street vendors and clandestine geometry

clandestine geometry is an interesting term i came across, while reading a book called 'street vendors in the global urban economy'.
an collection of insightful papers by various researchers covering the street vendor ecosystem across the world, primarily in the developing countries.
this term, used by Luciana Itikawa in the article of the same title, uses street maps of urban towns to plot the geometries of various densities and distribution related to the number of vendors at a place, the routes for smuggled goods, metropolitan tradeways etc.
capturing the economic and political synergies that are so closely intertwined with street vending.

i have always wondered the viability of street vending. with each transaction typically being a very small amount, and when the materials sold are perishables, such as food / vegetables etc - the nett take home for the vendor could be very small.

i could relate to the articles about the Indian scenario and found it interesting to note that the systems of political patronage and legal constraints are very similar all over the world.

for example, the municipality laws and the criminal laws [enforced by the police department] are in many points contradictory. that is, what is permitted by the municipality is not legal according to the police. so, technically it is near impossible for a street vendor to conduct business complying with all legal requirements.

then,there are these mafias and coteries that create or in some cases prevent unionization. many of these put women vendors at a great disadvantage. across major cities and towns, it appears that 20-50 rupees per day is paid by each vendor in terms of taxes and protection fees to the goons or the police!
the book has some statistics about not only the business generated by the street vendors per square meter, but also the bribes paid per square meter.
in brazil, for example, the bribe amounts to between 10.5 and 17 % of daily business volume!

there also seem to be an organized system to support these vendors with their supplies on a regular basis. obviously these middle men make more money than the vendors.

with all this, the kinds of goods being sold has also changed.
last weekend, i was in Pondicherry - and while taking a stroll along the ocean front, noticed a very large number of street vendors. this used to be a very peaceful and quiet walk, many years ago. i could find all kinds of wares being sold - from the regular 'chat' stall, to - i guess, pirated - DVDs. there were many chinese LED lit toys that could be catapulted in the air and would return to you, glowing all the while.
but, i could not find what i was looking for - after dinner - some dry roasted peanuts!
the peanuts that were available were the steamed ones, with garnishing of chillies, onion and pudina! while i like it, i was looking for the traditional sand roasted, slated peanuts.
finally i found one - and asked him why he was the only one.
he said that the margins are very low and the vendors prefer to switch to the boiled ones, as they can prepare them at home and the cart is less messy, while, for roasting, he needs the stove, and whoever buys, wants it hot - limiting his business volume.
he also comes there only for the weekends, he said.

the book also has stories of some successful vendors and how they made it, the kinds of challenges they had to overcome - as well as stories of dreams that went bust.

my intrigue about the parallel economy and the empathy for the plight of the street vendors has only increased after this book.

looking at the new entrants to this section, along my usual walking route, reaffirms that this still a financially viable option for many.

(re)cursive writing

i have wondered why children are taught cursive writing in India, while in the US most of the writing practice is to  'print'.
one also finds a lot of variations in the script and handwriting - sometimes possibly influenced by the other - mostly vernacular - language that is also taught.
Indian scripts require a different stroke mechanism, while the Roman script expects the hand and pen to move differently.
and there is no concept of a cursive writing in Indian languages.
nor for that matter, in the typed world.
since most of us type our words using computer keyboards, is there still a place for cursive writing?
one argument that i have heard in favour of cursive writing is that it lets one write fast.
i guess that was ok when everyone was expected to learn typewriting and shorthand!

in writing letters or emails or other notes, a larger amount of time is spent in thinking and formulating our sentences than in the actual writing. so, the benefit of speed is also not all that important.

if it was really that beneficial, why can we all not adopt the shorthand notation and script?
that could be one solution to the multi-lingual requirements of the Indian constitution.

why is this post called recursive writing?
it is writing about writing!

thiruchy junction

Got back from a one day trip to Trichy to attend a wedding.
it was a day of many pleasant surprises.
the first was the A/C waiting lounge at the station.
it was not crowded and fairly clean - at least when we got there. could get a quick bath and get ready.
all for a very nominal fee. surprisingly the lounge was not very crowded.
the next surprise was the auto. found out that they are the same pretty much everywhere these days - trying to make a quick buck, mostly from persons who are new to the city or town. a 4/5 km ride cost more per km than an AC limousine!
it was an early muhurtham - and so had an opportunity to visit a couple of temples - with a lot of history.
the huge and intricate temple of Akhilandeswari and the 'appu' or water lingam - one of the five special lingams dedicated to the five elements in south india. the temple was very clean - and, surprisingly, not crowded.
we were not rushed and could get a close few minutes with the deities.
next was a visit to the 'uchchi pillayar' temple - one of the few hill temples for Ganesha, rather than Karthikeya - in this region.
the thayumanavar temple about three fourths of the way to the top has had a few recent make overs - with paintings and flooring - and is clean!
back at the railway station, had close to 4 hours to kill.
the AC lounge was even less crowded and much cleaner now - as there were persons cleaning it very frequently.
the station was also well maintained and not crowded.
except for the traffic on the roads - which seemed very chaotic, possibly because of two visiting politicians that day.
the last surprise for the day was that there was NO curd rice available at the restaurant or with any of the vendors; as well as no fresh fruits at the station - every shop only had packaged food.

would like to go there more leisurely sometime.