Fires of Fury

Fire
The stone age man ignited it
The modern man abused it

The wildfires created havoc
As the nature engaged in honor killing
And we stood still, helpless

Flames
The guns and bombs poured them
Had men and towns wiped off
And we proudly marked Victory day

Let us re-learn from the cavemen
On how the fire can help us
Lending us some light to tread
In the drakness we are; awash with light
In the jungles we are; and fail to see

Finance lessons

Economy - The most stable definition is the cattle class seats that the airliners offer commemorating the wagon tragedy. Do not expect this to change in the near future as bigger and wider planes become available. Because people flying this class are "peasants, so they won't appreciate it. And if the airlines made economy more comfortable, people wouldn't pay for premium"

Economic Growth - How people were gotten into the illusion of growth and prosperity. And in some parts of the world, something to avoid in future. Like the French high school text book Histoire du XXe siècle, that teaches "Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer," What is needed is "an awareness of the limits to growth and the risks posed to humanity [by economic growth]"

Stock Market - A religion invented in the 20th century (and many people follow this religion across the globe even today) that offers people heaven they can dream in this life itself. The followers are encouraged to invest and create wealth (in stock market terms). The priests of this religion (called CEO, iCEO, CXO etc.) get to amass a lot of physical wealth using these small investments from the public and have full authority on the money thanks to the divided investor demography. 


Insider Trading - The theory goes that people who knows the inside actions of the company should not be allowed to trade their stocks. That protects the ill-informed public from being at disadvantage. It can also be read that you are only allowed to play dice with your stocks. Why am I not allowed to sell my shares if I know the company is going under water? Or why not better limit the number of investors and respect their right of all information? Is Insider Trading really to be blamed?

The week that is

"I don't want my tax dollars to be used for a federal funded abortion" Thats a strong reason for many to oppose the health care bill. The bill does not explicitly state that there will be no federal funding for elective abortions. Americans are so strong in faith and do not want to anything that goes against their faith. But do they have good view on where their tax is spent? All the money spent on war - does that align with their faith? A few thousand lives versus a potential threat? Taken. Now an abortion versus a hundred lives?

I am amazed by the depth of the American constitution. The patent rights is part of the constitution. I can fully understand that the constitution written by colonists will have the monopolist patent rights. Any "discoveries" will be protected. But in 200 years I cannot understand the constitution can ignore the responsibility of the nation to get these great discoveries at least in health care to be accessible to all the people. If not a common welfare what is the purpose of a nation?

Try the word socialism. Thats the strongest explosive in the US. It can kill any good ideas. Any thoughts. Socialism - no way. We do not want socialism. I am not sure how many of these people understand what this means though. I always believed democracy can work only if people are educated and are aware of what is being discussed. And I thought US is a great democracy. But its sadly no different. People get carried away just by some terms. Like the word "bourgeoisie" being used by the communists.

Someone has found out the Bible is more violent than the Qur'an. What is violence by the way? I don't see any holy book asking people to be violent. The Qur'an is very clearly against violence of any sorts. The only time war is allowed is when you are being attacked. And that too is to be within a set of limits that safeguard women, children, churches, synagogues, public utilities etc. Do suicide bombs take root in Islam or in LTTE? Who funded the LTTE? Why is west and Islam compared? One is a region and the other a religion. Why not west vs middle east. Or US vs Afghanistan.

Wither Japan?

Akio Toyoda was at the Capitol answering the "quality conscious" US congress. He apologized for the quality issues that are plaguing Toyota cars past few months. Beyond all the recalls and money involved, this does not seem to end....

The very next week I was flying to Tokyo. At Narita station, waiting for Narita Express there was this delay announcement. N'EX is 10 minutes delayed as the incoming train is delayed. Apology. Taihan omatase itashimashita....

One evening I went to a cafe close to Shinjuku Sta. No Japanese faces in the crew. All foreigner staff. One of them drops a plate with a loud noise. Others just smile....

The next day my colleague makes it giri giri for a customer meeting. Yamanote sen sotomawari was stopped due to technical issues. Yamanote line and Chuo line delays are no longer a news now. 

Is the focus on quality and customer withering away in Japanese society? While the DPJ government has promised to question every legacy bureaucracy in Japan, is someone questioning the too-much-customer-concern too? Is the Japan of yester years being a thing of past?


The JAL lounge had no signs of wear and tear. And no way does it expose the bankruptcy JAL is in today. When I got back into American Airlines and was wondering about the losing grip of okyakusan in Japan, quality gets a revisit. The flight will be delayed by 30 min. There is a long line for the runway and we are the eleventh. No apologies though. Granted.


I still thanked the JAL lounge and the great food it served as AA skipped the normal juice-snacks and went directly for dinner with a sweet query - "Do you want anything for dinner tonight ?"

.....

Blogs are better

I have been away from blogging for a long time. I dont know if I am really back too. Things change. People change. Technology change. Slangs change. Who am I to resist these.

I have been through Orkut. Boring. Scraps. What do you mean? Non sense. Why not mail?

Facebook is neater. It does allow kind of blogging too. Microblogging. 

But its too distracting. People want to say they did brush, they had breakfast etc there. People talking just because they have to say something. And what I hate is it shouting at me Joe and Tom are friends. Why do I care?

But I am still on facebook. Because there are still people who have something to say. And it allows subscriptions. Much better to manage than Google Reader. But much less contents.

Twitter. I still do not get or agree why tweet. At a game, agree. At an event, agree. Best way to send out running commentaries. But why like "Me wlking to offce".

I remember the old man near our college. He used to sit on the roadside with a notebook, he will be jotting down all the time and sometimes talking loud too. He was insane. So we said. If I do a fast forward by 20 years, he will be there today, the same ragged cloths, but on a laptop logged on to a twitter account - and he would have had a 1000 followers and would have been famous on the cyber world. An amazing tweeter he could have been.

Secrets used to have a sanctity. Private matters used to have a meaning. Pictures in bound albums used to have excitement. Like the first day in an arranged marriage. Like the long waited first kiss. We killed all that.

Bloggers - I love you. Do some serious writing. Do not get carried away by the attention seekers.

Salut to the Republic

Salut to the Republic
As it turns sixty today
and is just warming up

You still can see tears in the yarn
But cannot miss how complex is the fabric
Cannot but appreciate the colours it presents
How the warp and weft keeps it strong

You still can see potholes on the road
But cannot miss the reaches of the path
The amount of people it carries
And the way it connects the souls

Agree that we have a lot of roadblocks, still
Amazing is the progress we've had
The sons and daughters who flew the flag higher
Who brought the pride back to the land

The Indian dream is not a tagline today
But it is a fact we can be proud of
The land which has premiers in all fields
Of all casts and colours; men and women

Salut to the nation
As it breathes the sixtieth year
We've just started the journey
And have miles to go before we sleep