SAST Wingees

Why can’t you make toasted bread and crisp dosas in your microwave oven?

Have you ever wondered how a dosa become crisp or how a bread toast is made brown and crisp? Of course, to do any of the above no knowledge of chemistry is required. But a man named Louis-Camille Maillard in the early 20th century decided to investigate. What he discovered is so fascinating that the complex chemical reaction is now called the Maillard Reaction. In normal english, it is called browning. Heat is the key to producing the Maillard Reaction and the resultant torrent of appetizing flavors and aromas. Through this reaction hundreds of new flovor compounds are produced which give the distinctive brown color and taste of the toasts, dosas, roasted meat etc. You can read the Wikipedia page on Maillard Reaction to see how complex it is. The reason I got interested is because I read somewhere that Microwave ovens can’t produce the Maillard Reaction. These days Corning does sell a browner/crisper aid for the microwave. I have tried using this aid and it does do a reasonably good job but not as good as a gas stove. But why is it that something as modern as the microwave oven can’t produce something a common fire or a gas stove or a electric stove can produce? If someone knows the answer please comment.

Shuchi Grover in the Sandpaper magazine

Don’t know if wingees remember Shuchi Grover. She’s a dualite from our batch. I came across her profile in the latest issue of Sandpaper – the BITSian magazine. The issue has interesting articles. The one on brain gain is excellent. Shuchi’s move to India with her family is covered in this article. It has some good material on “going back to India” which we have covered a great deal on this blog. Shuchi is now a Harvard educated entrepreneur focusing on technology in the field of education. She writes a blog focused on technology in education. [Note to self – add her blog to bitsian blogger blogroll]. Her latest initiative is educatorslog.in – a forum for educators in India to exchange ideas and notes. Since this is not my field of interest, I actually didn’t register in this site. People in the education field in India, I’m sure will benefit. Way to go Shuchi.

Chennai’s Best Badam Milk at Kakada Ramprasad & Triplicane Tour

Ever since I read Vinod’s post on Kakada Ramprasad, i have been wanting to go there and taste, what he described as chennai’s best badam milk. Past Sunday, got a chance to visit the place and slurp down a delightful glass of rich creamy badam milk – really very yummy.  Now, going there was a hassle (germophobes and neatness freaks may find this trip not to their taste). The narrow streets, the grime and traffic in the sowcarpet area was a bother. Kakada Ramprasad is a sweet shop on Mint Street. We found it after asking a few people around. It is 50 buildings away from the interesection with Audiappa Naicken Street (or simply Audiappan Street).  In the intersection, there is a lodge/hotel and you need to face away from it and head down Mint Street.  What a difference 20 years make? Sowcarpet and the whole Georgetown area was the place to go, whatever you wanted to buy 20 years ago. All the wholescale and major retail outlets and businesses were in this area then. Now Sowcarpet looks decrepit. Sad.

Then we went to the Triplicane area because Priya Raju wanted to check the place out. Another congested/grimy area of the city. We decided to visit the famous Parthasarathy Temple. As we parked the car, we noticed the Bharathiar Illam – the firebrand poet Subramania Bharathi’s residence converted into a museum. It has a lot of pictures of Bharathiar with fellow freedom fighters including one rare photo of Mahatma Gandhi taken in 1919. Lots of poems and letters (copies, of course) written in Bharathiar’s own handwriting. The exact room in which Bharathiar stayed also is part of the museum. It is sad that Bharathiar died at the age of 39 without actually living to see India’s independence. “Endru Thaniyum Indha Sudhandhira Dhaagam” (translation – When will this thirst for Independence be quenched?)  gives the goosebumps even today when i hear it.

After that we checked out the famous Parthasarathy Temple. It is a famous Vaishnava Temple. Couldn’t help wondering why it is not as prosperous looking as the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore?

On whole a delightful sunday.

8 facts about me – Ganesh

1. Studied in the same school from 1st till 12th standard
2. The first program that I watched on TV was the 1975 test cricket match between India and WI at Chennai (then called Madras). If I remember right, this was a trial telecast before the official Doordarshan debut on August 15th that year. This was the match where  Viswanath scored 97 runs (and not out) on a wicket that was more suited to plant roses than play cricket.
3. And of course, my favorite cricket player – Gundappa Viswanath
4. I have actually faced the bowling of Abid Ali (played for India in the 70’s) during a Northern California league match.
5. Kane and Abel  by Jeffrey Archer – the only fiction I can remember reading twice (not counting Sherlock Holmes, tinkle, amar chitra katha etc. :).
6. Recently finished reading the “Gospel of Ramakrishna” – a book presented to me by my father,  over a period of one year.
7. My first trip to US (to study at Univ. of Wyoming), the shuttle dropped me at the University dorm around 2 AM early morning. A nice cop then gave me a ride on his patrol car to my friends place. My first car ride in US was on a cop car!! Talk about small town charm.
8. One of the semesters in Wyoming, I worked as a teaching assistant at the computer center and was also the janitor who cleaned the same computer center!!

Comments (8)

Talking to your Subordinate’s Subordinates is tight-rope walking?

How often do you talk to your subordinate’s subordinates? Or should you avoid talking to them completely? The reason I bring this up is because it is a critical issue for a manager. If you mess this up, you risk losing the trust of your subordinates. At the same time, if you stay aloof and only talk to your direct reports and avoid interacting with their direct reports, you run the risk of being isolated from your larger team and also the larger team may feel that you are unapproachable. So any feedback or comment that they may have, they may not share it with you, potentially putting your operation at risk. Another risk that you run is that, any ideas or strategies or anything you communicate to your direct reports may not be reaching the larger team in exactly the way you intended. On the flip side, if you overdo the communication to your subordinates’s subordinates, your direct reports may feel that you’re bypassing them. How do we handle this? I am not sure if any book has covered this topic. Please post a pointer in the comments if you know any good book. In my experience, I have seen a boss of mine use a particular strategy that I like and I have come to adopt it myself as well. [He is one of the best bosses I have worked for and this is not the only technique I have copied from him. ] He would generally communicate only with his direct reports. But on a monthly/quarterly basis when he holds key meetings, he would ask us to invite some of our key subordinates and include them as well. In my view it created an excellent environment for my subordinates to interact with my boss. It turned out to be a great motivational thing for them. Even if I were an insecure manager, this approach created a controlled set of interactions between me and my subordinates. Of course, he would hold all hands meetings at least once or twice a year and address everyone. I have also seen some people hold one-on-one meetings with everyone in the team. However, that is not scalable when you have a large team. Is this something that you have thought about? What have you all done? Have you come across any different techniques?