Cyriac George

This is a small funny story of my uncle, Sabu Jacob who recently got promoted as Chief Manager and had a transfer to Delhi. He has never been out of state and doesnt know Hindi too. So he went there and after a few days he got the hang of it and learned to adjust with hindi people.

One fine day he decided to take a rikshaw to bank. Its not so far, he asked the rikshaw-wala whats the fare and he replied, “Pachees rupya saab”. Uncles said, “nahi nahi, theess rupya dega”. Rickshaw-wala, “Nahi saab pachees bas hai”. Uncle finally agrees on the rate and went to the bank.

For those who are not well in touch with hindi, heres a small reference: pachees-25, theess-30, pachaas-50. My uncle thought the rickshaw-wala was asking for Rs.50 for a small ride and he had a good deal with bringing the rate down to Rs.30. But actually the guy was asking for only Rs.25.

We all had a good laugh hearing this. Theres one more story from uncle. So after he has been in Delhi for about one month, when he returned for a family function, my cousin asked him whether he learned hindi and replied yes, a bit. So as a test my cuz asked him to tell the hindi of a number and he randomly selected 137. My uncle paused for a minute and the replied, “its ek-so-sainthees” (hey me too not sure about the exact hindi, but something similar to that). We were all amazed at this and asked how did you manage to learn all those numbers with this short time ? He said, “Who learned its the door number of my house which am staying and thats the only number i know in hindi”. We all burst into laughs again.

Disclaimer: Students please dont copy my style of studying as it may result in poor marks and beatings & scoldings from your parents hihi

Am very glad to tell all the people that am officially (not so officially) an “ingineer” (engineer) now. My father’s old student is working in MG university and i came to know my marks. I have an aggregate of 69% (well not bad for a guy like me). This article is dedicated to my friend Jerry Jacob, who took all the pain for teaching me.

My house is located very near to this MG university. But that doesnt have anything to do with my studies right ? “Basically am a lazy person” (original credits to vijayan mashu). I hate to study by sitting infront of books for long time. In my four years of engineering i have done only a handful of assignments myself that too in first year. Rest of’em are done in the old fashioned way-somebody (a girl) does it and rest is the job for a xerox machine – for the entire class.

Same is the case with exams. For sessional or internal exams i dont even study anything, but as far as university exams are concerned i start studying on the day before of exam. Funny thing is, throughout my engineering course, i had bought only a couple of texts, most of them in first year and for the rest three years-i only bought one book; microprocessor by Ayala in semester 5-not because i love the subject, but because i had to. So how did i study the rest subjects ? Well thats where my friend fits in.

His name is Jerry Jacob. He is a very nice guy and innocent fellow. Will do anything for his friends, I mean if i asked him to write my assignment he will do it (if i have a reason, hihi). We were friends from the 9th class and we used to visit each other often and when we finally came to the same class, we were together all the time.

It was the time of S3 university exam. I didnt know a thing and neither do i have any texts. I only have some vague notes and some un-useful library texts. So as Jerry’s house is near to me, i went to his house (ofcourse on the day before exam) and we had a combined study. After that exam, we did all exams like this.

In S4 i stopped taking library texts and have only notes. But so what, this system worked pretty well. He know the subject before hand and he will just spit it out. Since am a very good learner by listening (certified by Jerry) i would grasp everything in one go. This inspired my friend and my partner in Techseol, Lijo to name Jerry- The Living university.

In S5 i was thinking about studying in the new system. But to my surprise Jerry went to hostel as his house was getting renovated and i came to know about this pretty late, just a few days before the exam begins. Well those was the days i really struggled. I drove here and there to collect notes and texts, went to homes of friends to do combined studies which were very far and somehow i passed the exams except one. Yeah it was bit tough and i REALLY HATED the subject- check out the pic i uploaded in orkut right after the exam. Any way that exam was with me for the next couple of university exams, i got cleared only on my third attempt (one regular and two supplies).

In S6,S7 and S8 the usual system worked out for me. I just sit there and listen to what he says and then grasp the idea. In fact it was in the last sem i made the most effort. Me and Jerry went to Jino’s and Deepu’s house (our classmates) for a group study, since even Jerry was not aware of the subject much. Any way we all cleared the exams and thanks to Jerry am an “ingineer” now.

Jerry got selection in Tech Mahindra and Wipro through campus recruitments. Now he is at Chennai for training given by Tech Mahindra. Any where in the world, my dear friend BEST OF LUCK and GOOD LUCK. Only good thing will happen to him, not because i wished him luck or he is my friend, but he is pure at heart.

I own a Dell XPS M1330. IMHO its the sexiest laptop in the world. Its got cool look, nice design, in fact the wedge shaped design on the bottom of screen is something unique in the industry. The laptop is sleek and sexy in all ways.

Enough describing the laptop. So what happened to this wonderful piece if equipment ? I think its some kind of manufacturing defect. The touch buttons on the top has gone crazy, its goes On and OFF on its own.

Funny thing is, at this very time-i am on hold, hearing the most beautiful line – “Thank you for holding, all our service executives are currently busy, please hold the line.” with a background music,similar to that of a concert.

Let me start from the beginning. At first i tried to ignore the problem with my laptop and get along. But later when am hearing music on headphones whose volume is adjusted on a bearable level, this problem would raise the volume to 100% and my ears are nearly blown. Thats when i decided to call for technical support.

First the machine will receive your call and then by taking the option you will be directed to an executive. From there he/she (in my case only shes assisted my calls ) will guide you to a technical support. And once you talk with them they will assign a service engineer. This is the process that is supposed to happen. Lets see what happened in my case.

I never get connected to this “technical support”. Most of the time i ended up waiting and phone cuts itself after the time counter reached 59:59:59 (thank god its a toll free number). So at times when am lucky i could talk with executive and she will transfer my call to a technical executive, but either my call will end up disconnected due to the time limit or it will get disconnected automatically.

As i told before am on hold while am writing this. but something wonderful happened. All these times i never get to talk with somebody, but now i got connected to the technical dept. again its a SHE, hihi. First of all i expressed my frustration and she took it serious and reserved a service ticket for me. And finally i had to wait another last 2 minutes to get the reference number. Total time took for last call-27:33

Once that was done, she asked, “Sir do you need any thing else”, i said, “Nothing at all. Am completely satisfied. I just wish the service engineer shows up on Tuesday”, and she said laughing “he will”.

Lets see what i have to go through in this case.

Hey i dont want to give you any bad impression about dell, they give super cool laptops; best in the market, but their support, in my case “SUCKS”. May be its my bad luck, getting disconnected every time. If you get connected to the right place on the right time, there is no delay in support. I think they might have to upgrade their services by hiring more service executives to handle all calls.