April 19th 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Business Plan
I'm not good at business or finance- let me make that clear upfront. I'm not one of those people who look around and find amazing entrepreneurial enterprises hiding in plain sight, nor am I particularly good at figuring out how to make more money.
But, disclaimers aside, I have a business plan in mind which can ONLY succeed and I'm surprised that nobody has figured this out yet: South Indian delis.
If Jewish people can have their delis serving pastramis and pickles and Italian people can have pastas and pizzas, why can't Indians (well, Tamils anyway) have their kozhambus and pacchadis being sold in little restaurants in the right areas? Nobody would argue that in practically every city of the US, there is a good sized pocket of Indians. Everyone knows that 33% of the Indian population is vegetarian. Why is that nearly all the Indian restaurants in American cities serve crappy, greasy North Indian fare? And, I'm going to sound like a typical maami here, why the heck does an Indian restaurant combine non vegetarian and vegetarian foods? Haven't we evolved enough to have a purely vegetarian restaurant?
In Pittsburgh, there is a single purely vegetarian, South Indian restaurant called Udipi. It has great demand, makes a good deal of money (I'm willing to bet) and is located miles from civilization, making it impossible to get to without a car and a decent sense of direction.
What are undergraduate and graduate students without a car supposed to do? So we eat shit, literally. We hog on fries (salads, when we feel guilty) and "garden" burgers, we search for veggie options in the multitude of Chinese and Thai restaurants around us (ignoring the little voice that says that most vegetarian fare in these places contains fish oil anyway), or we go to cheap Indian restaurants which serves the most godawful food in the world.
We need a bunch of mini-Udipis around university campuses. We could sell truly good, inexpensive, veggie South Indian food and not only be happy that we are not contributing to the obesity crisis, but also feel satisfied that we are able to make enough money to sustain the business. And it doesn't even have to be just South Indian. Gujaratis and Marwadis have extensive vegetarian menus too.
So here's the outline:
Type of business: small restaurant
Location: near by university campuses
Type of food sold: see above for detailed rant
Initial capital to be invested: hmm... will need money for
a) shop in prime location (not more than 1 block from undergrad/grad schools)
b) for ovens (for fermenting dosai and idli batter in winter), stoves, grinders, blenders, and pulverizers (for making sambar and rasam powders)
c) for getting suppliers for selling large quantities of the ingredients that go into these powders, batters etc- various types of lentils, chillies, rice, wheat and so on- basically, the stuff you'd find in any Indian kitchen, on a larger scale.
d) licensing for all the restaurant... which should not be as expensive as one might expect, since there will be no charges for alcohol, there won't be issues of keeping frozen meat sterile and so on.
Our target population: Indian students, staff, faculty at the universities (mainly), and also non-Indians who like vegetarian food.
Other services offered: free delivery (initially, at least) to offices, if they order a few hours in advance.
Okay, need to stop this post and go eat... all this talk about food is making me hungry.
But, disclaimers aside, I have a business plan in mind which can ONLY succeed and I'm surprised that nobody has figured this out yet: South Indian delis.
If Jewish people can have their delis serving pastramis and pickles and Italian people can have pastas and pizzas, why can't Indians (well, Tamils anyway) have their kozhambus and pacchadis being sold in little restaurants in the right areas? Nobody would argue that in practically every city of the US, there is a good sized pocket of Indians. Everyone knows that 33% of the Indian population is vegetarian. Why is that nearly all the Indian restaurants in American cities serve crappy, greasy North Indian fare? And, I'm going to sound like a typical maami here, why the heck does an Indian restaurant combine non vegetarian and vegetarian foods? Haven't we evolved enough to have a purely vegetarian restaurant?
In Pittsburgh, there is a single purely vegetarian, South Indian restaurant called Udipi. It has great demand, makes a good deal of money (I'm willing to bet) and is located miles from civilization, making it impossible to get to without a car and a decent sense of direction.
What are undergraduate and graduate students without a car supposed to do? So we eat shit, literally. We hog on fries (salads, when we feel guilty) and "garden" burgers, we search for veggie options in the multitude of Chinese and Thai restaurants around us (ignoring the little voice that says that most vegetarian fare in these places contains fish oil anyway), or we go to cheap Indian restaurants which serves the most godawful food in the world.
We need a bunch of mini-Udipis around university campuses. We could sell truly good, inexpensive, veggie South Indian food and not only be happy that we are not contributing to the obesity crisis, but also feel satisfied that we are able to make enough money to sustain the business. And it doesn't even have to be just South Indian. Gujaratis and Marwadis have extensive vegetarian menus too.
So here's the outline:
Type of business: small restaurant
Location: near by university campuses
Type of food sold: see above for detailed rant
Initial capital to be invested: hmm... will need money for
a) shop in prime location (not more than 1 block from undergrad/grad schools)
b) for ovens (for fermenting dosai and idli batter in winter), stoves, grinders, blenders, and pulverizers (for making sambar and rasam powders)
c) for getting suppliers for selling large quantities of the ingredients that go into these powders, batters etc- various types of lentils, chillies, rice, wheat and so on- basically, the stuff you'd find in any Indian kitchen, on a larger scale.
d) licensing for all the restaurant... which should not be as expensive as one might expect, since there will be no charges for alcohol, there won't be issues of keeping frozen meat sterile and so on.
Our target population: Indian students, staff, faculty at the universities (mainly), and also non-Indians who like vegetarian food.
Other services offered: free delivery (initially, at least) to offices, if they order a few hours in advance.
Okay, need to stop this post and go eat... all this talk about food is making me hungry.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Message to baby
Okay baby,
Come on OUT.
I'm tired of lugging you around
I'm tired of telling people that I am
Not tired
Not sick
Not scared
Not unhappy about how I look
Not finding it difficult to walk
Not concerned about how I might get into my pretty, pre-pregnancy clothes.
If you could move your butt a bit
and wiggle into place
So that you are in the right position
To squeeze out
I will be content
That you are doing something for this process,
That we are equal partners in this deed.
Right now
It feels like you're mooching off me
And will continue to do so
forever and ever.
And all my dreams of turning you into a Man,
one who will cook and clean,
and be courteous and chivalrous
and kind and considerate,
and yet be a true lion and
conquer one and conquer all,
will have to stay as dreams.
Please. Get a move on.
Come on OUT.
I'm tired of lugging you around
I'm tired of telling people that I am
Not tired
Not sick
Not scared
Not unhappy about how I look
Not finding it difficult to walk
Not concerned about how I might get into my pretty, pre-pregnancy clothes.
If you could move your butt a bit
and wiggle into place
So that you are in the right position
To squeeze out
I will be content
That you are doing something for this process,
That we are equal partners in this deed.
Right now
It feels like you're mooching off me
And will continue to do so
forever and ever.
And all my dreams of turning you into a Man,
one who will cook and clean,
and be courteous and chivalrous
and kind and considerate,
and yet be a true lion and
conquer one and conquer all,
will have to stay as dreams.
Please. Get a move on.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
NDTV
If NDTV were a person, it would be a woman. And if NDTV were a person, my hands would have, by now, spontaneously gone around her neck and choked the life out of her. My loathing of NDTV is so much, that I can imagine my fingers slowly tightening their hold around her neck, can imagine the gurgling that will come out of her throat, her Adam's apple cracking and the life leaving her eyes. Yes, I have imagined every step of this murder and then I become happy. I LOATHE NDTV.
Why am I so sure that NDTV is a woman? I agree, Pranoy Roy would be the first person anyone would associate with it... only because he was there in the beginning. I like Pranoy Roy- I would be very sad if something were to happen to him. But NDTV, on the other hand, can go jump into a lake with some bricks tied to her legs and I would cheer by the banks as she drowned.
NDTV is overrun by women. And not just any random women. These women are clones. These women have the same nasal tones, the same sing-song cadence of speech, the same modes of expression. They dress the same, they ask the same questions, they moderate discussions the same way, they make the same mistakes while pronouncing words (darlings, it is not the "BJP Pahty" or the "Congress Pahty", or the "Indian Ahmy" it is "PaRty", "ARmy"... please, stop dropping the Rs).
You can tell when NDTV is on because you don't even need the words, you just need that tone. It's like a cat walking on metal with its claws extended, it is like nails scraping against board, it's your skin crawling when you realize that open can is a can full of worms.
Please NDTV. Do yourself a favor. Scrap the women and get some deep voiced men. Give those women some off-screen work. Get those pot bellied, sweaty, hairy men with mustaches back on the screen. We don't care how they look. We just prefer the way they sound. Believe me, your ratings will go sky high right away.
Why am I so sure that NDTV is a woman? I agree, Pranoy Roy would be the first person anyone would associate with it... only because he was there in the beginning. I like Pranoy Roy- I would be very sad if something were to happen to him. But NDTV, on the other hand, can go jump into a lake with some bricks tied to her legs and I would cheer by the banks as she drowned.
NDTV is overrun by women. And not just any random women. These women are clones. These women have the same nasal tones, the same sing-song cadence of speech, the same modes of expression. They dress the same, they ask the same questions, they moderate discussions the same way, they make the same mistakes while pronouncing words (darlings, it is not the "BJP Pahty" or the "Congress Pahty", or the "Indian Ahmy" it is "PaRty", "ARmy"... please, stop dropping the Rs).
You can tell when NDTV is on because you don't even need the words, you just need that tone. It's like a cat walking on metal with its claws extended, it is like nails scraping against board, it's your skin crawling when you realize that open can is a can full of worms.
Please NDTV. Do yourself a favor. Scrap the women and get some deep voiced men. Give those women some off-screen work. Get those pot bellied, sweaty, hairy men with mustaches back on the screen. We don't care how they look. We just prefer the way they sound. Believe me, your ratings will go sky high right away.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Chinese hackers intrude into Indian defence ministry computer networks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/science/06cyber.html?hp
Wtf?
Wouldn't it be nice to believe that:
a) The stolen data was planted there by supremely intelligent Indian spies and contained bogus information
b) Indian hackers re-hacked Chinese systems and retrieved not only our data but THEIR data too.
It is possible, no?
But not probable.
:(
Wtf?
Wouldn't it be nice to believe that:
a) The stolen data was planted there by supremely intelligent Indian spies and contained bogus information
b) Indian hackers re-hacked Chinese systems and retrieved not only our data but THEIR data too.
It is possible, no?
But not probable.
:(
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