Um this is partly a lazy-ass way to remember to complete reading the following things over the weekend:
Superpost from freakonomics - pointing to links which chronicle the economic meltdown in details.
From there - the Time Mag list of Top 25 blogs of 2009 - how many do you already follow ?
*yawn*
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Of wipers, washers, bidet sprays and Nomix
I wont waste much time writing commentary. The following series of links gives one a wonderful perspective on toilet paper, the ecological impact of wiping, washing and whats cutting edge in the toilet market.
Hold your horses if you feel like smirking. Read the following articles in the sequence that they have been presented.
Might just be more useful than obsessing about Slumdog, ARR, Delhi 6, Pink Chaddi campaigns or Irish-pansy-boys who can barely sing (*ahem, them)
Here is a super op ed piece on Nomix toilets.
Then here is the 'Room for debates' section on the use of toilet paper - the guest columns are lousy - read the comments from readers - some of them are really perceptive.
Finally here is the official website for Nomix toilets. There are a few whitepapers with clear pictures, illustrations explains what, why, how etc.
(*ps - lets see how mama responds to the poke ;- )
Hold your horses if you feel like smirking. Read the following articles in the sequence that they have been presented.
Might just be more useful than obsessing about Slumdog, ARR, Delhi 6, Pink Chaddi campaigns or Irish-pansy-boys who can barely sing (*ahem, them)
Here is a super op ed piece on Nomix toilets.
Then here is the 'Room for debates' section on the use of toilet paper - the guest columns are lousy - read the comments from readers - some of them are really perceptive.
Finally here is the official website for Nomix toilets. There are a few whitepapers with clear pictures, illustrations explains what, why, how etc.
(*ps - lets see how mama responds to the poke ;- )
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Interesting
On the train from madras to madurai i met this really great guy. Hes known as Maalan on TV - he used to work at Sun TV as head of their political analysis panel, in case it doesnt register. He lives in Tiruvanmiyur and was on his way to Tirunelveli visiting his parents who live there.
He was sitting nonchalantly, eyeing passerbys curiously when i asked him 'Hmm sir, you look kind of familiar, are you some kind of TV personality ?' he then introduced himself and we proceeded to chat about an amazing number of things - blackberrys, sony vaios, blogs, tamil writing,the economics of the tamil book publishing business, amazon.com, kindle, sony e book reader,wifi, CDMA, 3G, life in the USA (where his son works for SAP - his son apparently went to CEG (mechanical engg) graduated in 2002), subway burgers, what he does for a living now, what i do for a living, twitter, wordpress, CMS technologies, Unicode, RSS, Ponniyin Selvan, Google Gears, how to use Gmail labs features properly and so on.
I mean, hes like 58 or something and the kind of stuff he knows about, and the depth of his knowledge simply blows my mind off.
He casually mentioned his blog and his about his recent work with twitter (140 charactersla neraiya restriction vandhudum illiya ? iam still getting used to it)
Interesting...
(P.s I bumped into 2 more interesting people - an Aleppo girl who works for Satyam in Dubai - on the flight from Damascus to Dubai - who seems to know more about Rama Raju, Maytas and Indian Techies than me - shes joined 3i Infotech and will come to chennai for training next month. Small world! But was a really swell babe this one - lots of funda, sharp.
I also met this other lady on the hop from Dubai to chennai - a swiss divorce lawyer on the way to Port Blair from Zurich who was in Damascus a month ago sightseeing - Her daughter is working with an NGO in the Andamans and she was visiting her - Switzerland has a 7 million population - vis-a-vis the 1200+change from India - she kept saying, 'wow!' i told her to expand her very successful divorce lawyer business into India - bullish case - because of the sheer numbers and increasingly common divorces :)
she says, 'Noo, but the sweees are reech' Yeah, right!
He was sitting nonchalantly, eyeing passerbys curiously when i asked him 'Hmm sir, you look kind of familiar, are you some kind of TV personality ?' he then introduced himself and we proceeded to chat about an amazing number of things - blackberrys, sony vaios, blogs, tamil writing,the economics of the tamil book publishing business, amazon.com, kindle, sony e book reader,wifi, CDMA, 3G, life in the USA (where his son works for SAP - his son apparently went to CEG (mechanical engg) graduated in 2002), subway burgers, what he does for a living now, what i do for a living, twitter, wordpress, CMS technologies, Unicode, RSS, Ponniyin Selvan, Google Gears, how to use Gmail labs features properly and so on.
I mean, hes like 58 or something and the kind of stuff he knows about, and the depth of his knowledge simply blows my mind off.
He casually mentioned his blog and his about his recent work with twitter (140 charactersla neraiya restriction vandhudum illiya ? iam still getting used to it)
Interesting...
(P.s I bumped into 2 more interesting people - an Aleppo girl who works for Satyam in Dubai - on the flight from Damascus to Dubai - who seems to know more about Rama Raju, Maytas and Indian Techies than me - shes joined 3i Infotech and will come to chennai for training next month. Small world! But was a really swell babe this one - lots of funda, sharp.
I also met this other lady on the hop from Dubai to chennai - a swiss divorce lawyer on the way to Port Blair from Zurich who was in Damascus a month ago sightseeing - Her daughter is working with an NGO in the Andamans and she was visiting her - Switzerland has a 7 million population - vis-a-vis the 1200+change from India - she kept saying, 'wow!' i told her to expand her very successful divorce lawyer business into India - bullish case - because of the sheer numbers and increasingly common divorces :)
she says, 'Noo, but the sweees are reech' Yeah, right!
Monday, 23 February 2009
Hookah
So much for exotic shisha. Turns out that Shisha a.k.a Hookah was invented in India, of all places. Read here
But Aleppo Rocks! A longish report later on when im not working.
But Aleppo Rocks! A longish report later on when im not working.
 |
| From Syria, Feb 2009 |
 |
| From Syria, Feb 2009 |
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Syria, Lebanon, Arabic & Delhi 6
Heres a thing or two that the typical Indian bloke does not know (or does not care to know) about these parts.
By 'Middle East' a typical Indian guy will probably vaguely know and broadly refer to all remotely arabic places - including the Dubais, Abu Dhabis & Kuwaits to Jordan, Syria etc. (although i understand that my own brother (a.k.a Idiot sibling**) cant plot Jordan, Syria & Lebanon on the world map)
[ ** Side track: on Gtalk today he asks me: 'Dei n$#i, eppo enge da iruke. Amma wants to talk with you'. I say, 'Damascus' - with the speaker on - he tells Zeenat - 'En ma, kanda endathukellam avan edhukku masam masam poran. Paithiyam pidikapodhu']
For all dorks like him here is a map: from theworldatlas.com
In summary theres :
1) The Afghani / Farsi places : Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran
2) The Emirates & parts of the GCC : Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain,Oman, Yemen included - small places really
3) The Mongolian places - Uzbek, Turkmenistan etc. (Dunno much about them anyways) -
4) Saudi Arabia & Kuwait - A big arab stronghold - orthodox & oil rich.
5) Then theres Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and of course Israel / Palestine.
Now the objective of this long, rambly lecture is really to make the following point - each of this 5 sectors are as different from each other as Delhi & madras - from the cultural point of view - and as different as Dhaka & Dubai - in terms of prosperity.
One can argue that classifying as just 5 regions is wrong - i agree - Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan are different from each other - Turkey is a big enigma in itself - Israel / Palestine is a subject on which blokes from all other the world write lengthy essays on NYtimes.
Moving from east to west - the language changes from Hindi in Punjab (India & Pakistan), Hindi/Urdu towards central pakistan, Farsi towards western pakistan, Iran, Predominantly Arabic in Saudi, Kuwait, The Emirates - Arabic is the chief language in Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon too - Fading to Turkish in the North - Hebrew in Jewish pockets.
The French colonized much of north africa - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Lebanon, Syria of course - for a long period of time in recent times - for like 300 years in Syria to much longer in North Africa - so the language, trade ties etc. kind of stick. Like for eg. all wealthy Syrians still have residences in France, have children educated there and all. All governmental forms have french / arabic options even in Syria.
Damascus is 2 hours driving distance from Beirut (Capital of Lebanon), 2 hours from Amman (Capital of Jordan) and about 5-6 hours by road from the Turkish border. I guess this will help some1 get a perspective of how near they all really are.
The Syrian pound trades at 47 to a dollar - nearly the same as our Rupee - so its real easy to make a comparision of costs - a filthy expensive room costs 160 euros a night (vis-a-vis Taj Coramandel i guess) - mine costs 40 euros a night - and its better run than say, some of these crummy 2500 rupees a night places in T Nagar where i sometimes i put a guest or something.
A buffet lunch at a place with a rating similar to GRT Grand days costs about 600 pounds a head - cheap - near same as GRT. Clothes cost 300 pounds / 400 pounds, some fancy pillowcovers i bought for my mother costs like 600 pounds per set of two etc. there arent migrant workers - all manual labor is done by locals - Syria isnt rich enough for Iraqi immigrants etc. as per what A tells me. Young syrians with some intelligence, experience expect high salaries - because they are hard to find - S, the babe who is A's assistant ('who pays 2 times more attention to makeup & to boys' than her job) is paid 25,000 pounds a month. (I found her pretty, um, a bit dumb, and wearing far too much make up)
Syria is cheaper than Lebanon & Jordan - which are more expensive - but less so than Saudi, understandably. A large fraction of Syria's people are christians - and you cant tell them apart with their names - i know christian Ibrahims, Baseems, Youseffs, and Habibs. They are all Arabs - but christians and muslims - this is how it is.
Syria, Lebanon are hugely tolerant - girls parade around wearing heavy pigmented makeup, in high heel cow girl boots - boys & girls stroll around holding hands - theres drinking allowed during the month Ramadan - you cant perform loud religious acts like you can in India for eg. - but thats hardly anything to complain about - u probably cant do it in England & USA.
All such things will probably lead to getting imprisoned in the Saudi Arabia for example. Jordan is in-between i hear - but FAR less irksome than Saudi arabia for example, where this oppressive air sort of floats around you.
Damascus is the worldest oldest capital - certainly the oldest recognized captial of the Arab world - you can see that in the city's buildings - Saladdin died here (He is this legendary Muslim king who fought the infidels over the holy land) - he was based mostly out of Damascus - the Omayyad mosque (Inshahallah, il be going there on Monday) is considered to be THE oldest grand mosque - the turks built of lot of stuff around here too - and the whole culture - the coffee, pots, street layouts, fountains, roads, the weather - are all an exotic mix of Arabic/Ottoman/ French cultures.
My guess is that Syria would have been still the center of the Arab world if Israel didnt too well with technology and the Saudis would still have been Nomadic cattleheaders if not for Oil.
Hmm enough boring lectures - can any1 guess what the second most widely used arabic word during regular conversation is - (first place, hands down, goes to 'Inshah allah') ?? - It is 'Habibi' - literally means - My Love - but its used as a word for 'Friend' etc. i dunno maybe its one quirk specific to the blokes i mingle with.
Tomorrow i travel to Aleppo which is has solid history & heritage as well. But im afraid it will be mostly work - but we are driving - and its snowing in some parts - so its bound to be fun.
Links:Wikipedia
(p.s Blogger sites arent allowed in Syria. Means, i cant view .blogspot addresses. Nor can i see Youtube. Strangely i can sign into blogger.com and write posts and use Google reader etc. Funny, i thnk.
p.s2 : here is Bharadwaj Rangan's surprisingly postive review of Dilli 6 - dunno why lots of people dissed it though [Did u read what the female from Livemint wrote ? - she claims that the Kaala Bandar - who takes a lot of screen time - is based on the 'monkey man' from couple of years before - LOL ]. But it makes me that much more curious to actually watch it. Any of u blokes seen it ? i'l see it atleast to see how Masakali...Dil Gira.. and Rehna tu.. are picturized. Yeah, no kidding. )
By 'Middle East' a typical Indian guy will probably vaguely know and broadly refer to all remotely arabic places - including the Dubais, Abu Dhabis & Kuwaits to Jordan, Syria etc. (although i understand that my own brother (a.k.a Idiot sibling**) cant plot Jordan, Syria & Lebanon on the world map)
[ ** Side track: on Gtalk today he asks me: 'Dei n$#i, eppo enge da iruke. Amma wants to talk with you'. I say, 'Damascus' - with the speaker on - he tells Zeenat - 'En ma, kanda endathukellam avan edhukku masam masam poran. Paithiyam pidikapodhu']
For all dorks like him here is a map: from theworldatlas.com
In summary theres :
1) The Afghani / Farsi places : Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran
2) The Emirates & parts of the GCC : Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain,Oman, Yemen included - small places really
3) The Mongolian places - Uzbek, Turkmenistan etc. (Dunno much about them anyways) -
4) Saudi Arabia & Kuwait - A big arab stronghold - orthodox & oil rich.
5) Then theres Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and of course Israel / Palestine.
Now the objective of this long, rambly lecture is really to make the following point - each of this 5 sectors are as different from each other as Delhi & madras - from the cultural point of view - and as different as Dhaka & Dubai - in terms of prosperity.
One can argue that classifying as just 5 regions is wrong - i agree - Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan are different from each other - Turkey is a big enigma in itself - Israel / Palestine is a subject on which blokes from all other the world write lengthy essays on NYtimes.
Moving from east to west - the language changes from Hindi in Punjab (India & Pakistan), Hindi/Urdu towards central pakistan, Farsi towards western pakistan, Iran, Predominantly Arabic in Saudi, Kuwait, The Emirates - Arabic is the chief language in Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon too - Fading to Turkish in the North - Hebrew in Jewish pockets.
The French colonized much of north africa - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Lebanon, Syria of course - for a long period of time in recent times - for like 300 years in Syria to much longer in North Africa - so the language, trade ties etc. kind of stick. Like for eg. all wealthy Syrians still have residences in France, have children educated there and all. All governmental forms have french / arabic options even in Syria.
Damascus is 2 hours driving distance from Beirut (Capital of Lebanon), 2 hours from Amman (Capital of Jordan) and about 5-6 hours by road from the Turkish border. I guess this will help some1 get a perspective of how near they all really are.
The Syrian pound trades at 47 to a dollar - nearly the same as our Rupee - so its real easy to make a comparision of costs - a filthy expensive room costs 160 euros a night (vis-a-vis Taj Coramandel i guess) - mine costs 40 euros a night - and its better run than say, some of these crummy 2500 rupees a night places in T Nagar where i sometimes i put a guest or something.
A buffet lunch at a place with a rating similar to GRT Grand days costs about 600 pounds a head - cheap - near same as GRT. Clothes cost 300 pounds / 400 pounds, some fancy pillowcovers i bought for my mother costs like 600 pounds per set of two etc. there arent migrant workers - all manual labor is done by locals - Syria isnt rich enough for Iraqi immigrants etc. as per what A tells me. Young syrians with some intelligence, experience expect high salaries - because they are hard to find - S, the babe who is A's assistant ('who pays 2 times more attention to makeup & to boys' than her job) is paid 25,000 pounds a month. (I found her pretty, um, a bit dumb, and wearing far too much make up)
Syria is cheaper than Lebanon & Jordan - which are more expensive - but less so than Saudi, understandably. A large fraction of Syria's people are christians - and you cant tell them apart with their names - i know christian Ibrahims, Baseems, Youseffs, and Habibs. They are all Arabs - but christians and muslims - this is how it is.
Syria, Lebanon are hugely tolerant - girls parade around wearing heavy pigmented makeup, in high heel cow girl boots - boys & girls stroll around holding hands - theres drinking allowed during the month Ramadan - you cant perform loud religious acts like you can in India for eg. - but thats hardly anything to complain about - u probably cant do it in England & USA.
All such things will probably lead to getting imprisoned in the Saudi Arabia for example. Jordan is in-between i hear - but FAR less irksome than Saudi arabia for example, where this oppressive air sort of floats around you.
Damascus is the worldest oldest capital - certainly the oldest recognized captial of the Arab world - you can see that in the city's buildings - Saladdin died here (He is this legendary Muslim king who fought the infidels over the holy land) - he was based mostly out of Damascus - the Omayyad mosque (Inshahallah, il be going there on Monday) is considered to be THE oldest grand mosque - the turks built of lot of stuff around here too - and the whole culture - the coffee, pots, street layouts, fountains, roads, the weather - are all an exotic mix of Arabic/Ottoman/ French cultures.
My guess is that Syria would have been still the center of the Arab world if Israel didnt too well with technology and the Saudis would still have been Nomadic cattleheaders if not for Oil.
Hmm enough boring lectures - can any1 guess what the second most widely used arabic word during regular conversation is - (first place, hands down, goes to 'Inshah allah') ?? - It is 'Habibi' - literally means - My Love - but its used as a word for 'Friend' etc. i dunno maybe its one quirk specific to the blokes i mingle with.
Tomorrow i travel to Aleppo which is has solid history & heritage as well. But im afraid it will be mostly work - but we are driving - and its snowing in some parts - so its bound to be fun.
Links:Wikipedia
(p.s Blogger sites arent allowed in Syria. Means, i cant view .blogspot addresses. Nor can i see Youtube. Strangely i can sign into blogger.com and write posts and use Google reader etc. Funny, i thnk.
p.s2 : here is Bharadwaj Rangan's surprisingly postive review of Dilli 6 - dunno why lots of people dissed it though [Did u read what the female from Livemint wrote ? - she claims that the Kaala Bandar - who takes a lot of screen time - is based on the 'monkey man' from couple of years before - LOL ]. But it makes me that much more curious to actually watch it. Any of u blokes seen it ? i'l see it atleast to see how Masakali...Dil Gira.. and Rehna tu.. are picturized. Yeah, no kidding. )
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Damascus
Here in damascus I am staying in this super small boutique hotel with small overly made up rooms with a big balcony overlooking the street below, and old fashioned English style heat exchangers in rooms. Super friendly guys, free broadband in the room & 10 minutes walking distance from the Turkish mosques, The Four season's hotel, the Omayyad mosque, the old markets and all..
It is cold, near 10 / 12 degrees all the time, and all meetings have gone like a dream so far and i am playing 'Rehna tu' far too many times than normal.
Ive been on 2 or 3 exploratory walks on my own - mostly around the neighbourhood im staying, and one really long walk yesterday to kill sometime after India closed (Remember yesterday was the equivalent of our sunday here in Damascus - and most places are closed, even shopping malls & restaurants)
Basic photos are here below. No energy to write up elaborate commentary - maybe when i get back. More sightseeing left to do in any case.
I just woke up 10 mins before - its like 7:30 am - i slept at 9:30 yesterday - i DONT normally sleep long hours when travelling - but the cold and i guess the whole exotic air is sort of making me drowsy.
Just before waking up I had this dream about sitting in a high school maths exam where i was given a whole sets of calculus questions - all my key competitors back in school - J, A, R, K and even some of the dumber females are all furiously scribbling away whereas i cant figure out what the hell to do what even with one question - i try dabble with a question or two with what calculus i remember now - but i cant proceed beyond a step or two - then i sit there chewing on my pen & thinking about the meetings i had on Thursday - with Mr.B & E and if ive sent to them all offer documents & datasheets as per what we decided.
Then the dream scene abruptly shifts to Damascus (- i sort of replay what actually happend yesterday inside my head i guess -) i am sitting at this KFC joint trying to fabricate a vegetarian meal out of what they served me - a chicken burger (out goes the chicken, the buns, a thin slice of cheese & some lettuce remain), a chicken drumstick (thrown out fully), coke & a sort of a colesaw (which smells like a Rabbit enclosure in a playpark - because its mostly cabbage in the regular colesaw fashion)
There is this very interesting looking girl (an Arab) with honey blonde hair - eyes matching her hair colour - with her friends -looking at me in obvious wonder - munching on chicken popcorn and french fries - this staring goes on for a few more frames -
All details are still surprising clear in my head still -
Then a phone rings - i fidget around with my pockets - i wake up - its Mr. Ahmad - the Hotel guy - with my wake up call.
I darent scroll up and look at what ive written :-, after posting, if its like really mental-il probably take it off.
It is cold, near 10 / 12 degrees all the time, and all meetings have gone like a dream so far and i am playing 'Rehna tu' far too many times than normal.
Ive been on 2 or 3 exploratory walks on my own - mostly around the neighbourhood im staying, and one really long walk yesterday to kill sometime after India closed (Remember yesterday was the equivalent of our sunday here in Damascus - and most places are closed, even shopping malls & restaurants)
Basic photos are here below. No energy to write up elaborate commentary - maybe when i get back. More sightseeing left to do in any case.
I just woke up 10 mins before - its like 7:30 am - i slept at 9:30 yesterday - i DONT normally sleep long hours when travelling - but the cold and i guess the whole exotic air is sort of making me drowsy.
Just before waking up I had this dream about sitting in a high school maths exam where i was given a whole sets of calculus questions - all my key competitors back in school - J, A, R, K and even some of the dumber females are all furiously scribbling away whereas i cant figure out what the hell to do what even with one question - i try dabble with a question or two with what calculus i remember now - but i cant proceed beyond a step or two - then i sit there chewing on my pen & thinking about the meetings i had on Thursday - with Mr.B & E and if ive sent to them all offer documents & datasheets as per what we decided.
Then the dream scene abruptly shifts to Damascus (- i sort of replay what actually happend yesterday inside my head i guess -) i am sitting at this KFC joint trying to fabricate a vegetarian meal out of what they served me - a chicken burger (out goes the chicken, the buns, a thin slice of cheese & some lettuce remain), a chicken drumstick (thrown out fully), coke & a sort of a colesaw (which smells like a Rabbit enclosure in a playpark - because its mostly cabbage in the regular colesaw fashion)
There is this very interesting looking girl (an Arab) with honey blonde hair - eyes matching her hair colour - with her friends -looking at me in obvious wonder - munching on chicken popcorn and french fries - this staring goes on for a few more frames -
All details are still surprising clear in my head still -
Then a phone rings - i fidget around with my pockets - i wake up - its Mr. Ahmad - the Hotel guy - with my wake up call.
I darent scroll up and look at what ive written :-, after posting, if its like really mental-il probably take it off.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Ha!
Have any of you ever known any1 whos been here ? ha!
Ta da - now you know - ME
(Well, atleast around 30 hours from now - you know - like officially - il be there - all paperworks come through)
A WEEK there with a day off in between! for sightseeing with a local you know very well, with a car - to take you around - Drool!
Lick your chops, my chickadees, for there will be photos.
(I may not be doing stuff online from there too much. A - is a good friend, one of my oldest business associates - and he knows that i get peeved if some1 puts me in big posh hotels needlessly - he jokingly told me that the only hotel he'll book for me - with broadband in rooms - charges 160 Euros a night - and i told him that if gone ahead, my boss will tear my return ticket up and leave me stranded in Damascus to make a living charming snakes or something in the old bazaars ;- )
Ta da - now you know - ME
(Well, atleast around 30 hours from now - you know - like officially - il be there - all paperworks come through)
A WEEK there with a day off in between! for sightseeing with a local you know very well, with a car - to take you around - Drool!
Lick your chops, my chickadees, for there will be photos.
(I may not be doing stuff online from there too much. A - is a good friend, one of my oldest business associates - and he knows that i get peeved if some1 puts me in big posh hotels needlessly - he jokingly told me that the only hotel he'll book for me - with broadband in rooms - charges 160 Euros a night - and i told him that if gone ahead, my boss will tear my return ticket up and leave me stranded in Damascus to make a living charming snakes or something in the old bazaars ;- )
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Interesting read & some regular whining
I did remember reading some stuff derived from similar info over on Sepia Mutiny. But heres the dope from Nytimes on whats happening in Dubai now.
Dubai is a bit of ponzi scheme, you know. No real value creating nucleus - just governmental spending on infrastructure (who in return expect returns because of increasing attractiveness to tourists, investors and such), resorts and the likes - importantly no oil - just the glitz, glass and 800 dhirams a night for rooms smaller than my toilet in Madurai (6.5 grand a night in Indian rupee terms approx)
But i really hope that the whole thing isnt a big bollocksy meltdown or something.
*sigh*
More boring stuff:
In the midst of all this recession, tomorrow, around this time i'l be a proud owner of a shiny new, red or black (me and Idiot sibiling are not decided yet) Suzuki A-star zxi. More dope here. I resisted as much as i could but zeenat wont take another month of me borrowing my uncle's spare car in madras anymore.
More importantly, i do this because i cant stand the sight of my uncle driving his shiny honda civic for work (which does about 8 km per liter of petrol, which is in the same league as old Pallavan buses & old Ashok leyland lorries)
The new A-star is a 'fully loaded' 'sports' model and it has this really rad, ridiculously jutting out tachometer (which shows engine RPM. like i fucken care!) - the positioning on the dashboard im sure was inspired by how Jar Jar binks' eyes are planted on top of his head.
Apart from the downpayment of 150,000 - for the 300,000 that sundaram finance is loaning me - I'l be down about 15 grand a month in repayments - the guy from Sundaram finance tells me - WTF. I'l end up paying about 45 grand more, above the actual cash price of the car as cost of financing it - he assures me that it is at 7.9% p.a because my mother is a VVIP customer - but i cant fucken figure out how 45 grand is 7.9 % p.a for 300,000 in principal - which is diminishng at the rate of 15,000 a month - its more like 13.5% - the guy thinks i am a dork, i guess.
One final attempt at resistance will be made tomorrow. But i have this sinking feeling that Zeenat will prevail.
Dubai is a bit of ponzi scheme, you know. No real value creating nucleus - just governmental spending on infrastructure (who in return expect returns because of increasing attractiveness to tourists, investors and such), resorts and the likes - importantly no oil - just the glitz, glass and 800 dhirams a night for rooms smaller than my toilet in Madurai (6.5 grand a night in Indian rupee terms approx)
But i really hope that the whole thing isnt a big bollocksy meltdown or something.
*sigh*
More boring stuff:
In the midst of all this recession, tomorrow, around this time i'l be a proud owner of a shiny new, red or black (me and Idiot sibiling are not decided yet) Suzuki A-star zxi. More dope here. I resisted as much as i could but zeenat wont take another month of me borrowing my uncle's spare car in madras anymore.
More importantly, i do this because i cant stand the sight of my uncle driving his shiny honda civic for work (which does about 8 km per liter of petrol, which is in the same league as old Pallavan buses & old Ashok leyland lorries)
The new A-star is a 'fully loaded' 'sports' model and it has this really rad, ridiculously jutting out tachometer (which shows engine RPM. like i fucken care!) - the positioning on the dashboard im sure was inspired by how Jar Jar binks' eyes are planted on top of his head.
Apart from the downpayment of 150,000 - for the 300,000 that sundaram finance is loaning me - I'l be down about 15 grand a month in repayments - the guy from Sundaram finance tells me - WTF. I'l end up paying about 45 grand more, above the actual cash price of the car as cost of financing it - he assures me that it is at 7.9% p.a because my mother is a VVIP customer - but i cant fucken figure out how 45 grand is 7.9 % p.a for 300,000 in principal - which is diminishng at the rate of 15,000 a month - its more like 13.5% - the guy thinks i am a dork, i guess.
One final attempt at resistance will be made tomorrow. But i have this sinking feeling that Zeenat will prevail.
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Hilarious stuff
(This was Originally mentioned on the phenominally entertaining Boing Boing)
Show me some something funnier than this within 24 hours and il eat my chappals.
Earlier I sent the link to T suggesting him to embed into an email and send it to all his valentines [um, the regular 'bra burning feminist* ' kind - *His usual description - not mine] wishing them today.
He replied in 10 minutes, as concise as always:
"Seruppadi vizhum"
What id love to look at is a typical girl's initial reaction to this -
- Dont just watch the video superficially (as i am sure T did) - listen carefully to the super-accented voice, especially towards towards the second half - i mean, if i were a typical girl id be sorely offended - theres isnt even one wasted moment or word in the whole video's length :)
UPDATE: Here is the Youtube listing of all equally super-hilarious Harry Enfield Videos. Here is 'Women, keep your virtue' and here 'The conjugal rights guide' and omigod they're all so funny that i am nearly in tears.
p.s they get a wee bit similarish whenve watched 4 or 5
Friday, 13 February 2009
Read of the day
Looks like Tom Friedman is in India doing i dunno what - making documentaries for discovery channel - i guess.
Heres something interesting hes written. I always thought Mr. Gupta speaks too much - just like me - you cant just oversimplify these things. He does have a point - Indians & chinese will buy up all these subprime mortgages and help straighten things out.
More wonkish gyaan - I am sure its been written in various forms in the past - The fundamental issue of the disparity in wages.
NYtimes says - some auto sector workers were paid a staggering USD 28 a hour - USD 5600 a month - (Ref here) - that im sure that is more than what i make every year (um, well atleast for the sake of argument) for supervising shop floor workers ? wow
Of course, we all know that the minimum wage per hour in the US is close to USD 8 (correct me if im wrong) = 1600 dollars a month = 20,000 dollars a year - which i guess is an amount with which one can still make a living in the US.
This incidentally is the same amount T makes with an Investment bank in India - after slogging like a dog through an IIM degree, working 12 hours a day now, sharing lodgings with amit123 types.
The US dollar in the US most definitely offers far less bang for every buck - vis-a-vis what it can do in India, in China - this has like created an arbitrage - no wonder infosys, tcs ship workers to the US in shiploads - im sure they all work at USD 8 an hour - and Infosys billing clients at USD 20 / hr - still FAR lower than what theyd have to pay a yank with an attitude & a lifestyle.
The same logic applies when discussing mental attitudes of some of these NRI types - they're sure to find jobs paying 30 / 40 grand (in dollars) for being secretaries or production supervisors in textile mills or washing test tubes - and even if they save / send back 10 grand a year - its still more than what they take in as salary in India for equivalent positions.
All this too confusing. But it reminds to redouble efforts to become really really rich real soon because i am sure that 3/4 years down the line il have to offer the soon to be NRI Idiot sibling a job paying more than what a doctor in the US can potentially make every year.
Please feel free to curse and rant if u dont like to read such posts - strangely - this is all i can think of these days.
Heres something interesting hes written. I always thought Mr. Gupta speaks too much - just like me - you cant just oversimplify these things. He does have a point - Indians & chinese will buy up all these subprime mortgages and help straighten things out.
More wonkish gyaan - I am sure its been written in various forms in the past - The fundamental issue of the disparity in wages.
NYtimes says - some auto sector workers were paid a staggering USD 28 a hour - USD 5600 a month - (Ref here) - that im sure that is more than what i make every year (um, well atleast for the sake of argument) for supervising shop floor workers ? wow
Of course, we all know that the minimum wage per hour in the US is close to USD 8 (correct me if im wrong) = 1600 dollars a month = 20,000 dollars a year - which i guess is an amount with which one can still make a living in the US.
This incidentally is the same amount T makes with an Investment bank in India - after slogging like a dog through an IIM degree, working 12 hours a day now, sharing lodgings with amit123 types.
The US dollar in the US most definitely offers far less bang for every buck - vis-a-vis what it can do in India, in China - this has like created an arbitrage - no wonder infosys, tcs ship workers to the US in shiploads - im sure they all work at USD 8 an hour - and Infosys billing clients at USD 20 / hr - still FAR lower than what theyd have to pay a yank with an attitude & a lifestyle.
The same logic applies when discussing mental attitudes of some of these NRI types - they're sure to find jobs paying 30 / 40 grand (in dollars) for being secretaries or production supervisors in textile mills or washing test tubes - and even if they save / send back 10 grand a year - its still more than what they take in as salary in India for equivalent positions.
All this too confusing. But it reminds to redouble efforts to become really really rich real soon because i am sure that 3/4 years down the line il have to offer the soon to be NRI Idiot sibling a job paying more than what a doctor in the US can potentially make every year.
Please feel free to curse and rant if u dont like to read such posts - strangely - this is all i can think of these days.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Scary thought
While cleaning out some stuff from uncle's place earlier today looking for my passport pouch, I was peeking into some old lecture notes - i think from Engg Mechanics class back in Semester I (Cup Kaliappan's course, i guess) - in the middle of some vector diagrams with action/reaction forces drawn with a pencil - ive written down like '2000 - 2005 ? - 2010 ?'. it was part of a back bench discussion with N and T - with whom i used to sit with back then - the discussion was to do with what we'd be doing 5 years hence, 10 years hence etc. - while cup kali, im sure, was busy mumbling about free body diagrams and vector addition -
Can u fucken believe that it will be 2010 in another 10 months ?
Time for a shower to wake me up a little, a good look in the mirror and some serious work - 10 months - and its 2010 - scary shit, isnt it ?
Can u fucken believe that it will be 2010 in another 10 months ?
Time for a shower to wake me up a little, a good look in the mirror and some serious work - 10 months - and its 2010 - scary shit, isnt it ?
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Caminho das Índias
Okay this bit needs a post all by itself.
In Brazil - in national TV (Across all states) they're showing a Soap called Caminho das Índias (The way to India, roughly translated) - just after primetime news - everyone from cabbies, girls in reception desks , hip city dwellers, big bosses of large multi million dollar companies - all tune in daily to watch - Fa tells me that its more popular than local football sometimes - it is shot in Rajastan, Brazilian folks playing Indian characters with surnames like Ananda, Narayan etc. -
As a result one is bombarded with queries on subjects like - Brahmins, Dalits, Caste systems, Arranged marriages, Kurtas, Salwaar kameez, Incense, AR Rahman, Bindis, Goa, jaipur, Delhi, If i wear a dhoti at home, that I have a cool (!?) Indian English accent, If elephants are a common sight in India, Dont Indians eat Cows ? Dont Indians eat cheese ? Why is Indian food hot ? etc. you know what i mean..
I think this overly masalafied soap is probably a watershed event in Indo-Brazil cultural relations and as far as i can see has had a profound impact on how Brazilians view Indians - people are more keen to talk to you, you are every1's amigo, every thing Indian makes them go gaga.
I have with me here requests for about a dozen CD copies of 'Good Indian mp3 music', about 10 ( in various sizes ) 'bright colored kurtas reaching upto the knees, no buttons (just a V neck), with needle work and good enough to wear on the beach on top of bikini' - i am quoting what ive written down in my notebook - as Micheli (one of the babes who jumps up and down like a rabbit when talking about the show - apart from being the Quality control manager of one Factory i work with) insisted that i write down - lest i forget or get something wrong - the list ends with a request for one dozen fake jewellery 'the around the neck' kind, one dozen fake earrings - 'as complicated design as possible' says Fa - who caught the bewildered look on my face - also added - 'ask your mother if you want to understand what we're talking about'
Heck, i even had these two chinese-brazilians (Chinese who are settled now in Sao Paolo) who wanted me to check from a big list of trinket factories in India (which they extricated from their luggage) - several from Delhi, several from Gujarat - how they'll ship their trinkets to Brasil, how i can help etc.
Noting that cheap kurtas retail for like - 30 Reals in Brasil (about 15 dollars a piece) - and considering the fact they wont cost more than a dollar to two to produce - heres a big opportunity for $$$.
I wonder what my old man will say. Whatever that might be - I'l need earmuffs for sure ;-
In Brazil - in national TV (Across all states) they're showing a Soap called Caminho das Índias (The way to India, roughly translated) - just after primetime news - everyone from cabbies, girls in reception desks , hip city dwellers, big bosses of large multi million dollar companies - all tune in daily to watch - Fa tells me that its more popular than local football sometimes - it is shot in Rajastan, Brazilian folks playing Indian characters with surnames like Ananda, Narayan etc. -
As a result one is bombarded with queries on subjects like - Brahmins, Dalits, Caste systems, Arranged marriages, Kurtas, Salwaar kameez, Incense, AR Rahman, Bindis, Goa, jaipur, Delhi, If i wear a dhoti at home, that I have a cool (!?) Indian English accent, If elephants are a common sight in India, Dont Indians eat Cows ? Dont Indians eat cheese ? Why is Indian food hot ? etc. you know what i mean..
I think this overly masalafied soap is probably a watershed event in Indo-Brazil cultural relations and as far as i can see has had a profound impact on how Brazilians view Indians - people are more keen to talk to you, you are every1's amigo, every thing Indian makes them go gaga.
I have with me here requests for about a dozen CD copies of 'Good Indian mp3 music', about 10 ( in various sizes ) 'bright colored kurtas reaching upto the knees, no buttons (just a V neck), with needle work and good enough to wear on the beach on top of bikini' - i am quoting what ive written down in my notebook - as Micheli (one of the babes who jumps up and down like a rabbit when talking about the show - apart from being the Quality control manager of one Factory i work with) insisted that i write down - lest i forget or get something wrong - the list ends with a request for one dozen fake jewellery 'the around the neck' kind, one dozen fake earrings - 'as complicated design as possible' says Fa - who caught the bewildered look on my face - also added - 'ask your mother if you want to understand what we're talking about'
Heck, i even had these two chinese-brazilians (Chinese who are settled now in Sao Paolo) who wanted me to check from a big list of trinket factories in India (which they extricated from their luggage) - several from Delhi, several from Gujarat - how they'll ship their trinkets to Brasil, how i can help etc.
Noting that cheap kurtas retail for like - 30 Reals in Brasil (about 15 dollars a piece) - and considering the fact they wont cost more than a dollar to two to produce - heres a big opportunity for $$$.
I wonder what my old man will say. Whatever that might be - I'l need earmuffs for sure ;-
Photos
Was sorting out all the photos from the last few days and i seem to have shot an inordinate number of photos out of the car during drives, out of airplanes etc - and consequently have just uploaded one or two specimens - you know just to give the viewer a flavor.
But then with a place like Brazil, i cant be blamed if iam mostly tongue tied, engrossed in soaking in the panorama that hits all your senses at once - the last time i remember - my camera had just 10 photos from the entire trip ;-
Some WIP posts will hopefully come up later.
But then with a place like Brazil, i cant be blamed if iam mostly tongue tied, engrossed in soaking in the panorama that hits all your senses at once - the last time i remember - my camera had just 10 photos from the entire trip ;-
Some WIP posts will hopefully come up later.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Brazil
I have been in brazil now ,what, 4-5 days - and by far it has been the most exciting trip ive made to these parts.
Sao Paulo, Goiania, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and then one day this super drive from sao paulo through lolling hills, endless greenery, through beautifully sicilian looking towns and then a trip to Ka' hometown - the beautiful Amparo.
Beautiful places and wonderfully beautiful people - brazilian is a HUGE ethinic mix - Gregor J Mendel would have felt like Alibaba in the Treasure cave - People are all kinds of exotic mixes of spanish, portuguese, loads of japanese, lebonese, blacks, Latinos.. - i can only imagine what a stimulus starved teenager, say, from India will feel like, for eg. on Copacabana Beach (in Rio) - he'll be sorely tempted to run away somewhere into the interiors of this paradise.
Most city girls i meet - even older ones working responsible jobs and stuff - are surprisingly easy to chat up - giggly, breathtakingly good looking, nice & easy in the mental complication department and typically brazilian in their approach to life - live without too many macro thoughts until like one gets to 35 or 40 - (then worry a little bit about why you divorced the first husband, if he still loves you, what children you pickup for the weekend etc. ;- )
Because i was doing plant trials in places really really far off from the main maps - i had lots of interaction with locals, found new friends, eat lots of authentic stuff and do stuff other visitors dont get to do.
Theres so much to write about and i did get loads of photos this time. Later on, maybe.
ciao
Sao Paulo, Goiania, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and then one day this super drive from sao paulo through lolling hills, endless greenery, through beautifully sicilian looking towns and then a trip to Ka' hometown - the beautiful Amparo.
Beautiful places and wonderfully beautiful people - brazilian is a HUGE ethinic mix - Gregor J Mendel would have felt like Alibaba in the Treasure cave - People are all kinds of exotic mixes of spanish, portuguese, loads of japanese, lebonese, blacks, Latinos.. - i can only imagine what a stimulus starved teenager, say, from India will feel like, for eg. on Copacabana Beach (in Rio) - he'll be sorely tempted to run away somewhere into the interiors of this paradise.
Most city girls i meet - even older ones working responsible jobs and stuff - are surprisingly easy to chat up - giggly, breathtakingly good looking, nice & easy in the mental complication department and typically brazilian in their approach to life - live without too many macro thoughts until like one gets to 35 or 40 - (then worry a little bit about why you divorced the first husband, if he still loves you, what children you pickup for the weekend etc. ;- )
Because i was doing plant trials in places really really far off from the main maps - i had lots of interaction with locals, found new friends, eat lots of authentic stuff and do stuff other visitors dont get to do.
Theres so much to write about and i did get loads of photos this time. Later on, maybe.
ciao
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Sleepy eyed but thrilled
Its 8:30 am and ive been up since like 3 am ish today. Off to the Tradefair here in madras - for meetings starting 10 am - then off at night on my trip like 2 am ish on 2 Feb 2009 - and like - on the same calendar date, at just 7:30 pm - il be like close to 15,000 miles away - after about 21 hours of flying
- Around the world (well half atleast) in 21 hours - Poor old phineas fogg will be turning in his grave :)
ciao ciao
p.s Gmail is now offline enabled (Labs) - as some1 who lives on gmail - have work email also googleapped and linked to just one gmail window - ive been offering prayers for the good dudes at google to implement their gears thingy on gmail asap - its come as of ystrdy night and,fuck, iam like walking on air.
p.s2 - i hope that my 3 GB email cache gets offlined before i leave - so il av lots of stuff to do on this horrendously long (15.5 hours) flight.
- Around the world (well half atleast) in 21 hours - Poor old phineas fogg will be turning in his grave :)
ciao ciao
p.s Gmail is now offline enabled (Labs) - as some1 who lives on gmail - have work email also googleapped and linked to just one gmail window - ive been offering prayers for the good dudes at google to implement their gears thingy on gmail asap - its come as of ystrdy night and,fuck, iam like walking on air.
p.s2 - i hope that my 3 GB email cache gets offlined before i leave - so il av lots of stuff to do on this horrendously long (15.5 hours) flight.
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