Sorry, Load Shedding!

This message in glowing red stayed with us through two-thirds of the screening of “The Japanese Wife” at Priya cinema at Gariahat, Kolkata yesterday 10th April, 2010.

This summer the mercury has already crossed 40 degrees Celsius much earlier than customary and Kolkata and West Bengal have been reeling under severe power shortage and mismanagement of the little power that is available. There have been widespread protest and people in the districts have taken to the streets to protest.

Meanwhile the cavernous movie hall was cool enough and the humming fans kept us comfortable through the rest of the movie. Still, power cuts during movies are something unheard of these days of glitzy malls and multiplexes.

It takes me back to my childhood in Bhagalpur in Bihar where interruptions due to power cuts was a far more regular affair. Every time the power would go off and the hall would be plunged into darkness, one of the ushers would light his torch and go down to the generator room to hand-crank the heavy diesel generator to life. There would be cat-calls and wolf whistles till the generator came on.

The cinema would then emerge from the monotonous darkness of the neighbourhood - irregularly punctuated by feeble kerosene lamps- a fairy tale palace with its myriad colourful lights blazing. The hero’s dialogue or maybe a love song sequence – suspended mid sentence by the power cut – would again boom out in stereophonic effect through the open doors, the images would start moving again in Eastman colour.

The doors of the movie hall were opened at night to let in the cool night air –these were times before Air-conditioned movie theatres came into being. The movie hall is called Jawahar Talkies, and is still in operation at Nathnagar, Bhagalpur.

The power situation is a little better, and the neighbourhood is now much more crowded. Almost everyone has an inverter or maybe a generator connection from neighbourhood electrician who has built a profitable business out of providing power when the state utility fails in its task – which is very often.

India does not wait for its lethargic state machinery -it finds viable alternatives. In the meanwhile all that the power ministry can say is: “Sorry, Load Shedding!”

A Harassed Commuter's tryst with the Kolkata Metro

Countless sound bytes and paper reams have been spent in an effort to cover Monday’s (22nd December 2008) chaos at Dumdum Metro station where there was violence and lathicharge by the police – all because a passenger had traveled 2 Zones (Fare Rs. 6) on a 1 Zone (Rs.4) ticket.

While who was in the wrong is debatable without having evidence in hand – the passenger, the ticket collection machine, the security and Metro officials or the mobs for the subsequent violence, as a regular Metro user I can confidently say that the ticketing system is seriously flawed and results in harassment and frustration for everyday commuters.

The gates take in early 1980s technology magnetically striped paper tickets – which are prone to the following malfunctions:

1. Jamming at exit gates – this happens at almost every Metro station exit due to:
a) Tickets getting bent in people’s bags trouser pockets, wallets etc.;
b) Jamming of the conveyor mechanism which carries the ticket to the ticket reader unit inside the gates (which you can frequently see the staff oiling/repairing)
c) Ticket being accepted (yellow light flashes) but gate not opening.


2. Valid tickets being rejected – This happens quite frequently at exit gates where one gate rejects the ticket and the next one accepts it and allows you to leave smoothly.
>>Picture this at office hour Kolkata – you hold a perfectly valid ticket and put it into the gate to exit – it rejects it (red light glows)– once, twice, and there are 20 people behind you who start grumbling, three times and they screaming at you – to get through or let them go.
>>The only solution (for you will never find any Metro staff when you need them) is to join the end of another queue at another gate and it will let you through eventually. This is not one instance but has happened repeatedly to me and I expect to other Kolkata Metro passengers too.

3. User unfriendliness -Difficulty in reading the ticket – I asked for a return ticket from Tollygunge to Rabindra Sadan (2 Zone 2 Ride MPS (Max No. of Persons) 1 in ‘Metro-speak’), but got a one way ticket for 2 persons (2 Zone 1 Ride MPS 2). It is difficult for the uninitiated traveller to understand what is printed on the ticket.
>>How on earth is a guy who wants to go from X to Y to figure out what Zones, Rides and MPS mean? Is there any guide anywhere? Does the ticketing clerk confirm to the verbally customer what ticket he/she is issuing? Is a Metro user bound to be literate in ‘Metro-speak’?
>>Caveat emptor – "Let the buyer beware" applies to all those boarding the Kolkata Metro.

4. Pathetic customer service at exit gates: This mistake was discovered only at the exit gate at Rabindra Sadan when I put the ticket in passed through but it wouldn’t come out at the other side for reuse for the return journey.

>>If you are stuck in such a predicament here’s what to do:
a. Search for some responsible Metro official: A lot of Metro exits are unmanned (example – Tollygunge only one of the three exits – the one at the center - is manned all the time). God forbid you get stuck at an unmanned one – many people simply jump over the exit gate when stuck - which defeats the entire purpose. Most ladies are stuck here though and take a long walk to some other exit to look for assistance.

b. Convince them that you are not lying: My experience is that the metro staff initially refuse to admit that there was a problem, then try to put the blame on you and after a long argument finally agree to investigate what is wrong. (I have had a Limited Multi-ride ticket confiscated a Metro gate when it still had 5 rides left…but that’s another story. I was finally able to recover it and use it five more rides).

c. Recover your ticket: It took five minutes of heated argument with the staff at Rabindra Sadan before they agreed to retrieve the ticket and check what was wrong. We found it was issued for a single journey for 2 persons, instead of 2 journeys (return) for one person. Anyway since I had no way to prove that I traveled alone (nobody accompanied me) there was no redressal - I was just asked to be careful while collecting the ticket next time.

d. It’s a government run monopoly – there is no need to have goodwill gestures like issuing a return journey ticket free of cost to the customer. As said before – caveat emptor!

>>>>Suggestions for improvement:

>>What I write here is sure to find resonance with everyday users of the Kolkata Metro and here are a few suggestions for improvement:

a.>> Smart tickets: Visit the Delhi Metro – they have “smart tickets” which are colour- coded reusable plastic tokens – you touch it at the gate and they open (no mechanical parts hence no paper-ticket jams). These are collected and stored at the exit gate for reuse (hence cost-efficient). These are cheaper to issue and re-issue compared to the Smart cards of Kolkata metro which we find to be viable only for customers buying multi-ride tickets.


b.>>Confirmation by Counter Staff/Visual Display:
>>>There needs to be some confirmation to the customer that he has received a ticket for the correct destination – this can be verbal – from the counter staff or a visual display unit at the ticketing counter which shows simply From: X To:Y Rs.Z.
>>>It should be possible for the origin and destination stations to be mentioned on the ticket as on local train tickets in English and vernacular languages. It is only a matter of what you want the computer to print.

c. >>Exit Gates need to be manned Metro staff:

>>>As implementation of newer technology is time-taking and costly, tickets will continue getting jammed at the exit gates under the present system. As an immediate measure therefore we need Metro exits to be manned by trained personnel all the time who can address the various problems.

>>>Attitude training: These personnel need to be sensitized that it is not the customer/passenger who is wrong all the time. They need to investigate what is wrong, and provide solutions for both men and machines can and do go wrong.

i) If it is a mechanical problem, provide an alternate exit to the passenger
ii) If it is a ticket for lesser distance than the distance travelled, suggest that the passenger goes back to the correct station or let him/her exit with appropriate fine.

Most importantly these transactions need to be done in a dignified manner, without abuse or aggression on part of the Metro staff, and most definitely not extending to manhandling a passenger as happened on Monday.

This will make the expanding Metro Rail network a more humane one.

Work life

A profound change has come about in my life. I am finally woking ...I have job! In fact. Its almost one month and seven days on the job now at Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co.Ltd. I had an eventful induction programme here for the first month. We got an overview of the entire range of businesses that Godrej is into as a business group. It ranges from chicken to satellite launch vehicles…all of these businesses are of course separate entities. We had a contest at the end of it, in which the group of 36 management trainees were divided into groups of four each. We had to make visit one of the businesses which would be selected by draw of lots. In two days we were supposed to study it, and make a presentation that would bring out its essence, and what we thought about it. My group got to study the Retailing division – which runs 40 showrooms across the country. It was a hectic and exciting two at the end of which we made the presentation and got the First prize in the contest. I am now in the Appliances division, and will eventually get posted in Kolkata, after 3-4 months on the job training. We sell Maintenance contracts for household appliances, as well as piping hot, factory packed appliances to the customer's house. I will be responsible for the sales for about half of the city.
Until more posts- Bye Bye!

Short stories, poetry, gossip and pictures: piping hot for you

I have a new blog...and I am putting all my short stories online for your reading pleasure in it. It is called A Slice of my life

Wake up and smell the coffee

The early morning cuppa refreshes and rejuvenates you for the day ahead. The mandatory accompaniment to it is of course the morning newspaper. Most of us still buy a proper printed braodsheet newspapers, while some of us like me have taken to reading it off the net (at least till the time the service is free, at least). So a look at a balmy Thursday morning's headlines, engineered to make your blood boil because of the mismanagement of Public funds on such an immense scale by what we deem to be the goverment.

Bankrupt after 29 years is a story of West Bengal, which spends more than it earns, and fritters away its prosperity (State GDP growth over 7%). While this is the story of West Bengal, even the other "prospersous" states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana etc. are not far behind in their profligacy. In fact, it is by now common knowledge that if you sell anything to a state government, you might stop hoping to get paid. Consider it to be a donation. (http://businessstandard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx=5&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=220862)

Meanwhile, as the first link maight tell you, the Public Distribution system is in shambles now. A bucket full of holes, where the money you pour in is hijacked by numerous unintended recipients, it is a symbol of the rot that governance in this country has become: a self-perpetuating monstrosity. It is perhaps the acknowledgement of this fact which has made Rang de Basanti (http://www.indiafm.com/movies/review/12493/) to be the hit it is today. Of course it is difficult to agree with the means that those boys took to deal with the problem. But as Pramod Mahajan remarked on an NDTV show, politicians have been killed on screen on flimsier pretexts.

And the poster boy of modern civil engineering in the country, the Delhi Metro? It must surprise most that the system is running at just 20% of the projected capacity...that's almost as bad as the much derided Kolkata Metro. And that was a result of irrationally skewed projections of the traffic that the Delhi Metro was expected to carry...about 21lakh passengers a day, when the DTC buses in the city carry only about 25 lakh people a day! What optimistic ewxuberance made the planners think that they would put the entire existing Public transport system out of reckoning, especially when it is infinitely more convenient over short distances. The Delhi Metro will be roughly 4 times its current size by 2020, but perhaps its time to ponder whether it is worth the investment.
(http://businessstandard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx=5&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=220925)

After all, most metro train systems in the world run at a loss. So is there any point in deliberately bleeding yourself dry?

What is to blame of course is the perverse nature of political decision making which concentrates on earning short term brownie points for immediate electoral gains. (Delhites must remember both Madanlal Khurana and Shiela Dixit rushing in to claim credit at the inauguration of the metro with an eye onthe polls). Town planning requires vision and innovation, both sadly absent from the powers that be in our country.

A knot of tangled hair clogging the drain...Welcome to the undirected, unmanageable, irresponsible urban jungle! Vision 2020!

Rural SEC

The Rural Market Environment is divided into SEC R1, R2, R3, R4
Calculated as a function of Educational Qualifications of the Chief Wage Earner and the type of the household he stays in – Pucca, Semi Pucca or Kaccha)

Marketing: SEC Grid Urban

This is the SEC grid as applicable to a urban audience which I am putting up after being requested for it by many friends in Marketing MBA courses around the country. For the Rural counterpart, please refer to the link above (Puru's blog is an unparalleld source for info relating to common marketing issues in our country) or the related post that I will put up shortly.

Some comments to comprehending the Urban SEC grid:
If our Target group is SEC A and SEC B thus includes all of the following:

SKILLED WORKER:
1. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
2. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

PETTY TRADERS
1. GRADU-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
2. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

SHOP OWNERS
1. SSC/HSC
2. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
3. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
4. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

BUSINESS / INDUSTRIALIST WITH NO EMPLOYEES

1. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
2. SSC/HSC
3. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
4. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
5. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

BUSINESS / INDUSTRIALIST WITH 1-9 EMPLOYEES

1. SCHOOL UP-TO 4YR
2. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
3. SSC/HSC
4. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
5. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
6. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL


BUSINESS / INDUSTRIALIST WITH 10+ EMPLOYEES

1. ILLITERATE
2. SCHOOL UP-TO 4YR
3. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
4. SSC/HSC
5. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
6. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
7. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

SELF EMPLOYED/ PROFESSIONAL

1. SSC/HSC
2. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
3. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
4. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

CLERICAL/ SALESMAN

1. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
2. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
3. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

SUPERVISORY LEVEL

1. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
2. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
3. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL


OFFICERS/EXECUTIVES JUNIOR

1. SSC/HSC
2. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
3. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
4. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL


OFFICERS/EXECUTIVES MIDDLE/SENIOR

1. ILLITERATE
2. SCHOOL UP-TO 4YR
3. SCHOOL 5-9 YR
4. SSC/HSC
5. SSC/HSC BUT NOT GRA-DUATE
6. GRAD-ATE/ POST GRAD-UATE GENERAL
7. GRADUATE POST GRAD-UATE PROF-ESSIONAL

So ILLITERATE OFFICERS/EXECUTIVES MIDDLE/SENIOR or ILLITERATE INDUSTRIALISTS/BUSINESSMEN with 10+ employees will fall in SEC B1
Interesting; and too broad to say the least.

The important thing is to take SEC as a starting point of our search for the target audience…and make sure that we do narrow it down further to give our marketing plans a focus.

Being Cyrus!

Read my review on Mouthshut.com for the movie Being Cyrus.

Talking about movies, this is a preview of THE LAST LEGION: a Hollywood movie starring Aishwarya Rai http://youtube.com/watch?v=MqihhLq5iVg. The best way to watch it would be to let the whole video load(in fits and starts) and then press replay, to watch it seamlessly. Have fun!

When will India be a common market? GST by 2010?

Time to integrate into a common market, its high time we stopped focussing on carving out separate states from the land. This has been in discussion since the 1950s. Now, its possible due to IT.
The European Union has become an Economic Union with one currency, free mobility of factors of production(men, money and materials. We have a single currency in India ever since our Independence. But what about a common market?
For that to happen there needs to be a single rate of Goods and service tax that is levied on all transactions across the country. As of now we have VAT, but there is a divergence of rates across states, there is octroi or entry tax that delay consignments. There are CENVAT, MODVAT, what not. All this only leads to huge inefficiencies, scope for manipulation and subjectivity.
The result? Why to perpetuate corruption another name for rent seeking, not for any service provided, but to facilitate transactions. Our corporates spend their time not increasing productivity to compete globally, but in battling the capability of the system to destroy productivity.
On the other hand, it affects 'public' services equally. Tonnes of wheat rot away in Punjab and Haryana one year, because the Food Corporation of India finds it too expensive to transport it to states like Orissa where people are starving for want of food. Too many taxes along the route!(The state will tell you that rotting mango kernels are traditional food for the rural populace, but don't for a moment believe them. No one cares for the voiceless downtrodden, and the media attention fades away, inevitably, as another crisis intervenes.)
In the name of National integration...don't just keep singing Vande Mataram. Think economics. Think Common market.

Vote for Higher productivity
Vote for more jobs.
Vote for cheaper goods and services.
Banish shortages.
Banish the ghost of the licence-permit raj.

Electronic Voting Machines cannot deter electoral rigging

This Indian Express reprot reveals the new paradigms of poll rigging. So much for the "Vibrant democracy" of India

What they didn’t want you to see: EC on how Left ‘rigs’ Bengal polls
From using a ‘strong scent’ to mark out voters to planting dummies to slow down voting in Opp bastions: EC observer Amanullah’s report on 2004 polls in Bengal could become a manual for next year’s election
SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17: The Election Commission has kept it a top secret—a 10-page report by its Special Observer Afzal Amanullah on what he calls “organised rigging” by “a particular political party” during the 2004 Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal. The reference clearly is to the CPM-led Left Front. Despite a PIL, despite strident demands by the Opposition, the report has never been made public. Not without reason.

To find out why look at:
http://indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=84196

Fidayeen: A Surprise inside the mind of an "Islamic Terrorist"

Who is a terrorist? Is it a misguided youth with a gun...the angry young man, not knowing what to be angry at? Or is it a man who sells his life for money for the family? Who is a terrorist? More importantly, why is he a terrorist? Can a terrorist be brought back to society. Why do we and our society create such an environment that breeds such discontent that finds recourse in terrorism?

Or is it only another desperate attempt at grabbing power? Is the terrorist then just a dispensable pawn...and religion just an excuse?

A piece from today's Indian Express tries to look into the life of a terrorist:

Fidayeen Muzamil Jaleel goes to meet a would-be suicide bomber. And encounters a scared, almost simple lad who yearns for home and an ordinary life!
http://indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=84163

Lawlessness in India

I was always worried by the huge stretches of land that seem totally
devoid of any visibility of the unifying force of the state as I
traveled through countless miles on the Indian Railways. There was an
article a couple of months ago that chalked out the pockets of Maoist
strength in India on a map, and the possibility of a unified effort
derailing the state machinery in a swathe from Nepal (arguably the
stronghold of the Maoists as much as Jaffna is for the LTTE) to Andhra
looked very real, presented that way. Only the Maoists are far from
united. Admittedly, Khushwant Singh is saying nothing new here. But does
serve as a reminder.

What is more worrying is that the state seems incapable of dealing with
them (just look how difficult it was to capture one Veerappan).
Moreover, they have the support of the locals, disillusioned and
disenfranchised as they are, despite over 50 years of democracy. We
never adopted the egalitarian framework of meritocracy. Then, we have
neighbours who are more than willing to fund and stoke cheap insidious
violence. Remember the Purulia arms drop, anyone? Do not ever imagine
that arms have stopped coming in through other routes, and besides there
are country-made weapons and bombs available everywhere. One really does
not need an AK-47 for most purposes of intimidation.

What affects the countryside will not leave the urban pockets of
capitalism on which we are dependent for our livelihood, our dreams and
careers unaffected. We do need political stability for all that. Time
for a paradigm shift , to try and reboot the rural agricultural economy,
to reduce the disparities between town and country as a first step? Who
will bell the cat?

In this context Khushwant shingh writes
India’s Bastille

Khushwant Singh

THE STORMING of Jehanabad jail on the night of November 13 reminded me
of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, which triggered off
the French Revolution. It is cel- ebrated to this day as Quatorze
Juillet, the French day of Independence. The Ba**stille was stormed by a
Parisian mob. The Jehanabad jail was stormed by hundreds of trained and
armed militants. In the Bastille, they found a handful of prisoners; in
Je- hanabad over 380. No blood was shed in the Bastille; in Jehanabad,
nine men who the attackers regarded as their sworn enemies were slain.

However, let us not take the stor ming of Jehanabad jail lightly. It has
clearly proved that the Naxalite-Maoist inspired peasant movement that
started in Naxalbari in West Bengal in 1967 has steadily gathered
strength. There are pockets of ar med and well-organised guerrilla
fighters stretching from the Himalayas to Andhra and elsewhere. Neither
the police nor the army have been able to stamp it out. Nor can it do so.

Besides robbing landless farmers of their rightful share of produce, the
caste factor has further complicated the issue. The vast majority of
Naxalite-Maoist supporters are drawn from land- less peasantry of the
lower castes. Their prime tar- gets are lan**downers and their cronies
from the higher castes. The latter have their own private militia in
Bihar, the Ranvir Sena, which often slaughters those landless poor who
dare raise their voices in protest against injustice. Successive
governments have done very little to solve their problems. Land reforms
remain largely on paper, as big landowners continue to hold more than is
allowed to them under different names, including that of their ser-
vants. The Bhoodan movement launched by Acharya Vinoba Bhave achieved
very little. There is a lot to be said in favour of the slogan ‘land to
the tiller’. It should be implemented — the sooner the better.

However, modern farming requiring use of tractors, harvesters,
fertilisers, pesticides etc. need huge investments, which small farmers
cannot afford. We have to set up many more farmers cooperatives to get
over these difficulties. If the government does not take up the task
earnestly, pretty soon the Naxalite-Maoist movement may go beyond
control. The storming of Jehanabad jail should not be allowed to become
India’s version of the storming of the Bastille.**