Repaying Debt But Putting Up

I found recently that putting up with someone is another way of repaying them or expressing gratitude.

So if you help me and point that out to me and if I hence feel bad and if I don't have a choice but to put up with you because I need those things you do for me then i am simultaneously paying you back by putting up with you. 

For some people, paying back is by being grateful or by putting up.

Additional reading:

https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2019/12/i-am-grateful-to-you.html

Anna And Airtel

Today I received this message from Airtel, an internet and telephony service provider.

Hi, due to a technical issue at our end, your mobile services may temporarily get affected in Adyar. This is not the experience we want you to have. Rest assured, we are on the job to rectify the issue at the earliest - Team Airtel.

I was surprised. And somehow taken back few years down the memory lane when I used to teach fifth graders. There used to be a girl in the class whose milk teeth had fallen and the new ones hadn't yet come back, though she was in the 5th grade. Of course, the curiosity in me got the better of me and I used to ask the girl (in front of the whole class) when she plans to get her teeth back. One day she responded to me thus:

My father said it might take a looong time for my teeth to grow back and that you (meaning I) should just be patient and not inquire about my teeth frequently.

 

It sounded eerily like the message I got today.

Hi, due to a technical issue at our end, your teeth may not grow temporarily. Rest assured, we are on the job to rectify the issue at the earliest - Team Toothfairy.

Both Airtel and Anna found a way to shut me up by just acknowledging their problem but without a specific date commitment.

We Don't Recognise Jio

The pandemic hit us in March 2020. Since then our professional life has become all virtual and from home. Even for young students, it's all online classes.

This post is about such students. India has about 23 crore students studying in class 1 to 12 (from https://www.mvorganizing.org/how-many-students-are-there-in-india-2020/).

Assuming 40% of them belong to the lower income group (LIG), the number of such students from LIG would be about 9 crore students. 

Imagine if the pandemic had hit the world 5 years back in 2016. India didn't have Jio then. 

Jio disturbed the internet scene in India. It's because of Jio that India has a tariff of about Rs200 (USD 3) for a month of unlimited calls to anywhere in India and about 1.5GB data per day. And it's because of Jio that other ISP's telecoms had to follow suit with similar pricing and in the end most got such a financial battering that they had to exit the business. 

For some prospective on data cost see: (though figures don't seem to be accurate)

https://www.ibtimes.co.in/india-ranks-lowest-global-mobile-data-cost-thats-great-news-heres-how-839072

The figures for India and Pakistan are given below. 

Rs 6 /GB in India

Rs 17/GB in Pakistan (from a friend)

Rs mentioned in this post refer to INR only. 

(https://www.phoneyear.com/pakistan-has-the-second-most-expensive-mobile-data-rates-south-asia/)

As I mentioned earlier, there is an estimated 9 crore young students whose parents would be in the lower income group. These are possibly children of auto drivers, milkmen, housemaids and such.

Imagine online classes for them - meaning getting used to internet, getting a smart phone, using internet data for online classes. All these has been possible for at least some fraction of those 9 crore students

Because of Jio, a good percentage (I don't know exactly how much) has been able to continue their studies online. Of course a lot depended on whether their family had or lost their source of income. But if the family could afford their school fees and books, Jio made attending online courses very possible.

Had the pandemic hit us 5 years earlier where would those students have been?

Take Pakistan in comparison where internet costs are comparatively higher. Imagine what their LIG students are going through. Those students are likely much worse off than their Indian counterparts.

Thanks, Jio. 

Disclaimer:

The author has nothing to do with Reliance and they were not paid anything by the company.

Additional reading:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/02/coronavirus-india-school-closures/