Cost Cutting

by anil on March 29, 2008

[This is one chain mail I received from a friend of mine. I don’t know who the original author is. I found it worth posting here.]

Once upon a time, the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Parliament said, “Someone may steal from it at night.”

So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then Parliament said, “How does the watchman do his job without instructions?” So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Parliament said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?” So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Parliament said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So they created the following positions, a time keeper, and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Parliament said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?” So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Parliament said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost.”

So they laid off the night watchman.

Dying Local Food: Globalisation Side-effect

by anil on March 14, 2008

Globalisation changed the way we live our lives. Especially for urban people. We welcome many of those changes and some of them were forcefully induced. Some crept into our culture without even we noticing it. Of which the most prominent one is our changing food culture.

America never had good breakfast. So they invented items like cereals. In India, there are plenty of options right from idly and dosa to puri and nan. Many of them are centuries old and simple. Besides these known items, each locality has its own dishes. You will notice it if you travel across India especially by road. You will notice differences even within a state–each locality has its own distinctive food culture. Compare this to the globalised food culture.

One attribute of globalisation is to make everything uniform across the globe. If you go to any McDonald’s in the world you will see the ordering counter in the same red and yellow which offers more or less the same menu. There is nothing wrong in that per se. But the inrush of such eateries are killing the traditional ones.

In Kerala, the chaya (tea) is made in a very special way and it requires skill to make it taste like that. Nowadays it is increasingly difficult to get Kerala tea in urban shops. You will either get tea from a vending machine or a “global tea” item from chains. Fresh lemon juice is another traditional drink in India and especially in South India. Now it is difficult to find a shop which will make you a fresh lime. Instead he will offer a ready-made lemon-tasting drink.

Not many people in this generation are bothered to learn cooking. And I’m afraid that it would be difficult to get some puttu, payaru, pappadam after a decade or so unless you or your spouse learn to prepare it.

I tell my friends to visit local eateries if they enjoy local food and help them sustain.

Local food vendors too need to do certain things from their side. They should make eateries look clean and tidy. A friendly dealing would be cool. These are some of the feel-good things everybody enjoys in a global eatery and the same can be provided at a traditional eatery as well (without incurring any additional expense!).

Here is a small list of eateries in and around Trivandrum and on the highway where you can enjoy local food:

1. Ramu’s, Gandhari Amman Coil road (near Pulimood), Trivandrum.
2. Buhari, East Fort, Trivandrum.
3. The no-name place opposite to Kazhakootam Police Station, Trivandrum.
4. The mutton joint near Vettu Road, NH47 (where you turn in to Sainik School), Trivandrum.
5. Brothers’, Alappuzha
6. Lekshmi, Cherthala (NH47).

There are numerous tea shops around the corner. Though not all of them offer full meals, still it is enjoyable to have a quick tea and snack there.

I would request my readers to write about the places they know in the comment column.

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References:

1. Harmful to local/conventional culture, threat of one-culture world.

2. Our children don’t learn anything from their mothers. The aroma of food is missing from our kitchen and above all, our kids don’t converge on the dining table.

3. Coca Cola find its biggest “competition”: indigenous drinks (such as tea and nimbu paani).