Was reading the recent news item about France rejecting the EU referendum. The issue brought up many many questions that are tough to answer. First and foremost, how educated are the masses on International Monetary policy? How many individuals know the kind of money power held by one currency, the Dollar? How many individuals would actually know that it is monopoly out there by the $? A country like US can run monumental deficits and still dictate economic terms because of that monopoly? Atleast for that sake, the French needed the EU Constitution passed. The ramifications are felt immediately with Euro touching seven month low. That is not good news for the rest of the folks in world. Without competition, fair trade does not happen. We need competition in world currency too and Euro was coming up strongly against $, only to be punctured by the referendum. Prez Chirac should have taken it to the parliament rather than to the people who may not know the ramifications of all this. Sad news for the world.

Apparently none of the Indian news papers( atleast the online ones that I read ) ran a detailed coverage of the referendum and the implications for Indian economy. The Dorks of Indian economy might feel vindicated now, that they failed to convert a portion of their foreign currency reserves to Euro and make some money in the money market. Not small sum, but a cool 7-8 billion $, had they converted to Euro a couple of years back and hung on to it for a while to cash in on the Euro appreciation. I wish I had 10 billion $ to play in the money market.

The big news item in one of the leading Indian news paper is some Bollywood actresses caught in sleaze. Nothing fails to entertain the crowd than the mention of the actresses and their escapades. Some vague actress was caught in flesh trade and it is a head line in the news paper and not the Euro referendum or EC's options on Bihar election. So much for the liberty of press and their coverage.

Today being Memorial day, is a holiday in the US. That gave us three day weekend, which normally is time for travel and family reunions. Being 10000 miles away, there is noway of me reuniting with my family for three days. Am stuck with the lappy and internet. Of course, got together with my friends at his place, watched NY Yankees - Boston Red Sox baseball game as well as the happening Miami Heat- Detroit Pistons basketball game. Nothing invigorates a sagging soul than watching sports. Today Rafeal Nadal - Sebastian Grosjan tennis in French open. Nadal plays so well that he might be a match for the reigning Numero Uno Federer. The Semi will be a treat to watch, with Federer having worked out his strategy against the leftie. He had a bit of surprise in Nasdaq-100 against the leftie, but recalibrated his game and won the title. Wish them both good luck to be in 100% fit shape for a 200% exciting game.

I am still learning the nuances of blogging, adding links, keeping track of interesting things that I come across and putting it in a readable way, instead of this kind of boring long long writeups. Hope to catch up with all this in the near future.

Cheers

Hello folks,

Was sitting idle, not getting sleep as well as nothing much do, that it is 10:30 in the night. That is when the thought process starts. All the demons that have been exorcised come back alive, to haunt. This blog is more of my personal thoughts. So, if you don't want to read further, I understand.

I come from a small town, very much down south, with a population of less than 2 lacs. We almost knew every one in the vicinity. That was ages back. I left my town for my studies, for further studies, for work, and for every other reason one can think of. Now I am sitting 10,000 miles away from that town. But the mere thought of that town brings memories and every road, the houses and people who stayed in them are coming alive in my mind, crystal clear. The one girl I played pulling her hair, Naachiar, the friend and philosopher in love matters Dileep, my peer in studies Ravi Shankar, people who I looked upto, Tamil professor Subramaniam Pillai, Chemistry teacher Madhavan Pillai, grocery store Thanu, our spiritual guru that time Velammal ... The list is endless. All those people are coming alive in my mind when I am sitting alone, not willing to watch TV or read a book. Coming to think of it, it really amazes me how much our brain remembers. It is like a video replaying in High Definition. With every detail in place. One High resolution DVD takes around 7GB. Imagine how much our memory is, given that it can recollect what happened 20 years back in a giffy from tetrabytes of data. Amazing!!

That popped up the question, what the heck am I doing sitting 10,000 miles away, dreaming about life so far away? I am not alone. I have a bunch of friends with similar background working nearby, living nearby. Am sure they will also be going through the same motions. That always puzzled me. I have my own reasons for being where I am. I love changes. Nothing excites me than new place, new people, new things to do, new job profile. It is that quest, that drove me from that small town to the land of opportunity. Now the same trait is driving me back to India. I must also admit pressure from my wife and son to be there in India which has acted as a catalyst in the decision. All said and done I am excited at the mere thought of being just 500 miles from my small town. Here I come Nagercoil.

I am a bit relieved now that the thoughts have been brought out to this blog. I don't know whether any one will ever read this, I don't care either. It is my life and I am going to live it and remember how I lived 10 years back.

Cheers

Honestly, how many of us can take criticism sportive? I have been observing people for a while. They are the best buddies, but the moment a note of criticism is pulled out, the camaraderie disappears. Why can't I criticize one aspect of you and still be a friend?. I am not immune to that either. Often times, it gets on my nerve but I do mellow down and don't let that get on with the way of life. But many don't do that. Kind of interesting, especially among Indians. So, are we brought up to defy criticisms?

One example that struck me in today's news is criticisms on Honorable CM Dharam Singh by the IT Honchos. Dear CM, Bangalore is bleeding because of incapable administration. This is not criticism, because you are not my friend or foe either. You are a public servant and I look at you through that prism only. When 30% of my income is pulled out to pay your paycheck, you become the servant of the public sir. If I don't do my job properly, firing me is easy for my boss. One phone call and I am out. But no one can do that to you except by public opinion mobilisation. That is what we do sir, to tell the public that you have failed. That is what Mr.Moorthy and other IT honchos did when they criticised you. Instead of pulling out statistics that 10000 km road widening, see how much time it takes for an average citizen to travel from Point A to Point B in Bangalore and other cities of India. That is a benchmark and not 10000km road widening sir.

Came across this interesting Blog by Gaurav Sabnis on Libertarianism ">Sabnis

Kind of refreshing to read such opinions among Blogs which are like what I did yesterday. The problem is not with Liberty Sabnis. If I go to a restaurant, I want clean hygienic food. If I don't get it, I need a redressal mechanism. The redressing authority can't redress a grievance if it does not know or have control over how food is prepared. Precisely that is what Sanitation Dept, FDA do. If they don't have that power, it is Responsibility without Authority. So, in the name of liberty, we cannot do away with that. But we should evolve mechanisms and make the process transparent so that an ordinary Joe can set up a restaurant, if he knows what he has to comply with and does that religiously without any pain or bribing. That is what we should fight for in the name of Liberty. Not the removal of approvals.

On a lighter and personal side, I managed to sell my swanky car as I am relocating to India in another month. One good soul loaned me his second car. Thank you buddy for giving me the much needed mobility in the US. It is fun to drive this car, which has everything manual, except the transmission of course. A fairly old car and it draws attention where ever I drive. I am relishing driving this. I used to be careful while driving my swanky car, watching out for potential damages. Other guys used to be the hunters. Now the hunters became the hunted. HeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHeHe!!!

Ciao

This thought hit me yesterday when I was figuring out the implications of me moving to India. I have accepted the offer and have to move back to India. When looking at the modalities it haunts me. From taking a pie from income to making me pay taxes for moving my stuff from one place to another, countries vie with each other. To take my personal things from one country to another, so many procedures which numbs me. I dont get intimidated by procedures easily but this is mind blowing. Is it really that tough or the middlemen make it look tough? We call ourselves a global village now, but we have a long way to go. Moving from one place to another should be like eating a piece of pie. Till that day comes, we are not global.

Women barbers in Tirupathi!! This is height of joblessness I would say. Not the proposal to have women barbers. But the proposal itself, with people spending time to debate. What is the big deal? If women want to be barbers, so be it. Looks like they are consulting agamas and shastras written long back to see whether women can be barbers. Grow up guys. I go to a sports bar here for my hair cut and I see only womenfolk doing that job. In fact I liked their sense of style in hair cut. No wonder we are still crawling in terms of development, while we had the potential to sprint.

I have been going through blogs of late. Something really struck me. Most of the bloggers loathe discussing politics. Or they dont even want to voice their opinions, whether it is the dissolution of the Bihar assembly or the performance of the govt. That made me to ask this question seriously. Are we, the netizens give two hoots to our political views? Or is it that we dont have a view at all? What ever be your political leanings, Left, Right or Centre, we should be able to articulate ourselves better than many mass leaders through a medium like net. Why are we not putting it to practice? We have lobbies like Sugar barons, Labor unions, but where is the lobby for hardworking citizens like us? It is time that we set things right by resurrecting the fact that the middleclass hardworking citizens are not pushovers and silent spectators. Indian politics is at a stage good for such a rising. Any one who reads this, think for a second, and have this as an agenda in any of your local Blog meets. Am sure there will be opposition, but hey, what is life without its own challenges?

Now, finished my morning coffee, and dose of reading blogs. Need to get ready for the dreadgery of work. Few more weeks and I will be enjoying the Aloo tikki in Jayanagar chat shops and Manchow soup in Tiger Trail.

Cheers

Though am not new to Blogging, am starting this new one in Blogspot. You can get a gist of worldly gossip to words of wisdom.

Somethings in life are left unsaid. Like Husband wanting to kill wife or vice versa. Saw an advertisement for a film where the couples were both assassins and they have to kill each other. Tell me one husband or a wife who at some point of time, wanted to kill the other?? Almost every one would have gone for the jugular at some point of time. If not for gun control and murder being a crime, we might have dead meat all over the place. Of course, women have better ways to kill a man. Not necessarily by the gory sword or a swanky pistol. For those who are uninitiated to movies, I am talking about Mr & Mrs Smith, hitting the theaters in a couple of weeks.

One hour of my morning time goes in reading blogs, news items, scribbling stuff, reading stories. What good can come out of it? Many!! I get to know what Piyush Garyali did or which dark side did Anita Bora visited. That makes me to set the agenda to visit the place which was hitherto unknown to me. Is'nt that a useful thing?

Am relocating to Bangalore after I took sabbatical from the humdrum of Bangalore life for a while. My last visit to Bangalore was horrible, with me having had to spend only one day in Bangalore, and of that 8 hours in a company meeting people after people, telling what I know and what can I do to their organisation. This after driving down from Pune to Bombay, fighting with Jet Airways who delayed their flight only to reschedule me to travel by Indian Airlines. Reached Bangalore but had a hard time driving from Airport to JP Nagar, Took more than 1.5 hours. I could have crawled from Pune in that time and reached Bangalore. The average speed in that stretch could be anywhere between 6-7km/hour. It is going to get on my nerves for sure, but hey, I do have nerves of steel.

Was reading one of the recent articles on girls being cheaper than cows in Haryana. That left me wondering whether I did not bargain. Imagine the cost of having a wife. It is not only monetary cost but also emotional cost. One has to say "I love you" 10 times a day in different occasions, not necessarily in a robotic way but in different situations. Drive them around like a chauffer, drop them at shopping mall, drive and park 1 km away, walk back to join in shopping for that tiny winy birthday card for her sister, eat out, skip the 10:00 PM news on NDTV, drive back and then do other tings. Next day same things in a different flavour. Women are expensive. I dont know what mistake these girls did. May be they did not know their potential. But the news made me sad leaving aside jokes. Women are precious things in the world. One cannot attach a price tag at all. To all those women who might or might not read this, including my wife, "You girls rock".

Got to start working, now that I am done with my initial bout. Hope to keep punching more.

Cheers