Emails forwarded blindly

I was totally upset with one of the forwarded emails that I got from one of my senior friends at work. Its one of these forwards that keep doing the rounds forever and within all desi IT guys.

I took some time and composed what I felt was a good response to that mail and sent it to my gang at work. Well, I wont say its my masterpiece, but I am putting it here in the hope that someone else can add better responses.


First the forwarded mail:
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Subject Line: RE: No Sathyam Cinemas, No coffee day, No Barista, No Anjeppar hotel, No Ponnusamy hotel, No Mayajaal...

No Sathyam Cinemas, No coffee day, No Barista, No Anjeppar hotel, No Ponnusamy hotel, No Mayajaal... (You know where to go and where not to go after reading this mail...) between 16-Nov-2006 and 15-Dec-2006.
Its not just a forward. How many of you are ready to follow this?

Hi,
(below email "Save the IT People from Debts" was wonderful and we should go through it and also forward to all our friends)
Real Estate price hike is known open robbery from IT guys by brokers / whoever it is and it's not only Flats / Real Estate, IT guys undergo open robbery from all rich shop owners / a person who wanted to become rich as fast as possible...
The salary whatever we get, it's our hard-earned money, most of the times sitting in the night, away from family functions, friends, etc...but all our money or most of the money are going to someone who just takes advantage of our stressful life (both mentally and physically) and our new western life style.
I do not find anything wrong in having a US / UK life style, but many open thieves (starting from Ministers to our local Restaurant owner) just swindling all our "legal money" and as we do not have any other choice becoming poor / debtor day by day.
Well most of the price hikes are just unbelievable and there is absolutely no justification (few examples given below).
Today (since last 2 weeks) same Karaikudi Chicken Biriyani (believe me, there is absolutely no change) - Rs. 78, there is no justification for such a big increase.
Pop Corn (Sathyam Complex) previously (month and half back) - Rs. 20
Today (almost the same quantity) - Rs. 30 (again, i do not find any justification)
Corn in Garuda Mall previously (month back) – Rs20 Small, Rs 30 Medium and Rs 40 High
Now, No “actual” small and real small has become 35 now and 45 for high... [Are they the farmers who have given their blood to grow this ]
(In Sathyam complex, many price hikes are really too much for no reason...)
Chips packet (Gangotree) previously (three months back) - Rs. 15
Since last two Months the same packet costs - Rs. 20 (again, I do not find any justification)
Room Clean (just once) - Rs. 200, that's bcos they cleaned IT guys room.
(The moment you say that you are from Software company, the price automatically increases...)
We guys already pays big taxes from our salaries and goes on paying other taxes too (starting from Hotel Sangeetha "Vadai" to Scotch in a bar), it's time to think and pledge ourselves that we stop spending just for one month...
Reason(s) why we should stop spending alteast for a month:
1. 70% of the IT guys occupies the restaurants.
2. 80-90% of the IT guys goes to coffee shop, hang around places, bakeries, etc.
3. Most of the IT guys goes to Sathyam complex, Movies
If we stop going / spending just for a month, their business automatically goes down and they would have no other choice except to bring down the price, that's what happened when IT industry was down three years back.
Somehow directly or indirectly we are responsible for this unjust price hike and now, only we could prevent this open robberies, please add your comments or experiences and keep forwarding this email to all your known people, I am sure even if 25% of us realizes and acts accordingly, it could and would make lot of difference to us.
(let's try and prevent unjust price hike)
Save the IT People from Debts
* Property market in Year 2001 -2004 was quiet Ok , People were able to buy Flats in reasonable rates .
*Year 2005 -2006 , Some of the well known builders started the rates boom , flat which was at the cost of Rs.900 Sq Ft now became 2200 to 2800
Q: Are there any additional facilities ?
--> No Same Scheme/Area , Flat sold at 10 Lacks Now selling at 25 Lacks .
Q: Why Property increased so High ?
--> IT people competition to buy sweet home ..
Q: Who is going to Benfit from this Property Boom ?
--> Only Builders and some of the Politicians
Q: How is the Bank's support on Home Loans ?
--> Last Year , Bank gave the loan's at flexible mimimum rate,Now Banks has sufficient number of customers ,
(Trap) Slowly Banker's increasing interst at % 0.5 every month .
IT People Who bought house for 22 Lacks for 20 Yrs , Now became 23 Yrs with raise of 0.5 %
Q. How some IT people can face the problems in Future ?
--> Companies are Project Based , If Projects are not there then People will not be there .
Q. IT salaries are high in Market , How much actually IT-people getting in Hand ?
--> People, Who bought house of 22 Lacks to 40 Lacks They need to pay EMI
15,000 to 35,000 for 20 Yrs. If Bank keeps same interst rates .
Suppose Salary is 35- 40 K Per Month, 20K will be the EmI
Q. Is there any "Terms & Condition or Processes to increase rates" ?
--> No , Depends on Buiders Greediness . Every builder follows the different strategies
Builder sold one flat 1500 Per Sqft in Morning and 1800 Per Sqft in the Evening ,
There are no records maitained ..
Q. Who made builders smart & greedy ?
--> Greedy IT people ..
No body is asking , Flat was sold at 12 Lacks , Why now 24 Lacks ?
Q. Is Corporation water & MESB available to all schemes ?
--> Some of the area don't have the Corporation water at all , People surviving on Water Tankers.
** MESB .. Under Table ,can be managed easily .
Q. What will be the condition If We are not able to Clear the Loan ?
--> Depends on individual capabilities
Q. What wiil be the actual 'area of living' or carpet area if the builder proposes 1000 sft?
....> The actual carpet area will be 800-850 sft only. The common area is also included in the proposal.
If two flats are in the same floor, then the builder cheats both the residents by collecting
How do Builders cheat buyers? ... Let us see with a simple example
Builder XXXX proposes a flat in a decent residential area.
Rate ( Unit Price ) - Rs. 3500 sft.
Registration - Rs. 40 per sft.
EB and drainage - Rs. 50,000
Covered Car park - Rs. 1,25,000
Corpus fund - Rs. 50000.
For a 1000 sft flat ( 850 sft carpet area ), the approximate cost will be Rs.37,65,000. In the same plot area ( measuring 2 grounds) the builder would have constructed 8 or 10 flats.
Let us see how a builder earns his profit
Total sales for the builder - 37, 65,000 *10 = 3, 76, 50000 ( 3.76 crores)
Cost of the land - Rs. 40 laks per ground
1) Total cost of the land - 80 lakhs for two ground ------- A
Total builtup area for 10 flats - 10*1000 sft = 10,000 sft
Construction cost per sft ( for normal specification) = Rs. 900 per sft
2) Total construction cost - 10,000 * 900 = Rs. 90,00,000 -------------- B
3) Other expenses for the builder - Rs. 20 per sft = Rs. 2,00,000 ................. C
Total expenses for the builder = A+ B+C
= Rs. 80,00,000 + Rs.90,00,000 + Rs. 2,00,00
= Rs. 1,72,00,000 ( 1.72 crores approx)
Total Sales = Rs. 3.76 crores - Rs. 1.72 crores
Total profit of the builder = Rs. 2.04 crores.
Let us see the share of each resident
1. Cost of land = Divided share among the other 10 residents
= Rs. 80,00,000 / 10
= Rs. 8,00,000
2. Construction cost = Rs. 900 * 1000
= Rs. 9,00,000
3. Other expenses = Rs. 2,00,000 ( approx)
Total = Rs. 19,00,000 ( Nineteen lakhs)
The total share for each resident is Rs. 19,00,000 ( Nineteen lakhs only )
but he pays Rs. 37.5 laks for the flat.
Q. How We can stop Builders -Property Boom ?
1) IT People should think about buying flats for atleast next 1-2 Yrs .
2) Onces rates are reasonable , With some legal process get the Booking .
3) Check Facilities, Convince, Road Approach, schools & Mainly co-operation water
4) Ask Questions If I buy 1/2 BHK at 12 to 30 Lacks , Do I get reasale value in future?
5) Today you are capable for paying 1000 -3000 maintains per month ? Will will be the same case
after 20-30yrs after retirement .
6) In All, Don't stretch more to get the more & more loans other wise it will create unnecessary
pressure and tension .
7) Read the above mentioned calculation carefully, when you are about to buy a flat pls keep this in mind.
Please read this carefully Send it to all you know Act quickly..Save them from debts.We can stop the inflation.
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My response:
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Why not extend the same to other things we buy?
Can any of those costs be ever justified?
Restaurants charge you 20 bucks for bottled water that has an MRP of 12 bucks. Have we ever fought for that? We get charged 15rs for some fruit juice. If we start calculating manufacturing costs, then its hardly 5-6 bucks for the vendor. So do we boycott the juices?

This is pure business. And this is very much a business with an alternative. If you feel the price is high in one place just don't go there. Its not like India before the 90s where you had no choice. Your choice now is unlimited.

Saying that just because we are in IT (or even specifically saying just because we are in Infy, Wipro etc..) these guys are charging more - well that's the trader's call.

Plastic mugs are sold in ranganathan street for 5 rs. The exact same mug will be sold in a departmental store for 15 rs. Do we boycott the store? No. We go there for the convenience, the ambience, not having to jostle with 100000 people etc etc.
Lets boycott all the dept stores. Lets buy stuff from the footpath vendor and the provisions from the ration shop. That way, the dept stores will give us goods for the right price.

Look at car manufacturers. They sell cars for high prices. But the dealers also offer you mind-blowing discounts. To close out the year-end stocks, all of them offer price cuts from 10k - 50k, free insurance etc etc. How do they afford it only now? Why cant they always give the same offer?
Lets boycott the car and bike dealers. When no one buys these automobiles, naturally the manufacturers will sell them for the correct price.

What about the oil companies? They wanted a price hike because world price for oil barrel had increased. It was around 70$ when the last hike came up a couple of months back. There has been at least a 10-15 % reduction in the barrel price now. Has any oil company reduced the price now?
So shall we start boycotting the usage of petroleum products? Lets not use our cars and bikes for one month. That will teach the oil companies a lesson.

The movie and restaurant owners are not running a charity. They are not even part of a co-operative society. And they are not the Government. That is why they are called BUSINESSMEN. They are there to make money. Just like all of us. We are not working for free or for a salary that exactly meets what we do. Even the IT companies charge the client a rate that's much much more than what they pay the employee. Lets all boycott working in the IT companies because they charge more than what they spend. That way there will be no IT company and so no IT industry. And all of us can then return to the era of license raj.

Even 2 decades ago, areas like Besant Nagar, Anna Nagar, Gandhi Nagar ( and many others ) all had a high cost of living. Was it because of IT industry. I don't think so. Why are Boat Club Road or Poes Garden considered THE POSHEST place in the city for many decades now? Was that because of the IT boom?

Real estate prices across the globe are skyrocketing in metros and suburbs. Its not a phenom exclusive to Chennai/TN/India.

I totally don't buy this argument of staying away from these places. If you don't like the cost, just go to the alternative that is on offer.

This is typical Indian mentality. Always thinking that "I am being targeted".
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