Manchester City Wins the EPL

Soon does not mean 4 years, but at least I did make a prediction to this effect. Here: Manchester City Will Win Premier League Soon. I wonder what Wagner has to say now.

Cricket in New York

This is a photograph that appeared in an otherwise well written article in The Economist.

Question: Is this how they play cricket in US? All the slip players are on the other side!!!! Unless the batsman is gifted and is a switch hitter.

Why Indians do not Stand in Queues?

Indians just don’t like to wait patiently in a queue. Why? It took me years to figure out why, but now I am convinced that the reason has nothing to do with mutated genes or skewed education or indiscipline or lack of consideration for others. It is a cultural thing.

Cultural???

Come, let me take you back some 5000 years (give or take a few 1000 years, depending on who you believe). We are entering a very critical phase of an ongoing story. This is the bedroom of a person who has already been recognized as God. Krishna is sleeping. Duryodhana enters his bedroom. Looks around. There is only one seating place, near Krishna’s head. He sits there and patiently waits for Krishna to wake up. Shortly after Arjuna enters the chamber. He hesitates for a moment, Duryoshana, the person he hates, is in the bedroom before him. But he contains his anger and stands at the foot of the bed.

Shortly after Krishna wakes up. Who do you think he attends to first? Not the person who came first. But the person who Krishna sees first. So it is all about grabbing eye balls. Doesn’t matter who came in first. What matters is who the clerk / officer / babu / chaprasi decides to attend first.

There, you see why Indians do not like standing in the queue. As I said it is a cultural thingy.

Jagjit Singh Passes Away

People die.
The man with silk smooth voice, Jagjit Singh, is no more.
All we can do is listen to his gazals over and over again.
There will be no new ones any more.
Sad.

I wonder how Chitra Singh will take this.
First son.
Then daughter.
Now husband.
But she is a brave woman.
And this too shall pass.

Pursuing French

A very effective way of committing oneself to a project is to open up. This works in a very paradoxical way. On one hand you would like to keep things to yourself, especially if you are a private person. And therefore, opening up to public scrutiny makes you feel vulnerable. On the other hand, however, once you are open to public scrutiny, and because you are in open to public scrutiny, you may feel motivated to do what you always wanted to but did not have the discipline to.

Take an example. Assume you always wanted to write a novel. You have the rough sketch in your mind but because are oh-so-busy the wonderful story inside you in not taking shape. What do you do? You tell others that by the year end you will publish a novel. There! Now you are vulnerable to ridicule. Now you need to prove that the tittering were all misplaced. Now you need to do something by the year end. Got the idea?

It is with this intention I have thrown myself open to public ridicule. And not just to those who are within reach, but the whole world. Visit Learning French and judge for yourself if I have taken a step in the right direction or not.

Karnataka Heritage: Story of 3 Rocks

It did not strike me till the guide at Hampi told me so.
Karnataka has three types of rocks: a) Soap Stone, b) Granite, and c) Sand Stone.

Hampi (a UNESCO World Heritage) ruins are made of Granite.
The temples of Pattadakal (a UNESCO World Heritage) and the Badami Cave temples are of Sand Stone.
The temples at Belur and Halebid are made of Soap Stones.

Follow the stones and you would have covered a considerable part of Karnataka's tourism offerings.

Emotion Sweep

I have just about started reading this book and I already have three of the most common emotions sweep already over me:

1) Envy: When I read this: "Sheena Iyengar is a professor at the Columbia Business School, with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology". A women writing a best seller and is doing better than me! (I guess a bit of caveman is still alive in me)

2) Shock: When I read this: "... I was taken to a vision specialist at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He quickly resolved the mystery: I had a rare form of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease of retinal degeneration, which had left me with 20/400 vision. By the time I reached high school, I was fully blind, able to perceive only light."

Which quickly changed into 3) admiration.

I am now looking forward to reading The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar.

Lesson for me ... do not wish a life that is not yours.