company, I go around with another group avoiding the guy….all these options vanishes if we are in a controlled environment with people who are new to us. Not strangers yet not a friend. An ecosystem like this strengthens the patience in us.

We learn a lot on a tour than we could ever gauge from a book. If you keep your eyes open and mind hungry, then lots of question would pop up….and there will be answers galore. I find it as an added advantage if we have a local person, a son-of-the-soil with us while traveling to a place.

The best part of traveling to a place is the traveling part. I bet it won’t be that
interesting if you’re blindfolded while starting your excursion and released after reaching the place. It is the itinerary that excites most of us!
Recently we went to a place for a day trip, called Sivana Samudram and on the way I was exposed to these:

1. Had breakfast at a famous hotel called Kamat Loca Ruchi, where I savored authentic unlimited South Indian breakfast. The hotel is far from the city, and is crowded on weekends and holidays…so one has to be patient to get a bite. But it’s worth it, and a wonderful experience for foodies like me.

2. Had the eponymous Maddur vada, another South Indian delicacy at Maddur, about halfway from Bangalore to Mysore.

3. Saw silk worm markets at Ramnagar (where also the great Bollywood movie *Sholay* was shot), where silk trader buys the cocoon from the people raising them.

4. Passed through Chanpatna, a place famous for wooden toys and handicrafts. Remember the life size wooden horse for kids…if you had one then in your childhood then chances are great that it was made in Chanpatna.

I might be lazy, but when I hit the road, I am just happy and excited thinking about the new things I’d be knowing at the end of the day, when the trip ends. Every journey is a reward for the seeker.

Image Courtesy: Nasa