Re: [silk] Hello silklist

[Mahesh Murthy]

Yo Pete, welcome aboard.



Mahesh

On 12-Oct-2017 4:23 PM, "Peter Griffin"  wrote:

> Hi All
>
> (This feels like the first day of school)
>
> Thanks for inviting me in, Udhay.
>
> I intend to be mostly a quiet reader and observer until I get a feel
> of the etiquette of the list.
>
> Meanwhile, the quick About Me:
>
> I'm very fortunate with my friends. And thanks to the work I have done
> and my own limitations, I know a little about lots of things, but not
> very much about any single thing,
>
> The longer version:
>
> I've mostly earned my living as a writer of some kind, mainly in
> advertising, content creation, and journalism. I currently work with a
> newspaper, where I edit and commission more than write. Unpaid writing
> includes blogging and poetry.
>
> I have been a literary curator, and am an informal student of online
> culture and collaboration (and have been fortunate to be part of some
> cool collectives). I co-founded the writing forum Caferati and
> moderate its various web presences. And I advise a couple of
> non-profits and help others when I can.
>
> I recently got back to dabbling in sculpture (chalk, and now clay); if
> you know me on social media, I am likely to bore you to tears with
> lots of pictures of those or, even more likely, to send you off
> groaning with awful puns.I solemnly promise not to do the former here.
>
> best
>
> ~peter
>
>

Re: [silk] Travel advice for a visitor to India

[Mahesh Murthy]

8 cities in 2 weeks? Why???

Do two. Or maybe 4 at max.

On 19-Sep-2017 1:51 AM,  wrote:

> A business acquaintance and his wife are visiting India end Sep/ early
> October. first visit ever
>
>
>
> They're an older couple and reasonably affluent so no back-packing for them
>
>
>
> Have used a travel agent to chalk out a trip.
>
>
>
> He's going to be in Delhi, then Agra, then Varanasi, Ranthambore,  Jaipur,
> Jodhpur, Udaipur, Mumbai.  Lots of places over a two week time frame
>
>
>
> He has free afternoons/ evenings occasionally
>
>
>
> Any must see, must Do and Don't  bothers?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Prashant
>
>
>
>

Re: [silk] Singapore serviced apartment?

[Mahesh Murthy]

airbnb it?

On Sun, Sep 3, 2017 at 10:45 PM, Saritha Rai  wrote:

> Hello, Silk-listers.
> Any serviced apartment someone can recommend within walking distance of
> Galaxis Fusionopolis?  Or a hotel?  This is for Tuesday night.
> Grateful for any recommendations.
> Thanks
> Saritha
>
>
>

Re: [silk] Quote selected text in GMail

[Mahesh Murthy]

wasnt it in "labs"?

On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 12:39 PM, gabin kattukaran 
wrote:

> The "Quote Selected Text" feature in labs has been disappearing from
> Gmail. Does anyone know of any work arounds or add ons to Gmail that
> brings back similar functionality?
>
> Thanks,
>
> gabin
>
> --
>
> Don't confuse me with facts. My mind is made up.
>
>

Re: [silk] Joining Silk

[Mahesh Murthy]

Welcome Kavita :)

On 23-Feb-2017 5:53 PM, "Kavita Jhunjhunwala" 
wrote:

> Thanks Udhay for adding me to the famous Silk List : )  I am Kavita & I
> head a digital strategy agency in Bangalore called Avocado Tree and am the
> event producer of Click Asia Summits in India. I have co-founded & led
> another agency for the past 18 years (12 in Calcutta, and the last 6 in
> Singapore). I have just moved to Bangalore in the past two months and am
> looking forward to reconnecting with folks in India. And I am also now
> realising that I am writing a really 'serious' sounding introduction: )
>
> Look forward to some good conversations and meeting a host of new friends
> and reconnecting with some old ones which I am sure are part of the Silk
> List. : )
>

Re: [silk] Gaurav Vaz - Introduction

[Mahesh Murthy]

Hey Gaurav

Welcome aboard :)

On 21-Jan-2017 1:47 PM, "Gaurav Vaz"  wrote:

> Hi Everyone!
>
> I finally managed to join this amazing group after years of hearing and
> reading about it. Thanks a lot Udhay for the invitation :)
>
> I am a proper jack of all trades and I might have interacted with a few of
> you in different capacities. I play the bass guitar and am the artist
> manager for The Raghu Dixit Project, a contemporary folk band from
> Bangalore and am quite active in the Indian indie music scene in different
> capacities.
>
> I work as a web consultant with my start-up, The Random Lines, and am also
> a very small scale angel investor who loves working with small businesses
> and start-ups in various capacities.
>
> I am really looking forward to catching up with all of you at some point
> and being part of some great conversations here.
>
> Thanks,
> Gaurav
>
> --
> If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!
>
> http://gauravvaz.com
>

Re: [silk] Fantastic to get onboard

[Mahesh Murthy]

Good to have you here, Sree!

On 09-Sep-2016 10:15 AM, "Sreejith sivanandan" 
wrote:

> Fantastic to get onboard this esteem group.
>
> This is Sreejith Sivanandan, alias 'Sree'/Sree Sivanandan here. I am based
> out of Bangalore suburbs since 2003 and Oh yes, surely one of those with
> strong views about the new version of the city that has traffic latency,
> pothole bugs, low resolution air quality and poor mobile connectivity, even
> though it is still one of the best places to live in India :)
>
> I am a TechDreamer, (if there is anything like that) as I believe that
> technology is a great leveler that transcends all possible 'human created'
> barriers of race, gender, orientation and faith, consistently reiterating
> that world is a fantastic place to live and technology can provide a
> solution for most of the problems that you can imagine.
>
> Yeah, I know I am getting a bit a TechnoPhilosophical, could be getting a
> bit influenced by Yuval Noah's 'Sapiens', that I am devouring right now.
>
> To cut the chase, I have been dabbling with the business side of technology
> for a while (16 years) before recently moving out of full time engagement
> roles to take a break and explore the next phase of life. Prior to that I
> had a brief stint with pharmaceutical industry as well. In my last role at
> AOL, I was Heading Asia operations for AOL's publisher solutions stack as a
> senior director, before that I was running the APAC operations of media
> sites, like Engadget, TechCrunch, AutoBlog to name a few, leading the
> strategy, product dev & biz dev teams.
>
> Right now, I engage with early stage startups as an investor as well as
> support a few companies as a consultant to drive growth & revenue
> leveraging the experience and network that I have build over the years in
> expanding operations in Asia Pacific. I am working on a new media tech
> platform along with a few industry colleagues which is in stealth for now.
>
> Ever since I read the article by Shrabonti Bagchi, on factordaily, I had
> requested Udhay to check me into this list. So great to be here, looking
> forward to learn, share and get TechShocked :)
>
> Three articles that caught my attention in the last few days :
>
> New digital antenna could revolutionise the future of mobile phones
> 
> Buddha was a data scientist
> 
> Why cost of living is poised to plummet in the next 20 years
>  living-is-poised-to-plummet-in-the-next-20-years/>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Sreejith Sivanandan
> +91 98450 37772
> http://in.linkedin.com/in/sreejith2007
>

Re: [silk] Indian authors in english for 8-10 year olds

[Mahesh Murthy]

Roopa Pai.

On 21-Aug-2016 8:51 AM, "harry"  wrote:

> On 21 August 2016 at 10:16, Arjun Guha  wrote:
>
> > My 11 year old daughter recommends RK Narayan and Deepak Dalal.
> >
>
> Deepak Dalal looks very interesting too, thanks
>

Re: [silk] ISO: powerpoint ninja that can help with a corporate deck

[Mahesh Murthy]

You should try Sumanth Raghavendra and his team at deck.in

Copied here

On 16-Aug-2016 4:03 AM, "Prashant P Kothari"  wrote:

> Does anyone know a powerpoint ninja that can take our current deck(s) and
> tailor it for an American audience?
>
> Ideally a freelancer that is reliable, professional and economical
>
> Thanks
> Prashant
>

Re: [silk] Tom Athanasiou's TedX talk on the climate crisis

[Mahesh Murthy]

Hi Simmi

Your Yahoo address is not verified - whatever that means.

That seems to be setting off Gmail spam filters.

See screenshot attached

On 03-Aug-2016 4:56 PM, "Simmi Sareen"  wrote:

>
>
> On Wednesday, August 3, 2016 11:42 AM, Rajesh Mehar <
> rajeshme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I would like everyone's thoughts on these two links below, and the idea
> that without net energy consumption reduction (through de-industrialization
> and reduction of automation, probably Luddite ideas in a group such as
> Silk) there is no long term benefit from switching to so-called-renewables.
>
> How Sustainable is Solar Power?
>
> http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/04/how-sustainable-is-pv-solar-power.html#more
>
> It's certainly true that a dynamic lifecycle analysis of solar PV carbon
> footprint would look much worse today than it did in 2008. But I believe
> things are set to get better from here. If we look at the two sided
> equation (carbon cost of manufacturing and shipping panels and returns from
> deploying these panels), the first is permanently altered. There is no way
> manufacturing can move away from low cost Taiwanese and Korean players.
> However, deployment patterns will see a massive shift with more than 50% of
> capacity additions from now to 2025 coming from China and India.
> It is also a tad over-simplistic to position solar only as a replacement
> for grid connected thermal power. No matter how fast the capacity addition
> or how low the panel cost, high solar storage costs will ensure that solar
> and conventional power continues to co-exist for a very long time.
> Solar has also proven to be a accretive solution. Take, for instance, the
> 60 million Indian households with no access to electricity. Conventional
> grid is too expensive to build here, micro wind and biogas have both been
> ineffective so  solar micro-grids are the only way these villagers are
> going to get lights, fans and mobile chargers. If a slightly higher carbon
> footprint but a significantly lower cost from Chinese manufacturers makes
> this solution possible, it's a huge benefit.
>
>
>
>

Re: [silk] Intro

[Mahesh Murthy]

Welcome, Simmi!

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 9:41 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian 
wrote:

> Hi Simmi – welcome to silk.
>
> You told Udhay your email isn’t coming through – did you check your spam
> folder?
>
> --srs
>
> On 02/08/16, 7:54 PM, "silklist on behalf of Simmi Sareen"
>  simmi_sar...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Silklisters
> I just got here, and Udhay mentioned it's good form to start with an
> intro so here goes...
> I grew up in small town Punjab, knocked about Delhi, New York and
> London for a bit. Now call Mumbai my home. After 18 years of working up the
> ladder in large companies, I've ditched predictability in favour of first,
> going back to school and now, my new baby - a fintech startup. When not
> dabbling in finance, I am known as Bombay Foodie, also the name of my blog
> where I share some crazy dessert recipes and comment on everything food.
> I've enjoyed falling through the warren holes of Silk list archives
> and truly glad to be part of such interesting discussions :-)
> Simmi
>
>
>
>
>

Re: [silk] On Silk, by Silk

[Mahesh Murthy]

Nice, shrabonti!

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 12:36 PM, Shrabonti Bagchi 
wrote:

> FYI, good people...
>
>
> http://factordaily.com/silk-indias-oldest-mailing-list-history-geek-culture/
>

Re: [silk] NGO that teaches village schools to hunt down missing funds?

[Mahesh Murthy]

I understand HaqDarshak does this
On 15-Jan-2016 3:11 PM, "Ingrid"  wrote:

> On 15 January 2016 at 13:59, Chew Lin Kay  wrote:
>
> > ​Hello everyone,
> >
> > Udhay suggested that I tap the Collective Brain for this--has anyone
> heard
> > of NGOs in India (one? many?) that trains volunteers to a) read the
> > relevant ​federal and state level documents on funding for schools, b)
> > explain said allocations to local schools so that c) schools can go back
> to
> > the authorities to demand for the money that should have been
> forthcoming?
> > I think the programme also involved data collection (e.g. schools saying
> > that they need more flexibility in spending, less specific allocations
> for
> > certain less useful areas etc).
> >
> > Many thanks!
> > Chew Lin
> >
>
> India's Right To Education policy requires that schools be monitored by
> local School Management Committees/Village Education Committees (comprising
> representatives of parents of students, teachers, local authorities among
> others). Many NGOs that work in this area include capacity building of
> these committees as part of their programme design.
>
> A Delhi NGO that focuses entirely on this aspect is Saajha, featured here:
>
> http://forbesindia.com/article/30-under-30/abhishek-choudhary-and-saransh-vaswani-a-class-act/39603/1
>
> Saajha was incubated by Pratham who evaluate school infrastructure and
> facilities as part of their ASER report:
> http://www.pratham.org/templates/pratham/images/rte_indicators_aser2013.pdf
>
> I'm not aware of an organisation that focuses specifically on school
> budgets.
>
> Hope that's useful.
>
> Ingrid
>

Re: [silk] Techfest

[Mahesh Murthy]

I live in Bombay. Happy to help.
On 19-Dec-2015 9:14 AM,  wrote:

> I'm going to be giving keynotes at Techfest this coming week in Mumbai.
> Look
> forward to meeting any of the list members who will be attending. Also
> other
> suggestions for my first visit to Mumbai (or, for that matter, India)?
>
> http://Techfest.org
>
>
> Bob Frankston
> http://Frankston.com
> @BobFrankston
>
>
>
>
>
>

Re: [silk] On the Road

[Mahesh Murthy]

Reminds me of the premise of Stranger in a strange land.

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 8:01 AM, Bruce A. Metcalf 
wrote:

> Udhay Shankar N wrote:
>
> Bruce Metcalf wrote:
>>
>> I'm curious to know how the list feels about the junction of fiction and
>>> history. Your thoughts?
>>>
>>
>> ​There are two kinds of fiction (I know of) that play with this junction,
>> from opposite ends: The Roman à clef​ [1] and the secret history [1].
>> While
>> the former is a fictionalised account of actual events, the latter is more
>> interesting to me, being a fiction presented as reality which was until
>> now
>> hidden from the public.
>>
>
> Not that I disagree with this, but...
>
> I wanted to see how people here felt about the thought that history -- the
> stuff presented as facts -- is more often a fiction assembled from the
> scraps of evidence left by the past, with the gaps and motivations filled
> in by the historian.
>
> Is this the general opinion of what history is and what historians do, or
> were you thinking of something different?
>
> Just curious
>
> Cheers,
> Bruce
>
>

[silk] Beer and bites this Friday in Bombay

[Mahesh Murthy]

Hey folks, I'm turning 50 this weekend.

Given the rise in global warming, onion prices and pollution and my general
disregard for the RSS, Taliban and common decency, I'm told reaching this
far is a feat worth celebrating.

So please join me at Doolally Taproom, Candies Lane, opposite Lilavati
Hospital, Bombay for beer and bites. Friday Sep 11 from 7pm till late.

No gifts please - though if you're feeling generous there will be a couple
of charities around.

Thanks, hope to see you! Sorry for a group invite, but there's no one here
I would not like to have around :-)

Please email my assistant Aarti, copied here if you can make it!

Regards,


Mahesh

Re: [silk] Food spoilage question

[Mahesh Murthy]

Okay Udhay - did you finally eat the damn thing or not?
ᐧ

Re: [silk] Food spoilage question

[Mahesh Murthy]

Sambaar (and not 'sambhar', Udhay) by definition has organic material in
it, and hence significant numbers of bacteria etc.

Leaving this stuff to stew for a month in a cool and
non-hermetically-airtight place is stuff of petri-dish experiment, and I
for one wouldn't subject my stomach to it, even after the cursory re-boil.

Cheers!


ᐧ

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 8:07 PM, Nima Srinivasan nimava...@gmail.com
wrote:

 I guess it depends on what your end goal is and how much of a sambar snob
 you are.

 My mom will claim oosi ponna naatham (the soul wrenching smell of food
 gone bad) within 4 hrs 8 minutes and 23 seconds of it being made.

 In BLR - I'd say that you should be good for a few days. You are pushing it
 with one month - I'm guessing it has gone bad but you're unable to detect
 that smell? (Assuming, but unlikely I'm wrong.) It's unlikely to kill you
 or make you violently sick. So I guess it's a question of how desperate you
 are and how adventurous you feel.

 (I was told I need to introduce myself  - so Hi everyone. I'm Nima and I
 love the font Calibri so much I started a company and made it the official
 font.)

 On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 8:01 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

  So I discovered some sambhar that's been sitting in the fridge for at
 least
  a month. It's been in a closed container and not been taken out of the
  fridge. I am not sure the container is airtight. It doesn't smell rotten.
 
  Opinions on whether it's OK to eat?
 
  Udhay
 
  --
  ((Udhay Shankar N))  ((via phone))
 

Re: [silk] best indian whisky and rum ?

[Mahesh Murthy]

Not sure why the crowd here seems to be against the idea, but I find Sula's
wines as good as any I've had anywhere else.

Re: [silk] best indian whisky and rum ?

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 10:53 AM, harry listmans...@gmail.com wrote:

 On 9 December 2014 at 10:43, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  Not sure why the crowd here seems to be against the idea, but I find
 Sula's
  wines as good as any I've had anywhere else.
 


 They seem to taste OK .. but more than once I have had a terrible headache
 and queasiness in the stomach after drinking Indian wine - there is
 something not natural about their production process.


Having spent time in vineyards in the US, in South West Australia, in
France and in Nasik - I can't say I see any significant difference in their
production process.

Perhaps I've been lucky with no headaches either.

What' the general experience of the group?

Mahesh

Re: [silk] best indian whisky and rum ?

[Mahesh Murthy]

If you have a friend in the Armed Forces who has access to a CSD canteen, I
am told Sulas are available for close to Rs. 100 a bottle.

Quite ridiculously cheap for nice stuff.

On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 If one wanted to purchase said wines in Chennai, where would one find them?
 Not the Wine shops or TASMAC stores, I presume.

 Thaths

 On Tue Dec 09 2014 at 4:28:05 PM Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net
 
 wrote:

  http://indianwinetasting.blogspot.in
 
  Knowledgeable reviews and seems to be that the nasik wines are rather
  better, indage platinum, York, Tiger Hill etc are reasonable alternatives
  to Sula. Especially indage
 
 
  On December 9, 2014 10:53:19 AM harry listmans...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   On 9 December 2014 at 10:43, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.com
  wrote:
  
Not sure why the crowd here seems to be against the idea, but I find
  Sula's
wines as good as any I've had anywhere else.
   
  
  
   They seem to taste OK .. but more than once I have had a terrible
  headache
   and queasiness in the stomach after drinking Indian wine - there is
   something not natural about their production process. Generally with
 good
   wines I don't get a headache :-)
  
   Ashok
 
 
 
 

Re: [silk] Subtitles for movies in Bengaluru theatres

[Mahesh Murthy]

Saw Interstellar with subtitles in Bombay at PVR phoenix yesterday.

The IMAX screen too
On 08-Nov-2014 11:07 am, Bharat Shetty bharat.she...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm wondering if anyone come across any movie theatres playing with
 subtitles ? I'm particularly keen on watching Interstellar with subs.

 A friend pinged me on Twitter regarding this and I was reminded of the
 efforts we both tried to do unsuccessfully a couple of years. Our plan was
 to get data of movie listings from theatres around in Bangalore/Delhi and
 show which movies air with subtitles similar to Captionfish.com (set your
 location to Cupertino, CA to see listings).

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM5UgK5ZXrQ gives an idea how this system
 works.

 We tried to speak with heads of several cinema outlets such as PVR to pilot
 this project in India. But things never worked out. PVR indicated that most
 people in India were averse to watching movies with subs on screens etc. In
 the longer run, we had to drop off the project.

 So if anyone has seen subs in movies in Bengaluru or elsewhere in India
 give me a shout!

 Regards,
 - Bharat

Re: [silk] God, Darwin and College Biology

[Mahesh Murthy]

On 06-Oct-2014 9:00 pm, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 Mahesh Murthy - clearly you are just getting angry because you have
 nothing better to say. Why say anything at all?  You really need to put
 people such as me on your ignore list. I think you really don't know
 much about this list, but then again, times, and people, change.


Hey Shiv, no anger at all :-) Just calling a spade a spade, an act that
often results in pleasure, actually.

Oh, I've been on this list for a decade I think.

So I might know a little about how it supports a little more of rational
discourse and a little less of everything that is not.

Have a nice day :)

Mahesh :)

Re: [silk] God, Darwin and College Biology

[Mahesh Murthy]

Shiv,

Sorry to rain on your parade dude, but, once again, there was no anger at
all.

It was just a straightforward I call b.s. moment. And this isn't the
first time you've got that response from me either :)

I have come across gadflies who inspire and provoke impassioned
discussions, even while they often don't believe in what they say, because
they're just trying to stir the pot a bit and see what happens.

But such is not the case here, not by a long mile.

This wasn't quite troll-bait.

Ta!

Mahesh

Re: [silk] God, Darwin and College Biology

[Mahesh Murthy]

Shiv,

Once again, I'm glad to see your sexist, misogynist, low IQ and completely
bullshit comments on a well-researched piece.

Once again, just because it contrasts with your equally bullshit theories
of Ram Rajya and Ye Olde English Way Of Life:)

Good to have you here, man :-)

M
On 05-Oct-2014 11:03 pm, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sun, 2014-10-05 at 15:59 +0530, Shenoy N wrote:
  FWIW: The problem with deciding to follow one part of religion because
  it
  makes sense and jettisoning another because it doesn't is that the
  follower
  comes up against the very reasonable question - if parts of it are
  silly,
  is it really divine at all? and soon concludes in the negative. That
  leaves
  with only the everything-is-literally-true people whose tribe seems to
  be
  increasing not so much because their numbers are swelling as because
  the
  more rational guys are choosing not to believe in any of it at all.
  And
  politics being what it is, the loonies are always the first to be
  heard.

 Yes. But this is the religionists viewpoint of the uncomfortable
 questions that religion faces.

 How about science? How come no one is asking science uncomfortable
 questions about why science finds it OK to discard morality, or not
 question the discarding of morality without having a clue about why and
 where morality came from. And no. Religion did not bring in morality.
 The very same concepts of morality pre-date the religions and exist
 outside religion.

 For example, look at this article
 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/beyond-marriage.html?_r=0

 The author (an economist, I think, certainly not a biologist of priest)
 starts by saying:

  MARRIAGE is disappearing. More than 40 percent of new mothers are
  unmarried.
 
 
 Later she says:

  Can marriage be restored as the standard way to raise children? As
  much as we might welcome a revival, I doubt that it will happen. The
  genie is out of the bottle.

 This statement brought a contemptuous smile on my face because the woman
 is bluffing. This is a classic example of GIGO by an ignoramus who is
 accustomed to bluffing her way through and does not require to meet the
 standards that a scientist is supposed to reach.

 For anything to be declared as impossible, one must first try and
 understand why something happens and then decide whether it is
 impossible or not. For example - 150 years ago, flying was thought to be
 impossible while people were experimenting with perpetual motion
 machines. Physics teaches us that perpetual motion without the input of
 energy is impossible, but heavier than air objects flying is possible.

 But what about marriage? Why have marriages existed before anyone can
 remember? Why have marriages been known from before many religions? If
 you do not know why marriages were thought necessary in human society
 for over 3000 years of recorded history, how on earth can the concept of
 marriage be simply dismissed? This is no better than alchemists trying
 to make gold from base metals.

 And this is the 21st century?

 shiv

Re: [silk] Financial planning

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 10:46 AM, skn s...@skn.fastmail.fm wrote:

  4. If you do have a little left over, buy some US stocks - I prefer ones
  like Google, Tesla, Twitter, which will do nothing but rise in the next
  10
  years.

 Always been conflicted by buying of individual shares. My reservation
 comes from the fact that unless you are a _very_ savvy investor who has
 tentacles spread in the market, there is no way armchair investors like
 us can know what is going on in advance enough to buy/sell.


I'm not savvy AT ALL but I do believe if I buy 5 or 10 stocks which I
believe should do well in the next 10 years and then not worry about what
happens on a daily basis, then there's enough portfolio diversification to
make the impacts of black swans on any one or two less painful to the
corpus - it's the same as running your own long-term mutual fund.

My reasons for buying index stocks is nothing but the perception that most
funds that enter a market buy stocks in the index in an attempt to beat the
index - so index stocks as a whole will always be well-bought, so they
typically shouldnt have too much of a long-term downside.

Of course, I could be dead wrong. But this has worked well over the last 20
years, for me.


My $0.02,


Mahesh








 -skn-

Re: [silk] Financial planning

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 1:04 PM, Shyam Sunder shyam.sun...@peakalpha.com
wrote:



 Index funds are a great idea ... in the US. A lousy idea in India. ICICI
 Prudential fund recently shared that a 100% of their funds beat the
 benchmark index. Fund managers in India compete with each other, not with
 the index. Beating the Index here is a given. (Why so is a much longer
 discussion.)


Actually not true. Depends on what your benchmark indices are, and in many
cases, these indices are not the Sensex or Nifty. And even if you do beat
these carefully and specially selected ready-to-be-beaten indices, you're
not alone:
http://www.livemint.com/r/LiveMint/Period1/2014/03/08/Photos/w_money-lead2.jpg

More importantly, you need to do it AFTER you cut management fees - and
when you take out that 2% a year compounded, then none of these guys beat
the indices over a sustained period of time.


 Regarding DIRECT mode, as lawyers say, anyone who argues his own case has
 a fool for a lawyer.



Wow. Such hubris. As though managing investments in stocks should be
something left to the professionals :-)

You must say this to Buffet, Pabrai, Jhunjhunwala and others, just to get a
reaction :-)



 There is a substantial difference in performance between the best and the
 worst funds.


This seems to fly in the face of your own logic that one should always buy
a professionally managed fund :-)




 By the same principle, never touch it until retirement is okay if you
 don't have the time, will and skill or don't have access to a good advisor.
 Monitoring and maintaining the quality of your portfolio is essential.


Again, seems to fly in the face of the pay some active professional
investor to manage your money logic :-)


 Sorry folks, for suddenly waking up and bellowing, but this topic I seem
 to have acquired a little knowledge about.



As they say about a little knowledge :-)



 As soon as topics switch back to craft beer on the west coast, I will
 revert to radio silence.

 -Original Message-
 From: silklist [mailto:silklist-bounces+shyam.sunder=
 peakalpha@lists.hserus.net] On Behalf Of Lahar Appaiah
 Sent: 30 September 2014 11:50
 To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 Subject: Re: [silk] Financial planning

 Our own Deepak Shenoy has Indianized this:


 http://capitalmind.in/2013/02/9-point-financial-plan-indian-edition-and-comic-strips/



 On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Aditya Kapil blue...@gmail.com wrote:

  I think, pound-for-pound, Scott Adams's is the best 'averaged-out'
 advice:
 
 
 
 https://retirementplans.vanguard.com/VGApp/pe/PubVgiNews?ArticleName=DilbertGuidetoPersonalFinance
 
  Adit.
 


 
 Powered by BigRock.com

Re: [silk] Financial planning

[Mahesh Murthy]

Some things I follow:

1. Real estate is not an investment - unless you can sell it, or unless the
annual rental yield for it is greater than 10% of the purchase price. The
truth is this, sure, the value of the property you buy to live in, say a 2
bhk can triple in 5 years time. But when it comes time to sell it, all you
can do is to use the money to buy the same thing. i.e. you can't magically
afford a 3 bhk. Unless you move out of town - and keep doing so every 5
years, further and further away. So there is no net increase in standard of
living by buying property.

2. Buying jewelry is an even worse investment than buying property. For the
same and more reasons.

3. Buy a bunch of stocks from the index - BSE / NSE if in India - and not
more than 15 stocks. And forget about it. Buy an index mutual fund, where
the annual management fees are less than 0.5%, through a SIP, if you
continue to have an income in the meanwhile.

4. If you do have a little left over, buy some US stocks - I prefer ones
like Google, Tesla, Twitter, which will do nothing but rise in the next 10
years.

4. Your parents never paid for your college education - it isn't your
responsibility to pay for your kids' college education either. Let the
buggers take a loan, win a scholarship, or find their own way. Your job is
done by the time they're 16 or 17. This, more than ever, teaches them not
to mooch off you, and to be responsible adults, like all of us were.

5. Beyond this, don't save. Spend it on yourself. No savings rate matches
your increase in personal value, if you invest in doing the things you love.

6. Do this and you'll find retirement, or the rest of life, is a cinch.


My $0.02,


Mahesh



On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 9:11 AM, skn s...@skn.fastmail.fm wrote:

 Hi all,

 All this talk about retirement and how closely coupled it is with
 financial freedom got me thinking (more) about financial planning.

 I was wondering how my fellow Silkers (is that how we are collectively
 called?) have been (or have already) preparing for financial
 independence in the later years?  What are the good financial principles
 to live by? Some of the things I have been trying to get my head around
 are about property as an investment, (long term) investing in company
 shares vs. index funds vs. mutual funds, % income to save vs. how much
 to invest vs. how much that can be spent (given I have very young kids)
 etc. etc.

 Any insights, life lessons?

 -skn-

Re: [silk] To retire or not - that is the Q.

[Mahesh Murthy]

Hey Sandhya, thank you for bringing this up. I may have my $0.02 to add,
having tried to retire at 30, then at 32 and now - 17 years after the last
attempt, believe I lead a retired life where I work every day.

It started with me reading one of those James Clavell novels in my teens -
Shogun perhaps?  - where I first came across the concept of F*** You
Money. (Mild digression: I used to write a column in BusinessWorld a
decade ago, and I wrote a couple of pieces about this very thing then:
they're at
http://archives.digitaltoday.in/businesstoday/20030216/columns3.html and a
follow-up at
http://archives.digitaltoday.in/businesstoday/20030316/columns3.html if
you'd like to see how badly I used to write in 2003.)

A couple of interesting things happened: one, while I did calculate and
have the FYM I thought I needed before I decided to do nothing - the point
is that I never ever touched that money, or needed to. It actually served
as some sort of mental talisman. So the thing I realised, at least about
myself, is that FYM is important only when you don't have it. When you have
it, you actually don't ever use it and it makes no difference. It causes
some sort of mind-shift, where you release the ropes from what binds you to
the shore, and you sail away. Which eventually led me to believe you
actually don't need the FYM - you just need to act as though it is there
somewhere, and that makes the difference.

And the second is that - and it took me a while to recognise this - I just
couldn't do nothing. In my time off, I tried my hand at a few things -
learning roku, trading derivatives (something I found I actually was good
at), writing a screenplay and stuff. But I got bored soon - and eventually,
after the first attempt at retirement, took up a job, and after the second
one, took up a consulting assignment. I do think I was able to approach
both with more objectivity as I wasn't dependent on the salaries / fees for
anything critical, so I could shoot my mouth off as I desired without fear
of being fired and take risks I normally wouldn't. Funnily, doing both of
those actually made me better at my work, pushed my career forward - and
what one would think of as career-limiting moves turned out to be quite the
opposite.

Fast-forward to today, I work two or three days a week, usually when I feel
up to it, help run a couple of businesses, do things I never dreamed or
planned of doing, spend time with my kids, travel at random, live as
frugally as I ever did (blame the Tam Brahm upbringing!), enjoy my
singlehood, make time for people and experiences I never could before - and
as a result of all this retirement, actually end up earning more money than
I ever did before by working fewer hours than I ever did before, and have
less use for that money personally than ever before.

So that money tends to go into things that end up making a difference to
others, either through investing as an angel, or simply helping out.
Retirement actually vastly ups one's earning ability, and hence the ability
to make a difference to the planet. :-) Truly odd it is.

We should all retire the minute the day we start working I think :-)



My $0.02,


Mahesh







On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 3:03 PM, Sandhya aka Sandy 
sandhya.varn...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello Folks

 At the brink of yet another huge restructure in my company, I'm beginning
 to tire of it. Just a wee bit. Quite a lot, actually. While I no longer
 look for logic in the actions of a big company, these restructures and
 their ensuing impact are really getting old. And perhaps, so am I. :)

 So I had a long hard look at my financials and by overhauling my world,
 retiring from corporate life is in the realm of possibility. Not retiring
 from productive life - there are a million, zillion things I'd like to do
 and I can probably consult as well.

 What do you think? Those who've been there, done that. Those who're
 considering it and haven't yet taken the plunge. Those with feet planted
 firmly on the ground. And any others in between. Thoughts, advice,
 comments?

 I may be a dreamer but I'm not the only one
 Sandhya

Re: [silk] Anthropology and Sociology

[Mahesh Murthy]

Shiv,

Morality does not stop you from coveting anyone's neighbor's wife.
Occasionally religion might, but as there's nothing called universal
morality, that won't stop you.

So do go ahead, if thats what your primary angst is about :)

:-)
On 09-Sep-2014 9:38 am, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, 2014-09-09 at 08:02 +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
  On 08-Sep-14 10:27 PM, SS wrote:

  Morality is generally not about restriction of rights, except as they
  impact Right. And Wrong. Which are what morality is about - the
  identification of Right and Wrong. Morality can be completely
  individual, or applicable within a context. There is no such thing as
  universal morality. (e.g, perhaps the most often quoted example of a
  universal moral rule is thou shalt not kill - but if were truly
  universal then one wouldn't have the death penalty, for instance.)

 All morality is a restriction of rights. The free born human individual
 technically has the right to do any damn thing he wants, including
 steal, lie and covet his neighbour's wife. Morality restricts these
 rights.

 
   Sci Fi can be taken as one type of literary output from societies where
   science and technology have profoundly influenced the lives of people
 in
   those societies.
 
  In other words, every society in today's world (barring a few outliers
  [1])?
 
 I have not seen much Indian, Chinese or Egyptian SciFi. In fact Indian
 society has barely been touched by science and tech the way say European
 societies have. Oh yes many may have cellphones and TV sets, but
 possession of cargo is not the same thing as being a technologically
 aware society, barring a educated few outliers.

  SF, like other literature, is at the end an exploration of what it means
  to be human (this includes the literature of ideas or gee whiz
  aspects). This is, at this level of abstraction, *exactly* what priests
  and philosophers deal with.

 I would be interested in Sci Fi views on child sex, age of consent,
 marriage, divorce, contraception and abortion

  I'm not really sure what you're saying here - but one comment is that
  that being a sociologist doesn't really bar you from being a SF
  writer, for one thing.

 The problem as I see it is that Sci Fi cannot stand in for sociology and
 vice versa. It is possible to write fiction and pass it off as a
 sociological study - I think it has been done - but that is not the
 point.

 The point is What is a good society? If priests, philosophers and Sci
 Fi writers have ideas - what are sociologists doing? What would be their
 role in defining what is good or bad about societies, given that as a
 group, sociologists are held as being distinct from priests and
 philosophers.

 In fact - who is even looking at what a good future society should look
 like given that no one takes philosophers and priests seriously and Sci
 Fi is, well, Fi.

 shiv

Re: [silk] Anthropology and Sociology

[Mahesh Murthy]

I would imagine you can covet whatever you like. Its your right to have any
desire. Freedom of thought.

Acting on that covetousness is a compact between you and the coveted
person, at the very least. But freedom of thought doesn't naturally turn
into freedom of deed. Sometimes, with consenting adults, it can. Sometimes,
based on non-moral reasons, it doesn't.


On 9 Sep 2014 10:15, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, 2014-09-09 at 09:43 +0530, Mahesh Murthy wrote:
 
  Morality does not stop you from coveting anyone's neighbor's wife.
  Occasionally religion might, but as there's nothing called universal
  morality, that won't stop you.
 
 
 But would coveting your neighbour's wife be a right? It would have to be
 if that is what someone wanted and there was no restriction.

 That restriction is called by the general term morality. There is
 nothing in between - there is no no man's land (pun unintended)
 between rights and morality

 shiv

Re: [silk] A woman's reaction to England's world cup knock-out

[Mahesh Murthy]

98% of the statistics quoted online are false

Including this :-)
On 01-Jul-2014 2:54 pm, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 2:49 PM, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbISE9IM5Sk


 ​There is no explanation of how that statistic, 38% rise in domestic
 violence...women being knocked about as a direct result of England being
 knocked out, was arrived at. ​

 I am getting warier and warier of internet statistics and datathe net
 seems to be our modern equivalent of the vedas...ask not any question, but
 accept unhesitatingly...

 Deepa.

Re: [silk] What You Learn in Your 40s

[Mahesh Murthy]

Upon prodding by Udhay, here's a few things I can put together. These are
entirely driven by my personal experience. YMMV.

I'm 48, and have been working since I was 17. Here's what I tell my friends
and my eldest child, a boy of 16:

1. Marriage is obsolete. At least the sort of marriage favoured by many,
involving mutual fidelity, a public ceremony involving parents and
registrars, living together in closeness, parenting children, walking into
the sunset hand in hand etc. All of these things may indeed happen and
should happen if it comes naturally, but marriage is neither necessary nor
sufficient nor indicated as a condition for any of these. One must resist
urges by concerned parents and relatives to get married, there is very
little net positive from that ceremony and what follows that I can sense,
with the potential exception of inheritance rights - which is easily
solvable anyway with one line in your will. One must, however love with
abandon, and experience the highs and lows of life with those that you love
by your side. It's something else altogether.

2. Having children is awesome. I have three. The oldest is a
wise-beyond-his-years 16. The youngest just turned one. It is something
else to lie at floor level and see the ground as a crawling baby sees it,
and a joy to see how a 3-year old begins to form words around thoughts that
are more complex than the words he knows to express them in. I was too
young to appreciate them when I first became a dad at 32. I cherish it more
now.

3. Focus is over-rated, especially in all matters regarding career.
Well-meaning folks advise you to super-specialise. I think I've done well
by, inadvertently though, super-generalising. Having a shallow, superficial
and simultaneous knowledge of programming language structures, discounted
cash flow calculations, copywriting, travel hacks, subwoofer dynamics, IPO
mechanics, company law, the lyrics of Roger Waters, bhut jokokia and access
to influential friends across music, movies, startups, art and business
communities have all helped me add a lot of value to people and companies I
work with. Typically one starts with a broad liberal arts background and
then successively specialises. I think the opposite approach is just as, if
not more useful in life.

4. You can have enough money. You can't have enough time. My desire for
more personal wealth started tapering off a while ago - and I've since
sought out increasing swathes of time - not just in a few weeks more of
vacation - but a few hours more in every day for daily vacations.

5. Delegate, delegate, delegate. As a corollary, you can't get these
swathes of time till you hand over day-to-day responsibility for things to
others who will start off worse than you, but if you've picked them well,
will end up executing better than you.

6. Keep a cash runway. I've gone through minor hell when I ended up
dead-ass broke several times in the last 30 years by taking everything I've
earned on a bet and then betting it on something else. Now I've socked away
enough for a subsistence income if needed, and access to cash if needed.
It's very freeing. Especially to bet the rest on the next big thing.

7. All forecasts are lies. Being involved somewhat with a few dozen
companies, I can tell you all forecasts of revenues and margins are lies. I
can't imagine how public companies give guidance every quarter, unless
they're sand-bagging and fibbing and 'adjusting' big time.

8. I don't know if I can retire. Really.


My $0.02


Mahesh

6.


On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 12:07 PM, Din esh dinesh.mad...@gmail.com wrote:

 And I learnt that chocolate spread is the result of an unholy nexus between
 capitalism and my children to get them to eat chocolate for breakfast. Just
 now. a moment back. When my 6 yr old asked for another slice of toast
 expanding his stomach size by 2.

 Am only trying to live no. 6 in Thaths mail, if you found my learning too
 silly for your liking.

 I am a lurker, but have empathised with this chain so much its brought
 tears to my eyes. And I am not 40 yet (that doesn't tell you much I know).
 Thanks everyone.

 Dinesh


 On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 7:15 AM, Sudhakar Chandra tha...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  What I've learned so far in my 40's:
 
  1. This too shall pass.
 
  2. Underneath our egos, fashion, persona, achievements, ideas and goals
 we
  are all wet, naked, shivering, starving babies wanting to be hugged.
 
  3. Don't believe every thought you have.
 
  4. When seen from the frame of reference of the heat death of the
 universe,
  almost everything is less serious than your mind makes it out to be.
 
  5. It is almost universally better to have a nice walk than to argue with
  somebody who disagrees with you on the internet.
 
  6. The past is over. The future has not arrived yet. All you have is
 this.
  very. moment. Try and live in it as much as you can.
 
  Thaths
 
  On Wed May 21 2014 at 3:00:46 PM, Danese Cooper dan...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
   

Re: [silk] What You Learn in Your 40s

[Mahesh Murthy]

Oh I forgot. Contrary to some opinions here:

I now sleep only 5 or 6 hours a day. Less than I ever did before. And it
seems fine.


On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.comwrote:

 On May 19, 2014 4:50 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

  - 8 hours of sleep is not just one of life's great pleasures, it's a
  necessity for which I am willing to give up job offers, and many other
  things.
 
  - The only true evil is boredom.

 Human needs are merely two, physical and psychological. The purpose of
 life is to _provide_ for the former and _eliminate_ the latter.

 Physical needs are sleep, food, water, shelter from the elements and
 so on. This was largely solved a few centuries ago - people have since
 had the choice to live healthy. This is the fruit of civilization. In
 fact, this is the only reason for civilization.

 Psychological needs are everything else. Growing our psychological
 needs makes us perennially hungry, we yearn for filling that empty
 space within without knowing how.

 Civilization is supposed to help us eliminate such needs. Yet does it?
 Civilization as it exists today is a travesty because it does the
 opposite.

 Not only does it grow our psychological needs immeasurably
 (loneliness, boredom, addictions, ambition, greed, and nonsense
 afflictions like road rage abound), it is undermining its raison d'
 être by preventing the satisfaction of physical needs like sleep,
 shelter, clean water and air.

 Reject such a civilization that makes a person homeless, that chokes
 the third world, that renders the poor obese, that starves the
 beautiful, that sleep deprives the brightest, and enrages the tired.
 Humans don't need thinner TVs, faster broadband and mars rockets at
 the expense of being human, they need to be free.

 Do not tolerate sleep depravation, it cuts at the meaning of existence.

 Do not tolerate boredom, cure it. It is a craving like any addiction.
 Don't strengthen it with  distraction and activity. Cure it with
 mindful abiding.

 Living in the present moment, and an active observation of the self
 will cure every psychological affliction. Be aware of your body and
 mind. Meditate.

Re: [silk] Why Hindutva is Like Dog Breeding

[Mahesh Murthy]

One would imagine mentions such as this would immediately disqualify the
mentioner from said membership :)
On 01-Feb-2014 6:42 pm, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 6:27 PM, Lahar Appaiah thew...@gmail.com wrote:

  (Mensa member)

 Oh, you poor thing.

 g,d,r

Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?

[Mahesh Murthy]

As a sideways punt on the topic, has anyone noticed how quickly Google Play
Books has become a real contender to Kindle?

Books here are almost always cheaper (often 50% or more) than on Amazon
Kindle, and the Google magazine newsstand has begun to rock.

Have spent more money there in the last couple of months than on Kindle.
On 05-Jan-2014 11:22 pm, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On 06-Jan-14 8:45 AM, SS wrote:

  I find the Kindle/iPad format singularly useless for me. They are
  neither here nor there, and the books I want are unavailable. They
  cannot be accommodated in my pocket, which necessarily must carry keys,
  wallet, glasses and pen.  Incidentally I have used my last two smart
  phones to read about 10,000 pages in books. I am comfortable with the
  small screen and a good smart phone does everything I need apart from
  allowing me to type comfortably, for which I need only one larger
  device, with no need to squeeze in a third in between, neither this nor
  that format.

 In my case, I resisted getting this device for many years. But here are
 the things that finally convinced me to get one:

 1. As you mentioned, font size flexibility.
 2. Portability of large book collections.
 3. It is, like a real book, a single-function object. The primary
 problem (for me) with reading things on a computer screen is that I am
 unable to single-task, and end up with 47 open windows and a fractured
 attention span that does not lend itself to immersion.

 To be clear: I am not, by any means, giving up on actual paper books.
 But this seems to be a useful additional option.

 Udhay
 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?

[Mahesh Murthy]

I stated on the Kindle but then found much lower prices on Google Play
Newsstand - and magazines too in full living color.

I've subscribed to several magazines on there of late - and have begun
enjoying being notified if new issues being automatically downloaded.
On 29-Dec-2013 9:37 pm, Ingrid ingrid.srin...@gmail.com wrote:

 On 30 December 2013 10:39, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

  So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the
  device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently
  booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3
  books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months.
 
  So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means
  of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]?
 
  Udhay
 
  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf
 
  --
  ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
 

 The only significant impact of e-books on my reading has been a lighter
 load while travelling. I still prefer dead-tree versions wherever possible.

 Ingrid Srinath
 @ingridsrinath

Re: [silk] Fwd: Wine tasting is bullshit. Here's why.

[Mahesh Murthy]

Its all chaff.

That's what makes it all wheat :)
On 18-Dec-2013 6:24 pm, Venkatesh Hariharan ven...@gmail.com wrote:

 On similar lines, I have been looking at abstract art and wondering
 how one separates the wheat from the chaff?

 Venky

Re: [silk] Myanmar siklisters/advice?

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 9:51 PM, Charles Haynes hay...@edgeplay.org wrote:



 Alternatively, are there any silklisters about things to see or do while in
 Myanmar? Our basic plan is to land in Yangon, spend a very small amount of
 time there, then make our way overland to the Inle Lake area and then to
 Bagan. Am hoping to take the slow train for some of the journey, and
 busses and boats for other parts.


 I did pretty much the same thing. Got a visa in Bangkok. Spent a day or so
in Yangon - and chunks of time in Bagan and on Lake Inle.

Stayed in a bb in Bagan - and hired a car / driver for that stay. There's
simply no other way to get to see everything that's there. There are
thousands of temples. And darn it if all of them actually seem worth
stopping at to see and take pictures.

Stayed on the water in a stilt-room at Lake Inle. Hired a boat, spent lots
of time on the water going to temples and markets.

You get sunburnt easily in both places. As Vonnegut apparently said, take
sunscreen.

And yes, it's a load of fun.

Re: [silk] Valerie Wagoner: Tapping the missed-call trade

[Mahesh Murthy]

On 20 Aug 2013 15:21, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

Unfortunately, that gets trumped by my
 firm belief that the entire editorial staff of Mint should be on Silk.

Not Suku the editor surely :)

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

[Mahesh Murthy]

I quite like LifeHacker. A little less for the GTD-type info and lot more
for the smarter way to hack / use tech stuff.


On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:51 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 I cannot remember seeing this thread in Silk when it first happened.

 I stumbled upon this corpse when I was searching for something else.

 That said, I had a followup question.


 On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Kiran K Karthikeyan 
 kiran.karthike...@gmail.com wrote:

  Can't remember why, but somewhere in between the half intoxicated
  banter, the conversation shifted to self-improvement books a la
  Stephen Covey and his ilk.
 
  I typically stay away from them with the same amount of revulsion some
  feminists have for balemia-inducing fashion magazines. Since I've not
  read any of them, I may not be the best judge - but a title like
  Seven habits of highly effective people is enough to make me turn
  away. Neither am I interested in people of a spiritual disposition who
  sell their Ferrari.
 

 What do Silk listers think about blogs like Life hacker or a GTD-focused
 tip-sharing mailing list? Is they in the same genre? Or a different one?

 S.
 --
 Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
 Carl:  Nuthin'.
 Homer: D'oh!
 Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
 Homer: Woo-hoo!

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 9:23 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 7:27 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

  On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:51 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:
   What do Silk listers think about blogs like Life hacker or a
 GTD-focused
   tip-sharing mailing list? Is they in the same genre? Or a different
 one?
  IMO, blogs like lifehacker are task-focused rather than trying to improve
  the reader.


 Isn't improving one's life just a collection of individual life hacks? How
 is a Carnegian tip about winning friends different from a life hack?

 I guess self actualization is one of those irregular verbs: I am hacking my
 life, you are optimizing yours, he trying to self-help his way through his.


Sure Thaths. Perhaps I'm just more receptive to the tech-tip kinda hacks
than the re-imagine-your-kundalini type of hacks.

To each his/her own. :-)

Re: [silk] In Mumbai

[Mahesh Murthy]

Do tell me if you guys fix a place and time. Would be happy to join and
partake.


On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Ingrid ingrid.srin...@gmail.com wrote:

 How about Mahesh Lunch Home at Juhu? I'm craving some Butter-Pepper-Garlic
 Crab.

 Ingrid Srinath
 @ingridsrinath



 On 28 May 2013 06:49, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

  On 27 May 2013 10:41, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.com wrote:
  
   In, depending on which day gets frozen. I should know by tomorrow which
   days are out.
 
  How does Wednesday night sound? And where would be a good place to meet?
 
  -- b
 

Re: [silk] In Mumbai

[Mahesh Murthy]

When he was much younger, my son Agni used to call the place Daddy's
Restaurant.

But the butter pepper garlic prawns do it for me, more than the crab.


On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 I found it amusing that Mahesh surfaced only when this particular eatery
 was being discussed. :)

 On 28-May-13 10:12 AM, Mahesh Murthy wrote:
  Do tell me if you guys fix a place and time. Would be happy to join and
  partake.
 
 
  On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Ingrid ingrid.srin...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  How about Mahesh Lunch Home at Juhu? I'm craving some
 Butter-Pepper-Garlic
  Crab.

Re: [silk] A book for fussy foodistas

[Mahesh Murthy]

On 15 May 2013 10:46, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:

 The gourmands on the list (I'm thinking Charles and Gautam chiefly,
 but also several others) will probably be interested in Steven Poole's
 new book, You aren't what you eat (2012)
 http://stevenpoole.net/you-arent-what-you-eat/

 Guardian's review:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/21/what-eat-steven-poole-review

 quote
 The chef Anthony Bourdain writes of the chef Thomas Keller: You
 haven't seen how he handles fish, gently laying it down on the board
 and caressing it, approaching it warily, respectfully, as if
 communicating with an old friend. The old friend, should we not have
 noticed, is dead. Are we to suppose that Keller is a medium? Or is he
 a necrophiliac fish-fiddler, a Jimmy Savile of the deep?
 /

 The blurb:

 Why is everyone so obsessed with food? How did chefs come to be the
 gurus of the age? And what’s with serving chips in a beaker and
 slivers of vegetable on hot stones? This polemic against “foodies” and
 their oral fixation pits Jamie Oliver against Jacques Derrida, and
 sees the author eating a nitro-frozen bolus of olive oil, marvelling
 at food fashion, and descending into the ninth circle of foodist hell
 at MasterChef Live.


 Interview: (53 mins)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1DcoLxQpY

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

[Mahesh Murthy]

I can see the MRTS evoking some Marxist / North Korean poetry.


On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:02 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan
 chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:
  Much as I like the marundeeswarar and much as I don't like the MRTS
  station, your comparison doesn't hold true. Temple poetry is more about
  exaggeration of the attributes of the diety and less of architectural
  critique.


 I can see poetry in imagining a time when this place was covered with
 forest, and the imprint of man was vanishingly small - and out of it
 arose a tower like no other, made brilliant by lines of oil lamps -
 built with muscle and sinew - a paean to faith - towering over the
 trees of the forest and adding its brass timbre to the chorus of the
 birds. Man's voice as a challenge to nature.

 The MRTS evokes only the poetic character of yesterday's putrefying vomit.

Re: [silk] great piece on Bal Thackeray after all the other crap that's out there

[Mahesh Murthy]

it is true, actually.

was a shiv sena effort to discredit the story that, well was discredited
itself


On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Vinayak Hegde vinay...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 2:36 PM, Venkatesh Hariharan ven...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 2:21 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com
  wrote:
 
 
 
 http://m.economictimes.com/news/politics/nation/two-persons-arrested-for-facebook-post-on-mumbai-shutdown-after-bal-thackerays-death/articleshow/17277705.cms
 
  Is a disturbing trend in India.
 
  This is a serious misuse of the IT Act Rules. A different news report
 (link
  below) added that some 2000 Sena workers vandalized a clinic belonging to
  the uncle of the girl who made this FB post. I am sure that the police
 have
  taken absolutely no action against the Sena folks.
 
  The operating principle here seems to be that Might is right. The girl
 who
  was arrested has no freedom of expression, but the people who ransacked
 her
  uncle's clinics have the freedom to get away with murder. Different
 freedoms
  for different folks.
 
 
 http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/2012111920121119043152921e12f57e1/In-Palghar-cops-book-21yearold-for-FB-post.html
 
  The duo were booked under Section 295 (a) of the IPC (for hurting
 religious
  sentiments) and Section 64 (a) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
  Though the girl withdrew her comment and apologised, a mob of some 2,000
  Shiv Sena workers attacked and ransacked her uncle’s orthopaedic clinic
 at
  Palghar.

 This is not true. See
 https://twitter.com/mloclam/status/270416960175607808

 The Internet is a giant echo chamber. I am outraged at the outrage :)

 FYI Mumbai Mirror is a tabloid. I view everything by TOI as suspect.
 TOI is an advertising company - http://nyr.kr/QfIeqW


 -- Vinayak

Re: [silk] bih jolokia is bhut jolokia, right?

[Mahesh Murthy]

  Wikipedia and other pages say that they are the same thing. Caveat: I
  have not personally heard anybody of Assamese origin use the term bih
  jolokia. Anyone?

 Probably a variant/form of the word for poison



I'd expect  Bih comes from Bihu.

Re: [silk] How the Woosters captured Delhi

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Sun, Jun 3, 2012 at 12:08 PM, thew...@gmail.com wrote:

 **
 Dragging this back to the original thread- how widely read is PGW today?
 Does he still attract fresh batches of public school readers, or is his
 appeal limited to those who started reading him in the 90s or before and
 have fond memories of Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world?


My son has several stories by PGW as part of his IGCSE English Litt
syllabus in Grade 9 and 10.

And adores him too, as a result.

Re: [silk] 500 mile emails, redux

[Mahesh Murthy]

 Here's a silklist-worthy project - let us crowdsource a word that will
 describe this kind of story. Suggestions?

 LocaMotion

Re: [silk] Help!--linguistic brain-tapping needed, please

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 9:48 AM, ss cybers...@gmail.com wrote:



 There are north Indian dialects that pass for Hindi such as Bhojpuri that
 were
 mixed with Persian with the Islamic invasions. This mix of Persian and
 Hindustani languages resulted in a hotch-potch called modern Hindi. I
 think
 Muslims spoke the same thing and merely called it Urdu. Perhaps there was
 more
 Persian in Urdu.


Bollocks.

Can't even bother reading the rest. The rest must be even more
misinformed Hindu revisionist crap.

:-)

Re: [silk] Help!--linguistic brain-tapping needed, please

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Thejaswi Udupa thejaswi.ud...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:24 AM, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.comwrote:

 Hello!

 So I was reading an essay about Indian food, when they mentioned the
 adoption of Sanskritized Hindi. Can someone explain what that is? I thought
 Hindi draws roots from Sanskrit, but this seems to be more complicated than
 that. Will offer thanks for now, and drinks when we find each other in the
 same neighbourhood.


 In brief, that phrase is used to separate it from Urdu.


To be more accurate, it is to separate Hindi from Hindustani, which in
itself is Hindi-mixed-with-Urdu. (Also, Mumbaiyya Hindi, the language of a
lot of Bollywood, is a even more street-ified version of Hindustani.)

Hindustani (written in Devnagari script, as opposed to Urdu's right-to-left
script) is the lingua franca of large swathes of northern and south-central
India.

Sanskritized Hindi removes the common-manspeak Hindustani references from
Hindi. Makes it pure so to speak. But pure what nobody knows, as Hindi
itself is an amalgam derived from Sanskrit and other languages.

Not that it will go far, regardlesss of the BJP's and VHP's idiotic
attempts to push it along.

My $0.02,

Mahesh

Re: [silk] Help!--linguistic brain-tapping needed, please

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Thejaswi Udupa thejaswi.ud...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:24 AM, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.comwrote:

 Hello!

 So I was reading an essay about Indian food, when they mentioned the
 adoption of Sanskritized Hindi. Can someone explain what that is? I thought
 Hindi draws roots from Sanskrit, but this seems to be more complicated than
 that. Will offer thanks for now, and drinks when we find each other in the
 same neighbourhood.


 In brief, that phrase is used to separate it from Urdu.


To be more accurate, it is to separate Hindi from Hindustani, which in
itself is Hindi-mixed-with-Urdu. (Also, Mumbaiyya Hindi, the language of a
lot of Bollywood is a even more street-ified version of Hindustani.)

Hindustani (written in Devnagari script, as opposed to Urdu's right-to-left
script) is the lingua franca of large swathes of northern and south-central
India.

Sanskritized Hindi removes the common-manspeak Urdu or Hindustani
references from Hindi. Makes it pure so to speak.

Not that it will go far, regardlesss of the BJP's and VHP's idiotic
attempts to push it along.

[silk] Fwd: Justice

[Mahesh Murthy]

I'm not based in Bangalore, and haven't heard of this.

Have any of you?

Is this legit?

-- Forwarded message --
From: Dr. L Rajesh m...@change.org
Date: Wed, May 2, 2012 at 1:35 PM
Subject: Justice
To: mahesh.mur...@gmail.com


* Help Our Son Get Justice
http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-justice-for-richard-justice4richard?utm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW
*
http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-justice-for-richard-justice4richard?utm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW
Email the Commissioner
http://www.change.org/petitions/bring-justice-for-richard-justice4richard?utm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW

Mahesh -

*Our son didn’t deserve to die*. Richard was just 19 years old and studying
at Archarya NRV School of Architecture in Bangalore (India). On the night
of April 17th, *his head was smashed by two students* from his hostel.

What makes his death so much harder is knowing that we were only informed
by the college authority about our son's death the next day at 3.30 pm and
the accused Vishal Banerjee (1st year B. Arch student) and Syed Afzal Ali
(1st year MBA student), who brutally killed him are still not arrested.

But we hope for justice. We have started a petition asking the Police
Commissioner of Bangalore, B. Jyoti Mirji to arrest the accused and file
charges against
themhttp://www.change.org/petitions/bring-justice-for-richard-justice4richard?utm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW
.

Witnesses have revealed that Syed Afzal Ali repeatedly hit Richard’s head
and face. The photographic images and preliminary post-mortem report also
support this. However, the college authorities are trying to cover up by
linking our son's death to a minor accident he had a few days before and
drug abuse which is clearly an attempt to defame our loving son.

The support that everyone has shown by organizing protests gives us
strength to stand our ground.

CNN-IBN and other news agencies have already reported on the issue, but *we
need to put more pressure on the Police
Commissionerhttp://www.change.org/petitions/bring-justice-for-richard-justice4richard?utm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW
* to arrest the accused and put them on trial.

Even though the accused have been booked for murder, they havent been
arrested yet. Two weeks have passed, and we are still demanding a fair and
transparent investigation.

Please help us in getting justice for our son,
Richardhttp://www.change.org/petitions/bring-justice-for-richard-justice4richard?utm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW-
we will be very grateful for your support.

Thank you,
Dr. L Rajesh (Loitam Richard's father)
Dr. RK Vidyabali Devi (Loitam Richard's mother)

This email was sent by Change.org to mahesh.mur...@gmail.com   |   Start a
petitionhttp://www.change.org/start-a-petition?source=footerutm_source=action_alertutm_medium=emailme=aautm_campaign=RxPtjNmDLpalert_id=RxPtjNmDLp_VNfjtEoiXW
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Re: [silk] English expressions that irritate me

[Mahesh Murthy]

 When I was a kid, gay meant carelessly happy. I cannot tell my 7 year old
 what it means now. Rather, I don't know how to.


See, sometimes one uncle loves another uncle. Sometimes, aunties love
other aunties too. This is perfectly normal, kiddo.

Re: [silk] The Bhansali Stork

[Mahesh Murthy]

 Sharing some interesting news based on the SilkMeet from the 13th.
 For people who were there and wondering why Surabhi disappeared halfway
 through the evening ... She had just gone into labour!



Wow.

I wuz there!

Re: [silk] The Bhansali Stork

[Mahesh Murthy]

 So thanks SilkList for having this meet at our place and literally
 kickstarting our baby's birth!


Congratulations to you and Surabhi!

By any chance, will you be calling him Resham ? :-)

Re: [silk] Sociolinguistic query

[Mahesh Murthy]

Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote:

 well, the hindi 'chutiya' is also used more in the sense of idiot rather
than fucker ..

'Chutiya' apparently derives from 'chut diya' i.e. 'asshole giver'.

So it's probably more about being a 'fucked one' than being a 'fucker'.

Forgive my French.

:)

Re: [silk] Sociolinguistic query

[Mahesh Murthy]

On a lateral note, what's the worst / most effective invective you've ever
heard delivered?

My submission in this category was this gem in Punjabi which went something
like Teri maa di pair di vich khatiya bichchaoon, us pe teri behen chodoon

Roughly translated, for the non-Punjabi adept among us, it goes I'll shove
a cot between your mother's legs, and on it fuck your sister.

The unfortunate recipient of this rant was rendered completely speechless,
unable to come up with a suitable retort. While the rest of us onlookers
were quite literally on the floor laughing.

Indelible impression, that was.

Re: [silk] Introduction

[Mahesh Murthy]

I can do 13th not 14th
On Apr 8, 2012 9:20 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote:

 welcome. btw in case like lahar, people prefer a weekday we might try
 friday the 13th as well

 none of y'all turn up wearing goalie masks, please ..

 --srs (iPad)

 On 08-Apr-2012, at 8:51, Deepa Agashe daga...@gmail.com wrote:

  Hello all,
 
  I am Deepa Agashe, evolutionary biologist/ecologist, and I just moved to
 Bangalore. I've been lurking on the list for a BIT (well, I looked up the
 first email from Udhay and it turns out that I've been here since April
 2011).
 
  So, a full year after there was talk of moving to Bangalore, I'm finally
 here and somewhat settled. I've loved the list conversations I've managed
 to follow so far, and I look forward to more!
 
  Oh, and I will raise my hand to the April 14 silkmeet.
 
  Deepa
 
 
 

Re: [silk] Bangalore silkmeet 13 Apr?

[Mahesh Murthy]

 So now we have

 Deepa A
 Sruthi
 Mahesh
 Naresh
 Udhay

 Who else?



Just tell me where and when - shall land up :-)

Re: [silk] Anyone who works 40-hour weeks?

[Mahesh Murthy]

I've cut down to working 4 days a week.



On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 7:31 PM, Sruthi Krishnan srukr...@gmail.com wrote:

 http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/bring_back_the_40_hour_work_week/singleton/

 Fun piece.

 The rapacious new corporate ethic was summarized by two phrases:
 “churn ‘em and burn ‘em” (a term that described Microsoft’s habit of
 hiring young programmers fresh out of school and working them 70 hours
 a week until they dropped, and then firing them and hiring more)

 Reminded me of the manager I encountered fresh out of college who
 sincerely believed that staying at the workplace from 8 am to 10 pm is
 a minimum requirement to build character. And as far as I know, IT
 firms continue to live by this ethic. Are there any exceptions out
 there?

 Sruthi

[silk] Extraordinary piece on Narendra Modi in The Caravan

[Mahesh Murthy]

Do read:

http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story.aspx?StoryId=1315

Re: [silk] Introduction

[Mahesh Murthy]

 I write at http://capitalmind.in about money and markets, and I tweet
 at @deepakshenoy.

 Have heard a lot of good things about Silk and I hope I can contribute!

 Cheers,
 Deepak


Welcome to the madhouse, Deepak!

:-)

Re: [silk] Airtel 3G

[Mahesh Murthy]

I have 3G on Airtel on my Galaxy Note.

No problems.

Other than that the battery life of the damn thing goes down from ~30 hours
on 2G+ Wi Fi to about 16 hrs on 3G + Wi fi.



On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 12:16 PM, Ramakrishnan Sundaram r.sunda...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 **
 In Gurgaon, coverage was about 80% over 6 months, and call drops about 9%.
 And this is largely at home.

 Airtel's by no means great, but after 4 months in Goa, I'm missing them.
 Idea has no clue and overcharges, BSNL no network.

 Ram
 Sent from my BlackBerry
 --
 *From: * Aditya Kapil blue...@gmail.com
 *Sender: * silklist-bounces+r.sundaram=gmail@lists.hserus.net
 *Date: *Mon, 6 Feb 2012 12:00:08 +0530
 *To: *silklist@lists.hserus.net
 *ReplyTo: * silklist@lists.hserus.net
 *Subject: *[silk] Airtel 3G

 Folks,
 I want to shift to 3G on my Galaxy Note. How has the 3G experience been,
 on this forum? I've had mixed views from my colleagues at work. Some say
 that the speed isn't remarkably better; others say that they experience
 call-drops more frequently. Given that we all have wi-fi now at office and
 home, is it really worth shifting. Can't change from Airtel due to company
 wide discounted plans etc.
 Thanks, Adit.

[silk] Teaching creationism, scientology etc as alternatives to evolution made compulsory in Indiana.

[Mahesh Murthy]

It seems the US state of Indiana just made teaching creationism /
scientology etc as an alternative to Darwin's evolution compulsory. Wow. Maybe
our kids in India aren't that badly off - and this could be a small
advantage in their futures - not going out into the world with addled minds.
http://ncse.com/news/2012/01/indiana-creationism-bill-passes-senate-007182

[silk] The souring of the Dubai dream.

[Mahesh Murthy]

Somewhat chilling article on Dubai in The Independent.

Comments? First-hand experience?

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Re: [silk] Immigration contacts, anyone?

[Mahesh Murthy]

These things  - at least in Bombay - are best directly handled at the FRRO.

In some cases, a bribe has proved handy.

In no case has a lawyer proved handy.



On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 5:58 PM, Nishant Shah itsnish...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi All,
 I have 2 friends from Taiwan who are right now in India, studying for
 their Ph.D. and seem to be in some sort of a soup with the immigration
 authorities. So here is a quick recap of events:
 1. The students registered with an autonomous research centre for their
 Ph.D. course work. This is not a state-recognised centre but the
 qualification from the coursework results in a University registration.
 However, during their course work, they could not come in as students so
 they took a tourist visa and completed their qualifications.
 2. Last month, they also resigstered at the University as bona fide
 students and now have all their documentation in hand. In the completion of
 the course work and the registration at the University, they had to leave
 India once and then come back into the country. When they came back the
 second time, they did not register with the FRRO because they thought they
 had already done it once - their bad - and went about their way to getting
 everything else in place to apply for a student visa.
 3. Their current visa expires on Thursday and there is still some lethargy
 from the FRRO to convert their visa. Additionally, they are told that
 because they didn't register the second time they came into the country,
 they cannot leave because they don't have a 'residence permit' which the
 immigration authorities at the Indian airport will need in order for them
 to leave. At the same time, there seems to be no indication from the FRRO
 about when they will get their visa extension and if they will get it. So
 they are now scared of becoming illegal residents once their visa expires
 on Thursday, and they can no longer legally stay in India, but also,
 apparently can't leave the country.

 So to sort out this complicated thing, we need help. If you know a
 competent immigration lawyer who will be able to sort this out (for not too
 hefty a fee, please, they are both students who are funding their entire
 education already) or contacts within the FRRO in Bangalore, it would be
 hugely useful.

 Otherwise, if you have any tips on what should be done (we are going to
 call the consulate first thing tomorrow morning, hopefully it will be open
 despite Muharram), do please write in to me. This is the time for all
 (wo)men to come to the aid of the party.

 Thanks a bunch
 Nishant

 --
 Nishant Shah
 Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society,( www.cis-india.org )
 Asia Awards Fellow, 2008-09
 # 00-91-9740074884
 http://www.facebook.com/nishant.shah
 http://cis-india.academia.edu/NishantShah

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2011

[Mahesh Murthy]

 The Tales Of The Otori series by Lian Hearn

Re: [silk] Query on Indian-made wines

[Mahesh Murthy]

Loads.

Ignore the wine snobs here :)
On Nov 10, 2011 10:35 AM, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.com wrote:

 Is there anything from Indian vineyards worth drinking, then?

 On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 12:09 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian 
 sur...@hserus.net wrote:

 Chew Lin Kay [10/11/11 11:28 +0800]:

  Well it was going for cheap, and the chap said to drink it soon...


 drink it AFTER you have a sizeable load of other stuff inside then the
 taste wont matter :)

 Else - as charles said, drain cleaner.

Re: [silk] an-NRI again

[Mahesh Murthy]

  My reading is that he meant
 that: in a given context, the majority of humanity is, _by definition_,
 average or below - using whatever metric you care to.


By the same bell-curve reading, in any given context, the majority of
humanity is, _by definition_, also average or above average - using whatever
metric you care to.

Re: [silk] an-NRI again

[Mahesh Murthy]

  By the same bell-curve reading, in any given context, the majority of
  humanity is, _by definition_, also average or above average - using
  whatever metric you care to.

 Sure. So?


So both the arguments: we're all mediocre / we're all superior are right.

Yet irrelevant to the meta-criticism of the Non-Returning-Indian piece.

Re: [silk] My Airtel Saga

[Mahesh Murthy]

 I am at my final point, before i talk to lawyers to file a case in consumer
 court. Silk listers, what would you suggest?



If you're OK with it, can I have someone from Airtel call you back on this?

If you can share an account number / phone number on email that would help.

Cheers


Mahesh

Re: [silk] My Airtel Saga

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 9:33 PM, Kiran Jonnalagadda j...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 6:44 PM, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.comwrote:

 If you're OK with it, can I have someone from Airtel call you back on
 this?

 If you can share an account number / phone number on email that would
 help.


 If you can pull strings in Airtel, Mahesh, I'd like to talk to a real
 Airtel employee too.


Will try, Kiran.

Can you email me a contact number and some account identifier that I can
pass on to them?

Regards,

(BTW, it's not like I have a fairy godmother at Airtel - one firm I'm
associated with, Pinstorm, front-ends their online reputation management and
social media marketing. So they have a pretty deep funnel into their
customer service folks. 's all :-) )

Re: [silk] My Airtel Saga

[Mahesh Murthy]

 So Vijay, the gorilla who sensed your plight works at Pinstorm.


Nope, not really.

Their customer service ID: @airtel_presence is handled completely internally
by them.

Pinstorm handles the outbound ID: @Airtel_in, and also runs the scans,
stats, analytics, sentiment metrics, insights and all the other higher order
stuff.

Pinstorm doesn't do the customer service bit, but tags and hands off such
cases to them as and when it finds them.

Re: [silk] My Airtel Saga

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 11:22 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.netwrote:

 ** By saying so on a publicly archived list you became the first point of
 contact for every random guy posting ill-spelt rants about them on mouthshut



 It's a job, someone has to do it :-)

Re: [silk] an-NRI again

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 12:03 PM, Radhika, Y. radhik...@gmail.com wrote:

  Who cares what the citizenship status is?



The issue being talked about isn't citizenship, but residential status,
methinks.

Re: [silk] an-NRI again

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 12:03 PM, Radhika, Y. radhik...@gmail.com wrote:

 . I always wonder why we are all looking for authenticity when the
 mixed-up, piebald, pastiche that make up a human being with conflicting
 desires and circumstances is a hundred times more interesting! Who cares
 what the citizenship status is?


More importantly, if we had nothing to criticise or bitch about, why would
this group exist ?:-)

Re: [silk] an-NRI again

[Mahesh Murthy]

To me it's a seemingly-eloquently argued defense of cowardice.

Re: [silk] Video Conferencing

[Mahesh Murthy]

Do it on google Plus hangout.

[silk] Impromptu Silk / FoU dinner tonight?

[Mahesh Murthy]

Hi,

I'm in Bengaluru today and was wondering if any of you had time to get
together for some beer and bhojan tonight.

Udhay has kindly consented to pick the venue, the time and if we don't make
too many disparaging references to Intel, the tab :-)

Mahesh

Re: [silk] Impromptu Silk / FoU dinner tonight?

[Mahesh Murthy]

I'm the tourist.

Will come wherever Udhay wants me to.

Re: [silk] Mumbai Silkmeet?

[Mahesh Murthy]

Happy to add to the headcount.

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 11:13 AM, gabin kattukaran gkattuka...@gmail.comwrote:

 On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 6:10 PM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  I'm in Mumbai till the seventh.  Anyone game for a silkmeet?

 Funnily enough, I'm here too. I'm game.

 -gabin

 --

 measure with a micrometer, mark with a chalk, cut with an axe

[silk] I don't. And not with Nitin Pai / Amba Salakar either.Re: Red-letter day: I agree with Arundhati Roy

[Mahesh Murthy]

 So I do have a strong set of issues with the supposed 'intelligentsia'
 response to the Anna Hazara / IAC movement / Jan Lokpal bill  - I use the
 terms loosely and interchangeably.


The key stands, summarising Nitin Pai, Amba Salakar, Arundhati Roy et al
seem to be:

1. *We (the civil society experts / bloggers / hand-wringers) know how to
fight corruption, but this is not the way*.

My comment: yeah, who died and made you Gods Of Knowing How To Fight
Corruption?

Social change does not a pattern follow. If this is the form of protest it
takes to change one aspect of Indian life - endemic corruption, and this
form of protest has found itself large national acceptance and support, with
an impact many times that of what has ever happened before, then this might
probably be a likely way to make change happen.

I'm sorry that it's not how you think it should be - because, let's face it,
that way (whether it is re-writing the constitution, or some vaguely defined
Reforms 2.0 or Salakar's defence of current legislation) hasn't worked
yet, and shows no signs of working yet.


2. *Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal are unfit to lead this movement (for
various reasons*) without a mention of who else might be. Or even if the
movement should have no leader.

Arundhati Roy does the classic knife-the-rival-to-the-socialist-throne by
suggesting somewhat loosely that Hazare, Kejriwal et al are American stooges
- a point of view that puts her in bed, incongruously, with the ruling
party.

She whines that Kejriwal received a Ford Foundation grant when she herself
received some half a million pounds as publication advance for her book from
Evil Western Capitalists. But she doesn't go as far as suggesting who else
the movement might be led by.

Nitin Pai defends the right to be an armchair intellectual and not really do
anything on ground with the reasoning that pilots don't design airplanes.

Yes, Mr. Pai. but armchair intellectuals don't either. People who know the
principles of flight do - and then they usually go test-fly the damn thing
themselves, risking life and limb before they prescribe their designs to the
hoi polloi.

3. *The Indian constitution is sufficient. Why add a layer of complexity?*

Well, the supposedly sufficient Indian constitution has resulted in us
having an enormous amount of corruption in our lives. However sufficient it
might be in theory, it's not sufficient in practice. Perhaps another body -
like Hong Kong's ICAC - can help.

Adding a layer of complexity is not in itself a bad thing. It is probably
the way to cut through the Gordian knot of legislation and systems we
currently have.

Suddenly our keyboard revolutionaries want to defend our constitution and
the status quo.

And to Nitin Pai, I lived in Hong Kong, and yes there was a lot of
corruption that the ICAC unearthed - and it was a truly feared force among
businesspeople and government folks. Here, even the once-feared threat of
CBI investigation holds no menace to most folks. They know, ultimately,
that some flaw, somewhere in the system will let them off.


4. *This won't help the poor, the 80 crores who earn Rs. 20 a day*

Really, how do you know it won't? If a Sharad Pawar has siphoned billions
using his position as Food  Agriculture Minister and Sugar Baron among
other positions - what other mechanism might help? You don't know, and I
don't either.

But the status quo won't do a thing. This just might have a chance of doing
so.

Let's start with the 8 crores who earn Rs. 200 a day, or the 80 lakhs who
earn Rs. 2,000 a day. These are the folks protesting. Even if it cures some
part of corruption for them and does nothing for the 80 crores, that's fine.
It's a heckuva lot more than anything you've ever done or managed to get
done.

Give it a shot. Your way hasn't worked. This might.


5. *This is draconian*

And you believe anything less than draconian will work here where
politicians slime out of even murder cases in our current legislative system
with impunity?


6. *The elephant in the room is that none of the experts write about the
government counter of the proposed bill with a much-diluted version that is
closer to becoming law.*

If there was really no need for a bill, why would the government offer one -
is there not some realisation that yes, we are corrupt, let's try to do a
little to either fob off this Hazare fellow like we did last time, or to
stem a little of the flow of loot.

The government proposals, from alleged constitutional experts and
defenders of the parliamentary way is way more asinine than the Hazare
version of the bill. The Hazare version is not perfect - we all know that,
but what the government proposes takes the cake in de-testiculation of
legislation.

There is an obvious government move to leave gaping Sharad-Pawar sized holes
in the bill for him and his ilk to sneak through. This Governemtn version is
actually a bill proposed before parliament, and it is somehow instructive to
find neither Roy, Pai or 

Re: [silk] Subramanian Swamy

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Anand Manikutty
manikuttyan...@yahoo.comwrote:

 There was an article by Subramanian Swamy in DNA India that has run into
 some controversy :


 http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/analysis_how-to-wipe-out-islamic-terror_1566203-all

 Thoughts/opinions on the article welcome.


He's an idiot.

[silk] Can a Googler help show my Google-obsessed 13-year old around the 'Plex on Mon Aug 15?

[Mahesh Murthy]

Hi all,

I'm taking my geek offspring to the US on a back-to-roots trip - he was born
in Portland and lived for a little bit in Seattle.

Part of our trip involves the Bay Area and apart from mandatory visits to
Fry's and the Intel Tech Museum the one thing he's repeatedly requested is
if he can go see Google and how people work there. His ambition is
(currently) to work at Google some day.

I was wondering if any of the Googlers out here on Silk might consent to
offering us a 30-minute or less guided tour of the Plex some time on Monday,
Aug 15.

I promise to ensure he doesn't ask for too many freebies or tchotchkes!

Thanks, in advance,


Mahesh

Re: [silk] Plus by Google

[Mahesh Murthy]

One for me Nishant?

mahesh.mur...@gmail.com
On Jun 30, 2011 8:18 AM, Nishant Shah itsnish...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:



 I'm in, but I don't seem to have the ability to invite people. Tried a
 couple of different ways and hasn't worked yet.

 Udhay,
 The trick is to find the people you want to add using their gmail address,
 into one of the groups. Once you add them, it seems to give the option of
 inviting them.

 See if that works.

 Cheers
 Nishant
 --
 Nishant Shah
 Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society,( www.cis-india.org )
 Asia Awards Fellow, 2008-09
 # 00-91-9740074884
 http://www.facebook.com/nishant.shah
 http://cis-india.academia.edu/NishantShah

Re: [silk] (no subject)

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Anand Manikutty
manikuttyan...@yahoo.comwrote:




Sorry I disagree. Here is what I think:

Re: [silk] The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

[Mahesh Murthy]

 After much soul-searching and profound thinking, I have found that the
 only acceptable level of trade-off is what your spouse/significant
 other/kids allow you to get away with.

I've found the contrary to be true. Live life with no trade-off whatsoever
and the near and dear around you love you even more for it, making
allowances for you and your proclivities.

Re: [silk] Influence of silklisters in India

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 5:48 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.netwrote:

 The jackasses who bray the loudest get to become the lions of twitter ..



Considering that the Dalai Lama is at #1 on the list and others like Sanjay
Gupta of CNN, Lata Mangeshkar and Aamir Khan (all of whom have tweeted a
fraction of the number of times some of us have) are in the top 20, I think
that's a somewhat easily disprovable hypothesis :-)

Re: [silk] Sidin Vadukut - Introduction

[Mahesh Murthy]

...the headline is, Topless posts in Chengalpattu District.

Sigh.

Welcome, Sidin :-)

Re: [silk] Mumbai silkmeet May 6?

[Mahesh Murthy]

 

 5 spice? A little claustrophobic, no? We're already numbering 8.
 Wouldn't a larger place be better? Global Fusion, Cafe Basilico, Royal
 China?

 -gabin



Actually Gabin it's reasonably nice and open on the 2nd floor of 5-spice,
with high ceilings etc.

Re: [silk] A crisis of confidence

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Mar 29, 2011 10:18 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:

 The average Indian isn't a very confident animal, how else can one
 explain the absurd popularity of self help books? Poverty is evil.

To my knowledge the US has a far higher relative consumption of self help
books than India.

The poor aren't buying books here. If anything, they're selling them, on the
streets.

Methinks you're trolling here. :-)

Re: [silk] Privacy, By Design

[Mahesh Murthy]

A large part of what one of my companies does is social listening - the
real time tracking of what people are saying about brands or issues, with
sentiment scores, visibility indices and the like.

Perhaps there's an interesting angle in the corporate (and not just
governmental) effort to track conversations, and the fallouts thereof.

Mahesh

Re: [silk] Anybody coming back from abroad

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Feb 24, 2011 1:08 AM, Kiran Jonnalagadda j...@pobox.com wrote:

 On 23-Feb-2011, at 11:33 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:

 a large (1000 pill) bottle of fish oil?  (not cod liver oil, this is oil
from the whole fish, typically from deep sea fishes)
 

  Vibram Five Fingers. My feet are 10, KSO size 39 on their charts

I sense an interesting business opportunity here, generally speaking.:-)

Re: [silk] Any ideas on a digitiser / ripper - player for CDs?

[Mahesh Murthy]

Is there no simple consumer-friendly solution that doesn't involve such
uber-hacking? :)

[silk] Any ideas on a digitiser / ripper - player for CDs?

[Mahesh Murthy]

So I have some 1,500 or so CDs and I'd like to digitize them and a
reasonably high bit rate.

Not all at a go - but to keep doing a handful now and then.

Is there some sort of device with a hard drive and a CD player/ ripper where
I can simply play from the drive when needed (with remote, 5.1 out etc) and
on occasion slip a CD or a few dozen in and rip it fast - where some access
to Gracenotes or such ensures titles / song data is input automatically?
It'll be nice to have a drive in the TB range so DVDs can be digitized too
on the same system and accessible centrally in every room of the house etc.

One obvious answer might be to dedicate a laptop/computer to this and use
iTunes etc -  but it seems an inelegant solution - not enough ripping speed
and perhaps not enough HDD space plus I really don't care for a locked Apple
solutions like iTunes plus I am not sure it produces high quality sound - I
do have a reasonably good set of amp, speakers and TV

Any suggestions?

Regards

Mahesh

Re: [silk] Stochastic Terrorism

[Mahesh Murthy]

  I think that this kind of identity-based politics is imperative for
 India's survival. Whether identity came first or identity politics is not a
 chicken-and-egg kind of question. Identity definitely came first, and it is
 practical for our politics to reflect it.


 Are we the only country with multiple identities? Your statement almost
 makes it sound as if the other who do have got it all wrong.

 I think there is something wrong if pandering to these identities is the
 only way to make this country tick.



I think what unites us is primarily cricket.

A good sports team should do the trick anywhere I guess :-)

Re: [silk] Stochastic Terrorism

[Mahesh Murthy]

 If the author of that article had actually said all this he would have been 
 accused of bigotry or of being a religious fanatic of a rival religion. So he 
 has to tippy toe around the obvious. The only way he can escape that 
 accusation is by being non specific. And that is precisely what religions 
 want. 
 

I guess he didn't want to name the RSS, Abhinav Bharat, Sadhvi Rithambara and 
their ilk to avoid hurting some sentiments :-)

 

Re: [silk] Visa-free and visa-on-arrival travel for Indians: maybeuseful for last-minute travel

[Mahesh Murthy]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 1:30 PM, Chetan Nagendra che...@pobox.com wrote:

 Just to add- you can pretty much land in most of the islands of the Lesser
 Antilles and get a kerb-side visa, provided you have a return ticket. If you
 are resident in the Caribbean, you can even fly to Cuba visa-free.


Also to add - if you take a Caribbean cruise then everywhere you touch -
including Aruba, Montserrat, Martinique etc places that are otherwise off
limits - are all visa free.

The ship captain holds your passport and guarantees your 'safe return' to
the ship