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/