Football - Remember George Best

November 24, 2005

You may have seen a spot on BBC last night about the death of George Best, legendary footballer and larger-than-life human being, at the age of 59.

Unlike a media created celebrity like David Beckham, Best was an extremely articulate, intelligent footballing genius. Imagine a David Beckham with real talent and intelligence!!

Best grew up in the Swinging Sixties, and played for Manchester United and Northern Ireland. In 1972, at the age of 26 and at the height of his career and celebrity, he walked away from it all.

Unfortunately, his personal life was hell and he descended into alcoholism and even had a liver transplant in later life. He was unapologetic about his lifestyle and never expected the public's sympathy or pity. Ironically, he was (and still is) the best loved footballer Britain has ever produced. He never believed in sound-bytes, cultivating the media or hiring a spin doctor, but they loved him anyway.

When asked about his life later in life, he laconically said "My personal life and problems have been well-documented. I hope that people remember the football".

Yes, we do. Watch his old Man U football game videos from the 1960s as he displays his running, dribbling and shooting skills - no intentional flamboyance or show-off, just a genius doing what he loved best, and his abilities take your breath away. His opponents seem clumsy and leaden-footed as they struggle to keep up with him.

George Best - R.I.P. We will always remember the football - the beautiful game.

Economics - When Left Meets Right

December 2005

Let me warn you - this is a political diatribe/blog (OK - it isn't a diatribe - I have nothing radical or startling to say, just my observations on world politics based on my limited knowledge of such things).

I was watching the BBC (yes - again - time hangs heavy on one's hands in Qatar). A guy called David Cameron just got elected the Chief of the Tory Party - Britain's version of the American Republican Party and India's BJP.

He looks and sounds suspiciously like his Labour Party counterpart Tony Blair did in 1997. Young, photogenic, articulate to the point of being verbose, and relentlessly cheerful (this is a deeply annoying trait both of them share). And what did he say? Pretty much the same things that Blair did (and still does). He wants lower crime, regeneration of Britain's inner cities, higher employment rates for young people, well-funded universities, a "secure" Britain safe from terrorism, etc. In other words, like Blair, he wants to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative. How nice for him!! Of course, he never discussed where this money will come from. Politicians are always vague when it comes to funding.

Traditionally, the Liberal parties (Labour in Britain, the Democrats in the US) have stood for "big" government - higher public spending and investments based on higher taxes, "progressive" social polices such as equal rights for women and minorities, etc. The Conservative Parties (the Tories in Britain, the Republicans in the US) have stood for "small" government - lower taxes and fewer regulations for business and less "progressive" social polices (extreme right-wingers in the US oppose abortion rights and want to introduce school prayer which would endanger the secular staus of the US).

However, in the last 20 years, everything has changed. Liberal and Conservative parties have both moved towards the Center since that is where the votes are. Both say that they want the exact same things. Neither of them can accomplish what they say they want to - again for the same reasons. Conservatives want to be "compassionate", but cannot regenerate inner cities or create jobs through public investment without raising taxes which is always unpopular with voters. Liberals, tired of being labeled "Tax-and-Spenders" cannot do this for the exact same reasons.

The same situation applies in India as well. Look at the BJP and the Congress. With each passing day, it becomes harder to diferentiate between the two. They have pretty much the same economic agenda (liberalisation) and the same foreign policy (dialogue with Pakistan and resolving the Kashmir issue). Of course, they never agree on anything even though they have the very same policies. As a venerable British 19th century politician (a Victorian gentleman with a double-chin and a walrus mustache whose name escapes me right now) once said, "The duty of the Opposition is to oppose".

So what happens in a situation like this? Hardliners on both sides start grabbing headlines - people like Pat Buchanan in the US, and Uma Bharti in India.

Sometimes, I miss the old days when these guys had different positions on everything and actually had something new and different to say.

Oh well - this "blog" of mine doesn't have much of a point, really. But thanks for listening, anyway :-)

Music - Rediscover the Beatles

February 1, 2007

I recently bought a compilation of 26 Beatles tracks called "Love". The Beatles were the first band I grew up with. I remember buying the "Abbey Road" LP when I was 14 years old in 1980. At the time, all my contemporaries and friends were listening to horrible disco and euro trash music. I had a choice - either go with the crowd or let my freak flag fly. For better or worse, I chose the latter option, and life hasn't been the same since. "Abbey Road" ushered me into a troubled adolescence from what had been a relatively quiet, unremarkable childhood.

Of course, later, I discovered many others - including the Rolling Stones, the Clash, Graham Parkar and the Rumour, Fairport Convention, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan and my favourite, the Who. I knew my journey had ended with the Who, because Pete Townshend seemed to know exactly what was going on in my head - except he expressed what I felt much more articulately. The band's peculiar mix of wit, identity crisis, intelligence, exhibitionism and rage, coupled with the greatest rhythm section in the history of rock 'n' roll pretty much did it for me. Townshend has moved into late middle age, and his concerns still reflect how I feel. Talk about growing old with somebody!!

But coming back to the latest Beatles compilation "Love". One of the main reasons to buy this album are its' production values. If the later Beatles albums could be faulted for one thing, it was poor production - the sound was muddy and indistinct. While the sound quality of albums by their contemporaries such as the Stones and the Who were improving in leaps and bounds, the Beatles' sound production quality stagnated after 1967 - the year "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released. By the late 1960s, Pete Townshend and Mick Jagger were using cutting-edge technology and young, hip music producers such as Jimmy Miller, Jon Astley and Glyns Johns. Townshend went on to become a much sought after music producer in his own right. The Beatles on the other hand, were stuck with George Martin - who had a posh, upper class accent but not much knowledge of sophisticated recording techniques.

The new compilation remedies that. Using modern-day post-production techniques, the old songs sound..well... powerful. Some of my favorite Lennon songs such as "I Am The Walrus" and "Glass Onion" from the underrated yet excellent 1968 "White Album" come alive, as does Paul McCartney's bass line from "Hey Jude". Lennon's chilling "Tomorrow Never Knows" from 1966 sounds ominous - the way it was supposed to.

Listening to these tracks, you see the maturing of John. His songs become progressively darker, from about 1965 onwards. He increasingly starts writing songs about things that haunt him - his abandonment by his parents, loneliness and his own paranoia. Not exactly cheerful stuff, but compelling all the same. Harrison starts writing more and more about how much he loves Krishna and starts devoting his time to becoming a better guitar player (and what a great guitar player he became!!), while McCartney's obsession with staying at the top of the pops remains unchanged - though contrary to what many people think, he was and is, a great songwriter and a master of crafting catchy tunes. Ringo, of course, remains himself, and the compilation captures his one blinding moment in the limelight - his drum solo at the end of the "Abbey Road" album.

George Harrison's identity as a guitar player finally crystallized after the Beatles broke up. He stepped out of John and Paul’s shadow. I bought his last album "Brainwashed" recently - released just after he died in 2002. On that album, his electric slide guitar prowess is simply awesome - he finally overtakes his guitar idol, the great Chicago blues guitar player Elmore James, in terms of skill and musicianship. George could make the guitar wail as well as anybody in the business.

So, I hope that you enjoyed this review and will go out and buy the album. This one is for George and his friends, the yogis in the Himalayas. Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare.

Trekking - Tales of Reverse Osmosis Baba and other shaggy dog trekking stories

November 18, 2005 - Almora, Uttaranchal

I am back from my trek. I wish I could tell you how beautiful it was, but words cannot capture what I felt and saw.

My trek started at Song (a small trekking town at 4,000 feet in the Kumaon Himalayas). This is where the motorable road ends. Over the next 15 KMs, we ascended from 4,000 feet to 10,000 feet at Dhakuri Pass, and then descended another 1,000 feet to the village of Dhakuri. Over the course of the trek, the vegetation changed as well - from scrub jungle at the lower elevations to pine forests at the middle elevations to dense oak and rhododendron forests and alpine meadows at the higher elevations.

By the time I got to Dhakuri Pass, I was breathing very hard and sounded like a guy in the orgasmic phase of a particularly intense phone sex conversation!! However, all the effort was worthwhile when we go to the Pass.

The view of the Himalayas within literally stone-throwing distance and Maiktoli Peak in particular was awesome. The moment I saw the view, everything else went clean out of my mind - work, career, personal problems - everything. These mountains literally fill your entire consciousness. The Himalayas do not dominate the horizon at Dhakuri - they are the horizon.

I felt humbled and ennobled at the same time - humbled by the sheer magnificence and scale of these mountains, and ennobled to be part of something that has existed for millions of years, and will still be there long after this poor trekker has shuffled off this mortal coil. There is magic, power, beauty in these mountains. It was one of those life -defining moments.

What else can I say? Everything else seems a let-down after that view.

It was also great to meet Sanjeev and Rekha - we went for a 7 KM forest trek upto Binsar at 8,000 feet. We were privileged to see a deer leap across the forest trail in front of us - a real pleasure to see a wild animal in its natural habitat.

Who is Reverse Osmosis Baba, you ask? An interesting hermit I met during my travels in the mountains - but that is another story I will save for another post.

Trekking - En Route to Dhakuri, Uttaranchal

November 10, 2005 – Almora, Uttaranchal, India

Yesterday, I went up to 7,000 feet to a place I have been visiting since my childhood. Mountains on one side, a deeply forested valley on the other, with the Saryu river snaking its way into the distance. Down in the valley you could hear cowbells tinkling as laughing village children led their livestock home for the evening. Huge Tibetan mastiffs (with disproportionately large heads) lazed and basked in the warm afternoon sun. These dogs are placid and slow to anger, but believe me, you do not want to provoke them. They have huge jaws, are fearless, and are expressly bred to keep livestock safe from marauding leopards at night. Over the years, I have come here, usually alone, to think, to reflect on my life and to take stock of the future. Over the years, I have brought a few friends here. All of them have been moved by the beauty and calm of the place. I feel like I have been to this place in a previous life as well. The feeling is uncanny and in some ways, disturbing.

I am staying with my friend and trekking guide extraordinaire Bharat Shah and his family which consists of his parents (his dad is fitter than I am and he is nearly eighty), his wife and his two adorable kids. Evenings are spent at his office in the town’s Mall Road (all main roads in mountain towns are called “mall roads”), where an interesting bunch of people assemble. Local mountain veterans rub shoulders with serious foreign trekkers with crew-cuts. These guys and gals are from all over the world - Holland, Spain, France, Britain, the US, etc. Some of them are here for the trekking and the mountains, others are here to look for nirvana. Some of them do not know why they are here. Local drunks lurch and stagger past on their way home after an evening drinking the local country hooch. One of them abruptly stops outside the office and salutes Bharat and me, for no reason at all, before walking past. Both of us collapse into gales of laughter. Good fun if you are a people watcher like me.

Today we leave for the Dhakuri Pass trek, where I will end up at 9,500 feet in the middle of an oak and rhododendron forest with no electricity or water. It is November, and it is going to be colder than a witch's tit up there - especially at night. Bharat - being the sweetheart that he is - has been up since early this morning patiently packing food, supplies and clothing for the next 4 days. I admire his patience, meticulousness and constant good cheer. We leave for the town of Bageshwar this afternoon – it is a temple town in a valley by a river. Like all Indian temple towns, it is dirty and crowded. Many of the temples are beautiful, but garbage and filth lie strewn everywhere. Why, I wonder, do we desecrate those places most holy to us?

The hotel in Bageshwar is full of mosquitoes. I find the town miserable, until I look out of my window at sunset, and see the sun’s last rays touching the snows on the beautiful summit of Nanda Devi. I hope this is a good omen for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow, we drive up to Song, where the motorable road ends.

It is a bitterly cold and foggy early morning drive through the river valley. As we get out of Bageshwar, the countryside is sparsely populated. I feel my pulse racing as we get closer to Song. This is what I have waited a year for. Tired of people, noise and crowds, my soul is weary. But as the sun rises and dispels the early morning fog, I get a glimpse of graceful Nanda Kot –it is so close!!

From Song, we climb 6,000 feet and 17 kilometres to Dhakuri, where Nanda Devi is almost within touching distance. The weather is still holding out - it is not cloudy, and the mountains look like they have been etched into the near horizon by an artist. The vegetation changes as we climb – from scrub jungle in the river valley, to pine and finally to beautiful oak and rhododendron at the higher elevations. Lovely mountain flowers grow by the side of the trail, beckoning us upward.

Far away in the valley, I can hear a transistor radio playing in a village – “Pardesi, pardesi, jaana nahin”. I am at least three kilometres away, but sound carries over a great distance here. My heart is pounding in my ears and I am breathing hard – my city lungs have still not gotten used to the elevation. But I am in paradise for the moment.

Music - First Top Ten List

I am really comfortable writing this particular Top Ten List, since it is something I do know a great deal about - rock music. This will probably end up being closer to a Top Twenty List, so be patient with me here. Also, I am writing the songs in no particular order of priority, since I like all of them. Except for the first song, which is my all-time favourite, by a very long margin.

Here goes -

1. Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who) - 1971: For me, this is simply the greatest song of all time. At 8 minutes long, there is not a single wasted note or lyric. The lyrics are profound and ring true, the guitar playing, synthesizers, drums and bass playing is flawless, the production values are ahead of their time, and the overall sound is lean, muscular and immediate. Rock music did not change the world, as Pete Townshend may have hoped. But it sure as hell changed me forever, for the better. This song rails against hypocrisy, prejudice, blind faith and the false gods of revolution. After all, "Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss" depicts most people's reality much more accurately than peace, love and flowers or sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. There is a refusal to view the world through rose-coloured glasses here, and a refusal to settle for anything less than the complete truth, which as we all know, can sometimes be uncomfortable. When Roger roars at the end of the final instrumental break, it is the mother of all roars. There is blood on the floor here, as well as love and a deep compassion for all humanity - he understands your suffering because he has been there himself. When Pete's mighty power chords strike up for the final time, riding alongside Keith Moon's thundering drum rolls, the hair on the back of my neck still stands. And I have heard this song only about a couple of thousand times in my life. I could write a 100 page book on this song, but I won't.

2. Gimme Some Truth (John Lennon) - 1971: In the aftermath of the break-up of the Beatles in 1970, John Lennon released an album simply titled "The John Lennon Plastic Ono Band" in 1970. This was not a happy album. The themes were dark, and reflected the traumas being faced by the singer at the time (Paul McCartney' betrayal, his own heroin addiction, etc). This was not going to please the "Peace and Love" crowd. The album reached only # 6 on the Billboard charts, which disappointed Lennon. Soon after, he released a happier album ("Imagine"). This song was one of the left-overs from the earlier album. John's angry lyrics about fawning groupies, lying politicians and his demand for the truth ("All I want is the truth"), combined with George Harrison's stinging, supple electric slide guitar make this a classic. After all, everybody wants to hear the truth. But beware what you wish for - it may come true.

3. I'm One (The Who) -1973: Most of Pete Townshend's songs focus on the personal quest and the search for identity (Who am I? Why am I here? When will I find out?). This sensitive ballad is the best. It is a song of an outsider looking in, wondering why he doesn't fit in.

"Every year is the same, and I feel it again, I'm a loser, No chance to win,
Leaves start falling, comedown is calling, loneliness starts sinking in"

Later in the song, Pete wonders why he is not handsome and popular like his idol at the time, Mick Jagger, who gets all the women,



And finally,

"....I can't get that even-tanned look on my face,
Ill-fitting clothes, and I blend in the crowd,
Fingers so clumsy, voice too loud"

For anyone who has ever felt lonely or unpopular or plain-looking or just been treated like they were invisible and didn't matter, you are not alone. Pete knows how you feel.

4. Born on the Bayou (Creedence Clearwater Revival) - 1970: I don't like just sad songs, you know. This one evokes a bygone era. It is about the quest for freedom and a wariness of authority and conventional wisdom, and it rocks. It evokes memories of Mark Twain's books and Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer rollin' down the mighty Mississippi on a wooden raft on a warm, sunny afternoon, smoking cigars and eating corn-cobs. Don't let anybody take away your freedom. I don't dance well at all, but this song definitely makes me want to.

"When I was just a little boy,
Standin' to my daddy's knee,
My papa said - Son, don't let the Man get you,
Do what he's done to me"

5. Me and Bobby McGee - (Janis Joplin) - 1970: This song was originally written and performed by Kris Kristofferson, but Janis Joplin made it her own. Hers is the definitive version of the song. There is a flip-side to freedom, because in the end when it is carried to its logical conclusion - "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose". Again, this is the clash of reality versus illusion, but then, do any of us really want to be free of all our attachments? I do not think so. Neither did hell-raiser Janis - the first of the female rock superstars. Her heart-rending version of this song will move you. Ultimately, inspite of all everything, she wanted love, security, someone to share her life with. Don't we all?

6. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - (Jimi Hendrix) - 1968: This is mighty, intergalactic blues music. This is Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf raised to the power 100. This song put the "heavy" into hard rock - cosmic stuff. Inspite of all this, it is not self-indulgent or drugged out at all. This is the kind of music Led Zeppelin tried to make for 10 years, but never quite succeeded. If you want to know why Hendrix is the leading musical revolutionary of the last 100 years, listen to this song. Nobody before or since plays guitar like this. Nobody before or since could even conceive of writing music like this. Hendrix was a huge meteor that smote the music world, before he died at the age of 27 in 1970. What a waste of life. The repercussions of that meteor are still being felt today.

7. Stay With Me - (The Faces) - 1971: These guys were certainly the hardest drinking band in show business. This song is about a drunken loser who picks up an even drunker woman in a bar. On the face of it, the song sounds sexist ("You didn't need too much persuadin', I don't mean to sound degradin', But with a face like that, you got nothin' to laugh about"). Listen closely and you will realise that the protagonist is not sure who he loathes more - the woman he has picked up, or himself. Musically, the bump-and-grind of this song is great. This sounds more like the early 1970s Stones than the Stones themselves.

8. Black - (Pearl Jam) - 1992: This is a song about unrequited love, sung in Eddie Vedder's compelling, scalded-dog howl. This guy can emote. I know exactly what he means when he sings:

"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a sun
In somebody else's sky.
But why, why, why,
Can't it be mine"

9. My City Was Gone - The Pretenders - 1984: Chrissie Hynde is my favourite female singer. She is tough but tender, volatile but calm, dreamy but pragmatic, flinty yet compassionate, irreverent yet loyal. This song is about how the country of her youth is changing. Fields being replaced by shopping malls and the death of inner cities and rising crime and unemployment in America. She mourns for the small town she grew up in. Her memories of youth are just that - memories. She realises that childhod and youth never come back. It is an important realisation.

10. Moonlight Mile - (The Rolling Stones) - 1971: For once, Mick Jagger takes a break from playing prime stud and writes a truly beautiful ballad, mourning the death of fellow bandmate Brian Jones and his breakup from the love of his life, Marianne Faithfull. The lyrics in typical Jagger fashion, are opaque and mysterious. The instrumentation is magnificent. For once, Jagger sounds like he means what he is singing. There is real emotion in his voice.

Have a good weekend.

Economics - India's Economic Growth - Actual and Potential

May 2007

India's trade deficit with the rest of the world has gone up to US $ 7.05 billion for the month of April 2007. This is a record. India's non-oil imports are also up significantly on the back of unprecedented demand for capital goods and machinery by Indian companies. Inflation which was up at above 6% a year in January 2007 has fallen to 5.06% in April 2007.

So what does all this gobbledegook mean for non-economists? Good news. Indian companies are investing in additional capacities because they are optimistic about India's future growth prospects. This means more factories, more services, etc. Which translates into more jobs and higher salaries for you and me.

Combine that with low inflation and you have a dream scenario - high GDP growth of over 9% a year coupled with low inflation of about 5% a year. So will this dream scenario happen? Like all economists say (to the frustration of most people) - it depends.

If the world economy continues to grow at 5.5% a year (last year's average), the good times will keep rolling. If there is a tragedy like the World Trade Center bombing and the world economy crashes, India will suffer.

The sad part is that while 9% is very good (and this growth is taking place precisely because the Indian government is not interfering in economic policy at the moment), it could be so much higher. It could easily be 10% or more if India opens up her retail and insurance sectors.

Opening up the retail sector to foreign investment means more than buying your favorite designer labels in India. It means the creation of millions of jobs in India's hinterlands of UP, Rajasthan, etc., bringing jobs, education and prosperity to the places that need it the most.

Opening up the insurance sector to foreign direct investment means that there will be better insurance products available for you and me. More importantly, it also means that huge long-term funds (billions of dollars) will be available for infrastructure development in India - roads, highways, ports and airports - critical for our country's growth. Poor infrastructure is one of the main reasons India's economic growth is not as robust as it could be.

Remember all of this the next time you vote. Many of India's leftist politicians (exceptions are Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of West Bengal) take pride in our poverty. They have stymied every effort to open up the retail and insurance sectors. They wear poverty like it is some kind of badge. They have prevented our country from becoming as prosperous as it could be. They have denied millions of people the opportunity to participate in India's success.

Our annual economic growth is 9% - it could easily have been 10.5% - that extra 1.5% could lift millions out of poverty and ensure the future prosperity of their families. It would answer the questions that all critics of India's economic growth keep raising - why is India's growth not inclusive? Why is it excluding the rural poor? Why are only educated people in India's cities benefitting from economic liberalisation? Over a period of ten years, it could transform the face of our country and we could all be proud of our progress.

I apologize for the lecture. But this is something I am passionate about - it is the future of our country and the future of 20% of the world's population. It is worth fighting for.