2) Coming back to India after quite some time, I have seen that Organized labor is the best business opportunity that India would have for quite some time. Especially, cooks and drivers. If someone (I have come to realise that I don’t have the DNA to start a company (not yet, anyway), but I do have a DNA to be a partner) can set up shop to organize this disorganized labor (much akin to the IT companies in the ’90s), there are huge profits to be reaped.

3) We tend to overestimate short term risk and underestimate long term consequences. An extension of ‘We want everything now. At the latest, tomorrow’. I can’t even begin to explain how many times the dilemma of short term vs long term has troubled me. And it still troubles me. But the overestimation vs underestimation analysis has been a terrific savior – every single time.

4)  You realize every proverb you ever came across is loaded with meaning only when you experience that proverb. No explanation required. Even the simplest of proverbs has a lot of loaded meaning and extremely difficult to practice.

5)  What should people do when they have no goal in life? Or are not clear in their goals? Meditate? Get married? Have kids? At this moment of my life, I don’t even know what my goal is (another car, another bungalow – are they even goals?) or what my goal should be? I have pretty much done what I thought I could by this age (fulfilled life you might want to call – but a strange sense of emptiness prevails) (alternatively, you can say that very achievable goals were set and my potential is far higher – well, maybe. Thanks. But emptiness still prevails ). I don’t know what lies beyond this? Any pointers?

P.S – Thanks to a friend who reminded me in a unique style that the blog was being followed and something  needs to be done about it.

CLASSIC:

1. The Godfather II (The word ‘classic’ can be best described with this movie.)

2. Shawshank Redemption (Nothing beats this one!)

3. One flew over Cuckoo’s nest

4. A Clockwork Orange

HUMOR:

1. Death at a Funeral (The british version)

2. The Big Lebowski (Coens!)

3. Fargo (Coens!)

4. Snatch (Guy Ritchie!)

5. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie!)

6. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick!)

7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

8. Life of Brian (Monty Python – I laughed and laughed till my stomach ached. And then laughed again)

9. Tropic Thunder (Robert Downey Jr.)

SPY/THRILLER:

1. Enemy of the State (I can’t believe how many times I watched this movie!)

2. Italian Job (that one scene of tire measurement was enough to fall in love.)

3. 39 steps (Hitchcock blew me away with this one.)

4. Phonebooth (Can anyone direct a movie with just one set – yes they can!)

5. Bourne Series (All three – first and third were brilliant!)

6. Departed

7. Inside Man (wow!)

8. The Prestige (wow!)

9. The Usual Suspects

10. The Illusionist (Edward Norton is one among the best!)

ROMANCE:

1. Notorious (I could not believe the movie was shot in 1945.)

2. Serendipity (A slow but immensely mushy movie.)

3. When Harry met Sally

4. Hitch

5. A Walk to Remember

6. Pretty Woman

7. You’ve got mail

8. Notting Hill

DRAMA/GENERAL:

1. Blood Diamond (Di Caprio!)

2. Children of Men

3. Wall-E (Pixar’s imagination parallels none!)

4. October Sky (Inspirational.)

5. Devil’s Advocate (Al Pacino’s best work, apart from Godfather)

6. Cidade de Deus

7. Minority Report

8. The Matrix (Too complex to understand at first. Once you understand it, there is no way you’ll not love the thought process behind the movie.)

9. The Great Debaters (The movie’s just bloody awesome!)

10. Remember the Titans (Denzel rules!)

11. Life is Beautiful (wow!)

ACTION:

1. 300 (This is Sparta!)

2. The Dark Knight (Heath Ledger rules!)

3. Lord of the Rings – Return of the King (The only movie which came very close to the beauty of the book)

4. Star Wars (The Entire Series) (One of the first movies to flare my imagination)

5. Fight Club (The dialogues are timeless!)

6. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin’s best work till date!)

7. Kill Bill Vol 1 and Vol 2 (Uma Thurman – need I say more.)

8. Gladiator

9. V for Vendetta

10. Rocky Balboa (loved it!)

11. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr rules!)

12. Man on Fire (Denzel Washington is right up there!)

13. Enter the Dragon (Bruce Lee!)

14. The Seven Samurai (Conceptualisation is brilliant!)

15. Independence Day (never got bored of watching it ‘n’ number of times)

I have not added any regional movies to the list although I’ve enjoyed a multitude of them among various languages including Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. Hoping to add them in the near future. They are not as top of my head as the English ones. (As stated earlier, feel free to add to the list through your comments.)

One from Jug Suraiya in Times of India. (Atheism is the best worship)

The other from Manu Joseph in OPEN magazine. (The Decency of the Atheist)

As you can guess from the titles (do read the articles too!), the authors are trying to make a case for Atheism. Personally, I have no stand on Theism, Agnosticism or Atheism. Each one has its own positive and negative value systems and arguing one against another would be a futile exercise.

However, what got my attention was the striking similarity in the structure of these two articles and the gigantic logical fallacy both make.

In summary, Jug says,

“If God himself is a Babu who can be bribed to do your bidding with a prayer and a few diyas or candles, where’s the harm in slipping  some currency notes to a bureaucrat or politician or policeman to do what you want done? Doesn’t God himself teach us to bribe? In which case, how can bribery and corruption be bad things, if they’re God-given?

The atheist not only lives according to a higher code of ethics than that sanctioned by a bribable God, but also inhabits a higher plane of spirituality.”

Manu Joseph goes even further and declares,

“There is this unsung decency about atheists, as they are loosely called. They know there is no hot weather hell, there is no punitive rebirth as an earthworm, yet they never hope to benefit through evil. They do not create traffic jams, they do not create noise, their charity is never a pathetic transaction.

They just go about their lives without harming anyone, even though they know nobody is watching.”

Did you notice the fallacy? It went something like this.

Theists bribe God.

Theists grovel before God.

Theists believe somebody is watching.

And hence, Atheists are good, wonderful people.

There are many examples to prove Atheists have done harm to other people. All the well known dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Mao were atheists. These three were responsible for the death of millions of people across the world. Then, there was Communist Pol Pot, who killed as many as 2 million of his countrymen in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-il are of the same bent. So, even though nobody was watching (according to Manu Joseph) or bribing them (according to Jug), they went about killing a lot of people.

Can I quote Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro and then come to a conclusion that all theists are good, wonderful people using the same brush that the two authors use? It would be highly erroneous to come to that conclusion. There have been a lot of religious wars in the past (Crusades for example, and not to speak of the lunatic extremist fringe that we have currently) which resulted in the death of thousands of people. Lot of geographical and political bifurcations have been done on the basis of religion – and not always to the benefit of the population involved. So, even though someone was watching and bribing, Theism led to a lot of killings.

Can I then make an argument that since Theism only killed thousands of people while Atheism led to killing millions of people, Theism is slightly better than Atheism? Absolutely not. That would be a specious argument.

I presume that these authors are taking refuge in the ever insightful and brilliant Richard Dawkins’s argument, “What matters is… whether atheism systematically influences people to do bad things. There is not the smallest evidence that it does. Atheistic individuals may do bad things, but they don’t do evil things in the name of atheism”. Very true indeed. However, that’s only a part of the picture. How about the systematic expansion and influence of Theism on Art, Culture, Education, Architecture over thousands of years? Shouldn’t that be a part of the consideration when you make the Theists vs Atheists argument? I think it should.

I think, on a fundamental basis, theism and atheism try to achieve the same goal, albeit with different means. Theism propagates concepts such as seven deadly sins, karma, rebirth et al, so that people who believe in a particular faith (be it Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism etc) be honest, hardworking people who think good and do good. At a rudimentary level, there is an inherent incentive-disincentive basis to the theistic concept. Atheism on the other hand, banks on the concept of ‘conscience’ and formulates its own incentive-disincentive scheme (When I do wrong, I feel very bad, for example).

Painting with a broad brush and using logical fallacies to make sweeping statements about theists or atheists is editorially wrong, fundamentally more so. I hope the authors do get the message one day or the other. Or the editors stop publishing such articles. Either way, we’ll have less of these syllogistic arguments.

For what, you ask?

Well, for people who didn’t notice, I apologise for not enlightening your minds with my blogposts

For people who did notice, I was going through a unique meta-state where ‘everything was happening and nothing was happening, eventually leading to a static null and void state of mind’. It’s probably the longest time I’ve been away from the blog and for no good reason. And hence, accept my apologies. Not that you were eagerly awaiting for an update and all that, but still.

For people who reached out to me personally,

M – Nope, I am very much alive and kicking! And thanks for the profanities. I’ve learnt a few new ones

S – Sorry macha! Oscar nominations will be analysed right here very soon. Fikar not!

A – Never knew you were a keen follower of the blog, am glad! Hope the blog doesn’t disappoint you.

P – No, I am not writing a book and hence ignoring the blog, as is the trend nowadays (I was always bucking-the-trend kindaa guy, you know! ) However…shh..however, I am in advanced talks to write op-eds with a couple of newspapers (no excuse for this prolonged absence though!). Will keep you posted if they materialize.

Back to blogging then! Yay!

Kicking off the proceedings with – ‘Visesh sutron ke anusaar, ek sansani khez khabar….’

]]> http://kirandhanwada.com/2010/02/17/hola/feed/ 0 http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/11/23/the-plight-of-2611-courtesy-moron-media/ http://kirandhanwada.com/2009/11/23/the-plight-of-2611-courtesy-moron-media/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:41:16 +0000 Kiran http://kirandhanwada.com/?p=359 Misogyny and barbarism in the guise of a holy war took an ugly turn on 26/11/2008 when 10 terrorists rocked Mumbai with their heinous strategies and merciless killing. Over 170 people died and many others injured in this brazen attack. 9 out of 10 terrorists were killed and the lone terrorist alive, Kasab, is currently in police custody. India is still trying to prove to Pakistan that terrorists originated in Pakistan but to little fruition. Our thoughts are with those who got killed in this attack as well as with Major Unnikrishnan for his supreme sacrifice.

The above paragraph might as well be replicated in any newspaper in India on 26/11/2009. The writing nowadays is probably templated, given the turnaround times of publishing each article. However, the point of this blog is not to bash the templated media, but to point out the pointlessness of the media exercise which will come up on 26/11, all day, all night long on a television near you. This attempt is only a preview of what you are about to be subjected to.

The scene is set in a plush studio in Mumbai. The anchor is all decked up and in the first shot, we’d have 2-3 ‘experts’/'pundits’ adjusting their ties, hair and lungis.

Anchor (with a somber expression and a fake heavy voice): This day, last year, we witnessed the most brazen attack yet on Indian soil, with 10 terrorists taking Mumbai hostage with their antics. Today, in our studio, we have Expert 1, Expert 2 and on the field, we have Moron 1 and Moron 2.

The Morons are usually attention seeking…er..morons.

The scene shifts to the Taj Hotel and the Trident Hotel in split frames and then zooms out to have the morons standing in front of each of these buildings ready to give their idiotic opinion.

Anchor: So, Moron 1, explain me the scene around Taj today. What are people saying? How are they doing?

Moron 1: The scene in front of the Taj is very sober and most of them are reliving the moments of 26/11. I have spoken to many people here (yeah right!) and they explained to me how the night of 26/11 went by in horror, just as they were leaving the premises.

Anchor: How are they feeling currently? How do they feel to be in the exact spot exactly one year later? (yep, sensationalize is the name of the game)

Moron 1: Anchor, I can tell you by their expressions and feelings (the big Freud has been reborn!) that anger is seething within them. They didn’t get any answers from the government (when have we..ever?!) and the accused have not yet been brought to justice. (what does that even mean? just shoot the bloody bastard and get it over with.)

Anchor: Thank you Moron 1. Moron 2…how are things shaping up at the Trident? How are people feeling currently?

Moron 2: Thanks Anchor. I have spoken to multiple people (the fantastic insightful investigative journalist that he is) and also to the hotel staff of Trident. Each one has a different story to tell (obviously, we are not robots, are we?) and every incident is very moving. (moved whom? How did it move you?…ahh..I can’t sensationalize, my bad!)

Anchor (with obvious glee of securing the highest TRP ratings): Moron 2, did you by chance talk to any relatives or friends of the dead…err…those who passed away in the attack? How are they feeling? (I can tell you they pretty much want to kill you now!)

Moron 2: You bring up a very interesting angle Anchor (?!) I did speak to quite a few relatives of those who passed away and they are still not able to recoil with the truth of their loved ones who passed away suddenly. (next time, they shall take an appointment). They seek answers from the government. (the panacea, our government. only if wishes were angelina jolies).

Anchor (turning to the ‘experts’): Experts, as we heard from the two scenes, people are seeking answers from the government. What is the government doing?

The ‘experts’ as always, speak at a ‘management guru’ level, which essentially is fluff and doesn’t make any sense to anyone, either in the governement or in the studio or to the viewers.

Expert 1: The government is doing multiple things and has taken up multiple initiatives to prevent such attacks from happening. There are 5 NSG centers in India now, instead of only 1 previously. We are presenting evidence to the entire world to bring the accused to justice. And justice always takes time. (ah, you see, as long as it doesn’t impact you, anything can take as much time as it wants. How do you care?)

Expert 2: I think we have a more fundamental problem. We have to reinforce the military and improve our foreign policy to nip the problem at its bud. (Can you list out the practical operational steps to do so? What? No? I thought so!) At a more deeper level, we need to change the sense of hopelessness and despair among these young terrorists to prevent further such attacks. (ah, he’s preaching enlightenment. We should sent him to Pak, without further ado!)

Anchor: Thank you experts. Now, we’ll go into a break. When we come back, we’ll have our Moron 3 at Nariman house and Moron 4 to relive the journey of 26/11/08 made possible through our own animation studio. (We have a package deal. Let us know if you want to produce a animated movie. Advertising on our channel is free if you use our animation studio services.)

And the story goes on and on after the long advertising break, with different characters, different channels but the same storyline with the similar ‘breathtaking’ analysis. I think the media, especially all the 24×7 channels pray for some kind of sensationalist attack once in a while to rack up their TRPs on that day and every year from that day onwards (you know, today’s the 2^nd anniversary of/5^th anniversary of…etc). My grouse with the media is not that they whip up familiar storylines/analysis/expert views but that they have failed in one critical aspect – unbiased reporting, raising awareness be damned. But then again, who cares about unbiased reporting?

Frankly, the only original line that was supposed to come up this week on 26.11.2009 has already come in, unfortunately from Major Unnikrishnan’s father – ‘Everyone wants a Bhagat Singh or a Bose but in the neighbour’s house’. So true. So straight-from-the-heart. The way it is supposed to be. Always.

My previous post on Incentive theory

The two posts above over the past couple of weeks were essentially intended to explain the Grand Unified Theory (hereby referred to as GUT). So, what is GUT?

Signals and Incentives are intertwined with each other. I’d say, if incentives are to be secured, then sending signals is a given. To quote a simple example, if a baby wants to secure a chocolate/toy, it can’t secure it just by thinking of the chocolate/toy. It has to direct its parents’ attention through prodding/crying for that chocolate/gift. Thereby, sending the right signal is of paramount importance if the incentive/interest is to be secured.

GUT, as stated in the topic precisely says this. It states that almost every action in the world by human beings (a little more than the Pareto ratio in fact) can be explained through GUT. It may or may not be extendable to all living beings like plants/animals etc., but I will restrict the discussion here to human beings. I will try to explain (if its not already intuitive) through some examples why GUT is universal.

a) Education System: Government education system is a case in point. Most government schools have endowments/grants given by the government. However, the allocation of these grants is with respect to the grades/performance of the school. Better the grades, better the performance, more number of students pass – the higher are the grants. This is a skewed proposition. Applying GUT to this education system, we find that the incentive to the management of the school is to get higher grades – by whatever means possible as long as its not outright fraud. This can be done in multiple ways, primarily being Grade Inflation, wherein the teachers are instructed to be lenient on grades – thereby lending to the perception (signal to be precise) that the school is doing much better than it actually is, thereby receiving better grants (the incentive) than usually should be the case. There is no good way to prove Grade Inflation, which makes the incentive for inflating the grades even stronger.

b) Work: GUT can be applied in multiple ways at work. Education background at work is a case in point. Let’s consider two employees A and B. Both work at the same level doing the same job. However, during work, A works that bit harder and secures an advanced degree (MS/MBA, you name it) from a night school. He updates his employer about his degree in a very diplomatic fashion, through some kind of party/celebration (signal). Now, consider a situation where the employer thinks he should promote someone (incentive) from the level of A and B to a higher level. Whom do you think he/she will choose if A and B worked at a similar skill level? Definitely A – and that’s because of his advanced degree. Note that the advanced degree may or may not have anything to do with the kind of work he does, but the very act of getting a degree (signal) indicates to the employer that a) A is sincere about moving up the corporate ladder b) Or, A will move out of his employment if he is not promoted.

c) Corporate actions: The act of transitioning a company from private to a public limited company can be explained through GUT. In this case, the management is bringing on public shareholders onto its board and is responsible to answer to its shareholders for all its corporate actions going forward. It also has to undertake various legal and government hassles to get listed as a public limited company. But what is the company trying to achieve by moving from a private to a public limited company (signal)? The incentive here is cheaper and wider access to capital. If a company has to extend beyond a certain size, it needs to take on debt/equity as the case may be. The cost of raising capital being a private company is much much higher than when raising as a public limited company. This difference in the cost of capital makes up more than the legal, government and shareholder hassles. Hence the signal of moving from a private to a public company to secure the incentive of cheaper capital.

d) Relationships: GUT can also explain relationships. For example, the male/female try to send out all the right signals during courtship – whether it being well-dressed/groomed, funny anectodes, giving gifts, holding doors – anything and everything to impress and secure the relationship (incentive). The same couple, after marriage, might not display all the lovey-dovey features (lack of signal) due to lack of incentive (no more competition, the boy/girl is secured etc.) After marriage, people tend to think that they understand the other person very well and hence no signaling/very little signaling is required, often leading to fights/quarrels/misunderstandings. Signals, as you realize, are forever.

One critical caveat though before we start applying GUT to anything and everything. Incentives and Signals, the core of GUT rely on one assumption – information asymmetry. This asymmetry can be in the form of material, psychological or otherwise, but critical for GUT to work. If all parties involved in the conversation are on the same page and have the same understanding, GUT can no longer be used.

GUT, as stated in incentive as well as signaling theory blogposts is not in any manner path breaking; it is more intuitive (in that sense, its really a gut feeling (ha!)). It is a framework of understanding and primarily negotiating. In the future, I will try to explain some of the happenings in and around the world I understand through GUT and look at the implications of applying this framework to real world situations.

P.S: Put in Incentive Signaling theory or Signaling Incentive theory on Google search and check what comes up on the first link (nudge, nudge). Never knew so little was written about these two in combination.

Usually, I have seen discounts such as

Buy One, Get One FREE

Buy One, Get 10% OFF, Buy Two, Get 30% OFF

Etc.

There is nothing devious about such discounting. It is very straightforward and linear and is understood by the majority. What caught my attention at this particular occasion was the ad which said,

Buy One, Get 30% OFF

Buy Two, Get the Third One FREE

Buy Three, Get Two more FREE

Lots of ‘FREE’ text – Hmm. Moreover, this discounting is counting on self-indulgence. I would usually buy one product. However, looking at this discount ad, the usual thought process is to buy one more, and collect three products for the prices of just two. Extend the concept to apparel wear and the discount marketing becomes apparent. People usually are inclined to buy more than required whenever they see such ads this – and nothing wrong with it as long as the numbers are understood.

Here’s the deal. The thought process usually is – I will buy one product; once I buy the second product, the third product is FREE; so essentially, I have a 50% discount on the last two products. The math is correct. However, what happens though is that we usually forget that we are paying full price on the first product (which was eligible for a 30% discount) and claim that we have had a 50% discount on the purchase. However, the discounting mechanism actually translates to -

Buy One, Get 30% OFF

Three products for 33% OFF

Five products for 40% OFF.

(Put in $10 per product, the math is very elementary)

I guess what the Mall is counting on is not on our math skill and ability, but our behavioral mindset. Obviously, discounts are almost never on necessities and always on ‘disposable income’ items (apparel being a prime example). Behaviorally, you would want to go for one more shirt, which will result in three shirts etc. We usually tend to miss that the first product would have been 30% OFF and calculate, to our own worse-off-cash-expense a 50% OFF in our thought process.

(The analysis assumes that all product prices are equal. If there is variability around prices, I would guess that the discount would work out to be far less than what it seems on the ad.)

So, here’s a way to think about this. If I am buying one shirt for 30% OFF, isn’t an measly incremental 3% a little too less a discount to buy two more shirts? (unless they are an absolute necessity). Only 3% discount, more space taken in the wardrobe and less cash in my pocket – I said, ‘No, Thank You’ and left the Mall.

I also read about one of the schools in Hyderabad which started of an ‘Integrated IIT course’ for kids of age 11. Needless to say, competition caught up and now there are dozens of schools which ‘specialize’ in this course. I personally did not know a school called ‘IIT’ existed till I cleared the IXth class (maybe I was too ignorant!). Parents pay astronomical amounts of money to send their kids to these courses just to keep ahead of a Mrs. Verma’s kid, who is after all going to a normal course. These courses, by their very name and schedule send shivers down my spine. Classes from 8 to 8 and then lots of homework – when is the kid to enjoy a game of cricket, sit on the terrace and enjoy the stars at night, listen to nuances of life from their grandparents, read about what is happening in the country, discover authors like Enid Blyton – no, the only aim of parents nowadays is to see their kids get into IITs – as if, that was the only way to salvation (if it is, then I don’t want it! And seemingly what I hear from my friends in/from IIT, it isn’t – not by a long shot).

Probably I am a little too old-fashioned, but when has this ‘going to tuitions’ become a trend? As far as I remember, when I was in school (not too long ago, 10-11 years back), going to tuitions was actually an insult. Even if students went, they went very discreetly. There was a social stigma attached to it – if you are going to tuitions, then you are dumb! Period. Students who were smart picked up every subject in school itself, and tuitions were a strict no-no. But today, the trend seems to have reversed. Going to tuitions has become the norm, and students who don’t go to tuitions are the ones left out in the race (what race, which race…don’t ask me, I have no clue!) School from 9 to 5, tuitions from 6 to 9 and then finish homework – no wonder, I see no kids playing cricket, flying kites, cycling around the streets with no purpose any longer. Sad state of affairs – and thankfully, I am not a part of it (but my kid would be – that is my worry!) [Tuitions have become such a roaring business - from LKG to Engineering, Medical nowadays - considering the burgeoning student population, it's not a bad business proposition at all].

I still remember – when I was of age 11, studies was my least of worries – I was more concerned with how will my team win the next cricket match next evening, what is for dinner, how should I not allow the benchmate to occupy my space on the bench at school, will my mom give me 50 paise so that I can buy the ice-cream outside school etc. I spoke to a kid sometime back and all he was asking me/talking to me was what should he do to score cent percent in mathematics, are board exams really important to get into IIT, how competitive is the world – he was a kid of age 12. Tragic, but true. My father used to tell me various stories (for the sole purpose of killing the fear of water within me) to teach me swimming, my elder cousin used to teach me how things get done in the outside world and suchlike. Kids nowadays have only one thing in mind – to climb the ladder as fast as possible – my only worry is they have no clue which ladder they are going on!

It is erroneous on my part to blame the Indian education system of being fixated on IITs, Tuitions, cramming for exams etc., instead of the kid enjoying and learning life. It is just the principle of efficient markets – unless there was a need, the markets of tuitions wouldn’t have flourished as it is today. Parents are the ones to blame – they fear that their kid is going to lose out on top education, and hence pour out their life savings in educating them. We have turned Education into a commodity, into a ruthless business. We have forgotten the basis of education – education is for life, and not for a living. Instead, we have negated that basis totally – it is only for a living and nothing else. For me, treating the kids to bookish knowledge from 9 to 9 kills their creativity – and that would be a blunder of enormous proportions in the long run!

P.S – I have heard stories of many parents (and some who are my friends) promising that they would not subject their kids through this rigorous system, but would let them develop ‘freely and creatively’ – not pressurizing them into studies. However, once the kid touches the age of 3, these parents automatically switch their mode to ‘keeping up with Mrs. Vermas’ – so much for their tall and empty promises of ‘freely and creatively’.

Looking back, I am extremely grateful to my parents for letting me truly develop ‘freely and creatively’ – for not once did they say ‘Beta, you should get first rank – look at the other guy’, ‘Beta, you should study more – don’t play cricket’! I did get a stare from my father though – just once, a stare, no words – when I came back from a cricket match at 8 in the night, with my Mathematics 10th board exam the next day [I think the stare was his fear of ‘Oh dear! This guy is gonna flunk his exam tomorrow ]

Update: My analysis of Budget 2008-09 published here (Budget 2009-2009 – A Bird’s eye view)

I really wish I were as complex and my mind work in a hundred different ways to say this – 2007 has been a remarkable year for me – highs and lows, good times and bad times – it was one year where I had to struggle for my identity, my interests, myself – and I have grown mature and wiser going into 2008!!! I really wish I could say that – but then, I don’t want to look back at this blog and laugh at how stupid was this post

Well, to put it my way – very simply – 2007 has been a good year to me. Let me get done with the ‘lows’ part first. One of my best friends passed away in April, and someone very infinitely dear to me moved away around the same time. ‘Tough phase’?? – you bet it was! That said, the ‘highs’ have been quite a few – 2007 has been a year where I moved to my new company, bought quite a few assets, made a lot of great friends, visited and roamed around a couple of countries, learnt a lot in different fields and dammnn..turned 25 . All in all, a very productive year to say the least.

Going into 2008 – well, looking forward to it with lots of excitement, hope – of different things to happen, meeting different people, probably another continent or two and obviously lots of fun – the same old bland stuff that I had promised myself last year and probably the year before . I am reminded of my favorite school teacher here and let me quote her – ‘Good, Better, Best – Never let it rest. Till the good becomes better and better the best’ – I would be happy if I would not have inverted this quote at the end of 2008 .

P.S -

a) Movies – Best movies of 2007

1. Taare Zameen Par 2. Johnny Gaddar 3. Chak De 4. Guru 5. Manorama Six Feet Under 6. Dharm

Kindly do not miss these movies. Each one has a charm of its own. And yes, each one is brilliant.

b) Have been selected as a Desicritic at Desicritics.org. ‘Christmas in Florida’ travelogue has been published on this premier Indian blogging site. So hopefully, it should motivate me to blog better, if not more frequently.

c) It’s been 8 years since my Engineering – and I still can’t believe time flies so fast. One year back, one of my Engineering friends said -’ some years later, you wouldn’t even realise because Time would heal you of all those memories’. To him, my only answer is (and yeah, I made this up on my recent trip to Florida )

They said, ‘Time would heal everything’;

They lied!

d) Where are the New Years’ Eves I say? I don’t see any around. (if you get the pun, kindly excuse the PJ )

Wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!

Let me say at the outset, that this match and the tournament was won because of only one man – Ajit Agarkar. Thank Goodness, he was on the bench. Else, I doubt if we could have reached the semis. So, let’s just take a bow to this great man for the greatest contribution he has ever made to the Indian Cricket.

Billed as the greatest final that was ever to happen, the match lived up well and truly to its expectations. No one, either in the stadium or across millions of homes in India and Pakistan would have asked for a better match – a match that went right down to the last over – a match where the quality of batting, bowling and fielding was outstanding – a match which starkly reminded me of Miandad’s last ball six (which thankfully, did not happen) – and finally, a tournament final which did not end up as an anti-climax where one side would romp home with victory (as has been the case usually)!! Could I have asked for anything better on a Monday evening – Absolutely not. I was on the edge of my chair all throughout the match – instructing (actually ordering) my friends in the room not to move an inch from their places till the match was over (Not that the stars and future of the match was entirely dependent on the seating arrangement of a few people in a room – but where passion overtakes sense, logic is out of the window).

As the ball went sailing over the rope in the last over of Kaka Joginder, silence prevailed in India while jubiliations would have begun in Pakistan. It was all a matter of one wicket or a six. Probably the only person in the world who had to hear more abuses than Agarkar was Kaka Joginder in that particular moment. Then, it happened. Misbah’s “mind running like a computer”(I will come to this phrase later) crashed – generating a serious error of trying to scoop the ball over fine leg instead of hitting that lollipop-half-volley-decent pace ball over the bowler’s head for a six. Psycho Sreesanth held on to the catch and only just (if he had dropped it, then probably that would have been the end of his career after his magnificient 4 overs for 44 runs is a totally different matter). India celebrated, Misbah cried and Pakistan was shocked. Kaka Joginder redeemed himself to do the jig along with Harbhajan and Pathan during the lap of honour. Crackers were burst, People screamed and when we had dinner at some restaurant later, everyone was in a fantastic mood – smiling, hi-fis and boisterous laughter. It was one party!!

Everything that happened for India and Pakistan in this tournament happened for their own good – Pakistan have found a deadly pace combination in Asif, Umar Gul and Tanvir – if nurtured properly (instead of hitting around with bats and getting into squabbles) would become fearsome. Misbah is more than an ideal replacement for Yousuf (although I cannot say he has a long bright future ahead of him – he’s already 33!) and an able and a fantastic leader in Malik. For the Indians, the biggest gain has been the pace attack, Rohit Sharma and Kaka Joginder (who’s fate is similar to Misbah). Dhoni’s silent thumbs-up to Harbhajan after he bowled Michael Clarke during the nail-biting India vs Australia match is more than a sign that he is here to stay – lest, politics do him in. Needless to say, this signals the end of Agarkar’s career whose only credit is that he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory countless number of times!!

Now that India has won the Cup, I need to ask a few questions to a few people – not that their answers would matter – but then, let me exercise my right as a blogger -

Shoaib Malik – How did you assume Muslims around the world are supporting you to win? India has a sizeable population of Muslims and they celebrated India’s victory yesterday probably more than the other communities did (I am sure you missed seeing Irfan Pathan on Yousuf Pathan’s back enjoying every moment of their victory!!). Why bring in religious fervor and stupid comments to such a wonderful match? Beats me.

Ravi Shastri – What’s with your cliches nowadays? Have you run out of them? You used ‘his mind is running like a computer’ probably 5 times in 5 minutes of your commentary. Others include ‘Going right down to the wire’ (still can’t see the wire), ‘Anybody’s game’ and your oft-so-used-to-death ‘Game on’. You better ‘go back to the drawing board’ and invent new cliches. Please!!

Harsha Bhogle – Dear o dear! What was wrong with you in this tournament? You were so insipid and were looking for words – ‘Oh! Misbah has hit the ball over the rope, I just can’t describe how he hit the ball’ – I guess your job is to do that. Once or twice, I can understand – the statement was repeated across multiple players in multiple matches. Is it ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’ scenario here? Improve oh dear, Kindly do. So many people in India admire you.

Psycho Sreesanth – I mean whatt!! I guess Dhoni does a security check on you before you step on to the ground, lest you draw out a pen-knife and slice Hayden or some other player. I guess you need to turn your aggression inwards and develop more consistency – else, you are a ‘gonner’!!

Freddie Flintoff – It is just not ok to blurt ‘I will hit your face, you just wait’ to Yuvraj. Back it up and please, to a team of jelly-bean throwers and whiners of ‘too much away from home’, this attitude would not work – Nope it won’t.

Sunil Gavaskar – For once, I guess you should have appreciated that India won – whole-heartedly. We can completely understand that you are grief-stricken that Sachin did not play a part in this ‘important historical event that happened after 24 years’ but please – for once, could you stop saying ‘Both teams deserved to win’ and say that ‘Indians played a magnificient game under an able captain to win comprehensively. Deserved winners’!! Could you? Somehow <
span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">pessimism overtakes my usual highly optimistic behavior when it comes to you.

Ajit Agarkar – Oops, sorry! No questions Sirr!! You have played very well. You have motivated the team very well from the trenches (Imagine, players saying to each other – however worse, we can’t get worser than him, pointing to Agarkar). No sir, seriously – thank you very much. I don’t think you should have expected a better farewell than winning this Twenty20 world championship.

Yeee!! Twenty20 is here to stay. The 50-over match on Sep 29th between India and Australia already sounds boring!! ]]> http://kirandhanwada.com/2007/09/25/we-won-yessss-we-won/feed/ 0