Behavior with age:

The major thing with age was that the kids transitioned from mechanical toys and board games toward video games. They swap games at school and use up all their free time playing video games at home or with friends.

Siblings:

The younger kid likes to play with the older kid but the older kid only plays with the younger kid when he/she has nothing else to do. This is true for most males and a few females.

There is a general protective instinct and a teaching instinct in the older kids. They use their younger siblings as “subjects” during their play. Essentially, a hierarchy of command is established.

Peers:

The older kids seem to be getting on well in games that REQUIRE collaboration. A few gravitate toward exploring other options.

Outdoor:

The types of games and methods of play is greatly affected by the immediate environment where they play. Be it the football field or the sandbox, when it snows, they HAVE to sled.

We observed constructive as well as destructive behavior. Kids seem to like to construct things and once they have finished with the particular venture, they seem to gravitate toward destroying it when in a group. This is not the case when they are alone, some like to admire their work when they are alone and often try to get an adult to notice and admire their work.

Indoor:

Amazingly, this is seasonal too. Seasonal in the sense that every time a new sensation, cartoon or movie comes out, they get totally engrossed in it. Action figures, dolls, board games, video games, even games they make up have rules made up from the present attraction.

We also noticed that kids don’t stick to the same toy for more than a weeks time, even though they go back to the old toys when they don’t have anything new to explore. This usually results in playing with a combination of toys (old and new).

Sex:

This was the most obvious fact in older kids. The concept of male and female is instilled early even though the kids themselves don’t realize until they cross the age of 6 or 7. Girls play with dolls, boys play with cars seemed a universal truth. This further goes on to everything from clothes they put on to the plates they eat from. The parents identify this in most cases and the room decor changes significantly based on the sex of the kids occupying the room.

Older boys liked to run and bounce while the girls preferred to sit tight and play with their dolls and kitchen sets. The preference of colors was evident though Black and at times white seemed to be a universal favorite.

Boys liked loud noises.

Parents:

We had some really interesting insight from parents as well. They was this general agreement that kids get bored easily. Also, they wanted toys that are easy to put back together once they are broken.

Some said the kids had one favorite toy which they wouldn’t part with. Be it the old train set or the teddy bear, there always is a favorite.

This is what we heard parents say most, “My kids usually just plays video games”. “They come straight from school and plop down in front of the PS3”

My cousin posted this on facebook, just couldnt resist posting it here!!!!

A young Indian in the US was asked by his mother to explain the significance of “Diwali” to his younger brother, this is how he went about it…

” So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him.

But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some national forest or something….

Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so…. he decided to get his wife and his bro

along…. you know…so that they could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary shit… really man…they had monkeys and devils and shit like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked with darts and

bows and arrows… so it was fine.

But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, was our man, and also his bro, Laxman, pissed… all the gods were with him… So anyways, you

don’t mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get an army of monkeys…

Dude, don’t ask me how they trained the damn monkeys… just go along with me, ok…

So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta’s ass in his own hood…. Anyways, by this time, their time’s up in the forest… and anyways… it gets kinda boring, you know… no TV or malls or shit like that. So, they decided to hitch a ride back home… and when the people

realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home… they thought, well, you know, at least they deserve something nice… and they didn’t have any discos or clubs in those days… so they couldn’t take them

out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and shit… and since they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also…so it was pretty cooool… you know with all those fireworks…. Really, they even had some local band play along with the fireworks… and you know, what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding.., that was the very first

music-synchronized fireworks…. you know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started.”

The mother fainted

I had a lot of those moments and I ve leart a great deal from executing them and not executing them. I have a feeling people need to understand the mistakes that are done commonly even though making an error is the best way to learn. So here are some pointers.

1. The IDEA

This is the most important of all. It defines what you want to do. You need to be clear on what you want to do. You can’t sell cars when you want to be selling spaceships.

2. The Market

You need to understand who your target audience. Not just who they are, but what they do and what they like and dislike. You cant sell chicken to a vegan, if you do – well you ve got great marketing skills. Which brings us to…

3. Marketing

This is not something you learn. This is an instinct. A right word at the right tome can make you a million dollars. You need to do your homework before you set out to market your idea or product. You shouldn’t have a problem if you the two things above right. You ll still require one other thing…

4. Pricing

This is one place you need to be clear about. You need to know at what prices to offer your servuces or products at. It’s not business if you end up making a loss even after you ve got the clients and finished the work on time. New entrepreneurs often find themselves in situations where they have to compromise on the price. This is where you need to get your marketing people to act smart. You need to set the minimum price for the work you will be doing. This should cover all the expenses involved for the whole team that might be involved in it. Everone has to eat, drink and sleep, that is the why they need to work.

5. Training

This is one of the most important part of a job well done. People can’t do something unless they are thaught how to do it. That is why there is so much demand for experienced people in any industry.

6. Satisfy your employees

The important part of getting a team to do their work is to keep the team moivated in all situations. It is okay to make a small investment if that means keeping your people happy and working. Seriously, buy that wii.

7. Keep your promises

Never promise the client that you can get the job done in 2 days if that is all it actually takes. Always leave time to correct errors and to make up for lost time. It’s always better totell the client you will get it done in 4 days and deliver the product early. It reflects on how fast you can get the job done. But this does not work at all times, it’s a risk but a calculated one. If it works you get a lot more business but it doesn’t well, you start all over again.

8. Always respond to your email

On some days, you will get hundreds of emails. On others, you will get none at all. You need to read everything and make intelligent replies to all of them. Be smart, always be nice. You never know when you will need one of them to help you out.

9. Be Organized

There is no alternative to this. You need to be organized at all times, keep your calender up to date. Attend all the events you are invited to. Attend all those breakfast things that people go to. Speak to people, get your brand out there.

10. ASK

You need something done, but you don’t know how to do it. You need to get someone to do something and you are trying to be polite. Well, before you know it, the person would be gone and you would have to go look for someone else who can do it. All it takes to get something done is to ask. There are endless things that can be accomplished by asking. People get huge deals by asking, people get stuff for free by asking. You might get that break you need by asking. SO, ASK.

11. Watch your step

You are your brand. Always watch what you say in public. Everything you say is attributed to your brand. Watch your language at all times, especially if your brand is related to kids in anyway. Watch what you post on the social networking sites.

12. NETWORKING, NETWORKING, NETWORKING.

You need to tell people what you are doing, at the same time you need to know what others are doing. Its all about networking. You know someone who knows someone who knows someone who can get you a deal on something you’ve been searching for. And, before you know it you will be great friends with all those people.

13. Talk to people about your idea

One of the mistakes entrepreneurs do is to keep their idea a huge secret from their friends. You will find that if you tell people about the idea, you get a lot of critics that is very helpful in how you proceed with the plan. But be smart about who you tell it to or someone might just use the idea. Get a lot of views on how you will be executing the plan. Trust me, it helps. A lot of problems in your proposal will be uncovered along with possible solutions.

14. Get some goodies made

People love goodies and handouts. It is one of the most effective ways to market your brand. It might just be an awesome wall paper. It can be as cool as a gadget that you can giveaway. But there has to be something that they(your target audience) can relate to.

15. Have FUN

You are not going to make it big unless you  enjoy what you do. Have fun doing it and there is nothing better.

I did not think all his views were correct. All the arguments were based on the thoughts of a lot of people cleverly pieced together to make a sound logical argument. I agree to Nicholas Carr’s view that the Internet has changed the way people think, but i do not agree that it is google that brought about the change. Google revolutionized the change. People evolve, in the way they think, in the way they work, in the way they search, in the way they live. All google did was to act as a platform to facilitate the change.

It has in no way made people stupid. If someone wanted to read a book, they would just go out there and get one. I read books, i turn to google when i need specific information about anything.  Someone said “I do not memorize what i can find in a book” and say “I don’t need to remember things i can find out from google (like, the weather!!!)”. But i know where to draw the line. Everybody does,  no one looks for each and everything online.

Looking at the evolutionary aspect of things, man started out by drawing symbols and then assigned sounds to the symbols. Sounds started getting personalized to the regions and hence languages came about. Then came the writing, then the books, then the radio, then the television, then the computer and then the World Wide Web. At one point, the only information sources were books or news channels on the radio. Now that there is this huge platform to share literally anything one wants the whole world to have access to, people have a problem with it. Of course it is going to change the way you look at things, but it is not going to essentially change how you process the information you gather from various sources.

Moreover, we do not tend to forget things very easily unless we have selective amnesia or any other disorder of that sort. Think about it, your neighbours cat got stuck on the roof, would you forget all about it after you see all those people trying to help the poor dear out? You go to google, you look for something, 99999 times in a million, you get what you are looking for. End of story. You don’t keep going back to it unless you need to.

All that said and done, google has become a way of life. There will not be a day of life without someone telling you to “google it” at least once. It only goes on to show how much we rely upon the search engine for information and it has absolutely no relation with the mental status of people. But that is one man’s view.

SAVE FOR YOUR DREAMS – Just because there is this new gadget in the market, or the new house is for sale, you don’t have to go out and start buying them. At some point in life you will come up with this idea which will have a light bulb glowing above your head. That will be a total turning point in your life where you will want to have some(read ‘a lot of’) cash on you.

ALWAYS BE POLITE AND HELPFUL – You never know when you might need the help of someone you never thought could help you. Never ever swear in public. Help anyone who asks your help. Your favor will not go unnoticed.

NETWORKING, NETWORKING, NETWORKING – Attend all those breakfasts and meeting that you get invited to. If someone comes up to you and asks a question, try to answer it or point out the person who can answer the question.

READ – This is perhaps the important of them all. You need to know what is happening out there. Look into views from different people. Take part in discussions and know the lay of the land in general.

ASK, AND IT WILL BE GIVEN – In most cases all you need to do is ask. You want to work with the multinational organization, ask. You want someone to advertise on your website, ask. You want someone write a post on your blog, ask. The bottom line is ASK. And hey, be nice when you do it.

MANAGE YOU TIME – This one is obvious.

Now, a little about Miss. Notkin and SavvyAuntie.com – her startup. One fine day, her niece wanted to talk about Dora, the cartoon character. Well, she had never heard of dora so she was totally at loss about what to tell the kid. Then it struck her as a business idea. She started up the website which specifically caters to Aunts and its all about their Nieces and Nephews. Gift ideas, diet plans, cartoon characters, game ideas, some old fashioned ranting, its all there. And it is growing in a very healthy pace.

SavvyAuntie.com – A brilliant idea with an absolutely brilliant person executing it. Take a look.

We had chicken in the oven, Ashwin opened it so i could spread some more gravy on it and lo, a thick fume of smoke came out, and then – CHAOS. There was this beeping i had never heard before, it kept going on and on and on and then i realized it was the smoke detector!!! Had to take a towel right to it and fan off the smoke around the detector. It was crazy!!! But once we got it to stop beeping, we sat down, had a good laugh and well, started eating the chicken hoping the FDNY would not turn up at our place.

All said and done, i realized the underlying effectiveness of the Fire Department of New York. There are a number of times when i’ve seen or heard their trucks racing down the street to attend to some distressed person with a fire in the apartment or just a smoke alarm going off in some random place. Their quick and effective response only tells one about how seriously the US Government takes people’s lives. Its interesting how everyone is polite here. You walk down the street and you ll get at least two people asking how you are doing. This one time, the very first time actually, we were walking down the 3rd avenue with all my luggage and the guys stopped to get some supplies. I stood outside the shop and a guy came up to me and asked ” comin or goin ?” And i replied “Comin” and he said “Welcome Back” and he was off.

The best start to a year and a half , i wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

And BAM!!! There we were at the airport,  6 kilo above the weight allowed. i was in quiet a fix when my family came through with a friend of ours – the head of International Cargo Operations at the airport. So, i got the 6kg excess for free and then a business class upgrade for the first half of my trip. Now that was sheer dumb luck!!!

A luxurious first leg from chennai to dubai in business class and a not so comfortable leg from Dubai to New York (I got to see the A380 parked right next to my aircraft in Dubai though). There i was sitting in JFK waiting for Ashwin and Danny to come pick me up. 2 hours and they were still in the subway apparently and i was in a fix cause i had to be in the univ in an hour to attend a mandatory session. So i took the taxi Forgot i didn’t have a key, then lugged my luggage along to the univ. Registered myself for classes and got the guys to come back around 6 in the evening to take me back home.

That is the story of my first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Loved it though. Absolutely great!!!

Mr. Biswas trying to cool himself down using a newspaper inside Air-India's Airbus A320 (IC 672)

Bottomline, You will find yourself doing what Mr. Biswas (a fellow passenger) did if you travel with AI. Yeah, use the newspaper for ventilation. For  a more graphic explanation look at the photograph above.

To sum it up, i am going to rate the airline out of ten in the following categories

AIRPLANE – 6 / 10
CREW – 2 / 10
CLEANLINESS – 7 / 10
FLIGHT EXPERIENCE – -1 / 10 (yes that is a negative)
AIRLINE PERFORMANCE – 2 / 10

To sum it up -  16 / 50
Bottom line – This airline does not deserve the 2 star rating it has got from the official rating club. This is the last time i am flying with AI (What about you ??? ).

A WEEK BEFORE WE HAD TO FLY

In the mean time, we were busy taking care of other details. Speculating about the time we would spend there and the cash we would be carrying and the general rants and raves. It turned out we couldnt get the malaysian visa here. TOO BAD. Cause of Gana’s Passport coming in late and me misplacing the visa photos and the general traffic situation in chennai.

Well, there we were in college. Completely oblivious to the fact that we were going to be flying to Singapore later that night. It was like any other day in college, nothing special.  Except a couple of leers from Kulla Karthi and a lot smiles and half a dozen teachers not being allowed to teach at our expense. Nothing out of the ordinary.

On we went to the airport that night and through the baggage check, we were 5 kilos over the limit. Off came the coat and on it went on me. Gana reshuffled some of his luggage and voila, we were just 3 kilos over. The good guy behind the counter decided to overlook the extra. Turned out only half the flight was full. After the busy immigration and the security checks and double checking if TIGER AIR really did exist, well our fears were out to rest on seeing the Airbus A3xx standing proudly on the tarmac. Ah, BLISS!!!

After  taking in the Airbus and calling up my mom and confirming that the airline existed, we prepare for the long journey ahead. A security check later, we were walking down the ramp to the plane. We walk in to find cute lookin hostesses who gracefully help us to our seat. After helping a couple of people with their luggage, we settle down in your seats. A little cramped but we found the best position within seconds and started looking at each other and everyone else. At last the doors shut and the briefing began. The usual stuff about seat belts and life jackets.

They told us to switch off phone and electrical stuff saying it would interfere with their communications. I knew for a fact that it wouldn’t so we did not bother.  In fact we were talking away and clicking away during the take off. Gana was a little apprehensive cause this was his first flight. I love the feeling you get when the flight accelerates to take off . And take off we did.

More in the next post.