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Uber has changed a lot of lives. It's brought in convenience, affordability, familiarity and feeling of safety in a new country, and a lot more to all of us. But then its not all positives for it, which you might already know from articles that have been coming in the media for quite some time now. Recently, I rode in an Uber which was being driven by someone who owned his own cab company earlier! He was an immigrant in London and had built a successful business for years. And then Uber killed it! After Uber, there are only two cab options left for commuters in London. Either the black cabs, or Ubers. And so the mini-cabs which used to provide conveninence and affordability are no more. The opportunity for small-time businesses that it provided to many is not there anymore. As per the driver, Uber currently offers the cheapest prices which are constantly falling. And this cut is always taken from the driver's share, never from Uber's. And once the small players are wi...

The badshah is back! Just when I was ready to give up on Shahrukh after years of being a fan (having watched Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, RaOne, Don 2, Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Diwale on screen!), I think I won't give up yet. And what an irony, it happened after watching the movie 'Fan':). Every year on Diwali, we would go and see the first day show of the latest Shahrukh release. Just because it was the thing to do - of course we had to see his movie in the theatre! After Dilwale I had vowed that this had to stop. I would not go for his movie, just because it was his movie. And so even after seeing the trailers of Fan, I did not plan to go for it at all. I did not even check the reviews online as I had no hope. But when I got reviews from a friend that it was worth going (online reviews don't count for much here as they are not really honest and dependable;-)), after a lot of debate and thought, I decided to go for it. (Btw it might be true for a lot of other people - S...

Let me start with what's top of my mind about this book, it's not easy to read. Its quite a philosophical and "big words" book, that makes reading it strenuous and needs your full attention. So it's definitely not your typical read-to-relax book. Its a book which takes a look at a very difficult question and tries to share all the philosophies available on the topic to help you decide for yourself what you believe in. And gives you loads of examples on the way to understand the drawbacks of these existing philosophies. The basic question the author is trying to answer is - What is justice? What is the right thing to do? As simple as this sounds, its one of the toughest questions to answer in an airtight manner. Lets start with a very simple example - you are the driver on a train and you see three workers working on the tracks. You have the option to divert to another track where there is only one worker working. You will end up killing the workers and can...

Recently on Facebook, I read one of those 'You know you are from xyz if...' articles. It was about belonging to the Indian middle class of the 80s and the 90s. One of the statements stuck in my mind -'You know you belong to the Indian middle class if you still save plastic bags for future use'. And the surprising part is, even though I have been out of India for so long, I can still never throw away plastic bags from a trip to the grocery store. They are stored away for future use, always! So I definitely am still middle class:). But reading that article made me think about a lot of other things I do which are very alien to the western world I live in. I always always switch off extra lights in the house, only the one in my room is the one on. I save wrapping paper for future use:). And so on.. All this is middle class too, right? We all grew up in the times of Doordarshan where social ads dominated TV time and talked about conserving energy and water. I remember...

I finally saw a Hindi movie in a theatre after suchhh a long time, and thankfully I wasn't disappointed (surprisingly too!). Fitoor is based on Great Expectations, stars Tabu, Katrina, Aditya Roy Kapur and is shot primarily in Kashmir, with some parts in London and Delhi. When I went for the movie, I had no clue what it was about. But just before the show started, I glanced at one of the reviews and wish I hadn't. It would have been fun to see how much time it took for me to figure out its 'inspiration':). As I said above, I enjoyed the movie. Given that Great Expectations has been one of my favourite books since I was young, that might have something to do with that;-). Anyways, first things first - Fitoor is an artist's canvas. So pretty, so perfect - whether its Kashmir or Katrina. The snow and chinar and lakes and havelis of Kashmir; the paintings of an artist; or the beauty of its lead characters. Highlighting beauty everywhere was one of the goals of the...

This is the first book on psychology that I have read and I must say it is some heavy reading - it took my almost 5 months to finish it!! Its an amazingly well written book, quite simple in its language but just because the content is so much and so deep, it takes a longer time to mull over it and finish it! Its written by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize winner, and his works cover both economics as well as psychology. The overall foundation of the book is that the human mind is not always rational. There are biases which affect how it works and hence its important to be aware of its failings. The book is split into 5 sections covering a lot of these tendencies, each section then split into small chapters of 10 pages. Each chapter in turn covers a small part of how our brain functions, detailing it with multiple examples and experiments from daily life which ring true and bring the theory to life for an amateur reader. The book is very very interesting, especially all the examples...

An English colleague of mine recommended reading this book as a good first introduction on the eccentricities of English behaviour, what it means and why it is what it is. The author is a English anthropologist who is trying to look at her countrymen from a distance and make sense of it. (It takes her also quite an effort, I must say!). I would highly recommend reading this book to anyone who has stayed long enough in the UK to be confused and is curious enough to look for answers;-). Its a longish book and will take patience to finish. However, its written in a light funny way and will be an enjoyable read for sure. The author looks at many different aspects of the English way of life - work, play, pubs, social interaction and so on - and based on the behaviours in these situations, comes out with a synthesised list of reasons why they are what they are. The picture below is the outcome of the book. I think its still too cryptic to get it fully just looking at the picture, you nee...