As a child, I observed my Mother would never throw down anything on the pavement. Like her, I carry home a banana skin, a used paper napkin if I cannot find a dustbin. Everyone thinks they are the only ones flinging out a tiny piece of uneaten apple out of the car window.
But when many hands do that, it becomes a smelly heap.
Photograph by Igor Ovsyannykov
Just back from IIT B campus where we had a very stimulating lecture by Dr Kaushik Basu (former Chief Economist of the World Bank and also former Economic Advisor to Government of India). The topic was deliberately and most appropriately chosen as The Economics of Corruption, Black Money, and Demonetisation.
On December 9, 2016 Dr Basu was delivering the 3rd Prof N R Kamath Chair Colloquium Lecture which is an annual event. Prof N R Kamath was a well known Chemical Engineer and I was wondering what an economist had to do with chemical engineering. But I realised on second thoughts that what an economist does for a living, not unlike a chemical engineer, is just trying to put some of his recipes into practice. While a chemical engineer can manipulate the pressure, temperature,and concentrations of various chemicals and pH of the solutions, an economist has variables like money supply, interest rates, exchange rates, and other equally obtuse parameters to play with. But while a chemical engineer may quickly be able to ascertain the results of his experiment an economist can safely keep on arguing about correctness of his solution vis-a-vis other solutions by other economists till Doomsday.
In a move which took the country by surprise, the government demonetised currency notes of denominations Rs.500 and Rs. 1000 with immediate effect from the midnight of Nov 8, 2016. This step has been variously praised and pilloried. Politicians took predictable stands and economists are divided on its merits. Parliament was paralysed and the media hyperventilated extensively on it.
“Island biogeography, I’m happy to report, is full of cheap thrills. Many of the world’s gaudiest life forms, both plant and animal, occur on islands. There are giants, dwarfs, crossover artists, nonconformists of every sort. These improbable creatures inhabit the outlands, the detached and remote zones of landscape and imaginability, in fact, they give vivid biological definition to the very word ‘outlandish.’” – David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo
September 21, 2002, Mumbai – New Delhi {The Journey}
The twelve of us left by the Golden Temple Mail (10:20 pm, Mumbai Central). A group of climbers, attempting to scale the Kedar dome, were also on board. We intersected till Haridwar, where they took the high road.
September 22, 2002
The train journey took us through surprisingly verdant Rajasthan. Past Mathura, was fortunate enough to spot a pair of Sarus cranes (playing hookey from Bharatpur?), their maroon collars in sharp contrast to an otherwise grey plumage. The wire squatters – doves, rollers, drongos, etcetera, were visible throughout. As we neared Delhi, peacocks and peahens could be easily sighted.
Roopkund has an air of mystery associated with it. Many a folklore and tale are told about this glacial tarn which lies at 5020m, hidden below a ridge on the periphery of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in the Chamoli District of the Garhwal Himalayas. The lake is frozen almost throughout the year. In the lake lie some 300 corpses, well preserved due to the cold and clearly visible when the lake thaws. The bones have been dated to the 14th century AD.