Dada Saheb Phalke Award to Manna Dey

Mann Dey is the winner of Dada Saheb Phalke award for year 2007.

My 10 favorite songs of Manna Dey (not in order of preference):

1. Aaja Sanam Madhur Chandni Mein Ham (Chori-Chori)

2. Ye Raat Bheegi Bheegi (Chori-Chori)

3. Laaga Chunri Mein Daag (Dil hi to hai)

4. Chalat Musafir Moh Liya Re (Teesri Kasam)

5. Puchho na Kaise Maine Rain Bitaii (Meri Soorat, Teri Aankhein)

6. Tere Bin Soone Nayan Hamare (Meri Soorat, Teri Aankhein)

7. Kasme, Vaade, Pyar Wafa (Upkaar)

8. Tujhpe Dil Qurban (Kabuliwaala)

9. Tu Pyar Ka Sagar Hai (Seema)

10. Kau Aaya Mere Man ke Dware Payal ki Jhankaar Liye (Dekh Kabira Roya)

Aayi Barsaat to Barsaat ne Dil Tod Dia…

According to IMD, India suffered its weakest monsoon for nearly 40 years. The cumulative seasonal rainfall for the country as a whole is 22% below the long period average , making it the worst drought since 1972. There are regional differences – the north-west had the worst rainfall deficit at 34%, followed by North-East (25%), Central India (19%) and South Peninsula (8%).  And this after rains returned to many parts of the country in August.

It could have been worse. But normal rains in the over the last few weeks bodes well for the winter crop. So, there is some consolation.

 

To be sure, bad behavior is not unique to Delhi — it’s only worse here”.

From An article in Time Magazine on the lack of civic sense in Delhi.

Another observation: “It’s so stressful living in Delhi, …..To survive here, you have to be really pushy, and the result is that the city is completely de-humanizing.”

I agree with both observations. N. Delhi is not one of my favorite cities.

Abhijit Banerjee Asks: “What is it about Healthcare that Makes it so Prone to Nonsense?”

An interesting article comparing health care systems of the US and India.

In India, we have an unregulated, (hyper)competitive market while in the US, market is anything but free. But there is one similarity: both do terribly in providing even basic health care to the poor.

फ़र्ज़ करो: इब्ने इंशा

Here is a beautiful ghazal by ibn-e-inshaa. You can hear it in in Chhaya Ganguli’s voice on Youtube . Ibn-e-inshaa’s most famous ghazal is:  कल चौदहवीं की रात थी, शब भर रहा चर्चा तेरा| कुछ ने कहा ये चाँद है, कुछ ने कहा चेहरा तेरा

फ़र्ज़ करो हम अहले वफ़ा हों, फ़र्ज़ करो दीवानें हों 
फ़र्ज़ करो ये दोनों बातें झूठीं हों, अफ़साने हों

फ़र्ज़ करो ये जी की बिपता जी से जोर सुनाई हो
फ़र्ज़ करो अभी और हो इतनी, आधी हमने छुपाई हो

फ़र्ज़ करो तुम्हे खुश करने को ढूंढें हमने बहाने हों
फ़र्ज़ करो ये नैन तुम्हारे सच-मुच के मैखाने हों

फ़र्ज़ करो ये रोग हो झूठा, झूठी प्रीत हमारी हो
फ़र्ज़ करो इस प्रीत के रोग में सांस भी हम पे भारी हो

फ़र्ज़ करो ये जोग-बिजोग का हमने ढोंग रचाया हो
फ़र्ज़ करो बस यही हकीकत, बाकी सब कुछ माया हो

The Differene between Gujarati and Bengali Economists: Ramachandra Guha

“In High Disdain- Why Indian intellectuals and activists are hostile to the market?”  is an old but interesting article by Ramachandra Guha in which he makes an interesting observation about Indian economists. He says:

“My own theory about Indian economists is more specific and hopefully less facetious. It runs as follows; Gujarati economists place faith in the market, while Bengali economists are prone to trust the state. In the Fifties, when P.C. Mahalonobis drafted the Soviet-inspired second five year plan, A.D. Shroff responded by starting the Forum of Free Enterprise. In the Sixties and the Seventies, about the only economist of pedigree advocating Indian integration with the world economy was the Gujarati, Jagdish Bhagwati. He was opposed by an arrazy of Marxists, many of whom (naturally) were Bengali.

It is tempting to see the victory of the Bengalis here as historic retribution, a revenge in the realm of economics for what had been taken away from them in the realm of politics. Mahatma Gandhi had put paid to Subhas Chandra Bose, but Mahalanobis would vanquish A.D. Shroff and his ilk”.

The Middle Class

In US, middle class is everyone below the top quintile of income. In UK, it is everyone above the bottom quintile except, of course, the Queen.

है मश्क़े-सुख़न जारी, चक्की की मशक़्क़त भी: हसरत मोहानी (1875-1951)

Maulana Fazlul Hasan Hasrat Mohani was a revolutionary and a poet. He was an ally of B. G. Tilak. In 1908, he was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment (कैद-ए-बामशक्कत) and Rs. 500 in fine for sedition against the state. On the same day,  Tilak was sentenced to six years of imprisonment and sent to Rangoon. Mohani spent his jail time in Aligarh and Naini central jails where he had to grind a maund (40kg) of wheat every day. The grind of the mill– 12 hours every day–could not crush the romantic poet in him. Most of his beautiful ghazals, including the famous चुपके-चुपके रात दिन आंसू बहाना याद है, were composed in jail.

Before Mohani, the women of Urdu poetry were either Mughal princesses or court dancers. Ali Sardar Jafri credits Mohani with bringing the common middle class woman into urdu poetry. His love poems were adressed to his wife, Nishaat-ul-Nisha Beghum.   

Mualana Hasrat Mohani was the first prominent leader to raise the demand for complete independence in 1921 annual session of Congress in Ahmedabad. Mahatma Gandhi was against the resolution at that time. After partition, Mohani stayed back in India. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly, but he did not sign the final draft of the constitution (in protest against certain provisions or lack of them).

Here is his famous poem where he wonders himself on continuing with romantic poetry in spite of the grind. Enjoy.

है मश्क़े-सुख़न* जारी, चक्की की मशक़्क़त भी
इक तुरफ़ा तमाशा है* हसरत की तबीयत भी

जो चाहो सज़ा दे लो तुम और भी खुल-खेलो
पर हम से क़सम ले लो की हो जो शिकायत भी

ख़ुद इश्क़ की गुस्ताख़ी सब तुझको सिखा देगी
अय हुस्न-ए-हया परवर* शोख़ी भी शरारत भी

उश्शाक़* के दिल नाज़ुक, उस शोख़ की ख़ू* नाज़ुक
नाज़ुक इसी निस्बत से* है कारे-महब्बत* भी

अय शौक़ की बेबाकी वोह क्या तेरी ख़्वाहिश थी
जिसपर उन्हें ग़ुस्सा है, इनकार भी, हैरत भी

 मश्क़े-सुख़न = the drill of poetry, इक तुरफ़ा तमाशा है = a strange or wonderous feat, a sight to see; हुस्न-ए-हया परवर =coy sweetheart; उश्शाक़ = lovers; ख़ू = habit, इसी निस्बत से = due to this, कारे-महब्बत = task of love (kaar as in karobaar)

Woman are Getting Unhappier in the USA

According to a New York Times Op-ed column, women in America are less happy today than they were in 1972 while the men are happier. This trend is there in spite of much that women have achieved in three and a half decades. Women of 2008 are more educated, richer, and more equal than they were in 1972. Yet they are unhappier. It seems our achievements do not make us happier, at least not in the way we measure happiness.

How should we measure happiness? This is an important question in behavioral sciences like psychology and economics. Economists rely on actual choices and decisions that people make–the revealed preference–to measure utility and welfare. Stated preference gets less credence. What people do, and not what they say, is a better reflection of what they actually want or value: this has been an article of faith in economics. Now the premise is being challenged. According to Kahneman and Krueger:

 “If people display bounded rationality when it comes to maximizing utility, then their choices do not necessarily reflect their “true” preferences, and an exclusive reliance on choices to infer what people desire loses some of its appeal”.

So, more economists are using data on self-reported happiness or life satisfaction. General Social Survey (GSS), an annual survey conducted in the US since 1972, is attracting greater attention from economists. I also worked on this data once while assisting Prof Alan Krueger for an op-ed piece he was writing for NY Times.  One of the questions the GSS asks americans is:

 “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say tht you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?”

American’s response to this question since 1972  is used to measure trends in happiness (including in the article cited above). It is a subjective and retrospective evaluation. Now there is a difference between experienced and remembered utility; that is, “the way people feel about experiences in  real-time and the way they remember their experiences after they are over”. Which one is more real: the fun we have when we indulge ourselves in the day or the pangs of conscience in the pillow in the night? Who knows!

So, in measuring happiness and life satisfaction (or welfare), economists now recognize that:

“it is fruitful to distinguish among different conceptions of utility (e.g. decision and experience utility and experienced and remembered utility ) rather than presume to measure a single, unifying concept that motivates all human choices and registers all relevant feelings and experiences”.

This makes measurements of happiness and life satisfaction all the more complicated. We should be careful when interpreting data and trends and reading articles that report on them.

My understanding of these new concepts and their place in economic science and public policy is not clear at all. When we  are not clear, we quote. I have quoted a lot in this blog. Need I say more? 

 

 

 

 

 

Reforesting Bihar: One Billion Trees (in) a Day

BBC reports that SM Raju, an IAS officer of Bihar cadre, is singlehandedly organizing the reforesting of Bihar. Mr. Raju claims that on 6th August 2009, he organized planting of nearly 1 billion saplings in a day by 300,000 laborers. He is now trying to enter Guiness Book for this effort.

If true, this is a good use of National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) money. Mr. Raju is the commissioner of Tirhut division in Bihar. Muzaffarpur, my hometown, is the headquarter of Tirhut. He is considered to be an efficient bureaucrat but he also has the reputation of being one of the most corrupt IAS officers in Bihar. So, I am not sure if it is a real deal or he is yet another Gautam Goswami in making.