The concept of an invitation only private dining restaurant was new to me. So when the Aragma invitation popped up for a midweek dinner, I cancelled whatever I had planned – and landed up at 1830 hrs at the Insignia complex, on Dhole Patil road. Poornima, the brains behind Aragma Food Studio, used to be … Read more

Pune generates 1500 t per day of garbage. 6000 t of waste every day in Mumbai. 65% of it is from residences and hotels. Out of this 9% is plastic. The reason for the shift to plastic is the logistics challenge: Should a manufacturer use 2.5 gm of pouch or 450 gram glass bottle? About … Read more

Jaman Lal Taneja comes from a business family. Was sure that he wanted to continue in business. During his growing up years in newly independent small town India there were not too many other options. The family sent across young Jaman to the neighbouring Muzaffarpur for completing his education. His graduation in commerce ensured that … Read more

Quite a few of us are in our fifties and stay away from our parents. And whether we like it or not, we have braced ourselves for that midnight call from one of the parents. Happened last week. Friend called from the US – local time 0200 hrs. His mom had passed away. They are … Read more

AB: How can we create moral, responsible citizens to lead tomorrow’s India? AS: By becoming one ourselves…by being the example. There’s no other way. To need someone or something external to motivate us means we believe that we are not enough. We already have it in us and our responsibility is to ourselves. That’s it! … Read more

Subramanian Swamy has a very justified reputation as a thinking maverick. So when TiE invited folks to join a session to hear the great man live in a Q and A session, I jumped at it. The first question put across to Swamy was what would he do if he were to be made finance … Read more

COEP 90 – Get together in 2014 Recently attended the COEP 90 batch get together in Pune. Got a call today from Nitin Gaekwad, our Mech batchmate, who could not attend because of a friend’s sickness. Nitin asked me: ‘How did the 90 batch get together go?’ ‘Paisa Wasool’ ‘Did you strike any deals?’ ‘No’ … Read more

Walked down to the railway station with Pinky. Reached in 1 hour 10 minutes. Walked across the railway tracks and went on to platform number 1. Did some fruit purchasing before getting into the compartment. Had interesting company. Lady who works with Schlumberger, along with her 7 year old kid and 20 year old nephew. … Read more

I recall more than a decade ago, I read a fascinating report “The Limits to Growth” which was published in 1972. The report was prepared by a group of MIT scientists for the research project sponsored by the “Club of Rome”, a think tank on global and environmental issues. The 1972 report highlighted the issues … Read more

The Oxford dictionary for India defines the agent as an Indian magician, who gets files cleared at sarkaari offices. Last week we tried to create magic on our own. Decided to get a learner’s driving licence for the daughter, sans this agent magician. Part 1 was simple – took about 4 hours of an online … Read more