I recently read about how some people like the Dutch are very happy about their lives in general.The secret it seems is that they:

a)work from 9 to 5 only.
b)are fitness freaks
c)have low expectations, which incidentally is different from being less ambitious.Its more closer to being a 'little' detached from materialistic pursuits.

Most of us "software professionals" in Bangalore:

a) work at least 12 hours a day.Anything less is not good enough.
b) will give you a "yeah,i really hope i can get started on that one" ,if you mention fitness.
c) will tell you how much they are sacrificing to get "where they want to".

We are so stuck in the monotony of our professional lives that we not once stop and wonder if there is more to life than earning loads of money and spending it on ourselves.

I was asking myself since the past week or so,how do i react to whats happening in the Indian equity markets?
Being a firm believer in equities, as the best asset class for a retirement portfolio,to see speculators scare away genuine investors was truly disturbing. But the heart of the answer i was looking for came to me while i read a Gtalk status message(It was Hari Shenoy) which said "Take these chances,Place them in a box until a quieter time" (from a song called,Ants Marching,which by the way i haven't listened to yet,but i will).

Absolutely solid advice for any long term investor,right now.

Day before yesterday would've been a hard day for all the petrol bunk workers.With fuel prices set to increase by about 10% people queued to petrol bunks to get as much fuel as possible.I am pretty sure that day-sales would have jumped at least ten times compared to a regular day.While most petrol bunk owners decided to sell fuel,some of them shut shop so that they could sell it for a higher price by just waiting for a day.Now was this a smart move?No,because:

1)For the simple reason that any loss due to margin would've been more than compensated by the much higher sales.
2)Most people filled enough fuel to last them for a week or ten days hence for the next ten days the sales will drop considerably.If you observe most petrol station would be relatively desolate for the next few days.
3)If you shut shop,people go to your competitor which is never so good.

There is a lot of information on the web today and whilst a number of online communities are trying to organize that information,the irony is that there are way too many of them and that dilutes the focus of the job they set out to achieve.So if you have a question about stocks then you'd like it to be answered by people who understand and/or are interested in stocks because chances are they will give you a much better answer than some random person.So now your job is to make sure that the right people get to read your question.Now you log on to the web and find out that there not one or two but tens of forums there for you to post your question.So how do you decide where you might get the best answer or do you register at all the multiple forums,post your question in each one of them and then keep track of each one of them to see who might possibly have answered your question.Tedious job really.Moreover the whole exercise would probably be worth your while if only you got sensible answers from atleast 50% of them.But what you really get is stupid counter questions,misinterpretations of by people who didn't understand your question cos they dont really know much about the topic in the first place et al, and finally after wading through about 25-30 posts you find the answer you are looking for.And your end up wasting a lot of time unnecessarily.

What i am looking at is a more organized web,where you get to post your questions to the RIGHT people and to people who know what you're talking about.Ideally there needs to be a "centre" on the web for every major topic and everyone interested should assemble there and share knowledge instead of being scattered all around the place.

Will post what i think would be a good solution soon.

I was going through the holdings of Berkshire Hathaway and i observed that almost all the stocks it owns are very well known names which probably every(and NOT just an average educated) American would have heard of.Consider Coca Cola,Gillette,American Express,Best Buy,Washington Post,GEICO and the most recently acquired Wrigley's.Household names all.Almost 90% of Berkshire's portfolio is made up of such stocks.So whats the big secret that made Warren Buffett the richest man on earth?He bought these stocks one by one during the most depressive times America ever saw.He knew all along that Coke is a great business(you make the same drink over and over again and people pay more and more every passing year.Do you ever think people will stop drinking Coke,i mean EVER?) ,but the point is he bought it when markets had crashed or it was going through a bad phase and Coke was selling for a very low price compared to its historical prices.Its that simple,Buy great businesses when markets crash and forget about them for at least five years and in 8 cases out of 10 you would make a handsome profit.I know that now and i am practicing it.And trust me this method will pleasantly surprise you sooner than you think.You wont even have to wait for five years.
As far as Indian markets are concerned one could have bought a lot of great stocks in May 2007 or more recently after Jan21.Identify great companies which anyone walking on your neighborhood street would know about or buys from,accumulate cash,wait for BIG crashes and when it happens go for the kill.Just promise yourself that you wont sell before five years from the day you bought and end up much richer.No complicated investment math required.Its that simple.Period.

All the good ol arguments apart,at the most primitive level,the whole idea is about entertainment.Any sport for that matter is all about entertaining more and more people.Sport,at the commercial level doesnt serve any purpose by itself except for bringing out varied emotions in its spectators.And it is very clear that 20-20 entertains much more than a 50 over game or Test cricket for that matter.Moreover i think very few people today would be left with the patience to watch a 50 over game(its ironical that,the patience argument was used for a 50 over game until recently!)after a huge dosage of 20-20.Going forward i think 50-50 would be abolished to bring in the 'more entertaining' 20-20s.Test cricket on the other hand would survive because it has a totally different niche.

Do watch 'Khuda Ke Liye'.Quality Cinema.

Not having siblings can make you a lot less social compared to the people who do.

When asked how he got so rich,Warren Buffet quipped,"Close the doors.Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful." I have been doing just that for sometime now in the stock markets and i am just amazed by how it never ever fails! Yeah, it does take a lot of conviction to buy when others are selling and sell when the stock is going up,but then who said making money was ever easy. :)

Beer,Beer,Beer.

It was the last day at office for one of India's most efficient public servants,Mr. Meelevetil Damodaran.The now former SEBI chief brought about a number of reforms that helped the retail investor more than anyone else and encouraged more people to participate in the capital markets. In an unprecedented move,he banned PNs to prevent widespread speculation,discarded the entry loads on MFs,allowed short selling by FIIs(to encourage hedging procedures) and introduced qualified institutional placement(QIP) to list a few.He was a bold man to say the least.

A job well done Sir.

And good luck to the new SEBI chief Mr. C.B. Bhave,former head of NSDL and much like Mr.Damodaran known to be an upright officer.

After dabbling at Blogger for a while,i am back home :)
Cheers!

A (very)Short story i wrote last night. :)

I was sitting in front of my PC and I needed a change and could'nt think of anything.So i decided i'd move to blogger,just for the heck of it.No hardfeelings(LJ!).
This is my new blog.

It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and
forgiving, can become the story of your life.

-Shantaram(By Gregory David Roberts)


I loved the book.And i hear johnny depp's producing the movie starring himself and emily watson in lead.Now this is a lot more than what i'd asked for and i am loving it!

This ones so damn addictive that bloody i have been watching it during my sem exams..:P

I got placed!!!

Had been to bandipur national park. Was onr helluva trip.We(12 of us) left at 10:30 at night on six bikes and we could get back only at 5:00 in the morning..
heck it was so darn dark we could'nt photograph any of the wildlife we got to see there.The only other option was to photograph ourselves..:p

Attended wekuiz(our college quiz club) after a long break had loads of fun,what with all the photo sessions,a thrashing by *MR and a great treat at yampa.
Quiz was conducted by shanky and bhatta and not to forget it was the 'the great' sunku's b'day too.
Planning to come out with a nice t shirt for the club this jayciana. Wekuiz is back to being exciting again.
It was the last quiz for the seniors.I must say we've all had some very good times at Wekuiz.
Hope the legacy continues...

Some believe that India is a poor country in terms of the money the people have. Yet what we do with the little money which we have is far from being commendable. We have traditionally considered giving water and quenching someone’s thirst as an honour and a virtue. However, now that we are progressing, it is not very far when we completely get rid of these feelings.

Consider this; India consumes 1.4 billion gallons of bottled water per year i.e. 5.299 billion litres of bottled water. Assuming the prevalent price of Rs 10 per litre of bottled water, the total amounts to an outflow of Rs 52.99 billion or Rs 5299 crore or $1.19 billion from the consumers’ pockets. The trend has become so much prevalent that even ordinary restaurants have started asking their customers if they would prefer ‘normal’ or ‘mineral’ water.

Adding to all this we have the consumption of soft drinks increasing at a rate unmatched in the entire world. This again is mainly water with ingredients which, though are not completely disclosed, but have been talked out at length. If you consider the outflow corresponding to this industry then you might change your perception of India as a poor country. Also, at Rs 10 per 300ml this water is more costly than diesel in many states of the country.

Also, there is a perception that Indians are one of the most intelligent human beings. Consider this; the soft drinks sales do not drop even when it is confirmed in the laboratories that they contain pesticides and other chemicals which would be harmful for the body. We are indifferent to the proved allegations regarding the consumption of the country’s ground water reserves, which are as it is scanty for the population, by these companies. We do not care about the price at which we get the soft drink even after knowing the fact that it costs the company only Rs 0.70 for a 300ml bottle.

From childhood, we have been taught that we take in oxygen and leave carbon dioxide. Also, how active deforestation is harming, apart from other things, the availability of oxygen and how the percentage of carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere. Yet, here we are consuming soft drinks which are nothing but water with carbon dioxide and some other harmful chemicals pumped in.

Also, now-a-days everyone is health conscious and tries to avoid sweets or anything that would be fattening. But they cannot say no to a soft drink which constitutes of 10 teaspoons of sugar, if not more, per 300ml.

Finally, I personally like soft drinks as would you but I wonder, considering all the things if it is a good idea to drink one.