Long ago, Soviet Russia decided that a good way for them to propagate propaganda in India would be to distribute magazines at subsidized rates. My father had taken the bait and subscribed to all such magazines available - Soviet Union, Soviet Woman and Misha. All of them were available at dirt-cheap rates (don't exactly remember them). It was so ( Read more... )

A few minutes back I finished reading Richard McKenzie's Why popcorn costs so much at the movies and other pricing puzzles. Since the book is not available in India, I managed to procure an online pirated version through a friend. And since the book isn't released in India, I didn't feel guilty about reading the pirated version.

Coming to the point ( Read more... )

I have a proposal to make. If you are visiting Bangalore soon that is. As you might have figured out from reading my blog, a large number of books that I want to read aren't available in India. I can ask a bookshop here to import it from the US but that would make the books prohibitively expensive, much more than my willingness to pay.

I notice on ( Read more... )

Back when I was in school, my father brought me two "Hero" pens. One brown and one green. Soon enough, the barrel of the brown pen was broken, and the nib of the green pen followed presently. I put made use of what was later to be called as 'Genetic Algorithms' and continued working. I don't know what I did with the spare cap though. The cap was ( Read more... )

Ok i've talked about this before. When you rant, you do so mostly to feel better. Get things out of your system. Just get rid of some trash so that you can structure the rest of your thoughts. And so all you need is a listener. A counterparty. A good listener. And it's done. I'm not saying it's easy to find a good listener. Those types are hard to ( Read more... )

Sometimes I'm a bit hesitant to get back in touch with old acquaintances when I need a favour from them. I begin to wonder if they'll think of me as one of those "duhkh mein sumiran sab karein... " types. And sometimes I think ten times before mailing or calling them.

But then, I remember that I too keep getting lots of similar calls or emails. ( Read more... )

Having decided that I'm exceptionally poor at picking stocks, for the last year or so I've been investing mostly in Mutual Funds. I invest a total of Rs. 12000 every month in three different mutual funds. The three SIPs take the money out on 2nd, 9th and 27th of each month, I think.

On a number occasions in the recent past, to my bad luck, the stock ( Read more... )

Yesterday, after watching Radoi and Rat headbutting each other, I messaged Baada saying that it's too funny when people from the same team get involved in an accident, despite it being very painful for the players. A moment later, I realized that I had no right to laugh about these things after I got into major trouble following this accident with
( Read more... )

The concept of opportunity costs seems to be non-trivial, in the sense that most people don't seem to get it. When I first learnt it as part of my Economics course at IIT Madras, I thought it was fairly common sense. However, looking around at a variety of people, it doesn't seem to be that common.

A few Sundays back, I came home in the evening ( Read more... )

Traditional South Indian Wedding

Day 0 Evening: Groom and family arrive. They are welcomed and the bride's parents worship the groom (vara pooje)

Day 1 Morning: Wedding

Day 1 Evening: Reception

Day 2 Morning: Some pooja, etc.

Day 2 Evening: Groom and family kidnap bride and go off

Modern South Indian Wedding

Day 0 Early Evening: Groom and family arrive. ( Read more... )