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Dinner with Friends

June 26th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Music & Movies, Personal

Snehal & me went for a play a few weeks back. The play was Dinner with Friends with Tisca Chopra & Perizaad Zorabian in the lead. We enjoyed it immensely.

There is something great about watching a play. You can see the actors up so close and there is no room for mistakes. Its all in your face. The performances were stellar and they had a standing ovation at the end of it.

I was amazed at how they changes the setting on the stage in complete darkness and along with a change in wardrobe the actors transported us into a different phase of the story.

Here’s to hoping that we can get to catch more plays.

Watching Inflight Entertainment

April 5th, 2011 | 2 Comments | Posted in Uncategorized
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Mansi had a great time watching cartoons

Jet Airways

April 1st, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Uncategorized
I used to be a big fan of Jet Airways and have been a loyal Jet privilege member since 2001. I use their co-branded credit card and redeem the miles for free tickets once in a while. I think the service levels of Jet were truly path breaking, years back, and as a business traveler I was more than happy to prefer them over any other airline.

What happened last week has changed my impression. We traveled to & fro Hyderabad by Jet. While the on ground service was pretty quick, the in flight service was quite pathetic. Some of the highlights were

- They frantically gave a last call for boarding a good 40 mins before scheduled time and made everyone wait 50 mins inside the airplane before it finally took off. Everyone seemed frustrated.
– One air hostess started the cold towel service (which is a nice relief in the summer) and abruptly stopped it after servicing 4 rows.
- The food served was probably the worst I have EVER had on a plane. I was curious as to what it was made of since it was pretty unrecognizable. I asked the flight attendant twice. He said he would confirm and let me know. He passed me nearly 5 times but didn't bother. While disembarking when I finally checked with him, he replied with a smirk, that he had no idea. And probably no one on the flight had.
- Jet used to make every kid on the plane feel special. They did nothing for my 3 year old daughter. They even expected her to eat the horrible food (which was oily & spicy). Other than the customary "hello baby" there was nothing.

The list is a bit longer but I am in no mood to continue the rant. I seriously hope Jet pulls up their sleeve and gets their act together. 

On a random note the Hyderabad airport is really amazing. Not only the airport but even the facilities around it (bus, taxi services etc.) are so well planned. Coming back to chaotic Mumbai airport was such a horrible end to our holiday.

A Muslim Wedding

March 1st, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Uncategorized
I had never been to a Muslim Wedding. I got a chance to attend one on Sunday and I was pleasantly surprised with the simplicity of the wedding. No huge decorations, no blaring music, no display of the "in-your-face" celebrations. The number of guests were neither too few nor too many, making it a fairly intimate gathering for the families of the bride & the groom.

My inspiration to drive to town on a Sunday morning for a wedding was the hope of an interesting lunch. And interesting it was. The menu was simple yet grand. The hosts were sensitive to the vegetarian guests and had organized a separate section. For the non vegetarians, the seating arrangement was round tables with chairs around & food placed in the center. It had a very communal feel to it. There were 2 starters, 1 main course, bread & biryani. All lip smacking good. We ended the meal with 2 types of dessert. This was such a welcome concept compared to the 7+ cuisines & 100+ dishes on the menu, which has become so in vogue.

I am curious to attend a Bohri Muslim wedding & a Sikh wedding. The former for the food and the latter also for the food :-)

The Mobile Startup

January 14th, 2011 | 1 Comment | Posted in Uncategorized
It's been about 7 months I've been at my latest startup, Synqua Games. We make awesome games for mobile devices. One of the reasons I jumped at this startup was the inflection point at which the entire mobile industry is in India. I had experienced the Internet growth and was very curious to understand how the mobile economy would shape up.

In my opinion, the primary difference between Internet & Mobile businesses lies in the monetizability which is mainly due to the operator billing possible. And that is also the problem for business owners since the Indian operators take up nearly 70% of the revenue share. Alternate payment models are still emerging and we'll probably know in a few years which would be the dominant mode of payment over the mobile. Another big difference is also that the mobile is always with you and always on. That makes it a very powerful medium to consume & use digital products.

I've learnt a lot over the past 7 months especially about how the mobile ecosystem works. Things are getting consolidated (standards, OS etc.) and fragmented (resolutions, OS versions etc.) at the same time and that's what is making it even more interesting. You can't have an Internet business without a mobile access or a mobile component to it. Some very interesting startups like Square & Bump have recently raised pretty decent funding rounds which hopefully should be big businesses in the years to come.

The mobile space is getting hotter and there couldn't be a better time to dive in. Will update our progress as we go along

Beer in Brussels

December 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Food & Drink, Travel

Even before I left for my trip, I had read a lot about the types of beer in Belgium. While I was keen on visiting the Hoegaarden brewery, I couldn’t manage to. But I ended up sampling quite a variety of beer. If there’s one thing I’ll visit Belgium for, it will have to be for the beer.

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Brussels

December 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Travel

My trip to Brussels started on a pretty bad note. While the original plan was to leave Eindhoven at 10, I finally ended up boarding the train at 12. Interestingly while I boarded a train bound for Maastrich, I ended up at Heerele. Turns out that 1 half of the train travels to Maastrich while the other heads to Heerle. Whoever heard of one train going 2 different ways? Since I had to catch the train from Maastrich to Brussels, I lost 30 mins and another 30 waiting for the train to Brussels Central.

Arriving at Central I just couldn’t spot the tram station and ended up losing my way miserably. After calling up the hotel a few times, asking for directions, via the metro and then a tram, I finally ended up at the hotel at 5 pm. Turned out that the hotel was a hole in the wall and the room barely enough for 1 person.

I had to get myself a beer for all the hard work. I started the evening with a Leffe. Took a tram to the Grand palace, had a lovely dinner of mussels & fries along with a pint of Maes beer. I then wandered to the famous Mannekin Pis and then ended up sitting in one of the cafes nursing an amazing pint of Chimay.
Mussels & Fries

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