Helpless

I received a forward which had originated from a professor in Tata Institute of Fundamental Research imploring a corporate friend of his to forward the email to ask for funds to sponsor a bunch of high school students who had been selected in a global competition to participate in a related event being held at Texas, USA. The mail went on to talk about the exemplary innovation used by the young minds and the irony of being short of funds to even take part (and possibly win) the competition.

When I read this mail, my heart went out to the professor. He was asking for about 2 Lakh Rupees. That’s peanuts for so many people in this world. If only a few such people come forward and sponsor those bright kids, this world will be a better place.

Some times I feel so helpless, seeing so many such ‘Want Money’ mails. It is at times like this when I feel I should earn more and more and increase my donation budget but there is only so much one person can do…And then again, a catch always lies with earning more.

Yummy!

Friday Breakfast: Khara Bhath (Uppit)

Friday Lunch: Chow Chow Bhath (Uppit, Shira/Sajjige)

Friday Evening snack-cum-Dinner: Avalakki, Cucumber-carrot salad, Banana, Mango, Apple, Toblerone chocolate, Basin-Ladu, Ice-Cream, Orange Juice.

Saturday Breakfast: Puri-Saagu.

Saturday Lunch: Curd-Rice.

Saturday Evening snack-cum-Dinner: Churmuri, Veg-Puff, Chips, Gobi Manchuri, Dahi-Puri, Banana.

Sunday Breakfast: Vermicelli

Sunday Lunch: Tomato Cream Soup, Grilled Cheese Sandwich, French Fries

Sunday Evening snack-cum-Dinner: Masala-Bonda, Sambar-Vada, Pani Puri, Sambar-Rice, Curd-Rice.

The case of the Hello Tune

I received an sms from Airtel stating that a Hello Tune (Kannada song) was subscribed to my cell phone and it was charged at Rs 10 for 10 days. This was without any intimation from me. I also received an sms stating what needs to be done if I didn’t want the Tune to continue beyond 10 days. But there was no message to indicate what needs to be done if I wanted to unsubscribe from the Tune right away and get back that Rs 10. Since I didn’t want the Tune even for 1 day, I unsubscribed immediately but I did not get back the Rs 10. Thinking that there might be a batch process that refunds the amount, I waited for one whole day. The money was not refunded.

My wife called up the customer care on my behalf to enquire about the refund. The operator informed her that I should have called up customer care before unsubscribing and the money would have been refunded upon cancellation of the Tune. The unsubscribing option was only for those who stayed with the Tune for 10 days. And since I unsubscribed via sms, the operator mentioned that the refund cannot be processed.

Much has been said about my anger in previous posts. As I overheard this conversation taking place between my wife (who was passively subduing to the fact that Rs 10 was lost because of my hurried unsubscribing action and because of Airtel’s policies) and the operator, my blood pressure shot up and I fumed. I snatched the phone from my wife and lambasted the poor operator like anything. You might even say, I almost bomb-blasted the lady! I outpoured like the famous Eyjafjallajökull and did not even allow her to get in a single word.

Worse, she knew whatever I was speaking was fair. I did not ask for the Hello Tune. Money was debited from my account without my permission for a feature that I did not want and on top of it I was blamed to have messed it all up by unsubscribing instead of calling customer care. As if I would know that I had to call customer care for unsubscribing. And why would Airtel want to make customers call customer care when they are pleasantly enjoying a concert or a movie?! Oh boy, it sure gets nice to verbally beat someone to death when you know you are in the right side of law! Its like pumping one’s fist after winning a hot duel! I got all fired up and spat fire for about 5 minutes after which the operator meekly gave the phone to her supervisor. I would have axed the CEO of Airtel too if I was asked to. It was not the Rs 10 that mattered, it was the gross injustice of it all.

I didn’t even have to speak to the supervisor for the supervisor just came on the phone and said the money will be refunded. It seemed like an anti-climax to me. I mean, here I was, all powered up to serve a 150 mph ace of a serve when the opponent just walked out on me accepting defeat! Sure enough, I got back my money in a minute’s time.

When I went to office and told my colleague about this, who was a fresher, she informed that she had been one such operator in Airtel's competitor company and the fact of the matter was that the operators were taught to convince the customers about customers’ mistakes and if the customer was meek enough and accepted the rules, the company made profit. But if the customers fought and raised their voice, they were to be immediately refunded.

Boink!

So much has been said about not to be angry and to treat everyone fairly and to always be calm and soft, and lo and behold, people misuse people of such character totally! Bottomline is: if you are weak, you get trodden over!

Social Entrepreneur?!

I often wonder what great human beings CEOs like NRN, Azim Premji, Ratan Tata, etc are. My main flow of thought is that they are great because they have given employment to so many fellow human beings, thanks to them thinking big and taking risks and investing and what not. But my friend Adiga informed, quite rightly, that they might not have had such noble thoughts of giving employment to lakhs of people when they started their companies. Their main idea would have been to maximize the profits. This can only be achieved by recruiting the right people and pay them accordingly. Capitalism, in short. Employment to lakhs of people just happened.

I wish to be an entrepreneur too one day but not for the sake of maximizing the profit. It would be more for empowering employees to be bread winners in their homes. In this regard, I have found one small and simple way to start off. It is as thus:

In India, its very common to see all kinds of activities being performed by cheap labour. For e.g., we have folks on carts on roads who iron the dress. We have vegetable vendors in moving carts shouting out vegetable names on roads of residential localities with the hope of selling their inventory. We have tender coconut salesmen on shabby dresses without slippers cycling on punctured tyres brimming with hundreds of tender coconuts. We have maid servants washing dishes, clothes, cleaning the house, etc. We have teenagers wanting to clean the sump and the overhead tank. We have people to wash the vehicles and dust the windows. And so on and so forth.

My idea is to maximize the usage of such people so as to provide them with daily bread. Even though we can iron our own clothes, give clothes to the local guy on the cart who will iron your shirt for Rs 3. Do not bargain with the vegetable vendor and tender coconut salesman. Instead, give them Rs 25 if they ask for Rs 24. Bring in a maid to wash your clothes, dishes, clean the house etc for Rs 300. Employ the teenagers to clean the sump and the overhead tank and clean the vehicles for Rs 300.

Surely, these are the amounts which we can afford. For most, it takes a lot to just donate Rs 1000 for the needy. But if we get some of our work done for that Rs 1000, then it’s a win-win situation. Not only that, we are in a way supporting their family by employing them to perform tasks which we ourselves can do. A social entrepreneur. A noble thought, huh?

My mom calls me just lazy.

:-)

Calvin on milk

Who was the guy who first looked at a cow and said, "I think I'll drink whatever comes out of these things when I squeeze 'em!"?

ROFL :-)

Punchline

"We have been all the way to Moon and back,
But have trouble crossing the street to meet a needy person."

~ Read on Infosys Foundation website

Bangalore to Chennai to Bangalore

Midnight: 27 degrees : Bangalore Railway Station

3 am: 30 degrees : On the way to Chennai

6 am: 31 degrees : Chennai Railway Station

9 am: 33 degrees : On the way to US Consulate in Chennai

Noon: 35 degrees : On the way back from US Consulate in Chennai

3 pm: 37 degrees : Chennai Railway Station

6 pm: 31 degrees : On the way back from Chennai

9 pm: 25 degrees : Bangalore Railway Station

Spice and Sweet

I like sweets.

Wife likes it spicy.

I am sweet.

Wife is...?

:-)

Four Hundred and Four

This is my 400th post and this blog is 4 years and 1 month old. After achieving 100 in 1 year, 200 in 2 years and 300 in 3 years, I did not really expect to do 400 in 4 years but I came close.

Well, I am 400 and am not out. Thats mimicking Brian Lara. Except that this is simpler :-)

500, here I come...

C & I

... Story Continued

April 17th 2010

Bangalore Vs Bombay. IPL 3. First time in stadium with wife. There was Sachin in Mumbai team and pride of Bangalore in home team. Also, both teams had more or less qualified to semis. And, Bangalore team was very much in form, so much so that it had beaten Mumbai (the top team) in Mumbai earlier in the tournament. If Sachin scored, people were happy. If Bangalore won, people were happy. So, more or less, this was a win-win for spectators.

Alas, neither did Sachin score nor did Bangalore win. Whats more, there were couple of low-intensity blasts and more bombs diffused in and around the stadium, although we weren't much too concerned. And Bangalore lost so badly that there was a threat of not even being in the top four for qualifying into semis. Till date I haven't gone home real happy from Chinnaswamy and the sad saga continues but I ain't dissuaded :-)

After all, one wave from Sachin to the stands to acknowledge the crowd - after the crowd chants, "Sachin, Sachin, Sachin" vociferously over and over again - is more than sufficient to make one's day. As one banner said "Heard that God is in town. Have come to seek his blessings." As I stood there watching this tiny little man on the ground, I wondered how one single man can make over 45,000 people - young and old alike - give him a standing ovation every time he comes into bat, even though he is in the opposition team. To be a part of that standing ovation, is simple priceless.

30

2008 - Sahib Sindh Sultan

2009 - Ivory Tower

2010 - Pier 39

Expressway Vs Highway

We try to save money now

To spend good quality time with family later.

When we finally end up with saved money later,

Either there is no more a family

Or we ourselves are no more in the family!

Given a choice between the toll expressway and the free highway, which road should man choose? The expressway is costly but its faster. The highway is free but its slower. Faster means more quality time with family. Free means more money in the kitty, because money saved is money earned.

Twist in the tale: Going slowly on a traffic-ridden free highway consumes more gasoline and also leads to more wear and tear of the vehicle in the long run than going smoothly on the toll expressway. So, is money really saved while going on the free highway?!

The Vicious Circle

Higher pay packet entails a desire for better life;

Better life leads to liabilities exceeding assets;

Then, sustenance depends on higher pay packet.

:-(

Bloopers

I am making too many mistakes these days.

Sometimes unwillingly; sometimes willingly.

Each of them is costly.

:-(

"First time" of the day...

..Sat under a fan that actually worked in the BMTC bus!

..Toogire Rayara was not sung in the Mutt on a Thursday after all the preliminary religious activities.
:-(
Incidentally, it is only after one year of marriage that I came to know that my wife liked this song very much and my wife came to know that I liked this song very much! [Same with Indu Enage]

..Saw a lady crying in the Mutt in front of the Lord, with total devotion, as if there was no one else around her...

Experiencing the music!

Cool showers after a long, long time in Bangalore...

I have always liked this song, but today I felt the joyousness that is shown so well in the choreography...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpTCnl36gZI

Alas, the rain-bearing clouds can be compared to actual rain today. The rain vanished - like the rain-bearing clouds in the song - as soon as it came...

:-(

Peer Pressure

Scene (and seen!) in a female boutique shop in US (sometime in Nov 2009):

Three teenage girls checking out the innumerous dresses spread across the different shelves.

The quest for the ‘Right Dress’ made the three friends wander across the shop.

One girl picked up a jazzy top and her jaw literally dropped as if she found gold.

She grabbed it with both hands and made way to the friend nearest to her.

She said to her, with her eyes rolling: “Isn’t this cool? I mean isn’t this is so damn good?!”

The friend looked at the dress, just shrugged and said “Its okay” and continued her own search.

Not convinced if the top was just “okay”, the first girl then took that ‘piece-of-gold(!)’ to the third friend.

She asked her the same question but this time with less enthusiasm.

The third girl frankly said “Naw...” and she too got busy with her own search.

The first girl gave one last look at the jazzy top, gave a shrug and kept it back on the shelf.

Just goes to show how much one value other’s opinion…

Good Deed for the day

I was hungry when I left my office cubicle. By the time, I ran to the bus and got a seat, I was starving. I had a box of rusk with me which I opened and started munching. Etiquette told me that I should offer it to my (unknown) colleague sitting right beside me. But something within me was stopping me. I was not sure if I was embarrassed or if the person listening to iPod was stopping me but I sure wanted to. A part of me was stopping me from even starting the conversation with the unknown person while another part was urging me to the good deed.

Just a few days ago, when I was sitting in the same bus with another (unknown) colleague, I found it so easy to ask if Sachin had got to his momentous 200, but now, when I wanted to do a good deed, it was such a humongous task. Simple words – “Would you like to have some…?” But the words just wouldn’t come, even though I knew the other person would politely refuse! I tried and tried, I mentally spoke but physically it just wouldn’t come out! I finally felt so guilty eating all by myself, that I took the direct approach: I stopped thinking and blurted out the question. As expected, the person politely refused. Phew! What a relief to just ask and be rid of the guilty conscience!

Why is it so difficult to do a good deed? Why do we feel embarrassed?

Then I remembered Trevor McKinney in Pay It Forward. A simple story of doing 3 good deeds, and how the world gets transformed…

Quotes on Life

"It is a disturbing thought that we suffer in this world just as much by being prudent and taking precautions as we do by being rash and impulsive and acting as the spirit moves us."

"Freddie, resplendent in evening dress, bustled in, patting his tie with solicitous fingers. It had been right when he had looked in the glass in his bedroom, but you never know about ties. Sometimes they stay right, sometimes they wiggle up sideways. Life is full of these anxieties."

"Life was like one of those shots at squash which seem so simple till you go to knock the cover off the ball, when the ball sort of edges away from you and you miss it. Life was apt to have a nasty back-spin on it."

"Mankind is divided into two classes, those who do sitting-up exercises before breakfast and those who know they ought to but don't."

By P G Wodehouse in The Little Warrior

Ambitious?

Everybody in the family is happy and excited. But I am a little concerned. I have my reasons. And I have my questions.

Am I being too ambitious? Is this the way I want to lead my life?

Its funny how Life takes you even when you have no clear cut goals and you just flow with the river. And boy, its not boring.