Whatever...

Long long time ago, the human race was just evolving, and was learning how to cope up with health, hygiene and disease. I don’t know what ‘era’ or ‘age’ it was. Monolithic, bronze, stone or some yuga like dwaparyuga , tretayuga …etc. But it was an era when diseases spread fast, even simple ones like lose motion ! And people died of these little diseases. This was way before humans knew the benefits of personal hygiene or fresh cooking. I am talking about like really old times. But we were evolving. There was this one guy who took bath everyday (probably because he liked it). Lets call him the ‘clean guy’. He even had bath multiple times a day. He had learnt the art of cooking over fire. He knew how to make fire, and how to use it to roast or cook. So he cooked everyday in his cave. And he had bath before cooking, after cooking, before going out, after coming back to his cave…all the time! Now, other people who did not know how to cook, would hunt animals or get fruits and vegeta...

I have been living in a city for more than 10 years now. Before that, I have lived in a village in Goa, India. The total population of my village was less than five thousand. Whereas, since 2004, I have lived in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune & now Hyderabad. Being raised in a village, I have always had difficulty liking a city. In fact, the first time I visited a house on 14th Floor in Mumbai, I got a very weird feeling. It is a perspective I had never had in my village! Since then, I have tried to blend in, albeit forcefully. Over the last decade, having lived across cities, with all the constraints of a family man, I have zeroed in on 3 main issues that stare us in the face. And these issues have remediation (if not to resolve, at least ease it) at individual level. We need not wait for the government to do anything. I have already started doing my bit. This post is only for setting the context on each of these issues. I will dedicate another post individually to how I am trying...

Yes! Having settled the matter there, let us move forward with some rant since this is a blog... There are a lot of religious places that are banning women from entering. This includes temples, mosques and not sure if also a few churches. In retaliation, women and feminists are going all crazy calling it their fundamental right, challenging the diktat in court etc. I have a different view point on this and may sound crazy to a few, but since you are reading till now, go on further... Practicing your religion is your fundamental right, not going to a specific building. So just chuck it and practice your religion somewhere else. Just like if you want to gulp a few drinks but are not allowed in a specific bar because of dress code, you don't go to the judiciary or stage a protest!!?? You just go to the theka, get some daaru home and get high.  Why do you desperately want to go to a place that does not want you? Would you visit a jewellery shop or saari shop if they ill treat...

10/10/2010 was the exact date we purchased the Ford Figo Titanium 1.4 Diesel variant. Since I like to keep my vehicles in stock condition, it has not undergone any modification so far, except for non-stock tyres that came in at 50,000 Kms. I shifted from MRF to Yokohama with no upsizing. This post is intended to share the ownership experience over the last 5 years. After 5 years, this is what I still love about the car - It is spacious - one of the largest boot space in it's category. It can conveniently fit in a week's luggage (or even a month's) for a family of four. Also, the legroom is ample. With a 6 footer like me in driver's seat, 5 foot 10 inch adult can be comfortable in the rear seat even on long journeys. The cabin also feels quite spacious because of ample use of glass (and also because I have not used tint on them) Solid build quality - Even after 5 years, the interiors look like new. The plastics are still shiny and every button on the console has a ...

I was away for an year and had not received any property tax notice. So  was not sure how to pay the property tax at all since there was no base document with amount etc. So, I went to the GHMC office in Serilingampally and met a person in Revenue department. The process is quite straight forward. All you need is the TPIN of your house. You can get this from your old notices or receipts of property tax (even if the notice is not in your name). You simply have to give them the TPIN and they will tell you the amount with penalty, if any. Pay it by cash or by cheque and your receipt is handed over to you then and there. Easy! Apparently, this can also be done at any e-Seva counter. But, I have not tried it yet.

Liberalization, represented by Pepsico, entered our lives with this slogan in 1998. And since then it has held and grown it's roots through our existence. Everybody who was yet to take up a job in the 90's is today possessed with the 'need' for more. Mind it, it's not wanting more of everything but needing it! Today the careers we all are into are mostly driven by this need for more. More speed in cars, computers and phones, more return on investment, more homes to live, more luxury, more health care and what not. If you take a ratio of everything that is more today to what the same parameter was 20 years ago, the result will almost be infinity! But does all of this come for free? How come all of us are inclined to believe that this 'infinite' amount of 'progress' has come with no cost at all. In fact most of these things have become cheaper than they were 20 years ago. Isn't that hard to believe and against the order of nature? In my opinion,...

A couple of years ago I wrote this piece about how to work from home. From the stats and comments I received, it looked like a pretty famous topic close to many people's heart. However, after having worked from home for 2 years (and also having worked from office before that), I believe today that working from home ALL THE TIME is not such a good idea.  I am not denying the benefits of WFH entirely. You get to babysit when needed, spend time with parents if required, run errands etc. But, this cannot be the norm! The days you decide to work from your home should be an exception which should be generously allowed by your employer. Like, an acquaintance who worked from home for 6 months to look after her bed ridden mother. Or, like another friend who could work from home while her husband got transferred from city to city. But what changed my mind? Here it is - Networking: one of the main advantages of going to an office facility is when you come face to face with people wh...

I have been working for 11 years now. The first 2 years I spent in a bank. Doing trade finance operations. I used computer like a took back then. I used it to do my job faster and better. Circa 2006, I moved into I.T. Consulting because it was 'the place to be'.  Since then, my life has changed a lot. From being a people person who liked to go out and meet people, I have become a laptop & smart phone person. Having spent close to a decade in IT, I have started believing that a person can achieve a lot and 'get things done'  through just a laptop and a data connection. Well, guess what, I AM WRONG! This feeling has been fuelled further by all the on line utilities like paying bills, bank transactions, shopping, ticket booking and what not. You can even get entertained (or so you think) in front of the laptop! You almost feel like you can live your entire life in front of the laptop and not regret it at all. I don't mean to blame my job entirely for it, si...

A common thread that has come across on social media with the BBC documentary of the Nirbhaya rape case convict, the #IndiasDaughter hash-tag and the ensuing debate is that, as a nation, we need to change our mentality. We need a change in education, change in society, change in the way we raise our kids. Well, I am all game! Now, I am a father of two daughters. They are very young, the sum of their ages being about 4 years. But I am already petrified at the thought of them growing in this society. The child abuse, rape, pedophile, kidnapping and all sort of news I have heard, are scaring me and dictating my decisions. They dictate where I want to live, my career choices, the friends I make, just about everything! So, if there is someone who wants a real change, it's me! No doubt! So, here is the tricky part. Do I have to change something? If yes, then what? I am all in for freedom to my daughters. I want them to grow up like free birds and I will ensure to the best of my abilit...

When I read  this post on Facebook, I began thinking if I really needed to be told this and in this manner! Are men so insensitive that they can't see their wife tired? Do men of my generation who have access to Internet, don't know how demanding is it to be a mother? I felt offended for being typecast. So, I decided to respond... Dear Breastfeeding Wife, First of all, it's OUR baby, not MY baby. Stop referring to the baby like a strange object that has entered our relationship. Didn't we speak at length about this? Didn't we both know raising a baby would be demanding, both for you and me? I didn't do it to you by force!!! Coming to the part of breastfeeding the baby. I know it's demanding. I can SEE that you are tired from all the chores and the breastfeeding. I don't have an iota of doubt that it's taking a toll on you. If it was practical, I would have left you to only nursing the baby and do all the chores myself. But it is not! Which is...

Dear kids, Hope you are having a good time! Since you believe in Santa, fairies, knights and all the mythical characters that are righteous, I am sure you live with eternal optimism (though you don't have a clue what that word means) through all the thick and thin.The stories you have heard of obedience, selflessness, honesty and all the other right virtues are probably shaping you into an ideal person. But this is not going to last! You will soon turn into an adult, which is a far worse version of yourself. Your parents will teach you to lie. All the kids will help each other in becoming adult humans with egos (I can't really describe to you what an 'ego' is, but is it what makes us adults, other than a moustache) bigger than the largest playground you have seen. We all adults wish that our kids remain kids, but we haven't so neither will our kids remain! The purpose of this letter is to bust some myths about adults or grown ups, whatever you call us. I will go ...

I have spent last few weeks trying to make choices between health, children's education, career choices, safe & secure environment for kids, time with parents and most importantly - money. People who have witnessed my dilemma have told me I am too emotional, not ambitious enough, 'wasting my talent' and what not! At the same time, I have also seen people of my age and caliber make the same choices with ease. So, I got thinking. What is it that helps them make these decisions? After a lot of deliberation, I think it is money. I have grown up in a household that places minimal emphasis on money. My father once told me that money will help me survive but it's my passion that will help me have a life. So, money has been no more than a tool! In fact so much was my self gratification that I even looked down upon people as 'money-minded'. My definition of such people was - people who would make decisions purely based on monetary gain. While, I made my decisio...

Happy new year 2015 to you! Hope you spend hours and days on roads without traffic in the coming years. I had a dream new year eve - on the road, going home. After numerous previous road travels on this route (read here  and here ), this time I decided to travel by my Royal Enfield Std 350. I was short on any sort of planning time, so decided to use my experience and just take the route taken before.  Google maps says it should take about 14 hours to do this journey. However, we took a night halt at Raichur and including the halt, completed the journey in 29 hours. Our itinerary , roughly, was: 30.12.2014, 16:00 - Depart from Lingampally, Hyderabad 30.12.2014, 21:15 - Reach Raichur, Karnataka  Night Halt at Hotel Kubera Palace @ INR1400 per night including complimentary breakfast Better option is Hoten Kritunga which we took last time 31.12.2014, 08:30 - Depart from Raichur, Karnataka  31.12.2014, 09:30 - Puncture in rear tyre about 40 Kms from R...

This is my Nth trip to Kenya, primarily Nairobi in the last 6 months. I have spent 90% of my time till date in this beautiful country. The experience has been amazing and enriching. I have met people from various countries across the globe, observed the life of a Kenyan closely, basked in the natural beauty of this country and as a result changed for the better, as a human being. Like always,  I am planning to write a series of posts about the experiences I have gathered, Inshallah ! Time will tell, whether, like always, I will fail. :-) But, like the journey of an engineering degree starts with the first back, I will start with this introductory post, my first step. This one is just about how to prepare for a trip to Kenya, from India that is. If you are travelling for the first time to Africa, your trip preparations should start at least 45 days in advance. This is mainly for the yellow fever and oral polio vaccine that one needs to take before coming to this country. Mi...

So, the world is a global village! Stuff and people moves across continent in days if not hours. Information travels in milliseconds and technology changes every hour. So when someone wears a fine pair of snickers, they don't really care if it was manufactured in a sweatshop in Bangladesh in totally inhuman working conditions. They just buy them in an air conditioned shop (or better still, on line from the comfort of the couch). Everyone is in for a 'good deal'. The person who has provided us with the product or service is in some far away land majority of the time. This has made us all ungrateful. If the Internet  Now, Imagine a world about 50 years ago. People cared more than they do now. Because everyone who catered to you, lived around you. It was a more human world.People cared about other people. Your tailor mattered to you. Even if you had a fight with him, he was still part of your village and your world. So was the carpenter, the mail man, the farmer ...every...

India has elected a new government based on the promise of development. Wider roads, more free water, more industry, better power (electricity) supply etc. And within days of swearing in, this government has kicked into action to deliver. Deliver, it will, what we expect. But have we 'base-lined' our definition of development?  As a nation, development or growth still is measured in terms of GDP, roads, FDI, malls, construction, number of millionaires and everything that can be counted! There is no real measure for inclusive growth. What developed nation would have people dying of hunger? Would GDP measure the plundering of natural resources and the irreversible nature of this 'growth'? Is this growth healthy? It is time we start looking at other nations who have plateaued on development and learn from their experience. Course correction for such a large country will be painful. But sooner the better. And the government needs to lead the way. Instead of giving i...

I am currently on a short business trip to Nairobi, Kenya. While I sat in my overnight flight from Mumbai to Nairobi, tired from all the running around I had to do, I decided to learn from this experience. The overweight luggage, carrying things I didn't need, hat books to carry etc. Now, the experiences here are personal. So, to some of you, it may be quite obvious or irrelevant. But, pick what you like. 1.   Starting early - start everything early. Start packing early. Start weighing your luggage early, contact the hotel early. Book the cab early. Do everything earlier than you think is 'sufficient'. People may think you are crazy. But they are not going to run around for you. So screw them! 2.   Invest in bags - If you are a frequent air traveller, invest in good bags. Light, sturdy and those that will keeps your stuff in place. My biggest mistake on this trip was to carry a suitcase that was utilised only 70%. There are multiple problems with this. Firstl...

It's that time of the year when the GHMC property tax notice has reached you and you want to pay the tax before deadline (30th June 2014) without attracting penalty. While GHMC tells you there are multiple ways of paying, ranging from online (most convenient) to visiting the circle office (least convenient), all of them have their plus and minus points. While online payment is most convenient, most of the time it doesn't work and an error is thrown . You end up wondering if it really got paid or not. Paying at the Municipality circle office is the most sure shot way, but they follow strict office timings (which coincide with your office timings), are crowded and they accept only DDs. From my experience, the most convenient way to pay GHMC property tax is through APonline or eSeva counters. These have extended working hours, are plenty in numbers and are not much crowded. The only flip side is they accept cash only. Moreover, they charge a commission of Rs.10 per Rs.1000 pa...

My father is a doctor and will turn 62 in a few months. He contested the Lok Sabha election in March 2014. And all the volunteers who worked for him told him he now needs a smart phone. So that they could connect with him on WhatsApp. So he asked me for advise on buying a smart phone. I, on the other hand, am trying to run away from a hand held device. The only utility that my existing device has is it let's me remain connected with my official email and chat while on the move. I am thinking I will trade my device for my father's conventional mobile phone. I will do it as an experiment. The experiment will server quite a few purposes. One, it will help my father get used to a touch based, low battery smart phone. Two, it will allow me get used to a life without a smart phone. And three, for the time being, we won't add to the unnecessary stuff in the world by just going ahead and buying a new phone for my father. Let's see how that goes.

Two years ago when the BJP Government came to power, they reduced the VAT on Petrol to 0.1%. This was one of the most popular decision by this government. It also received a wide national publicity. All the countrymen applauded the Goa government's decision and judged Goa to be a progressive state just based on the fuel prices. There is no doubt Goa is a progressive state, but this is a wrong measure! The Goa government's intention was probably to insulate the common man from increase in petroleum prices. But, in my opinion, there are better ways of doing this. How about overhauling the public transport? Since the implementation of this VAT reduction, Goa has lost about Rs.300 crore worth of potential revenue. Had this money been used for a up-gradation of state owned public transport, it would have had a far wider impact than reduction in Petrol VAT. Not to forget, it would have generated revenue, jobs and made the roads in Goa far more free. The Goa government already d...