Sting Cover

One of the first Sting albums I listened to was "Soul Cages". Aside from "Mad About You", one of the other songs that grabbed me was "Why Should I Cry For You". Like all Sting songs, this one too is accompanied by a paraphernalia of instruments.

As always the original is spectacular, but for what its worth the lyrics remain the same in my rendition :-) ... I hope you like it.

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OH YEAH!

HOW ABOUT THAT!!!!

Spare a thought for what the Pakis should be thinking. India have never been as rampaging as this. While Yuvraj, Dhoni and Uthappa treated the Aussie attack with scant respect, the inimitable Sreesanth, the born-again Pathan and the now-reliable Harbhajan simply played out of their skins!

Losing, winning and L'appuntamento

I have to wonder what the South African team must feel like. The 'choker' tag must be a burden to bear, and over time will become a malapropism that is going to stick. What must they do to convert these losses into victories, I wonder. For the longest time, I have believed that aside from Jonty Rhodes, Allan Donald and Herschelle Gibbs, they have never had any players who were gifted with flair. Look at their stars historically, Kepler Wessles, Clive Rice, Andrew Hudson, Pat Symcox, Cronje, Kallis, Smith, etc. All doughty men who would succeed 80% of the time, but simply not having that something extra to do something truly remarkable that critical 20% of the time. The 80-20 Pareto principle simply does not seem to apply to matches which SA lose, and thats really striking.

Maybe its the way they are taught to play. With a presumably smaller cricket playing population and lesser competition than say, India, Pakistan or even England, traditional, correct methods of playing the game seem to carry more weight than a focus on an ability to do something special 20% of the time.

You cannot escape this fact, especially if you have a look at their captains - Clive Rice, Kepler Wessels, Hansie Cronje. Shaun Pollock and then Graeme Smith. The latter is probably the least culpable, and for the most part because of his age. Good luck if you are a 'flair' player trying to get into a team led by these metronomes. If anything, the most flair among this lot was shown by Hansie Cronje, and for non-cricketing reasons.

In a cruch situation, it helps if the batsman is able to play a 'flair' filled wristy smear across the line for six rather than crash a purists straight drive to a waiting long-off for a single.

Lastly, success in life is definitely subject to more factors than those under the control of those seeking it, and thats undeniable. So, its safe to treat the semi-finals for what they are, a sport. If today should be a case of L'Appuntamento, I hope India turn up. Till then, have a blast and good luck!!

For now, have a look at Bocelli's rendition of Ornella's masterpiece. I have to say Ornella wins this one fair and square.

Against all odds

No, not the Phil Collins song, but this is about a young Indian teams journey into the semi finals of the 20-20 world cup. I sat up all night watching South Africa self destruct, and player after player from the Indian side lift his fielding and intensity.

And the Rohit Sharma story for a bit. Imagine being a passenger on a 7 ODI series in England, never getting a game. All he probably did was bat after everyone else in the nets, against tired net bowlers. Then h he goes to South Africa and warms the bench again, looking forward to his flight home after the game on 21 Sept. The suddenly, from nowhere, he finds out he is playing, and is batting at #5. Three hours later, he is the man of the match!





The highlight of the fielding has to be Karthik's catch to dismiss Smith. If anything the brilliance of the effort dazed Karthik himself as if evident from the image.





The bowl out against Pakistan was sweet, the batting carnage against England was great, but last nights game was something else. Finally, these images below sum up the night for South Africa.

Of Investing and then some ...


Looking for news on what the Fed finally did with interest rates, I found this little gem of an article on CNN.

Some aspects of the investing problem apply closely to real life as well .... have a look.

"... One thing, however, hasn't changed over the past 35 years: human nature. In 1972, Benjamin Graham was finishing the revise of his seminal work, "The Intelligent Investor," in which he reminded readers that "the investor's chief obstacle - indeed, his worst enemy - is likely to be himself."

Then, as now, investors got in trouble by acting on impulse: either getting carried away by greed or being paralyzed by fear. And solutions like indexing have always seemed a little unsatisfying. You want investing to be more complex so you can feel special when you figure it out. And Wall Street wants it to be more complex so it can make more money off your attempts to figure it out.

Thus in the first seven months of 2007, more than 130 ETFs were created to invest in commodities, foreign currencies and single-industry sectors. You can bet on the Swedish krona, buy a basket of carbon-emissions trading credits or attempt to gain twice as much as mid-size stocks lose when they go down. There's now a fund for every conceivable need - and for plenty of inconceivable needs too....

Three rules to invest by

So how do you put all the innovations of the past 35 years to the best use for you, not Wall Street? Follow these rules:

• If there's a cheap way and an expensive way to solve an investing problem, stick with the cheap one. ...

• High returns and low risks don't come in the same package. ...

• If you are presented with too many choices, you'll end up afraid to choose at all. Psychologists have shown that having to pick among dozens of options not only makes it much harder for us to make up our minds, but it also fills us with regret. No matter what we choose, we worry that another choice must have been better. ...."
  

I wish it would rain down on me

This cover is probably irrelevant given the amount of rain we are encountering, but this song remains one of my favourite Phil Collins songs. I first heard it years ago when I bought the "But Seriously" album, and I would listen to it after every stressful exam or test at school. I still have the tape and the song is still as wonderful as ever. This is a shortened rendition ... I hope you like it.

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Free Will Vs Destiny

One of those everlasting questions ... oft repeated oft discussed concepts with little evidence of convergence. It is reasonable to presume that free will and destiny are mutually exclusive as concepts, if you apply their most common definitions.

How then do you resolve and approach a convergence. Of course by moving the goal posts somewhat, i.e. qualifying definitions.

As far removed as you may think you are from these arcane constructs, you are not. Most decisions you make are driven by what you believe. If you think that you are making most decisions on the basis of free will and available circumstances, you may think you are a rationalist. Most people would like to believe this.

If you are subscribing to the notion of destiny, then you are recognizing that the circumstances are playing out along the lines of chaos theory (look up wiki for details) .. i.e. your circumstances are being created intelligently, providing you the opportunity to undergo certain experiences.

In the middle of all this, lets revisit convergence .... and why it is so elusive.

...... If you were lost at sea in the middle of a storm, what would you be doing? You will be trying to save yourself, in accordance with the rules of self preservation and instinct. There is no free will ... you simply act. Nature does not provide options here.


..... if you are sitting in your living room wondering if you should think about changing your job, then you are contemplating your circumstances in less extreme conditions presumably in the context of free will .... sipping your coffee/tea you carefully weigh pros and cons. But know this... your final decision will be based on a sum of your life-experiences, mostly driven by circumstances you have stumbled upon throughout your life. These circumstances have forged the neuron sequences that are currently hurtling towards a decision, catapulting you into your next set of circumstances. You may choose ... but did you choose by free will? .... or are you still lost at sea and trying to swim?

In the long run, we are all washed ashore :-) ... some believe they swam, others found logs of wood that they hung on to.

Perspective

I like traveling for several reasons. For one, I find it truly energizing. In my case, the plethora of neurons that are activated in the context of adapting to a new environment have the effect of really firing up my senses. I know the response is not the same for everyone ... several people have told me they find it enervating.

The positive effects last for a few days after I return home. I notice things I haven't seen before, like the intensity of sunlight in India, which is so much more tender (thankfully) than the harsh rays of the northern latitudes ... the fact that the cab driver who picks me up to drive me back to my home is so well informed about whats happening in his environment, in comparison to cabbies abroad .... I am thankful that I am able to jog on clay, so much better than asphalt in on trails in the US.

And then theres perspective. Everything seems so much more cramped after you return from the US ... in the US you can see longer distances without obstacles, be it on the road or even in the suburbs. The perspective gained from those visualizations creates sharper contrasts when you return. The ground I jog on simply seems smaller ... creating the illusion of power and stamina until I begin to tire pretty much at the same point that I used to ... not all perspective is useful... I guess the folks who return from the US to work in India encounter similar illusions in the workplace here ... if only they'd learn faster.

There is also the perspective of time ... I'm pretty sure I had my share of reptiliophobia, or more specifically, a fear of snakes. While jogging along the bay trail, I came across small colourful snakes on more than one occasion sitting right in the middle of the trail. For the first time, I stopped to take a closer look. A part of me wanted to pick it up, simply to conquer a forgotten fear. I decided against it ... but in this case, the perspective is real. The fear has diminished for several reasons.

Lastly, its great to have more live cricket on TV. The 20-2o world cup got off to a simply terrific start with a glittering ceremony... I had no idea that there were so many different types of drums in the world.

Touchdown

Landed a few hours ago and I'm not sure if its the jet lag thats keeping me awake or my general Bangalore insomnia. Nevertheless I had a long and quite interesting journey which lasted 37 hours from the time I left my dwellings in Belmont till the time I was under a familiar roof.

An 8 hour layover in Singapore was put to good use.... had a shower and massage at the Rainforest spa and was advised by the masseuse to get massages more often since my muscles were extremely tense. Stress I tell you .... not to mention that I had got off a 13 hour flight to Hongkong and added 4 hours into Singapore.

Changi is as impressive as ever and so are the people of Singapore. The fairer gender is absolutely cracking in appearance (I've always found Mongoloid/Asian/East/South-East Asian women extremely attractive). After a couple of hours in Singapore and from having returned from their City tour, I was inclined to believe that there was a law that required the women to wear shorts or miniskirts. Excellent rules, I say.

On the first leg from SFO to Hongkong, I sat next to a big elderly Chinese gentleman, who could not do much to make my life any easier. I'm fairly broad too and this guy was big for a Chinese man. 13 hours were spent in a lot of discomfort to say the least. I figured out effective ways to use the pillow to avoid as much shoulder or arm contact as possible.

On the last leg, I sat next to this woman who works for Citi in Singapore and said she was visiting Bangalore for a school reunion. Bear in mind that I had already been travelling for over 30 hours at that time . ..

"School school reunion?" I asked, suggeting that she didn't really look 18.

"Yeah, school school", she replied, somewhat embarassed.

"You should make some new friends" I quipped, unable to pass up the opportunity ... my politically-correct spider senses had shut down somewhere between SFO and Hongkong anyway.

I hastily added that I was only kidding when she emphatically began telling me that she made it a point to go to all reunions - school, college, b-school, etc.

The flight was pretty empty and we both moved out to occupy 3-seat banks. After a terrible meal, I curled up my somewhat long frame as best I could to lie down on the 3 seats and passed out for an hour at least.

I'm glad to say I got out of the airport here with all my luggage. I dont know what one can do... the conveyor belt has a length of about 50 feet and 300 or so passengers converged upon its every inch... you do the math.

The Ibanez guitar tested beautifully back home.. its black and beautiful.

Of Retail and Current Account Deficits

I spent the day at a few places looking for things that I wanted to buy for others, and was faced with the full retail muscle of the US. Everything is about positioning, about eye-line shelf space, about getting you to spend much more than you intended to. And it works. Pretty much everything is cheaper here - from guitars to clothes and shoes to perfumes. Profit by volumes is the mantra, well supported by the appetite of the American consumer to spend whatever his credit card can carry ... the consumer owes the bank, the bank indirectly owes other financial institutions, and everyone eventually contributes to the current account deficit that is serviced by investors all over the world.

Not many people appreciate the enormity of what this means. Some may be unaware. People outside of the US, all over save their hard earned money and shovel it into banks ... at some point this rolls up to the country's reserve bank which dutifully uses it to buy US $.
Why?
1. Returns on currency and denominated assets.
2.Oil.

Why is oil traded inUSD? We'll save that for another time.

But this is kinda amazing. As long as people in other countries postpone consumption (save), and people in the US consume as fast as than they can, this system works. Expensive credit in other countries ( high interest rates) and real cheap credit in the US ensures the snowball keeps rolling.

Why does this happen? Because the expected return on the $ or the $ denominated assets is expected to be strong and reliable. Why? Because everyone here will buy and companies will turn strong profits.

So where does this leave you? In your own circumstances, in your culture that strongly influences your economic strategy, which keeps the world rolling?

What can throw this out of gear, you ask? Hmm..... oil for one... the specifics of that mechanism another time. ... what else? The climate perhaps . ..... and not to mention declining corporate profits and uncertainty in the financial markets. We've been on a pretty long bull run worldwide with equity, gold and oil all moving in lockstep. Remember gold is supposed to be negatively correlated to equity movement.

Till then, turn on the lights, stick on the labor day sales and let the cash registers ring.