yazadjal.com

Good cricket writing is a delight to read, especially while you’re follwing a match. Here’s a small vignette from a bulletin by Amit Varma.
Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar had added 98 in 168 balls when Bucknor struck. Tendulkar was beaten by the late swing of a ball from Abdul Razzaq, and the daylight between bat and […]

While googling for VKRV Rao, I came across this webpage of the Delhi School of Economics. Manmohan Singh became the 14th Prime Minister of India nearly a year back (May 22, 2004) but the Delhi School, where he taught international trade between 1969-71, still thinks he’s a former Finance Minister!
Maybe someone should suggest that there […]

Johan Norberg, the defender of global capitalism had an interesting experience while giving a talk in Jordan.
Yesterday at an overcrowded lecture at the university in Amman, I got a lot of interested responses and questions from the students, until the moderator, a teatcher and supervisor, intervened and said that my book was offensive, and […]

It’s the Iranian style. And has a new supporter in Eugene Volokh. Sometime back I’d written about the death penalty and the right to life being compatible. Some of the comments, especially Ravikiran’s and Gautam’s are worth a relook.
Volokh takes the argument further.

I particularly like the involvement of the victims’ relatives in the killing […]

It happens rarely, but the blog Medienkritik has pulled off a little coup by getting the website of Stern, a major newsmagazine in Germany to acknowledge a mistake and change it. Bravo!
Link courtesy: Samizdata.

While going through the bloggies, I came across this perky article on how to blog. (It won the bloggie for Best Article or Essay About Weblogs). Some nice points. The brackets encapsulate my two paise contribution.
1. write every day.
2. if you think youre a good writer, write twice a day.
6. have comments. dont be […]

While Bombay rocked yesterday afternoon; I, surprisingly, felt nothing. Some of my colleagues rushed out, consulted our neighbours, and all agreed that they’d felt a tremor. All, that is, except me.
It seems that I’m not easily swayed!
Here’s a piece on it in today’s Mid-Day. Interesting para below:
BMC’s disaster management cell
Vilas Vaidya, in-charge of […]

Came across Thoreau’s blog via Under the Fire Star. Wonderful concept. And this post hit home as well.
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature,—if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the […]

Jackwa aur Jillwa
Gaye upar Hillwa
Paani bhari ke waaste…
Jackwa gir gawa
Uka khopdiya phoot gawa
Aur Jillwa awat ludkan pooore raaste…
Got the joke from here. Imagine Laloo as Jackwa and Rabri as Jillwa. Splits me up completely!

We had a cozy meet that started in Café Coffee Day, InOrbit Mall, Malad. Amit, Veer and Anand (yes, unlike last time, he located us) were already there. After all the high reviews, I had to have a Qahwah in Malad. I confess it was my second Qahwah in February, but the VT Coffee […]

Alex Singleton of the London based Globalization Institute explains why it’s spelt with a z and not an s. And the reason is not as American as you would think!

I resurrected this old joke on the political aspect of name changes while I was on an ego surf sometime back. It focusses on the misuse of Shivaji’s name, but you can easily substitute Gandhi / Nehru / your favourite political icon and it will still be as sharp. When I first posted this on […]

I just discovered that I share a birthday with two Lok Sabha MPs: Jivabhai Patel from Mehsana in Gujarat (Congress) and Guharam Ajgalley from Sarangarh in Chhattisgarh (BJP). Unfortunately, as of now, no Rajya Sabha MP shares my birthday. Sob!
It’s instructive to note how badly laid out the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha […]

This week’s blog mela is up at India Uncut. Sterling stuff. Go right there, right now!
And if you’re a blogger and you find yourself in Bombay tomorrow, come over and meet us.
Where? Café Coffee Day, InOrbit Mall, Malad
When? 3 pm
Why? Supply the answer yourself. If you can’t come over and we’ll give you one […]

What would you say when a media outlet exhorts readers to vote not based on the ability of the candidates in the fray, but on geographical location?
This isn’t about politics, but about the Indian Idol finals. But don’t shrug it off. Will you vote for someone in a game show just because he’s from your […]

During my chat with Jai Arjun last week, we spoke about how many books we read. I generally manage around two per week. He was surprised that my reading rate, as a non-lit person, was the same as his. Well, there are caveats. First, I count work related books in my reading list. Second, I […]

I don’t concern myself much with the debate on social security, which is raging in the US (although I did engage Patrix once on the issue). Loads of libertarian sites and blogs have written on it in far greater depth than I would be able to manage. For a flavour, go to Cato’s Project on […]

I’m finally back in Bombay. Had a refreshing holiday in Goa followed by a conference and some other work in Delhi (where I met the luxuriantly sideburned Jabberwok — he’s written more about the blogging blind date).
One resolution I’d made (and kept) was not to enter a cyber café or get anywhere close to […]

This message came in from Alex Singleton today:
For your delectation and delight, I am pleased to announce the launch of a new blog. The Globalization Institute Blog will be a major source of information and commentary on development economics, international trade and poverty relief. As you might imagine from the name, we’re in favour of […]

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said “two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert … near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that […]