hope makes the world go around

Teaching has a new meaning these days for me. Jispa started coming for my lectures. That is crazy awesome. I have taught for so many years for the joy of teaching but also for a secret joy – of being able to teach Jispa. Of course, she doesn’t open her mouth in class but she sits through and tries to understand what all I have to teach. It fires me up no end.

My lectures are at 11 am on Saturday. This gives me the perfect schedule, to wake up, fix myself an awesome coffee and then attack the college. It’s a perfect start to the week end.

Practicing what I preach, every lectures starts with a test that I have designed on Google forms (thanks to another young friend who comes along) on a topic that I have given a note in advance. Then on we talk about the paper / questions etc and take it forward. This is something surprisingly that the students feel happy about. They want tests. They want to read and come to class and wonder what’s happening.

The last time around I gave them an assignment to see the movie – The Founder. This was on the McDonalds founder, Ray Croc. It was an outstanding movie and they showed brilliantly how the original founders – the McDonald brothers, invented the fast food restaurant business but couldn’t scale it. It showed how Ray Croc scaled the business and also how he needed to do some accounting jugglery as well. Ray couldn’t make too much money off the restaurant and hence to scale it an account advised him to move into the real estate space. He bought/leased the land and then sublet to the franchisee for a higher fee, plus the franchisee revenue from sales. This allowed for a crazy increase in expansion rate.

What I loved about the movie was how they clearly explained how the brothers invented the system by killing a lot of unnecessary processes and items that stopped it from becoming efficient. And how Ray Croc understood that and while he had major run ins with the brothers, as regards the business proposition, the brothers were essentially right and had gotten the efficiency formula perfect. He kept that alive.

This was, to my mind an awesome movie and the perfect movie for watching for the young kids who want to understand management. Its typically very easy to do various different things but very difficult to focus on one thing alone.

So, I give them some stuff to read or watch and then come to class, dur9ng which I give a small multiple choice test. This test is something that kids can take from their mobile phones anywhere. The time given to the test is also very tight and the test has around 6-9 questions which are given in random order. Hence, it’s very difficult to copy as well. Even if two kids are sitting next to each other, its near impossible to copy and take help. If the time pressure is so high that you barely have time to think and read the questions, you have no time to help or copy in a randomized test.

I love the class as I am prepared on what to talk and then we discuss various elements. That Jispa is present just simply makes it even more stressful for me. I want to do better for her. I want her to enjoy the experience. I want to discuss stuff with her. She too is very keen to understand and learn from me. She was missing one class but she insisted that I explain to her what I had missed and that she could catch up. That’s nice. That’s the best way to know if I am making sense. My teen age daughter likes to attend my lectures, that’s my ultimate vote of confidence. I was telling Jasmine that no matter what, possibly blood is thicker than water. I love teaching and I love my lectures. I do it for enjoyment and not for money. But you add my daughter into the equation and the pressure and pleasure goes up. Funny. Or possibly not so, in hindsight.

I write writing blogs but because Jispa is now grown up and I have so many conversations with her and she understands the issues, when it comes to writing the blog, many times I stare at a blank screen. What to write when the main motivation is outside of the process.

Recently Jispa told me that there are only 6 months more. More for what, I asked? For me to be 15. And then? And then to read your blog. Oh! Is that? Yes, she reminded me. I had promised her that I would allow her to read my blog when she turns 15. My god. Time did fly. I was quiet. She then said “you don’t remember promising, do you. You thought I would just forget eh. Well I have not and you will give me the blog to read on my 15^th birthday”. Of course. Of course. Surely, I will give her the blog to read. I wrote it for more than ten years for this moment. Will I continue to write afterwards, I hope so, but it will be interesting to write knowing that your kids will read it instantly :)

It will be an interesting birthday gift to her. A little more than 10 years in the making. Wow. Such a big thing from such a small start. I wonder how she will read it, from the start, randomly, will she get bored, will she come back and ask clarifications, kick my ass for what I have written or done, will she cry on a few blogs, will she understand, will she jump in joy, will it give her solace in trouble? My big one is the last one. I may be around or not, but I hope whatever I have written will someday assist her in some sort of way. Hope.

google doshi

The other day we were scheduled for a dinner which was happening quite late. So we went to the McDonalds nearby and had a bite.

Jispa while eating the burger asked me “eating the burger makes me feel very thirsty”. “of course” I replied “they put a lot of slat in your burger so that you love it and then of course you feel thirsty. Then to mask the taste of the salt, they add tons of fat to it”. “Why would they want me to be thirsty?”. “well so that you buy coke”. “But then I will simply drink water which they give free”. “Is that so? Go take a walk around and see the restaurant. See every table and tell me what people are drinking”. So Jispa took a walk around the restaurant and came back with a huge exclamation mark on her head. “on every table there is a cola and the only two places where they didn’t have a cola was where there was no food as well.” “There you are. Now what’s the price of a cola at McDonalds?” “umm 15 or 25 rupees” “Go ask and find out” She went and asked and came back with another aghast expression – its 49 rupees. ‘whats the price of a burger” “allo tikki is for 25 bucks”. “and the cost of making it would be around 10 to 15 bucks, possibly. While the cost of serving the soda cannot be more than 2 to 3 bucks. So where do you think is the profit margin. Cola or burgers?” “wow” she was completely amazed by the math. “so if they make more money selling colas than selling burgers are they a fast food restaurant or a cola selling company. You decide”

Now that we were at it I threw another ball “Whats the cost of the happy meal at McDonalds”. “99 bucks” as she found out. “So remove the cost of the burger and coke and see what you get” “25 bucks for the toy?” “yes exactly – they are selling the toy at 25 bucks, which till now you and everyone else thinks is for free! 25 bucks for that toy which I think can’t be costing them more than 10 bucks”. “ya and the quality isn’t all that nice” she said. So thanks to that I explained her “McDonalds has become the largest toy seller in the world.” Wow.” Then I showed her the Hamleys store. “they are bigger in toys than Hamleys as well”. “bigger than Hamleys which sells only toys”. “yes sweetheart, they sell more toys than anyone else. So are they a fast food store or a toy retailer selling colas.”

“see the fun when you have something so overpriced like cola. They never ever prominently mention the price of the colas on their menu. You have to struggle to see it” (it was on a display hidden behind a column). “this way they can combine and sell you value meals and you think you are paying less but in effect they have already overcharged you for the drink”. “isn’t that cheating? Selling colas that expensive” “no they are allowed to charge whatever they want for the cola. A five star hotel will charge you 500 bucks for the same thing. That’s also allowed. It’s not cheating Its marketing”. “I am not telling you lies, I am only selling you differently.”

She was wow. “How do you know all this”. “hahha. I read. And that’s you are going to get in the books I bequeath you. Of course not all of this is from the books or in any one book but you get a sense of stuff around you once you read enough. Then you know how to figure things out as well.” “Google Doshi” was her parting comment. She knows that some of my friends call me that.

But that was a nice conversation with her. She is now big enough to know a lot of this and is able to figure a lot out as well. It’s fun growing up with Jispa.

magical weekened

Watch the movie “UP” for the cutest love story in less than 15 minutes. It’s at the start and it was so beautiful and cute and would make you go… awwwwwwwwwww…
The movie was quite cool with my kid enjoying it. We happened to be in VT area where we had gone to gorge on McDonalds breakfast menu.
The stuff was quite good with the muffin being steamed one! Wonder of wonders. Something at McDonalds is not fried?! I also opted for the hot chocolate and liked that one as well. I guess the coffee and the chocolate are the underrated items on the menu with the burgers and the shakes getting all the attention.
We happened to be at Mc when we were wondering where to take the kids after a morning at the park. We took them to the breach candy park (someone Mahindra garden) early morning yesterday and they enjoyed to their hearts content. Jispa is a natural at all these parks that require what I understand as gross motor skills. She can climb anywhere, everywhere and is one with the boys at all these games. I think she beats them as well. Seeing a boy jump from one of the ropes on the Cororcords Jispa wanted to attempt the same. Jasmine at the start wasn’t too enthused but I saw the jump and gave my go ahead. Woppie… she goes.. bham on the sand she falls. Gets up and tries again.. whoopieee…. I think the height was around ten feet. Awesomeposume. We had gone with a few of her friends and they seemed to be no match for her when it comes to the spirit of adventure. Jasmine fears a broken bone, I guess it’s the cost of growing u, or should I say the rite of growing up. As my dad said looking at Krish Srikkant’s batting – fortune favors the brave.
We went there early morning as the evening before we landed there to see a huge crowd. It still could take loads of kids and still function. I have no complaints on that. It was good fun but I thought it might be nice for Jispa to play with the stuff with a little less crowd. We had gone in with a friend who had come in from Dubai. As soon as he entered the place with his kid he remarked “which country are we in?” he loved the place and more importantly – his 4 year old loved it. On the ropes while he was having eth time of his life, he slipped a bit and caught a very very mild bruise on his forehead. His dad carried him one side and as he came in the poor kid was crying. I took him aside and looked at it – it was nothing… so I told him “hold on… don’t cry .. wait… do you want me to use some magic for your head. It will make it all go away. but you have to stop crying for that.” He looked at him half wondering, half belief and half disbelief. Yup I know that totals upto more than one… you have never seen kid expressions have you? Coming back… he stopped crying a bit. His father and also my wife were wondering what I was upto. Me too. So I just pulled out my wallet and thought I would pull out something.. that’s the only thing I had to pull out. A magician has to pull out something?!? Everyone was looking at me… what would come next. I opened my wallet and I remembered that I had some soap strips hidden away. I showed it to the boy, tore a small part of the soap strip and told him “see this magic paper, I ill put it on your head and the pain will all go away… see…” I stuck the dam thing on his forehead. “has it gone away?”. He nodded… good.. Keep it one for sometime. His father remarked that it was lucky I had some magic strip on me. Yup… I was lucky as well. As long the magic works it’s wonderful… this thing … magic….

Here are a few images from the fun

Pretty self explanatory

I taught her that move. Cool nah! it was my signature move. I also taught her the flip.
X marks the spot from she jumps. If you think thats not high.. try it.

The magic paper in action ... keep it handy. It works.

This one is cute…. It made entirely of tires.. look closely.