Where is my Ratan Tata Industrial (RTI) institute?

If you are a Parsi, then the words RTI shouldn't be Greek and Latin to you. But for the uninitiated, RTI stands for Ratan Tata Industrial institute; the once-upon-a-time ultimate stop for Parsi cuisine, sweets, delicacies as also mouth-watering cakes and pastries. It started out from inside a building at Hughes Road - before it moved to a new location, just opposite to its original location, into a much swankier place - and branched out to about six other places in Bombay. From my personal observation and one of its loyal customers for ages, what was once a thriving institution is now half its original glory. 

I have many pleasant memories of RTI. In the olden days - gosh, I sound like an old Bawaji - we used to refer RTI as Industrial. I think it was because it was situated in an old building outside Khareghat Colony where if you'd step inside that building, it kind of resembled an industrial unit. Which actually, in a way, it was. I do not know RTI's history, but from whatever little on it I have come across on the Internet, it was started as an unit to make widowed Parsi womenindependent by providing them employment and making them self-sufficient. Hence, if I am not mistaken, most of the staff at RTI originally - and maybe it still is this way - are Parsees. RTI has never been just a store. It was a movement of sorts and has become an institution in its own right over the years. 

Every week, as a kid, I used to look forward to eating their famous chocolate cake over my evening tea on my weekends. My earliest memory of this fantastic cake takes me back to a timewhen it used to cost Rs 8. Today I think the price has gone up three times; I no longer eat this cake so I wouldn't know exactly. I also used to look forward to my evening tea, mostly because of the stuff I used to have with my tea such as the yummy shrewsberry biscuits that, in those days,Moti mummy used to get for me from her Poona trips, or RTI's chocolate pastries. As a child I loved chocolate cakes and I still do. Even today I do not miss an opportunity to feast on pastries and desserts. In my office, people say there is a rule: If you are ordering desserts, make sure you ask Kayezad too what he wants!!! 

There were other things that we regularly used to buy from RTI such as its chicken patties and cutlets. They are not the healthiest of the stuff to be had, but when you're 10, you do not think about all those things. Anyway, I have patronised RTI over many years. I do not much now, though occasionally I still go there. RTI could do much better and ought to become more aggressive and give its competitors a run for their money. I really wish the house of Tatas should take steps to rebuild this flagging enterprise.

RTI has lots of potential. There is a huge demand for Parsi cuisine and delicacies from not onlyParsis - we anyway have Parsi cuisine day in & out - but more so from non-Parsis who enjoythier food. And God bless them, there are plenty of those in Bombay! Infact, the owner of theDadar-based franchise of Monginis - a famous chain of confectioneries - had once told me whenIwas working on a franchise story for my magazine that if there's one chain that could give tough competition to Monginis, it would be RTI. I had never felt prouder about RTI than that moment. Sadly, RTI's potential is grossly underutilised. 

I am not sure what the problem at RTI is. Though I think it could be lack of funds. It is still a charitable organisation and employs women and young parsi girls, both from Bombay and outside Bombay, and train to be self-sufficient. It could be because of the lack of adequate staff that their scale of operations have dwindled over the years. The main-course dishes available out there is in limited quantity. Food prepared is often sold out within three to four hours in the morning, though some of it is also due to demand. I wish enough quantity is prepared so that stocks across items and variety last atleast till about 3-4 pm. The shop has done well to extend the timings though; I quite liked that initiative. It has also added a tea/coffee machine and has put extra furniture (sofas and tables) for people to sit there and have food. This is a good initiative and bodes well for patrons on the go wanting to catch a quick bite there. The pastries and confectioneries are good, some main dishes though are quite so-so. They have increased the prices over the years to combat rising prices - but dishes available here are still very modestly priced as compared to others. Having said that, I don't find the quality to be like what it once used to be, in the good-old days. 

Overall, the quality should also improve a bit. The main course dishes have a lot of scope for improvement. I also wish they would recruit more people. You don't see those grand old -and may I say most-efficient -ladies there anymore the way you used to in days when I was kid. Today, the staff is handful there and often you have to wait for more than 15 minutes to be attended to. I would understand if salaries are a problem since RTI doesn't seem to be a commercially intensive place. The place is just about half its glory since it was during my childhood days. I wish RTI would regain its past glory and become a compulsive destination for food lovers. Will the house of Tatas do something to revive the sagging institution please? 

Postal Savings Schemes - Big returns + pathetic service

It's ironic that on one hand, the Indian Postal Service - a government agency that runs popular small savings schemes like Monthly Income Scheme (POMIS), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) - offers most attractive risk-free returns to the tune of eight per cent, and on the other hand offers really sloppy and pathetic service. Does it really make sense going for postal savings?

Most post offices do not have computers. They write pass-books (POMIS) manually; they maintain records in their dirty large gigantic ledgers and then when we go to them for passbook updation, they write down the corresponding figures in our passbooks. No computers, only manually! As a result, they make several mistakes. The onus is on us - the investor - to monitor our passbooks and ensure there are no mistakes. Talk about living life in the 21st century.

The service standards at most of these post offices is pathetic. Some of them talk endlessly on phone discussing thier domestic gupshup and / or are very slow in their work. Although I do know some post office employees that are genuinely helpful and co-operative. 

A post-master recently told me this when I suggested that these post offices should be computerised just like our banks are: "What computerisation (in a tone that suggested that I had majorly offended his credibility)? Even computers make mistakes. Do you think computers do not make mistakes? They are as smart as us; if we make a mistake in programming them, even they will make mistakes." I was -and still am- at a loss of words. 

A talent named Ravi Chekaliya

That talent is available in plenty in India is not a doubt in anyone's mind. But whether such talent is noticed and thereafter nurtured in another question alltogether. Here is an inspirational story of a young 16-year old lad named Ravi Chekaliya. This story appeared in the Bombay newspaper, Sunday Mid-Day, dated 25 January 2009. (Click the link before to read the full story and to watch the video.) There are countless of such young lads who are born in poverty but, if given a chance, can prove to be as good as anyone else you'd know. 

Here is reproduced story in case the above link does not work in your browser. 

AS part of a Republic Day celebration, Nirmal Nagar Ground in Mulund will see 16-year-old Ravi Chekaliya showcase his talents to thousands of students from 40 of the city's schools.

His unique ability to understand and speak ten foreign languages without any schooling caught the eye of an event organiser from Mulund, who then invited Chekaliya to the celebration. 

The youth, who is usually spotted selling peacock quill with his grandmother at Hanging Gardens (also known as Ferozeshah Mehta Gardens), Malabar Hill, can understand and speak English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Arabic, Russian and Israeli. He revealed that his tutors were his own grandmother and friends. "Earlier, It was difficult for me to understand foreign languages, because of which my business used to suffer. Thanks to my colleagues, friends and my grandmother who taught me these languages, they are now my bread and butter," he said. His abilities give the advantage of marketing his product to tourists. But due to no formal education, Chekaliya cannot read or understand the languages that he is seemingly fluent in. 

When asked if schooling was not on the agenda, "As I was the eldest son in my family, I had the responsibility of three younger brothers. From food to education, I wanted to give them everything that I was deprived of," answers the young entrepreneur, who has been in the business since he was nine. 

The linguist's daily earnings are Rs 250 to Rs 300 and Rs 600 to Rs 700 on the weekends.

Apparently, many visitors approached him, assuring financial help for his studies, but Chekaliya feels that it's too late for him to go to school.

(the above story is courtesy Sunday Mid-day newspaper, edition dated 25 January 2009)

Grit and combacks at the Australian Open 2009

Probably the first time this week, I have been able to enjoy the Australian Open tennis championships all day long on TV. Of course, today being a Sunday, it helped. Roger Federer played Tomas Berdych in a classic 5-setter. I did not expect Berdych to play this well, especially the way he opened the match and rushed through the first two sets. Berdych is a talented player and has good groundstrokes and a big serve. I watched him play a very good match against Dimitry Tursunov in the finals of the first edition of Kingfisher Open (Mumbai) in 2006. Whilst Tursunov had very narrowly won that match, Berdych showed a lot of promise. He has won four tournaments till date and remains one of the few active players to have won a title on all three main surfaces, clay, grass, hard-court and one even on carpet. Experts say that his lack of self confidence has prevented him from doing great in the Grand Slams. Out of 21 appearances in Grand Slams, he has gone past the Round 3 just nine times. His best showing in a Grand Slam remains a Quarter Final show in 2007 Wimbledon. 

But he played magnificent tennis today against Federer in Round 4 at the Australian Open 2009. It's not an easy task to go up two sets to love against Federer, but he matched groundstrokes to groundstrokes against Federer. In the first set Berdych's serve was the key as his first serve percentage was 72 % as against Fed's 57%. And more surprising was Federer's massive comeback as he clawed back from two sets to love down. I do not really associate Federer as someone who would have such tenacity to come back from two sets to love down in a grand slam, but you gotta give it to the guy for fighting for his life out there today. But then again, Berdych is not the toughest mental guy out there. If Federer wants to have a decent chance to win the title, he'll have to do much more. 

The story of the tournament so far has been Jelena Dokic. What a match that was. Jelena Dokic beat Alisa Kleybanova, 7-5, 5-7, 8-6. Kleybanova played very well and did almost everything to beat Dokic, but still Dokic came out trumps at the end, despite being injured. The crowd was all behind cheering Dokic -and reasonably so -but it took a lot out of Dokic to get the better of Kleybanova. To borrow a quote from Andy Roddick, Kleybanova threw kitchen sink at Dokic, but Dokic went inside and got the bathtub. Could Dokic surprise the world by going all the way, just the way Jenifer Capriati did in 2001 (she won the Australian Open beating the then-world No1 Martina Hingis, after having gone without a single win for five years in a grand slam prior to that)? You never know...

looking ahead at Down Under...

So the Australian Open tennis championships are under way. It's a pain to get up so early at around 5.00 am (India time) to watch the Open, I prefer to catch up the results on its official website. I used to get up early when I was in college during Steffi Graf days. Her matches were scheduled to be the first -or at worse the second -match of the day. She always used to prefer it that way. Her early round matches usually used to get over within an hour, so it fitted well in my schedule. But those were my good, old days. 

Of course I did not expect India's Sania Mirza to do much. She could at best crack the top-20 and then taper off, but she's definitely not a top-10 player by any standards. Expectantly she lost to Nadia Patrova, 6-3, 6-2 in just 70 minutes. Not that Petrova is a push-over exactly, but if Mirza is at her best, she has the game to beat Petrova. I still feel that no matter how much she'll try and regroup herself going from here on (especially after a dismal and forgettable 2007 and 2008), Mirza will not break the top-20 unless she has a dedicated and a quality coach and she has access to adequate infrastructure in her hometown (courts other than hard-court to practice on). Still, the Indian media will go ga-ga over Mirza and the oldie lot of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi; I don't understand why. I was just watching Times Now and their day's round-up of Australian Open in their sports capsule started off with "Good news for India; Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles have entered Round#3...". We Indians seldom look anywhere beyond cricket, and even there we're not the best team!!!

For the 2009 Australian Open, I am placing my chances on Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. Though I would like Federer to win, I think his best days are behind him, as seen by his high standards. I do hope I am severely wrong on this; it's a treat watching him play. And though Nadal lost tamely in Doha earlier this year, I just watched his convincing victory over Tommy Haas of Germany and you'd be a fool to completely rule him out. Sure Nadal hasn't yet won a hardcourt Slam, but his game has improved tremendously over the years. This could be his breakthrough year at the Down Under. 

The woman's field is wide open but I like Elena Dementieva's chances this year. She's in fine form, unbeatable in both the warm-up tournaments she's played so far this year. Dementieva is a very good player and she's had some great results; she 's a runner-up at the French and US Opens in 2004.  The way she's playing these days, you cannot rule her out. She has the goods, but does she have the head? We'll see. But that is also why I would place Jelena Jankovic a bit higher on the chances-scale. She could well end up surprising Dememtieva and the rest of the field and I have a feeling this is her Open. 

cliche...cliche...Ghajini....

After almost a month of its release, I finally saw 'Ghajini' last Saturday. Although the premise was interesting, the movie did not work for me. It was disheartening to see Aamir Khan - I am a fan of his - to be associated with a movie containing too many Bollywood chiches, after having worked on novel movies (by Bollywood standards) like Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par. 

The romance build-up between the Aamir and Asin wasn't convincing. Apart from a scene or two, the comedy wasn't genuine. I just could not buy the fact that someone can be so silly - not to mention foolishly gutsy - to play up such an outrageous story the way Asin did and go along with it even after knowing that the story had inadvertently been carried in the press. The plot did not work for me. Plus, nobody recognises Aamir when he freely roams the street, in a BEST bus, etc., after the gory incident in which Aamir loses his memory. This, after supposedly running what seems like a very successful company (they got the licence to get all London/Europe/international calls routed through their network), writing guest columns in India's largest business newspaper and giving interviews to CNN. 

Another silly thing. When Aamir is dating Asin and the two stop at a roadside stall to eat watermelon, his company executives happen to pass them by and spot him. They do a salaam to him. Now which company executives' subordinates do a salaam when they bump into their bosses on the road? At least I don't!!! 

Lastly, on the performance front, Aamir was good in the first half of his role, as the company executive. But all this six/eight pack act of teething with anger, howling like a wounded tiger in the bathroom and hospital looked artificial. Plus, I wonder how he still maintains this body after the incident despite losing his memory. You need lots of diet and the right work-outs with the right kind of equipments to maintain a body like that. How did he remember do all that after the incident?  

Like a typical cliche Bollywood film, the songs do not fit in. Jiah Khan's song looked the most forced. One moment we're shown a rickety-rackety stage of her college auditorium where her performance was due, and the next moment it magically gets coverted into this super-duper magnificent set where Ms Khan descends to do her item number! Please! And the clothes looked quite flashy too. Another cliche: all songs were shot at exotic locales. 

Finally, it sounds quite impossible that someone could bash up so many people at one shot. That's one cliche we thought we'd seen the end of, especially in an Aamir Khan film. And ripping off the tap from its sink? Wow, kamaal ka strength!!!! 

Overall, I feel the film just about passes the muster. On the positive side, the movie cleverly switches between the past and the present and offers a decent thriller than most of the stuff doled out these days. The execution could have been better, the editing could have been much better. 

K-rating: * * * (out of 5)

Can striking unions hold public to ransom?

Today, 9 January 2009 Friday is the third day of the strike organised by Oil Sector Officer's Association (OSOA). This strike is taking place across India as a result of which oil is not supplied to petrol pumps and the latter have dried up. There is no petrol and compressed natural gas (CNG) and therefore public transport is hit the hardest. Reports indicate that around 95 per cent of the petrol pumps across the country are running dry. In Bombay, as per my observation and estimate, almost 80 per cent of the taxis are already off the roads (at around noon) and B.E.S.T. buses are running jam-packed even after the morning peak hours. I am sure local trains must also be jam-packed. Today I had to go to Duncun Road (Gol deval temple area) for some work. 

I was quite hassled on my way back since I didn't find a single taxi who was willing to take mom home. While most of the taxis were off the road, the remaining few weren't stopping. The handful remaining few were seen refusing to take passengers. I don't know why but I could only guess that perhaps due to the scarcity of CNG, they may not want to venture out too far from their residences lest they run out of fuel in some far-flung area and have to walk back home, leaving the taxi deserted in that area!

Who and why? 

Reports say that around 45,000 officers across 12 state-owned oil corporations have joined the strike, demanding hither wages. Sources say that these public sector executives (PSU) executives get a hike in once every 10 years. Their last such hike was supposed to be in 2007, but the staff wanted a bigger hike -they claim the government had promised them - than the one the government decided to give them. But not all officers across all PSUs have gone on strike. Typically, the hierarchy of a PSU oil executive, as per my sources, is as follows (the red-coloured highlighted designations have gone on strike):

Chairman

Director

Executive Director

General Manager

Deputy Manager

Grade A Chief Manager

Senior Manager

Manager

Deputy Manager

Assistant Manager

Officer - grade I

Officer - grade II

Is the strike justified?

I am told that since these PSU executives get a hike every once in 10 years, as against their private sector counterparts, they are justified in asking for their pound of flesh. Probably, feeling cornered or atleast that's what they claim to feel, they have resorted to possibly the biggest weapon in their arsenal: strike. The strike has paralysed the entire country with choking oil supplies across sectors like power generation, cooking gas supplies, airline fuel, petrol, diesel and CNG for vehicles and public transport, alike. 

But clearly, I do not know who is right and who is wrong in this particular tussle, because I do not know how much they get and whether their demands are justified. What I do know, is that strikes should not be allowed. Such strikes should be banned and people/officers/workers who go on such strike should be put in their places by authorities. I am a Bombaiyite and I have suffered several times in my life due to these strikes, as all other Bombaiyites have too. Motormen going on strike and throwing train schedules out of gear, BEST staff going on strike and buses going off the roads and now oil company officers going on strike paralysing public transport and supply of piped gas supplied to our homes. But on the other hand, knowing our Indian masters and how miserly they can be - I am not saying the Indian government is, in this particular case they are the bosses - but I mean in general and across industries - must also wake up and realise that people who work for them deserve to be paid their dues. I should know! In the presence of a weak judiciary, it's not hard to see why employees resort to such cheap tactics like strike. Nevertheless, all things being said, a strike that cripples normal life is a nuisance and it needs to be nipped in the bud. It must be stopped. Enough is enough! 

Freeing oil prices and companies?

The current crisis could be averted if the oil sector and companies are allowed to be privatised. Also, oil pricing policy should be changed and be made market-linked. The current scenario where the administered price and the market price are very near to one another provides a good opportunity. Marking the oil prices to market also removes the burden from the ruling political parties who constantly resort to tweaking and manipulating oil prices as populist measures to win votes. Maybe it's also time to look into the merits of privatising oil companies. Once competition is brought in, such strikes could be averted and employees also are better rewarded. And if they are not happy with their employer, they would be free to go and work elsewhere.