Hyderabad School Admissions

It has been two years since i relocated to Hyderabad from Gurgaon. One of the main challenges for us, as is for other families with kids is to search for a good school in the new city. My son was 3 years when we moved to Hyderabad. When he was 2.5, at Gurgaon, we did a lot of research and "traveling" (though within the city) to find a good school and finally chose Lotus Valley International School near South City 2 due to multiple factors, one being its proximity to our home. For details, see my other post for Gurgaon school admissions.

At Hyderabad, it was even more difficult compared to Gurgaon to find a good school of choice. Lotus Valley in Gurgaon had set a high benchmark and it was very difficult for us to find a school that could meet that benchmark (unfortunately, the fact is that we were not able to find a school that could match it). We considered the following schools for my son:

1. Rockwell International School
The reviews on the internet about this school were positive. The location was also relatively close to my place (though not as close as it was in Gurgaon). But somehow the school did not appeal to us much.

2. Orchid International School
Considering the fees that this school had and compared to Lotus Valley in Gurgaon which had similar fees, we did not think it a wise investment option. Lotus Valley in Gurgaon looks more like a mall with centrally AC building and professional look.

3. Manthan International School
We found this school the best of all that were in our budget. Though the infrastructure of the Madhapur campus is no where close to Lotus Valley in Gurgaon (can't resist comparing while writing this post), we had our relative's daughter going to this school. The feedback from them was positive and so it became a 'natural' choice for us.

4. Phoenix Greens

We had also heard good reviews about Phoenix Greens but since it was quite far from our place we did not consider it.

Feedback about Manthan

We are okay with the school, though I'd recommend Tellapur campus instead of Madhapur campus as it's bigger and better. Pluses are that children get limited homework, 2 teachers for about 25 students in a class, activities like dancing, music, physical education, art and craft, computer education, phonics, a long summer break, accessibility of teachers for any issue, uploading of pictures on facebook, engaging students with activities for occasions like festivals etc.

A few things I don't like are no winter break. There is a week off for Dusshera and a week off for Sankranti in Jan which is a big problem for us as we are from north and can't travel so frequently for 1 week each (prefer less frequent but longer breaks to go home), class sections keep changing every year because they want to make kids adapt to change fast (would like to highlight that changing job across cities is a big enough and frequent change these days for kids than any other change and some of my good friends are from school with whom I studied for 6-8 years in school), no activities like swimming, skating and others (we even had horse riding in Lotus Valley at Gurgaon) and no big playground.

All in all we're okay with the school but we'd prefer something like Lotus Valley here in this budget!

Hyderabad to NagarjunaSagar by Road - Weekend Getaway

We moved to Hyderabad in September 2013 and in October decided to do a quick weekend getaway. Unfortunately there are not as many weekend getaway options from Hyderabad as from Bangalore. But still we thought of exploring whatever options we had.

One of the options that seemed interesting was Nagarjunasagar. I was a three hour drive from my home. We left on Hyderabad on a Saturday

We started with the ORR (Outer Ring Road) and then followed Google Navigation till we were on the main road to Nagarjunasagar. As i look in hindsight, it seems that we took the ORR and Nagarjunasagar Road as shown in Google maps. The road condition was unexpectedly good (I am comparing it to highways in my native place). The ORR is like an expressway. Even on the state highway, the traffic was not heavy and I could easily drive my i10 at 80 kmph.

When we started from Hyderabad, it was drizzling. But as we moved towards Nagarjunasagar, it was a heavy downpour. That's one of the reasons that it took us a bit longer to reach (3.5 hours). It was raining incessantly and we thought that our short trip would be screwed.

We had pre-booked the Haritha Vijay Vihar Resort NagarjunaSagar through the APTDC website. The cost was around Rs.2,500/- per night which was okay considering the kind of rates that hotels charge these days. While we were about to enter the room, it was drizzling. We see rivulets in the resort itself. So even the bell boy did not turn up (not sure if they have someone for this purpose considering that it is a government property). The room was spacious with view of the Nagarjunasagar lake. The bathroom was not that great.

We unpacked the food which we had brought along with us (pooris), as it was not a good idea to step out for the restaurant in the rain with my 3 year old kid. By evening around 4 PM, the skies were a bit clear and it was just drizzling. We thought of what we could do in the next 2-3 hours. We thought of going to the Ettipotala waterfalls. It took us about 30-40 minutes if i can remember correctly to reach the waterfalls. We also had to pay an entry fee of about 20-30 rupees some distance before the falls. I had already read about this (being unauthorized or what...) on another blog but still shelled out the money as it was getting dark and there was no time to haggle.

As soon as we stepped out of the car, a monkey jumped into our car in search of food while our kid was still on the rear seat. My god. It would have taken the monkey 2 seconds to get into the car from the rear door on the right and come out of the left side from the front door carrying an empty packet of chips which was kept in the bottle holder. My wife literally screamed, i was also shocked and other people came to our rescue. Thankfully none of us was harmed.

We were advised by the people standing there not to carry anything especially polythene bags as it would attract monkeys. We just carried our umbrellas as it was still drizzling, purchased the entry tickets to the waterfall and went in the resort campus. APTDC has another resort here. It is cheaper but I would not recommend this to anyone especially with kids. Lot of monkeys and it is at a very deserted sort of place. Due to the rains, the water in the waterfall was muddy, though the expanse was good because of the rains for the past few days. Generally you see a waterfall from its bottom when you are so close to the waterfall. But here you were at a higher point than the waterfall. It was okay and would have been better without the monkeys.

We returned by about 7 and after a break in the room went to have dinner in the restaurant. We ordered North Indian food and it was okay - better that we had expected. Post dinner, we went back to the room and retired for the day.

The way it had rained the previous day, the next day was a pleasant surprize for us. It was a perfect weather that one would want on a holiday. Clouds but no rain. Pleasant breeze. This made the environs of the resort look even better. We did an extensive photo session. My kid was busy playing in the water in the resort as it was flowing into the lake. All of us had great fun that day.

We also went to the point where boating is done in the NagarjunaSagar lake but did not opt for it. Took photos of the dam on the way.

Again, on our return journey, we took a lot of photo shoots stopping at various places on the road. Everything seemed so fresh and lively.

Overall, it was a nice weekend getaway. Would recommend visiting during the monsoons when the weather is good as nice weather would add more fun to the trip.

Car Registration in Hyderabad

I relocated to Hyderabad from Gurgaon in Sep 2013. I have an i10 which I moved with me to Hyderabad. I had a lot of questions and apprehensions while moving to Hyderabad about car registration etc.

I also had a 6 month old (or rather new) Verna in Gurgaon which I sold before relocating to Hyderabad as I had heard that RTO is quite strict there. It would have costed me ~1.25 lakh for the Verna registration.

Below are a few experiences of my colleagues who moved to Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) from other states:

• One of my friends paid road tax for his Gurgaon HR 26 Ford Figo diesel car in Hyderabad soon after coming using the help of a broker. The broker charged him Rs. 1,000 over and above the registration cost. Advantage: Got rid of the tension of being caught up soon.
•  I also took the quotation from the same broker but tried to delay the process as much as possible, though it was a stressful time while I was driving on roads. I was caught by an RTO officer who did listen to my excuses but impounded my DL. I paid the road tax and got my DL back. Advantage: Saved Rs.1,000 which I would have paid to the broker! I have never been caught after that.
• Another colleague has been driving his Karnataka car for about 8 months. He has paid Rs.500 so far as he was stopped by a constable twice - both times being in the last (eighth) month.
• One of our team managers has a Honda City but has not yet paid the road tax even after 6 months. He has a West Bengal car. He was also caught up initially but made excuses like he has recently arrived in the city etc. Not sure how many times he's been held up for this. In fact, he avoided coming by his car for a few days but I see him driving again.

Suggestion:

• Ask me for the RTO officer number if you are interested in paying the road tax to avoid broker charges!

Yamuna Expressway – A world class infrastructure piece is here in UP!

Thanks to a family function in Agra – I got a chance to drive on the Yamuna Expressway. I had heard a lot about it from the point when people were using it even when it was not officially opened to the news of tyres bursting due to over-speeding. We were travelling from Meerut to Agra on 23rd September. As we got on to the expressway, we spontaneously had the expression “wow”! Wide roads with minimal traffic – a sight rare in India. Even the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway which used to have limited traffic a few years back is now sometimes choked at peak hours.


The expressway is 165 km long with a 3 lane road on each side. It has 3 tolls on way to Agra. On the first toll, you need to inform the person that you want a ‘ticket’ to Agra. The cost was about Rs.320 for one way and Rs.510 for the return journey within 24 hours. At each subsequent toll, you need to show this ticket which would be scanned by the person and you’d be allowed to go through.

On every toll there are public conveniences like toilets and restaurants which you’d not find anywhere else on the expressway. Also, it would be good to get your fuel tank completely filled much before you touch the highway as currently we could not spot a petrol pump on the highway. There had been news when a car ran out of petrol on the expressway and the “victims” had to call their acquaintances from Mathura to get petrol for them. Though there are plans to set up petrol pumps on the highway.

On the way, billboards with the messages like those over-speeding will be prosecuted; Nilgai prone area; slow speed vehicles prohibited or asking commuters not to stop for picnics could be seen. The last point was very valid. The expressway was such that you would be tempted to park your car by the side and enjoy the beauty for some time. As we were driving, we could actually spot a family stopping and clicking pictures on the expressway.

The legal speed limit on the expressway is 100km/h. Again, with minimal traffic and excellent road, one would be tempted to speed past the 100 km/h mark. But provisions have been made to penalize violators at the next toll.

It took us about 2 hours driving on the expressway before we reached Agra. The drive was of the sort I had never experienced earlier. My left foot was down on the floor instead of being on the clutch. And the right one was on the accelerator. I knew that even if I had to brake, I’d be using only my right foot and left foot would not be needed. It was only at the three tolls that the clutch had to be used – just thrice in a 165 km journey.

On our return journey, we started from Agra at about 8 in the evening. ON touching the expressway it was again the same feeling – “wow”. This time because it was dark and we could see the glowing . It seemed as if we were on a runway – just that we were not taking off.

The Buddh International Circuit (the same where the F1 was held in India) could be seen from the expressway. And though it would be difficult to get to drive on the BIC, the Yamuna Expressway is a way to get close to experiencing Go-Karting live!

After having experienced the journey to and fro, I’d like to congratulate the Jaypee Infra team for such a marvelous piece of infrastructure. As I read on Wikipedia, the expressway was completed 2 years before its targeted completion date. (The reason could be political – perhaps the builder thought it was better to complete it under Mayawati’s regime than take the risk of a political tumult which would create roadblocks for the project). And though the toll may appear to be on the higher side, such infrastructure is what India needs to be able to come to speed with the rest of the world!

Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents

We’ve almost finalized our son's admission in Lotus Valley International School. The experience was interesting but we had a lot of confusion while choosing the school. You can read about my thoughts on various schools on another blog I’ve written. Below are some tips for parents searching for schools in Gurgaon. My experience is based on choosing a school for pre-nursery and may differ from those seeking admissions in higher classes. Therefore, please use your best knowledge, information and judgement to arrive at a decision.

Registration – Registration means that you are interested in seeking admission in a school. If you go and visit a school and ask for the form, the school will generally charge Rs. 500 – Rs. 1,000 for giving you a school prospectus, CDs, fee structure and other material along with the registration form in which details of the student and parents are filled.

A suggestion here would be to go to different schools which you are interested in – see the infrastructure, interact with the admissions coordinator and get your queries answered. You would certainly want to have information about the fees. If you’re paying Rs.1,000, the school will give you a sheet with the breakup of the fees – admission, annual charges, refundable, quarterly etc. But if you’re not willing to shell out the money, the school may not give you the “fee sheet” (I’ve seen the receptionist refusing to give the fee breakup sheet in one of the schools, though she did allow the parents to make a note of the fees on a separate piece of paper).

In such a case, the parents may take a note of the fees by writing on another piece of paper or taking a picture from their mobile cameras. I found parents doing this and I consider it smart and sensible. Why would I want to pay the registration fees for a school which is beyond my budget or not up to my expectations in some aspect? I would also want to do a “cost – benefit” analysis for the various schools before finalizing for which I would need the fee breakup.

The best thing is to do an internet research on the schools, shortlist a few, visit them, come back home, reflect upon and then finally come to a decision. Once finalized, you can download the school form from the internet (school website or other school admission websites), take a print, fill, go to the school and pay the registration fees while submitting the form.

Some schools here in Gurgaon give admissions on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you are choosing such a school, following the above procedure will save you from spending on registration fees unnecessarily, if you start early.

I myself purchased admission forms for Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills, Nirvana. We got admission in Lotus Valley and haven’t yet filled the Shalom Hills form. Looking back, it seems we could have save the 1,000 bucks we spent for Shalom Hills…And though I read on another blog that you should keep 4-5 schools in hand, acting smart can save you a couple of bucks without taking any risk.

Please share your experiences and views in the comments.

P.S.: Experience based on admission in pre-nursery in Gurgaon

Gurgaon School Admission Experience for Pre-Nursery

It’s August 2012 and our son will be 2 in November. And though we found schools which “admitted” children as young as 9 months, we’d made up our mind to send him to school (pre-nursery) once he is 2+. And thus began school hunting. Admissions in Gurgaon begin as early as August-September even though the academic session only starts in April the following year!

The internet is the first source of information - Google…Google and more Google – for list of schools, schools close to our home, reviews, fee structure and anything else that comes to mind. Then come acquaintances and neighbours with who could provide relevant information on schools they had considered for their child. You tend to ask every kid who you see while strolling in the evening – “Which school do you go to?” Most of them would answer LKG A or UKG B. And then we’d have to clarify – “you’re telling your class ‘beta’ …we’re asking for your school”.

We are putting up at Gurgaon Sector 49, near South City 2 - D Block market and preferred to have a school close by. After doing quite some research on the internet we were able to shortlist and the ones which we visited are marked as ‘(Visited)’:

      Lotus Valley  - Nirvana Country (Visited)

      Shalom Hills – Nirvana Country (Visited)

      FasTracKids – Golf Course Extension Road (Visited) – Wunder Kinder, if I remember the name correctly, is opposite to FastTracKids but we did not visit this school neither was this in our shortlist.

      La Petite – GD Goenka – Malibu Town, Sohna Road (Visited)

      The Shriram Early Years (Near Vipul Greens, Sohna Road) (Visited)

      I Play I Learn (Though not keen, we tried to visit it but could not find this school and so came back home!)

      Xseed iDiscoveri (Though in our list initially, we left it out as it was relatively farther from our house compared to the schools mentioned above)

We also had Pathways play school in our mind as it was walking distance from our home but a relative who had been to the school said that it was too expensive specially for pre-nursery and thus it went out of the list (The relative I am talking about have admitted their younger kid in Shriram The Early Years and their elder one is in Scottish High).

FasTracKids – In absolute terms, the school was okay. It is a franchise of a US school. The teaching methodology was theme based. They had a smart (touch screen) board in some classes and had day care facility and meals. Fee was the most reasonable amongst all schools. The centre coordinator was pleasing and took us around the school, showed us classes even when they were going on. Quartery Fees ~14,400

GD Goenka La Petite – The school became operational in July 2012 only and looked promising. It deals in classes from toddlers to KG. The school follows a Montessori way of teaching. Class rooms were spacious, well lighted and aesthetically pleasing. Also offered a day care facility and meals. Since this is a new school, it offered an inaugural discount on one of the components of fees. But the admission would not be directly transferrable to the main branch of GD Goenka World school. We did not consider it further as it was only till KG and admission blues will still come to us after KG + the quarterly fees was almost as high as Lotus  Valley’s. Quartery fees ~20,000 Annual Fees ~15,000

The Shriram Early Years – The school only offered classes till Nursery which meant ‘admission issues’ would come again very soon. We were not able to see the classes as they were going on. But the school would give admission anytime you would go to them – which means they do not strictly follow a ‘session’. We did not consider it further as it was only till nursery and there was no direct transfer from this school to their main school. Quarterly fees ~Rs.19,000/-

Shalom Hills, Nirvana – The head mistress was pleasing and took us around the school. We visited the school when the classes were about to be over. She seemed to remember names on many kids in the school. The advantage with this school was that it is till 12^th. But it was written on the internet somewhere that the school follows a conventional teaching methodology. Though KG and above do have smart classes. Quarterly fees ~ 13,000/- Annual fees ~14,000/- Admission fees ~15,000/40,000

Lotus Valley: The school campus and building is nice, centrally AC. Classrooms are spacious. The school has various activity rooms like dance room, crafts room, music room. But these are more useful for grown up children. For the kindergarten students, these activities are done in their classes itself. But the fee for classes Pre-Nursery to 5^th is the same! The lady at the reception took us around the school building/floors and was very cordial. Overall, the school is good – in fact the best of all the schools that we saw.

We were also thinking from the perspective that we’d admit our son in a school which goes all the way to 12^{th –} the reason being that we’d most likely and preferably be in Gurgaon. Only Lotus Valley and Shalom Hills had this advantage. Though Lotus Valley gave us a feel good factor when we visited the school, the fees was considerably higher compared to Shalom Hills, Nirvana.

After considering most factors, we finalized Lotus Valley International School as it perhaps the only “international” school in our vicinity and within our budget!!!

Another blog: “Gurgaon School Admissions – My Two Cents”

Country Club Membership - Things to consider before enrolling

You would have come across a person offering you a lucky coupon at a store in a mall or at a petrol pump. These are the holiday club membership coupons where if you fill them, you’d be invited for a presentation and a voucher which you can use for a 6N/7D domestic and international holiday. If you have the time and patience of listening to the person detailing you about the holiday, you might consider going, listening and taking the “free” holiday voucher and come back. However, you should be very clear before going into the presentation that you’d not be buying the club membership. Do your homework – search the internet for the reviews before going for the presentation. More often than not, they’ll be bad.

Certain points that you’ll hear from the sales person (SP) and counterarguments you (U) can give to them:

1.       SP: If you buy your own holiday home, you’ll have to pay for maintenance, security of the home, limited choice of holidays (e.g. if it’s in Goa, you’ll have a holiday home only in Goa) etc. While if you take our membership, you don’t have to bother about all this stuff.

U: If I buy a holiday home, I buy it to use as a holiday home. Plus I am also looking at capital appreciation. If I buy your holidays, it’s just the holidays and nothing tangible. While if I buy a holiday home, say in Goa, I have something which will appreciate with time. It’s similar to paying rent vis-à-vis paying an EMI. If I keep paying rent, at the end of a certain time period I don’t own anything. If I pay EMIs, at the end of it, I have my own home. Which one should I prefer?

2.       SP: Our properties are 5 star.

U: Please do your home work. Most of the properties are not 5* but 3* or 4*.

3.       SP: You’ll be protected against inflation, if you book our holidays for 10/25 years.

U: But I’ll also be losing on the interest if I pay you the booking fees. I can get even higher returns, if I invest the money somewhere else.

Other counter arguments for not buying the package:

1.       We’d like to take the free coupon, use it and see how the services are. Only then we will consider buying your membership.

2.       Who would want to stay in a single place for 6N/7D when it is not worth those many days? For example, generally Goa packages are 3N/4D. Why would I want to stay only at Goa or only at Bangkok or only at Kuala Lumpur for 6N? I would rather want to cover Goa and Mahabaleshwar in that time or perhaps Phuket with Bangkok or Genting with Kuala Lumpur. These clubs only offer you to book for 6N/7D in a year. So for example, if you want to book for 2N/3D then you’ll only get 2 sets of 2N/3D which is a total of 4Nights and 6Days in a year at 2 places/2 times. And you’re at a loss of 2 nights and 3 days.

3.       Also consider whether you travel alone or with another couple family. If you take a membership, you restrict yourself to travelling alone!

4.       Only the accommodation is included in the membership. You might/will have to pay for airfare, airport/station transfers, sightseeing, meals, visa for international trip. All these can be more than 50% of the cost of your trip. Add to this the hassle of dealing with multiple people.  And some of these like food are said to be too expensive at their resorts. Please check with the company what they are offering and what they are not. In fact, if you book the same package with a tour operator (www.holidaycooker.com), it might cost you lesser than opting for the membership with much more – breakfast and sightseeing is almost always included.

5.       Flexibility: With these clubs, you have to book certain period in advance. Also the availability of the resort at the time you are planning to visit is under question. If you are booking through a tour operator, you can book even a week in advance.

Important points to note:

When one has spent almost an hour and a half listening to the sales person, one has a tendency to sign the docs without reading them. One is actually in a hurry to go out of that room. Even if one finds the plan interesting and wants to enrol for it, one should spend time to read the documents carefully before signing them. There are certain clauses which are either not told to you by the sales person or are misrepresented. For example, dates at year end 25^th Dec – early Jan might be blocked out dates and you cannot book your holidays during this period. Or the sales person has told you about club membership (start nights etc.) also but they are not marked in your form. Such things most likely will not be told to you but would be written in the documents. Therefore take you own time to read the documents and ask questions before signing and making the payment.

Have you ever faced such a situation? Are you a holiday club member? Are you happy? Or do you feel cheated? Please share your thoughts.

Issued in public interest.

The article represents my own personal opinions/suggestions.