Monthly Archives: July 2007

The magic of Ian McEwan

Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 by Abhijit

Saturday by Ian McEwan Seldom have I read a better book. It’s about a day in a man’s life. Forty-eight-year-old neurosurgeon Henry Perowne wakes up in the middle of the night in his posh London home, sees a plane in … Continue reading →

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Battle for the classifieds

Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 by Abhijit

Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper certainly carries some weight. Just pick up the bulging Saturday edition which sometimes runs to more than 100 broadsheet pages. And one gets this humongous newspaper for less than a Singapore dollar, which is about 65 … Continue reading →

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What bothers the Economist

Posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 by Abhijit

I wonder what Singapore will say to this. Ostensibly the story is about China. “China takes the bank”, says the Economist in a story about the state-owned China Development Bank buying a stake in the British Barclays bank. But Singapore’s … Continue reading →

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Bloggers cautioned

Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 by Abhijit

Watching the well-dressed commuters on my way home this evening reminded me how well-off Singapore is. I stopped for dinner at a food centre where a group of students sitting next to me were chatting in English. Then I visited … Continue reading →

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Singapore buys Brit

Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by Abhijit

Two weeks ago the Economist ran a story about the world’s biggest banks — and two of the top 10 happened to be Chinese: ICBC and Bank of China. Now another Chinese bank is buying into one of Europe’s biggest … Continue reading →

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Keeping the communists happy

Posted on Monday, July 23, 2007 by Abhijit

Pratibha Patil was elected India’s first woman president by the legislators (ordinary citizens don’t get to vote). But she wasn’t the first choice of the ruling Congress party. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi chose the 72-year-old political veteran only after the … Continue reading →

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A free online Wall Street Journal?

Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 by Abhijit

Can we now expect to read the online Wall Street Journal for free? I am jumping the gun, but it’s a fair question to ask now that the Dow Jones board has voted to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch. … Continue reading →

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A president to be proud of

Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 by Abhijit

India had two leaders to be proud of. Now we will be left with only one: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. President APJ Abdul Kalam will be stepping down this month. It’s sad we will be losing a person of his … Continue reading →

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News alone can’t sell papers

Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 by Abhijit

I can’t quite agree with Michael Connelly, the creator of the Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch. He writes: People who read books also read newspapers… If you foster books, you foster reading. If you foster reading, you foster newspapers. … Continue reading →

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Man, have we changed!

Posted on Monday, July 16, 2007 by Abhijit

Man is sexless, says William Safire. So why am I not shocked or insulted? Because he is absolutely right, etymologically speaking. Let’s put the words in context. In How Not To Write: The Essential Misrules of Grammar, a slim little … Continue reading →

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