Stinking Rich ..... Stinking Poor

What a city Bangalore has become! 


As a kid i was taught Bangalore is the Garden City of India. As i stepped into High School, my teachers would tell that, Bangalore is becoming a Garbage City. And they were so true.... It finally has turned into a Garbage City

Its such a shame, that one of the most cosmopolitan cities of India, where most of the people work in IT or IT related Cos, are educated, but completely lack civic sense.
With the population of  city bursting out of its capacity , the city is grappling to come back to normal.

We can see garbage trashed everywhere....on the empty spaces, on the roads, on footpath....
Also a new rule now to segregate the waste.

Well in my company they already started keeping 2 bins ( Dry / Wet waste ). But how many follow?

Actually speaking, for residences the waste has to be divided to some 4 categories. And the dump will not be collected from Flats/ Gated colonies. What the hell? We pay the same taxes, then why a differential treatment for individual houses and flats?

Also why should we be segregating the waste, when as a tax payer, you pay goverment the taxes to do exactly the same. Above that , while constructing a house, they collect a garbage cess. What for?

One thing i notice now is, irrespective of whether you are Rich or Poor....you do stink...

To Quote the exact lines from an article in the New York Times ( yeah...bangalore was highlighted as a garbage city )

"households in Bangalore must separate their trash into wet food waste, dry recyclables like plastics and paper, and medical waste. Ms. Kar now spends much of her time trying to persuade Bangalorians to do just that. On a recent day, she stopped just outside her door and pointed to a servant leaving an expensive home nearby.




The servant carried two buckets of trash across the street and dumped them in an empty lot. Stray dogs and a feral pig soon came to feed but left behind the plastic and other garbage.



“What are you doing?” Ms. Kar yelled at the servant.



He shrugged and pointed at his employer’s house. Ms. Kar had tried many times to dissuade the servant from dumping the house’s garbage in the increasingly disgusting lot, she said, but his employer had dismissed her concerns. “People in India think that if their own house is clean, the problem just goes away,” she said. She is nonetheless optimistic that Bangalore will be able to recycle nearly all of its waste, which would be a remarkable accomplishment for a city of eight million. “The city is at its knees,” she said with a shrug. “We don’t have a choice.”

So the rich just dump the trash at any empty space, displaying they just stink in their thinking and the Poor, well they stink any ways...

Trauma of Travelling or Traffic?

As a part of my individual growth plan, I am to attend at least one training in a quarter. So, this training was arranged in the corporate office (as always) which is a whopping 30 kms approx. from my residence. By all means this is long for me, being used to travel less than half this distance every day.
The first thing I had to do was to change my sleep routine – Change the alarm in my cell phone. Not for one day, but for 2 days. Since my colleague had earlier suggested its easy to travel using the office shuttle, I booked my travel in the same, from the nearest possible boarding point ( which was a kilometer away). This shuttle starts at 7 AM, and to reach this boarding point, I had to leave my house at 6.45 AM. For 2 days , I have actually skipped breakfast , plainly coz I cannot eat anything so early!
The travel early mornings are pretty much easier. I was able to reach the campus by 8.15 AM. The training sessions itself is grueling, though fun at times. For a person who has the independence to work with regular walks, interactions with the teams, its very difficult to sit in one place…its as if some one has tied my hands and made me sit in a classroom!

I am writing this to actually tell about the pain of travelling and not training. So, once the training is over, you really need to run to catch the shuttle…its parked a good 10 mins walk. The first day, by the time the training session finished, and I came to the parking lot , the buses were already leaving………..thankfully shuttles leave in ascending order and my bus no is 11 and not 1.
The moment the bus starts leaving, we are stuck on the main road outside the campus. The entire stretch atleast for me is so full of narrow roads, added the insensitivity of the drivers coming from the other side. There are innumerable road blocks.. As soon as you enter the Sarjapur road, the traffic pile up is huge. Moreover, mine is a bus, cannot even squeeze in anywhere.
The entire stretch will take 45 mins to complete, and then, the Koramangala trouble begins. The entire Koramanagala is plagued with traffic…and not 2 wheelers, mind it. Everyone has a 4 wheeler… either 1 person is in the car or it’s a chauffeur driven car with 1 owner behind. I wonder how they can actually travel like that..coz for me, travelling on 2 days itself was a nightmare!
With much difficulty I reach the St Johns hospital junction, and here again its utter chaos… My bus takes the Marigowda Road, which is again choc a block with traffic. Nimhans junction is one more pain, I see the time and its close to 7.15PM, 1 hour since I left office. In my regular office routine, I would have walked to the bus stop by this time , leaving at 6.45PM.

I am surprised, how much of time we spend commuting. As a diversion , I put on my ear phones and tuned to a radio channel. The RJs do a fantastic job of keeping the audience glued to their station. Regularly they update situation on traffic pile ups as well, which is good. But I wonder about the diversions they suggest..not that its not take-able , but coz its not commutable by the bus! So after an ordeal of almost 30 mins we reach the city center, chamarajpet area. The driver took the Mysore Road, and then deviated to magadi road.In my mind I was thinking, not bad, I may reach in the next 30 mins, which is pretty OK. But that was not to be….i was missing one crucial element here…..any guesses? Yeah, I was forgetting the drop points! So since I got in the starting point, my end point is the last drop…FILO : First In Last Out concept. Maneuvering the bus on the main road, my bus driver speeds along the main roads which is not with that much of traffic, stopping occasionally for dropping of employees. Finally, my bus driver stops one stop before , where I boarded, excusing by saying it would cause a traffic jam if he take a road further! Obviously, this is the routine, and he cannot make any changes for one temporary commuter. I checked my watch it was exactly 8.45 PM. I would take another 20 mins to scout for an auto and reach home. The time I reached, 9.10 PM. Exactly 3 hrs after I left office. So many things that I could’ve done in these 3 hrs, but I was slouched in a bus. This was on a Thursday.
The next day also the same torment continued, but it was all the more worse. Coz the normal route of Magadi road was closed, towards Vijaynagar, and my bus had to take a detour. The bus driver unwittingly took the goodshed road , which was a trauma… since all the vehicles had to now ply on this road, there was not an inch to move. The traffic was literally moving at snails pace. And the day being a Friday, Majestic and the Railway station had to be crowded. It was an hour to just cross Okalipuram. Again the FILO concept, and I reached my stop only by 9PM, and I was dead exhausted. To catch an auto is another pain, I reached home only by 9.30 PM. No time for anything, I was so famished, I just gobbled up my dinner and hit the bed.

Thankfully, I don’t have to endure this trauma anymore, as from next week, I’ll be operating from my base location.
Sometime last week, my boss asked if I can go to SJP office again to attend the Quarterly meet , and my reaction, was worth more than a cab ride back.. :)

Jo beet gayi so baat gayi ....

Dont be surprised reading the title!

This is a line from Harivansh Rai Bachchan.
I heard these lines in a episode of KBC 5, and was amazed at the gravity of the situation and the difference it made.

I particularly loved the lines below:

Jeevan mein ek sitara tha
Maana woh behad pyara tha
Woh toot gaya to toot gaya...
Ambar ke aanan ko dekho
Kitne iske tare toote
Kitne iske pyare chhoote
Jo chhoot gaye phir kahan mile
Par bolo toote taron par
Kab ambar shok manata hai??


There was a star in your life , which was very beautiful..
if that star fell, the sky is helpless....so many stars fall, so many loved ones forego...once fallen, they can never get back together.
But the sky doesnt mourn for a fallen star..

How meaningful, what context..
Loved it!

Learning s

If it is April , it is appraisal season in the corporate. Should we rename the month as Appraisal? Employees get their performance evaluations and students get their exam results….may be relevant..

Since this is September – Teacher’s Day, This post is to acknowledge all my Managers and Supervisors with whom I have worked in my career span of 7 yrs. Each person was different and from each I have learnt something. A big Thank You…to all of them.

The first boss I had , was very jovial but, a task master. Though the role what I had was very limited, he taught me how you can do what is given to you , in a clear and a concise manner. I was associated with him only for 3 months, this was my first corporate exposure. Things that made me work there , were the colleagues. I had my trusted MBA classmate, and very few team members, who were most considerate. Also what I learnt from my manager was to always respect your seniors…not according to age, but as a senior in the company. Even if the person has joined the previous day than you, treat them as a Senior. One more thing was, not to be bound by time, if you remain in your framework of 9 – 6 and want to learn. I still remember, he said : This is not a school that opens and shuts according to a time-table. If you need to learn the dynamics, don’t say “NO” to any work given, that doesn’t mean, you do others work, do work you are supposed to do. This proved to be important , in my present job as well.

The second association I had was with a small time consultant. The number of employees were only 35, so everyone knows what everyone else is doing. I had 2 managers here and both females. My first manager and I had a very good rapport, in fact we are good friends even now. From her, I learnt the art of sourcing resumes, the job I still enjoy doing. At that point , I was not even given any access to any Job Portal. It was only referencing and networking through which I had to get resumes. She taught me , how to approach people and get references. My second boss was actually my previous super boss. Very friendly, but one advice, DELIVER your targets. From this boss, I learnt the people management (as now I had a little team) who would help me in sourcing.
From her I learnt how to handle client meetings, and project yourself in a way that the client gives you requirements. One fine day , when I was neatly dressed ( not that I wasn’t always..happened to wear a formal Shirt ), she asked me where are you going..when I said nowhere..she told “ No, you are dressed smart today. Attend that meeting in Cunningham Rd. I am not in proper attire!”. That was the first client I started handling. In this consultancy, though the number of employees were few, I stepped into the domain which I am proud of. Some of them I got to know there, are still my friends.

In my current organization , I have had many managers that I have lost count of! I’ll be writing the ones that significantly have influenced me in a blog later :)

TFTD..

TFTD

Not sure how many of us know the full form..Thought For The Day - TFTD
I studied in a catholic school for 9 yrs, where the day begins with Prayers, News Headlines and a Thought For the day. It was a nicest thing. Maybe that’s why even now I read the newspaper ( Mandatorily – even at the cost of reading e-Paper) and also ensure that I also read the Thought For the Day in the middle pages somewhere. I usually search for inspiring and factual thoughts.
Even in my current organization, there is a daily mail , updating the business , stock et all. But in the beginning of the mail is a Thought.

When I started my career and 1 yr down the line, when I had my group of friends, instead of sending Good Morning mails, I started sending Thought For Today mails.
These were the conversation starters with many.. It so happened, an employee from my present organization , ( who had received one such forwarded mail ), hunted for my id, and sent a request to include his name in my list ! For a moment I was wondering …my mails are being forwarded..and to how many..I don’t know!
I have made many friends thru sending these TFTDs. Sometimes the Thoughts would depict my mood of the day or ponderings over life. Infact there used to be people who used to agree and then there were many who would disagree with the thoughts. It was a PART of my life..sending out TFTD mailers..
It’s a 2 mins job, but the impact a thought leaves, is immense. Reading that itself is an achievement. Which reminds me, there is a thought which goes like “ Do something for someone in a day, for which you don’t get paid " How true..
Agreements / Disagreements would mark the beginning of the day. And then, there used to be days, when nobody would respond!
I am listing some of my favourite quotes & thinkers who have inspired me in more than one way.
Presently the signature of my official mail id has this : “Getting what you want, is not nearly as important as giving what you have. Tom Krause "

One of the very recent thought that provoked me :

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.