Yaaahoooooooooooooooo! Am home alone after 1 year and 5 months.... One part of me feels guilty about having left Kimaya at Mettur with my parents, but another part of me shoo shoo's me. Anyways now that I've left her there, there is no point feeling guilty, right. I can as well enjoy this unexpected quiet feeling.

To be frank, I did not know what to do with the time I had for myself with no restrictions.... Yesterday since I was tired, I did not give it much thought. Today I feel lost, though I went and bought couple of books, something to eat, roamed around the mall for an hour, watched Cheeni Kum (some movie, that I've been wanting to watch to see Tabu and even tried couple of times, but with some interruption, I was never successful), had junk and browse net for hours..Ofcourse last but not the least - with teacher... I'm trying to find out hard things that I can do. Hmm... I've grown used to Kimaya being around.

I strongly advocate the thought that even parents need rest at times. It is more because of the guilt associated with leaving the kid elsewhere - not counting schools and play time, makes the parents miserable. I'm trying hard to overcome this feeling. She is very happy there. So why do I crib?? God knows why!

I've, rather, my other part has been looking forward to this break, hence I decide to ignore my part thats been constantly nagging me and enjoy while it lasts..

The function that did not happen on Nov 19th happened on Dec 19th, that is yesterday. Yes, my dad's sashti aptha purthi went on very well. It was a very small function and it happened at home. Only that varuna bhagawan played spoilt sport and made every place around 'nasa nasa'. I was so happy to see my parents getting married and we were all making fun of dad and mom. Appa was asusual very emotional about the whole thing.

Got home yesterday late in the night to go to office today... Tired and so good nite.

We had an impromptu holiday last month. My dad's sixtieth birthday celebrations got cancelled because of a death in the family and that happened on the day we were about to leave from here. We had plans of visiting Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Thirukkadaiyur, Thirukkarugavur, Sembangudi and Nallicheri. And all those got cancelled. Since we had prepared also so much for this absence at office and Amma and appa were so upset, we decided that we will drive down somewhere and have a holiday.

So I chose Mudumalai from three options - Chikmagalur, Mudumalai and Karwar. Since he will be driving, I did not want it to be anything long which ruled out Karwar. Since we decided that we will leave my parents back in Mettur, and Mudumalai will be closer from both ends, we started our journey on Tuesday morning(Nov 20th) 5:40 am from Bangalore. Stopped at Kamath for breakfast. It was a 224 Kms drive via Ramnagara, Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya, Srirangapatna, Mysore, Najungad, Gundelpet, and Bandipur. Till Mysore the road was great. From Mysore to Gundlepet, it was a bumpy drive. Once we enter the forest area, we were back on good roads.

Monkeys and deers were the only wild animals we managed to see in the trip. We took the van safari. As the review in Outlook 32 weekend getaways suggested, it was a bumpy ride and was not worth the money as we did not see any elephant. We did see one, a tamed one in the wild. Kimaya paid attention to the hen that was hanging around the elephant while we were trying hard to show her the 'real' elephant. It was really funny! That apart, it was a great holiday.

We stayed at blue valley resorts at Bokkapuram. (www.bluevalleyresort.com). We were the only ones staying there as it was during weekdays in off-season. Food was made after ordering. Even though the choices were limited, it was good and fresh. There was no TV, phones were not reachable (only BSNL works!). We were surrounded by fresh air and blue mountains. We went for walks, drives, ate, slept, played with Kimaya in the children's play area and played monopoly for hours before sleeping.

Initial plan was to drive straight from there to Mettur via Sathyamangalam on Saturday morning. We realised that Ooty is just 30 kms from Mudumalai and when my mom showed some enthu to see ooty, plans got changed. We checked out from the resort on Friday morning and drove down to Ooty via Kalhatti. There is another route from Theppakkadu (Mudumalali) via Gudalur, but as people adviced that this road is good, we took this even though I was skeptical about the 36 hair pin bends I read about in the week end getaways review. But I was glad that we took that road. It was an excellent drive. Car stopped at two places because he tried to take it in second gear when it was fully loaded. From experience, our advice is stick to 1st gear on the bends. They are pretty steep, but safe as long as you follow the rules.

We visited the botanical gardens and boat house - took the customary walk and the motor boat ride and left from there at 4:30 pm. Had to take a diversion to Kothagiri as the Coonoor road was blocked. Reached Mettur at 9:30 pm taking the Mettupalayam, Annur, Perundhurai, Bhavani route. There were bad patches but overall, it was a comfortable drive.

After staying Mettur for a day, we started early in the morning on Sunday at around 5:30 and reached Bangalore at 10 (Madivala) with a 30 mt breakfast break. It was excellent road all along and we just cruised through.

So all good things (Sigh!) ended and was back to office on Monday!!!!

I think it is tough to be a working mom. Though such moments like the one I have described below are few for me, the intensity when it happens everytime is too much to handle. I know every working mom in the world can associate with me on the guilt part for not spending enough time with the child.

My thought on this was kindled because of what happened at home on Saturday. I was feeding Kimaya her lunch. Normally this is the task which the maid completes in 15 minutes flat – for her, it is just part of her job and she has mastered it… With me or for that matter anyone in the family, Kimaya takes the liberty of running around, jumping up and down, spitting what is fed - anything that would test your patience. She was doing the same and I was elated when finally there were only two spoonfuls left in the bowl and she looked full.

My mom looked at what was left in the bowl and commented– ‘Give it to the maid, she will finish feeding it’. I got really WILD. I tend to ignore such comments normally, if it is said once, but if the same is repeated a couple of more times, then it gets on my nerve. Luckily I did not start screaming or show my anger – I tried analyzing the situation when I cooled down. I could clearly see that my mom’s intention was, in Kimaya’s usual meal two spoons were left and hence she should not feel hungry. For me, it was like telling me that I did not know how to feed my OWN kid!

It is not only this, but I feel bad and guilty on several occasions. Since the world is full of working moms and at work I share my feelings with some of them, I try not to be emotional and take any decisions hastily. Advice my fellow friends also to be patient like meJ. This too shall pass!

Can a day have more than 24 hours? I think that’s what we need in today’s world.

I want to spend time with Kimaya, get deeper into the tasks that I do in office, want to learn music, exercise, finish some household tasks, spend time with parents and grandmothers, blog, get some rest at the end of the day and especially weekends. Time just flies, I’m unable to do justice to even the first two in the above line…

I just run, run and run from doing one to another and the thought on the next thing on my mind pushes me to do an ‘OK’ job of anything I do. I know I can excel and do it thoroughly, but time???

I see that most of us prefer watching movies at home over theatres;twenty twenty matches over tests, buffets over elaborate dinner, tinned foods over cooking - shortened versions of just anything (even prayers) as saving time becomes far more important than the pleasure of doing it the old ways. I feel bad that I don’t even have time to talk to my grandma for 10-20 mts continuously nowadays, especially if I go to her place with Kimaya.

Are we really having a better life than our parents/grandparents? With all the improvements in technology, infrastructure, economy, etc., etc.,, shouldn’t that have been the case? I really really doubt it sometimes...

Travelled from Bangalore to Trivandrum by flight on Wednesday. It was around 4:30 pm when we reached the airport and it was buzzing with activity as lots of flights were leaving that time to various parts of India (in a 15 mt duration there were three flights leaving to Tvm itself.) .

Inspite of being called the IT hub and with so many business people from the world frequenting this, the domestic departure terminals facilities - as I experienced were not even of average standard. We had sandwich and puf after security check, in the waiting area and it was stale. Then was the ultimate - the restrooms - No light, flush was clogging, there was no one to clean - yuk! even now, if I think about it, I feel like puking....

Dont know whether anyone has experienced the same, but i heard from my husband that this airport is the worst!

Long time and lots to write... Where do I start?

"Kuzhal inidhu yazh inidhu enbar tham makkal mazhalai sol keladhavar" Says Tiruvalluvar - Meaning "People who say that flute and veena are sounding sweet and nice would not have heard their babies talk (gibberish stage)". Kimaya's speech (if I may call it that!), reminds me of that every day.

When I come back home, she starts narrating everything that happened to her (I assume as thats what it looks like) with all kinds of expressions and tones, i understand nothing of what she utters - but it is absolute fun. She attempts to speak everything she hears and she even sings. I am so proud of her :).

Just testing whether email bloggin works!

Sometimes things that Kimaya do makes me think that this generation kids want to be independent right from this age. For the last one month, when she starts feeling sleepy, she used to sit on the swing, close her eyes and start singing 'ah ah ah ' in the tune that makes her sleep. We used to sing that for her and for a couple of weeks, she was doing it herself.

She is having a cold, she takes her hanky and wipes her nose herself. Yesterday night was the most hilarious one - She normally has her feed at 5:00 in the morning. She wakes up and starts crying and immediately one of us prepares her feed and give it to her. - Yesterday she woke up, she got her bottle and then brought it to me and woke me up! I was stunned. After drinking she did not want to lie in my lap, got into her cradle and slept.

I'm just waiting to see what is next!

Kimaya turned one year as per her tamil star on July 4th. We had a party without involving friends as there are too many close relatives around in Bangalore. In the morning we had the Poojas and in the evening a small party with a birthday cake and all...

What I realised is that Mallu and I had to think, plan, organize with our parents inputs but she was oblivious that it was all for her :) So at the end of the day it is all our wishes fulfilled - starting from the candle that was blown till the dessert - It was all our wishes. Am sure she is not going to like it when she grows big and understands how it was celebrated!

We also tonsured her head in Tirupati on 14th, just a day after her birthday.

As she is one year old now, am just looking back my life after her birth. The feeling is sort of mixed. In the intial months, I really doubted whether it was good decision to have a child! It was painful, depressing and I was extremely stressed by the lack of sleep as she had to be fed several times in the night. Though every site about babies and child talk about the depression due to harmonal change after delivery, you dont realise anything till you cross that stage. I've had fights with almost everyone in the family and have felt that noone cares for me. I've given sleepless nights to Mallu. When I look back, I think why on earth would I think like that and it seems very funny.

Once she started sitting, crawling and babbling, things looked brighter. Nowadays she wakes up only once in the night and my husband and I take turns to feed her. Motherhood is enjoyable now. From 8th month onwards, she is learning lots of things and there have been somany developments - her teeth showing up, she started standing up without any support, tries to make us laugh with her antics and in the last few days she is non-stop walking. It is really is enjoyable and she is a stress buster. Everyday when I come back from work, she laughs and just jumps on me and starts blabbering quiet a bit. For that one moment, all the trouble seems worthwhile.

What I've learnt in so many months is to not believe in perfection. I am doing my level best at both work and home but am not trying to do everything on my own. I've some help at home to take care of Kimaya under our parents guidance. It hurts when that lady advices me what I need to do to make my daughter happy, but am trying not to get bogged down by it and take any drastic decision. I feel guilty when I am not at office when my team is working their asses off, but then again, am ignoring the guilt and try to move on.

One other thing is to get some sort of exercise for atleast 30 mts a day by walking some distance from office, or doing some activity with Kimaya. It makes me feel damn good. Mallu and I have decided that we will have our own space and time atleast once a week. When she was not around, it was there in abundance - we had taken it for granted. Now we realise that it is very very important to have some quality time for ourselves to keep our relationship alive and healthy.

It has taken me really a year to realise that motherhood/parenting is an enjoyable experience if you adapt yourself well and try and be happy with the additional responsibility. Happy parenting...

I cleared my PMP exam on 30th May. I really am feeling great about it as I've done this with Kimaya as 10.5 months old baby, with office work and with Mallu's preparation to go to US. If I've to thank someone BIGTIME for helping through out, that will be Mallu. For all the trouble he took over the weekends to spare me time to study, to take tests, encouraging me when I was down about the whole thing - Thanks a ton.

For all those who do not know what PMP is -- this is a certification - Project Management Professional - provided by PMI. This is valid for 3 years and focuses purely on project management.

There is a 35 hours compulsary session that you should have attended on project management by recognised trainers and that started it all for me. When I was Chennai, there was a session conducted by PELCON, Pune. I attended that and immediately apped and paid for the certification. Could not finish it while I was there and just after delivery. After so many months, the motivation factor was that validity period for the application and fees I paid was going to expire on June 1st week.

Started reading through Rita and PMBOK in April, but was not too serious until I fixed up my exam date. I went through Rita alone once and then took a mock test from pmstudy tp just gauge where I was. Then I went through Rita and PMBOK simultaneously once more. Took another couple of practice tests from Kim heldman's CD. I did not have time to do anything more as it was 30th Morning already :) and the exam scheduled at 9:00 am.

I could complete the exam and review in 3 hours. During the practice exams I found that 20-30% of the my errors were because that I was not reading the questions completely. As most of the questions were situation based in the exam, I think the ones I had made mistakes were becuase of this. Most of the Input, Tools and Techniques and Output questions were from quality, risk, time and procurement. I had done several reviews of these and I think I got all of them right.

Though people were advicing me against taking tests as it unnerves you (Which it did when I passed my first test!) but it gives you a feel of how to get through the 4 hours. It is really tough to have your concentration prolonged for so long! And the tips provided by Rita about the exam day was helpful. I took a break after 100 questions (there are 200 in total), had my breakfast and then did the rest of it. It helped a lot in relaxing a bit.

Thanks to everyone around me who have contributed in this success in some way or other.

Mozhi - Means language in Tamil. And the movie was awesome. I heard rave reviews about it and was itching to have a look at it and it happened on last Saturday. From the beginning till end, it was beautiful, flawless and it was a joy to watch the movie. Very few movies have touched my heart like this - movies like kannathil muthamittal. They come very rarely and stand in your mind for a long time.. Yes, yes, I will stop going on like this and will give a quick, neat review...

Story is about two friends who are doing background music for movies. Their funda of love is that if you meet THE girl you will have a light above your head and bells will ring :) And our hero sees such a girl, obviously the heroine and falls in love instantaneously. He finds later that she is deaf and dumb. Because she is physically challenged, she feels that noone should take pity on her. Additionally she hates the idea of marriage because of her parents. Then it takes the typical line of hero proposes, she refuses, finally comes out of her cucoon to accept.. In the story to add some spice there are side tracks about the hero's friend, heroine's friend, the apartments seceratary, the professor - May be unwanted, but given at the right amount hence it has not exceeded its limit.

Now, you can say, "Okay, What is great about it? Slightly different story but then the same masala!" - Direction and the cast - Thats what makes it great. Prakash raj and Jyotika are really good. Jyotika just had to act and not talk (rather move her lips.).In the last but one scene where she just breaks herself free of her fears - she cries - that few seconds were amazing - she really is talented!. Prakash Raj is who I call as a complete actor - he can do all kind of roles with ease and in this movie he has done comedy in the supporting role. Total entertainment :)

PS: I started writing this review when I watched it the first time, And finished it when I watched it the second time today. Last 30 mts are dragging and typical tamil movie 'shtyle' and I think it is Prakash Raj's delivery of jokes that made me watch the movie again.....

I have something to write everytime I go to Saritha's place. This time about Finland. Sari's hubby had just come back from Finland..

It seems that sauna's are integral part of Finnish. Couple of interesting things which he has experienced - Once after a sauna, he has done 'Flying angels' - Meaning, come out of the sauna, get out to the snow with or without a towel based on whether women population is there around, go and lie down on virgin snow and move your limbs up and down - the imprint resembles an flying angel!

Another of his sauna experience goes like this - After a really hot sauna, go to a frozen lake, where a portion of the ice is cut and a ladder is put to let you inside the ice cold water - he had to try thrice to get himself into that water till his neck..

Then the interesting part - Kossu and Salmari. Kossu's real name is koskenkorva - which is vodka made from barley. Salmari is a liquer made out of kossu. I tasted the salmari - excellent is the word for the shot I had. It tastes a lot like Benedictine dom, less strong than it. One shot could be finished very comfortably and with no after effects.

Got this mail today.. Very interesting. All parents should have a look at it inorder to ensure we do not load the children unnecessarily....

Multiple Intelligences (Source: www.thomasarmstrong.com)
The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, in his book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and has been further refined in subsequent years..
It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, is far too limited. Instead, Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are:
Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
Dr. Gardner says that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. We esteem the highly articulate or logical people of our culture. However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also place equal attention on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live.
Unfortunately, many children who have these gifts don’t receive much reinforcement for them in school. Many of these kids, in fact, end up being labeled "learning disabled," "ADD (attention deficit disorder," or simply underachievers, when their unique ways of thinking and learning aren’t addressed by a heavily linguistic or logical-mathematical classroom. The theory of multiple intelligences proposes a major transformation in the way our schools are run. It suggests that teachers be trained to present their lessons in a wide variety of ways using music, cooperative learning, art activities, role play, multimedia, field trips, inner reflection, and much more.
The good news is that the theory of multiple intelligences has grabbed the attention of many educators around the country, and hundreds of schools are currently using its philosophy to redesign the way it educates children. The bad new is that there are thousands of schools still out there that teach in the same old dull way, through dry lectures, and boring worksheets and textbooks. The challenge is to get this information out to many more teachers, school administrators, and others who work with children, so that each child has the opportunity to learn in ways harmonious with their unique minds.
The theory of multiple intelligences also has strong implications for adult learning and development. Many adults find themselves in jobs that do not make optimal use of their most highly developed intelligences (for example, the highly bodily-kinesthetic individual who is stuck in a linguistic or logical desk-job when he or she would be much happier in a job where they could move around, such as a recreational leader, a forest ranger, or physical therapist). The theory of multiple intelligences gives adults a whole new way to look at their lives, examining potentials that they left behind in their childhood (such as a love for art or drama) but now have the opportunity to develop through courses, hobbies, or other programs of self-development.
How to Teach or Learn Anything 8 Different Ways
One of the most remarkable features of the theory of multiple intelligences is how it provides eight different potential pathways to learning. If a teacher is having difficulty reaching a student in the more traditional linguistic or logical ways of instruction, the theory of multiple intelligences suggests several other ways in which the material might be presented to facilitate effective learning. Whether you are a kindergarten teacher, a graduate school instructor, or an adult learner seeking better ways of pursuing self-study on any subject of interest, the same basic guidelines apply. Whatever you are teaching or learning, see how you might connect it with


words (linguistic intelligence)
numbers or logic (logical-mathematical intelligence)
pictures (spatial intelligence)
music (musical intelligence)
self-reflection (intrapersonal intelligence)
a physical experience (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence)
a social experience (interpersonal intelligence), and/or
an experience in the natural world. (naturalist intelligence)
For example, if you’re teaching or learning about the law of supply and demand in economics, you might read about it (linguistic), study mathematical formulas that express it (logical-mathematical), examine a graphic chart that illustrates the principle (spatial), observe the law in the natural world (naturalist) or in the human world of commerce (interpersonal); examine the law in terms of your own body [e.g. when you supply your body with lots of food, the hunger demand goes down; when there's very little supply, your stomach's demand for food goes way up and you get hungry] (bodily-kinesthetic and intrapersonal); and/or write a song (or find an existing song) that demonstrates the law (perhaps Dylan's "Too Much of Nothing?").
You don’t have to teach or learn something in all eight ways, just see what the possibilities are, and then decide which particular pathways interest you the most, or seem to be the most effective teaching or learning tools. The theory of multiple intelligences is so intriguing because it expands our horizon of available teaching/learning tools beyond the conventional linguistic and logical methods used in most schools (e.g. lecture, textbooks, writing assignments, formulas, etc.). To get started, put the topic of whatever you’re interested in teaching or learning about in the center of a blank sheet of paper, and draw eight straight lines or "spokes" radiating out from this topic. Label each line with a different intelligence. Then start brainstorming ideas for teaching or learning that topic and write down ideas next to each intelligence (this is a spatial-linguistic approach of brainstorming; you might want to do this in other ways as well, using a tape-recorder, having a group brainstorming session, etc.). Have fun!
(Source: http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm)

I watched one of the latest tamil movie Paruthi veeran on Sunday. This is directed by a guy named Ameer and the cast includes Karthik (Surya's brother and Sivakumar's second son) and Priyamani.
At the end of the movie I felt really depressed. I being an emotional person, I hate tragedies even on-screen! I was not able to realise whether the movie was overall good or bad. It took me sometime to realise that it was interesting to watch till the end. The last 5 minutes spoiled it all for me.
Story line is this - heroine is madly in love with the hero and is very firm that she will get married to him only. Hero realises only after the movie is half way through. He being the 'Chandiyar' is really irresponsible and lives his life doing all sorts of bad things - drinking, fighting, gambling etc.,. But when they elope and just about to be married, heroine is raped by his friends. She dies and to save her from being portrayed as 'Kettu pona ponnu', he uses an axe and let people believe that he killed her as her dad is planning to get her married to someone else. Hearing this, villagers beat him to death.
Movie is shot in a village and has been taken beautifully.
The dialogues are really crude but close to real conversations in that part of TN. Each and every actor has performed beautifully. Songs are okay... May be if I listen to them a few more times, I may even like one of them.
But then, I am still not able to accept the way the story ended.. Very very depressing.

Hey, the following links are announcements from Marlabs on my husbands appointment as BI Practice head in the company..His 10 minutes of fame!. Am really really proud.

1. PRleap
http://www.prleap.com/pr/70546/

2.Sulekha News.com
http://news.sulekha.com/newsitemdisplay.aspx?cid=491875&cat

3. Company World News.com
http://www.immortalcompany.co.uk/news/rajesh-ramaswamy-to-head-business-intelligence-practice-of-marlabs-pr-leap-press-release/
4. Fastpitch.com
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=Marlabs+%2BRajesh+Ramaswamy&btnG=Google+Search&meta

5. PR Nuke
http://www.prnuke.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5177

6. I - newswire.com
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr95898.html

7. Computer News.com
http://www.topix.net/business/computers/pr

8. Einnews.com
http://www.einnews.com/search.php?keywords=Marlabs&makesearch=yes


9. Newswiretoday.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/15685/

10. Bangalore News Network
http://www.bangalorenewsnetwork.com/industry/23march2.html

Kimaya's first tooth has started coming out. Reminds me of a seedling.. I am not able to see it clearly but I can feel it if I put my finger in her mouth. Also she tried doing pushups. Enjoyed my day at home today with her..
She is also crawling. And newspaper shown to her is like a bone shown to a dog.. It is really funny seeing her racing towards it :)

Can you ever be contented in life? Say that " Hey, I've got everything I wanted. I dont need anything more. Am very happy. I thank god for what he has given me" ? I can't say that. Not always. There are a few occasions when the thought that "I'm blessed" has struck me. One of it is when I heard my maid's story.

She is 23-24 years old. She is married for 8 years - Yep, I also did not believe it in the beginning! Her husband is a drunkard. She has a 3 year old daughter, who she has left with her mom and is working here in Karnataka to earn some money for her. It seems that she has had two deliveries - the first one, a boy, died - in the second, she had twins- one of them, again a boy died. Her marriage was a sudden one. The guy is her relative who was about to elope and then everyone in the family decided that they will get him married to her and stop him from eloping with his love!

I really feel sorry for her and to an extent for her husband. She is like a typical tamil/indian girl. She would not say anything wrong about him and has accepted her life as it is and she goes on...

It was around 10-10:15 in the morning on March 6th. We both were on our way to office. Our new car (read the review at http://re-view-central.blogspot.com/), which is just about a month was due its first service the next day. While we were on Jeevan Bhima Nagar main road, on which you can never think about speeding in any way, one of the drivers in the front hit the brakes. We also stopped and after a split second, we hit a thud at the back. We were not thrown in the front when we stopped, but we did when we were hit. Now, as many of us would have guessed, it was a Accenture call centre vehicle(vehicle number KA-07 1280) which banged on us.











Then it all started.. Iit is a new car - just over a month old and was bought after so much of research, discussions and planning, anything that happens to it gets into you emotionally. My husband was boiling and when the driver asked him a question 'Sir Ji, Aap ne brake kyon lagaye?(Sir, why did you hit the brakes?) he would have almost hit him. Damage was on three panels - the bumper and indicator was gone and the left side panel and boot had dents. We spoke to the vehicle owner and Accenture travel desk. The owner came and said that he will take it to his brothers garage at Ulsoor and get it repaired.. We told him that cannot happen as this is a new car and took him to a garage in Gitanjali layout just to estimate the damage. They estimated around 18K. Owner was still telling us that he will take it to his brothers garage. We took him to Ford service center as we had to enquire about the procedure to claim insurance, there again the damage was estimated as around 22K. After that, we were trying to negotiate with the owner, but that guy, named Saddiq Sharif (attached his photo - does he really look like the owner ?? I wonder!) just was not stating anything. Then we called up Accenture travel desk and spoke to a person named Mohammed, who actually told us that the solution is to just take it

to the garage specified by Saddiq. I was really wild as am sure if it had been his car for which he paid 8.5 lacs and had not run for even 1000Kms, he would not make that statement. Finally we decided that we will go to police and file a case. While we were waiting for a person who worked in traffic police, but now working in a security agency, come and take us to the police station to help us talk to people there as we did not know the local language, Saddiq and his driver suddenly vanished from the scene. When we reached the station, these people were already there negotiating with the police guys.

We spent almost 2-2.5 hours there, trying to get some decent compensation from these guys as we will be spending on the fibre parts and also will be loosing our No Claim Bonus for the coming years if we claim insurance. Saddiq was adamant that he will not pay anything at all, then said that the maximum he can pay is 3500 Rs. His logic was very simple - if we file a case, that is the maximum expense for him and so he was willing to shell out that much of money. If we do file a case, it seems that we will get our money only after a couple of years. And also that we need to go to the court everytime summon comes and spend on a lawyer. He just has to plead guilty appear a couple of times and leave the rest to the insurance company.. Intially we thought that we should file a case, but at the end, agreed to the settlement.

On the whole, loss in several form - we had to spend a whole day out of office, my BIL and brother had to come out of office to do their bit of negotiation, pay for what insurance will not cover, loose the NCB and whole a lot of emotional pain - was for us and just 3.5K for the guys who did the damage :(

Much awaited budget is out today. I've been going through the details on moneycontrol.com and here are some good articles.

If you are an individual who is interested in how the budget has affected you go to http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/economy/unionbudgetbasicexemption/whatisimplicati/market/stocks/article/269378

Check out the impact on various daily used items at http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/economy/unionbudgetproducts/whatisimpactbud/market/stocks/article/269387

And if you want to know what was expected and what is the actual in various sector - here is the link:
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/economy/budget2007indiainc/indiaincswishli/market/stocks/article/269386

Do you tax planning properly and have a wealthy year ahead!

We all travelled to Trivandrum by air deccan this Saturday. Flight is to take off at 6:45 am from Bangalore. So we all got up at 4:30, reached airport at 5:45 or 5:50. In the entrance of the airport, an air deccan guy saw us and said - Sir, the checkin is almost closed, rush! How can you reach so late??. We panicked, ran without the luggage that was put in baggage check :). The guy at the counter told us to relax and issued our boarding cards. After we went through the securtiy check, we realised that it is delayed and will leave only at 8:30. AFter a long days work at office on Friday, all of us (with an infant and a child ) really had a tough time waking up so early in the morning and here we find that actually we could have slept for some time.. The thought is not so pleasant.
My BIL got irritated because we were hurried so much and moreover, we did not get any message about the delay. As soon as he went and expressed his irritation to one of the air deccan staff, he got the message!!!!!!!! We learnt that the flight is a base flight from Bangalore but there were technical fault in one of the wings and is getting repaired.
We tried to kill time and got an announcement to board at 8:00 am. While we were packing our laptops and another of those air deccan guys came and started - 'Sir, you are still here!! Everyone has boarded and we announced the boarding long back.' and it was just once the announcement was made and we were reaching there just 5 mts after that! All of us got pretty pi**ed off and sort of shouted at that guy.
So, we got to go by a bus where only four+2 were TVM passengers and got dropped. We all felt sadistically happy that the flight take off is delayed because of us (after the treatment we got by air-deccan staff) but that was short-lived as when we reached the air craft we realised that the wing is still getting repaired :)
The story does not end here! After we boarded, just before the take-off people were asked to sit concentrated at the middle and tail end to balance - I was praying to god that we should reach safely and finally at 11:00 we landed safely at TVM.
Oof! What a journey.. will not forget this for sometime!!!

Time - This is something everyone has been cribbing about a lot nowadays - I say that I dont have time to write my blog, do all the work at office, do exercise, etc., etc., - the list is endless.

Every relationship works only if enough time is spent on it. Be it employer-employee, doctor-patient, lovers, husband-wife, parents-children.

Especially when it comes to work relationships - now it is an established fact that employees leave managers and not company. It is very true. Unless you spend the time understanding the needs of the employee and align it with organisations needs to make it working for both - It never works. Similarly the younger ones - time needs to spent on mentoring them to make them a good asset to wherever they work. It is a long process and time should be invested.

When you are not available for your subordinates and expect them to learn everything by themselves, do whatever you say to them and sort their own problems - then you have a dissatisfied person who will attrite soon. Sometimes even a few minutes of listening to their problems will make you a good boss.

The same thing can be repeated for any relation. But that again comes back to the question of having time. Take me for example - I've all the good intention, but currently I'm guilty of not spending enough time at office because of restrictions due to Kimaya. I feel very bad if I extend my office hours due to compulsion and because of which my parents/his parents need to spend longer hours taking care of Kimaya. It is not a great feeling. Then my personal life takes over all the good intentions. Hmmmmm...

My husband and I were discussing about the attitude of Indians and Americans when a requirement is put forth of them.

A typical indian mentality is to say that it can be done - even if there is a remote sign that it can be done. Americans start with that it cannot be done. Only after a detailed analysis do they commit.

Moment you say that it can be done, you commit. Only when you get down to coding, or just before you release, do you realise that there are 100 things that have not been thought about - resulting into not meeting customer commitments / delay in delivery. At the end, everyone is unhappy one way or the other.

"Do you like going to movies?"
"Yes I do"
"Why"
"There are lots of people walking and dancing inside the screen. That's why I like"
===========================
"Do you know what breakfast means?"
"Yes, it is called breakfirst because that is the first thing that you have in the morning"

:) :)

Given above are the conversations that we had with our niece who is four and half years old. Their thought process is so different and interesting most of the times, I enjoy having converstions like this!