Family Vacations

My parents are going on a trip to Shirdi this week along with my uncle, aunt, another aunt and cousin. I was just reminded of the time when we were kids when we used to wait for these kinds of trips. Usually it used to happen during the summer holidays as it was convenient for all of us. And usually we used to go to these “Dharma Kshetras” or the holy places for our vacation.

If you could see it used to serve many purposes. One, we used to get our annual vacation. Well vacation for us as kids were mainly about the travelling and being in a new place, even though that place could be the same place every year. We just needed a change from Bangalore and this used to be the perfect occasion for it. We can then go back to school and boast about being on a vacation to some place and talk about the travel. Two, my mom can fulfill all her “harake” (or “mannath”) which she had taken in the year preceding. By going to these temples for vacation it could serve as a vacation for us and can also serve her purpose too. Being in a position where we could not spend money on these travels more than once a year, these 2-in-1 solutions used to work as a way out for all of us.

And then once my father had a heart attack and the doctor forbid overnight travel by bus, our vacation frequency too came down. We just couldn’t spend money on hiring a taxi every year to go on these vacations. But this worked for us in another way. We used to look forward for vacations so much that finally when we decide to go to the temple after say 2 or 3 years, we would be excited. I could still remember getting my cassettes of movie songs ready the first time when we went in a taxi. It is another thing that it turned out to be a nightmare, with my mom falling ill and the taxi breaking down in the middle of nowhere in the twilight and we wandering around trying to find a garage.

And now that we could spend some money on vacations it so happens that we still cannot go on one. The reason this time being that the parents being old and with all their impending health problems, are not so enthusiastic on travel. Secondly with brother being almost settled in Australia and me being unsettled to the maximum possible extent, it becomes difficult to find a time when we all are free to plan a vacation. For the record, for me vacations nowadays are going back to Bangalore and sleeping happily on my bed.

That way it was great to know that almost the entire family of mom (meaning, mom, her bro and her sis) has been able to plan this thing. I would really have to thank my cousin sis for actually planning this and persuading everyone to join it.

Hats off Lil’ Sis. You have achieved something which we have failed to achieve till now

 

A mess called my life

Well that is what it is. My life has been really in a mess ever since the Americans dumped the entire world into what they call as recession. But it has started reaching new lows in the recent weeks. Initially I thought that it was tracking the sensex (the BSE Index). But unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be, coz when the market improved yesterday, my life has continued its downward spiral.

My work… I know I have cribbed a lot to all the people I can over chats, phone or face to face too. But still I continue. I feel I am just a tester in this organization, whose work is to work on the demos, test whether it is working, give demos and get blasted by the boss during all these activities. And blasting includes all the profanities which will put even those ppl who had gone through hostel life to shame.

Well imagine being in a 8 hour demo through telecon and webex for a client in middle east and your boss coming and blasting u every half an hour. Most of the stuffs which we get to hear cannot be even pasted over here. So you are there for 8 hours missing your lunch and all you get to hear is profanities from your boss, even though the client is happy. And then he realizes we haven’t eaten, gets us 4 biscuits each and a tea and blasts us more.

And then the next day have to work for 15 hours … doing what??? Testing some damn demo. It is more like I have moved from being a developer to a tester after 2 years of MBA. For ppl who have seen a sad bollywood movie called Sunday, my position is similar to the protagonist there. Only thing is I am missing 2 years of my life, only reminded of it because of the EMI of the loan which I have to pay back for the 2 lost years of my life. And all these because some damn idiots thought of making quick money in a far off land by selling loans to people who did not deserve it.

Nowadays I am thinking if I have lost these 2 years may be I should do another 1 year MBA from a foreign university, just so that these people can recognize that I am an MBA grad. But then again, I would be reminded of the difficulty in getting into the institute with the resume I have and the cost which I have to bear. Especially since I have not yet paid back the cost of my 2 lost years

Now add to this mix the housing dilemma. Initially there were 4 of us who were staying in the house. We did not pay the advance for the house, but we were paying the rent and the expenses in the house. Now 2 of the 4 have left and it is just the 2 of us remaining. These people have collected the rent for the 6 months which we were supposed to be living in that place when they left earlier. So we are paying what is our share. Now the company wants to use this place as a guest house. Initially it was a new guy from Bangalore who was staying with us for a month till he searched a place for himself. And now it is an intern from New Jersey who they want to put in with us. And we have to keep on adjusting with these people coming in every month. So my roommate has decided to move out and now is asking me as to what I would do. So, apart from all these job related frustrations which I have to manage now I have to find ways to arrange for the advance to pay for another acco and manage with the increased rent.

A typical case of FML

 

Watery grave … and the Hair-drier treatment

All that triggered it was a simple act. We have a small sintex tank inside the house which we fill up so that when the water is not being supplied by the BMC, we can use it. It so happened that I noticed that the tank was empty yesterday morning when I was in my morning chores. So I opened the valve which fills the tank up so that the tank fills up and then in the hurry to go to office, forgot all about it. It so happens that when the sintex tank fills up there is a pipe inside the bath through which the water overflows. So after we had gone to office the tank filled up and the water was flowing out through the pipe.

Now the neighborhood aunties heard the water flowing. They had no clue from where it was flowing. So they kept quiet and left it as it is. By afternoon, the water in the tank was getting low and then they started the khich khich. They had no idea what to do and as usual were sitting and gossiping on what might be wrong, getting agitated as time passed. Finally one intelligent auntyji came along at 4 in the evening, they decided to find where the water is flowing from (for the past 6 hrs these ppl hadn’t even discovered that). Finally found out it was in my apartment, tried the bell multiple times (did they think that I was dead inside???) and then finally decided to turn off the valve on the overhead tank. And then these ppl called up my owner who was supposedly taking his pregnant wife to the hospital and shouted at him. And then that guy called up my office ppl who had taken the house on rent and finally I get to know of it at 6pm. I rush home at 6 and find everything normal. No flooding, but yes water was not coming from the tank.

So I settled down happily that nothing is wrong. And boy was I wrong. The watchman came along at 7 and called me downstairs. I went there and he called up the auntiji (who had the presence of mind to ask the valve to be turned off) and then gave the phone to me. What followed was half an hour of the best hair dryer treatment I have received. And auntiji would have made Sir Alex Ferguson proud with the hair dryer treatment she gave me. All I was allowed to tell was sorry madam. She went on a tirade excerpts of which are as follows ….

“…aap log educated hoke aise kaam karte ho ….” (Me: Madam we check everyday for all this. Today we missed out and unfortunately aisa hua, sorry)

“ …. Sorry kehne se kya hoga… aapke wajah se humaare liye paani nahin hai …..”

“….kitna paani waste hua … aur hum yahaan pe paani bachaane ke liye toilet ka flush bhi use nahin karte hai … “ (now that was something I would have lived my entire life without knowing)

“…. Sab kitne pareshaan the… Agar aapke saamne wale ghar main woh sardar hota to wo darwaaza thod deta aapka… sab itne ghusse main the…”

“….aapke ghar main intercom bhi nahin hai… aapko kaise contact karein hum log…” (When we are inside, by knocking on the door and when we are not intercom doesn’t help… does it???)

“… ab toh paani tha … kal gas wagera aise hi hogaya to kya hoga …. “

“ … Secretary ko bhi complaint kiya hai … who kucch karne wala nahin hai … usne suna aur bola … theek hai theek ho jaayega …. Wo kucch karta nahin hai…”

“… humne bola hai aapke owner se … next time se family men ko ghar dene ko …” (Hello … Kya humne kisi ladki ko chheda … ya aisa kucch kiya??? Any guarantee family wale aise nahin karenge???)

And in the end of it

“… aisa galti ho jaata hai … meine bhi kiya hai pehle…” (Now u tell me … after half an hour of hair dryer treatment???)

After all that I have ended up with a headache, which is still persisting. Gr8 way to drive the point home aunty

 

YAAP (Yet Another Arbit Post)

Heylo… Am back again, trying to be back to active blogging and I dunno how many times have I actually tried it. I am a bit rusty nowadays with the mind not working as it should and too much bored to do anything. So this post is again gonna be snippets of unrelated events, stuffs, feelings and musings.

Have you ever been to the airport to catch a flight? If so, I am sure you would have seen the kind of the people I am about to describe. And if you haven’t seen this, then keep your eyes open the next time you do travel, you will surely see them. I am talking about these people who start hounding the boarding gate some 10-15 minutes before it opens. They just run in or walk in depending on their state of mind, walk to the boarding gate and give the person the boarding pass. I actually wonder what they are doing everytime. Are they giving the boarding pass to the person expecting him to let them board at that moment? Or are they just checking if they are at the correct boarding gate? If it is the latter, as far as I have seen all the airports have a proper sign informing them of which gate it is and the next flight for which boarding will take place. Whatever it is, they do help me in spending time at the boarding gate. I play a game called “Guess the impatient boarder”, objective being seeing a person coming and guessing whether he/she will go to the boarding gate and follow the routine. And guess what??? I am correct most of the time.

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As most of you might already know, I had been to Bangalore … yet again (and I will go again if allowed) and had a gala time over there. Met up with a couple of my friends from HP and then roamed around a high-end mall in Bangalore, visited our adda from our time in HP and had ice-creams at Corner House. The next day met up with a couple of friends from the college (those who are not yet hooked up that is), had lunch at an Andhra Restaurant and met up with another friend who recently had a baby girl. It might not look to be so much fun, but it is the quality of the time which I spent with them that matters. I seriously don’t know why I gave all these up and went to do my MBA . And after 4 days of pure bliss, I had to leave it all and move back to Mumbai and to a place which is making me feel stuffed up. Yes, I am talking of my work-place.

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Talking of work place… yes, I am still stuck doing the same old job which I would have done, may be in a better way still, even if I had not done my post-graduation. I seriously don’t understand it. I mean, yes, agreed IIMs do not give a specialization, but even if they had, I would have specialized in Strategy and Marketing or Strategy and finance at the least. But still they tend to notice my 3 years pre-MBA work-ex in an IT company only and say that I have specialized in systems.

It is becoming like a rail-road paradox, or a chicken and egg problem. I can’t get a marketing job without a marketing work-ex and I won’t get a marketing work-ex without a marketing job. Something has to give way sometime. But I have no idea when or where it will

 

Arbit

I have no idea what happens to me sometimes. I just have no mood to write when there is so much happening around. And then there are times like this when i want to write something, but my mind couldn’t think of anything.

Not that i can blame my mind. What can it do if there is so much going on inside it anyways? So i am going to muddle up this post too with varied things

My roommate left the company in which we were working. For ppl who do not know 4 of us working fofr the company were housed in a 2BHK. So now that he left the company, he had vacate the house as the agreement is in the company’s name. Another roommate has gone on a visit to Cambodia and Philippines and enjoying out over there. And the third roommate has just resigned from the company and is moving out in a couple of days. So from Wednesday to Saturday it is home alone for me.

Wondering what I am doing after MBA? Well pretty much the same thing what i was doing before at pretty much the same salary. Recession sucks.

Nice to see Man Utd finally getting into some attacking form yesterday. When Spurs scored their first goal within the first minute, my friend who supports spurs pinged me “Tottenham rocks Man U”. I replied back telling “Beta it is a game of 90 minutes, wait and watch”. His reply: “with an aging midfield dont expect nything…” . Glad that the “aging” midfield showed them what they are worth, even with 10 men

Just saw Nadal being thrashed to his worst ever defeat till nowin a grandslam by Del Porto. Awesome match. Nadal could win just 6 games in three sets. It was actually what one of the commentators called “Humiliating defeat” for such a good player. And please, I don’t think he is injured or not well. So Nadal fans who made fun of Federer fans when he was in bad form …

Its Official. I am the alter-ego of Garfield. I mean I love Pizzas, basically eating anything veg, I believe i am in shape as round is the perfect shape to be in, hate exercising, love lazing around, am not a morning person in any sense and now “I HATE MONDAYS”. I don’t know how long will i be in this form, but I hope I get out of this as early as possible.

And Awesome news for Jet flyers. Jet is offering 50% discount on its economy class tickets till the end of this week. The tickets have to be booked between 14th and 16th and the travel has to be done between 14th and 18th. Pity I cannot make use of this opportunity

 

strat.in article – Apple iPhone and its India Strategy

My new post on strat.in – Apple iPhone and its India Strategy.

Excerpt: As we all know iPhone is one of the most sought after possession in the recent times. The phone which combines iPod with a mobile phone and wireless connection which enables us to connect to the web has captured the imagination of the people all around the one and lots of them are dying to lay their hands on it.

….

But as history tells us it was a flop in India. Now that Apple is preparing to release its next version of iPhone, iPhone 3G, we can try and see what went wrong with Apple’s strategy last time. …..

For more… read the post at the link posted above

 

Masked Craze

During our MBA they had told us about the different kinds of culture in the society. There are fashions, trends, fad and craze.

Trends tend to be something which is carried on for a long period of time. Fad is a practice or an interest carried on for a time with exaggerated zeal. Craze is an idea or movement which starts initially with a small number of people and then quickly migrates to the mainstream.

An example of fad which I can think of is the collection of the WWF fighter cards, cricketer’s cards, footballer cards etc. This was sometime during our school days, there was a period where people would collect these cards, and then these would be traded. Games were invented using these. These would be the monetary prize of some matches. I remember watching two people playing our own invention of hand tennis for an undertaker card, the winner getting the card.

Now if you want an example of craze, then you need not look very far, especially if you stay in Mumbai or Pune, all thanks to the imported virus causing H1N1. I knew that we Indians were attracted to anything imported, but did not know that it would affect us in this way.

Anyways H1N1 flu by itself is not the craze, but the masks which the people wear to protect themselves from H1N1 which has turned into a craze. Many people do not even know what it does and why they need to wear it, but just wear it because they have seen others wearing it. In the mornings if you go for walk, the sight you see is of the muzzled dog pulling its masked owner. And yes, it is that way only. It is the dog which is pulling the owner, at least until it reaches its “destination”.

And then everywhere you go, in the local trains, on the roads, in the buses, you will see these masked people. Many would have bought it paying a lot more than what it actually costs. And then you have people who do not have enough money to buy these masks, managing with a handkerchief tied over their mouth and nose. And in the darkness of the night it is sometimes scary when you actually encounter a group of such workers going back home. Not that we are afraid of contacting the deadly virus or anything like that, but with due respects to these hard working people, in their present avatar and in the twilight, they remind us of all those daakus which we had seen in the B-Grade Hindi movies (Now, I know why my mom warned me against watching those movies).

The reason why I call it a craze is because the people using the masks do not know what precautions they have to take to protect themselves from the virus. They do not know that if they take enough precaution there is no need to go around having that mask around their mouth. That mask is useful, if you are having flu like symptoms to prevent it from spreading. But if you want to protect yourself from the virus, then the virus has many other ways of affecting you than just the air borne way. And also you need to discard the masks regularly. Otherwise there is no use of the mask.

I sometimes feel the only beneficiaries of this craze are the people who are selling these masks. The masks are sold at Rs 20 per piece now, while its actual price is just around Re.1 or Rs 2. That is of the low end masks. Now, if you have a low end, there will be a high end model too. The high end model of course comes in various designs on it. So you will see someone wearing a mask, which has a zip painted on it, or a wide grinning set of teeth. Just the other day I saw a mask, with some certified from XYZ medical institute, being sold online. The price: a whopping Rs 580 and after a 20% discount being sold at around Rs 460. Rs 460 for a piece of cloth which would cover your mouth and there were people buying it. And I believe that the recent fads are the swine flu parties, where you dress up in these masks and go for the party.

We have a saying in kannada – “Bekkige Chellata, Ilige Prana sankata”. I will leave the translation of this into a more capable hand (after trying to translate it for the past 10 mins), but what is happening is something similar to this. These socialites are having a party making swine flu as theme and spending big on a piece of cloth covering the mouth, when there are people dying in the hospital because of the same.

 

Another Migration

Finally decided on migrating to wordpress. Just liked the various tools available here. Just hoping that I can blog more frequently than what I have been doing till now.

Great that this also has a import option. so none of my 64 posts are lost.

 

Parliament and reality shows

Just yesterday there was a huge debate in the Rajya sabha. All MPs, atleast those who were present and those who were awake, cut across party lines and debated on the topic. If you are really wondering what policy of social concern has caused the politicians to wake up from their sleep, sit up and take notice, it is nothing but the increase of reality shows and the obscenity in them. The centre of ire this time was the new show aired on Star TV, “Sach ka Saamna”.

The show was noted to have “obscene” and uncomfortable questions which are asked to the contestants and thus the MPs were supporting the imposition of ban on the show as it is against our culture. Not long ago, most of these MPs, were blaming a party of indulging in moral policing and we even had a minister crying hue over how the government of a particular state could decide on the culture of a particular country. But now here they are debating about the morality of a show in the parliament.

Lets leave behind the politics of the issue or the party politics. But what I wonder is this an issue which is to be debated in the parliament. We all know that to run a minute of proceedings in the parliament thousands of rupees are spent. So was it really worth spending thousands or even lakhs of rupees to discuss this issue? There are hundreds of other issues which need attention. There are cases of cholera spreading in a particular area. Some regions in the country are reeling under drought, while in Orissa there has been a situation of flood. In Pune, there have been cases of swine flu among school children. Aren’t these issues to be discussed in the parliament? Aren’t these the issues which will affect the “aam aadmi”?
After all who will see this program aired at 10:30 in the night? Not the common man who is worried about how he will reach office tomorrow, not the man who is worried about the health of his kid, or the spread of some disease. I would believe not more than 5% of the Indian population will be seeing the programme. So I don’t see the point in having a discussion on some topic which is going to “affect” a very small % of people and “corrupt” them.

Now coming to the programmes coming under censorship by the IB ministry, I have a question on the necessity of the censorship. After all, this programme is being aired well after the “prime time” at 10:30 pm in the night. So, if the government is concerned that the kids would be corrupted, is it the role of the government to act as a moral guardian for them? Wouldn’t the parents be the right people to allow/ not allow the kids to see the programme. I believe the parents know what is good or bad for their kids than the government.

If the government feels that the adults in the country will get “corrupted”, I really wonder is anything left to be corrupted. Haven’t the saas-bahu serials taken care of that part? Moreover, they being adult, shouldn’t they have the reasoning power to make the decision of right or wrong? If not, then what is it that is not giving them this reasoning power?

Moving over to the feeling of the participants and how their relatives feel, the participants know what questions are going to be asked, because they would have undergone a polygraph test with a superset of around 50 questions from which the 21 questions will be asked. So I think they can get out of the show, if they are not comfortable. They are there to win the money and they are ready to undergo the polygraph test. Their “loved ones” support them. Most of these people have already seen the parent show of this, the show from which this is inspired on Star. They know the kind of questions which will be asked and if they have agreed to come on the show, then they are ready to face it. So, is there any need to ban the show for this?

Now I am not a fan of this show. On the contrary, I haven’t watched a single episode of this show, or any of the reality show because I do not like it. But that is my personal issue. I cannot ask for a ban on something if I do not like it. If it goes like this I would have asked for a ban on all the mega-serials which are being aired now.

All I am asking is what happened to the right to freedom, right to chose what I want? Shouldn’t the government, MPs come out of this over protective parenting behavior with unnecessary issues and treat the people as adults who could make their own decisions on what to see and what not to see?

Although it is heartening to see the politicians debating on some issue finally in the parliament, it is heart-wrenching to see the kinds of issues they decide to debate on. We elected these people and sent them to parliament to discuss on these? Please come back, we will discuss this on a cup of cut chai and a plate of pakodas.

 

Johari Window

During my MBA course we had a subject called Management of Self where we talked about something called johari window. It is a cognitive psychological tool developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, which is used to help the people understand their own interpersonal communication and relationships.It is done in groups of familiar people.

In this the person is given a list of adjectives and he/she has to choose 5 to 6 adjectives which they believe suits them the most. The other people in the group also selects 5 to 6 adjectives which they feel suits the person most. This way there will be a grid formed through which the person will get to know what his facade (adjectives which he does not project to the outside world), arena (adjectives which he projects to the outside world), blind spot(adjectives which he does not know that he projects, but others notices) and the unknown (adjectives which nobody knows to associate with him or not). Something like this

We couldn’t do the exercise in the class. But now i found this application online. So a great chance for me to find out about myself… provided others help

And this is the link for it: http://kevan.org/johari?name=arunks