Infinite thoughts

A month with a difference...

2011-12-31T07:00:00.001+05:30

What would the life be, if you were removed from your comfort zone and put in a completely different environment? An environment which you were part of several years earlier but you never envisaged being part of it again? What if I you can't adjust yourself to the uncomfort zone you are in now? What would it be, not to have all those people around, with whom you have spent almost 1/3 of your life? How would it be, to work all alone, almost all the time, with occasional calls from the team? How would it be to work from home, be at home almost entire day? loads of questions... all "W"'s were haunting me.

It all started with a casual discussion with one of the friends almost four months back. I was getting an opportunity to do something different, something that I had not done so far on the career side and that got me excited and interested. After much deliberation, lot of debates, going over the pros and cons, finally decided to take the plunge... Decided to move myself in the uncomfortable zone. Into a role, which calls for all the technical work, which I had been part of years earlier. Last few years with my last employer had been in a completely different area - project management, account management, customer relations. The role was challenging and I was enjoying it too. However, there were sudden bursts, which kept on popping up - what is it I would like to do 2 years from now, 5 years from now? (Thanks to some online influencers like Robin Sharma, Ramit Sethi, Seth Godin, Brad Feld and many more, of whom I am a regular reader of their blogs)

There are instances when you get some ideas, get excited about the new idea, you decide to do something about it later and you park it. Only to realize after a while that either you haven't built anything on that idea or someone has taken the actual step to build the product around the same idea. And then you go through the cycle of pain, frustration and what not. Happened with you? It did with me multiple times. And this, kind of forced me to start believing that if I need to work upon my own ideas, I need to dedicate time right away for that idea, otherwise, it won't happen. But in the services industry, that too, with 20 odd kilometers of driving one way (or should I say 120 mins on the road daily!!), it almost becomes impossible to spare some time for such ideas. The services industry definitely teaches you how to build a product, but not how to "own" a product. To be able to grow and do something about my own ideas, I wanted to be on the other side of the table... "Building" Vs "Owning". "Asking for confirmation on decision" Vs "Taking the decision and owning it".

With this thought, I finalized to change the gears and get on to a very different track and join a startup firm in Pune which has been operational for about 18 months or so with couple of their own products. By the time, I was getting relieved from my earlier employer, things changed suddenly and I landed up with another startup with the same person, but into a very different domain - mobility with retail - exciting concept and with proper execution we'd be reaching the masses of this country.

So here I am.. working from home for five weeks. Only three-four meetings in the entire week. 3-4 status calls and rest of the time - all hand-on. Went back to the technology. Basics of Java/J2EE, did some hands-on exercises to refresh the knowledge. Basics of cloud, Some new concepts like NoSQL. Working with Amazon AWS. Completely immersed into getting myself up to the speed. Got bugged down with some stupid nuances of Java like CLASSPATH and Resource files etc. Started drawing flow-charts, write code on paper first and then do actual coding. Cursed myself for overlooking few obvious design issues in the beginning, but looks like I am getting into the groove...

It is still a long way to go, feels like I am on right track... to discover myself, my capabilities.. to do something different, something that will touch millions around...

At the onset of the new year, with lot of hope in the mind, I wish you all a a very happy life, filled with prosperity and health. May this year bring some meaningful difference to each one of you.

Happy New Year 2012!!

Mobile Number Portability - Revisited

2011-12-16T13:22:00.000+05:30

A year back, I blogged about the "Mobile Number Portability" and its possible usage in India.

While I was predicting that the customer would still be cribbing, albeit for the new provider, since every provider appears to be providing same quality of service. However, today's news made me aware that I had forgotten about a particular aspect completely. Willingness of the operators to let go of the existing customer - it seems to be playing a key role in making MNP not so widely used in India even after a year. As per the current statistics only about 2 percent subscribers have opted for MNP, whereas in other countries the percentage has been in the range of 4 to 16 percent. Even TRAI was expecting the usage of this facility by about 10% of the subscribers.

A quick search on MNP issues, landed me with this page, which is talking of the same issues which TRAI has pointed out in today's report.

I wonder if this is cartel. All providers deciding to keep their own subscribers so that no one fears of loosing, albeit at the cost of possible upside... What do you think?

BTW, anyone from the readers, who has opted for MNP? If yes, what is your experience so far?

Boycott is not a way at all

2011-11-23T06:20:00.001+05:30

Dear BJP,

With all due respect to the senior leaders and the partymen, it is unfair on people's part to boycott someone or the parliament session. If you have some proofs against some person, please hand them over to judiciary system, invoke pleas to remove that person from the seat. If you feel it is not right to have that person in the seat even until the judiciary system hears your plea, please start educating the people of India and have peaceful protests outside the parliament. If your claim has value, it will surely see the light of the day. People of India have proven their eagerness to fight against corruption and if you have strong case, people will support you as we. But YOU need to prove beyond doubt that you have a case.

By boycotting the person and thereby halting the working of parliament is sheer waste of time and money for the people of India and please understand this. These hours could be used in a far more productive ways in order to complete the agenda of the session and would be beneficial to the people of India.

Yours truly.

News links:
BJP begins ‘boycott’, rest step back
Lok Sabha loses four hours, Rs 1 crore on day one

Facing hospitalization in family?

2011-11-22T06:20:00.000+05:30

[Note: This is an old post I had started writing back in 2006, revising and publishing it only now]

God forbid, that should not happen with you, but we face this situation some or the other time in our life. It takes a lot of things to pass through this phase, and this collection of items would help you survive.

Be on time

When you tell the patient that someone will reach hospital at so-and-so time, make sure someone reaches at that time. The patient usually won't have clue why you are getting late.

Keep cool

It's easy to panic by various things during the hospitalization. It is utmost important not to let it reach the patient.

Ensure some cash with the person accompanying the patient

Many-a-times doctors ask you to get some medicines quickly and if you don't have enough money, then you waste time in arranging for the money and then getting the medicine.

Take care of yourself

Just because someone very close to you is hospitalized, doesn't give you any excuse not to look after yourself. If you can stay healthy, then only you can take care of the patient. Otherwise, you will need to get admitted and causing more worry to the patient and others in the family.
Whenever time permits, fill your stomach with some nutritious stuff such as fruits/juices or some lumpsome meal. Idea is you might not get a chance even to look at the food for next 12 hours. So if you find time and if you are hungry, fill your stomach.

Inform the close relatives as early as possible

There is no point in hiding thing from your 'close' relatives. Sooner you inform them, better for them to get prepared and ready, in case travel is required.
If you call up the closed ones late, suspicion. builds on the other side. The recipients may get jittery - are we getting all the information? Specially, if it wasn't serious, why were we not informed earlier? and things like that.
You could be right with your stand that there's no point in telling others if you yourself do not have clarity. However, persons sitting at the other end of the city or in different city, need some time to get ready for required travel and hence letting them know at the earliest helps.

Be patient with the hospital staff

Hospital is such a place that most of the people around are worried for some or the other things. The staff also gets irritated at times by staying in such environment. Keeping your patience only can help you get the required attention and service. No point in making noise at wrong place/people.

Understand the rules of Hospital

Specially in big hospitals, they have some set rules for visitor timings, number of persons that can accompany patients etc. Understand them and adhere to them as much as possible. By all chances the rules have been set considering the patients' health and fast recovery.

Tadoba - Part 10

2011-11-20T06:30:00.000+05:30

Read earlier posts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

After much debate, we decided not to take Ghugus Road for the worst experience we had earlier in the trip. There were two options in front of us.

Moharli-Chandrapur-Warora-Jamb-Hinganghat - This would still have made us travel a comparatively bad road from Hinganghat onwards past Deoli.
Moharli-Chandrapur-Nagpur-Amaravati-Akola - Good road condition from Nagpur to Akola was a major temptation. However, the distance was too much and the road from Hinganghat to Nagpur was again unknown.

Finally decided to take Warora-Jamb road.

View Larger Map
And to our surprise, the road was beautiful!! However, this time we kept our fingers crossed almost until we reached Jamb.

We reached Jamb at around 2, which is just about two hours for 90Km!! It was time for lunch and we were looking for decent place. Unfortunately, we didn't see any good place, which was contradictory to whatever we had heard about the place. Everyone had advised us to have food at Jamb and we didn't see anything around at Jamb Junction. We took the road towards Hinganghat, which was NH7. As soon as we left NH7, we inquired about restaurant and everyone pointed us back to Jamb!!

Frustrated enough, we decided not to go back and test our luck on the road itself. And on one fine turn, just outside an industrial complex we saw Dhaba. Delighted. I stepped out of the car for quick inspection and inquiry. The uncle was pretty friendly and the place was clean. To top it, he had chapati and Dal-Jira too. मृण्मय की तो निकल पड़ी!! We had awesome Dal, Alu-Gobi and tawa parathas!! Delicious!!

Now we were getting prepared for the bad road upto Pulgaon via Deoli. However for some reason, we didn't find the road that bad this time and always kept wondering whether we have taken the same road or some different road. However some landmarks were familiar (e.g. Cotton processing Unit, some warehouses etc) Finally we concluded that the Gugus road has made me a better driver for such roads ;)

The road from Pulgaon to Chandur Railway Station was at par anyways. By this time it was almost dark. The roads didn't have the lights and the signboards were scarce. However, there were not many diversions/alternate roads, so easily hit the Amaravati bypass pretty quickly. By our initial estimate, we were hoping to reach Akola by 11 in the night or so (12 hours journey - based on the earlier travel time.) But by taking that Jamb road, we seemed to have saved almost two hours. By sevenish, we were close to Amaravati Bypass. And by 8:30 or so, we reached Akola. Tired, but happy. I was saved of almost 90 mins of driving time :)

Total distance travelled: 360 Km.
Total Driving time: 9 hours.
Total Travel time: 10 hours.

Few lessons from this trip:

Do some homework about the roads in the area that you plan to travel. Find out some local contacts and ask very direct questions. Prefer the advise from those folks who use those roads regularly.
Ask. We benefited when we asked and were at disadvantage when we didn't. A very casual question at Pulgaon, helped us in finding a good place for Breakfast. But shyness or laziness at Jamb junction kept us hungry for long.
Start early. Given the travel time during our journey to Tadoba, if we had started late by an hour or so, we might had reached late at the entry gate of the way to Tadoba, which closes at 7 PM. and we had reached there by 6/6:15 or so. This could be one off case, however, early start also reduces the night travel
Carry some snacks apart from Biscuits :) Some fruits might be helpful as a quick snack. Near Ghugus, we had to purchase few bananas to fill our stomach, in the absence of any decent place to eat.
Use Navigation system: We used Meghana's Galaxy S II very effectively. But remember the navigation system doesn't tell you how the road would be :)
Do not rely completely on Google maps. The route shown by Google to reach Moharli was not feasible as Forrest department doesn't allow passengers to take that route. This misled us to certain extent until we called up our tour guide/operator.
State Highway does not mean sub-par road and National Highway doesn't mean good road. NH-7 was a big flop show whereas most of the state highways were in much better condition. So do not base your calculations or plans solely based on whether to road is NH or SH.

This concludes the 10 part series on our trip to Tadoba. Unfortunately Meghana is still processing the photos and hence haven't included any yet. As soon as the photos are available, I am planning to put up a photo story :)

Tadoba - Part 9

2011-11-18T06:17:00.000+05:30

Read earlier posts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

While we were busy with Safaris mornings and afternoons, MTDC was acting as our base. After the 3-4 hours of bumpy ride, the room in the resort provided for the comfort much needed by the body. The room was spacious, lot of empty space, a balcony and a sit-out. All this was situated very next to the tiger reserve and we heard some stories of tiger slipping out of the Jungle boundaries and capturing some of the cattle from the village around.

The restaurant @ MTDC was a big "thumbs down" experience. There wasn't much choice available in the food items. The menu was more or less restricted to Panjabi items, which were prepared with pathetic raw material. On one of the meals, I just separated the pieces of Paneer as I couldn't eat them. Breakfast/snacks comprised of either Pohe, Bread Omlet or Bread Butter. After having "mirchi" pohe, we resorted to bread butter for the snacks and the bread was over for next two rounds!!. The only good part was the Chapatis and Dal Jira which were good and eatable.

On the second day, I was so desperate to have something different, I actually thought of stepping out of the MTDC and have dinner at one of the other resorts nearby. This was vetoed by Mrunmay strictly saying we'd not go outside!! Even Ashish, our guide, kept of stating MTDC is best amongst the available choices.. I stopped imagining what would be happening at other resorts..

It was surprising for us to know that there are villages inside the tiger reserve. We could see some farming and some villagers during our regular safaris. Some folks were just walking down the road, some were on two wheelers and some were waiting for the S.T. Bus. Yes, one bus travels through the Jungle and helps people inside the reserve to connect with the world outside!!

One thing that was distinctly different from Bandipur - the co-operation amongst the Gypsies, the guides and the drivers. At Bandipur, the guides used to help each other a lot, specifically in terms of information exchange. However, here I saw that as a problem. Information was exchanged very reluctantly and one would always have a doubt if that is true or not. Probably this was because here the Gypsies were private and owners were different, whereas at Bandipur the Gypsies are supplied and governed by the Forrest Dept. But at the end of it, the tourists are at disadvantage, due to lack of information exchange.

On the whole, this trip left me dissatisfied on two fronts - No Tiger sighting and no good food. However, we had good fun along with Mrunmay during the Safari as well as during the stay at MTDC. One thing that we realized about Mrunmay - he was reserved with most of the folks, but opens up and becomes friendly with some select few and it leads to some interesting conversations :)

It was time to pack bags and start our journey back home. With the memories of Ghugus still haunting, we were desperate to try some other route. It was not an easy dilemma - would the other road be better than Chandrapur-Gugus road or it would be worse? We were slated to leave Moharli by noon, by considering the time it took us to reach Moharli, it would have been midnight before we reach Akola. That means night drive and if the road is bad, it would only add to the worries.

We decided to choose "Unknown God"...

Continued...

Mrunmay's first Karaoke

2011-11-17T06:33:00.000+05:30

It was Ragini's Birthday earlier last week and I was not in town, so Meghana and I decided to take her out on last Friday after I returned back. As a practice, we try to visit newer places when we go out and this time it was "Puran-da-dhaba" located at Pride Hotel, Shivajinagar.

Given that it was a Friday night, I thought there would be a rush and hence called them up and reserved the table for four. Fortunately, the place was not crowded at all. As we entered the place, the ambiance caught our eyes. The place was decorated to give the dhaba look and to a large extent it was successful. A "khaat", a bullock-cart, some posters. There were mehendiwali and chudiwalee and an astrologer too (this is something may not be part of actual dhaba.. but nonetheless it was there).

As we climbed up the stairs, a more Dhaba-like look appeared. Around 12-15 tables. Few were unoccupied. The captain pointed us to a table reserved for us. The curious eyes were looking all around and Mrunmay and I both saw it almost instantly. There was a place for live singing - couple of chairs, a synth, set of speakers and mixer unit along with couple of mics. Mrunmay had to check out what all was that. As he climbed up the dias, I asked him if he wants to sing. As a habit he nodded his head negatively. I persuaded saying that it was his stage today. He sounded interested. After couple more attempts he said yes. My intention was just to keep him occupied and interested through the dinner. What followed was just amazing.

As he was exploring on the stage, he saw the mic. With instant reaction, he picked it up and started singing the song - "Twinkle Twinkle.." I was under the impression that since the singers are not around, the mic is turned off and the speakers would also be off. But both were on!! Mrunmay's voice was all over the place and everyone started looking at us not knowing what's happening. Incidentally the person who was playing the Synth was around and started playing the music in the same pace as Mrunmay was singing. This was followed by Baba Blacksheep, "Jangal Jhadeet waghoba lapale" and "Pussy Cat Pussy Cat"

What amazed us was his boldness and lack of fear of stage. He wasn't really concerned if the entire restaurant was listening to him or not. He just wanted to sing utilizing the new found prop - mic. He wanted to continue singing but the singers already had some songs lined up and we were also running out of time, so Mrunmay had to stop after those 3-4 songs.

Ragini's comment - Best birthday gift ever!! :)

Tadoba - Part 8

2011-11-16T06:25:00.000+05:30

Read earlier posts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

With 60% of the safari's complete, we were getting anxious. There has been no sighting of the tiger or leopard or even bear. Deer and Monkeys - we were not so excited. Bandipur had given us enough pleasure of seeing them pretty closely. What we wanted was Tiger, leopard or bear.

Second day, afternoon safari. I charged myself up by convincing that the eventful morning is a kind of promise that there would be tiger sighting today. When we reached the reserve gate, we saw a new driver along with Ashish - Jeetu. Ashish introduced him to us stating Jeetu is a lucky guy for him, whenever he had taken Jeetu, he had seen tiger. We're like - okay - if that gives us a chance to see tiger, why not??

Even after some rounds in Jamunjori, Kavichi lane and what not, there were no new signs , trails of the tiger/tigress. We were kind of pumping up Jeetu to get something. While driving on a lonely road inside the Jungle, we suddenly heard "Calling". Rather it was Jeetu and Vitthalbhau who heard it and stopped. Waiting patiently, we also heard it. Vitthalbhau qualified it as "Barking deer" Calling, which convincingly is for presence of Tiger around. Our hopes were raised again. Last day, we had heard Sambar Calling [which has been incorrectly blogged as "Barking deer" calling] and now Barking dear. We were completely desperate to see the real thing. As we were waiting quietly, other vehicles started lining up. We had to pretend that we had halted for some quick snack and there was really nothing around. We could succeed with few of them, it looked like the guides and drivers were not good listeners of the Calling.

Half an hour passed, still there was no movement. The Calling also faded away and finally we convinced ourselves that Tiger must have slipped somewhere else now and it would be difficult to trace him/her further. We started making rounds of the jungle, but in vain. Even Jeetu's luck didn't bring us the tiger or tigress. Looked like our bad luck was stronger than his good luck!!

We had almost given up the hopes now. Even the last safari - third day morning - was kind of uneventful. We got some trails of Tiger excreta, but as happened earlier, even this time, the tiger had passed from the same road after we crossed it. During the information exchange at Khatoda gate, Ashish got to know that the tiger was sighted in some area which we haven't been to. Lot of time had elapsed, but as a last attempt, he took us there. We had to return empty handed. Oops - empty eyed :(

All in all, except for the Wild Dogs and The Chase, the safaris were uneventful. Multiple reasons for this experience. Apparently, this was not the best time for sightings. Apr-Jun is the time when most of the sightings happen. There was grass all around, of the height 3-4 feet. A tiger could easily hide in such a grass and we would never see it. There were ample water bodies deep inside the Jungle and hence the animals usually do not come to this part of the jungle where the Safari's are usually arranged. However, the situation changes in the summer, when the inner water bodies go dry and animals are forced to come to this part, where Forest Dept fills up the water bodies using tankers.

With the promise to ourselves to return in one of the summers, we returned back to our base at MTDC.

Continued...

Tadoba - Part 7

2011-11-14T06:30:00.000+05:30

Read earlier posts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

The carnivores

Second day safari started full of hope or should I say an assured one? Kal ki appointment miss ho gayee, lekin aaj to dikh hi jaayegi!! And the start was good too. We took a turn on the left side of the main road to "Jamunjori" and the road started itself with fresh pugmarks. It looked like the tigress had crossed the road in the night and had taken this route. Ashish started navigating carefully on the road. There was a sharp turn from where the pug marks disappeared.. looked like going straight as if the tigress didn't like to take the turn ;) Vitthal bhau told that there's water body few feet away, where she could have slipped into. Waited for few minutes to check if we get any movement. No luck. Vitthal bhau's opinion was that we have lost the trail and the tigress was into the another part of the jungle where we weren't allowed to go. So Ashish decided to take us to some other part of the jungle.

While driving on the main road, Ashish saw some excreta.. fresh.. Some wild dogs had passed from there. Meghana had reached a point - at least some carnivore to dikhega!!

Suddenly we heard the "Calling". This time it was Sambar Calling. The speed of the vehicle slowed down and we started identifying the direction. It wasn't far off and we a Sambar in the trees. Somewhat open area, but still full of grass. For some reason it was just moving within a short distance. As we moved closer, stood up in the Gypsy, we realized two wild dogs were playing with the Sambar and Sambar was either trying to escape or she wasn't able to escape. Our hopes risen. Would we get to see the hunt? But after spending few minutes, it didn't look like the dogs wanted to kill the Sambar. We also noticed some movement within the bushes a bit ahead from that position. The Gypsy went back and forth and we got the sight!! Albeit not clear. But the scene was now clear. There was third dog, which was killing a baby Sambar and the other two were trying to push the mother Sambar away!! The sound was of a mother loosing her baby... on one side I was feeling sad, but on the other side it was satisfying that I got to see some action. At a moment I was moved - someone was getting killed almost in front of our eyes and we were unable to do anything. At the same time, it was a realization that this is how the Jungle life is. Herbivores are meant for the Carnivores...

The experience spoke. Ashish and Vitthalbhau said now it will be a while before the dogs would come out of the bushes. They would finish off their hunt and then move towards water body. The jungle was thick enough not to get clear view any further and we decided to come back after some time. The trip after this was pretty uneventful, got some deer, lot of monkeys but nothing more. After almost half an hour we returned back to the same spot. Not much movement was happening. No clue if the wild dogs were still there or had left the place. We decided to wait and finish off some breakfast there itself.

We were about to finish the breakfast, the dogs came out of the bushes. There were three dogs. If you look from behind, they looked like ordinary dogs except for a very thick tail. All three of them took the main road for few meters and as we were following them they decided to part ways and disappeared in the jungle again. Now there was no point in waiting again so we started our travel back.

And we got the news from another vehicle - there was a sighting of the tiger - some distance down the road. Again, this time it was a passenger vehicle who spotted it. We started travelling the road and Ashish saw the excreta yet again. This time it was much fresher (!!) and Ashish and Vitthal bhau were sure that it was of a male tiger (I really don't know how.. but they were confident :)) and since the tiger was seen down the road, it was kind of confirmed that the tiger took the same road - yet again - after we passed from that road. We had missed it this time too...

With not much time left for the day, we returned back to the base. At least we had seen some carnivores ... that too in action...!!

Tadoba - Part 6

2011-11-13T06:51:00.000+05:30

Read earlier posts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

The Chase

Time for afternoon safari. This time there was a longer queue outside the gate of the Reserve. Some private vehicles were also waiting there. It looks like the Reserve is open for private vehicles as well, as long as the official guide is accompanying. This was something different than what I had observed at Bandipur, where only official vehicles were allowed inside the forest.

I also came to know that there are only certain number of vehicles allowed inside the reservoir and the forest department controls that number!! I didn't find the logic behind this...

Our safari started. Ashish was maneuvering the vehicle through the jungles, looking for trails. I was spending time in reading the signboards and peeping through the trees/bushes hoping I would be the lucky one to first notice the tiger. Mrunmay was at his task - sleeping!! Yeah, he had fallen into sleep in the morning and even now. Good for us, I thought. Ashish even tried to get onto some road/area which was closed until then. No luck.

We reached Khatoda Gate, which was kind of a mid-way spot in the safari. A checkpost and a toilet place. While we were getting refreshed, one of the passenger vehicles brought the news that they saw a tiger. Back in the lane - "Kavichi Lane" - through which we had passed in the beginning of the safari. Ashish was now charged up. He was hopeful that we would get to see the tiger. He hurried us up back in the Gypsy and we were on our way to "Kavichi Lane". I will not forget this drive. Anxious but excited, would we be able to get a glimpse? or the tiger would have left by then? The distance was just a few minutes, but given that the animals do not stay in open for long, there were less chances of we spotting the tiger at the same place. Nonetheless, we drove there. Once we left the main road in the jungle, Ashish and Vitthalbhau (the forest guide) started carefully watching the road. No signs on the crossroad. We reached the other end of the lane and suddenly Ashish and Vitthal look excited. We observed the road and we too were excited. We got the trail. Fresh pug-marks of tiger.. oops tigress. It seem the animal was a tigress and was a regular visitor of that area. We started following the pug-marks. They were going along the same road, which we had traveled earlier. And then the pug-marks disappeared in the grass and the bushes. The tigress had gone into deep inside the trees.

Vitthal bhau started doing some calculations. If the tigress has gone inside this area, there's only one way she could come out from. The reason - there was a water body on that way and the tigers usually don't "turn back" on the same road - Vitthal bhau said. We were contemplating of waiting at the same spot or going on the other side. even after a few mins nothing happened. No further signals, signs, calling ..nothing. So Ashish and Vitthal bhau decided to check out the other side. We were unlucky enough not have sight even on the other side of the kavichi lane. We were feeling bad to miss the animal, it was all possible that the tiger was actually following us when we were on that road earlier. It just so happened that we didn't look back!!

The duo decided to take another chance at Kavichi lane. As we entered the lane, suddenly Vitthal bhau went calm. and so was Ashish. Nothing in the sight, we were wondering what happened. Suddenly we heard a sound - no it wasn't of the tigress - apparently of the "barking deer". The barking deer is known to make such a sound only when he sees the danger around. That surely meant the tigress was somewhere inside. The sound was close enough to guess the direction. We slowed down. Vitthal bhau whispered this is what they call "Calling". The calling continued at regular intervals - every 30-40 seconds. Went cold in between. But started again. The Gypsy was parked. The DSLR was out. The handycam was ON. The excitement was going up. We were patient. Listening to sound and if there's any change in the direction.

It looked like the calling was heard by few other Gypsies too. Few started coming in from the same lane. We moved forward a bit and adjusted the location near the water body, in the hope that the tigress would come to the water soon or at least after the hunt!! Would we get to see the hunt? My heart was beating faster.. Mrunmay was getting curious as he wasn't seeing anything but all of us sitting quiet. Meghana and I were whispering and telling him what's happening to keep him quiet and interested. The Calling was intensified. One of the other Gypsies decided to move forward and so couple more. And then came our bad luck. The other gypsies were making too much noise while moving forward. By the time those gypsies halted by advancing on the road... the Calling went cold. There was no sound by the barking deer. No other movements..

Still keeping patience. in the hope that tiger would probably be moving now. which direction? God knows... we decided not to move this time. but now time was against us. it was getting closer to 6, when we'd need to report back on the main gate for exit. With fingers crossed, the DSLR in the hand, Meghana was completely restless. Continuously looking into the trees.. no sign...

It was 5:45 PM and the duo decided to call it off. With heavy hearts, we started on our way back...

The pugmarks were fresh, there was calling sign, but still we were unlucky not to get to see the tigress, not even a glimpse... Ashish was comforting us that we have got some trail, there are equal chances that we'd get to see it the next day. The tigress would remain in the same area for some time now and the chances of sight are better.

It was absolutely thrilling experience. Just the thought that tigress was around somewhere in the bushes had made our hearts beat faster and pulse racing. What could have happened if we had actually got to see the tigress? This chase increased our interest in the safaris and all three of us were charged up for the next day's safari. In the hope that we'd get to see the tigress...

Continued...

Tadoba - Part 5

2011-11-11T06:16:00.000+05:30

Read earlier posts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

"Let's start at 5:30 AM tomorrow", Ashish said. Ashish was our tour operator/safari guide. After reaching to MTDC, he set the stage by stating the schedule. There would be two safaris each day. One starts at 6 in the morning until 10:30 and the other starts at 2:30 in the afternoon until 6:30 evening. So it was going to be almost 8 hours a day of safari. Looked pretty interesting and easy. On top of it, we were lured by possible sight of the tiger(s) and leopard(s).

Long before our trip started, we had started charging up Mrunmay to see the tiger, so that he is excited enough and keeps his patience through the safari. Compared to our last safari in Bandipur, we were hoping for more calm behavior from Mrunmay. He was just about 2.5 yrs when we had visited Bandipur. I'll never forget that incidence.

After couple of fruitless safaris at Bandipur, we got a sight of a leopard. The animal was quite far off for Mrunmay to see and enjoy. He tried to see it for some time and then give up. Since there was nothing for him to do in the Gypsy, he started doing the obvious thing - started singing his poems!! We had few other folks also in the gypsy, all looked professional photographers, and it would be have unfair to them if the animal would have disappeared in the jungle due to the noise that Mrunmay was making. But I had no choice but only to convince Mrunmay to speak at lower levels. Finally, I had to close the windows of the gypsy (yes, it was a closed vehicle and I felt so relieved to have a closed vehicle at that time!!).

This time, we had fully pepped up Mrunmay to keep quite in the jungles and also had taught him "whispering" (which he loved by the way).

Being first safari of the trip, all three of us were completely enthusiastic and woke up at the first alarm :) Even Mrunmay woke up pretty quickly. After refreshing, we were out on time and reached the gate of the reservoir, which opens at 6 AM. However, there was rush (expected!!) and took sometime to get the tickets. Ashish gave us the news that many more roads and areas in the jungle have been opened by the Forest departments for tourists. It looks like the department closes some roads/areas based on the condition of those roads. And many roads were closed till that day. This elevated our hopes to have "Darshan" of the tiger. The logic was - if many of the areas were to be traversed today after a lot of days, it is possible that Tigers and leopards and the whole brethren of Tadoba might have got comfortable to the absence of the tourist vehicles and we might be able to see them... After completing all the formality, we were in by 6:15 or so...

All excited... Looking at the beauty of the jungle. The vegetation.. the landscape.. while observing this I was quietly looking within the bushes and trees if I get a glimpse of THE animal - tiger. The first sight was that of a Gaur - rather it was just a "heads up" - One Gaur standing in the tall grass where we could only see the head and nothing more. But this early sight of the wild animal made us expect more and we were wandering in the jungle looking for various animals. No luck so far. Got some sightings of Sambar and Monkeys and that's about it. We had our breakfast by sitting in the Gypsy next to a beautiful lake. It was so quiet, felt like staying there for days together.

First safari was pretty uneventful and we returned back to the hotel. Although we couldn't see any of the real animals (we had stopped getting excited by dears and monkeys) i.e. the carnivores, we were pretty sure another couple of safaris and we'd get the sight. Most of the times it is luck, but it also depends a lot on the information that your guide can collect from the natives and the forest officers and other guides. Did anyone see any trail? Any pug-marks? Any calling? Any shit traces? (Yes... you read it correct.. this also helps in spotting the animal) However, given that it was a first day after opening lot of new areas, not much information was available and almost every vehicle was spending time in just exploring the areas.

By doing some "logical thinking", we were hoping that it would be another 2 safari's before we could see tiger or leopard or wild dogs etc. We started preping up Mrunmay as it is very difficult to convince a kid of his age that we may not be able to see the tiger or it would take couple more safaris to actually see it.

After returning to the base, we relaxed for some time, had meals and then got ready for another ride - 2:30 PM. We had no idea how exciting that visit was going to be ...

Continued...

Tadoba - Part 4

2011-11-09T08:24:00.000+05:30

Read earlier parts here - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Almost 6 hours from the time we had eaten something substantial, I was desperately looking for some place to have food. Since the time we hit the Wani - Chandrapur road, one common thing was "bar and restaurent" and all with shady appearance. Finally found a restaurant in Chandrapur which appeared okay and claimed to have family seatout. When enquired, the person behind the desk was completely clueless about "family seatout". We were almost deciding to skip the stop, and we crossed a restaurant, named Tristar. It was a good relief to have some basic amenities and some good food too ;) The staff was good and also helped us with the directions for the remaining road to Tadoba.

View Larger Map

By the time we left the restaurant, it was close to 5:15 PM and it still looked like around an hours journey - close to 40 km. I was getting worried about the fading light. I usually find it difficult to drive on unknown road after dark. And this time were getting into some rural area and jungle area. The road condition, the traffic - make driving difficult.

We crossed the Padmapur and got scared to look at the surrounding area and the road condition. It was looking exactly same as the one before Ghugus. Looked like there was Super Thermal Power station on the way and that had made the road bad. Thankfully it was just about 2 kilometers patch and we were relieved.

After a bad junction, we took a right turn, and to our surprise, the road was beautiful. It looked like a brand new road with no pits and rough patches. What was more welcoming was a signboard stating Moharli just about 16 km!! Hurray!! Another 20 mins and we'd be at our destination.

Few kilometers passed and we reached a gate, which looked like entrance gate to the Tadoba reservoir. The gate was closed, but the notice board on it read something like "The gate will be closed from 7 PM to 6 AM". Anxiously, I looked at the watch and to my relief it was just about 6:15 PM. After honking couple of times, the guard came out, opened the door and let us in. I was required to make entry for the vehicle and number of pax. As I was leaving the spot, the guard came from behind and started asking for some "chai-pani". Usually reluctant, I gave up pretty quickly and handed over a few bucks to him and told myself it wasn't bribe, it was just a "tip"... The increasing darkness was worrying me and I saw no point in wasting time there.

Hopped into the car and started driving again. It was all jungle around. No signs of any human habitation. Thankfully there were no crossroads or T/Y junctions. Even after 10/15 mins, no sign of MTDC. I was sure I hadn't missed any turning, but to be on the safer side, we asked a cyclist coming from opposite direction and he confirmed that it's just 5 km to reach MTDC. Continued in the same direction and finally saw some lights, looked like village and also noticed the MTDC signboard. A big sigh of relief!!

The road was straightforward and within 5 minutes we were inside the MTDC. The tour guide - Ashish - was present and he helped with the checkin and other formalities. After almost 12 and half hours since we left Akola, we had reached the MTDC.

Total distance travelled: 390 Km.
Total Driving time: 11 hours.
Total Travel time: 12.5 hours.

Tadoba - Part 3

2011-11-07T07:19:00.000+05:30

Read Part 1 and Part 2

"Wow.. what a road!!" was the first reaction when we hit the NH7. 3+3 lane road in excellent condition.. what else would you ask for on a road trip? But soon we were presented with the stark reality. There was a diversion on the road. It seems some part of the road was under construction. Still okay. A kilometer long road - to be traveled from the other side - ok.. shouldn't be a problem.. and we were back on the right side of the road, I mean the left side, which is the right side :p All looked okay.

And then came another diversion, and then another and ...

With every diversion, the road was getting worse and we started to question our decision to take NH7. I was driving at a speed of 20-30 KMPH on National Highway, when there was NO bumper-to-bumper traffic. Forget bumper-to-bumper - there was very less traffic. and still...

We had to drive all the way to Wadki and then took the road going to Vani.

View Larger Map

The road from Wadaki to Wani was comparatively better considering it was just state highway and not national highway. The road was two lane, some rough patches. On way, we had to ask the road to multiple people. Before reaching Mardi - one of the place enroute - a nice old gentleman described the road - "रोड अच्छा है, टार रोड है!!" And we realized how fortunate he was feeling to have a tar road....

By the time we reached Wani, it was close to 2:00 PM and the stomach was asking for it's hafta. At the junction, we were looking for directions to "Moharli" our ultimate destination or at least "Tadoba". No one seemed to have heard about "Moharli". We were told that there's a direct road from Wani to Moharli and one is not required to go to Chandrapur, but everyone was telling us to take the Chandrapur route in order to reach Tadoba. Time to call up our tour guide for concrete information...

He gave us some names of the milestones in between, but he also confirmed that we'd need to reach Chandrapur in order to come to Tadoba. Quickly decided to skip the lunch and to have something directly in Chandrapur, which was just about 60 km from Wani. that is just about an hour... 3 PM - not bad...

And then started the nightmare. The road from Wani to Ghugus is the worst road I have ever traveled on. I haven't driven on the Moon, but if I have to believe the pictures published by NASA, I would say the land on Moon is better than this road. I would have accepted if the road was not a tar road, wasn't wide enough, but at least smooth enough to drive at a speed of 40 at least. No, I wasn't that lucky. I was feeling rejoiced when I could avoid the "खड्डा/गढ्ढा" No matter what, at least one wheel was ought to go down. Given the low clearance for Vento, every time, I had to go through the pits, I was crossing my fingers... If someone would have done video shooting from behind, I am sure, I would have resembled with a drunken driver. In a matter of moment, I had to change the side of the road from left to right and before next moment, I would be turning right again. This continued till Ghugus.

As we approached Ghugus, the reason for such a bad road became apparent. This is the area of coal mines. Lot of heavy traffic flows from this road. Plus, my guess is that the land is also somewhat weakened due to constant excavations. One strange co-incidence struck me while driving through this patch - So beautiful it was - The land was full of all the "black" material deep within (coal) and at the same time it was producing shining white on the top - "Cotton" - All this part of Maharashtra is producing Cotton as well as Coal.. interesting, isn't it?

It took us close to 2 hours to cross those 40 km to reach Ghugus. Once we crossed Ghugus the road again was better and we reached Chandrapur at 4:30PM.

Continued ...

Tadoba - Part 2

2011-11-05T06:38:00.000+05:30

Continued from earlier post - Tadoba - Part 1

Considering our past experience, we decided to start early in the morning to avoid late evening/night travel. Surprisingly Mrunmay was also up by 5:15 AM or so and we could leave Akola by 6:30 AM.

Road to Amarawati is absolutely fabulous, barring some junctions and few rough patches. Meghana and I were happy that we had taken the route. Just before Amarawati, we took the bypass. This bypass is very recently built and is a very pleasant experience to drive on. The gentleman at the Toll Gate told that for Pulgaon, we'd need to take a right turn on the same road. But the road was so beautiful, that we missed the turn and reached the other end of the bypass road!! Another toll gate. The gentleman here gently told us that we have missed the diversion and we'd need to go back... It turned out that there was not enough signboards at that diversion :( This was quite contrary to the experience so far, as we had seen ample indicators in our road journey so far.

After leaving the bypass road we touched SH243, from where we were expecting road to get somewhat rough and traffic to increase given it would be only 2 lane road. To our surprise the road was pretty good and we reached Chandur Railway by about 9. Time for breakfast!! But no good restaurant/dhaba in sight. Considering Mrunmay was asleep, we decided to wait until Pulgaon hoping to have some good place to eat.

By 9:30 we're in Pulgaon, but again, didn't see a good place to eat. We were contemplating if we should pull for another hour or so and checkout Hinganghat. We anyway wanted to check the road for Hinganghat so inquired with an old fellow. He told us the way to Hinganghat, but also told us a good restaurant in Pulgaon, which was just few meters away. We took the detour to "Hotel Balaji". It was a decent place with a family seatout. It looks like, people at this place were Samosa lovers!! The food was okay, except the fact that the Idli was cold and Mrunmay wanted to eat only that!!

Finally we left Pulgaon in about 45 mins or so and were on our way to Hinganghat. Road has been very good so far and we were happy about it. All this while, Meghana was doing the job of navigator using her Galaxy S2 and 3G. Before the junction which led us to NH7, she realized that the same road that goes to Jamb also goes to Vani in other direction. Two things happened. From the map it looked logical to go southwards first and then eastward, rather than northward-southward-eastward. And secondly we'd have got a longer stretch on NH7 which could have given some relief on driving stress and time. Thirdly, Vani looked to be a bigger place than Jamb, and we could have halted there for lunch. With all these things in mind, we decided to take southward direction towards Vani and hit the NH7.

View Larger Map

But we didn't know what was coming our way...

Continued...

Tadoba - Part 1

2011-11-03T06:36:00.000+05:30

As our bi-annual vacation planning started, I did the easiest thing - asked Meghana to find the destination and do the bookings :) Jokes apart, she is really good and lucky at finding good places and accommodation. I had tried once, but ...

Given her passion for photography (you can see some examples here, here and here), I knew we'd end up somewhere in the Jungles, and so was it!! Incidentally, we had to visit Akola before our vacation time and it was very thoughtful of her to choose the destination closer to Akola (lesser driving for me :p). Tadoba (Chandrapur district) seemed to be a good choice. It is a tiger sanctuary and is known to be good. Without much discussion further, we finalized the destination. The real question came about the accommodation. There didn't seem to be any choice apart from MTDC @ Moharli and couple of other "resorts". The Local contact and the tour guide strongly advised to take up the MTDC as it is the best amongst the available. With hesitation, we chose MTDC. Hesitation was due to perception of government service, which is absolutely bad.

While planning the travel from Pune i.e. using Google Maps, the road looked almost straight. Akola-Amaravati-Pulgaon-Hinganghat-Moharli.
View Larger Map

The real question was how is the road condition. We had planned to take out Vento and drive down to Akola and then further. Akola-Amaravati was a no-brainer. But Meghana and I didn't know about the rest of the road. So enquired amongst some localites in Akola and also called up the tour guide. We got to know about another route - Akola-Yavatmal-Vani-Moharli.
View Larger Map
Again called up couple of friends from Vardha, to know the latest status of the road and finalized that we'd take the earlier route. So all set to start the travel on early morning on 25-Oct.

Continued...

Right To Recall

2011-10-23T12:45:00.000+05:30

Quite contrary to my belief in Team Anna's campaign in India Against Corruption, I am of the opinion, Indian democracy is not yet matured/ready for implementing "Right to recall" the elected candidates. I understand Team Anna must have made due diligence while proposing it, but as an individual, I feel the time has yet to come.

Let's see some influencing facts:

Indian democracy, still, is largely made up of people who do not think much before voting for a candidate. It is driven more by the then-current-issues rather than a holistic view of the situation. Neither the people take enough effort to understand the candidate and his/her stand on various current issues nor they follow up or persuade them after the election for fulfilling the election manifesto. If it would have been otherwise, Congress couldn't have been putting up the same agenda of "Garibi Hatao" for last 50 odd years!!
Additionally, the local politics usually revolves around personal rivalries. Just before the elections and even during the campaign one can see how many complaints get filed against the candidates by their opponents, simply to keep the opponent busy or to divert the public attention.
Media at local constituencies is not strong enough. Most of the media that plays role is forming or busting the opinions is largely covering the state level or national level issues. Not many local channels and newspaper are really influential.
Most of the election sees the voting to the tune of only 50 to 60 percent, at times even lower. Given the fact that there more than two candidates in every constituency, each candidate is going to be representing around 20 to 25% of the total eligible voters.
Bogus voting is still a big problem in many of the constituencies.

And now impact of these facts if we implement "Right to recall":

Opposition would herd the people to sign the petition of Recall for really petty issues. This would create problems for the elected candidates, specially for those are really doing good work for the constituency/state/nation.
There would be multiple attempts by the politically unsatisfied folks and rising stars to oust the seating MLAs and MPs just to expedite their own career. Political parties may also help such incidents to curb the powers of certain individuals.
There could be some real issues at a particular constituency, which the corresponding representative is not paying attention to. However, the media is not so powerful to form the opinion at such local levels, which would help people analyse the facts and make the decisions.
Assuming if we implement the "right to recall", there are chances the whining people would be those who did not vote or those who had voted to the candidate who didn't get elected.

Having said all this, I am definitely in favor of being accountability to the elected candidates. However, "Right To Recall" may not be the right option at this stage. May be some other means need to be thought out.

Real problem

2011-10-20T21:10:00.000+05:30

The most obvious reaction to this picture is that our education system is flawed and the above problem depicts THE problem - every individual is being given same set of criteria to prove himself/herself. The person behind the table is asking the candidates to perform same act irrespective of the capabilities of the individuals. However, is it really a problem? I don't think so. Real problem is different.

Real problem is why does the elephant want to get evaluated for a criteria which he is not even meant for? Why is fish and dog standing in the same queue which calls for a skill related to climbing a tree? Shouldn't fish be finding a table that asks for swimming or diving skills? Shouldn't dog be standing in a queue that asks for hunting or protection skills? The person behind the table is looking for a specific skill - climbing a tree. Why should he be blamed for not judging the hunting or swimming skills?

I believe the problem is not a single criteria of evaluation. The problem is that everyone is rushing to the single opportunity even if it is not matching their skills, their strengths. Not many people are trying to find opportunities other than the one that is easily visible. If the current system is not presenting the opportunities, we should be creating opportunities ourselves, instead of standing in the queue which doesn't match your capabilities and aspirations. It is in our hands to choose - continue pointing to wrong problem or identify the correct problem and find solution for the same.

Any thoughts?

LIC and Investment in Tobacco Companies

2011-10-15T06:47:00.001+05:30

Happened to read this news item in yesterday's Times. One of the NGO's had filed an RTI query which revealed that LIC has invested some 3.5k crores in Tobacco companies. NGO is questioning is it right thing to do when government is spending 10,000 crores on treatment of tobacco related illnesses.

On the first look, the question looks very good and I got into answering it negative. But is it really bad? Is it unethical? Is it something morally incorrect? Is it wrong from business perspective? Here are my thoughts..

LIC is out there to make money. The consumers would want LIC to succeed so that they get their payouts, so that LIC keeps on giving them the insurance cover.
Actually the NGO should be pushing to ban the tobacco industry completely, instead of asking government owned companies not to invest in tobacco related companies.
Now-a-days, investment patterns are so complex, it would be very difficult to predict, if my invested money is actually invested in Tobacco industry or not. What would be the stand if LIC has investment in PSU banks, which in turn have given loans to tobacco industries? Should LIC also keep itself away from such banks?
And on the logical side, a company that insures the lives of crores, is earning money from the investment which is ruining lives of crores... Isn't it ironical?

Any thoughts?

Missing the plane

2011-10-14T07:49:00.000+05:30

First of the experiences!!

I was supposed to travel to Goa for office related work on early Wednesday morning. The traveldesk @office helped with all the arrangements. It turned out that I needed to take a 5 AM flight to Goa from Mumbai and not from Pune. The only option was to travel to Mumbai via road and the traveldesk happily facilitated the same.

The driver called me up at 8/8:30 in the evening and confirmed that he would be reaching to pick me up by 12:30 AM. Given 3-3.5 hours of travel, the timing looked good. Also, it was pouring heavily in Pune, so the 30 mins of additional time was my buffer. Setting up the alarm for 12 midnight, I quitely went into the dreamland.

No, I didn't miss the alarm. I woke up quite on time, and was ready to hop on to my cab at 12:15. The time started ticking past 12:30. I called the driver up, he said he would be reaching in 10 mins. Okay, I can wait for another 10 mins, although I would have loved to sleep for another 10 mins in the bed. After every 5 mins, I was getting restless, and calling up the fellow. Everytime I got some answer sounding similar to - I am almost there Sir. Finally at 1 AM, the driver said, I have touched the highway and you could come down and wait, I'll be there. Wow.. finally... the distance was just a 1.5 Km, given the night time, the cab would have reached in practically 2 mins. I stepped down. It was still raining, thankfully not pouring. Decided to wait near the security gate. The guard was having his peace of mind - chaddar oDhake - I was least bothered right now. I wanted to get onto the cab and head towards the airport.

Another 5 mins gone, driver didn't pick up the phone, Mandar going frantic. Calling him again and again. Finally he picked up and asked - "Sir how far is it from the chandani chowk?"
I: "Where are you right now? it is just 1.5 km"
Driver: "I am near Toyota showroom"
[That was at least 3-4 km on the other side of Chandani Chowk. I thought he took the wrong direction. So patiently asked him]
I: "Are you going towards Katraj or Mumbai"
Driver: "Katraj, Sir"
I: "You mean you are yet to reach chandani chowk..." (wondering why did he ask me to come down and wait!!)
Driver: "Yes sir, I thought it is on the other side, so I came from Pashan road [HEMRL]"
I: .....
I: ... Okay, come straight, cross the chandani chowk, and blah blah...
Driver: "Okay sir, I'll reach there in 2 mins"

Finally, he reached at 1:17, 45 mins past the scheduled time. It still looked okay. Driver would cover it up, I thought. Started the journey. He had nice collection of marathi songs. I tried to catch some sleep, while listening to good music, but for some reason couldn't really. After reaching expressway, my hope of catching sleep sprang again. But alas, a few kilometers on the expresseway and the vehicle made some noise and stopped. Driver comforted asking me not to worry. He opened the bonnet, did something and declared, it's fuel leakage, but we could reach the next gas station and then would be good for journey. Ok!!. no other choice, I said. Continued on the way and reached the petrol pump. He had to cross the road walking and get the fuel. I was getting impatient. Finally he came back and said all is good, after refuelling the vehicle. "Thank you!!" I said.

The vehicle was on its way now I went asleep fast, never realized when we crossed Lonavala, khopoli etc. Directly woke up at 4 and looked out... we had just left the expressway. I lost my heartbeats..
"How much more time?"
"Sir, another 40 mins. We' reach their before 5"
"Hello - 4 was my check-in time. 5 is my flight..."
"Is it? I thought it was 5 check-in.. okay sir, I'll move faster and reach there quickly"
Next 20 mins I was sitting the car holding the front seat firmly, closing my eyes many times to avoid seeing how he was moving across the lanes (All rules, descipline and all.. I wasn't thinking about it at all.. I needed to reach the airport before the check-in closes)
4:20 AM: we were at airport, thankfully he knew KF terminal. By the time, I reached the KF counter it was 4:23 AM.

One of the agents rushed me to the counter when I told him about Goa flight. The agent behind the counter calmly said - Sir check-in is closed..
"Can't you do something... there's still 40 mins for the flight"..
"No sir.. 45 mins and check in is close"

Another senior fellow came forward and I hoped he is going to help me getting in, may be my giving some advice to be on time etc. I was prepared for all that, I just wanted to get onto the flight.

He took my ticket in hand and started scribbling something, I was about to get happy and he spoke - Sir you are 8 mins late, please go to the counter outside and get yourself rebooked on another flight.. WHAT??? and I thought he'd help me. My heart sank. But realized there's nothing much that can happen. It was close to 4:27 and I was losing time fast.

The lady on the KF counter checked the ticket, asked me what is to be done. I said, please rebook me next flight to Goa.
"Sir next flight is at 12:30 afternoon"
Ooops.. what was I supposed to do for 8 hours on the airport? and what happens to my work in Goa?
"No flight before that?"
"No Sir"
"Any other carrier?"
"That you'll have to find out yourself sir"
"Okay, cancel my booking please"
Completed the remaining procedure. Sat in a chair to calm down.
I was feeling so stupid. Missing the flight was a big thing for me. No it wasn't exactly about the work in Goa. It was about "how could "I" miss the flight". I tried telling myself, that it was because of the driver coming late, however, it was very difficult to digest that I missed the flight!!

Recovering from this mental shock, I realized that traveldesk had mentioned there are two-three flights in the morning. But how to find that out? My traveldesk man wouldn't be at work at that unearthly hour. And the laptop+data card came to my rescue. Quickly opened up the browser, went to ixigo (Thanks to my niece, Sneha, for introducing me to this site :) and to my rescue, there was a flight from Jet at 5:50, so I had about an hour before the flight. I had to change the terminal, walk around almost half a kilometer, anxious, but reached the counter in time. The staff was helpful, and I could purchase the ticket and get inside for checkin before running out of time!! After passing through the long queue of security check and all, finally boarded the plane and I was relieved once and for all!!

Post Fast Thoughts

2011-09-03T17:19:00.000+05:30

With all the excitement and action that was going on for last few weeks in India, I am sure everyone is well aware of the cause and the need for the fight. While every person that was talked to was saying that corruption needs to be eradicated. Corrupt should be punished and we the common people should be able to carry out our daily business and duties without contributing the corruption.

I am not fully convinced that the outcome of fast-unto-death is a big step. The fight itself was a big success, but the outcome may not be. However, this needs to be seen. It all depends on how the crusaders of the Anti-corruption fight copes up with the political games. I strongly feel media has a very crucial role to play. Every claim by either parties needs to be put forth to the people of India. Today there are news maligning Mr. Arvind Kejariwal. Can't media simply file RTI to seek the reason why the matter is being dug out only now? Why it wasn't closed in due time period? IB/ED wanting to act after 5 years is definitely suspicious. Similar exercise was tried when Anna were on fast. Thankfully people behind it realized the side effects of it on time and the malignation campaign was faded immediately.

While the common man was all set for the fight, it kept me wondering where were the political parties. I am sure all the party workers come from "common man" class. Then why weren't they putting pressure on their leadership to support the campaign? Wouldn't it help them as well in the long run? Or all of them chose to sit on the fence and are waiting to see in which direction wind is flowing?

I think the anti-fight corruption should have spread even further. We had the candle light marches and "maha-anshan" exercises at various places. Another effective tool could have been pushing the local leadership to make their stand clear. What if we all had "geraoed" local MLAs, corporators and pushed them to publish their stand? It would have helped making "doodh ka doodh, paani ka paani".

Lastly, while there were many new supporters to the campaign, one long timer was missing, rather is missing even now - Tata Tea sponsored "Jago Re" campaigners. At least I didn't see any supporting ads or open support by any of the Tata group industries. Surprising, isn't it?

Customer Service is improving...

2011-08-29T17:51:00.008+05:30

Some recent experiences. Except for one, rest are pretty good.

Domino's Pizza:
Few days back, I came to know that Domino's has started with online ordering system. With my recent adventures of online shopping, there was nothing to stop me and I ended up in ordering online. The experience was pretty smooth and hassle free. Given that it was first time, Meghana confirmed the order by calling up the concerned outlet. Incidentally, we checked the watch exactly at 30th minute and realized that the pizza hadn't reached us yet. And then it was hard to stop Meghana to call up the outlet to check what's happening with our pizza. To our surprise, when she mentioned that it is already past 30 mins, the outlet manager was kind/professional enough to agree to keep the "Domino's promise" and promptly asked us to call him back when the delivery boy reaches. The Delivery boy also gracefully returned some 300 bucks, no questions asked. The wonderful thing happened after that. While we were about to start enjoying our pizza, the same manager called up again and mentioned that Domino's have already credited back the 300 bucks online to our credit card account. This was amazing. Apparently they had some way to detect automatically if the delivery was getting delayed or not. And if getting delayed, it automatically credits the respective amount!! Isn't this amazing?

99 Labels:
This is my another experiment(s) with online shopping. A pretty good decent website and good shopping experience. Overall quite happy. However, a typical behavior of the site is - if you place an order with two items, you'd end up receiving only one. And for rest, they would give you money back. The customer service is okay except that it is very non-human. The CS reps do not have access to past history of the user and hence end up sending similar looking mails, which make no sense at all. The good part is that at least I am getting my ordered items... well not on time, but I get them :)

IndiaPlaza:
Very good customer service. They also have a good facility to track customer complaints/requests and address them effectively. The CS reps do not hesitate to call back and provide information if something is amiss on their side.

FashionVia:
This was the worst experience. I got introduced to this site through SnapDeal, and had a very bad experience. I wanted to purchase something for Meghana for her birthday in the month of March. But I didn't receive the item nor was I refunded until early June. I had to pass on the battle to Meghana to talk to the customer service and then only they accepted to refund back the money. After that it took me 3 weeks to actually get the money back!! I'd never shop with this site again... never...

SnapDeal:
Although the FashionVia experience was bad, SnapDeal was prompt enough to credit 50 points to my account in lieu of the money that I had spent on snapping a deal on FashionVia. It took only couple of mails to register complaint and providing details and asking for credit.

Samudra Restaurant:

The familiarity had almost made this place near Nal Stop a no-go for quite some time. Even though we hadn't been here for a long time, never felt like going there. But in recent past, we got a really good experience. On one fine Saturday morning, we went to Samudra for lunch, since we had some work around Karve Road and didn't want to waste much time in dining. When we started ordering, which we thought would be enough for two, the captain softly and in hesitant tone told that the entire order would be too much for two. We were happily surprised. There were instances when we had cursed the restaurant for not hinting about the quantity and almost running after easy money. This was a very good example. We decided to listen to the fellow and he turned out to be right. We were full with the limited order and had avoided the wastage of food and money.
Another instance just couple of days back. After a hectic Saturday in the office, we again landed up in Samudra. This time it was a turn for Chole Bhature. The Bhatura that came to my table was absolutely soaked in Oil, in fact the oil was dripping out. I mentioned this to Meghana casually. The captain happened to pass from their either heard this or observed this. But he promptly offered to replace it even though I had finished it more than a quarter. Within few mins, I had a new Bhatura and this time very nicely done :)

There were days, when I used to say that the customer service in India is pathetic, and we'd never get better at it. Looks like I was wrong, and I am happy about it :)

Blog Past - memories of 7/11

2011-07-12T07:35:00.002+05:30

While another anniversary of Mumbai Blast - 7/11 (2006) is passed, I believe the trial is still in progress. I had written the following blog post when I read one of the stories Indian Express had put together, sharing with you once again, in remembrance of all those who have died and their families, who are still suffering the trauma...

http://bhashya.blogspot.com/2006/11/blog-post_23.html

And now you can "listen" to my blog posts as well

2011-07-11T06:17:00.004+05:30

Enabled the postcast for my blog...

Subscribe to the podcast using following URL:
http://podcasts.odiogo.com/infinite-thoughts/podcasts-xml.php

Samsung Galaxy S2 @ 24K!!

2011-06-26T14:01:00.008+05:30

Amongst many of the online shopping sites, Indiaplaza is becoming my favorite shopping site. User friendliness and multiple payment options being the two most important reasons.

Some of the purchases include a personalized Parker Pen and quite a few books. The biggest shopping that I did was just two weeks back - Samsung Galaxy S2 - a gem!! Meghana was eying this piece since February this year. The mobile launched only recently, however, with a huge disappointment on the price front. Our expectation was somewhere around 24-25K given the feature set. The launch price was 33K!! Meghana had almost given up the hopes of owning it in near future and had started looking for other options. With none is site, I was seeing her desperation. And Indiaplaza came in to rescue :) It offered flat 3K discount on the listed price i.e. 30K, still a bit more than what we wanted it to be priced at. And one fine day, I received a discount coupon in my mail box, worth 1K. Net price - 29K.

We tried the Samsung store in Aundh, if he has something to offer. He had meager 300 bucks discount to offer. And suddenly it struck me... Indiaplaza allows to redeem the CitiBank reward points while purchasing and I knew I had a significant number of points on my credit card - 5000!! And now the price calculations started falling in place. Net price came down to 24K, which was essentially in the budget range we were comfortable with. 4K of pure discount from Indiaplaza and 5K of reward points - that was a huge saving and to top it all smile on Moghana's face :)

Thank you Indiaplaza and CitiRewards :)

Daily Deal Aggregator - when would I get one for India?

2011-06-22T20:21:00.004+05:30

Yipit is a daily deal aggregator which is providing value added service on top of the daily deals provided by various sites. As per this report on TechCrunch, the service currently caters to 335 deals in 32 cities and is having 250,000 subscriptions already.

The value that Yipit adds is the interest based deals sent to you in an aggregated email. You can store your preferences (e.g. Restaurants and Yoga, but nothing on hair loss treatment) and based on that the deals will be sent to you. Of course, you would get the deals in your city or the city that you subscribe for. Another interesting value add is "deals near you". Apparently each deal is accompanied with location information, which is mapped with the address that you provide (optional) and then you can get the deals which are closer to your address.

I feel this is a very cool aggregation and has very good potential, especially in the domain of location aware mobile app. I should be able to find out the deals in the area where I am currently located in - would work best for the restaurants and apparel, which I am more likely to avail even at the run time.

Even in India we are having quite a few daily deals site (SnapDeal, Dealivore, Times Deal, Deals n You, sosasta and many more). I believe, something similar can also be made available given the market size of the Indian consumers. More and more population is getting tech savvy and is getting equipped with mid-to-high end phones (location enabled either through GPS or AGPS) and Indian users would be happy to receive such service for Indian Daily Deals as well.

On a flip side, I think the deal sites may not be really happy because these aggregator services would really be putting in the competitors together. The users who are not aware of dealsites, they would get to know of many more and diverting the revenue from one deal site to another. While this is good for the consumers, what would businesses think about such service?