Ergonomics please...

Or why I will not buy Everest brand spices any more.

I buy spices sold in cuboid boxes, so that I can store them in my freezer (yes I *really* do -- they stay wonderfully fresh that way :-P). The boxes are stored in the freezer door, with the narrow edge of the box visible to me. Other brands (MDH, Catch) make sure that the NAME of the spice is mentioned on the narrow edge, making it easy for me to get the one I need out quickly.

*Older* designs of Everest also had the name of the spice (along with a different color/picture on each box), making it easy for me to get what I wanted quickly. Not any more. This brand now has fancy black boxes with colorful pictures ONLY on the broad side of the box, with just the company name on the narrow edge. So the only way to get *a* particular spice from the line of boxes is by lifting EACH box till I get to the one I want.

No way! I don't have that kind of time to waste.

Motorcyclist -- heal thyself!

Just the other day I was at a red light when an ambulance came up behind me with its lights flashing. There was some place to my left, but even as I tried turning my car, the place was quickly taken up by motorcyclists in a tearing hurry to get to their destination -- the ambulance be damned. The ambulance was left with no choice but to wait for the light to turn green, let the traffic in front clear and then head onwards.

On another occasion when I was heading out to drop my son to school,  my view was blocked by parked buses. Since I had to turn right, I inched the nose of my car ahead in order to be able to see the oncoming traffic. Sure enough there was a motorcyclist who seemed to be late for his date with the devil. He was speeding away, and when he saw me, got a little startled and swerved (not that he would have collided into my car). And promptly mouthed a few swear words before heading on. It was MORNING -- a new day was just about beginning -- what a way to start it by swearing at a mom trying to drop her child to school.

Finally, some days ago I saw a motorcyclist stopped for hurrying on the wrong way on a *well-marked* one way road. I was THRILLED to see him pay a fine. If I had been the cop, I would have gone one step further and made him turn back, i.e., go the right way (even thought that would have been the longer route) to get where he was going instead of being allowed to break the one-way rule after paying the fine!

It almost seems as if motorcyclists are the only ones who need to reach on time. There have been umpteen occasions where I have seen them cause traffic jams by getting their bikes on the wrong side of the road if the traffic is moving a little slowly.

As for their life and safety, if they care about it it any way at all, they certainly don't let it show! The way they drive makes me believe that motorcyclists are either super-religious (there is really no other reason I can see for them coming out alive on the road with the driving "skills" and road "sense" that they exhibit), or genuinely have no fear of death!

Google Maps speak "Indian"

A lifetime ago when I lived in the US, I was always flummoxed by driving directions that online websites gave: Turn right on Cherry Blossom Avenue and head North North West for 10 meters. Okay, okay, I am exaggerating a *bit*, but honestly, without a compass, driving directions in terms of NSEW were pretty meaningless to me and I often got lost and missed destinations.

At that time people insisted *very* confidently that as far as India was concerned, there was no question of dirving directions because:
*> Roads got added (and subtracted) dynamically
*> Road names changed at will (or with the elections ;-))
*> Road directions changed *all* the time!

Well, some time back I looked up driving directions using google maps. Guess what? Not only did I get directions, I got them Indian "ishtyle" :-D

"Turn left on 5th Main, pass Sweet Chariot on your right, keep going till you see the Ganesha temple, then take 3rd cross, and after passing the Masjid on your left, your destination will be on the right."

Notice that there is enough information that one doesn't need to try and decode and then measure "North North West for 10 meters". Such directions work (for me definitely ;-)) because there are enough visual clues that are *much* easier to follow.

No more getting lost for me :-D

Green is the new Red

When I was growing up and in  school -- the teacher's red pen was a weapon to be feared. The ticks, the crosses and even worse, the angular parallel lines below spelling mistakes struck fear in the bravest of hearts!

Then ... came the revolution. People decided -- no point scaring little children with red lines. Instead, let's hand over a benign green pen to teachers.

My sons work is corrected with a green pen. The same way. There are green ticks, green crosses, and green angular parallel lines below spelling mistakes.

What does he think about it? "Ma, it's wrong, no? It's a mistake, right?" He doesn't like the green crosses and angular parallel lines below spelling mistakes any more than I liked the red ones!

No I don't want to study!

Even as the world talks about the importance of educating children and organizations are dedicated to ensuring there are schools for them to attend, I encountered a girl in class 10 who told me she was done with education.

She is the daughter of my domestic help. She has declared that she does not want to study anymore, and is in fact even completing class 10 because she is being forced to! I spoke to her mother, who was resigned to the fact that the girl has a mind of her own because no amount of persuasion from family or friends was making her stay in school.

Why does the girl feel that it is enough to be semi-educated (that's what a class 10 education means in practical terms -- she can read and write the local language, knows some local history and can do some amount of math)?

Has her education been too full of rote learning that she can't bear any more? Has her education not shown her that studying further could mean a better future? What does a "better future" look like for her?

Need a drop-proof cell phone

I am looking to get myself a cellphone that is drop proof, not a flip phone, doesn't have a camera, and is basically robust and easy-to-use.

If you have a cellphone that you've dropped and it has survived, please leave a comment letting me know the brand (and maybe model).

And, if you've NEVER dropped your cellphone, do leave a comment letting me know -- you deserve an award of some kind!

Oh that music!

This morning I listened to some digitally re-mastered Hindi film music from the yesteryears (think black and white films). Very soothing music that left me feeling really good.

One of the things that struck me about the music was the fact that the tunes were *very* simple, to the point of being ordinary sometimes. Yet, listening to that music was such a pleasure. IMO, what lifted the music to those heights were two things: the voices (think young Lata, Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey) and the lyrics (think Jyoti Kalash Chalke, Raat aur din diya jale, etc.)

Could it be that the music directors intentionally kept tunes simple and uncluttered, knowing that the voices and the lyrics were going to lift music to great heights, and complicated tunes would actually detract from the overall experience?

Compare the music of today. I listen to contemporary Hindi film music while driving to work. While there are some songs I momentarily enjoy, there is *nothing* I would want to listen to two years from now. The lyrics are pedestrian, and the voices are lost in the clutter and busyness of the tunes almost sounds like noise sometimes!

Domestic Outsourcing 101

As a working mother who has to pack lunch and kid off to school before heading off to work at 8 am, mornings are meant to run like clock-work.

I don't have live-in domestic help; I depend on someone who comes in at 6am and is out for the day before I leave. Therefore it is big-time crisis hour if the 6 am domestic help doesn't show up (or shows up late). I've tried various permutations -- outsource *all* domestic work, *minimal* domestic work, *no* domestic work (that lasted for two days ;-)), and finally non-critical-path domestic work. After experimenting with these various outsourcing models and domestics -- 5 in the last 8 months at the last count ;-), I present my "learning" ;-).

Do ensure:
*> All boxes needed to pack lunch/snacks are ready to be used -- I now have TWO of every kind of box I need. Including water bottles. So even if the help doesn't turn up to wash the previous days' vessels, I still have a fresh set to use.
*> All vessels needed to cook lunch are ready to be used -- I make sure I wash and keep the rolling pin, tawa, chakla, and any other vessel I need the previous night itself.
*> Whatever is needed to cook lunch is readily available -- dough for the chappatis, vegetables chopped and ready to be cooked. I do the dough the previous night and also chop and keep the hard-to-cut veggies beforehand.

Do not clutter the morning with tasks that can be done later. For example, I run my washing machine in the evening. The corollary is that I end up hanging out/folding clothes myself -- but atleast I am not "stranded" with a damp wash load to deal with at 7.30 am.

And of course, if the help is AWOL, do not attempt to do ANY of the work that is done by her in the morning. Yes, I know, evening (or in my case, afternoon) will be hell, but it's worth having a peaceful stress-free morning :-)

Update: A friend suggested I title this post "Domestic Crisis Management" because "in the morning even a small issue is dramatic" ;-).

Justice for Ruchika

It is heartening to see that Ruchika Girhotra may finally get justice, thanks to the media publicity and public outrage following the ridiculous sentence that her molester (and eventually killer?) received. If you think of the crime, he molested his own daughter's classmate. Someone *exactly* the same age as his own daughter. What kind of a sick mind does that? What was he thinking?

While I am happy that Ruchika may finally get justice, what disheartens me is the fact that I do not think justice for her will serve to protect young girls. India is a land where it is far to easy to abuse power and get away with murder.

Pound foolish?

I have a salary account with "India's largest private sector bank by market capitalization". However I do not use that account for my day-to-day banking transactions. Instead, I prefer to transfer money from the salary  account to another bank which is more convenient in terms of ATM locations and other features.

Until recently, all was well and I would use netbanking to transfer money from my salary account to my regular bank account. Then suddenly, a few months ago, there appeared a "charge" of Rs 5 for transferring money using netbanking. I tried a smaller amount,thinking that maybe there was a charge because I was transferring a large amount. No matter how small the amount, there was still a charge of Rs 5 in order for me to move MY money from account of MINE to another account of MINE.

I decided NOT to pay the "transaction fee". Instead, I went ahead and ordered a cheque book, and now, each month, I write a paper cheque and drop it off into the conveniently located ATM of my regular bank. I happened to talk about this with a colleague of mine, who was even MORE incensed than I was at the "transaction fee" and was doing exactly what I was doing. So I wasn't the only one.

Now, guess what? Paper cheques are absolutely FREE. This makes me wonder: isn't it cheaper for a bank to process a funds transfer using netbanking rather than a paper instrument that necessarily requires human intervention?

Isn't "India's largest private sector bank by market capitalization" being penny-wise?

Update: Guess what the bank that charges for netbanking money transfers just sent me? Along with other random stuff, a personalized PAY-IN-SLIP book! I am now totally lost for words at the pound-foolishness. Unless -- they are actively TRYING to encourage brick-n-mortar banking? Duh!

Current Read: The God Delusion

I am reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Coming soon after finishing "The Enemy at Home" by right-wing Dinesh D'souza, it is a wonderfully refreshing read.

Whether you are a believer, an agnostic or an atheist, there is a *very* compelling argument that the book makes about the dangers of peddling "creationism" (or according to the book, its "cheap tuxedo" version called intelligent design). According to creationism, for any "irreducibly complex" structure that exists as a part of life, if it is not fully understood, simply invoke the "Creator", i.e., God.

Now just apply this to scientific research: Don't understand a particular disease? No problem, just call it the "will" of God, or the "design" of God.

As Dawkins points out, for a scientist, ignorance is the *beginning* from where he or she must labor to bring about understanding. If instead, scientists choose to apply the theory of "intelligent design" there will never ever be cures for any diseases, there will never ever be innovation in *any* field that is concerned with human life. After all, everything is the will or "design" of the Creator. Then surely so is ill-health, disease and random other forms of misery?

Ouch.

"The Heart of India"

I read "The Heart of India" by Mark Tully this "winter break". It was a lucidly written book that succeeded in capturing the essence of a time that has *truly* gone by. I would wager to say that with the kind of globalization we have seen in the last decade, the India depicted in the stories no longer exists. Anywhere.

Oh the caste and class lines do -- and probably run stronger and deeper -- it is the innocence and simplicity that has disappeared.

It's a new year :-)

2009 flew by. And on the eve of 2010, I actually stayed awake till midnight to welcome the new year.

It was as they say: "Youth is when you're allowed to stay up on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to." ;-)


Happy New Year!