Setu Garg's Homepage

A few days back i had gone to my paternal uncle’s home in Meerut. He told me that he is shifting from Airtel to BSNL. Upon enquiring why, he said that BSNL call rates are cheaper than Airtel and it also provides cheap and wider roaming. I couldn’t say anything as both of his points were valid.

I went to the market to get a few things for him. Suddenly i remembered that i have sliped one of the items off my mind! Not to worry! when will the flappy mobile phone in my pocket be used? This is the perfect situation! I asked the shopkeeper to wait and very proudly removing my phone from the pocket, dialled his mobile number.

A long engage tone. Redial 1nce, 2wice, 3rice, no hope. The shopkeeper slowly pushed his DOT phone in front of me. I called my uncle and bought the choke for his 20 watts tube rod.

Desperate and irritated and angry, i called up the customer care. Sorry sir, the system says “Roaming customers in Meerut may face problems in calling some or all BSNL customers”. The problem will be solved as soon as possible. Firstly, Reliance and BSNL customers cannot send SMS to each other and now this! My uncle knew a GM in BSNL. I asked him about the SMS thing. He said there is no problem from BSNL’s side, only Reliance has to do some software or hardware upgrade. I dropped a mail to the Relliance Infocomm’s CEO thru their website regarding the same subject. Out came the expected reply – “Everything is fine at Reliance’s end, only BSNL has to do some software or hardware upgrade”.

After returning back, i went to a Reliance web world. I told the customer care girl that i am unable to make calls to BSNL customers while roaming. She litrally cut my sentence and told me very proudly that i must have gone to Meerut! And the problem is expected to sustain for some time more. I wondered if everyone knows the problem, then why aren’t they solving it?

Yes! thats it! i got it!

What?

The million dollar question is – What is the problem?

The problem is not that BSNL or Reliance or any 3rd company has to do some hardware or software upgrade, instead the problem is despite knowing the bottleneck, they are not trying to remove it. The SMS problem is pertaining since the launch of Reliance Infocomm’s services. But still, it seems nobody is trying to solve it.

When?

When will they solve it?

God only knows. Customer care people always say – “Sir, this problem will be solved within a month”.

Why?

Why aren’t they solving the problem?

Probably because both are the biggest contender to each other.

Where?

Where do we find ourselves?

Being crushed at the bottom.

I thought deeply about the “What” problem.Then i analyzed that people in India are, by default, lazy. They will let things go wrong, unless it affects them.

Why don’t we understand that if everyone will take care of others, no one will
have to take care of one’s own self!

The future holds great things for all of us.
And BTW, did i mention that got a 40W choke for my uncle’s 20W tube rod and it burnt!