Fast Track Taxi or "back track" Taxi

                                        

People in Chennai have fewer options when it comes to hiring of Taxis @ Chennai Airport to get back to their respective homes.  There are only 2 operators viz Aviation Express and Fast Track having counters at the Airport.  The other public taxi painted in black and yellow, though cheaper has some vintage fleet of cars and not air conditioned and not a comfortable one to ride back specially after alighting from an air-conditioned environment both inside the aircraft and also at the airport premises. These 2 operators have a virtual monopoly and fleece the passengers like there is no tomorrow?  While Aviation Express charges a sum of RS 650/- for covering a distance of about 12 kms, Fast track charges a sum of Rs 550/- for the same distance but lends the luxury of Tata Indigo car that can either take 2 passengers and one suitcase or take 3 passengers as it is hard to pull the car with any load more than the above stated!

Fast track has this notorious track record of upsurping many small time operators and bringing them all under one single brand of Fast Track, probably with some political support?  The result is that there is no competition in the field and whatever fares fixed by them is the final verdict for the commuters.  The Airport has 2 operators as there is a requirement of atleast 2 operators lest the system comes for scrutiny under Monopoly act!  Both of them have agreed and colluded to fix their own fares and loot the innocent passengers who are helpless and at their mercy!

Fast Track, of late, has started employing drivers who are from deep backward areas of South India and who do not know the topography of the city.  Every time you book a call Taxi, the call center allots a Taxi.  The driver calls up your mobile from somewhere and asks the way to come to your house!  This is quite disgusting and harassing as you have to plan a route map for the driver to enable him to reach you.  Similarly, you have to navigate him fully right upto your destination!!  One gets tired of giving directions and tension builds as you are never allowed to relax during the time of your journey in the car!

This morning, I had booked a Taxi with Fast Track for dropping my daughter at the Chennai airport.  The booking was made and an SMS was promptly sent confirming the booking.  At 7.45 am when the Taxi did not arrive on the scene, I enquired with the Fast track booking center only to be told that a driver with his Taxi is on his way.  They gave the mobile number of the driver as well.  When I contacted the driver, he simply told that there are no instructions to him from Fast Track!  When I contacted them back, they gave yet another number and the same thing was repeated.  I cancelled the booking and decided to drive myself and  drop my daughter at the airport.  The entire definition of hiring a Call Taxi stood defeated and there was absolutely no sign of any remorse from Fast Track.

It is time that the State Government encourages competition in the field and allow as many operators in order to build a healthy competition and protect the good will of the people.  More operators means competitive spirits and better upkeep of the cars as in Bangalore or Hyderabad.  I am given to understand that these 2 operators have their affiliation to local political parties who are protecting them by not allowing any kind of competition to come in whereby public will benefit.  The idea is to fleece and why not from those who travel by air paying high ticket prices?  Its time that both the Airport authority of India and the State Government wake up to realities and take stern measures to put down such business which is monopolistic in nature and against public interests?

god sent Friend named Amit

Meet Amit from doha/dubai who jumped from inside the You tube to be with my family!  Amit is an ardent fan of Hindi songs and he hit my site during one of his browsing sessions.  He sent me a message saying if you are in Dubai, please count me in for hosting drinks and dinner!!

That was a god sent message and everything else fell on its place making way for our union that culminated into deep rooted bond of friendship and affection for each other!  The next message that I got was that he was travelling to Delhi to be with his mother during the second week of December 2012 and I had to go to Delhi during the same time to attend a wedding of my classmate's son!!  the rest is destiny and good times that we met in Gurgaon and spent almost a full day together exchanging various things of mutual interest.  Soon after, I was travelling to Dubai to celebrate the New Year with my son Pushkar and daughter-in-law Taruna.  Amit was there at Dubai on the 28th of December, 2012 and co-ordinated to take me all around Dubai to show me some of the most exotic locales in Dubai.  My family met Amit and found him to be a person that our family owned!

Amit had all those charms and abilities to be at ease with my family.  My family accepted Amit and welcomed him to our fold.  Amit is well read, hails from a respectable Punjabi family and has done well for himself all alone with his own calibre.  He is the country head of Al-futaim  Engineering group based in Doha.  He travels to Dubai almost every other week to be with his wife and son Sahil who is a vibrant youngster, handsome and well spoken and behaved.  He had the poise and the necessary skills that would take him high in his career.

The introduction of Amit seems like a message from the god who always wishes well for everyone!
I truely believe that Amit will be a great, true friend always and give me the opportunity to reciprocate the same to him and family!!

I am thankful to god for making this unique thing to happen in my life!!

Amit had to leave for Delhi to be with his mother and family for the New Year.

The charisma and the affection that Amit carried will always be remembered and cherished "Jab tak ahai Jaan"!!!!

I pray to god to give me enough to reciprocate the same feelings back to Amit, all times??

Birla Sun Life Insurance or Bogus Sun life Insurance

Birla Sun life Insurance which boasts as an arm of Aditya Birla group is an enterprise that gives false hopes and can not be believed at all.  I was convinced to take 2 Birla Sun Life Insurance policies by my bankers Citi Bank, Chennai.  The Tie clad officer even showed me charts that would entice anyone to get invested with BSLI.  I took one in my name and one in my wife's name for a sizable sum paying a hefty premium of nearly 1.50 lacs per year!  Each year, when I telephone to ask for the surrender value, it would be much below the paid up premium and I decided to stay on.  Even  after 7 years plus of servicing the policy with premiums that were paid on dot, the policy failed to assure any prospects of earnings and the surrender value remained much below the paid up premium value.  When I wrote a complaint to the company, they deputed a couple of officers and a branch Manager who expressed sorrow at my plight and suggested that I should withdraw from the existing plan as it would never give any positive returns even at the time of maturity!  They suggested yet another insurance policy stating that it was specifically introduced for people like me who were lured by the Tie clad officers of Citi  bank to  whom Birla Sun Life Insurance paid hefty commissions for bringing in customers!!

I decided to surrender the policies and submitted the requisite documents on 22nd November, 2012 before 2pm as suggested.  I was at aloss of nearly Rs50,000/- which got wiped off from the principal premium paid not to talk of any interest that I would have earned if I had chosen to keep them in Fixed Deposits with any Bank!  Although, BSLI claims and assures that it will settle the surrenders within 2-3 working days, it took nearly 3 weeks for them to send me the cheques.  When I wrote a mail stating that I would take up the matter with the Ombudsman, the company thought it wise to settle the amounts and instead of crediting the proceeds directly to the bank, they sent cheques by which they could gain yet another 5 days to part with the funds.  Effectively, Birla Sun Life took nearly a month to settle the policy surrenders which is much against the principles of Insurance and justice.

I would caution people to exercise utmost caution before venturing in investments with Birla Sun Life Insurance based upon my own experience.  One may stand to loose the principal itself, forget interest or returns!!  Bankers are meant for banking and not for selling commercial products bringing down the ethics of banking itself?  If any Banker is trying to sell any product other than your banking needs, be assured that you are being taken for a ride and the banker earns commission for making you the Guinea pig!!!

Be Cautious and careful before you buy any Birla Sun Life product

Good samaritan@Chennai airport named Shaktivel

It was early this morning when I arrived at Chennai International airport by Indigo airlines from Dubai.
The flight, as usual, keeping to Indigo times arrived earlier @350 hours.  The rituals of early morning waking up followed quickly. After deboarding and clearing immigration,   I left my wallet containing credit cards and some money in the toilet  as the mind was not yet functional  at the wee hours!  When I realised that I had left my wallet in the toilet, I ran to the chamber that I had used only to find the wallet missing.  My heart stopped beating for a while thinking about the procedures to block at least 2 credit and 2 debit cards besides the driving license that had become part of my travel to convince the security staff at he airport gates  about my genuineness!!

I rushed to the officer -in - charge of the customs in the central hall.  I panicked and expressed my anguish to the officer and his staff.  There was this person named G Suresh, P R O with the customs who was trying to reach me on my mobile number that they discovered from my wallet.  The gentleman officer made me calm and even offered a glass of water and a chair to sit.  He called this good Samaritan named Shaktivel who happens to be a technical staff to start and stop the conveyor belt operations who had spotted my wallet in the toilet and promptly handed over the same to the Customs commissioner.  I had nothing but appreciation for this great human being who did not get tempted to commit a wrong thing seeing my wallet in the toilet and without any claimant?  I rewarded him as a token of appreciation for being a kind hearted gentleman!!

I have reasons to believe that there are many good hearted persons in our society and it is because of these persons that our society is able to stand tall holding on to values and virtues!!