Bangalore city may not have sky scrapers , but if you plot a graph of
the increase in property prices over the last few years you will surely get
huge sky scrappers.
Same is the case with house rents , Bangalore house owners are ones who
have made most of the 'IT' boom , whether IT really boomed or not for us poor techies who came into the scene late , the rents have certainly boomed.
There is an increase of 50 % over the normal rates if a house
owner comes to know that his prospective tenant is an IT guy ! Also a min of 10 rent advance to it ... Thats literally the ground reality
in the IT capital.
Everyone blames IT guys for the increase in rent ! What will we poor
non-IT guys do they always ask/tell me . his was one complaint which we
keep hearing again and again. But I would say its not really fair to
blame IT ppl for the increase. this increase happnes because of the
perception that these guys earn a lot and hence wont mind paying.
A couple of years back a few friends of mine were hunting for a house
in B'lore and they saw a 2 bedroom house for which the previous tenants
had paid 5k per month. This guy met my friends and told them that rent
would be 7500 ! They were shocked as the guy was suggesting 50 %
increase , when asked why such a huge hike . The owner seemed surprised
that these guys were making noise for a small inc ; "you are making a
lot of money, right?" he asked. "I dont think the increase is huge for
ppl of your standards", he continued. Then my friend asked him "How
much do you think I earn in a month?" , the owner smiled and said he is
not very good at guessing these things and siad it was common knowledge
that software guys make a lot of money compared to men like him. Upon
further prompting , he said he will hazard a guess and added that he
was just making a conservative guess "Maybe 1 or maybe 2 Lacs?"
My friends were shocked and told him they make 10-15 % of the amount.
he guy wouldn't believe it , no way he kept repeating , I always read
about techies getting shares and being millionares ...
That seems to be the general perception , and the reason for this huge
increase in house rents in some areas of B'lore generally preffered by
software guys.
Another big reason for the increase in rents is the stupidity of ppl of
our ilk , there are some ppl who pay whatever is asked without checking
the general trend and the rates in that area , when one guy starts
paying others are expected to follow the suit and then automatically
the rent in that area increases. The reason why some pay is that they
usually take a house for rent as group of 4-6 , since the rent is
divided between them an increase of 1000 means just an inc of 200 to
each one so they dont mind.
Also the owners just jack up the rent so that even if ppl negotiate
they get a big increase over previous rates.
A friend of mine was looking for 3 bedroom house in Koramangla ,B'lore.
After seeing an ad in papers he called up the house owner.
This is what happened.
my Friend: "I heard you have a house in Koramangla , im interested , is
it available"
the Owner : "Actually a few people have come and seen it , but it is
avaiable as of now , are you interested"
F :"I want to know more details , like the rent and facilities .."
O : "Where did you come to know about this house?"
F : "from my office bulletin board , there was an ad , but no rent was
mentioned , can you please tell me the rent"
O : "oh you work there ... , the rent is ... 15000 "
F : "WHAT 15000 .....!!!"
O : "Hmm 12000 (?) ..."
F : "WHAT 12000 !!!"
O : :"Ok , 10000 then..."
F : (sensing that his incredulous reactions were working ) "10000
?!!!"
O : "ya , i cant reduce below that"
F : "Its too much sir"
O : "Not really , there was a guy who was ready to pay 9500 , im sure
i will get someone for 10k"
F : "Best of luck sir , bye"
Acc to my friend the correct rates in that area would be around 8-9 k
mark but pretty soon it would touch 10k , coz some fool would think
owner wanted 12k and would negotiate for 10k. Sure enough , today 1 yr
down that lane you wont find a house of that size in that area for less
than 10k !!!
Another area where these owners make profit is the painting clause in
the agreement. An amount is specified in one corner of the agreement as
painting charges , it gets charged wherther you vacate after one year
as expected or much before (which happens most often than not , for IT
guys coz of job switches , onsites etc..) . Even if you vacate house
after just 2 months , though ther is someone ready to occupy the house
the same day you move out (thats the kind of demand ! ) still the owner
will charge you for painting , though he never does the painting is
another fact which never gets noticed.
Last month i vacated the house i was staying for last 1.5 yrs and moved
to a new place. We had never caused any roblem to the owner so we didnt
expect any hassles when we went to collect the advance . But it was not
to be , the guy who was always around to collect the rent , turned out
to be very busy when we wanted to get our advance (10 months rent )
back ! Atlast one month after i moved out we managed to get an
'appointment' with him . He cribbed a lot about not beinf able to find
a tenant since we had not given enough time and all then told us we
will have to pay for the painting or get the painting done ourselves.
The agreement had Rs 4000 approx as painting charges . He said that the
word aprrox was there and that by agreement we were supposed to take
care of painting. then he dropped the bomb by showing us some estimates
ranging from 10k to 8k. The cheapest option was 8k , so pay that.
Me n my roomie looked at each other with disbelief , "that sis 100 % inc
sir" , we protested, But the man would not budge after a long round of
negotiations and lot of talk about you big 'IT' guys , we small house
owners and all such things we settled for 1000 more than the orignial
4000 as we intended. Atlast he calculated the balance amount he had to give us and wrote it down and asked us to verify , i checked it and handed it to my roomie , whose eyes seemed to be glowing as he went thru the figures , after that he took charge and quickly counted the balance money (all in cash!) and asked to get moving ,we told bye to him and as soon as we stepped outsid my roomie burst into laughter and said the guy made a totalling mistake lets get out of sight before he realises and then we ran !!! That occasion GOD was on our side as the owner made
a calculation mistake and gave 1000 extra to us , so in effect we ended
up paying the same amount as we intended !!!
But not everytime u get that lucky , i shudder to think what will happen if
i have to vacate my current house . Its not the extra money that hurts
, its the tendency or that feeling there is nothing wrong in getting a few extra bucks from guys who earn a lot , which hurts ...
Dont know what name ppl keep fot this tendency , I call it looting !
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Mind Matters
Dont know what to call it : sixth sense , ESP or just a set of coincidences , but it always happens to me during my Bus journeys to B'lore from my hometown.
Let me be more clear though im still confused , or in other words let me clearly expalin a confusing thing . Ok , Ok ... Well this is 'it' ... Almost twice a month I go home during weekend and when i travel back to B'lore by Bus , I always wake up when i reach near a particular place 8-10 Km from Outer edge of B'lore city on the (in)famous Hosur Road.
Now the most puzzling thing is that this particluar point on the highway is just near where my office is located. To put it more clear terms , I seem to wake up from sound sleep , when i reach a familiar strech on the road. My mind seems to sense the fact the surroundings are familiar and gives a signal for me to wake up.
Its really unbelievable , the power of human mind or is it Brain ?
Sample this , I saw this happen on 5 different trips to B'lore from my hometown , on all the occassions the time at which we reached this particular point was different , once it was @ 4:50 AM , then once at 5:25 and another occassion at 5:50 AM , still i woke up just when i reached this place on the Hosur Road , which is roughly near my office !!!
Discussed this with a lot of my frens , we had diff theories , one I liked the most was that I travel to office daily on a particular 10 Km strech and reach my office , so the pattern of the Road is imprinted in my mind and when it reaches that strech of the Road , it recognises it subconsciously and wakes me up coz I have to get down before the regular busstop . So unless i wake up i cant get down at a place near my flat , mind recognises this dire need and remains active and alerts me !
Somthing similar happens to me when i have to get early for some emergency , for eg if i keep Alarm clcok for 5:00 , i gen wake up at 4:55 or something in time to switch off the alarm !
How and Why ? Just dont know and Dont Mind ! Thats mind ...
Let me be more clear though im still confused , or in other words let me clearly expalin a confusing thing . Ok , Ok ... Well this is 'it' ... Almost twice a month I go home during weekend and when i travel back to B'lore by Bus , I always wake up when i reach near a particular place 8-10 Km from Outer edge of B'lore city on the (in)famous Hosur Road.
Now the most puzzling thing is that this particluar point on the highway is just near where my office is located. To put it more clear terms , I seem to wake up from sound sleep , when i reach a familiar strech on the road. My mind seems to sense the fact the surroundings are familiar and gives a signal for me to wake up.
Its really unbelievable , the power of human mind or is it Brain ?
Sample this , I saw this happen on 5 different trips to B'lore from my hometown , on all the occassions the time at which we reached this particular point was different , once it was @ 4:50 AM , then once at 5:25 and another occassion at 5:50 AM , still i woke up just when i reached this place on the Hosur Road , which is roughly near my office !!!
Discussed this with a lot of my frens , we had diff theories , one I liked the most was that I travel to office daily on a particular 10 Km strech and reach my office , so the pattern of the Road is imprinted in my mind and when it reaches that strech of the Road , it recognises it subconsciously and wakes me up coz I have to get down before the regular busstop . So unless i wake up i cant get down at a place near my flat , mind recognises this dire need and remains active and alerts me !
Somthing similar happens to me when i have to get early for some emergency , for eg if i keep Alarm clcok for 5:00 , i gen wake up at 4:55 or something in time to switch off the alarm !
How and Why ? Just dont know and Dont Mind ! Thats mind ...
Monday, May 15, 2006
Whose line is it anyway ?
There was a popular TV show by this name , but the line im talking about is'nt the spoken one but the ones in which you stand in or atleast supposed to stand in also known as Queue. But tis a sad fact that ppl these days hardly recognize a Q even when they see it. Guess govt needs to promulgate some spl law to save this dying practice !
One explaination i got for this phenomenon is that Its a fast world where no one has time and everyone wants their way , hence the lack of respect for Queues. But if some ppl start following Queues then others will automatically follow was the gen opinion at my office.
One day we had a big discussion on my office bulletin board about such behaviour , some suggested a course in courtesy towards fellow employees as part of training to freshers (majoriy of offenders were new joinees) , but then majority opinion was that such things need not be taught in training , but infact should have been part of the life when ppl join the organisation , consensus was that the best way to get it enforced is to drive home the point to the offender in public that what he/she is doin is wrong so that the message is heard loud and clear and such incidents dont get repeated.
I always used to get upset when ppl broke Qs but cud never muster courage to shout at the guy/gal who did it and always used to end up cursing them under my breath or cribbing to my frens. One day i decided enuf was enuf i had to act. Then it happened ...
We were standing on a looooong Lunch Q in a horribly mismanaged office canteen which had been newly opened and hence (as ppl hadnt really tasted that food much! ) was having a huge turnout resembling a first day first show of any blockbuster movie. Three of us (each one of us big cribbers) were standing in that Q and cribbing about everything under sun esp the size of the Q , the huge delays and all ... and finally we thought the ordeal had come to an end as my friend who was standing before me in the line was about to buy the food coupon ...
Suddenly one guy, who seemed to be man in hurry, appeared out of nowhere and handed a Rs.50 note to my friend who was about to buy the coupon , and cooly said " Buddy , please get me a Roti Curry". My friend , controlled the urge to put the Q breaker to proper place and decide to give him a cold shoulder and procceded to gaze vacantly somewhere else while counter guy was issuing him the coupon .But this man was not one to give up , he repeated his order/request again. This time my friend cudn't stand it and with gr8 restraint told him strenly to go and stand in the Q like everone else.
The guy still wont give up , " C'mon it wont affect you , just get my coupon after you get yours " , he suggested.
At this point i lost my cool and I shouted at the guy " But i will be affected" , the decibel levels had gone up considerably and ppl around had turned to look at us . Sensing a good chance with my adrenalin levels at an all time high , I continued in full volume "You think all of us standing in Q are idiots? If you want to get a coupon you can join at the back of the Q".
The guy stared at us as if we were some aliens from a distant planet in the outer rim of the galaxy and with shake of his head he moved away. Meanwhile we were thrilled at having achieved a sort of moral victory and resolved to continue our crusade for bringing orderliness in our surroundings. After this I have always been a crusader for maintaining Qs and these days find a lot of ppl like us on that day doin the policing !
One explaination i got for this phenomenon is that Its a fast world where no one has time and everyone wants their way , hence the lack of respect for Queues. But if some ppl start following Queues then others will automatically follow was the gen opinion at my office.
One day we had a big discussion on my office bulletin board about such behaviour , some suggested a course in courtesy towards fellow employees as part of training to freshers (majoriy of offenders were new joinees) , but then majority opinion was that such things need not be taught in training , but infact should have been part of the life when ppl join the organisation , consensus was that the best way to get it enforced is to drive home the point to the offender in public that what he/she is doin is wrong so that the message is heard loud and clear and such incidents dont get repeated.
I always used to get upset when ppl broke Qs but cud never muster courage to shout at the guy/gal who did it and always used to end up cursing them under my breath or cribbing to my frens. One day i decided enuf was enuf i had to act. Then it happened ...
We were standing on a looooong Lunch Q in a horribly mismanaged office canteen which had been newly opened and hence (as ppl hadnt really tasted that food much! ) was having a huge turnout resembling a first day first show of any blockbuster movie. Three of us (each one of us big cribbers) were standing in that Q and cribbing about everything under sun esp the size of the Q , the huge delays and all ... and finally we thought the ordeal had come to an end as my friend who was standing before me in the line was about to buy the food coupon ...
Suddenly one guy, who seemed to be man in hurry, appeared out of nowhere and handed a Rs.50 note to my friend who was about to buy the coupon , and cooly said " Buddy , please get me a Roti Curry". My friend , controlled the urge to put the Q breaker to proper place and decide to give him a cold shoulder and procceded to gaze vacantly somewhere else while counter guy was issuing him the coupon .But this man was not one to give up , he repeated his order/request again. This time my friend cudn't stand it and with gr8 restraint told him strenly to go and stand in the Q like everone else.
The guy still wont give up , " C'mon it wont affect you , just get my coupon after you get yours " , he suggested.
At this point i lost my cool and I shouted at the guy " But i will be affected" , the decibel levels had gone up considerably and ppl around had turned to look at us . Sensing a good chance with my adrenalin levels at an all time high , I continued in full volume "You think all of us standing in Q are idiots? If you want to get a coupon you can join at the back of the Q".
The guy stared at us as if we were some aliens from a distant planet in the outer rim of the galaxy and with shake of his head he moved away. Meanwhile we were thrilled at having achieved a sort of moral victory and resolved to continue our crusade for bringing orderliness in our surroundings. After this I have always been a crusader for maintaining Qs and these days find a lot of ppl like us on that day doin the policing !
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Meter Down ...
"Meter down ... down down down ..." goes a latest chartbuster song rendered by Adnan Sami ,But the song doesnt mean much in Tamil Nadu. No , its not because they dont follow Hindi songs , but coz such a thing as meter doesnt exist in the autos over here ! You wud have heard of the word motor mouth (for a talkative guy) , but in these parts of India be prepared for 'meter mouth' ie mouth is the meter , Whatever the auto driver says is the rate for ur trip. Ofcourse u can haggle , yes u r expected to haggle, so he always says 100 when he expects 60 bucks , u offer him 50 , then after a few rounds of negotiations when the hot sun gets to everyone , we settle for 60. The going rate is roughly 10 Rs for a km , double of meter charge , but still that seems to be the norm. Since i use the auto on rarest of rare occasions this impression of mine cud be wrong , it mite be worser than this !. After living in 3 southern states and not owning a vehicle at places other than my hometown of Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) , i have fairly decent idea of this unique 3 wheeler vehicle and the unique folk who sit in the drivers seat and rule the roads with their own brand of rules.
Having spent most of my life there , i thought i will begin with Gods own country.
In Kerala my to and fro auto trip is well etched in my memory of early school days.
I think they are by far the best Auto drivers down south ... no hassles with them !
But my 3 years in B'lore and some time in Mysore have all been full of complex negotiations n fights with Autowallas. They have meter , but once they know u r an outsider most ppl try to get something extra out of u , which sucks ...
There are good guys , but some rotten ones are enuf to give a bad name to the enite lot ,once they find that u dont speak kannada , the attitude changes.
I learnt bits n pieces of Kannada , just for dealing with Autowallas , I always found that once I give direction in kannada , the guy wud be willing to settle for the exact meter fare. Though acc to rules from 10 PM to 5 AM they can charge 1.5 times normal , anytime after 9 at night or before 7 in the morning becomes 'one and half ' time for the auto guy , similarly any place whhich has bad roads are 'one and half' journeys ! unless u r ready to shell out more money u wont find anyone willing to take u there. Similarly any place which is not on main road means 5-10 Rs extra !
Most of my trips to railway station ( after 9 @ nite ofcourse) means most often than not they guy will expect more than meter fare and an arguement will ensue. Almost everytime I get into arguement over the extra fare demanded and unfortunately end up cursing that guy and resolving to take the bus next time . Only to resolve to forget all that while waiting on the platform for the train which never arrives on time. While waiting on the platform i suddenly realise that the poor guy also has a family to feed and all and feel bad for gettin angry.
So last weekend as i was leaving for my trip home I waskinda prepared for this cycle of fighting and later regretting.I got into the Auto and noticed that the details of the driver including his name address and all were displayed in one corner , good going by authortites , I feel. As the auto approached Railway station , i shot a quick look at the Meter and at my watch , Rs42 and 9:55PM , the latter meant a possible verbal showdown as the time was close to 10 and so auto driver wud announce "sar , one and half fare ". Was ready with mental math and was prepared to settle for Rs50 and I was gettin ready to shout my response incase he asks for more than 50. I extended the Rs.50 note to him , he shot a quick look at the meter , here we go , i thought as i waited for him to go into the now familiar its late nite i need more / the gas rate has increased etc .. dialogue
But was pleasantly shocked when the guy gave me 8Rs back , with great struggle i managed a smile and uttered a relieved Thanks ! as i realised that good autowallas do exist in real life also not just in films !
Having spent most of my life there , i thought i will begin with Gods own country.
In Kerala my to and fro auto trip is well etched in my memory of early school days.
I think they are by far the best Auto drivers down south ... no hassles with them !
But my 3 years in B'lore and some time in Mysore have all been full of complex negotiations n fights with Autowallas. They have meter , but once they know u r an outsider most ppl try to get something extra out of u , which sucks ...
There are good guys , but some rotten ones are enuf to give a bad name to the enite lot ,once they find that u dont speak kannada , the attitude changes.
I learnt bits n pieces of Kannada , just for dealing with Autowallas , I always found that once I give direction in kannada , the guy wud be willing to settle for the exact meter fare. Though acc to rules from 10 PM to 5 AM they can charge 1.5 times normal , anytime after 9 at night or before 7 in the morning becomes 'one and half ' time for the auto guy , similarly any place whhich has bad roads are 'one and half' journeys ! unless u r ready to shell out more money u wont find anyone willing to take u there. Similarly any place which is not on main road means 5-10 Rs extra !
Most of my trips to railway station ( after 9 @ nite ofcourse) means most often than not they guy will expect more than meter fare and an arguement will ensue. Almost everytime I get into arguement over the extra fare demanded and unfortunately end up cursing that guy and resolving to take the bus next time . Only to resolve to forget all that while waiting on the platform for the train which never arrives on time. While waiting on the platform i suddenly realise that the poor guy also has a family to feed and all and feel bad for gettin angry.
So last weekend as i was leaving for my trip home I waskinda prepared for this cycle of fighting and later regretting.I got into the Auto and noticed that the details of the driver including his name address and all were displayed in one corner , good going by authortites , I feel. As the auto approached Railway station , i shot a quick look at the Meter and at my watch , Rs42 and 9:55PM , the latter meant a possible verbal showdown as the time was close to 10 and so auto driver wud announce "sar , one and half fare ". Was ready with mental math and was prepared to settle for Rs50 and I was gettin ready to shout my response incase he asks for more than 50. I extended the Rs.50 note to him , he shot a quick look at the meter , here we go , i thought as i waited for him to go into the now familiar its late nite i need more / the gas rate has increased etc .. dialogue
But was pleasantly shocked when the guy gave me 8Rs back , with great struggle i managed a smile and uttered a relieved Thanks ! as i realised that good autowallas do exist in real life also not just in films !
Saturday, April 29, 2006
A journey to remember
No , its not a trip to some fantastic place or a farway island or anything remotely resembling such stuff. The journey was essentially a simple one deviod of any gr8 incidents and was a simple auto trip from my house in B'lore to the Private Bus terminus. But it showed/highlighted the biggest flaw in me : I postpone things till last minute and dont do any planning. I was supposed to catch a bus @ 9 (as per ticket) and go home for looong weekend. But here i was watchin some interesting stuff on TV , discussing some nonsense which i dont even recall now with my roommate till 8:15 , then i went and packed my bags for the journey home and at 8:30 i step out of my house. Then slowly i open the ticket and lookep up the time and instead of the normal 10:00 , Departure time : 9:00 PM was staring at me ! and here i was just stepping out of my home at 8:30 , the place was 8km away and with Bangalore traffic it could take a real long time !
Luck seemed to be on my side as i spied on an auto as soon as i stepped into the street (normal days it cud take anythin b/w 10-15 to get an auto) and the guy agreed to come to the busstand. He was a middle aged guy and immediately started conversation with me in Kannada , my Kannda vocab being very very limited and the guy speaking nonstop , i stopped pretending to listen after a while and just supplied the "Yeah , Yeah" , occasionally to give him an impressiont that he had a compassionate audience willing to listen to his crubs against govt , fellow motorists and a few others whom i cudnt make out!
After a while I felt it wud be prudent to request him to go quicker as time was running out for me. "No way" repsonded the guy , "its impossible to make it by 9" he told me (in Kannda ofcourse) , he gave some explaintaion for it , which unfortunately i cudnt understand but got the bit about 4 signals standing in between me and my bus @ 9 .
My hopes slowly began to drain out of my as i started cursing myself for being so careless and irresponsible (i stop here as i the person all this being directed to is me) and swore that i will keep this a lesson and will defintely blog it as lesson to remember for myself . by now i was sure that i wud miss the bus ...
Then i started reminiscing about all the close shaves with buses and trains i have had , invariably something will happen which will delay me while i was in college and i wud be running and just ctaching the bus /train when it was moving most of the times ! Though always i wud promise myself that this kind of thing wil never happen. then one day i missed a train and after that i always used to be on the platform 30 min before ! i had been kinda following that for last 3-4 yrs but of late my old self had been resurfacing , and here i was sweatin , worried and tensed waiting for green light to flash at the first signal , with 3 more ahead...
Then suddenly it happened , things started swinging my way the autowala started driving fast (somewhat fast) and suddenly lady luck seemed to be firmly on my side as we somehow cleared all the signals without spending anytime waiting at 9:00 sharp i was at the bus terminus and cud see the my Bus still parked.
With an immense sign of relief and after thanking all the Gods i cud remember at that instant and the auto guy also for his part, i collected my luggage and glanced at the meter which stood at Rs 45.50
Feelin kinda happy at having made it inspite of not so fast auto ride , i gave the auto walla 50 bucks. "70 Rs" he announced , i was clearly shocked , "for what?" i asked , "Bhaiyya , meter is only 45 ".
The explaination he gave was a real gem
point 1:
"If not for me , you wud have missed the bus and wud have lost a lot of money, so i saved you money rite , cant u give extra"
Point 2:
"i drove fast for u" , i refuted that (cudnt control my laughter !) then he bettered that explaination with this one :
"But I helped you, I took the shortest route ,so that u cud reach faster and on time"
Now this really was startling ,the guy had admitted that he had planned to swindle me by taking a longer route and hence earn more money but now has not done it and was demanding money for being good !
Amazing logic... havent heard such a shocker for while , imagine a robber goin to a bank and negotiating for a few lakhs which he had planned to steal , but saved effort for everyone concerned by not doin it really ! ok im streching it too far , but this seemed a bit similar to that. Along with things like be responsible ,punctual , plan in advace , added 'avoid autos' also in things to remember for future !
ofcourse i dint pay him anything extra , but this trend of auto drivers demanding more than meter was not unusual , i guess i have enuf of such incidents for a seperate blog.
Now coming back to my original story , I rushed to the ticket counter and flashed my ticket , guy had a look at it and calmly announced "the bus is 10, there is a sofa here ,you can sit and wait here" !!!
Luck seemed to be on my side as i spied on an auto as soon as i stepped into the street (normal days it cud take anythin b/w 10-15 to get an auto) and the guy agreed to come to the busstand. He was a middle aged guy and immediately started conversation with me in Kannada , my Kannda vocab being very very limited and the guy speaking nonstop , i stopped pretending to listen after a while and just supplied the "Yeah , Yeah" , occasionally to give him an impressiont that he had a compassionate audience willing to listen to his crubs against govt , fellow motorists and a few others whom i cudnt make out!
After a while I felt it wud be prudent to request him to go quicker as time was running out for me. "No way" repsonded the guy , "its impossible to make it by 9" he told me (in Kannda ofcourse) , he gave some explaintaion for it , which unfortunately i cudnt understand but got the bit about 4 signals standing in between me and my bus @ 9 .
My hopes slowly began to drain out of my as i started cursing myself for being so careless and irresponsible (i stop here as i the person all this being directed to is me) and swore that i will keep this a lesson and will defintely blog it as lesson to remember for myself . by now i was sure that i wud miss the bus ...
Then i started reminiscing about all the close shaves with buses and trains i have had , invariably something will happen which will delay me while i was in college and i wud be running and just ctaching the bus /train when it was moving most of the times ! Though always i wud promise myself that this kind of thing wil never happen. then one day i missed a train and after that i always used to be on the platform 30 min before ! i had been kinda following that for last 3-4 yrs but of late my old self had been resurfacing , and here i was sweatin , worried and tensed waiting for green light to flash at the first signal , with 3 more ahead...
Then suddenly it happened , things started swinging my way the autowala started driving fast (somewhat fast) and suddenly lady luck seemed to be firmly on my side as we somehow cleared all the signals without spending anytime waiting at 9:00 sharp i was at the bus terminus and cud see the my Bus still parked.
With an immense sign of relief and after thanking all the Gods i cud remember at that instant and the auto guy also for his part, i collected my luggage and glanced at the meter which stood at Rs 45.50
Feelin kinda happy at having made it inspite of not so fast auto ride , i gave the auto walla 50 bucks. "70 Rs" he announced , i was clearly shocked , "for what?" i asked , "Bhaiyya , meter is only 45 ".
The explaination he gave was a real gem
point 1:
"If not for me , you wud have missed the bus and wud have lost a lot of money, so i saved you money rite , cant u give extra"
Point 2:
"i drove fast for u" , i refuted that (cudnt control my laughter !) then he bettered that explaination with this one :
"But I helped you, I took the shortest route ,so that u cud reach faster and on time"
Now this really was startling ,the guy had admitted that he had planned to swindle me by taking a longer route and hence earn more money but now has not done it and was demanding money for being good !
Amazing logic... havent heard such a shocker for while , imagine a robber goin to a bank and negotiating for a few lakhs which he had planned to steal , but saved effort for everyone concerned by not doin it really ! ok im streching it too far , but this seemed a bit similar to that. Along with things like be responsible ,punctual , plan in advace , added 'avoid autos' also in things to remember for future !
ofcourse i dint pay him anything extra , but this trend of auto drivers demanding more than meter was not unusual , i guess i have enuf of such incidents for a seperate blog.
Now coming back to my original story , I rushed to the ticket counter and flashed my ticket , guy had a look at it and calmly announced "the bus is 10, there is a sofa here ,you can sit and wait here" !!!
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Reserve or Deserve ?
Since its the hottest topic now with online petitions , sms polls and ppl on newschannels , sundry experts n just about everyone having their own expert view about it , So as a probable affected party ( thanks to my seemingly infinte attempts bell the CAT) i thought i'll also chip in with my 2 cents on reservation tangle .
For me the move to reserve close to 50% of seats in central univs n IITs n IIMs looks like an election eve 'bramastra' which annihilates all oppostion , but unlike normal promises, the ones we are pretty much used to and are conveniently forgotten and confined to bin after the elections are over, this seems to be more real n different and a dangerous and potent ace from HRD minister and by all means looks like 'Mandal Returns' a dreaded sequel to the original which created such a huge turmoil and though was hailed as a tool of social re-engineering which was designed to uplift a lot of careers but ultimately helped only some politicians uplift their political careers ! This along with the 'reservation in private sector' talk which has been going on for quite some time seems a lot more real suddenly and once they get converted to reality will surely alter the entire education and job scene.
We have been seeing a lot of online petitions , opinion polls , sms polls and interviews of common ppl from all over country and expert views and all seem to be agast and the general opinion would seem to suggest that there is a huge groundswell against such a move.
But how wrong we are ! the fact is that vast majority of the ppl who are voicing their concern onand lamenting the fact that merit is losing out to othe considerations are the ones who are affected by these. so there reaction is but natural.
Also the truth is that though India seems to be shining with Sensex zooming every other day and sectors like IT , manuacturing etc. gettin better n better by day the effect has made a lot of us pretty well to do. But the no:of ppl reping the rewards of this growth is far lesser
the downtrodden masses continue to remain so , education has not reached everyone
so the obivious step should be to ensure proper school education for the backward communties.
But thats real hard to implement and doesnt create headlines like throwing open half of the seats of India's most prestigious institutes like IITs n IIMs to backward communties.
But will they really benefit from these freebies is a really debatable. With someone pointing out what will happen if the companies which come for recruitment insist on knowing if you are a merit candidate or reservation guy , So the Question "Reserve or Deserve" in effect nullifies whatever the quota law was supposed to achieve for the ppl from backward communities!
Some ppl have hit back at such arguements saying give em a chance and see. Yes its true n sad that due to caste system lots of ppl had to suffer and remain outside the realm of development simply because of their birth. Its imperative that such discrimination has to be stopped and such ppl given chances and their fair share under the sun , but this certainly is not the way. Education from Primary onwards , spl coaching for less privileged and limited time bound resevations seem to be better soln to me esp in the light of statisctics like 50% of SC?ST students dont study beyond age of 10. So it is not rocket science to figure out where the system is going wrong , provding good infrascture and good teachers to Govt schools looks like the obvious soln.Im sure if we do a proper impartial analysis of this we can come up with many such initiatives which will benefit everyone instead of just accelerating brain drain by driving so called 'elite' students to foreign universites.
By this move only thing they will achieve is more divisionof society based on caste instead of eliminating caste system coz caste instead of losing its relevance as it rightly should these days have become passports to a secure future. There is always the danger of backlash from forward community students denied a fair chance in their own country and the rich might go abroad or use money power to get ahead but what about the poor they will simply fall behind jus like the backward communities did in previous centuries. Soon we may face a scenario where there will be need to provide reservations for forward community ! In short we are just repeating the mistakes of past and will be entering a vicious cycle.During a deabate on TV a few weeks back when ppl where fighting on merits of reservation , one of the panelists an IIM-A alumnus pointed out that we are still fighting over inc our share in the cake , when we should actually be looking at increasing the size of the cake !!!
I have seen many ppl in my student life who have got their seat in college because of reservations , but still did study hard (much harder than me i believe ! ) and put there best effort to make sure they succeded in life making using of the oppurtunity , but there were lots of others who never made that effort secure with the knowledge that their community ppl need only the barest min marks and govt jobs are always within reach as the competetion from their own communties is lot lesser. There were others who were from well off familes (the so called creamy layer), but still used reservation , when there were poor students from upper/not so backward castes who inspite of scoring marks were not able to secure admissions.
That looks like reverse discrimination to me . To stop an inequality you create another !
After 50 years of it not achieveing the desired result , ppl (politicians) are still clamouring for reservations and another surprising and heartening fact is the increasing no: of ppl who though coming under reservation , prefering not to take it and get their seats by merit. I was glad to have a few friends like that who refused crutches called 'reservation' and preferred to stand on their legs and fight with the rest. Gradually as more and more ppl get empowered , soon in not so distant past we will be hopefully be rid of quota system.
Oops ! wrong place ... Im dreaming about Utopia !!!
For me the move to reserve close to 50% of seats in central univs n IITs n IIMs looks like an election eve 'bramastra' which annihilates all oppostion , but unlike normal promises, the ones we are pretty much used to and are conveniently forgotten and confined to bin after the elections are over, this seems to be more real n different and a dangerous and potent ace from HRD minister and by all means looks like 'Mandal Returns' a dreaded sequel to the original which created such a huge turmoil and though was hailed as a tool of social re-engineering which was designed to uplift a lot of careers but ultimately helped only some politicians uplift their political careers ! This along with the 'reservation in private sector' talk which has been going on for quite some time seems a lot more real suddenly and once they get converted to reality will surely alter the entire education and job scene.
We have been seeing a lot of online petitions , opinion polls , sms polls and interviews of common ppl from all over country and expert views and all seem to be agast and the general opinion would seem to suggest that there is a huge groundswell against such a move.
But how wrong we are ! the fact is that vast majority of the ppl who are voicing their concern onand lamenting the fact that merit is losing out to othe considerations are the ones who are affected by these. so there reaction is but natural.
Also the truth is that though India seems to be shining with Sensex zooming every other day and sectors like IT , manuacturing etc. gettin better n better by day the effect has made a lot of us pretty well to do. But the no:of ppl reping the rewards of this growth is far lesser
the downtrodden masses continue to remain so , education has not reached everyone
so the obivious step should be to ensure proper school education for the backward communties.
But thats real hard to implement and doesnt create headlines like throwing open half of the seats of India's most prestigious institutes like IITs n IIMs to backward communties.
But will they really benefit from these freebies is a really debatable. With someone pointing out what will happen if the companies which come for recruitment insist on knowing if you are a merit candidate or reservation guy , So the Question "Reserve or Deserve" in effect nullifies whatever the quota law was supposed to achieve for the ppl from backward communities!
Some ppl have hit back at such arguements saying give em a chance and see. Yes its true n sad that due to caste system lots of ppl had to suffer and remain outside the realm of development simply because of their birth. Its imperative that such discrimination has to be stopped and such ppl given chances and their fair share under the sun , but this certainly is not the way. Education from Primary onwards , spl coaching for less privileged and limited time bound resevations seem to be better soln to me esp in the light of statisctics like 50% of SC?ST students dont study beyond age of 10. So it is not rocket science to figure out where the system is going wrong , provding good infrascture and good teachers to Govt schools looks like the obvious soln.Im sure if we do a proper impartial analysis of this we can come up with many such initiatives which will benefit everyone instead of just accelerating brain drain by driving so called 'elite' students to foreign universites.
By this move only thing they will achieve is more divisionof society based on caste instead of eliminating caste system coz caste instead of losing its relevance as it rightly should these days have become passports to a secure future. There is always the danger of backlash from forward community students denied a fair chance in their own country and the rich might go abroad or use money power to get ahead but what about the poor they will simply fall behind jus like the backward communities did in previous centuries. Soon we may face a scenario where there will be need to provide reservations for forward community ! In short we are just repeating the mistakes of past and will be entering a vicious cycle.During a deabate on TV a few weeks back when ppl where fighting on merits of reservation , one of the panelists an IIM-A alumnus pointed out that we are still fighting over inc our share in the cake , when we should actually be looking at increasing the size of the cake !!!
I have seen many ppl in my student life who have got their seat in college because of reservations , but still did study hard (much harder than me i believe ! ) and put there best effort to make sure they succeded in life making using of the oppurtunity , but there were lots of others who never made that effort secure with the knowledge that their community ppl need only the barest min marks and govt jobs are always within reach as the competetion from their own communties is lot lesser. There were others who were from well off familes (the so called creamy layer), but still used reservation , when there were poor students from upper/not so backward castes who inspite of scoring marks were not able to secure admissions.
That looks like reverse discrimination to me . To stop an inequality you create another !
After 50 years of it not achieveing the desired result , ppl (politicians) are still clamouring for reservations and another surprising and heartening fact is the increasing no: of ppl who though coming under reservation , prefering not to take it and get their seats by merit. I was glad to have a few friends like that who refused crutches called 'reservation' and preferred to stand on their legs and fight with the rest. Gradually as more and more ppl get empowered , soon in not so distant past we will be hopefully be rid of quota system.
Oops ! wrong place ... Im dreaming about Utopia !!!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
QLFC
No , it is not an insurance scheme or pension plan or Mutual fund offering or anything of that sort. QLFC expands to Quarter Life Crisis (added an F in between for Financial crisis / the crisis involving the more obvious 'F' word ;-) , wherever it is applicable along with the rest of the problems) , a term which is generating a lot of attention of late. Its something most of us can identify with and are actually going through.
a quick search on wikipedia gave me as the characteristics of QLFC :
* confusion of identity
* insecurity regarding the near future
* insecurity regarding present accomplishments
* re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
* disappointment with one's job
* nostalgia for college life
* tendency to hold stronger opinions
* boredom with social interactions
* financially-rooted stress
* loneliness
odds are that most of us have most of these !!!
Welcome to the quarter-life crisis.
What do I really want to do with my life?
is the question which we just dont have clue about and is the one we are supposed to ask ourselves n come up with a convincing answer during this stage of life
why are we so clueless , confused n frustrated ...
Is it becoz we have so many opportunities or so much freedom and so many choices ?
To an outsider , it looks like our gen has everything n we shuldnt be having any reason to crib
but then we know things are not all that rosy
It does not matter how well you are doing, when someone is doing a lot better than you.
seems to be the biggest problem !
whenver i get a feeling (mind u only a feeling , that too momentarily) that im doing well in life n earning decently , i get to hear about how much a friend or a friend's friend or his friend .... is earning n 'pop' that feelin disappears !
Come to think of it salary/money is just one of the worries , there are countless other factors which all add up to quite a potent combination and has a real unsettling effect on some.
Lots of ppl handle this in diff ways...
a few do' talk' about handling this by optin out of rat race and sorting out priorities in life , gettin their focus back on , rediscovering that urge n joy n what not , only to land up in office with same frown on the face monday after monday.
in short nobody seems happy , maybe its cool not to be happy
or maybe "grass is greener on the other side"
To be contd...
a quick search on wikipedia gave me as the characteristics of QLFC :
* confusion of identity
* insecurity regarding the near future
* insecurity regarding present accomplishments
* re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
* disappointment with one's job
* nostalgia for college life
* tendency to hold stronger opinions
* boredom with social interactions
* financially-rooted stress
* loneliness
odds are that most of us have most of these !!!
Welcome to the quarter-life crisis.
What do I really want to do with my life?
is the question which we just dont have clue about and is the one we are supposed to ask ourselves n come up with a convincing answer during this stage of life
why are we so clueless , confused n frustrated ...
Is it becoz we have so many opportunities or so much freedom and so many choices ?
To an outsider , it looks like our gen has everything n we shuldnt be having any reason to crib
but then we know things are not all that rosy
It does not matter how well you are doing, when someone is doing a lot better than you.
seems to be the biggest problem !
whenver i get a feeling (mind u only a feeling , that too momentarily) that im doing well in life n earning decently , i get to hear about how much a friend or a friend's friend or his friend .... is earning n 'pop' that feelin disappears !
Come to think of it salary/money is just one of the worries , there are countless other factors which all add up to quite a potent combination and has a real unsettling effect on some.
Lots of ppl handle this in diff ways...
a few do' talk' about handling this by optin out of rat race and sorting out priorities in life , gettin their focus back on , rediscovering that urge n joy n what not , only to land up in office with same frown on the face monday after monday.
in short nobody seems happy , maybe its cool not to be happy
or maybe "grass is greener on the other side"
To be contd...
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