Not only is my body clock at sixes and sevens (London-Bangalore-Sydney-Melbourne-Delhi in a just a few days) but so is my blog clock, so this is Monday's posting although it's Sunday for many readers. Yesterday's post which was Sunday (!) elicited an interesting comment from Alok Bhatt who works at MPSTechnologies in Gurgaon, one of India's high-tech hubs and growing at an extraordinary rate.

He wants to know what I think of India. What can I say without resorting to platitudes and cliches? So I thought I'd simply analyse Sunday's Times of India in the hope that it might throw some light on what's going on here.

The main part of the paper has 32 pages. A quarter of the front page relates to an interview with the captain of India's cricket team, Rahul Dravid where he argues that cricket isn't important enough to be on the front page of a newspaper unless India were to win the World Cup (which begins in a couple of weeks). That is a typical example of an Indian contradiction - a front-page story arguing against being on the front page.

There are four full pages about cricket at the back, a quarter page of cricket nostalgia, a full page on thinking positive and its psychological impact on cricketers, a full travel page on the Caribbean for Indian cricket fans going to support their team, a full page interview with Dravid, a quarter page story about how Dravid wins the hearts of young fans in Delhi.

Approximately 40% of the editorial content of the paper is dedicated to cricket - and the World Cup doesn't begin until 11 March.

And for the rest there are high-quality articles about every aspect of Indian life, business, economics, religion, politics and sex. As Alok says in his comment, India is a giant laboratory experiment. The best way of following it is to bookmark the Times and/or the Hindu and check in several times a week.

I think that India is the most exciting place on earth but that doesn't really answer Alok's question. My personal view is that the success or otherwise of the 'Indian experiment' is one of the most important factors for the health and wealth of the whole world. If intelligence and decency and ambition are keys to success, then India will succeed. If, however,the experiment is derailed by prejudice, corruption and greed, then Gods help us all.

I'm backing England for the World Cup but when we are eliminated (as we surely will be) my support will move to India without hesitation for the simple reason that Indians care more about this than any other nation and they've earned that success.

I feel like an irrational Cantabrian grumpy old man as I write this from a hotel room in Delhi (which gives me an excuse to show a stunning picture of a corridor in the Red Fort).

I received an e-mail from the Cambridge Alumni office which pretends to be about communicating with former students but is actually about raising money from us on the lines of the major American universities. On the face of it this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, so why do I feel irrational and grumpy?

The University of Cambridge doesn't need the money. Many of the colleges (and particularly Trinity which I attended) have invested in property for several centuries - and property has probably been the  best long-term investment ever in the UK, with no signs of any significant threat. Wikipedia estimate of Trinity's endowment is £700m for instance.

Trinity doesn't look too shabby, does it?

Of course, and in spite of statements to the contrary, the British Government has to ration funds for education - and particularly for the funding of high-quality as opposed to broadly inclusive institutions. The Government is also attempting to dictate admissions policy on the quite reasonable 'he who pays the piper' principle.

On the other hand, there has never been more investment in scientific and scholarly research and Cambridge's leading position in a number of fields has allowed it to build significant income from corporate, industrial, philanthropic and government research funds.

I suppose I'd be less grumpy about being 'schnorrered' if I thought that the money would go to maintaining and developing a world-class university. My suspicion is that whilst Government controls the purse strings the ethos will be to favour access over excellence and, if that's the case, then the Government should fund. If Cambridge were to kick themselves of Government subsidy habit and set themselves up on the private Harvard model then I'd happily send them a small cheque and even stop objecting to being called an alumnus.

More on India later.

Yesterday's posting on Kurdistan has generated this link to an account of being a teacher-trainer in Iraqi Kurdistan - fascinating.

There has been some competition for the worst views from Macmillan office windows in the UK. Strangely those with wonderful views don't seem to have submitted any photos.

I'm preparing to leave Melbourne for Delhi this morning. For those of you suffering a Northern Hemisphere Winter you'll be pleased to know that it's chucking it down here. There's been a terrible drought in Victoria and there's no international cricket on at the moment so I guess everyone will be pleased. Fortunately it didn't rain last night when I had dinner with two old friends at a restaurant where this was the view of Port Phillip Bay as the sun went down.

I've written about Macmillan's efforts in Iraq before - here and here.

I don't suppose many of us know very much about the Kurdistan although the picture above suggests it's rather beautiful. Some Western politicians are doing their best to wreck the Middle East but there is some hope while initiatives like this blossom. I'm delighted that we are involved. Apologies for the formatting.

Before you do anything else today click here to hear about a thriller to be published by Pan Macmillan in August. Don't forget to turn on the sound.

Apart from working with Macmillan in Melbourne I've also been seeing colleagues at Melbourne University Publishing whom we sell and distribute in Australia and on whose board I serve as a non-executive director. I was, therefore, doubly delighted to see this article in the university newsletter - and the smiling editor of Nature, Phil Campbell (top right) - all about Nature's awards for mentoring scientists.

I'm still awaiting photos of Macmillan views worldwide. It's a big shame the windows in our Dubai office obscure the view - see yesterday's comment from the wonderful Sheila Hutton.

Australia is a great country. Australians are great people. Australians are the best cricketers in the world. Australia humiliated England in the most recent Ashes series ( by far the most important biennial challenge in sport). But last night, when New Zealand beat their one-day team for the third time in a row, following on England's victory before that, the word which came to mind was hubris - and it was interesting to be in Melbourne to observe. However, these defeats may have served to harden their resolve and I wouldn't bet against Australia in the forthcoming World Cup.

Yesterday's posting on views from offices has generated a few comments and links about the view from our Kings Cross offices. Joy Moore from our Cambridge MA office thought you'd like to see this, which she keeps on her desk as a memory of her first exciting visit to the headquarters of the world famous Nature Publishing Group. It would be great to have some more (and even perhaps prettier) views from Macmillan offices.

I am a great fan of the London College of Communications and am attending part of their Innovation in Publishing  conference on 15 March. It's open to all and should be a fascinating event.

I thought you'd like to know that Google have just deposited £55.18 in the Macmillan bank account as our share of the revenue from the ads which appear on this blog. Not a great return but I promised transparency. The most interesting thing to my commercial mind is the length of time the money has taken to reach us. The income was generated over the whole of last year and no doubt Google bill advertisers immediately. They have therefore kept the cash for an average of 6 months. Sounds familiar!

I read the other day that the head of HarperCollins worldwide, Jane Friedman, was the inventor of the author tour as a way of selling books. I had always been led to believe that the honour went to Alewyn Birch of Granada who sent many a poor author to Australia to drum up sales. This was so successful that Alewyn used to promise author tours in order to increase initial orders even when there was absolutely no chance. However, I have been reminded that Macmillan sent Rudyard Kipling to Australia in 1891 (along with Rolf Boldrewood) and we even paid to get him into the members stand at the Melbourne Cup. I think this must predate Alewyn and Jane.

I'm not a great tourist sightseer but this was the view from the restaurant where we held the traditional Pan Macmillan directors annual dinner last night. I'm thinking of running a competition for the best views from Macmillan offices worldwide - please submit photos. The one from our Sydney office is right up there but not quite as good as this.

Even though this is dated 19 February (in Sydney) it's still the 18th in some parts of the world and I feel justified in wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year (of the pig).

While I was in India I learned from one of our colleagues, Amit Bhatia, about the Hole in the Wall project. There is some debate in Britain and elsewhere about the efficacy of using computers to support education. After all the investment that's been ploughed in, can we measure any positive impact? Well, it seems to work in India.

A computer was placed in a hole in the wall near a slum and the local children were simply allowed to play with it. Unsupervised, they worked out how to operate it as well as play. There are now thirty such holes in the wall and the educational development of the children is being monitored and calibrated. Fascinating.

And while on Amit Bhatia I should mention his amazing Indian Shakespeare film of Othello and the Meena Project to improve the status of girl children in India which we publish for UNICEF.

Finally and just for fun and for those in Little ol' Rhode Island, here are the lyrics of one of my favourite songs by the incomparable Blossom Dearie: