Jitu

Today again shoutings could be heard from a crowd gathered in front of the Main Building of IISc. Something like 2 months ago the union of IISc employees were on a strike to protest for higher wages. It lasted for around 2 weeks and caused lots of inconvenience to the faculty and students. However since a few days many employees could be seen wearing a small black pennant giving the impression that someone has died. Today I came to know that the black pennant was a warning to the administration to fulfill their demand otherwise it will result in the already mentioned strike.

Most interesting is their demand: This year the IISc became 100 years and therefore some special events were organized such as the Centenary Conference with many interesting academic topics in December 2008. The union believes that due to the uniqueness of this birthday, the members have the right for a gift for all employees. The administration agreed to gift Rs.3,000 to each of them, but in their opinion it is way not sufficient. They want to have at least Rs.25,000 (around EUR380). Any more wishes? Maybe a car or a new house? Since the administration did not listen to their demand for a good reason (what prevents them to go on strike again for the next whatsoever minor issue?), they went on a strike.

Suprisingly there is some analogy between this union and a 3 year old child. If a boy of that age sees e.g. a teddy bear in a shopping window, he will start crying and shouting till he “convinced” the parents to buy it just to keep him silent. Same here: If the demand is not fulfilled, they strike. And so far the best thing is not even mentioned: All those workers are government employees, so they cannot be fired. So no matter what they do, they do not loose anything. I would also like to have such a carte blanche.

By the way, if the same action is taken by students, very fast the threat comes up that the participating students loose their degree, if they continue.

[UPDATE:] I forgot to mention that strikers demanded either Rs.25,000 or 25 grams of gold. That actually suggests that 1 gram of gold is worth Rs.1,000. Ok, a little bit math: 25 grams is almost one ounce (28,3 grams) and 1 ounce is currently worth around $950. $1 equals Rs.45. So they wanted to have Rs.25,000 or around Rs.40,000. Not bad this stragety.

.

If you have to send some private goods from Germany to India or to a distant country in general, you would send it through DHL. Despite the fact that DHL promises to deliver the parcel to India within the next 14 days, it might take up to 1.5 months (as I already experienced). In addition you need to fill out the customs declaration form.

So far my experiences with DHL are very bad. One parcel did not arrive at all, one parcel has been opened and resealed again with another duck tape. One third of the content of three other parcels is missing. When I gave the parcels which were wrapped in thick and strengthened cardboard boxes, to the post office, they were in the shape of a box. When I picked them up in India 1.5 months later (I moved to India), they were 3 blue plastic bags. The boxes themselves got missing. Since February 2008 the complain is running. In the meantime I am a very regular visitor of the post office and the post master. Despite the complains, nothing moves and DHL is in a very nice position, telling “If you have any trouble, you have to approach the local post office of the destination.” all the times.

However, if you sent your parcel as letter, there is no such problem. A letter arrives within 3 days, no custom declaration is required and so far, all my “letters” arrived save, sound and especially unopened. In Germany an international letter can be of the size of length+width+height=90cm (with no side exceeding 60cm) and a weight of up to 2kg. If you sent only up to 1kg, you even pay less postage compared to the parcel “service” provided by DHL.

.