Thursday, October 30, 2008

Market place in Kerala, how we get cheated

From the market , Ramu bought three things. One kilo fish, two kilo vegetables and one kilo jaggery (raw cottage sugar bricks). These were from three different shops. First two vendors had used old balances, with weights. The third one, who sold jaggery had electronic scale.

Once home, for the heck of it, Ramu weighed his purchases. Fish weighed 900 gms, vegetable 1.800 kg and jaggery 1 kg. Yes the electronic balance was correct, and others, were used to overcharge customers by 10 percent.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

How much does it cost to build a house in India?

This is a bit dodgy.
Most people own their own land. Do they?
If they do, one could make a house at around Rs 1000 per sq. feet. (amendment on 23 March, 2012, in four years time, prices have gone up by 50 percent. Now it will cost you Rs 1,500 per sq feet.  So, add 50 per cent to prices shown here under)
Depends on the material needed and used.
Here are some Trivandrum, Kerala, India prices on 30th October 2008

Sand for construction cu ft 1 Rs. 40
Sand for construction one truck load Rs. 8000
M sand (man made sand) cu ft 1 Rs. 35
rock pieces 40 mm cu ft 1 Rs. 25
rock pieces 40 mm truck load Rs. 4500
pcc(plain cement concrete work) cu mtr Rs. 4000
Random rubble ( huge concrete pieces) cu ft 1 Rs. 30
steel rods kg 1 Rs. 50
Sand for filling foundation 200 cu ft one truck load Rs. 2000
clay baked bricks one piece Rs. 4.75
brick wall plastered cu ft 1 Rs. 4200
bricks, clay, 600 ould make a cu ft Rs.
Interlock bricks wallone cu ft cost incl labour Rs. 2750
Concrete slabs cu mtr Rs. 5000
Ready mix cu mtr Rs. 5000
Tile roof with steel frame sq mtr Rs. 100
Tiled room with wood frame sq mtr Rs. 135
roofing tile cheap one Rs. 9
roofing tile dear one Rs. 12
tile costs for area sq mtr Rs. 150
tiles that could be pasted sq mtr Rs. 225
Roofing sheet asbestos/pvc sq ft Rs. 65
Roofing sheet aluminium sq ft Rs. 75
Roofing sheet G I sq ft Rs. 65
Powder coated ms sheet sq ft Rs. 100
Plastering inside walls sq mtr Rs. 150
Plastering outside walls sq mtr Rs. 160
Plastering ceiling sq mtr Rs. 175
Anti termite treatment sq mtr Rs. 70
Red oxide flooring sq mtr Rs. 190
Flooring with terracota tiles sq mtr Rs. 35
Mosaic tile sq ft Rs. 40
Ceramic tile sq ft Rs. 40
Granite slab 2 ft X 1 ft Rs. 200
Vitrified tiles sq ft Rs. 75 to 200
Marble sq ft Rs. 50 to 250
Kotah stone sq ft Rs. 50 and above
Teak parquet flooring sq ft Rs. 250 and above
Oak parquet flooring sq ft Rs. 200 and above
HDF boards flooring sq ft Rs. 100 and above
Wiring costs (fan lights extra) 1000 sq ft Rs. 30000 and above
Plumbing jobs for 1000 sq ft 1000 sq ft Rs. 40000 and above
Closet one Rs. 1000 ആന്‍ഡ് a

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A Community Centre at Alwaye

The Krishna Temple near Alwaye Bank Junction is famous and popular.
I might even believe that Malayalam Film icons Dilip and Manju W,(arrier got married there.
If you can locate this place, go bit west, and you will reach a place called kadathu Kadavu, (ferry area). During Shivaratri, ferries used to transport worshippers and visitors to the sandbanks on the other side of periyar, for conducting prayers and relious rites.
At the kadvu (ferry) there was a park, a triangular one.
One of the generous chairperson (this time it was a woman) decided to build a community hall for the public.
The building is almost done, but remains unused. Apparently, this park was owned by Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and the owners put a stop to furher activity.
Tax payers pay the GCDA and Alwaye Muncipality. Taxpayers should get benefit of the taxes paid.
How to bell the cat. Apparently GCDA is not the main operator in Alwaye and therefore give up the rights on the park.
What do you think? Have you seen such wastage of public money elsewhere. Write on about them and about solutions as well

Freebees with a lap top

This is a story from Muscat
One internationally famous retailer offers freebees along with a lap top.
Free mouse
Free 2GB flash drive
Free MP3 player.
A buyer discovers that the MP3 player has few prerecorded songs, there is no way one could delete them, or add anything to the play list. Not happy with that, but cant complain.
The mouse has some wire on a wheel like part, but no way one can pull it out. Short wire, restricts the movement of mouse.
Tried to use the flash drive, but the operating system warns user to stop intalling .
The buyer, let us call him Subbu, drives 40 kms to lodge a complaint. The sales persons are smart. After all " this was free, so please don't look into gift horse's mouth " was the attitude.
Subbu was not satisfied. "Why dont you look up the web and send an email" was the solution offered.
One would not think that such is the policy of Carrefour, but just bad sales people!
Whether it is Carrefour, Lulu, Sultan Centre or Fairtrade, you all should have better way of dealing with customers.