Monday, April 6, 2020
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Are Strikes Better for Economy, may be!
Recently the entire TN came to a standstill b'coz state govt. declared a statewide bandh (strike) against the quota stay of the supreme court. Life was tough for me, a bachelor, to find a place to eat...although after a lot of struggle I managed to find one. But what struck me most is the huge number of fruit wallas, idli wallas on their mobile kitchen, vegetable & flower vendors, etc. These people go unnoticed on any normal day, they are still a respected lot here, in Madurai, b'coz there's no Big Bazaar, for that matter. I will get into the advent of modern trade later...
Prices of everything, a kings ciggie, tea, idli, dosa, shot up immensely. One of the vendors told me he raised his prices by 20%, which was still well below what I end up paying in a restauarat, otherwise. I for once thought may be this is the 'economic wealth parity' our PM is talking about. If we look closely at this, it actually does. And hence I thought, may be strikes/bandhs are one way of economic wealth being percolated to the needy of this country...
Disclaimer: I've intentionally not looked at the economic losses a state bears on account of a bandh!
Prices of everything, a kings ciggie, tea, idli, dosa, shot up immensely. One of the vendors told me he raised his prices by 20%, which was still well below what I end up paying in a restauarat, otherwise. I for once thought may be this is the 'economic wealth parity' our PM is talking about. If we look closely at this, it actually does. And hence I thought, may be strikes/bandhs are one way of economic wealth being percolated to the needy of this country...
Disclaimer: I've intentionally not looked at the economic losses a state bears on account of a bandh!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Its all about People, not money, honey!
Nowadays, am living in a hep place called, Madurai. Indeed hep! One of the most striking things about this place is people, yes, people...U wud see them everywhere, I mean it. And each one of them would look, behave so busy as if there's no tomorrow, and another Tsunami is on its way...This is like a biiiig village, but still in most companys town classification it has the famous tag, A Class town. Right and thats because of people, this town, no village, boasts of population more than 11 lakhs. Hats off madurai junta, you made it!
Due to my restricted linguistic abilities (I dont understand tamil) I usually go with an interpreter, that sounds classy, no, feels like am some ambassador what if its on a village visit:-)
So, lemme get back to people, focus...focus. After finishing our meal we stopped over at PTR (its famous here like McDs of emerging India, u know) for a cuppa tea enroute my depot. I, my mistake, popped up a question to tea walla, where is Indian bank branch (now try & do it in sign language, b'coz thats what I do for my survival here). Five minutes and five 'people', I & my interpreter who now reappeared, see an intense discussion with everyone trying to convince every other guy about why he is correct in telling the exact, thats the word, location of the branch. My colleague told me that three of them including the tea walla, who eagerly wanted to contribute significantly (he stopped making tea for a while) to the discussion mentioned names of locations which doesn't have banks, forget Indian bank. So, thats madurai junta for you!
Btw the dexterity of the tea walla is simply amazing. I will shoot one video on how they make the tea, its simply outta this world. Thats why I believe we should travel, in fact a lot...to explore people, places, styles, cultures, list is endless!
Due to my restricted linguistic abilities (I dont understand tamil) I usually go with an interpreter, that sounds classy, no, feels like am some ambassador what if its on a village visit:-)
So, lemme get back to people, focus...focus. After finishing our meal we stopped over at PTR (its famous here like McDs of emerging India, u know) for a cuppa tea enroute my depot. I, my mistake, popped up a question to tea walla, where is Indian bank branch (now try & do it in sign language, b'coz thats what I do for my survival here). Five minutes and five 'people', I & my interpreter who now reappeared, see an intense discussion with everyone trying to convince every other guy about why he is correct in telling the exact, thats the word, location of the branch. My colleague told me that three of them including the tea walla, who eagerly wanted to contribute significantly (he stopped making tea for a while) to the discussion mentioned names of locations which doesn't have banks, forget Indian bank. So, thats madurai junta for you!
Btw the dexterity of the tea walla is simply amazing. I will shoot one video on how they make the tea, its simply outta this world. Thats why I believe we should travel, in fact a lot...to explore people, places, styles, cultures, list is endless!
Aah, finally, I have been asked, "Do you have a blog?", by my friend who during my Engineering days was known for his idosyncrasies, and of course his monologues (actually he was also good at instigating people around in one of the hostel rooms, whose outcome inevitably was a GD...which am sure must've helped me in someway in IIM GDs...so thanks Chidiya...). He is still pestering me on Gtalk to give him this weblink, even while am busy typing. So, after being asked this question I thought I should, for once try & move outta inertia (1st law) and do something creative (you wud realise that soon)...so here it is...my first blog...
Welcome All!
Keep watching this space for some funny things/people, etc. I meet with in this journey of mine in Sales & Marketing...will go in flashback, but later:-)
Welcome All!
Keep watching this space for some funny things/people, etc. I meet with in this journey of mine in Sales & Marketing...will go in flashback, but later:-)
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