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Reader's Mail

Hello, MTNL....

I lodged an online complaint at the MTNL Customer Care portal recently about the faulty telephone instrument installed in our house having been replaced four times within eight months but without any improvement. Exactly a couple of days later I got a brand new instrument from MTNL replacing the old one. Truly I had not had any hope that MTNL would take any action, let alone so quickly. It was indeed a most pleasant surprise.

All members of my family join me in thanking MTNL in general and the official who took such prompt action in particular. Let this be an eye-opener for all those who are always ready to find fault with Government agencies.

Mangalam Narayanan,

House No. 64, Sector-I, R.K. Puram,New Delhi - 110 022.

Down memory lane

It was thrilling for me to read R. V. Smith's article in "Down Memory Lane" (The Hindu Metro Plus, September 11) and find my maternal grandmother Tara Ulrick's name mentioned.

Dr. Tara Ulrick was the first lady doctor of Agra just before the turn of the last Century. Her husband, John Ulrick, was brought up by German missionaries, hence the German name Ulrick. The road leading to the Civil Courts from the then Central Jail/St.John's College via Hari Parbat had only two buildings just before the Civil Courts and they were the Awaagarh and Bharatpur Houses of the respective States. Grandmother was the family physician of both the States. Further down on the right of the road was the bungalow built by Ball the Magistrate later sold to Tawakaley. A little over a kilometre behind Ball/Tawakalay House was a cottage where eventually a house was built, better known as Peelie (Yellow) Kothi. Today the Agra by-pass road passes near the area. There in that house, as I remember from my days as a kid, lived the grandson of Ball, a total recluse whose only visitor once in a while was my uncle Arthur Ulrick, the youngest brother of my mother.

After Ball/Tawakalay House were two big houses built by my grandmother in a very vast area around 1936/37. She lived in the first house where my sister, brother and I lived with her for a year in 1940 and started our schooling at St.John's Girls' School. The second house, a red brick building, was the last house for miles till Dayal Bagh quite a few miles away. That house was known at the time as Bhooton ki Kothi as it was left empty for a long time. Just across the dirt road from the boundary wall of the two houses is a Roman Catholic cemetery of the Akbar era, a heritage monument. This cemetery is well maintainted and has some historic graves dating back to the 16th Century.

Interestingly, just recently on the 14th of August this year my aunt, Uncle Arthur's widow, her son and the family moved away from this ancestral house ending an era that saw grandmother and her descendants staying in this house for nearly 70 years. For me this house had a very special place as I was baptised there in the presence of my grandmother.

Grandmother Tara Ulrick died on the 15th of August, 1944, and was buried like all Ulricks, and there were many of them at TotaTaal cemetery.

Eric Ram,

G-18/11, DLF City Phase-1, Gurgaon - 122 002.

Haryana.

It's a Sony....

I bought a new Sony cyber shot digital camera DSC-W30 on September 17 (Invoice No. 2724 from Sony World, Sahni Agencies, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi). Along with this I also paid for a memory stick (1 GB MSX-1GS) as they didn't have one at that time and said they would deliver it the next day.

Days passed but no one came to deliver it. We contacted the agent and were told every time that they would deliver it the same day but all in vain.

We then contacted Sony Customer Care. After several calls from our side, they asked their dealer to call us. Finally Mr. Manish from Sahni Agencies called and said that the 1GB stick was out of stock but would be available within two days, and if it was not available he would give me a 2GB stick, without any further payment. But I never received any stick.

When I called Customer Care again, I was told that the dealer would not give a 2GB stick when I had paid for 1GB; "either you have to wait till October 7 or you can go and take back the money you paid for the memory stick."

When I was paying for the memory stick, no one said it was out of stock. I purchased the camera for my work, as I am a mass communication student, but all my work is ruined as I can't use it without a memory stick. I made a mistake investing so much in Sony. The company is neither willing to pay for the loss nor giving me the product I paid for. I hope to receive a reply from Sony, lest I should have to go to consumer court.

Moina Khan,

147/397 Ghaffar Manzil Extension,

Street 15, Jamia Nagar,

New Delhi - 110 025

No smoking

With reference to Prashant Pandey's "Campus Jottings", "Students cannot be stopped from smoking" (October 5), smoking can be discouraged by not allowing sale of cigarettes on the campus. Habitual smokers can, of course, go off-campus to buy cigarettes but this will certainly be an inconvenience.

JNU Students' Union president Mona Das feels not smoking in the academic complex is enough, while the Campus Development Committee wants a blanket campus sales ban. The CDC is, in this case, correct as cigarette-access should be made as difficult as possible for all. Indeed, this should be actively discouraged.

The mobile phone revolution has also swept our campuses and here the rule should be simple: no mobiles in classrooms or during functions. As for sartorial standards, Amity University may have decided on formal wear but most campuses are ruled by informals which, provided they are decent, are good enough for young people. A campus can be a fun place, but it must also have a certain sanctity as a academic place.

Vinod Chowdhury,

Senior Reader in Economics,

St. Stephen's College,

Delhi University,

Delhi - 110 007.

Wonder, wonder

Leonardo Da Vinci was truly the quintessential genius of his epoch. No wonder his masterpiece, Mona Lisa, is hailed as another wonder of the world.

It took the world's scientists five decades to discover that the transparent robe worn by Mona Lisa in the painting was commissioned to commemorate the birth of her third child. Now we know that this remarkable painting is actually more enigmatic than we ever thought.

It may take us a long time to completely unravel the mystery.

Gaurav Kumar,

5th Semester, Mechanical Engg.,

IIT, Guwahati.

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address of the writer and should be marked "Reader's Mail".)

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