It was what they needed to do, they all agreed. But what ended up dying wasn't a human — it was a company.

In Enron's dying days, the company started to see problems with their debt. It had issued billions of dollars in short term commercial paper, a form of debt where it would borrow for short maturities and when the time came to pay back, simply borrow again to pay back the initial investors. Repayment was a "rollover" — you never actually had to pay any money back. Towards the end though, everyone in the market realized that Enron was in serious trouble, and wouldn't lend them money for too long; after all, who wants to be left holding the bag?

In Conspiracy of Fools, Kurt Eichenwald goes through the horror of the last few days at Enron, with commercial paper shutting Enron out. First they couldn't "place" 30-day maturity paper, but there were some buyers for two-week debt. Within a few days, no one wanted anything to do with even multiple day debt — Enron would only get money for

What explains the sudden chorus demanding Rahul Gandhi take over the leadership of the Congress and become prime minister? Is it only an annual ritual, coinciding with the MP from Amethi's birthday? Is it a trial balloon being floated by sections of Rahul Gandhi's — and his mother Sonia Gandhi's — confidants to test the response?

There are no clear answers. Nevertheless what is obvious is there is a growing trust deficit between the Congress organisation and the UPA government. On the issue of corruption and the specific matter of negotiations with Baba Ramdev, party functionaries have severely criticised the government. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been a target but so has Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Mukherjee was reprimanded by Digvijay Singh, the Congress general secretary considered Rahul Gandhi's sounding board, for travelling to Delhi airport to meet Ramdev. On his part, Law Minister Veerappa Moily wrote to Mukherjee seeking a white paper on black money. He could as

Of the countries I've visited, my favourites happen to share important features. They are all large but not intimidating in size, with proportionate populations. They have a varied landscape, a mostly temperate climate, and enough fertile land not only to feed themselves, but to have evolved exceptional cuisines. They are old civilisations possessed of the cultural self-confidence that comes from having been centres of empires, without the hubris or smugness of perpetual victors. I'm thinking of Spain, France, Turkey and Iran, and would have added Italy to the group, had its citizens been less loud, rude and vain. Turkey, despite all its gifts, and a convenient location straddling Asia and Europe, went off the world's radar for decades. The Orient Express stopped running, and was replaced in the popular imagination by Midnight Express. Indians, who now flock to Istanbul and Cappadocia in the thousands, had little connection with Turkey between the collapse of the Khilafat movement and Read More »from Is Turkey the Key?

There are many stressful things in life - Bangalore's traffic, Mumbai's real estate prices, and Chennai's weather (it gets bitterly cold in the winters - even dropping below twenty degrees Celsius. Shiver.). In the past month, I have discovered a new source of stress that trumps even these: hospital visits.

For about two weeks now, I have been going regularly to hospitals in Chennai. This is a remarkably harrowing experience. For starters, there's the simple fact of their geographical expansion. Starting with four or five general hospitals in Nungambakkam, they have since then colonised the neighbourhood. They have put up a heart health centre in Greams Road, a gym and yoga centre in Wallace Garden, a pediatric hospital in Rutland Gate, and parking and pharmacies throughout Nungambakkam. You get the feeling that you're dealing with the medical equivalent of the Borg: everything encountered will be assimilated. Or to use a real world example, hospitals are to downtown Chennai what water