colombo cool or the ultimate in pretension ...

went out the other night for dinner with the usual gang to Casa Colombo - and I am still trying to get to grips with was it something that was ultra hip or just so wannabe it was funny?my personal opinion is that I am glad that someone had the guts to do it - it is incredibly unique and you would be hard pressed to find something like it this side of South Miami Beach. However I guess I am looking at it from an architectural appropriateness - is this what I believe is appropriate for such a beautiful colonial-style building?there are some stunning elements - including the bar and some of the rooms... but also far too much for my taste

- it felt gimmicky and cluttered (as if a Miss Havisham from Great Expectations had been on an acid trip and decided to decorate this colonial mansion).

anyway enjoy

there were 2 restaurants:

• heaven (HVN) (inside)
• zaza (outdoors)

as for the food - it was generally fabulous. we decided to eat at the zaza and re-arrange the tables to accommodate the 8 of us. the tapas were really unique and really worked for sri lankan-ised fusion foods. i had a pol-sambol tuna tacos and they were truly mouth-watering. others on my end had the calamari with a mango or passion-fruit dip, crab pancakes and lollipop chicken - again outstanding and even the mixed salads were very good. i had the halibut with a curry sauce and lime basmati as a main - this was not so great (or not up to expectation after the incredible starters). others however were far more pleased - cannot remember what everyone had ...

we decided to have the desserts in the tea garden - and again rearranged the chairs to our preference. the wait-staff and management were very nice about this and didn't seem to mind us re-organising their layout. i had a scope ice cream which was a mix of juggery, almonds and something else but was served on a block of ice. very nice detail.

there were a few criticisms we had collectively about the food experience:

• the bill - it came to about LKR 3000/ per head (with no alcohol) ( the tapas were relatively cheap at LKR 400 each but some of the fruit juices were LKR 450 each and mains were mostly LKR 1500-2500)
• the drinks were served in plastic glasses - it is OK to have interesting shapes but you want to feel some weight in your hands
• the chairs outside were lined in a velvet material - made some of feel hot and sticky

it was actually a very pleasant evening and personally i was very pleased that someone had the gusto to try something like this in Colombo..

dialog sucks

just for once it would be nice if things worked as promised...as the premier telecom provider in sri lanka dialog really sucks...

For the last year I have had the following issues with them:

• this last weekend they turned off my idd without informing me. when i called up their customer services i was told that I had exceeded my credit limit. i then told the person that I had a left a deposit of LKR 11,500 and that my largest bill had been LKR 5,000 and that my bills are automatically settled to my credit card. She went "oh" - left me on hold for about 15 minutes and promised to restore my idd in 10 minutes time.
  

• my phone was cut off from making or recieiving any calls for practically the whole day last thursday 17th may. I had arrived from Thailand that morning and use dialog's sms roaming service when abroad (paying my own bills i do not want to have outrageous roaming bills + they require a deposit of LKr 40,000). to start up the service you have to activate it by sending an SMS before you leave and similarly de-activate it by sending an SMS when you return to the island. I have had constant problems with it when I started using the service but they seemed to wok out the niggling issues (or at least my wife has patiently informed them that things weren't as they should be). Anyway my phone was not working properly until about 3:45pm and I had missed some very important calls that i had been expecting. dilaog really sucks

• i had been receiving nuisance phone calls throughout this year from another dialog number. i had to send a formal complaint to them about the calls and sms - whcih i did. Anyway once i had made my complaint they sent this person a mail with my very number on it! Of course the idiot starts calling me and texting me in a very threatening manner - all dialog says it for me to take it to the police.

• every time i go abroad and come I have to reset my phone to use voice mail or missed call alert

I just think their service sucks and was wondering if i should start a blog dialogsucks.blogspot.com similar to the ranjitfernandosucks.com - maybe we too can take it to the international media - especially in light of their trying to raise LKR 20 billion...

Virtusa - the share

You can view the Virtusa prospectus here:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1207074/000095013507002136/b64348vcsv1.htm



Question arises are:

• is it going to be worth investing in it? if so why?
• what is the story you are investing in? what i mostly see is that they want to develop the 6+ acres they have in Hyderabad into a Campus with about $30 mio - what are they going to do in Sri Lanka?
  
• can they really compete with the big boys?
• can they maintain a 25%+ growth rate?
  
• at what price are they going to sell a share?

I want to buy the share - I guess as a play on the Sri Lanka tech market without having to take the currency risk - but is it really? The story they seem to be telling is the Indian one... i guess this is the tried and tested one though. Then why not buy Infosys, Wipro,TCS or Satyam?

The other gnawing thing I can't seem to get around is - what are they great at? the Indian competitors attract the brightest from IIT and IIM but where does Virtusa recruit from? Is it a great place to work?

Any other thoughts?

Updated acronyms..

Traffic on Galle Road:

I think it has come to update some of the acronyms we have has in the past:

• KGB - should now be a Kossa ( slang for police constable) Generated Backlog (referring to how at the end of most traffic jam. The old Kandy Govigama Buddhist no longer seems apt in our Mahinda Chintananya world...

• PISSU - Politician Inspired Street SnafU - like the picture above, when one of the revered political mutts decides to make move along the streets and traffic comes to grinding halt along one of the main arteries into and out of Colombo. People start taking alternate routes and thus the snafu as every street becomes jammed up. Journeys of a few hundred metres can take far too much time...

Any other suggestions?

the 5 mig 29's

has the GOSL got its head up it rear-end? Sri Lanka is apparently going to delivery of 5 Mig-29s to have the air capability to take on 5-10 Cessnas. Talk about a sledgehammer approach. Please see the following link Sri Lanka to take delivery of 5 mig 29

Source: wikipedia

My friend M pointed out:

• that the cost would be 5 x $15m =$75m, plus all the annual maintenance, repair, and pilot training, will probab result an NPV of over $125m for GoSL.
  
• All because of a handful of light propeller aircraft!
• buying and training pilots will probably mean that it will take at least a year to properly field the planes operationally (i.e. we will have to get some expensive Russians to fly the planes for us in the interim..)
• we could easily obtain several dozens of man-portable, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air, and sea-to-air anti-aircraft missiles...and they could probably be made operational within a month.
• there must be a far better way to counter 5 subsonic propeller aircraft, than spending $125m on ultra-sophisticated supersonic war planes

I agree and more so - I again think we are buying entirely the wrong aircraft. we should have bought the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II for about US$ 10 million each and no more than 3 of them. (check out the wikipedia entry on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II

Source: wikipedia

Now this is a war horse. Unfortunately the troika in power has pissed off most of the international community and have to deal with Russia who would be willing to sell them Mig-29s – which are great fighter aircraft but useless at countering a subsonic aircraft ..

squash balls for your feet

so the gilchrist controversy seems to be dragging on... the best retort i heard so far was from this sales guy. he said "whenever I hit a slow period now I am going to wear squash balls on the bottom of my shoes - to give me that extra spring ..."

what other uses can we think of for these squash balls? btw has the price of squash balls increased yet?

ode to tailor

Aiyah passed away on Friday 04 May 2007. he was a good man and I will miss him. he was an unassuming sort that could always adjust anything i bought to fit me. he never asked for very much (for his tailoring services) but was always there whenever we beckoned. I saw him a couple of weeks back walking along the road towards Thimbirigasya junction and he seemed to look a bit dishevelled. Wish I had stopped and chatted with him. Anyway so long Aiyah, I hope you found your peace.

hole in galle rd wellawata

just received these pictures of the crater in galle road at wellawate. do not know who to attribute to or how real they are ...

the world cup 2007

this article in the guardian about sums up how most people feel about the world cup 2007.

Aussies seal world cup win

Sportsmanship

before i lash out - i must first congratulate the aussies for a deserved win over "our boys". they were clearly the champs - or the team to beat in the final - from the very first game of the world cup. however you got to wonder about the spirit of sportsmanship... what constitutes cheating or gaining unfair competitive advantage?

i am specifically referring to the gilchrist squash ball. immediately after the game my wife commented that gilchrist must surely have been on something - no one else was scoring at the rate he was (not even haydn) and his performance throughout the world cup had been lacklustre at best - come the final and he is hitting at about 1.5 runs per ball. surely something was amiss. then there was the curious incident about him pointing at this gloves once he had reached a particular milestone. Please see this article " Did Australia cheat its way to Victory"

But it does get you thinking about sportsmanship and the expression "it's just not cricket". You got to admire the kiwis when Shane Bond almost made the catch but then pushed the ball onto the rope for a six. he was the first to signal that it was a six - to the umpires no less. there are many other examples even from the world cup but rarely do any of them refer to the aussies... is it ok to be the best at a sport without being a good sport?

the beautiful west

pictures from the west of our gloroiuos island.

"this country is amazing - smiling people and so so green - I love it. want to come back again"

"if I ever catch one of those bast**d tigers I am going to throttle them" sentiments of a good mate of mine who came in from china

as taken from the banks of the kalutara ganga


from Hiks: