Entries Tagged 'Uncategorized' ↓

I don’t know why I even got around to reading this short story (and not the whole book of short stories), but I’m glad I did.

Kunal Basu has weaved a very simple yet beautiful story of love and loss. I haven’t read better in quite a while, and it leaves me with a sense of both loss and hope.

Telling you anything about the story would take away a lot from it, so I would urge you to read it for yourself. It has to be one of the better love stories ever told.

While I have never been a fan of self-help books, this particular book has been an absolute jewel to read!

The book is a treasure trove of very interesting anecdotes about how to deal with all kinds of people, and how to get what you want from them without being totally selfish (much less sounding selfish). Ofcourse there is more to the book than just that, but if I had to have one takeaway, that would be it.

I must thank Maulik Doshi who was responsible for encouraging me (almost to the point of persisting) to read the book.

I feel every individual should read this book, at different times in his or her life. It has to be the one book I would definitely recommend to my friends. I will ensure that Ninaad and Shruti too read this book, hopefully many times over.

So I happened upon Price Check India a few days ago, and man is it awesome. Though still in it’s infancy, it does a fair job of letting me know the best online offer (more on this later) for a product. Currently it covers mobile phones, cameras and televisions. I do expect to see them cover more soon.

It’s interesting to note that there are very few polished players in this market in India. While some like Naptol and MySmartPrice are in the same zone, their usability and presentation sucks big time when compared to Price Check India.

Price Check India also ensures that the end users not only knows of the best prices, but also what extra goodies are on offer within the deal. This makes for a more wholesome buying/comparing experience.

Features that are missing and I’d love to see on Price Check India:

1. The ability to compare between products (and features) within a category
2. A single search box that lets me find any product, as opposed to being restricted by a dropdown.
3. The possibility of getting an even better deal via Price Check India incase they are able to tie-up with various providers.

All in all, merits a look, this Price Check India. Do check it out!

We had a fun New Year’s Eve with Punit Gupta.

We met up to go watch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (which was quite shit btw). Post that we headed over to Forum Value Mall to have a relaxed window shopping session. Punit wanted to get something for his nephews and nieces but didn’t find much @ Landmark.

We decided to retire early for lunch at Little Italy. Got there by 6:45PM and got some good seats. Had some good wine, great starters and a really good Pasta. We also had a Tiramisu for dessert. All in all a great start to the eve.

We then decided to be adventurous and head out towards MG Road to see the festivities. Drove bye and then headed back home with some light beer.

Punit and I stayed up with Shruti and Ninaad hit the sack around 11:15PM. We chatted about various things and also watched a bit of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.

Slept off around 1:15AM.

This morning (1st January 2012) was fun as well. Punit and I caught up over a cup of ginger tea. Discussed some ideas around what possibilities exist in the internet space, with promise of more discussions in the near future.

… but what they don’t realise is that in order to make it to school, we need to feed our children first.

Empty stomachs don’t make it conducive for children to stay in school for hours and study. Hunger is a bigger evil than illiteracy, as far as I can see. It in fact drives many parents to take their kids out of school, so that they can help earn daily wages, which in turn help feed the family.

This thought hit me, in a very big way, this morning when I was heading in to work. I saw a little girl all set to go to school, but crying very hard as she was hungry. The only thing the mother/father had to offer her was ONE (1) biscuit. One. Biscuit.

I wish along with free education, the Govt. could use our tax money to ensure that they have a good breakfast and lunch too. They may be doing it, but it needs to be done better.

It broke my heart. There has to be a way, a better solution, something we can do.. I definitely intend to do something for these children.

They say “Padega India Tabhi to Badega India” but I think before that we need to chant “Khayega India Tabhi to Padega India“.

I was quite excited to read all about Jef Bezos and Amazon.com, after some off handed discussions with Punit on his style of entrepreneurship.

Unfortunately the book is simply a wikipedia + Google Finance research paper on Bezos + Amazon.com. A really bad book, lacking both depth and breadth.

Fairly readable, but not worth writing home (or anywhere) about.

Rating: 1.5/5

Status: Owned

This song has taken the blogosphere, twitterosphere as well as the facebookosphere by rage. Close to 2 million hits in less than 8 days. A super hit even before it’s official release? Definitely! This is the digital age baby.. putting out early has it’s advantages!

Coming back to the song itself, it has a really catchy tune.. enough to make a 2-left feet kinda guy like me want to dance (in a not so elegant way). The lyrics are funny too, and fairly understandable without having to know much of Tamil.

The star power behind this song is no less interesting. Dhanush (the singer) happens to Superstar Rajnikanth’s son-in-law (which automatically  makes him awesome), Aishwarya is Rajnikanth’s daughter and Dhanush’s wife, Shruti Hassan is Kamal Hassan and Saagarika’s daughter and Anirudh was recognised in a talent show by A. R. Rehman himself! Go figure!

Loved some of the terms used in the song, as well as the intent behind the song. Let me explain:

The song is essentially being sung by a heart broken guy who has been dumped unceremoniously by his girlfriend. The ex girlfriend (di) is also exhibiting murderous rage (Kolaveri) towards him and he’s trying to decipher why is it so (why this).

It’s interesting how the song begins by declaring it self a “soup song” (a song to drive away or revel in rejection blues) and ends with a dedication to all the “soup boys” (someone who has recently been dumped).

All in all, a super duper hit in the making!

Song lyrics:

yo boys i am singing song

soup song

flop song

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

rhythm correct

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

maintain this

why this kolaveri..di

distance la moon-u moon-u

moon-u  color-u  white-u

white background night-u nigth-u

night-u color-u black-u

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

white skin-u girl-u girl-u

girl-u heart-u black-u

eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u

my future dark

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

maama notes eduthuko

apdiye kaila sax eduthuko

pa pa paan pa pa paan pa pa paa pa pa paan

sariya vaasi

super maama ready

ready 1 2 3 4

whaa wat a change over maama

ok maama now tune change-u

kaila glass

only english..

hand la glass

glass la scotch

eyes-u full-aa tear-u

empty life-u

girl-u come-u

life reverse gear-u

lovvu lovvu

oh my lovvu

you showed me bouv-u

cow-u cow-u

holi cow-u

i want u here now-u

god i m dying now-u

she is happy how-u

this song for soup boys-u

we dont have choice-u

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

flop song

I laid my hands on this book a few days ago, as I’d pre-ordered it as it was announced.

The plot is essentially about Robin being deputed to London on a project with the Lederman Bank. The CEO of Lederman is disinterested with the Dufresne (the consulting firm that employs Robin) and wishes to completely shut down the project. Robin steps up to the challenge of ensuring Lederman retains Dufresne in order to take care of “transition revolutionary action-items” [used the bullshit generator]. Will Robin succeed in bringing the engagement to a fruitful close (for Dufresne and himself) or will he fail this time around?

While Sidin continues in the same awesome style with protagonist Robin Varghese, something is missing here that existed in the first book.

The humour is there, the thrill (of craziness) is there and of course, there is Robin. But something was missing. Or rather nothing was, and that was the problem. Everything fit and fell into place way too well.

It’s like Robin Einstein Varghese is so awesome it was bound to all work out, way too neatly than I imagined.

All in all a good and fast read.

Rating: 3 / 5

Status: Owned

We wanted to buy a car for ourselves. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we live in Bangalore, and so had to visit the local car sales office for the car we wanted. We took a couple of test drives, fixated on a particular model, etc etc.

So far so good.

I then happened to ask for what documentation I needed to provide in order to get the car. And here is where things started going down hill.

Me: What documents do I need to bring with me to book the car?
Salesman: 4 photographs, 1 ID proof (PAN card, Passport) and 1 address proof (Passport, Ration Card).
Me: I live on rent and hence don’t have a permanent address in Bangalore.. which I can put in my Passport. Can you take a Bank Statement (from say Bank of Baroda, a Govt. entity), or a lease agreement for the current house that I’m staying in.
Salesman: No can do saar. We need a Govt. ID proof only….
Me: But I’m from out of state.. I cannot possibly have any of this. Can we not make an affidavit (I’d done that in Pune once)?
Salesman: No sir, the RTO rules have recently changed. They don’t allow all this.
Me: Fine. My Passport was recently renewed, so I do have a Bangalore address, but the older house address. That should work right? I mean, no post is to be sent there.. you just need to show an address, correct?
Salesman: No sir, your car’s registration papers will be delivered to that address and will not be given to any security guard, etc. You will physically have to live there to collect.
Me: Earlier the car showroom used to procure all these documents from the RTO and give it to the customer.. can you do that for me?
Salesman: No sir, the rules have changed. I’m sorry.
Me: I’m sorry too. I cannot buy a car in the state of Karnataka.

Gaurav Mukherjee had recommended this movie as a good watch, and I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a truly good movie, with interesting story lines, characters and actors.

What I found even more interesting is that at the end of the movie, it is stated that all the stories in the movie have been taken from news paper articles!

Do watch it if you get the chance.