ExpertDabbler

I have always wondered about India’s unemployment problem when organizations like “Vaishnava Dharma Samrakshana” do what tried to do to ‘Dasavatharam’.

I have always wondered how come such organizations do nothing against the political leadership of Tamil Nadu who openly and vehemently ridicule Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Why don’t they go on a fast unto death to remove such CMs of Tamil Nadu? Probably they fear, and quite rightly, that they will be beaten to death with no necessity for fasting.

I have always wondered why its always Kamal whose movies gets into trouble, maybe Kamal Haasan is seen as a soft target.

I have always wondered why people who TRY to be objective and reasonable in general are always perceived as soft targets in India??

I have always wondered… well forget it… no point… how do we wake up people who feign sleep?

Note:
I try to avoid posting on films. But yesterday’s judgement by the High Court and the time and money wasted to get such verdict made me write this. Perhaps we may not have seen the end of comedies like this yet!

Well, thats Chetan Bhagat’s third book. Expecting Chetan to write literary masterpieces is like expecting Mallika Sherawat to act. Thats not their intention in the first place. Chetan Bhagat is all about the frustrations of the city bred youth, whacky one liners and couples making out in odd places. This book is no exception.

This should also be the more serious of Chetan’s efforts so far. Tackling themes like communalism is surely as serious as it gets with him. What I did like about this book was the way he had used the Gujarat Earthquake, the Godhra carnage and the epic 281 by Laxman in that test match against Australia in Eden Gardens.

And of course his one liners. When Fred calls the boy to Australia, Govind says “..Like it was taking an auto to Navrangpura”
and in the Bondi beach “I would rather see one topless woman a day for hundred days than hundred in the same day”.
I literally LOL-ed on lines like these. But sadly those lines are much less frequent when compare to his previous works.

On the down side, there are some completely cinematic sequences which would make even a hardcore Vijay fan squirm.

Overall a readable, though nothing great book. My only concern is he is taking himself too seriously for his own good. I expect him change course in his next efforts.

No, not that stupid Remo character in Shankar directed comedy film.

I am talking about Remo Fernandez, a one of a kind, truly multi faceted musician from Goa.

For starters, he are some of his Remoisms I loved

When America instituted awards for music, they took the first half of the word ‘gramophone’ and called them Grammies. Bombay film music directors would have to take the second half and call them Phonies.”

” There’s nothing as beautiful as a beautiful woman unaware of her beauty.”

” God created man and woman. Humans created husband and wife. I think we all agree that God is smarter than humans.”

” Everyone loves you posthumously. As long as you stay dead.”

Every now and then, I get to listen to his title song in the hindi film ‘Daud’ by Rahman. Electrifying piece!

I feel he did not get the recognition he deserved.

Here’s another instance of his brilliance which i bet you would’ve listened to often.
http://www.search4rss.com/geetgatachal/?p=9

Do check out his site here.

I know a lot of people are bullish on real estate investments in Tier 2 cities. Land prices are skyrocketing in areas like Tuticorin.
My personal favorite for major growth potential is Trichy.

Right now the motorability/accessibility of the GST road is subject to terms and conditions like how many parottas the driver eats to hold the steering wheel, the mood of Ulundurpet railway gate man etc. If God willing, one can travel from Chennai to Trichy in six hours by car and seven plus hours by bus. For a distance of 300 plus kilometers and considering that its a National Highway, it is pathetic to say the least.

But all that is going to change once the road work gets over. And I am hoping our Lalu decides to give Trichy a long awaited, much begged for double line from Chennai. Trichy is approximately 150 - 200 kms from Namakkal, Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Sivakasi, the most important commercial hubs of Tamil Nadu apart from Chennai. It will also connect seamlessly with other port towns like Nagai, Tuticorin etc. It also has small but thriving trading centers around it within 50-100 kms, unlike Madurai IMHO.

But critical contributions are needed from Institutions and entrepreneurs based in Trichy to make this a possibility.
At present it suffers from an unmistakable small town mentality. But hopefully all that will change in the near future when the big players turn their attention to the center point of Tamil Nadu.

Back after yet another trip this weekend. It was all the more strenous this time since I traveled to Trichy (Thurayur) and thereon to Madurai and returned, all in two days flat and half the journey was in our govt. buses. Truly blessed are those who never got to travel in that adventurous GST road stretch from Tindivanam to Madurai.

The special train in which I returned was late by a small matter of 7.30 hours. As is always the case with railways, they announced the delay in seven installments of one hour each. Those who are mathematically inclined would be wondering about the balance thirty minutes, that is what we fondly call ‘Gandhi Kanakku’ i.e. that was not declared at all. This delay also reminded me of my maiden and only abroad trip. More on that later.

One unmistakable trend in all these visits is that Ilayaraja still rules the hearts of most of my brethren in tier two towns. Be it Maatuthaavani bus terminus at 2.30 AM, the private town bus in Trichy at 4 PM, the tea stalls in Virudhunagar at 5 AM to quote just a few, its overwhelmingly in favor of IR. I feel there is more to it than sheer coincidence. Not sure if the small town folks are in a time warp or ARR is just too sophisticated in his music. We are not talking about the Sathyam cinema going, Mani- Kamal admiring, Landmark-ing Madrasi but proper interior Tamil Nadu folks after all.

I sincerely hope, pray and wish I need not take travel to south Tamil Nadu for the next six months. And certainly not take the GST road for the next two years.

User studies are always a fascinating and humbling experience for any designer. It is fun and sometimes shocking to discover a user’s mental model. To put it plainly, a mental model is basically a user’s understanding of how a thing/product/gadget works. It need not necessarily be the way it actually works.

Regular readers know that I have a weakness for listening to music in low volume late in the night in total darkness. Sometimes I play some songs in my Zune, connected to my speakers and I doze off after an hour or so.

So whenever my mom wakes up, she comes to my room, sees me sleeping peacefully and my player dishing out music switches off the power for the speakers.

According to her, when we cut off power, the music player should stop because that’s how the TV works and that’s how tape recorders worked. She validates her idea based on the feedback the system sends out. Obviously the music stops because the speaker derives power from the power outlet. Mission accomplished for my mom.

Only that this is misleading because my battery powered zune keeps running till next morning and my speakers comes back to life as soon as I switch it on next morning

I’ve since then educated my mom on the buttons to press to switch off the player as well. She in turn educated me to switch off the player myself before sleep

I was in Madurai on May 8th, the day of Akshaya Thrithiyai, a day designed to make Jewelers rich :-). I had a chance to talk about the jewelry business to my uncle who is a jeweler himself and had been part of the whole tamaasha for long. He is taking it light nowadays – been through a by-pass surgery et al.

His take on the scene and how big players like Tanishq, Reliance franchisees and Joy Alukkas have completely rewritten the rules of the game was very illuminating to say the least.

According to him, thanks to the entry of big players, margins in this business for small traders have come down drastically. They are happy with a margin of Rs.30-50 per gram, approximately eleven hundred bucks nowadays. He even asked me to go around South Avani Moola Street to find jewelers offering EMI scheme to attract the salaried crowd. Apparently the bazaar resembles that of a ration shop during the first week of every month. He himself got a business over phone as he was talking to me and he instructed his associate to handover the jewel to the customer and collect only a portion and get the balance later.

On the other hand, big players like Joy Alukkas generally do not give credit nor breakups to the gold purchased. For e.g – for a piece of jewellery, they quote the price but do not say how much they’ve factored in for making and other charges unless we ask for it specifically. But if the customer is not willing to take it, they offer to negotiate by bringing down the price substantially from their initial quote. For e.g if a piece costs Rs.30,000, they would even be willing to come down by even Rs. 3,000 for the discerning customer. He was quoting his experience as a customer in Joy Allukas.

A friend of mine in Chennai, quoted a similar experience of high making and other charges in Keertilal so it looks like there is some element of truth in it. Only that Keertilal was not willing to negotiate on the charges quoted. Eventually he had to call off the purchase. But honestly not many would be so price conscious when making a jewel purchase.
We have this mentality of ,’Oh man I am losing Rs.50,000 anyway, what’s the big deal in another 1000 or so?’. But apparently, the percentage works out to much higher than that.
For instance, I along with some friends recently purchased a small ring as a gift for my friend’s new born son. The shop was Nathella Jewelry in Velachery. I neither had the time nor the inclination to ask for the break-up. In hindsight, I think I paid at least 200-300 Rs. extra on a purchase of 1gm ring.

Bottomline, branded retail has entered every business and jewelry business is no exception. I am not here to argue we need to protect the interests of the small trader. But as a consumer I think I should get value for every paisa I spent, be it groceries or jewelry, be it big businesses or small businesses.

The nature of gold per se. easily makes it a high turnover business. But I now realize the biggies have also made it high margin business. From a purely customer standpoint, I think it’s important we negotiate hard and not settle for the price quoted for making and other charges. On the other hand, if you are an investor make sure you get Titan’s hares on every dip

Cream Center:
Situated in Venkata Krishna Road in Mandavelli. The crowd and waiting time is quite remarkable for a vegetarian restaurant which is also a new entrant.

Cholayil Sanjeevanam:
Not exactly new as I remember Fathima taking us there two years back. Today I tried the one in Indira Nagar, Adyar and if anything, the menu and the food was even better. Their USP is providing food with an emphasis on ‘health’ and ‘nutrition’. Very interesting restaurant. Their Idly Uppuma was ‘exactly’ the way mom would make it at home. Overall a very interesting effort and theme and these players should be encouraged.

The food analysts that is me and Madhu whole heartedly give ‘EAT’ rating to both these restaurants

Anyone knows what is meant by ‘paatethuradhu’?

I was in Sivakasi to attend a wedding. While returning, there was this guy who approached me near Amritaraj Theatre in Virudhunagar and asked, ” Anney inge enga anney paatetharaangey?”

I was flummoxed. What’s more, the guy who asked me, on seeing my confused face gave that ‘you don’t know this?’ look, and asked another one and the other guy casually pointed him to a shop nearby.

It was only later did I discover that ‘Paatethuradhu’ means, transferring tamil songs in mp3 to mobile phone. It’s Paatu + Yaetrudhal!! Whew!!

Coming to think of it, the fellow is right!
It’s only confused folks like me who use terms like ‘file transfer/mp3 download’ in between tamil words and confuse the language even further.

This time a camera tripod. No it’s not a tripod.

Well, Joby calls it a Gorillapod. I might try something with this tomorrow
At 50 USD, this one seems to be a super cool gadget for photo enthusiasts. Got it from my friend sometime back.
Let’s see how it works. Shall keep you posted.