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Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Antha naal gnabakam ....
Memories of those days, goes the title of this post in Tamil. Alumni reunions are an American tradition. It was not very common in India, until recent years. You passed out of school and college - and that was that. You went your own way , kept in touch with a few, lost touch with most and lived your own life. Rarely did you return. But that trend is changing.
A week ago, the 1961...
Friday, 23 December 2011
The beginning of the end ?
It was a long time coming. In retrospect its actually surprising that the backlash is starting only now. The backlash against email, I mean. A few days ago Atos Origin, a French IT company, started the ball rolling by announcing that it would ban email in the company by 2014. Now Volkswagen unions have struck a deal with the company that emails to their unionised employees would be switched off after...
Sunday, 18 December 2011
A classy speech
Rahul Dravid, India's elder statesman of cricket, delivered the Bradman Oration at Canberra last week. If you want to hear a classy, graceful, charming, stylish speech, look no further. Class, grace, charm and style define the man and perhaps it is but natural, that his speech was all of that. It is about cricket, of course, but even if you are not a cricket fan, listen to it if you have the...
Monday, 12 December 2011
One small step for Huawei, one giant leap for China
As is often the case, the seemingly trivial turns out to be a giant event. I suspect this is the case with Huawei's announcement, buried in the back pages of financial newspapers that it would no longer pursue new business in Iran. So what , you might ask. Read on.
One of the fundamental principles in China is the total separation of politics & economics. It has one of the freest...
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Of adjectives that don't apply
What's common to beautiful, popular, controversial, helpful, successful, deserving and proud ? Besides being adjectives ? What's common is that they don't apply to this blog. Nothing here is beautiful, popular ......; you get the drift.
When you are tagged to apply those adjectives to your blog, you have to really scratch your head. Tagging used to be a rage three years ago when blogging itself...
Friday, 2 December 2011
Toothbrushes and mobile phones
There are more people in the world today who own a mobile phone than a toothbrush. This may startle you, but its true, at least according to 60secondmarketer.com. There are 4 bn mobile phone users in the world. The annual sales of toothbrushes is 3.5 bn.
This won't surprise you if you read the excellent book, Poor Economics, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. My good friend Ravi, who often...
Friday, 25 November 2011
Ramamritham rules
Alas, Ramamritham is alive , well and strong and he rules upon all that he surveys (pun intended). The Indian Government will announce today in parliament that it would open up the retail sector to foreign investment. No doubt the Left will organise some bandhs, yell at 10,000 decibels in the Lok Sabha, and then this law will be passed while the opposition will walk out en masse.
Ostensibly,...
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Why this kolaveri di
The title of the post is simply to substantiate to Gils , Zeno and other experts that I am "tuned in" ! In case you are still flummoxed, then that is clear proof that you simply aren't up to date with the "in thing" !! Why this kolaveri di is a completely nonsensical song that for reasons totally baffling has become a massive rage and has gone viral in the last four days. Since world success...
Thursday, 17 November 2011
The awfulness of Benetton
Benetton, the clothing company, has been struggling of late. So they've gone back to their horrible old formula to promote their brand - make shocking advertisements.
Their campaign is called "UNhate" - whatever that means. These are some of their abominations.
The last one...
Monday, 14 November 2011
Three cheers for Shiv
Running a marathon is usually a huge superhuman effort; Right ? Well, lots of people run marathons every year, but for the non professionals, it is usually a major milestone. They train very hard for it, suffer through the race, but ultimately make it. It's an achievement to be very proud of.
What then do you say of the ultra marathoners ?? The marathon, as you may know is 42 kms and a bit....
Sunday, 6 November 2011
A letter to a certain Chief Minister in India
Dear Madam,
We are concerned about the state of your vocal chords, after your recent exertions of that organ protesting against the nth rise in the price of petrol that the Indian government announced a few days ago. While we are well aware of your superhuman powers in that sphere of activity, I am nevertheless concerned enough to give you some advice on the amelioration of stress on your...
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Without Comment
Brilliant article in the Financial Times today. Dripping with sarcasm and wit. Alas its a bit technical and you'll enjoy it immensely if you have a bit of background in finance, but even otherwise its a good read.
For those not in touch with American politics or high finance -
John Corzine is a former head of Goldman Sachs. He was deposed by Henk Paulson. Corzine then became a Senator...
Sunday, 30 October 2011
A dog saves the day
A dog might prove to be the unlikeliest saviour of Formula 1, a sport that is direly in need of saving . Bravo India, for unwittingly pointing the way ahead for the sport.
Today is the first ever Indian Grand Prix - held at Noida, at the Buddh circuit, just off Delhi. Why it has come up in Delhi...
Sunday, 23 October 2011
China searches for its soul
If you are a Sinophile, this is old news and you don't want to read about this anymore; if you are not, this may be new to you. Little Wang Yue, affectionately called Yueyue is dead. She was only 2.
Yueyue, a toddler, wandered on to a road in Foshan, a southern Chinese city and was hit by a vehicle. A security camera filmed the whole scene. 18 passerbys saw her lying in a pool of blood, but walked...
Friday, 21 October 2011
Storm in an ice cream cup
Schweddy Balls ice cream is brewing up a storm. It has caught the ire of One Million Moms, who are protesting about it. Wow !
Ben & Jerry's seems to be the flavour of the month on this blog. They are the lot who are churning our a limited edition Schweddy Balls ice cream, which they claim...
Monday, 17 October 2011
Corporate Japan at its worst
In the good old days when I was in business school, Japan could do no wrong. A million books were written on the Japanese style of management. America was bust, Japan was everything. Case after case taught at business school was on how gloriously managed Japanese businesses were. At that time the two words we were thoroughly sick of was Japan and Walmart ! Time has since proved that there is a...
Sunday, 16 October 2011
I'll Never Do It Again
Does INDIA stand for I'll Never Do It Again ?? I cringed and held my head in shame as I listened to this podcast - this series is one of my personal favourites and represents some of the best of the BBC. It ends with a quote from a guy who did something Indians were very proud about - run the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games . But he says, "I'll be very happy to ignore India. There...
Friday, 14 October 2011
The curious case of Ben & Jerry's
Do you like Ben & Jerry's ice cream? Most probably a resounding yes. But this post is not about its ice cream. Its about what it has done on Tuesday.
What it did on Tuesday was to go to New York's Zuccotti Park where the Occupy Wall Street protesters are camped and dole out free ice...
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Improve your gluteus maximus
Do you wish to improve your gluteus maximus muscle. If so , please buy Reebok Easy Tone shoes. Alas, you should have done it before Sep 30. Because on that date, the Federal Trade Commission poured cold water on gluteus maximus fans by ruling that the shoes didn't do much for that famous muscle.
If...
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Goodbye Pat
It was the fag end of the career. 1975 was the year. It was the fourth test. Chepauk on Pongal day. Clive Lloyd has just begun the journey of taking the West Indies to world beater status for more than a decade. Vivian Richards and Gordon Greenidge made their debuts in that series. Andy Roberts had...
Sunday, 18 September 2011
The hazards of flying
Even if you didn't suffer from aerophobia, there are some non trivial hazards of flying. Missing baggage for example. Or delayed or cancelled flights leaving you stranded in some god forsaken land. Some even allege deep vein thrombosis. Insomnia due to your neighbour's high affliction of stertor could be another. But even the most wildly imaginative sort could not have thought of adding "going to...
Friday, 16 September 2011
Oh no; Not again
Yet another rogue trader has emerged. This morning is ablaze with the news that UBS (a Swiss bank) could have lost some $2bn on account of the actions of one trader - Kweku Adoboli at its London office. Adoboli has been arrested last night and the details are only slowly emerging. Nothing is proven as yet , but Adoboli might very well join his illustrious predecessors - Nick Leeson of Barings,...
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
The mystery called consumer
Of all the great mysteries of the universe, none is more confounding than that of consumer behaviour. You would have thought that it shouldn't be an unfathomable mystery - after all you and I are consumers too. But no. It is inarguably established that you can even hope to nail down the Higgs...
Sunday, 11 September 2011
With heads bowed
Today is a day for reflection and remembrance. Anything else would be inappropriate.
Recommend browsing through today's special report in The New York Times titled The Reckoning.
Perhaps the epitaph found on the graves of many who fell in the First World War might be equally befitting.
"Their names live forever more"...
Friday, 9 September 2011
Who or what is a Doofus ?
I freely admit to not having a clue about what a "doofus" was, until today, if you will pardon the pun. For, apparently, a doofus is a guy who doesn't have a clue. My vocabulary has since improved by one, thanks to Carol Bartz, the ousted CEO of Yahoo who called her Board which ousted her, a bunch of doofuses.
Everything about the Yahoo saga stinks. Carol Bartz was fired by her Chairman...
Sunday, 4 September 2011
The wonders of public opinion
Public opinion is often a cause of much entertainment. Public opinion, that is, as reflected in the comments section of a famous website. Let us say , for example, Reuters reporting a fairly innocuous news item as follows. You would have thought that there isn't much to comment about it. You would be wrong. Read on for this imaginary post and comments.
Cuba withdraws ambassador from...
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Can the world still feed itself ?
When Peter Brabeck-Letmathe speaks, you listen. He is the highly respected Chairman of Nestle. In his weekend interview with The Wall Street Journal published here, he speaks of the increasing danger of food insecurity in the world.
Food prices shooting up, the world over, is a serious cause of concern. This blogger has moaned about it here , here and here . The traditional activist response is...
Sunday, 28 August 2011
How to look ridiculous
This blogger freely admits to being severely sartorially challenged. The words fashion, smartly dressed, even, nice shirt, are outside his lexicon. It is therefore entirely appropriate that a learned treatise on the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week features as this Sunday post. For those unacquainted...
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