yazadjal.com

After a great cartel meet and some ok dinner (pizza and biryani can never pass off as gourmet), I set off for home from Gaurav’s place in Kalina. Kalina, that quaint suburb between Santacruz and Kurla, was where I trudged to for two years of my life as I struggled with a Masters in Economics […]

In April I posted on a controversial issue: Should India invade Nepal? asking readers to supply coherent reasons for and against the issue while leaving ad hominems home. Around a month later, after the topic had died down I suddenly saw a spurt of comments on the post. Mostly from Nepalis who were very indignant […]

There’s a lot to read in the latest blog mela hosted on Mall Road (44 posts!) Good work Shivam. For those wanting to jump on the bus, the next mela is being hosted by Saket Vulturo Vaidya.
Bloggers hoping to host a mela need to get in touch with Shanti aunty.

I’ve been debating “truth in blogging” with Dilip D’Souza (largely on email) after his piece on Indicubed, and going back to an older post of his where he said:
Blogs allow you to bypass editors and publish, putting the power of publishing directly in the hands of the writer. That’s often a great boon. Yet consider: […]

I like being a dictator. Yes, yes, I prefer liberty to power, but even the little power in organising a meet and being the final arbiter on venues is intoxicating.
We meet tomorrow, Sunday, May 22, at 3 pm.
The venue is the Regal Barista.
For those who are not acquainted with this great landmark in South […]

Poor Abhijeet Sawant (the Indian Idol with a Rs. 1 crore contract) has a problem. (scroll right down for this part)
“I want to keep a driver but the kind of schedule I keep from early morning to late night, I don’t think any driver would survive.
There are so many commitments and functions to attend, so […]

AnarCapLib’s sometime guest-blogger, Sauvik Chakraverti, (when he’s not being beaten up by Kerala lovers), tells us something about the relation between labour and capital.
The hammer and the sickle feature in the party symbol of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Like all left parties, the CPI(M) believes that labour and capital are in disharmony. […]

The Economist has an interesting article on why democracies are slow in eradicating poverty.
Why might democracy militate against poverty reduction in poor countries? Mr Varshney has two suggestions. First, democracies have a bias towards “direct” methods of tackling poverty, such as subsidies and hand-outs, which, in the long run, are less effective than “indirect” methods—ie, […]

There seems to be some problem with adding comments on my Poverty, footwear and cold water post. I’ve closed comments there, but please feel to continue the debate here.
Both the webguru and I are tired of fixing various MT glitches (thanks to all of you who’d emailed with their concerns). We’ll be moving to […]

Trust the Times of India to give the best Sunday funnies. And I’m not even talking about the comics page. Read this very very funny “agony aunt” box by the “new age guru” Deepak Chopra. I’d never read anything by him before, but going by what he wrote today, I have been converted into a […]

A few days back I went out for a late night ice cream at Natural’s on Marine Drive. As I was about to enter, the door opened and around ten burkha clad ladies trooped out. The burkhas were the conservative sort, covering more than half the face. But most of the women were young (you […]

Swaminathan Aiyar has a revelation for the anti-globalisation, MNC bashing crowd:
…size should not be mistaken for financial power, and MNCs are not financial superpowers. The global market system is not rigged by them. On the contrary, the global market provides plenty of opportunities for good, small companies to beat the biggest giants.
He takes the automobile […]

A brief note on AnarCapLib’s comment policy after the very encouraging response to my post on Poverty, footwear and cold water (105 comments and counting!)
The comments space is for you, dear reader. Attack, commend, debate and enjoy the posts. I’m also rather more forgiving with abuse (pretty often I let it stay as it […]

As the response has been poor for the meet on May 15th, I’m thinking of postponing the blogger meet to May 22nd. The time is still the same — 3 pm.
We need some good venue suggestions. The place needs to be indoors (too hot to meet outdoors like in a garden), but not […]

Omkar Goswami blows the lid of West Bengal’s supposedly high growth rate.
Here lies the rub. The official data published by the state shows it to be the second most powerful growth engine of the nation — not only in terms of growth rates but also in their sheer consistency. Moreover, the rulers claim that this […]

This may be why my mother remembers lots of things about me that I’d rather she forget.

The left does it so well. Scream about “issues” in Delhi and do exactly the opposite in the states it rules. The Indian Express does a good job of exposing leftist hypocrisies. Here’s one on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) reports
On the issue of the Centaur hotel disinvestment, the CPM swears by the CAG’s […]

Last week there was a well written guest piece on the Winds of Change Blog titled Who is Iraq’s KPS Gill?
When India was trying to fight separatist Sikh terrorists in Punjab, a Sikh police officer named KPS Gill played a pivotal role in giving the anti-terrorism effort legitimacy among Punjabi Sikhs and among all Indians.
It […]

There was a small problem for some readers wanting to post comments since last evening. It’s been fixed thanks to the agile fingers of the webguru. Please comment away!

Rediff has published a piece by me on how poverty has decreased in India. It started as a response to Dilip D’Souza, but I make one important point. Anecdotes don’t matter. Dilip talks about the overwhelming poverty he saw while on a train trip. I write about how I see more poor Indians wearing shoes, […]