innocent dialogues

inspired by the blog of my friend: http://innocentdialogue.blogspot.com/..  couple of conversations involving my elder son..

Conversation 1:
Me: You keep breaking all your toys. You know that we have to pay money to buy toys, if you keep breaking toys from where will we get the money to buy new toys?

Elder Son: From the bank!

-------------------------------------

Conversation 2:
(my uncle visited to see the newborn younger son and as indian tradition warrants he presented the son with a 100 rupee note. promptly my elder son goes to him..)
Elder Son: What about me?
Uncle: This is for the newborn. you got yours when you were newborn.
Elder Son (disappointed): So this is for newborns, oldborns dont get it! :(

even school buses??...

on my way to the college today afternoon stopped alongside a Christ school bus at a signal. there were some loud voices coming from the bus. Turned out to be some fight the kids had within themselves and the bus conductor was intervening. One kid was crying with a hand over his right eye (i presumed he must have got hurt).. lo and behold the conductor landed a couple of blows on the other kid.

this is no different from my earlier post on the school private vans, but that was worse since it carried tiny tots and not grown ups like this bus. Still i found it strange that the conductor assumes such authority to intervene in a arguement and get physical!!

I was thinking school buses are better off than vans.. now i dont know. I have decided that wherever my kids land up in school I will personally pick and drop them.

twitter here and twitter there

Been really taken in by twitter and the social networking phenomenon behind that. Its a nice concept. One that sort of merges IM, instant messaging and SMS and social networking.

am finding it useful to network with others who are doing dissertation and other researchers, also sharing findings on research tools etc.

if you are interested follow my updates on http://www.twitter.com/srinitata

Technorati Tags: Twitter, social networking

Private Vans for your school going child? think again!

Today whilst waiting to pick up my son from his pre-primary school in Jayanagar 4thT Block, me and my mom were observing the 'private' vans who came to pick up their children.

Most of them are Maruti Omni vans which try to overstuff the little children into them. The driver generally is alone and finding it impossible to manage that number of children, is not able to safely cater to them. The children cross the (small) street on their own up to the van, some adventurous kids will try to break out and explore the surroundings, some will try to even get into the van themselves so as to grab their favourite spot. (the street just needs one rash driver to do the unimaginable. if one Karthik Somaiya can wreak so much havoc on elders imagine his effect on tiny tots.)

Today's incident takes the cake. In their rush one of the LKG or UKG kid got pushed and fell down. The driver (vehicle plate ending 5674) immediately got agitated and hit(!) the kid right behind the 'fallen' kid. We didnt know what transpired between them, but the driver rallied some more blows on the hapless child. After the kid got in, still the driver stretched in and gave him some more blows. Whatever the kid was saying or doing notwithstanding, he was still a tiny kid. what rights did the driver have to hit him so much? And all this was happening just metres from the school gates.

When I complained about this to my son's teacher I was told that the school did not have any authority over these drivers. It was solely between the parents and the van drivers.

I only wish I had video shot the entire scene - maybe then parent will be more careful about using such van drivers again.

apart from the above most of these drivers also use their mobile phones while driving with their van-load of kids. I can only ominously see an impending tragedy waiting to happen. God save us.






Technorati Tags: private van, school, driver, rash, behaviour

discovered one good and easy way to boost self-confidence

after months of debating I finally decided to ask for recommendations from my LinkedIn network for my work done with them. (the debate was whether to 'sink' my & others' efforts on this site)...

and it was nice to see recos pouring in from people far (time and space) away... and I realized while reading and approving them that they acted as a major boost for my self-confidence. They weren't typically any different from what I know about myself - but its good to read positive things about yourself from others' mouths.

And since one can choose people to ask recommendations from, they are most likely to be positive recommendations for you!

I think this is a great way to improve your resume and your self-confidence!!

Technorati Tags: linkedin, self-confidence, resume

Beware of these HiFi shops and offers!!

Two stories that can make you think twice about shopping in malls

story 1 - SPAR:
I have started patronizing Spar on Bannerghatta road ever since it opened, mainly for the fresh veggies they provide. Generally I have had not had major complaints this far. This one takes the cake.

I picked up a Godrej Mosquito repellant combo pack which provided a new Base and a refill pack free. This (thanks Godrej!!) comes in a flimsy open small cardboard box. Without a thought I read the pack and plonked it in my cart. When the scene moved to the time I opened it at home, guess what! The refill pack was not there at all in the pack! Luckily it still had the base.

The box had definitely been opened, either by a sick customer or a sick employee. Either ways I lost in the bargain, paying for that sicko's act. I didnt go back to the store as its out of way and I didnt want to spend the effort.


Story 2 - Shopper's Stop
We saw the adverts all over the media for 'upto 51% off' at the Shopper's Stop and since we already had some gift vouchers from them to redeem, we were all the more tempted. We decided to buy some stuff for my son's upcoming birthday in April. So far so good -we found some nice deals on jeans, undergarments and t-shirts for him. Some were on 20% sale, some were on 50% sale (i really dont know what they had on 51% sale!!) and some carried two price tags with varied rates and an advertisement flap which mentioned again whether it was a 20% or 50% sale. Fastforward to the 'nice' billing section. The guy starts scanning the barcodes (doesnt find one on the jeans).. meantime I am shocked to see the numbers that pop on the green LED display - they show the undiscounted rates. When I ask the guy he says something, then does something and the new prices appear. He says that it doesnt work automatically and that the tags are already showing the discounted rate. I was furious. First of all the store CONFUSES shoppers by having multiple tags and discount figures on the same item. Then the checkout employee doesnt have a clue as to what is happening. And if the machines were not taking the discounted rates automatically I am disgusted. I wonder how many have been taken for a ride by now (The sale is still on!!!). Please check your lists carefully if you decide to venture there to save a quick buck!


Now.. I know that two incidents dont make a trend. But I would bet that these kind of incidents would not happen at my mom & pop store that I frequent. Agree that he may not be able to offer such volume discounts/variety.. but hey at least my Blood Pressure aint Rising!!!

Update (Feb 20, 2009): One heartening outcome is that I got a mail the next day from Shoppers Stop customer relations enquiring whether I got the discount at all and thanking me for bringing this incident in the open. I think this is definitely the way forward for all retail/service companies to keep tabs on opinions and incidents via the Net. I give shoppers stop a plus point for this one, at least!

My blog had been sleeping all this while (almost a year now).. and the one thing to wake me up is the dastardly act of terrorism on my birthplace. I have been born in mumbai and have visited the Gateway many a times. I feel really sad that a handful of disoriented men were allowed to wreak such havoc on innocents and heritage monuments!

I could not stay away from the news channels which did not breathe any other news till this operation was over. And I share the agony and frustration that many people have expressed over the lack of disaster management that our governments have in place today.

Incidentally while this whole tragedy was unfolding I was watching the movie 'A wednesday' and saw the amazing practical validity of the protagonist's actions. I guess the world really needs 'Anniyans' who can mop up the mess.

one more photo picked up for publication..

one more picture that i took is being evaluated for publication..

check it out.

a trip to my native village

last week i drove down to my native village, near vandavasi in tiruvannamalai district. i havent been there for more than an hour, in my whole life. my grandparents and my father moved out from there ages ago, in search of better work etc. a handful of our people still live there.

the occasion was my grandfather's 100th birthday celebrations. he was a great sanskrit vidwan. we had to spend a day and a half and also sleep a night there. we felt quite excited about it. it was, after all, our native land - made pure by our ancestors. my son would also be introduced to the place.

i was excited even about the drive - since any trip which involves driving (except to city centers ;) ) pumps my adrenalin. i checked the maps and the routes to the place. referred my cousin bro for directions.

our drive was doomed from the start - thanks to the lovely bangalore traffic, at 7.30am. it took us an hour or so to reach electronics city from jayanagar, on hosur road. from there it was quick to krishnagiri and then we took the diversion to tiruvannamalai, to get further to tindivanam and then vandavasi. this patch was HORRIBLE!! it is called NATIONAL HIGHWAY 66 (NH66) and i couldnt believe that the highway could be in this state and that too in south india where roads normally are good. the road had holes the size of craters.. even buses had to let go of their speed for them.

a total 7 gruelling hours later we made it.. 3pm!luckily in time for closer of the day's events and lunch - yum! the village was fabulous and held us in its magical awe.. we immediately felt like buying a house and making regular trips there!! the greenery was amazing. the sweet (almost family) temple. it was a lovely experience. check it out:

we stayed the night there. had celebrations the next day. and after a grand lunch left to chennai to spend the weekend with our parents. returned back to bangalore - and experienced the lovely traffic on hosur road (the NICE road was closed that day). all in all an excellent trip!!

my world is changing....

things are not the same anymore and things will not be the same anymore. after thirteen long years in ONE I.T. company (name will be revealed pretty soon!) i have decided to take the plunge into further studies.

i will be shortly joining the indian institute of management bangalore for a fellow program (ph d) in organizational behaviour and human resources area.

currently i am on a 'vacation' having quit in may and enjoying an 'unemployed' phase.

will post more on my trysts with the company while leaving it... how i will manage my life going on... etc.

till then