Thursday, June 19, 2008

Girls Gone Wild

Or Girls Gone Mild. [This is a family blog. Mind it!]
Girls Gone Domestic, rather. Many of my friends, specifically the girls, are going through this phase. Some are meeting new guys over lunch/dinner/coffee, a few have already been 'fianceed', while a few others are devising ingenious ways to tackle family resistance to marry their chosen ones. The most adventurous ones are already back from their trips to Kerala or Switzerland or Honolulu.
Heck, I even know a friend who has her photo with a toddler in arms - now 2 years old. Oh my.
I find it tough that the age is suddenly creeping in upon people in my league. The age in which we have to choose partners. Deep inside, I feel the urge to go back to college days. Those were the days of carefree idyll, amazing activities and wild emotions. We didn't have to bother about the price of oil or the rental rates in Mumbai suburbs. Alas. [ Watching '21' was the primary catalyst for this train of thoughts.]

Alas once again. Only recently I bought a hand blender. Only today I decided to make banana shake. And see what NYT has to say about the future of bananas. It has shaved off a few percentage points from the utility of the gadget. Also, another inch from my projected belly circumference in 2010.

I have been reading some hedge fund analysis off late. Pretty quant stuff, and some macroeconomics thrown in to garnish. But a good take on the Indian markets.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Lathe machines in my head

An empty mind is a devil's workshop. If that is true, I have a lathe machine, a griding machine and numerous other instruments right inside my head. Apart from brief spells of urgent deadlines, I have mostly had the luxury to spend time doing some of things I like to. Like reading up special reports - articles on Industry sectors, Economics articles etc, watching TV - the Euro Cup in particular and so on.

CoffeeMate's parents had come over and they stayed at our apartment for a little over a week. Therefore, we had a treat of tasty food - Aloo parathe, kheer etc. but aunty having left, we have to go back to our old ways. The new handblender is turning out to be handy though. Visualise me drinking mango shakes everyday. Also visualise me going to shop for new trousers every weekend.

These days I am reading Freaknomics. This I started after I stopped reading "Manias Panics and Depressions - A History of Financial Crises" party because I lost interest and partly because my flatmate took it with him on his trip to KL. I dislike the style of writing used in this book and would have loved it if it were structured more like a pleasant read than a PhD tome. I want to read about financial crises and learn as well - I have not been forced to read this book. That is why, I place greater emphasis on the pleasantness and interest-evoking capability of a book than on its pure technical information content.

Freaknomics scores somewhat lower on pure technical content. Sure it applies economic models to mundane social situations. But at times it fails in those very manners that it criticises the most. Like mixing causation with correlation. In other instances, the authors propose alternative explanations, but present in a manner as if they are estabilishing a truth. The presentation is bereft of arguments estabilishing the causative link, however. Apart from these, the book is a very interesting read. And a quick one.

--No songs tonight--

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Monsoon rains and monkey brains

I mean, really. When Mumbai corporators say Mumbai was flooded because the drains are clogged, they must think they are speaking to an audience blessed with monkey brains. Come on. They told us this reason last year. And the year before that. When will they answer to the public why they are ineffective and incapable?
Quite clearly, the immobilizing Mumbai rains don't excite me much. They probably would if I had a sea-facing apartment in Worli. But there are more than just a few crores between me and that apartment. The one below Katrina Kaif's.
My apartment mate's parents are here. My culinary senses are in ninth heaven with all the tasty food I have been consuming. But I am worried about the disappointment I will face once I have to go back to eating the tiffin food.
I have just finished reading Catch-22. Those who haven't read it should definitely give it a try. For those who can digest that style of humour, and I say this because I know not everyone might, it is fresh and tangy. A very distinct style of writing which though not gripping, is interesting nonetheless. The book is a somewhat long read but worthwhile. Having put it in the 'out' bin, I am now latched on to 'Manias, Panics and Crashes'. This is my favorite genre. Inspired by true stories but somewhat fabricated to make it more interesting. 'Barbarians at the gate' is in that category. So is 'Liar's Poker'.
This week I will try to see '21'. I hear it is a nice movie.
I stumbled upon this video. Amazing. Sweet. Dedicated to by-now-everyone-knows-who.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

My head is eating circles

Having killed all officeflies (as against houseflies) in the 5-feet radius, I am at a loss figuring out how to stop my head from eating circles.

Just this Sunday, I went to a homeopathic doctor. I was asked questions about my food habits, career ambitions, fears and childhood days. And I had gone for an infection of the toe nail! If this isn't the height of holistic healing, I don't know what is. I had never given so much thought to my toenail while I was worring about my career choices during the MBA days. But now, I don't think I will be able to do anything substantial in my life without wondering how it might affect my toe nail.

I recently weighed myself. I weigh an astounding 64kgs! Like Strato always does, you could claim that my shoes and wallet together weigh 4 kgs implying that I am porly paid - since the weight comes from too many coins, or that I am poorly fed. While the former is true, I contest the latter. With a waist size increasing at the speed of India's population, I can hardly be called poorly-fed.

My camera has been lying ununsed for some time now. Well, I did click a few snaps last Sunday when a group of us met up, but the setting wasn't very amenable to clicking too many snaps. And I was left unsatisfied with the end product which resembled a kid's crayon painting when he/she is in a learning stage. The colors were hazy and the photo had camera shake - the only kind of shake I hate.