The Great Escape

Sounds like the “The Great Train Robbery”, eh ?

No, it is just the name of the Water Theme Park that my family visited yesterday. We took a day off to actualise the dream of getting to a water park in this summer time, and we made it finally ! Though we have been to Essel World before, it has been quite a long while.

After studying the options available, we chose The Great Escape, thinking that it sounded and looked cool from the website info’ provided. Visit “The Great Escape” and take a look for yourself !

From the location map on the site, I “intelligently” estimated that it would take around 1:30 hours to reach. But I underestimated the intelligence of two sets of folks - drivers in general, and direction-givers. The former community generally does not believe in taking advice from the car owners, or even studying the printout of the map provided. They think that they know Mumbai and its environs far better than the firangs who are inhabiting Mumbai. So, why take directions ? The latter set of “direction-givers” on the road, starting from security guards, to auto drivers, to general folks on the road who are minding their own business, take relish in displaying their “grand” knowledge of how to reach anywhere in Mumbai and its neighbourhood. They assume that anyway the drivers or the owners don’t know the way around, and so what is wrong in giving what could possibly be the right directions in their minds ?!

While I “discussed” the map with my driver for sure, he seemed to be disinterested. I mentioned some of the words from the map, like “Ghodbunder”, “Dahisar Checknaka”, et al. He beamed and said he knew the route ! We started off at 8:45 AM, and on the way happened to see the advertisement of “Suraj Water Park” in the newspaper supplement (“Suraj Water Park Thane” ). As were discussing, the driver overheard us and exclaimed that he knew that Park. We just ignored and continued our journey.

Well, we should have considered his assertion more vigourously. On the Western Expressway leading to Ahmedabad, my driver turned off at the Thane - Ghodbunder Road, towards Thane. I should have challenged him, but reaction times, so to say, were poor. We had some scenic travel along this road, which curves around hilly areas, and then finally landed up at Suraj Water Park in Thane ! Was it a surprise ?

However, as astute consumers and decision makers of repute, we instructed the driver to continue the journey towards Parol, via the Parol - Bhiwandi Road, again very intelligently “looking” at the map printout from the The Great Escape website. That was a blunder which would eventually cost us another 1:15 hours of stupid travel and quite a bit of heart-burn !

It was very obvious that the driver did not know the route. He must have checked with 6 different “direction-givers” enroute, after that point - mostly vague directions hinting at the possible right way to Parol. From Thane, we must have travelled over 40 Kms through rough terrain, villages, no-man’s land, and all kinds of roads, we almost lost hope of finding The Great Escape. It was 11:20 AM, by the time we saw an innocuous sign board not facing us - my wife asked the driver to slow down, we turned our faces and there, at last, was what we came for. We came along the wrong route, and that’s why I surmise that even the sign boards were pointing in the wrong direction of the travellers ! Amazing, isn’t it ? This place is located in what appeared to be the rural interiors of the Maharashtra State - very dry, hot location in poor surroundings with brick kilns lining the road.

However, finally we arrived, and the water park did exist !

This park does not compare favourably with Essel Water Kingdom. We noticed some safety issues in the water slides. This park also does not have a lot to spend time on - apart from the wave pool, some water slides, and pools where one can laze around. It does not have a “lazy pool” for instance, or some of the more complex slides. The entry rates included the food charges, and most people seemed to be attracted to the food - which was decent.

Clearly, there is a safety issue at The Great Escape, when the illiterate folks in charge of operating the slide, send down people without ensuring that the previous person had exited the slide. This is very dangerous, and I made it a point to seek out and complain to the Admin Manager and the Operations Manager - they took the feedback seriously and called the guys doing such mistakes down, and apologized to me ! I thought it should be the responsibility of the customers to inform the administration of such major safety problems - they might just be thinking that everything is fine till such time that a major incident happened.

Well, nothing to write further - we spent around 3.5 hours and left the park. The attendant at the exit gate was surprised to see us leaving at 3 PM, much earlier than the closing time of 6 PM.

I was pleased to discover that we took exactly 1:30 hours to reach back home, in line with my original estimate ! It goes without saying that we took the WE Highway back ! So, basic intelligence does sometime appear to work !!!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan
19th April 2008
Mumbai

Diwali

It is that time of the year, again !

People all over India celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights, over the past couple of days. While people appeared to be cheerful, and billions of text messages were exchanged, I sensed something different this time around. i had expected to see much more exuberance of the rational type ofcourse, since the stock market has done very well, and the real estate prices in Mumbai showed no signs of abating. People have to spend money, you see, and one of the best ways is to splurge it on the family !

To check out the feelings of others, I spoke to couple of friends in Bangalore and Chennai. They confirmed what I thought was different this time - it indeed was a “low key” Diwali. Not much noise, nor crowds. It was surprising !

In fact, when I went down with family to burst crackers during the late evening, it was quiet. We were only with just another family in the smoky celebrations which use sparklers, flower pots, jamin chakra, and atom bombs. We also resorted to rocket attacks, but there were few corresponding response from neighbouring apartment blocks. That used to be the case - tit for tat type almost - previously. Further, there was no action on the streets - there used to be gangs of youngsters who use the powerful multi-blast crackers, which go on for a few minutes non-stop, during which you can’t even talk. That was clearly missing, though I saw some serious action during the late hours of Friday.

We went to visit my relatives in South Mumbai, and that was a long ride from where we live. It took just about an hour - the traffic was thin, and on the day of the Diwali, there was hardly any crowds of people who usually mill around mithai shops and burst crackers on the road. The heavy regulation on crackers must be playing a role in peoples’ minds, I thought, but that was wrong. The cracker sound did catch up in the wee hours of Friday, sometimes non-stop, but I still could not get over the feeling that the celebrations were not in tune with the economic mood of the city.

Nevertheless, it was a Diwali enlightened by people who sent lots of messages all around. It was nice to see customised messages and pictorial ones. Much time was devoted to sending out SMSs to the people on one’s phonebook, and then replying to folks who had managed to send out the messages earlier thanking and reciprocating their wishes !

Ofcourse, the one thing that never goes out of style is the variety of sweets that one can enjoy during Diwali. We got an excellent collection from Hyper City, and supplemented the same with some additional mithais from elsewhere. It was just fabulous and delicious, to say the least.

Apart from this, one also gets new dresses !

Enjoy the rest of Diwali and the Long Weekend folks !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
10th November 2007
Mumbai

Singapore to Macau

I passed through Singapore earlier this week on my way to Macau for a company event.

Singapore still remains the same - almost. The construction of casinos appeared to be in full swing, and there was an eyesore of a ferris wheel modelled after the “London Eye”. I don’t understand why Singapore needs to copy other countries’ innovations. It has enough of its own despite being of small size. Nevertheless, it appears to believe some of its future growth could come from entertainment targeted at specific audiences rather than just leisure travel.

The other thing that has changed in Singapore is the rapid increase in real estate prices, driven by the anticipated casino-related boom by 2009, and invasion by foreigners who increasingly seem to consider Singapore as safe haven. That consideration is more or less true in my opinion. Singapore qualifies to be the Switzerland of Asia despite the lack of scenery, just in terms of its financial status and infrastructure.

I had to travel by the MRT system to reach my condominium located at a suburb, and I noticed that the system and stations are kept extremely neat, there is just no let up on the focus on cleanliness and efficiency. There were more trains available - the waiting time seems to have reduced considerably. All these observations come from a person who rarely ever used the MRT in the past except for some joy rides around the city !

I met with several old colleagues, but more about that in a separate blog post with pics, etc.,

At Macau, a city dedicated entirely to the entertainment industry, I stayed at the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the latest hotel to adorn the city (opened less than a month ago). It is a huge hotel, with cavernous gambling halls and convention/exhibition centres. I got tired just by walking around and through the casino tables to reach the meeting rooms ! Contrary to popular perceptions on the grandeur of the hotel, I was not impressed.

One thing - the hotel is essentially a casino rather than a resort. The only thing I enjoyed was the gondola ride on the fake Venice-looking waters maneuvred by Italians. Again, I will publish the photos separately. Sorry !

I was shocked to see the crowds all through the day busily gambling - some looked very young. I was further shocked when I came down for breakfast at 7:45 AM and still saw crowds at that early hour. Unbelievable - looks like a lot of people have been seduced enough to lose their hard-earned money !

I dread to imagine what would happen in Singapore. It could not be any different. Though Singapore proclaimed that there would be no sleaze in its casinos, I did not find sleaze in this Macau Resort as well. May be it is new, but the focus appears to be on gambling and the environment rather than on the James Bond like scenes with scantily clad women hovering around the black jack tables. So if Singapore Casinos’ USP is “gambling with no sleaze and resort environment for families coming along with their gambler father or mother”, that kind of environment has already been created in Macau.

Well, that is market competition and dynamics. The same builders are also constructing Singapore’s first casino. I am against casinos in general, and used to sport a sticker “casiNO !” in my car’s back windshield during the campaign in Singapore. Why destroy good people, tempt them into spending money on what is non-essential for family happiness ?

You can expect more posts on this trip soon !

Have a good weekend,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
6th October 2007

CAMP : Macau Special Administrative Region of Peoples’ Republic of China !

Maria Arbatova and Indian Husbands

It was funny reading the news reports that “The import of eligible bachelors from India is my big geopolitical idea” attributed to Maria Arbatova, a prominent television presenter and a leading Russian feminist author. India can be of help now that Russia has come to grips with its formidable demographic problem, she said.

She went on to say that Indians make the best husbands for Russian women as they are “more open” and share an emotional relationship with family.

The news coverage can be read at “Express India”

Maria Arbatova has been a non-conformist from a very young age, and I am not surprised to see her views. However, I disagree that Indian Husbands have unique advantage in familial bonding. I have met a variety of nationalities, especially during my stay at Singapore, and I beg to disagree with Maria’s views. At the end of the day, it is a very individual and personal choice. She seems to have made a choice now with an Indian partner, but that is after two failed partnerships. She might have seen the difference now, though !

In any case, it would be interesting to read her website and articles, see “Maria Arbatova”

Russian population is shrinking every day with a high death rate caused by unhealthy lifestyles - alcoholism compounded by suicide, and a very low birth rate. It is no wonder they are looking for “external” solutions. However, I also happened to read that Japan is planning to produce highly intelligent robots (they are already world leaders) which would take the place of its ageing population. It would be soon, may be in the next 25 years, when one would be greeted by an Immigration Robot at the Narita International Airport in Tokyo !

Have a wonderful week ahead,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
16 September 2007
Mumbai

Matheran Visit

For the past one year, many of my friends and colleagues have asked me whether I have visited places around Mumbai, especially Matheran Hill Station.

I never found time to do so all this while. Suddenly we decided to go to Matheran on the 19th of August, Sunday. This was the last weekend before my daughter left for an overseas education programme, so we thought let us do something different and enjoyable.

We left around 8 AM, I was always given to understand it would take not more than 2.5 hours to reach Matheran. However, the driver took a longish route through Kalyan et al, and we finally could reach only around 12 Noon. We climbed through a narrow ghat type of road, and I was a little worried as my usually cautious driver seemed to be driving with abandon. We asked him to go a bit slow, though the traffic was negligible.

We saw a beautiful, cascading waterfall as we reached the top. People were parking their cars and getting down to take a shower or picture. It started raining, being the monsoon season out here in the Western Ghats. It was simply beautiful, the absolutely delightful merger of green with the rolling mountains and waterfall in full force.

I thought “Wow, we have come to the right place to enjoy”. We got into the car and drove the last few hundred meters up the hill, and alas, my expectations were belied. There was a horrible, single file traffic jam ! Taxis were parked on both sides of the very narrow road, allowing space only for one car to go up or come down. But Indians know no discipline, and as usual, they were trying to negotiate both ways ! The jam lasted a full ten minutes in pouring rain, and after clearing the same we were in for the next Indian surprise. The Parking Lot ! It was lousy arrangement to park with cars and vans strewn all over a muddy patch of land, wherein the forest department was happily charging Rs 25 per vehicle plus another Rs 10 for some nonsense tax. It was very difficult to find a parking lot, and finally there was no choice but to ask the driver to stay with the car as we set out to explore.

Cars are not allowed beyond this point in Matheran. We had to either walk up in the muddy patch of road, or take a horse ride. After some debate, we decided to hire individual horses at Rs 250 a pop. It was quite frightening in the beginning as horses have minds of their own, and need to be harnessed a bit tightly. I was left alone with a big horse, which did not like me at first. It kept going to the edge of the cliff whenever it liked, and I was distressed no small end. The horse-keeper was managing my small boy’s small horse carefully and wanted me to keep my big horse in parallel with the small one. It was challenging. Further it started to rain again. We somehow managed to reach the mid point of the ride - they promise to show you “3 Vantage View Points” from atop the hill, but these are useless views when there is a heavy fog. We bought plastic rain coats and colourful hats, and wore these - you see me in that attire as below.

The short road in the middle of Matheran was muddy and had clear signs of environmental degradation all around. Plastic bags and disposables were thrown all around, only cars were absent. The air was crisp though, and the rain smelled good. If the place were organized properly with cobble stone roads like they do in Europe beautifully, then it would have been an outstanding experience for people to even walk up the same…….it was quite painful to walk on the muddy roads with water puddles and ponds all around.

Well another example of a beautiful site going waste due to mismanagement.

I doubt I would ever go to Matheran again. We returned the same day, it took 3 hours for reaching home, since the driver was wise enough to take the Pune expressway somehow.

Overall a good experience in just the family being together for one whole day !

Have a Wonderful Week !

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
29 Aug 2007
CAMP : Montreal

vijay[1], originally uploaded by vjsri99.

The Craze over Harry Potter

I thought it is ridiculous kids spend so much time discussing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie and the upcoming release of the new book by JK Rowlings.

It is difficult to understand why people are so crazy about such stuff, can atleast understand the mood of the kids, but why the adults ?

I don’t find Harry Potter that interesting - not something for which you queue up. I read about someone in the U.S. who has been queuing up daily for the past more than 10 days for getting hold of the first copy of the new book. Just ridiculous !

I also read that JK Rowlings is richer than the Queen of England. No wonder, is it ?

Psychologically, it is easy to see the impact on children. In this world of dynamic business and fast-moving society, kids sometime would like to believe in the make-believe stuff to keep them going. And, look forward to some new stuff coming along every year ! There are many such sequels to movies and books. But, I never like sequels. A story begins and ends within the covers of the book…..it should not continue into yet another book in a series for which one waits with bated breath.

Well, let the kids enjoy their childhood. But adults, move on, there are better things to do than wait with a Pepsi and Popcorn in the queue outside a Cineplex, or chase the ticket delivery chap as I did for my kids. Ofcourse, I refused to see the movie. I had other things on top of my mind on a Saturday. The came back and said that the movie was just “good”, and I asked them “Did Harry Potter die finally ?”. My son looked at me and said “No ! He will only die in the next movie.”

Well, there you go - wait for the next one. In the meanwhile, my daughter has booked for the new book coming to the shops probably next week ! Life with Harry Potter indeed seems to be interesting, well nay, exciting !

Enjoy the little bit of the weekend that is left, and look forward to a week of more Harry Potter action next week,

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
15 July 2007
Mumbai

Mumbai Home Workers

We are living in Mumbai for the past nearly a year or so.

The experience that we are having with the home assistance workers in Mumbai is widely different from our previous experiences with that kind of workers. The positive aspect of Mumbai workers is that they are apparently more business-like than elsewhere in the country. They are purposeful, finish the work within the time allocated or earlier, and do not have the time to chit chat or delay things.

However, the not so positive aspects are - they are just money-minded (as is almost everyone else in Mumbai), quality of delivery is not that great - shoddy at times, need constant supervision to ensure completion of work to satisfaction, and need to be pushed to deliver a bit more when needed. Further, the art of work segmentation has been refined in this sector of the economy to such an extent that one ends up hiring 2 to 3 maids for delivering on different pieces or types of work. What I mean here should be clear to most professional families in Mumbai, however, let me elaborate a bit. Unlike in Singapore, or in the South of India, where live-in maids are common, it is difficult to find one such dedicated full-time maid here in Mumbai. The only probable exclusion to that rule is serviced apartments where there are dedicated workers like in a hotel.

Given that live-in maids are not easily available, the household work segments into multiple maids delivering either different types of work or at different time zones. For example, in our case, there is one maid who reports in at appx 7 AM for cooking and washing clothes. She won’t do any other type of work, and she finishes her work at around 10 AM and leaves for the day. Another maid comes in at 8:30 AM on a typical day and focuses only on cleaning of the house - sweeping, wiping the floor and windows et al, and she probably leaves at about 10:30 PM or so. Then there is another worker who turns up usually at 4 PM for the evening clean up at the kitchen, etc.,

The difficulty in this arrangement is that it holds up outside work for the spouse, and it requires constant management of the workers’ outputs and quality of service. It would drain some energy I guess. While similar administration is required in other places, that is limited to just one worker - unlike in Mumbai. Further it has been noticed that the worker has many choices in a concentrated Mumbai suburban area, and is not really worried about loss of job, since word of mouth propagation takes a long time due to the demanding professional lives and working hours of the families. These workers mostly come from outside Maharashtra, the state of which Mumbai is the capital city. That phenomenon is quite similar to what happens in a Hong Kong or Singapore, where the guest home workers also come in from elsewhere - from countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, etc., The only difference is that the Mumbai workers come from other states of India, and quickly adapt to the lifestyle of Mumbai which drives everyone to be purposeful and money-minded. No surprise here !

The work and time segmentation of the household workers leads me to wonder why there are no advanced search agencies which not only finds these workers but also trains them to deliver quality work on a graded payscale compatible with the expectations of their employers. In Singapore, for example, this is a highly developed industry - there are probably more than 500 agencies who bring in around 100,000 maids into the country. Not that everyone is perfectly trained, but the scope and depth of the industry provides worker migration and employer choice.

Well, some food for thought. I found couple of such agencies in Mumbai but was not happy with them. Let us hope this industry develops and also provides worker insurance and protection.

Have a good weekend folks !

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
19 May 2007
Mumbai

Anniversary

Today was a key milestone - 20th Wedding Anniversary.

It was office as usual for the day, including a meeting at 5:30 PM at the Grand Central Sheraton with a guest from Singapore.

There was not much choice except to meet my wife and kids at the Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel, about 20 minutes from the hotel. As I waded through the dense traffic of Parel, the first thought to cross my mind was “well, the traffic scene here seems to be slightly better than the Western Suburbs where there is just no traffic sense !”

We connected up at the Phoenix Mall, which stands on top of the mill lands of Mumbai. A swanky setup with leading brands, a supermarket, departmental stores, a bowling alley, several pubs, and a smattering of restaurants make up the mill space.

After a bit of self doubt, we chose the Spaghetti Kitchen, which initially looked like an Indian joint. And, as we entered, we learnt that the left side at the entrance is indeed an Indian style restaurant. The Italian food at the Spaghetti Kitchen was good, and the ambience was very good. Service deteriorated as they received more guests, but that is the way it is in India nowadays.

It was a nice evening, we walked around the courtyard a bit, and returned home.

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
17 April 2007
Mumbai

The Big Rocks of Life

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, ‘Okay, time for a quiz’, and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him.

He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, ‘Is this jar full ?’

Everyone in the class yelled, ‘Yes.’

The time management expert replied, ‘Really.’

He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

He then asked the group once more, ‘Is the jar full ?’

By this time the class was on to him. ‘Probably not’, one of them answered.

‘Good !’ he replied.

He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.

Once more he asked the question, ‘Is this jar full ?’

‘No!’ the class shouted.

Once again he said, ‘Good’.

Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.

He looked at the class and asked, ‘What is the point of this illustration ?’

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, ‘The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it !’

‘No’, the speaker replied, ‘that’s not the point. The truth is, this illustration teaches us that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.’

‘What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life - time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others. Remember to put these ‘big rocks’ in first or you’ll never get them in at all. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question “What are the ‘big rocks’ in my life ?” Then, put those in your jar first.’

For attractive lips,
speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes,
seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure,
share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,
let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise,
walk with the knowledge you never walk alone.
“Beauty Secrets,” by Sam Levenson

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
18 Feb 2007
Mumbai

Photos from Goa Trip

I took more than 200 pics in couple of days, and some of these for your viewing pleasure as below -

DSC00870 Sun-Bathing at Caravela Beach Resort , originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC00872, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC00893, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC00924, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC00935, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC00990, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC01059, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC01071, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

DSC01048, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

That’s me with a Cashew Feni drink !

Best Regards

Vijay Srinivasan
14th Feb 2007
Mumbai