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What did you do with the time you saved without a commute?

I am an immigrant to the US. During the early years and today, I have been a fan of Marketplace and it is rare that I miss an episode. It got even better when Marketplace became a podcast as well. I did not have to jump into the car at 6 p.m every day to listen to this program on the car radio. By listening to a program for a long time, you get to know the hosts and reporters. Kai Ryssdal, Kimberly Adams, Amy Scott, Matt Levin, Savannah Maher, Meghan McCarty Carino, David Brancaccio, (Marketplace Morning Report), Victoria Craig ( listen every morning at 5.55 a.m. pm WAMU. I have to mention WAMU 88.5 as that was my first and long-standing NOR station. I am a big fan of Esther Ciammachilli. An added advantage is the ability to follow these radio personalities on Twitter. It gives me a meeting room feeling to interact with these media celebrities on Twitter.

Sometimes I get lucky. I was in India in October and I happened to see a tweet about a forthcoming story on Marketplace about how people were using the time that they saved without having a commute. Some of these things are serendipitous. My Twitter stream moves very fast and it was providence that I saw the tweet and responded. We spoke over Zoom between the US and India. I love the fact that India has such good internet connections now. I was taking a flight back to India that same night and could listen to the episode on my phone mid-journey.

Listen here https://www.marketplace.org/2022/10/20/what-are-people-who-work-from-home-doing-with-the-time-theyre-saving-by-not-commuting/amp/ 

One more bucket list item is checked off. 

Acorn TV : When you have a fetish for Commonwealth TV shows

India was a commonwealth country, and when I was in India it never was something that affected my daily life. The time that I remotely came near to being part of the Commonwealth was the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet) in 1983 where I was part of the hotel chain hosting the dignitaries. Fast forward, 41 years, my connection to the Commonwealth was surprisingly through recommendations from Twitter for TV programs to watch. I tested positive for Covid-19 and being vaccinated/boosted I self-quarantined not to spread the disease to anyone else. I was already on vacation and so had a lot of time on my hands. My friends on Twitter gave me these recommendations for Tv programs to watch:

Yay! Was on today's episode of @Marketplace talking about New Year's Resolutions.

I love NPR and Marketplace and have been a listener for a long time. It was bucket list moment when I was interviewed on the December 29th episode by Matt Levin. What are your resolutions? Listen and tell me how I did (end of the 4-minute mark)

I Tested Positive For Covid-19 and Here Is My Story

I got my 2 vaccinations and the booster shot of Pfizer plus the flu vaccine. Son went to school and I went to the office 4 days a week. We masked when going indoors to shops and only recently started going a few times to a restaurant. Other than close trusted friends and relatives we did not socialize much. In December my pleasure activity was 2 restaurant visits and a holiday party. Well after these activities, I got a sore throat on Christmas day. Since I was expecting my niece and family, I wanted to make sure that this was not anything more than a common cold.

I drove to the 3 sites listed on the county website along with 100's of others only to find that they were not open after 5 hours of waiting and driving. When I came back home, I took an in-home test and that showed that I was #covidpositive. I immediately messaged my doctor's office and arranged to have a tele-consult the next day.

Tip: Keep stock of in-home tests handy even if you are not sick and test if you come into contact with people in situations where you did not wear a mask

Checking the conversations in my Neighborhood app, one of my neighbors had posted that they were able to get a test within 2 hours at Patient First, Rockville. I drove there to find about 50 people in front of me. The system in Patient First is that you line up to register and then sit in the waiting room or in your car till they call you. I liked that since it was very cold and I had forgotten to get any earbuds to listen to podcasts on my phone. Sitting in the car, I was happy that there was a Roy Rogers so I could get a coffee. Patient First obviously had restrooms. My next interaction was with the reception where they took my information ( ID and Insurance) and then I went back to the car to wait for the nurse to call. They were quite thorough with the nasal swab. I was stumped by the question of whether I wanted a PCR or a rapid antigen test. I chose the Rapid Antigen Test as I would get the results immediately.

Tip: If you have mild symptoms and have already tested positive, you may not need to confirm the positivity again. 

I isolated myself from my family in the master bedroom. My family isolated themselves from others. We ordered an oximeter just to check. The doctor said to check for shortness of breath and high temperature, both of which I do not have. 

This is a time for rest and reflection. My biggest worry is not to spread it to anyone. Till this phenomenon becomes just the flu and everyone is vaccinated to the extent that there are enough hospital resources available, let's be careful. 

Resources:

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/article/testing-positive-covid-omicron-variant.html

Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/23/tips-quarantine-isolation-omicron/

Uber India - Proving Technology Model In India

Written in 2017 for a Indian new site and was not accepted

This week I joined the 369,000 Uber users from the US who use Uber in India annually (Source:NDTV). In 2010 I was in a conversation with Travis Kalanick then CEO of Uber at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in DC where I had mentioned being impressed by the GPRS tech-enabled radio taxis in Hyderabad. He was curious about how taxis were used in India and little did I know that Uber would launch in India 4 years later.

What did Uber disrupt for visiting NRIs? Usual ways to travel on visits to India

• Request to be picked up at the airport by relatives

• Hitched a ride with relatives while going from place to place

• Used auto-rickshaws

• Hire cars for trips out of town from independent operators

These methods had their own issues. Flights arrived at an ungodly hour and that meant whoever received you at the airport had to be sleepless as well. Autos were dusty and you never knew what was the right fare. Hired cars had the baggage of driver bata, meals etc.No matter what you paid you always felt cheated when paying cash for anything.

This trip to India was a technology triumph. My Google Pixel with Google’s Project Fi network welcomed me to India. This meant that I no longer had to look for the nearest mobile vendor and fill up paperwork to get a SIM from an Indian telco. I summoned an Uber to take me home and did not have to withdraw cash at an ATM. I can use my ICICI debit card at almost all places. It seems easier to buy a movie ticket online than go to the booking counter. Maps are much better and Google does a fantastic job with directions and addresses. Connectivity is much better everywhere. Internet providers have relaxed the data caps presumably due to the competition.

Uber is not the same experience as you would think. According to an NDTV article, there are 450,000 Uber Cabs in 29 cities in India. An  Uber driver estimated that there are 150,000 in Hyderabad during our conversation about the Uber driving experience.

Uber has proved that technology is changing behavior. Uber Pool lowers the barrier for usage. The navigation using Google Maps helps Uber drivers find shortcuts. Most drivers I used were balanced in their driving and very courteous. To achieve world-class stature Uber may have to take care of these points:

• Training in GPS usage: The Uber App makes it very easy for you to set up your pickup location yet some drivers get confused. I have had drivers wait on the other side of the road and ask me to cross the road even when the app accurately set my location.

• Communication:  The concept of Uber’s technology usually makes it unnecessary for any communication between you and the driver. I was at the Uber Pickup point at the main entrance of the popular Forum Mall in Hyderabad. I spent 20 minutes trying to give the driver directions to where I was standing and ultimately had to cancel.

• Expectations of Car types: When I picked a premier Uber I was surprised that it was not very well maintained  Toyota Etios. I think an Uber Go usually will suffice for 2 people. On one ride the car’s a/c had broken down and we had to cancel the driver and choose another one. Training drivers to keep their car well maintained is very important. 

I am enjoying the freedom to travel by Uber without the need to ask for a ride from friends and I can see that Uber has caught the wave and has completed almost 500 Million rides in India. One of my drivers had almost 6,000 rides in 2 years while other drivers I used had around 3000 rides in two years. Uber has changed the way people ride and also started providing employment. I hope they will invest more in training to make their services even better.

Shashi Bellamkonda is CMO of Surefire Local in Washington DC and teaches Digital Marketing as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He believes knowledge not shared is lost forever. Friends have called him “Social Media Swami”. His work has been written about in 17 leading Marketing books

What kind of English do you speak?

Languages are fascinating. I was thinking about my own mastery of English and here are my thoughts.

• Growing up in India, you could be either one of these 3 groups
• Government schools 
• Private schools 
• Convent schools
• If you spoke English you were higher up in the hierarchy ( Ranked by convent first, Private second, and government third) 
• In some states like New Delhi, government officials asked you to talk to them in Hindi, and in Tamil Nadu, English was more acceptable than Hindi (This is my experience) Luckily I spoke 6 Indian languages.
• Now I am in the US and I have my own version of English which depending on the area of the US people may understand
• I think people who come to the US and learn English are better off as they learn the accent here quicker than English speakers who migrate here.
• Sometimes depending on the audience, you may need to change your accent 
• There will be people who will insist they do not understand you despite your efforts only because you have an accent that they are not used to hearing

What English do you speak?