The early morning was peaceful sans the useful noise of fast moving vehicles, screeching brakes and long drawn out, irritating horns. It was due to the dawn-to-dusk strike called by the all-party trade unions protesting against the oil price hike and they'd advised motorists from getting their private vehicles on the roads as an expression of solidarity with the strikers!
(a) In my Chevy.
As is the current practice, I'd taken my Chevy for going to work and I'd a couple of guys who'd wanted to
hitch a hike, fearing retribution of sorts from the strikers. Thankfully, there were no such unsavoury incidents
mainly because I was in uniform and also, more importantly, there's a police station half way on the route
that acts as a deterrent! The speeding private buses, the zigzagging autorickshaws and pick up trucks with
loads were thankfully off the roads.
And the strikers were magnanimous, in that, they'd offered a Nelson's eye to the motorists who ventured out
on their vehicles. The net result was that many of the two wheeler riders and a few cars zipped past
uncomfortably, drawing butterflies in one's stomach. All in all, a peaceful strike and thank god and of course,
the strikers for minor mercies!
(b) Things are a changing.
Happened to come across the extracts of the National Economic Census 2012-'13 which takes a complete
count of all establishments located within the geographical boundaries of the country. Further, an
establishment is defined as 'a unit or an economic entity situated in a single location where one kind of
economic activity is carried out such that at least a part of the goods or services produced by the unit is
sold'. The last such census was carried out in 2005.
With technological innovations, more capital intensive industries are coming up to displace the traditional
ones that largely depended on skills.
A couple of curious and sharp changes that have occurred over the past seven years are:-
(i) STD/ISD/Local call facilities have largely been rendered redundant by the advent of the cellphones.
The traditional booths that provided those facilities have been replaced by the mobile recharge shops!
(ii) Skilled workers writing number plates of vehicles are being increasingly substituted by units that
use sticker cutting machines!!
So, we're making great strides ahead absorbing the galloping technology to our advantage, eh?
Tailpiece.
Another day when Kerala was paralysed in certain areas thanks to the strike - the children had an unscheduled holiday, running errands for the common man was a difficult proposition and what one would like to know is as to what has been achieved in the end. To me, it defies logic!
(a) In my Chevy.
As is the current practice, I'd taken my Chevy for going to work and I'd a couple of guys who'd wanted to
hitch a hike, fearing retribution of sorts from the strikers. Thankfully, there were no such unsavoury incidents
mainly because I was in uniform and also, more importantly, there's a police station half way on the route
that acts as a deterrent! The speeding private buses, the zigzagging autorickshaws and pick up trucks with
loads were thankfully off the roads.
And the strikers were magnanimous, in that, they'd offered a Nelson's eye to the motorists who ventured out
on their vehicles. The net result was that many of the two wheeler riders and a few cars zipped past
uncomfortably, drawing butterflies in one's stomach. All in all, a peaceful strike and thank god and of course,
the strikers for minor mercies!
(b) Things are a changing.
Happened to come across the extracts of the National Economic Census 2012-'13 which takes a complete
count of all establishments located within the geographical boundaries of the country. Further, an
establishment is defined as 'a unit or an economic entity situated in a single location where one kind of
economic activity is carried out such that at least a part of the goods or services produced by the unit is
sold'. The last such census was carried out in 2005.
With technological innovations, more capital intensive industries are coming up to displace the traditional
ones that largely depended on skills.
A couple of curious and sharp changes that have occurred over the past seven years are:-
(i) STD/ISD/Local call facilities have largely been rendered redundant by the advent of the cellphones.
The traditional booths that provided those facilities have been replaced by the mobile recharge shops!
(ii) Skilled workers writing number plates of vehicles are being increasingly substituted by units that
use sticker cutting machines!!
So, we're making great strides ahead absorbing the galloping technology to our advantage, eh?
Tailpiece.
Another day when Kerala was paralysed in certain areas thanks to the strike - the children had an unscheduled holiday, running errands for the common man was a difficult proposition and what one would like to know is as to what has been achieved in the end. To me, it defies logic!
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