Comparisons

Better money doesn't necessarily mean a better trip. A good example of this would be my own experience with my family and my friends. I'd gone with my family to Murud-Janjira, it's a beach approximately 4 hours away from Bombay, and we'd taken a car on hire and spent 3 days over the weekend. Around 20 days later I went to the same place with my friends in two cars and we spent the same amount of time there too.

If you look at our expenses, with my friends we managed our entire trip in just about 2,500 totally for the 7 of us! For both nights, we stayed at people's houses who give one of their rooms on rent for a night.. our expenses for the first night were Rs. 1,000, and amazingly the room was very well tiled, (the taste of the tile too was pretty good) there were curtains, a nice wooden cabinet and all amenities you would find like a colour television and dvd player! I mean who would imagine, that in a village like murund, in the house of a man owns an ice cream shop you'd get all these facilities. Similarly for the second night, we found a house in another obscure village for simply Rs. 500!! and a point to note would be regarding their maintenance. people generally assume that villagers would be living in very simple (rudimentary) ways, but mind you, they've become very modern, their rooms, their toilets and in general their homes are very well taken care of, in spite of all their problems. My experience with the villagers did change my perceptions regarding their progress in today's world...

In complete contrast to my trip with my friends was my trip with my family, we stayed in the best hotel at the beach, went for long trips to the nearby areas, had a lazy time on the beach and we ate at only the best places, etc. So if i were to take an overview, with my family we ended up spending 15 times more than what i'd done with my friends!

In the end, all that i can say is that money had nothing to do with the amount i enjoyed, and the good times that we had... in the end, i guess it's just a matter of what you do, and not how much you spend on it!

Masala Mix

I had seen a cartoon a few years ago with the father sternly admonishing his daughter “No, you may not outsource your homework”. Well, as it happens, there are quite a few companies in India doing just that. The funny thing is that before completing the assignments, parents are required to submit the students’ previous work and grades so that the teachers know exactly what quality of work to produce!


In Madurai Coimbatore, women were trained to use roller-blades in factories while weaving saris and other cloth. In fact, they were so excited about using this gadget (which most had never seen), that productivity went up dramatically. Quite fascinating!


This time around, I taught my mom how to parallel-park. She thought it was absolutely miraculous how her car fit in sideways. (By the way, readers – she drives a Santro, not exactly a Hummer by any standard). She still insists on saying she “reverse parked”:) This reminds me of the way she drives in Mumbai. Once she was caught by a cop for not wearing her seat-belt. She’s actually gotten away by giving an excuse that her stomach hurts when she wears it! Another incident was when we had all gone to buy some jewelry in Dadar. As usual, she didn’t know how to parallel park, and she parked practically in the middle of the congested lane. By the time we came back, the car had been towed away.

Ruminations about mechanical banks

This is quite hilarious. I recently bought some antiques that are mechanical banks made in the early 1900’s from Colaba Causeway. When I searched for these on eBay, I was amazed to see that there is a market for pretty much anything on eBay (considering that cats’ souls and Virgin Mary faced toasts have been sold, my shopping expedition had some merit after all). So I tried looking for “mechanical banks” on eBay India. Guess what the search results came up with – question banks for mechanical engineering.

I wasn’t so much disappointed by the fact that there was no market for the mechanical banks, but found it really funny that Engineering question banks were floating around on auction sites. I remember the good ol’ days of Engineering when crash courses and copying assignments seemed like the only way to clear exams, and how not even for one moment did I wonder at my apathy and ennui in those four years.

I hate second-guessing myself, but time and again, I’ve found myself wondering how life as an architect would have been.

Thoughts

Where traffic lights are a mere suggestion…
Where it’s easier to be an observer than a 9-to-5er…
Where everyone wants to get out of the middle class rut…
Where a mere glimpse of the Arabian sea costs a million…
This is the city I once knew, this is now the city I can only reminisce about…
This is Mumbai, this is India.

India Shining

This time as I boarded a flight, I inevitably had the same nagging thoughts of whether we will ever be able to go back to our country of origin, and what kind of a lifestyle we would be able to lead there. I don’t think I have the answers yet; but I did see some very bright and shining examples of how India is changing, and how globalization has affected its step children.

“Bani”, a very talented help and executer of all ideas to my mom in her jewelry business, recently took her 12th standard exams again. She wants to do a fashion design course, and design haute fashion. When my mom suggested that she instead could do jewelry designing, her answer was “lekin woh toh mujhe aata hain” (I already do that). I so admire her guts and determination. Her younger sister and brother (who was pretty much a loser who squandered his sisters’ salaries) are both now employed at a Hindi call-center. Perhaps the biggest confidence booster is that they’ve moved a huge step up – they’re now “office-goers”, not just house helps.

Till recently, these people had absolutely no way to break out of the only life they knew. Now, there’s so much to look forward to. They’re going to take English speaking lessons so as to get into an English speaking call center (which pay much better).