Look and feel of this site

Due to circumstances out of our control, we had to change our hosting service. While making that transition, I also made the decision to change the look of this blog. But I not clever enough to on my own fix all the little annoying bits that need fixing with such a transition. I get technical support for my blog from my dear friend and colleague Alok and he is really busy at his real job these last couple of weeks. Soon enough he will be relatively free to help me out. So take this opportunity to speak out and tell me what changes you would like to the look and feel of this site.

Back on the beat

Many of you have noted the fairly long hiatus in the postings on this blog and some have even written and called to find out if I am ok. Glad to report that I am indeed alive and kicking. I apologize for the extended break and I hope to get back on the treadmill without further delay.

So what’s in store for 2009, you may ask. I think I am going to work on a bit of synthesis. For the last few years I have touched upon a wide but interconnected set of issues related to India’s economic growth and development. It is time now to gather those together into a coherent whole and see how the big picture appears.

I hope to make some progress on the work I am doing. What is that, you ask. Well, first of all, I am working on setting up a service that would be of use for those in the educational sector. A great for-profit venture. It is true that I have been talking about it for a couple of years and I have precious little to show for it to date; but that is how it works — you think for a long while and then do. I am a great believer in thinking a lot before acting.

So here goes nothing. Do keep in touch and let’s all have a great new year. Cheers!

Imagining Indian Cities

Nandan Nilekani on his Imagining India blog makes an excellent case why Indian cities need to have local control rather than being controlled by state or central government agencies. Continue reading “Imagining Indian Cities”

Sandeep’s “India’s Most Loathsome 2008” is live

In keeping with what he did last year, this year too Sandeep has compiled a list of 16 India’s Most Loathsome People. The prime minister makes it next to the top spot; Sonia Gandhi wins the coveted top of the list. I disagree. I think that the top of the list, like the Time’s Person of the Year, must be “YOU — the average Indian.” My comment on Sandeep’s blog:
Continue reading “Sandeep’s “India’s Most Loathsome 2008” is live”

Links for Dec 3rd, 2008: After the Smoke Has Cleared

Hi from Philadelphia, PA.

“Blasphemous bras, heretical heels, yoga and me,” a funny opinion piece by Julia Suryakusuma for The Jakarta Post (Dec. 3, 2008) on a not-funny subject:

Yesterday morning I woke up early as usual and got ready for my early morning meditational yoga. It’s something I’ve been doing since 1981, clearing my mind and reinvigorating myself for the day ahead. It’s like getting your cell phone recharged, as simple as that.

But then I remembered reading that the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is thinking of issuing a fatwa declaring yoga haram (forbidden), inspired by the Malaysian National Fatwa Council which has declared yoga haram because it “goes against the teachings of Islam”. Well, Malaysia is our sister country and they’ve done us the honor of imitating so many Indonesian things — batik, songs, language, even food! It’s understandable we should reciprocate.

To distract us from all the doom and gloom, check out Twinkle, twinkle little star (Desi style). This is funny only if you are a desi.; furriners will not get the joke. (Thanks to Prakash Advani for the link.)

But now back to the terror attack on Mumbai. WSJ published a very well written piece on Dec 1st which concisely reports the sequence of events as they were known then.

Pieced together from interviews with dozens of witnesses and officials, this account of the three days of the battle for Mumbai shows just how a small but ruthless group of skilled militants, attacking multiple targets in quick succession, managed to bring one of the world’s largest cities to its knees. The human toll — currently at 174 fatalities, including nine terrorists — was exacerbated by the Indian authorities’ lack of preparedness for such a major attack. But the chain of events also points to just how vulnerable any major city can be to this type of urban warfare.

It is worth reading, and reading soon before it disappears behind a subscription wall.

Here are pictures from The Big Picture on “Mumbai after the smoke has cleared.”

Tragedy and Farce — Part 2

{Continued from part 1.}

In the ultimate analysis, ideas matter. Ideas are what distinguishes humans from all known forms of terrestial living beings. The differences one observes in the development of various societies ultimately boil down to the set of ideas that a society developes, borrows, adopts, adapts, and uses. Ideas as embodied in the institutions and mores of society ultimately dictate how prosperous it is. A set of ideas that persist and pervade the collective consciousness of a society can be called an ideology. After controlling for all other factors such as natural endowments and accidents of history, the state of development and prospects of growth of a society (and therefore its economy) are fundamentally and inextricably tied to the dominant ideology of that society.
Continue reading “Tragedy and Farce — Part 2”

Tragedy and Farce — Part 1

Cyclic Tragedy and Farce

Perhaps we need to update Marx’s idea of history that it “repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce” to suit the history of terrorism in India where each cyclic repetition consists of a brutal tragedy immediately followed by a hopeless farce.

The script is tiresomely familiar. Islamic terrorists attack and kill by the scores, if not hundreds, in acts of mindless mayhem and destruction. Even as the short tragedy is unfolding, the farce begins with the prime minister and other government officials declaring that they will punish the perpetrators. That gives way to so-called “secular intellectuals” quickly justifying the horror by pointing out that we need to understand the conditions that motivated the Islamic terrorists to go on a killing-spree of infidels – namely, poverty and discrimination against the followers of the celebrated Religion of Peace.
Continue reading “Tragedy and Farce — Part 1”

Basic incompetence

Expressing his frustration, Rajan Parrikar wrote saying that Indians appear to be experts in losing. . .

…on every front. For three days as the Mumbai terrorist drama unfolded on American TV screens, there was not a SINGLE official Indian representative offering the Indian perspective. The Pakistani ambassador, on the other hand, went on several channels proclaiming Pakistan’s innocence and telling Americans how his nation was an innocent victim instead!

Then there was Ms Zain Verjee, the CNN International anchor and a muslim, who did not let a single opportunity go without telling Americans how disaffected the Indian muslim youth are in India and how opportunities for India’s muslims are slim. Nobody talks about India’s Hindu poor (600+ million) and their travails. I guess Hindus don’t count since we are “secular.”

Where in the world was the Indian ambassador to the United States hiding? Doesn’t he know anything about public relations in the middle of an event of so singular a dimension and extent?

The only Indian presence of any significance came in the form of that charlatan Deepak Chopra. His first order of business was to drop his pants and crap on India. Are Indians truly programmed to be losers or what?

I don’t know if I will characterize all Indians as losers but the guy who heads the government is certainly one. He is, besides, a medical wonder — who appears to function normally despite the lack of a brain and a spine.