But this post on Bengalooru Banter reminds me of Bangalore the way I loved it. Those small lanes around Ulsoor opening up into the nice leafy 100ft Road of Indira Nagar and the chaotic, yet resourceful CMH Road.

All that post has done is throw up predicament. I must make another trip to Bangalore. And not one of those flying visits like I had in January.

As of right now, I am confused whether the line is working or not. And I am in the tech capital of India.

UPDATE: Since this got published, it is working!

Tags: Bangalore, Hathway, Internet, ISP, Suicidal

Like with most people involved in technology writing or the Internet as a medium, I have an extensive RSS feed list to keep on top of. At last count, there were close to 180 feeds I follow everyday ranging from Cricket, Formula 1, Technology, News and what not! There’s a couple of cartoon feeds too! So every time my beloved Shrook, the RSS reader, goes ‘ping’, I need to rush over. Drop whatever I’m doing and run. (It is just for this that I am contemplating getting an iPhone when it does become available.) But today being Saturday, it’s been a rather slow day.

As with most weekends or holidays, the Internet service reliability is inversely proportional to the number of people at home. And having already chronicled the quality of service (or lack thereof) that my ISP in Bangalore, Hathway, provides, you will not get a prize for guessing that today was one of the bad days. Today’s connectivity reminded me of the way someone learns to drive. Stop-Start-Stop-Start. So every five minutes, the connection would die. I would wait, twiddle thumbs, get the occasional drink of water, return in time to hit “Refresh” for the mail, web pages, RSS feeds and everything else I was working on. And then rinse, repeat…

Now the trouble began when I took a while to realise that the volume of posts by people may be less today since it is Saturday. So what if I have no life beyond the computer. Others surely must, I thought. And as it turns out, they do. So as I grappled to come to terms with whether it was the connection that was down or if there were no more feeds to download, I decided to check my mailboxes, clean them, organise them, run rules, create some more and well, do the ‘organisation’ thing! So I did.

Had this been a regular weekday, I would still have been mowing my way through the various feeds and posts trying to get a grip on life. Looking for the latest to upload on to Daily Connect and research for my next article for a magazine (details in due course). Of course, news was slow today but a review was put up on Daily Connect. (Do let me know how you like it).

So as the Saturday proceeded slowly, I lived off my Reliance NetConnect for Internet (Hatway still acting up as I write this) and think I have had enough for the week. I have a rather long week coming up ahead including plans for packing and moving, planning for the aforementioned article and submitting a range of other assignments. And then there’s Daily Connect and some new proposals that are to be sent out. Why am I going on about this? … Right-o then. If you want to share your weekend details, feel free to do so. I’m off to have some dhokla now!

Have a good weekend.

Tags: Weekend, weekday, Bangalore, Internet, RSS feeds, iPhone, Mail, organising, working from home

That, however, is not the case with Bangalore and Pune. Both cities have a strong cultural heritage with local people being identifiable thanks to language, customs and a variety of other reasons. But is there a case when one has to say that the local citizens of a city are no longer fit for the city? And I ponder over this question with the utmost objectivity, difficult as that may be.

Does there come a time when the locals simply have to let go (a little bit at least) of their city’s cultural fabric and be a little more accommodating for the sake of the progress and improvement of the city? Is there also a case that ‘outsiders’ coming to the city bring in more positives than negatives? Is there also a possibility that the locals should sit back beyond a point and let more seasoned ‘settlers’ improve their city?

I don’t know the answers to any of the above questions, but I am inclined to argue "yes". Was it possible that without migration either Pune or Bangalore or for that matter, Mumbai, would have become the important cities that they are? Take a look at say, Cochin or Lucknow where migration is much lesser compared to these cities and perhaps my point may sound valid. Of course, I ignore ground realities such as governments, but then isn’t the government a reflection of the local thinking? Where one city chooses a government that may bring in investment and with it, the inevitable migration, another is keen to hang on to what is already there and hold on tight.

Is this even a point?

Tags: Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, migration, locals, citizens

Some would argue that the two points in the headline are connected. However, I am inclined to believe that they may not be. I shall once again go on a tirade against Hathway, my ISP in Bangalore. I have been a customer with them since December 2006 and have renewed my connection four times since. But the trouble one has to go through to get that done or get any information from them is simply monumental.

Getting the connection was no problem. They were prompt, helpful and efficient. That’s not bad business. But then, they went over to the other side and became plain incompetent. I wonder if there are more Hathway users in Bangalore who suffer in the same manner I do. I have to believe there are. Every renewal is a pain. Checking account status by yourself is an even bigger problem.

Most ISPs would have their website working to allow users to log in and check account status. But Hathway could not care less. Their site (www.hathway.com) has been down for at least a month and despite calls to tell them this, it doesn’t work. As a result, I cannot check how much of my 3GB package I have used up. Fair enough. So the next best way to find out the status is to call them. And then someone comes on line and tells me, “You will get a call from the renewal department in 20 minutes to tell you the status”. Big problem. If the number they give as a helpline number cannot tell me my usage, why is it a helpline number? It’s another thing that a minimum of 10 attempts are required to get through to that number in the first place. The unfriendly nature of the call centre (if it really is that) associates is another matter altogether.

Outages of the connection are almost a way of life. Once-a-week, the connection will be down for at least 2-3 hours. And that is in a good week. No warning, no email, and worse still, no reason if you manage to get through the number to talk to someone. That is incompetence.

I have chronicled my previous experiences with the service on this site and despite a variety of ways of telling the Hathway guys about my problems, the quality does not change. I won’t be surprised if I am a blacklisted customer for the number of calls I make or the amount I end up screaming. I can’t help it. There is only so much one can bear.

So you must be wondering why in god’s name I haven’t opted for another ISP. In a free market like ours and especially in a city like Bangalore, there are options. Sure but not where I stay. I am told Airtel is great as are BSNL and Tata Indicom. But Airtel hasn’t “reached the area” with their service yet. BSNL has a line snaking from Bangalore to Mysore for connections and Tata Indicom doesn’t respond when you inquire. Do these people not want business?

But coming back to the Hathway problem, their levels of incompetence are beyond my comprehension. They seem to be running a large operation, but most people seem to be out of sync with what they are doing and what they need to do. Why should my renewal request (especially if I have paid cash) take 24 hours? Why does it have to go to their Mumbai office for verification? What verification? Why can’t the unfriendly call attendant tell me how much is left in my account? Why can’t they tell me what is wrong when the connection is down? Why do they say it will be out for minimum 3 hours, maximum 5? Why can’t they live up to their service promise? I haven’t even gone on to tell you whether the 512kbps connection I have really is 512kbps. On an average, transfers of data happen at speeds of about 7-8kbps. On a good day, I have seen it reach 21 or 22 kbps, but with a 512 line, I would expect much much more. The speeds I get are available through even a Reliance PCMCIA card.

You tell me. Is this bad business or incompetence? Or is one leading to the other?

Tags: Internet, ISP, Bangalore, Free market, Bad Service

Surely I can make it through today without more power cuts… but actually that will mean a really bad day tomorrow. Hmm.

The Hathway internet connection remains dodgy as always, though. Oh well. You can’t win ‘em all!

As anyone who has moved to a city that primarily speaks a language you cannot will vouch, life does become tough. So much so, that you walk up to Auto rickshaws gingerly and ask if they will go in the direction you are headed in. In Bangalore, though, auto drivers have a rulebook entirely their own and they will travel only if there is no traffic on the road. Or so they have me believe right now. I’m open to being convinced against that one!

Auto drivers, who I have always believed are equally bad no matter what city you are in, are a grade worse in Bangalore. I have lived in Pune for 20 years, Mumbai for 6 and been here for about a month. I have also been to Delhi umpteem times and to Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata recently. Nowhere are they as bad or conniving. Ask the locals and they would mumble their agreement.

There are plenty of adventures and episodes to be narrated here. More as one finds more time.

Cheerio.

Technorati : Bangalore