Don’t restrain your mind, my daughter
Let it go where it wants to
It’s ironic I know
To tell you to ignore what others say
After four decades, I feel half-boiled or stillborn
Because I didn’t let my mind be
I looked around, the crowd, the cheer, the expectations…
The fear of failure stopped me
From performing, from enjoying, from living
Today, when I know it’s now or never,
When I’m desperate to see my mind take off
When I no longer care for other views
I feel numb and cold
I pull my mind, I shake my body
Nothing happens
I am dead, my dear, I am dead
All I can is to tell you...
Let the world be, it's not after you
Be free! And fly!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
I will miss you, Sony Ericsson
Last November, I bought my first Sony Ericsson phone—a K750i, a very pretty phone with a 2 mp camera and an excellent music player. Overnight I became a Sony Ericsson fan. It was my first non-Nokia cell phone and within no time I thought I had already seen my last Nokia.
Just a couple of months after I got it, my wife had bought a Nokia 6300, a sleek pretty phone with almost all the features of K750i. Yet, I found my phone far better. For me, the camera was the biggest differentiator. Although the time it took to click a picture often irritated me, I loved using my K750i as a camera. Although the Nokia could produce as good pictures, since you could handle a K750i exactly like a digicam, with both hands, the danger of shaking while taking a photo was minimal. Yes, I took some decent photos with the phone. It even had a flash though not powerful enough to light up the pic. Its yellow pictures can carry the mood of an evening; 6300 can’t even think about it.
Also, long conversations were hundred times better over my Sony Ericsson than my wife’s Nokia. Perhaps because of its metal body, the 6300 gets unbearable hot for your ear very fast. I’d noticed that my wife had to recharge her phone much more frequently than I needed to recharge mine. Agreed her phone is busier, but then I used to take a lot of pics with mine.
Yet, despite all that, now I think I’ve seen the last of Sony Ericsson. My K750i has long turned into an expensive paperweight. Although my terrible-two daughter is the primary culprit in its poor fate, I would think the Sony Ericsson service team was very much a partner in the crime.
I really suspect that it was the company engineers who really finished my phone. Well, it could be my frustration in helplessly watching my cherished gadget going totally waste overnight— yes, it still pains—that makes me say that, but I am positive that Sony Ericsson has a very poor service team. Here’s why.
Some two months ago, one fine morning, my daughter spilled almost a glassful of milk on my phone. Am still not sure if she did that deliberately—for she has never been fond of drinking milk unless being breastfed by her mother—but she was candid enough to inform me. When I saw it, the screen was blinking with the message somebody was calling. There was no sound. My first instinct was to accept the call. But the key won’t respond. I quickly opened the handset—it was completely drenched—and pulled out the battery and everything else I could pull out. I cleaned the pieces with a dry cloth and kept them open on a table near the window so they could catch the sun for an hour or so. I left it like that for two days.
I really didn’t have any hope. But on the third day when I checked it out, to my great surprise, it was working. I checked the camera and even took a pic. But the Horlics milk had made the keys stiff and I thought a servicing-cleaning would do it good. So I dismantled it again and left it on the table. My wife told me there was this Sony Ericsson service centre near her office at Noida and carried it to there the next day. The warranty period was on but there’s no guarantee if your phone has got wet—hello, why these guys are not making waterproof phones yet? They would try and we would have to pay. Agreed.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine gave me an old, almost extinct Nokia phone that he had long replaced with a new Nokia phone as a stopgap solution for my connectivity problem. (Think about it, I’m not sure if I had ever set my eyes on a telephone in the first decade of my life and now I can’t do without my mobile phone—despite having landline phones at home and in office—even for a couple of days!)
Presently, after almost a week, I got a call from the service centre. “Sir, your phone is ready; the camera is not work, otherwise it’s fine.” I was disappointed and asked him how much would it cost if I wanted the camera replaced. The guy promised to get back with that information within a couple of days. So far, my bill was Rs 600. Fine. I got the next call after almost a week. This time it was a girl. She told me the phone was ready.
It took me another 3-4 days before I went there with my wife. The phone looked fine. But the camera just wouldn’t turn on. Asked about it, the girl at the desk said an engineer would soon attend us and meanwhile we could check the phone. I turned on the music player and we could hardly hear it. My wife gave me a ring and the ringing was hardly audible. Then, when we tried talking on the phone we realised my voice was not going through and the voice from the other end too hardly reached you!
It really was a big disappointment—to be told that the phone was ready and to find it as good as a paperweight. The engineer guy looked as if he couldn’t believe it. He tried all that we had tried and conceded it was not working. Now he wanted more time. But I’d already lost my trust.
A week or so later the farce was repeated. This time my wife went alone. Frustrated, she just took the phone and told them, “Thank you very much”.
Thank you, Sony Ericsson, I’ll miss you!
Just a couple of months after I got it, my wife had bought a Nokia 6300, a sleek pretty phone with almost all the features of K750i. Yet, I found my phone far better. For me, the camera was the biggest differentiator. Although the time it took to click a picture often irritated me, I loved using my K750i as a camera. Although the Nokia could produce as good pictures, since you could handle a K750i exactly like a digicam, with both hands, the danger of shaking while taking a photo was minimal. Yes, I took some decent photos with the phone. It even had a flash though not powerful enough to light up the pic. Its yellow pictures can carry the mood of an evening; 6300 can’t even think about it.
Also, long conversations were hundred times better over my Sony Ericsson than my wife’s Nokia. Perhaps because of its metal body, the 6300 gets unbearable hot for your ear very fast. I’d noticed that my wife had to recharge her phone much more frequently than I needed to recharge mine. Agreed her phone is busier, but then I used to take a lot of pics with mine.
Yet, despite all that, now I think I’ve seen the last of Sony Ericsson. My K750i has long turned into an expensive paperweight. Although my terrible-two daughter is the primary culprit in its poor fate, I would think the Sony Ericsson service team was very much a partner in the crime.
I really suspect that it was the company engineers who really finished my phone. Well, it could be my frustration in helplessly watching my cherished gadget going totally waste overnight— yes, it still pains—that makes me say that, but I am positive that Sony Ericsson has a very poor service team. Here’s why.
Some two months ago, one fine morning, my daughter spilled almost a glassful of milk on my phone. Am still not sure if she did that deliberately—for she has never been fond of drinking milk unless being breastfed by her mother—but she was candid enough to inform me. When I saw it, the screen was blinking with the message somebody was calling. There was no sound. My first instinct was to accept the call. But the key won’t respond. I quickly opened the handset—it was completely drenched—and pulled out the battery and everything else I could pull out. I cleaned the pieces with a dry cloth and kept them open on a table near the window so they could catch the sun for an hour or so. I left it like that for two days.
I really didn’t have any hope. But on the third day when I checked it out, to my great surprise, it was working. I checked the camera and even took a pic. But the Horlics milk had made the keys stiff and I thought a servicing-cleaning would do it good. So I dismantled it again and left it on the table. My wife told me there was this Sony Ericsson service centre near her office at Noida and carried it to there the next day. The warranty period was on but there’s no guarantee if your phone has got wet—hello, why these guys are not making waterproof phones yet? They would try and we would have to pay. Agreed.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine gave me an old, almost extinct Nokia phone that he had long replaced with a new Nokia phone as a stopgap solution for my connectivity problem. (Think about it, I’m not sure if I had ever set my eyes on a telephone in the first decade of my life and now I can’t do without my mobile phone—despite having landline phones at home and in office—even for a couple of days!)
Presently, after almost a week, I got a call from the service centre. “Sir, your phone is ready; the camera is not work, otherwise it’s fine.” I was disappointed and asked him how much would it cost if I wanted the camera replaced. The guy promised to get back with that information within a couple of days. So far, my bill was Rs 600. Fine. I got the next call after almost a week. This time it was a girl. She told me the phone was ready.
It took me another 3-4 days before I went there with my wife. The phone looked fine. But the camera just wouldn’t turn on. Asked about it, the girl at the desk said an engineer would soon attend us and meanwhile we could check the phone. I turned on the music player and we could hardly hear it. My wife gave me a ring and the ringing was hardly audible. Then, when we tried talking on the phone we realised my voice was not going through and the voice from the other end too hardly reached you!
It really was a big disappointment—to be told that the phone was ready and to find it as good as a paperweight. The engineer guy looked as if he couldn’t believe it. He tried all that we had tried and conceded it was not working. Now he wanted more time. But I’d already lost my trust.
A week or so later the farce was repeated. This time my wife went alone. Frustrated, she just took the phone and told them, “Thank you very much”.
Thank you, Sony Ericsson, I’ll miss you!
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