Sunday, July 30, 2017
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Friday, July 28, 2017
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Fading Memory, Social Awkwardness
Quotes from couple of nice articles:
Happy memories fade away fast: Quotes from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_do_your_happy_memories_fade?utm_source=Greater+Good+Science+Center&utm_campaign=76246365fc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5ae73e326e-76246365fc-51673647:
Happy memories fade away fast: Quotes from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_do_your_happy_memories_fade?utm_source=Greater+Good+Science+Center&utm_campaign=76246365fc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5ae73e326e-76246365fc-51673647:
the desire to retrospect does not change over time.” “Instead, past experiences become less top-of-mind over time, and, as a result, people simply forget to remember.”These results are consistent with the view that actual retrospection is strongly dependent on the accessibility of the experience, which is aided by visible mementos
Social Awkwardness: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_deal_with_social_awkwardness?utm_source=Greater+Good+Science+Center&utm_campaign=76246365fc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5ae73e326e-76246365fc-51673647
awkward people tend to see things differently, shining a spotlight of attention on parts of their perceptual world that others tend to look past. This means that they might spend hours poring over spec sheets for their computer, but miss the subtle cues—like foot-tapping or arm-crossing—that let them know someone is bored or impatient.
The reasons for this difference lie in the brain. Neuroscience research suggests that awkward people—who are somewhat similar to people with “high-functioning autism” or Asperger’s Syndrome—have less activity in their “social brains” and require extra cognitive effort when interpreting social cues. This is not only difficult and draining for them; it can also cause anxiety, which is probably why awkward people sometimes choose to withdraw from social contact altogether...awkward people can be taught to pay attention to social cues like eye contact during conversations, and not interrupt when someone else is speaking.
While awkward children may subconsciously say or do things that others will interpret negatively—such as correcting people’s grammar or strictly adhering to rules and routines (which helps them to function well, but can be perceived as inflexible)—parents can act as coaches, helping to point children to behaviors that will ease their social interactions...One way is by teaching their awkward kids manners—social expectations for dress, behavior, and talk that may not be obvious but can be learned and rehearsed.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Friday, July 14, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
When You Hate Whom You Love
Here’s how our brains work, as revealed by decades of psychological research: If we are thinking about something pleasant when a positive word pops up, we are quicker to categorize it as positive; but when a negative word pops up, we are slower to put it in the negative category. Likewise, if we are thinking about something unpleasant, we will be slower to categorize positive words and quicker for negative ones.
This task allows researchers to actually quantify people’s feelings towards their significant others, by calculating how quickly they respond to positive words and negative words after seeing their significant other’s name.
Additional reading;
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Grief Observed
Grief Observed by CS Lewis. This book is about the grief that a man observed in himself after his wife's death.
This book is available online. Check this link.
Quotes from this book:
"The reason for the difference is only too plain. You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? The same with people."
‘Because she is in God’s hands.’ But if so, she was in God’s hands all the time, and I have seen what they did to her here. Do they [in heaven] suddenly become gentler to us the moment we are out of the body? And if so, why? If God’s goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it.
If H [Author's wife]. ‘is not’, then she never was. I mistook a cloud of atoms for a person. There aren’t, and never were, any people. Death only reveals the vacuity that was always there. What we call the living are simply those who have not yet been unmasked. All equally bankrupt, but some not yet declared.
For a good wife contains so many persons in herself. What was H. not to me? She was my daughter and my mother, my pupil and my teacher, my subject and my sovereign; and always, holding all these in solution, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. My mistress; but at the same time all that any man friend (and I have good ones) has ever been to me. Perhaps more. If we had never fallen in love we should have none the less been always together, and created a scandal. That’s what I meant when I once praised her for her ‘masculine virtues’. But she soon put a stop to that by asking how I’d like to be praised for my feminine ones. This strikes a chord and seems quite similar to what Indian literature extols in a good wife - to be a good friend, mother, mistress to her husband.
There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry ‘masculine’ when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them, to describe a man’s sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as ‘feminine’. But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human.
I wonder. How would another man or wife, who loved their spouse very much, grieve? How different would it be from this author's grief? What is so special about this grief? I came across this book while reading another book on Male Grief where the author mentioned that males grieve in a way that is very different from the way feminine people grieve. Males don't talk it out and cry over a friend's shoulder. Is CH Lewis an example of all those male folks who love their wives a lot? Is this the way most male folks, who loved their wives, feel after their wives' death?
I know of an elderly gentleman. From what I have heard of him and his wife I think he could grieve like CH Lewis were his [my contact's] wife to die. I can imagine one difference though. My contact is not a person who can express as Lewis does. He would be more like a toddler who lost his mom - with a lot of grief but unable to express or articulate.
On the whole I am not able to relate to the kind of grief that the author felt nor empathize with it.
On the whole I am not able to relate to the kind of grief that the author felt nor empathize with it.
Consumer Protection And Redressal
http://consumerhelpline.gov.in/ This is the portal for registering complaints. Tel No: 1800-11-4000 (044-2859-2828 in Tamil Nadu)
Additional reading:
Additional reading:
Friday, July 7, 2017
Why Are There No Paan Stains in India's Metro Stations
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/H0txA6aMRKB0cOqbpj5IjN/Why-no-paan-stains-in-our-Metro-stations.html
Quote from the link:
Human behaviour experts have always studied the impact of physical surroundings on human behaviour. They have established that physical locations are some of the most powerful cues to behaviours. As Wendy Wood, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, puts it, “ Even though people think they’re making choices, many of our repeated behaviours are cued by everyday environments”. Humans are like chameleons who have the ability to change their colours to suit the surroundings. We speak softly in libraries, we are boisterous in stadiums.
Most of our Metro stations are at a physical level that is different from the rest of the surroundings. Metros are either elevated or they are underground. A Metro station invokes a ritual of stepping out of the ordinary world into a “sacred” space. The same level difference (and the accompanying effort) adds to a feeling of exclusivity and spirituality to our places of worship too. "
Kinda strange. And yet true. That our behavior is somehow modified based on where we are. If we wanted to change someone's behavior, place that person constantly in environments where a different behavior is expected. What happens when the person returns to his "home" environment?
Another interesting thing I realized is that each of us creates an environment around us, an aura. We carry ourselves in a particular way. That is what tells people whether we are a cowshed or a metro station. And people treat us accordingly.
Another interesting thing I realized is that each of us creates an environment around us, an aura. We carry ourselves in a particular way. That is what tells people whether we are a cowshed or a metro station. And people treat us accordingly.
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Awe Makes Us More Positive And Humble
Additional reading:
- https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_overcome_stress_by_seeing_other_peoples_joy Seeing other people's joy reduces our stress
- https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/are_emotions_born_or_made Are emotions born or made?
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Depth And Know Alls
A Very interesting Article On Experts And Breadth
https://www.ft.com/content/0f65f08a-5bdf-11e7-b553-e2df1b0c3220?mhq5j=e1
https://www.ft.com/content/0f65f08a-5bdf-11e7-b553-e2df1b0c3220?mhq5j=e1
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
2D:4D Ratio
Apparently the ratio of the index finger length to the ring finger length indicates the exposure a baby has to testosterone while in the womb. Lesser the ratio, longer the ring finger, more masculine is the baby. https://www.livescience.com/49883-finger-length-in-men.html.
Seems like what WHR is for women, 2D:HD is for men.
Additional reading:
Seems like what WHR is for women, 2D:HD is for men.
Additional reading:
Monday, July 3, 2017
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Markets and Fashion: A Close Parallel
I wrote a piece on the stock market since guruji had been insisting that I write (ever since she fell in love wih Chetan Bhagat)..
"This season we wont see many tops. there is a bell bottom.. And we will see a lot of shaking sideways. I foresee it going sometimes up, sometimes down.. Some days we will see red.. "
When I wrote this about the stock market, some fashion people approached me to ask if I could write regularly for them. What i thought was a masterpiece of market analysis... And people mistook it for a nice fashion article.. I was aghast.. Then realization struck.. I understood after countless hours of explanations to Femmo on Fashion and to Guruji on markets.. Both fashion and stock market analysis are kinda same.. Neither lends itself to rational analysis while there are millions of experts who purport to do exactly that.. The mistake the fashion people made was understandable..
I myself have predicted (quite accurately I would say) about Sensex and Nifty (Indian stock indices) based on what I saw in a remote corner in India. There were two numbers in the picture, the larger one indicates the BSE Sensex -30 and the smaller one refers to the broad based Nifty.)
Fundamentals OR Technicals
This is a nice article on fundamentals or technicals? Which way to judge to judge the stock market best.
Valuing based only on the fundamentals is like following Bhagwad Gita: just do the right things and focus on the right parameters, don't look for the (short term) results. Technicals perhaps leans towards a focus on the immediate results.
Published on
3/29/12, 10:58 AM
India Standard Time
Responsibility Of A Bank Or A Company's Auditor
A court in India ruled that a bank is responsible for not detecting forgery and has been asked to pay back the amount forged from a customer's account.
If that is the case, what is the responsibility of an external auditor of a company? If a company provides forged documents to an auditor, is he (auditor) expected to recognize the forgery? Is he expected to verify the authenticity of the documents he is auditing? If not we will only have priceless watered down houses of auditors.
Published on
5/15/12, 9:50 AM
India Standard Time
Bhalo Theko Baba
I went to a shop today to buy some stuff. The security guard standing outside was dressed rather decorously with a large cap - kinda like the guys doing the parade at Wagha border or like doormen in the higher class hotels.
The guy seemed like a Bengali to me from his features. I smiled at him and asked him in Bengali whether he was a Bengali. He replied "Na". I was surprised, usually I am good at spotting Bengalis. He said he was from Tripura, which is a close cousin of Bengal. People there speak the same language (Bengali). Bangladesh in fact is bounded on the west by West Bengal and on the east by Tripura.
For some reason, he opened the door at the entrance to the shop, did a formal namaste and continued in with me. I continued in Bengali with him, asked him whether he knew Bengali. He replied "han". I asked him whether he spoke Bengali (not the same as knowing / understanding Bengali). He spoke a longer sentence affirming. I asked him why his accent was different, that he wasn't speaking normal Bengali. He replied he was from Tripura and hence his accent is more Tripura's and closer to Banglasdesh's.
When I was coming out, I met him again and asked him how long he has been in Chennai and whether he had eaten (lunch). He replied yes, he had eaten. I asked him his name was. Turned out he is Muslim. I was shocked. This month being Ramzan he is supposed to fast during day time. I asked him why he wasn't fasting. He said he had two jobs. Another job at night in a different establishment in the city. Obviously he couldn't fast
I was like huh?. Two full time jobs...? I had heard of this only in novels. Tough life for some people. Young guy so far away from home.
Picture Blog - My Village During the Monsoon..
I moved all pictures to Picasa while I was doing housecleaning.
The picture below of a girl enjoying the rain was not shot by me. But I liked it so much I thought i would include it. It's from a local newspaper.
Nice set of monsoon photos here http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/monsoons-glory-part-2-1308906902-slideshow/.
Here is a lovely photo of a woman with a child in the 2015 Nov rains from a local newspaper (22-11-2015)
A Forgotten Man
I read an article about Satyendranath Bose and his contribution to Science, his interaction with Einstein http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article1073376.ece?service=mobile. The author gives a background about this scientist whose work a hundred years back was acknowledged by Einstein. While we have forgotten about Bose, the author correctly points out that we are more interested in the Sachin's and AR Rehman's, who are acknowledged masters in their own space but whose output is perhaps not as relevant to mankind as that of Bose's. Science drives us forward. While the cricketing prowess of Sachin or the music of Rehman are rather unlikely to make any prominent contribution to mankind.
We now seem to be obsessed with things that don't last long. We hear good reviews about music or fashion that is trendy. Our refrigerators or A/Cs or cars or phones are built to not last. They need a change every 5 years. Gone are the days when we would buy and use a ceiling fan or a radio or a bicycle for a lifetime. Today we want to churn out stuff that is trendy faster.
When I watch TV, I am flooded with advertisements for products that help one to look fairer, handsomer, have long hair, no pimples. Stuff that will change the color of our hair, nails and what not from L'Oreal (of course from Paris, no less) and other brands. Would we use a L'Unreal from Patna?
Our Parties
Today I read in the newspapers that Mr Raja, ex-telecom minister of India, was arrested by the CBI. And that the congress and Mr Karunanidhi have been silent on the issue while Ms Jayalalitha and other opposition parties are claiming that this should have happened earlier.
While I do hear that Karunanidhi and his cronies do not touch any project unless there is a quarter billion (US) dollar cut for themselves, was the other lady any better when she was in power?
Why are we stuck like this? We have a state (Tamil Nadu) where there are mainly two political parties and each party seems substantially worse than the other. (And this is about the same across the country).
Why cant we have clean men who would shudder at the thought of stealing money, accepting bribes, being unfair, speaking nonsense?
What causes us people to vote for these parties? Don't we have the moral courage to say "we don't want people who are unclean?"
Why do we need them in the first place? Like Dagny told her brother Jim, can't we tell these people "we don't need you"?
Are there not such people in India? Isn't there an "Arjun" of Mudhalvan fame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudhalvan)?
Will an "Arjun" ever stumble into our politics? Would he have the wherewithal to fight the goons that exist? Will India go through an "Egypt" phase of catharsis?
There is too much money floating around which can buy anything and quell any "disturbance". There is too much acceptance of shoddiness in our psyche. There is too little pride in ourselves.
Where do we go from here?
I wonder what would happen if we were to ask a private company like the Tata's or Larsen and Toubro to run India on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) mode?
Are there not such people in India? Isn't there an "Arjun" of Mudhalvan fame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudhalvan)?
Will an "Arjun" ever stumble into our politics? Would he have the wherewithal to fight the goons that exist? Will India go through an "Egypt" phase of catharsis?
There is too much money floating around which can buy anything and quell any "disturbance". There is too much acceptance of shoddiness in our psyche. There is too little pride in ourselves.
Where do we go from here?
I wonder what would happen if we were to ask a private company like the Tata's or Larsen and Toubro to run India on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) mode?
Published on
2/3/11, 10:14 AM
India Standard Time
Free Market, Advertisements
Long time back I saw two advertisements (I have long had a deep dislike of advertisements in any form). One for car company X and one for car company Y.
X claimed that so many (100,000s) Y car owners had switched to X car in the last year.
Y claimed in its advertisement that so many (100,000s) X car owners had switched to Y car in the last year.
Now in reality probably both data could have been true. As to which data WAS true, I don't know.
Assuming even that both data were true, it means that so many people switched from X car to Y car and so many went the reverse way. In effect the NET new buyers for each car was much lower than the number mentioned, probably zero or even negative (for one of X, Y).
But the way the message was communicated one felt that this car was wowowow. Until one read the other advertisement.
All these thoughts were triggered by an article I read, unfortunately I am not able to get the link.
Millions used the MNP option to move to some other mobile service provider. Some from x to y brand. Some from y to x. In the find hope that the grass is greener on the other side.
Catch Phrases - You Are An Outsider If You Don't Use These Words
I read this article today.
I was reminded of a conversation I had with a friend couple of months back. He was explaining some problems he was having. And I was asking him questions, why, what, when etc. He spoke at length to me, used a lot of jargon. He said he will ask his team member to do 5 Sigma analysis (or was it 6 sigma). He did not have a clue about what caused the problems he was having, how to figure out and solve. But he was a great one for jargon.
For some people, their problems are theirs to solve. Others expect the angel up there to solve.
Additional reading:
http://www.forbes.com/business-jargon/
Additional reading:
http://www.forbes.com/business-jargon/
Published on
6/13/12, 3:13 PM
India Standard Time
IT Poaches From IT
Ever since the Government of India approached the IT (aka Software or Information Technology) industry to poach a senior person to head a government project, other govt. agencies are doing the same.
Recently the IT (Income tax) department decided to use the techniques of IT (industry) towards increasing its revenues (tax). A knowledgeable insider told me the details.
How does an IT company's increase its sales revenue? By two means.
- Farming: By building relationships with the existing customers and increasing the wallet share (meaning the spend) of the customers. The company identifies pain areas that the customer has and provides the solution for the same. Or it provides services at higher quality and/or cheaper prices and tends to replace its competitors from the customer.
- Hunting: By acquiring new customers. This is done through cold calls or by leveraging relationships that other entities (example, Niira) already have with the customers.
Out of the 1 billion odd population in India (which includes some illegal immigrants, terrorists etc from neighboring countries), about 50-100 million are income tax payers. The rest, about 900 million of them, don't pay taxes. These potential customers need to be "hunted".
Now with the backdrop of revenue enhancement methods in the IT (Info. Tech.) industry the question is: How does one apply the same in the IT (Income Tax) department?
My source explained to me.
- Cold calls: The tax department plans to engage a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company to make cold calls to the potential customers. The contact telephone numbers of these customers can be purchased from the telecom companies at a very nominal rate. The database of numbers is given to the BPO company. BPO agents call the potential customers.
The call goes something like this:
Agent: "I am calling from the Income Tax department. Can I take 2 minutes of your time please?"
Potential Customer (PC): "Hmmm. Yes?"
Agent: "Sir, Would you like to pay tax?"
PC: "No"
Agent: "Sir, the procedure will be very simple. We will send our executive to your house to collect it. You can pay by cash or credit card or as jewelry. Can I set up an appointment for my executive to come to your house?"
PC: "No"
Agent: "Mr Gupta, this is limited period offer valid only this month. Won't your family like you to pay tax?"
PC: "No they wont. And my name is not Gupta."
Agent: "Oh I am sorry sir. Can I have your name please?"
PC: "No"
Agent: "Can you refer me to some of your friends who would be interested in paying tax for the first time"
PC: "Sure. Santosh, Sheila, Abhijit, Shreyas, Shweta. You can pick up more names from my Facebook account"
Having collected some additional leads, the agent hangs up. The sad thing is that this call didn't result in anything. The agent makes a note in his diary and continues with the next name in his list and starts dialing. The idea is that even if 0.001% of the leads get converted, that is an additional 9000 tax payers. Even if each pays Rs 1000 as tax that will be Rs 9 million (about $200,000) in a year. This revenue will be sticky revenue that will accrue year on year.
We now go to the next method.
We now go to the next method.
- Relationship Manager: Each tax payer will have a relationship manager (RM) from the IT department. Each RM will be responsible for a region, such as Bangalore, Delhi, Punjab etc. The IT department plans to hire experienced RM's from the IT industry who have a proven track record. Each RM will handle about 1000 customers. The RM will call on his existing customers and he will endeavor to get the customer to spend more on IT than on other things such as vacations, groceries, entertainment etc.
The strategy, my source tells me, is well chalked out. Each RM will map the right person who is the decision maker and influencer. Note that the customer can be an individual (with a family) or a company. The decision maker in case of a family will have to be identified and in case of a company that person will be the company's CFO.
This is an excerpt from a sample call made to an individual, Mr Kapoor. The RM explained to Mr Kapoor the purpose of the call and asked to speak with the decision maker was in his family. Mr Kapoor handed the phone over to the decision maker.
RM: "Hello, Mrs Kapoor.
Mrs Kapoor: "Yes?"
RM: "I am your relationship manager from the IT department. We have a campaign for increasing the tax collection from our existing tax payers. I wonder if you would be interested in paying more tax. We have a special scheme where instead of the normal 30%, you can pay tax at only 7.5% of your income."
Mrs Kapoor: "Oh wowowow. You mean we can pay tax at 7.5% instead of at 30%?
RM: "No no. This 7.5% is over and above what you already pay. This will help provide our salary increments, more perquisites to the MLAs, build more roads, provide education to poor children. You would love it"
Mrs Kapoor: "Hmmm. But where do I get money to pay more tax?"
RM: "This is where we can really help. We can analyze your spends, find out which expenses you can reduce and use those funds to pay tax. If you want I can explain to you"
Mrs Kapoor: "Reduce our expenses? Hmmm. Can you tell me over the over phone please?"
RM: "Sure Mam. How much do you spend on kitty parties, going to the parlor, birthday and anniversary parties? How much on dresses and on vacations? All these are discretionary spends. Meaning you don't really have to spend on these, these are not vital. If you can cut down even by 30% on these, you can easily afford to pay the additional 7.5% tax."
The RM thinks he has it almost made. He has rarely come this far with a decision maker.
While I know you will be interested to hear Mrs. Kapoor's response, unfortunately I have edited out the rest of the conversation. I thought the language was far too profane for my gentle audience. Suffice it to say that the RM didn't quite get the deal.
Now the IT department made a root cause analysis to find out why the RM couldn't get through with Mrs Kapoor. It realized that the expenditure it had considered to be discretionary / optional were not felt to be that by the decision makers. The IT department have hence decided on a few things to improve the RM's efficiency or conversion ratio as it is called.
- Not to talk to women.
- To call only when women are very busy or at those times when they cannot talk. This means that all calls by RM's will be made only between 7AM and 9AM, 2:30PM and 4PM (when housewives are taking naps) and between 7PM and 9PM.
- Not to use the words "discretionary spend". These words cause tempers to flare. Decision makers find it very annoying that vital things are misconstrued as only being desirable by the IT department.
Of course, taking a cue from the IT industry payments to Niira would consist of a variable component and be success based.
Considering there is a huge population of leads out there, it should not be too difficult for IT department to rake in additional income. They are on the right track by roping in influential and experienced people.
While it's definitely a move in the right direction for the IT department to imbibing practices honed to perfection in the Indian IT industry, I couldn't help but think of the possibility of the Income Tax department assimilating another common IT industry practice of artificially bloating its revenue by a few billion dollars in order to make the country's economy and IT department's functioning look better. And the IT department is already one of the parties investigating the best brain (currently in Hyderabad) in this area. Eeeek.
Published on
12/13/10, 12:15 PM
India Standard Time
Airtel Advertisements
First it was the girl saying Duniya Gol Nahi Hai and then the 4G ads. And now the open network advt.
What is with their ads? They are immensely displeasing, saying inane things with immense confidence. Earlier it was Sasha Chttri ads and now its a bunch of youngsters saying they WANT to know where there are towers. This knowledge will give better call quality?
Now Airtel would have us believe they are the most open network, one can know which tower is where, how strong the signal is.
So while you identify an apartment to rent on 99acres, you can also check whether there is a kamwali (maid), markets, school, hospital nearby and maybe check whether Airtel has a good tower close to the apartment. And if there isn't one, you can check whether a tower is coming up soon. Wow.
Does this mean my dropped calls will cease soon? Yesterday I called an Airtel number from another Airtel number and one party could not hear the other one clearly at all. Both within the same city. This will reduce because of the open network?
And all this while the 4G girl (Sasha Chettri) in the Airtel used to show us how 4G is available in remote places like mountain tops. Is Airtel now claiming to be THE OPEN network and not actually the BEST quality network?
Few months back I went to check Airtel's new 4G router.. And the sales person was showing it to me. I loaded a song on youtube inside the showroom. And there it was l o a d i n g ........The salesman explained the lack of speed - there were 2 other people in their backoffice using the router simultaneously and that it was a new showroom. And that the speed will be great in my house. And this was when they used to show an ad where downloading a movie happened in about 3 minutes.. I spent 6 seconds to load the first few words of a song.
Not that Airtel is alone in this. Reliance is no better. At least Reliance doesn't make me sick with their RCom ads.
I wish people stayed true to facts instead of assuming different poses each day.
Today I am great on coverage. Tomorrow I am an OPEN person. Day after god knows what..
If Airtel or any ISP wanted to know what true speed was, they ought to check out ACT. There is a lot to learn from the low profile ACT.
Is it possible that if I can't pay my bills in time, I can try the alternative of showing exactly who my creditors are and how much money I have? I suppose Airtel would be thrilled to have its customers being as open as they are. When did transparency of their towers become a crucial requirement for a telephone company?
Additional reading:
Is it possible that if I can't pay my bills in time, I can try the alternative of showing exactly who my creditors are and how much money I have? I suppose Airtel would be thrilled to have its customers being as open as they are. When did transparency of their towers become a crucial requirement for a telephone company?
Additional reading:
- http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-watch-airtel-4g-girl-sasha-chettri-mocks-her-own-monologues-in-these-new-ads-2193599
- https://www.quora.com/Whats-your-opinion-on-Airtels-open-network
Published on
6/24/16, 1:17 PM
India Standard Time
A Typical Tamil Vegetarian Meal In A Banana Leaf
In a local newspaper, I came across a good picture of a typical Tamil (South Indian) vegetarian meal. Since a number of my friends are not Tamils, I thought it would be a good idea to write briefly about it. My purpose is not to provide a recipe for the dishes but to provide some idea about what the dishes are in a meal and what ingredients are present. I have not taken the trouble to mention ALL the ingredients. (source: Times of India)
The Indian meal would consist of a serving of rice mixed with sambar. You would mix (with your hands) rice with sambar. And the same along with a side dish (in this meal: appalam, Sundal and potato poriyal). The next dish you would have is rice mixed with "vathal kuzhambu" and/or "more kuzhambu" and/or rasam. The last serving would be rice mixed with curd (Yoghurt) or buttermilk. "Mango thokku" is a pickle made of mango and red chilies. You would take a small portion of the pickle and mix with curd rice and eat. Appalam is usually made of rice. Its either roasted or fried in oil (the one in the picture is fried). You would break a piece of appalam and eat along with rice mixed with sambar/rasam etc.
"More Kozhambu", in the picture, is made of buttermilk and kinda similar to the north Indian "kadi".
Sambar, rasam, vettha kozhambu are made of tamarind, dals (pulses/lentils). Each has another appropriate premixed non-perishable ingredient: Sambar/rasam/vettha kozhambu powder. Each of these powders is made of dals, red chilies and spices in a specific proportion and ground. Sambar would be very thick and would include cut vegetables. Vettha kozhambu is also a thick dish and spicy. Rasam would be a thinner dish with no vegetables except perhaps for green chili/tomato. Ginger / garlic / ginger / lemon are added to get the right flavor/taste. There are multiple variations of sambar and rasam. A tamil meal is quite intricate.
"Rice Podi" in the picture is a misnomer. I am not aware of any edible stuff of that name. I think the right name is "Molaga podi" (meaning chili powder). It's made of various dals, red chilies and it's usually darker (reddish brown). You would take a piece of idli or dosa and dip it in a mixture of sesame oil and the "podi" and then eat. There is another variation called "paruppu (dal) podi" made of various dals; I think it has less red chili in it. You would mix the paruppu podi with rice and add some sesame oil/homemade ghee and eat the mixture. It is delicious.
Payasam (made of rice/milk and sugar) and Kesari are couple of desserts among many others that are part of Tamil cooking. Payasam is usually eaten after having the sambar, rasam rice and before you come to curd rice.
A typical meal cooked at home would not consist of ALL these dishes shown here. There would be fewer dishes. A chapathi would not be part of a typical tamil meal. The "plate" is the banana leaf. After eating you would dispose off the leaf in the garbage. Or, if there are cows at home (you might if you live in a village), you would give the leaf to the cows to eat. So it's eco-friendly.
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