This was written In April 08, when inflation touched 7.4% and everyone drew in their breath in horror:
The country is led by two eminent economists of considerable intellect in two key slots: that of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. Their statements that the government will act to curb inflation adds weight to the view that all economics is political economics.
Inflation will not go away. The effect of oil prices on factor prices lags by anywhere between 4 to 6 months. Therefore, the price spike we see today has more to do with the oil price levels of end-2007. Oil has moved further since then, currently ruling at $ 120 – 140 per barrel. The impact of these levels will be seen in the next few months.
To bring down the impact of oil prices in Q3 of 2008, action would have been required in Q1 2008 – if not earlier – a time when no attention was paid to this key problem.
That oil is a significant cost driver in the economy is an oft-repeated statement. Yet, market participants have been oblivious to this in the closing months of 2008. Oil had been rising right through the year; it didn’t just spike up one fine morning. The inflationary impact was bound to surface.
Once inflation rules, interest rate hikes are inevitable. The implications for the banking sector could well have been anticipated – sectoral prices for banking stocks should have been in decline well before. Yet significant P/Es were awarded to banking stocks on the specious argument of forward looking EPS estimates: wrong estimates.
There is more to the impact of factor prices than just oil prices; there is the response to oil prices. And this is where we as a nation have been tardy.
There is an implicit cost to the broad and general inefficiency that can be seen in the working of our economy. Inadequate infrastructure in the urban industrial centers lengthens commuter times and that adds to costs. There is no effective transportation policy to manage the demand side of oil. Barring New Delhi, no Indian city has an adequately viable mass rapid transit system. While Mumbai does have the local train it doesn’t do enough. The city needs drastic urban renewal if it is to head-off decay.
Tragically, current infrastructure development in the IT centers Hyderabad and Bangalore focuses on freeways for cars. The same engineering effort and disruption of existing infrastructure could have been directed to building MRTS’ on the path that is now being carved for more cars.
What the government is unwilling to do in an election year is raise fuel prices to a point where demand gets managed. When prices fully reflect costs, people will change usage patterns. Car pools, public transport, buses deployed by employers are better at solving problems – and the impetus must come from making consumers face up to the prices.
Not increasing the oil price will only hide the problem elsewhere in the fiscal system. That will lead to deficit financing which is a direct cause of inflation anyway, not to mention currency devaluation.
What do businesses do when faced with the prospect of increased operating costs? They pass it on to their customers. Increased costs for customers is what we mean by price inflation in the first place.
Those who are exulting on the weakening rupee and its salutary effects on the exporting sectors would do well to remember that apart from oil prices going skyward, oil is denominated in dollar prices. So a weakening rupee is adding to the bill to be paid.
Nor is the government of the day able to push through the nuclear deal within the ambit of a larger energy policy. We refuse to learn from Brazil which saves well over $70 billion in oil imports (at 2006 prices – so you can imagine the savings today) by blending ethanol in petrol. Finland, meanwhile, is building the world’s largest nuclear plant to eliminate external fuel dependence.
So, India’s current inflation problem is a factor of several things. In the first instance, oil prices. In the second instance the lack of an energy and transportation policy – which cannot be solved in one or two quarters; it takes vision and several years. The third is the inefficiency inbuilt in the economy a part of which comes from the first two factors.
All you need to do to know that we are an inefficient economy is to compare the prices that we pay with the prices a consumer pays in Sri Lanka. Or in London.
An instructive signal emerged from the international oil markets last week. Oil briefly dropped to $122 a barrel as soon as Malaysia, India and a few others raised domestic fuel prices. The reason cited was expected lower demand from these countries.
Are we listening?
Monday, 1 September 2008
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Games Indians Play: by V Raghunathan; Review
Book Review: Games Indians Play by V. Raghunathan
Mr. Raghunathan was a professor of finance at IIM Ahmedabad and crossed over from academia to industry, which is much-needed pollination. Behavioral Finance is an area close to his heart and his flirtation with industry means that he is exposed to the ‘ways of the world’.
However, the subject-matter of this book- the state of our society and our own role in that outcome- is such that you need no particular qualification other than to have lived in (or indeed experienced) India to be able to make the observations about our society that he has made in this book. The rot is so wide-spread that merely living in the confines of a campus is not enough to have insulated him from these issues, anyway.
That indeed is the appeal of this book; the issues and situations he recounts are those which you and I can relate to.
The brilliance of the book is in linking concepts from finance (game theory and behavioral finance, in particular) to these problems and more importantly, offering solutions. I was delighted with the strategy recommended to handle people who try to cheat you if you are being gentlemanly.
Mr. Raghunathan presents financial, business and some very selfish reasons why we as individuals in society need to behave better.
That however, is the paradox of behavioral finance. People behave contrary to what cold logic suggests. A discount of Rs. 10 on an item costing Rs. 100 is considered superior to the same discount of Rs. 10 on an item costing Rs. 1000/-. The paradox is that the economic value of the ten rupees which is saved by the buyer is the same in both situations.
Mr. Raghunathan does a splendid job of helping us working out the math behind most situations we encounter: from the cussedness of not paying building society charges to the shamelessness of exporting brick powder in lieu of chilli powder.
The non-obvious insight which the book offers is that being selfish unto yourself is counter-productive. Common good is the best way to further your own selfish goals. The problem with this of course, is the paradox noted in behavioral finance: financial logic is not immediately apparent to people faced with such decision making situations.
The book then, appeals to us to behave better and build a better society, if for no other reason than enlightened self-interest.
The professor’s casual and tongue-in-cheek style (or was it just me laughing nervously at the home truths?) makes the book an easy read. And that is why the book grabs you.
The mechanics of game theory and such like do require you to avoid having a mental block against any kind of numbers, no matter how cursory. This is even though the professor has used simple layperson language. Many of us will argue that this makes the book too technical for the rest of the 1.1 billion who need to read it.
However, our country’s problems are more attributable to us, the literate than to the unlettered. Witness the (only) two instances of glory that the author refers to: the dabbawallahs and Amul- both are largely powered by those who are not particularly educated.
And finally, there is a blend of philosophy. Game theory apparently is implicit in the Gita. This puts the professor in exalted company.
So, can we get our act together and act, instead of cribbing that one of me cannot make the change?
For starters, read the book. It is worth the investment.
If the publishers have any altruism in the publishing of such a book, they should release it in paperback making it more affordable for the 150-odd pages that it runs. Affordability is important, considering the mass of people who need to read this book.
Mr. Raghunathan was a professor of finance at IIM Ahmedabad and crossed over from academia to industry, which is much-needed pollination. Behavioral Finance is an area close to his heart and his flirtation with industry means that he is exposed to the ‘ways of the world’.
However, the subject-matter of this book- the state of our society and our own role in that outcome- is such that you need no particular qualification other than to have lived in (or indeed experienced) India to be able to make the observations about our society that he has made in this book. The rot is so wide-spread that merely living in the confines of a campus is not enough to have insulated him from these issues, anyway.
That indeed is the appeal of this book; the issues and situations he recounts are those which you and I can relate to.
The brilliance of the book is in linking concepts from finance (game theory and behavioral finance, in particular) to these problems and more importantly, offering solutions. I was delighted with the strategy recommended to handle people who try to cheat you if you are being gentlemanly.
Mr. Raghunathan presents financial, business and some very selfish reasons why we as individuals in society need to behave better.
That however, is the paradox of behavioral finance. People behave contrary to what cold logic suggests. A discount of Rs. 10 on an item costing Rs. 100 is considered superior to the same discount of Rs. 10 on an item costing Rs. 1000/-. The paradox is that the economic value of the ten rupees which is saved by the buyer is the same in both situations.
Mr. Raghunathan does a splendid job of helping us working out the math behind most situations we encounter: from the cussedness of not paying building society charges to the shamelessness of exporting brick powder in lieu of chilli powder.
The non-obvious insight which the book offers is that being selfish unto yourself is counter-productive. Common good is the best way to further your own selfish goals. The problem with this of course, is the paradox noted in behavioral finance: financial logic is not immediately apparent to people faced with such decision making situations.
The book then, appeals to us to behave better and build a better society, if for no other reason than enlightened self-interest.
The professor’s casual and tongue-in-cheek style (or was it just me laughing nervously at the home truths?) makes the book an easy read. And that is why the book grabs you.
The mechanics of game theory and such like do require you to avoid having a mental block against any kind of numbers, no matter how cursory. This is even though the professor has used simple layperson language. Many of us will argue that this makes the book too technical for the rest of the 1.1 billion who need to read it.
However, our country’s problems are more attributable to us, the literate than to the unlettered. Witness the (only) two instances of glory that the author refers to: the dabbawallahs and Amul- both are largely powered by those who are not particularly educated.
And finally, there is a blend of philosophy. Game theory apparently is implicit in the Gita. This puts the professor in exalted company.
So, can we get our act together and act, instead of cribbing that one of me cannot make the change?
For starters, read the book. It is worth the investment.
If the publishers have any altruism in the publishing of such a book, they should release it in paperback making it more affordable for the 150-odd pages that it runs. Affordability is important, considering the mass of people who need to read this book.
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Travels of a different kind
The Itinerant Indian is back in London after a whirlwind visit in India. Of that I shall write later.
Right now, a quick update on where I am. For some reason, a visit to India ushers in a new vitality to my own predilections. That almost always includes books and we ended up in Crosswords picking up books worth several thousands of rupees between us.
That included a short book on Games Indians Play written by V Raghunathan and Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi. I have been completely absorbed in the books which can be characterized as travels of a different kind.
Fascinating books, both. Games Indians Play is a must read for all of us. I intend to review the book, sooner rather than later. However, I am engrossed completely in Guha’s book. It is not completely unputdownable. But it has been easy to skip forward to unputdownable sections.
I will be back with more on the physical and the metaphorical travels in due course!
Right now, a quick update on where I am. For some reason, a visit to India ushers in a new vitality to my own predilections. That almost always includes books and we ended up in Crosswords picking up books worth several thousands of rupees between us.
That included a short book on Games Indians Play written by V Raghunathan and Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi. I have been completely absorbed in the books which can be characterized as travels of a different kind.
Fascinating books, both. Games Indians Play is a must read for all of us. I intend to review the book, sooner rather than later. However, I am engrossed completely in Guha’s book. It is not completely unputdownable. But it has been easy to skip forward to unputdownable sections.
I will be back with more on the physical and the metaphorical travels in due course!
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
A refill of India
I am headed home! 6 days in India after two months of trench-warfare in London. Of course I am excited! In all probability will live for a good part of these six days at the pani-puri wallah's place.
Nothing like a visit to India to feel re-energised. With all that chaos, madness and sights and smells, comes energy. I am told it is raining heavily in amchi Mumbai so I can expect some thing more than just the routine dose of chaos.
But I am also looking forward to standing in a rain that does not mean a chill!
With my daughter and my dog.
I wont be blogging for that period. I will be busy doing stuff that will yield "blogware". That in itself speaks volumes for why I blog I suppose.
Yesterday I discovered one more reason why I continue to add weight, rather than losing any. (Did you notice how many reasons there are for not losing weight and that none of them have anything to do with how I am?)
I subsist largely on packaged food. Yesterday I looked at food labels a little more closely and found that calories per gram of food here are seriously higher than in India. This of course assumes we are talking of traditional ghar ka khana of dal-subzi-roti. Gulab Jamuns are after all exceptions reserved for festive occassions.
Stores are required to prominently display all nutritional information so that poor souls like me can navigate through the maze to find health. The labels prominently display calories in the range of 100 to 300. Naturally if I ate five such packs I would be eating upto 1500 cals a day and therefore I should be losing weight.
Yesterday I noticed that the calories displayed are not for the entire pack but for some random part of the pack. For eg: "Calories mentioned relate to half of this container" "The nutritional value on this pack refers to a serving of half a naan".
Half a naan? Who eats half a naan! I ate both of them under the impression it had 12o calories. Turns out the naans alone were 480 calories.
I reworked the averages I had been eating over the last couple of months, indiscretions like chocolate, icecream and fried cashews included. My estimate is I have been consuming between 2700 to 3500 calories, give or take a few hundred. (Missing the moon by 10 miles or 10K miles what difference does it make?)
The solution it would appear is to eat pitifully small quantities which is completely self defeating. So I went looking for things which were volume-wise significant but calorie-wise low, which is what the nutritionist prescribes. Turns out those are hard to come by in pre-packaged foods.
Unless you are willing to buy kilos of salad vegetables and make your own salad you cannot get there. But for a single guy to buy kilos of stuff and use it within expiry date is an impossibility. So you end up wasting tons of food. As a consequence, the food in your mouth turns to ash when the news programme you are watching while eating, goes onto show Africa starving, or how all the stuff you are chucking because it has expired has led to Greenland melting.
Food turning to ash in your mouth is bad for nutrition and digestion. (So also is watching television while eating.)
So its back to packaged eating, but more careful working out of the labelling and nutritional values. I have since then discovered calorie-count.com which very helpfully tells you nutritional information on everything on this planet.
It is better than the Readers Digest book my Dad used to have which only told you calorie values of each and every ingredient on this planet. I suspect the next generation would'nt recognise a cauliflower if it hit them on the head. They can only recognise cauliflower florets, which in any case are not to be found Burger Kings' Chicken Fillets or any of the Colonel's finger smackin' recipes.
Calorie-count.com is better because when you type in "latte" it tells you nutritional values for Starbucks' offering and so you now have a resource that tells you the story at branded packaged product level. The problem now shifts to knowing the exact technical name of what it is that you sipped so you know which of the long list of lattes listed to look up.
The task is endlessly complex to the point where I am likely to spend 12 hours a day figuring out what I eat in those 90 minutes when all eating happens. I would consider that an inappropriate use of time when one is engaged in trench-warfare and hand-to-hand combat on the business front, which is what one is here for in the first place.
Perhaps the solution is to STOP EATING. I am told being hungry is good for a salesman. This solves a number of issues in one go. There is one risk to consider, though: who would award business to a guy who looks emaciated and is from some Elbonia? Does'nt looking prosperous imply the business is doing well and therefore must have referenceable customers?
We find ourselves in a closed loop. Thus, the Itinerant Indian, instead of completing his agenda and going home, continues to remain itinerant.
None of this applies to the next 6 days. The last time I was there, my pani-puri-wallah had no nutritional information to offer on his offering; I have'nt even considerd hygiene issues. When one is in India for a refill, one refills with gusto!
See you in a bit!
Nothing like a visit to India to feel re-energised. With all that chaos, madness and sights and smells, comes energy. I am told it is raining heavily in amchi Mumbai so I can expect some thing more than just the routine dose of chaos.
But I am also looking forward to standing in a rain that does not mean a chill!
With my daughter and my dog.
I wont be blogging for that period. I will be busy doing stuff that will yield "blogware". That in itself speaks volumes for why I blog I suppose.
Yesterday I discovered one more reason why I continue to add weight, rather than losing any. (Did you notice how many reasons there are for not losing weight and that none of them have anything to do with how I am?)
I subsist largely on packaged food. Yesterday I looked at food labels a little more closely and found that calories per gram of food here are seriously higher than in India. This of course assumes we are talking of traditional ghar ka khana of dal-subzi-roti. Gulab Jamuns are after all exceptions reserved for festive occassions.
Stores are required to prominently display all nutritional information so that poor souls like me can navigate through the maze to find health. The labels prominently display calories in the range of 100 to 300. Naturally if I ate five such packs I would be eating upto 1500 cals a day and therefore I should be losing weight.
Yesterday I noticed that the calories displayed are not for the entire pack but for some random part of the pack. For eg: "Calories mentioned relate to half of this container" "The nutritional value on this pack refers to a serving of half a naan".
Half a naan? Who eats half a naan! I ate both of them under the impression it had 12o calories. Turns out the naans alone were 480 calories.
I reworked the averages I had been eating over the last couple of months, indiscretions like chocolate, icecream and fried cashews included. My estimate is I have been consuming between 2700 to 3500 calories, give or take a few hundred. (Missing the moon by 10 miles or 10K miles what difference does it make?)
The solution it would appear is to eat pitifully small quantities which is completely self defeating. So I went looking for things which were volume-wise significant but calorie-wise low, which is what the nutritionist prescribes. Turns out those are hard to come by in pre-packaged foods.
Unless you are willing to buy kilos of salad vegetables and make your own salad you cannot get there. But for a single guy to buy kilos of stuff and use it within expiry date is an impossibility. So you end up wasting tons of food. As a consequence, the food in your mouth turns to ash when the news programme you are watching while eating, goes onto show Africa starving, or how all the stuff you are chucking because it has expired has led to Greenland melting.
Food turning to ash in your mouth is bad for nutrition and digestion. (So also is watching television while eating.)
So its back to packaged eating, but more careful working out of the labelling and nutritional values. I have since then discovered calorie-count.com which very helpfully tells you nutritional information on everything on this planet.
It is better than the Readers Digest book my Dad used to have which only told you calorie values of each and every ingredient on this planet. I suspect the next generation would'nt recognise a cauliflower if it hit them on the head. They can only recognise cauliflower florets, which in any case are not to be found Burger Kings' Chicken Fillets or any of the Colonel's finger smackin' recipes.
Calorie-count.com is better because when you type in "latte" it tells you nutritional values for Starbucks' offering and so you now have a resource that tells you the story at branded packaged product level. The problem now shifts to knowing the exact technical name of what it is that you sipped so you know which of the long list of lattes listed to look up.
The task is endlessly complex to the point where I am likely to spend 12 hours a day figuring out what I eat in those 90 minutes when all eating happens. I would consider that an inappropriate use of time when one is engaged in trench-warfare and hand-to-hand combat on the business front, which is what one is here for in the first place.
Perhaps the solution is to STOP EATING. I am told being hungry is good for a salesman. This solves a number of issues in one go. There is one risk to consider, though: who would award business to a guy who looks emaciated and is from some Elbonia? Does'nt looking prosperous imply the business is doing well and therefore must have referenceable customers?
We find ourselves in a closed loop. Thus, the Itinerant Indian, instead of completing his agenda and going home, continues to remain itinerant.
None of this applies to the next 6 days. The last time I was there, my pani-puri-wallah had no nutritional information to offer on his offering; I have'nt even considerd hygiene issues. When one is in India for a refill, one refills with gusto!
See you in a bit!
Sunday, 17 June 2007
Mitti ki Sugandh
Today I went to East Ham. As a foodie there is only thus far I can pull on without ghar ka khana; or atleast a true Indian menu. And so I ended up in Chennai Dosa. Well, unlike the typical dosa joint in India, an Indian food restaurant here ( and I refer to the restaurants that are meant to serve Indian food to Indians; not the chicken tikka masala joints which, together with the offer of Cobra Beer are meant for the natives) serves almost all of the best dishes from each part of India.
The smells of the area dominate from the moment you leave the station. Indian temples, spices, shops selling Indian videos, Indian songs blaring, Indian vegetables; and that slightly more dangerous environment for pedestrians. That less-than-neat atmosphere with its smells reminds so much of home.
I pigged out on Dosa, Idli, Vada and Mango lassi (which i have never seen on a menu in India.)
I remember having gone to Singapore for a two week assignment and the sterile atmosphere there was killing. It took a trip to Little India to feel a bit alive again. It is the only part of Singapore where one can see a wee bit of stuff lying around. In Singapore even blades of grass seem well organized.
I went and picked up a stack of Indian movies and have spent all afternoon in nostalgia. But hello, are we not scheduled to travel to India for a few days later this week?
Talk about desperation for mitti ki sugandh.
The smells of the area dominate from the moment you leave the station. Indian temples, spices, shops selling Indian videos, Indian songs blaring, Indian vegetables; and that slightly more dangerous environment for pedestrians. That less-than-neat atmosphere with its smells reminds so much of home.
I pigged out on Dosa, Idli, Vada and Mango lassi (which i have never seen on a menu in India.)
I remember having gone to Singapore for a two week assignment and the sterile atmosphere there was killing. It took a trip to Little India to feel a bit alive again. It is the only part of Singapore where one can see a wee bit of stuff lying around. In Singapore even blades of grass seem well organized.
I went and picked up a stack of Indian movies and have spent all afternoon in nostalgia. But hello, are we not scheduled to travel to India for a few days later this week?
Talk about desperation for mitti ki sugandh.
Saturday, 16 June 2007
The Importance of being President
There is an ongoing debate and discussion on the nomination of the President of India. As can be expected, the standard of debate is superior among the citizens of the country than among the representatives of those very citizens.
Most of us are happy to see a woman being ushered in; even if we are unhappy with the reasons and manner in which that is being done. It cannot be said that this was an active intention of having a woman as President; she was not the first choice, and the quest for a woman President would have found a well-qualified shortlist of excellent candidates.
In this debate, there are those who consider the matter as irrelevant on the misconception that the President’s role has no meaning, no real executive power.
That is not the case and APJ has demonstrated that as well as any other could have. A President may return a bill or refer it to the Advocate General or the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court. The President may also delay the approval of a bill.
This is symbolic, but it is an extremely important symbolism. It jogs the conscience of the government of the day and brings matters that the Legislature might have slipped under your door into a wider public debate.
No matter who becomes President, and how that person becomes the President, once they are there, they would do well to do justice to this counter-balancing role. It is the absence of such a counter-balance that has brought the American Presidency to disgrace. The lack of an impeachment move merely points to a numb ineffectiveness of their process in the face of a brazen and shameless administration.
In this context, it is important that Pratibha Patil straightaway send the signals of being a stateswoman. She should not kow - tow to the political master (mistress?) to whom she is presumed beholden for this elevation. The photo of her holding hands with Sonia is avoidable. The Congress should also ease off on the insistence of her changing her surname.
Let the woman stand tall. Let the Presidency be.
Most of us are happy to see a woman being ushered in; even if we are unhappy with the reasons and manner in which that is being done. It cannot be said that this was an active intention of having a woman as President; she was not the first choice, and the quest for a woman President would have found a well-qualified shortlist of excellent candidates.
In this debate, there are those who consider the matter as irrelevant on the misconception that the President’s role has no meaning, no real executive power.
That is not the case and APJ has demonstrated that as well as any other could have. A President may return a bill or refer it to the Advocate General or the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court. The President may also delay the approval of a bill.
This is symbolic, but it is an extremely important symbolism. It jogs the conscience of the government of the day and brings matters that the Legislature might have slipped under your door into a wider public debate.
No matter who becomes President, and how that person becomes the President, once they are there, they would do well to do justice to this counter-balancing role. It is the absence of such a counter-balance that has brought the American Presidency to disgrace. The lack of an impeachment move merely points to a numb ineffectiveness of their process in the face of a brazen and shameless administration.
In this context, it is important that Pratibha Patil straightaway send the signals of being a stateswoman. She should not kow - tow to the political master (mistress?) to whom she is presumed beholden for this elevation. The photo of her holding hands with Sonia is avoidable. The Congress should also ease off on the insistence of her changing her surname.
Let the woman stand tall. Let the Presidency be.
Friday, 15 June 2007
Walking <> Weight Loss
Sigh.
If only walking were equivalent to weight-loss. The City of London makes significant demands on a person. You must be ready to walk atleast 2 kilometers every day in the course of going from Point A to B. Even though the city is brilliantly connected with the tube and bus network, there are stairs, corridors and the proverbial last mile. You simply do have to walk.
And in some stations going from platform to another is a significant walk anyway. The distance between two stations can sometimes fool you; if you go through BANK station, you will find the distance from one platform to another is greater than the distance to the next station!
Since I am in sales mode, this means I end up walking a lot, especially when there are two or three meetings in a day.
Oh, how I long for India! Potholes, chaos and the complete lack of parking space. But my driver drops me to the doorstep of where I want to go and when i ring him on his mobile, he materialises at aforesaid doorstep.
For all that, I wish I ever lighter. But no. I am heavier. Some uncharitable soul said its because nothing here is adulterated while back home.....
Whatever. I am heavier. And by no mean number.
The only way to compensate for the richness in food is to eat seriously little. But that's hardly filling! And after all those walks you feel ever more hungry.
I shifted office recently to what was supposed to be a more centrally located address. Just outside my office window is a "Chicken Cottage" outlet. Chicken Cottage is the poor man's KFC. More affordable; same cholestrol, same fat. More for less.
I spend all day fighting the urge to dash down and pick up a box of cholestrol laden fried chicken. At the end of the working day, when I am ready to head home, the first whiff of air outside is heavy with the aroma of fried chicken. It is the final victorious assault on my senses and as I cross the door, I succumb....
The feeding frenzy of the first few days of exposure to CC has subsided. But this is several kilos later.
One lives on, to fight the next battle; there is a foodstore just below that has some lovely salted popcorn in a ready to eat format.
I am determined not to look that way as I head out. Not today. Not ever. And guess what: its not like those devilishly delightful popcorn machines back home. There is no aroma wafting around. I think if I make a dash for the Underground Station doorway, I may escape yet.
If only walking were equivalent to weight-loss. The City of London makes significant demands on a person. You must be ready to walk atleast 2 kilometers every day in the course of going from Point A to B. Even though the city is brilliantly connected with the tube and bus network, there are stairs, corridors and the proverbial last mile. You simply do have to walk.
And in some stations going from platform to another is a significant walk anyway. The distance between two stations can sometimes fool you; if you go through BANK station, you will find the distance from one platform to another is greater than the distance to the next station!
Since I am in sales mode, this means I end up walking a lot, especially when there are two or three meetings in a day.
Oh, how I long for India! Potholes, chaos and the complete lack of parking space. But my driver drops me to the doorstep of where I want to go and when i ring him on his mobile, he materialises at aforesaid doorstep.
For all that, I wish I ever lighter. But no. I am heavier. Some uncharitable soul said its because nothing here is adulterated while back home.....
Whatever. I am heavier. And by no mean number.
The only way to compensate for the richness in food is to eat seriously little. But that's hardly filling! And after all those walks you feel ever more hungry.
I shifted office recently to what was supposed to be a more centrally located address. Just outside my office window is a "Chicken Cottage" outlet. Chicken Cottage is the poor man's KFC. More affordable; same cholestrol, same fat. More for less.
I spend all day fighting the urge to dash down and pick up a box of cholestrol laden fried chicken. At the end of the working day, when I am ready to head home, the first whiff of air outside is heavy with the aroma of fried chicken. It is the final victorious assault on my senses and as I cross the door, I succumb....
The feeding frenzy of the first few days of exposure to CC has subsided. But this is several kilos later.
One lives on, to fight the next battle; there is a foodstore just below that has some lovely salted popcorn in a ready to eat format.
I am determined not to look that way as I head out. Not today. Not ever. And guess what: its not like those devilishly delightful popcorn machines back home. There is no aroma wafting around. I think if I make a dash for the Underground Station doorway, I may escape yet.
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