Comments on: It’s the small stuff, stupid (once again)

By: Aditya

Aditya — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:36:00 +0000

Thank you very much, your’s is the only post I have found that has mentioned this. Here’s something I just emailed to my brother:

one of the most ridiculous thing about people living in India is the way they write phone numbers! It is so hard to either remember or even read something written like this: 00919986424523.

First of all, what is 00 is the front? we don’t use 00 when dialing internationally from USA, its used only in India, and some other other countries.

Secondly, you didn’t need to put 91. If I’m calling India, I better already know that the country code is 91. Why make it more complicated?

Thirdly, break the number in three parts like we do in usa. something like this:
998-642-4523

now that’s much easier to read than 00919986424523, isn’t it?

I think I’ll start some campaign over the internet spreading this awareness.

By: shadows

shadows — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 08:59:17 +0000

Atanu,

Again, the Indian way to write cellphone numbers is 5digits space 5digits.

like 98220 98220 (thats Idea Maharashtra customer care.. just in case.. )

By: shadows

shadows — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 08:56:54 +0000

I am very late to comment.. India has one such “911″ system.. Try 112 on your cellphone in case of emergency, it connects to the nearest police station. Also it uses reserve battery power that almost every cellphone or voipPhone has, and you dont even need to unlock your cellphone keypad.

Dont dial, lock your keypad and just dial 112. When you have dialled the 2, the cellphone displays the number and you can press the call key. (Dont do it unless its an emergency though, I tried it and a police guy shouted at me for playing pranks.. I was profusely apologizing )

By: Atanu Dey on India’s Development » And the Address

Atanu Dey on India’s Development » And the Address — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:41:44 +0000

[...] andhi Chowk Residency Road Sadar Nagpur 440013 It’s the small stuff, stupid. And It’s the small stuff, stupid (once again). Finally, The Tathagat [...]

By: Ramchi

Ramchi — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lovely Piece Atanu(as usual,may i add)! I remember when i was in Madras it used to be 100 for police,102 for fire etc. Not only do we need a simplistic system but also a uniform system throughout the country. So if you are from Mumbai and happen to be in Banglore while having an emergency,you don’t wonder which numbers to dial!

‘Intellectual Arrogance’ is one of the main underrated root cause for not adopting better systems that exist in other parts of the world. We can’t grow if we don’t accept the reality. Case in point:India refusing Aid from other countries just to prove a point that it’s a regional power.

By: Gautam

Gautam — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Awesome blog

wonder why I didn’t come across it earlier ?

But now you’ve got a half dozen and one more reader

ciao
Gautam

By: Ramdhan Kotamaraja

Ramdhan Kotamaraja — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If we look at out netas from the time of independence, there are numerous netas who acquired education in western countries. Every year numerous netas go arround the world spending the public money. They experience these simple things in the placed they go, yet why, oh why, they don’t get the idea of adopting these simple techniques in India which makes life easy for everybody. Are they so dumb? I guess its the general ‘Barson se chal rahai hai’ and ‘Chalta hai’ attitude.

I have an idea, some high profile consultants should be hired to look at the system as a whole to find out the stupid things like this and propose solutions. This might draw the attention of netas as the process of hiring consultants will fill their pockets.

By: Anurag

Anurag — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well, don’t think “Intellectual Arrogance” had anything to do with it. We might not, and rightly at that, give our political powers that be the credit for being good, sound economic thinkers, but this one does make sense. Check out http://mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1715 to learn more about foreign aid’s impact.

By: Anurag

Anurag — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well, don’t think “Intellectual Arrogance” had anything to do with the non-acceptance of aid. We might not, and rightly at that, give our political powers that be the credit for being good, sound economic thinkers, but this one does make sense. Check out http://mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1715 to learn more about foreign aid’s impact.

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anurag, thanks very much for the link. The article is absolutely worth reading and pondering over. It almost exactly mirrors my view on the matter. I will write about it one of these days.

[Administrivia: There have been problems with the blog lately. Comments and posts are being duplicated. We are working on resolving the problem. Please bear with us.]