Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I believe that I don't believe

Webster.com has the following definition for Belief:

1: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
2: something believed; especially : a tenet or body of tenets held by a group
3: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence


How much do you believe in something or someone? Do you believe in it enough to fight for it?

How much of a right do you have to fight for something (or someone) you believe in?

If you have a right, does someone else have the exact same right to believe in (and therefore fight for) what he/she believes in?

What would you do, if the two ideals in question are complete opposites of each other?

Who wins?

Is it fair to say, that there is no belief in this world, which is believed by more than half the people in this world, ergo, there is no majority belief?

So, regardless of the belief, aren't chances bright enough that whatever you believe in, is probably not the belief of more than half the human beings in this world?

Could it be, therefore, that the major problem with this world is that people believe in something?

Friday, February 15, 2008

Schadenfreude

Officially described by Webster dictionary as
"enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others"


To explain it in layman's terms - What you feel when you miss out on the Reliance Power IPO this week

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Growing through Magazines

Magazine subscriptions over the years: -

1992 - Readers Digest jokes

1996 - The Sportstar

2000 - Outlook

2004 - Time

2008 - The Economist

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Loss Aversion

A wonderful article I read from one of my favorite economists, Tim Harford.

Kind of tied in with the Stock-Market crash that happened a couple of weeks ago.. I don't invest in the stock market, more out of the fact that I really don't have the time to follow up on what is happening there to put money in it. But a couple of weeks ago - it was a Monday, if I am not mistaken - there was widespread mourning in our office. The stock market had crashed by 12% or something.. One guy told me that he lost 1.5 lakhs in a day. But something about this statement didn't make sense to me..

Knowing his liking for the stock market, I can assume safely that he had invested the money long ago. Not knowing the stocks he holds and that the market was roughly around 16,000 in November and fell to 18,000 post the crash on January 21, wouldn't he still be in the positive? How exactly did he lose money?

Anyway, the article above also caught my eye for this wonderful statement, which (pardon me my dear darling wife), I am going to reproduce in full.

..It is true that the London housing market seems (who knows?) to be in the final stages of its biggest-ever bubble. But there are special circumstances involved here, one of which is that no rational economic actor disobeys an order from his wife...

Random musings

It's been a longish hiatus.. I checked, and it was over a month since I last came down this route.. Though, I am not too sure many people missed me.. All I got is one comment (from Murugesh, I presume) on where I was .. So here I am.. For a change, I was not travelling or anything.. Just at home.. though, I was shuttling between homes (ours and my parents) and the time before and after was mixed with Tata Indicom acting up majorly.. Actually, it's just today that we've had uninterrupted internet access for almost a month ..

T1's back.. Good to know that he's adjusting to Austin well.. Finally I have someone close in a "Red State" hahaha .. 41 days for him, 56 for me.. Promotion to daddyness ..

Daddyness is what is occupying my mind constantly these days.. The mind pretty much fluctuates between fear and downright paranoia.. The fear is not being prepared for what's coming. Mentally, I think, I am still an uncle, not a father. There are literally times when I think that post-April, we shall be back to what it was pre-July '07 and I almost look at it like an exam deadline... The paranoia part comes in when the fear is complete, i.e. the fact that I am going to be so unprepared that I am going to be a very very bad daddy.. plus the fact that we really don't know whether it's a boy or a girl, it becomes very difficult to refer the baby as "it", but that's what "it" is. The Sonography shows us the nose (A big fat one, that too) and the feet and the spine and everything so it's exceedingly frustrating to call my dear baby an "it"..

On a completely different and unrelated note.. There's been some improvement in the traffic scene in Pune..I don't know what it is exactly but there's some improvement that I can feel.. Some might think that I am nuts, but I can see a lot more respect on the roads.. That's my call..

Else, nothing's new.. 56 days and counting..