as I see it

Okay, let’s admit it. Every time there's some new shiny AI startup in the news, most of us do the same thing:

Scan the founder names for “familiar” ones
Wait for someone on Twitter to say “Why is India not building this?”
Go back to life as usual, hoping someday someone will.

Well, someone finally did.
Enter: Sarvam AI – India’s very own foundation model company. And no, it’s not just another "let’s-fork-LLama-and-call-it-BharatGPT" attempt.

🌱 What Is Sarvam AI?

Sarvam AI is what happens when really smart people from India say, “Chalo, let’s stop playing support role and build something from scratch — for us, by us.”

They’re building large language models (LLMs) from the ground up, trained on Indian data, Indian languages, and—hopefully—Indian humour too 😜 (though that might be harder to align than LLaMA 3).

Think of it as India’s OpenAI... but with less Silicon Valley smugness and more Chai.

🇮🇳 Why It Matters (and Why I’m Rooting for It)

Language-first, not English-only: India isn’t a single-language country (ask any passport form). Sarvam’s models are being designed for multilingual use, not as an afterthought, but from Day 1.
Cultural context: You can’t expect ChatGPT to know the difference between “rakhi” and “raakh.” Or why “daant diya” is a real thing. Sarvam can.
Developer-friendly tools: They’re not just doing research papers for bragging rights. They’re creating APIs, tools, infra – the whole shebang – for devs to build actual usable stuff. Not just AI demos that say "Hi, I am an AI assistant. How may I help you today?"

🔍 But Let’s Not Get Carried Away

Is it perfect? Not yet.
Is it ambitious? Hell yes.
Will it succeed? Depends.

On funding, on execution, on adoption... and on whether we, the users, the builders, the curious minds, actually try the damn thing.

🧠 My 2 Paise

I’m not an AI researcher. I don’t write Python scripts for fun (though I’ve broken enough Google Sheets to pretend I do). But I do believe in stories.

And Sarvam’s story? It's the kind we need more of.

A belief that India can build.
A bet on Indian languages.
And a reminder that sometimes, we don’t need to wait for Silicon Valley to validate us.

We just need to start building — and maybe, just maybe, the world will start noticing.

Go check out Sarvam AI. Not because it’s Indian. But because it’s interesting. And it’s ours.

Until next time,
Prateek
(still waiting for an AI that understands "thoda adjust kar lo yaar")

To start with, I'd like to clarify that this isn't a sponsored post. I have never been asked by anyone from Swiggy to write this (or anyone altogether) and have not received any kind of favor/money/free meals, etc from anyone. I am writing this because I wanted to.

How often have you seen people write about an app? Maybe not very often unless it is the concerned person's job, etc but here I write about what I believe is one of the most underrated, not often talked about and less used app - Swiggy.

To be honest, I discovered Swiggy pretty late (thanks to a friend). I had heard of the name "Swiggy" and had been exposed to a few of their advertisements but they never compelled me to read more about it forget trying it out. In fact, for a good amount of time I thought it is a "pickup drop" utility app aka RoadRunnr, etc.

It was only once while ordering food at a friend's place that I was told about this app and exposed to its interface. I loved it in the first glance. The only other times I felt as good and WOWed about an app was when I first switched from EasyCabs to Ola in 2011/2012 when I was in Hyderabad and then post that when I first used Uber.

User Experience

Swiggy works like a charm. It is neat, easy to use and frictionless. Add to it the estimated delivery times, ratings and one of my most loved features - real time tracking. And that's just the app. The food delivery almost always (barring 1 instance that I can remember) has delivered within the stipulated time. Delivery guys have mostly reached my location and rang the door bell without calling me for asking directions. And the icing on the cake is that I have never felt the need to contact their customer care (quickly checked my account and it shows my last 30 orders starting Apr 12, 2016 on the app and 37 orders starting Apr 1, 2016 on the web). It has been frictionless - as good as it can get.

Consistency

The 1+ year experience (assuming the account shows all the orders I've ever placed with Swiggy) has not just been on one particular address or city. I've ordered from Swiggy in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bombay (as far as I remember) and on 5-10 different addresses. The experience is uniform, just flawless, frictionless, brilliant.

Competition

I have friends in Zomato and have had heated debates with few ex-Zomato guys as well on why I prefer Swiggy. They've tried to convince me to install 2 Zomato apps - The old, main, restaurant discovery & review one and Zomato Order but on seeing my reluctance gradually asked me to use only the main app for ordering as well. I have tried it. Not just this, I have also tried FoodPanda but I don't like them. And given below are reasons why they are not my primary apps to order food:

Foodpanda - I have never liked their interface. Food delivery timelines were as per restaurant's whims and fancies also I just dislike their interface. I don't remember the last time I ordered from them and have no idea if they've redesigned or improved their UI because of point 3. Also, to explicitly mention - the negative PR around Foodpanda sometime back did not affect my decision of using/not using the app in any way.
Zomato - I have ordered from them only twice. It was the same dish from the same one restaurant which wasn't listed on Swiggy. I have tried to order from Zomato on couple of more occasions (to use Zomato credits present in my account since eternity) and have found coverage to be a problem. The restaurants that delivered to my address on Zomato were a subset of that on Swiggy. I discovered that when I chose a couple of restaurants to order from on Zomato on multiple occasions only to find they don't deliver to my address. I guess maybe in those cases the delivery staff was from restaurant's end and I was located outside their 1-2 km delivery distance as opposed to Swiggy who has their own delivery staff as far as I know. Also, since the main Zomato app's primary purpose is reviews and restaurant discovery, ordering food isn't the most natural flow on the app. Coverage and point 3 are the reasons why I haven't tried Zomato Order.
Swiggy works well. User Interface, User Experience, consistency across geographies. I have found it to be flawless and hence don't feel the need to ditch it and try anything new for now.

Have also tried TinyOwl briefly but don't remember much of it. Have tried UberEATS in Singapore and loved that as well (hope it comes to my location soon)!

Concerns

Have heard from a few restaurant/outlet owners on the high margin they ask for. While I think they're the best judge of what number makes sense to them, all I can tell them as a consumer is that I have discovered a lot many outlets only because of Swiggy. I have tried them only because I saw them on Swiggy. In case I know about an outlet already and can find the number where one can call and order, I still try to first check if its on Swiggy. I do that because it helps me with uniform experience across restaurants, I don't have to call and talk to the restaurant (I don't prefer that) and lastly and most importantly, I don't have to call and follow-up on status of delivery only to hear "Bas nikal gaya, kab ka nikal gaya pahuchne wala hoga, etc" - I have the app to track.

Discounts and Pricing

While I've got a few cashbacks and discounts initially to order from Swiggy (and sometimes from wallets as well), most of my orders have been at full price without any discount/offer. It is likely to continue that way, unless I'm exposed to some technological breakthrough, some new player entering in or maybe a substantial price war kicking in. Till then, I'm happy with Swiggy :)

Think before you speak. This is what is taught to us at school right from when we are proficient enough to be able to make sentences. Different people have different interpretations of this expression but more or less all point to the same direction except for this new dimension added by people like us. I haven't been able to choose a name (#noname) for it partly because of maybe the title of this post but you'll probably get the drift as you read further.

I don't know if you've experienced this or if it's only me who feels this way but we have become very vocal about things. We do not hesitate in expressing our opinion often. We now have opinions about issues which probably a decade ago no one even thought about. We have probably become more aware. We have probably started identifying ourselves with point of views which we weren't exposed to earlier.

Add to it booming access to information, platforms to express, forums to debate thanks to The Internet and especially the social media.

It's all amazing, it's all awesome, it's a positive change but at the same time it is something that has made dialogues highly inflammable. You can never be sure what catches fire when and who all does it turn to ashes. Sports, politics, religion, feminism, music, fashion - you name it and there would sure have been fireworks around it. If not as yet, almost every topic is still highly inflammable.

Mind you, to start a fire, you don't just need cardboard but also oxygen (in the air). Without it even paper wouldn't burn and with it even logs of wood burn.

While there are topics/issues people strongly believe in and have strong opinions about, but why does it have to be fireworks if someone else thinks otherwise? And why within the #nonames? After all aren't they the more informed, educated, supposedly wiser lot?

Aren't they the be-a-good-listener, respect-other-persons-opinion people? Why does it then quickly escalate to become toxic and end up in a battle won by the side of the opinion that has more supporters? How is it any different from, in this respect, to what it has been forever - Popular wisdom, norms. Majority ne bol diya, wahi sahi.

Isn't it then surprising that the same person questions moral policing on what to eat, what to wear and at the same time aggressively drives down his/her own opinion down someone else's throat?

Add to it those who may not necessarily believe in or identify with a topic but just stand by it or against it for the heck of it. Because maybe it makes them stand out, maybe it's cool to do it, maybe it's the image they want to project, maybe that gives a sense of belonging to... ummm... #noname2?

Ultimately, it's I am right, we are right, haww how can you say this, this is what you should accept, believe in and say.

Is it not only the topics and platforms that have changed and everything else the same as it has always been? Are we still evolving?

Why does every expression have to become a discussion? And then escalate to outrage? Why does it necessarily has to become a debate? And why does it have to be settled then and there? And why does it have to turn into a violent and ugly war of words? Why does it have to be chalo-behti-ganga-mein-main-bhi-haath-dho-lu?

I believe, that's the kind of speaking we can do away with. Those are the kind of words that one can filter and never get them out.

Let the platforms be clean oxygen that make life comfortable and not necessarily use it for compression for combustion.

Remember, chewing gum is elastic but you don't have to necessarily stretch it. It just creates mess.

Let us not reach a stage when 140 characters will become way too much for you to speak.

Let us not be those who merely evolve from Nahi, log kya kahenge to Nahi, log bahut bajaayenge.

On a lighter note, though we did like Sehwag going after every ball, we did sigh on and were in awe of that 'well left' from Dravid right?

Let go. Coexist.

Easier said than done, but I'll make conscious efforts to walk on this line.

In the end, all I can say is that, you probably got the drift of where I was headed but I couldn't write it in the exact same words that were going through my head because you know

Image Credits: david pacey (CC by 2.0)

I was looking for an Uber to go to Nando's for lunch when I noticed something peculiar around the estimated fares and went back and forth on Ola and Uber apps to dig bit deeper into what I saw and then eventually thought about writing a detailed post around The Fare Game.

I'll break this post into 3 parts -

Advertised Fare vs Actual Fare
Transparency in fare calculation (for UberPOOL and Ola Share rides)
Erroneous calculations

Advertised Fare vs Actual Fare

I hope almost everyone is aware of this fact but still would briefly like to cover the difference between the fare advertised by Uber and Ola as compared to what it actually turns out to be. I will be taking Delhi as an example. Trust most of you know that post the latest rate cut by Uber both Uber and Ola now have offerings starting Rs. 6/km. Even if you're not aware, they are likely to bombard you with the message over the next few days/week. Now, its easy to miss the small '*' next to the advertised fare which, in a way, conceals the fact that the real fare is much higher than what you see and at the same time shields away any legal trouble. And when I say much higher, I mean as high as TWICE of what is advertised or even higher and then of course there is Surge Pricing.

How you ask?

Here, is the fare calculation for Uber for a 10 km ride.

Fare Head	As mentioned by Uber	Estimated Rupee/KM value	Remarks
Base Fare	Rs. 40	Rs. 4	Rs. 40/10 km
Trip Duration	Rs. 1 per minute	Rs. 3.5	In city traffic, on an average, takes 3-4 minutes to cover a km in my experience
Per KM	Rs. 6	Rs. 6
Total		Rs. 13.5	Would be lower for longer distances and/or with low traffic

Ola has exact same fee structure for Ola Micro and hence the exact same calculations.

UberX and Ola Mini come to around Rs. 18 per km on doing similar calculations.

Bottom line, forget being cheaper than, they are not even equal to auto fares. But yes, you have to give it to them, they are more comfortable and easy to call for.

Transparency in fare calculation (for UberPOOL and Ola Share rides)

Moving on to the second point of transparency in fare calculation. The fare that is calculated for share/pool rides from one point to other can vary greatly depending on 3 factors

Surge pricing on UberGO/Ola Mini
Exact point where you drop the pin for pickup
Time of the day

Point 1 is kind of obvious at a macro-level in the sense that when there is surge on UberGO/Ola Mini then even the pool/share rides will be expensive but I have never been able to see direct correlation.

Point 2 is what I've myself observed many a times. You move your pickup location by a few metres (not kms but barely a few metres which is any way practical because almost always you board the cab after taking a few steps from the actual pickup location that you entered while requesting for the cab). This variation used to be significantly high couple of months ago but greatly reduced now.

Point 3 is what I stumbled upon while digging deeper on the actual trigger that made me write this post. Given below are 3 screenshots taken for Ola Share from same pickup location to same destination at a gap of 2 hours.

Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3

The distance between the 2 locations as per Google Maps is 11 km. With the source and destination as same and no peak/surge pricing in play (Pic 3 shows that there is NO Peak pricing), how can the fare be so different? Estimated price/km moving from Rs. 17 to Rs. 25!

	Total Fare for Ola Share	Discount Percent on Ola Mini Fare	Estimated Ola Mini Fare	Price/km
Pic 1	141	25%	188	17
Pic 2	206	25%	275	25

Erroneous calculations

Coming on to the actual trigger behind this post. So, when I was requesting for an Uber to go to Nando's, here is what I saw

UberPOOL would have costed me exact Rs. 162.70 and an UberGO would have costed me in excess of Rs. 193.69. A simple division of that number by 11 km (distance between the 2 places) suggested that the UberGO fare being shown was much higher than the Rs. 13.5 per km that I use for my estimations. Rs. 40 + Rs. 6 * 11 is Rs. 106 and it just cannot take me 90 mins for a 11 km ride on a Saturday afternoon (I frequent this route and I also checked Google Maps)!

Also, Rs. 193.69+ in theory is thrice that of the advertised fare (Rs. 17.6/km vs Rs. 6/km). Something was grossly wrong. Add to it, that UberPOOL was less than 20% of a discount (not good enough to accommodate a co-passenger and add to my overall trip time), I decided to opt for UberGO.

Result - Rs. 157.29 (before promotional discount and credit balance application; distance was around a km more than what Google Maps suggested)

Yes, the actual fare for UberGO was LOWER than what I would have paid had I opted for UberPOOL.

If this was a genuine error by the software, one cannot be sure for how long has it existed, where all has it existed, how many erroneous calculations has it made. All said and done, it's something which is not acceptable from a "technology company".

I just hope that it is not an effort to encourage UberPOOL by discouraging UberGO by showing higher estimated fares. Maybe UberPOOL is a metric of importance for them (Uber's plan to get more people into fewer cars).

Also, my conspiracy theory loving brain started with calculations and found it to be financially more rewarding (charging a fare similar to that of UberGO on UberPOOL gives them a clear opportunity to earn much more than an UberGO trip in form of a potential second rider). I genuinely hope that this was a one-off error in estimation and doesn't happen again.

Bottomline

Whatever be the real reasons behind these, all I can see is that there is a clear lack of transparency in pricing and price estimations which are likely to make people skeptical. A free first ride and advertisements showcasing messages of Rs. 6/km and 'cheaper than auto' may help recruit a first time rider successfully but is more likely to create dissonance and mistrust in that rider eventually on subsequent trips and could lead to potential lapse. Add to this the perennial debate on how surge pricing works and the mess becomes messier.

PS - Nando's was awesome as usual. Tried the wild herb sauce for the first time and really liked it :)

Some of you would already be aware that I signed up with Uber as a commuter few days back.

#Delhi, meet some of your new Uber Commuters: @DeepakAbbot, @VineetKaul, @quickdraw_46 and @KhuranaPrateek. #UberON https://t.co/IUSx4puXkL

— Uber Delhi (@Uber_Delhi) May 2, 2016

And that I completed my first ride just 3 days after that.

Have been wanting to share my experience but waited to complete a few more rides, which eventually I didn't because of reasons mentioned in the second half of the post. And so I thought, I might as well pen down the experience from that one single ride for now. Before I do so, want to specify that my motivation to sign up for this was purely curiosity and definitely not money. Also maybe the thought that more people can move around using the same amount of fuel which I am consuming by traveling alone.

Just finished my first @Uber_Delhi ride as a driver (commute). Man was it tough! All coz of my #firstworldproblems! pic.twitter.com/E7XfROUWif
— Prateek (@KhuranaPrateek) May 5, 2016

I commute from Delhi (home) to Gurgaon (work) and back every day and I logged on to the Uber Partner app, ready to go "Online".

Few things about the app:

It shows the map with an overlay of random geometrical shapes in different colours that indicate surge values in the entire area (zoom out to get the surge view of the entire city).
There is an option to enter the destination in the app (after I slide a button to go 'Online') and Uber's algorithm then pushes only those pickup requests which are on my way. Not sure if the same option is available with regular GOs and Xs.

What could be a good indicator of demand for rides even with surge pricing is that even in the few seconds lag between me going online and entering my destination, I got 2 pickup requests which I had to ignore (there is no option to reject). Whenever you get a pickup request you see a pin on the map indicating the pickup location along with the address, estimated time to reach there, rating of the rider and type of car requested (GO, Pool, X, etc). So after ignoring these 2 requests (I think driver is given around 10 seconds to either accept the request after which it disappears from his screen and perhaps goes to the next driver). Those 10 seconds were way too less to comprehend the amount of information on the screen (I did want to be sure of the rider rating and had made up my mind to ignore any request with rating less than 4.5), especially when the request comes in while you are driving.

So, once I managed to enter my destination and started from office towards home, I got a pickup request from somewhere close by in less than km of me starting from my origin. I was crawling in the heavy traffic when I got a call. As soon as I received it and before I could say 'hello', I heard "Bhaiya, booking aayi hogi XXX ke naam se". I spoke to the rider and told them about my location and estimated time before I reach.

I took around twice the estimated time that was shown to me because of heavy traffic. The rider sat in and surprisingly knew about Uber Commute. I learnt about the destination and sighed as it was Dwarka, which was off my route as I could no longer take the highway (a problem that occurs even when I choose UberPOOL as a rider myself) but still pepped myself up for this new experience and began driving. Little did I know how tough would the next 45 minutes be. Before I explain 'tough', few things about me and my usual driving behavior.

MBTI pesonality test indicates my type as ENTP.
I like listening to loud music or at least FM with volume levels anywhere between 15-25. Music/mood also at times dictates how I drive.
I do fiddle with my phone occasionally when the car is idle (in jam or a signal) to check notifications, traffic situation on maps, etc.
I turn off the engine on signals longer than 40 seconds or when traffic doesn't seem to move at all (habit I have ever since I started driving as it helps save fuel, lesser pollution)

Now in the approximate ride duration of 45 minutes, the rider barely spoke. If I remember correctly it was once at the start of the trip when I was told there is a route from the other side which could help avoid traffic, 2-3 reminders of right/left turns and then once at the end of the trip to stop. Also, to avoid imposing my music (and high volume) preferences, I turned off the music player as well.

I am type ENTP! Though the 'E' here stands for 'extroversion' and not 'extrovert' still this video (at 00:31) perfectly describes how I usually feel - "Insaan kaha hain?"

And here I was sitting next to an insaan for 45 minutes but that insaan barely spoke! Plus no music not even the virtual insaan in form of the RJ on FM (which I eventually couldn't bear and turned on some music, albeit at volume level ONE). And I wasn't even fiddling with my phone because that's most likely to give the impression of being distracted as a driver and that's the last thing even I would want as a rider.

To top it up further, I was driving cautiously, conscious of the fact that I will be rated perhaps (eventually got 5 star)? Heavy traffic and the knowledge that this trip means I would take more than twice the time I usually take to reach home didn't help either. And my OCD of turning off the engine while idle was being challenged in name of the summer heat that would cause discomfort to the rider if I turned the AC off.

Alas, the 45 minutes got over sooner than I expected and as soon as I heard "yaha left pe rok do", a picture of only a few hundred rupee notes in my wallet flashed in my head and the thought of further activity just in case this is a Cash trip added to my already eventful experience. When I confirmed if I should end the trip, I was glad to hear, "Yes, thanks.. and the ride will be paid through PayTM" #win.

With my car still stationed in one corner of the road, I immediately increased the volume of the music player, reached out to my phone and returned a call which I had to disconnect because I was on trip.

I thought about whether I should stay online or go offline and head home and did the latter because I had been driving in heavy traffic.

Talking about payouts, like has been confirmed by another Uber Commute Driver, the surge amount was passed on to me and Uber charges a 20% commission on ride + surge charges.

Post that first ride, few factors have played on my mind that have prompted me to not go for another trip. And no, my own preferences with regards to music, phone, talking, etc are not responsible for this.

What if the next trip is to Dwarka again? That's off my route!
Extra ride time. I seldom enjoy driving in heavy traffic. Doing that towards the end of the day post office leading to extra commute time is not very enjoyable an idea. I don't do trips in the morning because I may get late for work.

I've given it a try once while returning from Gurgaon on a Saturday and I did get a trip but it was again Dwarka so I had to call and refuse which I didn't like at all.

If you look at the larger picture, Uber's intent is simple - more people in fewer cars which according to me is a great initiative. What will really help me particularly and other commute drivers as well is if Uber can display the destination of the rider for commute rides (that's the whole purpose for commute right?). That way I can avoid Dwarka trips and wait for other ones. Today, I just don't log on because I only get to know the destination when the rider tells me and then refusing isn't the best thing to happen.

Having said that, I'll still give it a few more tries on other non-work travel routes as well (like I just did an hour back though I didn't get any ride requests). As far as my personal preferences while driving are concerned, if not anything, I think such experiences are lessons on patience :)

I’ll start with saying I am slightly tensed. I don’t know if it’s actually fair calling it tensed but I am certainly not feeling relaxed. There is certain degree of uneasiness that I am experiencing since last night and it is only increasing. The reason of course is the big clash tonight. Even though it’s T20, which many cricket pundits don’t consider as ‘real cricket’ but nevertheless, it is a match on one of the finest cricket grounds in the world, in the biggest T20 tournament and it’s India vs Pakistan in a (sort of) must win situation for India for more than one reasons (present situation and past history).

This is surely not the first time India is playing against Pakistan and this is not the first time I will be watching this contest. In fact, the last time they played in WCT20 in Sri Lanka, I was there at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo watching it with a few Pakistani supporters by my side who I met earlier in the day in Colombo itself. The cover image used on this post was in fact clicked on that day (September 30, 2012). But still, I have experienced something different this time. That is the role of the Internet and all things digital.

Exposure to comments of R.Ashwin comparing this match to “border rivalry” and Waqar Younis suggesting that history can be rewritten and that having lost the first match despite being the pre-tournament favourites, it’s India who would be under pressure was almost instant and recurring every since the comments were made thanks to News websites and their apps and the social media. There is nothing new with pre-match comments from players, ex-cricketers and coaches indulging in mind games but what is definitely relatively newer is fans and supporters indulging in this directly.

I really appreciated the punctuality of #PakvsInd trending on Twitter as soon as clock struck 00:00 hrs last night. It’s a different story that it changed to #IndvsPak when I woke up today morning but I was amazed to see SIX of the Top Ten trends on twitter in Pakistan being directly related to this match. India has just one #IndvsPak which emulates the Worldwide trends tally. Is it fair to assume then that the Pakistani fans are feeling much more pressure than their Indian counterparts? And I would like to believe that it has more to do with the history of Pakistan not having won even a single match against India in a World Cup that is making them restless, uneasy and abusive too.

There was a hashtag #IndiaRonaNahi trending for a brief period last night and as you might have guessed the tweets on this hashtag were aggressive in nature, some abusive, few trolling and I spotted 3 tweets (from Pakistan twitterati) condemning the use of this hashtag and accusing it of spreading negativity.

Move away from these hashtags and my timeline is flooded with memories/rituals/predictions/analysis of the match. Similar but much subdued is the case on Facebook.

There was also a fake scorecard doing the rounds (of course by the Pakistani twitterati) suggesting a thrashing defeat for India. A closer look at the scorecard and you see that despite receiving flak for his comment of being loved more in India than Pakistan, despite innumerable failures, despite being mocked at for multiple occasions of announcing and coming out of retirement, they see Shahid Afridi as their brightest jewel, the one they believe would create the turning point today. That, honestly, gives me a lot of confidence and also relieves me of a bit of the unnatural, unnecessary pressure I am subjecting myself to just by exposing myself to these digital imprints.

I can’t help but compare this with the good old days when the discussions would largely be in the classroom, school bus, playgrounds or in cases where you hear people discussing it in the market or discussions between relatives, etc. The exposure was so limited and consequently the scope of the discussion and the limited perspectives. And that what the Pakistani fans would be upto in the run up to the event was something that crossed my head rarely and even if it did my canvas of imagination was pretty limited too. But now, the only choice I have to keep myself out of all this exposure (which honestly I don’t want to) is to lock myself in a room with no TV or Internet access. I can only imagine what The XI would go through with the media, Internet, people around, hotel staff, groundsmen and many others all staring at them like those villagers with eyes full of hope looking at Bhuvan! The villagers would’ve had to pay huge sums of money had they lost but what we, the fans and supporters, have here is nothing more than pride and ego at stake and that being amplified to infinity thanks to digital mediums that allow us to have face-offs, emulate sledging and troll countrymen and supporters of the two teams directly, in real-time with just a small handheld device.

Nevertheless, I’ve bookmarked a few tweets which I hope I would get a chance to reply to towards midnight today. Feel free to assist me on framing befitting replies to any or all of these and let’s hope Dhoni & Co. give us the opportunity to be able to post them :)

This is a follow up of post on my quest to find the best Butter Chicken in Delhi. I wrote about this here and to summarise, these were the restaurants in the consideration set

- Minar, Connaught Place
- Moti Mahal, Daryaganj
- Kake Da Hotel, Connaught Place
- Kwality, Connaught Place

Apart from these I had personally tried

- Invitation, Ashok Vihar
- Galena, Gole Market

After I published my last post, I got 2 more recommendations

- Gulati, Pandara Road
- Rajinder Da Dhaba, Safdarjung

Additionally, I also tried a new place

- Above and Beyond, Kirti Nagar

And the top two places to savour sumptous Butter Chicken are

1. Invitation, Ashok Vihar
2. Above and Beyond, Kirti Nagar

Galena would have been third but has unfortunately shut down.

All others except Gulati (which is average) are a waste. The dish they serve in the name of Butter Chicken is anything but Butter Chicken.

One more place I have heard about is Havmore, Pandara Road (next to Gulati's). I sincerely hope it takes the number 3 spot. Would update once I try!

[UPDATE Apr 16, 2017] - Late in updating but I tried Havmore, Pandara Road and Moti Mahal (Mahipalpur). While Havemore did not make the cut, I was pleasantly surprised with Moti Mahal (Mahipalpur). Was overwhelmed to an extent that I think I'll try all top 3 again to reshuffle ratings - Yes, was that good!

Image source: Gail (https://www.flickr.com/photos/gail_thepinkpeppercorn/3240490130)

Talvar is based on the infamous 2008 Arushi Talwar murder case (though the name of the movie is not explicitly based on the name of the family involved). A content-driven, reel representation of what happened (and could have happened) in real life, Talvar, is a fast-paced movie that ensures that you don’t skip a scene or a dialog.

It is the distant cousin of the Japanese film Rashomon in trying to portray different versions of the same incident. For all those who have followed the case in media, this will be like a recap with an added layer of turn of events that was perhaps hidden from public view or is purely a work of fiction, nonetheless, fitting the story perfectly well and making it for an interesting watch.

With the major exception of names being changed (but easy to relate to), you get a feeling of knowing the story beforehand and just then it blends perfectly well with details you were not exposed to (or the work of fiction as mentioned above). The film highlights the shoddy first investigation which had worked against the investigation officers in constructing evidences to firmly establish the motive of the murder and zero down on the killer. This is followed by a reel life portrayal of the investigation being handed over to CBI (CDI in the movie) and subsequently to a different CDI team.

Call it fiction or depiction of ‘true rumors’, the movie touches upon the influence of bureaucracy, corruption and self-interests in the judicial system which force truth to take a back seat with selfish interests steering the turn of events. If into the movie you tend to believe that the incidents presented are indeed reality, you can’t help but chuckle at a lot of small actions, their interpretations and then their presentation as evidence and consequently going by the initial assumption, also pity the ordeal that the family went through.

Meghna Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj have weaved the story with extreme intricacy and it has been equally supported with some excellent performances by Irrfan Khan, Konkana Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi who ensure that you continue to discover suspense in a story you have read, heard and seen over and over again.

Watch the trailer here

And a few days have passed since I started using the OnePlus One. Quite a few people asked me to tell them how is the phone before perhaps they buy a lesser known Chinese brand phone, so here I pen down my views.

I'll start with positives and will start with the design. Its beautiful. The "Sandstone" back and the metallic bezel around the screen make it look awesome. And its not because I am biased, its indeed a very good design.

Hardware - Super fast, snappy. There are of course no problems usually in a new device with monstrous specs. This one is no exception. Its super fast.

User Experience - This one comes with a custom ROM - CyanogenMod which is essentially Stock Android modified a bit to add some useful tweaks that make life simpler. For those who do not know about Custom ROM, it is Android, so no worries.

CM (CyanogenMod) has provided 3 profiles to manage battery - Power Save, Balanced and Performance. I've definitely observed minor lags in "Power Save" mode and that's quite expected.

There is also a "known issue" with multi touch while typing, which effectively annoys the hell out of someone who is pretty used to typing on a phone with two hands and with decent enough speed. So what actually happens is that if I type with my usual typing speed, it tends to miss a few characters every few characters. There are workarounds, but at the moment they are just workarounds. Good thing is that its a "known issue" and a fix has been promised (because its been identified as a glitch which can be fixed via a software update).

Screen - Beautiful, wonderful, its a treat to watch videos on this.

Size - Its a big phone. I have big hands. Its not that easy to use. So keep that in mind. It took me time to get used to the size but still its not as convenient to use as was my Nexus 4. This is something I already knew, hence not complaining. One good thing that they've done with the design, however, is the placement of the power and volume buttons. Both are on each side of the device and placed in the lower half of the upper half of the phone. That makes it slightly better because it doesn't require you to stretch your hands all the way to click a button.

Battery Life - The next revolution in smartphones should ideally be the one which can promise a week's battery life (or at least 2-3 days). That, however, seems like a dream. OnePlus One does phenomenally well on this front. Attached are the pictures of my phone with yesterday's usage. With my Nexus 4 it would have meant charging it more than 2 times for the same usage. Bottomline - I don't carry my charger with me. And I don't remember where I kept my power bank. B-)

Its hard to buy One - All of you who are interested in buying this must be aware that it's not available over the shelf. They are following an invite-only system which honestly was irritating. Even after buying this phone, I haven't received any invites which I can use to share with others (which was ideally supposed to happen as mentioned on various forums). I have read that they would be moving to a "pre-order" mode of sale starting next month. No confirmation on dates, however, we can wait and watch.

Summary - Its an A+ or rather One+. Worth buying if you can. Alternatively, you could wait for the iAnnouncement tonight and pay double/triple the price for specs am pretty confident would fall short of beating the OnePlus One. The other big announcement is likely next month and that's the Nexus 6 (if at all). That I do think would have similar or better specs but getting your hands on that would at least take 4-5 months from now.

And without making any comparisons to any other device, just remember, its a big phone. If you are fine with it, get it else look for other options. As far as the multi-touch glitch is concerned, I am confident it'll be fixed before you could buy one.

I never knew that quite a few number of people are waiting for me to publish this. Though I have spent most of my life in Delhi (born and brought up here) but had been out of Delhi for for a good long period of 9 years with brief, frequent visits until I finally moved back to Delhi for considerably long period of time earlier this year.

Though this could be treated as a follow up of my last post on writing about my travel, places and foods, this is not quite that because as I said I have been in Delhi for most of life.

Nevertheless, coming here again after 9 years, one thing I was super excited about was the food. Right from the chaat to faluda to cholle bhatoore (paneer paa ke) to the world famous Butter Chicken. And for some reason, I decided to go on a quest to find the Best Butter Chicken in Delhi. I had earlier done something similar in Hyderabad last year when I wanted to find out the best Biryani (will write about it soon).

Getting back to Butter Chicken, I had in some conversations mentioned to a few people about this quest and I was surprised to see "follow ups" on the same and that is why I decided to pen it down.

Though the quest isn't complete, you'll know why, I write here about the results so far.

To make it sound rather 'cool', I'll rank the best places on "Butter Chicken Awesomeness" or BCA

So, here we start with BCA #1

BCA #1

Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a contender for this spot and that is the reason that the quest is incomplete.

BCA #2

This currently has to be Invitation, Ashok Vihar. They really have good tasting, appropriately sweet, aptly tangy Butter Chicken and if you were to ask me where should you go and try good Butter Chicken, as of now, this is what tops my list and would indeed recommend it. Mind you, this is not just based on one visit but has been ranked this high as a result of multiple visits to check on consistency in taste and quality.

Since its about Butter Chicken, this post is limited to reviewing that only, for other aspects of the restaurant, you can read my review here.

BCA #3

Number 3 right now has to be Galena, Connaught Place. As of now, yes this stands as the third best choice for Butter Chicken.

That's it. As of now that's how the top three stands. The quest is still on.

Will want to mention the other know names which I took as contenders in the quest:

- Minar, Connaught Place
- Moti Mahal, Daryaganj
- Kake Da Hotel, Connaught Place
- Kwality, Connaught Place

The Butter Chicken that you get at any of the above three places is anything but Butter Chicken. They wouldn't be a part of my list, irrespective of how long the list is.

Another few popular names are
- ~~Kwality, Connaught Place~~ (tried)
- Mughal Mahal, Rajender Nagar

which I will be trying out, but given the reviews on Zomato, it doesn't seem like they would make a cut. Nevertheless, I will surely give them a try.

If you have any other recommendations, do leave a comment, will look forward to try them out too.

Image by Affaf Ali (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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