How about some Indian Mexican?

Thinking outside the bun, Yum Brands will open India's first Taco Bell in Bangalore soon. I'm curious to find out whether this fast food will be Indian-Mexican or American-Mexican? In any case, Taco Bell is not Mexican-Mexican, so what culture combination are we gonna get this time?

Most of us might take to the taste, cause Mexican food has a decent amount of spice and flavor (the Fire Border sauce is yumm!). And I believe they're gonna price the tacos and burritos quite cheap (around 40 cents a piece - about 20 bucks which is affordable). Will this give Shiv Sagar's Mexican menu a run for its money? Hmmm... price vs value...

Source: Yum Brands Bets on India's Young for Growth

Chocolate makes you Smarter!

I ate chocolate cause it made me happier… but now I found out that all along it was making me smarter as well! Supposedly it triggers the creation of new brain cells. You can read about the facts here, I don’t particularly care to elaborate. Its just one more benefit added to the list!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate. Dark Chocolate is like a piece of heaven. I have to have a piece of chocolate everyday, if I don’t, I admit it – I become cranky (my friends will testify to this). I always say, I could give up chocolate but I’m not a quitter. What all this rambling boils down to is that I’m one chika whose happy to continue eating this sweet treat. Join the bandwagon; after all its the holiday season!

Sak Town

Sak Town, known to most people as Sakleshpur, is a few miles from Hassan in Karnataka. It is a coffee and pepper growing hub. The chief occupation of the residents here is agriculture, and when they are not attending to their money minting crops, they spend their leisure time in the Planter's Club (a very apt name for its location). I had the pleasure of traveling there this past weekend with a couple of majaa (=fun in Kannada) friends. Our excuse was to visit another majaa (for the lack of a more interesting adjective) friend who has now become a planter himself, and more over, a very active member of the Planter's Club.

The highlights of the weekend included the

5 hour bus ride on the Karnataka Sarige Bus (on which I had planned on sleeping but my friends had challenged themselves to annoy me), fresh filter coffee, chicken ghee roast (2 whole kgs of it!), akki roti, the local bar tender cum waiter who kept us liquored up for the 30+ hours that we spent there, and the visit that never happened to Gautham's estate.

It was a relaxed comfortable weekend. I wanted to mention Planter's Club cause its a place with a unique character. Its definitely not comparable to the lush resorts that are coming up in the Malnad region, but its got its charm and at a very reasonable price. Its a clean friendly place with the facilities (not read spa) you'll need for a weekend getaway. For all the food and liqour that they shower you with, you'll probably end up spending only half of what you would on a night out in town.

As to why I've titled this post "Sak Town", I'll save that story for another day. I wish I could go back this weekend too, but life must go on in namma Bangaluru. I'll just have to stare at the half empty plate of chicken ghee roast and console my belly god. *sigh*

Since I've been back

I’m trying not to make a big deal about the transition back to Bangalore but so much has changed in the past 3 years. And everyone I’ve met has asked me the same question, “So what’s changed in the city?” For starters, my city’s name has been changed to Bengaluru. I don’t like the name change; Bangalore was so much cooler and metropolitan sounding.

The first thing I noticed was the new international airport. Though I imagined it to be bigger, I like the order and neatness, and of course the access to the duty free stores before you walk out. The next thing is definitely the increase in traffic on the city’s roads. Our roads have been widened with fewer signals, but crowded with more vehicles than ever before; and I have to comment about the accompanying increase in road rage and honking. The Namma Metro work is chaotic, hopefully when it is finally functional it’ll make up for the damage it’s done. Volvo buses have supposedly become a handy form of public transport, though I’m yet to vouch for that myself. Autos are becoming eco friendly and hence being painted green. Their drivers however, I feel, have become more audacious and arrogant in refusing customers and reckless driving. And yeah, Bangalore’s cops have become more vigilant and tech-savvy. They carry BlackBerrys and enter a faulty driver’s information right away to a central server. And apparently, they’ve become pretty strict about DUIs and seizing licenses for repeat offenses.

From an economic aspect, I’ve realized that my small wallet doesn’t fetch me much. Cost of living has shot up beyond many Bangaloreans’ affordability. A 3 month gym membership is over 12K, a movie ticket costs twice as much, and Rs. 100 won’t buy you a decent dinner any more. Yet the nouveau riche don’t seem to stop splurging and crowding the city’s stores. Malls are filled with so many window shoppers that’s its actually quite impossible for a genuine shopper to find what he/she is looking for. UB City is finally open and is filled with expensive designer stores with arrogant shop keepers (but I really like its architecture and food court). Everyone and I mean everyone has gotten a cell phone. And the rich have gotten richer and I don’t think the disparity between the rich and poor has really reduced.

Many old school places unique to Bangalore have closed, and the HAL airplane has been removed from historic junction. We have a new Vikasa Soudha identical to Vidhana Soudha. Bars close at 11.30 pm (my dad is very happy to have me back home so early) and Empire is no longer a late-night food paradise. We now have more coffee days with more expensive coffee offerings. Moviegoers are many and multiplexes are minting money. A new trend in the theatres is to play the National Anthem before the movie and everyone stands for it (impressive)!

Thanks to all the immigrants/job seekers from other parts of the country, Kannada is being spoken far less than before. Bangalore has expanded beyond Yelahanka and Bannerghatta. Every corner of the city is becoming self-dependent; people no longer have to travel a long distance just for a nice restaurant or shopping mall.

So many fewer trees along the roads (earlier Golf Road was one of my favorite roads to drive on because of the way the sunlight made its way through the leaves of the trees that lined that road; now that’s history). In an attempt to upkeep the green image of the city, the corporation is painting fairytale waterfalls and forests along the walls of the flyover. I guess I should give them credit for trying to cover the concrete jungle mess.

All said and done, some things may never change like the lack of customer service, men constantly letching at passerby women, or the respect for a waiter’s or janitor’s job. But the good that’s come out of all the corporate mayhem is that people are more aware of their jobs and responsibilities, not taking it as much for granted as they used to before.

Of course, I’m glad that some things haven’t changed like the love and care you get from family, hot home cooked meals, my dog’s slurry kiss, petty witty jokes by my friends, and the abundance of company. All-in-all, it’s good to be back home in Bangalore!

How’s that for service?

I always write about how awful my flight experiences are, so it’s only fair to make note of a pleasant one. No, I didn't get a free upgrade to business class, though that would have been nice too. Instead it was a very nice gesture by the flight crew to take note of my request.

What happened was this – my carry-on bag was too big to fit in the overhead compartment of the small narrow plane. So I left it at the end of the jet way for planeside check-in. I took my window seat and scanned the things around me. While I looked out of the window, I saw my bag lying alone at the bottom of the stairs of the jet way. I figured it would eventually be added to the remaining baggage. Five minutes later it was still there and the flight attendant made an announcement that we were ready to depart. So I got his attention and told him that my bag was still lying there. He ran up to make a call to the ground crew to take care of it. Another five minutes later, no response from the ground crew. I complained again as I heard the doors being shut. And then I see the Captain walk down the stairs of the jet way and take care of my bag himself. The flight attendant came back and asked, “How’s that for service?”

I’m glad I spotted my bag lying there, because dealing with lost baggage is a giant pain. But I was knockout impressed with the Captain! I was expecting to hear reasons such as, ‘we can’t delay take off,’ or ‘we are understaffed, there is nothing we can do,’ or ‘it will reach your destination aboard the next flight’, etc. To top all of that, this morning when I checked in a bag, it was 2 pounds extra, and the kind lady behind the Delta counter let it slide (once somebody made me remove stuff because it was 0.5 lb over). And… all my flights were on schedule today. Being the end of the holiday weekend, I expected chaos at the airport. It was a good flying day after all!

This one tops my list for airline customer service. And to answer the question of the flight attendant, “Your service today was remarkably noteworthy!” Thank you Captain Drew and flight crew of flight NW 1224.

Nasty Airlines

I’ve had to do a lot more flying than I would have liked in the last couple of days. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t particularly enjoy it, unless I’m flying home to India in which case I have something to look forward to.

Airlines have become very creative in charging us for the most basic things, which they conveniently bracket as fuel surcharge. How about a fuel discount when crude oil dropped below $50 a barrel a couple of months ago? That seems unquestionable! What gets me the most irritated is the $2 charge for water/beverage. Checked baggage fee, curb-side check in fee, booking fee, refund fee, exit row seat fee, cancelation fee… the list goes on and on. Any service that was once included as part of your ticket, is now subject to charge (read the fine print!). I won’t be surprised if we soon hear about a lavatory fee.

My worst experience has been with the change/refund fee. United Airlines charges $150 for changing your itinerary or requesting a refund. How much is that going to leave you with? (They're hoping nothing.) And they are very happy to resell your seat for an exuberant price to another innocent customer.  

All this travel is doing me no good expect for the frequent flier miles that I collect. And rumor has it that those miles are worth less each day. So much for loyalty programs, customer service, and convenient flying. One tip that has come handy for me is to travel with very low expectations, that way you leave little room for disappointment. If I could start my own airline and show them how it’s done, I would. But until then I will blog my frustrations away…

P.S: Not all airlines have stooped to this level; I have to give credit to Southwest and Northwest for still serving their thirsty passengers with a free cup of water/soda.

On this one flight...

I was traveling to the west coast dreading the 8 hours of being stuck on cramped airplanes and in busy airports. I’ve come to dislike most airlines cause of their stingy attitudes (they even charge for water!). Not expecting much from this travel experience I charged my iPhone to capacity, carried a book, and took some nutrition bars on board.

I was seated between this 10 year old kid who had the window seat and this other older lady who had the aisle seat. I began talking to the kid. He was traveling alone and returning from a visit to his Grandma’s house. I have to say I was impressed with the kid’s behavior and good mannerisms. It always makes me happy when I see a kid who isn’t rowdy and misbehaved.  

I wasn’t so happy about the passenger on the other side though. The lady kept coughing and she had me on the edge of my seat fearing she had swine flu! I must have used an entire bottle of Purell trying to disinfect my hands every time I had to touch my face.

The Captain was kind enough to point out that we were flying over the Rockies. It was definitely a scenic view, a first aerial view of the Rockies for me. An hour later we landed. Everyone eagerly awaited the air-hostess’ go ahead to switch on their cell phones. It’s interesting to see how people rush to call a loved one to convey that they reached.  After calling that someone, I felt blessed that I wasn’t one of those people who didn’t have anybody to call. The little boy next to me called his Grandma and said, “I reached safe Grandma. Thank you for letting me come and visit you. I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.” I was moved by this little kid. I smiled at him and he smiled back. I guess it wasn’t such a bad flight after all.

 

House Rules

For those of you living with incompetent roommates and/or partners, here is a set of house rules that you can introduce them to...

If it’s open – close it.

If it’s on the floor – pick it up.

If it’s dirty – clean it.

If it’s hungry – feed it.

If it’s sad – love it.

Simple, practical and handy, don’t you think? Now it’s just about getting them to follow these rules!

We are the face of Narcissism

We tweet, we blog, we facebook, we bookmark, we are linked-in, we post ourselves on you-tube, we post our shots on Flickr,  it’s all about us and our seemingly fascinating lives that we want to share with the whole world! We think we are social media rock stars, and unknowingly, we have become the face of this narcissistic age.

What is narcissism? Dictionary.com defines it as, “an inordinate fascination with oneself,” or, “gratification derived from admiration of one's own attributes.”  

Our generation seems to fit this definition. Each of us seeks individualism, pseudo self-awareness, and confidence in our reasoning. We feel the need to honor the world with our frustrations, beliefs, and elite opinions. Nobody cares about what we ate, how little we slept, or how our boss mispronounced our name. But that’s the etiquette that we follow in the digital world, we acknowledge what we want, and respectfully move on in other cases. As much as I recognize the trend in others, I am guilty of it too. I post frequent updates on my facebook page because that’s my mode of communication with my friends who are scattered across the globe. 

Read a similar story titled Generation Me vs. You Revisited published by The New York Times. Here is an excerpt: “Conventional wisdom, supported by academic studies using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, maintains that today’s young people — schooled in the church of self-esteem, vying for spots on reality television, promoting themselves on YouTube — are more narcissistic than their predecessors. Heck, they join Facebook groups like the Association for Justified Narcissism. A study released last year by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press dubbed Americans age 18 to 25 as the ‘Look at Me’ generation and reported that this group said that their top goals were fortune and fame.”

Now let’s think of how this narcissistic attitude will affect us in the long run. Will it hinder our personal relationships? We need to balance this prevailing behavior before it gets the better of us. Just a thought…

Pay it Forward!

This post is inspired by a movie I watched on the weekend called Pay it Forward. Released in 2000, this movie starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment, is about a 12 year old boy attempting to make the world a better place. The idea being, help 3 needy people, in turn they help 3 others and so on. Instead of returning the favor to the benefactor, the beneficiary pays the favor forward. It is a beautiful heart-warming idea set to change the world based on the principle of goodwill and faith.

What a revolutionary idea, don’t you think? I read somewhere that Benjamin Franklin first spoke of this concept, but I believe it has been conceptualized by Catherine Ryan Hyde in her novel Pay It Forward. The idea has been embraced by many students in schools and colleges across the world; it even has an active foundation set up. To get more info about the foundation click here. Or you could read The 365 Ways Blog about similar movements.  

It’s simple – we just twist the golden rule (ethic of reciprocity) to “Do unto others as you would have others do unto others.” If I should fall back on my cultural learnings of Dharma and Karma from the Bhagavad Gita, then it’s all about righteous duties, cause and effect, and selfless desires.  

Now I’m not suggesting that we stop living our crazy self-indulged lives and start remedying the world. I have to practice what I preach. And I know that work-related stress, lack of sleep, and personal problems often leave us in nasty moods. But every now and then, we could be nice? If we are fortunate enough (that we were helped) to pay a favor forward, well and good, if not, lets kick off the kind deed. As the day progresses, the favor goes around, and who knows, it could make a full circle back to you?

Step on it guys, pay it forward!

 

Celebrated Women

As I watch the Miss USA Pageant this evening, I write this post about women who are of completely different character. The women I write about are those who manage the only profitable investment firm in Iceland, while every other fostered debt 10 folds the size of its deposits.

The Miss USA Pageant is a 2 hour dedication to the blond and brunette beauties who are better off just smiling than reciting their rehearsed answers (like the response to the healthcare question!??). Instead, if we dedicated these 2 hours to Halla Tomasdottir and  Kristin Petursdottir  of Audur Capital, the women whose feminine intellect steered their clientele to profitable returns this year, don’t you think we would have learned a thing or two?

This brings me to discuss studies about raging testosterone on the trading floor, how it actually makes male traders assume greater risk than they should. Maybe testosterone plays a role in the irrational exuberance of the stock market bubble? Research shows that women made investment decisions may lead to more consistent profits for the clients. Women tend to focus on long-term results and more vested interests rather than short horizons. I’m not saying Lehman Sisters would have survived the credit crunch, but we are entering an epoch when women entrepreneurs and professionals are grabbing attention.

Hopefully this will be a lesson to the recruiters at investment banks and financial firms to welcome more women into the financial kingdom. We might be your saving grace! Cheers to the estrogen!

Inspiration: "The last bank standing" news video from CBS News

Incredible India

I like what they have done with the website. I think the information is useful and accurate. So anyone (new to India) who is considering travelling to the subcontinent, visit this website. I hope you enjoy your stay in my Incredible India!

The Wall Street Journal is currently featuring interesting articles about India. Click here to explore them. 

Be INSPIRED for your Decor challenges

I love to browse decorators' galleries for design inspirations. I have a collection of exotic ideas that I hope to use as inspiration to decorate my own home someday. Every space is a challenge in itself, but looking out for these ideas channel your creativity, don’t you think?

I don’t have any favorite designers, nor do I pay tribute to the elite work of expensive decorators. I usually make stops at Elle Décor (Metropolitan Home), Nate Berkus, Interior Design, HGTV, Decor & Style, Bravo's Top Design, and others. Recently, I stumbled upon Roxxn.com. The website is a compilation of interior design/décor ideas and hosts a collection of images from various sources. The reason I find it worth mentioning is because its archives are very vast and inspiring. With most other websites, you can view only the recent articles/images. But Roxxn.com has archived over 1000 (approx.) images. I thought I would share the link with my fellow enthusiasts. Make a stop if you need to add zing to your style.  

The Smell of Brewing Coffee

The aroma of freshly roasted, freshly ground, brewing coffee is unbeatable. If you’ve woken up to the smell of brewing coffee, you know the feeling! If you’ve walked past a Starbucks on a cold day, smelt the coffee filled air and felt the urge to step in, you know the feeling!  If you’ve starred aimlessly at your desktop all morning at work until the courteous coffee guy brewed a fresh pot of coffee, you know the feeling! If you've watched the continuous rain drops outside your bedroom window and felt nostalgic while holding that warm cup of coffee, you know the feeling! And if you've thought of the prospect of all your dreams coming true, while watching the steam from your coffee filter fog the air, you know the feeling!  

The lingering aroma does so much, it intoxicates – excites – awakens – jolts – energizes – de-stresses. (Just FYI: there is a scientific study that states that the smell of coffee helps sleep deprived animals feel awake and alert.) The smell of brewed coffee that engulfs the air outside the coffee shop is an inexpensive marketing gimmick. 1 out of 5 people are attracted to the smell and feel the impulse to grab a coffee on-the-go just from the passerby smell. I’m 1 of those 5 people for sure!

As The Cranberries rightly said, “Wake up and smell the coffee!”

It’s OK for Comedians to be racist, but not the Comedy Club, right?

I’ve seen many comedy acts, many live, some pre-recorded and others on YouTube. Almost always, the comedians throw in a racist joke, if not a whole segment dedicated to ethnic accents and taboo deeds of different cultures. To make my point, Chris Rock always makes fun of white people; Russell Peters always does the Asian accents and makes sexist comments; Anjelah Johnson is known for her Asian nail salon piece; and other guys like Larry the cable guy, Dane cook...

Now these guys are hilarious, I love them… I laugh and cry till my stomach hurts. Their chosen subject is often ‘racism’ but somehow I don’t seem to mind as much as I do when the comedy club itself is racist.

The other day, my friends and I visited a local comedy club on Friday night. We entered after the act had begun, but we were respectful and quiet. It was a mixed crowd of college students and older folks, and the comedian himself was OK, dry humor I would say. Every time the crowd broke into laughter, we did too. But every now and then we found something funny which was not in synchronization with the rest of the crowd. What do you do then? You laugh, cause its funny and you are there to amuse yourself! And every other table showed their own insensitive expression at different times. But our waiter was being a pain in the neck. He stood behind us and shooshed us continuously… until we were annoyed and decided to leave.

We got outside the show area and decided to speak to the manager about it. Of course we were being singled out… what right does the waiter have to ask us to not laugh in a comedy club?

(I am not mentioning the venue here, cause I don’t want to give the racist comedy club any more publicity – even if it’s bad. But I will say that in the following days, I made some angry calls to the club and voiced my opinion. I wrote some honest reviews on their website too. They eventually apologized. But I thought that it was an interesting paradox to write about.)

So yes, as unfortunate as it is, comedians can be racist, because they joke about stereotypical groups of people. But the comedy club that lets them perform should NOT.

Google Prepares Venture Fund

I read about Google preparing a venture capital fund some time ago, but didn't see news since. Until today. 

"Google Inc. announced more details about its highly anticipated venture-capital fund, in which it plans to commit roughly $100 million over the next year, said people familiar with the matter. 

In a blog post Monday night, the company announced William Maris, a former entrepreneur whom Google hired to start the fund, and Rich Miner, a former executive in its mobile unit, as managing partners with the fund... 

... The fund is seeking to operate less like a traditional corporate venture arm that backs companies related to its product lines, said people familiar with the matter. Instead, the company is going to manage for returns and consider a wide range of investments, they said.

Google has a history of investments, both through its business-development department and Google.org, its nonprofit division. Those units have recently become more aligned as Google's vice president of new business development, Megan Smith, has also become general manager of Google.org.

The fund has already invested in Pixazza Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., start-up that allows Web publishers to earn money off images on Web sites by tagging items, like clothing, with links back to where the items can be purchased."

Source: WSJ.com (To read the complete article, you will need a WSJ subscription)

Your Mom joined Facebook, now what?

You could –--

Scream “OMG! WHY Why why y?”

Ignore her friend request

Grant her limited access with special ‘mom’ privacy settings

Grant her full access but warn her of possible scandalous photos/comments/posts

Have a discussion about what’s OK and what’s off limits

Tell her to use Facebook to stay in touch with her friends, NOT to stalk you

Tell her not to friend all your friends (that is creepy!)

Explain the Facebook generation gap – the information you exchange with your friends is special to you because you share that experience with them

Tell her it does not replace the traditional phone calls meant for catching up

Make a family album and tag her

Lastly, don’t be rude to your mom (whichever option you choose, try to understand her excitement/sentiment)

Business Cards

Traditional business cards are going to be a thing of the past. No one wants to keep piles of accumulated business cards about local businesses or estranged friends. Not only is it a waste of shelf space, but it’s also hard to sort them out or use the search function to find that friend of a friend.

E-business cards come in all sorts of varieties these days. They play music, link directly to your website and services, and even market themselves. Businesses have an array of templates and technologies to choose from. But I am talking about electronic business cards for you and me. Options include SMSing your contact information, twittering your information, emailing it (then and there) from your smart phone, or sending a linkedin invite. I liked this website called mydropcard.com which allows you to send contact information to someone by texting their email address to a particular number. The website instantly sends your information to that person and makes a log in their address book. Obviously, we have many options to keep in touch these days rather than exchange that piece of paper that may get left behind at the corner table once your discussion is over.

Think of the benefits – all contact information can be retrieved at a later time, people can link to your website or blog right from your e-business card, they can map your business location instantly, and address books will automatically pick up all this information!

I’m not saying that traditional business cards will seize to exist. But eventually, 10 years from now, do you really think one would care to carry around those cards in their wallets? Well, for those who still want to invest in hard copy business cards – be creative and eco-friendly. Use business cards made from recycled cereal boxes, photo business cards, differently shaped cards, anything that will bring you the attention you deserve!  Look at some interesting ideas here. 

The question is would you print yourself 500 new business cards or resort to technology to distribute your contact information? 

Web 3.0 and its frills

The wave of Web 2.0 is slowly shrinking. Web 2.0 is the internet revolution that lets users publish and share content. Social networking, bookmarks, blogs, and wikis – every person and corporate is raving about its importance and impact on our lives. While most people are still coming to terms with Web 2.0, the talk of Web 3.0 has exploded over the web.

Corporates are still stuck with Intranet 2.0. I recently interviewed with a company that was reinventing its corporate intranet strategy to integrate social media to allow employees to create and share content. “But the world has jumped ahead,” I tried to explain to the interviewer. (Needless to say, he seemed annoyed with my suggestion.)We have come to the point where we tag and push content to appropriate users, create roll-based virtual collaboration, and promote the Web 3.0 culture and excitement. It’s about blending personalization, social networking, social media, and that ‘wow’ factor.

Web 3.0 is about rich and relevant user experiences on the web (think unique internet identities, customized web services, and everything at your finger tips). Information will be pushed to you instead of you having to search (pull) it.

Imagine the possibilities when Web 3.0 combines with mobile internet devices such as the iPhone, Google Phone and BlackBerry. Google’s ‘My Location’ lets users locate friends using its mobile mapping service. In time, your phone will locate your friends, suggest a convenient place to hang out based on your friend’s location, give you driving directions to get there, and order your favorite food and drink! Now that’s a smart phone for you! 

The concepts of targeted advertising, loyalty programs, and need-based selling have already taken off – combine that with Web 3.0, PDAs and RFIDs – the shopping experience as we know it will cease to exist. Personal shopping assistants will comb the web and make price comparisons and order you the best deal. You won’t need to get involved except for setting the boundaries and telling the phone what you need. 

I could go on about the possibilities of Web 3.0… but I don’t want to seem overly enthusiastic about something that could compromise our identity and privacy. Ultimately, we need to use Web 3.0 cautiously and remind ourselves that information on the web is for everyone to see. 

Oxymorons

Some of the phrases below are used so frequently, we forget that they are a figure of speech. (The use of these verbs/adjectives make it seem like the contrary is always true! As though, if it weren't mentioned, we would assume otherwise.)

Honest politicians A diet that works
Pretty ugly Forward retreat 
Same difference Resident alien
Open secret (or known secret)
Controlled chaos Nondairy creamer
Government organization 
Military intelligence 
Drink responsibly 
Stripper's dressing room 
Fun run 
Happily married 
Honest crook 
Mercy killing
Business ethics 
Postal service 
Expect the unexpected
Meaniful nonsense
War on terrorism 
Jumbo shrimp (courtesy Alena)

CHEERS in different countries

The idea of this post came from the picture alongside. This picture is a year old, from my trip to Russia as part of an International Finance study/report that I was involved in.

“CHEERS” is a sign of goodwill, camaraderie, and a toast to good health. I’ve also read somewhere that it’s a matter of etiquette and a sign of trust in some cultures.

With all the travelling that we do these days, I thought that my friends might be interested in learning to say “CHEERS” in different languages. After all, no better way to socialize and fit-in than yell “CHEERS” in the local dialect!

USA, Canada and England – CHEERS

India – CHEERS (we have a strong British influence, so we are used to saying Cheers too! However, we have about 200 different local vernaculars like Cheersuu in Kannada, Joy in Bengali, Lambi Umar in Hindi...) 

Australia – CHEERIO (aka Cheers!)

Finland – KIPPIS (aka Cheers!)

Denmark, Iceland – SKAAL (aka Cheers!)

Ireland, Scotland - SLAINTE (meaning to health)

Italy – SALUTE (aka Cheers!)

Brazil, Portugal – SAUDE (meaning to health)

Spain, Mexico – SALUD (meaning to health)

Germany, Netherlands – PROST (meaning beer)

China – NEIN NEIN NU E. KONG CHIEN 

Indonesia – PRO (aka Cheers!)

Japan – KAMPAI (aka Cheers!)

Russia – ZA ZDOROVIA (meaning drink to health)

Drunkards – BOTTOMS UP (meaning chug/drink up so we can fall on our faces!)

Word of Advice: If yelled repeatedly under the influence of alcohol, you will EMBARASS yourself (instead of charming the attractive person across the bar)! 

Translations from: http://www.awa.dk/glosary/slainte.htm

Economics and Shopping on the Magnificent Mile

I was reading the WSJ this morning and as usual it contained depressing news about the recession and the anticipated slow recovery. That then got me thinking about consumer confidence and its record lows. The thought of consumer confidence drove me back to Business Economics MGT 551 in the MBA program. The simplest concept I learnt in that class (and I mean simplest – everything else involved multiple curves and multiple equilibrium points) was that recessionary fears essentially fuel the recession.

Over the weekend, I was paying my routine visits to the splendid stores along Magnificent Mile, Chicago. I wasn’t looking to shop for anything in particular. I was just feeding my soul with the experience. As expected, I found some awesome deals this time of the year. (I’ve frequented stores in all seasons so I know that the best deals are during the end of winter and not between thanksgiving and Christmas.) Banana Republic jackets for $30; Kenneth Cole shoes for $20; 50% off at Nordstrom. WHO CAN RESIST THAT?  

To draw a connection between the paragraphs above – I felt the need to resist the temptation to shop, even with such awesome deals around. The pessimistic job market, weary business conditions and bleak economic outlook has made me reluctant to spend. In any other scenario, I would have considered these deals to be throw away prices. But the need to stretch your dollar’s worth has become ever so crucial.

This fear feeds the recession which feeds job losses and we keep going in circles! It’s discouraging even for a fervent shopper like me!

Slumdog and the Oscars

So many people have asked if Slumdog bothers me. Well, it does. But this is not a movie/story about national sentiments or depiction of the broken slums of Mumbai. Yes, there are issues to address – India’s poverty line, the disparity in income, the living conditions of the slums, the fate of slum children, and more… But those are not reasons to discount the success of the movie. Enjoy the movie for what it is – 2 hours of thrilling cinema.

The Oscars are recognition of excellent cinema, cinematography, and acting. Last night was possibly the first time that a movie associated with India, Indian actors and musicians received such acclaim. All the actors in Slumdog are Indian, for the exception of Dev Patel, who is a Briton of Indian origin. The story is based on the novel “Q&A” by an Indian author. And of course the brilliant music of A.R Rahman – he deserved an Oscar long back. (If you compare his work in this movie to his older ones like Roja, Dil Se, Bombay, and his take on Vande Mataram; Jai Ho and O… Saya don’t come close. I am glad he finally got the recognition he deserved.)

Even at the Emmy’s, Slumdog won hands down. So let’s acknowledge the work of the crew and not crib about the image it portrays of Mumbai. I know that my country is battling poverty, but on the other hand, it offers so much more than can be captured through any film.  

All said and done, I think I’ve seen other Indian movies that surpass Slumdog, and are definitely worthy of such international recognition. For what it’s worth, I’ll mention my picks – Lagaan, Taare Zameen Par, Black, Devdas, and this Kannada movie called Galipata. Hopefully our film makers will get more appreciation going forward. 

Making rounds on Facebook

This picture of smileys is making its rounds on Facebook! I found it in some corner and decided to tag my friends – but what do you know, overnight, it’s become quite a sensation!

I have to say though, that this picture got the most comments of all my pictures! Obviously, when you tag a friend as the guy ‘who is up to no good’ or the ‘geek’, you are bound to invite reactions! It was a fun exercise though… 

Benglur Talkies

This post is meant for all my Kannadiga and Bangalore peeps. Click on the post title Benglur Talkies to listen to some amuzing snipets of Bangalore residents. 

Its not the perfect dialect and accent, but very entertaining and will guarantee a laugh... My favorite imitation is that of the NRI guy. Good job Bikerdude!

I did HTML!

P.S: I don’t enjoy reading code or trying to make sense of it.

So I thought that editing the template that I chose for this blog would be easy... apparently, not so easy! What I wanted to do, was expand the 2 column posting area and minimize the brown wrap on the sides. I started off playing with the HTML code and changing the width of the header, body and footer. By the way, the template's name is Scribe. I was successful to the extent that I was able to expand the posting area, but the main wrapper was not expanding accordingly, it was only adding white space.

After some futile attempts, yet not wanting to give up, I googled for help. And I found some helpful ideas from other bloggers like this guy. They didn’t have the solution, but they pushed me in the right direction. So I combined some of their suggestions along with my own intuition from playing with the code. I had to resize the image that I have in my header, but that was the least of my problems.

Ah well, after 3 hours of trial and error, I was able to get the look I wanted. I would have settled for less, but obsession is kind of my problem – I can’t quit until it looks the way I want it to.

Lesson learnt: I can manage HTML. I might struggle, but I can do it!

And I probably need to start paying more attention to the content of the blog than the appearance!