Category: Random Draws

This blog has been having a holiday because, well because it’s the holidays! But seriously, I am busy reading and writing. Reading stuff on a new Kindle. And on the web. Writing a bit on the side and thinking a lot. Here are a few pieces that I particularly liked.
Continue reading “Something to Read: Ricky Gervais, Wendell Berry”

Seeing people unable to express themselves coherently is distressing to me. It is cute to see a very small child struggling with language but in adults incoherence is disturbing. Some people’s inability to spell and punctuate properly makes me wonder whether they are inherently stupid or whether their schooling was inadequate.
Continue reading “Open Thread: Does Language Really Matter?”

Today I came across a document which said in part, “Code of ethics to be signed by Every Minister that will prevent them from benefitting during their term in the Government.” I could not but be touched by the naivete of the author. Forget about the poor structure of that statement, but imagine what magical powers that mentality which gave expression to that idea ascribes to oaths!
Continue reading “Stupidity at the core of Human Misery”

“We are star dust, we’re golden . . . ” are the words of a very old song. Watching this video reminded me of it.
Continue reading “See the Wonder and Wonder”

Dr. Moorthy Muthuswamy is an unlikely author of a book titled “Defeating Political Islam” since he is a nuclear and radiation physicist. But there you have it. That book has received glowing reviews from some of the most serious scholars and activists engaged in studying the impact of political Islam and Islamic terrorism on the world, including Robert Spencer.[1] We have to take what Dr. Muthuswamy writes very seriously. We may have a vague sense that all is not well in India when it comes to state-sanctioned religious discrimination against Hindus. But to truly understand the scope and intensity of that, I had to read his article on “Religious Apartheid in Modern India: Transforming of a Civilization.”
Continue reading “Moorthy Muthuswamy on “Religious Apartheid in Modern India””

What do you call a flying Sindhi moving at high speed through air generating a high pressure region in front? Ramjet-malani. Pardon me for the silly joke[1]. I just couldn’t resist. Seriously though, it’s high time that someone points out how emasculated most of the high-profile Indian journalists are. Ram Jethmalani, one of India’s most celebrated lawyers, says it like it should be said.
Continue reading “Mr Ram Jethmalani asks Questions that Mr M J Akbar Has Not”

My colleague Rajesh Jain has an opinion piece in the University of Pennsylvania publication Knowledge@Wharton on the Indian telecom scam. The editorial introduction to the piece says, “Since telecom is an industry that links backward and forward to several others, the total economic cost could well be hundreds of billions of dollars. This scandal shows that corruption has deep roots in Indian society, but informed voters and the democratic process can help eradicate it, argues Rajesh Jain, managing director of Mumbai-based Netcore Solutions, in this opinion piece. Jain, a member of the India Knowledge@Wharton Advisory Board, blogs every day at http://emergic.org.” Here are a few extended excerpts from it, for the record.
Continue reading “India’s Telecom Scam: How Can a Corrupt System Be Cleaned?”

The Indian media is much in the news these days. It is becoming increasingly clear that media bigwigs and politicians work hand in glove to defraud the public. That’s not really news since a moment’s reflection reveal why that makes sense. What’s also been amply clear to some is that the media have been the flag bearers of pseudo-secularism. Here’s a fine example from a report published today in Headlines India.
Continue reading “The Unbearably Sickening Indian Pseudo-secular Press”

[Previously in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.]

Radio spectrum is a very special kind of stuff. It was entirely worthless not too long ago. Now it is not only an extremely valuable resource but it is nearly impossible to properly price. The price continues to increase with advances in science and technology. There are two broad generalization I make. First, that the more advanced an economy is, the more important the use of radio spectrum becomes. Second, the more efficiently the radio spectrum is used, the more advanced the economy becomes. In short, a virtuous cycle exists between spectrum use and economic growth. Therefore mistakes in the use and allocation of spectrum can have far-reaching consequences with damages that are impossible to estimate.
Continue reading “The King of All Telecom Scams — Part 7”