Rebooting blogging

It has been a while since I updated the blog. I would blame it on Twitter and Facebook, which encourage a quick blast of words at the cost of a longer post that needs to be thought through. I've resolved to be a little more regular from now on.

To start off, a few snippets from the last couple of weeks. Of course, it was a huge moment in our lives with the arrival of a baby boy on August 13th. It happened on Gokulashtami day, so we have decided to name him Mukund, one of the names of Lord Krishna. I believe it also means One who bestows/gives Moksha/Nirvana.

Nisha was hugely excited by the event. Though she had been wanting a baby sister, it all changed once she saw her brother. Her happiness has been tinged by disappointment, she had made grand plans to call all her friends and show off her baby brother, but we have tried to avoid too much of contact in light of the swine flu scare. She'll get over it, kids have a way of dealing with these disappointments and focussing on positives.

We were a little disappointed with Divakar hospital. Firstly, we got a room facing the main road that had traffic through the day and night. Our bad luck, the hospital was full, so we could not even get a change of room. They also had no catering facilities. Typically, hospitals provide nutritious, dietician approved meals for the patient, but here, we were forced to bring everything from home. There was also the issue of differing charges, we got a bill for 40K, but my friend Krishna got a bill for 85K for similar treatment. The main thing was the medical staff and attention was good.

We came home on 17th Aug and since then it has been an endless cycle of nappy changing and disturbed sleep. But it is all worthwhile when you see Mukund reacting to his environment.

Video: A Malayalee girl

Video from the program on national integration held at Stepping Stones on January 26

School Admission

School admissions are one of the biggest challenges for any parent in India. The rush to get your child into one of the "good" schools starts when the child reaches 3 years when they become eligible to join Pre-nursery. The general wisdom is that it is your best chance of getting the child into one of the school as vacancies in the later classes is extremely limited.

The entire admission process serves as a good revenue generator for these schools, they issue 5000+ forms at around 500 rupees each and rake in a cool 25 lakhs. The selection criteria and procedures are always a secret, as it allows the school to use its discretion to accommodate the "influential" members of society. If you don't have influence, they you need money and lots of it, schools routinely charge 30-40K as building fund or something similar, and all of it is taken in cash and unaccounted. It's a money spinning business raking in crores which is why so many politicians and bureaucrats have set up schools in the last few years. The fact that you get control of large pieces of land at throwaway prices is just the icing on the cake.

One of the schools that is a refreshing change from this racket are the National Public schools. However, I see a few things that are different about them
- They do not take donations. They are upfront about their fees and provide a receipt for the entire amount
- They do charge a higher fees than most schools, but are open about it and seem to pay their teacher's well above the market wage
- Like other schools, their admission process is opaque. Based on evidence, I could see that they overwhelmingly go for children of professionals and give preference to children of alumni and teachers. A few of my friends with significant influence were unable to get a seat there, so it does seem like who you know seems to matter less than in other schools.

I may seem a little biased towards them and with good reason. Between me and my brothers, we spent almost 30 years at NPS Indiranagar. Nisha is set to join the NPS ranks next year, having got an admission to UKG at their newest school in HSR Layout.

Fancy dress video

Fancy dress competition at Nisha's school

Two Photos - 31 years apart

Nisha has a competition in her school where she has to dress up as a policewoman. Here is a photo of her

From Two generations

Incidentally, here's a photo of me dressed as a policeman in my junior years

From Two generations