A short century ago the US and Argentina were rivals. Both were riding the first wave of globalisation at the turn of the 20th century. Both were young, dynamic nations with fertile farmlands and confident exporters. Both brought the beef… Read More ›
Rants (Warning: May cause offense)
Solution to India’s Greatest Failure
In a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal titled “India’ Greatest Failure,” Paul Beckett writes about T.S.R. Subramanian who retired as India’s most senior civil servant in 1998. Beckett quotes from TSR’s book, “GovernMint in India” — “Since no… Read More ›
Begging for a World Class University
Consider this scenario. Someone you know imprisons his grown up children and does not allow them to go out and do jobs that they are fully capable of doing. He also locks up his productive assets and prevents his children… Read More ›
Whoring Aamir Khan Style
Whoring is an ancient human tradition and some primatologists even say that it is not restricted to human animals alone. Cynics definitely believe that everyone has a price and can be bought to assume any desired position. I am a… Read More ›
India Spends $13,000,000,000 on Education Abroad
That’s what a report in the Hindustan Times claims: US $13 billion each year. Figures such as these are unbelievable but I suppose someone must have done the numbers. In any case, I had estimated that number to be around… Read More ›
There Must be Violence Against Women
Despite such [Quranic] instructions, beating is considered a type of violence, according to human rights organizations, which urge women to complain to the police. I just wonder what kind of families our societies would have if Muslim women started doing… Read More ›
The Age of Content-free Communications
One of the more irritating aspects of the change of calendar years is the increase in meaningless messages that land in one’s inbox. I love the internet and the world wide web, but that love is severely strained when I… Read More ›
Orkut — A social site
I was merely following a link that landed in my mailbox and ended up at someone’s Orkut page, someone called Preeti. She wrote a testimonial for someone thus: ABHAY…..wat cn i spk bout diz person nw….hez a lil sensitive but… Read More ›
Hell’s Angel
My distaste for poverty is only exceeded by my utter contempt for those who nurture that awful monster of poverty that chews up living human beings and spits them out like so much garbage. True evil to me is that… Read More ›
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… Read More ›