I miss my grandfather... a lot! Everything in India that I care about revolves around him. I wish I had moved back earlier to spend more time with him... Today is Ganesh Chaturthi and I miss him.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
A Complaint
What I did two weeks back -
In Chennai, India where I am currently living, we keep garbage outside our house. A corporation employee, lets call him Mr. X, comes on a tricycle and collects the garbage every morning and throws it in the bigger thrash bins. Mr. X has a bad habit, every time he sees one small extra bag, he starts asking for more money. This happened 2-3 mornings. One morning he did the same, and my father-in-law had a fight with him. Mr. X then decided not to pick garbage from our house and he did not pick up for 3-4 days.
Then one day my mother-in-law dumped garbage in the boot of the car and took it to nearer trash bins and dumped it there. I was uncomfortable with that. I decided to call the Chennai Corporation office and log a complaint against Mr. X. So I went to http://www.chennaicorporation.gov.in/ and called Asst. Commissioner's office. They gave me another no. - Health Department's and asked me to call there. I called up Health Department and they asked me to call Solid Waste Management. I then called Solid Waste Management, they asked me my address and located that we reside in Zone 9. So then they gave me Zonal 9 Officer's number and asked me to call there. Zonal Officer did not reply my call, so I call back Solid Waste Management and then they give my Asst. Zonal Officer's number. At last some one answered my call and took my complaint and told me that someone will collect the garbage that day and he also mentioned that they would warn Mr. X and if he continues to ask money they will fire him. I was happy that I could accomplish this. But then was not sure if anyone would really come to collect the garbage.
I told about this to my father-in-law - his reaction - "you should have asked me before doing this. The system here is not of complaints. I had spoken to our neighbor and told him to make Mr. X understand. Now he will not pick our garbage at all. They system here is to talk nicely and give some extra cash and get the work done." And I was like what the hell did I do wrong?? I decided not to interfere in any matter hence forth - why? because if what my father-in-law said was true, then it will affect everyone in house. If I am the only one affected, I can take care of it. But no, not everyone should be affected with my actions. So, I spent some time cursing myself. The garbage was also not collected that day.
But next day morning, I get a call at 8 am. Some one starts speaking in Tamil and I say "Wrong number" and hung up knowing later that the call was from Corporation. After 5 mins, there are two men at our door saying -"Did you complain about garbage?" One of them was an officer and the other one was garbage collector. Mr Officer was very furious that I hung up on him. The garbage was taken that day and every following day till today. Mr. X never asked for more money till date.
I am happy that I logged that complaint and also satisfied that the Chennai Corporation took it seriously and helped us. But I am not sure if I will do this again. One thing I wanted to know before making the call was, does the corporation even listens to the complaints - and I got my answer. It might not be true for everyone, may be just a matter of luck?
In Chennai, India where I am currently living, we keep garbage outside our house. A corporation employee, lets call him Mr. X, comes on a tricycle and collects the garbage every morning and throws it in the bigger thrash bins. Mr. X has a bad habit, every time he sees one small extra bag, he starts asking for more money. This happened 2-3 mornings. One morning he did the same, and my father-in-law had a fight with him. Mr. X then decided not to pick garbage from our house and he did not pick up for 3-4 days.
Then one day my mother-in-law dumped garbage in the boot of the car and took it to nearer trash bins and dumped it there. I was uncomfortable with that. I decided to call the Chennai Corporation office and log a complaint against Mr. X. So I went to http://www.chennaicorporation.gov.in/ and called Asst. Commissioner's office. They gave me another no. - Health Department's and asked me to call there. I called up Health Department and they asked me to call Solid Waste Management. I then called Solid Waste Management, they asked me my address and located that we reside in Zone 9. So then they gave me Zonal 9 Officer's number and asked me to call there. Zonal Officer did not reply my call, so I call back Solid Waste Management and then they give my Asst. Zonal Officer's number. At last some one answered my call and took my complaint and told me that someone will collect the garbage that day and he also mentioned that they would warn Mr. X and if he continues to ask money they will fire him. I was happy that I could accomplish this. But then was not sure if anyone would really come to collect the garbage.
I told about this to my father-in-law - his reaction - "you should have asked me before doing this. The system here is not of complaints. I had spoken to our neighbor and told him to make Mr. X understand. Now he will not pick our garbage at all. They system here is to talk nicely and give some extra cash and get the work done." And I was like what the hell did I do wrong?? I decided not to interfere in any matter hence forth - why? because if what my father-in-law said was true, then it will affect everyone in house. If I am the only one affected, I can take care of it. But no, not everyone should be affected with my actions. So, I spent some time cursing myself. The garbage was also not collected that day.
But next day morning, I get a call at 8 am. Some one starts speaking in Tamil and I say "Wrong number" and hung up knowing later that the call was from Corporation. After 5 mins, there are two men at our door saying -"Did you complain about garbage?" One of them was an officer and the other one was garbage collector. Mr Officer was very furious that I hung up on him. The garbage was taken that day and every following day till today. Mr. X never asked for more money till date.
I am happy that I logged that complaint and also satisfied that the Chennai Corporation took it seriously and helped us. But I am not sure if I will do this again. One thing I wanted to know before making the call was, does the corporation even listens to the complaints - and I got my answer. It might not be true for everyone, may be just a matter of luck?
Friday, February 8, 2013
I am at my parent's place, the house I grew up in, after almost 1.5 years. What I miss the most in this house today is my grandfather whom we called Baba. In the first 2-3 days, I kept hearing his voice at random times. It was like he is still here with us, he is still calling everyone by names, still getting irritated with things not in right place. I am here in this house for the first time when he is not around.
I generally control my emotions, don't let of the tears in front of others. But today, I missed him so much. It is friday and every friday evening we do aarti of Lord Balaji in our office. He called each one of us for the aarti every friday while we were at home and we sang the aarti together. I could not control myself and started crying during the aarti.
We spent so much time with Baba doing so many different things like solving crosswords, repairing electronics, just reading newspapers together. He took us to almost all the hydro-electric dams in the area, to some temples and also to lakes where migratory birds stopped during their transit. When I started my South America trip, I had thought about how I will show my pictures and stories to Baba who was so curious about my life in US. He used to keep an Atlas with him and asked me where I travelled and how I flew from one place to other. I was so excited to share my stories with him, but I can't even show a single picture to him now.
He spoke to most of us, his grandchildren, in English. He used to be so happy and excited whenever any of his daughters or grandchildren or great grandchildren visited him. He gave so much time to each one of us and we all made sure that we spent time with him. He wrote letters to most of us when telephone communication was not such a privilege as it is now. He used his typewriter to write the letters because his hand was not steady enough to write. We always replied him in letters and he stored all the letters so well in a file.
It has been 3 months since he passed away. I was in Peru, in the amazon jungle the night he passed away. On the previous night, I saw a star near the full moon - in marathi it is called as "Yuti". It reminded me of him, he used to call us and tell us about such "yutis" and asked us to see them. There are so many tiny tiny things that remind me of him. Not one day has passed that I have not thought about him.
I miss him very much, and I wish to hear him again.
I generally control my emotions, don't let of the tears in front of others. But today, I missed him so much. It is friday and every friday evening we do aarti of Lord Balaji in our office. He called each one of us for the aarti every friday while we were at home and we sang the aarti together. I could not control myself and started crying during the aarti.
We spent so much time with Baba doing so many different things like solving crosswords, repairing electronics, just reading newspapers together. He took us to almost all the hydro-electric dams in the area, to some temples and also to lakes where migratory birds stopped during their transit. When I started my South America trip, I had thought about how I will show my pictures and stories to Baba who was so curious about my life in US. He used to keep an Atlas with him and asked me where I travelled and how I flew from one place to other. I was so excited to share my stories with him, but I can't even show a single picture to him now.
He spoke to most of us, his grandchildren, in English. He used to be so happy and excited whenever any of his daughters or grandchildren or great grandchildren visited him. He gave so much time to each one of us and we all made sure that we spent time with him. He wrote letters to most of us when telephone communication was not such a privilege as it is now. He used his typewriter to write the letters because his hand was not steady enough to write. We always replied him in letters and he stored all the letters so well in a file.
It has been 3 months since he passed away. I was in Peru, in the amazon jungle the night he passed away. On the previous night, I saw a star near the full moon - in marathi it is called as "Yuti". It reminded me of him, he used to call us and tell us about such "yutis" and asked us to see them. There are so many tiny tiny things that remind me of him. Not one day has passed that I have not thought about him.
I miss him very much, and I wish to hear him again.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Completion of a new year resolution
Last year, i.e. on Jan 1st 2012, I made a resolution of spending at least 30 days in South America in 2012 and I wrote a post about the resolution. I always wanted to go to South America and backpack there. I am happy to say that I completed my resolution and spent 80 days in South America. How does it feel? Great, insightful, peaceful, content, happy.
We visited 4 countries - Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The original plan included Brazil and we also planned to go to Brazil until January 2013, but we canceled it after not getting a visa appointment in Buenos Aires. We have another reason to visit SA again for Brazil, Chile and Venezuela and may be also Ecuador again. Most of our inter city trips were by bus except in Argentina were we took flights. We tried to eat at local restaurants wherever we found vegetarian food. We took local buses, trains, subways for intracity travel. We tried to speak spanish with the locals and used a lot of hand gestures :-). We stayed in hostels until they were clean. But unclean hostels really put us off and we stayed at hotels for that matter. Life was good there. We walked so much everyday - more than 10 kms a day. It was tiring but it was fun. We spent endless hours watching people and wildlife and birds spending their day. Just seeing life pass without thinking about work and other things for 80 days makes you realize what are we really doing when we try to fetch more material things in life like a bigger house, a nicer car or a show off dress.
If you would ask me would I go on a trip like this again? My answer would be yes - a better prepared this time. I would spend some time studying the language before making the trip, I will take a spices box with me - food without spices everyday is not motivating.
What did I get from this trip - Just content - heartfelt content.
We visited 4 countries - Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The original plan included Brazil and we also planned to go to Brazil until January 2013, but we canceled it after not getting a visa appointment in Buenos Aires. We have another reason to visit SA again for Brazil, Chile and Venezuela and may be also Ecuador again. Most of our inter city trips were by bus except in Argentina were we took flights. We tried to eat at local restaurants wherever we found vegetarian food. We took local buses, trains, subways for intracity travel. We tried to speak spanish with the locals and used a lot of hand gestures :-). We stayed in hostels until they were clean. But unclean hostels really put us off and we stayed at hotels for that matter. Life was good there. We walked so much everyday - more than 10 kms a day. It was tiring but it was fun. We spent endless hours watching people and wildlife and birds spending their day. Just seeing life pass without thinking about work and other things for 80 days makes you realize what are we really doing when we try to fetch more material things in life like a bigger house, a nicer car or a show off dress.
If you would ask me would I go on a trip like this again? My answer would be yes - a better prepared this time. I would spend some time studying the language before making the trip, I will take a spices box with me - food without spices everyday is not motivating.
What did I get from this trip - Just content - heartfelt content.
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