Idli Dosa Twitter in PeakBengaluru, Gaurav Munjal's reading guy, and the 4 lists.
Sajith Pai's irregular newsletter #10
Here is issue #10 of my somewhat irregular newsletter:) Comprises thoughts too long for twitter, but too unpolished for blogposts.
For newer subscribers, a PSA. All issues follow a template. There are three sections.
Writing(s) - a piece of my original writing(s) or a link(s) to one or more
Listening(s) - notes on a podcast (or two) I listened to and liked
Readings - excerpts from 3-5 articles or books that I enjoyed with my take on it.
I may skip Writing or Listening if I haven’t done either that week or preceding weeks.
Here we go. Feedback in the comments or at sp@sajithpai.com (on anything re the newsletter). If you want to reach me for a funding request then write in at sp@blume.vc (replies in 3-4 days).
Writings
What techie tweets about Bangalore Idli Dosa tell us about themselves
An increasingly common tweet theme i notice is the recently-moved to Bangalore techie / startup operator celebration of southie food. Related to that is a celebration of Kannadiga culture through uses of Kannada words
This tweet captures both strains perfectly.
A related strain / theme is insider info on less well-known eateries
I dont see anything similar in folks who move to Mumbai or even Gurgaon. Now you can say that is because I dont follow such folks (twitter typically surfaces tweets from folks you dont follow and many of the southie food tweets are from folks i dont follow) or that folks who move to Mumbai or Delhi don’t tweet abt the local food scene.
And that got me thinking. Why do folks who move to Bangalore rave about the food and tweet about it?
My view is that south indian food in Bangalore is ‘code’ for being a native of the city. Let us decode this:)
Words encode culture and emotion
The word ‘code’ above is used in the sense that business anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille uses it, as an imprint for an emotion or mood. A good example of what Rapaille meant is the word ‘food’. Per him, in France, food = culture. They eat leisurely meals, small quantities, presentation is important.
In the US, food codes as fuel. It is what you fill yourself with to move on to the next activity. No wonder fast food was invented in the US, and there is a close association with food and cars.
In Bangalore, food = tradition, and South Indian food = native tradition, and celebrating South Indian food = celebrating Kannadiga culture and showing that you are settled in / indigenous. To me it is a kind of performative twitter for signalling how long you have been in the city and well-settled in.
It is like the line in Alexis Gay’s video about people signalling how long they have been in SF (and hence indirectly their higher rank on the tech totem pole) through referencing the Salesforce Tower (0.09-0.10 min of this video)
Let us segue back to Bangalore and southie food. Celebrating southie food and indirectly kannadiga culture is a way of showing how quickly you have settled down in Bangalore, hinting at that you have been settled down in Bangalore long. That you are not an arriviste but a native. And a proxy for your rough rank in the tech social ladder. South Indian food is code for being a native / original of the city, or at least an attempt at one.
What about Delhi and Mumbai?
Each city has a code for connoting that they are natives and not arriviste.
In Delhi / Gurgaon or NCR (National Capital Region as a moniker for the larger urban conurbation), I think it is adjusting for seasonality; structuring your life to take advantage of the kinder winter, and run away from the harsher summer (and now the polluted early winter months). The folks who have been in NCR the longest, and especially those who are wealthy, move to their hill cottages in May-July. They have Lodhi Garden or Nehru Garden picnics in winter.
Incidentally, the highly polluted October-November is leading to Delhiites scooting off to Goa in these months! In a way Delhiities are mimicking what the British did with the summer capital moving to Simla to get away from the beastly weather.
What about Mumbai? Hmmm….i dont have as ready made an answer as I have for Bangalore and Delhi. I spent 17 years there and if I look back then these were the cues I used for hinting my native status
love of Parsi culture + food; familiarity with this culture and people is a great signal of your long presence in Mumbai
familiarity with older South Bombay restaurants
willingness to help anyone with directions (this sounds funny, but believe me, I havent met friendlier people than Mumbaiiites in telling you how to reach from place A to B. This to me is a great signal for ‘oh you are new, let me help you and show how familiar i am and how long i have been here by sharing correct directions’
Very pop anthropological piece this, and a clear departure from my usual style. But I have been mulling over this for a while and wanted to get this out. Would love to hear your thoughts including what codes for native status in other cities are!
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On a side note, I was featured in LinkedIn India’s annual list of 15 big ideas for 2022. I wrote about the 2022 startup investment outlook. TLDR; party jaari hai, but a sense that we are past the peak.
Brief excerpt from the piece -
Buoyancy in the public and private markets is, to some extent, a function of the easy money policy led by the US Federal Reserve Bank. “The easy money era seems to be ending as we are beginning to see inflation rear its head in the US. Easy growth and easy funding will slowly taper globally,” said Sajith Pai, Director at Blume Ventures.
But with tech still growing on the back of several long-term trends, we are likely to see investment allocations continue. “2022 will continue to see a focus on growth and expansion. The pace may sober a little and there will be greater consciousness that the party is coming to an end, though,” Pai added.
Listening
Been a bit more busy than usual, thanks to our Udaipur offsite and a small bout of illness, and hence haven’t listened to many podcasts / read transcripts. I did enjoy this one where Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy spoke to Shailendra Singh of Sequoia. Lots of topics covered - how he thinks about product, how to manage investors + how to market to them, and productivity hacks including that he has a reading guy who summarizes books for him!
Highlights of what i found interesting in my public notes page.
Readings
As I shared, this was a quieter week than usual given travel and illness. Read fewer articles than normal.
Wrapped up ‘The Wright Brothers’; clearly one of the best reads of the year (will share public notes soon). Started on ‘Becoming Trader Joe’ on the eponymous store (one of my fave retail brands) by the founder Joe Coulombe.
What I found interesting in the articles I read.
(1) via The IC’s Guide to Driving Career Conversations — 25 Tips for Purposeful Career Planning - Build 4 lists, you 20-somethings!
(2) Interesting chart on startup failure rates by stage (Data is for 1990-2010 though) - via this piece. The barbell shaped curve was interesting.
Fin/
That is it folks, for this issue. Feedback in the comments or at sp@sajithpai.com (on anything re the newsletter). If you want to reach me for a funding request then write in at sp@blume.vc (replies in 3-4 days).
Loved it!
Please keep em coming :)