Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Rented houses

I don’t know if my luck of rented houses is very bad or these miseries are suffered by all naives. But any one looking for a rented house should be careful about a few things I believe.

One, the possessive tendency of landlords. One of my landladies had an excessive possessiveness on the house. She barred us from hammering nails so we could hang curtains. She clearly told us that she loves that house so much that when a nail is driven in the wall she feels as if its heart that is being nailed.

She taught me the second important lesson of possessiveness too. She lived above us. Her exit was absolutely different. There was a small garden with open boundary. So all day, all sorts of animals used to come and go. Starting from cow to ferrets. We made the mistake of feeding a few canines and she got absolutely ballistic. So, even if your entrance is absolutely separated from your landlords never feed strays. That was the lesson I learnt from them.

The next landlord has mentioned it in the deed. But he did not mention it in the deed that his rooms are under one feet water every monsoon. And the two years I spend there were perfect nightmares. On the first year three or four days water invaded the rooms but on the second year it invaded for more than ten days. He taught me to never trust landlords, brokers and self-interest driven people. Because that house was finalized via a broker and a man who had very serious business connections with my brother. My brother’s living near him would have been immensely advantageous for him. As for the broker…. Well we all know about them, don’t we?

No matter how much your landlords try to mix with you, if you are not a very diplomatic person you should keep a cold courteous relationship with them. The further they are the better for you.

Another bizarre thing occurred during my tenancy in this house. We did not had an independent access to our rooms. The main door was controlled by the land lords. I often used to have a feeling that someone entered my rooms while we were in office.

Then one day it was semi confirmed. We lived in the back portion of the house. My kitchen window opened in the courtyard of the next flat. I was cooking when a vendor woman boldly confronted me. It was an unexpected leave of course, I bunked office because I was feeling unwell.

That woman told me that she has brought the bucket which my mother asked her for. I told her that I live there with only one more person and he sure is not a woman.

She confidently described my landlady and said that she has asked her from this very window for a bucket which she did not had on Saturday, so she told her that she will bring it on Monday. She repeatedly told that this was the window from which the order was placed.

Now that meant only one thing, that our rooms were used behind our backs with duplicate keys. Purpose? It can be any thing starting from saving own electricity to stealing.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Haunted Cell-phones

How many of you face them? I sometimes suspect that my cell-phones are haunted. Or they are all crazy.

When the problems used to happen in earlier stages I used to share them with others, and they used to blow away my words, saying that they can’t happen. Then I started to collect the evidences. Then only they agreed that my cell phones act weirdly.

My second connection was a Vodafone connection. A number which drove me crazy. The mistake might have been my own. I used to keep it in my office desk and leave the seat sometimes. I left that job but the ghost remained in my cell phone. The phone used to send ghost smses to my friends. Received smses as per its choice. That is half of the smses never reached me. Or the phones never rang. Whereas the friends used to say that the phone rang alright but no one picked it up, or it was giving engaged tone. Where as I have hardly one or two friends, who rarely call, so engaged tone is out of question and what about the missed call record if they called and no one picked it up?

I ultimately stopped using it.

Then I got two airtel connections. One my own and one previously used by my brother. Initially they seemed to do alright. Then weird things started to happen. Now I don’t even bother about them any more. The two things which surprised me most were-

1. I had two handsets at that time, one a Nokia black and white handset the other a Sony high-end phone. I keyed in a number from the nokia handset to the Sony handset and called. I talked with the woman and disconnected. Then when I opened the Sony handset to save the number in the address-book I saw that the number which I have dialed has vanished and in place of that my second number was showing. I even showed it to the shop owner he said it was virus.

2. Second thing has started recently. Every time I send a sms, the delivery report is shown instantly. Attached with the money deducted message. Usually a message takes a few seconds to get delivered, right? Then more added to it. I noted for a few days that after once sending the sms to the desired person it was sending it to a second person free of cost. It was first showing “delivered to M” then after a few seconds “delivered to A”.

It started to wake me up at odd times, playing its own merry tunes. Though it can ring alarm only once a day. And even that was turned off. Yet it used to drag me out of bed at 3 AM singing songs.

How many of you face these weird problems? Of my cell-phones are haunted?

Monday, January 4, 2010

A fair warning

In my long run of blogging i have met some people who dont mind stealing other people's works on net, or harassing others. i have been harassed to no end by a gang of trolls for more than two years, WORST PART IS THEY USE MY BLOG NAMES, AFTER SLIGHTLY MODIFYING THEM OR OPENING THE SAME BLOGS UNDER OTHER WEBSITES. That is why i always keep my friends informed about the blog sites i am using/not using. I hope my friends wont ignore these words.

I dont want them to be fooled by any troll or favour seeker using my name. i recently even deleted a remote desktop connection file from my computer, and my brother said these files are mainly used by favour seeking spammers... "please help me in transferring millions of dollars my husband left in a foreign bank before dying :)"

so... WHEN I SAY SOMETHING .... BETTER KEEP THAT IN MIND. There is one thing i can certainly vow about, I WILL NEVER ASK ANY ONE ANY KIND OF FAVOURS, IF SOME ONE ASKS YOU SOME FAVOUR THAT WILL NOT BE ME. :)

I have not used ORKUT (barring a few months in 2007-08), TWITTER, FACEBOOK or SKYPE in past. Nor have any plan of doing that now or in future.

the blogs I regularly update are: mydomainpvt.wordpress.com; magicthought.wordpress.com; suryagni.blogspot.com; agnitrisha.blogspot.com; suryakana.blogspot.com

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

data entry traps..

This one is the most flourishing of them I believe, the biggest reapers of other’s toils. You will find such an organisation in every street of metros like kolkata.

I only fell in their trap twice, that too because they were my brother’s friend. The interesting part is their conscience, if they can dupe their friends then how do they treat enemies and others? Just curious!!!

First one was a group of my brother’s friend, who after procuring a consignment from a company to build an ebook for their company gave me the offer to complete the data entry in MSWord, well I worked for three months on my expense, that included going to santoshpur from behala, at the end the guy handed me over two thousand rupee whereas he pocketed more than twenty thousand rupee from the company, and after my work was done all he has done was to put them on the website.

Second incident was a dbase based data entry, I worked for more than ten hours each day from home but that guy paid in an outrageous rate, out of politeness my brother has not confirmed financial sides or double checked his rates and he took complete benefit of that.

These organisations have only one motto.. to steal the toil of others. For that they will go to no end, they always look for freshers, old unemployed people or people who want to work from home. Then the assignment is handed over at a very cheap rate, or normal rate. The main drama starts when the time of payment comes, lots of mistakes crop up in the work and a disgusting bargaining starts, which inevitably ends up in the loss of the data entry operator.. because these guys have years of experience of stealing other’s money.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

too much sacrifice

Till date I have worked only in one so called corporate office. And after working in that I decided that I wont join another. Because the level of compromise they ask for is impossible to offer.

They appoint normal, ambitious human beings and transform them into shameless, ruthless, money hungry creatures. They expect all type of moral compromises from you, and if you don’t oblige the doors are open.

Working with them can be real torture from them, I left my office after a nasty drama created by my dramaqueen boss. I still remember the scene, how the quite nice, soft people were a mute spectator of the entire drama. Some of them had quite a nice term with me. Specially a few of them.

I still remember three of them, they were perfectly wonderful people, one was out of town but the remaining two were present there. I still remember the agitated face of one of them. it was quite clear by his face that he was furious but could not do any thing. He was sitting at the reception and shaking with anger, watching the entire drama.

Glad that I did not gave in to that moral compromisation.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Small firm employees..their miseries

In today’s India we are slowly realising the necessity that Private concerns should flourish side by side the government organisations when it comes to offering employment opportunities. People will change their mindset about joining private firms, and happily pick up offers from private concerns.

But these organisations usually dupe their employees too much. Specially the very small or proprietorship organisations. They employ staffs at a salary which forget about feeding their family, it wont be able to feed his or her own mouth. Whereas these employees usually don’t lack expertise.

I have seen a lot of persons slaving away in these small private firms with paltry salaries like one thousand rupee per month. They stick to these jobs for years without even asking for a raise because they know if they leave some one else will immediately join their post, and their employers will not mind shutting their door on them.

Why does not government looks into these matters and firmly protects the rights of these people?

medical transcription.. a mirage for me

A little homework before you invest a huge amount of money in a course/career oriented course:-

Medical transcription as a career can be very tempting. Its been publicized as a high paying job and often a verbal confirmation of absorption on SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE COURSE is given by the counsellors. Please note the word SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE COURSE. I have recently completed a course without being successful, wasting Rs. 20,000 and six precious months. Whereas I can confidently say that I would have been able to complete the course successfully if the training and teaching techniques were appropriate.

The sum total of the entire episode which costed me too dearly, I think is my moral duty to share with all. One should be very careful about joining these trainings and check these things:-

1. how much the institute is giving in written about the absorption etc before taking in the first instalment. Please check the criteria of SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION specially, ask them what is the clear definition of SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION, How much percentage will that mean.
2. if he/she can clearly understand american english spoken in a very slurred manner. By a doctor who is some times absent minded and sometimes almost sleepy aftr toiling all day. He is usually giving the dictations after working all day.
3. if he has the temperament to listen to these files for hours and type them in pretty good speed. Because a good ear, amply good health and good typing speed should be a must, if the counsellor says any thing else he is just aiming for your money.
4. He will have to have amply good command over english too, that is the grammatical side of english, he will have to some times fill in unsaid words, or guess unintelligible words.
5. if he or she will be able to study amply complex medical studies and secure 60-85 per cent marks in them. To get a sample of the text, that is the entire course curriculum any one can hit “medical transcription free course” on google. I looked that way but unfortunately after handing over the first instalment.
6. I was expected to secure 50% in first module, 70% in second module and third module and 85% in fourth module. The modules are not independent, they are added as the course progresses. Apart from that you have to be well versed in drugs in the same field. And in the final you will have to give exam on that too. The voice files will be there to be handled in enough numbers.
7. No matter how much you are insisted to leave the course and join On Job Training don’t do it, because there are high chances that they will make you leave if you don’t meet their expectation, or if you stay in both cases you wont get the certificate. That will mean you wont be able to change the organisation. You will have to work there as per their will and terms.
8. Don’t bank on guidance which will be sweetly promised to you during counselling the modus operandi will be exactly the opposite. So be careful about your time and money.

9. Dont be dead confident that your capability will be judged fairly and justly. there are 101 methods of usurping a student's money with earnest intention of not absorbing him/her.

for example: suppose your institute head is certain that he will appoint you, and says that again and again, he has even verbally promised you with a big grin.

But will you work in an organisation where colleagues and faculties are obsessed in discussing soft porn subjects openly and loudly? without letting you walk away, even following you around if you get away from them?

will you feel safe in such an environment if it is in a flat and you have often noted the main door bolted from inside?

10 Never ignore the word of mouth of ex students, before you join any such organisation ask them what is the percentage of absorption and ask them to introduce you to some of their students who are placed elsewhere (not there).

Sunday, June 21, 2009

bearers of the flag????

This experience was one of the greatest heart breaks for me, and one of the harshest too.

I always applied for computer operator or office assistant. This one was a media organization, which publishes annual reports for different big companies. Apart from that they create advertisment etc. the organisation is run by two quite famous persons of kolkata, if not celebrities.

I showed up for the interview of computer operator and they offered me the designation of database administrator, my job was to supervise a team, collect information from them and others and put that in a special software and handle that data. I have never done any thing of that sort, but they said its ok, they will give me time.

The two months which I spent there was nightmare, I have never seen so many harsh and ruthless persons under one roof, including the mistress, unfortunately she took special fancy on me and never left a chance to vent out her fury at me.

So, after one of her very nasty drama I left, because I knew that the show they were hoping me to run single handedly is a task for atleast four persons. So, this designer cladded, high society woman too stole my one month’s salary on the pretext that I have not completed my duties properly.

Seeing these organisations I have become very confident about one thing, that some of these are traps to hell and others are at your cost training, if you excel they will keep you, if you fail they will throw you out.

If you have one dose of their tongue you will know, they rule their roost. And it will take a fiend or monster to fight even their own right.

The thing which I found really hilarious about this organization was when later I saw them blowing the horns of “human right” on newspapers. Ha ha!!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Finacial trap?

Two more experiences are included herewithin, they are quite small, nothing much to say, only the hints are enough, to show how these free ride takers work under a slack government.

The second one was with a call center type organization, say flower deliveries. They used to collect orders from all over the world and make arrangements with the flower/gift deliver organisations for door step deliver. This organization most probably makes people work for free.

They appointed me with a salary of Rs 3500 and the duty hours were really long. I could not even last for a month.The environment was too harsh and unhygienic. That short duration of working was obviously without pay. But there also I saw the same pattern, they appoint bunch of staffs and throw them out without paying, and their behaviour is so harsh that it will take a really shameless person to stick with them or pursue them for payment.

The third one was a narrow escape, I still believe, It was a financial advicer’s office, call it manders, they advice people on stocks to purchase, I joined there as office administrator. For the first 20 or so days they made me sit idle, asking me to find out works to do.. now, that’s the funniest thing I have ever heard in any office. After that, one day one of my colleagues came to me and said that one of my bosses has a weekly target to fulfill, will I fill up one of the forms on my name, I said ok, but I will have to take it home to show.

After I showed it at home I was told that filling up that form meant an amount of Rs 3500 will be deducted from my bank account every month for next five years. Naturally I did not filled up the form, and their behaviour changed dramatically, after 10 or so days they told me right on my face that my performance is too poor, hence I will have to leave, and guess what, they did not paid me my salary.

I think my lucky stars saved me from that vicious trap. If I had signed that in office without showing it at home, I would have been doomed for five years.

Now my question is could it have been possible that none of their victims have informed police?

Monday, June 15, 2009

1. D.S.A.

Well, in a country like India, excluding some really lucky handful, we all have to look for jobs, change jobs, and join new jobs. And a huge proportion of us land up in the hand of exploiters.

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, from very early childhood I knew that if a man has got to live, he is got to eat, and if a man is got to reap, he is got to sow, so I knew that I have to work for survival, and I have faced a few very nasty and unpleasant situations, which I want to share to know if others also share such experiences, and the second reason is you can be a little wary before taking up any new offer blindly.

The first case was with the Direct Selling Agent of a foreign bank, I asked for 3500, I was offered the same, no offer letter or appointment letter was given. I joined, at the time of joining it was said that we will receive a thorough training on tele marketing and for the first three months there will be no target. Well we joined, but there was no training, forget about proper or improper. The target kept on shooting upward weekly, from the very beginning I kept on hearing that the owner is not very good at paying, but he was a sweet talking devil, and I took the face value, his terms and conditions changed once in a week, finally after working for two months he paid me Rs. 1500 as full and final payment.

The thing which I made out was that he most probably traps in rookies and makes them work for almost free, he tests the rookies and then shifts the good ones to some other center of his, but those who are not expert are most probably thrown out without being paid.


After seeing these rackets so closely, I have some really earnest questions, 1. When will the government intercept, 2. When will these organizations be forced to pay their employees enough to keep their body and soul together. 3. When will the rights of entire work force of India be taken care of decently? As the number of people desperate for job is too much, and they don’t have any choice but to take up any offer that comes their way, hence only some one in a strong position, like the law and judiciary can protect the right of these vastly exploited breed.