Article on Murakami from down under

Here is the article

And a review of his new book

Game theory in soccer? All the TV watching finally pays off

The article is about how game theory gives insights into penalty shot selection - curiously does not mention Nash

Good review of a bad film!

I love tongue-in-cheek reviews of movies that normally I have no interest in seeing (though I might make an exception with this Swedish movie!). Anthony Lane of New Yorker is a wonderful exponent of this art form - loved his savage critique of "The Da Vinci Code". Read his review of Superman Returns

Enjoy this funny review of a Swedish art movie, famous for its sex scenes!

NyTimes has a fascinating article about how to train your spouse or kids or even employees!
Don't nag,train your spouse!

And a book review of Dan Gilbert's book on happiness - lot of non-intuitive stuff on what will really make you happy!

Some more stuff by Gilbert:

Variety is not the spice of life - read how he buys lots of identical pants at Costco

Does parenthood really make you happy? Not what you think

Money does not make you happy either...then, what does? Read the answer

My take on all this?

Sounds like a cliche - the small things are what matter! Of course, big tragedies derail everything and it takes resilience to deal with them. But in absence of such tragedies, happiness seems to be in the small things that make YOU happy (only you know what they are). My small things are working on my laptop on yet another startup, reading, spending time with family and friends...

Would love your comments!!

Don't read this if you like soccer...

Football is boooooring!

Something I felt was true, but did not have the courage to articulate (ala the emperor's new clothes...)

Another reason why I am for the private sector

Private sector is clearly better than government - witness India now versus 20 years back....

Even education is better done by private companies

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An interesting article about why Bangalore is booming versus Detriot is stagnant. I am not sure if all the high-end retailers in B'lore actually make any money though

Bangalore > Detroit

New Murakami story

An invaluable gift:

New story

Read my earlier post on Murakami

Murakami -best writer on the planet?

Read his books and decide...he has taken short stories and novels to a whole new dimension (pun intended). I can't decide if his novels are better are his exquisite short stories - why choose? Thanks to the New Yorker for introducing this fabulous writer

read about him

And talking of the New Yorker, why can't everyone write as elegantly as its writers? Why can't Indian journalists spend more time on writing simple, elegant sentences and less on showy, pedestrian bilge? When, oh when, will India have a magazine halfway as good as the New Yorker or The Atlantic? Maybe with the blogging revolution finally finding its way here, we can see better writing at least on the web.

- srini anumolu

Bond, Indian RTO office and other stuff

Nice article on Bond, James Bond

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Getting a driver's license in India

read article