Thursday, July 30, 2009

pow

Sometimes I just lose it ...

I do some silly mistakes for which I am butchered and then a barrage of emails from people telling me how to do things and "avoid mistakes in the future and to try to do a quality job." ... This time I did something totally unaware (which was wrong) but which was being done by 10 other people also...But I was the lucky person to be pointed out at.

Reminds me of my FASLE compile break days in Sasken. The FASLE was used instead of FALSE and this was hidden within a compile flag. When I compiled without the compile flag everything went thru' fine and next day I had got a string of emails from people as the compile had broke.

I just lose it and find myself in a pitiable situation. This happens to me because of my absent mindedness and my basic nature to hurry up when it is a matter of nitty-gritties and meticulousness. In other words, I get bored easily ... Why ? Am I lazy ? Yes, maybe.

The human society is like a place where everyone of us is trying to outdo each other by keenly observing for that single mistake one fool makes ...Once that mistake is found that fellow can be shot, it brings a smile and relief to the rest of the people that they are not in that situation...It is that cutthroat thing and I don't like it...No point being philosophical now.

Why does it happen despite best efforts ? Maybe I am not careful enough (???)

Defying the myths of "AGE"

Found this article to be fascinating. Talks about breaking the conventional way based on one's convenience.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Sustainablity

Recently 70% of the dow jones companies beat analyst estimates for corporate earnings. The question is that is this sustainable. My view is not due to the following reasons

1. Most EPS beat analyst estimates due to cost cutting and not due to revenue growth.
2. Analysts collectively tend to underestimate or overestimate. In Q2 they did underestimate. Perhaps they should have tied up with consultancy companies to determine exactly how much cost cutting was done. Well they were not innovative. Now for Q3 they will probably overestimate. This is make EPS for the companies to underperform. And shares will drift downwards. This week this correction will probably happen as the news regarding revenue dips permeates in the community.

btw, there are two ways to bet on this.

1. To take this as the correct prediction and short the market (sell your holdings)
2. Important one - My friends from Infosys used to always use the anti-gd strategy. i.e when I sold my shares they bought it and when I did buy they sold it and they really made (claimed) good money out of it. I dont think their strategy is anything different now as well (despite me carrying a coveted MBA). So go ahead for this one as well

ps:- The risk is assumed by thyself.
Just sold some Infy shares

Friday, July 24, 2009

Yeddelu Manjunatha !



Yeddelu Manjunatha ! is a comedy movie made by the director of the critically acclaimed Mata movie. It is already making waves here !!!

There was a very popular devotional song by PB Srinivas of the same name "YeddeLu Manjunatha". I remember during the Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations, there is a temple (near our old house) where this song was played loudly. As soon as the song was played, one of our neighbors (named Manjunatha) used to wake up and walk to the temple (he was one of the key volunteers of the temple)!!!!!

So it was a kind of signalling system or a wakeup call to him. The lyrics went "Devathegalu ninna darushanake kaadiharu" ... and those "devathegaLu" were the temple authorities who were waiting for this guy.

Oh, by the way, in the movie "Yeddelu Manjunatha !", in one of the songs, the lyrics goes :-

"This is a Manjunatha
You can see him anywhere
Manege Obba Manjunatha
Made in India"

Manjunatha is a very common name and the lyric ascertians my belief....I want to see this movie ;-)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

the oil curse

http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14045268

Very interesting, baffling and saddening (US / Europe has such different standards) at the same time.

Looks like Cars get on to the top of the list of all things evil

Monday, July 20, 2009

Another Multi-Crore scam

http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?250566

Another multi-crore scam. And such a simple modus operandi phewwwww!!!..

This is one of the reasons why I do not like Congress @ the helm of affairs.

Bofors
Food for Oil
Telecom spectrum

and the list goes on

Cant remember the others.. Add on please

Friday, July 17, 2009

the RIL Gas saga

Do your math first and do it well before you settle on pricing. When you come up with your price it is assumed that you have hedged your risks. And once you have signed a contract then do honour it. I have seen a lot many companies in Asia which falter on their calculations (spend very less time as well) and then spend an awful lot of resources at negotiating contracts time and again.

The case between RIL and NTPC/RNRL should not be entertained at the first place. I feel the verdict given by Bombay high court should be upheld by Supreme court as well. RIL is big enough to manipulate the petroleum ministry to get more bucks for the sale of its Natural gas from the KG basin. The petroleum ministry will indeed try to push for higher pricing which means higher revenue for them.

But, what happens to the downstream power sector which have made investments based on a gas pricing of $2.34/mmbtu? If they were to pay the RIL stipulated rates of $4.2/mmbtu, which RIL says is needed due to its excessive spending in drilling, the only way the power companies are going to recover the costs is by pricing the electricity more. This would indeed hurt the consumers.

When RIL bid for the KG blocks, it did based on its assumptions and risk. The gas pricing was based on the same set of assumptions and risks. If it won the bid based on its numbers then it needs to sell the gas proposed in the contract. If RIL had realized that indeed drilling for gas would cost more but then still bid low to get the allocation of gas blocks, then this would be FRAUD. Isnt the whole concept of encouraging private companies to participate was to push the risk/reward to them??

With its latest lobbying for higher pricing, RIL is manipulating the system and nullyfying the risks it has assumed. This clearly should not be allowed. This is the first allocation to private companies for gas drilling in India, and this should not set a bad precedence. However big RIL is and however close they are to Mr Deora, this should not be entertained. I hope the court gives the right verdict.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Guava and Pomegranate

As a kid these were my two favorite fruits apart from Nellikayi (Amla) and Mangoes. Mangoes used to disappoint a majority of the time, as most of them used to be bitter (except totapuri). Of course I am talking of the stolen mangoes. In fact I am talking about stolen guavas, pomegranate and nellikayis as well.

Some of my most memorable childhood summers in Bangalore ( i used to spend a lot of time in my village in Chitradurga as well) have been spent stealing the above mentioned fruits from my neighbours. We also used to fish for Tamarind and Gasgase (some form of red berries) during the summer. But since these were mostly available easily ( and hence probably never tasted that good). Custard apples always turned out to be raw, so never used to fish for the same.

Stealing Guava, pomegranate and Mangoes required some exquisite skills. usually follows a 3 stage process - finding the right target house, spotting the right fruits and timing the plucking. (and sometimes you need to be "Beware of Dogs", screeching gates, slippery floors etc etc ). Apart from that each fruit had its own set of problems

Guava - U need to get the riped one and not the rotten/raw one (the ones which fell on the ground were for secondary citizens)
Pomegranate - Finding a ripe one was tough and the plant has sharp thorny branches and you could not climb the tree as well
Mangoes - The size of the tree was somewhat scary.. the risk outweighed the benefits

I can remember sneaking out of the house from the backdoor (hated those doors which used to make screeching noise) during the hot afternoons of the summers. Between 2 -4 was the best time as most mommies who are the guardians of the fruits/ us would be fast asleep at this time. Before 2 pm they would be busy with the lunch and post lunch activities whereas by 4pm, the milkman used to wake them up. We used to roam around the locality during this period, take a guess at the least risky target (some spying ensured this) and u would go for the kill. Each member of the gang would take a turn indeed.

You would end up with half a dozen guavas / 2 mangoes/ 1 or 2 pomegranate / or pockets full of nellikayi for a day, which would be split between friends and savored along with some uppu/khara (salt and red chilli powder, except for the pomegranate). Also you were to make sure you would sneak back into the house and pretend to be asleep. Unfortunately you would be caught sometimes, which means being reprimanded, complained which would ensure no activity for a week when you would settle for Tamarind on gasgase. (and being condemned with bananas and moosambis from the market, these were the worst fruits along with apple)

this summer there are still plenty of guavas and mangoes... some kid somewhere in the by lanes of Chamrajpet might making his steal.. we will head for the street market sometime during the week and settle for some fruits using HKD....

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Psychedelia

It seems this poem is written by Shishunala Shareef. Interesting. The translation is easier for me to follow (than the kannada lyric)

Kannada :

Gudugudiya sedi nodo Gudugudiya sedi nodo vodalolagina roga tegedu idyado manasemba sanchiya bicchi dinadinavu maho ambo bhangiya kocchi nenevemba chilumeya hacchi buddhiyesuvantha kendava mele nee mucchi burudi yembodu shareera idanaritu sukrutakkittu kolavi aakaara, kolavi aakara varashishunalanemba neera tumbi arivemba ariviya hoccho mojugaara shuddha gnana maelaeri daaridra deha suttu, hogeyu haaruvudu buddhivantara yeledu varasiddashishunaladeeshana torvudu


TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH :
Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah smoke out the disease inside you and feel good open the small cloth bag called mind take out the hash called lust and crush it put it in a chillum called faith light it up with burning coal called intelligence.

The pipe is like the body understand this.

Do the good deed fill it with water called his name air-tighten it with a cloth called knowledge around it. Let the purity rise up with the smoke burning the rotten body attracting the knowledgeable who will show you the path to the great shishunaaladeesha.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

An alternative

The recession has affected JOBS worldwide. Instead of layoffs if we could have trimmed a day out of everyone's schedule it could have been fantastic. You start your week on Monday afternoon and end by Friday afternoon.

The economy will not recover until Jobs situation improves and the jobs wont improve until the economy improves.. its a chicken and egg problem..

Lesser work days and increased holiday might lead to better consumption.. traveling and a healthy work life style..

Atleast I vote for monday afternoon start and friday afternoon off..

If you are Infosys 1,00,000 empolyees, saving a day per/week will result in 4,00,000 days/month. Shaving 5000 jobs will result in 110,000 days with the much more side effects, the rest 95K will spend a day of their week worrying about their jobs resulting in a -ve 380,000 days (without saving cost benefits)...

But the practical problem is the implementation.. firing is probably more easy. implementing 25% pay cut across the board is quite difficult for a large company.

One of the finance companies which my friend works for in HK did an across board 25% pay cut. People not interested were let go (natural lay off). I felt it was a pretty cool idea. (though it was not a good deal for my friend, as he did not get an additional day off / week)

The Chinese Way

China recently detained 4 Rio Tinto employees, one of who is an Aussie of Chinese origin and is the General Manager/Head of the Iron Ore trading group, under the pretext of stealing State secrets (as a spy ofcourse). For the world this seems very rididculous - a business person stealing state secrets.



But from the Chinese point of view this makes sense..



How??



Chinalco - A STATE owned aluminuium company.. who is having a big stake (12.5%) and trying to expand its stake in Rio Tinto.



If the Aussie is digging some information on Chinalco which might be exclusive then it is a SECRET



So we have the STATE SECRET being stolen and he is allowed to be arrested under the law..

Saturday, July 11, 2009

As sunday rolls on to give way to the Mundane Monday, I am listening to the Kannada movie Josh's song: Thanthane Thanamthane. The song is played almost everyday, the song is somewhat catchy and self indulging. The music director has used Depeche Mode's style of Guitar and vocals. Of course, I should mention that the heroine (whats her name?) is pretty : sakkathaagi idaale.

Aley Aley is another song which is good, but the supporting music is too much (IMO).

One comment about the marketing of the new Kannada movies: A movie promoter must promote a movie not a budding actor's image. Instead of having promotional shoots, why not use the movie stills itself ? That will at least attract attention for the story (IMO).

Also, I am suprised by the number of posts on kannada_movies. Do check it out here!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

how fit are you?

idondu extra chinte eega....

i was quite relieved to read an article which suggested that working out more than 3-4 times a week after the age of 25 is not healthy in the long term.. hehe .. this is the kind of articles which help you :-).. believe me even 3-4 times can be a stretch..

it says you will be wearing-out your bones and muscles and cartilages blah blah and you will realize this only when u are 50ish around..

so maaja maadi boys and girls .. remember physical activity once is 2 days only.. and alternate between upper body and lower body..

but the article also said avoid Junk food.. now thats a suggestion even harder to implement.. ayyo hogappa yestu dina anta avoid madokke aagotte..
"you can run away from junk food, but cannot hide from it", it gets back at you somehow.. except you are lost in a tropical island/forest/desert/mountain which has no civilization.. (any other places where french fries has not made its way still..??)

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Overflowing rivers


This picture here reminds me of our trek back in 2002 to Kumara Parvatha. After 1.5 hours of waiting for the river water to subsize, we took a plunge to cross the bridge with knee length of water (culprits include richie, harsha, kummi, teju, sudeepa, raghu and myself), encouraged after watching some locals in white dhoties crossing the river. The view across the bridge was magnificent with logs floating on the water, which seemed to be flowing out of a mountain.
However, our joy of a brave act was doused when the hotelier across the bridge (where we had breakfast) informed us that 2 persons were washed away the previous day trying to cross the bridge. We had at least one person in the gang who dint know swimming and the RedBull bravery award should go to this chap.

The Air India Saga

They came, they destroyed and now they want it to be resurrected.

The Tatas gave the Air India to the government, who screwed it up and now want a TATA intervention to revive it again. For what?? screwing it again??

Sometimes feels like its an achievement India still exists under such anarchy. We need to cross check if the country as a whole has been pledged secretly to some other country(Just in Case). You might one day wake up and realize you no more are called an Indian but a Russian/Chinese ..argghhhhhhhhh

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Tell me your dreams

My dream yesterday was interesting (at least to me).

I have read about many bag packing stories in search of spirituality. I am really keen to do such a thing. Steve Jobs has done it. Hippies do it. My ex-colleague has done it. I want to do it.

So this dream was about me going in my car to Udupi. I am driving near the beach and I am listening to devotional music. My wife asks me, "Why Spiritual Journey ?".

I am livid by the question. I answer, "To find the spiritual meaning of life". And then I am about to explain what this is all about...

There is a traffic jam.

I ask the neighbouring Honda Activa guy : What is this all about ?
"Yenu illa Sir, Shivarajkumar was the new pilot of an AirFrance plane. He crashed it in the Arabian Sea and 220 people are missing. But he came out with the blackbox"

I say: Thats fine. But why the jam ?

"Sir, Karave have blocked the road and protesting that ShivrajKumar has to be released to them".

At this point I wake up. I was tired out and frustrated of the jam and the fact that my spiritual journey was ruined.

It was 3 a.m.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Butt Pocket

The butt pocket seems to be a major advancement in Men's fashion. (claim it as a fashion and not a necessary based on the following arguments). Though I do not know the history of this significant development, I am curious of its development and acceptance as in the Male community to house the "Wallet" in it.

Its astonishing that the Butt pocket mainly serves for the Wallet and Comb (mainly Indians) and sometimes bits of Paper. The introduction of the butt pocket (BP from now) seems to have come out of the need to remove irritation from the thighs. One can understand this phenomenon trying to walk with a wallet in the front pockets of the pants. While growing up its a sign that you have matured i.e you have grown from a child to an adult and you can handle the wallet in the Butt (its a style statement as well among teenage boys) and dont need to protect it in your thigh pockets.

But apart from this situation the BP/wallet scenario is mainly negative. It is uncomfortable while sitting, inaccessible (wallet) in crampy seats, and feels like you are paying the bill from the Butt (looks and feels derogatory). Security wise it is counter intuitive as well.

Another interesting fact is the pentration of other products into the Butt pocket. Later advents (mobile phones, ipods, PSPs) never got into the Butt, I mean into the BP. These are still largely reserved for the thigh pockets. Even the rumors of wireless signals harming genital parts could not move the mobile phone from front to the back (i speak of majority here)... leaving the Butt pocket exclusive to Wallets and Combs (in case of Indians)

So, weighing the positives vs negatives it looks like mostly out of Fashion rather than purpose ?? isnt it?

ps:- I love having pockets in pants (not in the shirt though). Imagine otherwise carrying everything in a Man purse.. phewwwww.. so many more animals would be sacrificed and ofcourse you would compete with the ladies in one more arena (who has the better bag)

The adda turned 5 years old today

woah man...It has not changed much....Its the same old place but the number of posts have decreased (i think). And the look keeps changing every year.The content is still informal and hastily written (thats true for me) with some grammatical and spelling mistakes. A great man who was drunk told these words on a running train "Fcuk the grammar". So the blog goes by that principle.

heheh.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

The Wimbledon and the Chair Umpire

It was certainly Roger Federer's day. How else can you describe his victory on the Center court? After struggling for 4.15 hours, the light (no the Shade) got on to Roger's side. I do not want to take some of the brillaint tennis he played esp in the 5th set, but certainly Roddick was the better player until the Sun/Shade got better off him. Yes, blame it on Sun or Roger's experience (from last year) to use the Sun to adavantage, we have a new Grandslam master in the world - Roger Federer surpasses Pete Sampras with one more title and the difference seems to be the French open title :-). The two players in the 5th set displayed such high fitness levels that it appeared that they had just started the game.

But the interesting part of the match was the award ceremony. As per tradition the Chair umpire got a medal. (or whatever they give it to him, I am not good with keeping up with traditions). Well ! Honestly how difficult is it to be a Chair umpire in tennis esp Wimbledon?? Your main job seems to be uttering "Silence Please, Thank You" and come on not even in French/other exotic lanaguage this time. You get a panaromic view and a coveted one of the finals(yes, there is only one chair umpireEven Henry Kssinger/Russel Crowe/Bjorn Borg/ if Barack Obama cant have it). You get the luxury of admonishing players, look down at the audience and the other line refrees (whose job is excruciating, you have to just keep watching the lines and not get to see the match, thats really cruel. I have great respect for them). Isnt this enough of a reward ??

Why the F*** do you need a medal ? Its probably like the life time achievement award. Dude! you have toiled all your way from the Lines refree/ball boy (I truly admire the Line referees)to the Chair umpire in your 30 years of service at the All England Lawn Tennis association (not to mention, you have got paid, free tickets to your family and friends and numerous goodies as well). Here it is we award you for your dedication to the sports.

This is one position where you dont need previous experience (especially with the technology assitance). If you have played tennis once is life, thats an eligiblity and the atmost requirement for this job. This is a job where you can get recommended ("influence" by Indian terms) by some high dignitary and get elevated to the post and peform superbly, without anyone pointing his fingers at the misappropriateness of the Job promotion.

All that that referee of the referee needs to say, "Look, what a brilliant game we had, and the chair umpire even got a medal, My selection is absolutely correct :-), what else you want? "

My reply would be "I want that f***in post" :-)

Weekend .. two views

Can be looked as either "Killed" or a "relaxing/much required" one..

Friday night - dinner with Hebbar followed by ample TV
Saturday - late brunch (homemade), followed by Ice-age 3, shopping, late lunc (@ 5 pm home made again), an hour jog (Mrs missed it), a shower, a well deserved dinner, ample TV,
sunday - late brunch (uppit), Seinfeld marathon, ample browsing, late lunch, good tea.. dont know what lies ahead..

Read the Arundhati Roy article on Outlookindia.com, thoughtful, but as Bill gates puts it "Democracy is the least of the worst political systems".. there seems to be no solution.. for the lower rung of the soceity democracy might feel like Communism (without the benefits associated).. I really need to visit the mining states of India sometime to understand what she writes on mining and the industrialization.. (someone from these states can easily identify with the same) the other issues water, communalism, free market, corrupt political system endorsed by democracy and media is fairly clear. Kashmir again I am not completely aware of.

A $2billion election .. wowwwwwww.. thats just the official part of it???
The cost of maintaining democracy is clearly huge but miniscule when compared to the post-election exploitation..

Apart from these something that were interesting this week
- North Korea firing missiles on Saturday - South Koreans/Japanese would preferred McCain vs. Obama.. Obama certainly is not a toughie to keep North Koreans from testing missiles.. his weapons are twitter and facebook
- Unemployment numbers -- well not a surprise at all for anyone except the forecasters.. 9.5% in the US and EU, looks like good co-ordination going there, but beleive me the world is truly recovering.. spending / consumption will happen, at a given price though, just have a look at the Zara/Lane Crawford sale in Hong kong..
- Still wary abut equity markets, not worth investing.. well no capital as well. real estate in India looks interesting though.. by 2012 prices would have appericiated by 50% atleast from current levels (prophecy ... not much numbers have gone behind this one..)

okies.. time to get some Flakes and milk..

adios to the weekend...

Thursday, July 02, 2009

the forgotten BRAHMA

Nice article fwded by Pushpa. A question which we always questions, discuss and cant conclude. Some insights into the Indian behaviour.

http://www.livemint.com/2009/07/02203128/Why-Indians-don8217t-give-b.html?h=A3

Only glad thing is the behavior is changing

ps: I feel sorry from Brahma

Paying a huuuuge tax this time .... Looks like I goofed up some numbers when I changed from Sasken to NSN. Apart from that, I think I have confused housing loan procedures and its applicability to tax procedures....

olle naraka yaathane