Web 2.0 and beyond

http://www.web2summit.com/web2009/public/schedule/detail/10194

A must read for every technologist and everyone who is going to be affected by the web...

Are We Out Of The Woods Yet?

Investocraft

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Reliance Money - A Hydro Power Company?

Here's finding fault with either the Google's search indexing, or bad meta tags by programmer or my lack of ability to comprehend the reliationship between the two but when I searched "Reliance Money" in Google today @ 04:15 AM, it gave me following in the search results:
"Reliance Money" - Largest Hydro Power Company in India".



(The timing 04:15 AM is very important here as I would want to read this blog when I am 50 or 60 and remember the good old 20s and my present B-School life when I can simply do the things that I want to do at the time I want to do them :-))

Away from Home

I have been staying in Vile Parle for the whole of last year and I will be staying in Santacruz for the whole of next year till 2nd year of my MBA course is completed. Now what makes this seemingly unimportant thing a topic for a blog post is the fact that this was for the first time ever in my life that I stayed away from my home for more than two odd months (which happens to be in Thane – about an hour from my college).

Call it lack of infrastructure or whatever but NMiMS does not provide a residential MBA programme and those who stay in Mumbai are not allowed to stay in the hostel. Last year, around this time when I joined NMiMS all I wanted was a decent residential MBA programme. So, I decided to rent an apartment with a few of my classmates near college. To my surprise, my parents agreed to my proposition of staying away from home while I was still staying in Mumbai (I must admit here that I expected a more emotional farewell like the one that they show in most of those Star plus and Zee serials).

The first problem with renting an apartment in Mumbai is the astoundingly high rent. An advice for those who are hunting for a rented house in Mumbai here – You may at times experience emotions like sheer disbelief, extreme anger for your landlord and may hear numbers of unimaginatively gigantic sizes but get used to it as the homeowners here have been taught numbers beyond 25000 during their kindergarten days and that is where they start quoting from.

So, my pseudo hostel stay began in May last year. Staying with classmates was always fun as I could watch TV at any time of the day, drink gazillion cups of coffee and have other junk food at will, listen to loud music late at night, hang out in the college for most of the time. The direct impact of this liberalization in my life resulted into more frequent viewings of my Friends’ collection and addition of some other sitcoms like “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Big Bang Theory” to my collection.

The sad part of staying away from home is when it comes to washing your own clothes which had actually turned a 3 hour long Sunday afternoon grand ritual for me.

I can surely say one thing about staying away from home. You learn a hell lot. I have been seeing several improvements in me ever since I have shifted base. For starters, I realized that there are so many household things that need to be done that were virtually non-existent for me when I was staying at home. This includes taking Doodh from Doodhwalah in the morning, arranging and more importantly managing the maid, paying bills, buying routine household stuff from matchbox to mosquito repellents. I have changed from being a really pathetically lazy person to a more acceptable lazy person and I still continue to show progress. :-D

This post would be incomplete without mentioning my roomies.

Trying to study

Jigar aka Jigga, Saurabh aka Baldy (Ref: Barney from How I Met Your Mother) and Dhawal aka Kanta aka Horney Thorny (Don’t ask me why).

Jigga @ Hareesh's B'day Party

Jigga is the most sincere guy in the class and I had obvious advantages like getting assignments and notes from him. I also managed to read some stuff and study for sometime because of him (Peer pressure you see...). While he was busy in putting up an extraordinarily large family (Details can be obtained on special request ;-)) and challenging the existing rule of "One wife One family" ;-), he has been a true inspiration and pushed me every time from taking CFA to enrolling for different competitions.

Saurabh - Notice that developing spike

Saurabh is somewhat quiet and was like the big daddy of the house. Everyone feared him and we made it a point not to disturb him during his morning ritual of creating one large spike on his head ;-). A warning here - Though he is generally very calm and composed, he will stump you with his occasional one liners. He was the encyclopaedia of our lot and has helped me notice, understand and comprehend things beyond what is called “Mumbai”.

Dhawal on Holi day

Dhawal aka Kanta aka Horney is another being that belongs to the species called “Toppers”. He spent most of his time reading self-help books like The Secret and Vedanta Treatise. A Cricket fanatic and a former Satyamite (I’m sorry but I had to mention this), he was in search of true Gujarati love and tried to find it in many girls including some South Indian girls ;-). He thinks putting a couple of drops of Vodka in a glass full of Sprite is called “Drinking Vodka”.

Managing Household Chores - An attempt at Breakfast

Four of us always made it a point to waste time in trivial arguments, in house cricket matches and other discussions which cannot be mentioned here as this is a family blog ;-). However trivial, it all seems fun in the hindsight.

Diverging from the topic, among other things happening in my life, last month was one of the most hectic periods of my life... Managing my summer internship @ NSE and preparation of CFA Level 2 examination (Someone please let me know if I have violated the CFA Institute Code of Standards by this reference ;-)) was quite a task and kept me away from all the things which I otherwise like to do... Now that I have sucksessfully (No, it is not a typo) taken the seemingly difficult exam full of fictitious Balance Sheets and Income Statements, I have all the time in the world to get back to things I like the most... Reading, Writing and Imagining. So expect more of these from me...

Time- 03:30 AM... Location- Juhu Beach

Next time you feel like bragging about your achievements in life, next time you feel like you have the power to control and take decisions on behalf of all your subordinates, next time you feel your race or religion is superior to that of others'; just walk up to Juhu Beach at night and stand in front of the vast Arabian Sea. The massive waterbody in front and never-ending black sky above will make you realize how inconsequential you are in this massive universe.

The immensity of the sea and air will make you realize that all your afflictions, worries, pains and egos are really insignificant. The dark, cool breeze will make this all a humbling but magical experience. All I can say is that the experience cannot be described in words but can only be experienced.

PS: A drink or two might actually help you enhance the wondrous experience

Wow... Thats Future...

The Journey with Recession Continues

The flow of grim news continues... Layoffs, thinner bottom-lines, red tickers and bail-out packages. All the markets around the world seem to have rediscovered gravity for themselves and there is no sign of recovery...

The slowdown starts showing in the Balance-Sheets of the corporate...

See the DLF results
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/DLF_plunges_nearly_14_on_poor_results/rssarticleshow/4065321.cms

I think there’s more pain to come. The Jan-Mar quarter will not be better either. God knows where the Sensex is headed...

Look at the scary job cuts all across the globe
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Job_trends_during_times_of_turbulence/Rising_layoffs_9000_job_vanishing_every_day/articleshow/4059166.cms

It is not all that bad if you are an Indian techie though...
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Job_trends_during_times_of_turbulence/Microsoft_Layoffs_for_some_visas_for_others/articleshow/4064164.cms

Assocham demands STPI benefits extension till 2012... Read the Story...
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Extend_STPI_benefits_to_ITeS_till_12/rssarticleshow/4066059.cms

The MSMEs are suffering... Though they have no one to lobby for them as hard... Where’s the relief package for them? Read the story...
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Micro_industries_face_closure/rssarticleshow/4064142.cms

Indian Exports put up a better show in December... Some sign of relief?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Exports_put_up_a_better_show_in_Dec/rssarticleshow/4063486.cms

Meanwhile interest rates are headed downwards... SBI to lend housing and SME loans at 8%. Way below their PLR... Government pressure or a bold business strategy? Time to short SBI for a couple of quarters it seems...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Exports_put_up_a_better_show_in_Dec/rssarticleshow/4063486.cms
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/SBI_contemplating_further_cut_in_lending_rates/rssarticleshow/4063716.cms

China pushes rural consumption

A novel idea may be... But a non-market force cannot have it all right all the time...Reaffirms my faith that with all the controls and directives by the government, China is bound to fail in a few decades’ time...
http://spoonfeedin.blogspot.com/2009/02/world-china-spurs-rural-consumption.html