Imagining India, Ideas for the New Century, penned by Nandan Nilekani, is what I am currently reading. Being a dead slow reader, imbibing and savoring each and every word as I read, demands a long time for me to finish any book. It will take another month before I can write about the book, but what made me to buy the book was the name of ‘Nandan’. I happened to hear his speech when he visited the Mangalore DC of Infosys, where I was working two years ago. Even though I have left Infy, the Simplicity with which Nandan spoke to the Associates was something which I will remember. He did not use a lot of Jargon or complicated strategies but relied on his simple ways to explain his ideas for the future of Infosys. As Thomas L Friedman says, Nandan has an unique skill for explaining his concepts, in a simple and easy to understand manner.
Also I enjoyed reading, the autobiography of Subrato Bagchi, titled “Go Kiss the World”, where he explains the virtue called Simplicity, not as a starting point but something which is everlasting. Having come from Simple Background, these gentlemen, did not forget the virtue even as they achieved great heights by venturing into the complicated industry of IT, which is tough to understand for me even today.
Cut from Simplicity, let’s move to the Concept of Greed, one of the seven unforgivable sins, something which will be branded as “BAD” in the black and white world and also in the world with shades of grey. In the movie Wall Street, Gordan Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, says “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
We don’t stop in attributing the current global meltdown catalyzed by the Sub-Prime crisis, and fuelled by the fall of the global banking and finance industry to the greed of a few. But weren’t we happy and contented when the stock prices were moving up, when the real estate investments were sitting comfortably on Apollo 11, going towards the Moon. Something to think about.
Subrato Bagchi, re-emphasizes the concept of Abundance, stating that there is enough available for everyone in the world as against the concept of scarcity. The same principle of abundance also explained by Stephen Covey, in his book, the “Seven habits of Highly effective People”. Both these gentlemen explain that the concept of scarcity leads to greed, and fight to acquire the scarce resources as against the mentality of Abundance which builds in the virtue of simplicity and co-operation to achieve a common goal.
My take, Yes, everything is available to everyone but the question is at what price? Are these resources available? Had I been greedy enough to acquire enough property before two years I wont be spending a fortune in buying real estate now. Same is true for gold also. And what if I am a person who is in dire need for both these commodities. A common comment by bereaved individuals. Does the principle of abundance still relevant to the contemporary world.
The purpose of me writing this is not to reach a conclusion on which one of the concepts (Simplicity Vs Greed or Abundance Vs Scarcity) is relevant to the contemporary world and which one will prevail. But to kindle the grey cells into thinking about the other side of the coin is also valid. Comments Welcome.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thrissur - This Time
The last two weekends were amazing in the sense, I travelled to Thrissur in Central Kerala and Erode to the West of Chennai. Some of the photographic exploits….
Saturday, February 14, 2009
What Makes Benjamin Button a Curious Case?
As a matter of fact, I didn’t want to publish எனி movie reviews in my blog, even though I liked reviewing movies. I made this decision to the stay away from the“masala stuff” and also due to the sheer volume of movies which I am watching nowadays. But, the Curious case of Benjamin Button just kindled the interest in me to write my views on the movie rather than a review. So I take an exception this time and write this review or rather on how I read this movie.
The movie starts with an elderly Blanchett, in her deathbed having her last conversation with her daughter. She starts with a cryptic story of a mysterious Blind Horologist, who designs a clock running backwards, in the hope it will bring back his son who was wasted in The Great War (World War I, was called the Great War before World War 2 Occurred).
Even though the Clockmaker, do not make much impact on the storyline, I found the character quite amazing. It brought to the fore, the human feeling of escaping into the past, when faced with some terrible confusion, but still knowing for sure that you cannot reclaim or relive what has already happened. We live those days in our minds, we think about them and long for them knowing for sure that it is not possible to expect a repeat of the good times in life. Even though the hope of this Horologist, in that he expected to travel back into the good times of his life which he spent with his son by designing a backward running clock, was an extreme hope. The entire movie is about extreme situations which brining out some of the strongest human emotional disturbances to the surface with nuggets of philosophy. And this character sets the tone running for the entire movie.
Moving away from the Clockmaker to Cate Blanchett in her Deathbed, she asks her daughter to read her the diary of a Benjamin Button, whom the daughter hardly knows. (I don’t publish Spoilers in my reviews). The diary stats with the curious birth of Benjamin at the end of the Great War.
The story is all about Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, born with the physical appearance of an 86 year old man, abandoned by his father after his mother’s obstetrical death. Curiously Benjamin grows up or in fact grows down at a retirement home. Yes, Benjamin starts getting biologically younger, as time passes, his biological clock runs backward. Brad Pitt, has done a wonderful job, playing the role of a old man and moving to that of a teenager. Kudos to the Gregg Cannom, for the excellent make up.
The Entire story is about how Benjamin, grows younger with time, and is a kind of a biography. What kindled my curiosity, was the narration, it does not give anybody any impression of a miracle but portrays it as a story of growing up only to realize you are different from the others. I found this interesting as I saw this as an extreme portrayal of the uniqueness of life; no two lives are similar in nature; No two problems are similar; The same decisions will not lead to the same results. Of course, Benjamin was an extreme depiction of the uniqueness, but it is very intelligent creativity.
I particularly liked the definition of the term “Accident” given by the director, as a series of minor unrelated incidents which we ignore as leading to the life changing impact. Also he explains the inability of human cognizance to do anything about the accidental situations.
Towards the end, the movie also portrays the various roles played by different people around you and the uniqueness of these roles. Concluding the movie with the note of uniqueness, this actually runs throughout the movie.
Benjamin Button does make one Curious.
The movie starts with an elderly Blanchett, in her deathbed having her last conversation with her daughter. She starts with a cryptic story of a mysterious Blind Horologist, who designs a clock running backwards, in the hope it will bring back his son who was wasted in The Great War (World War I, was called the Great War before World War 2 Occurred).
Even though the Clockmaker, do not make much impact on the storyline, I found the character quite amazing. It brought to the fore, the human feeling of escaping into the past, when faced with some terrible confusion, but still knowing for sure that you cannot reclaim or relive what has already happened. We live those days in our minds, we think about them and long for them knowing for sure that it is not possible to expect a repeat of the good times in life. Even though the hope of this Horologist, in that he expected to travel back into the good times of his life which he spent with his son by designing a backward running clock, was an extreme hope. The entire movie is about extreme situations which brining out some of the strongest human emotional disturbances to the surface with nuggets of philosophy. And this character sets the tone running for the entire movie.
Moving away from the Clockmaker to Cate Blanchett in her Deathbed, she asks her daughter to read her the diary of a Benjamin Button, whom the daughter hardly knows. (I don’t publish Spoilers in my reviews). The diary stats with the curious birth of Benjamin at the end of the Great War.
The story is all about Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, born with the physical appearance of an 86 year old man, abandoned by his father after his mother’s obstetrical death. Curiously Benjamin grows up or in fact grows down at a retirement home. Yes, Benjamin starts getting biologically younger, as time passes, his biological clock runs backward. Brad Pitt, has done a wonderful job, playing the role of a old man and moving to that of a teenager. Kudos to the Gregg Cannom, for the excellent make up.
The Entire story is about how Benjamin, grows younger with time, and is a kind of a biography. What kindled my curiosity, was the narration, it does not give anybody any impression of a miracle but portrays it as a story of growing up only to realize you are different from the others. I found this interesting as I saw this as an extreme portrayal of the uniqueness of life; no two lives are similar in nature; No two problems are similar; The same decisions will not lead to the same results. Of course, Benjamin was an extreme depiction of the uniqueness, but it is very intelligent creativity.
I particularly liked the definition of the term “Accident” given by the director, as a series of minor unrelated incidents which we ignore as leading to the life changing impact. Also he explains the inability of human cognizance to do anything about the accidental situations.
Towards the end, the movie also portrays the various roles played by different people around you and the uniqueness of these roles. Concluding the movie with the note of uniqueness, this actually runs throughout the movie.
Benjamin Button does make one Curious.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Destination Kozhikode
This weekend I was in Kozhikode, to attend a marriage of my friend. Some of the travel advices I would say regarding Kozhikode are
1) Don’t go there on the 1st of any month – Cos it is a dry day.
2) Always carry some bottles of water- It was very hot, and completely dehydrating, a 100 m walk in the beach itself was tiring to hell.
3) Swim in the beach, only if you know how to swim – Even though it is not advisable to swim in the seas, in Kozhikode the beaches are shallow, and there were some areas were people were swimming. This was unlike Chennai, where the seas normally are very rough and even good swimmers, will not dare to venture into the sea.
4) Do not trust the tourist destinations given in wiki travel – Some of the places are very mundane. When you travel across these places, somebody should be there to let you know these are places of interest. (Ex. The light house on Kozhikode beach, Lions Park etc.)
5) Eat, Eat and Eat – Amazing Culinary, Seafood is the Specialty, if you like seafood, no place like kozhikode.Try some Mussels and Squids in the beach hotel, they were amazing. Also try some local chips , pazampozhi, and halwa.
6) Boating in Kadavu – Some 30 mins drive from Kozhikode are the Kadavu resorts, which are one of the most scenic locations also offering a boating service nearby. The food was also equally amazing. A must go in Kozhikode.
1) Don’t go there on the 1st of any month – Cos it is a dry day.
2) Always carry some bottles of water- It was very hot, and completely dehydrating, a 100 m walk in the beach itself was tiring to hell.
3) Swim in the beach, only if you know how to swim – Even though it is not advisable to swim in the seas, in Kozhikode the beaches are shallow, and there were some areas were people were swimming. This was unlike Chennai, where the seas normally are very rough and even good swimmers, will not dare to venture into the sea.
4) Do not trust the tourist destinations given in wiki travel – Some of the places are very mundane. When you travel across these places, somebody should be there to let you know these are places of interest. (Ex. The light house on Kozhikode beach, Lions Park etc.)
5) Eat, Eat and Eat – Amazing Culinary, Seafood is the Specialty, if you like seafood, no place like kozhikode.Try some Mussels and Squids in the beach hotel, they were amazing. Also try some local chips , pazampozhi, and halwa.
6) Boating in Kadavu – Some 30 mins drive from Kozhikode are the Kadavu resorts, which are one of the most scenic locations also offering a boating service nearby. The food was also equally amazing. A must go in Kozhikode.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Foreign Exchange rates and Bretton Woods.
Tata Motors, on the second of February, posted a surprising loss of Rs. 263 Crore of which an amount of 226 Crore is being attributed to notional foreign exchange losses.
When the price of crude oil was USD 120 per barrel, there was a considerable demand from the PSU oil majors for the increase in the price of petrol, diesel and LPG. The government followed suit by increasing the prices thereby fuelling inflation. But when the price of crude nosedived to USD 44, it took some time for the government before announcing a cut in the price of petrol and diesel. This delay is again attributed to the volatile nature of the currency market in terms of the USD.
When the rupee was going strong against the USD reaching an exchange rate of 39-40 Rs per dollar, there was again a cry from the industry, and this time it was the blue eyed boys of the Indian IT industry who were in the line of fire.
The impact of the fluctuations in US dollar and its impact on the common man, gave rise to a very fundamental question in my mind. Out of all the currencies in the world, why the USD was chosen as the base currency for trade. I looked at the economic history of the world and came across this interesting agreement, which changed the economic course of the world called Bretton Woods Agreement.
To understand where it all started, we have to go back to the 1930’s, yes the time of The Great Depression, when the countries where separated into different blocs and were following a policy called as “Beggar thy Neighbor” policy. The policy was simple, devaluate your currency so that your exports can increase than that of your neighbor thereby improving the balance of payments. Most importantly during this period gold was used as the base for the trade augmented by British pound so you devaluate your currency with respect to gold or British pound.
This policy improved the balance of payments at the cost of the local demand leading to a deflationary spiral for the countries trying to reduce their money supply. This spiral and the cost of war lead to the origin of the Bretton Woods system. Delegation from 44 countries, took part in deciding on the important aspects of the agreement leading to the formation of the IBRD (World Bank) and IMF.
It was also decided that all the currency rates will be fixed on par with that of Gold augmented by US dollar. In turn US dollar was fixed in parity with gold (35 Ounce per US Dollar) and it was agreed that dollars can be exchanged for gold anytime by the international community.
It was also decided that room for a maximum of 1% volatility in the currency rates will be considered nominal. Any sudden volatile movements in the currency rates will be financed by the IMF thereby holding the exchange rates more or less constant.
So the basic reasons on how USD was chosen as the base currency and the failure of the Bretton-Woods are:
1) US was emerging as the supreme economic power, after the second world war ravished much of the European superpowers like Britain and France. US also provided a loan of 3.8 Billion and 1 Billion dollars to Britain and France respectively resulting in the super powers holding dollar reserves.
2) US also promised an anytime return of gold in return to the Dollar reserves which are being held by France, Britain and the other countries. (At a rate of 35 ounce per dollar).
3) The production of gold was minimal to support the international trade with gold as the base currency. And most importantly much of the world’s Gold produce was from Soviet Russia. So if gold is used as the base currency Russia will be the beneficiary. So most of the war torn countries were given dollar aids further making them hold dollar reserves
4) In 1971, when it was announced that US will not trade gold for dollars, the other countries were left with no option other than to hold on with the dollar reserves thereby becoming a victim of the dollar fluctuations.
5) Bretton woods system in terms of fixed foreign exchange rates, ceased to exist in the backdrop of the US refusal on the exchange of gold.
So the next time you pay extra money for a liter of petrol, or lose some money due to the falling Tata motor prices, it is due to the failure of the Bretton Woods system and also the insistence of the usage of USD for foreign commercial transactions.
Everyone was happy as long as US economy was doing well without much currency fluctuations. But the situation now demands some basic questions on the various aspects of the economic transactions and also a CHANGE is required to avoid the spiraling down of the world economy due to its dependence on the USD.
When the price of crude oil was USD 120 per barrel, there was a considerable demand from the PSU oil majors for the increase in the price of petrol, diesel and LPG. The government followed suit by increasing the prices thereby fuelling inflation. But when the price of crude nosedived to USD 44, it took some time for the government before announcing a cut in the price of petrol and diesel. This delay is again attributed to the volatile nature of the currency market in terms of the USD.
When the rupee was going strong against the USD reaching an exchange rate of 39-40 Rs per dollar, there was again a cry from the industry, and this time it was the blue eyed boys of the Indian IT industry who were in the line of fire.
The impact of the fluctuations in US dollar and its impact on the common man, gave rise to a very fundamental question in my mind. Out of all the currencies in the world, why the USD was chosen as the base currency for trade. I looked at the economic history of the world and came across this interesting agreement, which changed the economic course of the world called Bretton Woods Agreement.
To understand where it all started, we have to go back to the 1930’s, yes the time of The Great Depression, when the countries where separated into different blocs and were following a policy called as “Beggar thy Neighbor” policy. The policy was simple, devaluate your currency so that your exports can increase than that of your neighbor thereby improving the balance of payments. Most importantly during this period gold was used as the base for the trade augmented by British pound so you devaluate your currency with respect to gold or British pound.
This policy improved the balance of payments at the cost of the local demand leading to a deflationary spiral for the countries trying to reduce their money supply. This spiral and the cost of war lead to the origin of the Bretton Woods system. Delegation from 44 countries, took part in deciding on the important aspects of the agreement leading to the formation of the IBRD (World Bank) and IMF.
It was also decided that all the currency rates will be fixed on par with that of Gold augmented by US dollar. In turn US dollar was fixed in parity with gold (35 Ounce per US Dollar) and it was agreed that dollars can be exchanged for gold anytime by the international community.
It was also decided that room for a maximum of 1% volatility in the currency rates will be considered nominal. Any sudden volatile movements in the currency rates will be financed by the IMF thereby holding the exchange rates more or less constant.
So the basic reasons on how USD was chosen as the base currency and the failure of the Bretton-Woods are:
1) US was emerging as the supreme economic power, after the second world war ravished much of the European superpowers like Britain and France. US also provided a loan of 3.8 Billion and 1 Billion dollars to Britain and France respectively resulting in the super powers holding dollar reserves.
2) US also promised an anytime return of gold in return to the Dollar reserves which are being held by France, Britain and the other countries. (At a rate of 35 ounce per dollar).
3) The production of gold was minimal to support the international trade with gold as the base currency. And most importantly much of the world’s Gold produce was from Soviet Russia. So if gold is used as the base currency Russia will be the beneficiary. So most of the war torn countries were given dollar aids further making them hold dollar reserves
4) In 1971, when it was announced that US will not trade gold for dollars, the other countries were left with no option other than to hold on with the dollar reserves thereby becoming a victim of the dollar fluctuations.
5) Bretton woods system in terms of fixed foreign exchange rates, ceased to exist in the backdrop of the US refusal on the exchange of gold.
So the next time you pay extra money for a liter of petrol, or lose some money due to the falling Tata motor prices, it is due to the failure of the Bretton Woods system and also the insistence of the usage of USD for foreign commercial transactions.
Everyone was happy as long as US economy was doing well without much currency fluctuations. But the situation now demands some basic questions on the various aspects of the economic transactions and also a CHANGE is required to avoid the spiraling down of the world economy due to its dependence on the USD.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Tabula Rasa
Named after Ekonomikrisis, the Merchant from Asterix, (Also inspired from the current global phenomena) let me declare my blog open.
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