It’s a good initiative by IRCTC to introduce paperless ticketing. Was initially thinking how many people will use it. Our TTEs are not really civil in many cases and create their own rules, so was skeptical about people being comfortable to just take a picture of their screen and travel.

I was in for a surprise during my last Kochi to Bangalore journey though. Out of the 8 people in that section, 7 had tickets in their mobile and no paper. Much appreciated, IRCTC – you are saving a lot of trees.

Wish IRCTC did better hosting and a better UI too. Imagine if it were a private company (it’s the #1 e-com site in India) and not a subsidiary of railways. Imagine IRCTC with a smooth UI like Flipkart Imagine if they set benchmarks in usability instead of playing catch-up!

I got a bike last week. Since there is no place to lock it on to in basement, am keeping it in our sitting room for now.

Ishita came in seeing this and exclaimed, “Mom, look at this. Acha is worse than me. I at least keep my cycle in the bedroom!”

P.S. Why does she think amma is here to discipline us both?! Big misunderstanding.

Mom and daughter are having one of their usual fights. Daughter doesn’t eat, mom threatens her with not allowing to go play in the evening etc.

In Ishita’s defence, the lunch today wasn’t tasting that good. The maid was in a hurry in the morning, looks like. Ishita asked for some pickle and wifey went “it is not good for your health”

She quite innocently asked, “is it good for your health?”. Obviously, loads of pickle that her mom eats hasn’t gone unnoticed.

After our maid quit without notice, me and Sini are taking turns Working From Home during the second half of the day. Usually my afternoon routine on one of those days is to have lunch with Ishita and then put her to bed and get back to my work.

Last week one afternoon, she asked me to read her a book as soon as she came back from school. In a bid to distract, I promised to read it to her after lunch. We had a quick lunch with the usual race where I challenge her to beat me in finishing first. Of course, she manages to win all the time – this is one part she hasn’t figured out yet

After lunch I got to work and Ishita was playing something. It appears she wasn’t just playing but observing me as well. She waited a good 15 minutes and then came to me.

“Hmm… what were you telling me before lunch? I think you were telling me that you will start working after lunch”

Needless to say, I was speechless. Only part I couldn’t figure out is if it was due to the fact that she figured out sarcasm at such a young age or being ashamed of trying to fool her. Mix of both, I guess.

Recently there was this talk-show where people were discussing how effective Kerala’s chief minister is. Everyone was agreeing on how good he is with the masses and how his certain programs on transparency and openness are appreciated by all. One lady made a point that while she too agrees with the views on his success among peers and the people, he is far from a success in being able to influence those above him. She went on to state that his popularity and influence among masses is fairly useless if he doesn’t have the clout (with center, investors, etc.) to bring in the changes that they need.

While it is arguable if her points apply to the CM (and I believe it doesn’t to a large extent), the point she made did make an impact on me. Being able to influence your team or your people is a power that comes with a lot of responsibility. If you do not have the clout to bring them what they need, you should practise restraint on the infleuncing part as well. Else it becomes more of a selfish motive than leading or mentoring.

Below is a mail I sent to our apartment community. Haven’t tried to edit it for the blog, so please excuse any references that doesn’t apply.
_________________________________________

Wanted to let this group know of a recent happening in our community, which might be useful for you if you (or friends) have other properties in Karnataka.

Around 2 months back, we got a notice from Pollution Control Board (PCB) that an amount of Rs. 1,20,000 need to be paid for 6 years (Jan 2007 – Dec 2012). The builder and association decided to split this as 40+80, considering the respective ownership periods.

When we went to pay this amount, the PCB officials said an environment report need to be made and it costs Rs. 7,500 per year, totaling Rs. 45,000. This was to be paid to an agency that conducts surveys. We enquired with some nearby apartments of similar size and the estate managers there said this need to be paid. So we went back with DD worth 1.2 lacs and a cheque to the agency for Rs. 45,000. And then, they started demanding Rs. 5,000 per year bribe (i.e. Rs. 30,000) and refused to accept the DD if that was not paid.

At this stage, I started looking for someone credible to see what exactly is this process. Remembering a similar topic being discussed on WaterBLR adda, requested Sangeeta’s help in getting introduced to the right people and got in touch with Dr. Ananth who is an expert in this field. He said neither is the environment report needed and also that once the DD is paid (at a different office) we can just courier the forms to PCB so no question about bribe either.

So here we were, with Dr. Ananth assuring us that Rs. 75,000 is in effect a bribe and we do not need to pay any of it and on the other side every estate manager we knew advising there is no other way but pay up. In the meanwhile, Subhash and me started getting calls threatening us of “dire consequences” if we do not pay up immediately, including disconnecting our electricity etc. We were in a real dilemma as we knew quite a few at OB will be very upset with us, if any of the threatening actually materialized. As if that isn’t enough, some people from the builder’s side too started putting pressure to pay.

Finally with Dr. Ananth’s help we found an honest officer in PCB and closed the matter without paying a paise in bribe. But we were indeed surprised by the amount of ignorance about this and to see that almost every apartment pays up this “audit fee” and bribe.

So, please tell your friends this:

• Environment Audit Reports are not required for residential apartments, since an amendment made way back in 1992. People demanding this are just trying to extract money out of our ignorance.
• All we need to submit along with the annual fee is a form called Form V, which can be downloaded free from the PCB website (attached here as well). Most of the fields in this form doesn’t apply to us and filling this is hardly 10 minutes’ job.
• Finally, the PCB does have powers but the people threatening with “consequences” are just trying to cash in on the fear factor and usually cannot do anything without very valid reasons
• The said form and relevant amendment are attached herewith. This is all one needs while paying the fee.

Hope this will help save some hard-earned money for your friends’ communities also.

We were asking Ishita some math problems, to keep her engaged on an otherwise boring afternoon. Started with some 2+2, 5-3 kind of questions, but she started losing interest easily. Then to make the questions a bit more interesting, Sini’s mom started asking some questions.

Mom: Suppose you had 10 eggs and gave 4 to Shruthi, how many do u have left?
Ishita: <opens up all her fingers and then folds four and counts the rest with her nose>… Six! she declares.

Mom: Okay… suppose you had 8 chocolates and gave 3 to Shruthi. Then?
Ishita: <does the same folding and counting>… Five!

Mom: Good. If you have five ice-creams and gave two, then?
Ishita: No way! I’ll give only one.

Math or no math, no one touches my ice-cream

Photos that I happened to take while there, not necessarily _of_ Munich.

It’s an interesting concept, this performance utilization. Many companies throw it in as one of the parameters on which your “contribution to the bigger picture” is measured.

That makes you think it should be some measure like (Pixels by You) / (Total Pixels). Nopes. You’re smart but aint smart enough like HR. It’s more like (#hours-you-worked) / (#hours-you-got-paid). What if you worked 100 hours in one of those weeks? You should be ashamed to even think that your company is interested in making you slog, let alone measuring how much you slogged and putting it into your utilization!

The kewl part of it is that your % start crashing like the sensex once you are out of a project. The effort to staff you goes like this.

Week 01:
“We have a project in your technology, but the step up you’re looking for is not available”
Am not interested in anything without the step-up. Sorry.

Week 02:
“We’ve a new one, but this one is a different technology”
Hmm… can I look at the one you were speaking about last week please?
“Last week’s thing got staffed”
Well, I’ll wait for something similar to come up.

Week 03:
“We’ve something which is in a different technology and in a different specialization”
I guess what you had last week is gone?
“Yeah. And please keep in mind that this is your third nomination”
What should I do there?
“They just need a person to vegetate. You’ll fit.”
Well… let me think.

Week 04:
[Your utilization % is reaching the stop-loss figure, and you're ready to sell.]
“We’ve…”
YES, I’ll take that!

“Acha, what does panja mean?” – asks my daughter of three
Panja means 5, I say, slightly confused about what might be the context

She is silent for a moment and then asks “what does basinda mean?”
Now am lost. Hmm… I don’t know. Where did you hear that?

“Teacher told us.”
Basinda?
“Yeah..”
What did she say? Am thinking this must be a name in some story.
“She was singing. Panja-basinda-gujara-thamaratha”

Well, that basinda… *weighing my option between making up something or explaining the concept of states to her*