VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 212 Date: 31.07.2017
Contents:
1. Bio-Pics Are Best Avoided
2. 2. Kudos To The Performance Of Mithali Raj and Team In The Women's ODI World Cup
3. 3. Examine The Fine Print Of The Reliance Jio 'Free' Phone Offer
Bio-Pics Are Best Avoided
The ghost of bio-pics that has descended on the heads of Bollywood has to be dislodged somehow. There is some sense in making bio-pics on people who have passed on like Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and to a certain extent like on Milkha Singh and Pan Singh Tomar but having a bio-pic on Sachin, which has been variously described as a self-aggrandising documentary purely made to make money and add to the wealth of the individual, seems to be improper. This tendency is being further pushed to extremes with bio-pics being planned on Sania Nehwal and even Sindhu. On the other end of the societal spectrum we have a bio-pic on crime bosses like Gawli which is up for release shortly and also on Dawood Ibrahim. One wonders whether film makers around the world are running out of stories since while Hollywood is making pics on comic strip characters like Batman, Superman etc and on video games and their characters, we have Bollywood getting tired of copying stories from Hollywood and taking their home-spun heroes and heroines and spinning yarns around them. Where money does most of the talking Bollywood will probably be brought to reality on bio-pics since Sachin - The Movie does not seem to have done very well at the box office.
Kudos To The Performance Of Mithali Raj and Team In The Women's ODI World Cup
Mithali Raj and her teammates had done a commendable job in reaching the women's ODI World Cup finals and in the final match yesterday, 23rd July 2017 they put up a brave show. Cricket is called a game of glorious uncertainty and losing by just 9 runs to England and bringing the match to such a close finish is very creditable to our ladies that wield the willow. At last here they put up a good show and lost to a better team while their male counterparts conceded the match to arch rivals Pakistan just last month by handing it over on a platter by way of rank misjudgment and bad performance. Concluding Mithali Raj and her team should strive more in the future and keep the Indian flag flying high around the world in women's cricket.
Examine The Fine Print Of The Reliance Jio 'Free' Phone Offer
With great fanfare Mukesh Ambani launched the Jio 4G feature phone at 'zero' price but with a deposit of Rs. 1500 and with a target through the Jio network to cover 99% of the country. Ambitious plans, indeed! With the Ambanis, it has always been the expectation that they will move into any area with a resounding and unconventional manner. This has become a tradition with the Reliance group. However, with every venture apart from the pros there is always a con associated with it. This negative streak has run through the two generations running from Dhirubai to now Mukesh and Anil from allegations of over-capacity that plagued the Reliance group to the fancy financial jugglery to avoid paying the government and sharing output on their oil exploration ventures to irregularities in the STPP contracts bid by them. To bring the offer on the Jio phone to reality, we need to realise that there is nothing that the Ambanis give 'free'. Since you are paying Rs. 1500 and you are with Reliance Jio and not leaving the network, that is the price of the phone in the first instance. It is only when you leave the Reliance Jio network that you get back the deposit. And that is your own money of Rs. 1500 but not the instalments that would have been deducted. So the Jio phone is not 'free'. It is only a ploy to sell the phone and the network.
To outline the improper dealings of Reliance Telecom led by Anil Ambani when they came up almost a decade ago with a similar 'monsoon' offer of buying a mobile handset of Samsung make for 'just' Rs. 500 but with your call package an amount of about Rs. 250 would be appropriated towards the cost of the phone every month. The deduction was not made explicitly clear to the subscriber. I had purchased the Reliance Telecom 'monsoon' offer Samsung phone and within the 36 months warranty the phone went out of order. When I went to Reliance to get the phone replaced, I was told to go to Samsung, who refused to replace the phone since they claimed they had already paid Reliance for the warranty costs and they had nothing to do about it. When I went back to Reliance with the Samsung rejection I was refused replacement of the phone again. This prompted me to look at the fine print and track all my bills over the almost 3 years that I had the Reliance/Samsung phone. That is where I found that every month I was paying approx. Rs. 250 for the phone in addition to the Rs. 500 paid upfront. Thus for the 3 year period Relaince would be recovering Rs. 9500 for the phone which for those times was clear robbery on the telecom highway. In addition Reliance Telecom while billing out of Pune at that time had this habit of despatching the bills late so that you would always get the bills after the due date resulting in a Rs. 20 charge for delayed payment. Not only that instead of the standard 5/4 rounding off of billed amounts Reliance would round off even Rs. 0.25 to the next higher Rupee. Thus if you assume a 1 million subscriber base that Reliance Telecom had then, you can imagine the rip-off. It would be for delayed payment even assuming they would do this for just 50% of the customers Rs. 100 Lakhs or Rs. 1 crore and by the unconventional rounding-off another Rs. 10 Lakhs. Thus each month Reliance Telecom would make Rs. 110 Lakhs in unauthorised revenue, that is Rs. 1320 Lakhs in a year. These are definitely not small amounts. When this was brought to the notice of Anil Ambani and seeking a refund of all money I had paid them for the phone if they were not able to replace the phone free of charge, I did get a response from his office but the real intent of settling the issue was shown when I sent a letter to P Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister with proof of the Improper dealings of Reliance Telecom. Within a fortnight Reliance Telecom sent a person to my home and refunded me Rs. 6000 approx . that was due to me and that too in cash since I had refused to take a cheque from Reliance Telecom.
Thus for all those who want to jump at the Reliance Jio offer be wary, read the fine print and then take a considered decision before you put in your money. Like they say - Look Before You Leap. Times have changed. Things may now be better with Reliance but we all know it is difficult to straighten out a dog's tail and it is best to tread with caution.
*********************
No comments:
Post a Comment