Picked-Billed-Paid-Returned home. Those days we had just learnt to be out with Aashira but not for too long. So, returned home asap. That night I checked - The kettle was fine but the bill wasn’t! It was billed Rs 1199! How can bloody organised retail backed with technology, process, Tata charge me Rs 200 more??? I swore to confront them & kept the bill safe.

I managed to get back to the same branch of Croma and gave the flashback to the guy at the billing counter. He promptly turned his monitor and showed me his pricing software. It clearly said that the day I purchased the price was indeed Rs 1299. It was 999 a few days before my purchase date. Nevertheless, the fact remained that the price display read 999 but what did I have to prove. Security camera records! I wasn’t so tough as it turned out later. I simply had to check the price display again! It read 1299 (in font 72)  while the billing system read 999! Their stood the proof! The guys simply messed up the merchandising process. While the IT team had implemented a new technology (read expensive) software that connected all stores allowing the company to adopt modern retail pricing strategies (one such is psychological pricing that leads to the fight for Re 1), the guys on the ground simply forgot to change the price display effectively negating all the benefits that are expected to be derived by technology, process & smart minds back in the corporate office. This was the trauma @ Croma.

Yes, I managed to get the 200 bucks back :)

This time I was lucky to witness the last day of the 2500km 3 week race at the Champs-Elysees in Paris. It was a pleasant Sunday and it was fun to catch a glimpse of the last stages of the race amidst the festiv environment. It is not every day that you see people climbing up signal posts and buildings in the heart of Paris!

Photos here

A week down the lane, the delivery is still expected tomorrow! Somebody from the website is nice to respond to the daily emails promptly. He or she also seems to be in touch with DTDC on the delivery. However, the curry the book is still awaited. I paid a delivery charge too for this lousy service. I am foolish, s0 I remain hungry?

Update: The book made its way after a more than a week. The DTDC parcel tracker never showed the real date of delivery!!!

I blogged late November, when I managed to watch 3 of the 4 “financial thrillers”. The 5th just got added. Its called “Stock Shock“, a documentary movie based on the mysteries of Sirius XM stock in the American markets. So much so, the movie has prompted the SEC to investigate. (Securities & Exchange Commission is the SEBI of India)

One industry where “innovation” could be harmful is the financial!

Finance consulting services in India is in a pathetic state of affairs-

• Record collections to mutual fund NFOs (MF agents encourage investors to churn portfolios since frequent activity earn commissions)
• Non-popularity of index/exchange traded funds (these products carry the least expense ratio but not earners for agents)
• Extreme popularity of unit-linked insurance policies (term insurances makes most sense to genuinely protect one against risks. Term insurance premiums are 1/20th of money-back insurance policies)

Though dedicated efforts are being made by government agencies to improve, there is long way to go. In the meanwhile, “savers” need to quickly graduate to “investors” i.e financially literate. There is no choice.

By the way, State Bank of India reduced interest on deposit rates. If you did not know this, ……………….. (you know what I mean!)

Update: From Outlook Money’s Small Talk, Big Matters- Harish Rao conducts summer camps in Bangalore for 10-14 year age group on money management. A bit of looking around and discovered Harish Rao’s blog - Simple Equation & a podcast.

Anyways, a rare soul with a logical mind at the “airtel relationship centre” cooperated yesterday - unlocked my number and assured me the accounts will be reconciled the coming week. hope so! 

Bottom line, my personal is now active. If you tried reaching me in last 2 months, you have to try just once more. I am talking about 99802XXXXX.

Cheers!

Trivia: Cafe Masala is part of the BJN Group which also owns a impressive list of other restaurants - Angeethi, Aromas of China, Bombay Post, Indijoe, Samarkhand, Bamboo Shoot, Hypnos, Vaayu, Sahib Sindh Sultan,Firangi Paan!

Please be informed that on February 27th, March 2nd and 3rd there will be water cut from 9.30 am to 5.00pm, in order to change equipments.

Due to this intervention, some stores, without any danger for your health, can circulate in pipes and fluster water.

We apologize for the disturbance.

“some stores can circulate in pipes and fluster water??????” sorry! I didn’t get that!

The history of French fries seems to be non-definitive. Americans attribute the origin to the French but the Belgians and Spanish to themselves while the French to the Belgians! Nevertheless, its a great snack. If you love them, there is a officialfrenchfries.com

French toast lovers, guess how they originated? “As a way to use day-old or stale bread” and they seem to have got a French name attached because French bread becomes stale in a day. I have not seen and had French toast in my short tint in Paris though. However, French bread is just so hard! It has to be plucked with both hands (and ofcourse, chewed real hard with both jaws :) ). The Indian name is Bombay toast.

French onion soup - I tried it last week and liked it. Guess I had last tried in Ebony on MG Road, Bangalore. I can now saw it was well made at Ebony too.

Lastly, here is an interesting “political” twist around French fries & toast, not so long ago, in 2003:

“On February 20, 2003, Neal Rowland, owner of Cubbie’s Diner in Beaufort, North Carolina, declared that his restaurant would no longer serve French fries but “freedom fries” in retaliation for the French refusal to sanction the U.S. war on Iraq. The U.S. Congress followed suit, mandating on March 12 that the cafeterias in the House of Representatives would serve “freedom toast” and “freedom fries” in lieu of the offending “French”-monikered items. Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) called the change “a small but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France.” The French embassy responded, first by pointing out that French fries are actually Belgian, and then declaring that “We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes.”(Nathalie Loisau, embassy spokeswoman)” -Source

Once I was on a small regional flight from South Bend to Atlanta with about 15 passengers. At the destination, the caption announced his pleasure to have carried a US soldier bound for Iraq and requested him to disembark first. I was impressed with the respect and honour shown by the citizens of the country to a soldier in a civilian environment. Everybody clapped as the soldier walked past them. The movie reminded me of this event.