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Hosting In India: Go For SpeedHost.in

Whenever I look at webhosts, even though I am an Indian and reside in India, I always think of services based in foreign countries such as the US or UK. The reason for this is simple, hosting services in India have been disappointing and lagging behind in terms of pricing and support. Then I found SpeedHost.in, and my prejudice towards Indian hosts was gone forever.

As soon as you go to the home page of the website, the first few things you notice are -

• How professionally and neatly designed the website is.
• The prices and details of the plans offered are clearly mentioned on the home page.
• There is no fluff, no boasting/bragging about being the leader in the industry, no technical jargon, or confusing/ambiguous language.
• Loads of payment options targeted towards Indian users who still are conservative when it comes to online payments and their security (Net-banking, Credit/Debit cards, Cash, Cheque, even PayPal!).
• In short, almost everything that you will need to know about a host is clearly mentioned on the homepage.

What’s different about SpeedHost.in?

For starters, they provide a link to a fully working demo of cPanel on every plan page. This effectively means that you can try out the service before you purchase it.

With all plans, they offer Fantastico scripts, which take away all the hassle of installing a CMS such as Wordpress or Drupal on your host.

They also offer SSH access in even the starter plan, which means you can easily manage your account remotely via a terminal that supports SSH.

Plans

SpeedHost.in offers 3 different packages, for 3 different set of consumers.

• Starter Hosting – For customers who are either starting their online project or have a relatively small website/blog (there is a 1 GB monthly bandwidth limit on this plan) and don’t expect it grow anytime soon, this is an amazing cheap web hosting solution. Costs Rs 600 an year, which is 50 rupees per month! That is almost half the price of an average movie ticket in India. The number of features that they offer in this plan, and the dirt cheap price makes it a killer.
• Basic Hosting – For another Rs 400, this plan doubles the limits of the Starter plan. For mid-level and established website getting approximately 30,000 hits a month, this is a good plan, also very cheap.
• Silver Hosting – This is the premium plan of SpeedHost.in and allows you to host upto 4 domains on the same account, and has a bandwidth limit of 10 GB. So if you want to host several websites and don’t want to go through the hassle of separate accounts, this plan is for you. For Rs 2000 an year, this is pretty fairly priced plan.

Newbie-friendly

If you are new, and have no clue how to go about building your website/blog, then SpeedHost.in offers an amazing service for you, which is Wordpress Blog Hosting. For just a one-time charge of Rs 500, SpeedHost.in will install Wordpress on your choice of plan and give you a totally ready Wordpress blog so that you can immediately start blogging, minus all the backend hassle!

Also, if you don’t have a domain name yet, you can register one right with SpeedHost.in, and get it automatically linked to your hosting account. An all-in-one solution!

All of these features, backed by a solid and loyal consumer base, makes SpeedHost.in a good choice for all your hosting needs. For any more queries, visit the official website, or you can send an email at info@speedhost.in or call them at 09811415181.

Why Not To Buy Movies/DVDs From MovieMart.In

I was searching for online Bollywood movie stores, and stumbled upon Movie Mart. I looked through other stores too, but Movie Mart was the only one that had a listing of all the 3 DVDs that I wanted. Though the website is not the best designed one I’ve seen, its decently user-friendly. I wanted to buy Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday, No Smoking and Gulaal. They also offered around 15% discount on the DVDs which was a nice surprise.

I placed an order with them for these 3 DVDs on December 9, 2009 (I paid via netbanking which is supported by the CCAvenue payment gateway that Movie Mart uses). Their homepage says, “Fastest shipping within 24 hours to allover the world by fastest courier.” while the confirmation email I received said my order was to be shipped within 3 days.

5 days had passed since the day I ordered the DVDs. I got no communication from MovieMart about the status of my order. I decided to call them. They told me that they only had 2 DVDs in stock, Black Friday and Gulaal, and they were going to send those 2 the next day, while No Smoking would take 1 more day.

I got the 2 DVDs on the 15th. Here is where the problem started. Black Friday was supposed to contain 2 discs – 1 for the movie, 1 for the making. The one that was delivered to me had only 1 disc, for the movie. I called them up immediately and told them about this. At first, they made excuses, “Sir, ye DVDs to sealed/packed aati hain!“. They were blaming me. This guy transfered the call to some other guy in another department. The other guy said he would send somebody the next day to pick up this DVD and replace it with another pack that contained both DVDs.

2 days passed. No guy showed up, no communication. I called up again. This time the guys says that all the DVDs from the company had only 1 disc now, and they’ve forgot to change the label on the box. I said in that case I’d like to return this DVD for a refund. I asked about No Smoking. He said yes we will send that tomorrow with the guy who’ll come to collect the Black Friday DVD.

Next day. No guy, no call. I called again, in the evening. I asked why the guy didn’t show up. The guy on the call said that he had told delivery guy to collect the DVD from me. He said, “Sir aap dekhiye pahunchta hi hoga aapke paas“.

2 more days pass. Nobody shows up, I don’t get any call. I call up again. This time, I’m transferred to some senior executive called Pradeep. He says that they don’t have No Smoking in stock, and they only have it in a combo pack, which has 2 other movies, all in 1 DVD. I refused that, told him that I wanted the DVD for a collection. I asked for a refund for that too. I also asked him why I wasn’t given any information on this update and why I have to be the one who calls repeatedly for information. He started giving me excuses about some internal miscommunication. I lost my cool here and told him that I wanted a refund ASAP and that somebody should be sent immediately to pick up this DVD. I also told him that I wouldn’t be home at some particular times and that the guy should call before coming. He agreed and said he would process my refund soon.

A day later I got a call from Mr. Pradeep. Note that this was the first time that I had received a call from somebody from Movie Mart. This was after I had made almost 10-12 calls, mentioning in each call that I should be given a status update if any problem arises or any deviation is made from the promised schedule. Mr. Pradeep said that he had processed my refund and asked if he could send somebody to collect the DVD next morning. I said ok and told him that I’d be home till 2 pm and I need to leave after that.

No surprise, the guy didn’t show up. Also, I got no email confirmation for my refund, neither could I see the balance being reflected in my account. The next day, I called up Mr. Pradeep again. I had his direct mobile number. I raged at him again for not keeping an appointment that was fixed and after that not calling to explain the reason for delay. He apologized but gave no reason in particular why the guy didn’t show up. He said, “Sir ab aapka refund process kar diya hai ab aap tension free ho jao!“. I told him that I hadn’t received the refund either, and not confirmation email of the refund. He said, “Sir abhi aapko 5 minute mein check karke batata hoon“.

Of course he didn’t call. These guys are hardcore and toughened, anything you say falls on deaf ears. I got busy with something else meanwhile, but I received the confirmation email from CCAvenue a few hours later. So this was when he actually processed the refund, what he said earlier was just to make me happy.

I also had a lot of problem receiving this refund, but that problem wasn’t from Movie Mart’s side, it was something between CCAvenue and the bank.

Also, I made 2 more calls asking them to send a guy to pick up the Black Friday DVD that was with me. The guy came some 6 days later, without calling, with no prior information. At the time he took away the DVD, I hadn’t received the refund.

The whole experience was bitter because of the attitude of the employees. They will talk sweet and respectful, but only give you stock replies and whatever you say, they don’t care. They will not call you back unless it is in their interest. Also, the communication amongst the employees is really poor. The guy who picks up the phone almost always has no idea whats going on, and so you have to tell the whole story all over again to the new guy he transfers you to.

Also, the website management is faulty. Why are DVDs that aren’t available listed on the website? At the time of writing this post, No Smoking DVD is still listed as available and you can buy it, when clearly they don’t have it in stock.

Getting a Driving License in India is Painful

Not as much as it was earlier, say my sister and my dad.

The learning license. Went to the transport department office before 8:30 in the morning. There was already a crowd outside the gate. The gates open at 8:30. As soon as they open it, the people rush inside like rabid dogs. I too, ran to the counter which deals with checking documents for learning licenses and also registers the fee. The fee was 60 INR. They asked for an ID proof and an address proof, both of which, for me, was my passport. A form, called Form 1 had to be filled out and attached with the other documents. Also, they ask you to bring the original documents for verification. The line in which I had to stand was reasonably long, and I would guess that there were around 20 people ahead of me. So at 8:35 I’m standing in a line in front of a counter.

The problem is that there was nobody at the counter. The guy is probably sleeping at his home. So I’m standing in line for like half an hour. Waiting endlessly. Finally the guy appears, sleepy. Thankfully he had this helper who went to each person in the line and checked if their documents were in order so that nobody had to stand in line only to know that something was missing when they got their turn. My documents were good, he gave me a green light. I get my ‘turn’ half an hour later, pay him the fee, take the receipt he gave me and moved to another room for a test.

Now here’s the thing about the test for a Learner’s license in India – its fucking hilarious and at the same time insanely ambiguous. I remember GeneralMaximus who went to give this test, and god was he baffled by it. My experience was pretty much the same. They had 20 different sets of papers, which were laminated; these papers were really old, being used since months, and people had scraped in the answers to all the questions with pens. Finished the test and left. Collected my learner’s license from the same department the next day.

A learner’s license in India is valid for 6 months, but you can apply for a driver’s license 1 month after the issue of a learner’s license. That gives you a 5 month time frame in which you have to get your driver’s license, otherwise, you have to start the process all over again, and get a learner’s license again, and wait for 1 month. (You can also get your learner’s license renewed, if you want to, before it expires).

The lazy bum I am, I went to the transport department on the last day of the 6th month That too when my dad kicked my lazy ass outta bed.

Now here’s the funny part about getting a driver’s license (and it ain’t funny) – you have to submit copies of the Registration Certificate (RC) and Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate of the vehicle you want a license to drive. Since I applied for a license for a Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) and Motorcycle with Gear, I had to submit their respective RCs and PUCs. Now what if somebody doesn’t actually own these vehicles but wants a license anyway so that they can be ready drive a vehicle when needed? Or maybe they plan to buy one in the near future? (Another interesting point here, I’ve heard you need a driving license to buy a vehicle in India).

Other documents required were Form 4, duly filled, a photograph (attached to this, though there is no placeholder for the photo), photocopy of an ID proof. I used my passport as an ID proof. Also, you need to attach your learner’s license.

Also, take along ALL the original documents of which you have included copies. You may or may not be asked to produce them while they check your application. I was asked for the originals, and I didn’t have them. I had to ask my dad to get them for me. When he arrived with them, I got in line again, and this time the fucker didn’t ask me for the originals :/ .

The process for getting a driving license was fairly easier than the learning license. There was a line (small this time, 11-12 people). When I got my turn, a guy checked my documents, took the fee from me (300 INR), gave me a receipt. I then went to another guy who was registering the driving license applicants ( I have no idea for what). He took my application, wrote a number on it, gave it back to me, and noted down my details on a list.

Then I had to go to a nearby ground with my application for the driving test. The guy asked me to take a round of the track on a scooty. Came back. Was a piece of cake. He asked me to go home. Never asked me to drive the car.

I got my license 3 days later. A guy came to deliver it. He asked me for the counterfoil slip that I got when I paid the fee for the license. I had kept it safely, cause I knew I’d need it. After he gave the license to me, and asked me to sign the receipt for the license, the fucker asks me for 20 bucks. I asked him why, and he mumbles, “Chai paani bauji“. I said, “Bhaag ja yahan se, koi chai paani nahi tere liye.” You should’ve seen the poor fucker run. (This is another scam I had heard of previously, delivery guys asking for money from people who’d lost their counterfoil slips, and in general a ‘bakshish’ for delivery from even those who had their counterfoils).

The whole process was painful because the information relating to the procedure of obtaining a license is either unavailable to the people or is not the same everywhere. I read the rules and regulations on the Delhi Transport Website. The page that mentions the rules for getting a permanent driving license mentions nowhere that you have to attach the RCs and PUCs of the vehicles you want a license for. Either those fuckers made this rule up by themselves, or the information on the website is wrong. Also, the guys at the transport department are typical sarkari babus. Coming late. Leaving in the middle of their work, saying, “Chai ka time ho gaya”. Have no idea what the fuck is going. No sympathy for the poor bastards who woke up at 8 in the morning and are standing in line for hours.

My sister says that I’m lucky that I got my license only after 2 visits. She had to go at least 5 times and stand in long lines before she got one.