Well friends, looks like I cracked it.
First, got my laptop's Wifi to detect the Wifi network.
Then pointed my Firefox brower at
http://192.168.1.1
This happens to be the default.
The browser opened a configuration page.
There I picked "StaticIP" in the Internet Connection Type selection menu.
Then keyed in my static IP address with Subnet Mask, Gateway and Pair of Static DNSes provided by Tata Indicom.
Set the Time Zone to "(GMT+05:30) Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, New Delhi"
and clicked on the "Save Settings" button
That was all there was to it.
When I pointed the browser at everyone's favorite:
Google,
the Tata Indicom Broadband web login "dialler" came up.
Hope this helps our other friends.
Warm regards
Ram