Pay to use plastic, but it’s a Go-Green tax !

To Go-Green is the latest fad, at-least in the many shopping centers or what we call malls.  I will definitely, say this has been largely forced down their throats by the ever so vigilant (well they just woke-up now) Bangalore City Corporation. BBMP or the City Corporation suddenly realized that plastic covers which are thin in nature are causing some problem now, or will cause problem later to the environment, hence they ordered that all shops must use polythene bags that are over 40microns thick. For years, all knew it, but the corporation bosses of this great city never thought, it’s a must to have this rule implemented. Anyhow, the managed to implement and the Shops & Establishments are now pressed to follow it

So coming to what I had to say… I have been since the inception of this rule paying at every shop to get a plastic bag. Some or  most shops charge a nominal 1 Re, but the charges vary 3, 5, 2 etc. I asked a Showroom that sells branded clothes, as to what this money is helping them with, the cashiers reply was ‘Sir, its to discourage usage of plastic bags’. Did I need to know more ?, ah well of-course the answer is a profound No, but leaves me to think that ‘ Did I help the cause, by paying a charge but still use the plastic ‘. Really speaking, none of us are helping the Go-Green cause by paying 1 Re to 5 Rs for continuing to use a plastic bag. The bags are still around, they are being widely flaunted around, largely distributed by the shops… so what’s the fun

In all, what was once free, is now charged, which means the stores have passed on the burden of a plastic cover totally onto the consumer. The bags were always flashy and it still is, they were always of the same size and it still is. So the Corporation’s green rule has become good for the stores, they rake in additional money.

We pay and use the plastic, but its for a Green cause !

UnChartered Territory - Don Moen

Supply & Demand

 

India is on a race to be the most populated country in this world. Its literally an Abundance …err.. of people though. Most HR people will only be more than happy to see more heads around

Last week i had to take a print of some documentation and since my home printer wasn't working, had to get the prints from a cyber cafe. The dingy little place and its smaller cubicles was least to say crowded. Many youngsters waiting for their turn… privacy was lost for some and i could see a lady jeering at a person standing beside her. The best thing i liked about this cafe was that, all their PC’s were so outdated by looks, but the Operating System was the latest Windows 7. The monitor was a 14’ CRT … 100% of zoom on the screen made the fonts look huge size on them. I finally managed to get my hand on a PC after about half hour wait, my prints were fired onto a printer that was connected to the WLAN (!), the printer was a HP Laserjet. Print per copy was charged only at Rs 3

As i was walking out of the shop, i was thinking to myself the way population has outstripped supply in this great country of ours ‘India’. A railway station, bus stand, auto / taxi stand.. .its all filled with people. Railway stations even in a cosmo city like Bangalore are far short of space for the crowds that it was meant to operate with. A city bus is something that you cant step into during peak hours… well you may think the Volvo buses that are operated on premium by the bus corporation has space… no longer are they spacious, regardless of the premium fare collected on them

The cyber cafe when it started was meant for those who knew computers only… now there is hardly any grown-up person who doesn't know computers, so you will find this place always crowded. That's the way India has grown… we have absolutely lost our handle on the resources that need to be to support such a large population

Will a we 2 ours 2 revival help ! ?

puncher angadi

 

Long before the dawn of tubeless tyres and stickers that took no time to stick up a punctured tube, there existed on the roads of Bangalore city small shops that used to do the repairs of punctures. many a bangaloreans would remember them to be the puncher angadi;s { puncher is Puncture and Angadi is Shop }

We don’t find them anymore and i would imagine, its yet another roadside easy trade that has been eaten away by the developments in technology. These shops used various mechanisms to ready a damaged tube. Let me just step them out…

1. Remove the tyre from the vehicle [ any vehicle ]
2. Separate the tube from the tyre
3. Fill the tyre with air to spot the puncture
4. Soak the tube into a bucket of water, then turn the tyre its complete circumference
5. Use a chalk piece to mark the spots from where air leaks and produces bubbles in the water
6. Dry the area marked out on step 5
7. File the area to create a rough patch
8. Application of the puncture fix [ different types ]
• Cut a small tube piece that will fit the size of the puncture, apply a gum / solution onto the area and stick the cut piece. Which is then kept under a vice and a small fire lit under the vice’s base to heat up the solution and enhance the sticking
• Stick the ready-made sticker
9. Check the tyre for the object that caused the puncture, remove it and then spray some powder [most often its the common talcum powder] into the tyre
10. Fit the tube back into the tyre, fill it with air up to the specified pressure

In 8a the vice plates later on started coming with a electric heated plate. In 9 the air filling used to be with those pumps that had to be operated with the leg, which then became motorized

The shops operated in dingy spaces on the road and were almost dark in color with all the fire and its smoke… these days, you find the MRF’s tyre center which are much posh but more or less doing similar activities and are more machine dependant… yet costly