6 month old @ Accenture!

I turned 6 months old today in Accenture :) I completed the necessary probation period and got a letter of confirmation. I must say I never realized the pace at which this period ended, the life has been absolutely fast lane in these last 6 months. There were so many changes I encountered, most of them pleasant. I must say that I have made some excellent personal and professional relationships which is one of the best.

Must thank a lot of people, particularly my family for all the support. This job has been very harsh on my family and they have taken a definite toll. My focus going forward will be to make up for all the lost time.

Nursery admission and us!

Tomorrow is a very important day for us, we are finally going to get our daughter admitted to nursery. It may sound funny to some and familiar to some of you, what I can guarantee is that the people whom this sound funny have never been close vicinity of a 3-5 year old kid.

I am not sure about the other cities in India but in Delhi, getting admission to a "good" nursery school is a pain at all the wrong places. I think we were lucky to see our daughter get through more than a couple of schools. Once you get through a school the next step is more painful, getting ready and paying through your nose. Take this, the average admission fee of any school here is 50K to 90K and then you have to pay quarterly fee of anything from 15K to 30K. The books, dress, shoes, etc etc are on the top of this amount.

My sense is there is something fundamentally wrong with our education system, the primary problem being confusion between the school and govt laid processes, another being no transparency in the admission process. Noone is sure of the final criteria and the no. of points you would have got as a parent. My worse experience was with a school which asked for grandparent's education qualification, my and wife's yearly income, our 3 year ITR, the car we drive and if we live in a owned or a rented house.

I hate to say that the whole system stinks, but are we ready to stand up and say a firm NO. Unfortunately, the answer is a firm NO.