July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years)
I did a Google search to see what has significantly happened on July 6th in the history of mankind. I did not find anything that really matters to us. Like:
1483 - England's King Richard III crowned
1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.
1886 - Horlick's of Wisconsin offers 1st malted milk to public
1892 – Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
1958 - Alaska becomes 49th state of United States Of America.
1947 – The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
2006 – The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.
However, July 6th of 2010 is significant for me as I'm leaving a job where I worked for 6 years and a crowd I was most comfortable in. I’m also leaving a city which has seen a lot of me. 7 years is not a small duration in one's life.
I came to Hyderabad on the day I joined Virtusa as an engineer. I got the chance to work with one of the best companies in Hyderabad. I started living too far away from my parents’ umbrella which was very tough initially and then eventually I learned the ways of life. This is the city where I started living independently. I bought my first vehicle – a two wheeler – here. Here is where I met my husband for the first time. When I was getting married I remember how my fellow team members travelled all the way to Kerala and celebrated it. We had our baby in this city. We bought our first car & first apartment in this city.
Slowly we were becoming Hyderabadis and the city had adopted us. We felt shame when an outsider said something bad about the roads or traffic. I argued with people who said Hyderabad weather is bad. I proudly invited friends and relatives to visit Hyderabad and enthusiastically took them around as if Charminar is where I was born and Golconda is where I went to school, and Ramoji Film City is where I spent every evening. I felt equally bad as a Hyderabadi whenever something bad happened in the city, be it the sad accidental demise of our chief minister or be it the row of group violence and riots caused as part of the Telengana issue or be it simply the bad condition of roads everywhere in the city.
When I started a blog in Malayalam and joined the Malayali Blogger's group, I was the only one who was blogging in Malayalam from Hyderabad. I chose the blogger name as Biriyanikutty as a testimonial to what this city is most known for- It’s Biriyani. For a long tenure, whenever the Malayalam blogosphere think or hear of Hyderabad, they remembered Biriyanikutty until I stopped writing Malayalam blogs and more and more Malayali’s from Hyderabad started to blog.
When I moved to Vignette which later became OpenText, nothing changed except the company name and work timing. I was with same group of dear people and we continued to do the same work. The 5.5 years I spent in Virtusa and the 1.5 years in OpenText.. Hmmm.. what to say.. are invaluable to me. I found some of my best friends here. I will miss them.
The day I'm leaving OpenText, I'm leaving Hyderabad as well. I had a million good experiences and 2 or 3 bad ones. But that's natural where ever you are and is just Okay. I'm leaving Hyderabad without having any ill feeling for anyone. I'm saying bye to Hyderabad with the contentment because I've solved some slight frictions with a very few people, caused by some misunderstandings and some by my arrogance.
I'm contented. (After all, I worked for Content Management for 6 years, he he.. :) )
Tomorrow, in a new city.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Pragathi Nagar
When my office shifted its location to Hitec city it was too far for me to compromise with. 20 kms in the city traffic to and fro was so much of a compromise at the cost of at least one hour of less sleep plus 2 hours of extra travel and the result would be an outworn me. That is when we decided to move from the Secunderabad house where we lived for 5 years. The search for a new house ended at Pragathi Nagar, a place which literally deceived us with its beauty. You are welcomed with a lovely sight of a vast lake with tranquil light green water on either side of the road, when you enter Pragathi Nagar. The rock stones that peep from the middle of the lake make residence for some small bushes and numerous variety of cute birds. Once you cross this lake you are in Pragathi Nagar. It is actually a panchayat which is the first one to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification. It was only 8 kms from the office which means a 15 minutes drive.
The house we saw in Pragathi Nagar was an independent duplex house in a gated community of 30 neighbors. The resemblance of our houses in Kerala and the sight of a small soil compound attached to the house tempted us to finalise that house. I used to feel sorry for what my son was missing for being brought up in apartments when we had our childhood so free in air, soil, mud and water. This small piece of bare soil made me happy as my son could play with it as we did in our childhood. It was a neatly maintained community and was gate watched. The house was not occupied by anyone else before. The sight from the kitchen windows and the bedroom balcony was so nice like a painted scenery. Little did we know of the problems we were going to face at the time of finalizing the deal with the house owner.
The night after the first day in the new house we realised that we are sharing this house with some others. Some others meant a million others. 1 million mosquitoes! Advantage no: 1 of having a big beautiful lake next to your residence. We partially solved the issue by fixing mosquito nets on all the windows. But the dream of spending easy evenings in the society's gardens outside the house turned out to be a fanciful one. We neither wanted to be seen with elephant legs nor to end up in hospital with dengue fever.
The first day morning in the house I realised that the scenery of the small green rocky hills from the kitchen window in the morning had special appearance of artists performing their morning pooja with a cup of water. I knew about the labor colony at the base of that hill but never imagined they had this mass pooja performed behind the small rocks and bushes on the hill. Yes, convenient for them - fresh air, abundant fresh water in the lake - such a relief. They must be singing the film song aa aa..aa aa aaja.. piya tu ab to aaja.. I was sure, indeed in relief. I never opened the kitchen window again.
Soon we realised that the promised 24 hours bore well water supply was not valid for summer. Society made it clear that they would release water only from June or July that too as per the availability of ground water. Did they expect us to wait for 2 or 3 months to take bath as they do? We had to start depending on water tankers. That became an additional expense and an added head ache to call them, wait for them, watch them not stealing water from our tanker and sell it to someone else.
I have to say that my son enjoyed playing outside and started digging the soil, filling the well he made with water (that we buy for a price) and molding different shapes with mud. We were happy for him, till the monsoons. We were happy to see the monsoon nearing so that our water tanker events could come to a halt. But the monsoons brought us new guests at home. They appeared from nowhere and scared us. The small hill top that we were staying was recently developed prior to which it was a rocky bushy jungle. The locals were not so happy for the new occupants and they had not left the place. They were hiding till then and came out to enjoy the rains. My son's play in the garden was then stopped. After all the water snakes and scorpions were not so fun to be with.
From then onwards everything was a problem. Or we felt so. The road from this panchayat to the main road was so broken that it made the commute very difficult. The original road to the main junction was so broken that we had to take an alternate route which added another 15 minutes to the journey. I had 2 accidents with my 2 wheeler both the times I was nicely injured. As if the gutters are not enough they had speed breakers every 200 meters. Our 4 wheeler had to get serviced twice. The panchayat roads were all cement roads, not black top tar roads which made them very very dusty. How come we did not notice all these before the decision was made? I told you that lake, like an appealing slut with her charming smile invited us and we were trapped.
The panchayat being an award winning one they were not selling any alcohol. Leave alone liquor or anything alcoholic, even fizzy drinks like Coke, Pepsi etc were also not sold in shops. Though this did not particularly bothered me, it was the prime reason for my husband to find the place as 'not livable'. Most of the people in this village were not speaking anything other than Telugu made our problems to double it. Those days how I missed the 1 pm Sunday doordarsan news(for the hearing impaired)! The housing colony that we stayed had many houses vacant. Among those who occupied more than half of the house wives were also Telugu only-s. (Though the husbands are all placed in MNCs) This limited my interaction with the neighbors .
If you dislike something , the more and more you start finding faults with it. Same happened to us with Pargathi nagar. We started feeling that there was something wrong with the house. Someone or the other at home was always sick. To add to that I had 2 accidents. Another strange thing was that the grains I stored in closed containers were found to have worms and insects even if they are fresh and I would end up throwing so much of stuff. Then I read somewhere that if the soil is not pure, or if the earth beneath the compound is not clean enough it affects your life badly. The worms in food items were an indication of that it seems. I was not a believer of all these. But it is experience that make you believe.
I no longer wanted to stay there. My husband was also like 'enough is enough'. We said bye-bye to the award winning panchayat after a mere 9 month's stay there.
The house we saw in Pragathi Nagar was an independent duplex house in a gated community of 30 neighbors. The resemblance of our houses in Kerala and the sight of a small soil compound attached to the house tempted us to finalise that house. I used to feel sorry for what my son was missing for being brought up in apartments when we had our childhood so free in air, soil, mud and water. This small piece of bare soil made me happy as my son could play with it as we did in our childhood. It was a neatly maintained community and was gate watched. The house was not occupied by anyone else before. The sight from the kitchen windows and the bedroom balcony was so nice like a painted scenery. Little did we know of the problems we were going to face at the time of finalizing the deal with the house owner.
The night after the first day in the new house we realised that we are sharing this house with some others. Some others meant a million others. 1 million mosquitoes! Advantage no: 1 of having a big beautiful lake next to your residence. We partially solved the issue by fixing mosquito nets on all the windows. But the dream of spending easy evenings in the society's gardens outside the house turned out to be a fanciful one. We neither wanted to be seen with elephant legs nor to end up in hospital with dengue fever.
The first day morning in the house I realised that the scenery of the small green rocky hills from the kitchen window in the morning had special appearance of artists performing their morning pooja with a cup of water. I knew about the labor colony at the base of that hill but never imagined they had this mass pooja performed behind the small rocks and bushes on the hill. Yes, convenient for them - fresh air, abundant fresh water in the lake - such a relief. They must be singing the film song aa aa..aa aa aaja.. piya tu ab to aaja.. I was sure, indeed in relief. I never opened the kitchen window again.
Soon we realised that the promised 24 hours bore well water supply was not valid for summer. Society made it clear that they would release water only from June or July that too as per the availability of ground water. Did they expect us to wait for 2 or 3 months to take bath as they do? We had to start depending on water tankers. That became an additional expense and an added head ache to call them, wait for them, watch them not stealing water from our tanker and sell it to someone else.
I have to say that my son enjoyed playing outside and started digging the soil, filling the well he made with water (that we buy for a price) and molding different shapes with mud. We were happy for him, till the monsoons. We were happy to see the monsoon nearing so that our water tanker events could come to a halt. But the monsoons brought us new guests at home. They appeared from nowhere and scared us. The small hill top that we were staying was recently developed prior to which it was a rocky bushy jungle. The locals were not so happy for the new occupants and they had not left the place. They were hiding till then and came out to enjoy the rains. My son's play in the garden was then stopped. After all the water snakes and scorpions were not so fun to be with.
From then onwards everything was a problem. Or we felt so. The road from this panchayat to the main road was so broken that it made the commute very difficult. The original road to the main junction was so broken that we had to take an alternate route which added another 15 minutes to the journey. I had 2 accidents with my 2 wheeler both the times I was nicely injured. As if the gutters are not enough they had speed breakers every 200 meters. Our 4 wheeler had to get serviced twice. The panchayat roads were all cement roads, not black top tar roads which made them very very dusty. How come we did not notice all these before the decision was made? I told you that lake, like an appealing slut with her charming smile invited us and we were trapped.
The panchayat being an award winning one they were not selling any alcohol. Leave alone liquor or anything alcoholic, even fizzy drinks like Coke, Pepsi etc were also not sold in shops. Though this did not particularly bothered me, it was the prime reason for my husband to find the place as 'not livable'. Most of the people in this village were not speaking anything other than Telugu made our problems to double it. Those days how I missed the 1 pm Sunday doordarsan news(for the hearing impaired)! The housing colony that we stayed had many houses vacant. Among those who occupied more than half of the house wives were also Telugu only-s. (Though the husbands are all placed in MNCs) This limited my interaction with the neighbors .
If you dislike something , the more and more you start finding faults with it. Same happened to us with Pargathi nagar. We started feeling that there was something wrong with the house. Someone or the other at home was always sick. To add to that I had 2 accidents. Another strange thing was that the grains I stored in closed containers were found to have worms and insects even if they are fresh and I would end up throwing so much of stuff. Then I read somewhere that if the soil is not pure, or if the earth beneath the compound is not clean enough it affects your life badly. The worms in food items were an indication of that it seems. I was not a believer of all these. But it is experience that make you believe.
I no longer wanted to stay there. My husband was also like 'enough is enough'. We said bye-bye to the award winning panchayat after a mere 9 month's stay there.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Red Bulls
We had 2 senior persons visiting Hyderabad office last week. They were here for some training. When my manager talked about this whole day mandatory training my mind was trying to find out some 'valid' reasons to take an off from work on that day. As there were no functions or special occasions falling on that day I planned to take a sick leave for 'food poisoning' and thus 'stomach upset' which was the easiest to make others believe. But somehow I dropped that plan at the last moment and I ended up in the training room. The inhibitions about full day corporate trainings as they are so boring and waste of time had made all our team members to fight for the last row seats and all were equipped with some or the other ways of time passing tools from iPods to scribbling pads.
The trainers entered the room. One guy with a very neatly shaved head reminded me of those vitrified glazing tiles me and my husband went to look for our apartment few days back. They started off with their introduction. From then, they talked. Rather, they never stopped.
They talked about Canada. They talked sports - soccer, cricket, golf, ice hockey. They talked about their families. About their interestes. They made us to talk about our families and interests as well. Then they talked about the weather, the journey, the flight, their city, our city. They jumped, they ran in the room, they climbed the tables and before we knew, it was Lunch break.
Nobody seemed to use their iPods or cell phones!
After the lunch, as usual I was the lazybones till they entered the room - Only till they entered the room!
What! You are supposed to look tired and sleepy after a heavy lunch, men!
But they started talking. As expected they talked about the Hyderabad traffic, the excellent food they had, the hotel staff hospitality and behavior. Then they played, they made us to play. They made us to guess, they made us to shout, and they made us to ask questions. They literally grabbed your moments. It was not a session but an animation. We even painted a house you know!
I don't know where this energy comes from. They drank Red Bull. Hmm..Now I know why it is really an energy drink. ;) Guess what, if I were to write a script for the advertisement of an energy drink I would write a screenplay based on this.
We had fun from 10 A.M to 4.30 P.M and wait.. wait... they also talked about IDP, for which they were actually in Hyderabad. Otherwise such a boring thing it would have been, now we really understand what an Iterative development Process is. At the end of 6 or 7 IDP sessions they had in our centre they had this quiz show which they creatively named as 'Koun Banega Crorepati' and pronounced it with even more creativity contrary to the expected difficulty. The quiz made sure nobody is missing any details of the basic IDP. It was real fun.
Thanks to Andrew King (Director, Global Operations R&D) and Eugene Davis (Senior Process Analyst) for such a vibrant, striking and jolly session.
Hmm.. now I know that,
• IDP is another process of agile scrum, customised for OpenText
• IDP stands for Iterative Development Process.
• Iteration can be of 2 to 4 weeks.
• Ideal Team size is 8-12
• Iteration planning can take upto 2 hours
• The product owners VISIONs are ROCKS. Rocks when becomes stones are easy to handle and when becomes sand is esier and make it more fine is the easiest. That's why the ROCKS become User Story and then become MACRO STORY and then MICRO STORY.
• Iteration can have any number of Macro Stories
• The team stands upto discuss 3 things basically, everyday. That is for 15 minutes. The 3 things need to be what have you done yesterday, what will you be doing today, what will be impacted.
• The Scrum master is there to track all your issues and he will make sure those will not affect your work.
• A customer has all the rights to walk in for the stand up.
• Frequent Demo of what is accomplished is important.
• Iterations can have stretch stories.
• You see a landmark means you are the end of an iteration.
• Retrospective meetings should not strech beyond one hour.
• Retrospective meetings discuss things like, what went well, what did not go well, what can be continued.
And so on. The list is endless because we keep LEARNING BY DOING and hence the list grows.
Foot note: Red Bull should be served in our cafeteria. :)
The trainers entered the room. One guy with a very neatly shaved head reminded me of those vitrified glazing tiles me and my husband went to look for our apartment few days back. They started off with their introduction. From then, they talked. Rather, they never stopped.
They talked about Canada. They talked sports - soccer, cricket, golf, ice hockey. They talked about their families. About their interestes. They made us to talk about our families and interests as well. Then they talked about the weather, the journey, the flight, their city, our city. They jumped, they ran in the room, they climbed the tables and before we knew, it was Lunch break.
Nobody seemed to use their iPods or cell phones!
After the lunch, as usual I was the lazybones till they entered the room - Only till they entered the room!
What! You are supposed to look tired and sleepy after a heavy lunch, men!
But they started talking. As expected they talked about the Hyderabad traffic, the excellent food they had, the hotel staff hospitality and behavior. Then they played, they made us to play. They made us to guess, they made us to shout, and they made us to ask questions. They literally grabbed your moments. It was not a session but an animation. We even painted a house you know!
I don't know where this energy comes from. They drank Red Bull. Hmm..Now I know why it is really an energy drink. ;) Guess what, if I were to write a script for the advertisement of an energy drink I would write a screenplay based on this.
We had fun from 10 A.M to 4.30 P.M and wait.. wait... they also talked about IDP, for which they were actually in Hyderabad. Otherwise such a boring thing it would have been, now we really understand what an Iterative development Process is. At the end of 6 or 7 IDP sessions they had in our centre they had this quiz show which they creatively named as 'Koun Banega Crorepati' and pronounced it with even more creativity contrary to the expected difficulty. The quiz made sure nobody is missing any details of the basic IDP. It was real fun.
Thanks to Andrew King (Director, Global Operations R&D) and Eugene Davis (Senior Process Analyst) for such a vibrant, striking and jolly session.
Hmm.. now I know that,
• IDP is another process of agile scrum, customised for OpenText
• IDP stands for Iterative Development Process.
• Iteration can be of 2 to 4 weeks.
• Ideal Team size is 8-12
• Iteration planning can take upto 2 hours
• The product owners VISIONs are ROCKS. Rocks when becomes stones are easy to handle and when becomes sand is esier and make it more fine is the easiest. That's why the ROCKS become User Story and then become MACRO STORY and then MICRO STORY.
• Iteration can have any number of Macro Stories
• The team stands upto discuss 3 things basically, everyday. That is for 15 minutes. The 3 things need to be what have you done yesterday, what will you be doing today, what will be impacted.
• The Scrum master is there to track all your issues and he will make sure those will not affect your work.
• A customer has all the rights to walk in for the stand up.
• Frequent Demo of what is accomplished is important.
• Iterations can have stretch stories.
• You see a landmark means you are the end of an iteration.
• Retrospective meetings should not strech beyond one hour.
• Retrospective meetings discuss things like, what went well, what did not go well, what can be continued.
And so on. The list is endless because we keep LEARNING BY DOING and hence the list grows.
Foot note: Red Bull should be served in our cafeteria. :)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A letter to Reddy
Respected Mr P.S.Reddy Sir,
I am very sorry that I talked to you in a rash manner the other day, Sir. I had no clue about how much it was going to hurt your infant heart. I should have kept my silly feelings to myself rather than disturbing you. I really forgot that those are so silly that anybody would get pissed off if one gets reminded of them continuously. After all there is a limit to eat one's brain na.. I just paid 18 lakhs to you and bought an apartment from you. I know that it doesn't mean that I can disturb you when you are not handing over that to me on time. When we were about to finalise the deal you promised me that the apartment would be ready in 3 months. Then later after 2 months when we were writing the agreement at the register office your people and your big brother told me not to worry, the flat would be ready in 3 months. I know... I understand your problems sir.. This assembly election.. I know how your workers were excited about that. The entire group went for election campaign. Then they took a week's break for casting their vote, for they had to leave for their native places. Yes yes we should respect their right to caste the vote. We then took a vacation in Kerala and when we came back you said it would be ready in 3 months. I know.. Who will better understand your problems friend? This festival. Dasara and Karthika Masam are most important for your workers and we need to let them go and enjoy. After all employee satisfaction should be our first preference. Then a delay of another month because of the Ganesh Puja preparations etc. Without God's will and blessings whatever we perform will go waste. Everybody know that.
Again after couple of weeks when we noticed that there was no progress of any sort when we visited the site, it would have been appropriate to think from my side that it was natural. Because of the series of very serious issues like the Chief Minister’s unfortunate accident and death and the complex political situations that succeeded which worker will be in a mood to do unimportant works? Nobody, when there prevails such an indefinite situation in the core group that drives the state's progress. But fool me didn’t think of all these as already 6 months were over. The EMI of Rs.20k + the rent of 10K were putting big burden on our financial matters and that was the reason I asked you to tell me an exact date on which you were going to hand over the flat to me instead of keeping the 3 months story going on and on.
Then you said "From today exactly 2 months".
Then I asked you if I can take your words for sure and go ahead to talk with my present house owner regarding our vacating the house.
Then you said "Yes. Please. Except the lift rest of the work will be done and you can occupy the apartment".
As ours is in the first floor we really didn't bother about the lift and happily talked to house owner that on Nov30th we would vacate the house. You also gave us your nephew's contact number and asked us to contact him for any further issues. We contacted him to talk about the design of tiles we want to have in the bath rooms and he sounded very polite and decent over the phone. He said he was going to purchase the tiles and all on that Monday. After all, all builders are good hearted!
Last weekend we went to the site and in the bathrooms what we saw was the same ugly artwork which we’ve been seeing ever since we bought the flat from you, done by one of the plastering worker and not the tiles. Not even any sign of anyone worked there for the last one month. It really bothered us as we were nearing the deadline given at the present house. When we immediately called and talked to your nephew we came to know that the procurement of items had not started yet.
I am sorry buddy that is the reason I had to call you up in your cell number and had to talk to you rashly.
And alas!
Very confidently you denied that you had assured me the occupancy in 2 months. That made me to say that "We have given you due respect thinking that you are a gentle man, but now you are proving that you are not. If you can't keep your words what is the use if you go to SabariMala (You only told us about this when you came to know that we are basically Keralites) every year."
My fault. My big fault.
I should have remembered how big a person you are and I am just a small worm in front of you. That's why you said "Don’t try to fight with builders. If I want to threaten anybody in Andhra Pradesh, I can do that. No one is going to ask me" just to make me understand a worm's life can be ended any time when it stays just a foot away from a giant. Then you continued “Don’t call me again” and disconnected the call. I really got frightened buddy. I think I even peed in my clothes. That much scared I was as I learned that you are such a BIG man. Because I understood that it costs you just a small movement of the corner of your eye which can ruin my life completely. How I envy you at least in my next birth I want to live a life like you.
Once again by this letter I want to apologize for enquiring you about the progress of the apartment for which we’ve paid a very silly amount of 18 lakhs. Take your time Sir. Take your time till eternity also, we will not ask you. Even I’m going to conduct an awareness programme among people who still think that it is their right to know details about the service or commodity they are paying for.
I am very sorry that I talked to you in a rash manner the other day, Sir. I had no clue about how much it was going to hurt your infant heart. I should have kept my silly feelings to myself rather than disturbing you. I really forgot that those are so silly that anybody would get pissed off if one gets reminded of them continuously. After all there is a limit to eat one's brain na.. I just paid 18 lakhs to you and bought an apartment from you. I know that it doesn't mean that I can disturb you when you are not handing over that to me on time. When we were about to finalise the deal you promised me that the apartment would be ready in 3 months. Then later after 2 months when we were writing the agreement at the register office your people and your big brother told me not to worry, the flat would be ready in 3 months. I know... I understand your problems sir.. This assembly election.. I know how your workers were excited about that. The entire group went for election campaign. Then they took a week's break for casting their vote, for they had to leave for their native places. Yes yes we should respect their right to caste the vote. We then took a vacation in Kerala and when we came back you said it would be ready in 3 months. I know.. Who will better understand your problems friend? This festival. Dasara and Karthika Masam are most important for your workers and we need to let them go and enjoy. After all employee satisfaction should be our first preference. Then a delay of another month because of the Ganesh Puja preparations etc. Without God's will and blessings whatever we perform will go waste. Everybody know that.
Again after couple of weeks when we noticed that there was no progress of any sort when we visited the site, it would have been appropriate to think from my side that it was natural. Because of the series of very serious issues like the Chief Minister’s unfortunate accident and death and the complex political situations that succeeded which worker will be in a mood to do unimportant works? Nobody, when there prevails such an indefinite situation in the core group that drives the state's progress. But fool me didn’t think of all these as already 6 months were over. The EMI of Rs.20k + the rent of 10K were putting big burden on our financial matters and that was the reason I asked you to tell me an exact date on which you were going to hand over the flat to me instead of keeping the 3 months story going on and on.
Then you said "From today exactly 2 months".
Then I asked you if I can take your words for sure and go ahead to talk with my present house owner regarding our vacating the house.
Then you said "Yes. Please. Except the lift rest of the work will be done and you can occupy the apartment".
As ours is in the first floor we really didn't bother about the lift and happily talked to house owner that on Nov30th we would vacate the house. You also gave us your nephew's contact number and asked us to contact him for any further issues. We contacted him to talk about the design of tiles we want to have in the bath rooms and he sounded very polite and decent over the phone. He said he was going to purchase the tiles and all on that Monday. After all, all builders are good hearted!
Last weekend we went to the site and in the bathrooms what we saw was the same ugly artwork which we’ve been seeing ever since we bought the flat from you, done by one of the plastering worker and not the tiles. Not even any sign of anyone worked there for the last one month. It really bothered us as we were nearing the deadline given at the present house. When we immediately called and talked to your nephew we came to know that the procurement of items had not started yet.
I am sorry buddy that is the reason I had to call you up in your cell number and had to talk to you rashly.
And alas!
Very confidently you denied that you had assured me the occupancy in 2 months. That made me to say that "We have given you due respect thinking that you are a gentle man, but now you are proving that you are not. If you can't keep your words what is the use if you go to SabariMala (You only told us about this when you came to know that we are basically Keralites) every year."
My fault. My big fault.
I should have remembered how big a person you are and I am just a small worm in front of you. That's why you said "Don’t try to fight with builders. If I want to threaten anybody in Andhra Pradesh, I can do that. No one is going to ask me" just to make me understand a worm's life can be ended any time when it stays just a foot away from a giant. Then you continued “Don’t call me again” and disconnected the call. I really got frightened buddy. I think I even peed in my clothes. That much scared I was as I learned that you are such a BIG man. Because I understood that it costs you just a small movement of the corner of your eye which can ruin my life completely. How I envy you at least in my next birth I want to live a life like you.
Once again by this letter I want to apologize for enquiring you about the progress of the apartment for which we’ve paid a very silly amount of 18 lakhs. Take your time Sir. Take your time till eternity also, we will not ask you. Even I’m going to conduct an awareness programme among people who still think that it is their right to know details about the service or commodity they are paying for.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Decent Driving Dude
Stuck in traffic jam for hours, having no choice but drive through the dust/smoke filled air, fed up of the irritating bad habits of other fellow drivers?
Those who have not experienced this at least once when living in Hyderabad can raise your hands. Well, I don’t see a single hand. Meaning is that, we all go through this every day. What do we do for it? Just curse the government. Shout at the auto-rickshaw driver "the bloody illiterate". Call the ancestors of that rash driving APSTRTC bus driver "b****" and what not. Shouting "stupid country fellows" at those who cross the road while the signal is green. In any way are you helping yourself to get any better? In any sense? No to the core.
Well, so..why not doing something? Something small but better than nothing? Something better than the disgusting dialogues which goes in vain but gets into your veins in the form of hyper tension? Something to make the proverbs even more worthy?
Hereby I put my little drop of water. We have a lake to fill. Come let us at least fill a bucket. This is what I think about. I work for a software company in hi-tech city in Hyderabad. In my company at least 50 people are coming by their own transport modes like me. Rest rely on the company transport. I have observed that 80% of those who come on their own vehicles do not use the proper indicators when turning left or right. 50% of them don't mind jumping a red signal. 100% think it is absolutely fair to go on wrong side for small distance instead going that far to take a U turn. I plan to spread a ”Decent Driving Dude" awareness in my company and if at least 1% follows what it means I would be happy. If in another 5 companies at least 10 people start to follow the DDD(Decent Driving Dude) attitude that makes a huge difference. They will talk, they will act. I am sure that at least one person will be impacted every day.
This campaign will spread the awareness. While driving on the road, if I am about to cross a small junction with no signal, if I see another person coming from the right side to go to my left side, and if he is a known person to me, I would obviously not compete with him to go first. Rather I would smile at him and would allow him to go first. This means that we are all not bad always. We know to be good too. And we most of the time want to remain good. So at least when you see another DDD on the road you automatically becomes a DDD. The more DDDs in town the more decent is the road. Howzaaat??
I am going to try this in my company with the help of my dear colleagues. Why not you doing the same in your company. If you are in Hyderabad let us all meet informally and I will give you guidelines to get this effectively done. Let us all have a safe and smooth road rides.
Those who have not experienced this at least once when living in Hyderabad can raise your hands. Well, I don’t see a single hand. Meaning is that, we all go through this every day. What do we do for it? Just curse the government. Shout at the auto-rickshaw driver "the bloody illiterate". Call the ancestors of that rash driving APSTRTC bus driver "b****" and what not. Shouting "stupid country fellows" at those who cross the road while the signal is green. In any way are you helping yourself to get any better? In any sense? No to the core.
Well, so..why not doing something? Something small but better than nothing? Something better than the disgusting dialogues which goes in vain but gets into your veins in the form of hyper tension? Something to make the proverbs even more worthy?
Hereby I put my little drop of water. We have a lake to fill. Come let us at least fill a bucket. This is what I think about. I work for a software company in hi-tech city in Hyderabad. In my company at least 50 people are coming by their own transport modes like me. Rest rely on the company transport. I have observed that 80% of those who come on their own vehicles do not use the proper indicators when turning left or right. 50% of them don't mind jumping a red signal. 100% think it is absolutely fair to go on wrong side for small distance instead going that far to take a U turn. I plan to spread a ”Decent Driving Dude" awareness in my company and if at least 1% follows what it means I would be happy. If in another 5 companies at least 10 people start to follow the DDD(Decent Driving Dude) attitude that makes a huge difference. They will talk, they will act. I am sure that at least one person will be impacted every day.
This campaign will spread the awareness. While driving on the road, if I am about to cross a small junction with no signal, if I see another person coming from the right side to go to my left side, and if he is a known person to me, I would obviously not compete with him to go first. Rather I would smile at him and would allow him to go first. This means that we are all not bad always. We know to be good too. And we most of the time want to remain good. So at least when you see another DDD on the road you automatically becomes a DDD. The more DDDs in town the more decent is the road. Howzaaat??
I am going to try this in my company with the help of my dear colleagues. Why not you doing the same in your company. If you are in Hyderabad let us all meet informally and I will give you guidelines to get this effectively done. Let us all have a safe and smooth road rides.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Fear Factor
He is scared of it. He is so scraed of it that it comes in his dreams and scares him to wake him up suddenly and then he cries out loud.
With it's huge body it sits in a corner and when hungry it wide opens its mouth and eats like a hipopotamus. Then for about an hour it eats, drinks water , after that cleans the mouth and that big tummy by spitting water out and leaves a big noisy burp at the end before it starts to sleep again sitting in that corner. It shakes its body hysterically sometimes with a huge roar. He doesn't understand why they keep him at home. They have it in most of his relatives' and neighbours' homes too. When he visits a new place he walks on tip of the toe and goes to the kitchen and work area and bathrooms to find out where he sits at that home. He knows that these are the places where it is generally found. Once he spots its cosy position in a house he screams and runs back and make sure that he never ever goes to that room and if possible the room beside it too. People say that there is nothing to be scared of it, it doesn't do anything but he would not believe that. He just hates whoever says so to him.
And the "he" in this story is my 2 year old.
"It" is nothing other than the Washing Machine!
With it's huge body it sits in a corner and when hungry it wide opens its mouth and eats like a hipopotamus. Then for about an hour it eats, drinks water , after that cleans the mouth and that big tummy by spitting water out and leaves a big noisy burp at the end before it starts to sleep again sitting in that corner. It shakes its body hysterically sometimes with a huge roar. He doesn't understand why they keep him at home. They have it in most of his relatives' and neighbours' homes too. When he visits a new place he walks on tip of the toe and goes to the kitchen and work area and bathrooms to find out where he sits at that home. He knows that these are the places where it is generally found. Once he spots its cosy position in a house he screams and runs back and make sure that he never ever goes to that room and if possible the room beside it too. People say that there is nothing to be scared of it, it doesn't do anything but he would not believe that. He just hates whoever says so to him.
And the "he" in this story is my 2 year old.
"It" is nothing other than the Washing Machine!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Formula's Never Fail
It was raining. I waited for 5 minutes. There was no sign of the rain gods going to stop pouring and I didn't have a choice. In the new office, they are very strict about the timing. So come what may, I didn't have a choice and started off from home while it was raining still. And at the JNTU junction, that school bus.. He didn't have a choice to wait too perhaps. Come what may, he has to reach school before the classes begin. And for ages there this junction at JNTU has been there. And according to the general theory of friction what has to happen will happen. It happened without fail.
So this explains why I'm limbing today. Ha.. ha.. ha!
(If I were to explain the theory of collission?! Oh God!)
So this explains why I'm limbing today. Ha.. ha.. ha!
(If I were to explain the theory of collission?! Oh God!)
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Kunju
