ExpertDabbler

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/oct/31slid9.htm

Too bad I don’t find Air Deccan, Go Air, IndiGo here.

—X—

The safest way to double your money is to fold it into two and keep it in your pocket.
- Unknown

—X—

Apparently Forbes does not want to be left behind on the India growth story, so they have compiled a list of ten best commutes in the world.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/28/commute-cities-world-forbeslife-cx_mw_1028realestate_slide_9.html?thisSpeed=15000 (via Shankar)

I don’t think the guy who wrote this, or the guy who provided the inputs had ever been to Chennai.
Chennai’s population @ 5 million? MTRS? IT highway! Grrr…. Ennale Mudila!!

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/10/30/stories/2008103052820100.htm
Apparently, someone in the govt. and the promoters of big realty firms have made lot of money out of this spectrum squatting.

Manmohan Singh. Because he is the least despised by all. He is well respected by most of the politicans cutting across party lines. He played his cards beautifully in showing the door to the Left on the N-deal. The best thing about Manmohan Singh was probably the fact that India had only one Prime Minister for the past four years and without any major controversy. Those who might think that as insignificant should do well to go back to the Third Front days when everyone right from Moopanar to Deve Gowde to Ramvilas Paswan had as much chance of becoming a Prime Minister. We were clearly playing ‘Hinky Pinky Ponky’ for the PM’s chair. Manmohan, at least has lent the credibility and respect that chair so clearly deserves. His stint as PM also coincided with the 8-9% growth in GDP’s story, whether that’s a reliable indicator of economic well being in our Country and whther Singh has made a significant contribution in stimulating growth are debatable.

The problem with Manmohan is that he is too ‘scholarly’. He does not have a vote base. He does not even have a settled parliamentary constituency. His total lack of popular appeal means he has to be at the mercy of Sonia and her family. It’s as if he has completely outsourced the political tasks to Sonia and sons. Also, without the majority that he desperately needs, he looks woefully miserable sometimes. It takes a certain tact to handle someone like MK wants a Cabinet Minister to be removed, or inserted just like that. He cannot and should not meekly surrender as he has been doing every time a demand is raised.

On the performance front, I do think he has failed in addressing the needs of the poor. His clean credentials and 65K Crore farm loan waiver notwithstanding ( who benefitted over that is again debatable), he has been a man who is more aligned with the interests of the Corporate czars. I did not witness any groundbreaking social development initiatives in the last four years that I thought I would. He has the likes of Montek Singh Ahluwalia who advice him against enforcing ‘Right to Education’ bill for ‘lack of funds’.

All said and done, Manmohan Singh is the best possible candidate Congress can ever come up with. He is educated, liked by all, disliked by very few, honest, is a religious minority (very important), has the trust and respect of Sonia Gandhi and in general well respected across the globe. The acid test for Manmohan Singh’s leadership will be when he gets a second term with a simple majority. Let’s wait and see if ever he gets that.

With six months to go for the next parliamentary election, its time to ponder this question.

I think we can ignore the chances of Mayawati only at our own peril. She may not be Oxford educated as Manmohan Singh, but she is politically smarter than even Lalu. A lot of the educated middle class folks may not like her. I am sure the stock markets would not like her one bit. But we should also remember that stock market crowd is hardly 5% of ‘real India’ albeit very audible in the national media.

If she can scale up her ’social engineering’ tactic (as in political science) to the national level by bringing the ‘economically weaker section’ criteria to the reservation issue, and can bring the Communists to her fold, which they might given their present antagonism towards BJP and Congress, I think she can give anyone a run for their money. Sathish Chandra Mishra and Akilesh Das might as well be the next Union Home and Finance Ministers respectively, you never know.

I do not necessarily think she has given a good governance in U.P. Nor do I say I am a fan of Mayawati.
All I say is, my likes and dislikes do not matter. If she gets the deal right with Communists and manages to leverage her Dalit + Brahmin vote bank in UP, she will have a fighting chance to rule this country. How long will she rule, how will she rule.. those are are all totally different stories.

You might want to start your prayers now.

Those days Amma used to make sweets, murukku, kara sev at home for Deepavali. Then came the Sri Krishna Sweets Mysorepa phenomenon. Two days back, I got a mail from my employer stating that I could collect Diwali sweets at 4th floor. The crowd on display would rival the crowd I’ve seen in Coimbatore ‘Chinathamani’ for crackers. I took it easy and decided to go for the sweets in the afternoon. The crowd had gone as expected. But what was unexpected was the size of the sweet box. It should easily exceed 2.5kgs, from Haldirams. I had several challenges now. The first was logistics. I already had my hands full with my lunch box, office machine, scribble pads, now this sweet box to be accommodated in a single bag. The second was consumption. I am not a sweet buff. Amma is n’t either. I immediately thought of our maid servant, watchman, apartment friends as potential targets.

I had another shocker when I returned to my seat. This time the mail was from my client, who is also distributing Diwali sweets. For once, there was a problem of abundance. They could’ve given the sweets to some place where people would really need it and appreciate it. Why such pampering to some folks who earn as much as IT pros?

As I was wondering came my colleague, ‘Mama, namba client sweet box size parthiya?

Me: ‘Yen idhai vida perisa?’

He: “Illai da, rembo chinnadhu.. cha at least idhey size irukkum nu nenachen..

Me: ‘Yen veedu pakkam edhuna side business poda poriya’

He: ‘Illada, veetla ellarum sweet saapidanum la?… Ippo velila vera vanganum!’

I guess his family is as big as Bharatha Vilas. What this means is that there are no easy, universally accepted solutions, even for sweet problems.

And for sure no problem has ever been solved by ‘Manidha Sangili’ on Mount road except maybe that of parliamentary election. Since someone had solved one part of that problem by sending telegrams to the Prime Minister, this is another attempt to consolidate that result and bring the matter to a logical conclusion.

Last week, I was talking to my friend about the Kashmir situation.

“Imsai nga.. Arundhati Roy article padicheengala? Pesama Kashmir ku freedom kudutha dhaan enna..Evlo loss twenty years ah…Namba oore vandaam gravanuku edhuku selavu seyyanum..Ellam namba kaasu “

He,”Adhu epdi… Idhai kudutha nalaiku Punjab venumbaan,..Hyderabad venumbaan”

“Ippove North east sila areas, Jammu vuku mela ellam map la dhaan irukku…”

He,“Ippo problem ellathukum solution irukanum nu edhavadhu irukka..? Ellam iruka dhaan seyyum….Idhellam eppadiyum prachnai dhaan.. irundhaalum prachnai kuduthaalum prachnai..indha prachnai laam solve agama irukakradhu dhaan neraya peruku aadhayam…”

Its kinda irony that people never talk of Tiananmen square nowadays. The end was relatively swift and brutal. Everybody had forgotten it. The developed nations have certainly forgotten it.

A problem should be treated like a dead body – either burn it, or bury it or preserve it like in a Pyramid. But what our governments do is akin to the aghories’ methods – they neither burn it, nor bury it, nor preserve it, but cut and consume it, piece by piece, bone by bone, as and when they feel hungry. No wonder we have epidemics.

Even as I am consuming Murukku, haldiram sweets, Someone is holding worthless currencies numbering several hundred thousand dollars in Zimbabwe, someone is getting killed in Sri Lanka, Yasin Mallik is put in jail in Kashmir, someone is planning for the forthcoming election in Mount Road, and I despite wishing all these were resolved, continue to live my life and celebrate a festival.

Wish you a Happy and safe Deepavali!

http://indiacorplaw.blogspot.com/2008/10/llp-bill-introduced-in-parliament.html

Amidst all the stock market paranoia, this one was missed. LLP Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha as well. Once it is passed in both houses - CA,s CS, and other professionals can form a partnership company (sounds odd) with their liability limited to the extent they contribute as capital. Their personal funds will not be liable, as was the case partnerships erstwhile. To what extent this will give a face lift to the professional class remains to be seen.

At the very least, commerce students will soon have one more act to study, in addition to the Companies Act, 1956 and Indian Partnership Act, 1932. There is a comprehensive revamp of Companies Act in progress and tabled in Lok Sabha as well. But that has been in progress since my B.Com days

And where ‘a’ can stand for almost. I still have one paper to get through.

I conveyed the results to my mom, and her first reaction was ,’ Epdiyum paadhi paper dhaaan pass pannuve nu nenachen! Epdi ivlo pass pannine?’ Such lofty expectations have always been the hallmark of my mom. She always sees the glass as quarter full when its three-fourth empty.

She is the eternal optimist at home. The typical dialogue goes like this.

Me:”Industry seri illai… velai pochu na enna pannuradhu?”

Mom:”Seri ippo enna.. edhavadhu chinna ooruku poi epdiyavadhu pozhachukalaam!” as if i am complaining about a mosquito problem.

My university lived up to my stringent expectations by awarding me ‘80′ in my worst paper as an examinee. I myself would not give ‘80 if i correct it. I told this in office, and they are like,’Neenga vera prabu,subject maathi padichutu poi ellam pass pannirukom!

But then I have failed in one subject where I definitely would’ve passed. So there you go with poetic justice!

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/10/23/1224351451472.html

Adam Gilchrist is probably the greatest wicket keeper batsman the world has ever produced. He is the one guy who could be counted to ‘walk’ even if its a cup final.

The Indians, including Sachin might probably have covered up ‘Harbhajan affair’ after that farcical test. Primarily because Harbhajan, the one with the loudest mouth would never have conjured up the racial angle at that moment. It takes a certain intelligence to see the connection and Harbhajan would be the last person to see that. Anyway preferring someone white over black is something that happens everyday in India and we don’t ever see that as racism, that a different story.

For any Indian, ‘Monkey’ is probably as innocent as it gets when one compares to what McGrath had told to Sarwan and what he got back, which unfortunately comes conveniently under the realm of ‘playing hard in the cricket field’ by the Australian players, and hence within the ambit of ‘sportsmanship’ including Gilchrist and the media. There is a definite cultural angle to it.

He is right in criticizing the BCCI,ICC and CA, but why now? why not then? Because he could not have then! Does that make hima sore loser? Hell no.

When it comes to fairness, I thought Gilchrist was always the right man in the wrong team, at least when he was batting.

All the same, Aussies are better off not talking about that Sydney test, which was roundly criticized even by their media. If I were Gilly, I would not have written a single line in my biography about the whole test, right from the infamous Ricky Ponting’s ‘catch’ to ‘Monkeygate’ to the ‘unsporting’ Sachin who scored a hundred.

Maybe I would’ve sold less number of copies of my book and that’s always a cause for concern especially when I am retired. Probably in Australia, those concerns are well within the ambit of ‘winner’ and ‘Sportsmanship’.

அமெரிக்கா வில் தண்ணீர் தண்ணீர்

‘What should I do with this stock?’ is not a new book title by Po Bronson. It is the ubiquitous chorus in the boards of moneycontrol nowadays. If only someone can start an agony aunt equivalent for share trading, he would be a millionaire.

For those new to the world of stock market gyrations.
There is this company called Prajay Engineers in Hyderabad. Once upon a time, Real Estate stocks were the darling of the Lehmans and Sachs, the sweetheart of the Merrills, and in general the Triloka Sundaris of the Indian stock market, with Rathi being DLF, and Rambai being Unitech. Home loans were fast, furious and cheap. Prajay was quoting at Rs.260 at that point and I really wanted to buy this stock. The only reason we chose not to buy was… we could not. We would not have got 20 shares for each person with the kind of ‘share capital’ we had. And so we stayed away.

Two bad quarters after which comes the US credit crises and the same share is now available at about 23 Rs – much less than a kg. of tomato costs in our Annachi shop. Too bad we can’t use Prajay’s shares in our Sambhar nor can we ‘buy and hold’ tomatoes for like 5 years.

I honestly think this stock is much more valuable than the so many other stocks who have more debt than what Perumal in Tirupathi owes to Kuberan. But who cares? The market does not think so! And that’s what counts.
How can a company with an avg. EPS of about 18 Rs. with its book value is Rs.152, can go at Rs.23? That’s stock market for you! Sanity and market do not go hand in hand.

If someone asks me if I had made money in the market in the last nine months, the answer is no and I will likely remain that way for the next three to five years, and its not out of my choice! The only consolation factor remain what I’ve learned so far. You can’t learn that without putting your own hard earned money. Suddenly, some esoteric numbers will make your life so damn interesting.
The other reason being, if only I had invested in some other stocks by following the trend or technical analysis, I would’ve gone the way of Lehman and Merrill pulling some co conspirators along the way. Now at least I am still investing a little a month, and the story continues, albeit with a tinge of sadness.

Some say stock markets are like casinos. I would say stock markets are like the Sani Bhagavan that we fear, respect and despise at the same time in our mythology.

If the market works in your favour for like seven and a half years, chances are you need not work again in your life – ask Rakesh Jhunjunwala. On the other hand, if the market goes against you for as little as seven and a half weeks, you will have to work for a decade more, ask all the NRI’s who lost money during the October crash in US.

BTW, if you are an IT employee, you will know that almost any website might get blocked in your company, but not ICICI direct, geojit, sharekhan etc. Ever wondered why? Because those sites are more important to your managers than you can ever imagine!