minimalism on S Anand

Open sandals

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 09:18:21 +0800

My sandals landed me in trouble twice in December. And that’s not uncommon.

Mr Krishnan and I were meeting. He suggested:

Good morning. Sunday 07/12/25 breakfast at 09:00 am at the Bangalore Club Residency Road (not far from Koramangala)?

… but knowing me, he also added:

These clubs are peculiar and may insist on no round necked t-shirt or no open sandals. If you have ideological issues with that, no problem and I will suggest another venue.

I shared this in reply…

… and we met at Ballal Residency instead.

I’ve been buying the same sandals for 8 years now. About twice a year.

4 Aug 2018
27 Feb 2019
14 Dec 2019
6 Feb 2020
4 Dec 2020
16 Sep 2021
(Hmm…. what happened in 2022?)
4 Feb 2023
23 May 2023
6 Apr 2024
(Bought at a store, not Amazon)
29 Jan 2025
5 Nov 2025

They work remarkably well. Comfortable (no break-in period, good to walk in, doesn’t slip off.) Durable (though the bottom center wearing out after 6 months.) Cheap (and staying cheap, around ₹500 over the years.) Maintainable (just wash them.) All-weather (though socks helps when snowing.) Stylish (well, at least to me.)

The only hitch is that other people don’t always like them. Usually Naveen gives me his spares for important meetings or TV. We even kept a spare for me at our Hyderabad office though I never used them.

Where I get into trouble is usually in places with… “too much atmosphere”.

On 31 Dec, my wife booked us for a New Year party at Ce La Vi - the tallest spot in Singapore, and with a great view of the fireworks.

And a dress code we were not aware of. “Gentlemen must be in a shirt, covered shoes.”.

After 5 minutes of trying to persuade the gentle yet firm manager, I wished my family a happy new year and walked back home enjoying the fireworks along with thousands of others on the streets.

In open air. And open sandals.

A utilitarian’s apology

Wed, 09 Apr 2014 05:50:40 +0000

A couple of years ago, my HTC Explorer’s screen died. I bought a Micromax A50. This triggered a series of reactions prompting this post.

I have many defects. Like most men, I can’t tell colours apart – like the difference between pink and purple – and am constantly corrected by my six-year-old. I can’t hear two people at the same time – or even in-between each other. I can’t find things outside of my narrow field of vision. I can’t recognise faces, and need at least three one-on-one interactions before I place people. (If you ask me “Do you recognise me?” and I say “Yes, of course!”, I’m usually lying.) I can’t place voices on the phone. My memory is terrible – my wife’s learnt to make me write errands on my laptop. I cannot identify cars – in fact, I couldn’t drive until recently.

I also lack a fashion sense, despite being a keen student of design. I can understand rules of thumb, like how large line heights should be, or why high saturation colours are jarring. I can even give passable judgement on the quality of clothing.

The trouble is, I don’t see much value in it. I’m a utilitarian.

This post is an apology from all utilitarians like me. We’re sorry – we just don’t see the the point of a Mont Blanc pen or a Cartier watch. Our Bic pens and digital watches work just as well. We’re not saying you shouldn’t buy them. It’s just that we don’t understand why you would.

This is not an argument against expensive items. I bought the iPod and loved it. Same with the iPhone 4. I have two iPads. I’m fairly picky about the earphones I buy. The thing is, the reason I buy these is because there’s a value that matches the price. Where I don’t see the value, that’s just throwing money away.

So that’s why I travel in buses or autos. I can work on my laptop while someone else drives. That’s why I walk or climb stairs. I get to lose weight without wasting time at a gym. That’s why I don’t wear a watch and don’t subscribe to newspapers or TV.

For my non-utilitarian friends out there, this is from us utilitarians. Please forgive us. We don’t see the value.

Comments

What did I learn from Vinod, Anand & Pinal’s session at GIDS | Some place else 25 Apr 2014 4:02 pm (pingback): […] Anand on other hand is the calmest speaker I have ever seen. He brings out data driven stories which highlight issues, evoke emotions like surprise, laughter. Wish One day I can bring that finish to my delivery. […]
Somnath Manna 13 Apr 2014 4:59 pm: +++1 VFM = Utilitarian and am happy being that. Instead of BIC its Reynolds pen, MicroMax vs Galaxy Y for me though I subscribe to newspaper and DTH (otherwise there will be revolt at home :D)
Shiva 23 Jun 2015 10:08 pm: What is the need to apologise? Or am I missing the sarcasm? :)

Google blogger template

Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:00:00 +0000

The Google-like blogger template had me for a while, when I was browsing Shamit’s page.

Comments

Kaviraj 21 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: Hi Anand
TOPFRAME 21 Feb 2005 12:00 pm: that was pretty good..
Dhar 8 Mar 2005 8:06 am: In the free anti virus category, I would put Clam-Av, in firewalls for Linux - iptables, IDS I am surprised they didnt put in SNORT, website ripper - wget.

Beautiful backrounds with a bar-code theme

Wed, 04 Sep 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Beautiful backrounds with a bar-code theme. In Russian. But the pictures make sense. And yes, there’s an English version.