Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts

2013-10-16

Captions on Indian trucks - an unexpected lesson

Several years ago, when I lived in Bengaluru, my company's offices used to be in Electronics City (for a few years). Owing to the distance and the disgusting volume of traffic, I used to leave for the office rather early, around 07:00.

In those early hours, long-distance trucks were permitted to travel through the city. As I overtook them, I used to read the captions written on those trucks. A particular caption was very, very common on trucks coming from the North: ``burI nazar vAlE, tErA muH kAlA" (roughly ``oh you who cast an evil eye on me, your face shall become blackened").

After a while, I grew so familiar with it, that I usually read only the first word before turning my attention to the next truck.

On a particular day, I had this truck right ahead of me, when we stopped at a traffic signal. The caption began with the usual ``burI", and I almost turned in another direction, but something pulled my attention back. The caption read: ``burI nazar vAlE, tErA bhI bhalA hO" (roughly ``oh you who cast an evil eye on me, I wish you well in spite of that").

I was stunned! It took me a while to digest that. Am I equal to that spirit? I don't think so. Nonetheless, it has had a rather mysterious affect on my thinking!

2012-04-23

The changing face of urban Hyderabad

A few days ago, my family went shopping to the Ameerpet area of Hyderabad. We shopped for about an hour-and-a-half; the time was 17:00. My wife wanted to have some coffee (so did I, in fact). We could not find a place that served coffee in the immediate vicinity. We walked in the general direction of a few restaurants. Thus began an amazing hour of discovery!

We went into the first restaurant that we came across. We seated ourselves at the first table available. Presently, a waiter turned up. ``Two strong, hot coffees," I said. ``No, sir," he replied promptly, ``we don't serve coffee." I was surprised. We picked up the bags, and walked on.

At the next restaurant, we were cautious. We did not go as far as seating ourselves; rather, we waited for a waiter to approach us. ``Do you serve coffee?" I enquire. We get the same reply, ``No." I was more surprised. We walked on.

The third restaurant was a familiar one. It has been around for over twenty five years. The last I had visited it, it used to serve coffee, tea and snacks. However, that was several years ago. My four-year-old son complained of hunger by this time. He wanted a pesarattu (a special Telugu dish that is a kind of thin-and-large pancake). I felt that there was a high probability that this restaurant would serve both pesarattu and coffee. So, we climbed up a floor to the restaurant. ``No, sir. We used to serve South Indian food until about six months ago. We no longer do. Now, we serve Mughalai, Tandoori and Chinese!" I was mildly astonished. My wife and I sighed simultaneously, and we walked on.

My son was very disappointed. As we walked, he was eagerly watching for another restaurant. This time, we had to walk quite some distance before we came across another. Its look made it clear that it was a very non-vegetarian-oriented restaurant. We did not bother to walk in. My wife and I had a quick consultation, and decided to turn around, pass the shopping area, and try in the other direction.

My son's disappointment grew with each passing twenty five metres, or so. He started getting petulant. We negotiated the distance back to the shopping area with some difficulty, coaxing my son along the way. As we walked past that, we soon realised that there were no restaurants within sight! By this time, we had spent close to an hour covering a total of a little over a kilometre, without finding a place that served South Indian snacks and coffee! We resigned, got into the car, and drove back home.

The episode left me wondering, however, about the dramatic transformation that Hyderabad has undergone in the last couple of decades. It is very difficult these days to find decent (or even semi-decent) restaurants that serve Telugu vegetarian food. I have noticed the same trend in Bengaluru too, particularly for supper. A large number of restaurants have colluded to systematically eliminate South Indian menus. A key reason is that Mughalai, Tandoori, Chinese, etc. food is much more expensive. The restaurants earn significantly more per table-hour when they serve them. The constant in-flow of North Indians into Hyderabad has only made it easier for the restaurants to switch over.

Another dimension that has seeped in over the years is that of western fast food (pizzas, burgers, etc.). In the name of maintaining international quality at an international price, the western chains charge ridiculously high prices (by Indian standards) for such fast food. We have to remember, however, that economic liberalisation has placed sudden money and means in the hands of an entire new crop of employees and entrepreneurs (and their pizzas-and-potato-chips brats). India has, consequently, been witnessing rapid changes in urban social patterns. The new-found affluence has resulted in a large number of families dining out several times a week. And, in the name of novelty, a vast majority of them patronise the more expensive varieties. The smaller restaurants, obviously, do not wish to let the opportunity slip by. We see, thus, a steady decline in the number of restaurants serving native food.

Craving for the new often dislodges the old! In this instance, Telugu (South Indian, in general) food and beverages are the casualty!

2011-06-14

Trip to Bengaluru

Ah ... Bengaluru!

  • Some useful work.
  • Meeting a few old friends.
  • A visit to Lalbagh.
  • A dinner at Maiyyas.

That quickly sums up my last week's trip!

2010-10-28

Modern computing

I came across this in Go mailing list today. Irresistible!
Such is modern computing: everything simple is made too complicated because it's easy to fiddle with; everything complicated stays complicated because it's hard to fix.

Rob Pike

2010-09-27

The competent programmer

The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.

Edsger W. Dijkstra

2010-09-21

Maturation

The process of maturation takes so long that when it does complete:
  1. it is easy to overlook the total effort, since the effort spent at each juncture is little, and
  2. it is easy to overlook its impact, since the learning appears `natural'.

2010-09-07

Four stages of learning

Acquiring a skill has, according to Indian tradition, four stages: adheeti, bOdha, aacharaNa and prachaaram.
  1. adheeti (అధీతి) involves studying the subject with due attention.
  2. bOdha (బోధ) involves distilling what is studied into the essential knowledge of the subject.
  3. aacharaNa (ఆచరణ) is putting the knowledge to practice.
  4. prachaaram (ప్రచారం) involves passing that practical knowledge to others.

2010-08-10

Healthy projects

Most successful software projects, that also balance the Cost-Time-Quality triangle, seem to exhibit these properties.

  1. Consistently high involvement of the users throughout the life cycle.
  2. Simple designs. By , I mean most of the developers being able to hold the designs right in their heads.
  3. Good integrators, who review code.