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