google doshi

The other day we were scheduled for a dinner which was happening quite late. So we went to the McDonalds nearby and had a bite.

Jispa while eating the burger asked me “eating the burger makes me feel very thirsty”. “of course” I replied “they put a lot of slat in your burger so that you love it and then of course you feel thirsty. Then to mask the taste of the salt, they add tons of fat to it”. “Why would they want me to be thirsty?”. “well so that you buy coke”. “But then I will simply drink water which they give free”. “Is that so? Go take a walk around and see the restaurant. See every table and tell me what people are drinking”. So Jispa took a walk around the restaurant and came back with a huge exclamation mark on her head. “on every table there is a cola and the only two places where they didn’t have a cola was where there was no food as well.” “There you are. Now what’s the price of a cola at McDonalds?” “umm 15 or 25 rupees” “Go ask and find out” She went and asked and came back with another aghast expression – its 49 rupees. ‘whats the price of a burger” “allo tikki is for 25 bucks”. “and the cost of making it would be around 10 to 15 bucks, possibly. While the cost of serving the soda cannot be more than 2 to 3 bucks. So where do you think is the profit margin. Cola or burgers?” “wow” she was completely amazed by the math. “so if they make more money selling colas than selling burgers are they a fast food restaurant or a cola selling company. You decide”

Now that we were at it I threw another ball “Whats the cost of the happy meal at McDonalds”. “99 bucks” as she found out. “So remove the cost of the burger and coke and see what you get” “25 bucks for the toy?” “yes exactly – they are selling the toy at 25 bucks, which till now you and everyone else thinks is for free! 25 bucks for that toy which I think can’t be costing them more than 10 bucks”. “ya and the quality isn’t all that nice” she said. So thanks to that I explained her “McDonalds has become the largest toy seller in the world.” Wow.” Then I showed her the Hamleys store. “they are bigger in toys than Hamleys as well”. “bigger than Hamleys which sells only toys”. “yes sweetheart, they sell more toys than anyone else. So are they a fast food store or a toy retailer selling colas.”

“see the fun when you have something so overpriced like cola. They never ever prominently mention the price of the colas on their menu. You have to struggle to see it” (it was on a display hidden behind a column). “this way they can combine and sell you value meals and you think you are paying less but in effect they have already overcharged you for the drink”. “isn’t that cheating? Selling colas that expensive” “no they are allowed to charge whatever they want for the cola. A five star hotel will charge you 500 bucks for the same thing. That’s also allowed. It’s not cheating Its marketing”. “I am not telling you lies, I am only selling you differently.”

She was wow. “How do you know all this”. “hahha. I read. And that’s you are going to get in the books I bequeath you. Of course not all of this is from the books or in any one book but you get a sense of stuff around you once you read enough. Then you know how to figure things out as well.” “Google Doshi” was her parting comment. She knows that some of my friends call me that.

But that was a nice conversation with her. She is now big enough to know a lot of this and is able to figure a lot out as well. It’s fun growing up with Jispa.

see it slink

The slinky is one of the coolest toys ever to have been invented. The sheer simplicity and the magnitude of imagination involved from the child make it a winner. We were roaming around Rishikesh when I spotted a stall selling the slinky. It didn’t immediately strike me to buy it.

On our way back I told Jispa that I will get for her a surprise. We stopped at the stall and bought her a slinky. One of the best thirty bucks I must have ever spent. Jispa took to it in an instant. Suddenly it became the Slinky. It had emotions, it had feelings, it could be put to bed, it needed to be played with, it danced, it loved doing something and did not love something else. It was full time pass for her and me. I told her that while I was a kid I too loved having a Slinky and I had to plead to get it. Times have changed and we have grown richer as well. So I guess her childhood would be slightly better than mine in some respects atleast.
Jasmine and I tend to talk to her like adults. Like a sponge se soaks it all up. Once I was talking about how prices rise and how the same thing over a period of time will cost more money and explained the term inflation to her. She not only understood it but also this time around while I was explaining that the cost of the slinky would have gone up, she said, dad dad… wait. Is that that thing you taught me.. in.. in ..in ..iflat or something.. inflation. Yess… its pretty cool. She likes to know the new words and new terms and I love explaining it to her.
Vacations are meant for that. we see stuff, I talk and explain stuff. We discuss concepts and science and a lot of GK. It is really very good fun. Vacations give concentrated time for doing this. It gives plenty of opportunity to explore and new things to see. It is not just relaxation but a lot of interaction.
One of the demands form my team in office was to get something from my vacation, that tey can keep in office. I searched for the most atrocious thing I could lay my hands on. I wasn’t going to get something sweet and cute for sure. While searching for eth atrocious, Jispa picked up the word and she loved it. She tried using it in a few sentences. She still does. What I finally ended up buying was not so atrocious as it was outrageous. A neon orange flying plastic hanuman.

Coming back to the slinky. Yesterday Jispa had a friend over from her class. Together purely for entertainment I got out some 30-40 books and created a staircase the slinky could jump from. It is the coolest thing ever. That alone resulted in 3 hours of fun for them. It was fun getting it right. The right height between the steps and the right width of each step for the slinky to climb down from. Super cool. Try it at home and be amazed for hours.