Time for a kill

The world is topsy-turvey these days and it often feels that our lives are out of our control governed by unknown forces beyond our reach. A "Joseph K" feeling if you will. Then you hear of the latest hullabaloo over bonus payments from A.I.G. to the very group within the company that basically destroyed it and cost shareholders about $200 billion. At times like this I really miss some feral, third-world justice. People in the streets, being violant, being human, angry and expressing it. They say it is illegal to NOT give them the bonuses now because it was in the contract. Oh, the stifling respect for law and even more so to order. We don't need no order. We have too much of it. We need good, old  street-style beatings to discourage the execs from claiming bonuses. The answer to 'your money or your life' is such a welcome certainty in these times.

Oh well, we will all just watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and feel superior and move on with our stolid, inert lives.

Oscar Wilde to close

Another casualty of the financial crises they say. No, I am not speaking of the venerable author but the bookstore in New York.

I distinctly remember year ago when I was new to this country I was wandering the steets aimlessly with Puja and we happened to see this tiny bookstore. Those were the days when I was really high on his writings, his aphorisms and mannerisms. I was blown away to see a bookstore in his name. I promptly entered and started looking at the books. It didn't take long before I realized that it wasn't exactly the kind of bookstore I was expecting. No, no clear homage to Oscar Wilde in celebration of his plays or his writings or hosting of other authors in the smililar vein. No. This was a bookstore specializing in guy and lesbian books. Now, I have precious little interest in those topics specially in those days and even now my interest remains spotty, not that there is anything inherently wrong with that genre. I sped out promptly from the store almost feeling cheated. I had gone to see one side of Wilde's personality and was reminded that it was the other side that was really of interest to folks in my new adopted country.

Every day and every trip is a lesson.

Well, just read this in the Times this morning that the bookstore is closing. It cannot survive in the current climate of economic collapse. People have stopped spending money and specially on exotic topics and even more so at exotic bookshops.

The 'closing time' continues...

Why I love corporate America

Auto CEO's took private jets to ask for a bailout. I can understand why. If you've ever taken a private jet you would understand why you never ever want to fly commercial again. It costs, of course, but if you get used to it -- it is like cocaine.


Bet begging in a Bentley is unbecoming and going to a begging in a private jet is unseemly. However, this is one of those 'only in America' moments that one cannot help but enjoy. This is just brilliant. Thank you, America, for giving the world this wonderful gift. The world is forever indebted.

Another one bits the dust

The giant Barnes & Noble store on 6th Ave and 23rd street closed a few weeks ago. This is just another one of those things that I like that has ended unceremoniously. Most restaurants either stop serving dishes we like if they've not shut doors already. Most stores we like close doors. Most things we like deteriorate. Very strange how that works.

Anyway, this closing of B&N is particularly troubling. This was one of those places where I could go to after work once in a while and be just between books. No one but me and books. I could browse through, buy and just feel elevated in some snobbish but very real sense.

But of course, all good things (and even some bad ones) must come to an end. The big bookstore closed without much fanfare. I fear that it will be replaced by an Old Navy. It is strange how we want to put less and less inside our heads and more and more on our bodies.

I wonder kids will ever even know a bookstore other than Amazon ?(which I have nothing against but doesn't make up for B&N for ambiance)

Jaipur this time

The horror continues. Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and now Jaipur. A very careful, systematic, city-by-city attack. More splattered body parts and more questions about how India is going to fight this disease that exists within it. This horrible venom that boils up every few days and destroys our clinical belief in a country that we assuredly consider united.

Every time this happens I question if there is ever an end to this. I don't really see an end in site. The economic growth should have helped but it doesn't seem to be widespread enough to eliminate all discontent.

This is clearly an economic problem more than a religious or political one. If there weren't enough poor people, there would be less animosity, less vitriol and less incentive to blow other people up.

Hollywood Heist

So apparently Hollywood just had a great year in 2007. I remember less than two years ago there was this hue-and-cry about how the Internet, file-swapping, Video games, TV, TiVo and everything they could possibly think of (someone even mentioned, gasp, books) that was destroying Hollywood movie industry. No one would watch films in theaters anymore. Articles were written in the papers (yes, those things that no one reads anymore, or so we say now) about how the industry is doing and how there was no hope. They had been left behind. There was no tomorrow (though Bond seemed to disagree) and it was all over.

So what explains the great 2007? The same thing that explains most of the economic and business discussion these days. It is all fickle and reactionary. Things are not things anymore -- they are precursors to chains of things. They are not complete within themselves -- they foretell stories. They predict doom. They tell us that an event is a trend or at least it predicts a trend.

To me it defies all logic but then emotions aren't about logic and unfortunately most of our public discussion has been taken over by emotion from reason. Hence the rise of the blog culture, the talk show culture, the youth culture and other such cultures that think from various organs all below the neck.