Hyderabad Rockathon 2015

Last weekend was special, with GHAC's annual flagship event 'Rockathon'. True to its name, this is a fun outdoor event themed on rocks. In its 4th annual edition, this event has become quite popular over the years with kids and nature-outdoor enthusiasts in Hyderabad. Conducted at Ghar-e-Mubarak, close to the Golconda fort, this was co-hosted by the Hyderabad-based 'Society to save rocks', a uniqe organization that does great work in identifying and protecting the rocks by getting them declared as heritage sites.

Having heard quite a bit about this event, this was my first time and I took my family and friends along. With both my kids under-age as per the event guidelines, and with one of them young-enough and pushed around in a pram, we sure turned lots of heads around! It was a packed, fun-filled day with several activities lined up. 

We started with slack-lining, the fine art of balancing yourself and walking on a rope, the only saving grace being that the rope was tied at just 1 foot height. With adults struggling at this, the kids seemed to pick it up and do naturally; perhaps their natural instincts for outdoors are not urbanized fully yet. Rock-stacking involved creating the tallest structure by stacking up small rocks and pebbles. This provided a sneak-peak into the fascinating rock structures one sees in the city and how they could be balancing each other. And yes, our group did win a prize by building one of the tallest ones!

Slack-lining	Trail biking
Rock-stacking	...and a natural stack in formation

The treasure hunt themed around hunting for the right rock formations as given in a picture proved daunting, especially in the hot midday sun. There were several creative activities to the event's credit: rock shotput, trail-biking around the rocky terrain, a quiz to test knowledge on rocks & rock structures, and even a rock selfie contest! There was a lot of demand for zip-lining and rapelling, that was planned well and organized safely in the midst of the adjoining rocky hills. The event was complete with a workshop on snakes awareness, conducted by the popular Hyderabad-based 'Friends of Snakes' society. They demonstrated handling of non-poisonous and poisonous snakes, and provided useful tips and first-aid basics. With kids quickly developing comfort with snakes, they rushed in to touch and handle one of the less aggressive, non-poisonous varieties.

The green, tree snake	An extra-long rat snake

During the event, it was a pleasant surprise to bump into the 13-year old girl who holds world-records for climbing several tall peaks around the world, Jaahnavi. It was fascinating to learn from her father-and-guide on how Jaahnavi Sriperambuduru  started early, has persevered to set records and also about her #Mission7summit, the upcoming mission to climb all highest peaks in the 7 Continents. Wishing her luck, we signed off from the event.

Edit: Corrected typo in Jahnavi's name.

Great design of everyday things

Humming bird fork stand. Pic: Amazon

I came across this fork stand recently, and there was something about it that caught my attention at first sight. Its beautiful to look at, serves its purpose as a fork well and its quirky design makes you smile. The design is so intelligent that a set of forks kept stationary on the stand double up as a set of birds perched upon a tree, while the fork impaled and ready to be eaten looks like a humming bird feasting on a fruit!

Perhaps as David Norman explains in his book on Emotional Design, this caters to our senses at 3 levels - 'visceral' or 'the beauty aspect', 'behavioral' or 'utility & usability factor' and 'reflective' or the 'emotional connect'. The story-telling aspect of the design was amply reinforced by the fact that my 4-year old kid who refuses to eat fruits, now looks forward to his fruit-eating sessions, thanks to this fork set! 

When an online purchase goes wrong

After years of buying stuff online, I recently had my first dud transaction. I had ordered Amish Tripathi's "Scions of Ishvaku" and two other books on Amazon, about a month back. The order was to be serviced by three different sellers. I promptly got a confirmation and delivery of the 2 other books, however 'Scions of Ishkavu' order status progressed through various stages from 'being dispatched', 'reaching warehouse' and even 'out for delivery', but there was no physical trace of the order.

When I called up customer service after a few days, the service agent was extremely courteous, reassuring and promised to check with the courier company. But again, nothing happened, not even an acknowledgement of the service request. I eventually ended up talking to the service desk 4 times, and surprisingly every conversation was alike - very courteous, understanding, reassuring and with absolutely no action. In the final call when I persisted and threatened legal action, things finally moved. I got a complaint lodged as well, against the agents who had (mis)handled the case earlier.

This was a low value transaction with no urgency, yet it finally got onto my nerves. The large e-commerce players have many a chink in their armor, inspite of increasing maturity in their processes and million of dollars of investment into customer service and delivery. Once in a while, you do keep hearing of issues from friends about incorrect billing, order not getting delivered or even worse, getting a lemon when you order high-value electronic items. However, online is the way forward for consumers and e-commerce companies should speedily fix those odd issues in their workflows.

PS: Yesterday, I got an email from the bank confirming that a refund has been my initiated on this transaction. But, the surprise this time was that the credit had been done for all 3 books, not just the one undelivered. I'm just getting a request raised for payment of the 2 other books, and I wonder how much time Amazon would take for this credit back to them!

Festival season Greetings

The 2 months from mid-September through mid-November is one of my favorite periods during the year. This part of the calendar has dates marked for several festivals ranging from Ganesh Chathurthi, Janmashtami, Dusshera, Navarathri and Diwali, and they often occur back-to-back. With festive spirit strongly in the air, sweets to share, and lots of holidays to spare, this is fun time indeed.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous Diwali! Charge up your batteries for a Successful Year ahead!!