Taking Stock

Ya that much awaited correction finally happened. Its been a carnage of sorts! And me, much like the many hopeful investors have been stuck with many good quality stocks, yet more than 20% down from their purchase prices. This mayhem has spared none. I mean, the sentiment is that bad - it seems every stock in the arena has been put on the 'SELL' counter. No buyers anywhere... :-(

Now I always thought stocks to be a hit-miss game. I mean, the story of a monkey throwing darts on the stock exchange page of a newspaper, to select the companies to buy, and coming out a winner is too well known to be recited. But as the concepts of Finance and economics trickled into my challenged brain, it started making sense. It started getting clear why some scripts went up and some went down, without actually having to play a poker strike on them. Fundamental analysis, technical analysis - all that started falling in place.

But the end result is - I'm still in medium losses, same as the gujju businessman in Mumbai who has no idea about the inherent strength of stocks yet buys-sells at the advise of his broker (and still thinks he's done a brilliant job)!

Mark Twain said it right: (rephrasing 'cos I don't know the exact words of course!)
'For every trade that happens on the Exchange, there is a BUYER and there is a SELLER. The funny thing is - both think that they have made a good deal!'

Of course there is more logic to this, but this just drives home the point!

But its about money, honey! Its about greed!
Thats the reason why we watch those shows on CNBC everytime (Udayan Mukherjee is a DUDE!), thats why a line of charts hypnotizes us, that's why a market crash gives us withdrawal symptoms, and still inspite of that, we remain hopeful... :-)

...till the next big rally....

We don't need no Reservations! - Part II

As I write this, the reservation stir has gained momentum. Though I'm not sure how correct the medico strikes are (causing inconvenience to so many wanting patients), its really heartening to see this spreading as a mass movement.

At the silent protest march from our office campus, my colleague (and junior from college), Sriram held the roost. Kudos to him for taking up such a cause and leading by initiative. His POV was covered by major news channels that day, and also attained mention in the Times. The picture shows Sriram holding up the placard.

We don't need no Reservations!

Yes we've heard a lot of stuff about the anti-reservation thing, so I'll keep this very short.

We've seen so many things about protesters getting lathi-charged, rumors of an AIIMS medico dying and media not covering it, and SMSs, mails, petitions flowing everywhere..... with the media lapping it up.. (doing a good job of spreading the agenda too, thankfully)
Arjun Singh has really become the most hated person by most Indians below 30 years.

There are jokes flying around about Manmohan Singh sending a team of Indians to the moon, which has a horde of reserved category people and 'probably' one astronaut.
There are T-shirts and banners with different slogans.
One goes: 'I am leaving for the US. I was disowned by my own country'.
Another: 'If you are asleep, wake up. If you are dead, become a politician'.

There is a surprising amount of resentment in the voice of the youngsters who appear on TV speaking against reservations. There is this latent mass-anger which is waiting to erupt. Maybe some of it comes from within, some of it comes on borrowed emotions (of manufactured protests), some due to the recent Rang-De-Basanti hangover... But the point is - there is genuine and collective rage against this animal called Reservation all across the youth of India. And that is good.

There is this small bit of Anti-Reservation-ism within each one of us. Some proactively go ahead and demonstrate something, while most of the others (would include me) just sit back and discuss how bad it is for the country and then its back to our Projects @ Office.

Just today we tried doing our little bit though. Many of the folks in our company celebrated 'Black Day' today. So Black clothes it was, and black wrist-bands - all to show that we were together for the cause. So what if we had already passed out of the reservation imbroglio a few years back and now conveniently enjoying our salaries.

There was this silent protest march arranged outside our campus in the evening. As luck would have it, I had my 'onsite call' at that time and couldn't attend. Funny how some things like work pressures can always drive us away from some other priorities in life!

Will India progress as well if we have the Quota system implemented? I'm sure we all have our reservations.....

The Click-happy traveller

Not that I've been a great globetrotter of sorts, but I've been in quite a few cities in India to confidently say I'm well-travelled.
Now that claim is a real paradox in itself, b'cos 'well'-travelled actually means long hours spent in stuffy hot sleeper compartments, uncomfortable bus journeys and unending waits at bus-stations and railway-stations to top up with. Still its not been such a bad experience after all.

Was in Mumbai last weekend on my way to Hyderabad - Mumbai, the place where I survived my 3 prime years! I reached Borivali bang early in the morning at 4 and wondered why we did have mornings at all...

Borivali Stn at 4:15 AM




So there I cursed the railways for being on time, gathered my super-light luggage and got down sleepy eyed on the platform. That was when nostalgia took over. These very platforms were my arena, some 15 months back. A prized seat in the 8:25 AM Churchgate local was some feat which I achieved almost every weekday without fail. And the sweaty 1 hr ride was heavily punctuated with brief naps, newspaper readings and boisterous discussions with fellow travellers.
Digresssion: The assorted mix of fellow passengers was really something to write about. Our daily group included a DGM in a top paints company, a practice manager in the top recruitment consultancy, an AVP Finance in an FMCG major, a fresh management trainee, a full-time Equity Analyst, an ad-professional etc and a few others. Such a diversified crowd, and many of them so well-set that they could've afforded a C class luxury car. Yet there was one common denominator that bound us all - the overstuffed 1st Class compartment in the 8:25 Churchgate Local. The discussions we had ranged from Stocks, politics, recent news, cricket, scandals, and occasionally even the anatomy of the latest item gals! Funny how this behaved as an extended family, or extended buddies group for the 1 hr journey every week day!

The local train compartment at 4:50 AM (you should see the rush in the 8:25 local)



Glad that I moved out of Mumbai and bid adieu to the local train nightmares. But those were some days....

Recently I just got upgraded! That means, off late I've started travelling by air too and Air Dhakkan has really got me frustated quite a times.
(Going back to my current story now) So having landed at the Borivali station, I took up a local half an hour later to Vile Parle. (This station too remains fondly in my memories having been the landing point for my college in Juhu). From Vile Parle it was a quick rick-ride to the Mumbai domestic airport.

Having reached there a good 2 hours early I decided to doze off in the comfortable seats - much better in contrast to the butt-crushing wooden planks at the railway platform.

The airport at 5 AM



The Airport at 7 AM



I was welcomed by a large, cozy, sparsely populated lobby in the beginnning. As the crowd grew, the Airport lobby started resembling no less than Dadar Station at peak office hours! There were queues everywhere, with Spice Jet and Air Dhakkan taking the cake. There were people were banging into each other's luggages, pushing within queues, small kids crying aloud and airline officials frantically trying to locate missing passengers. All in all, a very chaotic affair but entertaining too :-). I was pleasantly surprised by the new-look Airport, but the crowd really was something to watch out for.

The Airport Lobby at 7 AM on a Monday Morning. Dadar Station has huge competition!


Then, landing at Hyderabad around 10, I reached home and within some time I was ready to go pay a visit to my 5-day jail - The OFFICE !