I and my wife were taking a long walk on the beautiful road from Gachibowli to Lingampally near the HCU campus. The road along the length of HCU campus is very beautiful with flower trees on both sides of the road. After passing that, she saw some slum dwellers and began telling me that people who make more money like movie stars to should do something to help the slum dwellers.
I tried to explain my philosophy to her which is as below.
It is a good thought that we have to give money to the poor, the story doesn't end there. Because by giving money without expecting anything in return, i.e by giving doles, we don't make it any better. Though it is government's responsibility to improve the standard of living of those people, it should be their own responsibility to come out of poverty.
And in India everyone says what does the government do when he himself could have done something. This it is someone's responsibility to do something. I feel a committed person with no or less funds can do better than a person with no committment but lot of money.
I think we would do well here to remember the famous quote of Gandhi - 'Be the Change You Want to see in the world.'
A case in point is Nirmaan an NGO whose history states that it started in usual discussions we youth have regarding development of India
Nirmaan, which was initially known as My INDIA is a thought emerged from the usual discussions on national issues that used to take place in the bhawans of BITS, Pilani. During one such usual discussion, few participants put up a thought that the idea of every citizen working towards a common goal of making India a developed Nation can alone solve the problems that the nation is facing. That powerful thought gave the birth for our organisation which is now called Nirmaan.
In fact every NGO would have started from this vision, it is not the funds that matter but committment to the idea that matters.
My first highly used mobile phone was a silver colored Nokia 6030 which I bought in October 2006. This phone was good basic model. It was a color phone and it had FM. I have talked for a long time on this phone approximately 1000 hrs. After these many hours, I could see that the battery was discharging fast and I decided to change the battery. As the silver color of the mobile looked worn out, I decided to replace it with a new case. So I scouted for original Nokia batteries in Koti and it costed about 550 rs for a new one. But I thought it was a little too much for a phone I bought for 2600 two years back. So I went to another authorized Nokia dealer and asked him to get me an original Nokia charger. He said it costed about 400 and that he would remove an original from a brand new phone and give it to me. I was stunned, because if they are removing an original from a new piece, that means they will put a duplicate one in that and sell to unsuspecting customers. Hmm, anyhow I bought it and also a new black case for my mobile. It stayed with me till the middle of May 2009 till it was stolen. I wrote about the ensuing drama after that here. But speaking of the phone, it was a very very good phone. I never had any problems with its software or battery. It worked very well. And I dropped it many many times.
I am reminded of two particular incidents which show the durability of Nokia mobile.
Once, when I was running behind an RTC bus to catch it, my mobile literally jumped from my shirt pocket and fell on the ground from a running bus. I got down, collected the pieces fallen on the ground, the battery came off, the case came out. I just assembled it again and switched the mobile on and nothing happened. It was working as before.
I put my clothes in the bucket for washing without removing the mobile in it. I realized it just a minute after I put in the water. I removed it but by that time, some water might have crept in. The center button was not working. I switched it off as presence of water will short circuit the internal circuits, and I put it under (not above ;)) a burning gas stove for few mins, again switched it on and after half an hour everything started working fine again. Except for that half an hour, my experience with Nokia phone was very very positive.
After I lost that mobile, I bought a Sony Ericsson C510 phone. It had all the wanted features like mp3 player, a 3.2 MP camera and bluetooth with 1 GB free memory card. It costed about 11,800 with insurance. I wanted to buy a Nokia mobile only but I saw the photo quality of Nokia mobile and didnt quite match the Sony experience. So for only that I bought a Sony ericsson.
Used to a Nokia, the battery was a let down. I had to charge it daily but I will accept it because of high usage. The photos are very good.
When i was getting used, I observed that the phone would hang sometimes and i have to restart it (In my two months of usage i did it only twice, so we could consider it an exception). But I was disappointed very much when the phone did not start when I tried restarting after changing the sim card.
And dont ask me about the customer service experience. It was very bad. There is no reception. When I went to the person taking the complaints, he asked me to wait and after that he didnt call me. After some time, when he didnt call, I went and asked then he noted it down. He told it was a software problem and it will take one hour to reload it. After one hour, he told it is not working and asked me to come and take on Monday. I had to beg him to repair it that day only. After lot of prodding, he agreed to do it that day only. On the whole, the sony ericsson customer service centre was run very unprofessionally, though it was not unbearable. A lot can be improved in the customer handling and experience. Already in two months, it gave me a scare. Im just hoping I never need to visit the customer service again.
One thing is clear, I can never take the sony phone for granted no where near how I would treat my Nokia phone.
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