Three weeks after...

It has been three weeks since I left my home on 7th Jan and came for my MBA. This is the longest I have been away from my family and everything associated with me since April 2006. When I now reflect back at the time when I was at my home I can find so many things that I miss. I know you would say that this is obvious you are bound to miss something which is not there with you. I miss everything about Delhi, India, Home, Office. I miss getting up at 9 in the morning and then cribbing about not getting hot water because there is not electricity. I miss having the sandwich and juice while watching news in the televison. I miss driving my car on the highway and reaching office and many times finding traffic and cribbing about it as well. But some how I used to reach office by 10:30.
Once in office meet everyone, your team and your friends. Discuss the clients mail or its absence and then crib about that as well. I miss having discussions in the team about when is the next time we are going for treat and who is actually giving that treat. Then before you know its already lunch time. Ping roop and geeta to have lunch. Got down with roop to geeta's seat and then head for the cafeteria for lunch(aahhh haaa home food.....). Have discussions about company politics and so many other things. Once done with the lunch, head for the TT room. Play TT till you realize that its too late for you to be here and now you should be at your seat and do some more work :) but in between play some good TT, and many days bad as well. Head back to seat and start the work once again. Work closely with the team and crib about the client's design and decisions. Before you know its already evening and then head for either the dance class or hit the gym. Go home and in between crash at a place to eat something. Reach home and crash on my bed and watch TV(with this I mean cricket/movies/Travel and living). Spend time with Family and have dinner(aahhh haaa home food.....). Crash back in my room and watch more TV and then dooze off to sleep...

I just miss everything about what I had earlier and I dont have now. Now that I have left my home I dont know when I will be back there in the same way.

The Ultimate Vacation - Part I

The bags are packed, The batteries have been charged. I am all set for my dream vacation i.e. a Road Trip to Leh. Tonight we leave Delhi for Manali. The party includes myself, Geeta, Anup, Nidhi. Tomorrow(19th July) we will reach Manali. On Sunday the 20th we will start our road trip to Leh from Manali. We plan to reach Leh on 22nd. We would be spending 5 days in the beautiful cold desert. The planning for this trip has been going for long(quite long) now. Since Bhavishya, a very close friend of mine, was posted in Leh about two years ago, I have been dreaming of this trip. But now it is a reality. I will be giving my new Olympus SP570 UZ a lot of work. so keep track of this blog for some beautiful pictures from Leh and en route.

Black January 2008

The thing about life is that one makes mistakes. Many mistakes were made in the second half of 2007 and those sins have to be washed away by blood, such is the way of financial markets. Some participants will go down under and never be able to get back to the market again but most will survive. The pain will linger for many months, maybe years but lessons have to be learnt. Every such debacle has lessons for us and the sooner we forget them the more we suffer.

The first lesson is not to let stock price performance become the sole reason for buying, a mistake which was made in abundance in the last 3 months. What couldn't be explained by fundamentals was credited to liquidity. The present lost all relevance as people chose to focus on the distant future, perhaps simply because the present could never justify those ticker prices; only a hazy dream of the future could. Traders and investors had no time for fundamental analysts, in many cases they were labelled "cribbing fools". Chartists became the most celebrated tribe on the street as only they could see and predict the one way run to glory for many of the hot stocks even as fundamental watchers cringed at valuations....till the music stopped. Don't get me wrong, charts do work in trending markets but once stock prices veer away completely from fundamental value, people need to get careful. But they never are. Now that the blinkers are off, people should ask themselves why stocks like RNRL, Ispat, RPL, Essar oil and Nagarjuna fertilisers have lost 50-70% of their value. It is simply because their stock prices had snapped all connection with underlying business fundamentals, earnings and value. Their stock prices became the only reasons for buying them which works for a while but not forever.

The other big lesson, one which should have been driven in earlier in May 2006, is the danger of overextending oneself in the futures market. The lure of stock futures is easy to understand. Put in some margin, take a big exposure on a fast moving stock, make a killing when prices shoot up. Repeat exercise. Just that people forgot that prices may also come down and at a pace which noone can even imagine, maybe their friendly stockbrokers forgot to tell them that part of the story. The result : unbridled speculation that ran into lakhs of crores, excesses that we are paying for today. Even this fall will not cure investors of their love for futures speculation but if at least some amount of caution is injected it would have been a worthwhile learning. Futures are not toys for amateurs, they are time bombs in the hands of inexpert and inexperienced traders, it's only a matter of when the fuse runs out.

The other learning which I hope will play out in the future, as it has in the past, is that it pays to be brave in times of panic such as these. If I was allowed to invest myself , which I am not, I would have no hesitation in deploying serious money into the market today, knowing fully well that prices may fall more tomorrow. And I would be standing there tomorrow to buy more of the same, till my money ran out. India is going to be a terrific stock market story for many years to come, even an intermediate bearish patch cannot shake that conviction of mine. At best, one will have to wait a bit for the returns to follow. That's alright. You are happy to put money in a bank FD and then wait for one full year to collect that measly 8%, aren't you? Then why does the stock market need to give you 20% every month? In the last one year, I haven't seen so many good stocks trade at such mouth watering levels. Forget trading, avoid the duds which were fuelled up by operators, just go out and buy those bluechips. They will deliver, even if there is a global market meltdown for a while, and if you are a bit patient you will be rewarded. But do remember January 2008, as history will repeat itself again in the future. Just that our memories tend to be too short and our greed too much.

- Udayan Mukharjee

The moment of Truth

Every one goes through it, but no one can explain how that moment feels. For some it's so quick that they don’t even realize and it's gone past them, and some feel it till the end. At that very moment you know that the breath you are taking may be the last one, you know the people you are seeing in front of you is the last thing you would be ever seeing, the beat your heart just now might be your last one, the act you last did was your last act ever. You have so much to say but not enough time to say it all, not enough words to put it all. So many people to say goodbye to, but not many are near you. Some say that your whole life passes in front of you as you lie, waiting for that final moment, final second, final breath of your life.

The moment is gone, you lie there without control of you body anymore. People near you are sad, you are not any more there with them. Not breathing anymore, your heart is not beating anymore. Just a moment ago it was beating and suddenly it has just stopped. Was it the lungs that stopped pumping oxygen into your blood first or the brain stopped controlling the body parts or the heart refused to pump anymore blood into the brain and other parts. No one knows. Everyone knows just the fact that the person lying in front of them has died. For some the person is a father, for some husband, for some brother, for some son and for some it's just a body now. The people who were very close to you miss you already and are crying. They can just see you lying, but can not tell you how much they miss you. They can not express to you how much they love you, how special were those things which you did for them. They can not tell you that they missed all those moments which they had spent with you. You would always be remembered for some reason or the other.

The only thing other than the memories that remains in this world long after you have gone is your name. You are still known by your name.


I dedicate this post to my MamaJi. He passed away on 22nd Aug 2006. He will always be remembered. May his soul rest in peace.

Where are we heading.....

With dusk on 03 May 2006, three families were left weeping, with happiness far away from them at least for some time in the near future, the day that proved to be the last one for 3 humans. They were humans with names Pramod Mahajan, Viren Shah and Rafiq Vohra. I think it’s useless to introduce Pramod Mahajan(a known politician in India), but not many would know who Viren and Rafiq were. Rafiq, a resident of Vadodara was a contractor by profession while Viren living on the other side of the same city was a 25 year old who owned a provision store in Vadodara. With no fault of their own, apart from one being a hindu and other being a muslim, were killed. While Pramod was a victim of sibling rivalry, these two innocents were a victim of communal rivalry, which broke out on 01 May after the demolition of a dargah. For some the dargah is a place of worship, for some it's demolition is a reason for agitation but, for some it proved to be a matter of life and death. Reasons may have been any but it leaves behind three families in grief. With Pramod's brother Pravin already in police custody and admiting his crime, all the three families would be hoping justice from the slow paced judicial system of the country.

This comes in the same week when 32 humans were killed in Jammu and Kashmir. These were again 32 innocents who were gunned down by people who wanted to show their power, which I fail to understand to whom. I fail to understand where humanity is. Where one human is ready to kill another for no reason or reason which humanity has no relation with. Killing others for money, power, piece of land, in the name of religion, to extend political boundaries is not a big deal anymore.

This reminds me one a very interesting email which I once received. Excerpts from the email are as follows

"My sincere request is to vote for Karunya so that he can become the Indian Idol. He is competing with Sandeep in the final.

The advantages of him are :
1. His excellent voice.
2. He is from Andhra Pradesh.

The disadvantages of him are:
1. Sandeep is from North
2. Since, many people from North watch the program and they will give vote on the favour of Sandeep.

I would like to share one more thing as the situation arised now. A couple of months back, Hemchander from Hyderabad got into Saregamapa Semi-finals and had to quit from that stage only because he is from South(A.P). He also has excellent voice, and all the judges were in favor of him. Only because of votes he has lost it."

Here we are, drawing lines between north and south India and for what, a stupid reality T.V. show. My naive friend did not realize that this act of his may give new ideas to people who want to divide this country further. Is it another criterion after religion, land and river water?

This brings me back to the very question with which I started writing this blog. Where are we heading to? What do we have in mind to achieve in this small life which we have got? Should I be frightened from my near and dear ones, or should I start avoiding places where the municipal corporation is carrying out demolitions, or I being a north Indian should not go to south India. Can we still say that we are proud to be an Indian or even proud to be a human being? If not can we change some things so that we are again proud to be and Indian and human beings? The questions in mind are a plenty and the answers are blurred. Being the young blood of this country only we can answer these questions. It only requires a certain amount of introspection on our part.

I dedicate this blog to the three deceased. May their souls rest in peace and god bless their families and give them the courage to fight the hardships of life.

My whole purpose of writing this was to create some thoughts in your mind. If I was able to do it , I would consider this attempt of mine as successful. I would like if you would share your thoughts with me and everyone else reading this blog. If you liked it then please share it with your friends because I want to reach out to as many people as possible.

How to master Minesweeper

In today’s world where one doesn't even have time to relax, think, eat, sleep............. its very important to know how can one take their skills in one of the most intricate games the world has ever seen to the levels of perfection. The game, which we are talking about, is none other than Minesweeper, yes to read it correctly.

Start cannot be easier than this when I tell you to get a job in any of the big software firms, which there are many these days. It’s important to find a company, which gives you training for at least 3 months after you join. The training starts, now here we are talking about the technical trainings provided by your organization. This is the place where you can start your Minesweeper training as well. Select one of the machines in the last row in the classroom and here you are. The stage is all set for your training. Start playing Minesweeper. Be sure to look at the teacher once in a while and nod your head as if you understand the words coming out of his mouth (I guess you must have had training for HEAD NODDING at your college itself). The training goes on.….. After 3 months you would be able to complete the beginner level in reasonable time of course with regular practice. There may be other distractions like other games but you need to stick to Minesweeper if you want to achieve some thing.

The training is over and now your work starts. There is one golden rule, which one should never forget is that "Work never ends" but a game of Minesweeper would finish quickly. So do not try to kill the zeal inside yourself to play the lovely game before you work. Days would pass by work and Minesweeper go hand in hand. Many times it helps to start your day with a game of Minesweeper. There would be distractions which would try to take you away from your goal of becoming a master in your favorite game e.g. other games, your work, your boss, who would suddenly come behind your back and ask you what’s the status of your work. Do not look at him keep looking at the screen and keep clicking while talking to him. This is the ultimate test of your concentration.

After 7 months in your job when you see that the distractions are increasing. More and More work is coming and your boss' visits to your seat increase day by day. That’s the time to resign from your job and find another job. This would give you an amazing one-month to achieve your true objective. Remember while appearing for telephonic interviews for jobs. Sit in front of a machine and start playing just before the interview. Breaking your time again and again would give you immense confidence that if you can do this you can do anything in this world. A day would come when you would be able to complete the expert mode 2 times in one day.

Now as you reach your target and you would be joining a new a company, do not forget to pick a brand new game, which you have never played, as your next target.

I dedicate this blog to this day in my life when i completed the expert mode twice in the same day. Not only this but also breaking you own record for time the second time.