My dream - Nov 13, 2011

Today I woke up at 5.20 AM at my room at the Residence Inn, Marriott in downtown Minneapolis. Its been 3 days since we arrived; this is getting better since I woke up at 3.30 AM yesterday.

Just before I woke up, I had a dream which I would like to chronicle before it evaporates from memory.
In my own way, its a bit haunting and somewhat insightful (?) but in a way very weird.

So here's the dream, and later what struck to be strange about it to me:

I probably was elsewhere talking to Deepthi on phone when the dream began, so I cant recollect exactly how this sequence started. Probably in the beginning I was somewhere outside in Bangalore city. When this sequence begins, I am cycling down towards 'home' and am calling Gowrish (Gowrish Mallipattana) a colleague at Target India. What I tell him is this, I need some details about X (cant remember what that X is). Then he goes on and on and for some part of it, I am not even paying attention, but for some I do. He talks about some incubation centers developed by Infosys and some other corporates and how he has been involved in it and how sometime he can take me there etc etc... yada yada. That forms the first half of the conversation, while I realise I am getting closer to 'home'.

By this time I realise I am near Devegowda petrol bunk, which I cross effortlessly with just a few vehicles coming perpendicular to me. He asks 'how come u've called on the day off' and I laugh aloud 'yea!! All my supposed study prep are over :))'

Then I tell him this: ' oh by the way Gowrish, I need to ask you about few more things. I remember you bought some real estate when you were at Minneapolis, so wanted to discuss with you in detail about buying property at a place like Edina'. While I say this, I am visualising the suburb Edina and the surroundings. I also think of the sections in the Target India pre-departure guide where they say something like 'while normally international assigners do not indulge in acquiring property or trading in foreign equity markets, if you are interested it is possible to arrange'. I also ask Gowrish a couple more questions about my travel to MPLS which I cant remember. To that he jokingly remarks 'oh what is this man, so many questions; first go there and settle' and I tell him not to worry about answering all of them right now since there are a couple weeks for me to travel.

Now I am at the interior crosses which turn into the road where my house is with steeper inclines and the network seems to drop. Gowrish cant hear me right, so he gets cross; almost sounding frustrated that he gave me all this info and I hung up. I keep yelling 'network out, ill call you later' and hang up as I arrive at my house.

I can see Mom and bommi chickamma on the balcony, talking. I come in and park my 'Hero Hansa' and put the center stand (!!) as I greet Doddamma in the outside lobby. I talk to Bommi (who is already down); we talk about how her son is set for placements after MS and is specialising in some 'red hat' stuff. Strangely I think this "Huh Linux. If I had specialised in Unix/ Linux ivaga elloo irtidde". Then I come into the kitchen and talk to Dad and Mom. They offer me fresh bananas and jack fruit with honey, that doddamma got. They also talk to me about some errand that I was supposed to take care of this after noon in prep to my trip but which I say Deepthi will take care of instead of me. To this they strangely say nothing and appear a bit worried.

That's pretty much the dream. Not sure about you, but I found the following things remarkable or weird about the dream:

Am I in the present, recent past or way in the past in this dream? In any case the dream just whacked my brain out by showing the inconsistencies between my waking mind and my dream mind (in lieu of calling it my sub conscious) 

Here's how I mean:

1. You might have already inferred, the house I see in my dream as my home is our earlier house in Padmanabhanagar. The deve gowda petrol bunk circle I crossed was that of the late 90s when there was no traffic lights there. While everyone knows I stayed in Jayanagar, which is what my waking mind tells them, my dream mind is stuck with Padmanabhanagar.
   This is not of now, but quite regularly in my dream, home means Pad'ngr. Earlier I used to get visions of my Jayanagar 5th block home (where I grew up) quite regularly in dreams, then a mix of both. Never Jayanagar 7th block - my current home before I left to MPLS
   
2. What am I doing riding a cycle? That too Hero hansa, which I used to ride when I was in high school.
   
3. How about that comment about 'study holidays'. Will that nightmare ever end!!!!!??? No need to interpret that..
4. Small time fabrications: Clearly there was no cellphone network weakness at that point near Carmel high school. Hell I never used cell phones much when I stayed there (till 2003). Also the predeparture guide has nothing to encourage international travellers to trade or buy real estate in the US
   
5. Speaking of real estate, now for the most intriguing part. So far it seems like Madhu from the 90s is speaking to his colleague from 2011 and is ready to leave to MPLS in a couple weeks. But my Edina visit was just yesterday evening (i.e last 24 hours). In the dream, I even imagine Edina from my visit. This is the part that struck me real weird.
   
6. The rest is alright I guess....normal stuff. Behaviour of chickamma, doddamma, parents, Gowrish (he he although my mind caricatures the Gowrish that I 've seen in real life)

Now for some inferences, from dream moods:

Interest in real estate: http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/dreamdictionarysearch.pl?method=exact&header=dreamsymbol&search=real+estate

To dream of childhood / previous home, see the second paragraph under 'Home': http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/dreamdictionarysearch.pl?method=exact&header=dreamsymbol&search=home

Riding a bicycle and sometimes uphill: http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/dreamdictionarysearch.pl?method=exact&header=dreamsymbol&search=cycle

Well ill take all these inferences with a pinch of salt.. :)

Weird dream..

A hassled nomophobe

It was a pet to me indeed..faithful since 2 years. I liked the way it looked (like a candy) and ran..always said 'its creator doesn't create any more like it'.

About 10 days ago the illness began, then the fatigue and frequent unconsciousness. A local (bad) quack at BLR tried a horrible heart transplant and some stupid exorcism(!) but no good. Surgeons at a more serious hospital at Kukatpally,Hyderabad probed around yesterday and the verdict is - its terminally ill. Poor thing cant stay alive for 10minutes... they asked me to get a new one and ditch this. In fact they said 'recycle it'. huh!

I am contemplating a second opinion at another hospital...maybe from a more gifted therapist.

The other Nokia care is in Banjara Hills...err..should I just buy a new phone? Recos please?

Bye-bye my Nokia 6233....

Give me judgement - am I a stupid customer?

“Right or wrong, the customer is always right.” Marshall Field

If not exactly this statement, such is the professional ethos followed and practiced at the work environment I belong to. However I was appalled during my recent trip to Rajasthan, when not once but twice, I was led to think that the following maxim might be true:

“The customer not only is ignorant of what he wants but also has no common sense to think on his feet.”

I ask you, the reader, to help me in my state of quasi-guilt by arguing for or against my case.

Let me outline the two incidents:

1) The place is a popular simulated ethnic/village resort where guests are treated to many games and niceties (e.g: puppet shows, joy rides, soothsayers etc). Most stalls have very courteous shopkeepers. We show up at a stall which promised to dress us up as a Rajasthani folk couple (costumes et al.) and photograph us. The guy at the entrance told us there are two sizes, a smaller photo for Rs. 150 and a bigger one for Rs. 200. That is ALL he said.
I went for the smaller.

After dressing up, we were led to a spot next to the stall where another guy and a camera man were present. All this while, mind you, we were being 'led' by the shop keepers into the 'service' being provided by them. So we go to the spot and the guy says 'You sir stand here and hold the laaThi like this. You maam stand here and give such and such a pose' to which we comply and give our best possible smileys. After the click, before we can think he goes through a quick repeat of instructions for new poses and ....CLICK. After the second click, before we can react, a third round of the same thing.

Now, he comes and asks if we wanted fourth and fifth individual snaps? I ask 'well will that mean an extra charge?' and he says 'Of course that will mean extra charge!'. I said 'If so, no thanks'.

We then undress (OK....relax, we had beneath, our own dresses!) and came to the cash counter. So by this time are you thinking that the deal is 3 snaps for Rs. 150? If so, thank you for the concurrence, thats music to my ears. If no, well blimey yes, I guess I am stupid.
What followed was- I being asked Rs. 450, my flying into a rage on why he din't tell me it was 150-for-each, he pointing me to an obscure A4 size poster on the wall which said that (My miss! I had not seen that) and he arguing vehemently that I as a customer should know what I want and was taking 'him' for a ride. I asked him why he din't tell me before taking us through his 'pose change' routine; he kept arguing I should know better and that I was trying to save money.

Eventually it was clear it was mis-communication and a misunderstanding on my part but what pissed me off was his rudeness to a customer. I paid up the amount, took the snaps and left after noting the email ID of the resort's marketing department.

2) Next we leave that city and reach our next destination, Jaisalmer. I had planned in such a way that soon after my train arrives (at 12.45pm) I should be able to check-in to the hotel and discuss options with the hotel guys for a Camel safari to a sunset point. I was aware that most options involve leaving to the sunset place, famous for desert dunes, at 3pm.

Now the first glitch in the plan was that the train arrived at Jaisalmer at 1.55pm. By the time I got out of the station with all luggage and got to the hotel it was 2.20pm. I had, however, managed to get 2 options for the Camel safari to the most popular spot, Sam Dunes, by the time I reached the hotel and both would need us to leave by 3.30pm.

When I checked in, I inquired about the service that the hotel provides for the safari. I got to know that their service is a bit more specialized and customized, in the sense that they take guests to a different exclusive spot and not Sam Dunes. Also, they needed us to leave sharp 3pm in a shared vehicle. Again, this is ALL he said, that mattered, about the camel safari service.

So now, the situation is we are damn hungry, haven't taken a bath and need to decide quickly which option to take. At first the exclusive option given by the hotel sounded good so I told the hotel recetion person 'Okay, we will go but we might need more time to get ready'. This was at 2.40pm

Then when I called the other guy to say 'No, thanks', he introduced a new idea that Sam dunes are the most popular and that the place chosen by the hotel would only give a faint and insufficient feeling of being in a desert. This put us back in confusion. Deepthi and I regrouped and decided to not go with the hotel, also keeping in mind that lunch had still not arrived. So we switched sides to the other option to go to Sam Dunes. 2.48pm

I accept, it was not the best thing to switch at the last moment, but what happened after this ticked me off, as before.

2.51pm, I call the reception and say 'I am sorry, there are change of plans and since we really do not want to miss Sam Dunes we will go with another provider; please proceed with your guests so far at 3pm. Besides we will take a while to be ready'. For this, the answer I get is 'That's not good news; As soon as you confirmed, we ordered extra cabs and extra camels for you. Now you've to cough up 25% cancellation since you don't want to go'. That would come to around 325 bucks.

Now, I am sure they were right in asking for a cancellation, but for god's sake why would they not have stated that as 'Terms and conditions' as soon as I asked them about the service if there were such hard and fast dependencies. Am I a dodo to switch if I knew about the cancellation terms!? Unintentionally, they came across as somebody who wanted to make a fast buck out of my being undecided. I am sure they did not intend to but that would be the perception. Mind you, there are a dozen providers of the same safari service and guest levels aren't any great after the recent events in India. After a brief but uneasy argument I offered to pay. Eventually they demanded nothing.

Again, I got to hear things like 'You should know...you should think before doing this and that'.

These two incidents also got my BP high and got me into a hyper-argument mode. People who know me well vouch for it that when I am in that mode, the other person, instead of getting cornered and defensive, would feel 'why is he doing this to himself' :) Not sure how I looked this time.

That aside, the question I want to raise is, should we not demand some clarity in every service provided while being a customer? Also, how about watching what you say to a customer even if he is wrong and you are right, or when both parties are clear there wasn't 'crystal clear communication'? Take a look at the Terms and conditions laid out by IRCTC for online booking as an example, no scope for any ambiguity in the service.

To be honest, though I've not mentioned the details of the stall and the hotel, in effect they've lost a customer for ever and I would not be a great promoter of these places. If anybody wanted more details, please contact me.

Once upon a time in Bangalore on route no.11

As I finish reading the 'R.K.Narayan-ish' chronicle on Bangalore "Once upon a time" by Mr. E R Ramachandran I sit here with two emotions: An irresistably huge urge to escape back to the Bangalore of the 1950's that Ramachandran paints in front of our eyes and also, a deep despair mixed with a horrific after-(thought)taste while the current day state of the city de-mesmerises me.

Alas...

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/once-upon-a-time-in-bangalore-on-route-no-11/

But ...back to the article. This is not an article but a journey through events as though the author can still see them unfold. I had never known or heard some of the events and anecdotes presented here! This, after all, is the time when even our parents were kids or teenagers at the most. I am a sucker for any such nostalgia....the photos of bengaLuuru, the side observations of the 'way it used to be' with certain landmark places like Vidyarthi bhavan or Majestic area, the unknown small-facts like that of Kengal Hanumanthiah's experience or the Master hiranniah's drama episode!!

'Bittre tirga sigolla' :-)) Had been a while since I'd heard that.

Some of us probably might not even know that IISc used to be called Tata institute, forget why it was called like that. How do we expect next generations to know anything about Old Bangalore??

Is there anything that's remained unchanged from the Bangalore that Ramachandran paints here??

But why care...did you ask?

:) Ask me when my fantasy comes true some day....oh well you wont be able to, since I'll be a laid back kannadiga of the old bangalore who walks to his Attara kaccheri office from his BaLepete house...back in 1955!!!

Well, as I said earlier, alas....

ps: Is it but natural to percieve that every passing era/period was a greener and a better time to live in??

Spoken English to class VII at Khajaguda

'I am 11 years old-u' spoke the girl quite sweetly, unaware of the vernacular influences playing behind her statement...and I was there, not a moment late, to say 'old-u kaadu old'.

Yep, I started my volunteering.....today, through Teach India's 'Project 511' initiative.
Teaching is not easy. What's more difficult is teaching 'Spoken English' to telugu medium students.

But what do I tell you ...the feeling of joy surging up in you looking at their response when you ask them 'English kaavala?' - nothing can beat the belief that you can make a difference.

Hope I stick to this one like fevistick........

Karo zyada ka iraada - Interesting ad

At first it was the jingle that caught my attention and made me look up at the Max New york life insurance ad..

'khaab ko kya chaahiye? rang thode zyaada..........karle dil zyaada ka iraada' ....seemed like a zesty Amit kumar in the early 80s singing away for some obscure movie under Pancham's/Bhappi's guidance :-)

Then I realised it's an ad. The ad concept is no doubt interesting...as this page below points out, A wants to be B, B wants to be C, C wants to be D and D in turn wants to be A. Take a look:
http://www.pluggd.in/interestingness/circle-of-life-max-new-york-life-ad-2737/

But what's got me hooked on is the jingle. I am sure the composers intended a tribute to the retro kings of Indian music. If so (and even if that wasn't so) they've won. The interludes, the yoodle, the instruments and the singing - all full marks!!

What an idea sir-jee!!

ps: Talking of Pancham and obscure, I sometimes feel its upon us hardcore fans of the late wizard to popularise some of his work from the 80s that, very unfortunately, went un-heard due to various reasons, chief of which was that they were used in bad movies. So, I want to introduce one such song 'Ye kori kawari karaari nazar' from the 80s Sunny Deol movie Samundar, sung by Kishore. I've listened to it no less than a dozen times from the past week, it's an ear-worm!
Give it a listen. Total dhing-chak! :)

http://ww.smashits.com/music/hindi-movie/play/songs/4244/Samundar/36511/Ye-Kuri-Kanwari.html

Volunteering....again

I started volunteering again.....after 4 years. I feel good :) It was at a Govt school in Gopanpally, Hyderabad, where my job in the hour was to clear doubts that 4th and 5th grade students had in Gen.knowledge and computers. I was there, representing 'GE Volunteers'.
It was a repetition of feelings... of returning home feeling devoid of all the 'worries' of the several pending 'issues' around your life... and the rest of the day becomes (I won't call it magical) relaxed.....satisfying... life-reassuring.

The same feeling from the Samarthanam days of jumping into every opportunity the NGO presented for volunteering, of reading to the kids, of running around in the Yesudas concert arrangements, of having lunch with the folks at the NGO and of performing 'hacchevu kannada da deepa' with the visually impaired........ so I've asked myself several times since then 'What was it that made me stop being plugged in?'. Yes, it was a sudden plug-out.

Well, time to change that. Serendipity - The 'Teach India' campaign has kicked off in Hyderabad from today, and I feel I should (and will) register. If not anything, it will be a platform for me to get acquainted with the NGOs in and around Hi-tech city after I've moved to Hyderabad. (When's the last I blogged? Shoot ..lots happening in life after that!!!!! :) for starters, I am married!! More on that in subsequent posts)

While filling up the form I am asked for the reason I want to volunteer. I want to use what I wrote as a discussion point with the readers.

"I believe volunteering is a means of give and TAKE. While I am giving something to somebody I do not forget the feeling of success and the warmth received that I take back every time I volunteer. I also believe that volunteering is NOT CHARITY and every act of volunteering should be a project configured as specific, measurable and result oriented activities like the projects we have in other spheres of life. I see a good opportunity for realizing the above through Teach India and also a chance for reviving my volunteering. I do hope I get a call soon!"

I am not patronizing here. It's just that all of us, including me, are guilty of believing that volunteering means a one way street of 'giving'....and that the recipients of this giving are 'needy'. Just by thinking that way, in fact, you are setting your volunteering up for failure. Also people are not selfish enough when they volunteer to 'volunteer', in terms of knowing and establishing what they want to get out of it. I invite readers, many of who have thought about volunteering and have given up due to frivolous reasons like 'no time', 'nothing I can help with', 'cant stand to look at disabled/challenged people' to consider that you instead need to put in place a specific, measurable, result oriented approach for volunteering and that is when some reality might happen. The rest is left to being so determined that you won't give up.

Then the aspect of considering the recipients of your volunteering 'needy' - I think that's a heinous act. All of us are guilty of it. What one can do is be available to serve, when required.

There is this scene in the movie 'Sparsh' where Naseer, the principal of a blind school, says to volunteer Shabana Azmi 'aapko agar yaha kaam karna hai toh please kisiko bechara mat pukaariye' (If you want to work here please dont address anybody as needy/hapless) after she utters that phrase. By not being one among them and treating them as 'becharas' you stand to lose their confidence.
Sparsh, by the way, is a very profound film and a must watch for anybody who wants to volunteer.

I am not very sure yet that the 'Teach India' campaign will be a great platform for my volunteering efforts, but I sure do hope so!

ondee ondu saari kaNmunde baaree......

>mungaaru maLeye ..enu ninna hanigaLa leele..
>anisutide yaako indu...neenene nannavaLendu.... aahaa entha madhura yaatanee!!!
>nee amritadhaare koTi janma jategaati.... neenillavaadare naa hEge bALali....
>mausam pyar ka.. rang badalta rahe...yuuhii chalta rahe pyar ka kaarvaan...
>haan pehli baar..ek ladki mera haath pakaDkar boli .... haa re haa!!!!
>anjalii anjalii pushpaanjalii..anjalii anjalii pushpaanjalii
>uyirin uyiren...uyirin uyire.......

alas!!!! (screeeechhh)...here's office :-)
I would not mind just driving up all day listening to songs...
well never mind, kuch kaam bhi hojaye!

Have a rocking week everyone!!