The good, the bad, and now the Ugly
Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 12:01AM The whole series of posts on the recent 11 day trip to Chennai is coming to an end!
While those posts were a travelogue or commentary on the humorous side, mostly focusing on how the kids and the wedding brought back great memories, there is one last post that deals with things that remind you of how things could be better.
After my previous India trip, a lesson learnt was that if you do not live in India, anything slightly negative about India, will get you in trouble. Even if one mentally prepares to take an argument to the end, it still irks you to find out that you lose the right to say anything negative about India, if you reside abroad. It also gets ridiculous because the people who take you to task are the same ones who seem to have some kind of birthright to criticize things in the USA, although they dont reside in the USA!
In any case, this post will simply point out three things that were observed during the trip (which may be more information, than rant)!
1. Follow the Arrow (the line side, not the triangle side)
This seems to be a repeated theme in airports, stores, etc. where there is a board which shows an arrow for a line or a service, and the cops, regulators have the line setup elsewhere. Mutliple lines form because of the chaos and the last come get served first!!! Happened at Mumbai airport in the "transit" area! It was pathetic.
We had 100+ people, old people, little kids, who came by Jet Air (we were put on Jet through Shanghai after our Cathay flight through Hong Kong was cancelled because of a typhoon) and we were cooped up in a small waiting area to be transported to the domestic terminal to catch a flight to Chennai! There was one set of restrooms, both blocked by garbage and not in usable condition, no access to drinking water and we were told to wait for 2 hours there.
Why? because it is the Mumbai airport that provides the connecting shuttle and not the airlines! So the airlines people blamed the airport folks and the airport folks pointed the finger back at the airlines. There were five newbie kids in blue suits and orange ties who were asking "how may I help you?" when we walked in to hand over our baggage, but were useless and totally ineffective in helping anyone!
Apparently they were all "trainees". After some drama and what would have almost been a lynch mob, they got two shuttles to transport us to the domestic terminal, so no one would miss their connecting flights! The funny thing was the trainees pointed to the arrow and the people who were in urgent need of the shuttle waited by the door only to find that the folks who least needed the shuttle ended up getting in through another door (courtesy of a chain gate and backdoor line set up by same trainees!)
Same thing at the Chennai airport. There is a big sign that says "-> Check in" and you will see a policeman direct you to the exact opposite direction! Then there will be another cop who says "get in line. you are not in the line!" because you were redirected for follwoing the big painted "official" sign board!
Lesson : If you are travelling in India, don't count on FIFO. If there is a counter which says "tickets", do not go stand in front of that counter. You might never even get a ticket! Wait a few minutes to see a line form, then see where the ticket seller actually shows up. There will be a last minute scramble to get to the new location of the counter, and make sure you have the vantage point from which you can make it to the new counter or door or gateway.
2. Always build a temple (before you build a house)
After landing in Chennai, was calling Chennai Call taxi to get a ride. Was in the process of giving our door number when my dad suddenly corrected me..
Dad : "we are not 3/4 anymore, we are now 5/4"!
Me : WTF? When did that happen.. from when I was a baby this has been 3/4. I don't understand!
Dad : After all these years, the street temple has been given a number. Also the illegal house built with a shared wall to the street temple (both built by same dude, who was a king in the illicit liquor business in his heyday) have been given legitimate street numbers (this after 25 years mind you!).
You have to see this to believe it. There is a temple in the street corner. Sharing a floor and a wall with this temple is what appears to be a garage which also doubles up as a prayer hall, and on top of it is a residence! Imagine all the trouble the old folks in this street go through because their door number changed. Go back and do an address change in anything and everything from old bank records, insurance files, etc. etc. ! Bummer.
Lesson : If you want total protection for your house irrespecive of MMDA approval, postal department approval, which political party is in power, etc. dont buy insurance. Just build a temple as part of your house and you are covered. Lord Ganesha is the worlds best home insurance dude!
3. If you feed them, they will come ! (A must read if you plan on opening a restaurant).
Oh wait, I predict that the only restaurants in Chennai will be Saravana Bhavan's or Sangeetha's in ten years. Everything else will be bought by these two guys. They are spreading faster than the Starbucks craze in the USA. Every street corner has a "Sangeetha's".
Little wonder then, that there is a Sangeetha's next to our place also. Apparently they showed a garage in the basement while getting their permit and are now using the basement as storage. That means the customers park on the street and jam the road!
Now what happens? The entire road is made a "one way". One way's are the universal solution to all traffic jams in Chennai. If the Chennai politicians food gets into a jam in his stomach, he will probably make his @$$ "one way"!
As usual, instead of keeping my mouth shut, I ask the people around me, "Why don't you guys complain to the cops? This Sangeetha's is running a valet parking service on the street, when he is illegal in the first place. That parking is for residents!"
They quietly pointed to the three cops redirecting the "valet" effort. Apparently the cops get a free breakfast, lunch and dinner at the restaurant and therefore complaining against their annadaata might not work out in the best interests of the residents!
Lesson: Follow the food chain before you make hasty judgments!
Why bother to write about these things?
In spite of the trip being a short one, there has been plenty of time within the 11 days to do some soul searching on Chennai, never going back, fitting in, etc.
One of my Chinese friends remarked that India could use a project manager like me. He said "If they had ten guys like you, you would whip that place to compete with the US!". Told him that while being extremly happy at that compliment, being a great project manager in the USA does not mean success in India. My own parents never approve of my methods.
Finally told him, "They will throw me out, because they cannot handle me". His response "Why? What is wrong with you?"
Have been trying to answer that question. For starters, "speaking out" is considered a risky activity by everyone in the family. Hush, keep quiet, what if someone hears you, why do you want to buy trouble, etc. etc. is all they tell me, when my blood boils at seeing something and I actually try to go take someone to task, be it a storekeeper, a call taxi dude or a cop! My relatives promptly tell me "you dont know how things work here. your memory of this place is still based on what you saw as a school and college kid fifteen years ago. Things are different now!"
Also, any attempt to point out the current state and a suggestion to improve is always considered as a "negative" stand on the current state of things. This is a catch 22. Why?
Improvement is change in the positive direction.
It can be seen only if measured simply as an equation
"Change = New - Old"
That means, there has to be a mention of the "old" or current and if that is perceived as accusatory, finger pointing, NRI attitude etc., then there is no point in continuing a conversation. For every improvement there is a reason. A problem statement, which when attacked methodically, can have a solution which should also be measured against to verify that improvement has indeed happened!
Any discussion of the metrics, and the discussion turns to argument and the "we are happy with what we have" sets in!
Thought right is right and wrong is wrong... and boy was I wrong on that one!
In any case, it has been proven to me that life for an average middle class person in an Indian Metro like Chennai is ridden with issues that the people just put up with, for fear of retribution. To me, that is unacceptable in the worlds largest democracy, but then again, I do NOT partake in that democratic process and the people who do the "putting up with BS" tell me that it is their way of life and they did not ask me to come and try to change things (for fear that it might make things worse for them after I leave) and have instead gotten used to it!
With that in mind, will leave them to their ways, and will keep myself busy with my way of life. My retirement age just got advanced another 10 years thanks to Lehman, the banks, the @$$holes who gave home loans and the @$$holes who took home equity loans on their homes (which they had no way of affording in the first place) to pay for trips to exotic islands and are now cooly declaring foreclosures and bankruptcys!
I want my money back!! All of my retirement money.. NOW!! Want every person who gave loans without checking background on the loan applicants to be arrested. Want every one who took that loan, to have stuff they bought repossessed. Why should sincere people shoulder the burden of the irresponsible? How can these guys who borrowed money knowing that they can never pay it back, be allowed to walk away with no consequence? This is economic terrorism inflicted by an irresponsible few on the taxpaying many. Is anybody listening?
Well, guess not! So life is not much different in the USA after all. Much like that cop who gets fed by Sangeetha's restaurant, the politicians and regulatory agencies here were probably fed by Lehman?!
For those of you who came here expecting funny stuff, my apologies. We will get back to the lighter side of life starting tomorrow.
It has indeed, been a long day! A ten year extension of your retirement age will do that to you.
.
Chennai, India, changes, lesson, retirement
Reader Comments (10)
sundar:
well said. loved this post, and agree with all of it.
disclaimer: the following is an isolated data point and does not reflect the indian postal system in general.
(now that i've gotten that out of the way) my parents live in a town in central maharashtra. they've been in the same house (when that subdivision was built) for more than a decade now. for the last three-four years, postal service is sporadic and erratic in that entire colony. i tried to use my "nri might" to rectify the situation. to cut a long story short, unfortunately, and maybe needless to say, i failed miserably. the postcard, that i mailed from the post office (where i had gone to complain) and personally handed to the postmaster, took nearly two weeks to arrive at my parents' place, in which time i probably called the postmaster daily from home.
as far indian queues are concerned, i believe the phenomenon has nothing to do with india. this is a universal phenomenon wherever desis are concerned. i was at the temple recently. each time a line was requested, folks lined up like the ganga and its tributaries.
because of the mix of my investments, my retirement probably got pushed back as much, if not more. good thing is i did not repeat my typical mistake, else i would've sold off on wednesday evening, so i think i got a few years back on thursday and friday!!
- s.b.
Sundar,
Been their felt that. With the precious 3/4 weeks vacation that we get to our home land its better that we forget what's happening around us. Just enjoy the time with our family and be part of the system. Trying to change the system is tough not at the cost of our vacation.
Been reading your blog on the feeds.
-A & AA
I know you're ranting and all, but the one thing on that list that is actually perfectly okay is the first one. Once an illegal structure's in and has been in for 20+ years, time to legalize it and start collecting taxes and using it as collateral on loans.
There's a Brazilian economist who's shown that the main problem with lots of poverty-ridden areas is that this sort of legalization never takes place.
s.b.
retirement managed not by me.. not a direct stock market play! just sad. lets leave it at that.
anand, well said.
Lak, agree. but why wait for 25 years to legalize?! why not let that guy go legit, to the MMDA and get things going the right way in the first place.
remember how it used to be 2k for regular phone line, 8k for express service to install a phone line in early nineties.. BSNL just figured out that for an extra 5-6k people would bribe their way to jump the queue and they legitimized this queue jumping..
sometimes just think it is mundane for a single person to look at a collective phenomena and try to make any sense out of it.. it is like a single ant trying to get the big picture by leaving the anthill.. at that distance we only see chaos!
this comment is turning into a post.. better stop here!
:)
Well written post.
My experience with Mumbai airport was one worst thing which I wish should never happen.This was my first trip traveling alone from Chicago to Chennai. In my case the the flight I was traveling and connecting flight were the same (Air India). But was delayed by 15mins and apparently i missed my connecting flight. I landed at 1am and at 5am they finally arranged some alterative connecting flight(till then there was no directions nthg).Later when I was standing in the queue to collect my tickets,I learnt that this was via Trivandrum to chennai. Then the moment I showed my tickets at the counter they said the counter is closed and my next flight to chennai was at 2pm. Finally after a great struggle anf fight they gave a ticket to Chennai via the domestic airlines.When all these were happening there was no ppl to route us properly. To take the shuttle I had to pay about Rs150 for the bus(Its a free shuttle though). Finally when I landed chennai there was one great feel and satisfaction.
Despite being taken to task in couple of paragraphs, i kinda liked this one.
I did not know that you were here.
Would've taken you to some good restaurants.
anon, transit stations in shanghai and mumbai need lots of improvement. you cannot expect 100-200 people to be dumped from a plane into small confined quarters with less restrooms and no catering service compared to what is available on the flight.
PK, sorry man. Like I had explained in the first post, did not want to advertise an empty house here.. apparenly there are some "desi thieves in cupertinovakkam" whose speciality is to raid desi houses.. their theory is that desis keep lot of cash , jewelry at home.. read that in the news.. so went silent even though all valubles were removed. why tempt them?
next time will let you know in advance..
you, terri, thennavan, vatsan, .... long list for Madras..
and Kavi in mumbai...
:)
Actually you know what, this post was reasonably funny (so you promising to get back to the lighter side of things doesn't quite hold good).
But jokes apart, I just have one thing to say. In India most of these so called "atrocities" happen simply b coz of the fact that you have around a 100 others competing for the same product/service that you are in line for. And therefore, you are bound to face that much more competition for whatever you are trying to buy/use in India.
Plus the fact that right from a young age, we are taught to compete for pretty much everything we do, right from buying milk in the mornings, to fighting for the loos for our morning duties, to fighting for that elusive seat in the bus, to fighting to get into an already crowded elevator, makes it our natural instincts to ignore common sense, civic sense, become extremely selfish when it comes to our public life.
The same chaps who behave so boorishly outside their homes, do wait their turn to be served food at the family lunch, do wait their turn to wash their hands after their meal, do accommodate for their family members when it comes to TV programmes.
So how does one explain such inherently opposite sides of a personality other than pure conditioning of the brain from a young age?
Thoughts??? Probably a follow-up post???
Cheers.....Jam
THANK YOU - for saying outloud what bothers us too everytime we go to India! In London, we saw this gentleman inching his way into the queue in front of us - making conversation with the couple in front - as though we'd think he was travelling with them. He had a UK passport to boot. I almost lost it - but husband shushed me and pulled me away.
Oh, and absolutely NO one paid heed to the "children and disabled board first" announcement. Everyone just clamored up like they've never seen/heard of a queue before. I was SO ashamed.
jam:
"The same chaps who behave so boorishly outside their homes, do wait their turn to be served food at the family lunch, do wait their turn to wash their hands after their meal, do accommodate for their family members when it comes to TV programmes.
So how does one explain such inherently opposite sides of a personality other than pure conditioning of the brain from a young age?"
conditioning of the brain? i don't think so.
even in the usa, folks are courteous when, say, you are in a line at a grocery store. overtake their car even inside the parking lot on the way out, and you are well on your way to a road rage situation.
- s.b.