Pertinent Observations

Archive for June, 2008

30 Jun

Why fine dining costs so much in Bangalore

Blame the Bangarappa government of 1993, which took a decision to stop issuing more liquor licenses, a decision that still continues today.? According to themadman ?(who runs the excellent Shiok, currently temproarily closed), the only way one can start a restaurant serving liquor in Bangalore is to buy a permit from someone who is shutting [...]

30 Jun

Quizzing

Different quizmasters have different interests. However, there are a few things that a large number of quizmasters are interested in, and these form a dominant portion of most quizzes. There is some sort of a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop at play here. And if you don’t share these “special interests”, then your average performance automatically [...]

27 Jun

Indian editions

For the last one year or so, I’ve been relying on bloggers such as Tyler Cowen for my books recommendations. Basically I read about a book on a blog, or say Marginal Revolution does a book forum on the book, and I soon get interested in the book, and go out to buy it. And [...]

26 Jun

The Third Bangalore Photowalk

Just to remind you people, the third Bangalore Photo Walk will happen this Sunday, the 29th of June between 8 am and 10 am. We will start at the intersection of Brigade Road and Residency Road (in front of Rex). More details here: http://tinyurl.com/6ymzt8 Please bring along a camera. Any type will do. Even if [...]

25 Jun

Favourite branch of mathematics

i’m suddenly reminded of my interviews during the summer internship selection interview process in IIMB in November 2004. This happened to me at more than one bank’s interview. Interviewer: Do you like math? Me: Yes Interviewer: What is your favourite branch of math? Me: Graph Theory (interviewer looks confused for a few moments) Interviewer: Oops. [...]

25 Jun

More on studs and fighters

I was watching Wimbledon last night when I realized there aren’t too many pure serve-and-volley types around. Even the 5-time champion Federer plays mostly from the baseline. I don’t recall any pure serve-and-volley types after Sampras and Ivanisevic. Anyways, while watching Roddick play Schwank, I came up with the following hypothesis: When a new field [...]

24 Jun

Sporting Lookalikes

Here are some pertinent observations made by my mother and I in the last few months. According to my mother, one of my aunts (father’s cousin’s wife) looks like Lucas Leiva. Now, I think the said aunt’s elder daughter looks like Mauro Camoranesi And my mother says that this particular aunt’s younger daughter looks like [...]

24 Jun

Carrot Halwa

Last night my mother was making carrot halwa. She called me and asked me to taste it and check if the sugar is right. After I’d done that and given my approval she said “now all that is left is to put in some cardamom and raisins and cashews”. “Don’t put the cardamom”, I said. [...]

23 Jun

consulting

Wish I’d read this two years back

22 Jun

A little more on public transport

There are three factors that affect the choice of mode of transport – cost, time and convenience. You usually make the decision regarding what mode to take by evaluating how much you are willing to “spend” in terms of each of these. For example, if you live in Mumbai, taking the local train would be [...]

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