I have started getting some abusive comments. I think it is mainly from Islamists and Congress camp followers. I understand where they are coming from.

I was looking at the stats of this here blog and was rather amused by the numbers. Here is a snapshot of how the numbers add up.

Finally something connected to this blog that the Italian Madam in Delhi will approve of. Good news for all Italians in India and around the world: Bernardo Parrella, editor of “Voci Globali: il meglio della blogosfera internazionale” wrote to say that this blog will be part of their “best of international blogosphere.”

Time to have an open thread. Speak your mind. Perhaps you could start off with some observations regarding the photo below.

I notice that many readers who have attempted to register on this blog for commenting, are unable to complete the process. If you are one of them, please drop me a note at atanudey at gmail.com.
Also, please check your spam folder for the email that is sent by the system for verification of the user email. Thanks.

Are you surprised to see the blog back to its old form? I had redirected the URL of my blog to Asian Correspondent for a couple of months. It was like going traveling — you do like the places you visit but in the end, there is no place like home.

Today I installed a new commenting system — IntenseDebate. Therefore now you really don’t have to register to comment; you can just comment as “guest.” Also it allows you to get email updates of followup comments to the post or even the entire blog. But there are some things that need to be ironed out. For instance, I notice that some genuine comments are ending up in the spam queue even though before they would have gotten through. In any case, do give me feedback on this change. Also, if …

If you are one of the three people who regularly read this blog, please pardon the lack of posts the last few days. I finished my brief stint at ISB in Hyderabad and now I am back in Pune after a brief stop-over in Mumbai.

It’s been a while since we had an open thread for readers to give feedback. So here’s an opportunity for you if you have something to say. I have never deleted any comment merely because I don’t agree with an opinion. The only time I delete comments is when it is clearly spam, totally irrelevant or is abusive.
Say what you will. And stop lurking.

You know it took me only five years to get around to writing the “About” page. I think you should all read it and post comments.

Right now it only has a brief bio. I will add a photo and some links later. Thanks for visiting. Also, consider this to be an open comments post. Say what you will.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
– Marcus Aurelius [121 CE - 180 CE] (Emperor and stoic philosopher.)
This blog had its first post on this day in 2003. For five years, I have been expressing my opinion and perspective on a range of topics that deal with development and India. I had been writing a blog at Berkeley, “Life is a Random Draw”, for a while before I started on this one. I shut down the Berkeley …

Sunday was a day of travel for me. It took me 14 hours to get from Pune to Hyderabad, door to door. I had a 3 PM flight to Hyderabad out of Mumbai. Even though I left home at 8 AM, I could not reach Mumbai airport in time. The Lonvala hills had received a lot of rain with the result that there was a landslide which disabled a portion of the Pune-Mumbai expressway. I had to buy another ticket for a 7 PM flight on the airlines formerly known …

This is an open thread. Say what you will. In case you need a login to comment, email me atanudey at gmail and I will add your selected user name.

The bad news is that it is easy enough to get a free blog (wordpress, blogger, blogspot, etc) and it is easy enough to cut and paste stuff to the blog. The good news is that if inexpertly done, plagiarism is easily noticed.
Here’s a case in point. This post on DKSHAMLI’S BLOG (July 5th, 2008) is an exact copy of my post titled “Unfair and Unlovely” (April 20th, 2007). This is done without the slightest nod to the original. Nowhere on the dkshamli blog is there any indication that …

Ok, this is a personal post of the type what I had for breakfast yesterday. So if you aren’t interested in my personal life, consider yourself warned and don’t read any further.

Time to do the numbers. This blog has been publishing since September 2003, just a few months short of five years. During that time, it has accumulated over 1,100 posts, and people have commented over 7,000 times. Around 1.1 million pages have been viewed in the last three years, going by the numbers Sitemeter reports since September 2005.
Thanks you all for visiting. I hope it has not been a total waste of your time, and I trust that you have found something of interest here. Of course it has …

Commenting on this blog requires a registration on this site. It is a simple half a minute process, and one gets to choose one’s handle and one’s password. But it was being abused by spammers and I decided to disallow users to register themselves. That means, if one wishes to comment, one has to write to me (atanudey at gmail) and I register you with your chosen username/handle and you can reset the password. Just to make it easier, I also decided that I would have a generic handle, “lurker”, …

Who woulda thunk that! This blog is now being mirrored in Hindi. It’s author is Alok Kumar and is called “Bharat ka Vikas — Atanu Dey“.
My Hindi is nothing to write home about. But even I can tell that Alok’s translations of the posts are excellent. I realize that my writing style is not the simplest as I favor the convoluted sentence too frequently. Yet Alok gets the ideas across. Thank you very much, Alok Kumar. Your work is much appreciated.
I asked him why he is taking the …

Time for you to speak up and state your opinions on whatever suits your fancy. If you wish to use the “lurker” login (password “lurking”), please do leave an identifier in the comment.

[Cartoon by Clay Bennett.]

I had to close registration for comments because of spammers. There’s a generic comment login: lurker and the password is lurking. I hope if you use it, do sign off with a real name or with a persistent pseudonym, please. Otherwise it is hard for others to refer to you in their comments.
If you wish to have a real user login for comments, email me atanudey at gmail and let me know what user name you wish to have.
Wish you a fun weekend but don’t be like …