The Week That Was

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Disappointment
You tell me if the fault is mine. The other night I decide to order pizza from D-, the Pizza people. I call up and order a couple for our dinner. I have a few coupons from a previous order, but the jargon of discount is beyond me ("Buy one large pizza, garlic breaksticks and a coke and get 20% discount on the next medium pizza, but this discount is not valid on Xyz pizza", and so on to more complicated combinations), so I did not ask the person at the other end about it. (Especially since he efficiently got me to spend a few bucks more than I would have, but that is a story for a different day). After the order is made, I go back through the coupons and I have this feeling that one of the coupons (which said Rs.100/- off) would fit the order I made, but one could never be sure. The delivery man comes along less than half an hour later, and I show him the coupons. He says yes, this one fits this order perfectly well, but you should have spoken about it to the person who took the call - as the payment is already 'made into the system'. I tell him that's fine, you go back with this coupon and inform them that I had this wonderful coupon with me and was unaware of it. He refuses. "You could use it in the next order, Ma'm." I murmur to myself (so that he can hear), "what is the use of coupons, then?"
Talk about "Customer Delight"!


Pleasure
I go out for a walk and unexpectedly meet an ex-colleague. He tells me, "I saw your book, and quickly read the first 2-3 stories. Awesome! It's admirable that you put your effort into getting your book published!"
You can imagine how pleased that made me feel.
(That reminds me - the Book Giveaway contest is still on!)


Bewilderment
When I land at Kochi in the first week of Sep, my mobile handset is switched off (equipment interfering with the navigation signals and so forth). After landing, I switch it on, (beep indicates the arrival of "Airtel welcomes you to Kerala, wish you a pleasant stay") and the clock in the mobile automatically sets to 11:15. I am surprised since the scheduled time of arrival was 11:45, have we landed 30 mins before schedule? Does not seem likely, the flying time from B'lore to Kochi is 40 mins, I don't think we have covered it in 10 mins. So I manually adjust my handset clock to 11:45, against its better judgement. Last week, I land at TVM, I go through the same procedure. Switch off - switch on, and, as Airtel-Kerala welcomes me again, my mobile clock insists that the time is 30 mins behind IST. I force it to IST, and during the while I am in Kerala, it follows the time I insisted on. As a result, my text message recipients claim that my messages arrive with a timestamp of IST+30 minutes. I travel in car and for a couple of minutes, my handset goes out of range and pops back, without my being aware of it. Suddenly, beep-beep. "Airtel welcomes you to Kerala, wish you a pleasant stay" and bingo! Clock goes 30 minutes back. I return to Bangalore, and all is fine. Clock automatically comes back to IST.
Which Timezone (country?) is Kerala (or, Airtel-Kerala) in?


Love
I have this back pain that sometimes troubles me (not too much, but enough to remind me that I have a back). So one day I am bending over some work and when I straighten, my back groans and so do I. My son comes over, kisses me and says, "I have kissed your pain away."
The pain really feels a lot lesser, honest.

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