Learning a new script

Having studied in KV, I am severely handicapped when it comes to my reading and writing skills in regional languages. So when tamil speaking friends at work took to learning to write kannada, i asked myself whether I was happy with just my English and Hindi script knowledge. I knew that I was happy with my passable kannada reading skills that serve the purpose of reading signboards and bus routes. Since I know that level of kannada, reading telugu movie posters is also not a big deal. The challenge of course, is with Tamil.

In the pre-google era, I would call my parents to read out the name of the interesting movie or serial playing out on Sun TV. Whenever I had to write out a comment in tamizh, naa english script ae vechchi sammaaLippen. But now, I want to learn the language. Simply because I want to read those lovely stories that Amma used to read out from Kumudam and Kalki. Because I want to be able to use right sounding tamizh words effortlessly like Gopinath does in Neeya Naana. Because I want to read Ponniyin Selvan. I have heard people raving about the novel like they rave about Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. I know that for a beginner, Ponniyin Selvan is far far away. But I like a good challenge. So I am at it, starting today :) It all  looks like jalebi right now, but very soon I should be able to make sense of the alphabet. Best thing is that the Tamil alphabet does not have so many letters!
P.S. Watch this space for an update in the form of the review of Ponniyin Selvan :)

Would you use Airtel money?

I am a big sucker for great ads. So when i saw the ad for airtel money, where the girl spots this god-awesome bag but doesn't have the cash for it, i really felt for her. And felt that she should get the money for the bag. And when her mum dearest said, tathasthu! for her bag wish and sent her money thru phone, i was smiling along with the mother-daughter.

Got me to do some digging up on Airtel Money. So how does it work?
1. Mom has an airtel money account. Daughter has an airtel money account.
2. Mom loads cash into her account either by physically depositing money at an airtel office or transfer thru net banking.
3. Mom needs a power account to send money (Rs.50 subscription). She pays Rs. 5 per transaction below 500 and 10 for transactions above 500. (The bag certainly isn't coming for 500!!)
4. Daughter receives the money.
5. Daughter prays real hard that the store accepts the airtel money. If she is in luck, then he would. She would have to transfer money to his account by payment. And in case she sends it to the wrong ID, airtel does not hold itself responsible. If the merchant did not receive the money, then she would have to contact airtel customer care with transaction ID.
And yes, its a given that this would mean that all parties involved in the transactions have airtel accounts!

Now a simple question, why would anybody go thru this hassle in the age of debit and credit cards?! And if the mom is as tech-savvy, then she can as well use mobile banking and transfer money instantly to her daughter's account.
Same case with money transfer. When i can fund transfer directly to another account, free of charge, why would i do it to my airtel phone, so as to later transfer it again, at a charge to someone else's money account?
They let you book movie tickets using their money service, but you cannot pick your seats. Riders, charges  and conditions are there with almost every transaction. While their tagline says, it's not just about the money, they are charging money for everything ;)
I really did not understand airtel ka funda behind launching this service. I'd rather swipe my credit card free of cost and also accrue points for my purchase. Can you think of anyway in which airtel money would be advantageous and convenient?

Why Pinnnk for the ladies?

I have been going through hoards of websites in the past couple of weeks in order to get the best deal for a certain phone that i have had my eye on for a while. The search spanned the Valentine's day week and I was cringing whenever i saw the hearts all over the websites. What irritated me the most was, in the gifts for Him section, you found all the smart looking phones and practical gifts. On the other hand, gifts for her featured *PINK* stuff, and was mostly things like stuffed toys, chocolates, pink bags and wallets, pink phones (Beat that!). What makes the online stores think that girls would love stuffed toys? The very fact that she is old enough to receive a valentine's day gift means that the girl is a grown up! Stuffed toys are for kids! And why do they not think the ladies would be delighted in receiving a practical gift? Why give a pink phones that has hardly any desirable features? Don't you think a black "useful" phone would please her? Don't you think she would appreciate a practical gift like an external hard disk ?

A note to the online marketing people, women don't need a pink phone or a stuffed toy to make them feel special. The poor guy will probably face her ire if he gives her an overstuffed teddy bear while she was expecting something useful! And what makes you think that women should be given pink gadgets? I bought myself a stylish black phone  and am in love with it! More on the phone later.
Women these days are probably as informed as the men about gadgets. They are practical and they know what they want. And speaking from common knowledge, what they want is certainly not a cuddly teddy bear!

Volvo Janata

I take the Volvo to work everyday. It is convenient, i can switch off during the journey, take a nap or just watch the traffic passing by. It is a short distance from home to work- about 8 kms. But the traffic makes sure that everyone moves at a snail's pace, There are people driving by, beside the bus- one person in a car. A royal waste of fuel that just adds to the congestion on the roads.
I take my eyes off the road and take a look at the people travelling along. Most of them have a laptop bag on their laps and are occupied with their phones. Some fancy, some basic. They are either talking or listening to music. I see the girl giggling away and giving a coy smile as she talks. And i want to say, "Lady, the person on the other end can certainly not see all your 32 teeth. No point smiling so much."
Then there are the people oblivious of their phones having three plus inch displays. The person next to you cannot but help accidentally looking at the message that you are typing.
There are also the intellectual types. Some come armed with the newspaper and use the travel time to catch up with the latest news. And the person beside him and behind him will try to read the same news, for free. The next kind of intellectuals is the most common kind. People with novels. If you are a regular, you will know the pattern. Takes close to a week to finish a book. Most people will have books from flipkart. Maybe the same bookmark as you do.  Usually it is a Chetan Bhagat or Durjoy Dutta. So much for intellect!
The ones who are not on the phone or occupied with the book, are using the Volvo ride to put on some soothing or headbanging music and relax their own way. And this is not just on my bus route. I am sure that this would be the scene on any bus route.
The people whom i cannot put into any of these categories are the ones who simply sit and stare. Some openly, some under the veil of their sunglasses. The persistent starers always sit in the seats the face the others in the bus.
I suddenly realize what i am doing, and take my eyes off the people in the bus. I certainly don't want to fall into the staring people category. It is time to turn my focus onto the newspaper of the person sitting in front of me. :)

Have you started reading The Hindu yet?

I was pleasantly surprised to come across the commercials that were asking common people GK questions at the airports, railway station, parking lots and malls. What does ATM stand for? Who is the Vice President of India? Who is the successor of Rantan Tata? That evoked a very matter-of-fact response- Actually, his son, Mukesh Ambani! LOL! What is Tahrir Square? A shape, like circle :P! And they followed it up with questions like What is Hrithik's pet name? Who is the actress known for being Size zero? And well, everybody knew the answers to those questions! And they all got the same question after that- Which newspaper do you read? Then come the stock replies- beep-beep-beep- all the dumb looking people mouthing, you guessed it-  Times Of India. There are multiple minute long ads, with a good background score, crisply edited,  that make a fun watch.  And to add salt to the injury, they tell you to read The Hindu in order to "stay ahead of the Times"! Ouch!
I personally don't think that people who read ToI are essentially dumb. The paper just has been packaged well to make it appealing to a casual reader. That does not mean that ToI would not talk about Cyrus Mistry or the Egyptian crisis. Just that, people probably reach for the supplement for the gossip more than looking at the headlines. On the other hand, The Hindu has more "stuff". And that makes you read the headlines and all that goes along with it.  I am a recent "The Hindu" convert and can vouch that the paper does wonders to  your vocab and general knowledge- only, only if you read it line by line. A cursory glance at The Hindu would not do you much good. You might as well read any other paper and get the same information.
But out of all this, what gladdened me was to see The Hindu taking pot shots at ToI. The newspaper has recently had a management change and looks like they are set to change their image from being the laid back "no fluff-only stuff" paper to an aggressive paper that wants to assert that it is the best. May even prompt a lot of people to take to reading The Hindu. It now remains to see how ToI responds to this. This is Fun! 

Of rivers and plastic bags

I am sitting in the train and waiting for it to reach Mysore as soon as possible so that i can do something to satiate my craving for an evening snack. My calculation about reaching home by half past 5 on a Saturday, right in time for chai and snack has gone amiss. The train started off late from Bangalore and is running behind schedule. And my stomach doesn't really like it and growls in response.

The sight of Srirangapatna is heartening- 1. Mysore is not very far off. 2. It had been a while since i had gotten to see Cauvery at Srirangapatna. Since my regular travel happens early in the morning or late evening, i normally do not get to see the river flowing by. It used to be a favorite activity during childhood to see the river, notice the rocks and wonder during summer at how this sparing water body feeds an entire state. Or marvel at the gushing waters in monsoon.

As i was reminiscing and staring at the water, PLONK went two plastic bags from the next compartment, straight into the river! While i wanted to give a piece of my mind to the people who threw it in, I held back, wondering whether it would be of any good?! They would probably ask me to point them to the dustbin that was glaringly absent in the compartment. Also, i have had bad experiences in the past when the person i was giving advice to would stare at me as if I was the person on the wrong side. And i would get some collective looks from the onlookers all of them giving away what they are thinking- "This girl has gone crazy!". I dunno if it is crazy to tell someone to use the dustbin and not pollute the river with plastic bags. It should not be. The river is the lifeline for so many people. It is from that river that you get your water for consumption daily. So please think twice before throwing plastic bags with trash into it. If there is no dustbin, you can always leave the trash under your seat in the train. The cleaning people will take care of disposing it. Water bodies should not be your dumping place. Please give due consideration to the environment. It needs effort to sustain. And that effort should come from each and every one of us.

Oh God! The electricity bill!

No worries, you can pay the electricity bill online! I am sure there are many people out there who would have exclaimed the same thing at some point in time or the other. The utility bills normally escape our notice. I do not have it registered on the BESCOM Click to Pay. One fine day, it turns out was the last day to pay the electricity bill. And i had absolutely no patience to run to the nearest Bangalore One outlet. It was at such a situation that the Bangalore One website came to the rescue. All you need is to register. http://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/. Once you login, you can pay a variety of bills online- Electricity, water, cellone, airtel, vodafone postpaid- basically all the facilities one has at the Bangalore One outlet.
One advantage of paying the BESCOM bill payment here is that, you key in your location and RR number as per the bill, the rest of the details that are there in the bill are retrieved by them. That way, you can cross check that you are paying for the right consumer number and go ahead and make the transaction. A nominal fee of 7 rupees is charged. But it is a good trade off for the ease of paying it from home. The receipt reaches your email.