The past 1 week has kept me really busy with us moving to a new house.
Of the many problems I faced is getting an internet connection. With the course materials and reading being uploaded by the profs online, I am having a tough time in managing myself. The telephone service is so pathetic here, even the worst Indian service providers can be considered far better. How else would I rank them if they take 5 business days to give me an internet connection at my home, that too with the phone jack already available?? The typical North American laziness and the effects of monopolistic market!!
Though the internet company will not have any effect on its “revenues” (MBA effect ???), the impact this delay has on me is that I had to go to the college at least twice a day even during holidays to keep myself updated.
I had three days of holidays (though namesake!!!!) coz of the Canadians celebrated “ Thanks giving “(celebration of the successful harvest season). This is what happened during those 3 days:
Incident 1:
My team scored the highest marks in the team assignment of one of the subject. We are confident of replicating this success in all other assignments also. Kudos teamies!! We decided to celebrate this success over a dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant called “The Host on Prince Arthur”. We ate, we drank, we enjoyed. The result-The bill-a whopping 180$ (7300 INR) for 4 people, including a 20$ (820INR) tip!! An amount with which I could have lived in India for 2 months, super cool. And the tip amount- an average Indian waiter’s monthly salary.
But again I pacify myself with the advise of my friends and seniors-one of the first things which we must not do here is trying to convert everything in Indian rupees and compare!! (hmmmmm…)
Incident 2:
The typical desi gang (me, Kavitha, Manoj, Nishant, Sid and Diwakar) decided to freak out over the long week end, as we felt that this was the last week we could enjoy ourselves before our exams. We went to a near by place called the “Toronto Island”. It has some parks, some artificially created beaches and the place can be reached by a ferry. After ambling for some time and spending some time swinging in julas and strolling along the greens and taking some fotos we decided to call it a day. (The place has lesser interesting things and hence this boring description..:-))
Incident 3:
I had heard people saying that there would be fantastic deals during “thanks giving” and hence I decided to buy myself a black formal blazer. Though I have 2 suites and 1 blazer, I thought of buying once more. I went to a mega mall called “Eaton Centre”. I reached the place at 5:15PM in the evening and then I came to know that the shops there close at 6PM (again monopoly and typical North laziness!!). The mall was full of shops that sell costumes for women (they are shrude..they know where they can make good margins…;-)). Finally when I found a shop that sells blazers it was almost 6PM. I rushed inside and asked the sales person for a blazer. I tried the blazer and I was about to take it, when I looked at the price. It was 485$ = 20000INR (oops..sorry for the conversion again..I am not able to leave this habit easily, though the conversion is justified in this case!!). I did the same thing you would have done. I asked him for a black blazer with less shine. (hehehe..I knew that he would not have it!! ) God Saved!!
Incident 4:
This incident is a reflection of what is happening and an indication of what will happen at a larger scale in another 10 years. I went to a nearby “Dollarshop” (where you get all items for 1$) to buy some house hold items for our new house. The shop had microphones, radios, utensils, crockery, screwdrivers and gloves. All for 1$. All “Made in China”. I am very sure that at this rate, Chinese products will eat into all other country’s products. The Chinese effect has already had its toll in the Indian market, which is supposed to be another low cost source. But let me accept that India can stand nowhere to China in costs. The ratio of costs to produce a product in China to rest of the world must be alteast 1:10 and between China and India must be atleast 1:3. Thanks to innovation and the intellectual Indian power- India still rules. When replication is China’s strength, innovation is India’s strength. And both the countries would become the superpowers by 2015 surpassing the current greats of UK and US.
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