Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Happy Independence Day

Happy 60th Independence Day!

My analysis is one of hope, potential and possibilities. Although political freedom was achieved 60 years ago, economic freedom is still a distant dream for the majority of the population. It is understandable why political freedom is easier to achieve relative to economic freedom. The entire population of the nation has an interest in political freedom — with very rare exceptions. But there are factions within the country that oppose economic freedom because they have a vested interest in the perpetuation of a command and control economy. Yet without economic freedom, the nation is unlikely to achieve its potential.
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The Tangled Web – Part 8

Jigsaw Puzzles

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When we first practice to deceive,” lamented good old Scotty (the poet that is, not the guy with his warp drives and dilithium crystals). But I have noticed that in our attempt to un-deceive ourselves, which is what learning is about, we are also forced to weave a tangled web. It is a tangled web of relationships we slowly build in our minds and gradually a pattern emerges if we are lucky. Unresolved variables and dangling references scattered around the edges of our minds wait to be added to the mental construct over successive iterations.
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Piglets and Tiger Cubs

I suppose in the end, babies are babies and mothers are mothers.

http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/722010/believe_it_or_not___pig_feeding_tiger_cubs_and_vice_versa.swf

While the video is loading, take a look at a few pictures of the piglets and a tiger.

Believe It Or Not !!! Pig Feeding Tiger Cubs And Vice Versa – video powered by Metacafe

Exporting Islam

My friend Nitin Pai of The Acorn has an op-ed in the Mint, “Why India must export its Islam.” He writes:

In a secular state such as India, there is little role for the state in matters of faith and religion. But the rise of a radical, intolerant version of Islam around the world is also not in its interests. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran have no self-imposed restrictions on promoting their own Islamic values. It is unlikely that India can counter these exertions of soft power by promoting the virtues of secularism to the Islamic world. But it could promote its own syncretic Islamic tradition to offer an alternative narrative to the world’s Muslims.

Nitin is an astute observer and I have the utmost respect for his incisive commentary and analysis of matters of importance. Try as I might, however, I cannot see what he means in that op-ed.
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When Smart People Have Stupid Ideas

The co-author of Freakonomics, the celebrated economist Steve Levitt, who recently moved his blog to NY Times asks in his Aug 8th post “If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack?” He states that his general view of the world is that simpler is better (and I agree with him on that) and goes on to wonder about simpler, more efficient ways of creating terror. He asks his readers to think creatively about how they would go about the business of terrorism.

I would love to hear them. Consider that posting them could be a form of public service: I presume that a lot more folks who oppose and fight terror read this blog than actual terrorists. So by getting these ideas out in the open, it gives terror fighters a chance to consider and plan for these scenarios before they occur.

As can be expected given the lethal combination of a widely-read newspaper of record, a highly visible best-selling author, an extremely important topic, and a very controversial stance, nearly 600 comments poured in (further comments are disallowed now.)
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The Hard Picture

So the story goes that there was an amateur photographer who would every year bring his crop of new pictures to an old man who was a master. Every year the master would go through the pictures and sort them out into “good” and “not good” piles. Funnily, the amateur would keep bringing back an old picture which invariably ended up in the “not good” pile.

Finally exasperated, he challenged the master, “Every year I bring this picture to you. Why do you keep putting it in the not-good pile?”

The master said, “Because the picture is no good.”

The amateur replies, “But it has to be good. I had to climb a very high mountain and endure bitter cold for five days to take that picture!”

Pathetic

“If you take all the pieces of Bollywood out of our lives – the celebrities on the billboards, the songs in the nightclubs, the stars on Page 3 – Indians would find their lives to be completely empty,” said Shuchi Pandya, a jewelry merchandiser in Mumbai. “It’s subconscious. Even if you don’t enjoy Bollywood movies, it becomes a part of your life.”
[The concluding lines from an Iinternational Herald Tribune article “Can Hollywood make a Bollywood movie?“]

I don’t have a very high opinion of the Indian masses (and that goes for the vast majority of humanity — Indians are not special) but this is simply untrue. Shuchi Pandya should speak for herself/himself and not generalize that all Indians lead lives of such pathetic and unrelieved shallowness that the only matter animating them is Bollywood movies. The writer of the article is an idiot sensationalist willing to convey the impression to his firangi readers that all Indians are empty-headed morons.

Yet Another SSRS Letter

In a few days, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living will be right outside my door for an entire week. The AoL is having a huge gathering not just within Magarpatta City but in the common area in front of the building I stay in. I will have a bird’s eye view of the proceedings from the balcony of my 11th floor apartment. Lucky me.

SSRS’s followers continue to send me unsolicited mail. Lucky me once again.

They don’t seem to understand that I express my views on my blog; I don’t write emails to people I don’t know forcing my opinion on them. So if they want to express their views, there are dozens of options in terms of blogs. They should avoid sending me mail. Else I publish their idiotic rantings just to underline my case that some of SSRS’s followers are brainwashed retards that don’t have a clue and are clearly unable to comprehend written material.

Here’s one that I got yesterday, posted in its entirety for the record.
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Eggcorn and Just Desserts

Thanks to all who wrote in with the suggestion that it should be “just desserts” and not “just deserts” as I had written in “Just Deserts for Mr Dutt.” Actually, it is “just deserts” and “just desserts” is an eggcorn.