Kamat needs a kick !

What do you call a hotel that has bureaucracy in its floor service … KAMAT !

Here i refer to the Kamat hotel at Secunderabad Clock tower. We were out there as three families, a size of 8 members for a breakfast on a Friday morning. The shabby treatment the hotel staff gave us, forced us out of the place

The Hotel has an AC & non AC eatery on the first floor, right opposite the clock tower bus stop. The heat at the place was yet to sink in and given that we had walked with kids in our hands, we took the AC hall for want of some cool climes. While inside the hall, there was a small coupe at the end of the hall and that was perfectly fit to seat 8 of us. Eagerly we rushed there, seated ourselves there with our babies. After a few minutes passed no one from the hotel staff bothering to look at us, we called for a person. It was the cashier cum Sr staff and he gave a cheesing smile and told us that ‘ This area is closed for service ‘ !!! Oh what was that meant to be ? He had no convincing answers, all he could tell was that of the 30 odd seats there in the AC hall, these 8 were not being serviced by his staff and we were asked to mingle with the crowd on the other side where-in we had to split ourselves to have a bite of the stuff that this hotel would offer…

We decide and then move around

My Son of 2.5 yrs needed some milk and i asked Mr Smile for a glass of milk for the baby. Well, he was smiling again and the reply was curt ‘ Sorry sir, we wont be able to give milk ‘. What ???? you cant give a glass of milk and that too for a baby. Wouldn't this jango sell milk if a customer wants a glass of it instead of his kick taste-buds tea… i couldn’t for a moment reason and it was outright curt and embarrassing

That was enough of Kamat, which surely must be having some mouth watering dishes on offer and a regular clientele, but has no courtesy i must argue. These fools of old yore, need to learn some mannerisms and make reasoning in their behaviour

People & Personality management

Often people in the governing positions think that being close to a person is too hazardous for getting the required work done out of him / her. This is considered Personality management.

Accordingly what is the connotation meant to be... Its means that you are working to 'Keep a good feel about you alive' instead of being demanding. The big boss feels the Manager is not doing his work of squeezing the employee to extract work and by being adjusting and understanding the Manager is actually spoiling the employee ! Hence instead of managing your personality, you are expected to do People management. Reading the above, I now take it that you have understood what personality management ought to be in the hallowed corporate world of shrewd thinkers

My take is that by actually doing Personality management, you can turn people, your way. Give him / her that satisfactory environment to work, they will enjoy working. Express the need, to take the bend on road to improvement , quickly. It will give you a willing person to stretch and grow on you.

Aren't people your most important investment..., they why don't we consider and groom them that way !

Lavish on appreciations

Appreciation means a favorable opinion of something

When you appreciate a person for an act that he / she performed that was to the good of you and the whole setup, you are actually encouraging this person to do more. You also convey the message that you are in favor of the same act.

However, there are some bosses who always want to withhold from appreciating an effort of the individual.My reasoning has been that by tabling some words of appreciation, the boss feels he will be considered too easy ! But then arent you actually preventing the team member from better performance. There are some people, who actually appreciate work but with a caveat. "Good Job. I am happy that your performance post our discussions have been considerably better". How in the world do you think that the recepient of this mail is going to be happy on this meant-to-be-appreciation?

As Managers be lavish in appreciating an effort of a person, it will only create the thirst in the employee to work better. The simple logic is that humans always thirst to do more and words of appreciation will just push the man to do better.

Poll process : Illiteracy runs and ruins it

For the past 13 years, i have been a participant in this poll process. However, till now i haven't had a chance to get a voters list, which shows my name or associated details correct. I have made several attempts to get it corrected and even today i have filed Form 8.

The real fact of the matter is that this complete process of Addition, Modification, Corrections are all being run by people who can hardly read well and write properly. There are officers made to sit at booths... but they remain there. The leg soldiers are agents of politicians or just simple people roaming around to make a days living. At least at the place i am, they can't figure out the names and its spellings. People who aren't good enough to read & write are being used by our Polling body to make such important activities. I can only wonder how then we the largest democracy in the world would have correct voters list and the cards that are factually right.

Do we in this country lack people who can write & read well. Is this a real necessity for us to be hiring people who are not educated enough to make these activities. I am not against any one or this is no attempt to discriminate, but what i would like to question is the fact that our Poll activity is being hijacked with such mis-directed proposals of using such people.

The election commission boasts of a website. Can it not be that the details of each person be captured online and then the verification of the details by done by election officers, which in any case they do from door to door. Why are we wasting so much of paper [ The officers insist on submitting 2 copies of Form 6 or 8 ].

Overall, i am sure that there is much more to be done to make elections a proper one. A good attempt is being made i am sure, much has changed since the days of TN Seshan and Jaagore is playing a very important role as well

Does God's work make you suffer

One of the best edifice in Bangalore city is the Vidhan Soudha. This houses the legislature of the state of Karnataka in India. The beautifully crafted building stands out and would attract anyone passing by to say the least. Atop the structure there is a sentence  etched out on stone, coloured with Gold and it reads thus Government Work is God's work

This sentence would actually give each of the citizens a re-assurance that people sitting inside this building who are otherwise called Govt servants would be doing work that literally HAS to be the best for the well being of all under their governance. You would find that Govt servants do only things that they think are the best but the difference is they do only things that are best to line their pockets and instead not the best for the areas under their governance.

God would never do something that is not the best for his people. He cares, considers and plans well and ahead for his people... however Governments ruling this state of Karnataka has always governed with nothings. The latest set of people in power have taken charge close to 6 months now and nothing much is yet to be seen. Bangalore City accounts for the largest tax paying people in this state, however walk around on the roads of this city you will know that they are not roads instead mud paths covered with some asphalt to make it look black ! Its supposed to be the Silicon city of India, well not so. Vehicles that roam this city hardly have space to even trudge along since the roads are all clogged with either no space or open pits dug up to lay some cable ages back, craters that stare at you from the earth's belly. The rulers haven't a thought in their mind to still allow more and more vehicles to be sold in this city. Auto rickshaws.. well they are a rule to themselves, who can park anywhere, drive anyhow, fill any liquid into their tanks to make the 3 wheeler run and then smoke the hell out of the people.

To make some change apparently Municipal Corporations were merged into the City Corporation, this exercise ran into couple of years and finally emerged ' Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike ' which means Greater Bangalore City Corporation !. The hitherto Municipal corporations at least ensured that Drainage's were maintained, streetlights were replaced on time, roads got some repairs... now that we have a greater corporation the unified entity has only added to the woes of people, no maintenance is at all happening, not at least in Mahadevpura Zone.

No point in showcasing these anomalies... but makes me wonder and ask Does God's work ever make you suffer !!

Traffic signals

Traffic signals are intended to do some controlling of traffic. It obviously is a replacement of the men who patrolled junctions controlling traffic, so that so automated sense did the control and prevent snarls.

Come to the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore connecting Old Madras Road to Hebbal Main and you would find signal towers that are designed to make matters easy... however the technical brains that made it or the brains that control it haven't used the capability... so these signal lights cause more confusion and make people go paranoid. They stay at Red for long time, even though there is no a single vehicle that is going to pass under it. Can you overstep him NO and how long would you wait !! well you have to. These signals also aren't programmed to suit time of the day or cater to the peak and no peak hours.

The police fraternity in Bangalore should use some thinking also to make people feel comfortable to follow traffic laws, instead of just making laws and not having any reasonable allowance to follow.

We 'the' people..

Our people are a great asset to the nation... so says all

During the last week or so, our people have been so emotionally outraged with the terror activities that all went out in candle marches and other protest march etc... vigil and vigil. The main slogan all had to shout out was ' Enough is Enough ' and bashing up the political class. The people feel that politicians have done all things wrong for the people to be in such a state

I would like to think that Polity is again made of men or women who prior to becoming the neta was a commoner. This man roamed around us and then he chose to get ambitious... we the people elected him to hold some position in his party first, then the roles in government. Well he used this selection to think that its his right by birth. Yes, its a sad thing, but we after all made him that Rogue that we now hate of him.

Lets reflect on our actions... that make these people the fall guys. Don't we let them prey on our sentiments, aren't we allowing them to divide us, aren't we the ones who pay them the extra buck around the table to do something 'special' for us, don't we call these hallowed humans to do those things which he is not supposed to ?

Think about it people... we made him / her this way and now we are wasting candles and reams of paper & air time trying to make a politician understand that he did a WRONG... when we actually forced him into it by bribing him to misuse his office.

Ask ourselves... or rather I would like to ask those who did these marches... ' Do you follow the basic traffic signal ? ' How many amongst us do follow rules setout by the law. When we cant we misuse or find ways to bend them and now that the lamb has transformed into an Elephant, we have had Enough of it !!!

So enough is enough... yes, its enough on all counts

BMTC and its plans

Ever since BMTC introduced Volvos, the demand for these buses have been going up. Hence the corporation has been introducing more and more such air-conditioned buses on the Bangalore roads

During the last month more such routes were announced to be operated and one such was 500D. It serves the Hebbal to Silk Board up and down. I was quite happy that for the first time this bus would adorn the ring road on this side of Bangalore too

However, i have been regularly watching and have also tried catching these buses but what i notice is that they are hardly available. The timetable given on the bus operator's site looks like its yet another scheme on paper... but they don't operate those many schedules

Enthusiasm

People get carried away with enthusiasm often i guess

Volvo buses in Bangalore

During the last week, i was trying out BMTC method to commute to office, giving my Logan some rest. In the quest to ensure that i get some freedom from driving and also give the environment some reduction in carbon... made it a point that i travel by the bus. additionally i had a saving of some 80 Rs per day from the non-use of petrol

I was so enthused in doing this, that i had to walk 15 min to the bus stand from Home and another 10 from the bus stand to office. Nevertheless i made it and quite enjoyed it. One of the evenings, while returning back home i decided to wait and then travel on the BMTC Volvo.... to my dismay and disappointment it never turned up and that meant that i waited for A bus which would give me atleast a seat, it wasn't to be.

My enthusiasm to travel in a Volvo and thus reduce traffic on the roads made me to do such a pathetic wait, which otherwise i would hesitate or rather not do.

Traffic Cops

Bangalore is a hi tech city and our traffic department has implemented some excellent systems to monitor traffic and its violations. The new BTrac project has opened up a centralized traffic management center. Cameras - still and video - send in photos & video of traffic at various places in the city. Now when all this is going on our people are still loathe to understand that one has to follow the rules laid out. We are in a hurry to cross the line as earliest as possible... well what can a camera do on-site if you jump the signal nothing, except that it gives some late realization hopefully to the law breaker via other modes

Here comes our age old style of policemen policing the circles and junctions. While i was waiting at the mercy of a Volvo bus at Hennur circle, the traffic policemen were on the ground supervising and also 'catching' violators.

One amongst the lot is overtly ambitious and flying around the huge circle which has high traffic concentration and that too in the evening. Others in the gang are only working on the towards Kothanur side. My man in contention i observe to be hyper active and enthused. Blowing his whistle and running to the violators, stopping some and others run away. I was impressed, he managed to even stop a BMTC mini bus because this guy jumped the signal. Next was a stylish Toyota Innova... A BPO driver zooooming on his Chevy Tavera. All of them get Caught and our constable directs the offenders to the 'Sahebru' [ the boss ]

While all this is going.. the signal towards Banaswadi clears from Hebbal side and quickly our constable switches on & off the controls, which means this signal now is going to turn RED. He knew that and started running towards the road side from the panel. Its Red and an Auto driver jumps as usual and there is our flying constable... straight into the Auto i thought but the hooligan runs away.. our constable does not think he lost, because he spits into the vehicle and that gives his ego a boost, wipes his mush clear of more saliva and then calls the auto driver classic abuses

Well.. all this going on and our Sahebru was by the side of the road buying a pirated CD i was quite shocked to see him pay the vendor

Rain

When it rains, it pours ! Some of our people don't like it that way, they infact even dislike rains for some reason

Now, think of a time when it actually should've rained and it didn't... what's going to happen. Our Electricity companies will start announcing Load shedding, Diesel prices would start climbing, our farmers will start seeing red. When all this is happening our friends, who we talked about earlier will start doing prayers for rains

On the one hand, we blame rains and on the other we wish that it rains quickly and heavily.... well that's man !

Rain brings with it some dirt cleaning, it also brings with it dirt.

Roads and alleys probably get cleared of dirt, since rain washes it off into the gutters. But often in Bangalore atleast that doesn't happen everywhere... most roads get clogged with water and slush gets ripped onto your vehicles. Finally when you are done travelling in a rainy day, get back and take a look at your Car hmm its going to look like one great dirty car