Childhood Friends Get Together

This post is to get out of the monotony of my other posts on Politics and current affairs.

Yesterday night (24th January 2008), some of my childhood friends planned for a get together. Ravi Kiran is leaving back to US on Sunday. So, we all met at Chutneys Hotel at Himayath Nagar at 9PM.

Others who attended along with me are Ravi Kiran (working at Portland), Vinod (ICICI), Mani (IBM), Dinakar (GE), Madhu (Shanmukha Caterers) and Vijay (Reliance).



Had gala time discussing wide range of issues from Cricket to rising in prices of land in and around Hyderabad, childhood memories, behavior of Indian Born America settled Desis, cracked jokes on politicians and last but not the least separate Telengana issue. Since some of us share radically opposing views like I supporting a separate Telengana NOW with Hyderabad as its capital and Ravi Kiran opposing a separate state altogether and Mani supporting a separate state but Hyderabad would be made a Union Territory. We thought it prudent to stop the conversation and somehow the topic got diverted.

While Ravi Kiran gave his views on the future of Indian Cricket (while we are talking, it was coming in the news that Indian Cricket is turning the way of English Counties with Industrialists and Bollywood Actors buying the rights for different teams - Mumbai was sold to Anil Ambani for a whopping 447 Crores while Bangalore was sold to Vijay Mallya for 446 Crores and Hyderabad to Deccan Chronicle News Paper for around 380 Crores), Mani was more concerned about "Parsi Hills" (guys, I hope you know that he has a house at the Parsi Gutta slum and his sole aim is to make it Parsi Hills - like the famous Banjara and Jubilee Hills). Vijay, the right hand man of Reliance Head, Anil Ambani is concerned about the rates of apartments that Lanco guys are selling. If you dont know, the Lanco Group of Companies is owned by Vijayawada Member of Parliament, Lagadapati Rajgopal who is fighting against Telengana. Vinod pitched in saying that Telugu actress Ileana bought a flat worth a whopping 1.5 Crore Rupees !! Dinakar cracked jokes and Madhu is furious with the Indian Born America settled Indians behavior and the way they talk.

End of the day, it was all fun we had after a very longtime. We left the place at around 11.15PM taking back our cherished memories.

Clink on the link for the snaps

Problems with Private Banks

I had my first brush with the problems related to Private Banks here in India. They are hardcore marketers when coming to aggressively pushing for new accounts or credit cards or loans but when coming to followup and service, they lack behind.

First time in my life, I approached ICICI Bank for a Personal Loan and a person working on "behalf" of the Bank approaches me and does all the clerical work and come to my house and office for checking whether I gave the address correct and then he checks the references I put up and then sends me an SMS that my loan has been approved and then VANISHES !!

After a week, I approach the Bank directly and they say they dont know about the guy who is roaming around carrying ICICI Bank Forms. I had to apply again but it gets rejected on the fact that I had earlier applied for a loan. This was ridiculous and I tried to reason with the guys there but no one was hearing.

So, I did the best I could do in my hands - block my phone number so that no bank can contact me for loans.

If you also want to do it, just go to the following URL:
DONOT MESS WITH ME.