One Hell Of A Night

Any characters appearing in this work are purely fictitious. Any familiar characteristics are purely coincidental. :P Furthermore, this is not any form of advertisement for 'Once Upon A Time'. 

12 30am. I came home from a long day and a rather crazy night. I was really tired and ready to jump into my comfy bed. As soon as I opened my door, I suddenly got all the energy in the world. I was so hyper and ready to do something. Anything. Unfortunately, I had no one to go out with at this time. I decided to watch ‘Once Upon A Time’ on my laptop.

Funny and tempting text messages from a friend such as “I am so fuxed” or “You should’ve come” or “This is fonnn” made me think twice before I changed into my PJ’s. But I ended up making myself comfortable in my bed, with a laptop and a bar of chocolate, and of course, ‘Once Upon A Time’.

The blind witch opened her eyes and I jumped a little. Not a Nano second later, someone knocked at my door. I jumped! 2 15am. Who’s at my door at this time of the morning? The others back? Why would they inform me? I should be asleep according to them.

I opened the door slowly, half expecting a blind witch. There stood 2 of my flat mates, Jim and Sara. Okay. What? Why? Why are they here? They looked worried. What happened? Jim blurted out, “We forgot David.” I stared at him for 2 minutes, and sadly, I started laughing. It was rather mean, but the situation was funny. We called for a cab and went back to the house party to fetch David.

2 30am. Strangely, when we got there, we were told that David had already left. Meh. We weren’t that bothered as he’s a grown man. We’ll check on him in the morning. We headed back to our university, went to our respective rooms and we were all doing our own thing.

2 36am. The blind witch is being burned in the oven while Hansel and Gretel are running away to the Queen’s palace. I hear a knock on my door again. Son of a bitch. This blind witch is ruining my life. Jim stood there, looking more worried than ever, “I lost my phone!” Okay. Shit just got serious. Now the blind witch took his phone? Grr.

3 43am. Sara, Jim and I were in my room, tracking Jim’s phone online. Sadly, his tracking application was crap. It tracked only after 24 hours. We tried calling his phone a number of times. After a couple of calls, someone picked up and said, “I am sleeping! Pick up your phone tomorrow!” and before we could ask her anything, she cut the call. We tried calling back and the smart woman has switched off the phone in order to catch up on her precious sleep. Bitch. (Well not really. She was really nice. You’ll find out.)

Well we know the phone isn’t stolen. Whew. All go back to bed.

8 45am. Jim is at my door, knocking. I go with a half sleepy face. His face all blurry. He asks for my phone, I give it to him. The woman from last night returned his phone to him. Ah happy endings.

But do happy endings really exist? I mean, what really happens after the “happily ever after” bit of every fairy tale? Watch ‘Once Upon A Time’ and you’ll find out. ;)

Airtel: They're full of Air and never Tel

10 minutes ago, I recharged my phone with a balance of Rs99. Having a BlackBerry, I am unaware of most of the plans Airtel has to offer for their recharge. I didn't bother to ask (I take small fault here) and the guy at the store didn't bother to tell me what I was in for either.

10 minutes later, I check my balance. I still have Rs3.50 and have been recharged with Rs0.10. What the hell? Didn't I just recharge? I walked back to the store, despite being sick, and asked the guy what the issue was. He asked me to call customer care. Okay, will do.

The first time I called 121, they cut my balance AND my call. My blood was boiling. I called them again. This time, the guy told me I have a special account. Why the hell am I not aware of this "special account"?! First of all, why do I NEED a special account? I am more than happy with my regular account! He furthermore tells me, when I asked him if I could transfer the balance, that I cannot. Before I could even express my complaint and utter inconvenience, he cuts me off by saying "Thank you for calling Airtel. Good evening."

There was no customer consideration. Most people would agree with me when I say that Airtel are just rip offs. They cut your balance for unnecessary things, send you annoying messages, call you at the most random times and give you "special accounts" that you are unaware of. They have never been clear about their different recharge plans and which one is for what.

My mother too had a recent experience. As my father was in Africa, she had to call him. Airtel charges per minute. When dialing, my father would answer and the call would cut immediately. My mother has been on the phone for not more than 20 seconds, but has been charged for a minute. Why the rip off?!

It is sad that despite having so many customers, Airtel has the need to rip off people.I agree this was partly my fault for not inquiring, in my situation. But my mother was nowhere at fault. Airtel should be reminded, with Rs99, I could have bought myself a nice meal. And with the Rs5 you cut off my mother's call, She could have bought a packet of biscuits. Please be reminded that we are the customers and the customers are always right. Especially in this case. My father earned that money and now it has gone to my special account, which is of NO use to me. I would have been more content if I had donated that Rs99 to an orphanage or towards any other social service.

I recently learnt, "The Medium is the Message". Clearly, Airtel is neither a Medium nor a Message.

A Dumb Phone...or Person?

Around March 2011, I was ecstatic to have purchased my first ever smart phone, the BlackBerry 9300 curve! It was my baby! I showed him off, I explored through all the applications, added people to my BBM list, convinced friends to buy a model of the phone. It was just so nice.

My BlackBerry Smart Phone

But now, do I call it a smart phone? Not so much. I wouldn't blame the BlackBerry company. There is always a chance of technical faults taking over any form of technology. We all make mistakes. So do the people who make stuff. If it's not the person's fault, it's the machine's fault.

When I got my first phone, it was a basic Nokia model with that wonderful snake game in it and NO color screen. I was so happy with that phone. I managed to lead a life without constantly keeping in touch with my friends through chat and social networks. Once I made good friends, I got my BlackBerry. I was constantly in touch with them. But at some point, we didn't have much to talk about. Right now, without my BlackBerry services, am reminiscing my days of the Nokia basic model. All I can say is, my BlackBerry has Sudoku in it, but a part of me misses the snake game.

© Anupama Subramaniyam