Musings Own Thoughts

 Cricket is a passion and a mania in India and the generation of the past fed on Test cricket with the great battles of attrition, courage and character find it difficult to exult over T20 format. Still the first T20 World cup and the first IPL tournament both either by chance or design threw up results which were to say the least unusual but entirely unexpected. In 2007, the game was unknown and the tactics and everything about it was unknown. The cricket stars of India of he time, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman thought that this was a form of cricket not worthy of their skills or temperament and they decided to ignore it altogether. India by sheer numbers and popularity of the game was setting the cash registers of world cricket ringing seemed always unwilling to take to new innovations in cricket. In one day cricket in 1975 India was one on the lowest ranked one day outfit with little experience. So T20 cricket was not on the popular sports radar o...

 My dear readers, I have a confession to make. This is that it has taken me long time to realise that the pursuit and understanding of economics is not a boring dry subject of numbers but a way of life and economic lens applied to everyday life can lead to far reaching positive outcomes in both material and spiritual well being. Having taken this off my chest I must also state that I am only beginning to take my first few baby steps in this field. So what do I write especially about a subject of which I am largely ignorant. My interest in this has always been there, however at most times there was the doctor in me who was fed the simplistic theories of just doing one's job of caring and treating patients based on my training. Most of my communication with patients in my view has been spot on and despite average skills I have tasted moderate success in practice. My interest in politics and policies started after listening  to Nani Palkhivala in 1977  at Shanmukhananda Hall...

 It is election time in India and even as we are celebrating democracy this election has evoked the least enthusiasm in me on a personal level even though I am very clear about the choice of voting I will make when I visit my voting booth next Monday, May 20, 2024. My blog today is based on what I heard in a podcast by Amit Verma featuring a relatively young economist Rohit Lamba which was a TIL moment for me. For the uninitiated TIL stands for (Today I learned). So what did I learn which gave me a subject for this blog. Why I call this a TIL moment is that this knowledge should count as a tragedy and a daily disaster of over 10-15000 daily deaths of children under age 5 and should give sleepless nights to the leadership of our nation. Today it is reported that the   underweight among under-five children ranged from 39% to 75%, stunting from 15.4% to 74% and wasting from 10.6% to 42.3% in different parts of the country. The under 5 mortality rate is 32 per 10,000 births. ...

  This blog relates to the issue of affirmative action by states or individuals to help and give rights to individuals, groups of persons advantages in the form of representation in seats of power, selection reserved in seats for education and jobs.  Genesis of the problem as I view it relate to progress of man in general. As societies and civilizations developed and prospered some kind of restrictions and rules of law were needed. The law of the jungle or concept of might is right or big fish eat small fish had to give way. The hunter gatherer gave way to domestication, agriculture and division of labor. Ownership of land and domestication of animals for human needs started happening. This relatively settled existence lead to leisure and man started to exercise his intellect and instead of living with body consciousness he started become aware of emotions and slowly developed a faculty of thinking. From exercising rudimentary intellect in relation to terrestrial earthly matte...

In virtute robur In virtue lies our strength, To uphold our motto, We’ll go to any length, This was the chorus of our school anthem, Don Bosco, Matunga. Let me say one thing which is an abiding memory was is a school where somehow we got an atmosphere which was liberal open and conducive to all round development and most of us were taught to become honest responsible citizens of the nation and be prepared for life. This was certainly in contrast to schools ready to churn out sorted academic achievers more concerned with ranks and academic achievements. Intelligence was emphasized on at the cost of development of intellect. Utilitarian education versus utopian education will always remain a contest in the face of modern world demands where man runs after jobs, degrees, material wealth rather than living a life of true meaning and fulfilment.  Coming back to list of virtues for some reasons when we randomly make a list the top rankers are and lists are based on traditions and culture...