17 Mar
In the end it was quite appropriate. That the needlessly hyped “false statistic” of Sachin’s 100 100s came about in a match against a supposed minnow, in an inconsequential tournament, which didn’t even help India win the game. The hype surrounding this statistic had become unbearable, both for normal cricket fans and also for Sachin, [...]
Posted in arbit, cricket, sport by: skimpy
3 Comments
12 Dec
Two of the four full-time jobs that I’ve done have been “offshored”. They’ve both involved working for the Bangalore office of American firms, with both jobs having been described as being “front end” and “high quality”, while in both cases it became clear in the course of time that it was anything but front end, [...]
Posted in business, personal, work by: skimpy
8 Comments
04 Oct
I’m trying to figure why that is turning out to be a big deal. Given that we have over 5 years of history of “organized retail” in India, and that it hasn’t performed particularly well on a lot of factors, I don’t know how permitting FDI in multi-brand retail is going to make a difference. [...]
Posted in business, economics, fundaes, politics, retail by: skimpy
3 Comments
24 Jul
This post may add to Aadisht’s contention of Shaivism being superior to Vaishnavism. Earlier this month I’d gone with family to this place called Avani, some 100 km east of Bangalore. The main centre of attraction there was this 10th century Shiva temple that had been built by the Gangas. As we got off the [...]
Posted in arbit, history, personal, religion by: skimpy
14 Comments
13 Jun
So when our newly-recruited cook told us last week that she knows how to cook North Indian dishes, and when we bought Paneer and Frozen Peas at the supermarket yesterday, I assumed that we’ll be having Mutter Paneer for dinner tonight. The cook comes in around 6am, a little after I leave for the gym, [...]
Posted in arbit, food, personal by: skimpy
4 Comments
11 Jun
Recently, India has enacted this Right To Education Law, one of whose provisions dictates that schools must reserve at least 25% of seats for kids from economically backward communities. This post will be tangential and will not be trying to examine the merits and demerits of the law. So earlier this week, the Wall Street [...]
Posted in education, personal by: skimpy
No Comments
10 Apr
Following my previous post and comments and countercomments and discussions on twitter and facebook and google groups and various other forums, I’ve been thinking about this whole corruption thing. Random thoughts. The kind that comes to you when you’re traveling across the city by auto on a hot summer day, watching the world go by. [...]
Posted in politics by: skimpy
2 Comments
04 Feb
So I’m in New York for the next 2 weeks (6-18), and like last time want to do this sampling of high-quality cuisine from around the world. Meals are expense-able so cost isn’t so much of an issue, but given that I’ll be eating 13 dinnersĀ there I want to choose the places carefully. Off [...]
Posted in food by: skimpy
9 Comments
19 Oct
Exactly a year back my mother was in hospital. She was there for three weeks before she died. The bill for the three weeks came to close to four hundred thousand rupees. She was covered under my corporate medical insurance so I passed on the cost to the insurer, who paid most of it. I [...]
Posted in business, economics, fundaes by: skimpy
3 Comments
19 Aug
Check out this article in the Wall Street Journal. Read the headline. Does this sound right to you? MakeMyTrip Opens Up 57% Post-IPO; May Be Year’s Best Deal It doesn’t, to me. How in the world is the IPO successful if it has opened 57% higher in the first hour (it ended the first day [...]
Posted in banking, business, economics, finance, fundaes, investment banking by: skimpy
1 Comment