The second book that my parents gifted me for my birthday this year, besides Amartya Sen’s memoir is Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts. I had already read about her attempt to write this book in Italian and then translate it back into English herself and one marvels at the author’s courage. Around three years ago I think… Continue reading Whereabouts, Context and Depth?
Driving down to Vasco da Gama, quite close to our place, our car took a turn in a direction that I had never seen before. We entered a narrow lane that winded down, past brightly painted little houses, and within a few minutes we had reached the point where the Zuari river in Goa meets… Continue reading Remembering a Life of Grace and Kindness
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
As countries report their September 2021 quarter GDP growth rates, the world will be eagerly watching to read and parse the news and data. So far, China has reported a much lower than expected GDP growth at 4.9% over the previous year. I am not sure how much of that is due to the government’s… Continue reading The Global Economy In a SWOT, Wot?
As the Covid pandemic rages on, albeit at a lower level of transmission, we can never be sure that it will go away. In fact, there seems to be a growing acceptance around the world now that Covid-19 will be in our midst for a long time and we need to be fully vaccinated against… Continue reading Ovid in the Time of Covid: Vulnerability
In recent days, the Indian media has been full of news and views about Air India finally being sold to the Tatas. Divestment done. People have also been opining about how this reflects the government’s seriousness about privatization and reforms. My reaction was: If only it had been allowed a couple of decades earlier, when… Continue reading The Return of The Prodigal
We all talk of brand equity, especially in the advertising and brand communications industry. The Economic Times in India even has an advertising and marketing supplement called Brand Equity. What exactly do we mean, when we speak of brand equity? The term has come to encompass many aspects of a brand’s growth, from brand awareness… Continue reading Between Equity and Valuations, What Brands Represent
Hello readers. Welcome to the first of my Owleye blog posts - a monthly column of commentary on the most important issue facing the world - in place of my Writings on The Wall blog posts, that now says goodbye. This one is on Afghanistan's economic troubles and its future. After the longest war that… Continue reading Afghanistan Impoverished by More Than War
Finished reading Amartya Sen’s Home in The World, that my parents had gifted me for my birthday this year. The first I heard of it was in an article by Edward Luce of The Financial Times that he shared on Twitter and I remember thinking, well, it’s been a long time since one saw or… Continue reading Truly at Home in The World
The act of transcribing one’s thoughts on a page or any surface dates back millennia and is inextricably linked with our being human and needing to communicate. Whether expressed as ideograms or drawings, like the Lascaux cave drawings in the Dordogne region of France, this form of communication developed even before languages and scripts were… Continue reading Of Writing and Writing Instruments
Peripatetic Perch 