Go Direct !!!

Earlier to January 1st, 2013,  Indian mutual funds have only variety called standard or regular mutual funds.  They are sold via agents, distributors, banks etc. and  Asset Management Company (AMC) aka the mutual fund house pays commissions to these third party entities for bringing in investments/business.  Based on the relationship and AMC, there are two types of commissions; One being upfront commission after first sale and later trailing commissions, i.e. commissions are paid to distributing entity for some more time after first sale.  This way agents/distributors get money via commissions and AMC gets its business via more marketing and pushing the mutual funds to retail investors.  All these expenses are not borne by the AMC but its by you the investor who bears it.  It is called the expenses ratio over NAV which is charged to the investor once you buy the mutual fund.  Daily NAV is declared only after deducting the expenses from the mutual funds return.  This expense ratio varies from 0.5% to 3.0% or more  varying among different mutual funds.

SEBI came in to benefit of retail investors by mandating all AMCs to introduce DIRECT option for each mutual fund.  Those funds are suffixed with "-DIRECT" in the fund name.  So all AMCs started this option starting from January 1st, 2013.  The main differential is expense ratio as compared to standard mutual funds.  AMCs can provide this less expensive option only by  selling them directly  and by not paying commissions to 3rd party entities and no marketing expenses incurring.  That is the reason, you will not hear much about these DIRECT funds.   It is obvious that if expenses are less, the returns are more and more benefit to the retail investor.  How much benefit by investing in DIRECT option compared to REGULAR option? Now it is almost close to 2 years after DIRECT funds are introduced and returns should speak for it self.    Below table gives you some idea how returns differ for last 1 year between Direct and Regular options.

Source:  Valueresearchonline.com

Date of NAV:  29-OCT-14

Criteria:  Some well known 5,4,3 star rating funds in Large Cap, Large cap & Midcap,  Midcap & Small Cap, Multi cap and Equity oriented Hybrid/Balanced funds categories.

As you can see the returns vary from category to category and averaging among them gives 1.18%  For simple comparison purpose, let us take 1%  in returns difference between direct and regular option.  This 1% looks very minimal at up front.  However if you compound just 1% over long term, it makes huge difference.  If you are SIP investor, it makes much more huge difference.

e.g.  

1,000  rupees one time investment compounded for 15 years  gives 7,137.94 at 14% and 8,137.06 at 15%.  A difference of 999.12.  Refer Compounding is your friend article for more combinations of duration and rate of returns.

If you are a SIP investor and 1,000 rupees invested monthly for 15 years gives 6,12,853.78 at 14% and 6,76,863.09 at 15%.  A difference of  64,009.31, which is definitely a huge difference.  Refer SIP it slowly article for more  combinations of duration and rate of returns.

Why get less returns when you know the same mutual fund with different option gives far more better returns at longer duration.  In fact investing is for long term and savings is for short term.  Only effort you need to put initially is visiting the AMC website and downloading application forms and providing KYC details.  This is one time job.  Each AMC have their own requirements.  I guess you can put this little effort considering the outcome at the end.  Now a days, all AMCs have provided on line transacting facility to buy mutual funds for one time or regular bank transfers.

Go for Direct option for your next mutual fund purchase and earn better results.  Happy Investing.

SIP it slowly

If you believed in the truthful statement "Compounding is your friend",  then you need to believe and embrace another beautiful truth  "SIP it slowly".  It is not about any hot beverage, but investing systematically for long term.  There are numerous articles on SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) in the internet world.  The main benefits of SIP being

• Introduces disciplined investing
• Can invest smaller amounts as per ones convenience 
• No need to worry about timing the market
• Average costing the purchase price due to market fluctuations
• Compounded returns

Highlighting  just last point "Compounded returns" in combination of  SIP would give wonderful perspective if we see results at a glance. Below table shows 1000/- invested in monthly SIP route for various duration and rates of interest combination.  First row shows total amount invested for that duration; Second row shows duration in years and first column shows rate of return.

Same result is show in graphical format below.

As you can interpret, the gap between two interest lines increases at faster pace as duration increases.  So start investing early in SIP route and avail the benefit of compounding.

Compounding is your friend

Compounding is your friend,   Yes !!   you read it correct.   This holds could true always when you are investing, but  this friend becomes enemy in case of credit card debt / loans.

In financial word,  simple interest means,  interest  on principle per year.

e.g.   10% on 1000  for 3 years

1st year  interest is 100
2nd year interest is 100
3rd year  interest is 100
Total interest earned over 3 years is 100 + 100 + 100 = 300
Amount at the end of 3rd year is  principle (1000) plus interest (300) = 1300

Where as in case of compound interest, 1st year interest is calculated in similar way as simple interest. For the 2nd year,  interest is calculated over  principle plus 1st year interest.  That means, you get interest not only on principle but also on 1st year interest. For 3rd year, you get interest on principle plus interest over the interest earned till that year.

e.g.   10% on 1000 for  3 years compounded annually

1st year interest is 100 and amount at the end of 1st year is  1000 + 100 = 1100
2nd year interest will be calculated over 1100
      i.e.    1100 * 10/100 =  110
Amount at the end of 2nd year is  = 1100 + 110  = 1210
3rd year interest will be calculated over 1210
    i.e.  1210 * 10/100 =  121
Amount at the end of 3 year is  = 1210  + 121 = 1331

Compared to simple interest, compound interest gives you  additional amount of 31.   This  amount looks very small in today's terms, but when you consider duration (long term) and rate of return which determine the end result is unbelievably true.   Below table gives some idea of returns on 1000 rupees invested. No. of years is shown horizontally where as rate of return is shown vertically.  It is obvious that higher the  rate of interest, returns are high.  The longer the investment stays in compounding mode, the returns are high.  If you take advantage of both i.e. duration and rate of interest, the returns are "double" high.

In the above example of 1000 invested for 3 years,  the absolute percentage return after  3 years is 30% (Simple interest method) and  33.1% (Compound interest method).  Sometimes, people get amused seeing things in percentages when returns are considered.  Same table is shown below in terms of absolute percentage return.  

For all those who likes  visuals, same thing is shown in graphical format below.  Pay attention to the gap between consecutive lines.  It widens more as as duration increases as well as rate of interest increases.  That means, more returns. 

Remember, above example is shown just for investing 1000/-  "one time" in compounding method channel.  Imagine, you inculcate a good habit of investing regularly via SIP (Systematic Investment Plan), how beautiful is the end result !   

As I mentioned in the starting of the article,  this compounding friend becomes enemy in case of loans/ credit card debt.  In case of investment, what you get is incremented at faster pace over the years; where as in case of credit card debt, you are charged more as you delay the payment (duration) and the debt will grow at faster pace.  Just visualize the above tables and graphs as what you have to pay instead of earning.  You are already getting scared.  Aren't you?

Rate of interest may not be in your control due to various economic and market conditions. However,  duration is in your control.  Start investing "early" and stay invested "longer" period time to get the help of your friend "Compounding"

Happy Investing and leverage compounding.

Camera suggestion for a friend.

Recently friend of mine who is not at all familiar with cameras and photography requested me to suggest a good dSLR for him. He presumed that I am an expert in cameras/photography. :-).  Upon further probing what I understood was he just needs a simple P&S camera for his requirements.  His budget was up to decent 5 digit Indian rupees.  Some people do not like my suggestions, when I tell, why to buy a expensive camera and just shoot in AUTO mode.  Just like now a days mobile phones' features; they are so many to list out which mostly for marketing and competition. At the end very few users use more than 60% of features; The rest of the crowd are limited to just using basic features viz. phone call, send SMS, browse net, check time and occasionally take some pictures and set alarm clock.

There might be numerous good camera models in different brands/budgets. But this mail was sent to him considering his level of expertise and my opinion.

This was written on May 2014.  Information may not be up-to-date  when you read  this blog article.
-----------------------

Greetings friend,

It was nice talking to you. There has been a gap with my knowledge on recent cameras in the market, so it took little bit time to do the research.  I know you asked a simple question (which camera?), but being a hobbyist,  I go deep in the subject :-))))

Generic points, which you need to pay attention / understand while looking for  cameras.

• "More megapixels means more quality". It is wrong impression that is being marketed.  There are wonderful cameras with lower megapixels. So do not get sold for high megapixels.
• Look for Image stabilization or steady shot words. It helps to take stable shots without blur due to hand movement.
• Wide angle -  Look for better wide angle  minimum 24 or 28mm in 35mm format.  When you are trying to take group pictures or smaller rooms, it will cover more area/people.
• Nikons are good in dSLR segment, do not go for nikon P&S.
• No Samsung, Olympus brands etc.

I have categorized various levels and their explanation and suggested models. Your call to pick what you want,  I would suggest C,D,E categories as they are compact and easy to carry.  

Category E - Consumer oriented point & shoot camera for regular use. 

• Canon Powershot A3500 IS
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W830

Category D - Good quality P&S.  Next level to entry level models and slightly more price than Category E.

• Canon PowerShot S120
• Sony DSC-WX350 (high zoom)

Category C - High quality compacts. Long term usage/holding,  Personal property (you may not want to lend or give it somebody just like that)

• Canon Powershot G1 X Mark II
• Sony DSC-RX100
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30

Category B - Kind of dSLR size with single lens that can't be detached;  High zoom; All-in-one model; Has settings of dSLR level;  not compact for to carry in pockets/small bags.

• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200
• Canon SX500 IS
• Sony cyber shot DSC HX300

Category A - Entry level  dSLR; For hobby learners, long term photography learning curve.  Other than kit lens, you need to buy more lenses as you learn (not recommended for you at this time)

• Canon EOS 1200D 
• Nikon D3300

If you want to see the sample pictures and actual photo of a camera model, go to https://www.flickr.com/cameras  site.  Click on brand and model, you will see the required details.   

If you have any camera model in mind, please let me know the model number via email, I will do additional research (need at least 1 day :-)) and give my feedback.

I hope I did not give too much information for you. If you are too confused, think like this.  Category E is like Micromax/karbon mobile stuff.  Category D is  Nokia/Samsung and  Category C is like iphone in P&S segment (in terms of price and quality).

Good luck with your purchase and let me know what you bought finally.

____________________________

Buying from AliExpress - New channel for my needs?

I do watch movies connecting external hard drive to laptop and in turn connecting to LCD television. Occasional setting up this is fine but if I watch regularly, kind of boring to make sure connections are proper etc.  With limited technical knowledge in networking I hopped over the net to see how others see movies and came to know about NAS aka Network Attached Storage.  This also helps to store files on common place.  Familiarity with work place LAN is fine, but at home this is something new to me.  Wanted to venture in to it, but do not want to invest on jazzy high ticket items.  After some research, narrowed down to LAN Storage NAS device (Model WLX 652)  which meets my immediate requirement.

Ebay India has some listings of this product, and what I have observed is sellers clearly mentioned that shipping time is  about 30-40 days (surprisingly !!).   The reason being, they take the order and get it shipped from China/Hongkong and drop ship to your home.  The prices are about 4,000/- INR.    Earlier I got some small articles from Hong Kong, Thailand, so felt why can't I order directly from China?  Further research showed that lot of sites sell them to various countries, including Amazon US etc.  However my interest was to get it shipped to India in reliable means considering customs channel etc.  I have found Dealextreme and Aliexpress are the sites from which some of the Indian folks bought which have some positive feedback.  As I wanted minimal investment on this NAS expedition,  zero or minimal  international shipping also makes sense.  Dealextreme vendors do not have zero shipping options and Aliexpress has some zero shipping vendors.

Little exploring on Aliexpress gave me a flavor that it is similar to ebay (no bidding but direct buying option).  Sellers ratings, buyer, sellers feedback, multiple shipping options, retail and whole sale rates etc.  I wanted to make sure that if anybody from India bought from this site and verify their feedback on aliexpress as well as vendor feedback.  Found one person gave positive feedback on specific vendor where he bought the same equipment which I was interested.  One successful proven case is found.  Unfortunately I can't contact that individual via aliexpress to get more doubts clarified.  The price is relatively less even including 50% customs charges (assuming max customs that I can think of) as compared to ebay India prices.  Decided to take some risk and plunge !!

While creating a user account on Aliexpress, realized that it is related to Alibaba (which most of you might be seeing on any google search results while you try querying a product on google).  Alibaba is whole sale seller (B2B) where as Aliexpress is  consumer oriented site.  In order to safe guard myself from fraud and other means,  did enough scanning and opted for a specific vendor as well as chose mode of payment via virtual credit card.  Now a days, banks do provide this facility where you can set a limit on this virtual card and it will be linked to your regular credit card.  First time the transaction did not go through validation part and I was suspicious about the so called international transaction.  Before abandoning the plan, I called up the bank to find out that  starting October 2013, all international credit card transactions are stopped and you have to request the bank to allow.  The window which this can be allowed depends on you.  Either one or two days or 10 days if you are travelling abroad.   After talking to bank and trying one more time,  the transaction went through.   First sigh of relief. 

By the way, just like ebay, unless you confirm the product receipt on Aliexpres,  the vendor is not paid.  This escrow kind of mechanism is good for both parties.  Vendor's promise on their site about delivery is about 30-40 days.  I was mentally prepared for this long duration as I am getting better deal and also not in a hurry for the product.  Aliexpress provides tracking site details after order is placed but they suggest you to visit it after 3 or 4 days.  From the internet found other sites where I can track them from China post angle as well as India customs/Posts angle. I have listed them below.  I was curious as well as anxious about this episode so I almost daily tracked whereabouts of this package.  Below listing gives break up of the packet's itinerary. 

Action	Days
Order Placed	0
Payment Confirmed by Aliexpress	1
Order shipped – Tracking number issued	3
Tracking appeared on China post	3
Sent to Airline message	13
India foreign post office tracking site	10
Sent to domestic post office within India	5
Received	3

It took totally 38 days from the order placement to receipt.  Though I requested the seller to leave an invoice copy in the packet, they did not.  Indian customs opened it and assessed the value and customs charges are levied.  Indian customs generally do not go with invoice value but their own assessment from the predefined price list.  This gentleman has a good article about various customs charges.   I paid  2192/- INR for the product and customs charges paid to post man were 342/-, Total 2534/-;  which is still 37% less than ebay India lowest price of 3999/-.  Waiting for about 37 days and getting 37% discount is not bad at all.  Would I still buy from Aliexpress later?  Yes, but not expensive items.     Over all experience is positive.

• China Post Tracking can be done  here
• Indian Foreign post office tracking can be done here

I will write another post about NAS device installation and experiments

Update 30Aug16.   
Bought a small item value of $7 on 8Aug16, shipped on 15Aug16 and received in tact on 30Aug16.  22 days and no customs charged.   It was shipped from Malaysia not sure what are the business logistics between vendors in mainland China and Malaysia.  Happy with the transaction.

Can't ping other devices on LAN - D-LINK - DSL2750U Router

23-OCT-2013

Recently I have moved from BSNL provided basic Wi-fi modems to D-LINK DSL-2750U router/modem after enough research. Setup was easy and due to dual antenna the range of wireless is better than BSNL provided routers. After moving to new router, I have faced one problem and all my limited networking knowledge as well as internet world could not help; however After I called customer support of D-Link, the gentleman immediately was able to identify my problem and provided the solution. Seems like they know the issue and troubleshooting was familiar for them. Here is the problem and fix......

I have a desktop (wired) to router with Windows 7 OS and wireless connected laptop (windows xp), Blackberry playbook and an android phone. The desktop can't ping other networked devices nor other devices can ping the desktop. The internet works perfectly from all the devices. Only issue is they can't communicate each other. This was not happening with my previous BSNL router. The issue has been isolated to D-Link router setup.

The fix is to disable "Enable MultiAP Isolation" option. Go to router setup page (http://192.168.1.1) --> Setup --> Wireless --> Wireless Basic and un-check the box "Enable MultiAP Isolation" and press "Apply" button. This fixed the problem immediately and I could ping all devices on the LAN.

I could not see any article on this by the time I am writing this, so documenting the same . Screen shot is below. I also observed that for D-link modems, there are various firmware screen shots and no consistency (for the same modem). I have highlighted the firmware for my router on top right corner of the screen shot.

Update 30Aug16:

Thank you all for your warm messages even after 3 years of my post.  I did not expect this small write up would help a lot many of you.  Glad to know about it.

This week I ran in to issue as internet signal is  red  and DSL icon is green though.  BSNL folks came and verified the wires all the way from junction box etc.  Finally narrowed down after couple of trials to Router issue.  Temporarily used another modem and used this piece for wifi.   Had to do hard reset after 3 years and it is back on track like a charm.

Does anybody tried VDSL connection on this  ADSL2 Router?

ఎవడు అన్నాడు ఇండియాలోనే  రోడ్డు మీద ఆవులు గేదలు తిరుగుతాయని?   అమెరికా లో కూడా ఉంటాయి అనడానికి నిదర్శనమ్.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rovingmagpie/4714659508/

తాటి ముంజులు ....

మొన్న తాటి ముంజులూ శీతల పెట్టి లో పెట్టి పంచదార చల్లుకొని తిన్నాను అని మొహం పుస్తకం లో పెట్టాను. చాల మంది "నచ్చలేదు" అని "నొక్కి" మరి చెప్పారు. ఇవాళ ఇంకో ఘనకార్యం చేసాను, జీవితం లో ఇంతకూ ముందు ఎప్పుడు చెయ్యనది. మూడు రోజులు క్రితం నా సహోద్యోగి, తాటి కాయలు ఉన్నాయి తీసుకుంటారా అని అడిగాడు. నేనుఎప్పుడు "తినడం" తప్ప "వలవ లేదు" ఇంకా అతి పెద్ద పని ఏమిచేసాను అనుకుంటే, వాటి తో చేసిన బండి తో ఆ కాలం నాటి "స్కూటీ" లా ఆడాను అని అన్నా. అబ్బే అదేమీ పెద్ద పని కాదండి, "buthcer " కత్తి ఉంటె సులభమే , లేదు అంటే పళ్ళు ఉన్న కత్తితో బంగాళా దుంప చిప్స్ లా చేక్కేయండి అని సలహా ఇచ్చాడు ఆయన. ఇదేదో బావుంది అని చెప్పి, ఓ పదిహేనో, పదహారో కాయలు ఉంటాయి అనుకుంటా, కారులో బస్తా వేయించుకుని ఇంటికి తెచ్చా.

"ఆహా", "ఓహో" అని ఇంట్లోనించి ధ్వని తరంగాలు వచ్చాయి, కాని ఇంట్లో కూరలు కోసే కత్తి తప్ప వేరే "ఆయుధం" లేదు అని అనుమానం వచ్చింది. శ్రీమతి ని అడిగితే మనం "ఒమిరికా" నించి వచ్చినప్పడు కొన్ని కత్తుర్లు
కటార్లు పట్టు కొచ్చాము కదా, ఉన్నాయేమో చూస్తాను అంది. వెదికితే దొరికాయి. ఒక 12 రకాలవి. అన్నిటికి "పళ్ళు" ఉన్నాయి, కాస్త సినిమా స్టైల్ లో వాటి వంక చూసి, ఒక బలమైన పట్టు ఉన్న దానిని తీసా. మొదటి కాయ కొయ్యడానికి సుమారుగా 4 నిమషాలు పట్టింది. పది ml చెమట కూడా పట్టింది. ఆ తరువాత పదమూడో ది కొయ్యడానికి 40 సెకనులు పట్టింది. ఆఖరి దానిలో ముంజు, ముంజు లా కొంచం చెక్కుకు పోయింది తీస్తే, మొదటిది కోసినప్పుడు వచ్చిన గుజ్జు ఎలా ఉంటాడో ఊహించ గలరు. గణితం ప్రకారం "inversely proportional " అని తేలింది. ఒకటి కి రెండు సార్లు చేస్తే ఏది అయినా సాధ్యమే అని మనసులో అనుకున్నాను.

కొండ ని తవ్వు ఎలుక ని పట్టు అన్నట్లు, ఆ బస్తా కాయలు అన్ని వలిస్తే, ఒక చిన్న బౌల్ లోకి సరిపడే అంత వచ్చాయి, ముంజులు. చెత్త మాత్రం ఒక వారం చేసే పచారి సామానం పట్టేటి అంత ప్లాస్టిక్ బ్యాగ్గు లో వచ్చింది. పాపం రోడ్డు మీద అమ్మే వాళ్ళు ఎంత కాస్త పడితే ఒక ముంజు బుట్ట లోకి వస్తుంది....

"మొన్న తాటి ముంజులూ శీతల పెట్టి లో పెట్టి పంచదార చల్లుకొని తిన్నాను అని మొహం పుస్తకం లో పెట్టాను.".... ఇది మళ్ళా రాయాలి అంటే ఇక్కడ తో ఆపేసి, "fridge " దగరకి వెళ్ళాలి .... ... సశేషం

firefox - no image loading phew !

Yesterday I have to delete some stuff from my PC and unfortunately during that process my firefox setup was reset. i.e. when I opened it it behaved as if I am opening it first time. During this process, I could see some images are not being loaded properly. Especially flickr.com On the same page some get loaded and some do not. After searching on google found out following steps, which fixed the issue.

* In the browser bar, type about:config
* Go to the property permissions.default.image, set the value 0, irrespective of whatever value present
* Close the browser, re-start. Browse couple of pages and reset the value to 1 in the above method.
* Now close the browser again and re-start, this fixed the issue.

cheers

Halo 22

Halo 22, originally uploaded by $udhakar.

Rare sighting in Hyderabad. Taken by Sudha

l.yimg.com

Recently after flickr updated their interface, during the beta run as well after live, I had problems about some buttons not working. e.g. Actions, all sizes etc. I use firefox( 3.6.8), chrome(whichever is latest build) as well as IE8. This used to not work in any browser. After multiple iterations of research, found that the relevant information to run javascript for this is taken from l.yimg.com. If you leave first window after loading for sometime till all objects are downloaded from l.yimg.com, then they will be in cache and they work fine. But if you click fast before loading full page, it may not work.

There are numerous complaints about l.yimg.com server slowness.

cheers

Minerva Coffee Shop @ Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills

Well, mood came in to write some thing and here you go....

Last weekend while driving from city during dinner time, family is discussing on what kind of food to have and where to go. Obviously when we are four sitting in car, four choices pop up and nothing will be decided immediately. Typical family drama. Just after crossing Jubilee hills check post, I did see median hoardings about this new joint Minerva Coffee Shop saying "We are open at Road no. 36". My son also immediately got attention of the Brahmin caricature on the hoardings. He like it too.. :-) Immediately I proposed and we took a U turn in the next available median. I visited the same chain couple of times in Ameerpet and my expectations are quite positive.

It seems like a home is converted in to restaurant and only 4 car slots are available in front of that "home". Valet parking is available and those guys are pretty active and available in huge numbers and there is a coordinator to take care of the rush. We already saw some people waiting outside for seating and have been thinking about decision we made. One point is Sunday evening most family outing for everybody and another reason I could feel was due to Friendship day. Took a chance and inquired about waiting time and he asked my name and replied saying "you are just 4th person in queue"

I had put my grinned face one more time and asked him again, How much time it will take irrespective of my token number? he replied 15-20 minutes. There is a open area with chairs and we sat along with other folks. As usual more than 50% of the crowd are hanging with their mobile phones and what they speak on phone and their facial expressions and their presence is totally out of sync. A waiter brought a try full of glasses filled with cold water. A good gesture for waiting customers. Liked it there.

After 15 min or so, we got a call to come in. So called Minerva coffee shop-house-converted-restaurant was neatly decorated but all tables are scattered across different rooms. I would say 2-3 tables in each room based on room size. Here also I do see lot of staff to cater. Pretty agile and quick in service even during that peak hours.

For the sake of kids choice, we went for some chinese option, hot and sour soup, some soft noodles, schezwan noodles and manchuria. Manchuria is fine but schezwan noodles are as crappy as at max I can think off. Chilli sauce is mixed with regular soft noodles. The soup is very diluted. At the end I recollected my oath earlier I took and disobeying it again. "Never eat Chinese food in south Indian Restaurants". I swear again, do not do it again. Kids might have enjoyed the dinner because food was their choice but we did not like it.

Over All

Service 8/10
Food 5/10
Ambiance 8/10
Will I go again - No

Peek A Boo

Peek A Boo, originally uploaded by $udhakar.

It has been long time since I blogged a flicker photo. :-)

BSNL బాధలు

I am having BSNL broadband issues and I am jotting down my interaction with them in this blog now onwards.

7-NOV-09
Lot of noise in the line and attenuation is very high. Unless I switch on phone too, I can't connect to broadband. This method also depends on luck. Only 20% choice. I raised a complaint with BSNL 1500 Swagatam services on 7th November 2009. Complaint no. 11060618639
10-NOV-09 4:30 p.m.
Called up to follow. Fortunately the customer rep is far better than expected standard from BSNL. He queried "No body turned up since 7th?" "Not even called you?". Then I made sure that I called them for followup and he should log the same against incident. He assured and somebody will attend on tomorrow. Fingers crossed again.
12-NOV-09 9:30 p.m.
Called again after two days. Status OPEN. Exchange people responded to call complaint that they are checking the line. If I need to know more information, I need to call 197 number and find out JTO's telephone number and I should talk to him/her :-)
13-NOV-09 1:00 p.m.
BSNL technical person Mr. Raghunandan from Gachibowli (who in fact installed my set while took the Broad band connection) called up. Again same story started to explain and he started asking me to check the modem lights, modem settings etc. Finally I was able to explain that it is the issue with disturbance and SNR value is very low and Attenuation is very high > 45 most of the time. He wanted to make sure that no port related issues or exchange related issue before sending out technician on ground to verify the physical wires at different junction boxes between exchange and home.
16-NOV-09 1:00 p.m.
Obviously some coordination required when a person is planning to visit home. This ground technician Sattiah called and tried to tell us that he came and no body at home. Typical first excuse that they already made an effort. I fixed an appointment at 2:30 p.m on 16th Nov 2009. I called him at 2:25 p.m. and said that I am at home(drove from office for this purpose). No turn of this person till 3:30 p.m. and when I called and the answer is "I will be there in 10 minutes". I had change my voice and give him some lecture about my work /boss and his work/boss are same as far as office is concerned. He promptly came in 10 minutes. Now he was asked to check line has disturbance or not. He says, telephone is working. It is tough to explain this guy about broadband, ADSL, SNR and attenuation because he is not familiar with this. Only point he made is, lights are glowing so it should work. I called Raghunandan to explain, and he pointed to Sattiah that disturbance should not be there. He verified wall level wires etc and found out the initial point and did some cuts and joins again. Asked me to verify and definitely I could hear no change in the dolby digital noise from the line. He will be checking various lines from home to exchange in reverse order.
17-NOV-09 12:30 p.m.
Since last night i.e. 16th Nov 2009, Internet connection at Home is gone. Earlier I had 10% chances and now it is totally gone. The green light on modem which indicates "Internet" is gone. Unfortunately, the technician who came and verified the ports at home at two different places, the caps (crabtree switches) are gone and they are loosely fitted to just hold on. I was there but not sure when he just pressed forcefully. Pathetic feeling to get after seeing them damaged. Coming back to connection issue, today morning I called the same technician to find out the status and he identified there is a port issue and today they are going to replace the port. Keeping fingers crossed again.
18-NOV-09 12:44 p.m.
Both broadband and phone lines are dead since 17-NOV-09 afternoon. Reason, some digging at Gachibowli Y junction for flyover and whole network on Gachibowli side is gone. As usual, can't contact or no body lifts the phone if you call Gachibowli exchange. Raised a complaint for dead phone 11075537682
19-NOV-09 4:21 p.m.
Today morning by the time I woke up, telephone lines are restored and land line is working and was able to connect to internet but it was slow process and noise is still there.
20-NOV-09 11:40 a.m.
Called up Mr. Raghunandan. They are still busy with Gachibowli Y junction dug up. He promised he will verify the disturbance issue.
22-NOV-09 9:00 p.m
Called up customer service desk again as I could not connect at all. The probability of getting connected dropped from 5% to 1% or zero percent. I ask the CR to enter that I am filing a case in consumer court and he tried to evade the conversation and promised that he will escalate. I made sure that his team lead came in to call to discuss as this fellow does not want to enter additional comments. To my surprise, team leader says, that their customer support system will not allow any kind of additional information or updating facility once the ticket has been risen. Isn't it weird? After couple of persuasions and serious notes, he said that he can't do anything to the ticket. I had to hung up helplessly.
23-NOV-09 Monday 10:00 a.m
Visited Gachibowli exchange to meet folks and no person is there around and only line men are there and they do not know anything about who comes when. They suggested me to call JTO.
24-NOV-09 Tuesday
I tried to reach since Monday morning till now (Tuesday) evening and and both Satyanarayana (JTO) and Raghunandam are not picking up of the phones even when I called from my home (such that they can identify by location / caller ID).
27-NOV-09 Friday 10:00 a.m.
Since morning the telephones and broadband are totally down. Will wait for half a day before rising a complaint.
01-DEC-09 Tuesday 12:05 p.m.
For the last few days, things are going smooth and was able to connect to Internet with out any trial and errors. One thing I did was kept the modem on for 24 hours after first successful connect. Hoping for the best in future and giving a break for this write up till I find another issue with BSNL. :-)))

Thats it, you are grounded......

Thats it, you are grounded......, originally uploaded by $udhakar.

My collection of cameras and lenses. Click on the picture to read the story.

Mup.sys

Ran in to mup.sys problem again after a long time on my home PC (Windows XP). Tried 1st attempt of cold boot via install CD and CHKDSK running. It got booted normally later. But today morning it again hanged. Need to try one more attempt.

Time to ditch old PC. Can you believe it that my PC hard disk capacity is 6gb? Now a days normal PEN drives have that capacity. LOL. I am also looking for eco friendly desktops. Dell Hybrid model is pretty expensive. Liked the specs of ASUS eee Box B204 model. I may need to buy external optical drive. Not yet decided.

Stardust

Saw Stardust movie yesterday. It was fun and reminded me childhood fantasy stories. King, witch, magic spells, unimaginable transformations, castles and curiosity to see till the end. Very nice landscapes scenes for photographers like me. Only actors I could recognize are Robert De Niro and a lady from Desparate Housewives soap. I guess it is needed sometimes to travel to fantasy world revisit back to reality to understand that life is life and reality is reality. Movies do make you happy.

నక్షత్రదుమ్ము లేక నక్షత్రపొడి లెదా ఇంకా ఏదైనా పేరు ఉందా అని కొంచం సేపు ఆలోచించాలసి వచ్చింది. చిన్నప్పుడు చందమామ కధలు గుర్తుకు వచ్చాయి. రాజు గారు, ఏడుగురు కొడుకులు, మంత్రగత్తెలు, మంత్రాలు మనుషులు చిలకల గా ఉడుతులుగా మారిపోవడం బలే ఉందిలే. ఓ రెండు గంటలు పాటు అలా అలా ఎక్కడకో వెళ్ళి రావచ్చు. అక్కడ అక్కడ కొంచం పిల్లలని భయపెట్టే లాంటి సన్నివేశాలు ఉన్నా, పిల్లలకి నచ్చుతాది. (మన తెలుగు సినిమాలలో ఉన్న హింస కన్న కొంచం మంచిదే అని చెప్పచ్చు).

Another sunset

Another sunset, originally uploaded by $udhakar.

Swimming - Gachibowli stadium

It so happened that we decided to enroll kids in Gachibowli Stadium for swimming. Came to know that they will give applications on 1st April in the early morning and we were also warned that crowd will be there. I was mentally prepared for this and made kids excited about their summer fun.

Elder one is in very good mood and he asked for alarm and I set it for him. Obviously he did not getup and I woke up him when I was ready to go. By 6 a.m. sharp we were there and regular visitors are already there. The coach cum admin cum pseudo "I own this stadium" employee simply said, come at 8 a.m. for application. For all other questions, he pointed me to a wall to go and read whatever I could.

Returned home and freshened and had break fast and went again to the stadium. To my shock, at the main entrance there were numerous bikes and cars with full accelerator on and buzzing. Then I recollected the warning "crowd will be there". The moment security opened the gate, guys zipped through till the swimming pool area. It is like mad race. There it was another hurdle; the doors are locked and whole crowd is grouped there. Security folks came out and started distributed token numbers and junta attacked them. With the kids it was tough and there were some ladies who could not reach for these tokens. It is all part of the game I think. Later I understood that they will give 150 tokens and all those get tokens are assured of admission. Only catch is that you need to submit medical certificate that and identify proof. For kids, it is birth certificate to prove the age.

The whole mechanism is pretty chaos and it could be better system. There were about six to seven security guards who are blowing whistles and not doing any thing. And also need to blame on the whole crowd who are all educated and do not want to stand in a line.

I think, culture gives you some common sense and not education.

Anyways, need to go again tomorrow to submit the application

It is very rare that I quickly support any government decision. Today I felt like, with out any doubt I am supporting Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra governments for their clear stand and NOT providing security for IPL. Elections are important not cricket. Let IPL guys go abroad or Mars to conduct. Most of us anyway watch them on TV only. Anywhere in the world also, our sponsers spend money and TV ads will flow any way.

Good job AP and Maharastra governments on this.