Life Reloaded!!!

My brother informed me about this article. It has less to do with Cricket and more to do with life, so read on – The Masks We Wear by Martin Crowe.

Just came across this article - http://www.bspcn.com/2011/11/17/4-myths-about-doing-what-you-love-for-work/ One point which I certainly agree about the article is the Maslow's Need Hierarchy plays a role in passion. I did realize this when Steve Jobs' famous speech was being shared across internet. Well, following one's passion can be extremely difficult proposition for people whose income is barely able to take care of family's basic needs. As the income level grows, one has the liberty of going out of "regular" ways, to try and follow his passion. Of course, all this is easier said than done!

Following piece published in HT, perfectly summarizes the crisis - The US debt crisis is like a rich man who owns homes, yachts and gold but is suddenly finding it diffcult to pay off the installment on a plane he bought. Politics, however, keeps him from using his other assets to handle these payments.

The Crisis of Microfinance by Shashi Tharoor -  http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/tharoor30/English

Yet another good post from The Back Benchers. This post is about the recent bear run at the stock market and its reasons. This one is really funny - It’s only the markets like these that have taught me that during bulls making money is equivalent to betting on Ravindra Jadeja scoring a century against New Zealand. If you’ve got a bloody Motera-like pitch concrete road to play on against a bowling attack that could accommodate Ajit Agarkar even today then even there you will make money on a fairly regular basis. I also agree with the comment of NREGA and the recent actions of RBI. I always wondered if the problem of inflation is of Supply side then why we always expect RBI to tame inflation. If the supply of Onions is less then hiking the Repo Rate isn’t going to help. Also, as an MBA student I remember that it takes time before we see effects of a monitory policy change. I hope Dr. Manmohan Singh take some serious steps towards mitigating inflation.

A good editorial from ET - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/Maoist-lesson-from-AP/articleshow/6112857.cms

Just read a wonderful article on Women’s Quota bill today. Read on: One Wonderful Quotocracy I liked the following line very much- In a democracy, all animals are equal but some more equal than others. In a quotocracy, some deprived groups will get their deprivations recognized more than others.

I read the following article in Mint yesterday. http://www.livemint.com/Articles/2010/02/19213129/The-Thackerays8217-primitiv.html I was shocked by the bias shown by the author against the Marathis. I completely agreed with him when he talks about Sena. Both Shivsena and MNS have done more damage to Marathis than they have helped. Their methods have been of violence and oppression. May it be Shiv Sena’s reaction to racists attacks in Australia or the MNIK controversy, common man is the one who usually suffers. But the author then checks the list of 30 companies in BSE and 50 in NSE, to prove that there are no Marathi person “owning” a company and goes on to say - “ The Mumbai Marathi, better at renaming things than building something himself”. Then he says - If we observe Marathi society we notice the total absence of mercantile castes. Into this space the British imported the multi-religious trading community of Surat—Vohra, Khoja, Luhana, Memon, Jain, Parsi and Vaniya. The...

I was just reading an article by MK Venu in Financial Express where I came across an interesting comparison of Central Bank governors and Abhimanyu by the Author- “I had asked the RBI governor whether US Fed chief Ben Bernanke increasingly looked like Abhimanyu, the tragic character in Mahabharata who had entered the Chakravyuha but lacked the knowledge of how to get out of it“ To which RBI governor replied - “We are all Abhimanyus in our own ways”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/on-the-same-watch/571689/ I remember this issue coming up during one of the test matches in Kolkata when the match starting at 9.30 would mean losing some daylight. It would usually end early because of lack of day light.

Shared by Nik http://www.loksatta.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23264:2009-11-13-12-27-44&catid=195:2009-08-14-03-11-12&Itemid=206

I will never support the way Oath taking ceremony was obstructed, but then isn’t this letter also valid?

An article on “Marginalization of Agriculture in India”.

I got this thanks to Avinash Anandan :) http://www.whatay.com/2009/02/22/ipl-2009-a-detailed-preview-and-forecast/

Part 1: The England and WI cricket board were jumping with joy when Alan Stanford declared the Stanford 20-20 match between England-WI. A "winner takes all" match had a prize money of $20M (Approx. Rs. 100 Cr). It was totally insane situation according to me. Why would you give away 20M for a single match, and that too twenty-twenty? How on the earth does it help? It was beyond my conscious. WI won that match and each of WI cricketer(even the reserves) became a millionaire for nothing. Part 2: Despite receiving so much of money in World cup and Stanford cup, the WI failed miserably in hosting a test match in Antigua. The match was abandoned after just 10 balls. Sir Viv Richard called it an arrow straight through his heart. And last week saw something more interesting. Stanford has been charged by US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a fraud of $8 million. I guess it just tells you where excessive greed leads one to….

Just read this article from ET. The most interesting sentence in the whole article represents an irony which India faces today: “As a result we have the incongruous situation of one of the poorest countries in the world being the largest consumers of gold, importing close to 1,000 tonnes a year.”

http :// economictimes . indiatimes . com /Opinion/Editorial/Grim_TV_serials/ rssarticleshow /3949186. cms

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1855957_1862039,00.html

There has been a big scandal in US (around $50 billion), made by Bernard Madoff. It has been termed as a "Ponzi" scheme by news papers. So I searched on Wiki and got really nice set of articles. Here is the set: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilevel_pyramid_scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest Just realized that there was a "Ponzi" scheme in mumbai also, few years ago. Remember the "Sherekar" guy. Even my dad had invseted 1K Rs. in the scheme. He was lucky that he at least got the investment back.

Currently reading this article: http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/articles/making-decisions.html