Before I moved to Hyderabad, I had heard how India is now such a vibrant economy, and full of opportunities; but I hadn't realized the extent of the opportunity until I started living here. Now my mind is constantly coming up with new ideas. Everywhere you look, there is something that can be done to make people's lives easier.
I guess you really have to immerse your self into a country to solve it's problems. You can't do it from a distance. Just yesterday I was sitting at a traffic light and even before the light turned green, people behind us started honking. Having grown up in India, I should be used to it, but incessant and pointless honking makes my blood boil. And it made me wonder, wouldn't it be nice if every time you used the horn, the steering wheel gave you a shock. You can't really take the horn away, but you can take steps to reduce its use. With an electric shock you can still honk if you had to, but it makes sure you will do it only in case of an emergency or if you really really really had to.
I know what you are thinking - this idea is not going to be implemented anytime soon unless the Junta takes over in India. There are other ideas though, that are lot more practical. For example, I hired a maid who believes in a 5 day work week and finds the most creative ways to get out of coming to work on Saturdays and Sundays. In the 3 weeks since I hired her, she fell sick one weekend, had here birthday on the 2nd weekend (yes she took time off for her birthday :)), and was hit by an auto rickshaw this Friday. I know, that if true, I should be a lot more sympathetic on the last one, but I have just finished moping the floors and I am not willing to believe a word of what she had to said.
The house help in India has turned the tables on their employers. A growing number of households in India are now dual income and for some of the 2nd tier cities like Hyderabad there just isn't enough help available. With both husband and wife working, there is no other option but to tolerate the whims of the help. Almost anyone I talk to is upset with their house help situation but are unable to do anything about it.
It made me wonder why there is no Roomba like cleaner available in India. Most houses have marble or some other stone flooring so the traditional vacuum cleaners, that work so well on carpets, can't really work in India. You need something that can do jharoo-poncha - basically something that picks up the dust, followed by something that washes the floor with a water-detergent combination, and then something that dries the floor. A slow moving Roomba like bot could easily do the task.
India does have a tendency to go with cheap manual labor, instead of opting for automation. I guess when you have a billion people, it more important to keep people employed rather than worry about things like productivity and efficiency. Better to have them do almost nothing instead of creating trouble. I wonder though, at want point will the need for convenience override such concerns. Until then, I'll just have to mop my own floors.
No comments:
Post a Comment