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Showing posts from 2016

Mangalore Trip -- Rumblings

One more trip with families –  Five of them this time and with age group starting from Eight years to 77 ! and the visit was to  temples closer to the Mangalore belt. Planning had to be done well in advance for it was the ‘Season “ . I will not dwell in to the temples and their importance – You could easily get details of the temples from “Google Swami” . But I thought of penning down few things that really made the trip , a memorable one— Tickets If I said the  guy  ( one amongst us) who booked the tickets went bonkers  , it would have been an understatement . We wanted to leave on 23 rd evening . So, tickets were booked but we ended up with  Wait listed tickets for 14 of us . Railway Pundits after lot of algorithms  and backend work , concluded  and advised us that we had no chance of getting tickets confirmed . May be three or four of the fourteen will get confirmed but not all was the verdict. So , we had to do Plan B. To our pleasant surprise, we found confirmed ticke

Random Rumblings

I went through two incidents on Diwali Day when most things just gets shut down – Interesting experience –  On a normal day ,  things that could get fixed so easily with no effort,  can turn in to a frustrating experience on a day when the whole town celebrates..  Incident 1 : First over lunch , my daughter had the wires of her braces come off half way—She was uncomfortable –The dental clinic that she goes normally is a 5 minute drive—We went there and it was shut down totally… The problem was not urgent but had to be fixed – I just kept driving along the roads looking for all Dental clinics and whatever we could find,  were closed. I tried the mobile phone to look up at more dental clinics in and around and it is at this point , the connection will not work .  With no luck in finding Dental Clinics , went to the closest Hospital that did Day Surgeries at this place. That was deserted as well . We are asked to go to Emergency , where the duty doctor indicated that he cannot p

A Rural School Visit -- a Pleasant One

Visiting schools and Interacting with School children is fun. And, if it happens to be a school far away from the hustle and bustle of a city, it can only be better!! This visit was  long overdue. Earlier this year, we planned to visit the school in February  but due to  my tight work schedules , had to move it  to this week of August. As most are aware , the Ford Digital Literacy program reaches out far and wide across the country. Among many schools / Colleges/ NGO’s / Institutions that benefitted was this school that is located at MadhaPattinam, some 25 Kms ( approx. ) from the  Tenkasi  Town in Tirunelveli District. A colleague from  Ford ( thank you Geetha Paulmani ) recommended this school for Computer donations last year. Ford made  computers available to the school. The school put up a computer lab  that enabled the much needed access to Computer Education for close to 1700 children. Just as background, the school was started by a noble soul, with all his retirement s

Bhutan Trip

Bhutan was a destination  that looked very palatable for a nice , leisure holiday with closeness to nature  and going as a group was something that would add to the merry. Five families  , all known to each other for probable two decades  decided to join in. One of the things that we agreed was to use a Travel Agency service  for the trip.  After the usual quotes from different vendors , we narrowed down on a vendor that was good in terms of cost , reputation  and the package that was offered met our expectations in terms of the stay arrangements and food . We also requested that the ten of us be given a separate vehicle , so that we could go as one group and avoid other travelers that may be in the same package . Some things that worked so well because of using a tour operator : 1.     The arrangements were spotless – pick up from Airport to drop back after seven days – 2.     Everything worked on time – start in the morning , the breaks , the lunch arrangements and the places

Short Break -- But what a whale of a time !

Planning for this trip began probably several months ago . No, we were not going overseas but to  Mysuru, the lovely Palace town in the neighboring state of Karnataka. Total of eight families signed up and the travel party was around 29 including  13 children. The eldest of the travel team was my mother @ 77 and the youngest at 5. Each one took on assignments to make the three day time off , the most pleasant as it could be . One of the things that was of paramount importance was that we all wanted to be together and this was possible if we could find a “ Home stay ” accommodation that could house all of us . We did find one,   thanks to one of the members , being a pioneer in discovering and enjoying home stays where ever  he goes. The next was to book train tickets, which again was driven by the Lead  Organizer of this entire trip . Meticulous planning of every detail  was his forte . The children all got excited much ahead of the travel days which was May 5-8. They connected ov

Consumer Experience

Over the last week end , I was flying back from Cochin and I had checked in and was waiting for the boarding call to Chennai .  I use this airline all the time ever since I flew with them for the first  in early 2007. They are normally “  ON  Or Well ahead of time” and   I also like them for the way they manage the process, everyone looks busy and are always “ raring to go’ kind of people  and there is no slackness in their routines. Neat and Efficient would sum their style of operations. Launched in 2007, this is one of the most successful private airlines from India .Most times , they would have either taxied on the runway or be airborne before the scheduled departure time. So, this Sunday , there was no call in to board – and it was past the time that the flight was to leave . I was surprised that they did not even announce a delay . However , in the next few  minutes which was past their flying time  , anxious  people started  queuing up at their boarding gate  and ten minu

Calypso Cricketers- Title Winners Cricket T20

The West Indies had the last laugh in both forms of the T20 World Cup. First their Women out batted the Aussie Women to break the Aussie monopoly on Women’s T 20 World Cup  and  then their men blew hot and cold before a storm called Carlos Braithwaite  wiped England out . But before they got to the Finals , the West Indies ( WI ) , did the unthinkable – knocking host and favourite India out of the Contention. The semifinal between India and  WI was a great match . India batting first , put runs on the board—thanks once again to Virat—Exceptional batting and  superb running between the wickets, made sure India got to a total that to me was probably twenty runs short . Although we made good progress , there was no big overs in the innings that would have helped India get to a 215-220 and that probably cost us the match. WI although losing Gayle had enough hitters ( not batters ) who went about the task merrily to get them home very easily. Lendl Simmons who just joined the team p

The 20-20 World Cup 2016 so far

I had restrained writing on this favourite Indian  sport  till the group league matches were completed and we had the four semifinalists identified ( West Indies , England , New Zealand and India ).  With that now cleared  , here is my take  : India came in to the tournament as the Favorites to win – Plenty of reasons : 1.        No reason – India will win, that is all. 2.        Home matches , crowd support , better equipped to manage the local conditions 3.        Run of the form – India have done extremely well in the lead up to this tournament – beat Australia at their own backyard 3 – 0 and then clinched the Asia Cup in the same formats. 4.        It was time to recapture the cup that we last won in 2007 in the inaugural tournament But the four matches that the Indian team played so far  , they would have pushed their supporters to the wall –  nail biting finishes , a loss that hurt at the start and inability of the top order to deliver. First , against the

Impactful Contributions

Early in March  of this year , two events that I attended on behalf of Ford brought great happiness and smiles , Cheer , Joy and so much optimism. Just to give background , Ford distributes” End of Life Computers” to needy organisations – these could be schools , colleges , NGO ‘s across India  . Rotary is their partner in identifying the need and ensuring that the deployment takes place and the Computers are used only what it is meant for  . Over the last several years , this program has been a great success, benefitted many and given access to those who may have never been  able to access or touch a Computer. Several impactful stories can be narrated on the benefits of this project. With that background , my first stop was at a school in North Chennai – an areas that has its own challenges –  rusty background , low or nil income levels , people living on daily wages , closeness to Port and its impact on the society and lack of good , quality schools that can make a big chan

What do you call this ?

I am sure the heading did make you open the link in to the blog.  A simple discussion and flow of events made me pen this down. The Security in my flat is taken care by people from a neighboring nation – do not let your imagination Go Green on where they come from  .   in fact , most of the security jobs in and around flats in my  locality are taken care by these people. Some are with their families here  ,  for most , the families are back home and they visit their families at least once a year. The two guys plan in tandem on their vacation planning ,arranging  substitutes  , transition when on guy goes off on vacation  is done so smoothly and we only see a new face for a two or three month period. No issue with payments . allowances , car washing allocation ( additional money they get when they clean cars of flat residents  and that is allocated to each Security guard) , shift planning ( they rotate from day shift to night shift  every two weeks )  etc. Everything is managed

The Smart Flower Vendor

 Last week , the Friday  was one of those days – I had an external meeting that ended slightly early and I reached home much ahead of my regular irregular time— The timing was like the Madura Coats advertisements of the late 80’s for their Business Clothing – the  9 to 5 Man  Advertisement ( how many of you remember this advertisement ? ) Having reached early , we decided to go for a stroll on the beach – just a stroll , walk on the sand and get back – As we entered the beach , the flower vendor ( lady ) was instantly selling Jasmine flowers to my wife. My wife ignored the call and walked past the vendor. After the stroll , as we made our way back to the parking lot , we had to pass the Flower vendor again. She was at it again.  Calling out my wife..” It would look great on you “( flowers )—that was the sales pitch. Again , my wife hesitated – the flower vendor then made the offer – I will give the Hair Pin for you to lock the flowers on your hair—that  clinched it . My wife go

Swachh Bharat

T his is my first  blog post of 2016. I did not realise that I had missed writing blogs for the past three or more  months . ( last post was Oct 2015 ) One of my very good mentors at the Rotary noticed  that there was no posts from me  and prodded me –“ Do not stop the writing habit  in you” . The question was very timely from him.  And that prompted me to introspect – Was there any reason to stop writing ? I realised that there was a big diversion .. The rains of November and December and its  aftermath that had an impact on my daily schedule . That could have been the only reason for me to miss out writing .  Either way , I am back to writing and the post is about “ Open Defecation “ and how we ( Ford ) are trying to help avoid open defecation. Earlier towards the end of 3 rd quarter 2015, Ford had taken the initiative to build  Toilets and we looked around to see how we can do this effectively. There was a team that went around several places to see how we get this pr