Funny

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

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

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

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?

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

- 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

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 :)

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.