By Binu Alex
What is common between USA and DSK - United States of America and Divided State of Kerala?
I have very little idea of any other facts but one thing that is common is the high labor charges. My brother who is in US does all the work himself – from painting his house to changing car wipers. He says he cannot afford to call a labor because the labor charges are astronomical.
Well back in Kerala, I do the same. I am ready to pay this astronomical charge but there is hardly any labor available. This intensifies after you build a house. The electrician who wired the house is your electrician for life. No body else would enter your premises not because all the electricians are loaded with work, but because they have ideological current passing through them.
“Can you fix a fan here?” I was very nervous as I asked a person whom one of my relatives pointed as the nearest electrician available.
Electrical works in the house was carried out by another one – who stays 32 kilometers away. He refused to come even for finishing what he had left unfinished.
He got selected for the work among a list of five candidates applied because he happened to be a friend and a temporary partner for one of the relatives who called himself an electrician.
Partnership was temporary because it ended the day I called him for finishing the work. Living in Gujarat I never realized that people in Kerala are short sighted. As my house was nearing completion, these partners were loitering around day and night for securing the contract. So much so that they followed me wherever I ventured out. They were very courteous and promised reasonable rates. So ultimately I decided to entrust them the work.
And now I am right in front of another electrician whose looks penetrated me, cut through the wall behind me and landed at the white switch that people call ‘calling bell’.
“Who did the work here?” he interrogated me but I said not to bother and promised to do the rest of the maintenance with him.
“No, it will not work. Then you could have given me the work right from the beginning,” he followed this with local sayings that I did not understand.
Not even bothering to hear an apology from me, he walked past.
So without waiting for anyone else, I managed to touch the roof of the house and fit the fan. But I was not sure which wire went where inside the regulator. I left my electrical experiment at that point.
This trend followed in all the work – from civil, wood to fencing. No body except the original creator of the construction will come forward to work. The originals are unavailable.
And till today, I am trying to convince the originals the need to have a good after sales service. I also call them from my place, some 2000 kilometers away trying to keep them in good humour.
That is because I cannot afford to shoo them away. Unlike in the US where houses are built on materials that can easily be renovated or repaired, I have concretes instead. Here I cannot take risks.
And till this date, I am in search of the souls.
Unedited version 1:2
Incomplete
What is common between USA and DSK - United States of America and Divided State of Kerala?
I have very little idea of any other facts but one thing that is common is the high labor charges. My brother who is in US does all the work himself – from painting his house to changing car wipers. He says he cannot afford to call a labor because the labor charges are astronomical.
Well back in Kerala, I do the same. I am ready to pay this astronomical charge but there is hardly any labor available. This intensifies after you build a house. The electrician who wired the house is your electrician for life. No body else would enter your premises not because all the electricians are loaded with work, but because they have ideological current passing through them.
“Can you fix a fan here?” I was very nervous as I asked a person whom one of my relatives pointed as the nearest electrician available.
Electrical works in the house was carried out by another one – who stays 32 kilometers away. He refused to come even for finishing what he had left unfinished.
He got selected for the work among a list of five candidates applied because he happened to be a friend and a temporary partner for one of the relatives who called himself an electrician.
Partnership was temporary because it ended the day I called him for finishing the work. Living in Gujarat I never realized that people in Kerala are short sighted. As my house was nearing completion, these partners were loitering around day and night for securing the contract. So much so that they followed me wherever I ventured out. They were very courteous and promised reasonable rates. So ultimately I decided to entrust them the work.
And now I am right in front of another electrician whose looks penetrated me, cut through the wall behind me and landed at the white switch that people call ‘calling bell’.
“Who did the work here?” he interrogated me but I said not to bother and promised to do the rest of the maintenance with him.
“No, it will not work. Then you could have given me the work right from the beginning,” he followed this with local sayings that I did not understand.
Not even bothering to hear an apology from me, he walked past.
So without waiting for anyone else, I managed to touch the roof of the house and fit the fan. But I was not sure which wire went where inside the regulator. I left my electrical experiment at that point.
This trend followed in all the work – from civil, wood to fencing. No body except the original creator of the construction will come forward to work. The originals are unavailable.
And till today, I am trying to convince the originals the need to have a good after sales service. I also call them from my place, some 2000 kilometers away trying to keep them in good humour.
That is because I cannot afford to shoo them away. Unlike in the US where houses are built on materials that can easily be renovated or repaired, I have concretes instead. Here I cannot take risks.
And till this date, I am in search of the souls.
Unedited version 1:2
Incomplete
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