Dream of a House

Its been 2 years since I am trying to comprehend the reason behind the financial hiccup (yes, I believe somehow, the puke is yet to come) which happened in the world financial markets. Off course all the explanations have been really confusing to a techie like me. Its as confusing as the financial instruments that the bankers of the 21st century envisioned. CDO, synthetic CDO, and what all.

One thing has been evident in this whole mess. Its the dream. The dream to own a house which was a key player and enabler. 

(Remembering a popular Hindi song - "Do deewane sheher mein , raat ho ya dopahar mein ,.....aashiyana dhoondte hain.....")

Well, its been some time I have been watching these documentaries (2 years to be precise, 1 movie too) and everywhere it has been shown that the price of the houses fell. Well, the price of the houses rose tremendously (around 2006) but why did they fell? And somehow this piece of puzzle has not been sorted out completely. May be I might not have been paying too much of attention to the finer details but I thought let me try to put this puzzle in place.

So, Why did the prices rise in first place? More buyers, less houses. Prices rise. And there comes the proposition of easy loan. And here comes more buyers. So again, supply and demand mismatch. Price again soars. But apparently , there is a catch. This so called easy loan is not as easy. Apart from the fact that they did not check the credit worthiness of the buyer, it also has something known as "Predatory Lending". (Please Google it for exact meaning). In short, confusing terms and conditions.

Even, I might not be able to pay for the house, still I am able to secure a loan on that house. I don't know how will I pay? But who cares? Let the sky falls first, then I will think. So there is a risk involved which the bankers shared though some complicated mechanism (which was unregulated). So far so good. This could have continued like the same way. More and more people could have come and bought the house. I could not find an reasoning behind as to why the house prices fell.

My first thought was that a kind of good(or bad) sense prevailed in the buyers that whatever is happening is not right. I might not be able to pay for the house. Apart from the fact that the easy loaners started defaulting on there loans. And houses were foreclosed. Suddenly there was no dearth of houses in the market. More houses less buyers. Again demand and supply mismatch and hence maybe lowering of the prices. And the risk really became a RISK to the financial system. (That the price of housing market will never  fall)

This could be just my distorted interpretation of the whole thing happened couple+1 years back. So please do not quote me in your research projects.

Shout it loud..IPO

Well, so here it goes. A big social networking company makes its rendezvous with the stock market. Hey everyone, come be a part of this dream. Become rich. Lets share this greed. So how much greed is enough will always be a philosophical question, but why a company should go public can have some objective reasoning behind it.

I try to find some reasons that hit my peanut size brain as to why will anyone take the company public.
1) Its the IN thing to take a company public :- Why not? You gain the respect of the business community a build a credibility in the market. Hey you, I have Maybach, a private Jet. What do you have? I have a public company. Yikes!!!!!!
2) Need money to expand operations :- Pretty genuine reason. But if a company is making a hell lot of profit, does it give enough grounds for needing money to expand operations?
3) Let me make common public the part of my success story :- well, I am not running a charity institution. Mind you, the first one to benefit out of a company going public for sure will be the VCs needing to take there money out and put it some other place to make even more MONEY.

Reminds me of the ABBA song, "Its a rich man's world".

Well on the same lines, why would one not take the company public? Dude, its no more a private affair. Share holders need an answer for the private jet you took for honeymooning.

Some how it makes more sense to me for a company to stay private for as long as possible and avoid this whole fanfare of going public. Business is for wealth creation. But for whom? For everyone, then I am living in a socialist world.

I am not a business thinker neither a noble prize winner in economics. Just a Techie who happened to be away from coding for sometime now and hence all the thoughts expressed above are nothing more than the ramblings of an idle brain.

Back in time

My blogger account shows that last post I published was "Mar 4, 2011". As I am on the anniversary of my post, I thought of scribbling something.

Did I get too much busy in the daily grind or may be I was just procrastinating. But the bad weather outside makes sure that I cannot go out and sit inside the drab hotel room all alone. And that I do something with my time instead of killing it sleeping. At least, I made sure to have started on my indoor gym schedule.

I thought about mentioning another activity which I started after a hiatus. I joined Beachwood, OHIO public library. Needless to mention, I really like the public library concept in this country. So the activity which I started was reading a book. I had shortlisted 2 books in my wishlist. "Its not about bike" and "Emperor of all maladies". Both the books are about a disease whose cure is still researched upon in today's medical world. Cancer is not a lifestyle disease but something that human race has pretty much lived through it. May be somebody can correct me if I am wrong but my understanding of this disease has more to do with human genes and the way these genes function. sometimes they just do not behave the way they are intended too (controlling the life cycle of a cell) and hence we have the abnormal behavior ( cell overgrowth). The cure would be almost altering the genome sequence and make it behave the way which is good for human. In short, the cure might be nothing less than becoming a God.

I found the book "Emperor of all maladies" and started reading it. The book is really an engrossing read and I continued till some point in this book. But something prompted inside of me to just stop this reading. I was getting scared. Reading about a disease and how people live through it literally scared the "sh** out of me". Knowing that human race is trying hard to find a cure of this gene malfunction does not give a hope or a smile on the face.

So I decided to stop it but this does not in any way reflect the book's worth. If it came so close to make me feel the way I described, then it is indeed something. So try picking up this book and give it a shot. May be you might love reading this or maybe like me jut stop it. But as they say, "you cannot ignore it".

My achievement would be to have at least one more post before "Mar 4, 2013".

To Vote or not to

DISCLAIMER: - This is purely my viewpoint and does not in any way represent the opinion of certain class of people. I also don't subscribe to individual character slandering so I would abstain from taking a direct mention of any individual in this writing.

Every election time, there is a campaign run through various media channels (print, TV) asking people to vote. Symbol of index finger with a mark on it is shown as a very powerful medium urging people to go and use their fundamental right. But every time the election results show a dismal performance of poor turnout. And as expected, it is the urban society which bears the brunt of not having a substantial turnout. What plagues them? Additionally, I have been seeing the growing disenchantment of our youth towards this democratic exercise. Well, being part of both the strata (urban youth), I will try to analyse it from my view point.

I will pose some problems plaguing our current system. But I will try to propose resolutions for some things,(and just not crib) for which I have an answer for and for some things I don't, as they are more of ideological issues and not practically feasible options. Bringing revolutionary change (dismantling the current form of election system, or having a dual party presidential form of government) will be out of question but yes taking the best out of the current scheme of things is plausible.

As an urban educated Indian on the move, I believe, following things, if addressed, could bring me a step closer for me to cast my vote.

1) A Voting system flawed by the mechanism of Voter's list.
I am an Indian on the move. My name appears on the voter list of the place for which I was registered. so If I am at a different place , I need to undergo this administrative hassle of re-registering my name. People experienced in dealing with government machinery know what a hassle it can be. and indeed acts as detrimental to my motivation of taking out time and going to vote which turns out to be SUBSTANTIAL time and not only time. System can be changed if I have a single national identity (passport, PAN card, newly introduced UID scheme) using which I can vote anywhere. Let's use technology to its best to remove as much of human interference as possible bringing more authenticity into the system. Use of EVM was a step forward. Up linking the EVM results directly via satellite communication to central repository could be next. So no need to transport EVMs to a place where it needs to be stored involving further complications. Advent of broadband and DTH systems will help in removing these human interventions.

2) Whom to vote -- nobody is worthy?
I find a college of representatives present in the field. May be I am selfish, and I think which politician will represent my goals. Well who is not? Being urban educated does not mean that I will not have my hidden interests when I decide to vote. off course, rural India goes by the concept of buying vote. Its only urban places, (who form not more than 25% of Indian populace) try to use brains to find something useful coming out of the grand scheme of things.

Well as in corporate environment, there should be a gradation system in place for the current government. What is the Political manifesto of the party who is currently ruling and how much has it performed in its last rule as compared to its political manifesto.

This might work good from a party perspective but what about individuals whom I am going to vote.
2 ways of gradation.
what did politician do for his/her constituency
what did politician contribute in the national scheme of things.

Since, as of now, there is no provision for politicians having criminal cases against them to not to contest elections, there should be a central repository from where I can check the criminal records and then make my decision whether to cast my vote for a particular candidate.

If I know my constituency, I will study my representatives in detail and then will make a judgment. In the end, If I am not able to find a representative, I will have 2 choices who represent the kind of ideology I subscribe too. Either, I will join this bandwagon, or I won't vote. Later seems to be an easy way out.

3) Involvement of youth in Politics
and in the decision making system and not 60+ granddad. When I say youth, it is in the realm of political governance where even 40+ people qualify for this definition. Old people are less susceptible to change and will certainly like to keep things the way they are. One way :- not voluntary but mandatory retirement from active politics (or contesting elections to be more specific) after the age of 60. Election commission needs to take a call. youth will bring about a change and not oldies. Note that change can be for good or bad, which is difficult to say and will depend on the education system of our country. Ours is young country then why is it ruled by oldies? If someone says youth is not interested in running this system, then I would say to remove the grand dads and create a environment where there are opportunities for others to come in. And then the youth will respond.

4) Right of Not to vote.
If Bangladesh has accepted it as a norm in their voting system, why can't we? This might have it's repercussions, so it needs to be studied with different democracies of the world. 49-O(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49-O#Present_Implications_of_Rule_49-O) or the option of not voting does indeed violate secret ballot in principle as of now. But once "effectively" in place, it will act as a major driving force to bring about a change in the present context of things. Through secret ballot, I can express my displeasure on the way my constituency has been run. I will not choose the best amongst worst.

5) Corporate Governance
And its principles to be applied while running a government too. We need educated technocrats and bureaucrats to drive the certain ministries and not politicians. Why do we need to have aviation minister who is indeed a politician taking call on how to run Air India or what is the need of ministry of railways again an elected representative at all? Telecom minister may not know the difference between 2G and 3G networks, but are very efficient in getting money out of it. Off course, department of home , defence and finance needs a ministry of elected officials who need to make policies which is good for the country. This means shedding that extra flab (moving government control out of areas which it is not supposed to do). Or Government coming out of unnecessary areas. How this will influence my voting patterns? This will bring more transparency in the auditing and businesses will then run with profit and loss motive. Railways and Airlines were not created for mass employment and they don’t serve any social purpose. Governments role should be to enable businesses that will give employment and make sure that they serve the good of all the entities involved.

6) Well this is more of ideological issue apart from being a pertinent question. Do priests in temples, mosques, churches make money more than it is required when they are in position? They are serving god. Well some say, things have changed now and even the godmen are making money. I cannot argue on the same as this will drive my discussion in a different direction. You cannot make more money than required when you are politics. You serve for the good of mankind and for the good of society. Well, nobody can enforce this upon the people. Want to make money, get into corporate world. This is an open question and may not have any concrete solution. But this will certainly influence my voting pattern. I don’t want people getting elected and squandering my hard earned money which I give as income tax in scams. Greed no more my friend.

All said and done, system needs to adapt to the changing patterns. Off course there will be resistance and mostly from the one's whose position will be endangered when the common person is more empowered and in a better position to take decisions. What THEY want is a delusional state of existence and make their way out. What WE want is being part of a revolution.

Last year and Last decade

This one comes after a very long hiatus. So what better to write then for me to recollect my last year and in perspective , last decade too.

Thoughts about myself - Phew! not a remarkable year but a tremendous decade coming to an end. Coming times will bring with it , something know as "Mid life crisis". Get buckled up.

1) Started my engg. career with a relatively new university. 2000 Decision to take engrr as my career option changes the way where I am.
2) Started my professional life. Green paper. Money Honey 2004. First salary completely spent on home.
3) Fell in love and Got Married - 2009.

One way to recollect my memory of last year was through my facebook/twitter account. Social media does play its part in a lot of things around. well, Recency factor -- dont remember the things happened in the beginning of the year, will play its part.

All I can think of are some important things that happened with me in last year and will try to classify them in a monthly manner.

December

Decided to remember my year through FB and twitter status
Very active in Cityville
On a full running spree - health conscious
Had good time with friends in christmas . Got drunk with JD and sang some old songs . Pretty ususal me.
Finally visited lalbagh gardens which I planned from last 6 yrs. though not in flower show time. will try to take out time for the same may be in another 6 yrs.
disagreed with Times on the person of the year and agreed with FT for choosing steve jobs.
Tweeted an interesting quote
"kripya yahan dhumrapaan na karien, aapki zindagi ki koi keemat ho na ho, petrol ki keemat bahut hai."
Confused between IPTV and DTH
Did a movie marathon with biwi finally and did not sleep the whole night.
17th december - sneaked into SAP Labs annual party. Though not being part of that company but a sister company. and had a ball of a time. attended a music show after a
long time.Euphoria and man that rocked. Daaru and rock show good amalgamation.
How can I forget studying and making notes after 6 yrs I left the college. cleared certification exam. SAP Certified. Feels great,
did something unique , tried getting all my communication addresses changed to one address. Oh what a relief. 90% achieved.

November

November ended on a sweet note of me travelling to goa (mind you for the first time and that too as a married man :P) for my first anniversary. And boy it was a ball of
a time. Loved it and my wife too. :D. Had a taste or rather a bad one of the travel involved in my new job when I came back from philippines and was asked to travel to chennai on a short notice. Even though I had plans for my vacation. any ways, all's well that ends well and managed to sneek from the customer location in due course of time.travelled to philippines as part of my customer project and indeed it was a good time professionally, I would say. Where I got to learn a lot. Customer interaction and handling skills. All classroom trainings go for a toss when you have to get the moneyout of customer's pocket. Its all about being street smart.
Developed some differences in my professional life but yes was new to environment so had a tough time but slowly and steadily it all works.
Tried new brand of beer. San Miguel and boy it was great. also tried very hard to get iPhone4. well try goes on for this year too when I visit china.
Deewali not at home. all alone in bangalore with wifey going to lucknow and me stuck.

October

got my hands on drums after countless years gap and how much i say it felt great.
went with my wifey to watch the test match India vs aussie. in the sweltering and humid atmosphere. managed to get out sane.
got too involved in watching "How I met your mom" though left it after couple of months when the dude is still searching for wife even after 9 seasons.
Sasu maa visited us. did spent some good amount of time watching documentaries. I love them a lot.
10/10/10 10:10:10 happened. will happen 2 more times. watch out for it. 11/11/11 11:11:11 and 12/12/12 12:12:12
wife forced me into something which I am planning to take a revenge on her. Big Boss.

September

Oh how can I forget the amazing blackberry ad.
Urmilesh and shruti stayed with us. and had their house warming ceremony. good time with them.
moved from SAP Labs to SAP India

August.

Got a year older. no. not dosclosed :P. wifey gave a wonderful gift reminding me of the reality of life :P.
Oh how could I forget, 27th august -- Lost my longtime friend. My iPod. Cried , sobbed.
Friday the 13th.
Made a contribution to wikipedia. No financial but added/refined articles.

July

26th complete 6 years of professional experience. 6 years back started my career with Infosys on this day in 2004.eyes filled with promises and hope. down the lane, that
glimmer of hope still remains.
Watched Inception and was not at all disappointed.
oh football world cup. Spaniards were the resilient ones but the finals were not of that great quality.
Paul octopus. poor guy died few months later after all the predictions.

June.

ended with a much awaited vacation in pondicherry. needed it a lot.
Bus travelling to office used to be fun no more. Already changing jobs for good.

May
enjoyed with N97mini courtesy Jatinda

April
IPL finals in sports bar and Chennai made a roll of mumbai.
went to watch mumbai vs bangalore match with a big gang. and it turned out to be a big dud.

March
Watched the movie "No smoking" and boy it was an amazing one.

Feb
Tried my hands on google buzz and ran from it.
My prediction on IPad it might work after all and 11 months down the line, it does. I am the next nostradomaus
Wifey realized my temptation for coffee and got me a coffee maker.

Jan
Got our first car as a couple

The Great Recall

Disclaimer :- the views expressed here are my own. And its difficult to type with iPod touch's on screen keyboard. So please ignore my grammatical and spelling gaffe.  

Season of recalls starting from toyota, honda, maruti and the latest to join the, bandwagon hyundai recalling sonata. ( link :-  http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/5612218.cms )  

Looks like car manufactureres were taking the buyers for a ride by comprimising on quality. In a market cluttered with so many products, quality is one aspect which maintains the products differentiating factor. And being working in this domain, i know how much is the cost of quality for any car manufacturer. And they bear it to make sure that they maintain the edge against their competitor.

   Toyota incident opened a can of worms. Was it really needed for toyota to go ahead and take the attack  (attack because the auto industry was already mired in controversy over the so called BIG FALL - GM, Ford, Chevy) full face on? They could have very well buried the matter and nobody would have suspected them given the brand of toyota. It was this brand name which( in my opinion) forced them to take this step. One more example of exemplary corporate governance. But i will praise toyota for the way they handled this whole incident although they are unnecesarily being made the scape goat by the "hidden" lobbying being done by american car manufacturers.

   I will swear by toyota's quality. After all they have given the world some astounding quality principles which is applicable to any industry. IT does implement LEAN taken from toyota's stable.  

Can it be really possible?

With a barrage of reality TV shows storming the prime time television, and each of them challenging the human innovation to a new level, I am wondering as to what will be extreme end of it?

For sure the shows like "Sach ka Samna" which explores your hidden desires mostly confined to the bedroom or bathroom masturbation, or the marriage in full public domain, where the people get to see the intimate details which were till now considered a private affair.

And the most interesting part of this whole drama is that they are copied from a western show.

The next big thing would be Wife Swap.

Now what needs to be seen is if ever it is copied in the Indian format, will it be digestable by the Indian Audience. I dont think it will ever cross the boundaries defined by Censor Board.

Lets wait and watch this whole tamasha.

Up Up and away

after a ling time felt like writing something for the movie I saw and I felt that the start was a lot better than then ending. It was still a kids movie, but it touches the soft corner of your heart and the brief married life of ellie and Carl. The music that plays in the background does makes you engrossed in that little world of Ellie and Carl.

One takeaway for this movie was the little "Adventure book". And one can pretty much relate to a lot of things in life which is nothing else but the so called "Adventure book".Plan for it and then there is something else coming up.Delay it and will plan later.

Well there was this piece of article about the movie which I found over the net and thought of putting the same over here. Makes one feel indeed sad after reading it.

LINK

Do I smell something cooking

Well Google wave was awesome. Or may be just another addition to crowded market space. But one thing commendable about Google is that they carve out a market space for themselves. eg:- Chrome.

Well, Apple and Google together?? Wave's demonstration used a lot of apple products:- Safari , iPhoto to name a few...

what do you think? where is the future?? is somebody scared?? Offcourse in Apple's iphone comes preloaded with lots of google's product :)

dont know where the world is heading.... And as somebody said "I dont want to miss a piece of action"

Back to the basics

Felt a lot different when I moved from my Nokia Ngage (though it was worthless) to a very basic phone which was again a Nokia. It made me nostalgic about the whole stuff (as it was the first phone I bought) and gave me a feel of how simple the things can be.

> Monochrome interface
> Very fast
> Hassle free keyboard design
> Snake game :)
> That torch on the top
> ringtones that sound very mechanical

so it serves only one purpose, the make and receive a call. Well if convergence is the future than let me enjoy some time on this very basic stuff and then I can move on. In short, appreciate the simple things in life.

R.I.P.....

History is over

For people like me , who came from small town, he was the window to the west and the western music...... My first english song that I ever heard -> Dangerous.

BEAT IT

Waiting anxiously

Looks like my childhood fantasy.

IF...

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

--- Rudyard Kipling.

I have read this poem in my 10th standard. But still today it pretty much echoes within my self. Whatever is written over there is very difficult to follow.

It can be made easy by one simple answer to all the questions one has. It can be either "Yes" or "No". And from there on its like a simple flowchart diagram with decision boxes all along.

Middle finger to all those who say..."Its not as easy as you think"

Saw long time back and Remembered now

I saw the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" long time back.(rather this movie debuted on my iPod and I found a better way of commuting to office)

I never paid attention to something very significant. Why was "Happyness" misspelt? offcourse it was intentional.

Wikipedia has a long story to say on the same about Thomas Jefferson and United States declaration of independence.

Well I found something while surfing that appealed to me a lot.

"There is no Y(why) in Happyness, only I".

Interesting musing.

Very aptly expressed

Found in one of the Rediff's discussion forum.

"If this movie had shown Indians as slum dwellers, poverty ridden, racist, corrupt and had shown Westerners as compassionate and our saviors, this would have topped the charts and won a few Oscars.
The hypocrisy of the Western scoundrels is mind blowing.
I'm not saying these things dont exist in India but to relentlessly portray only the negative side of our country in virtually every movie amounts to racial stereotyping. And frankly I'm tired of the BS."

Thanks Mr. Vijay M for echoing the same sentiments which was brewing in my mind since I saw this movie. Couldnt get words for it.

Flickr- thumbs up

I dont know whether Picassa offers this feature or not. But Joining various photography interest groups in Flickr has rekindled my interest in this pretty costly venture( After all some passions are not easy to follow.)

But I dont know whether the photographs are copyrighted?

Religion and us

When one person suffers from delusion it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from delusion it is called Religion
- Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.

Very apt with what is happening in
1) Mangalore (Attack on the churches)
2) Nun's Rape in orissa
3) Bomb blasts throughout India

And incidentally, these are the times when one needs religion the most. As it provides you the strength to endure the pain caused.But its like an opium in the hands of fanatics.

All I need to say is wake up my friends and watch around before its too late and the scars which no time can heal.

The song that plays in the background.(Pink Floyd)

Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
Did you ever wonder
Why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky

Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye blue sky

How dare you Mr. President?

I could not stop laughing my heart out or to be more generous lungs out when I read this news in ToI.( well I expect this from ToI as it was present on their front page).

There are 2 conclusions that I can draw from the same.

1) One of the very weird fatwa's
2) Mr. Sarkozy(with all due respect to the french people) would be hanged.People say that why am I after him.( after all he got the prettiest of all).

My experiment with 55 :D

He stands in the middle of the D wearing a blue jersey, facing the green one and on the verge of making history.The refree whistles. A moment of silence. Blue is kneeling down at the same place surrounded by greens with his face sunk in his chest. Brazil rejoices while Italy can't believe.

A Hero falls.

An instance from the penalty shoot out in the 1994 world cup which brazil won because Roberto Baggio could not convert the decisive penalty.

To cut a long story short

I read about the concept of 55 fiction (wikipedia link) while doing some random surfing. And indeed it is a very potent idea.

Just go through this blog \Love and Longing. Aptly titled. I am pretty much sure anybody can conjure an idea in 55 words but can it be as moving and potent?