Poem

न अपनी खबर है, न दुनिया का डर है,
मगर क्यों न जाने अजब ये असर है,
किसी की हँसी से, किसी की महक से,
कही दूर से आ रही आहटों से,
मुझे ये लगे जैसे तुम आ गयी हो


बहुत देर से मैं, यूँ ही बस अकेला,
तुम्हारे खयालों में खोया हुआ हूँ
कहूँ क्या तुम्हारा दिया ये नशा है,
की जिसकी वजह से मैं सोया हुआ हूँ
कोई पास आये, मुझे यूँ बुलाये,
खयालों में आके मुझे छेड़ जाए,
मुझे ये लगे जैसे तुम आ गयी हो

P.S. This is what I wrote a few years back. Posting on blog coz there hasn't been anything on it for a long time.

The Protectionist

Let me start with the resolutions of the G20 summit held in Washington D.C. last year. Almost unanimously it was agreed upon that economic protectionism should not be allowed in any form at any place in the world. Protectionism was one of the key points in the 7 point speech of Dr. Man Mohan Singh.


Today EU leaders coming out of their meeting on current economic situation made it clear that there should not be ‘iron curtains’ around the economies.


Now let’s have a look at a few highly talked about points of the Bailout bill passed by the new US administration.

1. No tax sops for the firms taking jobs out of USA (or discourage investment outside USA)
2. Buy American clause (suppress competition in the market)
3. No H1B hiring if the firm is going for bailout. (No immigrants if you need government funds)


To me it sounds like creating walls around the economy or protectionism in other words. Coining the names like patriotism in economy can not hide the fact the largest economy in the world so far is trying to build a great wall of economy around itself.


Protectionism is like economic reservation and has it’s own disadvantages in long run. “Restricting competition for material, manufacturing and men would result in inefficiencies and inflated prices”*. It may be worth reminding that the great depression of 1930s was partly due to “trade-stifling prescriptions of senators Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley”*.


Finally, I feel that the protectionist policies of US government will not cure the disease they are suffering from. I read that if America sneezes the world gets cold but is it possible for America to be well when entire world is suffering from viral fever?



*from BusinessWorld March 2nd 2009 edition

The brother's day.

Amazing.
That's one word that comes to my mind while thinking of today's T20 match between India and Sri Lanka. SL won the toss and got off to a blistering start. After Irfan scalped Jayasuriya for third time on this tour and spinners came in to play, match looked like completely under control of Indians. But T20 is not always the same. Final few cracking overs and Sri Lanka got a very competitive (Better than their own target of the same) score to defend.

India started the chase with a bit of luck on the very first ball but the openers got out on consecutive balls. Then came a promising partnership between Yuvi and Raina. As long as the pair was on, it was looking as if India will win comprehensively. However as soon as the pair got out, a series of wickets fell and match was looking all the way going to Sri Lanka's side. 115 for 7 while chasing 172 is never a site to look scoreboard at.

When it seemed all over and only formalities left, "Pathan brothers did same thing to Sri Lankans what Lehman brothers did to the world" (Sunny during commentry). Everyone watching with disbelief and shock in the islander's team.

It was a remarkable game full of excitement. That's what a real T20 is like. One has to keep one's nerve till the very end.

Now here are a few fun facts about Dilhara Fernando. (Sunny's comment during match)
"The place where he lives is called "No ball junction" and may well be renamed to "Wide ball junction" after today's game." :D
"As soon as he was handed the ball over for penultimate over a section of crowed shouted NO. "No idea whether it was for no or disapproval of captain's decision.

by the way today Hussey brothers also made their contribution is bringing Ausralia back in the series against NewZeland. It was a remarkable brother's day.

--
Varun

Waiting for a white butcher

It was Nov 26, 2008. In Cuttak team Indian was playing ODI against England and most of us were watching the same at home while in Mumbai a different kind of game was just starting. It was a brutal, barbaric and bloody game.

A group of 10 heavily armed ‘terrorists’ entered the financial capital of the country and created havoc for 3 days. They exposed various loopholes in Indian security and crisis management system and a lot has been written, talked and lamented about it.

It is January 30, 2009. More than 2 months have passed since then. Pakistan has already denied that it’s territory was used for planning the attack and we have already shown signs of going to UN again begging for some sanctions on the individuals believed to be members of the team. We went to UN in 1947 despite army suggestions and in return we got LOC where as we could have had an international border.

No doubt that the things have changed a lot in last 6 decades. India is now regarded as a economic superpower but at the same time Pakistan is a ‘critical ally in war against terror’ for the big daddy. There is no USSR and Chinese don’t deserve any comment. Going to UN will also mean negotiations which will almost certainly include Kashmir.

In last 2 months we kept sending proofs and New Year cards and they kept rubbishing all of it. We kept trying to put pressure from super powers and Pakistan kept buying time for it’s cover up stories. And now when their probe has concluded that they are innocent, we have very limited options. We have been waiting for someone else who will come and clean the mess at our door step. Not even a municipality sweeper cleans up individual door steps. We have to do it ourselves.

I am not supporting an all out war. That is something which may be too much in already troubled times however using our economic might along with diplomacy is not a bad option. Pakistan is already struggling with it’s economy. Lot’s of eatables are exported from India to Pak so that they can meet their requirements. The economical strength can also be used to persuade others to follow the suit.

Let’s stop waiting for a white butcher and get down to action ourselves. Diplomacy is a powerful weapon but only diplomacy is not enough to win this war. They started a proxy war; let’s start an economic one if not military conflict.

An oppen letter

"Men are emotional fools". I remember reading this quote somewhere.
Fool or not is something for you to decide but emotional, yes I am. I always knew that I posses a fairly emotional side of myself and this "fairly emotional side" has helped me sail through all of dilemmas I faced so far. Well almost all of them.

It was very recently when the two sides of me the logical one and the emotional one, put two contradicting options in front of me. I have to choose one of them and I can't avoid choosing.

I chose to go with the emotions in my first ever experiment in decision making. Let's see how it goes. If the alleged end is not a happy end then it is not the end.

-Varun

Mistakes: steps to success

"If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying."

These famous words of Coleman Hawkings emphasize the importance of mistakes in learning process which starts at birth and continues as long as we meet our ultimate destination.
In this document I shall be talking about
a) Common treatment of mistakes
b) How mistakes should be viewed.

Most of us welcome mistakes with feelings of disregard. These mistakes can be made by others or can be our own. While commenting on other’s mistakes people very often forget that their remarks may dishearten the person concern. We generally ignore the fact that mistakes are starting steps of ladder of learning. An inappropriate response to a mistake may break the ladder of learning.

As mentioned earlier we should always accept mistakes in a positive manner as these are building blocks of road to knowledge, success i.e. learning. Every mistake clears a wrong way of proceeding from the various ways of doing something and probability of finding right way increases. Mistakes never mean that we should give up trying. They mean that we need to be a bit more passionate for achieving goal.

To sum up the discussion, mistakes are not there to make us quit our pursuits but to strengthen the foundation of our palace of success. Had Edison stopped experimenting because of mistakes he made in previous ones, we would never have enjoyed chilling air conditioning in blazing hot summer of Noida.

India Bangladesh WC match...

Hello everyone,
I think most of us spent a sleepless night watching India fighting with Bangladesh. I was very disappointed with the way Indian batsmen batted. "Our batsmen were over cautious" says Kiran More but were they really over cautious?? Look the way Sehwag got out. He never shown even a bit of sincere batting forget out over cautious one. Even the bowlers were looking out of touch.

People are saying that this was not our day. I say days belong to them who work hard and make it their.