How many flights are too many flights?

This week has been particularly excruciating. I had to take 5 different flights in the past 5 days! 

Flying to or from Mumbai, especially during the monsoon season, is not my favourite activity. The journey is turbulent, and the airport is always congested. One is usually busy praying, or contemplating the end of one’s existence, for an inordinately long time during such phases. 

Every time the plane lands in Mumbai I promise myself that I will not do this to myself again, at least for a week. And then the next day something comes up at work which compels me to subject myself to this routine again.. and again.. and again. 

Some day I hope I can break out of this cycle. 

Aside: this week, a number of flights that I took had empty seats, which is unusual. So maybe everyone else is thinking the same way! 

Ruminations about a holiday (and a country)

 It’s been more than a decade since my last post here!! 

I don’t think anyone really blogs anymore, and I am pretty sure no one reads this one anymore, but I find myself feeling the urge to journal some thoughts. Just so I can visit this years later and hopefully relive some of the emotions I currently feel. It is also quite typical that I am posting this while aboard a long haul flight, with not much to do except ruminate. It is somewhat sad that such moments are now far and few between - but that is something I will remedy going forward. 

So we did a big fat holiday recently - the full monty. Mumbai to the US, multiple flights, multiple cities, multiple coasts, hotels, cuisines, experiences! All 5 of us, trying things that we had not tried before. I was a bit apprehensive prior to the trip, but we all turned out ok. I drove around in great cars, over long distances and at rapid speeds, on the “wrong side” for the first time. And enjoyed it :-). 

My first observation is that the US as a country is still the greatest nation on Earth. Systems work just fine, for all the alarms that social media seems to raise. Our oldest child had a fit of dehydration in the long immigration line at Dulles airport, and immediately received comprehensive medical attention. Over my many hours of driving, I saw police cars maintain discipline and apprehend defaulters, and fire and emergency services respond promptly. The infrastructure is not new, whether airports or roads or malls or office blocks, but it works just fine! Public parks in large cities are large and clean, the air is fresh and bracing and natural beauty abounds, whether in the small towns of Virginia or Maryland, or in the redwood forests of California. 

My second observation is that the great universities are hugely inspirational, and continue to attract the best and brightest from all over the world. Many times during our trip, I felt the urge to get back to academia because of the beautiful campuses, the energetic students and the general “let’s change the world” vibe! Till the US remains the go-to place for the world’s talent, it will maintain its formidable edge in innovation and quality. 

It’s not as if everything is perfect - I saw a lot of homelessness and abject poverty on the streets of Philadelphia and elsewhere. And I am sure that economic inequality is stark and unfortunately rising. However, I also noticed general humanity among ordinary folks - whether displayed through road etiquette, Uber drivers, general retail behaviour or in the actions of a kind official from Delta Airlines who got us checked in in time for our cross-continent flight. 

It was somewhat strange that the things that hog headlines - politics, companies, international affairs - hold so little significance in the day-to-day life of the folks I visited with. Another reminder to me that social media is an echo chamber designed to create noise, not signals. 

The one thing that stood out to me, as a lay consumer, was that the only metric on which India is better than the US currently seems to be the service economy. We have quick commerce and food delivery that is faster and significantly cheaper than in the US. UPI seems a bit overhyped - during our entire trip, the only time I used cash was at a vending machine where our youngest child wanted to use “her money”.     

At the end of it, I am actually feeling a bit sad at the end of our holiday. I am also feeling a little envious of the folks that stay behind - to enjoy the brilliant weather, the clean air and the great outdoors! I think we will be visiting during the beautiful summer months many times hence! 

Raghuram Rajan is Modi's best friend

Sometimes you need luck on your side. India is exceedingly fortunate that Narendra Modi brings with him heaps of good luck. In the 6 months that have been 'acche din', Modi has reaped the good fortune of revived animal spirits, crashing crude prices and benign inflation. He is also going to benefit immeasurably from Raghuram Rajan's helmsmanship of the RBI.

My theory is that the real reason the Sonia - Manmohan duo have sounded the death knell of the Congress is because of bad economics. Manmohan Singh, that oft praised politician, has proved to be a total failure in the one area that was supposed to be his strength i.e. economics. He did not realise how entrenched inflation and inflationary expectations had become in India, and how burdensome a tax it is on the common man. All the doles in the world, all the NREGAs and all the food security bills possible cannot win you votes if the common guy is finding it tough to consume his daily basket of essentials. Enter Raghuram Rajan.

I often find it puzzling why politicians and indeed self proclaimed economists cannot understand 2 simple facts - 1) low inflation wins votes and 2) inflation is volatile but inflationary expectations are deeply entrenched. Every RBI meeting sees the FM raise asinine clamour for policy rate cuts. He is championed in this by 'captains' of industry, who are always on the lookout for the next dole from 'mai-baaps' in the government. Why doesn't the FM realize that lowering inflationary expectations will eventually benefit his own government? Or perhaps he wants to make sure that the 'captains' keep funding his election campaign if he obliges them by putting in a good word with the RBI governor?

Tough to say. Modi did not choose Rajan as the governor, but he will reap the benefit of low inflation for his 5 year term as PM, thanks to Rajan's efforts. Just for this, India should be thankful!   

A debate on morality and absolute good or bad

I was recently debating with my mother on the necessity of absolute good or bad. My contention was that nothing is absolute, all is relative - morality more than anything, since actions cannot be seen outside of the context that they take place in. My mom, on the other hand, seemed quite horrified at the idea of my moral agnosticism, and argued that some truths are absolute. For example: one must be kind.

My argument against moral absolutism was principally that the truth we know or perceive is coloured by our experiences or senses, and that there is no way of arriving at a common axiom. E.g. I think that green is the colour of leaves. I have no way of knowing how anyone else sees green. Similarly, I experience happiness, sadness, pain etc in ways that are particular to me - i have no way of knowing for sure how others would experience it. Ergo - what i think is right or moral may or may not be moral to someone with different contexts or experiences. Therefore, there cannot be an absolute axiom or truth.

Drawing this even further, the only question is therefore - Why am I here? Why do I live? And the answer (at least the least offensive one to me) is that i live to maximize my happiness. Someone gets happiness by being moral, and someone else gets it by being immoral. To each his own.

The debate ended without conclusion, but i have recently found sympathy with my point of view in no less a person than Hamlet. Check out what wikipedia says about the philosophy behind Hamlet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet

Philosophical[edit]

Hamlet is often perceived as a philosophical character, expounding ideas that are now described as relativist, existentialist, and sceptical. For example, he expresses a subjectivistic idea when he says to Rosencrantz: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so".^[75] The idea that nothing is real except in the mind of the individual finds its roots in the Greek Sophists, who argued that since nothing can be perceived except through the senses—and since all individuals sense, and therefore perceive, things differently—there is no absolute truth, only relative truth.^[76] The clearest alleged instance of existentialism is in the "to be, or not to be"^[77] speech, where Hamlet is thought by some to use "being" to allude to life and action, and "not being" to death and inaction.

Hamlet reflects the contemporary scepticism promoted by the French Renaissance humanist, Montaigne.^[78] Prior to Montaigne's time, humanists such as Pico della Mirandola had argued that man was God's greatest creation, made in God's image and able to choose his own nature, but this view was subsequently challenged in Michel de Montaigne's Essais of 1580. Hamlet's "What a piece of work is a man" echoes many of Montaigne's ideas, but scholars disagree whether Shakespeare drew directly from Montaigne or whether both men were simply reacting similarly to the spirit of the times.^[79]

In his openness to embrace the message of the ghost, Hamlet assuages Horatio's wonderment with the analytical assertion, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Must See!

Reminds me of engineering days :-)

On an airplane

I write this on yet another aircraft. In a very difficult position. This is because my little princess is fast asleep on my lap. I have just sung her songs for the past 50 minutes to get her to sleep. 

Elina and I are going together to delhi to her dadu and dadi's home while her Mom stays back in chennai. When most people hear this they are surprised. Their being surprised surprises me, because Elina and I have been travelling together since she was not even two. Perhaps there is something in the old saying about the bond between fathers and daughters. Or maybe she is just an absolute darling who is easy to manage.

One thing I've never been able to understand is why planes make passengers sit straight / switch off phones / wake up once they 'begin their descent'. this is generally a full 30 mins before actually landing. Seems very suboptimal to me. Especially when you have a tiny princess sleeping in your arms and you don't want her to wake up. 

I hope and pray she is able to sleep soundly all her life. She is now smiling in her sleep. Probably having a pleasant dream. My heart melts totally and I'm unable to write anymore.

More Ishiguro

I read Sputnik Sweetheart on a couple of airplane rides on my new iPad. Typical Ishiguro stuff - metaphysical, poetic, abstruse and spooky. The best part about it was that it is short and has a single event as its main plot device.

However, two weeks out, I remember it as a bit of mumbo-jumbo. I preferred Dance Dance Dance instead. At least it had a lesson for me!

The concept of father

On an airplane, reading poems of William Blake, I come across one called Little Boy Lost. It makes me think of the concept of fatherhood. I always thought of my father as all knowing, all wise and all powerful. Only when I grew up, perhaps in the twenties, did I figure out that Father was also a human being. Now he is a friend, an ally, and a staunch supporter.

I am now a father myself. I wonder what my three year old thinks of me. Does she see me as I saw my father? A distant, powerful entity hovering in the background? Or does she think of me as her confidant and cheerleader? When she is upset, or insecure, she seeks her mother. She wants to cuddle with mother while sleeping. She complains if father kisses her too much, since she gets scratched by his 'gaadi' as she calls it. 

I wonder if my daughter knows of the immense depth of my love for her. Her lightest smile makes my day. Her most frivolous wish is my command. Sometimes I miss her so terribly that tears come to my eyes. Perhaps when she grows up and becomes a mom, she will read this. And think with love of her father, her greatest cheerleader and her biggest fan.

As I think of my father today.

A nice movie and general rumination

I saw Kai Po Che recently and loved it. I haven't read the book, so had no idea of what would happen, or even how it compares to the book. What I liked, apart from the songs (which I think are really brilliant - my daughter concurs wholeheartedly!), was the idea of the main protagonist - your beliefs are worth dying for.

Generally speaking, I measure movies by how much they make me think, or how much they change me, and on these metrics, this one is a winner! I loved all the actors, the story, the direction, everything.

May I have the courage of my convictions always!

Speaking of movies, I somehow really like the type of roles that Deepika Padukone plays. The definitive one coming to mind is the one in Love Aaj Kal, where she is a generally happy, modern, easy going girl. The pretty looks don't hurt either, I guess. Strangely enough, the other role of hers that I can think of is from Kartik Calling Kartik. Now that is another movie that really hit it on the head for me. Indeed, given I still remember it quite well after 4(?) years tells me all I need to know about its quality.

Strangely enough, other movies that I thought I liked when I saw them (eg ZNMD / Talaash) don't make it to this list anymore.

One equal temper

My favourite scene from Skyfall...

An ode to gin

When I was younger, I could quaff untold quantities of beer. It was my favourite drink by far. These days however, I find myself unable to go beyond 2 pints - anything more and my digestion gets messed up. The good news is that I'm not particularly missing beer. Gin and tonic is the new elixir. Such has been my dedication to the stuff, that most people in my family (wife, mom, dad, even grandmom!!) have become gin converts. May the tribe increase!

A recent article on the miracle drink and its history -

Indian Made Foreign Liquor is not a term that promises well. It admits upfront that it is a substitute and probably an inadequate one given that oxymoronic Indian-Foreign pairing. Add to that the knowledge that it is made from extra-neutral alcohol distilled from molasses, flavoured and blended to resemble whatever you want, and your expectations will not be high.

The exception, of course, is rum, which is made from molasses anyway, and Old Monk has always been justly celebrated as the one really good Indian liquor brand.

Is there anything more infuriating than pretentious (and greedy) Indian bars that don't stock Old Monk, but keep random international rums? Such places should be named, shamed and spurned till Old Monk is on their menus! Over the years other IMFL has been improving too, thanks to competition from real foreign brands and the growing sophistication of Indian drinking tastes.

Some premium whiskies are decent (even if, by international standards, their molasses base still make them a kind of rum) and vodkas like Smirnoff are as smooth as you'll get anywhere. I keep hoping that one of the better Indian wineries will grasp the challenge, which is mostly in terms of getting the licences, to distil real brandy from their wine.

Best of all, there are ventures like Amrut Distilleries with their really quite wonderful and authentically made single malt, and now the Goa based Desmondji who can't call their agave spirit tequila for fear of Mexicans sending hit squads after them. It is made from the same agave cactus plants though and tastes pretty good, as does the orange liqueur they are also making, flavoured with Nagpur oranges, so that all the ingredients for a desi margarita are at hand. But there is one inexplicable gap: why is there no good Indian gin?

This is one of the easiest spirits to make - unlike with whisky or tequila, the base material doesn't matter. GrainBSE -4.89 %is usual, but molasses will do, since all that's needed is good neutral alcohol. This is then flavoured with juniper berries, which can be easily imported (though it should be easy to grow them in the hills) and what are called botanicals, a varied mix of spices and flavourings, many of which, like coriander, cassia and orris root, come from India anyway. The mechanics of this flavouring process can vary, but none of it is rocket science.

And gin does not require ageing as whisky and brandy do, so production is faster and cheaper. Gin is also the one spirit with such an intimate connection to India that when Michel Roux, the man behind the creation of the Absolut vodka brand, decided to launch a premium gin that would do for the category what Absolut did for vodka, the name chosen was Bombay Sapphire, and an image of Queen Victoria, Empress of India was prominently displayed on the packaging. Roux and his partners were tapping into the exotic imagery of the Raj, where memoirs of the British in India always have them administering their empire with the help of a constant stream of Pink Gins.

This concoction got its name from the way in which the colourless gin was delicately tinted by a few dashes of Angostura bitters. (The British in Malaysia differentiated themselves by calling this a Gin Pahit, from the Malay word for bitter). When Jeremy Tait, a young British man, was sent to work for the HongKong & Shanghai Bank in Asia in the early 1950s, and landed up in Colombo he met an old friend of his father at the Colombo Club who offered him mango juice.

'I replied, "I think I'd prefer a pink gin." Captain Harper's response was immediate: "I don't know what else your father taught you, but he certainly steered you in the right direction."'

Tait's entertaining memoir, The Obedient Banker, proceeds to describe a career across that Asia that seemed to be spent staggering from one pink gin to another. In Japan he teaches a geisha how to mix one. In Singapore, in the days before Lee Kuan Yew made it the antiseptic place it is now, he sips gin slings watching the transvestites on Bugis Street.

And on one memorable occasion in Juhu in Bombay he and the other bachelors throw a party for all the married couples of the bank where the main refreshment is coconuts filled with gin and plum brandy. The couples are so overcome by this that many have to request retiring rooms to sleep it off. "We thought no more about it until almost a year later when several of the married couples reciprocated by inviting us to Christening parties."

In this, as with all the many British alcoholic memories of India, gin features so large for a fairly basic reason - it was a cheap and easy way to get drunk. Whisky was more expensive, rum was seen as a drink for the army and navy, while vodka was still unusual outside Russia. Gin's citrusy, spicy notes also had the advantage of mixing well with other drinks and juices, so it was an ideal way to take in a lot of liquid in a climate where one lost it fast.

It was also seen as an acceptable drink for ladies, perhaps because its lack of colour made it seem (deceptively) lighter. Most of all, the British discovered it made a brilliant marriage with tonic water, the bittersweet concoction that was originally devised as an easy way to take malaria fighting quinine by mixing it with sugar and soda. Gin and tonic had a vague connotation of health, which certainly helped justify knocking it down in quantity.

Yet this popularity became the problem. Throughout the history of gin we see alternations between periods of high consumption, followed by equally strong reactions against it. Most drinks go in and out of fashion, but only gin seems to do it in such extreme ways. After the 1960s, when expatriates like Tait became scarce in India, a reaction against gin set in.

The Indians who still drank it were derided, as Sagarika Ghose did in her novel The Gin Drinkers, as overly Westernised and alienated in their own country: "Gin with soda. Straight or on the rocks. Or with bitter lemon. Gin at the Gymkhana. Gin on the verandah. Gin at the club with cocktails at six o' clock. Gin was liquid colonialism."

Depictions like these, combined with the emergence of vodka as a stylish, less historically loaded, clear spirit, seem to have lead to gin's current sorry status. With few consumers, Indian manufacturers didn't bother investing in upgrading from the really raw tasting, crudely flavoured versions that they keep just to round out their portfolio. Yet a gin revolution is taking place abroad and it is time India caught up with it. We'll look at it in the second part of this column.

Flip flop

Generally speaking, I think I am a happy person. However, sometimes I get really depressed with the state of existence that I inhabit. There is nothing noteworthy or significant in this very unremarkable history of a guy like millions of other guys.

To be sure, I have nothing to complain about. Everything is well taken care of. Health, family, profession, material wealth - all are present in abundance. Indeed, often I think of myself as a very lucky person. Yet often I find I am not happy. Or at least I am not as happy as I could be.

What would make me happier? I have tried to analyze this problem, hoping to find a solution. I am an introvert, so most times I am happy just being with myself. Indeed, I am most often happier by myself than in company. But really, deep down, I think I have become very lonely. I have been told I come across as arrogant and aloof. Aloof, yes, certainly. I don't try to influence or change things or people's thoughts beyond a point. So maybe loneliness is what prevents me from perfect happiness. What else? The lack of a goal - something big and meaningful to look forward to. Something to stop me from just drifting along - something to propel the oars of life's boat along the sea of events that make up every moment. What else? Courage. The courage to stand up and make a difference. Or at least the courage to tell it like it is. What else? Generosity. I try to be unselfish, and to help people close to me. I am the guy who always will volunteer to suffer adverse conditions so that my loved ones can be comfortable. Yet I dont think anyone notices this enough to let me know that it is making a difference. Perhaps the aloofness comes in the way of good intent.

I don't believe that I can change anything about myself now - after all, I'm in the mid thirties, my hair have grayed, and the best part of my life is done. So what is the solution? How can I be happier more often than I currently am? Do I really care enough about myself to try to be happier? Or am I just a lucky guy who is too lazy to turn fortune into an enduring legacy?

We shall never know.

Time travel and God particles. Also, the biggest illusion of all

For a change, I am returning to my roots. On a hunch, I bought a book called The Big Questions in Physics, written by Michael Brooks. This book is a masterpiece, and also a mind bender. It has enough material in it to amaze even a reasonably aware person like me, and is written simply enough for a totally out of touch person to understand the key points.

The book tries to simplify and state what the current cutting edge thinking is on fundamental questions like Can we travel through time? Is any one of us unique? How large is the universe? What is reality? and so on.
It is astounding, or so it seems to me, that modern day physics is so close to metaphysics or religion. Spooky, in many ways.

Sample this - matter (the stuff that anything is made of, including you and me) exhibits duality. It behaves sometimes like a wave, and sometimes like a particle. What it actually is, depends entirely on the observer!! And not only on the observer's current actions, but also the observer's future actions!! Confused? Read on -

In an experiment where a single photon is passed through a double slit (you may remember this from class XII physics practicals!), the resulting pattern exhibits interference, showing that the photon is a wave (or that it passes through both slits simultaneously). Now, it we add apparatus to the experiment to measure which slit the photon actually passes through, the interference disappears! The photon starts exhibiting particle properties. In other words, the photon is at multiple places AT THE SAME TIME. Only the observer's actions (past or future) determine which of the millions of possibilities it will actually exhibit.

I may not have explained this very well, but I highly recommend a read. If nothing else, it will remind you of the Matrix, where all reality is an illusion. 

Another year passes

I'm looking back to see what I was thinking at the beginning of that brand new year 2012. I find I was not too sanguine about things, and was full of good intentions.

Well, the year is done, and what do we have to show for it? Personally, 2012 was, for me, the year of repair - repair of my thought processes, repair of placidity, old thoughts discarded for new, and new directions set in the GPS box of life. All in all, it was a year like any other, kind in parts and cruel in others. Maybe the mix was a bit biased, but nothing to write home about.

So what does 2013 have in store? Lots of promises, for sure. New purpose, new opportunities. The uncertainties are narrowing down, which is good, but so are the possibilities. One thing is for sure, that the year ahead provides tremendous scope for trying out new things. Professionally, personally and health wise.

How will it all pan out? We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!

Here is wishing you a very happy new year!

Dance Dance Dance

No, this is not a remake of Mithunda's 80s movie (that one had only 2 Dances in its name). I recently went looking in the bookshop for more Kazuo Ishiguro (for details see earlier post on Remains of the Day), but instead found Haruki Murakami.

Murakami is a prolific writer, if the number of books on the shelf was any indication. He writes in Japanese, and most of the English books are translations. Dance Dance Dance is a sort of sequel to another of Murakami's books, so I was not as familiar with the characters as perhaps the author intended, but that was a small obstacle.

Murakami is highly awarded and very well regarded by critics and readers alike. It is easy to see why - the prose is lyrical, the thoughts deeply philosophical, and the characters memorable. The plot of the story itself was a bit abstruse - indeed I admit that it took me several days to motivate myself to read further than the first 15 pages. But once I waded in, there was no looking back. Part supernatural, part murder mystery and part magic realism, the story kept me expecting some kind of climactic denouement.

However, that was not to be. The story's resolution was a bit too pat, or maybe it was too abstract for someone who likes to see everything explained fully and all loose ends tied. That said, it was definitely worth the read, and I think while I may not remember much of the book a year out, I will certainly remember the title and what it stands for.

Incidentally, I was in the bookshop again last evening, in front of the same row containing Murakami's other books. I almost bought a few more, but then replaced them again. Too metaphysical for me, perhaps?

New Genres

Tis' the season of new genres. I recently read Cut Like Wound, a police procedural set in Bangalore, written by Anita Nair. The setting is quite novel, and the plot racy enough to keep one hooked. While the story is sometimes too dark for my tastes (spoiler alert: it has transgender abuse, child abuse, and gory details of gruesome murders), the characters make up for any flaws.

Inspector Borei Gowda is interesting, an alpha male trapped in a lifetime of mediocrity and bureaucracy. The story walks through his resurrection, which I liked quite a bit. He finds a girlfriend, bonds with his teenage son, and discovers a sidekick much like himself, all in the course of a few weeks. He also manages to re-discover his sex life (the sex is well written, I thought)!

Other than the characters, nothing much to remember the book by. However, I think this is probably the first book in the series, so will be looking out for the next installments.

Also saw Talaash (surprise, surprise! got tickets for it in Chennai!), the new Aamir Khan movie. Didn't know what it was when I went in. I had some vague idea from the promos that it would be a murder mystery, but turned out to be a disappointment in the end.

The plot was stale, to say the least, but the treatment was interesting. It is probably the first mainstream attempt to create Indian noir cinema. Well acted, too (Rani Mukerji was especially masterful), though I just wish they had plugged the many holes in the story! Worth watching once, but nothing that will be remembered six months hence, in my view. 

Remains of the Day

Bought this book on a hunch, and finished reading it late into the night. This has been my first acquaintance of Kazuo Ishiguro, but certainly not the last.

As I finished reading the last few pages, I was strangely moved by the story. While I think myself completely different from the protagonist in temperament, and even though he seems to have come out a loser, there is yet admiration at his simple and stoic beliefs. He spends a lot of time contemplating the nature of dignity, and despite behaviour that in my eyes is foolish, actually achieves it. The story resonates with me because I have myself contemplated the futility of all of my existence. In the end, all that is left is the remains of the day. Yet, is that reason enough to not believe in something?

Would definitely recommend this book if you think of such questions.

A great nation

Random thoughts as I am forced to sit at home, watching non-stop squalling for the past 24 hours.

Buffeted by Cyclone Nilam in Chennai, I watch in wonder media images of 'Frankenstorm' Sandy. Hitting the coastline near New York, almost 180 degrees away on the globe, with so much fury and force. I also read President Obama's statement, cancelling his election campaign so that he can effectively monitor the state's response to the calamity. Contender Mitt Romney has also cancelled his campaign meetings, presumably because that is the right thing to do.

The right thing to do - this is a short phrase with so much power. So much short in supply in our country, but in such abundance in the United States of America. In Indian polity, there are no right things to do - only things that benefit individuals, often at the cost of the country. Sometimes I wonder, are we really so venal a people? Has all our goodness and decency really been stripped away? I see overwhelming evidence to support this unfortunate thought. In my youth, I used to think that this was because of our colonial history - scarcity and want had made us greedy. But I have been assured by various sensible people that public polity in much poorer nations is much better than in ours. Civic sense, politeness, honesty - one can find all of these in much greater proportions in some of the poorest countries in the world, but are so uncommon here.

But this is a post about the greatest nation on the planet.

Recent history is full of examples where the US has done things because they are the right things to do. Launching a war halfway across the globe in Afghanistan, because a menace to their country arose from there. Printing more dollars and debasing the currency, because that is the only thing going to help the unemployed in that country. Being at the forefront of innovation, be it Apple with the iPhone / iPad, Microsoft with its buggy operating systems, Intel with its chips or Facebook with its website. Samsung, Foxconn and all the others are just footnotes in the saga of American enterprise and innovation.

I do not have the least doubt that the economic crisis encircling the globe today will end with the re-emergence of the US as a moral, economic and cultural superpower, and the decimation of Europe, along with the decline of China. India? India will hobble along in mediocrity, an outcome destined by its citizens' pettiness and selfishness. 

Narendra Modi for PM

I am just leaving Ahmedabad, having spent slightly less than 20 hours in the city on the business trip. What I saw of the city has impressed me quite significantly.

The city is very clean, with almost no garbage on the roads. The Sabarmati has been made pretty, apparently with water from the Narmada! The slums along the embankment have all been cleared out, and construction is on in full swing for a park and a promenade along the picturesque river. The airport is efficient, and personnel friendly. Almost everyone I spoke to praised Modi for his administrative acumen. The businessmen I had gone to meet claimed there was little / no corruption in their dealings with the govt.

Now, the guy may not be secular, and may have strange views on malnutrition among women. But is that enough to condemn him? He is a fantastic administrator, from whatever I can see. India needs someone like him, and not a dithering, inactive and geriatric prime minister.

My vote for PM goes to Narendra Modi!

I'm Feeling Lucky

I read this book, which, as the cover proudly proclaims, is written by Google's employee #59. Pretty interesting, and with a few insights into how Google thinks about user privacy and its key credo of "Don't be Evil". An entertaining read, overall (not least because it describes the romantic shenanigans between Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's new and very pregnant CEO, and Larry Page), and it all works out well for the author, who cleaned out (per my calculation) close to $200m in 4 years between joining Google and its IPO!

However, for all the talk about privacy, I was rudely shocked today. I usually use Chrome as my default browser. Today I was checking a few travel sites for flights between Ahmedabad and Chennai. Now, generally browsing some news site, I get an ad from Make My Trip served up on the page, saying something like "Now, fly from Ahd to Che only at INR abc".

This is spooky. Clearly, Google is tracking data of what I'm doing on the browser. More heinously, it is selling this info to random websites (or at least using it to serve up 'relevant' ads to me). I'm not sure if I appreciate this. This sounds very much like Big Brother to me.

I wonder what all Google knows about me. Pretty much everything - my bank account, my passwords, my bank balance, what i shop for, who i email, where i travel, what i do!! This is nuts!