One of the best parts of being in a school which has a program ranked 8th in US, is the famous professors to learn from. School of Public Affairs has some of the well known faculty members especially in the field of Urban Management, Public Finance and Leadership. These faculty members have been in the field for a long time and by long I mean really long even since 30 years. Last year's ASPA conference helped me understand how lucky I am to be in SPA and be with such great people.

Sometimes it's just fun to read the books and articles and cite writers from whom you take classes. It gets more interesting when you are presenting in a class. So it's like saying "As you mentioned in this article in 1989" or according to "Prof. So and So who is also the instructor for this class"...The feeling is just great to learn the material directly from the writer. How many times we get such a golden opportunity to discuss face to face with the writer of a great work.

Well these are just few things I love about SPA.

Valley Metro Experience

My experience with many bureaucracies in US has been good as yet. Most of the time I found people courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. Recently I had to review "Case for Bureaucracy" for the administration theory class. The book I very interesting and though I did not agree with everything written I would strongly recommend this book for reading even if you don't need to write a book review. With the review on my mind I should talk about a small incident.

I am a huge supporter of public transport and totally find Valley metro bus service great. I have been boarding those buses for past two years and seldom had chance to complaint. But in last one month a particular route I regularly board, had some issues. Three consecutive times the bus did not show up at right time. I had to miss appointments as I ended up boarding the later bus. So when I did not catch the bus third time ,I really got upset and called Valley metro. The customer service was great. The person was patient and totally understood my concern. Actually I felt bad as I was complaining about a good service. But I had to let them know. The customer service agent filed a complaint on my behalf and got my information.

After two days I got a courtesy call from valley Metro that they were investigating my complaint and appreciate my input. What a wonderful follow up. Now all those say government does not work well, dear friends I definitely disagree. Government works and and works well. In fact you can get wonderful customer service at par with private companies. I am delighted with this experience. And very much looking forward to light rail in December.

The Change is in our hands!!

Tabla- Pt Talwalkar II

Tabla - Pt. Talwalkar

Yesterday I got an opportunity to listen to Pt.Suresh Talwalkar live in ASU. Unfortunately I heard about it when the program was in half time. But nonetheless I could run to Murdock and enjoy some really needed Indian Classical Music treat. Pt. Talwalkar who recently celebrated his 60th Birthday is one of the famous Tabla players in India. He and his daughter I think are on USA tour. It was a mesmerising experience as for avid fan of Indian classical music, listening to Pt.Talwalkar was a wonderful journey back to memory lane into Sawai Gandharva Music Festival in Pune. Pt.Talwalkar is known as "Taal Yogi" due to his command over taal. His recitation was not mere technical but also very musical due to excellent vocal recitation. As Panditji mentioned "Tabla should never be a part of gimmicks and tricks. It should remain a true form of music." V has some video coverage for the program which I will upload soon. Until then you can YouTube Pandit Talwalkar to enjoy some treat to ears.