Food with whipped Caste !!

Caught between choice to either 'Wake up Sid' or to disturb those who say 'Do Knot Disturb', I preferred latter. Mayb the name itself was in perfect coherence with my usual cognitive preference of not to be disturbed.David Dhawan's gang was at it again and I enjoyed it. But this post isn't about muvies but some recent political moves..

Among the unending debate on Tharoor's 'cattle class' and numerous analysis on our famed 'middle class', we might have missed recent news about more classes in India. Our Rahul Baba ate food and spent a night @ dalit house..Jatin Prasad ate khichdi with dalit's..Even Azharuddin spent 1 hr eating food cooked by a dalit 'halwai'..

Nothing offensive abt it but Congress is silently playing the caste card again in our UP's political ring. and most are seriously bugged by this tamasha..can't be too critical bcoz its good whatever the end intentions of parties..means can be justified later..atleast the most under-served, underprivilged section of the society is finally getting some attention after decades of neglect and government apathy of which Congress itself is responsible for close to 50 years. What irks is the media hype which even our 'Kalawati' is not happy with !!

At this pace, some of the upcoming shows for Television can be:
1.The Great Indian Caste show
2.Hero Honda Hunk Brahmingiri or Clinic All Clear Dalitgiri
3.The Cookery show - Who cooks better khichdi? Sponsored by Congress Co-sponsored by BSP,RPI, Panthers party...Chief Guest on the show one & only Behan Mayawati..

4. MTV 'Caste'villa..
and many more
Hope the tamasha goes on..Its win-win for everyone..some get news, some get votes, some get attention...I too get something..irritation :)

People are generally good !!

Came across this article, a few days ago, and it was a good reading about Craig Newmark, the acclaimed founder of craigslist.com. The website, despite being panned from numerous quarters for its simplicity and indifference towards innovation, still rules as the most popular job-hunting, apartment-search and dating site in US. This article was my first interaction with the website and What's more intriguing is Craig's indiffernece to business rules, disinterest in money and above all his core belief that "People are generally good and trustworthy and are just concerned with getting through the day". This thought process was somewhat in stark contrast to the corporate greed all around in US & world.

Me too a believer that 8 out of 10 people u meet are good. Its those 2 who leave a bad taste in our lives and may be we too easily fall in Pareto's 80:20 trap. It's better to think about 8 good people u meet rather than other 2. By the way, surprisingly my current boss is a part of 8 rather than 2 :)

Anyway, people are free to have their opinions,here's the link to the article:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist?currentPage=all

When to switch off the Television !!

Apart from all the business gyaan, flicks and sports which make TV worth watching, there are times in Indian Television when one would prefer to switch it off. So, without second thoughts, I'll switch off the television :

When the film is a multistarrer but the lead actor turns out to be ...........Ravi Kishen

When the song on top of chart is from the movie..........'Radio'

When Salman Khan is 'wanted' not for acting but.........dancing

When every next show is billed as the.......'meanest show ever'

When the next much awaited coming soon show is..........'Rakhi ka Divorce'

When the movie coming up is the comeback flim of.........Dino morea

When the leading news channel of the decade award is given to......India TV

When the next reality show is named.....LGBTs Up, Close and personal

When the talk show is hosted by Barkha dutt where the only person talking is.......herself

When the politician of the year 2009 award goes posthumously to........Mohd. Ali Jinnah

When the host of biggest 'talent' hunt show is......Suneil Shettty (No spelling mistakes here!!)

and certainly when...

Akshay Kumar promises on any game show to give free DVDs of 'Chandni Chowk to China' .

The winner stands alone !!

Yes, the recent book from Paulo Coehlo 'The winner stands alone' didn't match the high expectations I had from the author of 'The Alchemist' and 'Veronica decides to die'. Set up in the backdrop of glitzy Cannes film fest, the book emphasizes, re-emphasizes to the point of ranting about price one has to pay in life for fame, glamour, and power. May be i m inexperienced in all the three so relating to the story proved difficult :) Still, the book felt incomplete with me still unable to decide whether Igor, the principal character, was right in what he did or not; destrying the whole world to get back his wife Ewa ? A lot of ppl might agree with me. The mythical yet true Alchemist philosophy was replaced by too much realism. Characters too aren't memorable apart from the protagonist. May be some would be able to appreciate the point Coelho wanted to bring home through this book but i would rate it 2.5/5.

Last but important point is i bought the book on rent so didn't feel bad even if the book didn't turn up as good as i expect it to be:) Next week i plan for 'Five people you meet in heaven' by Mitch Albom. Hope it turns out better.

The week gone by !!

Quite a hectic week...realized that PE isn't just term sheets & cash flows its much more than that..but away from job things have become quite 'alphabetical'. Didn't get it ? I m talking about global economic pundits who have taken recent fancy to english letters to describe recovery.

V shaped recovery -- For hardcore optimists who love to think they are in a groove when actually they are in a rut.

U shaped recovery -- For the 'average' and easy going people who'll like to bide some time in the flat portion of U till recovery happens and then they can then boast 'See, I said so'.

W shaped recovery -- Smart pessimists who believe in two dips before any recovery though no one specifies how many Ws may follow without recovery

L shaped -- ppl inspired from lost decade of japanese who feel nothing may happen for long

More letters may be added in the wishlist, but with economy showing nothing conclusive, U V W may end up inverted or it may be full circle O or it may be even X i.e no one undestands what the hell happened.

But i can't end the post without mentioning about two training institutes i came across today in a promotional ad in our mumbai locals:
1. Divine Hope English speaking institute
2. Only Hope computer training institute - We offer 'silicon valley' certifications

Seems the owners have left everything including students to God and his mercy. And since when has silicon valley started giving certifications.
Anyway i can expect no mercy from my boss, i am my only hope. So got to go...

They too are back !!

With re-covery pronounced a certainty and erstwhile hidden gang of analysts & technical chartists re-grabbing max space on business channels, its time to again re-listen to some their patent lines:

1. 'If Nifty holds up xxxx level, then yy stock can go upto zz level' --- It is assumed that investor will overlook 'if' condition and concentrate to returns from 'then'.

2. 'Momentum can take xx stock to yy level' --- Who's this 'momentum' is rarely understood but is considered strong enuf for the job.

3. 'Buy x stock at y price with a stop loss at z level' -- Rest assured that stop loss would get triggered the same day when u buy at the recommended price.

4. 'As of now we have no holdings in the stock' --- The most important line is said in the last in the softest tone and in shortest possible time.

Finally, can't help but remember The Devil's dictionary at this point which aptly described analysts recommendations:

Strong Buy --- Buy
Buy --- Hold
Hold --- Sell
Sell --- It's too late :)

Back to streaming thoughts !!

After a long gap of 160 days,9 hours and xxx minutes, I m back to scribbling something. A new job and daily travelling rituals are anyway resources for minting stories but unusual new events have been unfolding on usually drab media. First there's a superhit movie grabbing eyeballs with chotte & bade ambani as lead actors. Produced by Oil ministry, murli deora dons the role of villain with yet to arrive mother kokilaben in probable guest appearance, and others like sushil kumar shinde, J.P.Chalsani, R.S.Sharma providing supporting cast. The storyline revolves around 'Gas' with suspense over everything whether Who can sell gas?.. Who can buy gas?.. Who can price gas?..and finally Whose gas is it anyway?

Next,there's turn of another animal to gain media attention..After mad cow, bird flu its swine flu now which is turning out another 'elite class' disease. No surprises if we face something like Mad dog disease or Goat flu or some 'fish'y attack. More than the disease, its the mask mania which last week was at its peak. With all people around me in local train or auto wearing masks, I was as perplexed as our critically-acclaimed-later-defamed director RGV whether 'Darna jaroori hai' or 'Darna mana hai'. Available in all shapes, sizes and colors like green mask, yellow mask, white one, 2-layered, 3-layered, 12-hr life, lifetime one and the list is endless.

More to write about..but i guess got to take some freely available week end sleep !!

World's biggest diamond heist...The untold story

Sharing an interesting article about a daring diamond theft sometimes referred as the heist of the century. It happened in 2003 @ the Antwerp Diamond center and many pieces of the loot and its modus operandi still remain unanswered. Still, the yet unheard story about Leonardo Notarbartolo and his accomplices makes an interesting read considering the fact that they successfully broke an almost impenetrable vault protected by 10 layers of security which used infrared heat/motion detectors, magnetic field, seismic sensor and locks with 100mn possbile combinations. Read on to find out more....

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/17-04/ff_diamonds?currentPage=1

Change !!

Change is believed to be the only constant in the world and the 'youth' on whose shoulders rests India's future also agrees to it. The recent spate of Peace march, SMSs,lighting candles, street plays, online communities,forums, talk shows, marathons,Greenathons, cycle rallies all seem to suggest youth's simmering need for a change...From 'Ring the bell' campaign to 'Jaago Re', a whole lot of things suddenly seem vying for a change. Maybe its necessary but the whole spectrum seems more crowded than our road traffic with calls of 'running for change','voting for change','I change','You change', 'Time to change' and wonder what more..Hopefully, over time a common platform for youths will emerge which would have a clearer sense of purpose.

Though the answer to 'what' to change is being daily amplified though thses advertisements and campaigns but the 'how' of change seems incomprehensible to most, including me. My friend Ashutosh Pratap Singh has provided me one answer to it through his entrepreneurial venture apnaIT. A deshpande foundation fellow, he has taken up on himself to provide the benefits of information technogoly to the grassroots in India. Probably, that's the change India needs.
Do visit his blog for suggestions, comments and any ideas...
http://blog.apnait.org/

His venture website is http://www.apnait.org/

Happiness in 'Bulk'

Today 27th Feb 09, i believe, is one of the happiest days @ NM. That was the real 'BULK' recruitment...27 placed in one go....It wud make it unprecedented or one among the oft quoted 'rare event'. It had a low probability of occurrence and certainly has a high impact and some quirky rationalization may even make it retrospectively predictable. Its more like having seen a white among all black swans...So, i believe the 'invisible hand' above all of us is still the final arbiter and there's little gain from worrying about recession, GDP, IIP, Car sales, cement dispatches, Udayan Mukherjee, NNT, S&P ratings, fiscal deficit, Obama, US jobless claims, Gold, Crude...phew !!

Congrats to all 27 whether you are:

1. through & happy OR

2. through & still not happy OR

3. through & waiting to react

The formula that killed Wall Street !!

Here's the link to a recent article in Wired online, which talks about a formula which had been devised by David Li, a quantitative analyst and qualified actuary, for correlating associations between multiple securities. Lapped up by quant-hungry bankers and analysts for pricing CDOs and mortgage market instruments, the limitations of correlation as a number were overlooked. Read on about the implications of the formula....

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all

Larry Ellison - Success mantras

Recently read some of the success secrets from Oracle Corp founder and CEO Larry Ellison. He had first seen opportunity in relational databases, when others missed it, and co-founded Oracle in 1977 putting $2000 of his money. Starting with Oracle 2 as the first release(there was no Oracle 1), Oracle over the years has become leader in database technologies and enterprise applications in the world. Here are some bits from him...

• I have had all of the disadvantages required for success.

• I love sailing. I like it more when I'm winning.

• There is really nothing riskier than not taking risks.

• There's a wonderful saying that's dead wrong. 'Why did you climb the mountain?' 'I climbed the mountain because it was there.' That's utter nonsense... You climbed the mountain because you were there, and you were curious if you could do it. You wondered what it would be like.

• In some ways, getting away from headquarters and having a little time to reflect allows you to find errors in your strategy. You get to rethink things. Often, that helps me correct a mistake that I made or someone else is about to make. I'd rather be wrong than do something wrong.

• Five years from now I don't know how I'll think.

• Software is all about scale. The larger you are, the more profitable you are. If we sell twice as much as software, it doesn't cost us twice as much to build that software. So the more customers you have, the more scale you have.

• We used to have a rule at Oracle to never hire anybody you wouldn't enjoy having lunch with three times a week.

• People tend to like what they're good at and not like very much what they're not good at.

• Whenever you can find flaws in conventional wisdom is when you get real competitive advantages. Whenever you're just doing the same thing everyone else is doing, the best you can hope for is parity, you know, or small advantages, to do it 10 percent better or 20 percent better or even 30 percent better, but not a thousand times better.

• You don't need too many things that are radical to get ahead;You need about one of those every five years. You have to take these big risks on a regular, though not too frequent, basis.

• I often say that when you think you have this really great idea and everyone else thinks you're nuts, there's one or two possibilities. You have a really great idea; the other possibility is you're nuts.

Humour on Net

One of the frequent circulated mails about 'A COWSMIC VIEW OF WORLD'...Posting it here for those still missing this wonderful piece..

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

Video: Daniel Kahneman & Nassim Taleb @ DLD Conference

Here's a link to a wonderful talk among Daniel Kahneman and NNT over the recent crisis and its causes...Daniel Kahneman is a nobel laureate and is noted for his works in behavioural finance and hedonic psychology. Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) is his most notable contribution and the theory developed as an alternative to expected utility theory.

http://www.simoleonsense.com/video-daniel-kahneman-nassim-taleb-dld-conference/

Posted using ShareThis