Cashless Carnival

Sometime ago, I had this post where I had mentioned about some unusual offerings at the Kumbh like a teddy bear, a cricket bat, ball et cetera.

Now there are some insane offerings that have been reported by the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) : fake currency notes and lottery tickets. What do I say here? Fakish Fans?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been informed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that fake currency notes worth Rs 50 lakh have been recovered from the Sri Vari hundi, along with lottery tickets before draw dates and documents for land registered in the name of the Lord.

Probably, this is the reason the deities are shedding tears.

A boy who was scared by a barking dog shouted so hard that hundreds of chicken [400+] trampled each other to death. How bizarre!

A court ruled the boy’s screaming was “the only unexpected abnormal sound” and that 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.

The boy’s father was ordered to pay 1,800 yuan ($230) in compensation to the owner of the chickens.

I presume the same would have happened if the chicks were made to listen to Usha Uthup or Himesh Reshammiya?

News and Image Origin: CNN-IBN

The NY times has an article on how chefs are laughing their ways to the bank. A profession which was probably not being rated very high a decade or two ago, today’s uber chefs are not just cooking, but are doing consultancies, endorsement deals, writing books and doing television shows.

A successful 150-seat restaurant doing high volume may make $5 million a year in Manhattan, 15 percent of which can be profit, considered a good profit percentage in Manhattan. If a chef is a 50 percent owner, he or she may well give up a salary for a share of the profits. If a chef is the co-owner of a restaurant with a backer and it makes $5 million in revenue, the chef would earn $375,000.

“My guess is that less than 1 percent of executive chefs earn more than $250,000 a year,” said Adam Block, an adviser to chefs and hoteliers. “An executive chef of a high-volume New York restaurant would make between $100,000 and $120,000,” a figure determined in large part by the restaurant’s revenues.

Our very own Sanjeev Kapoor is a classic example. From being the host of Khaana Khazaana to owning a restaurant with the same name in Dubai, endorsing a few products and ofcourse, how could I not mention it, he drives a Merc E Class, Sanjeev has totally changed the way people look at the profession today.

As someone had appropriately quoted “It is better to be extraordinary in a mediocre profession rather than being a mediocre in an extraordinary profession”

Sify Business reports that Maruti has launched the diesel variant of the Swift.

The introductory price of the two versions ‘LDi’ and ‘VDi’ are Rs 4.68 lakh and 4.96 lakh respectively, ex showroom Delhi.
Swift Diesel is powered by a new generation 1.3 litre engine with five injection technology. It delivers a power of 75 bhp.

I knew this was coming, but didn’t realize it would be here so soon. Where is the diesel Getz, Hyundai guys?

The other older posts which I have on similar topics are here and here.

Got it via the usual email fwd-ing route.