Attitudes regarding Mothers a la Google: A Simple Experiment

In the spirit of the google-search-bar fill-out, here's another.

I'm changing it slightly however, not by comparing across people within a single google page, but across people in different countries. The following is an international comparison between the US and India about what people feel about their mothers





Thus proving that, indeed, Indians do love their mothers quite a bit? (Dunno about that stuff about a fish and a fob though).

Coming on weak

Why is it
that silence signifies dignity

and loudness boorishness?

are these just words?

Oh, and Oye Lucky is the most misunderstood movie ever made.

"Meethe Meethe, Tere Meethe Meethe Bol
Oye Oye Oye Oye

Saanu Kaat Gayi
Saanu Baat Gayi
Saanu Chhaat Gayi
Tu Jugni Jugni"

translation:
"pretty girl
your sweet talk

it's cut me
bled me
ruined me"

there's more to these lines than just unrequited love. I remember reading an article by Amartya Sen about how society needs a little inequality to promote growth - the argument being that those at the bottom will aspire to be on the top.

The question Oye Lucky poses is - what if that route to the top is frustrated by societal norms that will not allow (for instance) the maid in my parent's house in Delhi to eat at the dining table? Where does the aspiration go when it is not allowed to manifest itself in public, but must always play the role of lubricant?

These are very real questions, and they hit people like me right in the gut because it questions so much about our upbringing. We are privilged in ways that are completely unimaginable to us - it isn't only money or parental care, it is a more basic attribute of freedom to be wherever we want to be without fear of spite or envy.

Not sure what I'm thinking of, but perhaps one goal for any society that seeks to be progressive and fair is to allow for upward mobility.

I cannot think of any other movie that made me come up with such questions. The thing is this "message" is so subtle and understated in the movie that it has been missed completely at least by most of the mainstream critics who bother with Bollywood. I've seen this movie 4 times now, and begin to get it only now.

"Lucky in middle class walon se bach ke rahna. Yeh dikhte angrez hai, karte desi hain."

Update: just realized that Amartya Sen's concept of development as freedom ties in closely with this - Lucky's freedom is limited by a societal norm borne apparently out of artificial considerations.

Q and A

Q: Would you agree with the definition of an institution as a set of rules designed to reduce transaction costs?

A:I believe that some institutions have arisen specifically to reduce transaction costs, usually to solve asymmetric information problems though this is not necessary.

North (1991) defines institutions as those man-made rules that determine transaction and productions costs together with the standard constraints of economics. He also argues that institutions determine the cost of transaction – by raising the benefits of solutions or by increasing the cost of cheating – thus making economic activity possible.

Akerlof’s (1976) paper on the function of the lemons market points to the importance of having an institution exist to solve the lemons problem. Grief (1993) in his study of the Maghribi trading coalition explains the functioning of an institution that arose to solve an information problem. The solving of this information problem in turn guaranteed the existence of economic activity (trading) by reducing the transaction cost that would have otherwise been too high to support the economic activity.

Institutions can, however, also be seen as the end result of an evolutionary process which does not necessarily benefit everyone, or increase overall welfare (Sugden 1989). In such an argument, the reason for the existence of certain rules is not they solve information problems or reduce transaction costs necessarily but simply that enough people follow them. Every individual who obeys these rules stands to gain given the expectation that every other individual will also obey these rules.

Sugden (1989) proposes the idea of institutions as spontaneously arising rules that may or may not be efficient solutions. He argues that certain rules arise in society simply because other people follow it. Also, anyone following this rule expects to do as well, if not better, than anyone else following other competing rules. Viewed this way, institutions as a collection of rules don’t necessarily have to reduce transaction costs. In fact, Sugden argues that in many instances, institutions arise that are not pareto –efficient. They “need not be well adapted to the problems of coordination they resolve”.

So, while the definition of institutions as a means of reducing transaction costs is reasonable, it is not complete. Some institutions certainly do not solve transaction costs (the layout of the keyboard I am typing on for example) – for these rules, one must extend the definition to include the concept laid out in Sugden’s 1989 paper.

Mallu's rock, and so do a bunch of other people

It seems like Indian rock is coming of age; I've been sampling some of Avial's work as well as Them Clones (who've released a full length album with pictures of their parents on the inside sleeves, thus proving Yash Johar right) along with hithero unknown bands (Vikram) and known but not-heard (Zero).

There's enough amongst the above mentioned bands alone to put together a decent mix tape. While some bands are fairly derivative (the much heralded Superfuzz) - but still good - some are sort of coming into their own. No better example of this than Avial's 'Karukara'. This is, I would argue, a legitimately "Indian" rock song.

Why is this a big deal? Simple. The world has seen enough AC/DC, Metallica, Beatles, Stones, Iron Maiden, Nirvana etc rip offs to be bothered about more of the same coming from India. This is NOT to say that a derivative sound is without merit - done well (a la "My Life" by Them Clones)- these are still excellent songs; but if Indian bands are to make it big they must do it on their own terms.

By big, I mean at least as popular as Shah Rukh Khan is across the world. (Okay maybe Shah Rukh Khan is too much of a comparison. Still, I mention that particular landmark because it shows how someone who was pretty much a nobody can have a dance class instituted inn his name in the outskirts of Lima in the span of a couple of decades - and all this while doing something COMPLETELY alien to the average Peruvian).