:-)
p.s: Courtesy Patel.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
How do they do it?
Not so long ago, Bill Gates pledged almost all (if not all) of his money to a charitable trust run by his wife and himself. Warren Buffet, the guru of the stock markets pledged his billions to the same charitable trust. And today I read this. Paul Allen, the other and less famous half of Microsoft, and a successful VC in his own right, has pledged many billions to a charity trust started by him.
This kind of Philanthropy truly amazed me. Of course, you can question if this is all just some kinda hogwash and maybe the money is getting channeled back to them. But frankly, there are too many hawk eyes and ears in the world these days and pulling something off of this nature is next to impossible. So, the only possible explanation is the most unbelievable one! These guys are actually parting with their life's hard earned money!! I am just super surprised by all this because, Philanthropy of any form doesn't come naturally to me, and it does not for most Indians. And we really don't have such examples set by Indian businessmen either. Sure, there are some who give up their lives working and caring for the poor or needy, but how many part with their money and that too so much of it! Can you imagine the feuding Ambanis parting with so much of their money? Or maybe the splintered Birlas or the family run businesses like Bajaj or Godrej or .. I can go on and on...
Some facts are surely stranger than fiction!!
This kind of Philanthropy truly amazed me. Of course, you can question if this is all just some kinda hogwash and maybe the money is getting channeled back to them. But frankly, there are too many hawk eyes and ears in the world these days and pulling something off of this nature is next to impossible. So, the only possible explanation is the most unbelievable one! These guys are actually parting with their life's hard earned money!! I am just super surprised by all this because, Philanthropy of any form doesn't come naturally to me, and it does not for most Indians. And we really don't have such examples set by Indian businessmen either. Sure, there are some who give up their lives working and caring for the poor or needy, but how many part with their money and that too so much of it! Can you imagine the feuding Ambanis parting with so much of their money? Or maybe the splintered Birlas or the family run businesses like Bajaj or Godrej or .. I can go on and on...
Some facts are surely stranger than fiction!!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
A festival...
The FIFA world cup 2010 concluded after 40 days of fun and excitement. As many close to me know, I was supporting Spain from day one and feel vindicated at the end of it all. :-)
This was probably the first world cup where I saw a huge cross section of friends, family and colleagues keenly following the world cup and tracking their favourite teams. This made it all the more interesting during and post match discussions and it was such a lot of fun. I enjoyed it thoroughly!!
I am a lover of Jogo Bonito and have been following the EPL, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga for the last couple of years. Since this is where all the money is, most of the best players in the world play here and more often than not, the club football is more fun than when countries play each other. But the standouts during the last couple of years, in my view, have been Barcelona and as an extension Spain. They play a brand of football that I love to watch, endorse and play!
This is not to say that 4 years from now, I will continue supporting Spain. A lot of things can change in 4 years and I suspect the real stalwarts of the "Beautiful Game", like Brazil and Argentina will learn from their early exits from this world cup and go back to their style and flair rather than mimic the European nations. And then there are the bruised giants like France and Italy and the quintessential under achievers, England, who have a point or two to prove. And who can discount the Germans, who livened the world cup like no other team has!
As the excitement of one subsides, the wait for the next one starts...
This was probably the first world cup where I saw a huge cross section of friends, family and colleagues keenly following the world cup and tracking their favourite teams. This made it all the more interesting during and post match discussions and it was such a lot of fun. I enjoyed it thoroughly!!
I am a lover of Jogo Bonito and have been following the EPL, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga for the last couple of years. Since this is where all the money is, most of the best players in the world play here and more often than not, the club football is more fun than when countries play each other. But the standouts during the last couple of years, in my view, have been Barcelona and as an extension Spain. They play a brand of football that I love to watch, endorse and play!
This is not to say that 4 years from now, I will continue supporting Spain. A lot of things can change in 4 years and I suspect the real stalwarts of the "Beautiful Game", like Brazil and Argentina will learn from their early exits from this world cup and go back to their style and flair rather than mimic the European nations. And then there are the bruised giants like France and Italy and the quintessential under achievers, England, who have a point or two to prove. And who can discount the Germans, who livened the world cup like no other team has!
As the excitement of one subsides, the wait for the next one starts...
Very Messy
The BP oil slick in the Gulf Of Mexico has US very interested coz it is very close to home and by the same measure has indians very disinterested because it is far from home. I saw very little coverage in the media about this and thanks to that I didn't know of the extent of mess that BP had gotten itself and the world into.
Today I got some time to do some youtube searching and as expected I was not disappointed. Have a look at the below video.
The good part of being in India is, you are slowly but surely trained to accept most ill around you as inevitable and unavoidable and in the process we are all stoic about it. So, I don't know if this was closer to home, would it have made any difference? On a lighter note and with a touch of sarcasm, Scott Adams on BP.
Today I got some time to do some youtube searching and as expected I was not disappointed. Have a look at the below video.
The good part of being in India is, you are slowly but surely trained to accept most ill around you as inevitable and unavoidable and in the process we are all stoic about it. So, I don't know if this was closer to home, would it have made any difference? On a lighter note and with a touch of sarcasm, Scott Adams on BP.
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