इतना सब कुछ जिया है अब तक, कितना जीना बाकी है

Few days back, I got an invitation to be a quizmaster in an event. Despite my utmost willingness and deep craving for taking up the job, I was so hard-pressed for time that I had to refuse. And despite my refusal, I kept on making rounds and questions and cryptic clues in my head for next two days. Anyhow, that chapter is closed now and I am not very sad about it, for I have already played the role of quizmaster at many occasions to my satisfaction.

But that set the ball of thoughts rolling - what are those roles and tasks and works and things and activities still desired and unfulfilled? The list of "done" and "never-wish-to-do" are rather longish. The "done" list would seem like boasting and the "never-wish-to-do" would seem like escaping. So here is a small list of "yet-to-be-done kind" ~

I want to perform on stage - something small. I know I do not have the stage talent but hey, lack of talent never stopped me from the stages of poetry and singing so why to hold back now! I wish to study a lots and lots of maths, physics, economics, history, psychology, and sociology. I wish to join politics and make policies for the nation some day - bring a positive change to the world. Also, there are few particular places that I wish to visit and hoping to cover some of those this winters. And there is one place I wish not to visit! It is difficult not to visit that place but well, hopefully, I'll do that too!

To Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

As we observe a full month since it became clear that the destiny of a nation and a billion plus people will go the way Mr. Modi would sway it, I want to warn you Mr. Modi.

Beware... your biggest enemy is not in those hordes, who come with open daggers, dirty criticism, and make-belief horror stories. Your real enemy is your own success, your own grandeur, and your own followers. Please do not fall prey to the blindness of followers and start believing what they believe in seeing!

You are the last hope for the great nation that is trying to rise from the ashes of dilapidation and destruction, depression and diffidence, doubts and deceit.

Here is a reminder to you - May the Gods bestow upon you the courage and capability to carry the burden of expectations of the India of ages to come!

सावधान जन-नायक, सावधान!
यह स्तुति का साँप
तुम्हें डस न ले
बचो इन बढ़ी हुई बाहों से
धृतराष्ट्र - मोहपाश
कहीं तुम्हें
कस न ले.

सुनते हैं कभी
किसी युग में
पाते ही राम का चरण-स्पर्श
शीला प्राणवती हुई
देखतो हो किन्तु आज
अपने उपास्य के चरणों को
छू-छु कर भक्त
उन्हें पत्थर की मूर्ति बना देते हैं.

सावधान!
भक्तों की टोली आ रही हैं
पूजा-द्रव्य लिए
बचो अर्चना से
फूलमाला से
अंधी अनुशंसा
की हाला से.

बचो वंदना की वंचना से
आत्म-रति से
बचो आत्म-पोषण से
आत्मा की क्षति से.
सावधान जन-नायक, सावधान!

बालकृष्ण राव 

Some economic discussions - 3

So Anand and myself had another round of discussion on the Gujarat Growth a few days after the previous discussion. That one is as follows:

***
Anand Mishra shared a link:
It would be facile to dismiss Surjeet Bhalla as merely a BJP sympathizer. I understand that social indicators from Gujarat may not present a consistent story, and detractors ( like me) of Modi argue "all that growth is fine, but .........." , however, on the growth inclusiveness subject, Surjeet claims :
" Does this extra growth benefit all sections of society rather than just the privileged few? To answer this question, household-level NSS data on wages and unemployment for the large sample years 1983 to 2011/12 are used. Wage and unemployment data are presented for the disadvantaged group (comprising of Muslims, SC & ST) and the rest (not disadvantaged group). In the Modi period, wages of the “rich” (non-disadvantaged) group increased at an annual rate of 2.2% per annum compared to a higher 3.5% per annum rate for the poor. In the comparator states, the difference was only 0.4 percentage points higher for the poor."
Can anyone point to studies that refute this claim? Perhaps, within the disadvantaged group, Muslims' wages did not grow as much as that of others. If not, then I have to accept it.

Siddhartha Rastogi: Comment 1
Well, again, my response would be based on memory but this is possible to substantiate from references. Also, please keep my previous reply on steps to growth in perspective. This comment is about general growth, next one for social side of it.

1. Before I begin, a caution - Surjeet Bhalla in economics is almost equal to Subramanian Swamy in politics - both are loose canons and can go to any extent to prove a point, where none exists. However, Bhalla is sensible in his assertions herein. 

2. Gujarat growth and development is a sensitive matter - conclusions are drawn before the facts are gathered and therefore, indicators are chosen accordingly. Obviously, all the sides come out to be equally convincing. 

3. So what I do is to not look at the conclusions but at the indicator, the data points, and the rates chosen. Let's see in the following (perhaps incoherent) points. 

4. Remember what I said earlier - privileged classes are more equipped to participate in the economic process and eventually, under-privileged groups would be enabled to join in the growth process. In India, it has not happened for two reasons. One, such groups have not been empowered by the state through quality education and primary healthcare. Two, most such groups have accepted their misery as fate and cocooned away from the process of growth. 

5. Gujarat has broken this trend with emphasis on few basic ideas. I'll describe the ones, where Gujarat shall get the credit in the coming points. Where there is not much credit to Modi govt is industrial growth. Industry runs on direct proportion to its own capability and inversely to the length of red tape. Except cutting the red tape, there is no big deal. In fact, service sector has not taken off in Gujarat and IT companies have preferred Indore over Vadodara. 

6. In agriculture, govt focused on less competition intensive cash crops. Their wheat and coarse grains are stagnated to a trend growth but spices, horticulture, floriculture are high on performance. The end result is richer villages. 

7. Electricity is not that scarce in India except nobody wants to pay for it. T & D looses and non-payment were cured through jyoti-gram scheme - basically a parallel line for limited hours agricultural supply. After that major loss center is eliminated, commercial and industrial is always profitable and domestic was easy to control. 

8. Road network was never too bad in Gujarat. However, last select state highways were broadened (and for the first time, considering the futuristic capacity requirement). Also, rural roads of some quality were laid down. This has helped in two ways - increased penetration of vehicles (and sales) and lesser spoilage of agri produce (one of my profs at IIMA worked on tomato spoilage and road network problem). 

9. These all steps have been accompanied with a lot of innovative and small steps. For example, ONGC buys a lots of guar gum - nobody had identified this trend but Gujarat agri dept by involving the existing network of agricultural universities, which was never done before. Gujarat is exporting a lot of kesar mango, which is really poor as compared to dasseri but UP govt doesn't give a damn. Similarly, data collection is so good in Gujarat that govt depts gave us soft copies of all the data at district levels (and in some crops, farm levels). They didn't do anything new - just engaged the network of universities, institutes, and co-operatives (including amul) for data collection and putting that out for analysis.


Siddhartha Rastogi: Comment 2
Now, coming to the point that you have raised (and a lot of fringe discussion from my side)

1. It is true that middle class always benefits the most from such growth. The poorest sections - SC , ST, and Muslims - also have benefited from this growth. However, the analysis by Bhalla has two problems. 

One, the achievement (based on my memory), OBC are now as good as unreserved general classes, SC have benefited a lot, and ST have benefited a lot less, whereas Muslims stand between SC and ST. 

Two, the growth rate of income is often misleading in these cases due to small base problem. The income of an SC increases from 100 to 120 and shows 20% growth. The income of Tata grows by a million and shows an increase of 1%. 

So Bhalla is not wrong but not totally honest either. 

2. Gujarat has drawn a lot of flak for poor HDI indicators also. Some points to ponder regarding those follow - nutrition, child and maternal health indicators (IMR, FMR, TFR), and educational achievement. 

3. It is easy to augment income and financial indicators. Whereas, the development indicators take generations to improve. For example, if my growth is stunted due to poor nutrition, I may become rich but would still remain stunted for life. So is the case with maternal health also. A typical generational shift takes place in 30 years. So asking questions on that aspect is wrong and they should be asked to the CM of 20-25 years ago.

4. Partially, the eating habits of Gujaratis are also to be blamed. If you remember, the richer they are, the finer and more processed cereals and grains they would consume. This results in low nutrition food as the norm and anemic girls are common. How to change this is not possible for me to answer but may be some sociologists - anthropologists would make more sense. 

5. Educational achievement has had problems at two levels. At primary level, poor quality is the norm. At higher levels, drop out is common. Gujarat has started efforts on these two counts for the past 2-3 years only after investing a lot of energy in universal enrollment and quality improvement of teachers. I think we should hold our guns and criticize them on this about 3-4 years from now.


Siddhartha Rastogi: Comment 3
Final thing - I do not mean to say that every thing is awesome in Gujarat but as compared to most other Indian states, they have maintained more sanity and sanctity from a long term perspective. Also, muslims are slowly and progressively shedding their paranoia of him. Perhaps, it would be too good for Gujarat if Modi loses the battle to center.

Siddhartha Rastogi: Comment 4
Ok, Now finally final - I don't agree to many parts of this article but this part does make sense:

"Be that as it may, the key takeaway from the Gujarat growth debate is that both Modi’s achievements (on growth) and failures (on all-round development) are perhaps exaggerated because of legacy effects."

The great Gujarat growth debate - Livemint
www.livemint.com
The debate on Gujarat’s ‘growth model’ now seems to be drawing an ever-widening circle of academics

Anand Mishra:
http://www.thehindu.com/.../the.../article5896998.ece

The Gujarat muddle
www.thehindu.com
Why does Gujarat have indifferent social indicators, in spite of having enjoyed runaway economic growth and relatively high standards of governance?

Siddhartha Rastogi:
I have chosen to discard Jean Dreze, Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, Surjeet Bhalla, all JNU cadres, for their apparent bias in all their analysis. Their ideology precedes their scholarship, specially these days. I still find Bibek Debroy a much more honest academic and objective scholar than all these politically loaded scholars. BTW, you introduced me to Bibek Debroy in our ICC days 

Some economic discussions - 2

If there is any person whom I personally know for so long and still respect, that must be him. He was instrumental in my survival through a very difficult phase of my life and even before and after that, I've held him in high regard. Our political, social, and economic understanding often finds grounds of clash or resonance. And whether we agree or not, I love discussing things with him - for there are few people with whom I always end up on the learning side. 

Since the whole nation is mired in electoral and political discussions these days, we also had a little chat on Facebook. Copying that here for those interested and for my own long-term reference. I've edited out others' comments and fringe content to maintain the focus.

Anand Mishra wrote:
For the most part, ‘Congress or BJP ‘ is a false choice, at least on the economic front. Both parties are leading us to a middle-income- country trap. “Hindu rate of growth” is not the only kind of trap we have to worry about. Let’s consider Mexico and India together.

Like India, Mexico was a largely socialist country and most industries were state monopolies till 1970s, protected from foreign competition by high tariffs. Later, these businesses were sold off to the private sector, which in practice often meant few wealthy families with access to capital, who wound up buying the businesses at prices well below their book value. The state monopolies became private monopolies. This leaves Mexico with a growing concentration of wealth in the hands of few. Today, the top-ten Mexican families account for more than a third of its total stock market value, one of the highest concentrations among emerging markets. The number of billionaires from India has been on the rise, and the churn within that list of billionaires is very little. In 1990s and early 2000s, it seemed to me that India finally was going through the much needed churn in business when some of the new IT and pharma companies broke onto the scene. Since then, Ambanis, Adanis, Jindals etc have clawed back.

A few strong companies and booming stock markets should, but do not necessarily, make for strong economies, so let’s not confuse the two. Just for the perspective, the GDP per capita (nominal) for India and Mexico are around 1500 and 10,000 $ respectively. So tell me why would you not think that neither BJP nor Congress will address the fundamental risk our economy is exposed to?

Siddhartha Rastogi wrote - Comment 1
Government monitored and regulated capitalism is good... crony capitalism is too bad. Holding this true and picking from where you have left - the new wave of entrepreneurs and the old business houses, we need to see who (between Congress and BJP) promotes more entrepreneurship and competition in the markets. 
I do not have the data but the anecdotal evidence suggests NDA did far better in this domain.

Comment 2
 And also, some very brief step-by-step income impact of liberalization - globalization - privatization:

1. It increases GDP and GDP per capita 

2. Income increase is more for those who already have capacity to participate in the economic process 

3. Poor income groups benefit far lesser than richer ones

4. The income gap increases

5. The thing to see here is not that every one must be getting equally better off. Rather, nobody should be getting worse off. 

6. Now enters the government in the scene - if some one is getting worse off (due to this process and not due to their own laziness), government would intervene and protect the property rights by forcing the beneficiary to pay for the losses.

7. Also, over time, even poor would develop the capacity to participate in the economic system

8. That is when the government spends on education, health, and security (and not on doles) 

9. So the income inequality ought to be a short term (not more than 20-30 years) phenomena. After that, the inequality should fall again.

10. China is a bad example to quote in many ways but Chinese poor are far more enabled to seek opportunities. 

11. To close with Deng Xiaoping's remark, when he was asked about increasing inequality in China as a result of economic reforms: "Let some people get rich first".

Anand Mishra wrote:
The argument that let's have growth now, we will worry about atavistic impulses within the country later, is fallacious.Tad too much reliance on identities in a society, you have an upper limit to growth. We have to find a balance between the human need to have identities and necessity of keeping those identities in private domain. 

Mexico's per capita GDP is at least 6 times higher than ours, and the country has not been able to solve its basic issues of education, health, crime, corruption etc. 

Baaki tumhari doosare comment pe hum baad me baat karnege,mil ke kabhee, many terms like liberalization, globalization are loaded, and I don't know if you and I have similar understanding of those terms. And, beyond a point, I believe, economics also becomes a subject of faith. But I see what you are saying.

Recommendations on Movies and TV Series

Recently, I got to discuss with my students some ideas that help in developing critical thinking. They asked for some recommendations and I ended up making a longish list. Here are a few things that I recommended. The list is obviously incomplete and limited by my own knowledge and memory, both. Watch these with a critical mind and at your own risk.

Good Luck :)

Last Updated on Sep 14, 2020:

TV Series

Hindi: Chanakya, Flop Show, Malgudi Days, Byomkesh Bakshi, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Panchayat, Kota Factory, Flames.

English: Sopranos; Mad Men; Lie to Me; Dexter; Mentalist; Game of Thrones; Big Bang Theory; Young Sheldon; FRIENDS; Sherlock (BBC); Frasier; Wonder Years; Seinfeld; Suits, The Boys, Zoo, Mock the Week, 

Animation: South Park; Family Guy; Simpsons; Futurama

Movies

Animation Movies: Toy Story series; Mulan; Wall-E, Grave of the Fireflies; Brother Bear; Despicable Me; The Prince of Egypt; Mosnter Inc.; Monster House; Delhi Safari (Hindi); The Incredibles; The Lego Movie, Ferdinand, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age, Over the Hedge, How to Train Your Dragon, 

Hindi Movies: Shanghai; Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi; Drohkaal; Saaraansh; Haasil; Darmyaan; Daayra; Thoda sa rumani ho jayein; Namkeen; Mandi; Manorama 6 feet Under; Mere Apne; Anand; Masoom; Swades; Dor; Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro; Damini; Water; Karz; Corporate; Mother India; Peepli Live; Raincoat; Chittagong;  Iqbal; Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander; Katha; Maqbool; Bol; Bhindi Bazaar; Angoor; Dharm; Love Sex Aur Dhokha; Garm Hawa; Khuda Ke Liye; Koshish; Firaaq; Raat Gayi Baat Gayi; Parzania; Pushpak; The Stoneman Murders; Tahaan; Road to Sangam; Stanley Ka Dabba; Hey Ram; Gaman; Satyakaam; Waisa Bhi Hota Hai - Part 2; Godmother; Maachis; Pyasa (Guru Datt); Kaaghaz ke Phool; Kitaab; Socha na tha; Lahore; Ijaazat;

Other Languages: Children of Heaven (Persian); Bicycle Thief (Italian); City of God (Portuguese); Shwaas (Marathi); 22 June 1897 (Marathi); Emile (French); Titli (Bengali); 96 (Tamil); Vikram Vedha (Tamil); 

English: Blood Diamond; A Beautiful Life; It's a Wonderful Life; Schindler's List; Shawshank Redemption; Bucket List; As Good As It Gets; Guns of Navarone; Last King of Scotland ; The Terminal; Big; Waitress; 2 Brothers; The Majestic; The Gods Must Be Crazy 1 & 2; If Only; The Majestic; The Truman Show; Forrest Gump; Leon; Psycho; Clockwork Orange; Lord of War; Million Dollar Baby; Munich; Interview with the Vampire - The Vampire Chronicles; October Sky; The Illusionist; Play it again Sam; I am Sam; Green Mile; Cube Zero ; Crash; The King's Speech; In Pursuit of Happiness; Invictus; 127 hours; Dances with Wolves ; Due Date; Fight Club ; ConAir; When Nietzsche Wept; Water for Elephants; Man from Earth; Hot Shots; The Pianist; The Blind Side; Erin Brockovich; X-Men series; Movie 43; Gran Torino; The Man Who knew too Little; 

(Rule: If it features one of these names, watch it - Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey).


P.S. - Let me know if you wish for a book / literature recommendation list too. Will try to prepare one! 

Some economic discussions - 1

I've had little time lately to strike the right mood and have the right time to write at the same time. However, had quite a few good and / or interesting discussions on mails, chats, and Facebook. So I thought, it would be a good idea to preserve and share those (perhaps not so well) articulated ideas for future reference. So, would share these as and when possible.

***

Some months ago (between Sep 2013 to Dec 2013), had a small conversation in bits and pieces with a post-graduate participant (PGP, hereafter). Since I found that full of interesting snippets of observations related to economic thought and philosophy, sharing an edited version here. It is edited for neither grammatical nor spelling mistakes but only to create a consistent flow of communication.

***

PGP: Hello sir. In CD classes there was a discussion that a govt stimulus on infrastructure etc. is better than QE. But I was reading this article:

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/keynesians-sleepy-down-a-red-bull#axzz2gNjPQLgS

{Link leads to an article titled “Keynesians: Sleepy? Down a Red Bull: The Freeman : Foundation for Economic Education”}

So does it mean that govt intervention in any form (QE or stimulus) is unwarranted and that markets should be left to their own devices in case of a recession? Would the economy emerge stronger in such a case?

Sid: Ok... first of all, never believe any thing or any policy prescription in macroeco.

The thing is that in Micro, all the major issues are settled with a single conclusion. However, in macro, it is hugely political and ideological.

so none of the arguments can be taken at the face value or without contextual considerations

This article is written from a typical Friedman_ian angle.

meaning pushing the envelope of monetary policy as being the only effective tool.

Although I agree that fiscal stimulus in the manner it has been adopted by the US is not going to solve anything but further balloon-up the economy...

there would have been two alternative ways....

one is given by this article itself - monetary measures of cheap money, inducing business to invest, and break the vicious circle of low-production

whereas the other fiscal side argument is conveniently ignored (perhaps due to apparent ideological bias)

that is - to simplify the medicare system, simplify and reduce the government expenditure

and spend that money + some small fresh borrowing on

infrastructure rejuvenation, defense spending, and on the industries where USA has a greater competitive advantage

In my understanding, both the measures would be effective

but given the situation in USA, the fiscal austerity + infra measure would be more suitable.

PGP: but sir again, the problem is about certain industries/companies being favored for receiving the stimulus money. For example, the too big to fail concept.

Why should banks that made bad investments be bailed out? Why not let them die and allow the financial system to detoxify?

Would that have been better in the long run?

Sid: Indeed. In fact, saving the inefficient companies was the second mistake. The first one was to let them balloon up so much by actively ignoring their fudged-up performance parameters...

and the US has been doing that due to their misplaced belief of the principle of laissez-faire, which means the least interference

The US has been a corporate-lobby driven system for long now.... they have maligned and abused the system of free markets by succumbing to the corporate tyranny. for example, watch Thank you for smoking and Bowling for columbine

PGP: but corporatism isn't free market right ? I guess that is one thing that brings bad name to capitalism these days. People think what happens in US is a true free market economy.

Sid: exactly! The problem is that misunderstanding on one hand...

and on the other, the active leftist propaganda that makes the two look the same...

PGP: yeah .. I remember Arundhati Roy's essays that very nicely mix up these two concepts

Sid: If you really want to see such propaganda, you should see authors like her... or even Ashutosh varshney. anyways.... I've stopped wasting time on these guys...

the problem is that they have decided (even without understanding first) that capital, capitalism, free-markets are all evil

***

PGP: Thought you might like to see this: A rap battle between Keynes and Hayak mirroring their divergent opinions on economics. It’s nicely done. Do see the second part of the rap given in the sidebar suggestions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

To me, Hayek's arguments appeared to make more sense. Of course, this is very perfunctory ... and the video is probably made by an Austrian, but still

Sid: Among the influential economic philosophies of 20th centuries, typically Keynes gets the most attention - that is primarily because he is wrongly appropriated by Leftists to proclaim that government control is good.

Keynes' essentially was a crisis-time measure and even when he suggests government intervention, it is not to scuttle the private activity. I personally like Milton Friedman the most - for his clarity of thought and vocal opposition of leftist propaganda. However, I would agree the most to Hayek's philosophy.

A recent claim to everything is laid by Paul Krugman but I think he lacks originality and is mostly a phony political ideologue.

BTW, Thanks for this rap video

PGP: I recently read an article by Krugman where he said that the American government was not spending enough to get the economy out of recession and that there was no need to worry about deficits at this time. "More spending is what the doctor ordered" ... his words. Probably soft-pedaling Democrat's socialist agenda

Sid: exactly... and that is why Krugman seems like a quack (or a commie agent) to me!

The cities and the Loves

The cities I have been to... so many of them... perhaps more than 30 in India and few outside as well. And everywhere I went, I found a similar feeling - that this city is very different. Each city had its own character, its own smell, and its own story. Whenever I think of the cities I have been to, I get a whiz of fresh air, a breeze, a goose-flesh, a pain, a joy, a sadness, a memory... and a smile!

Sharing some of those smiles (or the lack of it) of Indian cities. Ought to omit Lucknow and foreign cities for the time being... Writing about foreign cities will be some other day, when I am in a more formal mood unlike emotional mood today. And writing about Lucknow is not possible for me. That is my city. That is where I belong. So that will take longer than a life to write. Well, so, here it goes:

Jaipur - You must be luckiest city of life so far! I mean, every time we met, you welcomed me with poetry, literature, pleasant experiences, amazing food, nice friends, hugs from Gulzar, blessings from Nizam Sahab, love from Aadil Bhai, and what not! I never had a reason or plan to meet you and yet, you have been a great buddy. You are like that first crush of school days, where all days are happy days and nothing can go wrong.

Calcutta - I visited you for the first time in 2004. I almost hated you, except some small patches of joy. You were sweaty, grumpy, tiring, dirty, and scary. Then, I got to meet you again in 2008 and then, almost every year since 2011. I am sorry that I hated you for so long. The Ganges is majestic, the monuments are magnificent, and there is a whiff of erudition in the air. Although that whiff is mostly hollow blabber, the air is thick with pollution, and smoking is as common as worst kind of poverty-ridden human existence; I don't know why everybody is so happy. Perhaps, when they labelled you as the City of Joy, they were right! You are like that love of graduation days, where there is no money and no hand-holding but something made us fly above clouds.

Varanasi - I have met you twice. You amused, mesmerized, and confused me each time. There was an aura of sanctity mixed with insanity, roots mixed with rots, and glamour mixed with garbage. Your mannerism was questionable yet quintessential. Your hospitality was puzzling yet pure. Your people were abhorrent yet admirable. You are like that class-topper, simple, beautiful, suave girl, whom we all observed and obsessed, liked and leered, tried talking and talking but everything was always from a sacrosanct distance.

Delhi - We have met so many times. Initially, you were a stranger, and a rude one at that. But we kept meeting anyways, more out of compulsion than choice. Sometimes I passed through your airports, sometimes I stayed for a day or two to hop-off to somewhere else. Sometimes, I tried exploring you as well - your museums and monuments, your people and parks, your surroundings and systems. You became more and more welcoming. You opened up to me. You served me with utmost hospitality. But there is something missing. I do not feel anything for you. You are like that girl of the college days, who had a crush on me but her affection remained unrequited.

Kanpur - I have met you a few times. Every time, you were filthy, unfruitful, and unfriendly. And despite this, you were always cocky about something useless. I don't know why we ever had to meet. You are like that neighborhood girl, who can scare the witches but behaves as the ultimate demoiselle.

Mumbai - You were my first city outside Lucknow. And you always scared me. Rather, even today, you scare me. Why are you so big and so busy and so bustling with something or the other all the time?! Well, I have met you so many times that despite this scare, there is a comfort and a coziness in your lap. Once I got the hang of the people, the places, the sea, and the trains, you have showered me with a very safe and nice feeling. I still can't live with you but I love meeting you every time. You are like that mature love that grew out of friendship and even if it didn't culminate into anything material, it is always a treasure.

Bangalore - I am familiar with you. I have met you so many times, in so many ways, with so many relations, explored almost every corner of you, with almost every mode of transport, seen your trees, your birds, your people, your CCDs, your jams, your markets, your societies, your hotels, your malls... and despite seeing so much, I feel a distance from you. The warmth is missing between us. No excitement in coming, no butterflies in stomach in staying, no sinking feeling in going back. You are like that marriage sans love, which we both live through.