spendthrift

why be a spendthrift? is it wrong if I ask my wife to save and spend less? are we earning millions per day? once in a while its okay, by why every now and then? cant she control her desires? I do think having self-control is the biggest achievement, that's what I learned when I did vipassana course.  that was an eye opener.  there he taught us to meditate, to concentrate, to control ourselves, self-control.  a few days back I quarreled with my wife over buying ice-cream.  she was supposed to buy only one for our son, but when she went inside the shop, she bought 2 family packs.  the shopkeeper told her its buy one get one and in fact I know that brand, Amul, its not buy one get one.  even if you buy one pack, you get it at half the amount, no need to buy two.  they do sell a single pack.  but she being spendthrift and very headstrong, why would she listen to me?  I dont say that she doesnt indulge in saving for our future, for our son, but still whenever you can get a chance to save, do it.  have self-control.  in fact in addition to the two packs, she bought one single cup for our son who finished it by the time we came home.  anyways.

so, its a fact that workload has gone down where I work presently and now its time to shift.  i called up my previous employer in the evening and he has called me tomorrow to have an informal chat.  let's see what it turns out to be.  what i heard from my colleagues from the earlier employer that workflow has increased here and he is adding persons to boost his strength.  the only deterrent may be a longer travel as they have shifted from where the office was located to a little distance away which may be a little far for me.  but if he agrees to employ me on the previous terms and conditions, i dont mind the distance to travel.   my condition remains no night shift and fixed salary plus incentives.  i do hope he agrees to it.  

goodbye pune?

Is it time to say goodbye to Pune?  I think yes.  But why? enough of this city, got bored.   its become too crowded.  I have been here for a decade now, enough is enough.  but going where? north, east, or south?  let me see.  North is a costly affair.  what about south? acute water shortage.  i don't know how people manage there.  East? an explored frontier for a westerner like me.  no water shortage and inflation is low.  This is from the feedback that I got from a colleague of mine who belongs to that place.  when that guy has come here, why do I have to go there? the answer is same when you ask why Indians go abroad.  What about pay package, obviously higher, otherwise why would I think about it in first place.  What about the job? the company is stable, in existence since more than a decade so much so that the employees working there are unknown in the market because hardly anybody leaves the job, so satisfied are they, and the headcount is more than 50 that's what I heard.  Once I like the place and the job and decide to settle down there, family can move in.  But wait, do I smell a UK somewhere in between.  Wow, won't it be fascinating going there and working and earning some money some of which can be sent home.

Okay!!! had a talk with my cousin who lives in Cambridge for the last six months.  Though he is not in the same profession as me, but he says there are three big hospitals where I can try for a job.  I have forwarded him a completely new and redrafted resume.  He also said he is friends with a Romanian physician who can perhaps help me get a job there.  Once the resume is accepted, I will be facing a video interview on Skype.  After the interview is over and final salary is decided, the hospital will issue me a work permit initially for three years renewable for another three years later on.

A former colleague of mine from Nagpur who is married and settled in London had worked in one of the hospitals there.  She worked as a medical PA.  The nature of work is totally different than what I am doing here.  The job is very interesting and enjoyable.  It involves calling the patients to schedule their appointments, liaison with other hospitals, proofreading letters, etc.  In short the job is more of an admin job rather than headphone usage.  What a relief would it be if I get such a job, and that too five days in a week. That does mean on weekends I can do something else, maybe a part-time job. But where? maybe a job in the essential services sector like petrol pump attendant or maybe a taxi driver.  You may say why I am thinking of such a job for a person like me.  Why not, there's nothing wrong in it.  After all work is worship, whatever the job might be, and as long as it is a blue or white collar job, I don't see any wrong in it.  The only stumbling block to go there might be the work permit.  My colleague said that normally the job of a medical secretary may not fetch me a work permit, but a medical PA can, though vacancies for this type are few.  If luck has it, I will get it and that is in His hands.  Amen. 

atrocious!

Deep rooted casteism has taken its toll again.  In the lawless land of UP, two teenaged girls were raped and then hanged from a tree.  Why? because they belonged to a lower caste of dalits.  And who were the perpetrators? men from upper caste yadavs.  Is that the only reason to commit the crime? yes that is the one and only reason.  Have the culprits been caught? not all, and to say two of the four guys were policemen.  what was the reaction of the govt of that state? the bloody rascal CM tells one lady journalist, why do you need to worry when you are safe.  I think his wife should also get the same treatment then he will know how safe women are in UP.

Like I said in my earlier post, in India, for centuries, caste tradition is being practiced.  No one knows when this all began, there are no definite records.  It is so ensconced in the Indian society that it will take a whole lot of centuries to do away with it and for the people to rise above it.  But thank God, because of educations, today's youth are crossing the barriers of caste, creed, and religion and increasingly getting into inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.  If this keeps happening, the day is not far away when all the castes and creeds in India will get mixed up and pure humanity will prevail.  But for that India has to be 100% literate which is far a distant dream.

past event

In India, a boy having a girlfriend or vice-versa is itself an unusual thing especially in smaller towns and villages where the mindsets of people is fairly conservative.  in fact in many communities its a crime if a boy gets married to a girl outside of his community.  At such times, the elders of that community punish the couple either by boycotting them and their families or straightaway driving them out of their place of stay.  in fact in may instances, either the boy or the girl or sometimes both of them get murdered because they refused to part with each other.

i remember an event happen in my life related to the same, honor killing.  a male friend of my cousin brother had come to study in my city from another town.  he was from a farmer's family and so belonged to a middle class community.  During the course of his stay in the city, he fell in love with a girl who was from a rich family and who lived in the same locality as he did.  over a period of time the girl too accepted him and they decided to get married without informing the girl's parents.  to register their marriage, both of them went to another city along with their friends to complete the formalities.  when a boy student falls in love, it usually happens that he loses interest in studies and starts failing exams.  this same happened with this guy and he eventually gave up studies and started working in marketing field since he now was married and was in need of running the household.  I too helped him in setting up his home by helping him to some extent.  As time went by, he became a father of a son.  one fine day, all of a sudden he left my city and moved back to his native place.  Over the course of  time, another son was born in the family.  A few months after that, the girl and her two kids were back at her parents' home since her husband had died in an automobile accident.  Though it proved to be an accident, but there is no doubt and it can be concluded that the accident was made to happen.  the girl's parents being wealthy, they could easily afford to spend a few million rupees on hiring a person to get the accident done.

Although both the girl and the boy belonged to the same community, but because of vast difference in their family's wealth, the boy was never acceptable to the girl's parents or for that matter her father who never visited his daughter's house even when she had become a mother, which her mother and sister did.  this ill-tradition of honor killing is being practiced in this country since ages and in fact is increasing day by day. it is mostly prevalent in the northern part of India as compared to the rest of the country.  the one reason for this may be that in India there are many communities, castes and sub-castes. it is so complex that an outsider will never get an idea of what is happening.  I think India is the only country in the world that comprises so many religions, communities, languages, castes and sub-castes.  almost all the religions of the world exist in India and in fact India is the place where not one but four religions took birth.

The only way to weed out this corrupt practice is through education.  it is indeed very necessary that Indian people rise out of the grip of casteism and embrace humanity as the only religion.  

Turning Point

Now, I would like to start getting writing jobs online.  I discovered I can write quite well when I appeared for IELTS exam several years back.  In that exam, I scored the maximum for writing, a score of 8 with the maximum being 9.  Also I used to help school going kids of neighbors with their essays which were quite appreciated by their teachers.  this made me think that yes i can write.  in fact, nowadays i am completing writing assignments for my son.  i think i can write essays, short stories, etc. the only thing i need is a topic to write on.  a friend of mine in the office suggested that if you cant think of a topic, better start writing about your experiences in life.  that is a very good suggestion.  every person has his/her own experiences in life which i think are unique.  to pen the same is really exciting especially if it gives out a lesson to others.  in fact that friend used to write for a local language newspaper in his home state for a few months which he later stopped once he became busy in his job.  what I am going to do is pen down some stories, the idea may be copied from few magazines which i am reading presently, put it in my own words and send it as samples for the client to go through before they give out work to me.

at least as of now its been decided that the platform for which i had joined my friend's co. is not going to commence in the near future.  cant say about the later, nothing is predictable.  i came across a job in Saudi Arabia of my own field and have already sent my resume through the consultant who has put it up on a job placement site.  though they have asked for all experience letters and reference letters from my previous employers, presently i have sent only my resume for them to go through and decide upon my eligibility.  if they find it suitable, obviously they will contact me.  i have been working in my field for the past 15 years now.  after our training got over, i was elevated to the post of proof reader which means less of typing and more of proof reading the files and because of that i could not get into the habit of typing or better still transcribing, though i did some transcribing over all these years but it was not much to put me into fast typing.  and the work i m doing presently is online where the files are typed by VRS, voice recognition, so there's absolutely nil typing work or at the most one or two files in an  entire day.  so now if i get to work abroad, it will be mostly transcribing which is going to be taxing.  God only knows whether i will be able to do it or not.  also a cousin of mine who has shifted to UK a few months back wants me to come over there.  i know i got ample opportunities there.  i can work in a dr's office as his assistant managing his patient's records, but again it may involve typing.  one advantage of going to Saudi is that all the expenses will be borne by them, but then it will be like working as a slave.  you know, they keep our passport, etc.  while in UK, all the expenses will have to be borne by me, but it will be complete freedom, but i don't have funds to do that.  only one thing can be done is that work like a slave for one year, save money and then escape to freedom.  

what i dont understand is why some persons try to impose their thoughts and feelings on others around them.  how can you justify this?  this guy, what does he think of himself, a hilter?  agreed that he is quite mature and practical, but the way he imposes his thoughts on others and expects them to follow it, its quite natural that those very persons around him will one day revolt against him and leave him with no options.  what does he think of himself, a dictator?  and if he wants to be hitler then do what he did, wiping out 10 million men, women, and children.  in fact he can score 100 times on that, let him exterminate 1 billion.  that way our earth will become quite light weight and competition will get reduced, but he cant do that because you need guts to do it which only hitler had.  i am not praising him, not at all.  in fact what he did was quite deplorable and nobody on the face of earth wants that.  that's why people keep protesting against nuclear stockpilation which thankfully is coming down.  but what are we doing?  each one of us is proving to be a dictator towards mother earth by slowly and slowly destroying it.

anyways, returning to this guy.  i dont think its quite right of imposing one's thoughts and actions on others.  what happened today in office has given me a lot of tension.  when i had worked with this guy earlier in another office, i had experienced that working with him was foolish.  that's why i left it and was happy to join another office where the employers never put any pressure on the persons under them, but exactly the opposite of which is happening here.  when he asked me to join, i had met him at a bar and had told him about the experiences I had working with him in the earlier office and that I fear of history repeating, but at that time he had assured me that no such thing will happen which i too had hoped.  but it seems its back to square one.  this is my third month here and i m already looking at changing my job.  in fact i got an offer from an office where i have never worked, the nature of work being related to my field but of a different nature, that is, no use of the headphone.  thank God, that will save me from going deaf.  coming Monday, i hope to go there to undergo a test and face the interview.  perhaps the main stumbling block might be the pay structure, but if they are ready to give me what i have demanded or at least something near it, i definitely will kick this bloody bugger's firm and happily go there.  at least there will be more persons to make friendship with since here apart from me there are only 3-4 guys.

here's another assignment done by me for my fourth grader son.

While returning from a cycle expedition to a place which was quite far from our place, we lost our way.  Since the road passed through a small but dense forest, we could not locate our way back.  Every time we went through a new road, we would end  up at the same spot.  This happened at least thrice and we got really scared since it was getting dark, and we could not come across anyone whom we could ask directions.  At last one of my friends spotted a landmark tree, which he had noted while on our way to the lake.  Very cautiously, we took that road which brought us out of the jungle, and we were thrilled since we had come to a familiar road.  After that we cycled really fast and did not stop until we reached our respective homes.

though we are yet to get the passwords to start our work on APEX, the platform which I am experienced with, myself and my friend already have got plans to register a marketing office of our firm so that we get direct clients from there and increase our earning potential as well as that of our employees.  persons reading my blog especially those in the US who are either green card holders or citizens may contact me through this blog or email directly as we are seeking a marketing person who will get clients for us which will be a beneficial situation for both the parties involved.  anybody out there? 

For the last 3-4 days, we have been waiting for the login passwords to come, but still we get is their oft repeated reply, 'the team is working on it.'  I fail to understand why is it taking so much time for the people in US to set right such a minor thing as passwords?  whenever we inquire, some or other excuses are given, but what I think is those guys are bloody lazy nothing else.  And when finally we do get the passwords, they will start putting pressure to execute more work, to increase the head count, to maintain quality, etc. etc.  since we are yet to start working on the APEX platform, i am continuing my work on escription platform which many of my friends admit is absolutely a hopeless platform as far as line count is concerned and since I am working on a line count basis and not a fixed pay, this month I am in total disarray.  since my line count production is less due to working on e-scription platform, the next month will be heavy for me since I will receive very less money and in fact I may have to borrow some from my friend.  I really dont know what's going to happen in March.  Hopefully, by this month end the passwords will be received, so that in March I will be able to produce a better line count to earn a good amount.

good night!!

Another two days have passed and still we have not received the passwords to continue our work on APEX platform.  The irony is that the MRecord team, from where we get our work located in this country does not have any rights to work on such minor things like creating ids or passwords.  This privilege still lies with US team who are not able to act fast due to extreme weather conditions going on there and who seem to be least bothered about our plight.  In fact the person with whom we interact is supposed to be the country head for MRecord, though his post is quality manager, and he says he is totally helpless.  Until the passwords come by, I need to work on escription platform which is absolutely useless as far as line count is concerned.  Now its dinner time and also feeling very sleepy.  I need to get up at 5:00 am tomorrow to go to my yoga class.  GN.

Here are some of the school assignments I did for my son who is a fourth grader.  Your views on them are invited.

HOLI FESTIVAL

Holi is a festival of colors which is celebrated on a full moon day in the month of March.  There are many mythological stories explaining the reasons to mark the festival of holi.  The most prominent story is about King Hiranyakashyapu and his son Prahlad.  Prahlad was a devotee of Lord Vishnu who protected him from every calamity.  King Hiranyakashyapu was so enraged by Prahlad’s devotion to God and so he thought of killing his own son.  He thought of asking his sister. Holika, to do the job.  Holika had got a boon from Lord Brahma that fire will not be able to harm her in anyway.  So, on Hiranyakashyapu’s orders a pyre was lit and Holika sat in it with Prahlad in her lap.  Because of blessings showered by Lord Vishnu, Prahlad was saved but Holika was burnt to death.  This gave birth to the festival of Holi.

MY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

January 21 every year is the most important day in my life as it is my birthday.  This year it was my 10^th birthday.  On this day, I did two good deeds, which will remain in my memory for a long time to come.  Before we set out to celebrate my birthday, I gave away a new set of clothes to 2-3 poor little kids that live near our building in small shanties.  I along with my parents went to the local KFC joint located in the Deccan area.  We reached the place around 8 o’clock in the evening.  As is the specialty of such places, there was a significant number of young boys and girls enjoying their food while chatting and laughing in between.  After spending almost an hour munching on the food we had ordered, we left the place.  Since there was a little food left over, we got it packed with a plan to consume it the next day at home.  As we came out of the place, a little girl who was begging nearby, saw the parcel in my hands.  Since she seemed quite hungry, she begged me to give it to her.  Seeing her plight, I gave away the food packet to her and noticed that she seemed quite happy.  I also felt contended that on such an important day of my life, I had done two good deeds by helping fill one empty stomach and covering 2-3 naked bodies.

AJAY'S VACATION

Ajay spent his summer holidays with his parents and sister.  They had planned to go to the beach.  They traveled by train to the beach town.  They had booked a room in a large hotel by the beach.  From their room they could view the entire blue sea.  They could watch big waves emerging from the sea.  Both Ajay and sister enjoyed building castles in the sand and collecting shells.  They enjoyed bathing in the ocean waters and had sea food and fishes to eat.  They enjoyed to their fullest for the whole week.

LETTER TO PARENTS

Dear parents,

I will always remain grateful to you for the life you have given me.  I am enjoying my childhood as also enjoying my school life.  I attend my school regularly and also study sincerely to achieve good grades.  I am also thankful to you for teaching me good habits and good manners.  I will always remain indebted to you for all the efforts you are taking in making me a good boy.

Forever yours,

Varun Badhe

I should have continued this when I started it, but you know like many new year resolutions die out, this too died out.  Why does this happen with us?  One palmist had told me that you start any new work with great enthusiasm but it soon peters out and once you lose interest in it, you ultimately stop doing it.  Does this happen with others too or am I the only one?  But it does seem that many or I should say most of the persons who make a new year resolution seem to forget it pretty soon and are back to their old ways.  Since 1st of February this year, I have started a new work.  This work is related to my daily profession only that I have worked on this particular platform at an earlier firm for almost two years.  The place where I am presently working belongs to my friend, the only thing is that I have been made incharge of this platform   Right from getting the work from the client, trying to recruit as many as possible giving preference to those who have worked on this platform earlier.  now, the thing is until now this platform was being used in only office in Pune where I was working until the last month.  Before I started in the new place, one more firm has also started working on this platform since december.  So, as of now, there are only three firms using this platform, so persons having experience on this platform are very few.and since almost all of them are employed somewhere else, getting them on board is becoming a bit difficult.