Is Independence Day relevant to our kids?

This year, India celebrated its 69th year of independence. As is the custom, the day was marked with flag hoisting celebrations and the singing of the national anthem, along with the sweet distribution among children. As adults, we were born into an independent India and have not experienced the effects of a ruling imperial power. For our kids, probably it is just another day from their history textbooks.

So, beyond the acts of symbolism, does the Independence Day have any relevance to our kids? Beyond writing essays on Independence Day and knowing the names of our freedom fighters, can the Indian struggle for freedom provide any learning for us and our kids in today’s world? Yes, I believe so.

Some of the traits and qualities of our freedom fighters can empower us and our kids in the modern times. Here are a few of them:

• Sacrifice for a better future: All our freedom fighters dreamed of a better future. They were not even sure if they would be part of free India, but that did not stop them from their efforts. As parents, are we making sacrifices, so that our kids can benefit from them tomorrow? Are we prepared to consume less today, so that our kids have enough in tomorrow’s world? Are we passing our financial debt to them, or providing them financial support to pursue their own dreams?
• Deep sense of patriotism: Needless to say, all our freedom fighters had undying love for their country. They were ready to die for the country, but would never do anything that would bring shame to the country. Let our patriotism not be just restricted to the days when India plays a cricket match with Pakistan. For our own personal benefit, let us not do anything which is harmful to our country. As our kids look at us as role models, let us empower them with the true sense of patriotism through our actions.
• The power of unity: Our freedom fighters came from different backgrounds, religions, and caste, yet they stood united for a common cause. The collective force of united teamwork brought the British rule to its knees. Let us propagate the benefits of teamwork to our children. Encourage them when they interact with people of other religions, language, or even nationalities. The future belongs to those who can be a good team player.
• Not afraid to stand up for rights: The key words here are “not afraid” or fearless. All our freedom fighters shared this quality. They were not afraid to voice their opinions. When your child disagrees with you over something, do you enforce your opinion upon them, or encourage them to speak their minds? Let us prepare our children to be fearless and to stand up for their rights. Encourage them to develop their own independent thinking. 
• Follow a dream: All our freedom fighters followed a dream of liberating India. They were not afraid of hardships or death. Many of them were imprisoned or died a torturous death. In spite of all the difficulties, they did not give up on their dream. Are we discouraging our children from following their dreams, just because it is a path of extreme hard work and difficulties? Let us encourage our kids to follow their dreams and aspirations.

As a parent, I believe it is our responsibility in shaping our children’s character and future. We can motivate our kids by being the right role models for them. I believe the essence of “Independence Day” will be achieved when our kids can develop an independent thinking that is free from all pressures and bias.

In the land of the Thalaiva and filter coffee!

Any thoughts of planning a family vacation in Chennai, and the first thoughts that pop up are about light cotton clothing and sun screen lotion for the hot Chennai weather. Contrary to our thoughts, it was a pleasant (which later became irritating!!) surprise to experience rains and overcast conditions, when we actually landed there in the month of October. Although this was the season for the north-east monsoon season, it became apparent that Chennai usually escapes the monsoon travails, looking at the absence of any drainage system whatsoever.

Coming from the completely concretized city of Mumbai, it was heartening to see the amount of open spaces and the greenery in this city. The god-like status that is bestowed on the current (or ex-) chief minister, Jayalalitha, was clear on our day of arrival, as it was the same day she was released on bail from the corruption charges and conviction. The traffic jams and her huge supporter base were proof of this divinely-bestowed status.

Contrary to other parts of the country, Diwali in Chennai is strictly an early morning ritual, with the only exception being that of the rising expat population in this city. Chennai-tes are orthodox and deeply religious, what with the numerous number of temples dotting the city. The Hanuman temple at Nanganelluru is a must visit with the 32 feet standing statue of the Mahabali (in black) and the impressive silk mundu neatly tied around this waist.

Being the Diwali season, it is mandatory to do some shopping, with the Pondy Bazaar the place to be in for some serious saree shopping. The unlimited thali at Woodlands restaurant is a veggie delight to savour, after the rigours of saree shopping. Another popular eating chain in Chennai is the Adyar Anandha Bhavan and Shree Krishna Sweets, both known for their sweets and confectionaries (especially the mouth-watering Mysurpa made from pure ghee).

A 3 hour drive from Chennai along the East coast road (ECR) lands you in the union territory of Puducherry (or Pondicherry, as the French would call it). For riders, this road is very picturesque and scenic and passes through coastal town of Mahabalipuram (or Mamallapuram). From all my travel experiences, Pondicherry is a very tourist-friendly (especially for cyclists), as all the tourist destinations are very close to each other. You can choose to take a walk along the Promenade beach (with all its statues and museums along the way) during the day, or even better, at night (when the road is closed to traffic, making it a pleasant walking zone). For French cuisine, there is Le Club, albeit it is a little on the higher cost bracket. For some quiet time, there is the Aurobindo ashram and Auroville with the pleasing architecture of the Matri-mandir (or the temple of mother). Coming back to Mahabalipuram, there is the iconic Shore temple, located right next to the beach (where we spotted some serious beach surfing).

Any visit to Chennai would be incomplete without going to Poes garden, home to superstar Rajnikant and Jayalalitha amma. Driving alongside the Marina beach, you can view the MGR memorial, the Chennai high court building, and the Madras university campus.

Needless, to say, you cannot come back from Chennai without savoring its filter coffee, sir! Escaping the harsh heat would definitely be a plus point, along with the travel memories, in our sojourn to the land of the Thalaiva.

Virtual working - A reality today

One glance at the list of Fortune 500 companies today shows one common trait: All of them are multinational companies, meaning companies located in different geographical locations. The need for any company to go multinational was driven by business objectives like higher revenue generation, potential for creating an overseas customer base, and hiring the best talent available worldwide.

As businesses began to expand, so did the operation cost of maintaining multiple offices. One of the key challenges facing any growing company today is on how to reduce the business cost and increase the profit margins. Virtual working (or remote working) is a reality today for many companies, as it helps them reduce operating costs and at the same time, not compromise on employee satisfaction. It’s a win-win deal for both the company and employees, who benefit from an improved work-life balance.

So what are the factors, which are making virtual working a reality today and for tomorrow?

• The demise of the 9-5 schedule: With companies demanding employee commitment beyond the 9-5 fixed schedule, employees became accustomed and comfortable with the use of technology including mobile phones, laptops, and conference calls outside of the office premises. As employees are in constant connect with their work, flexible work timings became the norm. Hence, when the same employees are asked to work virtually, it is not an impossible change or adjustment, compared to an employee used to a strict 9-5 schedule.
• Costly and time-consuming recruitment process: Any HR person would agree that the cost of retaining an employee is lower than recruiting one. According to Talent Puzzle, the average number of days required to bring aboard a new recruit is 54 days. For any business, this translates to missed business opportunities, extra work load on existing team players, and the cost and probability of repeating the recruitment procedure (in case the new recruit does not join the company). Additionally, the company has a limited pool of talent to choose from, when the recruitment is bound to a geography location. On the other hand, for remote companies (in the case of Customer.io), the company reportedly had a larger (and better) pool of talent to choose from when they went remote. Virtual working helps companies to tap into a larger pool of extremely talented people, which in turn, would make the recruitment process much shorter.
• Technology: Virtual working would not be a reality today without the Internet and advanced collaboration tools. In the Information age, rapid advancements in the way we store and share information (using version control storage systems and knowledge sharing tools) and communication tools (like Google Hangout, Skype, and WebEx) have definitely enabled virtual working. Advancements in the cloud computing technology will reducing hardware costs for information companies, and also benefit virtual workers.
• Employee cost: On an average, allocating a desk space to an employee along with the transportation expenses can cost an employer $2000 to $5000 annually. These costs can be saved for a virtual employee. With increasing office rents and cost of living in major cities, employees working from a remote location save more money because of lower cost of living and have more time for their families and interests because of zero travelling.

So, with virtual working becoming a reality, does it mean that there won’t be any offices in the future? Not likely. Companies will probably shift to smaller offices, with a majority of employees working from home. It is equally likely that smaller companies with less than 20 employees, may opt for complete virtual working. 

How our homes have evolved

As we know, every human being needs food, clothing, and shelter, which are the basic necessities of life. This article is all about how shelter or our homes has evolved since the earliest man started living in the caves, and their importance in the future.

From a modest beginning of sheltering man from the vagaries of outside weather, our homes have evolved substantially over the last few centuries to attain a significant level of importance in our lives. In the agricultural age, man started acquiring land for farming activities and he would have his small house in the same land, so that he could rest and sleep the night after a hard day in the farms. As man became more affluent and wealthy, he acquired larger tracts of land and built houses according to his rich tastes and importance. In the industrial age, men started moving to cities and acquired and built houses with a neighborhood. Social calls and invitations became common as people started inviting each other to their homes. In ancient India, joint families became common because of large ancestral homes where the entire family stayed and bonded together. In the electronic age, our homes provided us entertainment and comfort through the widespread use of televisions, radios, refrigerator, and washing machines. As families became nuclear, our houses provided us the private space to relax and pursue our individual interests. Through the widespread use of home phones, we can talk to and be touch with family, friends, and distant relatives, right from the comfort of our homes.

In the modern information age (or Internet) age, our homes are at the center of our existence. From ordering our groceries, entertaining ourselves with the television and the computer, and pursuing individual interests like gardening, playing a guitar, and home decorations, our home is rightly where our heart (and all the action) is. With home schooling and virtual working (from home) on the constant rise, current homes provide a comfortable and safe environment to realize our potential. While women still dominate the home maker space, today’s man does not hesitate to stay at home to either be a stay-at-home dad or to convert his home space into an office. This is also a convenient trend among nuclear families, where parents do not have the support system for their children in their absence.

An increasing number of companies are willing to allow their employees to work from their homes, as this saves them the business cost of providing office space. With regards to home schooling, the current education system is increasingly unable to provide quality education to all students. With home schooling and distant education, students can learn from the comforts of their home at their own pace, and at the same time, not compromise on their academic future.

With advances in technology providing us smart, intelligent, and green homes, are future homes going to be self-sufficient in providing us much more than shelter, education, workplace, and entertainment? Going by the huge improvements, it sure looks likely.

Here’s looking forward to making our homes our own complete hangout for everything.

Why a healthy breakfast is vital

For a healthy body and mind, the food that we consume daily plays a very important role. Although the number of calories required can vary between individuals depending upon their age, occupation, and environment, a proper breakfast consisting of a balanced diet ensures that you have sufficient energy to meet the demands of the entire day.

The breakfast is probably the most important meal of day, as it provides our body with the required energy after 8-12 hours of fasting, depending on our sleep patterns. For growing children, having a proper breakfast with a balanced mix of proteins, vitamins, and fibres is an important building block in their physical and mental development. In fact, research studies have proved that a proper breakfast can increase the metabolism rate in our body, and enable it to burn calories and maintain body weight. On the other hand, skipping or eating an insufficient breakfast can slow down our metabolism rate and can increase our body weight in the long run. A proper breakfast provides our body with a good quantity of nutrients, sufficient for the first half of day, and ensures that we do not crave for any late-morning meals before lunch time. This not only saves time spent in binge eating, but also prevents long-term weight gains because of our sedentary lifestyle.

Parents face a daily challenge of providing a proper breakfast meal for their school-going chid, during the morning rush hour. In most cases, they send the child to school after drinking a glass of milk. Unfortunately, a glass of milk cannot provide the same benefits as a proper balanced meal. In India, there is no standard breakfast menu, as each part of India has its own specialities. A typical Indian breakfast can consists of items varying from idli, dosa, chapatti, puri, and egg fry to local delicacies like poha, upma, and paratha. Luckily, due to globalization, Indians have also taken to breakfast items from across the world, including corn flakes, whole grain bread (for carbohydrates), fruits, egg varieties, cheese, salads (for proteins), and cereals. Another popular addition to the Indian breakfast are packaged fruit juices, which provide valuable nutrients including fibres and vitamins to our bodies.

Just as the items we eat for lunch vary from day to day, we can vary our breakfast items for each day of the week. This ensures that our bodies are provided a healthy balance of all nutrients available in each food. As children learn eating habits from their parents, we can thus ensure that they also follow a healthy breakfast routine. As a rule, it is advisable to consume our breakfast within 2 hours of waking up each morning. In addition to having a proper breakfast, it is also important to spend sufficient time in consuming and digesting our breakfast. A hastily eaten breakfast can negate the benefits of the morning meal.

While over-eating any meal (including breakfast) should be avoided, a well eaten and digested breakfast always ensures that our children eat less junk food and shows them the value of good eating habits. 

My personal experiences with a credit card

This blog is not a general post on the pitfalls of using a credit card, but rather my personal experiences (highs and not-so-highs) with the credit card.

I got my first Standard Chartered credit card 19 years back, on my second job. Right, credit cards have been around for so long. 19 years of credit card experience!! That should make me a pro in handing out any advice regarding credit cards, right? So, here are some of my do’s and do not’s based on my personal experiences.

Let’s start with the do not’s. Do not:

• Get trapped in the minimum revolving balance cycle: You may have read this many times, but this is the basic golden rule of using a credit card. You completely lose the benefit of interest-free period (52 to 60 days depending on the card) if you have any outstanding (it could be 100/- for that matter). The way it squeezes you out is suppose you have an outstanding amount of 100/- from the previous cycle. In the current cycle, you decide to go on a shopping splurge and spend let’s say, 5000/-, which you plan to pay back when the bill comes, as you have got a raise and are expecting extra cash in your bank account. So you would be thinking of paying 5000/- + 100/- + the interest on the 100/-, right? Wrong, you will be paying 5000/- + 100/- + the interest on 5100/-. This is where the credit card company benefits and makes money from you. Now, imagine when that 100/- becomes 1000/-, and you find yourself in the debt trap. On my first card, I had run up debts to around 30,000/-, which was way above my monthly salary then.
• Use the credit card in an ATM: Do not use credit cards to withdraw cash from an ATM. In the case of cash withdrawals, there is no interest-free period, plus banks charge you a cash withdrawal charge and an interest, which makes cash withdrawal more expensive than a personal loan. There is an alternative, which I have opted for, in times when I have needed small amounts of cash. I would only suggest this if you need small advances of cash (25K to 50K), and you have a decent credit limit on your card. Credit card companies offer you cash-on-call, using which you can take a loan, with the loan amount deducted from your credit limit. You can paid back the loan on a monthly basis with your regular credit card payment. The advantage is the interest rate is around 1% per month (depending on the bank). So, for a loan of 50K and a tenure of 12 months, you will end up paying back 54K (including interest), which makes it cheaper than using credit cards in the ATM or taking a personal loan.
• Buy an army of credit cards: I am comfortable using 3 credit cards (1 master and 2 visa) cards. The number of credit cards you should have really depends on how frequently you use them. There is no point having multiple credit cards, if you use any of them occasionally. Many banks withdraw the issued credit card, when they find that you are hardly using them.
• Pay an annual fee: There is a common complaint among users, that companies are charging an annual fee or joining fee, even after committing otherwise. In instances when I have been charged any such fee, I simply call their 24-hour helpline and request them to withdraw the same. It has worked almost every time, as no company likes to lose a customer.
• Use a credit card when overseas: As a precaution, you should carry a credit card when travelling overseas, but use it only in an emergency. You will be reluctant to carrying a lot of foreign currency, so a better option is to use a forex card, which you can get from your savings bank, or any other bank. For international transactions, credit card companies charge their own conversion fees. Additionally, the chances of credit card fraud are higher when used overseas.

So, enough of the do-not’s with the credit card. Let’s now look at the dos with a credit card and how we can use it as an effective tool. Do:

•  Plan your monthly usage: To get the most benefit, I would say the best time to use the credit card is immediately after the card statement date. In my case, the statement date for each of my credit cards is 15^th of every month. So, all my purchases and usage would be from 15^th to 25^th (maximum) of every month. For the rest of the month, I religiously stick to using my debit card.
• Make your payments on time: As a rule, I have only opted for credit cards, which offers the most convenient mode of repayment. So, no repayments by cheque and drop-boxes for me. Most credit card companies enable you to make repayments through online net banking, or by linking payments only if you have a bank account with the same company. This is important, as credit card companies are known to charge you hefty penalties for late or missed payments.
• Pay your utility bills using credit cards: For the past few years, I have been using credit card to register and pay for my utilities including electricity, telephone, and gas bills. You can add up to 3 utilities with each credit card, which makes the required monthly payments automatically every month. The advantage is you do not need to remember to pay your bills on time every month; the card does it for you automatically and also on time.
• Use for Internet transactions: In this Internet age, you must be comfortable using your credit card online, despite the chances of fraud. I have used my credit card to book train and flight tickets, and also to pay insurance premiums. I guess it is a matter of trust that you develop with sites over years after making payments to them using your credit card.
• Utilize your reward points: As a rule, opt for a credit card that gives you more reward points for every transaction. Also, remember to redeem these reward points after you have accumulated a sizeable number. In several cases, I have opted to use my credit card instead of debit card for high value purchases, simply for the sake of getting reward points.

In today’s times, a credit card with a decent limit can help you in difficult economic times. You can treat it as a friend, only if you can take care of avoiding the pitfalls.

The futility of honking

I think the car horn is the most useless and outdated part of auto technology. Over the years, we have seen technology in our new cars improve to make car driving easier and comfortable, easy to maintain with affordable spare parts, increased mileage and safety. But, if there is one thing which has not changed in a car, guess what? Yes, I would say it is the horn. Seriously, it has more become louder and easier to horn, that’s it. Would you call that as improvements? No, I wouldn't.

I would prefer if the technology can be improved to direct our honking at the object for which it is meant to be. Currently, everybody can hear it, be it the car behind, the car on the opposite lane, and even the pedestrians walking on the side lane. So, if everybody can hear it, it is supposed to be meant for everybody, is it? And hence, everybody can ignore it, including the object that it is meant for. In this scenario, how does anyone differentiate between the honking meant for them and the general honking? I mean seriously, if I walk into a room full of people, and shout out, “Pomm Pomm,” the entire crowd would look at me with insane eyes, but no one would be able to fathom who I was crying out for. But on our roads, all acts of insanity are ignored or forgotten!!

The other problem is that of compulsive honking. The horn to announce that I am on the road, the horns 3 seconds after the signal turns green, and the horn when speeding on a green signal. Imagine the noise level if every driver decide to announce themselves at the same time. Congrats, you have arrived in life by driving your first car or bike, but seriously, who cares? Intelligent signals are a thing of the future, but in India, motorists already think the signal to be smart and not turn red before they cross. Sorry, guys, the traffic signal in India is still primitive, and no amount of honking will influence its colours. In Mumbai, I really do not have to look when the red signal turns green. I just have to wait when the cars behind me start honking!! The most irritating is the honking in the parking lots in malls. Are you trying to participate in an F1 in the parking circuit?

Honking is such a subconscious or involuntary act. It does not take any brain power, unlike let’s say, when to change the gears or apply the brake. It does not take any time or effort, nor does it cost you anything. Hence, the regularity of honking among drivers.

I think the problem of honking will exist as long as there is a human being behind the wheels. The future when driverless cars become popular and are accepted would be when we see the horn as a thing of the past in our vehicles. I may be forthright, but you must agree that honks are currently the dumbest component of the vehicle. I would love to see horns getting intelligent and not remain just a noise machine. How about horns that can be focussed on the target object? In this case, only the target object hears the horn, and not anyone else. Drivers would be in a better state to respond, when they know they are the target. Compulsive honking would also be reduced, as the honkers have to pick the target, and not just honk randomly. As this cannot be done subconsciously, it requires the honker to be alert, and this would reduce the level of honking.

But until then, we will have to put up with the menace of honking, whenever we step out on the roads, either as a pedestrian or as a driver.