Community behaviour

One of my old relatives said that they did not have so many anti-social-elements in the society.  Nor did they have so many mannerless and misbehaving kids.  Or grown-ups for that matter.  Now the number is growing, and fast.

Me: "Really!  How did you manage to keep the numbers so low?"
Old guy: "Because, we had the liberty to punish any misbehaving kids, and not just your own."

He went on to highlight a few more differences:
Then: If you are caught stealing mangoes from a mango farm, anybody who caught you would scold/chase/beat you.  The person who caught you could be you parent, the farm owner or some passerby.
Now: If you are caught stealing mangoes, the farm owner only chase you away.  Everyone else don't care.

Then: If a complain reach your parent, your parent would severly punish you.  Complaining to parent was the final straw!
Now: If a complian reach your parent, the parents just try to trivialize the issue.  Nobody has time to listen.  "whats the big deal man", "yeah whatever", "okay okay, it'll not happen again".  If a kids see his parents supporting him, his activities would only grow.  Be it good or bad.  Especially bad.

Then: You were the maintainer of the society.  You would make sure you keep the society in such a way that your kid would safely grow and live in it.

Now: You don't care about society anymore.  All you care is how much wealth you can create for you and your kid.

After the discussion with the Wise Old Man, I was bought into his argument.

Unfortunately, this is not something one person can change.

Perceptive opinions

Some time back, I was having an argument with a relative over child behaviour. She happened to mention "you used to throw away your plates while having food when you were a kid".

I was surprised! I don't remember throwing away plates while eating. Obviously, I refused to believe it. The response was 'Ask your mom'. My mother was not there and that was the turning point of the argument which, obviously, I lost.

Back at home, I asked my mother about it and she said that I did throw my plate while having food. I said I don't remember. She said "you were a little baby then". I asked her how many times did I do that. She said "Oh! I did not count, maybe a couple of times".

What the ...!!!

I must have had food at least three times a day. Everyday. For so many years! That did not count at all. What did matter was the two or three times that I threw the plate away. My mother said she happened to mention this during a casual conversation to that relative. But now my relatives think I *always* used to do it!

"You always ask the same question again and again"

I have heard this many times, especially during arguments.  Oh! why would I ask the same question again if it was answered the first time?  That logic, for some reason which I am yet to fathom, is not valid.  Especially during arguments.

Oh boy! I  find it strange that people just create opinions about others and spread it as well.  Strangely, these created opinions always seem to be favourable to the creator.

Influencing Ads

   I did not like the ad of a particular biscuit brand.  In that ad, the younger brother eats all the biscuits and entraps his elder brother who gets scolded by their mom.  There are a few more ads from the same biscuit brand in which kids cause problem for others and get away with it.

   There was a detergent ad where kids splash dirt on another man and then tell him that it can be washed for free because that brand is giving some percent extra for free.  What about the inconvenience caused to that guy.  The detergent may be free, but what about the effort and time required to clean it.

  I have seen similar ads for other products which hint that being bad is OK, entrapping others is OK, being troublesome is OK, causing problems for others is OK.

  Yes, kids are mischievous.  Kids are troublesome.  They do mess up stuff.  But that should be for learning.  Its must not be a right.

  Oh, how I hated those ads.  I striked all these products off my purchase list.

  Then I saw the Mahindra bike ad by Aamir Khan.  There he his making pun of all other bike ads.  Thats when I noticed what other bike ads were hinting at.  And I was buying into their hints all this time!!  I realized its not just kids, but even grown ups mind can be easily manipulated by such ads.

  Thats it!  All those bikes are off the purchase list as well!  From now on, I won't just watch ads.  I'll also watch out for what they are hinting.

  My favourite ad is a person sleeping on a chair at an airport when another person wakes him up and tells him that his hair oil is spoiling the chair.  When the first person asks whats his problem the second person, while wiping the chairs, says that he has paid enough tax to sponsor at least 7-8 chairs for the airport.

   A  bike guy hits my bike from behind and then shouts at me.  I see a bike guy jump a signal and is hit by a car but the car guy is forced to pay.  A student gets thrown out of the class for misconduct but the teacher is forced to apologize.

   I don't think these guys are getting influenced by the ads.  Its these kind of behaviour that is depicted in such ads.  And it propagates.  Because of both ads and what they see around them.

   Looking at the trend in human behaviour, my list of not-to-purchase-items may grow for ever.  Maybe I should prepare a people-to-avoid list as well...

One Time Sale

What is One Time Sale?

In simple words: Sell it. Forget it.

Well, thats for the seller. Not for the consumers.

In a city like Bangalore, there are so many customers for any establishment, small or big, that some unhappy customers does not matter to them at all. So, they happily go about cheating the customers and stand by their behaviour.

I had been to a departmental store and bought an item which had a Rs.75/- discount. A week later while cleaning my drawer I found the bill and noticed that they had not given the discount. I went to the store again and they apologized and asked me to pick
up anything for Rs.75/-. This is a very large store and they sell thousands of items every day, mostly consumables.

I had also been to an electronic showroom looking for a LCD or Plasma TV. There was a good discount on one of the LCD TV. I asked for more discount and the kind salesperson was very happy to give me and additional 5% discount! Thats when my instincts told me something was wrong. I postponed the idea and walked out.

I asked one of my friend who knows a lot about these and he told me that particular model of LCD TVs is not being manufactured at all! The salesman told me it was a brand new model and this was an inaugural offer.

What the departmental store sells is consumables. I visit this store once a week or maybe once in two weeks. But thats not the case with the electronic showroom. I will not go there again. I am not going to buy another TV for another few years at least. If that person cheats me, it'll be too late by the time I find out. Or worse, I may not find out at all.

How do I prevent such people from fooling others? I can tell about such people to my friends, my colleagues, my acquaintances on social networking sites, my colony people.

What percent of Bangalore did I cover? Negligible. I can ask all of them to forward the mail to their friends and so on. But once such info passes the circle-of-confidence, people will just ignore such mails. Or they might get cautious but still visit that particular store. If I do get cheated, I can file a case against them in Consumer Courts. But that is still not going to prevent them from cheating others.

Well, with this many number of consumers and the fact that they are not well connected, such salesmen and stores will continue to be in business forever....

Missing from voter's list

Every voter's id card has a unique number on it. You can verify this number and the entry into the voter's list at Election Commission of India's website. For Karnataka, see the website of The Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka.

I had got my voter's id card and had verified its presence on the voter's list. Recently, some people from the local govt school visited us and asked us to fill the application form again as our name is not there in the voter's list. Now that was surprising. I had read in the newspaper the same day that so many lakhs of duplicate entries have been removed from the voters list. How come they removed my name? They had no answer. Only thing he said is that my name does not appear in the voters list and if I want to vote, I have to apply again.

To verify, I went to the above link and searched. Indeed my name was missing! Obviously, I applied again. Wasn't any verification done before removing the names from the list? I just hope this does not become a repetitive task....

Deepawali Crackers

I'm against crackers. Its over 10 years since I burst any crackers. Reasons are not very difficult to guess: Noise pollution, air pollution, soil pollution, dirty roads, child labour, unhealthy and unsafe manufacturing practices, careless bursting without any considerations for others.... Thats enough reasons I guess?

Apparently not!!

I just read the news about 7 children dying at an illegal cracker factory in Hyderabad. Another news said forced child labour is used in many such factories. The prices of these crackers are sky-rocketing! Surprisingly, so is the demand for them!!

I have told my friends why I'm against crackers. Everybody agrees with my reasons. But nobody is ready to give up bursting them!!

We celebrate Deepawali every year. Its one of our major festivals. We do pooja, hang up the Deepawali lantern, decorate the main door and mainly light up the house with diyas!

Why can't we celebrate Deepawali by showing some social responsibility?

Celebrating at others cost

I pass through a market area everyday while on my way home from my office. The market road is a bit less than 1km. It takes less than two minutes to cross it as its always busy with people and there is a bus stand as well.

Its a very busy road. I would say around 150 people in different vehicles (bus, two-wheelers, cars, autos etc) would cross this road every minute during the peak hours.

Today, it took around 20 minutes to cross this road!

They have put up a pandaal and some people are occupying half of the road and beating drums. Well, its festival season and everyone has the right to celebrate it. But it has caused a huge traffic jam there. The road is completely blocked for the entire stretch. It was just the beginning of the peak hour. Imagine what would be the state during the peak hour!

There were less than 200 people there celebrating the festival. I didn't find it reasonable to inconvenience thousands of people just to entertain a couple of hundred.

I do understand the feeling and the excitement to celebrate any festival. Its perfectly justified. But it should not be at the cost of other's inconvenience. There is a large ground available quite close to where these people were celebrating. Why not use that?!

So many vehicles spewing out smoke. Such a waste of petrol. Such a waste of time.

Child Proof Computer Table

I have been searching for a computer table. I have visited many furniture shop and online furniture shops as well. But I have not found any that meets my requirement.

One of my main requirement is : The computer table must be child proof!

I have a one and half year old hyperactive kid in my house. Currently, I spend a lot of time keeping the kid from destroying my computer and the accessories.

About the tables I saw at different furniture shops, everyone tells me the same thing: "these computer tables are imported (from Malaysia) and we just assemble and sell it". I wonder who designs these computer tables. They are highly non-ergonomic!

• The keyboard tray must hold both the keyboard and the mouse. Many of them say, keep the mouse on top of the table.
• Some models have the monitor at an angle to the sitting position. You have to keep your head turned at an angle to look at the monitor.
• Many of them do not bother about the wirings and cables. They show the printer being placed at the top, but there is no provision to run the cable to the computer. The assumption is that the computer table should be placed two inches away from the wall and you can run the cable behind the table.

We take so much care in ergonomics for our office tables and chairs. But why don't we think about this for our home tables? Surprisingly, all the furniture-walas say, their computer tables sell like hot cakes!

Well, I spend considerable time in front of the computer from home. Most people use it just to browse. Well, I wouldn't want to settle for a poorly designed table just for browsing.

Well, you don't require a very creative brain to design an acceptably ergonomic, child proof computer table. I designed a couple of them myself. I decided to hold off when I found that the custom made tables cost more than 3 times the assembled ones...even if they use same amount of wood.

I don't know what to do...