India is a feast for the senses. The sounds and smells are especially memorable. One of my favorite sounds comes from fruit and vegetable vendors who drive their carts around the city calling out the names of the produce they are currently offering. These individuals have really striking voices, both in terms of pitch, tone and loudness. A few years ago I created an mp3 of these sounds and every now and then I play it for myself when I miss being in India.
Here is an interesting question: do produce vendors develop these great voices as part of their on the job experience? Or do individuals with such voices tend to self-select into these jobs thanks to higher returns to their respective traits? I have a prize in mind for the "best" answer to this question. (I leave the definition of "best" vague on purpose.)
Flower vendors are another interesting occupational group. Every night the flower lady comes by and collects Rs 5 - 20 in exchange for a string of jasmine flowers and some pink rose petals. I've seen her the last three trips I've been here.
I always assumed that flower vending was a part time evening job to supplement another low-skill day job. Apparantly not. Flower vendors on average make about Rs 5000 a month (and maybe 50% more on festival months), which is equivalent to what a full time driver would make. That sounds like very little, but consider that an average 1 bedroom apartment in Chennai rents for around Rs 1500/month and, since flower vending is typically carried out by married females, the Rs 5000 salary is on top of what the spouse makes in his respective job. Pretty interesting stuff.
6 comments:
the fruit vendors do the same sort of thing the peanut/beer/popcorn sellers at baseball games and other events. But half the time, those vendors are high schools kids working a summer job.
i'm surprised that the wages for flower vendors are so high. it seems that there are no barriers to entry and it wouldn't require much special skills or investment. why don't more people enter and drive down the wages?
sw
sw,
Thanks for the comment. I wondered the same thing and did a little reconnaissance. Your suspicion that barriers to entry are low is well-founded: it pretty much requires buying flowers from a central seller and stringing them up to form a garland.
There are three flower vendors that serve the two city blocks where I am staying. The sell the same product but have different clientele. I tried to enquire about the history of flower vendors in the area. It turns out these same three women have been in business here for about 10 years.
So the mystery stands: why aren't more people doing this?
Perhaps one's dharma has something to do with. Much of the order of the caste system still remains, despite its banishment from the parchments of government official. In Indian society, people are born into families with longstanding traditions of specific labour services. Somewhere in the Gita it says that you should do your duty, not anothers. If you and your mother's and her mother's duty to society has been to sell flowers, than flowers you shall sell!
I love those jasmine hair garlands btw
well, stringing flowers together isn't easy as one thinks. have you tried it, atheen? if you have a few days left in India, try to see just how low the barriers are to entry - go out, get some flowers, string them together, find a street corner, start hawking. now that would be some true field work : )
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