Saifai
Ever wondered how much is the power of one?
I did.
Saifai is a small village in Uttar Pradesh. There was nothing special about it, but that was only until the one in this story - Mulayam Singh took birth here.
I visited Saifai last month, and it was a treat. A high rising government hospital that beat Apollo Delhi in looks with an emergency section made only of glass panels, A state of the art medical college, a brand new university campus, hostels with amenities unheard of in the best campuses in the country!
Roads that looked like runways - even the humble Santro managed a 145 km/hr
And a village fair that was blessed with 100% rebate in Sales Tax on two wheelers and farm equipment - More than 10000 motorcycles were sold in 4 days.
The power of One.
Had he been on Orkut, I’d have become his fan.
… but you promised it would get activated by 5 pm!
All right. lets talk about something different now. Something in stark contrast to my previous and well debated post.
How many times has it happened that you bought a new prepaid sim card and it got activated when the dealer promised you it would? How many times has Domino’s Pizza or Pizza Hut messed up your order?
How many times did you have to yell at that robot voiced customer care executive?
How many times have you actually got what was promised in on-the-phone customer services?
And they say India is the pinnacle of the service sector. Rubbish. I could fill this page with examples of bad service experiences. In fact it would be easier to mention the occasions when I actually got the quality of service I was promised.
Why is it so? Even after total computerization of records? Is the workforce to blame or the strange demands of the consumer? Or do i expect too much? (Asking them to stop sending you ads on Airtel is not bad enough to take 2 months I guess..)
I suppose this sector has still not matured in India. I don’t know how it works in other parts of the world, but it always leaves me unsatisfied when I call any customer support service, and that is almost always so.
Waiter! There is a fly in my Soup!
It is not often that we realize how ignorant we have become of the hard work that goes into services that we can simply buy off the shelf.
If that doesn’t make sense, lets look at it this way - we go to a fancy restaurant, order, eat, ask for the cheque and that’s about it. I have almost forgotten that food needs to be prepared before it can be served to me.. I only see it as if the waiter takes my order and comes back after a while with whatever I asked for. I don’t see the hard work, the preparation, the time and energy that must’ve gone into it.
Maybe it is because of staying away from home for so long. I don’t get to see food being prepared. Food is like an off the shelf commodity for so many of us. Order, wait and eat. Why care for who works how hard to make it - I’m paying for it, am I not?
I don’t know, but I feel guilty.
Who moved my cheese?
Humans are supposed to be the species that evolved more than any other. The one that has undergone maximum change. And also the one that gained the most out of every change that took place.
Then why - why is it that we resist change so much? Why is it that I want to continue living in that same old house when the place my family has moved to is much better, even if in a different city? Why does Geetanjali not want to move in with her sister and wants to continue living with her flatmates? Why do I prefer sitting at the same workstation in the lab everyday? Why do I feel uncomfortable when I walk in and find someone else already working on it, even when all systems are the same?
The reason is that we are emotional beings. We get attached to things. Things - not just people, but even to activities, habits and routines. And when something changes, we face the double problem of coping with the new and missing what is not there anymore.
Being a little uncomfortable towards change is okay. But is being adverse to change? I don’t know. What is it that is more important - our feelings or the routine? I guess the answer differs in different situations.
The problem arises when both are big. And you have to choose. It is so strange - I love to be free - but I hate to choose when life makes me do it.
