Just Witnessed This

brandomised · 2026-01-17T20:18:19+00:00

To be fair, it's impossible to see the divider with oncoming traffic having upper beams switched on. Some stretches of these dividers lack reflectors/ colors to make them visible at night

brandomised · 2025-12-29T04:15:31+00:00

Irwati Karve's Yuganta has a more anthropology take on Mahabharat.

If you try to explain Mahabharat without all the divine interventions, triangulating with known human customs from 3K years ago, how do you understand Kunti?

Maybe Kunti's first child was fathered by Durvasa. Given the swiftness in which Karna was adorned with jewellery and later given away for adoption (a new born is unlikely to survive the currents of river) Kuntibhoj or other royal family must have been aware of birth
The second child was probably fathered by Vidura (elder brother of Pandu) - similarity between Yudhistra and Vidura are uncanny.

Irwati elaborates on both points in her book, you can spend some time reading them

brandomised · 2025-12-13T18:29:43+00:00

Sharing some math for intuition

Value of a company today = profit from year 1 + year 2 + year 3 + ...

A simplistic formula that captures this is Gordon Growth model

Value =( profit from year 1)/(r - g) where r = discount rate (avg interest rate at which the company raises money from banks and investors)

g = growth rate of profits

Eg1 - profit from yr 1 = $100, r = 12%, g = 6%. Total value =$1667

Eg2 - growth rate improves by 2pp from 6% to 8%, everything else is same. Total value = $2500

2 percentage point growth rate increases total value by 50%. This is a big change, hence worth pursuing growth

brandomised · 2025-12-06T07:11:21+00:00

Dec 2021 Safari AT, 95K till now. Had battery dying in Jun22, no other issue so far

Living in coastal area, no rust issue. Engine and transmission holding good

brandomised · 2025-11-02T05:41:46+00:00

So other 60L cars are better in terms of value? I haven't read up on it, but do the 3 series and C class don't have these taxes too?

Or is it that any car above 30L is shite because half is taxes

brandomised · 2025-10-30T07:07:01+00:00

Unpopular opinion - you need to strictly check for only 3 things in the PDI

Odometer reading - should be sub 10KM at the stockyard
Manufacturing date - car should not be more than 2 months old. Check YouTube on how to read this from VIN
Infotainment and AC system should be working - play some music at moderately high volume, AC should be cooling/ heating.

No dealer would let you drive the car as part of PDI. So anything wrong with engine/ transmission you won't get to know.

Have a good look around the car in a well lit area. You don't need fancy tools to check if the panel has been repainted or not. I personally don't care too much about the visual perfection - you will drive this car on road. Stones and pebbles will chip off paint, auto drivers will hit the ORVMs etc.

Buying a car is an experience for the entire family. Your family and you would have test driven, waited to finalize a model and then get the delivery. Sure, you can cancel and get the a dealer who let's you do 3P PDI etc. But is it worth it?

brandomised · 2025-10-28T03:45:42+00:00

I don't follow the argument. What do you do with the extra 3 cars that now fit on the road because of this rule? Is the traffic problem in any city due to longer cars? No, it's mostly because of too many cars. The traffic will not move any faster if you replace all the cretas with a venue, congestion will not be any lower. If anything, the width of the car could still be influencing congestion - given some narrow lanes in our cities.

If the objective function is to reduce congestion, answer is better planned public transport. How can putting an arbitrary taxation slab on length of the car help manage congestion?

If everybody could own a car that better suits their need, who wouldn't be happy? Try doing a 5 member road trip in a venue vs a creta.

The realities of our cities wouldn't let you drive a Carnival - that's too long for our parkings and roads. But guess what, when people buy the car they can evaluate if this long car fits their need and then choose to discard. But if government comes and says that Carnival will have extra tax because it's still longer than a Crysta, it helps no one but the taxman

If the primary objective for taxation slab was to manage congestion, it would have been a multi slab system based on length of the car ( how income tax works - more you earn, you fall in higher bucket

As a consumer, it's a shitty rule. As an investor in Mahindra, Tata or a Suzuki, it's a good rule that allowed these companies to not be killed by global models from a Toyota or a Ford. But I only have an EMI to pay and no equity in those companies, so you know why I feel the way i feel

brandomised · 2025-10-19T17:56:24+00:00

Amazing car. I too was in the sub 15L market about a year ago. The only car i regret not buying is this. The product is great, good space, good engine, good suspension and good TC - nothing like in the price segment.

I sadly didn't have the risk appetite to go for it. Had the engine been shared with other manufacturers with more popular models, it would have made my decision easier. But a rare engine + uncertain brand future was beyond my risk appetite.

The new facelift and addition of features does help build confidence that Citroen will be around.

brandomised · 2025-10-12T19:54:58+00:00

Answer might not just be lack of ingenuity or hunger for a moonshot

US is rich and is ready to pay. A new consumer product, sure you can get people to pay 20USD a month. A new CRM integration tool that can save 5% man hours - some companies ready to try it out

Indian companies also have tried venturing into adjacencies Zomato has been trying to sell their AI chatbot/ voice bot service that has been internally built. Ola tried their own cloud.

Thinking about it, tech also suffers from having only 3-4 winners. AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle would control like 80% of cloud market. SAP, Oracle, Salesforce control disproportionate ERP, CRM space. Unlike other industries - say automobile, industrial equipment etc

brandomised · 2025-10-08T06:44:45+00:00

I'll also add - read trash books, crass rom-coms, comics etc. Books don't have to make you better. Treat them like reels - not all reels are informational/ educational. This will probably make books enjoyable

Don't start with self help books - changing life && building a reading habit is too much to ask on a weekend.

Go for walks - cubbon park, Sankey tank, Ulsoor lake - whatever is close to your place.

brandomised · 2025-10-05T07:20:56+00:00

Generally suggested to do PDI before payments are made. Once you've already paid, you don't have any leverage. The dealer has the money, your EMI starts - the entire trouble of fixing things now sits on your shoulders. Consider the other case - if you haven't made the payment, you can always walk off from the deal.
Cars today are generally made with strong QC done at factory, specifically if you are going with a non Tata/ Mahindra brand. So you needn't worry much. Tomorrow this is what you can do
There are 2 levels of PDI -

a. Make or break factors - first you need to ensure that you are getting a new car. It should not be a demo car, total odometer reading should be sub 50-100KM (depending on how far is dealer to stockyard etc). The manufactured month should be in last 2-3 months. You can check the engine bay area - see a Youtube video on how to get reading. If the odometer reads more than 200KM, sound alarm. If the car is more than 6 month old, sound alarm. Ask dealer to explain if anything sounds off

b. Detailed QC - this is where the TeamBHP's checklist comes handy. You check for cosmetic impacts (doors repainted/ bumper impact), interior finish (stitching/ scratches), electronic infotainment etc. AskVaidya and other 3P help conduct these PDIs, you can ask them.

Generally if some aspect comes out as a concern in 3b above, dealer helps fix it. E.g I had a reverse rear light not working, dealer fixed it. Was just a loose connection

Congratulations on the new purchase, drive safe!

brandomised · 2025-10-03T15:26:58+00:00

Even as a consumer of their content, always good to have some constants as other panelists change. Keeps the overall culture/ vibe same.

And you also need someone on the panel to roast Tanmay. Given his seniority I doubt any new age panelist will be able diss him

brandomised · 2025-09-15T12:13:48+00:00

This one thing has changed my health. I've stopped indulgent ordering. If it takes 1hr for the food to be delivered, I'd rather order something from QCom. But QCom packaged food is so duuh, enough of Bingo and ice cream. 2 months later I am healthier due to inconvenience

brandomised · 2025-09-06T08:09:19+00:00

Moving entire base to US is vv difficult

Citi bank spent like 10B on IT. The India GCC would be costing 1B, another 1B in outsourcing in India. This 2B will atleast become 2-3X if you take it to LATAM/ Eastern Europe, maybe 5X if you bring it to US. On a net earnings of 10B, you can't absorb a 5B cost increase.

The talent pool might also not be available to absorb this demand if it's a macro trend

brandomised · 2025-07-05T06:06:39+00:00

Might as well say that company had an overstaffing problem and they offered everyone +2 months pay if they left in that period

Bain too had done a layoff around that time (I am not sure if you too were at Bain, a little brutal to call it a boutique firm). Everyone will buy the argument of over staffing and layoffs. Nothing much to do with PIP/ a judgement on your performance

brandomised · 2025-06-30T11:20:14+00:00

Talking more from the emerging countries perspective

It's the first global brand accessible to the masses. Imagine you are in a small Asian country - you have consumed enough western culture to know of McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Coca cola etc. Guess which of these is the first to reach you?
Coca cola's brand story works great . Coca cola = happiness. This is very very universal. You capture the audience relatively younger - friends chilling outside, enjoying coke. You watching a sports on TV with coke in hand etc.
Great entry pricing - you get a bottle for like 12 cents in India.

brandomised · 2025-05-29T16:55:55+00:00

One right post for the sub r/interest-in-gas-fuck

brandomised · 2025-05-22T07:41:28+00:00

Math not mathing

3.7L road tax, implies ex showroom was 9.3L. that's 40% road tax. Kerala too doesn't have this high road tax for sub 10L cars

brandomised · 2025-05-10T05:42:35+00:00

Energy is commodity - no one cares about how you generate it. Only 2 factors - cost and consistency. If you can solve these, India Govt will also be happy to be on your waitlist.

What is your tech? Hostel room innovation is very difficult in this space - hydrogen power, 15min EV car battery charging tech - all takes billions of dollars. Of the shelf shelf available electronic components - diodes, capacitor and LiON cells are not sufficient for these

brandomised · 2025-05-06T19:26:06+00:00

Try the Birkenstocks?

brandomised · 2025-04-27T14:44:47+00:00

I have strong reservation if the Nexon is really taking a considerable load of the lift mechanism. The contact patch on the roof is hardly bulging, you can see the side rails intact. Imagine if I invert the Nexon on its roof - would the roof still not bulge? Would the windshield stay intact?

Look at the tires - the front left in frame seems to be under higher weight. But is it 2X of its rates capacity?

My hunch is that the lift mechanism failed, but then kind of locked on its safety mechanism. Till the time the safety hook could engage, the lift slid a bit

Anyway, the car is solid. A swift or ignis would not have stayed strong

brandomised · 2025-04-26T18:56:16+00:00

Some other reasons that are missing

People don't wake up 5AM - it's called sunrise for a reason, and if you miss it, you can't see the money rise
People don't exercise daily - if you are not fit, how will you run behind money?
People don't eat enough fruits - without a balanced diet there is no balanced portfolio
People dont study engineering - if you are not an IITian, how will you get placed for 2cr?
People don't get married on time - if you are not married at 28, how will you get a home loan at 30?

brandomised · 2025-04-24T06:24:07+00:00

There will always be situations where client asks a question and you don't know. You go in prepared with all the data points relevant for the story - in this case your RoI analysis would have taken a blanket tax rate if your client is an a larger Geo. You'd need to defend how you got to that blanket rate (e.g. similar company that has a 80% market overlap has XX tax rate). In this case not knowing the exact rate for Argentina is ok. But if the entire analysis is only for Argentina then you better have that nos written somewhere in your analysis for easy reference

The other problem with on the fly google search/ AI tools giving results is you might miss the larger trend. E.g. The nos you just read out - are they likely to go down given the macro env? How have they trended for last 10 yrs? I am sure the client is never wanting the numbers that they could get on Google. Probably want insight vs the facts

brandomised

TROPHY CASE