--- On Wed, 13/5/09, Kiran K Karthikeyan <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Kiran K Karthikeyan <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [silk] Imperialistic countries
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Wednesday, 13 May, 2009, 3:21 PM
> > Why are European countries like
> Germany, France, UK are developed well?
> >
>
> Just something that happened yesterday that made me think -
> the Indian
> tolerance of quality. This is pretty much a cliche, the
> Indian "chaltha hai"
> attitude, but I think it is quite important.
>
> For the first time in India, I didn't pay for the pizza
> because it was
> delivered late. What surprised me is the way the delivery
> guy took it,
> giving me a look like I was at fault. And he didn't even
> apologize for being
> late, citing that the address was incorrect in their
> records and that's why
> it was late, this after the same Dominoes branch had
> delivered a few days
> ago (and was late then too, and gave the same reason).
>
> I have always thought that both Pizza Hut and Dominoes
> overcharge for their
> product. And I also think that the price includes all the
> free pizzas they
> have to dish out for their tardiness. Given that, the
> delivery guy should
> have just given me the pizza as soon as he was late (the
> time is printed on
> the bill) and not made me have to argue the point. This is
> usually the case
> in the US where I have gotten a free pizza many times, and
> in such cases I
> would usually tip the delivery guy generously.
>
> This attitude is prevalent in many aspects - mobile
> connectivity, internet
> connectivity, electricity, bad water, when you ask for a
> replacement for a
> badly cooked dish or drink at restaurants etc.
>
> Perhaps we have to start demanding quality and that is the
> one of the ways
> to start businesses as well as the Government to start
> changing. Because in
> the end, its all about Quality.
>
> Kiran
<hoping that the other Kiran is somewhere far away>
I don't think so. It's to do with accountability.
We don't mean what we say in India. It isn't that the pizza guy was being
difficult. More likely, there was no process in place to cope with delayed
delivery. That was only a verbal benediction, not to be taken literally and
sought to be converted to action or tangible results.
It applies not just in business but in government as well. That's why we pay
road taxes, which are not used to build roads. Education cesses which go every
which way but into education. I could go on for a while.
Do we need to talk about politics at all?
Not in academics. Our curricula are impressive, not intended to be implemented.
Most places I know (sure, there are exceptions and every one of us here has his
or her favourite exception to this) start compromising on course coverage
almost a third of the way through the course. Exams are benedictions, not meant
to be taken seriously; well, not too seriously. If they are, there're always
grace marks. How come colleges in other places don't need grace marks as part
of their standard operating procedure?
We need to slap this down to correct things. The sooner the better. It was a
good start to turn the guy away for being late. If you can bear the negatives,
loss of weight, lower bp, lower cholesterol, all those awful things, not to
mention an evening's starving, you might tip the scales. Er, not that way;
sociologically.
>
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