Category: fundaes

two-dimensional food

One big problem that the freight industry faces is that cargo has at least two dimensions – volume and weight, and there are constraints on both axes which need to be taken care of. This is the most basic model, since you can look at 3 dimensions of volume, orientation, and a host of other “dimension”.

Similarly, food also has two dimensions – volume and calories. You can either have “rich” food or you can eat lots of “normal” food. “Rich” foods include stuff like red meat, cheese, chocolate and the like.

Now the typical indian vegetarian strategy is to eat lots of low-calorie food. We eat lots of rice. Lots of rotis. We eat “pet bhar ke” (stomach full). And most of the food we eat is of the nature that if you eat until your stomach is full, you will ingest the appropriate number of calories.

So this indian vegetarian goes to London and sees people having one sandwich for lunch. It doesn’t fill his stomach, so he has two, unmindful that he is ingesting extra calories. One pasta doesn’t fill his huge tummy, so he has two. He doesn’t care for the calories he is putting on, he eats as long as his stomach feels empty.

Two months later he comes back to India with a paunch. He hasn’t been able to get rid of it even after a year.

not so janapriya

They were launched with much fanfare six years ago, and were touted to be the next big thing in easing Bangalore’s transport problems. “This is the way buses are run internationally”, politicos and bureaucrats proclaimed. “Why generally waste resources on a conductor, when the driver can do his work also?”

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Reservations issue…

So the cabinet seems to have cleared the bill paving way for reservations for OBCs in central universities (including IITs, IIMs). Thankfully there is some sense in the cabinet and they have said (at least on paper) that the implementatino would be in a phased manner.

I was watching “Face the nation” on CNN IBM late this evening, and in that Rajdeep Sardesai pointed out that according to some survey, more than 50% of Indians want reservations.

This brings us to the issue of the number (rather the percentage) of people who have been classified as “backward”. I don’t have the figures with me (and I’m too lazy to get them) but I believe more than half of India is classified as “backward”.

Taking a further step back, I’m wondering where Mandal drew the line to classify castes as forward or backward. He could’ve been driven by his own caste (I think Mandal is a SC surname, so he didn’t have an incentive there; but he could well have been under the diktats of someone who might have benefited directly or indirectly (in terms fo vote banks)). Alternatively by drawing the line where more than 50% of the population would “benefit”, the reservations would automatically have “popular mandate”. Another reason could be that if Caste A were in and Caste B out, politicians of B would oppose the implementation of the recommendations. But A has to be included for “strategic” reasons. So include B, and C and D also.

On an unrelated note (this is an impromptu post, so i’m meandering), I remember a certain group taking out a demonstration in Madras the other day asking to be classified as “backward”! I won’t be surprised if, in the near future, the oxford english dictionary were to redefine “backward” as “privileged” or something…

Students in Delhi have said they’ll revive their protests tomorrow. My best wishes are with them.

Update 1
I forgot to add this yesterday (thanks for reminding me) – a number of numerically and politically dominant (and not really backward) communities are classified as OBCs. For example, in Karnataka the two dominant communities – Lingayats and Gowdas are classified as OBC. In the North Jats are OBC.

Update 2

tells me that Mandal was a Yadav. Explains a lot of things.

The drink of the gods…

It was in 1997, I think, around the beginning of the technology boom that V G Siddhartha started his first coffee shop on Brigade Road in Bangalore. He offered a variety of premium coffees, along with a number of dessert offerings. As an added incentive, he installed a few computers with internet in the shop, and allowed people to browse the web on a per-hour charge.

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which path?

there are two options.

in option 1, you are guaranteed 90 points.

in option 2, you get 100 points with probability p and 50 with probability 1 – p.

when p is very low (very close to zero), which option will you choose?

for me, 90 is close enough to 100 so i would rather guarantee 90 so i will take option 1. some people don’t see expected value, they just see that there is a non-zero probability of 100 and go for it, and in most cases get scerwed.

i would rather make my contract than go for an overtrick and go down.

The Bombay Day Travel Card

The other day I bought a 2-way ticket from Bandra to Churchgate and for a change happened to read the terms and conditions carefully. It said that I had to make the journey from Bandra to Churchgate within the next one hour. However, I could make the return journey any time till the end of the next day! And given that the tickets here aren’t gobbled up like those in London metros, and that the tickets are seldom checked, the ticket I had in my hand was in effect a one-way 2-day travelcard from Churchgate to Bandra. In other words, for the next two days I could make as many journeys as I wanted on the Western line in the direction from Churchgate to Bandra!

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Schrodinger’s girlfriend

I’m still trying to figure out the nature of this relationship. It’s much stronger than simple good platonic friendship, but doesn’t seem to be anywhere near a romantic relationship. Yesterday night, as I was putting myself to sleep, I was trying my best to somehow slot the relationship (It’s possible that nowadays she’s also thinking on similar lines). Had a tough time until I remembered Arul Murugan Lakshminarayanan.

This relationship is currently not in a single state. It is a superposition of states. It lies in the “good friend” state with a probability p and in the “romance” state with a probability 1 – p. So the relationship is in a mixture of the “good friend” and “romance” states. Now, don’t ask me the value of p. Frankly, I don’t know it. I just know that 0 < p < 1.

Now, sooner or later, somebody is bound to make a measurement. The somebody could be me or her or my parents or her parents or maybe some common friend or whoever. The measurement would be typically done by getting the two of us in one place and then asking us or something. And if she also thinks the relationship is in a quantum state (which is quite likely), the measurement itself would be non-trivial but assume that it has been achieved.

Here comes the crux – no later than the measurement is made, and communicated to us, the quantum state comes crashing down. Depending on what the two of us decide at the time of measurement, the relationship will collapse into one of the two states it is a mixture of – “good friend” or “romance”. It might also fall into a third state (something like “hate” or whatever), but the probability of this is infinitesimally small, so let us ignore that.

So we have a perfect “quantum situation” here. Something which lies in a superposition of states. And which can’t be measured without the collapse of these states! Arul may have given me a C in PH350 (Quantum Mechanics for Engineers), but I’m now convinced I deserved much better than that!

Jowar Rotis

In the classification of food as North Indian and South Indian, one really nice thing which gets left out is North Karnataka cuisine. And the Govindrai Kamat group has managed to create fine dining out of this supposedly down-market food and has dedicated the terrace of almost all their restaurants for this!

The ambience is superb. Most tables are on the edge of the terrace and you get to look at the city. There is a live classical music performance daily, provides a nice background while you?re eating, and also keeps you occupied while you are waiting. Waiters are in the traditional Bombay-Karnataka attire ? dhoti-kurta and Gandhi cap.

Food is served on a plantain leaf, and starts off with a glass of spiced buttermilk (and chilly bajji if you opt for the special meal). Main course consists of jowar rotis (jOLada bhakri as it?s traditionally called) ? super-soft super-thin rotis made of jowar, mass-produced and yet served hot. Side dishes include a brinjal curry (something like baingan bharta), a dal, a green curry, raitha and raw onions and greens. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the butter here! Really good stuff! As much as you can eat. It is then followed by the more south Karnataka fare of rice with sambar, rasam and curd. With the traditional plantain and paan to close the meal.

Definitely recommended. And at Rs. 70 per head, it?s a steal. Just make sure you drink lots of water though while you?re eating ? the rice-obsessed South Karnataka stomachs might find it tough to digest. Available at Kamat restaurants on Bull Temple Road, Minerva Circle and Gandhinagar, and maybe in a few other places.