Carnival

A lovely weekend, topped off by the Carnival – Europe’s largest and second only to Brazil (I am faithfully informed by the interwebs). The riots have meant that the carnival, much like London in recent weeks, was slightly more subdued than in the past. But good cheer, colourful costumes and…

Sunny Spring Mornings

Happiness is equilibrium. Shift your weight. Equilibrium is pragmatic. You have to get everything into proportion. You compensate, rebalance yourself so that you maintain your angle to the world. When the world shifts, you shift. – Tom Stoppard

New Zealand Economic View

On BBC’s World Business Report (10 Mar 2011), discussing the rate cut announced by the RBNZ, and New Zealand’s prospects following last month’s earthquake.

Revolutionizing Renewable Energy and Fashion

I went to the Earth Awards last week, and got to see some innovative ‘green’ solutions.. And, got to blog about it at the paper.. David Wendell wants to revolutionize renewable energy by taking a page out of nature’s book, and improving it. His new technology captures carbon and transforms…

Life is..

I make plans, dream little dreams, dream bigger ones. Think of how I’ll be when I finally grow up.. Of all the things I want to do, places I want to see, people I want to be. But life? Life doesn’t care so much about the five year plans and…

Ten Years Ago

I did not own a mobile phone. This was probably a good thing, since mobile phones were the size of a ham radio – not including the extendable antenna The computer I used had a CRT monitor, as did my television There was no Facebook There was also no broadband….

Sam’s Story by Elmo Jayawardena

Earlier this month, Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times about the price of war, and why it continues to be easy to wage The reason it is so easy for the U.S. to declare wars, and to continue fighting year after year after year, is because so few…

Once Again to Zelda by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Just finished reading this rather cute collection, which traces the stories behind some of the dedications in books. As the author says, some of these back stories are as, if not more, interesting than the works themselves. It tells tales of love, intrigue, lust, failure, heartbreak and the search for…

Where have all the Big Ideas gone?

Science (and Social Science, by extension) has its rightful place in the trenches, at the borders of human understanding. Yet, I’m trying to reconcile the meaning of daily activity – reading of papers on 18th century mercantilism, and the endless debating of merits of Large-N studies, with the ‘Big Picture’….

Hamlet – The Clown Prince

I was initially skeptical of Hamlet, arguably one of Shakespeare’s finest tragedies, being re-imagined as a comedy. In case you don’t remember the storyline, Atul Kumar (playing a clown who plays Hamlet), helpfully summarizes the plot for the audience at the beginning Hamlet dies, Ophelia dies, Gertrude dies, Claudius dies…

Plus ça change

I first started blogging in 2004. I was twenty years old, in my last year of college and had no idea what I was going to do once I grow up. Since then, I’ve lived in two countries, in three different cities, moved four apartments and now, five years later,…

Grocery Shopping

Every year, usually around January, I realize that there is a wide gap between who I am and who I want to be. Nowhere is this more evident than in my grocery shopping. Like most people I’m rather fond of junk food. One of the semi-cheap thrills of moving to…

Merseyside

Welcome to Liverpool, home to the Beatles, scouse, a Tate and a football team that apparently never walks alone. One of this year’s European Capitals of Culture (the other being Stavanger in Norway), the city seemed to be gearing up for a summer influx of tourists with scaffolding everywhere and…

Moorish Escapades

My only knowledge of Morocco comes from the movie Casablanca, which I later learned wasn’t even shot there. Before we left, I had mental images of Oriental splendour and deep dark intrigues in narrow alleyways. I wasn’t disappointed. The Riad – A home away from home We spent most of…

Every day at 3.30pm

The sun shines through the corner office and hits me in the eye. Sun worshipper that I am, I enjoy seeing its gold orange glow reflected off the modern steel and glass structure opposite the window, and I imagine briefly, that I am sunning myself on some tropical island.. And…

Of the small and sundry

There is a strange pleasure in the repetition of manual tasks. In the slicing of an apple for instance. The knife poised expectantly above the freshly washed skin. Leaping, almost, out of my hand in an eagerness to slice through the firm red fruit. Thick creamy slices edged in deep…