Too Many Homes To Live!!!

Hi All,

Monsoon continues, as I type down my post the rain drops pitter patter on my window panes. How many of us get to experience of sitting the window side when it rains with a coffee mug or a good book or gaze at a beautiful sight outside??? All those pleasures might be simple yet they are lovable...enjoy the simplest pleasures of life :)

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 "For the Global Bengalurian"

                                           "Your Dream is just a touch away"        

                                                                                               "Welcome to the Land of Prosperity"

  "Charms is what we build"

                            "10 mins from Airport, 5mins from Main road"

                                                                               "Adjacent to Tech park..walkable to work place"       

    "Futuristic Homes, Realistic Prices"  

Ufff....give me a break! so many tag lines, not cheesy definitely interesting, but how many??? Open the newspaper and you find a zillion ads from property developers in and around Bangalore. Should be the case with other cities too. So many developments scare the hell out of me coz I hate to imagine Bangalore as just another concrete jungle. Already most part of Bangalore has become so. Imagine, as newcomer if I am feeling so bad for a green city, how would the natives feel? Don't they blame it all on the migrants??? 

The interesting part or the fact of the matter is that, migrants are not the big reason for so many increasing developments. It’s that Real Estate/Development Company’s greed, and rich people's wealth that has enormously contributed to the concrete jungle. If you can't agree with me, there was an article in the newspaper about the  municipal statistical survey results done in Bangalore a month ago...which concluded that more than 30% of the new developments/homes were unoccupied. Not because of the unfinished works or misc reasons, but because most of those are a second home of the owner. This means, those homes were brought for the sake of an investment. And they were not rented out coz the owners are not in mood to earn on their second or third investment. Or another case is that, the owners are NRIs, so this would just be another investment in homeland. They are in no mood to come back and use the house nor they are in mood to rent it out to somebody they never saw and get into troubles. Then one might wonder why a house in India??? Just for the sake of it. Yes, they have it and they buy it. And the developer hunts for such buyers, woos with fancy tempting ad lines, super attractive offers etc. etc.; The common man who really wants to buy a home will either plan to rent it out to pay off his loans or stay in. But this is not the case with those more than 30% homes. 

Is this not contributing to more and more constructions without the actual need for all of them? This does not justify the demand-supply theory in any way. Perceiving this scenario in an economist’s stand point will say when any industry exceeds the production i.e supply more than what the market demands, it is definitely heading towards a decline. I work in this industry; I hate to see it decline. But, how will we stop this??? who will educate the developers??? Don’t they have a market research team or economists who analyses the pros and cons of the industry???

It is quite serious, but I don’t know how many of the construction/development companies give it a thought.

2008 American recession which had ripple effects all over the world, had several reasons out of which mortgaging was one of the huge reasons. Mortgage industry had also supplied more than what was required and hence, the drastic decline and a complete mishap. Do we really want to witness another here???

How can we avoid??? A simple three options…

1.) Don’t buy homes just for the investment sake, at least not in a Metro. There are many other investment options. Go for Gold instead!!!

2.) NRIs, if you never have the intention to come back, don’t invest here on homes…remember you are contributing to the ruins of a beautiful landscape!

3.) Developers…pleaseeeeeee stop being too greedy. 

Choose your option!

  

 <--------------------------You prefer this???

                                  

How awful it would be to live in this clustered concrete jungle?

Or this??? ----------------------> 

How beautiful a city would be if we can wake up to a sight of beautiful landscape or if we can gaze the marshes from an office window???

Cheers

Jyostna

I have an accent....do have a problem???

Hello Readers,

Have you had the pleasure of having the roasted corn which is done on the coal stove??? The desi way of roasting the corn by the street vendors in a cold monsoon season is the best. Love this season for enjoying this corn!!! If you never tried,....just rush out when it pours down, get a rain shower n grab a corn bite..you will know what I mean :) 

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I got an Accent, so what?? How does that matter to you?? and Why does it bother you? coz you did not have one??? I am so fed up with all those comments that I get to see or hear about foreign accents. I can't figure out why people assume that those foreign accents are all fake. On what basis could anyone determine what a real or fake accent is like? For that matter even the English accent that you learn at school should be fake coz it’s learnt.

When you stay away from your native place and make a living out in a different country. It’s quite normal that you pick up that area's accent. Some people might be quick to adopt and some may take some time or some might completely restrain themselves. It varies from person to person. "Accents seem to remain relatively malleable until a person's early twenties, after which a person's accent seems to become more entrenched" (Courtesy: Wiki) Moreover, an accent will give a better access to the regional people; also sometimes will get you acquainted very quickly. So I personally do not see any damage catching up the local accents. How come people make nasty comments to those who have a foreign accent? And it gets worse if  you bring back the accent to your native country? Hmm,… people start fussing about your new accent, more often when its American or British. 

Recently I stumbled upon a blog post where the author asked on an opinion poll on why people bring back fake accents...the comments poured down giving out a zillion reasons...some said coz they were insecure, some said coz they wanted to show off that they have been to a foreign country, some said coz they think fake accents attracts attention, some said coz they don’t want to be recognized as desi anymore....ufff it went on n on n on. Well, I say that they themselves should pose the question “what if I am put up in an alien country for a while and how would it effect my communication”.

A recent example that pops up in my mind is that of an actress in south Indian films, Lakshmi Manchu.  She has had the American accent from the beginning for which she was badly criticized. Recently she gave an affirmative answer about her accent, that she picked up the accent as she has been acting in Hollywood,  where she doesn’t want to be chosen for just another Indian chic role but grab proper characters…which would be possible if she had a proper American accent so that she wouldn't be classified as an outsider. And she learnt it over the years to shape her career. What’s wrong if she brings back that accent, would it damage your eardrums? When we can bear with drastic vocabulary/grammatical mistakes and getaway giving an excuse that English need not be perfect as it’s not our mother tongue, why can’t we tolerate a foreign accent. 

I do have an example of my own experience of what is the advantage of picking up the accent. My communication used to be very precise to the point in the beginning when I started working in America. Initially I was sceptical about my skills, the confidence levels were also wavering. As I started picking up the accent following conversations, indulging, understanding and localizing…I could foray quickly into their zone. (PS: I didn’t work in IT sector where you see a lot of desi crowd, my work place hardly had desis) I could see the boost up in my confidence levels and later, my boss always chose me to accompany him for all the meetings & project discussions. As personally developing a liking for learning different accents, I continued this habit of trying to localize whenever I move to a new place. When I moved to London, I tried learning British accent, which kinda helped me communicate better. Now I still have a lot of influence from those accents I learnt. That even happens with my mother tongue, I like to speak other regional accents with friends from other regions. 

So, I would conclude saying that all foreign accents are not fake, over the years one just tend to localize and that might continue if one develops a liking or might fade away in some time when lost touch. 

Cheers

Jyostna

India - Olympics 2012

Dear All,

How are the monsoons treating you? I am having a gala time enjoying the lovely weather. Having said its 'lovely weather' I wonder how the monsoons play a tricky game with the farmers. They don't shower where the farmer desperately needs them but pour down in excess,...flooding and damaging the crop in some regions. Wish the monsoons realise this and substantiate accordingly!!!

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Well, what's the hot topic these days??? OLYMPICS-what would be a better a hot topic than this currently. And India in OLYMPICS is even more better topic. Are we happy with the bronze bites? Are we not craving and raving for Gold??? Or do we have enough of Gold with our ladies, and so we are too relaxed to get the Gold which wouldn't even account as much as weight as the typical mangalsutra would be. May be Silver n Bronze seemed a little fancy these days, hence we grabbed 4. Why is that we Indians with a 1.2billion population could hardly afford to bring 1 silver and 3 bronze??? (I am not blaming the hard tried participants for not winning but trying to analyse the reasons behind) We say India is booming, in terms of what? Information technologists only..I guess! or a recent techno advancement is a Nano car may be, n what else. Where do we stand in the International Map??? Are sports not an integral part of a nation's pride? We shower kudos n greetings after the sportsmen win a medal, but we don't care to acknowledge when they are striving hard for one. Nor do our over curious media throw any limelight. I have had this discussion many a times with friends n colleagues, most of them say...cricket is over shadowing all other sports, or India lacks support system for such sports. Well, the truth in my opinion is that, we don't encourage other sports. Even USA has NFL n NBA, UK has Football leagues, China has Ping Pong and most of the European countries have football as their major sport...but do they overshadow other sports??? Although they have most watched sports/games, they are still standing high in Olympic medal charts. So thats not a valid reason. When it comes to support system, well, the support system is automatically created when there is value and encouragement for that sport. But, we hardly encourage different sports. May be we think it takes us nowhere.

Recently I have watched a video bite about a Triathlon athlete, a woman from south India(Anu Vaidyanathan), who is silently cruising forward in this sport. How many of us know about her,...she had won titles in many such marathons. And most importantly Triathlon is not an ordinary sport. It needs immense strength and vigorous training. What gave her that??? Just the determination that she had. If one observes our medalists, except Saina, the other 3 do not have big support system. It is their sheer determination that pushed them forward. Thanks to Gopichand academy for nurturing gems like Saina. 

So now, lets play the blame game...who should be at gunpoint??? The system or society??? Can't judge really. I knew lot of parents who wanted their children to get into a sports school and excel in sports and on the other hand there are lot of parents who pull out their kids from sports and put them in a hectic study circle. How many sports schools do we have in India??? or academies that are aimed at training kids in sports??? At least how many schools encourage games and sports today?? This goes back to the previous post of mine about the basic amenities in today's schools. Forget about teaching sports, many schools do not have a playground. They are meant to make bookworms, nothing else. A neighbour of mine who had taken her kid out of a sports school (where he was performing very well in Tennis and was about to represent the state) and put him into a only study school. I always say, had he been encouraged, he would have been a Tennis star. I still see his love for sports although he scores good in studies. My neighbour regrets her act now but complains, even though she encouraged, it would have costed her a lot to put him into a proper Tennis academy. I really don't think so. Saina, after winning the medal  mentioned in her interview that  her father and mother dreamt of her winning an Olympic medal more than her. And they have equally worked hard to put her into right track in spite of coming from a very ordinary family. Take the case of Mary Kom.. is she coming from a wealthy family that she could happily box her way to Olympics?? Again its her strong will that put her on an international platform. Not an easy task though. Of course, for that matter studies are also not so easy and affordable today. Why name only sports?

 

At least now, with the bronze inspiration, we better encourage other sports too. As our part, keep sharing budding sports stars and start spreading a word about them. It definitely boosts their spirits when there are so many cheering hands. May be we could see more Vishwanathan Anands, Hampis, Sainas, Koms n Narangs not only Tendulkars. To all those determined sportsmen and medalists, take a bow. U r truly inspiring!!! 

P.S: I have never been a sportier myself for which I regret, but I do love to support n cheer those for those who are interested.  

Cheers

Jyostna