Monkey in the Machine

Hey Ho

2011-10-10T17:17:00.007-05:00

Seems a real friendly guy. Fancy striking up a conversation with him. Maybe make a crack about the really hot weather or something.

Was at Starbucks today and every time someone says 'chai-tea latte' it makes me cringe. It has to be pointed out that chai means tea in Hindi.

Have been watching some off-beat British comedies - Saxondale and Pulling. A little obscene/inappropriate but with funny authentic characters. What I like about British tv shows is that most stop after 2 or 3 seasons. Explore the characters and relationships, but put a stop while things are still fairly fresh. Unlike for e.g. Two and a Half Men which is on what it's ninth season and is still contriving a way to chug along even after it's main actor is no longer on the show. A few other off the beaten path shows I like are Californication, East Bound and Down, Louis C.K. and the League.

Aloha!

2011-08-28T02:22:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am still around. Life has been very very busy. Summer has been a blur. A blur. A bluurrr.

How are you doing?

She caught the Katy..

2011-06-20T21:30:00.004-05:00

She caught the Katy...and left me a mule to ride.

For some reason just can't get that song out of my head. Its such an awesome song though. Everyone should listen to it atleast once in their lives.

Happy Summer Folks!

2011-06-17T20:53:00.001-05:00

Yes, the moron is finally here. We had 55 F weather in the middle of June but that nonsense is finally gone. Gone gone gone.

Life has been ok. Busy at work. This and that and time flies on. On and on. On and on and on.

I think we need to come up with a good tongue twister employing the words weiner, wiener and whiner . Whiny Weiner's Wiener Whines When Weiner.....hmm...can't get a good ending. What's up with these politicos anyway? I think in some sense it's like skydiving or moutainclimbing. Some sort of rush from surviving the possible career/life endagering consequences of their actions. Not so cool if you make a wrong step and plunge 2000 ft. Ooopss.

Don't you love this guy?

2011-03-07T20:31:00.003-06:00

So much passion. So much emotion. Vive la revolution!

Awful

2010-12-18T21:03:00.009-06:00

Given its the holiday season, it is my duty to say something negative and put a damper on it. Yay!

So, this friend of mine has some acquaintances in the 'theater world', and he called me to the 'premiere' of this movie in a theater west of Lincoln Park. The theater turned out to be a 800 sq ft dump of a place near a McDonalds, and the movie turned out to be so bad that one is tempted to suppress free speech and mercilessly destroy such putrescence so that folks are saved from accidental brain damage.

It was initially just awful enough to make me erupt into muffled sniggers, but later it became so awful that as mentioned earlier I wished I was in a totalitarian regime where things such as this would have lead to some missing people and a movie that never happened.

What was the story? It is about this guy who is a psychiatrist during the day, but has this vague desire to clean out public toilets at night. He dresses as a dude to clean the men's johns and as a woman to clean out the women's jennys(?). In the loo he meets this guy who has a cleanliness obsession, and together they have fantasies about a giant cockroach. What this means in reality is that 60% of the movie is shot in the Metra Toilets a few blocks from where I work, and the cockroach is this dude in a motorcyle helmet with brown straws hanging out.

Not surprisingly, the psychiatrists day jobs involves counseling those who want to change their gender. One scene involves a fat white butt-ugly dude in a blond wig saying - "...ohh I feel so feminine. I want to leave my wife, kids and everything to be who I want to be.". Damn funny no? But no. Everyone is dead serious. Then this psychiatrist gives him advice - "Why not just cross-dress first before changing gender? Maybe you just like womens clothes?" Not sure why this scene had to part of the movie, but then another patient comes in.

Its a middle aged dude who advices his psychiatrist to try out some psychedelic pills that he snagged from a drug trial. What is the drug made of? Uranium. What?? Uranium? I wanted to ask - Uranium-235 or Uranium-238? Apparently popping a pill filled with Uranium gets you high because of all those electrons pelting your mind. No, you don't die due to radiation poisoning as your tissues get annihilated. Also, which doctor takes medication from a patient?

I know I just quoted some random disconnected scenes, because that's exactly what it was. The concept of a screenplay was completely alien to the director (apart from the alien cockroach that is). The movie ended (thank the Lord) with everyone popping Uranium pills and getting high. What was the point? Ingest Uranium? Wear a cockroach helmet? Cross-dress and clean public-transit toilets?

I was miffed I had to pay 15$ to watch this garbage. My initially thought was - expensive but a worthy contribution to promote art in Chicago. My art patron hallucination. Yes, hallucination it was because the directors and actors should be fined for making people watch this complete mockery of what a movie is.

Blogs that have ended

2010-09-20T17:57:00.002-05:00

I got into this blogging business a while back, and though I don't update very frequently I do sparingly sprinkle my blog with smatterings of my sparkling wit. Just happened to click through to many of the blogs I haven't visited in a while, and about 70% of them have for all practical purposes ended. Its interesting how almost no blog just stops abruptly. People feel the need to say something witty or solemn or sad or happy i.e. evoke a special feeling to mark the occasion. Why this human obsession with not being forgotten? Mausoleums, pyramids, named buildings, companies - all to stay remembered.

No I am not closing this blog (not that anyone cares). Its kind of fun to update occasionally and though there is not much personal information it does play the role of an online diary. Usually when I read an entry from back in the day, it does bring back memories from around that period of time. The power of association is probably the best way to encrypt something - out there for everyone to see but the personal meaning of fairly mundane things can never be replicated! Ha ha.

What else is up? Good summer. No complaints. Oh yeah did a road trip to Yellowstone. 3300 miles driven in 5 days. Fun stuff. Might update later with details.

Tiffany & Co

2010-08-27T12:23:00.018-05:00

Gross margin (gross profit as a percentage of net sales) increased to 57.8% in the second quarter, from 55.1% last year, partly reflecting the recapture of higher product costs through retail price increases, as well as manufacturing efficiencies and a decline in wholesale sales of rough diamonds. Gross margin was 57.8% in the first half, compared with 55.5% last year.

Wow. This does not even include the fact that the diamond market itself is one big cartel controlled by De Beers, the Russians and a couple of other players. There was an article in the NYTimes about the fall in diamond prices in '09 as demand collapsed. One of advisors to a diamond producer said the following :

How the buy-in price for the stones will be set, and how the company will determine when the price goes up and down, is unclear, Mr. Malinin said.

"We have to tell people that diamonds are valuable," he said. "We are trying to maintain the price, just as De Beers did, as all diamond producing countries do. But what we are doing is selling an illusion," meaning a product with no utility and a price that depends on the continued sense of scarcity where there is none.

Just like gold. The whole jewelry industry is one big marketing trick. I do not understand the human obsession from ancient times with 'precious' stones and gold.

Yo

2010-08-07T00:50:00.001-05:00

Yes, I said yo. Summer it is and life is good. No complaints. Really. Which might explain why I am not blogging prolificly.

Man this Bloomberg News

2010-05-23T20:56:00.004-05:00

Bloomberg News has a tendency to create these headlines by putting together a lot of keywords which individually make sense but all together don't. Keywords to make sure the article turns up in search engines. All said, this is ridiculous :

Strippers Declare Inflation Dead in Zero-Coupon Bond Revival

What?? Since when did the adult entertainment industry begin tracking implied future changes in broad price levels as reflected in the price of treasury bonds.

Now, on deeper investigation stripping refers to the practice of separating (or stripping) the interest and principal components of treasury bonds and marketing them separately. A financial analyst who does this stripping, would be well...a stripper.

European countries offer $41 billion to Greece

2010-04-11T17:28:00.003-05:00

Its like telling an alchoholic - "You know I feel really bad you have been sober for a week. Here kiddo. Here is a bottle of vodka, go have fun."

I think there is some sense in bailing out countries which are essentially solvent, but are going through a balance of payments crisis. Stabilize the currency enough for them to work through the crisis. The Asian countries in the late 90's. They all bounced back strongly.

Given the level of public debt, the budget deficit and rampant tax evasion, Greece has no viable mechanism to pay that money back. Another Argentina waiting to happen. Better to armtwist first and extract serious structural change before lending any money.

Opening lines...

2010-03-20T13:28:00.004-05:00

ANTONIO
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

..from "The Merchant of Venice". I studied it through high school, and know the opening lines almost by heart. As we progressed through the book, we were tested on the entire book up to the point where we had stopped. So, I ended up studying the first act for like 20 tests!

Doesn't it describe how I feel? Not sad but a weird feeling of malaise. See there is no legitimate reason for me to feel so. In the poker game of life, I have been dealt a fairly decent set of cards. Obviously, a sense of entitlement could still make me feel disappointed, but I claim no such title. Quite simply, people are strange.

In the grand tradition of humanity, I shall externalize my feelings. Its the crappy wet snow this weekend. Its the frustration of summer being around the corner, but not being there yet. Its getting up at 7 in the morning during the week, and having to do homework all weekend. Its the uncertainty about the future, not that anyone has been able to successfully divine the future. Its this. Its that. Its this and that.

Oh well

2010-03-05T12:47:00.002-06:00

"Signs of exuberance are everywhere. An investor in Shanghai recently bought 54 apartments in a single day; a villa sold for $30 million last year; and in December a consortium of developers paid more than $3.5 billion for a huge tract of land in Guangzhou, one of the highest prices paid for any property, anywhere. In the city of Tianjin, in north China, developers have created a $3 billion "floating city," a series of islands built on a natural reservoir, featuring villas, shopping malls, a water amusement park and what they say will be the world's largest indoor ski resort."

From today's New York Times. If my memory serves me right, the last place that built the world's largest ski ramp was...surprise..surprise...Dubai! The last place that built a "floating world" was...surprise..surprise...Dubai!

The eternal optimism of humanity. I read somewhere that the only ones who perceive odds realistically are the chronically depressed. However, without this optimism we wouldn't have airplanes or computers or space missions. See, we would rather try and fail than fail to try.

Did you know?

2010-02-27T16:47:00.003-06:00

Did you know that Mahatma Gandhi stayed in Bayswater, as a student in London? Did you also know that I lived in Bayswater, when I had to work in London? My hope is that the similarity between the two of us doesn't end there.

Silly statements aside, what I take away most from having started "My Experiments with Truth", is the story of redemption. From Babu to Bapu. From a shy insecure barrister to the leader of a nation. Interestingly, what endears us to any great historical figure, say Gautama Buddha or Jesus Christ, is this transcension beyond human frailty.

I think the success of Obama's electoral campaign was because he couched himself in subtly messanic terms. I mean, his autobiography was called "The Audacity of Hope". Humans are a sucker for hope. :) Of course, only time will tell if he is going to deliver on his message.

Topic change, and inappropriate joke (no offense meant to anyone) :

Why did the fashion show in the West Bank end with a bang?

There was suicide bomber.

(*You may now laugh*)

Price Stability

2010-02-24T16:10:00.002-06:00

The Big B (Ben Bernanke, of course) on price stability :

Price stability plays a dual role in modern central banking: It is both an end and a means of monetary policy.

As one of the Fed's mandated objectives, price stability itself is an end, or goal, of policy. Fundamentally, price stability preserves the integrity and purchasing power of the nation's money. When prices are stable, people can hold money for transactions and other purposes without having to worry that inflation will eat away at the real value of their money balances. Equally important, stable prices allow people to rely on the dollar as a measure of value when making long-term contracts, engaging in long-term planning, or borrowing or lending for long periods. As economist Martin Feldstein has frequently pointed out, price stability also permits tax laws, accounting rules, and the like to be expressed in dollar terms without being subject to distortions arising from fluctuations in the value of money.³ Economists like to argue that money belongs in the same class as the wheel and the inclined plane among ancient inventions of great social utility. Price stability allows that invention to work with minimal friction.

Let me elaborate briefly on the relationship between price stability and the other two goals of monetary policy. First, price stability promotes efficiency and long-term growth by providing a monetary and financial environment in which economic decisions can be made and markets can operate without concern about unpredictable fluctuations in the purchasing power of money. As I have already noted, the dollar provides a reasonably secure gauge of real economic values only when inflation is low and stable. High and variable inflation degrades the quality of the signals coming from the price system, as producers and consumers find it difficult to distinguish price changes arising from changes in product supplies and demands from changes arising from general inflation. Because prices constitute a market economy's fundamental means of conveying information, the increased noise associated with high inflation erodes the effectiveness of the market system. High inflation also complicates long-term economic planning, creating incentives for households and firms to shorten their horizons and to spend resources in managing inflation risk rather than focusing on the most productive activities.

More recently, the evidence has mounted not only that low and stable inflation is beneficial for growth and employment in the long-term but also that it contributes importantly to greater stability of output and employment in the short to medium term. Specifically, during the past twenty years or so, in the United States and other industrial countries the volatility of both inflation and output have significantly decreased--a phenomenon known to economists as the Great Moderation (Bernanke, 2004). This finding challenges some conventional economic views, according to which greater stability of inflation can be achieved only by allowing greater fluctuations in output and employment. The key to explaining why price stability promotes stability in both output and employment is the realization that, when inflation itself is well-controlled, then the public's expectations of inflation will also be low and stable. In a virtuous circle, stable inflation expectations help the central bank to keep inflation low even as it retains substantial freedom to respond to disturbances to the broader economy.

Given the spectacular (and going to be even more spectacular) debt levels of most western nations, it would be interesting to see how things turn out over the next few years. Paraphrasing Hamlet, to print, or not to print, that is the question.

Whats with the strikes?

2010-02-21T20:41:00.003-06:00

Lufthansa employees on strike. British Airways employees on strike. Greek unions strike after government freezes pay. Boeing employees strike after threats of job cuts. Strike and what? Decrease profits even more?

Don't they know that all it will do is lead to even bigger layoffs down the road e.g. GM/Chrysler/Ford? Profitability issues slowly morph into spectacular losses and bankruptcy (or near bankruptcy as in the case of Ford.). Maybe apart from Greece, most of these countries have pretty good labor laws which really obviates the need for unions. Unions end up behaving like a cartel, basically holding the company hostage to extract a disproportionate share of economic output.

Speaking of strikes. Lets talk about a strike out. Whats with the fun crap shoot in Iraq, when it is turning out to be that the nukes are in Iran after all? All Saddam did was build big palaces, abuse the football team for losing matches and defile historical sites by having his name inscribed on every brick. It saddens me though. Countries like Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan were at the forefront of art and culture for 3000 years. Why are they in such a mess now? At least India and China are coming back after a century or two of colonial dacoity.

Ridonculous

2010-02-17T23:52:00.006-06:00

US college graduation rates by state. By not completing college, one loses the 50% boost to lifetime income. Its also a waste of state resources to have an institution where over half the students don't even graduate. (Click on the picture for more detail.)

Amusingly, only 22.4% percent of students in Alaska complete college. Hmm. Gets one thinking.

Bloomberg Headline

2010-02-14T18:17:00.003-06:00

"Allied Rockets Kill 12 Civilians in Afghan Fighting; McChrystal Apologizes"

A single murder leads to jail, but a mass killing leads to a sincere apology. Oh well.

What is..

2010-02-09T22:02:00.020-06:00

the similarity between these two songs?

- Gold Digger by Kanye West

and the R&B classic

- I got a woman by Ray Charles

Answer (highlight to see the text): The hook for the first song is lifted straight out of the second. Amusingly, Ray Charles sings about a woman who "gives me money when I am in need, a friend indeed", while Mr. Kanye refers to those who prefer to take rather than give. "Gives me money" becomes "takes my money". "Friend indeed" becomes "trifling friend indeed". Tsk tsk Kanye. Ray Charles was blind for much of his life, and lost his parents as a teenager. So, Kanye do you really need to complain about women you take all your money?

Red Earth and Pouring Rain

2010-01-30T15:10:00.003-06:00

What could my mother be
to yours? What kin is my father
to yours anyway? And how
did you and I meet ever?
But in love our hearts are as red
earth and pouring rain:
mingled
beyond parting.
- Cempulappeyanirar

Its a translation of a poem from Karunkotai, a 2nd century collection of Tamil Sangam poetry. Interestingly, I read a book by Vikram Chandra called "Red Earth and Pouring Rain", which quotes these as its opening lines. Just happened to come across the verse again.

Another one I liked -

Only the dim witted says its evening
when the sun goes down
and the sky reddens,
when misery deepens,
and the mullai begins to bloom,
in the dusk.
But even when the tufted cock,
calls in the long city,
and the long night
breaks into dawn,
it is evening:
even noon
is evening,
to the companionless.
- Milaipperun Kantan

A couple of nice ones from a 7th century collection of Sanskrit poetry by Bhartrihari. Yes, most of the poetic structure has most likely been mangled in translation.

For one short act, a child; next act a boy
In love; then poor; a short act to enjoy
Status and wealth; till in the last act, Man,
Painted with wrinkles, body bent with age,
Ending the comedy which birth began,
Withdraws behind the curtain of life's stage.
---
A man lives long who lives a hundred years:
Yet half is sleep, and half the rest again
Old age and childhood. For the rest, a man
Lives close companion to disease and tears,
Losing his love, working for other men.
Where can joy find a space in this short span?
---
In former days we'd both agree
That you were me, and I was you.
What has happened now to us two,
That you are you, and I am me?
---
Her face is not the moon, nor are her eyes
Twin lotuses, nor are her arms pure gold:
She's flesh and bone. What lies the poets told!
Ah, but we love her, we believe the lies.
---
The ignorant are quickly satisfied,
And argument will soon convince the wise;
But Heaven's own wisdom scarcely will suffice
To contradict a half-baked scholar's pride.

Not bad eh?!

Gita and Oppenheimer

2010-01-24T14:20:00.002-06:00

We all know of the of the famous Robert Oppenheimer when the first atomic bomb was exploded.

If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

Obviously, there is a connection with the mechanics of an atomic bomb, and the destruction it leaves in its wake.

However, I think there is a deeper significance to the quote. In the epic Mahabharata, the Bhagvad Gita comes right before the battle as Arjuna, his charioteer Krishna and the Pandavas, face their cousins the Kauravas in battle. Arjuna has serious misgivings about the war - whats the point destroying one's own kith and kin for a kingdom? Of what value is a kingdom obtained by such means? Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, talks to him about the value of karma (or duty) and not getting swayed by attachments.

Oppenheimer, not being psychotic like Adolph Hitler, possibly had serious misgivings about the work he was doing. He in some ways felt like Arjuna, as he (rightly) felt that the result of his work could lead to untold death and destruction for years to come. Like Arjuna, he did his duty as a scientist.

Book Of The Month (BOTM)

2009-12-12T20:26:00.004-06:00

Back in the 30's and 40's, the dance you did to 'swinging' jazz and big band music was the Lindy Hop. Jazz of course was the precursor to many of the musical forms that developed in the 70 years since.

Frankie Manning was born in the South but was part of the great migration, and settled down in Harlem in the 20's. He used to hang around and dance at the ballrooms there, which were the home to Count Base, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and pretty much every major African-American musician of that era. He sets off on a showbiz career though it takes a pause in the 40's as America goes to war. He fights in the Pacific, and when he returns to the US he sees the popularity of swing music decrease as other forms become more popular. He then takes up a job in a post office in Manhattan and works there for 30 years. All of a sudden, in the 1980's swing has a revival, and guess what he becomes one of the primary figures in it. He died a couple of months back at the young age of 95.

'Frankie Manning : Ambassador of Lindy Hop', is a wonderful autobiography. It feels almost like an history of blacks in 20th century America. Always cheerful and upbeat, despite all the racial bigotry he had to face early on in his life. If you enjoy a good story, you will enjoy this.

PS: If you are planning to read the Twilight series or Dan Brown, please consider reading this instead. :)

This and that

2009-11-28T16:33:00.003-06:00

Has anyone read Nikolai Gogol? His short stories are phenomenal. Reminds one of Franz Kafka. Weird perspectives and surreal storylines, though Gogol is funny and Kafka depressing. It isn't surprising that they were more than a little nutty in real life!

Isn't the Blues awesome? Went to this event called Bluetopia, it was in a studio in the middle of nowhere (warehouse district in West Chicago, where you go to get robbed), but the music - intoxicating.

Holiday shopping. Nothing for me. 70% off still means you are paying the remaining 30%. Heh.

Why do people develop a patina of superciliousness? In some ways everyone wants to feel important, and this is a mechanism to assert that I suppose. See it in specific sections of the populace. In this Facebook for yuppies called ASW, which is so selective that you can join only by invitation from specific privileged members. Having finagled an invitation, the only 'benefit' from membership is that I get a weekly stream of emails trying to sell me overpriced watches and vacations. Another section is the newly anointed NYC/London set, who see themselves as the 'nouveau sophisticates' from their theatre/art/music soaked lives. Pah to the bumpkins.

DXB

2009-11-27T15:41:00.005-06:00

Dubai, the Land of Dreams, goes up in smoke. (Photo courtesy : AP)

Oops! Somebody gonna get a hurt!

Beats

2009-11-22T22:31:00.003-06:00

Do you know why Indian and Western music sound so different? You can instantaneously tell the difference, even if the instrument is the same. I could not nail it down to an exact reason, but I can now. Its the beat. Western music almost always runs on an 8-count beat cycle. Indian music is polyrythmic, which gives it the longer meandering sound. Sometimes 'phrases' are much much longer. Now you know.

Money, Models, and Marginal Cost

2009-11-22T19:51:00.005-06:00

National Geographic has a 12 month subscription plan for 15$. Isn't that a deal or what? Why are they doing it? Lets see. We all know that newspaper circulation is on an inexorable ride down, except if you are a gossip mag like US Weekly or People. Anyway, as a magazine is confronted with declining circulation, it is going to see lower sales revenues as well as less advertising revenue as advertisers have more incentive to leave. One way to stem the circulation decline is to cut prices. Even if you keep circulation up by selling at cost, it has a nett positive benefit because you have higher advertising revenue. One could actually sell extra copies at a loss, if that additional circulation leads to sufficiently higher advertising revenue. Which is the business model for your commuter free papers like Red Eye (Chicago) or Metro (London). The online model is essentially the same thing, where content is free in order to attract viewership, and then advertising is where you try to make some money.

Coming back to my original point, 15$ sounds like a steal. $ 1.25 for an issue filled with gorgeous photos and beautiful essays on the wonders of this world. I can live with that. Hail Economics! Those who are about to get a deal salute thee! Ha ha.

Lakshmi and Saraswati

2009-11-14T20:13:00.007-06:00

Growing up, my grandfather's little puja stand had two large prints of Lakshmi and Saraswati. I found them hauntingly beautiful, something about them I couldn't exactly pin down. Combine that with the smell of incense and freshly made dosa (the stand was in the kitchen), the cool morning, and my grandfather coming from his bath smelling of Hamam soap - it makes for a very fond childhood memory. Recently I found those same prints online.

It turned out that they were by Raja Ravi Verma. I wonder if art inspires religion or religion inspires art. I would think art inspires religion, though over the millenia, from the Egyptian Pyramids to the cathedrals of Europe to the paintings at Ajanta, religion has definitely been a topic of interest.

Bing

2009-10-21T17:56:00.001-05:00

Microsoft has done a good job with Bing. Like the part where in the new IE you can highlight a word, right click and kick off a Bing search on a new tab. Nice presentation of results. Note that by supporting Microsoft you are supporting AIDs workers in Africa, as a decent chunk of the company's shares belong to a charity. Don't know why Microsoft doesn't play that up more?

Also, by purchasing insurance from Geico, you do the same because about half of Berkshire is also held by the same charity. Let the overpriced "Earth" water from Starbucks go to hell. Give the capitalist way.

Pros and Cons of Fall/Winter

2009-10-01T20:40:00.001-05:00

Cons

- Greatly reduced tennis. Sustained indoor tennis would require a monthly budget of 200+$.

- Switch to daylight saving time, and it starts becoming dark at 4pm.

- 2500 layers of clothing and day after day of mind numbing cold (its winter, duh!).

- Football season begins. Its all that everyone watches and talks about. Whats the fascination with 300 pound men running into each other at full throttle? Seems to be some modern day version of the Roman Coliseum where gladiators beat each other senseless.

- Around Christmas time every restaurant and shop starts playing the same Frank Sinatra Christmas CD and trust me, it gets to you after a while.

Pros

- Sitcom season begins. Family Guy. American Dad. 30 Rock. Parks and Recreation. Some good new ones too - Modern Family and Community.

- Holiday time! Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year....

- Skiing ?! Its super fun but need to get head count (not body count.).

- Improv season might begin if I decide to start classes again. Or, is it going to be Lindy in the Windy City?

- Chicago starts looking like a scene from the Batman movie, which is not particularly surprising as Batman Returns was shot here.

Best Latin Food in Chicago

2009-09-25T19:08:00.003-05:00

is in Irving Park. Where Mexican is different from Peruvian which is different from Colombian which is different from Cuban which is different from Chilean which is different from....and you can stuff your face for under 10 bucks.

On Turnarounds

2009-08-24T16:26:00.003-05:00

We have written in past reports about the disappointments that usually result from purchase and operation of "turnaround" businesses. Literally hundreds of turnaround possibilities in dozens of industries have been described to us over the years and, either as participants or as observers, we have tracked performance against expectations. Our conclusion is that, with few exceptions, when a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

Chrysler, Sears, Readers Digest....larger economic and competitive issues dominate management skill. Humans, they get so deluded about what they can control.

Berkshire Hathaway, Chairman's Letter - 1979

2009-08-21T18:00:00.001-05:00

Overall, we opt for Polonius (slightly restated): "Neither a short-term borrower nor a long-term lender be."

Fairly accurate statement I might say.

Coincidences

2009-08-12T19:01:00.002-05:00

I think life is random. While events can be scheduled/predicted in the short term, long term control is largely illusional. Also, specific sets of highly correlated events which can take up a lot of your time and energy, and contribute a lot to your happiness are driven by coincidences. I know what you are thinking. Exactly.

3 weeks back we were having a discussion at work about disguised ethnicities and I brought up that Freddie Mercury was actually Farrokh Bulsara, a Parsi from Mumbai (George Michael is Greek btw). Then a week later I was at a coffee shop which for some reason played 2 hours of Queen straight. Then, I left that coffee shop and went to get a sandwich at Jimmy Johns, which for some reason was playing Queen as well. The right song at the right time - you have no idea what that can do to you. I have been obsessively listening to Queen songs since, and by default the opening riff from "Under Pressure" (copied by Vanilla Ice to make Ice Ice Baby) makes its rounds in my head.

A lovely dream

2009-08-09T00:15:00.005-05:00

Silently crossing the ocean of death,
You come as a lovely dream,
My tears call for you hour by hour;
Wandering everywhere, everywhere repulsed,
I was sealed in this dark dream of this life;
Now you have come as a lovely dream.

Now I see darkness pour down like dark hair,
In its folds gleam the jewels of the evening stars,
Now the sky fills with the pain of song,
And trembles with the hum of crickets underfoot.
You worship with incense from the trembling forest -
Now you have come as a lovely dream.

from "The Housewarming", Rabindranath Tagore

I wish I could read it in the original Bengali, but one does what one can.

Warren Buffet Shareholder's Letter from 1978

2009-08-07T17:20:00.001-05:00

"We make no attempt to predict how security markets will behave; successfully forecasting short term stock price movements is something we think neither we nor anyone else can do. In the longer run, however, we feel that many of our major equity holdings are going to be worth considerably more money than we paid, and that investment gains will add significantly to the operating returns of the insurance group."

Turned out to be a fairly accurate forward looking statement.

Names Again

2009-08-07T16:59:00.004-05:00

Names of the sandwiches at work :

Ice Man
Spider Man
He Man
Super Man

"Super Man" was my veggie sandwich, and it tasted like a wet sock. I just have to re-iterate my previous statement about names being indicate of content. Alternate names:

Rubber Sole
Wooden Sole
Wet Rubber Sole
Wet Sock

Now thats more like it. Creative and informative.

Whats with the names?

2009-07-31T11:22:00.003-05:00

Names of the salads at work today :

As the World Turns
Days of Our Lives
Bold and the Beautiful
Guiding Light

I somehow believe that names for food should be indicative of content. It would be even better if names for people were also indicative of content. For example, the name Phoolan Devi conjures up the image of a goddess ambling amidst flowers (Phool = flowers, Devi = goddess), when in fact she was a dacoit with a rather nasty record of armed robbery.

A picture speaks a thousand words...

2009-07-30T18:13:00.003-05:00

..but a few words can also paint quite a picture.

"After the cessation of rain, which had begun in the morning, all the foliage, the sky and the breeze were like eylashes still wet after weeping. "

from Boshtami, Rabindranath Tagore

Announcement

2009-07-19T21:17:00.000-05:00

Summer is half over. Don't panic but do something about it. You know life is flashing by you when you have vague recollections of what you did in previous summers, but have no clue which year it was.

Chicago Blues Festival

2009-06-21T20:21:00.012-05:00

The crowd. The festival was in Grant Park.

The main stage. The building right behind the stage is the Sears Tower.

One of the substages.

Lou Pride.

Oh that blues guitar!

So much anger and bad grammar!

Peru

2009-06-02T22:19:00.003-05:00

Chicago (Thursday, May 21st) ->

Miami (May 21st) ->

Lima (Friday, May 22nd) ->

Cuzco (May 22nd) ->

Tinki (Sunday, May 24th) ->

Around Ausungate with Colque Cruz (Silver Cross) and Jatunpampa (Large plain) looking on (May 24th - May 28th) ->

Cuzco (Thursday, May 28th) ->

Olaytambo (Friday, May 29th) ->

Aguas Caliente (Hot Water!) (May 29th) ->

Machu Pichu (May 29th) ->

Aguas Caliente (May 29th) ->

Olaytambo (Saturday, May 30th) ->

Cuzco (May 30th) ->

Lima (May 30th) ->

Miami (Monday, Jun 1st)->

Chicago (Jun 1st)

Machu Pichu was impressive but not worth the hassle getting there and the gazillion tourists. Might be better in the off-season (November-March).

Cuzco is a town of 500,000 at an altitude of 3400m. The Andes in Peru reminds me of Sikkim (Nepal and Tibet possibly too, though I haven't been to either of the places). The altitude and latitude lead to comparable fauna/vegetation leading people to take to similar adaptations.

La Grenouille

2009-05-10T20:10:00.004-05:00

The current sentiment is that the recession is over. Good times are back again. Back to being healthy, wealthy and wise (economy wise). Party like its two thousand and six.

But, The Economist begs to differ, a choice quote -
The danger is that sentiment has flickered higher rather as a dissected
frog’s leg will twitch when an electric current is applied.
It may or may not be an accurate analogy, but it sure is colourfull.

Thieving

2009-05-03T19:34:00.004-05:00

For a good example of how a CEO and board steal from a company, read Chesapeake Energy's proxy statement.

Some choice excerpts:

Executive Officer Compensation :
Messrs. McClendon, Rowland and Dixon are responsible for analyzing, developing and recommending base salary adjustments, cash bonuses and restricted stock awards with respect to the executive officers, including themselves, for review, discussion and approval by the Compensation Committee at its regularly scheduled meetings in June and December of each year.

The CEO McClendon gets to decide how much he pays himself. I am sure he is extremely fair in deciding how deserving he is.

Non-employee director compensation currently consists of (i) an annual retainer of $55,000, payable in quarterly installments of $13,750; (ii) $15,000 and $3,500 payable for each board meeting attended in person and telephonically, respectively, not to exceed $110,000 per year for board meetings attended; and (iii) an annual grant of 12,500 shares of restricted stock, 25% of which vests immediately upon award and the remaining 75% of which vests ratably over the three years following the date of award. The annual grant of restricted stock is made from our Long Term Incentive Plan (see page 7, “Voting Item 3—Proposal to Amend Long Term Incentive Plan”) on the first business day in July of each year. No additional compensation is paid to directors for participating on or chairing a Board committee.
Under the Company’s 2003 Stock Award Plan for Non-Employee Directors, 10,000 shares of our common stock are awarded to each newly appointed non-employee director on his or her first day of service.
Under the Company’s policy regarding the use of fractionally-owned company aircraft, our directors are provided access to fractionally-owned company aircraft for travel to and from Board meetings. For Board meetings and other Company activities at which the attendance of a director’s spouse and immediate family members are also requested by the Company, we make tax gross-up payments to the director associated with the taxable compensation attributable to the spouse/family member travel. In addition, each non-employee director is entitled to personal use of fractionally-owned company aircraft seating eight passengers or fewer for up to 40 hours of flight time per calendar year in North America, the Caribbean and Mexico.

Given the stock price has been between $ 20 and $ 80, each director gets between $ 250,000 to $ 1mm a year, as well as a 'sign on' bonus of $ 200,000 to $ 800,000. As a director, you can pop down to the Caribbean with your family on a fractionally owned NetJet and have Chesapeake Energy foot the bill.

Richard K. Davidson - $ 739,673
V. Burns Hargis - $ 479,557
Frank Keating - $ 762,858
Breene M. Kerr - $ 784,687
Charles T. Maxwell - $ 620,526
Merrill A. Miller, Jr. - $ 542,024
Don Nickles - $ 753,379
Frederick B. Whittemore — $ 673,421

Each of the directors made close to a million dollars a in 2008 year just sitting on the company's board. The share price went from 40$ in the beginning of 2008 to 17 $ in the end of 2008. The average shareholder lost close to 58%. So much for alignment of management and shareholder interests.

Because of Mr. McClendon’s unique role as co-founder of the Company, he is the only executive officer with the opportunity to participate as a working interest owner in the natural gas and oil wells that the Company drills.
Special Incentive Compensation.
On December 31, 2008, the Company entered into a new five-year employment agreement with Mr. McClendon. The agreement recognized his leadership role in completing the four transactions in 2008 (discussed above under “2008 in Review” and detailed below) that were exceptionally advantageous to the Company and its shareholders, further aligned his long-term financial interests with those of the Company and its shareholders and obtained his long-term commitment to remain in his position as CEO. In addition to the cap on cash salary and bonus compensation described above, Mr. McClendon’s employment agreement includes the following provisions:
A one-time $75 million well cost incentive award that, after reduction by state and federal withholding taxes, was structured as a net credit against future billings from the Company for well costs owed by Mr. McClendon under the FWPP, with a five-year clawback;
A five-year employment commitment by Mr. McClendon;
An extension of the non-competition period with respect to certain
terminations by the Company; and
A reduced stock holding requirement
during 2009.

Mr. McClendon has given himself the opportunity to co-invest in company projects, and then have the company buy out his interest for lots of money. In this case $ 75 mm. This is in addition to the $ 1mm base salary and $ 15 mm bonus for non-performance.

In December 2008, the Company purchased an extensive collection of historical maps of the American Southwest from Mr. McClendon for $12.1 million, which represented his cost. A dealer who had assisted Mr. McClendon in acquiring this collection over a period of six years advised the Company that the replacement value of the collection in December 2008 exceeded the purchase price by more than $8 million.
In 2008, the Company became a founding sponsor of the Oklahoma City Thunder, a National Basketball Association franchise owned and operated by The Professional Basketball Club, LLC (“PBC”). Mr. McClendon has a 19.2% equity interest in and is a non-management member of the PBC. The Company paid $3,495,525 in 2008 and $1,165,175 in 2009 pursuant to its sponsorship agreement for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2008-2009 season.

Shocking to say the least. A public company being treated like your personal bank account. Didn't Enron, Worldcom and Tyco teach anyone anything? Why do shareholders put up with crap like this. The fruits of what is a nice business are being reaped disproportionately by those running it.

Mama's Boys

2009-04-04T12:57:00.002-05:00

NYTimes, April 4th 2009

The veneration of the mother in India has a long history, rooted in part in
Hinduism’s powerful female gods. [Ok] The country is often referred to as Mother
India. [Agree] Nearly every Bollywood movie features a strong mother character in a
leading role. [Not exactly but vaguely plausible] And one of India’s largest suppliers of milk and cheese is Mother Dairy. [What!!]

Helicopter Ben Bernanke

2009-03-29T13:38:00.005-05:00

Did you know that his stated intent to drop some money by helicopter is actually a reference to an essay by Milton Friedman, where he explains the relationship between an increase in money supply and inflation? (Chapter 2 : "Mystery of Money", Money Mischief, Pg. 29)

That chapter is the best short description of monetary policy ever. At least, its the only one I have understood. It sheds a lot of light on the recent actions of the Federal Reserve and Treasury.

Recent economic events can be summarized as follows :

- Economic shocks to the system have reduced the supply of credit (bankrupt banks), demand (What if I lose my job tomorrow, I need to save!!) and increased preference to hold cash.

- As demand reduces , producers start losing money and react by cutting prices, reducing production and reducing jobs.

- Since debt is in $ terms, the real cost of debt goes up.

- This sets up a vicious cycle. Job losses reduces demand even more, and that spurs even higher job losses and more bankruptcies.

What can the Federal Reserve do about this ?

- Flood the system with cash.

- In "normal" conditions this cash is more than what typically people like to hold, so they spend it. This increases demand, leads to higher prices which then would reduce demand, and in aggregate you are back to where to you started, except that everything costs more. The real value of a previous debt goes down proportionally.

- In "worst case" conditions this cash is not spent but held in entirety as everyone is shell shocked. Absolutely nothing changes, and we continue to deflate.

- The Fed is hoping for something in between, where some fraction of the additional cash finds its way into the system, leading to demand coming back, prices going up and the real value of debt going down - reflation essentially.

- Once confidence has come back, try to pull out some of that cash so that inflation does not go out of hand. One problem with doing that is the size of US household and government debt, and overall fiscal and trade deficits. Though China and Japan would be very unhappy, inflating away a moderate fraction of it is key. They shouldn't actually be so unhappy, because in the other scenario they wouldn't get a cent, as the US will be bankrupt baby. I am not exactly sure how they can take possession :).

PS: This speech by Ben Bernanke, as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System, almost exactly explains the rationale for many of the current Fed actions.

The Key

2009-03-15T19:47:00.003-05:00

The key to humor is uncertainty, surprise and absurdity. Amplify, heighten, exaggerate and lampoon the strange situations that life is filled with. Its all about looking at life from a novel and different viewpoint. The "garden path"- you are led into a situation expecting one reality to unfold but you are hit by another. All the stuff that makes you nervous in real life, makes you laugh if done on the stage.

Idiot!

2009-03-09T19:56:00.004-05:00

I am an idiot. I think the biggest contributor to mistakes is not incompetency but hubris. Believing you are right doesn't count anywhere except in religion. What counts is systematic effort and analysis, and infinite scepticism. Assuming you know something is infinitely worse than admitting you know nothing.

Random Culture Vulture (Sepulcher) Observations

2009-03-07T23:11:00.008-06:00

My favorite few paragraphs in all of literature must be Tom Sawyer getting Ben Rogers and a bunch of others to whitewash his fence.

I saw this play "Strange Interlude" by Eugene O'Neill. It must be the strangest play I have ever seen. It has 9 acts and goes on for 5 and a half hours. We started at 2pm, had a dinner break at 5pm and the play finally finished at 9pm. The basic premise is that life is lived in the past and the future, and the present is but a strange interlude. Also, what is the "right" thing to do may not be the "moral" thing to do. Very dark with characters that launch into inner monologue soliloquys every once in a while. Leave the play with the feeling of having been privy to a crazy neurotics mind. Its like Freud + Jung with a background of hideous screams.

What did the comic say about his life?

Life is a stage, but mine is a joke.

By the way, if you are ever looking to write good comedy use 30 Rock, Arrested Development and The Office as templates. Its all about developing wacky interesting characters, letting them interact with each other and allowing the magic to be made! The Ha ha one liners are for the escapists who don't want to do the real thing. Its a gourmet meal compared to a McDonalds hamburger.

Art Institute

2009-02-16T20:51:00.006-06:00

Firstly, and most importantly its free for the month of February!
New and improved impressionist galleries. Fortunately, most of the modern mumbo jumbo paintings have been carted off to the yet unopened Modern Wing. Unfortunately, that includes the Picassos and Dalis.
One huge gallery of art from the Indian sub-continent.
The Munch exhibition. Doesn't that make you want to Scream? (Get it? Get it? 'Scream' is Munch's most famous painting. Get it? Get it?)
Daily museum tours at 2pm on weekends. Did you know that this painting by Toulouse Lautrec (left) and this painting by Renoir (right) are both at the Circus Fernando? Now you do. Use that information wisely next time you want to impress someone at a museum.

Generalissimo

2009-02-12T22:13:00.005-06:00

Did anyone see the investment banker dig in the new 30 Rock episode? Ha ha very funny. They have the show nailed. Good comedy is like a great meal, a beautiful painting or an exquisite narrative - entrancing but you just can't figure out how it was done.

Never bothered...

2009-01-27T11:32:00.007-06:00

..to listen to Coldplay and Maroon 5, until now that is. Love the sound.

Like Maroon 5 a little bit more though. Coldplay sounds too much like U2 at their melodic best (e.g. Angel of Harlem) - in terms of vocals, lead guitar, drums and overall song structure.

Benefits of a vacation, slow internet and being forced to listen to the hard disk music collection.

2 weeks off

2009-01-25T23:30:00.005-06:00

In Chennai, away from the warkpalce for doo weaks. Wayy too much Counterstrike. I mentally note down vantage points as I walk down a street, and stay away from open places.

Saarang. Shobana in a creative rendition of the Ramayana entitled Maya Ravana. Opeth, the Swedish death metal band rocked us into Republic Day. A good way to save costs in this tight economy would be to purchase a pig, tie to a board, stick in front of a mike, and then torture assortedly, to obtain the music generated by the aforementioned human forms.

Knock knock who is there?
Me.
You who?
DMV the Death Metal Virtuoso.
Who?
Bahhhrrgggwwwwaaarrgghhhhharrghhhhaarr
Ahh, DMV. Do come in.
Thanks.

American Dad

2009-01-11T21:37:00.003-06:00

Has anyone seen that show? Seth McFarlane has it nailed down. The main protagonist Stan Smith is the extreme right wing alter-ego of Peter Griffin in Family Guy. Many of the characters are also similarly set up - hyper dad, relatively passive and sane wife, talking animals and 2 kids (one guy one girl). All in all, they form a vehicle for some extremely witty social commentary.

Guess the book!

2009-01-05T22:39:00.002-06:00

Nous acheterons de bien belles choses
En nous promenant le long des faubourgs

Les bleuets sont bleus, les roses sont roses,
Les bleuets sont bleus, j'aime mes amours.

We'll buy some lovely things
Walking down the avenue.

Violets are blue, and roses are red,
Violets are blue, and my love is true.

Hint : Eugene Delacroix meets Liberty in a book.

Greed

2008-12-14T01:20:00.006-06:00

Life is all about greed. Greed for money. Greed for status. Greed for power. Greed for recognition. Greed for love. Greed greed greed. More more more more. I am the king. I am the lord of all I see. I am the master of this universe. The ego becomes larger and larger till it sees nothing but itself. Ultimately it destroys it's creator. It also destroys everyone around it.

It is shocking that the biggest frauds are perpetrated by those who have no need for any of that money.

Lack of confidence

2008-11-09T22:42:00.007-06:00

Suggestions to deal with waning confidence in the financial industry.

Finance needs a facelift. A little bit of a nip and a teeny tiny bit of a tuck. Hide some of that oversize nose (very pointy, very long not so very honest ding dong), crinkly wrinkles, saggy forearms, knocky knees, empty chest, drooping shoulders and huge cancerous mole right in the middle of the forehead. A little bit of powder and strategic dusting will do. If it drops dead before the operation is done, we might need a few strings and some paper clips to fix the smile and keep the body parts moving. Nothing feels better than a job well done.

Alternatively, investing can be converted into the mystical spirituality industry. By doing this all expectations of a profit are replaced by warm fuzzy feelings, which is what life is really about. Collateralized Loans can be renamed 'Joy' and Foreclosed Houses can be renamed 'Happiness'. And we all know that one can never put a price on happiness. Banks and investing houses should have scented candles, and suits should be replaced with Mighty Mystic Garments. Deep resonating music should float solemnly down the hallways and the trading floors should be replaced with large cushions, deep carpets and dim focused lighting, all in dark earthy hues full of love, compassion, companionship, caring and sacrifice. Analysts should call themselves 'Sishya' (disciple), VPs 'Guru' and Directors 'Maha-Guru' (great guru). Profits and losses should be replaced by happiness gained and joy restored. Mark-to-market accounting should be abolished as happiness can never be measured, true joy is immeasurable and all encompassing. Continuing on the theme of true joy, in addition to getting ourselves a bit of 'Joy' and 'Happiness', we should contribute freely to the Gurukul (spiritual house), in the form of 'Guru Dakshina' (spiritual offerings), because life is all Maya (the girl), Mayfair (the place) and Maybach (the car).

The Case of the Reverse B

2008-10-31T19:20:00.008-05:00

Many of you might have heard of 'The Case of the Reverse B'.

Pittsburgh police say a McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack.
Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division, says 20-year-old Ashley Todd is being charged with making a false report to police.
Todd, of College Station, Texas, initially said a black man robbed her at knifepoint Wednesday night and then cut her cheek after seeing a McCain sticker on her car.

Yet another attempt to incite racial tensions based on the commonly held belief that black men make a hobby of molesting white women. What is most amusing in such racial stereotypes is the hypocrisy embedded in them. Reality is the diagonal opposite, and such stereotypes are a means to justify this reality. First there was slavery. Eventually after much pain the blacks found freedom but found themselves completely disenfranchised.

A popular mechanism of disenfranchisement was by poll tax, where a fixed sum needed to be paid for the right to vote. This tax essentially excludes poorer sections of the population. Many of the Southern States employed this technique. It was successfully copied in South Africa as well.

As a result blacks had no political, economic or social leverage whatsoever. Organizations like the Klu Klux Klan routinely lynched them at the slightest lack of subservience. Lack of opportunity lead to poverty, poverty lead to increased crime rates and drug use, and this vicious cycle has in some sense continued to this day.

If one watches a typical Western, one cannot miss the guy with the leather skins and feathers in his head - the American-Indian. He is usually portrayed to be wild, out of control, marauding the nearest gentile town and spreading terror among is denizens. Though there could have been some historical tensions between the two communities, reality couldn't be farther away from this image. Today, American-Indians form a smaller part of the population of the United States than possibly even Indians who have emigrated from Asia. They live in secluded reservations where alchoholism is rife, people are poor and opportunities for education and employment non-existent. It is not entirely clear who marauded whom.

Another incident that comes to my mind is from Indian history. On April 13th 1919, General Reginald Dyer lead a massacre of over a 1000 unarmed Indian civialians over a matter of 10 minutes. This admirable act was performed 'to teach a moral lesson to the Punjab.' After this act, he had to return to the UK, where a 'Sympathy Fund for the Punjab' collected over 26,000 pounds (1919 pounds not 2008 pounts), for his benefit.

Of course, these incidents cannot hold a candle to the biggest hypocrisy of them all. That of Mr Hitler and his friends Mr Goebbels, Mr Eichmann, Mr Goring who incinerated an entire race while accusing them of a litany of crimes.

My friends, beware of racial sterotypes, and when you encounter one, be very clear who is the oppressor and who is the victim :).

The Man Booker Prize

2008-10-15T00:04:00.005-05:00

...should be renamed the 'Colonial Hangover Prize'. Whats up with the never ending obsession with the Indian need to find identity in the midst of religious, caste, regional etc. heterogeneity? Is it 'white guilt' on the part of the jury i.e. a sense of colonial ownership/responsibility/moral obligation for having left behind a teeming poverty stricken country with periodic sectarian violence?

Lets make a short list:

Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children - Bunch of kids (Hindu/Muslim,Rich/Poor,Male/Female) born at midnight on Aug 15th 1947, grow with the nation.

Kiran Desai - Inheritance of Loss - Story of a judge living out his retirement in Kalimpong.

Arundhati Roy - God of Small Things - Mallu twins return home, and the usual culture clash between East and West.

(nominated) Monica Ali - Brick Lane - Bangladeshi making sense of values and culture while living in Great Britain.

(nominated) Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters. Parsi family living it out in Mumbai. Two of his previous books, 'A Fine Balance' and 'Tales from Ferozeshah Bad', are also along the exact same Parsi theme.

This is just a teeny taste. Head back into the 70's and 80's, and we run smack into V.S. Naipaul and Anita Desai.

And now....as a shocking surprise...the winner of the 2008 Booker is...

Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger - Rural low caste peasant is chauffer to a rich big city Indian.

So, you out there wanting to win a Booker Prize, by writing a heart rending story of religious upheaval in the midst of caste bigotry where rural poverty fights big city wealth, you will generate enough guilt in the British jury that the shortlist if not the prize will be yours.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

2008-10-04T23:52:00.004-05:00

Again goes to reinforce that the key to a good movie is not the gazillion $s sunk into special effects but soul. Kooky characters tied together in a simple identifiable storyline, dealing with day to day situations in their own kooky way create magic. Its a movie about one NY night in the town, where the average-joe heartbroken guy who got dumped by a high and mighty mean heartless shrew vixen virago, gets the sweet super-nice super-pretty super-rich girl who likes him for who he is. Michael Cera in Arrested Development, Superbad and Juno kicked ass, and he is completely on target here as Mr. Average Joe. He typifies the awkward, nerdy, not-so-much-of-a-megadude guy, the guy that your average joe can identify with, but who eventually gets the nice girl, unlike the average joe who by definition is average, and thus does not get the nice girl but the average girl, as if he did not get the average girl but got the nice girl he would no longer be an average joe but an above-average joe, and which means he would no longer identify with Nick and thus would not be part of this discussion, which concludes my long winded point that never seems to end and keeps going on and on and on, gosh this is a long sentence, if it goes on any longer it might be the longest sentence ever, but shit it just ended.

Great nighttime drive arounds of New York, and the music, love it. Really sets the tone for the movie.

Gameover

2008-09-28T20:09:00.009-05:00

Somehow, all the turmoil with the investment banks, and those that lent recklessly with no heed to caution reminds me of my childhood, and the hours I spent in front of my Pentium.

..but let not the backlash kill you.

..and no more space for any more bricks. The Wall is done (for).

..the faery fairy tale has come to an end.

..the battle is lost and there is blood all over.

Kaboom!

Ghostown

2008-09-21T02:11:00.002-05:00

Decent movie. More amusingly the entire movie was shot on 4 blocks on the Upper East Side. Central Park, The Met and 5th Ave.

SoCapitalism

2008-09-20T00:19:00.005-05:00

Its the All-American style of capitalism. Its the 21st going on 25th century style of capitalism. Bonuses are taken by the CEO while loses are eaten by the taxpayer. You and me, me and you, we subsidize the big bonus.

Oops

2008-09-20T00:13:00.002-05:00

Actually Oops, Oops, Ooopss and Shit!!
A.k.a Freddie, Fannie, Lehman and AIG.

Fable of the Bees

2008-09-07T00:50:00.004-05:00

Mandeville in his satirical poem 'Fable of the Bees' sums up the attitude of Keynes towards employment, growth and economic policy. The poem came out in the late 17th/early 18th century when any suggestion of violating the Christian virtues of temperance and frugality was frowned upon. Thus, he was not the most popular guy around and did not get any invites to the King's parties. However, he was right. People hate the truth, especially if it is something unsavory about them.

A tiny extract:

The Root of evil, Avarice,
That damn'd ill-natur'd baneful Vice,
Was Slave to Prodigality,
That Noble Sin; whilst Luxury
Employ'd a Million of the Poor,
And odious Pride a Million more."
Envy it self, and Vanity
Were Ministers of Industry

Translating, the pride and ego of those with money motivates them to construct pyramids, churches, yachts and university research labs, hence providing jobs for a good many people. Private vice to the public benefit. If they were to keep those pieces of paper in a safe deposit box, people would starve, and they would end up with a good many pieces of paper, which aren't known to be edible.

Search for Bernard Mandeville / Fable of the Bees on the internet. Very enlightening.

Obama against outsourcing?

2008-08-29T11:36:00.009-05:00

It must be campaign rhetoric. If he really means it, chances are he is going to get booed out of his Hyde Park neighbourhood.

Less outsourcing would mean that American firms would face increased costs and decreased competitiveness, at a time when the economy isn't exactly going great guns. It would certainly lead to a backlash in India, with the result that US firms are going to miss out on the Indian growth story. Also, for every dollar that the US gives to an Indian software engineer salary it probably gets a good fraction of it back in the money that he/she eventually spends on Levis jeans and Coke and Dominos Pizza and iPhones. Why anyone would want to mess with that is beyond me, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get voted in.

Buffet on sovereign wealth funds

2008-08-25T17:46:00.000-05:00

There’s been much talk recently of sovereign wealth funds and how they are buying large pieces of American businesses. This is our doing, not some nefarious plot by foreign governments. Our trade equation guarantees massive foreign investment in the U.S. When we force-feed $2 billion daily to the rest of the world, they must invest in something here. Why should we complain when they choose stocks over bonds?

Rubaiyat

2008-08-23T22:33:00.002-05:00

Life is short.

The worldly hope men set their hearts upon,
Turns ashes - or it prospers; and anon
Like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two - is gone.

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into dust descend;
Dust into dust, and under dust to lie,
Sane wine, sans song, sans singer, and - sans end.

Tis all a chequerboard of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays,
Hither and thither moves, and mates and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays.

Life goes the way it goes.

The moving finger writes and having writ,
Moves on, nor all thy piety or wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

Life is sweet.

Ah, fill the cup, whats boots it to repeat,
How time is slipping underneath our feet,
Unborn to-morrow, and dead yesterday,
Why fret about them if today be sweet.

Drink to it.

How long, how long, in definite pursuit,
Of this and that endeavor and dispute,
Better be merry with the fruitful grape,
Than sadder after none, or bitter, fruit.

The grape that can with logic absolute,
The two and seventy jarring sects confute,
The subtle alchemist that in a trice,
Life's leaden metal to gold transmute.

Live for today,

Some for the glories of this world, and some,
Sign for the prophet's paradise to come,
Ah, take the cash and let the promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant drum.

Ah, my beloved fill the cup that clears,
Today of past regret and future fears,
Tomorrow! Why tomorrow I may be,
Myself with yesterday's seven thousand years.

And don't let religion get in the way.

Why, all the saints and sages who discussed,
Of the two worlds so learnedly, are thrust,
Like foolish prophets forth, their words to scorn,
Are scattered, and their mouths are stopt with dust.

Oh threats of hell and hopes of paradise,
One thing at least is certain - this life flies,
One thing is certain and the rest is lies,
The flower that once is blown forever dies.

What out of senseless nothing to provoke,
A conscious something to resent the yoke,
Of unpermitted pleasure, under pain,
Of everlasting penalties, if broke!

And when death comes,

Ah, with the grape my fading life provide,
And wash my body whence the life has died,
And in a winding sheet of vine leaf wrapt,
So bury me by some sweet garden side.

I sometimes think that never blows so red,
The rose as where some buried Caeser bled,
The every Hyacinth the garden wears,
Dropt in her lap from some once lovely head.

(Aside - Deflation is bad :) )

What! From his helpless creature be repaid,
Pure gold for what he lent us dross allayed,
Sue for a debt we never did contract,
And cannot answer - oh the sorry trade!

World Energy Production/Consumption

2008-08-13T10:38:00.001-05:00

Very nicely presented data showing worldwide production and consumption of energy. Here it is.

Exodus

2008-08-12T20:39:00.002-05:00

First, analyst and research jobs. And then senior managers.

In a commodity business, the only way to survive is to have the absolute lowest cost structure, as prices will keep spiraling lower till only the cheapest player survives.

E.g. Walmart vs. Sears, KMart, family grocery stores

A similar effect in banking as well, as more routine functions automatically seek out the lowest cost base, especially in the face of hideous market losses.

The only way you can price higher is by possessing specific skill/knowledge that is not easily replaceable or substitutable. Thats why MDs got shipped and not their jobs :).

Spoilsports

2008-08-07T12:51:00.003-05:00

Excerpt from the Economist.

Spoilsports
In their eyes, we were not earning money for the bank. Worse, we had the power to say no and therefore prevent business from being done. Traders saw us as obstructive and a hindrance to their ability to earn higher bonuses. They did not take kindly to this. Sometimes the relationship between the risk department and the business lines ended in arguments. I often had calls from my own risk managers forewarning me that a senior trader was about to call me to complain about a declined transaction. Most of the time the business line would simply not take no for an answer, especially if the profits were big enough. We, of course, were suspicious, because bigger margins usually meant higher risk. Criticisms that we were being “non-commercial”, “unconstructive” and “obstinate” were not uncommon. It has to be said that the risk department did not always help its cause. Our risk managers, although they had strong analytical skills, were not necessarily good communicators and salesmen. Tactfully explaining why we said no was not our forte. Traders were often exasperated as much by how they were told as by what they were told.

Why managing risk is hard when traders are pushing for the next big deal and big bonus, regardless of the consequences.

Result : Traders take home big bonus, bank saddled with garbage with shareholders paying the ultimate price.

Vacation!

2008-07-25T10:43:00.002-05:00

Out and about for a week and a bit,
A little bit of London, in Stockholm for a bit,
Paris, je t'aime,
And on Chamonix I make my final claim,
Up a hill, down a valley,
And don't worry if the index is going to rally.

ROTW

2008-07-23T10:18:00.001-05:00

Read of The Week : Oil! - Upton Sinclair

The High Price of Free Accounts

2008-07-21T15:08:00.002-05:00

I knew I was getting ripped off.

http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750886

In summary:

You earn like 0.5% on your balance in your current account. The bank cooly lends out that money at 3.0% (more when interest rates are higher), and pockets the difference. Makes you want to start your own bank.

Don't you think..

2008-07-11T23:36:00.002-05:00

..summer is fun? So stop reading this blog, go out there and do something. Unless, of course you are in the office, in which case you should continue to read this blog and procrastinate on work. Or you are at home, late at night, which means you should go to sleep, get up nice and early, go for a jog in the early morning sun, shower and read the newspaper to piping hot coffee. Or, you might be in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case it really doesn't matter because you have nothing else to do. Actually, you could go skiing.

Does anyone have a job?

2008-07-02T21:34:00.004-05:00

Picked it up from Dealbook.

Sam Manekshaw

2008-06-27T10:40:00.003-05:00

He was the chief guest at our school day once when I was a kutti boy. He was quite a spritely old man in his 80s. The mustache was imposing and worthy of a Field Marshall. I don't remember what he spoke about but I was in awe of him, and proceeded to read up on the Indo-Pak wars in excruciating detail. I was kicked to find numerous mentions of him, and the occasional photograph. This combined with Biggles filled my head with dreams of flying MIGs and performing Immelman turns.

Failure

2008-06-19T12:45:00.002-05:00

J.K Rowling at the Harvard Commencement Address :

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

You...

2008-06-12T23:18:00.003-05:00

You are depressive when on a beautiful Thursday evening, on the way to a nice restaurant for dinner, you say - "Shit! I cannot believe it is Thursday! The week is only 4/5th over!".

You have no choice but to become an underachiever when your father is a lawyer who went to school with "Bill", mother a playwright and brother a trader, all from Yale, and all you could do was Vanderbilt.

Score!

2008-06-11T21:21:00.004-05:00

REM concert on Friday evening. Liked a couple of songs but most of it was lost on me. That dude is seriously depressive. Who wants to pay up cash to get depressed?

Ethopian food at Demera on Saturday evening. Love it! It is suspiciously like South Indian food. The Ingera tastes like Dosa, the Sambussa is the Samosa and the Dor Wat tastes like Chettinad Chicken. And they eat with hands! Ethopians have a strange look - not African, not Aryan, a little North African, trim and athletic, complete with Cleopatra-esque noses and frizzy hair. I must say that this combination of genetic factors made the waitresses pretty pretty. To think about it , I can swear I know some Malayalee types who share 70% of the look. Strange. The effects of ancient trade routes persist many a thousand years.

Went to the Printers Row Book Fair on Sunday evening. Picked up these 7 books:

Keep The Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
The Rubaiyat - Omar Khayyam
The Beautiful and Damned - Scott Fitzgerald
Norton's Book of Personal Essays
Feynman's Rainbow - Leonard Mlodinow
Macroeconomics - Richard Froyen
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

Guess how I paid for them? 28$!! I actually bought the Macroeconomics book for 1$ (obviously sold by someone who was totally lost on it's real economic value or just didn't care).

Then went across the street to the Chicago Blues Festival. Music was great but rain + mud + lots and lots of people = not fun.

Love this song!

2008-06-05T21:37:00.002-05:00

Love the lyrics and melody. A little touchy-feely but touchy feely in a good way ;) . (This reminds me of a trader at work who lost money, and when asked replied , "Yeah I lost money, but I lost money in a good way.")

Enron Redux

2008-06-04T22:07:00.003-05:00

200,000 emails sent by Enron employees from 1999-2003. Quite interesting to browse. Never know what you might find ;).

Enron Explorer.

Le Smoking

2008-06-04T20:46:00.000-05:00

..has gone up in smoke.

Ai ai ai yoo..

2008-06-03T21:26:00.002-05:00

Been plagued with recurrent knee pain :(. I think its the new running shoe I have been running with for the last 4 weeks, as the knee has steadily deteriorated over the period. My old shoes were brilliantly left at my friend's place in London. My advice to you is to avoid like the plague these colorful new fangled shoes that claim to do all these crazy things. All the techno messes up your natural balance and cranks up your injury risk. The worst ones are those with a raised heel that leave you feeling tall, pumped and bouncy - they increase the pressure on the front of your foot which then levers into your knee. Given this, I don't understand why women wear high heels! It can so easily turn into a nightmare, where a heel slips, ankle twists or worse still a ligament tears. (The sacrifices people make and risks people take to look good ;) ). Moral of the story : stick to simple shoes for athletic activity. Wear the fancy shoes (heels for example) if you want to look good.

'tis the season to be married!

2008-06-01T10:09:00.006-05:00

More precisely, it appears to be the weekend to be married. The city seems to be overflowing at the gills with couples getting hitched. Every hotel I walked past had at least 3 marriage receptions going on. Michigan Avenue and Grant Park had like 20,000 couples looking to frame their greatest moment most beootifully. Limos everywhere, from sedate black Lincoln town cars to out and out outrageous stretch Humvees with screaming inhabitants. Every other passerby on the street was either a bridesmaid in flowing primary colors or a black suited best-man. For a little bit I wondered if I was having a delusional hallucination of deep hidden issues that really have no other way to find the light of day, but my friends corroborated my observations. Either they are having similar hallucinations as well, or it is indeed true that everyone everywhere has decided to get married at the same time.

One for the road

2008-05-30T21:42:00.002-05:00

Urbana-Champaign
The Blind Pig

Chicago
The Grill Room
Pepper Canister

London
The Volunteer
The Long Acre

The Oil Drum

2008-05-19T12:39:00.000-05:00

The Oil Drum.

Guess who?

2008-05-09T19:05:00.002-05:00

Was walking past a theater back entrance on State and Lake on my way home from work and a cop stopped me on the sidewalk to let someone pass. Guess who ? Dolly Parton!

Joke of the day

2008-05-08T22:13:00.003-05:00

What is the easiest way to launder money?

Throw a banker into a washing machine.

123$ Oil

2008-05-07T17:15:00.004-05:00

Fun times. (Photo courtesy NYTimes)

Funny

2008-05-04T01:24:00.004-05:00

I find it amusing that both "The Dark Knight", the new dark and angst ridden Batman movie, and "Wanted", the new Angelina Jolie movie about a band of assassins, are both centered in Chicago. Whatever happened to fun happy jazzy "Blues Brothers" Chicago?

Bloody Inflation

2008-04-30T16:58:00.008-05:00

My Starbucks Grande Latte used to cost $3.30. It now costs $3.70. Bloody agro-inflation and weak dollar.

I will stop sounding like a spoilt whiny child and point you to this excellent article. Major oil exporting countries (Saudi Arabia and other Opec members) have always subsidized internal supply while making up for it by yanking up export prices (by not producing enough essentially). This is now happening in food as well, thanks to the sky high prices and rioting. India has imposed steep duties on exported rice. Argentina has hiked tarrifs on exported beef. I think this is a good thing especially if consumers in the major importing countries (United Kingdom for e.g.) can afford to pay the additional cost of food at little cost to their lifestyles, while for consumers in the exporting countries the cost of a bag of rice decides whether they are to have a square meal or go hungry. Some of the poor sub-Saharan African countries which import food worry me though. But all in all, Mr. James spends 40 cents more on a Latte, so that Ganesh back in Central Madhya Pradesh can afford to feed his family. The world should not always be flat.

Suggestions

2008-04-29T17:58:00.013-05:00

I am soliciting suggestions for the following things.

- Good books to read over the summer.

- Good 3-4 day vacation ideas which are relatively easy to plan, fun but different. Trekking maybe? Or a roadtrip?

- Good things to do over the summer that would aid my overall development and growth into a wonderful human being.

In turn I am going to suggest to you what you should not do:

- Do not try to read Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. It is a bollywood style gangsta movie written as a book - gangsters, smugglers, pimps, prostitutes, murder, money, more money put into the usual set of semi-predictable plot scenes. It starts off promisingly but 100 pages in starts meandering, sounding cliched and contrived. It has another 900 pages after that, which I haven't been able to get myself to trudge through. If he had cut it down to about 500 pages and done away with the 25 side stories, I would probably want to finish it.

- A healthy sense of paranoia and circumspectness would go a long way in pushing up the mean and reducing variance on your life's happiness function. In non nerdy english, you would be happier if you did choose to follow my advice. This does not mean going crazy, but has more to do with keeping a langorous, relaxed but watchful and wary eye. Thus you should not be non-circumspect.

- In addition to not being non-circumspect, you should also not not maintain information assymetry. As a trader, information assymetry is all you want (in your favour obviously), but even otherwise it has its benefits. Information should be released on a purely need to know basis. Believe me or not but it leads to solutions that are more optimal for everyone. In Economics, the fancy word given for changes that make no one any worse off is "Pareto improvement" (you learnt something new today, but then you probably knew it).

Windy City

2008-04-23T08:22:00.002-05:00

Re-structuring ( ;) , synonyms being cost-cutting, rationalization, re-alignment of business objectives, streamlining). New group. Back to the US!

Do you know why babies are adorable?

2008-04-20T14:08:00.003-05:00

I think its because of how they look at you. Blankly, unblinkingly, without fear, anger or malice, completely trusting and vulnerable. I realized it when I was riding down an elevator with a baby in a pram next to me. I was quite uncomfortable, as I was almost automatically trying to figure out what the real deal was ! But, once I get over that initial phase of distrust, it was quite nice and caused much satisfaction and feel goodness. The problems start when they grow older and start talking back to you, or at least thats what my mother says!

Developments

2008-04-17T09:11:00.006-05:00

- Summer is here.
- Winter is gone. Gone gone gone. Till November.
- 5 months in London have gone by most rapidly and have been most enjoyable.
- Where am I going to be in a month? London? Chicago? Elsewhere? I do not know. I cannot say. I am not trying to answer the broader meta-physical question by the way.
- Most importantly, I need to start making summer plans. Any ideas?
- Quite interestingly, today I spoke to one of the sharpest guys I have spoken to in a long time. British guy, from Oxford I think, Math, one of those people that make you question if you have really been doing anything useful with your life.

Update on life

2008-03-28T12:15:00.008-05:00

I am sooo bored right now. One more hour to get out of the office and to freedom. I think worse than having too much to do, is having too little to do or having something to do and not feeling like doing it!

A general update on life for the sake of posterity:

- Last 5 months or so in London have been quite nice. Work was not torturous, hours were kind, made new friends and drank some wine. Traveled around Europe, went to Stuttgart, took a train down to Paris and looked at some art.

- Last trip was to Interlaken for the Easter weekend. Graduated from the baby slopes to some long blues and reds. No Blacks anytime now though! Maybe in a year or two! The apartment was awesome. Great views of the triumphant trio - Eiger, Munch and Jungfrau, which mean Ogre, Monk and Virgin. Company was good fun too. We got stuck in a snowstorm on Friday evening (trip was from Thursday March 20th to Monday March 24th), and the car refused to move up a hill. I insisted on trying, even though we might be dying, making frequent references to the video game Need For Speed 3, and driving everyone else up a tree. I thus earned for myself the moniker "NFS".

- Going to Chicago next week for an extended weekend. Haven't been there in almost 6 months now. Meet up with the Chicago and UIUC crowd.

- I will be knowing about my permanent placement quite soon. I need to do 3 6 month rotations before they put me in a permanent role. I am about to finish with my 3rd in a few weeks, so the day of reckoning has arrived. It is somewhat likely I will stay in London but things tend to change quite frequently around here, and its very dangerous to jump to conclusions in my particular line of work! :)

- More generally things have been quite volatile on the market front. Most banks are cleaning headcount and that does tend to make things tighter for everyone. A lot of people are out there looking for a job, which means, if you lose yours, its quite unlikely you will find a good position. Unlike in my previous group, this time around I have been quite insulated from the big market moves. When the whole credit saga started in July/August, I literally had to at times work 24/7, through the weekend and everything! Thank god for small mercies.

- I have taken up running with some enthusiasm over the last few months. I run about 12 miles on the weekend, and 6 miles during the week. I have found it quite addictive, if I might use that word. It is some kind of natural feel good drug, you feel completely refreshed, clear and peaceful after a good run!

- As for reading, I completely recommend that you read "The English Teacher" by R.K.Narayan. It is one of the most unpretentious, genuine and touching books I have read in a long time. One doesn't have to show off with fancy word play or complex story constructs to captivate the reader!

Ok. Thats it for now. I shall promise to blog more often.

PS: Which brings up the question - will I?

I have made this promise many a time,

But have failed almost to a crime

It is not that I cannot,

But I just will not.

Stupid rhyme you have read through,

Don't you have anything else to do?

Go read "The Golden Gate"

By our good friend Vikram Seth.

Long overdue :)

2008-03-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

Madame BBB (pronouned Bey Bey Bey, as the French might) has tagged me. I believe in doing everything in the fullness of time, and thus have taken my time to respond.

So here are the rules:

First, the rules:Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like).Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.

Family: No idea why I don't really write about my family! But I did once or twice. Here it is.

Friends: This isn't exactly about a friend, but more about high school and things past.

Me: This isn't going to be that hard. Most of the blog is about me and my rantings and whinings. For example.

Love: Some of my famed analytical skill has extended to this subject as well.

Anything I Like: This is pretty much my blog, and I write as I please about myself and my life. You really need to visit the Artic! Aren't you totally taken by this? Remember OTG?

PS: I think this tag come out over 2 months ago. I doub't if anyone even remembers.

Who do I tag? Everyone who comments on this post. Ha ha just kidding. That would drive away even my 2 commenters. No one I say. No one.

Funding Priorities

2008-02-27T10:17:00.003-06:00

US'09 Budget

Keeps the U.S. the most innovative nation in the world by implementing the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI).
$12.2 billion total for the National Science Foundation, DoE's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an overall funding increase of $1.6 billion, or 15 percent, above the 2008 enacted total of $10.6 billion.
The President's FY 2009 Budget returns ACI research to a doubling path to ensure this consensus national priority objective is realized.
Increases energy security by focusing on renewables, accelerating technological breakthroughs, and expanding traditional sources to reduce our reliance on foreign oil.
$400 million as the first installment of a three-year, $2 billion U.S. commitment to an international clean energy technology fund that will increase and accelerate the deployment of clean technologies in developing nations to help confront climate change.
Doubles the capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1.5 billion barrels.
Nuclear power: $242 million for Nuclear Power 2010 to promote the licensing of new nuclear plants through an industry cost-shared effort with streamlined regulatory processes. $302 million for Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative research and development.
Coal: $648 million for research, development, and demonstration of advanced coal technologies. This represents a $197 million increase from the President's FY2008 request and is the largest amount requested for DOE's coal program in more than 25 years. With private sector match, this budget represents an approximate $1 billion investment in advanced technologies that can produce power from coal with significantly lower carbon emissions.
Keeps America Safe
Supports the national defense and funding for America's troops.
$515 billion for the Department of Defense base budget – a nearly 74 percent increase since the President took office – to support military readiness and continue the transformation of our military to meet twenty-first century threats.
$70 billion for an emergency allowance to support activities related to the Global War on Terror that help achieve the strategic goal of creating free, democratic, and self-governed ally nations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence Spending / Scientific Research Funding = 585/12.2 = 48. In other words, the defense department blows through a years worth of scientific funding in a week. Worth thinking about...

Chennai, London and other things

2008-01-01T10:19:00.001-06:00

A week back, I did write this witty, sarcastic and amazingly funny blog post that just vapourized when I tried to post it because I had got disconnected in the meantime. Yes people, I was in India, like I currently am. Though some things like terrible internet connections never really seem to change, a lot else has.

Privatized airlines. Jet Airways from London to Mumbai was great to say the least. On time. Good Indian food. Desi in-flight entertainment . A lot better than the American carriers (Delta, United, AA) that actually expect you to pay cash for your food on a 14 hour flight. Heard a lot about Kingfisher as well, from friends. Looks like Mr Mallya personally selected all the air hostesses.
Cell phones. Everyone has a cell phone, some have two, and ads are everywhere. Whoever would have imagined?
Construction. Everywhere. Flyovers, commercial complexes, residential flats … Lots of lending. Banks are competing hard to sell home loans. Many people are going to be very broke if demand slows.
Prices. I think the official government inflation number of 6% is inaccurate to put it very mildly. If I were to not put it mildly, I will call it a blatant lie propagated by the political parties to keep the populace quiet. I would put the number close to 35% a year for someone living in a metropolitan city. A roadside meal that used to cost about 30Rs now costs 100Rs. An average restaurant dinner ends up running to around 400Rs PP. Auto fares have double over the last 2-3 years. Let us not even speak about real estate prices. It isn’t surprising that the IT companies have had to ramp up salaries by 20% a year to keep turnover in check. What used to be a 1.5 lakh a year job in 2003 now pays about 4.0 lakh. I shudder to think how the median Indian (rhymes doesn’t it) is coping.
The traffic. I don’t know if it is just me, but the whole city appears to crawl during the morning and evening rush hours. A good alternative to driving down from Kalakshetra to Nungambakkam is to shut yourself in your garage with your car, turn on the engine, honk repeatedly to yourself, and wait for the end.

I have another week to go before I am back to my good old SSDD lifestyle. (Same Shit Different Day)

I shall now backtrack, and fill you in on the numerous splendors that have bedecked my life since I landed in the land of our colonial masters on the 19th of November, in the 2007th year of the lord, but before I descended upon the land of the sacred cow.

I think the biggest problem with London is the Colonial Hangover Premium (CHP) that debilitates it. Now, not many of you read random finance papers that proselytize on risk premia and investor utility, so I need to explain.

See growing up, in whichever city you might have, you had a Hyde Park or Connaught Place or Victoria Terminus or (insert name of dead British guy) Road. Or, if you are that type, you had visited a bar/pub that pilfered alcohol in the name of some person/place/thing from that exalted pile of mud (it keeps raining) in the Atlantic. When you finally grow up, you finally want to go and see what the fuss is all about, and pay the price. Ouch!

5 pounds for a tube ride in a system that is perennially delayed, overcrowded and closes at 12:30 am. Now that is better than spending 30 pounds on a cab ride.
Tourists everywhere. I made the mistake of going near Harrods around Christmas. It took me 25 minutes to walk the 100 yards from the west exit to the tube stop.
400 pounds a week in rent for a studio convertible.
10 pounds for dinner on the wayside (60 pounds to make a meal of show and pretension)
40% taxes. What?! Where is my wage?! Government! Give me back my money!

Setting all the cribbin aside, London is a fun city. Firstly, unlike Chicago, it is a focal point for DLA’s (Desis Living Abroad), which means that there is a large contingent from university infesting the city. The museums look delectable, though I still haven’t done full justice to them. However, in all modesty, I am forced to admit that nothing can beat having, on a cool summer eve, for your perusal, a couple of wings of Picasso at the Art Institute. Desi food is plentiful and cheap, which keeps me happy and sated. However, the most important point that should guide any decision making process is that none of the bartenders have heard of (or would like to hear of) Miller, Budweiser or Coors.

Now, astute readers would note that this sporadic periodical was started on a blustery January evening, in the dank depths of a computer lab in Lyon, way back in 2004. It is now 2008, and I am back to Europa, though I always thought I had got dumped for good the first time around.

A Titular Matter

2007-10-22T22:01:00.000-05:00

When this blog was started, back in January 2004, I had given it a name. Unfortunately, I don't remember it now, so anonymous was it. I can guess that it would have been an effort to display my knowledge of either science fiction or academics or high flown literature. Then in January 2005, as an impoverished graduate student, the blog was renamed - "Poor Indian Graduate Student". I had less than 500$ in my bank account, and graduation was nowhere in sight. Fortunately, I bailed out in May 2006, and so the title had to become "Poor Indian Graduate ~~Student~~ ", with an additional line of "In the US of A", by way of further explanation of my status. Now, as it turns out, in a few weeks "In the US of A" might need to be amended to "In the ~~US of A~~ UK".