The first year of my retired life
had been more adventurous than the 25 years I spent in the forces. Each day
there is a new issue and I wonder how a common man must be surviving in this
country. On relocating to Nagpur, the entire family had to migrate to a new
mobile connection and accordingly we chose to have all connections through one
service provider. As time went by, we started realizing that our prepaid
balance is getting deducted arbitrarily. I went to the retailer who had sold me
these connections. He called up some number and promptly informed me that I had
activated four different services on all the four connections purchased.
Ooops!! I wondered how and when did all of us do this? Perplexed, I asked him
to deactivate all the services from all my connections for once. Happy that the
issue is over, we took extra care to see that we do not activate any services
even by mistake. After about 15 days, I once again realized that my balance is
getting deducted. I again went back to the retailer who opened the can of
worms. Almost all private mobile service providers in India, target connections
of senior citizens and rural customers and activate services to make money. How
they do it is like this. They will make a call to these customers. If the
customer picks up there will be a song that will play and the fact that he took
the call is taken as his acceptance for a service of which he is not even
aware. If he misses the call and gives a call back assuming this to be a missed
call of some acquaintance, the service will get activated automatically. This
came as a rude shock to me. I checked with my parents who reside nearby and are
both senior citizens - the old man is an octogenarian. I was surprised to know
that they recharge using Rs 10/- coupon whenever they have to speak to someone
and on that day they call all their near ones till that Rs 10 recharge get
exhausted. Otherwise the connection is only for incoming calls and this is
because the balance gets deducted automatically. Ironically, they receive ‘love
tips’ as part of the paid services.
I demanded to speak to the company
representative and was given a call centre number which was of no use as they
only tell you that on so and so date you had activated some service. Taking the
retailer into confidence, I managed to get the company representative number
and called him up. After a few minutes of conversation the language turned ugly
which may not befit a vivid description. I went to the company outlet and met
the guy personally and threatened of legal consequences. I knew for sure that
there is no way I can prove this fraud, thanks to our legal system. Thankfully,
this nonsense stopped for me at least for now. But think of the thousands of
illiterate villagers and senior citizens who can’t chase the rouges of our
society.
This brings me to the point of
recent homecoming of A Raja, the tinted ex-telecom minister who received much
fanfare. I remember, in his reply to one of the embarrassing questions posed by
a journalist, he kept saying, “I am a student of law”. I wonder, if it means he
is invincible? The irony is that the same villagers, who are being swindled,
come in large numbers with garlands to welcome such unscrupulous students of
law. Looking at the state of our democracy, I wonder if democracy itself is the
cause of much of the woes of this country. I have not named the service
provider for fear of a defamation suit but be rest assured almost all private
service providers do this. How else do you expect them to make up for the huge
bribes allegedly paid to the concerned people?
I wish the Libyans had deported Col
Gaddafi to India for a while at least. I would have seconded his nomination for
the post of President of India!!!!
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