Rural households and computer education

Of late i get to see an advertisement by a computer training institution on the sun tv. It is very simple, no gimmicks, no brand ambassadors, no fancy make ups and expensive locales; yes before i forget, the message is not told in such an obtuse fashion that it challenges the intelligence of the viewers;the product gets forgotten in all such brain teasers.nor does one have to see it any number of times and clarify ones doubts about what the advertisement is trying to convey! The advertiser in such cases would surely get an award in some forum or the other, but whether the product that they are promoting will sellt 1 item more because of this ad is questionable.
In this scenario, this simple ad came through straight and touched my heart.Of course the theme is a stealer; women's education. The company addressed a 'felt need' of girls from rural households wanting to pursue vocations/studies which they wanted to, instead of being pushed into marriage.Perhaps the institute is addressing this target audience.The ad goes like this; a man with his young daughter carries some produce from his land to meet his employer in the town. He says the produce has been good and he is happy;and immediately says his next job will be to get his daughter married to a good person.The employer chides him and says since she studies well, i will put her through a computer education and he will fund the cost;to which the girl replies, this institute is setting up shop in her own village and she will write the scholarship test and succeed in the same;it will enable a 75% fee reduction!!
The message is loud and clear and told in the typical rural setting with their thinking pattern not disturbed, but slowly egging them to take the step to computer education; suggested by the man who has influence in the village; the computer institute has set up branches in rural areas too , so that the anxiety of rural women to send their daughters far away from the village is also addressed; and the pride and self respect of girls is enhanced by applying for and getting a significant portion of the fees reduced through scholarship; and scholarship is a word well understood in rural households and it is a good bait.
I can visualise girls from rural households use this ad to their advantage to push for higher studies in their chosen field.And what is more, many a mother will use it to push the cause of their girls and their education!!Hurray!!

saga of hearing aid

Athai has got a hearing aid; yes two months back. I had thought that it will be a solution to many problems. Yes it has, but it has started new ones!Now let me start from the beginning...
She has been having difficulty in hearing for quite some time now. Though she acknowledges it now and then, she never felt the discomfort. But she feels it acutely when she has missed out on answering the telephone or the doorbell. I would have thought that is a blessing in disguise. But not for athai; she looks forward to these interruptions thinking of them as welcome diversions.I used to have non typical problems arising out of this issue; sometimes she hears the telephone ring; she picks it up with alacrity, but then later is not able to discern who is talking;she makes up the name as per her imagination.She does not even tell the caller, that she is athai and not able to hear very clearly, so will they call me on my mobile?No, she does not do that, instead she says yes i will tell vasu; what pray!
Sometimes she forgets to tell me and when she does remember gets the name all wrong;i have got into some embarassing situations because of these goings on for some time now. I have given her a notebook to write down telephone calls received. But then she uses it sporadically and at other times says she has forgotten because she is old, you see;especially if mommy calls she is bound to 'forget' to inform me.
I tell her, it is better that she does not take the call, the caller would atleast not be in any confusion. NO, it was not accepted.
We chugged along in this less than perfect situation; till her younger sister came along to stay with us for a few days; and she was using a hearing aid and was talking to all and sundry on her mobile;which she was wearing like a garland around her neck!Sibling rivalry reared its ugly head and she saw all sorts of good uses of the mobile and the hearing aid; in that order!!
I made it plain that a mobile will be useless if she is not able to hear. And convinced her to go in for a hearing aid first.So we went to the doctor and then to the hearing aid centre. And came home with a siemen's hearing aid, sitting pretty behind her earlobe.
Now everything is not honky dory!I get fooled by eerie sounds whenever i go to her room. The bug (hearing aid) is sitting there nicely in the box provided for it and buzzing away.The maid also told me that athai does not wear it most of the time and she got a little perplexed at the queer noise coming from her shelf!And when i asked her she said, just because she is not wearing it when i see her, does not mean she is not wearing it all the time!Very good logic but no statistician would accept that.
She says she has just got up; or she is just going to sleep;she is going to comb her hair or she has just applied oil on her hair; or she is going for her bath or just come out of the bath 2 hours back!nobody is at home or the tv is making too much of a noise during commercials; or the neighbours are starting their mobike and the winner argument is that her ears are paining due to the noise, so she wants some peace and QUIET!
I used to get bugged that she is not wearing it all the time, but then i have come to a compromise; told her to switch off the battery whenever she is not wearing it;so we are freed of queer noises!

Me too

Mondays mornings are very relaxed time in the club where i go for my gym and kumar goes for his tennis.Mondays used to be holidays earlier, hence a languid spirit pervades the environment.I find it quite refreshing to witness the low key activity on the courts.
I spotted the marker but in a totally different outfit. For him Monday mornings are 'dressing up' i guess!He was in a colourfully designed red t shirt and an off white cotton trousers.A broad belt stylishly worn with a mobile tucked away in a pouch.His normal confident strides appeared more confident to me today.
Looking at him nobody will know he is a sixth standard drop out and a marker in a tennis court. He could be easily mistaken for any white collar worker on a 'dressing down' mode.
Another incident caught my attention. While we were entering the club, the assistant marker was playing singles with a senior player and was arguing passionately about a point!I need to mention here that usually the picker boys and markers do step in to toss or play with a regular player.I thought that they do it more as a job than as play. I have seen any number of players getting into passionate discussion about a point during their game.And i saw this person also mirroring their behaviour.
I was thinking of this while doing my workout and was happy about the outcome of the analysis. With cable television, aspirational levels have risen dramatically across all strata.And what i witnessed was the 'me too' phenomenon being played out!!

Freedom means Choice

We are still in march and women's day thoughts have a way of getting focussed during this month. I distinctly remember Mina Swaminathan a senior offical working with ngo's on women's empowerment, in a seminar that i attended.She made a point that at the very root of women empowerment is the question of 'whether a womenis able to exercise her freedom to choose'.It could be freedom to choose to study and if yes, what course and in which place/institution. If and when to get married;if and where to work;in short to decide what she wants to do with her life. It should rest with her and her alone.
Many a time others make the choice for her and she goes along.Perhaps she belives to conform rather than confront is her calling in life. And it becomes worse when , because she conforms she is 'allowed' good life and comforts.It is not explicitely mentioned though. But her movements are restricted; most often than not, it is with regard to being able to visit one's parents or siblings or any other person without express 'permission' from others in her family.
She cannot pursue any interest other than cooking and 'looking after the house'.Nowadays with all gadgets it is not a full time job; more so when the children grow up, she feels the void in her life and the sense of regret at not being able to pursue her dreams creates immense tension in her. But then over the years she has got used to a set pattern of behaviour and finds it impossible to break free!
If this is the lot of educated women from good families, necessarily such choices and set moulds of behaviour become more difficult to break for women from many other families.
I get extremely exercised when i meet with 'violence' against any living thing. Here by 'violence' i mean restraining another person from making a choice about how to lead their lives.
Want to know when did women accept this role of being somebody else's 'attachment' and why??

Oh Kolkatta, city of Joy

My first visit to this wonderful city; And i have fallen in love with it.

The heritage buildings;
They are beautiful;LIC could not pull down their old buildings and build modern complexes; I have known this for last couple of years and felt bad about that. Thought they were needly making a point about it and LIC was losing good opportunity to make money!Also maintaining such old buildings was not coming cheap; estate was a drain rather than an avenue to augment resources.
But seeing the buildings, beautifully and majestically standing there in the business district, I fully agree with the kolkattans.A high rise steel and chrome would really be UGLY in that setting.Yes, aesthetics is very important, even in builidngs, even if it means letting go of good money.Maybe it is even good business sense in the long run. LIC will be associated with heritage builidings and the money spent on their maintenance need not be sniggered at; it could be reclassified as that spent on 'publicty and pr'!!!
The trams:
Dont ask me what i thought about the trams and what they turned out to be; The trams were so cute, going leisurely in the middle of the road and absolutely no problem about causing any damage to any other road user.They had only two compartments, one first class and the other, yes, you guessed right, second class. Could not travel by tram so i cannot tell you the difference in comfort levels.Naked eye could not spot any. My cousin told me that women are powerful here and a wave of her hand and the tram will stop dead on its tracks and the world will stand still till she is safely into the compartment and comfortably seated.And the city roads are dug up to preserve the tram service as it is declared a 'heritage service'. Never knew there could be 'heritage services'.But such irrational thoughts and action is what constitutes the charm of kolkatta.
Hoogly river; A slow ship cruising the river from Dakshineswar to Belur. Setting is perfect for singing 'sringari...'There is a recent ad from airtel which also catches the hoogly river and the spirit of boatride there.Frozen in time!
Belur, Ramakrishna and vivekananda
The heritage museum at Belur just bowled me over. I am not much of a museum buff. But here the place really pulls your heart strings, the meticulousness with which it has been recreated to take us back to the time of ramakrishna and vivekananda. Every little detail which could be preserved is presered, including a safety pin used by sarada devi!And every little place associated with them has been recreated with painstaking effort and lots of care and concern.I want to come back here.
The roadside shops and the shopkeepers and the wares that they sell;
Shopping is amazing here in kolkatta and i never could believe i can go bersek in shopping, but i did here and i am not apolegetic about it. The stuff is so beautiful that only if you are not moved to open your purse strings ,your insides need to be checked!The shopkeepers are an amazing lot and they are quintessential sellers!They make you feel good to buy what you do.
The people of kolkatta;
I came away saluting them. They are not greedy for more and more and vulgarly display wealth.Life goes in a leisurely pace;they value women and still are chivalrous and affectionate.Women are beautiful and at peace with themselves.They value beauty,heritage, culture and literature.Idyllic place.
Disclaimer: This post is not meant to brush aside the negative traits of the city.I have carried only the negative impressions all these years and i feel guilty about it after seeing this city and had a chance to experience it for a few days.

Oh wah ! tamil film music

Heard some wonderful melodious and joyful songs from tamil movies today morning. Yes, you guessed right, during my workout in the gym. The selection had nagesh and chandrababu appearing in alternate songs!What a bonanza.The twists and turns and joi de vivre exhibited by both of them was very unique and uplifting. Kadalika neramillai, bhama vijayam, edir nichal, utharavindri ulle vaa were some of the movies whose songs were featured.
I always wonder at the variety in flora, fauna and human beings that God has created. He seems to have endless creativity in coming out with more and more unique specimens.Today I also wondered at fellow human beings; the creativity in them to churn out film songs for so many years and yet come out with songs which touch your heart, lift your spirts and make you want to shake a leg.How do they manage it out of just 7 notes?Man is also extremely creative and music is just one of the endeavours that i felt strongly to comment about. There have been music directors who have set tunes and each one is different. Of course we do hear some songs which remind of some other song but then it is not a xerox copy, but some nuance or lilt or a significant pauce added here and there, which weaves a trapestry of a song, unique for us to hear and enjoy.
I do listen to a special programme in the all india radio in the morning at 8 am. It is a 15 minute programme, which delienates a carnatic music raga and also juxtaposes a popular film song in the same raga. It is truly enjoyable. Almost everyday that i happen to tune in to the same, I say wah! never knew this song is based on this particular raga. A very commendable effort by the sponsors to take serious carnatic music to the masses.Yes, film songs have also done this service all these years, of taking tunes and music in a very easy and palatable form to listeners who might not have exposure to the grammer and science of carnatic music.

Women's day

Had to give an impromptu speech to employees of our office today morning.A few ladies had come yesterday to invite me for a gettogether in the lobby at 10.15 am,on the occasion of women's day;It was also followed up by an announcement in the public address system.I had asked them what the celebrations entailed and they said, red roses and candies and a gift hamper!
I am never at a loss for words or ideas especially on this topic of women empowerment.Came up with the winner idea, that women's day should be celebrated 182 days in a year! and that we should get out of the ghetto mentality as we are more than 50 crore strong in India.I said all you ladies have done well, feel confident for that and proceed further.I also mentioned about the adverse demographic effect the western society faces due to working women not wanting to take time off to raise children.Learning from this pitfall, Indian women can chart a unique middle path for themselves;no need to follow men in the mad rat race of corporate world, leaving by the way side everything that you value.Gave the example of India succeeding in taking its own middle path in the globalisation arena, and changing with a human face.Feeling very good about it.
Also meant to tell them about the success of self help groups formed by ordinary women in villages and towns.Now heads of state from First world countries are coming in droves to come and study the success of this endeavour.But did'nt, am reserving it for the 'bhashan' i am slated to give tomorrow in "science city".

Bad and Ugly competition

I seem to have tough luck with drivers and also with taxis.Driver has taken french leave;hence had called for a taxi.He was to come home by 8.30 am. He did not land till 9 am. Got jittery and called the cab company.They said he is already on his way!!Not wanting further disruptions in my morning schedule, i scampered to get ready.But not before i gave out words of wisdom to a willing ear!Told kumar, why can't these taxi companies keep to their timings. We ask them for their services to keep up time in our offices or other commitments;and in such a crucial service, the most important deliverable is being there in the customer's place in time and they treat it casually.
While getting ready, I was wondering, taxi service is highly competitive and customers can call any number of service providers available. Why do they not woo customers;let alone woo, why dont they satisfy the basics of customer service?
There was a bigger surprise waiting for me at the end of the trip to office. While signing their trip sheet, I saw that the starting time was 8 am!.The distance from their company in Royapettah to my house cannot take more than 30 minutes and he lands there at 9 am.Hence I ask him why did he take more than one hour to reach. He is telling me ' madam, if 8 am is the starting time in my office, i cannot reach your house at 8 am';arey, what is this ultimate insult to an aggrieved customer?When i take up further with him he says you call up and tell the company, so that next time they will give starting time properly!Again the attitude, dont blame me, blame somebody else in the organisation.If you blame me i only know to be either indifferent or rude.
All this while, his boss must be explaining to the owner , reason for drop in revenues during this month;no it is not poor service which drivers away customers;but intense competition and competitors are quoting and getting customers by rock bottom rates which will be most unprofitable to the owner!
And since owner does not have systems in place to monitor this activity, he will put up with this explanation.
Wait a minute, he could have his mobile number pasted prominently on the windscreen of the taxi with the words "this taxi driver is instructed to be on time, be polite and courteous.If you are dissatisfied, call this number."
I was itching to dial a number and complain;no not to a nin cum poomp of an operator fielding calls but to the owner!