The Small Voice

For once, I totally agree to Mr. Bal Thackrey’s call to respond to the divisive caste based census in a fitting manner. He advises us to respond as of Hindustani Caste when asked about our castes. Hats off to you, Mr. Thackrey. This country deseperately needs leaders who can unite us rather than follow the British policy of “Divide and rule”. However, sadly both the current regime, UPA and the BJP has let down the country once again. Instead of taking steps to uproot this evil caste based system which divides our society, they are going to institutionalize it with a caste based census which will divide the country even further. If the census gets passed it will be a Black day for Indian citizens. I feel, all Indian citizens should encourage each other to name the next generation with secular / caste agnostic surnames, for example, a name “Arun Chturvedi” which identifies the bearer as of Brahmin caste can change it to “Arun Vishwanath”, a name which only indicates the religion of...

I was talking to a friend yesterday who is extremely clued into the capital markets. We discussed on how the shape of things appear to be on the global front. During our talks, I realized that though we as a market participants have our views on the economy and the macro trends, however the real long term macro economic trends (often relating to countries, myopic monetary policies followed by policy makers and central banks and the relative impact on currencies) are usually not visible in the course of day to day markets or even a short span of time. Actually, it is difficult to justify much of the imbalances empirically since most of the parameters when start to manifest, are already too late to act upon. Also, if there is a gradual shift in the currencies itself, the whole method of measurement becomes flawed. Hence, at times the very best an analyst can do is to arrive at logical conclusions intuitively. Also, once an anomaly is identified, shorting an asset class is risk...

--> What Kunal meant was that even though there was a drizzle, it wasn’t yet pouring. That was ten minutes ago. In the morning today, the skies were so overcast when we stepped on to the CST station that it felt it was evening 6PM rather than 8.30 AM in the morning.  But that was only the buildup. The climax before the real action begins. And the action has begun and how! After the lean last year, India badly needs good monsoons. And not only that, its always a pleasure to watch the heavens rewarding the earthlings after the hardships of summer with cool showers. The fact that during rains, girls get prettier (to me at least) is another reason why I love rains. Coming to here and now, the view is awesome with the sea hardly visible and the rain blowing like mist in slow motion as it bounces off ledges and protrusions in buildings. I believe the pleasure of rains is best enjoyed in a South Asian country with monsoon showers. And in case you are lucky enough to...

However much we Indians would like the big brother US to appreciate and support us against our errant neighbor and their private nation of barbaric jehadis, unfortunately the reality is far from this. The US, understandably, has its own axe to grind and couldn’t care less whether India is safe or not from the jingoistic jehadis and Pakistani manipulations. We all have seen that apart from doing lip service they have done precious little to help bring the Mumbai attacks culprits to the book. Hence, the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan should ring the alarm bells for sure. But this was a known eventuality.  What we, the Indian taxpayers expect from the political and strategic leadership in India is that they revitalize and reactivate our almost moribund and grossly understaffed and underutilized intelligence and counter intelligence institutions. Its time, Indians started defending Indians actively and proactively rather than look at the couldn’t-care-less-i...

Scenes like these were common in Mumbai today. People turned out in large nos. not only at Colaba parade but were organizing such Nukkad (a street corner) memorials across the city. Meanwhile ONE WEEK AFTER the attack, around 8 kg explosives was recovered from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Rail Terminus (CST) in Mumbai today. Millions of commuters like me had a lucky escape. I travel to CST 6 days a week, twice daily, and I am one of the angry common man of India, demanding my right to life. Media has played its role well The common man like me is just plain ANGRY today at all and everything. Meanwhile uncaring of the pain of the common man the politicians were busy trying to see who can gain maximum mileage of this tragedy. I appreciate the media for taking the callous / cynical politicians to task. They (Zee News, NDTV, Aaj Tak etc.) were the only voice of reason (somewhat) in the whole mayhem. “We the people of India…” CAN bring change I believe that if we want to make a...

The world is in a BIG mess right now. Terrorists are striking innocents with impunity Political representatives are so drunk with power,stupidity,arrogance that they no longer are representatives of the common man and women Job losses, Salary cuts, irresponsible policies of the central banks are adding to the misery. In short, Anger, Fear and Frustration is all around. All this makes me remember a beautiful poem of Kipling i read in school. I am sure it will be a source of inspiration for my friends. [IF] If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with T...

Came across an old 2003 interview of Jim Rogers, the author of book Hot Commodities and Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip. In between his predictions for a secular commodities bull run, ticking gender disequilibria in Asia etc. he made an ominous prediction for India in particular that the country was only waiting to be engulfed in the fires of regional / religion / caste divide and break up into several smaller countries based on the wide diversity that exists in this country. Jim speaks, and I quote: “And the country, of course, is going to split up. It is not a real country. The English mushed it together in 1947 in a panic and the borders of India as we know it will not survive.” “…There are different religions, different languages, different everything. I mean, it is not a country.” Any enlightened patriotic Indian knows how qualities like tolerance, compassion, empathy and sacrifice are ingrained in all Indian cultures. So much so, that the founding father of o...