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…

need consultation

Extreme NED has been happening at work nowadays. I’ve reached, and perhaps surpassed, the level of NED that had made me quit A T Kearney back in July 2006. Being jobless wasn’t a very pleasant experience (put too much pressure on me to find a job quickly, and also reduced my bargaining power) and I don’t want to go through that kind of stuff again.

To be honest, I’ve been hunting for a job for the last eight months. Took four months to figure out what I wanted, and then the financial downturn happened, and the market isn’t really looking up nowadays.

Now, the basic point is that there is no point in random cribbing. Cribbing should be targeted, and hte person being cribbed to should be in a position to help out. Once in a while it helps, but “it’s ok dude, i’m sure you’ll find something that fits you” kind of stuff doesn’t really make sense. And most of the time you can’t even blame the guy who told you this because in most cases he can’t say anything else. The crib should be packaged in such a way that the person being cribbed to should be able to help you. Rather, the crib should ideally be followed up with specific questions.

So something like “Dude i’m getting pained in my job. This is bad that is bad everything is bad. I’m not finding anything. I’m feeling desperate. Blah Blah” is inferior to “Dude i’m getting pained in my job. This is bad that is bad everything is bad. I’m not finding anything. I’m feeling desperate. Blah Blah. Do you have openings in your firm?” or “Dude i’m getting pained in my job. This is bad that is bad everything is bad. I’m not finding anything. I’m feeling desperate. Blah Blah. Do you know headhunters who recruit for banking?“.

The issue I have now is that whenever I think of it, I hit NED and am not able to structure my thoughts properly. I should be able to take my thoughts, separate them out into logical threads, divide the whole process into steps, and then ask the right questions to the right people – people who can give out answers to the questions that I’ve asked them.

I need to streamline my thoughts. I need to put a structure on them. Organize them. And then channel them. Seems like I need to get back to my old consulting avatar and work on this. However, my NED when I think of this kind of stuff doesn’t allow me to think objectively. Maybe i need a consultant after all. At least a sounding board, who mostly knows what I’m talking about,and doesn’t just nod.

Are

I’m halfway through this excellent article. I highly recommend you to read if you’re even remotely interested in social networks. Duncan Watts (prof of sociology at Columbia; now on sabbatical at Yahoo!),? whose book six degrees was instrumental in introducing me to the concept of social networks, tries to refute some of the ideas talked about by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point. Watts, studying email networks, seems to have concluded that there is no such thing as “influential people”. That everyone else is as influential as everyone else when it comes to propagating stuff.

The point of that verbose first paragraph was that this particular article has reminded me of the word “are”. Not “are” as in plural of “is”, but more in the IIMB context, where it refers to something really good. For example, “livejournal are” translates to “livejournal is really good” in normal english. Or sometime, when someone tells you something which you find to be really great, you can just reply saying “are”. An extremely simple but extremely powerful usage of an extremely simple and common word.

It all started on the first day of Saarang 2006. I don’t remember too well but at least all of the following people were present at the dinner at Eden (at besantnagar) that evening – samanth, vinod, tchami, kodhi, woreshtmax visnu and i. The key characters were samanth and vinod. Theyy had got pained by the IITian usage of “are there” for “is there” and were responding to every sentence with “are” (they were too lazy to say “are there” i guess), and occasionally with “are not”.? Five days later, as we were on the bus to Bangalore, “are” had come to mean what it does now. It’s antonym was “are not”.

Now, Kodhi and I, who claim credit for this particular usage of this word, were extremely active on BRacket, the IIMB internal message board. So what happened was that the probability that someone read a word written by us was much higher than someone reading a word written by the average IIMB bloke. In that sense, yes, we were influential. The next “convert”, I think was

[info]sw_aadisht

, who is always on the lookout for new lingo, so much so that he uses more IITM lingo than the average guy from IITM.

I don’t recall it being a very conscious attempt. However, we were unwittingly using the word more often in our conversation. We used to respond to posts on BRacket with a simple “are”, indicating our appreciation to the preceding argument. Consequently, we received queries to explain our wonderful responses, and this gave the word fresh footage. Some of the people who thus asked us immediately liked the word and coopted that into their language. I remember

[info]lastwordfreak

?and

[info]sonataindica

?being especially early adopters.

It was a matter of time before it had unofficially entered the official dictionary.

So coming back to the whole process – it was originated and propagated by a bunch of people who were more active in the community than others. However, most of us wouldn’t by any standards qualify as any kind of thought or opinion leaders. For all you care, we were just a bunch of random guys, only slightly more visible than the rest. One thing is there – all of us were much more receptive to fresh ideas (and fresh words) than the average populace. And our assimilation was quick – the word didn’t take much time in entering our normal conversations.

Now what does this mean in terms of Gladwell’s and Watts’s frameworks? On one hand, yes, we were a set of “influentials”. However, that we were influential in this matter (creating a new word) had nothing to do with us being influential in any other sense. My take on the subject based on only this particular case study – yes, influentials matter. You do need people with a higher-than-average visibility in order to propagate the concept. On the other hand, targeting influentials is harder than most people (admen, etc.) think. The same people who were influential with hush puppies shoes weren’t influential with say popularizing *insert random music genre here*. It is important for marketers to somehow identify who are the kind of people who will be more influential in the current context, and target them.

Are

Declining invites

Nowadays a large number of my batchmates from IIT/IIM are getting married. A disproportionately large number of them. And a number of them are sending me personal invites for the wedding (an email which is addressed only to me, starting with “Dear Karthik”, with the invitation attached).

Now, the thing is that most of these weddings are not in Bangalore, and I’d have to travel to attend them. And I don’t know what to do with them. Most of these are from people whom I knew, but didn’t know too well – I’d go if the wedding was in Bangalore, but I’m not sure if I’d want to travel for their weddings.

So I don’t really know what to do. Should I reply to their invites, and congratulate them and apologize that I won’t be able to make it? Or just put a “well left”? Or don’t reply to the invite now but just call up and congratulate the person after the wedding?

So far I haven’t figured out how to take care of this so I’m just putting a “well left”. I don’t know if this action, rather inaction, is right. But in a couple of cases it’s already way past the wedding to congratulate them now.

Considering that the flood has just started, I think I can expect a lot more such invites in the near future. And I need a concrete plan on how to approach them.

chatting up…

was thinking about it on the way back from the gym this evening. i have a big starting problem. i have a problem in randomly approaching random women and striking conversation with them. i believe once i get talking, i can take care of things from then on and things will go the way they are supposed to.

i remember reading this on the dilbert blog a few months back. scott adams had talked about what it takes to be successful. he had said that you need to be either in the top 1% of the world in what you are good at, or you should be in the top 25% in two or three different things, and should be able to combine them. he’d illustrated it with the fact that though he isn’t in the top 1% of anything, he’s in the top 25% in drawing and humor and understanding corporate life, so he’s made it big with dilbert.

now, coming back to what I started with – on getting started with a conversation. one way you can get talking is to make a really really good impression the first time you see each other, in which case you’ll be able to chat her up. the other way to do this is if you meet her in two or three different unrelated contexts. it’s much easier this way.

for example, if i meet in some random function this female whom i’d seen at some random quiz some time back, it won’t be that awkward to chat her up using the quiz as the initial context. the important thing is that you both vaguely remember each other, so she won’t really think it’s some random bloke trying to chat her up.

and by the way, here i’m referring to contexts where you aren’t really required to speak to each other. for example, say if you meet someone at a group discussion, you’re forced to talk to each other then! so you get to know the other person without really feeling awkward.

i’m sleepy now so not very coherent with my thoughts. but let me know if i’m making sense.

Sustainability

I don’t believe in getting drunk. Or in dope. Or in taking a holiday for that matter. While all these offer good short-term benefits, their problem is just that – they are way too short-term. Once you’ve finished experiencing them, you’re back to square zero. No better off than you were before you undertook the experience. In a large number of cases (piled up work, hangover, etc.) you might even be significantly worse off.

Happiness needs to be sustainable, and the above mentioned methods don’t really guarantee that. It’s like putting a coat of white polish over your white canvas shoes. The dirt remains, only gets covered. You run a few hundred meters and the dirt is there for all to see. Or you can think about it as using a band aid for a really bad injury. Just covers up the surface.