Author: Akshay

I am Akshay Varma, a Project Manager who likes writing, taking pictures, and listening to music. I am mainly work with projects in transition and onboarding of new client projects and business transformation. I like writing about current affairs and how they effect me, my personal life and anything and everything which comes to my mind. I like landscape and bird photography. Humans as photographic subject don't attract me :). This is a personal blog and thoughts written here are my own and do not reflect/ represent those of the organization(s) that I am with in professional or personal capacity.

Parking on the road

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Everyday while I returning from work, I pass through a 2 lane road. The best part of the road is it is entirely covered with trees. However, the sad part is cars are parked on both sides of the lane reducing the 2 lane road into 1 lane. Thus forcing vehicles traveling from both the directions to use the same lane. I am not sure if any accidents have occurred on that road but am pretty sure an accident is waiting to happen on that road esp. at night where people think of their vehicles are ferrari and drive fast.

The cause of this problem is with incomes rising faster, a lot of people have multiple cars in their households, however just one parking slot resulting in the cars being parked outside on the road. The other rule which most societies follow nowadays is visitors parking is not allowed in the society compound. This also results in people parking their vehicles on the road during the day time or in the evening during the weekends.

I think the traffic police should enforce the towing rules strictly. Currently there is hardly any impact of the vehicles being impounded. Also BMC should pass a rule which overrules the society rules and allows visitors parking in the society. This should be esp. applicable for the buildings which are on the main road. The last idea is a bit radical, the government should put restrictions on buying the 2nd car i.e if there is already a car in the household, the 2nd car should be taxed much higher. This will ensure that people think twice before buying a 2nd car. This will also help the environment as there would be less pollution, making this city a better place to live.

Death of an ex-colleague

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2 days ago, while going through status updates on Facebook, I read an update from a friend who shared the news of an ex-colleague, lets call him S, who had passed away. The news was very shocking for me. I inquired with my friend for the details of the tragedy. S had jaundice a couple of weeks ago and he suffered a relapse of the same. My friend informed me that apparently S didn’t have the money to get himself treated at a good clinic/hospital. I asked my friend, why S didn’t take the mediclaim under company healthcare policy. Then I realized – he was paid on cash basis.

One of the sad parts of working in a domestic 3rd party BPO is that the salaries for employees can go really low, sometimes in the range of 5k-7k a month, which in a city like Mumbai is peanuts. When organizations hire employees at such low wages, they offer the employee the choice of getting the salary in cash or via normal payroll. When an employee chooses to get paid in cash, he does not have deductions like PF, PT and income tax. This way the employee gets more take home salary. However, getting paid in cash also means that the employee is not on the payroll of the organization and therefore, does not get benefits like PF and health care.

S couldn’t get himself treated because he couldn’t afford the treatment which made realize that there are so many people like S out there. In our daily lives, there is a lot of money which we spend on things which we don’t really need. Instead of spending that money, we can donate that money to a charity which will help people who cannot fend for themselves. May be such actions will make the world a better place to live in for all of us.

Kolkata – You Sexy!!

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Last night I was watching the movie Kahaani on Movies OK channel. Since the movie is based out of Kolkata it brought back a lot of memories of the city in which I had spent almost 2 years. The movie just reminded of the times I had spent there, the places, smell, the sounds, the excitement of the people during the Durga Puja, old Ambassador cabs, kachoris, puchkas and moori from the road side, the momos and last but not least, people.

I moved to Kolkata in the year 2008 due to my work assignment. It was my first time to the City of Joy. I was told many things like Kolkata is very dirty, I wont like the food cooked in mustard oil, the language is a big challenge etc etc. However, I found my experience to the contrary.

Each city has it own different charm, Kolkata is no different. There are many old historic buildings in the bylanes of Kolkata, each one has its own story to tell. Most of the cabs are Ambassadors, vehicles of a bygone era, still driven with pride with the local taxi drivers. The language has a sweet sound to it. Just like French. Bengali is one of the sweetest languages out there. Initially, I had trouble understanding the same. But as my stay extended, I became familiar with the language to a point where I can make out the on-going conversation. The best part about Kolkata are its people, very friendly, very sweet and at the same time extremely proud of their culture, language and heritage. I am not sure if I could find anyone who had read the works of Tagore or had some form of training in Rabindra Sangeet.

It’s been 4 years since I have relocated to Mumbai. Hopefully, I will be going there sometime soon and rediscover the city once again.

Today you.. tomorrow me

~ Akshay ~ 1 Comment

I read this wonderful story on Reddit about people helping each other. Stories like these restore my faith in humanity..

This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation. All of them were while driving other people’s cars which, for some reason, makes it worse on an emotional level. It makes it worse on a practical level as well, what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car, and know enough not to park, facing downhill, on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel.

Anyway, each of these times this shit happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn’t loan them out “for my safety” but I could buy a really shitty 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say shit like “this country is going to hell in a handbasket.”

But you know who came to my rescue all three times? Immigrants. Mexican immigrants. None of them spoke a lick of the language. But one of those dudes had a profound affect on me.

He was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We rolled it over, put his jack on top, and bam, in business. I start taking the wheel off and, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. It was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn’t careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off. Fuck.

No worries, he runs to the van, gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash, down the road to buy a tire iron. She is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man’s hand but he wouldn’t take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked them up one side and down the other. I asked the little girl where they lived, thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome. She says they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best fucking tamale I have ever had.

So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time is money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow…

But we aren’t done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My fucking $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won’t take it. All I can think to say is “Por Favor, Por Favor, Por Favor” with my hands out. Dude just smiles, shakes his head and, with what looked like great concentration, tried his hardest to speak to me in English:

“Today you…. tomorrow me.”

Rolled up his window, drove away, his daughter waving to me in the rear view. I sat in my car eating the best fucking tamale of all time and I just cried. Like a little girl. It has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way. This was so out of left field I just couldn’t deal.

In the 5 months since I have changed a couple of tires, given a few rides to gas stations and, once, went 50 miles out of my way to get a girl to an airport. I won’t accept money. Every time I tell them the same thing when we are through:

“Today you…. tomorrow me.”