The Infernal Diurnal Journal

The Shell shares seem to be doing well. And since I have a tiny sliver of these, so am I on account of that. I still reflect on how I feel about Shell. It seems to me that on account of the numerous possibilities on offer for the flexible employee, it is one of the best employers there is. A truly international organization where theoretically one can move anywhere. And the tougher the destinations, the more the financial upside. I benefited from these opportunities as well- although I have to say it is not an easy way to make money. It comes at a tremendous cost and am not even sure if it is worth it overall. However, it can be done for a short time to boost income briefly. Sometimes, as you go through life, you need that sudden cash injection for an impending project, like buying a home for example- or paying your kid’s college bills. I also enjoyed the work environment, the lovely urban offices in Singapore, the flying around the world in business class, the various engagements with...

I was looking at my iphone earlier. It is an iphone 8+ - a unit I purchased back in 2018. I am in year 6 of using this device, and there have been many times I have considered replacing it with a new more current model. However, it will set me back around 5K AED. But that is not what has stopped me from going for the upgrade. Having said that, I did spend a lot of time looking at iphone prices in different geographies to see where I would get a deal. Japan seemed to be the place. In fact last August, I was even holidaying in Japan. And yet, in the end, I still did not get one. The price difference might have been 300 AED. If I made it a point to always use a new device for atleast 6 years, it works out to be an advantage of 4AED a month. All of this analysis kept me from buying one cheap- but somehow I was also kept from buying one altogether. There were a few reasons for this- and this may be useful in the deep study of consumer behaviour. At my level, the use of a new iphone did not ...

Arvind Kejriwal is the only contender for Modi’s crown. At the moment he is only holding on to the States of Punjab and Delhi- but going by his popularity, at least in Delhi, he can slowly but surely build AAP into a Pan-India party to take on the behemoth that is BJP. He has quite a few things going for him. The first, he is an IIT KGP alumnus, and these guys, aside of being bright, have a tremendous track record at punching light years above their weight. He used Anti-Corruption as his Mantra when the party first started. It was a good idea at the time, we were wallowing in scam after scam. Now the BJP is already viewed as anti-corruption, which may dilute this angle a bit with respect to the BJP. But it still works against the Congress. Finally, the chap had options. He could have been in Wall Street if he wanted money. He chose to rough it out in the streets with massive rallies and outreach efforts- atleast in the initial years of the AAP. He has done remarkably well already consi...

The weather in Dubai is in that dark transition zone where it cannot make up its mind whether to remain warm or cold. To add to this, there is always a chance of rain, and a few drops have been observed with some consistency every day. This then means we have to rush to put a tarpaulin cover over our backyard furniture, otherwise the cushions get dirty. There has been, particularly in this year, an outbreak also of mosquitoes- particularly indoors in the living area. We had to resort to using a repellent candle- which , while effective, exudes a strange smell that makes my stomach churn. This year, in the vegetable garden in our back yard, I did not see much produce of note. Maybe a few chillies- unlike previous years where we had capsicum, tomato, cauliflower and eggplants. When I circumscribe these predicaments with my overall run-in with viral infections, I can safely say , and I never thought I’d say this, that I am ready for winter to end.  The heat is oppressive but somehow i...

  Today is Ma's birthday. Not the best birthday, as she has just concluded yesterday a knee-replacement surgery the previous day. I am on the phone with her and with my dad and sister, trying to find out how she is doing and so far she seems to be doing okay. While waiting for updates on her from home, my mind has been drifting to the previous month, wherein I had missed many a journal entry owing to health reasons ( and a bit of laziness, if I a totally honest). I promise everyone, this is one distinct initiative I am trying to progress on war-footing, which is almost entirely to deliver myself from the affliction of laziness which is such an inherent part of my fabric. I was in Morocco around a month ago. Unlike most of my business travels, I was somewhat excited by this one because I had never travelled to Morocco before. The only problem was that I was still under the curse of this mysterious fever that had been ailing me for weeks. I was somewhat functional with the input of s...

Today, finally I received a really thick envelope from HR. I already know what it was. It consisted of an envelope for each member of my overall organization ( all of 120 full-time people) detailing a merit-increase in their salary. I had to fight for this hard, and while I did not get everything I wanted for the team, I got something. Tomorrow onwards I shall get the chance to inform the team of this by handing them these letters. I don’t know if overall they will be pleased by it but am hoping that they will regard me as someone that has done his best. I have not visited my broader team in Abu Dhabi for almost 9 months- because every time I went there, all they complained about was their salary or the lack of promotion. I had promised myself that I would not visit them until I was able to do something for them. If they feel more positive after these increases, I will make a plan to visit them- maybe even late next week or right after eid break. I could not imagine the amount of back ...

Boy how I hate the month of March. One day it feels like summer is here and the next day I go for a walk and catch a chill. I think there has not been a March where I have not had a cold of some sort. You know, you might be thinking why I start most posts with state of the union speech on the union’s health. Because , this year, so far ot has been all it has been about. I hope I can pivot away from this topic sooner rather than later. Indian elections are in the air. And as usual there is debate around whether the government has done enough: it seems that it has but it is also clear that they are paining a far rosier picture of their achievements than is actually the case. But so did most of my bosses and colleagues at their year end appraisals. When the stakes are high, then you get these behaviours. There is some degree of consensus that the central government made an impact in digital payments, infrastructure and a few other more minor things. But most think that they failed spectac...