Kettal Kedaikkum!

Despite all the advice from my friends – I decided to join NIIT to take a career jump once again. As expected, it was a tragedy and I ended up paying 25K (as a first installment) and they never scheduled a class for me. I still remember the date on which I paid the amount - 3rd of April 2012. The course was supposed to be 3 months (or even less) and until 15th of May, I did not receive a single call from NIIT about the class schedule. When I enquired about the course (MCITP), during my admission, the sales head told me that the classes are starting the next day (4th of April). And up until 15th May, the class was never scheduled. I believe I was the only person who chose the MCITP course and no one else!

                So, after paying the money, it's my responsibility to ask for a class and almost every day from the day I paid the money, I called NIIT and every time I received the same response – the classes will be starting from this weekend sir. The weekend never came for them! Soon, I got a job on the same profile that I was working earlier and decided to give up the course. Now started the real pain. I walked into the NIIT office and told them that you guys are never going to schedule a class for me – I'd like to quit. They tried to trick me once, but since I was strong, they decided it'd be better if we leave this guy or something like that!

                On the first day, when I said that I'm requesting a refund from them, they said “Refunds are processed at the end of every month sir – your refund will be given by the first week of June”. From that time on, I'd been struggling to get the money back from them. Every time when I call for the refund, they said that the refund is being processed and requested to give a week's time. June 5th, a Tuesday, when I walked in to enquire about my refund, they requested me to write a letter to the NIIT Center head so that the refund may be initiated (I was puzzled as why this was not told to me when I said I want my money back!). So after that they said that it'd take a week's time to process and give my money back.

                Weeks came and went and I never received a call from NIIT. Until 4th of July, I was very patient and was frustrated when they said that your refund was not processed by this month and will be processed only by July month end. That's when I decided to reach out to a society that's been nothing but helpful in Facebook – “Kettal Kedaikkum”. When I posted my situation in Facebook Kettal Kedaikkum, I received a response from the founder, Mr. Sureka Sundar that he'll help solve the problem for me. Following that week, I walked into the NIIT Adyar  and called Sureka Sundar and asked him to talk to the Sales head and the Center head.

                I could observe the change in the faces of the center and sales head's as they were talking to Sureka. Until that moment, the promise from NIIT was that they'd not be able to give the full amount that I paid (an amount of Rs. 6000 to 8000 will be deducted for the Book charges) and that only the reduced money will be given. After they talked to Sureka, they told me that full amount will be settled to me. The whole refund processing took them less than two weeks and I received the full amount that I paid in cheque. When Sureka talked to them on what will happen when they failed to refund me in Legal Terms, I could see that they were terrified.

                What Sureka told them was the rights I have over the NIIT failing to provide a refund. That, if I buy a product and never use it, I have the rights to get a refund (full amount) upon return. Even I didn't know these until then. I'm sure the NIIT guys over there may be well aware of that! For a 3 month duration course, no class was scheduled for over a month and they still said that the full money will not be refunded. After Sureka's interference – I 'asked' and I 'got it'.

                I'm writing this article to create a basic awareness. When you keep quiet, people step on you and go forward. When you ask, you'll get it. This is the motto of the Facebook group “Kettal Kedaikkum” (You'll get it when you ask). It is your rights that you are demanding and not someone else. I'd have certainly got the money from NIIT had I not been to Kettal Kedaikkum – the difference here is the time and quality. I may have received the money only by the end of August or even September – also, not the one which I paid in full – only  the deducted money. Don't give away your rights – fight for it. “Kettal Kedaikkum” is a group that helps you fight.

Religious Rally

As soon as I joined Polaris, I knew there's going to be a trip to Srikalahasthi. Because, a batch mate of me was from that very town. What I didn't expect was it happened in a month's period. When my batch mate Bhargav (the Srikalahasthi native) and another, Mathen who has a SWIFT DZIRE decided to visit the temples in and around Kalahasthi, I decided to join them on a religious rally. Friday, 22nd of June, we started our journey towards Kalahasthi after office hours. We had a little snacks in Chennai, gave our car a little drink and soon we were on the highway, hit 100 KM/h in no time. A little music inside excited us and we reached Kalahasthi at around 9 in the evening. Bhargav's family welcomed us and treated us as if we were also their son. Warm hospitality and an A/C room to sleep - well, I couldn't get up earlier in the next morning!

Mode of Transport

Saturday Morning - we took bath and skipped breakfast as it's a kind of custom to go to temple with an empty belly. We had some pooja arranged for one of our friends - Mathen (For Rahu and Kethu - specially done here in SriKalahasthi) and it took about an hour to finish the pooja. We finished seeing Mr. Kalahastheeswarar (Vayu Lingam) and his wife Gnanaparasunambika Devi a little while later. Kalahasthi is known for one of the Panchaboootha Sthalam (Vayu) and for the famous devotee Mr. Kannappan (Hope you all know the Kannappan story). I didn't take any snaps there as I consider it an offensive to take snaps of the Gods (Well, they don't allow you as well). So, you're not going to witness snaps of Gods, but just a religious rally.




As soon as we were out of Kalahasthi temple, our next plan was the Sahasralingam temple - less than 10 kilometers from SriKalahasthi. I also happened to know the name definition of SriKalahasthi - the serious devotees of Lord Shiva Sri (Spider), Kala (Snake) and Hasthi (Elephant) at the neighborhood. My sincere thanks to Bhargav and his family for the arrangements made inside the temple which reduced a lot of time waiting in the queue. It'd have taken atleast 6 to 8 hours if we'd not had their help! So, Sahasralingam - well, as the name suggests, the lingam at this temple has 1000 lingams carved on it. When Bhargav said that it's on a hill, I imagined it to be a little like Chathuragiri and Sabarimalai. It was not as such!

The Sahasralingam temple

Before heading towards the Sahasralingam temple, we took a room at a lodge near the temple as it's a kind of custom that after finishing a pooja, one should directly go home. If that's not a case - you should not stay at a friend's home. Otherwise, the effects of the pooja that you did would go to the home on which you're staying. So, as per Bhargav family's advice, we took a room. Had a little nap after the Dharshan (ofcourse, after meals) and by this time, we made a new buddy - Bhargav's brother-in-law Lokesh came along. Funny in nature, we liked in immediately. After our formal introduction, we took our cameras and headed towards the Sahasralingam temple. As opposing to the great crowd at Srikalahasthi, I didn't even find a single guy who came there for worship.




The place was great, the temple situated at the top of a small hill. It was nothing like I imagined, a small hill and at the top, you can see the God. All that goes up were the stairs (My old enemy - Stairs - as said by the "Po" in Kungfu Panda). It was kind of an exercise for us after a heavy meals and we even had vendors selling 'butter milk' at one top. The temple was blocked by another small hill - we had to climb up, down and then up to see the Sahasralingam. The path was clear and good, we took some snaps there!

 Bhargav and his Brother-in-law - Lokesh

Polaris Batch mates - (From left) Mathen, me and Bhargav.

We reached the temple just before the closing time and finished our worship. Took some snaps while we came back and a lots of chats. On the way, we visited another temple - Sri Dhakshina Kalikadevi temple. Bhargav told us that it's a very powerful goddess. We took some more snaps and headed towards the lodge. On the way, we found a Mutt (or Madam) and the doom of the building was a giant Shivalingam. It was late and so, the snap wasn't a great one. We also visited another temple which is just near a park (it was closed). When we reached back at the lodge, it was late and we slept almost immediately.

 At the top of the world!

 Sun's Rays or God's Grace?

The next day's plan was supposed to be the Thada falls - just at the border of Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh, but considering the advice from our friend Bhargav we decided against at it. They said that the place has become dangerous for the visitors - robbing and mugging happens quite often there. So it was decided that we go for the Thalakkona falls which was 60 kilometers from Srikalahasthi as told by Lokesh, his brother-in-law. As we were tired, we were pretty late to wake up in the morning and it was a little past 11 when we started towards the Thalakkona falls. We have to go via Thirupathi to go there and when we passed Thiruppathi after about 45 minutes - Mathen asked Lokesh how many more kilometers from here? That's when Lokesh said that the falls is 60 kilometers from Thirupathi and not from Kalahasthi.




It was already late and so, we decided to skip Thalakkona and head back to Thirupathi (lower Thirupathi or Alamelu Mangapuram). Fate, already decided that this was a religious rally and no falls to interrupt! On the way, we went to the Chandragiri fort - the one used by Srikrishna Devarayar for 'relaxation'. It was an old one and just had two buildings Raja mahal and Rani mahal. Rani mahal was pretty much empty while Raja Mahal was converted to a little museum. Photography was prohibited inside the museum, so we could just take snaps outside. The headless rows of Gods (or probably Buddhas - couldn't remember) stay opposite of the Raja Mahal where all the old statues of Gods and old weapons used by the Old Indian people were kept.

It was a little past 2 when we decided to head back towards the lower Thirupathi and on the way, we had a heavy 'Andra' meals. We reached Alamelu Mangapuram at around 3:30 and when we came back after the Darshan, we were delighted both physically and spiritually. The 'rich ghee' laddu was the reason for the physical delightfulness! We thanked another relation of Bhargav for the help provided here and headed back towards Kalahasthi. It was about 5:30 when we started to leave Lower Thirupathi and it started to rain! The cool climate and a spiritual enlightenment - oh we had a good time!

We reached Kalahasthi late in the evening and it was hard to say good bye to Bhargav's family. We headed back towards Chennai after having a little snacks and we know it was a memorable trip. All the other thing that we had in mind was the Thada and Thalakkona falls. We made a good friend during this trip and decided to come back soon for the missed adventure. Wait for it!