Non stop Nonsense

The Unlucky Man

2011-08-31T16:30:00.006+01:00

Mukund was traveling from Jamnagar to Bombay (as Mumbai was called back then) in a third class compartment with 2 letters, a matriculation certificate, a pair of clothes and almost no money. The year was 1942, and India was in midst of turmoil with the struggle for freedom against the British Empire, and the world was involved in the World War.

Mukund was always thought of to be unlucky. He was born on Amavaysa (No Moon Night), considered extremely inauspicious. In Brahmin families those days, it seemed that your fate was written, depending on the position of planets at the time you were born. With a inauspicious horoscope, this poor boy was pitied on by relatives and neighbours for having now future.
Nor was he extremely bright boy at school. He failed his Matriculation examinations (in English and Mathematics no less). But that year the Queen of Jamnagar delivered a son (and an heir to the throne of the princely state under the British Raj) - and all students appearing for the exams were declared pass with grace marks, including Mukund.

Mukund was married off to another Brahmin girl, and the reason his father-in-law had agreed to accept him as a groom for his daughter was that he had graduated from high school. (Apparently no one mentioned that his passing the examination was under special circumstances, and so was the exact nature of his "inauspicious" time of birth)

A year post his marriage, Mukund continued to remain unemployed, and lived of his fathers income. His wife lost their first child to illness (in a time when infant mortality was common). Then tragedy struck again, when his father die of tuberculosis, leaving Mukund to fend for his family (his wife, his mother, 3 younger brothers and a sister). Everyone blamed it on his stars.
Unable to find a job in Jamnagar, an older relative suggested, he go to the metropolis of Bombay, to try out his luck there. It was said, anyone who was willing to work could find employment there.

Mukund was sent to Bombay, with some money, and a one way train ticket. He was travelling to a city 1000 km away, where he knew no one. He was also carrying two letters, which were written by a the relative. One was addressed to a distant relative, saying that Mukund was a Brahmin from a good family, and please provide him with lodging and boarding for a short while, till he finds a job. The other was to some one working in Scindia Steam Navigation, saying that the bearer of the letter had passed his High School Matriculation examination (albeit with grace marks) Please provide him employment of any suitable nature.

Relatives, neighbours and acquaintances all thought it would be worthless. Anyways Mukund was unlucky. He couldn't find a job at home, how would he fend for himself alone far away?

Fortunately, some one at Scindia Steam Navigation pitied him, gave him a job as a clerk at Victoria Dock. While things were going smoothly there, on April 14, 1944 there was a huge blast in the docks. [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Explosion_(1944) ]
SS Fort Stikine, which was carrying gold, cotton and explosives had caught fire. The explosion resulted in gold bars flying around. Mukund was trapped in debris in the godown of the dock, and unable to wiggle out to collect the gold. (again he cursed his luck). The luckier colleagues all ran outside to pick up gold bars, when the second and more powerful blast killed most of them.
Mukund survived the blast, since he was unlucky.

This changed his outlook in life. He stopped feeling unlucky. He believed that destiny had saved him now. Destiny had made him pass his examinations. Luck was on his side as he got a job and place to live with ease. The stars and horoscope was all humbug, and though you couldnt choose the cards dealt to you, it was all upto you to play your cards accordingly.

Now had this been a Hindi movie, he would've participated in the freedom struggle, and build a massive business empire. But he did none of that.
He worked in Scindia Steam Navigation till his retirement in 1981 as a diligent (but never a smart) employee. He and his wife raised 4 children. And he lived to be nearly 89.

And he retold this story many times over to his oldest grandchild. That's me.

He took me to see my first live cricket match, at Wankhede Stadium in 1993, where India beat England. (Anil Kumble took 6 wickets and Vinod Kambli scored a double hundred). He also taught me how to board a running mumbai local train to catch a window seat. (he was 71 and I was 11).

If he were alive, today would have been his 90th birthday.
He wasnt the one to believe in rituals, he demanded in his will that his body be donated for medical research.
So though he isnt there any more, may be his body is dissected in the Anatomy Department of Lokmanya Tilak Medical Hospital in Sion, Mumbai.

Happy Birthday Bapu-ji.

Strange Encounter with a Mystic Astrologer

2011-02-06T13:40:00.007Z

This is the first time I am spending the Chinese New Year in an East Asian city. This is the Lunar Year of the Rabbit. I have been vaguely aware about each of the years associated with an animal (or a bird, or a fictitious creature such as a dragon) and the existence of horoscopes depending on the year of your birth. Though I am a sceptic, I dug out a few websites on the internet to check out my future in the year of the Rabbit. Unfortunately, all of the sources said simply one thing. The rabbit and the rooster (the bird signifying my birth year) do not get along. How much ever I tried, all sources said the same thing. Some websites tried to sugar coat the message but that was it. I had resigned for 2011 being a tough year for me.

Then came the first day of the New Year of the Rabbit. Despite it being a public holiday in Singapore, I had to be at work for a few hours. (As I said, I expected life to be tough in the year, I plodded along without complaining)

Post work when I was walking back towards home, an old Indian gentleman with a long grey beard stopped me and said in impeccable English 'Sir, you have a lucky face, and destiny shall smile upon you soon'. I was taken aback and asked him why. He told me that he was an Astrologer, his name was Yogi Singh, and had studied Vedic astrology for 21 years under the guidance of his Guru in the Himalayas. He also mentioned that he was visiting Singapore for a short while, and it was destiny which had lead us to meet here on the footpath.

Having some time to kill, and being curious, I stopped to listen more about what he wanted to say, and get some idea about my future.

The Astrologer first asked my date of birth, and then looked up towards the sky, pretended to mumble something, and then he took a good look at the lines on my palm and the creases on my forehead (did I have any?). After this he made the following statements about me: (which in hindsight were generic statements which could be applicable to anyone)

(1) You have big thoughts, but are unable to implement them. You are capable of far greater success, than what you have achieved in your career. (Hmmm, I guess every person might be thinking on the same lines, whether or not they have achieved in excess of their true talent and capabilities)

(2) You are open hearted and often speak your mind. You blindly trust others, but those you trust are secretly plotting behind your back, and bad mouth you in front of others. (again a statement one might like to believe about yourself being the nice simple hearted naive person. I may not be Machiavelli, but I am surely not the simpleton he suggested.)

(3) The last few years have been tumultuous and volatile for you. (This is another generic statement, could be applicable to anyone. Yes I have had my fair share of ups and downs, and worked in 3 different countries for 3 different employers in the last 5 years, but that could be applicable to anyone working in the Financial Services Industry in the time of the 'Credit Crisis' and the 'Great Recession')

(4) You are an easy going person, and money comes and goes easily from your hand. You are generous but lot of people exploit your generosity. (Though anyone would like to think of themselves on these lines, people who know me would say I am more of a stingy bas****d, but for this trait i blame my conservative brahminical upbringing in a middle class, Gujarati household)

(5) A girl whom I have hurt in the past, has put me under an evil spell, and this is the hindrance in my career ahead.
(Who could this lady be? I couldn't think of anyone, but by now I was almost hypnotized by the astrologer, and would have believed any more generic statements he said)

This suddenly sounded a lot like the protagonist in R.K. Narayan's short story that I had to study for my ICSE, An Astrologers Day'
But at that point of time I was actually falling in the trap.

He then asked me to think of the first thing that came in my mind. He wrote down something on a paper chit, and told me to hold the chit in my hand. I don't know why, but I thought of a Blue Lotus (may be inspired by the Tintin comic by Herge of the same title). Mr Yogi Singh then took the chit from my hand, clenched it in his fist, chanted a small prayer and then asked me to do the same. Lo and behold, when I opened the chit, it had the word 'Blue Lotus' written on it. (It could have so easily been switched when he took the chit in his fist and chanted the prayer. But till then I still was enchanted by this mystic seer)

Then finally he said, that to ward of the hindrances in my life, for me to climb the ladder of success in my career, to find one true love, live a long age and have two healthy children (his words stated verbatim) he would offer flowers to the Shiva Ling in the Himalayan Temple (how would he do this while he was in Singapore is a different question altogether) and pray for me daily. This would be done once I paid a fee of S$1000.

This is when I suddenly woke up. Now if you learn anything in a Conservative Middle Class Gujarati household in suburban Mumbai, is before spending money, take a deep breath, and count till 10. If you still think your purchase is worth the expense, only then do you go ahead and buy. For once I heeded to my parents advice, and then I understood the generic phoney statements. As soon as I refused to pay, the guy said for a fee of S$500 he would tell me the first letter of the name of the lady who was casting an evil eye on me. I joked back saying I have broken hearts of more than 26 women, so this wouldn't help me narrow down the list (Like most of my jokes, even here no one laughed). Now he got flustered and said that I had spent his time, and used his expertise and I owed him S$100.

Now finding myself in a sticky situation, I walked away seeing the closest bus stop tried to board a bus (as one might know, you never get a taxi in Singapore when you want one, and I boarded the first bus I saw, even though it was the wrong route number, and was going in the opposite direction). The guy chased me on to the bus, and told me that I could contact him on his email and gave me some Indian Mobile number. Took out a few books from his bag as the vedic texts where he learnt his astrology, and showed some pictures of him with other old Indian men with even longer beards wearing saffron robes, saying these were the great holy men from whom he had learnt the art of astrology.

This pestering almost created a scene, and the other passengers in the bus were staring at me as if I had done something wrong. I tried to get rid of him by offering ten dollars, but this was refused. Seeing a bus stop approaching, I finally said 'Please read your own palm again, and see if you had some money destined for this day' Saying this i quickly alighted the bus, and jay walked across the road and caught a empty cab (rare and lucky phenomenon in Singapore) and headed home.

Only after I reached my apartment I felt a sense of relief. It was then I thanked my stars I didn't fall for the phoney astrologer. So after all this Year of the Rabbit wasn't so bad after all.

P.S.
Wish all my readers (yes both of you) a Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. Gong Xi Fa Chai ! and hope you don't fall in traps laid by phoney astrologers.

Tom Sawyer and the art of making Dosa

2009-03-28T19:38:00.004Z

One lazy afternoon on a weekend, I suddenly had that craving of eating dosa (rice and lentil pancakes, traditionally cooked in south india) and unfortunately having seen my credit card statement the week before, I wasnt really inclined to eat out.

The only option was cooking it myself. The minor problem is that my culinary skills the less said the better. The only previous time I had attempted to make dosas, I burnt all the batter, and the results were disastrous to say the least.

Suddenly my 4th standard english lesson came to mind. (an extract from Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the part where Tom has to whitewash Aunt Polly's fence)

So I got into action, I looked up my contact lists, and knew 3 south indian guys in Dubai*. Suryaprasad Krishnamoorthy, Shankarnarayanan Ravikrishnan, and Raj Menon**. (Damn, I should have known a guy with a short name like Raj Menon would be a fraud south indian, and wouldnt know his Rasam from his Sambhar)

Then I call up these 3 south indian blokes, and invite them for dinner to have dosa.
In the mean time, I go buy the necessary ingredients from the neighbourhood supermarket serving indian stuff.

Dinner time, I start cooking, and kind of deliberately mess up the first dosa, which leads to Suryaprasad taking the lead, and teaching me how to make a perfect one. I tell him, that yes I know cooking is fun, but then I was kind enough to let him do the honours.
In the meantime, Shankarnarayan makes a fiery rasam and sambhar. Yes I have a large heart, and allowed him to enjoy the pleasures of cooking. Raj Menon, true to his short name, stands and stares in the kitchen.
I meanwhile, act as the head chef, and direct everyone on how to make the Dosa more crispy, and how the sambhar a little more spicy.

While these guys slaved away in the kitchen, I put a DVD and watched a movie, while having dinner. And after having a wholesome dinner (burrrppp!!!) I gently prod Raj, asking him to wash up the dishes, since he didnt contribute anything in the kitchen yet, while I washed down the food with a cold beer.

And just like Mark Twain had written 150 years ago, these guys were not only thrilled to come home, cook food for me, and then even clean up afterwards, the also mentioned "Nirav, we should do this more often"

Need I say some tricks are ever green.

Note:
*: Would have been much better if I knew 3 lovely south indian women to come and cook, but unfortunately I dont know any in Dubai yet. :(
**: names might have been changed, to protect identity and ensure that these guys remain gullible enough to cook for me once more.

Jimmy Cayne of Bear Stearns

2008-08-06T22:53:00.005+01:00

I read the interview of Jimmy Cayne the CEO of Bear Stearns (which has now been bought over by JP Morgan) the first big casualty of the Credit Crunch.

Inspite of everything that has been said about Jimmy Cayne (how he was playing bridge while Bear Stearns was sinking, akin the Roman emperor Nero playing the fiddle while Rome was burning) I still find a couple of things extremely interesting.

(1) He is a college drop out, and was a CEO of a multibillion dollar company which he was not the founder member. (I know Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Steve Jobs are also college drop outs, but they founded their own businesses). I guess it tells us about the times how they were different earlier, now without college education one really cant get a white collar job I guess.

(2) His line about how he got the job at Bear Stearns, is right out of a movie

Greenberg asked Cayne if he had any hobbies. Along with magic and yo-yos, bridge was a serious interest of Greenberg's. "And I said, 'Yes, I play bridge,'" Cayne recalled. "You could see the electric light bulb. He says, 'How well do you play?' I said, 'Mr. Greenberg, if you study bridge the rest of your life, if you play with the best partners and you achieve your potential, you will never play bridge like I play bridge.'"

You could have a young Amitabh Bachhan out of Deewar saying such a dialogue. (Instead of saying, "Main aaj bhi gire hue paise nahi uthha ta") Needless to say Jimmy Cayne is one of the best players in the world, and was recently ranked world no. 225 (I dont know what is his best ranking though)

Big Sailing Yacht

2008-08-06T21:46:00.005+01:00

This is what I saw last Saturday at Portsmouth Harbour, (returning from Gosport where my sailing school Adrenaline Sailing is)

This is the 99 foot long sailing Yacht owned by Hugo Boss.

Isnt she lovely?

(Also I will have to soon blog about Sailing ... this is long long overdue)

And this is with the Spinnaker Tower in the background (it is the shape of the spinnaker sail used in racing yachts while sailing downwind)

Damn looking at these massive boats, all I can think is when will i buy mine. (I doubt I will ever be able to buy a 100 foot sailing boat, but a regular 36-40 footer will do)

One more pic (before the sails were being brought down as it is entering the harbour)

One more last question to all readers, if you ever buy a boat what would you name it?
I am confused myself, so help me think about a appropriate (hopefully funny) name for a boat.

Nirav goes flying ...

2008-07-02T21:37:00.001+01:00

Well well well, I should have been blogging more often, especially when I have the time, as well as things to blog about.

As the topic suggests I did go flying, but flying commercial is not a big deal anyways, but I was lucky enough to be invited by a colleague (Mr. P) who has a share in a private plane, to hop on for a joy ride.

The plane which he has is a Ukrainian ex-military jet, used for training of pilots in the Ukrainian Air Force (YAK-30) and is a reliable plane for aero-batics.

Now P has this expensive hobby of flying these gas guzzlers (I am usually a person with a low carbon footprint, not having a Television at home and all) and doing all those crazy stunts like loops, flips and figure of eights, as well as flying upside down. He suggested I join him one fine sunday. Well I am never the one to say no for an adventure I agreed.

The airfield was outskirts of Greater London (outside the M25 ring road) and the nearest tube station was Epping (Far east on the Central Line) and got a ride in P's car to the North Weald airfield.

Before I boarded the plane, I was given a detailed briefing about the plane and its operating parts, and before starting the engine a serious check was done that all the moving parts were moving, and the parts which shouldnt move were not moving. (Unlike a car one cant suddenly stop a few feet ahead and fix the problems)

Then when I entered the passenger seat (mind you it is a training jet and the passenger sits behind the pilot, and has over-riding controls and a complete sets of instruments in the cockpit) I was told to strap the parachute and the seat belt.
Then Mr P said that incase of some trouble, he would try and land the plane, on some open fields but if in the worst case scenario that wasnt possible, I should open the hatch above me, and release the seat belt, and jump up, and then pull open the parachute chord.
Now this is simpler said than done. This wasnt some simple seat belt, it had straps from your shoulders and well as below from your legs.
The parachute was also strapped similarly.
In case of an emergency what if I not only nstrapped the seat belt, but also the parachute and then jumped off?
When the time came to pull the chord, it would be all over, (not that my blog readers would notice, since I post so infrequently anyways) Though I am joking about it now, it made me sweat profusely during the period of the flight.

The ride was absolutely exhilirating, and we flew from North Weald to the east coast of England, towards the Thames Estuary and the mouth of the River Crouch (just north of Thames) flowing into the North Sea. The pilot was generous enough to let me take the control for a while (it was a training plane) and let me make a simple left turn and right turn (though he held the acceleration pedals, i only turned the joystick around)
The greatest part was the take off and landing, one hardly felt a thing (more like a wheeelie on a motorcylce than the stressful ear piercing take off on a commercial passenger plane)

I dont think anywords can describe the true feeling, (atleast I am not all that expressive) but during the loops I experienced 4G acceleration force, and rest I leave the pictures to do the talking

The pilot Mr P

The Passenger Nirav

The 9 cylinder radial engine

The cockpit (Passenger)

The Scenery below from the plane

Sailing

2008-06-09T21:40:00.005+01:00

One of the few things I have learnt (apart from at work) after moving to London has been sailing. Sailing a dinghy or a Yacht simply using windpower is one of the most amazing things I have experienced.

Infact when reading "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome (written in the year 1888) I came across this paragraph

There is no more thrilling sensation I know of than sailing. It comes as near to flying as man has got to yet - except in his dreams. The wings of rushing wind seem to be bearing you onward, you know not where. You are no longer the slow, plodding, puny thing of clay, creeping tortously upon the ground; you are a part of Nature! Your heart is throbbing against hers. Her glorious arms are round you, raising you up against her heart! Your spirit is at one with hers; your limbs grow light! The voices of the air are singing to you. The earth seems far away and little; and the clouds so close above your head, are brothers, and you stretch your arms to them

(Note: the book was written before the Wright Brothers had invented with the aeroplane) Anyways the principle behind sailing as well as planes flying is the same. The difference in pressure across the sail (or the wing of an aeroplane for that matter) gives a thrust and leads to the boat moving or the plane flying.

The book is one helluva hilarious read, and though it has been written 120 years ago, still describes London and the River Thames well, and makes me wonder so little has changed since then.
Even the humour about planning for a trip and packing, about different ways men and women tow a boat (can be extrapolated to any task though) remains true. It is one sure evergreen book.

And as for sailing I am extremely lucky to have been introduced to this sport by Hemant on the River Charles in Boston 2 years ago, and am lucky to be living in London which has a great sailing culture.

The Telectroscope - connecting London and New York

2008-06-09T21:28:00.004+01:00

I was walking by the River Thames, on the southbank from Tower Bridge to London Bridge, there i see this big new structure which with people gathered around it.

It turns out be a "Telectroscope" between London and New York with apparently a tunnel running from London to New York beneath the ocean bed of the Atlantic.

I find it hard to believe, and I guess its just something of a web camera.

The locations are also iconic, near the 2 most popular bridges in either city. (Brooklyn Bridge in NY and Tower Bridge in London) where many tourists frequent.

You can see more about it on the website

Snow in April??!!??

2008-04-06T22:53:00.001+01:00

The weather in the UK, is so damn unpredictable, on Thursday the temperatures are north of 15 degree Celcius, and on Sunday there is snow. As one friend had rightly pointed out, "Never go short vol(ality) on UK weather"

Again today there was heavy snow (about an inch) till noon, while in the evening at 5PM it is bright and sunny all over again. (Though it looked nice and bright, with lots of sunshine, it was a bit too cold outside)

As it is said in Chaos Theory a butterfly flapping its wings in rain forests of Brazil, might cause a storm in India. Well if that is true, I am sure there might be a bunch of butterflys flapping their wings somewhere, which causes total chaos of the weather in London.

(Though I guess there are reasons for the weather to be so volatile here, I guess it is just too volatile for a person coming from a place where is summer for 8 months and rains for 4, with little variations)

Aprils Fool

2008-04-01T21:33:00.003+01:00

You know it is Aprils Fool Day when

The biggest bank in Switzerland (UBS) announces US$ 19 billion of writedowns in its quarterly results, posts a net loss for the quarter and the share price goes up.

Though analyst estimates were US$ 11 billion of writedowns, the losses were greater than expected.

Dont know what was happening?
Was it like the shareholders thought UBS was playing an April Fools prank on them?

Well I do agree on the saying
"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent"

DISCLAIMER:
I DO NOT WORK FOR UBS AND HAVE NO VIEWS ON THE STOCK PRICE NOR DO I OWN ANY.
THIS IS MY PERSONAL VIEW AND MY SURPRISE ABOUT STOCK PRICES BEHAVING IN A CERTAIN WAY ON A CERTAIN DAY.
THIS VIEW IS NOT SHARED BY MY EMPLOYERS OR COLLEAGUES.

Daylight Savings

2008-04-01T21:26:00.002+01:00

It is the last sunday of March and the Daylight Savings for the year begins in the UK.
The clocks will be turned ahead by one hour (Thus London is now 1 hour behind GMT and 4h 30 mins after Indian Standard Time)
The problem is, it means i need to wake up an hour earlier tomorrow.
This Daylight saving creates more problems, and the adjustment is done at 1 AM, thus after 00:59 the clock straight away moves to 2:00.

The problem would be encountered when day light savings is abandoned and we move back to GMT on the last sunday in October.
Clock moves back one hour at 2:00 AM. hence After 1:59 AM clock moves back to 1:00 AM and hence times between 1AM and 2AM come twice.
This can surely cause lots of trouble on the last sunday of October.
(especially if you are flying from western europe to UK where the time difference is also one hour)

though Daylight savings has its advantages, (proposed by benjamin franklin to reduce energy consumption) I am sure it creates all sorts of headaches.

What do my esteemed readers feel about daylight savings themselves

More from Jodha Akbar

2008-03-08T12:43:00.003Z

All the war scenes were badly shot, but did any one of you think that the war zone resembled a chess board?

First the Infantry (i.e. pawns)
Then followed by the Cavalry (The Knight)
Camels (Bishop)
Elephants (Rook)

the King who was a figure head and could only take a step at a time
The Master mind Vizier (Queen?) who directs the whole war, and can move in all directions.

In the first battle shown in them movie as well, like in any game of chess, the target was to nail the opposition king, who unwisely comes out in the open (worst strategy in chess) whereas Akbars army chief shields the king (effectively castling him)

I now need to read Sun Tzu's Art of War, to figure out further on war strategies, but i guess might as well read books on chess.

(I dont know anything about War Strategies, but surely military chiefs world over especially during cold was times must be involved in a continous one long game of chess)

MH02 - EA 7211

2008-02-17T10:20:00.005Z

Yesterday I ended up seeing Jodhaa Akbar (a way to long movie, but this post isnt a review) and after seeing all the kings, generals and armies on horseback immediately reminded me of my most beloved possesion ever.

My own motorcycle, (technically belonged to my dad, bought with his money but I was the sole user)

I remembered the fights I went through for 2.5 years to buy this motorcycle, and how I finally settled for a cheaper model (a Splendor instead of a Hero Honda CBZ). HOw I cribbed in front of my friends and my obsession was made fun of by all and sundry.

I actually cried and threw temper tantrums at home, fought with Dad, Mom and Sis making this unreasonable demand. I still believe how lucky have I been,

Finally on 31st August 2001 I got hold of my motorcycle. Registration number MH-02 EA 7211. Hero Honda Splendor, Black colour, with a Lavender swoosh sign on the petrol tank. It has many many fond memories

First Puncture:
Right in the middle of Santacruz flyover on the western express highway, with Avinash Mohan as pillion, and I was late for V.V. Mahajani's lecture. (The terror, as any student of Chemical Engineering in UDCT will tell you) I remember pushing the bike for a kilometer and half over the highway till I saw a puncture shop, and cars whizzing past me.

First Accident:
This was 4-5 days after I bought the bike, while commuting to college early morning around Dharavi (after turning left from Mahim Sion Link road towards Sion Hospital, I was trying to over take a taxi from the right, and the taxi squeezed me and I lost control of the bike, went over the tiny divider, facing the wrong side of the traffic and skidded and fell off. Thankfully escaped with minor bruises and scratches on my wrists shoulders and jacket torn around my left wrist.

View Larger Map

First Wheelie:
Hahahaha, this still brings out the smile in me. Hero Honda Splendor being a high mileage and a lower pickup bike this is usually unlikely.
But one fine day, during a break between the lectures, we wanted to photocopy a classmates (Chunnu) notes. Thus I went with Jaideep Raje on my motorcycle from my college to the photocopy center (Chandan Xerox). I had forgotten the petrol lock was on and after about 50m the motorcycle sputtered to a stop. I tried starting by kicking the kick start hard but no avail. Many of my classmates were around and making fun of me. Suddenly I realised and switched on the petrol lock and the engine roared to life. In order to act cool and not to show my disappointment, I revved up the accelarator, pushed into first gear, and let the clutch go lose, and lo and behold the front tyre defied gravity and the bike went up on the rear tyre, rising a couple of feet and travelling for a 4-5 meters or so before landing back up. If anything, the embarassment and jokes cracked on my riding inability went on further. Now I was the true laughing stock. (And Jaideep was petrified)
I could only get out of this by showing off I could do a wheelie at will, (by tuning up the engine and losening the valve from the tank to let more petrol flow down) But nothing was as spectacular as the first effort.

Best Single Ride
Sunday morning in October, not much to do, my bike had just completed the running in of 1000 km so now I could go over 60 kph. So without telling my parents I non chalantly go off in my shorts, T-shirt and chappals, wearing no helmet for a long ride from Andheri to BOrivali on the Western Express highway. the first time i cross 70 kph, and then 80, after a bit of coaxing do I reach 85 and then I see lightening and hear thunder. These are the retreating monsoons in mid october. It starts pouring cats and dogs. The visibility is bad, the road is slushy, but nothing matters. I am going the fastest I had ever been on a 2-wheeler, in the worst riding conditions, the wind is blowing in my face, (polluted with exhaust from the trucks and other vehicles) rain is hitting on my back, having no protection what so ever.
But nothing ever mattered. I crossed the Dahisar Check naka did a 3rd gear U-turn (another first for me) and came speeding back home. The whole feeling was exhilarating, I was drenched in the rain, and was down with a bitter cold for a week. But nothing mattered. I now was liberated. I had my own wings and I could fly.

First Big Bad Biking Trip
This happened in IIM Ahmedabad. Hitanshu Gandhi planned the trip from Ahmedabad to Junagadh via Rajkot, then the Gir National Park to see the Lions off to Somnath Temple to pray for our forgiveness, to Diu (out of the dry state of Gujarat to territory of unlimited cheap booze) and back to Ahmedabad via Amreli.

View Larger Map

Thus 1030 km in 53 hours, seeing Lions, visiting temples, fisher villages, drinking legitimate alcohol after a long time, those were the times.
This was also the first step in formation of the biking club "Freeriders". inspite of all promises to quit long distance biking after the back pains, the butt aches, we kept going again and again and again. Covered many national parks lakes and bird sanctuaries around Ahmedabad. This was the first time I cherished my bike more than just a machine. It gave me a new identity, and the temper tantrums, fights, tears spilled (who says boys dont cry) was completely worth it.

Worst Accident:
On the Freeriders trip to Dangs, we had left at 4 in the morning, there were 5 motorcycles and Sharath Coorg was my pillion rider. Going towards the Sardar Sarovar dam, we were on the old Ahmedabad Baroda highway and I was overtaking a truck (now you will see patterns in my accidents) and I was coming back to the left. Unfortunately in the bid to overtake I had veered too far right, and while coming back in I hit a divder. (The highway was a 2 lane without dividers for most of the journey, and suddenly this obstacle came in, being dark i didnt notice it, and went over it, lost balance and fell down at a high speed, myself and Sharath Coorg sliding on the road for 10-15 feet, and bike another 20 more feet. We were lucky to be alive, with the truck behind us breaking in time, and Abhilash Unnikrishsnan right behind us, swerving to avoid us. I was mentally shattered for a while, but thankfully all friends assembled around me, (Hitanshu, Narahari, Manu Raja, Sharath, Abhilash, Salman, Vaibhav Bhamoriya and Pixa). At that point I was thinking i might turn around and go home, may be never ride again. Then the words came to my mind, the Chumbawunba's song "I get knocked down, then I get up again ..." so off we went on the journey after a cuppa chai by the near by roadside chai-walla at the next junction (who just opened up at 5 AM. Off we went on, for another back breaking, 1000 km trip.

First Race:
With Chirag Raisharma from UDCT Matunga to Andheri Bisleri Factory on the highway. Evening 4.30 PM
He had a 156 cc, Hero Honda CBZ. I had a 97.2 cc Hero Honda Splendor. But what I lacked in power, I made up in my skill, and my manouverability in the traffic. (or so I thought)
After fighting through the traffic and maintaining a narrow lead till Sion Hostpital, he raced ahead of me in Dharavi, just for me to catch up near Bandra Kurla Complex, as he sat idling at the traffic signal. Then on the stretch of open road, he went whizzing past and I realised a fact. Neither am I an athlete by any stretch of imagination, nor was my trusted bike. A nice commuter vehicle, givign decent mileage, could hold steady at 70 kph, but no racing machine.

My fastest Speed:
Though I have touched this speed many times, always when alone, the 95 kph barrier is one which my bike has never crossed. the first time was coming down the slope from the Santacruz flyover, accelarating further down the slope rather than decelarate or stop revving the accelarator as my a standard procedure.
The fastest I went with a pillion on was with Ashwin Prasad (Bamboo) when we (Along with hitanshu and Pixa on hitanshu's bike) were going to Idar for a day long bike trip. there I touched 90 on the flat streches of the road, where due to my bad shock absorbers I could feel the bump due to the lines painted on the highway.

Drunken Drive:
This should never ever be done. during my internship at ICICI bank, Shashu, VJ, Jamun, Jhatku, Fraud and a few other friends were busy drinking beer one evening at Toto's in Bandra Pali hill. After a beer too many I was barely able to stand, let alone walk. But a glass of cold water, sheer will and determination got me back home. (Or may be I was simply lucky) Riding slowly on the left, only in 2nd and 3rd gear, I some how snaking through the traffic reached home after midnight.
Just to be scolded, screamt and shouted at by my Mum and Dad.

I guess I am lucky to be alive today to tell this tale, and the bike has long gone, sold to some one by the legal owner (my dad) when I left for London. I am thus dependant on the public transport, the corwded tubes and buses of London, the expensive black cabs which cost an arm and a leg. I feel inspite of all the good times, I have been lucky to have the motorbike ride it for 20,000 km without any permanant disability inspite of my lack of athletic ability, slow reflexes and devil may care attitude.

I doubt the attachment and the charm of the first vehicle will ever be matched by anything i might ever buy again, (who knows i am yet to buy a car, or any other expensive gadget) Just like the scars and marks left on the bike by me the bike has left its permanant impression on me, changed the person who I am.

Custom Number Plates

2008-02-11T21:15:00.000Z

A couple of weekends back I was walking in the suburban outskirts of London, when I came across this number plate on a BMW. The number plate is nothing if not ostentatious, especially in the UK where you cannot get a custom number plate (like in the US, where you can get any number plate using alpha numeric code unless it is previously registered)

The number is definitely CE 07 LBX, ( C E Zero, not C E O) since the British number plates are in that manner 2 alphabets and then 2 numbers followed by more alphabets.

The owner definitely must be a chief executive officer (if only of his own start up) and most probably an alumni of London Business School (CE07LBS might have been taken or X is for ex-LBS)

I have heard after the credit crunch when the Cross Over Index (called XOVER colloquially on the trading floor) blew out and since it was the series 8 which experienced the most volatility some one bid GBP 10,000 for a number plate ending in X8VER and X0VER
quite and emphatic statement that the person has made money from trading the Cross Over Index. (I read it in a free newspaper City AM ) The columnist said with the credit market crashing if no one else atleast the transport authorities in london made some money out of Cross Over.

I have had relatives (really religious ones) who had number plates "AUM SHAKTI" and "CHAMUNDA"
I am sure if I would want the plate LOSER would have already been taken.

Could all of you readers suggest any name plates worth a mention which shows the personality of the owner?

Chinese New Year

2008-02-06T21:40:00.000Z

Feb 7 is the Chinese New Year, as per their lunar calendar. Thus another time to make some resolutions.

This coming year is the Year of the Rat. Last year was the Year of the Pig, and as the name suggests i spent most of it pigging out and gaining weight.

Now that it is going to be the year of the Rat, what should be done?
The last year od the rat was in 1996 and i spent most of it studying for my class X ICSE exams. I am sure this one will be different.

Some astrologer has said this year will be bad for chinese stocks (ohh come on that was a bubble which was inflating like crazy, has to burst some day).
The year of the pig brought on the subprime crisis whereas the year of the rat will it bring a solution?

In this year of the Rat we shall all be a part of a huge rat race called life.
And guess what, even if you win, you shall still be a rat. :)

And by the way I am born in the Year of the Rooster, which makes me a Rooster or a cock. (and this might be funny for my IIMA friends, not the least since i woke up early and was the first guy in the mess for breakfast)

You can see which year were you born in here.
Please do post in comments what year were you born in and what characteristics do you have. (If at all they match with your chinese zodiac.

Infact I am Libra by the western solar zodiac pattern, scorpio by the Indian lunar calendar, and rooster by the chinese zodiac. Thus I can imagine my self as a pair of scales with one side a poisonous scorpion balanced on the other side by a rooster.

Joy of eating with ones hands

2008-02-04T20:41:00.000Z

Many westerners find it funny to see indians eating most of their meals by hand. Recently when i went to Chennai Dosa, a South Indian Restaurant in London, it had a poster saying:

please eat with your hands, as Indian Ayurveda believes that the true joy of eating should encompass four senses, i.e. taste, smell, sight and texture.

Well I thouhgt what about the 5th Sense (Sound)
Come on, we desis love that as well. Slurping ones tea, chewing loudly with ones mouth open. How can the sound of eating be forgotten?

Come on, please let me know who has noticed people chewing loudly or slurping their soup/tea/coffee and found it an irritant?

Does that irritate you more than getting your fingers greasy?

See Scott Adams post on a similar topic here

Damn it Feels Good to be a Banker (?!?!?)

2008-01-26T12:37:00.000Z

Given the current credit crunch and the subprime crisis, not many bankers might be feeling good. Nevertheless this is a nice video made by Business School Students from Fuqua (Duke in North Carolina). The Club calls itself FuquaVision and outlines the different career opportunities open for b-school students. Apart from this video they have some more do check them out on YouTube. (Especially the Borat ones are hilarious)

(thanks Abhilash for the link)

The song is based on the Geto Boys song Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangsta

Damn all you blog readers, please leave your comments on what would you rather be?

Banker , Brander, Consultant, Non-Profit or a Gangsta ???
Or something you would say completely different?

P.S.
nothing rings more true than the line

"To all of you money lovin' blood suckin' bankers
When the market blows up
What the F*ck you gonna do,
Damn it feels good be a brander"

Istanbul!!!

2007-10-27T14:59:00.000+01:00

A blog after a really loong loong time. Nothing much happening to be frank, and some of the funny things that i know i rather not blog about and get into trouble.

Nevertheless, Last week I was in Istanbul, (a place where I long wanted to go) on a business trip, and I spent the weekend there doing touristy stuff.

I have read a lot about the city, especially from Orhan Pamuk's (2006 Nobel laurete for literature) memoirs Istanbul Memories of a city, where he describes his childhood in the city of Istanbul, and his historical murder mystery My Name is Red, where he describes the world about the Ottoman Empire, during its peak, and the cabal of the miniature painters (who painted like the masters of the old) and their jealousies and rivalries.

But unlike the melancholy Istanbul I read about in Pamuk's memoirs, I found Istanbul to be a bustling and a thriving city. though the book describes the city in 1950s, 60s and the 70s, and says that the people of Istanbul were living under the shadow of the past glories of the Ottoman empire, and describes the burning yalis (villas) of the Pashas who could no longer maintain them, right now the city looks absolutely magnificent, and my colleagues in the Istanbul Office complaining about the sky high property prices and a similar villa by the Bosphorous (narrow strait of water connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea) would be costing upwards of a few million USD.

Definitely looking at the streets of Istanbul, it appears to be more of a Western European city than a East European or a Asian city. The country had undergone a wave of modernization under Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) the founding father of Modern day Turkey

The glitzy shopping malls in Levent, where prices are as high as in Knightsbridge in London (I couldnt afford to shop there) and the Night clubs in Beyoglu, the Restaurants around Taksim all was screaming a booming economy. And surely the Turkish Economy is booming, from the late 1990s where triple digit inflation was the norm, the currency was revalued and 6 zeros were cut off (1 New Turkish Lira = 1,000,000 old Turkish Lira) in 2001. Since then the Turkish Lira has strenghtened and turkey has been lobbying for joining the European Union.

Though I didnt go out anywhere during the week, on the weekend I managed to do all the touristy things, such as visit the Historical parts around Sultanahmet, The Hagia Sophia (a church built in 532 AD during the Byzantine empire when it was called Byzantium) and later converted to a church in 1453 (Rise of the Ottoman Empire or the Fall of Constantinopole, depends from which side do you view history) , the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern, and underground water storage tank, which was also a hide out for the army during seige.

(hagia sofia)

Blue Mosque

I also visited the old-fashioned covered bazar (similar to many indian bazars that I have seen but always feels great to buy trinkets in such a place), the Galata light house, the Topkapi Palace and the modern Dolmabahce palace. (tick marked all the touristy places)

Istanbul, is a classic place where east meets west. Lying on the edge of Europe and Asia (Istanbul itself has 2 sides, the European and the Asian side, divided by the strait of Bosphourous) and it was the Capital of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, (and previously capital of the Byzantine Empire when it was called Byzantium) and was a key point in the silk route where indian and chinese goods passed through to Europe. (The decline as mentioned by Orhan Pamuk in his memoirs also has a lot to do with the Suez Canal and improved shipping routes which eliminated the cargo to travel by land and thus reduced the importance of Istanbul.

Also it has seen the rise and fall of many empires right from the Persian Emporer Darius invading Europe, and the Byzantine Empire, Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire and also one of the holy crusades have been fought here. Even today one can see the clash of the civilizations to some extent between the majority pro-western secular majority and the slowly rising pro-islamic powers.

Apart from all of this something that is fantastic in Turkey is the Turkish sweets, (Turkish Delights and the absolutely fabulous Baklava) though I didnt really like the Turkish Local Alcohol (Raki) and sampled the Mezze (being vegetarian i didnt eat much of the local food)

Anyways I guess I will go there again, (the night life in Beyoglu being the most attractive point of it all)

I'll be Watching You

2007-08-07T21:57:00.000+01:00

Long time since last post, many things to write about, but I guess right now its just this link from Youtube.

It is by a Student of Columbia Business School (CBS) who is making fun of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States of America, Ben Bernanke.

You can check out the video here. Have a nice laugh, though might be a bit tough to follow for those who are not familiar with economics, and concepts like yield curves.

I cant stop humming the tune ... when the growth rate dips and the yield curve flips, I ll be watching you.

And to be frank, the entire financial community does watch every move made by the Chairman of the Fed, and interpreting each statement made by him (yes its always a him) and interpreing future interest hikes and cuts.

Cricinfo is Taken over by ESPN

2007-06-12T21:47:00.000+01:00

These days every week one hears about an Indian firm taking over a foreign firm. Each time I hear about it my heart swells with pride. But yesterday when I heard, that an Indian firm (well origanally Indian) was acquired by an American Firm (ESPN) from a British firm (Wisden) I am all the more overjoyed. Not so much rueing that an Indian firm is bought out by foreigners, but an Indian company is so successful, that even an American firm buys the website when few Americans play cricket (apart from the South Asian Immigrants)

I am sure all you cricket fans out there know what is Cricinfo. By far the number one website for cricket, especially if you are an indian fan and are working on weekdays, there is nothing better than cricinfo which gives ball by ball commentary.

I have been following Cricinfo some time since 2000 (about the time I had a PC at home) and the cable wallah blocked ESPN Star for all those pay channel issues.

The website is absolutely amazing, not only for indepth coverage of each game, but also with stats and all that cricket trivia which comes along with that.
The commentary is ideal for a person while working in office to have a look at frequently and be well updated about the match in progress.
Agreed the commentary has a huge amount of India bias at times (especially earlier whn the entire team was Indian and the matches held in India)

The story about cricinfo is also fantastic. It was put together by a bunch of semi amateurs in 1993 and then in 1999 Sify funded them. (about then the PC penetration went up in India, and also Infy TCS and Wipro started hiring loads of software engineers who had to warm the bench for a few months at a time. what better method to spend the day than reading the commentary on cricinfo)

In 2003 the website was acquired by Wisden (the one with the Cricketers Almanack) and thus there was more international coverage (including domestic cricket not only in India and England but all around the world) . By today it has over 7 million hits every day, and is the number one cricket website all over the world. The reason that ESPN has acquired the site is that it is the number one sports website visited by a huge Indian population (yes all our H1-B visa holding software engineers, all the students in graduate school) and thus made a good investment.
ESPN with its asian partner Starsports already was a major broadcaster for cricket in the Indian Subcontinent (till BCCI and all other problems started) Thus this is one more arrow in their quiver.

The website is growing so fast that it has been acquired thrice in 8 years, and I am sure one day we might see it as a separately listed firm. Also this is a signal for all those tech start ups, to believe in what they do, and then sky is the limit for growth. More over unlike my mum telling me that watching cricket does no one any good apart from the rich over paid cricketers themselves, some cricket geeks did manage to eke out a living by simply watching the game, and writing about it.

The Site not only had the stats about each and every player, but also special columnists
Like Steve Lynch's Ask Steven answering all your doubts about rare incidents and trivia
S Rajesh's Numbers Game comparing the latest statistics and the players current form
Todays Yesterdays saying what all happened on the same day in previous years in cricketing history and many more

Another unique feature that not only I have noticed but discussed this with friends is the nature of the commentary. It is much more light hearted and fun ot read rather than hear ex-cricketers drone about on Doordarshan.
this coupled with the reader feedback (due to the internet it becomes an interactive system) the system makes me feel some times its better to follow the match on cricinfo rather than watch live on TV.

And after living in London for over a year now, when I dont have a TV at home there has been little other choice (apart from going to a pub and watching it there)

All I hope is even with the new owners (especially Americans who do not play or follow the game ) the website retains its character, its colourful commentary and the trivia databases.

I would like to end this with a few bits of hilarious commentary from cricinfo (though i am sure its a lot more funny when read in context)

Bravo runs faster than he bowls. His last delivery was so slow, , the non striker nearly over took the ball before it reached the batsman.

(Harmison gets a wicket after a really torrid over) ... Harmison to Ganga, OUT. Come one it is tough for any one to face Harmison. Will the next ball be a wide, a no ball, or both? Should I go forward or stay on back foot, or simply watch the ball sail over my head to the fine leg boundary?

I would like it if you readers could post some commentary which you find really funny as well

Mumbai as an International Financial Center

2007-06-04T21:29:00.000+01:00

Recently (yes I am always late in such posts) there was a Percy Mistry Committee on how to create Mumbai as an International Financial Center.

Ajay Shah has given the most comprehensive coverage here (His blog is one of the best on the Indian Financial Sector at the moment)

Though the intentions are good, and required urgently as well, especially since Indian firms are in a takeover spree this year, and a well developed financial center would enable them to raise more money for such take overs, (Like Tata Steel buying Corus, or Suzlon acquiring Repower, or even UB Group buying Whyte and Mackay ... this list can go on for ever ...)

There are a couple of hurdles for the same, (as per my view)

For any place to be an International Center for any thing (not just financial center) the location has to be welcoming to the most talented foreigners. I am not just talking about the US or Europe. One can see London is the financial center for all of europe, while Frankfurt is not. The city of London has 1 in 3 who is born outside of the UK. Same thing can be said about New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. (Atleast with respect to nationalities working in the Investment Banks)
To attract such talent just money is not an issue, but also one needs to have world class infrastructure that can attract people to migrate to such a place. Though India has a lot of talented people, I belive in the value of diversity as well as the "Wisdom of Crowds"
The local political parties should also be welcoming enough, and not demand for job quotas, either for the backward classes, or for the local communities (i.e. sons of the soil) Right now Maharashtrians are rioting when Biharis come to give the Railways exams, I doubt people would be so welcoming to Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Lebanese, apart from the Americans and Europeans who run the financial industry world wide
Most importantly, in any place there needs to be some kind of certainty in the working days. Mumbai has 2 days lost due water logging during the monsoons, and has another day possibly lost due to a strike or a bandh. This would lead to uncertainties in settlements of trades.
Most important is a captive market. Though there is a market right now for M&A advisory, and for raising Equity Capital, there is not an active Debt Capital Market, also on the asset side there is not active investor base who would be buying complex financial securites. (though we have had an informal derivatives market such as Badla, and there is a huge betting market on the monsoons)
Another aspect of the local market is that we need to have foreign firms wanting to list their stocks on the Indian Exchanges. Indian Currency and Stocks and bonds should be traded else where. Indian Mortgages should be securitised and sold all over the world from Tokyo to Sao Paulo.
All apart one thing which can be easily addressed is the regulatory aspect, and I hope this step is quickly corrected by the government. India surely has the manpower from the best institutions who can run such a business

Thus in my opinion, though Mumbai will definitely be a Regional Financial Center, providing the financing needs for Indian as well as neighbouring South Asian countries.

More over Mumbai has stiff competition from established centers such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and now even Shanghai.

But frankly speaking, I hope I am proved wrong, and Mumbai does become "The Global Financial Center"

India and China Boom or Bust

2007-06-03T21:58:00.000+01:00

In the last few days the Chinese Stock Market has risen exponentially, and is prone to high volatility. Though on a smaller scale the same thing is true about the Indian Sensex and Nifty Indices.

Some people (Bulls) might say that this is due to deep structural changes due to higher profitability of these firms, some may say it is due to the Yuan being undervalued, some may say due to the growth of exports and the resilience of the US economy and the American consumers still consuming has led to this growth.

Where as on the other end the skeptics remind us that these are all the signs of a bubble. Remember the Nikkei Crash in 1989. (the Japanese Stock Index Nikkei 225 was nearly 39,000 then and it crashed to reach 15,000 thus losing 60% of its value) This crash has been followed by 15 years or recession or depression. (I am not qualified enough to use the correct terms)

Similarly the South East Asian crisis in 1997, left South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia scarred.
The currency plunged, and stock markets crashed. The companies went belly up.

Its 10 years since that crisis. And we can see similar signs of exponential growth.
An article in Livemint , by Subramanian Swamy looks at the possibility of India and China facing a slow down or a bubble burst, in case proper financial reforms are not made in the two fastest growing countries.

Also will populist politics in India pull all this growth down?
The Honourable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has considered liberalization with a human face, while his leftist coaliation partners from CPM, have totally denounced liberlisation, and are asking for further control of the economy.
I remember May 2004 when the Stock market tanked on comments made by the Left.

Will that happen again?

Only time will tell. Right now let us all make hay while the Sun shines.

Haaaphoos ....

2007-06-03T15:18:00.000+01:00

Yes, I am talking about the very Alphonso Mangoes. If Mango is the King of Fruits, then Alphonso variety is definitely the Shah-en-Shah (king of kings)

Alphonso Mangoes (or Haphoos, as locally called in Mumbai by the Maharashtrians and the Gujaratis) are favourites in Mumbai.

Infact these mangoes were so popular that they nearly cost their weight in gold. In the middle class suburban Mumbai, an indication of your wealth was when could you afford a basket of mangoes for yourself.

Though the first bunch of fruit would reach the markets in March, my family would be able to afford the fruit only when it would reach an affordable amount (Rs 100 a dozen or so I remember) and thus we would have these mangoes only for 3 weeks from Mid May to first week of June. Though my dad would keep buying the other variety of mangoes (dasseri, langda, kesar, pairi) I would like nothing else apart from the original Ratnagiri Haphoos.

I do remember in the late eighties and the early nineties, the curt remarks from relatives, neighbours and other family friends (well I dont think consider them friends) about how they would have mangoes right from March to October, how my Dad's school friend had a double door refridgerator (it was a novelty in India pre-liberlization) and how he would store mangoes in the deep freezer so he could enjoy them all year.

I also remember the times when I asked my parents when I saw mangoes on the streets with vendors early in the summer (though at prohibitive costs) and my parents would brush me off, saying these were lower quality and the best ones arrived only later on the year. Once I actually saw through this white lie, I stopped asking, since I know my parents themselves winced a bit while brushing me off.

As I grew older, ever wanting to be the contrarian, I started acting as if I disliked mangoes (just like saying though I cant have it, its just cause I dont like them much)

Now that I am living in London, my mom asked me a month ago, if she should courier a dozen alphonso mangoes to me this year. Not wanting to be another mango snob like the people whom i despised as a kid, I flatly refused saying it didnt matter to me, and was not worth all the hassle for them.

But finally I found some Alphonso Mangoes in London at East Ham (nice place for South Indian food, and yes as near the West Ham soccer club for all you premiership fans). These were imported from Ratnagiri, in Maharashtra.

These were exported from India, and though they did cost quite a bit, but definitely worth it all. Brought back all the memories of having the first mangoes of the season.

I guess their scarcity makes them all the more delicious, and for those who have them 6 months in a year, sure miss out on this part of the taste. Meanwhile let me have the one I just cut, in the extreme desi fashion, using my hands, and scraping the fruit from the skins.

How Rich are YOU?

2007-06-03T14:22:00.000+01:00

I got this link from India Uncut, and seems interesting.

I dont know how effective it is, and apart from having the USD and GBP exchange rate a bit wrong (I think they still value the USD much stronger) it also I think gives a bit of a rosy picture, (I guess to motivate you to donate a bit more)

Try it out (How Rich are You?)

Do you think it is real?
Were you surprised (i.e. your rank in the world is higher or lower than you had expected?

Please do let me know by posting in the comments section.
For me, I was positively surprised, as for some one sharing an apartment, having bicycle as sole mode of transport and not having a television at home to save money, the site surely puts me way above what I would think my true networth is.

I would like to distinguish between wealth and income. Wealth is total assets that one has, and Income is what is earned in a year.
Though I think my income is high, my expenditure is higher, and my past being as modest as it was, surely in the wealth list I would be way way down in the order.

Also the interesting part is, once you put in a lot of numbers, to look at the wealth index, it shows a non linear distribution.

For example a Medical Intern in India (earning paltry Rs. 1700 a month or USD 500 per annum is ranked in top 80%ile of the world), a lecturer in a Mumbai college with income of USD 2400 per annum is ranked 14.95%ile of the world

Any one earning more than half a million dollars is in top 0.001% of the world.

Below is the table

Profession -------------------USD -------------% of people above you
Below Poverty line------------365-------------------- 91%

MBBS Intern in India --------500-------------------- 80%

Call Center Employee -------5,000-------------------14.39%

H1-B Software

Programmer in US ----------50,000-------------------0.98%

Avg salary in US B-school ---100,000------------------0.66%

CEOs of India Inc------------200,000------------------0.01%

Movie Stars, Sports Stars,
Politicians, CEOs in US,------500,000-----------------0.001%

Where do you stand?

(P.S. Sorry for the sad formatting, wasnt able to get it in line in any other way)

Sex and the Desi (or the lack of it)

2007-05-29T22:29:00.000+01:00

One colleague was surprised to know that I was single, and sharing an apartment with two other guys.

He said "Damn that would cut down your sex life to half"

I shake my head with a grin and ask him, "which half? Thinking about it or talking about it?"
("though definitely not blogging about it" I can hear the sceptics say)

I guess he is still dumbfounded (I am telling you, for the westerners meeting Indians is as much of a culture shock for them as much as it is for Indians travelling to the west)

Anyways since the Indians are the ones who invented the concept of zero, he was not wrong in my case.

And for more about sex and the desi read this.

Multiple Nationalities

2007-05-29T21:53:00.000+01:00

Recently had to get a Schengen Visa to be able to travel to Europe and the whole thing is a bloody chore.
Every day in the newspapers I read about the visa problems of Indian Nationals in UK (HSMP problem) and the US (H1-B). More and more Indians are migrating out of India (Read Rashmi Bansals blog on Migration)
I guess coming from a third world country has its fair share of problems, especially when travelling to first world countries, even though you have no desire to migrate illegally. (Sure many of my desi readers might identify with that)

Every time I have been waiting in the queue for a visa I have cursed the firangs (especially the Americans who can seem to go anywhere without a visa and now I guess its the same with EU Nationals, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders)

At the other end of the spectrum are guys with dual passports.
And yes many of my colleagues fall in this category.
Brazlian and German, Algerian and English, American and English, Russian and English, Romanian and English, Bulgarian and American, German and American and the king of them all,
3 nationalities, English, South African and American.
Damn damn damn. This enables them to travel to many countries without any issues.

But the question arises, whom do they feel loyal to? Now its unlikely that these countries go at war against one another, but whom do they support during soccer matches?

Take the case of this person.
Born to German parents, in Ghana (you know this diplomats children) and raised in Turkey, India, and other parts of the world. Studied in America, and works in London and is married to a French lady.
Where does he belong?

His accent is a confusing mid-atlantic one (some where between British and American) and I dont know what national anthem would their children sing.

Right now since India doesnt give dual citizenships many Indians give up their nationality. Having friends who are contemplating giving up their Indian Passports, an act I cannot imagine doing right now. (who knows what happens in the future though :P )
I guess it is like selling your soul to the wild capitalist west (as if I havent by working for them)

Is the queue and hassle of Visa interviews that painful that you give up your nationality?
I guess Lakshmi Mittal who has been living outside India for more than 2 decades still holds and Indian Passport, I am sure we all can manage it.

Inspite of all the caste politics, the pandering of vote banks, the stupid subsidies, the rampant corruption, crumbling infrastructure, excessive crowds, loads of poverty, humungous amounts of filth, retrograde bollywood movies, even more regressive television serials, a joke of a cricket team (not to mention other sports), ruled by a party of sycophants, I still am proud to be an Indian, and Indian I shall remain. (for the time being atleast)

I saw the movie "The Namesake" which shows the life of the Desi Immigrants in the US. People who leave everything they have to go in search of the great American dream. A house in the suburbs with a backyard and a 2 car garage. The immigrants there take up US citizenship just so their children can have a good future. In todays materialistic times, I am sure its the worst reasons.

In the UK Lord Tebitt proposed the Tebitt test, that the country you support in sports (e.g. cricket) when your adopted country plays the country of your origin.

Suprisingly in the UK, most second as well as third generation immigrants support the homeland of their ancestors (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka) during cricket matches.
I guess it has as much to do with the social acceptances of children at school i guess. If you are not counted as british by the brits, then why would you support them?

Nevertheless I have rambled long enough, and atleast for a few years (while I am away from my homeland) I shall keep living this existential dilemma

How to pen a best seller?

2007-05-19T10:11:00.000+01:00

Recently I read 3 books which have been on the New York Times bestseller list. All 3 have been authored by Ben Mezrich and all of them are nice quick reads, but nothing so fantastic as to be a must read for everyone. But reading his three books I sure can make out a formula for penning these best sellers. (though they are classified as non fiction, I am sure one can write fiction with the same formula) The books:

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
Ugly Americans : The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions
Busting Vegas : The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees

Have some of the critical ingredients, like smart Ivy League students from a middle class back ground, all of whom might have struggled hard to make through to MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Yale. All of these with a engineering, computer science or mathematics as a major. the main protagonist is invariably a hard working smart guy (Kevin Lewis is the half Asian Black Jack whiz who can count cards, Seymon who is a son of Russian immigrants has techniques much more powerful than card counting and brings down Casinos around the world, John Malcolm is a son of a working class mother who goes to Princeton on a football scholarship, and moves to Japan to trade derivatives on the Osaka exchange)

The second major ingredient is money, and lots of it. Betting worth a few hundred thousand dollars on Black Jack, or arbitraging the volatile Asian derivative markets for a few hundred million. Come on every one is interested in making money. The more the better.

The third ingredient is the underworld. Come on, the main protagonist has to be in danger for his life (else the book wouldn’t be interesting, the risks taken by him would be trivial) From the casino bosses in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, to the Japanese Underworld the Yakuza. Guns, beaten up people, death threats. Surely it gives cheap thrills to the readers.

The fourth ingredient is sex. (by far the most important one) In the book, throw in references about Lap Dancing in Vegas, strip clubs, Geisha bars in Tokyo, prostitutes, and surely it will get lot of people interested in the content. And I am not counting alcohol and drug abuse. Come on they are now expected to be there every where.

This combination surely doesnt fail. For most Americans (Ben Mezrich's target audience) would have aspirations. Every one would wish to go to MIT (or Princeton or Harvard or Yale ... for that matter even CalTech and Stanford) . If they were already not there, then at least wished they were there or wish their children will be there. Again every one would want to make money. The idea of smart middle class bunch making easy money compared to the big bosses who control the casinos or the mafia surely seems fair. And add to that, people buying Ferraris and Ducatis and rolling in cash, lights up the imagination of readers. The underworld being portrayed as the bad guys. Come on, this is the oldest formula right from the Hindi Movies. The essence of a good story is a powerful villain. Imagine Ramayana without Ravana (or even Kaikeyi) or Shakespeares Merchant of Venice without Shylock. Damn there would be no story. And coming to sex, need I say anything? the thriving pornographic industry, tells us that there is a market out there. Show me some one who wouldn’t be interested in those high class hookers, with sculpted bodies and experienced in the most exotic forms of carnal pleasures and I will show you some one who has a difficulty in expressing their inner thoughts. Deep down inside most people are perverts and though not many have the courage to do so, (damn those moral, ethical, and social dilemmas) every one would want to be in that position, and surely would nt mind that in form of entertainment. (print or electronic media)

This surely makes me think about writing a book. So what if the American market is big, the Indians with 1 billion are an even bigger audience. With rising incomes and aspirations, more and more will be reading such books about other middle class people who made it big, in the bad bad world. Similarly other authors have written about the Big Bad world of Investment Banks (Monkey Business, Liars Poker ) I am sure now there is a market out there for Desis. I am not sure when would i write some thing, and even more skeptical if any publisher would be in their right frame of mind to publish the trash that I dish out, but then hope is ever eternal. Also I am sure one of these best sellers would surely leave me with enough royalties to retire.
Hopefully in the Bahamas.

On another note even Chetan Bhagat followed a similar formula for 5 point some one. Middle class boys going to IIT Delhi. There is not much money involved but the villain is the head of the Mechanical Engineering department, and there is a short love story with the main protagonist and the villains daughter and smoking grass, drinking vodka on the roof the hostel. I dunno about One Night @ The Call Center (link), but I am sure though most Indians are employed in Call Centers (after agriculture and shopkeepers I am sure Call Centers are the third largest employers in India) no one aspires to be a call center employee. Damn when did you read a book on life of a grocery store owner? (though most people, Gujarati Banyas especially end up becoming one).

That way I am a little late. In this day and age everything is electronic, and some one has beaten me to this idea by having a blog on this. Leveraged Sellout is written by a Princeton graduate who ends up in the M&A division of Goldman Sachs in New York.

Thats true we all are selling dreams. I hope I can sell some more. Surely there is a market for the story of a Middleclass Gujarati of conservative Brahminical upbringing in the fixed income division in a Bank in the City of London :)

Housing boom or bust??

2007-04-22T11:34:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer:
The author is seriously incompetent to make any rational judgement and comment on the general state of economy, politics or any other matters. All the views are personal and not endorsed by any of the firms that might have employed him in the past or are currently employing him.

Recently with many of my friends actually moving to buy a house (well I think for those people in the fast lane, who got married soon after b-school, and now are getting settled by buying a house), people were contemplating the decision to rent or buy.

Many people believe that house prices can simply never come down (this imagination is fuelled by the current housing boom in India, just like the rest of the world) and people in India would rather pay an EMI (monthly mortgage payments) of Rs 50,000 instead of renting the same flat for Rs. 25,000.
That is negative carry of Rs. 25,000 a month!!!
All this for convinience of not moving frequently, and believing that the same house would keep appreciating in value by the same amount each month.

Since my dad works in the construction industry in Mumbai, I do know that housing prices can be equally volatile, but yet not every one believes me.

Thankfully for skeptics, the US Subprime housing crisis has already started and people have started accepting the Reality.

I found this link on the Freakanomics blog which has plot the inflation adjusted house prices from 1890 onwards.
This confirms the current trend since mid 1990s about the skyrocketing housing prices (driven in an era of low inflation, easy consumer financing, growing economy and rising incomes) but go back a little further and the real picture emerges.

India like in every other thing is a little behind the rest of the world, and much more volatile than the rest of the world, would surely follow the suit.

so my advice to anyone right now: "Keep renting"
(Hahaha, this is keeping in mind the disclaimer above)
I am doing the same in London, (not that I have enough money to buy anyways)
And you can see the graph for yourself

Dammit its crossed 2 !!!! yippppppeeee .... arrrggggggggghhhhh

2007-04-21T09:45:00.000+01:00

Haha, I am not talking about Sachin Tendulkars score, and the cheers which Indian cricket fans might have when he scores a few runs but I am talking about the Pound Sterling (GBP) the lawful currency of the United Kingdom which has appreciated to be worth more than 2 USD.

Working on the trading floor in an investment bank, we all were anticipating this move since last december, that it might occur some time, but it finnaly breached the barrier last week.
And we heard the cries of anguish and happy depending on which trader was long or short which currency.

All the colleagues and friends started talking about, how this might affect their bonus at the end of the year. (Since we all work in an American Bank, compensation is in USD, but we live in UK so expenses are in GBP)

And all my indian friends are complaining about how their wealth has fallen due to the surging rupee (INR). (INR went up from being 46 to the USD to 41.68 in the last couple of months)

Even for me it has been mixed feelings all my current savings are worth more, and my parents are suddenly richer (though not that they would ever understand the currency markets)
My future earnings might be a little lower.
But dammnit. Why complain in currencies moving by 5-10% a year when I should be more bothered about increasing my own salary by working harder (or should i say smarter??)

Anyways not all my readers might appreciate the importance of this post, people might consider what is the importance of currency rates (and many including my parents think they are normally fixed through out) the FX rate and the interest rate in the different economies provide tremendous arbitrage opportunities.

Take for instance the Yen carry trade. People borrow in japanese yen (at 1% per annum) and deposit money in US Dollars (at 5% per annum) this looks like neat 4% profit, but you are exposed to the currency fluctuations.

I guess bigger than the Yen carry trade has been the Turkish Lira and the Brazilian Real.
With Rates being 16-20% and the currency appreciating, its sure has been some investment.
(Imagine, you could borrow in Yen at 1% and invest in Turkish Treasury bills and get a return of 18%, so much money to be made, just for taking some currency risk!!!)

Well though all these ideas appear fantastic in hindsight, if one loses on such trades, you would surely be branded as an idiot.

Anyways enough of gyaan on FX (foreign exchange for my non banker readers) lemme now mope around on my loss of future wealth. :P

Stallion battalion

2007-04-09T16:17:00.000+01:00

Saw this one weekday when I was going out for lunch (which I invariably do, when the food in the cafeteria at work is not per my liking)
There was the Mayor of London, coming for some Ceremony at the St. Pauls Cathedral, and thus there was some elaborate security arangements.

One was the horse back police force. I am sure they could incorporate such a scene in buddy cop movies, should be hilarious. A chase in the city of London, with narrow winding streets with dead ends, (Unlike NY, where every thing is in a grid format) a horse back chase should be fun, especially throw in a double decker bus in the back ground.
Wonder why no one thought about it yet

also in case you see some crime, you can always report it to the policeo n the number being advertized on the horses

Pictures from Paris

2007-04-09T15:48:00.000+01:00

After seeing the Video posted by Exchange students Meeku and Nanhee (hope I got their dorm names right), let me post some pics about my trip to Paris.

Most people have seen most of the wonderful sights there, (the Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triumph, the pyramid outside the Louvre, Champs Elysses ...) Let me post some pictures about the sights many might not have seen.

First some from La Defense, though many people might think what is so nice about a business district, it is a bit unclean, crowded (not so on weekends though) and has nothing much else apart from tall glass buildings. Well I beg to differ, it does have some pieces of different architecture, and though not everyone might agree with me, I am sure some of it is magnificent.

Some nice Arty mega size sculpture in La Defense, the business district of Paris

Some weird architecture at La Defense

The Arch at La Defense

Next, though a movie has been made about Moulin Rouge, not many know it lies in the heart of the Red Light District of Paris, (Tube Station Pigale). Though now Moulin Rouge has proffessional dancers and not prostitutes, along the streets you can continuously be pestered by people trying to sell you pornographic DVDs, inviting you to Lap dancing, pole dancing, and all other kind of shows. What was a geeky brahmin of conservative middle class upbringing like doing at this place? No need to ask :P

then the view of the city from Sac re Cur. It is the highest point in the city, from where one can see the skyline. As you observe not many tall buildings, unlike Manhattan (or even London where you see so many cranes in the sky which are about to be building sky scrapers). Paris is a massively huge city, especially once you venture out in the suburbs. A lot of it appears semi rural to be frank. Unlike Mumbai, which is one long concrete mess.

Videos from D16

2007-04-09T13:40:00.000+01:00

Well in the era of Youtube, every one is guaranteed their 15 seconds of fame, and there are crappy videos dime a dozen, a couple which came out of my dorm in IIMA, i think are fabulous (obvious bias due to dorm loyalty)

The first one is by my juniors (class of 2007) about their batch

the other one is by French exchange students, who have made a video about Paris, for the residents of the great dorm, and this is another good one, and surely gives me ideas about how to shoot a video.

Also i think i will upload my videos about the Oktoberfest soon.

London bridge is falling down ...

2007-04-09T13:27:00.000+01:00

... falling down, london bridge is falling down and God save the Queen

Well i do vaguely remember the nursery rhyme, and now I live near the great Tower bridge (near tower of london) and routinely jog (ok yeah walk) along the bank of the river Thames (or Temms as the brits pronounce it), I like the look of the magnificent bridge, and last weekend i saw one of the rare sights, the bridg openning up to let a ship pass through.

Thankfully we live in the era of camera phones, and I managed a picture, though a little grainy since taken by a camera phone.

Trip Back Home to India

2007-04-01T21:14:00.000+01:00

Well in the year 2007, I have been lucky enough to visit home twice in the space of 3 months.

The funny thing is whenever i go home, since I have been staying away, the watchman always stops me and asks where do i wanna go. Any amount of explanation doesn't work that I actually lived there. The problem is every 2-3 months the day watchman changes.
This is surely unlike the nightwatchman (not to be confused with the same term in cricket) Pandey, is the same since I last can remember. And he knows me really well, since in our small building I am the only guy who routinely returns post mid-night, and he has to stay awake till i return. (Yes, after that he locks the gate securely and goes off to sleep). This perk is the only thing that makes him stay there. Apparently he has another day job, and he saves paying rent in mumbai (which is exhorbitant as many of my readers will vouch for) and gets paid Rs 2200 as well. No doubt the day watchman quits as soon as he gets a better job. Why are they being paid so less. Well in a building full of gujaratis, no one is willing to pay enough for security. (Damn, no wonder Somnath Temple was looted umpteen times by all the invaders)

Anyways, apart from that, the other thing i notice in my house is that on the Television suddenly the sports channels are relegated to later slots, and i spend a couple of hours just searching for them. Gone are the days when i had ESPN and StarSports within first 10 channels. This time round I found them at 59 and 71.

Also with all the hullabaloo about the salaries in IIMA, with people getting astronomical salaries, and then rejecting them to start some lingerie business, (didn't I say some one puts their personal interests before money) my parents inquired how much did I actually make in a year.
When I smilingly told them my salary, and even multiplied the figure by 85 to convert Pound Sterling to Indian Rupees, my mother got shocked. Then my father asked me how much did I save, and when I told them the figure, they were terrified. So little, and that is when i cook clean and wash utensils myself? go bicylcing to work, and live in a shared accomodation.
Some how my mum felt sad, her middle class brahminical values of thrift had not been completely imbibed in me.

Moving from salaries, I went and visited my maternal grand parents. With all my maternal cousins hitched, unfortunately I am the next one in line. Loads of not so subtle comments are made, about me being the next one and I made my best attempts to act ignorant. (Next for what? Walking the plank, being the sacrificial lamb, next to be guillotined? Nay much worse .. marriage #*$*^%%#!!!)
Now I am sure many of you might think marriage is not that bad, (did I hear necessary evil here?) and some might go on to advocate the benefits to me.

But wait a second, 4 years of engineering apart from adding analytical abilities left me completely socially challenged, and through all my adolescence and young adulthood till now i think a total of {exp(i*pi)} (e raised to the power i times pi) girls might have been interested in me. (Do I here sniggers why am I still single?!?!?)
And having no other attractive feature I am sure in an arranged marriage, only reason why a girl would end up considering a guy like me, would be stable cash flows in the future. Having a beer belly is bad enough, but being looked upon as a (Cash) Cow is absolutely pathetic.
Some how I wriggled out of those ugly situations saying I am only 25, but my mental age is more like 12, and the killer one was I hardly save a tidbit from my monthly salary.

I am sure i might have to face, many more such subtle questions from other relatives as well (just like any young adult of indian origin might be), thankfully my parents dont ever talk about this topic (yet). I guess looking at the deterioration in their quality of life post marriage and post my birth, they dont wish such misery on others.
I guess no one values the freedom, and independance you have while being single and earning enough with no liabilities.

And yes when I am home with nothing to do, I resumed one of my routine tasks which was assigned to me when i was living at home. That was buying groceries and vegetables.
The problem with your family living in the same locality for 22 years is that every one knows you. From the vegetable vendor, to kiranawala. The shopkeepers not only greeted me but also asked how long was i back for? Most of them though were under the impression I was still studying, and that too some where in Amayricka (sic). They too raised the topic of marriage (damn, damn, damn, curse the whole indian society !&^#%$#*!$^*^%%#)

Last but not the least, my motorcycle was finally given away. (Dad has given it to his employee as a perk of the job) Well though i might have cursed it a lot, for its lower than expected mileage,
have had my share of accidents, but I truly miss my bike. Hardly Davidson as I jokingly referred to it, or MH-02 EA 7211, as it was registered was definitely an extension of myself if not a part of me. It was with me for 5 years, and gave me the freedom not having to use the overcrowded public transport, while zipping through the clogged traffic of mumbai.

And this time when i was visiting a friend, i thought I rather travel by local train from Andheri to Bandra by train rather than by Autorickshaw and safe Rs40 (50 pence here). And in the whole process i broke the glass on my Omega watch which took a lot more to repair. (did i hear penny wise pound foolish here?)

More over when i went the second time round to India for recruitment in IIMA, it was another nice feeling. For a change I was on the other side of the fence. I could ask a question of which I had no clue about. And apart from that, the girls actually are looking forward to talk to you. (hahahah).

Though there are many more things to write about, but they are even more boring than the ones written above, and I wish to spare my dear readers from that.

Cricket for Charity

2007-04-01T19:09:00.000+01:00

Well after India is knocked out from the World Cup, and loads of advertisers have lost money, ad agencies have to come up with smarter ads rather than make Sachin Tendulkar smile, and sell more Toothpaste, Motorbikes to Energy drinks, and every Indian has started talking about how bad the game is, all is not lost.

At least here in London, CRY (Child Relief and You) has organised in London, a cricket tournament which would raise money for the poor orphans. Now since obviously they cannot rope in the popular and much loved (??!??!??!?) indian national cricket players, generating money by selling tickets (leave alone television rights) is not possible, they are roping in corporates, to play the tournament and actually pay money for playing in the tournament, when there is NO prize money. (only incentive to win is you get to play more matches, which might be a good one, especially for those in the Indian Cricket Team)

When a colleague forwarded an email about this and asking for volunteers, saying it is some thing like 100 Pound Sterling to play, I was a little taken aback.
Come on I am the kind of guy who likes watching sports, and my dose of adrenalin rush comes from cheering my teams (and sighing in despair when they invariably lose).
My complete lack of fitness, (as regular readers might know my whipping in squash by Murari continues) and with my increasing waistline, my right arm medium fast i guess has become right arm gentle medium, and am sure my dibbly dobblies will be despatched for boudaries (that is when i bowl the ball on the stumps). All this is when bowling is my strongest suit in cricket. [:D] The less we talk about my batting and fielding (I am sure I here a couple of giggles here) the better.

But nevertheless, since it is for a noble cause and i shall have something to look forward to on the weekends, I am game.

Also with the Indian debacle I can root for the team i really like, Stephen Fleming's Black Caps.
The Kiwis have got a couple of setbacks during this cup, the worst being Lou Vincent's injury (Darryl Tuffey has also been sent home, Mark Gillespie and Ross Taylor are still injured).

And India's outster from this world cup would sure have its benefits. I am sure it would have been much worse if India lost all matches in the Super Eights. We have been spared the pain, and also with India out most of indian fans will be able to focus on work, and the Indian GDP will rise 0.3% faster this month, and surely Indians can do better than play this silly sport. Acquiring global companies for instance [;)]. Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Kumarmangalam Birla should have their eyes focussing on manufacturing firms abroad, not a motley bunch of guys dressed in blue.

Egyptian Trip (part 2)

2007-01-19T08:21:00.000Z

I dont want to bore any one with history lessons which I got on my travels to Egypt, and thus if you want to see all the pictures you can see them here .

What was something unique was interacting with Kiwis, South Africans and Aussies.
Apart from their accent, (Aye, mayte, and the brash arrogance of the aussies) even the South Africans and Kiwis did have some distinct characteristics.
During the campfire a Kiwi guy did the Haka (the Maori tribal dance) and every one sang their most popular campfire songs. I tried my best with the Indian song (Darling Open the door ... why are you angry so??) which is a popular number at any boy scouts camp, but hten finally I plugged my Ipod and played the evergreat Mehbooba oh Mehbooba from Sholay and suddenly all the people started swaying their bellys just like an Egyptian Belly dancer would.

And talking about this, throughout my stay in Egypt, the locals thought I was one of them (brown skin and knowing a couple of Arab words helped), but as soon as I said I was from India (or Hindoostan as some of them still call it) every one would simply shout out Amitabh Bachchan since hindi movies are extremely popular there. This was a proud moment for me, since I saw that Egypt was a country with slightly higher per capita income than India, but all their income was simply from tourism, toll on the Suez Canal, and electricity exports from the Aswan dam to Sudan and Somalia.
They didnt have any industries, and no cars of their own. The roads of Cairo were all crowded with the air smelling of Unleaded petrol. Thus India even though equally poor had made many advances, not the least in the entertainment industry.
The tour guide himself said that his favourite movie was Amar Akbar Anthony.

Another thing that I observed was that the Egyptians didnt have a concept of Vegetarianism. I went in to a Kebab house and all i asked was a Nan sandwich without kebabs, (as i have done before in Europe, doner kebab with no kebabs). Here the guy tried convincing me that the meat wasn't bad, offered me chicken, mutton, tender lambs meat but I relented. When he realised I was from India he said the meat was all Halaal (though i am not a muslim) and also said that they didnt serve any beef. after convincing them that I was perfectly fine with their establishment and didnt think that it was dirty but i was a person who was averse to eating meat.
After the whole comical episode got over, they didnt know how much to charge me for the salad and nan sandwich. All this is when those guys dont know English and I dont know Arabic. Some knowledge of Hindi and Urdu helps since many words are similar, but I am sure a lot was lost in translation.

And for people having raised this issue about racism, (especially after the Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother controversy) I did feel a bit isolated at times, but I am sure that was more due to coming from a different cultural background rather than discrimination. (dont we indians segregate according to our languages)

Another good thing i observed was their desire to travel and care free nature.
Though these are descendants of sailors, travellers and adventure seekers (the white residents of SA, Australia and NZ) and with social security and even blue collar jobs paying well, you could be a carpentar and take vacations all over the world. There was a Kiwi woman, who was a police officer in Aukland and was earlier an English teacher in Tokyo. She had currently taken a year off and was travelling all over the world. (you dont see that too often amongst Indians)

Well in india due to lack of social security and people sticking close to their roots, there isnt so much desire to travel or explore the world. But also the same thing makes people work harder and be more ambitious.
Dont know, I hope i get to travel and experience different cultures, and hopefully pick up the best from them.

Egypt On the Go (Part 1)

2007-01-07T21:35:00.000Z

Finally, all my dear esteemed readers (yes both of you)
Time has come to write about the greatest vacation i have had (since something called pgp2 in IIM Ahmedabad)
Thankfully i was sincerely working in my job since 2nd May 2006, without ever taking a single day off (not to hunt for flats, not for falling sick, not to show my girlfriend(s) around the city of London, diligently working hard (or hardly working as some of you skeptics might say). Thankfully the Compliance division did not like me not taking any holidays in the calendar year, and forced me to take some days off.
At the same time I had already booked my trip to India (home) sometime in January (not knowing or ever bothering about leave entitlement, being the diligent chap that I am)
Thus grudgingly my manager sanctioned another holiday in December 06.
Now left with a sanctioned leave, but no where to go (being stuck with my 2 flat mates who are slightly less boring than me on weekends wasn't bad enough for all 3 of us) finally after talking about all the vacation options with my peers Piotr suggested Egypt, and Amir gave me contact of a really great travel agent, and I could book my trip to Egypt.
Wary as I was about conducted tours, I booked myself on the King Rameses Tour with On the Go tours , but as opposed to other people scaring me that the conducted tours are fool of Oldies this was full of young people, with most of the people being from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and one each from Brazil, France and obviously India (yours truly) and a couple of English people were there as well.
As you can figure it out from the web link, the trip was surely a great deal and well we sure had a whale of a time.
The tour covered most of the touristy places in Egypt,
The City of Cairo, The Great Pyramids of Giza, The Aswan Dam, the Temple of Abu Simbel (which I surely think should be in the 7 wonders of the World, though i guess it is the 22nd Wonder), Temples of Luxor, Kanark, EdFu and Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.
Also a 2 day 2 might trip on the Nile on Board the Feluccas (Single Sail Boat) without any toilets or spare rooms. It was 2 days of relaxation, drinking beer (the Great Egyptian Beers, Stella, and Sakkarra) and playing cards ( I learnt the great Aussie card game, called Arsehole)
This was followed by the second leg of the journey to Dahab which is a beach resort near the Israel, Jordan and the Saudi borders.
Its a quite place, with great Coral Reefs, Red Sea (which is quite astonishingly blue) nice sandy private beaches, and lots of Sunshine, with the back drop of the mountains (Mt Sinai)
I also climbed up Mt Sinai, which was the place where Moses gave his 10 commandments after spending 40 days and 40 nights hiding up there with his followers.
I have said enough, and now since each picture is worth a 1000 words (and Ancient and a very popular saying) here are the snaps

The Great Pyramid of Chiops

As you can see, this is the 2nd of the great pyramids of Giza. These pyramids were tombs and built in a manner thus they could last for thousands of years (since the Ancient Egyptians believed that the soul would re-enter the body in the after life)
Thus the pyramidical shape, which not only gives stability, and the weight would fall on the sides and be equally distributed rather than the central foundation (where the tomb of the Pharoah was placed) Also being pyramidical not conical let the air pass through around it without creating wakes, being on top of a hill and in the desert allowed it to be not affected by ground water and rain. Thus these mighty Structures still stand on defying time.
There is an Egyptian (Arabic) saying

Every man fears time, but time fears the Pyramids

The Sphinx

This is a statue of the Pharoah with a lions body. We can see that the face has been defaced, and that has apparently been done by the invaders army's (such as the Turkish Ottomans, the Greeks, the Romans, Napolean Bonaparte) or the religious converters who defaced these monuments and asked that if there is GOd then he would protect himsself (and succeeded in converting the Ancient Egyptians to Islam and Christianity) (Not because of Obelix climbing up the nose as shown in Asterix Comics by Goscinny and Uderzo) Nevertheless this statue is massive, and is along with the great pyramids one of the 7 Wonders of the World

sunset At Sakkara

The On the Go Group

The Great Temple of Abu Simbel (of King Rameses II)

This Temple of Abu Simbel was built by King Rameses II (arguably the most powerful Pharoah of Egypt in the Ancient times)

This was carved out of a hill, and if you notice the door in the center, has been so carved that on every 21st of February (his coronation date) and 21st of October (his birthdate) the sun's rays go right inside the 60m passage and shine on the face of the statue of King Rameses himself.

Though since then after the Aswan dam is built and Lake Nasser would have flooded the temple, the whole hill has been moved behind, and thus now the Suns rays shine on 22nd of Febraury and 22nd of October (shifted by a day)

That kind of knowledge, and architecture in those days is quite remarkable. Considering this is 3300 years old

The Blue Nile (the real one, not the Strip Club in Colaba you pervs), Life line of Egypt as seen from the High Dam in Aswan

The River Nile is the life line of the country of Egypt.

Egypt has a population of 77 million, which only inhabits 4% of the land mass of the country, and that is along the banks of this river, the rest of it is Desert.

A little more on the trip (the fun parts, the people on the tour, the egyptian people and the country and a little more history lessons in subsequent posts)

hallo from egypt

2006-12-14T14:15:00.000Z

Aloha to all my readers (yes both of of you)

I am in Luxor in Egypt and have so far been to the Pyramids of Cairo, Aswan Dam, Lake Nasser, Temple of Abu Simbel and the Temples of Edfu and Kom Ambo.

Have been to Belly Dancing shows and smoked the hooka (water pipe or sheesha as they call it here)

Travelled on the Nile in a Felucca (sail boat) with no electricity, water or toilets for 2 days and 2 nights.

Still am hale and hearty and one whole week more to go.

detailed posts when i am back in london.

Till then see you all.

Egypt Ahoy

2006-12-07T23:43:00.000Z

Hi to all my readers (Yes both of you)

I am sorry i havent been blogging since sometime, its due to my longer work hours and laziness (not to be confused with laziness at work)

But i might not have access to internet as well some time in the future, since i would be travelling to Egypt, (yes the land of the pyramids and the pharoahs) and would hopefully have lots to blog about, and obviously many pictures.

So do wait in anticipation (yes both of my readers, though i know one of you i imaginery)

Till then bbye

Newtons Laws of Losing Weight

2006-11-12T18:43:00.000Z

Yeah ... its time for me to (mis) quote the most abused laws again

(1) Any person who remains at rest in a desk job, shall remain at rest unless acted upon an external irrestible force.

e.g. The trousers getting too tight, OR lack of attention from the opposite sex

(2) The accelaration to get things going is directly proportional to the force applied, i.e. either by your over bulging tummy (or jelly belly) on your pants OR the number of attractive species of the opposite sex around you

(3) This is the toughest one, To each and every action you do to lose weight, there is an unequal (usually far greater) and opposite reaction.

As in hunger pangs and binge drinking/eating

Yes as you can figure out from the above posts, I am facing the battle of the bulge, and in my case (unfortunately) the force applied is the one of my trousers.

Women have continued to keep ignoring me, which they have kept doing irrespective of my weight or waist (ive been the fattest and thinnest guys in my class, though in different years)

And to lay to rest these weighty issues i started playing squash with a colleague of mine.

Mind you, i suck big time at raquet sports (just as badly as in track and field events, and other sports) but still i thought, i have never played squash before so why not try it out, apparently it burns more calories per hour than other sports (definitely more than carrom or poker which were the games i was playing earlier)

So i started playing in the squash courts which are in a building hosting the back office in a somewhat shady area of london.

Now was when i realised the Newtons third law of losing weight.

This game involves runnign and hitting a really soft ball against a wall and this kind of involves physical effort which my body hasnt been used to. Thus start all the pains and aches, and then i am so goddamn tired in the night (after work then play) and i end up drinking a couple of beers after the game, neutralising any positive benefit the game had to my physique (or the lack of it)

More over, being beaten hollow does a lot of good for your self esteem as well, though for a person like me being beaten at sport hardly matters, infact its good i remember when i won, like

i last beat my close friend abhishek burman for a table tennis match on 2nd april 1997. Well dont count it as a mean achievement, since in 1998 january he ended up as Mumbai junior college tournament semifinalist.

Its a totally different thing that he had his left hand in plaster cast then, and a much inferior (practically dead) racquet.

Anyways the problem with squash (compared to tennis table tennis and badminton, i.e. other racquet sports at which i suck, i.e. ORSAWIS) is that the ball is extremely soft and thus doesnt bounce a lot. Thus the coefficient of restitution is much less than 1. (e<<1)>

In addition, with the side and the back walls which can be hit upon, the whole problem becomes 3 dimensional compared to tennis or badminton or table tennis (ORSAWIS) . As any one who has solved a system of equations will tell you a 3 dimensional problem brings in much more complexity than just one additional equation compared to a 2 dimensional problem

The third problem is, in ORSAWIS the opponent is on the other side of the net, hence you can see where the opponent is going, here he may be on your side, ahead of you (where you cant see his face or where his eyes are pointing) or he might be behind you (where you cant see your opponent at all) and this makes the whole system further more complicated.

The decisions systems in ORSAWIS is if he runs to left hit the ball to his right (i.e. our left)

Now it took me some time to realise, here my left is same as his left (and it doesnt even change if the opponent is left handed) , and if i cant see where my opponent is running towards, how do i hit the ball away from him???

And just like any physics problem (or like chemical engineering differential equations, which by the way was my undergraduate major) there are serious boundary conditions. Not only the ball bounces back off the side walls, unlike ORSAWIS where you can run out of the court (or away from the table) here this boundary conditions cannot be messed with. Real life is not like road runner or tom and jerry cartoons that you can run through walls.

Unfortunately i learnt it the hard way (ouch!!!)

Since all my attention was only on the ball (like Arjun of Mahabharata focussed on the eye of the bird) I didnt notice the wall obstructing my running and follow through after the shot, and bumping into a wall isnt really pleasant.

Well now as i nurse my aches and pains after playing squash and have digested my beers (and burped as well) I am sitting down and refiguring it out how to beat the hell out of my opponent.

I have already written down the system of equations, adjusting for the coefficient of restitution of the ball, (Hence angle of incidence is not equal to angle of reflection) the boundary conditions in the three dimensional space, with rigid boundary conditions. Also I have put in a probabilistic term to account for me not being able to see my opponent at all times.

I guess by now you might have realised why do i suck at sports and am good in physics.

Anyways all i am hoping for is to lose with a little more respect, actually score a point every now and then. And also lose some weight in the whole process.

And as for the opposite reactions, I plan to soothe my pain by drinking whisky on the rocks instead of beer to keep the weight in check.

Come on all my readers (yes including the non-existant ones) wish me luck against the battle of the bulge.

I hope now i can atleast lose with some respect

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

2006-11-12T17:07:00.000Z

Yeah i did see this movie, the most talked about and on of the highest grossers amongst hollywood movies.

Admitted this movie is a bit gross, and offensive to most people (in particular Jews, Women, Kazakhstanis, blacks, prostitutes, ...)

It is about the travails of a Kazakhstani TV presenter (Sacha Baron Cohen, yes he himself is a Jew) who travels to America with his producer Azamat to make a documentary on the ways of American Life.

The movie has crossed realms of humour, and this form of aggressive humour is meant to shock the daylights out of you, and sometimes actually it is a parody on the ignorant americans.

when ever he pretends to speak in Kazakh he actually speaks Hebrew, and some times in Polish.

The cyrillic alphabet is nothing but garbage, doesnt make sense.

While portraying a country in bad light he mocks the way america views rest of the world.

On his journey he makes fun of feminists, blacks, homosexuals, prostitutes, politicians, texas during a rodeo, baywatch blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson, AMerican SUVs, college fraternity brothers.

Agreed the humour is a bit too aggressive, there are scenes which might shock people, but he surely has set the cash registers ringing at the box office.

First there was enough hype created and then with such shocking movie, some people are going and watchign it again.

Like it or hate it, everyone is talking about it and thus the controversy is making more money for him. A Jewsih colleague said, all his jokes on Jews are alright since he is a Jew himself.

Anyways i would suggest you go watch the film yourself, unless you are those sensitive people, and dont you go watch the movie with a Kazakh Jewish woman. Especially if she is a feminist (or a prostitute or both)

Free Riders featured in a magazine

2006-10-29T10:46:00.000Z

It is extremely heartening to say that Free Riders the IIMA motorcycling community has been featured in Bike India, a magazine for motorbike enthusiasts.

All kudos to hitanshu gandhi for getting the article published, and trying to post the scanned pdf file here. (soon might post a pic or bmp version)

This also reminds me of the first big biking trip, from ahmedabad to gir somnath and back. This was 1030 km in 53 hours, and while returning back to ahmedabad, i had the great feeling of achievement.

To say freeriders is just a club is an understatement. For me it was one way changing my own perception abotu myself, breaking all the mental ceilings i had about my own capabilities.
Again i never imagined there would be more people who might be interested in the same, but now the club has simply grown bigger and bigger.

It also removed the idea that IIMA was only for academics, and there was no other avenue for entertainment.

Enough of my own rambling, this is definitely a proud moment, to get soem sort of recognition, for an initiative that was taken by 2 guys who were bored of the routine.

Hope that this passion for motorcycling remains alive even 5 years down the line, and i will have felt the sense of being a part of a movement that signified change.

Right now gone is my fill shut it forget it bike (hero honda splendor) and now i am on my bicycle, but the spirit of free riding still remains within me.

Champions Trophy

2006-10-18T21:12:00.000+01:00

Right now in India is the 10 nation cricket tournament Champions Trophy going on.
when this had first started (in 1998) i was thinking why do you need a mini world cup, when anyways you have the big trophy ot play for?
Lot of the previous editions were forgetable events, and even this one seemed to be a bore.
Round one had weak teams like zimbabwe and bangladesh and strong ones like Sri Lanka and West indies.
The series is being played in India, with very high ticket prices, in front of empty stadiums, and not being telecast on the major sports channel (in india) as well

But this one sure has had its fair share of drama.
Before the series due to ball tampering allegations and for walking out of a match the Pakistan Captain Inzamam is banned for this tournament. Then there is a big issue about the stand in captain Younis Khan resigning, just to be reinstated a day later.
If this much controversy wasnt enough, to of pakistans leading bowlers fail a drug test.
And inspite of these setbacks they one their first match???

West Indies pulled of a win against Australia with jerome Taylor grabbing a hatrick.
Pak beat SriLanka
and New Zealand beat South Africa
3 upsets in 4 matches already

This whole tournament is getting interesting, and also the matches are on pitches which are assisting bowlers, so they are not slam bang kind of affairs where some team bats and makes huge totals and bowlers mid match start thinking of changing career to do something else.

Anyways this seems to be a cracker of an event (I am saying this right before diwali, the indian festival of fire crackers)

Hope all of you follow and enjoy this event as much as i do.
And hope we see some good quality sport.
AND THANK GOD FOR CRICINFO

We didnt start the fire ...

2006-10-09T21:23:00.000+01:00

It was Paldy cooking, when his eggs were burning ...

yeah yesterday being a lazy sunday morning, at around 11 AM I was shaving in my bathroom and about to shower, when suddenly there was the loud ringing of the fire alarm, and i thought better run into the shower, atleast the water might keep me safe.

Just about then my flat mate Paldy knocks loudly on the door saying that there is an emergency, and then i go to the kitchen full of smoke, and the frying pan was set on fire (haha gives a new twist to the whole from frying pan to the fire phrase)

We opened all the windows in the living room and shut the doors leading to the other rooms and the passage and simply let the oil in the frying pan burn off.

Just about as I thought the situation was under control, there was a loud thumping noise at the door, and luckily for us Paldy ran quickly and opened the door, else the firemen there would have broken the door (and left us with the bill of getting it repaired ... and surely the landlord would have been furious)

The firemen were surprised and joked about the little kitchen fire, the whole scene was funny, a burning fire pan (which by then had extinguished), me roaming around the house with only a towel wrapped around my waist, and the kitchen and living room filled with smoke.

Thankfully it was just a minor mishap, but its good to know the fire alarm works, and also the firebrigade reaches on time, so all that high rent, and even higher council taxes we pay are atleast put to some good use.

Now you can imagine all this commotion, loud fire alaram, firemen in the house, and nippo (the third flat mate) was still sleeping, and ironically his bedroom is the one which shares a wall with the kitchen.

And alls well that ends well and after this we had our fair share of jokes,

Like Paldy is now known as Pyromaniac Paldy

and we all know what his secret flame was,

And the best is we already had a house warming party (quite literally)

THE ONLY REGRET I HAVE IS

I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN A PICTURE OF THE WHOLE THING

IT IS REALL HILARIOUS IN HINDSIGHT

though at that point of time i was thinking otherwise.

Living on a Shoestring

2006-10-09T21:18:00.000+01:00

Today i saw my shoelace was frittered and nearly about to break, so i sneaked out from office to go buy a pair of shoelace, and the damn thing cost me 2.49 Pound Sterling.

I was shocked, its like Rs 220 or so in India. Gosh, this is sure one thing which you cant call cheap.

It gives the phrase "Living on a Shoe String" or "Shoe String Budget" a totally new meaning.

Who knows the British if they use this phrase they might mean Middle class rather than extremely scarce resourses.

I sure am not gonna use this phrase really soon again.

Infact with the kind of prices here in London, sometimes I do feel I am living on a shoestring.

Passing Milestones

2006-10-03T07:26:00.000+01:00

Yeah, today i turn 25, and man it feels old.

As a kid i used to think at 15 you are the man, who knows the world etc, and then its 18, (thats when you can drive) 21 thats when you can legally drink (yeah i said legally) and 25 .. well thats when motor insurance is cheaper in Western world.

Life is like a journey on the highway, and this is just a passing milestone. My journey was unknown, and i made pitstops along the way, school, college, work, business school, ....
and now work again, in a different country, different continent altogether.

Where am i going i dont know, but in this journey the destination doesnt matter (well the ultimate destination is death, and if you are too religious, then for an atheist like me its surely hell after death) but enjoying the journey is whats important.

I have made my fair shares of errors (wrong exits on the highway) and paid for that, I have taken loads of short cuts and gotten benefits for that, This is like my odometer telling me, you have travelled for 25 years, how much more to go (who knows?)

Well my last one year was fantastic, i celebrated my birthday in finland in a youth hostel and then went on a cruise from near helsinki back to Germany, nothing fancy today i guess, work beckons, and its just another regular day.

(mis)Quoting Robert Frost

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep(do i?), And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

yeah in this case my miles are the work hours i put in today, before hitting some of the pubs.

:)

more of Gandhigiri (why he didnt win the Nobel Prize)

2006-10-02T21:28:00.000+01:00

Its a shame that the man who was the first to preach non violence, and civil disobediance, who over threw the regime of the mighty (though after the world wars it was weakened considerably) British Empire, by simply by civil disobediance, such a person who actually practised turning the other cheek was never given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Anyways right from the website of the Nobel Committee, is an article which talks about the same (nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/index.html)

Anyways while I am talking about this Gandhi giri, its quie ironical i am working in the very same land which he sought independance from, though for an American bank (well isnt America like the British Empire at the turn of the previous century?)

But well I am here from my own free will, (or is it social and peer pressure???)

Well it would be nicer if one could remember the great man apart from his birthday and after some bollywood flick professes his preachings with a twinge of spice added

The Construction worker

2006-10-02T00:09:00.000+01:00

this is a pic taken in the Metropolitan museum of art.
A Wonderful mural, and guess i identify with it a little more because of my dad's back ground in the construction industry. (making construction elevators he makes a life wee bit easier for the construction workers)
Dammit he should use this as a logo on his visiting cards, but then i guess it would be a problem of copyright laws :(

Of Gandhigiri and other ramblings

2006-10-01T23:40:00.000+01:00

yeah I am posting this its already 2nd october in India, where Indians (well most of the 1+ billion people) would be celebrating Gandhi jayanti, on the birthday of Mohandas "Mahatma" (The great soul) Gandhi.

He was the man who was mainly responsible for gaining Democracy for india form the british empire, and shall always be known for Satyagraha (non violent protest) and civil disobedience.

Well as always, rarely do people remember dead great persons apart from anniversaries and obviously not many care about the principles he preached.

so on this theme there was a movie 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' Starring Sanjay Dutt.

Well though the movie was a wonderful entertainer (I saw it in New York, first day first show) it does well to rehash the great mans learnings, i do feel the indian Media has gone a little over board with the concept of gandhigiri.

The politicians, underworld nexus has taken the country far from the idealistic place he might have wanted the country to be.

The movie is strictly an entertainer but nothing much else. I doubt it shall make an iota of change in any persons life.

This movie might seriously have the Mahatma turning in his grave (Though being a Hindu his body was cremated and not buried, thus he doesnt have a grave, but thats metaphorically speaking)

Well about me being born a day after Gandhi, and being from same part of Gujarat (Saurashtra) my parents did want me to be a similar noble as well as a great person unfortunately i did disappoint them :)

Far from being non violent i regularly got into fights, and though got beaten up more often than not, but none of those great qualities did ever filter down to me.

Guess it also has to do with genes and upbringing [:p]

Dixteeno meet up in NY

2006-10-01T23:11:00.000+01:00

We had a training program in New York, and there it was nice to meet all the new associates across the world, but was nicer to meet up with fellow friends after 4 months who were recruited by the same firm (now i dont want to name my firm and get into trouble, like that English Secretary in the French Audit firm)

But yeah, this lead to meeting my great friend BaLLLma again, and this is a picture from the roof top party which we had in one of the treny places in New York,
This was the dixteeno reunion, with Me BaLLLma (Narahari is what his parents named him,) and Nippo (Manish) drinking Long island Ice Tea in Manhattan (not too far away from Long Island :P ) Well atleast during the parties we dressed up like those "Wall Street Types" though I guess it is going to be sometime till i get comfy wearing a suit every day (thankfully at work it is business casuals, suit and a tie would make things a little tough and make me wake up those few minutes early as well)
Another is a picture of the sunset, taken across river hudson. Well not a great pic, but was clicked from my phone, by a semi-drunk me.

Picture my Desk

2006-10-01T23:01:00.000+01:00

yeah this is what it looks like,

this is the picture i took by my camera phone (Sony Ericsson K750i) in my very first week, now each of these 3 screens would have multiple windows open, and on bloomberg there would be streaming of news through out from my launch pad.

Also you might notice there is very little clutter (as per my standards ... Mom Dad I know you are smirking as you read this ... especially dad) now that i have moved quite a few seats there are books, pieces of paper ... well yeah there is a lot more clutter now.

but for those who might not have seen a trading floor, might not realise the important of multiple screens (come on you might think why does one need so many) but seriously since i am a structurer i have 3 screens, exotics traders all have at least 4 and flow traders have 6 screens in front of them. And among these you have small windows open evey where.

And for those who have been in dealing room/trading floor might just say ... ahh another newbies desk.
Damn he does no work ... yet why is it a blank screen on bloomberg?
(yep this was in the past)

Tale of Two Cities (Nay, 3 Cities)

2006-09-30T16:26:00.000+01:00

yeah reached london last week, after 5 weeks in New York, and damn the stark difference absolutely hit me on my face.

first was the issue of finding food at 11 PM in the night, and damn London especially in the sort of commercial area where i live absolutely sucks.

But the pavements of london are not stained with the marks of Dog Piss.
Like in Mumbai there are notices of please dont spit on the walls, (the crazy betel pan chewing habit which is not only disgusting, but leaves its art work on all walls and lamposts in the city) In new York there are similar notices about PLEASE RESTRAIN YOUR DOGS

More over, the New York subways are ugly, though air conditioned, but the stations look like the set of a climax of hindi movie, where the villain has tied the heros mother and girl friend,
just before the final fight sequence.

More over back to seeing shorter buildings, cars being driven on the left of the road (contrary to americans who believe they always have to be "right")

Here i am back to following sports which i do understand, (well baseball and american football i didnt find particularly interesting and back to cricket and soccer. )

As regards with the people on the streets, though both London and NY are both extreemely diverse, in NY people all become homogenous New Yorkers and in london (due to its proximity to europe) people retain their identities, and speak more often in their mother tongue, and are recognised as polish, or french or german or indian for that matter.
There is also some form of Xeno phobia in London through out. (Same in the US as well)
now that bulgaria and romania are joining the EU, its been a lot about migrant workers coming and stealing their jobs.

Here i too am a migrant worker, and i do feel, well in the 17th and 18th century when these guys went and exploited the others, who was stopping them? when they had factories post industrial revolution which kept people poor in the third world countries.
US does take it to other extremes, by having quotas for h1B visas. Who is the champion of fair trade?
Why now it isnt survival of the fittest?
same thing is when Shiv sena and the marathis cry that all jobs are taken by the UP Bihar people, and nothing remains for ethnic population of bombay.
This is the part which is common every where.
people who are born in a location, feel its their privilege to be there, and other guys coming in and lowering the wages is incorrect.
(though i still believe and say i am not a low wage option :P, but a person chosen on merit, and deserve to be in the position, irrespective of my nationality)

yeah this form of xenophobia is atleast portrayed in the Newspapers in all three cities.

Give and take, the human nature is the same across continents.

Arent we all the same animal?

Last blog from NY

2006-09-23T10:44:00.000+01:00

Good bye New York,

I am writing this from the lounge at the JFK Airport in NY, 2 hours before my flight,
next post shall be from home in London, (yeah now i have started calling London as home) The month spent here was a wonderful time, though cant wait to get back to work (ooops i might soon regret that with the long work hours that might be put in) .
Hopefully there shall be a few more blogs about the good times i had in NY.

Till then bbye NY

Stand up comedy

2006-09-18T04:44:00.000+01:00

Well i always wanted to go to a stand up comedy show in NY, and when no one else was willing to come i thought lemme go for it alone.

I thought being not in a group would help no one would pick on me, and it would be good fun.
And even if some one picked on me come on it cant harm one much, especially not some one like me who has been through some of it (Come on, being fat, with spectacles, clumsy, bad in sport, good at math, kids could be rude in primary school to such guys and add to that a funny surname, which even indians cant pronounce correctly) And i am not adding anything about college or business school nick names. But as usual, boy was i mistaken.

the standup comedians sure know one thing, you neednt be funny, but sex and obscenity sells. Add to that political incorrectness, stereotypes, rude jokes and there you have the audience guffawing. So being the lone indian in the audience (lone brown guy) I was too conspicuous, so i had a bunch of computer programmer geek jokes, homosexual jokes, homophobic jokes (come on those comics were not even consistent), shopkeeper jokes, man finally when he asked me what work did i do (ahhh i have been at the wrong end of that one so many times) I had the wide smile on my face and said, "I price interest rate derivatives"
Damn that was the moment, i got that point, ... he was clueless, finally i added at an investment bank, and he mumbled something about indians being good at math.

Well all said and done, it sure was fun, the comics were hilarious and surely were fair to all,
Jews, Nazis, Blacks, Rednecks, Cops, Druggies, Drunks and chinese, not to mention indian computer programmers, ... all were made fun off. All for all they had quite a few comics, from a half arab to a african american female.

and thanks to the 18 year old californian dude who came ot the show with his parents and grandparents, man had it not been for him (and my moment when i told him about my job) I might have been weeping and calling back my mom.

But sure this was the first time, I actually scored a point when i described what work i was doing. Damn it felt good.

American TV

2006-09-17T04:57:00.000+01:00

Dammit, I dont have a TV at home in London, and i am sure i am happy, else my spare time would have been spent watching the idiot box, like i do here in NY.

Though all the American sitcoms are great (particularly Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and FRIENDS) , some other channels are absolutely pathetic.

Take for example MTV, which is nothing more than a reality TV show, hardly ever they show any music.

Some of the programs i saw were:

Sweet Sixteen here you have children turning 16 celebrating their birthday bashes, with their parents spending around 500,000 USD on the party.

DAMN, that is shocking, but what is worse the way the children behave (dammit calling these teenagers children makes me kinda feel real old)

some of the comments

"... the theme of the party is YOUNG and HOT coz i'm YOUNG and HOT" says a boy, who frankly weighing close to 300 pounds (140kg) and resembles a lazy sloth.

With them having invites for friends and saying those not invited are not "cool enough" and their temper tantrums are worth watching.

Each kid thinks they are the best, most handsome/beautiful or sexy and desirable whilst they are not. (Only when your parents are stashed with cash do you become so sexy, else you are nothing but a plain jane)

Next

this program is a speed dating kind of an event, pretty dumb, but mindless entertainment none the less, especially when someone gets rejected and they scream out NEXT

Parental COntrol

this is when parents dont approve of their kids current boyfriend/girlfriend and thus they set them up with 2 dates whilst the current boyfriend/girlfriend sits with the parent and watches the dates on television (live as its being taped by MTV)

This can be hilarious when the parents and the person whom they dont like sit next to each other and the situation does get nasty.

All in all, MTV is aimed at lots of teenagers, and this simply reflects the way of life here. With people having dreams and aspirations for a Mercedes or BMWs as 16th birthday presents, other jealous kids gawking, some gate crashing, and the teens self importance all coming from not what htey have done, are capable of but simply the stash in heir parents wallet.

Guess finding these programs weird has a lot to do with my conservative middle class brahminical upbringing in suburban mumbai.

But well this television is for the masses, and we get what we ask for, so its a reflection on the society, and shows how shallow, materialistic and empty the society has become.

And If you were thinking how come i am so preachy but find time to watch this crap you figured how come i am watching this, then you realised, how empty my life has become, with no cricket on television (I cant figure out much in Baseball or American Football) and idiot box is called so for a very specific reason, making bigger idiots out of existing idiots.

Pranksters at MIT

2006-09-17T04:36:00.000+01:00

Well, on the first weekend i went to Boston to meet my friend Hemant Sahoo, who is a PhD student at MIT.
MIT being the Mecca of Engineering across the world is home to many geeks, and if you thought that they were the boring muggu types then you are definitely wrong. (Actually even i thought like that)
I had a preconceived notion that particularly the grad students were all lab rats, but i realised that they too have a sense of humour (albeit a wicked one)
they have an institutionalised system of pranks, most of them outright mean.

The best one was
These Chemical Engineering grad students didn't like a particular guy, so they took one of the lab rats (actual mouse, not another grad student) in liquid nitrogen (in high school chemistry i learnt nitrogen liquefies at -196 degree centigrade) and then the mouse crystallizes and becomes brittle, then they throw this crystalline mouse in some ones room, when each crystal breaks there are thousands of fragments scattered all around the room.
Soon as it reaches room temperature you have flesh of a dead mouse all over the room and it stinks like crazy.

This in it self is some punishment, and these grad students do make good use of the resources that they have liquid nitrogen from cryogenics lab, mice from the the pharmaceutics lab,
Wicked wicked guys these people are.

More over i saw the buildings in MIT, one in particular was a weird building in odd shapes, and was a maze within, the elevators stopped at a certain level from where you had to find another elevator bank yourself, this is because they did research on mice, that mice who were in complicated mazes became smarter, and thus hopefully same would happen with humans,
to be frank i think these crazy researchers do have a kinky fetish for mice :P

Dont you think so as well?

Bankers with a Heart

2006-09-02T21:03:00.000+01:00

Ok you might say this is just another oxymoron (Investment Bankers involved in M&A, Sales and trading of securities are nothing more than savage animals who daily go in for the hunt that what some say)

Well though thats partially true, (making money and generating fees is the biggest, naah the only driving force here) the HR managers who had designed the Associate training program for the class of 2006 thought otherwise. They planned a community service day as a part of our training program. You might smirk and say whats the big deal and what would you change in a day, well if Beauty pageants say they are doing it for charity and say its beauty with a purspose, so should we when we do our bit for rest of the world.

Merrill Lynch supports philanthropy and supports many charities and in particular one of them in New York is the Public School 9 (PS9) in brooklyn.

Thus Last friday we were all taken there (160 of us) and divided into teams and each of us had a task to do, which would be useful to school, before it opened in fall after the summer vacation.

My team was supposed to paint a classroom. Some were painting the lines on the basketball court, tennis courts, external walls around the playgrounds, some were organizing and moving the books in the library and so on.

I know i am a clumsy guy, but just this simple act of helping out someone and thinking if we did a shoddy job, then some small kids would be spending the whole year in that room, made me put in some amount of effort.

It is surprising that though in tasks where you benefit yourself (like group assignments in business school) in any group you would find some slackers, but here every body was helping in their own way, I was painting the long walls and being one reaching out near the top wiht a brush attached at the end of the pole while some others where using smaller brushes and painting the corners. being a complete novice, i simply followed the directions of people who had actualy painted their houses (yep being in india where labour is cheap spoils you like crazy)

Painting the ceiling was a bit of a chore with the paint dripping down on your face and though i was wearing overalls and goggles it did get a little messy.
i did some kind of a messy job initially the painted wall looked like a patchwork but then with the help of others i did another coat and hopefully we did a great job and the children studying in class room 108 in PS9 in Brooklyn hopefully should be in a cheerful mood in the brightly coloured classroom this year when the school reopens.

Here is the pic of me in the overalls, clicked in the beginning, as after i finished with the job i was in some complete mess, with more paint on my body than on the walls.

US Open

2006-09-02T19:46:00.001+01:00

Just saw the US open match between Andre Agassi and Markos Baghdatis, and man that was one hell of a match.
Though I was cursing Merrill Lynch on how stingy they were in getting Centre court tickets on a Thursday for a 2nd round match, and that to some where at the top where in I could only get some kind of a helicopter view (borrowed that phrase from my colleague Sathyakama) but it was completely worth it.

though the first match we saw was a bore, martina Hingis lost to unseeded Virginia Razzano 6-2 6-2, (Razzano had some powerful backhand and hingis wasnt fit enough)

But then the bigger match came, the veteran Andre Agassi playing his 21st continous US open (since 1986) and this is definitely his final one, (I guess he started out from the juniors US Open) and his opponent was the 8th seeded Cypriot Markos Baghdatis. Baghdatis is a great surprise package of this year, being runners up at the Australian open and a semifinalist at the wimbledon, losing both the times to Roger Federer.

I bet on the old veteran Agassi being whipped by the young gun, (damn he is so much younger than me, it makes me feel old) but boy was i for a surprise.

At the Arthur Ashe Center court in flushing meadows, there were 23000 fans and only i guess 23 were supporting the Man from Cyprus, whereas the rest were all rooting for the american hero Agassi.
The atmosphere was absolutely electric and so was the tennis. Both had all round games, with strokes being played from the baseline, and aces at 133 mph, long rallies, acrobatic slides and some serve and volleys from the net as well. The match being a 5 set thriller shows how even the match was (6-4 6-4 3-6 5-7 7-5) and it went on for 3h 40min and was complete with great display of tennis.

Agassi definitely had the advantage of the home support, and sportive crowd though applauded both sides on winning long points,
in the latter half the americans started booing Baghdatis (when he nearly was running away with the match)

Though he eventually lost, I was really impressed by Baghdatis, he had more winners, more aces, better game but many many more unforced errors than Andre Agassi, who won the game by playing simple error free tennis, while his opponent was really flashy, but more of a scatter gun. He clawed back from being 2 sets down and won the next two (he was 0-4 down in the 4th set when all seemed to be lost, though he had the advantage ofa tiring old opponent)

This US Open had a new innovation where a player gets 2 chances to dispute the lines man call in each set, and TV replays would decide the actual position of the ball.
Agassi was applauded whenever he challenged the referee, and aghdatis was booed.

The crowd apart from being partisan was a great spot, we had a few mexican waves, with one which went on for 3 circles of the center court. This only ended when the great man Andre applauded us as that was being distracting to the players.

Even thoguh i have been rambling on for so long, nothing nothing actually describes the actual experience of watching the match.
Thankfully we actually saw this match live (which couldve been a simple boring affair) with games in the 5th set lasting 10 minutes and being 8-9 deuces in a game, (which might have been some kind of a record)

Anyways had a great time, now i should go watch a Yankees game or a basket ball match

US Open

2006-09-02T19:46:00.000+01:00

Random Thoughts while reading the newspaper

2006-07-01T15:42:00.000+01:00

Yeah, as you know i am not one of the well read ones who would daily read a newspaper, (especially with one costing something like 1.50 Pounds, Damn thats the amount my dad pays for the entire months newpaper subscription back home in india)

Anyways these were some of the Headlines which i noticed (last week when i was reading the Daily Telegraph and the Times), and well provoked these thoughts

The Queen and the Royal Family Costs UK just 62 pence per person

The reporter was talking about how UK Monarchs were staying well within their
means and not costing the citizens a lot. It was like "We are having a Royal Family on a Budget"
Dammit, with a popultation of 60 million people , its like some 40 million pounds being spent on a Royal Family which doesnt have any powers, has little utility to the governance of the nation.
and then 62p per person, but how many of them are tax payers? How many of them are in the higher slabs? I guess i might be paying 1-2 pounds a year for some old lady and her philanderous son who loves horses, her 2 grandsons who live on the wildside and pay for their recreational drug abuse

Well then on hindsight i thought, these people do add some value. To a nation obsessed with celebrity worship (or following their sex lives) these people have generated an industry. So many papparazzi are employed t ofind out which zimbabwean chick is dating Prince William, where does Prince Harry buy his Cocaine and Marijuana (Cannabis has been demoted as a soft drug now in UK, so its no longer fashionable).

And well, the tabloids Sun, Mirror and loads of others purely survive on these things (apart from the glam wives of the soccer stars who shopped more than World cup prize money in Baden-Baden, which it seems has increased a few basis points of the German inflation)

Police refuse to chase a motorcycle thief

This was since the thief was not wearing a helmet and thus while chasing him, he might fall off trying to run away from his pursuers and thus might sue the police force, causing them financial harm. Thus the policemen took the easy way out of not following the thief, but hoping to catch him later (when he would have dismantled the BMW and selling individual parts in the blackmarket)
Damn, well how the hell can the thief sue, since he was not supposed to be on the motorcycle at all. Damn, with such kinds of rules i wonder its better to buy a motorbike, or steal one?

"Hedge funds are bad, and so secretive you cant find them on the yellow pages"
Member of the Parliament while saying the hedge funds are responsible for
volatility

Well arent hedge funds supposed to be non regulated funds, meant only for the ultra rich and sophesticated investors? Those who dont mind taking high risk in order to get highewr returns?
And as per rule they are not supposed to advertise in public media or target small clients. Then definitely you wouldnt find a single one in the yellow pages.
This shows that the members of parliaments here too are as ignorant as the ones in India

Buy a Kawasaki Ninja Z10 for 41 pounds a Week !!!

Wow!!! 1100cc bike for 41 quid a week. Damn im game, but need to look into the hidden costs, and insurance parkign charges and what not. But definitely in less than a year from now soon i shall be having my very own super bike. (Its time this Bad Biker moved on from his paltry bicycle and his previous 100cc 7.2bhp hero honda splendor, and got something which can actually go fast.
I told about my intentions to my parents and obviously they went ballistic. They think i am crazy (which i think is correct) and my learned dad said, buying these high speed motorcycles is the surest way to reduce ones life expectancy. Yeah i totally agree, but i do decide to live my life on the fast lane, and with all 4 of my grandparents living beyond 80 and 3 of them still alive, i sure have an expectancy of living that long, and i believe its no point having lived till 80 and sat all my life in front of the telly watching motorsports, rather die early, but live life to the fullest.
With my shortsightedness, poor reflexes (ask anyone who has seen me field in cricket) short attention spans make me extremely unsuitable as a high speed motorcyclists, but i guess i have to over come these defects and make the best out of it. So soon i too shall be ready to roll.

(Gandhi, ... the one from wimwi and not the mahatma is currently doing those himalyan rides on his fatichar caliber, it makes one think are the 1000cc bikes worth the money?? But lemme tell i surely bet they are. If not anything atleast for the snob value. Its time again i get conned by another salesman :P)

What the hell i thought

Hahahahaha ...

2006-06-28T19:43:00.000+01:00

Saw this on the BBC website somewhere, and this raises the issue about ladmags.
Well lots of stuff has been said and written about viewing women as objects of lust and desire rather than humans, and i dont want to add anything else.

Just found it funny, and i have been in many foot in the mouth situations, and made many a politically incorrect statement, reminds me of all those times. :)

Tussles with the estate agents

2006-06-27T14:49:00.000+01:00

In any metropolis, i guess the biggest hassle when moving in is finding a house.
Property hunters Murphy's Laws apply here

(1) All good apartments are taken
(2) Nothing is within budget, at the right location, and the right size
(3) If everything seems fine, then there is sue some catch.

I totally swear by these (could surely call them Kanodra's Laws after myself)

anyways with my employers giving me accomodation only for a week, I had to find a place for myself real soon. and then with time running out, i was soon left with no place to live.
The estate agent i contacted, showed me a couple of apartments which were real crap, (not that we had great expectations, simply a separate bathoom per person) but seriously non of the properties remotely interested us, or were way out of our budget and these two satisfying were extremely far away.
Damn when everything was fine, we realised the area wasnt the best one, and well not even a safe one.

And then when you read classifieds and look up the websites, the cheap ones are all ex council houses (apartments given to people with no income, as dole to the unemployed)
Man visiting such a place would give me shudders, leave alone living there)

luckily Jamun and Vishal agreed to host nippo and myself for a week. (Which i tuned into two till i finally moved out)
Vishal being the generous soul was also giving shelter to one more colleague from work (Rohit from IIMC) and he called upon his friend to stay over from manchester, and he invited his friend from birmingham. So in a 3 bedroom apartment, we were 7 people, and with only 2 bathrooms it became a little too nervy early mornings when we had to reach office at the same times. another funny incident would be the musical chairs at dinner time. With 7 people in the kitchen there wouldnt be enough chairs for all of us, and thus i was standing up, i earnestly asked Rohit to get me another helping of rice, and then quitely grabbed his chair. Once the ploy was seen by all, whenever a person got up (even at times to answer his phone) his chair was soon lost.

All this made me all the more desparate to find a place of my own.

All this time in parallel, we were hunting down apartments with different estate agents, work til 7 PM and from 8 to 10 go for apartment viewings in different obscure corners of london city. And being made to wait in rain, cold weather till the estate agent turns up late and apologises profusely and shows you another bad apartment.

After many frustrated viewings later, we were told, "You need to stretch your budget a little bit" And damn, i was willing to strecth it a 100% (in the downward direction). Many frustated viewings later, (and being told the advertised flat on their website just vanished a couple of hours ago) we finally saw a wonderful apartment, and obviously with no catch this was a little outside our budget. (you cant get everything right)
After a lot of squeezing and haggling and what not, we finally managed the house, but as i said nothign in life is so simple. If everything falls right there has to be some catch. And Catches there were plenty.

First we couldnt fax our letters of employment to the landlord,
then one of us was in India till then (Paldy) and when their 3rd party evaluators said our income levels werent sufficient to pay this rent, and then the apartment was being refurbished, and thus after paying 6weeks rent as deposit, a month (4.33 weeks) rent in advance, 1 weeks rent as brokerage, our joining bonus was soon sitting in the letting agents bank account. And after all this we were told to wait for a week to move in.

Add to it the controversy we had over the contract, and on the night we moved in half of the bulbs werent working.

Damn inspite of all of this, finally alls well that ends well, the apartment is not only spacious, is well equipped, near work, has 3 independant bathrooms for 3 of us and good ventilation.

One year this should be our abode, and hopefully with increased incomes next year, we will only move upwards.

(P.S. finally did discover a catch here as well, the property is on the borders of a strong immigrant area, with a majority of people being of bangladeshi origin. Thats why not a lot of whites and europeans would want it, lucky for us, who couldnt care less, as long as its safe)

Football Mania on the Trading floor

2006-06-23T21:31:00.000+01:00

(Please Click on the pic to see the enlarged version)

As you can see the football mania is hitting the trading floor.
This was in todays Telegraph, and there is some corelation between the performance of the countries economy and their performance in soccer worldcup.
Like right now the emerging market exonomies are all going in a spin. There are massive sell offs.
Turkey which didnt even qualify for the world cup, is seeing massive depreciation in the currency and record inflation levels.
Poland, Czech Republic and Croatia have been knocked out, thus you can imagine the currencies and equities in those countries might have plunged to their lowest levels.

Though Argentina and Brazil have performed well, lets see their bond and stocks performance.

Till then not much, let me get back to watching the football matcheson TV (at work) :)

What work do you do?

2006-06-20T21:12:00.000+01:00

A couple of days back, my 11 year old cousin sent me an email, and among other things like how he was enjoying his summer vacation he asked me what work do i do in London. How the hell do i explain it to him, when my parents dont understand, his parents dont understand, (well he could be and most probably is smarter and more aware than his and my parents, they definitely didnt know much about email when they were 11)

Dunno why though. This question keeps haunting me, and I try running away from it.
The first is how do i describe what i do for a living.
When i was working in L&T and i told my dad i am in project management. He simply went around telling my son designs chemical plants. (when i only saw that the pipes to be delivered from haryana to kuwait were not on schedule)

Then now when i said to my parents, I am joining an investment bank, they first thought i wasa glorified teller in a retail banlike in the local bank of baroda. My Maternal grandma also advised me when customers hand in cash better count it carefully.
My dad thought since i am in debt markets the fixed income side, it might be dealing with giving big size loans to corporates, and my mum thought since it says rates structuring, i am the superwhiz guy who decides what is the rate to lend the money. My sis being the smartest person in the family (if you didnt know till now, im the dumbest) she doesnt even care about my existence, leave alone my employment details as long as i am not asking her for money, she really isnt bothered. Well my parents dont invest in the stock market, cause (a) they dont understand how it works (like 90% of retail indian investors) (b) they get scared of losing a dime their poor souls couldnt stand the volatility.

Most of my other relatives dont care what job i do but how much money do i make. And making the mistake of converting the British pound salary in indian rupees, and saying ohh my god, what will you do with so much money. I reply with a straight face, Pay rent, buy food, and little bit of entertainment like a pitcher of beer on weekends, and i guess i might be left with pocket change after each month. (and damn its true after the first month atleast) . And then they complain how the hell can a 24 year old be paid so much. Or damn how the hell can any one be paid so much (Please i say, im not some super rich guy, im being paid in a different currency, and Purchase Power Parity is not a concept they are ever going to understand.

Anyways coming to how much money one makes, Jack Welch had said that the Wall Street is defintiely the place where a lot of average people make a lot more money than they deserve. (Though i am not situated at the Wall Street, but work in a Wall Street firm, I seriously hoep its true) I guess in terms of income as a ratio to ability it only comes 2nd to Hollywood.

I distinctly remember some one had told me, "The way to make more money, is to somehow give happiness to more number of people" The person was Mr. Sanghvi, a Gujarati business man and owner of a firm which did piping design for firms like reliance, and was teaching piping design as a visiting faculty.

The example he gave was:
Why does HLL employee earn more, as he brings happiness to all those who consume its products.

Why does Dhirubhai Ambani of reliance make more money?
He made Vimal textiles affordable to the masses. By Petrochemicals he is indirectly supplying to our daily needs (fuels, plastics, exports raw materials for textiles thus clothes the world)

So i figured why do indian cricketers earn more than badminton, hockey or table tennis players? Since more people watch these sports. More people gain happiness from cricket victories than those in snooker and badminton and thus sponsors are willing to pay cricketers more.

Same explains why do less talented authors who write in english earn more than others (since you have a wider audience)

Why do engineers earn more than history professors (by building products which make more people happy ... and not troubling poor souls by terrorising history exams)

but then why do soccer players in bengal dont make as much money as American Football players? Simple Purchasing power of those people whom you make happy. An average bengali is communist and is not going to buy any of those useless products advetisers are trying to sell, apart from Goldflake cigarettes sold by ITC. So who cares about soccer players in Bengal while European footballers earn huge amounts.
Mr. Sanghavi you were right, but just this little tweek of weighing number of people with purchasing power.

Let me apply this to my profession as a guy working to create structured fixed income products. (aha i am explaining what i do for a living)
My team (and me as a small part of it) look at the financial markets, to find what is cheap, and what expensive. From this we create complicated products where we buy low and sell high, and show these trade ideas to clients (people with money to invest) and hopefully make more money for them. So I make them happy. these are pension funds and hedge funds, and thus if they do well their investors feel happy. And though these might not be many, Damn you add the weightage of earning power, and Lo and behold the numbers go up. And boy it does go up by a very big amount. So a make a few REALLY RICH GUYS HAPPY, and i make some decent money.

Wow, man Mr Sanghavi himself is a really smart man. NOw doubt he is damn rich. (Ok he drove a fantastic big car) Since his firm designed pipes, which ensured that the chemical plants keep functioning well and churn out more chemicals and make more products which affect our day to day lives and make manyu many people happy (Shampoos, soaps, plastics, ... )

But then Damn

Every one hates politicains, and those guys seem to make the most money.
No way do these bring happiness. They Raise taxes, have stupid policies, dont give any services and simply eat a lot of money.

Damn Mr. Sanghavi, your theory doesnt seem to work here. [:)]

Pedalling away to work

2006-06-19T22:38:00.000+01:00

Since i got this apartment only 2.5 km from work, i started thinking on why spend a pound everyday to commute by bus (80 Rs for a bus ride, that to standing throughout, damn im still converting in Rs, and my gujju genes dont even fade away)

So i started walking the distance, which though not a lot some times gets boring. So simply to be a little better off, i bought a bicycle. Thinking that this would not only save money, but also this is the fastest mode of transport for me, and gives my lazy bones some exercise.

So I went ahead to a cycle shop nearby, thinkning i would buy the cheapest second hand cycle there, and to my shock saw that it only sold new cycles. At first i was fancying a 80 pound one, but the salesman said that was'nt good, it was heavy, and with a uncomfortable gear shifting mechanism (damn i had never ridden a cycle with gears before how would i know)
So after a lot of confusion, I end up buying a 200 pound bicycle, with shimono gears (3x7), front suspension, all aluminium body, allow gears and powder coated alumium chain. The sales man said the difference on this and the cheap ones was between in porsche and a volkswagon beetle. (Damn that guy made a nice deal, after also selling me the most expensive lock, helmet and a puncture kit)
All my female readers (Ok mom, i was refering to you) might just end up saying, men and their machines.
Dont know how many men have been suckered in to buying jazzy cars, or electronic equipments which had a lot of functions which were unecessary, ot they simply didnt understand, but went gaga over them right after they spent a bomb buying it. Guess i am the same. And am sure this is not the first time i am gonna get suckered by some salesman in my life.

So after i buy this bicycle my daily commute by bicycle is only 7 minutes, but i take 5 minutes park it and lock in at the nearest bicycle stand, and 10 minutes to get it out of my apartment down to the street. Net net i save 3 minutes compared to walking.
And compared to bus, I shall break even some time after 235 bus journeys (did i here someone say pennywise pound foolish)

Anyways cycling to work is much more fun than i had expected. I am not one of those environmentalists, who say cycle to work to cut down green house gas emmissions, and nor am i a health freak, but i do feel rejuvenated after the journey rather than tired.
Also strange as it may sound, i get time to think and plan while cycling (as compared to walking or commuting by bus or tube) . Dunno why but when on two wheels, my eyes hands and legs coordinate, somehow bypasssing my brain.

also its great fun to try taking right turns, on no-stop roads with speeding vehicles, and me pedalling and frantically signalling with my outstretched right hand and trying to precariously balance myself.
Also cycling gives me a better perspective on the roads. Nothing else tells you about the incline of the land better. Even a damn 5 degree uphill slope can be recignised, and now i have stopped considering routes based on distance or time taken, but also on the gradient of the path.

the only sad part of the day is when i some person whizzing past in a 60 bhp motorcycle while i am on my single "nirav" powered bicycle.
I guess that too shall come, may be a year later (hope the city of london and its mayor dont apply the congestion tax to the two wheelers as well)

Also i found out from health.bbc.co.uk , that cycling daily to work not only makes you move, keeps your reflexes sharp, and exercises your joints preventing from them turnign stiff.
With a sedentary desk job like mine, i need every bit of physical activity possible.

also on the weekends i rode to Hyde park, some 7-8 km away, and the whole to and fro journey was nearly as enjoyable as admiring the sun-bathing beauties while in the park.

And now that i cycle every day, it gives me the license to pop another beer.
Which reminds me, enough rambling, time to open the can

Domestic Woes

2006-06-18T22:26:00.000+01:00

Well, now that we 3 (myself, Nippo and Paldy) have found this nice apartment, we are settling our ghar grahasti.
Though most of the weekdays are spent at work, on weekends we do all our cooking, cleaning and vacuuming. No weekend goes without our trip to the supermarket, and we keep talking about what to cook, how to cook, and which milk to purchase the advantages of wholemeal brownbread over sliced whitebread. (inspite of all my arguments these guys simply dont understand whats the best for them)

As you guessed it we have our fair shares of quarrels and allocation of household tasks always ends up in cribbing. With me being the only experienced cook (damn you can understand the state of the other guys here) I refuse to wash the dishes after dinner. Damn they should learn cooking themselves, till then they should observe me, and chop vegetables and clean up after dinner. (well with me bossing around like this, i always say my prayers before each meal, hoping it doesnt turn out too bad that i am made to clean up after dinner as a punishment)

anyways being busy with these household chores, makes us more and more like bitchy housewives (damn even me, i was cribbing bout the other two ehhh). Still more chores await us, like getting a phone connection, and BUYING A TELEVISION. (I bet we are gonna kill each other on that)

But the worst of all household chores i find is ironing clothes. I really cant iron a damn thing and on weekends ironing 5 shirts and trousers can be literally killing. Ironing away those creases, i always end up creating new ones and the process seems to go on for ever.

At such horrid times, I remember Kallu the Istriwaala. His ramshackle shop (or should i say bench, under a tin roof) was right outside the main gate of my apartment block. My first trips outside the main gate would be to handover clothes to Kallu at the age of 5. Thats as far as i was allowed to go. Kallu was a friendly guy, and as his name suggests was as dark as the coal he would use in his iron. (yes no electrical iron at his place, he would use old fashioned iron, which was huge in size and used burning charcoal inside to heat it) . To a 5 year old it was a fascinating sight, to see the orange glow of burning charcoal and him ironing away piles of clothes in great speed and making it look more like an art form.

While playing hide and seek and dabba eye spy (called dabba aais paais by the local marathi guys in my building) and the best hiding place was behind Kallus ramshackle shop.
One such day when i was playing and hiding behind kallus shop, my mum came looking after me, since i had my all important first unit test in standard 1. I was more interested in playing than studying (which i guess never did change with age) After searching high and low, my mum finds me there, and pulls me bakc home, and screaming and scolding me, that if i didnt study, i would end up like Kallu and be ironing clothes all my life.

Damn looking in hindsight, most of my life after that i was simply studying, (so i blame my lack of social life on this incident) and then all my life, I never did even iron a handkerchief (and damn when i tried it once at home, it ended up having more creases than before)
Now after all these years of studying, I end up here in london, and end up spending a nice lovely sunday evening ironing my clothes. (Damn its tough). I sacrificed watching the Brazil Australia match in a pub for this.

In hindsight, if a had disobeyed my mom, and didnt study much, i would be whiling away my time in dads business, whiling away my time and not adding a single rupee to his profit or revenues, doing all that crap, but ironing clothes.
Though Kallu is long gone, (his shop was demolished many years ago, and he moved a couple of blocks away, and then we moved elsewhere as well) I am sure when living at home no way would i ever iron a handkerchief.

Damn mom, you fooled me here, inspite of all this, there is little difference between your son and Kallu. (For one he sure could iron clothes much better than me, and surely much much faster)

World Cup begins

2006-06-11T15:17:00.000+01:00

well, the only reason for not writing on this blog, is not lack of any events, but
(a) Lack of an internet connection at home
(b) Blogger beign blocked in office (and rightly so)
(c) no motivation to write.

Well there have definitely in the last few days the world cup fever has caught on every where.
Especially in all the bars, UK being known for its soccer hooligans I am surely not gonna cheer for any team playing against ENgland, and whatever comes, not cheering for germany at all.

Though i was thinking a country of 80 million beer drinking sausage eating fans, playing in home conditions would have some advantage, (being on the trading floor, one always starts getting a feeling that you know a little more than what the markets calibrates as the odds)

And at a point i was contemplating betting on Germany on Ladbrokes.
(The Bloomberg terminal on my desk can give me live odds on soccer and cricket, apart from the swap curves, interest rate volatility and the news from Fed, and Eurpean Central Banks ... but as you guessed those functions are purely secondary)

So as i go one more on thinking of taking a view on the worldcup, i think with 4 french guys in my team, i could offer them good odds on french winning, and they would lap it up with great nationalist fervor, but no,
after the frogs lacklustre performance in the last edition (they lost their opener to senegal, a country which i didnt know ever existed before, and the goal scorer was some Papa Borba... errr something, who has faded in oblivion and Senegal didnt even qualify this time round)

Before i could put my money somewhere the first match Germnay vs Costa Rica started. (After the semi hilarious opening ceremony, i didnt know whether it was funny or pitiable)

Well my seat is near to the sales desks, which are organised by the geographies they sell the products in, and on my left is the Spanish and Portuguese desk, on my right are the Italians and behind me are the German and austrians.

Due to the Fussball (thats what Germans call Football) all apart from 2 quitely slid away from work early (it anyways doesnt matter, i bet theior clients are also busy watchiong soccer, no way are you gonna sell that Auto Reedemable Bermudan Swaption)

So when Germans scored in the 6th minute, only 2 guys cheered (though all walked upto the nearest TV screens on the pillars which though are supposed to be tuned in to CNBC or BBC News or something which provides info on the direction of the markets, when football is on no one cares)

But when in the 12th Minute Costa Rica resposnded with an equaliser, nearly all of the 600 odd people on the floor started cheering.
I new that the debt markets floor in Merrill is Multicultural, but so many Costa Ricans??

It took me a iminute to realise that its not that there are more Costa Ricans on King Edward Street than in Costa Rica, but this was a clear indication of how much the brits (and rest of Europeans feel towards the Germans)
so its plain and simple, no cheering for the Germans ( though i spent a term there and do believe they have a chance) in any of the English Pubs, I surely dont wanna be on the worng side of some hooligan who might be 6ft 6in tall and weigh 300 pounds. Though still i believe in Ballack, Klosse and their coach Juergen Klinsmaan's style Attack Attack and more Attack. (they finally won 4-2)

anyways with Poland losing 0-2 to Equador one Polish guy on our desk was a little down,
but then guess he is happy enough that poland qualified, compared to India who didnt have hopes. (our team has one polish 3 indians and 5 French guys, ... so you know the pecking order during soccer world cup time.)

Anyways now is the right time for me to be spending time guzzling beer, and cheering England (they won the the rugby world Cup 2003, Ashes 2005 and so its soccer 2006)

But the Italians on my right vehemantly disagree.
With all their animated hand gestures (you have to talk to one to realise) they say:

" Inna 1990 when the World cuppa wassa inna Itaaaly, Germaaanee won eet. NOwwa thatta eet ees innna Geramaaanee, Itaaalee has ta weeen eet"
Well it does make sense, and as i already have written badly about italians (remember WHU and exchange term) I shall go on no more.

Let me try out and structure some bets, and atleast recover the money i lost on the champions league finals. (5 quid on the gunners)

Anyways lets see who is the winner
(anyone not betting on brazil is free to contact me, will give ou better odds than Ladbrokes :)

London Ahoy

2006-05-31T20:26:00.000+01:00

Yeah its been a month since i last arrived in london, and as reminded by Noodle, I havent blogged since.

Its not that there hasnt been much to blog about, but lack of net connection is the main culprit.

The guys at office are smart, and they block blogger and other entertainment sites, and i was way to busy searching for an apartment to do anythign else.

anyways after great pains and lotsa hassles with the estate agent (that in itself needs another blog) finally found an apartment, which i feel has been worth the wait.

So currently i am sharing it with Nippo and Paldy.

anyways for a week i was in Bayswater at a company provided accomodation, and the first thing i notcied about london was the multiculturalism.

At Bayswater there was a nice immigrant community, though i guess a lot were from north africa, and middle east, and one could here lots of different languages on the street and there were many lebanese restaurants as well.

Then when i came to work, it was a pleasant surprise fro mexpecting all Brits who might speak in a Accent like Ooncle Geofferey (BOycott) I saw there were 3 French guys, one American (of Mexican descent) and we two indians along with a Polish guy joined on the same day.

Its a nice multicultural department (or desk as they call it here in banks) and even on the debt markets floor in Merrill Lynch, opne can here all kinds of languages.

Most of the sales teams are geographical and thus one can here chatter in italian spanish portuguese, french and god alone knows which other languages.

Another aspect that i have liked is the egalitarianism. Due to a smart public policy of applying a stiff congestion tax, most people use public transport (even my boss, and eveyone in my department)

so construction workers sit next to investment bankers and commute daily to work.

Another place of egalitarianism is at work. Everyone sits at the same desks.
(In a single football field size room, there ae long desks lined up and everyone sits ther staring at their 3,4 or even 6 screen monitors and there is a constant chatter on the phones, with news being played onthe TV screens on the pillars.)

THere is no concept of privacy and every one can see what one is doing (well as long as you dont do naything worth hiding, it should nt be a problem though )

Well out of 600 odd people only 6 sit in corner cabins. Which is another likable thing.

Yeah this post is just kind of an update, but i am in a public library in Whitechapel and my net time is gonna end soon,
so more hilarious updates which need editing have been saved for future.

So all my readers (mom and sis and anyone else who might be there) i shall soon be back with all my exploits.

Bye Bye Mumbai

2006-04-27T17:45:00.000+01:00

And India
Im leaving in less than 15 minutes from my home.

Guess I had a lot to write but as usual procastination and last minute packing took up my time.

Have some regrets
Should ve spoken more to some people (eapecially my parents and sister)

Shouldve spoken a lot less everywhere else.

Shouldve ridden my bike more
SHould ve read more books. (Damn im on last 100 pages of Shantaram a 900 page novel)

Shouldve spent time better than lazing around
tried to lose weight
pigged out a little less.

But now im turning over a new leaf.
IN this new chapter of my life

Life is gonna be more of I WILL DO
no more shouldve

cheers
NIRAV

Dye Another Day

2006-04-14T09:05:00.000+01:00

As any one who has premature grey hair will tell you, the most dreaded question is HOw come do you have white (or gray) hair? Right from the neighbourhood grocer, classmate, family friend, uncles and aunts right to the barber who plans to earn a coupla more bucks by appying Godrej Hair dye on your scalp.

All those wannabe well wishers would soon keep giving advice, think over aloud the possible reasons and suggest many remedies. But all this advice when simply not asked for.

Here are some of the sample Qs

Question by Well Wisher (QBWW) : Hey youve got gray hair
What I really Wanna Answer (WIRWA) : Yeah, im not blind, and i do comb my hair and brush my teeth in front of a bathroom mirror. So this isnt news
What I Endup Answering (WIEA) : Yeah i dunno some how, you know errr i got some white hair

QBWW: Why do you have gray hair at such a young (24) age
WIRWA: Why did god create spherical planets and not cuboids? i dont know and really i dont care. Now that ive got it im living with it
WIEA: Well pollution, bad water, bad air, may be stress

QBWW: Oh so do you have anxiety problems? Are you always stressed out? DO you think way too much? Is it due ot the heavy workload at IIMA
WIRWA: Yeah actually my main cause of stress and anxiety is people probing into why i've got grey hair
WIEA: No may be im a little introspective, and i like to reflect but no its not due to heavy work load at IIMA

QBWW: Actually you know you are those intelligent persons (sic) who think so much thats why you age faster (damn). And may be its your hair thats why you are still single
WIRWA: you @!$*^%$#)^&^%$%@#&( if that had been the case morons like you would be ever youthful. Damn lemme tell u one more thing, i dont thing the colour of my hair (or lack of it) has to do anything with my single status. And damn you and your full f**king family (esp the female members) its not a sign of intelligence, its not my goddamn grey matter spilling out
WIEA: I dunno, errr (look at the ceiling/sky/something else)

Anyways at each instance i try and change the topic, not because im ashamed of my hair, but simply all the questions are rhetorical. The person asking the questions only wants to hear the answer that he/she has in mind.
Dammit im happy i atleast have hair on my head. (So all you bald or guys with thinning hair wipe of that smirk on your face)

Anyways as i read recently in a book about how humans tend to judge on the basis of first impressions, i do understand that any deviations from the norm are looked at in a suspicious manner and how deeply ingrained are our stereotypes, but then im really thankful that though it is true i might have actually gotten my hair dyed before the placement season at iima. (thankfully i didnt and i got the job of my preference, first preference infact)

Dunno how long will i keep runnign away from the fact that i might have to dye my hair black, but for now im proud that they are grey. Infact I dont care a rats ass of what others think, but only sometimes might get angry at the silly questions.

So no more tolerating those other Qs like wht ur 24 u look more like 34 or may be 44. No more kaali ghata jaiso zulf teri songs in front of me, cause though i may not have the courage to say it upfront on your face, you now know what im thinking right :P

Bar Bar Dekho, Hazaar Bar Dekho

2006-04-14T06:19:00.000+01:00

Nopes im not talking about the famous song sung on the silver screen by Shammi Kapoor, but the recent court ruling re allowing dance bars in Mumbai.

I dont understand what the whole issue is all about. World over you have legalised pornography, prostitution and you have strip clubs a plenty. Having been to a strip club in Amsterdam, ( the sex capital of the world) well i do definitely agree that it encourages prostitution, and women are in such places as little else than objects of sexual gratification, but well in a patriachial and male dominated society for years sex has been commoditised and women are seen as objects to be f*** around with.

Sex is one of the oldest profession known to man, and selling your self for favours is nothing new and thus all over the west (and now much even in south east asia) prostitution is legal. Frankly speaking, however hard one tries, one cannot completely eliminate it. By legalising it the state can not only control it and collect taxes (aha the government comes everywhere to collect its share of pie in the capitalist world, and you call communist governments being all interfering). Also at the same time the Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) can have some designated area, health insurance, the spread STDs such as AIDS (and im sure there are many others like herpes, gonnorhea and what not) but then by legalising it the social stigma as well as the fear of being caught gets reduced and the number of men visiting CSWs and the number of women turning into hookers would simply increase manifold, which i feel is bad. (personal opinion that it has a negative externality on the society)

More over in this specific case State Minister R.R. Patil wanted the dance bars in Mumbai to be banned since they spoilt our moral fabric. Anyways in India we are so used to having a system where we feel the masses cannot think for them selves. The people are so dumb that they cannot fend for themselves thats why no gambling, no dance bars etc.

Why do people want to be moral police. Agreed many indians are crazy and need others to make decisions for them. (note riots when Dr. Rajakumar the film star died a coupla days ago in Bangalore) but i guess Mr Patil is one of them as well. HOwever sexist or MCP it may sound "men will lust after women. Some of them will seek some form of sexual gratification by visiting such bars"

And how different are women in skimpy outfits dancing in front of you in the shady bar at the end of the street to skimpily clad women dancing in the music videos on MTV, [V] or hindi flicks. Do you ban movies. Every one kow that the casting couch exists. What do you go ahead and do for that.

I believe we all should be less than perfect, and simply accept some level of evil in the society. If some one wants to have a drink while ogling at a lady who is bent on tittilating him by dancing on raunchy numbers so be it. Let those who dont want to go to such places not visit. (RR Patil included)

It can be regulated thus the person who blows up his money on a chammiya shakin her ass, let the government collect its share of the pie.

Why cant we all behave like GROWN UPS and live and let live.
No need to make mountains out of mole hills

Convocation Pictures (like a lot more its long over due)

2006-04-14T04:55:00.000+01:00

yeah Pics of the highly over rated convocation at iima.

Posting some of the pics i took (many more have taken pics with me, but don't have em here)

So first we have the entire batch picture, Im right up there on the top row right at the left (co-rodinates (1,1))

Then you have me here accepting my degree from none other than NR Narayana Murthy

As my internet connection at home is slow, so first ill have to reduce the picture sizes and the only will be able to upload something.

now that im at home and doing nothing, might blog daily.

Whats in a Name? (Convo Blues)

2006-04-12T16:54:00.000+01:00

Yeah, my name is Nirav Kanodra, I dont see anything difficult bout pronouncing it or spelling it right. But well the world does.

On Umpteen ocassions my name has been spelt as Neerav and the surname think of all the combinations:
Kanodia, Kanoria, Kandora, Kanodara, Kanodria, Kanorda ... and the list goes on and on. As some one said we read only what we want to read. So 'Kanodra' not being a popular indian surname most indians simply use their intelligence and write what they feel is correct. More over they pronounce it the way they feel its right (and not the way i the bearer of the surname pronounce it)

All my childhood in school i was called Kandora after a teacher said that in class 3, the same time we had 'Pandora's Box of troubles' being taught in english. That stuck for a while and then someone called me the desi version "Kannu" and this one stuck well into engineering days where Saurabh Vilekar nicknamed me Kandy (thankfully, Saurabh i still thank you for that). In L&T again my nick name reverted to Kannu and then in IIMA the less said bout nick names the better. (PS my parents know my nick name ... damn)

anyways these errors are so pervasive in my engineering degree certificate there was an error (Kanorda instead of Kanodra and then they mispelt it the second time as Kandora, damn lightning struck twice)
And the bigger whammy was before our actual concocation we had a rehearsal and the chairman of the PGP Pregram Professy MM Monipally mispronounced my surname. He went like Nirav errr Kan-do-ra (the whole batch applauded) and he corrected himself. (I wasnt alone, Mohit Pradhan became Rohit Pradhan and Nangmuansang Lethil was a toungue twister)
So much so that in the actual convocation, there was a louder than normal applause for Nangmuansang and me. I felt really happy thinking that my parents might think this was due to me being more popular (as in most popular guys got really loud applauses) but damn they were seated near some students from my batch and they overheard "Oh so finally MMM got kanodra's name right"

SO i surely have been used to being called something apart from my name right from childhood days, but lets see what is it which makes my surname so special.

Rewind to 1900s or there abouts. My Great Grand Father was born Ravishankar Trikumji Trivedi (son of Mr. Trikumji Trivedi) Being born in a Brahmin family he too managed some education (or so they say) and was an employee of the prestigious "Burma Shipping Company" which was a part of the original East India Company. (All you Indians please dont curse my lineage, i still dont support the colonial rule)

Some where in Late 1930s Mr. R.T. Trivedi had a problem. His boss had the same initials and their letters used to get routinely mixed up. To that add some religious mumbo jumbo and throw in an astrologer and thus for some vague reason (which we shall never know) he decided to change his surname. Thus from Trivedi he changed it to "Kanodra" (but this spelling was in devanagiri script i guess) Apparently as my grandpa says Kanodra is the name of the goddess of our "Kul" (you may call it a sect, or some super sub division in our caste of Shrimadi Yajurvedi Brahmins from Jamnagar). Well the truth is no one actually knows.
Now Great Grandpa died young and this when his eldest son came of age he was offered a job. But by then the management changed hands. Now it was "Scindia Steam Navigation". The operations at the Jamnagar port stopped for good, and now their botched records wouldnt let Mukundrai Trivedi work as he wouldnt be the son of Mr Kanodra.
So my Grandpa moved to mumbai and changed his surname, and then some where in between some clerk some where got his name as Canodra. So we had Mr. Mukundrai Canodra starting his career on the Princess Dock in Mumbai working for Scindia Steam Navigation. He didnt know the difference as he didnt study much (He and his brothers didnt pay much attention to education after great grandpas death)
So now we had M.R. Canodra but his brothers continued to live in jamnagar and continued with the surname trivedi.

Now fast forward some where in 1950s. My dad is admitted to a school and his name was finally spelt out as Kanodra (the spelling which stands till today). in the family we had Mukesh Kanodra son of Mukundrai Canodra and Mukundrai Canodra was the brother of Vishuprasad, Mansukhlal and Natwarlal Trivedi.
Some family ehh.
Thankfully my dads 3 siblings were all Kanodra (no more variations) though my dad has faced problems in the past. How come you are Kanodra and your dad is Canodra?

Anyways thus today on the surface of this world there exists only 8 Kanodras. No make that 7 Kanodra's and 1 Canodra. (It was 7 + 2 a couple of years back but my Grandma Mrs. Shantaben Canodra expired)

So thats the story behind the surname.

Housing blues

2006-03-29T08:21:00.000+01:00

Yeah, now that our batch is looking forward to joining their jobs in different cities around the world, the biggest problem is finding housing in the metropolitan cities. (where housing is prohibitively expensive)

As Noodle pointed out yesterday to me, bigger problem than finding a house is finding the right roomies.
HIs criterion was plain and simple, vegetarian, non-smoker and must be fun to be with. (Read doesn't mind me drinking, but shouldn't create a mess himself)

Well if we simply look in WIMWI, the pool of people who are fun to be with, are not the vegetarian non smokers. Out of that choosing amongst guys who are placed in mumbai.

Well the same dilemma is facing me and Nippo. We need some vegetarian, non smoker but heavy drinker, who should know how to cook as well. And obviously should be fun to be with. On TV rules, cricket should be no.1 priority followed by formula 1 and soccer. At no point in time should soap operas be watched. Mooli (our dorm senior) says this seriously appears like a matrimonial advertisement in the times of india.

Another issue is where to look for accomodation, London being a large city and damn expensive. Though my office is near St. Pauls Cathedral in zone 1, I guess i might end up living in Canary Wharf or somewhere.

Anyways all these can be discussed later. Let me get my degree certificate on the day of convocation.

Finally End of an Era

2006-03-25T16:23:00.000Z

Yeah, I havent been bloggign since quite some time, first half of the time was spent as a nervous wreck in the preplacement time, and then after getting a job, it was more of being too bored too lazy and what not.

anyways I've really been lucky to be offered a position in the Structuring Desk of Merrill Lynch in London. (Well i also had other offers, but i dont want to brag about myself, but this was not the highest salary offered to me)

Anyways this was simply the best time to graduate out of a B-school, especially since the global markets are all bullish (no pun intended with the Bull which is the Merrill Lynch logo), and at the same time they are recognising the talent pool which graduates out of india every year, and lo and behold, the investment banks and consultants simply come and recruit from India. (And IIM Ahmedabad in particular)

Anyways this has been a seriously bumper year, and will always be remembered for Barclays Bank making 22 offers out of which 16 accepted.

But coming back to what i wanted to say the placements had a lot more to do with being at the right place at the right time rather than simply merit of the students.
Similar set of guys were there last year and well they didnt have half as many opportunities.

Anyways let me enjoy it while it lasts, i will be in london from may 1 and dont know whether there would be enough time inclination and topics to blog about

Of placements and more

2006-02-25T15:25:00.000Z

Now with the placements looming on our heads, we at WIMWI have started discussing the job market and potential recruiters more than women and cricket. (and thats a real shame aint it)

anyways now that i have kept thinking at length about it i guess it surely deserves a mention on my blog as well.

Today when the economy is doing well and every where the companies are raising their salaries i guess all of us at iima shall be with high paying jobs to start our careers with, but then i guess till not all of us would be anything close to happy.
Each one would be comparing how much did i get.

Then comes the issue of which job is the right job to take. Do i have the right atitude/aptitude to work in a particular sector. Would i sell my soul and all my leisure time for a few Lakh more?

I feel like a prostitute who will be goign to work for the highest bidder.
Infact looking how i am slacking on assignments now with no pressure on me, i rather feel like a donkey who wont run unless:
1) He is chasing a carrot at the end of a stick, OR
2) some one is whipping his ass unless he runs

without the reward and punishment i shall stand still at one point. It says a lto about my personality and internal drive (and i guess the same about all others with me)

At the same time when i told Basuri dada (a first year agri business management student in my dorm) about me being shortlisted for a couple of investmentbanks, he said "why do you want ot join financial services firms, and just go there cheat ordinary people and create scams? go do some work which benefits the society at large"
though Basudev has significant leftist leanings and has grown up in rural bengal, his words do ring a bell.

Just a couple of hours later there was a presentation by a Micro finance firm, which aimed at giving credit to the poorest of the poor, a wonderful social iniative, and though i think the cause is wonderful, as i dont identify with doing such work myself, im sure i am not gonna even apply to this firm.

Well its not that i am not concerned about the poor, nor do i deny that there is some serious amount of profits lying there (the poor pay 5% interest per day, yes 5% per day to money lenders) but its as if i am not the right person to do something. I am really happy that others are out there to make it a better place.
its like saying that india doesnt have any fast bowlers who put fear in the opposition batsmens mind so i should start practising. I simply dont have the ability t operform, thus i should simply watch cricket on the telly, make advertisers pay more, make the cricket boards rich and hope it gets channelized to the right direction and we get better cricketeres.

Arm chair activism it is but well thats all i am capable of.
Now back to completing the AMDA take home exam, after i see the movie aired on star movies :P

Beginning of the End

2006-02-25T15:15:00.000Z

yeah now my stay at IIMA is nearing an end.
Would love to type out my thoughts about it, but then dont have the time (too caught up in attending placement ppts, completing assignments which i had slacked on earlier, cribbing about life in general and playing carrom over 10 cups of tea per day)

Anyways now with the entire batch getting extremely senti, some people have already penned their thoughts (Ranga, Poza and Blade are just some of them) and then the 'SENTINELS' comprising of BaLLLma®, Tahseen, Ranga, Bushie amongst others are taking some initiatives to make the last few days memorable.
On of the few events they conducted was the Poll of the Year (POTY) awards, which was held alongwith the Music Night.

The Music night was some nice event, kudos to SFI (Srinath) the music club coord and the entire music club for making it an extremely memorable event.

The POTY awards were hosted by none other than yours truly, and inspite of various goof ups and me not able to read the print, the event was nice with a lot of funky awards being given. (Like the Best CP, best/ worst hair style, killer lady and lady killer, best couple ...)
Anyways i was awarded the best dorm name. (I guess if you know my dorm name, and have lived on campus from 2004-06 then this should have been a no brainer)

Yeah now i shall soon type out my own memories of this place, and add some pictures as well.

What Does your birthday mean

2006-02-13T05:00:00.001Z

Discovered this of Blade's blog (Ranjan Kant, WIMWI's most hardworking, intelligent and fighter dude)

Anyways this describes my characteristics, guess some of it is true, (well in all such things they say lot of genreic things, so atleast soem characteristics should match anyone on this planet)
Anyways if interested you too can try it and check whether it works for you. I myself dont believe in astrology (unless it says things like i am a natural born leader of men and irresistibly attractive to women)

Your Birthdate: October 3

You are more than a big ball of energy - you are a big ball of hyper.You are always on the go, but you don't have a type a personality.Instead of channeling your energy into work, you instead go for fun and adventure.Witty and verbal, you can have an interesting conversation with anyone.
Your strength: Your larger than life imagination
Your weakness: You tend to be pretty scattered
Your power color: Lime
Your power symbol: Lightening bolt
Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

So anyways you guys try it out, andif you did read this, please leave your comments on how much of this do you think is true.

Btw i hope my power month is march. (for more reasons than one)

Sunrise @ Thol

2006-02-10T19:57:00.000Z

Yeah now in 6th term, less than a month for the end, the motorcylcing club of IIM Ahmedabad is now nearly getting defunct. (With the infectious enthusiasm of Hitanshu Gandhi gone, doubt any one would have the guts to do 1000 km solo rides)
But as a part of i was making too many plans to somehow go out on a short trip. So Made plans to (re)visit the Bird Sanctuary Thol, around 40 km from the campus.
The plan was first aborted due to lack of anyone willling to wake up early enough to witness the sunrise.

Then yesterday night at Cafe TANSTAAFL (CT) around 3 AM suddenly SFI and Gattu suggested why couldnt we leave in an hour or so, and thus reach well in time for some ornithology (well though most of us are avid bird watchers, our main hobby is 'horny-thology')

so off we went across with Nippo being the 4th guy to come as a pillion with me.

It was a wonderful way to spend the morning, away from the noise and hullabaloo of WIMWI to experience the tranquil calm.

anyways leaving you with the pictures

1 Sunrise at Thol

2 Lone Flamingo @ Thol Lake (not very sharp as taken with 10x zoom the max in my camera)

3 A picture taken in the Sepia Mode (im finally using different modes in my CAM)

The Same Snap taken by SFI in another mode, with adjusting his camera settings

4 Now for the people who went there (From L to R SFI Manu and Me, unfortunately not a soul in sight thus Nippo had to take this snap)

5 Finally the other 3 (Nippo Gattu and SFI from L to R)

As I am typing this blog Rambo (another fellow Dixteeno) has started this Radio Nightlife a LAN Radio station, and as an RJ he is busy Leli-ing everyone (Leli : IIMA lingo for taking some ones case)

Ek din saala Rambo pitega kisise

Now that SFI has pasted his snaps on my comp, some more pics here (he is one helluva photographer) This one below is a fantastic snap with the birds flying across during sunrise. (wanna go there one day during sunset as well)

Hindi Prachar Sabha @ Chhatravaas Solah

2006-02-09T09:35:00.000Z

Yeah, now its just about a month left and now and I realise soon i wont be living in this dormitory at IIM Ahmedabad.

Little did I know when i joined the institute its not just the institute that moulds a person, but very much the dormitory that the person lives in and the people in the dorm.

So this blog dedicated to the activities of my fellow Dixteenos.

The latest activity in our dorm is to popularize the use of hindi. Considerign that there are many south indians who arent exactly comfortable in the national language, Nippo and Softy (aka Patrkar the Media secretary of IIMA) formed the Hindi Prachar Sabha. BaLLLma® always being the over enthu guy comes up with the south indian chapter, Dakshin bharatiya Hindi Sangathan. (He can't be a simple member of any club, unless he is the Prez can't he?)
So now while wasting and whiling away our time in the dorm, (which is the second most popular activity for PGP2s the first being paining the pgp1s with arbit gyaan) we have come up with the motto to have all conversations in chaste hindi. Wheres the catch one might say is'nt Hindi the national language and spoken all across the country? But mind you for those who have been born and brought up in the cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, there are too many English, Marathi, Gujarati and even the Bambaiyya hindi words creeping into ones vocabulary.

So now that we dont use any english words, Dorm 16 is called Chhatravaas Solah, and myself beign the Dorm Representative is know known as Chhatravaas Pratinidhi.
Though these might not sound funny, junta keeps giving each other Oonche Paanch (High fives) and whenever some one admits their mistakes they say Main Sudhara hua Khada hu (I stand Corrected)

Till the club was limited to the first floor it wasn't too bad, but with the entry of The Sourav The Roy (aka Currency of South africa aka truncated name of a street walker) there were new words for the english words entrenched in our vocabulary

Sukshma Narm Bal Bindu Prastuti (Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation)
Pratimbh pind, Laghu pind, chaar chhidra maar dhaad pratiyogita (Carrom game)
Yaun Yantra (thats the dorm name of yours truly well translated in hindi)

there are many more, but i absolutely cant remmeber more of those.
And also we have the external consultant, the Hindi scholar from Down south Vinoo aka Nagina (now a pgp3 working in Feedback Ventures Delhi)
HIs one of the many claims to fame is that he top scored in hindi in class 10 in a highschool in Madras. (i guess there were 5 people in the class, and 8 might not be able to speak hindi at all)

Yup i think i will blog a lot more about IIMA, the placement season (current fever going on) and definitely about my esteemed friends, and the dorm.

Next one hopefully should be on the free fair and transparent Dorm Rep elections

Chaos Moksha

2006-01-25T17:24:00.000Z

Yeah, its that time in the year when all of IIMA enjoys the festivities. The 4 day long cult fest Chaos Moksha is gonna be be held.
Yup lots big names gonna be performing, Strings, jal ...
and many many more events. Some online games and quizzes
so why dont you check out the website itself?

http://iima-chaos.com/

more about Drishya

2006-01-25T10:19:00.000Z

Article about drishya and its founder members Chiranjeeb Mukherjee and Sunetro bannerjee in ahmedabad times today

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1385927.cms

Film buffs on a mission

A film appreciation and research club aims to make people understand that there is life beyond Bollywood with the help of cinema masterpieces like Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar....

“Cinema is not an art which films life, it is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, cinema gives to life and takes from it,” French filmmaker Jeun Luc Godard once said. Ever wondered what movies can do to you beyond entertainment? For Sunetro Banerjee, Chiranjib Mukherjee and a bunch of others, it is a medium through which they want to make a difference to the society. They are members of Drishya, a Kolkata based ‘film appreciation and research group’, that boasts of a collection of classics made by filmmakers like Luis Bunuel, Rikwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen and Ingmar Bergman. “Our primary motive is to make people understand that there is life beyond Bollywood. Cinema is a very strong medium, and masterpieces can make a big difference,” says Sunetro Banerjee, a student of film studies. Drishya was formed by a bunch of ‘movie buffs’ three years back when they realised that people living in slums of West Bengal would love to watch pure Bengali films. “We started screening movies like Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar, Meghe Dhaka Tara, The Bicycle Thief — with which the villages would easily relate to. Initially, we were very sceptical about whether the villagers will come for the screening. But they used to come in big numbers. We used to have interactive sessions with them after the screenings which made us understand their perspective,” says Banerjee. Gradually Drishya moved to bigger cities. “The problem is people are not aware that such classics are being made. And even if they are, these are not easily available on DVDs,” says Banerjee. Drishya has screened movies in the slums of Dharavi, in temples, police stations, colleges and in corporate houses across India. “We feel great when people react to the films. Once we screened The Bicycle Thief for some constables. After watching the film they were really touched and realised that sometimes circumstances lead people to commit crimes. Once, after watching a film, the slum kids of Dharavi were in tears. This is our mission. We don’t want to initiate a revolt. We just want to use the medium of cinema to raise some social issue,” he says. The group is currently in Ahmedabad for a few days and will be screening films at IIM. And they are also hoping that some well connected and generous film buffs, help them out in their mission.

(Here you see chiranjeeb on left and Sunetro on the right in this picture)

36 Chowringhee Lane

2006-01-25T10:04:00.000Z

Another movie seen in the Film Fest Anachronism presented by Drishya:

I saw '36 Chowringhee Lane' a bilingual (Bengali and English) movie directed by Aparna Sen. (For her debut feature, Aparna won the Best Director award at the Indian National Film Awards. It also won the Grand Prix (the Golden Eagle) at the Manila International Film Festival.). A nice movie about an aging Anglo Indian spinster, and how her lonely life is transformed when she meets a young couple who use her house as a rendezvous point.

It touches on issues such as the lonely old people who do not have any family members living with them, to the plight of the anglo indians (and similarly Parsis), who were in held powerful positions within the government and the private sector due to their knowledge of English and higher levels of education, but with the average indian (and even the lower castes and tribals) getting more educated, how these people from the old order are slwoly but steadily getting replaced by indians in all positions. Thus leading to emigration of anglo indians to other english speaking and christian countires such as australia and canada (in search of greener pastures)
Another aspect that is well covered is the plight of people in the old age homes in india, how these people are left to die once they are old enough and no one even cares about them.

Similarly is the fate of the protagonist, Miss Violet Stoneham (Played by Shashi Kapoors late wife Jennifer Kendal), that once she is old and lonely, not only is she demoted in the school where she is a teacher, (where she si asked to teach grammar to girls in primary school instead of Shakespeare in the senior classes), but also how the couple whom she allows to spend time in her apartment (which lends name to the movie), conviniently ignore her as soo nas they get married and thus showing us how materialistic society has become.

Actually after looking at the movie i think, why do people want immortality, when u see the kind of pain old agae is. (actually why would anyone want immortality when one is at a loss how to spend a lazy sunday afternoon)

Happenings in the Dorm

2006-01-22T11:50:00.000Z

Last few days have been a bit boring, not much happening in my life at IIM Ahmedabad. Well i've added the links of a few blogs that i read, and not to mention wikipedia, which helps me spend a lot of time.

whereas the other dormies are also bored and ismply killing time till the placements occur.
The favourite time pass is definitely carrom. (Which Nippo is mastering and challenging all and sundry) Here in the picture you see Ram about to strike as John (his partner) and the opponents Nippo and Bela as well as the onlooker BaLLLma® watch on. These carrom matches not only display the general lack of talent amongst IIMA students, but the conversation on the board also confirms the fact that they lack anything called as sense of humour. (Myself included)
Right now D16 first floor is becoming a procastinators paradise, with D17ers (Ram, John and even Suchitra) coming in to play with us.

The other pass time as with any indian is watchign cricket matches. The current series with pakistan being a bore with dead pitches and high scoring draws notwithstanding, here you can see the fachhas cheering for india while watching cricket.

Now as my stay in IIMA draws to a close, I wish to put up a lot of snaps and write about WIMWI and my Dormitory in general.

Films as an art form

2006-01-20T18:41:00.000Z

Ahhh, term six in IIM Ahmedabad. Unlike the first year (and especially term 1 and 3) where you are over loaded with work, this term has lot of time for relaxation, and pursuing other passtimes.
Yeah so besides playing carrom, lazing around and general chit chat, we also watch movies. Though most of the movies are of the 'masala' variety, of late ive come across a few good meaningful movies, and the credit goes to the MAD (Movie A Day) club secretary Gavaskar Gadalla (aka Gava on campus)
On the server inour campus i saw a couple of Stanley Kubrick Movies, Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange, of which the latter one definitely made an impression on me.
The idea of conditioning the human behaviour to avoid crime and behave well, making them behave like machines running on clockwork precision and the pitfalls of the same is a revolutionary concept.

But coming to the point, Gava has organized a film festival 'Anachronism' with help of the agency Dhrishya. Drishya is run by two gentlemen (Chiranjeeb and Sunetro) from Calcutta, who have promoted film as an art form and literature by showing some international classic movies to not only college students but also to slum children and corporates. They really promote meaningful cinema (unlike the Yash Chopra and Barjatya movies who simply have too much drama)

Though I missed the first movie, the second day there was the screening of A bout de Souffle (Breathless) a movie by Jean du Godard, which is regarded as a revolutionary film for its film making techniques, and the movie which i saw today was simply a classic. It was an Iranian movie, "Bacheha-Ye Aseman" (Children of Heaven) by Majid Majidi.
As Chiranjeeb explained before the movie screening that in monarchies and stictly religious countries like Iran where there is extreme censorship by the state, the film makers usually choose non controversial topics for their films, and this movie as the title suggests is about children. It deals around the life of a brother and sister and how much importance is there for a simple pair of shoes.
It not only describes the life of poor working class people in Teheran (which i strongly belive would be the situation in India as well) but aslo subtly comments on the political situation and the divide between the haves and the have-nots on the society.
The movie highlights the joys experienced by children over siple things, and even a pair of sneakers, which to most of us seems so trivial, makes a world of a difference to these siblings.
this Film was nominated for the best foriegn film for the Oscar awards in 1998, but unfortunately lost out to Roberto Begnini's 'Life is Beautiful' (In my honest opinion this movie is just as great if not more)

Now i also look forward to a film by Satyajit Ray and another one by Aparna Sen.
Frankly speakign i had never thought film as a part of literature, considering it more as a form of popular entertainment (given the kind of cinema is churned out in india)

Hopefully i shall have enough motivation to blog about the other movies as well, till then i hope all of you might get an opportunity to see this movie.

Note: All links provided are in wikipedia, where hopefully you might be able to read more and form your own opinions.

Terrorism strikes again

2005-12-28T18:30:00.000Z

After all this George bushes humbug against fighting terror, and doing nothign about the Indo pak tension, today there was a terrorist attack at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
and one scientist was killed and a couple more injured.

Its really sad, to here when the media says the reason was that the educational institutions are SOFT TARGETS

Read more about it in the news
Indian Express
Rediff
Times of India

Hope we can one day finish this proxy war for once and for all. Bloody why cant US see that the nation they support (Pakistan) and supply all these arms is simply using them against India.

Formula 1 Car in Frankfurt airport

2005-12-25T14:33:00.000Z

also me trying to take a pic of myself with the car

Back on my Bike...

2005-12-25T13:21:00.000Z

I last rode my motorcycle on 27th August 2005.
Then as i left for exchange program to germany, i left it in the campus, and didnt give the keys to anyone as then it would end up a Sarvajanik Bike . (i.e. public property, which every one uses, but no one is resposible for)

Today on Christmas 25th december, i finally tried startign the paltry 100 cc machine. And though ti was covered in layers of dust, and half the petrol had evaporated, i did manage to rev up the engine after 4 - 5 kicks (yeah i was scared that the battery might get discharged and thus i might not be able to kick start it)
And dammit even after 3 1/2 months the engine was purring the same way. Still i can manage to manouevre throught the traffic and the brakes are the same as well (the rear brake gives a little jerk to the left each time i brake)

Apart from getting my bike punctured i did manaeg to replace the tube, and also finally bought the things i had forgotten, like bedsheets, blankets ... and what not.

Now that i am reunited with my bike, hoping to have a couple of bike trips this term, and a little more to blog about.

P.S.
I was goign thru my europe pics, i still have to write about Paris, Switzerland, and Italy.
Also some more pics about the recent happenings in the campus

Anyways i left the keys home and while returning i all but forgot about the keys and landed up in Ahmedabad without my keys. (Infact the list of things i forgot was really huge, but nevertheless for me the bike keys were the most important thing)

Finally i got my parents to courier the keys to me, but then being the smart guy that i am, i lost my keys in the mess.

Vagina Monologues

2005-12-24T14:02:00.000Z

Yup last weekend when i was at home in bombay, i caught up with a few seniors (Mooli and Cumlee)

So off we went to see a play. (Actually saw two of them, "Art" and Vagina Monologues)

As the name suggests, it has created a fair bit of controversy, but as we saw the 120th show surely its not sleazy or soem cheap sidey porno thingy.

The play actually was about women talking about vaginas (pretty obvious ehh as the name suggests). But instead of it being like reading the Letters to Pent house or some other Porno Mag, it was from a point of view of sensitizing the patriachial society about women and their sexuality. Especially in a country with so many women being raped, with husbands beating their wives and child abuse, genital mutiliation.

I think the play was really good. They had 5 women (The great theatre personality Dolly Thakore and Mahabano Mody-Kotwal being the amongst them) enacting the interviews taken of various women about this topic.

I dont want to talk more about this but i would strongly suggest you to see this play if you get a chance. (The original is a AMerican Broadway play, these indians had just bought the copyrights)

this play actually did in a way change the perspective with which i see women.

The only negative thing about this play is that it bordered on being to FEMINISTIC.

So you go see it.

Aha Back to India

2005-12-24T13:53:00.000Z

Yeah, its been some time since my last blog, and though 2 are being drafted, i doubt they will ever see the lite of the day.

Anyways I reached home safely, and immediately as I boarded in to the plane at Vienna(TO Mumbai) , I saw the indianness coming back. More and more people breaking queues, talking loudly and HUGE BAGS being carried as hand baggage.

I faced reality a little more closely the next day as I visited my aunts place in Sion. Usually i would be having my motorcycle or Dad would let me take his car. But that day i had to travel by public transport, and travelling by crowded buses in Bombay, gave me a real feel for the city.
again I experienced the noise, the smells.

Yeah and I did notice the lareg number of people all around.

Anyways the vacation has ended, so has the name of my blog.

It shall be more about my last few months in IIM Ahmedabad, and how i cope with not much to do in my last term.

DAMNNNNN ...

2005-12-18T08:45:00.000Z

anyways

my stupidity has been discovered by the residents of the dorm,
and though i agree i write bad stuff about lots of people, its for the sake of humour.

I also had a lot of misconceptions about some people, but the most was for Angelo.

At first i thought he was an over the top guy, wearing playboy tshirts and shades.

But later i realised he was a nice and a funny guy, (and also smart considering he found out all the stuff on my blog)

The people who i really despised were :
the ones who neevr cleaned up the mess in the kitchen ... and yeah i dont know who they were.

anyways ... now i guess my sharp and rude comments have hurt someone .. its actually time to write anything personal, wicked and attacking on any one.

I dont know, but i guess this was the best thing to have happened may be.

I hope to be less vitriolic about all people
and this is my new years resolution

regards
Nirav

Final Post from Germany

2005-12-14T17:29:00.000Z

Yeah

now in a few hours i leave vallendar for good.
The journey is a long one, As first my friend Farzad Saidi (yeah he is a german, though of iranian descent) drops me by car to Koblenz arond midnight, and then i catch the ICE 809 to frankfurt at 00.48 hrs, to reach frankfurt flughafen (i.e. airport) at 02.02 hrs and then i have to louge around till 6 AM as i check for my flight at 8
This is not all as there is a stop over at Vienna from 9.30 to 11 and then i finally leave for bombay and reach there at 23.25

anyways

just saw the videos of the parties, its kind of funny ... lots of candid camera moments, saw a bit of the wild night life here,

and yeah ...
shall miss this place as much as i had loathed it some time back

and yeah i would like to thank all the people that made it memorable here

VIP, TGV, Party ministers, the guys at the Dormitory, especially gabor, jo, albert, ian and others

then the most special were my group memeber s in various seminars
Rene Reinsberg, Gunnar Lange, Florian Arndt, Farzad Saidi, Daniel Jeschonowski, Alexander Smeja, Henock Teklu, Gerald Koch, Alexandre Blondel and Emma Bjoern

also how could i forget Jerome Verger, Kumar Nishant (Lolo) and Jatin Didwania (Windows) for co authoring a case with me (and Prof Lutz Kaufman obviously)

and yeah there are many many more pppl

now that i go on to ahmedabad ...

though there might be some blogs written about germany but they would be fro memory and

now my blog would soon change its name ...
as i move back to ahmedabad ...

EPISODE 6: Revenge of the Geek

anyways now i have bought my 2 bottles of Jack Daniels and ready to go back

bbye WHU

Don't play cards ... in the shower

2005-12-11T17:25:00.000Z

For those of you who got confused, this is the poor tale of the 2 french tauschies Alexandre Blondel and Elsa.

Both come to WHU on exchange from different parts of France, and fall in love in the hostile neighbouring country. (Remember the 100 years war)

Anyways like any couple, they love playing cards. But here is their biggest dilemma, that while playing cards they shuffle the deck too loudly. And this enrages others. (they are not particularly helped by the paper thin walls of the Bundesheim Dormitory)

So if they play cards in Elsa's room, her neighbour Sabrina knocks on the wall and tells them to stop it, and if they do it in Alex's room then his neighbour Jo knocks on the wall and tells them to reduce the noise.

Fed up of others interference, they go play cards in the TV room. (Now as this TV doesn't have cable connection and only some sidey german channels, usually no one visits it) But this time to their dismay, on that particular day the draw for the Football worldcup was to be announced. So Gabor, albert and Marcio turn up in the TV room, and tell them to f*** off.

Now due to this frustration, finally they end up playing cards in the shower, (yeah who goes for a shower at 2AM, right) on the girls floor

unfortunately their card playing is not just loud, but also messy. So they left this shower in a "not so clean condition"
and thus further enraging the residents of the dorm.

And thus finally we have the NOTICE put up outside the bathroom

"Do your stuff in your room, NO PLAYING CARDS IN THE SHOWER. Its a public place after all"

Poor Alex and Elsa, they can't even play cards in peace.

Tauschie Calendar (Part 3)

2005-12-09T23:25:00.000Z

Ok .. now for the last feww pictures from the calendar ...

This is Marie (Sweden) and Sigrid (France) and you can see though the picture is good, it could have been much better. For instance they could hae simply worn a thong instead of their jeans ... (not my thought but Gabor is telling me this as i publish this post)
More over look at Marie carefully and you can see the towel covering her frontside. A good professional photographer wouldnt have allowed this goof up.

This is the pic our our Tauschie President Angelo (Italy) being massaged by Esther (Spanish Chiquitita in my earlier posts) and Sabrina (Italian Mama or Mama mia)

Though again this picture had some potential, not really well executed. Dont know why but still it seems nice (nopes i am not those MCPs who feel women are meant to serve men .. or may be massage them, but still there is some appeal in the pic)

Hmmm, this is another good pic, with the SIZZLING SLOVAKIAN (Zuzzanna .. yeah in slovakia "z" is pronounced as an "s") with the 3 french guys (there are so many of them, who cares about guys names anyways) Only if she were holding a whip or something, this picture would have the effect of the strong woman controlling here toy boys.

Finally we have the mascot of the calendar, the most talked about and the most publicised picture

Yup the guy is Neal Taylor (UK) and the girls are Gabriel and Ibyllis.

This is the only creative picture in the calendar. (the one you would not find in so many email forwards)

anyways ...

If you think i am some pervert by posting such comments on the calendar, then may be you are right.

You guys tooo feel free to post comments. Surely would welcome any criticism

Tauschie Calendar (Part 2)

2005-12-09T23:01:00.000Z

I need to do this as the blogger doesnt allow my blogs to be really big So continuing with the calendar pics

This is the most hilarious pic. There is Natalia Simakova (the Russian) in the foreground and then we have Gabor and Joseph (Czech) covering their crotches and Emma (sweden) tring to whack Jo's butt.
This picture appears to me like 2 prisoners in a concetration camp, just before getting whipped or somehting, one guy is fantasizing about the Russian Lolita and the other is dreaming about being spanked by a Swedish adolescent girl. (Damn my perverted mind, but again this pic aint artistic)

Yup this is Richard Soriano again. (yeah i know he is one of the most popular guys... but not a great picture again)

This is the best picture for me. Not only because it has the polish hottie Anna, with the french f***er Mathieu, but also as this is something thats actually real. This is another piture i would pay money for...

This is another bad picture you have to take when you dont have too many good looking women. For all the "Open midedness" they talk about, calendar women are supposed to be in bikinis, not your "Havaldar type shorts" (And i havent even gotten started aout when i have free internet, why would i want to see plump women on my calendar)

Also from where are they getting wet, the Champagne bottle aint even open.

Anyways the 2 girls are Elsa (France) and Frida (sweden) whereas the guys are Henrik Ericson(Sweden) and Alexandre Blondel (France)

(contd in part 3 ... as i cant upload all piucs in one post)

The Tauschie Calendar (Part 1)

2005-12-09T22:25:00.000Z

Yeah so as a part of our memories of the ghost town "Vallendar" and all "excellence in management education" the tauschies here realised a limited edition calendar with the pictures of tauschies themselves.

Now the calendar is kinda a girlie calendar, wit pics of nude guys and semi nude gals, i will put it up nevertheless.
(dont think that i am an idiot to buy the lousy caledar for 15 Euros, i simply clicked the snaps from the clanedar which gabor bought, im never the guy to oppose piracy or crusader of intellcetula property rights. I beleive if you are really intellectual then why bother out piracy ???)

Ok so here are the pictures and my comments on the them as well

So here we have our party ministers Damien (france) and Veronique Tyzcynca (UK). This picture is as cheesy as it can get. Dunno why would any one want to buy this. (Dont worry but the worst is yet to come.

This pic is the WORST OF THE LOT. What were they thinkin when they clicked this?? anyways for your information its Richard and Elsa (both from FRANCE) ... dont htink the picture is artistic nor is it provocative (so no point uying it. February is ruined as well)

Ok missed one pic of Dolan Shah (the british guy of indian origin) and the 2 spanish gals ...

but this pic is one i might actually shell out money for. Here we have (fom left to right) Gabriel, Stephanie (both France) and Ibyllis (Bolivia)

Stephanie being one of the most popular women and her affair with the Taucschie President Angelo (referred as Italian Idiot in my earlier posts) is always on and off.

No Snow...

2005-12-07T10:32:00.000Z

Yeah,

Its been getting warmer than the week earlier, and there is rain every night, (unlike warm tropical rain back home in india this rain is icy cold)

So in all proabibility there wont be snow here till I leave.
And that is stupid. Ok i have seen snow in Norway and Munich and Switzerland ...

But not been for long under falling snow, and this might be really sad. I am looking at weather websites and damn, heavy snow predicted in berlin, munich and even as close as frankfurt. BUT NO NONE IN KOBLENZ.

DAMN this stupid weather

Femme Fatale wrecks havoc in the kitchen

2005-12-05T19:09:00.000Z

Yeah, its been nice for us in the last few days. The Italian mama bans smoking in the girls kitchen. (if u didnt know already our dorm is next to the nuns dorm and thus girls and boys have a separate kitchen on separate floors).

The good part is this leads to the polish hottie having her meals in the boys kitchen. And though its also a no smoking zone, whose gonna say no to a devilishly sexy girl.

So in the last few days she started cooking up there. Then all the guys in order to grab her attention started cooking elaborate meals. Italian (nope he isnt so idiotic) Angelo made a Lasagna (took him 3 hours)

Albert made Goulash, and we indians not to be left out made Pav Bhaji.

Every one started fighting for her attention and offering stuff that they had cooked, soon she stopped cooking totally, just lands up there at dinner time, and some cooks her a meal.

NOw that she has an exam on "Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Rights" on wednesday she also studies in the kitchen with Gabor.

Now this is the only course that she has taken in the english language, and thus she sits there and asks "what is the meaning of this word, or what does that word mean?"

ANd yeah we Indians having learnt english right from our kindergarten days are more than willing to oblige. (those blasted canadians go out of their way to help her out as well)

So in all the situation becomes really hilarious.

Especially funny is when Mangu goes and sits right opposite her and is going through her notes and writes down the meaning of "difficult" words. (Damn if his fiance reads this blog, his marriage scheduled on 15th april might soon be called of, especially she knows how often he visits her rooms just to help her run the antivirus scan ... daily!!!)

Whereas Akshay adds extra salt and burns the curry and i nearly chop my fingers instead of onions (due this excessive distraction)

Jatin (Windows from D22) plays the cool customer, not being to bothered. I thought he being the true desi was not interested in these firangi women till he told me that his strategy was simply "playing hard to get".

Yeah anyways the polish hottie (or Femme Fatale as all her male friends in Poland call her) is now really scared of failing, and so she studies more than 10 hours a day and all in the kitchen. With her there is Gabor, (though this motives might not entirely be academic i presume)

and thus now every one is having 2 hour lunches and 3 hour dinners.

Everybody here gave their explanantion of "Patent Rights which are unrestricted and limited" (to be frank it sounds a bit oxymoronic to me )

And Gabor isnt of too much help either, himslef not knowing the meanings of irrevocable, infringement, assertive, litigation, caveat, defendant and plaintiff ...

He is a little better than Miss Poland who doesnt even know the meaning of Release, law suit ...

So now as you can see the picture, of the polish hottie studying (and creating chaos in the minds of guys around her) where as Gabor is trying really hard to concentrate on his notes.

As i went in for my midnight tea, michael not to be left out (from the race to impress Miss poland) opens a bottle of finest Bordeux wine (the best french wine) and treats us all. Then Alexandre Longuish who got a little drunk said,

"I should'nt have made a group with the polish gal. She never works, she is very lazy. All polish are all so lazy. Back home in France the polish immigrants only do menial work like paint the walls and repair the roads."

At this she got really angry, and may be just to add fuel to the fire, Alex replied, "but they do a good job"

This led to the polish hottie finally leaving the kitchen, and all the other guys asked him to apologize, (not because he was rude, but because now she might stop visiting the kitchen for good. Damn if that happens then im surely gonna bash up that french frog Alex)

Friday Beer on Thursday night

2005-12-04T18:13:00.000Z

Thats what the subject line in my email said. (its a crude translation frm german)
Then what followed was a long email, all written in german (cant read tht well, yet) im about to delete the mail, when the last line of the email was

"Tauschie Summary: Free Beer tomorrow night at 7 pm, in the Gewollebekeller"

So obviously, reading the most important words, FREE (in this materialistic world) coupled with the word BEER, one of the best things invented by man, (thats what they say in Bavaria)

Anyways once i went in Gewollbekeller (or the cellar where all parties are held), i realised why the party was called friday beer, as though u start drinking on thurday, the party was supposed to end on friday.

The roots of this tradition are in the german students revolution in 1848, when students would get together and discuss revolutionary ideas on thursday nights, over a few liters of beer. (a liter and a half down, whatever i would speak would only be revalationary not revolutionary)

Yeah so keeping this tradition in mind, the enterprising students of WHU got some sponsorship and started this beer drinking and discussing revolutionary thoughts fraternity.

Well as i dont speak much german, and nor am i politically aware and all i know about revolutions is earht revovles around the sun, but all of this doesn't deter me from going to the gewolbekeller for FREE BEER.

Its unfortunate now i n2 more weeks here i just have one thurday left, and its criminal for me to be flying on thurday morning back to india, but if you dont see me online on next thursday from 7 pm (german time) you know where shall i be.

Driving a mercedes

2005-12-01T16:56:00.000Z

Yeah finally after coming to Germany did I manage to drive an automobile. Gabor and Joseph were in Koblenz, and walked past a car rental shop advertising cheap rates. So they walk in and enquire and to their amazement they could rent a car in 45 euros for 3 days. (but the catch was without any insurance. The insurance was 66 Euros more)

So while these guys try to figure it out would they rent it without insurance, the Opel Corsa they wanted to rent is taken by someone else, and then as there was no similar car on offer the sales guy offers them a Mercedes B160 for the same price. The east Europeans simply grab the offer, and pay 45 Euros (who wants insurance they say) and without any travel plans they come back in their Mercedes.

Now as they are bragging about it i convince them to let me take it aournd for a spin. So first time in my life i am riving a left hand drive and supposed to drive on the right side of the road. If these restrictions weren't tough enough for my bad driving, the gear system was a wee bit different, but the 6 speed diesel handled wonderfully well. The whole incident was fine, apart from that once I forgot, that I have to drive on the right and entered the left lane (on a left turn) and once drove over the curb while reversing the car during a u-turn went in the 5th gear instead of 3rd and the engine stalled in between the road, and i went speeding at 130 kph in the 6th gear.
All this time Gabor seated next to me, went pale, and was screaming, "I DONT HAVE ANY INSURANCE, PLEASE BE CAREFUL" anyways we (and the car) returned safely and Gabor was kind enough to click some pics, though he feels I do not deserve a driving license (I think Shashu, VJ and Fraud would agree with him after the Mahabhaleshwar trip we had in may 2005)

Here are the pics of me and the MERC

(the pic aint clear and date hides the 3 pointer but its a MERC B160)