Vijay Basrur

My first Scuba Diving experience

I decided to scuba dive at one of the beaches off Arbatax. Though I was a bit apprehensive about doing it (the breathing through the mouth kinda got be thinking) once I saw others do it, I was raring to go.

It was an incredible experience being underwater & watching all the fish swimming so close. I got a wee bit uncomfortable towards the end and decided to bail out a few mins before the session ended. The video grab makes it great to relive those moments

The entire photo set is available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/basrur/sets/72157621967840887/detail/

Tags: holiday, scuba

Balloon Seller

I’ve been meaning to write about this experience some time back but it just slipped by.

There is a balloon seller who stands at the corner of the road near my Mom’s place. He is there every single day from 7:30 pm to 9 pm. A simple guy who is quite cordial and makes some amazing types of balloon. We usually buy a balloon or two from him whenever my nephew demands it.

For Mansi’s birthday, we wanted to put up some balloons and thought about him. So Snehal approached him a few days before with the offer of putting up about 30-40 odd balloons in the afternoon. He agreed and said he would come before 4 pm for sure. He requested for an advance. We agreed. But since he didn’t have any contact information we were a bit worried if he would pull a fast one on us. He said if he has taken money, he has given his word and won’t let us down.

On the day of Mansi’s birthday he didn’t turn up till 2 pm and that got us a bit worried since we were banking on him. Thankfully he rang the bell at about 3 pm and was very apologetic about the delay. We were quite fine with it since he had said that he would take about 20 minutes to blow 40 ballons.

So he came in, sat down on the floor and started blowing away. Upon a casual chat where I checked if was keeping very busy and therefore got late, he replied with a sad face that he lost his son the day before and was tied up with some last rites.

My jaw dropped and I was shocked. Did I hear him right? So I double checked. He repeated the same thing again with some more details. It turned out that his son went to help out to clean the drainage system for the muncipal authorities, slipped and got drowned in it.

Snehal heard him from the kitchen and came out with a expression of shock. We both stood there, looking at the ballon seller, in silence. We were in that state for over 2-3 minutes. I gathered the courage to tell him that it was really fine if he wanted to go back and the balloons were not really that important. But he insisted that his word was more important that anything. Since he had taken the money he didn’t want to let us down.

I cried. I wanted to touch his feet.

Moments like these make life worth living. God bless him with more happiness than he dreams of.

Tags: inspirations

Animation institutes bullcrap

Disney owns Pixar so they are technically one comapny.

And what does Disney & Pixar like animation companies mean? are there many of those? and in India?

These guys are kidding with the careers of the kids who sign up.

Tags: animation, bullcrap

Birthdays

Birthdays are always so special, especially if its ours or at least someone who’s close in the family. But when you get invited for a birthday party its a different thing altogether.

When we were kids getting invited to a birthday party was a thrill with no expectations. The fare was pretty standard. A samosa, some chips, some games, cake, a drink and if you were lucky, something to take back home, balloons/pencil/eraser or something very simplistic.

These days birthdays tend to be events. There is an elaborate menu, professional decorators, sometimes professional venues like Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, professional entertainers and highly customized expensive return gifts. Somehow though the thrill still prevails for children, the expectations keep increasing.

We (both my wife & me) don’t like it. We would rather keep things simple. For our daughter’s first birthday we took her to an orphanage and donated necessary things on her behalf. Just the experience moves you to tears and makes you thankful to God for everything you have in life. In the evening we had a small gathering with close family. So far so good.

Now that vacations are over & school has reopened, all of Mansi’s friends (or fans) are back and demanded a party. Most of them are from our building and dote over Mansi every evening when she goes for her evening stroll. So we were faced with this task of hosting a birthday party for kids.

We wanted to do something different. While we picked up small gifts for everyone, Snehal did something really interesting. She managed to involve a few kids in the party planning. 2 kids helped out in making hand made cards. 2 of them were responsible for decoration (which is basically choosing what goes where, not the doing part). One of them suggested we add something sweet in the menu. We made veg/cheese sandwiches, corn/cheese balls, chips & custard/jelly.

The party was fun. The kids had a lot of fun dancing & playing games. Some even took home prizes. The food didn’t interest them that much but the all of them were very eager to get their return gift. The curiosity & the smiles on their faces are a pleasure to watch. So all in all it was a great albeit tiring evening.

While we are sure these parties will get bigger as Mansi grows older, there are a few things we are hoping to continue, on Mansi’s birthday, as time goes by

• Visit any Orphanage (we are hoping to do this twice every year). Try and inculcate the joy of sharing.
• We would urge her to give away something precious on her birthday so that she doesn’t get attached to materialistic things as she grows up.
• Relive the simplistic things in life, with her friends if required. Something like a picnic, a double decker bus ride (I hope they are still around), a visit to the beach (with bhelpuri) etc.
• Enjoy the day. Let her do whatever she wants to but make sure its safe

Amen!

Tags: birthdays, mansi

Verification Call

So I get nagged by a sales rep to sign me up for a new credit card disguised as a loyalty card. I give in thinking of the poor guy’s daily targets.

A few days later I get a “verification call”. Here goes the conversation
Agent (A): Good Evening Mr. Vijay
Me (M): Good Evening
A: I am calling from **** Bank. This is further to your application for a credit card
M: Yes I know. Go ahead
A: This is a verification call. Can I go ahead?
M: Yes
A: Is your name Vijay Basrur?
M: Yes
A: Is your DOB **/**/1972?
M: Yes
A: Is your residential address *********?
M: Yes
A: Is your residence phone number *******?
M: Yes
A: Is your office address ******?
M: Yes
A: Is your office phone number *****?
M: Yes
A: Have you been working here for the past ** months?
M: Yes
A: Do you want the billing address to be residence or office?
M: Residence
A: Thank You Sir. Have a good day
M: Are you sure this was a verification call? Because all I said was Yes and nothing else.
A: Umm Yes Sir
M: Shouldn’t you have asked me the information and cross checked it with your records?
A: But that is the process Sir.
M: Thanks
A: Welcome Sir

I rest my case for this supremely stupid process.

Tags: customer service, Humour, verification call

One Year

Usually when you look back upon a year after any important event, you always try and recollect the year gone by in a compressed format with memories just whizzing past. At the end of it you can’t believe that its’ been a year since then!

This time it isn’t any different but the importance of it is significant.

Our daughter completed 1 year about 10 days back and looks like we graduated to the next phase of being parents. It has been wonderful too see her grow up and even though there have been tough times, somehow in the memories that come back, all of it is fun!

I think watching a child grow forces you to notice the small things in life. The first time she sits up, the first time she ate on her own, the first time she had ice cream and all such. This is a very important learning. The more you start enjoying the smaller pleasures of life, the more enjoyable life turns out to be.

Another huge learning has been experiencing selfless service to my daughter. She doesn’t expect you to change her nappy. You want to do it for her. But when she is not in a mood to change and you want her to, so that you can get on to the next task, you must realize that it is a lost battle. When it comes to my daughter, she is the BOSS (which is our paediatrician favourite punch line) If you have to change her nappy don’t always expect a co-operating daughter. Having no expectations really helps in being happy at whatever life throws at you.

I recently came across a wonderful article on parenting a daughter. Please do read it. The article is called What I have learned raising a daughter (Thus far)

We are sure in the times ahead, we will experience even more joy in our efforts of bringing up Mansi. We hope we can give it our best shot. Keep watching this space.

PS: We celebrated a few days back since we spotted Mansi’s first tooth

Tags: mansi, parenting

Passport Verification

We got lucky that we could complete the passport verification for Snehal yesterday. It saved me the trouble of taking half the day off. You pretty much need that half day since you need to make at least 2 to 3 visits before you can complete the task. When I went for the first time, I was asked to furnish copies of some of the documents which I had not carried along. The second time around I was asked to give a copy of Snehal’s old passport (of which there was no mention in the first meeting). So back I went & returned with the copy.

That was the final call and I though’t I’d be done with it. But heck no! There was the customary kharcha paani before I was assured that the task was done.

But I was relieved at the end of it and I am hoping the passports come in soon.

Tags: passport