The White Tiger

 Brilliant. great read! It is a collection of sarcastic criticism of current state of India with capital city Delhi covered in depth. The writing style is simple and easy to understand English... no wonder the writer got such big appreciation in international media ...and consequently winning him this year's Bookers Prize.  

The story is of a person named Balram....the name given to him by his school teacher since his parents didn't had enough time to decide on what name to give. 

The story is narrated by Balram as first person addressing to the Chinese Premier through a series of night sessions writings. All running in flashback till the very end.

It talks about his childhood life in Laxmanpur and then to Dhanbad working as a driver for one of rich families in the community followed by Delhi and Bangalore.It were harshly depicts the world viewed from the people living in Darkness( the word author uses for people living in rural areas) and their aspirations. It shows picture on India in 2 views ...the people in Darkness and those living Light.

Being a resident of Delhi it was also interesting to see how writer has portrayed the true image of Delhi through the character Balram views.The most referred quote in the book which Balram had learned was " What a f******* joke". Other review here.

Sketches

Simple explanation of elements of Financial Crisis

These videos I found the most simple in making anyone understand what Financial crisis instruments were and how they worked and how they caused so much failure.

Credit Default Swaps (CDS)


Collateral Debt Obligation (CDO)


Credit Crisis as Antarctic expedition

28 years on the planet!

Inner Self

For sometime I had this desire of getting back to painting. It has been a long time since I painted something, almost a decade. So today got the stuff from CP and created this. Had satisfaction of creating something. 

The painting may seem confusing so here I am putting my thoughts which drove me to this creation.The face above the water represents a person who is thinking something and is on boat. The thought is shown beside the face. In his thoughts he is comparing the sea to the state of his inner self and what gets reflected to the outside world. The Sun, Clouds and flying birds in wind ...represent the person's thought ....He is thinking irrespective of the season the calm sea surface reflects as what he appears to the outside world (outer visible self ) .But just as lot goes beneath the upper calm appearance of sea...he is thinking of how his feelings lie low most of time without surfacing out and creating uncalmness. The turbulence increase beneath the surface is marked by varying shades of blue. The faces are disguised in colour of water where as the feelings( soso, sad, blushing,devil, biting teeth, no talk, shock,weeping & confusing) in form of facial expressions are marked with different color. 

Taste

Just finished reading an interesting article on Psychology Today. It talks about how our choice of books, movies, music, and art go to the core of who we are. It discusses how different kind of people have a tendency of some peculiar taste in music or movies or art form. Relevant examples are quoted to make the point. 

Some points from reading:

Taste Hunters-constantly sampling new music, scouring movie reviews for undiscovered gems, and visiting art museums. Their curiosity drives them to explore the world in search of novelty.

Thrill Seekers -lively, active, social people who crave sensory excitement in the art they seek out, drawn to pornographic and horror films,drawn to art with "sensational elements"—wild colors, forceful action, and themes of sex or violence—such as paintings depicting war, castration, or rapture

Self Medicators-  tend to be artistically creative and gravitate toward emotionally turbulent art, including films, songs, and literature often seen as romantic,more likely to enjoy rap and heavy metal

While reading it I found that many of my traits overlap in different categories.....and as it turned out in the end of article author refer that we all are precisely a mix of many traits but I guess one dominates. As some of the references and examples are quoted with reference to US personalities which a non US person cannot identify directly to but still quite useful. One thing I could relate to is some of my friends who seem quite similar to me have more or less very matching taste in music. For books and movies I would say the variation was larger. I don't know...somehow it sounds foolish but I guess I am yet to discover myself in completeness. Sounds confusing to myself but that's just the feeling I get. Now which kind of people do that ?...yeah introspection ones.

Other note from reading : 

Most popular method of reducing stress- Listening to music (followed by watching TV and taking bath). I definitely agree with it :).

Festival of Lights - Diwali