Blog posts, Hobbies, – Random thoughts

Talk about making time for another hobby as blogging, it sometimes becomes so hard. I traveled recently and I had many thoughts and points to observe and I did notice many things with respect to technology, customer service, people management, time sense, appreciations, courtesy, traffic rules, city infrastructure, punctuality, friendliness, et al. I posted few of those in past few days but I have been unable to compose all the topics and observations I had collected. Yes – I do have the titles written down to elaborate further, however.  So, if I write one post every day I have titles for at least a month, I guess  

I once had this discussion with somebody and also had read somewhere on Blogging as a habit and profession. Well, there are people professionally blog as part of their job and that’s different. When it comes to an extra curricular, most times things go into lower priority. So, I heard some of them spend an hour before going to bed at night for blogging and some do it in the morning hours. Some people draft out the content during the week and post them when time permitted once in couple of days or once in a week. However my challenge has been not with posting itself per se, but writing out the content for all the titles I have. Anyways, I started drafting the content when I do make time — and later post ‘em when I go online. How do you make time for bloging? How do you work around the life’s priorities to blog?  

I agree it needs the proper GOAL and the Determination to pursue as a hobby. Of course, 80/20 rule applies even here I suppose. 20% of the people having hobbies to pursue would do it anyway and rest 80% of the people having hobbies would have to push ‘em into lower priority due to other priority stuffs in their life. What do you say? What are your experiences with pursuing your hobbies?  

I know there are many questions to ask when it comes to pursuing anything:·         

• What are your hobbies?
• What makes you get motivated to pursue and achieve them?
• What are the obstacles keeping you from pursuing/achieving them?
• How can we overcome those obstacles?
• How can we priorities activities in our life to consider profession, career, academics and hobbies all together?·         
• And many more… I hope this is something debatable in a broader sense… 

From Readers:I would like to know your hobbies and how you work around your priorities to pursue them? What is the best way to make that time for hobbies when your tasks are almost pretty tight for every day (assuming the 4 quadrants of Urgent and Important).  

Thinking about 4 quadrants, I am about to re-read the book titled “First things First” by Dr. Stephen Covey to learn more about the quadrants (Urgent and Important.)   

Well, when I thought about these further, a term came into my mind. Yes! You guessed it – PROCRASTINATION. Is it something I am going through. Talking about procrastination – I recently came across another blog write up about good and bad procrastination. Now that I learned about this, I am re-evaluating my daily tasks to see if I am part of any of these and if I can change anything in setting priorities still being ok to procrastinate for better reasons.  

What has your experience been in procrastination, if you ever did so?   

I thought of splitting this post into couple of isolated pieces as it covered 2 or 3 points but they all seemed inter-related and combined all in here.  

Well I leave it at here for now and take some break…….. 

{blogging}

18/40/60 rule

Some of us might have come across this note before from books or emails. I just came across while reading one of the books and thought of sharing it across.“  When you’re 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you. When you’re 40 you learn not to worry what others think. When you’re 60 you recognize that nobody’s been thinking about you at all. They’re worrying about themselves. ”

We often live for the society if not for self. And this is what I usually hear from the people at least. We think someone take us wrong or something or the other and we either don’t do the right things or have that kind of so-called “inferiority thought” within ourselves. I believe it is a good idea to at least be open and ask instead of making our own assumptions. At least I have realized about it and did certain things to exactly know if they were even thinking about me.

1. Ask for an opinion of what I wanted to do – because almost every body has opinion but some stinks – hmm… I didn’t say that! – so it helps to filter out and pick the right feedback that helps.
2. Tell them – this is what you are going to do – period. –> you take the ownership and responsibility for your task / investment / etc.

{Attitude}

Is it Friday, yet?

What is the significance behind the phrase – “Is it Friday yet?”

I was at the reception waiting for somebody in one of the office buildings this afternoon (Wednesday). I had a laptop computer to keep me busy as I had to work on a documentation. However, my ears kept hearing the activities around there viz., peopling walking around, door opening/closing, etc. Apparently, I overheard a lady saying out loud “Is it Friday yet?” to the Receptionist. In response, it was “I wish!!!”  - that made me stop what I was doing and think about what the significance could be on this conversation. Yes, we often hear such conversations in daily life.

These are the ones I can think of about this dialog:

1. A casual ice breaker anybody could use to have a small chat
2. Say hello to somebody when you walk in an office
3. Probably getting excited to be going towards the end of the week
4. So depressed that the days are not moving yet and is still middle of the week.
5. All of the above
6. None of the above

What do you think from your experience if you were part of one such conversation? Or if you overheard such a conversation at times?

{Attitude}

Quickly tie your Shoes?

How quickly can you tie the shoes? I know this is something most of us have been doing ever since we were able to (say age 2?) But how quick? how long does it take to tie a pair of shoes? I remember my school days when we used to have annual sports event and one of the events was how quick you could get prepared to start to school in the morning. I remember most kids lost just because they didn’t tie their shoes properly and fell off the ground.

Well anyways, I just noticed a vlog by Joanne Colan sharing about it on Rocketboom.

{rocketboom}

Recognize a traveler on an airplane?

Recognize a traveler on an airplane?

I recently traveled to India on Northwest Airlines. I had met a crew member on a first leg just as every other traveler. I stayed in India for about a month and returned on the same airlines. So on the way back on the second leg, I noticed one crew member whom I had met on my way to India. Surprisingly she remembered me while I was entering the air craft and said welcome back. I didn’t say anything else and just went in as I was already late to board the flight, I guess. So after sometime during one of the breaks she noticed me there and enquired me about my travel, if I had a good trip, etc.

I was amazed to notice an air crew member who meets hundreds of people everyday and thousands a month was able to recognize me and say hello.  It was such a great feeling. I am not even a frequent flier and it was the first time in my life that I boarded NWA.  My bad, that I don’t remember the name.

How often do you come across such a great customer service? I hope to have such a great service continues ever and also be recognized. I wish I knew the name of the person.

Keep it up, NWA. Thank you for providing great service.

Entrance fee at places – Why the difference?

Entrance fee – Why the difference? 

Recently, when I was in H’bad, I had a chance to visit couple of places nearby. Golkonda fort, Museum, etc., all have some amount of entrance fee. Golkonda is a beautiful place and I enjoyed going around there very much. I assume those places also meant to be for tourism. However, what I noticed and kind of didn’t feel good about was the difference in entrance fee. For example, if they are charging 10rs for local-ites, the same entry costs about Rs.150/- for an outsider. Why is that so? One thing I have noticed traveling outside
India was there was no difference in tickets to such public places. Why is it being different there? I should not be complaining about these being a citizen of the same nation, but this is something I would like to know. People at the ticket counter are either not willing to share or not aware since it is their job to sell tickets and not necessarily know the answers for everything. On the other hand, I didn’t notice them checking for passport or Identity cards – so the only way they charge that amount is by face – and now that doesn’t sound right to me.

Any Idea why this is so? Why can’t they make it equal for everybody. Just being a foreign national visiting place doesn’t mean he/she can afford as much money they charge. May be I haven’t traveled enough to know the world and how other countries do.

Auto rickshaw experience…

Auto rickshaw experience…

I am from South of India and have traveled in auto many times. However, after a long time I visited a city in south west for the first time and stayed in a star hotel. At times I chose to walk around the streets once or twice a day and chose Auto Rickshaws few times. I knew it would happen, however, I noticed 3 or 4 AR’s waiting by the entrance of this hotel. I came out and 2 or 3 of them approached me enquiring if I needed a ride. I said sure and mentioned about a restaurant I needed to go. This restaurant is about 1.5kms from the hotel where I stayed. So, auto guy looked at me and then looked at his other drivers and finally said it would cost me 80Rupees to drop me off at the restaurant. I asked why and replied I shall pay by the meter – at least I think we may trust the meter as long as it wasn’t tampered. Although there was no response, why would they charge 80Rs in place of 10rs?

Anyways, I denied and went ahead to walk down to the restaurant. I found another auto on the way and it costed me the minimum charge (i.e. 10rs). I had breakfast and returned back by another Auto from the restaurant – again paid by the meter – to the hotel within about hour and a half. There I noticed the same drivers still chatting and playing cards and not having any customers.  Why do you think those folks ignore the customers and keep playing or gossiping (I didn’t mean to use this word and I am not supposed to.) I noticed the same set of people almost every day when I stepped out. They lost me as a customer – I wouldn’t go with them. Once one of them also asked me if I was going to the restaurant for breakfast – and he still didn’t agree to the meter.

On the other hand, I noticed the auto folks from any other place to drop me off at the hotel. Many times, soon after I said my destination (Hotel name), they said it would cost me anywhere between 50rs to 100rs – ini place of about 10 to 15rs by meter. Why is that so? Why do they expect people to pay more just because guests stay at the stars hotel or going to star hotel? How has your experience been with Auto drivers in Hyderabad /Bangalore /  Chennai area? What do you think I recommend others to do with auto by * hotels now?

I heard something worse from somebody related to this. There was a foreign national staying at a different hotel. He chose to take an auto to go to a nearby restaurant. I know it is about 3 to 4 kms. Auto driver charged him about 800rupees. This guest enquired with his friend after reaching the restaurant about going to a another place that he needed to and enquired about approximate auto fare. He got to know that it would cost him about 35 to 50rs given the distance. Then he asked if the distance he traveled to the restaurant was about the same or less or more. Obviously he got to know the real story now.

Why do auto folks take foreign nationals or other innocent others granted?  

Well I also had good experiences with some other drivers. I asked for the hotel where I stayed. I think. And that guy asked me to pay about 5rs more than it would cost since he had to return back all the way for his way home.  I was happy that he was not only genuine but he was also reasonable in his request. At the end at my destination, I myself paid a little more as tips. I liked that open-ness and promptness he showed.

note: this is just my observation and experience during my stay in that city, it doesn’t have to be the same for others – i had both good and not so good experience. I hope things do get better in future