I came to see an article in the Hindu about the real estate frauds happening in Chennai. The essence of it was almost 300 to 400 cheating cases were registered against different realtors in the last year 2008-2009. Most of the cases were registered in the areas like OMR, ECR, and GST Road etc.
Most of us feel that this time during the recession is the best time to book a dream home. Beware of the following new types of real estate frauds.
1. Less quoted price/sq feet as launch offer: This is a cheap marketing strategy played by some of the builders in Chennai. The price may look lucrative and you will be heads over heals to drive to the site and make your booking fee without even asking some very basic/important questions like
a. Have the builder got the necessary approvals for the construction for the block where you are booking the apartment?
The trick goes like this: Some builders do not get an approval but still collect the booking amount from you and keep you in wait mode. They will keep digging the earth for months to make you feel that the work has kick started. Then the work will be stalled for many months. Imagine how much time it takes to fill back the dug earth. One fine morning the builder calls up for a meeting with those who have booked and apartment and announce that the project is going to be winded up since the approvals are not in place and he returns you back the initial deposit you made. You will be happy to see a genuine builder like this and return home happily. After few months when the economy is booming you will be jolted to see a new Advertisement by the same builder who is launching the same project where you had booked for an apartment few months back with a much higher price/sq ft than before. The premium here for the builder is the interest received from the booking amount given by us.
b. Till when the offer price is valid?
There will be some clause in the agreement which says that the offer price will be valid only if you make 20-30% of the amount on or before a certain date. The trick here is that the date will be so near that you will not even get your loans approved from the banker on or before the mentioned date which make you fall back into the normal price slabs.
PLC Charges?
The PLC charge is something which is additional to the basic cost. It increases based on the apartment you choose. For instance if your apartment faces the road side, swimming pool, parks etc the additional cost will be a few 100’s additional to your basic cost. Even if we choose an apartment which does not have any such panoramic views the builder will have only one answer “Sorry Sir!! The apartment is already booked”. This may not be true; the builder might sell the apartments with no such panoramic views at the end when the market conditions are good for a higher price.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Why can’t we follow traffic rules? We can be made to follow.
One of my Client managers who visited Chennai from US answered “You should be brave enough to drive in Indian roads” to my question “Whether you would dare to drive a four wheeler in India”. That was a sarcastic one but we have to admit to the fact that most of the Indians do not know the basics of road rules. I have lot of incidents to narrate which will substantiate the blog
1. Traffic Signals: The moment the Orange light falls you are supposed to slowdown. Certain vehicles like the two wheelers, Auto rickshaws are exempted from this. As soon the Red signal flashes all of us apply brakes and stop the acceleration. However the Government buses are exceptions here as well.
Tip to Non Indians: Never cross the roads even if there is a Green signal for you. Watch out for any Government buses zipping from all the four directions in a junction.
I would propose the following solution: All the 4 intersection roads in a busy junction should have tire spikes near the traffic light. The spikes should come out as soon the red light flashes. Any one who dares to rush through will have to pay for it and the cop can come and nick the driver. It would be lovely to watch the roads on the very first day when implemented in India. The puncture fixing guys will be a millionaire in a single day. When the Green light falls the spike should go inward so that the vehicles can proceed.
Riding on Wrong Lanes: The above solution should be applicable when the driver drives in the wrong lane. The cop should have a remote control using which he can control the spikes installed every 300 meters in the lane. I often see the four wheelers and 2 wheelers using the service lanes in highways. Installing tire spikes would create a permanent fear in drivers mind.
Jaywalking: This is also one of the prime reasons for road accidents. This is something which is banned in countries like US, UK. Jaywalking can carry fines up to 750$ in certain cities in US. Singapore has the harshest punishment for jaywalking, 2000 Singapore $ fine and 5-6 months imprisonment.
Implementing box junctions: These have criss-cross yellow lines painted on the road (see 'Road markings'). You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear.
Root cause:
1.The facts and figures say that the RTO (Road transport office) is responsible to sell 2/3 of the total licenses without conducting any proper tests. These are misused by Auto rickshaw, Call taxi and truck drivers. Statistics say that the major portions (25.6%) of road accidents are caused by clumsy truck drivers.
2.Punishments: The punishments in India are not severe. The violator can bribe the cop and escape a ticket.
Readers of the blog please follow traffic rules. Let us make a better India.
1. Traffic Signals: The moment the Orange light falls you are supposed to slowdown. Certain vehicles like the two wheelers, Auto rickshaws are exempted from this. As soon the Red signal flashes all of us apply brakes and stop the acceleration. However the Government buses are exceptions here as well.
Tip to Non Indians: Never cross the roads even if there is a Green signal for you. Watch out for any Government buses zipping from all the four directions in a junction.
I would propose the following solution: All the 4 intersection roads in a busy junction should have tire spikes near the traffic light. The spikes should come out as soon the red light flashes. Any one who dares to rush through will have to pay for it and the cop can come and nick the driver. It would be lovely to watch the roads on the very first day when implemented in India. The puncture fixing guys will be a millionaire in a single day. When the Green light falls the spike should go inward so that the vehicles can proceed.
Riding on Wrong Lanes: The above solution should be applicable when the driver drives in the wrong lane. The cop should have a remote control using which he can control the spikes installed every 300 meters in the lane. I often see the four wheelers and 2 wheelers using the service lanes in highways. Installing tire spikes would create a permanent fear in drivers mind.
Jaywalking: This is also one of the prime reasons for road accidents. This is something which is banned in countries like US, UK. Jaywalking can carry fines up to 750$ in certain cities in US. Singapore has the harshest punishment for jaywalking, 2000 Singapore $ fine and 5-6 months imprisonment.
Implementing box junctions: These have criss-cross yellow lines painted on the road (see 'Road markings'). You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear.
Root cause:
1.The facts and figures say that the RTO (Road transport office) is responsible to sell 2/3 of the total licenses without conducting any proper tests. These are misused by Auto rickshaw, Call taxi and truck drivers. Statistics say that the major portions (25.6%) of road accidents are caused by clumsy truck drivers.
2.Punishments: The punishments in India are not severe. The violator can bribe the cop and escape a ticket.
Readers of the blog please follow traffic rules. Let us make a better India.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Risking Lives
In our day to day life we fail to notice these people who are risking their lives for us. Some of them have definitely caught my attention. I would like to emphasize the kind of risk they take in their day to day job in this blog.
1.The Building Masons: When the tall edifices are being built, it is the masons who risk their life during the construction work. I have seen masons who paint the walls or cementing the bricks in the top portion of a building just by hanging on the scaffoldings. When the roofing is done they have to expose themselves to the scorching sun for the whole day which is a daunting job for many of us.
2.Pizza Delivery boys: In Chennai I have witnessed the Pizza delivery boys who whizz along in their bikes though the busy roads to deliver the order on time. The only reason is people who want everything delivered at home. The Pizza outlets are greedy to make money and make offers like, If the pizza delivery is delayed, it would be delivered absolutely free of cost. For this the poor delivery boy suffers.
3.The Farmer: The farmers risk their life by venturing out to the field where the chance of bitten by a venomous snake is more. Records say that in India on an average 5000 farmers are bitten by poisonous snakes and die due to the venom.
4.Last but not the least the NSG Commandos who risk their lives while combating with terror. The recent 26/11 attacks on Mumbai has shown that they are the real martyrs of this country.
Point to ponder: Think of the wages all the above people are paid with. This happens only in India. If the readers feel other professions which are similar please share as your comments.
1.The Building Masons: When the tall edifices are being built, it is the masons who risk their life during the construction work. I have seen masons who paint the walls or cementing the bricks in the top portion of a building just by hanging on the scaffoldings. When the roofing is done they have to expose themselves to the scorching sun for the whole day which is a daunting job for many of us.
2.Pizza Delivery boys: In Chennai I have witnessed the Pizza delivery boys who whizz along in their bikes though the busy roads to deliver the order on time. The only reason is people who want everything delivered at home. The Pizza outlets are greedy to make money and make offers like, If the pizza delivery is delayed, it would be delivered absolutely free of cost. For this the poor delivery boy suffers.
3.The Farmer: The farmers risk their life by venturing out to the field where the chance of bitten by a venomous snake is more. Records say that in India on an average 5000 farmers are bitten by poisonous snakes and die due to the venom.
4.Last but not the least the NSG Commandos who risk their lives while combating with terror. The recent 26/11 attacks on Mumbai has shown that they are the real martyrs of this country.
Point to ponder: Think of the wages all the above people are paid with. This happens only in India. If the readers feel other professions which are similar please share as your comments.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Luv Trivandrum
Things that make me feel I am back home
After moving out to Chennai, following things in Chennai makes me feel as if I am still in Trivandrum (My own back yard) and also causes Dejavu sometimes.
1. When I see a lot of KL-01 registration cars n bikes in Chennai Roads.
2. When I visit Kumarakom restaurant at least once in a month
3. When I see someone chatting in Malayalam
4. When it rains heavily in Chennai
5. While riding through Besant Avenue it makes me feel as if I am in Kowdiar Square in Trivandrum
6. When I go for a stroll in Thiruvanmiyur beach makes me feel as if I am in Shankhumugam beach.
7. The Chennai Ribbon building is like our Secretariat
8. AMM School at Kotturpuram resembles the Arya central school where I did my schooling. The uniform is the same. Steel Gray trousers and white shirt.
9. The CLRI housing colony at Adayar makes me feel as if I am in VSSC housing colony in Thumba.
10. The Aavin milk bar underneath the Adyar flyover makes me feel as if I am in Milma milk bar in Trivandrum Museum.
Still I do miss a lot at Trivandrum like
1. The Envestnet Gang (Chandru,Ram,Jegan,Sujith,JP….)
2. Puttu + Mutton from Buhari
3. Pazham pori(banana roast)
4. Fish Delicacies
5. Cool nights
6. My sweet home
7. Rain
8. Movie in Kripa theatre
9. Onam fest @ Kanaka kunnu palace
10. Weekend booze parties with Envestnet gang
11. Last but not least My Dad, my Mom and my Brother – luv them a lot.
I always see this when I am free at Office. Thanks to Google.
After all how can one forget the place where he lived more than 25 years? I am proud and lucky to live the most important part in my life at Trivandrum. I will soon spend the second important spell of my life in Trivandrum.
After moving out to Chennai, following things in Chennai makes me feel as if I am still in Trivandrum (My own back yard) and also causes Dejavu sometimes.
1. When I see a lot of KL-01 registration cars n bikes in Chennai Roads.
2. When I visit Kumarakom restaurant at least once in a month
3. When I see someone chatting in Malayalam
4. When it rains heavily in Chennai
5. While riding through Besant Avenue it makes me feel as if I am in Kowdiar Square in Trivandrum
6. When I go for a stroll in Thiruvanmiyur beach makes me feel as if I am in Shankhumugam beach.
7. The Chennai Ribbon building is like our Secretariat
8. AMM School at Kotturpuram resembles the Arya central school where I did my schooling. The uniform is the same. Steel Gray trousers and white shirt.
9. The CLRI housing colony at Adayar makes me feel as if I am in VSSC housing colony in Thumba.
10. The Aavin milk bar underneath the Adyar flyover makes me feel as if I am in Milma milk bar in Trivandrum Museum.
Still I do miss a lot at Trivandrum like
1. The Envestnet Gang (Chandru,Ram,Jegan,Sujith,JP….)
2. Puttu + Mutton from Buhari
3. Pazham pori(banana roast)
4. Fish Delicacies
5. Cool nights
6. My sweet home
7. Rain
8. Movie in Kripa theatre
9. Onam fest @ Kanaka kunnu palace
10. Weekend booze parties with Envestnet gang
11. Last but not least My Dad, my Mom and my Brother – luv them a lot.
I always see this when I am free at Office. Thanks to Google.
After all how can one forget the place where he lived more than 25 years? I am proud and lucky to live the most important part in my life at Trivandrum. I will soon spend the second important spell of my life in Trivandrum.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
A memorable trip
This blog is about the trip we recently had to a place called Singarayakonda in A.P district in South India. It was basically a 1 day trip. The plan was to attend a wedding of our friend and return back to Chennai the next day morning. We started our journey in a gleeful way. We boarded the train (Pinakini Express) which heads up to the place we wanted to be. It was basically a 4 hour journey. We booked our tickets in an AC Chair car compartment and got ourselves settled in our seats. The compartment was comfier than other chair cars which I have traveled. See some snaps below.
Me and Bose
Aravind and Gnanakumar
Bose upset since I took his snack
We all reached the Singarayakonda station by 6:30 PM. We had a cab waiting for us in the railway station. The cab took us to a place where we could go and refresh ourselves. We all got dressed up and were ready to go to the wedding hall. The same cab took us to the wedding reception. The place of the wedding reception was a typical countryside and it was very crowded. Most of the people seemed to be very rustic. There was music and dance choir who were singing some Telugu (South Indian Language) songs blatantly. One of the member in the choir announced that the next song would be from Chiru’s (Andhra Superstar) movie. But a group of people opposed it. The reason was simple and obvious, the actor belongs to a different caste. I was very much astonished to witness the caste system in India. We could also see that the dinner was being served. I was bit hesitant to have it because it was served by a group of slobs. But somehow I managed to have a quick little grub which would cease my hunger.
Cheering the choir
Found a place to sit atlast
Now the climax of the story begins. We were told that the wedding would start only by 12:45 AM. Yes only in this part of the world weddings are conducted in early mornings. We had to catch our train back to Chennai by 5:30 AM. We thought that we will go back to the room where we could have a good nap. To reach the room the only option was to use the cab which dropped us here. We tried to spot the cab driver and looks like he absconded from the venue. The place was very remote god forsaken land and we did not even find a vehicle which would take us to the room. We thought we could stroll to the room. But the place was very dark and we were not able to see the road clearly. The road was very lonesome and we were afraid if some thugs could nab us for money. So we decided to head back to the place of wedding reception. By gods grace the groom of the wedding made a way for us to get hold of another cab which would drop us only at the railway station but not the room. Luckily we had our bags in our hands and we agreed for the deal and reached the railway station. By that time it was 1 AM morning. Most of us were dozy by hat time and we managed to find a platform in the railway station where we could doze. It was damn cold and the wind was blowing heavily which ripped through our body. To add more salt to the wound we were carked by the freaky mosquitoes. Some of the guys like Aravind and Gnanakumar were very much prepared for the trip. They had all the necessary bed spreads to protect them from mosquitoes and cold wind.
See the images below.
Aravinda
Not dossers. This is Aravinda and Bose.
The mosquitoes and rattling noise made by other trains made us fretting the whole night. This also made us to have only an intermittent sleep. Time passed by and we woke up before the dawn and we were frantic to hear that the train to Chennai was delayed by 1 hr. Finally time passed and we got the train and reached home by 10 AM.
After this incident any wedding invite to remote places like this makes me think twice :).. It was worth a trip to enjoy and remember througout my life.
We all reached the Singarayakonda station by 6:30 PM. We had a cab waiting for us in the railway station. The cab took us to a place where we could go and refresh ourselves. We all got dressed up and were ready to go to the wedding hall. The same cab took us to the wedding reception. The place of the wedding reception was a typical countryside and it was very crowded. Most of the people seemed to be very rustic. There was music and dance choir who were singing some Telugu (South Indian Language) songs blatantly. One of the member in the choir announced that the next song would be from Chiru’s (Andhra Superstar) movie. But a group of people opposed it. The reason was simple and obvious, the actor belongs to a different caste. I was very much astonished to witness the caste system in India. We could also see that the dinner was being served. I was bit hesitant to have it because it was served by a group of slobs. But somehow I managed to have a quick little grub which would cease my hunger.
Now the climax of the story begins. We were told that the wedding would start only by 12:45 AM. Yes only in this part of the world weddings are conducted in early mornings. We had to catch our train back to Chennai by 5:30 AM. We thought that we will go back to the room where we could have a good nap. To reach the room the only option was to use the cab which dropped us here. We tried to spot the cab driver and looks like he absconded from the venue. The place was very remote god forsaken land and we did not even find a vehicle which would take us to the room. We thought we could stroll to the room. But the place was very dark and we were not able to see the road clearly. The road was very lonesome and we were afraid if some thugs could nab us for money. So we decided to head back to the place of wedding reception. By gods grace the groom of the wedding made a way for us to get hold of another cab which would drop us only at the railway station but not the room. Luckily we had our bags in our hands and we agreed for the deal and reached the railway station. By that time it was 1 AM morning. Most of us were dozy by hat time and we managed to find a platform in the railway station where we could doze. It was damn cold and the wind was blowing heavily which ripped through our body. To add more salt to the wound we were carked by the freaky mosquitoes. Some of the guys like Aravind and Gnanakumar were very much prepared for the trip. They had all the necessary bed spreads to protect them from mosquitoes and cold wind.
See the images below.
The mosquitoes and rattling noise made by other trains made us fretting the whole night. This also made us to have only an intermittent sleep. Time passed by and we woke up before the dawn and we were frantic to hear that the train to Chennai was delayed by 1 hr. Finally time passed and we got the train and reached home by 10 AM.
After this incident any wedding invite to remote places like this makes me think twice :).. It was worth a trip to enjoy and remember througout my life.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
How dress code matters for a Developer
Most of the IT companies in India have stringent policies for dress code. I have been asking many people in the IT community especially HR’s about the relevance of dress code in an organization. Most of the answers were prevaricating. Some responded that it may not look nice when people are in the casual attire during the client visits. I have seen HR’s who float circulars in the form of emails to all the employees to be in Formal dress (sometimes with a Tie) during client visits. I really do not understand what reward the attire is going to give to a developer during client visit. What really matters is how you primp yourself with good and neat clothing. I agree that for the Senior managers who closely interact with the customers it is important to be in proper attire. This is one woeful side of the story at offshore. On the other piteous side the developers who travel to Onsite (countries like US, UK) are given strict instructions to wear a business suit. I have seen guys who spend a whopping sum to purchase business suits. I myself had made this mistake by wearing a business suit on the very first day when I reported to work at the client’s office in US. I was surprised to see all the clients in the casual wear and I was told by the client not to be uncomfortable in work by wearing business suits. I only have following questions that pops out of my mind
1. The top IT product development companies in the word like Microsoft, Google. Do they have any dress code – No.? I once attended an interview with Thoughtworks, I was surprised to see that the HR specifically told me to wear something which is comfortable for me. Again they are one of the renowned companies in world. The successes of these companies were not due to the dress code.
2. Does what you wear change your logical thinking which is very much required for a developer.
If the company can relax on the dress codes I am sure that the employees will consider it at one of the things which improves the morale of a developer.
1. The top IT product development companies in the word like Microsoft, Google. Do they have any dress code – No.? I once attended an interview with Thoughtworks, I was surprised to see that the HR specifically told me to wear something which is comfortable for me. Again they are one of the renowned companies in world. The successes of these companies were not due to the dress code.
2. Does what you wear change your logical thinking which is very much required for a developer.
If the company can relax on the dress codes I am sure that the employees will consider it at one of the things which improves the morale of a developer.
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