the crickEt captain

cricket is the best of all strategy games, you may think about chess now. But ain't that a more on "paper" game? 

the strategist on field, the captain plays and manipulates his pieces/players just like a military general- you observe the enemy, analyze them, understands the 'battle' field, figures out his/her strengths and weaknesses, balances the pros and cons, and to top it all, everything of this is done in real time. 

team games have captains, but more as a namesake with the coach taking up the leadership position and players merely taking his orders. no other game comes anywhere closer to cricket on its dependence on captain and his leadership. even baseball, the closest counterpart of cricket, does not depend on the captain so much.

this is more relevant in test cricket as it is spread over 5 days. the battle feild changes, weather changes, people changes, pitch changes. the fella who went for a duck in the first innings could come back and hit a double century, the bowler who took 8 wickets in the first could be beaten left and right in the second. The job of the captain as a strategist is still relevant but reduced when the game was shortened into the 50 over format. This has become less so in the 20-20 format. This change is typical of military strategy too. Battles planned over shorter durations weighs heavily on the might of the strategist rather than the planning whereas war plans over larger durations are a game of wit, might and strategy.

the way the captin responds to these sitations and events and how he cleverly manipulates and swerves around is the epitome of a strategist and leader. a successful cricket captain is that's why such an asset to the team as a good military general or ruler.

dilEmma of EquitablE dEvElopmEnt

If we look at the history of development of free market economies it is evident that from the beginning of the 19th century the growth rate of these countries was phenomenal; both in terms of GDP as well as social development index As industrialization grew there were more and more refined industries which pushed the workers away from less skilled industries to highly skilled ones and machines replacing the low skilled workers. Social development and salaries of the workers seem to be very closely tied, as the more developed the country is socially, the more is the standard of living and the salary paid out to them. 

Any naive child of economics will undoubtedly say that the sign of a healthy economy is the domestic market. If most of the goods and services manufactured within one’s own boundaries could be sold within that confine itself, lo, we have a sustainable development model. If we look at the USA of the 80s & 90s it had one of the best in house production team, good domestic market, happy people, good social development and standard of living as a whole. 

The cost of development is that as the living standards of people increase, so does the average cost of production of goods and services. As the living standard of the Westerners increased, so did the cost of its products. As a result, to remain competitive in the huge American market, they had to outsource their manufacturing business. This was seen as an opportunity for the Asian tigers and China to push their cheaply manufactured goods to the American market. It turned out such that for an American industry operating at the same product base as an Asian country, to remain competitive it had to reduce the wages drastically. As the prices of goods came down, so does the wages and for the inflation adjusted measurements average American is poorer than his parents who worked during the 70s & 80s. Poor citizenry means lower domestic consumption which again gets bad for a capitalistic economy. 

The Indian financial planners seem to be well aware of this situation. That’s why they seem to be keener in keeping a section of the poor manufacturing workers poorer. Only if they remain poor, goods and services can be manufactured at low cost. But the middle class sitting above these oppressed poor workers seems to be getting better at the cost of the people beneath them. Of course the middle class is needed for domestic consumption. So Indian planners are using a two pronged strategy in which the primary and secondary sector workers remain as poor as possible so as to keep the product costs low, and a middle class ripe with money power so that they can drive the domestic consumption. 

As is evident from the example of the Americas, if you let loose the free market demon, it is always going to prefer the products from the poorest (as in socio-economic development & standard of living) of nations, which no doubt can manufacture at a very low cost (again the world of today is a perfect example), and reduce the real income of a nations citizens and make the country as a whole poorer. 

So the lesson today is you need a mix of capitalism within the country to sell of the goods and a certain level of protectionist measures when dealing in international trade so as to facilitate a more equitable development model.

holE in thE wall

I'm a timid eater in captivity being reluctant to try anything new "alone", but in a tag team with a foodie; I turn into a vicious connoisseur devouring anything that comes in my way like a true predator in the wild ;)

Lucky I got a good partner foodie for a roommate; we decided to try out a place called Hole-in-the-Wall, which was recommended heavily by another food junkie in my new employer's payroll. Verdict is that it was one of the best decisions of my life to have switched job and roommates ;)

After waking up at 11 am on a nice Sunday morning, it was the perfect time for brunch (thanks to the west). Giving heed to the stomach's starved howls and grumbles, we packed light and set off on our quest. Thanks to Google maps, finding the place was not that much of a pain. What struck us as the most astounding fact was that the place literally lived up to its name, being a hole in a wall which can accommodate hardly 6 tables with max occupancy of around 20 mouths. Needless to say, the place was packed and overflowing for its size. We had to wait almost an hour for a table. Although we heard some whispering voices mentioning Thulp and some other places, we decided to hold our ground and ignore everything else lest we fall into temptation. Finally by 12pm, we were rewarded with a nice cosy place next to the kitchen & cash counter.

No time was wasted in placing the order as we decided to gobble up on an English breakfast with pancakes to be washed down with hot cocoa. English breakfast was done and placed on our table with the egg prepared sunny side up, in a jiffy but nothing was cut short on it- there were sausages, bacon, beans & mushroom. It was whole sum & pleasant for my not so tiny stomach and don't bother, the taste was awesome. By the time we finished it, pancakes felt like overkill, but decision was already made by our taste palates; so we decided not to renegade on that. It was my first time with pancakes, but lo, it tasted like something my mother used to prepare of which we didn’t know the name until then. Finally as a tangy afterthought I got a lime and ginger juice which was quite unlike anything I’ve tasted.

Overall one of the best brunch experience in Bangalore. Apart from being a hole in the wall, I can’t think of any other USP for the place besides the food. Ambiance is normal, with a couple of photos of B.Marley, some paintings, cartoons, this-and-that framed and kept around. Even the hotelier licenses are framed and go well with Bob’s twitched smile. all this coupled with the antique furniture, closely knit group/family(?) of people serving and managing the place, the rock and a strange feeling of being in the mama's kitchen (believe me, if not for the billing counter separation, you are 2-3 feet away from the stove) could be cited as the wonder glue holding the place together.

To rate it; hole in the wall sure fired in the hole :) [4/5]

Here are a few links which may provide more thorough and tasteful insights with menu and pictures shedding light into the "hole".

Menu: 

http://www.zomato.com/menus/50237/menu-photo-for-the-hole-in-the-wall-cafe-1.jpg

http://www.zomato.com/menus/50237/menu-photo-for-the-hole-in-the-wall-cafe-2.jpg

http://www.zomato.com/menus/50237/menu-photo-for-the-hole-in-the-wall-cafe-3.jpg

http://www.zomato.com/menus/50237/menu-photo-for-the-hole-in-the-wall-cafe-4.jpg

Review & Photos:

http://www.bangaloresrestaurants.com/2010/08/hole-in-wall-cafe.html