The society has given the residents an option of limited timings of water supply or private water tankers. The latter options costs money. And the residents of the society have voted for that option.

So an important question to be asked is how should the payment be distributed? Should it be a flat amount for all flats or should it vary according to the number of residents in each flat? The justification of the latter option is a no-brainer. Larger families are likely to use more water than a family of two individuals.

Now comes the interesting game theory aspect into this problem. People with larger families would oppose the proportionate fee structure while smaller families would oppose a flat fee structure. In each case one of the parties would feel that they have been given a raw deal.

Now assume that the flat fee structure is adopted. This means that the smaller families will be disgruntled since they are paying a per capita higher rate than the larger families. Thus they will indulge in wasteful water usage to compensate for the higher fee. The larger families will use at least an amount minimum to their needs. However its more likely that they would be a little careless in using water as they are being subsidised by the smaller families. Overall this leads to wasteful water usage for the entire society.

Now let’s assume that the variable fee structure is imposed based on the number of residents in each flat. Here the reverse would happen. The larger families would be disgruntled and would spend water in a wasteful manner while the smaller families would use at least the minimum share of the water. Overall this option too leads to a wasteful usage of water.

Both these options seem to result in wastage of water. So what then is the optimal distribution of payment? Is there a better way of distributing water? The best option which comes to my mind is to implement a water meter system which tracks the actual usage of water (which may be of course more cumbersome and expensive to implement)

Let’s see what the society management comes up with. Till then out with the buckets and drums to store all the water.

Posted from my mobile: Please excuse grammar and typos.
UPDATE: Well, my society decided not to get into the nitty-gritties of Game Theory and adopted the first option instead! Limited water supply from now on. So much for trying to explain Game Theory to them.

Here are some excerpts from the report. By 2030, in India:-

* 590 million people will live in cities. This is twice the population of the US today

* 70% of net new employment will be generated in cities

* 68 cities will have population of 1 million plus. The whole of Europe has only 35 such cities today.

* 700-900 million sqmetres of commercial and residential space needs to be built. That is equivalent to building a new Chicago or two Mumbais every year!

* 7400km of metros and subways will need to be constructed, which is 20 times the capacity added in the past decade.

* Five large states – Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab will have more people living in cities than in villages.

* Private car ownership would increase, shortcomings in the transportation infrastructure have the potential to create urban gridlock.

* The road transportation gap will rise from 210 thousand lane kms to 440 thousand lane kms. (Yipee, more traffic jams for the same price)

Yes, India’s cities are growing at a rapid pace, and people are migrating to big cities. The most important question now is whether the government is up to it. Is the government going to create PPP models for developing urban infrastructure? Is it going to go the China way by creating SPVs? Or will it twiddle its thumbs while India wastes away its demographic divided? Profound questions the answers to which will be more profound.

PS. Is it ironic that I’m writing this while I’m stuck in a traffic jam?

Mumbai Bombay

]]> http://www.insearchofnirvana.in/2010/04/mumbai-vs-bombay/feed/ 2 http://www.insearchofnirvana.in/2010/04/why-should-i-wear-a-helmet/ http://www.insearchofnirvana.in/2010/04/why-should-i-wear-a-helmet/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:19:40 +0000 Nirvana http://www.insearchofnirvana.in/?p=624 First a short background. Tonight our car got towed. This was when we were having a dinner consisting of dosai and idlis. Not only was the food bad, we were in for a rude shock when we saw another car parked where we had parked our car. We did a double check, walked through the entire parking lot just to make sure but then reality sank in. The car was gone. It had been towed.

Now to cut a long story short, we got the car back after paying the requisite fine. But while paying the fine, I saw at least 10 other towing receipts in front of me. A quick back on the envelope calculation follows:-

Let’s assume 16 receipts per day (probably up to 20). 16 * 300 = 4800Rs. 4800 * 30 = Rs1.44 lakhs. Assume 30 police chowkis in Mumbai. Rs30 lakhs per month to the Mumbai pandus. Wonder how much of this goes in to their stomachs.

But while researching traffic rules, I stumbled upon this gem of a FAQ. The Mumbai police explaining traffic rules to inquisitive questioners. The helmet section is a hoot. Check out this question for instance:-

Question: Why must I wear a helmet?

When man was created, he was quipped with a skull to protect his brain. This original protection measure ” set-up” was effective in the then soft environment which was man’s normal habitat’. As man evolved, he started by taming the horse, as he outgrew the speed capability of the horse, he began searching for faster modes of travel. He first developed the steam engine, followed by the internal combustion engine and then the turbine. Man, while he has succeeded in propelling himself at speeds that would have scared his ancestors, has also changed his surroundings to hard unyielding surfaces both horizontal and vertical.

Unfortunately, he has not been able to transform himself to the protective needs of his new lifestyle and environment. The helmet is, therefore, necessary and just a link in the long chain of safety equipment and counter measures man has to use in his present surroundings.

Lol. Talk about beating the bush. The author of this FAQ would make a good consultant. Read the entire Mumbai traffic police FAQ at your leisure.

For instance, this is what the lady had to say while quoting her rates.

Rs 400 – Washing clothes (assuming 4 people)
Rs 600 – Washing utensils, drying them and placing them in the cupboard (400 for washing and 200 for drying)
Rs 400 -Jhaadu pocha.
Rs 400 – Dusting furniture (excluding windows)
Rs 200 – Cleaning windows.
Rs 200 – Cleaning bathrooms.

That works out to around Rs 2200 for a month’s worth of work. And oh yes, before I forget, here’s the clincher – the paid-leave clause. The lady is expected to take 2 days of leave per month. But if she doesn’t, you have to give her that two days’ worth of pay.

Wow, even I have never gone into such a level of detail during my salary negotiations. Maybe this is not a bad strategy to adopt. After this level of detail, you just don’t have any room left for negotiation. You pick what you want to get done, and do the rest yourself. Obviously the wife isn’t too thrilled about this.

Let’s see, hoping the previous maid resolves all her family problems and returns. Else it is time to tighten the purse strings and make some difficult choices.

Day One (25 Jun 09) - Left an umbrella in the auto rickshaw. May God provide shelter to a umbrella-less person.

Day Two (26 Jun 09) - The back up umbrella I have fails to keep me dry in the rain last Friday. Got drenched from head to toe in my walk from Jogeshwari to the WE highway. Incidentally, this umbrella was bought from Gurunath stores in IIT Madras. Evidently, umbrellas manufactured in Chennai cannot protect you in the Mumbai rain.

Day Three (29 Jun 09) - A new umbrella bought for 200 bucks. In the second use, the bottom handle of the umbrella goes flying into the air. Stuck with a half-broken umbrella. It seems the Rain Gods are determined to keep me wet through this monsoon.

Day Four (30 Jun 09) – A relatively dry day. Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) takes up centrestage. Finally opened in 2009 (as opposed to a planned date in 2004) at a cost of around Rs 1600 crore (at around 5 times its original budget). And to think my boss cribs about my project running a month late. But I’m not complaining (about the BWSL). Mumbai needed a monument like this since a long time. Now the only thing to see is how the police manage to protect this structure.

This infograph shows the revenue earned by the weighing machines installed on Mumbai suburban railway stations. Figures are in Rs lakhs (100,000). Further more each machine takes one rupee coin to issue your weight. So this is where all the one rupee coins have disappeared. What’s more, Mumbai’s weighing machines earn more than me.

Last week I had gone to Juhu beach with a few relatives. Those of you who have been there would know about the popular eating area near the beach – most of them making Indian snacks like pani puri, pav bhaji etc. One item which is very famous is the baraf gola. Roughly translated as ice candy, it consists of ice scraped into small bits and then stuck together on a stick. This is then dipped into a thick, sickly sweet syrup of different flavours. Everything ranging from orange, malai, kala khatta, green mango etc is available. The syrup mixture is stored in previously used – and hopefully cleaned – liquor bottles. Still crowds flock there every day to enjoy a moment with their family, friends on the beach and to relish the delicacies being served there.

Now a very interesting thing happens especially in the evenings and night time. There are around 20-30 of these stalls, and each of them sell the same thing (Truth be told, even the food from each stall tastes the same) And since there are a large number of sellers and buyers, the area models a perfect competition. Now since it is a market economy, the forces of supply and demand are bound to work. And that is what is interesting. To attract the customers and survive in the long run, they play the price game. First of all, each stall will have an “employee” carrying a menu card and calling you to try out the food at their stall. Sometimes fights happen when customer are “poached” away from a rival stall. In this market, the customer is king. All you have to do is to go to any stall and ask them how much are they willing to give discount. They will come close and whisper their answer in your ear. And then by haggling some more, you can further reduce the price by a few bucks.

But I wonder the same thing would work in the day time. There are less customers so the pressure on the stall owners to get whatever little of the share would be higher. So do they offer even more discount in the daytime? That is one thing I have yet to discover. So if anyone of you find yourself on Juhu Beach under the bright sunlight, do observe and comment on the supply demand scenario at that time.

Twelve water bottles – Rs 144

Four vegetarian biryanis and one omelet – Rs 181

Six samosas, three teas and two coffees – Rs 60

Anti-nuisance money for chakkas- Rs 30

Reaching aamchi Mumbai after 22 long hours in the train – Priceless

There are some people who can fly, for everyone else there’s Indian Railways.

View more of the Priceless ads by Mastercard here.

Every terror attack now comes as a predictable sequence of events. The attack happens, the PM condemns the attacks, so does the Home Minister. There is a probe set in. And we await the results. Until the next terror attack. Is the government asking for ‘A Wednesday?’ The worst thing is that people will hail and salute the ’spirit of Mumbai.’ Mumbai will again wake up tomorrow as if nothing had happened. The spirit of Mumai? What a load of bull. It is not the spirit which brings it back to its feet, but apathy. Apathy towards the condition of the common man. The familiar reactions are ‘We were not affected by it. Why should we stop going about our daily lives?” “I have 4 mouths to feed, I have to go to work.” “Who can postpone the inevitable?” Is this what the spirit of Mumbai is all about? Turning a blind eye to the daily sufferings of fellow citizens.

Tomorrow the spirit of Mumbai should not wake up. It should instead take a long vacation. And it should not come back until the government has taken concrete measures to protect its citizens from such blatant attacks. The whole of India needs to think hard and long, are we safe in our own country? Am I alive today just by luck? Where is the safety of the common man who may get gunned down anytime due to the lackadasial approach shown by the authorities time and again.

Change was required in the US, and the people voted. A bigger change is required here. The message we need to send out to the government is we do not want you to give any condolences. We do not want you to condemn the attack. We want action. Can the government guarantee that?

Updates (Saturday)
* This attack has turned out to be one of the worst and boldest terrorist strikes in the country. It shows yet another glaring failure of the authorities to ensure safety for the common man. The impunity with which terrorist can come and attack any city in the country is shameful on our part.

* The PM has invited the ISI chief to help in the investigations! Cmon which world are you living in? Calling the people who have trained and helped to propagate these terrorists will in no measure help the investigation. The Indian government should stop being diplomatic about it and start calling a spade a spade.

* A sincere salute to the ATS officers, the MARCOS unit and above all the NSG commandos who handled the whole situation with the expertise and competence expected of them. Wish the same could be said for our inept politicians.