Cash for votes, we didn’t know of it seriously…. :D

Beware SRK; you are not the best actor in India after all and no hard feelings Mr. Bachchan nor are you. The MPs have overtaken you and beaten you in your own game. 22^nd July was the day I laughed the most; nNot because I watched insane movies but because I happened to watch the proceedings in the Lok Sabha.

At first I was shocked that Advaniji was missing from the action the entire day but all that time seemed well utilized when he pulled off the cash for vote game right in front of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Let me first ask Mr. Advani what promises he made to his constituency for voting him to the Lok Sabha upteenth time; also has he fulfilled even one of them. Point to highlight is, when you get elected to the august house on basis of false promises made to electorate and money paid to them to listen to your (yawn) boring speeches that have not been modified since 1970s, you are actually buying their votes. In your case or the case of other 542 MPs the purchase is void because you never fulfill your side of the bargain. So let’s stop sensationalizing a trivial matter.

Everyone knows the whole basis of ‘political ideology’ is the deal that is cut in the background and the perks being offered to MPs. So trying to catch the imagination of the entire nation on the wrongs being done is a waste of time. Just to remind you, we have seen the likes of you for past 60 years so anything that you do will no longer surprise us or make us feel ‘ashamed’ of being called a democracy. We stopped feeling anything the day we elected unsuitable people to represent us.

Let’s just say, the UPA defeated you and let’s be sportive and accept defeat and stop hogging sound bytes as to show you are the only one to care about the future of a billion people.

Deal Ya No Deal !!

Over the past few weeks, the imagination of an entire nation was captured by something that was supposed to be the civil-nuclear deal between India and the US.I cannot think of a past occasion when any bi (multi) lateral agreement between sovereign countries with elected governments in place was splashed in the paparazzi as to be mistaken for some clandestine affair.

Over the past few weeks, all of us have known from various political groups that they all care for the sole benefit of this country and were piping each other in the race for “Who is the real patriot”. Disgrace is a weak word to describe all that followed. Government that was held for ransom for over four years was finally sacrificed at the altar of patriotism or shall we call it egoism of Com. Prakash Karat. The result was not quite that was expected by Com. Karat but he didn’t want to admit that he committed a political hara-kiri (or wasn’t it). Anyways point of matter is that the Government survived a close call and continues to ‘serve us efficiently’.

The only fault of the Dr. Manmohan Singh is that, what seems obvious to him in 2008 will seem obvious to the rest in 2028. He is the right leader in wrong times. We saw it in 1991 during the tabling of reforms bill in the parliament and now again for the nuclear agreement of ’08. Maybe carrying a time machine to the parliament will be a suitable solution to convince certain obtuse people. What I say about the PM is a personal adulation and not for the government. Government messed up the flow of information in what should have been a done deal to make it a close call for the survival itself. Not good management Ms. Gandhi, time to shake things up.

I will not waste time in what seemed to be abysmal behavior of Shri L.K. Advani and his strong love for the office of Prime Minister. Personal goals are must for any person and everyone should aim high. But to fulfill your goals holding the country to ransom at every single instance is outlandish. Wake up sir, its time to face the electorate. Your behavior may well hamper your party’s chances at the General election ’09.

Until next time…..

Raj Thackrey.. grow up...!!!

MNS chief Raj Thackeray is capturing sound bytes with tirades towards everyone nowadays. He has problems with north indians on one day, with the use of word Bombay on another and shockingly the use of 'shanta bai'. Let us all pray for the departed intelligence of Mr. Raj Thackeray and may it rest in peace where ever it is.

The world in moving towards globalization and every city is developing a global flavor and here we are in the most happening city of India bickering about the usage of words. Lets remind Raj that Germans call their homeland Deutsch land, the Japanese call their homeland Ni hon or Nippon and Spanish call their home land Espanol. Now if these countries start bickering about use of words Germany, Japan or Spain then I think they would do anything other than forcing people to comply with their language. Even we use the word India to identify our nation rather than make people call it Bharat or Hindustan.

Point of the matter is, words change as language changes and a person using Bombay in English makes it Bambai in Hindi and Mumbai in Marathi. Therefore lets grow up beyond frivolous issues and look to improve infrastructure of our city and make it a more secure place to live in. When the whole of India is grappling with problems of terrorism, drought, inflation etc. We expect our so called leaders to show some concern about these burning issues rather than attend functions and make poetic remarks about what name do we call our city.

The valentine gift..

It was 12:00 am on 13th February and he was busy with his assignments.. Hell!!! this academic life was taking it out of him.. the only ray of hope..the next day was valentine's day and all of sudden he was feeling blissfully happy when he thought of the gift he had planned to give her.. He could not stop thinking about it as he got back to completing his assignment.

Finally the day had arrived, his plan was perfect..or atleast he thought it was. The gift was there and so was the message... he went over to her place. She was all dressed up and how he admired her beauty..felt as if she was dressed up only for him and he felt lucky for finding her.

Should I give the gift first or read out the message..he kept deliberating... She said, "cmon wats it? my date is waiting.. cant keep him waiting today.. hez the best thing that ever happened to me"...

As he stood there shell-shocked, she walked out on him on valentine's day......

Valentine's Day......

Hello everyone!!! Herez some advice ahead of valentine's day... I wish to say that I am no expert on the subject of love as I spend most of my time at the stock-exchange, but there are uncanny similarities between the subjects...So here is my take

Your valentine and your stock asset have atleast one similarity, you always feel that, if you had waited a little long you would get better returns... :-) Don't use this reason to hold you back this valentine's day, this is right time to invest (propose) and don't wait for the markets to appreciate and make to difficult for individual investors like yourself. Also don't think about short term investment in this market as it leaves you poorer, if you are a long term investor then take a jump else stay out of the market. This market does not appreciate your diversified portfolio, your stocks will lose value if you have a diversified portfolio.

Market advice: Don't judge the stocks on face value but think about the long time profitability because face value depreciates and profitability appreciates with passage of time.

Finally the disclaimer, "This is subject to market risk, please read the offer document and red-herring prospectus before investing..."

--- A Stock-broker

When Bombay became Mumbai.....

"E dil hain mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke..zara bachke.. yeh hain bombay meri jaan"... the melodious song from CID summarizing the life and times of good old Bombay...

In 1994 the world saw demise of a wonderful city named Bombay and the era of Mumbai had arrived... well both mean the same... coz the local name for bombay was mumbai... infact mumbai is close to heart than the anglicized 'bombay' ... but the event of rechristening bombay was a black day in history of India as it was proved successfully that people are so gullible that anyone can play the regionalism card and take the focus off many a shortcomings present in the society... many cities followed suit...and thus came the advent of Chennai , Kolkata, dont even get me started on Karnataka's very own Bengalooru which is a crap idea to say the least .

I have called it a demise of Bombay because after this, successive governments have failed the mega-city time after time and when cornered for slack performance, they have re-named one more important junction / station /centre /fly-over after Chhatrapati Shivaji and got away scott free on bad performance blame... Who is to blame for this ? We as the citizens of Bombay never stopped the khadi-clad citizens from thugging us in name of regionalism... Infact we are not only gullible but also lazy..we want to sublet our resources to laborers from outside and enjoy the income generated by their hard work.. and when these laborers claim their rightful share of the city we beat them up in name of regionalism...

How can you set claim on the city which you have never loved... just the fact that you were born in bombay does not give you the right to rape the city... The next time you take up arms against outsider taking away a job/resource from you, take a moment to think what have you given to this city which has given you innumerable opportunities to make a living and succeed in life.


-- An outside admirer of Bombay

PS: I have used the word Bombay mostly because I liked it when Mumbai was Bombay and everyone was welcome... I hope someday mumbai becomes bombay again..

Why me....?

This post is dedicated to a friend of mine for some wonderful thoughts she presented... I have used it here for the merit it presents.

I was discussing an incident with a friend of mine where I felt I was unfairly treated by life and was saying the phrase, God!!! why me? To this, she told me a story about Arthur Ashe and the famous question asked to him.

Arthur Ashe, better known for his exploits on the tennis field had to undergo two heart surgeries. He was shocked when he found out that things had gone horribly wrong and he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions he had received during one of his two heart surgeries. He and his wife kept his illness private for a long time because of the stigma attached. When reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his condition, he was forced to make a public announcement that he had the disease. During the last year of his life, Arthur Ashe did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery. During the opening ceremony, he was questioned by a journalist as to did he ever feel , God!!! why me??

His reply was classic, "I never said God!! why me?? when I won all those Grand Slams so why should I now?"

It made a lot of sense to me, I never complained when I was showered with all the good fortune, then why complain in face of slightest adversity...

Hope we learnt something today... Until next time...

Best things are right there.....

All my life I searched for it and it was with me all the while... these are the sentiments of musk deers who spend entire life following the perfume emanating from the musk and never get to it.. truth is, musk is stored in their navel... for all the people thinking, Dude.. thats dumb.... lemme tell you most of us do similar things in the span of our life time....

The next time you sit and feel miserable over losing someone, take a moment to look around you.. the best of people who care the most for you will be right there with you... and if you recognize them, your quest suddenly vanishes..

I was on similar path, but now that I have realized will not spend the rest of my life this way and live to rue it someday.... Time has come to act..and act fast...

Until next time......

Passing thought............

Someone once said, "Its great fortune to be a woman's first love and man's last". Trouble is, I found my last love but could never be her love, leave alone her first love.

Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus......

Like the age old saying goes, Men are from Mars and women are from Venus... Though this is not actually true.. figuratively this is the most accurate description of their behavior.. It is simply not possible for a woman to understand what a man says and vice-versa...

Here is a tip to both... Women base their thoughts on feelings and each sentence heard by them is masticated for a long time by their brains before absorbing it fully... This mastication by the brain generates many meanings of the same sentence and depending on the current mood of the woman the appropriate meaning is derived for the sentence.... This explains the peril of boyfriends/husbands when they say an extremely harmless sentence and the better half pounces on them with the most atrocious derivation of the sentence said.... and they are caught off guard... well you must take into account your previous fight with her to create context for all future things said to her....

Men on the other hand take the most obvious meaning of anything said to them by their better half's.... If you expect a man to understand the sentence...based on a previous context and derive a meaning that is diametrically opposite to the obvious meaning of the sentence...then you are expecting him to use too must of his brain..for trivial things....this will never happen so don't even bother to expect him to change....

Not thus... not thus....

I have seen Indian (cricket) defeats on foreign soils, but none has pained me more.... It took more than an entire team of world champion side to defeat the spirits of an resurrected Indian side...

I always thought test cricket was never won on luck factor...but I saw Indian team lose one on bad luck factor... I could understand that umpires are humans after all and as all humans they err.. what confused me.. is that while one team kept enjoying benefit of the doubt... (third umpire also included) the other team bore the brunt even when batting... and to top it all... the rival captain rubs salt into the wounds by saying that his integrity should not be questioned....

Australians may be anything...I mean anything... but they can never be persons of integrity... The captain knows he is out and does not walk... by doing this sets an example for the entire side to follow suit... time after time a horrendous decision is taken and the Australians stand their ground shamelessly.. I mean Symonds should die of shame rather than gleefully accepting man-of-the-match award...

I must commend the spirit of captain Kumble for the way he spoke after the match.. no other captain would have taken this match sportingly... also tells us ... Australians may be world champions...but they have lots of chinks in their armour... if the umpires allow... they are a beatable side...

An ode to test cricket..

Cricket as I know of it, is a beautiful game.... for no other game I know goes on for 5 days... wait a minute.. I didn't say interesting..but beautiful.. The beauty lies in the grueling encounter that goes on for 5 days and at end of the time one side comes up trumps on the other...

There is one more reason why test cricket is interesting... in more ways than one, test cricket resembles war... every day is a new day at battle and the idea is to win the war but build the victory on these battles... Each side has a general (captain) whom the the other team wants out of equation as soon as possible...also there are individual battles between lead warriors of each side... all these put together make an interesting day of cricket..

Test cricket.. unlike other sports is never dependent on luck factor and there are no instances of any team riding home on luck factor... You have to be consistent over a period of 5 days to triumph and loss of one battle seldom costs you the war.. It also tells us whilst you aim at winning the war try to win small battles and build your path to success.....