Precious

Himanshu made this. Isn't it great?

Beyond My Solitude

'The Forerunner' is a masterpiece. The opening line of this poem is stunning. The more you think about it, the more fascinating it gets:

Beyond my solitude is another solitude, and to him who dwells therein my aloneness is a crowded market-place and my silence a confusion of sounds...

Its that time of the year!

Everyone in Dubai is eagerly awaiting the change of season. Dubai summers are excruciatingly hot & scalding and after 5 months of summer, the prospect of winter around the corner brings so much cheer and hope ("yes, we will be able to step out again!").

My personal favourite 'the-most-fun-places-for-winter' are along the sea: the creek, the beach-parks, the fishing & golf clubs (although I hate fishing and can't play golf), the Wild Wadi and now the Marina.

Movies vs. Books

Movies based on books are almost never as good as the book. The only exception I can think of is 'The Godfather' where the movie gets the essence and feel of the book itself. Are there any more?

Lost

I'm not a Lost-oholic, why I'm only in the middle of season 1 yet. But I'm getting there!
The polar bears on a tropical island was a great piece of imagination, I thought. Its almost like the writers were thinking 'Why stop now when we've got such an incredulous plot anyway!' And then Dr. Jack is so macho even the beasts on the island love him. But best of all, I love Naveen Andrews' cute Iraqi accent. Sayid rocks!

My New Hero!

I first heard of Vikaram Akula when he figured in Time magazine's 'Top 100 People Who shape our World'. Wow, what a tremendous story! A Yale graduate and later a McKinsey alumni who quit his cushy consultancy job to start a micro-finance company because, he said, "the level of povery in India was unacceptable". The company aims to empower rural women and has disbursed $72 million of loans to poor rural Indian women with an average loan-size of just Rs. 5000 to 10000. And the company has a 98% on-time repayment history! This is not a charity but a professionally-run bank; and a case-study today for all business students in the country. Would love to work with this man someday!

Crash

When H & I saw the movie 'Crash' we got into this discussion about whether there is a difference between racism and 'racial profiling' done by the cops.

A black guy roaming around in a white neighbourhood in the US looking into houses according to statistics is most likely to be a robber. But what if he really is a everyday man looking to buy a house and checking out the neighbourhood?

An Asian guy at an airport perspiring a lot and looking repeatedly at his watch is most likely to be a suicide bomber. But what if he is just an everyday guy getting anxious about being on time for a business meeting?

Is it fair for a guy to be scrutinized by law simply for belonging to a particular race? Certainly not.

On the other hand, for the security guard at the airport whose job is to spot the terrorist amongst the thousands of travellers everyday, is it wrong to use statistical data for creating a 'profile' of the suspect he is looking for? I don't know.