Ashok Desai
My blogs
Blogs I follow
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Communications or Media |
| Occupation | Editor |
| Location | Delhi, India |
| Introduction | I write in newspapers and magazines for a living. That does not occupy me much, since I write pretty fast. So I travel when I have money, swim when it is not too cold, and read to be surprised, challenged and entertained at other times. I was a professional economist for three decades. I taught, wrote, studied and reported. I worked in five countries, and did twelve jobs. When, in 1991, India was in an economic crisis, Manmohan Singh, an economist bureaucrat, was made India's finance minister. He engaged me. We reversed old socialist policies, fashioned new policies in a hurry and tried them out. They worked. In two years the crisis was overcome, and I was no longer needed. So I left. At that time I was full of passion and zeal. I felt that we needed to do much more. So I turned to journalism. Now I am no longer so evangelical. The media are a melting pot of ideas and emotions. If one is careful enough not to take them too seriously, they can provide much excitement and entertainment. I am one of the performers in the drama. Ideas get honed and tempered in the crucible of debate. I look for a more equal relationship between the writer and the reader in this blog. |
| Interests | Writing, reading, travel, conversation |
| Favorite Movies | I do not get a chance to see many movies, but two I remember most vividly are A Beautiful Mind, and Umrao Jaan. |
| Favorite Music | Sibelius for his ascetic grandeur, Tchaikovsky for the richness of his emotions, Amir Khan for his towering intellect, D V Paluskar for for the allure of his voice |
| Favorite Books | Joseph Conrad especially Heart of Darkness, Wittgenstein especially Tractatus, Krishna especially Gita |
What reason do you have to believe the earth is flat?
It looks flat from the moon