That last kaDi-pattaa

That last kaDi-pattaa

I'm a militant opponent of food wastage at meals. From a young age, it was drilled into me that one should not waste food, that one shall endeavour to have a clean plate at the end of a meal, and that to achieve these goals, one shall only take as much as one needs. The lessons evidently have struck home, and I usually eat everything, right down to the last curry leaf. The people who have to wash the plates at the place where I eat lunch daily must surely want to give me a medal. The food in front of me has just had a severe vote of no-confidence if I leave it behind.

Others around me are not so kind. Particularly at buffet lunches where people invite F&B on to their plates with the courtesy of a cruise yacht's captain, only to turn into an uninterested Pune shopkeeper in the afternoons. I watch in horror as people, with hardly a second thought, put down their spoons, forks and fingers aside while leaving morsels untouched. Admittedly, the food isn't always great in public canteens and lunch cafeterias, but that is no excuse for alighting from the gravy train leaving a mess behind. I have been known to give people, especially in the last couple of years, a torrid time over wasted jam and butter at tiffin-time on the principle that if you can't even predict the amount of jam you need on your toast, then what do you really know?

Anyway, the point of this post is this article wondering whether abolishing trays will reduce wastage. I think not. The only economic disincentive I see is to make people pay by weight for the food that they waste at the end. Very simple. It's hard on the eaters when the quality of the food varies from day to day, but then perhaps you should find a different place to eat. (I told you I am a bit of a radical.)

Nano and the elite

Nano and the elite

In the Sunday TOI today, Swaminathan Aiyar analyses the opposition of many environmentalists to the Tata Nano, saying that "Elite greens own cars, but cannot stand the poorer masses becoming mobile, since the consequent congestion will eat into the time of the elite! More logical would be a protest against big cars that use more space and fuel, or highly polluting old cars. Instead, green hypocrites aim at a new car with the lowest cost, best mileage and least emissions."

Though I broadly agree with him, I don't understand how the "elitism" argument can be avoided with some of the "solutions" that he mentions as having been implemented in other places. These solutions revolve around making the use of cars unaffordable, such as making parking costly, allowing purchase of cars only to those who own private parking spaces, making fuel costs reflect their real value and so on. These will definitely deter people from using cars, but in these conditions, who are the people who will still be willing to shoulder that extra burden - again the rich and elite, right?

There are so many dimensions to this problem: pollution, public transport, traffic congestion, public spaces, to name a few. It would have been really revolutionary had the Tatas come up with a feasible electric car (Top Gear didn't think much of the REVA). That would still not have solved the congestion issue. Deterring people is fine, but what is the alternative? I don't like using a car in a place like Pune, whose narrow baby-roads are not meant for heavy traffic, and would love public transport successes of the likes of Indore (friends from Indore also confirm this) being replicated here. But it still seems to be a far cry away. Perhaps the situation will get so bad that the governments at all level will be forced to act.

Finally, there's the problem of aspiration: to many, on par with going abroad is the feeling of owning a car, a psychological boost to their ego. How do you decouple that from the economic burdens of a car, however small?

Baba Bangaali Inc.

Baba Bangaali Inc.

Marginal Revolution had a post about a new firm called Stick where you can set a goal as well as the consequences for not achieving it. Since I had recently seen Anurag Kashyap's "No Smoking" (about a man who signs up with a mysterious agency designed to help smokers quit with bizarre penalties), it seemed very similar to the idea - only you voluntarily set the outcomes.

Thought it would make an interesting kernel for a story. I then read the comments on the above post, which mentions "Quitters Inc." (Stephen King) which has been cited as the basis for "No Smoking", and also another related book called "Kill Me" (Stephen White). I guess the David Fincher-Michael Douglas film "The Game" also visits similar territory.

As a (structured?) procrastinator, I find this whole concept very fascinating!