Suitable Job Opening

A couple of weeks ago, one of my neighbours was speaking to me. It was just a casual evening talk about nothing in particular and it is my mother who usually talks to him. But that day she had to take care of some other work and I was left to take over her position.

After talking about this house and that house and the other house, the conversation veered towards his job. In fact he asked me directly if he could get a job in my company. I told him that I can ask around since I didn't know of anything off-hand. Then I asked him why he was looking for a job change.

He said that he wasn't getting paid that well. In his opinion, for the hours he puts in at work on a daily basis the salary is just not commensurate. I told him that his office took care of his accommodation, but he said that they take some 5% out of his salary of accommodation and for food as well.

Moreover, he came to know of other new joiners in his organization, whose job profile is pretty much the same as his. But, it turns out that they were earning some 20% more than him. Furthermore, he said that they don’t slog as much as he does and stick to a fixed working hours per day. He, I was told, goes the extra distance without any fuss, but the new fellows didn’t do anything of that sort, unless they got monetary compensation for the extra work. I told him if he had spoken to higher authorities about it and he replied that it was of no use.

He then told me that another neighbour of ours who had moved out, was now getting almost 40% more than what he got when he was here. So the market rate was clearly higher and he said that once he gets some such opening, he would quit. He planned to bring in his family as well and that was also the reason for looking for a change.

So I am putting out the word through this blog to any potential employer, that there is a guy looking for a job opening as a car driver, expecting around 13K per month. He is from Bihar, but speaks Tamizh and is very well versed with all road routes in Tamil Nadu – right from Chennai to Kanyakumari (specializing within Chennai and the Chennai-Sivaganga route).

Note: I call him my neighbour because my next house functions as an office, with a lot of spare rooms being used as guest rooms. 

Mysore-Madikeri Vacation May 2008: Part 6

It was getting quite late by the time we set out to the Brindavan Gardens. The road that we took to reach the Gardens was filled with vehicles and it was quite obvious that a very sizeable portion of the traffic was headed where we were going.

Since the traffic was getting heavier, our driver decided that he had to do all he could to ensure that his passengers saw the dancing fountains at the appointed time. The entire stretch of road from Mysore city to Brindavan Gardens was just an assorted collection of potholes. But this didn’t deter the noble intentions of our driver to take us to the show on time. He started to overtake vehicles from the left. Sometimes he even started driving on the right hand side of the road just to pass some 3 or 4 cars in front of us. I was having a ring-side view of the action since I was seated in the front, next to the driver.

He didn’t care for potholes; of course, if he started to, then we would have reached the Gardens only the next morning. By the time we neared the Gardens, it was clear that the parking lot was full. Cars had come out to the road and there were even big buses waiting on the main road. Our driver decided to drop us near the entrance and then go somewhere for parking. Luckily, he got a slot in the lot near the entrance and we proceeded towards the Gardens. By now, it was past twilight and officially night.

Once inside the Gardens, I was able to relate to most of the fountains. It was an area full of Patel Points and I joined in the fun. At some point during our walk in the Gardens, my mother made the comment “Idhu atthanaiyyum enga oorukku vara vaendiya thanni…paavigala….” (“All this water has to flow to my town you sinners”). Considering the general Karnataka-TN political water wars it was quite a bold statement to be made at Brindavan Gardens. Thankfully, the place is filled only with tourists and I am assuming that barely 10% of it would have been Kannadigas and even those would be the ones who don’t know Tamizh.

So without any incidents, we were able to proceed with our walk around the Gardens. Since it was getting late, we couldn’t stay back to enjoy the Garden some more. After we came out, we had to wait for nearly 15-20 minutes for Raji. She had also come there with her friends, but was on the other side of the Gardens. It took her and Mahendran that long on the phone to sort out their co-ordinates (with some help from me too). We then took off towards Mysore to have dinner and then officially wrap up the day.

After another exciting drive, we dropped Uthra and co. at their residence. We went back to the same restaurant where we had lunch. But now, we had to wait for a while before we got a table. My parents and even Mahendran to a certain extent had a quick nap in this gap. Raji joined us late since her friend took a wrong turn on the return and it took them a while to retrace their path in the darkness.

So after an arduous day (at least for my parents), we finally returned to our hotel. We planned to start a little late in the morning next day, with the main (and probably sole) agenda being the visit to Somnathpur. This was because I wanted to leave Mysore in the afternoon, so that we could avoid driving in the mountain route to Madikeri at night. The additional factor was also that my room was booked only for one day and I thought I could get a free hour or two before I check-out of the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel guys had other ideas.

Random Observation # 035

Most of the cab drivers in Chennai almost invariably listen to "thathuva paadalgal". And the "thathuvam song" is sure to be one talking about death. They tend to have at least one CD with lot of songs of this genre.

Does their job make them take solace in such songs?