Why Are Things Expensive

Good Crystals, Dimonds, Glass Ware, Mont Blanc Pens, Rolex Watches.

What emotions do they evoke? They are often connected to richness and are expensive to buy.

Apart from the brand, have we thought why are they expensive? Until about a week , i was of the impression that these items are outrageously expensive to buy .

In the past week i have seen two documentaries that have changed that perception . These items are not expensive because they need to be but because of the skills that are involved in hand crafting the items.

I saw a documentary on Mont Blanc and one on world class glass ware. You would just not believe what it takes to make a quality wine glass or a top notch mont blanc pen.

Believe it or not , when you next visit a star hotel and hold a wine glass in your hand , think that these are hand crafted and there are about a dozen technicians who have worked to make that happen from just sand.

It is amazing to see how much it takes to make one and how much patience and interest is required to get it to the quality that warrants those prices.

Well these are worth their prices . Some may not agree. If you do not , well try and watch the documentaries that come under the title "How it works" in Discovery channel.You will know why iam saying this.

Its been a good learning week for me.

Ego Plays Even at the Highest Level

So football is going great guns and fans are out in the thousands to cheer the world cup.

That's one part of the story . What i find incredibly hard to digest is the politics and the ego's that play within many teams . Best examples being Les Blues i.e. the French team . Just couple of years ago , they were a treat to watch . Beautiful spirit and wonderful game .

Just see what a shamble the team is in . Is it to be blamed on Raymond Domenech the coach or the football association for keeping him long.

Just a while ago , the news is that he has sent Nicholas Anelka home for some spat during the 2-0 defeat at the hands of mexico.

That's just ridiculous, he brings a player and for whatever reason , he just sends him back home.

Whatever has happened, he is the boss and should have sorted it out amicably. You could say, some times tough medicines work but Anekla, lets agree is a world class player and Domenech would need his services if France are to progress to the next stages in this world cup.

I just don't get my head around how even people at this highest competitive level have big ego's. As a manager he should handle such things , am no expert but even a manager at a small company is expected to solve people related problems and be the nucleus of the team, well Domenech for all reason's isn't one.

It was obvious even looking at the body language of the coach during the match .

Lets hope team spirit wins and let not egos cast a shadow on this brilliant sporting history.

Its Back Again

Its the 19th Edition , this event did not take place only twice in its history . The event has seen some of the best sporting actions, great legends were born.

You have guessed it right, the world cup football fever is back . Just about a week for the first game to kick off.

Adidas have made the "Jabulani" , the world cup official football but not without its fair share of controversy.

The great thing about this editions world cup is that , for the first time ever this is going to be held in the African Continent and that too in South Africa which showed the horrors of Apartheid to the world and also one which produced one of the greatest leaders in Nelson Mandela.

Its only fitting that South Africa hosts this prestigious event.

I seriously hope that this tournament brings in the much needed assistance to Africa. I have already seen that FIFA is banking on this tournament to develop football in the region and also to assist in various other humanitarian programmes as well.

I and the whole world expect that south africa would make this tournament memorable and show the world what potential a region often connected to poverty and Aids has.

May the best team win and let this be the window of opportunity for Africa.

I just cannot wait for the games to begin. Its going to be a cracker of a contest.

The Season Begins!!!

Seriously i did not know what to write and i had this weird goal that i set at the beginning of the year . The goal is to blog every week. Its easy to give up but to blog at least once a week is doable.

Hence this blog.

The Tennis Grand Slam season is underway with Australian Open completed and French open underway . Whether it is going to be the King of Clay " Rafa" who is going to rule or is it going to be the elegant Federer or Andy Murray or Novak Djokovic or Soderling or Verdasco ... its too difficult to predict the mens section.

In the women's section , it looks more like the clash of the noted top seeds specifically the williams sisters again this year, with a very little room for upsets, may be that's too early to conclude.

However grand slams have always provided the much needed upsets. So we cannot yet say what would be the outcome of the tournament that has just got underway or can we predict the outcome of the rest of the grand slams which would be as keenly fought as always.

What ever happens, let sportsmanship be the order of the games and may the best player win this tournament and the subsequent ones.

Money Makes Many Things

Money Makes Many things so goes the saying.

It was a classic display of the old adage last week.

On Sunday i took a flight , economy class to Singapore the flight was good , travel time short and inflight service was ordinary. I forgot to order my vegetarian food , when i asked for one , they said they'll try and some how found the same for me. Will not delve into cramped seats etc ,which is obvious for the class i travelled. Lets focus only on service.

I get water in a plastic cup, same with the juice . Probably juice served only twice during entire flight and that too in the plastic cup. More over i had to remind them that i need vegetarian food.

Just five days later on my return i flew the same return flight but only that i flew the class of coats , suits and fake smiles i.e. Business Class.

Whoaaa what a difference in five days . Ordinary mortal just turns close to immortal. Seperate check in queue , once checked in , i am whizzed past through immigration. Then onto the cozy lounge to relax and connect to the world if need be .

Then comes the time to board the aircraft , the announcement goes like this . " we call upon passengers with seats xyz to board and our business class passengers can board the flight as and when they wish".

Once in my seat , a stewardess comes to me and says " Sir what would you like to drink, champagne , wine, coffee or juice"

Again same mistake i did not order veg food , this time the difference is that the stewardess finds the meal for me. I get different magazines to read, offered many different kinds of news paper. Have a range of entertainment to choose from . The list just goes on and on.

What a world of difference in service. Money makes many things , what better evidence can i see to substantiate the old adage.

Phew, it does make a difference . Is it ethical to differentiate people based on money ? Well that's for a different blog altogether.

As of now , money does make many things.

Marriage Market

This topic was coming , surely this was coming for many reasons.

Couple of reasons was that i just finished the book - Logic of Life by Tim Hartford . In the book, the author has dedicated a chapter on this topic. Secondly one of my batch mate blogged about something similar today in his blog.

When i was speaking to my parents and couple of family friends yesterday on the topic of Marriage , the common theme was marriage is all about destiny.

Is that really true or in a more scientific manner on how Tim had taken, is it more economics driven?

My take on it , atleast in the society that we all live in , its a mixture of both.

Why do i say that?, the reasons are multifold.

At the very outset i.e. when a family wants to get their daughter or son married, economics dominate the scene. The requirements of the family for match making is such that it can only be driven by economics, given the requirements how is the supply meeting the demand.

As time goes either the supply or the demand increases or decreases but we all know here the problem is the increase or decrease does not happen proportionately on both side. Hence the economic angle of why we see people who are very eligible and who as an individual could be considered really good is unable to find a match, this is more the economic conundrum.

Now come to the other angle of this discussion. How well does destiny play a role. Pretty much destiny does have a big role to play.

Lets go a step back and see in the economics of marriage market , we say its driven by supply and demand , however say for e.g. person X is in that market and there are 9 such men and say 8 women who are there . So in the match making process , not all women would want to choose for various reasons , lets assume 4 women choose.

This would mean that out of ten men 4 actually get married and the rest six wait . Now out of ten the four were destined to get married and six weren't destined.

Of course this is way off simple to explain such a complex stuff and in our examples we have implicitly stated that all ten are equal across all factors which are necessary for getting selected. Which may not be the case in real world.

However this market dynamics do work and the possibility that getting married is a mixture of economics and destiny, cannot be ruled out.

Sunset

Sunset - What emotions does that word bring to anyone? Normally the word is associated in a slightly negative context , the truth is far from that.

I was cycling this evening at around six . After a blistering summer sun hammering down through out the day , believe me sun set is one of those very beautiful things to watch. Its such a pleasure to watch the sun set and to see the orange sky and moon just about being illuminated, what a bliss.

Its gracious , concomitant with cool breeze, beauty of the occasion and the vastness of the universe.

Great emotions come in, its so soothing to see the sun set and the moon come out . What a romantic setting to take a stroll with one's partner or take a relaxed walk, exercise for a healthy life or even sit back and enjoy a novel with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

Its the time where in my opinion , nature is at its very best. Nature lets all the living beings on earth know that after a hard days work , it is ok to relax and enjoy.

After all aren't we born to enjoy.