Lengoo Rants - views on Life and London

Nandan Nilekani is the entrepreneur who set up Infosys, the Indian IT outsourcing company, was at LSE (London School of Economics) yesterday to talk a little about his insights and to sell his new book Imagining India.

I actually bought the book when I was at Bangalore airport on the way back after visiting the inlaws. It looked like a good book and I really like to read about trends, peoples’ ideas and thinking. The book still sits on my bookshelf where I have yet to touch it.. it’s not because I don’t want to read it, it is… it’s just that I buy way too many books and have way too little time to read them. Anyway, an hour talk with discussions… you can get a feel for his ideas and whether I should elevate the book in my priority to read… also, it was a chance for me to bring the book with me and to get it autographed!

Well, we turned up a little late at the lecture hall and we were seated upstairs near the back… just 10 more people after us and the whole place was full.. we were lucky. Nandan is a very ordinary looking middle aged man.. I found the lecture slightly difficult to follow as his accent was very strong and also because we were sitting upstairs right at the back, the phrase which he repeated over and over was ‘demographic dividend’. In a nutshell, this means a rise in economic growth for a country (ie India) due to a higher ratio of working people against those who can’t (ie the young, the elderly). This is a window where the working groups of people (in the UK, these are those aged between 16 - 65 on average). During this time window, the economic growth for this country should experience phenomenal activity and a respective boom.

Nandan talks about how India is placed and argues why he thinks India is best place to take advantage of global economic growth. I won’t talk too much about it, I’m not an economist in any way (I work with computers) so even if I tried, I’ll probably fail miserably.

You can buy his book from Amazon:

Anyway, after the talk and because we were right at the back and at the back, I didn’t fancy making my way to get my book signed by him. However, the other half, ran downstairs before the talk ended and managed to get third in the queue to get the book signed. He was a nice guy and I asked if I could take a picture.. he said “sure”.. and came across as a very humble man! I have a lot of respect for people who can just act ‘human’ despite their status in society..

Here’s the picture of him I took:

I spent Easter weekend in Paris and in a word, it was great! Ok, so the Pound is doing crap and everywhere we went, it was expensive but this isn’t because Paris is really expensive by default, it is because the Pound is doing so bad against the Euro. Paying 5 Euros for a Coke in a restaurant is more than double that in London.

Lunch one day, I had an omelette and chips and the other half had a burger and chips. Along with tea and an Orangina, we paid almost 30 Euros!! Shocking!

The Parisiens aren’t the most polite of people however, they come across as rather harsh and cold… going back to the place where we bought lunch, I asked if they served hot food (as it was a patisserie) and she snapped at me “if you want to order food then you sit down and we will take your order!”..  I interupted her and said “I asked if you serve hot food!”.. if we weren’t so hungry, we would have just walked! She didn’t even apologise..  I guess that is the Parisien way!

So, why do I say that it is a great city? Well, generally the people know how to enjoy themselves.. we felt that there wasn’t the stress of London.. the rushed, busyness that we see in Londoners lifes. Londoners whisk from one place to another and not even appreciating what is around them. In contrast, the Parisiens take life easy.. they sit around hours for lunch enjoying life.. watching, talking, relaxing. When it comes to beer, in the UK it’s all about drinking as much as you can as fast as you can in a bid to get as blind drunk as possible. In Paris, beer comes as a half pint and the French savour it.

The roads are clean and the area is so spacious. Everywhere so green too..  I like how everything is laid out and I could see how life would be if one were to live in Paris.

Well, the conclusion? London really isn’t all that expensive to eat out!! Paris is a much cooler city.. come on London, what’s happening? Paris has so much more to offer… we have crime getting out of control, a crap transport system and the French know how to enjoy and relax. We’re always stressed and rushing around.. drinking alcohol is about necking down as many pints as possible!

Anyway, here was a pic from our hotel room:

I was actually quite sad to hear about Jade Goody’s passing… I never really paid much attention to her since she appeared on Big Brother… she was just some uneducated piggish looking woman who was revered by everyone after her what seemed racist remarks at the Big Brother house many years ago.. however, the reason why I write, ‘what seemed racist’ was because I don’t actually believe that she was racist… she was ignorant.. this was quite apparent through some of the daft questions she had asked in the Big Brother house.

Anyway, with her having Max Clifford as her publicist, I just could not help think that everything was a huge publicity thing to rake in as much money as possible.. I feel ashamed to say this but I kinda expected everything to have been ok with her.. there would be some miracle cure and that she would suddenly recover.. Of course, then she would have made a heap of money and Mr Clifford, being the brilliant publicist that he is, pocketting a huge commission.

So, when I read that she really did pass away.. I was kinda shocked and thought about my views on how my perception of things really have changed. I don’t trust what I read in the papers (there’s a famous quote, ‘don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’!!) and I am hugely suspicious of almost everything as a Londoner. This is a sad reality but it is what happens when you live in a big City like London. The other sad thing about this is that you then close yourself off to opportunities which probably present themselves as often as you think. However, there are more scams than anything these days designed to relief you of any cash that you have.

I loved the concept of the Google Streetview when it came out in the US and was eagerly awaiting it’s arrival in the UK… it finally got released last week and the pictures are amazing… they are so clear and they really capture the essence of life in London.

The best are when funny things are captured… like someone taking a leak in the street (unfortunately this has been removed.. just checked). However, there are still some very interesting pictures.. the Times newspaper has 10 of the best ones in the UK so far at:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5946084.ece

I’m sure over time, people will find more and post them.

The most popular funny ones in the US can be found here:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1870949.ece

Actually, I found a site which posts updated funny Streetview pictures here:

http://www.streetviewfun.com/

So, for those following.. it’s been more than a month since I got braces put in to sort out my teeth. All has been going quite swimingly until a couple of weeks back when two of the fixtures fell off on two of the back teeth due to chopping from the teeth at the top. The tooth nearest to the band at the back where the fixtures had fallen off still had the fixture but the wire had gotten loose…

As a result of all this, I had the wire flapping around in my mouth poking into my cheek! It was most annoying.

The other annoying thing is that orthodontists do not usually like carrying on with peoples work.. I phoned up loads of them and they were not interested in continuing the work. The ones which were happy to continue were the ones along Harley Street but you know they are going to cost you.. the starting price for these ones were £150 for a session!

Eventually we found a guy in North London, some chap called Glenn Cooper who was happy to see me… he was really nice and professional and charged a relatively reasonable £70. He was happy to sort out my fiasco.. he glued the fixtures back on and reset the wire. He also tightened the wires and did an overall sterling job!

I am so glad… spring is finally here in London. I have got sick and tired of the freezing cold British winter and my trip out to India (where I got my teeth done) was an attempt to escape the weather and to get back when it got nicer.. unfortunately, this was not the case.. I still had to endure a month of bone chilling cold stuff!

Anyway, I am really glad that things are turning… I love spring in London. The temperature is still a tad cooler than some would like but this suits me to the core.. my body temperature operates best at these sort of climates…

I finally got back into the swing of running on Sunday. I get up 9am Sunday morning, eat breakfast, do some reading and then 10am, set off. I run to London Bridge, then along the riverside walk to Tower Bridge, cross over the other side, Tower of London, St. Pauls, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern, London Eye, Westminster Bridge, Waterloo and back home. If you set out early before the tourists arrive, it’s beautiful.. turn up the iPod and off you go.

So if you see someone with a big grin along this running route on Sunday with music blaring out of his iPod.. chances are, that’s me!

As a kid, I loved the science museum.. it was always one of those places I could find myself lost for hours and I didn’t care if my parents found me either.

Anyway, the Science museum is doing a free admission on the 18th March for adults from 6.45pm to 10pm. Go to www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/lates for more details and re-live the childhood dreams!

I feel the equivalent of a trainspotter posting this but this site captivated me for a few hours last night…. I admit it’s only because I got braces not so long ago whilst visiting India.. I was curious as to how my teeth were moving.. interested to also read other peoples’ accounts. Also, as my teeth are straightening, the excess wire is starting to poke out and stab my cheek which is rather uncomfortable… anyhow, a culmination of all this resulted in some furious Googling which brought me to Archwired.

This site is for adults who have got braces for their teeth… there is a section which shows before and after treatment and boy, teeth can be beautiful! I am so glad that I got braces now to sort out my wonky tooth. Some of the pictures are rather gruesome.. some people really have extremely bad teeth.. mine aren’t actually that bad so I’m lucky but boy.. some are rather horrendous.

Tom Cruise also got braces done not so long ago.. he got the ceramic ones (same as me).. not the train track ones which you’re used to seeing

The most interesting thing is the technology, I didn’t realise that there was so much technology in teeth straightening. The stuff that I got put in my mouth is a wire that has a memory effect. A wonky wire means that the teeth are wonky and the wires sole aim in life is to straighten itself out… whilst it does this, it takes the teeth along with it. It takes time.. the teeth move through the bone.. breaking it down and rebuilding it. It doesn’t take long for the teeth to move into place but it does take a bit of time for them to remain in their final position.

Anyway, I appreciate that I’ll probably lose some readers as you’re probably thinking that I’m some sort of weirdo (not that I have many anyway) but if you’re in the same position as myself, I hope you find the site interesting and informative… once again:

http://www.archwired.com/

The great thing about blogs is that they can be the first to release news stories and articles.. when you buy a newspaper, the news needs to have got to a reporter who needs to send it to the office. From the office, it needs to be edited and then once it’s got the yay or nay, it’s sent to the printers and then finally sent through to the distributors and to the shops which it then is available for your viewing…. this is going to take a day at best….. a blog can get the news to you instantly.
The thing about blogs however, is that there are millions of them.. which ones are any good? Well, it really depends on what you’re looking for but the Sunday Times Newspaper yesterday had a good feature on the best blogs… and this was just part 1.
If you didn’t get the newspaper, the link is here:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5725644.ece

I have always been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s work.. first, The Tipping Point, then Blink and now, Outliers - The Story of Success.

I have just finished reading Outliers and my first thought is that it was extremely short.. with Hardback books, the print is always larger and the cover itself adds to the thickness of it but it just seemed short… it could be that it was really good though! It’s about 300 pages and an easy and at times, an insightful read.

The book explores why some people are tuned in for greatness and others not.. he gives examples Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc. The book looks at what is commonly thought to be the story of success… brains, intelligence, hardwork etc. Quite commonly, what is missing is the environmental factors which can determine someones success and also the facilities which were available at the time.

With Bill Gates he mentions that not only did Bill have an insatiable desire to play with computers but coupled with the opportunity to do so made the difference..

I’m not going to go in depth as it’ll spoil the book but the chapter about the Korean pilots was particularly interesting.. how cultural psychology issues caused the relatively frequent plane crashes and not incompetance.. very interesting chapter how different people from different cultures take to authority and how they react.

There are a few examples of Outliers and they are backed up his analysis and from experiments.. it is long winded in parts but overall a decent read. I came away with a few interesting ideas which I think could have been summarised on an A4 sheet.