Lame duck

I was surprised that in the Railway Budget yesterday, the honourable minister chose to raise passenger fares. This happened after a gap of 8 years. The quantum of the fare hikes was 18-30%. I am sure fuel, wage and maintenance costs in the past 8 years have gone up more like 100%.

Even with the revised fares, the Indian Railways will lose money for each passenger that travels. So far, they have been subsidizing this by hiking freight rates. However, now things have come to such a pass that any freight hikes will make road transport more viable for freight. This is a travesty, since rail transport for bulk goods is much more efficient, eco-friendly and quicker than road transport.

The resultant hullabaloo was a sight to behold. Mamata didi, that venerable and wise lady, threw a tantrum and decided to chuck out the poor fellow who had dared protect the Railways from bankruptcy. She had done her best to run the Railways to the ground when she was the Railways Minister, and felt cheated that her successor was actually trying to improve safety and modernity of the institution.

It makes me think that there is no future for economic growth in India. Everything is viewed from the prism of entitlement. All is well as long as everyone is equally poor and equally deprived. The current government believes in the dictum: Don't teach a hungry man how to fish. Instead, announce a huge free fish distribution program, where the distributor is a crocodile who sells all the fish he cannot eat in the black market and pays for the government's next election campaign. The hungry man buys the stale fish in the black market and votes for the government because he thinks he is relatively better off since everyone is getting stale fish from the black market, since fresh fish is in short supply. The crocodile supports the economies of Switzerland and France by propping up the banking systems / luxury goods industries in those countries.

And so life moves on in this wonderful country.

Illegitimi non carborundum

I came across this phrase while looking through a book of Latin phrases. Literally translated, it means 'Don't let the bastards grind you down' :-) though I am told that the phrase is really not Latin, but a tongue-in-cheek remark invented by a Brit soldier during WWII.

Whatever the origin, I fell in love with the phrase immediately, and have made it my status message on gmail. Carborundum, as some of us would remember, is another name for SiC a.k.a silicon carbide, which is the stuff that abrasives are made of.

Whenever I am pensive, feeling low or banal, I look at this phrase and perk up immediately. It inspires me to believe and hatch my next plan for world conquest :-) Ha Ha Ha

A good book after a long time

I am currently reading Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru. While I am only 60% through the book, I am quite pleased with it. Perhaps because I had very low expectations to begin with. Whatever the reason, the bottom line is that it is after a very long time that I am reading a work of fiction that I really liked.

The novel is structured somewhat similar to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. It is a collection of incidents across time, from 1760 to 2008, all linked by a certain place in the desert in Nevada. The characters are all delightfully real, and eccentric to boot. The stories range from the painfully real, to somewhat kooky. However, all enjoyable.

Clearly a work of great imagination. I actually found it much more believable and contemporary when compared to, say, Salman Rushdie's magic realism.

Won't divulge the plot too much, since a lot of the pleasure I get from the book is in the unlayering of the events that happen, without following a linear pattern. Recommend that you read the book too, and hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Delhi

Delhi is one place I always feel happy to go to. Surprisingly, a lot of this has to do with the airport. And the roads. I feel optimistic and happy whenever I am in Delhi - perhaps one day the rest of the country will also be like this? I like Delhi because it is prosperous. And improving. All the time it moves forward.

Obviously it also helps that my family and all of my close friends are in Delhi. My daughter was born in Delhi. The wife and I romanced in Delhi before marriage and set up home together there after marriage. I love the chill of winter and the searing heat of summer in Delhi.

This visit, it took me a long time to travel within the city. I witnessed a few traffic jams. And the weather was unseasonably cold. I was not able to meet my usual gang due to the short trip. Still, back in Chennai, I look back fondly on the visit.

In my heart, Delhi is always home. I cannot but pine for a return to Delhi

Things I am looking forward to

I am not on Facebook (yet!). I probably never will be, at least not till I'm forced to get on to be in touch with my (then) college-going daughter. However, this does not prevent me from getting swept in the hype of the proposed mega IPO for Facebook, supposed to launch as soon as this week; with the listing in a few months. The media is already calling it the biggest IPO in history (and perhaps future as well). Let us see how the markets take to this mega company, which in all probability does not make any money, but will be valued more than Walt Disney, Bank of America and much more than Reliance Industries or ONGC

One thing I regularly do when abroad is to visit Starbucks. Both the wife and I (the wife perhaps even more than I) love the coffee there. Therefore I am excited to learn that Starbucks will open its first store in India in a few months from now. I just hope they are able to keep quality consistent. The Baristas and Cafe Coffee Days started with promise, but have degenerated to extremely patchy consistency. I hope Starbucks is able to avoid the franchisee route and offer the same QoS that one gets in the US, Europe or Singapore

A routine Saturday

I wake up to a cuddle from my daughter. She has been up for 30 minutes now, and is happy to see papa wake up. "Papa! Come! Toy room", she shouts, in a voice that will brook no opposition. She does part of her puzzle, part builds a tower and speed reads "The Monkey and the Crocodile". Then she grows restless, and goes off to look for Mamma, who is pottering around in the kitchen.

After a while, Papa has to go and see what the car cleaner is up to. She jumps at the opportunity to go down. Once down, she takes off towards the swimming pool, reminding her guilty father about his promise to take her swimming the last evening. The swimming pool has not been cleaned yet, but she wants to shower in the stalls next to the pool. Papa explains that she cannot shower because she has all her clothes on, and if she showers, her clothes will get wet. She finds that a good reason to not shower.

She is happy that papa is down with her. She opportunistically tugs me into the main road. She is very careful, watching out for big cars that come our way. She pulls me along into the by-lane next to the society. The by-lane has people squatting on the road and using the hand pump to wash clothes, utensils, themselves. She walks right past the squalor - her target is the rooster that lives there. She sees a brood of hens and is delighted. "Cluck cluck", she tells them. She looks for the goats, but cannot find them. "Goats sleeping", she tells papa.

Mamma has gone for grocery shopping when we return. She looks around for her mother, then settles down with papa. She demands a boiled egg. She won't eat the yolk. "Green", she instructs again, pointing to the white of the egg. Papa and baby sit together in the verandah in companionable silence. After the egg, she wants an orange. I peel one carefully and feed her the pieces. She feeds me in turn. Wipes her hands on my freshly worn t-shirt. We both sit and look out at the cars below.

This is a Saturday like every other Saturday. Doubt seizes me. Will she remember all this? Will she love me when she grows up? I think about it for a minute, and tell myself that I don't really care about tomorrow. I ask her "Where is papa's favourite laddoo?" We both grin, as she points to herself. This is the best Saturday ever!

Unconquered

Saw this on a wall in the kid's section of Crossword, and googled the lovely poem. For those who like this sort of thing, 'Invictus' means unconquered.

Invictus William Ernest Henley Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Patris est filius

No, I'm not trying to learn Latin. The phrase in question means "He is his father's son" and I think this is true for all of us. Perhaps more appropriately it should say "He is his parent's son".

Yesterday, on a long distance flight, after watching a very nice documentary on Steve Jobs, I was generally thinking about life in general and my tiny daughter in particular. I figured that a lot of her mannerisms, preferences and reactions to situations were very much like her mom's or dad's. And then I got to thinking about myself, and the same held true as well! As I grow older, and start settling into predictable ways of thought and action, I realize that I am very much like my parents.

This, of course, is not surprising. All the DNA that I have comes from the 2 fantastic people who have brought me into the world. Still, it is a bit humbling to know that most of my actions and reactions are hard wired, and that what I thought was my free will is actually the genetic code of a long chain of people before me. Some minor differences here or there, but substantially similar. Feels quite comforting at the same time as being disturbing.

Is there such a thing as free will? Or are we prisoners to our destiny?

Portents to a New Year

2012 has begun, and boy! has it been all wrong! Work, family, health - all fronts have taken a severe beating. Hopefully this is an aberration which will not last too long. Even my first post in the year is causing me trouble (i'm typing this on a blackberry and cannot get capital letters to show up)

Anyhow, ups and downs are part of life. Writing helps me vent out some of the stress, which is why I often find myself writing about generally unpleasant things. In keeping with my theme for this year, I'm trying to LET GO of all the stress and fears and unpleasantness. Why worry? I have gone through multiple situations in life which I thought would break me up (and perhaps they have!), but Hey! Tomorrow IS indeed another day

Another thing I'm trying to let go of this year is my desire to punt. Providing short term excitement, and always leading to long term pain, this habit is very pernicious. I have tried thrice before to give it up, and each time I have succumbed to the siren. Hopefully this year is going to be different!

In a random conversation, I was recently asked which were the best years of my life. Thinking about this, I was overcome with nostalgia about my time as an engineering student. Little money, no certainty, but dreams of world conquest! Anything was possible! My present was no obstacle to my future.

Now there is a big contrast. All my thinking is incremental and linear. My present is defining my future. Sigh! I sure hope my best days are yet to come. Otherwise life would have been pathetically futile!

Another random thought - is there a God. I mean, a plan? A method to life? And if there is one, is He benevolent? Or is He indifferent? Or, like the ancients of this country believed, is He all too human? So far I have believed in a benevolent God, but sometimes this belief gets tested.

Anyway, enough ramblings for the day. Tomorrow, here I come!

A post after a long time...

Seems only lately that I have had any time to think and reflect. Not that things are too busy otherwise, I think it was just the lack of incentives - perhaps it was too convenient to not look back. In any case, NOT doing something is usually never a cause of good things, and therefore this last night of the year 2011 is a good time to kick the habit.

2011 has been a good year to me - I read an year ago on one of the widely followed horoscope sites that 2011 would be an unmitigated disaster for Capricorn, and that if I got through the end of the year I should basically thank my stars. Well, its over now, and it was quite pleasant, thank you! A few things changed, a few losses, some sadness, and some happiness. The year gone by is making me ask some hard questions, some questions that have no answers yet. I'm an year older, but am I better? Clearly, in the scheme of things, I am going to lead an inconsequential existence - the world would not notice my absence in the least. What really is important then? What can I do without, and what would I die without?

Looking back, I have got mostly whatever I wanted from life. Some of this has been good for me, and some not. In hindsight, huge victories now seem pyrhhic, and big letdowns seem providential. The way I have lived so far does not offer any hope for a more fulfilling tomorrow.

Aeons ago, Prince Siddharth left a kingdom, a wife, a son and a family for essentially nothing, and became the enlightened one. Perhaps there are some inspirations to be drawn from there? What if I let go? Gave up on want? Would a lack of desire in life be enough? Or does one need to keep a positive goal always? Should I aim to make others happy? Myself happy?

An experiment would be in order. I will try to make 'let go' my anthem for 2012. Let go of desires, worries, attachments. Perhaps the waves will carry me through where the compass looked like failing!!

Wish all your wishes for 2012 get fulfilled as well!

Chennai!

It has now been approximately 4 weeks since I have moved full time to Chennai. A very interesting 4 weeks indeed! In which I have had to deal with rouge auto drivers, a missing truck and the possibility of my entire household being stolen!

I now (almost) answer the phone saying Vishesh paseraen, have meals consisting exclusively of either idli, parotta korma or upma and can manoeuvre easily in and around Alwarpet, Teynampet and Mylapore.

I have been to all (of the 2) hotspots in Chennai - all of which would not be a patch on the shadiest pub in Nayi Dilli. Surprise surprise - I have also been denied admission to one of aforementioned places because it was women's night!!! I have marvelled at the people taking pictures with extended families inside airplanes and airports because they think that is so cool!

In short, Chennai has been pretty nice. May it retain its small town feel

Proof of our 'clean' PM's intent

Minister steals a telephone exchange, loots BSNL

CHENNAI: Indeed a shocking, daring robbery. A telecom central minister from Tamil Nadu got the BSNL to connect 323 telephone lines to his home, not in Delhi where he had work, but in Chennai where he had none. He got all the 323 home lines listed not in his name but in the name of the Chief General Manager BSNL Chennai. These lines virtually constituted a telephone exchange in the minister’s home. It was exclusively used for his family business by laying 3.4 km long secret cable along public roads to connect the lines to the business premises. This had caused huge loss to BSNL. Who was that enterprising minister? The infamous A Raja? No. It is the famous Dayanidhi Maran; Raja’s predecessor, now the central Textile Minister. The CBI, which probed the fraud, wrote to the Secretary Telecom on 10.9.2007 recommending action against Maran for the fraud.
Dayanidhi Maran was obviously not playing marbles with 323 telephones. He got the BSNL to lay separate and exclusive underground cable from his Boat Club home to the SUN TV office at Anna Arivalayam in Anna Salai and fraudulently linked the 323 home lines to his brother Kalanidhi’s SUN TV network. The first 23 of the 323 lines bore numbers ‘243722 11’ to ‘24372301’ and the next 300 lines bore numbers ‘24371500’ to ‘24371799’. Since the first four digits ‘2437’ were common for all 323 lines, the lines constituted a home telephone exchange. The Dayanidhi home exchange was operational in the SUN TV establishment for at least months from January 2007 through the fraudulent cable connection from Dayanidhi’s Boat Club home. They were no ordinary telephone lines, but costly ISDN lines, which could carry tons and tons of TV news and programmes faster than satellites to any part of the world. These lines, the CBI says in its report, are “normally used by medium to large commercial enterprises to meet special needs such as video conferencing, transmission of huge volume of digital data of audio and video” – precisely the facility that SUN TV would need for its telecasting operations. For this, the SUN TV would have paid huge cost. But it got it all free, at government’s cost.
The Maran home exchange, says the CBI, was “programmed in such a way that no one other than the authorised BSNL staff were aware of the existence of such an Exchange created for his [minister’s] exclusive use”. It added that by linking the minister’s home and SUN TV office by the stealthy cables, “it would appear as if the lines were used in the residence of the former minister, but actually the cables laid facilitated SUN TV network to utilise the services of BSNL provided at his residence”. Google map shows the distance to SUN TV as 3.4 kms along the main artery roads of the area, which were dug up to bury the illegal underground cables from Maran home to SUN TV office! It was not one of those secret White Collar frauds, but a crime committed in the open roads.
What could be the probable loss to the exchequer by this fraud? On “a sample study”, the CBI says, “it is learnt that 48,72,027 units of calls have emanated from [just] one Telephone No 24371515 in the month of March 2007 alone, which is indicative of the massive multimedia transfer in the underlying connections”. Just one of the 323 lines accounted for over 48 lakh call units in March 2007 alone – Yes almost 49 lakh call units in one month, through one of the 323 phones! Assume that each of the 323 connections was put to use as efficiently as Marans had operated the Number 24371515; the total number of call units SUN TV would have unlawfully robbed the BSNL during January 2007 to April 2007 [Maran resigned on May 13] could be as high as 629.5 crore call units. With the prevailing rate of 70 paise per call unit could the loss to BSNL be as high as `440 crore? Only a thorough investigation can reveal the true loot. But, the story does not end here. SUN TV’s print cousin ‘Dinakaran’, too has got its share of the loot. Says the CBI: “It is also learnt that similar service connections with ISDN facilities have been provided at the office of Dinakaran, a Tamil Daily, belonging to the group of SUN TV Network at Madurai, though specific phone numbers are not available”. But how did the CBI get to investigate the fraud and where is its report now? It calls for a brief flash back.
Maran, a grand nephew of Karunanidhi, was the central telecom minister from June 2004 to May 2007. Perhaps the only Hindi knowing family member, Maran was Karunanidhi’s eyes and ears in Delhi and his connect to Sonia Gandhi. The ‘young’ and ‘dynamic’ minister was amongst the most powerful in the UPA government of which the DMK was the most critical partner.
Telecom Ministry sitting on CBI report for over 44 months
Need an illustration for Maran’s reach then? Not only could he threaten Ratan Tata to part with a third of Tata DTH shares, but he also could threaten him not to reveal that he had threatened him! But suddenly, Maran fell from the cliff into the pit, thanks to a costly slip by Dinakaran, a Tamil daily owned by Dayanidhi’s brother Kalanidhi Maran. On 9.5.2007, Dinakaran carried an opinion poll that had trashed Karunanidhi’s son Alagiri as non-entity in Tamil Nadu politics. Alagiri’s angry supporters burnt down the Madurai establishment of Dinakaran on the same day, snuffing out the lives of three innocent staff. Karunanidhi sided with his son Alagiri against his grand nephews, the Marans. Result, Dayanidhi was instantly out of the DMK and the central ministry. It was then that the CBI probed the daring fraud. And now back to the main story.
The CBI had recommended action against Maran as early as in September 2007.
But the CBI letter is obviously sleeping somewhere since then, and for the last 44 months. The CBI letter had specifically asked the Telecom Secretary to bring the matter “to the notice of” Raja. So the case against Maran of DMK was to be approved by Raja also of DMK.
With the 2009 elections approaching, as was expected, warring nephews and sons of Karunanidhi patched up on December 1, 2008, with Karunanidhi saying, “my eyes grew moist and heart was content.” The CBI letter was perhaps used to make Marans fork out generous terms for peace. After the 2009 elections, Dayanidhi, who got elected, attempted again to make it to the Telecom Ministry, but could not.
He became the Textile Minister instead; and he is so even now.
With the family feud subsiding, the CBI letter against Maran began gathering dust somewhere in Telecom Ministry.
Haunted by the 2-G scam, Raja resigned in November 2010 and Kapil Sibal took over. Sibal is sitting on the CBI report since then.
And Maran, as Textile Minister, is sitting in cabinet meetings along with Sibal.
And despite the CBI advice for action against Maran sleeping for over 44 months, now Prime Minister promises to Baba Ramdev that he would tackle corruption with “seriousness” and “without delay”, while he himself is still sitting with Maran in cabinet meetings. It seems as much a comedy as it is a tragedy.

Risk...

Risk is often thought to be a four letter word in the figurative sense. I have begun to realize lately that I do not understand its meaning at all.

To some, taking a risk means trying out a new cuisine, or buying an unknown brand of computer. To others, risk taking means investing in equity markets or taking a large loan. To some, it means trying out an alternate career path, like entrepreneurship or a job in a start up. To yet others, risk means the possibility of losing your life or that of your loved ones to illness, accidents or acts of God.

I always think of risk as a probability - what is the likelihood of a certain (unfavourable) event happening? Being a numerical person, I boil everything down to numbers. However, this does not work too often. This is because I can never choose between (as an example) 2 risks - a very small chance of a very big loss or a somewhat probably chance of a medium sized loss. In other words, a walking person could fall into a very narrow but very deep well, or he could fall into a bigger diameter hole that is not too deep. How does one choose between the two?

Whenever I think of risk I automatically think of money and career. But if I ask myself honestly, how important are these? Education, a growing economy, a simple lifestyle and a belief in the dignity of labour really should minimize typical risks on this front. On the other hand, risks of illness, life or limb are the ones that one should worry about. I think we are wired in certain ways - we cannot do much about un-influence-able events like cancer or earthquakes, so we do not worry about those risks. However, we can influence individual career / money decisions to a large extent, and so worry all the time about these, even though they may be really low priority in the larger scheme of things.

I watched with morbid fascination videos of the tsunami engulfing towns in Japan last week. I was thinking of the guy driving his car, trying to outrun the irresistible water. What if the guy had got a bad appraisal from his boss last week and was worried about his job? What if he had a loan coming due shortly with no funds to pay it off? Did it really matter?

I understand that events like this are one offs and not commonplace. But the bigger question still remains - does one spend more time trying to minimize the very small risk of loss of life, or the medium probability risk of not being extremely wealthy?

I still haven't figured out the answer!

Extreme capitalism... the good professor has a point!

Came across this interesting article today: Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University comes out all guns blazing against the businessman-politician cosy club in the US.

...Sachs says the "real story" is much bigger than Wisconsin: It's about stagnant wages of public and private sector workers alike, and the increasing and increasingly pernicious role of big money in politics.
The following statistics speak to Sachs' first point:

• Since 1973, the median take home pay of full-time workers is virtually unchanged on an inflation-adjusted basis.
• The top 11,000 households in America have more income than the bottom 25 million.
• Since 1976, 58% of real income growth has gone to the top 1% of Americans.

"We've reached the greatest income [and] wealth inequality in history," Sachs says. "This is a new ‘Robber Baron' era, of course."

And just like the titans of industry in 19th century America, "the people at the top buy the politicians," he laments. "All of them - all parties. Everyone is in the hands of the super wealthy."

Decrying a "shocking game that got out of hand," Sachs notes President Obama is seeking to raise $1 billion for his presumed reelection bid. "He's not going to get it from poor people, he's going to get it from rich people," Sachs says. "So when push comes to shove and rich people say ‘we want our taxes cut', that's what happened."

Which probably goes to further the point that most places in the world, be it India, Libya or the US, the rich and the powerful screw the poor and the weak. All the teeming millions need is the 'soma' of Ayn Rand's Anthem (or was it Aldous Huxley's Brave New World? I forget!) to forget their plight. The US worker gets it from a standard of living better than anyone else in the world (but not a fraction of the US elites'), the Indian daily wage earner gets it from the Naxal speeches of his misled brethren, and the Kuwaiti sheik gets it in the form of 1,000 dinars in his bank account.

Long live revolution!!

World Cup India? Not on current form...

I'm betting that India will not survive the semi finals of this World Cup, if they get through the quarter finals. So far, India have beaten Ireland, Bangladesh and Netherlands. They have tied with England and lost to South Africa. There has been a consistent failure to defend any kind of total on the bowlers' part, consistent wrong captaincy decisions at critical points and no fielding prowess to speak of. There has been no spark of creativity to charge up the team.

It is not too late, however. In 2003 in South Africa, India pulled up their socks after the first 2-3 games and won everything to get to the finals. However, that effort was led by some aggressive captaincy and great bowling by the quicks. On these placid subcontinent pitches, Afridi is able to consistently take 5 wickets, and Piyush Chawla is able to consistently get hit for sixes.

Tendulkar will probably end his career as the most deserving World Cup winner to have never won. Sad, but what can one guy do in a 11 person team game?

But the rudest thing will be that India's lost Cup will be soon forgotten and all attention will turn to who is dating who during IPL 4.

Who's buying?

Inspired by my own doomsday article, I decided to check out prices of apartments that I could think of buying in Gurgaon. What I saw stunned me!!

Reasonably good apartments sell for 10-11k per square foot. For a mid size (2000 sq ft) apartment, this translates into a total buy price of approx. 2.5 crores!! The new constructions, due for possession 3-4 years out, are priced at 7-9k per sqft. This too translates into a total price of 2 cr. Assuming today's interest rates, this would imply an outgo of approx 2 lacs per month as EMI!!

The question that popped into my mind is - who is buying all these apartments that are getting launched at these prices? Are there really that many people who can pony up 2 lacs per month on their home loans?

Beats me!!

Scary thought

I was chatting with a close buddy yesterday, and we came to the topic of how tough it is to buy a home these days. I then had a really scary thought.

Take a guy in 1970. Let's say this guy is very well educated, works in the best career of the times, is an ideal saver, is not extravagant and has a disciplined financial plan. Let's say this guy keeps a bulk of his money in safe fixed deposits or bonds. This guy, upon retirement circa 2000, would not have enough savings to last him even 10 years at today's expense levels. And as for ability to buy a home, the very notion is laughable! Inflation and the cost of living has exploded so much in the last decade that I fear for my future. What if this hypothetical guy of the 1970s is me, 40 years out? Will I live in penury in my sunset years?

What is the solution to this conundrum? I can think of 2 ways -

1) Hock yourself to the max in debt and buy a house as soon as you can. Keep slaving and paying back this debt over 20-30 years. If real estate today seems expensive, it will seem very cheap tomorrow.

2) Allocate substantially large amounts of savings to equity. This is risky in the short term, but very safe in the long term. In fact, this is the only protection against inflation - on 2 counts. One is that purchasing power is maintained and secondly, there is lower taxation on capital gains.

Net net, the solution is to harness the power of compounding, live frugally today and ever after! This, to me, is a depressing thought. Just when you think life will get easier, you realize that it is uphill for some more distance!

Just a passing fad?

At one point in time 3-4 years ago, I counted more than 25 friends, colleagues and classmates who blogged frequently. It used to be fun reading varied expressions of humour, philosophy, cussedness or general points of view. Not anymore.

Perhaps I need to find newer blogs, but the regular contributors to blogs seem to have dropped dramatically. And the ones that still remain are much less prolific than before. While the easiest hypothesis (one endorsed robustly by the wife) explaining this phenomenon could be that blogging was a fad which is passing its baton to newer fads like twitter or facebook, there could be other reasons for this too. A few listed here:

1. Perhaps blogging is an outlet for the inability to express your innermost thoughts to a very close friend. 3-4 years out of business school, disillusioned with corporate life, not yet married - a perfect time and age to blog. Now, the same cohort is mostly reconciled with their jobs, has a spouse to communicate with, or is generally plain busy with kids, career or grocery shopping. Therefore lesser blogging.
2. Freshly minted bloggers harboured secret dreams of world conquest via the next masterpiece novel (I know I certainly did! Fame, riches, fawning women - I would be the toast of the town). However, after the first few pioneers in this field did just that to mediocre success at best (think Amit Varma's My Friend Sancho or Great Bong's random book or Meenakshi Madhavan's You Are Here; though perhaps Sidin Vadukut's Dork was the exception), the dream faded and consequently blogging became less attractive.
3. Mind control through the popularization of blogging was a secret CIA plot for world domination which was foiled by an intrepid US President working under the alias of Dubyaman.

I must confess that the 3rd reason is just because a list of 2 seems too short! Anyhow, the fact remains that following blogs aint what it used to be.

A perfect storm

The Jasmine revolution(s) underway in Egypt, Libya and other parts of the Arab world have affected crude oil prices tremendously. Brent crude is now within striking distance of its all-time high of $147 / barrel. India, which imports more than 70% of its crude oil requirements, is going to be a big victim of this spike.

The Indian nation finds itself in a familiar position - caught in a cleft stick with no hope of redemption. Oil prices cannot be raised under the current APM dispensation since inflation is currently very high (more on this later). However, burgeoning oil prices would mean higher subsidies and consequently higher fiscal deficit. This is bad for the entire country since a) government borrowings would crowd out private investment which we sorely need b) it would increase cost of debt as the country's ratings would suffer and c) it would place downward pressure on the currency, thus making oil imports even more expensive.

The reasons why we find ourselves in this hopeless situation are also familiar. When times were good, our government paid no heed to fiscal consolidation and kept the money spigots open. This money lined the pockets of esteemed gentlemen like Suresh Kalmadi / A Raja and got stashed in Swiss bank accounts. So now when times are bad, we find ourselves in the situation of the grasshopper who did not save anything for the winter.

The key question now is - what can be done. I have a somewhat radical and easy solution - reduce taxes (Excise / customs / sales) on petrol products to very minimal. Currently, 40% of end prices are made up of these taxes. Simultaneously, free ALL crude products to market prices. This will a) prevent many more deaths of conscientious officers trying to prevent petrol adulteration with kerosene b) improve the environment c) create a demand curve where high prices will translate to lower usage and vice versa. There will be no upward pressure on inflation since the money supply in the system will remain constant (inflation is and always is a monetary phenomenon). This has been categorically stated by many more learned gentlemen than me in the government's own committees. To help the really needy, provide coupons to them which they can redeem to buy LPG / kerosene at market prices.

However, I do not this this solution will be adopted. This is because a) we have a venal and inane opposition who only like to play one-upmanship, the country be damned and b) we have an equally venal and inane government which does not believe in decisiveness, the country be damned.

So, by popular vote, the country IS indeed going to be damned!

Mice in Men and Catcher in the Rye

Mice in Men:

I picked up this book of short stories, written by a doctor called Anirban Bose at the airport, hoping to fill up the 2 hours of my cramped flying time. Surprisingly, I found some of the stories quite good! Perhaps because I did not have too many expectations to begin with, but most of the stories held my interest, and most importantly, gave me a different perspective on things.

The fictional stories all have a doctor as the protagonist, and are slice-of-life / twist in the end type of stories. Good for a couple of hours of reading. Especially good are 3 stories - Stockholm Syndrome (written like a suspense thriller), The Best Way to Eat Mangoes (fantastic story, totally identifiable) and The Best Oishi (hauntingly true - brings a lump in the throat).

Catcher in the Rye:

What can I say about this evergreen classic that has not been said before? I read it for the third time recently, and loved it even more than before. Holden Caulfield, madman, genius, supreme humanist - the guy has characteristics that would make each reader identify with him. A loser in the conventional sense, the guy is one of the most memorable protagonists in popular literature.