odzer's blog

I guess I was still a bit mad about the whole Apple iPhone thing. So I took sometime out and wrote an email to the good people at Apple. I just wanted to let them know my opinion on their pricing in India. I did not really even expect a reply. So here is what I wrote to them.

Surprisingly they wrote a reply back to me very quickly, within hours really. Someone called Sheila from Apple customer care sent me this message.

What is clear for me after this email from Apple is that they really are blaming Indian duties, taxes and other costs for the price of iPhone in India. So now I have some really very interesting questions :

1) Why is the iPod relatively cheaper in India? It is almost a similar product.
2) How come other manufacturers who import phones into India can give their products at a far more reasonable price?
3) If the costs are indeed this high why are the operators not absorbing some costs considering they are not giving away an unlocked product?

So in the end I am impressed that they do answer their customers e-mails but I do not think in the end they really care about their flagship phone product and its sales in India. I am going to wait till the next year before I pick up my iPhone or some other smart phone product.

Note : Click here to read the previous post related to this one.

On Tuesday some of my friends came over for lunch. The good part was that I was not supposed to cook for them. One of the guys who has spent some years in France was kind enough to do the cooking. So even though we were hot due to the terrible weather we did manage to cook a meal for around 5 people. I do admit I sort of tried to help but in the end the guy did most of the work. I like the idea of cooking with friends. In fact I and another friend had gone up to this guy’s apartment to prepare a meal on the day prior to the ‘party’ at my place.

He made a gratin and a pasta salad for lunch. I made a Jug full of iced tea to go along with the meal. Interestingly he chose to do the gratin with some cream and cheese. The main ingredient of the casserole was sliced potatoes. All of us enjoyed our lunch and had a lot of fun. We played a game of pictionary afterward.

I found this funny store named “Republic of Chicken”. It is basically a meat shop and they sell all types of salami, bacon, cold cuts etc. The theme of the store seems to be the unequivocal and inalienable rights of all Chickens. I am writing to support those rights and I hope all Chickens get eaten equally. Talking about Chicken, I am bored of it seriously. What hits me in North-India is the absolute non variety of meat. Its Chicken or Chicken. I seriously miss eating fish and the only seafood I can safely eat here is either the McDonalds fillet o’ fish sandwich or frozen shrimp/prawns. Boring!

You would notice that I do not mention goat meat as a possibility. I am not particularly fond of it and I may sometimes eat it in Indian food where the smell of the goat has been disguised by a myriad of mysterious spices. Lamb is really not an option in the Northern plains. So this store is a bit welcome, they do seem to have some nice things but at some really nice prices as well. If India had safe pork a lot of my problems would I guess be over, I would not of course mention the other meat (whose name is even unmentionable lest people riot) but if somehow people learned how to live in peace and let others eat whatever they wanted to eat. That would be welcome as well!

My meat cravings are dampened quite a lot when I visit any local butcher though. The way they display meat here is horrendous. The nice metal trays in freezers where everything is unrecognizable and you can never guess the origin of the meat are a big put off. I can safely say though that stores like Reliance Stale, ummm Fresh do the same to vegetables as well. Put them in huge plastic trays where they can rot in peace. Not that your local Subzi Wala or Vegetable vendor is any better either. They like the slam and dunk approach, basically they they slam sacks full of vegetables around and dunk vegetables in dirty water so that their weight increases when they sell them.

The Indian consumer expects very little and demands nothing in return for his Rupee except a cheap deal. I have noticed aunties here routinely haggle over prices of small items and feel elated that they have got a good deal. So here is my suggestion to the upcoming retailers, may be it will revolutionize the way Indians shop, Individually packed trays of meat and Individual packs of veggies! Yay! You can even label them you know! Oh and please the environment wallah’s spare me the world is gonna blow up anyway, we all know it So lets not all be chickens anymore and demand produce that stays intact when it reaches our fridges.

Photos Courtesy : Alex Bunjes

The Bhutanese are a very proud nation. They have every right to be proud. They have survived inspite of Tibet, UK, China and India. Unlike their neighbour Tibet, which was gobbled up by China and Sikkim that was gobbled up by India. I have always had really magical experiences in the good old Druk Yul or Dragon Land. When I first had visited Bhutan way back in 2000, it was not on the itinerary’s of many Indian travelers. I had this idea that Bhutan was a country that was shut to the rest of the world and it was not that wrong. It was a very protected country and in 2000 they were just beginning to open their doors. Like other countries in South Asia, Bhutan faces some challenges as well. There were some ethnic issues with Nepali residents/subjects of the kingdom and many such people were forced to take refuge in Nepal. Other than that there was the matter of a closed border with Tibet due to the presence of China and Indian army was present in the kingdom and still is present to “defend” it.

However that being said and done I have found that perhaps the Bhutanese are the most friendly nation that India has among its neighbours. The reason may be partially that the Bhutanese are at peace with themselves and they do not really see Indians as any type of threat. Another reason may be the relative prosperity of Bhutan’s subjects when compared with Indians generally. I am not sure but perhaps Maldives may be in a similar position. Its just an idea that I have. In terms of infrastructure perhaps Bhutan lacks a lot but what strikes you is the shape in which you find private residences in both the cities and the countryside, not only is the Bhutanese architecture amazing the buildings are all neat and clean. The streets are neat and orderly. People seem to have some respect for law and order and most of all they tend to be open to new ideas. It is interesting to see what you can find in downtown Thimphu in terms of products everything from the best that India and South East Asia have to offer! I even remember eating Nori flavoured Lays there!

I had plans to be there this year but due to some reasons I could not make it, so I guess all I can do is to blog about Bhutan but I am hoping that I will be able to go to Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh soon. I am particularly now interested in the Tawang area of Arunachal. Lets see where the wind takes me next.

I went out today and found this button lying on the road. I could not sort of help myself from laughing. Its a bit ironic I guess. I think you can make your own assumptions about how it got where it was lying. An accident perhaps? May be it slipped and fell?

Why do people have to wear their faith on their lapels? I guess that is the real question. I have always found religious people to be a bit of a show off. They also tend to compete with each other and try to outdo each other. So what if you are not religious is it bad? May be not but it certainly does make your life very difficult. People who are not religious have a very difficult time speaking out in certain places, I still remember debating God with some of my friends in a restaurant once and it got a little bit loud and one guy from the table behind us actually came up to me and said “God is great, he is everywhere!”. I just told him “He may not be, but he certainly is well represented!”.

Jesus is alive today! I wish him good health and good luck!

How difficult can it be to make a cup of tea? Lets talk about what happened to me today. I went to this restaurant in Sector 35-C called ‘Nik Bakers’ a sort of a bakery which is good at its best and average on most days. This was to be one of the those days when it was at its worst apparently. I asked for a Peach Iced Tea without any sugar. The guy who billed the beverage was told repeatedly that I want an iced tea without any sugar and he kept nodding his head, mumbling incoherently and finally said “one iced tea without any extra sugar”. That should probably have been my first clue but I admit I was sleepy at that point having just risen some 45 minutes before the event and gone to this ‘bakery’ for my breakfast.

So my order arrived and I took one sip of the drink and I was shocked, it was pure syrup. I mean you could have dunked your mothers home made Gulab Jamuns in it and sweetened them that way! I took the drink to the man at the cashier’s counter and he kept repeating that he had said no extra sugar! I mean the drink was already syrup, does it need any more sugar? So this woman who was also behind the counter then jumps in to the conversation and I asked her about my drink and she said “We do not add any sugar to this drink, the sugar is already included the mix”. Now having paid around 1$ for a drink in a third world country I expect some amount of quality. 1$ is a lot of money in India even with 13% inflation. I asked her “So your iced tea has no tea in it?”. She mumbles something again about a mix and I just leave the counter in disgust.

Coming back to my original question, how hard is it to make Tea. Nik if you are reading this, all you need is a peach flavoured tea bag, water, some ice and no sugar. I will gladly pay you the price you charge for you pre-mix tea if you would please give me some real tea! Oh and at the odd chance if you are reading it, at least serve your customers some decent hot tea and not a Taj Mahal Tea Bag in a cup. Darjeeling or even some good quality non cheap Assam would do nicely. Your hot tea is not priced cheap either so you could probably give us a decent tea bag eh?

I have used the same mobile number and the same operator for around half a decade now. I am an extremely satisfied customer of Airtel, so far they have never let me down until today. When I booked an iPhone with them I had expected it to be priced at a level higher than what it is being sold for in most other countries but I did not expect such a high price. So you might say how naive, people can sell anything at any price as long as there are buyers. I should say sure. However Airtel knew that a lot of people were looking forward to this particular model and they should have arranged a better deal with Apple. If they do not have enough phones it is entirely a problem that has been created by Apple and Airtel, they are the one’s that have created this artificial scarcity.

Let me just say this I am not going to purchase an iPhone now. Thank you very much Airtel! I am very happy with my Sony Ericsson Z610i. Its already a 3G telephone and I can use it for roaming here in India and other countries with 3G networks extremely well. I admit I am a tech nerd and I will usually pick up anything even if it costs a lot more initially but not this particular phone. I am giving it a pass for now. Even though I know this will be a great product. I use a Macbook now and I love the computer in terms of its usability viz a viz what is available on the other more popular platform. Just for now I will say that disappointment doesn’t even begin to describe it!

Note : Part 2 of this post is available here.

I will admit I have only ever had Korean food 3 times in my life. Two times was in Dharamsala and one time at the Korea town in Shin-Okubo in Tokyo. The one time in Tokyo I had gone along with a friend for a Korean barbecue. So since I have just returned back from Dharamsala l will write about the latest experience. I went to the Korean restaurant Dokebi at Jogiwara Road. This is by far my favourite restaurant in Dharamsala. So what exactly do I like about Korean food, for one I like the spicy nature of it. If you like red pepper you will surely like Korean food. I also like Kimchi I can eat tons of the stuff whenever I get it. The Kimchi I ate in Japan was however far more nicer than anything that I have ever had in India.

This time I ordered some Korean Sushi (vegetarian one), a korean rice dish with a fried egg, some ramen and barley tea (which resembles Japanese muggi cha). The food came right on time even though my friend and I were the only customers at that time owing to the fact that it was pouring outside. We got two soups which had some sort of a sea weed in it for free and one bowl of rice free with the ramen. Apparently it seems Koreans seem to eat rice with their ramen. It also seems that Koreans use metal chopsticks which I am not so familiar with as I am more comfortable using either the Chinese or the Japanese variety. All in all the meal was excellent and the restaurants atmosphere makes me feel right at home and very comfortable. The fact that it is run by a Korean person (I am told a Korean woman) and it is reasonably priced is just excellent. So if you are ever in Dharamsala do give it a go.

I went to Dharamsala on the evening of 15th August, mostly for work but I thought also for a little break. It is just another story that I could not relax at all. One of the good things about going to Dharamsala is just to enjoy the culture. McLeod Ganj is full of it, every where you go there are schools for learning everything from Indian cooking to Hypnotic regression. In any case I had no time to go to any temples or any energy as well but I did meet some old friends and some new people.

So you can find all sorts of people in such a small place and all kinds of food as well. I had various interesting dinning experiences as well as eating all kinds of my favourite Tibetan foods. Overall it was a very tiring weekend trying to do business with a different culture with their own understanding of the world, language problems and some other interesting challenges thrown in. What I did find the most difficult was the Bus journey from Chandigarh to Dharamsala. It took me 8 hours to go each way and the roads were horribly broken in many places so the whole journey was so shaky. I do not suffer from altitude or motion sickness but I can imagine it would be much worse for people that do. What I do suffer from however is my height. I am quite a tall guy and I never fit in the average Indian bus seat.

As I write this I am suffering horrible leg pain, I wonder if anyone that runs the transport department in the government has ever heard or economy class syndrome? I guess it is not a big concern! Anyway I am posting some pictures from good old Himachal once again. It is nice to be back home though!

Body hair is an interesting topic for men. Some like more, some like less. However what most men do know is that they get more hairy as they grow older. Sure there is some growth when you hit puberty but the really annoying body hair starts coming out when you are in your mid twenties. You notice the pubic sort of hair popping out of your nose and some men start to notice similar hair popping out of their ears. I guess Indian men have the most hairy ears in the world if I am not mistaken.

What about hair on shoulders and back? Yuck. Hair on your arms also tends to get longer during this age. So how hairy am I? Well fairly but not as hairy perhaps as my father. I can go without shaving easily for two or max three days. It seems though that hair in another crucial part is missing in my case i.e. the head. Do I like body hair on me? Yes I do, I think I am just the right level of hairiness. However the reason I am writing this blog is my phobia of getting more hairy from here on. I certainly do dread that ear hair though I guess my family has no history of that.

Men who are not very hairy especially some Asians tend to want to be more hairy and generally very hairy men tend to want to have less hair. Some friends of mine are so furry that it is hard to recognize where the hair begins and where it ends and some are completely lacking the fuzz. I remember an incident in Tibet when I was at the Jokhang square when some young boys came and pulled on my arm hair and called me a “Monkey”. I guess they were just fascinated by it because they had never ever seen a hairy man before!

Another thing that bothers me about body hair is the fact that I have a white bathroom floor, after a nice shower the hair on the floor unnerves me. I always try to take a shower before the floor is cleaned. In Japan it is a tradition to share bath water or to take communal baths. I dread the idea that some of my hair will be floating around when the next person takes his or her bath so I just avoid the whole shared bath thing. Fortunately for me my hosts and friends were quite understanding about the whole thing. I guess though it is something for me to overcome and I am sure I can.

Should men actually shave their arm pits? Some do, some do not. I guess it depends on how they look at it. I guess men who are likely to shave their arm pits are also likely to shave elsewhere. Muscular men who happen to be hairy are very likely candidates for shaving off fuzz in interesting places. I guess as a person who is very smell centric I would rather some guys shave it off though on record I have observed men smell less from their arm pits. One they are likely to eat less spicier diets and secondly its just that women DO smell more there so its less important for men to shave their pits.

Personally I do not like facial hair, I kept a mustache when I was a teenager only for the reason that I was afraid of cutting my lip. Although I do like going without shaving occasionally. However I guess facial hair is everyone’s personal choice. In one way or the other I do feel that men are obsessed by their hair whether its on their heads, their faces, their chests or other more interesting body parts. I shall just end with a joke, one of my non-hairy friends once observed “I don’t like women that are more hairy than I am”.