Not that diary

I have a very limited understanding of haute couture and less so of what is on-trend. I often count on my younger sibling to explain the difference between a Gucci and a Givenchy. However, if anyone asked me who in my generation (in the Western world) I find the most stylish and elegant, I would say without hesitation it is the Duchess of Cambridge, better known to most of us as Kate Middleton. For clarity, I am no starry-eyed royalist. My admiration for her style and comportment goes back to when she was first Prince William's girlfriend, then for a few brief months she became his estranged girlfriend, before he finally 'ringed' her. The rest, as they say, is history. Here are some pics of Kate before the wedding She took on a more formal look after the wedding. Perhaps some credit goes to her stylists as well. It is difficult to know these days how much influence they have, but I like to think that Kate must have a say in what she chooses ...

Yesterday afternoon, after a hearty brunch of crepes in Chiswick, I found myself in the Bollinger Bar , courtesy mates S and R. We arrived well in time to get a vantage point on the balcony that would allow us an unrivaled view of what was to become one of the most unusual and eventful contests in London's popular annual boat race event. Following a tradition from 1829, each year during the Easter break, 8-member rowing crews from Oxford and Cambridge compete on the Thames. As we started the morning the statistics on our smartphones informed us that out of a total of 157 races, Cambridge had won 80 and Oxford had won 76 including the one in 2011. On 7th April, 2012 the spectators were prepared for yet another fierce contest. At 1:15 PM in the Bollinger Bar just east of Chiswick Bridge, the atmosphere was still building up..... There was a bit of cheering at the pre-race events including the Reserve Boat Race which Oxford's Isis crew won. Soon crowds started buildin...

The coalition government of Conservatives and Lib Dems is in power in the UK and Tory-bashing is rife in some parts of society. I started following British politics soon after I moved to London and realised for the first time that I actually understood what was happening. I suppose it helps to have just 3 main parties as opposed to the mad multi-party, multi-region politics that one sees in India where even politicians struggle to keep up with who’s with them and who’s not. After having decided that I was just right of centre, in the last year I found myself nodding in appreciation of the Coalition (or Tory) policies that promised to drag the UK out of recession and improve general ‘happiness levels’ in British society. However The Political Compass test informs me that I am actually a left-leaning libertarian. It comes as surprise to me that my political leanings are closer to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela rather than to Margaret Thatcher. Either this test is suspect or else, god fo...

Well folks, here is what I've been up to recently- creating a low-cost Android-based tablet for the Indian market. Its called - Ira. All right, all right I admit it's not me but check this out. Hot on the heels of Aakash-1 (designed to be world's cheapest tablet) and soon to be released Aakash-2, Wishtel has created Ira.  This is what the Crazy Engineers website says about Ira . Here's an intro video of the Ira tablet Those who want to compare the specs of Aakash & Ira can go here .  The Hindi website 'Khas Khabar' has a fantastic headline  आकाश को मात देगा ४ हज़ार रूपए का इरा टेबलेट that translates roughly as "Aakash will be beaten by Ira", which makes me feel rather strong... Lets see if this low-cost tablet will be more successful in the forthcoming government bids than Aakash-1 which ran into several controversies related to specs, testing and production. I for one will be rooting for it. This is as close as I can get to a pe...

 A couple of years ago somebody forwarded me a set of infographics explaining the differences between Eastern and Western culture. I sent them around to loads of friends of all nationalities and we all found them to them fascinating. We couldn't help noting how much of it was true. This website has the best collection of all the ones I remember from that email chain. Today, after a web search, I discovered that they were created by Yang Liu , a Chinese-born German who now lives in NY. They are now popular with managers looking to work internationally and also to understand their diverse teams better in this shrinking world. I wonder if Yang Liu minds having a lot of her infographics floating around the web without being credited to her. I hope she finds solace in the fact that her project has been successful and people still remember it even after several years! I also hit upon this interesting article from the Science Journal explaining Eastern and Western styles of thinki...