If you have not seen the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”, you have a treat waiting for you. And if you have never heard of the “natural resource curse”, you are sure to be intrigued. They both point to the counter-intuitive nature of the world, and suggest in some sense why India is poor.

This is a travel alert. I am going to be in Bangalore 29th Jan through 31 Jan. On 29th Saturday, I am speaking on “Why is India poor?” between 4 and 6 PM. Venue: To be announced. After Bangalore, it will be Hyderabad. I am speaking at the Indian School of Business on the 1st of Feb. The Center for Emerging Market Studies at ISB is holding a round table discussion on “Where do new cities fit on India’s urban roadmap?” My job there is to take a wide-angle view …

“Netaji could have taken us past China” — the TOI quotes Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy. Here’s a bit.

The English word “mealy-mouthed” comes from the German Mehl im Maule behalten, “to carry meal in the mouth, that is, not to be direct in speech,” the dictionary says. Its opposite is “plain-spoken,” as in “Mr Lee Kuan Yew is as plain-spoken as Dr Singh is mealy-mouthed.” This is not an English lesson, however. It’s just that the word came to mind while reading this AFP report “Lee Kuan Yew urges Muslims to ‘be less strict’.”

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, the illustrious exponent of Hindustani classical music of the Kirana gharana, passed away in Pune yesterday. The one and only time I had met Pt Bhimsen was in 1991 in Pune during the Sawai Gandharva music festival. As it happened, I was in Pune yesterday.

People don’t need a 1/4″ drill bit; they need a 1/4″ hole. That observation made by a business school professor (I forget who) is a perpetual favorite of mine. It cautions us against confusing means and ends. I believe that much misery of our mundane lives arises from our inability to distinguish between means and ends. Let me tell you a story. Stop me if you have heard it before — which you may have since I repeat it often enough.

I’m leaving on a jet plane. For friends and family who want to check where my flights are, go to Track Flights, and enter EK as the airline code (Emirates) and flight number 226 to Dubai. This will work only after the flight departs at 15:45 Sunday PST. Later I will take flight EK 500 from Dubai to Mumbai which departs on Monday 10:30 PM Dubai time. That flight arrives in India at 2:30 AM on Tuesday.
Modern technology is amazing.

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I am torn between contempt and pity for the small man that Dr Manmohan Singh is. Does the man have no shame? Do guts? No spine? Apparently there’s nothing in him that is of any value. He traded in his integrity — that is if he had any to start off with — to become the appointed prime minister. But he could have grown a backbone and redeemed himself. If not for himself, at least for the sake of the clan to which he belong, the proud fearless warrior clan …

The NREGA, as feared, has caused tremendous harm and will continue to play havoc on the Indian economy. The Right to Education (RTE) is another act that will surely help destroy whatever little there is left of the Indian education system. It is as if the UPA led by the Congress has sworn to destroy India. Go read what Manish Sabharwal has to say about the RTE in the Economic Times of Jan 12th. An extract below the fold, for the record:

I believe that corruption is as significant an indicator of a diseased economy as cancer is of a diseased body. If unchecked, it will eventually kill. Corruption is organized violence against the people of a poor country which kills them as surely as putting them into concentration camps, extracting hard labor, starving them, and then pushing them into gas ovens.

Swami Vivekananda was born on this day, January 12th, in 1863 in Kolkata. Here is a quote from the wiki entry on him.

Reading Aroon Purie’s India Today (Jan 10th issue) editorial reminded me of what you need to have to live a fulfilling life and happy life: only three simple things — robust health, killer looks, and a humongous bank balance. Here’s why.

CORRUPTION TABLE
1 Lac = 1 Peti
1 Crore = 1 Khoka
500 Crore = 1 Koda
1,000 Crore = 1 Radia
10,000 Crore = 1 Kalmadi
100,000 Crore = 1 Raja
10 KALMADI + 1 RAJA = 1 SHARAD PAWAR
10 SHARAD PAWAR = 1 Madam

Item: Captain John Wright, 58, is retiring as a senior pilot. He has had a distinguished flying career with 35 years of sitting in the left hand seat in the cockpit, much of it of heavies like the Boeing 747s and Airbus 340s. But it’s time that he hangs up his wings and retires from a job well done. Bluesky Air, the airline that Captain Wright served so competently, has announced that on Capt Wright’s retirement next month, his seat will be occupied by his son Jack. Jack will move …

“The reason why China will never win hands-down in its current economic war with America is the same as why Japan didn’t succeed in the 1980s when all (Americans included) were expecting that its corporations and banks would eat America up. The reason is that both countries are good at copying ideas and technologies; neither is good at inventing new ones.” That argument is Keith Hudson’s post today on his blog.