ExpertDabbler

There is a tamil saying in my native which goes like ‘Virudhu patti saniyanai velai kuduthu vangaraan’.. well I did not get into this one voluntarily. It came right into my mailbox, only this time to my office mail box (vatsa..you are going to pay for it….grr).

So what is the vambu? Should RBI be ashamed of an invalid email ID it had in its website or not?

I tried to ignore this but I had some comments. As some of my regulars know, I really cannot resist revealing my ignorance:(

NV sir, with whom I am in telephone talking terms had written this post.

Well, I agree that it would’ve been better if the email had been a valid one.

That said, I would not judge RBI with an email link. Its like saying, ‘Ben Bernanke does not shave regularly, that is shameful etc’. We don’t judge Bernanke by his shaving skills or nose picking skills or whatever. Same applies for RBI too. RBI ensured that banking to a large extent remained a boring business, the way it should be, while some other central banks let some wealthy folks have fun.

In general NV sir and some other folks write only about India’s glory . I’ve written enough on this topic. There are a few who support such viewpoints. Nowadays I am inclined to think that the perception of an RI about India, and that of an USRI about India shall never meet.

The RI’s is too focused on her own micro world while a USRI always forms her perception about what the media has to say, she sees during her three week trip. Based on these sometimes true observations and sometimes confirmation bias, they somehow decide life in India is hell. Its like the way we normal persons somehow assume that a blind person can never enjoy life. We see them as lacking faculties we have and so assume they can’t possibly ever be happy in their life.

And regarding building perceptions, the media is doing an amazing job. Till last week it was H1N1 ‘pandemic’. Anyone who had followed the media in the last two weeks would’ve thought there is a massive H1N1 outbreak in Velachery area and thousands of folks are already terminally infected. Folks who had no clue about the right usage of masks were using it left, right and center. In short, it was ’social proof’ tendency in all its glory. And just to make myself clear, these are innate human tendencies played out in all the countries at various times. Eventually, people figured out that the world did not end as they initially thought. Meanwhile Jaswant Singh decided ‘enough is enough’ and did something in national interest. Next thing we know, H1N1 is slowly fading from the media’s radar.

Two people were killed by a gunman in Neelankarai yesterday. Of course this news will remain in the headlines for the next few days in the local media. And those living far outside India are at their own liberty to form opinions as to how Chennai is fast becoming a violent, brutal, unsafe city, how they’ve always known ECR is totally crime prone. When the average RI in Neelankarai is too worried about Sonia Aggarwal’s career prospects, love life, and in what way had Andrea contributed to the divorce, and how he always knew something like this would happen. The concern of the former, is it any different from the concern of the latter? Nah. All are very valid concerns.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 10:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.