Pigeons & Flights of Thought

Sunday mornings are meant to be slept through. But today wasnt meant for such a pleasurable activity. Early morning I was waken up by strange noises in my room. The source of noise turned out to be a pigeon fluttering about my window. Had to get up and shut the glass window to stop it from coming inside. And then I saw another one moving along the floor. When I tried to shoo it away instead of going through the second open window it decided to fly into the hall. The hall has glass doors on the balcony side and glass windows at the other end. Now pigeons are supposed to be pretty intelligent animals, with a great sense of direction and all that. We also hear a lot about pigeons being used for delivering messages. But after what I saw today morning made me think that how could any one trust these stupid creatures. This particular pigeon went into hall. It flew across and banged into the balcony doors. Flew back and banged into the windows. And this process was repeated again before I could go and open the sliding doors. And then it proceeded to settle on the fan. It was pretty tough to make it fly away. Some bird!!!
Well, by this time I had lost all thought of further sleep and proceeded to stay in my 14th floor balcony watching the other members of the species flying around. Overhead at regular intervals aeroplanes went passing on their way to land at the Mumbai airport. And this is when my thought process started taking flight. Human beings have been always trying to copy from the nature around them. Seeing the birds they also wanted to be able to release their spirits and soar across the wide sky. This dream came to be true, albeit in a different way, with the invention of the aeroplane. Now, the though which came across my mind is would we have thought about flying if there had been no birds to teach us about flight. And if no such thought had come would there have been any aeroplanes. And without the aviation industry how different would have been the world today. And more to the point, would the progress made over the last hundred years since Wright Brothers' invention took off, have been possible.

The Clash of Titans: A Preview

People may have their own arguments. But in my opinion, the India-Australia test series is the ultimate cricketing clash. People say a lot of things about the Ashes, but probably thats because the Britishers are nostalgic about everything. With the decline of the West Indies, the Wisden and Frank Worrel Trophies have lost their sheen. India-Pakistan clashes do not have the passionate following associated with them anymore. South Africa's isolation during the Apartheid period has ensured that though being tough competitors, a series against them does not attract as much attention. So finally it boils down to India vs Australia as the ultimate showdown in Test cricket.
This is the second 4 match series being played between the two countries this year following the acrimonious and highly controversial series earlier this year. In spite of the many controversies it was a keenly fought contest with India winning the 3rd test in Perth after losing in Melbourne and the controversial test in Sydney. The series ended with Virender Sehwag scoring a match-saving century in Adelaide. Eight months on, the Aussies are in India for the return series.
The Indian side remains more or less the same but there has been significant change of personnel in the Australian camp. The biggest loss has of course been that of Adam Gilchrist both behind and in front of the stumps. Gilly will definitely be missed, by the team as well as all the fans. The Australian spin attack has for practical purposes vanished with Brad Hogg and Stuart McGill retiring one after the other. The Australian search for an opening partner for Hayden is still unresolved. And Andrew Symonds, one of the men at the centre of Monkeygate controversy has been thrown out of the team for having gone fishing. So, all in all, it seems the Aussies definetely look quite vulnerable. And going by their performance against the Board President's XI, they are the underdogs in this series.
As far as the Indian team is concerned, it has a sense of familiarity around it. No injury worries, all the big names still around. This series is considered to be another chance for the Fab Five of Indian cricket to have another go at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. They also have a chance to redeem themselves after the poor showing in Sri Lanka. It will also give them a chance to shut up the critics who have been clamoring for their retirement. Personally, I feel that the Fab 5, Sachin, Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly and Laxman should retire only when they want to and not just because people have started hollering for their retirements. In my opinion a player should quit only when somebody else is able to push them out of their slot, like Gambhir replaced Jaffer on account of his splendid showing over the past year. Players like Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Kaif, Badrinath, Raina etc maybe good enough but they have still a lot of way to go before they replace the middle order stalwarts. Similary Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra are definetely not in the class of Kumble. So lets stop all this talk of retirement and just enjoy the game while they are there.
Hoping to be able to enjoy another rivetting series between these two nations.

Welcome To Sajjanpur

The past week was full of news. Some bad, the Investment-Banking industry and some good, the great news about the Indian oil & gas sector. The week ended with another bomb blast on a Saturday, this time in Islamabad. However this post is not about any of these events. Thanks to the torrent downloads, I am now updated with all the happenings in the movie world. And it has been quite a while since I wrote about any movie.

Just finished watching the new Shyam Benegal directed film, "Welcome to Sajjanpur". The film is seen through the eyes of the central character, Mahadev, played by Shreyas Talpade who is an aspiring novelist. However he ends up becoming a letter writer. And we get to see the variety of things he gets to do being one of the few literate people in the village. He also abuses his position but manages to do the right things in the end.

A slightly different kind of movie from Shyam Benegal. This is set in a small village in the Hindi heartland. The film also touches on a large number of social issues, like widow remarriage, superstitions, organ selling, muscle power in local elections, the third gender, village infrastructure etc. These are mentioned in passing but the focal point remains the letter writer.

And finally acouple of random thoughts which crossed my mind while watching the movie

1. Pen is mightier than the sword
2. With great power comes great responsibility

Overall, the film is definetely worth a watch

The Shock & After-Shocks

It was some Saturday for the financial markets. Three major shocks in one day, Merill Lynch being taken over by Bank of America, Lehmann Brothers filing for bankruptcy and AIG suffering huge losses. AIG was rescued by the money pumped in by the Fed which for all practical purposes has taken over its control. And all these after the recent collapse of Bear Sterns, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Citigroup has had its value eroded by a large extent. All of these companies seemingly the victims of the sub-prime lending crisis in the USA. The recent collapses come just as the world was on a recovery path from the crude price shock.

During my B-school days, most of the people had come with dreams of becoming an investment banker after completing their MBA. Being placed in Merill Lynch or Lehmann Brothers would have been a dream come true for most people. These investment banks had also built up a reputation of taking the "toppers" only which implied solid acads and excellent communication skills. As time went by people became aware of the other profiles available and moved on to other profiles also. But still being an investment banker was the job.

When I was in second year the sub prime crisis had started taking toll with fears of the oncoming global recession whch would lead to lower packages. However these fears came out to be largely unfounded and the placement figures reached new heights. However six months down the line, it seems that those fears are coming true. With even the big banks collapsing and being taken over, there have been huge job cuts. The finacial markets are down and this may lead to the smaller firms also shutting down. Cost Cutting and downsizing has become the buzzwords across all the sectors. Reports are coming daily of companies cutting jobs or being taken over.

And where does this leave the B-school jobs. During my two year stay at Planet-I, I never worried about not getting a job. And in fact got the exact kind of profile that I had been looking for. But given the current situation, this may not be the case now onwards. The market has to absorb the people who had their jobs cut and the batches passing out from the B-schools. And so the competition would be more while the jobs are getting reduced. The salary figures and packages are expected to go down and new profiles will have to be explored. And quite a few compromises would have to be made.

Situation definetely looks grim, with more and more rumors circulating (I was chatting with a friend who told me that he had heard from some knowledeable person that ICICI was about to go bankrupt due to its dealings with Lehmann). However it is not that bad speacially in India. The growth rat would be lower but still healthy and with the reduction in crude prices, inflation would also be coming under control. And quite a few people would be coming back to India, maybe a reverse brain drain will be take place.

All I can say is lets keep the fingers crossed and hope for the best.

P.S. A friend's post on similar lines is here

http://thedopetimes.blogspot.com/2008/09/career-advice-in-difficult-b-school.html

Another Week Ends

Another week ends and comes another Sunday. The one thing I really do not like about my current job is the 6 day week. Although I maintain strict office timings and havent had to put in too many extra hours on any week day, every Friday comes the bad feeling of missing one rest day. Every Friday, I see the "Weekend :)" status on various gtalk accounts, I still have another day in the office remaining. My week comes to an end late on Saturday evening. With the 6 day week there are many things left over to do on one Sunday. And things really have to be planned out well in advance. And given Mumbai's pathetic and unpredictable weather, plans generally have gone haywire.

After 6 office days comes a Sunday and it has a really lazy feeling about it. Like today morning. I woke up, saw that it was still raining and decided to get back in bed.Then realized that some thinga needed to be cleaned up. Clothes put in washing machine, room rearranged a bit and time for the computer to be put into action. Opened the same old set of webpages, orkut, gmail, facebook, yahoomail, cricinfo and google news. Read the stories of the bomb blasts in Delhi which are now happening with alarming regularity and some other stuff. Have been advised not to venture out too much after the blasts. But then who would want to in this weather. As I write this it is still raining. And being in Navi Mumbai, the places I can go to are the nearby four malls. And as my laptop speakers are not working, I think the best way to spend today would be to just go back to sleep.

Researches.....

It seems some people in this world have nothing to do. So they RESEARCH. As the word itself implies they re-search, search for something which has already been done before. And come to their own new conclusions about this world. Or maybe assume something to be true and then let the world know about it. There have been some quite some weird researches and findings in this regard. Here's another weird research which I found while surfing. According to it alcohol "helps" in remembering the "good times". Another so called benefit of alcohol.

"Researchers have found that people who drink are more likely to remember the good things and least likely to recall the bad things, say, the worst experiences of being drunk in a party as alcohol affects memory in a selective manner."

Here is the link to the full text http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/10alco.htm

The World of Comics

I have found a new world. Or to be more accurate have got renewed my acquaintance with a long lost world. The world of comic books. It was the early nineties when I had got hooked on reading comics. And my reading covered the entire range of the hindi comics available at that time. Whether it was the slightly kiddish collection from the Diamond Comics (Chacha Choudhary, Billu, Pinki.... )group or the slightly grown up version from the Raj Comics (Super Commando Dhruv, Nagraj, Bankelaal, Parmanu ..... )stable or the bit more grown up editions of Indrajaal comics (Phantom, Mandrake etc) I would eagerly read all of the them. Of all these my favourite was undoubtedly Super Commano Dhruv, whose most endearing feature was that he did not have any super human abilities and relied totally on his brain power to overpower his opponents. I eagerly awaited the release of new Dhruv comics, speciall the ones in which he comined with the other Raj Comics superheroes mainly Nagraj. My comics source was a local neighbourhood shop which gave out the comics on rent. In parallel I moved from Champak to Nandan to Suman Saurabh.

However as time passed, slowly this attraction towards comics passed as my reading habits changed. The major change was in the language. From Hindi I went on to English. First came the abridged classics, then moved on to Enid Blyton, later to Hardy Boys. As time passed, came authors like Agatha Christie, Desmod Bagley and Alistair Maclean. This was followed by a very lean period in which my reading dwindled. The novels were now few and far between picking pace at times and dropping off completely at others. Now it was mainly the modern writers like Michal Crichton, John Grisham, Jeffery Archer.

And then came J.K.Rowling. I give her total credit for arousing my interest in reading again. I awaited the Harry Potter books with the same eagerness like the way I used for the next Dhruv comics book. Only the waiting period here was much longer. To fill this time I started exploring other options, specially the works by Indian authors in English. In the meantime also read some of the Hindia classics. And now I have been reading up on everything that I can lay my sight on.

Some time back I found a website with the links available for all the Dhruv comics. It was like an entry point to the old times. Since then I have downloaded all the available releases. Re-read the old ones and caught up with all the action which I missed over the last few years. The comics have also changed and tried to keep up eith the modern times in their looks and appearance. But as they say "अब इनमे वो पुरानी बात नही रही". But who cares, I love downloading and reading them.

At present I like the following Nagayan series by Raj Comics , The Virgin Comics new entries, and the weekly comic strip Arbit Choudhary (http://www.arbitmba.com/).

Bihar (2)

This is in continuation with the previous post. The current situation in the state remains grim with the flood waters not expected to recede for some time. The relief operations are going on but are not in full swing. The breach in the embankment is being plugged but not much progress has been made. But the main issue of the human tragedy remains. People are still stranded without food and no drinking water.

Here is a link to an article which echoed my thoughts on the current and the general situation of Bihar.

http://www.ibnlive.com/cfs/blog/52668/2017

BIHAR

As the title suggests, this post is about my home state, Bihar. I am a proud Bihari and never have had to hide my state of origin to anyone. Although what there is to be proud of is a question to which I do not have any ready answer.

As I write this, over 2 million people have been rendered homeless due to the sudden floods in the Kosi river. The current occurence has been due to the sudden shift in the river's course due to the breaching of the embankment upstream in Nepal. The flood waters spread across the vast plains have caused large scale devastation with the worst probably still to come.

A natural disaster of this scale may or may not have been avoided. But the thing which really annoyed me is the almost complete lack of awareness of the situation amongst people outside Bihar. Here I am in Mumbai and I have heard no mention of the devastation amongst the people or even in newspapers. Only through the internet did I become aware of the magnitude of the situation.

This situation raises a pertinent question. Does India really care about Bihar? or has Bihar totally slipped out of the national conciousness? Bihar has become a by-word for lawlessness, and Biharis are the first ones to be targetted by the xenophobic politicians of every part of the country to raise their vote banks, be it in Maharastra or Assam. The question is why this state of affairs regarding Bihar. Maybe it is because of the politicians, always the first and easiest target.

Or is it because of the Biharis themselves, who have got so used to situation that they have stopped caring. We Biharis work hard. There are no doubts about it. But the hard work is for getting out of the state. Nobody wants to go back.

The state's infrastructure is in a mess. The education levels are amongst the lowest in the country. There is no industrial investment of any note in the state. Outsiders would not even think of going to Bihar. Whats the cause of all this? Does anybody have an answer?

The Joker and Game Theory

First of all, I must make this clear. I really liked the movie "The Dark Knight", specially Heath Ledger's potryal of the Joker. While surfing found an interting link connecting one of Joker's actions with the Game Theory. In one of the sequences, the Joker plants bombs on two ferries stranded in the middle of the river with their detonators on the other boat. There is no way to go out from the ferry and the people have half an hour time to take their decision, otherwise he would blow up both the ferries. A case similar to the Prisoner's Dilemma. The attached link connects this sequence to the Game Theory and Nash Equilibrium.

http://www.quantitativepeace.com/blog/2008/07/the-dark-knight.html