My Unsuccessful Marriage

The romance started on one fine summer morning in 2006. I heard a lot about her even before I met her for the first time. At the first glance she looked fine, though not an eye candy. But somehow I liked her, she was certainly better than previous one I had and she was my last hope for a long time relationship. I stood in the Sun nervously and waited the whole day for having a chat with her. We met twice on that day and seem to feel comfortable. And by the evening I came to know that she had accepted me as her partner. I was jubilant. That evening our marriage got fixed for August 2007.

She had two pre-conditions before our marriage. One was that she wished to test my skill for the first two months after we get married. I am a potent person and I was confident for the first test. And since she has come from a conventional family she was a bit wary about my trust towards her. So she wanted me to sign a prenup. It said that if I divorced her before two years I had to pay one time alimony of 1 lakh. It might sound less. But getting the divorce agreement takes 2 months. I was positive about all this. I thought that we will be married for years together. So I agreed for her conditions. In, august 2007, we tied the knot. But the ironical thing is that she was the one who tied the mangalsutra around my neck.

I was 22 and she was 21. So the first two months were really exciting. We had unveiled a lot of mysterious and came to understand each other better. In these two months, I proved my skills and she acknowledged me by saying that I was the best. We spent the entire day together, but it passed in a whisker. It was at this time that she started growing plump. But I didn't care; I was blinded by our romance.

On the third month of our smooth relationship, things started to break apart. She wanted me to stay with her throughout the day. I had to do all her chores by sitting at one place. The food she made tasted like rotten vegetables over raw meat. I was not allowed into the house without the mangalsutra. I also came to know that for every rupee that I give her, she returned me just 10 paise. She took the rest 90% for her own purposes. Purposes unknown, maybe she is spending on cosmetics or on a paramour lover. I just couldn't take all this. For the next six months I was depressed, my blood pressure increased, and I had countless sleepless nights. For the first time, I got frightened of marriages. With my health deteriorating, my parents got more concerned than ever. Though they were skeptic for a few months, they later told me to go for an official divorce. I agreed with them, so that people won’t be blaming me in the future for this broken relationship.

Our official divorce is scheduled on 27th June 2008. She wasn’t reluctant. I think she must have already found her future groom. But 27^th is the day when I will become a bachelor again. I will go back to my parent’s place and I have no desire to look for new brides in the near future.

Nokku Coolie - “We don’t Work, but you still pay”

Bribery always existed in the Indian system (It is actually an universal phenomenon). We have to bribe people at different levels to get our work done or to get our deal across the table. We have accepted it into our system. Nowadays a new practice has started in Kerala under the name “Nokku Coolie”. This is a practice where the worker unions charge you labor costs without doing the work. I had recently come across this practice in an article (May 6-12 Outlook Magazine) where the head-load workers charged the Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Organization for the machinery that was brought in. Machinery that would weigh in tons and cannot even carried by the laborer.

Initially Nokku Coolie was considered as a sort of compensation for the opportunity lost due to automation coming in, but now it is a daily practice in Kerala. It was only recently that the government got concerned with this ludicrous practice. I have read a blog by SR Nair where he praises the beauty of this practice and calls it smart work . But I somehow feel that this practice will eventually curtail the growth of the state (No offence to SR Nair, its his view, and his article is well crafted). Many cashew-processing companies have already shifted their operations from Kerala to Tamil Nadu where the wage levels are low. In one of the case, the government had an overhead cost of Rs.3000 per laborer for installing turbines, each weighing 80 tons with the help of a crane in a windmill farm. The above two examples tells us the negative impact of such a practice. All this leads us to one question. What is the exact purpose of labor unions? Are they doing the right thing by charging Nokku Coolie?

Labor unions existed as early as the eighteenth century with their objective as protecting their members by providing them various benefits. Benefits like better wages, working environment, working hours, medical insurance etc. And it has been observed over the years that an union member gets a higher pay then his contemporary non union member because of the political strength that vests in the hands of the unions. For e.g. A Canadian Labour Union member earns $5 more per hour ( www.canadianlabour.ca ).

With this background on the purpose of labor unions, let us look into the second question. Are they doing the right thing? Labour unions have always been accused of benefiting the inside workers when compared to the unemployed. A second criticism is that labor unions play a monopoly and has the same negative effects as any other monopolies I.e. raising prices and decreasing efficiency. The Nokku Coolie is clearly an example of the second case. The monopoly that is created by the worker unions in Kerala has lead to increase in operations cost, in turn increasing the production cost and leading to a decrease in efficiency. As it is having a negative effect on the economy, I shall hold that Nokku Coolie isn’t the correct practice.

And now the inevitable question arises. What is the alternate source of income for these workers? And this is where we reach a dead lock. If I knew the solution or indeed if the government knew the immediate solution, Nokku Coolie would have never existed. A long term solution might be that whenever there are new manual labor intensive jobs available, the government might give these people a priority on hiring. But, will any worker be willing to leave this haven of “no work, but get paid”. I leave this task of convincing people and get them working to Pinarayi (CPI-M leader) and the CM of Kerala, V.S. Achuthanandan.