It has been a strange and tiring week. For the first time I have been troubled by a rather strange and persistent cough and cold that are relentlessly trying to get me down for the past two weeks. Strange, as I recover quite quickly. My doctor informs that this is due to some new bacteria or virus and people say this is due to global warming (I do not know why they choose global warming!). Interestingly scientists are using cow dung to know the changes in climatic patterns.
Strange as it seems, we did get to see some unexpected rainfall in February in on two days in the last week. The already overflowing traffic in Hyderabad choked at every nook and corner on two days when it rained. A few centimetres of rain showed what it could do to a fast growing city like Hyderabad if the necessary infrastructure is not put in place. It is high time that the government and citizens understand the need for robust draining facilities and some much needed traffic sense.
And while the stock markets in India keep playing the game of rise and fall, a prominent politician Rajnath Singh of the BJP feels that Terrorists have something to do with this. Supporting his views are that FII’s have close ot 40% of the investments in India and also Mr. M K Narayanan the National Security Advisory who expressed his apprehensions one year ago that Terrorists might use the FII route to manipulate the stock markets. Well this was a different take all together on the Indian stock markets that have been quite volatile in the last few weeks. We have already seen two major IPOs being withdrawn and share prices of Reliance Power tumbling with some heavy selling on its counter.
Down Under in Adeliade Oval, India missed another wonderful opportunity to place itself in a strong position in the 7th ODI of the ongoing Commonwealth Bank 2007-08 triseries. Bowling out the world champions for a measly 203 India failed to capitalise on the advantage and lost to Australia by 50 runs. The young Indian brigade did put up a decent show but that was not enough to defeat the unrelenting Australians
On anther note Pepsi feels that the youngsters of the present Inidan Cricket team can give more to its brand. With a host of options to choose from, it has replaced Ganguly and Dravid in favour of the young and upcoming Ishant and Rohit Sharma for its new ad campaign “Yeh hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan“. The new ad campaign intends to ride on the promise and appeal of the young Indian cricket and film stars to position itself as a youth brand to garner a good market share in India. I am sure this saves them some money. Pepsi can save some money on the sharmas.
I often look foward to weekends to catch up on reading books. But with my health not co-operating, I have been unable to make any progress in the last week. The Lazybug also has been struggling a bit but at least is making some progress – some Conventional Wisdom here. The list of books that I have to finish has been slowly growing, something which I dislike.
- Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann
- Unrational Leadership by Charles Fleetham
- The Fifth Discipline by Peter M Senge
- Inevitable Ilusions by Piatelli Palmarini
- Being Indian by Pavan K Varma
- The Dogs of Justice by Nina Sibal
Finishing them off will add to my list of books I have read and bring me close to the half century mark (My current count of books I have read stands at 43).
All in all this was a strange week for me and I was really feeling it. With some signs of me recovering soon and hopes of finishing my personal and official assignments well within time I look forward to a great week and also the marriage of my close friend the next sunday.
Aala Santhosh Reddy 