I'm now Dr. Saro Velrajan - What a journey!

I’m happy to share that I've completed my Doctor of Philosophy - PhD at Hindustan University! I finished a journey that I started 4 years and 11 months ago. My research is about "QoS-aware Service Migrations in Multi-Access Edge Computing". I'm thankful to Dr Thangakumar J (my research guide), Dr.V.Ceronmani Sharmila and Dr. Vallikannu Alagappan, who kept me motivated, pushed me to reach newer heights and lent a helping hand whenever I was stuck in the journey. Yesterday (29th Aug 2025), my viva voce was completed. I defended my thesis in front of an expert panel, qualifying to receive the Ph.D degree.

Why did I even sign up for Ph.D?

Let me take you back to the year 2020. I had some spare time during the Covid lockdown, I started writing a few blog posts about 5G. Then I asked myself "You are already known as a blogger. Why not just author a book?". I started authoring a book on 5G networks. It took me nearly 6 months to finish the book and I published the book via Notion Press and Kindle Publishing Platform in July 2020. Little did I knew at that time that the book would be later-on picked by leading universities such as Anna University, Bennett University and Christ University as a text book in their syllabus.

While I published the book, I felt that many authors were "Doctorates" and I didn't have the "Dr." initials. Around the same time, a friend of mine (Dr. Sundararaman Chintamani) completed his Ph.D at the age of 60. I thought age is no barrier to pursuing our academic goals and signed up for the Ph.D program at Hindustan University, Chennai.

The Journey

The initial journey was quite easy... as most tasks were done online. I completed the course work (studied and wrote assignments/exams for 4 subjects) and published my first survey paper in an IEEE conference in the first year.

The journey became difficult after that... finalizing a research topic, getting the research environment ready etc., took a lot of time. I got the idea for my research by attending several online viva voce sessions. One of the researchers had used Particle Swarm Optimization in their research work. Out of curiosity, I read more about PSO... and found that I could do research in Edge Computing using PSO. I learned Python and wrote nearly 2000 lines of Python code to create my simulation environment. That was quite a bit of learning. Once I had the simulation environment ready, then performing the tests, getting the results, benchmarking against other state-of-the-art algorithms became easy.

I published my research articles in journals and conferences, meeting the minimum eligibility requirement (2 journal papers + 2 conference publications) for Ph.D by April 2024. Unfortunately, my guide had to move out of Hindustan University. I was assigned a new guide... as per the "unwritten process", you have to publish a new paper under the guideship of the new guide to complete your Ph.D. It took me another 1 year to get another conference publication under the guideship of the new guide. I completed my synopsis/thesis submission by April 2025. I received the comments from the reviewers in August 2025 and finished my viva voce also in the same month... on the 29th August 2025.

I always tell others that for faster goal achievement, you need to have 3 people - a role model (who has already accomplished the goal), a mentor/guide (who guides you to achieve the goal) and a buddy (who is also pursuing the same journey). My role model for Ph.D was Dr. Sundararaman Chintamani. My mentor/guides were Dr. Thangakumar, Dr. Ceronmani Sharmila and Dr. Vallikannu from Hindustan University. My buddies were Musthafa Sheriff, Jinu Sainudeen and Michael Dinesh. All of these individuals had a direct impact on the successful completion of my Ph.D journey.

The Message

Quite often we sign up for something... but, while we make progress we find obstacles, hardships and challenges along the way. When my heart told "Saro! It's not your cup of tea... just give up and move on", my mind said "Saro! You should be a role model for others.. most importantly, your children. Just hold tight and finish your journey". Whenever I fell down, I jumped back up, dusting off the dirt, pushing myself hard.. almost limping to the finishing line.

Today, it feels as if I moved a mountain. When I reflect upon the journey, I feel that I've now developed more capacity to handle greater challenges. The new "Dr." initials that I've acquired would remind me of the Dream, Drive and Determination !

My sincere thanks to everyone who played their little part in helping me to complete this journey.

Speakers Hive Journey - Blog #2 - From Aim, Aim, Aim to Action

The year 2025 brought several changes into my life. I resumed my participation in Toastmasters meetings, after a gap of nearly 1 year.  I submitted my Ph.D Thesis in the month of April. That was a big relief to me. However, I had not taken any efforts towards starting the speakers forum. 

April got over, May got over, Jun got over... professional commitments became hectic... I thought I will do this once things calm down on the professional front. However, my professional calendar became even packed and I realized that I'm going to be busy till Sep 2025. I told myself that "Let me do this in Oct 2025". Whenever I spoke or met Kavitha Chidambaram, she always enquired "Sir! When are you going to start the forum?", "Sir! If you start it, you will find time to run it Sir... Don't hesitate ... Just start".

Around the same time, I was helping a friend of mine (from HCL days) Ram Swaminathan. He had enrolled in a coaching program and as part of that, he had to coach someone to achieve a goal. I went to him with a long term goal of mine (Suspense for now... not related to Speakers Hub!). He helped me make some progress... however, I hit a wall due to factors beyond my control/influence. He kept telling me... "Whatever you want to achieve in life, you'll have to start somewhere"... "Don't just keep thinking about it... and wishing for it... Just start ... the more actions you take.. the more progress you'll make... you'll move from the zone of unknown to the zone of clarity". While he was coaching me on another goal ... I decided to apply that persuasion... on "Speakers Hub". 

I kept hearing "Just Start... Just Start... " from both Ram and Kavitha.... It became hard for me to ignore the volume of those voices. 

I started floating the idea of Speakers Hub with my mentor from Toastmasters - Lalitha Giridhar. She came onboard and she said "Saro! Let's do it". While looking for a domain, I realized that Speakers Hub is already taken by someone and hence settled for "Speakers Hive" (which is more vibrant and energizing than Speakers Hub). I registered a domain, created a website and finally we launched Speakers Hive on the 11th of July. The arrival of Speakers Hive was communicated through a simple flyer in Facebook and LinkedIn. The response was overwhelming. 

The week that followed was one of the busiest weeks for me. The last time that I was "this" busy was when I was the Division Governor in Toastmasters for the whole of Tamilnadu  in 2011-12 period. After a long gap, I started dealing with a tsunami of volunteers and members who are interested to join the movement - back to back phone calls, Whatsapp getting bombarded with messages. In less than a week, we got 50+ members and 30+ volunteers. Kavitha Chidambaram, Lalitha Giridhar, Sudha Rajesh, Rajesh Natarajan, Rajeev Nambiar, Sidharth MP, Ra. Ma. Palaniappan and several other volunteers signed up to support the movement.

We started planning for our first online meeting on the 20th of July. I had created a Speech Manual with 10 basic speaking projects, a while ago using Gemini Gen AI Service. We decided to start the forum with that. We created role player templates/checklists, we identified a few role players... we trained them and did a dry run with them on 19th of July. I was in-fact traveling for work and was in a place near Mumbai on that day. I participated in the first meeting of Speakers Hive from a hotel room near Mumbai. We had 30+ participants attending our first meeting and it turned out to be a huge success. 

The journey has started... Speakers Hive has grown from a seed to a sapling, from just thoughts to actions. We kicked off Speakers Hive as a truly agile platform.. with the spirit of continuously learning, adapting and evolving. Most importantly, we will have to live up to the trust of the members and volunteers who have enrolled in the program. 

Speakers Hive Journey - Blog #1 - Dreamer or Doer?

A bunch of friends and I recently launched a new initiative called Speakers Hive, a non-profit forum for members to develop their communication and leadership skills. Our focus is to help students and professionals become better speakers and leaders. We intend to have chapters of Speakers Hive, set up in colleges, communities and corporates.

In a series of blog posts, I'm going to share my experiences and learnings from starting this new initiative. We are starting this from ground zero and from a clean slate. So, I am quite confident that we are going to learn a lot of leadership lessons in this journey. I thought it would be worthwhile to capture this journey in my blog - and use this opportunity to revive my blogging habit too. 

A group of friends and I from Toastmasters (Rajeev Nambiar, Sidharth M.P and I) decided to start a program for communications and leadership skills development in October 2020, to help young individuals to become confident speakers and leaders. Sidharth M.P had even taken a stab to come up with some 10 speech projects - to kick start the initiative. We approached an auditor and even submitted some documents for the trust registration with the name of "Speakers Hub". However, like a gushing 'Goli Soda' (a carbonated drink served in a bottle), the initial enthusiasm faded away in a few months. Partly, because I enrolled myself in a part-time Ph.D program and I couldn't allocate time for this initiative beyond work, family and studies. Subsequently, we told the auditor that we are not moving forward with this for now. The initiative went to shelf and got buried there for nearly 5 years. 

I got busy with my technical consulting career at Ginkos India and my Ph.D work. I couldn't think of anything beyond work, family and my Ph.D work for nearly 5 years. In fact, I even deprioritized my favorite Toastmasters program, due to the time needed to complete my Ph.D deliverables. The urge to revive Speakers Hub came in spurts a few times... however, the spirit vanished quickly like passing clouds. I was once invited by Kavitha Chidambaram (a friend of mine) in 2024 to attend one of her Toastmasters club meetings. At the end of the meeting, I told her... "Kavitha! We have a lot of young people in the community with a desperate need to develop their speaking skills. However, due to the high fees of the Toastmasters program, they are not able to get benefitted by the program. We should do something for this". She acknowledged "Yes Saro! We should do something". And, I got into my car and drove back home. The dream of starting a movement, continued to be a dream... and I didn't take any action after that.

Towards the beginning of 2025, when I inched closer to my Ph.D thesis submission... I told myself... this year we should do this for sure. I even wrote in my new year resolution that "Start a forum for communication and leadership skills development". However, I was yet hesitant to launch the forum. I had lots of questions going on in my mind "Will this work?", "Can I dedicate time for this?", "How are we going to develop the curriculum for this program?", "Will I get support from others..."... I kept postponing this initiative. 

In the mean time, Kavitha Chidambaram had gone ahead and launched several initiatives to help little children develop speaking skills in Tamil and English. With the help of volunteers, she was able to help several 100s of students to meet regularly and practise their speaking skills. 

Kavitha invited me for one such meeting happening in a mutual friend's house on a Sunday morning in Feb 2025. I was suprised to see nearly 2 dozen students with parents assembling in a house on a Sunday morning to practise their speakings skills... with lots of enthusiasm. While I went there as a Chief Guest, I felt ashamed that I was talking about a forum like this for years now.. but, have not taken any action. But, Kavitha Chidambaram is able to execute the plan in a few months - with lots of courage and confidence. While stepping out of the meeting, I told Kavitha "Kavitha ! For sure, I'm going to start something like this for adults this year... You can hold me accountable". 

While driving my car back home, I turned on my car radio to listen to some music. However, I could hear my inner voice louder than the radio and hence I couldn't ignore what it said. My inner voice told me "Saro! Actions speak louder than words. Enough of just dreaming, start doing. We have a lot of dreamers in this world. But, there are only a few doers. Do you want to be just a dreamer... or a doer?"

A weekend trip to Hampi monuments in Karnataka

If you are looking for a quick weekend getaway to an exciting and adventurous place, then Hampi in Karnataka is the place to go. We planned the entire trip just a few days ago and manoeuvred through the ancient city without knowing Hindi or Kannada.

Hampi is located 14 Kms from a city called Hosapet (pronounced as 'Hospet'). Hosapet has a proper railway station, bus stand with all the amenities you would expect in a city. We took a train from Chennai to reach Hospet past midnight. There were autos available in the Railway station, even at that time. We had booked our stay in Hotel Swagath (a budget hotel) near Hosapet Bus Terminus. The hotel was just 1.5 Kms away from the Hospet Railway Station. 

Places to see near Virupaksha Temple

Our sightseeing started on a Friday morning. We had booked a cab through Sri Sai Tours & Travels. We started our trip at 8.30 am. The first place to visit was Virupaksha Temple. It is an ancient temple with a beautiful pond and distinct architecture. Near to that is Hemakuta Hill Temple. You would be awestruck visiting this group of Hampi monuments. They are located on a hilly terrain with several small temples along the way, leading to the double-story pavilion. It is a great place to meditate... and the serenity would engulf your wandering thoughts. 

Outside the temple, you would see the 1 Km long Hampi Bazaar, which is in a dilapidated condition now. At the other end of the Hampi Bazaar, you would see a large Nandi Monolith Bull statue. 

Places to see near Kodanda Ram Temple

Then, our cab driver took us to the small hill where the Kodanda Ram Temple is present. This place is adjacent to Tungabadra River. You would see Rama, Lakshman and Sita carved out of a single rock in this temple. Near to this, you can visit the Yantrodharaka Hanuman Temple in a small hill. There is also a Coracle Ride service in the Tungabadra River, near the Kodanda Ram Temple. Tungabadra River looks very beautiful to watch from this place. 

Places to see near Shri Krishna Swamy Temple

Then, we visited Shri Krishna Swamy Temple, an ancient temple with beautiful carvings on the wall. Opposite the temple is a large "Hundi" which was used to collect donations that were sent to Tirupathi Lord Venkateshwara. There is also a beautiful Pushkarani (Pond) opposite  to this temple. 

Next, we drove to the place that housed Ugra Narasimha statue and Shree Badavilinga Gudi statues are present. We were told that the Ugra Narasimha statue was damaged post a war with Sultans and the Badavilinga statue will be surrounded by water all year around. Both these structures are massive and admirable. 

Places to see near Royal Enclosure 

The Royal Enclosure charges an entry fee to visit the Elephant Stable (a place that used to house 11 elephants) and the Lotus Mahal (a modern architecture that blends Persian and Indian styles). The same ticket can also be used in Vijaya Vitthala Temple. Nearby, there is Mahanavami Dibba (a massive elevated stone structure) and Pushkarani (an ancient pond). Also, there is the Queen's bath (an ancient swimming pool) in the same enclosure. 

Before breaking for lunch, we visited the Underground Shiva Temple. Unfortunately, the sanctum is surrounded by rain water - creating a pungent smell making the interiors unapproachable. We took a few pictures outside the temple and took a break for lunch.

Lunch at Tamarind-Tree Hampi

We had our lunch in a restaurant called Tamarind-Tree near the Vitthala Temple. They had several food options - but we settled for South Indian Thali. The food was served quickly. The quality of the food was good. However, as they were short-staffed the service in the restaurant was poor.

Places to see near Vijaya Vitthala Temple

Vijaya Vitthala Temple temple is a beautiful ancient temple that has three distinct attractions

- the temple complex, the stone chariot and the musical pillars. So far, I have visited a number of South Indian temples. But, I have never seen such beautifully carved pillars. When you tap on those pillars you can hear music - and that's why the pillars are called musical pillars. The Stone Chariot looks stunning near the entrance. 

There is also the King's Balance outside of the Vijaya Vitthala Temple complex. 

Our driver took us to a place near the Vijaya Vitthala Temple for a Coracle ride. charged  

They charged Rs.500 per person for a half-an-hour ride (and Rs.800 for one-hour ride). We took the half-an-hour per person package. The experience was amazing.

We wrapped up the first day and returned back to the hotel to unwind. 

Visit to Anjanadri Hills 

On Day 2, we decided to explore places through public transport. We took a bus to Kadebagilu from Hospet Bus Terminus. It took approximately 45 minutes to reach Kadebagilu. From there we took a share-auto (for roughly 4.5 Kms) to visit Anjanadri Hills.

Supposedly, it is the birthplace of Hanuman. The climb was steep and you need to cross 575 steps to reach the hill top. Anjanadri temple is very small and is definitely not worth climbing 575 steps. However, the view from the top is good. Unless you are spiritually inclined you would repent for wasting your time climbing to the hill top.

We climbed down the hill and reached the parking area. We boarded a government bus to Kadebagilu. We waited at the Kadebagilu cross junction for about 20 minutes and took a bus to Hosapet. We had our lunch at Hosapet, slept in the hotel for sometime and started our trip to Tungabadra Dam.

Visit to Tungabadra Dam

Tungabadra Dam (shortly called as T.B. Dam) is located roughly 5.5 Kms from Hosapet. We took an auto from Hosapet bus stand and the driver charged us Rs.150 for the trip. T.B Dam is a well maintained place. There are 3 attractions - Vaikunta View (topmost view of
the dam and Tungabadra river), the garden (with play area for children, acquarium and a
dysfunctional aviary) and the Dam. There is a private bus operator who takes you to the different places for a small fee. I would strongly recommend taking the bus as it is hard for you to cover all the places by walk. 

We returned back to the hotel in the evening, took some rest, had dinner and checked-out to reach the Hospet railway station. The two days that we spent exploring Hampi is still lingering in our mind. Your phone would be loaded with pictures by the time you wrap-up the trip. Hampi is so beautiful, calm and refreshing. 

COVID-19 Vaccination Experience in Chennai

Booking a vaccination slot in India through the CoWIN portal was similar to booking a H1B Visa appointment in US Consulate (not sure if that has changed now!) or similar to booking the ticket for a FDFS (First day, First show) for a Rajini movie. Government of India (GoI) has developed this wonderful portal CoWIN - which is used for advertising vaccine availability, booking a vaccination appointment and for tracking the status of vaccination, in India. Having used multiple online services offered by Governments, I should say CoWIN is truly world class. It is fast, simple to use and works all the times. 

When GoI opened up vaccination for the 18+ category, I was the first few people to "register" in the CoWIN portal. However, when you open up the flood gates all of a sudden, the gushing water may even blow up the flood gate and that's exactly what happened when they opened the services for 18+ category. CoWIN crashed. I guess the IT team worked hard to fix the problem soon. In about an hour or so, I tried a few times and finally managed to register. Then started the fun - though the vaccination program was opened up for 18+, none of the hospitals or government health centres opened up the services for 18+. I didn't bother going to the CoWIN portal for the next 2 weeks. 

On 20th May, Tamilnadu government launched the vaccination program for the 18+ category people. A friend of mine walked to a UPHC (Urban Primary Health Care Center) near to her house in Ashok Nagar and got herself vaccinated. She was persuading me to get vaccinated soon. I was hesitant to leave home and travel long distance to get vaccinated due to the lockdown in Tamilnadu. That's when I learned from a friend that there is a Telegram Group (U45 Chennai) for getting notifications regarding the available vaccination slots, as soon as it gets published in CoWIN portal. Immediately I joined the group and was amazed by the volume of vaccinations done per day by the private hospitals in the city. However, by the time I saw those notifications and logged into the CoWIN portal, the slots would be full. It happened continuously for a day and then I realised that I have to be super quick. So, I increased the notification alerts volume in my phone and was keenly looking for a slot near my home. To my luck, I found a slot near to my house in a private hospital - the new MGM Hospitals. 

On the day of the vaccination, I drove my car to MGM, thinking that I can find a parking space. To my surprise, there was a long queue of parked vehicles on either side of the road. Roughly, some 100+ cars would be parked along the road side in Nelson Manickam Road. I couldn't imagine seeing so many cars parked along the road side on a regular day - but, due to the lockdown the roads were almost empty and hence, it benefited the people who came in their cars. I parked my vehicle outside and walked into the hospital for the first time. I was awestruck by the crowd. It appeared as if I walked into a cinema theatre. There were so many people (some 200+) waiting in queue and multiple security personnel managing the crowd. After doing the initial screening for temperature and filling some forms, they are escorting 10 people at a time on a lift to another floor. The lift opened its door into a ballroom. It was a large hall and there were some 50+ people sitting in that hall. One by one, people were asked to make payment, verify their personal information and were vaccinated. We were asked to wait in a lounge for about 20 minutes. The lounge looked like an open air cafeteria that you would see in IT parks - with a pantry area for coffee and snacks. I waited there for a few minutes and started going downstairs. Despite the huge crowd, in about 60 minutes, the whole process was over. I was amazed by the way in which MGM had organised the camp and speeded up the whole process. They charged Rs.950 for a Covishield vaccination. But, I felt that they still may not make a huge profit - given the number of employees they've deployed and the infrastructure/ambience of the hospital. For people, who are looking for a hassle free COVID vaccination, MGM hospital in Nelson Manickam Road is good. If you can afford it, you should consider getting vaccinated in a private hospital, so that Government's free vaccine can go to the poor and needy. After coming back home, I logged into the CoWIN portal to download my vaccination certification. 

Napoleon Hill once said "Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting". The only weapon that we have in our fight against COVID-19 is the vaccination. I would strongly encourage everyone to take vaccination. We can fight COVID-19 only when most people get vaccinated. The second wave of COVID-19 snatched the lives of 3 of my dear friends. They were all healthy people - leading a happy life. But, COVID-19 came as a tsunami and shattered their families (and of course, friends). Their loss is irrecoverable. Dear friend... if you are reading this post, please get vaccinated asap. Even after vaccination, it is important that we follow the COVID-19 precautions such as social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising hands regularly.  Together, let us fight this evil virus and get it out of our community and country. 

Election Commission India's Voter Helpline app - a Great tool !

Election day in India is always like a festival. You can see autorickshaws offering free rides to the elderly and disabled people from home to the polling venue. You can see people queuing up early in the morning at the polling booths, to avoid long queues. You can see party members getting ready and setting up their "May I help you" kiosks around the polling venue. 

It's election day in Tamilnadu, today. This time, all of us in my family got our voting slips, except for my wife. If you don't know what a voting slip is... it is a slip that helps the poll booth officer to quickly identify your voter record in the ledger (which appears like the Chitragupta's book of records). The voting slip has serial number that helps the poll booth officer to tracer your voter record in the ledger. This serial number is different from your "Voter Identification Number". If you go to the polling booth without the voter slip, the poll booth officer would take a longer time to identify your voter record and it may unnecessarily delay your voting process. Normally, the different parties that are contesting in the election would give you a copy of the voting slip, at your door step. There are elections where we had 4 or 5 copies of the same voting slip in our hand. However, this time, none of the parties distributed any voting slip. Probably, they were trying to go green or they were busy distributing cash :) A government representative ended up handing over the voting slips to my family members - but somehow, my wife's slip was missed out. 

I thought we can get the voting slip in one of the "May I help you" kiosks setup by the party functionaries, outside of the polling venue. I went to one of those kiosks. They said, I've to visit the kiosk in my street, to get my wife's voting slip. We rushed back to our street, but didn't see any kiosk in our street. When we checked with a couple of people in my street, they redirected me to the next street. Finally, I found a kiosk in the next street. The guy in the kiosk took my wife's Voter Id and scanned through the different pages in the ledger... and after spending 10 minutes he said, "Sir! We couldn't find your wife's record. But, you can still go to the booth and cast your vote". I felt like the Kamalahaasan in Indian movie, who gets tossed around to different government departments, to get some basic stuff done. 

We again rushed back to the polling venue. By this time, the morning sun has pierced my skin to get the juice flowing out of my body. I made my wife stand in the voters' queue and quietly sat under a tree nearby with my mobile phone. I was searching in Google for voter's slip. I found a website, http://www.electoralsearch.in/, but it was incredibly slow. It reminded me of the days, when we used to type "http://www.yahoo.com", in Internet Explorer, go to college canteen, have a tea and come back to see the page fully rendered. After nearly 10 minutes, the page displayed. I filled all the details of my wife's Voter Id and was about to click the "Search" button. The webpage asked me to enter a "Captcha" without showing any "Captcha". I hit the refresh button again. This time, it showed the Captcha properly. I entered all the details properly and hit "Search". After taking 10 minutes, the website reported that the record could not be found. I was disappointed and frustrated with the experience. 

I started Googling again, and found the "Voter Helpline" application. I downloaded it from the app store in a few seconds and punched-in my wife's Voter Id details. It immediately displayed the Serial Number of my wife's voter record in the ledger. I took a piece of paper, wrote the Serial number and handed it over to my wife, who was still in the queue, which was crawling like a wounded snake. The poll booth officer was able to quickly identify her record in the ledger, using the Serial number. Voter Helpline app is a great tool for the voters. I wish they make a computer or a mobile phone with the Voter Helpline app loaded, and keep it outside the polling venues. It will greatly help the voters and save a lot of time for the voters and the officials manning the polling booth. 

Airtel Store in Ekkattuthangal, Chennai - Poor Customer Service

In Airtel Store at Ekkattuthangal, Chennai, right from the store manager to the store representatives, nobody cares for the customer. I've been an Airtel customer for the last 10+ years. I had used the Airtel stores in Ashok Nagar and Nelson Manickam Road in the past and they were very good. My fate, I landed up in the Ekkattuthangal store recently, and I had a terrible experience. Over the last 10 years, I would've easily paid them Rs. 1+ lacs for service and I'm totally disappointed with the treatment that I received. No wonder why Airtel is continuing to lose its market share / profits to Reliance Jio.

I had to change my phone from a post-paid corporate account to a pre-paid personal account. It took me nearly 20 days to finish the process, got tossed around to 3 Airtel facilities, with 4 visits to the Ekkattuthangal store, several follow-ups over phone calls (which seldom got a response) and eventually they said, they can convert it only from post-paid corporate to post-paid personal account. Every visit to the shop costed me nearly 2.5 hours, as I had to commute from Choolaimedu (the place where I lived) to Ekkattuthangal.

At first, I reached out to the local Airtel booth in my office to initiate the corporate/postpaid to personal/pre-paid account transfer (with all the documentation), The rep in the booth said, I'll have to go to a Airtel store to do the same. I went to the Nelson Manickam Road store for help. They said, they are a franchise store and I'll have to go to any of the Airtel owned stores to do the transfer. Hence, I landed up in the Ekkattuthangal store.

Visit #1: The store rep in Ekkattuthangal Airtel store (Mr. Srinivasan) collected my application form. I told him specifically that I had been already bounced to 3 different stores... and I don't want to go through any more hardships. He said "Once your corporate settles the outstanding bills, we can finish the transfer the next day". I followed-up with my corporate and after a week, they confirmed that they had settled all of the outstanding bills. I tried calling the store rep, but didn't pick my calls at all.

Visit #2: I again went to the shop. But, this time, the person to whom I gave the application was absent... and others couldn't trace my application at all. They said they'll search offline and get back to me. They also warned that I'll have to submit a fresh application with proper documentation. After a few days, I didn't get any calls from the store. I again called them. They asked me to come to the store with all the documentation.

Visit #3: I took photocopies of documentation and visited the store again. This time, I spotted Mr. Srinivasan and he found my application again. He said, he doesn't have the login name / password for the portal to initiate the transfer. He said, he'll complete it and confirm to me by evening. I waited, waited and waited... and no calls/confirmation from Mr. Srinivasan. When I called him again in the evening, he said I had to convert only from post-paid corporate to post-paid personal, as the IT application has a technical glitch. They asked me to come to the store to file a fresh post-paid application.

Visit #4: I reached the store with a lot of frustration. When I raised the voice, the store manager Ms. Saranya started showing some sense of urgency. But, they couldn't complete the conversion. They said, they'll have to reinitiate the KYC process again for my post-paid connection and it will take at least a day for the transfer to be complete. I told them, I had been a customer in the past, I have neither changed my phone number or residence for the last 10+ years and moreover, I furnished my Aadhar too... and couldn't understand why a new KYC is needed. I had to escalate to the Zone Manager Mr. Narayanan (Ms. Saranya's boss), to accelerate the KYC process. They managed to finish the process in 2 hours, however, my phone number is still to be converted to post-paid/personal account. I hope the number will get converted tomorrow.

Reasons why I feel that the Airtel Store in Ekkattuthangal Chennai offered a bad customer experience:

1. No proper communication / No updates from the store rep. I had to continuously follow-up several times to get some updates. They don't give any attention to a long time customer, especially someone who have done several lacs worth of business with Airtel. 
2. Occasionally, when I get to Mr. Srinivasan, he would continuously promise me that the process will be complete in the evening or in 4 hours. But, nothing happens. He is a liar and not fit to serve corporate customers / customers who are professionals.
3. During my 4th visit, Mr. Srinivasan said in an angry tone - "Sir! You'll have to visit the store a few times like this... if you really want to get your number converted" (in Tamil "Sir! number change pannanum-na indha maadhiri than naaalu (4) anju (5) thadavai alayunum"). The last time I heard such statement was in an RTO office. I worked for a leading service provider and if I had made such a statement to the customer, I would've been fired the same day. 
4. Store manager Ms. Saranya tried to justify what happened to the customer instead of listening. When she was not in action for 3 days... she didn't handover the login name / password to anyone. Did she assume that no customer will come for a post-paid to pre-paid conversion request, for 3 days?
5. There is no ledger or process in the store to properly track the incoming applications / service requests. They didn't even give me a service request id or challan to track my application. I was shocked when they said my application is missing and it couldn't be traced. 
6. Even the customer care numbers are not of use. When you call them, they redirect you back to the store. Customer lands up in a helpless situation. 

Hope Airtel will do something to fix these gaps in the Airtel Ekkattuthangal store.

[Update from 1/6/16: My phone number was finally converted to my personal account. Ms. Saranya followed-up with me to confirm that]