Freakonomics

One of the famous books on popular economics.

Be warned, though the book claims to be a book on economics,  its in fact a book on sociology. The reader hardly learn anything about economics from this.

The author talked about the how conventional wisdom might not true all the time. To support his point, author had given many examples. These examples, give us a different view on society in general.

Instead of discussing chapters like GDP, GNP , growth rate etc etc  author chose to discuss much on criminology and popular misconceptions. However, some of the arguments against misconceptions are hard to agree, or hard to check the authenticity. For example, in an argument against the popular belief that watching TV damage brains of kids, author says that, in Finland, where children are allowed to go to so from the age of seven, sit at home, and learn to read by watching American channels with finnish subtitles. Another chapter is dedicated to money spent by contestants in American elections and their percentage of victory. I find that chapter, really ridiculous.

Too many statistics in some chapters, and while breaking generalizations, author made few generalizations. I disagree with the misconceptions author has mentioned, but can't really accept the examples he provided.

If you really want to learn something on economics or get an insight into world trade or something like that, dont buy this one, instead go for "Underground economist" .

Tale of haruk - Korean play

The theater enthusiast woke up in the evening and I went to watch "Tale of Haruk" at Ravindra Bharati. On the ticket it was printed that it's a korean play with subtitles. Too late, I already paid the money, so decided to give it a shot.

They have installed two large Televisions on both side of the stage to display subtitles. Auditorium is not completely filled. And the play started at the mentioned time. 

The story is a silly one. There is not much scope for the action for actors. There were no lengthy dialogues. The play offers little insight of Korea. However, i consider the play is great, not because of the story and all but based on how it is played.

The tallest guy among the actors, started performing magic a show. Rest of them joined him, thumping rudimentary musical instruments like water cans, water bottles, copper plates etc etc. The magician creates music out of just sounds. This act, worked as ice breaker. This made us get ready to accept uncommon things in the play so that we wont be shocked. And these are same instruments which offered background music through out the play. 

Its the story of an old and sad couple who pass time nagging each other. They pray the "Tree of spirit" for baby. The tree gives them an egg, and told them not to feed the baby anything other than dew. When the egg is hatched, the baby came out and said "Haruk", so they named him Haruk, little they know that its the only word or sound the baby is capable of pronouncing. While trying to teach the baby other words, the couple started learning Haruk-language. 

One day, tired of eating dew everyday , Haruk demands rice. After much thinking, the couple feeds him rice. That night, Haruk dreamt of Big things, and when he woke up , he become big and hungry. The more he ate, the more he gets bigger and the more hungry he became.  He ate the whole world, sun , moon and the old couple too. Then he gets lonely and starts crying. The tears of him become the rivers and his body become land and mountains. However, universe continue to cherish in his tummy including the old couple who continue to bicker.

More than story or acting skills of the artists, everybody was amazed by the way it is played.  The manifestation of Haruk growing beyond limits, the way they used puppets to represent the old couple in the climax to make us understand that how big the Haruk become, the use of lights are worth watching.

pheku.in

Two days ago, i went to La Makaan, and found myself in www.pheku.in launching function.

In Twitter, faku is the word used for Narendra Modi and Pappu is for Rahul Gandhi. The owners of the website say they are not just against Modi, but every politician who gives false data to prove his administrative talent. According to them, Modi-sycophants love him for the so called development in Gujarat. And by, " enlightening " them with facts, Modi-sycophancy can be reduced.

I think, the problem is deeper than that. According to my observation, development of Gujarat is socially acceptable reason to announce their love for Modi, the real reason is Godhra riots. Many who argued with me, supported Modi, for letting the Muslims die. The argument goes something like this " What? You dont like Modi, for letting the Muslims die in the massacre. What do you call the train accident which initiated Godhra riots. They killed us first , and we killed them in revenge. Its fair. This is land of Hindus bro "

Of course i have to repeat the old dialog " Revenge is not justice" , and they brindise me as a congress supporter. So , the real problem is  the psychological fight of "They Vs We". 

Book Without A Title.

Till few months back, i wanted to avoid death. I knew its not possible, i would like to be the Dorian Gray. I dont want to age, i dont want to die. Not that, i would like to embrace it now, but recently i developed different view on it.

Death. Its like the last fullstop of an interesting book. If you ever read a book, which you are so much enjoying it, and got annoyed because the book has an ending after few pages. The reading speed goes slow, so that you can enjoy it for some more time. For me, it usually happens with RK Narayan books. We might not check the number of pages in that book, but we knew that , its going to end.

Now, i perceive life like that. Its a book. I dont know , how many pages are in it. But, i am sure, its going to end at some point. I dont know when its going to end either. However, its hard to accept the truth that, it will end , it does not matter, if i accept it or not, its going to end. I like it or not, i have to read it.  While reading novels, we drop the novels, which are boring or depressing. With , book of life, i dont have that choice. I HAVE to read it.

The religionists believe that, Brahma or some guy who belongs to their religion wrote it and they have to read it. As a nihilist, i believe , i am the author of it. So, in a nutshell, i am writing a book, but i dont know when it will end. I have few choices to make. First, i write nothing, except mundane activities. In that case, when i reach the end, when i skim through the pages, i cant find anything worth reading. Lets say i am in death-bed with no physical activity what so ever. Would not i regret that i have no memories written which are worth reading, feel nostalgic , feel proud, feel ashamed, to feel anything at all. If the authour cant enjoy his/her own work , then its worst work possible in the world, is not it?

Second, believe that God will write it. No , i cant accept that. Third , let others write it. Hell NO.

Many i know, prepare cover page of the book first , then start writing it. The cover-page requires, a title, a photo and name of the author. The famous titles will be something like "Story of a successful man", "My love story" , "Me and my family" , "How soap operas changed me", "How i kicked asses of others", " The greatest man ever born" , " Me and Religion " etc etc . Once the title is fixed, then photo. A picture of him, in youth, with his life partner , while everybody is watching them, is a common picture. Or a photo of him , in youth (obviously! ) having good time with friends. Usually, the title will be decided by society and photo will resemble the trend in the movies.

Now, as they got  title and photo ready, many want to write the content in accordance with the cover page.  However, these people are better than the ones , who ask others to write a title and think of a photo. Their books will be written by others not them. Amazingly, at no point, they think that, their book is too boring. For the readers, they might be the worst authors, but they are in peace, believing destiny and all those crap.

Coming to me, i have decided on the photo. It will be me my pic on the death bed , laughing. Not that society accepted laugh, my special laugh. And the title? It would be "My life" like Bill Clinton autobiography or none. Just blank.

Previously , i wrote blog posts on similar topic. Now, i feel they don't have much depth. They are

After a quarter  and అవును , నేను పాత విల్లన్ లాంటి వాడినే !!  . Only change, now and then is , i am beginning to accept death.

The dark room by R.K.Narayan

I think its one of few books RK Narayan wrote, which go on a serious note.

The story of a neglected wife, who usually sulks , but become normal after spending few days in the dark room of the home. After few pages of story, she realizes that her husband is moving closely with another lady. This time, she leaves the house, goes to another part of the town and joins as a sweeper in a temple.

The feminists might expect the story to end there, or might expect her husband to realize her value and ask for her forgiveness. However, author lead the story in more realistic way.

Small book, but made me think over it for a long time.

The question of criminal- legislators !

The relationship between politicians and crime is legendary, so is, the idea to ban criminals to enter politics. However the solution is not suitable in Indian context with our sluggish judiciary system. Supreme Court has been trying to put an end to this, but without success.

Economists like S.A. Aiyar and Bimal Jalan are arguing for a different approach. I.e to speed up the court cases of the legislators with criminal cases. Their argument is that, with a system like that, the criminals abstain from entering foray fearing that their case will come to an end soon the verdict might come against them. I liked this solution very much. But there is a small problem with it.

What if, the accused is proved guilty? We have to remove him/her from legislation. Then what? Elections have to be conducted in that constituency again. And what if the next candidate also proven guilty?

Extending that idea, why cant we make the time between nominations to elections six months or one year, and ask the courts to speed up the process of the cases on the contestants. This way, people don't have to vote multiple times and legislature will be criminal free. 

Philosophical dilemma with technical analysis.

Regarding stock trading, there are broadly two methods investors follow. Fundamental analysis and technical analysis.

It is considered that fundamental analysis is for long term investment, where the investor would check the balance sheet of the company to invest in it or not. On the other hand, techincal analysis does not bother itself with balance sheets or ledgers , but on charts which depict the history of the stock so far.The trader analyze the stock history and decide when to buy it and when to sell it. The philosophy behind this technical analysis is that there will be pattern for every stock.

Now my philosophical problem, is it right to follow technical analysis or not.  How can we be sure that there is a pattern and the stock follows the pattern in the future too.

Long back i denied the idea of "Circle of life", "History repeats itself" , " horoscopes can tell everything" etc etc. There is a reason for me to deny so. According to mathematics, if we toss a coin fifty times in a row, and if we  toss it again, the probability of head and tails will still be fifty-fifty. It implies that, the result of game cant be predicted based on the history. My life is an example too. Since kindergarden, people consider me an above average student. I have never failed
in school or in inter. But that didn't stop me to fail in the B.Tech first year From first semester of engineering to the last but one semester, i failed a few subjects in every semester. But that history, could not stop me to clear the last semester exams in one go , achieving the degree in four years.

If we have to judge a person , or guess the result of an outcome, based on past, then there wont be any "giving second chances". It closes our minds and make us stupids. Lets take the example of Indian cricket team. It got defeated many times in a row, but won again. Australia won many matches, in row, but some point it failed. The same goes with horoscopes, astrology. If i had to believe in technical analysis to make a quick buck, i have to believe in "Circle of life" things to avoid being an hypocrite.

Later, i read an article, which eliminated that dilemma. The author explained the essence of technical analysis i.e those charts does not just show the price of the stock each day, they actually show the psychology of other investors regarding that stock. The upper limit and lower limit does not just show the performance of the company but the belief of the investors in that stock. Now that made sense. Its human psychology. We, people, as a whole, are not better than sheep. Something in our mind tells us to follow other than making a new path, so , we follow what others are following. And as humans we have mental inertia, i.e its hard to change our belief system, unless some forces us to believe otherwise. If a stock is going up, that means, the leaders, in this case, the fundamental analysis people, start investing in it, and others start buying it because the stock is going up. When the fundamental analysis people start selling the stock, because the stock value went beyond the book-value, people follow them and sell it like its end of the world, so the stock value goes down, till again a fundamental analyst finds it good to buy. Its a pattern, not of stock, but psychology of people.

However, that lead to another problem. In technical analysis i am making decisions based on opinion of other investors but not on the performance of the company. Its like judging somebody based on opinion of others, without having first hand experience, making me one of the sheep, who buys and sells based on decision of others. I guess, thats the easy way to live in this world, without wasting much energy on thinking and analysing. 

1984 by George Orwell

Its one of the hardest book to read and accept what author wanted to convey. Of course, in the end i have to accept with author in every aspect. This book definitely comes to mind when one have to prioritize between society and individual.

The novel, which gave birth to many popular words like "Big Brother", "Newspeak", "Room 101" etc etc , deals with the era where socialism is fully established i.e production and distribution of wealth in the hands of Govt. A totalitarianism covered with mass-attracting morals. The novel depicts the encounter of a man who want to think and feel, with the govt which wants to eliminate the freedom of though to continue the regime for ever.

There are many concepts the book has touched in a beautiful way, like, proof of love, freedom, thoughts, importance having vocabulary, power, manipulation, torture , propaganda  etc etc.

A must read, if you are struggling to understand the importance of individual.

RTI regarding nicotine and tar content on cigarettes

Tobacco prohibition act says that the tobacco manufacturing companies have to provide the nicotine and Tar content along with the warning sign on the products. All most  all cigarette companies hide that information. When I applied RTI , this is the response I have received.

SNS journalism !

Social networking is the revolution which is slowly removing the need of print/electronic media. I don't have to read an interview in a newspaper to know the opinion of the celebrity I like.

Not only celebrities, but also politicians. But only few politicians are using it.  I appreciate the way government departments are using social networking sites. For example Hyderabad Traffic police page on Facebook. They are updating any route-changes, along with realtime traffic updates.

Prime minister office has a Twitter account through which I know what prime minister is up to. The meteorological department of India Facebook page updates me on weather.

On top of them, there are few individuals who reach out public through social media. For example Omar Abdullah, CM of Jammu & Kashmir. His tweets on his duties as a CM are interesting. Shashi Tharoor, Ajay Maken , Narendra Modi are few politicians who are using Twitter.

Social networking sites are providing a ground , where " Out of context" remarks, misinterpretation and opinions of journalists are absent. This method reduced the work of journalists too. Now they don't have to run to a celebrity/politician. Just follow them on Twitter and show the tweet on their channel. Already our national media is following that technique.

The day I stopped drinking milk by sudha Murty

A collection of short stories. If you are kind of a person who tries very hard to finish what was started, then pick it up.

If you are more than 15 years old, and if you had read fables when you were a kid, then either you might get nostalgia or the page number where you stopped reading will indicate the level of patience you have.This book will examine how well you can motivate yourself.

The book contains collection of incidents. In every incident, first person is Sudha Murty. In more than half of the stories, the stories end with showing how wise and compassionate she is. She maintained the same style of story telling for every story. All most all stories starts with description of a person she knows. Then how she helped that person or lectured that person. In the end there will be a moral.

Except for one story " Do you remember?" Where some other person lectures her on how small things are important in life more than awards. I patiently read all stories, except the last one. Where she wrote her life lessons ,point by point . I could not read that one, I can't read a fable with moral in the end anymore. I swallowed my ego, accepted that I am not that patient as I would like to think of myself and closed the book.

And this will be the day, I stopped reading Sudha Murty books.

The man who talk too much !!

I was not referring to the guys to who become over-talkative in presence of girls, or vice versa .  I was referring people with obsessive talking disorder. People who cant stop talking. I am not sure if its a biological problem or psychological disorder or just lack of social skills.

These people have to talk all the time. Because, its their jaws which pump the blood to other parts of the body. If they stop talking, they die. I don't have a problem, if they choose to chew a gum, but somehow , they prefer to talk, they have to use tongue. May be its because their jaws get sweat and the tongue has to fan them.

Based on what they talk , i categorize them into three sections.

Category 1 :

These people think they have social skills. If you start a topic, which they don't know, they talk nonsense on it with confidence. You might misunderstand that they are trying for "I-Know-it-all" image. Thats not true, its just that , saying "I don't know about that " would not give them chance to speak. So , they have to made up stories or something about the topic you started, just to talk. That stresses their mind a lot, and the side affect is, they tend to forget what they chattered. If they picked the topic of conversation, then you are dead.

Category 2:

These people did not cultivate the habit of listening. No listening means no accumulation of new knowledge. They have very little to speak, and that "little", usually, about themselves. So, they talk a lot about their families, about their childhood, their school teacher, their friends, incidents which happened in the past .... repeatedly, over and over again, each time with same energy levels, to new listeners or to the old ones.

 After sometime, you knew how the story going to end, because you heard it several times before, but still , you will be forced to listen to that. These people are so enthusiastic in talking , that they dont even bother if you are listening or not. And that enthusiasm makes them deaf, once they start talking.  I prefer listening to their nonsense over phone so that i can finish chores , all i have to say "ok", "ooh", "really?" "is it?" "Then?" etc etc. Usually i stick to "OK", of course i have to make those sounds  to satisfy myself that i am in a conversation, not in a public meeting.  You need not bother to say a sentence or share a similar story which happened with you. Even if you do, they dont listen. Social manners says that , if somebody is talking, listen to them. They are not aware of it, they will resume their chatter before you finish your sentence. Just remember that, they have got wax in their ears and they are reciting the chapters from their little diaris. According to my observation, these people jump to category one after few years.

Category 3:

The purest form of verbal diarrhea. Just nonsense. They are burden to society. And society sarcastically calls them "Talkative", and they take it as a compliment. These people have to verbalize every thought from their brains. Luckily, these are easy to spot, just listen 5 minutes, and you will understand that , what ever they talk , is patternless and does not make sense. These are so dumb that, they usually misunderstand whatever you say. If you find a person like that, just run for your life. Don't even try to be polite, just make an excuse so that others wont think of you rude......... and run.

Wreck-it Ralph

An animated movie which I found interesting. All the characters in the movie are characters of computer games.

The story starts with the meeting of antagonists from all computer games. Ralph, a bad guy in his game , expresses his desire to be praised, to be accepted by other characters of his game. Rest of the villains, warn him that all characters must respect the programs and do the job which they were designed to do. Sounds like the doctrine of everything-is-destined.

But Ralph wanted a gold medal which the heroes get, to get some respect from the other characters. So he leaves his game in search of one. Without villain, what any hero can do? Kids who paid money to play the game at the gamezone complain to the owner that the game is malfunctioning. Characters of the game realize that, there is a fat chance the arcade game will be thrown away if Ralph doesn't return. So the hero of the game leaves it to search him.

After messing up other games as well, everybody realize the importance of all the characters in a game. The story ends with every game working properly.

Nice story, I find it a bit boring for 5 min, but it made me sit and watch.

Nautanki Saalaa

Its one movie I watched because of the hero I.e Vicky donor fame.

The hero gave his best just like he did in Vicky donor, but the movie has too many twists, too many songs and too much emotional drama. The comedy of first half is great, but I found no humor in second half, though the background music begs me to understand that it's a comedy scene.

The story is best suited for a soap opera or a novel. The directed might have wanted to orchestra the audience between love and humor but the end result is boring.

Ship of theseus

If anybody believes that a boring film in  documentary style is an art film , so a great film, then this movie is for them.

Ship of Theseus is a philosophical question , " If all parts of a ship are replaced, then is it original ship or not . " The director tried to use that in organ donation , but , failed.

The movie depicts lifestyles of organ recovers more than anything to do with the philosophical question. I think he should have pictured the lives of receivers after transplantation was done.  The way director portrayed the kidney-business is good. That is the only part not boring in the entire movie.

Not to worry, there is comedy too. I was giggling like a school kid at a scene which shows how to put deadpan to an old lady with broken leg, including pre and post washing of it.

Where is home?

Just watched a TED video Where is home? Nice video.

The person produced some important points on "Feeling home", but drifted towards kind of spirituality later. He confined his idea of home to a  psychological thing in the era of Global-Village. But, I believe the feeling of home has a sociological factor also. In the end he says "Home is where you stand" , and my point is that a person should be allowed to stand at that point first. Its been thousand years Arabs invaded and settled down in India, and many so-called-native-descendants deny that its their homeland too. Still, people fight with each other because of the question "From where you are?"

Before we try to get the GPS location of the HOME, i think first we have to understand what home is. Is it the place where we are comfortable? then Hotels should be the answer. But no, we dont feel "home" in a hotel , no matter how many stars it has. Is it the safest place? Again, no. If safety is the criteria to call a structure, home, then prisons are the safest places, but people try to run away from them.  Is it the place we are familiar with ? Then office buildings can be called homes.

I think all those factors along with many other constitute a HOME. Its the place, where i am always welcome, a place where i can hide , where all my belongings will be present, where i feel safe, where i can enter and exit at my will, where i am sure that i dont have to fight , place where i need not be ashamed to go , where i am familiar with the surroundings (my grandparents were happy to sell their home to buy a new one, but could not leave the town) , most importantly, a place i was habituated to live.

I too agree that, home is not just a  structure. Its an idea. I could not understand, if we develop the idea from the structure we are living in, or we build the structure according to the idea, or its both?  My father, who spent his childhood in congested area, built an individual home in the outskirts leaving much space around the house for gardening. And I, want to live in an apartment at the heart of the city. And few of my friends whats to live in their parents home without any changes. May be, disliking-parents-home runs in my family!

Home is a place i am willing to feel like that, and a place where people around me encourage me to do so. How about having no such feeling at all? Then i am homeless and restless. How about developing that feeling of home for all places, then i will be a nomad , but a happy person.