The Great Pivot: Why AI Must Escape the Screen and Enter the Real World

For the past few years, the world has been mesmerized by a parlor trick of historic proportions. We have stared into screens, conversing with chatbots that mimic human language with uncanny accuracy. We have marveled at algorithms that generate surreal imagery and debug complex code in seconds. The media narrative and venture capital funding have overwhelmingly focused on generative AI - intelligence confined to the digital realm. Yet, while we are busy "fooling around" with sophisticated text predictors, we are ignoring the most profound application of artificial intelligence: the manipulation of the physical world.

The current obsession with purely digital AI is a strategic misstep. We are actively automating the abstract layers of society while neglecting the foundational ones. The true next step for artificial intelligence isn't another large language model; it is the deployment of embodied intelligence into the messy, chaotic reality of the physical environment. The future does not belong to the chatbot; it belongs to the automated farm, the autonomous construction site, and the intelligent supply chain.

Civilization does not run on emails, spreadsheets, or generative art. It runs on atoms, not bits. It rests upon a foundation of essential physical tasks: growing food, building shelter, manufacturing goods, moving resources, and maintaining public safety. These sectors - agriculture, construction, manufacturing, logistics, and law and order - are the bedrock of human existence. They are also sectors currently plagued by inefficiency, dangerous working conditions, and stagnating productivity.

Deploying AI into these physical domains is the imperative of our time. In farming, it means moving beyond GPS-guided tractors to fully autonomous systems capable of precision planting, weeding, and harvesting, drastically increasing yields while reducing environmental impact. In construction, a famously inefficient industry, it means robotic systems that can lay bricks, pour concrete, and weld steel with tireless precision, addressing the global housing crisis exponentially faster than human crews. In logistics, it means an end-to-end autonomous supply chain, from the warehouse floor robot to the self-driving long-haul truck.

When we shift our focus to physical automation, a startling economic reality will likely emerge: the perceived indispensability of many white-collar jobs is an illusion.

Much of the modern white-collar workforce exists to manage the inefficiencies of the physical world. Layers of middle management, administration, procurement, and oversight are necessary because human labor in physical industries is slow, error-prone, and requires intricate coordination. We need armies of people sitting at computers to track, manage, and compensate for the limitations of physical execution.

If, however, physical production and distribution become seamless through deployed AI, the administrative overhead required to manage them collapses. If a construction project is executed by autonomous systems that do not call in sick, do not make calculation errors, and update their progress in real-time to a central database, the need for human project managers, site inspectors, and administrative assistants diminishes rapidly.

The current anxiety about AI replacing digital jobs - coders, writers, designers - is therefore a misdirection of energy. We are desperately trying to protect or automate jobs that exist at the top of the economic pyramid, forgetting that the real meat is at the base. By solving the challenges of the physical world first, we may find that the purely digital jobs we are currently obsessed with become redundant anyway, rendered obsolete not by a better chatbot, but by a more efficient reality.

The direction of AI must pivot from simulation to action. True intelligence is not merely the ability to process information; it is the ability to perceive the physical environment and act upon it to achieve a goal. The "chatbot era" should be viewed merely as the prologue. The main event is the integration of silicon and steel, algorithms and atoms. It is time for AI to stop just talking and start doing.

Post-AGI Life: The Purpose Beyond Work

 Recently, the visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk ignited a global discussion with a profound statement: once Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is successfully developed, “work will be optional.” This suggests a future where, thanks to the near-limitless productivity of AGI, every person's basic material needs will be met, allowing them to live a comfortable life without the necessity of working for a living.

This imminent shift in human experience immediately prompts one of the most fundamental philosophical questions: What will be the purpose of life in such a post-scarcity, post-work scenario?

Understanding Our Current Purpose

In order to meaningfully address the purpose of life in a future shaped by AGI, we must first gain clarity on the driving forces behind our lives at present.

A cold, biological, and socio-economic analysis suggests that, at its core, human endeavor is relentlessly channeled into two primary, non-negotiable objectives:

1. Survival (Individual & Immediate): The continuous maintenance of one's own life and well-being.

2. Reproduction (Genetic & Future): The successful propagation of one's genes to the next generation.

If one examines the vast spectrum of human activity and motivation, it becomes clear that virtually everything we tirelessly pursue ultimately serves one of these two foundational imperatives:

• The Pursuit of Survival: The relentless chase for a job, the accumulation of money and wealth, the acquisition of high status and prestige—all of these are ultimately tools to ensure a more secure, comfortable, and prolonged individual survival, shielding the self from physical threats, poverty, and environmental dangers.

• The Drive for Reproduction: The quest for love, the act of sex, the institution of marriage, the establishment of a family, and the raising of kids—these are all direct mechanisms and social structures designed to facilitate and maximize the chances of successful gene propagation.

The Role of 'Non-Essential' Activities

Does this stark interpretation mean that humans are merely automatons singularly focused on two biological mandates? On the surface, no. We engage in a myriad of activities that appear divorced from these primary goals. We relax, explore the world through travel, immerse ourselves in the enjoyment of arts, music, and movies, and pursue deeper understanding through spirituality and philosophy.

However, a closer look reveals that even these seemingly transcendent activities often function as sophisticated maintenance systems for the core directives. They are, in essence, mental and emotional tools used to refresh and rejuvenate the mind so that the individual can return to the harsh realities of survival and reproductive competition better prepared, more resilient, and more effective. They are the essential downtime that prevents burnout and maintains the viability of the "survival machine.

"The Dilemma of the Already Secured

The true philosophical challenge emerges when we consider the minority whose survival is already fundamentally ensured. Historically, this has included the exceptionally wealthy, the aristocracy, or those born into systems of inherited privilege.

What keeps them motivated? If a life of comfortable security is already guaranteed, what purpose do they pursue?

Well, even those individuals are rarely content to simply exist. While their immediate survival is not in question, their drive often shifts to ensuring the indefinite and robust survival of their privileged position across generations. They continue chasing:

• Power and Influence: To safeguard their wealth and status against political or economic shifts.

• Legacy and Dynastic Security: To make certain that their children and grandchildren will also be insulated from the necessity of work.

In short, even the affluent are simply trying to make sure that they are not just comfortable now, but that their descendants will be equally so, thereby expanding the security of their genetic lineage and social position across time.

The Post-AGI Reckoning

The advent of AGI fundamentally democratizes this state of "survival ensured." If work truly becomes optional for everyone—not just the ultra-rich—then the vast societal infrastructure built on the two pillars of survival and reproduction will start to crumble, or at least change its shape beyond recognition.

If a machine guarantees food, shelter, and security, and if society shifts to a Universal Basic Income (UBI) or equivalent post-scarcity model, the existential urgency behind the job, money, and status chase will vanish.

The post-AGI era will be the first time in human history where humanity can truly, collectively, and permanently move beyond the primal struggle for mere existence and genetic persistence, opening the door to defining a Third Purpose of Life—a purpose built not on necessity, but on choice.

At the outset, we must first clearly define the parameters of the scenario under consideration and address common assumptions and objections. This is not a future where AI simply makes life easier; it is a fundamental re-engineering of human reality.

In the scenario we are examining, the foundation of human survival and societal structure is radically transformed:

• AI-Driven Abundance: Advanced General Intelligence (AGI) achieves a level of technological mastery that enables the production of virtually infinite resources—energy, food, materials, and infrastructure. Scarcity, the ancient engine of conflict, is eliminated.

• Equitable Distribution: The abundance created by the AI is distributed equally and automatically to every individual on the planet. This is a baseline entitlement, severing the link between personal effort and material well-being.

• Foolproof Law & Order: The AI manages and maintains a perfect state of global security. Crime, violence, theft, and any form of coercion are rendered impossible or instantly nullified. No one can threaten another's existence or well-being, guaranteeing absolute personal safety.

• Regulated Reproduction: To ensure the sustainability of the perfected ecosystem and prevent a Malthusian crisis, population levels are deliberately kept constant.

• The Demise of Market Concepts: The entire complex of human economic drivers—money, jobs, wealth accumulation, investment, and debt—is rendered obsolete. There is nothing to buy, nothing to earn, and no need to save.

In essence, the environment is meticulously crafted so that nothing can be gained by attempting to outdo, outwork, or outsmart others. The fundamental evolutionary drive for competition is extinguished by the perfection of the system.

The Liberation from the Web of Goals

With the challenge of survival completely outsourced to the infallible AI and the continuation of the species (gene propagation) regulated and guaranteed, humanity is finally freed. The profound implication of this liberation is the collapse of the complex, often stressful, and ultimately illusory web of “goals” and “purposes” that have governed human existence since the dawn of civilization.

For millennia, human purpose has been an elaborate scaffolding built upon two biological imperatives:

1. To Survive: Leading to goals like finding food, building shelter, securing status, and accumulating resources (wealth/jobs).

2. To Propagate: Leading to goals like finding a mate, raising a family, and leaving a legacy.

Post-AGI, these foundational pressures vanish. The struggle—the raison d'être of most human endeavor—ceases. Thus freed from the ancient biological chains, we gain the time, peace, and cognitive capacity to perform an act of ultimate philosophical self-reflection: to stare into the terrifying, beautiful abyss of the Universe and ask the truly all-important, final question: What really is the purpose of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

It is in this profound silence, after the noise of all human struggle has faded, that the Universe offers its ultimate, most challenging response: There is none.

The Uncomfortable Truth: No Greater Purpose

Yes, the core truth is this: there is no greater, cosmic, or inherent purpose to existence.

Life is simply a phenomenon—a molecular process—that, by virtue of its physical and chemical properties, developed the singular, unrelenting drive to keep replicating itself. We, as Homo sapiens, are nothing more, at the deepest biological level, than the most sophisticated known carriers—the vessels and propagators—of this self-replicating algorithm.

The purpose of life, therefore, is not a grand moral, spiritual, or achievement-oriented endeavor; it is simply to persist. Post-AGI, this primary function will continue, managed by the very system that guarantees our survival. Beyond this persistent replication, however, all other purposes—all the goals of power, prestige, accumulation, and transcendence—are human inventions, necessary fictions created to motivate us in the face of scarcity.

The Dawn of the Third Purpose

The moment this singular truth—that life has no external or inherent meaning—is universally internalized, the true fun begins.

The collapse of purpose does not lead to nihilistic despair; it leads to ultimate liberation. Freed from the exhausting and often brutal pretense of chasing a goal—the Sisyphean labor of status and accumulation—humanity can finally and truly relax. The constant pressure to be someone, achieve something, or become better than the neighbor evaporates.

This realization is, in effect, the attainment of global enlightenment. We will all become, metaphorically, Buddhas, individuals who have achieved full awakening by seeing through the illusion of desire and goal-driven existence.

The Third Purpose of Post-AGI Life, therefore, is not a new objective to pursue, but a state of being to inhabit: to live life in a state of pure, unadulterated bliss, existing without the obligation, burden, or illusion of chasing any external goal.

It is a purpose defined by internal experience: the exploration of consciousness, pure creativity for its own sake, deep connection, and the enjoyment of existence itself, unmarred by the stress of struggle or the fear of failure. Life's purpose becomes simply: to experience the miracle of being alive.

Those carefree days!

The move to Saraswathi Puram when I was about 9 years old was sudden. There had been no prior discussions at home about moving houses and I hadn't even imagined that we will be leaving our familiar surroundings ever. But one day, Anna came home from office and casually announced that he had seen a new house for rent in this new locality and we will be moving there. Within a couple of weeks, we had already moved.

The change in environment couldn't have been starker. In Agrahara, we were used to narrow roads, rows of dilapidated brick and mud houses with tiled roofs, road-side drainage, gallis where mangy dogs and pigs used to roam freely. And suddenly we found ourselves in this modern locality with broad roads, huge playground right opposite our house, beautiful parks, rows of identically designed houses with gardens, modern drainage system, and so on. It virtually opened a new window to the world for the 9-year-old boy in me. Looking back, I can clearly see the mind expanding with the open spaces available everywhere.

Even though we were surrounded by large houses with gardens, and it was a pleasure to just see those houses as we walked past them everyday, the house we had rented ourselves was just an outhouse behind one of those large houses. Sure, it was bright and airy, was spacious enough for us and certainly an improvement over our previous house. But I remember feeling a bit awed initially by the other houses in the neighbourhood.  Oh, look at those spacious study rooms looking out into the garden and their well-equipped study tables with a globe and all! Can I compete with children in those houses? Those doubts were soon put to rest, as I found out that the boys in those houses were not only  friendly and accessible, but I was actually doing better than them - be it in studies or carom or cricket. Initial diffidence soon gave way to confidence and I started enjoying my stay there even more.

Summer holidays were naturally the best times in those days. Our day used to start at around 8:30. Laze around for an hour reading newspaper and magazines, take a shower and have breakfast at around 10. And then, off we went to play with friends. Cricket and lagori were the preferred games. We used to pop in to the house for a quick drink of Rasna around noon and then some more playing in the hot sun. Come home at around 2, quick shower under the backyard tap and then lunch time. Post-lunch used to be mainly indoor games - either carom or short cricket. And then some more cricket in the evening, followed by an hour of 'katte' - just sitting around with friends chatting. Back home at around 8 and we were still not done. Some more indoor games amongst us brothers - handball, short cricket, anything. And then a late dinner around 10. Same routine repeated for entire two months of holidays.

Hindi - yet another window to a new world

Around the same time as we moved to Sarasawthi Puram, I also started learning Hindi outside of school syllabus. Till then, apart from a little bit of English that we used to learn in school, my life was mostly dominated by Kannada. Kannada medium in school, Kannada newspapers and magazines, Kannada movies and music and so on. So when Amma enrolled us to learn Hindi, I was naturally excited. But I had little inkling  of how much joy this new language was going to give me over the next few years. We started off with construction of simple sentences and translating small paragraphs from Hindi to Kannada and vice versa. Pretty soon, within a year or two, we were studying mature essays by some of the best writers in the language, logically constructed argument pieces, beautiful poetry, dohas of Kabir and Rahim and even some Urdu poetry with subtle turn of phrase by the likes of Ghalib and Mir Taqi Mir. There was even a novel about a determined small-town girl (Warija) who goes to a big city to become an actress but ends up being a rich man's mistress. At the age of 12, I wasn't sure whether I should be studying a 'mature' novel like this, but needless to say I quite enjoyed it :-) Again, I probably didn't realize at the time how important learning this new language was, but looking back, I have no doubt that it had a significant role in enriching and expanding my young, adolescent mind at the time.

But even better part about Hindi classes, other than all that literature we had to study, was just going to the class and coming across a remarkable woman, our Hindi teacher. The classes used to be conducted either early in the morning or in the evenings and I used to particularly enjoy the morning classes. Getting up at 6 in the winter months of December/January, walking alone in deserted roads, watching the dew-kissed parijata flowers in full bloom along the way and then listening to the Hindi teacher delivering her lecture in her soothing, cheerful voice was indeed a beautiful experience. A few words about the teacher - Mrs. Indira. She had seen many a hardship in her life. She used to stay in faraway Delhi, but had moved to Mysore with her three children after the death of her husband. In Mysore, she was staying with her spinster sister, a doctor. She had to support herself and her three children on the meager income she used to earn from these Hindi classes. But, despite all these hardships, she always maintained a cheerful and positive attitude. With a book in hand, she used to forget about all her other worries and immerse herself in conveying the beauty of literature to us students. Maybe, that was her way of escaping from her problems for a little while into a world free of worries. Whatever it was, all I can say is that she was a remarkable woman and she left a huge impression on me in those days.

Pretty soon, I completed Hindi studies up to a certain level ('graduation equivalent' we were told in those days - not sure how true it is) and a year later, I also completed my high school uneventfully. We again shifted house around that time, but thankfully this one was in the same area, just a couple of roads away. This new house wasn't as well-lit and airy as the 8th cross one, nor did it have some of the better features like a playground opposite. This could have dampened my spirits a bit, but luckily, there were other vistas opening in my life. I was about to turn 15, started going to college, love was in the air and the beautiful world of mathematics - with trigonometry, calculus, analytical geometry, etc - was opening itself to me. But more than anything else, I was about to discover the joys of old Hindi film music thanks to All India Radio's Vividh Bharati service. Soon, Rafi, Mukesh, Lata and all those countless listeners from Jhumri Talaiya became my constant companions. I used to come home from college, have lunch while listening to aapki farmaish, and go back to college. We used to even record the songs from the radio using an old Sanyo tape recorder. Evenings between 9 to 11, the radio had to be tuned to VB. Soon came the television and it added another dimension to entertainment. But Vividh Bharati continued to entertain in the afternoons and late nights.

From PU college, moved on to engineering, but the routine remained pretty much the same. Most of the friends had also joined the same college, so we didn't feel any change between PUC and Engineering. Attend classes in the morning, back home in the afternoon listening to radio (or even earlier if there is a cricket match on tv), go for a round of cricket and katte with friends in the evening, back home around 7:30 and get glued to either radio or tv. Unless there was a test or exam approaching, I don't remember spending much time studying at all. If I were to draw a pie-chart of my waking hours in those days, it would probably look something like this:

Overall, when I look back, those 12 years I spent in S. Puram between the ages 9 and 21, were some of the happiest days of my life. We had multiple activities to keep ourselves engaged (sports, friends, tv, radio, magazines, discussions and a little bit of studies). We used to interact with so many different people on a daily basis - uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, etc. In a way, each one of those interactions served to enrich us as human beings. There was never any sense of jealousy, envy, bitterness or anger in any of those relationships. What's more, it hardly cost our parents a fortune to maintain this lifestyle. We didn't have to buy expensive gadgets or go on expensive vacations. Just eat simple home-made food (or at most, an occasional panipuri), soak in copious amounts of sunlight, play, talk, be merry and have fun. Wish that life could be as simple for ever. If there is anything to complain about that life, I guess it is that it spoiled us. It provided us with such fun and simple pleasures, it left us not aspiring for anything else and inevitably, anything that life had to offer us later was bound to be a disappointment. Boring meetings when I could have been watching cricket? Getting stuck in traffic instead of cycling down gulmohar tree lined roads? Expensive cars instead of the good old Luna? Who wants these things?

Why Ministers shouldn't tweet

Or anyone in responsible position, for that matter.

Imagine if someone hacks into Shashi Tharoor's twitter account and posts something inflammatory, like say, "India plans to nuke Pakistan" or "All muslims should be killed" or some such thing. It is quite likely that it will be taken at face value by many people, including those in power in other countries. Pretty soon situation may get out of control leading to serious consequences. One could say, "oh it is the others' mistake if they jump to conclusion without verifying the authenticity of the comments", but then, given that he is known to have a Twitter account, you can hardly blame others for taking comments on it seriously. So what it does is to give some engineer sitting in Twitter office the power to change the course of an entire nation. And he has that power, because someone in a responsible position thought it fit to use the services provided by some little American company to communicate his thoughts.

Currency-basket based salaries

One of the issues for Indian IT services companies is that while most of their revenues is earned in foreign currencies (mostly US dollars and Euros), a major portion of their expenses is incurred in Indian rupees. This leaves their margins susceptible to currency fluctuations - if Indian rupee strengthens against dollar, their profits go down and if Indian rupee weakens, profits go up. To offset this effect, they resort to currency hedging.

But, imo, that is a suboptimal solution. There are bound to be losses in hedging and also they end up spending too much time in managing all that. A better solution would be to align their expenses (particularly salary expenses) in terms of the currencies in which they earn their revenue. Let's say a company's revenues are 60% USD, 20% Euro and 20% Yen. Then they should structure their salaries also in the same proportion. So, let's say, they decide to fix an employee's salary at Rs. 1,00,000 per month. Instead of specifying the salary in rupee terms, they can fix the salary in the three main currencies which consitute their revenues. So, it will be (USD 60,000/dollar-rate + Euro 20,000/Euro-rate + Yen 20,000/Yen-rate). And then convert each component to local currency based on prevailing exchange rate and pay the salary. If the currencies fluctuate, salary also varies in terms of local currency, but the profit margin remains unaffected.

KSCA all set for IPL Opener

Preparations were going on full swing at the KSCA for tomorrow's inauguration of what is being described as watershed event in the history of cricket. It looked more like a giant discotheque than a cricket stadium - what with laser lights flashing, cheerleaders practicing in one corner of the stadium and stage being given final touches. It was a riot of colours and here's hoping that the tournament will be even more colourful and exciting.

Oh, tickets are completely sold out for tomorrow's match, if you are to believe the club functionaries walking around in the stadium.
There were quite a few people standing around hoping to get a ticket somehow.

Don't shed tears for Cricinfo

The editors at Cricinfo are crying themselves hoarse over BCCI's decision to bar websites from getting access to IPL match photographs. Apparently, it is a "denial of their rights as a media organization" , one which according to the editors is "serving" millions of cricket fans. I don't understand this denial of right business. As far as I understand, IPL is an event organized by BCCI, a private club, and as such surely they are well within their rights to decide who they allow to cover their events and who they don't. On what basis does Cricinfo assume that it is their right to be allowed to cover IPL?

What is even more disingenuous is this attempt to project themselves as some sort of charity organization providing a service to the cricket fans and to the game at large. And it is the height of hypocrisy for a website owned by Disney, of all companies, to be crying about another organization trying to protect its copyrights. I mean, Disney is the past master when it comes to copyright protection. Ever heard of Digital Media Copyright Act?

Be Patriotic, Support IPL!

It is amusing to read all this outrage at players being auctioned and bought by IPL franchises. "Cricket has become a business now" goes the refrain. Let's face it. Cricket didn't become a business with the introduction of IPL. It has been a big business for more than a decade now. ICC sold the rights for its World Cups and other tournaments for a whopping billion dollars recently. Was that not a business deal? The reason players play the game is because they get paid by their boards and sponsors. The reason boards organise matches is because they are paid by the broadcasters. The reason broadcasters pay huge sums for rights and show the game on their channels is because they make money from advertisers. And the reason advertisers pay broadcasters is because in between watching cricket we watch their ads too (or vice versa) and then go out and buy those products. As simple as that. It is an ad-driven, eyeball-driven business. Are we clear on that?

ok, good. Now, the only difference in IPL is the way that business is structured and as I am going to argue below, it is better for Indian economy. With the system being followed currently by international cricket, it is the board or entity which organises an event (be it a tournament or a series) that owns all the rights for that event. That means, when Indian team plays a series in Australia, as they have been doing for past two months, it is Cricket Australia which owns the rights for that series and hence they make all the money from that series, including from Indian market. That's right - when we sit in front of our TVs to support our favourite Men in Blue, we are in effect contributing to the coffers of Cricket Australia. And this is true when we watch World Cups too. We are making ICC richer. Or when we tour Pakistan, we fill the coffers of PCB. And so on.

Now one could ask, in that case, when those teams come and play in India, doesn't BCCI make money from those other markets too? Well, they could, but the problem is there is no other country that has a market remotely comparable with India's. Which means, whatever little money BCCI makes from overseas markets is peanuts compared to what other boards make from Indian market. Net effect is, millions of dollars go out of Indian economy to the coffers of various cricket boards around the world every year.

With IPL, that is going to change. Since IPL is completely owned by BCCI, whatever money is generated by those matches will stay within Indian economy. Sure, a few foreign players get paid a few hundred thousand dollars each, but that is nothing compared to how much the boards are making from Indian market at present.

So here's my question to Dasgupta's and Thackeray's who are criticising IPL. Would you prefer that Indian audience continues to watch cricket matches imported from Australia, England, Pakistan, etc. or would you prefer that we watch cricket matches produced in India by an 100% Indian entity, which pays its taxes to Indian government? I can't see how any Communist or a Nationalist can support imported matches over 100% Indian ones.

India on Tour - memories

Since Test cricket is on its last legs, with cricket going the club way, I thought of going through the various away test series I have followed over the years. For old times' sake.

Tours of England:

1979 - Best remembered for Bharat Reddy being picked over Kirmani and other selection goof-ups.

1982 - Entire theme of the tour for me was Vishy. Glued to the transistor and hoping against hope that he finds his touch. I think he scored a couple of fifties. Don't remember much else.

1986 - Probably one of the best cricketing memories of my life. Having just finished gruelling PU exams and engineering entrance test with flying colours, was enjoying a long break (May to October). So nothing to do all day. Get up very late, have a lazy bath and breakfast, do crossword, read some book or magazine and wait for clock to turn 3:30pm, tune into BBC TMS, enjoy their wonderful coverage. Off to play cricket with friends at 5pm and after a three hour cricket and katte session, come back to watch the highlights of previous day's action on DD and to catch the final session on radio. Abiding memories - Chetan Sharma inducing a collapse with two quick wickets, Maninder's mesmerising spell, Kapil scoring the winning runs early on day 5 of second test sealing the series victory.

1990 - Again mostly on TMS with highlights on DD. Pathetic bowling from India but more than made up by Azhar's batting. Blofeld on Azhar - "Out comes the feather duster again". Tendulkar's hundred to save a test at Old Trafford. Remember listening to Kapil's four sixers and not getting too excited (he was by then on my hit list). Kumble's debut. TMS comms getting all excited to watch two leggies bowling in tandem.

1996 - First time watching a test series from England live. Srinath and Prasad's spells particularly in second test I think against Hussain and Stewart. Ganguly's debut hundred and Dravid missing it by 3 runs. Collapse against Ronnie Irani.

Tours of Australia:

1978 - Chandra's 6-52 & 6-52 at Melbourne. The heroic chase. Remember elders talking about this being a Packer-depleted side, but didn't understand all that then.

1981 - Melbourne win. Being informed by the neighbour as soon as we got up amidst huge cheering and shouting. The Gavaskar incident.

1985 - Rain, Border and Tail frustrating us, not once but twice. Remember Shastri and Yadav running through the aussie batting line-up early one morning. Gavaskar, Srikkanth and Mohinder all getting a hundred.

1991 - Plenty of memories. Mostly sad. Whitney and Hughes running through us. Age finally catching up with Vengsarkar. Manjrekar failing to live up to expectations. Azhar raising hopes in Adelaide, albeit briefly.

1999 - First time watching a test series from Australia live. Sachin shoulder before wicket. Sachin's Melbourne hundred. VVSL Sydney hundred. McGrath showing Dravid his 'aukat' :-) Srinath bowling a good first spell but not able to maintain it longer. Agarkar getting lots of dharma wickets.

Tours of West Indies:

1982 - Mohinder standing tall amidst ruin. Windies chasing 200 after tea. I don't remember listening to any commentary. Mostly newspaper reports.

1989 - We had commentary this time and it was a funny feeling with a Test match starting at 7pm. Insipid Indian bowling. Hirwani in particular disappointing. Shastri and Sidhu's decent batting. Azhar flaying at everything.

1997 - First time watching a tes series from West Indies live. Dravid standing like a rock. Azhar getting out to Hooper. Barbados collapse.

Nuclear deal and Left's position

If you believe the commentary in most Indian media, both mainstream and blogs, the Left parties' opposition to the nuclear deal with US is motivated either by their traditional anti-Americanism or their love of China. It is certainly not driven by India's national interest. Assumption there is that the deal is in India's national interest, but Left parties don't care for that and hence are trying to scuttle the deal.

How valid is that assumption? Is the deal really in India's national interest? Or can one make an argument to the contrary? Let's see.

First of all, the leftists have made it clear that their opposition is not so much to the deal itself but to India's strategic partnership with US. So rather than looking at the nitty-gritties of the deal, let's see if a broad strategic relationship with US is in India's national interest.

Now, USA's relationship with China is lukewarm at best. So it is reasonable to assume that by entering into a strategic relationship with US, we reduce our chances of having a friendly relationship with China. How good will that be for India? No matter how great a relationship we have with US, fact remains that they will always be half way across the world from us whereas China will always be our neighbour. So it is more important for us to have good relations with China than with US. More so, when you consider that China is a growing economy and could well be the largest economy in the world in another 20 years. So we have to choose between China and US. If we go with China, we can be an equal partner with them and along with Russia, Brazil and Arab countries could form an alliance formidable enough to dominate the world in a couple of decades. Or we can go with US and end up having a troubled relationship with many countries in our neighbourhood (China, Iran, Russia, etc) which is going to hamper our own growth.

One could argue that let's have a relationship with US for the time being and we can always switch to China when we find that they are becoming more powerful than US. But the nature of strategic relationship is such that we won't be able to switch sides so easily. Take the 123 agreement for example. We will be expected to shape our foreign policy on the lines of US policy or we will have to not only return all the nuclear fuel supplied to us but also forgo the billions of dollars of investment that we are going to make in building reactors to make use of that fuel. That is, once we enter into a relationship, there will be cost associated with getting out of it. All that the Left parties seem to be doing is asking us to think carefully before deciding to tie the knot with US.

Update:
There is an interview with Edward De Bono in today's (9/18) Economic Times and he makes pretty much the same point I have made above:

Q: How can India become one of top three economic super powers?

De Bono: If India can partner China, they can be a real superpower in a short time. Alternately, if India and China form a coalition bringing other developing countries in their fold, it will beat all other world superpowers.

Cause and Effect

There is a railway crossing in Mysore which we go past many times whenever we are in that city as it happens to be on the route from my parents' to in-laws' place. Last weekend as we went past it, my four-year-old daughter asked: "Daddy, why does the train always come only when the gate is closed?".

This and that

Was in Cairo last week. Quite a nice city. Was surprised to find that the quality of infrastructure is much higher than in Indian cities. No phat-phati autos and hardly any two wheelers for example. Beautiful Nile flows through the city and is remarkably clean. No one washing their clothes or themselves in the river. Instead, you find boat shaped restaurants, some moored and some which actually go on a two-hour cruise and you can have dinner on the deck with dance and music and cool breeze from the river. Not surprisingly, most of the city's elite hang out near these restaurants.

This is not to say that it is on par with first world cities or anything. It is very much a third world city - roadside hawkers, pedestrians crossing roads even as vehicles are moving, reckless driving, honking and so on. But still, it is definitely better than any of Indian cities. The 3 km long al Azhar tunnel bang in the middle of the city linking downtown Cairo with the expressway that goes to airport is something I haven't seen in any Indian city. Or the ultra-posh Grand Hyatt which makes Bangalore's Leela look like a Patel Motel. There is a 10-floor mall, with restaurants, shops and a multiplex, all inside the hotel.

Another pleasant surprise I came across in Cairo, though nothing to do with Cairo or Egypt itself, was Al Jazeera English news channel. For someone jaded with IBN's and NDTV's, Al Jazeera was indeed like a refreshing breeze of professional, balanced and most importantly low-key news reporting. In their nightly 9 o' clock news for example, they only report news! No opinionating, no breaking into a panel discussion on a news item, nothing. Just an anchor and on the spot reporters. We don't have a Rajdeep telling us whether a judgment was harsh or mild, no anchor "hoping" that government takes this or that action, etc. Just report news as it happened. What a novel concept! Even their panel discussion programs are quite muted (and to think it is an Arab channel!), give plenty of time to panelists to air their views and again the moderator doesn't seem to have an opinion of his or her own. Quite a contrast from the Indian news channels where you can easily tell by their tone of questioning which side of the issue they are usually on. Here's a suggestion to Rajdeep and Prannoy: shut down your channels for a month, hole yourselves and your key editorial staff up in a hotel room and watch Al Jazeera non-stop. If that doesn't change your approach to news reporting, nothing will and you might as well look for alternate careers.

Hmm... what else has been happening. Oh, the Test match. BCCI Bozos vs ECB Idiots. One team bowls head-high beamers and the other throws peppermints on pitch. What drama, what emotions! To top it, I heard that ESPN made half an hour program on just one incorrect lbw decision! In that case, I hope Taufel got a cut out of the ad revenues ESPN made from that show.

Why keep the Rupee down?

Thanks to huge inward remittances of dollars, there is pressure on Rupee to appreciate. RBI has been trying to control this appreciation by buying dollars from the market. This in turn is creating inflationary pressure. The reason RBI doesn't want a stronger rupee is that it is bad for exporters. Everyone seems to take it for granted that a stronger rupee is bad for exporters. But, does it have to be so?

Let's take the IT industry. Let's say rupee goes from 40 a dollar to 30 a dollar. It doesn't mean the IT services companies have "lose their competitiveness". They can keep the billing rate at the current levels and still make profit - by cutting costs. Reduce salaries to account for the rising Rupee - other costs like travel etc will go down anyway as they are linked to dollar rate. A 20-30% reduction in salary for IT folks only means they are back to last year's salary levels in rupee terms - hardly makes a dent. Especially, if rupee is at 30 a dollar, petrol and all other imports will be much cheaper bringing down inflation - so your salary may be lower numerically, but in terms of purchasing power you are no worse off.

So, why not let the rupee appreciate to its true value? Why keep it artificially down in the process taxing all the citizens in the form of higher inflation?

Update: A ToI article supports the view with this sentence: "But many feel the focus has to be on cost control, and especially salary cost, which is by far the biggest component — about 40 per cent of total cost."

Destiny's Child

Rags-to-riches stories are plenty. But I find Rajanikanth's one of the more remarkable ones. A maharashtrian of humble background from Bangalore, no great looks, through sheer grit and determination becomes a super star in Tamil film industry. And then his popularity spreads all the way to Japan! A true Destiny's Child!

I have not seen any of his movies till date and I hope to correct the situation with Sivaji. Here is wishing him all the success.

"India Unbound"

Read this book on a recent long-haul flight. It is written by Gurcharan Das, former head of Procter & Gamble, India. It is partly biographical, but mostly an account of post-independent India's economic policies. Written in an engaging, informal style, peppered with anecdotes, it is a very easy read. Author is clearly a believer in free markets and recounts with frustration the socialist policies India adopted and the kind of impact they had on the economy.

Even though most people blame Nehru for taking us down the road of Fabian socialism, Gurcharan seems to think that larger share of the blame has to go to Indira Gandhi. Nehru at least had the excuse that at that time ('40s and '50s) central planning was considered the way to go by a number of leading economists world wide. When P.C. Mahalanobis came out with his Second Five Year Plan document in 1956, it was hailed as a master piece in economic planning. But by the '70s it had become apparent that central planning was not all that it had been cracked up to be and the author blames Indira Gandhi for not only refusing to change the course but actually taking us deeper into socialism.

Overall, a very informative book for anyone interested in history and India.

Sir Osama

In response to Britain knighting Rushdie, a group of Pakistani clerics have decided to bestow a similar honor on Osama Bin Laden. From now on, he is going to be Saifulla (Sword of Allah) Osama. Just goes to show the depths a society plumbs when it takes the path of religious extremism. I mean, Rushdie and Osama - one a man of letters and the other a gun-toting terrorist - and these guys think they are comparable. Scary.

Return of Atlantis

I haven't followed this Atlantis space shuttle story that closely, but till today I had thought that Sunita Williams is the only passenger on that space ship. Imagine my surprise when I learnt this morning that there are six others along with her and she is not even the leader of the team or anything. Then, why does the Indian media focus only on her? Is it just the first name? Idiots.

Actually, I don't even understand why there is so much hype about these astronauts. Given the risks involved in space travel, I am not even sure if we should be sending these highly qualified people and then worry about getting them back safely. Why not pick a few death row prisoners, give them six month training on the kind of experiments they need to do in space and send them off. If they come back safe, fine, they get amnesty, otherwise, well, they were going to die anyway.

Mallus' invasion of Mysore - Domestic tourism explosion

Spent the long weekend going around some tourist spots in and around Mysore - Talakad, Somanathpura, KRS, Nanjanagud etc. It was nice, but what surprised me was the number of tourists, especially out of state tourists, in Mysore. Had never seen that kind of rush in Mysore except during Dasara. Most of them were from Kerala, but there were quite a few from Tamil Nadu and Andhra too. There were cars, taxis, matadors, tempo travellers all bearing neighbouring state registration numbers. Good to see domestic tourism growing in India. What was even more heartening to see was that majority of the tourists weren't the "new economy people". Is this an evidence for trickle-down effect in operation?

Mysorism

I have always believed that Mysore is more than a place - it is a state of mind, a way of life. If I were to describe Mysore in one word, it is moderation. In Mysore, like its weather, everything is moderated. Pace of life, desire, ambition, wealth, effort, ostentation - Mysoreans love everything in moderation. You are not supposed to be either too rich or too poor. If you are over ambitious, you are ridiculed. But if you live like a sanyasi, you are ridiculed too. You study or work too hard - you are called a kudumi. You don't study at all - you are classified lazy or useless. You spend a lot on your daughter's wedding - you are called a show-off. Cut corners and you are called stingy. Whatever we did, we were always encouraged to go for that golden mean. Neither too much, nor too less.

In sharp contrast is the metro philosophy - more the merrier.