The Y-AXIS LIVE!

Behind every crisis is a position of fame called the man who predicted it. And when they find the man, all journals of the world ( including blogs) begin self slapping and then giving undue coverage to the newly discovered predictor. Even me and you feel like big idiots for not having followed the man, who knew something that we didn’t.

In the last international crisis, that fame went to ‘Oil Bull’ Arjun Murti, who is rumored to have known that the oil prices would rise and had spoken about it, and before the oil prices actually rose to USD 150, his words were treated as gas. There was an added aura too, saying Arjun Murti does not do photographs. Nadeem Walayat of Market Oracle ‘predicted’ the 1987 stock market crash. Read his account here.With current current financial crisis, it is only a matter of time when an authentic looking messiah would appear in TV studios all over the world and declare he-told-us-so. Newspapers would fall at his feet for a two minute interaction, which in print would appear in no less than sixty cc interaction, added helpfully be a KBK graphic. The subject of his PhD thesis would suddenly appear so relevant that his PhD advisor would  feel absolutely dumb for not having read student’s thesis and as a consequence, sold of his shares in favour of Gold. I mean it will all appear so logical that in a matter of days his book would appear in bookshelves at all airport bookshops.

Meanwhile, I am just waiting in ambush to slap myself.  And mark my words.

I noticed a rather interesting perspective of Mumbai and from Mumbai by Guy Kawasaki, one of the highly respected silicon valley names, who spoke at a conference. According to guy, the proof of God’s existence is the survival of Apple Computers, Mumbai’s dhobi ghat is the largest open laundry in the world, the guys selling books at traffic signals are India’s answer to Amazon! Here’s a must read post on Guy’s blog and a news report that captures his conference talk. Quite captivating and fresh perspective.

As news of Abhinav Bindra getting India’s first ever individual Gold Medal spread, the following conversation was heard between two ladies, respectfully called Mamis for their tradition oriented leanings. They had a bewildered look about them:

Mami A -"Why have they given Gold medal to a this guy, da?"

Mami B - "Yeah, what will a man do with Gold? "

Mami A- "Maybe gift it to his wife"

Mami B - "Look at the size of the Gold (looking salivatingly at Abhinav Bindra’s picture, but not at him, but the Gold medal in his hands)"

Mami A- "A nice necklace can be made out of it"

Mami B -"Must be five sovereigns"

Mami A- "Really?!"

Mami B- "Then earrings can come out too"

Mami A- "Yes, but he’d have to give another five sovereigns for a good set to be made"

Mami B -"Its Olympics no, jeweler won’t cheat "

Mami A -"Would it be Chinese?"

Mami B - "No, 22 carats, I’m sure"

Mami A - "He should give this to a decent jeweler, otherwise they’d mix the Gold . My amma knows the thatha who runs that Gold shop where I bought this"

At this point a male listener, who for privacy reasons cannot be identified interrupted. He was struggling hard to control his internal agitation to join this conversation.

Male A -"What do you ladies think he’s that mad that he’d melt his Gold medal for his wife? Do know the value of that medal?"

Mami A - "Good idea, maybe he should keep it for his daughter’s wedding. His wife would be already having Gold, no?"

Mami B - "My husband also got Gold medal. From Madras University".

Note: Pun Intended. All resemblances are purely coincidental.

Abhinav Bindra’s Blog here.

In India we are not unused to being reminded by a section of the Western commentators about how poor, dirty, over populated and kind of burden-of-the-world  we are- the BBC is a living example, its TV reporters seemingly have to file reports only when there’s a cow or a drain behind, at least a child with a running nose( and Nizamuddin Nalla seems a favourite)! The Beeb is not alone.

A leading research analyst at Forrester, Navi Radjou while proposing ‘India’s Interdependence’ this year, has this to say

"To put it more bluntly, India just can’t keep inventing locally when it comes to massive socio-economic problems such as illiteracy, the energy crunch, wobbly infrastructure, and its dismal healthcare system"

(Read Mr. Radjou’s recipe for India at Harvard Business Publishing article).

Thanks Mr. Radjou. Looking at your frustration about Indians ‘inventing locally’ somehow I feel it is good you went away from the land of your birth. Must be quite a relief- Mutual.