That week in Sri Lanka

There's something about photographs. They have this uncanny ability to bring back the people you were with, the conversations you had, the sounds that surrounded you and the feeling that defined the moment. And somehow, I can't think of many photographs which make me sad. Most just fill me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Now that could be because we tend to click photos when we are happy and not when we are sad. But I also think, it's because our mind selectively chooses to remember the good parts and forget the not so good ones. For instance, looking at a photo with a bunch of friends at shack on the beach, one remembers the conversations, the breeze, the beautiful sunset, maybe even the music that played but rarely do we remember the bad service or the noisy people on the neighboring table or the wave that splashed and damaged your phone.

So, there's something about photographs, which brings back a bunch of feelings and the right ones. And I've really wanted to post about the trip to Sri Lanka for a while now. Also, I'm feeling kinda lazy. Also, Sri Lanka is beautiful. So, here we go -

This was my first glimpse of Sri Lanka. Quite literally. We landed at about 9 pm at Colombo. Got into a cab straight from the airport and landed at Kitulgala where we were to raft the next day. This was the sight that greeted us when we woke up in the morning. 

This was a pit stop we took on our way to Nuwara Eliya. The view was so good, you could see layers and layers of mountains and a lake long into the distance, we wished we could have just stayed there.

We did a hike known as the 'World's end' in Nuwara Eliya. This picture was what we saw as we were beginning the hike. Flat plains on both sides extending as far as we could see. The hike alternated between flat plains like above and rainforests. And finally after about a 4 km hike we reached the end of the plateau to see the 'World's end'. 

Honestly, I wasn't very impressed with the view and I made it quite clear to everyone when I proclaimed quite clearly in English "This view isn't too impressive, na?" causing about two dozen other people to turn around! This was basically the end of the plateau, and one could see the valley extend ahead. Clouds had descended into the valley and it's said that on a clear day one could see as far as the sea. Clearly, the day we chose wasn't clear.

As we continued the hike after seeing the 'World's end', we passed along this waterfall. What I really loved about this view was the bright blue sky. The color of the sky was the textbook blue that you read about and the poster color blue that I used to paint the sky as a kid. 

After Nuwara Eliya, we spent some time in the forests of Sinharaja. Sinharaja was quite an experience. There was no mobile network. Just one landline in the whole resort that worked. That too, only intermittently. We went on some jungle trails, jumped into some natural pools and waterfalls and saw a surprisingly large number of colorful but dangerous looking spiders. The other amazing thing about Sinharaja was the food. This was probably the only place where we had some authentic Sri Lankan cuisine. We had some coconut filled pancakes, omlettes, curries, dry chutneys and loved it all!  

I can't seem to find many pictures of the two days we spent there. Probably an indication that it was good enough to keep us so engaged that we forgot to click pictures! 

After the forest of Sinharaja we headed straight to the beach! We were staying at a relatively small place called Hikkaduwa. This was the place where the waves splashed and got us drenched. Thankfully they didn't get our food, like they did to a few unlucky tables. 

The beach was beautiful. Showed us a beautiful sunset and a beautiful sunrise the next day. 

We made a half-day trip to this quaint little town called Galle, which has a cricket stadium, a fort and a bunch of absolutely cute looking eating places, like this one here. Our evening in Galle was also interesting - we did a little bit of a cycle ride to go around the town, again witnessed a beautiful sunset and went through a couple of hours of a pan-country electricity cut-off.

So that was a glimpse of how Sri Lanka looked to us. I am going to sign off with a shout out to the bunch that really make these photos and memories come to the life! I hope we do more of these, guy!

What's wrong with the increasing reach of free markets?

Over the past half century or so, there has been a definite increase in the reach of free markets and in its vociferous proponents. More and more things have come to be ruled by the power of the market. There are indeed only a few things money can’t buy. That sounds bad, but really what’s so wrong with it? 

Economics of time

When more and more things are governed by the ‘free market’, essentially more and more can be bought by money. The result is that money becomes more and more important and one starts measuring every activity in economic or monetary terms. For instance, it makes economic sense for me to take a cab rather than drive, if the work that I can do in the cab in the time that I would have spent driving myself is worth more than the extra cost of the cab as compared to driving my own car. The risk of this direction of thinking is that it dissuades people from performing any daily chores that are typically mindless and can be outsourced at little cost, such as cleaning the house, washing utensils and now even arranging one’s own cupboard. The very fact that there is such a profession as wardrobe arrangers tells, apart from the obvious hypothesis that we have become lazier than ever before, the extent to which we are now so taken over by the idea of making every waking moment useful. 

An unequal society

These activities, as mindless as they may seem can be a break for our brains. And more importantly, I think they are levelers when everyone has to do them. They ensure that people respect all jobs and consequently respect the people who do those for them. People are strong and weak, rich and poor, educated and illiterate but there need to be some things that remind them that they are all human, all members of the same society and there are some things they have an equal right to. So when, everyone has to go out and throw their own garbage in the trash chute (imagine it is something that can’t be outsourced, you can’t ask your maid to do it) it’s an equalizer. 

The growing divide

When everything is determined by money, ones whole quality of life is determined only by how much money one has. The amount of money one begins one’s life with is a matter, of course, of pure chance and that now determines the quality of ones upbringing to an increasing degree. This will then go on to determine how much money this individual has in his or her life, leading to a vicious or virtuous cycle depending on which side of the average you were born in.

How can we break this cycle?

One way is to work towards giving everyone a similar upbringing irrespective of where one is born. This means ensuring that every child has access to quality education, adequate healthcare, sufficient and healthy food, and a healthy and nurturing home. Now no one would argue with that, right? Of course, every child deserves all this. However, this can’t happen if the best schools in our country are private schools and the best hospitals are private hospitals and are consequently governed by the principles free markets.

I am not against the idea of free markets. They have worked in a lot of places and have resulted in efficiency and self- regulation, but let’s be wary of how far we extend their reach. Let's take a moment and think about who and what we leave behind as we praise the freedom and efficiency that the free market promises.

Cabs and the love for free markets

Surge pricing by cab aggregators has attracted controversy many times and in many places. Most agree that surge pricing during natural or man- made calamities is inhumane and insensitive, as it allows people to make money out of someone else’s misery. And this sounds rather repulsive, so that issue is settled rather simply. But when we are talking about regular situations, it sounds legitimate that people should be allowed to make money and profit according to the laws of supply and demand, right? That’s what free markets are all about.

Let’s for some time assume that it’s okay to apply the principle of free markets to cab pricing. If we are applying the principal of free markets then shouldn’t we apply it to everything related to plying cabs? Plying cabs requires the use of public infrastructure such as roads and highways. Maybe all roads, not just highways and expressways should be tolled and the tolls should vary according to the traffic. Plying cabs also imposes cost on the environment by polluting the air. Cars should be taxed according to the pollutants they emit, and the rate of this emission should also be varied according to the number of the cars on the road, as the same amount of pollutants are more harmful when the air is already polluted. If this were to be done, even then, if all the costs were passed on to the consumer, the prices would be more when the demand is higher, but at least the increase in prices would not be as arbitrary as the present model of surge pricing followed by aggregators.

Now let’s look at why the principle of free markets should or should not be applied here.

The free market believes that the ones who can pay the highest amount for a good or service are the ones who value it the most and hence we can bring greatest utility by letting them have that limited resource. First let’s differentiate between willingness to pay and ability to pay. Willingness to pay may still be an indicator of how much one values a certain good, but what we have here is actually ability to pay. Then, is willingness to pay really the best or only way to allocate this resource, assuming its limited? Why shouldn’t it be allocated instead by waiting in a line? Waiting too is a measure of how badly one needs a cab, right? Or why not just leave it to luck, let’s have a lottery to decide who gets a cab?

Cabs are a means of transportation, and transportation is in a way a public good. It is a necessity for people to carry on with their normal business. One can argue that public transportation like trains, metros and government run buses are supposed to take care if the needs of the public. However, public transportation is clearly inadequate in most parts of our country, and private cabs play an important role in bridging that gap. Given this, it should be treated like a public good and prices should be regulated. There is also the possibility that surge pricing may give drivers perverse incentives to create a situation of artificial scarcity. Drivers can go off the Uber grid and then come back when the prices are higher.

All I am trying to say is we really need to rethink our faith in the power of free markets.