I Think, Therefore I Am

Dabbawalas, 3.3 Sigma

2012-02-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

The dabbawalas have done it again. They have failed to deliver my dabba - for the fifth time since I started subscribing to their service in July.

Here are a few calculations based on a few assumptions:

Assumptions first :
1. The dabbawalas define their motto as 'delivering home cooked food to people'. Hence, if my dabba is not delivered, it is a defect.

2. The number of days when the dabba should have been delivered is approximately : (number of months of subscription) * 25 - ( 2 months for when my parents were in the US and for when I was on leave for my marriage) * 25 + 10 days of february. So that's 7*25 - 2*25 + 10 = 135 days.

I wasn't able to have my dabba on 5 days for the following reasons stated by the dabbawala :
1. It was raining heavily.
2. The dabba was kept in a different place and I wasn't informed
3. The dabbawala had gone to his native place.
4. There was no dabbawala available to deliver the dabba.
5. Trains were running late.

(On four of these five occasions, food was already cooked before we were intimated about the absence of their service.)

So that's 5 defects in 135 days or 37037 defects per 1,000,000 - corresponding to a sigma level of 3.3.

Of course, I haven't considered several service aspects such as late deliveries, handling and spillage. Although my dabba has been delivered late only 2-3 times, there has been spillage on several occasions. One one occasion, my empty dabba was delivered home two days late because one of the dabbawalas in the chain had gone to his native place.

My dabba started getting worn out within weeks of first use because of careless handling. When my mom asked them about handling and spillage, she got their standard reply, "Aisa hi hoga, hum kutch kar nahi sakte" (That's how it is going to be. We can't do anything about it). So much for their 'vinamrata' (courtesy) that they are so proud of.

So much for their 6 sigma hype.

Chai, anyone?

2011-10-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

Chai. The orangish liquid most of us are addicted to. Some of us have been drinking it since childhood and some of us have developed a taste for it over time.

Now think about this. If you were to go to some strange country and you were Now put yourself if this hypothetical situation. You have never had chai, never seen chai, never seen a pic of chai, never heard of chai. You are in a far off country and the hosts place this hot orangish liquid in front of u, maybe with a little malai floating in it. Would you feel like having it? Point to ponder.

Poka Yoke - Mummy Style

2011-01-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

It was 7:30 am. I woke up and groggily went for breakfast. As I headed towards the sofa, I couldn't help but notice that my mummy had perfectly implemented Poka Yoke (mistake proofing).

On the teapoy where I usually have my breakfast was my bottle of medicine(tonic I was supposed to have before breakfast). My breakfast was on a chair which was at a distance from the sofa where I usually sit. I couldn't have had my breakfast without having my medicine.

For the record, my mummy has no background in Operations, has not read The Toyota Way and am quite sure she doesn't know who Shigeo Shingo(the one who popularized Poka Yoke) is. Is she a natural at Operations Management? I wonder.

My First Rawa Dosa

2010-12-10T09:03:00.001-08:00

My parents have gone to South Africa for a month long vacation. A maid usually cooks food for me. However a few days ago, I had specifically asked her not to cook dinner. I had plans to go out with friends; the plans tanked & I was left with no food at home.

Inspired by watching MasterChef Australia, I decided to give a shot at cooking. Since I didn't have many ingredients to begin with, a friend of mine suggested that I make Rawa Dosa. So off I went to youtube and found this video that explains the process quite elaborately.

Trust me, it felt as if Rava Dosa was one of the easiest dishes to cook. Just mix the right ingredients in the right quantities, sprinkle the batter over a hot tava, pour some oil and you are done.

Twenty mins later, I found myself dumping something that felt like a mutated offspring of a cross between a Rawa Sheera and Sada Dosa into the dustbin. In short, my first Rawa Dosa was inedible.

The second one though, turned out quite all right. It tasted quite good too. I guess I just had to sprinkle the batter in the right manner for it to look edible.

So around half an hour after I first set out to make the dosa, I had the first edible dosa ready. Ironically, in less than one minute after that, the entire dosa lay in my stomach. I had a little batter left for another dosa, which too turned out quite fine. Not having enough patience to make the batter all over again, I called it a day in the kitchen.

All in all, it was a good experiment. The dosa was good, my hunger was appeased (for only a while, ofc ;) ), and I learnt how to make a new dish and most importantly, I had fun!

Until the next experiment. Adios.

Strategic Baniyagiri

2010-10-16T12:18:00.001-07:00

Strategy Formulation and Strategy Planning can be two different ball games all together. This difference was taught to us by Dr. Girish Jakhotiya at a guest session in NMIMS with the help of this simple, but extremely effective story.

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Vipul Mittal and Sameer Deshmukh were two grocers in a small village in India. Mittal had a very shrewd business sense. Jealous of Mittal's success, Deshmukh one day decided to beat Mittal at his own game.

The price of sugar in the market was Rs. 16 per kg. Deshmukh started a price war, hoping to drive Mittal out of business. He lowered the price of his sugar to Rs. 15 and kept a large board outside his grocery shop announcing the drop in price. But before he could utilize the drop in revenue to pump up sales, Mittal responded. Mittal cut down his price to Rs. 14 and put up a similar board in front of his shop. Deshmukh, of course, didn't like it a bit. He continued the price war even more aggressively.

The cost price of sugar was Rs. 10. Having known Mittal for years, Deshmukh knew that it was beyond Mittal's 'baniya' tendency to sell sugar without a profit. Deshmukh dropped the price of sugar to Rs. 11 and kept an even larger board outside his shop. Customers started coming to his shop in large numbers. But to his utter shock, Mittal dropped the price of sugar to Rs. 10.

It was a question of pride for Deshmukh. He reduced the price even further. He sold sugar at a loss. But every single time he reduced his price, Mittal would undercut him. Customers poured in to Deshmukh's shop for sugar, and his financial condition was deteriorated. However, Mittal was doing surprisingly well. His grocery shop did not show any signs of lack of funds.

Ultimately, Deshmukh's business went bankrupt. Mittal gladly purchased Deshmukh's entire business.

When the deal was done, Deshmukh went to Mittal and confided in him, "Mittal, I have known you since years. I know that you would never sell anything even at breakeven, forget a loss. Still, how did you sell the sugar at such low prices? And to add to it, how is your shop doing so well that you had the financial muscle to buy me out?"

Mittal replied, "Oh my friend Deshmukh, it was very simple. I never sold sugar below the cost price. Whenever a customer came to my shop for sugar, I asked him what other items he wanted and sold him those. When he asked for sugar, I asked him to wait for a day and then go to your shop as I was sure that you would reduce your price even further. My customers were only too glad to wait for another day to get a better deal. Thus, I sold everything except sugar."

Vipul Mittal only formulated the strategy. Sameer Deshmukh executed it.

Bye Bye DVORAK

2010-09-26T11:35:00.001-07:00

Around a month ago, I tried out the DVORAK keyboard layout after reading about it from a Buzz by a friend. The layout is supposed to increase typing speed, reduce mistakes and be a healthier layout to type (fingers have to travel a lot).

One of the first things to get noticed was the the 'M' and the 'A' keys were the same as the QWERTY layout. What I didn't understand was why the 'U' key (in place of 'F' key of QWERTY) was placed where it was. It is a key barely used while typing, but is assigned a prime location.

Anyway, once I started typing, it was quite evident that it was much better for the fingers. I rarely had to go to the bottom row. My fingers didn't have to travel much. Was quite comfortable. It didn't even take me a long time to memorize the keyboard. Speed, of course, was a problem. It used to get a bit frustrating while typing a sentence of more than a few words; but then I could quickly change to QWERTY. Windows XP makes it quite convenient for you.

Let's fast forward to the present. Today, I can type at an average speed of 25 words per minute in DVORAK. It's very slow as compared to my QWERTY speed. However, I know that if I try, my DVORAK speed will improve over time and will definitely be better than my QWERTY speed. I will even make fewer mistakes. The special characters will take a little longer, but it will only be a matter of time until I will be comfortable with them as well.

However, the problem is that DVORAK severely slows down my speed of using the computer. Many shortcuts are so designed that in the QWERTY layout, you can key them in by using only the left hand (^X, ^V, ^C, ^S, ^Z, etc), the right hand being on the mouse. On the other hand, while using DVORAK, you have to use both hands to key in several shortcuts, severely slowing down ones speed.

Even if you use the keyboard heavily, using applications such as excel can be a pain because you have to continuously switch between the arrow keys and the home position of the keyboard.

So bye bye DVORAK. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Marathon Magic

2009-01-21T00:34:00.001-08:00

On Sunday 18th January, I had been to the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. I participated in the 21 km race. I have been to a few huge gatherings, but the marathon was a class apart. There was something magical about it.

I reached Azad maidan, where the marathon was supposed to start, at 6:40 a.m. (That in itself being a big feat for me). Soon, I met my friends and started the run at about 6:50-6:55.

Not much after the race started, I witnessed 'magic'. I had been practising for the marathon for around one week. Every single day that I paractised, my shins would ache after running for about 15-20 minutes. I was quite worried that I would have to walk most of the distance in the marathon. However, things turned out completely different than how I had anticipated. My shins did not hurt at all throughout the run! Not a single bit!

When I had completed around 5-6 kms, I saw a car with a huge LCD panel displaying the time, coming from the opposite direction. The leader of the half marathon was coming from the opposite direction. He had completed around 15 kms when I had barely completed 5 kms. Moreover, when I had completed around 9 kms, a fellow L&Tite told me, "Run fast! The Kenyans are here!". The Kenyans were running the full marathon and had started from the same location as ours an hour after we had started. I knew that the race leaders ran fast. These two events made me realize what running fast really meant.

There was no energy drink - Electral - in the first half of the race, only Cadbury's Bournville chocolate posters teasing me. I was completely exhausted. That's when someone, recognizing my bright yellow LnT T-Shirt, came up to me and said, "Hey, I've been trying to catch up with you since quite some time. Even I am from LnT". After having a little chat, he offered me Cadbury Fruit n Nut. Bliss.........

The enthusiasm shown by people was overwhelming. People had come down from their homes and were offering Neembu Paani and Parle-G biscuits to the runners. One hotel owner had gone as far as offering samosas and monginis slice cakes! Some people were there just to motivate us. It did help. Just after I had finished half the race, I was walking when someone from the audience shouted, "Come on LnT! Run!". I had to run.

With the help of people's motivation, Cadbury Fruit n Nut, Parle-G biscuits and Electral, I finished the race in around 2 hours and 55 mins. It left me with a sense of great accomplishment. I wasn't even sure of completing the race and I ended up finishing it in 3 hours.

Then came the toughest part. We had to cross Azad maidan to get the refreshments - 2 bananas, one orange and one packet of chocolate chip biscuits. These 200-300 metres were tougher than the 21 kms. But the walk was worth it. Bananas had never tasted better.

I completed the race and it helped me realize a few things.

People can run fast, really fast.

You cannot refuse water from a cute little three year old even if you are not thirsty.

Even strangers can motivate one to push himself further.

To truly appreciate something, earn it. Parle-G biscuits and bananas have never tasted better.

Of Dreams and Rat Races

2008-12-19T23:54:00.000-08:00

I've come across many people talking about (not) running the rat race. The question of why we shouldn’t run the rat race being apart, the real question is why are there so many people talking about the rat race.

People say that they don't really know what they want to achieve in life, what they want to make a career out of. Hence, they are left with no option but to choose from one of the several standard streams offered by our state/universities depending on what percentage they’ve secured an then make a career in that field. They may or may not like that stream. Eventually though, they learn to live with it. It’s like having an arranged marriage with life.

I believe that everyone has the potential to at least have a dream. The problem lies in our mentality – we just don’t give non academic dreams much weight. Ergo, we discard our own dreams even before considering them as options. For example, even if some loves to play basketball, playing basketball for India won’t even be considered as a career option.

Undoubtedly, there is a huge risk involved. What if one can’t really make it big? Hence, one should have a fallback option. However, the fallback option should remain a fallback option and not take preference over one’s dream.

As the quote goes -

It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson

I think I thought

2008-09-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I thought of something; something profound and of deep significance. I was so happy of having thought of it! After all, you don't really have those 'eureka' moments everyday. I also thought that I would translate these thoughts into a blog post.

There's a problem though. I can't remember what I thought. Worse, I now think that I just dreamt that I thought a thought. I'm not sure.

What do I do?

2008-09-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

Many a times in life, I have come across a situation where I've had to choose from two paths :

1. What I should do.
2. What I want to do.

More often than not, I have travelled the first path. That's me. I do what I should do and sometimes feel good having done it or regret not having done what I've wanted to do or both - have mixed feelings.

However, now things have taken a turn. I have several options in front of me.

0. What I want to do (Not even an option)
1. What I should do.
2. What I should do.
3. What I should do.

.. all of equal importance. What do I do? Which path do I go? I cannot take any one path without sacrificing the others in some respect. I know that whichever path I take, later, I'm going to regret having not taken the other paths.

What do i do?

7

2008-06-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

It's quite interesting how something generally considered small and insignificant can spawn so many thoughts in one's head. I got an email from a friend. The subject read 7. By the time I hit to open the mail, numerous thoughts flooded my brain.

First of, it reminded me of two things - The seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride) and the movie 7 based on them, and a friend I used to call '7' in Engineering.

I got reminded that I had decided years ago 7 to be my lucky number because the board game 'Business' that I used to play with my brother (long before we had a computer at home), a score of 7 on the dice on the first roll would fetch me Rs. 2000 (or was it dollars?).

Such unrelated events brought together and thought about almost simultaneously just by the subject of a mail. And all this in a matter of only a few seconds. The mind works in mysterious ways!

Am i losing it?!

2005-12-08T05:19:00.000-08:00

This post is some what related to my previous blog post Too or Two?!?.

Yesterday too, I did some really weird things. I dont exactly know what made me perform these actions, but well, i did perform them.

It was morning. I was asleep. Mummy rang the bell (Its a system in which mummy rings the bell and i have to pick up the phone).

Here's what i was supposed to do:
1. Get up.
2. Go to the phone.
3. Pick up the receiver.
4. Hold the receiver to my one of my ears.
5. Say "Hello".

Here's what i actually did:
1. Partially got up.
2. Plugged the mosquito mat out of the socket forcefully.
3. Held the mosquito mat to my left ear.
4. Said "Hello".

That was okay to some extent. I was not exactly in my senses. People can do weird things when not totally awake. I think it had to do with me thinking about switching the mat off when i wake up or something like that. But what happened next was stranger.

I went down, ate, drank tea, finished the usual morning routines and thought that i'd play the guitar for some time.

Here's what a normal moi should've done:
1. Switch on the fan.
2. Go to the guitar.
3. Pick up the guitar.
4. Go to the chair.
5. Start playing.

Here's what i actually did:
1. Switched on the fan.
2 Switched off the fan.
3. Went under then fan.
4. Lifted my hands to pick the fan (as if it were the guitar).

What/Who/Why ? I have no idea! Ridiculous! What was i thinking? Was i even thinking?

Actually a little later, when i thought about it, i remembered myself performing such stunts a few times before.

For example, I wanted to sit on the computer. Here's what i did:
1. Went to the computer chair to sit.
2. Realized that the fan wasnt on.
3. Went to switch the fan on.
4. Switched the fan on.
5. Came back to the chair. By this time, the fan obviously hadn't picked up speed.
6. Thought that the fan was off.
7. Went back to turn the fan on.
8. Realized that i had done something familiar a few seconds ago.

And what scares me even more is that this has happened more than once.

Well another example. This happened a few years ago. We were supposed to have dinner in a little while. I was sitting on the sofa. Mummy came and asked me to open the table (the table fits into the wall and hence has to be opened). A little while later, mummy asked me to open the table again. I said, "Hey, i just opened it". Well the table wasn't open. I was sitting on the sofa in front of the table and no one could've closed the table and i was sure that i had opened it.

Here's what actually happened:
1. Mummy told me to open the table.
2. I got up, opened the table.
3. I sat on the sofa.
4. Remembered that i had to perform some operation on table.
5. Got up, closed the table.
6. Sat back on the sofa.

Another example. Dont really remember when this happened, but definitely not more than 4-5 years ago.
After im done bathing and i get out, here's what i do.
1. Pick up soiled clothes.
2. Get out.
3. Turn right and bend.
4. Open the clothes cabinet under the basin.
5. Dump the clothes.
6. Shut the cabinet.

One day, i had dumped the clothes into the cabinet and then gone* to bathe. Hence, when i came out, there were no clothes in my hand. Here comes the weird part. I performed all the actions 2-6 above, just that i didn't have any clothes in my hand when i performed action 5. I just performed the action of dumping clothes.

Do i really stop thinking at times? Or is it that i cease to pay attention to a few details and brainlessly perform some actions. What is it!?

Too or Two?!?

2005-12-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

In the Advanced Microprocessor paper on 3rd, I had finished the paper, 2 minutes were left. I went back to the beginning to check if i could improve on any answer...

In the first answer, this is what i wanted to write: "The USB cable supports xx too". This is what i had actually written: "The USB cable supports xx two". How? Why? I dont know! In fact, this is not the first time i have made this mistake.

Has anyone of you reading this blog ever made such a mistake? Do such mistakes fall under a particular category? Inputs welcome.

Cant really think of a suitable title

2005-12-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

4 years

8 wars

40 battles

1 man army

Proud to be a Mumbai University Engineer!

Got that as an sms. I great piece of work, i say!
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Exam update:

Two exams - Advanced Microprocessors and Intelligent systems over. Right now, in the middle of a 4 days leave for IP exam. Our timetable is pretty cool. Atleast 3 days holidays between two exams.

IP is quite a good subject. You can actually visualise operations on images. I finally grok the frequency domain. Gonzalez rocks. Glad to do away with the "My brain denies its existence in the frequency domain." tag.

By the way, nevey try to explain what that tag/quote means to an arts students. I tried my hand at it and failed miserably. I drew a rectangular function on a piece of paper and asked what they understood from it, if at all anything. Of the many, many mind blowing responses, my favourite was, "It's got something to do with a flag hoisting ceremony". :S
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Throat update: Alm0st perfectly fine now. Almost becuase i still cant eat spicy/hot stuff as i havent eaten it in a while. The pain is gone. I can sleep well. I no longer have to warm up water every time i have to drink it. Most importantly, i can now talk, in my vioce as melodious as the cawing of the crow!

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For those etymologically inclined: Ever thought of this word: preposterous? It's got a 'pre-' and a 'post-' along with an '-erous'! What are you supposed to infer from that?? Well I would infer that whoever invented the word was really confused.

Well here's the actual etymology:
preposterous (prî-pòs´ter-es) adjective
Contrary to nature, reason, or common sense; absurd.
[From Latin praeposterus, inverted, unseasonable : prae-, pre- + posterus, coming behind (from post, behind).]

I will bring my text book to class

2005-12-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

I dont exactly remember when we were given this punishment for not getting our text books, but it was in Junior college. Most probably, it was by Sabiha or Afroz madam. I dont really remember. The image with my handwriting was scanned by Thite and he sent it to me around a year ago.

Now dont you think that this is what i really should've done:

H2G2 & stuff

2005-12-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

I saw the movie "Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" today.

A fantastic movie, i say! Its amazing how people get such ideas! I did have a little idea about the movie as i heard Nad & Thite ranting about the book long ago, but still. A depressed robot!?!? wow!

I really want to read the books now. Sadly, no one i know has the hardcopies. Else, i would've read them while travelling. I guess ill read on the comp then.
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Throat update: Quite a lot of improvement. I can now speak. Yet i abstain from speaking as the throat starts paining after a little while. Drinking water and eating still hurts. Should be fine in 2-3 days.

I love the internet. Without the net, i wouldn't have been able to communicate with anyone! How did people live without the internet!
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Thite complained about the ill formatted text in my previous blog. I can think of 2 reasons -
1. The opera browser which i used then, which has serious compatibility issues with blogger.
2. Because i blogged by composing a mail.

This blog post will help me know whats wrong.
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I have 5133 songs in my winamp playlist. Whats weird is that the song "Joe Satriani - Tears In The Rain" (which appears only once in the playlist) has appeared 3-4 times in the last 3-4 days. I havent heard much music in the last week. What are the chances!?
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Speechless

2005-11-30T01:15:00.000-08:00

My throat ulcer is killing me.

The last time i remember having experienced great pain
was after my appendicitis operation. My stomach would
pain, and even back then, i would wake up in the night
due to the pain.

Im not sure how i got an ulcer in such an odd and bad
position. Let aside eating food, I cant even drink
water or speak without experiencing severe pain.

Yesterday morning, i could speak atleast few words in
college. But now, the condition is worse. I can barely
speak. All that is say is a few "hmm"s and "haan"s on
the phone.

Trust me, its not very easy to play dumb, especially
for a person who is used to blabbering whatever comes
to his mind.
You cant express your opinions, you cant clear your
confusions, nothing at all. Its zimbly terrible.

Take this example: I was gargling with the medicine
the doc had prescribed, when i overheard the
newspeaker say something on the lines, "Amitabh
Bacchan experienced severe pain in his stomach in
Lucknow. He was taken to Delhi Escorts hospital.". My
mummy then added, "He was then taken to Leelavati
hospital".
Now here come the series of doubts... Is Delhi Escorts
Hospital in Lucknow? If not, then isn't any good
hospital in Lucknow to treat a colitis patient?
Leelavati hospital? Was he then brought to Bombay? or
are there many Leelavati hospitals in India?
Mummy standing in front of me must've known all the
answers to these questions, but how do i ask her?
Write all this stuff down? No! Speak?? I cant speak,
remember?!?

Pain, pain go away! I hope it comes again no other
day.

But it has it own set of advantages too.
To begin with, one begins to appreciate communication systems like IMs. Without IMs, i wouldbe cut off from everyone. N dat would b real, real bad!
Secondly, i can avoid talking to someone i wont want to talk to. Reminds me of an extremely funny episode of Coupling in which Suzanne is pregnant and she blames hormones for all her mood swings.
"Sorry, cant talk, throat ulcer."

My First Blog - Have you seen this ring?

2005-11-29T09:47:00.000-08:00

Today, I officially shift over to blogger for blogging. My blog at MSN spaces has been giving problems since quite some time. Besides, blogger also provides many more features as compared to MSN.
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Now, about the topic i wanted to blog on...

Check out the image i have attached in the blog.
It is a glass filled with water. I had filled the glass in two steps. In the first step, i filled 3/4th of the glass with water from the "matka". I took some water in a cup, heated it in the microwave and poured the heated water in the glass (Throat was paining. Didnt want to have cold water).

What i observed was a ring of bubbles at the initial water level. You can see it in the picture below.

I tried pouring cold water into a glass containing hot water too, but the ring was not as prominent.

Got any scientific explanations for this? If yes, let me know!
____________________________

I have developed an ulcer near my throat. I dont know what caused it, but what i do know is that it's very, very painful. I find it hard to swallow food, drink water. At night, i get up due to the pain. I cant even speak! I hope it bids me goodbye soon.