Since I've been back

I’m trying not to make a big deal about the transition back to Bangalore but so much has changed in the past 3 years. And everyone I’ve met has asked me the same question, “So what’s changed in the city?” For starters, my city’s name has been changed to Bengaluru. I don’t like the name change; Bangalore was so much cooler and metropolitan sounding.

The first thing I noticed was the new international airport. Though I imagined it to be bigger, I like the order and neatness, and of course the access to the duty free stores before you walk out. The next thing is definitely the increase in traffic on the city’s roads. Our roads have been widened with fewer signals, but crowded with more vehicles than ever before; and I have to comment about the accompanying increase in road rage and honking. The Namma Metro work is chaotic, hopefully when it is finally functional it’ll make up for the damage it’s done. Volvo buses have supposedly become a handy form of public transport, though I’m yet to vouch for that myself. Autos are becoming eco friendly and hence being painted green. Their drivers however, I feel, have become more audacious and arrogant in refusing customers and reckless driving. And yeah, Bangalore’s cops have become more vigilant and tech-savvy. They carry BlackBerrys and enter a faulty driver’s information right away to a central server. And apparently, they’ve become pretty strict about DUIs and seizing licenses for repeat offenses.

From an economic aspect, I’ve realized that my small wallet doesn’t fetch me much. Cost of living has shot up beyond many Bangaloreans’ affordability. A 3 month gym membership is over 12K, a movie ticket costs twice as much, and Rs. 100 won’t buy you a decent dinner any more. Yet the nouveau riche don’t seem to stop splurging and crowding the city’s stores. Malls are filled with so many window shoppers that’s its actually quite impossible for a genuine shopper to find what he/she is looking for. UB City is finally open and is filled with expensive designer stores with arrogant shop keepers (but I really like its architecture and food court). Everyone and I mean everyone has gotten a cell phone. And the rich have gotten richer and I don’t think the disparity between the rich and poor has really reduced.

Many old school places unique to Bangalore have closed, and the HAL airplane has been removed from historic junction. We have a new Vikasa Soudha identical to Vidhana Soudha. Bars close at 11.30 pm (my dad is very happy to have me back home so early) and Empire is no longer a late-night food paradise. We now have more coffee days with more expensive coffee offerings. Moviegoers are many and multiplexes are minting money. A new trend in the theatres is to play the National Anthem before the movie and everyone stands for it (impressive)!

Thanks to all the immigrants/job seekers from other parts of the country, Kannada is being spoken far less than before. Bangalore has expanded beyond Yelahanka and Bannerghatta. Every corner of the city is becoming self-dependent; people no longer have to travel a long distance just for a nice restaurant or shopping mall.

So many fewer trees along the roads (earlier Golf Road was one of my favorite roads to drive on because of the way the sunlight made its way through the leaves of the trees that lined that road; now that’s history). In an attempt to upkeep the green image of the city, the corporation is painting fairytale waterfalls and forests along the walls of the flyover. I guess I should give them credit for trying to cover the concrete jungle mess.

All said and done, some things may never change like the lack of customer service, men constantly letching at passerby women, or the respect for a waiter’s or janitor’s job. But the good that’s come out of all the corporate mayhem is that people are more aware of their jobs and responsibilities, not taking it as much for granted as they used to before.

Of course, I’m glad that some things haven’t changed like the love and care you get from family, hot home cooked meals, my dog’s slurry kiss, petty witty jokes by my friends, and the abundance of company. All-in-all, it’s good to be back home in Bangalore!

How’s that for service?

I always write about how awful my flight experiences are, so it’s only fair to make note of a pleasant one. No, I didn't get a free upgrade to business class, though that would have been nice too. Instead it was a very nice gesture by the flight crew to take note of my request.

What happened was this – my carry-on bag was too big to fit in the overhead compartment of the small narrow plane. So I left it at the end of the jet way for planeside check-in. I took my window seat and scanned the things around me. While I looked out of the window, I saw my bag lying alone at the bottom of the stairs of the jet way. I figured it would eventually be added to the remaining baggage. Five minutes later it was still there and the flight attendant made an announcement that we were ready to depart. So I got his attention and told him that my bag was still lying there. He ran up to make a call to the ground crew to take care of it. Another five minutes later, no response from the ground crew. I complained again as I heard the doors being shut. And then I see the Captain walk down the stairs of the jet way and take care of my bag himself. The flight attendant came back and asked, “How’s that for service?”

I’m glad I spotted my bag lying there, because dealing with lost baggage is a giant pain. But I was knockout impressed with the Captain! I was expecting to hear reasons such as, ‘we can’t delay take off,’ or ‘we are understaffed, there is nothing we can do,’ or ‘it will reach your destination aboard the next flight’, etc. To top all of that, this morning when I checked in a bag, it was 2 pounds extra, and the kind lady behind the Delta counter let it slide (once somebody made me remove stuff because it was 0.5 lb over). And… all my flights were on schedule today. Being the end of the holiday weekend, I expected chaos at the airport. It was a good flying day after all!

This one tops my list for airline customer service. And to answer the question of the flight attendant, “Your service today was remarkably noteworthy!” Thank you Captain Drew and flight crew of flight NW 1224.

Nasty Airlines

I’ve had to do a lot more flying than I would have liked in the last couple of days. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t particularly enjoy it, unless I’m flying home to India in which case I have something to look forward to.

Airlines have become very creative in charging us for the most basic things, which they conveniently bracket as fuel surcharge. How about a fuel discount when crude oil dropped below $50 a barrel a couple of months ago? That seems unquestionable! What gets me the most irritated is the $2 charge for water/beverage. Checked baggage fee, curb-side check in fee, booking fee, refund fee, exit row seat fee, cancelation fee… the list goes on and on. Any service that was once included as part of your ticket, is now subject to charge (read the fine print!). I won’t be surprised if we soon hear about a lavatory fee.

My worst experience has been with the change/refund fee. United Airlines charges $150 for changing your itinerary or requesting a refund. How much is that going to leave you with? (They're hoping nothing.) And they are very happy to resell your seat for an exuberant price to another innocent customer.  

All this travel is doing me no good expect for the frequent flier miles that I collect. And rumor has it that those miles are worth less each day. So much for loyalty programs, customer service, and convenient flying. One tip that has come handy for me is to travel with very low expectations, that way you leave little room for disappointment. If I could start my own airline and show them how it’s done, I would. But until then I will blog my frustrations away…

P.S: Not all airlines have stooped to this level; I have to give credit to Southwest and Northwest for still serving their thirsty passengers with a free cup of water/soda.

On this one flight...

I was traveling to the west coast dreading the 8 hours of being stuck on cramped airplanes and in busy airports. I’ve come to dislike most airlines cause of their stingy attitudes (they even charge for water!). Not expecting much from this travel experience I charged my iPhone to capacity, carried a book, and took some nutrition bars on board.

I was seated between this 10 year old kid who had the window seat and this other older lady who had the aisle seat. I began talking to the kid. He was traveling alone and returning from a visit to his Grandma’s house. I have to say I was impressed with the kid’s behavior and good mannerisms. It always makes me happy when I see a kid who isn’t rowdy and misbehaved.  

I wasn’t so happy about the passenger on the other side though. The lady kept coughing and she had me on the edge of my seat fearing she had swine flu! I must have used an entire bottle of Purell trying to disinfect my hands every time I had to touch my face.

The Captain was kind enough to point out that we were flying over the Rockies. It was definitely a scenic view, a first aerial view of the Rockies for me. An hour later we landed. Everyone eagerly awaited the air-hostess’ go ahead to switch on their cell phones. It’s interesting to see how people rush to call a loved one to convey that they reached.  After calling that someone, I felt blessed that I wasn’t one of those people who didn’t have anybody to call. The little boy next to me called his Grandma and said, “I reached safe Grandma. Thank you for letting me come and visit you. I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.” I was moved by this little kid. I smiled at him and he smiled back. I guess it wasn’t such a bad flight after all.

 

House Rules

For those of you living with incompetent roommates and/or partners, here is a set of house rules that you can introduce them to...

If it’s open – close it.

If it’s on the floor – pick it up.

If it’s dirty – clean it.

If it’s hungry – feed it.

If it’s sad – love it.

Simple, practical and handy, don’t you think? Now it’s just about getting them to follow these rules!

We are the face of Narcissism

We tweet, we blog, we facebook, we bookmark, we are linked-in, we post ourselves on you-tube, we post our shots on Flickr,  it’s all about us and our seemingly fascinating lives that we want to share with the whole world! We think we are social media rock stars, and unknowingly, we have become the face of this narcissistic age.

What is narcissism? Dictionary.com defines it as, “an inordinate fascination with oneself,” or, “gratification derived from admiration of one's own attributes.”  

Our generation seems to fit this definition. Each of us seeks individualism, pseudo self-awareness, and confidence in our reasoning. We feel the need to honor the world with our frustrations, beliefs, and elite opinions. Nobody cares about what we ate, how little we slept, or how our boss mispronounced our name. But that’s the etiquette that we follow in the digital world, we acknowledge what we want, and respectfully move on in other cases. As much as I recognize the trend in others, I am guilty of it too. I post frequent updates on my facebook page because that’s my mode of communication with my friends who are scattered across the globe. 

Read a similar story titled Generation Me vs. You Revisited published by The New York Times. Here is an excerpt: “Conventional wisdom, supported by academic studies using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, maintains that today’s young people — schooled in the church of self-esteem, vying for spots on reality television, promoting themselves on YouTube — are more narcissistic than their predecessors. Heck, they join Facebook groups like the Association for Justified Narcissism. A study released last year by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press dubbed Americans age 18 to 25 as the ‘Look at Me’ generation and reported that this group said that their top goals were fortune and fame.”

Now let’s think of how this narcissistic attitude will affect us in the long run. Will it hinder our personal relationships? We need to balance this prevailing behavior before it gets the better of us. Just a thought…

Pay it Forward!

This post is inspired by a movie I watched on the weekend called Pay it Forward. Released in 2000, this movie starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment, is about a 12 year old boy attempting to make the world a better place. The idea being, help 3 needy people, in turn they help 3 others and so on. Instead of returning the favor to the benefactor, the beneficiary pays the favor forward. It is a beautiful heart-warming idea set to change the world based on the principle of goodwill and faith.

What a revolutionary idea, don’t you think? I read somewhere that Benjamin Franklin first spoke of this concept, but I believe it has been conceptualized by Catherine Ryan Hyde in her novel Pay It Forward. The idea has been embraced by many students in schools and colleges across the world; it even has an active foundation set up. To get more info about the foundation click here. Or you could read The 365 Ways Blog about similar movements.  

It’s simple – we just twist the golden rule (ethic of reciprocity) to “Do unto others as you would have others do unto others.” If I should fall back on my cultural learnings of Dharma and Karma from the Bhagavad Gita, then it’s all about righteous duties, cause and effect, and selfless desires.  

Now I’m not suggesting that we stop living our crazy self-indulged lives and start remedying the world. I have to practice what I preach. And I know that work-related stress, lack of sleep, and personal problems often leave us in nasty moods. But every now and then, we could be nice? If we are fortunate enough (that we were helped) to pay a favor forward, well and good, if not, lets kick off the kind deed. As the day progresses, the favor goes around, and who knows, it could make a full circle back to you?

Step on it guys, pay it forward!

 

Celebrated Women

As I watch the Miss USA Pageant this evening, I write this post about women who are of completely different character. The women I write about are those who manage the only profitable investment firm in Iceland, while every other fostered debt 10 folds the size of its deposits.

The Miss USA Pageant is a 2 hour dedication to the blond and brunette beauties who are better off just smiling than reciting their rehearsed answers (like the response to the healthcare question!??). Instead, if we dedicated these 2 hours to Halla Tomasdottir and  Kristin Petursdottir  of Audur Capital, the women whose feminine intellect steered their clientele to profitable returns this year, don’t you think we would have learned a thing or two?

This brings me to discuss studies about raging testosterone on the trading floor, how it actually makes male traders assume greater risk than they should. Maybe testosterone plays a role in the irrational exuberance of the stock market bubble? Research shows that women made investment decisions may lead to more consistent profits for the clients. Women tend to focus on long-term results and more vested interests rather than short horizons. I’m not saying Lehman Sisters would have survived the credit crunch, but we are entering an epoch when women entrepreneurs and professionals are grabbing attention.

Hopefully this will be a lesson to the recruiters at investment banks and financial firms to welcome more women into the financial kingdom. We might be your saving grace! Cheers to the estrogen!

Inspiration: "The last bank standing" news video from CBS News

Incredible India

I like what they have done with the website. I think the information is useful and accurate. So anyone (new to India) who is considering travelling to the subcontinent, visit this website. I hope you enjoy your stay in my Incredible India!

The Wall Street Journal is currently featuring interesting articles about India. Click here to explore them. 

Be INSPIRED for your Decor challenges

I love to browse decorators' galleries for design inspirations. I have a collection of exotic ideas that I hope to use as inspiration to decorate my own home someday. Every space is a challenge in itself, but looking out for these ideas channel your creativity, don’t you think?

I don’t have any favorite designers, nor do I pay tribute to the elite work of expensive decorators. I usually make stops at Elle Décor (Metropolitan Home), Nate Berkus, Interior Design, HGTV, Decor & Style, Bravo's Top Design, and others. Recently, I stumbled upon Roxxn.com. The website is a compilation of interior design/décor ideas and hosts a collection of images from various sources. The reason I find it worth mentioning is because its archives are very vast and inspiring. With most other websites, you can view only the recent articles/images. But Roxxn.com has archived over 1000 (approx.) images. I thought I would share the link with my fellow enthusiasts. Make a stop if you need to add zing to your style.