The dussehra ordeal

This time around dussehra we had hired a driver for my office journey. A few days before dussehra he asked whether we did vehicle pooja on the dussehra day. We said traditionally we north Indians do vehicle pooja on vishwakarma pooja day. The conversation ended here and we forgot about it. On the day of dussehra when we were relaxing at home, we got this call from the driver wherein he enquired if we were at home. Then he  announced that he was coming with sweets and other pooja materials and wanted to do a pooja of our vehicle. We were surprised as we had not perceived earlier that in this short span of time he had developed so much intimacy with our vehicle. So we obliged to his order of coming over and doing the pooja. He came over and did the pooja whole heartedly and gave us the prasad as well. We were half pleased and half suspicious at his gesture (the world is like that dear friends, nobody does anything selflessly, not even a pooja. If anyone puts up a selfless show it is bound to raise suspicions. )

The next day on our way to office the driver told me "you know madam yesterday this sir called me whom I used to work for earlier and he told that I and I only must come over to his place and do pooja for his vehicle. Since I was the best driver he eved had.i went over and did the pooja and just for that he gave me  bakshish (a token of reward given out of happiness) of half my monthly salary." I could very well see now where this conversation was headed.along with that the purpose of his great pooja at our place was also getting clear. Anyways to see his reaction and bring out his purpose more clearly I just replied "wow your sir must be filthy rich". He said "no madam it is a custom that everyone gives bakshish to drivers on dussehra". I was not interested in persuing this bargain of forced bakshish with him, so I simply told him to talk to my husband in the evening on the subject.  After reaching office I talked to my husband and informed him of the whole situation and the driver's expectations. In the evening my husband told him that we were not in a position to simply give away a huge amount in bakshish.also he had been providing his service to us for hardly fifteen days so the bonds were also not that strong yet and moreover he had already taken some advance money from us the second day of his service only and now he was forcing us to give him bakshish , that also not what we would give as per our comfort and will but as per his.  My husband told him the max amount that we were in position to give him and in reply he said "sir I can't come from tomorrow .pleass arrange for another driver." Wow. Isn't a bakshish supposed to be awarded out of happiness and isn't it upto us to decide on our capacity that how much bakshish we can give to someone. Well, not in this case. No wonder our culture is changing fast and instead of depending on people for various services we, in urban india atleast, are preferring to depend more and more on machines.

So this was our dussehra ordeal that left us wondering whether our decision of hiring a driver was out of our capacity or its that people are becoming more and more intolerant and greedy day by day.

Arpora flea market in Goa, India

This time around I happened to be in Goa around a weekend, with an equally enthusiastic (read shopaholic) friend. So, we decided to hit the infamous Arpora flea market.

This market was very near to calangute beach, on the calangute-anjuna road. It has a very good expanse and numerous stalls selling all different kind of products that would attract tourist attention, particularly foreign tourists wherein they would be looking for souvenirs or famous products from India to take back home. But apart from the buzzing shops, there was more to the market - something for even the non-shopaholics . There were artists and musicians, playing live and numerous people applauding. The environment was so charged up...my toddler couldn't help swing to the beats as we stopped by :) Then came the food stalls - again a number of them well organized in one section of the flea market offering everything from goan delicacies , to south indian delights to Italian pizzas and other subcontinental mouth watering food.

The market starts from 6:30 in the evening and goes on well into the night. The stalls are up and running till 3 or 4 am in the morning. But you must have a good bargaining skill to get a good deal here. However, what would be the definition of a "good deal" when there's no end to bargaining. Well, in my opinion, once you form a price of the product in your mind looking at its worth and you are able to get it into that price range - you can happily call it a great deal. So we did. Just to give you an idea, we liked a bag. The price quoted by the shopkeeper was INR 550 , we quoted INR 250 and finally the deal was done at INR 300 :)

Overall, I would say the market is a must visit at least once when you are in Goa. The whole street market shopping, including the bargaining, the food, the performances...everything there was an enticing experience.

Here's a glimpse of the colorful pictures you can see when you search for arpora flea market, to give you an idea of the vibrancy and liveliness of the atmosphere there :

Items that were on sale in the Arpora flea market:

• Small wooden furnitures
• Different kind of souvenirs - key chains, show pieces (wooden/shell/marble/metal), wall hangings
• Jewelry (shell, stones, oxidized silver, wood, metal)
• Woolen/Silk/Cotton stoles
• T-shirts, beachwear and other garments suitable to Goan climate
• Goan spices and dry fruits
• Bags, purses, backpacks (leather, cotton, jute, synthetic leather)
• Paintings
• Flipflops and other foot wear
• And many other things...please add if I am missing anything major

Useful links to get more information about the flea market:

http://www.whatsupgoa.com/saturdaynightmarket

http://www.snmgoa.com/index.php/page/intro/

https://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/India/Goa-1098247/Things_To_Do-Goa-Mackies_Night_Market-BR-1.html

Beleza Goa

Last week we went for a trip to Goa, but this time the aim was to just relax, eat and sleep(I know some of you would think...what a waste!! But believe me, to get a few nights at a stretch to sleep 8hrs per night and to get food without really cooking it is worth all the luxury for parents to little ones). 

After much research, we finalized on "Beleza...by the beach". I thought to dedicate a crisp blog to this property, which can help others in making their decision for staying here.

This property is located in south Goa, and has a direct access to the beach from within the property itself. The beach was kind of serene, clean and calm, in a complete contrast to calangute or baga which are overcrowded and thriving with activities, shops, eateries etc. Don't head to this beach with lots of activities and food on top of your priority list unless you want to be heavily disappointed. You would love it if your motive was to take a leisurely walk or a peaceful sunbath, have a relaxing time with your friends or family. 

In short, this resort+beach is well suited for families/groups that want leisurely and peaceful vacation and don't really care too much about the thriving night life and too much of water activities. Since the resort has 3 bedroom villas, it's particularly awesome for a group of 3 families or similar group of friends. What I meant is that if you could book one villa all to yourself, you would have an awesome time with great privacy. Over all there are only some 10 plus villas which means never having an overcrowding in the resort, even if its fully booked. In case you want to venture out and hit other parts of Goa, the resort does provide for vehicles at fixed rate, which, you might find a little overpriced, but of course,  there's always a trade off between price paid and the comfort received :)
To be precise, a half day trip to Panjim and rest of Goa would cost anywhere between 2000-3000 INR (Depending on the distance to be covered or the time involved)

Here's a brief list of pros and cons of the resort, as perceived by my family during our stay there:

Pros:

1. Courteous staff. And I literally mean it. You would be greeted where ever you were spotted. Staff would be willing to go out of their way to help you out. A gardener left his work and strode along with us to show us the path to the beach. A waiter approached us and had a hearty chat while we were standing near the restaurant. Was it a necessity? No, it was courtesy. And the list goes on.
2. Vast stretch of green lawn, decent swimming pool, on premises spa facilities, private access to beach, plus a children's play area that was big relief for me as my little one is used to it back home.
3. Very good location and facilities to enjoy a leisurely vacation. We had leisurely walks across the beach, we could enjoy the sunset scenes on the beach sitting into the shack at nazare.
4. The property is a collection of 3 bedroom villas, having 1 bedroom at ground floor along with kitchen and dining and 2 bedrooms on the first floor with a vast sitting area. The terrace had benches to sunbath and enjoy a glance on the stretches of the resort. The rooms were air conditioned, had a mini freeze tucked-in, a very easy to operate locker and a water heater kettle as well. Laundry service was available on the premises. In short, all basic amenities that you could ask for a comfortable stay were present.
5. Free wifi but the strength was not that great in the rooms.

Cons:

1. The biggest con was the food options available on the premises. Since the property is a little far from major markets, restaurants and other ready food options, until you are willing to venture out for long, you have to satisfy yourself with a limited menu. There are two restaurants - tentacao in the middle of the resort and nazare - the beach shack. Ambiance wise, both win. But food wise, both fail to satisfy. The breakfast option is decent, but for lunch, snacks and dinner there are very less varieties to choose from. Plus, we felt the food was overpriced for the amount of satisfaction it gave to the taste bud. Goan bun was way too chewy and we had a sundae which didn't have brownie!!! (essentially , it was two scoops of vanilla icecream with a  little chocolate sauce). 
2. Little thoughtfulness was missing here and there : like no bucket in bathrooms!! (I had a hard time giving my little one a bath), no mosquito sprays (due to greenery there was a abundance of mosquitos but the provided repellants were not sufficient and they didn't have a spray available on the premises which we could use - again my baby came back home with quiet some gruesome mosquito byte marks), no refill/replacement of toiletries even when they got exhausted, no plane drinking water in site on the breakfast buffet spread etc. These are very little things that if not overlooked, can make the daily stay of a customer much more convenient and pleasurable. 

Coming to the cost, the rooms were rated somewhere around 5000-6000 INR per night. But we contacted the resort directly and got a better package deal from them that included breakfast, airport pickup and drop along with stay.

Finally comes the question, if given a chance I would again consider staying here. Perhaps no, until the food options get elaborated out. But, at the same time, I loved rest of the facilities and we had a nice peaceful family time along the coast , definitely enjoyed our stay.

[PS:pictures soon to follow, do come back to have a look]

Tripadvisor link for the hotel

The EPF taxation

The EPF taxation decision in budget 2016 has definitely made me think, and I am sure many others like me are thinking and wondering. Right now I am trying to figure out if there is anything that we use, apart from the air that we are breathing in, that is not taxed. After the current tax proposal, I would rather not be surprised if breathing in fresh air also gets taxed next. We salaried people should be rather prepared for anything if living in India. I am envisioning the future, where government would rather start giving a basic minimum living allowance to the salaried people and take away rest all as taxes. The salary will be cut from the taxes, rather than the taxes being cut from the salary.

I have heard the "ant and grasshopper" story, however I still thought it can't be that bad.

But now, I am sure, anything can happen...the possibilities of the impossible are unlimited. I am thinking hard whether to brace this reality or step in the shoes of the ant and move on..and away.

“But there are people who'll try to hurt you through the good they see in you--knowing that it's the good, needing it and punishing you for it. Don't let it break you when you discover that.” 

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

https://www.change.org/p/withdraw-budget-2016-proposal-to-tax-employee-provident-fund-epfnota