The economics of life..

Jet lag can do weird things to you. I have just come back from Mexico to India and however hard I try to get my routine adjusted, the body just does not seem to be responding. So I sleep at random times, for random number of hours..lunch, dinner and breakfast have lost their meaning and new shitting records are being broken. But what this gave me is an amazing amount of alone time with my overactive brain..

In one such instance I started thinking about life...(those who know me can continue reading when they have stopped laughing)...and as you have read about many great scientists, I had a eureka moment.

Economics:


If you are NOT an economics post graduate, then believe me...as soon as you hear this word, the first thing that comes to your mind is not Amartya Sen, not your economics teacher in school/college but the famous supply demand curve. I think that is like the brand logo of this subject and kudos to whoever came up with it in the first place.

Well why I bring that up is because I applied it to life and compared it with the notes I have on my life so far..(Again, those who drink more than 2 pegs a day average should never try this anywhere) ...and came up with the conclusion that it works almost beautifully.

All of us humans require peace, success, prosperity, freedom and countless other such things. The demand for these qualitative needs is set by each and every individual in his or her own specific way. The supply for these is directly impacted by the efforts of these individual in conjunction with his surroundings. The price or value of these needs is then determined by this supply demand curve.

To illustrate, consider Indians before independence, the supply for "freedom" was so short that the price or the value of the concept went through the roof and both Indians and British had to pay it with blood. Take the example other way round. Today's generation has created such a high demand for success and prosperity that the price or value has become prohibitive. There are those who end up paying with life, others pay with health, and whats even worse some pay with their family. Even those who achieve it have paid so dearly that
the attainment does not satisfy the demand for happiness.

So I ask you guys a BIG question. Who is managing the inflation here?

Cancun Mexico - Retirement destination?

Its been some time since we chatted and the blame lies with my work. Its been keeping me busy and has led to what authors call a "block". But then last weekend Cancun happened and I tell you its an experience that can shatter all kinds of blocks. Go there in March, when its the "Spring Break" (Yoooohoooo) in US, and you will understand. ;)

My wife and I took what they call an all inclusive package to a hotel called the Royal Solaris. Its not the best one there but its the best you can get at that cost. If you go on google maps and zoom into Cancun you will see a piece of land they call the hotel zone. Its like a very thin peninsula jutting out into the Carribean sea in the shape of a 7. The width of this piece of land is just enough for one road and one hotel. So what you will find that each hotel in the hotel zone has the sea on its backyard and a lagoon across the road!!!. On top of that the Solaris had 5 swimming pools inside the campus. So if you love water..you know what to do with your next vacation.

The place over the years has become customised for the US people and you will find almost every body speaks english and expects a tip. Every hotel has an entertainment group which keeps the tourist busy around the pool with things like water aerobics, crazy couple games, tequilla volleyball and what not. On top of that Solaris had an indoor theater where they used to perform things like Magic show, plays, dance programs every night.

"All inclusive means" exactly that. You can eat, drink, swim, excercise, play tennis, golf, use the beach...absolutely anything you can think of anytime of the day for free. There is just so much to do that the holiday can actually leave you exhausted!!

One Sunday Afternoon..:)

Its July now and yes we are still in this blissful place called Mexico City

Mexicans are a proud people but even they will gladly admit that they have one of the worst traffic scenarios in the world. But then the Mexico city has this wonderful system of closing down a section of their main city tributary called the Avenue Reforma every Sunday. So there are no vehicles on that particular section of the road and you can see a lot of rollerbladers, skateboarders cyclists... having the time of their lives..Its a unique sight one that you would not see anywhere in India. If you had happened to be crossing the Reforma on this Sunday, you would have been pleasantly surprised to see a very cute Indian couple, wearing the fancy X-games helmets, riding very old but sturdy looking bicycles and in general being overwhelmed by the sights around them....

We had always observed people from different nationalities riding these old looking cycles on the pavements before and wondered what that was about. So this Sunday we decided to give it a try ourselves. We did some research and found that on a kiosk very close to our hotel, we could get those bicycles against our identity proofs..for free!!!

We hadn`t set foot on a bicycle for at least 12 years so you can imagine the state of our minds. There was excitement of a novel experience mingled with the anxiousness caused by the lack of confidence on our ability with a lost skill... But as it turned out, it was an experience we will cherish for a long time.

Having overcome the initial jitters we were flying past intersections when we observed a very peculiar sight on the side of the road. In an open space in front of a grand building we saw a group of people playing mini football with a very small sized ball. The teams were five a side, wearing green and yellow t-shirts, while there was a referee in a red one holding the whistle in his mouth. The field was on concrete and wasn`t bigger than 10X10 feet. On both sides of the pitch there were supporters for both teams wearing the team colours and in general there was a lot of noise. We decided to take a look.

After a few minutes I realised that the teams weren`t actually trying to score..they were just passing the ball around!!! Suddenly one of the guys on the field fell down and started screaming holding his leg. The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot. All hell broke loose..the opposing team members swarmed the referee claiming injustice, the supporters started cursing the referee...the other side started cheering. There was just too much animation for it to be normal..that's when we spotted the video camera. However the best bit was yet to come..

The penalty was going to be taken..the striker had placed the ball, goal keeper was ready, referee had the whistle in his mouth and suddenly it went dead silent. What happened next was just out of this world..the whole penalty kick was performed in slow motion!!...And when the ball went past the keeper there was literally an explosion with everybody expressing the right emotions but all the same...shouting at the top of their voices..The performance and the match was over.

Football Crazy

World cup football is on and I am lucky to be in Mexico. A part of the world where a goal is pronounced..Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool and that too at a decibel level which is illegal in our country after 10 p.m. The people here might not know what Germany did in WW II but they will surely tell you the score of every single match they played with Germany in the last 100 years..and that too without you asking!!! The children here can rattle off the name of every member of the playing 11 and can even tell you who should have been in the team if the coach had any brains.:)

My wife and I got a chance to see the Mexico Argentina game on a large screen in a restaurant with a group of locals. The audience was composed of people from all ages and genders. Everyone had come as if prepared for battle. The tension during the game was palpable. Every tackle, every pass, every decision was cheered or jeered with equal vigor. We knew beforehand that we would feel like complete misfits especially with the commentary in rapid Spanish. And that's why we had a plan in place. On the previous day we had each bought a Mexican football team t-shirt which we proudly wore to the game. We had no clue what the commentators were saying but we started screaming some gibberish whenever everybody else did :). And it worked..

But when it comes to football Brazil is even more special. I will give you an example. Before every match day, there is a mailer sent out by the local HR department in my company informing the employees to arrive late to the office so that we can stay home and watch the match...can you believe such a thing would happen in Indian offices even for an India Pakistan world cup cricket match??

The depth of their passion makes you wonder..what happened to our national game?? why can't it have the same effect on us? More importantly why do we keep calling it our national game when we know that the loyalties lie somewhere else?

Global Warming

This is a concept, I just can't get my head around. I think the globe has been warming since the Ice age. How else did all the ice melt?? So what's new...

 They come out with statistics such as "The sea level will rise by 2 meters..." Hey!! who cares? Its not gonna happen overnight is it??.. Its not like you are playing ball on a beach in Hawaii and boom!! you are underwater face to face with a shark that wants to play with your balls...All things change and so will the weather..so why panic?

They say the islands will be submerged and people will have to relocate..i say bring it on..we will just have more places like Venice..

Well that is assuming ... they can prove what they are saying in the first place..I mean yes the summers everywhere are getting hotter but then the winters are getting cooler too!! And whats with the icebergs melting and poles shrinking...lets not forget the temperature however high in summer will go below zero in winter..so whatever melted will just freeze again!!! right?

And most of all heat is a form of energy..so more heat is more energy. What we need to invest our time and money in is on how to convert this additional energy to best use for humanity...Not on having global conferences and usesless research

Why do they have conferences?

I am sure this is a question which at one time or another has boggled your mind.

It usually happens after you have come back from a gloriously luxurious one, as is the case with me. Well "gloriously luxurious" is not quite right, but then you have to help me with a better choice of words. I will paint a picture for you. The group was 35 in number. We came from all around the world (avg. travel 2500 USD per person). We stayed in "The Address" Dubai Marina for five nights (Avg room cost 250 USD per person per night), had gala lunches and dinners (avg cost 60 USD per person per meal), went and did a cruise and of course the desert Safari (another 100 USD per person). That's about 150,000 USD.

And the question begs to be answered...WHY?.. why spend so much for five days...what could we have possibly achieved to cover for such a huge expense...

One of my bosses once told me "Conferences represent the rare occasions when your company pays you to drink and think" I am not sure about the thinking but there definitely was a lot of drinking ;).

As is the case with most of such philosophical questions, the answer lies in the negative. The risk of not calling us all together and aligning with whatever it is they wanted to align, far outweighs the cost incurred. Lost you? Think about it....

A flight of fate

There are those who believe in fate and there are those who don't. I just don't have an opinion...

Once upon a time my wife and I had to catch a plane to Mexico via Amsterdam. We reached Bombay with all our luggage packed, filled with the excitement/anxiety that is closely associated with international travels. The thrill of a new adventure in a land far far away. By the time we reached our hotel, fate had made it's first move..A bl**dy volcano had erupted in Iceland of all places, spewing a smoke cloud so huge that the Schiphol airport and hence KLM had to shut down shop that day.

After the numbness of the initial shock faded, we began to evaluate our alternatives. We decided to take fate head on, called our agent who in turn ranted on phone with the airlines, eventually succeeding to get us an alternative route via Frankfurt on the same day. The joy of having punched fate in the face was sweet :). Little did we know fate, had already moved another soldier in place..

We reached the airport and were successfully through the immigration in a matter of half an hour, all smug and proud with boarding passes in our hands. After a bit of window shopping it was time to board. What we did not know was, that it was also time for fate's "agent of chaos" to take center stage in this drama. Right before the doors of the airplane one of the airlines personnel decided to check our passports. One look and his face lit up like a light bulb. He was about to demonstrate his meagre decision making powers.

It turns out that when an Indian passport holder passes through Frankfurt, whether he enters the city or not, he needs a transit visa (which we did not have). A fact, that joy of our small victory over fate in the morning, had wiped out of our minds.

From then on, things went from bad to worse. They promptly began the offloading procedure. We were asked to identify our baggage, taken back through all security and immigration procedures, glared at by fellow passengers as if we were terrorists, shouted at by the airlines personnel for delaying their flight, and ranted on by the duty manager for our ignorance about basic immigration rules. The serious question about how we reached the gates of the airplane through the immigration in the first place, never occurred to his thoroughly ordinary mind.


By the time we were leaving the airport, it was 4:00 am, and we were tired to the bones. However we had no choice but to go back to the hotel and pay for another night. Before switching off my headlights, I sent out a furious note to my agent for having gotten us into this mess. All thoughts about petty battles with fate had faded away...

The next day, the fate with its evil machinations, had moved on to another poor soul. And the day began to look brighter from the word go...

We got a mail from KLM airlines expressing great regret for their mistake and appropriate incredulity over our mistreatment. The smoke cloud had lifted, Schiphol was back on and we had two very comfortable Business Class seats in KLM with no additional cost. Fate, it appears had balanced out the matter....