INR vs USD, GBP, EURO, YEN

From end of Jan to end of Nov of year 2007 INR has
- gained 10.19% against USD (see chart INR vs USD below)
- gained 5.63% against GBP (see chart INR vs GBP below)
- LOST 2.11% against EURO (see chart INR vs EURO below)
- gained 1.29% against YEN (see chart INR vs YEN below)





Data source: Reserve Bank of India

Malaysia

Another country off from my list of places to visit.

My Choices

1. MF or FD? MF
2. RD or SIP? SIP
3. Debt Funds or Equity Funds? Equity Funds
4. Growth plan or Dividend plan? Growth plan
5. Fixed or Floating? Floating
6. Penny stocks or Index stocks? Index stokcs
7. Rental house or Own house? Own house
8. Apartment or Independent house? Independent house
9. Futures or Options? Options
10. Long term or short term? Long term

This is purely based on my research and based on what has worked best to me. Five years from now my investment strategies may not be the same as above.

What's yours?

36 in 34

It was 28 when I finished the college. When it became 30 I thought it was just a temporary thing and I would go back to 28. But I could never go back. When it became 32 I thought it was just a temporary thing and I would go back to 30. But I could never go back. When it became 34 I thought it was just a temporary thing and I would go back to 32. But I could never go back. Now I am in between 34 and 36, fitting myself into 34 with a little bit of struggle. Soon will become 36. If I still think that it is a temporary thing I would be a big fool. As far as waisteline is concerned there is no coming back, aint it?

Next big problem is with the dilemma of what to do with the pants that don't fit any more. I have unused pants in various sizes.

McDonalds and War

"No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" -

Golden Arches Theory by Thomas L.Friedman in his book 'The Lexus and The Olive Tree'

P.S: This has been proved wrong later. One example is India-Pakistan. Still I felt this theory interesting.

Size Does Matter...!!!

Siva & I along with few of my other friends had a long discussion a year ago on Best Companies to Work for in India - Business Today Survey. It is that time of the year again. Business Today's recent edition carried the same survey for this year.

Last 6 years of this survey Infosys topped 4 times (in years 2001, 2002, 2005 & 2006) and secured 2nd position in year 2004. In this year's survey Infosys fell down to 5th position.

Survey has analyzed a little bit on why Infosys fell as well. Few reasons are given as growing scale (in total employee count), inadequate communication, slow promotions etc.

I could infer from the people who have spent long time at Infosys on how the company has transformed so much from the old days to what it is now in terms of employee friendliness. Company took hardly three years to grow from 30000 plus employees to 80000 plus employees. Survey results show that company has not coped up well with the size. Had it been a slow and steady growth, guess it would have been easier to manage the employee expectations.

Microsoft India has come as the #1 in the survey. Total employee count is 5000 plus.

Other positions and the total employees strength in the bracket.

2nd MindTree Consulting (5500)

3rd Johnson & Johnson (404)

4th Sapient (3500)

Size does matter...!!!

 

(Re)search for an Answer

A. Beautiful girls have good sense of dressing
B. Girls with good sense of dressing are usually beautiful
C. Not so beautiful girls don't have much of good sense of dressing
D. Not so beautiful girls are not so beautiful because they don't have much of good sense of dressing

Choose the best option:
1. All the above are true
2. All the above are not true
3. Only D is true
4. Only A & D are true
5. I have a different answer (then state that in the comment)

Frog in a Car

If there is one species that I would want to be extinct from this earth it's frog. Ewwwww...they are not just ugly they are torturous too.

My wife & I were returning by our car after visiting my friend at his new home. I suddenly observed that there was a frog behind the steering-wheel, close to the wind shield. I felt all creepy and pulled over the car. I told my wife to get down immediately and I also got down. It was so dark in the night and it was a deserted street. I cursed God 'why me?’. I kept the car doors wide open and started choo chooing him. That son of a b... didn't move. I started shaking my car front & back manually. Nope, he didn't move at all. He must have felt cozy like an old man sitting on the rocking chair. I badly needed a stick. But it was so dark outside & I was afraid that I might grab some snake instead of a stick. Man that was really a horrible time. I couldn't control myself feeling philosophically that even a small frog can make you feel so small and helpless at times. I managed to find a stick with the help of my car's headlights. With one end of the stick in my shivering (honestly) hand I poked that ugly species. He must have eaten something so soft just before saying 'hi' to me, I could feel that smoothness in his stomach while poking. At last he started moving. I finally started smelling the success in my breath. what the hell, he jumped as if he was participating in the olympics for long jump contest. He went to the backseats' footrest area. Another poking in his butt, he jumped again madly. He was gone. Didn't know where did he go. Checked the car thoroughly. Nope he was no where. I assured my wife that the area was safe and asked her to sit in the backseat & she kept her legs on the seats so safely. I took the driver's seat, you wouldn't believe me, I saw that little devil once again at the same place where I saw him at first. Situation was back to square one. Again poking...jumping...poking...jumping. I don't know how did he manage to jump so long but within the car limits. Every time he jumped I took a few mins to figure out his new location. At the end came that one sweet little jump which made me the happiest man on earth at that moment, he jumped outside the car. He was gone for real.

Later, my wife & I did a detailed analysis of how the frog would have come into the car when all the doors and windows were closed. We found that from the ground frog could easily jump into the engine area thru the gap available. And from the engine area there are openings to come inside the car. When we had parked the car near my friend's home frog would have decided to pay us a visit. I can not forget that freaky night.

If there is one species that I would want to be extinct from this earth it's frog. Ewwwww...they are not just ugly they are torturous too.

(just click on the picture to enlarge if you disagree with me that frogs are ugly)

That one skill...!!!

If there is one skill that I badly want to learn & excel it is the questioning skill.

In my entire school & college life I hardly remember asking any questions in my classes. Most of the times I never had any questions or I was afraid of opening up. I always give a nasty look at the people who raise a lot of questions. Guess I was so jealous of them. It is when I started my career & during my initial training of my job I pushed myself so hard and set goals myself of 'opening up' to ask questions. I started asking at least one question in almost all of my training sessions. Honestly, I felt so good with a sense of great achievement. (By the way, quality of the questions that I raised is out of scope of this discussion).

Even now I am so jealous of people who ask really good questions. I don't know how they learnt that skill. Is there a way to learn the skill of asking good & right questions at right time? Please help me.

Contrariety

Two scenes that I observed today morning; I am not able to express my feelings properly in words.

Scene 1:
All the windows are almost closed to create enough darkness in the day & to reduce the noise from outside. Fan is running in an optimum speed to keep the room temperature neither too high nor too low. Room is tidy & clean with regular cleaning up and proper maintenance. TV is running on mute. People in the house are speaking in husky voice. A 4 months old kid is sleeping in that room, possibly peacefully.

Scene 2:

National highway. 4 lanes road. Constant traffic of roaring heavy vehicles speeding anywhere from 80 kmph to 120 kmph. Regular honking noise from the vehicles overtaking eachother. Series of trees grown in the middle of the road are acting as road separator. On the branch of one of those trees a hanging cradle. A few months old kid is sleeping in that cradle. Mom is out there among those road workers.

What If...?

What if out of the blue you get Rs.1 lakh into your account with no knowledge of who credited it?

What if no one claimed that money for more than a month?

What would you do in this situation?

What if you transferred your friend's Rs.1 Lakh to some stranger inadvertently instead of transferring to that friend's mom and you didn't realize that for about one and a half months? What if that stranger has only Rs.50 left in his account by the time you realized your mistake and checked his account to get the money back?

What would you do in this situation?

Quite a situation, eh?

At times without realizing the cost of failure we make silly mistakes which could have been avoided by a few seconds of double checking. That's what I made when I missed to double check my friend's mom's ICICI account number before transferring Rs.1 Lakh. Incorrect one digit cost me stress, restlesness, agony and my sleep for two weeks.

Unfortunately my friend took more than a month to confirm that money did not reach his mom. With the help of a known branch manager when I checked that stranger's account, I was shocked to learn that he had only Rs.50 in his account. To add more fuel into the fire, I also learnt that that account is a salary account and that person's salary is just Rs.4000. BOOM.....!!!

With the help(?!) of police I have got Rs.75,000 back and a written statement from that stranger that I would get the remaining amount back by 30-Nov-07. But the pain that my friend, his mom and I have been through was tremendous.

That stranger is a 21 years old lower middle class person who is otherwise a good person, took his chance with this money. Bad luck though. This situation has cost him his job, his reputation and his credibility. I felt miserable about his situation.

Money is cruel and sadistic.

The Goal

I read the book 'The Goal' by Eliyahu M.Goldratt. This is one of the greatest books that I have read. I recommend this book strongly to all the managers who are worried about productivity improvement. This is a management book written in fiction style. The story is set up in manufacturing industry and it talks about productivity improvement in a manufacturing plant. With a little bit of thinking the concepts explained in this book can be applied to service industries as well.

Surprisingly this book was written 23 years ago. When it comes to management books I would always go for the books published in the recent years for very obvious reasons. But this one seems to be applicable even these days.

I bought the part 2 of this book 'The Goal - It's Not Luck' as well. Waiting eagerly to read the second one as well.

That Book Shop...!!!

To that book shop I have gone by train, gone by borrowed bike from friends, gone along with my friends in their bikes and gone by my own bike. Half of the books in my shelf were bought at that book shop. On my every visit I would easily spend Rs.300 to grab 5 or 6 good books after a bit of bargain.

Yesterday I went to that same old book shop after more than two years by my car. Still the guy who sells (owns) in that small road side bookshop in the central railway station near car parking lot has not changed. He could recognize me even after a long time. He would always go something like this to sell his stuffs. "Sir 'Direct from Dell' a good one sir; 'Winning' is very hot you can't find in other shops; 'Argumentative Indian' is noble prize winner's book sir, a must read one". Yesterday I didn't bargain much. I offered almost what he quoted. May be I was influenced by the observation that his life has not changed a lot over time.

After all, economic growth & stability is not just a function of time.

Note: When you are around central station visit this guy's bookshop to buy some. Quote my name for special discounts. His name is Sadhique.

I Quit

What my mom, my friends and my wife couldn't make me to quit, my cable wala has made. Because of unpaid cable bills for last two months he has disconnected the cable provision. I have been made to quit watching TV. With lot of time for me to think or to read or to do something constructively, I feel good now.

Bullies @ Work

I think most of us would have faced bullies at work (like we did in school days). An article in the recent edition of Business Today on the topic "Managing Bullies at Work" was an interesting read. Bullies at work make serious damage to you psychologically. Bullies are nasty individuals making your life miserable. I myself have faced (still facing) such bullies at my work life.

Question to the readers: What is your practical suggestion to handle such jerks?

(I was really wondering was I ever a bully to any of my colleagues? I think only my colleagues could give me correct answer to this question.)

Scope Management

"Most of the projects fail due to improper scope management" - this is a universal truth. I have experienced this myself as well. ‘Scope Management’ is so easy said than practiced.

Scope management in a nut shell is:

If requirements are not completely defined and described and if there is no effective change control in a project, scope creep may ensue and that may result in the failure of the project completion on time & within the budget. Hence managing the scope is critical.

I learnt from two people about scope management which even my PMP could not teach well. One is my servant maid and the other is my builder (contractor who builds my house).

My servant maid does not stay more than a minute than she initially agreed for. She does not take up any work more than what she initially agreed for. Even to run errands occasionally she would expect a tip. That’s pretty cool. (Quality of the work is out of scope of this conversation).

My builder charges me for even to change the size of a nail. He documents it properly and yeah he gets my signature on it. That’s pretty cool scope management.

There is a lot to learn from the street, eh?

Fast but not so Furious

Have you ever felt car music influencing your driving speed? Whenever I have a song playing in my car stereo with heavy metals or with fast pace or with very enthusiastic or with high pitch there goes my speadometer needle touching & going beyond the red zone and my sweet jenny (my car) shaking the body (with fear not because of the music, eh).

Latest one such a song that makes my jenny go nervous is 'adhiradi' in Sivaji.

Merlin's Beard! Potter at Infy!

Another post on Potter. Got it as a forward mail. Not sure about the real source. I will leave it to readers to comment on what they think. (Click on the image to enlarge).

(For those who don't know - 'Merlin's Beard!' is exclamation of surprise. Read Harry Potter Lexicon for more such Potter slangs)

Pottermania

I visited Odyssey last weekend just to check on the Pottermaniacs. By calling maniacs I don't mean any disgrace. Just that it sounds good. All pottermaniacs please take this as a compliment. We owe a lot to J.K.Rowling for making many of the kids these days to get the habit of reading. I could see lot of teen-agers and even smaller ones in the book shop buying the book or turning the pages curiously at the bookstore itself.

I have not read any of the Harry Potter books. I am planning to read along with my kid when he is ready to read that series. I read in some articles that there are people who locked themselves in a room with no water and food (of course strictly no cell phone) to complete reading the last version at a stretch. There was a huge hype around this release as it was the final one and Rowling had announced that an important character is murdered at the end. By the way who is that one?

Somehow the Potter movies did not interest me.

Version 4.0

I am a die hard fan of Die Hard.

John McClane is back. Haven't watched it yet. Targeted to watch this weekend.

John McClane is one of the 100 greatest movie characters all the time (ranked at 46) listed by Premiere magazine. Want to know who is ranked at #1? None other than Vito Corleone. He must have made an offer they(Premiere) could not refuse to rank him at #1.

Into the Third

I am so happy that I have stepped into the third year of blogging.

It's out...!!!

iPhone is out to market on Friday 29-Jun-07.

In US iPhone is available in two models prices $499 & $599. Anyone who bought the phone or planning to buy the phone please comment on the product.

Apple is still evaluating the Indian market to bring out the iPhone. Looks like it would take another 6 months for Indian market to get the iPhone. India is a great market for low (to medium) priced cell phones. My gut feel is iPhone should come out with 10K to 15K INR to win Indian market.

Bloggerwave

Internet based advertisement & internet based businesses are growing rapidly. We can see many players now in this field. One such is bloggerwave which helps bloggers earn money for writing. By giving your valuable feedback to advertisers with respect to their web site, products, services, and companies you will get paid for it.

You can choose the web site, product or service from the list of opportunities available in the bloggerwave site to talk about it.

You need to first create an account with Bloggerwave (a valid TAX ID is must).

Supply your blog detail for the approval.

Once your blog is approved take up opportunities from the wide range of products, services etc.

Create a post about this opportunity on your blog. Once the post is created send it to bloggerwave team for approval. If it is approved you will get payment through PayPal. Please note: Bloggerwave team may even reject your post based on the review. But you may resubmit your post to make it acceptable.

What are you waiting for take up an opportunity in bloggerwave today and earn money?

What Babies Do Inside?

Courtesy: A forward mail.

(Unf)air Deccan

I conceive a novel idea. Give my flesh & blood to execute that idea and start a business. In a few years I go public and make a good deal of money (!). During a lean period when I need a lot of cash to pay off my debt, a fat man expresses his interest in taking over my business and takes it over. Though I would still be part of the management, things won’t be the same any more. How would I feel?

Read Vijay Mallya’s Air Deccan take over from here.

With the low cost and premier airlines under his wings now with 33% of market share, which is more than Jet-Sahara (31.5%) & Indian (21.9%), and rights to fly overseas just around the corner, Vijay Mallya has stroke a great business deal.

Looks like Vijay Mallya has announced that the Air Deccan’s ticket fares would slightly go up while maintaining the low cost identity.

Do you think as a business man Capt.Gopinath is a failure?

Flying Alarm Clock

Flying alarm clock is a new technological invention.

In this digital clock if you set the alarm & when the alarm goes on, a rotor starts from the base (clock) and flies around the room, making a really annoying noise like a mosquito.

One must have to catch the rotor and keep it on the base again to switch off or to snooze the alarm. So there is no escaping from it by simply by pressing a button like in the conventional alarm clocks. There is a danger that you might lose the rotor if you keep the window open and if the rotor finds the way out.

It costs around $36. Check some more details here.

My friend Arasan had a very annoying habit during college days. He would keep his alarm on for 06:00 am almost everyday before he sleeps. When alarm goes on until someone else from adjacent rooms goes and switches off alarm would keep on making an annoying noise. Whereas he would be sleeping peacefully as if there is nothing happening around. I am not sure if this flying alarm clock would wake him up. I am sure that it would help people like me to get up.

What do you think about this gadget? Would it succeed in the market?

Medical Tourism

Location : Highway I-95, Providence, RI, USA
Day & Time: Saturday & 9:00 am

Mr. Adam Smith a 49 years old well built American, father of three teenagers, while driving back to home after his 18-hole game, felt uneasiness in his left arm. The uneasiness grew as he was driving further. He imagined that death is chasing him & stepped on the gas. He took the next exit and luckily got a hospital close by. Later he learnt that it was a very mild heart attack. He is out of danger. However, the physician said that he needs to go through a major heart surgery to keep his heart beating for few more decades, as the diagnosis revealed something else about his heart.

Mr. Smith has good bank balance but has planned everything for his teenagers’ college tuition fees in the very near future. Smith’s medical insurance doesn’t cover the entire expenses of his heart surgery. He needs to plan something for his surgery quickly.

At this situation, Smith comes to know about Medical Tourism from his Indian friend, Raj. Smith learns from Raj that medical tourism or medical tour is an act of traveling to other countries to obtain medical, dental, and surgical care. The term was initially coined by travel agencies and the media as a catchall phrase to describe a rapidly growing industry where people travel to other countries to obtain medical care. Leisure aspect of traveling may be included on such a medical travel trip.

Raj mentions that because of the low cost and world class services, India is one of the hot destinations for medical tours. Other popular destinations for medical tourism are Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Columbia etc. He also mentions that there are plethora of travel agencies that offer medical tours to India from USA, UK and other high cost western countries.

Smith gets this site to learn more about medical tourism in India and the costs associated with various surgeries. He is very surprised to learn that for less than half of the price of his heart surgery in USA, he can go to India, get his surgery completed and visit the places like Taj Mahal he always wanted to visit. Voila..!!!

He goes to India, carries out his heart surgery and visits the exotic places like Taj Mahal, Jaipur and Manali.

Now Smith is very sound in health and is referring this table to his American friends and writes to New York Times on how he rejuvenated by taking up a medical tour to India and saved a fortune.

Note: Visit this to learn more about Medical Tourism and visit this or this or this for various options & packages for medical tours to India.

Kalaignar TV

An ugly family fight between TN Chief Minister Karunanidhi's family and Maran's family has resulted in a new TV channel. Kalaignar TV.

With the blessings of (and fundings from) Karunanidhi, Raj TV is going to announce the launch of new TV on 03-Jun when CM celebrates his 83rd birthday.

When I watch news from Sun TV, I would feel, 'okay great, in this DMK government people are happy, lot of good things are happening..!'.

When I watch news from Jaya TV, I would feel, 'oh God, looks like DMK government is pathetic, why don't they do some good things to public?'

As the telecast time of news in these two channels are one-after-another, by mistake(!) if I watch news from both the channels on the same day, I would feel frustrated.

Kalaignar TV, another channel, God save us.

Read the news from here.

INR vs USD

Rupee is appreciating day by day. In an effort to bring down the inflation to a desired figure (below 5%) Government is just watching the Rupee's appreciation with a mild smile.


Rupee has touched 9-year high against USD. Today Rupee closed at 40.15 against 1 USD.


While there is a straight forward benefit to the importers, experts say that there is indirect benefit to the exporters too. Still I am trying to figure that out. Still a novice, eh?

Trend of INR vs USD for different intervals is below:

Arase

Though I had written a harsh post on them, I have not stopped watching them. (please don't spit on my face). One improvement is I have stopped watching Kolangal and started watching Arase (actually Arasi, some numerology sentiment).

This post is to talk about the music of the serial Arase. I must tell that the background music of this serial is so good. Music is one strong reason that drives me to watch this serial (if not everyday at least on and off frequently).

Dividend Earnings

Mukesh Ambani - Rs 869 cr
Azim Premji - Rs 697 cr
Shiv Nadar - Rs 403 cr
Anil Ambani - Rs 87 cr
N.R.N. Murthy - Rs 33 cr
Nandan Nilekani - Rs 23 cr

This is dividend income of some of the big shots in India in year 2006-07.
Source: Business Today

What was yours?

Big Men

I have always observed that big fat guys have good sense of humor. I have seen many of my friends who are big having good sense of humor.

Is there any scientific reason behind this?

(It may sound absurd, both my weight and sense of humor are increasing steadily. There must be some relation between these two)

Crow-sin

A few months back, I was having a bad headache. I went to a pharmacist to get a Crocin for my headache. Suddenly a thought struck me that it's been really a very long time since I saw a crow. I tried hard to recall when was the last time I saw one. I couldn't really recall. I felt somewhat saddened. Because right from the childhood, crows are in my life in the form of stories (that old lady vada story) and superstitious beliefs (such as seeing a lone dark crow brings bad luck).

City has ruined birds' lives. This noise, this pollution are huge repellent to the biirds. I have read somewhere long time ago that the microwave frequencies (Barani - do you remember the MF Frequency range?) are affecting birds, making them to fly away from the areas where this waves are very intensive.

Few months back, I requested one of my colleagues who has a camera cell phone to take a snap of a crow whenever/wherever he sees it. So that I could use that pic in my blog to write about this sad story. Till date he has not got one.

Recently I saw a lonely crow outside my home. I caught that in my camera. Who knows, in a decades time I might have to go to zoo to take a picture of a crow.

May God bless crows.

My PMP Journey

I am writing a blog to log my experience in becoming a PMP.

Please visit http://becomingpmp.blogspot.com/.

Please do refer this site to anyone who is preparing for the PMP exam. I believe that this would be useful.

Point of View

What do you think?

Background of this post:

Background 1:
There is a book with a title 'Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps: How We're Different and What to Do About It'. I was not aware of the complete title, I thought the title was just 'Why Women Can't Read Maps'. I thought women can't read maps.

Background 2:
I was showing the cluster map of visitor locations of my blog to a female and flaunting. While showing the map I just asked her to locate China. She pointed her finger at the location given in the map above. I suddenly rememberd about the book that I mentioned above. So, started asking her to locate few other countries (while controlling my laugh). Her answers are showed in the map above. I seriously started thinking that women can't read maps.

Conclusion:
I did a little bit of research to find out if there is any scientific reason behind this and found that it is just a hoax. Read this.

Above all, Anuradha's comment in this blog's comment section has proven that women CAN read maps. (Especially with that 'Zimbabwe' thing. I didn't know where Zimbabwe was until I read your comment).

ps: Anu & Arasan - sorry if you had expected something great from me about this map. :(

Elixir of life - Recipe

Required:
Red or black Grapes - 4 Kg
Sugar - 3.75 Kg
Cinnamon stick - 1 or 2 (of length 2-3 inches)
Wheat - 250 grams
Air tight Container - 1 (the old styled pickle jar suits well)

Making Procedure:
Remove the grapes from the stick (or stem?) and wash it properly. Dry the grapes to get rid of the moisture. There should not be any moisture at all on the grapes.

Put half kg grapes in the container. Add half kg of sugar on top of the grapes. Add a handful of wheat on top of grapes and sugar. Repeat adding grapes, sugar and wheat in the same manner until all this lasts. Add the cinnamon stick on top.

Close the container air tight. Note that there should not be any moisture at all. Keep the container in a place with no heat or moisture nearby. Once a week open the container carefully and stir the contents using a dry spoon. Do it carefully such a way that no moisture gets into the container. Repeat this stirring exercise once a week for 60 days.

At the end of 60 days, pour the contents of the container into a glass thru a filter. Just pour it do not squeeze the residues. Throw away the residues. The filtered liquid that comes out of the container is the elixir of life, it is also known as Wine.

End Note:
More the number of days you keep tastier the wine becomes.

Champagne is a variance of wine. If you want to have Champagne....well, go get it in liquor shop.

Thank Note:
Thanks to Jack & Ancy for educating me with this wine making procedure (or should I say vinification process?)

Film Industry Stats

Year 2006 Statistics of Telugu, Tamil & Kannada Film industries. I don't have data for Malayalam.


Source: Business Today

What do you think?

Burger King Outsources

Watch this.

Blues

Just less than 2 weeks to ago. I am not really happy about it. But I can't avoid it. When I look at people around me I am gonna feel even more depressed about it. It is like start of a whole new era. It is start of a whole new decade. I wish I could stop the time from moving on. I feel like I would become a whole new person, though it may not be true. I feel like I am overstressed because of this.

But there is no way out.

Friends Chart

Friends - a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

I have a theory. For every 2 years of career life, you loose 50% of your friends that you have made in your career life so far. Look at the chart and a sample data with an assumption that you had 10 friends during the first 2 years of your career & not made friends after that.

Not having friends at your work place would make your life miserable. Having a friend at your workplace would make your (work) life a lot more enjoyable. But I guess there will really be a point at your career where you would not have any friends at all. By adding more friends each year of your career you may put off the stage where you would be with zero friends.

Look back your career life so far to check the validity of this theory and share it.

BRIC Index

Dow Jones Indexes develops, maintains and licenses market indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products.

As BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have gained huge investor attention with their potential for long term growth, Dow Jones has a BRIC 50 Index. BRIC 50 Index has 5 stocks for Russia and 15 each for Brazil, India and China.


15 stocks from India as part of BRIC 50 index are (in the order of weightage as of today).

Reliance Industries Ltd.
Infosys Technologies Ltd.
ICICI Bank Ltd.
Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd.
ITC Ltd.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd.
Hindustan Lever Ltd.
Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
Suzlon Energy Ltd.
Tata Steel Ltd.
State Bank of India
Tata Motors Ltd.
Hindalco Industries Ltd.

Do you have any of these stocks in your portfolio?

Earns & Spends

"Earn in USD & Spend in INR" - Jackson

My colleague friend's casual statement but has huge insight in it.

ARIA

A fairly new acronym around. ARIA stands for 'A Resident Indian Again'.

This has been coined to denote the home coming (for good) expatriates. I think this term will become popular soon and will stay popular for at least a decade. Like the way 'Brain Drain' was a hot topic during my college days 'Reverse Brain Drain' may become a hot topic for discussion soon. During the college days, some of my friends start the GD (group discussion) spontaneously on Brain Drain whenever they get drunk.

The article in The Economic Times that made me write this post and my other post is here.

One Fine Saturday...!!!

That was a late morning of one fine Saturday on a hot summer season. We were at our home. We decided to catch that newly released movie in theatre instead of waiting for DVD to get released. Through internet we booked two tickets in the multiplex in a mall that is almost 30 miles away.

In our compact car we started our journey which is half-way through a highway and the remaining half thru the city. On our journey through the highway we paid toll while cursing the government for making us to pay toll in addition to the taxes. While speeding on the highway suddenly & spontaneously I reduced the pressure I applied on the gas pedal as I saw a cop's car with swirling blue & red lights was making a Toyota Corolla pull over for (seemingly) over speeding. On the way to the mall I returned the shining black blazer that I had rented out for a function at my office.

After the long journey and bumper to bumper traffic inside the city we reached the mall. That was a medium sized mall which comprised of a multiplex, many shops and a real good food court. We parked the car in the huge basement parking lot of that mall and rushed to SUBWAY for a foot-long to have our late brunch. After the brunch we bought some clothes at Marks & Spencer. Then we bought some cookies 'to go' in a cookie shop in that mall.

At last went to watch the movie & enjoyed the movie.

Now the return journey.

Outside the mall, the city lights were fighting with the darkness of the night. As we were too tired for cooking our dinner, on our return journey, we ordered pizzas & chicken wings from Pizza Hut over phone for home delivery. I thought a cold beer would be better than a cold Pepsi to have along with pizzas. So we picked some beer in a liquor shop on the way.

It was a perfect synch between us reaching the home and the pizza's arrival. We had that sumptuous Pizza & chicken wings while watching the sitcom Joey in some channel. Then I watched some stupid movie in HBO and dozed off at 1:00 am.

Thanks to globalization. My dear non resident Indians all this did not take place in some city in US. It took place in our own Chennai.

During nineties it was brain drain now it is reverse brain drain. India is becoming a land of opportunities. Especially to those who went to US or UK during nineties, corporate India (& MNCs) is offering great positions. These corporates value the NRI's experience and want to utilize them to the fullest.

To me, it looks like those who are coming back from US or UK may not miss 'em any more.

Wanna be part of it?

Half Century...

Half Century. No, it is not the effect of world cup cricket. This is my fiftieth post.

I thank all my readers, friends and wellwishers at this juncture for their continuous support.

Thank You...!!!

Shhh....it's that time again...!!!

"It has started with a tough match this time"

"I am sure that India will be in finals"

"Looks like Srilanka is not in form"

"Tendulkar has always been scoring well in the world cups"

“Seeni, are you not leaving to watch the match...?!"

“Gavaskar was the best batsman ever"

These are some of the conversations I overheard just today alone in my office.

Even my friend siva who always writes some serious stuffs has written a fiction on street criket.

Shhh...it's that time again....!!!

With my great (!) interest on Cricket, I think I am gonna feel lonely when people around me talk about cricket.

Someone please tell me when is the world cup getting over?

Worth it?

Inflation was 6.1% for the week ended Feb 24.

Highest inflation rate during this fiscal year was 6.73%.

Look at the picture to find out the value of your money after 10 yrs, 20 yrs and 30 yrs with different inflation rates.

If your salary rise is less than 7% you better look for another job with higher salary. Otherwise you will actually be earning less than what you were before the rise.

Courtesy: The Economic Times & The Business Today

Reality Tours

Most of the reality shows from American Idol (also Indian Idol) to Apprentice to The Big brother to the regional Jodi No.1 (Vijay TV) were super hit. Actually there is no reality in these reality (?) shows per se. But somehow they satisfy our mentality of peeping other's house out of curiosity (!). I think that is the main cause for the success of these reality shows.

In line with these reality shows I came to know about Reality Tours. I felt this is simply atrocious. Read about one such reality tours here. This is targeted mainly at foreign tourists. Tour takes to Dharavi, Mumbai the biggest slum in Asia to show them the poor slum people.

Some excerpts from the site, which sells the reality tours:

A few visitors have been to Dharavi, including Prince Charles and Bill Clinton recently, and it is by no means dangerous to go alone.

We are very aware of not wanting to invade and disturb the residents of Dharavi. .......we have a strict NO CAMERAS POLICY.

(how great?!)

80% of profits after tax from these slum tours are donated to local NGOs (charities).
(how great?!)

On this tour you travel in the comfort of an a/c car. Throughout the tour, we want to show and explain to you areas that are not in the tourist guides, but give an insight about issues facing the less privileged members of society....

Look at the comments section of this reality tour site without fail.

What do you think?

Note: I came to know about this reality tours from here.

The Age Factor

I was so shocked & upset to see second gray hair on my moustache.

Yeah right, aging is a natural phenomenon and there should be no cribbing about it. But to me, aging doesn't seem to be a progressive thing. I feel like I gained 5 years within last one year. I blame it on my work-life imbalance, food habits and very less physical activities.

Recently my friend Balraj celebrated(?!) his 30th birthday. He is the first one to hit 30 among my close circle of friends from my college. I am not sure how he felt about hitting 30, but I felt awful because I am the next one in line to hit 30 in just less than 2 months from now. Honestly, I don't want to be 30. Looks like there is no escaping. :(

In an effort to fix my gray hair problem, I requested my wife for permission to get rid of my moustache. She coolly said to fix the cause instead of the effect. Man, wives are clever.

Theatre Exp...

Right from my childhood, as early as I could recollect, I have always been a movie lover.

There was a local theatre near my home in my native place. When I was small, going to movie was always a well-ahead preparation with requirement of approvals from long chain of commands. First I would have to propose that to my sister, we both would take that to my mom, then to my dad, then to my grand-ma and at last to my chithappa (a tough one to get the approval). Once everyone approves it, my entire family would go to watch the movie.

On the day of going to theatre almost all day I would be very happy, enthusiastic and brisk. Just before the movie starts, that theatre usually plays some music (same music every time) in loud speaker aloud, that's the indication & final call to the people living around that theatre to rush in to the theatre to catch the movie from the beginning.

When I hear that music, I would feel very very happy that I am going to start watching the movie very shortly. I am not really able to portrait that feeling well in words now. I have watched so many black & white classic movies in that theatre from my childhood. Going to that theatre proportionately reduced with my increasing age, the last I visited was during the year 2004 to watch the movie ‘Gillie’.

I always think that the current state of mind, the theatre ambience and accompanying people each play a crucial role in making you like or dislike the movie. (Movie may be a best one or a bust one that matters a little). I have enjoyed watching many super duper flop movies (like Mafia Gang, Time etc) because of those influencing factors and hated real nice movies as well for the very same reason.

Last week I went to watch a movie in a Drive-in in Chennai (Prarthana). That was my first drive-in theatre experience. I was in a good mood, the ambience was pretty good – I was in my car, my own private place, I was accompanied by my wife, who became a movie lover because of me. I could talk to my wife & discuss the movie while it was playing without disturbing anyone nearby; I could talk over my cell phone; I had my dinner too. Totally, I enjoyed the movie very much.

Questions(?) and Answers(!)

Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...

Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...

Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...

Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...

Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...

Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...Questions...

I am tired.

Why is the productivity so low?

Why is the delivery delayed?

Why is the number of defects so high?

Why there is so much of deviation against the planned?

Don't you think you could have done that?

Don't you know you should do this?

It's so easy to ask questions. But answering them...????

I am tired.

Missed Calls

After almost 21 months of my stay in Minneapolis-US, I was just back home at that time. I did not have a cell phone. I had a landline, so I did not feel the real need for a cell phone. This was just before my engagement. People talked about me as if I am a very strange person because I did not have a cell phone. Only then I realized how cell phone had become an integral part of our lives with-in a span of less than 2 years (while I was not in the country...!). Cell phone is okay; a feature in cell phone has become very important in many people's day-to-day lives.

It's been a month now since Apple announced about its product iPhone. While the debates of whether this product will succeed or fail in the market have almost faded away, I had a doubt about a feature in this product. The feature, which has become very important in many people's day-to-day lives. That’s gonna be the deciding factor for many people whether to buy or not.

Apple's portal states that iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone. ...Blah...blah...blah....

All these are okay;

Can I make missed calls using iPhone?

What if iPhone does not have that feature? Say, you dial a number, you can't terminate the call, it has to be answered or rings to the fullest or gets to the voice mail. Would you buy a phone with such feature?

No kidding. I enabled international dialling feature in my phone just to make missed calls. I would leave a missed call to my friends' phone, they would call back (well, most of the time). (You must ask my friend Arasan how much he is spending on phone bill after I enabled ISD in my phone).

This article in Hidustan Times says that Indians are (in)famous for missed calls - communicating without answering the calls. Article lists some points that we Indians communicate effectively through "missed calls".
Points from the article are:
"I'm thinking about you"
"Call me back."
"To let the other person know that someone has reached some place safely"

The article missed out an important point..."To annoy someone" (or read it "To tease your close ones"). Have you ever done that? Are you using 'missed calls' for anything other than this? Please share it, I am sure it would be very helpful to lot of souls.

Article also states that mobile companies are losing money because of 'missed calls' (obviously!). What if mobile companies & phone manufacturers decide to somehow stop this great feature? That's my main worry.

All That Phrase

I have been observing this for quite sometime now. I hope many of you would have also observed this.

Newspapers and magazines have article titles that are inherited from famous phrases from movies or books or songs. Sometimes I think that writers are running short of ideas to christen their article. But honestly, some of these titles really sound very creative in the way they are formed. As a reader I get attracted to read the article if the title sounds familiar (by the way it is inherited) to me. Is that why the writers are going for such titles?

With my very limited knowledge on Hollywood movies and famous books, I have extracted some of such titles that I came across in my very recent readings. A small quiz to the readers of this blog. Try if you can find out the origin of these phrases.

[Example: Title of this blog 'All that phrase' is inherited from 'All that jazz', my favourite song from movie Chicago. In addition there is a movie with the title 'All that jazz'. Like wise – find the origins of phrases below]

Phrases:
1. I have a dream
2. Should it be shaken or stirred?
3. The name's bond, distressed bond
4. Ranbaxy Presents SAD MAX
5. Search me if you can, lazy bones
6. The wrath of grapes
7. For a few thousand crores more
8. India Calling
9. Wings of change
10. Cane Unable

Above phrases were titles of articles in the following magazines & newspapers:
1 to 6 - Business & Economy (dated 25-Jan-07)
7 - Business Today dated (dated 28-Jan-07)
8 & 9 - Business World (dated 01-Jan-07)
10 - Economic Times (dated 20-Jan-07)

Answers will be out on 31-Jan-07. Rush in with your answers before 31st.

Note: I have enabled 'comments moderation' as I don't want the answers to be displayed before 31st Jan as that might spoil the party. :)

Cup over Coffee

What do you drink, a cup or a coffee?

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."

"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

[So friend, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.]

Story above is just a copy-paste of what I got by mail.

I felt this was heavy because I lately seem to run behind better cups in search of a good coffee.

Ain't we all?

Serial Killers

Definition (from Wikipedia):

A serial killer is someone who commits three or more murders over an extended period of time with cooling-off periods in between.

Word of caution (from me):

If you are a weak hearted, don't worry about it and read on. This post is not directly related to the serial killers who take away the lives of innocence. This is about the killers who take away the times of innocence.

Now my story begins...

I have been thinking of writing this since my friend siva posted this. I wouldn't get a better time than this. I am in a celebration mood for some reason. The reason is given at the end of this post.

I feel that the definition of serial killers rightly suits the mega-serials. Read the definition given above again...more murders, extended period, cooling-off period (saturday & sundays) all suit mega-serials perfectly. Right?

Couple of months ago Sun TV made a great decision to move all its non-serial related programmes telecasted during the weekdays to weekends. Now all 5 days of the week most of the time you can see only the serials in Sun TV. Ad-money must be pouring in really huge to make sun tv management to take such a great(!) decision. I believe that Sun TV is loosing its viewrship because of some really good shows in Vijay TV and lack of such good shows in Sun TV.

I think 99.999% of serials would fit in the following template: (please add if you think I have missed something)

1. A title song by a female singer with all smiling faces of heroine & other castings of the serial. (but the people in the serial never have situations to smile in the serial)
2. A female who is on the verge of retiring from film industry or who is not getting movie offers or who is retired from the industry is the hero cum heroine
3. Heroine is either divorced (must be a single mom) or being cheated by husband or fighting for right with her husband
4. Heroine is born with a lot of siblings (definitely more than 3) & she does the role of head of the family
5. A female villain and a few more villains to support that female villain
6. Heroine is a lone warrior; only very few other good people would be there in the serial but even they could not help her when in need
7. At least one main character is bigamy
8. When the director dont know how to proceed, there comes a new character and a new side-kick story

A conversation with me & my colleauge just a month ago: (colleague's name is avoided because of confidentiality issues).

Me (reluctantly): By any chance did you watch Selvi, last night?
Colleague (reluctantly): Yeah, why?
Me (with confidence): I missed to watch because of power cut
Colleague (with a great enthusiasm): oh, yesterday GJ went to Selvi's house to get the 'thali'....blah...blah...

I am wasting my precious 1 hr every day watching Kolangal & Selvi. I hate both the serials. You know it's like smoking, most of the smokers don't like to smoke but they can't really quit. These serials are like such addictions.

Can someone please suggest me a best way to quit-watching-serials?

For the best suggestion, I promise to transfer a few shares of Sun TV from my demat a/c to yours. (Worst suggestion gets the entire pack of Chitheeeee DVD, be careful).

Epilogue: Reason for my joy is that Selvi has ended (finally) last week with lots of loose ends. What a relief? 30 mins of productive time is gonna get increased in my life everyday. I am eagerly waiting for Kolangal to get over but there ain’t no trace of ending in a near future.