An unplanned yet memorable trip in Kovalam, Poovar Varkala

I've seen there are so many informative posts for most of the places in Kerala. My purpose of writing this post is little different.
Its planned quite suddenly ( 3 days ago of starting) and I believe quite a few people in this forum is obliged to plan like me who doesn't have much choice to draw a structured and elaborate plan - sometimes it's sudden as the main urge to escape from the daily chorus :-p
Nevertheless lets come to the point.
Our plan was to reach Kovalam and spend 4D/3N in beach and got a relaxation. Another reason for this plan is that I've 10 month infant baby hence not dare to plan a stressful trip.
Booked a round trip ticket from Bangalore to Trivandrum and as it's quick plan didn't have much option left. I bought air India tickets for going and here is my first surprise. I didn't travel mostly by Air-India as got so much negative feedback from my friends/relative about timings ,hospitality etc. etc. - but my experience is much better compared to Indigo this time ( I came back thru Indigo - again didn't get much option while buying tickets due to this quick plan).
Please note my plan is not doing any defamation of some specific airlines but last 3/4 times where I need to buy Indigo and I'm not satisfied.
I booked de tour neelakanta
Pros:

• Excellent location probably the best as per my opinion in LightHouse beach in Kovalam.
• Good restaurant facility fish hoek i.e. their in house restaurant.
• Courteous behavior of most of the staffs.

Cons:

• Sometime sluggish service (to get a shampoo sachet even an off season we need to follow up for 2 days)
• Sometimes credit card machine might not work - so need to prepare with cash.
• Asking more money for cab service.

Still I would give better than average for this hotel and if someone wants to stay in Hawa/Light-House beach in Kovalam - I like to recommend hotel de tour neelakanta
Others if they want to stay other beaches can try Uday Samudra Resort , Turtle on the beach (really have a quick tug of war while choosing between this and de tour neelakanta) or Leela Kovalam (little costly)
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We'd reached Trivandrum airport around 8:40 AM in the first day of our trip. Found the Kerala state owned prepaid taxi is quite unreasonable costly. From airport to hotel de tour neelakanta is less than 15 KM but taxi (ac Indica) charged 500/- We took a rest and then in the evening went for a walk to the lighthouse as the plan was to went to the top of the lighthouse to get a great view. Unfortunately Light House is closed due to maintenance and hence we went to Samudra beach. The beach is near to Vivanta by Taj. Samudra beach us quite little beach and full of large stone but will give you salubrious feelings!
Second day, we started one day trip in Kanyakumari from Kovalam. I'd found the rate of Kovalam Taxi service is on higher side. For approximately 175 KM in a plane road, an AC indica will charge you 3000 - 4000 for covering Padmanabhan palace, Suchandran Temple and Vivekanda rock.
We included Poovar backwater (boat riding) and spend a whole day. The good thing is that our driver Ajith (8891335729) bargain the motor boat riding in Poovar for us that costed 500 per person (we're 3) for 1.5 hours trip. It'd be an enjoyable trip for you when you'll be traversing through the backwater and then Poovar sea beach. There is a luxurious resort "Poovar island Resort" - I think that's really a place to stay! Again in off season you can bargain really well to get a floating room in decent price 
From their we visited Padmanabhan palace, if you visit this after having a trip in Mysore or Nizam palace or after seeing the collection of Nizam at SalarJung Museum and try to judge in that scale you'll not be satisfied. But if you look at the environment where the palace is located and the subtle architecture , probably you'll enjoy it.
Next we went to Vivekanda rock temple and only thing I'd like to say it's MUST see if you travel to KanyaKumari.
From there in the same ferry service you'll be reached to Thiruvalluvar statue (tough for elderly people to move thru the staircase to reach at the top of the statue).
We went to sunset point to see the sunset but luck didn't assist us - the notorious cloud covered the climax.
Day 3:
We started little late as our baby was sleeping up to 10 AM towards Varkala beach which is about 61 KM from Kovalam. We reached around 1 PM due to some traffic jam near Technopark, Trivandrum. En-route we visited the ancient Vishnu temple in Varkala which according to the local is 2000+ years old. If you want you can stopover there around 15-20 minutes. After that we reached to Varkala beach at North Cliff. Beach is really beautiful but from the cliff you can't easily descend down to the beach and we didn't take any risk as we have had the baby. Another reason is that the narrow staircase thru which you can get down to the beach is extremely dirty.
There is a resort there named clafouti beach resort where we took the lunch. We ordered two dishes grilled fish (barracuda) with lemon/coriander and fish tandoor - both are decent enough. Moreover the ambiance and light western music add more charm in it
We spend couple of hours there and returned to Kovalam and spend the rest of the time by watching the sea at Hawa Beach!

Last Day of the tour

On Tuesday we simply relaxed and rejuvenate. A lazy stroll in the morning towards Groves Beach and then pack the bag and seeing the wave of sea from our room.
Before ending like to add few things.
Cab price is quite high in Kovalam - on the first day evening we wanted to go to Samudra beach which is 3 KM from the auto stand auto took 200 rupee - then we requested him to go to a spice shop and to buy some authentic Kerala cotton salwar suit material from a shop, altogether not more than 10KM , may be slight above than 10, charges 500. Eventually we bargained to 400.
The only reason to give the driver name is that if you directly call him and get better price than the even KTDC fixed rate.
Actually as we took same driver for trip in Kanyakumari and then Varkala in the next day we got little less and best thing is that he bargained for us in Poovar boat riding.
Another piece of information - from Trivandrum Intl. Airport to Hawa beach - 15 KM in google map , prepaid taxi charges 500 INR.
And when you return, the KTDC fixed rate for the tata Indica ac is 800!
So you need to be a good bargainer to get better price not like me who is not at all a great bargainer :-(

 Poovar Backwater

 Padmanavan Palace

 

Kanyakumari beach - Vivekanada Rock Temple and Thiruvalluvar Statue

 Sunset Point - Kanyakumari

 North Cliff Varkala

 Lighthouse Beach Kovalam

HDFC Home Loan vs SBI (beware of few things of HDFC)

Though I gave the title of my post "HDFC...." as I took home loan from HDFC on 2012 but I would share the experience to some of my friends along with mine in respect of this home loan.

When I initiated my process of taking home loan in Kolkata, I, after very poor behavior of SBI, inclined towards the private players. At that time the difference between EMI between SBI and HDFC is very minimal . Now the points you can ponder about. Recently one of my friend took home loan from same SBI in Bangalore and it's smooth like a cakewalk. I suppose in Kolkata , due to the work ethics, the service and behavior of SBI was that bad. So instead of internet you must have a local analysis about that particular financial institution before taking a final call. The additional advantage of SBI will create a current account linked with your home loan. So if you put any money the EMI will dynamically adjusted with the principal.
Come back to the topic: before taking loan from HDFC apart from SBI I went to "LIC Housing Finance" (LICHFL), I found it's suspicious. The customer care guy was pressurizing me to take semi fixed scheme. If I remember correctly at that time EMI was 10.0 % in HDFC, LICHFL told "you would better go 3 years fixed where the EMI rate of interest would be 10:25-10.30", as they're trying to convince me EMI would only rise for next 5 years so I'd get benefit. I was not convinced and eventually I was correct.
Now what I found at that time ICICI & HDFC is more or less same. But here is another catch : initially I found the processing fees for the loan was same for both the bank and hence I went for HDFC which is more reputed home loan institution than ICICI.......IMO.
Now unfortunately within a month I found there was a new ICICI branch opened in our locality and to attract customer ICICI was ready to waive the processing  fees :-((
So you must be very analytical and take your time to find who is your lender.
Now about the pros of HDFC.
Till 2015 June, I found HDFC is cool, giving option/offer to customer for a minimal conversion fees to reduce the home loan but after that I found HDFC is pathetic.
The reason is simple. There are consecutive two rate cuts by RBI. the last one (Sep 2015) is massive , 50 bps and unexpected though.
But HDFC is not ready to pass the benefit to the customer.
So I recommend for the present scenario, new loan customer, go for SBI!

Outlook email issue Cannot start MS Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened

Problem Statement:
I've two email account configured on a single outlook profile. One is of my company and another is for my client account. In external internet though I can check email for my client's side but I need to enter some security key before to access my company's outlook mail. But as per the security policy of my company, I need to change the windows password and after changing that I'm unable to open Outlook itself.

Troubleshooting:
I tried many things.
First Typed the following command in the search field:
outlook.exe /resetnavpane
It doesn't work

Then I tried to repair both the account.I try to repair myoutlook.pst file using Scanpst.exe, aka Inbox Repair tool. My client account recovered correctly but my company account failed to recover. So I made my client's account as default and tried to open Outlook mail. It asks for the credential of my client's email and then the following error pops up

My Solution
Lastly I create a new profile which only consists of my client email ID and choose the option Prompt whenever open ..radiobutton.
Eventually it works. Obviously my company email is still has issue but at least I can check my client email. I believe my company email issue will also be solved once I connect my laptop in our office LAN.

Infosys SEZ and present situation of information technology (IT Industry) in West Bengal

I wrote one article viz. "IT industry scenario in West Bengal -- gap between dream and reality" (http://avixorld.blogspot.in/2011/11/it-industry-scenario-in-west-bengal.html)  long back 2nd November 2011.
At that time TMC government just came to the power (approximately 6 month in realm) under the leadership of Mamta Banerjee who dislodged 34 years old Left Front Government.
After reading my blog one of my friend who is TMC supported told me that "My friend wait and see, there'll be revolutionary change!!"
Definitely I admit there is a change but the change flows towards negative direction!
My first thought in older post raised a concern about economy and now we can safely comment that in the mid of 2015 economy revamped, if not whole at least partially but investment in IT industry  of West Bengal has not been improved. Please note I'm not saying about the big Indian IT companies or MNC who're already doing their business in WB over last 10 years and it's expected that their head counts will increase naturally (as in all other IT cities in India) but more or less no new companies set up establishment has not been noticed in last 4 years of TMC regime.
My second point was about operational cost. According to the news published in all leading newspaper from Kolkata due to involvement of TMC leadership in Syndicate who supply cement and other raw building material has put a detrimental effect in increasing operational cost. A builder has  to buy the low quality of building material in the highest price. On the other hand the Syndicates pressurize to take the local party workers to give work in catering, security stuff , water supply etc. There is a security lapse for entering these kind of untrained and sometimes antisocial elements in IT Tech. Park and again you can't say anything to them as there is political influence and again due to higher price the overall operational cost increase. Consequently if the big fish e.g TCS, CTS still survive either sometimes by CM or Industry Minister intervention , the start up dare to think even set up an office.
My fourth point is invalid as due to no industry there is a surplus of power in WB!
And my last point is also doesn't have the major impact as here I like to give some marks in TMC lead Government who has improved little bit in transport. Again my view is not current , would appreciate if this assumption is wrong someone points me and I rectify!
Now about the recent SEZ issue.
It has been passed few years ago and only the last level of approval is pending from the Central Government part. TMC has got strong objection in SEZ but they never bother to mention the issues Surprisingly in the last Bengal Industrial Conference, when Amit Mitra , Minster of Industry and Finance , credited the TMC government about 20000 people to be recruited in TCS Rajarharhat which is a SEZ aka Special Economic Zone!
Infosys from the very beginning made itself clear that without SEZ they'll not set up the operational unit in Kolkata.
Then as a common man perspective one likes to know why Mr. Partha Chatterjee,Minster of Industry at that time came repeatedly to Bangalore and waste common tax payer's money. If from the very beginning TMC government opposes SEZ then neither Mr. Chatterjee should come in Bangalore rather at the very first onset TMC can say NO to Infosys,Wipro and other big software companies who're looking for SEZ.
Does it anyway improve the face of West Bengal?
People can see big buildings in Sector V remains vacant for 4/5 years whereas to get a building in prime location of Pune/Hyderabad or Bangalore is so difficult.
Probably name of West Bengal needs to be changed as Waste Bengal!

True facts about Customer Care and Grievance Redressal of Flipkart

I like to share my experience about the customer support and Grievance Redressal mechanism of Flipkart . First I apologize that it might be a long and boring post but still I urge someone to look into it if you want to buy some products from Flipkart.
If your product is aptly delivered and without any issue in the product then you're lucky as you don't need to interact with their customer service but if otherwise, then you can only curse yourself.
I'd placed an order having order ID OD202784418447732301 and it was a Lenovo 8 inch Yoga 2 tab scratch guard.
For the above mentioned order ID, the delivery boy of FlipKart went to different address on 15th May. Though I've perfectly put my correct address in Flipkart

I called customer care then around 12 noon .

The customer care told me that he'd take care about the matter and to be delivered on Friday before 7 PM.

But nothing had happened and I call up the customer care on Friday and asked her opinion about this. The lady who received my call transferred to her senior who had given me the false promises that someone will call me on Saturday and fix the things.

That supervisor also promised that he'd take the matter upto field officer and delivery of shipment manager to sort this things!

No call on Saturday.

On 18th i.e. Monday again the same guy went to the same wrong address where he went on Friday and I called him to his mobile number he was unable to explain why he is going again and again to the same wrong place. Moreover, he was unable to give the manager number.

Surprisingly my last order , having ID OD002784646705482500 , perfectly delivered to the correct address; hence I'm unable to understand why this has happened for this order D202784418447732301

Nevertheless I called the customer care and who in turn transferred the call to her supervisor Arti

Arti again apologized and told me that she'd escalate the same to field officer.

Someone from delivery team called me on 18th May around 12 noon and promised me either it'd be delivered around 7 PM on Monday or within the first hour i.e. 19th on Tuesday. Again I've neither received any product nor get any call from Flipkart but in my registered mail ID , a flipkart no reply mail came that the problem would be solved by 20th.

At 19th night I called their customer care to get a false promise that my complain would be resolved by 20th May and on 20th May I received a call from Flipkart customer care that I can expect to get the things to be delivered on 29th.
Being exasperated I cancelled my order.

 

P.S: Some major issue I found with Flipkart customer services: 

1. I've noticed to your customer care when they brief my issue to Senior CCE they skip some of the important point and it seems Flipkart didn't maintain a proper logbook, hence I need to re-explain the same issue again & again
2. They don't have any proper grievance address mechanism. Customer services are creating issue and you've to write email to cs@flipkart.com that's the customer care mail ID to solve your issue. It's as if you're going to get judgment and you find the criminal is sitting on the chair of the judge
3. Though they have a so called grievance officer mail ID they never looked into the mailbox
4. The people whoever call you from Flipkart they're insensitive about your problem

Put time-stamp in file-name while archiving files thru SSIS

I put this expression for my own reference as sometime I make a mess of it :-((

MyFileName_"+
(DT_STR,4,1252)DATEPART( "yyyy" , @ [System::StartTime] ) +
RIGHT("0" + (DT_STR,4,1252)DATEPART( "mm" , @[System::StartTime] ), 2) +
RIGHT("0" + (DT_STR,4,1252)DATEPART( "dd" , @[System::StartTime] ), 2) +
RIGHT("0" + (DT_STR,4,1252)DATEPART( "hh" , @[System::StartTime] ), 2) +
RIGHT("0" + (DT_STR,4,1252)DATEPART( "mi" , @[System::StartTime] ), 2) +
RIGHT("0" + (DT_STR,4,1252)DATEPART( "ss" , @[System::StartTime] ), 2) +
".txt"

And File Name can also be taken as a variable

SSIS Fuzzy lookup hangs -- resolved

SSIS Fuzzy Lookup gets hanged like below:

While googling, saw that some people faced this issue and solved like delete the existing project and create new projects with copying same package that contains fuzzy lookup.
I also noticed a console window (black color) coming momentarily and disappear then.
Suddenly just to give a try I run without debugging option in BIDS i.e. pressing Ctrl+F5 (or you can choose the option BIDS>Debugging>Continue with Debugging option)
Eventually it runs successfully.
A console screen like below will come and when you press any key it'll let your project run succssfully.