Now let extrapolate this to what I have witnessed in the last few weeks and then you would be proud of the how strong the Indian belief system is, that though we have wrongly defined values, has taken us great steps ahead and will do for a long time till we throw away our values.
So, I guess I can use a traditional North Indian family tradition as an example, which is to touch the feet of elders and take their Ashirwad. Now by doing that, indirectly you have administered to bow down, which means you are not the, be all and end all of life, you tend to respect authority (again in the “right” manner) and are asked to be humble and respect human beings around you. Phew I never thought I can think so much and be so creative – Hahaha. The key value here is respect.
To place this in the UK context and the current generation of the Brits, let me quote my experiences. To begin with, I take a bus to work and everyday in the morning there are a set of students who travel along with me on the same route to reach their school which is a few stops before the one get off. Among these students there are 3 “white” (This is just contextual and not any racial discrimination) girls who probably are in high school, looking at their age, certainly in their teens though. The first day itself I found them to be really loud, laughing, giggling, shouting, talking etc. I gave them their credit purely based on their age and just took it as a one off case where they probably were sharing some joy, but wondered where the British decorum was; as time went by, this was their normal routine, day in and day out and all the travellers were getting disturbed and were showing their dissent through their body language and these girls were not bothered at all about their surroundings. It’s good to be your self as long as you take responsibility for the same. This even continuous till today, but sometime last week, a fellow passenger who travels the same line and walked up to them and asked to respect the others in the Bus and have a check on their noise levels and these girls asked this traveller to basically bugger off. Now this traveller must be in his late thirties and these girls probably early teens and when this incident happened, one elderly women remarked, saying, this is the generation of England which will kill the culture of Old Britain. It’s so true to look at that these girls have absolutely no respect for fellow human beings and even today they were the same. Now this might be trivial, but as you travel, read and watch programmes of the youth across the UK, you would just wonder where all the respect and kindness of the basic lifestyle and behaviour, which is what the English are known for are and have disappeared. What the lady said is very true, with this change of lack of respect and the attitude the younger generation of Brits have, they are going to turn Britain into a violent and aggressive country and the environment is going to change, thanks to the lack of values they perceive.
If we look at the largest working, knowledgeable and English speaking middle class out of India, lots of things have changed. Very few want to join a PSU and retire, ambitions are soaring, the money power is increasing, the lifestyle has changed, but overall the set of beliefs that have been instilled, which create a set of perceived values are what has kept us going and will keep us going. For decades now, the west has come to see our culture, the reason simply is that they don’t have much of it and whatever they have is deteriorating. It is not only pertinent for us as Indians to ensure we continue to live with our values and belief systems but also to ensure we instil the same if not more into the generations to follow for us to be the world capital of culture, values and good belief systems.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Values – Is it Relative?
This blog could lead you to read it as Gyann for sure, but I demand of you to step back and recollect, realise and replenish yourself with how important ‘Values’ are, in this fast paced, materialistic, non-emotional and very selfish world that we live in.
The whole context of me writing this blog is purely based on the different experiences I have been having, or shall we say have been seeing around me in London. I am not going to write about those trivial things which are different and make the normal conservative Indian go à aah, what rubbish or what the absolute unexposed middle classed parents / grandparents hear or see on TV that they think their children should be so well domesticated that they would not cross what they define as values, because it is the lifestyle of the west versus the east, or the westerners versus the Karma Bhoomi, India.
So following from the point above, what is values, is it as what we say ontologically as what you define or declare as values, is actually the values or is it something more intricate, delicate or simply straight forward. Being in the 21st century, my first attempt was to Google it out and my first choice was Wikipedia and the following is the definition.
A personal and/or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based. Human values are a set of emotional rules people follow to help make the right decisions in life. Good values instill a sense of integrity, honesty, and diligence in people.
I have highlighted a few words above to question actually what those words mean. Integrity à my favourite subject, guess I can start writing a book only on it, but what does Integrity actually mean. Majority of us couple Integrity and Honesty and truthfulness or just define all of them with the same example. So to start with, the most common example given to me was about my Mom’s dad or my granddad, who people say lived with loads of integrity. I beg to differ, as what I know of him, he lived a brilliantly Honest life, nothing taken away from him. On saying this, what does integrity really mean?
One school of thought, which I agree to a great degree and if you relate to the corporate world or even your day to day tasks states integrity as à Integrity is all about keeping your promises or commitments or declaring that you will commit or promise to deliver a task at a particular time (or date) and ensuring it is delivered on or before that declared time. In the event of the task not being delivered at the said time, authentically and proactively letting know the promised person on why it did not happen and redeclaring another time for the delivery whilst taking full personal responsibility for not adhering to the first instance. Take any example in your life and visit that instance, when what you promised was delivered and when you promised and when you failed but did not take responsibility. The key value there is taking personal responsibility. Am not sure whether my granddad lived with absolute integrity.
Enough on integrity and lets get back to the subject of the blog, values. I touched upon a key area in the last para, which was personal responsibility and also if we look at the definition of values, it’s about personal and relative choices and worst thing is it is based on emotional rules.
Fantastic à emotional rules, set by people or animals who have a sixth sense which is dominated by a science called emotions and this what we call ‘Values’
Now is the time to step back and think, how we have had ‘Values’ defined to us by our elders, how we define ‘Values’ to our siblings or children or even our peers or our teams. Brilliant !!! isn’t?
What we want to perceive as right or wrong (emotionally or scientifically in some cases) are the values we dictate to others. But what is Right or Wrong? à another totally different argument or discussion, which I can write long on but will stick to Values in this blog.
Lets take an ideal middle class Brahminical example to describe this (not many people might like this example as this might be radical to your beliefs , Hahaha, as this is not your Values) – Dad tells his son not to consume Alcohol as this is against our Values. Good, my question is simple, as it is scientifically proven to have a certain administered portion of alcohol daily as it helps our system and secondly, please show me where this value is written and who defined it. This could be a very strong belief system carried on and passed on from generations together, which am fine with, but it’s not a Value. For me if this person starts to consume alcohol and takes full responsibility of himself and the community around him, it’s good enough but the counter is, that if this person becomes an alcoholic and say, starts to abuse his wife or children, then that man has lost his values in life à my definition, but think for a moment.
The whole context of me writing this blog is purely based on the different experiences I have been having, or shall we say have been seeing around me in London. I am not going to write about those trivial things which are different and make the normal conservative Indian go à aah, what rubbish or what the absolute unexposed middle classed parents / grandparents hear or see on TV that they think their children should be so well domesticated that they would not cross what they define as values, because it is the lifestyle of the west versus the east, or the westerners versus the Karma Bhoomi, India.
So following from the point above, what is values, is it as what we say ontologically as what you define or declare as values, is actually the values or is it something more intricate, delicate or simply straight forward. Being in the 21st century, my first attempt was to Google it out and my first choice was Wikipedia and the following is the definition.
A personal and/or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based. Human values are a set of emotional rules people follow to help make the right decisions in life. Good values instill a sense of integrity, honesty, and diligence in people.
I have highlighted a few words above to question actually what those words mean. Integrity à my favourite subject, guess I can start writing a book only on it, but what does Integrity actually mean. Majority of us couple Integrity and Honesty and truthfulness or just define all of them with the same example. So to start with, the most common example given to me was about my Mom’s dad or my granddad, who people say lived with loads of integrity. I beg to differ, as what I know of him, he lived a brilliantly Honest life, nothing taken away from him. On saying this, what does integrity really mean?
One school of thought, which I agree to a great degree and if you relate to the corporate world or even your day to day tasks states integrity as à Integrity is all about keeping your promises or commitments or declaring that you will commit or promise to deliver a task at a particular time (or date) and ensuring it is delivered on or before that declared time. In the event of the task not being delivered at the said time, authentically and proactively letting know the promised person on why it did not happen and redeclaring another time for the delivery whilst taking full personal responsibility for not adhering to the first instance. Take any example in your life and visit that instance, when what you promised was delivered and when you promised and when you failed but did not take responsibility. The key value there is taking personal responsibility. Am not sure whether my granddad lived with absolute integrity.
Enough on integrity and lets get back to the subject of the blog, values. I touched upon a key area in the last para, which was personal responsibility and also if we look at the definition of values, it’s about personal and relative choices and worst thing is it is based on emotional rules.
Fantastic à emotional rules, set by people or animals who have a sixth sense which is dominated by a science called emotions and this what we call ‘Values’
Now is the time to step back and think, how we have had ‘Values’ defined to us by our elders, how we define ‘Values’ to our siblings or children or even our peers or our teams. Brilliant !!! isn’t?
What we want to perceive as right or wrong (emotionally or scientifically in some cases) are the values we dictate to others. But what is Right or Wrong? à another totally different argument or discussion, which I can write long on but will stick to Values in this blog.
Lets take an ideal middle class Brahminical example to describe this (not many people might like this example as this might be radical to your beliefs , Hahaha, as this is not your Values) – Dad tells his son not to consume Alcohol as this is against our Values. Good, my question is simple, as it is scientifically proven to have a certain administered portion of alcohol daily as it helps our system and secondly, please show me where this value is written and who defined it. This could be a very strong belief system carried on and passed on from generations together, which am fine with, but it’s not a Value. For me if this person starts to consume alcohol and takes full responsibility of himself and the community around him, it’s good enough but the counter is, that if this person becomes an alcoholic and say, starts to abuse his wife or children, then that man has lost his values in life à my definition, but think for a moment.
Manchester United -- One Dream complete, Many More to go – Old Trafford, a tick in the box -- Cond
The first feeling of the environment as you enter Manchester is truly Asian, dirt, Paan strewn and loads of shops having Muslim names, like shanaz etc. We got down from our bus and hurried into a cab to get us to the stadium. I was all pumped up and as we arrived at the ground, all you could see is a sea of Red. There were more than 76000 people who attended the game and you could see a large portion walking into the grounds. It’s a feeling that just can’t be described to part of one huge family called Manchester United (suddenly became another family to me). You are so drawn into the euphoria that you just get swept into it. We stopped over the stalls to buy some merchandise, like scarf’s (as seen in the Photo), pins etc and had to climb atleast 6 floors to get to our seats. As you get into the stadium its just pure brilliance, the atmosphere, the colour is Red all around, the sense of being a massive club, the energy, the sound, the songs, I can just keep writing on and on. For a few seconds you are literally overawed by the situation and I took a few minutes to realise that I had to find my seat, which I did promptly and took my camera out to snap pictures of the great stadium, the fantastic team and the aura around me called Old Trafford Manchester. As we settled down and allowed the game to begin, the champions started to press from the very first second and the goals were going to come. As they played and completed the first half they were already up by 2 and by the end of the game they were up by 5, thorough thrashing and that’s what champions are made off à isn’t.
The game had to come to an end as all dreams and so did mine, but this one was real and it was fulfilled. A tick in the box for one great dream comprehensively and thoroughly enjoyed à what a day.
As I complete this blog, I urge on the readers to go full throttle to completed your life dreams one by one à just go for it, as life will keep throwing up reasons for you to not be able to complete any, because that’s how life is. My Theatre of Dreams was seen and played out, when will yours be;
Adios till next time.
The game had to come to an end as all dreams and so did mine, but this one was real and it was fulfilled. A tick in the box for one great dream comprehensively and thoroughly enjoyed à what a day.
As I complete this blog, I urge on the readers to go full throttle to completed your life dreams one by one à just go for it, as life will keep throwing up reasons for you to not be able to complete any, because that’s how life is. My Theatre of Dreams was seen and played out, when will yours be;
Adios till next time.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thank God for “What We Are”
Let me start this blog, by thanking the almighty for making us “What We Are”. This context is prevalent to the Current Level of Existence that we are in, or in other words we should grateful for the hundreds of things that we get or we live with and as simple as roti, kapda and makaan.
At times, due the rat race that we run, called life, to ensure we are on top of things, that we choose are the best if we have, like, a grand apartment, a good sedan, a few million in the bank, we just don’t realised how privileged we are to be what we are now.
You might now start to think, why this blog is so philosophical or why am giving gyann and there is solid proof or reason for it. In India, we shoo away beggars on the road for many a reason. We don’t stop by to look at whether he is digging into the garbage just for anything that he might get to eat to survive or whether he/she is wearing tattered clothes, ragged on the road with nothing to eat etc. All this happens while we run our rat race and we don’t have time to look at them, some say there is a mafia behind the beggar community (There is even a movie with that concept), some say its their fate and so on, but we never look to help them in the real sense (Giving them alms, how much ever it may be or Anna Dhanam is not a help, it is done for our selfish reasons in most cases) and even ponder their existence. I am not complaining as I am one, just like the person who is reading this blog currently, who actually does nothing. Another thing to ponder here, is, most times we visit a temple we offer our hundial, or we donate a lot to temples, why can’t we donate it to the poor or do some charity. All the money that is given to the temple just rests there or is used by a useless administrator or politician for tasks/ circumstances that certainly have an ulterior motive. The best is that, we donate in the temple, because we want something to happen or because something that we wished for what happened.
I guess I can write a book on how we don’t actually do the right stuff (I know there is no right or wrong in life, just used it contextually and this is for all my ontological friends, reading this blog), but let me state the context of why I chose to write this blog. People who have worked with me, a few friends and of course my wife, would guarantee that it would take something special for anything to touch a soft spot in me. I am naturally assertive, at times tending towards aggressiveness, but realistic and practical majority of the times, that emotions don’t get the better of me. But what I was touched with today, is the way some people live and behave even in London. It’s not uncommon to see a beggar or an urchin on the road, but some people are different or life is difficult for them to do the acts am about to mention below.
On any common day, you would take these people to Londoners, as they are comfortably clothed and do not look like in need, but to my surprise this afternoon, near a café I found a bunch of people waiting for the café to place their trash bags in the corridor next to the shop, only for these waiting people to dig in to find unused or food that has just been expired. I can’t determine the word ‘just’, as I really do not know the date on these food packets or sandwiches etc, but they dig in to eat them. On every retail pack of food in the UK, you would find two dates. One for display and one for expiry, and if it has only one date, then it refers to both. But I was stunned to see people dig in. you can argue with me about their clothing as their common wear, when compared to the Indian beggar. But trust me I would not do that and thank god for not placing me in that position and of course am sure he would not so, in the future.
The next thing that really startled me was, when I was outside a café to get a coffee and there is this ‘white man’ walking on pavement and searching for cigarette buds thrown on the floor. He would select the one he wants and pick them up and place it in the box he is carrying. Again this man is well clothed, with nice jerkin to contain his warmth and cover him from the cold, whilst his companion stood there, with a decent hand bag, waiting for him pick the buds. I noticed that, this guy picked only the ones which were round or not flat, as people would normally stamp on to them after they have contained themselves with their puffing. Now this happened throughout the pavement and he carried on till he went off my sight. I could not contain my curiosity and asked a British colleague of mine, on what was the context; this man was picking up the buds that too very selectively. He told me that, this is common in UK, as these people pick up the buds that are round and go home and open them up to use the leftover tobacco for them to make a cigarette for themselves. I know that cigarettes or tobacco cost a fortune in the UK, but I never witnessed people stooping to this level. You can ask why does he need to smoke? , now that’s his choice, but look at the level that this man goes to survive.
Not only this, I know so many people, seen TV shows, where these people have lost their jobs in the last few years, thanks to the financial bubble burst, be subprime lending rates or credit issues, end of the day, these people have to survive and support a family without a job.
Looking at the above two incidents, am really ‘Thankful to GOD, for what I am currently’. Take a moment and look at your life. You currently have a computer with internet connection to read this blog, which certainly means you are comfortable in life. But we continue to worry about the things we don’t have and how bad life has been or treating us. Please step back and look around you; you are blessed to be “What you are”
At times, due the rat race that we run, called life, to ensure we are on top of things, that we choose are the best if we have, like, a grand apartment, a good sedan, a few million in the bank, we just don’t realised how privileged we are to be what we are now.
You might now start to think, why this blog is so philosophical or why am giving gyann and there is solid proof or reason for it. In India, we shoo away beggars on the road for many a reason. We don’t stop by to look at whether he is digging into the garbage just for anything that he might get to eat to survive or whether he/she is wearing tattered clothes, ragged on the road with nothing to eat etc. All this happens while we run our rat race and we don’t have time to look at them, some say there is a mafia behind the beggar community (There is even a movie with that concept), some say its their fate and so on, but we never look to help them in the real sense (Giving them alms, how much ever it may be or Anna Dhanam is not a help, it is done for our selfish reasons in most cases) and even ponder their existence. I am not complaining as I am one, just like the person who is reading this blog currently, who actually does nothing. Another thing to ponder here, is, most times we visit a temple we offer our hundial, or we donate a lot to temples, why can’t we donate it to the poor or do some charity. All the money that is given to the temple just rests there or is used by a useless administrator or politician for tasks/ circumstances that certainly have an ulterior motive. The best is that, we donate in the temple, because we want something to happen or because something that we wished for what happened.
I guess I can write a book on how we don’t actually do the right stuff (I know there is no right or wrong in life, just used it contextually and this is for all my ontological friends, reading this blog), but let me state the context of why I chose to write this blog. People who have worked with me, a few friends and of course my wife, would guarantee that it would take something special for anything to touch a soft spot in me. I am naturally assertive, at times tending towards aggressiveness, but realistic and practical majority of the times, that emotions don’t get the better of me. But what I was touched with today, is the way some people live and behave even in London. It’s not uncommon to see a beggar or an urchin on the road, but some people are different or life is difficult for them to do the acts am about to mention below.
On any common day, you would take these people to Londoners, as they are comfortably clothed and do not look like in need, but to my surprise this afternoon, near a café I found a bunch of people waiting for the café to place their trash bags in the corridor next to the shop, only for these waiting people to dig in to find unused or food that has just been expired. I can’t determine the word ‘just’, as I really do not know the date on these food packets or sandwiches etc, but they dig in to eat them. On every retail pack of food in the UK, you would find two dates. One for display and one for expiry, and if it has only one date, then it refers to both. But I was stunned to see people dig in. you can argue with me about their clothing as their common wear, when compared to the Indian beggar. But trust me I would not do that and thank god for not placing me in that position and of course am sure he would not so, in the future.
The next thing that really startled me was, when I was outside a café to get a coffee and there is this ‘white man’ walking on pavement and searching for cigarette buds thrown on the floor. He would select the one he wants and pick them up and place it in the box he is carrying. Again this man is well clothed, with nice jerkin to contain his warmth and cover him from the cold, whilst his companion stood there, with a decent hand bag, waiting for him pick the buds. I noticed that, this guy picked only the ones which were round or not flat, as people would normally stamp on to them after they have contained themselves with their puffing. Now this happened throughout the pavement and he carried on till he went off my sight. I could not contain my curiosity and asked a British colleague of mine, on what was the context; this man was picking up the buds that too very selectively. He told me that, this is common in UK, as these people pick up the buds that are round and go home and open them up to use the leftover tobacco for them to make a cigarette for themselves. I know that cigarettes or tobacco cost a fortune in the UK, but I never witnessed people stooping to this level. You can ask why does he need to smoke? , now that’s his choice, but look at the level that this man goes to survive.
Not only this, I know so many people, seen TV shows, where these people have lost their jobs in the last few years, thanks to the financial bubble burst, be subprime lending rates or credit issues, end of the day, these people have to survive and support a family without a job.
Looking at the above two incidents, am really ‘Thankful to GOD, for what I am currently’. Take a moment and look at your life. You currently have a computer with internet connection to read this blog, which certainly means you are comfortable in life. But we continue to worry about the things we don’t have and how bad life has been or treating us. Please step back and look around you; you are blessed to be “What you are”
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
My Experience with HSBC Bank
At last my first official Blog (The history of last year was more a memoir) in a few months and first for 2010.
Since last September I have been enquiring with a couple of branches HSBC Bank (in Oxford street and one near my office) on how to open an account in the UK, to negate the heavy service charges pressed upon me by ICICI bank, my salary account in India, for the ATM withdrawals in the UK and also to hedge the currency fluctuation, which was eating up my account balance. To put it into context, an average withdrawal would make your poorer by atleast £10 per withdrawal and this was the least you want when you are long term. At that instance, HSBC clearly stated that I needed a visa valid for a year (I had a 2 year multiple entry Business Visa then) and a visa that was a permanent one, like atleast a Work Permit and not a Visitor or a Business Visa.
I had dropped the idea then to open the account and resumed my enquiry in the middle of December, before I went away to India on my Vacation and to get my Work Permit Visa done. The requirements were very simple and they just wanted a letter from my employee in the UK stating my addresses in India and the UK along with copies of my passport and visa. Typically and actually the account is called a Passport account valid for a minimum of one year and extendable thereafter and had only a minimum charge of £8 per month for maintenance.
Once I returned in January I walked to same branch of HSBC, pretty close from my office in London, just to double check the requirements they had stated in December. This time the representative gave me a totally different set of requirements and told me that I needed a credit history in the UK for them to open an account. Then I questioned her about the entire idea of why HSBC had an account for immigrants to the UK called the Passport account, as they would not have any credit history, for which, she went blank and to cover her reasons, she told me that her branch had to have a tie up with my company Allianz to accept their letter as a proof and that she would call the next morning confirming the requirements. I waited and got no response from her and was disappointed and gutted for the lack of customer experience that she and the bank had provided.
Nonetheless, I called their customer help line no. to get the customer rep’s contact details and ended up enquiring the requirements and they gave the same that I had received in December. That evening, whilst returning home, the team and I decided to stop at Canary Wharf to buy groceries at TESCO’s and some window shopping at the Mall. The Mall is primarily set up for the employees who work in and around the financial hub of London, so we can expect the prices to be on the higher end and it is Canary Wharf. In the Mall they had a personal banking branch of HSBC, and I tried my luck to enter and get the requirements and found that they were the same as of December and as spelt out by the telebanking staff. So I reached out to my UK line manager in Guildford for her to pass on the letter to me, which with some work around as she was going on her vacation, got it done through another senior member of our group. I got a scanned copy of the letter only to find out from the telebanking staff that they required an original. A friend of mine was to bring over to London and he forgot it in a hurry.
I tried my luck, or took a hint from Robin Sharma’s 62 things you should do this year, one of which is take small risks in life everyday, no try, no win. So here I was with a coloured printout of the scanned copy to the branch with my passport and then, began the most extraordinary customer experience I have had so far, especially opening a bank account or with any financial institution.
The manager walked out and told me that they cant do it unless I work over at canary wharf and I told him that they did not mention it a couple of days earlier and I would have not wasted my time. He instantly apologised for not informing me and since it was their error put me onto a representative to open the account. She looked at my letter, took my passport, photocopied the passport and the Visa and began opening the account on her computer. She told me that she would need to do an international credit verification as I had no credit history in the UK, for which, I gave her my thumbs up. She kept speaking to me and reiterating the rules and regulations of the account type and in about 8 minutes she asked me to punch in my security numbers onto the account on her screen. My first question to her was, is the account set up and she said absolutely yes and its nearly done and I had to punch in my security numbers to complete the set up. I asked her next about the international credit verification and she said it’s already done and it was part of the set up. They finished my international credit check in less than 8 minutes, WOW !!. I punched in my security codes and it is a 8 digit number and she prompted me not to have any dates in, such as, date of birth or marriage anniversary etc. as it can hacked She then excused herself for a minute to return with the account kit and explained it for about two minutes and here I was with a UK bank account with HSBC in less than 10 minutes.
This experience does not end here; she told me that if I had a friend who had a passport account, I could send her the details of his account and both of us would get £10 into each of our accounts. I obliged, and sent the details the very next morning and as promised by her, it was in my account in less than 48 hours. Then, the next thing which amused me was how the debit card arrived. I reached home last night to find a post with my address details hand written. It was a normal white cover and my assumption was, it was tickets to the Manchester United games that I booked and was infact delighted to see them. To my astonishment it was the debit card, placed between two pieces of thin chart paper and on them it was written, stating that, for security reasons they have placed my cover containing the debit card between them and posted it to me as a normal post, that fraudsters don’t notice it. I went gaga over the idea and the intent and the extent they would go to securitize the customers.
It’s been a terrific customer experience with a premier international bank or for matter any financial institution that I have had a relationship with. An India, opening a bank account with a Chinese bank, HSBC, in the financial capital and Hub of the United Kingdom, and that’s how multicultural London can be.
Since last September I have been enquiring with a couple of branches HSBC Bank (in Oxford street and one near my office) on how to open an account in the UK, to negate the heavy service charges pressed upon me by ICICI bank, my salary account in India, for the ATM withdrawals in the UK and also to hedge the currency fluctuation, which was eating up my account balance. To put it into context, an average withdrawal would make your poorer by atleast £10 per withdrawal and this was the least you want when you are long term. At that instance, HSBC clearly stated that I needed a visa valid for a year (I had a 2 year multiple entry Business Visa then) and a visa that was a permanent one, like atleast a Work Permit and not a Visitor or a Business Visa.
I had dropped the idea then to open the account and resumed my enquiry in the middle of December, before I went away to India on my Vacation and to get my Work Permit Visa done. The requirements were very simple and they just wanted a letter from my employee in the UK stating my addresses in India and the UK along with copies of my passport and visa. Typically and actually the account is called a Passport account valid for a minimum of one year and extendable thereafter and had only a minimum charge of £8 per month for maintenance.
Once I returned in January I walked to same branch of HSBC, pretty close from my office in London, just to double check the requirements they had stated in December. This time the representative gave me a totally different set of requirements and told me that I needed a credit history in the UK for them to open an account. Then I questioned her about the entire idea of why HSBC had an account for immigrants to the UK called the Passport account, as they would not have any credit history, for which, she went blank and to cover her reasons, she told me that her branch had to have a tie up with my company Allianz to accept their letter as a proof and that she would call the next morning confirming the requirements. I waited and got no response from her and was disappointed and gutted for the lack of customer experience that she and the bank had provided.
Nonetheless, I called their customer help line no. to get the customer rep’s contact details and ended up enquiring the requirements and they gave the same that I had received in December. That evening, whilst returning home, the team and I decided to stop at Canary Wharf to buy groceries at TESCO’s and some window shopping at the Mall. The Mall is primarily set up for the employees who work in and around the financial hub of London, so we can expect the prices to be on the higher end and it is Canary Wharf. In the Mall they had a personal banking branch of HSBC, and I tried my luck to enter and get the requirements and found that they were the same as of December and as spelt out by the telebanking staff. So I reached out to my UK line manager in Guildford for her to pass on the letter to me, which with some work around as she was going on her vacation, got it done through another senior member of our group. I got a scanned copy of the letter only to find out from the telebanking staff that they required an original. A friend of mine was to bring over to London and he forgot it in a hurry.
I tried my luck, or took a hint from Robin Sharma’s 62 things you should do this year, one of which is take small risks in life everyday, no try, no win. So here I was with a coloured printout of the scanned copy to the branch with my passport and then, began the most extraordinary customer experience I have had so far, especially opening a bank account or with any financial institution.
The manager walked out and told me that they cant do it unless I work over at canary wharf and I told him that they did not mention it a couple of days earlier and I would have not wasted my time. He instantly apologised for not informing me and since it was their error put me onto a representative to open the account. She looked at my letter, took my passport, photocopied the passport and the Visa and began opening the account on her computer. She told me that she would need to do an international credit verification as I had no credit history in the UK, for which, I gave her my thumbs up. She kept speaking to me and reiterating the rules and regulations of the account type and in about 8 minutes she asked me to punch in my security numbers onto the account on her screen. My first question to her was, is the account set up and she said absolutely yes and its nearly done and I had to punch in my security numbers to complete the set up. I asked her next about the international credit verification and she said it’s already done and it was part of the set up. They finished my international credit check in less than 8 minutes, WOW !!. I punched in my security codes and it is a 8 digit number and she prompted me not to have any dates in, such as, date of birth or marriage anniversary etc. as it can hacked She then excused herself for a minute to return with the account kit and explained it for about two minutes and here I was with a UK bank account with HSBC in less than 10 minutes.
This experience does not end here; she told me that if I had a friend who had a passport account, I could send her the details of his account and both of us would get £10 into each of our accounts. I obliged, and sent the details the very next morning and as promised by her, it was in my account in less than 48 hours. Then, the next thing which amused me was how the debit card arrived. I reached home last night to find a post with my address details hand written. It was a normal white cover and my assumption was, it was tickets to the Manchester United games that I booked and was infact delighted to see them. To my astonishment it was the debit card, placed between two pieces of thin chart paper and on them it was written, stating that, for security reasons they have placed my cover containing the debit card between them and posted it to me as a normal post, that fraudsters don’t notice it. I went gaga over the idea and the intent and the extent they would go to securitize the customers.
It’s been a terrific customer experience with a premier international bank or for matter any financial institution that I have had a relationship with. An India, opening a bank account with a Chinese bank, HSBC, in the financial capital and Hub of the United Kingdom, and that’s how multicultural London can be.
The year that was -- 2009
Its that time of the year, beginning of a new one and the end of another to reflect on the year that went by. The usual norm in my life has been to crib about what I could have done better and what I have not done, but for the first time in my entire life and for sure going forward I have relished the year 2009 and all this thanks to the mega transformation that I have created in my life, the people who I have been with the way I dealt with circumstances and the way I created 2009.The above paragraph has a lot of ‘I,s’, but at times it is good for one to pat one’s own back on the achievements created by self. As human being’s we do not know how to respond, when somebody appreciates us, leave alone self appreciation and I can guarantee, that this is not my ego or self praise or the urge to show my worth.
The year began well with a business trip to the UK for 7 weeks, of which, the best experience was of heavy snowfall and me being present to enjoy every bit of it. Also I had the opportunity to get my prized possession of a DSLR. Though I was going through the cold in the UK, there was enough heat in India with the preparation for the D-Day i.e. marriage which was in full swing. As the days went by, I had lesser time on hand to get my part of the wedding preparation done, like shopping, inviting people etc. and even before I realised after landing in India in mid February I was en route to tumkur for the biggest event of my life till date.
And then we arrived in tumkur with a huge bandwagon of people from all over India and even before I realised or allowed the feeling of me getting married to sunk in, it was all over, I had lost my bachelorhood and was installed into the realms of major manhood, with my wife standing by my side. The marriage was over, then the trip to tirupathi and then the reception in Chennai and in the end, the month , March was done by. All I remember of my reception is I stood there shaking my head to acknowledge people and my hand to accept their greetings. The worst part is that, both of us did not even get a chance to have the fantastic menu on offer and that too eat it hot. Advise to people who expect a large number at their reception – take a break in between to have your dinner.
We moved into Trivandrum and I got to work only to find that April, whisked by. But we had a great and memorable trip / drive to munnar and back, which was awesome, except for the fact that we had company of family friends, which then denied us to term our first trip together as our honeymoon. So technically, we are still to have our honeymoon – Hahaha.
April to June was acclimatisation period, with one and another, as, for however long you know each other and court around, living under a single roof is different and in most cases when people court, they try to be at their best behaviour at most times. With being with each other, you then have to make choices, negotiate etc. on your habits, actions etc. than when you were on your own, alone in that splendid world, where the extra thing called responsibility of handling / living with another being (who because she believed in you) before the nuptial bond did not exist. Only if these periods of choices are accepted by each other, can you certainly term the other as the better half, else it would be the bitter half.
By this time, rekha had settled in enough that she was getting bored with things around her; don’t know whether it included me, that we had to make choices of either relocating to a city of our choice, where we had plenty of acquaintances or for her to look for a job over in Trivandrum. The latter than became more of a need, with a project tabled to me, where I had to travel to the UK in August for a couple of months, only to find out that the project now has evolved to continue through 2010 and looks eternal.
With this being the constrain, Rekha found a good job in a good company in Trivandrum and I flew over the UK. But with the prolonging of the project and that I had to continue there, distance and time zones started affecting even the newest of married people (though we knew each other and have been in this situation before though on opposite sides) and the choices and conversations that were had in the first quarter of our marriage (Am on a project, so trying to use some jargons).
The initial part of the project or time in the UK, was not that rigorous, as it was from October, that I found time to take some photos, travelled to Cardiff and spent time with little brother, wrote blogs (This is my first one since October) etc. But with the leg on the pedal, the rigour of the project accompanied with deadlines, I just found time to work, sleep, eat and make a few calls home for a few minutes, with certainly getting more than enough language from my wife for not giving her time. I even crossed that phase and it was time for me to make the vacation back home for Christmas. The thought of it gave me warmth and rekindled my energy, which certainly was getting sapped, due to long working hours. On the other hand, of me not being in the UK for the festive season was on my mind, but enjoying the warmth of my wife was far more appealing than the celebration in London. Also that, if I had made the latter choice of being in UK, I would have found heat and more heat arising from her – Hahaha.
The year ended really well, with the visit to India and spending some quality time with Rekha, my folks and hers, only to return to the UK, in the first week of January 2010. Overall, it has been a great year, I have known how to make every year a great one and it purely lies in our hand to make it great. There are some plans and promises for 2010 and am eager to create them and make it bigger than 2009. Lastly, thank God for giving me the courage, strength, health to make the last year a great one and to all those people who helped me, even in the minute of way possible, from the maid servant, to car washer to my friends, colleagues, stakeholders, relatives and finally my parents and brother – a BIG thank you.
The year began well with a business trip to the UK for 7 weeks, of which, the best experience was of heavy snowfall and me being present to enjoy every bit of it. Also I had the opportunity to get my prized possession of a DSLR. Though I was going through the cold in the UK, there was enough heat in India with the preparation for the D-Day i.e. marriage which was in full swing. As the days went by, I had lesser time on hand to get my part of the wedding preparation done, like shopping, inviting people etc. and even before I realised after landing in India in mid February I was en route to tumkur for the biggest event of my life till date.
And then we arrived in tumkur with a huge bandwagon of people from all over India and even before I realised or allowed the feeling of me getting married to sunk in, it was all over, I had lost my bachelorhood and was installed into the realms of major manhood, with my wife standing by my side. The marriage was over, then the trip to tirupathi and then the reception in Chennai and in the end, the month , March was done by. All I remember of my reception is I stood there shaking my head to acknowledge people and my hand to accept their greetings. The worst part is that, both of us did not even get a chance to have the fantastic menu on offer and that too eat it hot. Advise to people who expect a large number at their reception – take a break in between to have your dinner.
We moved into Trivandrum and I got to work only to find that April, whisked by. But we had a great and memorable trip / drive to munnar and back, which was awesome, except for the fact that we had company of family friends, which then denied us to term our first trip together as our honeymoon. So technically, we are still to have our honeymoon – Hahaha.
April to June was acclimatisation period, with one and another, as, for however long you know each other and court around, living under a single roof is different and in most cases when people court, they try to be at their best behaviour at most times. With being with each other, you then have to make choices, negotiate etc. on your habits, actions etc. than when you were on your own, alone in that splendid world, where the extra thing called responsibility of handling / living with another being (who because she believed in you) before the nuptial bond did not exist. Only if these periods of choices are accepted by each other, can you certainly term the other as the better half, else it would be the bitter half.
By this time, rekha had settled in enough that she was getting bored with things around her; don’t know whether it included me, that we had to make choices of either relocating to a city of our choice, where we had plenty of acquaintances or for her to look for a job over in Trivandrum. The latter than became more of a need, with a project tabled to me, where I had to travel to the UK in August for a couple of months, only to find out that the project now has evolved to continue through 2010 and looks eternal.
With this being the constrain, Rekha found a good job in a good company in Trivandrum and I flew over the UK. But with the prolonging of the project and that I had to continue there, distance and time zones started affecting even the newest of married people (though we knew each other and have been in this situation before though on opposite sides) and the choices and conversations that were had in the first quarter of our marriage (Am on a project, so trying to use some jargons).
The initial part of the project or time in the UK, was not that rigorous, as it was from October, that I found time to take some photos, travelled to Cardiff and spent time with little brother, wrote blogs (This is my first one since October) etc. But with the leg on the pedal, the rigour of the project accompanied with deadlines, I just found time to work, sleep, eat and make a few calls home for a few minutes, with certainly getting more than enough language from my wife for not giving her time. I even crossed that phase and it was time for me to make the vacation back home for Christmas. The thought of it gave me warmth and rekindled my energy, which certainly was getting sapped, due to long working hours. On the other hand, of me not being in the UK for the festive season was on my mind, but enjoying the warmth of my wife was far more appealing than the celebration in London. Also that, if I had made the latter choice of being in UK, I would have found heat and more heat arising from her – Hahaha.
The year ended really well, with the visit to India and spending some quality time with Rekha, my folks and hers, only to return to the UK, in the first week of January 2010. Overall, it has been a great year, I have known how to make every year a great one and it purely lies in our hand to make it great. There are some plans and promises for 2010 and am eager to create them and make it bigger than 2009. Lastly, thank God for giving me the courage, strength, health to make the last year a great one and to all those people who helped me, even in the minute of way possible, from the maid servant, to car washer to my friends, colleagues, stakeholders, relatives and finally my parents and brother – a BIG thank you.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A walk in the rain – What an experience!! – Part 2
It was light but really steady drizzle as I stepped out of office for my usual 40 minute walk back to the hotel. As I strode through Leaden Hall Road and Fenchurch Street, where my offices are located, you could see an array of umbrella’s, different sizes, shapes and colours. But that’s not the experience am speaking about. I just stood back for a second to look at all the sky scrapers in the vicinity and to my amusement; all of them were visible to their half only, as the rest were covered by a misty whiteness which had engulfed them. It was a sight not to be missed. As I enjoyed the view, it was time to move on, because you never know how the English weather would change. It could just turn into a downpour and I would be stranded in the middle of no where.
As I strode through the usual route, the walk towards Tower Hill Underground station and past it onto the Tower Bridge, I felt the same experience of that of Mumbai. The Londoners were striding at their usual pace, irrespective of the rain. Trust me; these guys walk really fast, compared to me. By the time I reached the tower bridge, my pant’s were beginning to get wet from the bottom and my suit was wet from behind already. Luckily because of the suit, I was still not feeling the real chill.
The walk on the tower bridge is awesome. On a normal day, you could see loads of people from different countries, background, ethnicity, colour etc. standing on it, admiring the Thames, clicking pictures, hugging each other, kissing and you can really feel a sense of romance and unconditional love around you. A feeling of being human and for a few minutes not worrying about the world you need to get back into, would clearly hit you when you focus on how these people relate to the others with them or the environment around them is at that very point. But today as it was raining, the normal bustle was missing and it was only the commuters trying to get back from work.
As I was walking, I looked at the Thames, it was truly a grand spectacle, that only nature can throw up at you. Half of the river was covered by mist, a light mixture of white and grey carpeting the Cruise Lines and HMS Belfast the World War II ship anchored on the river. The buildings in the background and London Bridge felt a mere existence to what nature had portrayed on the canvas called the ‘River Thames’. It’s one of those memories that would last for long in my mind and probably a story to tell my Grand children – that if I remember it till then. This picturesque visual attracts you to just stand there and keep admiring it, but when there are a few more heavy drops on your umbrella, you have to get of this wonder view, which certainly is dreamlike to proceed my walk to the hotel.
As all good things have to come to an end, so does my walk in the rain, only to settle in the warmth of my hotel room.
Truly a WOW experience.
As I strode through the usual route, the walk towards Tower Hill Underground station and past it onto the Tower Bridge, I felt the same experience of that of Mumbai. The Londoners were striding at their usual pace, irrespective of the rain. Trust me; these guys walk really fast, compared to me. By the time I reached the tower bridge, my pant’s were beginning to get wet from the bottom and my suit was wet from behind already. Luckily because of the suit, I was still not feeling the real chill.
The walk on the tower bridge is awesome. On a normal day, you could see loads of people from different countries, background, ethnicity, colour etc. standing on it, admiring the Thames, clicking pictures, hugging each other, kissing and you can really feel a sense of romance and unconditional love around you. A feeling of being human and for a few minutes not worrying about the world you need to get back into, would clearly hit you when you focus on how these people relate to the others with them or the environment around them is at that very point. But today as it was raining, the normal bustle was missing and it was only the commuters trying to get back from work.
As I was walking, I looked at the Thames, it was truly a grand spectacle, that only nature can throw up at you. Half of the river was covered by mist, a light mixture of white and grey carpeting the Cruise Lines and HMS Belfast the World War II ship anchored on the river. The buildings in the background and London Bridge felt a mere existence to what nature had portrayed on the canvas called the ‘River Thames’. It’s one of those memories that would last for long in my mind and probably a story to tell my Grand children – that if I remember it till then. This picturesque visual attracts you to just stand there and keep admiring it, but when there are a few more heavy drops on your umbrella, you have to get of this wonder view, which certainly is dreamlike to proceed my walk to the hotel.
As all good things have to come to an end, so does my walk in the rain, only to settle in the warmth of my hotel room.
Truly a WOW experience.
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