for gil -christ's sakes

it is time.
adam gilchrist retires from cricket.
a pure sporting hero. my hero. in the garry sobers mould.

he is one of 2 people because of which australia became my favourite team. shane warne was the other.
while warne is a maverick genius, gilly is a crafted genius.
time to move on.

cricket watching is likely to fall.

working in india

while reading this article on baba adhav and in his interview, he says

Of the 40 crore workers in India , less than 2.5 crore are protected by some form of labour legislation. They enjoy work security, minimum wages, an eight-hour working day, a weekly off, paid leave, sick leave, annual bonus, provident fund, pension and so on. The remaining 37.5 crore workers have been ignored.

that is just 6.25% in the organised sector.
WOW.
it is backed up with other official data from directorate general of employment and training
so all this 'unionism', 'socialism', 'communism' are really elitist movements.

while checking out employment data, i stumbled upon this site, which throws up some startling stats:

1. Sixty per cent of India's workforce is self-employed
2. Over 70 per cent of the labour force is either illiterate or educated below the primary level.
3. in table 6, it shows that over 10% of the employment is in the "Community, Social and Personal Service"

WOW.

ek rupai ka danda

was buying vegetables the other day.
came to Rs 11 (not buying much).
had 2 tenners and no circular/cylindrical castings called coins.

csm - dus mein de do na!
shopkeeper - ek hi rupai ka danda hai.

while the mathematics will say that there is a 10% difference between 11 and 10, it is after all Re 1.
it does not get much nuts.

but obviously it is significant in a high volume low value business.

so go easy on the rounding off with the small traders.

2008 in preview

this is a funny preview of 2008.

esplly like the tharoor thrashing.
i did not mind him potshotting sainath either.

happy new year.

disap-ponting

india lost today to australia. my preferred result usually.

not today. the controversy over the umpires, is of course a major issue.

i prefer the aussies for many reasons - team spirit, never-say-die, sheer quality of cricket, etc. but today they showed a win-at-any-cost attitude which soured me up.
i also think the harbhajan racial-slur episode is a foisted one.
not the stuff of champions, not the steve waugh style, which made them top my list.

cobbler

right opposite our apartment is this cobbler.
"what's the big deal" i can hear you thinking.

this guy is actually an artist. i mean a cobbler artist.
his work with footwear and leather works are nothing short of artistry.

and he has the flair of the artist too. casual, cool and completely confident in his cobblery.
and like with artists, you don't haggle.
his prices are well above the market average, but his work is in a league of its own. well worth it.

the story is relevant, as he is above 'dignity of labour', it is 'genius of labour'. there is a sense of pride in what he does, much more than anyone i know. much more...