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Yes Sir..... Vinay Punnoose BOOKreviews

The IITians

The book is wonderfully written and talks about the IIT life as well as the IITians who have made big in their respective fields. The book is nicely divided into chapters of which I liked the 'Telecom Messiah' the most.

'Female Factor', shouldn't have been written, now that it has been written shouldn't reach the girls I'm interacting with, It has painted IITians in colors of their basest needs of their times in the hostel. n thats what most of us won't like to share with the fairer sex. Though it has brought all the grossly stupid things back to my memory, My group itself had few of the accomplishments to its credit.

Varshney posing as Kishan Kanhaiya, in the GH cultural fest dandiya.

Raja, often just satisfied with the computer he had, and the occasional talks about the girls we had just elicited a 'Ram Ram' of him.

Sakya, when he had a few cycle trips... which sadly I missed.

Sutti, who shared chocolates...

Bhai, who had a literal shock of his life, while he was tending a lighting instrument in one play which IIT was hosting. Theory goes he had his eyes all set on 'the girl'.. when he had an obviously impending jarrrr.

n Mihir, who denied his hand in a beautifully drafted proposal.. obviously inspired of the valentine blues which all of us shared.. but few of us dared.

n I, one of those ' who cares a damn' kinds... U know..

So for IITians it wud be a good read.

But on a serious note the last few chapters truly depicts what is left of the beautiful edifice, that was once called IIT. That sounds like a death knell..... So pick it up from any store and give it your 4 hours.

Price of Onions by Ashok V. Desai

In summer of 1998, the price of onions rose sharply, Onions are the classic poor man's food. And in most parts of India, onions would be added to atleast one dish for taste, and might be put into a raita. That is why the rise in the price of onions affected all caused such a hue and cry.

One cause of the rise in onion prices was well known- the onion crop was smaller. But the crop was only about 15 percent less than the normal; how could it explain a ten fold rise in the price, from the usual Rs.6 to Rs.60 a kilogram?

That is because the rise in the price leads people to reduce their purchases by only a little - the purchases are not sensitive to price changes. For one thing, there are no close substitutes to switch upon. And most people spend a tiny portion of their income on onions; so their budgets are not quite so badly upset when onion prices rise. So a tenfold price rise was necessary to persuade people to cut down their consumption by ten percent.

If you want to know more about the economics in our daily life, this book is definitely worth the money.

The paradox of Bumper Harvest

Imagine that in a particular year nature smiles on farming. A cold winter kills off the pests; spring comes early for planting; there are no killing frosts; rains nurture the growing shoots; and a sunny October allows a record crop to come to market. At the end of the year, family RamLal happily settles down to calculate its income for the year.

The RamLals are in for a major surprise: The good weather and bumper crop have lowered their and farmers’ incomes.

How can this be? The answer lies in the elasticity of demand for foodstuffs. The demands for basic food products such as wheat and corn tend to be inelastic; for these necessities, consumption changes very little in response to price. But this means farmers as a whole receive less total revenue when the harvest is good than when it is bad. The increase in supply arising from an abundant harvest tends to lower the price. But the lower price doesn’t increase the quantity very much. The implication is that a low price elasticity of food means that large harvests tend to be associated with low revenue.

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