Dânesh Zaki

Predictably Irrational? Yes!

Sun, 20 May 2012 21:57:33 +0530

While I was getting to the end of Switch, I visited Amazon.com to see what similar books were available for reading. I found Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely and lined it up for reading next.

Dan Ariely has had a painful past where he has fought through a severe injury and its painful treatment but also in the course developed keen observational skills that make him what he is today, an authority on irrationality and human behaviour. The experiments he has conducted and illustrated in the book only reinforce this fact.

The book’s theme is behavioural economics and demonstrating that humans are not always rational thinkers. Ariely uses several instances which are commonly known to depict the behaviour, from advertisements for magazine subscriptions to free beer offers, he uses them all.

There are several chapters in the book that I enjoyed, notably the ones on relativity, cost of social norms, favours and price power.

In some places, the book is similar to Freakonomics, another book that I enjoyed reading. But this book looks at individual behaviour in more depth.

Overall, this is a book I enjoyed reading and will recommend to all.

Book image courtesy: Wikipedia

Switch - 1 Minute Book Review

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:35:52 +0530

I finished reading Switch - How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath, a few weeks ago. As the title suggests, the book acknowledges that change is hard and does not try to radically bring in new ideas or thrust upon the reader, new actions. On the contrary, it presents a set of small steps to try out to make the change.

The book presents a “framework” on how to change one’s perception of things and also to better adapt to change. The framework uses a rider and elephant setup to lead the reader to make the changes to his/her thinking. There are several relevant examples in the book to illustrate the principles in the framework. The principles of the framework are a set of directives on how to direct, motivate and reward the mind.

As with most self-development books, the principles and the illustrations have a good effect on the reader for a while but later… they are just forgotten. This could just be with me as I might not have motivated or rewarded “my elephant” enough!

If you have had success implementing the ideas from this book, do let me know in the comments.

Book picture courtesy: Amazon

Britannia Time Pass - A Salty Snack

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:31:24 +0530

I saw a new product in the Britannia line of salted snacks at More supermarket simply called “Time Pass”. It did not appear too different from Parle’s baked chips (they seem to have disappeared off the shelves in most stores). There were two flavours - Mindless Masala and Tapori Tomato on the shelves.

I tried the Masala flavour and found it tasty. The snack is essentially a rusk biscuit that is considerably thinned down and Masala added to it. Unlike Frito-Lay’s Aliva, which uses regular biscuits that are flavoured, the use of rusk biscuits gives it a slightly different and better (according to me) taste.

The snack is available in two sizes and priced at Rs.10 and Rs.5. A larger family pack will be handy for people like me who otherwise have to buy multiple packs.

It is a tasty snack and probably healthier than most oily ones, and should become popular with the right advertising.

Anna Centenary Library - A New Landmark in Chennai

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:37:10 +0530

I had been wanting to visit the Anna Centenary Library for a while now and finally got to visit the library this week. I had heard that the facilities and the collection of books there was world class and saw it myself that it was no exaggeration. The library has seven floors of books on various subjects including children’s books,
engineering, medicine, history, arts and humanities. As the books have not been given out for lending so far, they are still new. While books on differential calculus scared me to death and made me wonder how I managed to pass those papers in school and college, I was comfortable and happy in the history section. I
spent a while reading books on Indian history especially the 1857 revolution.

The library’s building and the interiors are well maintained and we could see the housekeeping staff at work mopping floors. As there is no lending facility available yet, I was not able to gauge if the number of librarians were sufficient.

When planning to visit the library, I suggest that you decide on the topic before hand so that sufficient time could be spent reading books. It is not a good idea to generally walk around seeing all floors as the library is huge. Overall, the library is very impressive and should be counted among the landmarks of Chennai.

A Separation - Iranian Movie Short Review

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:43:26 +0530

I watched the Iranian movie “A Separation” on the recommendation of a colleague. The movie is a poignant narrative of events from day-to-day life set against the backdrop of an impending divorce. As with all Iranian movies, the characters are true to life and very identifiable.

The story is simple: the wife in a household wants a divorce but is denied due to the lack of a sound reason. She decides to live for a few weeks with her parents. Her father-in-law suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and needs to be taken care of. A caretaker is arranged for him. Due to unforeseen events, the caretaker, a pregnant lady has a miscarriage while at work. How this happens and what follows later forms the rest of the story. A unique feature in the movie is that religion is not used for melodrama or indoctrination, rather it is used to remind us to be true to ourselves.

The film is the Iranian nomination for the Best Foreign Film for the 2011 Academy Awards.

Why is Bakrid celebrated?

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:36:44 +0530

I have always felt that there is not much awareness on the general populace on the significance of the Bakrid festival. So, here is the raison d’etre.

Bakrid also known as Eid al Adha is celebrated to honour the sacrifice that Prophet Ibrahim (may peace be upon him) was going to make of his son Ismail (may peace be upon him), on God’s command. It is related that God commanded Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his only son as a test; the Prophet agreed and while he was about to sacrifice Ismail, God replaced Ismail with a sheep and accepted his sacrifice. As a remembrance, Muslims all over the world, sacrifice sheep, goats, calves, camels on the occasion. The meat is distributed in 3 parts:

one part is kept for the family
one part is for friends and relatives
one part is given to the poor and needy

Nampally Railway Station

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:31:09 +0530

I was in Hyderabad for work recently and returned yesterday by train to Chennai. I boarded the train from Nampally railway station as it was nearer to my place of work. I have boarded trains from Nampally station earlier, about five years ago and the station was not that great compared to other stations at that time. When I went in to board the train on Friday, to my surprise, the station was worse than before. The platforms were dirty and, there was no information of the coach position from the engine (it is always useful to know how far one has to walk to the coach especially if you have lot of/heavy luggage). Some of the LED coach position indicators were not glowing, making it difficult to find the positions. There was no canteen open at 3 PM for light refreshments. I had expected the station to have improved in the years gone by keeping in line with the growth of the city. Sadly, that was not the case. As the train moved away and passed other smaller suburban stations (James Street, Necklace Road etc), I noticed that those stations looked cleaner and perhaps had better amenities.

I have heard that the Secunderabad station has improved over the years (it always was better than Nampally) and is being planned to be made a world class station. While that is a commendable initiative, it is also imperative that Nampally station be given due attention. When the city’s airport ranks among the top airports in the world, its railway station should not be among the bottom most.

Image courtesy - Hyderabad Spider: Mohan’s thought provoking images of Hyderabad: Dogs roam freely at Nampally Railway station

STL-ORD-AUH-MAA on Etihad Airways

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:24:00 +0530

After completing my assignment at O’Fallon near St.Louis (STL) I traveled back to Chennai (MAA) enroute to Chicago (ORD) and Abu Dhabi (AUH) on Etihad Airways. The flight from St.Louis to Chicago was on American Airlines and I had over 3 hours of time between flights at Chicago. But thanks to the bad weather, the flight from St.Louis got delayed by 3 hours. This meant that I would mostly likely miss the flight to Abu Dhabi. But the Etihad Airways folks delayed the flight by 45 minutes as there were other such passengers who were affected. I made it to the flight puffing and panting.

As is the case with most airlines, the seats in the Economy Class were cramped. But most of the middle seats were vacant, providing me an opportunity to stretch and also get some sleep. The in-flight entertainment system had all the latest movies and popular hits; more than enough to keep people absorbed for the duration of the flight.

Though most of the food served was routine and tasted just about okay, the Lamb Biryani was very good. It was probably the first ever dish on an airline that I actually enjoyed.

The service in the Chicago to Abu Dhabi leg was good but on the Abu Dhabi to Chennai leg it was ordinary.

Overall, I was satisfied with the experience which was nowhere near the Gulf Air trauma that I faced a few years ago.

Etihad Airways image courtesy: wikipedia.org

Short Visit to the St.Louis Arch

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:20:18 +0530

I was at O’Fallon near St.Louis, MO for four weeks on a work assignment.

View of the sunset in O’Fallon from my hotel room

Though the trip was fraught with health issues, one evening was well spent, visiting the St. Louis downtown. Here are a few pictures of the St.Louis Arch also known as the Gateway Arch built in the ’60s.

The Arch

View from the top

Height of the arch

Revisiting Marina Beach

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:30:14 +0530

I visited Marina Beach after a long time and was surprised to see this side of the beach near the lighthouse fairly empty, especially on a weekend. I remember this beach to be full in the past, but with the malls and multiplexes coming up all over the city this was bound to happen.

I did not find many changes in this side of the beach - there were the usual shops selling Bajjis, simple toys and vendors offering rides and amusements for children. All shops were being run by small-time vendors and hawkers. No big brands or established businesses here. I was surprised to see the toys sold here were all made in China. Alas! No place for Indian toys even on the pavements!

I mentally pictured the Besant Nagar beach and the rapid growth that it has seen with its food court, name brand cafes and children’s play area. Consequently, the crowd there is a bit more upper class than here. Regardless, the beach and the sands are the same in both places and are equally enjoyable. The cool breeze, the sound of the waves and the open sky relax the mind and serve as a quick getaway right in the middle of the city.

PS: Sorry, I forgot to take the camera, so no pics.

The Shade of Swords - Book Review

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:07:47 +0530

The Shade of Swords is a book by M.J Akbar, well known journalist, founder of The Asian Age newspaper and editorial director at the India Today. The book is a perspective on world history with particular focus on Muslims. M.J Akbar takes varying stances ranging from neutral to a Muslim point of view. The book starts from the history of Islam as it came into existence and traces its growth as it spreads to other regions of the world. The misconception that Islam was spread by the sword is exposed as during the time, all kingdoms used to be closely linked to the religion they practised and advocated it. So, Islam cannot be singled out for such aggression. The book states at numerous places how kings of other religions used power to convert the masses.

One of the highlights of the book is the coverage of the Crusades in great detail and from a largely neutral perspective. It illustrates the political situation in Europe and the Middle East lucidly. M.J Akbar details the shortcomings of the Caliph and Caliphate. After the Mongols plundered and looted Baghdad, and finally settled there, Hulagu Khan, the Mongol emperor asks the Ulema (religious leaders):

“Which man is better as a sovereign? An unbeliever who is just or a Muslim who is unjust?”.

Radiuddin Ali the sage of the times replied:

“The unbeliever who is just should be preferred to the unjust believer”.

As the chapters progress, the author talks about undivided India and the mistakes of Jinnah. In one of the chapters he states that

“The only Muslims in the world to enjoy sustained democratic liberty are not those in Pakistan but those who remained in India”.

The book concludes by providing a background on Iraq, Iran and Saddam Hussein. It is surprising to know that Ayatollah Khomeini, the revolutionary leader of the Iranian uprising of 1979 and later the country’s head had an Indian link; his grandfather being from India. The last chapter is fairly long and has a lot of subsections. For a person who is not very keen on the Iraq-Iran politics, it feels a bit of a drag. Other than this, the book is fast paced and depicts the immense research the author has done in order to present the complete picture. The book is an interesting read and recommended to those interested in Muslim history and politics.

Semmozhi Park - First Visit

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:43:40 +0530

Semmozhi Park is a new park located opposite the US Consulate in Cathedral Road, Chennai. The Woodlands Drive-In restaurant used to be located there. I visited the park today with family to spend the evening.

Since I went on a weekday, parking was easy with plenty of spaces available. The parking charges are a nominal Rs.10 for the car. The entrance fees are nominal too at Rs.5 per adult. The park has quite a few fountains and they look nice.

There is a large play area for kids with swings, merry go round and slides.

There is plenty of space to walk around with nicely paved walkways.

The small lawns on the sides of the walkways are well-maintained and walking on them is prohibited. There is also a mini pond with swans in them. There are also plenty of benches available to sit and while away time.

The fountains are lit up with colourful lights after sunset and look good. Adding a musical fountain might attract more people.

Although, the park is a nice and quiet place it does become noisy with the traffic noises as soon as rush hour begins. Though it is nowhere near being a tourist attraction, it is a nice and inexpensive place to relax and spend time with your family.

Apologies for the poor photos, they were taken with an aging Nokia E51’s camera.

Reliance Digital - No Hard Sell

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:49:32 +0530

I have been having DNS issues with my net connection for the past few days. The DSL technician said that there was nothing wrong with the modem/line and hinted that it could be with an issue with the router. I did a few checks and decided to change the router, and went to Reliance Digital on Mount Road to get one. Before I purchased the router, I discussed the problem I was facing with a salesman there. He heard me patiently and asked me to recheck the LAN wiring/cable again and if needed contact the tech support of the router I had. He mentioned that just replacing the old router with a new one might not solve the problem. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a salesman advising not to buy a product, especially in these days of hard selling. Though I did not buy anything at Reliance Digital today, if I need a gadget or an electronic accessory, I would definitely go there first.

NYC to Chennai on Jet Airways

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:31:13 +0530

I traveled on Jet Airways from New York City to Chennai this week, here are my thoughts from the trip.

I was curious to see how Jet Airways fared as an international airline and was pleasantly surprised to see that they did quite well. I liked the relatively new aircraft - Airbus A330 with monitors on all seats for flight entertainment (unlike a few airlines that have monitors only in the EU-US leg) . There was a decent collection of Hollywood movies and an elaborate collection of Desi movies. The music collection was amazing - it included old Talat Mahmood songs and a recap of Geet Mala.

It was nice to see Indian pilots captaining the flights. Captain Rahul Nagar, the pilot for the NYC-MAA flight made one of the smoothest landings that I’ve experienced at the Chennai airport.

What I most hated about the flight was the food, which was rather bland. I had opted for vegetarian and found that both the dinner and lunch had almost the same menu - Dal, Rice and Paneer/Palak served with a Roti, salad and yoghurt. Being an Indian airline, I expected better fare both in terms of taste and variety.

The other thing that Jet Airways could improve upon is the 3+ hours stopover at Brussels. For a technical stop on a NYC-MAA flight, a maximum wait of 2 hours is acceptable.

But overall, I had a good experience and would definitely recommend the airline.

What I liked: Relatively new aircraft, music selection, Indian pilots

Did not like: Horrible food, 3+ hours wait at Brussels

Eid Mubarak!

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:33:53 +0530

Eid wishes to all friends. Hope the fasts went well, hope you gained faith and lost weight :)

This earlier post of mine talks about how Eid is typically celebrated amongst our community.

Photo courtesy: Giorgio Montersino

Empires of the Indus - Book Review

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:43:49 +0530

Empires of the Indus by Alice Albinia is a travelogue interspersed with history. The author has covered almost the entire region surrounding the Indus including dangerous expanses in Afghanistan and surrounding areas. As the author travels across the country she provides relevant facts and events from history in order to form a complete picture. In a chapter on Sindh, she informs us that even in the past when an empire wanted to colonialize the other, they used excuses such as calling the other empire’s rulers tyrants and that they would free the common citizens, to gain public support for their efforts.

Most of the chapters in the book cover regions in Pakistan as the Indus primarily runs through that country. Indian Punjab, Kashmir and Ladakh are also briefly touched upon before the author finally forays into Tibet in search of the source of the Indus. The author has covered the country side much better than the urban areas and one gets a good picture reading her descriptions. The narration is easy to understand but the author could have avoided use of a few obscene words and graphic details. A few photographs have also been provided to supplement the narration. At times though, the reader yearns for more pictures of the regions described.

On the cultural nuances, Alice Albinia is no William Dalrymple and at many times does not take kindly to regional practices, silently remonstrating against them, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Overall, the book is a good travelogue and serves to help the reader get more than a glimpse of the life around the Indus river, including the dangerous and many hitherto sparsely travelled regions.

Tumblr makes it to Time's 50 Best Websites of 2010!

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:37:58 +0530

Tumblr makes it to Time's 50 Best Websites of 2010!:

Yay!

"God does know what every female womb does bear, by how much the wombs fall short (of their time or..."

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:45:22 +0530

““God does know what every female womb does bear, by how much the wombs fall short (of their time or number) or do exceed. Every single thing is before His sight, in (due) proportion.””

- Quran 13:8

(We were blessed with a second child on Aug 22nd 2010, weeks earlier than the expected date)

Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai - Short Review

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:51:45 +0530

Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai is a movie on the life and times of Sultan Mirza, loosely based on Haji Mastan and Shoaib Khan, based on Dawood Ebrahim.

Ajay Devgan is brilliant and looks natural in the role; the dialogues help him set the screen alight. Emraan Hashmi brings out the negative shades in his character but is becoming a bit stereotyped in his roles. Randeep Hooda’s presence and narrative never lets the film lose pace.

The railway track sequence at the beginning of the movie looks innovative and has been nicely done. Costumes and background music help bring the ’70s feel reminiscent of Deewar. The dialogues in the movie are outstanding and are the major USP of this flick. Two of the tracks, Tum Jo Aaye Zindagi Mein and Pee Loon are melodious.

Overall, a very stylish gangster movie and a must watch for fans of underworld movies.

Madrasapattinam - Quick Review

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:34:36 +0530

Just finished watching Madrasapattinam - a love story set in British times. The movie is about a British lady who loves a “Madrasi” - a native. She is forced to leave him and go back to London due to opposition from her family and India getting independence at the same time - which forms a nicely interwoven backdrop. The lady then returns after 60 years to search for the native hero.

The filming style is like Rang De Basanti, which employs frequent flashbacks to move the story forward. One thing that I would have definitely liked is for more of period Madras/Chennai to be shown. Overall, I liked the movie though I thought it was a bit lengthy.

Pros

Good detail in shots of old Madras (which is why I set out to watch the movie in the first place)
Fast paced

Cons

Slightly lengthy
Less of period Madras shown