September 25, 2008
· Filed under Life in Bangalore, Tips · Tagged Ants, Bugs, Lizards
They grow bugs bigger, hungrier and smarter here in India! Fighting off the invasions requires a few steps that will help keep your home bug free.
First, when you move into the home I would recommend calling Godrej and having them do a whole home bug treatment. I have seen first hand how effective their product is! They will also come back if after the treatment the bugs have still found a way in!
For me the thing that creeps me out the most are ants. I hate ANTS! I especially hate the little almost invisible ones that show up in the kitchen sometimes. Here are the steps I take to keep them at bay:
- Everything that is open is in a sealed plastic container. This includes all cereals, spices, powders, etc.
- All surfaces are cleaned numerous times during the day.
- No food items are left out – really nothing!
- Eating only takes place at the table (with two kids I don’t want crumbs and ants showing up around the house!) They can also eat in the yard if they like (the kids, not the ants!).
- Anything dropped on the floor is immediately wiped up. One last sweep before sleeping keeps me from having to wake up to an invasion!
What to do if ants have found a way in? I really hate the bug sprays here – I feel dizzy and unwell after spraying so I know they are really toxic. My first choice is vinegar. Apparently ants hate the smell and it interferes with their ability to follow the ants that went before. My house has french doors from the garden directly into the kitchen. We had ants coming in under the door to escape the heat outside. I purchased this pesticide chalk that has done wonders. We marked a line under the doors and no more ants!
Finally, we have a NO ANT policy in the house. I did some research online to understand the enemy. Apparently, ants will send in a scouter ant to see if there is anything good inside. He will then bring in the rest of them if he finds food. So when we see one scouter ant we know he is the most important one to get rid of!
Mosquitoes are really bad here in Bangalore especially between 6-7:00 pm. Not only are they a nuisance but they pose a significant health hazard. Make sure you have good mosquito screens on all windows – check for gaps. If the kids will be at the park in the evening, use a mosquito spray. Try and keep doors closed in the evening. But the most important (and fun) thing you can do is to purchase these electrified rackets. They are the best way to get rid of the mosquitoes that get into the house. No chemicals, no smell and to tell the truth – a kind of sick pleasure. They look like a badmiton racket but the strings are electrified. They make it really easy to catch the mosquito who then send out a small flash when he dies. I don’t think you can understand the pleasure until you have tried it! (Warning – these are not kid friendly. The shock hurts (believe me) and there is no way to make it child-safe. It must be kept out of reach of kids!)
I have seen the biggest spiders in my life in the house here. I don’t have any ideas – I just suggest that one person in your house be brave enough to be responsible for removing them! (Those rackets work on spiders too – we tried!) If your house is under big trees you will definately have more spiders. I have had very few after moving to a house that is not below palm trees.
Lizards (ok – I know they are not bugs but they fall into the same yuck category so here they are!) You should be aware that most Indians will not harm a lizard. You really should not kill them. They creeped us out for the first year but I got so tired of trying to catch and release them that we came up with a new plan. First, we named them. Any lizard in our house is “lizzie.” Then we told ourselves that they are eating the mosquitoes so we are grateful for them. We understand they come inside to escape the heat of the day so we feel we are sheltering them. And now we just live with them. If there is one in the house, we leave it. Yes, if he is near a door or window I will try to get him out but otherwise, we just leave him alone. Welcome home Lizzie!
September 23, 2008
· Filed under Lawyer in Bangalore · Tagged legal, LPO, outsourcing
When I arrived in Bangalore two years ago I thought that the legal outsourcing craze was going to offer the perfect fit for me professionally. Before arriving I had contacted a small LPO based in the US and in Bangalore. I was offered a job and I eagerly looked forward to jumping in. On my first day of work I was told their manager was retiring and I was offered a position running the whole show. I was flattered, excited and very, very naive! I really had no idea what running such a project would entail.
Let me give you a little summary of what an LPO is. Basically, legal outsourcing is supposed to be a way for American and UK firms to cut costs for their clients by utilizing the English speaking, common-law based Indian attorneys who are willing to work for pennies on the dollar. Theoretically, it should be fine. It has worked in so many other fields. Outsourcing has basically built Bangalore and the spectacular successes of outsourcing firms are legendary. Unfortunately, the concept does not actually translate that well into legal work. Some firms are content with low level document processing and review. That kind of work is probably perfect for the LPO model. However other firms are trying to break into research and drafting of documents and that is where the entire LPO model looks very shaky. The very basic reason is that a person graduating from and Indian law school (except for one or two) really does not have the qualifications, the background, the knowledge or the ability to produce work that looks like it was produced by an American attorney. There is no emphasis on writing in Indian law schools.
What LPOs tend to do is to hire a few people who graduated from US law schools or who have practical experience working abroad. Those people are put in charge of a few more people who graduated from Indian law schools. These “teams” are supposed to work on projects from the US and return a document that meets US standards. In reality, the people in charge of the team end up either doing most of the work themselves or spending inordinate amounts of time correcting and editing the work of the teammates.
There are companies that are now training Indian lawyers for the LPO industry. This is a great idea. The problem is most LPOs feel they can do the training in-house. I just am not sure if you can impart an American legal education in a series of one-hour lectures over a few months!
There was great hope for the LPO industry. Some of the big outsourcing companies were talking about jumping in. I was told by one company that they hoped to hire 2000 attorneys over the next two years. That was a year ago and from what I hear, they don’t have more than a skeleton staff still. It is very hard to find qualified people and more difficult to keep qualified people.
September 23, 2008
· Filed under Education, Kids · Tagged Education, Schools
Educating “BIg A” – Inventure Academy and Primus Public School
Picking a school for our oldest child was one of the most important aspects of our relocation to India. We really wanted her to land up in a school that she was happy in. She was in the first grade when we moved and had a fabulous experience in her US preschool and kindergarten. I knew the school in India would be different, but I hoped to minimize the differences by choosing a more “international” school.
Big A went to school at Inventure Academy for two years. We chose the school because it was a newer school that seemed to share our philosophy about educating the whole child. They had lots of emphasis on arts and music, sports as well as all the typical academic classes. There was a lot of talk about focusing on each child as an individual and catering the educational experience to each child. Class size was very good – about 20 or 25 in a class. She had very good teachers at Inventure as well. One thing I really appreciated about the school was the openness to parent involvement. During our two years a parentvolunteer program was started that had parents in the school reading with differentclasses or discussing books with different classes. I was fortunate enough to teach in a few of the older classes as well as 2nd and3rd grade. I think it is VERY rare in Indian schools for parents to be given that kind of access and intimate look at the functioning of the school. All the teachers and the administration were very open and friendly.
All that being said, Big A did have difficulty adjusting to the Indian system. First, the emphasis on uniformity of appearance was a shock to both of us. There were rules about hair and about nails. I couldn’t believe it the first time she came home and said she got in trouble because her nails were too long – they were just over her fingertips! Then there was the shouting. My daughter had never heard a teacher shout in her life. Yet in Indian schools it seems like the preferred method of addressing a class! When Big A heard shouting she assumed the teacher was angry or someone was in trouble. The truth was, more often than not, the teacher was simply trying to be heard and didn’t have enough discipline in the class. Taking Hindi was also a bit of a challenge. The teacher believed in language emersion and refused to translate or explain anything in English. My daughter found this very frustrating and said she spent the whole class period wishing she could jump out the window! I did talk to the school and this was modified.
I think the thing that led to us leaving Inventure was a feeling that there simply was no discipline at the school. I firmly believe in letting children have fun and express their creative side but in a school setting there has to be some discipline or there is chaos. During her first year at school my daughter broke her leg during a period after lunch when all the children in first through fifth grades were allowed to play in a concrete play yard with no teacher supervision. I was told that all the teachers were having lunch at that time! I was infuriated that a school that boasted about a fantastic teacher-student ratio saw nothing wrong with having no teachers responsible for that time period. After talking with everyone I assumed that problem had been addressed. However, again during the next year while I was at the school I saw children in the junior block running around wild because all the teachers had gone to a meeting on the other side of the school! That was really the last straw for me. Interestingly, Big A also asked to be transferred to another school. So we decided to try something different.
Big A is currently at Primus Public School. This school is also a new school. It was founded, however, by the same gentlemen who founded the very prestigious andsuccessful Indus School. The principle was the academic head at Indus. He has taken teachers from schools all around Bangalore. They also have a very good balance of art, music, sports and academics. I think the main difference so far is just a feeling of organization and discipline. I have been in the school and seen children having fun without being wild. There always seems to be a plan regarding supervision. Big A is also very happy and is topping all her subjects. The tuition at Primus is significantly less than the tuition we were paying at Inventure. I am sure it will have to increase but I won’t mind given the lower price it is starting at! They have cut out some of the bells andwhistles of a more expensive school – they don’t provide any meals or snacks – you have to send them from home. I don’t mind it and I don’t think most other parents mind it either.
We did visit a number of schools before deciding on Primus. There are schools to fit every budget, every parenting philosophy and ever locality. For us one deciding factor was the location. Anything that would have resulted in more than a one hour bus ride was out. After that we wanted a school run by people with significant experience in education and a good track record. Big A wanted a nice facility with good sports area. In Primus we found what we were all looking for!
