Infinite thoughts

At the insistence of Mrunmay, we decided to watch this animation movie - " The Boss Baby " and wow!! I had a good laugh during the movie multiple times. Excellent animation with some very innovative ideas, this movie makes a must watch for adults.  The movie takes a dig at corporate life many times during the course and the real fun will come to those who have experienced it themselves or have at least been exposed to the jargon. The movie starts with a concept how babies are born rather "manufactured" and how do they decide whether to send them to families or to management.  It turns out that "Babycorp" is in the business of manufacturing babies and is feeling a threat from "Puppycorp" due to their increasing market share of "love" from human beings. As a result Babycorp decides to send one of their best to a family of "Templetons" - A couple and a boy named - Timothy (Tim) and that results in the disaster for Tim. This ...

After much deliberation, we decided to watch " Naam Shabana " and it turned out to be a good watch.  In this prequel to the much acclaimed 2015 movie " Baby " which tells you the story of special agent "Shabana" played by beautiful and talented actress - Taapasee Pannu . If you compare this one to "Baby", you are going to miss a lot of action and thrill as this one turns out to be more focused on the lady character "shabana" and her early days.  Shabana's characters is slowly developed in the beginning, telling you about why she is so dry on emotions and the demur behaviour. As the events happen, she looses her closest friend before she could express her emotions and how the special task force coax her to recruit in the force and ultimately putting her on the mission.  Taapasee has played the role well and has some good action sequences, albeit short ones. She has kept her focus very well.  Akshaye Kumar has very little...

I have been using Uber for quite some time now to commute from home to office and office to home. Initially I used to alternate between Uber and Ola, but after a while I realised that the service that OLA drivers give is way below than what Uber drivers give. At times I had doubts if same drivers alternate between these two aggregators. But that is a different topic to think. Today morning when I boarded the cab, I sensed that I give same instruction to every cab driver - Please push the seat towards front. The driver would then ask me which route to take and I always specify a specific route. Then at a certain point, I'll ask the driver to start the A/C. This is typically at the University circle where there is traffic jam. On way back, I choose a specific point to board the cab, and instantly ask to turn on the A/C. All these things could easily be personalised. Either a customer herself can put these instructions in the App, which could be displayed to the driver when trip ...

Yesterday I came across two articles and instantly realised how deceptive are the arguments presented in those articles. Hyperloop pilot in India is planning to reduce Bengaluru-Chennai travel time to just about 30 minutes. Currently it takes about 6 to 7 hours by road or train and 1 hour by flight. So the time take by the  Hyperloop pods  is going to be similar to that by aeroplanes except - to quote - for "security checks, taxing, boarding and exits". The security checks at the airports are there for a reason and I don't see why there won't be similar checks at the Hyperloop Terminals. In fact, any mishap has a potential to damage all other pods in the tube, the security check might be more stringent!! Boarding process will be similar to that of planes, albeit probably a bit faster if the number of passengers are lesser as compared to the plane. There will be safety requirements, which would need passengers to be briefed every time. And then even if it is ju...

It has been 50 days now since demonetization was announced by Indian Prime Minister Mr. Modi. And we all have experienced wide set of emotions through these 50 days. We have been happy, ecstatic, overjoyed, sad, pained, frustrated, hopeful and what not. And every time we have felt our emotions are justified. I have been through many of these emotions except for pain and frustration. I haven't had to stand in a queue for more than 15 mins and have been able to use digital payments at most of the places, conserving my cash that I had exchanged in mid-November. After initial surge in usage of digital wallets, the downward trend is very evident now. I have seen people giving out reasons such as wallet is full, swipe machine not available to avoid accepting digital payments. To the extent that one of my regular lunch outlets allowed me to pay the bill after I "get" the cash.  On one of the occasions, swipe machine of my vegetable vendor wasn't really working. I encour...

Government of India launched a very ambitious initiative on 25 Sept 2014 - Make In India . As anyone can guess this was to increase the investments in India in the core sectors such as manufacturing, biotechnology, aviation, construction and thus increasing the employment and  entrepreneurship.  Until now, we were getting only the news about who has promised investment in India and how much. But announcements usually outnumber actual actions. Now that it is little over a year from the start of the initiative, we are seeing some progress happening through this initiative. Xiaomi and Huawei have already started their manufacturing plants in India. Lenovo joined in recently with their Motorola smartphone plant near Chennai. Total proposals for investment received so far are said to be Rs. 1.10 lakh crore. While the three entities mentioned above would form only a tiny fraction, another news came in which was more heartening and encouraging. IITs - our elite institutes ...

As I opened the newspaper today morning, a very good news took my attention.  No more subsidized food in Parliament canteen from January 1 Parliament canteen food rates have been in the news for a long time now. In July one of the sitting MPs called for rate revision of the canteen food and then every newspaper published the rate card. Any sane person would go insane by looking at the subsidized rates available in that canteen.  Image Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/parliament-canteen-subsidy-mps-jay-panda/1/451861.html Speaker of the Parliament had ordered the review of rates in the canteen via food committee and the new rates are effective today. Rates have been revised so as to operate the canteen at "no profit no loss" basis .  The actual revision is not really the good part, the good part is that this government listened to the anomalies brought to the government's notice and has taken corrective measures. This, indeed, is a very ...

Sooraj Dooba Hai Yaroo,  Do Ghoot Nashe Ke Maaro,  Khud Ko Bhoola Do Yaaro, Sansaar Se.. Chaar Botal Vodka,  Kaam Mera Roz Ka,  Na Koi Mujhko Roke,  Na Kisi Ne Toka Al-co-ho-lic...  What is this trend that is emerging and is about to consume my child? He is just 7 years old and just knows the words in the lyrics of these songs. Soon he would start asking what does that mean and I wouldn't be surprised if asks for those things. How am I supposed to answer that? He is already concerned that I do not like he singing or listening to the song "Sooraj Dooba Hai Yaroo". He keeps asking me why shouldn't he listen or sing that song. I, at times, feel I am being over critical. But my values do not allow me to idolize alcohol. Some people, may be many of them, might be okay with their kids having alcohol at whatever stage of their life. I am not. But these kinds of songs make it difficult for any parent who wants to safeguard their child's in...

While driving to work on Friday Feb 27, I happened to notice the big sign board outside IISER, Pashan which read "National Science Day 2015". I got curious and did a quick search on the net which told me that 28-Feb is celebrated as "National Science Day" to mark the discovery of "Raman Effect" by Indian Physicist Sir C.V.Raman on 28-Feb-1928 . As my curiosity grew, I checked for events happening in Pune on that day and stumbled across: National Science Day @ IISER Pune National Science Day @ IUCCA Pune It being a Saturday, Meghana and I decided to take Mrunmay out and let him have some fun during these events. IISER had an exhibition on "History of science", which I was doubtful if Mrunmay would find some interest in that. But IUCCA seemed to have interesting things even for Mrunmay's age.  Spent couple of hours at IUCCA enjoying the science park, which probably is open all through the year. More importantly got to see and listen...

Over past few years, eating out has become very common. With the rising number of restaurants all around, Meghana and I keep on trying different places from time to time. And we are seeing some common problem across the restaurants. Lack of good service is the most recurring problem. Recently we visited Melange by Four Seasons  and had a not so good experience. The person looking after our table, was completely lax and lacking basic hospitality skills. When there's a buffet, customer asks for soup and starters, it is a common sense to serve soup first followed by starters. But no. We were served the starters first and then soup. The starters had higher quantities of salt and other spices as compared to the soup, which made the soup taste absolutely bland. As usual Meghana called up the manager. The manager and the waiter were perplexed - both of them had no clue why we were upset. After much deliberation amongst themselves, finally manager approached. We explained the proble...

Couple of weeks back, one of my colleagues told me about the recent event happening in Pune on every Sunday - Happy Street . At first it looked odd to me - people flocking the venue at 7 AM for no specific agenda, that too on a Sunday morning!! But then he showed me some of the photographs he had taken there and a video clip where two youngsters were showing off their football skills. I decided to take Meghana and Mrunmay to Happy Street and witness the event myself. For initial 3-4 weeks the event was held at Aundh and from last weekend (21-Feb) it is being held at Kalyaninagar, opposite AdLabs. The concept is very simple. An area gets demarcated as "Happy Street" and gets closed for all automobiles. Only pedestrians and cyclists are allowed in that zone. Then the organizers setup some events and are then joined by some other enthusiasts to setup activities meant to engage people. When we reached there on Sunday morning, people had started dropping by. Some had borrow...

Whenever  Meghana , Mrunmay and I step out somewhere, it usually is a challenge for Mrunmay to keep himself occupied. As much as we want him to converse with us, experience the surroundings, learn to appreciate good things around, he usually runs out of patience pretty soon, unless one of us starts telling him some story. Many-a-times that is not possible.  Out of sheer need to teach him pass time, I invented related words game , which Mrunmay pretty much loved. We end up playing it in long journeys or even on the dining table. This game can't be played at a noisy place or when Meghana or I want to have conversation either with each other or some other people around. This had necessitated me to keep Mrunmay engaged with various things. Things like asking him to count specific objects around - e.g. Count all the empty chairs in the hall. Once he has done that, I'd add some qualification to that - Count all the red empty chairs. And then may be count wall mounted fans etc....

A week back, on last children's day, Mrunmay got a fantastic gift - Game of Monopoly aka Business (व्यापार).  Mrunmay got introduced to this game through our family friend around 3-4 weeks back and in the first instance itself he fell in love with this game. He didn't want to stop that game but had to due to other plans. But since then it was a constant thing on his mind. So Meghana and I decided to gift him on the children's day and spent entire evening playing the same game.  And that point onward, on every opportunity Mrunmay is trying everything to play this game. Given today was Saturday, and off for me, I offered him an afternoon entirely for Monopoly and he graciously accepted ;) In last 3-4 games, Mrunmay learnt quickly how he can earn more by quickly building houses and hotels. So now his all energies are constantly focused on creating assets. Usually, Meghana and I have hit with bad luck and have ended up in spending more time in "Chance", ...

Being in the services industry for over a decade and then into consumer focused business for last few years, I have learnt how difficult it is to satisfy the customers on many occasions. Services Industry Software services, as it emerged as a major growth sector, the competition also grew exponentially. The software companies started mushrooming everywhere and each one trying to get a piece of same pie - i.e. US market. It also changed over a period of time and people started focusing on EU and Asian markets as well. But the bottom line remained the same - competition. The Outsourcing companies initially had tough time in outsourcing for several reasons (unproven capabilities, lack of confidence as well as lesser number of options to outsource). As the services companies grew and as it became evident that outsourcing is the way to move forward, all these companies also started hunting for better deals - essentially it started with fishing for lower prices instead of demanding qua...

The trip was coming to end, but the scenery was getting better and better. After unsuccessful venture into Periyar Reserve, we started for Alleppey , also known as Alapuzha, which is famous for backwaters .  We left these green carpets behind ...  and entered into the land of backwaters... Our driver took us to a place where we could hire a boat - similar to houseboat (shikara) - for couple of hours and take a ride through the backwaters. We were about to get duped here, but thanks to Meghana's persistence, we successfully escaped.  What happened was like this. There seems to be a single contractor who dishes out the boats to the tourists. We enquired about timing and what all things would be covered etc but didn't realize that there would be different types of boats available that too at the same rent! When we were asked to ride a boat, it looked okay. Two chairs and two reclining chairs. As we settled and the boat started, we got to see anot...

Road to Thekkady from Munnar was amazing. Apparently lot of movie shootings have happened in this area e.g. Chennai Express, Life Of Pi. The view was very scenic and we (read - Meghana) were tempted to stop every now and then.  Thanks to our driver, he took us to a tea garden area, where we could get in and do some photo shooting. Shedding all the inhibitions to express the love in the tea gardens, we managed to capture some of the poses too. Not wanting to be left behind, Mrunmay also mimicked us showing the love signs that he knew and then posing like a movie star!! While we were lost in each other, nature's beauty was still calling us and Meghana managed to capture this snap, way better than Windows XP wallpaper for ages ! In the initial parts we could see the green carpet on both sides of the roads, which slowly changed as we went away from Munnar. The Tea gardens were replaced with tall trees interspersed with various ...