Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The 'Other Face' of 'Ease'….


I rang up for the Cooking Gas Refill booking keeping every information on hand like Consumer No, Name of the Consumer etc along with pen and paper ready to note down the reference No of Booking, likely date of delivery etc.... To my surprise, a polite voice instantly answered on the phone, 'Sir! The booking is now automated and you can book through this phone number from now on wards...." and saying thus she gave me a number.... Surprised, I rang up that particular Number and it happened.... In no time, I could complete my booking....  As I called up the Number, all the information like the Consumer No, Address and Telephone No etc were read out and a booking reference was given along with the probable date of delivery.... Further, there were separate channels to follow up of the progress of the supply, to complain and cancel the booking done if required.... Everything was made so easy at one stroke and in no time, I was relieved of all that earlier strain of talking to a person in the Gas Agency, repeating my number twice / thrice, the clerk at the counter making mistakes in the entries etc…. All that harrowing experience! Now, no mistakes, no repetitions and no hold ups…..

Oh! The beauty….The gas cylinder too was delivered on the estimated date to the dot; perfection in the System! I was thrilled so much; it is great! And exactly, after a month, as I was again booking for the supply of next Refill Cylinder, at the end there was a sweet question on the phone…. ‘How do you rate our Service?’ Without a second thought, I clicked on the phone the option meant for ‘Excellent!’

A few days later, I had to book a telephone complaint....  And I was thrilled to note that there too, the new process of complaining was again similar in nature....   Means, everything had become so easy and it is a relaxed life….Hats off to modernization!

That same evening, I happened to meet a friendly young boy in our area....  He smiled at me and after a few enquiries, very obediently asked me, “Sir! Can you help in getting a job for me? I am very much badly in need of one.... I have some knowledge of computers for clerical works!”

I casually asked, “Dear! What happened to the job you were doing all these days?”

“Sir! You know…. I was working in the Booking Counter of my Gas Agency.... Now since the Automated Booking had come up, three of us at the Booking Counter had become jobless.... And the smart one of us had learned the skill and got into that automated work there itself.... As the remaining two of us have become surplus,  the Owner had asked us to leave.... This happened a few days back and today my sister too had lost her job as automation was introduced in her Telephone Company…. Now we both do not know what to do.... We don’t have enough money to study further or join any course to learn the new technology and you see we are not that smart too…..”

No comments:

Post a Comment