Desi Tamasha

Democracy Needs an Upgrade

2013-01-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! It is a tough time for democracy in India and the US. Each country is currently governed by a left-of-center party, each with a glorious history of helping empower citizens. Yet, while the amazing events of the Arab Spring have been unfolding, these two great democracies seem to be regressing and heading in the wrong direction. My observations here are based on press reports

What's wrong with this picture

2010-09-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

From the Wall Street Journal story on high speed passenger rail in the US.

Shoot for originality

2009-11-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

Every serious writer has to be original; he cannot be content to do or to offer a version of what has been done before. And every serious writer as a result becomes aware of this question of form; because he knows that however much he might have been educated and stimulated by the writers he has read or reads, the forms matched the experience of those writers, and do not strictly suit his own.-

How I sold my Toyota Corolla

2009-10-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

As readers of this blog already know, I crashed our Corolla into a truck a couple of months back. The car was in pretty bad shape after the accident, and was barely drivable. We were trying to figure out what to do with it. If we donated it, the organization which received the car would try to sell it via an auction. If the car managed to sell in the auction, the organization would get 65% of the

The Security Pendulum

2009-08-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, whenever I flew domestically within the US, I thought the security level was exceptionally low. You could pretty much walk up to to the gate to drop/receive the travelers. The carry-on baggage checks were perfunctory, and the traveler herself went thru no checks at all.9/11 changed all that, and we had high security theater for a while, with travelers being put thru a variety of

Our penchant for acronyms

2009-07-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

Indians love their acronyms or "short forms." Here is a good example... On the left is a headline on CNN's homepage, on the right is one from the Times of India.

5 seconds that makes the difference

2009-07-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

Texting while driving is very dangerous. Switching between calls or dialing calls while driving is equally bad:That study, which is undergoing peer review and has been submitted for publication in The Journal for Human Factors, also found that drivers took their eyes off the road for around five seconds when texting.

Never again: Cellphone while driving

2009-07-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I read this article by Maureen Dowd, who, in turn, was quoting the hidden National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report on driving while on a cellphone: Studies show that drivers who talk on cellphones are four times more likely to be in a crash and drive just as erratically as people with an 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level.In one study cited by the highway safety

China: Fizzle or Crash?

2009-07-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

The Chinese "growth" story in recent months, it seems, is a total mirage, built upon reckless government spending that is about to come crashing down:I thought I’d seen insane excess in the past – 200 thousand square meter malls completely empty next to apartment complexes with 40 thousand units and 30% occupancy rates, etc. etc. But what we saw over there is rather hard to fathom. It seems the

Dictatorships are good at concealing problems while democracy is good at advertising defects

2009-07-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

I disagree with most of this Foreign Policy article on the rise of Asia, but one thing does strike me as true:Dictatorships are good at concealing the problems they create while democracy is good at advertising its defects.Take, for example, the breathless writing about how China is surpassing the US in alternative energy spending. Now American VCs and the US government are smart folks and they

German and Soviet killings from 1933-1944: 15 million

2009-06-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

In this NY Review of Books article, the writer says:Auschwitz as symbol of the Holocaust excludes those who were at the center of the historical event. His point is that there were very many more Eastern Europeans were killed by Hitler and Stalin than Western Europeans between 1933 and 1944. The Germans killed somewhat more than ten million civilians in the major mass killing actions, about half

I'd have liked AOL

2009-06-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

I find Twitter exhausting, but I can deal with Facebook, sort of. Now I understand why people still prefer AOL to that unruly thing called the Internet.

A brief introduction to Dolcera

2009-06-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I have put together a short video describing what my company, Dolcera, does. It's just three and a half minutes long...

Scoop over the 'keeper's head

2009-06-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

A guy I knew in my housing colony used to play this shot way back in the early '80s (tennis and rubber ball cricket, of course). I've been waiting for someone to play it in the T20s for a long time and finally Dilshan has done it. Check out this YouTube video:

Netherlands as a "test-playing" cricket nation

2009-06-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

Though test cricket is about to die, it would be fantastic to have the Dutch as a full test-playing nation soon... They are ready to take their place, beating England today quite confidently in the World T20 game.

How much does it cost to get a startup off the ground in India?

2009-05-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

The answer is $18K.

Change is coming

2009-04-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

Swapan Dasgupta, that old Trotskyite-turned-BhaJaPaite, is making fun of Mallika Sarabhai and Meera Sanyal. Why? Because, he says, they probably won't win too many votes. Are votes the best measure of candidate quality? While one can sing paeans to Indian democracy and the wisdom of its electorate, the sad reality is that the system is pretty broken at the moment. Too may history-sheeters are

I can't believe these doctors!

2009-03-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

These buggers keep giving such crazy arguments for not using electronic medical records... Unbelievable!

Victor Hugo on the pillaging of Beijing's Summer Palace

2009-03-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

The Time China blog says that Victor Hugo is very popular in China at the moment and explains why. The reason, it turns out, is a brilliant letter he'd written criticizing the pillaging of Beijing's Summer Palace during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860.Maybe Amitav Ghosh will describe it in detail in his Sea of Poppies sequel. Like his earlier description of the ransacking of Rangoon's

The idea of India

2009-02-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

M J Akbar: "India is one nation among the many who emerged from the ruins of the British empire capable of claiming the mantle of modernity. This is not because Indians are superior to their neighbours, but because the idea of India is better. Democracy, secularism, equality and freedom are an Indian's non-negotiable birthright."

Rajasthan Royals to move to Amdavad?

2009-02-14T11:44:00.001-08:00

How cool would that be!

Nouriel for Nobel Prize!

2009-02-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

To many, Nouriel Roubini is a twerp or a gadfly, or a minor playboy. But he does not mince words, and he's been a breath of fresh air on the airwaves, in the press and on the Internet, with his badly-formatted but straightshooting RGE Monitor newsletter. He says obvious things that no one else seems to want to write or say but believes to be true. Take this piece in tomorrow's Washington Post,

Putin

2009-01-30T20:51:00.000-08:00

Gideon Rachman on Vladimir Putin: “I wouldn’t want to be in a room with just him and a bare light-bulb.”

Nice tabla simulator

2009-01-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

A nice little webpage and tabla simulator... Check it out here.

Things are extremely dire in Afghanistan and Pakistan

2009-01-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

William Dalrymple says that things are worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan than they've ever been. The thought is terrifying! .cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:no