Life as I find it

Hey folks, its the wet time again. Time to get rid of inhibitions and get the cleansing of the spirit that a bathroom can’t manage. Time to head out in the rain, feel it drenching the world around, go to some roadside tapri and have tea in small glasses and hot pakodas - its a tradition.

A tradition that takes me straight back to my childhood, where my family had this firm belief that getting wet in the first monsoon of the year is good for health and gets rid of prickly heat and other nasties. Don’t know about the prickly heat, but the sheer enjoyment of doing it probably adds a few years to my life.

I remember this time, before schools began, buying new school books, uniforms, preparing for the coming year, enjoying the last of the summer holidays…… and the rain. The mood changed to celebration. Of families heading out of their homes to drench themselves, of paper boats, the grandmother waiting with a towel and hot cocoa…….

Those days may be gone. The friends are grown up and scattered, the grandmother is dead (I miss her), families are more reserved about kids running around muddy if they can prevent it…… but the passion that rises in my blood with the energy of the monsoon endures….

Recently, I created a current account with HDFC bank for my business - Wide Aware. Its convenient. Yes, but there are some problems people might want to watch out for.

Using the Netsafe account for online purchases is a prime example. What basically happens with this is that you purchase a Netsafe card which is a one time thing and use the data from that card to do your shopping, so that you don’t end up sharing your real card details.

Great! Now comes the glitch. You need to put a maximum limit on your card. The maximum limit is debited from your account!!! Not your purchase amount. Your balance statement shows the purchase of a Netsafe card rather than your actual purchase. So, if like me you use it to activate your Paypal account and put a generous limit on your card in your ignorance, what you get is a loss of Rs.1000/- (for example) with the added pain that you can’t activate your account, because the 4 digit code that you should get will not come into your bank statement at all.

I see this as a horrible service, since no one tells you that the maximum limit you put on your card is going to get indefinitely debited from your account. Its 44 days since I made the payment, and I have yet to see any kind of refund of the balance. How’s that for a reliable banking experience?

I have phones the bank 4 times about this. The first time, I was told that it takes a month from the purchase for the Netsafe balance to return to the account. Then I called after the month was over. Their computers were down. Then I called again. They said they would look into it. Then I called again and was told that the baking executive would get back to me within a day or two. It has been a week since that. I have also used their contact form to email them about this, and have received a nice email of thank you for contacting them and their representative will get back to me.

I am now in the process of wondering if its worthwhile to bother with this any more or should I simply shut down my account and approach consumer courts? Wouldn’t this be fraud?

So folks, big banking names are not necessarily more reliable with your money. Be careful with your hard earned money even when it is in the bank.

Update:

It tool almost a month, but my balance WAS refunded.

Wisetechie has shared this link and information:

When does the source account get debited - at the time of creation of NetSafe Card or at the time of purchase payment ?

The amount gets debited at the time of creation of the NetSafe Card.

What happens if I do not use the NetSafe Card at all or if I use only part of the NetSafe Card amount?

For a completely unused NetSafe card created from your Credit Card, the amount is credited back at end of validity period. For Netsafe cards created from your Debit Card, the amount will be credited back in 3 working days to the source account.

In case the NetSafe Card was partially utilized, the balance amount gets credited to the source account within 7 days (for Netsafe Card created from Credit card) or at the end of 35 days (for Netsafe card created from Debit Card) from the date of transaction.

Thank you!

A friend of mine died recently in a freak climbing accident. A lively, intelligent person, with great and diverse talent, he was well respected at work, among friends and fellow climbers alike. He was full of initiative ideas and empathy. A truly perfect person to have with you anywhere.

He has left behind a wife, a two year old daughter and aged parents. He was the sole bread-winner of their family, and they lived comfortably as he earned very well.

The family, now is in deep financial circumstances, as to add to their emotional loss, they now have no source of livelihood. My friend, while earning a good income, had failed to provide adequate income, and had also taken a big loan for their ner home.

I look at their situation and learn my lesson. No one here comes with a guaranteed life-span. I am going to start saving, plan insurance, minimise outstanding credit, avoid expensive loans, and in general be well planned in my finances so that if an unforeseen disaster strikes, my family may at least be secure in an economical sense.

This is something outdoor professionals rarely consider. Leading hand to mouth lives becomes a way of life. The little extra money they have goes on something or the other they want.

The sad truth is that outdoor adventure instructors have very few guarantees in life. Their interests make very few non menial careers suitable for them in case of an accident that limits their abilities. Accidents are entirely possible in this profession and pay scales are low.

What is needed with our community is the interest in managing life, money, relationships and then using up what spare resources they have.

This is a very old incident, when Raka and I were just beginners in the mountains. We are still beginners in a way, but then we were really green. We had gone on a hike to Sudhagad, which is a well-known fort in Maharashtra near the famous Pali, which has a temple of Lord Ganesha .
After a refreshing hike to the top and self-cooked food on reaching we crashed into sleep really fast. We were some 15 enthusiasts sleeping in a line a local temple on the top of the fort.
The first thing I remember the next morning is the sound of a dull thud near where we were sleeping that I would have ignored, if not for a vague and very sleepy comment about a snake fallen from the roof. Didn’t make any sense, but it sounded interesting and I scuttled across the last bed to investigate.

There was a snake - a small python! It was coiled tightly around a rat and they had apparently fallen like that off the ancient beams over our head in their struggle. The rat was scared and struggling, but the snake seemed oblivious to its great fall or our group now crowded around the two watching eagerly the stuff we only saw on TV. In fact, it seemed unconscious of everything but its helpless victim. Not once did its coils loosen, or its head turn away from its prey.
A friend got out his camera and got busy clicking pictures or this rare observation of nature that had fallen almost on our heads.

The snake ignored us all and went about its breakfast like it had all the time in the world. It killed the rat and swallowed it whole and then took a couple of twists and coils around itself for good measure. Finally full and sluggish, it slowly crawled outside to find a nice shady place to digest its meal in.

Over the years, we saw many snakes, had quite a few story worthy experiences, but as our first close experience of the workings of nature, this one is special.

I still haven’t learn’t how to publish pictures well, but if you go here, the page has a complete series of pictures of the incident.