Today, due to some evening plans, I decided to take a local bus to office. After boarding a completely jam packed bus, I became a witness to an amazing thing that I want to share with you all here. The bus was full of school going kids. I was standing close to the last seat where I had a clear view of the road behind through the rear wind screen of the bus. There were a bunch of naughty and noisy, yet sweet school kids occupying the last seat. As we past the HEDA builders apartments near 1st stage, all the kids started looking back and saying "He is going to miss the bus man".

Looking to the rear I saw a young lad running towards the bus. I thought the next bus stop was a little further and the kid would definitely not make it. This was just what the kids inside the bus also thought. But the kid: He never stopped running! The bus approached the bus stop, stopped for a while, a few passengers got off and on the bus and there... it started to leave again. The kid was still a couple of yards away: still running.

As the bus left the stop, the kid - realizing he can't make it - gave up! To my surprise all the last row kids shouted in the bus in unison: STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP!!! The driver didn't know what was going on at the back stopped the bus midway to check. This was sign enough: the kid started running again and made it!

I thought to myself: "Such are friends! After all, what are friends for?".
Have a good day!

There are hundreds and thousands of two wheelers on Indian roads. Of all the two wheelers probably bicycle hold a very minority stake! Why? In this ever increasing uptrend of the fuel prices, why aren't people giving up their fuel guzzlers (motorbikes, cars) and taking on the greener alternatives (bicycle)? I can think of hundreds of reasons. Here are a few top ones:

Many: "Everyone is in a Race! Life is a race! Race against time! Get more in less time... "

A few think: "My neighbour will get ahead of me... "

Competitiveness to the heights: "My classmate saves time by riding a speed bike and will get more marks than me..."

Elderly advice: "It is unsafe for bicycles on Indian roads! You won't even know what hit you!"

Most common Elderly discomfort: "What will people say? You are the Manager/Head/blah blah of some XYZ company for God's sake!"

You might rank these reason differently according to your state of mind and the area you live in. But in gist, this is true isn't it? While the developed world is moving towards saving energy, growing/living a healthy life... we in the so called developing world (still) ie. India, are hell bent on abusing/wasting energy and kicking about to walk down that unhealthy lane (junk food/booze).

As for me? Over the last 2 years, after coming back from healthy UK to adapt back into the Indian conditions and our people in general, I simply followed what every one else did. Which is: buy a two wheeler to whiz to and fro from your office everyday and also have a four wheeler handy to go out on that rare once in a while family outing!

Its good really, not at all bad except I got promoted from a 63 kilo guy to a 75 kilo fat shorty! :)
I know you have a smile on your face now. Trust me, in recent days, I was experiencing a lot of unhealthiness. I could quickly catch an infection, get sick frequently and above all get tired at doing simple physical activities.

Finally here it is: call it the final nail in the coffin: the petrol prices soared to nearly 75 Indian rupees per litre!
I said to myself, to hell with saving time, hell with others getting ahead of you and hell with what other think. I don't want to pay a hefty price for fuel to get more and more unhealthy. I DO NOT want to be unhealthy by paying a hefty fuel price at the least.

And it happened. Feeling not very confident that I could still do it, I borrowed my nephew's bicycle to try it out.

And what followed is history! I am getting back in shape! 3 kilos down in 1 week! Healthy living... here I come!

Service level agreement in India is one very important thing missing amongst the way people provide service in Indian businesses. Everyone is so casual about things that he/she is least bothered about their customer's time. Yes. Time. In today's fast moving world where things change left right and center within minutes - TIME is an important factor.

My ongoing stint with the HDFC Bank Ltd. for example is a great example that show how bad a simple thing can get. The bank by default provides online internet banking services but does not allow you o transfer funds to different accounts. Great thinking to make internet banking secure. We recently requested for a third-party transfer access to the internet banking. Oh wait a minute, did I say recently... sorry it is now nowhere in our recent past. Shall I say we requested this last year in Oct 2009! Yes. That was nearly more than 3 months back! The bank has still not given us the access we requested for. Can anything so simple can take so long? What wrong did we do? Despite having to sign the documents again and again, still no results. Can people not understand that customer is why they are in business and customer satisfaction should be their utmost priority? I have to follow up on this issue each time. Not once have the people from the bank taken the initiative to do it themselves.

This is not just with HDFC Bank, the trend is prevalent in all kinds of businesses. When will the Govt. act to protect the customers. All the Consumer courts, etc. I am yet to knock on... but is this what others also experience? I am ashamed to be amongst a bunch of pathetic losers. Wake up India! Embrace the reality. Serve your customer well! Good Service is equal to Good and Happy Customer!

This is so common these days that I chose to write about it. Emails have become a crucial part of our life now. All communication now happens via emails. People applying for jobs, applying for higher studies, asking for information, and many more. Ever wondered what happens if you miss attaching an important file to your email?

I get job application day in and day out. Many fail to attach their resumes/CVs. Question is: Do they know they haven't attached their resume? Will they ever come to know?  

 

What do I do?

How can I help? Do you expect me to write back to you asking for a resume? Sorry, that is simply not possible. I get 100s of them and I don't care if one or two don't have their resumes attached. They are straight away sent to trash with no second thoughts. It might not just be job applications. People think different in different parts of the world. What will they think of you when you miss an important attachment?

My Message: Get hold of your lives... organize and double check before you send that very important email.

The train to York from London was late as usual. Got off the train, stood in the queue for taxi,... got in a taxi and said, "XX Hobgate please.". Yes. York was once my home. We used to live in Hobgate. This time round I visited York on business much as a tourist. Every street I passed, every bar I crossed, the walls, the minster, everything brought back profound memories I can never forget. Felt very nostalgic. A few snaps for remembrance.

I met Jennifer after almost 6 months and from what I discovered, I had to write something about it. This is a log of events that have made life terrible for Jennifer. I know Jennifer for almost two years now. She was our very sweet and special landlady when we were residing at Hobgate in York. Life keeps changing and we permanently moved to India.

This was during the peak recession period in the UK (end of Dec'08). Jennifer obviously didn't want her house to remain vacant for longer. For all her previous tenants she used to manage the property herself. She got fixed all repairs or maintenance work. Increasingly it was getting more and more painful for her to find the right people and get things fixed.

So naturally, this time, she chose to subcontract the management part to a letting agent. For only a minor charge per month (50 GBP / month) she would be relieved of all the hassle - is what she thought. :) The agents initially promised her all sorts of non-existing services just to make her commit to them. The deal was signed and a new tenant occupied her house. Jennifer was bound to the contract wherein she was stuck with whatever tenants the agents brought in until the tenant left themselves.

Now, despite being the owner of the house Jennifer (who is pretty old) couldn't evict her tenants. Now comes the real effects of recession. The first month past, she didn't receive the rent in her bank account. On calling the agents they said there was some error and would set it right ASAP.

Eventually she received the money after a month. She thought this was a one off and let it go. However, the same thing happened with the second, third and fourth month rent as well. She keeps calling their office... they keep giving her lame excuses, transfering call from one person to the other... adopting the usual phone harassment techniques.

This time I met her, she was in very bad shape, utterly disturbed and complained of unnecessary stress due to the agent.  She has a heart condition and getting old each day. Is this how one treats a simple and honest house owner.

To the agents: Hey guys... is recession that bad that you have actually forgotten human values? How about some innovative thinking? perhaps a new business idea? Stop stealing... whats not yours is really NOT yours.

It was one of those rare Saturday afternoons when the clouds were at bay and the sun shining upon us (a bit too hot for York). Me, Ian and Johnathan chose to take a short walk after lunch. Through the loch, we came upon a Church which we found was totally unmanned when we entered. It was the only church in Elvington (I think) and Ian showed me around when we chanced upon the organ. I am a bit of a player myself (never learnt it formally) but didn't feel brave enough to have a go that day. Ian started to play something very simple and slowly turned up the tempo... He is amazing at it... great entertainment to end the visit. I couldn't resist it, I had to capture it on my camera. Here's a video snippet of one part of the show. Thanks Ian. :)

This is a repost of: Hans Melis from here only slightly edited.

The most awaited stable release of the Indian Classifieds site is finally up. Visit: http://uproot.in. The site offers users to post their advertisements absolutely FREE of cost. The site caters to almost all cities in India and there are numerous categories one can post an Ad into. After several weeks of development and alpha testing by friends and family, we are releasing a stable version the Indian classifieds website uproot.in. Ladies and gentlemen, please point your browsers to http://uproot.in

What is UpRoot.in ?

A simple website to post classifieds online for free. It has been exclusively created for Indian users, and covers all districts in the country (600+). Everything about the site is geared towards simplicity, including:

• the look — very few graphics + dynamic interface
• the operational model — zero intervention between seller and buyer is our policy.

What is it not ?

While making the site, one path we did not tread (nor intend to tread) is social networking. We will likely add more features in the future to facilitate collaboration between groups of users. But we don't expect it to become a core feature of the site. The reason is — keeping things simple for everyone, in particular the average or internet newbies.

A brief walk-through of UpRoot.in

Here are some of the features of UpRoot.in

Categories

While posting an Ad the user is required to select the most relevant category. This in turn helps people to quickly and easily find what they need. Care has been taken to include the most common categories the users will encounter in their daily life.

Ads that offer and Ads that want

Broadly speaking, every Ad has either something to offer to the viewer, or wants something from the viewer. It is specified during the creation of an Ad, and helps viewers to quickly find items that offer or want something from them.

Specifying the location

Viewers can choose to filter their Ads depending on the physical location. One can choose a specific city, a state or all locations in India.

Privacy

We are very concerned about your privacy and take it very seriously. There is an in-built mechanism to contact users, without needing to divulge either the seller's or buyer's contact information until each party voluntarily chooses to do so.

Membership

Users/Visitors to the site can view/search all advertisements without requiring to login. However, to protect your privacy, you required you register as a member in order to post a new or respond to an Ad. Membership on Uproot.in is absolutely FREE, and requires just a confirmation of your email address. You can choose your own profile-name aka avatar.

Stay tuned

There is more to come. Thanks for your attention. Please do check it out. Here's the link once again: http://uproot.in. We would be delighted to hear from you. Send us your feedback! Stay tuned for more... :-)

 

It was a chance meeting arranged by my Sis that day. It was hot that summer afternoon and we had to leave in a hurry. Me, Harshad and Pinks went to a person we know in Camp area Belgaum who had this cutie pie for us. I spent most of my childhood around pets.

Me and Pinks were very fond of animals and used get home anything we found cute. Our Pet journey started when I was too young (II standard) while in Goa, at the time - we brought home two cute little mice.These were the laboratory ones (white fur with red eyes) - the knockout mice as they are called. I wish we had digital cameras then... would have definitely posted their photo here. :-).

Anyway, after the mice in Goa we moved home to Deogiri (in Bellary district) where we slowly moved on to Birds. We brought home injured birds, wild birds like sparrow, wild parrot (one that does not talk like us), bullbull, etc. Our job was to wait until the bird healed and then let it free! It was great fun... at school the only thing on my mind would be - "what my little pet would be doing right now?". Then came squirrels, rabbits, and of course three dogs one after the other - Rocky, Bunty, and another - the only female doggy who got robbed even before we named her. :-(

Then we moved to Belgaum and had to concentrate on studies and career. Our granee wasn't interested in pets at all so we had entertain ourselves petting others pets. :-) At the time, I told myself - "I will definitely have a cute doggy when I grow old". Even before I realised, I was through with two years into a software job and I left India for UK to do my Ph.D. at the University of York. Taming and feeding myself was in itself a huge burden (a far fetched dream) and so I forgot about our little friend to be.

Voila! Start of 2009 and we permenantly moved back to Belgaum (my home town). "Can I now have a pet at home please?" - were my thoughts. Just a week back we all had witnessed the gracious Dog show in Belgaum and I knew - "Getting my own pet at home wasn't too far from here".

So here we are - Tanisha named it Bruno and thats how we brought home our new family member.