The festival of Gowri-Ganesha in Bangalore has quite a few differences from the festival of Ganpati in Mumbai. In Bangalore, it is a private festival while in Mumbai it is a public festival. Almost everyone in Bangalore gets a ‘मूर्ति’ at home. While in Mumbai it is generally restricted to the eldest member of the … Read more
One of the things that I learnt from the recent anti-corruption movement is that I think there is a generation of Indians who are the ‘in-between’ generation. People from the older generation were generally initially quite cynical, the ones from the newer generation were generally quite positive from the start, and a large part of … Read more
‘All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone’ – said Blaise Pascal. On those lines, there might be some truth in extending it a bit – ‘All of a nation’s problems perhaps stem from their parliamentarians’ inability to sit quietly and agree in a room together.’ If only … Read more
A few observations I made over the past few days, since Anna Hazare went on a fast for a strong anti-corruption law. That the government’s recent responses to Team Anna and the public demand for a strong anti-corruption law seems to be like that of someone asking a dying man to fill a form at … Read more
My South Indian friend Swami had a new reason to complain since this morning – the rains. “I really got caught in the rains today – it was really bad, the weather, roads and traffic” , he told me as I met him today. Monsoon in Bangalore is, at best, mild, so a steady bout … Read more
I often wonder what is a worse condition to have, diabetes or heart disease. And what is easier to live or die with. Like the wife says it is easy to fix heart disease if it is only that. You may be able to detect it before you get a heart attack, and do something … Read more
“Can we panic now?” asked Ron Weasley to Harry Potter in “The Chamber of Secrets” when they suddenly find themselves surrounded by giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest. That is how a lot of us feel in the current market situation, perhaps. It is one of those times when everyone seems to ask everyone else … Read more
“Who is this S&P?” asked my South Indian friend Swami to my broker over a cup of coffee. Swami, who generally spends time with his family over weekends, suddenly called me on Sunday afternoon, and said he wanted to meet my broker friend Jignesh who knew a thing or two about investing. I was not … Read more
I don’t know about you, but I must tell you how sad I felt for the Indian cricket team yesterday. The world champions in one day cricket and the world’s number one test side were put on the mat by the English team. So I decided to drown myself in some beer along with my … Read more