Accordion, Vivaldi, and Sand Animation

And now for something entirely different. Accordion, Vivaldi, and Sand Animation.
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A Tale of Two Countries — Part 3

{Previously, Part 1 and Part 2.}

Economic development – the main concern of this blog – is neither impossible nor inevitable. India, most unfortunately for the hundreds of millions of Indians who live lives of desperate poverty, is finding it nearly impossible to achieve any meaningful measure of development. Only in comparison to its own past does the India development story become somewhat palatable, but compared to other nations big and small, India does not fare well at all.
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If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, first you must invent the universe

Happy Carl Sagan Day. Today it would have been his 76th birthday. So off I go to watch some favorite episodes of COSMOS on Hulu.com. Episode 10 is one of my favorites: The Edge of Forever. See below for the video.
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A Tale of Two Countries — Part 2

An Admirable Evasion of Whore-master Man

I believe that a person is at his most pathetic when he makes excuses for his failures and justifies them saying that they are primarily due to circumstances beyond his control. It is not merely an abdication of responsibility but what is worse, it precludes the possibility of corrective behavior. If it was not his fault, there’s no reason for him to change. He believes that when circumstances change, he will not fail.
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On Quoting Bit from Others’ Works

I have a Google alert configured which informs me when something I wrote appears on the web. I noticed that a post of mine has been republished in its entirety on another blog.
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An Irish Joke, and a Seriously Cute Little Irish Girl

A tweet by @indianalltheway reminded me of this Irish joke from a while back. Some of my closest friends are Irish. What we — Bongs and Irish — have in common is our love for a good ‘addaa’. Over a glass of whiskey (not whisky, which is Scottish), we can sit for hours talking our heads off and telling jokes. Here’s an old favorite Irish joke.
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Pakistan Has Nothing to Fear from India

I never thought I would live to see the day when I would say that Manmohan Singh has spoken a truth. (Do ponder the paradoxical nature of that statement.) But right at the top of page 2 of this report in the NYTimes, it quotes “India’s Defense Secretary” (I did not know India had defense secretaries) Pradeep Kumar quoting Manmohan Singh as saying “Pakistan has nothing to fear.” What he means is that Pakistan has nothing to fear from India. Under the careful ministrations of the UPA-led Indian government, Pakistan can rest assured that it has nothing to fear from India.
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Creating New Vote Banks

It’s been a while since I contributed to “The Indian National Interest Review: Pragati.” I had to write a piece. I didn’t want the editor, Mr Nitin Pai, to get mad at me. It’s always best to be on his right side. Never get the press angry, is what I always say. Now if you know me, you know that it takes me forever to write anything. At the very mention of writing, I feel a writer’s block coming on. Writing is the hardest thing I try. But anyway, I dusted off the old keyboard, put on my thinking cap and pondered market failures, government failures, and what can be done about them. Here it is for the record.

(Click on image for a PDF copy of the issue.)
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We Just Don’t Care

I recall getting woken up by a call from India one morning — Mrs Indira Gandhi had been assassinated. I felt bad even though I had absolutely no respect for her. But on second thoughts, she played Dr Frankenstein, and like him, she too died (indirectly) at the hands of the monster — Bhindranwale — she created. Karma. It catches up eventually.
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