Service Experiences - ICICI Bank

I had an interesting experience with ICICI bank.  It all started one day when they tried to make me a subscriber for their automatic bill pay service. They perstered me a lot of times saying that they provide a free bill pay option from my credit card to Airtel mobile. Though, I was paying my mobile bill from airtel website using ICICI credit card pretty easily, after they asked me lot of times to use that service I opted in for their service. They said it was absolutely free of cost and no charge but in my April card statement I got a charge for that for 100 rs. I called their customer care number and asked. They denied to refund it or cancel it saying that they sent a notice in November bill saying that the terms of using the automatic bill pay service were changed and I will be charged 100 anually for that.  I explained that though I didnt require that service, on their persistent pestering, I just accepted to try out their service which was free then and hence I dont want their services at all. I also argued that if there are changes to the terms and conditions then the existing customers should give explicit consent to that or they can choose to opt out. After arguing for sometime, a customer service executive called me and said that they are refunding my money and that my service will be deactivated. 

Though, they overzealously charged me for the service i never wanted, I was happy overall that atleast they were will to refund my money and the relationship thus strengthened. 

But the story didnt end there... After one month, a service person from ICICI bank calls. He asks me about the missed attempt of theirs to charge me for the automatic billing service. After explaining the whole situation to him, he asks if he can deduct the charge from my reward points... !!! I negated him and asked him how the two are related. One is a service I never wanted. Next is one which you promised, you will give me if I purchased with your card. i never asked for the reward points but that might have influenced me in choosing you as a my preffered card provider.  How can you go back on your promises? And how can you take advantage of the fact that I am already subscribed to a service and start charging for that service without taking my permission?? 

I understand the crunch banks are under. I understand the way the current credit card system might be unsustainable but that doesnt mean that you can run over your existing customers. Brainstorm a new business model, explain it to your customers, giving them to switch over to that or opt out. As I value my relation with ICICI bank, if I really feel that the bank requires to do what it is doing, I might as well switch over to your new policy but till then dont try to charge for free services or dont deduct from my reward points. 

Hope you take notice. Did any of you face similar experiences with banks? Feel free to post it.

The Aim Of Life

I have wondered many times what is the aim of life? I think everybody would have wondered about this at some or the other point of their life... I turned to our scriptures to find the answers for this question. Eventhough every book talks about 'mukti' or salvation as the ultimate goal of the life of a hindu, I am not satisfied with that.
But for sometime let us accept that it is the aim of life. Then what is the most direct way of reaching god. Let us say that we have to reach God as early as possible. Then if we look at people who have attained moksha, Dhruva is the youngest person. He did it by doing narayana japa. Even 'Bhaja Govindam' written by Shankaracharya was written advising a very old person trying to learn sanskrit to stop doing that and think of God and do his bhajans (Bhaja Govindam). So the fastest and easiest way to attain moksha is utmost dedication to and worship of God. Then why should we go through the usual shodhasa samskaras(birth,...,education..., marriage,... death) in our life? They say that because it is not possible for everyone to give the utmost dedication to God so early in life, hence we need to go through the shodasha samskaras they will understand life and hence they will walk on this path. But if we know the direct path to our destination, why will we choose the other path? We may even argue that the direct path is a difficult path, and that the indirect path is little easier. But the person who marries cannot understand that he is getting attached to one person and is ready to create a web of attachments around himself which will take a lifetime to untangle. So this proves that even this is not an easy path owing to the attachments we will have if we go in this path. Hence it makes sense for us to take the first path only though it feels as if we are losing a lot.

I have said that I am not satisfied with the theory. If the sole aim of a human is to reach God or salvation or mukti whatever we call it and there is nothing else for humans to do here except worshipping God, then why should he create people at all? If God is the one who created us and wants us to reach him, then why should he create us at all? Here people talk about karma siddhanta that we are born because of the papa/punya phalas of our previous birth. Then I ask how did it accumulate its papa and punya, Initally it should have been a blank slate right? Why is he created then? Is it just that Gods wanted to see a game? Doesnt it look strange to be born freely, do what ever we want but being awarded points for being good or bad respectively, and again being born, not freely but with the points we accumulated in the previous game, and this happens cyclically till our good overwhelms the bad and we reach God. Doesnt it seem like a game and we are just coins in His hands? This is the limiting point of the theory. People argue this way too - why do you argue about where you came from, as you know the end point try to reach the end point of salvation. But when I am not convinced of the starting point, how can I be convinced of the end point? Hence I feel that acheving moksha is not the real aim of our life.

Hence I have rejected the claim the aim of our life to do something in other world, which brings us to the logical conclusion of doing something in this world. So what should we do?
we can aspire to become many things. I believe in atleast basic humanity and hence my aim atleast should be -
"In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite variety and mystery of it." This is the least we can do. But the higher thing is leaving the earth better than how we have come here. So we have to do something which adds value to the world, something which can help humanity outside our family, which is service to mankind in our own small way we can. But lets not forget the duty we have to our parents, siblings, spouse and children. We should understand that we should not be just bound by the duty to our parents, siblings, spouse and children, but to venture out and do something so that we can say ' I have helped in making earth better than the way it was when I came into it'
Let me end it with Ravindranath Tagore's quote
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
and Gandhi's quote
Service to man is service to God.

Robert Frost says
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.


which gives advice on acheiving it the best way that is uniting what we do to satisfy the duty to our family and that which adds value to the mankind doing what we love to do.

This brings us to the point where we can ask
> What are we doing as a vocation? - this you might get an answer easily as you might be earning somehow
> What are we doing as a avocation? - what is the thing that you love to do? and doing you might answer this easily too...
> How to unite them together to add value to mankind? Answer this and our life is solved. :)