So you have a Merc parked in the driveway. Big deal.

I had gone into town to finish off some work that was pending at the bank for a long time. After finishing my stuff, I remember that my Dad had wanted to buy a couple of cane-baskets (for working in the yard) and decided to drive down a few kms to the place where they weave these baskets.

The road meanders in curves with rubber-trees on the sides and the terrain switches from the plains to mildly hilly. I am driving enjoying the scenic beauty, when I come across this strange sight. In the driveway of a nice new house, towers the boom of a crane (called JCB in local lingo - the name coming from the manufacturer).


Ha, that was too good a sight to just drive by. So, I stop and take snaps. Instead of having cars parked in the driveway, this guy had a huuuuge crane parked.




Nice ride, but wonder how much trouble it would be to park the thing inside, ensuring that the boom of the crane does not damage any part of the home.

The recession is behind us ?

Just like an impending recession is signalled by salary-freezes (or worse pay-cuts),
pink-slips and ofcourse hiring-stops, there are also certain signals that indicate that
the recession is receding.

The first of these is what I call the "Dear All" signal. In its very common form, this is a
company-wide (or BusinessUnit-wide) email sent out by an employee who is quitting
the company. Usual format is "Dear All, it has been fun working here with y'all, but for the sake
of career advancement, bla bla..., I am heading out. You can contact me at iAmOutOfHere@yahoo.com".

When you see a quick succession of such emails, it is an indication that companies have
started hiring again, which points to the recession slowly fading away.

But the best signal of a fading recession is when the salary-hikes get really generous.
This is partly done so as to counter the trend of people leaving for better pastures.
Last week (Tuesday) was when the hikes were announced in our organisation. I was
working from home when my manager called up to inform about the hike and boy, it
was a pleasant surprise.

The salary hikes were in the 20% - 40% range across the organisation, atleast to my
knowledge. Possible that it even went upto 50%. I can't mention here by what %age
my salary increased, since some of my colleagues visit this blog and it ain't considered
a nice practice to compare salaries or the hike %age. Let's just say, I was reaaaalllllly
happy. :-)

I called my wife to tell her about the hikes and she had just 2 things to say :

1) I fail to understand why you guys are rewarded so handsomely, especially guys like
you who are not even at work (refering to my recent workFromHome stints).

2) How about getting that Rosewood dining-table + chair set home ?

So, looks like the recession is behind us. Not bad. Not bad at all.

P.S. : We got the dining table & chairs home last Saturday. A damage of 45K, but that
is OK because we finally managed to find the exact one we wanted, after a long search
of more than 6 months.

When the tuk-tuk went hitech.

I am driving to work and surfing the many FM radio-channels skipping the ones that are
playing advertisements or have bland-idiotic talk-shows on them. Infact most of the talk
shows on FM are dumb - God, how I miss Suchi & the "Hello Chennai" morning program
which she used to host on Radio Mirchi long time ago.

I stop at a channel where an auto-driver is being interviewed by the Radio Jockey (RJ).
Now, for anyone who has spent only a few days in Chennai, one of the most hated facets
of this city are the auto-drivers. I am here for 2 decades and still can't stand them & avoid contact with them to the maximum extent possible by using personal transportation or by taking the bus or even a taxi.

They are hated mainly because they charge atrocious rates which usually would be 2-3
times what is mandated by law. Also hated for unruly driving, loud illegal exhaust notes,
for being rude/uncouth etc etc. - the list is long. Given all this, I wonder what is the point
of having an auto-driver on a talk-show ?

Anyway, looks like this is no ordinary auto-driver and neither is his tuk-tuk (term used
for auto-rickshaws in other countries) just another auto ? In the brick 'n mortar world,
he can be usually seen in front of the Taj Coromandel Hotel in Chennai, waiting for patrons.

But what separates him from other auto-drivers is that he is available online too. Yep, he
has a website of his own (http://www.tuktastic.com/), which is kinda interesting, with tidbits about Chennai, its touristy spots, watering holes, shopping centres, customer-testimonials etc.

And it also gives you the option to email him or call him on his mobile phone to reserve the service of his tuk-tuk when you are next coming to Chennai. He says he checks email once
a week, which is good because if he were to follow our example of checking emails every
other minute, he would not be able to get any work done. No wonder the only thing that
gets done at most offices is checking emails.

Anyway, here is a snapshot of his home-page.


Nice effort, Samson dude. Now how about using that ornamental-appliance (fare-meter)
fitted on your auto, which I am yet to see any auto-driver in Chennai use ? I guess your
customers would appreciate that much more than you putting up a website.

P.S. : In the Customer testimonials section, a customer "Sarah' says that this guy is great
and is "worth his weight in rupees". Which though is not saying much because what would
Rs.80 get you today ? "Worth in dollars/pounds" would have been something though.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or does it actually ?

I landed at the Chennai Central station today morning after 9 long days at Kerala, which included 2 weekends, a holiday (Jan-26) and 4 days of working from home. I am glad I
work for a company that is flexible in its approach to how employees put in work. This
helped me be with my son when he joined play-school and drop him & pick up from school
all of last week.

Anyway, 9 days is a long duration - close to 1/3rd of a month. Long enough to notice even
subtle changes in the immediate environment. The moment I got off the train, the first thing that hit me was the noise - of a thousand people talking, the P.A. system blaring etc.

Come out of the station and get into an auto-rickshaw only to be subjected to more noise - illegally tuned exhausts of auto-rickshaws, bikers revving their engines for no valid reason, almost everyone riding/driving with their finger on the horn, etc etc.

I know that by evening or latest by tomorrow, I would be immune to this racket. But since
I am returning after spending 9 days in a small town in Kerala, where the all-pervasive
silence is only occasionally broken by a bus zipping through, the city's noise levels seem unbearable.

My thoughts immediately go to what my friend from the U.S. mentioned 3 weeks ago
when he was in Chennai for a 15-day visit to meet his friends/family. His comment
was, "Hey, Chennai has become so noisy compared to how it was last time. And almost
everyone seems to own a small car, but they drive it like they ride bikes, squeezing into
spaces that don't even seem to exist".

Ofcourse, he was returning after 4 long years during which time, the city's automobile
population would have increased significantly.

I might be getting old or maybe my noise-tolerance is lessening, but somehow I am not
liking what I am hearing. I have been to and spent enough time at all the major Indian
cities, and the only city I would stay in would be Chennai. But over the years, the pollution,
the noise, the traffic, the unruly driving on roads etc is getting to me. I guess I should talk
to my manager about working permanently from home, dropping in only occasionally at
Chennai for any meeting that requires my physical presence.

P.S. : Been a long time since my last post. After a few hectic months at work, it was
relatively lean in January, but somehow I could not put out a post. Laziness....