Hi folks. Have you called a doctor or customer service for a credit card and greeted by a live person. I doubt it. Instead you are greeted by the dreaded automated phone menu. Recently I called our son’s ENT doctor. All I wanted to do was cancel an existing appointment. I had to go through seven different menus to get to a live person. My actual conversation with her took a few seconds, but to get to her, I spent several minutes negotiating the menu. Sometimes you get so many choices that you forget if you wanted option 1 or option 5. Well they have a solution for that: to repeat the menu, press *. Many times, what I do is keep pressing 0 until the system says “I will transfer you to a representative”. Another annoying thing is regardless of the time of the day or night you call, you still get “All our representatives are currently busy assisting other callers. Your call will be answered in the order it was received”. I honestly think that the customer service people are sitting there drinking coffee or soda or playing video games on their phone. The other annoying part is when the person you get cannot answer your question and they say they will transfer you. Again you get a different set of menus. There have been times when I have gotten “We are experiencing unusually high call volume, please leave a message and we will get back to you”. I realize that hiring people is expensive and that automated menus can efficiently (?) route your call to the right person/department. Some companies discourage phone calls. When you call they direct you to a website and you have to fill out a form. I have noticed that this process takes longer and usually your question is not answered completely. In our case, our kids’ pediatrician is really good. You do get an automated menu, but within seconds you select an option and speak to a live person.

Hi everyone. There is a saying: “One bad apple spoils the bunch”. So can a few fans give a city a bad name? I am talking about the city of Philadelphia. We are passionate about our sports teams. We cheer them when they are winning, but we boo them when they are losing. But a few days ago, things went too far. In a baseball game, one of the players, Ryan Howard, got out. It was the last out of the game and Philadelphia lost the game. As Howard was walking back, a fan threw an aluminum beer bottle at his feet. Obviously, Howard was upset. I remember in the early 2000’s, Philly football fans were upset with their Eagles and they started hurling snowballs at the opposite team and Santa Claus. Is nothing sacred anymore! It was during the same time that Philadelphia had a sitting judge during the Eagles games. But when you look at polls of worst fans, Philly fans get top ranking. But I bet you, if you polled for the best fans, I think they will get top ranking as well. Going to any sporting event for a family of 4 is an expensive affair. Depending upon the game, you can easily spend between $200 and $500. So if the team has a poor performance, fans are going to let them know how they feel. Some fans get more emotional and demonstrative than others, but does that mean everyone else is bad. For instance, there were 25,000 other fans on the day Howard got assaulted. But only one fan did that. So I don’t think it is fair to brand a whole city for thoughtless actions of a rotten few. We need to remember that athletes are human beings first.

Hi everyone. Before I dive into today’s post, I do want to mention about the weekend. May 27-30 was a long weekend in the US. May 30th is called Memorial Day. It is a day on which the US remembers their fallen war heroes. I know most people, including me, look at it as a holiday. But it is more than that. So I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to those that made the ultimate sacrifice, not just in the US but all over the world, and not just in war. Heroes are found in other situations like natural disasters, people who save accident victims and many more.

Talking about the ultimate sacrifice, I am not sure if people have been following the news in the US. For those not familiar, couple of days ago, a gorilla called Harambe, at the Cincinnati Zoo was killed by zoo officials. A twelve year old boy somehow managed to bypass the barrier and fell into the moat surrounding the gorilla enclosure. Harambe, a male lowland silverback gorilla, was seen charging towards the kid and dragging him to a corner. Zoo officials made a split second decision and killed the gorilla to save the child. I am not an animal activist, however, I could not help but think whether Harambe had to die? Lowland silverback gorilla is a sub-species that is considered endangered. Could he have been tranquilized? Was the child really in danger? Some eyewitnesses said that they felt the gorilla was actually protecting the child. They felt that his parental instinct took over. Others say that he was “displaying”. Displaying is a behavior male gorilla’s in the wild use to deal with challenges from another male. But once the gorilla realized that the intruder was not another gorilla, he would have backed off. I guess we will never know. But being the most evolved animal, do human beings have the right to kill those lower on the evolution ladder? What about the parents? Isn’t it their responsibility to make sure that their children don’t wander into unsafe areas. Was the gorilla enclosure not adequately equipped to keep intruders out? There are a lot of questions and maybe over the next few days, we will get some answers. Regardless it will be too late for a gorilla who paid the ultimate price.

Please let me know what your thoughts are.

Hi everyone. In the US, we had a long weekend. I usually feel energized after a vacation/holiday. I hope you had a good weekend regardless of where you are located. I recently read somewhere that in the US, people are productive only 90 minutes each day. In some countries this number is less and in other countries, it is more. But the common theme is that no one works an eight hour day. The remaining time is spent in distractions like reading the news, surfing the net, food, doing paperwork and unproductive meetings. So how do you get efficient and productive?

1. Instead of doing things haphazardly, make a list and focus on one thing at a time. I know in today’s environment, multi-tasking is common. I am guilty of doing this.
2. Pick an endpoint. Usually what I do is try to finish a report or write a certain number of words in a given amount of time. Sometimes, I don’t get there, but it gets me close to my objective.
3. List action steps. I know my report has a certain format, so doing things according to format, helps. But when there is no set format, I try to do things in a natural progression.
4. Remove interruptions. I am not good at this, but I used to work for someone who used to block time on their calendar and not answer phone calls etc. Also let other people know you will be unavailable for that chunk of time. I do this sometime on the weekends. I wake up at about the the same time on the weekends as on weekdays. But then I get caught up with members of my family and I don’t get things done on my list. So I will tell my family to not bother me until I get things done. Doesn’t always work. But at least I am conditioning them to expect it.
5. Work quickly. I read a quote that perfection is the enemy of done. Don’t dwell on things. Go through your action steps quickly and finish the task in the allotted time.

Speaking of which, I need to get back to my other action items. Hope you enjoyed this post.

Hi everyone. There is an Indian movie called Chennai Express. In the movie, the male lead always says “Don’t underestimate the power of a common man”. I did not realize  how true it was until I read a story this morning in the newspaper. I live in the Philadelphia area. I did not know this, but the city of Philadelphia has a ban on private citizens raising chickens in their backyard. Malaika Hart, a lady who lives in West Philadelphia, was raising chickens, growing vegetables and she also had a beehive. She used to give the eggs away for free and her neighbors said that they were delicious. But because of the ban, the city of Philadelphia fined her. Ms. Hart refused to pay the fine. The fines started mounting and finally she went to small claims court. The judge looked at the pictures of her chicken coop and farm and dropped all the charges. So Ms. Hart does not have to pay a single penny. Score one for the people! Examples of civil disobedience are everywhere. It was the cornerstone of Mahatma Gandhi’s fight against the British in India and Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid in South Africa. But very seldom does civil disobedience by an individual gets noticed. I think we should all be proud of what Ms. Hart has done. Now I don’t mean go around and start breaking laws left and right, but if you believe in something, be ready to fight for it and don’t underestimate the power of the common person.

Hi all. Did you ever wonder if things really change when a new President or Prime Minister or a new Head of State is elected? Most newcomers promise change but once they get into office they get caught up in bureaucracy and nothing gets done. I remember when I was a kid, I used to see a BBC show called Yes, Minister. Later it became Yes, Prime Minister. But in that show the lead character is a newly elected person. However, his personal assistant is a man who has been in that role for the previous minister. The new minister has a lot of ideas, but his assistant cautions him that things take a lot of time to implement. But still the new minister persists. So his assistant talks to other assistants including those for the opposition and they plan it such that the new ministers ideas get bogged down in procedure. In the US, all regulations are in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A new rule, a new tax break, everything is in the CFR. As of right now, the CFR has 200,000 pages. Do you think people like you and me have time to read any of it? Do you know if we are violating any regulation right now? I don’t think so. To put things in perspective, in the 1950’s when President Eisenhower left office, the CFR was 25,000 pages. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, 25,000 pages were added. Similarly during the Nixon/Ford administration, another 25,000 pages were added and during the Reagan/George H.W. Bush era, 25,000 more pages were added. Over the last 16 years, another 75,000 pages were added. Similarly, during the Eisenhower era, government spending was $500 per person. Today is $4500. The only time it actually went down was during the Reagan and Clinton administration. My point is regardless of whether a democrat or republican wins the election, bureaucracy will not change. It is the same thing in India, the UK and other democracies. Basically we just have to take control of things we can and hope for the best. Just remember the serenity prayer “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference”.

Hi all. I am sorry, but again, I am resuming my post after a break. I know a lot of you read my posts. But last night I met my one fan. I was at a party and he told me that he really looks forward to my blog everyday. So I told him that I will resume. Back to the party, as always, the discussion revolved around politics. Same topics, minimum wage hike, tax the rich etc. But there were some that felt that redistribution of wealth is good. Also the general feeling was that rich people are dishonest. Now I don’t consider myself rich, although according to Mr. Obama, I am. But don’t get me started on that. I started thinking, are the rich dishonest. Now in 2008 Wall Street and the banks made some seriously questionable investments and caused the financial crisis. So I agree those people are greedy and dishonest, but I don’t think you can generalize. Many people who are rich today were not rich to begin with. They had humble beginnings. Also many rich people donate money to worthy causes. Maybe they do it because of the tax breaks. But let us talk about redistribution of wealth. You take all your hard earned money and put it into a pot along with others who have also worked hard for their money. Then you divide it and give equal portions to everyone, including those who did not put any money into the pot. Would you have any motivation to work hard anymore? Or think about this. You study hard, get A’s all the time. But then the school decides that instead of only a few people getting A’s everyone should get a C. Would you study hard? If you don’t agree with this then why would you agree to redistribution of wealth. I remember a few years ago young people in New York city carried out occupy Wall Street. A reporter chronicled their daily activities. They would start out by getting a latte from Starbucks, text their friends on Apple IPhone or Samsung Galaxy phone, drink Coke and wear Nike and Under Armour Jackets and have sex at night in their tents. They want to use the products (most probably paid for by their parents) of the very same companies they were protesting against. Now I realize I am also generalizing, but now I guess you see the fallacy in that. So my friends, not all rich people are dishonest. Many rich people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg have donated billions of dollars to charities. They are also advocating for saving the environment, equal rights for women and other social causes. In fact their support brings visibility and action to those initiatives. So please let me know what you think.

Hi everyone. A few days ago I heard on the news that an 83 year old woman from Queens, NY is suing Apple because she claimed that she broke her nose running into the glass wall of the Apple store. She claims that Apple was being negligent by allowing a glass wall to exist without proper warning. At the beginning of May, a woman in Chicago sued Starbucks for putting too much ice in her iced coffee. She claimed that Starbucks charged her for a 24 oz iced-coffee, but delivered 14 oz of coffee and 10 ounces of ice. Now call me stupid, but isn’t iced coffee supposed to contain ice? I am sure all of you remember the 1994 lawsuit in which a woman in New Mexico got almost $2.9 million when she sued McDonalds for serving coffee that was too hot. This woman put hot coffee in between her thighs and was trying to open the lid in order to add cream and sugar. But in the process, the coffee spilled and caused 3rd degree burns. Almost 20 years later, a LA woman sued McDonalds when she got burned by hot coffee. In fact this was parodied in a Seinfeld episode when Kramer sneaks in a cup of hot coffee into a movie theater and gets burned. Not to mention all the smokers suing the tobacco companies. Do you think their lawsuits have merits? I personally don’t think so. I think it is a way of playing the victim and blaming someone else for your actions. Or maybe it is a way to make a lot of money.  People want to find ways to make easy money. But there are other ways to make money. You can become an amazon affiliate and promote their products. You can you old stuff on ebay or craigslist. You can sell your services like tutoring, web design and such. I think these are ethical ways of making money. So I think we should stop playing the victim and take responsibility for our actions.

Hello all. Yesterday evening, I was listening to the radio and the program host was Ryan Secrest. A listener called in and said that her and her boyfriend have been dating for 2 years. The relationship is getting serious, they are thinking of moving in together, getting married and having kids. But for the last six months or so her dog has been barking and growling at her boyfriend. She said that initially her dog really liked her boyfriend and was friendly. She is not sure why this transformation has occurred. Mr. Secrest tells her that this could be a sign that somehow the boyfriend is not a keeper. He said that pets can sense things that people cannot and she should seriously think about this one. Now, there are many problems with this scenario. First of all, Mr. Secrest is a radio and TV host, but I hardly think this qualifies him as a relationship expert. Second your personal problems are a private issue and should not be aired on the radio. Third, if the relationship indeed is very serious, would you break up with the boyfriend or get rid of the dog? I have read that animals can indeed sense danger. But how much importance do you give that sixth sense? I am not a pet owner and so cannot really give you any examples, but I would trust my own gut. Even if I was having doubts, I would confide with a close friend or relative and seek their advice, definitely not let my dog influence my relationship decision. I realize people change, perhaps the boyfriend was initially trying to impress her and was more attentive towards her and the dog, but now that some time has gone by he is taking some things for granted and is not being as attentive. Therefore the dog feels neglected or jealous. I have read that if a couple has a pet but then they have a baby, the pets do feel neglected as the new parents are more focused on the baby. But in that situation, the parents try to find ways to make sure that the pet and the baby get the attention they deserve. Perhaps she should look at other things around her and the boyfriend. Perhaps he has some stress at work, an illness in the family or some other circumstance that changed him. Give him the benefit of the doubt. I would not get relationship advice from Mr. Secrest. He has had three failed relationships and is now on his 4th one. Or maybe that does make him a relationship expert. You decide. Also if you are a pet owner, let me know if you feel that pets have a sixth sense.

Hello all. As I said yesterday, I have a lot of things I would like to write about. Let me start with the current hot button topic in the US, the presidential election. If you are outside the US, you are probably saying “Why do I care?” But I think you should. The reason is that we live in a complex world. Something happening in some corner of the world has an impact in our corner. Especially because the US is the one of the top economies in the world and need I remind you how the US mortgage crisis of 2008 affected markets all over the world. Or how the economies of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries will affect the other economies. Similarly, an infection in one corner of the world can become a pandemic in a few short months because people travel so easily from one place to the other.

Let me get back to politics. People often get bogged down with politics and politicians that they have no control over. They think that if so and so becomes the US president, all their problems will be solved. It is not just in the US. It can be any country.

I believe we should just ignore the media hype, lies, and the ‘dog and pony show’ of the elections. Why? Because all we should focus on is accomplishing our goals of personal growth and freedom. Worrying about things mostly out of our control has no bearing on achieving our goals.

I understand that in a democratic system it is undemocratic not to care about your vote. I sincerely believe in exercising your right to vote. Just limit the time you spend on the whole fiasco. And yes, in a democratic system, majority rules. But the sad reality is that a majority of people know nothing about economics, history, etc. and they are swayed by how their parents or friends vote. The only reason you should take an interest in this is to consider how it affects your goals in life. For example, how a certain foreign policy affects the oil price and how it will affect your daily life or your stock portfolio. Or how government money-printing affects interest rates and the price of gold? Or follow popular trends that indicate which business sector is worth investing in. Which candidate is likely to influence some of these things a certain way?

And if saving the planet or campaigning for whatever really is your calling, become financially free so you can pursue this. Either way, it all comes down to freeing up your time.

So on a regular basis, in your spare time, work on your personal goals, ask yourself: “Is this activity moving me towards my goal of XYZ?”

If the answer is a big, fat NO… then stop that activity and get back on track to what you should be doing!