F stands for Fraud in HDFC

 Why I pick out HDFC is I have dealt with a few Banks and Financial instituitions as an ordinary customer and no one has institutionalized selling fraud as HDFC

I won't get into every detail but I would brush quickly the first phase of the story to reach the latest incident. So a year ago I had developed this sudden angst of what would my family do without me. I browsed through Policybazar and came across a product and suddenly one of the agent calls me and pushes and pushes. I liked the sound of the product which gives out a great coverage and decent returns

I purchase this stuff and after a few months I was horrified to see a monthly charge being cut to the point that invested fund reduces to 3/4th the value. I browsed through the policy document and no where it is mentioned specifically of the monthly charges. I mail them, call them and the people at the other end are so dismissive and rude

So I decided against renewing the premium and a few weeks ago I recieve a call from a company saying they can 'reassign' the policy and I will get a small amount invested plus the insurance coverage. So the story starts here

I go to a Branch of HDFC to see if the call was genuine and the guy aka Relationship Manager calls up another guy, who is a agent. He says 'Mein ek dusra plan samjadungha'. I instantly realise he is going to come up with the 'Annuity Scheme'. I cut him off and says you don't tell me any new plans. Just give me a reply to this and he goes to my old plan downloads the policy document, shows me a chart and says all the charges deducted will be reversed back. I was a little confused at that point. I have never heard or seen in the policy document of charges getting reversed. I thanked him and left the office and I called the HDFC policy center and they confirmed the charges wouldn't be reversed

I was shocked. How can the lie to the face? And that too from time to time

Body positivity

 One of my colleagues, who had thrown down her hatchette (work tools) a few months ago, decided to turn to philosophy and wellness. She wanted to save all the downtrodden women who had nowhere else to go.

Last day she posts a video of her doing a dance similiar to a Indian raunchy dance showing off all her folds and creases. She went ahead and posted it online.

Probably that was her way to show the body positivity. We all start our journey with aim to a bright destination. We may not end up there. We row and row furiously but we will end up in some shore for sure

There is nothing as toxic as a sour relationship

 It was a year ago I met this couple from Kerala. They were just married and moved into this city far from home. I liked them and brought in memories from my honeymoon period. They had this chance to start life, with themselves, in a new town. It is challenging. So I used to check on them and took them out on dinner a couple of times.

One thing which I found off about him was, he had no serious plans about life and talked too much about his opinions. Then he started taking long trip back to his hometown leaving the wife here

So he messages me, after a long term, asking how was the rains here. I smelt something amiss. Why should he ask me, when he had his wife in the same town. I skirted around the question

And last day when I was on a not so pleasant journey, he messages again bitching about his wife and mother in law. I told him to move in with his wife and try ironing the minor problems out. I could guess from his words that her parents were not mighty pleased that he was lazing around.

Today he messages me again saying that women get arrogant when they stand on their own feet. So I should suggest him ways for him to get her fired. I was stunned. I told him , if you don't want to live with her, go your own way and let her live in peace

There is nothing as toxic as a sour relationship

World Cup of last dances

 In my earliest memory 1998 and 2002 world cups were the best hosting handful of legends at their best and great footballing teams

It can't get any worse than this when a handful of old men who should have retired long ago arrived with a supposedly emotional, warm story of how they wanted a last dance. Instead they made mockery out of their game, cut a sorry figure and exited ,unceremoniously.

Cult creation and 'making of legend' is natural. But not when you make a story out of nothing and forget that your team and sport matters. Then you go ahead to use short reels and 'stories' to make a crowd believe that you are going to work out a magic when you don't have that left in you.

മറവിയിലേക്ക്

 കഴിഞ്ഞ ദിവസം പള്ളി ഗ്രൂപ്പിൽ ഒരു അനുശോചനം കിടക്കുന്ന കണ്ടൂ. പ്രായമുള്ള മനുഷ്യൻ ആണ് . പണ്ട് കണ്ട പരിചയം തോന്നുന്നു

വീട്ടിൽ അപ്പനോട് ചോദിച്ചപ്പോ പരറഞ്ഞത്. ഉന്നത ഉദ്യോഗത്തിൽ നിന്ന് retire ചെയ്ത ആണ്

COVID ന് ശേഷം വീട്ടിൽ നിന്ന് വെള്ളിയിൽ ഇറങ്ങിയിട്ടില്ല

ഒന്ന് ആലോചിച്ച് നോക്കിയാൽ COVID തീർത്തു കളഞ്ഞ എത്ര ജീവിതങ്ങൾ ഇപ്പോളും കാണാം

Toughest Illness

 Everyone will answer to this question that they have the toughest illness in the world

For the past few months I am going through this indigestion which comes in a cycle every week. You feel tired, disoriented and wondering if you will die

Yesterday I kept thinking this is the badass of all illnesses in the world

Happy Retirement

 I went to a 'retirement' function yesterday. A place where you wish someone ridiculous things like 'happy second innings'

His wife was giving a small talk where she said, in a light vein, that she too is retiring from the duty of preparing 'tiffin'

I was wondering if I happen to survive another two decades, will I be sane enough to live a happy second innings

A frank Dad son conversation

 So my Dad, like most of the retired elder people are hooked to YouTube and particularly into the conspiracy behind religion, food , politics and what not

So yesterday he sends me a youtube link and I don't even acknowledges there messages

But I thought I should amuse myself with the headline and I was surprised and shocked to see that video was sermon on how 'Sexual immorality draws people from God'

I was stupified. I remember when I was young and I saw word in the Bible 'semen' and I asked him what it was and he drove me away. So what is this frankness when I am forty and the libido is on a decline

Well I decided to watch the video in the evening and I realized what he wanted to say was another 'retired' uncle who is into spreading word among the youths decided to start a YouTube channel and came up with this topic

Oh my creepy creepy uncles

A scene I wish I never witnessed

 So my next  door Neighbour, who I know is not very well off, lives by cooking tiffins for nearby offices. And I have seen bank officials coming in for loan recovery

So today I went to get my daily morning grocery, and I happened to see the shopkeeper arguing and abusing him. He seems to have asked for a rebate in the Atta flour. Both os us looked embarrassed seeing each other out there

Bottom line is it is not easy to make a living

To buy or not to buy

 The earliest reference in Bible to temptation is when Satan tempts Jesus with al the wealth of the world

In my other life my struggle with temptation was not to buy something and today I have to struggle with the temptation is to buy something

So after realising that my stock of ‘non usable shirts’ are going up , I decided to buy a new pair.. It was not easy and I have to waive off the last minute temptation to postpone it for a couple of months

And now I realise I need a good pair of shows too. The problem is if you start searching online, all your instagram reels are interrupted with advertisement of more and more varieties. All coming with a significant price tag

WIth every passing day I am resembling my Dad, he kept saving and wearing very normal outfit while his brothers and sister wore premium dressing. I always wanted to look premium someday, but guess that might not happen.

Or buy on EMI and just forget about it

Men's day

 So a good friend wished me in the morning ‘Happy Men;s Day’

I smirked ‘Is there even a day like that

I didn’t find anything in the Insta or any social Media. May be a faint flicker

Later that evening I thought, it’s fair to have a men’s day

Women ripe with old age. But, as soon as they realise their youth is gone, they wither fast

The Biblical curse of having to labour and toil fell on Adam more. He has to toil till night often suppressing his basic needs. In that toil even the family may forget him

Many a times, no one bothers to ask how is he doing. He is supposed to be there looking after all

So yes, there should be a day for the forgotten MAN

ഓർമ്മകൾ

 ഈ ഓർമ്മകൾക്ക് ഒരു പ്രശ്നം ഉണ്ട്. നമ്മൾ അടുക്കാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുന്തോറും അത് അകന്നു പോകും

ജീവിതം കൂട്ടിയും കിഴിച്ചും കഴിയുമ്പോ ഒരു പിടി നല്ല ഓർമകൾ ബാക്കി വന്നാൽ അവൻ്റെ ജീവിതം ഭാഗ്യം ചെയ്തത്

The Corner

Yesterday I was talking to a old friend. The conversation veered to a college mate who passed away due to rare heart condition

I remembered all the old fun we had.What if we knew what our lives would turn to in another 15 years

As I was dozing off to sleep, I remembered a visual. 

My childhood, where as usual I was always late to the bus. I would run to the bus stop to see bus coming from far. It had to take a turn at the signal. 

So if I saw the bus at the signalit was a happy moment, knowing that I haven,t missed the bus

As I lay there half asleep a thought came to my mind. I may have another 20-25 years in my book

What if I got a chance to go back to that bus stop and waiting for the bus to take the turn

Engineering

This morning I was sitting back, brooding the loneliness, when I got a call. The true caller said he was a friend from college

I thought a full few minutes, deciding if I should call him back and finally decided in favour of it.

We spent a full hour talking. He is a lecturer in Engineering

Among other things he was talking about how this 'Kerala Technical University' destroyed the course

I remember when this KTU came into being with fancy names how it was said it to change the landscape of Engineering courses

The teachers coughing up the old yellowed pages would find it difficult to survive in the new age courses

But over time they pushed in faculty from private colleges into the board of KTU. General Life courses with no connection to Engineering came up and old core subjects were moved out of syllabus

The aim was to increase pass percentages of private colleges and reduce advantage of government colleges

Today children learn less of Engineering and more of 'communication' and 'management'

The lecturers have almost nothing to teach now. 

The Core

I was watching the recent Malayalam movie, Kaathal, which had run on to become a great hit. The story revolves around the lives of a homosexual man, who had to come out of the closet in his middle age

Something that stuck me towards the end of the movie was a particular scene where he contested from his Panchayath. He was contesting as a independent candidate from the left bloc. The screen was filled with red flags.

Cut to present political scene, a party which was seen as liberal and peaceful has become a bunch of people with priorities lying in becoming a soft saffron or christian brigade. Congress has totally lost the ability to lead a narrative

Don't eat with wicked men

I was returning from work yesterday. The society was adorned with bright colours and DJ music as 'Shri Ram was coming back to Ayodhya'. Makes me wonder where was he all these years.

The ladies were having communal dinner at the basement. As usual I made my way to the elevator, pretending not to have seen them.

'Sir, please have dinner with us.'

I was slightly surprised. 2 years here and I know the hate and loathe hid behind their smiles. No one really invites me over for dinner or their functions. Infact whem I moved here an active area of discussion was why a non Gujarati was rented out a home. 

Probably, they thought I was from the 'other side' and wanted to celebrate the victory

In a moment I saw threw the loving smiles. I politely refused, for the food will turn poison in my stomach

Memories Die

Early morning phone calls means bad news mostly, especially when you have old people in your family. 31st December was not expected to bring such a news. I was to sit at home and ruinate on the memories. But the phone rang. It was turn of my uncle, father’s eldest brother. I planned to meet him on the last trip but couldn’t. 

20 years ago my grandparents passed away and now it’s the turn of the generation above me. I might labour and struggle until my turn arrives in the next few decades. 

When the new of passing away of my uncle came, with him ended years of family feud, mainly started over the partition of land. That was the period dad felt isolated mentally. We, as kids, also struggled to digest the ugly side of relationships. The joy and innocence of childhood gave way to the realities and greed of life. We moved away from ancestral property, and with time sold off the land. 

Thankfully, Dad and his brother came to peace during the last days 

Curry and Cyanide

Netflix releases a documentary on one of the most sensational murder spree.  The documentary might have been well made except for the part that the whole thing looked too amateur. No proper research/ investigation was done.

As the narrator himself, inadvertently admitted, there were too many red flags still not looked into.

The murder didn't became a sensation just because 6 people were killed. But the executioner was a home maker and an epitome  of ideal mother and wife. The question was how could she bring herself to do this?

Sadly the question still remains unanswered. The whole documentary seems to be shot by a wedding photographer and ends up with making the sister-in-law of the murderer a heroine of the whole drama.

One essential question remaining to be answered is, why were the entire family silent through out the period and even more strangely, how did the person who first cried foul on the mysterious death kept visiting the accused so that he become her next victim?

All said, the decadence of 'family' once the strongest and most sacred unit in society has fallen into decadence. The contradiction of material and at the same time the cultural and spiritual myths have churned out a very depressed generation in denial with themselves

Concept of Consent

I am a person who rarely gets into an argument in social media platform. One thing being half the population are stupid and stubborn. I mostly listen and smile.

But the last day a friend posted a video of a interview bit with a politician in Kerala. This guy, Mr P C George, more or less who has been in the news for his ‘populist’, ‘machoistic’ views on matters of interests doesn’t have any political party but he has been able to stand at the right places and take the right positions to stay in the limelight

The interviewer, more of a pretty novice, asks him about women’s safety in Indian public spaces during odd hours. He curtly replies ‘ Women from respectable families need not go out in odd hours’.

This was a wildly popular interview clip years ago. The interviewer was a less known pretty lass who looked too eager to please and the TV channel were in look out for attracting some eye balls. So here this guy has come up with a  solution to abuse, defined ‘respectablity’ and solved public safety all in a single go.

Coming back my friend shared this clip with a caption ‘Pwolichu’ a new generation slang for ‘Rocking’ (my generation slang). I was surprised and stunned. I asked her, a post graduate student, what about women who work late nights? There are women who work as menial labourers to top executives who commute late into night. What about them.

I don’t know was the the reply.

I went on to talk to her about this consent the concept of consent and definition of decency. Sad part is women are conditioned to think that men, that too strangers, have the right to abuse their personal space if the compromise on some society-drawn-boundaries on decency. This abuse of personal space have no age barrier and has normalized even rape over these years.

Saying that it is not just indecent looking street guys who abuse a woman. Even decent looking people like I do. But coming into terms with the fact is not easy.

Dumping ground

I had this addiction to porn novels in my teens. They are termed 'small book' in my place. I used to buy and stock them.

Then after many weeks I would decide to turn a good boy and dump them all in the near by wasteland. This cycle would repeat in another few weeks.
This wasteland was owned by a rich guy and the neighborhood used the place to dump all their waste.

I believe we all should have this mental black hole where we can dump all stuff which want to get rid off. Waste will regenerate again but we need a space to dump itta intervals