If half the world were sterile...

I came across this interesting article by David Brooks in the New York Times. It talks about a scenario where one half of the entire population of the Earth, is rendered sterile due to some hypothetical, freak Solar 'incident'. What would happen in such a situation? I tend to agree with the author that the fabric of society would disintegrate - majority of the human race lives on the premise that "I am living today, to make my tomorrow better". In a situation where entire populations of a continent does not have a tomorrow, there will not be any shards of moral fabric left in them, to help them distinguish between right and wrong.

I found this particular excerpt very powerful -

Instead there would be brutal division between those with the power to possess the future and those without. If millions of immigrants were brought over, they would populate the buildings but not perpetuate the culture. They wouldn’t be like current immigrants because they wouldn’t be joining a common project, but displacing it. There would be no sense of peoplehood, none of the untaught affections of those who are part of an organic social unit that shares the same destiny.

.....

But, of course, that’s the beauty of this odd question. There are no sterilizing sunspots. Instead, we are blessed with the disciplining power of our posterity. We rely on this strong, invisible and unacknowledged force — these millions of unborn people we will never meet but who give us the gift of our way of life.

It is in this context that we should view crackpot schemes which are usually proposed by crazy, dictator wannabes. It has been said rightly that "Power corrupts; And absolute power corrupts, absolutely". Those who are power hungry, even for the sake of the 'common good' (the main raison d'etre of most governments around the world) are easily corrupted by this very same 'common good'.

Distrust those who claim to offer these global panacea. There is a rot of corruption behind them.

Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution - where the discussion first started!

Three articles that are worth reading.

Here are three articles I find very interesting.

1. 'Macroeconomics is Complete Bunkum' - by Bill Frezza: For a free market supporter and a strong follower of the Austrian School of Economics like me, this article rings as being very true. As the author mentions, it is only Hayek, Rothbard and other Austrian School economists like Menger who advocated the futility of the use macroeconomic statistics and its direct result - central planning. I say down with this macroeconomic, central planning nonsense! Viva Liberty!

MACRO-ECONOMIST: Voodoo Indeed!

(Hat Tip to Mr. Sadowski in the RCM comments)

2. 'Our Friends in Bombay' - by Christopher Hitchens: Staying true to my earlier call that people around the world need to be continually sensitized about the regular nature of terrorist attacks in India - the most by any standard, outside of a war zone - I find this article as a superb piece of straight talk by Mr. Hitchens.

3. 'Eye Spy' - by Priya Ganapati: Finally! Here is something I have always hoped would happen. A camera in the eye! As a photography enthusiast, one of my regular complaints is the fact that in the presence of a camera, people being photographed, stop being 'themselves' and pose. While I accept that it is a mark of a great photographer who can prevent his subject from doing this, I have hoped many times that the camera become invisible. Like an extension to ones' eye. Well, a camera in one's eye socket is the closest to this dream as can be!

'Broken Window' theory and Mumbai's litter problem

I am guilty for I have littered. But its only because others did it too!

I use Mumbai's suburban railway network to commute to and from work everyday. I also eat the absolutely delicious chana, singg and other sinful treats which are served on platforms. I also face the problem of disposing the paper cones they come in, once I am done eating the contents . There are no dustbins in the trains. Sometimes I carry them home in my pocket and dispose of them in the dustbins there, but mostly I litter the platforms.

Like the rest of them.

I feel bad for doing it, but I say to myself - hey, there is so much litter and filth all over Mumbai that what harm could one additional little peice of paper do?

Does this sound familiar? If yes, we are all providing more evidence to strengthen the 'Broken Window' theory which a group of researchers from Netherlands have just proved.

"The idea that observing disorder can have a psychological effect on people has been around for a while...

...

It was this effect that his experiments, which have just been published in Science, set out to test.

His group’s first study was conducted in an alley that is frequently used to park bicycles. As in all of their experiments, the researchers created two conditions: one of order and the other of disorder. In the former, the walls of the alley were freshly painted; in the latter, they were tagged with graffiti (but not elaborately, to avoid the perception that it might be art). In both states a large sign prohibiting graffiti was put up, so that it would not be missed by anyone who came to collect a bicycle. All the bikes then had a flyer promoting a non-existent sports shop attached to their handlebars. This needed to be removed before a bicycle could be ridden.

When owners returned, their behaviour was secretly observed. There were no rubbish bins in the alley, so a cyclist had three choices. He could take the flyer with him, hang it on another bicycle (which the researchers counted as littering) or throw it to the floor. When the alley contained graffiti, 69% of the riders littered compared with 33% when the walls were clean."

Going by this theory, here is an answer to all those who think that cleaning up the streets of Mumbai is futile. If it were done, people would not see litter and would be that much more reluctant to be the ones who litter it.

It is high time. Lets keep our cities clean, then others will too.

The Valedictorian Administration

As Obama assembles his cabinet and his administration team an interesting observation has come to light. The new administration is going to be one which has a large number of very highly educated members. David Brooks, an op-ed columnist from the New York Times writes,

"Jan. 20, 2009, will be a historic day. Barack Obama (Columbia, Harvard Law) will take the oath of office as his wife, Michelle (Princeton, Harvard Law), looks on proudly. Nearby, his foreign policy advisers will stand beaming, including perhaps Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale Law), Jim Steinberg (Harvard, Yale Law) and Susan Rice (Stanford, Oxford D. Phil.).

The domestic policy team will be there, too, including Jason Furman (Harvard, Harvard Ph.D.), Austan Goolsbee (Yale, M.I.T. Ph.D.), Blair Levin (Yale, Yale Law), Peter Orszag (Princeton, London School of Economics Ph.D.) and, of course, the White House Counsel Greg Craig (Harvard, Yale Law)."

For people like me who wanted Obama to lose the election, because of his left leaning, 'Socialistic' policies, this news of the centrist (atleast!) intelligentsia being at the helm of the administration is appealing. But for the sake of it, I can't resist poking fun at the new administration which looks like a reunion or alumni meet of the very best from the top Ivy League colleges in the World. In fact the same columnist also has this to say.

"If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed"

I should give more credit though to these 'Achieveatrons', after all, closer to home here in India we have some very well qualified people leading us - Dr. Manmohan Singh (Cambridge, Oxford. PH.d) and P. Chidambaram (University of Madras, Harvard MBA) - and we are not doing so bad! Right?

But, one more thing that comes to my mind is this - did you notice the number of lawyers who are there in the administration? Including the president-elect and the first lady, the count is 5 out of 9 members listed above. The actual numbers may be more. This reminds of this famous scene in the movie "The Devil's Advocate" with Al Pacino, the Devil Incarnate rants that he chose the profession of a lawyer becuase "The law puts us into everything." He goes on to say that there are more lawyers in law school than practising lawyers in the US and that "We are coming out. Guns blazing!"

Hmmm. I wonder if this is the actual second coming of you know who!

The Messiah or... ahem...

On a serious note, it is heartening to note that president elect is not veering so much to the left as many had feared/hoped he would. But still, there are some shortfalls in his selection of candidates. According to Mark Cuban, there is a lack of entreprenuers advicing Obama on his team. He writes,

"There are a lot of great minds on the list.

“Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Laura Tyson, who served as Clinton’s top economic adviser; former Fed Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson; Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons; former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William Donaldson and Xerox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy.

Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Roel Campos, an ex-SEC commissioner, and Warren Buffett are also on the advisory board.”

Notice anything missing ?

Not a single entrepreneur. Yes Warren Buffett started a business, but he will be the first to tell you that he “doesn’t do start ups”. Which means there isn’t a single person advising PE Obama that we know of that knows that its like to start and run a business in this or any economic climate. That’s a huge problem."

This is absolutely true. It is only thruough entreprenuerial vigor that one can see this battered economy regain its past glory and such calculated risk takers need to be fairly represented in the administration.

But then again, will entreprenuers want to get into politics and waste their time? They might be more interested in taking the 'worthwhile risks' in the Market rather than in the political arena!

Up in smoke!

India's beedi makers are in trouble because of the smoking ban imposed by the Government. Mint reports that beedi makers have forecasted a job loss of 1 million in the industry because of the ban on smoking. The situation they find themselves in is funny.

“Things are looking quite bad. At one point, we even wanted to close down [production facilites] but that is impossible on account of the tough laws pertaining to closure. This (smoking) ban has made life quite difficult,” said [Ramesh] Patel

Thanks to the smoke and mirrors law which prevents smoking in 'public' places, the beedi industry is experiencing a fall in sales. But wait, thanks to the communists whom they pandered to before the smoking ban to help them 'compete' against the big tobacco companies, they are now not even able to cut their losses and bail out! The 'tough' laws preventing industries from retrenching its workers when experiencing the 'downturn' is a pet project of the CITU [Centre of Indian Trade Unions].

What makes their situation hilarious is that even their erstwhile supporters seem to have also ditched them. Mint reports,

"Pandhe, also the president of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu), however, said the trade union will, however, not lend its support to beedimanufacturers. “People will smoke indoors if they want to and this will not impact their sales,” he noted "

There you have it. The very idealogical banner of protectionism has now come back and bit the beedi industry's behind!

I am not a smoker, but I think the ban on smoking is nonsense, simply because there is no way it can be implemented in a country such as ours. I daily see innumerable number of people 'flouting' the rule on the streets.

But, if you think this arguement is contradictory to the 'falling sales' arguement of the beedi manufacturers, think again. The market unfortunately runs on cues from the government. While the ban may not be effective because of it cannot be easily implemented, it has an impact on the industry value chain. The industry works because on various interconnected cogs. Farmers grow the tobacco, the beedi maker rolls the beedi, the distributor channels it and the retailer sells it. Due to the ban, while the consumer may not stop purchasing (the government argues that smokers will smoke at home and hence sales will not fall, although this may not be entirely true) the cost of making a beedi will rise. The farmer may not want to harvest tobacco fearing a fall in demand, the distributor may not channel it fearing fall in demand and the retailer may not stock it fearing that people may not buy it. This will eventually cause a fall in sales. Hence an entire industry value chain will fail.

I think the ban on smoking should be repealed. Instead a Pigouvian solution should be sought. It will make the industry either abandon a product which causes negative externalities, but still make it available for those who can 'afford' the negatives and pay for offsetting them. A market solution to the negative externality of smoking can be the only true solution.

Co-opetition, collusion and free markets

Co-opetition is when traditional competitors in a market form a pact and offer a single product, service or an experience to the consumers in order to avoid splitting the market shares. It is optimal when the market is saturated and further fragmentation is not beneficial to the players involved.

Can co-opetition be a good solution all the times?

Consider the case of the flower vendors outside Dadar railway station in Mumbai. The small lane where the sell their flowers is a key artery which all the pedestrians use to get to the railway station from workplaces in the Dadar area. Come a festival season, this street is so crowded that getting to the station for commuters is nearly impossible! Now, assume that people who regularly use this street all decide to work out a deal with the flower vendors.

Assume that deal is simple - the flower sellers will sit only on one side of the road thereby allowing the commuters to freely use the other side of the road. In return, the flower sellers who are displaced could be incentivized monetarily or sell their daily quota to other flower sellers who sit on the side of the road where they are not displaced at prices slightly higher than what they would sell to consumers. All these transactions are facilitated by a small association formed with participation from the flower sellers and commuters. There is no involvement from the law enforcement agencies or the government.

Unfortunately, although I am a firm believer of free markets and voluntary regulations (like the one mentioned above), the following concerns pop into my head immediately:

• The above system will work when the monetary incentive which the displaced flower sellers get is more than what they can make in the free market. It won't be business sense to be party to such a scheme if the flower seller ends up making a loss. Hence, the value of the incentive would essentially need to be above the profit of the most profitable flower seller. A threshold price which will need to be borne by the commuters.
• How would the consumers distribute the cost of bearing the incentive given? As the commuters are not a homogeneous community and there would be many who would not be willing to partake any financial cost and not mind the madness.
• Where does co-opetition end and collusion begin? The displaced and not-displaced flower sellers can soon start forming cartels and look to make profits in the arbitrage thereby offsetting the commuter's costs.

And the problems I can forsee are many more. Some trivial and some profound. What about enforcing the framework of the law on those who default? It is when I see such situations where the market is so dense and players innumerable that I feel that regulation from the government is the only feasible way out. One overarching rule which all people have to abide by and enforced by the government. Although I hate myself for admitting this, I doubt free market mechanics to be able to handle such a situation when the market players are compelled to make a profit by any means possible, so that one can feed oneself the next day.

One mega solution would be to privatize the entire suburban railway system in Mumbai. This would force the private company to make the surroundings, entries and exits to the station commuter friendly to keep up business. This would involve costs, which eventually would have to be borne by the commuter, atleast initially - and given the fabric of current Indian society, such a plan would face severe opposition. So we are stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Bold plans like privatizing the suburban railway system in Mumbai would never get off the ground because of the opposition, and even small bottom up approaches like voluntary self imposed regulations by the people who are involved in the matter is also doomed to fail because of the immense number of variables. One would need to impose a very strict 'Police Raj' to see that all these variables are harnessed - which is defeating the very premise that it is a voluntary.

What really bugs me is, how then can a society like that of India be, even gradually moved towards a free market economy from its current socialistic bent of mind. Top down, mega projects would fail because they would never get off the ground and would have to be championed, ironically by the government itself, and bottom-up approaches which would act as shining examples of how efficiently a voluntary free market regulation can work, showcasing it so that it can be adopted in other situations, also are doomed to fail due to the sheer number of hurdles it needs to overcome!

Chalta Hai...

I recently finished reading Khushwant Singh's "Train to Pakistan". I had heard about it, read the reviews, read the sunday supplement commentaries about it and seen the trailer of the movie - but never read the book itself. The thing that struck me most about the story is the fact that it is poignant even today, 60 years after the brutal partition of the Indian Subcontinent. Khushwant Singh's prose is easy to read and almost like a screenplay unfolds to the reader and comes alive. The book was also accompanied by photographs of Margaret Bourke White, the renowned Life photojournalist who covered the horrors of the great partition. The horrifying photographs of vultures feeding on the carrion of human flesh and other such, helped bring the context of the prose in morbid detail.

The characters of the book are not all perfect and there are no true protagonists or antagonists. As the prose makes very clear, "The fact is both sides (Hindus & Muslims) killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both raped", almost every character in the book has some or other shade of grey. As I read through the book and was introduced to feelings of the various characters, another thing struck me as being very true. The character of Hukum Chand, the local magistrate and most influential person in the story is according to me, representative of our collective nature - of the people of the Indian Subcontinent - the fact that we do not have high standards for ourselves.

Hukum Chand's character is one of a lackadaisical, unkempt person who does not have very high standards for himself. He is corrupt and given the circumstance and the power that he wields, guilty of not doing anything constructive. He is also stuck in a moral conflict with himself - he recognizes his ineptitude and the bad that it is leading to, but is unable to compel himself to do anything better. He ends up rationalizing that "life is like that" and one has to go on with it. This is probably the most damaging kind of rationalizing a person can do and the mojority of the populace of the subcontinent is guilty of doing this throughout our lives. We have the "Chalta Hai" attitude - which is the anchor tied against our legs.

Back in college a professor asked us - a batch of soon to graduate MBA students, a question - "What is holding India back?". After some debate about population and restrictive government policy and other such like, the professor answered his own question. He showed us students the need to be fiercely demanding in improving the quality of one's life, a spirit which he had found in people struggling to survive in post-war Cambodia - and in juxtaposition, the lack of the same spirit in the Indian psyche. Most of us were moved by this and spent sometime debating and discussing this topic. But soon the hullabaloo of the topic waned and we were all consumed in the pursuit of academic requirements. Most of us now have comfortable jobs and are settled in the pursuit of monetary rewards and the topic is all but lost as one good presentation during the MBA course.

As I read the book, I have realized that it is the nature of Hukum Chand and truly that of the majority of our populace is the main cause of our being backward and toothless. And toothless we are. Consider the issue of our national security. A few colleagues and friends of mine were recently having a conversation about the spate of bomb blasts which has hit our metro's in the last couple of months - Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi. Soon we realized that there is probably no other part of the World today, apart from Iraq where there is a full scale war, that there are bomb blasts every other day and the response or the action to curb it is not even registering a blip. We as a nation have come to accept this sorry state of affairs as just another incident and "Chalta Hai" attitude is manifest.

I live in Mumbai and commute everyday to office on the local suburban trains. The passanger carrying capacity these trains according to estimates is around 1700 people. A recent survey estimated that more 5100 people occupy the space meant for 1700 people during rush hour. The conditions of the trains are bad - one is barely able to find a foothold into the train at most times and many people hang on precariously at the edge and on the roofs, but very few people are committed to do anything about it. One soon realizes that there is no other viable alternative for getting from one place to another, without burning a hole in one's pocket or loosing a lot of time. The traffic is so bad that one ends up rationalizing that travelling for a short time with one's face directly in the next person's armpit on the local suburban train is better. According to statistics around three people die everyday in cases related to the Mumbai suburban train system and the effort to solve this horrendous situation is hardly visible. The number of people falling off trains and getting seriously hurt are innumerable - I happened to witness one such incident earlier today morning - but we hardly are bothered to improve the situation. In fact, the reaction one is more likely to hear about the Mumbai suburban railway is, that it is amazing that despite all these problems, it still manages to run and ferry millions of people to their destinations everyday1 The "Chalta Hai" attitude is manifest here in the fact that we dont have demanding standards and the alternatives are so bad that we are okay even with the despicable conditions.

And this attitude has a the same nature as a contagious disease. We are 'okay' with people defecating all over the railway tracks and footpaths - afterall these poor people do not even have a place to stay - and we are also 'okay' with our kitchen refuse to be thrown just outside our own front doors. We have only recently started getting water in our taps, so we need to adjust if the government cannot organize garbage disposal yet. And this attitude also makes us accept multiple bomb blasts as something borne as a result of India's muti-ethnic populace. We always seems to be under the misconception that we need to adjust with what we have or what is thrown at us - but fail to realize that once we have accepted this, we will always get only what is thrown at us.

Another thing which is common to our response to all the bad things that happen to us is a display of rage - usually misdirected. I can recollect an incident of arguement with my friends over an alleged case of racism against us Indians in foreign countries. The reaction to such a situation was rage and anger directed at the foreigner. The arguement which I had to this reaction was that, rage against a racist remark is futile and it was as if "I can't do much about the fact that I am being racially abused, but as long as I can react to it by being angry its okay". This for me is another manifestation of the "Chalta Hai" attitude as being angry and retorting to someone will not help solve the situation.

The crux of the problem with the pschye of a majority of Indians is that we do not set high standards for ourselves. We are in moral conflict with ourselves because of this and to make up for the lack of standards we have developed a pseudo sense of bravado which demands us to react to situations and expect some counter reaction. All the time we are hoping that something or someone will step up and make the case for us and show us the path to betterment while always accepting what is thrown at us. This according to me is the main cause of India's backwardness.

An Example of Perfectly Competitive Market Condition

A market condition where no buyer/seller has market power - ability enough to influence the price at which a product/service/experience is sold, is called a perfect competition. Such conditions are not very common as there is a tendency for cartelization and the market condition usually becomes a oligopoly. But, I think there is one market which is a superb example of a perfect competiton example - the festival offerings market near Dadar Station in Mumbai!

The Ganesh Festival is currently underway and everyday as I walk to office walking amidst the bustling market which sells everything from flowers and incense sticks to toys and sweets, I cant help but be amazed at the number of buyers and sellers who throng these markets. There are many 'firms' which are selling 'homogeneous'- identical products and innumerous buyers. Also, anyone who wants to sell flower garlands or homemade wicker baskets can find a spot on the road and set up shop - very low entry barrier; well, there is a threat that some goons or a police guy might object to you sitting in that particular spot - but finding another spot nearby will not be difficult. All these conditions indicate towards a perfectly competitive environment.

I did a small dipstick survey to test this hypothesis the other day. I went around asking prices for one yard of a flower garland. The market can be classifed into three distinct geographical locations- as the sellers who are close to the entry of the rail station, those who have set up shop under the flyover and those who are on the pavements on the roadside. The price was uniformly in the range of Rs.6 to Rs. 6.50 for one foot of the flower. This price was probably on the lower side as I asked the questions in the evening and the quality of flowers was not as good as in the morning. Those under the flyover whose product was safe from the rain and sun during the day asked for Rs.6.50, but the number of people buying from them was much lower (This could also be because the area under the flyover is limited and the crowds feel suffocated). The ones near the station entry had poor quality products - dried out flowers. Probably because of the sheer number of people who move in that area during the day and the heat. The ones on the roadside pavements had the bulk of the business and uniformly charged Rs.6 for one foot. I asked quite a few people on the road for the price and all of them concurred with this amount.

I tried demanding, for a foot of flower, to be sold at Rs.4 and found nobody willing to sell. Market information is also high among the producers (another classic condition of a perfectly competitve environment) and they know that no other in that market would sell to me at Rs.4 and they are willing to forgo my business not offer an attractive price (Although, the quantity I was consuming was very small, I doubt if they would have budged from the price had I mentioned even a bigger volume of purchase). On the other hand, although there was no way for me to test it, the information of price and quality was high among the buyers also. Most of the people buying were women who are streetsmart and have an 'andaz' (right estimate) of what needs to be paid for the product.

This is an interesting market to study economics in. The dynamics of the market are purely competitive. I wish I could have spent a longer time in the market to see how the price transition from Rs.10 per foot in the morning (estimate), when the flowers are fresh to Rs.6 in the evening happens and where amongst the three geographical sections of the market does this happen. Is this price an equilibrium price which comes after fluctuations or is it a straight drop in price. This could be an interesting school assignment on economics if someone is willing to spend sometime in all the grime and brave both the rains and sunshine!

Some more interesting links!

Have been reading many different stuff these days. Some links are below, which I found worth commenting on.

1. The Dark Knight was a superb movie. I have blogged previously about Heath Ledger's superb performance in the movie. This link discusses the concept of Game Theory through the medium of the plot in the movie. Those who have seen the movie would agree that the opening scene of the robbery is simply brilliant. The author of this article has described the concept of game theory that is prevalent in that scene.

2. Usain Bolt. This man is a genius. He has set the world record in the 100m and 200m atheletics events at the Olympics. A small survey of the world records shows the magnitude of his achievement. He ran the 100m in 9.69 seconds, an amazing 37 km/hr. Donald Lippincott in 1912 covered the same 100m in 10.6 seconds. So, it basically means that to remove around 0.9 seconds of the world record, it has taken mankind 98 years! This shows the magnitude of competiton that exists in the event and the intensity of physical and mental preparation the athelete needs to go through to acheive this. But, the IOC chairman Jacques Rogge, a 'sports functinary' and a kind of person who spends his time admiring modern art and literature, doesnt seem to care too much about this. Sample this,

“I have no problem with him doing a show,” Rogge said in an interview with three international news agency reporters. “I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the other ones immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 meters.”

What a load of Cr*p. I think the chairman needs to focus on being a sports functionary and not worry about how world champions react. I think he is no better than our Indian Politicians who claim that they are responsible for helping our Indian Atheletes win medals!

3. Always wanted to have your own shop? If you wanted to become a Dukaandar here is your opportunity. This is the Dukaan of the web kind, but still its kinda interesting. This website offers you a chance to create your own web store, where you can sell products from other websites and also make money in the process. What will you be selling you ask? Anything for that matter. Even Lemonade maybe!

4. Imagine sitting with your headphones on, disconnected from the world listening to your favorite music. Is it pretty much a solitary experience which helps you zone out? Does music helps you get a high? Yes. And it can get you rather stoned apparently! These are called Digital Drugs and they supposedly synchronize your brain waves with sound and move them to altered states of relaxation and alertness. Hmm, I wonder if all the musicians are getting high on dope or music, actually!

Assorted Links I Find Interseting!

Below you will find a list of assorted links which I think are interesting. I have made a small summary of each of these topics also which you might preview before you click on the link and read/view the original articles/website. Hope you find it interesting!

• New way of searching on the internet - "Searchme Visual Search": You think Google is the ultimate search engine? Think again. What do you think contributes to the cult brand status which Mac enjoys over Windows? Its the visual superiority. I have blogged about the Cuil search engine before and the way it presents data to the searcher. I came across this Visual Search engine. Human civilization and communication in the stone age was all visual - hand signals, pictorial. Then slowly language developed and 'text' which is an abstraction of the visual communication gained precedence. But with the advent of electronics in the early 20th century, the visual medium (television, cinema etc) is making a resurgence. This is one of the reasons why print medium is facing a decline around the world. This trend is also prevalent in the web world. First it was text, then came images and now the most popular sites are video and flash sites. Hence why should'nt the search engine medium be 'Visual' too? Nice website...
• Will the tall man dominate the world? So thinks this article which actually suggests toungue in cheek that "Short People Got No Reason to Live"! When the 6"5' Usain Bolt 'bolted' in the track field in Beijing and set a world record of running 100 m in just 9.69 seconds, the author claims that short people lost their final stronghold - ability to run fast!
• Here is another giant of a man! Micheal Phelps! Eight gold medals... Individually! India as a nation in 108 years of Olympic history has won ONE individual gold medal. I know about all the debates which talk about the lack of infrastructure and all that. But this man Phelps is on a different dimension! He is defenitely a super human! Check out these cartoons about this man! Awesome... Really!

• And finally, what do people on Indiatimes.com read most and email? not surprisingly its about Sex! I remember Khushwant Singh saying what a sex-crazed, voyueristic nation India was, and this I think is more proof of this. Compare what is read most and emailed most. This seems to indicate that we read all genres of news, but the most emailed topics are concerning the happening in the bedroom! I can imagine these emailers who find it interesting to 'share' these topics, hitting the email button while gleefully with dazed eyes drooling over the saucy content! Hey, afterall - even I am blogging about it!

More soon!

Where and what I have been eating!

Blogs about food and eating joints are very common and usually written by true foodies. I am not someone who claims to be gastronomically inclined, and infact most of my friends disqualify my culinary existence as being irrelevant - as I am a vegetarian. But this does not mean that I do not enjoy my food. The variety, the tastes, the experience, the presentation, the ambience of the surroundings and ofcourse the company, do hold a lot of importance in my eating.

Having experienced a bit of both Singapore and Dubai, but having tasted very little of what they have to offer the foodie, as a consequence of being a vegetarian, living in Mumbai now, has been an explosion on the taste buds. Mumbai has, amongst the best restaurants in India which showcase a variety of cuisines from around the World. But what Mumbai also has, is a unique culinary charm of its own. From eating the famous Jumbo Vada Pav for Rs.7/- at Dadar Station or the sweet, sour and spicy Papdi Chaat at Kilash Parbat near Juhu, the city is a haven for people who enjoy street food.

Tyler Cowen from Marginal Revolution recently rated Paris and Buenos Aires as the best places in the World to be explored by walking; and I am sure if a poll was taken about the best places in the World for street food, Mumbai would rank at the top.

Apart from the street food, what Mumbai also offers is a dining experience which is steeped in popular culture. Like any bustling metropolitan, its restaurants and cafes are unique to the city and have a bunch of loyal customers who are both influenced by and contribute to the building up of popular culture around these places. Over the last few weeks I have been ‘eating around’ the city at some of these unique places and savouring the delights they offer.

First up, Leopold Café in South Bombay. This café is on the famous Colaba Causeway, a bustling alleyway in the southern sections of Mumbai. A bustling little place with its unique ambience, dim lighting and the whole Shantaram hustle. Even without its newly acquired importance among foreign tourists who come to soak up the experience from the book, Leopold nevertheless serves good grub. I had a superb cheese omelette and some cold ice tea, and was nostalgically reminded of Koshy’s in my home town of Bangalore. Both these places cater to our Indian hangover from the British Raj and I, for one am not complaining.

Next, I recently had lunch with colleagues from office at The Sports Bar in Lower Parel. Located in the Phoenix Mills shopping complex in South Central Mumbai, this hangout is a good place to chill out with friends on a lazy evening. It is made up in the likenesss of famous European sports bars, where rowdy crowds drink lager beer and cheer for their soccer teams. With televisions showing cricket matches, sports memorabilia in shelves on the walls and a worn out pool table, this is also a place for the advertising crowd from nearby offices to hang around. I went there on a Friday around lunch time and found the place bustling with activity, mainly an office going crowd who were celebrating promotions and discussing business over a beer. They have a good buffet served at lunch time and the pasta chef insists on sprinkling a whole lot of grated cheese on your pasta, instantly giving the place my thumbs up!

Lastly, the famous Chowpatty area in Mumbai is know for its eating hangouts. I haven’t been to most, and I intend to do so very soon. But I did hang out with a few friends at the New Yorkers restaurant in this area recently. Getting to Chowpatty from the Grant Road station, one does come across a Café New York on the way and some of us mistook this as the designated meeting point. But once we all made it to the place on Chowpatty we had a good time. To be frank I wasn’t very keen when my friend had suggested this place, as the New Yorkers in Bangalore had failed and closed down. But, a purely vegetarian restaurant on Church Street in Bangalore was not a good idea to begin with. I was not disappointed by the Mumbai version. Mexican food was the order of the day amongst us friends and we ordered stuff which had names like Tostedoes Ole and waited for it to be good when it arrived, and it was. Achar (pickle) Pizza, a fusion food on the menu also turned out to be something really worth trying. But what finally took me to sheer eating pleasure was the Sizzling Chocolate Brownie we had for dessert. Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla ice cream, on top of which a sizzling, smouldering chocolate sauce is poured is hardly something a chocoholic like me can withstand, and I greedily dug in.

This hardly qualifies as a blog post on the variety of culinary experiences one can have in Mumbai, but rather just a small appetizer. As and when I try out more, I shall definitely write frequently on this topic because I have realized as I write this piece, that writing about food lets me experience the same pleasure I had while eating! And then again, maybe not SO good after all…

"Joker arrested trying to steal Batman" (and he succeeded!)

I came across this headline "Joker Arrested Trying to Steal Batman", on an Internet news website and for an instant thought that someone had written a movie review! I saw The Dark Knight this weekend and was amongst the many who was left spellbound. It is a good movie for all comic book superhero buffs like me; and it is also a good movie for other general audiences who want see a good entertaining flick. Christian Bale reprises his role of the caped crusader, Batman from the movie batman begins. But, the true Dark Knight of the movie is the character of the Joker played by late Heath Ledger.

This post is another one among the numerous blogs about which think that the Joker, and Heath Ledger have literally stolen the show from Batman. Ledger's portrayal of the psychopathic maniac who is least interested in anything other than destroying the very fabric of society is superlative, and I am not saying this to be sympathetic towards Ledger's untimely demise. The character is truly a villian and the kind which cannot be negotiated with. The painted face and constant lisp which the Joker has are but comic book rendering of a facade behind which the maniac thrives, and Ledger does superb justice portraying all this.

There has been speculation in the movie press that Heath Ledger deserves a posthumous nomination atleast if not an Academy Award win for his portrayal of the Joker. Irrespective of whether this happens or not, one thing that is certain is that the Joker has defenitely stolen Batman, and incredulously the actor's life was arrested!

Olympic Mascots...

Why do the mascots for the Olympic Games suck? Most of the the mascots for the summer Olympic games fail to impress me. As a hobby, I follow mascots for various sporting events around the world. The mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics are called ‘Fuwa’ - five mascots which represent traditional Chinese elements of fire, wood, water, gold and earth. But I just don’t find these five interesting or cute enough. Read On

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Singh is King! The throne is his too!

So the UPA government has survived the no confidence motion. Whether the Nuclear deal is good for the country or not, is not something the common man can easily decipher. Many magazine editors, notably Vinod Mehta of Outlook has been strongly against the deal, saying that the deal ties India’s hands despite not being among the countries which have signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

But for the common man, I think all that matters are issues like increasing fuel prices due to the inflation. I for one am happy that Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government survived and we did not have a mid term election. Or even worse some Third Front had come to the forefront and India had a Prime Minister from one of the many ingreidient parties!

So, Singh is King!
Read On...
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Autorickshaw vs The Free Market!

Again, the autorickshaw driver refused to give me conveyance from the suburban railway station back home. I was late in the evening and maybe he was winding up for the day and the direction he wished to go was opposite to where I wanted to. So, I was stranded at the railway station, tired after a long day at work, with a daunting task of having to walk 5km back home. Should I curse the free market system? After all, it is this system which allows these autorickshaw drivers to decide if they are going to accept taking me as their passenger, based on the overall benefit they see in the transaction. Right?
I think not... Read on

Smaller State? No, Smaller Government is Better...

The American magazine has an interesting article on the topic of Geopolitics and how maps are being redrawn. The article titled “Map Quest” talks about the continual flux in the way the various nations of the world keep changing in their ideaologies and with it the economic conditions leading to different postures in foreign policy. Economic changes and the ambitions of the people of a nation always seems to have some kind of correlation. What seems to be interesting is the fact that this economic upswing and downswing seems to be of a cyclical nature.

Take for example the case of India and China; some three hundred years ago, the Indian and Chinese economies were the dominant economies in the world. America and Japan were nothing more that third world countries. During this period, most products that originated in the subcontinent and China were held in very high esteem. And true to the famous saying that ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’ the western businessmen actually copied the articles from the oppulent orient and sold it in their countries for a premium. Ceramic is a classic example of this kind of a situation. It was a product of China and some European entrepreneurs perfected a process to make cheap imitation ceramic and sold it to the western nations. Today, when the US is the dominant economy, we see a reverse situation. Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs are the one becoming competitive by manufacturing western products in a cheaper and better way! Continue...

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Krypton-86 vs The Infinite Wisdom

Jug Suraiya has an interesting article in The Times of India dated 14th, June 2008. It lambasts a research/survey which claims that atheists are smarter than theists. When I read the first few lines I was appalled; how could good ol’ Jug Suraiya do this. As an agnostic myself, I was offended that Jug Suraiya thought that Atheism/Agnosticism did not need intellect.
But after completing the whole article I was in splits. Jug Suraiya contends,

Atheism requires no special brain power. It’s as easy as falling off a log. It’s believing in a God who — omnipotently, omnisciently — creates all these horrors, and more (Hitler, Hiroshima, Mao, Pol Pot, the AIDS virus, sickle cell anaemia, Alzheimer’s, polio etc, etc), which requires adroit intellectual footwork

This indeed is funny stuff. But, however agnostic/atheist I am, there is a seed of doubt. For a believer, there is the blanket of blind faith which covers for all questions; for non-believers on the other hand, there is no such prodigal blanket of faith... Continue

UPDATE:

It is almost fascinating (as if by intelligent design!!) that I came across an article in today’s edition of The American after writing this post, about the culture war between believers and non-believers. Peter J Wallison, in the article titled “Lets declare a truce in the culture war” argues on a similar premise that both the believer and the non-believer are basically unable to prove or falsify the other’s belief. To quote the author,

To the extent that they believe in the correctness of their own position, both sides are simply relying on faith. The only truly rational position is that of the agnostic, who says there is no way to know and probably never will be

I very much agree with what the author contends on this topic. All the rhetoric from both the believer and the non-believer about the correctness of his personal belief and more so the incorrectness of the other side is unfounded and wasteful.... Continue

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"Dissolve like Sugar in Milk" ... Ideas for FMCG

What is important today in terms of branding in FMCG products? With the clutter of products on display and available for consumption, there is increasingly a trend of consumer indifference towards your product. When the product life cycle is also very short, what becomes important is creating a sustainable brand. One solution for this can be explained with this story.

Legend says that when the Parsi immigrants from Iran landed in Gujarat, India many centuries ago, they approached the local King to seek permission to stay in his country. The King who was not very keen on letting foreigners to settle in his land showed the Parsi leader a bowl of milk filled to the brim and said that like this, there was no space for more people. The Parsi leader not to be outdone mixed some sugar into the milk and told the King that his people would dissolve into the society like the sugar and while remaining invisible, sweeten the whole experience!

Similar to this, what is required to help reduce consumer irritability towards FMCG products is that they need to become less in your face, but at the same time be give the consumer a sweet experience!

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"Branding the Zeitgeist" - Trends and implications for branding in future markets

The word Zeitgeist means “Spirit of the Age”. It is the adjective representative of the cultural ethos of the generation and is used to express a world view which is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural progression. It is an illustration of what is popular within the social context and deemed as popular culture. Brands are amongst the best symbols of the generation and branding as a faculty has also been an integral part of the creation of a generation’s identity. This has had a profound impact on the emphasis of marketers in their branding efforts. The method of marketing to a specific generation is affecting the way we promote and sell products and services. Each generation has its own characteristics and these are leveraged by marking these targets by marketers. Branding efforts for each generation is unique in its essence, and are so designed to not only suit a particular market niche but also in their wake create a market by means of contributing to the popular culture of the generation. Consumer behaviour which is a study of how, what, when and why people buy is also significantly influenced by the zeitgeist. The practices of studying trends always focus on understanding the shifts in preferences in consumer behaviour and seek to maximize the impact by pre-empting them. Each generation has created its own unique trait when it comes to consumer behaviour and marketing has always had to adapt to these changes.
Popular culture has been represented in the art of the generation and this is the focus of this paper. From painting and graffiti to comic books and music; design has evolved in parallel with the generations and with advance in technology has now moved into the virtual space with the boom of the global animation industry.

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Evolution: Is it Progress?

The following dialogue is a conversation I had with a friend of mine over the internet. She had written an article about the need for uplifting the status of women in Indian society where she positively advocates affirmative action. The way this dialogue developed into a very fruitful conversation and how interestingly it got us both to think about so many related topics was fascinating enough for me to present it here. I have edited out the smiley characters and certain irrelevant details usually associated with an online conversation, but maintained the overall chronology and flow of thought. It makes interesting reading for me every time I re-read it!

ME: Hey, I was reading your article about women’s plight in India and the need for equal rights. Do you actually believe in affirmative action??

FRIEND: yes

ME: Hmm… I see.

FRIEND: Why do you ask? I also believe that the world tends towards undoing itself

ME: Explain?

FRIEND: I mean that in any given environment things break down, rather than fix themselves

ME: They tend towards chaos you mean?

FRIEND: Right. But society is a different ball game, and that’s why we need affirmative action. We're animals after all!

ME: Why do you say different ball game?

FRIEND: Oh! I meant different from nature.

ME: So u mean to say chaos theory does not apply to society but to nature... hence in society we need affirmative action. Am I right?

FRIEND: Yes! But I am just a simple wanderer

ME: Wanderer where? In what realm?

FRIEND: In my head, silly!

ME: Oh! Hah ha… but your assertion isn’t it counterintuitive though?

FRIEND: How so?

ME: When you said "I also believe the world tends towards undoing itself" do you mean society or nature with regards to the word ‘World’?

FRIEND: I mean nature, sorry I should have specified

ME: So if get your reasoning right, in nature things tend towards chaos rather than fix themselves.... and in society it is the opposite? If so why do you need affirmative action in a society?

FRIEND: No, society does not naturally tend towards anything.

ME: Oh!

FRIEND: When I say society I am talking about society guided by a force. Are you getting what I am saying?

ME: No actually, I see a few contradictions.

FRIEND: Where?

ME: Wait; let me understand what you are saying properly. You are saying that nature tends towards chaos and that society is not opposite but rather it does not tend towards anything, so to push it towards non-chaos you need affirmative action. Have I got it right?

FRIEND: No. To push nature towards non-chaos you need affirmative action. Society is guided by a set of rules; nature is not (except by the supernatural force of course)

ME: So the supernatural is guiding nature towards chaos and mankind through acts like affirmative action is guiding nature towards non-chaos, which in its guided form is called society?? Is this what you are saying?

FRIEND: Yes. See, it is like a kindergarten and the children that go to it. The kindergarten is the world, the children are the people and the teacher is the government. During the break the children are left unattended. What do you think happens?

ME: I see. But why should mankind go against the supernatural and natural scheme?

FRIEND: Mankind doesn’t but society does go against it, because society isn’t part of nature. It is man made and by the way when I say society, I mean government-led groups of people.

ME: Wait a minute. So is there a qualitative factor when you differentiate society and nature. Is one a better form of the other?

FRIEND: Ok let me explain. For example, do you think we were made to be monogamous?

ME: No, it is by individual choice.

FRIEND: Yes. Society is a civilised form of nature. Like what John Nash said, we can’t ALL have the best, so we have to compromise with just what is good. That’s why we need society! Other wise the stronger and more equipped could just go around killing the rest!

ME: So is civilized form of nature a better or worse state than nature?

FRIEND: It is better, because of our highly developed brains. We have the power of judgment which makes us want to improve things around us.

ME: But if so, why do you then say that we are all animals anyway? Animals lack the power of judgement don’t they? Also animals cannot appreciate pleasure, while they maybe able to experience it. It is hardwired in their brains; what is good and bad.

FRIEND: I said we are all animals AFTER ALL because our psyche can be divided into two things - instinct and judgment. They are completely different. Society controls instinct and makes us pay a price for doing what we truly want to do and make pleasure seem bad.

ME: Isn’t appreciation a form of judgement?

FRIEND: Yes

ME: So why do we aspire towards society if it makes pleasure seem bad especially when nature in its unguided form does not pose these problems?

FRIEND: Because we don’t want to follow the principle of survival of the fittest, this is paralysing evolution if you ask me. We're trying to make room for all.

ME: But aren’t you, in the pursuit of ensuring equity towards the weak, denying the gifted the utility of their natural endowments?

FRIEND: Yes! Exactly! That is why I said it paralyses evolution in its natural form. But there is a problem in this whole thing; the problem is we can think. And that may not actually be a problem, but a part of evolution in a larger sense.

ME: Hmm… Can you explain what you mean when you say "problem is we can think and that may not actually be a problem"?

FRIEND: Think of it this way time goes on no matter what; and we as humans are on top of the pyramid, right?

ME: Ok.

FRIEND: Now our brains developed through evolution?

ME: Yes

FRIEND: And society had nothing to do with it.

ME: To a large extent.

FRIEND: So isn’t government and making room for the weak also part of "natural" evolution in a larger sense? Let’s face it, if it is on this Earth... its NATURAL

ME: But wait! Isn’t that a contradiction? When you say "so isn’t government and making room for the weak also part of "natural" evolution in a larger sense" then by your definition of society being constituted by government, shouldn’t the policy of making room for the weak or “actions of society" be moving away from the natural order of evolution and survival of the fittest etc ??

FRIEND: Yes! That is what I said. What I am saying is that isn’t this moving away from the natural order? A part of evolution in a larger sense?

ME: Hey! But isn’t that a contradiction?

FRIEND: Ok, let me explain. Do you think civilisation would have happened anyway? Or is it a permutation or combination of several factors?

ME: No it would not. Civilization is a process of refinement... of evolution

FRIEND: But no, could it not have happened differently?

ME: No! Because it is following a natural order; survival of the fittest.

FRIEND: But, how does society promote survival of the fittest?

ME: Ok tell me, in a society is competence rewarded? What happens to the incompetent or the unfit?

FRIEND: yes it is. But incompetents are taken care of. They are given chances.

ME: Not at the behest of the competent but!

FRIEND: Then how do you explain taxes? Why do I pay my money for the betterment of the poor?

ME: That is why in the future with more evolved societies economic policies will tend towards laissez faire and the anti Robin Hood will prevail!

FRIEND: But you have to admit this is paralysing evolution in its narrow sense.

ME: According to me, evolution is like a scatter plot there are 'experiments' on either side of the trend line, but the trend in this case is towards refinement. A Society based on communism is one such experiment, where the fit person is expected to pay for the unfit person’s survival. But as communism is being phased out so will other counterproductive societal influences.

FRIEND: Are you saying that as a whole we are average in to refinement?

ME: Yes.

FRIEND: So you are saying that we are getting there, our children are getting smarter and so on. And if so what is perfect?

ME: The trend is towards superior intellect.

FRIEND: Then how will society erase the lesser mortals?

ME: Alvin Toffler in his famous book "Future Shock" says that more has been achieved in the last 3 generations than the whole 800 lifetimes of mankind.

FRIEND: But isn’t this acceleration in progress largely due to technology?

ME: Considering that average human life is 60 year, we have had approximately 800 ancestors, as Homo sapiens. Consider this, 750 of them were spent in caves, only the past 50 have lived in society. Only the last 5 that have seen the printed word and only the last two that have understood electricity! So to answer your question, society will not erase the lesser mortals, it will create through the progress of the competent few, enough to make the lesser mortals better off. To give them a chance not through subsidizing or through affirmative action, but through improving the overall standard of living! Not by giving the man fish, but rather by teaching him how to fish.

FRIEND: Do you really think so?

ME: Yes.

FRIEND: But technology is making us do less!

ME: Exactly! By providing us with something which even you mentioned keeps on moving, irrespective of anything else. Time.... time to better utilize our mind for other productive things.

FRIEND: But that is for a fraction of the world’s population the rest either live of these few people or have enough money to buy their way through and there is a whole class of people who lose out in the bargain

ME: When u say that there is a fraction of the worlds population that is enjoying the benefit consider this. John D Rockefeller who is considered the richest American ever to live did not even have the luxury of using electricity in his house. None of the creature comforts we have today which we take for granted. Simple medicines for common ailments even! Despite his $200 billion estimated wealth! Aren’t we better off than the richest American of all time?

FRIEND: But Rockefeller did not need these conveniences at that time.

ME: Are you denying that there has been any progress altogether?

FRIEND: No. I am denying the fact that we're better off now! Tell me, do u measure progress by the things we can afford?

ME: Is the ability to take the cholera vaccine to remote parts of Africa better than not being to?

FRIEND: Yes but what is technology helping us to have? A better life in what way-medicines when we need it? But does modern society allow for equitable distribution of medicines? Only the rich can afford medicines for cancer and HIV.

ME: Through the advancement in technology the basic standards of living are improving. In the past there were the super rich and the super poor. And even the super rich lacked basic comforts of life. Coming to your question of AIDS and Cancer vaccines and the lobbyists who are working towards preventing the poor from getting these easily; think about when penicillin and anaesthetics was discovered. They were premium products and only the super rich could afford them. Over time and with the technological advancement even poorer people can afford them now. It is like in the scatter plot example I talked about; there will always be deviations, failed 'experiments', but slowly it will tend towards affordability for the poor and eventually like polio or plague... may even be wiped off the face of the earth!

FRIEND: So are you saying that we are moving to an age where everyone will be able to afford everything?

ME: NO! There will always be a hierarchy.... the fit and the unfit... the competent and the incompetent. Because if there is no dichotomy.... there will be status quo and no progress!

FRIEND: But if so where is the progress? And for whom?

ME: Consider this, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"

FRIEND: Ok?

ME: When you ask for who is the progress, I'll ask u this question, which is better?
Increasing the share of the pie ... increasing the market shares by actions which help the weak at the behest of the strong.... equitable distribution or letting the strong increase the size of the pie... the market size itself through their competence and capability thereby helping the weak enjoy a better quantity of the pie in all?!

FRIEND: Hmm... Tricky one!

ME: Aha! So have I CONVINCED you about this?

FRIEND: Yes

ME: Yahoo! I win; I win; I win!

FRIEND: Oh! How presumptuous! Dude, no you didn’t convince me! All I meant was that I accept your points. That’s all!

ME: Who? What? How? Why?