How is it going?

so far, ok..This is about the new place where I go to work everyday..It's going to be two months since I joined this new place and so far, I would rate the experience at 3 on a scale of 5.(5 having the highest satisfaction score).

Better experiences so far:
 - Change of place, change of people, hence, my interest levels towards work is on the rising.
 - I'm clear about what I want from the job, my expectations from the workplace are clear now(compared to the muddled opinions I had earlier).
- New roles, expectations from me are more, this urges me to work better
- Following some kinda discipline, both at home and office front.
-  Being more conscious about time,
-  indulging in self-pity has become lesser..
- conscioulsy trying to stay in touch with friends
- spending time on hobby activities


Cons:
 - More work. In my previous organisation, I've had to perform only 10% of the work that I'm doing here on a day-to-day basis(project delivery times are not exculded here)
- Conference calls twice a week , scheduled for a hour nd a half but runs longer than the length o f a Hindi movie
- More work,..
- Huge team..
- Team members have grown old along with the team/company..So, they ar enot very receptive of new members in the team..
- Deadlines are close to one another, no time to spend working on innovation/process improvement related activities



I will stop here at the moment and will add to the list later..Overall, at a personal level, its been nice..Not sure if this feeling is because I've changed(irrespective of the workplace or the work itself) or the workplace has caused this change..Whatever be the reason, I'm liking this new changed me..I'm more relaxed, not panicking for petty things most of the times, know what to expect out of the job..

And the position is filled :)

Yes, I was hoping that the maid(who was appointed as mentioned in the post :  ) who claimed that she has worked in few houses for more than a decade or so would suit our place. But, how wrong my assumptions were..The lady came with her daughter the next day (her first day of work) and inspite of already agreeing to the the list of activities that she has to do as a part of the job, she flinched and refused to do certain activities. MIL got agitated bcos of this and asked me to speak to her the next day. The next day being a saturday, I was home and she mentioned that she cannot do certain activities and demanded extra amount that what what she agreed upon just a day ago. (look at it: she agreed to the work and the pay, now daughter comes, triggers her mom, now mom subtracts some portion of the job  and demands more pay ) . This lady who did all the sweet talk less that 48 hours ago , now is grumbling. Finally, I asked her to leave, but before leaving, she was the one who said she would continue to work and we settled on the final activities and pay too.. The next day , we waited till about 2 and MIl and I rolled up our sleeves and finished the cleaning job. madam comes after 4pm and demands money for the previous 2 days job.

I didnt know whom to contact since all the maids were expecting less work and more pay (when I say more, its 2000 bucks for sweeping/mopping and doing the dishes for a small house which has 3 people!). I tried many many times to contact my previous maid, but her number was simply unreachable. The next day, by chance I asked the watchman of the flat where she (the 1st maid,lets call her L) works if he knew whether L had returned from her native. He replied in the positive and my joy knew no bounds when I heard she was back. I had asked him to ask her to contact me after 6 PM that day (since MIL was out of town that day). all the conversation with the watchman happened in sign language as we dont understand each others language. That day, I came back from office only at 7PM so, had no clue if L came or not. However, next day, I'd given my number to the watchman and asked him to call me once he sees L. The watchman promptly called me and I spoke to L and asked her why left without informing us , told her that I felt bad that she abruptly left  and that I tried contacting her umpteen times and that he daughter did not respond properly to my calls, and asked her to come back again. When I returned home that evening, mil told me that L had already come and would come back for work the next day onwards..So, I'm now glad that L is back and the vacancy is filled with the right candidate :) More on sincerety of L, and the difference she makes to our house. Thats for a different post

Changed views..

We have seen a number of organisations/NGO's working to make the lives of transgenders a little easier, helping them to live with dignity,  and so far I was quite agreeing to such initiatives. All that was till y'day when I had a first hand experience of 2 transgenders harassing two young salesmen for about 30 minutes. This shop is a newly opened one (opened just y'day when this incident happened) with two salesmen literally worshiping before facing every single customer. Two transgenders enter the shop and start going about their business. When they were offered Rs.10, they started arguing asking who takes a meager 10ruppess these days, do the salesmen consider them(tg's) so cheap and below dignity that they give 10Rs, and demanded a whole figure of Rs.1000 (!!) as its a new shop. They literally told the figure out and was demanding the sum. The salesmen tried telling them that it was a new shop and they are yet to see customers and they would try to give them a better amount once sales pick up(if they come after about a couple of weeks) and all such conversation happened .
In the meantime, shoppers stayed away from the shop for fear of facing these two. We were now caught inside the shop and those two blocked the way , hence I signalled S to go upstairs and wait there till the way out is cleared. To our surprise, even after 20 minutes, the argument continued, now it was quite heated, and what do you know, the tg's were in the stairs proceeding to follow one of the salesmen who came to the 1st floor. Finally, they were shoved off with 100 bucks .  The salesman told me that that was the money he had for the days food and that was taken away forcibly.

I agree not everyone are of the kind who demand exorbitant amounts like these two did y'day or ask for a fixed price or continue to stay on at a place for long, but some of them do(like the ones y'day) . And when you are a witness to such incidents, you really start thinking if its worth at all  giving any amount to anyone who begs,rather demands as in the above case.

What do they want?

I've been on an interviewing spree..I do take interviews at the organization that I'm employed with, but this particular vacancy has become a little too difficult to fill in..In this case, I'm in fact releasing "offer letters"  almost to 90% of the candidates that had applied and interviewed, but the probable employees are rejecting the offers..Is it inflation or too many opportunities in the job market available or they would consider and take a decision after scouting the market for some time or just on a whim,they want to figure out what is their employ ability??I surely don't know..I wish I knew so that I could change my style of recruitment process..Instead of prolonging further, let me tell what position this vacancy is for. Its for a house-help position, which is getting increasingly difficult to close the opening day after day.. The offer that we make is well above the market price and in fact, we have given 15% hike twice in the last 2 months.., and our house is spic clean most of the time, the utensils that we use can be counted, and as such its an easy job at our place compared to many other similar job openings..

It all started when on a fine Sunday morning when we had invited guests to our place for lunch . MIL called up the maid to ask her to come for work a little early as we were just back from a 3 day trip to my parents' place and thats when she(we) got to know that the maid has also gone to her native . We have no issues , rather who are we to even have an opinion about her going to her native or elsewhere..All we asked her to do was to inform us that she would be on leave on so and so days , so that we can plan accordingly and need not wait till late evening and roll our sleeves to clear out the pile of work..In fact, before we left for our trip, she could have let us know that she would be on leave..Probably something could have come up urgently that she had to travel, fine, she could have atleast given us a call. anyways, MIL got a little upset and raised her voice and asked her why she hadnt informed her..Thats was it! I kept calling her time and again to check when she would return, but with different responses every time: either switched off, not reachable, or her daughter would pick up and say her mom was not available, and at one point , she refused to pick up if I called from my mobile..So I had to call up from office land line . Finally, she was in possession of some utensil of my SIL, she I'd asked her to return it back. Maid comes after about 15 days and says she would go to her native and be back..I call her back again to ask when she would be back , there comes a reply from her daughter that he mom wouldnt come..

-- Is this what we get in return for treating a maid like one member of our house?
--The number of sarees, shirts , trousers, salwar sets, pay hikes whenever she has asked for, bonuses on every occasion...all these  has no counts and if the maid has decided to quit her job, wouldnt she tell it out..Does it require repeated (almost 50 times) calls from my end to figure out what she is thinking in her mind?
--I don't want to mention any of the above here, but what really is bothering me is that we have in fact clearly mentioned to her why mil raised her voice that day, and this is no reason at all for her to behave this way. In spite of it, what made her to quit all of a sudden? For all these years of acquaintance, is this what we receive in the end? 
--In fact, we did not even tell her when my gold earrings(2 pairs) got lost, when we knew for sure that it was her daughter who had flicked it. The maid was loyal to us , hence we decided that it was my fault for having kept the rings outside , and that I should have been more careful. And we thought it was not right to hurt the maid when the fault was on her daughter..

Now, we appointed another maid, for more salary and half the work of what the previous maid did.This lady was regular most of the time for one month, after which she started showing her true color..she didnt turn up for days together, this was AWOL, on calling up, he husband started telling many twisted stories and finally thru the tailor (who had sent her) , I get the message that mil was giving her more work off-late and thats the reason she is not turning up..

I really dont know what to say..I got enraged on hearing this..She came only for 4 weeks, out of which for 10 days, only mil was at home, while M and I were travelling, and as I mentioned earlier, we (esp, mil) uses very limited utensils even for an elaborate meal..This lady was also given enough food, prompt salary, was never questioned when she would turn up at 3pm on some days when her ususal time was 10 am.

I'm sure that are many house-helps who are very loyal, (our previous maid was ) and have a sense of gratitude for what they receive from their employers. But, why are many people not? Whats wrong with this class of people who simply don't recognize how well they are being treated? probably, stricter and a thrifty behavior from the employers side is what they are expecting? Do these people expect that we dont ask them why they went missing without informing us? Do these people expect that we dont ask them to any work , but pay them every month? What are their expectations? While I may not be in a position to fulfill their requirements, I would like to understand them..

We have finally appointed a maid just before I started typing this. Here's to a good relationship.

Bye London, untill next time..

Yes, already a week flew by, with no thoughts of office, schedules, the change in professional life coming in, relatives, maids, the humdrum of daily routine..How relaxed it was!!

Woke up a liitel late and while M had to take a cal, I refreshed myslef, hogged on the burger bought last night and took off to Regents Park, recommened by the person whom I met at the cathedral adjacent to Borough market. Pointed out to M all that needs to be packed and left home to absorb the beautiful morning sun and the perfect weather..Walked from regents park station to the park and the park is a really really huge one!! had a look at the map, decided which direction to walk and then started walking..Since it was a Saturday, may groups had come for playing cricket, football etc.. I was surprised to see many young children playing cricket, with umpires, score keepers, with boundaries drawn, with players in their cricket gear..So was teh football teams , children as young as 4 years were being brought in and enrolled for camps and it was such a delight for the eyes to saok in the beauty of the many colors and the way the wee little ones were manouvering with the bats and balls.. There were also teenagers in gropus playing volley ball, cricket, football.. My heart was very light and I enjoyed watching these little ones play and scenes of myself along with M enrolling our child/children in such sport camps, and watching them play and getting delighted in how they play was running in my eyes and head..How I wish all this happens sooner..! Sigh..Anyways, I kept walking stopping near the camps to watch the paly, I reached the other end of the park, and while I was seeing the route map, I heard a large thudding sound someone calling out name of "John", Before I could just turn my head, the accident had already occured . The person riding the bicycle had fallen to the ground after being in the air for a few seconds..The imapct was deep, I suppose as he wasnt able to move his leg or body and move to the other side of the road. By them, traffic started flwoing in and 2 men donned the cap of traffic police and diverted the traffic.

A jogger who happened to see this volunterred to help as he was a Doctor,. It took some time for the Dr to reach the spot as he had  to go a full round before he found an exit. I was all the while witnessing what was hapening: the father admonishing the son to be alert while crossing roads, fellow bikers stopping to help the fallen one, men willing to divert traffic,a doctor who happened to witnessed this readily willing to help..

Afetr the crowd moved, I walked through the park soaking in the ducks and pigeons residing in the pond inside the park , admired the beauty of the park and  took the route to the nearest Tube station. Went through Baker street, visited the Sherlock Holmes museum and returned to the hotel , only to get scoldings from M for being so late, for not telling him properly what needs to be packed and what to be left behind..Anyways, by the time I reached the room, all was packed and set and I hardly had time to bid byes to the room.(yeah, I'm insane that way)..I checked once teh room and the rest rooms, and made my way to the check out counter..I digged on the cup cakes and the chips that was left and we put out luggages in the hotel and set out to wander London the rest of the day.

First, we set out to the Science Museum , and M was quite fascinated by the artifacts of the engineering marvels of yester years and so was I. Had our lunch at the bunego restaurant and left for the Bond Street. From Bond Street, went to regents Street , had sandwich at Subway and before we knew , it was already 5:30 and now it was time to go to airport. Came back to Gloucester Road to pick up out luggagae and took the train to Heathrow. Another incident which needs mentioning here is : While we were travelling from South Kensington to Bond street, I felt so thirsty and rememberd having a bottle of juice in my bag, it was so tighlty closed that when I opened it, it burst out with a sound and with splashes of juice spiiling on me and the lady and man seated next to me in the tube. I've never eaten in a tube all these days and now, this incident made me to be at the receiving end of stares from the man and woman, wlady esp..Had the man not been with her, her startes told me that she would have gave sharp remarks to me..I apologised to them..Just yday I was caught for travelling without ticket and now, this splash incident and I was telling M that I did have an adventourous stay here and that I need to egt abck now ..

I had a good vacation, happy one, with no (or very less tension, for a a couple of times may be) stress,..Overall a good trip..Next post will summarise a few more things that are are in my mind..Will add snaps too..

Thank you London, Thank you M, Thanks Lord for making this trip happen..Heres to many more ..

Where notion of time

After much thought as to whether to spend the day in and around London, wnjoying the beautiful weather or to visit Stonehenge, I settled on the former. Decided to take the ferry to Greenwich. Took the ferry from the St.Pauls' pier. Walked via the Greenwich Park uphill to the Maritime Museum. A short trek, I would say, after a very long time. Had a wondeful view of the city from the hill and also saw O2 from there. The day was cloudy with the skies threateining to open up anytime and it did and was drizzling and raining on and off.

Spent time in the muueum, took pictures on the longitudinal line (yeah, the 7pound ticket is for this pic only!!) , got drenched n the drizzle and spent soem time on the hill top before proceeding to the city. Thought pf taking teh tunnel to the other side of Greenwich initially, but then dropped the plan, proceeded to the market , had Ethiopian food for lunch and went to Cutty Sark DLR station to board the tarin to Bank. This is where the dram for the day starts..

Unline all other tube sttaions, this particular station that runs trains on the DLR line does not have the gates that opens up when you validate the Oyster card. Looks like there is a counter somehwre eon the side of the entrance and exit of the station where one has to swipe in. This particular information I got to know much later, just before a probablity of spending some time behind the bars in a foreign land ..

Yes, I boarded the train and was making plans for the rest of day. Tahts when this ticket checker walsk in and asks for my Oyster card and my card doesnt show that its been signed of at Cutty Sark before boarding the train and the ticket checker asked me to wait at Bank where he would "talk" to me before proceeding to check others. The lady who was sitting opposite to me gave me curious looks and gave an expression that meant "all the Best/good Luck" I decoded this expression much later only, for I was pretty much cool and was pondering inside my brains if I swiped or not..Travelling in London, one need not sue brains at all , as all directions are spoon fed and you just need to follow directions.  I was still mainitaing my cool and was thinking where I would go next. Little did I know what was coming up at Bank.

Bank station arrived and this was the last station for this particular DLR route, and this white man aka, the ticket checker asked another colleague of his at the station to "take care" of me , while he would deal with another fellow traveller who hadnt swiped his card ..This new TC had my complexion, so I assumed him to be Indian origin. On his questioning, I told him that there was no gate 9as other tube stations) where I could swipe my card and I handed him my card to deduct t amount for this travel. This erson was not taking any of it and started giving gyaan about how Indians never listen or see anything, there are announcements that the counter for swiping tha card (none of which I heard when I wasin the station), and there are notices giving directions to people towards the swipe counter (which I couldnt catch too)..He presented me with teh option of paying fine..I told him that I'm a tourist and that I have no money to pay, he proceeded to say that he cant help me in this regard as there are cameras everywhere , he even pointed to one camera where all our conersation was being recorded and he was just doing his duty, failing which it would become a big problem for him and hsi job..I kept repeating myself that I ahd no money and gace details of how I've come here as a tourist while my husband is at work. The conversation above repeated over and over untill he asked for my ID proofs where in my passport, Chennai was mentioned and thats when he asked "Tamilaa??" "Amman Sir" was my reply and I thought to myself, "Didnt you recognise me for soo long?I have a brown skin, with oiled and plaited hair and an appavi look, why did it take long for you to recognise??" anyways, now he was a little soft and confirmed whether I've come to London seeking job and when I assured him that  next day was my flight back home, he felt convinced and spared me..Took me aside to a place where there was no camera and asked me to just leave without stopping anywhere in between in case someone stops me to question. By the time he left me, he had almost filled up half of the memo , and I returned back to check if he had filled all the details and this filling would cause any problems in the short/diatnat future. he showed me the memo that he had crossed it completely and had written Invalid on the same. relieved was I and I ran to the exit of the station and called up M to narrate the whole story and like a person out of sanity, looked everywhere for cameras that would capture how I'm fleeing :)

From Bank, proceeded to Holborn to Covent Garden .Reached Covent Garden and saw a place that sold tickets for musicals, stood in the line , but when the queue didnt move for about 20 minutes, left the place and proceedd towards the Covent Garden market. Waht a place..Covered area full of shopping joints that sold anything and everything from stationery, edibles, to expensive pieces of jewellery. I wished I had bought some pieces of silver jewellery , earrings especially.I wanted to come along with M , who has a wonderful taste and is my official clothes/jewellery/ selector :) . The market was clearly demarcated that shops that sell quality items were put up in one part , while a different section of the market had local stuff, the things that you find regularly at Burma Bazaar in India.
Once I was done with Covent Garden, went towards China town, not withstanding the smell of the fried Noodles and various other stuff emnating from the place, proceeded towards the tube station and got down at South Kensington. My cousin had recommended  the cup cakes in Humming Bird Bakery , since South K had a store of H. bakery, went to the store and the aroma from teh shop was too irresistible. Made a beeline in the 15x10 ft shop and stocked my bag with a couple of cakes and walked towards Gloucester Road. Passed via residentail areas and was dreaming what kind of people do live here in such posh villas, enjoyed the pictureusque lanes and on reaching Gloucester Road, a sense of belonging passed down my spine and it was indeed nice to see the tube station, the Tesco, Bombay Brasserie. Picked up water bottle, and a pack of chips to satiate my craving of fried something and proceeded to the room.

M had been to the pub with his colleagues and when M was back, shared with him the days events and since both of us were too tired to go out for dinner, asked him to grab some burger at the Burger King nearby and we called it a day.

Wimbledon, here I come!

Day 5: Today was booked for Wimbledon and the Shakespeare's play at the Globe. Enquired from the Wimbledon office that the tour starts around 10AM . So woke up a little late , had a hair wash , picked on muffins and salad from Sainsbury and proceeded to the South fields tube station from where took a long walk to reach the Wimbledon tennis courts. Passed via Wimbledon Garden and could catch a glimpse of a pond/lake inside the gardens and made a mental note to enter the garden on the way back. It was a rather long walk to the tennis courts and I did enjoy them..Could spot many Indian looking faces on the way.

Reaching the court,caught a glimpse of the statue of     and proceeded to pay the entrance fee and joined the group. The guide started the tour by asking each one of us who are favorite tennis sportsman/woman is and put forth out a few guidelines that needs to be followed during the tour of a hour and a half or so. We first went to Court No.1 and then, moved via Henman hill to Centre Court. From there, proceeded to Cort No:18 where the longest match in the history of Wimbledon was played in 2010 and then called it a day. The tour was Ok,in my opinion , not as wonderful as the previous tour of the Lords. added to the slightly boring tour, the sky also opened up then and there . Anyways, after the tour, went around the museum which had in its display tennis racquets and balls that were used when the game was played in its formative days. There were also stations where we could watch the last game (of the winning set) of the Wimledon finals of the yester years. Spent some time and left to Southfields to take the tube to St.Pauls from where I could go over to Globe for the play.

I wanted to walk the Southark bridge, (since I had already walked across the Millenium and Tower bridges) , hence got down at Monument and took a walk to the other end of Southark, traced the Thames River Walk path via Borough Market..Now, since it was noon, the market was oen and busstling..Checked through the stalls, , bought some fresh fruits and proceeded to the play. What do I see inside the Globe??Scores of people standing and watching the play, for all of 2 hours and 40 minutes..Those in the standing ard include lots of school going children. Does this show the interest they have in watching playes??  Fitting to the name of the play, "All's Well that Ends Well", the troupe did a wonderful dance at the end and we all enjoyed too. After the play, proceeded to the Borough market and had lunch at a pizza corner in there. Along with fruits, which M does not touch, stocked some chocolates and Lebanese delicacies for him.

Took a walk again towards the Tower Bridge, where I mae friends with a Taiwanese tourist who had taken a trip to London for a month. When I checked on how she managed to get amonths break from work, she replied that she had quit her job when she was denined a month long leave. She was working so hard for a few years, looks like and she just wanted to take a break , hence decided to quit the job and once she gets back, she would either search for jobs or continue here studies, whatever it w, she would decide after enjoying her vacation. I was awe at her courage and how steady her mind was. I havent come across many (read any) in India who would dare to do such kind of stuff. This reminds me that I need to email her and the man whom I be-friended at the Cathedral the previous day. The usual lazy me (:

We took pictures of each other and we also clicked a snap of ours and while I left towards the Tower bridge, she said she had other plans that was away from the Tower Bridge. Feeling happy over making friends and re-discovering the social-me , proceeded towards the tube station to get back home.Took the tube to Gloucester Road and felt a sense of belonging while coming out of the tube and seeing the all familiar Tesco and Bombay Brasserie.
 At the room, Switched on the TV, flipped through channels, watched a programme wherein the anchor inteviews a couple to get details on the home that they were planning to purchase, would find probable matching onees and would take the couple on a tour of the houses. Took in the view of the city from our room on the 10th floor and hummed myself some tunes untill M arrived from office.


Once M came from office, we proceeded to Piccadilly Circus area and roamed there for some time, before we stopped at a Mexican place for dinner. Had a good dinner and came back home, and called it a day.