Dilli Haat - finally caved in

Even after having lived in Delhi long enough and multiple visits (10+) to visit the fam, I always stayed away from Dilli Haat. Felt it was a tourist trap. Well I finally caved in today and went. and am glad I did.

Its a really cool spot with a craft bazaar and food plaza featuring cuisines from different states of India. Its a pretty nice retreat from the hussle/bustle of Delhi. Of course, it was pretty touristy with a lot of foreigners there but all the same, i would go back there.

One thing that was surprising was all the vendors spoke excellent English and it was pretty funny seeing the foreigners driving a hard bargain with the vendors.

Here's some pics

IPL game video clip

Quick video clip taken from my camera phone

Cricket, Rain, India & more

Saw my first IPL game live yesterday. Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab. IPL (Indian Premier league) is a new initiative and cricket league to India that aims to emulate the franchise concepts of English Soccer leagues, NFL leagues etc. A lot has been written and said about the IPL (just do a google search) so I wouldnt dwell on that.

Seeing the game in the sold out stadium, the atmosphere was quite electric. Though the rain and Duckworth/Lewis put a damper on the outcome of the game, it was still a wonderful experience. I think IPL is good thing for Indian and world cricket in general. Seeing cricketers of different nations (Sehwag - India, Shoaib Malik - Pakistan, Glenn Mcgrath - Australia) playing in the same team and actually showing the team spirit and camradarie was good to see.

Here's a few pics from the game.

Sugercane modernization - what will happen to the mom & pop sugercane streetside shops>

A sugercane spot in Bangalore with modernization taken to the max!!!
Fully automated juicer with staff wearning gloves and maintaining top class hygiene.

what will happen to the mom & pop sugarcane streetside shops?

India Inc needs a plan as we become more modernized be it whether retail grocery stores, sugarcane juice etc etc..

Packing up and playing with the blog

Packing up from my India trip. Looking forward to it. Its going to be a long flight from Atlanta - Newark - Paris - Bangalore. But I loaded up my Treo with a few movies (American Gangsta, Juno) plus I picked up a book The Bogleheads Guide to Investing so I should be good to go.

Speaking of investing and bogleheads (Vanguard fans - low cost indexing), thats a whole another topic I need to post about soon. Its just surprising that even with all the knowledge and wealth of information, so many people are into these high cost funds and/or paying a financial advisor 1-2% of asset fees who are in the same funds. I realize everyone situation is different but I think for the most part slow & steady wins the race. In investing, one of the things that you as investor can control are the costs and you should strive to keep that at a minimum. I was a victim of 'financial pornography' :) (i read that quote in some book i read) getting into these high cost actively managed mutual funds, trading stock based on magazine articles trying to beat the market. No wonder the asset management, investment advisor industry is booming. I guess anytime you see any of these golf shows on TV (Master etc) and see the amount of commercials about asset management etc, i guess its a lucrative industry. Funnily enough, I have had a few FA's call me and even met a few but once I start talking about indexing, low cost they quickly run away cause am the worst kind of client. Their ideal client is someone who signs them a check and they can just collect the 1-2% fees every year.. This was meant for another post but since I was on a roll figure why stop :)

kannamochi - one of my fav songs

One of my fav songs when Aishwarya actually looked good

Test to see if blogger can accept video via email

Shot this from my phone and want to if possible to upload this to blogger via email.

Updated the blog

Allright. So have updated the blog with links to my other web presence (twitter, friendfeed etc).. Also, learnt how to post a song to blogger. I was pretty surprised that blogger lets you post photos, videos but no mp3 directly. so kinda have to do a hack to get a mp3 file. but figured it out.
just thought it'll be built into blogger.

Headed to India in a couple of days so not sure how much updates this blog will see but will try my best..

dolla dolla bill

Grand Canyon video

A family trip to Grand Canyon. Sep 2007. Me, Sushmi, Ashok & uncle (Sushmi's dad)

Beers & barbequing at paras and @snafilter juggling away

Chilling out having some beers and chicken at pmoney's spot.