The Infernal Diurnal Journal

 I have been reading up a bit on Uzbekistan and thus thought I will pen down some of the notions that are coming into my mind as I consider this ex-Soviet republic. After all, it is not a bad day to consider a republic, given it is my own nation's Republic Day today. One can certainly ask why I am inclined not to consider my own republic and instead to divert my gaze nominally from New Delhi to Tashkent.  One reason is that we are a1.4B strong nation- there will be many who will no doubt spare no effort to interrogate my country on multifarious fronts - with intellectual probity and without.  My efforts here are bound to be superfluous. Another reason is that like India, the CIS countries in general have been clocking a reasonably high GDP growth rate over the last decade. And amongst the CIS countries, Kazhakstan is already a moderately high income economy. In fact, it may well be the highest income economy with the highest GDP growth rate- well on its way to become a hi...

Why We Don’t Fight (Too Much): A Thought on Central Banks and Peace I have sometimes wondered how this world actually functions day to day—what kind of rule-based order, beyond everyday whims, keeps it running. Because something must be holding us back from destroying everything. Human history, after all, does not read very well when it comes to peaceful coexistence. One often hears the argument that people today are more peaceful because standards of living have improved relative to times past. This strikes me as a shallow explanation. All one needs to do is look around: unless you live in some exceptional corner of the world, you will find extraordinarily wealthy people striving relentlessly for more. Contentment, as has been shown empirically and anecdotally, is asymptotic. It approaches infinity without ever quite arriving. So that’s not it. I suspect that what relative peace we do enjoy has far more to do with certain institutions that keep money flowing in ways that do not d...

The first letter that I typed today- after exactly 6 months of being underground, was met with hostility. The letter appeared in Arabic script. After fiddling around with several buttons, I see I have now managed to bring back the alphabet. But it is difficult, nevertheless, to start writing. I was chugging along, not that smoothly, when we last connected. But in early June- I think it was a Monday- on the fourth of June to be exact, I was called in to the standing CEO's office. He had the blinds in his office pulled in so no one could see what was going on inside. Whence I entered, I noticed our man from HR seated next to the CEO- a sight that immediately told me what this was going to be about. Funnily, I had to do something like this to a colleague with an HR manager seated next to me- this was way back in 2003 I think- in Fort Wayne. The lady I had to let go was in her late forties, very pleasant to work with, however she had to go because of cost cutting. It was really awkward...

A lot of time has passed since I made an entry. My writing trajectory is veerting towards an off-ramp similar to the previous year. I am not sure why I had stopped writing this time around. There was no dearth of things to write about. There still isnt. In chronological order, I guess it is important to consider a number of events. The first is my health, which seems to be holding up well, but I have not had my check up for a long time, nor a blood test. So my bloodsugar situation is still an unknown- although I don’t feel anything off in particular. My exercise regimen is stable but at a lower level. I have had a bout of  cold towards the end of April, attributable to the sudden temperature dip for a few days. Fortunately, the cold was shortlived and so was the nice weather. Nice weather increasing seems to cause more pain than hot weather, healthwise. The scalding 50 degree heat makes for no outings, but atleast you can feel healthy while indoors. The use of the Ayurvedic tonic, ...

    I remember this day every year. It happens to be Tata Founder's Day- and it reminds me of my roots in a very direct way. Often, I reflect as to which place I call home. And while I have lived in different places right through childhood and subsequently adulthood, the town I call my own is Jamshedpur. My folks live there still and so I get to visit often enough. The lack of an airport makes it a trek, but it's all good. When I am home, I am home. Of course, living as I do in Dubai, the desire to visit India is not nearly as strong as when I lived, say, in the US. Not only is it not far to India from here, but culturally Dubai has all the trappings of India- and then some. Jamshedpur, for me, is not just India though. And today is the day when it was formed. There is a delicate fondness and a funny feeling when I think about going there. There really is nothing much to do- in any case, every waking hour is spent online anymore. Each location has little to offer that is so co...

 It is just as well that the year did not even really start so far, particularly at work. I was wondering what was going on because clearly something was up. Many members of the executive team were missing and there had been no formal meetings for two months into the new year. Well, now it is becoming clear. There seems to have been an investigation on some of the senior executives in the company and the outcome of this is now playing out. It is also opportune, as all of this had to be dealt with prior to the onset of Ramadan- which happens to be today. There were some cryptic emails sent yesterday by the boss regarding a couple of executives going on leave and a naming of the substitutes. Why they are going on leave is not clear. What is clear is that their IT credentials do not exist as of yesterday. We can make of that what we will for now. For my own part, I still don't know what will be the end game here and whether I will be impacted as well. But for the moment, I have receiv...