Who's the Culprit? DOCOMO or Android or HTC ?

Who has cheated me? I am not able to figure out.

Tata DOCOMO is my mobile service provider and I am currently using their 299 Rental Roam Free Plan. Under this plan I have 100 MB of data transfer free every month. I have been using this plan for 3 months now, and my data usage has always been below 100 MB per month, and between 2 and 8 MB per day.

An unexpected, abnormal, unpleasant and unusual thing happened day before yesterday (17^th Sept), and which I came to know of yesterday. DOCOMO reports that in a single day, my mobile sent/received 317 MB of data. And the unbilled amount on my mobile number shot up by Rs.4000. And since the credit limit allowed to my number is only Rs.1300, my outgoing calls were blocked. And blocked without a notice/warning. I called up customer service and asked them to unblock my outgoing calls, and they did in a few hours, although they first said I must pay the huge unbilled amount above my credit limit.

Neither the blocking made sense to me nor the unblocking.

Later when I came to know from my online account with DOCOMO about the humungous data transfer that happened on 17^th Sept from my number, I called up their customer care to tell them that it was total non-sense. The response I got was even more frustrating. They said they couldn’t check the details of what happened, coz the details did not show up in their view of my information. And that they could not take any complaint in that regard, coz, well, they could not take any complaint in that regard. That was ridiculous. And then, when I asked them to connect me to whoever would be the right person to talk about such things, they simply said there was no one. They asked me to wait until my next bill would be generated, on October 7^th, and then they would look into the issues with the bill. Finally, after a lot of yelling, I got an email ID where I could report the problem. I sent an email yesterday evening.

I found that the data transfer was high yesterday (18^th Sept) too, in spite of the fact that the mobile was out of service for more than half of the day. But it was indeed active for the rest of the day. Today I called them up again, and begged, that if they did not fix the problem at this stage, the bill would go on shooting up. And I can’t go on paying money till October 7^th – the next bill generation date, when each day my internet usage is Rs.3000-4000. The response I got – again the same email address. He promised a reply within 24 hours after I mail them. It is already 22 hours since I mailed. No reply so far.

Now here’s why I am not able to figure out what the actual problem is.

Android: Does not have an OOTB tool to monitor the data transfer. I could not find the details of even the total data transfer since I started using the phone. I can install an app now, but I have no way of checking whether my mobile did actually indulge in so much data exchange on 17^th Sept.

HTC: Common sense says I should only blame my OS for this and not the device. But I found that some HTC users did face this kind of huge data exchange on occasions. So is my HTC the culprit?

DOCOMO: Was there any error or mixup in DOCOMO’s records? DOCOMO will hopefully check and get back to me.

Let’s see what happens. Meanwhile, I am no more using mobile internet. And have not yet paid them any money. Waiting for them to block my outgoing calls again…

What an A$$!

An ad by Flying Machine has given Indian social activists something to kill time with…

I personally don’t find anything offensive in this ad. It just acknowledges the fact that certain things contribute to human sexiness, and we all want to look sexy. And now I feel it is actually a waste of time even to talk about it, coz Indians also have all moved on and above and beyond these small and unimportant non-issues. We just don’t care.

Modi fasts!

Modi fasts. Now speaks in Hindi. Now claims sadbhavna. Now claims religious tolerance. But I can't help seeing him like a crook coz his face is like that. Generally eyes don't lie. And Modi's eyes are those a criminal. But in a rare case, it could just be a physical characteristic, without any character level correlation.

But the progress in Gujarat that I've heard of from common people like me, is too much to ignore. Modi indeed seems to be a man of vikas, besides other things.

Given how Indian politicians act and behave, Modi seems like the better kind. He doesn't talk too much to Media. And whatever he does is somewhat more logical and to-the-point as compared to other politicians' nonsensical blabber. That may be because he's not a lawyer, like most other top politicians in the country.

Now, he may have instigated riots, and done nothing to stop them. And that is the only negative point against him, and a big one. So big, that I chose to ignore all the good things that my Gujarati friends have been telling me past 10 years about him. Not sure how much he's responsible, and how big and bad his role in the riots was. But now, I feel I can also take a stand of not having a negative opinion about the guy without any evidence and until I see any strong evidence.

With criminals all over the political class, Modi seems relatively okay now. But if he has really done a thing like causing or aggravating religious riots, he is unforgivable, and should be punished, as and when we manage to gather evidence he can't bail himself out of. Till then, let him have his chance of driving progress of the country.