Helpdesk

I am a frequent user of e-mails on my Nokia smartphone. In fact I get wind of most of my mail on my mobile phone well before I've got a chance to sit before my desktop. Not only do I get to read most of my mail there, in the mobile, but also send answers right away, those that need immediate answers, that is. Of course I can't open heavy attachments on the tiny screen of my mobile. For all that and those who send me video clips on YouTube I have to wait until I've got a chance to open my desktop. Not only e-mails, my Nokia lets me surf and browse the Net and listen to and watch video clips too on the YouTube, all on that little screen. Naturally, for this service I have to make a monthly payment to Vodafone: a princely sum of Rs 98. For the price of this small monthly charge I get to use my mobile like a pocket computer, whereby I can perform most of the functions of my desktop, no matter where I am. Pretty good!

A few days ago I have come to Gurgaon for a month long visit with my son and daughter-in-law. I took care to make my monthly subscription to my service provider in Calcutta, my home town, so that I'd be able to continue with my surfing facility on my mobile on the 2G spectrum even here in Gurgaon. I did it last year when I had last been here and the surfing went on without a hitch.

Only this time this was not to be. Imagine my disappointment that from the moment I've landed here in Gurgaon, on the 30th September till now there's just no connectivity at all. In none of the three mailbox ids that I have. That was bad news. Try as hard as I might I just couldn't get access to any of my e mail Inboxes. I could neither receive, nor send out e mails from my mobile.

I thought maybe my subscription in Calcutta was no good here and perhaps I'd have to subscribe once again here in Gurgaon. So I went along to the Vodafone store here yesterday.

After nearly an hour-long wait, the girl called out my number and I went over to her desk. After patiently hearing my problem the only suggestion she could come up with was to give me a Helpdesk number of Vodafone, Calcutta. She told me to call them up and get their help. Fat lot of help that was, I thought.

Anyway, having no other option I called up that Helpdesk number in Calcutta. Only to be greeted by a mechanised pre-recorded voice command or rather a series of them taking me through my paces. At every stage, after recounting a large unending array of options, at the end of each of which I was told to press a particular button I found I was getting nowhere, like getting a human voice at the other end to whom I could relate my specific problem and get the benefit of his/her wisdom on it.

The entire exercise spelled sheer frustration. After three or four attempts as described, all of which steadfastedly followed a similar pattern, an utter and unspeakable fatugue enveloped me and I fell asleep/uncosciou(?) clutching my mobile in my hand , my thumb poised over a button on the keypad in a frozen moment.

That is what a Helpdesk is.