Monday, December 29, 2008
Fogged Out Gurgaon
This was the view from my 9th floor Gurgaon apartment at 11 AM this morning. I shudder to think of the coming days and driving early to work. God bless us.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Dear Aamir
Hello Aamir,
Suhel here. We haven't communicated so far because of my SRK camp leanings and all that. But hey, no hard feelings at all! In fact, let me start with a confession. I love SRK, admire him, adore him. Have done so since I saw him in 'Circus' (don't remember much about 'Fauji'). I am his 'fan' to say the least. I look forward to SRK's movie as a purely personal experience. It is something I cannot define or back with logic. But I also happen to be a lover of this medium of cinema and if by some weird script a movie was to save my life by it's sheer cinematic experience and excellence and I was down to my last penny, I would place that penny on a project of yours. Yes, Aamir Khan's!
I have the highest regard and respect for you. No, not the grudging one you will expect from a thoroughbred SRK loyalist, but genuine awe and admiration from a lover of the medium for one of it's greatest proponents. And the respect has been accumulated over masterpieces like Sarfarosh, Lagaan, Dil Chahta, Rang De Basanti and reached the zenith with Taare Zameen Par. And now, when I went in to watch Ghajini this afternoon the expectations were similarly high, in spite of some not so flattering reviews. I must tell you, when I left the theatre three and a half hours later, the expectations had been cruelly dashed (much like the way Ghajini smashed your head in the movie) and the respect climbed down quite a few peaks.
I am still to come to terms with what I saw. With all due respect to everyone, this movie had three names written all over it - Sunny Deol of Gadar, Mithun Chakraborty of any of those Ootywood movies and any of Thailavaar's movies. Even scratching to the core, the heart of the movie you could not find the name 'Aamir Khan' anywhere. I will not go into the flaws and weaknesses of the movie, the plot, the characters or anything. Because if I start the list will be so long that even a completely able person will remember only half of them by the time I finish.
I just want to let you know that there are millions of silent admirers like me who look up to you as far as Indian cinema is concerned. And you are far too talented to let us down like this. We really can do with eight or ten fewer packs on your abs, we will not complain if the ushers don't sport the same hairstyle as you do, we are just fine with you calling whoever whatever you want on your blog. But the only request is to respect our expectations from that one movie you do in a year. Ghajini is a slap on the face of Indian cinema, more so because it has been delivered by you.
Hope to write to you again, and soon, and with very different feedback to share:)
All the best.
Regards,
Suhel
An ardent fan of Indian cinema
Suhel here. We haven't communicated so far because of my SRK camp leanings and all that. But hey, no hard feelings at all! In fact, let me start with a confession. I love SRK, admire him, adore him. Have done so since I saw him in 'Circus' (don't remember much about 'Fauji'). I am his 'fan' to say the least. I look forward to SRK's movie as a purely personal experience. It is something I cannot define or back with logic. But I also happen to be a lover of this medium of cinema and if by some weird script a movie was to save my life by it's sheer cinematic experience and excellence and I was down to my last penny, I would place that penny on a project of yours. Yes, Aamir Khan's!
I have the highest regard and respect for you. No, not the grudging one you will expect from a thoroughbred SRK loyalist, but genuine awe and admiration from a lover of the medium for one of it's greatest proponents. And the respect has been accumulated over masterpieces like Sarfarosh, Lagaan, Dil Chahta, Rang De Basanti and reached the zenith with Taare Zameen Par. And now, when I went in to watch Ghajini this afternoon the expectations were similarly high, in spite of some not so flattering reviews. I must tell you, when I left the theatre three and a half hours later, the expectations had been cruelly dashed (much like the way Ghajini smashed your head in the movie) and the respect climbed down quite a few peaks.
I am still to come to terms with what I saw. With all due respect to everyone, this movie had three names written all over it - Sunny Deol of Gadar, Mithun Chakraborty of any of those Ootywood movies and any of Thailavaar's movies. Even scratching to the core, the heart of the movie you could not find the name 'Aamir Khan' anywhere. I will not go into the flaws and weaknesses of the movie, the plot, the characters or anything. Because if I start the list will be so long that even a completely able person will remember only half of them by the time I finish.
I just want to let you know that there are millions of silent admirers like me who look up to you as far as Indian cinema is concerned. And you are far too talented to let us down like this. We really can do with eight or ten fewer packs on your abs, we will not complain if the ushers don't sport the same hairstyle as you do, we are just fine with you calling whoever whatever you want on your blog. But the only request is to respect our expectations from that one movie you do in a year. Ghajini is a slap on the face of Indian cinema, more so because it has been delivered by you.
Hope to write to you again, and soon, and with very different feedback to share:)
All the best.
Regards,
Suhel
An ardent fan of Indian cinema
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Open Letter To Airtel
Sent this letter to Airtel a few minutes back.
Hello Airtel,
I have been an Airtel Blackberry and broadband customer since June of 2005 and I had to shift to a different broadband provider from today. I must say the service for most part of the last two and a half years had been exemplary but the way it ended left a very bad taste in the mouth.
I had been using your broadband services through the phone number 01244102485 from my residence (E 12/37, DLF Phase 1, Gurgaon) from June 2007. As I mentioned earlier it was a wonderful experience and I appreciate it. Howevere, this month, December 2008, I shifted to another house 1.5 kms away and requested my connection be moved to this address. I made this request on 28-Nov-2008. I received absolutely no response from anyone in your team for 5 days. After that I made 6 calls to your customer care cell (01244444555) and spoke to 6 different persons and was told in various ambiguous terms that I will have to wait indefinitely to shift my connection to the new complex where Airtel broadband has almost 100 plus broadband users if not much more.
Finally I was given your Team Lead, Abhishek Parmar's number. He was at least honest enough to inform me within a couple of hours that it will not be possible to transfer my connection to the new house because of some technical reason which translated to the fact that he can provide a 100 hundred other users the same broadband service, but can't transfer my existing line there.
Anyway, I have paid all my bills till the month of November 2008. And have called your helpdesk to please disconnect the connection today. The reference number is 54849278. I spoke to a Ms. Kanika.
Lastly, I would like to let you know that You Telecom provided me a connection and it became functional within 24 hours of my calling them up for the first time. I am most impressed with their service and am most grateful to them. Maybe they don't have a brand as big as yours but they are focussing where a service based company should focus - on the customer.
Thanks,
P.S: It's been close to 2 years now and every month I get a call from your Customer Service team to pay up my dues (which is Nil) and to return my phone set (which I did 1.5 years back).
| hide details 2:13 PM (1 minute ago) |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I have been an Airtel Blackberry and broadband customer since June of 2005 and I had to shift to a different broadband provider from today. I must say the service for most part of the last two and a half years had been exemplary but the way it ended left a very bad taste in the mouth.
I had been using your broadband services through the phone number 01244102485 from my residence (E 12/37, DLF Phase 1, Gurgaon) from June 2007. As I mentioned earlier it was a wonderful experience and I appreciate it. Howevere, this month, December 2008, I shifted to another house 1.5 kms away and requested my connection be moved to this address. I made this request on 28-Nov-2008. I received absolutely no response from anyone in your team for 5 days. After that I made 6 calls to your customer care cell (01244444555) and spoke to 6 different persons and was told in various ambiguous terms that I will have to wait indefinitely to shift my connection to the new complex where Airtel broadband has almost 100 plus broadband users if not much more.
Finally I was given your Team Lead, Abhishek Parmar's number. He was at least honest enough to inform me within a couple of hours that it will not be possible to transfer my connection to the new house because of some technical reason which translated to the fact that he can provide a 100 hundred other users the same broadband service, but can't transfer my existing line there.
Anyway, I have paid all my bills till the month of November 2008. And have called your helpdesk to please disconnect the connection today. The reference number is 54849278. I spoke to a Ms. Kanika.
Lastly, I would like to let you know that You Telecom provided me a connection and it became functional within 24 hours of my calling them up for the first time. I am most impressed with their service and am most grateful to them. Maybe they don't have a brand as big as yours but they are focussing where a service based company should focus - on the customer.
Thanks,
P.S: It's been close to 2 years now and every month I get a call from your Customer Service team to pay up my dues (which is Nil) and to return my phone set (which I did 1.5 years back).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)