Goa visit in November 2022

 

My India visit in November 2022

When it is clear that Qatar is finally guaranteed to host the FIFA 2022 (since there were doubts about hosting the event due to COVID situation and travel restrictions) I had made up my mind to take off from work and spend some time with family. As the employer where I am working is into trading of building materials business obviously will take a nose dive the cost saving will be utmost important to bring down the overhead of the company. Instead of sending others on unpaid leave I thought it’s my duty to be a model to others and save some money for the company. On the hindsight I had a selfish motive as well as I could spend some time with family on this count.

I had booked my travel plan after detailed discussion with my boss, though he was not ready to allow me to take longer leave but as my suggestion was strong enough to convince him on the cost saving part. He also agreed to take a leave once I am back.

As the travel date was coming closer I had my plan for the leave days were charted very well enough in co-ordination with my brothers, mother on house warming part. Excursion with wife and children. Accordingly my travel was scheduled on 9^th November evening from Doha to Bangalore and from Bangalore to Mangalore. My second flight from Bangalore to Mangalore was supposed to take off at 6.45 in the morning and I will be reaching Mangalore by 7.30. Accordingly I would have reached home at Shirva by 9 in the morning. Me and Smitha planned excursion trip to Goa from 10^th  November, we were supposed to reach there by late evening around 11.30 in the night.

There will be unexpected changes in the plan as such my domestic flight got cancelled and airlines rebooked my ticket making me to reach Mangalore by 11 in the morning. Still it was fine as my next travel was scheduled at 6 pm. As I landed at Mangalore it’s my normal procedure to get a Darshan at Kateel temple on the way to Shirva. As I reached to temple about get down from the vehicle my wife started calling my number. And she informed me the train was rescheduled and it will be running 3 hours early. That means we need to leave for Goa by 3.00 in the afternoon. I had to relook at the time line and called my mother to inform that I will meet only after returning from Goa.

Once I reached home, we had booked a vehicle to go to railway station it was waiting. I had to fresh up and board the vehicle within 10 to 15 minutes. And we went school to pick both Abhiman and Sanmay. Smitha had informed the school principal about our plan and we picked them up from the school. However we had to drop their bags at home we took the help of the driver to handover them to Sandesh. Finally we boarded the train on time. Children were very happy to see me and also excited about the journey as well as the trip.

It is about 5 to  6 hours journey from Udupi to reach at Goa. We took a cab from the railway station to the resort were we made our booking. To mention about the resort it was 4 star hotel had very nice location about 50 meters from the beach and staff were very co-operative. I am lucky to find them in the booking.com, we had our dinner at the hotel and retired to the bed.

First we hired a taxi from the hotel front desk and had visited Calangute beach. There we went for boat ride and seen Dolphin bay. It is wonderful experience to watch the Dolphin’s at their natural habitat. I was told that they come where the river water and sea water gets sub-merged, not sure about this. However view was fantastic. There was guide in the boat he was referring many monuments over the shore and directing each of the buildings and pillars. It’s a worth time spent in the boat. Once we reached back, children started running in the beach and playing in the water. We had quite refreshing time over there.

Our second point was snow-park, it is artificial snow park, where the temperature is reduced to minus degree and ice formation was there. We were given jackets, boot, gloves which are required for playing in the ice. Music was played inside, all were playing in the ice. We joined the fun. Starting with slide and throwing ice each other we had lots of fun. But my little one could not bear the cold. And second boy also started crying after one hour or so we came out from the ice park. It was a chilling experience. I recommend people who are visiting North Goa with family it is must enjoy location.

Third point was the fort there wherein Achu was with me, Smitha, Abhiman and Sanmay went on exploring the fort. There were inscriptions about the fort. I stayed in one place instead of walking across the fort. It was quite sunny and I was not feeling like walking there.

Later we went Baga Beach, where running behind Sanmay was my task. He was like a calf which left alone runs everywhere his joy was of no bounds. I happily followed him wherever he ran. Abhiman was more in to exploring the sea shells and sea creatures. My little one, Achyuth was sleeping in his Moms arms. So she was forced to sit somewhere holding him. We boys were running everywhere in the beach by that time it was almost becoming darker. After days exhausting fun we returned back to hotel.  

We had our dinner at the nearby hotel where we went by walking, it was a vegetarian restaurant, but food was of average quality. Due to the days exhausting fun boys slept early and our plan for next day was to take a trip to Mandavi river cruise.

Abhiman got a tummy upset and we hired a taxi from the front desk we got vehicle which is very old and most of its parts were coming in the hands. As we don’t knew much of Goa travel ideas we told the driver to take us to some tourist venue. He took us to Spice planet, it is an eatery located in hill area and surrounded by spice plants and the people have to pass thru small bridge. As Abhiman had developed him stomach ache more, we had to abandon our plan and we came back.

We went in search of clinic and visited KMC hospital of Goa. They gave medicine and as Abhiman has stomach upset we came back to hotel from the hospital. Though it is not the fault of the driver I had to vent my anger on him as the charges from the cab owner was not up to the mark and we had not had any fun on the second day though I paid more on taxi than the first day cab. Hotel front desk guy supported my argument and told the cab owner about the justifiable figure and closed the matter.

In the evening as my boy had stomach upset we had to take curd rice only for him and left him in the hotel room. We had our dinner at the same venue. Tasted the cocktail and smitha also joined me in adventure of taking the cocktail. Abhiman took quite a rest.  We did not plan anything for Sunday originally and decided if all are fine we can think in the next day how the excursion goes on.

Smitha, Sanmay, Achu and Me went for walk around the beach in the evening, location was almost empty, beach was not so clean, though there were some tourist points were there. Smitha and Abhiman went to same place on day one itself where as I took nap along younger ones.

On third day we woke up late and had nice breakfast and packed our bags and checked out and kept the bags lobby. We got the same cab which came for our service on first day. He took us to science museum at  Goa. We went for planet shows. There were show on Sun, I was almost dozed off. And next on Dolphin. It was 3-D show. Enjoyed watching it. Children played at the park, our Goa trip was finished. And we went to Madgaon Railway station. It was almost 7 in the evening. We had pleasant trip enjoyed family time and returned back to Udupi late in the night. It was 13^th November.

Making of Matru Chaya - my thoughts

 

Posokkel to Matru Chaya

I remember my childhood living under a grass thatched roof and during rainy season we are going to one of the relative’s house to save ourselves from the water droppings during the night time. It was Beeyu Dodda who was taking our care to sleep in tiled house instead of grass thatched roof in the rainy days. 

One such rainy day me and my elder brother were sitting in the house and my mother and another elder brother went to rice mill. Rice mills were removing the husk from the paddy and making the rice. If we boil the paddy and it has to be dried for 3 days before we can take it to mill to remove the husk then the boiled rice or brown rice is made. If one has to make white rice it is without boiling the paddy but dried completely for a day or two it will be taken to mill to remove the husk.

Coming back to that day when we were at home it was raining cats and dogs, we are frightened as well thinking that the wall may collapse due to heavy rain. It being daytime we did not go to granny’s house. I think same day a wall of the house collapsed at the side of the kitchen. On the same day we had decided to have a house which has proper roof and will give us shelter during rain and shade during summer.

We studied our primary education at Kapu then moved to Shirva for further education. The dream of living under safe roof was fulfilled when we moved to Shirva. Name of our house in Shirva is Posokkel meaning new tenant. May be when our forefathers took the land cultivation right for payment of remuneration to land owners they assigned this name. Origin of the name I could not trace not beyond my maternal grandfather.

I think our dream of having house remained as a burning charcoal covered with ash for long time. Once again the dream came to the forefront when marriage of elder brothers was slated. However our financial resources did not permit us to go ahead, and everyone got married and blessed with children and settled at different places other than staying at the Posokkel.

Once Lava and family settled back in Shirva in the year 2010, we touched the idea of having a new house built.  Each year we had to spend quite a good amount on repairing and upkeep of the house. It went on for another ten years to ignite back the dream to build house.

In between our aunt and cousins built a house near to Posokkel and it has further fueled our dream to move to a new house. As the land rights were not with us we were following up with uncle to give the permission to proceed on building a house. But we were not able to get his nod to go ahead on building a house.

Thinking that we may get uncle’s permission for building a house I made initial deposit during 2015 with mother for a reasonable amount. After one more year I gave another reasonable amount to Lava to proceed on the plan. However nothing moved till year 2018. Our uncle left us heavenly abode leaving every plan unfinished and untouched. May be it was the wish of God to renovate the existing house instead of building a new house.

Even then we were spending on the upkeep of the house quite a sizable amount on each year. I remember I had given more than half a lakh rupees during 2019 to proceed on the repairs to the tiled roof. I am not sure how much is spent for the purpose.

During the year 2021 – we took a contractor to start the construction of the house at the same place. Instead of doing the basic work of levelling the land, and proceeding on the house construction, contractor touched on the things like removing of mango tree, rock behind house and so on. It helped to some extent but looked more like wastage of time and resources than doing the main job. We asked him to stop the work and settled his account, though he had shown his unhappiness of not making reasonable profit J J

In between I have to mention a venture where I had burnt my fingers. It is a blocks factory at Pangala, where one of my classmate told me it is very profitable business and it may take approx. 3 to 4 lakh investment and can recover it in a years’ time. Calculations looked fantastic, but I did not checked the genuineness of the person who brought the idea. He never had entrepreneurship but was good in talking and fooling the people around. Top of that his morals were way down was alcoholic to the core. I came to know after month of making the investment as he kept on demanding money for making payment to the labors. I discontinued the business but lost the investment.

Initially I thought Lava can carry on the business but he was also another face of my classmate. So not to worry on the lost investment. Lava collected a little amount that’s all I can get back from the investment, and the collected amount was spent on the repair of the house.

At the end of year 2021 we contacted another contractor Rajesh to take up the job. He was well connected with most of the political people in and around Shirva. As we don’t had documents to pursue the house construction work new contractor was more capable of taking the job further.

He had shown initial reluctance to take the contract but once Bablu (Kusha’s brother in law) spoke he had come and also we took the help of Ratan panchayat member from our ward. Ratan also assured his support for not to get disturbance from the panchayat and also he recommended Rajesh to proceed on the work.

It is on 31^st December we initially gave the work in the presence of Vishwanath (Lava’s brother in law) to Rajesh. A token removal of 5 tiles from the house and token money was handed over. He asked us to move the house items to the shed which was built by Lava a few years back.

Lava was assigned with the work of making ready the shed livable for the duration of house construction. The task of making the shed livable condition went on snail’s phase due to Lava’s lethargy and alcoholic behavior.

After quite a time they moved to shed and removal of tiles was done by Lava. And for laying the foundation stone date was fixed on 6^th of February. It is the day were we brothers should have been present and taken the lead of initial job. Due to various reasons three of us could not make it to native. And the person who was there also not on the sound position to do the job because of the obvious reason. Foundation stone was laid by Abhiman.

Very next day our uncle, living next door passed away so the work was stayed for about a week.  Then contractor did tremendous job to finish the construction upto foundation level by first week of March and up to lintel level by end of March. There was almost total stop of the work for about 45 days, reasons known to the contractor only. As he was having multiple contracts where the work urgency is there he may be focusing on them.

Finally once again work was restarted by first week of June and the pouring the concrete at the slap was done on 24^th June. We are lucky no rains came till the time concrete work is completed. And roof was set and it started raining from the same day. And roof was set.

There was non stop work from July till Oct. And almost everything was went on as planned. And after getting auspicious date for house warming, we went on printing the invitation and house warming was to be conducted on 27^th November and 28^th November.

Then we discussed whether to continue the name Posokkel or a new name. After all brain storming came the name “Matru Chaya” meaning mothers shade.

Even the house warming ceremony was disturbed by the bad news of demise of a person in the distant relation. We had initially planned events like Vastu Homa, Bali, Sudarshana Homa, Gana Homa, Satyanarayana Pooja, Shanishwara Pooja. Out of which first five were to be by local priest and final one from a troupe from Majur.

When we had a doubt on the possibility of getting bad news we approached local priest to see the alternative options to continue with the ceremony. He suggested us to take the blessing of Aalade, which is of utmost importance for maternal system prevalent in coastal Karnataka. And ensure that no one will inform you about the bad news if at all it comes.

We had followed the instructions and advise from the priest and went ahead with the house warming. Which was the only available option as we had distributed invitation to near and dear ones, all the relatives and friends. If at all to be postponed it will be hell lot of task to inform each and every one about postponement and when the next possible date is not predictable.

As such we went ahead with the program however last program which was to be done by the troupe from Majur was cancelled as the co-ordinator got the bad news and themselves wanted to cancel it. Let be their decision, however it cost us quite an amount on arrangements, otherwise it would have been saved.

Finally Matru Chaya was warmed up we set our feet in the house on 28^th of November. Pray the almighty to shower prosperity to house dwellers and all the people related with the house.

 

 

 

The mentors in my life

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” ― Henry Ford

TMOD, fellow toastmasters and guests. Good Evening.

Learning never stops. I truly believe in this statement. I have always been a protégé all my life, always learning from my elders.

Mentors are different from coaches. What you learn from coaches helps you to achieve short term objective (Football coaching). However, the lessons that you learn from mentors are for the long term and assist you throughout life.

I am highlighting a few from whom I have learnt a lot and the lessons that I have learnt from them.

My first mentor is my mother. She has been home maker. I come from a joint family where all my uncle, aunts are and cousins used to stay under single roof. My mother was taking care of all her siblings as well as we children 24/7 without any complaint. My mother is fondly called by family members as Annapurna as she was focusing on food to everyone who comes home. I have witnessed many euphoric moments in the presence of my mother. Whenever I had any problem now also first I take my mom’s advice. She always advise me to take time to decide and not decide in a hurry.

 

I learnt sincerity and the importance of a family from her.

 

My second mentor is my brother. Just two years elder to me, he is like a Guru and guiding spirit all thru my life. He was always making checklist, planning for the simplest travels and always having sense of humour whenever he was doing a serious job. I try to emulate his footsteps in all thru my life. If I am able to be a systematic person it is because of the shades from my brother.

 

I have learnt systematic and steady approach from him.

 

My other mentor was my uncle. He worked in a school for more than 35 years.  He used to support and extend possible advice to everyone in the family. He enrolled me to do CA course once I have completed my graduation as Topper in the college. Further he kept checking my progress on each visit. He was happy by looking at my progress. He left us for heavenly abode 4 years back leaving us from his Midas touch. He was revered by most of my school mates as well as our village people.

 

I learnt from him that you should find joy & happiness in practicing empathy, simplicity and sincerity.

 

On the professional front, one of my mentors was my Manager from The ACC Ltd, India. He has given me free hand to manage my staff of around 15 senior people who are of the age of my father, I was just qualified as CA and joined ACC as Asst. Manager Finance. My boss advised me to be kind with the people and by setting individual goals with a supportive environment I could successfully face many of challenges that poured on me.

 

I leant management skills from him – you could get out work from people, by being kind and having empathy.

One of the toughest mentors I had was the COO of my past employer in Ras Al Khaimah, where I had worked for couple of years. He had very high standards and expected all the employees to live up to them, else leave the job. He himself was a fighter, having survived many difficulties in life, and had been part of Dutch military for some time. However, if you managed to survive, you were rewarded with huge bonuses and increments.

He taught me that if you want employees to work out of their comfort zone and constantly be perfect then monetary reward is a must. Then only will the employees be loyal to you.

One of my present mentors is my boss the GM of the company where I work. I noted that among his other qualities, he tries to ensure that his juniors develop themselves personally & professionally. One thing I noted about him is that he looks at the big picture. Another trait of him is loyalty to his employers, where he had spent over 35 years and more than 5 years in his present position.

 

I learnt form him that you can gain the loyalty of your employees if you encourage their self-development and participate in their personal and professional growth.

I will conclude by saying – not everyone is lucky enough to have mentors who can guide them through life. We can keep learning by observing fellow human beings and people around us. You have all taken a very important step in life by joining toastmaster’s journey wherein we can learn many new things and how to express our self in public.

 

Let us keep learning & stay young throughout life.