Monday, February 21, 2011

7.25 AM

all clocks exhibit a strange behavior.

irrespective of brand or geography, the following seem to be true:
- when you hit snooze in the morning, they seem to cover 5 minutes in much less time, to wake you up again
- when you switch off the alarm, for that 2 minute extra sleep, they move super fast and move ahead by anything between 10 and 30 [lucky, if it is not 45 or more] minutes

i could not agree any more with whoever said that no two clocks agree - except, i guess the ones that have stopped. they show the right time at least once a day.

most of the time time is approximate. particularly the Indian way. When shall we meet - say 7, 7.30.
- i'll call you around 4.30
etc.

while in mumbai, if we miss the 7.23 local, we can take the 7.27 and still make it to the bus @ ghatkopar!

it is not just while waking up - while getting ready to go to work [particularly on days when i take the company bus] - the clocks move double or triple fast between 7 AM and 7.45 AM.

with the nearly weekly trips to delhi over the last few weeks, this has become a very important time.
while the actual departure times have been delayed, the web check-in would open precisely 24 hours before the scheduled time and this becomes a very significant

so, in all the morning rush, i need to make sure that i get through to the website precisely at 7.25 AM for the choice of my preferred seat.
strangely, these seem to be many others who also seem to be waiting for this time and have the same preference of a seat.
why else would i be seq #7, even if i miss the 7.25 AM slot by a minute or two?

lessening this disappointment or stress is the irctc site at 8 AM in the morning, to book a tatkal ticket.
blood pressure will automatically rise, as you see the available seats go down faster than the clock - with every successive attempt that you would be forced to, as the transactions would fail in various stages..

Saturday, February 12, 2011

starting young

in the last four weeks, i have been averaging about three days a week in delhi.
i was amused when i saw a front page news item a couple of weeks ago, about the nursery schools publishing their first list of kids selected for admissions!

time was, when everyone would eagerly wait for the board / public exam results.
this news item triggered some nostalgic thoughts..
i remember a personal disappointment about not getting admission to one of the schools in chennai - for my nursery.
i got into another, with my sister's teacher's connections!

more recently, i regularly see parents camping out on the pavement overnight, to get applications for admission to nursery schools.

there are still a lot of variations in the nursery school admissions in Bangalore.
In Delhi, though, there are many regulations to streamline this.
the Directorate of Education, Delhi has a comprehensive website with all applicable information.

and when the first list is published, it is front page news.
i also have been reading many interviews from disappointed parents.
one of them said that the system is not fair - as it does not give adequate weightage to the potential of the child.
they were particularly disappointed and concerned since they do not qualify under many criteria - such as alumni, sibling in the school, income, one of the parents NOT working, not a transfer case, not a government employee etc [the last one may not be a qualifying criterion, i think].
they were happy that their driver could get admission for his daughter in the first list - in three prestigious schools, thanks to the Right To Education act, but felt that deserving kids should all be given equal opportunity to compete and qualify.

i also noticed that there are many websites specializing in ... yes, nursery admissions in delhi!
a sampling from a google search: admissionsnursery, nurseryadmissions, schooladmissions, schooladmissionsindia, delhischooladmissions, nurseryadmissions ..

interestingly, the last site in the above list is not for nursery schools, i found this under 'about', but could not understand what is means.

Cardiogenic shock occurs not only at large but also in the small focal myocardial infarction. Are 4 variants of the flow and cardiogenic shock: reflex (caused by severe pain attack), cardiogenic true (the sharp decrease of myocardial contractility, impaired peripheral resistance, development of acidosis and giperkoagulemii) areactive shock (the most severe variant of true cardiogenic shock resistant to curative interventions and forced to carry an auxiliary circulation); arrhythmic shock (occurs in patients with acute myocardial infarction with heart rhythm disturbances - paroxysmal tachycardia and slowing of atrioventricular conduction and complete transverse heart block).

maybe the site is work in progress, or being developed as a class project by nursery school students! a school started recently near my home, talks of all modern facilities being available for the children and when we went there to see what they have [a small detour from our normal walking path], we found that some of the facilities - such as tennis - are only indoors.


I am sure there are preparatory and finishing schools for nursery admissions, when children start their education.