The Small Voice

Dear Friends & Readers, Lets hope equities boom (esp. stocks in my portfolio...er sorry stocks in ALL OF OUR portfolios) in 2012.     My wish-list for 2012: Thailand, Japan recover from their natural calamities India gets a REAL LEADER Parliamentarians listen to and heed public  opinion     Elections are fought and won over Non-caste / Non-religion / Non- regional issues  Terrorism is defeated by peace, love & wisdom American, Indian, European etc economies recover  People get REAL jobs once again Real economy triumphs over financial economy Already reached 7 bn humans , highest in history. Our earth and Mother nature can sustain only so many and no more. Lets put a pause on population here. Climate Change is reversed and we all plant trees and save water bodies Chinese Yuan gets weaker vis-a-vis INR, at least for a few days in Feb (gotta return some money to BIL) and I win a REAL Lottery (not the fake Nigerian one...) Wishing you and your loved ones,

Imagine you are running for a super important meeting with a uber-VIP by which I mean a padosi desh ka PM or boss' in-laws or a rich NRI client or Sunny Leone. You get the idea right? Basically you just can't be late, and you dare not bunk. The rendezvous is this place called Far,Far,Away tucked in the heart of Lower Parel or some other Mumbai suburb blessed with narrow lanes called roads. You are on time, all prepared, enveloped in cool Davidoff mist, tie in pocket, the Mont Blanc safely tucked inside your Armani suit and every sign of a thin Mumbai traffic. Ok stop laughing now. Somedays we may actually be having thin traffic. They have promised Mumbai will become Shanghai one day. So, coming back to the topic, you smugly strut out of the train stattion, head held high, "What can go wrong?" you wonder. And the fates smirk. You casually ask the cabby, and get the following repartee: Taxi Cab 1: " Uss side nahi jana hai.." (Dont wanna

Watched “The Karate Kid” with the wifey yesterday.  And She liked it!!!  Whats the big deal you ask me? Well here goes. Finally, I got her to like one martial arts(action) movie. Any average male reader (esp. BFs, husbands etc.) would immediately understand this is no mean achievement by any standards.  If she liked one, who knows she may like another too.  At least it gives one hope and reasonable grounds to try out several of the other action flicks. Immediately classics like the Tomb Raider , Transformers etc. spring to mind.  31st Dec... Long weekend.... He He He PS:  BTW, the reader should not mistake that and I have a violent personality just because I enjoy doing daredevil stunts and have a penchant for action movies .  Oh No No No. In fact, I am as peace loving dude as can be.  I wanted to tell wifey that I had abandoned my pursuit of Taek-wondo Black Belt (3rd Degree) midway after successfully achieving WHITE belt just because of my extreme dislike for vio

My trusty old Samsung, after years of faithful service was now showing visible signs of ageing. And since both my barber and my lift-man, both of who sported the same device, where considering upgrading it. I decided, it was time to bid adieu and bought a Nokia E6. True to its tag of being a smartphone, the new E6 displays personality traits. It has a queer habit of switching off and restarting at its own sweet will. Funny (and painful) situations arise sometimes because of this habit.  Sample this: Wife: Hello dear. I am at the cash counter of Shoppers. Where have you reached? Me (alarmed): Darling, what are you doing there?? Wife (excitedly): I found the pink dress I was looking for and am buying it… Me (very alarmed): what?? Leave the color…how much it costs? Wife: mmm lemme see… Its only 4999 Me (near panic): 5K!! ONLY??!! In this recession, you must be the only one at the store!! Wife: Shut up! It’s lovely and am buying it.. Me (ok I am totally panic

The man who didn't know infinity… While for Ramanujam, the famous math genius, equations and numbers were the language of God, much pious and  and overflowing with goodness that I am, I still remain innocent of an engaging mathematical fervor and rapture. A long time ago, and for a brief period, mostly due to the inimitable Sir Bannerjee’s teachings in De-Nobili school, I was beginning to be decently good in Math. But alas the affair was fleetingly brief and short-lived. Real Analysis entered in my life like a smiling vamp of daily soaps and in the ensuing battle, soundly defeated me on all counts. Despite my best efforts,  I found it completely rational to avoid learning why,  in heaven’s name, √2 is irrational.  Apart from math, Music remained another "M" that I have resigned myself to be deprived of in this mortal life. About music, suffice to say when I tried my hand at Nitin's violin and soulful music composition straight from the heart, th

Through this blog I tried to bring to focus the fact that despite all the slowdown and hue and cry, real estate prices in urban centers are still stubbornly high.  A recent article highlights the same concern that i raised on my post .  Not only that, the said article also bluntly tries to give precise reasons (what an individual blogger like me can only hint and suggest at, that too followed by question marks!! ) as what it sees as the real reasons behind the still high prices AND the main reason behind Lokpal-Jan Lokpal battle.  Read it. Its good. :)

Had to attend a collegue's wedding and was waiting for wifey dear. The rendezvous point was Chuna Bhatti station .To kill time, went to a shoe shine (boot polish chap) near the ticket counter, bang opposite the crossover bridge. Turned out he was an affable north Indian from Bihar, chap called Chotelal aka bihari . While he went about doing his business, he regaled me with a quick but succinct info about his business timings, his merchandise, his product profile, even the time of year he will be unavailable. Of course he wanted to convert me as one of his regular clients, but i didnt had the heart to tell him i dont often come to this part of town. His sense of detail and small efforts to make his customer feel special was very impressive. He actually did such a fine job on my 2yr old shoes that, believe it or not, they looked brand new. God promise. We all have watched and laughed at this scene of Lakshya , but meeting this chap's work quality and ethics makes

The pride of the country, the famed FII flows and booming markets are now crumbling before our eyes.  Believe it or not, the news anchor of a popular business channel was morosely informing us that Nifty was last seen at these levels in 2008. So the clock has turned full circle and the carnage continues. But amidst all this, the surprising thing is that real estate prices still hold. Consider this: The stock markets have given the likes of DLF, Unitech etc. or for that matter, the whole BSE Realty index a HUGE thumb down. So from 1 st Jan 2008, they have lost 80-96% of their value in terms of market cap. According to some report, the vacancy in significant pockets is alarmingly high. The ugly truth is that even after all the above carnage in the stock markets, high vacancy levels and tepid demand, the property prices are STILL HOLDING STRONG. How can this asset class still hold its prices, when all asset classes around us are melting is beyond belief or understandin

Just watched Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol. And I, must admit, the wifey and I were completely blown over with the action sequences that are the hallmark of all MI franchises. The story starts in Budapest prison, goes to Kremlin Russia, whirls around the Burj Khaleefa, Dubai and ends in, surprise in Mumbai. But under the surface, the story was well presented with humor in form of Benji (Simon Pegg) sporadically and Brandt (Jeremy Renner) occasionally. The part where they decide Cruise must scale the 2,700 feet Burj Khalifa tower was really funny. But the disappointment was Anil Kapoor, who was a complete let down. He was over the top and actually I felt like leaving the hall when his caricature-ish character was being kicked around by Paula Patton.  Actually the part after the completion of the Dubai episode, it seems that the writer got so satisfied with his work so far, that he went away to have a toast and a monkey completed the rest of the script. Imagine this, why

The appointed hour arrived and Mr. Subbarao delivered as expected.  “No changes for now. For further changes, keep watching the space” he said in summary in his 4 page long summary of the policy and the things economically oriented. For the layman, nothing changes. EMI payments will continue to have him by his b____s, industry will continue to remain comatose and Pranab da will have more time to look helplessly and lip sync “aar b eye” when asked about economy and slowdown. So why did markets heaved, groaned and tanked promptly after a little while? The Nifty is down 95 pts or 2%. Only  God or SEBI   knows for now. One hunch is, there may be some basket deals happening in response to the forex supporting moves taken by the RBI yesterday. But frankly, I don't know. For now then, its back to the grind of pessimism and despair. This market is testing the patience of everybody. 

The following is my humble and (maybe) rather simplistic assessment of RBI's actions of late....You may differ, and maybe you are right :) Amidst the reigning depression and panic, all eyes are on Subbarao (the RBI Governor) & Co. today as they crank out their version and view of the economy and the policy stance going forward. But is RBI’s policy so important to the man/ woman on the street? What difference a 0.25% increase or decrease in interest rates will make to the common man? A lot, if you ask me. Basics of that, will post in a subsequent post later. However, despite our central bank being one of the best managed and best intentioned bank in the world, there are some aspects, in my view, where RBI could have acted better. First, while the move to put curbs on the Forex markets speculation via the futures contracts was much needed, it was rather late in acting. Much of the pain had already been borne by genuine producers. I think that if the RBI would have hi

Part 1: the usual gripe abt mumbai locals Part 2: How to read ebooks on phones Part1: The Local-train-mein ka-Boredom problem.....  Surviving in Mumbai depends on possessing acrobatic skills even Spiderman would be proud of. You will be excused if you gloat if you can perform all the following: If you can latch on and step inside a still moving local train (with elbows. teeth and kneecaps intact), Angle your way inside the compartment correctly negotiating the train’s momentum, your Body Mass Index, the speed & direction , wind velocity & spin of earth etc. Squeeze your ample frame in the inches wide space between teeming sweaty humanity to wiggle inside to the relatively safer but warm, humid interiors of the compartment from the airy but dangerous hanging by nuts and bolts on the foot-boards... Secure a handhold AND Leg room AND body room AND eventually manage to stand straight (almost will do) with all 10 toes on flat gro

So the inevitable happens.   The Oct 2011 IIP figure is not only at a 28 month low, it is also DOWN 5.1% . Manufacturing output, which constitutes about 76% of the industrial production is DOWN 6%. Fiscal Deficit will most certainly EXCEED 4.6% as promised in the Union Budget 2011. This is not all, whilst the rupee is getting weaker by the day, the current account deficit is going up. Interest Rates are still giving vertigo to the industry, power is struggling with coal shortages and near-defaulting SEBs, Infrastructure disbursement is at standstill, investement is moribund in the economy and all this while inflation continues to cook a snook at the powers to be at the center, including the RBI.   This blog continues to hold the view that the best way to deal with inflation due to inadequate supply, was to boost the supply. However, the RBI decided to kill the demand while on the other hand, the UPA govt. chose to do nothing. Time and again, the RBI statement gave

Rajan Kshirsagar, general secretary of the All India MGNREGA Employees Federation reveals an interesting and startling fact in his blog that: “Thirty percent (30%)of the NREGA workers in rural Maharashtra are graduates and 20 percent of the workers are post-graduate.’’ Paying them Rs 127, per day is too little, argues another editorial website . I don’t want to comment on the actual money paid to MGNREGA workers. I even don’t want to ask whether payment for work be dependent on the nature/economic benefit of work performed or the qualification of worker?? The MAIN problem, as I see is this: Why even graduates and post graduates (requiring 15-17 years of education), aren’t skilled enough to hold semi skilled jobs like Gramrojgar Sevak under MGNREGA have to demand further training? If such is the case, then doesn’t this prove that the education standards in the country are actually abysmal and useless? They provide absolutely no practical use or training to students