The ignominious sight !

Yesterday me and Antony were driving near the Kochi high court, adjacent to the sub jail, or is it the sub jail adjacent to the high court (you decide), when we saw this ignominious sight of  two policemen escorting two convicts. Yes indeed, it was more like an escort to some VIP's. These convicts where handcuffed together (hand in hand), and using their free hands, they were on the mobile (sophisticated ones), while the poor policemen were escorting them, as if they are VIP's. Their body language also radiated their VIP status.  The convict's chest up, head high postion radiated confidence, where as the two poor skinny policemen escorting them radiated helplessness. I think, this is a direct reflection of the value system evolving in this part of the world, where the guilty and the convicts are given undue respect than they deserve. Thanks to the press for giving them that kind of an aura. We cannot blame the poor police man, becuase if something happens to him or his family members, there wont be anyone for their rescue, where as behind the convicts, there are power ful hands of the politicians and the mafia to safeguard them. It was indeed an ignonimous sight. 

The farmer's conundrum !

Where have they disappeared...the united colours of Kerala. As Kerala gets evolved as the largest consumer state in India, it does not make much sense in investing in paddy cultivation, if the decision making criteria is just business. Labor is expensive and is very difficult to get. Thanks to the family planning programs and the enhanced literacy levels, which created nuclear, educated citizens, who always aims for a white collared job. No one can blame them for it. The climate is also very unpredictable. The competition from outside is tough. All these, put the farmer in a very tight spot. Most of them are in debt traps, and many of them were ending their lives because of their inability to pay back paltry amounts (most cases less than 500 USD), which they have borrowed from the local mafias at exorbitant interest rates. Then came the corrective action from the thoughtful and mighty political leaders of Kerala. They put a ban on the right of the farmer to choose the crop he wants to cultivate in his own land. That means, if someone owns paddy fields, they cannot convert it into coconut plantations. Here anyone who wears a clean white shirt and dhothi is considered as a capitalist. On top of it, with great good intentions, the government announced a relief of Rs.200,000 (approximately 5000 USD)to the family of those who committed suicides. This acted as an incentive for committing suicides. Hats off to the thoughtfulness of the leaders. In my project management workshops, I quote this as an example for wrong root cause analysis, leading to wrong corrective actions, resulting in undesired results.

A user friendly Kochi International airport?

I took this photograph at the Kochi international airport yesterday night by around 7.30 p.m. The Bolero on the left is a private vehicle and the taxi which is blocking it is an airport taxi. The taxi guys are hostile to the vehicles coming from outside and they are supported by the airport authorities, because the airport authorities want the prvate vehicles to use the airport vehicle parking facility which charges Rs.60 which is very high compared to the local standards. They dont allow the private vehicles to stop even for 5 minutes to take the passengers, within five minutes some security guard will come and ask you to move. In yesterdays incident the local taxi drivers and the private vehicle drivers were abusing each other with filthy words and they were on the brim of attcking each other. Is this the kind of image we want to paint about Kerala to the outside visitors?. Can we not behave in a more friendly manner with the airport users / passengers. It is a fact that this airport has become a monopoly here, and passengers do not have any other option available. Is this the price we are paying for privatization of common infrastructure. In the airports name, acres and acres of land was acquired by the government, and now acres of the acquired land (paddy fields) are getting converted to as the biggest golf course of Asia. While this is allowed, the local administration is not allowing the common man even to construct a small house in the paddy fields outside. Is this not dual standards by the authorities. The land which is being converted to the golf course is the habitat of the migratory birds.

Can we not become little more environment and user friendly?

Late starter advantages

Kerala has the maximum penetration of mobile phones. Here is a smart cute public telephone, based on GSM technology. The story of the mobile phones and the kerala fishermen is an old one now. The mobile phones transformed the fishermen community in a big way. Now the fishermen uses the mobile phones to close the deal, when they are in the outer sea itself. This helps them to reduce fuel costs and at the same time to get a better pricing.

Thanks to India for getting to the telecom bandwagon late, which hepled it to straightaway go for the state of the art technology. I call it as "late starter advantage".