Lost in the illusion - It's a wonderful world

Shanghai - Pudong, Skyline. Barely 15 - 20 years ago this land was all paddy fields . There is heaven in the sky and Hangzhou on earth goes a Chinese saying. As Chinese sayings go this was fairly straight forward. Otherwise most of the Chinese sayings one hears tend to be full of Confucian wisdom, full of gravitas and make you feel guilty that you have not fully understood the saying despite being from the 'East'. However to get to this heaven on earth early enough for a 10.30 AM consumer group - I had to take the 7.30 AM train from Shanghai south station. It was only a short 20 minute ride early in the morning to get to the station. Coming in to the station I barely recognised it as a railway station. It looked and felt like the access to an airport. Coming from India i am used to two alternate looks in railway stations - grand colonial structures that are Chennai central, Mumbai VT or some of the more picturesque small town railway statio...

As i was sleepily trundling along on the treadmill in a bid to warm up i was watching CNN news and in one of those scrolling bars at the bottom of the screen there was this piece that did bring a sleepy smile to my lips. Apparently the US Porn Industry is seeking a federal bail out. Initialy i sorta baulked at this idea. But then on deeper reflection aided by gentle jogging on the treadmill - I said Why not? The recent spate of depressing news from financial circles and the news of government bail outs world over has been about the consequences of the seven sins (greed) and apparently the innate human ability to generate financial bubbles. So why not bail out one of the others - Lust? I mean there is nothing innately more important about supporting the consequences of greed and ignoring those of lust. Even if one were to look at it from a consumer need perspective - The US Auto industry received a 25 billion dollar bail out for being wrong about and ignoring consumer needs for atleast ...