ExpertDabbler

I guess not many know the rise of the Nadar community down south. Their progress, both material and in social status in the last century is nothing short of phenomenal. The Nadar community has been historically associated with toddy tapping. They had to face discrimination from other upper caste Hindus because of this. They were ostracized, denied entry to temples etc. But in a span of about 50-100 years, they have become one of the most prominent communities of Tamil Nadu thanks to their unity, enterprise and bloody hard work. It is one thing to grow if you are politically connected and well placed in the society, it is completely different if you do not have money, nor social status, nor education.

The community leaders had initiated a system of Uravinmurai and Maghamai wherein each Nadar family contributes a fixed monthly income to the Uravinmurais. The Nadars, with the funds from Uravinmurais, built their own temples, their own accommodation for their poor traders to stay in major towns, and built their own schools for their kids to study. A few of the software engineers now in US are products of these schools. Some of them had openly said that they could not have progressed this much had it not been for these community schools. My own cousin studied in one of these schools. So it is not as if the schools are reserved only for Nadar children though they do get a preference. In general, I am all for the idea of communities supporting themselves in areas like education. Had they waited for the government to build, support these schools, i guess they should’ve waited forever.

The Nadars had enterprise in their DNA. I cannot think of any other community which has a profitable privately owned bank to its credit - the Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank is essentially a Nadar bank. Today, Shiv Nadar is the richest South Indian, HSB is one of the biggest restaurant brand in Tamil Nadu, and about 50% of the major business establishments in T. Nagar area should be Nadar establishments.

While all the business growth augurs well for the community, it is not without its pitfalls. The concept of community based networking in business and politics works very well during the initial stages but later leads to cartelization when a threshold is reached. For e.g I don’t think its easy for an outsider to start a business in Virudhunagar unless he is a Nadar. I hear it’s better in Sivakasi. But this is the other side of caste based business networking. I guess this is the same in Tiruppur or Karur where the Gounders reign. I think the same applies for caste based politics too.

This strategy of uravinmurais may not hold good for all communities for all conditions. As I previously mentioned, the fact that Nadars were brilliant businessmen helped in no small measure. But nevertheless I think the rise of Nadars as a whole is one good case study of how it can be done. It is also a lesson about how sheer hard work, tenacity, enterprise and adaptability works brilliantly in the long run. I cannot help but say this - when one compares the progress of Nadars with similar disadvantaged groups e.g Muslim communities, and the Dalits, the difference in attitude and approach is glaring.

I did some search on this topic on the net, and inquired with my uncle who lives in Virudhunagar before writing this. For further reading on this subject, refer to:

Uravinmurai concept

Please refer this PDF.

And of course here to get a list of the Nadar institutions and establishments. Please note that most of these should’ve come up in the last 50-100 years.

I’ve been reading a lot about various community histories in our state in general. A lot of the so called intellectuals in all those communities always tend to place their forefathers at the center of the universe. Right from Iyothee Thass to Maraimalai adigal, the pattern is the same. The less said about the holy ancient texts, the better. Everyone likes to think their ancestors were great and kula vilakkus of the world since the days of Neanderthal man. Perhaps it helps them feel good, like watching Jaane Tu or DDLJ. Enough of romanticism, what about present day situation? They half expect Vijayakanth to stem the rot nowadays!

From whatever little I read, it is to be noted most of the well developed Hindu communities of India have either been persecuted or been persecutors or accomplices to grave injustices at one point or the other, only the degree varies - this is my version of history. This is one of the reasons I am basically disillusioned with this whole concept of caste and community and the pride associated.

Let me start with the community I was born into. As is the norm for all communities, there is a sangam for mine too. I came to know of them when they printed daily sheet calendars and distributed it in my native. Apart from that there is a Kalyana Mantapam and beyond that there are two schools. That’s pretty much End Of Story.

I asked my mom if there is any count on the total number of families who belong to my community. My mom said a ball park estimate. I’ve been far too long in the IT industry not to know such ball park estimates are a little more accurate than a random number rounded off to nearby thousand. Bear in mind that getting a census within a small community like mine should be infinitely easier than getting it for the whole of Tamil Nadu. What’s more it’s much simpler to identify people who need real help within a community. But instead all the perusus of the community collect money to build/renovate a temple in some remote part of Tamil Nadu as if the whole world will get rid of all injustices as soon as that temple gets built.

One of my relative is clearly struggling to educate his son. I am sure there are plenty other kids worse than my relative. I know there are enough rich guys who can make sure all these good students get their education within the community, yet nothing happens. There is no clear forum to present such cases. Without such a forum, do we expect poor students to go and beg? Till date, no one has asked me to donate funds for building a college, or school from my community.

Like flies which gets into action only in garbage, the only time one gets in touch with his community is during marriage, and that too it’s more of a hindrance than help in finding a good match.

Its not as if this phenomenon is restricted only to my community. The way I see, this is prevalent in all the so called well-off communities. In essence, there is no such thing as a community in spirit, all I see is apathy.

The sons and daughters of high class families who get their education in Vidya mandirs, PSBBs and DAVs and who speak against reservation are too strategic to think about their poor brethren who spend their lives on vaidheegam in Srivilliputhur or any other B, C tier town. They conveniently hide the fact that if a PSBB guy can get to a position in 4 years without reservation. With reservation, he will get to the same position despite reservation by virtue of his awareness, network and contacts in 6 years. The loss is two years. While for the B and C tier town students, it’s a question of life. It’s a herculean task to combat both reservation and poverty sitting in places which is neither a town nor a city. Okay, lets assume the government conspired against them. So what did these people do to their poor brethren?

Not many people know that are a whole bunch of communities who come under forward castes and who do not come under reservation. The fact remains that there are poor families in all communities. Some communities like Nagarathars, I hear have openly declared themselves as forward and hence made it clear they do not want reservation.

Mr. X will study in a top school in Chennai, get into IIT, go to America, get GC - end of story. What is that he does to his community except write in his community website about his forefathers who are India’s pride? Most of the time the answer is zilch. Trouble is, there is no organised way to do even if he wants to. Some even go to the extent of donating funds for the study and promotion of Vedas for poor students. I think it’s kinda funny that they ensure IT education for themselves while actively promoting study of Vedas for the poor. If only all the educated and relatively well endowed had sponsored one poor student intra community, if only each had contributed a thousand rupees to build a college, we could’ve made India a developed country long back.

From what I can see, the Nagarathars did their bit for education, the Naidus and Gounders have made Coimbatore what it is today. But these are too few and far in between. Also, these communities are relatively politically well connected as well. I am not too comfortable with caste and politics combo, and to a lesser extent caste and business combo. This just leads to some other form of abuse of power in the long run.

Thus, while most of the so called ‘powerful’ community stories are essentially stories of riches to rags, there is at least one community whose story is clearly rags to riches in the last fifty years.

I know a lot of people are bullish on real estate investments in Tier 2 cities. Land prices are skyrocketing in areas like Tuticorin.
My personal favorite for major growth potential is Trichy.

Right now the motorability/accessibility of the GST road is subject to terms and conditions like how many parottas the driver eats to hold the steering wheel, the mood of Ulundurpet railway gate man etc. If God willing, one can travel from Chennai to Trichy in six hours by car and seven plus hours by bus. For a distance of 300 plus kilometers and considering that its a National Highway, it is pathetic to say the least.

But all that is going to change once the road work gets over. And I am hoping our Lalu decides to give Trichy a long awaited, much begged for double line from Chennai. Trichy is approximately 150 - 200 kms from Namakkal, Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Sivakasi, the most important commercial hubs of Tamil Nadu apart from Chennai. It will also connect seamlessly with other port towns like Nagai, Tuticorin etc. It also has small but thriving trading centers around it within 50-100 kms, unlike Madurai IMHO.

But critical contributions are needed from Institutions and entrepreneurs based in Trichy to make this a possibility.
At present it suffers from an unmistakable small town mentality. But hopefully all that will change in the near future when the big players turn their attention to the center point of Tamil Nadu.

Back after yet another trip this weekend. It was all the more strenous this time since I traveled to Trichy (Thurayur) and thereon to Madurai and returned, all in two days flat and half the journey was in our govt. buses. Truly blessed are those who never got to travel in that adventurous GST road stretch from Tindivanam to Madurai.

The special train in which I returned was late by a small matter of 7.30 hours. As is always the case with railways, they announced the delay in seven installments of one hour each. Those who are mathematically inclined would be wondering about the balance thirty minutes, that is what we fondly call ‘Gandhi Kanakku’ i.e. that was not declared at all. This delay also reminded me of my maiden and only abroad trip. More on that later.

One unmistakable trend in all these visits is that Ilayaraja still rules the hearts of most of my brethren in tier two towns. Be it Maatuthaavani bus terminus at 2.30 AM, the private town bus in Trichy at 4 PM, the tea stalls in Virudhunagar at 5 AM to quote just a few, its overwhelmingly in favor of IR. I feel there is more to it than sheer coincidence. Not sure if the small town folks are in a time warp or ARR is just too sophisticated in his music. We are not talking about the Sathyam cinema going, Mani- Kamal admiring, Landmark-ing Madrasi but proper interior Tamil Nadu folks after all.

I sincerely hope, pray and wish I need not take travel to south Tamil Nadu for the next six months. And certainly not take the GST road for the next two years.

I was in Madurai on May 8th, the day of Akshaya Thrithiyai, a day designed to make Jewelers rich :-). I had a chance to talk about the jewelry business to my uncle who is a jeweler himself and had been part of the whole tamaasha for long. He is taking it light nowadays – been through a by-pass surgery et al.

His take on the scene and how big players like Tanishq, Reliance franchisees and Joy Alukkas have completely rewritten the rules of the game was very illuminating to say the least.

According to him, thanks to the entry of big players, margins in this business for small traders have come down drastically. They are happy with a margin of Rs.30-50 per gram, approximately eleven hundred bucks nowadays. He even asked me to go around South Avani Moola Street to find jewelers offering EMI scheme to attract the salaried crowd. Apparently the bazaar resembles that of a ration shop during the first week of every month. He himself got a business over phone as he was talking to me and he instructed his associate to handover the jewel to the customer and collect only a portion and get the balance later.

On the other hand, big players like Joy Alukkas generally do not give credit nor breakups to the gold purchased. For e.g – for a piece of jewellery, they quote the price but do not say how much they’ve factored in for making and other charges unless we ask for it specifically. But if the customer is not willing to take it, they offer to negotiate by bringing down the price substantially from their initial quote. For e.g if a piece costs Rs.30,000, they would even be willing to come down by even Rs. 3,000 for the discerning customer. He was quoting his experience as a customer in Joy Allukas.

A friend of mine in Chennai, quoted a similar experience of high making and other charges in Keertilal so it looks like there is some element of truth in it. Only that Keertilal was not willing to negotiate on the charges quoted. Eventually he had to call off the purchase. But honestly not many would be so price conscious when making a jewel purchase.
We have this mentality of ,’Oh man I am losing Rs.50,000 anyway, what’s the big deal in another 1000 or so?’. But apparently, the percentage works out to much higher than that.
For instance, I along with some friends recently purchased a small ring as a gift for my friend’s new born son. The shop was Nathella Jewelry in Velachery. I neither had the time nor the inclination to ask for the break-up. In hindsight, I think I paid at least 200-300 Rs. extra on a purchase of 1gm ring.

Bottomline, branded retail has entered every business and jewelry business is no exception. I am not here to argue we need to protect the interests of the small trader. But as a consumer I think I should get value for every paisa I spent, be it groceries or jewelry, be it big businesses or small businesses.

The nature of gold per se. easily makes it a high turnover business. But I now realize the biggies have also made it high margin business. From a purely customer standpoint, I think it’s important we negotiate hard and not settle for the price quoted for making and other charges. On the other hand, if you are an investor make sure you get Titan’s hares on every dip

Anyone knows what is meant by ‘paatethuradhu’?

I was in Sivakasi to attend a wedding. While returning, there was this guy who approached me near Amritaraj Theatre in Virudhunagar and asked, ” Anney inge enga anney paatetharaangey?”

I was flummoxed. What’s more, the guy who asked me, on seeing my confused face gave that ‘you don’t know this?’ look, and asked another one and the other guy casually pointed him to a shop nearby.

It was only later did I discover that ‘Paatethuradhu’ means, transferring tamil songs in mp3 to mobile phone. It’s Paatu + Yaetrudhal!! Whew!!

Coming to think of it, the fellow is right!
It’s only confused folks like me who use terms like ‘file transfer/mp3 download’ in between tamil words and confuse the language even further.

Last week I had to make a trip down south yet again. Only this time, being peak summer season, all trains were full more than a month in advance. I have made a habit of booking in A/c three tier sleeper nowadays. Alas, this time that was not vacant either.
I figured that a third a/c tatkal ticket works out to be more expensive than second a/c. So I upgraded myself to second a/c this one time.

The first thing that struck me was the attitude of the people. They were too stiff lipped for my taste. I boarded the Sampar Kranti at 7.30 in tambaram. As usual, I took out the book I had for times like these. The lady seated next to me, wanted to sleep by 8.30. Nor did she tell me. She was just fidgeting around and giving ample signals about her intentions though. Mine was upper berth so I was the one expected to move. The one seated opposite was already snoring. By the time I went to the loo and returned, the lady had already made her bed, lied down and switched off the lights.

Not the one to go to bed early and 8.30 is hardly bed time by any standards, I started my reading session by moving towards the area near the coach door which had lights. I was totally engrossed in the book standing there till Vilupuram which the train reached around 10 PM. It’s one thing that I did not mind standing there. But I felt she could’ve just told me that she wanted to sleep. And she should’ve refrained from switching off the lights without informing, especially given that my book was wide open.

On the other hand, the crowd in three tier a/c has always been very cordial and polite without being indecent or nosy in my experience. My sleeper class experience has also been pretty good for the most part though there are some forgettable ones.

I think the very fact that less people sit together coupled with the screen provided in the second a/c coaches makes people snobbish. For that matter, I feel even I would’ve struck a conversation with that lady had it been third a/c or sleeper coaches IMHO. Just goes to show how humans respond to the spaces around them :). The train reached Madurai around 5 AM. I had to board another train for the next one hour for Virudhunagar. This time I took an open ticket and boarded the general coach.

In line with their tickets, the people were at their unreserved best :). The reserved guy that I am with strangers, I found myself talking to four or five of the folks about the train being late, at what time it will reach tirunelveli etc. in no time.
This too is a classic case of people responding to their environment without even being consciously aware of it.

I thought how that lady would’ve reacted if she was to travel in a general compartment? I had a feeling she too would, in due course, adapt to the situations in the general coach, learn to live with someone sleeping on the space allocated for luggage, ignore some one’s taunts, make friends with the ones seated opposite and continue her journey.

I am not sure I would ever travel in general compartment for a 500 km journey. But I would heartily recommend it to anyone once in a while for a short distance. This also gives us a glimpse of the real, less shining India. An India where water does not automatically mean the ten rupee packaged bottle but the one available in pipes in railway stations for free. An India where ten people sit in a space for 4 and still manage to sleep without reservations.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present a link to the pension details of the TNEB website.

Once you are in the website, you will find a field called PPO number. You are free to type any five digit number and you will get to see the pension details of one actual pensioner in TNEB holding such PPO number. So much for Right to Information Acts.
While I definitely laud the TNEB in making information accessible to everyone, I am not sure if it had to be taken to such a level (Web 3.0?).

I thought long and hard before disclosing to the public. Neither the TNEB nor the ones who administer the site are kids. So I do not think they need my advice nor my good intentioned mails. If they can keep their salary confidential, I hope they can empathize with the pensioners’ need to keep his or her pension details confidential as well. I would be really surprised if any decent number of TNEB pensioners actually look for their details in the TNEB website? Why disclose information when there is no need? What I find here is unmistakeable and utter disregard for the sensitivity of information for their own ex-employees.

I wish they close this section ASAP and fire the guy responsible for this section of the website. God alone knows about the status of other State Government run organisation websites.

Have we not heard some guru say, ‘Making life interesting is all in our control’?

This Tuesday morning, I got down at Tambaram from yet another trip down south and moved towards the East Tambaram terminus. The first thing I noticed was a bus to Velachery and the next thing to strike me was ‘paradox of choice’. At any given point in time, there are about 15 buses towards Velachery lined up in 1 km distance. I was not sure which one to get into. Common sense predicts that people catch the bus that leaves first. And one would’ve thought the bus which is more populated will leave first as well. Come try that You might’ve secured a seat in bus 1, only to find the bus stationed 4 buses behind you starting first Apparently this has worked so well and got so many positive feedback from commuters (doing things different, making life interesting and unpredictable blah blah) that our transport corporations has adopted this strategy all over Tamil Nadu and extended this to pricing the ticket fares as well.

The previous day, I travelled in mofussil bus from Virudhunagar to Thirumangalam, a distance of 25 kms. The fare was Rs.8 per ticket. The distance from ThirupurankundramThirumangalam to Madurai Periyar bus stand should be around 20 kms and you MUST take a town bus. Factors like town bus and lesser distance tempted me to think the fare would be lower. Ah, things were not so simple.

First I had some fun with the ‘Which bus starts first’ game as described above. After three attempts, I decided ‘let me get down and stand near the exit, that way I can catch the first bus which leaves the terminus first’. Hurrah, my strategy worked perfect!!
And it would be even more interesting to adopt this strategy with a 50+ year old lady and 4 bags

Coming to the fare, It was blind date again. I paid Rs. 11 on an orange color bus. My uncle tells me the yellow color (CITY EXPRESS?) bus costs less but not sure by how much. The LSS service comes even cheaper. And the ordinary service is the cheapest. Only catch - the ordinary bus is rarer to find than a white elephant.

In Chennai. the variants as far as I know here goes like - blue, yellow, orange, express service, A/C service, and last and definitely the least - ordinary buses. Needless to say, the fare varies as much as the colors as well.

I can understand that our transport corporations are attempting what HUL’s strategy to sell soaps from prices of Rs.5 to Rs.50. The only difference is, the price of the soap marketed by HUL is available upfront while the price and timing of the bus, we will come to know when it happens.

What’s next?

Plan A- I guess someone who is a regular in our city buses should start a web 2.0 site and let the readers post the fares for all the permutations and combinations. We can conveniently take a print out and have it handy before boarding the next city bus in Tamil Nadu. Kudos to the transport corporation for making our miserable lives as interesting as a video game, without the video

Plan B:
Catch a share auto

“Aruppukottai Onnaaruba” (Aruppukottai –Rs.1.50 per ticket) bus conductors used to shout in front of their buses in Virudhunagar bus stand twenty five years back. Aruppukottai is a well known trading center in south tamil nadu. I recently traveled to Aruppukottai from my native and the fare is now Rs.5.50 per ticket. But this is the only discernible change that I could notice. Everything else - from people jumping via window grills to throwing towels to grab a seat has remained absolutely the same in these 25 years. Even the paint of ‘SRI JAYAVILAS’ buses have remained the same in a few cases. ‘SRI JAYAVILAS’ used to be the KPN equivalent for mofussil buses in the south.

Compare this to the strides made in telecommunication in India in the last twenty years. This is also the period when the lifestyles of the urban folks have undergone such a drastic change that NRI’s are seriously pondering R2I leaving behind the comforts of the developed world.

Next comes sectors like healthcare, which has undergone tremendous change for the elite. People from all over the world take their flights to India in pursuit of world class healthcare, for those who are willing to pay for it.

And there are some laggards where no matter rich or poor, urban or rural, all suffer since time immemorial and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Public transportation is one of them. If one had watched GANDHI, one would’ve noticed people traveling on train tops during pre-independence days. I am sure we can see people traveling on train tops even today in some parts of the country. So what is the improvement in all these 65 61 years of independence? From the overcrowded MTC buses in Chennai to the Mumbai sub-urban trains or to the overcrowded SRINIVASAs and SRI JAYAVILAS’ in semi-rural Tamil Nadu. The landscape may change, but the grimness is the same.

The critical differences between sectors like, say telecommunications and public transport are straightforward. Telecommunications was entirely at the behest of DoT, a central government undertaking while road transport has been a state subject. Telecommunications allowed the entry of private players while transportation is still at the behest of our state government run corporations except for railways which again has no private player.

I seriously do not understand why government should get into the business of operating buses. I also do not understand the logic of operating a bus between town A and B when a mini-bus or van run more frequently would help keep things agile and flexible.

Railways is definitely doing better than state run transport corporations primarily because they come under one ministry for the whole of India. But there is lot of scope for improvement there as well. For e.g Arupukottai is yet to come in the rail network, so does towns like Dharapuram in Erode district while Mel Maruvathur has a railway station where all the express trains ‘must’ stop. I don’t have anything against Bangaru Adigalar but I believe trade centers should have priority over Bhakti in a country like India – at least in matters like getting railway stations. I seriously think Laloo should hire a marketing manager to identify new, financially viable areas to be brought into the rail network.

The Chennai-Tirunelveli rail corridor, despite being one of the most lucrative sectors for the southern railways still handles all the traffic in a single track. Oh yeah we still run diesel engines for the most part. Oil is getting pretty cheap nowadays, right?

Another of my question is about market segmentation. Why not charge more from people who can afford to pay. Tatkal is a classic example and a great revenue earner for the railways. Charge more from those who book late. I am sure a special train with only 3 tier a/c coaches will fetch more revenues for the railways in sectors like Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Bangalore, Chennai – Madurai on weekends while addressing the need of the passengers as well. I believe there are lot of cities like this in the rest of India. I hear people paying anywhere from Rs. 700 to Rs. 1000 on weekends to travel from Madurai to Chennai for omnibus tickets.

It’s easy to construe this post as one against the obvious infrastructure woes that India has now become notorious for and something we are addressing with all the golden quadilaterals and 6-lane highways. In fact, I tend to think things are not going to improve with golden quadilaterals and six-lane highways. It’s like saying the websites will get more user friendly if internet bandwidth goes up. I don’t think it works that way.

What we need is focus and strategic thinking at the highest level. Overhauling the public transport for passenger and freight traffic will have a tremendous impact on the economic progress of the small towns and villages much higher than the envisaged Rs.60,000 crore farm loan waiver.