Yesterday, I went to my home after almost a couple of months. Yes, it had been two months since I had visited my home and last few days my mom called me every day and asked me “Beta, tune ghar chod to nahi diya?” I had hard time concincing my mom that I was busy with all the presentations, case studies and other unimportant things that I was doing in life and that was the only reason for me not showing up every week which and it meant that I was still the same old loving son that left the home a couple of months back.
On a serious note, life has been a little hectic since I have joined NMIMS for my two year MBA course. I am living the hostel like life that I always wanted to experience. Even though it means doing a lot of daily chores like waking up myself (And my roomies) every morning, ironing my clothes, making my own breakfast, washing my clothes, etc. Life is enjoyable. At the moment I am staying in a rented apartment about an hour and a half from my home. (Why? Because, I don’t want to spend one eighth of my time travelling in a bus or a train...)
My typical day goes something like this:
It starts with me, cursing at my alarm clock and getting up at around 07:30 AM in the morning after snoozing it for an hour or so. That follows a newspaper reading session of about half an hour when I read the morning newspaper and imagine myself drinking mom-made tea like good old days. After getting ready to go to college and managing a quick breakfast (And missing it most often because I am late), I start off for the college.
Auto-Rickshaw or a 20 minute walk from my place takes me to my college. Then there is the usual daily dose of enlightenment from some fascinating professors on some even more fascinating subjects which I pretend to understand ;-). That leaves me with only half of the day for doing something useful. At around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I eat some Biryani, Pulao, etc along with a cup of tea in the canteen. That follows a lazy afternoon session of project/ case study discussion where people work diligently on some critical aspects of the project presentation like font of the presentation, colours to be used in the presentation, etc sidelining some of the more trivial aspects such as content of the presentation, etc. After fighting for a cause that no one in the group is sure about but everyone in the group wants to fight for, there’s again a chai-session at the tapri outside the college.
By this time, I realize that I have only a fourth of the day left with me to do something useful (In the MBA lingo, something that adds value to my being). Then, after all the day’s hard work, at around 6 o’clock in the evening, there is a mail from Chetan (He is class CR and is the actuator, stimulator, guide of our otherwise lazy class) stating that the presentation we’ve been fighting out about has been postponed to the next week and now we have another presentation instead. People utter some good words of appreciation for Chetan and this sets stage for another similar fighting-cum-discussion session that runs well into the night. At around 9 o’clock in the night (Or night for normal people), my stomach starts making me aware of its presence and I head back to canteen for a quick bite. After finishing the presentation (rather finishing off the presentation), I head back home where my dinner is waiting for me in the dabba that that black, old, shabby man delivers. Now, the man and his appearance is very important here because I suspect that he’s the one making the dabba indicated by the little smirk that he shows me every time. I eat my dinner, watching Olympic game highlights and contemplating whether that shabby delivery boy is the one who actually makes my Tiffin.
Then, there is a chatting-cum-music hearing-cum-reading-cum-mail checking-cum-googling-cum-contest registering-cum-previous contests’ result checking-cum-frowning at the result session that starts at around 11:30 PM. This is when I end my day at around 02:00 AM in the morning.
On a lighter note, this schedule also has some interesting sports, competitions, paper presentations, festivals, excellent guest lectures, wonderful regular lectures which add a spice to the whole thing. I think this hectic but enjoyable schedule is something that makes B-School experience pleasing.
Coming back to the topic, I wasn’t able to go home for some time because of such self-inflicted hectic (or is it?) schedule and finally, after getting ultimatum from my sister on Rakhi, I went to my home and in its cosy comfort again.
You don’t realise the importance of your home and your family unless you are away from it for some time, especially if you’ve lived in your home all you life... like me. I used to take everything for granted when I was staying at my own home for 25 years but it is only now that I have come to understand the importance of my home and family. On that senti note and with “Koi Aaney Wala Hai...” from Strings playing in the background, I think I should head to bed now...
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Goal
"What is your ultimate goal in life?" That was the question I was asked in the 'Values in Management' class the other day... I must admit that I felt the same what Rakhi Sawant would... when asked “What do you think about being sensible?”
“I want to be happy”, I said - An all inclusive and simple answer. But, what is it that makes me happy? Money, Power, Friends, Family, What? It is very uncharacteristic of me to think about such things, but one needs a mission statement in order to accomplish something. Ideally, I would want to accomplish whatever there is to be accomplished in the world. But, given the fact that there are only 55*365*24 hours of life left (in the best of conditions) to achieve whatever I want to achieve, I must cut down my wants to a few.
I know for sure that the money drives the world and can be traded for other mundane things in life... That makes money the most important thing to gain. What is money if you cannot put it to use for your loved ones... That means I want a very good family and friends with whom I can share my life (and money), go on a lot of vacations and spend a lot of time.
There are several ways to achieve my first want. Let me start with the simple ones...
I can just do nothing about my want and let my luck (which has been a not seen, not heard, not felt thing till now) play its own role. May be I will continue to do what I am doing at present and expect some amir baap ki beti to marry me or maybe I will win a billion dollar lottery some day. Again, given the reality of lack of luck in my life and my inability to attract girls like that guy in the axe advertisement (Read as my decency), I need to find out better ways to earn money.
This leaves me with only one more option... Study a lot, earn a handful of degrees, work with the best of the companies at best of the positions earning best of the salaries and earn money. But, more salary means more work, more business trips and less time with family and friends. That means my two wants are conflicting and I need to maximize both when both are negatively correlated (Yes, I also have a stats professor who asks me questions and he teaches me things that help me analyse things like correlation coefficient between the number of words spoken by the professor in the class and the number of paper-planes created-launched and crashed by the students in the class)
Jokes apart, I think when there is a conflict between my two wants, I would prefer my family and friends over money. I just hope that my family and friends make a lot of money so that I need not face such hard times ever ;-)
Among the other breaking news, I have been starving for a few days now and extracting all the nutrients that I need for survival from the cutting chai served at a tapri near college. The phenomenon has obviously taken a toll on my health and I have not been able to pretend to concentrate in the classes these days. This may seem to be an overstatement considering the fact that I live in Mumbai but I have really come to understand the worth of ghar ka khana while I have been away from home. So, weekend or off-day food at home is like a grand party for me these days.
Anyway, that is enough for now; a garma garam cutting followed by lot of knowledge-imparting classes are waiting for me...
“I want to be happy”, I said - An all inclusive and simple answer. But, what is it that makes me happy? Money, Power, Friends, Family, What? It is very uncharacteristic of me to think about such things, but one needs a mission statement in order to accomplish something. Ideally, I would want to accomplish whatever there is to be accomplished in the world. But, given the fact that there are only 55*365*24 hours of life left (in the best of conditions) to achieve whatever I want to achieve, I must cut down my wants to a few.
I know for sure that the money drives the world and can be traded for other mundane things in life... That makes money the most important thing to gain. What is money if you cannot put it to use for your loved ones... That means I want a very good family and friends with whom I can share my life (and money), go on a lot of vacations and spend a lot of time.
There are several ways to achieve my first want. Let me start with the simple ones...
I can just do nothing about my want and let my luck (which has been a not seen, not heard, not felt thing till now) play its own role. May be I will continue to do what I am doing at present and expect some amir baap ki beti to marry me or maybe I will win a billion dollar lottery some day. Again, given the reality of lack of luck in my life and my inability to attract girls like that guy in the axe advertisement (Read as my decency), I need to find out better ways to earn money.
This leaves me with only one more option... Study a lot, earn a handful of degrees, work with the best of the companies at best of the positions earning best of the salaries and earn money. But, more salary means more work, more business trips and less time with family and friends. That means my two wants are conflicting and I need to maximize both when both are negatively correlated (Yes, I also have a stats professor who asks me questions and he teaches me things that help me analyse things like correlation coefficient between the number of words spoken by the professor in the class and the number of paper-planes created-launched and crashed by the students in the class)
Jokes apart, I think when there is a conflict between my two wants, I would prefer my family and friends over money. I just hope that my family and friends make a lot of money so that I need not face such hard times ever ;-)
Among the other breaking news, I have been starving for a few days now and extracting all the nutrients that I need for survival from the cutting chai served at a tapri near college. The phenomenon has obviously taken a toll on my health and I have not been able to pretend to concentrate in the classes these days. This may seem to be an overstatement considering the fact that I live in Mumbai but I have really come to understand the worth of ghar ka khana while I have been away from home. So, weekend or off-day food at home is like a grand party for me these days.
Anyway, that is enough for now; a garma garam cutting followed by lot of knowledge-imparting classes are waiting for me...
Monday, 19 May 2008
Mutual Funds are subject to manipulation by distributors. Please know your basics well before investing
Has your investment advisor ever advised you to buy a mutual fund because the fund has announced a cool 30% dividend? Chances are that he has because mutual fund distributors are luring people into buying mutual funds by telling them about the 10-20 odd percent dividend the fund has declared. Dividend within a week of investing into the fund… Sounds Cool… Isn’t it? But wait a minute, there is more to it than what meets the eye.
Consider the dividends declared by different tax saving ELSS (Equity linked Saving Scheme) funds
Consider the dividends declared by different tax saving ELSS (Equity linked Saving Scheme) funds
- Birla Equity Plan (Mar-08)
- Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96 (Mar-08)
- SBI Magnum Tax Gain (Feb-08)
- HDFC Tax Saver (Mar-08)
- Sundaram BNP Paribas Tax Saver (Mar-08)
- Principal Tax Saving (Mar-08)
- Fidelity Tax Advantage (Mar-08)
- DSP - ML tax Saver (Feb-08)
- Lotus India Tax Plan (Jan-08)
Let’s get to the basics first. As we all know, mutual funds are a form of collective investment which enable many people to pool in funds and have a common diversified portfolio managed through professional fund managers at relatively low costs. The NAV or Net Asset value of a fund is
NAV= (Total Holdings Value+ Cash)/ No of units sold
When a mutual fund declares a dividend, it liquidates its holdings and converts them into cash for distribution to the unit holders. Consider a fund having total assets worth 1000 Rupees and 100 outstanding units. So, the NAV of the fund is 1000/100=10. Now, if the fund announces a dividend of Rupees 5/unit, then it sells off its holdings worth Rupees 500 to generate Rupees 500 worth cash which is then distributed to the unit holders. So, its NAV reduces to a value which is approximately equal to the dividend declared (approximately and not exactly because of certain variables like portfolio appreciation on the record date, dividend distribution tax, etc) . This means that you are, in effect, being returned your money back when you receive a dividend payout by a mutual fund.
Consider a scenario where you have Rupees 1000 to invest in a mutual fund scheme. The fund has an entry load (the initial amount deducted towards distribution/ marketing costs) of 2%. The Fund NAV before dividend is Rupees 10 and the dividend declared is Rupees 5/unit.
When you invest the amount just before the record date, the fund deducts 2% entry load i.e. Rupees 20. Part of this amount is handed over to the advisor as a commission. For simplicity, assume that the entire entry load is passed onto the distributor as commission. So, in our case, your investment advisor gets Rupees 20 in commission. Out of the remaining amount (i.e. Rupees 980), the fund units are bought for you at the prevailing NAV (i.e. Rupees 10/unit). So you have 98 units of the fund before record date. Post record date, you get a dividend of Rupees 5/unit. (i.e. 98 X 5 = 490 Rupees)
Case I (Before Dividend)
| Total Amount | Fund NAV | Units owned | Amount in Fund | Cash Owned | Commission Paid |
| 1000 | 10 | 98.00 | 980.00 | 0.00 | 20.00 |
| (Investment, After Dividend is declared) | |||||
| 1000 | 5 | 98.00 | 490.00 | 490.00 | 20.00 |
This means that in effect, to invest 490 rupees in the fund, you end up paying 20 rupees load (or commission)
On the other hand, if you buy into a mutual fund just after the record date, you end up paying lesser commission. Consider the case when you invest rupees 500 in the same fund on the next day of the record date. The 2% load is deducted in this case also and amounts to Rupees 10. Out of the remaining amount, (i.e. Rupees 490), the units are bought for you at the prevailing NAV (i.e. Rupees 5/unit). So, even in this case you have 98 units of the fund at a purchase price of Rupees 5/unit
| Total Amount | Fund NAV | Units owned | Amount in Fund | Cash Owned | Commission Paid |
| 1000 | 5 | 98.00 | 490.00 | 500.00 | 10.00 |
In both the cases mentioned above, effectively, the investor has same amounts invested in the fund. This means that the chances of capital appreciation are exactly the same in both the cases. However, in the first case, the investor ends up paying extra load and has less cash available with him.
It is clear from the above example that the distributors have a selfish intent in promoting and selling mutual funds just before they declare dividends. The investor, on the other hand loses out. Please note that the mutual funds do not claim that buying a fund before dividend is profitable... but again, they do not clarify this fact either. So, next time, do a little bit of homework before you take advice from a distributor. It is your hard earned money after all…
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
HR - Human Rigging
Look what I found in my mailbox the other day...
One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.
"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," said the woman.
"Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."
"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven", said the woman
"Sorry, we have rules..."
And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell.
The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were well dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner.
She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kind of cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved goodbye as she got on the elevator.
The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St. Peter waiting for her.
"Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.
"So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity,"
The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell."
So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell.
When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks.
The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.
"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."
The Devil looked at her smiled and told...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you're an Employee"
True... Very true... What about the nice HR lady who wooed me into my first job during my campus placement...
And what about the glossy, well-lit conference rooms that lured me into my second...
One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.
"Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," said the woman.
"Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in."
"Actually, I think I've made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven", said the woman
"Sorry, we have rules..."
And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell.
The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were well dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner.
She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kind of cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved goodbye as she got on the elevator.
The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St. Peter waiting for her.
"Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.
"So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity,"
The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell."
So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell.
When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks.
The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.
"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable."
The Devil looked at her smiled and told...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you're an Employee"
True... Very true... What about the nice HR lady who wooed me into my first job during my campus placement...
And what about the glossy, well-lit conference rooms that lured me into my second...
Saturday, 1 March 2008
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Sunday, 5 August 2007
The downside of democracy
The verdict is finally out on India’s most long-drawn trial, ‘The 93 Mumbai bomb blasts case’; and of all the acquitted and convicted, possibly the most celebrated, hyped and covered by media of all the accused, was Munnabhai Sanjay Dutt. He has been sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment. There have been loud cries from his colleagues in Bollywood and his fans world over, about the ruling. They believe that he is innocent and six years’ imprisonment is too harsh a sentence for carrying a mass destruction weapon by an adult. Ever since the judgment (and even before the judgment day), TV channels have been airing the sympathetic reactions of the common Indian man for Sanjay Dutt. Fair enough, we are the largest democracy in the world and every one of us has a right to express our opinions about everything happening in the country. That, I think, is the downside of living in an uncontrolled democracy. Reserved and narrow-minded as it may sound, I think too much pressure was being put on to the judiciary system by portraying the sympathies of common Indian man in every possible way and through every possible means in Sanjay Dutt’s case. What we should understand is that democracy lets you express your opinions but this expression should be used with utmost care and responsibility; and now, in this flat world, more than ever, where opinion of common man counts.
It is a paradox, how we fail to understand in today’s world of specialization that it is not us but the judiciary system that is specialized in the skill of judgment. I am not saying that we should tight shut our lips even if we feel strongly against a decision, but converging general opinion to pressurize the judicial mechanism (especially by media) is unfair. We do not rely on general public opinion when deciding the monetary policy, the intricate details of our nuclear deal with US; because we know that there are people who understand these fields much better than we do. We cannot take every Indian’s opinion while we take policy decisions on important things like these.
Should a democracy not count on its people for the course of its direction then? Obviously it should. But we need to modify the phrase ‘where every opinion counts…’ a little to ‘where every sensible opinion counts…’. Audiovisual media, I think, is anything but sensible these days and deserves a control on its content. It may sound undemocratic, but I think, it is fair to say that control should be imposed on those who fail to understand their role and responsibilities in a true democracy like it is imposed on a criminal.
It is a fine line, between controlling public opinions and suppressing them. But that’s what separates a democracy from a successful one.
It is a paradox, how we fail to understand in today’s world of specialization that it is not us but the judiciary system that is specialized in the skill of judgment. I am not saying that we should tight shut our lips even if we feel strongly against a decision, but converging general opinion to pressurize the judicial mechanism (especially by media) is unfair. We do not rely on general public opinion when deciding the monetary policy, the intricate details of our nuclear deal with US; because we know that there are people who understand these fields much better than we do. We cannot take every Indian’s opinion while we take policy decisions on important things like these.
Should a democracy not count on its people for the course of its direction then? Obviously it should. But we need to modify the phrase ‘where every opinion counts…’ a little to ‘where every sensible opinion counts…’. Audiovisual media, I think, is anything but sensible these days and deserves a control on its content. It may sound undemocratic, but I think, it is fair to say that control should be imposed on those who fail to understand their role and responsibilities in a true democracy like it is imposed on a criminal.
It is a fine line, between controlling public opinions and suppressing them. But that’s what separates a democracy from a successful one.
Saturday, 14 July 2007
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”- Not worth the Hype?
As any other Harry Potter aficionado, the month of July 2007 is like a dream come true for me. This month, new movie in the Harry Potter series, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, released on 11th July and now, on 21st July, the last book in the HP series, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, will be published. With two weeks advance booking even before its release, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was the most anticipated movie release in the history of the Hollywood. However, I was thoroughly disappointed when I actually got to see the movie.
Movie, a failed attempt
J. K. Rowling gets better at portraying Harry’s character and the events around him with each book in the HP series. The most impressive aspect of Rowling’s writing style is the way she gets into details of characters and events. While reading the book, she easily manages to create each and every character and scene in the reader’s mind. The fifth book in the series can be most easily summarized as a pre-cursor to a final showdown between lord Voldermot and the magical world. I think it would be more than asking for a movie to match the entertainment quotient of the book but I find that the movie lacks depth and tries to include too much without really including too muchfrom the book, causing a bit of confusion, especially to the first time HP audience, who’ve no idea about the HP world. The movie has also ignored a few important events like ‘Rita Skeeter’s article in the Quibbler’ and ‘Hagrid’s journey to the giants’ land’. It is clearly seen in the movie that director is short of time and has managed to create a mess with the same actors, same writer and better visual effects. I think the movie is not worth the hype created around it.
The last book
I am very certain that the forthcoming book will be the best in the series and fans can expect sheer excitement as Harry takes on lord Voldermot in the final battle. I am hoping that it would be a happy ending with Harry managing to destroy the Darklord without losing many of his friends. Can’t wait to get my hands on the book…
Movie, a failed attempt
J. K. Rowling gets better at portraying Harry’s character and the events around him with each book in the HP series. The most impressive aspect of Rowling’s writing style is the way she gets into details of characters and events. While reading the book, she easily manages to create each and every character and scene in the reader’s mind. The fifth book in the series can be most easily summarized as a pre-cursor to a final showdown between lord Voldermot and the magical world. I think it would be more than asking for a movie to match the entertainment quotient of the book but I find that the movie lacks depth and tries to include too much without really including too muchfrom the book, causing a bit of confusion, especially to the first time HP audience, who’ve no idea about the HP world. The movie has also ignored a few important events like ‘Rita Skeeter’s article in the Quibbler’ and ‘Hagrid’s journey to the giants’ land’. It is clearly seen in the movie that director is short of time and has managed to create a mess with the same actors, same writer and better visual effects. I think the movie is not worth the hype created around it.
The last book
I am very certain that the forthcoming book will be the best in the series and fans can expect sheer excitement as Harry takes on lord Voldermot in the final battle. I am hoping that it would be a happy ending with Harry managing to destroy the Darklord without losing many of his friends. Can’t wait to get my hands on the book…
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Gratefulness…
Before I start this post, a word of thanks to Rahul Gaitonde, who posted one of my older posts on Nokia N-Gage (:-) Keep on writing buddy, someone is reading :-D) on his blog and rekindled my writing spirit. It is like Amitji watching Himesh Reshamiya’s attempt at acting in ‘Aap Ka Suroor’ and appreciating it. Gives me enough fillip to create ‘Aap Ka Suroor – 2’, nonetheless. The only sad part is that I have replaced my ‘N-Gage Classic’ with the ‘Nokia N-70 Music Edition’ phone. After much R&D, I managed to narrow down on this one. Other phones which I considered were Nokia E-62, Nokia E-61 and Sony-Ericsson w810i. This time, I wanted a phone that looked like a phone and thus had to eliminate both the E-series phones. Another shortcoming of E-series phones is the lack of FM tuner. What made me decide on N70ME over w810i was the 1GB RSMMC, familiar Symbian OS environment and the fact that I was upgrading from one of the first generation N-series phones (Yes, I’ve heard that N-Gage Classic and N-Gage QD were the first two N-series phones).
The Nokia N70 Music Edition
It's a 108.8 x 53 x 17.5 mm, 126 grams black phone with Triband GSM and WCDMA. It comes with 22MB internal memory, a 176 x 208, 256K colour TFT screen, a 2MP camera and a VGA camera. On the connectivity front, it supports GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB Pop-port.
On the software side, it has Symbian OS 8.1a (S60 UI) and comes pre-loaded with a lot of software like QuickOffice suite, Acrobat Reader, etc. Has decent stereo sound output and comes with a 1GB RSMMC, enough to store around a couple of hundred mp3s. And this feature-packed phone comes at a price of INR 13200.
Pros and Cons
Why Music Edition?
The things that differentiate an N70 from an N70ME are
The music edition headphones are the ones that come with an N71. I haven’t really compared these with the N70 headphones but I’ve heard that they are better than the original N70 headphones. Visual Radio (FM Tuner) makes it a complete music phone.
What has changed?
One striking difference between N-Gage Classic and the N70ME is the ease by which I can set up the phone for different functionality. Settings’ Wizard lets me configure, GPRS and EDGE for any GSM operator in India at the click of a button. Configuring GPRS in N-Gage Classic was more complex. Things like connectivity with PC, Synchronization, etc have all become a layman’s stuff as opposed to techie stuff earlier.
All in all, N70 Music Edition is a great value for money buy.
Talking of music, Sleeveless Mini Mathur – 3 ;-) has commenced and this time the judges include Udit Narayan, Alisha Chinay, Javed Akhtar and the ever-available Anu Malik. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, it’s Indian Idol -3. Lack of Sonu Nigam on the panel of judges hurts but again, can be done away with so long as Mini is hosting the show. It still being the early, piano round episodes, I get to hear more of music and less of those emotional result declaration episodes where everyone takes Atalji-style pauses wherever possible.
Among the other things, I have learnt the macro-economics behind the relationship between inflation, money supply and appreciating Rupee, the hard way. Having bought a lot of tech-stocks on correction, and having averaged out on every subsequent correction, here’s my attempt at explaining the rupee appreciation.
The Rupee appreciation was a long anticipated event taking into consideration, deluge of foreign investment (FDI and FII) inflows in the recent past and around 200 billion dollars worth foreign reserves in the Indian exchequer. However, like india, most of the Asian countries have prevented their currencies from appreciating for a long time now in the fear of losing out on exports to their other Asian counterparts. However, in the backdrop of high inflation at the time when some of Indian states are going to polls, government took every possible measure from CRR hikes to price control threats to some industries to curb inflation. The appreciating rupee came to the rescue here as rising rupee means cheaper imports and thus lower costs. The RBI intervened as little as possible and let the rupee appreciate. Weakening of dollar against all major currencies was also one of the causes of rupee appreciating against the dollar. Now, with inflation tamed to a more acceptable level and exporters crying out loud against this sharp rise, government has assured the India Inc. against any such further sharp movements in the rupee. However, as told by commerce minister, Mr. Kamal Nath, appreciating rupee in the long term is a fact of Indian economy and that whether they like it or not, the exporters have to live with it. Huh!!! I think that is enough for today…
The Nokia N70 Music Edition
It's a 108.8 x 53 x 17.5 mm, 126 grams black phone with Triband GSM and WCDMA. It comes with 22MB internal memory, a 176 x 208, 256K colour TFT screen, a 2MP camera and a VGA camera. On the connectivity front, it supports GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB Pop-port.
On the software side, it has Symbian OS 8.1a (S60 UI) and comes pre-loaded with a lot of software like QuickOffice suite, Acrobat Reader, etc. Has decent stereo sound output and comes with a 1GB RSMMC, enough to store around a couple of hundred mp3s. And this feature-packed phone comes at a price of INR 13200.
Pros and Cons
- Has looks of a decent executive phone
- Has next generation connectivity options like 3G and EDGE, lacks WLAN though
- Good PIM capabilities
- 2MP Camera comes with a cover
- Not very impressive battery life
- Decent Sound quality, but inferior to most of the walkman phones
- Comes pre-loaded with useful software
- Comes pre-loaded with 100 songs (No necessity at all)
- Visual Radio
Why Music Edition?
The things that differentiate an N70 from an N70ME are
- 1 GB RSMMC
- ME Headphones
- 100 pre-loaded songs
The music edition headphones are the ones that come with an N71. I haven’t really compared these with the N70 headphones but I’ve heard that they are better than the original N70 headphones. Visual Radio (FM Tuner) makes it a complete music phone.
What has changed?
One striking difference between N-Gage Classic and the N70ME is the ease by which I can set up the phone for different functionality. Settings’ Wizard lets me configure, GPRS and EDGE for any GSM operator in India at the click of a button. Configuring GPRS in N-Gage Classic was more complex. Things like connectivity with PC, Synchronization, etc have all become a layman’s stuff as opposed to techie stuff earlier.
All in all, N70 Music Edition is a great value for money buy.
Talking of music, Sleeveless Mini Mathur – 3 ;-) has commenced and this time the judges include Udit Narayan, Alisha Chinay, Javed Akhtar and the ever-available Anu Malik. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, it’s Indian Idol -3. Lack of Sonu Nigam on the panel of judges hurts but again, can be done away with so long as Mini is hosting the show. It still being the early, piano round episodes, I get to hear more of music and less of those emotional result declaration episodes where everyone takes Atalji-style pauses wherever possible.
Among the other things, I have learnt the macro-economics behind the relationship between inflation, money supply and appreciating Rupee, the hard way. Having bought a lot of tech-stocks on correction, and having averaged out on every subsequent correction, here’s my attempt at explaining the rupee appreciation.
The Rupee appreciation was a long anticipated event taking into consideration, deluge of foreign investment (FDI and FII) inflows in the recent past and around 200 billion dollars worth foreign reserves in the Indian exchequer. However, like india, most of the Asian countries have prevented their currencies from appreciating for a long time now in the fear of losing out on exports to their other Asian counterparts. However, in the backdrop of high inflation at the time when some of Indian states are going to polls, government took every possible measure from CRR hikes to price control threats to some industries to curb inflation. The appreciating rupee came to the rescue here as rising rupee means cheaper imports and thus lower costs. The RBI intervened as little as possible and let the rupee appreciate. Weakening of dollar against all major currencies was also one of the causes of rupee appreciating against the dollar. Now, with inflation tamed to a more acceptable level and exporters crying out loud against this sharp rise, government has assured the India Inc. against any such further sharp movements in the rupee. However, as told by commerce minister, Mr. Kamal Nath, appreciating rupee in the long term is a fact of Indian economy and that whether they like it or not, the exporters have to live with it. Huh!!! I think that is enough for today…
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Media Blunders...
Here are a few media goof-ups I've come across in the last few months... One, hardly expected whereas the other one, highly expected... Have a look...
1. Moneycontrol.com website (Jan 07)
1. Moneycontrol.com website (Jan 07)
Poll Question: What is your trading strategy?
Choices for answer: a) Yes b)No c) Can't Say?
Now Come on... Even Udayan Mukherjee, who is generally very good at shooting impeccably obvious answers to equally obvious questions cannot answer this one ;-)... Or [;)] (Now, that's a lot of orkutting)
2. Zee News (July 06)
The news anchor was openly addressing former Maharashtra CM and now MP, Mr. Manohar Joshi as senior BJP leader 'Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi'. What can I say about this one? I am uploading the video which I could fortunately record...
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Talking money... For a change...
After losing some money during my last few investments in the market, I've been reading some stuff about TA and FA in capital markets.
This is the best article describing 'Dow Theory' I have come across till now:
Check out here
This is another TA article which throws some light on the 'Elliot Wave Theory':
Check out here
Anticipating Nifty
Applying the Dow stuff to Nifty charts, we can see that there seems a Secondary Bearish move inside the overall Bullish Primary move. However, instead of eating into around half of the gains of the last move, Nifty has broken previous low during last correction. This means that though the market has almost recovered from the last correction, a further downside is possible in the Nifty in the medium to long term. It may possibly mean the end of the Primary Bullish move. Any how, TA tells me not to take any new positions at this time and wait for further signals.
This is the best article describing 'Dow Theory' I have come across till now:
Check out here
This is another TA article which throws some light on the 'Elliot Wave Theory':
Check out here
Anticipating Nifty
Applying the Dow stuff to Nifty charts, we can see that there seems a Secondary Bearish move inside the overall Bullish Primary move. However, instead of eating into around half of the gains of the last move, Nifty has broken previous low during last correction. This means that though the market has almost recovered from the last correction, a further downside is possible in the Nifty in the medium to long term. It may possibly mean the end of the Primary Bullish move. Any how, TA tells me not to take any new positions at this time and wait for further signals.
Sunday, 3 December 2006
Indian Retail Industry… What does the future hold?
US based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, is entering India's sprawling retail market through a tie up with Bharti Enterprises Ltd. In the future, we will have many such cases of global retailers entering Indian markets, given the huge Indian consumer base and growth across all sectors of the economy generating a positive wealth effect of sorts.
According to KSA Technopak, a consultancy firm, the Indian retail market is projected to grow from US$300 Billion in 2006 to US$637 Billion by 2015 as GDP rises from US$804 Billion to US$1.7 Trillion over the same period. The bulk of the market is unorganised with less than 5% being classified as ‘organised retail’. The urban market is 45% of India's retail market, with the top 784 cities alone accounting for US$105 billion in retail sales. The rural market is dispersed over 627,000 villages, though it has a concentration around a core 100,000 villages that account for 50% of the rural population. Indian retail has a unique concept of ‘Kiranawallahs’, family run small shops.
With global players all set to capture the Indian retail, the Indian businesses have also recognised the opportunity and recently few large businesses have jumped into retailing. Reliance entered the retail market by opening its chain of Reliance Fresh hypermarkets in the city of Hyderabad. Reliance is expected to pump in close to US $ 5 billion in the next five years to build a chain of thousands of such shops across urban and rural India. The Aditya Birla Group is reported to be putting together a plan for a similar venture in the retail space. The group may invest upwards of US$3 billion to set up 6,000 stores within three years, with the first stores set to open by middle of next year. Pantaloon Retail, an earlier entrant to retail in India, has aggressive plans to double its retail space to 8 million sq ft within a year and to 30 million sq ft by 2010. It owns the most successful Big Bazaar/ Food Bazaar chain of retail shops. Godrej Agrovet and ITC (e-choupal) are large payers focusing primarily on the rural sector. Godrej plans to launch 1,000 Aadhar stores in rural India by 2010. The Tata Group is also getting involved in the business in a big way with Infiniti Retail venture. It has already opened its Chroma chain of consumer electronics shops across Mumbai. Global players like French retailer Carrefour, UK based Tesco are some of the other biggies in the pipeline waiting for their share of the action.
The Left is opposing such a generous liberalisation of the Indian markets. They believe that the scale and efficiency of the operations of the mammoth global retailers will hit the business of small family run Kiranawallah Shops and will leave millions of people jobless. The global players, on the other hand, are arguing that they will be targeting only the cream of the Indian consumer base in the urban India and will not affect Kiranawallahs in any significant way. They also argue that large Indian retailers like Reliance, Pantaloons, etc are also posing similar threat to the small retailers, if at all. Whatever may be the fate of the smaller retailers, the consumers will surely win with maturing retail market. Long used to shopping in packed and dusty marketplaces, they will flock to the neat, air-conditioned malls, fascinated by the convenience of one-stop shopping, a wide range of products to choose from, and significantly lower prices than they pay today. The savings will likely find their way back via higher consumption, helping drive the economy. Tax collections will also increase as more retail sales flow through the organised trade. Farmers and other suppliers who are able to deliver against the stringent quality requirements placed on them by modern retail will benefit from higher prices as middlemen get cut out of the supply chain. Landowners and real estate developers will laugh all the way to the bank as multi-billion dollar investments compete for limited supply of space.
So, what does the future hold for big retailers, Kiranawallahs and consumers?
As I’ve already mentioned, consumers are in for a good time for sure.
Contrary to general opinion, I think that the local Kiranawallahs are in a vantage position. They already have a loyal consumer base in place in rural as well as urban India. The young Indian consumer may be charmed by the large, brilliantly lit malls, larger than life shopping experience and loads of so called discounts, but small shops can counter these by their customised, personalised services. They will have to unite and achieve the benefits of scale which the bigger retailers enjoy. They will have to drastically change the way they services their consumers and innovate and they can survive this revolution in the Indian retail. The Kiranawallahs are placed in the vicinity of their consumers and this is where they score over the larger retailers. My local Kiranawallah almost knows all my family’s preferences right from the brand of the oil that we use to the quantity of wheat floor that we consume every month. For all my sundry orders like a loaf of bread, a bottle of ketchup, a pack of Maggie, I cannot go to a large retailer’s shop. My local Kiranawallah turns to my help in such cases. Indian consumer is not used to doing all his shopping for the month at one go. With the increasing share of organised retail in the Indian retail industry, the consumer will also have to transform itself into an organised consumer. If all small retailers in an area come together to give a basket of services to the consumers in the area then Kiranawallahs can very well survive alongside the big retailers. I really think that Kiranawallahs can see through this retail restructuring if they believe that they can counter bigger retailers and innovate.
As for large retailers, not everything is as good as it seems. There are already half a dozen players who have either announced their entry or are already operating in the organised retail. There will be enormous advertising and consumer education expenses that these larger players will have to bear. Immense competition in the large players will see a fierce price battle and will reduce the margins drastically. Foreign retailers cannot mimic their US or Europe business models directly into India as Indian consumer has its own characteristics and Indian market is like no other markets they’ve been before in. Only a few players with superior supply chain and consumer reach will survive this revolution.
Indian retail is trying to achieve in a decade what other developed retail markets have achieved in a span of two to three decades. This very fact makes this transition period very interesting. No one knows who will survive and who will not but consumers are surely in for a good time.
According to KSA Technopak, a consultancy firm, the Indian retail market is projected to grow from US$300 Billion in 2006 to US$637 Billion by 2015 as GDP rises from US$804 Billion to US$1.7 Trillion over the same period. The bulk of the market is unorganised with less than 5% being classified as ‘organised retail’. The urban market is 45% of India's retail market, with the top 784 cities alone accounting for US$105 billion in retail sales. The rural market is dispersed over 627,000 villages, though it has a concentration around a core 100,000 villages that account for 50% of the rural population. Indian retail has a unique concept of ‘Kiranawallahs’, family run small shops.
With global players all set to capture the Indian retail, the Indian businesses have also recognised the opportunity and recently few large businesses have jumped into retailing. Reliance entered the retail market by opening its chain of Reliance Fresh hypermarkets in the city of Hyderabad. Reliance is expected to pump in close to US $ 5 billion in the next five years to build a chain of thousands of such shops across urban and rural India. The Aditya Birla Group is reported to be putting together a plan for a similar venture in the retail space. The group may invest upwards of US$3 billion to set up 6,000 stores within three years, with the first stores set to open by middle of next year. Pantaloon Retail, an earlier entrant to retail in India, has aggressive plans to double its retail space to 8 million sq ft within a year and to 30 million sq ft by 2010. It owns the most successful Big Bazaar/ Food Bazaar chain of retail shops. Godrej Agrovet and ITC (e-choupal) are large payers focusing primarily on the rural sector. Godrej plans to launch 1,000 Aadhar stores in rural India by 2010. The Tata Group is also getting involved in the business in a big way with Infiniti Retail venture. It has already opened its Chroma chain of consumer electronics shops across Mumbai. Global players like French retailer Carrefour, UK based Tesco are some of the other biggies in the pipeline waiting for their share of the action.
The Left is opposing such a generous liberalisation of the Indian markets. They believe that the scale and efficiency of the operations of the mammoth global retailers will hit the business of small family run Kiranawallah Shops and will leave millions of people jobless. The global players, on the other hand, are arguing that they will be targeting only the cream of the Indian consumer base in the urban India and will not affect Kiranawallahs in any significant way. They also argue that large Indian retailers like Reliance, Pantaloons, etc are also posing similar threat to the small retailers, if at all. Whatever may be the fate of the smaller retailers, the consumers will surely win with maturing retail market. Long used to shopping in packed and dusty marketplaces, they will flock to the neat, air-conditioned malls, fascinated by the convenience of one-stop shopping, a wide range of products to choose from, and significantly lower prices than they pay today. The savings will likely find their way back via higher consumption, helping drive the economy. Tax collections will also increase as more retail sales flow through the organised trade. Farmers and other suppliers who are able to deliver against the stringent quality requirements placed on them by modern retail will benefit from higher prices as middlemen get cut out of the supply chain. Landowners and real estate developers will laugh all the way to the bank as multi-billion dollar investments compete for limited supply of space.
So, what does the future hold for big retailers, Kiranawallahs and consumers?
As I’ve already mentioned, consumers are in for a good time for sure.
Contrary to general opinion, I think that the local Kiranawallahs are in a vantage position. They already have a loyal consumer base in place in rural as well as urban India. The young Indian consumer may be charmed by the large, brilliantly lit malls, larger than life shopping experience and loads of so called discounts, but small shops can counter these by their customised, personalised services. They will have to unite and achieve the benefits of scale which the bigger retailers enjoy. They will have to drastically change the way they services their consumers and innovate and they can survive this revolution in the Indian retail. The Kiranawallahs are placed in the vicinity of their consumers and this is where they score over the larger retailers. My local Kiranawallah almost knows all my family’s preferences right from the brand of the oil that we use to the quantity of wheat floor that we consume every month. For all my sundry orders like a loaf of bread, a bottle of ketchup, a pack of Maggie, I cannot go to a large retailer’s shop. My local Kiranawallah turns to my help in such cases. Indian consumer is not used to doing all his shopping for the month at one go. With the increasing share of organised retail in the Indian retail industry, the consumer will also have to transform itself into an organised consumer. If all small retailers in an area come together to give a basket of services to the consumers in the area then Kiranawallahs can very well survive alongside the big retailers. I really think that Kiranawallahs can see through this retail restructuring if they believe that they can counter bigger retailers and innovate.
As for large retailers, not everything is as good as it seems. There are already half a dozen players who have either announced their entry or are already operating in the organised retail. There will be enormous advertising and consumer education expenses that these larger players will have to bear. Immense competition in the large players will see a fierce price battle and will reduce the margins drastically. Foreign retailers cannot mimic their US or Europe business models directly into India as Indian consumer has its own characteristics and Indian market is like no other markets they’ve been before in. Only a few players with superior supply chain and consumer reach will survive this revolution.
Indian retail is trying to achieve in a decade what other developed retail markets have achieved in a span of two to three decades. This very fact makes this transition period very interesting. No one knows who will survive and who will not but consumers are surely in for a good time.
Thursday, 30 November 2006
Grasshopper
The other day, a nice little green insect came into my bedroom (After a bit of googling I found out that it is called GrassHopper ;-)). Interesting thing is that, it too didn't have much work like me and thus a stage was set for a long photo-shoot. These are some of the stills from the shoot:
These are considerably scaled down versions of the original images. I can even zoom onto the little baby ( that's my assumption) in the insect's womb in the original pictures... That reminds me... Are insects oviparous?
These are considerably scaled down versions of the original images. I can even zoom onto the little baby ( that's my assumption) in the insect's womb in the original pictures... That reminds me... Are insects oviparous?
Friday, 20 October 2006
Friday, 13 October 2006
The Donkey
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Update: 28th Nov 2008
I have been retold this story by one of my professors. The story is now called 'The Dunky Story'.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Update: 28th Nov 2008
I have been retold this story by one of my professors. The story is now called 'The Dunky Story'.
Tuesday, 3 October 2006
Can Dada make it into Blues once again?
Challenger Trophy is on. Though, Indian squad has already been chosen for Champions’ Trophy, this tournament provides much needed hope for many former Indian team members to get back into the team. Their performance vis-Ã -vis frontline Indian cricketers is their only chance of proving to the selectors that they have what it takes to be in the final 14 and who can know this better than Sourav Dada… Dada is playing in the Indian Greens (Least favorite team to win the tournament) under the captaincy of Mohammed Kaif. It is strange how life can quickly turn tables on you. Who could have ever imagined that the Legend, Sourav Ganguly will have to prove himself for a place in the Indian cricket team and that too under the captaincy of Mohammed Kaif? I don’t know why but when I saw tired-looking but determined Sourav Ganguly trying his every bit to perform, I felt sorry for him. I felt sorry more than I do when I see Salman Khan acting in the movies. I think Dada is really determined to make it to the final 14 and though his performance in the first match does not approve so, sooner or later he will stage a come back.
The challenger trophy reminds me of the chunk of time I have wasted watching the first two matches of the tournament. At times I ponder my sudden shot- term love for time consuming things as unimportant as the Challenger Trophy and prime time soaps as hackneyed as ‘Left Right Left’ when I am preparing for some exam or the other. I had developed a liking for ‘Remix’ last time round when I was to appear for my eighth semester exams.
Among the other things, I can now access orkut from my office… I am logged into orkut from 9-6 these days and every time I open orkut window to scrap someone, my ML peeps into my computer… I have a feeling that he thinks I am logged onto some matrimony site and badly searching for a girl to marry, thanks to the way orkut GUI has been designed… This has, by the way, softened his attitude towards me which is palpable from the kind of work I have been getting…
I have been thinking about saving tax these days… I have gone through considerable amount of material on investments, mutual funds and taxation in the past few days. I think the government is looting us of our salaries and that it would be better if we paid a monthly fee for all the services that the government is making us available. I have made a preliminary analysis of my risk appetite. According to it, I need to invest about 65% of my savings in the equity and related instruments. Now I also know that NSC is a damn bad idea for investing which yields 8% returns 5% of which is eaten up by the inflation. More about my investment tips in the posts to come…
The challenger trophy reminds me of the chunk of time I have wasted watching the first two matches of the tournament. At times I ponder my sudden shot- term love for time consuming things as unimportant as the Challenger Trophy and prime time soaps as hackneyed as ‘Left Right Left’ when I am preparing for some exam or the other. I had developed a liking for ‘Remix’ last time round when I was to appear for my eighth semester exams.
Among the other things, I can now access orkut from my office… I am logged into orkut from 9-6 these days and every time I open orkut window to scrap someone, my ML peeps into my computer… I have a feeling that he thinks I am logged onto some matrimony site and badly searching for a girl to marry, thanks to the way orkut GUI has been designed… This has, by the way, softened his attitude towards me which is palpable from the kind of work I have been getting…
I have been thinking about saving tax these days… I have gone through considerable amount of material on investments, mutual funds and taxation in the past few days. I think the government is looting us of our salaries and that it would be better if we paid a monthly fee for all the services that the government is making us available. I have made a preliminary analysis of my risk appetite. According to it, I need to invest about 65% of my savings in the equity and related instruments. Now I also know that NSC is a damn bad idea for investing which yields 8% returns 5% of which is eaten up by the inflation. More about my investment tips in the posts to come…
Wednesday, 6 September 2006
Appraisal, Increment and Job of Receptionist
I was confirmed into TCS last week with a not so bad rating (this actually means outstanding… but I don’t want to blow my own horn you see…). There was a formal evaluation of my deeds (or misdeeds) in TCS by my ML which turned out to be not so bad :-D. Most of the people I know were unhappy about their evaluation and some more research made me realize that this is a very common thing in the IT industry: ‘People not being happy with their appraisals’. The very thing was enough to put me into my favorite contemplating mood. According to me current evaluation practices are a complete failure (take my case for example ;-)). Reasons of failure are:
• Most of us are miles away from the reality and perceive ourselves to be what we want to be rather than what we are.
• We have this perception that animals belonging to the “Boss” category are here to damage our career and can do no good to us. True as this may be to an extent; this is not the truth always.
• Then again there are some unavoidable stupid practices like curve fitting, etc.
I personally think that the task of valuation of human resource in any organization should be strictly quantitative and should follow quantitative performance measurement rather than subjective appraisals. Old fashioned as it may sound, I think it is the only solution to making us realize about our shortcomings.
My company policy document says that my confirmation also lets me enjoy a salary increment and access to a host of company facilities (I am yet to know these facilities though). Jubilant I have already spent a considerable future income last week to celebrate my confirmation. On my hit list this time, were:
A cool 5.1 MP Sony Cybershot DCS W5 Digicam
A sleek HS-11W Bluetooth Headset from Nokia
More on these beauties in the posts to come…
After my confirmation, increment and valuation by seniors I could not keep myself from floating my resume on a few job sites just to find out my real worth in the job market. The results were shocking… After a few call centre job offers, today my CV was short listed for the job of a receptionist.
Conclusion: I am not in any hurry to change my job just now…
• Most of us are miles away from the reality and perceive ourselves to be what we want to be rather than what we are.
• We have this perception that animals belonging to the “Boss” category are here to damage our career and can do no good to us. True as this may be to an extent; this is not the truth always.
• Then again there are some unavoidable stupid practices like curve fitting, etc.
I personally think that the task of valuation of human resource in any organization should be strictly quantitative and should follow quantitative performance measurement rather than subjective appraisals. Old fashioned as it may sound, I think it is the only solution to making us realize about our shortcomings.
My company policy document says that my confirmation also lets me enjoy a salary increment and access to a host of company facilities (I am yet to know these facilities though). Jubilant I have already spent a considerable future income last week to celebrate my confirmation. On my hit list this time, were:
A cool 5.1 MP Sony Cybershot DCS W5 Digicam
A sleek HS-11W Bluetooth Headset from Nokia
More on these beauties in the posts to come…
After my confirmation, increment and valuation by seniors I could not keep myself from floating my resume on a few job sites just to find out my real worth in the job market. The results were shocking… After a few call centre job offers, today my CV was short listed for the job of a receptionist.
Conclusion: I am not in any hurry to change my job just now…
Saturday, 19 August 2006
KANK is Kyon Ki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.zip
Last week everyone on this planet seemed to have only one thing on their mind. Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna or KANK as they call it. A handful of channels had joined hands with Karan to trick everyone into watching this film. Yesterday, I was forcefully taken to the cinema hall and made to watch KANK and my verdict about the film is that KANK is Kyon ki Saans bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (or any of its counterparts) zipped into 3 hours...
Karan has managed to sign best of stars in the industry so that lack of good direction can be done away with. It is a story of two couples. They do not have so called successful marriages but are afraid to accept this fact. First couple is Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta. Preity plays this ambitious, intelligent, charismatic career oriented girl whose boss has hots for her. Shahrukh Khan is a good at heart but eccentric ex-footballer. He has lost his leg and thus his career in an accident right at the time when his career was at its peek. Preity has to assume the responsibility of "Ghar ka Mard" due to inability of her handicapped husband to earn money. Being a complete failure himself, Shahrukh Khan has a lot of broken dreams which he wants to fulfill through his son.
The other couple is Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan. Rani plays the character of a simple girl who loves cleanliness and is not sure if she is really happy with her husband. Abhishek Bachchan plays Rani’s husband and he loves her very much. Rani is incapable of having a child and Abhishek every now and then makes her realize that he is okay with all this and will never ever make her aware of her incapacity.
Amitabh Bachchan and Kiron Kher are also thrown in to provide some nonsense comedy and some equally nonsense philosophy about love and life. Then, somewhere down the line, not happy with their partners, Shahrukh and Rani fall in love with each other. They know that this is going to tear apart their marriages but have no control over them and rightly so as Amitabh says before dying in the movie, “Mohobbat aur Maut, dono bin bulaye mehemaan hote hain, aur kisikaa saath naahi chodte…” After cheating their partners for quite some time, Shahrukh and Rani decide to let know their partners, the truth. After this, Shahrukh and Preity separate and so do Abhishek and Rani. However, as they always do, for no particular reason, Shahrukh and Rani pretend to each other that their corresponding partners have accepted them even after their misdeeds. Around ten minutes before the film ends, Preity meets Rani in a party and tricks Rani into spending the rest of her life with her eccentric ex-husband.
Touchy? I did not cry this time…
I’ve heard this from a few people. They say the movie is really touchy and addresses some of the complexities of human relationships. I must make a confession here… I cried like anything after I saw Million Dollar Baby, Titanic, Rang De Basanti and a bunch of other movies… But I did not cry this time (but again, neither did I laugh). So, for me the movie is anything but touchy…
Misdirected Direction
Is it Comedy? Is it a serious portrayal of extra martial relationships? I think it is nonsense. The film (if at all it tries to) fails to send across any message to the viewer… KANK has finest actors in the industry but the story does injustice to the acting skills of these actors. All of them have acted well but as a whole, the movie fails to make any mark. So, in all, KANK is shot completely outside India, at some of the most magnificent locations, with some of the best actors in the industry and all of this compensates for the poor direction or lack of it.
Box Office Story
Box office, however, has a different tale to tell. The movie has grossed record high earnings in US and UK. In the first week, the total earnings of KANK outside India are more than those in India. The movie is rated “Super hit”. This only means that a majority of Hindi film viewers have a different taste and expectations from Hindi movies and will ignore my post.
Why Kyon Ki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.zip?
Finally, if I want to summarize KANK, I will say “It is some nonsense comedy, nonsense emotional drama packaged in with best actors, poor direction by a lady ;-) and awesome locations. Though I may not believe it but people have liked it and I am now regretting my decision to watch it.” All of the above also hold true for those family soaps on TV at prime time like KSBKBT. Thus KANK is a KSBKBT.zip.
Karan has managed to sign best of stars in the industry so that lack of good direction can be done away with. It is a story of two couples. They do not have so called successful marriages but are afraid to accept this fact. First couple is Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta. Preity plays this ambitious, intelligent, charismatic career oriented girl whose boss has hots for her. Shahrukh Khan is a good at heart but eccentric ex-footballer. He has lost his leg and thus his career in an accident right at the time when his career was at its peek. Preity has to assume the responsibility of "Ghar ka Mard" due to inability of her handicapped husband to earn money. Being a complete failure himself, Shahrukh Khan has a lot of broken dreams which he wants to fulfill through his son.
The other couple is Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan. Rani plays the character of a simple girl who loves cleanliness and is not sure if she is really happy with her husband. Abhishek Bachchan plays Rani’s husband and he loves her very much. Rani is incapable of having a child and Abhishek every now and then makes her realize that he is okay with all this and will never ever make her aware of her incapacity.
Amitabh Bachchan and Kiron Kher are also thrown in to provide some nonsense comedy and some equally nonsense philosophy about love and life. Then, somewhere down the line, not happy with their partners, Shahrukh and Rani fall in love with each other. They know that this is going to tear apart their marriages but have no control over them and rightly so as Amitabh says before dying in the movie, “Mohobbat aur Maut, dono bin bulaye mehemaan hote hain, aur kisikaa saath naahi chodte…” After cheating their partners for quite some time, Shahrukh and Rani decide to let know their partners, the truth. After this, Shahrukh and Preity separate and so do Abhishek and Rani. However, as they always do, for no particular reason, Shahrukh and Rani pretend to each other that their corresponding partners have accepted them even after their misdeeds. Around ten minutes before the film ends, Preity meets Rani in a party and tricks Rani into spending the rest of her life with her eccentric ex-husband.
Touchy? I did not cry this time…
I’ve heard this from a few people. They say the movie is really touchy and addresses some of the complexities of human relationships. I must make a confession here… I cried like anything after I saw Million Dollar Baby, Titanic, Rang De Basanti and a bunch of other movies… But I did not cry this time (but again, neither did I laugh). So, for me the movie is anything but touchy…
Misdirected Direction
Is it Comedy? Is it a serious portrayal of extra martial relationships? I think it is nonsense. The film (if at all it tries to) fails to send across any message to the viewer… KANK has finest actors in the industry but the story does injustice to the acting skills of these actors. All of them have acted well but as a whole, the movie fails to make any mark. So, in all, KANK is shot completely outside India, at some of the most magnificent locations, with some of the best actors in the industry and all of this compensates for the poor direction or lack of it.
Box Office Story
Box office, however, has a different tale to tell. The movie has grossed record high earnings in US and UK. In the first week, the total earnings of KANK outside India are more than those in India. The movie is rated “Super hit”. This only means that a majority of Hindi film viewers have a different taste and expectations from Hindi movies and will ignore my post.
Why Kyon Ki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.zip?
Finally, if I want to summarize KANK, I will say “It is some nonsense comedy, nonsense emotional drama packaged in with best actors, poor direction by a lady ;-) and awesome locations. Though I may not believe it but people have liked it and I am now regretting my decision to watch it.” All of the above also hold true for those family soaps on TV at prime time like KSBKBT. Thus KANK is a KSBKBT.zip.
Tuesday, 4 July 2006
A wise decision... Huh!!!
I have banned some very entertaining Hindi News Channels for viewing from yesterday night. I'll surely miss out something on the entertainment front but again, excessive laughter is also harmful for your health. Actually, I have been watching a lot of TV these days because I was stuck in the house as heavens broke out once again in Mumbai. I was surfing through all the news channels, hoping to see any news regarding 'Citywide Holiday' being aired on any of the news channels. Each and every news channel was breaking this news that "It is raining very heavily in Mumbai". Deepaks (News Correspondents) of every news channel were reporting from each and every remote corner of the city and trying to prove that their area is the worst-hit area in the city.
News Centre Lady: Aaj Takriban ek saal baad firse Mumbai sheher main Jhama-Jham (I like that word) barishne apna keher barpaa hain... Log abhi 26 July ka woh hadsaa bhulne ki koshishhi kar rahe the ke kudratne apne takat ka Mumbai wasiyonko ek baar fir andaza dila diya... Pichle chaar dinse Mumbai mein Musaladhar barish ho rahi hain aur Mumbaike sare nichle ilakon mein pani bharne laga hain... Is bareme aur jankari leneke liye chalte hain Hamare sanwaaddata Deepak ke paas jo is waqt Mumbai ke Andheri ilake main maujood hain Deepak hamein batayiye ke ab waha kaise halat hain?
Deepak: (Suddenly realizing that he is on camera and bringing India-Pakistan war wala emotion on his face) Aparna Pichle chaar dinse yahan jordaar barish chal rahi hain aur sheherke sare nichle ilakon main ab pani bhar chuka hain... Log abhi dare huein hain aur gharse bahar nikalneko katra rahe hain (On second thought, I realized that Deepak had conveyed exactly the same message as the News Centre Lady). Aparna, main abhi yahan Andherike J. B. Nagar ilake mein maujood hoon. (One more redundant sentence BTW, thatÂ’s where I live these days) Yahan subahse jordaar barish chal rahi hain. (Aaaah... This Deepak guy is getting on my nerves now) Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain yahan ab pani ghutnese bhi upar ja chuka hain (Huh, finally something new). Camera suddenly moves from Deepak to a sort of swimming pool in the middle of a road. A lot of people are struggling to move into the camera frame. Kids are jumping in the water and throwing water at the camera. Pretty girls are moving gracefully through the swimming pool as if these few moments of fame are going to bring them their first Bollywood assignment. Camera again moves on Deepak and Deepak again wears that same "India-Pakistan war" emotion. Yahan ab sare nale puri tarah bhar chuke hain aur kai nichle ilakon main logonke ghar mein bhi pani ja chuka hain. Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain kai jagah gadiyan bhi pani main doob chuki hain. (Has Tata Motors finally come up with Rs. 1 Lakh car that drowns in Ghutnetak aya hua pani?) Surprisingly Camera actually moves on a Maruti 800 almost drown in water. In the middle of all this, I got up and walked towards my window as I heard people shouting outside and to my surprise I found our very own Deepak standing near the end of the road where one could see some jama hua water... Deepak and gang were busy in that corner only and they had managed to spot probably the only drowning Maruti 800 in the Mumbai at the end of the road... Most of J. B. Nagar was free from water and still Deepak was busy gathering reports on something which was only a fraction of reality... I was shocked but resumed watching the exaggerated news again.
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan aur kitni barish hone ka andaza lagaya jar aha hain?
(Question of the day, I must say)
Deepak: Aparna, agar logonka kehena mane to aisi barish Mumbai mein har saal hoti hain... Logonka manna hain key eh yahan ke 100 saal purani drainage system ki problem hain aur na ki kudrat ki... (This guy will surely get a 0 in PI for relevant content. :-))
News Centre Lady: Deepak, Mausam vibhag ka kya kehna hain ke aisi barish aur kitni der chalegi? (Slightly changing the question so that Deepak can comprehend it)
Deepak: Aparna, Mausam vibhagka kehna hain ke kudrat ka yeh keher aur teen-char din tak chalega. Agar yahan aur do-teen din aisihi barish chalti rahi toh yahan ka sara janjeevan ast-vyast ho jayega. (What a short and sweet answer to probably the only sensible question)
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan prashasan kya kuch kar rahi hain aise halat se nipatne ke liye? And the news continued...
This tickled the ever busy contemplating neurons in my brains. I remember how media put an entertaining touch to the Mahajan story with news titled "“Bhai bana Khooni"” etc some time back... The other day some news channel was trying to find similarities between Rahul Dravid and Krissh. (C'mon how stupid can you get?) During Kargil war some channels had imported experts to discuss what will be the next move of Pakistan and the list goes on... I, therefore, in the best of my interest decide to give the same treatment to these channels as I did to those Prime time soaps long time back... From now on I will only be increasing TRPs of some quality news channels like CNBC TV 18 and CNN IBN...
News Centre Lady: Aaj Takriban ek saal baad firse Mumbai sheher main Jhama-Jham (I like that word) barishne apna keher barpaa hain... Log abhi 26 July ka woh hadsaa bhulne ki koshishhi kar rahe the ke kudratne apne takat ka Mumbai wasiyonko ek baar fir andaza dila diya... Pichle chaar dinse Mumbai mein Musaladhar barish ho rahi hain aur Mumbaike sare nichle ilakon mein pani bharne laga hain... Is bareme aur jankari leneke liye chalte hain Hamare sanwaaddata Deepak ke paas jo is waqt Mumbai ke Andheri ilake main maujood hain Deepak hamein batayiye ke ab waha kaise halat hain?
Deepak: (Suddenly realizing that he is on camera and bringing India-Pakistan war wala emotion on his face) Aparna Pichle chaar dinse yahan jordaar barish chal rahi hain aur sheherke sare nichle ilakon main ab pani bhar chuka hain... Log abhi dare huein hain aur gharse bahar nikalneko katra rahe hain (On second thought, I realized that Deepak had conveyed exactly the same message as the News Centre Lady). Aparna, main abhi yahan Andherike J. B. Nagar ilake mein maujood hoon. (One more redundant sentence BTW, thatÂ’s where I live these days) Yahan subahse jordaar barish chal rahi hain. (Aaaah... This Deepak guy is getting on my nerves now) Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain yahan ab pani ghutnese bhi upar ja chuka hain (Huh, finally something new). Camera suddenly moves from Deepak to a sort of swimming pool in the middle of a road. A lot of people are struggling to move into the camera frame. Kids are jumping in the water and throwing water at the camera. Pretty girls are moving gracefully through the swimming pool as if these few moments of fame are going to bring them their first Bollywood assignment. Camera again moves on Deepak and Deepak again wears that same "India-Pakistan war" emotion. Yahan ab sare nale puri tarah bhar chuke hain aur kai nichle ilakon main logonke ghar mein bhi pani ja chuka hain. Jaisa ki aap dekh sakte hain kai jagah gadiyan bhi pani main doob chuki hain. (Has Tata Motors finally come up with Rs. 1 Lakh car that drowns in Ghutnetak aya hua pani?) Surprisingly Camera actually moves on a Maruti 800 almost drown in water. In the middle of all this, I got up and walked towards my window as I heard people shouting outside and to my surprise I found our very own Deepak standing near the end of the road where one could see some jama hua water... Deepak and gang were busy in that corner only and they had managed to spot probably the only drowning Maruti 800 in the Mumbai at the end of the road... Most of J. B. Nagar was free from water and still Deepak was busy gathering reports on something which was only a fraction of reality... I was shocked but resumed watching the exaggerated news again.
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan aur kitni barish hone ka andaza lagaya jar aha hain?
(Question of the day, I must say)
Deepak: Aparna, agar logonka kehena mane to aisi barish Mumbai mein har saal hoti hain... Logonka manna hain key eh yahan ke 100 saal purani drainage system ki problem hain aur na ki kudrat ki... (This guy will surely get a 0 in PI for relevant content. :-))
News Centre Lady: Deepak, Mausam vibhag ka kya kehna hain ke aisi barish aur kitni der chalegi? (Slightly changing the question so that Deepak can comprehend it)
Deepak: Aparna, Mausam vibhagka kehna hain ke kudrat ka yeh keher aur teen-char din tak chalega. Agar yahan aur do-teen din aisihi barish chalti rahi toh yahan ka sara janjeevan ast-vyast ho jayega. (What a short and sweet answer to probably the only sensible question)
News Centre Lady: Deepak, wahan prashasan kya kuch kar rahi hain aise halat se nipatne ke liye? And the news continued...
This tickled the ever busy contemplating neurons in my brains. I remember how media put an entertaining touch to the Mahajan story with news titled "“Bhai bana Khooni"” etc some time back... The other day some news channel was trying to find similarities between Rahul Dravid and Krissh. (C'mon how stupid can you get?) During Kargil war some channels had imported experts to discuss what will be the next move of Pakistan and the list goes on... I, therefore, in the best of my interest decide to give the same treatment to these channels as I did to those Prime time soaps long time back... From now on I will only be increasing TRPs of some quality news channels like CNBC TV 18 and CNN IBN...
Sunday, 25 June 2006
Http://office.google.com
This URL is soon going to be a reality. Google launched its online spreadsheet editing software Google spreadsheets last week.
With reference to my earlier post, I reiterate that google is thinking about waging a war with Microsoft in its very own, dominated market of ‘Office Automation Software’. Think about the scenario where your boss has asked you to give a presentation on ‘Recent Bear Run in Indian Markets’. You go to Google’s search engine http://www.google.com/ and quickly search some statistical data about the recent crash. Next, you prepare your report using Writely, an online document editing software that Google has bought recently. Google provides you with a G-drive of 5 GB capacity. Your report is stored safely online on Google’s powerful servers and you don’t even have to worry about the backups. You also create a small presentation using Google’s online Presentation software (Google Presenter or something?). Then you mail a copy of the report and the presentation to your boss using Google’s Gmail, a web based mailing software. Next day you walk into the office without carrying your presentation. You can easily download it onto your desktop in the office from Google’s G-Drive. After your presentation, some of your colleagues show interest in the topic and tell you that they’ve lost a hell lot of money in the crash. They ask you if you can guide them about investing into a bear market. You decide to start a blog, ‘Baring the Bear’, that allows not only you but also many more people to write about their trading strategies in the bear market.
One thing to notice here is that you have carried all of the above activities without using something you are so used to, the ‘Microsoft Office’. Google has launched a lightly loaded, online alternative for almost all the software in the ‘Microsoft Office’ suite as can be seen in the table below:
| Microsoft Office Software | Google’s Online Alternative |
| Microsoft Office Word | Google Page Creator/ Writely |
| Microsoft Office Excel | Google Spreadsheets |
| Microsoft Office PowerPoint | ??? |
| Microsoft Office Access | Google base (I’ve heard) |
| Microsoft Office Outlook | Google Gmail |
All these alternatives are not as feature packed as their Microsoft Office counterparts but most of the small businesses can manage their daily office work with these alternatives. For example, most of my work in the office and at home involves creating some documents with basic formatting, creating spreadsheets with embedded formulae, etc and I could almost manage it without ‘Microsoft Office’.
Next in line should be an online alternative to “Microsoft Office PowerPoint’. Google also needs to do a lot of work on adding a few advanced features to their software like ‘Automatic Index Creation’ in Word and so on.
Sometime back I felt that replacing software that resides on your desktop with some web based application is almost impossible. However, Google has already proved me wrong with all its new generation web applications. I have already started countdown to the day when the term ‘Microsoft Office’ will be replaced by the term ‘Google Office’.
Monday, 5 June 2006
My N-Gage
Ever since I got my first smart-phone I wanted to write about "The New Generation Mobile Phones" and especially "My Nokia N-Gage Classic". I had bought it in the month of November year before last to celebrate my so-called good score in the 7th semester engineering exams (So-called because it was good when compared to my entire engineering academic performance till then… ;-)). It is a 3’’ X 7’’ black beauty that made my wallet lighter by around 10K rupees (No, I was not looted… It includes a 256 MB SD MMC). Actually it was the most precious thing I possessed then and it continues to be the most precious thing I possess till date (Yes I am earning these days but again I’ve become too lazy to go to mandi and buy some stuff apart from the fact I don’t like spending my hard earned money ;-)). I had done a lot of research on the Internet before narrowing down to this piece and among the other factors that influenced me to buy this one were its modest cost (other smart-phones where almost twice its price) and the fact that I can use it as a repellent for street dogs to bhagaofy them when I return home late in the night. Poor quadruped creatures really think that it is a stone and run away. :-D.
Going a bit technical it has a 104MHz ARM924 Processor, 3.4 MB System Memory, 3.5 X4.15 cm TFT screen, FM Radio, Hardwired MP3 Player, is enabled with Bluetooth 1.1, J2ME and GPRS and uses Symbian OS.
Going a bit aesthetic some people find its shape really sporty whereas some people think that if aliens use any mobile phone it is N-Gage.
I have increasingly grown dependent on the phone and now a normal life seems impossible without N-Gage. I get up in the morning with N-Gage alarming me at 6:30 sharp. The ‘Talking Clock App’ can play all sorts of monstrous sounds to wake me up. I am seriously thinking of recording my ML’s “Prasad, what are you doing today?” wala dialogue that he says with a “God, what an over smart, idiot you are” expression on his face to use as my wake-up alarm and frighten me up in the early hours. At eight o’clock it reminds me of important events of the day including anniversaries and birthdays. I never send any “Wish you many many happy returns…” SMS though, as ‘SMS-Timer App’ automatically does the job for me at 10 o’clock. While I am traveling to the office, I put on the headphones and listen to Malishka blabbering some useless stuff on 93.5 or at times the loads of Junglee Songs stored on my MMC. N-Gage has stereophonic output giving you an acceptable sound quality (though not as good as an IPod or a sony-ericsson W800i). In the meantime I update my daily expenses using ‘Money Manager App’ by adding an entry for the 11 rupees that I gave to the Rickshawwallah as I was a bit late as usual and was most likely to miss my bus. At this point, my analytical mind demands all sorts of statistical data about my expenses and I watch a tabular representation of all my expenses ranging from food to traveling. I frown after looking at a big 0 against the row having “Expenses on Girlfriend” header. After my bus reaches the office premises, N-Gage automatically switches to “Silent Mode” with ‘MiniGPS App’. It is one of the most intelligent Apps on my cell that actually uses and remembers the cell ids of different cells as I move around them and does anything from “Reminding me about buying a magazine when I pass by local Paperwallah or switch the cell off whenever I enter the office conference room. I immediately head towards the canteen when my ML calls up to know my whereabouts. Damn… I have ‘smartAnswer App’ working for me here… I press a short-cut key that plays traffic sound in the background and I tell my ML about the deadly Mumbai traffic and how I get stuck on road everyday (Probably he will give me a release from the project after listening to my sorrow story everyday ;-)). After making an entry of the lunch expenses in the canteen in the afternoon, I return back to my beloved chair and put the headphones back where they belong. Dhawal drops by in the lazy afternoon hours and challenges me to a one-on-one ‘Virtua Tennis Game’. After beating him badly in the game (He thinks I have better playing conditions as N-Gage's 9-way round cursor joystick allows me some magical shots that his bulky 6600 does not allow him to play) I get back to my work. At around 5:30 or so Yogita sends in a message on ‘Bluetooth Messenger’ to ask if I am going to join in for another half an hour of tea break in the canteen. I lock the PC, message Rohit on the Messenger about the important meeting in the canteen and get going. Late in the evening at around 8:30 Varun calls in from Chennai to update me about the newer problems that he’s introduced in his life on the day. He also uses some very decent language for our ML. I obviously have ‘Call Recorder App’ switched on to save our conversation for re-airing in the canteen at the evening meeting the next day. While coming back in the evening, I use ‘SmartMovie App’ to watch my Friends Collection on my cell. Watching on tiny screen is not very interesting I must say but kills time nonetheless. I go home and switch on my computer. I synchronize my mobile with the computer and also use ‘ProfiMail App’ to download my Gmail Inbox onto the mobile so that I can read mail whenever I have time. There are a hell lot of other things I do with my mobile like looking up meaning of words in the middle of a meeting when someone uses a word outside my limited vocabulary, Browsing from the mobile by sharing my computer’s internet connection over Bluetooth using ‘OperaMini App’and so on…
I wanted this post to be an informative one mentioning latest advances in the world of mobile phones and capabilities of Smart phones but it turned out to be an ode to my “Nokia N-Gage Classic”. I will cover technicalities of S60 phones in some other post.
By the way I still cannot stop myself from appreciating my phone a bit more and the latest news is that someone has recently offered me a resell value of Rs. 6000/- for my phone (Yes this time it is without that 256 MB MMC :-D). I am not going to give it up at any damn cost though.
Going a bit technical it has a 104MHz ARM924 Processor, 3.4 MB System Memory, 3.5 X4.15 cm TFT screen, FM Radio, Hardwired MP3 Player, is enabled with Bluetooth 1.1, J2ME and GPRS and uses Symbian OS.
Going a bit aesthetic some people find its shape really sporty whereas some people think that if aliens use any mobile phone it is N-Gage.
I have increasingly grown dependent on the phone and now a normal life seems impossible without N-Gage. I get up in the morning with N-Gage alarming me at 6:30 sharp. The ‘Talking Clock App’ can play all sorts of monstrous sounds to wake me up. I am seriously thinking of recording my ML’s “Prasad, what are you doing today?” wala dialogue that he says with a “God, what an over smart, idiot you are” expression on his face to use as my wake-up alarm and frighten me up in the early hours. At eight o’clock it reminds me of important events of the day including anniversaries and birthdays. I never send any “Wish you many many happy returns…” SMS though, as ‘SMS-Timer App’ automatically does the job for me at 10 o’clock. While I am traveling to the office, I put on the headphones and listen to Malishka blabbering some useless stuff on 93.5 or at times the loads of Junglee Songs stored on my MMC. N-Gage has stereophonic output giving you an acceptable sound quality (though not as good as an IPod or a sony-ericsson W800i). In the meantime I update my daily expenses using ‘Money Manager App’ by adding an entry for the 11 rupees that I gave to the Rickshawwallah as I was a bit late as usual and was most likely to miss my bus. At this point, my analytical mind demands all sorts of statistical data about my expenses and I watch a tabular representation of all my expenses ranging from food to traveling. I frown after looking at a big 0 against the row having “Expenses on Girlfriend” header. After my bus reaches the office premises, N-Gage automatically switches to “Silent Mode” with ‘MiniGPS App’. It is one of the most intelligent Apps on my cell that actually uses and remembers the cell ids of different cells as I move around them and does anything from “Reminding me about buying a magazine when I pass by local Paperwallah or switch the cell off whenever I enter the office conference room. I immediately head towards the canteen when my ML calls up to know my whereabouts. Damn… I have ‘smartAnswer App’ working for me here… I press a short-cut key that plays traffic sound in the background and I tell my ML about the deadly Mumbai traffic and how I get stuck on road everyday (Probably he will give me a release from the project after listening to my sorrow story everyday ;-)). After making an entry of the lunch expenses in the canteen in the afternoon, I return back to my beloved chair and put the headphones back where they belong. Dhawal drops by in the lazy afternoon hours and challenges me to a one-on-one ‘Virtua Tennis Game’. After beating him badly in the game (He thinks I have better playing conditions as N-Gage's 9-way round cursor joystick allows me some magical shots that his bulky 6600 does not allow him to play) I get back to my work. At around 5:30 or so Yogita sends in a message on ‘Bluetooth Messenger’ to ask if I am going to join in for another half an hour of tea break in the canteen. I lock the PC, message Rohit on the Messenger about the important meeting in the canteen and get going. Late in the evening at around 8:30 Varun calls in from Chennai to update me about the newer problems that he’s introduced in his life on the day. He also uses some very decent language for our ML. I obviously have ‘Call Recorder App’ switched on to save our conversation for re-airing in the canteen at the evening meeting the next day. While coming back in the evening, I use ‘SmartMovie App’ to watch my Friends Collection on my cell. Watching on tiny screen is not very interesting I must say but kills time nonetheless. I go home and switch on my computer. I synchronize my mobile with the computer and also use ‘ProfiMail App’ to download my Gmail Inbox onto the mobile so that I can read mail whenever I have time. There are a hell lot of other things I do with my mobile like looking up meaning of words in the middle of a meeting when someone uses a word outside my limited vocabulary, Browsing from the mobile by sharing my computer’s internet connection over Bluetooth using ‘OperaMini App’and so on…
I wanted this post to be an informative one mentioning latest advances in the world of mobile phones and capabilities of Smart phones but it turned out to be an ode to my “Nokia N-Gage Classic”. I will cover technicalities of S60 phones in some other post.
By the way I still cannot stop myself from appreciating my phone a bit more and the latest news is that someone has recently offered me a resell value of Rs. 6000/- for my phone (Yes this time it is without that 256 MB MMC :-D). I am not going to give it up at any damn cost though.
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