What goes up must come down.

I am no expert to comment on the various reasons behind the free-fall of the Indian stock markets but I do have a my own views.When the Sensex and Nifty were flying by the day, the experts were all gung-ho about predicting the next upward milestone for the markets.Now there seems to be a reverse trend.These guys have started predicting the lows for the markets.And the lows are going lower by the day.When the Sensex was around 21K, the punters said some of the stocks were over-valued and that a correction was on the horizon.People then started talking about the US economy slowing down and the rupee strengthening hitting Indian corporates.At this time there were some people who were of the opinion that these factors will not have a considerable impact on the Indian markets as the 'fundamentals' were strong(the decoupling theory).The fundamentals, they maintain, are still strong but then why are the markets taking a nose dive?The main reason I understand is the pulling out of the foreign money by institutional investors, mainly from the US to compensate for the losses they have suffered back home due to the sub-prime crisis.How did the sub-prime mortgage crisis impact the Indian markets?Let me try to explain this mire in brief.
Financial institutions like banks sell something called financial securities to liquidate their illiquid assets.To make sure they have enough liquidity to continue lending, banks get their illiquid assets like loans(assets that are expected to become liquid over a period of time) rated by a credit rating agency and sell securities against them.These securities can be traded like shares.Now, big institutional investors had invested heavily in these securities, the prices of which tumbled once the loans against which they issued were defaulted in large numbers.To compensate for these losses, these institutional investors who were sitting on huge gains in the Indian share markets, did some big time selling.This, coupled with fears of recession in the US economy led to the nose dive of the market indices. All the 'decoupling' theories seem to have gone out of the window.
What happens now?This largely depends on how the US economic scene shapes up in the coming months.The US Federal Reserve has cut down key interest rates to ensure enough liquidity but the effectiveness of this move in the long run remains to be seen.We can only hope for the best.

Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached!!....What??

PART 1:
It's a Sunday evening and I try to mentally prepare myself for a long week ahead with a whole lot of mundane activities in the offing.Being in a contemplative mood, I ponder over my daily routine.Things are going smooth but there is one thing that I need to change about myself and that is the way in which I start my day.I wake up quite......well to be honest really late and then get ready and buzz off to office.It gets pretty late by the time I return home after sitting in the front of a computer, punching keys and clicking a mouse throughout the day.This leaves no time for recreation and I then make lame excuses for not being able to do things that I wish to do.I touch my belly and realize that it has grown visibly and has taken form of an avuncular paunch!Also, I haven't read a newspaper completely in a long time.I only find time to browse through the sports section!I even need to start preparing for CAT/GMAT etc.Enough!!!I decide I've had enough of this laziness and that I need to wake up early and make good use of the time that I normally spend lying dead in my bed.Swami Vivekananda's words echo in my head....arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached!!
All of a sudden I feel I like a reformed man.I see a bright halo appearing on the top of my head in a virtual mirror of introspection.Wow!I haven't felt like this in a long time.Armed with determination, I pick up the alarm clock that had been gathering dust in a dark corner of my room.This alarm clock hasn't had a great record in waking me up and I don't remember the last time I used it.I takes me some time to decide what time to set the alarm to.Eight am is the earliest I've woken up for some time now but my reformed, resolute self makes me set the alarm to 6:00 am.I place the clock on a table next to my bed and tell myself to follow the its command by waking up it upon its tootling.
I had a blissfully sound sleep through the night.And then came the morning, a morning that will test my resolve.I am in a state of nihilism when the most annoying of noises breaks the calm and rattles the peace around me.I can't precisely describe the noise but if I were to attempt to do so, I would call it an iterative bleep that just doesn't stop.It's as if the clock is determined to shake the lazy monster within me out of its slumber.This lazy monster is a dullard in every sense of the word.The alarm clock's barrage is highly irritating and seems to be succeeding in its focused aim of waking me up as I start writhing in my bed.But the monster isn't going to give up that easily.He has a saviour.....what is it?It is the a small button jutting out from the side of the clock called the SNOOZE button.He makes me reach out to the clock and press the snooze button with a certain amount of urgency.Hah!The clock stops dinning and the monster is at peace again!The snooze button comes to the lazy monster's rescue a few more times after which the clock gives up.
My room is filled with day light and I am forced to wake up.This time the lazy monster gives up.He has had enough.I stretch my arms to squeeze the residual indolence out of my body.Then I am shocked as I look at the clock to learn that it is 9:00 am!I feel terrible about not being able wake up early and rue the time I lost out on but then I console myself by deciding to wake up early the next morning.
PART 2:
It's been a month since that Sunday evening and all I can say is that.....life goes on......and as for the alarm clock....well its batteries drained out some time during the month....I don't remember exactly when!

A Forgotten Hero

Who was the first Indian to win an individual Olympic medal?If you thought it was Leander Paes you were wrong.It was a gentleman named Khashaba Jadhav.He was from a wrestling background and loved sports.He was introduced to wrestling by his father.In London Olympics he participated in the flyweight category and finished sixth. Four years later at the Madras Nationals, he alleged that nepotism among officials resulted in him getting a point less than the winner which ruled him out of the Helsinki Olympics. Jadhav then had to run with the begging bowl to raise funds for his trip. The principal of Rajaram college, one Mr Khardekar even mortgaged his house for Rs 7,000 to raise founds, while local shopkeepers from his village Goleshwar in Karad district of Maharashtra, presented him with articles of use.At Helsinki(1952), he competed in the bantamweight category and won the bronze medal!Despite his phenomenal achievement, he was forgotten in a country where cricket dominates. He served the state police with a meager salary and struggled to make both ends meet.Even the government turned a blind eye to and a deaf ear to his call for financial help in his final years.He died in 1984.
Let us all acknowledge this man's feat.After all he was India's first individual medal winner!

Nationalism versus Regionalism

India is home to multi-lingual,multi-ethnic,multi-cultural and multi-religious social groups.The diversity is unmatched.For the record, India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area but supports around 17.5% of the world's population.A majority of Indians, around 80.5% are Hindus.India is also home to the third largest Muslim population in the world(around 13.4 % of the total population) after Indonesia and Pakistan apart from other religious groups like Christians,Zoroastrians,Sikhs,Jains,Buddhists,Jews and a few more.There are 22 languages recognized by the Constitution of India and 1576 others according to the 1991 census!That is quite mind-boggling sometimes scary when you think of how the demographics vary drastically across the country.No wonder India is called a 'Subcontinent'.All this diversity is spread across 28 states and 7 union territories.
The men in power have historically found it easier to rule by dividing people.The British used this policy with a great amount of success after setting foot in India by making the rulers of various states fight amongst themselves.They created a fear of being overpowered in the minds of these rulers and projected themselves as being their ultimate guardians!As a result, the Indians had to bear an oppressive British Raj for almost 200 years.This shows that when people choose to be divided, the repercussions are devastating.
A similar phenomenon is in the offing in Maharashtra where a certain Raj Thakeray is trying to revive his political career after being disowned by his uncle Bal Thakeray because of a tussle with cousin Uddhav to become the 'Shiv Sena Scion'!While under Balasaheb, he learnt that the best way to capture the maharashtrian vote bank was to show sympathy towards them and extreme antipathy towards the migrants, who were bringing their culture to Maharashtra and grabbing all the jobs away!So he went all around detesting the 'bhaiyas from North' and calling for their forced exodus.He even spoke on this issue at his son's annual day function!!Some locals are vehemently supporting their new fascist hero Raj who is now reveling in his new found popularity!The cops and the government kept criticizing Raj and SP leader Abu Azmi for instigating violence and causing unrest but could not decide on what action to take against them.Finally, after almost a week they were charged and apprehended only to be released in a mere two hours!!Similar acts have been performed by a number of other politicians in other states to gain overwhelming popularity.Not going too far from Maharashtra, Narendra Modi pulled off something similar but on religious lines and on a much larger scale in Gujarat after the Godhra riots!He was awarded with his third term as the Chief Minister!Will Raj be able to replicate Modi?Well he may not be!He'll need to orchestrate something more ghastly probably a genocide to become a 'Maratha demagogue'!
It is time people stop falling for such things and learn to live in harmony with each other.We need to learn to put our differences aside and maintain peace which is so very necessary for our prosperity.Let us not allow these blood-sucking politicos to divide us; they have a devilish hunger for power and don't give a damn for the common man!Let us not allow regional and religious pride to outweigh national pride!Let us be one, be united and fight these evil forces.Let us not forget that we are all Indians.....and above all, we are human beings!Jai Hind!

Tips of Slung

The title of this post is an example of what is known as a Spoonerism.Spoonerisms are words or phrases in which letters or syllables get swapped.They either result from unintentional fumbling of words or as a form pun when used for fun!It is named after Reverend William Archibald Spooner,Warden of New College Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.It is also said that this claim was exaggerated the his students.
Some of the more famous quotations attributed to Spooner include, "The Lord is a shoving leopard," (instead of "The Lord is a loving shepherd"), "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride," ("It is customary to kiss the bride") and, "Mardon me, padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?" (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?")
Other purported gaffes include his angry address to a student, "You have hissed all my mystery lectures, and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain" (intending to say "You missed all my history lectures," "lighting a fire," "wasted two terms," and "down train," respectively). He supposedly remarked to one lady, during a college reception, "You'll soon be had as a matter of course," when he meant to say, "You'll soon be mad as a Hatter, of course." Others include, "Let us raise our glasses to the queer old Dean," ("dear old queen"), "We'll have the hags flung out," ("flags hung out"), "a half-warmed fish," ("half-formed wish"), "Is the bean dizzy?" ("dean busy'), "Go and shake a tower," ("take a shower") and "a well-boiled icicle." ("well-oiled bicycle").

I would like to confess that I have resorted to plagiarism in this post but I still had to do some searching and editing!!

Be aggressive when ball isn't in your court!!

The other day on my way to office, I happened to see a poster which had a picture our very own ex-CM H.D Kumaraswamy with a constipated look on his face.I initially smirked without bothering what the poster read.As I drove ahead, I learnt that the posters were all over the place!!This intrigued me as I slowed down, almost coming to a halt and gazed at one of the posters.It read "Protest Rally:For door-to-door water supply"!!!!!!I started laughing with ambivalence as I wondered how shameless these guys were!After having stayed in power for an eventful 20 months or so and doing whatever they could to make people's lives miserable, these guys are now trying to sympathize with the aam admi and garner some support by organizing a protest rally(the elections aren't too far!!).The question is:why didn't they do anything ensure door-to-door supply of water when they were the incumbents??We all know the poor chaps were too busy making money and playing dirty political games to find time to do anything for the people of Karnataka, but what audacity these guys have to fight so blatantly for this issue now that they aren't in power(Thank God!!).Their mantra is, 'Be aggressive when the ball isn't in your court'!!Blood-boiling stuff!!God save us from these people!

Nice cartoon

I would like to kick off this blog by posting a cartoon that I received in one of the numerous forwarded e-mails.This cartoon is a humorous satire and will be a part of my e-art collection.