Falling in love with Paris city: A case of love at first sight

When I reached Paris Air port in the last week of October 2009, it was raining/ drizzling mildly outside. While stepping out of the plane without any protective winter cloth, not even sweater, I could enjoy that whether and devour fully and forcefully the chill breeze with ease and comfort. That was the first sign that I was going to be alright with Paris weather and co-exist with it without much bother. As it turned out later in the subsequent weeks, the divine helped me with more sunshine and unusually the whether was more benevolent and moderate this year. Friends were there, waiting and watching for all the customs clearance. My former student, Shanmugham and quite a few other friends related to my colleagues in pond cherry university were also there. For remembrance, landing at Paris airport was captured by camera. . While traveling by car from the airport, I was virtually swept away by the enchanting beauty and brilliance of Paris city. Believe me, it was a kind of love at first sight. In less than forty minutes we reached the home of Shanmugham.

He and his wife showered love. Who would have the privilege and pleasure of basmati rice along with carrot beans sambar on the very first day of landing at Paris? I felt as if I was at my home town, Pondicherry. I had my own sense of thrill and happiness of being in a foreign soil. During the first twenty four hours of my stay after landing, the inspiration and the sense of exhilaration I felt , the environment of affection under which I was floating, the entire home ambiance ,the chill weather outside and warmth of love inside , I can’t forget those beautiful moments in life.

Nearly three weeks stay at Paris, which included three days brief sojourn to a few German cities showed me the express way towards love and friendship which I abundantly received. With each passing day, I was beginning to like the place and people; All my initial apprehensions and fears about my first overseas trip appeared to be more naïve and misplaced. By divine grace my health co-operated and my strong parental genes provided the necessary protective guard.

I could also see the benevolent destiny at work through my official coordinator of the university, who was known to me for a long time. There was some element of anguished anger, a sort of a strange relationship. But, after seeing her at work at he crucial stage of vading through the post doctoral thesis work submission stage and all the trials and tribulations associated with it, every thing dissolved into thin air. She took care with all the burdens on her shoulder.

In a distant place, separated from your people through space and time, you need somebody as an anchor. Besides my co-coordinator, people like Shanmugham, Patrick, and quite a few others took care on a continual basis and placed me on a secure foundation.

Human relations, where ever they are, basically rest on love and hand of warm friendship. Without the combined and co-operative efforts of likeminded souls, it is absolutely impossible to carry out some task. At least in the initial stages where ever I went, I came across people who were good, loving, caring and having an innate tendency to help fellow human. Even in an exceptional case of some, not able to lend a helping hand, I could understand their sense of predicament. Every one has his or her own life to live, privacy to take care of, and enjoy some private space to taste loneliness. Long ago, a Delhi university professor in a casual chat told me, “Never form any extreme opinions about anybody.” It is more like a statement of revelation and I could enjoy all the uncertainties and absurdities of life in a more pleasant way. In a matter of few days, thanks to my coordinator’s help I could settle down in a star hotel belonging to European chain network I could have more freedom. But, the food and ambiance that I had enjoyed in my student’s house was entirely different from this sophisticated environment. Every place has its own enduring impact of charm, convenience and elegance, which cannot be captured by words.

My Fantasy about Economics

Close on the heels of Global Economic Crisis,
The deepening crisis in Economics
Especially the crisis in Financial and
Macro economics has come to the surface.
At another time we shall unravel this mystery and history

Let me now rewrite a few lines
by revisiting my dateless dairy .
It is all about my fantasy about Economics.
Kindly pardon me if my eager and fertile imagination
Takes you off the feet.

Economics is essentially
Interplay between Man and nature.
I have learnt from R.A.Mundell.
It is futile to discuss who is supreme?
Man or Nature?
Without quarrelling much
We shall say it is fifty- fifty?
If you embrace and internalize economics,
Conceive and operate
With this kind of reasoning and intellect,
Then economics will be an ingredient and component of your
Physical frame and supreme mental consciousness.

You do not need to worry about any thing in this world.
Economics will lift your spirit to a greater height
Emotionally and intellectually.
Virtually then, you will be
In feverish touch with air and scarce water
The finer Earth and the entire Universe.

Given the entrepreneurial skill and spirit,
Technological upgradation and
All kinds of revolution in communication,
A beneficial collaborative interaction will follow
Among the major inputs, labor and capital
Releasing all productive forces of the economy.

With eager imagination and sense of wonder
And all the cosmic energy of the infinity,
Will they not create a magic of the good market place?
An ideal market economy,
Generating beneficial positive externalities.

Kindly remember, we are only envisaging
An ideal and perfect market world of fantasy,
Each craving for his wages of labor
With Smithian enlightened self-interest
And Keynesian modestly conservative state intervention
In order that, the multitudes of production process
And distribution chain will roll on unhindered.
No shallow recession
Or major depression
Will result in this ideal world of fantasy.

You can sing a song
Of the death of inflation
And demise of Business cycles.
Buy more employment
With less inflation.
For quite some time
A fortuitous combination of this kind
Indeed prevailed
Like a flash of lightening
And pleasant thunder
An era of great moderation in Economics
A golden age of globalization


When all the goods and services get produced
And get tossed and turned in the globalized world
Moving around with surprising rapidity.
Every atomic particle of that basket of goods
Will touch you, heal you
And listen to your agony and joy.
And provide the much needed peace and relief,
Harmony and happiness
Amidst campus chaos.

So, rejoice Shakthi!
Enjoy the heightened romance
With your discipline,
Respecting and reflecting
The very integrity of the eco system
And the vulnerability of the economic system.
Come what may, enjoy today
Live this moment
As if it is the present
Given to you by the Lord of the Heavens .

Is the Nobel prize awarded to Economists worth intellectually?: A few questions and concerns

Recently 64 Nobel Prize winners portraits / photos were unveiled in our university. It was a momentous occasion for any student in economics-serious or otherwise. Like gods and goddesses at puja room, they might give some strength and support to read economics, someone observed. It was also optimistically felt that some great scholar would emerge in this part of the region. A good pep talk to motivate students and faculty to read economics with interest.

For me, personally Paul Krugman winning the Nobel prize last year was the greatest moment of joy and sense of fulfillment ; in equal measure , I would say that Mrs. Joan Robinson not getting that honor was a serious slap on the committee itself. Being ordinary humans, we can only lament. I articulated y emotive feelings in my blog last year.

Though not a Nobel laureate she was a symbol of terror to other fellow economists. Once in a casual chat in the class or some platform Joan Robinson asked a question to Prof. Samuelson (late) “what do you keep constant, when you measure marginal product of labour?” to which our beloved and highly revered Samuelson , a great economist did not give any simple or straight reply, but bought some time to reply the next day, thinking that she had some tricky part in that question. If such is the case for Samuelson, where are we? I mused once in my class room lecture.

There was always class and quality in intellectual exchange among top ranking economists. The last few decades have produced wonderful economists all of whom could not enter into noble race for obvious reasons.

Going back to the theme, on that day while speakers were showering praise on economics , one faculty alone was talking in a dissenting voice despite the fact that he too belonged to Economics discipline, It was not an appropriate occasion to talk about the dearth of economics. Perhaps none of the speakers were aware of the dearth o good economists who could be given Nobel Prize now. The prestigious Hindu Business Line from Chennai drew attention to this, very recently. I will come to that later.

A casual survey of Economists winning the Nobel would show that until recently, with a few exceptions , the prize has gone to those who have glorified the market and argued for a typical neo- classical belief in the deregulated economic and financial system summed up in one slogan: Trust the Market. Further more, the process of mathematization of the subject in pursuit of making it as natural science has merited more attention from the committee rather the political economy content and sociology of economics. Many economists trained in Chicago school tradition and Rational Expectation Hypothesis, got the recognition.

Looked at the issue from this perspective, 2009 prize to Elinor Ostrom (first woman winner) and Oliver Williamson marks a welcome paradigm shift in awarding Nobel Prize in Economics.

These two economists argued that institutional arrangements are very much important in economic analysis and that markets cannot be trusted as they are not always the best. The fact that market is not fair or efficient and that it can go grossly irrational and go erratic , as was very much evident during the recent global financial crisis which has made the arrogance of economics as also those monetarists and Rational Expectation lovers more humbled, as they failed to put many behavioral components in mathematical models.

The Hindu Business Line Editorial while commenting on the fate of both Economics and Nobel prize asked a pertinent question “modern economics with its ersatz proofs conferred in mathematics and its econometric fetishes, has not economics noble prize has run its course now”. While arguing that being as social science, economics cannot just pretend to become a physical science , the Hindu Business Line gave a lengthy discourse that that time has come to remember the old guards and give Nobel to them posthumously , as their contribution had more analytical perspectives for uplifting human race .

To quote; "Economists will disagree, but the time may have come to change the periodicity of the prize from annually to twice in a decade so that the committee does not end up awarding a million dollars merely because t it has them and someone has to be given it . There simply isn’t enough meaningful economic research going on to merit an annual award . If this is not possible , the prize in the remaining eight years of a decade -2010 is a good starting point –can be given posthumously to economists such as Alfred Marshal , John Maynard Keynes and Joan Robinson ,not to mention David Ricardo , William Jevons ,Leon Walras , Antoine Cournot, Robert Malthus , Fredric Bastiat , Eugene Bohm-Bowark and why, even Karl Marx , whose analysis wasn’t very far from that of Eliner Ostrom .The backlist will serve till 2020 at least , and better still , the money can be given over to a charity that manages common properties in their names. Whatever the method of change adopted, the current farce must stop. "

When memories of mother envelop you, will you not cry? I shed tears at St.Michelle Church

Solomon Papaya, is a celebrity figure
In Tamil speaking world
Popularly known as “Pattimanram Judge”
A scholar listening to both sides of
Warring academic groups debating
on particular subject, its pros and cons
Delivers judgment, in a more witty style
Sometimes in a more
Emotional and intellectual style,too.

A former Tamil Professor,
Always sporting white clothing,
A typical black man, like me
Blessed with beneficent Dravidian color
Fondly called as “karuvayan by his mother”

Always wearing a smile on his face
All the white teeth flashing like
High voltage motor lights fixed on a car
Passing on a national highway
Fully enveloped by darkness.
Always gesticulating on stage
With infinite variety of body language
Bristling with abundant sense of humor
And cracking jokes on the
contending groups of scholars
And also on himself, without
wondering or offending anybody

The slang of Madurai Tamil
Lending a helping hand
To evolve a style of his own,
He’s a picture of happiness and optimism
Whenever he appears on the stage
Consumed away by bliss and peace,always.
A serene joy pervading all through his face
Not to speak of continual
Mischievous twinkle in his eye
He’s always a source of inspiration,
His scholarship not burdening others.

Once, his stage colleague,
Who would sometimes seemingly look
Like a clown, a banker by Profession
Again a popular speaker on the stage
Both of them acted in a movie too
Which created a lot of understandable stir?
A legitimate criticism against
Those authors who ridiculed “black colour”
And the “sacred Tamil names” in bad taste
In the name of raw humor,
Asked a question to our Tamil professor
“Did you ever cry? When would you cry?:”
Our Tamil king Solomon replied:
“Whenever the memories of my mother
Envelop me, I cry profusely
And whenever I come across
Poor people, the dispossessed, the have nots
I lose my control and weep for them.
I do help them, whatever I can
But I don’t have any
Large economic fortune
To help them on any sustained basis”

Solomon papaya feels,
He must have spent more time
With his mother
I also think any good son/daughter
An affectionate and emotionally
Surcharged human,
However well he would have
Engaged his mother still would feel,
He has not done full justice
While she was alive.

I too, a mere human
An affectionate son, definitely
Not a bad son,
Couldn’t handle her, engage her
Befitting of my love and concern
And her dignity and stature
Having faltered to render
A reasonable justice to her
While she was alive,
During A long life lasting more than 90 years
Not even a singly day passes
Without releasing a full cry
A welcome release or relief
To get rid of my bottled up pressures

During three weeks stay at Paris,
Divine willed me to visit
St. Michael church twice
I shed tears for my mother
In that Holy church,
And remained in a trance state
For few minutes,
Somewhere, up and above the sky
Like twinkling stars in the galaxy
She would envelop me and blanket me
With all her love, care and concern

It is not just the air of romance ,But the infinite variety of Paris city:Age cannot wither , nor customs stale

A colleague of mine, an young scholar, reasonably good in Econometrics, and Macro/Monetary having some proximity with RBI, was commenting to another younger colleague who is at IIT Chennai now on my recent trip to Paris and me falling in love with that wonderful city, because I was enchanted and mesmerized by seeing young girls and boys having their fun and freedom on platforms and at the campus. He’s thoroughly mistaken and not strictly right. There are thousand and one reasons why one cannot but love that beautiful city. The air of love and romance is very much peculiar to that city and I have articulated this on many platforms and that alone cannot define or explain my infatuation with that city .

The IIT colleague reffered to above was kind enough to remind me by posting his comment on my write up ‘Go to Paris’ that I must honor my commitment of writing about my experience, in that European soil.

Given the academic and administrative responsibilities and my own perfectionist attitude, I am taking my own time to reflect in tranquility and record my thought process and feelings only in a graduate fashion I hope I would do some justice to the task at hand.I have already started that process.

On my return trip to India, a middle-aged couple was seated, by my side. They were coming to Dubai to spend holidays, I learnt from them. In a casual way, in course of conversation I told them: “To me France, particularly Paris city is a great place of art, love, and architecture, liberty and freedom. More particularly it reminds me of girl, wine and romance and the most uninhibited way they live and interact.”

Immediately, the lady gave an instant reply: “Sir, don’t mistake me. The person sitting my side is my husband and not lover”. I coolly replied: “No problem madam. It’s immaterial whether the person is husband or lover. Paris is a great city and people enjoy life and live life in their own way, as it’s to be loved and lived happily and peacefully.

Thereafter she laughed profusely and heartily. Her husband also joined the laughter Far ahead of her middle age/ late middle age, she had a girlish look, and feverish enthusiasm and gesticulation of a vibrant teenage , while her husband was busy with tinkering seat television and watching movie, fully absorbed, in a matured/scholarly style. His sober nature was indeed a contrast. Very good match,I told myself.

While I was at Paris I had the chance to visit Sorbone University while I was walking towards Luxemburg Park. I could not meet any faculty as I did not have prior appointment with any one. But I had the opportunity to see the boys and girls moving in a very joyful atmosphere. The boy working in the café shop became more friendly instantly. He’s reading some management course part time. He was happy to hear that I am an Economics Professor from India. He could speak good English and he asked me whether there would be any opportunity for him to come to India for attending any work shop or seminar.

There’s an inexplicable air of freedom, fun, laughter in the verandah of the academic corridor, students mingling together without any sense of discrimination, based on color, creed or sex. It was really refreshing to see the white race getting mixed with the blacks of African origin .In one of the classes I mentioned that, the black population would outsmart the White in Paris city in future as London is currently dominated by Asian Indians. I was particularly happy that France was emerging as a truly multi cultural society, accommodating Asians and Africans besides people of different regions in the world.

My Paris University 13 class experience, suggested to me that they are attentive, interactive and do not hesitate to raise relevant critical questions. English is a handicap for them, an advantage for me. Hence there was an unequal exchange, which we also encounter in the current wave of globalization, sweeping across the globe but , making a measured retreat in the wake of Global Financial Crisis, which was the theme of my lecture there.

While recollecting and ruminating over some of the momentous days I spent in that city of romance and architecture, I am only reminded of Shakespeare’s words spoken through the character of Enorbobus when he describes the beauty of Cleopatra .

“Age cannot wither her
nor customs stale her infinite variety .
She makes hungry where she satisfies.”

It is not just the air of romance ,

A Tribute to Paul .A.Samuelson in the context of ongoing Global Financial Crisis

Prof.Paul.A. Samuelson, the foremost Keynesian economist of 20th century, who breathed last recently was a great mathematician and best known for his most influential text book on Economics and many scholarly papers which are collected in several volumes. In my doctoral dissertation, submitted to University of Pune in the early 90s, I had a friendly quarrel with Prof. Samuelson’s way of correcting David Hume’s Price Specie Flow mechanism. I felt that, Samuelson’s corrected version of Hume’s mechanism in a monetarist tradition took away the flavor and the real spirit of Hume’s analysis and expressed my note of dissent.

In the last two decades, I never bothered to articulate this in a journal article. Perhaps I was too diffident and or not adequately enterprising enough to bring it to his attention and even get an affectionate hit from him when he was alive. At this juncture I remember my student, one Mr. BalaRaman, writing some thing in a post card to late Milton Friedman and getting reply from him. I am proud that my students are more enterprising than me.

Going back to the theme, Samuelson was the first prominent American economist who carried the revolutionary ideas of John Maynard Keynes to the American soil and he had the privilege to teach students, some of whom became the actual and potential candidates for Nobel Prize eventually.

John Maynard Keynes knew very well that the best way to lift the capitalist economy trapped in depression was to stimulate more government spending and effect more tax cuts, besides keeping interest rates low. Keynes was the first one to demolish the 19th century view that the private sector was stable and the market forces of demand and supply would always cure unemployment without any kind of government intervention.

It is gratifying to note that, Paul Samuelson lived through several decades, which witnessed currency crises, more particularly the recent financial mess into which U.S economy trapped itself by adhering to orthodox market economics dominated by the notion of rational market and efficient market hypothesis.

It is to the credit of Keynes and Samuelson that the U.S and other western nations currently affected by the most serious banking and liquidity crises of 20th century, have embraced Keynesian economics – rising government spending, cutting taxes and easing the monetary policy, almost driving the short term interest rates to near zero and more important, not yielding to much protectionist pressures at home against the opposition of the monetary conservatives.

This time, the U.S did not commit the mistake of balancing fiscal budgets and erecting trade barriers as most of the countries, including U.S did during the depression days of 1930s, when Keynesian economics in full format was not yet born .It must be mentioned however that, the lessons of Great of Depression of 1930s have been not fully learnt and there is a full cry for protectioism in the advanced countries to safe guard domestic employment . Both the volume of trade and capital flows have declined substantially indicating that current recession is more farther, deeper and more costlier than what polcy makers would have thought.

In the context of current crisis, it would be more instructive to recall the kind of advice that Prof.Samuelson himself gave to president elect, young John F. Kennedy after 1960 election. He told the president that, U.S was heading towards a recession and that he might have to push through a tax cut and Kennedy was shocked.

“I have just campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility and balanced budget and here, you are telling me that the first thing I should do in office is to cut taxes.”Samuelson recalled, quoting the president. But unfortunately, Kennedy was assassinated before he could implement this decision with all reluctance. It was left to his successor, Johnson to administer the Keynesian medicine of tax cut to lift the U.S economy out of recession and it became the famous text book example to demonstrate the efficacy of Keynesianism.

Although there are reports that there are signs of recovery in the U.S economy now, the ground level realities give a contrarian picture. The pain of recession is very much alive and kicking. Very recently, Prof.Paul Krugman has lamented that, while Obama administration had taken measures to help the banks and financial institutions in distress, the same enthusiasm is not shown in tackling growing unemployment in the U.S, occasioned by one of the worst economic crises in the country. Not only Republicans, but also the Democrats are unwilling to support the second fiscal stimulus for a large budget deficit to cure the problem of unemployment. It appears that for many years, many millions of workers will be on the street without job and there is no guarantee that private markets would cure this massive unemployment without the need of government intervention. Will the U.S. listen to the voice of Keynes and Samuelson,very aptly echoed by Prof.Paul Krugman time and again?

China and India are growing fast-Do their leaders ever bother to take majority of the poor along with them ?

With the fall of Berlin wall, and disintegration of Russia and Eastern Europe, communism has lost its favor and repute and the world has opened up in favor of market led economic and social order. Much earlier than this devastation, China had become a socialist market economy. India entered into this liberalization game much later. P.V.Narasimha Rao, the architect of reform process adopted the most feasible route of leaving vested interests undisturbed thus keeping them in good humor and talked about changing India, by paradigm shift and sought to align the Indian economic forces with Western capital. Both he and his deputy, Dr. Singh, the Finance minister (who later became Prime Minister for two terms) worked extra time, to unearth the quotes from Jawaharlal Nehru in order to exemplify that Nehru’s vision had a lot of resemblance of revision of economic policy by congress. A clever ploy to bring Nehru and his congress tradition to dismantle their own economic edifice in the changed circumstances.

The party leaders who once prided themselves in having helped to consolidate the forces of nation state making, started presiding over its own disintegration and destruction by not sequencing reforms properly and not undertaking relevant reforms for the poor.

China and India are destined to become great economic powers, experts forecast by looking at a host of indicators. In many respects, China is forgoing ahead, as it can afford to work with a brand of democracy denying full fledged political liberalization.


The central element of communality between China and India, despite differing political systems and structure is that, modern day politicians have different perception/ambition lacking vision to take the country forward and usher in social equity.

Most Chinese see today’s cadres as “Contented Pie”. The old style heroes or leaders, (like our Indian counterpart, before freedom) used to be ordinary proletarians. Members of police, soldiers in army, high-level cadres, plotting or politicking the success of reform do not definitely aim to social good. Individual greed has fully manifested. Earlier set of leaders behaved in a selfless way; they were considerate and kind to their sub-ordinates and egalitarian in perspective.

In the current capitalist order, where privatization has become barbarization, without modern heroes, socialist ideals and art, real concern for the poor will not have any soul.

Everyone knows about the Indian brand of democracy. For long, ‘the cupduious devotion to one party rule’ was the bane of Indian politics. True, since mid-90’s, a kind of co-operative federalism- a variant of coalition politics, aligning with regional parties came to the fore, but only to underline the inevitability of the much discredited party riding on ‘image’ and ‘charisma’. With the exception of RSS backed BJP and the leftists who are also loosing votes in their own traditional strongholds, there is nothing in any political party which could be distinguished from others. Until recently the critical inability of big political parties to deliver the goods beyond narrow sectarian interests was obvious.

Elections in the last decade or so give demonstrable evidence that national interest required all-round growth which cannot consistently tend to exclude social equity and grass-roots sharing of power. The time has come that the rapacious greed of minuscule minority of economic vested interests must be also matched by some minimum attempts to do some thing tangible for the vulnerable segment of the society. Broadening of democracy and political power play, do not guarantee any kind of material equity to the majority of poor people.

Emergence of fragmented military groups in a failed and falling democracy is the natural derivative, but again they can’t go beyond a limit. But so long as, the less the space that elite sectional interest are willing to provide to others and the suppressed class are determined to retaliate by asserting their rights, various shades of militancy might emerge. Communalist/fascist onslaught or a kind of criminal nexus with politicians would attempt to fill the vacuums that will not augur well for the future. China might survive with one party rule. But for how long? Will not the bottled up pressures explode at one stage? The demand for smaller states in India invoking some kind of justification is also a reminder that every thing is not well with India. China and India might be emerging like raging tigers in so far as accelerating the growth. But, if they don’t correct the regional imbalances, and allow wealth accumulation process to peculate down, deep into the hands of hard working population, the very high profile growth scenario will create more problems. Let these two emerging powers engage themselves in a more honest way to render justice to their own lesser privileged segments by all possible means. Better late, than never.

United States of India (!) Will have more states in future: For whom?

Mrs.SoniaGandhi must have thought that her generous decision and gracious consent to quickly carve out Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh, with A.P assembly bringing out a resolution soon in this regard would defuse the crisis and bolster the image of congress and that she was after all fulfilling the five decade old demand , and also its commitment in the Common Minimum Programme.

But understandably and quite expectedly, it has opened up the pandaros box and has whipped up long pending similar demands in other states, the legitimacy of which also can never be questioned.

What was indeed surprising and more redeeming feature was, the mass resignation of MLAs , most of them belonging to Congress, signaling clearly to the High command that no longer they are under the supremo and that even a just decision, must undergo a broad political consultative process and that all the stake holders must have a say. One agitating woman aptly put it that the decision could not be treated as birthday cake gifted from the largess of Sonia.

Demand for separate Telangana state is only a symptomatic expression of many such backward regions, not meriting much attention, in the form of opportunities in education and employment.

Bodoland people’s Front in Assam, Gorkha Jana Mukthi Morcha in West Bengal and Harit Pradesh demand from parts of Uttar Pradesh and Mahyapradesh, and Vidharbha in Maharastra and even a north –south divide in Tamilnadu would gain momentum in the months to come.
The fundamental root cause for this kind of demand is the growing political ambition of many regional bosses in many states and the deliberate neglect of poor people in many backward regions in those states regardless of who rules the state at a particular point of time.

Being part of a state, and hence India, so many poor people living in many backwards regions, face the identity crisis and feel neglected and humiliated and do not receive the fruits of economic changes taking place in the country.

Our country cannot be called as the United States of India .There is so much of regional chauvinism of Bal Thackeray of Maharastra variety and many political leaders do not have any real concern in allowing labour mobility across the country. The minority community, the Dalit, and tribal population including the Other Backward Classes feel completely marginalized from the mainstream India .Maoist uprisings in select pockets of India is a reminder that everything is not well and many ordinary people who do not have special link with any political party are thoroughly dissatisfied with establishment and hence want to revolt. If no attempt is made to understand the trails and tribulations and politicians continue to live in ivory towers , pretending that its all caused by some terrorists and militants, all of us will be living in a fools paradise .

There is real currency unification with in the country but the rate of inflation is not uniform through the country. Indeed, thanks to the callous attitude of the state.The food and energy inflation are at record level in the country and many ordinary wage earners cannot even dream of expecting a secured job, not to speak of hike in the pay. Periodically we conduct elections and we take pride in saying that, India is the largest Democracy on Earth. But, does this political experiment have any relevance in solving the problems confronting the common masses? We don’t know to what extent the creation of smaller states by bifurcating the larger states would help solve the poor people’s livelihood issues, employment concerns, standard of living, health care benefits and provision of drinking water, and so on. But it appears that no power on Earth can stop Indian states getting further sub-divided into smaller states, although one cannot clearly predict its favorable advantages for the common man in the street, who has become always a victim of political chess play.

Would you like to hear your voice again and again? It is better to listen to others

Q:Why do you speak?
A: Because I would like to hear my voice again and again.
I heard Prof. Marudanayagam, formerly H.O.D, of English Department, Pondicherry University, currently at the Institute for Tamil as a classical language at Chennai, saying this in a meeting, long ago. I do not remember the literary figure he was referring to on that day. Everyone has a desire to hear his or her voice again and again. That’s the reason why, quite a few ,given an opportunity to stand before the mike, they don’t stop that easily once they begin to speak , unmindful of how the captive audience tolerate him or/her with tremendous patience. Teaching in the class room or speaking on the stage, including on big academic platforms where some big celebrity figures are present, is both an art and science; any teacher would like to master that art of public speaking and try to impress the audience with his eloquence and mastery over language and also the subject in question.

Franklin Roosevelt gave another dimension to this question: “How do I know what I think until I hear myself talking?” Unless we attempt to talk coherently, we’re not sure what has been going on in our molecules of the brain. Personally speaking, I have inadvertently not given academic space for the other persons while indulging in conversation, and not having the patience while listening to others. It is certainly not a good trait and my youngest daughter has many a time admonished me for this crime. It is only very recently I learnt that, even in mild conversation, if we do not talk much and allow the other side to speak, our B.P will slow down and health will improve. Being a victim of B.P, I should at least change my habit from the stand point of health. But it is easier said than done.

What’s the use of thinking, reading and talking unless they do not eventually spillover and manifest into writing for the broader audience in order that, they will be dissolved into cosmos and anchored there for eternity. One need not worry how posterity will judge.

More than reading and teaching, writing is very much essential to find solace and relief to fall back into a blissful peace, when we are bombarded by turbulent times. Realizing fully and forcefully “the inexorable pressure of diminishing time, writing was the only relief and prop to an uncertain and precarious future”, says Anthony Burgess (1917-1953), who turned out prodigious output. But everyone is not destined to write beautifully, as he or she can read or speak because, writing is more difficult and like an inspired lecture, good writing will not flow if there is no extra signal from the cosmos to help connect words and connect them to the outside world.

In my academic journey, I had the privilege to listen to very good teachers in languages and in my own discipline, Economics. They didn’t write much but they gave wonderful lectures in a more involved way. Invariably, many good teachers have not written much and their contributions to the student community are immense than many great scholars.

It was only after entering into the University, I had the prop and necessary inspiration to write. The Hindu Business Line gave me a platform and J. Srinivasan ,as an essential component of that prestigious business news paper from Chennai gave me the exposure and the necessary academic ‘make up’ by way of meticulous editing – a debt I can’t repay in this birth. I have many such debts to repay in life. Perhaps, it will take many births to return back the love , I have received from the broader humanity .

Go To Paris

Go to Paris’:It is the title of a novel written long time ago by Jayakantan, a noted prolific writer in Tamil language while I was a college student.

Everyone can’t have a chance to go to Paris- the city of romance and varied wine and perfumes, a place known for war memories, beautiful architecture and a great civilizational culture and democracy.
As a school boy and later college student, I was an avid reader of Tamil novels and literature. I was drawn more towards Dr.M.Varadarajan (shortly called Dr.Muva) and of course Jayakanthan. I do not remember to have read ‘Go to Paris’ novel.

After returning from Paris, spending a few weeks there, which included a short visit to a few cities in Germany, where I was lucky to meet a few Economics professors and talk to late,Subash Chandra Bose’s daughter and her husband. I am very curious now to read that Jayakanthan’s novel.

Jayakanthan must have written this novel and many other path breaking novels and short stories, while he was at his literary glory and heightened creativity. Of late for that matter, for so many years, Jayakantan has not written much. He stopped writing long ago. Perhaps he has written whatever he wanted to write and or he is fully exhausted. I wouldn’t say, he has reached the limits of his creative excellence. Like old theories in economics, and the U.S.Dollar, the creative impulses of the great writers like Jayakanthan cannot die that easily .

The trip to Paris University 13 was planned long ago . Due to student’s strike, it could not be accomplished in the first half of 2009. The Memorandum Of Understanding signed between Pondicherry University and the Paris University 13 was waiting in the wings to carry one of the faculty members from the discipline of Social Sciences , particulary from the Dept of Politics and International Studies.

I was just lucky that I happened to be the one who was previliged enough to inaugurate the Faculty Exchange Programme and I can only thank the wise and benevolent destiny which provided me this opportunity of lecturing in a foreign soil- a proposition I would have hardly ventured even in my wildest dreams .

Like so many things in my life, this overseas trip came very late and better late, than never. For a person like me ,who had never set any goal or any grand ambition , this was quite natural and normal to live in a isolated and secluded world . Given my intellectual training , reading and extensive teaching in a more intensified way with passionate involvement,I should have been little bit more disciplined and more organized in dreaming to attend international conferences and networking truly academic relationship. All through my life, I remained content in reading what I liked, and teaching looking beyond the syllabus, the calendar time and the clock in the classroom , that made me happy.

The tremendous positive fallout of madly falling in love with the subject was that, I could survive physically remain happy and in the process, forget all the failings on the non- academic side. Understandably, this had its own negative fallout on the family and domestic side . I read somewhere “People don’t fall , because they intend to fall. They fall because they fail to do what they intend to do”

This quote aptly captures my academic predicament . In the academic field where I have a reasonable comparative advantage I have not exploited it for generating more academic externalities . There is always a residual lingering feeling that , I should have done more and I could have done better . But, I hardly bothered to come out of the academic recession . which was my own creation

Being pleasantly surrounded by family, kids and laughter and to do some light reading is a more enjoyable thing at this age:the intense yearning to be part of the family and do amends for the past lapses is also very much there. But the ground level reality is that, the seductive influence of the subject outweighs and outsmarts everything else. Going back to the title , undertaking a trip to Europe was one of the memorable moments in life , which taught me many things about life. It showed me how the entire infinity loves me abundantly and how much debt I owe to the broader humanity and all the elements of nature Befor I close, I should remind myself that ,I should read the novel, ‘Go To Paris’

With all the goodness of the Universe, the Life is never fair to any one

The following poem written originally in Tamil by one P.Thangamani, in a scantily circulated literary magazine (Aavigal, 27th Dec 1998) was translated by me during the late 90s and kept safe in my accumulated academic debris. To a great extent, these lines partly or fully capture the growing divide between the rich and the poor in both the developed and the developing societies. Globalization can never be fair, unless they have access to education or credit.


All of you are at home,
Comfortably leading a life of luxury
Blanketed with sweater, head adored with hat,
Hands and legs fully covered with socks
You warm yourself
Before fire and in the kitchen,
All the time munching something hot
You have many blankets,
More than adequate bowl of rice
You eat your dinner,
While watching TV and
Have a quiet, pleasant sleep on Foam bed.

We’re are not blessed like you
Into our slums, floating under
Knee deep water,
Unable to stand
Also can’t sit
With all our clothes drenched,
The body has turned into ice
Somehow we manage during day time,
But can’t bear it in the night

I could not help recollecting these lines getting mesmerized by the state of affluence while I was in Paris city. Although, Thomas .L.Friedman says the world is flat, meaning: there is level playing field for all, it’s all related to glass curtain economy- the weightless I.T. economy. Regardless of the stages of development in the affluent west and the poverty stricken East, one thing is sure there is more pain and poverty for the majority of the poor people.

This year,(2009) the winter and the rainy season during October- November was moderate in Paris city.With occasional drizzle, the sun shown brightly during my brief stay there. The weather was enjoyable and managaeable because, to insulate myself from the chill breeze, I had all the protective cover like sweater, shirt, coat, and on top of it, an over-coat with muffler tied around the neck. Any typical wage earner, must have enough Euro to have this kind of war chest against chill breeze, otherwise he or she will be frozen to death.

To what extent all the poor people in European countries can afford all these in an adequate measure is a moot point. In Paris too ,I have seen a few people begging in the train in a more decent way by placing cards on the seat or playing with musical instruments . On the way towards Saint .Michel church, I saw a old man with Dog alone as his companion , sitting and ruminating over life. I could not help , but comparing the noise and the dirt of my metropolitan cities with that of reasonable cleanliness and order even in that disorderly ordererly world.

In the monsoon rain, Mumbai city floats, Calcutta or Chennai is dirty, for all practical purposes with all their glory and civilization roots. God alone knows the degree of congestion and pollution in the air conditioned city of Bangalore and its infrastructural bottle necks. The supreme Lord, sleeping in heavens alone would know the sufferings of the platform dwellers and those who get sheltered on the river bed and many other rain susceptible regions during the rainy season. Of course, the over all damage is less because, the rain God too is shrinking His responsibility to protect the mother India, mostly residing in the rural areas. How can we change Him, when reckless economic growth over heats the globe and unleash climatic change? Copenhagen meet at best would address the issue, but will it lead to any kind of positive resolution to the satisfaction of all?

Don’ wake up at 65 years and complain about life

“Whatever you do don’t wake up at 65 years old
And think about what you should have done with your life”-

I stumbled upon this passage, actually the best advice given to
George Clonney by his father on a night of moderate rainfall
While heavy thunder and lightning were lashing outside
Indeed it was a matter of irony that by not getting enough sleep-
And unwilling or unable to sleep.
I was reading this passage in one old Reader’s Digest issue (August 2006)
Whose cover story was –
“Too many Indians are sleep deprived,
get enough sleep … or else”

While I was thumbing through that issue
I remembered many backlog of things which I needed to be done
Having postponed them for years
It was the night of -30th August 2009,
Or was it the early hours of 1st September 2009 morning
I can’t say,
I never thought that at this odd hour I would be sitting like this
And ruminating over many things which I have failed today in my life
Indeed that wish list is very long and if I start elaborating
That would be more embarrassing and intimidating
And definitely make me more anxious and nervous.

On that fateful rainy day
An all encompassing peace was clothing me, like a blanket
I have already stepped into it my 60th year Thank God
Few more years to go to reach 65
If I am destined to live until that day or beyond
The best advice was ideally suited to me now.

Somehow or other I have lived all my 60 years doing the
Only work I know , reading and teaching.
Virtually lacking any ambition or setting any goals in life
But there was always some eager imagination and sense of wonderment
About the infinite variety of life.

At 60 plus now I wake up and seduce myself
That henceforward I would attempt to streamline
My academic and domestic life; no regrets in life;
I should thank the Almighty for having anchored me in the
Teaching post instead of hijacking me towards banking/civil service sector –
The areas for which I too made my own preparation without doing any Substantive work during my early days of
Assistant Professor Period in college services in the early 70s.

On September 1st, 2009
There was still more lightning and thunder outside
“Should I read now or go to sleep?
Am I going to follow A. R. Rehman
The great musician to spend this peaceful and chill night
To cool and calm me down by reading and writing
As my ball point pen is sharp and flowing”, I mused.
No, I wouldn’t do that mistake;Do you know why?
Too many Indians are sleep deprived
I don’t want to belong to that set

The U.S.Dollar will die –only slowly

For quite some time now, I have not sent any piece to Business Line . After writing profusely on Dollar in Business Line in 2003, I did not articulate much subsequently on that subject too. Many a time I feel that I have said enough. The story of U.S.Dollar is obvious even to layman. Friends and students are asking me to write on ailing Dollar. Hence this revisit on Dollar’s plight. A brief recap.

The U.S.Dollar is getting beaten rather belatedly, as Japanese Yen witnesses a decisive rise in its value .Despite zero interest ruling in the U.S, recovery is yet to percolate down deep into the economy. Unemployment is on the rise. Support for further fiscal stimulus is lukewarm, as authorities begin to worry more about the consequences of rising budget deficit, on the value of Dollar.

The richest country in the world is not in good shape now. It is the largest debtor country. Fortunately, its growing external debt is denominated in its own currency, dollar. The U.S. can very well print and repay the debt. That might lead to an inflationary explosive situation. Let us hope that U.S will not resort to that kind of mis adventure.

The U.S has all the problems of any typically mismanaged developing economy. Its currency is weak .Cumulative increase in the budget deficit and escalating trade
deficit have raised debt to GDP ratio: fear of rising inflation is very much real, given the ultra low interest rate policy followed and continuing expansionary policy thrust. Any other country, having all these vulnerabilities, would have experienced a currency chaos. Because the U.S. is still a key currency country and enjoys the residual hegemonial status, dollar’s death is postponed.

It’s not that the U.S has suddenly got into this financial mess. It has been there for ages. The U.S. had been always hopping from one crisis to another, and falling into mild and shallow recessions despite getting boost to the growth rate via finanacial globolisation I the recent past. The U.S.Economy and its currency could escape from speculator’s attack as foreign central banks always came forward to defend the dollar in a crisis situation .

The dollar would soon touch its lowest level against Yen.Shall we recall that in 1987, a similar situation prevailed and the world Central Banks signed Lovoure Accord to arrest the dollar’s slide, and revive its value.



Despite all central banks best attempts, the dollar again hit the bottom in mid 90’s : since then, a great deal of diversification has been taking place away from dollar, slowly but steadily. The sub prime lending crisis of late 2000s has put the U.S economy at a cross road. It has exposed the fundamental weaknesses in the U.S banking system. Dollar was not under attack then, thanks to safe haven hypothesis and an enormous amount of dollars was flowing back towards the U.S , close on the heels of the crisis in 2007-08. but , hence forward the dollar scenario will be a different story. Progressively, dollar will decline in value, with occasional bouncing back. But the secular tendency for the dollar is to fall.

Whatever may be the support ring placed around the dollar, one thing is certain that the dollar depreciation cannot be halted. Foreigners would not suddenly withdraw financing deficits. They all know that they are under dollar trap. China has already seized up the problem and started diversifying towards non- dollar assets in a graduated fashion. Central Bank of Japan and others may not want their currencies to rise against the dollar. But they too cannot ultimately stem against the tide. In all probability, when Euro and Yen fail to rise, to punish the dollar, gold will glitter. Black gold and few other metals may give company to yellow metal. The dollar will die only slowly, as the rest of the world will not allow any quick and tragic death of Dollar.

I am Sorry ,I Abandoned myself

For a long time my blog has been in state of suspended animation . I know it is grossly unfair to those who are concerned with me as also the subject of economices which I love most.I am still not able to understand what pulls me down & why I am not sensible & responsible enough to do justice to my blog which was created to have dialogue with a broader audience , my students being the treasured segment in it . After congratulating Prof.Paul Kurgman when he won the noble prize in 2008, I did not bother to renew my romance with the blog. Today my student friend from IT city of India is right now with me & goading me to action.He is only typing this post. I hope that I would rediscover & reinvent myself in the days to come by sharing my emotional & intellectual links with subject & also other worldly things of life. I have bottledup my feelings on a varity of things in many diaries over a period of time & under the caption from my dateless diary I would like to post taking some excerpts perhaps doing some marginal editting .

For three weeks, during October end & first two weeks of November 2009 I was privileged to be in Paris & Few cities in Germany. Mr Sangeet Varghese, currently CEO of a company in Bangalore & emerging as Scholar in the area of leadership was of enormous help in my preparition for the foregin trip besides my few collegues & other well wishers & one christian father at Pondicherry.Mr.Paul Arokiyam Raja one of my former students currently in London was in touch with me during my stay in Europe through Mail.I told him that I would be documeting my expirence in both English & my mother tounge Tamil in the days to come . Indeed I did write a few pages in Tamil , breathing & drinking the cool breze in the serane enviroment there - the air conditioned city of Paris .

Besides lecturing on the issues related to free trade & Globalisation at University Of Paris 13 , I had an opportunity to interact with youth & especially a few French Girls, while traviling to Germany & Visiting the museme at paris. I was amazed by their tremendous maturity & wisdom in their thinking process & I could only emvy them .In the final leg of my stay at Paris a sizable number of Tamil Families & friends showered their love.

I under took my first overseas trip in the 40th year of teaching & at matured young age of 60;it has had a profound infulence on me.In what respect it has transformed me I cannot say fully but it's true in some respect I am a changed man & I can't fully express the nature of change for it is like a feeling of love or romance which one can only feel & not explain to others .

A poet told once; Blessed is he who has found his work & let him ask no other happiness. I would add here that beside work one should also have his/her own love & also an opportunity to travel a lot especially beyond his/her country's geogaphical boundry.

After returning from this trip I sincerly feel that like first love ,first kiss & the first poem in ones life , the first overseas trip has also got its own fun ,thrill , adventure & so on. I was unlucky not to have fallen in any mad love with any girl at the right young age although I was a student of Madras Presidency college in late 60's & later assistance Professor in Goverment Arts College in the Kerala Region of Union Tertory of Pondicherryin early 70's, given my shyness & brought up in traditional outlook in those days .I do not remember the first kiss at the time of marriage but the first poem that I wrote in Tamil is very clear in my green memory.

I am lucky that I could undertake the first forign trip against heavy odds and I may not be able to capture all my intesnse feelings which I experienced there , but defiently i can share a little & recollect in tranquility in the days to come. This Trip will enable me to look back at my own village & college life & also enable me to do a tremdous lamentation over my country's state of affairs in all walks of life although it is projected to be one of the emerging economic powers in 21st century.