Dumbing things down

One of the big problems I see here in India (and the world) is that there are some people (like us) in urban areas who know what’s going on, but there are a lot of clueless people (some in urban areas and most in rural areas). The majority of the population are repressed and ignorant (and it’s the majority) which results in a lot of systems made to appeal to the majority.

So, everything is dumbed down. This includes movies, media channels, etc.

This happens everywhere in the world, and that is why you have things like Brexit, ignorant fools like Trump, crazy people like Duterte in the Philipines, Erdogan in urker, the far-right President in Brazil or dictators like Asad or nuts like MBS in Saudi Arabia.

But, it’s ironic as many places are democracies and info. flows freely.

Work and workers in the US vs India

There are big differences between how work is done in the US and in India.

Granted that the work cost in India is much lower; however if you calculate the overall cost including managing the work,, it is pretty high, and the risk is that, finally, your work will not get done.

So, if it’s a simple straightforward task, then things will work out ok in India.

But, chances are that you are giving your work to India as an outsourcing model and this involves a long-term working relationship

There are 2 models to outsource work to India.

1. A company in India takes up the work. This is more expensive, but is better. The company in India knows how to handle their workers;  plus they want the payment, so they will do whatever it takes.
2. A company outside hires workers directly in India. This can get tedious as you have to manage the workers

I don’t want to generalize and there are exceptional workers in India too, but these are the general traits of workers in India. The comparison is with work/workers in the US, since I have no clue of work elsewhere.

Speed
———-
The pace of work is very slow/ What takes hours in the US can take days in India.

Multitasking or doing things in parallel
————————————————————-
A worker in India can handle only 1 task at a time. They can’t really understand the concept of multiple tasks and priorities. They will take up multiple tasks, but work on only one.

Expertise
——===—–
They don’t have the exposure and the expertise for certain things.

Finding the right person
—————————————-
Finding the right person for the job is extremely hard. This is kind of ironic since India is one of  the most populous countries in the world, but worker turnover is high and it is very hard to find someone  with the skillset that you are looking for.

Qualifications
———————-
You will see that many idle people have a lot of qualifications, because the general attitude is that if you don’t work, then pursue studies.

Obsolete  knowledge
——————————–
Sadly, people have a lot of qualifications, but a lot of what they have learnt is outdated and is not of the current industry standards.

Priorities
—————-
As I said earlier, people in India cannot work on multiple tasks and with different priorities.

Excuses and chaos
————————————
I have found this to be one of the major differences in work,

A delivery date in the US means that in any case, you can expect things to be delivered and it is more-or-less a drop dead date, but in India, a given date is not fixed. Things can go wrong, and things are so chaotic, they just might go wrong, and your item may  not be delivered on the given date.

 

Loose (medicine) pills

I was surprised to be able to buy just 2 pills in India.

This is good for the consumer.

In the US. you could only buy a strip or bottle or whatever was decided, and so you ended up buying more pills than you wanted and this increasd the profit of the pharmaceutical (pharma) company.

On the face of it, the Indian system looks good, but it has certain issues.

Medical stores sell these loose pills and quite often, you can’t read the product name at the back, so the store can sell you fake items and there is no way for you to tell.

Proliferation of bird pests

In urban areas,  the number of pigeons and crows are exploding. Sometimes, local bird pests also join in.

For example in this part of India, the population of cuckoos is exploding.

Cuckoos are an egg-parasite, which also means that they destroy local birds, via their eggs.

 

So, why does this all happen?

1 Due to massive urbanization, the natural predators of these pesky birds have disappeared.
So,now the pesky birds fly without fear,

2 Secondly, the birds are not really scared of humans any more.
If you notice, these birds are just above where humans usually reach or are in some obscure place, where humans don’t  venture.
But, they fly low enough so that they can take advantage of humans (food, nesting, etc.)

3. Smaller birds and also predators of the pests have nowhere to go because of loss of habitat.

Trees are cut down for buildings, roads, etc. and the green cover is disappearing and so are the predators

Affluence and dental issues in India

I went to the dentist for some root canal work and it cost 12k+. i though then that it would be impossible for poor ppl to pay this amount.

In this case I mean the working poor…

But then, further thinking made me realize that poor ppl do not eat so much sweet stuff because they can’t really afford sugar and their kids grow up disliking sweet.

They don’t have dental issues like cavities, plaque, etc.

So then, do affluent ppl mainly have dental issues?

Spaces for playing

In today’s world with urbanization, kids have lost all open playing spaces.

 

As a result, there is less of a community aspect and also the kids don’t get that exercise and lead a sedentary lifestyle and play video-games at home.

This lifestyle leads to many health problems.

 

A lot of us used to play outside as children.

There are movements all over the world to enable this for current and future children.

The British movement for this – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/31/close-roads-children-can-play-street-like-parents-did-say-public/

 

Indian kids have courtyards or parking lots to play, but then these are pretty restrictive, and these can only be availed by affluent kids,

If you go more affluent, the kids live in a gated house and they are pretty much cooped-up chickens.

If you go poor, those kids have nowhere to play.

Instant divorce (Triple talaq) legal ruling in India

Divorce law in India used to be different for Hindu families and for Muslim families.

I don’t know why this was,.

This illogical practice is very old. Like, 1400 years old.
This is not any religious thing and is not defined in Islam, and I don’t know how it came about.

Unfortunately, a Muslim man could instantly divorce his wife just by saying the word talaq (divorce) thrice. This is pretty ridiculous.
The law of the land used to consider this valid and legal.

This was quite adverse for Muslim women, and they lived in constant fear of it.

It was quite unfair to Muslim women, and there was a big gender gap.

Recently, the Supreme Court of India, which is the highest legal body in India decided that this kind of divorce was not legal any more.

Of course, this has to pass both political houses before it becomes law, but it is a step in the right direction.
This will put an end to the practice of such an illogical thing.

It is a victory for women’s rights and the Muslim women in India do not have to live in fear, after their marriage.
It is heart-wrenching to hear some of the sad stories.

Strangely, none of this is practiced in Islamic countries.

I really wonder how this archaic law came about.

Automation and work in India

Like the world over, India will be largely affected by automation.

 

Don’t think of automation as only of large machines, robots, etc., but also of simple things like washing machines, dishwashers, etc.

Lots of people in India will lose their jobs, especially the poor folks like maids, domestic  helps, drivers, etc.
Home automation will greatly diminish the work and the job of a maid and other domestic workers.
It has already happened and the washing machine did away with the maid’s work of washing clothes. This will expand further.

Similarly, driving automation will greatly reduce the work of a driver. Driverless cars cannot really operate in India, as things are too chaotic and a large part of the chaos is caused by motorcycles and scooters and not cars.
Also, roads are not so organized to encourage driverless cars.

With automated  watering of the garden, the work of gardeners to water the plants will go away.

Think of a poor farmer. In the old days, they used to plough/plow a farm.
Tractors did that work later.
So, that work was not required of a farmer any more.

A lot of work-areas will be affected, and you can come up with scenarios in every sector.

 

This is also affecting political climates, because a lot of these poor people wrongly think that immigrants take their jobs, when actually, they are losing jobs to automation.
This is causing a wave of nationalist and an anti-immigrant rhetoric.

But to sum it up, a lot of labor-intensive work will get disrupted by automation.

India has a large population doing menial and labor-intensive jobs and so will be greatly affected by automation.

Communication

In the US, a lot of the communication is done via email and short messages are made via Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts or Skype (on Computer).

Whereas, in my experience in India, people use Whatsapp or SMS or Facebook Messenger (on phone).

(image stolen from the web)

People in India are  not used to detailed messages via email, and prefer short bursts of messages via Whatsapp.

In fact, I had never used Whatsapp in the US and only started using it in India.

Whatsapp is useful to broadcast pics quickly (ala Instagram) and for quick messages (ala SMS), whereas FB Messenger competes with email really.

Thus, there are a lot of differences in how people communicate in the US when compared to India.

The main factor is that people in the US tend to use computers and tablets more and prefer to keep their messengers or whatever open in a browser tab in the background (though with smartphones, that market is rapidly changing), whereas people in India mainly use Smartphones and hence phone programs like Whatsapp tend to be popular.

Another big issue is that people in the US are used to voicemail, and so never really take a phonecall and let it go to voicemail, whereas in our attention-deficit world, people in India have rude interruptions in real life, and scramble to take that call.

 

Also, there is a difference in talking.

I was used for people to patiently wait for me to finish what I was saying, in the US, but, in India, people interrupt you before you cam finish your sentence, And people assume they know what you are saying and will explain or debate whatever before you can finish saying what you wanted to.

Sound pollution in India..an analysis of a few…

As you might know, sound pollution is very high in India.

Sound or noise pollution causes not only discomfort, but also adverse physical effects, including hypertension, anxiety, etc.

(Image found on the web)

 

So, I want to take few of those nuisances in India and analyze the reasons….

These are the nuisances I chose:

 

1. Honking

This is a nuisance everywhere in the country, be it bikes and scooter or cars, etc.

Vehicles are constantly honking their horns, as if they have a magical power to clear the road.

I have no explanation of why this honking happens. Maybe, it is a cultural thing where a person has to honk. Given a horn button, it has to be pressed for some reason.

This is a nuisance for bystanders, but they have come to accept it and it does not seem like a nuisance to then anymore.

 

Underlying cause: culture?

 

2. Reverse car horns

In India, putting a vehicle in reverse-gear starts this annoying sound, which is supposed to alert people behind the vehicle.

I don’t really understand the purpose of these and it seems to be related to a population issue, whereby a  pedestrian need not be alert and a reverse-horn will alert them?

 

Underlying cause: population?

 

3. LPG (cooking gas) delivery vehicles

This is a perfect example where capitalism disregards nuisance and the assault on the ears.

In India, cooking gas is not piped and so has to be delivered.

There are gas agencies that deliver the cooking gas.

These agencies obviously want to maximize their profits and use the cheapest means to deliver the gas.

There is lot of environmental damage in making the delivery containers, but that is whole different issue.

Anyway, to deliver the gas, agencies use rickety, noisy 4-stroke rickshaws that create quite a racket.

 

Underlying cause: capitalism?