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Showing posts from 2012

Bus ride to simplicity

It was going to be my first bus ride in over seven years. A ride of five hours to a very revered temple in Odisha, starting at 5am from Bhubaneshwar. There was an air of excitement and anticipation as I was yearning to visit the temple for a long time and the journey by bus, added to the mood. Waking up early was never among my choicest ways to start the day, and I pulled my half-asleep body to the bathroom. My dad’s repeated reminders to start early so that I could find a seat in a right bus interjected the gushes of water from the shower. A right bus had 2-by-2 (rows of two seats separated by the aisle) reclining seats, had fewer stoppages and reached on time, or with predictable delay. My father had packed my bag with few apples, a cookie pack and a water-bottle. I did not bother to pick a book or my brother’s i-pod, and decided to spend the ten hours including the return journey, unencumbered. A short ride in my father’s scooter and I was seated in one of the right buses to...

The India Puzzle

I got started on this article sometime in last week of January (2012). A combination of factors delayed the completion, lending it some seasoning and a chance to project my views in the backdrop of certain global and local events. To cite a few key events – Sensex moved up a 1000 points (3.46%), while retracting to a modest 1.46% gain (27 th Jan - 6 th April), Congress lost their ‘prince’ly campaign to the Samajwadi Party in decisive UP, further losing their control on the house and a weakened coalition taking away the dexterity to make meaningful reforms. Among global events – US is showing more, if not credible signs of recovery, Euro debt and austerity issues are making less of headlines and a mix of Middle East flash points have oil prices boiling, that has potential to shave the early gains in world recovery. The View: I was recently reading an article by Stephen S. Roach (Faculty Member at Yale Univ. & Non-Executive Chairman, Morgan Stanley Asia) where he discu...