The Triple Package - Book Review

Recently read this book. And I mostly agree with the negative reviews on the Wikipedia page. But here are few of my personal observations.

Just for introduction (from Wikipedia):

The central argument of the book is that the cultural groups that have "starkly outperforming"  the rest in America possess three distinct traits. These virtues are the presence of a superiority complex, the simultaneous existence of an inferiority complex, and a marked capacity for impulse control.

As per the book, "Indian Americans are have the highest income of any Census tracked ethnic group" but surprisingly most of the book is about Jews and Chinese with almost zero analysis of Indians. Which makes sense as one of the authors is Chinese and another Jew. So they can take liberties writing about their own culture. Whereas if they write something offensive about another culture, the racio-religious backlash would be too hot to handle. So, this choice seems to be practical but shows considerable lack of courage.

Another reason for devoting little attention to Indians could be that they don't fit the triple package theory. If you ask me the reasons for Indians' success in USA, they would be quite mundane actually.

1. India is almost the most populous country in the world. By any laws of probability, there are bound to be more talented/successful Indians than other nationalities.
2. As far as I know, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada,  Marwari, Bengali and Sindhi communities would make up the 90% of rich Indian Americans. Except for Punjabis and Marwaris all of them come from coastal states. Punjabis and Marwaris have long sat on some of the most important trade routes connecting India with its neighbors. Being a coastal state/trade route state gives you a lot of advantages in terms of the awareness and network effects.
3. Bihar/MP/UP and large parts of Rajasthan which are backward are landlocked. Which explains the lack of business opportunities and other opportunities in general. 
4. The book claims that a lot of Indian Americans have the superiority complex because of their caste. Might be true. But there is a huge Brahmin population in UP and it doesn't have proportionate representation in US due to the reasons mentioned above. So the caste argument is not that strong.
5. A lot of successful Indian Americans are IITians. And IITs have always tried to emulate the western universities. IIT Bombay was teaching Fortran in CS-101 for many years only because MIT was doing it too. So when the IITians do land up in USA, they take less time to adjust.
6. From what I understand, Gujaratis are the most successful Indians in USA. And they are most successful in India too. So it's just a case of rich getting richer in other countries. No other explanations are needed.

Jaipur Trip - Notes

Day 1 :
Started late, around 12. Took an Uber to Amber Palace. There are jeeps available to take you to Amber, Jaigarh and Nahargarh. But didn't get any, as we were late. Also, if you reach there before 11, you can take an elephant ride from the bottom of the hill to the Amber palace entry. It costs around 1100/- but worth it because of the great view you get of the Maota lake. There are other elephant ride providers in the vicinity, but they charge the same price for no reason. They would just give you a ride on the nearby roads. Either take the ride across the hill or skip it altogether. If you want just the ride on an elephant, better go to Chokhi Dhani. They would charge you only Rs. 50/- per person. More on this later. At Jal Mahal, you will get a Camel ride for 300/-. Skip that. In Chokhi Dhani, it's for Rs. 20/-.

So, since we didn't get any jeep, we took an auto who took us to Jaigarh and Nahargarh for Rs. 650/-. At Jaigarh, we took a guide for Rs. 100/- and he explained the stuff really well. There is a shop in the fort which claims to sell authentic stuff at exorbitant prices. Nothing worth buying there.

From there we headed to Nahargarh. There we couldn't get a guide, but a security guide offered his services as guide for Rs. 50/-. Though he was constantly avoiding his supervisor while doing so :-)

From here, we returned to the hotel and started for Chokhi Dhani. The crowd there was huge, as their ticketing system is very inefficient and also there was a big holiday season rush. The price per adult for 600/- and 350/- per kid. This includes the buffet and many free shows inside - fire show/magic show/puppet dance/dandiya etc etc. This price is really cheap given the ambiance and size of the place. My 4 year old loved it. He took a bullock cart ride, elephant ride, camel ride, horse ride and other stuff. Everything was priced around 10/- or 20/-. The most expensive was the elephant ride for Rs. 50/-

Day 2 :
We started with City Palace. Took a guide there too. Just nearby you have Jantar mantar and Govind Dev Ji Mandir.  Which you can club together. Govind Dev Ji Mandir  has specific timings.
Then we went to Amber and visited with a guide. In the evening we went to Birla Mandir, Moti Dungri Ganesh Mandir(adjacent to Birla mandir). From there to hotel and from hotel to Crystal Palm Mall and MGF mall (opposite to each other).

Day 3 :
We were stuck with some work till the evening. In the evening, went to Govind Dev Ji Temple and shopping in Chandpol Bazaar. Ended the day with a night show at Rajmandir Cinema.

Things we missed : 
1. Hawa Mahal (though it would take 10-15 minutes)
2. Birla planetarium (needs 1-2 hours)
3. Jantar Mantar (needs around 1/2 an hour)
4. Albert hall museum

Ola & Uber in Jaipur
Uber charges you an extra 200/- for Amber fort and 125/- for Chokhi Dhani. It's to incentivize the driver for going to those places as they are pretty far off and many a times, the drivers don't get a pessanger for return trip. Though it's mentioned as Amber Fort Entry Toll and Chokhi Dhani/Sitapura Exit Toll in the bill which is confusing for the customer, as there is no such toll.

On the other hand, Ola drivers handle it differently. Many drivers would refuse to go to Amber claiming that the company has asked them not to go. The drivers who go there, don't get any extra incentive so they stay put there for a while waiting for the return fare. For this reason, you may find no Uber driver for the return trip, since they have no reason to wait there, having made the extra bucks. But you may find an occasional Ola driver waiting for you :-)

Overall, Ola drivers were rash/unpolished/untrained as compared to Uber.  But Ola offers many coupons which make the rides cheaper. As far as service is concerned, nothing beats Uber in terms of pickup time and driver behavior. One reason why Uber drivers are fast to pick up the pessangers - if a ride is cancelled and the driver has crossed a certain distance threshold towards the place of pick up - he gets Rs. 75/- or 100/- flat. Also, Uber seemed to give better location to drivers.

Flipkart, you disappoint me!

1. Whenever I have purchased an e-book from Flipkart, it has taken minimum of 1 day for the book to be available in my account. Feels like, someone manually uploads the books to my account. So I had to stop buying them from Flipkart.

2. Then, one day I published a book :-) There is no way you can list an ebook on Flipkart directly. So I had to go through Smashwords. It took more than a month to get it listed on Flipkart. Another 2 weeks for it to appear in its search results, though it was already listed. And since then the ebook has constantly been Out of Stock :-) I mean, come on. An ebook out of stock? Subah se main hi mila kya? BTW, if you click on the search result and go to the book listing, you will be able to buy the ebook.

For this issue, I mailed/called their customer care multiple times. Mostly, they couldn't  understand what was I complaining about? I guess, no author ever called them to complain about his ebook being out of stock :-)

3. For the same book, I had printed a paperback version through Pothi.com and used their services to list the book on Flipkart. Again, it took more than a month to appear on Flipkart.  I don't know who is at fault here? Is Flipkart not digesting the feed from Pothi fast enough or is Pothi not feeding them on time? I guess Flipkart would be at fault here, since it takes ages to take the feed from Smashwords too whereas other book stores(tied up with Smashwords) listed the book the very next day.

Now contrast 2. and 3. with Amazon. You can upload an ebook to Kindle and it will be available in all of Amazon's countries in roughly 4 hours. Same goes for any edits you make to the Kindle version. There are no glitches mentioned above. Even the paperback version was listed without any hiccups.

4. Then, just now I bought Flipkart First 1 year subscription in the hope that I will get free delivery for every order. But seems like I got to wait, since my account isn't upgraded yet. Bhai log, aise kaise kaam chalega? Will someone manually upgrade my account? If not, then why isn't it done instantly?

[Satire] Virat Kohli writes an open letter. Claims he has never abused anyone.

In a sensational, sentimental, free-wheeling and very personal open letter, Virat Kohli claims that he has always been misunderstood on and off the field because of his poor communication skills. Here is the full letter.

-----------------------------------

A big hello to all my fans, enemies and frenemies. Of late, I have been in news for all reasons except my batting. Some were about Anushka, which I have already answered. Some are about my abusive nature on and off the field. I intend to clarify those in this letter.

I was accused of abusing a HT journalist in Australia during the ICC world cup. I did not abuse him. Yes, I was angry and we had a heated exchange. He later claimed that I called him bhenc**d. All I said to him was Pen Chhod (पेन छोड़ ) in Hindi which means leave your pen. It has a subtle meaning. Too often, the journalists write articles without verifying the facts. They trust their sources and forget to check the ground realities. That's why I asked him to leave the pen and use his eyes to figure out the truth. Because I was angry, he heard bhenc**d and I received the entire blame.

Similarly, people say I said Maan ki c***t to the Bangladeshi bowler Rubel Hossain. Again, I didn't say it. I was angry since he was staring at me angrily. When I was a kid, I had a friend with whom I used to fight frequently. Sometimes he used to hit me and hide behind his mother. So I used to say Maan Ko Chhod (माँ को छोड़). Since then, it has become a reflexive response for me. If I am angrily fighting with someone, these words come out of my mouth on their own. I can't help it.

The last one is my recent collision with Dinesh Karthik. As everybody saw, we collided mid pitch as we were taking a run. People say I called him C***tiya. I just said Chhot Gaya (छूट गया ) in Hindi which means Thank God. I am saved. Now if some vested interests keep misinterpreting whatever I say, I can't help it. I am writing this letter as I have received a stern warning from Anushka for my supposedly abusive nature. So, please don't spread these false rumors about me.

To all the the journalists reading this - Pen Chhod.

Also published here.

Dr. Zakir Naik - criticism

One thing I must admit is that Dr. Zakir Naik has become the equivalent of a religious rockstar of modern times. His study and memorization of various religions including Hinduism is highly impressive.

And of course, he is a great believer in Islam and I am sure he has been able to convert many people to his faith.

But, should people start believing in Islam and disbelieving in other religions just because a great scholar has appeared out of nowhere and asking them to embrace Islam? There are many fundamental problems about converting to or believing in any religion especially Islam.

Empirical evidence  - He claims that Islam is the most logical and scientific religion on earth right now. For the sake of argument, let's accept that. But, in science empirical evidence is required for a hypothesis to gain acceptance in the scientific community. So even if we accept that Islam is the most logical religion(hypothesis), there is no empirical evidence to vouch for it and make it convincingly better than the competing religions(hypotheses).

In India the extremist Hindus can force M.F. Hussain to leave the country because of his objectionable paintings, but in Bangladesh extremist Muslims will kill Avijit Roy if he doesn't listen to them. In Pakistan, a false rumor spread by an angry Muslim neighbor against a Hindu is enough for the crowd to burn down a Hindu temple whereas in India the Human Rights organizations can do their best to fight the reigning CM and would-be PM (Narendra Modi) accused of abetting riots.

The Muslim population in India has gone up from 9.93% (1951) to 14.88% (2011) but in Bangladesh and Pakistan - countries which had a significant Hindu population when they were created - Hindu population keeps going down.

Declining Hindu population in Bangladesh region

Year	Percentage (%)
1941	28.0
1951	22.0
1961	18.5
1974	13.5
1981	12.13
1991	11.62
2001	9.6

In Pakistan too, Hindu population has gone down from 22% (1951) to 1.7% (1998).

This clearly points out the low tolerance levels for other religions in Muslim majority areas whereas the opposite is true for Hindu majority areas. Can anyone imagine a Hindu scholar debating about religions in any Islamic country and speak openly, confidently and without fear about Islam? The Indian ethos has the tolerance to accept the contrasting viewpoints and the prevalent Hindu belief system should be congratulated for it. In brief, the freedom which Dr. Zakir Naik(a Muslim) has, to speak about every religion in India, would not have been possible in any Islamic Country for a non-Muslim.

Again for the sake of argument, let's believe that Islam is the most logical and rational religion. But what is the point of it all if this theory doesn't translate to results. If the terrorists keep coming out of Muslims and keep killing innocents then how can his claims be taken seriously?

Terrorism  - Dr. Zakir Naik in the following video claims that media is behind projecting Muslims as terrorists and it's possible since Muslims are not strong in Media. This is simply running away from a tough question. There are thousands of Muslim leaders openly urging people for Jihad, asking people to take up arms and killing others. How is media responsible for that? As a Hindu I seriously believe that caste system is a big problem and I don't blame media for creating this problem. Similarly, he should introspect and clean up his religion first before blaming the media.

 

In summary, even if we accept his claim that theoretically and rationally Islam is best (for the sake of argument) - there is no evidence to support this claim. If the theory is too complicated for anyone to understand or it is very easy for people to twist the theory to suit their own ends and create Jihadis then this theory is of no use.


Twisting the interpretation - 





In the above video Dr. Naik claims that rigveda book 2 hymn 1 verse 11 mentions Allah. Now the actual verse is here :

तवमग्ने अदितिर्देव दाशुषे तवं होत्रा भारती वर्धसेगिरा |
तवमिळा षतहिमासि दक्षसे तवं वर्त्रहा वसुपते सरस्वती ||

The word is iḷâ which can be pronounced ila but definitely not Allah. According to Sâyana, the most celebrated commentator on the Vedas, iḷâ is the other name of Agni (the deity of fire). Furthermore, the entire Hymn (2/1) has been dedicated to God Agni and hence there is no doubt that the word iḷâ in the verse stands for Agni.

So there is considerable doubt about this claim and many similar ones.

In the end, I must congratulate Dr. Zakir Naik for bringing comparative religious study into limelight. But his claims need to have more empirical substance rather than only theoretical assertions.

IPL : Are Indian players useless?

There haven been 9 matches in the IPL so far and it's highly obvious that if a match has to be won - it will be done by a foreign player. 7 out of 9 matches have had a foreigner winning Man of the Match. This is when every team has to have minimum of 7 Indian players in the team.

If IPL had been born and played in England/Australia or any other non-Indian country,  I am not sure how many Indian players would have been bought - if at all they were bought in the first place.

[Satire] Google rolls out Panchayat level content blocking in Haryana

Search giant Google rolled out a new feature today targeting internet
users in Haryana. Now Sarpanch of a Panchayat will be able to lodge a
complaint against a particular search result or an objectionable video
on YouTube. Google would in turn closely review the complaint to
determine if content should be removed. Though Google already allows
complaints lodged by countries, it is for the first time that such
fine grained geographical complaint system has been rolled out
anywhere in the world.

When asked by UT, a Google spokesperson said, “We have a lot of
employees who are from Haryana. I guess that's because of big number
of IIT-JEE coaching centres in Delhi and Gurgaon. Recently many of
them demanded this feature. They said many Khap Panchayats have banned
Jeans and mobiles for Girls. But when one searches on Google - one can
easily see girls wearing Jeans using mobile phones. Those images and
videos should be blocked in the respective villages which fall under
that Khap Panchayat.”

A Google employee spoke to us on condition of anonymity, "I am from
Haryana and Google should respect our local culture. If Chinese
government or EU asks them something, they happily oblige. Then why
should Khap Panchayats stay behind? Our elders recently declared that
Chowmein is the main reason behind rapes. And the very next day a girl
in our village was cooking Chowmein by watching a recipe video on
YouTube. Not only that, Google is also blocking ads by Sex
Determination Clinics on its search page. Now where do our women go if
they have to abort their female embryo? Isn't it subversion of free
market?"

Google officials were unavailable for comments.

Here is an edited version on The Unreal Times.

Yes we were shamed in Sydney

Many people have attacked and many more defended the Indian cricket team for the loss in Sydney semifinal against Australia. But there are few staggering facts we can not shy away from.

India has been playing cricket since decades now but we are yet to see a genuine quick bowler in the Indian team. SA,NZ,Aus,WI,England - all of them have produced exceptional fast bowlers throughout their cricketing history. And why go far? Just look at Pakistan. 

Wasim,Waqar,Aaquib,Shoaib Akhtar and now Wahab Riyaz. It is a shame on the cricketing infrastructure in India. It is indeed a shame on the richest cricketing board in the world - BCCI - that despite bathing in money day in and day out, they have not been able to find or groom a genuine fast bowler.

And what about spinners? The same argument goes for a genuine spinner. We have had some pseudo spinners in Kumble and R. Ashwin or even Harbhajan. But what about a spinner whom the opposition truly fear like they feared Murali or Warne for their great ability to get huge turns?

All in all Indian cricket system has to be heavily blamed for turning a blind eye towards the quality of bowlers in the country. They can't get huge turns and they can't bowl fast. And this given the lodes of money loitering around. 

It is indeed shameful.

WC 2015 Knock out predictions

QF1 : NZ vs IRE/WI
QF2 : Aus vs Pak
QF3 : SL vs SA
QF4 : Ind vs Ban

SF1 : NZ vs SL/SA
SF2 : Ind vs Aus

Final : NZ vs Aus
Winner : Aus

Ayushmann Khurrana and BJP - what's the connection?

Hawaizaada released at a time when BJP sponsored Indian Science Congress made claims about Aeroplanes being invented in India. Now for the first time in a Hindi movie a RSS shakha is depicted as such and that movie happens to be his Dum Laga Ke Haisha. What's the connection?

Questions for AAP

While AAP indulges in euphoria, it's in fact the right time for them to answer some questions. Unfortunately only person left to ask them tough questions is Prashant Bhushan. Kiran Bedi and Shazia Ilmi could have stayed and made AAP a much better party with their criticism but they chose not to.

1. How will it remain corruption free - Much is being said about AAP - and to be honest I would vote for AAP whenever possible. But my doubts remain about whether it will be able to remain corruption free. From what I understand - there are some people who have some source of income and work part time for AAP. But no party can survive on part timers alone. So, there must be many volunteers who work full time for AAP.  How will those full timers make money? Or how are they making money now? If they have no means of earning money - how long will they be non corrupt? Even if they are being paid some nominal amount by AAP - will their human nature remain satisfied with it? Won't they try to make more money? What if they indulge in corrupt means?
2. AAP candidates(now MLAs) with dubious records - Prashant Bhushan had submitted a list of 12 candidates to AAP lokpal - out of which only 2 were removed. Rest went on to contest and win elections. Doesn't it mean that AAP has compromised with clean politics? What is the official stand of the party on those candidates?
3. Arvind Kejriwal promised that once in power he will initiate inquiry into the bogus companies which gave him funding worth Rs. 2 Crores. When will that happen?
4. Santosh Koli Murder Investigation - Why have Kejriwal and AAP not been vocal about investigations into Santosh Koli's death? Even Santosh Koli's father alleged that Kejriwal had been very indifferent after the murder - 

"Kejriwal didn't demand a CBI probe during his 49 days as the Delhi CM," he alleged. Santosh's relatives admitted to not having demanded any kind of investigation from Kejriwal. "He sat on dharna to support his law minister Somnath Bharti had no time for the mother or father of a person who had been associated with him and his NGO for 12 years," he said.

Why did BJP delay Delhi elections?

As the near certain win of AAP has posed many questions to BJP strategists - the biggest of them seems to be - why did they delay Delhi elections? Everyone seems to suggest that they would have won the elections handsomely if they had held it just after Lok Sabha elections - but BJP would have had very strong reasons to believe otherwise.

I would make some guesses here : 

There was a huge support base for AAP in Delhi even after Lok Sabha debacle and no matter what BJP did - AAP would have made sure that assembly elections were fought on local issues rather than national ones. Also, AAP is a quick learner. They realized very soon that attacking Modi was not beneficial and they needed to project themselves as a party capable of ruling as opposed to one which could only resist.

AAP's preemptive strike( or bluffing?) - no matter what time of the day it was - if you asked AAP when to hold Delhi elections - they would say now. They showed no signs of weakness or timidity. That would have made BJP leaders jittery as they were constantly being shown as cowards by a courageous AAP leadership.

Is Kejriwal the Shahrukh Khan of Indian Politics?

There was a time in Bollywood when Amitabh bachchan was long past his superstardom and a new heir for the throne was nowhere to be found. Then came SRK. Witty,emotional star of the new age who is unashamed to embrace his feminine side vs macho,angry action hero of yesteryears. Similar contrasts are noticeable in Kejriwal vs Modi. A tiny champion of poor vs 56-inch chested god of middle classes and rich. Ready to apologize profusely vs ready to leave the interview if posed with tough questions. Let's wait and watch.

5 Saal Kejriwal

I had earlier written about how Kejriwal's success has many parallels to Clayton Christensen's notion of Disruptive Innovation. As the time passes by I find more similarities between the trajectory of AAP and a successful startup.

• The first and foremost rule for a startup is don't die. After lok sabha elections when many members left them in a hurry - they could have shut the shop and gone back to running NGOs. But they kept their chins up through it all and let it pass.
• A common strategy popular among startups is fail fast and fail cheap. That's what AAP did in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Contesting the elections nationwide taught them that they didn't have enough resources to do so but also that they have a fertile ground in Punjab. After that they put all their energies and focus on Delhi refusing to contest even Haryana assembly elections.
• Customize and go local - reflected in their strategy to follow issues as per the seat they are contesting in.

Now that AAP is certain to win the Delhi elections or come a close second it's clear that Delhi has become a different territory from Rest of India. Strong NGO circuit, high political awareness and AAP would change the face of Delhi politics forever. It's surprising how have they done it when they have to counter Narendra Modi, BJP with all their money power and RSS.

4 day amsterdam trip

Recently on an official trip I landed in Amsterdam. The official work was only for few hours on Monday morning and  I had plenty of spare time. So here is how it went :

Notes :
1. November weather is pretty chilly.
2. Got a Lebara SIM (prepaid) on arrival on airport. 10 euro top up for talk time and 10 euro for 1 GB 3G internet. Activates immediately.
3. Uber has pretty good taxi service here. You should create a new Uber account with your local number as the cab drivers would find it easy to call/sms you.
4. While booking taxi on Uber, try to enter exact address, as it will be easy for the cab driver to locate you and you won't have to spend time in guiding him over the phone.
5. Talking of Uber, the drivers of the cheaper variety (Uber Pop) are mostly blacks and immigrants ( I hired 3 Pops - 2 were driven by blacks and 1 by an Afghan immigrant). Whereas the expensive ones are driven by Whites and locals.
6. Stayed at Hotel Eden, Amstel.
7. If you are with a kid - take a stroller with you - will be very very useful.
8. Starbucks sells very good Chai in Amsterdam.
9. Walking around there - Google maps came in pretty handy.

Day 1 : (Saturday)

1. Very tired on arrival(Bangalore -> Mumbai -> Amsterdam). Rested for a while and headed to Rijksmuseum. Good intro to Dutch Arts & History. There are plenty of other museums in this city of museums if you are interested. I skipped them. But if time permits - go to Nemo science museum. From the museum headed to Bollywood Indian Restaurant on foot. Called them to make sure that they are open as many other restaurants were closed at that time ( around 4PM). Had food there (food was good) and went to hotel again to rest. Bought weed on the way from a Coffeeshop to be used in night. In the night headed to De Wallen - the top tourist attraction in Amsterdam. From there went to Moti Mahal (another indian restaurant) on foot. The food wasn't good here. Called an UberPop taxi which dropped us to hotel for 4 Euros.


Day 2 : (Sunday)
1. Booked the Zoo tickets online to avoid queues and spent quite some time there. Zoo is okay. You could visit Micropia nearby if you like. From there went to the Kohinoor Indian restaurant(UberPop 8 Euros) - food was good again. From there went to Amsterdam Centraal and took the 1 hour Canal Cruise. From there to home and strolled the night away. Ate some small stuff in Starbucks and nearby Mcdonalds.

Day 3 : (Monday)
1. Wrapped up the work in the morning and walked to Vondelpark on foot. Nothing great there. From there walked to a shopping mall - Magna Plaza. Paid 1 Euro there to take a leak. From there headed to Memories of India restaurant.

Day 4 : (Tuesday)
1. Headed to Efteling.  Booked online to get discount and avoid queues. Almost 100km journey. Train to Den Bosche and from there bus till Efteling. Plan your journey well and arrive there on time so that you don't miss anything in this very large amusement park. We missed some due to the height restrictions and also missed Pagoda/Aqua show. Here are the attractions we enjoyed the most with our 3 year old :

• Droomvlucht
• Raveleijn: an exciting live show
• Fata Morgana
• Bob
• Carnival Festival

In the night went to Shiva restaurant and finished the leftover weed.

Vishal Bhardwaj's comfort in Muslim milieu

There is a certain authenticity about Vishal Bhardwaj's works based in
Muslim milieu - Maqbool and Haider. These 2 are the works which stay honest from the beginning to the end. Whereas his other hyped works -
Omkara, Saat Khoon Maaf and Kaminey just fall apart due to incoherence
resulting from his discomfort with non-Muslim milieu.

I would hazard a guess here that growing up in UP he could observe the
Muslim society and its mannerisms a lot more closely and was enchanted
by it.

Events / Competitions for kids to participate in

Bangalore kids to participate in the Dance World Cup 2013

Meet Granth Thakkar: The fastest mental calculator in the world

4 day singapore trip

General Notes :

• I went from Bangalore to Chennai by train and took a flight from there. As the flights from Chennai were much cheaper. 
• I applied for Singapore VISA through Thomas Cook. They charged Rs. 2200/- and took 2 weeks to get it even though they had promised 3-4 days.
• I went by Malaysia Airlines, changing flights at Kua lalampur. Since both the flights were Malaysia Airlines, I didn't need a transit VISA for Malaysia, otherwise I would have had to apply for the Malaysia Transit Visa as well.
• Singapore has very good cab service. Though it's more expensive than MRT + Bus system, it's much faster. Especially if you have a kid, you don't want to walk to an MRT and stand in queues. If you insist on using public transport, you can create a card which you can recharge multiple times and refund the balance at the airport/MRT stations when you are exiting Singapore. By using that card you will not have to stand in MRT queues. And the bus drivers always ask for exact change or you have to get down from the bus. Using the card you can overcome that problem too. But for a small trip using cabs is the best.
• Before going there I checked with all the credit cards about their charges if I swipe the card there. SBI had an offer running on international card swipes. So I used that for all the swipes.
• You can get a Singapore SIM at the airport itself with internet access. So no need to buy a SIM from India for the same (for e.g. from Matrix).
• We stayed at Dickson road. There is an eatery by the name Dicksons there. Pretty good for Indian food.

Day 1 :

• zoo  + river safari + night safari (all are adjacent to each other) 
• for the best views of animals, note down the time of their feeding sessions and go there.
• go early if you want to rent a stroller else they might be finished 
• free wifi 
• food in the zoo premises is very expensive 
• cab from Little India to Zoo cost around 20 SGD
• zoo + river safari + night safari ticket combo was 83 SGD. Free for kids below 3 years. If you want to go to the bird park as well you can take the combo including bird park as well. The ticket will be valid for 30 days or so. But keep in mind that you can't cover all 4 of them in 1 day. 
• there is 5-20% discount if you buy the tickets online. you can buy the ticket online outside the zoo itself using their wifi and app. 
• took a cab back to kailash parbat in Little India. cost around 20 SGD.

Day 2 :

• Cab from Little India to Universal Studio cost around 14 SGD.
• If you want to cover all the rides and attractions in Universal Studio, you need to buy the express ticket. Else you are doomed. You will end up covering only 40-50% of rides. Even if you don't buy the express ticket before entering you can still buy it inside on all the souvenir shops.
• go early if you want to rent the stroller.
• There is no wifi inside Universal.
• From Universal take the free Sentosa Express train to the beach station, i.e. Sentosa island. There is small beach there. In the evening there was a very good laser show at 7:40 and 8:40 costing 18 SGD per head. There was a sky diving place as well. You can also check out The Bikini Bar. If you are ordering food there, order for the smaller portions as they give you good amount of food.
• From Sentosa we took the free shuttle bus to cable car station which cost 39 SGD for 1 pair of adults and dropped us at HarborFront MRT. From there took the MRT to Chinatown and shopped around. Chinatown has free wifi and cheap beer.
• Took the MRT to Farrer Park and went to Mustafa to shop some more. Mustafa center is open 24 hours for shopping.

Day 3 :

• Took a cab to Singapore Flyer. Cost us 33 SGD per head. Nothing great really. If you have taken the Cable Car you can skip this.
• From there took a 1km walk to Marina Bay Sands. There you can see the Infinity pool by paying some fees. Close by is Arts and Science museum.
• From there took a walk to Gardens by the Bay. Bought tickets for Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. Flower Dome can be skipped.
• From there took a cab to Merlion Park which has the famous lion statue.
• From there took a bus to Orchard Road. Pretty expensive shopping street. Took the MRT back to Little India.

Day 4 :

• Went by Bus + MRT to Jurong Bird Park.
• Free wifi.
• Go early for strollers.
• There is an amphitheater show at 11AM and 3PM. Don't miss that.

[Satire] English players urge Ishant to ignore Dhoni

Undeterred by the all round criticism of their performance, England Cricket team has decided to verbally attack the Indian team although in an indirect  manner. It’s a well known fact now that Dhoni asked Ishant Sharma to bowl bouncers which led to England’s downfall. So that’s what they are up against.

Getting mad at Dhoni

“Indian team has got a cultural problem. In their country they give too much respect to authority and seniority but that’s not right. Dhoni has no business telling Ishant how to bowl. He is a mature bowler and can very well decide which line and length to bowl. He needs to assert himself more and ignore Dhoni completely,” was the unsought advice offered by Alastair Cook – the captain.

“Today it’s Ishant, tomorrow it could be Bhuvi or Jadeja. Whatever happened to the ideal of individual liberty? You must remember that even though Ishant is 7 years younger than Dhoni, he is 8 inches taller than him. That is the proof that Ishant is inherently more capable than him. He just needs to find his inner voice and listen to it. If that voice asks him to bowl full – he should bowl full – no matter what the outer voices say,” blasted a livid Peter Moores – the
English Coach.

“If they keep talking like this during the match, I am afraid I might have to lodge a complaint against them. I mean what’s the point of so much chit chat during the match. It’s even worse than sledging. You decide a game plan before the match starts and you stick to it. You can’t change it midway. It’s a gentlemen’s game after all, ” was the last reaction we could get from a clearly distraught James Anderson.

(Published here as well.)

[Satire] Pay bribe online - NDA government launches new portal

In its efforts to bring Acche din to Indians, NDA government has launched a new portal where people can pay bribe online. 

"There were two options in front of us for taking India forward. Either we completely overhaul the existing system or we improve and streamline the existing processes. If we go for the first choice - we will sound like Aaptard anarchists and we may not even succeed. If we choose the latter - we can see immediate results and more transparency." , explained Prakash Javadekar - Information and broadcasting minster.

"See, no one minds paying bribe nowadays as the incomes are on a upswing. What bothers people is that they don't know whom and how to pay bribe? Sometimes they approach an honest officer and both the parties are frustrated. We want to avoid those situations." was how Smriti Irani - the HRD minister - justified the move.

"On this portal, both the government babus and the middlemen can provide services. Whoever is cheaper and more efficient - wins. Payments will be secured through Escrow and will be released only when the person verifies that the service has been completed to his satisfaction." signed off Nitin Gadkari, Transport minister.

(Published here as well)