Kotak Securities Helpline Experience..

I needed something to be sent to me from Kotak securities.
I called their helpline number (30305757) expecting to get a quick resolution, but that was not to be.I was given another me another helpline number (66216666)..and everybody I spoke to at the new number wanted to direct me to the earlier number!

I had to give my details to 6 different people without any use…and by the time it came to the 7th person…I was pissed…and some poor guy called Aditya had to bear the brunt. He like all the others had no idea what needed to be done and he told me he would find out what needs to be done call me back in the next 15 minutes. 1 hour passed by and he did not call. I called back the help line and did not findc Aditya!

I thought to myself…god what pathetic customer service...now I have something to write about on my blog tonight. Some Kotak Securities helpline bitching to do!

But one hour latter to my surprise Aditya called back..took some more details from me and then called back again with the resolution! I was pleasantly surprised! My issue is not yet resolved but I need to get back to them with some information…but the fact that they called back although it was the wrong department I was calling to start with was indeed a positive sign!

I though to myself….since I was all set to write about the lousy customer service…It was only fair that I write about one good executive who took the trouble to try and call me back to resolve the issue even though I don't think it was a part of his portfolio...he just happened to be the unlucky 7th guy who spoke to me and got a piece of of my mind!

The lesson learnt is people are the most important part of any organization….and If you are a part of a big corporation with lousy policies and lack of information don’t loose hope as a lone individual you can still make a difference!

A Lousy Book I Read..

An open Window

DREAM

As Everyman’s Guide To The Spirit

Author Sri Madhava Ashish

I picked up this book because I liked what I read on the back cover of the book. This is what it read..

“This brief but profound book assails the conventional understanding of
dreams and their interpretation, drawing attention to a much neglected aspect of
dreams as a source of guidance of spiritual aspirant”

Wow I hoped this book would help me to make sense of my dreams and give me some spiritual guidance maybe!

“It uses insights of psychology, but transcends it to confront the
inescapable questions most people are driven by : what is the true purpose of
life, and does it all end with death?”

I though to myself….yes it would be interesting to understand the purpose of life from a psychology and spiritual aspect! So I picked up this 125 page book for 200 bucks from Crossword!

And boy it is a complete waste of money and a complete waste of time spent reading it.It just did not make sense to me. It is one of those books at the end of which I have absolutely no take aways.

Thank god it was just 125 pages and it did not take too long to finish. I guess the back cover synopsis and the book is not written by the same author.

One good thing about the book was that it sure helped me to go to sleep at night.

So if you see the book in the book store I recommend you don’t pick it up. I really dont know why I pick up books like this.

Which Side is Greener?

My role- model and mentor from my company,a 35 year old man was diagnosed with Cancer.I was shocked…scared…depressed….worried…Till I met him and then I was inspired! I always had great respect for this gentleman….but now I am in awe of him…what an attitude to life! Amazing…

There he was sitting on a chair and smiling…laughing….telling jokes…and stories despite the dreadful diagnosis of having a tumor very close to his heart and undergoing killing chemotherapy treatment with all its horrible side effects…he was sitting there thanking God that he has money for treatment; thanking God that the diagnosis was done on time…here was someone who was counting his blessings and taking what life is presenting to him in his stride…hats of to him!

I have read a lot of inspirational stories on positive attitude in life etc etc…but here I saw someone living it…and it was great…

And it made me think….And that's what I want the everyone to do…think with me…

Think of all the things that make you feel miserable ….depressed ….. unhappy….envious..?

What is it..?
Bad Ratings at work?? Does it really matter in the bigger picture of life…? Even if it does… Look at the people who don’t have jobs..

For all the married folks…
Do you feel your husband/wife does not understand you and care for you enough….. Look at someone who is a widower…or someone whose husband is a wife beating Drunkard…and you will thank your stars….



For the bachelors...
Do you feel your parents don't give you enough space and freedom... think of people who do not have parents…or who have parents who are ill and you'll thank god for your wonderful fortune that you have people who care for u……

And all of you'll who are parents…
Do you feel that your children don't listen to you? don’t study enough ? Are not making the required grades ? Look at people who cannot have children or have children with disabilities and you will automatically thank your stars…


Do you feel you don't earn enough….. well if you compare yourself to Ratan Tata or Amitabh Bacchan….no you don't….but u are a rich man if you compare yourself to the servant who comes to clean your house….its all about which side you look at….


At every given point of time there would be people who are worse situation then you and yes a lot of people who are better off then u too. You choose which side you want to look at. The laws the cosmos will not allow you to be at either end of the spectrum.

So whenever you feel you are in a bad situation with no way out… “look at how it could have been worse”. Search for the positive and you will definitely find it!

Its very truly said that we may not have a choice to what life brings to u but we definitely have a choice in how we react to it!

All this is nice to say and good to hear but can I follow it word to word in my day to day life? Can I be like my mentor and smile despite all adversities?

Honestly Maybe not but you know what I am sure going to try!!

On this note…I want everyone here to take a second here and say a silent prayer….Thanking god for all the great things in your life.

And Remember….You choose… which side is greener…..your's or the other!

Its only a perspective.


This was a speech I had given long back at a Toastmasters meeting in Hyderabad...I may use this as my Project 3 speech at the Mumbai TCS club sometime

Happy!

The time to be happy is now! The place to be happy is here!

And the best way to be happy is to make others happy !

And the best way to be happy is to make others happy !

And make a little heaven right here!!

This was a little song/poem I learnt in a yoga course I did sometime back. I though it was really nice

Teach India : Week 4

Last Saturday was my 4th week of teaching the children. I took three batches of children instead of the normal two batches! I had a total of 9 children this week.

Batch 1- Soheil and Rupesh
Soheil is a very serious type of a student and says he does not watch television/movies. Rupesh is very quite and shy. Soheil came about half an hour late for the session. Making conversation with Rupesh alone was not too easy. I did a rainy day picture activity with him. The activity was basically to show them a picture and ask them to tell you about everything they see in the picture. This helps to improve their vocabalry
My initial sessions, I kept telling my kiddo’s I am not your teacher and I am a friend who has come to talk to you’ll. This week Soheil got me a friendship band and tied it for me. It was such a cute gesture.

Batch 2- Komal and Rashmi
I had missed my last session with them but the bond was still there. I did the same Rainy day picture activity with them that I did with my earlier batch. The girls then wanted to go for a walk as the rest of their friends who were not a part of this program were having a break at school. So the three of us went for a walk. They introduced me to their friends in school and had a lot of questions to ask me when we were out walking. But all their questions were in Hindi/Marathi and I would tell them I will answer only if they ask me in English! I feel the kids open up so much in an informal setting.

Batch 3- Dipika, Kshitija, Pooja, Namrata, Abijit
This was a fun session! I think 4- 5 kids who are at the same level are fun to deal with at the same time. They get the personal attention and yet there is scope for having fun on the table! We revised what we did in the last session and then went on to do other activities.
There was only one boy in this group, who is normally not a part of this group so we had a nice time pulling his leg. I even got to know about their class politics!
For the first time I gave these kids some homework….I have told them to write at least one thing in a day for which they do not know the English word and when we meet after 15 days, they were to come back with all the words they have written! Lets see if it words.
Another thing that I did with these kids was that I told them to write all the new words we are learning. Their recall was better if they have written the words.
Will write more latter! Overall an interesting, fun and fulfilling session!

The Week That Was : 9th Aug to 15th Aug 2008

9th August Saturday
Celebrated Saturday morning …..Had a laazzzy morning...slept late…had a leisurely bath and then was off for my Teach India volunteering duty! Teach India Week 4 was quite interesting. I was there for three hours and took three batches of kids and I had a total of 9 children and had a really nice time. Will write a detailed post on this soon! In the evening I went for the RC Bombay West installation to Juhu. Was a nostalgic experience I have written a detailed take on it in my blog post(which rotract club to join??)
Went to a “Granth” the book store in Juhu to just pass some time before dinner and picked up two new books which someone at a workshop had told me about.
*Personality Plus by Florence Littauer

*Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl

I have already almost finished reading Personality Plus….will hopefully write a blog post on it someday! As for the second book…not yet started reading, in case I find it interting I will write a review online.
Dinner was good fun….tapoked at a cousin’s house and ordered Pizza and had a nice time gossiping

10th August Sunday
Went for a Gosho in the morning at an SGI members house in chembur. It was quite nice but at this point of time cannot remember much!
Went to watch Singh is Kinng..but did not get tickets! Got tickets for Tuesday!
Chillled and slept at home as was not feeling to well.

11th August Monday
Normal day at work. The traffic was crazy because of the pot holes on the road. It took me an hour and a half to get to office as against my normal 20 minutes.
12th August Tuesday
Work as usual. Had movie tickets for Singh is Kinng…lousy mindless movie…not even worth writing the review! Missed a co-workers birthday bash at work because I had tickets for the movie!

13th August Wednesday
Gave my second project speech at toastmasters club on volunteering experience (See post volunteering experience: teach India) Travelled

14th August Thursday
Had three important client meetings at work which went off well. Atmosphere at work was great before a three day long weekend!

15th August Friday
Celebrated the independence day holiday! Visited a RC Deonar project in a school. Went for zadenki practice. Watched Bachna ae Haseeno!
Finally closed some important pending open ends.

Bachana Ae Haseeno

Quite a cute movie…..Three heroines….and one Ranbir...Thank god he is not romancing them together at the same time!

The movie is about Ranbir’s love affairs over about ten/twelve years.

The Manisha/Ranbir plot is a take on DDLJ and it is quite well done! They meet DDLJ style on the Eurail. Manisha is a girl who is enamored by DDLJ and has watched it seventeen times and she is hoping she finds Raj…and she meets Raj Sharma(Ranbir)! I could so relate to the DDLJ smitten Manisha....the movie has had that effect on me and many other girls I know!! Ranbir breaks her heart and moves on without blinking an eyelid!

The sexy Bipasha is Ranbir’s live in girl friend and he ditches her on their wedding day and does not look back

Ranbir ultimately falls truly in love with Deepika Padukone and she turns around and tells him she does not love him and he is heart broken.

Ranbir finally realizes what Manisha and Bipasha would have gone through when he ditched them years back and he decides to go back and ask for forgiveness! They forgive him…and Deepika falls in love with him and they live happily ever after!

On a philosophical note… to me the movie embodies the law of karma (read earlier post on Law of…)as you sow you shall reap…but it in your power to expiate your negative karma!

The way I have described the plot it may sound corny but overall it done well and was quite cute! The songs are nice, the cinematography and locations are beautiful….the cast has acted well and is looking nice...overall a nice movie worth watching once!

Volunteering experience: Teach India!

"Me Shaaret Marathi Sheekli…pan mala marati bolut yeat nahi"
“I learnt Marathi in school but I cannot really speak the language!”

Although Marati is the local language...not knowing Marathi has not hampered my progress in life…but if I did not know English…chances are that I would not be standing here as a part of Tata Consultancy services…giving a speech at the toastmasters club.

But Why am I standing here and telling you this?

Because I have spent the last few weekends with kids who are studying English in school but they don’t really understand and speak the language they are in the same position as me but unfortunately not knowing English will put them at a disadvantage. When these kids grow up and go out in the world to be employed chances are their pay package would half of their English speaking counter parts even though they would be as smart and knowledgeable.. I know its not fair but it’s the truth.

The Teach India Campaign launched by the Times of India group made me get in touch with these children and I got my change to try and make a difference! In the next few minutes… I am going to share my experiences as a part of a campaign I registered on the teach India web-site and my assignment was to teach Spoken English to Marati medium students. Well I can speak English but to teach spoken English...umm….I was not too sure how that was suppose to be done! Thank God they were planning on an orientation program;but the only thing they told us as a part of the orientation is that you will have two children.and you need to do is give them a conducive environment to speak English! There is no method use your instinct….teach the child like you would teach your own children your mother language!And I though to myself…what instinct!!!! I don’t think I have a instinct for teaching!! but what the hell…since I was here on a Saturday afternoon.I might as well go ahead with it.

Believe me it was a little scary to start off with. Although I am normally great at finding commonalities and making small talk with strangers but this was different I had to talk to the child for one hour!! And what would I find common with a 13 year old child from a completely different socio- economic background…..60 minutes….3,600 seconds…seemed like a very very long time. But I had to act confident I was the teacher after all the kids walked into the hall….and two little boys..Soheil and Rupesh came and sat with me.They were nervous and so was I it was difficult to decide who was more apprehensive we made small talk…what is your name…..where do you stay…which class are you in…..you know the basics… family…school… friends…10 minutes or 600 seconds would have passed…now what next….????One part of me was listing to their answers which by the way were in monosyllaals the other part was thinking what next to say should I talk about books? Nah! they would not read… suddenly though movies…..! everybody watches movies….and that would give me lot to talk about…after all there are so many bollywood movies and stars I though I have found the perfect topic to make conversation so I asked the boys which is your favorite movie.and Soheil promptly answered…"hum TV nahi dheekte"! There I was at a loss again! The kids started fidgeting on their chairs….and I was so uncomfortable I looking at my watch .. had 45 minutes more to go!!

Then an idea struck me and I told the kids will you show me your school…come lets go for a walk….and their eyes lit up! Wow here is a “teacher” who is taking them for a walk around school instead to sitting in class…and that is when I managed to break the ice! We walked around school….they showed me things….they told me what it was called in Marathi..I told them what it was in English…they repeated the English word….i repeated the Marathi word!! All of us learnt something…..and it was a wonderful experience!

That was session 1….I have had three subsequent Saturday afternoon sessions with them…and believe me each one has been extremely satisfying and challenging… and I can actually see the difference…it may not be very significant…but my kiddo’s have taken small baby steps in becoming more confident in attempting to talk in English…..the first session they were talking in monosyllables….now they are attempting to talk in sentences….the grammar may be all wrong….but slowly and surely they are getting better.. And there is so much for me to learn in the process…how to keep 13 year olds entertained and also teach them in the process requires a whole lot of creativity by itself!

I don’t know if this “Teach India campaign” will actually make a major difference….or will it be just be a publicity stunt by the times group to win awards for the best campaign….but I know I done my little bit to help to change a childs life!

To conclude I would like to tell all you people sitting in the room..you may not be part of the Teach India Campaign”… but if you look around you…you will find many people you can teach….your servants kids…the TCS Maitri teaching programs….it is an effort…it is scary….but at the same time it is extremely satisfying and enriching!

This was a speech i gave at the toastmasters. It is my project 2 speech….did not go too well but I managed to clear the round! Lesson learn't : Don’t be too dramatic while speaking...this is not theatre! Be natural…talk to the audience…and don’t try and give a performance!

Which Rotaract Club should I join???

I went for the Bombay West Installation today….and it felt really nice…almost like going back home!It is all so familiar…everyone knows you...you know almost everyone…you have been a veteran there and you identify yourself with the club…everyone there is a friend….you may not be in touch with them all the time but you all been through so much together as a club. The Rotarians know you….the office staff knows you…even the new members have heard of you (good/bad otherwise is a besides the point!!) Well after all you have been there for years together and spend many hours at the rotary center….given your bit to the movement and gained a whole lot more in return! My house used to be the second office of the Rotaract Club of Bombay West….a venue for our projects (the parents nite!) and many many meetings… My Indica was the official Rotaract truck to ferry things to and fro…and our cupboards used to be the gowdown for all rotaract stuff! My entire family was the rotaract family….I was a president for a year…. Eventually Sam (my younger bro!) also got inducted into rotaract has been the president for a year... my Mom has been an active part of so many of our projects….Dad has always cribbed about Rotary( don’t think he still understand the difference between rotary and rotaract!) but over all he has been supportive….Bottom line… not only me but my entire family along with me has been an integral part of Rotaract Club of Bombay West!!

We moved out of Juhu to our own house in Chembur.….Rotaract Club of Bombay West is logically too far to be actively involved…..but it is possible…

Logically Rotaract Club of Deonar is a better choice to join…it is close to home…it is nice active club….the do some interesting projects…..I have always heard a lot about them….but it does not feel like home….I fell like an outsider…..I don’t really feel a part of it…L…I don’t feel belong there….. I guess I have barely gone for any meetings…and not been involved with any projects….it is like a chicken and egg situation….If I don’t go for projects and meetings…I will not feel involved….if I don’t get the feeling of being required and involved…I will not go for meetings/projects!

Now what is the best thing to do…..?? RC Bombay West..? RC Deonar ? Neither!?? Either..?? Both…??

“Analysis Paralysis” is raising its ugly head again! I am sitting on the fence…analyzing and doing nothing about it!!!

While I was writing this I realized…this can be compared to other aspects of my life... relationships…..work..

RC Bombay West is like an old relationship/job….which has gone stale….which I can drag on but it may not really be the best thing for both parties...…but I don’t want to let go..…I love my club….it is comfortable…..it is mine with all its flaws and good things……

RC Deonar is like a new potential relationship/job..…scary….unknown…unchartered…. different…

What should I do…?? Forget my baby RC Bombay West (I was called the amma of the club!) and take the plunge and move on???

Which club to join is a very small and insignificant thing to decide…….but I am talking ages to make that call….and I am loosing out on precious time….(you can be with Rotaract only till the age of 30!)

How ironical ….. I am doing exactly the same thing with the rest of my life! It’s a pattern that is repeating in almost all aspects of my life….be it work….relationships.....leisure!

Awareness if the first step to change.……..I have taken the first step!

IT Enabled SMBs!

All the posts that I have written have been about what I do over weekends…I wonder why I have never written about work. After all I spend a good part of my waking hours at work! I have had a very non traditional career path…my post on analysis..paralysis will give you a brief so I will not get into that here and jump straight into what I am trying to do currently!

I am working with one of those Big Branded IT company and my profile is currently quite interesting….we are trying to sell the concept of IT to SMB’s….who don’t really care much about IT…don’t really need it…and don’t particularly want it!

SMB…for all those who don’t know is Small and Medium business..also sometimes called as SME’s..or Small and Medium Enterprises.

SMB’s are normally classified based on
1) Revenue
2) FTE’s (Full time Employee’s)

There are specialized criteria to classify companies in different verticals

1) Machinery investment..in case of manufacturing (Something new I learn’t today)
2) Number of beds in case of hospitals (below 200 beds is what would be and SME!)
3) Number of locations in case of retail

I am sure there are many more …but this is what I have learnt so far!

The interesting part of my job currently is that there is so much new to learn! I am learning about the SMB market…I am learning to sell…I am learning to manage relationships...manage internal politics…I can go on!

There are a million challenges in addressing this market…or jungle as my boss puts it!To start with we don’t even have a reliable listing and data on companies in our Go to Universe (GTU)…

We are not really sure who we are selling to….not sure what we are trying to sell….our customers don’t think they need what we are trying to sell…and yet when we manage to succeed..and that makes is all the more fun! It can be extremely frustrating....and sometimes fun...but whatever it is..it is definitely a learning experience. Will write more latter on my sales experiences!

Leaving comments on blogs..

So many people I meet online and in person tell me they have read my blog and they always have something to say about it…(good/bad/otherwise) (by the way the most liked one seems to be the” Analysis Paralysis” post). But hardly anyone leaves a comment on the site…. :-(

People when you come to this site….see it…do leave your mark before you go!

For all those of you have their own blogs I need not explain what it feels like not to have comments on your posts…for all those who don’t have blogs….let me just say it is almost the same feeling of opening you mailbox and getting “no new mail”.

Teach India - Week 3!

This Saturday was the 3rd week in my teach India program and I was really looking forward to meeting my kiddo’s again.
A girl from Kotak education foundation called me to confirm what time I would like to come. I was surprised that I had a choice of timings and told her I would prefer the 3.30 to 5.30 batch provided I get the same children. She assured me that I would get the same kids that I have been teaching for the last two weeks.
I was all set with my armor of books to teach the kids. (By the way…I had taken the lap top with some nice English video’s to show the kids last week!..will write about that experience subsequently)
When I reached Kumud school at 3.30 instead…I realized that there was some confusion and my original kids had already come and left! I was quite disappointed and kind of irritated with the Kotak people for giving me wrong information….I had half a mind of going back home!
But then I though to myself since I have anyways cancelled all my other plans for the day and come all the way…I might as well stay back and teach the kids who come now..and I stayed back!!
I had 8 new children to teach this week!! The first batch had 4 girls and the second batch had 4 boys!!
I missed my old batch of kids..but the new ones were also really cute..teaching 8 new kids was quite stressful but fun! Now next week I may do a 4 hour shift in teaching cause I wanna be with the kids I have spent time with!
For all those of you’ll who have not registered you’ll are sure missing something! Looking forward to next Saturday!!!

Ugly Aur Pagli!

Crazy movie….not very realistic….but I guess any director should get his ‘creative freedom’. I always feel If you want to watch reality…watch the news!

Malika Sherawat is looking as hot and sexy, so if nothing else especially the guys can go watch the movie for her! She plays the role of Pagli very well indeed and is absolutely crazy….so crazy that it is not realistic, but then it is the directors creative freedom to exaggerate!

As for Ugly Ranvir Shorey,he is really cute and not so ugly and your heart goes out to him the poor guy who is tortured by crazy Malika and you wonder why does he even bother to be with her…so what if she is sexy!! (But I guess guys will always be guys!) But love is blind…and love lies in the eyes of the beholder! He loves her for a crazyness!

I quite liked the end of the movie because I saw a very philosophical angle to it! It brought out the importance of destiny. You can make choices as per your free will but that will only change the path you take to reach the ultimate end! Ugly was destined to be with Pagli. All through the movie his mom is pestering him to meet an aunt who to introduce him to a very nice girl but he always has excused and does not go.He nevertheless meets Pagli randomly at the station and they go through the routine of falling in love and give us some laughs in the process with some crazy antiques. They go through the pains of breaking up and learn the lessons they are destined to learn! Ultimately when the ‘time is right’ (at the end of the movie)…Ugly gets officially introduced to Pagali through the very same aunt he was avoiding all through out!

Overall the movie is funny in parts…and don’t expect logic from it and you won’t be disappointed…It is not half as good as Pyar Ke Side Effects so try not to compare!

Director -Sachin Khot Producer :Rangita Pritish Nandy, Pritish Nandy Cast - Mallika Sherawat, Ranvir Shorey

New Features on my Blog!

I had an interesting weekend learning to do new things on the net! Although I work in an IT company I am an absolute non techie so even small things which are normally out of the way are difficult or too much of a pain for me to try out.

But this weekend….I was inspired by an old colleague of mine from Bangalore to put up a counter on my blog to know the number of visits. He told me you will have to write some code on the blog but it is really simple!

I really wanted to know if people are actually reading my blog…..but to write some !!code!! seemed like a difficult proposition…but what the hell….I thought let me give it a shot….I have google to help me afterall....I struggled with it for sometime but then I finally found (statcounter.com) to help me and I realized it was so damn easy!!

Encouraged with my new found success with technology I decided to experiment some more and found there are soo many things that you can easily do with google…like put advts on your blog!
I had read an article in fortune or forbes or something on people writing blogs and making money out of it and thought to myself….what a great idea….but it would be so difficult to implement and its now after almost a year I realized that it is so damn easy to make your blog a money generating piece! You may not make money for a living...unless you do it full time and write a lot of sense….but just the fact that google adsense is so easy to enable is what is absolutely amazing! I still don’t understand how you make money on it…but the basic gist is if people come and view your blog and click on the advts on it..you get paid some few cents!

(So people...happy clicking!...but click only for things you are genuinely interested and don't overdo it for the heck of it ...cause they supposedly debar accounts for false clicks!)

Realizing how easy it was to enable google ads and a counter….I set out to experiment some more…and learnt to put a whole lot of things on my blog!

Here is a list of all the new things I did……it is so damn easy that it is amazing! If I can do it so can anyone! I can put details on how to do each of these things….even if one of you’ll leave me a comment on wanting more!

1) Put a counter on the blog
2) Put Google advertisements on the blog
3) Put a Google search on the blog
4) Give multiple people permission to write on a blog
5) Put a vote option on the blog
6) Put a subscribe to posts and comments option from the blog

Still lots more to learn….I hope this was not only beginners success for a technologically challenged person like me and I manage to go ahead and learn some more things!
By the way check out my teach India blog if you have already not seen it!

http://kef-teach-india.blogspot.com

Some Concerns shared by Volunteers at the Teach India Initiative

It is natural to have apprehensions when we start something new. All the volunteers who were a part of the program had reservations, concerns and problems when they initially started interacting with the student. This post will list out some of the issues faced by the volunteers.

1) Do not know how to start the conversation with the child?
2) How can a sustain a conversation with a child with whom I have nothing in common for 60 minutes!!??!!
3)There is a Gap in communication / English skills between two students allotted to me.
4)Student does not understand my question in English
5)Should I translate and use other languages such as Marathi in the beginning
6) Student is very disinterested..How do I build his interst?
7)Student is very shy and does not communicate
8)I feel nervous because I do not know if I am teaching the right way
9)I need a syllabus or textbook - that will help me to gauge progress
10) What do I talk to a child who is not my gender

Find some coping strategies to these issues and many more at

http://kef-teach-india.blogspot.com/

Interview with Ratna Patak!

I have a friend who is a budding journalist. She has just joined one of those ‘hi-fi’ journalist schools in town and is learning to be the next Barkha Dutt! Assignment one was to interview a celebrity you would like to meet! Celebrity hunt stated….and “Mr Well Connected” came to her rescue and got her an interview with Ratna Pathak!

Our budding journalist needed a cameraman and her boyfriend could not accompany her as “he had to study” (as usual!) and hence I got a chance to be the official “Camerawomen” for the interview!
We were to meet Ratna Patak in her house at bandstand. We were well in time( I wasn't she was!) and waiting for the clock to strike 6.30 so we could get into the lift and ring the bell at her door! The clock struck 6.30 and that is when we realized that we had been standing outside the wrong building!
Sea Pebbles…Sand Pebbles…Beach Pebbles…the road is full of pebbles and wonderful buildings named after pebbles….not our fault we were standing overlooking the wrong pebble…

We finally found the place and walked into her house….Ratna Pathak is one pretty woman! She looks much better in real than on reel…she was as white as marble and her face had this inner glow….she seemed to peaceful!

We walked into her living room and there was “Rudolf” her big handsome black tom cat perched cozily on the sofa. The living room was well done with colourful cushions and cozy sitting corners and intriguing paintings on the wall. My favourite painting was of that of the Joker with a purple face…he was smiling but there was sadness in his eyes.

We finally settled in and had an interesting one hour conversation with her about acting, theatre, movies , television, women in India to the role of the youth and her dreams for her children and a whole lot of other things!

The actual discussion we had is privileged conversation and I can't write much about it here for two reasons; Firstly since it is an assignment my budding journalist has to submit to college, I am not allowed to disclose contents here and secondly and more importantly since I did not need to remember the details....I dont remeber much so there is not much I can write anyways! !

Overall a nice experience! Hope my budding journalist lets me tag along for many more such assignments!

Teach India!!!

I volunteered for the Times of India “Teach India campaign” and was assigned to the Kotak Education Foundation at Chembur. I was assigned to their Student Intervention Program(SIP)
Kotak Education foundation has tied up with a number of municipal schools in the area. The teachers from the NGO would teach the children basic English for one hour a day everyday after school. We as volunteers would interact with two children every week for an hour and give them a conducive environment to speak English.
A study done by a Bangalore based company showed that a significantly large number of people passing out of universities are not employable because they lack the basic interpersonal and communication skills. This is true not only for municipal schools but our entire education system. We are very strong in the ‘knowledge skills’ but not really taught skills as problem solving, effective communication, inter-personal skills which are quite important for life

The objectives of the program are

1) To teach children to speak English
2) To understand English
3) Overall gain confidence of communicating with people and learn interpersonal skills.

I intend to document my experience as a part of this initiative with the following objectives

1) To keep track of the progress of the kids assigned to me
2) To gather my thoughts together after each session
3) To document my experience so I can read it some years from now and feel nostalgic!
4) To have something to write on my blog
5) To maybe inspire others reading this to go out there and make a difference!

Day 1- Saturday July 19th 2008

10:30 am-Kotak Education Foundation Office

I walked into the Kotak education foundation office at Chebur Naka for the first time and Shriti from the foundation explained the entire program.
I was a little apprehensive about the entire program being a little unstructured but decided to go for the volunteers briefing in the afternoon where we were to discuss some structure

1:00 pm- Kumud Memorial School Deonar

I met people from diverse groups volunteering to teach. My group had two doctors, a lawyer, a Charterd accountant, students and other professionals! It was a pleasure to just see the diverse group willing to come out of their way to “Teach India”.
We had a brief briefing and were told that just talk to the kids and give them a chance to talk!
Honestly I was quite apprehensive..… I am normally quite good at making small talk with strange people but what will I talk to a 8th standard child who I would not have anything common in and infact may not even be able to understand my language!
The first 10 minutes were quite awkward…did the normal small talk with the child…what is your name…what is your teachers name….do you like school etc etc…and then what…! Now what should I talk to this child!! I am suppose to be the teacher….I have no clue what to do!!
And I a brilliant idea struck me….I decided to play a game with them…games are always fun….!

So we played the “I CAN SEE” game…

All three of us had to look around the room and say what we can see in complete English sentences
· I can see a fan
· I can see chairs
· I can a teacher wearing a blue dress…
· Etc etc etc

This gave me an opportunity to improve their vocabulary of the objects they see around them. As the game went along we went for a walk around the school spotting things and trying to describe them with adjectives!

This worked really well for me…I managed to make fruitful conversation with kids and also managed to teach them something in an informal manner!
When my second set of students came in….I was alredy a more confident teacher!!

About my teach India friends/children

I had four kids with me coming in two batches of one hour each

1)Rupesh

2)Soheil
3) Rashmi
4) Komal

The boys seem to have a better vocabulary of words than the girls….but they were also picking up well!
In my next blog post I will write more about each of the kids, and what is it that I plan to do with them in the future!!

Analysis....Paralysis

Good Morning everyone!

When I finally sat last night to prepare this speech I opened two bio-data’s I have.

#The first which is written by me to find my ideal job and
#The second which is written by my parents to find the ideal son in law

I thought I would use the Microsoft most widely used Cut Copy Paste technology and quickly get done with my speech,but then I thought of you’ll my dear audience for the day and realized that you are not potential recruiters (at least not for now!) and neither is the potential “son- in- law’s” that my parents are looking for is likely to be sitting among you’ll today; So what is it that I should I tell you about myself….!!??!!

Oh god……I was so stressed and CONFUSED!

And that’s when I realized: “Confused” has been the theme of my life all these years!!!

Not many people here would know that I am a physiotherapist by qualification : “Dr Shilpa Sehgal” is what I used to be called till I got confused and did not know if treating “pains in the neck” was the true calling of my life…I wanted to do something different; something better; something bigger; I thought I wanted to be in the ‘business’ of healthcare

So how could I do that ’Confusion’ crept in again and that’s when the great Tata Legend came to my rescue in the form of Tata Institute of Social Sciences and I went on and did an MBA in Hospital and healthcare Management

At the end of the course I had a nice cushy pre- placement offer in a hospital in Mumbai when the recruitment team from TCS came to campus and “confused“me with a attractive hefty package lured me into believing that the corporate world is the place to be in and healthcare IT is the way to change the world! TCS is the place to be in…

TCS did change the world at least for me…..They picked me up from Mumbai and dumped me to Hyderbad ; believe me the world does sound very different when everyone around you talks in Telgu! Now I have been in TCS for over 3 years and even today both me and my poor bosses are confused on what my role is in this company full of techies!

Confusion!….Confusion!...Confusion…! Confusion has prevailed not only in my professional life but also my personal life!

I love to learn new things there are so many things I want to learn I cant decide what I want to learn first! What should I do over the weekend??? Learn to play the casio….or to learn to dance ? To learn reki or pranic healing ? play badminton or table tennis?

I love to read everything and anything fiction, non- fiction, business, psychology, spirituality…..every night I have at least 3 books by the side of my bed and normally I got to sleep just looking at them…

I cannot decide if I should Toastmasters club…..or Rotaract club or the Lions’s club……they are all so nice!

Should I be a part of the Teach India initiative or be a part of the TCS Maitri Sion school initiative to teach kids……? Oh god so many things to decide…

There are small things….relatively not much at stake… and I eventually will end up doing all of them but when it comes to major potentially irreversible decisions ; Like who I should get married to….God Save me and all those people around me!

I am so thoroughly confused… Who would be the right choice….? The cute boy next door…dad’s friends son….my best friend…..my younger brothers best friend…..none of the above….all of the above…any of the above….either of the above!!!???!!!!

And when there are big confusing decisions to make in life you turn to divine sources who can help you see the future and decide … But…. lo behold!! There are so many choices there!!!
Who should you listen to……the astrologer……the palmist……the numerologist….the taro card reader…all of the above…none of the above…either of the above….neither of the above…OH MY GOD……can someone anyone save me from this confusion!!!

So what am I doing with all these choice I need to make…..Currently “Absolutely Nothing!”
Analysis Paralysis…. is what I am suffering from at this point of time. My life is in pause mode. There are so many things I want to do, but currently all I am doing is “analyzing” what is the best thing to do!

When you don’t have a choices Life is stressful when you have too many choices in life is equally stressful…..What is better of the two…..honestly I don’t know…I am confused!

Over to Mr Toastmaster of the day.
(This was the ice breaker speech I gave at the toastmasters club on July 16th 2008…The content is partly true…but exaggerated : An attempt to make it an interesting and humorous!)

Someone.....Somewhere....

I don’t know if I believe in soul mates or love but I have always been afraid of even considering I will find the ‘ideal’ partner. I have always been so skeptical about it that I have never even allowed myself to think what is it that I am really looking for in an ‘ideal’ but then I read somewhere We make our own reality….. we paint our own picture of life. You get what you want…..You only need to know what you want!

So i though to myself, Let me paint a picture of the ideal partner...

So the 'ideal' man in my life is going to be….

Someone who I am attracted to
Someone who is attracted to me
Someone who is well read and travelled
Someone who is logical and fair
Someone whose family I can gel with
Someone whose mom and sister can be my best friends
Someone who I can talk to forever and not get bored and yet want to talk somemore
Someone who is a nice Human being
Someone who will be loyal and faithful
Someone who will help to to grow as a person
Someone with whom everything feels right
Someone who loves me for what I am
Someone I love for what he is
Someone I feel I want to know better and spend a lot of time with
Someone who feels he wants to know me better and spend a lot of time with me
Someone with a good sense of humor
Someone who is doing reasonably well in life
Someone with whom I get the opportunity to travel the world
Someone who is reasonably tall and good looking
Someone who I feel the ‘connection’ with
Someone who feels the ‘connection’ with me
Someone I can look up to and respect
Someone who looks up to me and respects me for what I am
Someone who I can trust and feel secure with
Someone who trusts me completely
Someone who can be my friend forever
Someone who is ready to help me with the housework
Someone who can be a partner in this journey of life
Someone who respects women in general
Someone who like to have fun and knows to have a good time
Someone I can emotionally connect with

I wrote all this and then I read a beautiful line in a book I was reading which sums and ends it all up so beautifully

"Don’t try to find the ideal partner, Try to be the ideal partner and you will be emotionally richer” Dr Brain Weiss

So that is the end of my search to 'find' an ideal partner and the begining of my quest to 'become' the ideal partner!

The "Purpose of Life" is a "Life of Purpose"

Something beautiful I read and it got me thinking..

"The Purpose of Life is a Life of Purpose"

I don’t know what the purpose of my life is.....but I know I want to learn and experience a whole lot of things before I move on to the next level…

The purpose of this posting is to
· Make a list of things I want to learn before I die
· Inputs from readers and friends on the best place and the best people to learn any of these things from!
· Tell the world what interests and fascinates me!
· Commit myself to actually “Go Do It”

So here comes the list….. I hope to tick these off and add new things!
1. Neuro- Linguistic Programming
2. Handwriting Analysis
3. Playing the Casio
4. Counseling
5. Handwriting Analysis
6. Dance- Bollywood Free Style
7. Palmistry
8. Astrology
9. Play Tennis
10. Play Squash
11. Personal grooming and make up
12. Dinning etiquette
13. Voice modulation and Radio Jockeying
14. Cooking exotic dishes
15. Become a competent toastmaster and master the art of public speaking

Next I want to elaborate on each of the things in the list with the following
· Why I want to learn each of these things
· What is the level of proficiency I want to achieve