Tag Archives: Questions

Dress Code Musings

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Few months back, I wrote about the perceived benefits of a dress code; and that they may just be perceived and not as real as they should be. You can read that post here. Now, I am elevated to being a Teaching Associate, and I am married too. So, I think–considering that I have a right to evolve, giving me a tolerance to play with my opinions–I have changed my opinions a little (or may be a lot!).

Since the news came to me that I was on-rolls as a Teaching Associate, it was a feeling like the dream-come-true. I am set on the path of becoming a professor one day. I recalled what Prof. Suresh Satapathy once said to me, “Vinay, you can sacrifice food for a day, but do not sacrifice your dress code because it tells others who you are, and can get you what you want“. So correct! The first thing I did hence was to try and look like a professor, i.e., check the dress code that a professor must follow. Some internet research; and I have concluded that chinos, cotton/terry cotton shirt with a decent blazer, with a tie, formal shoes and socks  matching the trouser should fit me into that looks I was looking for. I am pretty close to getting that full look (I miss my tie!).

Now, would you believe it? In my last post, I expressed my woes that teachers forced students to follow a dress code. Surprisingly, when I am following it as a Teacher, there seems to be that initial resistance to it from the community. While one professor softly suggested that I might be giving ideas to the institution to force a dress code for faculty, others had a few comments to pass, and my co-scholar (no comments about him, really, and please!) asks me why I should follow it when others don’t. Frankly, I do not have an answer to any of those comments/questions (should I even answer?), but I understand the suggestion. Having said all that, I recall the conversation I had with another professor who expressed his views, “Education System in India mostly runs in an unprofessional setting“. I think these comments/questions are a part of that mediocrity education in India lives in. So, even if it is a painful experience, carrying a dress code, I think I should still follow it by heart; so that, at least I might be suggesting how one should look.

I do not commit to change anything, nor do I commit to a particular style of living (not even the dress code!). But for sure, I seem to understand how things are moving, and how I can try to change them a little. Let me see how long I can carry myself like this. :)

The Laughable and The Uninspiring

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Series of incidents since yesterday–I can’t resist sharing them here.

I received a call from a professor yesterday. She asked me if I knew what I should be doing today. Frankly, I did not know what she was referring to. But she told me that she told me what I had to do long back. I know I have a little problem with my memory in general, but my memory works efficiently when it deals with work. Fundamentally, that call asserted that I did not keep track of what I had to do. The reason behind that professor’s such forceful assertion–I guess or may be I felt–was to escape from that activity if I said I was not available, putting the blame on me, a scapegoat in the bottom of the hierarchy.

Lesson: It is easy to blame someone’s memory as poor, and hence him/her. Any argument to defend can be made to sound foolish if you are in the bottom of the pile. In how many movies have we seen tactics of the crooked to convince the society that who is innocent is actually mad.

In the course of a discussion with another professor, I got to know one of her experiences. One of her friends, who often keeps calling her, had one day called to share a happy news that he was awarded the ‘Best Teacher’ in his University. But the sad part of his story was longer; in that, his kid was being counseled by this professor for psychological reasons. And more painfully, his wife claimed that her husband uses lots of ‘psychological stuff’ on their kid, so that the kid does not have any problem. Now, this professor has an experience, and her friend has an award.

Lesson: Best outside, Worst inside does not really work that way. It ends up becoming a story!

I visited another professor at her residence after a long time. Just before I entered her residence, there stood a kid who asked me for a little help. He asked me if there were any doctors available in the surrounding area. I told him, I was going to meet one. But just before entering the professor’s residence was when it lit up in my mind that he might be referring to a medical doctor.

Lesson: Knowledge is a curse. It only confuses!

After that little fun in the last paragraph of this post, I have to reveal the activity that we were expected to do at Andhra University. A professor and me, a research scholar, were sent to that university where their admissions counseling was going on, to distribute pamphlets promoting admissions in our university. Just imagine having to make a first impression to a prospective student distributing pamphlets on road, and then presenting yourself as a faculty in the college! This happens only in my college, I guess. This act of our college best represents what they usually do, create paradoxes and argue their case. Here, it was a conflict they created between having ‘dignity of labor’ and having ‘self-respect’. If I were to argue that my being a faculty needs that I follow certain standard of living, then they would push the case to ‘dignity of labor’ side. If they read this post, then they might be cautious in pushing the argument to ‘sophistication’, suggesting that being a faculty and distributing pamphlets on road can be managed. The university may not know that a clerk of our college was hesitating to do the job that was given to us, but they speak management and run an institution. Let me end this post with just this case, before I am tempted to roll out too many!

Lesson: There is always a conflict when fools rule, to compromise or to challenge. But seldom, there is a choice. And life offers what?! May be more jaw-dropping questions, for which answering would make you feel insulted.

Life is really fascinating, and I mean it!

Don’t forget contributing to World Food Program. :)

Political communication style

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Thoughts and too many questions, but too little and unconvincing answers; my research in communication style has been that kind so far. I have decided to make an exhaustive review of the field and began reading articles. Some of them caught my attention and left my jaw to gravity.

One of them is the work of Jagers and Walgrave (2007), populism as political communication style. It summarizes populism as a way of making reference to people, excluding specific sections of them. The idea also encompasses the possibility of being anti-establishment. Simply put, their work tells us that political parties use one style of communication, one that is always against the other competing party, makes reference to people as if people are closer to this party than the other party, and excludes specific sections because they present themselves as having better understanding of priorities of people than the other party.

Wow! That makes me feel so good. That the results of research are in line with commonsense always feels good, because it reduces the burden of convincing others. There is another interesting drop of wisdom I think I can share from their work.

Populism as defined above is only a weak definition that is consented by observation. However, it is also well-understood that use of such communication style potentially creates confusion and debate; and hence, there has been no strong operational definition of populism. Whatever populism may mean, I think, trying to find its effects on public memory and recall would be a great study. :)

A Problem Passenger

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Coming to Hyderabad from Vizag is not an easy task. If you could plan a month ahead, may be, it is manageable. But for bachelors whose planning is on the edge of eleventh hour, like mine, there has to be a compromise made with the quality and time of journey. So I did, this time too!

Shambhavi Sri Travels I tried for the first time. It was an AC Seater bus which cost me between a Non AC High Tech and a Semi Sleeper Volvo. The ticket booking page said there were 32 seats about a few hours before the departure; that is a lot of choice on hand. I chose the front seat expecting to park my long legs in the little additional space I might get.  The departure was scheduled at 7:30 PM. I booked myself a ticket, saw the testimonials page on their website which had none; and thought for myself that I might want to write one for them provided I get a reasonable experience. I called up at their office and said the same–which perhaps did not matter much to them.

Next thing! I am in the bus at 7:45 PM, or should I say the bus came at that time. The windows of the bus were broken already, perhaps that is why they called it special. The parking space for my legs actually turned out to be pavement for all passengers, which meant I had to fold in my legs all night. All night why? Don’t make me write about the horrors please. A part of it I am sharing here anyways.

Movie time! Which movie? Anjaneyulu. What is wrong with the private bus services that they play this movie in every trip from Vizag to Hyderabad. I watched it at least six times in six different bus services. This time I chose to raise my voice and requested some other movie be played. But some other voice dominated… it was unknown to me then that he was the problem passenger who would take the next post on my blog. He wanted this very movie to be played despite many others resisting this choice. He won! Obviously, it is difficult winning an argument against a fool. I chose to sleep and let the movie run. I woke up at 12:00 in the night to a terrible sound. Guess what now? The running movie was Arundhati. First thing that surprises me is that this bus service is playing a movie beyond 11:00 PM. Second thing that surprises me is the choice of the movie. I look around the bus to see who is watching, and there is only one person curiously watching it–the problem passenger. Fine now, who cares to fight at that time of the night, I thought and let him watch.

Dinner time?! Bus stops at 1:30 AM somewhere in a no-man’s land. Why? Because the problem passenger complained that the bus did not stop anywhere else for dinner before and he was feeling hungry. I have absolutely no idea why a bus which started at 8:30 PM from the city should stop anywhere for dinner. But this was insanity. Other men emptied their bladders and smoked for a while. The bus was on road soon.

I began shivering after a while and thought it was the AC effect. Very soon, I found the breeze to be harder for an AC effect. It was simple again! Mr. Problem passenger did not like AC, requested to turn it off, and opened the roof window that was striking right into my face. I consider putting up an argument, but it was 2:00 AM and I was wanting undisturbed sleep, so should others be.

At 7 AM in the morning, the driver of the bus ended up in an argument with another passenger. The passenger claims the bus had taken a different route which might mean he might miss half day at office. I observe outside the window and we were going through a place, the name of which I find hard to recall, but certainly one which I have not seen before on that route. Reason? Mr. Problem passenger wanted the bus to take this route so that we might avoid traffic jams. What does this mean? An additional 130 kms of bus for all of us. Remember! What I thought was my parking space was a pathway! Exactly, these are some reasons why I had to have my legs folded in all night.

Finally, the bus comes into the city at 10:30 AM. Problem passenger gets down at Lakdikapool saying that his first experience with this bus service was not good. Soon after he gets down, the driver repeats the exact same statement; that his first experience with passengers was not good. Ah!

All this while, I thought, that except for this problem passenger, my first experience with the service was reasonable. But now, I thank god that the first time driver somehow got the bus to its destination. Now, I understand the reason for all jerks last night, my paining back reminds me. And before I got down, I realized it was the first experience with that service for more than half the passengers in there. No wonder, their representative did not take my call seriously when I wanted to write a testimony. He knew how the experience of all first timers would be! Chaotic.

Titbits to carry home

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I am traveling home today. Just before I start, I had to conclude some of the tail-end jobs that have been nagging my mind for a while. In the process I picked up few nuggets of realization, some good and some eye-openers.

I have taken a house for rent at Lawsons Bay. In the initial parts of the discussion with my owner, she wanted to know which cast I belonged to and what I do, who would stay and so on. It was just a downpour of questions, if using a word investigation may be seen as a mistake. What followed after my responses to her was that she began comparing her social status with mine, and boast about how big they are and how many people they know. Frankly, I wanted a home and did not care much about all that. Understandably, she was old, and it was her house; she has the right to be conservative. But today was a little annoying revelation. My first electricity bill comes for a consumption of 7 units, and the amount is quoted as Rs. 176. If you are out of your words to explain that, so was I. She has her own explanation even when I tried to convince something must have gone wrong. Finally, I had to pay that amount for literally what was no usage at all. I stayed there for three nights now.

My college is yet another bureaucracy that never thinks beyond 1940. There was no communication that the teaching workload for the upcoming trimester has been decided, but today I got questioned for not submitting my documents for dealing with courses allotted to me. When I claimed there was no communication, they said they sent a notice to every faculty member. And guess when that was: during the vacation. Now, as I make plans of moving to Hyderabad in another couple of hours, they force me to submit the documents, and here I am on that job; also venting my feelings with my best pal, my blog.

As I was coming towards the cyber café, I saw a group of kids playing Puli Joodam. Ah! That reminds me my childhood days, such a refreshing memory it always is. Kids of today, I suspect, if they even heard the names of some of these games which were popular during our times. Reading what I am writing, for a while, makes me feel like an old man ruminating, but that is fine as long as it is refreshing and making me feel better.

Little things mean more. There is lots more I wish I could share. But for now, I’d say… what? That’s all for now. :)

Bills and Barcodes

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Wanting to give a perfect new house for my fiancée, I went out shopping to Big Bazar, Vizag, with plans of purchasing various household and decorative items. Since it was  a planned affair, my shopping was finished in less than an hour. I stood at the bill payment counter for about half hour. No complaints! May be I can imagine the long queue was because of volumes of business. Then came my turn and the bill was handed over which read Rs. 1960, apart from lots of other bills, worth Rs. 4000, they broke into pieces so that I could get Rs. 200 discount. Fantastic till here, but that Rs. 1960 bill was special.

I recalled that as I was moving around, buckets were offered as ‘buy one-get one‘. I needed two, and I took two, similar ones. My understanding was that I have to pay for one bucket only. But the bill showed two different prices for two pieces, and two different discounts applied to them. This is completely different from what the earlier offer said. It would make a difference of Rs. 40 in my favor if it was done as per the offer I had seen and considered. I asked for an explanation, and that is where the story began!

Representative who was billing sent me to customer care counter. Representative there was busy documenting lots of stuff, or so he was showing. After a while, like about 20 minutes, I get the attention of Mr. Busy, to find that I have to get the sales rep who sold me these buckets to sort out the issue. I question ‘why me‘, and then he ‘announces‘ in mike calling for a representative from ‘buckets‘ section. He comes and explains to me that one is an old bucket and one is new. Obviously, his argument fails because I am purchasing only new goods, can’t pay for an old one, at least in a shopping mall of that size. He brings himself some help. This representative tells me that I have taken two different buckets and they vary in their capacity. The sarcastic self in me took the dirty pleasure of proving him wrong in the crowd. They bring in more help. This Mr. Intelligent (perhaps an MBA) representative explains to me, that as the economy changes, prices keep changing. So one bucket was bought earlier, and the other was bought later. His explanation fails too, because it is me, the customer, who is purchasing two pieces of the same product on the same day. On top of it, I had to remind him we were in a retail store, and not in a bullion market or commodities exchange. Then as I expected, after all this action for an hour, to meet the store manager, another representative suggests me that Rs. 40 is not worth my time and energy there. I had one simple answer: that it was not Rs. 40 that was motivating me, but the case was so bloody interesting.  By this time, I figured out that it was a case of ‘prices changed, offers changed, but barcodes not changed, and systems not changed‘.

At this point, one representative (new one again!) who does not speak EngRish, walked up to me, took the bill, spoke to the customer care representative, got a credit note, changed the bill, and gave me ‘bottles‘ worth Rs. 40. I wish he backed up his good job by saying, ‘we wish you could have a better experience next time‘ or something to that extent.

Haa! What an experience! And the lesson came at a low cost! Does this case convey failure of staff in this retail store? If it does, just wait for me to tell you that the system had calculated 3 x 14 as 38.25. And the billing representative said he was rounding it to Rs. 40. Now, that was hilarious. :)