The 'high' way of wedding, NH10

NH10 was just another thriller movie for many others. For me, it was a fact filled story with no drama added. A horrible fact that's entwined with our marriage system.

Self proclaimed for being one of the richest nation in culture and tradition, reality is far behind these. Marriage, known to be the eternal relation here is truely amaranthine. Not often for the love between the couple, but for the society that's around when they both tie the knot.

Marriage , panigrahanam in vedic terms is said to happen in presence of innumerous gods , chants of priests , happiness of families, blessings of well wishers. But the only thing that the karmakanda of marriage forgets to discuss or ignored to be considered is the presence of two souls that are to be hitched together forever. Physical presence enforced by father's anger , mother's sentiment and more importantly society's impact is enough to term the occasion a marriage. Caste, religion , financial status , what ever non sense be the reason behind, most of the marriages are expected to happen but agreed to be "arranged" . Of course few unlucky may turn fruitful either because they didn't have an option or they live like in an agreement for the sake of "well being" image of their family.

The famous promise that's chanted thrice by the couple during a marriage , "धर्मेच अर्थेच कामेच इमां नातिचरामि ।" assures that they will take consent of each other for everything in their life ahead but I doubt if there is a chant which asks their consent to be in the marriage. If at all there is one, this has to take precedence over everything else and should be answered by every parent looking into the eyes of their son/ daughter.

The notion of love can change only along with the notion of marriage #NH10

Kart Flipped on the bigbuggday #BlackMonday

Thanks to the 'most reliable' e-trailer for the kick start event to create 'big' history for itself. As the epic sale is all over, 4 major 'production day' bugs have been reported. Most of the defects looked blockers for the online customers, but the business severity seemed "expected".

Major bugs that went live:

1. Sale tax applied to offered products :
Description:
Sale tax , different from the normal sales tax was applied on every product that was on sale.
Observation : Sale tax is a magic figure that brings selling price equal to offer price.
RCA : A developer was on research from past many days to find out this magical equation to submit a maths project for his son at school.
Action taken:  Son's high school maths teacher has been called up and given live demo.

2. Best offers are showed sold out as they were pushed into CMS.
Description: Every best offer was seen along with a 'sold out ' tag.
Observation : Best offers helped 'start of day' publicity.
RCA : while creating ' best deal ' sticker , developer has duplicated the existing ' sold out ' sticker and forgot to change the image path.
Action taken : image path field has been made unique in content admin system.

3. 502 errors all over.
Description : Site reported maximum number of 502 issues may be due to high load.
Observation : 502 errors were applicable only on products with good deals.
RCA : The team working on 5th February go live (502- the bus number in which they were traveling when they got this idea to start company )  have checked in part of code to wrong branch .
Action taken : New branch with restricted access have been created for 502 team.

4: Few orders were placed with good deals.
Description : Few of the customers were able to checkout good deal products like moto e.
Observation : The above three defects did not impact the sale of few offers.
RCA : Detailed inquiry has been commissioned on why the bugs couldn't stop orders from being placed.
Action taken : All the customers have been communicated via SMS and email about the bug and orders have been cancelled.

The sale has set an example on what not to be done to turn online customers skeptical about e trade.

Why "Big Billion Day " should lead us into " Black Friday "

     Black Friday,the day following Thanks Giving Day shares paramount percentage of the sales for most of retailers in US. This sensational Friday is awaited all over the year for its own unique importance. This Friday fits well in between thanks giving Thursday (harvest festival)and weekend. Being a continuous 4 day vacation and the last additional holiday before the festive season, Christmas shopping starts with this.  On the similar lines, India's most reliable online retailer Flipkart has chosen a day to kick start Diwali season, India's biggest celebration.



Flipkart has announced "Big billion day " on 6th October.  Flipkart is trying to bring together a billion customers through what they promise is going to be the greatest sale ever in India. In its teaser ad, Flipkart has announced ‘Bumper discounts at 90% off’ and ‘shop for things that are priced as low as Rs 99’.   As the retail world observes it closely , success of such a day long shopping event would create a positive buzz around Indian online retail capacity. As  Government of India plans effective "make in India" campaign , investments flow in only based on potential of market for their products. If the day of sale can prove what E-tailer Flipkart aimed at , India is getting ready for a new headway in the field of retail.

The sentiment behind choosing this date(6-10) is said to be 610 – the number of the flat from where Sachin and Binny Bansal, Flipkart promoters, began their journey in 2007. If all the online bigheads in India along with in-store retailers come up with a common day before the next biggest celebration, we will  quote our market capacity to the world providing a carpet for  investments into retail and manufacturing.

 Time to market our market..!

Anatomization of culture

With a huge variety from north to south, east to west we are an opulent cultured country. Almost every state has carved their own cultural niche over years. Above religions and regions, most ancient and unique Indian culture has had a remarkable role for women. Hindu mythology, episodes of God like Shiva called Ardhanareeshwara have set an epitome to the gravity for women in Indian society. few words from Manusmṛiti, a rich text on Indian socio economic conditions explains the role of women in moulding Indian society.

yatra naaryastu puujyante ramante tatra devataaH |
yatraitaastu na puujyante sarvaastatraaphalaaH kriyaaH ||

Which means..

The divine are extremely happy where women are respected ;
where they are not, all actions (projects) are fruitless.

Over the period of evolution of Indian civilisation, women have evolved more powerful from a confined space. This greatness can be attributed to the society for allowing women to raise their head and move out of home. Growing par with men wasn't all enough, do we really share the respect that we owe them? If women moving out of home was a special block in the history, living frightened on road for their safety is the menace out of all the change.

Why aren't our women safe is a question that pricks every mind. while most of us are reluctant to answer, most of the very few answers we give boast around Indian culture. Dressing to behaviour,many say going apart from Indian tradition and culture is the reason for crooked treatment on women. Same people dont have an answer if burning in acid , rape , killing was a part of culture.

Undoubtedly no one disagrees that we have to obliterate  libidinous people out of this society. But, we complain governments don't act. I agree that governments should act strict , but to construct a society free of misdeed it is more important that culture and society evolves with a potential for this.

 A case of prostitution has carried more mileage over an incident of rape in the recent time. There is an argument that making prostitution legal would divert the mind off from crime.  If our culture is against making prostitution legal which happens with mutual concern from two parties, how adamant should our culture oppose to the crime against women.  It's time we anatomize our culture, mould it in a way ready to handle present future and present. Inculcating respect towards women right from childhood is the need of hour. It's the responsibility of society, every mother and sister to enable an environment where no man mistreats women. Let's civilize to offer women a position they deserve.

Culture isn't what we have to follow, it is what we need to mend for being better.

Spaghetti of life

Early in the morning while I am half asleep, my schedule and body scuffle out for a while. Which to adher is the first confusion with which I start my day. From then, confusion sticks to every thought of mine.


One day while shopping I picked  up a shirt as soon as I entered the store. As I moved on to other brands, I liked 4 to 5 of them. Slowly i had to find a bag to carry then. When I reached trial room , gaurd there asked me to take only three inside. Suddenly I realised that I was there only to buy one formal shirt and interestingly my collection had only one. I completed my trial and checked out of shop. While walking back to parking, I realised what happened to me over a period of 30 minutes. None of the shirts I chose were bad, but I never related them to what I need.And what I need, a formal shirt is said to be well suited to the occasion and I followed what is 'said'. I also invested few minutes in finding a bag which wasn't needed if I was thoughtful of what I need.

Every step I move forward in life, I get options and choice confuses me. When I spare a minute to find the differences between them, I find many. When I spend few more minutes, I realize much more.  More the time I invest, more is the confusion I add to the subject. well no option is wrong, only potential way to choose the right one is knowing what you need.

Even in the steps like career which can detour our life, confusion leads our interests. Amir khan's philo in 3 idiots may not be adoptable by all as most of us don't know what kindles us more. But we should at least understand what is priority to us before choosing . Going in a way that everybody does can keep you safe but not happy.

Before we say that we aren't satisfied with our work,  we need to frame our definition for satisfaction. What miraculous difference do you find at a new place? If you can find an answer other than money , you are heading to a right place.  if your employer pays you to do what you wish and not what they asked, believe that you are in dream and get out of it early to start the fight with your mind next day morning.

" Understand yourself well before you expect world to "

Derailed hope

Thousand criminals can be left free, but not a single innocent should be punished is the fundamental principle of our judiciary system. But railways was a last bench student when this was being explained, they just listened to the first part.

2 days before this happened, I blogged on the hope I have on the future of India. I was confident that things could change, but this turned me skeptical. Last Sunday, we took our parents to secunderabad station at around 12:35 pm to board a train supposed to start at 1:05 pm. Station as it's always was packed with people. There were people hanging out from each compartment of Golconda express. It took time for me to realize that they were reserved compartments. I was utter stuck at the situation out there, me and my brother have tried all means ( requesting / shouting) to let our parents in. My 58 year old father could not  even move a single step in that senseless crowd. We gave up our challenge, standing helpless in front of parents being unable to get what we rightly deserved.

My race towards justice started here when I ran to the tte explaining the situation. He said that he was helpless as he has already informed railway police that the crowd is unmanageable, but there was no action taken. When I was finding way to reach RPF , saw 3 police men relaxed and " watching " everything that happened. When I went to one of them and asked to help, he said it was not his job. When I asked him to explain his roles I got an interesting answer " we are meant to take action when something wrong happens ". I said " your primary job is to stop from something bad happening and not act after it happens" . I asked him to say this before camera , he denied and started to walk with me. On the way to our compartment, I have shown him another old couple struggling to get into train. It took 5 minutes for them to get nearly 25 of the unreserved passengers. Meantime, train started and everyone jumped back to train pushing down the police.

Being a failed son, I asked my brother to take my parents  home. Trying to find a solution for this I walked to the station master's office. When I explained this they simply said that it's quite normal. They adviced me to cancel the ticket and get 50% of my money back. When I denied this and asked them to tell whose failure was this, they said I might have been late to train. I took out my platform ticket , showed time and everyone was silent.
A Senior official came up and explained the work flow there and guided me to a person at sanchalan bhavan who could help me. In the time spent there I got company of a person who was into senior management of a renowned Indian company. He was there to complain against a tte who denied confirmation of his RAC1 ticket , but confirmed a WL ticket. He was abused when he questioned this.

We both reached sanchalan bhavan, the officer was out of office and we discussed our issues with the person available and they said they would take action. I have repeatedly explained them that my problem was not to get refund , but to stop this from happening to the people waiting for next train. No one had an answer for this. I came back to station and was waiting to write a written complaint against this. Another case was under discussion there. A boy and girl have entered station finding out where to get tickets. They came to know that they were provided outside the station and were caught by ticket checking staff while walking out. Tte has demanded fine and has checked their personals to know if they were hiding any money. He has taken the phone with them and asked to pay money to get it back. The amount he demanded was also more than the supposed amount. A lady( who said is the guardian of them) was trying to know the name of the person to complain. But all the staff there tried to hide his identity. When she was losing her patience , a person asked them to come inside a room and discuss. As they went in, I was trying for my turn to write complaint. A person ( DCM) has entered the room where that lady was taken, he came out abusing who made her enter the chamber. Lady and her kids followed out and she exclaimed at the situation where not even a single person there is brave enough to accept that they only guided her in. She started writing her compliant and meanwhile I came to know that she was a German delegate to India (Indian origin ) . she felt humiliated with the way she has been treated and abused. Though we shared our concern and extended our help, she was determined to go forward legally. While leaving she again knocked the door to know the name of DCM , she came out more humiliated. She left from there and people from sathavahana express joined who couldn't get into train because of unreserved passengers. This made me impatient as I was waiting only to make them take action to stop this happening to next train. As they failed , I started collecting people to write complaints on each of their name. meantime, cops arrived late as usual saying that they got information from state level officials that there is some conflict there. Seeing the influence of that lady  many there were silent. I explained them the gist and shared my phone number agreeing for being  evidence.

Once police left , they realized that situation was turning poise. A person from them approached me and took me aside. He offered me to refund 100 % of my money, I denied as it looked like he was bribing me. He said that its legal and would take a written statement agreeing this. Even then, as I denied to take back complaint and leaving there, he showed me that additional police has been deployed and situation is taken care.

Fighting almost for 4 :30 hours to get  justice, I realised where our system fails. The image we carry to other countries was so heart breaking. I still hope that necessary actions would be taken to prevent such cases where the rightful owners are denied their rights.