Bliss on an IPL Thursday evening

April 30 started off  as a pretty ordinary Thursday. Left for work at the usual time, left the office at 5:30 pm, and picked up the kids from Vivaa International. Thursdays are ’swimming class off’ days for S, which meant it was bicycling time for both the kids. The exciting Delhi Daredevils vs. Deccan Chargers match was in progress so I persuaded the kids to cut short their cycling routine and we headed up to the apartment. Some Raheja cultural function was in progress which usually means that a pani puri/bhel puri stand magically appears near the club house. The family swung into an impromptu plan of entertainment for the evening (pani puris were calling out to us). Finished seeing the tail end of Deccan’s batting (Dwayne Smith hit a quickfire 48), gave the kids their bath and headed to Anand Sweets. P and I alternately got our pani-puri fix (btw, eating pani-puris solo is a lot more intense compared to a round-robin group experience). The kids got to pick their favorite sweet which they demolished in no time. Then off we went to Cafe Wisdom Lounge to pick up a big order of aloo parathas, gobi parathas and paneer parathas. We managed to reach home shortly after 8pm – just in time for match #22 (Chennai Superkings vs. Rajasthan Royals). We parked ourselves on the living room floor in front of the TV and started devouring the parathas and watched in awe as Suresh Raina put in a flawless dominating batting performance. The kids got to see the match until 9pm (later than their usual bed time but hey.. this was a special weekday evening). It’s season 2 of IPL and the Kuruganti family (including the kids) are loving it – Thursday evening was particularly blissful.

The Proud Man

This is part 1 of a two part series..

We bought a new Maruti Suzuki SX4 in early Sep 2008. Since I was not in a terrible hurry to drive in Bangalore traffic, we had to get a driver. The initial plan was to hire a temporary driver from one of the agencies (they’d be pricey but allegedly more reliable) – the rationale being that it would take longer to find a reliable driver. The plan fizzled out quickly since all the leads I got were either defunct listings on Asklaila or had gone out of business. I would find out much later (in March 2009) about EziDrive but that’s another story. We started getting driver leads from various quarters. The first lead was quite promising – a 22-year old chap (Sunil Kumar) referred by a driver-in-Adarsh-Vihar who sorta-knew-Sunil’s-brother-in-law. We’ll return to the italicized phrase in Part 2 of this story.

So what was promising about Sunil Kumar? For starters he spoke Hindi (very well). He also understood English. He knew the streets of Bangalore very very well (unlike many of the clueless taxi and auto drivers whom we encountered in the initial weeks). He lived in Balajinagar – pretty close to Koramangala. He looked honest and reliable. He had been driving for 3 years. We asked him for his references and he responded that his previous employer had moved to Hyderabad and he had misplaced his mobile number. We hired on a 2-week probation period with the intention of making him permanent (if he made the ‘cut’) while still keeping the search on for other drivers. As the two weeks drew to an end, we had lined up only one other candidate driver – recommended by a very good friend’s long-standing highly-reliable driver. Unfortunately that lad couldn’t speak Hindi to save his life. Needless to say, that conversation didn’t proceed much further. We also interviewed another driver who spoke passable Hindi but lived very far away so we ruled him out as well. Meanwhile, Sunil’s probation period had gone rather well. He impressed us with his safe driving skills, especially commendable because of his young age. He arrived promptly at 8am every day and his conduct throughout the initial weeks gave us no reason to doubt his attitude or character. This, combined with the fact that we had no credible alternative to compare with, was moving us inexorably towards making him permanent. The ‘deal terms’ discussion, with representation from his brother-in-law, converged quickly enough. 6-day work week, 10-hour working days, off on Sunday and a monthly salary of Rs. 6500. Coincidentally  my starting salary at Tata Steel 18 years ago  was Rs. 6600 – a princely amount for fresh engineering graduates. Inflation thy name!

Sunil is a short thin man of dark complexion with alert eyes. He looks older than his 22-years, not surprising considering he started working when he was 14 or 15. He lives with his parents, two sisters, a brother-in-law and a niece in a pucca house in Balajinagar. His father is a drunkard and a wastrel. His mother works in a semiconductor company as a janitor. One of his sisters also works and his brother-in-law is a driver who owns his own taxi. The commute from his home to ours is a 45 minutes walk. And walk he did every day, since his bicycle was stolen earlier by miscreants. 

To be continued…

The Urban Indian Steed (photo blog)

Sure, the number of automobiles on Indian roads has dramatically increased in the last 20 years but it still pales in comparison to the urban steeds that zip past lumbering 4-wheelers, zig & zag through gnarling traffic, and frustrate pedestrians when they get on the pavements in a bid to weave traffic jams. I’m referring of course to the timeless 2-wheelers of India – ranging from the venerable Bajaj scooters (a vanishing breed) to the automatic transmission scooters (Honda Activa & its kin) to the Royal Enfield Bullet (India’s Harley Davidson) to the ever evolving crop of 100cc/125cc/150cc motorcycles from Hero Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki & the indigenous Bajaj to the scooty (TVS-50 et al).

Between the LML Vespa scooter I used to ride in Jamshedpur (1992-94) and the Suzuki GS-700ES I used to ride during my Chicago years (1995-1998), I have fond memories of the ‘wind in my hair’ whether I used a Studds or a Shoei helmet. It may thus surprise the reader to discover that the rest of this blog (the photographs I’ve collated in the past 3 months) have nothing to do with ‘riding into the sunset’ motorcycle rider. Rather, it is about the diverse type (& number) of passengers and cargo that are laden behind the 2-wheeler’s driver. The concept of a ‘pillion’ itself is redefined in India – you can have a mom & two kids sitting in the traditional pillion seat or you can have 2-3 kids sitting on top of the motorcycle’s tank or you can have a 4-10 year old kid standing on the front footboard of a scooter. In my first month in Bangalore, I even saw a scooter-driving mom with an infant in a Baby Bjorn equivalent sling – I was too shocked to whip out my trusty camera in time. With all these examples, shouldn’t we call the urban Indian steeds as MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle)?

I present to you a few urban steeds in the din and roar of the Indian roads living up to their multi-purpose image.

Insert here…

ABIDe promotes convenient Volvo transport

I first met Sanjay Anandaram (serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist) during the Dec 2008 Jethro Tull concert. We connected on the intellectual level and had some interesting conversations as we drove in Tridib’s car to Palace Grounds. Sanjay lives in Raheja and, while we haven’t met again in person, occasionally sends useful social & civic related emails. A few days ago, he sent this message about ABIDe (Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure & Development) exhorting Bengaluru residents to start using the newly commissioned and expanded Volvo public bus service using a corridor approach. Read on.

—- begin email —-

Dear Friends,

As you are aware, ABIDe (Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure & Development) Task Force, with the Chief Minister as Chairman, Mr. Ananth Kumar (MP-Bangalore South) as Vice Chairman and Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekar (MP – Rajya Sabha) as Convener, has been constituted to revive and rebuild Bengaluru through a combination of Comprehensive planning, improved municipal services and new investments into infrastructure. ABIDe also owns the task of providing a blue-print for sustainable and orderly development of Bangalore under Bengaluru Vision 2020.

I and Ashwin Mahesh (IIM-B), are entrusted with the task of suggesting solutions to the Traffic and Transport issues of Bangalore – A tough job indeed . Please visit http://abidebengaluru.in/report/show/7 to read and give suggestions on our recommendations.

The Transportation team at ABIDe has identified public transport as the most important tool in reducing traffic congestion and chaos on Bangalore roads. Given that metro rail network is still some years away, Bus based public transport system is being promoted with a corridor approach.

To promote public transport and make travel hassle free, 10 major arterial roads (Big-10) have been identified as high density traffic corridors which will be made junction/signal free with dedicated point-to-point Bus Services, both A/C and non-A/C buses, named as Big-10 service.

Priority Bus Lanes, Bus Bays, Paved Footpaths, Safe Pedestrian Crossings, Cycle Lanes (proposed) will also be introduced on these Big-10 routes. We have 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 month deadlines to accomplish all these Road Infrastructure Improvement objectives on all Big-10 Corridors. Please visit ABIDe website for corridor and other details. – http://www.abidebengaluru.in

However, deployment of Big-10 and Hop-on Hop-Off (HoHo) Bus Services has already begun.

Out of 10 Corridors Big-10 Bus Service is already in operation on Hosur Road (Vellara Jn – Electronic City) and HAL Airport Road (Trinity Jn – Whitefield-Hope Farm jn). This is proving to be extremely popular. Next week Bannerghatta Road Big-10 Service will start. In next 2 months all 10 Corridors will have Big-10 Bus Service with a frequency of 5-10 minutes, both A/C and Non-A/C Service.

This service CONVENIENTLY connects with Central Business District (CBD) HoHo Service (Kendra Sarige) at Vellara Jn on Hosur Rd and Trinity Jn on HAL Airport rd respectively. This makes it extremely convenient for anyone living and commuting on these routes to use this Big-10 Service in conjunction with CBD HoHo service to reach any point in the city including all shopping malls and offices, without the need to take their private vehicles to work or shop.

I have myself used these services and they are extremely convenient and efficient.

Please encourage all your friends and colleagues to use these BUS services. Traffic congestion will reduce only if we stop/reduce taking our cars to work and shop.
No amount of cribbing or road widening is going to help if we keep adding private cars to our roads. Now we have the comfortable and convenient public transport in close proximity to our homes and work places, lets use it and help our city and the environment.

PS: Please send this e-mail to your friends and colleagues with suitable modifications as you deem fit. We need to popularize public transport through media, blogs, personal contacts and word of mouth, to save Bangalore from traffic chaos.

—— end email —–

Kuruganti Roots in Vijayawada

We are in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) at my parents’ house for the holidays. This is my fifth trip since my parents moved here in 1994 and is easily the most enjoyable trip to date. My grandfather’s (dad’s dad) banking career was spent at Andhra Bank and Central Bank. He was getting transferred to new towns every few years so my dad’s family moved a lot. Turns out a significant chunk of time was spent in Vijayawada. I pestered my dad to take me around town and show me important landmarks like the houses they lived in and the schools they went to. He obliged and we had a fun 2 hours zig-zagging through some old neighbourhoods of Vijayawada. Here is a pictorial view of the Kuruganti roots in Vijayawada:

Ram Mohan Reading Library Entrance:

Ram Mohan Reading Library (my dad my dad was practically a fixture here from 1951 to 1953):

Ram Mohan Reading Library Missing Staircase (in Feb 1952, my dad met his spiritual guru on the top floor after a lecture):

Bala Krishna Bhavan in One Town Vijayawada (dad’s family rented a few rooms on the top floor right ~ early 1950’s):

SKPVV Hindu High School Vijayawada – my dad studied Grade 5 at this school.

My dad in front of his old classroom location. The school had a rather ‘interesting’ tradition where the academic topper got to slap the rest of his classmates. My dad was on the right end of those slaps

This used to be a single-storey rental building where my dad’s family lived for a year:

Renowned Ayurvedic practitioner Nori Rama Sastry’s Office was right next to the previous rental building. On an impulse, we went inside the office and met the Ayurvedic great’s grandson and his great-grandson who were very hospitable.

SRR & CRV Government Degree College (my dad did his Intermediate/+2 here):

Anjaney Temple next to SRR College (this is where my dad & his friends would diligently come to before all their exams to seek divine intervention):

Memories of an American Life – First Two Years in Houston

This is Part 2 of a 3-part series on my life in America spanning Houston, Chicago and SF Bay Area. Part 1 was Memories of an American Life – 4 years in Chicago. I arrived in Houston, Texas on August 16, 1992 with one friend (my friend & classmate from BIT Ranchi – Namita Raghavan). I left the city in October 1994 (headed to Chicago) with a Masters degree, several dozen good friends, and plenty of good memories. Below are some of my fond recollections:

• Seeing Namita’s friendly face  at the airport.
• My first experience of American freeways in Soumya’s tiny 1992 Dodge Colt with cars whizzing by on both sides.
• Eating my first Pizza Hut pizza at Namita’s Cambridge Oaks apartment the evening I arrived. 
• Experiencing campus life at University of Houston during the first semester.
• Starting my book collection via Houston Public Library’s annual book sale at the Astrodome. In Shiv’s words that day, I bought books like people buy potatoes.
• Teaching Fortran Programming to a class of 45+ sophomores. Enuf said – I survived!
• Interviewing at Compaq for an internship and learning that they had so many employee groups moving offices, they needed to build a system to optimize it.
• Getting a summer internship at Grumman Technical Services and a brief exposure to a quaint 4GL called Peregrine Systems.
• Buying my first car – a maroon 1984 manual transmission Volkswagen Jetta.
• Tequila shots with Naveen, Shiv, Asmi, and a Mexican couple (pursuing Ph.D in Economics). Btw, no self-respecting Mexican does ’shots’ – they drink their Tequila straight up.
• Singlehandedly demolishing a large Pizza Hut pizza in under 30 minutes. My witness and co-glutton was my dear friend Naveen who, as I was his witness, also demolished a large pizza.
• 36-hour Greyhound trip from Houston to Charlottesville, Virginia. Developed a fresh appreciation for vegetarian choices available in large cities (read “Houston”).
• Exciting day at Astroworld – my first trip to a Six Flags theme park.
• Continuing Soumya’s fine tradition of driving the 41 mile 610 Interstate loop in the wee hours of the morning as a ‘reward’ for completing assignments.
• Driving Soumya’s Dodge Colt on 610E in the left lane and discovering that the brakes had stopped working. Thanks to my non-panicky copilot (was it Gorty?), managed to execute a sequence of nervy lane changes which eventually brought us safely to the shoulder.
• Renting a Toyota Camry and driving nearly continuously (for 36 hours) to Minneapolis. My cousin Swarna (who was doing her MBA at Baylor University, Waco) was the fearless copilot. Getting my first ever speeding ticket at Huntsville (just 60 miles north of Houston) was the rite of passage. And to think that if Soumya hadn’t loaned me a fuzz-buster, I might have been clocked at 100mph!
• Road trip to Tampa, Florida over a Labor Day Weekend with Soumya. Rental car: Pontiac Grand Prix with a moon-roof and fancy steering controls. We perfected the art of “zero stop” driving.
• Awesome trip to the Big Bend National Park with Soumya & Naveen. We fell asleep in the car in front of the Visitor Center and woke up to see the majestic mountains up close. We dined in Alice’s Restaurant (a vegetarian restaurant to boot) in Terlingua – aka “Ghost Town”.

100 Days in Bangalore (Part 2)

Continued from 100 Days in Bangalore (Part 1)…

If you’ve read Why we are moving back to India or Brother or Best Friend, you know that one of the big reasons for moving to India was to spend more time with the family. My parents’ two-week visit in October provided the first treat on that front. Li’l A was meeting his grandparents for the first time but it only took him a few hours to ‘bond’ – for the next two weeks the grandparents were twirling to his tune. An unexpected bonus during my parents’ visit was that my brother also made a business trip to Bangalore and spent a few evenings with us. He also made another business trip in November when we spent some quality time together. I’m completing this post from my parents’ flat in Vijayawada where we’re spending our Christmas + New Years holidays. I can’t recall the last time we’ve had such an enjoyable, relaxing and satisfying family vacation. 

Health Check: Ever since our decision to move to India (and specifically to Bangalore), asthma has been like the proverbial Sword of Damocles.  I had struck an optimistic note in Asthma, Bangalore and me…  but deep in my heart I feared it was more a case of when rather than if I would be afflicted with asthma again. I’m relieved to report that four months after moving to Bangalore, I’ve managed to remain asthma-free. Sure – I’ve been running a few miles twice weekly (on most weeks) and avoiding the traffic pollution diligently but I still consider myself fortunate so far. All else pales into insignificance — a few episodes of cold, cough & throat infection and a particularly nasty case of mouth ulcers (which lasted a whole month). The rest of the family has also had a relatively decent health report in the past four months. Li’l A had a minor ear infection, one throat infection and several bouts of cold & cough. S also had a few bouts of cold and cough but nothing serious. 

Friends in Bangalore:  What’s life without friends, eh? We landed in Bangalore comforted with the knowledge that many of our friends were already Bangalore residents. Our friends spanned the whole gamut of our different location circles – friends from Bokaro Xaviers, Vizag Timpany School, BIT Ranchi classmates, Jamshedpur TISCO colleagues, Houston, Chicago, SF Bay Area, ex-Yahoos. I even discovered an old squash partner from Decathlon Club, Santa Clara who relocated to Bangalore 6 years ago. I threw a surprise birthday party for P on the second weekend and managed to get our group of friends from Vizag/Bokaro/Bay Area for the surprise. We met with Rajnish and Meena (friends from Vizag) during Diwali. Our most regular interactions have been with Raheja Residency neighbours Gayatri and Srinath – since they moved from Bay Area same time as us, we are always comparing notes. We also met up with Mekin (fellow ex-Yahoo) and his wife (Raheja residents), Jagan (another Yahoo-Bay Area colleague who transferred to the Bangalore office), and Anirban (BIT classmate who moved to Bangalore in 2002). It’s not an exaggeration to say that every month I’m discovering yet another friend in Bangalore.

Friends from America: During our Farewell USA Road Trip, our midwest and east coast friends predicted that they’d see us more often in Bangalore than if we had remained in Bay Area. If the last 4 months are any indication, their prediction is right-on. Our friend from Dallas (Nanda) was in Hyderabad for a month to teach a course at ISB – he visited our place for a weekend and we had a mini-Bokaro reunion. Then there was Sanjeev (our friend from Palo Alto, California) who was in Bangalore for a business trip – he spent an evening with us. Amit (my BIT classmate & Yahoo colleague) came to spend time with his parents in Indiranagar and we met for lunch. Met with Venky (another Bay Area friend & Yahoo-colleague) at his parents’ house in Basavanagudi in Nov. Murali (our friend from Chicago) was in Bangalore for a business+personal trip and we spent an evening together. In early December, we spent several evenings together with our New Jersey friends (Subrata & Sujata) during their Bangalore visit. Since Subrata’s parents live in the same Raheja Residency apartment block as us, it was extra convenient too.

Eating Places: We certainly expected a superior culinary experience in Bangalore and so far we’ve not been disappointed. Here are some of the places that made an impression:

• MTR: Our first family trip to this venerable Bangalore eatery was not an earth-shattering experience but the Diwali special MTR lunch at Adobe blew me away!
• Sukh Sagar: A non-frills 100% vegetarian place with good idlis, dosas & sandwiches monopolized our dining during the initial Raheja weeks as our kitchen was still being established. We still visit this place occasionally. 
• More Than Parathas: If you like rich & yummy Punjabi food and snacks, you’ll love this place. First visit was with my work group. Resolved to return with the family in tow.
• Mast Kalandar: 100% vegetarian restaurant chain started by a Wipro alumni couple. Food for P’s surprise party was catered from here. Lot of great parathas and paneer delicacies. Their shikhanji is awesome! 
• Bon South: A high-end South Indian fusion restaurant which we finally visited in early December. My mouth ulcers handicapped taste buds couldn’t fully appreciate it but P and the kids loved it. We are definitely returning – probably for a buffet this time.
• Wisdom Lounge: Recommended by Mekin, this place has shot to the top of our ‘most favored dining destination’ list. A very quaint home-style restaurant with a lounge decor and excellent food (deserves a separate review).
• Cafe Terra: Cute Italian/Thai/Indian cafe & restaurant owned and started by Ranjeet Ranade – another Bay Area Indian American who returned to Bangalore 3 years ago (more in a separate review).

Jethro Tull at Palace Grounds, Bangalore

I did the following short li’l summary of my Tull concert experience in the 100 Days in Bangalore post. What I’m adding to this post is the concert discography (which I had tweeted) and a few Qik videos which you should check out only if you are a Tull die-hard (there are no audiophile or videophile gems here).

Thanks to my dear biwi, I was alerted about Tull’s Dec 2 concert in Bangalore at the Palace Grounds. I couldn’t believe it! If I needed a musical ‘welcome home’, this was it. I’ve been to 4 prior Tull concerts (three in Chicago, Illinois and one in San Jose, California) and I don’t miss an opportunity when Tull comes a touring. My dear biwi (bless her heart again!) was going to hold the home fort on Dec 2 (a weekday evening) while I indulged myself. Found several colleagues who were Tull enthusiasts so eventually we had a gang of five. A dear friend from SF Bay Area had to cancel his business trip due to illness so spot#5 got filled in the eleventh hour by another dear friend (from my Xaviers Bokaro days). Considering that this concert took place 5 days after the Mumbai attacks, we headed to the concert with some mixed feelings but ended up having a rollicking time. Ian Anderson was at his entertaining best. It was not a classic Tull concert – Part 1 was Anoushka Shankar and her troupe, Part 2 was classic Tull, and Part 3 was a fusion with Tull and Anoushka. The encore closer was a very unique and incredible live variation of Locomotive Breath with sitar and bansoori blending in exquisitely.

Discography (Part 2 onwards):

• Living in the past
• Serenade to a cuckoo
• Nursie
• Too old to rock and roll, too young to die. (Ian dedicated this to 65 yr old Sir Mick Jagger)
• New day yesterday
• Heavy Horses
• Thick as a Brick (abridged version)
• Aqualung
• (Part 3) Tea with Anoushka
• (Part 3) Celtic Cradle? A fusion of celtic, irish & indian music. Tull with Anoushka (on sitar) & Tanmoy Bose (on tabla).
• (Part 3) Mother Goose with Anoushka and 2 block flutes. 
• (Part 3) Little Glass folk – very orchestral fusion piece which eventually turned out to be real good.
• Bouree
• Locomotive Breath. Adding the bansuri, sitar & tabla was a GREAT touch to this seminal live performance! 

Great fusion piece from Part 3: 

Another great fusion piece from Part 3: 

Locomotive Breath Live Fusion with Bansoori and Sitar: 

A li’l bit of Heavy Horses:

A New Day Yesterday:

And… taking the bow at the closer:

Masti ki paathshala (for the First Grader Wannabe)

(Note: This started off as a school-centric post for both our 5.5 year old and the almost 3-year old but is now focused entirely on the former.) 

We had seen Rang De Basanti earlier this year so the song Masti ki Paathshala was still fresh in my mind. Masti ki Paathshala (in Hindi) translates to School of Fun. Our goal was to find a school with the right balance between academic rigor and masti. When I made the 2-week trip to India in June, I was fortunate to meet a VC in Bangalore. This VC had moved back to India 3 years earlier and had done a thorough research of the Bangalore schools. He shared his perspective in a most useful way. He categorized the four major school boards (ICSE, CBSE, Karnataka State Board, and IGCSC) across two dimensions:

• Emphasis on theory vs. practical education
• Strictness of the teaching staff (e.g. “Very Strict” = rule by fear, “Mild” = American-style)

This is how he drew the table:

School Board	% Theory	Teaching Strictness
State Board	95%	Very Strict
CBSE	70%	Strict
ICSE	50%	Mild-Strict
IGCSE	20%	Mild

Most Indians are aware of the first three types of school boards. The last one was unfamiliar to me until we started planning our move to India in full earnest. IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), started in 1988, is a two-year programme, spread over Class 9 and 10, and leads to the final examinations offered every year in May and November. It is conducted by two UK assessment bodies: Edexcel (also known as London Examinations) and Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). IGCSE is described as a balanced curriculum and a flexible course of study with an emphasis on practical approach to teaching and learning. This Rediff article provides a good primer on IGCSE.

Both P and I had attended ICSE schools and neither of us had any complaints about the ICSE board. What I recall is that there was always a healthy debate on whether CBSE or ICSE schools were better. I vaguely recall reading that CBSE school students did better in engineering college entrance examinations. I’ll confess that the State Board schools didn’t figure high in our calculations due to the following reasons: majority of our peer group are either ICSE or CBSE school alums, mandatory local language, and a high pedagogy coefficient.

In this post, I’m not attempting a comprehensive analysis of Bangalore schools. Bangalore Schools and Chitra Aiyer’s blog post (A list of good schools in Bangalore) are noteworthy sites on this front. Our perspective was biased by a small number of recommendations from our social graph. While some parents finalize the schools first (which automatically impose a certain residential zone), we picked Koramangala for the following reasons: its community, location convenience, and comfortable commuting distance. The clincher was that our top school picks were all within fighting distance from Koramangala: 

• National Public School (Koramangala & HSR Layout Branches)
• Greenwood High School
• Delhi Public School (DPS)
• Bethany High School

The odds were stacked against us since we arrived in Bangalore a few months after the school year had started. You are already aware of our initial tryst with NPS (described in The curious case of the traveling chairman). They didn’t have any open slots for midyear admission but we applied for the next academic year. At the time of writing this post, we are awaiting news from both NPS Koramangala and NPS HSR Layout on whether they’d invite S for an admission test (in Jan and March respectively). Bethany also didn’t have any open slots for midyear admission but we had heard enough good things to keep on our list for next year. DPS, by virtue of being a solid national brand, was a strong contender but we didn’t try for midyear admission since we didn’t want S to have a long commute in the first year. Which brings us to the reasons why we ended up picking Greenwood High for S:

• Several friends (including that VC friend) recommended it as a very good ’soft landing’ for returning-from-America kids
• While it’s a new school, the school administrators have a shared pedigree with the venerable Bethany
• Curriculum, teaching style and facilities suggest an International bent with an emphasis on extra-curricular activities

The main criticism we heard about Greenwood was its high teacher turnover. We figured we’d keep an eye on that trend for the first year and take our chances. Our current thinking is to continue S at Greenwood High unless he gets admission into one of the NPS branches.

Ode to Humpty Dumpty

My 13-year old niece in Cupertino, California wrote this ode for an English assignment. As you can see, it is heavily influenced by King Arthur era English (which I absolutely love). She sadly doesn’t have a Facebook account yet (despite lobbying from her uncle) so I promised to post this on my blog (after getting permission from her mom). Read on and imagine medieval times….

 

 

O proud egghead who stays

Sitting on thy beautiful granite stone

In a wilde release of gravity fall

Pulls thee over thy granite wall

Never to be return’d to thy position again

The king is brought before thee

Along with his gallant steeds and his men

Cannot aide you onto thy proud boulder

For thou shalt not be put back together again.

But egghead, do not wallow in sorrow.

 

Banish now thy doubt of being forgotten

Places of learning sing hymns of thy greatness

Miniature persons worship thee

Thou art the famous egg forever

Thou shalt not be forgotten by the world.

Steeds and their men still remember thee

And recall how thee was aided

Great men hangst their heads in never ending shame

Because thou could not be put back on thy stone

No, thou could never be put back again.

 

Thy greatness is cherished nationwide

O great egghead do not fear

Tales told of thee spread far and wide

Across the lands of present time

And now I praise thee, Humpty Dumpty.

Thou art the greatest egghead who

Ever strideth across the white sands of time

And thou art famous for falling that fateful day

Falling off your granite wall, but alas!

Never to be put back again.