Gmail New Look Sucks

What will Google earn if I start using the new looks in Gmail. This is the second time Google intentionally forced me to try the new looks in Gmail. How??? After loging in bhammm.... came a pop up message urging me to try the new looks. From there the only option to go to my inbox was to accept the offer or F*** off temporarily or permanently from Gmail.

Yes, there is an option to postpone switching to the new look, which for strange reasons known only to Google doesn't work. I had to reluctantly click on the Continue to the New Look button to continue and was welcomed by a messed up inbox. To keep it less offensive, the new look sucks!


The new look templates could be intended as New Year gifts for gmail users. I tried few of the templates, liked none and had to switch back to the good simple old template.

To switch back to the old look, I clicked on Setting and choose the option Switch Back to Old Look. There Google again gave me two buttons Swicth Back to Old Temporarily and Cancel. 'Temporarily?' I got the feeling that Google is going to permanently force us all to use the new templates when it thinks the time is ripe.

If you've not got such a mail and desperately want to try the new looks, click on Setting, select Mail Settings and click on the one liner message Gmail's getting a new look soon, select Learn More. There you are.

Let me know if you find something enchanting in some of the new looks that I missed.

Deactivating Airtel Value Added Services

If Airtel were a thief, I would say "You've become so fat after stealing my money."


Alas!!! can't do anything of that sort with a company that love minting only money.

It's crappishly frustrating when you are charged for services that you don't ask for. Airtel value added services (jokes, cricket, caller tune, job tips, miss call alerts, etc.) are things that I never have subscribed for, nevertheless Airtel activated some of these on my mobile for more than once. No matter how much I plead I've never got refund for whatever Airtel charged me for the services I didn't subscribe.

Lately, Airtel seems to have blocked pre-paid subscribers from reaching customer care executives. Anyways, they have better things to do than listen to complaints from pre-paid subscribers about unknown charges. Calling Airtel 121 (customer support) from a prepaid SIM just takes you to endless recorded IVRs (interactive voice response) to make your choices. We are not yet in that era where IVRs can fix problems that need human attention.

Well, if Airtel has activated something that you didn't ask for the best option is to deactivate the service yourself without calling 121 at all. There are two options.

1. Send SMS "STOP" to 121
2. You'll get an acknowledgement message and the list of services and their codes currently active on your phone
3. SMS the service code such eg."3" "4" that you want to deactivate
4. Airtel sends back an SMS for you to confirm your request
5. Send confirmation SMS as "1"

Note: Here Airtel is trying to earn few more coins from you. :)
The second option is

1. Dial *121*6#
2. You'll get an SMS with the list of services and their corresponding codes active on your phone
3. SMS back the service code to deactivate
4. Send confirmation SMS when asked.

To activate any value added service from Airtel just *121*5# and follow the instructions.
P.S: This post is a signature of my frustration.