Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

My comment on a Facebook photo & message about Dr. Manmohan Singh presenting his famous budget on 24th July 1991 that liberalized the Indian economy, https://www.facebook.com/logical.indian/photos/a.430765593719832.1073741828.426895610773497/758589374270784/?type=1&theater . Thank you so much, Dr. Manmohan Singh. My generation who had started our IT careers in the mid 80s, greatly benefited from your steering of Indian economy from the very scary days of 1991 to prosperity which middle class India had not seen at least for a few centuries. I pray to Almighty God to shower His Grace on you and your team, including former PM P.V. Narasimha Rao garu, who made this almost miraculous turn-around possible.

Last updated on 23rd July 2015 As an Indian, I personally am of the view that it is better to forgive, and get on with life. But Shashi Tharoor, Indian Member of Parliament, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor , makes a classy case of why Britain should atone for its colonization sins and say, Sorry. See article with youtube video link, WATCH: Shashi Tharoor Makes An Eloquent Case For Reparations For Britain's Colonial Legacy, http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/07/20/watch-shashi-tharoor-brit_n_7807456.html , dated 20th July 2015. If you want to just see the youtube video, here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4 , 15 min. 28 secs., published on July 14, 2015. The debate was held at Oxford Union. From its wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Union , "The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the Univer...

An Indian correspondent wrote the following to me, and was more than willing to share it publicly: On my flight back from London a few days ago, as so often I put a small bottle of water into the briefcase in which my Mac Air was sitting in its own pocket. Got out of the 'plane in Mumbai and discovered the water had leaked out (cap not properly screwed? bottle cracked with the change in pressure?). In the hotel, took out the Mac and left it to dry overnight. Turned it on the next morning and it did, partially, before the display faded out. A few more tries, but with reducing success each time. The Mac Service people looked at it yesterday and said the mother board was damaged beyond repair. (Inside a Mac Air, there's a largely sealed mother board and a display, very little else). If I was willing to pay over half the cost of a new Mac Air, they would replace the motherboard and then be able to tell me if the display was working. Repair clearly not an option. After a slee...

NOTE: Readers who would like to avoid such topics may please skip reading this post. Yesterday (15th July 2015) I saw a panel discussion on CNN-IBN (a leading English language national TV news channel in India) in the 9 PM news programme, related to the rarest-of-the-rare kind of justice planned to be meted out to one of the prime accused in the 1993 Bombay/Mumbai serial bomb blasts. Here's a recent Economic Times short news article on it, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/1993-mumbai-blasts-yakub-memon-to-be-hanged-on-july-30/articleshow/48079171.cms . I don't want to get into the debate on whether this rarest-of-the-rare kind of justice being meted out is appropriate or not, in today's world. The panel discussion also had a young man who lost his mother in the 1993 blasts (and so lost the joy & benefits of being raised by his mother), who was strongly arguing that the rarest-of-the-rare kind of justice must be done in this case. This ...

This post is based on contents and comments of my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1636760126540558 , dated July 9th 2015 My comment on the article, The really worrying financial crisis is happening in China, not Greece, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/11725236/The-really-worrying-financial-crisis-is-happening-in-China-not-Greece.html , dated July 9th 2015, was as follows: Worrying! If it does go the wrong way, the impact on the world can be significant. Hope this does not distress readers. But, sometimes, it is good to be aware of such matters. [Small extract from the above Telegraph article:] "Then, as now in China, rural workers had emigrated to the cities in vast numbers in the hope of finding a more prosperous life in fast-growing industrial sectors. In 1920s America, virtually all these sectors – from steel to automobiles and the new technologies of radio and consumer durables – grew like Topsy, inspiring households to inv...