Yamuna Expressway – A world class infrastructure piece is here in UP!

Thanks to a family function in Agra – I got a chance to drive on the Yamuna Expressway. I had heard a lot about it from the point when people were using it even when it was not officially opened to the news of tyres bursting due to over-speeding. We were travelling from Meerut to Agra on 23rd September. As we got on to the expressway, we spontaneously had the expression “wow”! Wide roads with minimal traffic – a sight rare in India. Even the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway which used to have limited traffic a few years back is now sometimes choked at peak hours.


The expressway is 165 km long with a 3 lane road on each side. It has 3 tolls on way to Agra. On the first toll, you need to inform the person that you want a ‘ticket’ to Agra. The cost was about Rs.320 for one way and Rs.510 for the return journey within 24 hours. At each subsequent toll, you need to show this ticket which would be scanned by the person and you’d be allowed to go through.

On every toll there are public conveniences like toilets and restaurants which you’d not find anywhere else on the expressway. Also, it would be good to get your fuel tank completely filled much before you touch the highway as currently we could not spot a petrol pump on the highway. There had been news when a car ran out of petrol on the expressway and the “victims” had to call their acquaintances from Mathura to get petrol for them. Though there are plans to set up petrol pumps on the highway.

On the way, billboards with the messages like those over-speeding will be prosecuted; Nilgai prone area; slow speed vehicles prohibited or asking commuters not to stop for picnics could be seen. The last point was very valid. The expressway was such that you would be tempted to park your car by the side and enjoy the beauty for some time. As we were driving, we could actually spot a family stopping and clicking pictures on the expressway.

The legal speed limit on the expressway is 100km/h. Again, with minimal traffic and excellent road, one would be tempted to speed past the 100 km/h mark. But provisions have been made to penalize violators at the next toll.

It took us about 2 hours driving on the expressway before we reached Agra. The drive was of the sort I had never experienced earlier. My left foot was down on the floor instead of being on the clutch. And the right one was on the accelerator. I knew that even if I had to brake, I’d be using only my right foot and left foot would not be needed. It was only at the three tolls that the clutch had to be used – just thrice in a 165 km journey.

On our return journey, we started from Agra at about 8 in the evening. ON touching the expressway it was again the same feeling – “wow”. This time because it was dark and we could see the glowing . It seemed as if we were on a runway – just that we were not taking off.

The Buddh International Circuit (the same where the F1 was held in India) could be seen from the expressway. And though it would be difficult to get to drive on the BIC, the Yamuna Expressway is a way to get close to experiencing Go-Karting live!

After having experienced the journey to and fro, I’d like to congratulate the Jaypee Infra team for such a marvelous piece of infrastructure. As I read on Wikipedia, the expressway was completed 2 years before its targeted completion date. (The reason could be political – perhaps the builder thought it was better to complete it under Mayawati’s regime than take the risk of a political tumult which would create roadblocks for the project). And though the toll may appear to be on the higher side, such infrastructure is what India needs to be able to come to speed with the rest of the world!

Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents

We’ve almost finalized our son's admission in Lotus Valley International School. The experience was interesting but we had a lot of confusion while choosing the school. You can read about my thoughts on various schools on another blog I’ve written. Below are some tips for parents searching for schools in Gurgaon. My experience is based on choosing a school for pre-nursery and may differ from those seeking admissions in higher classes. Therefore, please use your best knowledge, information and judgement to arrive at a decision.

Registration – Registration means that you are interested in seeking admission in a school. If you go and visit a school and ask for the form, the school will generally charge Rs. 500 – Rs. 1,000 for giving you a school prospectus, CDs, fee structure and other material along with the registration form in which details of the student and parents are filled.

A suggestion here would be to go to different schools which you are interested in – see the infrastructure, interact with the admissions coordinator and get your queries answered. You would certainly want to have information about the fees. If you’re paying Rs.1,000, the school will give you a sheet with the breakup of the fees – admission, annual charges, refundable, quarterly etc. But if you’re not willing to shell out the money, the school may not give you the “fee sheet” (I’ve seen the receptionist refusing to give the fee breakup sheet in one of the schools, though she did allow the parents to make a note of the fees on a separate piece of paper).

In such a case, the parents may take a note of the fees by writing on another piece of paper or taking a picture from their mobile cameras. I found parents doing this and I consider it smart and sensible. Why would I want to pay the registration fees for a school which is beyond my budget or not up to my expectations in some aspect? I would also want to do a “cost – benefit” analysis for the various schools before finalizing for which I would need the fee breakup.

The best thing is to do an internet research on the schools, shortlist a few, visit them, come back home, reflect upon and then finally come to a decision. Once finalized, you can download the school form from the internet (school website or other school admission websites), take a print, fill, go to the school and pay the registration fees while submitting the form.

Some schools here in Gurgaon give admissions on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you are choosing such a school, following the above procedure will save you from spending on registration fees unnecessarily, if you start early.

I myself purchased admission forms for Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills, Nirvana. We got admission in Lotus Valley and haven’t yet filled the Shalom Hills form. Looking back, it seems we could have save the 1,000 bucks we spent for Shalom Hills…And though I read on another blog that you should keep 4-5 schools in hand, acting smart can save you a couple of bucks without taking any risk.

Please share your experiences and views in the comments.

P.S.: Experience based on admission in pre-nursery in Gurgaon

Gurgaon School Admission Experience for Pre-Nursery

It’s August 2012 and our son will be 2 in November. And though we found schools which “admitted” children as young as 9 months, we’d made up our mind to send him to school (pre-nursery) once he is 2+. And thus began school hunting. Admissions in Gurgaon begin as early as August-September even though the academic session only starts in April the following year!

The internet is the first source of information - Google…Google and more Google – for list of schools, schools close to our home, reviews, fee structure and anything else that comes to mind. Then come acquaintances and neighbours with who could provide relevant information on schools they had considered for their child. You tend to ask every kid who you see while strolling in the evening – “Which school do you go to?” Most of them would answer LKG A or UKG B. And then we’d have to clarify – “you’re telling your class ‘beta’ …we’re asking for your school”.

We are putting up at Gurgaon Sector 49, near South City 2 - D Block market and preferred to have a school close by. After doing quite some research on the internet we were able to shortlist and the ones which we visited are marked as ‘(Visited)’:

      Lotus Valley  - Nirvana Country (Visited)

      Shalom Hills – Nirvana Country (Visited)

      FasTracKids – Golf Course Extension Road (Visited) – Wunder Kinder, if I remember the name correctly, is opposite to FastTracKids but we did not visit this school neither was this in our shortlist.

      La Petite – GD Goenka – Malibu Town, Sohna Road (Visited)

      The Shriram Early Years (Near Vipul Greens, Sohna Road) (Visited)

      I Play I Learn (Though not keen, we tried to visit it but could not find this school and so came back home!)

      Xseed iDiscoveri (Though in our list initially, we left it out as it was relatively farther from our house compared to the schools mentioned above)

We also had Pathways play school in our mind as it was walking distance from our home but a relative who had been to the school said that it was too expensive specially for pre-nursery and thus it went out of the list (The relative I am talking about have admitted their younger kid in Shriram The Early Years and their elder one is in Scottish High).

FasTracKids – In absolute terms, the school was okay. It is a franchise of a US school. The teaching methodology was theme based. They had a smart (touch screen) board in some classes and had day care facility and meals. Fee was the most reasonable amongst all schools. The centre coordinator was pleasing and took us around the school, showed us classes even when they were going on. Quartery Fees ~14,400

GD Goenka La Petite – The school became operational in July 2012 only and looked promising. It deals in classes from toddlers to KG. The school follows a Montessori way of teaching. Class rooms were spacious, well lighted and aesthetically pleasing. Also offered a day care facility and meals. Since this is a new school, it offered an inaugural discount on one of the components of fees. But the admission would not be directly transferrable to the main branch of GD Goenka World school. We did not consider it further as it was only till KG and admission blues will still come to us after KG + the quarterly fees was almost as high as Lotus  Valley’s. Quartery fees ~20,000 Annual Fees ~15,000

The Shriram Early Years – The school only offered classes till Nursery which meant ‘admission issues’ would come again very soon. We were not able to see the classes as they were going on. But the school would give admission anytime you would go to them – which means they do not strictly follow a ‘session’. We did not consider it further as it was only till nursery and there was no direct transfer from this school to their main school. Quarterly fees ~Rs.19,000/-

Shalom Hills, Nirvana – The head mistress was pleasing and took us around the school. We visited the school when the classes were about to be over. She seemed to remember names on many kids in the school. The advantage with this school was that it is till 12^th. But it was written on the internet somewhere that the school follows a conventional teaching methodology. Though KG and above do have smart classes. Quarterly fees ~ 13,000/- Annual fees ~14,000/- Admission fees ~15,000/40,000

Lotus Valley: The school campus and building is nice, centrally AC. Classrooms are spacious. The school has various activity rooms like dance room, crafts room, music room. But these are more useful for grown up children. For the kindergarten students, these activities are done in their classes itself. But the fee for classes Pre-Nursery to 5^th is the same! The lady at the reception took us around the school building/floors and was very cordial. Overall, the school is good – in fact the best of all the schools that we saw.

We were also thinking from the perspective that we’d admit our son in a school which goes all the way to 12^{th –} the reason being that we’d most likely and preferably be in Gurgaon. Only Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills had this advantage. Though Lotus Valley gave us a feel good factor when we visited the school, the fees was considerably higher compared to Shalom Hills, Nirvana.

After considering most factors, we finalized Lotus Valley International School as it perhaps the only “international” school in our vicinity and within our budget!!!

Another blog: “Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents”

Country Club Membership - Things to consider before enrolling

You would have come across a person offering you a lucky coupon at a store in a mall or at a petrol pump. These are the holiday club membership coupons where if you fill them, you’d be invited for a presentation and a voucher which you can use for a 6N/7D domestic and international holiday. If you have the time and patience of listening to the person detailing you about the holiday, you might consider going, listening and taking the “free” holiday voucher and come back. However, you should be very clear before going into the presentation that you’d not be buying the club membership. Do your homework – search the internet for the reviews before going for the presentation. More often than not, they’ll be bad.

Certain points that you’ll hear from the sales person (SP) and counterarguments you (U) can give to them:

1.       SP: If you buy your own holiday home, you’ll have to pay for maintenance, security of the home, limited choice of holidays (e.g. if it’s in Goa, you’ll have a holiday home only in Goa) etc. While if you take our membership, you don’t have to bother about all this stuff.

U: If I buy a holiday home, I buy it to use as a holiday home. Plus I am also looking at capital appreciation. If I buy your holidays, it’s just the holidays and nothing tangible. While if I buy a holiday home, say in Goa, I have something which will appreciate with time. It’s similar to paying rent vis-à-vis paying an EMI. If I keep paying rent, at the end of a certain time period I don’t own anything. If I pay EMIs, at the end of it, I have my own home. Which one should I prefer?

2.       SP: Our properties are 5 star.

U: Please do your home work. Most of the properties are not 5* but 3* or 4*.

3.       SP: You’ll be protected against inflation, if you book our holidays for 10/25 years.

U: But I’ll also be losing on the interest if I pay you the booking fees. I can get even higher returns, if I invest the money somewhere else.

Other counter arguments for not buying the package:

1.       We’d like to take the free coupon, use it and see how the services are. Only then we will consider buying your membership.

2.       Who would want to stay in a single place for 6N/7D when it is not worth those many days? For example, generally Goa packages are 3N/4D. Why would I want to stay only at Goa or only at Bangkok or only at Kuala Lumpur for 6N? I would rather want to cover Goa and Mahabaleshwar in that time or perhaps Phuket with Bangkok or Genting with Kuala Lumpur. These clubs only offer you to book for 6N/7D in a year. So for example, if you want to book for 2N/3D then you’ll only get 2 sets of 2N/3D which is a total of 4Nights and 6Days in a year at 2 places/2 times. And you’re at a loss of 2 nights and 3 days.

3.       Also consider whether you travel alone or with another couple family. If you take a membership, you restrict yourself to travelling alone!

4.       Only the accommodation is included in the membership. You might/will have to pay for airfare, airport/station transfers, sightseeing, meals, visa for international trip. All these can be more than 50% of the cost of your trip. Add to this the hassle of dealing with multiple people.  And some of these like food are said to be too expensive at their resorts. Please check with the company what they are offering and what they are not. In fact, if you book the same package with a tour operator (www.holidaycooker.com), it might cost you lesser than opting for the membership with much more – breakfast and sightseeing is almost always included.

5.       Flexibility: With these clubs, you have to book certain period in advance. Also the availability of the resort at the time you are planning to visit is under question. If you are booking through a tour operator, you can book even a week in advance.

Important points to note:

When one has spent almost an hour and a half listening to the sales person, one has a tendency to sign the docs without reading them. One is actually in a hurry to go out of that room. Even if one finds the plan interesting and wants to enrol for it, one should spend time to read the documents carefully before signing them. There are certain clauses which are either not told to you by the sales person or are misrepresented. For example, dates at year end 25^th Dec – early Jan might be blocked out dates and you cannot book your holidays during this period. Or the sales person has told you about club membership (start nights etc.) also but they are not marked in your form. Such things most likely will not be told to you but would be written in the documents. Therefore take you own time to read the documents and ask questions before signing and making the payment.

Have you ever faced such a situation? Are you a holiday club member? Are you happy? Or do you feel cheated? Please share your thoughts.

Issued in public interest.

The article represents my own personal opinions/suggestions.

Customer is the king, but only in marketing textbooks…

If you have ever opted for a marketing course, you would have heard the phrase ‘Customer is the king’. But how many times, as a customer, have you felt so? “Never” would be the most common answer. Even if you have had pleasant and delightful experiences, I’m quite sure that you’d be able to count them on your fingers. Some experiences which I have faced in the past:

1.       I had shifted my rented apartment in Gurgaon and so also wanted to get my internet connection shifted. It took more than 2 months to get the connection shifted. That too when I sought help from one of the legal service providers who help customers file case against companies in consumer courts.

2.       I’ve invested in a flat. It’s been 5 years since I booked it. A decent amount has already been paid to the builder but the construction has still not started. It was only when I sent a legal notice to the builder that I received a phone call from them updating me about the status of the project.

3.       I placed an order for a parenting on an online retailer site. While booking the website showed the book showed as available and was also reflecting an expected delivery date/time. After placing the order, they did not deliver the book for 2 months. I called the customer care to check the status. The person said that the book was not yet launched and that they would inform me when the book would launch! What? Why was the website showing a delivery date/time when the book wasn’t even launched? I called again 2-3 times but to no avail. Finally I asked for my money and got a refund cheque of the amount I had paid. This, when I started conversation on the company’s facebook page.

4.       I ordered a smartphone from a very famous online retailer. But my misfortune that I had a “negativish” experience this time as well. They delivered it about 4 days late. The phone was meant to be a gift to someone.

5.       I bought a refrigerator from a consumer durables retail chain. The moment I plugged it at home, it started making some rumbling noise. I called the store only to find that the store was responsible for sales and not after sales service. I told them that it wasn’t about the after sales service but a defective product that they had sold me. Nothing happened. I had to ultimately register a complaint at the company’s service centre when the guy came, told me that the fan was broken and took Rs.150 to replace the part and only to say that plastic parts were not covered under warranty. I still remember the pain of being cheated by the retail chain/company.

And it’s not just me. I’ve heard people saying that value added services have been activated on their phones without their consent. I’ve read people not getting a room on their vacation and being transferred to a property different from what was initially promised. I’ve read people lodging complaints against companies on numerous other issues. The internet is full of sites that take such complaints.

These experiences are at the top of my mind perhaps because they happened to me in the past one year. But there would me numerous other instances, if I were to strain my memory, where I have had a negative experience. The only power that the consumer has these days is the power of social media – the company against which you raise voice replies quickly if you raise the issue on their facebook page – at least that’s what my experience has been and I have been able to resolve a couple of issues this way. When someone from the company replies, if nothing else, you have that comfort – at least someone is listening to you.

But the story is not that bad. I’ve had positive experiences as well – which are like a drop in the ocean of experiences. My laptop charger had ‘broken’ and I thought that it would be covered under the (3 year) accidental coverage that I had taken. On calling Dell I found that the charger was not covered under accidental protection! I had a long conversation with the company and finally Dell replaced it as an exception (it was sort of customer delight). I truly appreciate Dell for their service and the management for exception handling. And I most certainly will buy a Dell again!

With Oberoi’s, I and my wife had a wonderful experience. We went to the restaurant in their Gurgaon property on our anniversary. It was meant to be a surprise for my wife. And even though I had not informed the restaurant that it was our anniversary, the sort of experience we had there was something we’d remember all our life. Similar was our experience in the Leela Kempinski at  Gurgaon.

The difference in services, as I can think, is due to the segment that the services cater to. Barring Dell, the Oberois and the Leelas cater to the luxury segment – the rich – something which an ordinary Indian or the common man would not have a chance to experience in his or her lifetime.

In fact, most of the times, it seems that companies think that “Customer is a fool - Let’s use him to achieve our sales”. And it actually is okay because no one really cares for the customer. So the customer has no option but to get fooled, knowingly or unknowingly.

If you have had some really good or bad customer service or product experiences, please share.

Note: This article has been particularly written in the Indian context. These are the personal views of the author.