Traffic jam

Being stuck in traffic is one of the most frustrating experience in anyones day. The fact that you are wasting your time and are powerless to do anything about it can make one go crazy. A recent study done in the United States states that people waste about 72 hours a year in traffic. Wouldn't you love to have three days of your life back. Now, I thought traffic in Toronto was bad (it is one of the worst cities for traffic congestion in North America) but then saw the following pictures of traffic jams from around the world. For a complete listing, check out this link.

Sao Paula, Brazil



China


Moscow, Russia

got roti?

I went out to dinner with my family a few weeks ago at a Hakka restaurant. My family does not eat out often and when we eat at home, it is usually at different times. You would probably guess that there were many silent moments while we waited for our dinner to be served. During one of those silent moments, as my siblings played games on their cell phone, I noticed a women in front of us eating her meal with roti. I have never seen roti being served at a Hakka restaurant so I glanced over the menu again looking for the roti menu item, but did not find it.

I thought to myself ... 'this lady must have brought the roti herself'. My mom mentioned that this lady is probably a 'hardcore roti-er' and does not eat rice. I would consider myself the opposite, a 'hardcore chawal-er' or rice eater, but would never go the extreme of bringing my own rice, otherwise I would be a # 1 FOB. I can understand people bringing their own drinks, or spices to restaurants, but I cannot accept roti. I just came to the conclusion that such an event could only occur in Brampton. :)

Seven!

I visited the dentist today to get my seventh tooth extracted. This tooth had not grown out all the way and had been causing pain for some time now. I have always had positive experiences and rarely felt any discomfort during any visits. Even the first six teeth that I had extracted were not that bad. In-fact, when I got my wisdom teeth out, I was given laughing gas, which would trigger laughter as I felt discomfort. I felt like Joker from Batman, laughing internally without making any noise ... lol.

Dentists have always been nice to me, reassuring me during painful moments, and keeping things positive during negative times. However, sometimes I feel dentists are too nice. I have never understood why dentists make conversations during a visit. I am a nice guy and don't want to be rude, so I express facial acknowledgment of discussions, obviously unable to make verbal confirmation.

During a visit a few months ago, the dentist told me her story of the issues she faced with her cell phone provider. It was an entertaining story, but I wonder if she felt odd talking without any feedback from the talkee, or perhaps, she needed to take her mind off looking at patients teeth. Hopefully, I did not eat gobee and roti before visiting :)

On time

In South Asian cultures, it is quite common to arrive late for events, such as weddings. The arrival time for event invitations are often ignored and padded with a few hours to generate the “real” arrival time. The invitation time is typically the time when you start to get ready for the event.

The real rationale behind why we (South Asians) are always late is because we do not want to be early. If you come early to an event, you may be stuck helping the organizers finish some last minute tasks, or trying to kill time playing games on your cell phone, or deleting people from your phone directory.

The South Asians are not the only ones who suffer from “being late”, it seems the African people are similar.

The government of Ivory Coast created a punctuality contest to challenge people to arrive on time.

Narcisse Aka, a legal adviser aged 40, who has just won the country’s hallowed Punctuality Night competition — and a £30,000 villa — after he consistently turned up for work on time while his compatriots took a more relaxed attitude to punctuality. As the slogan of the competition goes, ‘African time is killing Africa; let’s fight it.’

Arriving on time is so easy yet me make it difficult for us. Think about the last time you arrived late at the airport to catch your flight, you could make your life easier if you had arrived an half hour early. Otherwise, you may end up like Jerry Seinfeld, who quoted:

You see? Never be late for a plane with a girl. Cuz a girl runs like a girl - with the little steps and the arms flailing out... You wanna make this plane, you've gotta run like a man! Get your knees up!

Tip of the week #2 Traffic strategies

Anyone who lives in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) must have some level of hatred for the traffic in our cities. Little has been done to improve our traffic infrastructure over the past twenty years even though the population has increased by hundred of thousands in this time span. News of accidents and traffic jam fills the radio airwaves daily. Last week, a fire at a metals plant in Brampton caused parts of highway 407 to be closed. This closure caused traffic chaos in Brampton as all the alternatives also became jammed with cars. I happened to be one of those unfortunately drivers stuck in traffic. My usual commute of 40 minutes turned into one and a half hour. I have come up with many theories that I will share while hopelessly sitting in traffic staring at the car in front of me.

Tip# 1 Take the hit of waiting in traffic rather than seeking alternatives

If you are stuck in traffic, it is probably better to wait it out rather than seek an alternate side street. Most people often believe that they are the only person that knows about a specific side street, but over time people figure out these alternate routes. It is better to wait it out on a highway or major street with many lanes rather than being stuck on a side street with one or two lanes. I know this fact first hand!

Tip # 2 The right lane is the fastest lane …. in a traffic jam on the highway

The left most lane on a highway is typically the fastest lane and the right lane is usually the slowest lane. During a traffic jam most people try to switch into the left lane hoping it will be the quickest, but most often the right lane moves the quickest, especially since people will be exiting from the highway and the people switch out of the right lane due to the perception of it being slow.

Hint # 3 Listen to the traffic reports

This hint is the simplest of the three and yet people still do not listen to traffic reports. Checking the traffic report before you start your commute can be the difference between a traffic jam and a clear ride into work.

Traffic and living in a big city is inevitable, as bad as Toronto traffic can be, it is not the worst. Below are a list of the three most congested cities in the world:

1. Manila, Philippines
2. Cairo, Egypt
3. Lagos, Nigeria
   

On the GO

A few weeks ago, I used the GO Train to commute into downtown Toronto. I had a few observations about the people and their habits when riding the GO.

• The experienced GO train drivers know exactly where the train stops so that they are directly positioned in front of the door when it arrives.
• The cooler or younger people always sit in the upstairs area of the train. It reminds of taking the school bus in elementary school, where all the cool kids (like me ;-)) would sit in the back of the bus and the not-so-cool kids would sit in the front. Interestingly, in China, everyone on the bus sat in the front of the bus.
  
• There are the regular GO train riders who talk throughout the ride about every single occurrence of their day. Taking away from other riders any opportunity to get a quick nap or read a book.

Throughout all these observations, I do miss working downtown and not having to drive to work. I would take the GO train if it was possible for me. I do not like commuting at all, but I wonder if I did not have to drive, perhaps I could build some liking to commuting and even form my own GO train clique.

Why are things so complicated ...

I am one of those people who refuse to read documentation that accompanies consumer product or software. I believe that I am “smart” enough to figure out how things work without assistance. So, whenever I cannot figure out how something works, I conveniently blame the poor design of the product rather than myself.

This week, I become so frustrated when I could not figure out how to set the time on my alarm clock in the hotel room. How difficult can it be to design an alarm clock? It does two things: tells time and wakes you up. This annoyance caused a reflection of the many poor designs that I have experienced.

• Trying to operate certain television remotes (in my house they are called converters), the button names and placement drive me crazy.
• Finding a setting on your cell phone. I am still searching how to turn up the volume on my cell phone.
• I once told my mom to return a toaster oven because toasting bread was too complicated.

I wish there was some sort of verbal-Google that I could use to read documentation for answers. I think one day I will eventually read documentation that accompanies products because it seems that I am not “smart” enough anymore for some of these products.

Even the less fortunate have standards

I spent Saturday afternoon volunteering at a local community organization sorting donations to send to the Pakistan earthquake victims. I was appalled to see some of the items that were being donated. People have taken the opportunity to do some house cleaning by dropping off their old and un-hygienic clothes. I find this action totally disgusting. If you personally would not wear a set of clothes, do not donate them either. These unwanted donations waste everyone’s time because volunteers need to spend extra time sorting items and if sent, volunteers receiving these donations need to spend time looking for acceptable items.

PIA is taking these donations to Pakistan on their regularly scheduled flights. Extra amount of jet fuel will be required due to increased weight of the aircraft. If the goods we send are not satisfactory, money is being wasted by transporting these goods. My advice is that if you want to help with the relief efforts, you should donate money to relief organizations, so that they can buy the supplies required. If you would like to send something other than clothes, you should go to the mall and purchase tents and blankets.

This experience reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where Elaine dropped off the bottoms of muffins to the homeless. The following dialogue summarizes this situation:

Rebecca: Excuse me, I'm Rebecca Demore from the homeless shelter.
Elaine: Oh, hi.
Rebecca: Are you the ones leaving the muffing pieces behind our shelter?
Elaine: You been enjoying them?
Rebecca: They're just stumps.
Elaine: Well they're perfectly edible.
Rebecca: Oh, so you just assume that the homeless will eat them, they'll eat anything?
Mr. Lippman: No no, we just thought...
Rebecca: I know what you thought. They don't have homes, they don't have jobs, what do they need the top of a muffin for? They're lucky to get the stumps.
Elaine: If the homeless don't like them the homeless don't have to eat them.
Rebecca: The homeless don't like them.
Elaine: Fine.
Rebecca: We've never gotten so many complaints. Every two minutes, "Where is the top of this muffin? Who ate the rest of this?"
Elaine: We were just trying to help.
Rebecca: Why don't you just drop off some chicken skins and lobster shells?
Elaine: I think I might.

The Advantages of Being a Whiner

After graduating from university, I like most desi people moved back home with my parents. Going back home this time also meant helping my parents with the daily expenses and bills.
So, one day I volunteered to purchase a new toaster oven, our old toaster oven had not been working for sometime. I purchased a toaster oven on sale from Canadian Tire for a decent price. One week later, my parents decided that they did not like this toaster oven , so they returned it and bought a significantly cheaper one without consulting me. I hated the toaster oven my parents purchased, I never quite understood how it worked.
Recently, this toaster oven stopped working, but was still under warranty. With all this built up anger, I decided to send the people at Black and Decker an email. Here it is:

My toaster is under warranty and would like a replacement. I have greatly disappointed in the performance of this toaster. It is not easy to use and its sudden failure has made it very frustrating to use. If possible, I would like to get another toaster oven of greater quality.
Your response to my request will factor into any future Black and Decker product purchases.

So, the result, within 2 days, I received a new toaster oven better than the previous one.


The key to a company complaint letter is to give the statement:

Your product stinks and if you don't help me, I will never buy your product.

The morals of this story are that if you whine enough and stern enough, you typically get what you want. Also, if you decide to purchase something without your parents consent, expect them to return it and buy something else while at the same time turning a profit ... living at home, living at home ... atleast my mom's fresh roti makes up for it.