Stories for Life
We all love stories and we all grew up hearing stories, countless and each with a message. Each one of us certainly remembers at least a few stories. Few would recall the embedded message. How many amongst us would have internalised those lessons for life?
Two stories that I heard as a child and never forgot growing up were that of the Goose that laid the golden egg and of the greedy dog. The owner of the goose, overcome with greed, tried to rip off everything at one go. Rip off he did, unfortunately of himself. He lost the very source that could easily have been his means of livelihood, sustenance and growth to being rich, surely but slowly. The dog already had something in his secure possession but tried grabbing, a reflection, something well beyond his reach and anyway not his by any claim. In the process he lost forever even what he had.
While scanning today's newspaper I came across a piece of news that reminded me of both the stories together. Reading through the newspaper, I realised that these stories were timeless. It happens everyday, all around us and in different forms. We only have to look around.
Destination Kerala
Kerala has long been marketed as the ultimate tourist destination with the tagline “God’s Own Country”. Blessed with a climate that remains conducive for tourism throughout the year, domestic and foreign tourism can easily fuel a large part of the state's economy. With one of the highest density of allopathy hospitals in the world and as home to countless outlets of traditional Ayurvedic and naturopathy treatment, medical tourism is another area that the government can easily promote to run the local economy. Kerala, if well managed, can give Thailand, Bali and Sri Lanka and other southeast asian tourist destinations a run for their money. Tourism has been a money earner for the state but if indications are to be believed, it is declining.
Mega conferences and melas where ‘Who is Who' of glitterati as brand ambassadors showcase ‘Brand Kerala’ as a sought after tourist destination are not rare. Government proclamations and initiatives are regularly declared to promote each region and locality in the state as a tourist hub. The reality, if the news item is to be believed, seems headed in the opposite direction. It points to a fundamental fault line that has been the bane of Kerala's growth prospects.
Whom Should the Tourist Go With?
Economics
It is common knowledge that each tourist wants to spend the least and have the most. Coaches maintain the integrity of the tourist group, take on guides, some of them have inbuilt toilets, provide better sightseeing facilities and are far more cheaper than taxis. World across, tour operators rely on coaches to ferry tourists. Bigger coach translates to more tourists, easier to manage, fewer guides and better economy of volumes. It keeps prices down for the tourist and ensures better margins for the tour operator.
But taxi operators seem to have nothing to do with the choice of the tourist, his concern for costs or the tour operators' bottom lines. They want coaches to stay away. In the reconciliation meeting, the news item said, they seem to have agreed to split the pie half-half. If their demand is acceded to, tourists will have to forgo the far better and cheaper option. To the tourists it is clearly a rip off. To the practical and cost conscious tourist, it will appear that the union is asking more for the right to rip off than the right to livelihood. Expecting foreign arrivals to abide by the diktats of the local taxi unions is asking too much, especially when equal or better options are not far away.
Economic transactions integral to tourist activity provide impetus to the local economy. Tourism does not limit itself to being money for drivers. It actually energises a lot of small associated businesses. Keeping it cheap ensures high volume turnovers. If the options are available and costs are right, tentacles of economics spinoff spread to other areas, even remotely linked. Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bali are classic examples. If Cruise Liners sail past Cochin, then not just the taxi drivers but the entire ecosystem related to tourism stands to lose.
The stand of the union prima facie seems to be “If for anyone, why not for us?”, apparently harmless. But their demand drives up costs and that is detrimental to business interests and therefore the entire community. It is not the first time that Kerala has lost opportunities because of unreasonable demands by unions. Claims of a friendly industrial climate in the state notwithstanding, many industrialists and entrepreneurs have flagged bitter experiences as truth. But we are either drowned in delusions of denial or we have started believing in the reflections of the narrative we created for ourselves. A third possibility is that the majority has resigned to afflictions as inevitable. Whichever is the truth, it is counterproductive.
Killing the Geese! But Who is the Goose?
Kerala and Kerallites must ask themselves as to why services like Ola and Uber are shunning the state. If it is the opportunity to work and earn that people are looking for, then services like ola and uber that effectively operate world over and take first time visitors without problems should have thrived here too. The domestic requirements especially, that of the ever increasing share of geriatric population in the state, itself should have fuelled growth of such services. It could also have achieved large volumes across the state and provided employment to many locals. The hesitation of most taxi and auto drivers in Kerala to go metered is a well known fact.
Many aspects of the Malayali society's daily life have an abundance of “paise wise and rupee foolish” (replacing the “penny wise - pound foolish”) acts. The abrupt end of the metro at Alwaye rather than finishing it at the airport, is a classic example of foresight akin to institutional blindness. The taxi unions movement to stop or make it difficult for call-taxi operators to operate at the airport is another example. Even the call-taxi operators have joined hands and have found ways and means to rip off subverting the call taxi app. It will provide short term success and gains but in the long run it deals a very bad hand for the local economy. The rip off attitude is not confined to the tourism sector alone. The malice has spread across every segment of the service industry. People, sooner than later, will adopt means to escape being milked.
Whether it is the greed to lay hands on all the golden eggs now and all at once or the greed to grab the bone even if it is only a reflection, the end result is the same; loss. Unfortunately malayalees, much touted as the most educated in India, have neither adopted productive ways nor stood up against such counterproductive steps by unions. Has collective bargaining, once a tool for survival, become a means of coercion?
The question remains
Are we killing the Goose that lays the Golden egg?
And by the way are we not the Geese ourselves ?
