Unusual Mobile Recharges.

Some 3 years back when I was standing in our office corrider, having tea, at about 7 PM in the evening I got a top-up message in my mobile. The balance rose by 196 rupees. I checked with my friend and she confirmed that she didnt put any top-up for me. Within moments, I got a call from a number, looking very similar to my number, except the last but 1 digit changed.


The voice at the other end said "Sir, Did you get a top-up of 196 rupees"

"Not sure, I need to check..."

"Actually I was trying to put a top-up to my number, but by mistake, it topped-up yours..."

"I didnt get any top-up message..."

"Please check Sir, I will call you back in a few minutes..."

I started thinking what to do in that scenario. If I say yes, he will ask me to put a top-up for him for the same amount. I dont have Rs. 196 with me. So I have to arrange for that first. Next, my office is situated in a Special Economic Zone and to reach a recharge shop, I have to either go in my bike, spending my petrol & time, for about 3 kms. In those days, we didnt have the online recharge facility. Recharges & top-ups have to done in shops.

I thought why I should strain for some mistake that he did and let this be a lesson to him so that he is more careful in future. After five minutes, I got a call from the same number.

"Sir, that top-up was actually from me..."

I interrupted... "Sorry, I didnt get any message on top-up nor my balance has increased..."

"Please check again Sir..."

"I checked... No update... Please check again from your end again..." I cut the call.

There were repeated calls from the same number a couple of times after that. I never attended. I just ignored those calls. Calls came from different numbers. I made it a point not to attend a call from any unknown number for the next one week. The calls stopped after 3 days.

One day we got a call taxi. There was one person extra, for whom the cab driver asked Rs. 30 extra. I agreed to pay him. But when we got down he forgot to get the extra amount. Since I was also in a hurry to get down and enter the railway station, I too forgot. But I remembered when I went home, and called to that cab driver, since his number was in my call register and reminded him about not having paid the thirty rupees. He asked me to put a top-up a top up to his number. I religiously went to a nearby kiosk and recharged him, as I do not want to worker to get stiffed.

Another day I was travelling in train with Family. A middle aged man, strongly built, was in the berth opposite to me. When the TTE came, he showed an SMS for ticket. It was 1.5 years back and the system of showing SMS or softcopy of the ticket didnt exist at that time. The TTE refused to accept it for a ticket and demanded a hard-copy of the ticket or a penalty of Rs. 50 for ticketless travel.

He checked his shirt pocket, pant pocket, bag's pouches, purse, etc. but couldnt get any money. He showed his empty purse to TTE and said that he has only card, and didnt take money from ATM, since he was late to train and was hoping to get money from ATM on getting down.

TTE refused to accept any explanation and said that he has to either pay Rs. 50 or get down in the next station. Also he brought a RPF to monitor that he gets down in the next station. The RPF asked him to check again his bags for Rs. 50. He tried to help him in non-monitory ways. I was in a mixed mind whether to help him or just ignore the situation as if nothing has happened. Finally I decided that, if he asks for help, I will give the Rs. 50.

When the train neared the next station, he came to me and tried to say something. I immediately took my purse, pulled out a 50 rupee note and gave it to him. He said thanks and confirmed that he will give me back on getting down. We both have to get down in the same station.

In the morning, at 5:30 AM when the train reached our station, I was thinking how he will be giving my Rs. 50 back. I cant leave my family and go with him upto ATM, being the early morning hours, we all wish to reach home as soon as possible. I immediately took out a sheet of paper, wrote my number on it and gave it him and asked him to put a top-up of Rs. 50 to that Airtel number.

Reached home and relaxed and almost forgot about it. At around 10:30 AM, I got a message that my number has been topped-up for Rs. 50.

- Pavala.

My Next set of Watches.

Dhanesh Amma Posts(2) - 31 March 2012

This week Dhanesh Amma has written two posts. The first one is "Pentaxim Vs EasyFive". This is about the vaccines given to new born babies, comparison between them and which is better than the other. The next post is about the vaccines to be given to kids in Chennai.

(1) Pentaxim Vs EasyFive
.
(2) Vaccines List for babies in Chennai

Hope you find them useful.

- Pavala.

Pudhu Vasantham @ Gobi

Most of our trips to our native during our childhood used to be short ones. Typically we would first visit our paternal grandparents and on the same day evening or on the next day morning we would start to our maternal grandparents home by bus. It was roughly about 45 minutes to 1 hour travel by bus. In the absence of mobile phones on those days, our arrival would be sweet surprise to our grandparents. Most of our trip to our native would be a 2 or 3 days trip max.

While I was doing(or completed???) my sixth standard we had an extended trip to our maternal grandparents home. I think it was during our annual holidays. One day while we were in our native, suddenly parents asked us to get ready. Normally we used to get ready only on the day we start from our native. But on that day we were not starting from our native. So, without knowing the reason we started getting ready. Our getting ready process starts with our grandfather boiling the water for us to take bath with the help of a make-shift three stone stove and a big Andaa (A big round vessel).

[Image : Make-shift three-stone stove to boil water]

We got ready and we(Parents and my 2 little sisters) came to the bus-stop. As usual our grandparents and our uncle came to the bus-stop to help us in getting the bus. We went by bus to the nearby town - Gobichettiapalayam (popularly known as Gobi).

[Image : Arch at the entrance of Gobi]

We got down in a bus-stop and parents took us to a nearby theater by walk. It was the 'Jeyamaruthi' theater in Gobi. I understood that we are in-fact going to a movie, a rare occasion during our native trip. It was for the matinee show and the theater was heavily crowded, but our Dad managed to get tickets for us in the balcony. The movie was 'Pudhu Vasantham'. This movie was unique in my life, since it was the first movie in which I understood the story from the beginning to the end and I enjoyed watching it. It also had good songs with fast dance sequences. "Ithu muthal muthala varum paattu...", "Gowrikku thirumanam..." where some of the songs I used to hum for a long time after that. I believe my sisters would have just stared at the screen, as they were too young to understand the story at that time.

[Image : Pudhu Vasantham]

The movie had a straight forward simple story. It was the story of 5 road side musicians who raise to fame, due to the intervention of a lady in their life. The heroine Sitara caught my special attention at times for which I could not understand the reason during those days. Now I can understand that it was a sign of growth and maturity :-). In the interval Appa got us samsa (Not samosa, samsa without the 'o' :-)...) and ice-cream. In those days, the best thing I like in every movie was the interval, when we will get pop-corn, samsa, ice-cream, murukku, something or the other.

[Image : Sitara]

Another one I enjoyed was the dance by Anandababu, whom was believed to be the best dancer during those days. As far as I can remember, his dance consisted of steps in which he frequently sits on the floor does some swinging movements at about 1 foot from the ground. But now with Prabhu Deva and others, Anadababu's moves have been reduced to laughing standards. Almost everyone who acted in that movie dis-appeared after sometime, except Murali.

Later(after 15 years or so) I came to know the movie was directed by a new entrant Vikraman, who made a mark with that movie and continued to create a lot of wonderful movies after that. Recently I came to know that even "Poove Unakkaga" was a Vikraman movie. All these days I was thinking that it was Vijay's movie :-). This Vikraman has a charming face, bubbling with a positive enthu  which charges those who see him.

[Image : Vikraman]


I am hoping to see this movie again sometime soon and will again write about it soon.

- Pavala.

Some posts by Dhanesh Amma - 1

Dhanesh Amma has written a couple of posts. I have decided to redirect some of the hits(???) & visits(???) of my blog to Dhanesh Amma.

(1) A post on Hanumaan. Here you can see various Hanumaan from different temples, beautifully decorated:
http://www.ramanipgr.blogspot.com/2012/03/hanuman-asks-jangiri.html

(2) A random post on the status of married-women. I couldn't understood much upon reading the post. If anyone wants to explain, they can do so through the comments(This post is in Tamil): http://www.ramanipgr.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-post.html

- Pavala.