Micro worry

Lending to the poor seems a good idea, especially if the interest rate you charge is in the high double digits. Of course, you can force them to repay week after week. You don't have to bother about sending show cause notices, or about getting hauled to the courts. You can also raise money from the public to lend to the public, a case of cheap rupees lent to poor Indians and repaid in costly rupees. As long as the borrowers don't commit suicide, unable to repay their meagre loans, you are safe. The trouble begins when borrowers' inexpensive deaths end up getting widespread press, and the governments are forced to act. Of course, the counter argument is that these were not credit-linked suicides, that the state is cracking down to ensure its own pro-poor lending schemes succeed and that higher interest rates are justified to cater to a segment that nationalized banks themselves do not touch. The truth, as always, become the first casualty in all this obfuscation. The poor in India live on less than $ 2 or 1 a day, going by various yardsticks. Why would they need to borrow, when they know quite well they won't get increments or bonuses in the foreseeable future that will help repay the loans? There is fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, only that fortune is made on the graves of destitute Indians.

back!

to a land that thankfully does not ban blogs, from one that bans just about everything! well, it has been a nearly two-year hiatus from all pseudo intellectual pursuits. time to give those grey cells a workout!

hip long siesta

the yearly break from blogging does some good. i have forgotten how to spell, and un-twine my thoughts. there is more clarity in the thinking, a little less in the action and lot less in the execution. hope makes a comeback, boundaries of love and sharing have been crossed. people, friends, places disappear in slow motion, facebook, orkut all out! living a claustrophobic existence without the phobia. at 32, life is teaching me to skim the waves, but not delve to deep for fear of drowning in the world's illusory tactile relationships. mellow like vintage wine, and battling lifestyle conditions that bring moderation, makes virtue out of medians and shuns vices with a sigh. to keep at it, like a writer before the block begins to make him a nervous wreck, that is what i want to do. the next post will have to wait until the next year.

at long last

been out of the blog world for ages. thanks to the Chinese. now back in India for a little holiday. several things have happened in the meantime for which i would need more time than this to pen down. for now, suffice it to day i am married and living a different life! will keep you all posted, until then!!1 cheerio!