Recently I recieved this in my in-box. Very interesting narration for bubble burst.
Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around.
1) There were 3 citizens living on this island country. A owned the land. B and C each owned 1 dollar.
2) B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own 1 dollar each while B owned a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.
* The net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.
3) Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country, and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, he borrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought the land from B for 2 dollars.
*A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.
* B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt to A, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.
* Thus, the net asset of the country = 4 dollars.
4) A saw that the land he once owned has risen in value. He regretted having sold it. Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2 dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars. The payment is by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed) and cancellation of the 1 dollar loan to C. As a result, A now owned a piece of land that is worth 3 dollars. But since he owed B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.
* B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.
* C now has the 2 coins. His net asset is also 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up.
(5) B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own the land. So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars. The payment is by borrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.
* As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 coins. His net asset is 2 dollars.
* B owned a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debt of 2 dollars with C, his net Asset is 2 dollars.
* C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 6 dollars; even though, the country has only one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation.
(6) Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.
(7) One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C’s mind. “Hey, what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan. There is only 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B owns is worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more.”
(8) A also thought the same way.
(9) Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.
* So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
* B owed C 2 dollars and the land he owned which he thought worth 4 dollars is now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.
* C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his net asset is still 2 dollars, his Heart is palpitating.
* The net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.
(10) So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country? Of course, before the bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, right before the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper. B’s net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.
(11) B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2 dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1 dollar now.
* A owns the 2 coins; his net asset is 2 dollars.
* B is bankrupt; his net asset is 0 dollar. (He lost everything)
* C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar
* the net asset of the country = 3 dollars.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A Bucket List
Unrealistic and still made believable :) Thats how I felt after watching this movie and all the credit goes to the outstanding performances by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Also, not to be neglected, the strength of the movie is the ability to create a set of circumstances and interaction to make a rather unbelievable story palatable.
The movie shows strangers Jack and Morgan trying to live their dreams at the end of their lives. Both of them realize that they have less than an year to live. Jack, a billionaire, realizes the "bucket list" of Morgan, a blue collar mechanic and adds his wishes too to the list. Both of them then go around the world fulfilling them. The different places they visit are a beauty to the eyes and definitely in the wish list of many of us too :) The adventures include the heart pumping sky diving, auto drag racing, and trips to exotic locations and foreign countries. Many scenes like the mountain tops and pyramids seem unreal, yet are carried on by the witty and funny lines from Jack's character.
The movie has lot of sentimental scenes which are bound to make your eyes go a bit wet, but as soonas they are wet, the great humour of Jack and Morgan is bound to make you smile. As the movie progresses the strangers get very close and help each other in their personal lives. The movie ends with the ashes of both the friends burried on the top of Mt Everest!!
The movie is a must see :)
The movie shows strangers Jack and Morgan trying to live their dreams at the end of their lives. Both of them realize that they have less than an year to live. Jack, a billionaire, realizes the "bucket list" of Morgan, a blue collar mechanic and adds his wishes too to the list. Both of them then go around the world fulfilling them. The different places they visit are a beauty to the eyes and definitely in the wish list of many of us too :) The adventures include the heart pumping sky diving, auto drag racing, and trips to exotic locations and foreign countries. Many scenes like the mountain tops and pyramids seem unreal, yet are carried on by the witty and funny lines from Jack's character.
The movie has lot of sentimental scenes which are bound to make your eyes go a bit wet, but as soonas they are wet, the great humour of Jack and Morgan is bound to make you smile. As the movie progresses the strangers get very close and help each other in their personal lives. The movie ends with the ashes of both the friends burried on the top of Mt Everest!!
The movie is a must see :)
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
An Angel is Born!
This is my much delayed post... have been waiting to write something for so long; but was getting no time... finally here's something for my Sweetu...
Little baby on the way,
Making new moves every day,
Kicking mommy in the tummy,
Our lives seem so sunny!
The baby is born, blessings are bestowed,
Naani is excited, and Daadi floored,
Cheeks resemble mommy and forehead of daddy,
Leave me alone, cried little baby!
Eyes so small, lips deep red,
Nimble fingers and tender legs,
Her smile is sure to make you happy,
And her frowns are damn equally catchy!
Our prayers are answered, all wishes come true,
May she grow with love and care all through,
Lord, she's our angel, we pray you,
Please shower blessings and grant her good health too!
Little baby on the way,
Making new moves every day,
Kicking mommy in the tummy,
Our lives seem so sunny!
The baby is born, blessings are bestowed,
Naani is excited, and Daadi floored,
Cheeks resemble mommy and forehead of daddy,
Leave me alone, cried little baby!
Eyes so small, lips deep red,
Nimble fingers and tender legs,
Her smile is sure to make you happy,
And her frowns are damn equally catchy!
Our prayers are answered, all wishes come true,
May she grow with love and care all through,
Lord, she's our angel, we pray you,
Please shower blessings and grant her good health too!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Flash
With cricket fever kind of ended with IPL, or rather a momentary pause, its time to switch over to yet another craze. EURO’08 is about to start from June 7th and all the football fans will be tied to their television sets to watch the same. This time its being jointly hosted by Austria and Switzerland; so guys who are in European countries these days might have the chance of a lifetime! J
Apart from letting you guys know about this major event; my other idea was to share the beautiful site which these guys have come up with. Specially check the page: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/
There is a 4-way navigation wherein:
--> you can choose your individual participating COUNTRY and check the venue, dates, the group and the matches.
--> you can choose the GROUP and check all the matches for that group, dates and venues
--> you can choose the DATE and check all the matches between the groups at different venues
--> you can choose the VENUE and check all the matches that gonna take place there.
It’s amazing to see so much of information on one single screen. The data is well placed; screen doesn’t look cumbersome. In fact it’s soothing to the eyes. The four navigators on the sides act as the selection criterion and the centre screen for the details.
Flash is definitely the order of the day in website development.
Have fun….
Apart from letting you guys know about this major event; my other idea was to share the beautiful site which these guys have come up with. Specially check the page: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/
There is a 4-way navigation wherein:
--> you can choose your individual participating COUNTRY and check the venue, dates, the group and the matches.
--> you can choose the GROUP and check all the matches for that group, dates and venues
--> you can choose the DATE and check all the matches between the groups at different venues
--> you can choose the VENUE and check all the matches that gonna take place there.
It’s amazing to see so much of information on one single screen. The data is well placed; screen doesn’t look cumbersome. In fact it’s soothing to the eyes. The four navigators on the sides act as the selection criterion and the centre screen for the details.
Flash is definitely the order of the day in website development.
Have fun….
Thursday, April 3, 2008
50, and Still Strong…
Growing old is all about attaining maturity,
Floating new ideas and working towards them with sincerity,
Everyone grows old, not wise though indeed,
Vision is important, and so are the deeds.
With goals in mind we create opportunity,
Focus on people with imagination and creativity,
With each building block in place,
We empower people to win the race.
The race is long, but the vision is clear,
We are almost there with each passing year,
Determined to make a mark, keeping people up-to-date,
We set new goals, work hard, and leave rest to fate.
This is a special year, a new milestone set,
But we don’t need a crown or a diamond throne for that,
With 50 "printing" editions old and pen still mighty bold,
This is a call for Infoscions to tell stories still untold!
Floating new ideas and working towards them with sincerity,
Everyone grows old, not wise though indeed,
Vision is important, and so are the deeds.
With goals in mind we create opportunity,
Focus on people with imagination and creativity,
With each building block in place,
We empower people to win the race.
The race is long, but the vision is clear,
We are almost there with each passing year,
Determined to make a mark, keeping people up-to-date,
We set new goals, work hard, and leave rest to fate.
This is a special year, a new milestone set,
But we don’t need a crown or a diamond throne for that,
With 50 "printing" editions old and pen still mighty bold,
This is a call for Infoscions to tell stories still untold!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
I dream of.....
being a Show-Man!!
Yes, thats true. My most frequent dream (be it a day dream or while I'm asleep) is that I'm performing on stage before a huge audience. In fact if someone has to ask me about my dream profession it will be being a stage performer, no second thoughts to it! I love singing, though my voice doesnt support me much :-) I also love to perform on stage, but there also I'm not that good. But given those hard facts, I've still done both of them with singing restricted till school. Dancing, I started late in school and enjoyed the most in college! After that also I've been dancing a lot at different occasions, but it was more of a group dance on the music played by some DJ at office or some club. I haven't given any performances as such after the college. At college I also participated in a skit (GOTF will always cherish that), debates and anchored shows.
But whatever, my dreams will still allow me to pursue my passion of being a showman - now and forever! And its not only the dreams, I'll keep on singing, dancing and performing on stage whenever I get an opportunity!! So people, are you ready for the torture? :-)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Life is Beautiful
It has been a while that I am able to find some time for myself. Again!! I think this syndrome strikes me now and then. Why? Am I slow or am I bogged up with too many things at the same time. Well, I’m sure and my wife also agrees that I’m not slow. It’s that I take too many things in my plate and try to eat them all and eat them in a well organized and systematic way. So if I see the current situation, my “platter” includes:
1. Family attention and frequent travel
2. Coordinating College Alumni site development
3. Helping Fund collection for College sports event
4. Office projects
5. My transfer status between offices
6. Investing and tracking my portfolio
7. Writing blog as frequently as possible :)
So the two key points are:
1. Lot of things at the same time, and
2. Working systematically
Both these two points add to the lack of time in my life (at least assume for now!). But if I introspect, the good thing is that there is room for everything! I mean I don’t see complaining to myself that I’m unable to do something because I don’t have time. It’s always that I say I don’t have time for myself and not for anything else.
So the next moot point is, am I neglecting myself. Well, I think that’s also not correct because:
1. I make sure that I see my face couple of times in the mirror and apply some day/night cream :-)
2. I make sure that I’m eating good and eating right (though my wife will disagree on this!!)
3. I involve in some physical activity – either some sport or exercising at home
4. I involve in some religious activities
5. I make sure that I call my close ones every now and then – this helps in satiating my hunger to remain connected!
6. I’m almost up-to-date in the Hindi movies arena
So why am I cribbing… I’m doing so much for myself. It’s just the perception. Change it!!
Sorry guys for wasting your time… I’ve no complaints whatsoever :-)
Life is beautiful!
1. Family attention and frequent travel
2. Coordinating College Alumni site development
3. Helping Fund collection for College sports event
4. Office projects
5. My transfer status between offices
6. Investing and tracking my portfolio
7. Writing blog as frequently as possible :)
So the two key points are:
1. Lot of things at the same time, and
2. Working systematically
Both these two points add to the lack of time in my life (at least assume for now!). But if I introspect, the good thing is that there is room for everything! I mean I don’t see complaining to myself that I’m unable to do something because I don’t have time. It’s always that I say I don’t have time for myself and not for anything else.
So the next moot point is, am I neglecting myself. Well, I think that’s also not correct because:
1. I make sure that I see my face couple of times in the mirror and apply some day/night cream :-)
2. I make sure that I’m eating good and eating right (though my wife will disagree on this!!)
3. I involve in some physical activity – either some sport or exercising at home
4. I involve in some religious activities
5. I make sure that I call my close ones every now and then – this helps in satiating my hunger to remain connected!
6. I’m almost up-to-date in the Hindi movies arena
So why am I cribbing… I’m doing so much for myself. It’s just the perception. Change it!!
Sorry guys for wasting your time… I’ve no complaints whatsoever :-)
Life is beautiful!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
New Roof on the top!
Finally I've moved out of the corporate guest "house" and moved to my new "home"... the feeling is a bit mixed...on one hand i've the pain of leaving the luxury of the guest house wherein I can leave my bed messed up in the morning with my towel lying somewhere and when I come back in the evenig its all spic-n-span!! water bottles filled up, heaters on (a great luxury in such chilly weather), hot water available 24hrs a day... wow... BUT all this cannot belittle the happiness that I've inside for setting up my new place... sooner or later I had to do it and I think this is the right time at the right place... till now I've been out of sync with so many things like getting a gas connection, buying household stuff, maintainig cleanliness etc etc... so many things to do... and believe me I've loving it... I think everyone gets this feeling and its definitely worth experiencing... all those discussions with wife which thing to buy, what color, what size :)) its neat...
There is so much to do.... i better kick start again...... cya...
There is so much to do.... i better kick start again...... cya...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_ACCESS
Like millions of users all the across the globe, I tried logging into my yahoo mailbox this morning. but hey whats going on, the application is not accepting my user id and password. I quickly did a sanity check for the CAPS lock. Has my account hacked or something? Noooo :-((
Then the next thing i tired was to change my password. But the application gave me the following error: "FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_ACCESS". Now what is this? I started feeling a bit of shock and tried to google this message. I found lot many people are facing this issue and are worried. But i was now relaxed since i'm not the only one in the apin and i was sure Yahoo will surely look into this soon.
On googling I found that the error "FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_AC mean:
FEATURE_ERROR - the feature from Yahoo! which you are trying to use for that particular ID is unavailable
USER_OPEN - the user ID which you are trying to reset the password cannot be opened for recovery
NO_ACCESS - currently you are not allowed to access the specified user ID
With so many important information packed in our yahoo (or for that matter any mailbox), have we ever thought what will happen if suddenly all these mailboxes stop working or the services are discontinued??
Keep yourself ready........
pss.... yahoo mailbox services are restored!!! :)) YAHOOOOOOOOO!!
Then the next thing i tired was to change my password. But the application gave me the following error: "FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_ACCESS". Now what is this? I started feeling a bit of shock and tried to google this message. I found lot many people are facing this issue and are worried. But i was now relaxed since i'm not the only one in the apin and i was sure Yahoo will surely look into this soon.
On googling I found that the error "FEATURE_ERROR_USER_OPEN_NO_AC mean:
FEATURE_ERROR - the feature from Yahoo! which you are trying to use for that particular ID is unavailable
USER_OPEN - the user ID which you are trying to reset the password cannot be opened for recovery
NO_ACCESS - currently you are not allowed to access the specified user ID
With so many important information packed in our yahoo (or for that matter any mailbox), have we ever thought what will happen if suddenly all these mailboxes stop working or the services are discontinued??
Keep yourself ready........
pss.... yahoo mailbox services are restored!!! :)) YAHOOOOOOOOO!!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Productivity Improvement through Reuse
This is the poster that I along with Divesh and Vikrant made for the above mentioned theme. Still waiting for the results :-)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Changing gears in Davos
The Annual meeting of World Economic Forum for 2008 is in session at Davos. A lot many distinguised people from finance world, politics, manufacturing, media etc are present there to discuss the issues facing the world right now. In normal circumstances, the meeting would have focused the collaboration that's needed for the peace in Middle East, making use of the latest technologies for fighting against social and environmental issues or to discuss the prospects of Pakistan and Afghanistan. But here comes the thunderball. A lot of energy would now be spent on the US recession and its impact on the economy across the globe.
Till now people have been optimist. Yes, there is a credit crunch due to reckless lending in the subprime mortgage category, and also in property and credit cards - but we will handle it. Another perscpective was that growth is very powerful in India, China and middle east - that will wither the American storm.
But "Decoupling" is not working. The fear has crept in big time. The insatiable desire for cunsumer stuff in US (much of it made in China) is now making the growth charts go southwards. Recession gurus are saying, "we are almost there"!
Till now people have been optimist. Yes, there is a credit crunch due to reckless lending in the subprime mortgage category, and also in property and credit cards - but we will handle it. Another perscpective was that growth is very powerful in India, China and middle east - that will wither the American storm.
But "Decoupling" is not working. The fear has crept in big time. The insatiable desire for cunsumer stuff in US (much of it made in China) is now making the growth charts go southwards. Recession gurus are saying, "we are almost there"!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
10 ways to stop those marketing calls
Disclaimer: These are not my ideas, I got it as a forward and I doing what I do best - "copy-paste".
1. After the telemarketer finishes speaking, ask him/her to marry you.
2. Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment, and ask him/her if he/she will give you his/her home phone number so you can call him/her back.
3. Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.
4. Tell them it is dinner time, BUT ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation.
5. Tell them that all business goes through your agent, and hand the phone to your five year old child.
6. Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up...louder...louder...louder!
7. Tell them to speak very slowly because you want to write every word down.
8. If they start out with, "How are you today?", say "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems............"
9. Cry out in surprise, "Helen, is that you? I've been hoping you'd call! How is the family?" When they insist they are not Helen, tell them to stop joking. This works especially well if the telemarketer is really MALE.
10. Tell the HSBC call center guy to call on your office number - and give him the ICICI call center number.
Any additions??
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Bulls have been Chained
My wife told me couple of weeks back (even before the whole gamut of things started) that this is a KAAL year! She read it that this year is not that great! Have I started believing that? Oops, let me set the context right, though I'm sure most of you guys must have sensed it by the title of this post. But still for others I'm talking about the finance market in India; in fact the whole world market. Where are markets going from here? Is 2008 really a bad year for Indian economy?
These days as soon as I reach home I switch on my idiot box (which doesn't seem to be as idiot to me as before) to listen to NDTV Profit. And the more I watch it, the more I'm getting perplexed. US market as well as Asian market is taking a bit hit. Yesterday's fearsome declarations by Vikram Pandit (CEO of Citigroup) of the huge losses and mammoth write-off's have left me more shocked. The winds of change have finally arrived and it seems the world market gonna make devastating changes. Is it a sign that India will head its way towards becoming the global power?
But right now I dont see the light at the end of this tunnel. Indian economy itself is weak right now. Prime minister with his financial advisors are meeting to find out a way to resolve the issues or rather finding a way to beat the heat. They are coming up with re-structuring the tax slabs, change in indirect taxes, etc. Mr C Rangarajan is still projecting that the growth rate will be 8.5% this year (quite hopeful). I'm sure these guys are thinking hard to make that happen.
For me, things are too scary. I've been into this market very recently and all this is making me learn a lot (well, i'm trying to hide my fear here). But I'll keep watching the market and make my moves as and when required. And surely I wish my wife makes some more predictions; of course in favor of my portfolio :-)
So whats your game plan??
These days as soon as I reach home I switch on my idiot box (which doesn't seem to be as idiot to me as before) to listen to NDTV Profit. And the more I watch it, the more I'm getting perplexed. US market as well as Asian market is taking a bit hit. Yesterday's fearsome declarations by Vikram Pandit (CEO of Citigroup) of the huge losses and mammoth write-off's have left me more shocked. The winds of change have finally arrived and it seems the world market gonna make devastating changes. Is it a sign that India will head its way towards becoming the global power?
But right now I dont see the light at the end of this tunnel. Indian economy itself is weak right now. Prime minister with his financial advisors are meeting to find out a way to resolve the issues or rather finding a way to beat the heat. They are coming up with re-structuring the tax slabs, change in indirect taxes, etc. Mr C Rangarajan is still projecting that the growth rate will be 8.5% this year (quite hopeful). I'm sure these guys are thinking hard to make that happen.
For me, things are too scary. I've been into this market very recently and all this is making me learn a lot (well, i'm trying to hide my fear here). But I'll keep watching the market and make my moves as and when required. And surely I wish my wife makes some more predictions; of course in favor of my portfolio :-)
So whats your game plan??
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
New Ads on the block
Indian advertisement industry has achieved great height. Someone would say, wow, what a realization. Well, to me its definitely yes. I mean having spent last 2 years in US and watching TV commercials out there, I was damn sure that Indian commerials are great and much much better than what are aired in US. But after coming back to India and watching the recent ads, man, i'm totally overwhelmed.
Two ads which belong to his category are:
1. Airtel ad where two boys across the borders of two countries try and play football. The message is there wont be any boundaries, only if we talk... too much, excellent idea. Hats-off to K. S. Chakravarthy who is the brain behind the ad. The unfamiliar language used (French dialect used by Moroccans) adds to the universality.
2. Latest Canara Bank ad where mother-in-law learns Punjabi in order to welcome her new Bahu! The message is that the bank is adapting in the changing times. The emotions and sentiments behind the ad are worth commending.
Also one more Ad is of Cadbury Eclairs Crunch for which the punchline goes like- "Kuch cheezon ka maza dheere-dheere hi aata hai... ...Jaise Cadbury Eclairs Crunch". Good thought process.
For more TV commercials visit: http://www.indibiz.tv/
Keep it rolling...
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