So, what am I up to?

No, I don't have delusions that there are actually people out there who are wee bit interested to read or know about my activities, but thats the kick a blog with a few clicks gives you. You simply imagine an interested audience, assume a readership base and go about expending your ideas & thoughts to the extent that now I feel compelled to state the reasons for my periodic inactiveness.
Duh, actually acknowledging that in words has weaned away some of the enthusiasm with which I started this post.

Albeit, to grudgingly continue, I am brushing up on my Spanish.Am still trying to figure out the 'Estar' & 'Ser' but to prove a point, here I go -

Hola a todos,
A mi me gusta bailar. Mi primer baile es en Julio. Practico mucho. Mi maestra canta para mi. Evito la lluvia porque estoy enferma. Nosotros percibemos baile divino.

Hope I have impressed those who see the above lines as gibberish. To those who understand it and with shrinking foreheads - ahem! I told you I am yet a learner, yaar.

And in between my pretensions of learning español, I manage to give an earful to all those cheats out there. Believe me there are quite a handful of corporate rogues out there. Honestly am not the one who likes to keep cribbing and crying hoarse over daily woes but these people are simply pushing me to a corner.

HDFC Chubb General Insurance for instance. I renewed my car insurance in the month of October and was issued a cover note. Its over 2 months now, my cheque has been realised and I am yet to get the original insurance copy. Every time I have called their customer care person I have to repeat my entier story. The person I last spoke to seems untraceable despite having the customer service officer's name or time when I last spoke. Needless to say, all I get is shallow promises of 'immediate followup'. And this despite being their loyal customer for 3 years!
[Moreover I learn from my husband that the cover note has only a 2 month validity and I dazedly recollect that I had made through the entire last year happily with only an insurance cover note.]

Next in line is Citibank. I have an ERA account which I have not operated for over a year. Now that I have ample time on hand I decided on sorting my bank accounts, finances and having decided so, I called them to issue me a new ATM pin. Simple task? You think! They say my ERA is not associated with my debit card so I can't do a simple validation over the phone. So next I write a letter and courier it to their Chennai office.
After a week I call for the pin and they say - "Can you write to us again, we have not received your letter."
I say, "I had it couriered to your office and I have the DTDC docket no. How can you simply state that a customer correspondence is untraceable? She repeats: "Can you write to us again, we have not received your letter."
I ask her - "Can you guarantee me that this time you will get the letter? She simply parrots the same line : "Can you write to us again ma'am, we have not received any letter."
I give up. Afterall what are a few hundreds in front of my mental well-being?

But Bimal Auto Agency takes the cake! I give my Alto for a complete service and after a lot of nakhra their guy picks the car a day before the service. I forget to note the kilometers run before handing over the keys but let me pass that. I get a call the next day stating the various cleaning and maintenance work they plan to do. I meekly ok it all and also agree to the astronomical figure they state as the estimation. End of the day am all happy with my shiny new looking machine and generously tip the driver also. All fine till now.

Next day I read an advertisement in paper that Maruti and all their associated agencies have been running this "Car Repair/Maintenance Month" and that all services/spares come at some 30% discount and free car wash coupons etc. What? Why wasn't I even told anything of this? I call them up frantically, fumble words in anger and question them as to why I was not mentioned about this on-going service mela or whatever yesterday while I coughed up the full charge?
The lady hems-haws and says something about how I should have mentioned that I was giving the car for service under that scheme or whatever. What??! But &*%#%^&*(
She has better things to do obviously than placate angry customers who are at loss of words.I raise a few decibels, tell her how she has lost a valuable customer who would have otherwise given our Maruti Swift also for a service but who wouldn't ever do it now. She could'nt have cared less for she simply 'thanks' me and puts the receiver down!

I end up feeling like a complete moron who has paid for a free ride.

Will seek some solace in a lime mousse cheesecake...you take care.