Education in Udine, Italy

As I mentioned in health-system, this area also deserves praise. Unlike in India, the education system here is two-tier (On one part, government schools, on the other hand private schools upto only 8th standard….whereas in India, I find Chaturvarnya in every system including Education system. In India, we have people who don’t send their kids to school, then we have municipal or government schools where you will find poor kids, then middle class students going to good private schools in cities, mostly English medium and lastly, the posh 5-star schools and residential schools for so-called affluent high-class society) but fully managed by state. No private players, no private schools, no private teachers, no tuitions, no coaching classes, no CATs, no entrance exams. Nothing but a plain education system.
All the schools are run by municipal councils, funded by government. The pattern in Italy is 3 years in Pre-primary (maternal), 5 years of primary (Elementary) & 5 years of Secondary (). There are no examinations in elementary section, but only periodic tests. All the schools, all the subjects are taught in only Italian. They learn other languages from 5th standard onwards, but most of them prefer French, German & Latin to English. Only private schools have other mediums of teaching like we have two English-medium schools in Udine. But even in Private schools, the students should achieve good level of Italian which is tested at 5th and 8th standard. And students have very few choices after 8th standard and they switch to government school after 8th standard.
After the secondary education, hardly 50% students go for higher education of which 50% complete 5 years of graduation. Very few opt for professional studies in medicine or engineering, but many opt for other vocational professional studies which gets them jobs by the time they are 16 years. In general, Italians do not like to study as an adolescent teens are lured by easy life early in their life.
The Government & private schools are very well equipped, in vast areas with good airy, bright buildings with play-parks, laboratory, library. You feel really in different world and pleasant to be in the educational campus. Schools have 5-day week and for the full day with snacks and lunch provided in the school. You are not paying any fees in Government but you need to buy books, note-books and all school-stationery. I realized that all these is very costly as they are heavily taxed because education is free.
The emphasis during education is on left-brain development. A lot of activities like crafts, drawings, coloring, team games, puzzles and toys occupying most of the time of the school at elementary level. Self learning is encouraged all the time hence they make a lot of charts every time. Normally, kids do not have home-work but they are supposed to complete uncompleted class-work. The teacher in 1st standard follows the class till 5th standard hence she knows capacity of each students and can work on his/her inabilities, progressively. As such, the task is also very easy for any teacher as she handles only 20 students max in any class.
Normally, school has 5 to 6 study excursions (one day trip to banks or post-office etc) to learn extra-curricular topics related to their syllabus. And one 5 to 15 days picnic to mountains or historic place to explore is arranged once a year (2 or 3 classes together).

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Public Transport in Udine, Italy

I was always amused to see the trains, buses running empty at rush hours on week-day in Udine, Italy. Udine is a small city like a district city in Maharashtra (e.g. Thane but 1/4 population) , but not a metro. The city is equipped with all facilities and has a railway station connecting to all nearby small towns and big cities like Venice (tourist place at 120 kms) and Trieste (port city at 50 kms). The railway station is a medium size with 8 platforms, clean with a lot of free space. A spacious clean waiting room, news-paper stall, café and some small shops are part of every station. It is a terminus and a junction, hence a lot of trains originating from Udine. You will find a small train of a single bogie running between two stations every one hour, between Udine and Cividale, a historic small town.
You will hardly find any men in the station except for the arrival of departure of a train. Just outside the station, it has some shops, taxi-stand, local bus-stand and log-distance bus-stand and small-big restaurants (incl. MacDonalds), but it is not a crowded place like our railway stations. No crowd of vehicles, as vehicles come and move, buses come and move and also people come and move. A very few people travel by train as everybody prefers to move in own cars to attend office or to go to factory. Only those who are traveling a long distance are the visitors of train and station, that is the only crowd in the train.
Same is the case with bus. Udine has some 15 routes of buses covering entire city (and some outskirts) of around 10 km circle. All routes have starting & end points outside Udine, but all routes have stop at Station, hence buses just come & move away from station, making it a crowd-less spot. All buses run perfectly on time, with 10 to 15 minutes frequency but all buses run half-empty. In fact, both trains and buses services must be in losses, but are run as a welfare service for those in need because not all people afford own car.
There are no rickshaws, for obvious reasons and taxis are very few, can count on fingers. I fear if the taxi-owners make any earnings at all. Four or five taxis just keep lingering at taxi-stand near station, waiting for customers. The taxis, in fact, are for visitors or guests and not for residents of Udine or may be some times for residents for airport-drop. Residents travel in their own car to air-port, park their car on airport parking space if they are flying for a week or so.

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Doctors and Hospitals in Udine

The doctors and medical facility is one area I was never happy with in Udine, Italy. It’s not that it is bad, but given the situation here it is obvious. It lacks something. But let me comment on its plus points before I point out its lacunae.
The best thing is that the whole medical system is monitored by state (like education system). It means there are no private players, no private doctors, no private hospitals, no nursing homes, no medical shops. Everything is owned and managed by state. The obvious benefit is that almost all basic facilities are free of costs, some advanced facilities are at rebated costs, luxury facilities are at full costs. The second benefit is that the poor and needy are not fooled by greedy doctors, you will not spend un-necessary money on unwanted tests and you are not trapped in money-racket of the so-called doctors. The third benefit is everybody is on equal footing, unlike in India where we have chaturvarnya system everywhere, even in health facilities. (In India, The lowest stratum of society does not even know that they can approach doctors, they simply die. The poor avail government health-centers or municipal hospitals which are very poorly managed. The middle-class who can afford private facilities can go to private doctors, specialists, nursing homes and hospitals to fall in trap and loose money. And rich class going to Lilavati and Bombay hospitals and can have five-star treatment.)
In Italy, they have government doctors on salary, who have their own clinics and they are general practitioners and act like your family doctor. For small problems, like cough, fever they prescribe you medicines which you can buy at nearby pharmacy at nominal cost or free of cost. For complicated issues which requires specialists’ attention, they will direct you to government hospitals where again almost all the treatment is free of cost or at subsidized rates. For any complicated issue, I need not ask ten people, who is the best doctor and get confused with different opinions. In India, I was always facing this situation and never sure if I took correct decision to approach particular specialist, e.g. when my father was operated for his back problem, I remember how confused I was with different advises. There is only solution here and it is the specialist available in hospital. He may take opinions from other specialist if your case in unique.
But there are many drawbacks here. Since doctors are government salaried, they take least interest in your well-being, there are many exceptions though. Being doctor is not a lucrative profession; less people choose to become a doctor and not necessarily the best brains. So, the health-medical facility can not be termed as the best. My friend, hospitalized for fever was never diagnosed properly and fever never receded till 15th day and it left specialist doctors without any conclusion, one more friend waited for 2 months for appointment of an specialist for his leg-sprain which was cured & healed automatically and he needed no visit. This is because of shortfall of doctors and staff.
But, you visit a hospital, you will feel as if you are in 5-star hotel, so clean, neat and tidy, full of all facilities, humble and co-operative staff, good quality food for admitted patients. One will love to be in hospital but without being ill.

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Driving on Italian Roads

As you may be aware, the driving here in Italy is left-hand drive. I feared I might have problems in driving, but it just takes one drive to get accustomed to disorientation. I found driving on Italian roads very easy and joyous. One because traffic is too less, second because everybody follows discipline and third because the traffic signs are sufficiently clear (this was a contrast when I drove on Swiss roads, I remember it was a nightmare).
I really appreciate the driving skills and road sense of Italians. They drive fast but safe, follow all signals correctly and respect rules. Even at 11.55 pm, when there are hardly any vehicles on the road, one stops when there is yellow signal before it becomes red. They don’t break the signal, I came to know the obvious reason later that they have hefty penalty system. Not only they are required to pay but also they loose points from their driving license. If you loose all 20 points, you are required to renew your license by re-appearing driving school & RTO test. So, everybody prefers to follow rules.
On the city roads, vehicles will automatically stop at zebra crossing if you are about to cross the road. The road-walkers, bicycles-riders, scooters will be respected when driving. If road is narrow, and over-taking is not feasible, you will find a long queue of vehicles behind a slow-moving vehicles, but no horns, no rush, no double-queuing. We rarely hear horns so much so that if I press my horn by mistake, I used to get scared by the sound of my own horn. Roads are very very clean and always painted with lane-markings, stop signals.
50% of the city roads have bicycle-strips for bicycle-riders with own signal system and the roads will be sufficiently wide if no cycle-strip. But surprisingly, most of the city roads are single-lane but still vehicles zoom @80 kmph. On highways, they zoom @120, whereas on toll-ways, they traverse @200 kmph. It is really eye-worthy to see ambulances cruising speeding on heavy-traffic roads, with all vehicles giving way to ambulance, stopping if need be.
Though, the road-signs are sufficiently clear, I still get confused when you are trying to find addresses. If you take a wrong turn by mistake, you are in spin and in a endless loop. This happens if you don’t find name of the road when you wish to take turn. Hence, most of the cars are equipped with GPRS navigator with country map.
It is rare to see accidents on the road, but if you happen to see any accident, it is nice to observe what follows after accident. If it is a small accident, and nobody is injured and resulted only in damages to cars, the drivers will get down from their cars in despair and disbelief. No shouting, no bad words, no fighting. They will stop where they are, no movement, no running and no public interference. All the vehicles will stop where they are, may result in traffic jam if no alternative for diversion of traffic. If alternate road is available, the other vehicles will just move from the scene and will carry on their journey. The two drivers will exchange a few words with each other. If no dispute, no police intervention required, both of them will take out their insurance-claim formats, fill it, sign on each-others documents & drive away.
If somebody is injured, some passer-by will call 118 on his mobile, the police, ambulance will arrive within 5-8 minutes. Till that time, nobody will touch injured, because only trained personnel is supposed to bail out the injured. Ambulance people will take care of injured & will take him to hospital and police will take care of rest of the formalities. In such a case, the responsible person will bear the related costs of police & hospital formalities as penalty, in addition to accident penalty and will also loose license points.

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Life in Udine, Italy

Finally, we landed in Udine, a city in northern Italy, 125 km north east of Venice.
I would be sharing my observations on general topics related to life-style of Italians here. My observations will be based on my little interaction with Italians, parents in Udine International school, intercations with Indians staying in Udine and other parts of Italy and my visits to other parts of Italy.
Obviuosly, my comments will always try to compare with the situation in India, but please note that these observations will be based on purely personal judgements and may contain bias.
I will share one topic per month., Comments are welcome

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इटालीमध्ये निवडणुका

इटालीमध्ये मागच्या आठवड्यात राष्ट्रीय निवडणुका झाल्या, त्यानिमिताने माझी निरीक्षणे :
१. सर्व साधारण निरीक्षण : राष्ट्रीय निवडणूक असूनही मला काहीही जाणवत नव्हतं, कसलीही धामधूम नाही, प्रचार-सभा नाहीत, लोकांमध्ये चर्चा नाहीत, पत्रकं नाहीत, पोस्टर्स नाहीत, सगळं वातावरण नेहमीप्रमाणेच ! नाही म्हणायला, प्रत्येक गावात एक मध्यवर्ती ठिकाण असतं, जिथे खूप दुकाने असतात, चर्च असतं, तिथे पोस्टर्स लावायला काही जागा राखीव असतात, तिथे दहा-बारा पोस्टर्स बघायला मिळाली, अन्यथा निवडणूक आहे हे कळणारही नाही. दूरदर्शनच्या सर्व चैनेल्सवर मात्र जोर-जोरात चर्चा होत, मुलाखती घेतल्या जात, पण प्राईम टाईममध्ये कधीच नाही, सकाळी किंवा दुपारी त्याचे प्रक्षेपण होई, मला त्या चर्चा तितक्याशा कळत नसत, पण चर्चा फार गंभीरपणे चालत. निवडणुकीसाठी मतदान रविवारी पूर्ण दिवस, व सोमवारी सकाळी ११ पर्यंत झाले.
२. पक्ष : सर्वात गंमतीची गोष्ट म्हणजे, एकंदर पंधरा पक्षांनी ही निवडणूक लढविली, त्याविषयी थोड्या विस्ताराने नंतर लिहीन.
३. मतदान : मतदानाच्या दिवशी, रविवारी, नेहमीप्रमाणे सन्नाटा होता, रविवारी साधारणत: शांत शांत असतं, दुकानं बंद असतात, लोकं घरी टि.व्ही. बघत असतात, व्हिडीओवर आवडता सिनेमा बघत आराम करतात, तसंच वातावरण या रविवारी होतं, सकाळी थोडेफार लोकं, जी चर्चमध्ये जातात (इथे १०% लोकंच चर्चमध्ये जातात, तेही रविवारी, अन्यथा २-३%) त्यांनी आपल्या गाड्या मात्र म्युन्सिपाल्टीच्या इमारतीकडे वळवून आपलं कर्तव्य पार पाडलं. बाकी इतरवेळी त्या इमारतीच्या आसपास १०-१२ गाड्या दिसत. मतदान केल्याची खूण बोटावर लावण्य़ाची पद्धत नाही. प्रत्येकाजवळ स्वत:चे इलेक्ट्रोनिक कार्ड असतं, गोंधळ होण्याचा प्रश्नच उद्भवत नाही.

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Two years after L&T

I left L&T, 2 years back on 15-11. It's time to reflect back what I achieved in the last two years.
1. First & foremost thing is the self-realisation. I realised my potentials, my strengths, my market value, the demand of my expertise & my knowledge. I came to know that I am a very practical, knowledgeable person & market appreciates my knowledge.
2. I could build my reputation with knowledge & experience. My expertise in scheduling can fetch reputation to me as expert & also the money.
3. The exposure to the world outside L&T gave me confidence that I can also be a successful enterprenure. I can market my knowledge & experience.
4. I also realised that I wasted a lot of years in L&T working half-heartedly. It would have been better had I left L&T earlier & had this confidence some 3-4 years back.
5. With the development work (Software development to manage complex activities with priorities with simple MS-Project platform), which was well appreciated by my clients, I came to know the opportunities in Project Management World.
6. I cleared PMP certification in the first attempt & assumed the best qualification-experience combination in my field.
7. The high point of this period was when I realised my mission of creating employment opportunity for Indian welders & fabricators in Italy. With my dedicated efforts & Fabtech's vision, it was achieved in 1 years time after I had started working.
8. I got so much of free time that I developed my web-building skills as hobby (& as part-time income source also). I tried my hands successfully by developing web-forum (for project help, which is now dis-continued), by developing static website, SQL-database based interactive portals for social cause for my organisation. I felt great satisfaction when I launched my portal exclusively for fabrication (tremendous response from allover world) a few days ago. I recently developed two more sites as my social commitment, one matrimonial portal and another impressive site in marathi as a meeting point of all social activists.
9. I also got opportunity to travel to off-shore platform by helicopter.

There are many plans ahead as now I can think with cool head which was never possible when I was in L&T. The world is really competative but farer outside L&T. I strongly wish the work-culture at L&T, HED changes at the earliest.

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Small dream realised ...

I had a small dream which got realised today..
Ever since I got opportunity to be part of computer-world, I have been trying many different things. I made a small home-page (spending sleepless nights being on PL)which worked very nicely at HED,L&T homepage.

Then many more things (like my own site, nisargpicnic site, pratibimb intercaste site )till I envisaged a few weeks back that I can contribute to equipment-fabrication society by building a community web-site, an interactive portal for information bank, knowledge resources dedicated to field of equipment fabrication. There is no such portal available on vast internet world. And today, it is ready, it was a single-handed effort.

Today, I am in position to make this portal public with all features available. Articles, forum, chat, news, downloads, photo-gallery & what not !
Next, I have to invite all to pay visit to this portal FabPortal

And, I am sure this cause will be successful, will help all in community a lot.

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