Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Movie Review - Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway

The new movie, out on Netflix, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway touches on one aspect of Non Resident Indian (NRI) life. Here's a movie review posted by Sujatha (my better half):

A true compelling story about an immigrant mother’s struggle in a foreign land

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is a compelling story about an immigrant mother’s struggle to get her two small kids back from the Norwegian Child Welfare Services.

The leading character of Debika is depicted as a vulnerable wife and mom who faces domestic violence  and is blamed and labelled mentally unfit wife and a bad mother who is incompetent of taking care of her own children. The director has taken quite an artistic liberty in portraying the character. Cultural and ethnic differences create problems and play a huge part in the case against Debika. Rani Mukherjee has got into the skin of the character and has done justice to the role by bringing in true emotions and feelings that touches one deep and makes us question how could a whole organization run a racket of separating biological parents from their kids and put them for adoption just to make some money. It feels there is no value for human life. It also shows that a strong willed mother can fight the whole society or the government to get back her children like a lioness fighting for her cubs.

As an NRI wife who has lived and seen the challenges that a new bride faces in a new country I could empathize with Debika’s plight and how Rani vividly brought that to life.

I've been a big fan of Rani Mukherjee and love this character role. It is remarkable to see her transition to the role of a "mom" effortlessly. 

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Lessons on dealing with Cauvery water supply issue at home in Bengaluru

After moving back from the US a few years ago, my wife and I have been living in the house that my dad had built nearly three decades ago – after all, the house now belongs to me and is centrally located in a nice neighborhood in Bengaluru.  

During the years since we built the house, the neighborhood has transformed. Our house has enjoyed continuous water supply for decades since my parents moved in. Therefore, I was rather surprised to find water supply from the mains had become rather erratic during the past few weeks. 

Houses in urban India are designed with a large ‘sump’ to store water from civic supply, that is supplied alternative days along with an overhead water pump. We had the supply routine noted in our calendars, but for a week or so in early January our sump started running out of water. Water supply in urban Bengaluru is managed by BWSSB, colloquially known as ‘Cauvery water,’ since the water is pumped upstream from Cauvery River. 

I checked around with our neighbors and was told they didn’t face any issues. It was only our house that was facing issue with water supply, which felt rather strange. 

I decided to call the local BWSSB line-man Avinash, who came and inspected the meter and pipe coming from the mains. Local line-men are the first point of contact since they operate the ‘valves’ from water mains into residential neighborhoods. Avinash didn’t find have any issues or blockage that perplexed us further. He suggested that I lodge a written complain at the local BWSSB office that he would review with the area AE (Assistant Engineer).

The issue continued to persist for weeks and in the interim I had to call for a local water-tanker to come and supply water into our sump. 

The sump at home had been designed to store about 2-3000 liters of water, just sufficient for a couple of days for our family of four. In the meantime, I took to social media and began tweeting about the issue too. 
While the tweet generated a few likes, comments and re-tweets, it didn’t lead to action or a response from officials. During the weeks following, I also lodged a complain in BBMP’s complaint management system and also on Sahaaya 2.0 (Namma Bengaluru) city corporation’s complaint App. These systems simply generated a ticket number, but didn’t lead to any action. 

In the meantime, I continued to call the lineman every couple of days to see if there was a follow up. He came home with his supervisor who asked me to record the meager flow of water that we were receiving on my smartphone. I also got the phone number of the local AE and sent him a message with my issue along with the video of the water supply.

Lessons on dealing with BWSSB water supply issue


During the last weekend in January, I read about a ‘Water Adalat’ (complaint hearing) that the commissioner of BBMP was conducting that day between 9 an 11 AM. 



I called the hotline at 9 AM and found the line was busy but I persisted and continued to call the phone line every few minutes. I finally got through at about 10 AM. An official took down my Water supply account number, name and address and connected me to his superior. The officer heard my rather brief request and promised to send the local engineer to resolve our issue. 

About 2 hours after my call with the commissioner, the lineman, his supervisor and the Engineer came by our house. The AE asked a few pertinent questions and speculated that our water line, drawn from the mains by the main road years ago may have changed. 

The Engineer suggested that could draw water from the water mains that had now come winding by adjacent to our compound. He agreed that the change of line would be the responsibility of BWSSB, while I would have to pay to get the pipe inside our compound re-routed to the new inlet from the mains. 

I called my plumber to figure out the re-routing of inlet pipes from the mains and the lineman brought in labor to work on the connection to the water mains from the road.

In India, unlike in the west, cartography of public water, sewage and other services aren’t well mapped or documented. This leads to a lot of guess-work while digging roads and other public areas for utilities. The guys dug a 3-feet wide circle adjacent to the road about 3-feet deep but weren’t able to strike the mains. 


They left after covering up the dig and said they’d be back the next day, but didn’t come back as promised. They came back after a week citing other work emergencies by which I had to order another tanker of water. When they started digging a bit deeper in the same spot, they found the water mains and went on to connect it to the line my plumber had already extended from our house.

That evening, when the water was supplied to the mains, water supply to our house resumed. Finally; after about 3-4 weeks of complains and calling.



Lesson learnt: 
  • While dealing with public officials, be persistent and pursue the matter at the top and also work with local officials 
  • If you are able to reach a top official, it will streamline the communication and ensure your work gets done promptly. 

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Without music, life would be a mistake – Sivamani makes an appearance at Ganesh Kumaresh Celebrating 50 years of Musical

One of my resolutions for the New Year was to take a few spontaneous breaks from my daily routine. I decided to act on this yesterday when I saw an article in the local paper announcing a concert by the Violinists “Ganesh Kumaresh Celebrating 50 years of Musical." I immediately went online and booked a ticket for the show  scheduled for the evening.

Ganesh and Kumaresh are noted Indian duo of violin players best known as proponents of modern contemporary a.k.a fusion genera of music. The dynamic brothers, who grew up as child prodigies, carved a niche in the  contemporary Carnatic genera. The brothers have gone deeper into the realm of the music and brought out a refreshingly original content and instrumental style. Fusion style includes ‘western style’ of percussion, guitars and drums played alongside modified Carnatic Ragas. The duo began the concert with a few of their popular compositions from their albums and went on to mesmerize the audience for a couple of hours. 

At the end of the first half of the concert, a previous unannounced “special guest” made an appearance and the crowd burst into raptures. Indian percussionist “Drum” Sivamani took to the stage in his signature style, switching between drums, cymbals and other instruments, enthralling the audience. It was fascinating to enjoy and see the showman in action. 

As the old adage goes, Music speaks the language of the soul. And I was glad I took the spontaneous decision to attend the concert and to be lost in the music.

Monday, January 2, 2023

Narayana Murthy and Narendra Modi: Two unlikely examples of extremes in work-life balance in modern India?

 Towards the end of 2022 came two stories demonstrating distinct tradeoffs of work-life balance in modern India that make one reflect. Here is my video on the topic



The 76-year-old godfather of Indian outsourcing, Narayana Murthy, spoke about the time he devoted to building Infosys and how it came at the cost of spending quality time with his two children. In interviews, was quoted saying he was so dedicated to building the software services company that for years he would reach his office every morning at 6.20 am and work till 8 or 9 pm into the night. Mr Murthy was reflecting on the growth of the company and how it came at the cost of spending quality time with his two children.

Another story is that of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose mother passed away at 99 a few days ago. Immediately after attending to her funeral rites, Mr. Modi resumed his official duties.  A few hours after his mother’s cremation in Gandhinagar, PM Narendra Modi virtually flagged off a host of infrastructure projects, designed to galvanize West Bengal and Kolkata.

In my years in the corporate world, I have worked with scores of middle-managers and executives who have dedicated their lives to being “corporate men,” foregoing their personal commitments. Like Mr Narayana Murthy regrets in his sunset years, spending quality time with his children. They are driven to the extreme and don’t mind hopping on a plane at a day’s notice for the next bid or client project. They are willing to get on calls at 6AM or 9PM and just don’t let their personal life come in the way of their work commitments and more.



The fact is that leaders like Mr. Modi, Naranaya Murthy and the workaholic colleague are outliers.

Most of us are not. We rightfully strive to balance our work-life priorities. Quoting eastern philosophy, most of us strive to balance the Yin-Yang of life without getting into extremes.