Interim Solutions

Two years back I had hardly heard of T M Krishna and two years on, a day does not pass by without listening to his awesome music(I deliberately excluded divine and soul-stirring out of respect to TMK's public views of his own music although I would argue that these are the most fitting adjectives). And few weeks back I had the ultimate fortune of hearing him live in Coimbatore amidst an august audience that gathered to collect funds for Udalveli, a charity that is doing great work with children and theatre.  Here is a short attempt at describing my experience on that wonderful day !! The setting was fit-for-purpose - an auditorium of a higher secondary school with a peaceful, Gandhiji's porbandar ashram like cleanliness and ambience and welcoming warm organisers (volunteers from Udalveli Arts foundation). We arrived quite early (very early actually) and the volunteers put together an impromptu Tamil folk concert of sorts in the school courtyard to keep us entertained. The sen...

Current International One-day and T20 Cricket Scorecard formulae 50 over format Team A : 50 * 6.x for 7 or 8 wickets  Team B : 50 * 6.y for 7 or 8 wickets  Twenty-Twenty Team A : 20 * 8.x or 9.x  Team B : 20 * 8.x or 9.x As the "Last King of Twitterland" would say  "To tally biased, not funny and just can't get any worse for the bowlers. Sad "

Catalans this week seems to have voted overwhelmingly to secede from Spain and form an independent nation. The independence movement is anchored on economic and cultural factors and in this context I am doing a comparison here between the position of Catalonia within Spain and that of Kerala within the Union of India. And I ask the question what are the specific triggers for secession and what are the catalysts for unity? Parameter Catalonia to Spain Kerala to India Comments GDP rank 1 st 9 th GDP (per capita) 5 th 10th HDI rank Not available 1 st % of Population 16% 2.75% % of Land area 6.3% 1.18% % contribution to GDP 19% 4.4% Pulling more than their weight Tax vs public spend +10 Billion EUR Not available...

A lot has been spoken and written about demonetisation drive in India and lengthy debates still ensue in social media about whether it has done or any good or not to the Indian economy in general. I made a trip recently to India and had a chance to take stock of the post demonetisation scenario on the urban and rural public. The jury is still out on whether it was a overall good move for the economy or not (and since the debate has been heavily politicised , the truth will take some time to emerge, if it ever will). However, I noted one striking point though,  I was amazed how the general public has taken to technology with relative ease. Be it auto drivers displaying QR codes or 80 year old using a payment app to pay at the Tea shop, I saw across the board people have taken to being cashless with an ease that is quite astounding. Taking to the streets, rioting and protesting violently and otherwise against the regimes seems to be not for the Indians - although this may stem from a...

The first time and only time I remember I seeing her I remember wanting to badly, really badly hug her. I don’t remember her face or features anymore but I do not think she was particularly good looking or attractive. Of course I was focused on the hugging plan and therefore it is not all the fault of my memory that I cannot remember her looks. Just your normal super market cashier girl trying to deal with endless row of items that keep coming at her like the army in one of the Kurosawa classics (sans the war cry), that was her. She was checking out at Aisle number 2 (a greenish display announced that little bit of unimportant fact high over her right shoulder). I had placed my items on the checkout belt and was waiting for my turn to be checked out when I decided to take a look at her work. Vegetables of all sizes and colors in plastic bags beeped through and she deftly maneuvered them along and pushed them across to the corner of her work table to be bagged (what color were her f...

History is full of examples of large swathes of the populace being supportive of loud and abusive leaders and leadership hopefuls. It can be argued that humans have a propensity to support and love the extremes even if these are harmful to their own self. Variants of "Stockholm Syndrome" behaviours by the masses are playing out all around us. Look at the successful dictators from current and recent history - they have genuine popular support even from the groups and demographs they abuse and instigate hatred against. Who are really prone to being "fans of the villains/rowdies/jerks" - men or women or the weak or the uninformed ?

I lost my brother to cancer a few months back and the emotion that the word evokes is one of deep sadness. Last night there has been a terror strike at Paris, there is pain all around and I cannot help think of the deep rooted agenda of destruction that both these maladies carry. Many people have compared and referred to the terrorist forces that now plague as a species to cancer. These comparisons are mostly made in a literal sense, in the context of terrorism being a difficult to solve, major issue. My attempt is here to highlight some striking similarites between these forces of destruction and urge us to approach explore solutions for these two major issues affecting and threatening human existence in the 21st century in diverse ways. Everyone has a role to play in taking these forward. Foremost, I view Terrorism and Cancer as core malfunctions. Examples of how otherwise healthy, happy cells and humans turn against their own fellow cells and beings....