Author: SK

Lalu international airport limited

Madman Aadisht and I continue to link each other on this airport thing. Here is my latest thought. I’d written something of this sort in September 2006, on my first day at SABRE. Now, I present it again with a little difference.

Given the amount of land that it is sitting on, I think the Indian Railways needs to get into the business of building airports. We have two new airports ready – at Hyderabad and Bangalore, and the key concern for both is regarding how one is going to get there. This is where I think the Railways will be able to do yeoman’s service to the people of the country.

The basic idea is that the Railways should take it upon itself to build secondary airports to all major indian cities. Now there are 2 parts to this, the first being the airport itself and the second being a high speed rail link from the airport to the city. The second seems to be the big problem now, at least in the airports that have been built, and I think the Railways needs to step in.

As for the airport itself, I’ve read that India is full of airstrips. Airstrips that were built during the second world war and never used. Now lying in disrepair. The railways should identify one such for each target city, with the important criterion being that it should be close to some land that the railways owns. And voila, there you have it!

The actual building of the airport can be outsourced. We aren’t short of engineering and project management skills in the country. The railways should just concentrate on linking these airports to the train stations in the center of each of these cities with a high speed rail link (taking no more than half an hour. Given that new tracks will be laid, that shouldn’t be an issue). Also, I’m sure the railways won’t have much trouble in procuring land for the high speed rail tracks. Land for the airport shouldn’t be a problem since they are in godforsaken areas anyways.

So you’ll have a spanking new airport at Gummidipoondi, with bullet train connection to Madras Central. Or another airstrip in say Bidadi, just half an hour away be train from both Bangalore City and Mysore. And yet another in some other godforsaken place near Hyderabad, with excellent rail connectivity to Kacheguda (of course, care needs to be taken to not put the new airport in Naxal-infested areas).

We need all the approvals from the civil aviation ministry and all that. Lalu should be able to manage that. Technology and all that is there. And I’m sure the Railways can make enough money out of this venture to invest in it. That won’t be a problem. And as a small concession it would be ok to have all laborers and workers involved in the new airport to be Bihari.

On a more serious note, I think any forthcoming greenfield airport should start off by first entering into partnership with Lalu.??

On dumping tomatoes, burning wheat and leaving stands unsold

About a month back, I’d written that farmers in Karnataka, when faced with a glut in the tomato crop, elect to throw sack loads of tomatoes on the highways, rather than selling them. During the great depression in America, sack loads of wheat were burnt in order to prevent wheat prices from falling. During the India-Pakistan test match in Bangalore 2 months back, an entire stand (south east i think) was left completely unsold. All these have a common thread of logic – artificially restrict supply so that prices don’t crash, and you make more money.

Yes, I understand this is counterintuitive. How can you expect to make more by selling less rather than selling more? How can you expect to make more money by destroying what you’ve produced after investing thousands of rupees? Here is my take on the same. I’ll start with the necessary conditions for this kind of a situation, and then proceed to try and explain why this works.

1. Monopoly: A monopoly is essential for implementation of this kind of a situation. It is easy to understand why. Suppose there are multiple independent suppliers. Who is going to dump their stock? What is the incentive for you to dump your stock? You would rather that your neighbor dump his stock which is going to increase your profits. The only way out of this is in collusion. All producers get together and decide to dump stocks. Which effectively creates a cartel, and thus a monopoly.

2. Inelastic demand: For dumping to work, the additional revenue we make out of the un-dumped stocks should be more than the revenue we would’ve made from the dumped stock if we hadn’t dumped it. So basically the demand needs to be inelastic – around the region where we are going to dump. What i’m saying is that for a small change in quantity supplied, the price should increase by a large amount. As long as this keeps happening we can dump.

Going back to textbook monopoly economics, what we do to price is to maximize quantity * price. In other words, we supply the quantity where the total revenues are maximized. And it usually happens that this particular level is below the total amount we have produced. So we introduce into the market only as much produce that will maximize our revenues.

But what about the effort that has gone into production of this excess? Just look at the examples that I’ve mentioned. In all of them, you have already spent whatever amount that you had to spend. The costs have already been sunk. Apart from a couple of minor expenses (transportation, facilities, etc.) all expenses have been incurred before we made this decision. In other words Revenues are almost equal to profits. So we maximize revenues, not profits.

Now, taking the case of tomatoes, what do we do with the stock that we don’t want to sell? One option is to store it. That again, we’ll need to do based on how much the stored tomatoes will fetch us in the future, costs of storage et al. Given the facilities in India, it usually turns out that the costs of storage would be much higher than the expected revenues from it. So we only lose money by doing so. So what do we do? Dump them on the highways. Or if they take my suggestion, organize a Tomatina.

The other thing with tomatoes is that farmers don’t cooperate when they are making the decision regarding what to plant. If they did back then, some land that would’ve otherwise been used to sow tomatoes would be diverted to some other crop, which on the margin would yield more. Interestingly, the farmers seem to come together in a cartel only after the tomatoes have been produced!

So what are the policy implications from this? Firstly, infrastructure has to be improved. We need to be able to make storage of tomatoes cheaper, so as to encourage storage rather than throwing away. We need to encourage building of cold storages, and refrigerated transport systems. We need more investments in warehouses. Intuitively, it may appear as if these warehouses are just going to add to the cost of production, and thus push up inflation. If you see the larger picture, they are effectively encouraging efficient usage of land – which in my opinion is the most precious resource.

Second, the farmer needs to be able to easily estimate the revenues he will get by storing his goods. More importantly, he should be able to have a good idea about the revenues he will get from each crop even before he sows. And should be able to lock in the revenues before sowing.

We need to extend futures markets into all agricultural commodities. And keep the lot size reasonable so that it is accessible to small farmers. It is not as if the farmers won’t be able to use technology. Make it accessible to them, and they’ll easily take to it. The cell phone revolution is proof of that. Yes, small lot size could be a problem when it comes to settlement. Cash settled futures need to be explored.

Throwing tomatoes on the highway may be economically efficient when looked at in isolation. Looking at the larger picture, it only points to certain amounts of land and water and other inputs that have been wasted. That have been wasted growing tomatoes which no one needs, when they could’ve been used to grow something else. Agricultural commodity prices have been going up all over the world. Agricultural land and water are precious inputs, and need to be utilized judiciously if we have to continue feeding everyone. Futures markets help us allocating these resources efficiently.

Cross posted at the Indian Economy Blog

Bus to airport

The Bangalore International Airport is scheduled to open two months hence, and the question on everyone’s minds is to how one would get there. This airport is some 30 km outside the city, and though the road is part of the north-south corridor, it’s narrow in places and commute time to the airport will be massive. Plans to have a high speed rail link from the airport to the city center have remained just that – plans. Note the plural. There are way too many plans, and it’s unlikely we’ll have a rail line for another six years.

The BMTC has decided to do its bit by having “airport special” buses. It has commisioned some 40 Volvo buses which will run exclusively ot the new airport from various points in the city. Though the BMTC claims that the frequency of these buses will be once in 10 minutes or 15 minutes depending upon the route, a back of the hand calculation based on number of buses shows it won’t be more frequent than one every half hour. That too in the best case.

There are various other problems associated with this kind of a system. For one, passengers are likely to carry a huge amount of luggage. There needs to be an efficient system to make good use of buses so that a large number of passengers as well as their luggage can be carried. Due to the long journey, standing may not be an option. Another problem with the long commute is that the variance in travel time is going to be huge. To account for this, passengers will have to leave home insanely early.

Here is a better solution. The buses should be run by airlines. Let’s say Kingfisher takes control of some empty site level place somewhere in the middle of the city. Now, there will be dedicated buses for each flight that is going to take off (we might require some 3/4 buses for each flight). I know that this might result in inefficient usage of road space and buses, but wait.

The key to this is that passengers should be able to check in at the kingfisher bus stand! Using a Roving Agent kind of technology. That way, luggage can be managed easily (passengers dont’ need to take care of it till the airport). This means that the luggage can be easily taken care of in the boot of the bus or in a separate truck, and passengers need not be worried. Also, the fact that the luggage is taken care of by the airline means passengers dont’ need to unload the stuff at airports, go through the check in, etc.

So basically what I’m proposing is two or three “starting points” within the city (not more, it’ll be tough to predict, etc.) where people can board the bus after checking in their luggage. Apart from this, people without check in luggage should be able to board the bus at various points on the way to the airport! Each bus will have a “conductor” who has the roving agent with him and is capable of issuing boarding passes.

This is going to be the hard bit, but now that the airline itself is taking responsibiilty of the passengers’ transit to the airport, they can probably delay the flights till all the buses carrying their passnegers have arrived. Of course, they’ll time the departure from the bus stands with sufficient and more time for all buses to reach the airport, but in case of unforseen traffic jams, etc. planes could be held back.

And yeah – once a bus reaches the airport, remember that the checkin is already over and people can just go through security check (maybe there could be a few special security counters for those coming by these buses) and board the aircraft. The process gets much more streamlined!

Of course this is going to cost the airline quite a bit. This can be initially made complimentary, and then maybe added to the price of the ticket. Uniformly. Wthether a passenger opts for it or not. This will encourage more passengers to use this facility rather than driving up to the airport by themselves.

I think this is a far superior situation to having people traveling by public transport to reach teh airport.

The Jaipur IPL Team

I don’t understand why this emerging media consortium had to bid for Jaipur of all teams. I think they just got swayed by this one ODI where effective collection ensured that the revenues from the game are good. Jaipur isn’t that large a city, and I’m not sure how much of a cricket culture it has.

Two cities that I thought deserve IPL teams and didn’t get are Ahmedabad and Kanpur. The latter is one of the five “traditional centers” and has been hosting test cricket for almost 60 years now. UP has also been doing well in the Ranji and has quite a few people in the Indian squad – the catchment would’ve been so much better. The only problem with the Green Park is that there are no floodlights. One hopes that they are installed in due course and this city is allotted an IPL team.

The catchment areas for each team were announced recently. And it turns out that three out of four teams in the Jaipur catchment area are from Gujarat! So what prevented Emerging Media to bid for Ahmedabad then? The Motera is floodlit, and more importantly two of the four semifinalists in this year’s Ranji were from Gujarat, thus providing a real catchment (though one other state has been tagged on to each winning ground as catchment area, it isn’t too natural. Dhoni will never feel at “home” in Kolkata.). Also, from my perception, Ahmedabad has a much better cricket “culture” compared to Jaipur.

It would’ve been more understandable if the group that owns Jaipur had some kind of a connection with Rajasthan. However, there doesn’t seem to be any – the group is almsot wholly foreign – which makes matters of their choice even more perplexing. Were they put off by Ahmedabad because both Ambani brothers were bidding there? In any case, since the highest 8 bidders got teams (removing duplicate ownership), it is clear that what Emerging Media paid for Jaipur was more than what ADAG offered for Ahmedabad. Why didn’t they have enough sense to bid for Ahmedabad also?

All in all it seems to be a decision that completely misses out of the situation on the ground. I’m sure Emerging media would’ve been advised by some bankers/consultants who have absolutely no clue about the cricket situation in India, who would’ve used factors such as population, proximity to Delhi, etc. to pick Jaipur as the better winner. As mentioned earlier, I’m sure that one game where Jaipur got record revenues (due to good revenue management practices) would’ve also helped.

Two points before I close. Firstl, does anyone have data regarding the failed bids for the IPL teams? What Anilbhai etc. bid? If anyone does, please share it with me.

Second, the players’ auction is scheduled for Feb 20. Players have been split into classes (fast bowlers, spin bowlers, keepers, etc.) and their names will be drawn in random order, and the bidders should bid for the guy whose name just got picked. Wonder if it’s the most efficient process.

The ITC Quiz and other stories

  • When you have a company like ITC sponsoring a quiz, you can always expect lots of prizes in kind. Last year’s finalist prizes included a bag of cheap biscuits (mostly marie/krackjack types – sunfeast of course) and a packet of Aashirvad rajma. This year, they seemed to mess up on that. I think two finalist teams didn’t receive anything. There was some misunderstanding.
  • A podium finish guaranteed much better though. There was this huge heavy box of stuff – mostly cream biscuits, a few packets of Kitchens of INdia ready to eat stuff, a few packets of pasta and two jars of pickles. I think the law doesn’t allow you to give out cigarettes for promotional purposes, else I guess we could’ve expected lots of that also. And yeah, we also got book coupons for fairly good amounts.
  • Bingo is pretty good (no it wasn’t part of the “package”. I bought it ). Had some mad angles yesterday. Definitely significantly superior to Lay’s. The key is that bingo uses local flavours. It’s also much healthier than lay’s – rice, gram and corn flour as against potatoes.
  • Ate ATS chikki yesterday after what seemed like ages. They seem to be strong believers in the “price point” funda – each packet costs a rupee and is much smaller than it used to be 10 years back. We used the used wrappers of 10 such chikki packets, and a superpacket , and a used tea cup in order to create a scupture depicting the dangers of environmental pollution.
    [info]sw_aadisht

    took a pic of the same. I’ll link to that once he uploads it.

  • Yesterday, I answered my second ever western music question in my long (it’s been 14 years since that KQA lone kid 2nd place) quizzing career. The first one was answered last week, at the Unmaad open quiz.
  • Most of my western music listening is restricted to three bands. At Unmaad I answered a question about Deep Purple, opening my WM account. Yesterday, I answered one about floyd. Led Zep remains. And
    [info]udupendra

    (my teammate yesterday along with

    [info]sw_aadisht

    ) promises lots of those in the KQA Music Quiz he’s doing next weekend (on the 17th).

  • The ITC guys had a system of point carry over from prelims. Without any scaling what-so-ever. So effectively each prelims question was worth 1/10 as much as a finals question. We didn’t complain though – having just scraped through after missing all the “peters”? and “st. peters” in the prelims
  • An externality of the point carry over was that the probability of a tie became minimal. It was like the second leg of a Champions League match. Where after each goal, you are in or out. No chance of a draw.
  • My answer to how Gilmour and co. overcame Waters’ pig copyright in order to use it in Division Bell concerts extended out lead on the top. Unfortunately, we were going to blow it up in the final stage 2 round. We ended a narrow second. Less than 10 points (the value of each final question) separated the top three teams

DVD Hunting in Madras

I reached Madras a full four hours before the Odyssey quiz was supposed to start two weekends back. The presence of another “good” quiz the previous day meant that not too many others were taking the early morning train for the quiz. In fact, I was the only quizzer on that train – not something you normally see on national holidays, when half the quizzers from Bangalore are making their way to Chennai for a shot at glory at one of the “big quizzes” in that city.

Despite having never lived in Madras,

[info]udupendra

claims to be an authority on the city thanks to the two months he spent there during his internship. He claims to have explored more of the city than anyone who has ever lived there (and I believe him since I didn’t explore much at all during my four years there) and tries to show off his limited knowledge of the city. The point is that I consider him to know more of the city than me, and thus consulted him for options as to how I could kill these intervening four hours. And he suggested that I go DVD hunting.

I’ve never been a fan of the Madras autos. I think the supply of autos is too little (the unions must’ve prevented the city administration from giving out enough licenses) leading to exorbitant fares (and unlike Bangalore, the market is not regulated at all. there is no concept of a meter). Back in my student days there, I would usually take the bus. And the frequent breakdown of my cycle also meant that I wasn’t averse to walking medium distances, unmindful of the usually hot sun.

I was standing next to the Fort local station, across the street rather. I could see loads of these small shops on the other side. It seemed like this was it. This was the famed place where I was supposed to get cheap DVDs, I reasoned. Nevertheless, not wanting to get taken for a ride, I messaged udupendra to check. He suggested that I’d rather try out one of the shops near the beach station.

One “ritual” i try to follow every time I go to Madras is to have an onion uthappa. This is one item that is seldom seen in any of the thousands of Darshinis of Bangalore, and anyways most of the Madrasis make it pretty well. The downside is that it usually takes a long time to make. However, this becomes an up side when you have loads of time to kill. Also, in such circumstances, you decide that it’s worth paying extra for an A/C restaurant. You kill time much more comfortably then. And the probability of you being asked to vacate your seat is also less. All this put together means that you think 48 bucks for an onion uthappa at the airconditioned hall of Saravana Bhavan (near Parrys) is reasonable.

I was soon near a T-junction. I could see an endless line of shops on the other side. However, they didn’t seem to look as good as those near the Fort station. I soon figured out why – all these shops were closed. It was Republic day. And I seemed to be the only guy on that road at noon on that day. And then there was a low voice “saar you want DVDs saar? DVD mobile blah blah…”. It seemed like even in this black market there was a black market (ok very inaccruate statement but i guess you nokw what i’m saying).

I was soon surrounded by three guys, all trying to sell me DVDs which I couldn’t quite see. I tried to ignore them and walk on. “Don’t go saar. This market is closed today. But we will give you DVDs. Excellent collection”. I walked on. What this guy said was true. There wasn’t a single shop open. I had no option but to talk to him. He hailed an auto. Not wanting to risk getting stuck in an auto with two unknown random guys (there wasn’ t much activity around so the area was quite lonely) I walked away. And he followed me. As did his accomplice.

I remember him asking me if i wanted movies. He wanted to konw if i wanted mobiles (I didn’t know this particular market also sold mobiles). He also asked me if i wanted porn (he had a specific word for it if i forget). “Just see collection saar. And you will buy. What do you want? English Hindi Malayalam? I have everything. Latest. Come see saar”. I told him I was interested mostly in old English movies. “Old it seems. McKenna’s Gold saar? Sound of Music? Come and see saar.” It didn’t seem like I had a choice. I just kept pace with him.

Halfway through to his collection he asked me the most important question. “How much will you pay saar?” Udupendra had told me things usually cost between 30 and 80. I didn’t want to quote any number for the fear of quoting too high. I let him go first.

I can’t speak much Tamil but think i’m good at bargaining in that language, as my experience with autowallahs in Madras shows. The entire conversation happens in numbers. No nonsense. No fluff. Just numbers. “Central” “100 rupees saar” “50” “80 – some blabbering in tam which I don’t understand” “60” “70 final” and i get in.

Here it was more complex as I tried to explain the concept of bulk discounts to this guy. I think I did a fairly decent job of it. I told him I’ll pay 70 if i buy <=2 DVDs. And he should give me discount if i buy more. We were walking for some ten minutes now. Myabe I should've followed him into the auto. The walk was endless, and the sun was hot. The thoughts of getting cheated kept ringing in my head. What if he takes me into some inner lane and robs me? What if he beats me up if I don't buy? What if ... blah blah... I was back where I had started off. In the line of shops near the Fort station. Going through stacks of CDs. The young shopkeeper didn’t say much. The two guys who had brought me there couldnt’ stop talking. Every two minutes they would pop up with some random CD – “saar? – this CD has McKenna’s gold.” And I’d add it to my “shortlist”.

I must confess that I wasn’t too impressed by that shop. Compared to the collection at some guy in Bangalore’s National Market (again introduced to me by udupendra) this seemed way too ordinary. This guy just had all the normal standard stuff. The only value he seemed to add was in having more than one movie on a DVD – which sometimes got me worried about the quality. Not too many movies I wanted were there. Mostly stuff I’d already seen. I was questioning the wisdom of allowing touts to take me to a shop. If I’d gone by myself it would’ve been so much easier to walk away from one shop into the next. Though, assuming a competitive market, I don’t think that would’ve mattered. Also, after I wasnt’ too impressed wtih the collection of this guy’s shop, the guy decided that the next shop also deserved some business. So I had another stack of DVDs in my hand, and once again the guy kept popping up with DVDs containing McKenna’s gold.

Ten CDs had been finally selected, twice the number that I’d decided before I went there. A few good collections (the entire charlie chaplin collection, james bond movies, etc.) and a few other “good combinations”.? More importantly, it was 1 o’clock now. Two hours since I’d arrived in Madras. And two hours before the quiz. And lunch to go. And yeah, the business end of the transaction remained.

These guys conveniently forgot about the bulk deal agreement. And started at 700. I was thinking of starting at 450, but started at 500. Numerical advantage, and also some regular swearing by that guy in Tam resulted in my bid going to 600. The offer remained at 700. I reminded him of the bulk deal agreement. He started talking about how two guys had spent an hour in pulling me to this shop, and needed to get compensated. And that the owner of the shop was a young guy who also needed similar compensation.

I’m surprised as to how Tamil Nadu is such a big hub for manufacturing and similar businesses in India. For I find the Madrasi to be an extrmeely poor businessman. A large number of businessmen who don’t really adhere to contracts – like auto drivers asking for more than teh agreed amount after you reach the destination. A larger number of businessmen who try to cry their way through negotiations – like the CD guys here, or a few other auto drivers that I’ve met. Too many guys who try to play the “human element”. Some businessmen who even form unions (like the shopowners at Beach station, or the xerox guys at Velachery). At one point during the negotiations, the guy said “saar money is not important. friendship is important”. “if money is not important you can accept 600”, I replied. I think I was lucky not to get beaten up there.

I paid 650 for the 10 DVDs. An average of Rs. 65 per DVD. One one hand, I thought I had a good deal. On the other there was this feeling that with a little more negotiation I might have got a better deal. I continued walking.

Most of this post was composed in my head while I was going through this – two weeks back. It’s this kind of recalled post, so I’m not sure if it’s very coherent or easy to read. In hindsight, I think it’s too verbose and I’m rambling but I have no enthu to go back and edit it now.

Trade-offs and city structures

Of late, i’ve been reading this blog on urban issues written by this chap called Sandy Ikeda. One thing i noticed in the blog (don’t remember exact post) is that earlier, the poor used to live in the city centers and the rich used to live in the suburbs. And that this is changing in most places, with the rich trying to move closer to the city and the poor are being forced to move out to the suburbs.

I think it’s due to the steady change in costs. The “rich” are rich when it comes to money and poor when it comes to time. On the other hand, the “poor” may be poor in money, but they are usually rich when it comes to time. Earlier, public transport was scarce, while population density was much less. This meant that cost of commuting from the suburbs was quite high in terms of money, though not much in terms of time (the lack of congestion meant that travel was quick).

What has led to the change has basically been congestion. Due to migration, cities have become larger, and the roads more congested. And hence time – that oh-so-scarce resource for the “rich” – to travel to the city center from the suburbs has shot up, and thus the rich have tried to make do by moving closer to the center.

The poor have been priced out and forced to move away, and this has also led to development of things such as public transport, etc. And I think this trend is only going to continue. There is no chance of a reversal here. Unless of course – a high class premium “first class” public transport system is developed. (note that the last sentence was in passive; mainly because i’m not sure whose responsibility it is. though i think it’s the city governments).

What a premium public transport system does is to increase costs of transports in terms of money and reduces it in terms of time. And makes it easier for the rich to move away to the suburbs.

Of course, this whole model is based on the “traditional” city model where the office space is in the center and the living areas around. It fails miserably in the case of places like Bangalore where most of the office space coming up is located outside the city.

Roman holiday and other stories

I don’t know why but i really really like these old English romantic movies. Ok my sample size isn’t too large. First it was Casablanca and now this. But they’re awesome. Extremely well made. Amazing storyline, and an excellent way of telling it all. And unlike in the Hindi movies, in which a happy ending is usually guaranteed, there is no such guarantee here (in fact, both these have a kinda sad ending – by Bollywood standards), which makes the suspense more meaningful.

It’s also relevant (to me) that the parting scene (the effective parting scene, don’t count the press conference) happens to be in a car. When he is dropping her off. And it all ends with a long conversation in a parked car. And a hug. And then she runs away. What I write here is the true (as the orbit white ad puts it). I’m writing two conversations here (what I remember of them). The first has been translated from Kannada. The second was originally in English.

Let me write it as if I’m writing the screenplay for some movie. Rather, I don’t know how a screenplay is written. This is what I’d give my director. To direct. This is the first scene of the movie.

A small car is parked on a wide deserted road. There is the odd streetlight around. Lots of trees lining the road. And there is a nice wind blowing, like it does in Bangalore on late summer evenings. Our hero is at the wheel. Cigarette in one hand. Cellphone in the other. He dials slowly.

“Hi dad”
“Hi son. How did it go?”
“Ah, no. I don’t think it’s going to work out”
“Good. So it’s the end of the story is it?”
“Yes. It’s all over”
“Excellent stuff. Congrats. Here, your mother wants to speak to you”
“Hello mom”
“So i guess it’s not happening? Congrats. Good you finished it off without much fuss. Where are you now?”
“I’m in front of her house right now. I’ll meet you for dinner at the Adigas in 8th block. 9 o’clock. Bye”
“Bye. And congrats once again”.

He slowly moves down his phone book. Pauses at each entry for a minute. Looks wistfully at each name for ten seconds. And moves on. When the entry says “Neha”, he hits the call button. He’s trembling, but lets it ring.

“Hi Neha”.
“Hi Karthik! How did it go?”?
“Ummm no. it’s not happening. We decided to call it off”
“Oh! It’s ok. Never mind. I always had some kind of a creepy feeling about this one. It’s ok. All that happens happens for the good. I’ve to rush now. I’ll call you tomorrow. Take care. Bye”

He keeps going down the phone book. This time he pauses longer at each entry. And then there is a particular? entry he can’t take his eyes off. He looks at it for two minutes. And then hits the delete button. For courtesy sake he goes through the rest of the phone book also. And for courtesy sake pauses at each entry for a moment. And then he starts the car and slowly drives on.

Ok I don’t know how to write a screenplay but this is the general idea. This is perhaps going to be the first scene in my movie. Oh wait, that residency road thing is also there. This will be the scene before the opening credits. And that residency road scene will be the first after. Nice

Repugnancy and the marriage market

As I had written earlier, my cousin is in the marriage market. She has been registered in a number of bureaus. Her father had started registering her on a few matrimonial sites, though I’m not sure that has been completed. Relatives and friends far and near have been informed that my aunt and uncle are on the lookout for a match for my cousin. And “if you know someone who you think will fit her”, they are supposed to inform my uncle.

Now, thing is that my cousin drinks (alcohol, i mean). While most of you might assume that there’s nothing abnormal in that, fact is that Kannadiga Brahmins are not supposed to drink. It is considered to be a major sin. And for Kannadiga Brahmin women to drink is even worse, in the eyes of the “people”. Even if you drink, you are not supposed to talk about it, and are supposed to take the stance that you don’t drink and drinking is evil.

I’m not trying to say that no Kannadiga Brahmins (apart from my cousin) drink. I’m sure the proportion of people here who drink is fairly large, maybe just a little less than other communities which don’t socially ban drinking. There are enough people here who drink. Just that they try not to tell their families about it. Parents usually find out, but don’t tell other relatives about it. “Out of shame”. There are numerous instances of cousins who go out drinking, and then trade promises to not tell any elders about it.

Coming back to my cousin, her issue is that since she drinks, she wants a husband who also drinks, and who will let her to continue drinking. As I’d mentioned earlier, there is no question that the market is quite big. There are enough and more people (in our community) who drink and who will want their wives to drink. Communicating this, however, is an issue.

It needs to be put across to the counterparty clandestinely. You can’t write “want a partner who drinks” in your profile at marriage bureaus. The bureaus might put moral issues and strike your name off their records (a large number of these bureaus are run by mutts). The bigger problem in advertising that you drink is that relatives will come to know, and the social status of you and your family will go down. So you can’t even put “drinking: yes” in shaadi.com.

However, when it comes to sealing a deal, you are supposed to make sure that you and your possible counterparty agree on this matter. How do you bring it up? Especially if the counterparty looks like the “sadhu” types? How do you communicate it only to the “right people” that you drink? It seems more complicated than I initially thought.

Recently my cousin gave a negative recommendation for a guy because he “didn’t like to eat out”. People deemed this to be a frivolous excuse. Especially for “such a nice and disciplined boy”. I think the real reason was that he doesn’t drink. And this was the best “proxy” that my cousin could use.

Right now this is all a lot of fun for a third party observer like me, but it doesn’t feel so good when I realize that I’ll also be out in the market in a couple of years…