Something Fresh

Comeback quote

2009-07-14T12:47:00.003+05:30

An amazing one from Rabindranath Tagore: "Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."

Where was Harbhajan's high-school teacher?

2008-01-29T20:21:00.000+05:30

I can say with reasonable confidence (based on what I have seen of late on TV) that Indian journalists today missed out on a human interest story related to the Harbhajan saga. Apparently, the offspinner was let off by the ICC because of his "previous good conduct." Today was the day they should have interviewed Harbhajan's high school teacher to find out how he used to behave in class, as also what he thought about the entire issue. His mother has already been given a chance, so it would only be fair to give others in the Harbhajan growth value-chain an opportunity! Having said that, they might have done it if Harbhajan was charged with a stricter penalty based on his "previous conduct."

Btw, if the Procter hearing charging Harbhajan with racism was funny, the review that rendered Procter's verdict null and void was funnier. ICC evidently looks only at its own history of charges against the player. If only it could have asked the Indian cricket establishment, ICC would have been told that Harbhajan was chucked out of the National Cricket Academy for indiscipline years back.

Another question comes to mind. What if a cricketer has been charged earlier for crime under a country's laws (say someone with a murder charge; and this isn't unprecedented)? Will ICC still look only at its own charges against that player?

The best Indian XI for Sydney

2008-01-01T19:26:00.000+05:30

Here's how a winning Indian team would look (the list follows the batting order):

Phil Jaques, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Adam Gilchrist, Anil Kumble (C), Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Zaheer Khan

On a serious note, it was quite amusing to see Kumble talk about the lack of form of Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik. The popular perception was that he was the one who backed both of them during the selection meeting. And Sehwag wasn't even in the initial shortlist. Why then didn't he back the in-form Akash Chopra and Parthiv Patel (who are supposedly in-form by virtue of their Ranji performances). Btw, before the first Test, all Indian batsmen including Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh were said to be in rocking form!

Done in by the rain?

2007-12-19T21:04:00.000+05:30

Why is the lorry acting like a crane?

A shocker of an intro

2007-12-13T11:11:00.000+05:30

I have a vague feeling that it was Richie Benaud who, giving tips on commentary to wannabe commentators, said a dropped catch is no 'disaster'; the crisis in Somalia is. Don't know whether I am ascribing the right comments to the right man but I hope you get the essence of it. And perfectly acceptable stuff too I guess.

So, I was shocked to see this intro in a Times of India article: "It's a jolt that probably matches the severity of the 2001 earthquake. For once, Gujarat forgot the heat and clamour of elections to raise its voice against what it sees as "sheer injustice" to the state — national selectors ignoring Parthiv Patel for the Australia tour despite excellent performance. And, Parthiv fans and commoners alike are crying foul as they see a plot in this to "ensure a berth for Dinesh Karthik"."

I admit I am a Dinesh Karthik fan but what shocked me was the first line of the article: comparing the disappointment of Parthiv's non-selection with the pain of the Gujarat earthquake. What else can the line mean? I guess everyone should remind themselves one more time that it's just a game.

Shapiro, Shapiro, Shapiro, and Shapiro!

2007-11-30T20:45:00.000+05:30

From PG Wodehouse's 'Pigs Have Wings':

'Pardon me, m'lord,' said Beach. 'A Mr Wapshott is on the telephone, desirous of speaking to you. He implied that the matter was of importance -'

Lord Vosper came out of his trance.

'Wapshott?'

'Yes, m'lord. He stated that he represented the firm of Wapshott, Wapshott, Wapshott, and Wapshott.'

'Reminds me,' said Gally, who never let an opportunity like this pass, 'of the story of the chap in New York who rang up the legal firm of Shapiro, Shapiro, Shapiro, and Shapiro. "Hello," he says, "can I speak to Mr Shapiro?" "Mr Shapiro is in court. "Then I'll talk to Mr Shapiro." "Mr Shapiro is in conference with an important client. "Then connect me with Mr Shapiro." "I'm sorry, but Mr Shapiro has taken the day off to play golf." "Oh, all right, then I'll talk to Mr Shapiro." "Speaking."

Was the "chap in New York" a journalist!

Please say something else

2007-11-29T09:28:00.000+05:30

I have been hearing losing captains say their team fell short by 15 or 20 runs. It seems the most convenient explanation for the loss. But I was amused when Shoaib Malik said after Pakistan's loss at Kotla that his team was probably 100 runs short.

How far can this line of reasoning be dragged?

May be someone will say his team fell short by 300 runs and 10 wickets, explaining the huge innings defeat!

Greenspan's words

2007-11-21T22:32:00.000+05:30

From BL archives:

Alan Greenspan, during his speech in 1996 at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research said: “Clearly, sustained low inflation implies less uncertainty about the future, and lower risk premiums imply higher prices of stocks and other earning assets. We can see that in the inverse relationship exhibited by price/earnings ratios and the rate of inflation in the past. But how do we know when - - has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?” Fill in the blanks with a two-word phrase, which has now become famous among investors.

The official blog

2007-11-16T21:39:00.000+05:30

Over the last couple of months I have also been blogging at the official Web site of Outlook Business (www.outlookbusiness.com).

I believe there would be a separate URL in a while. Till then please work your way through the site (click here for the home page), have a look and send in your comments.

It's called Marginal Utility and deals with economic issues.

Muppets or jokers?

2007-11-13T10:12:00.000+05:30

Sri Lanka's cricket selectors are apparently "distressed and disappointed" with batsman Marvan Atapattu's comments calling the selectors "muppets headed by a joker."

And they have allowed Atapattu to continue with the tour. That's strange, and I think Atapattu managed to split the committee by not categorising everyone as muppets or as jokers!

But for impact I would anyday prefer Mohinder Amarnath's comments about two decades back when he called the selectors "a bunch of jokers." That's more to the point!

The media might be disappointed, but at least the current team of Indian selectors should be grateful to Rahul Dravid for saying 'No comments.'

Who's this tennis player?

2007-11-11T10:38:00.000+05:30

This South American tennis player’s surname is Persian for “One who makes horseshoes.” Who’s he?

And the resignation letter goes to ...

2007-11-07T21:39:00.000+05:30

In one of those particularly melodramatic moments in a prime-time Tamil serial, a firebrand reporter charges her boss with helping goons supress the "truth." Regular line linking media and truth, I thought bemused. But then came the shocker. "So, I am now going to submit my resignation to the sub-editor."

I started my journalistic career being a sub-editor (not counting my stint as a trainee), which is the lowest rung of the journalism ladder, but don't remember anyone tendering their resignation to me!

May be if I hadn't got into media, I too would have thought sub-editors to be No. 2 in any media organisation. May be it was the director's attempt at light humour amid an emotional overdose. May be, this fictional editor delegates his work effectively. Or, may be I heard it all wrong!

Coach-less, captain-less

2007-11-06T17:58:00.000+05:30

Sachin has apparently said no to Test captaincy. And Indian selectors seem reluctant to make Dhoni the captain in the longer version of the game. I suggest we should go to Australia without a captain. Without a coach we seem to be doing well. Without a captain, you never know we might play our best cricket. If you need someone to go out to toss with Ponting, let the players take turns. What say?

Novel and controversial ...

2007-11-04T20:03:00.000+05:30

From BL archives:

It wasn't the first time the No. 9 batsman was using this brand in a Test match. It was, in fact, the second time! But it came under close scrutiny from rivals England during a Test match at Perth in December 1979. The batsman would later recount in his autobiography Menace that he was merely marketing the product. The No. 9 batsman was the business partner of Graham Monoghan, who is said to have developed the product for recreation use. Which product or brand are we talking about?

The all-important boundary!

2007-10-19T05:28:00.000+05:30

It was an unusual role for me. For some reason, which I don't recall now, I featured in the second-half of the batting order (instead of the usual two-down). A brilliant 12-year-old all-rounder with a name quite absurd for a Tamilian, Raja Singh, had just turned around the game with a fantastic cameo. He couldn't continue his exploits for long and I soon found myself in the middle (as the expression goes) with the propect of undoing whatever good Singh had done in the past 30 minutes if I played my natural game, which was looking for the ones and twos.

I was by no measure an aggressive batsman. My USP, if at all there was one, was holding on to one end. And my Kashimir willow bat helped me achieve that without much fuss. But the situation of that day demanded a different approach, and also a different bat.

Singh handed me his Symonds (which by virtue of its English willow make was at the top of the bat hierarchy; and it was heavy). I don't remember the minute details of my innings that afternoon in plus 40 degree Celsuis temperatures (and I don't mind that) but one of the things that I do remember vividly is an uncharacateristic slog over mid-wicket that fetched me a boundary.

I have never seen a coaching manual but I am pretty sure you won't find that shot there. What made the four even sweeter was the fact that the left-arm medium pace bowler, representing another summer camp team, though talented didn't earn himself many fans. His own teammates considered him a snob. And his upright gait (people used to make fun of that) and a general aloofness possibly helped enhance that image.

So, to get back to the replay, I swung the ball pitched just short-of-a-good length on leg stump wildly and it just about managed to reach the boundary. Actually, the fielders chasing it weren't convinced as to whether it actually crossed the boundary but our entire team had camped there and that helped settle matters in our favour.

The left-arm seamer had the last laugh, though. The next ball was on good length and directed at the middle stump. I tried repeating the shot, this time over the bowler, only to get a top-edge. I was out, caught and bowled by the bowler, Kartik M. That was how Murali Kartik, India's hero in the just-concluded series against Australia, was known then.

Ever since Kartik made his debut some seven or eight years back, I have been telling this story to my friends and relatives (good timing, isn't it!). There are three essential components in this story: that I played alongside Kartik; I hit him for a four; and I got out. The first two ensure people are aware of my cricketing skills. The third is to make sure it doesn't sound boastful.

I think not long after that Kartik's father got transferred to Delhi, where the medium-pacer converted to spin. And I think he has been quite an impressive spinner, having the gift of beating batsmen in the air, and could have achieved much more till now had Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid given him enough chances. It's great that Dhoni's backing him now.

Reality shows?

2007-10-13T18:23:00.000+05:30

Nowadays I am simply not able to tune into any TV channel without coming across so-called reality shows. I am really tired of their artificiality, and sick of the noise they create about nothing . I yearn for the old DD-style talent show where the judge concludes by applauding all participants for trying their best, regrets he has to pick only one winner and concludes saying it's participating that's important, not winning.

Guess DD may still run with such shows. Will surf.

Nassim's take on journalists

2007-10-02T18:41:00.000+05:30

Nassim Nicholas Taleb isn't surely a fan of the present-day journalist. Below are lines from his Fooled By Randomness. Actually, makes sense! Or, does it? (This last line has been added after debating this issue with a couple of friends!).

1) "On the rare occasions when I boarded the 6:42 train to New York I observed with amazement the hordes of depressed business commuters (who seemed to prefer to be elsewhere) studiously buried in The Wall Street Journal, apprised of the minutiae of companies that, at the time of writing now, are probably out of business. Indeed it is difficult to ascertain whether they seem depressed because they are reading the newspaper, or if depressive people tend to read the newspaper, or if people who are living outside their genetic habitat both read the newspaper and look sleepy and depressed. But while early on in my career such focus on noise would have offended me intellectually, as I would have deemed such information as too statistically insignificant for the derivation of any meaningful conclusion, I currently look at it with delight. I am happy to see such mass-scale idiotic decision making, prone to overreaction in their postperusal investment orders - in other words, I currently see in the fact that people read such material an insurance for my continuing in the entertaining business of option trading against the fools of randomness. (It takes a huge investment in introspection to learn that the thirty or more hours spent 'studying' the news last month neither had any predictive ability during your activities of that month nor did it impact your current knowledge of the world. This problem is similar to the weaknesses in our ability to correct past errors: Like a health club membership taken out to satisfy a New Year's resolution, people often think that it will surely be the next batch of news that will really make a difference to their understanding of things.)

2) "The problem with information is not that it is diverting and generally useless, but that it is toxic. I will say here that such respect for the time-honored provides arguments to rule out any commerce with the babbling modern journalist and implies a minimal exposure to the media as a guiding principle for someone involved in decision making under uncertainty. If there is anything better than noise in the mass of 'urgent' news pounding us, it would be like a needle in a haystack. People do not realise that the media is paid to get your attention. For a journalist, silence rarely surpasses any word."

3) "To be competent, a journalist should view matters like a historian, and play down the value of the information he is providing, such as by saying 'Today the market went up, but this information is not too relevant as it emanates mostly from noise.' He would certainly lose his job by trivialising the value of the information in his hands. Not only is it difficult for the journalist to think more like a historian, but it is, alas, the historian who is becoming more like the journalist."

Bowl-out needs to go

2007-09-15T10:46:00.000+05:30

Twenty20 seems to follow the same formula as that of a Tamil movie aspiring to be a mass entertainer: action, song and dance, and comedy. The last ingridient was in play yesterday during the India-Pakistan tie. It's called bowl-out, and it needs to go.

The Marina ground

2007-09-10T18:09:00.000+05:30

Today, I was passing the Marina ground (I will be surprised if it doesn't get its name from the Marina beach, which is just across the road) and remembered a match I played for my school 14 years back (add or subract a year). Not a happy match to remember for either me or the school, but more so for me!

Four things I remember about my 'role' in that match:

1) Dropped a sitter at covers, and the bowler (a talented left-arm medium pacer with a fiery temper, who was my classmate despite being two years my senior, as he had flunked twice until then) had something to say that can't really be written here! Because of the sea breeze there, the ball swung wildly and in trying to catch it I injured my finger. And the batsman went on score a big 50!

2) I don't why but suddenly my leg spinners weren't spinning but they were going fast and straight and bounced wildly, so much so that one of them hit our wicketkeeper on his face. He was injured too!

3) Despite protests from me about the serious nature of my finger injury, I was forced to go two down (walking in when the score was pathetically close to zero for two!). My captain tried to boost my ego by recalling earlier instances when I played stubbornly for my school. I couldn't recall those innings even then! So, I went in to face the last ball of an over and played the most perfect backfoot defence. The next over when I got my chance, I played at a ball and then could only recollect the sounds: first that of something hitting a piece of wood (I later came to know it was the ball hitting the stumps!), and almost simultaneously the roar from the slip cordon. Zero in two balls! I don't remember who the bowler was but if only you are fair, you could equate him with Eric Hoolis!! For that was the last match I played for my school.

4) I came back home early citing the injury. I heard later that I didn't miss much, for we were all out for something in the 70s, just about 200 short of our opponent's total.

It seems funny now!

Headline of the day

2007-08-21T12:22:00.000+05:30

Three-line headline in Deccan Chronicle (though I am sure many others would have tried similar stuff):

Side injury
sidelines
Sidebottom

Dravid & people in living rooms!

2007-08-15T10:21:00.000+05:30

“My bowlers were tired and I needed to look after them... I know them best and can read their body language... People sitting in their living rooms may have been disappointed but, as captain, I’ve got to take decisions and stand by them... Have to back my judgement.”

I admire Rahul Dravid as a pro but I thought he got carried away during the speech after the Oval Test, if the above comment is any indicator. Probably he was really, really irritated. But Rahul could do well to realise it's because of the same "people sitting in their living rooms" that there is a cricket economy. You can, and should, be severely critical of people who are violent in their means of protest, as a few did after India's World Cup debacle. But you can't put down a genuine cricketing debate by such a distasteful reply.

Which is this instrument?

2007-07-21T19:43:00.000+05:30

Russian origin, triangular body and three strings. Can you name this guitar-style instrument? (For Tamil film fans, there can't be a more topical question!)

Ebbinghaus Illusion

2007-05-02T07:51:00.000+05:30

This is for those of us who have, at some point or the other in their lives, been hit hard/irritated by comparison with their peers.

The fact is that perception is relative as the Ebbinghaus Illusion shows. (See this Wikipedia write-up.) And this is explained best by an image of two identical circles (here). One is surrounded by giant circles while the other is surrounded by tiny ones. As Vilayanur Ramachandran puts it, in his 'Phantoms in the Brain': "To most eyes, the two central disks do not look the same size. The one surrounded by the big disks looks about 30 per cent smaller that the one with small disks - an illusion called size contrast." In this case, the orange circle to your left seems smaller to the one to your right.

Perception is always dependent on the surrounding context.

So, if you have been on the receiving end as a result of comparisons with your peers, just remember that you could be just as good (or bad) as the person you are being compared with!

Time zones?

2007-04-29T19:16:00.000+05:30

If you can't increase the output of power to meet the ever increasing demand, what do you do? Have multiple time zones! Centre's mulling this interesting proposal. Pls read this BL story to get more on it.

Retirement shy

2007-04-26T20:44:00.000+05:30

When was the last time a top Indian cricketer retired? Was it 2004 when Srinath hung up his boots. Indian cricketers surely seem shy of retiring.

Every other major cricketing team has had one or more players retiring after their World Cup matches but not India. Martyn (along with predominantly Test players Warne and Langer) retired even before the tournament and McGrath will end his international career after the finals. Russel Arnold of Sri Lanka has said the finals is his last match.

South African captain has hinted that Shaun Pollock is about to review his career. Stephen Fleming won't captain New Zealand in the one-dayers anymore and just before the World Cup Nathan Astle retired from cricket.

Inzamam and Lara have also announced their retirement, the former from just the one-dayers. You could say no one from England's on the way out. Fair enough but just before the World Cup, Harmison announced he will no longer play the one-dayers.

Even the Irish captain is supposedly calling it quits, one-and-a-half months after many of us first came to know him! So, what makes Indian seniors cling to their careers and not call it quits gracefully, even at the risk of suffering one humiliation after another? It certainly doesn't look like the Japanese enthusiasm for work!

What is it then?

Political lingo ... in cricket

2007-04-21T23:21:00.000+05:30

Indian selectors have decided to rest Sachin and Sourav and drop Agarkar, Pathan and Harbhajan for the upcoming one-day series against Bangladesh.

Interesting language actually. Normally only international diplomacy requires such careful choice of words. Like when a country regrets its past wrongs, rather than apologising for it. Or, when a country says it fought three wars over fifty years with its neighbour over an issue, not a dispute.

The selectors should have continued in the same vein actually. Their entire statement should have read something like this: "We have dropped Agarkar, Pathan and Harbhajan but we have only rested Sachin and Sourav. We have deserted, not dropped or rested, Joginder Sharma. And disowned , not dropped, rested or deserted, Suresh Raina. At the same time, we have given up on Virender Sehwag, not dropped, rested, deserted or disowned him. And Murali who? See we have forgotten him. So, he hasn't been dropped, rested, disowned, deserted or given up on."

Graded privileges

2007-04-15T21:52:00.000+05:30

This Rediff article is about how a group of people in Ahmedabad shouted slogans against Sachin, Zaheer and Agarkar, who are there to play a 20/20 tournament.

Way down the article there is this line: "Interestingly, only Tendulkar, Agarkar and Zaheer are staying in the posh five-star hotel. The rest of the Mumbai players are staying at Gujarat Sports Club."

Moral of the story: You can scrap the graded payment system, not graded privileges!

Also, the concept of bonding I guess only applies to the national team. You don't bond with your State team mates but when you play for the country, you suddenly develop that quality. How?

Update: The Hindu reports this today: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, staying in a five-star hotel due to security reasons, faced a tirade of slogans and display of placards in a brief, dramatic show of protest in front of the venue.

Confused!

5 reasons why I should replace Greg

2007-04-05T20:43:00.000+05:30

With Greg's resignation, the field for the coach's job is wide open. I hereby throw my hat in the ring.

I stand a good chance, and these are the factors favouring me:

1) I am a pure Indian; in fact, I haven't ever gone abroad.

2) I will be fine with half the amount my predecessor earned. BCCI can invest the rest in developing sporting pitches at the Ranji level.

3) If Sachin becomes captain, the country may smell a Maharashtra conspiracy, as the chief selector and BCCI chief are also from that state. My presence (I am from TN) will help moderate such concerns.

4) It's quite tough to send text messages from my cellphone, because the new control panel is way too tight. However, I can manage to put together a PPP.

5) Ah. By the way, I too have played competitive cricket. At the school level. It was so competitive that I couldn't make the eleven for half the matches.

Hope BCCI considers this as my formal application. Or do I need to tell a news channel?

Jaisalmer brand

2007-03-31T11:32:00.000+05:30

After the post on the Hindustan Brush Co and (what I considered) an inappropriate brand name (Chancellor) for a bathroom brush, which made readers question my work status, this is about an inappropriate brand image! I am quoting from quite an interesting book called 'The Dum Dum Bullet' by advertising pro Sandeep Goyal. Here goes:

"Jaisalmer was one of the most high profile launches of the early nineties. A cigarette brand for the smoking royalty, it came in a golden pack with a sandy finish, and had a royal emblem and coat-of-arms: very regal, very Indian. The brand was sampled out by extremely well-turned-out young ladies through individual visits to the offices and homes of high net worth smokers. For the press campaign, a close-up of a bearded, turbaned and bejewelled Rajput prince inundated the media. Initial offtakes, especially in Delhi, were good. But in Mumbai, for some reason, Jaisalmer just didn't fly.

"A worried Godfrey Phillips put the Jaisalmer campaign to research in Mumbai. The feeback was heartbreaking. The bejewelled Rajput prince was identified by most Bombayites as the doorman of five-star hotels! So the upmarket overtones, the royalty and the aristocracy, were completely misunderstood! No wonder sales had hit an airpocket."

Don't think Chancellor has such problems.

Today's discovery

2007-03-30T13:22:00.000+05:30

There's a company by the name Hindustan Brush Co and one of its offerings, a bathroom brush, is branded Chancellor!

What a World Cup

2007-03-29T05:34:00.000+05:30

Even if the organisers decide to stop the World Cup abruptly today, this would have to rank as the most eventful one in World Cup history.

I will start to list the 'events' randomly, starting with the one that actually prompted calls to stop the World Cup. Let's see how far it goes:

1) Bob Woolmer's 'murder' (the investigation drama is a separate story)
2) Six sixes in an over by Gibbs
3) Malinga's four wickets in four balls yesterday, despite which South Africa scraped through
4) Flintoff's removal from vice captaincy for 'indiscipline'
5) Pakistan's shock defeat to Ireland
6) Bangladesh's 'upset' win over India

I thought I had more than what I ended up with. Anything else!

Captain Clever

2007-03-02T08:54:00.000+05:30

I liked the way Rahul Dravid tried to downplay the hype surrounding the World Cup before the team's departure to West Indies. This comes in an age when phoney-sounding aggressive optimistic talk is celebrated world over. But by doing the same, Dravid might have increased the chances of India winning the world cup.

Even as a strategy, downplaying works. I guess it basically doesn't allow pressure to get to you. Steve Waugh put too much pressure on himself and his team by elevating an India tour to the status of a 'final frontier'. And he failed to win here. I don't know if Ponting's fate would have been any different. Luckily, he was injured and Adam Gilchrist took his place the last time Aussies were here for a full series. And his approach was the direct opposite of what Waugh took. After winning, Gilchrist said, "I still stand by my comments about this (India - Australia series) not being necessarily more important than any other series. Every series we play is important."

More recently, in the backdrop of the bomb blasts in London, Michael Vaughan said something to the effect that cricket is no big deal when such things are happening. And he went on to lead England to their first Ashes win over Australia in 18 years.

Here I am again

2007-02-25T10:46:00.000+05:30

I'm back. And this comeback post recounts a joke narrated by Vinod Dasari, COO of Ashok Leyland, at a seminar recently. Disclaimer: You might have heard this before, but I heard it for the first time and I found it a smart joke!

Here it goes: Son asks his father why he goes to work. Father uses an analogy to explain what he does. He says he's the capitalist of the family, for he brings home the money. The son's mother, the capitalist's wife, is the management. The house maid is the labour class. Management and labour together try to grow the product (which is the son, who asked the question to his father initially).

Son gets up one night to the screams of his months-old younger brother, who needs a diaper change. He tries to wake up mother but can't. His father is missing and futher investigation reveals he's harassing the maid. So, summing up, the situation is: Capitalist is harassing labour, management is fast asleep, product is ignored and the future (baby) stinks!

Hope your organisation is different!

Martyn bids adieu

2006-12-08T08:41:00.000+05:30

Damien Martyn has announced his retirement. Read this. His indifferent form in the first two Ashes Test matches is the reason. Hats off to him, for just about a month back he helped Australia win the Champions Trophy.

It's refreshing to see such things happening in cricket, because as Indians I guess we have been witnessing a melodrama for over a year, culminating (hopefully) in politicians having a say in who should play for India. We need to learn not only how to play cricket but also how to run cricket from Australia.

Asian Games - initial thoughts

2006-12-07T22:22:00.000+05:30

1) I have lost count of the number of medals that China has won in just the first few days of the Games. A suggestion to those who keep tab of the ongoing events: Follow China's medal tally as if it's a stock ticker. It keeps moving every minute. Assume India's medal tally to be a balance sheet. You can have a look at the end of the day!

2) Kabaddi is pretty interesting and action packed. I am sure it's a big hit in the rural areas and semi-urban areas of the subcontinent. Considering the success rate that we have had in this game (never mind the number of countries which follow the game; then again cricket doesn't have much of a following), we should make it the national sport. Our incumbent national sport hockey isn't doing good for us.

3) According to the rules, it seems, a single country won't be given all three medals even if that country wins them. In such a case, the bronze is awarded to the sportperson who finished fourth. I think it's quite stupid. And that too in the context of the huge China sweep that we are witnessing. Then there should be a cap on how much each country can win. Quotas, anyone?

Wilde experience

2006-12-05T20:34:00.000+05:30

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III

So, is it good to have an experienced cricket team!

What about hockey?

2006-11-28T18:44:00.000+05:30

The Chappell-MPs controversy was first triggered by comments made by MPs, who seemed irritated by the state of Indian cricket. I just wanted to know if anybody has raised the issue of India's abysmal performance in hockey, supposedly our national game. Or football, which is being administered for a good part of the last two decades by politician Priyaranjan Das Munshi. KPS Gill and his team have repeatedly arbitrarily chopped and changed the team. The latest victim being the brilliant midfielder Viren Rasquinha. Please read this. Why no one for them?

General crossword

2006-11-13T09:08:00.000+05:30

Try this one (already published in a newspaper supplement):

Across
4) Film personality Walter Elias … (6)
7) An overland expedition, particularly for hunting or exploration. (6)
9) Desi car or Megasthenes’ account of the Maurya empire. (6)
10) Waterfall, opacity of the lens. (8)
11) A decorative bow, a problem or a speed unit. (4)
12) ‘Any of various isomeric paraffin hydrocarbons with the formula C8H18, found in petroleum and used as a fuel and solvent.’ (6)
13) Raghuram Rajan’s book talks about saving capitalism from them. (11)
18) … of Sion, written about in the Da Vinci Code. (6)
20) Impel. (4)
21) Male roe deer collectively sounding like branded shoes. (8)
22) Defined as a set of bit that represents a graphic image. (6)
23) Term in Sanskrit for the ‘way of the higher truths.’ (6)
24) A group which fixes prices, limits supply and competition. (6)

Down
1) Alfred Hitchcock thriller, insane (slang). (6)
2) Vishnu’s incarnation, also called Halayudha. (8)
3) Optical phenomenon or a military aircraft. (6)
4) East African country. Anagram: IJI DOUBT! (8)
5) The Japanese abbreviation of a phrase meaning ‘the digits must remain single.’ (6)
6) Asset put into the custody of third party for delivery only after the fulfillment of specified conditions. (6)
8) Navigation plan possibly first conceived in 1860 by Commander A. D. Taylor of the Indian Marines. (13)
14) This international organisation is headed by Ronald K. Noble and its General Secretariat is in Lyon, France. (8)
15) A seat or court of justice. Anagram: LATRUNIB (8)
16) Russian for collection of three … (6)
17) Pierre de —, known for his ‘last theorem.’ (6)
18) False, fake. (6)
19) ‘A person of unquestioning obedience.’ (3-3)

Which show ...

2006-11-11T21:45:00.000+05:30

What new name did WLS-TV's show A. M. Chicago get in 1985?

After the silence ...

2006-10-18T18:48:00.000+05:30

As you would obviously expect, many things have happened during my longest non-blogging period since I took to the activity about six months back. Locally, thugs who are all set to become people's representatives instigated violence during the farce called local polls and, it seems, the violence was less severe compared to what happened in the previous regime. Or, so our CM says. Again locally, the Tamil film actors proved yet again that they can put up a melodramatic show under any CM.

Nationally, mosquitoes replaced terrorists as our biggest threat. For a change, it's not the prime minister, but the president, who has to decide on one of the most sensitive issues India has had of late. That's regarding the mercy petition of Afzal, who has been handed a death penalty for his role in the Parliament attack. It's an issue about which Indians seem to have sharply divergent views, with a desperate politician even predicting the worst if Afzal were hanged.

Sports? Well Indian cricketers are somehow winning at home, surely doing better than our footballers (whose defeat seems certain the minute they step on to the field) and hockey players (whose defeat is sealed invariably at the last minute)!

And yes, North Korea tested the N-bomb finally! And the Time mag has an article with phrases such as: "Welcome to the bad new world ..." and

"What we have now is not a tight club of nuclear powers with interlocking interest and an appreciation for the brutal doctrine of 'mutually assured destruction' but an unpredictable host of potential Bomb throwers: a Stalinist Bomb out of unstable North Korea; a Shi'ite Bomb out of Iran; a Sunni Bomb out of Pakistan; and, down the road, possibly out of Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well; and, of course, an al-Qaeda Bomb out of nowhere. Israel is a nuclear power already. And Turkey may just decide it had better be too ..."

Interesting comment, isn't it? Even before "a Stalinist Bomb," the key words for me in this passage are "tight club," "interlocking interest," "unpredictable host," and "potential bomb throwers."

If you were a North Korean, would you feel safe or threatened by the N test? May be the country's safer (from outside threat) than before, provided it doesn't use it first. In that sense, may be it got its game theory right? What do you say?

Legendary horse, legendary brand

2006-09-19T16:15:00.000+05:30

From BL archives:

An easy one! A Mewar ruler bought two horses from an Arab dealer. The first one, Natak, it is said, performed stunning feats during a test, but was subsequently fatally injured. The second one went on to attain legendary status in Indian history. Four centuries after its death, its name is still famous — now also as a company's brand. Which brand?

Learnings from Connect 2006

2006-09-12T22:34:00.000+05:30

The organisers of Connect 2006, the event that showcases Tamil Nadu's IT prowess and potential, are an optimistic lot. First, they set steep targets for IT in the state, which is commendable. Second, and this isn't very clever, they invite Anil Ambani to come to Chennai for the first time in 10 years and ask him to be part of a panel that tries to elaborate on the topic TN: Vision 2011.

Anil Ambani's speech didn't have much to do with the topic. Instead, he talked about lessons that he learnt from his father, one of which was about the need to "dream with our eyes open." Enlightening but ... Anil Ambani got away with it! I guess just the presence of biggies like Anil Ambani is enough (the audience was surely excited when he walked in to the seminar room and there was pin-drop silence - and I mean that - when he spoke). Add to it, he had just announced a whopping Rs 12,000 crore investment in the state. Probably people reckon his actions speak louder than his words!

Mindless self-promotion

2006-09-10T12:19:00.000+05:30

Quite funny

2006-09-09T20:57:00.000+05:30

"Nobody can get the truth out of me because even I don't know what it is. I keep myself in a constant state of utter confusion." - Colonel Flagg (A MASH series charcter)

Unique country

2006-09-08T22:40:00.000+05:30

Its currency is pegged to the India rupee. Sixty per cent of its budget expenditure is financed by India's Ministry of External Affairs. It's a secluded country which even still doesn't have a railway network. It's the only country to measure Gross National Happiness.

It overstated its population some decades back as there was a perception that only countries with over a million population are admitted to the UN. It's economy is entirely agrarian and what's non-agrarian is cottage industry. The country keeps making efforts to preserve its traditional way of life. Amid all this, it seems to be largely peaceful.

I read this piece on Wikipedia about Bhutan. It's surely one of its kind. A very fascinating read, actually. What kind of society will hold on to such a lifestyle without dissent?

Another interesting insight provided in that write-up was that cable TV was introduced only a few years back and since then crime rate is said to have increased! The article actually raises a lot of questions, interesting ones.

Business crossword

2006-09-04T22:20:00.000+05:30

Just tried a small 9*9 business crossword.
Eager to know your views about it!

Across

1) Vedanta constituent, ‘Cu’ producer. (8)
6) Communication service or a thought. (4)
7) ‘Let’s Go’ is this car’s baseline. (4)
8) A local network. (3)
9) Sounds like a two-wheeler. It is. (3)
10) Element that is “an open source text-based
news client.” (3)
11) “Seller pays for transportation of the goods to the port of shipment,
plus loading costs.” Short term for the same. (3)
13) Lob was his first name. But this German-born American cloth
manufacturer, a pioneer, changed it to … (4)
14) An ExxonMobil tradename. (4)
15) Headless eerie clan made sense for trustful dependence. (8)

Down

2) Toy named after Roosevelt. (5, 4)
3) Money not imaginary. (4)
4) The land of Zam Zam Cola. (4)
5) — value, also referred to as the
time value of an option. (9)
11) Filling yarn, or —, as they say in
North America for weft or woof. (4)
12) It’s Greek, a first version. (4)

Official and unofficial

2006-08-31T22:32:00.000+05:30

Which Indian cricketer has the distinction of scoring a century on debut in an unofficial Test (against Sri Lanka in 1975-76) and following it up with a ton in his debut official Test (against New Zealand)? (Clue: famous name in Indian cricket)

One more connect

2006-08-25T22:08:00.000+05:30

From BL archives:

Which name 'connects' the illustrious successor of the not-so-famous fictional character Meadowes and the Web-based company founded by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in 1996?

Now, privatisation

2006-08-17T10:04:00.000+05:30

Why workers oppose privatisation? This paper by Harvard Economics Prof Sendhil Mullainathan explores, among other things, the psychology behind such opposition. It stems from a phenomenon called 'loss aversion', he says.

The paper cites an experiment by Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler to point out that people who "are given objects very quickly appear to value them more than those who were not given the objects." In the case of privatization, the people who "are given the objects" are the incumbent workers.

This is what Sendhil has to say: "The insight about loss aversion can also help understand why policy change is so difficult in developing countries.

"Consider market reforms that transfer resources from one group to another with an efficiency gain. For example, suppose privatizing a firm will result in gains for customers while resulting in losses for incumbent workers.

"Under this perspective, such reforms are fought so vigorously partly because the losses are felt far more sharply by the workers. One implication of loss aversion is, at the margin, to pursue strategies that preserve the rents of incumbents rather than ones that try to buy out incumbents.

"All other things equal, a strategy that offers a buyout for incumbent workers will be far more costly than one that grandfathers them in. The buyout requires the government to compensate the workers for their loss, and this can be much greater than simple utility calculations
suggest.

"In contrast, a strategy that guarantees incumbent workers a measure of job security would not need to pay this cost. Many situations of institutional change require some form of redistribution. The recognition of loss aversion suggests that successful policies may require protecting the losses of incumbents."

Film and the book

2006-08-14T15:45:00.000+05:30

From BL archives:

'Connect' a pioneering effort with a commercial success: A 1923 British committee recommended the merger of existing airline companies into one. Thus was born Imperial Airways Ltd. In 1925, it became the first airliner to screen an in-flight movie . This movie, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, shares its name with the sequel of one of the most successful books of the ’90s. The book and its sequel were subsequently made into blockbuster movies. What's the title that they share?

e-democracy?

2006-08-10T18:43:00.000+05:30

Stalling Parliament costs the taxpayer Rs 20,000 per minute, said this article in Rediff recently. Reading it, I was wondering if we could have an e-Parliament in the future! What do you think? Or at least there could be video conferencing or something of that sort.

By getting into Parliamentary debates from their own constituencies, the MPs can avoid costs under the following heads:

* Travel to and fro to Delhi
* Food, accomodation, benefits, servants while there

Plus, the country can save from

* Not needing an army of secretaries, administrative staff
ensuring the function of Parliament

Actually, such an arrangement could free up enough time for the MPs to think and debate meaningfully. They will have enough time to talk to people, getting to understand their issues rather than running around, delivering one speech after another (They can do that now too, but with e-democracy it will free more of their time, and remove all excuses).

Debates can really be more independent of the party line and can emerge out of individual knowledge and perception, untainted by a group mindset. And this feature can really energise the collective intelligence of a group. (That's the funda behind James Surowiecki's 'The Wisdom of Crowds')

Even if the favourite tactic of the Opposition - walkouts - continues to be used, the loss to the nation in monetary terms will be considerably less that way!

In 1951, the loss per minute was Rs 100, it seems (it's now Rs 20,000). In other words, the money pumped in per minute to run the Parliament. The per capita income (income per Indian) was about Rs 275 in 1951. It has grown to just over Rs 20,000 currently. Clearly, the growth in income has been lower.

Does it indicate the falling productivity of the Parliamentarians! Hope not.

Five-letter answer

2006-08-10T00:18:00.000+05:30

Remember having come across this crossword clue (or something like this):

Train or part of it (5)

Quite simple but nice! What's it?

A Burroughs Wellcome trademark ...

2006-08-01T21:23:00.000+05:30

From BL's archives (slightly modified):

Which single word connects the following:

a) A Burroughs Wellcome trademark, registered on March 14, 1884. The word took its name for the process of making compressed pharma preparations.

b) The nickname of a Sopwith biplane during the First World War.

c) Due to the negative connotations of the word, 'compact' is preferred by some.

For divestment

2006-07-30T11:25:00.000+05:30

My opinion, of course unsolicited, is that our Govt doesn't try to explain some of its controversial moves before trying to bring them in. The move for reservation was one such. Divestment of its stakes in companies is another.

Though there's merit in both these moves, it's the duty of the Govt to roll out an elaborate communication exercise to rid people of their apprehensions. It makes sense too, even though both these issues have been in the public domain for ages.

There has been no attempt, at least in the public space, to challenge the arguments of, say, the opponents of divestment. This is all the more surprising, as the anti-divestment argument seems based on layers of assumptions. When the Centre tried to divest a 10% stake in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (where it holds nearly 95% currently), these were the arguments against such a move:

1) It's a move that could lead to privatisation eventually
2) The jobs of employees will be at stake

Take 1) first. There are numerous companies at present in India where the Govt's stake is between 51 and 100%. They are not private companies, they are in Govt control. So, it's clearly a big assumption.

Now for the second assumption, for which their first assumption must hold good. It's clearly their major worry. So, assuming NLC is privatised, there 'could' be job loss. The private sector in the last decade has clearly shown that it's adding people, not retrenching them. And still there could be enough safeguards against random firing.

In fact, if it's privatised and it's a big 'if', the skills of NLC staff would fetch greater monetary benefits when the private sector too competes for such skills. But, of course, people love status quo and want to stick on to NLC as it is now.

The fear is fanned by politicians, who also dish out interesting statements like 'Don't sell the family silver.' The other argument is that NLC is a profit-making company. That's all the more reason why people shouldn't worry with privatisation.

One new entrant to politics even praised the Govt's eventual decision to stall the divestment, saying the whole of Tamil Nadu is happy with it or something to that effect. Actually, the people of the State and the country would have been a lot happier if they had been allowed to own a part of the profit-making NLC.

The Govt didn't do that, sacrificing the chance for lakhs of retail investors for the superficial happiness of 18,000 employees. And, of course, politicians who will continue to be invited for the company's functions.

What it all implies?

1) The Govt will continue to find raising resources increasingly tougher. Taxes, in many cases, have already seen their highs. Expanding the tax base could be another political challenge.

2) Point 1) becomes a monstrous challenge when we consider that many of the state govts think that it's their duty to provide everything from safety pins to TV sets free of cost.

3) All these means education and health, where the Govt should have an enormous presence, will be sacrificed. Remember, AIIMS is not the only Govt hospital in India.

PS: The Govt at least for the sake of the money that divestment raises could have sweetened the offer by presenting two possible alternatives:
1) Present salary plus benefits continue, Govt stake unaltered
2) Present salary plus benefits continue, Govt sells 10% stake which means a chance to own a part of equity

I am sure 2) would have had a fair chance!

Which poem?

2006-07-25T23:01:00.000+05:30

The last lines of which English poem,
published in the early 1920s, are:

"Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih. Shantih. Shantih."

Simplify and exaggerate

2006-07-22T22:43:00.000+05:30

Simplify and exaggerate. That's what journalists have been accused of for long. Fair enough. Look discerningly around, and you would see this trait being more prevalent than you could imagine.

One manifestation of the process of simplifying and exaggerating (from now onwards just S&E) is seen in Tamil Nadu's 'parrattu vizhas'. I am sure other regions have similar functions, of course, with different names. When the film fraternity here last year conducted such a vizha for the chief minister, I remember one of the speakers saying that the CM was so good looking that, even at this age, she could give young heroines a run for their money. Come on!

One of the surest ways of finding out if someone is S&E is to see whether he/she is using adjectives to address the subject. So, in such a vizha for a late actor, the actor could become the 'university in acting', 'a preserver of Tamil culture' or pick your choice. Don't you think anecdotes could be much more interesting and much more honest?

S&E is also prevalent when people, notably politicians, opppose a move. You would have heard statements like 'If you do this, only God can save this state' or 'It's a welcome news for all the workers and the people of Tamil Nadu' (when Govt of India stalled its move to sell 10% of its shares from Neyveli Lignite Corporation, a company that has 18,000 workers!). Probably it sends the message across stronger. Don't know really.

I am picking examples closer home. You are welcome to add to the S&E list. One of the international examples is Bush's statement which reads something like 'You are either with us or with evil'. Whatever!

Why S&E? A few reasons I can come up with immediately. (Of course I may be accused of S&E myself!) One, people are basically emotional beings looking always for reasons for each and everything, and this prods them to exaggerate things, more so as they more often than not don't have the right information. So, if your boss talks to your colleague and not to you during one of his 'rounds', "he's being partisan". Remember in the good old days, Doordarshan used to show a public service information 'cartoon' (line drawing, basically) of how the bursting of a balloon is mistaken for a gun shot. And as this news travels, the rumour gains mass, with some distant person in the rumour chain saying that 5 or 6 bullets were fired.

Two, people have everything to gain from taking an S&E position. It helps being in the good books of important people. It guarantees them goodies from their bosses. It symbolises loyalty to HIM. I guess it's a fallout of our largely feudal past, when what you 'deserved' was decided by the king or the ministers or the landlords in an arbit manner. Those who were in the good books of the boss had an good time out there.

Three, S&E is a shorter and easier way of explaining the whole fact. I had a couple of months back posted one whole para from David Randall's 'The Universal Journalist'. And he points out how many British papers are using words such as fury (meaning anger beyond control) to mean annoyance (meaning you are not pleased). He says, "bad luck is a 'curse', to criticise is 'to slam', failure to attend is a 'snub', internal dispute is 'civil war', possibility is 'threat', a proposal is a 'plan', to replace is to 'oust', a traffic jam is 'road chaos', etc. All of these examples (and there are many more to choose from) are shorter, more extreme and more brutal than the reality they describe."

Randall says, "Words like 'sensational', 'shock', 'dramatic' and 'disturbing' are used to describe things which are normally a good deal less than sensational, shocking, dramatic and disturbing."

Is it a matter of S&E or pure laziness (or a mix of both) which forces most people delivering the vote of thanks after seminars or functions to "thank the chief guest for an inspirational speech" and "thank the chief guest for coming here despite his busy schedule"? What do you think?

I am jumping from a Randall statement to neuroscience expert Vilayanur Ramachandran's quote for the second time in the history of my blog. Ramachandran has this interesting thing to say about caricatures, whose defining feature I think is S&E. His following quote captures this well, though he wasn't talking about S&E when he said this: "Well let's think about caricature. What do you do in a caricature? Supposing you want to produce a caricature of Maggie Thatcher or a caricature of Nixon, what do you do? You take Nixon's face and you say: What's special about his face? What makes him different from other people. So what you do is you take the mathematical average of all male faces and you subtract it from Nixon's face. And you get the big bulbous nose and the shaggy eyebrows. And then you amplify it. And then you get an image that looks even more like Nixon than Nixon himself. Now if you do it just right you get great portraiture, even a Rembrandt. But if you overdo it you get caricature, it looks comical. But it still looks even more like Nixon than the original Nixon."

The next time, say, a politician wants to engage himself in S&E, I suggest he weave together stories and subtly simplify and exaggerate, which would work better as people love stories. And that's what journalists do! Me S&E??

Myth quiz

2006-07-20T10:45:00.000+05:30

In Ramayana, what was the name of the eldest son
of a character that was also called Nikasha?

Medicine and science

2006-07-16T11:42:00.000+05:30

A recent article in BusinessWeek talks about how the medical industry has little clue about which common treatments really work. The main source of the story, titled 'Medical Guesswork,' says only 15% of what doctors do are backed by hard evidence. For US, which spends two-and-a-half times per person as much as any other country on healthcare, this is worth probing. It's time to bring rationality to medicine. And I hope there could be some moves in this regard in India too. Read the story here, a must-read I would say!

A line each about four books

2006-07-15T12:49:00.000+05:30

This is an interesting and a novel way of looking at the central theme of four books. The idea was suggested by my friend Ramnath's (who says he read about the framework somewhere), and I told him I would post this one!

Imagine you are in a restaurant and just about to order. You would

1) Order what dish comes to your mind immediately, if you follow Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

2) Give the whole issue a thought and order after evaluating all options, if you follow Michael LeGault's Think, which talks about the flip side of Blink.

3) See what others in the restaurant have ordered and choose accordingly, if you follow James Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds.

4) Reject the waiter's recommendations and wonder what incentive does he have in motivating your behaviour, if you follow Freakonomics, authored by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

If people really tune their ordering strategies according to their favourite books, restaurant owners would be really wary of hosting Lynne Truss' fans. Wasn't she the one who wrote Eats, Shoots & Leaves!

Origin of the codename

2006-07-15T12:30:00.000+05:30

From the BL archives:

It is said an anti-Communist film Red Dawn, made 20 years ago, inspired the title (carrying the same name) for the operation to capture Saddam Hussein. As part of it, US forces considered two locations near the town of Adwar, 10 miles from Saddam’s hometown Tikrit. The codename assigned to the ‘suspect’ locations is also the name of the company that is a leading maker of casual, work and outdoor footwear. Its brands include Merrell, Caterpillar and Bates. What's the 'common' name?

The Rajan report

2006-07-11T23:44:00.000+05:30

In the backdrop of the controversy over the disinvestment programme, I thought I would copy-paste a report based on IMF chief economist Raghuram Rajan's speech. I was in BL when we came out with this (about a year-and-a-half back). His views on divestment are in the latter part of the report.

Interestingly, he points out, India needs resources and it can raise them in two ways: increasing tax-GDP ratio and through divestment. Now, it's going to be quite a task for any Indian Govt! Here goes the report under the headline 'Cut the fat, not the muscle':

INDIA'S greatest economic challenge is to rein in fiscal deficit, according to Dr Raghuram G. Rajan, Chief Economist of the IMF. "It is a problem because people do not see it as a problem," he said last week, addressing students of the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

With a consolidated fiscal deficit over 10 per cent of GDP, the country's debt runs the risk of becoming unsustainable in the long term.

The captive banking sector, comprising public sector banks, buy government debt but they are going to start investing in private ventures when the economy starts booming, he said; then, "there will be competition for money," because of which interest rates will shoot up.

Dr Rajan also advocated that India should eventually ensure full capital account convertibility, which would help make the country a direct player in the booming financial sector, but not before containing fiscal deficit. "It is very dangerous to do so as fiscal deficit is very high."

Terming debt as the "soft underbelly of the Indian state," Dr Rajan said, "We don't take hard decisions... ultimately, today's debt has to be paid off by the next generation (through higher taxes)."

The deficit has not particularly hit India as the interest rates have been quite low for a while, he said, cautioning "now that the rates are moving up, we could have a problem." And, of course, "We should cut the fat, not the muscle."

Dr Rajan also said India should start second-generation reforms as also create rural employment alternatives to agriculture, where growth has virtually been zero.

Services, on the other hand, has registered high growth rates to become the biggest segment of India's GDP.

The creation of employment opportunities in services and manufacturing segments, however, will require investment in rural infrastructure, for which the government has to raise resources.

It can happen by increasing the tax-GDP ratio, which is quite low, as also through sale of Government assets.

While dealing with the latter, the argument should not be whether the company is profitable or not, he said, but whether "there is a need for the Government to be there."

Instead of creating more regulations to protect workers' jobs, the Government should design social safety nets while enabling more flexibility in the labour market, he said.

What's the word?

2006-07-08T10:31:00.000+05:30

If 'mazingo' is the Swahili word for 'bends', what's the Makonde word for 'that which bends up'? (Makonde is the language of an ethnic African group)

Ricardo and absolute advantage

2006-07-02T12:05:00.000+05:30

In his 1817 book 'The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation,' economist David Ricardo said it's possible for two countries to conduct mutually beneficial trade in two goods even if 'one' of the countries can make both the goods cheaper than the other country. For full explanation, pls see this Wikipedia link.

This came to be known as the comparative advantage theory, an improvement over an earlier framework proposed by Adam Smith that said abolute advantage in different goods was must for trade to be beneficial. In other words, if India is more efficient than Japan in producing cloth, and Japan is more efficient than India in producing chips, trade in such goods would be advantageous. That is, India supplying Japan with cloth and Japan supplying India with chips.

This is what Smith had to say, "If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage. "

The importance of the comparative advantage theory has been acknowledged by none other than Paul Samuelson. This is what I got from one of the sites: "There is a popular story told amongst economists that once when an economics skeptic asked Paul Samuelson (a Nobel laureate in economics) to provide a meaningful and non-trivial result from the economics discipline, Samuelson quickly responded with, 'comparative advantage'."

So, why suddenly this gyaan about economics. Because I came across what I think as a not-so-common name - Ricardo - again. This time, he made the difference between two countries. He stood for absolute advantage for Portugal against England, with his superb goalkeeping. This took me back to memories of my economics class. And, interestingly enough, when the economist Ricardo presented his theory about two centuries back, the names of the countries that he used were England and Portugal!

Connect ...

2006-06-26T22:36:00.000+05:30

Another one from Brand Quest archives:

Which five-letter name connects the following:
'Silly'; debut in Mickey's Revue; and Roy Disney?

Can anyone confirm this 'fact'?

2006-06-21T20:38:00.000+05:30

This is a potentially interesting cricket quiz fact. 'Potentially' because it has to be confirmed, I am not 100% sure. So, pls send in your comments.

Here goes: I guess the only cricketer to play a masters match (or a veterans match) before playing a normal match (that is, a regular international match) is Flavian Aponso, who played the 1996 World Cup for Netherlands. Before playing what was to be his first and final regular international series, he played a veterans' series for Lanka - his place of birth. In the early '80s he was banned from playing for Lanka, as he had gone on a rebel tour to South Africa.

Any thing wrong with this fact? Pls let me know!

Updike's take on consumerism!

2006-06-21T14:32:00.000+05:30

From novelist John Updike's interview (featured in latest Time magazine):

"I find myself disturbed lately by the fact that restaurants give you more than any sane person would want to eat, and food is packaged in bigger and bigger containers now so that you try to buy a mere quart of ginger ale and you have to buy a gallon of it that won't fit in the refrigerator. I'm very aware, almost for the first time in my life, of consumerism, being a dupe of consumerism. In my old age, as my appetites lessen, I guess I'm more and more easily disgusted by the fact that we're living in this society committted to making us spend more than we have, or more than we should, for stuff we don't really need or want, and that furthermore is killing us slowly as well as filling all the landfills and making the birds sing less and so on."

Clean living may make us sick!

2006-06-19T12:35:00.000+05:30

Clean living may make us sick. I am not saying so. Read here.

Of course, Indians knew this all along!!! This post is for readers from OECD countries!!

After reading this, I was reminded of a recent post by my friend Abhinav, who I am sure now has a lot more ammunition to argue with his America-returned Indian friend!

T&T

2006-06-11T19:08:00.000+05:30

Trinidad and Tobago is the smallest country, in terms of population, to qualify for the ongoing football world cup. It has a population of just over a million, which is one-sixth of Chennai's! India's population is 1000 times that of T&T.

And still it has a team that's able to qualify for the world cup, and hold a presumably superior Sweden with just 10 men for half the time. Of course, it is home to Brian Charles Lara. Plus, it also gave India a valuable player (Robin Singh) who filled the slot of an all-rounder in the late '90s, when the country didn't have any.

Wikipedia has this interesting info: T&T celebrates Indian Arrival Day each year on May 30. In 1845, on that day, the first batch of indentured labourers from India arrived in the island nation.

For more on T&T, see here.

What did he scribble?

2006-06-03T23:59:00.000+05:30

Another one from the archives:

The venue: Two Continents Restaurant in Washington. Year: 1974. This economist met the then Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy, Dick Cheney. While discussing Ford's proposal for tax increases, he scribbled something on the cocktail napkin, illustrating the trade-off between tax rates and revenues. Who's he and what did he scribble?

Cricket commerce

2006-05-29T19:47:00.000+05:30

Stray thoughts on cricket:

A) It seems Pakistan has indefinitely postponed a three-match ODI series with Zimbabwe, because it's likely to be commercially unviable. Cricinfo reports: "A senior official in the Pakistan board confirmed to Cricinfo that the series had been 'postponed, possibly till 2008, though that is not final.' Another cited the reason as the relative unattractiveness of Zimbabwe to broadcasters and sponsors alike."

Three questions regd this:

i) Is potential commercial unviability a good enough ground to cancel a series. Does ICC allow such things?

ii) Was the recent Australia-Bangladesh (to clarify, the battle between two ends of a performance spectrum) commercially viable?

iii) And why does Pakistan hope that the series would make money in 2008?

On a lighter note, Pakistan may hardly be seen on the field from now on, as

i) It doesn't want to play matches against weaker teams

ii) Some countries don't want to play matches in Pakistan

iii) Pakistan fears playing India frequently would be akin to killing the golden goose

B) I have been absolutely pathetic when it comes to guessing/predicting a future event. But nothing stops me from taking a guess on who the front-runners are for next year's World Cup. My top three are: Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand.

The basis? Slow bowlers seem to hold the key in these pitches. All the above teams have them in plenty.

C) Finally, it was interesting to see the Indian selection committee choosing a player when he didn't deserve to be there and then dropping him when he didn't deserve to be dropped. The player: Ajit Agarkar.

If past is any indicator, he would surely make a comeback.

Q from the archives!

2006-05-28T00:02:00.000+05:30

This is one from the archives of Brand Quest, which I used to compile while at BL:

This expression, which later became a popular economic phrase, courtesy a Nobel Prize winner, appeared in Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And though the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations mentions the authorship as anonymous, the idea behind the phrase is said to have originated from the deceptive tactic that some 19th Century American bars used in order to draw customers. What's the phrase?

Selectively sensitive

2006-05-20T18:10:00.000+05:30

The Govt of India's recent actions have proved it's inconsistent when it comes to being sensitive!

Let's for a moment not be judgemental about the reservation policy. For me, the vital element was how it chose to bring it on.

How could the govt believe that such a change will be endured with a smile, when the basis of the quota policy is to offer opportunities to a section of the people at the cost of another?

Why couldn't it have invited prominent groups from the 'forward' community for discussions on this subject, rather than trying to bulldoze its way to a policy change?

Reservations, after all, could prove to be important for social equity but it's the job of the govt to take all people together and convince the general public that its intentions are noble.

Contrast this with the care the govt took to clear Da Vinci Code. Why does it want to treat two sets of people differently?

Guest columnist returns

2006-05-13T10:57:00.000+05:30

Coimbatore journalist Allirajan shares his thoughts on TN poll results and why DMK has missed a golden opportunity by not forming a coalition government.

I wrote a few weeks ago that coalition is good for the state. But when the opportunity came for the first time in the state, the DMK has chosen to dump this idea altogether.

It is grossly unfair to have some kind of a 'quid pro quo' (we are supporting u in Pondy, support us in TN) because Pondy is no comparison to TN. A coalition besides bringing in stability would have brought in diversity both in terms of experience, ideas and thoughts, which is quite crucial in running a government.

I think DMK has missed a golden opportunity. The mandate was for the alliance and not just for the DMK. In the past too, junior partners, despite being crucial for victory, did not get their due share in government (and responsibility) for the overwhelming success ensured that the bigger Dravidian party got enough seats.

Now that the numbers game has changed, the DMK should have set an example by going in for a coalition government. It would have led the state to the position of say a Kerala or West Bengal. Alliance partners would have been more stable. Probably we could have seen two clear fronts emerging with no 'alliance hopping' (often done by the PMK in the past) by junior partners.

The smaller parties would also be sharing responsibility and there would be a greater sense of accountability in such an arrangement.

An analysis of results

The AIADMK lost mainly because of its reverses in western and southern regions, considered its strongholds.

The western and southern regions, which together account for 118 out of the 234 seats in the state, have turned the tide in favour of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA).

The DMK made major gains in the south, which is considered an AIADMK stronghold, with Congress support. In fact, the AIADMK lost its traditional strongholds like Ramanathapuram district where Thevars have a major presence and in Erode, Namakkal and Salem districts.

The party also suffered significant losses in the Nadar dominated Tirunelveli region. While minister Nainar Nagendran lost the Tirunelveli seat to the DMK's Maalai Raja,
P H Manoj Pandian, son of the AIADMK veteran and former speaker P. H. Pandian lost in Cheranmaadevi.

The DMK alliance also made a clean sweep in Kanyakumari district too thanks to the support of CPM and Congress, which have a strong base. It made deep inroads in Madurai district where former speaker PTR Palanivel Rajan of the DMK won in Madurai central.

In the western region, barring Coimbatore, the AIADMK failed to match its good performance in 2001, which accounts for 55 seats in the seven districts including Coimbatore, Erode and Salem.

The DMK alliance made significant gains in the region by winning 38 out of the 55 seats. The AIADMK, which won 35 seats in the region in 2001, could manage just 15 this time. Vijayakanth's DMDK was a decisive factor in the electoral outcome in the western region. It affected the chances of the AIADMK in a big way. While in Tiruchengode, the DMDK polled more than 30,000 votes, it garnered a significant vote share in Erode, Rasipuram and Namakkal. In many constituencies, the number of votes won by the fledgling party was more than the victory margin.

In sharp contrast to the mandate in rest of the state, Coimbatore has voted overwhelmingly for the AIADMK. The party has won 9 out of the 14 seats in Coimbatore district, which has the second largest number of constituencies in TN. Its ally MDMK too managed to win 1 seat.

You might be thinking like this too ...

2006-05-06T15:17:00.000+05:30

Enjoyed reading quotations on elections from this page.

And as I intend to do more than just give you the link, I will copypaste those quotes which I found really funny. Here they go:

1) Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. Sydney J. Harris

2) It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard

3) Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. Author Unknown

4) Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. W.C. Fields

5) The problem with political jokes is they get elected. Henry Cate, VII

6) Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. Oscar Ameringer

7) Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. H.L. Mencken

PS: I am planning to vote for a party that's willing to pay my rent and telephone bills. Any takers?

TN website has it wrong

2006-04-26T00:02:00.000+05:30

The website of the Tamil Nadu govt may have some pretty impressive resources and data records but browsing one such data set (http://www.tn.gov.in/deptst/EcoIndAllStates.htm) gave me a shock.

In that page, which features last year's all-India statistics, the sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) of Bihar is given as 990, a figure which places it higher than any other Indian state except Kerala (1,058).

For a brief moment I even bought the idea that the most backward Indian state could have the second-best sex ratio.

The truth is, it's wrong.

Bihar has only 921 females per 1,000 males, lower than the national average of 933.

Guest column on TN elections

2006-04-21T15:07:00.000+05:30

This is a piece on TN elections written over a month ago by my friend Allirajan, a Coimbatore-based journalist. Things may have changed since then but the basic election matrix, as he calls it, is still relevant.

It's an unedited version, and I haven't added or deleted a single word. So, pls address all your praises and, more importantly, ire to him!

Decoding the assembly election matrix for you

M Allirajan

The assembly elections in Tamil Nadu have always been colorful. The ensuing one would be no different. As an observer, I have given my thoughts on what it might throw up. However, it is pertinent to note that these are still early days and there may be surprises in store.

My assumptions are based on the numerical strength of each alliance. But elections are not always about numbers. I have split the state into 5 distinct regions to get an idea as to what each might offer. These are the possible outcomes.

North- 12 seats ---- 72 assembly constituencies (DMK strong with PMK support) ---- covering Chennai (3 LS seats), Sriperumbudur, Chengalpattu, Arakkonam, Vellore, Tirupattur, Vandavasi, Tindivanam, Cuddalore, Chidambaram.

(DMK with PMKs support is poised to win a majority of seats in the region dominated by Vanniyars. DPI's Tirumavalavan may be of some help for the AIADMK in Cuddalore and Chidambaram)

West- 9 seats ----- 54 assembly constituencies (AIADMK strong, but DMK not far behind) ---- covering Coimbatore, Pollachi, Nilgiris, Gobichettipalayam, Tiruchengode, Salem, Rasipuram, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri.

(The Kongu heartland is an AIADMK bastion. But Congress and Communist support may provide some comfort to the DMK, especially in Coimbatore, Erode and Namakkal. The DMK alliance will be a force to reckon with in Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and in parts of Salem where PMK has a good support base)

South—8 seats------ 48 assembly (AIADMK very strong. MDMK alliance will provide additional leverage delivering a double whammy to DMK)—covering Madurai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Sivakasi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Tiruchendur, Nagercoil.

(As things stand, AIADMK which is already strong here, would win maximum number of seats. The party's Thevar support base is intact and MDMK's presence will be a huge plus. But DMK may win in Madurai and Nagercoil with CPM support. It may also do well in selective pockets in other parts).

Central and South-west—7 seats--- 42 assembly (Both are equally strong) --- covering Tiruchi, Karur, Permabalur, Pudukottai, Dindigul, Periyakulam and Palani.

(This region would witness the most intense and interesting battles in 2006. Both are strong in their respective pockets. The DMK is likely to do well in Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Perambalur. The AIADMK may emerge as the runaway winner in Periyakulam and possibly in Palani and Karur with Dindigul throwing up a close and keen contest)

Delta--- 3 seats------ 18 assembly (DMK very strong with CPI support) ---- covering Thanjavur, Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam.

(It will be very difficult to beat the DMK in this region where it has done well it in past polls barring 2001 when it fought a lonely battle. But the seats on offer are very less blunting any advantage for the DMK.)

All this points to a close contest, something which has never happened in the state. Assuming each holds on to its respective stronghold, this might be the outcome in each region.

North--- DMK front winning 50 (+/- 5), AIADMK- 22 (+/- 5)

West--- AIADMK--- 34 (+/- 5), DMK- 20 (+/-5)

South--- AIADMK- 30 (+/- 5), DMK- 18 (+/- 5)

Central and South-West --- DMK and AIADMK 21 each (+/- 3)

Delta--- DMK -14, (+/-2), AIADMK- 4 (+/-2)

This might result in DMK winning 123 seats (+/- 20)

AIADMK winning 111 seats (+/- 20).

This might lead to a coalition government for the first time in the state. It has never happened in the state's history, but this cannot be totally ruled out.

However, if there is a wave or a silent vote (some term it as undercurrents not noticed by psephologists and analysts) among people for one front or what poll pundits call as sheer chemistry working for an alliance (like in 1998), this might change completely resulting in one of the Dravidian parties winning a clear majority on its own.

Going by past experience, my hunch is that the second one is most likely to happen. An outsider would love to see the first one coming true as it would end complete domination by one party. On the flip side it might also result in chaos.

But for a state like Tamil Nadu, it would be better if people vote for a change giving a clear majority for a single party. If one party makes winning a habit it would lead to autocratic tendencies and would be disastrous for the state.

Manifesto 2031

2006-04-17T13:29:00.000+05:30

In 2031, these will top the manifestos of political parties (pls add to the list with ur ideas):

1) Rice would be available at 2 rupees per kg adjusted for inflation. That is, 2031 equivalent of 2 rupees in 2006.

2) Reservation for atheists (Defined as those who swear by rationality (not economists though)). This is part of a step-by-step process to include most sections under the quota regime. In 2026, for instance, it was the voodoo believers.

3) Free power for those who watch television.

4) Setting up a mega desalination project near Chennai. Until 2031, lack of co-ordination between the Centre and the State prevented the project from getting off the block.

5) Free i-Pod nano for each family, for entertainment purposes.

IHT story on Indian industry

2006-04-17T12:13:00.000+05:30

International Herald Tribune today published a story on India as an industrial hub. Read here.

The article extends the much-loved India vs China debate, and basically elaborates on the manufacturing resurgence in India.

Toward the end of the article, there is an interesting point about the difficulties trade unions face nowadays. It says: "Lack of worker interest was an equally important factor behind the difficulties union organizers now face in India, as many workers are pleased to have modest wages and benefits after years of unemployment."

Left, pls take note!

And who's this?

2006-04-14T12:46:00.000+05:30

Easy one:

Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Mutturaju
How do you know him better?

Of course, pls assume only the quiz master has access to search engines!

Which book?

2006-04-12T20:26:00.000+05:30

Another easy question:

First line of which novel is this: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."?

ps: Pls assume only the quiz-master has access to search engines!!

Quota raj ...

2006-04-10T12:49:00.000+05:30

After gunning for quotas in premier institutes and private sector (jobs), how can the Government leave the most elite group in the country untouched by its quota brush?

I am talking about the Indian cricket team. I guess there might be enough broad community divisions to accomodate a 15-member cricket team. Of course, the coach and the support staff wouldn't be part of it, as they are not eligible to wear the India cap (Sunil Gavaskar will sure agree to this)!

State-based quotas are another option.

The political kazhagams in Tamil Nadu seem to have missed what could have been a golden idea in the manifesto, expressed as two points: 1) to increase the number of members in the provincial team to 30, from the current 15, and 2) ensure at least one member from each state finds a place in the provincial team.

Rotation of players within each state quota could be done on the same basis as reservation for Government jobs.

Reservations can also be done on the basis of economic backwardness (something which, strangely, politicians don't favour normally). But such quotas must be applied in cricket only with a rider: such cricketers would be part of the team for one series only. Because by the end of a series, they would no longer remain economically backward.

I will stop joking here but I don't think the politicians would. And they don't have any reservations about it.

There is surely need for a serious discussion on quotas in higher education and in jobs. However, I lack the stamina to initiate it today!

Refreshing news

2006-04-09T12:44:00.000+05:30

It's nice to hear about good things happening in the country.

This article from the Sunday Magazine of The Hindu is about how Namakkal town in Tamil Nadu is re-inventing itself.

Buddenbrooks!

2006-04-08T10:45:00.000+05:30

The ‘Buddenbrooks’ phenomenon is characterized by “the gradual decline in entrepreneurial talent from the first generation to the third,” says Francis Fukuyama in his book ‘Trust’.

The term originates from a 1901 German novel by Thomas Mann, whose title when translated means ‘Buddenbrooks, The Decline of a Family’.

A resource in the Web says, “The novel is the saga of the fall of the Buddenbrooks, a family of merchants, from the pinnacle of their material wealth in 1835 to their extinction in 1877. The novel traces the story of the family and its business over four generations, showing how an artistic streak not only unfits the family’s later members for the practicalities of business life but undermines their vitality as well.”

That’s one of the arguments against family-held businesses. How members of successive generations rarely have the same passion for the business nor have the skill. And yet families are reluctant to exit from the business. But of course, there are obvious exceptions (BOCTAOE), as Scott Adams would say.

Those families find a way out by recruiting professionals to run the show while still maintaining overall control.

But isn’t it only natural that different members of the same family aren’t equally gifted in ‘a’ particular area of interest?

Buddenbrooks, I believe, will always apply in cases where successors are chosen because they belong to the family that runs the show, and not because they are able.

This holds true for family-run business or even political parties!

BOCTAOE

Threat to Panagal Park

2006-04-06T19:38:00.000+05:30

The latest issue of 'Madras Musings,' brought out by historian S. Muthiah, leads with an article whose headline is 'Panagal Park to become parking lot?'.

The article says that the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is planning to create multi-level parking facilities at three traffic hot spots, namely Government Estate, Panagal Park and Broadway bus terminus.

The report also says, "The CMDA has taken the trouble to assure environmentalists that it proposes to take away only 'half an acre' of Panagal Park and leave the rest."

Isn't it disappointing that planners have chosen one of the few remaining parks in the area to execute a project which, after all, might not solve the parking problem.

I remember hearing about this idea some years back but I guess all this while it was on cold storage.

I also don't know whether newer buildings that come up here are told to allot enough space for parking. If so, do they do that?

Already, the park is hidden on one side by one of the most unaesthetic structures (that houses fruit shops) to be built in recent times.

On other sides, huge hoardings do the job partly.

The idea comes as a shocker, doesn't it?

We mustn't let go off Panagal Park, even half an acre of it!

Interview link

2006-04-04T13:48:00.000+05:30

Pls read this

Interview with Vilayanur Ramachandran, explorer of human brain, in Frontline.

National motto?

2006-04-03T16:59:00.000+05:30

Another quiz question.

The national motto 'Satyameva Jayate' (or 'Truth Alone Triumphs') is taken from which Upanishad?

PR targetting blogs too?

2006-03-29T13:17:00.000+05:30

Normally the public relations machinery tracks whatever is written, spoken or shown in the huge space called media. I am almost sure blogs are also part of what they consider to be media nowadays.

Having written about the recent issue with the Naukri.com ad, I was a little surprised by this anonymous comment: "The official naukri.com response can be accessed herehttp://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=9392"

I got another related comment, I am sure, from the same anonymous! It said, "I have heard that the boys father today released an advt. in the Chandigarh edition of the Hindustan Times asking other people of the name Hari to get in touch with him in order to take joint action."

I checked out the blog of Sambhar Mafia (which had a post on the ad), and could see the anon comment there too.

So, is it an indication that the PR world is taking blogs seriously (assuming that it was Naukri's PR that tracked related blogs and posted the message rather than an individual who is immensely passionate about Naukri.com and this issue)?

Quite possible, won't you say!

So, next time you praise, say, Sonia Gandhi in your blog, don't be surprised if you get a comment about Congress' manifesto in Tamil Nadu!

Of course, from anonymous.

Good and bad

2006-03-29T10:57:00.000+05:30

Nice one from Scott Adams' blog http://dilbertblog.typepad.com

(Adams is the creator of Dilbert).

Question: What's your opinion of yourself?

Adams' answer: I’m good at some things and bad at others. I’m lucky that there’s a market for the things I’m good at.

English speeches: part-II

2006-03-28T13:17:00.000+05:30

I had earlier copy-pasted part of Nehru's famous speech on the eve of our Independence. Here's another good one. This one is from Swami Vivekananda's speech at the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago. Date: September 11, 1893

"Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal."

How to leave the planet

2006-03-27T18:40:00.000+05:30

This is Douglas Adams' hilarious 5-point instruction on 'how to leave the planet' in his introduction to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' a book which I now remember has to be returned to my friend Jarshad:

"1) Phone NASA. Their phone number is (731) 483-3111. Explain that it's very important that you get away as soon as possible.

2) If they do not co-operate, phone any friend you may have in the White House - (202) 456-11414 - to have a word on your behalf with the guys at NASA.

3) If you don't have any friends at the White House, phone the Kremlin (ask the overseas operator for 0107-095-295-9051). They don't have any friends there either (at least, none to speak of), but they do seem to have a little influence, so you may as well try.

4) If that fails too, phone to Pope for guidance. His telephone number is 011-39-6-6982, and I gather his switchboard is infallible.

5) If all these attempts fail, flag down a passing flying saucer and explain that it's vitally important you get away beofre your phone bill arrives.

DOUGLAS ADAMS
Los Angeles 1983 and London 1985"

Hope you noticed the year of its writing, which means you could safely omit option 3 and instead try calling Richard Branson. And yes, those telephone numbers would have changed.

Naukri's response

2006-03-24T19:50:00.000+05:30

An anonymous comment here gave this link http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=9392: Naukri's response to Hari's legal notice.

A para which I found interesting was this:

Making advertisements requires the use of a “creative license” and while we do sympathise with the child in question here we must also point out that the character in question here is not “Hari” but “Hari Sadu”. Surnames exist to distinguish individuals bearing common first names. Interestingly the name “ Hari Sadu” was selected after looking at phone books and an extensive google search and finding nobody of that name, in order to minimize causing any offense to anyone inadvertantly.

Did Pulliraja complain?

2006-03-23T15:11:00.000+05:30

Just saw this posted in various blogs.

About how naukri.com, which ran a smash ad with a character called Hari Sadu, has got a legal notice from a boy called Hari.

This is the PTI story about the notice:

11-yr-old boy sends notice to naukri.com

By: PTI March 18, 2006
Chandigarh: An 11-year-old boy has sent a legal notice to a job website naukri.com claiming damages of Rs 1 crore for using part of his name 'Hari' allegedly in a derogatory manner.

Hari Bhanot, in his notice, charged that an advertisement of the site had resulted in mental harassment and agony as many of his friends and acquaintances have made him a butt of jokes after watching it on TV.

The advertisement in question has a person telling on phone the full form of the name Hari as "H for Hitler, A for Arrogant, R for Rascal and I for Idiot," it said. The legal notice, sent by Aneesh Bhanot on behalf of his son Hari, says, "The advertisement is totally insensitive to the name Hari.

"The telecast of the advertisement has undermined the status, reputation, respect and self-confidence of my client and has severely affected his standing in the school, residential locality and social circle. After the advertisement came on air, many people known to my client have told him that they have a lower opinion of him," he claimed.

The notice wants withdrawal of the advertisement forthwith and a public apology from the website in the same manner and coverage as the advertisement has been given and pay Rs 1 crore as damages and said failing this criminal and civil proceedings would be filed against naukri.com.

I wondered how a real Pulliraja would have felt when the famous AIDS prevention campaign (with Pulliraja as the protagonist) was run!

Did the real Pulliraja complain?

English speeches by Indians

2006-03-23T14:57:00.000+05:30

Was just trying to check out good English speeches by Indians (no cut-off year!).

I thought Nehru's following words must be at the top of such a list (when we make one):

"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance...We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell."

It probably sounds amazing because of the significance of the occassion (I guess this was just after midnight of Aug. 14, 1947).

Have you come across such superb words uttered by Indians in English (We can be lenient and include NRIs too!)? If so, pls write.

Who's he?

2006-03-22T15:48:00.000+05:30

He heads an organisation that a) has 150 countries as members, b) is located in Geneva, c) was created on January 1, 1995 after about 9 years of talking! Who's he? (I admit the question could have been straightforward!)

Knowing when to quit

2006-03-22T11:22:00.000+05:30

I don't remember clearly if it was late '80s or early '90s when I saw, for the first and only time, a programme about diet in Doordarshan. But that's ok; that's not central to this piece. What's important, which I haven't forgotten, is that the programme had this instruction from a health freak: Stop eating when you think you can eat two more rotis.

Tricky, right? It could be trickier is what you want to quit is not your food but your career. And, more importantly, if you are Sachin Tendulkar. Or, for that matter, Dr Verghese Kurien.

There is no doubt that these are legends who have made valuable contributions to their fields. (Scientist M. S. Swaminathan once told students that milk is cheaper than water in India, thanks to Kurien's 'Operation Flood'.)

Kurien, after fighting it out for a while, decided to call it quits as chief of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation recently. Sachin is still around and it may still be some time before he bows out.

But what's key is that both these men are clearly past their peak. They more likely have, if I can extend the roti analogy, gone ahead and eaten the two extra rotis that they could have forsaken for better health.

Why do most legends stick around, making it embarrasingly difficult for others to push them out?

Is it perseverance? I guess so. The quality that has made them champions in their early and mid-careers could also be the reason why they go on and on and on.

No qualms about that other than the fact that by doing so they are preventing better talent from emerging. The teams or companies that they are part of are worse off because of their decision.

While lesser mortals are judged by harsher parameters, legends are given a longer rope at the end of their careers.

The Indian cricket team surely was worse off not having in its regular eleven a superb wicket-taking fast bowler called Javagal Srinath between 1992 and 1994 because Kapil Dev, another legend, was still there, picking a wicket here and there to reach a milestone.

There are surely examples in other fields. Does Disney's Michael Eisner qualify as a legend!

Pls send in your comments if you have anyone in mind. We could add to this list.

One of my favourite questions

2006-03-20T20:51:00.000+05:30

This has been one of my favourite quiz questions ever since I came across it about 10 years back:

In which sport would you come across all the following field positions: point, coverpoint, thirdman and goalkeeper?

Saving journalism from journalists!

2006-03-20T19:42:00.000+05:30

Top para from David Randall's 'The Universal Journalist':

"In many British papers, annoyance (meaning you are not pleased) is invariably now 'fury' (suggesting anger beyond control), an arrangement (meaning an informal agreement) is a 'deal' (meaning a far more formal agreement, with definite overtones of a financial, possibly even shady, side), bad luck is a 'curse', to criticise is 'to slam', failure to attend is a 'snub', internal dispute is 'civil war', possibility is 'threat', a proposal is a 'plan', to replace is to 'oust', a traffic jam is 'road chaos', etc. All of these examples (and there are many more to choose from) are shorter, more extreme and more brutal than the reality they describe."

And now the punch line: "It is as if the story is being translated into another language by an angry man with a limited vocabulary."

Indian papers are getting there or aren't they already there?

Punch lines and leads

2006-03-19T17:50:00.000+05:30

"When you look at all jokes and humour across socieites, the common denominator of all jokes and humour despite all the diversity is that you take a person along a garden path of expectation and at the very end you suddenly introduce an unexpected twist that entails a complete re-interpretation of all the previous facts. That's called a punch-line of the joke."

Lines from one of the five 2003 Reith lectures delivered by Vilayanur Ramachandran, who I read somewhere is described as the Sherlock Holmes of neuroscience!

Apart from the punch line, he says, what is vital is that the re-interpretation should be of trivial significance.

His argument is that "Laughter is nature's false alarm."

Example: "Here is a portly gentleman walking along, he is trying to reach his destination, but before he does that he slips on a banana peel and falls. And then he breaks his head and blood spills out and obviously you are not going to laugh. You are going to rush to the telephone and call the ambulance. But imagine instead of that, he walks along, slips on the banana peel, falls, wipes off the goo from his face, looks around him everywhere, and and then gets up, then you start laughing. The reason is I claim is because now you know it's inconsequential, you say, oh it's no big deal, there's no real danger here."

Let me digress from neuroscience but will extend the punch-line theme a bit.

The following is the best example that I can think of of a nifty lead (punch line attached) for what you may call a fairly serious story. Given below is an intro of an Economist article on robots in Japan that I read a few months back:

"HER name is MARIE, and her impressive set of skills comes in handy in a nursing home. MARIE can walk around under her own power. She can distinguish among similar-looking objects, such as different bottles of medicine, and has a delicate enough touch to work with frail patients. MARIE can interpret a range of facial expressions and gestures, and respond in ways that suggest compassion. Although her language skills are not ideal, she can recognise speech and respond clearly. Above all, she is inexpensive. Unfortunately for MARIE, however, she has one glaring trait that makes it hard for Japanese patients to accept her: she is a flesh-and-blood human being from the Philippines. If only she were a robot instead."

Didn't that make you smile?

Difficulty in negotiating!

2006-03-17T22:53:00.000+05:30

I yearn for a simpler world when I read such things: "When the maker or holder of a negotiable instrument signs the same, otherwise than as such maker, for the purpose of negotiation, on the back or face thereof or on a slip of paper annexed thereto, or so signs for the same purpose a stamped paper intended to be completed as a negotiable instrument, he is said to have endorsed the same and is called the endorser."

This is Section 15 of the Negotiable Instruments Act defining 'endorsement'.

Try this one!

2006-03-16T19:55:00.000+05:30

Let me expand the P. G. Wodehouse theme a bit further with this question: Which character of his is based "more or less faithfully" on Rupert D'Oyly Carte, the son of the Savoy Theatre man?