Global Prepaid Sim?

Buyer beware 

All of us have several anxieties when we travel abroad. One of these is how do we stay connected? 

In India we are spoiled silly with the embarrassment of pretty good and affordable connect wherever we are. We use our cell for calls, text messages, email and all those new-fangled ways of instant connect like ‘Whatsapp’, and ‘Vergo’.

When we travel abroad, even to the US, Europe or South America, we are suddenly accosted by several systems available. But all more difficult to operate and offering much less than what we are used to in India.

When we send a group message to friends, relatives and associates, it’s so nice to tell them that we are going abroad and that we may be connected on some number,

Two companies in India, in a great marketing effort, have been able to cash in on this insecurity of ours. We must be fully aware of how they work or we are liable to get sucked into an infinity payment mode.

Payment terms

I)                   Post-paid seems so standard and all you do is let them use your credit card.  Buyer beware!!  Your billing continues way after you have returned.  I returned from a visit to the US, Canada, Belgium and Netherlands in September. This is my experience.  First, I got my bills by email with a copy to another with my name, Ronald. Next I got billed by Matrix for Dubai, a city I never visited. So the first lesson is check your bills.

II)                Rates are half of those of BSNL International (which connected where ever I went) but it varies. Both Matrix and Clay have a UK connect, so in certain countries in-coming calls are free. I received my last billing in December, three months after I returned. By then I had changed my credit card since I kept getting billed by Matrix.

III)            Payment solution : Take a prepaid card. This advice is non-negotiable.  You can recharge anywhere in the world with your card.

IV)             Using the card : Keep a full hour to be trained by the sales executive who gives you the card. Firstly, to make out-going calls besides the + before, you put a # after. Then you may have to disconnect. There is a place somewhere in cyberworld where they dial the India number and call back like it used to be when we had telephone operators.

V)              When others have to dial you they need to prefix 044, obviously routing your call thru the UK. The dialing in and out stays the same whether you use pre-paid or the post-paid mode.

VI)             Solution : get the SIM card delivered a day in advance and spend an hour with the sales guy. Keep his email and cell number.  Clarify and write how to make out-going and in-coming calls in each country. Also check where 2G or 3G work. For example, 2G works in Europe, Colombia and Dubai but 3G works in US. Dial direct in Europe and Dubai but with +44 in Colombia. Take it in writing. Clay responds with a return call in case of problems in Europe. Matrix sends at best an email (which of course you cannot access freely abroad). If you stay more than three days, go to any small store and buy a local card. That’s the cheapest for local and International calls.

VII)           I have spent two hours on this because I feel that all should know.

VIII)        Also, if only messaging works , just get the ‘Whatsapp’  application and you will find that most of the world has Wifi at home and in hotels. Then just switch off the Mobile network and keep your Wifi on. And now with ‘Viber’ you can kiss goodbye to MATRIX and Clay.

IX)              This gives me enough for my next travel tip on how to connect on free applications! 

The Burmese Ghost Rafts

The Andaman and Nicobar islands, over the last five years, have seen and increased the interest among the 

Indian population. Its natural beauty and history connected with the freedom movement, and reasonable prices, attracts a large holiday traffic. Most of them visit the regular tourist sites and return. They swim, visit the museum, enjoy  the seafood and think they’ve had a great trip.  

After the tsunami, the Andamans welcomed some strange visitors – the bamboo rafts – fully stocked with seafood, rice, utensils and clothes – but no people. What happened to the people ? And is this a sign for closer ties between the people of Burma and India ?

#Burmese#ghost #rafts#Andaman#Nicobar#Burma#jamshedpur#Dcosta#

The Success of Nano

The Success of Nano

Tata Motors’ launch of Nano in 2011 after enjoying tremendous international publicity, could not transfer this mass awareness into actual sales. It was stated that its sales plummetted to less than a thousand vehicles a month in the last quarter of the year.

There is, however, a bright spot. A vehicle considered to be a small family car, or a replacement for a two-wheeler, has been discovered to be a runaway success in a very unlikely area of India. This odd, puny vehicle which has mismatched front and back wheels and a small two-cylindered engine, has captured the hearts of petty businessmen in the hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim. It has conquered the two most challenging, and punishing accesses to Darjeeling. On the Teesta to Darjeeling slope upwards, where a wrong change of gear can make the vehicle roll down backwards, this little dream on wheels whizzes up with 4 passengers competing with its Goliath-like SUV brothers.

It seems like the financial purchasing package created the niche. Rs. 25,000 down payment and a Rs. 2,500 EMI tempted budding tour entrepreneurs to take the plunge. The agile performance of the vehicle, its reliability and certainly its fuel economy, have made it a runaway success. Tata Motors must take advantage of this niche segment success and search for other geographical areas to implement it.

Gerald Durrell

7 January 1925 - 30 January 1995

Gerald Malcolm Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, Bihar Province, India, on 7 January 1925, the fourth surviving child of Louisa Florence Durrell (née Dixie), aged thirty-eight, and Lawrence Samuel Durrell, forty, a civil engine. Following the death of his father in 1928 the family moved back to the UK, but spurred on by Gerald’s oldest brother, Lawrence, they soon returned to a warmer climate, this time the island of Corfu er.

By 1918 Lawrence Samuel was Chief Engineer with the Darjeeling and Himalaya Railway on the India-Tibet border, leaving two years later to found his own company — Durrell & Co., Engineers and Contractors — in the new industrial boom town of Jamshedpur, planned and built as a `garden city' by the giant Tata Iron and Steel Company, but in those days a raw-edged place in the middle of a hot, dusty plain. In the four years preceding Gerald's birth he became one of the fat cats of British India, successful, rich — and desperately overworked.

Most of the major construction projects that Durrell & Co. helped to build in Jamshedpur still stand today, among them extensions to the Tata works, the Tinplate Company of India, the Indian Cable Company, the Enamelled Ironware Company and much else beside, including `Beldi', the home in which Gerald was born and in which he spent the first years of his life. `Beldi' was a regulation D/6 type bungalow in European Town, Jamshedpur, a residence appropriate to Lawrence Samuel Durrell's status as a top engineer — a rung or two below the Army and the Indian Civil Service, a rung or two above the box-wallahs and commercials. It was not grand, but it was comfortable, with cool, shuttered rooms, a large veranda with bamboo screens against the heat of the sun, and a sizeable garden of lawn, shrubs and trees, where Gerry the toddler took his first steps.

Kiran Bedi’s folly

Kiran Bedi was once nicknamed “Crane Bedi” correctly reflecting the daring way in which she solved illegal parking in Delhi. She now may be renamed “Cunning Bedi” for the innovative manner in which she generated funds for her NGO. In this internet day and age, she preferred the travel agency bullock cart method of presenting a bill to her sponsors. She billed them Rs. 38,000 for business class and booked her economy “cattle-class” seat duly exchanging cash for comfort. Many of her opponents have been gleeful to have caught her with her hand in the cookie jar, thus giving more than just irritation to the proverbial thorn in the side of the government.

So the moralists are out in the streets giving their own interpretation of this heinous act of Ms. “Cunning” Bedi. What, apparently, was questioned is that the sponsors were unaware about this sleight of hand.

Many years ago whilst working with a fast-moving consumer goods multinational company, I learnt a few lessons and maybe some of the ground rules will help us judge this lady activist. Since there was a lot of night travelling involved in my job and that of my colleagues, the recommended class of travel was the highest available on trains – Ist AC. Re-imbursement suggested the attachment of the used ticket. It was also made very clear, with a threat of immediate termination, if the actual mode/class of travel was incorrect.

However, while talking with a close friend from the same Business Management institute, who was then working as a sales manager with a fast-moving consumer goods Indian company, I was given a very practical explanation for the “other side of the coin”. Whilst comparing the salaries of colleagues in the sales force, he proved that his salesmen were getting more cash in hand than mine. This was calculated by what he called sleeper class minus first class difference. This was condoned by senior managers as well as himself. This was “cost to company”. He thought that this was perfectly all right, since it was a legal travelling expense and what the salesmen got was tax-free cash. He convinced me that this was not wrong and was of benefit to both the company as well as the salesmen.

Of course we were both in agreement that what was really wrong was that if we gave excess stock in exchange for money to our distributors, this was clearly a bribe.

My own take on this current controversy is that –

The sponsoring NGO that paid for Kiran Bedi’s business class ticket and following good accounting practices, should have asked for the boarding pass or for the ticket as a necessary measure to re-imburse her for the ticket. Having NOT done so, it seems like they have condoned a practice that is not familiar and is not considered to be immoral in our country.

Book Review – ‘Once Upon A Time’ – a narrative by Fr. George A. Hess, S.J.

This is the story of a young boy born in the early nineteen twenties in New Jersey, to a devout Catholic family. His father’s business of manufacturing bulbs failed and they moved to Washington D.C. which was the turning point for young George. Being intelligent, in 1933 he won a scholarship to Gonzaga College, a Jesuit school, and three years later, at the age of thirteen, was convinced that he wanted to become a Catholic priest.

He was ordained in 1950 and after completing two years in Advanced Spirituality could go to Stanford University for a doctorate in Physics. He also had volunteered to serve in India. His superiors sent him to the Jamshedpur province in India. As Fr. Hess says, he does not know what he may have discovered in Physics, but he gained the opportunity to give thousands of students the confidence to face the future.

Fr. G. A. Hess chose to join this order of Roman Catholic priests who are committed to go wherever the church requires them to. The word ‘Jesuits’ is used for members belonging to the Society of Jesus who are recognized by the initials ‘S.J.’ written after their names. This society was formed by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish prince, during the Reformation period of history.

The aspirants have an extra long period of training generally spread over 16 years covering all aspects of personal development.

When young George Hess left for India, he expected never to return.

His first assignment was to set up Loyola School in Jamshedpur, which he took up in 1952 with 285 students. Loyola was given 3.5 acres of land which once housed the CNR Club. Hindi classes were held in a small school bus while the CNR Club hall housed several classes at the same time.

Under Fr. Francis MacFarland’s supervision, the construction of the new building began and today Loyola School, Jamshedpur accommodates over 3000 students.

The author has taken pains to describe his method of running a school, planning new projects and dealing with difficult students and staff. He has also been quite candid about his conflict of interest with his superiors and about how he had to adjust to the need of his province.

He developed De Nobili School, Dhanbad, which was just a small family house on the grounds of the Central Fuel Research Institute with five rooms to another Institution that rivaled Loyola School in the number of students, building and grounds. He stayed on for seventeen years.

One of his students recalls that he was deservedly on the brink of being thrown out when Fr. Hess, after having asked for an analysis from the teachers, called him in and said, ”Son, I can see that you are on top of your class but we have all five teachers complaining against you. If your behaviour does not improve, we may have to do without you.” For Rajat Bhatia, Founder & C.E.O., Neural Capital, Delray Beach, Florida, that was his turning point. This method of handling a situation in a positive manner, describes Fr. Hess’s style of moulding his students.

No one ever recalls him ever raising his voice but as a former student I can confirm that “a word to the wise was enough”.

Hess moved to take over the Loyola B.Ed. College, Jamshedpur, when its founder, Fr. Ken Judge, had to return to the U.S. due to ill health. He master-minded its move to the huge 15-acre plot on the outskirts of Telco Colony. After establishing the college in its new premises, Fr. Hess moved on to Bhubaneshwar to help in XIMB, teaching communication.

He also negotiated the purchase of the land for Loyola School, Bhubaneshwar.

Fr. Hess had 2 more interesting experiences in Bhubaneshwar. He gave us an insight on how funding agencies work and how he managed to maneouvre a $100,000 grant to establish the only Jesuit hospital in the country. Fr. Hess had his share of disappointments and failures. His long-lasting regret is that he was never able to establish an institute for communications to train students for the emerging media like television. His experience also gives us a glimpse into the general emphasis of the Society of Jesus towards a common goal, directed by a single authority and bound by the vow of obedience.

This narrative is about an American Jesuit priest who could have been an outstanding scientist, who volunteered to work in India without knowing whether he would ever return to see his parents. I would recommend this to builders of institutions, teachers, alumni and certainly to those who have a fire in their belly to work for their community.

#Once#Upon#a#Time#Fr#George#Hess#Loyola#BEd

Toilet Soaps

Have you noticed something happening to the toilet soap that you buy? Earlier life was not so complicated. All toilet soaps weighed 79gms for some odd reason. That made comparisons easy. Only Lifebouy weighed 100gms, like Sunlight tablet because it was categorised as laundry soap.

The weight of toilet soaps began to be played around with by many of the manufacturers and now the consumer had to contend with comparing price and weight, which is absolutely impossible.

This has nothing to do with "fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid" where there is a conscious reduction in the quantity offered generally equal to one use, like the shampoo sachet.

Traditionally, toilet soaps were expected to last 14 days to 18days. Thanks to the wonderful advertising, I got tempted to use Pears and was shocked to find that it dissolved in a week. Gone is the oval depressed shape.