Trading 101

Some truths about trading you should know.

1. If you haven’t made a loss you haven’t started. Trade a bit more. Lose some, don’t overanalyse.

2. Game Theory. Period.
(Read up, learn and apply)

3. If you are just starting, start with Equities. Options can burn you way too much in the beginning and futures will confuse you. The level of speculation which takes place in these two will confuse you way too much in the beginning and leave little to analyse.

4. Record. Learn excel, Record failures and wins. Always helps.

5. Stop loss is critical. A stitch in time doesn’t save nine. It saves billions.

6. No offense but you’re instinct is shit. Distrust it like the Indian police. It’s only there to get you and screw you over.

7. Aesop was right in its fables. Patience is a virtue, greed is not. Once you’re objectives are fulfiled GTFO.

8. The internet is a great place to learn, including forums. It is also the worst place to go search for ‘tips’.

9. Remember you just need around 25-30% sucess rate of calls to breakeven. (Kinda like pen-n-paper CAT) That is, if you are planning to follow protip # 5.

10. Stay in the game only if you love it. It’s fascinating and has its shares and agony and ecstacy. The learning is steep and you’ll both love and hate it.

Of Trichy and Calcutta

It has been long enough and I do it with increasing frequency, so I’ll quit it with the excuses and get on with it.

IIM Calcutta Term One is over, but not over for me. Yours truly has done too much due diligence on one subject you see. Also somehow the end of a term here does not feel like one. For two reasons.

1. I am in my home town. No more spending the day at the Chennai Airport, or fighting with strangers Tams on Trichy-Chennai night-trains, or fighting with autowallahs in a language unknown to both. Yes, no more putting up with all that so that I can taste Mum’s food.

2. The holiday is a miserly over the Sat-Sun weekend, so there you go. Shortest term break ever.

Strange things have been happening throughout this year(as we approach 2012, just kidding). Its raining way too much in Calcutta this year, and yesterday we had an earthquake mini-tremor in Calcutta. Never before as far as my memory goes has Calcutta danced to Nature’s tunes.

IIMC is frenetic with its pace and its the old adage of either you keep up or get left behind keeps coming true. Once upon a time in Trichy, I used to keep checking my Gmail for relevant emails and now I absolutely abhor opening my IIMC mail for fear of new notifications. Ironic but not so sad. Once upon a time in Kharagpur, I used to fight for IPs to download serials and now IPs are so underutilized that I literally don’t have any waiting time between episodes. Once upon a time in Ahmedabad, I used to marvel at the internet speed, but the one at IIMC has literally put the LAN speeds to shame. Sometimes I’m better off downloading an episode rather than waiting in queue for one in DC.

The parties in IIMC are in stark contrast to the lazed out sessions we had in Trichy, stoned out, staring at the night sky, beaming at the constellations wondering where we’d be after graduate, worries like placements and grades and attending 8.30s which seem so effing trivial now. We had endless garrulous metaphors instead of beer-drunk party brazenness  , Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden blaring from a cheap cell phone speaker over cheezy multi woofer remixes (like the beats you’d hear from a Persian’s guys car) and oh, the roof, why in the name of everything that is holy, don’t we have a roof ? The jetty by all means is not high enough, rooms are claustrophobic and corridors are full of curious onlookers. Oh, roofs would definitely be the end-karma for every level of inebriation in any institute. Not fucking rooms converted into mini boom boxes.

But with all due respect to the South and the West, and I’ve spent substantial amounts of time in both of these hallowed portals, IIMC is absolutely the most beautiful campus ever. And in the rains, even the overflowing lakes looks so beautiful, I take it upon as a personal pleasure to wade to class. The new academic buildings has a nice touch of modern architecture to it (I know a thing or two owing to my Civil liaisons) and are thankfully not left thread bare for the world to see and devoid of any punched holes in between. (With all due respect to Louis Kahn)

I find it amusing how Engineers here(like me) term anything which cannot be quantified in numerics as globe and as a result hate them with a deep anchoring bias. We happen to be subject to a lot of subjects which are heavy on paragraphs after paragraphs of textual data and seemingly abstract concepts and it has literally created a huge furore with the majority engineers that we have amongst us. Somehow I think, in future, we’ll all sit back and thank IIMC for teaching us how to globe the shit out of presentations.

New Beginnings

So after battling against all odds, we are at IIM Calcutta. Ah, the shenanigans we have been fed with over the years – hallowed portals, the Day zeros and the nightouts. We are through all that and living it. Then isn’t this supposed to be the good life ? The one we fought with over a hundred thousand others to achieve ? So when the Marketing prof asks your value addition to the class when you arrive exactly 17 seconds late, you are bound to have a good hard look at your career path rather than running through the grind. The sab ‘moh maya hain’ phase sets in, quizzes where one fought over 0.5th of a mark becomes drudgery, the assignments become a chore to get done with.

With all due respect to an MBA degree from an IIM, it’s is none of the coats and suits and bells and whistles you read about, it’s more of insomniac filled brains and tired groggy eyes, trudging toward the 8:30 class like it’s the final conquest of Malli Mastan Babu, filling a zillion forms for the Con and party like there’s Armageddon tomorrow.

And then there’s the CV, the 8 page demon, which makes the 18 page SOPs filled during GRE app seasons look like upper kindergarten Numbers homework. The proof gathering, the begging and so many others, the trade-offs, it’s indeed between the proverbial rock and a really hard place. I wonder what prevents people from going ‘bonkers’ (pardon the colloquial British). Then, all of a sudden , sitting one afternoon in the class, I look at the golden sunlight filling in through the large Frenchies, as people fight it out inside over how a gentlemen called Freud could have had thoughts which could have an impact on 21st century corporates reeling under employee attrition and motivation. Then it strikes me, it’s the beauty of the place, the amazing peers, the professors, the seniors, the sink-or-swim togetherness. The panoramic view one gets from the glass windows from the proper side of the classrooms, puts one into a late afternoon stupor. He relives the days when he was slogging it out for CAT, the euphoria over his first placement, the jumping up at all the revered BLACKI calls (and some other alphabets to ruin the jumbled word), the procrastination of GDPI preps, the frayed nerves before the GD, the fight during, the interviews and finally the convert. And suddenly he realises, he’s sitting in a classroom at IIM Calcutta, the very place he’s aspired for all his life. What on earth can he complain about? So far, so fucking good.

4 Years of Internet Deprivation

You smug asshats who study in a college with internet and LAN have little idea of how ardous life is without them in college life. Not that I’d expect you to know, since we are the only college still plumbing our misty way through the prehistoric technology age, where electricity is very much a luxury (Even when India plays Pakistan in WC semi finals).

Let me then tell you about the brutal realities of life without the internet. To start of with, you’re not on Facebook often – which is pretty much the social crime of the century, so that when you do go online you are flooded with seventy million notifications (sixty nine of those from Farmville), you don’t own a Twitter account and think LinkedIn is still a place to link other social networking sites. People back home ,think you’ve joined the Qaida and you quickly become a social outcast to anyone outside the wrought iron gates.

Examinations are the worst. The main transfer medium is gone, so people flock in numbers to the one hallowed person in the hostel who has achieved super stardom by getting hold of an overachievers notebook and taken high resolution pictures of it. In an internet enabled campus, it’d be matter of upload on DC an let everyone know on the newsfeed. Better still ping on Gtalk and transfer files. But in our campus, it involves plugging your pendrives into a million laptops and copying data from all over the place, while your pendrive becomes a raging beehive for viruses and malwares collected from all over the hostel ready to jump onto your drives as soon as it gets its chance. And Lord save those without a pen-drive, begging for pendrives on a pre-exam night is not quite the same as begging for toothpaste in the morning.

Organizational bottlenecks were quite the pain in the posterior as well. Organising events on the scale of what we do in NITT requires a lot of internet-savvy skills. Sending out publicity mails, were nightmarish, and restricted to the Heads of verticals who had taken the snail-speed but overtly costly wireless connections just to get the cranky wheels moving. Public relations are of course a nightmare, for someone who has participated in a lot of events around the country, I’d have to admit our public relations is on the wrongside of the average. Replies take days to come, some clarifications get forgotten. Things have improved over the last one-two years with a lot of people opting for the aforementioned snailers.

Lastly, the LAN, the recent movies, serials, documentaries, recorded matches and gaming – has all but turned farcical in our beloved college. In some colleges it is given that the recently released movie will be available on the LAN on the D+1 day, that weekend-nights will be nothing but gaming, not 4-5 people on a makeshift ad-hoc, but a full-on 40-50 people in an eternal battle. Lets not even get into how we have the worst TV show culture in our college. Left without choices, we are subjected to repeated horrors of mainstreams of the HIMYMs and the Prison Breaks for eternity.

Like I mentioned before, things have started improving with people resorting to slow wireless options shelling money out of their own pockets, which hardly suffice and should I add, only add to the enormous waste of time. We live in an age when movie tickets, train tickets, music, entertainment, news, opinions and a host of other things are in this other world. Significantly, we live in an age where the internet is a human right. Forget the many other benefits which are more or less first world to us in terms of internet access, like being able to research on a interesting topic, or take part in meaningful debates, or participate in international competitions. Even beyond these, there are some basic rights which every college goer shoudl enjoy like being able to talk over Skype with friends or being online on Gtalk. To be a part of a college which claims itself to be top-notch, and also stuck inside a cyber prison with no contact with the outside world, is such an abomination. You have a done many an awesome thing for me, NITT, but you’ve also deprived me of a human right for four long years. And it hurts.

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IIM Ahmedabad Interview Experience

IIMA Experience.

Essay

Topic “ Indian society too short-cut centric” or something like that.

Rough page given. Not used. Also, don’t if you are a fluid writer. Essay was pretty decent. My hot streak in GD/Essays continued. Gave 2-3 examples. Finished well before the 10 min. time limit. Looked around, people were feverishly scribbling around.

PI

Prof P1 : The one who raped me on Acads

Prof P2 : Asked co-currics and extra-acads.

P1 : So, Srinjoy, what was the hot discussion outside ?

ME : Nothing much, just explaining some Bong stuff to people outside.

P1 : So, Kolkata, eh ? Srinjoy from the City of Joy.

ME : City of Palaces too, Sir (Not wanting a philosophical discussion on happiness, life etc. Trying to divert)

P1 : So Civil Engineering ? Do you like Civil ?

< TROUBLE  >

ME : Yes, Sir. Pretty interesting. (Why do you think, I’m here if I liked Civil so much ? )

P1 : Okay favourite subject.

My next answer would prove to be my nemesis. Huge mistake on my part.

ME : Solid Mechanics.

Solid Mechanics is interpreted differently in Civil and Mech. The Prof had Mech background and the ripping apart started. I had meant to say “Strength of Materials”. Digging graves, yours truly.

P1 : Okay, so look at this bottle. (Mineral water bottle). Note closely the vertical seals which get broken, when I open it.

P1 :Okay ?

P1 : What are the forces acting when the seal is broken ?

ME : (Jumping up ) Torsional Forces !!

( Totally wrong. Torsional forces act on rotating bodies not the vertical members. )

P1 : Just that ? (Playing around)

ME : Yeah Shear Forces, since area is parallel to direction of force.

P1 : What ? How ? Which area ?

(Again right force mentioned, but wrong reasoning)

ME : Fumbling around.

P1 : Draw the member and show me the forces.

ME : Draws and show the direction of forces.

P1 : Why forces in both directions ?

ME : Components in X and Y directions ?

P1 : What are they called ?

ME : ??? (No idea) Repeated Shear forces.

P1 : Okay what about the middle part ? What causes the bending ?

Me : Bending Forces. There’ll be a bending moment due to the Shearing effect. (Correct)

ME: Just like in a span of a bridge…

P! : (please stick to what asked, not bridges)

Yaar, Civil Engineer hun.  Maine kabhi bottles ko uss nazar se dekha nahi !!

ME:  Okay the bending forces will create a crack in the middle. Sheared off and hence seal broken. (No idea if what I said was correct, at all )

P1 : Okay draw a rigid beam. Apply a force at a point 60% from one side.

Me : done

P1 : Tell me the forces acting on the fixed ends.

ME: (Blanked out) Can’t remember !!

P1 : Nothing to remember. Just look and say.

(Actually there was a formula for moments. I am not sure if the forces was to treat it as a simply supporterd beam)

Me : Totally stuck. Draw some arbit directions.

P1 keeps confusing me. I change stances. Draw arbit diagrams.

P1 : Okay draw a hinge and its FBD. Beam on its ends with forces in the middle.

ME : Totally fumbled. Never heard of FBDs in hinges. Draw moments.

P1 : there’ll be a moment in the hinge ?

ME : Nope. Sorry my bad. Free rotation.

Continue drawing some arbit forces. All over the place. Horrible mess.

P1 :  So now that you have drawn forces. Acc to Newton, Force is mass times acceleration…..

ME : ( Know where this is going ) No sir, there will be resistive forces as well….. blaberring ….total mess……. Stuck………Ominous silence …… etc.

P2 comes to life and comes to the rescue.

P2 : Okay, Srinjoy leave that. You worked under X at IIMA last summer on Y. (Has gone through my certificates in detail )What was your sources ?

Me : Science direct and some other research papers. I was given an account by X.

(Truth : Was given an account. Never used it. Wiki-ed everything and wrote in my words )

P2 : What is the status of the paper ?

ME : Explained. Gave reasons. Cost analysis left, for which need to visit stations. Etc.

P3 : What was your conclusions ?

Me : Explained the technology used in India, etc. Why we do this, that etc.

P2 : This toh, we all know. What were your findings ?

ME : Explained in detail. (Only silver lining in an otherwise bleak affair)

P2 : You invest in equity and derivatives ?

Me : Only Equity Sir.

P2 : Explain parameters.

ME : Explained in as much detail. Parameters. Ratios.  Market Sentiments etc.

P2 : Market sentiments as in ?

ME : Explained reaction. Indian Budget Effect . Libya Oil Crisis. (Not much airtime, short answer)

P2 : So advise me to invest in two sectors.

Me : Banking and Infrastructure. Explained economic outlook over the next year. Added possibility of FDI influx in infra due to relaxed norms in infra. New Banking licenses by RBI to boost banking. Gave example of Yes Bank, India’s fastest growing NBFC.

P2 : So whats the other form of analysis ?

Me : Technical Analysis.

P2 : How do you go about it ?

Me: I don’t trade on price action, Sir. There are oscillators and MACDs I don’t really understand in detail, so don’t venture into such a strategy etc.

(I have a basic knowhow on these, and do actually trade on momentum drives based on SMAs and EMAs but was low on confidence at that point)

P2, P1 : Okay. Thank you.

Thanked and left. Completely flattened.

Extra-acads went superb. IIMA intern also answered well. No questions on my startup, kinda depressing. Acads was horrible. Bloodbath, ripped apart.

Very less chances. IIMA has a reputation of stressing on acads, as you all know. If a miracle just happens, will be solely due to my IIMA profs good review, which P2 read, otherwise will be a hot day in Norway, if this converts. No hopes.

Please give me your reviews as comments etc.

Thank you for reading.

Edit:

As predicted, A dinged me. Perhaps, screwign up acads in an A interview is severely dealt with. A lot of my friends have missed out because of this. In my case, it was ridiculously unfair. It was pretty much basic mechanical engineering, and I wouldn’t have known most of it, even if I were a ten pointer (given A’s obsession with acads). The fact that an IIMA intern and a paper published there couldn’t help my cause is pretty depressing.

IIM Calcutta Interview Experience.

GD was stupendous.  Gave a lot of examples and original ideas. Spoke the most. Helped others.

PI

Three Panel Members. I was in Panel 10 (For those of you at ML, Beng on the 8^th Morning)

The room was dimly lit. Almost too dimly lit to make you feel sleepy. But after a stupendous GD I was all fired up and ready to face/defend whatever was thrown at me.

One was the alumnus. The one who had ‘nerd’ written all over his face. Must be an investment banker since he entirely diverted my hobby into a full on discussion on finance and investing. He was trying to sound very disinterested and tried to put up a stud-like attitude. (Smart-ass : SA)

Middle Prof , seemed Bengali, very well articulated flow of language, clear and crisp in questions, ready to help. (clarify the questions as in) (Serious Guy : SG)

The last prof who helped in moderating the GD, mostly remained silent but was enthusiastic whenever he asked questions and kept smiling all the time. Bengali, surely, from his accent. ( Enthu-prof : EP)

After the customary Good afternoons, I was seated in the middle. Lots of glasses and snacks on the table.

SA starts.

SA : So looking at your form, I believe you are a risk oriented guy. Why do I say that ?

Me : Because of Entrepreneurship and Equity-trading.

SA : How much have you invested in stocks ?

Me : Blah, blah.

SA : Returns ?

Me: Blah-blah. Mentioned recession lost money then again upsurge in Indian Markets.

SA: No leave all that. From start till end. Portfolio appreciation.

Me: Said

SA : Your general strategy ?

Me : I keep 60% large caps as fixed, and 40% I trade on a rolling weekly basis. These may be whatever I find interesting, or which shows particular momentum etc.

SA : So what all do you consider ? U mentioned fundamental analysis. Leave aside all PE and other ratios. Other than those.

Me : Market sentiments, news, external factors, political stability.

SA : Oh, really ?

SA : We shall come back to trading later. Lets start with your startup.

SG : What is it about ?

Me : said in detail about the business model, basics of operation etc.

SA : I dint really get that. Who are your clients/target ?

Me : Explained based on two divisions.

SG : Okay .. Tell me is it profit or non-profit ?

Me: Profit, but it has the social aspect of eradicating poverty etc.

SG : How do you make money then ?

Me : Explained the two-pronged revenue scheme.

SG : Okay. Tell me the division of total revenues from both.

Me : 60% and 40% explained my reasons.

SG : Where did you get the data from ? Don’t go on about the idea. Just tell me about your data source for target audience, your estimates etc ?

Me : Explained the two main sources of data.

<SG seems satisfied>  SA meanwhile is hell bent on taking my case.

SA: Tell me a good reason why it might not work out.

Me; Explained the challenges in getting the database built etc. (Handled this numerous times during my Bplan ppt, so was pretty easy)

SG : Did you analyse your market competition.

Me: X does the same thing with a narrow based model. Explained difference in approach. Etc.

SG : X operates in ?

ME; Old Delhi

SG : Your startup ?

Me : Gurgaon ?

SG : So locking horns ?

Me : Yes Sir at one point our paths will intersect.

SG : Give me three bullets what X has done wrong and you intend to implement it when you go afloat.

Me: Gave 3 solid reasons. Well prepared.

SA : Lets talk about your equity investments, then.

Me : ??

SA : Heard of portfolio modeling ?

Me : ( WTF ? ) No

SA : So you dunno what PM is and you have been investing in equity for Y years. Fantastic.

Me : Sir, I understand and I do diversify my risks across various sectors to minimize chances of major losses. (Guessing the definition as I speak)
EP  comes to life

EP : So why do us Indians don’t go for stocks instead of fixed deposits ?

Me : Sir, it is a matter of mentality, the savings mentality that we Indians have

EP changes expression. I change my line of reasoning.

…. Also, the time you need to invest to take care of your investments is very limited for working professionals. So the safer option is FD.

EP : Yes, it’s a problem even we professors of Finance have. <smiles> But why not go for bonds. What is it about stocks that prevents us the most. ?

ME : The risk !!

EP : Risk, eh ? Define Risk.

Me : (Give a totally lame definition.)

EP : No think and say.

Me : Risk in this context is the probability of you getting you capital invested back with an ROI.

EP : ROI ?

Me : (defines ROI)

EP :So time is an issue with trading eh ? What would you advise me ?

ME :  Go for mutual funds.

EP : Again, risk !!

Me : (stuck) safer bonds etc…

SG : So how often do you trade in a week ?

Me : Depends on market activity. Flat markets 1ce/2ce a week, otherwise 3 times a week.

EP : How many times did you trade in the last month ?

Me: 8-10 times.

EP : Gimme names.

Me : Biocon, Yes Bank, Indian Bank, DLF, Syndicate Bank, IFCI etc.

EP :Tell me the brokerages you paid for them.

Me : ( Do some mental calculations of brokerages and tell them.) Fairly correct.

EP :No tell me individual brokerages.

Me: Told. (Might be wrong)

SA : Tell me Biocons price at whch you sold ?

Me: 350 odd.

SA: Over the past month ?

ME : Yeah (spot on, I sold Biocon at 356 but in late January, since then it has fallen to 320 odd)

SA : You talk about market sentiments a lot, What is that ?

ME: Said Libyan crisis may affect oil stocks ?

SA : Which all ?

Me : ONGC, IOCL (Might be wrong, on dangerous territory here)

SA, SG looks on suspiciously

Me: Due to the crisis, Brent Crude prices have soared and hence, market sentiment on these scrips will be negative, since these will affect expected revenues, unless they have hedged oil prices before.

SG :Are you sure ??

Me : Yes Sir.

SG : What else ?

ME: Political instability. DMK Cong split might send the prices falling.

SA : So lets say, SBI will its prices go down today if DMK announced split ?

Me:  SBI as it is , it is overvalued, looking at its fundamentals….other factors…

SA : No stop, just due to this cause, how much will SBI go down today ?

ME: Market sentiment will be weak, all stocks will take a beating …so will a large cap like SBI

SA :Gimme a number.

Me: Thinking …… 3% fall.

SG : Will you put your father’s saving into that advice ?

ME: If my research is positive I will.

SG : No, will you short sell ? You know short selling right ?

ME: Yes, but I don’t go short. I always go long.

EP, SG  : Why Why ?

Me : I tried shorting in day trading a few times, dint work out…so don’t do it anymore.

SG : But if you can go long, you can go short easily ?

Me : Sir, it’s a matter of confidence now. I just don’t do it.

SA : So do you look at detailed annual reports ?

Me: No sir, I just follow the condensed format, since trading is just a hobby I am happy to follow it in a limited way.

SA: So you don’t know what is portfolio modeling, don’t read balance books in detail.

ME: Tried to explain importance of ratios, liquidity etc, but In vain.

SA :So what if people buy the stocks at the right price, you are one day late and left behind.

ME: Even between the optimum buying and selling points there is enough space to make profits if you take on the right momentum drive.

EP : What is that beta you talked about ?

Me :No sir, I said price/book value ratio, not beta.

EP :I heard beta.

ME : Anyways, I can explain. Took two examples 1.1 and 0.49 and explained how each will follow Sensex or vary from it.

EP : So which is higher ?

ME: 0.49 will show more volatility. As it is further from 1.

SA : Okay, so tell me about your project at IIM Ahmedabad ?

ME:  Told, as much as I could.

SA :No briefly !!

ME : Said.

SA : Conclusions.

ME : Explained why certain technologies cannot be implemented in India now due to huge capital requirements etc.

SA: Okay, we are done.

Thanking everyone, smiles appearing. SA was busy with his notes at all times.

I later came to know it was the longest interview of all IIMC ones at my batch. 35 minutes. Too long. My throat was dry to the core.

They remained skeptical at all times. But were listening and always let me finish my sentences.Was it a stress interview ? I don’t know.

Edit : Beta Answer totally wrong. My answer is actually a popular misconception.

So much probing on my hobby was kind of unfair.

SBI answer correct, while the oil prices answer might be a bit shady.

Also, hoping they understood my business model properly and the revenue schemes. MArketing is is the focal aspect of my startup and I wish SA had allowed me to explain the 5-point programme I had so carefully designed.

Edit :

IIM Calcutta Converted… They don’t say “the more you get raped, the better are your chances”. Also, maybe they did like the versatility and risk taking appetite in my profile. I still remember “Risk-oriented guy, huh ?”.

USA – Then and Now

In 1996, we visited the US of A. Not for a purpose any different from tourism.

And we loved it. Maybe it was the fact that our only foreign experience before that was Singapore, three years back. Or maybe it was the fact that USA was still relishing the after-effects of a fantastic decade. Or maybe it was the California effect, you know, sparkling roads, freeways, huge supermarkets, cell-phones, malls, fast-food eat-outs, you know the drill. This was 1996 and India was still a decade away from these things. But there was something else about that country, which we loved more than anything else.

We were in Anaheim, CA. We had checked out of our hotel early in the morning and spent the whole day in Disneyland. It was a mind-blowing experience. I had read and read and read about Disneyland wherever I could, (No YouTube back then  L) and to see and experience all that by myself was overwhelming. I couldn’t wait to get back to Stephen’s to show off. So after a whole long day, we were tired and making our way back to the Bus stand. Which the “May I Help You” guys said was just a 15 min walk from the gate. Now remember we had checked out of our hotel in the morning and in America, they don’t have cloakrooms. People don’t carry luggage; they buy stuff on the road. So we were carrying a lot of luggage but still a 15 min walk was easy enough.

But the problem is America was a land of freeways and expressways. The transportation network is a web of complicated exits and intersections and a good thirty minutes later, after getting totally exhausted hauling the luggage through the footpath, we discovered we were just as far as we can get from the bus stand. To top it all, our bus to San Francisco left in just about 20 min. Tired and exhausted, with the night approaching, even Taxis were hard to get by. We were a family of 7 with as many as three kids and getting stuck on small town such as Anaheim for another night would have been disaster.

We located a small car rental service closed for the day nearby. We went in and told our situation to a very bored American who, it seemed, was just getting ready for dinner. He had one look at the great Indian family that we are, and promptly opened his garage and hauled out his huge SUV. We reached the bus-stand just in time for our Greyhound. That guy did not charge a cent. Now that was the best thing about that tour. American hospitality.

I can, if I want, cite a few more similar experiences as well, but let’s not bore you. Just think how Indians would have reacted to such a situation. If you have gone around in India a lot, you will know how Indians literally plunder American or any western tourists who come to India. Half a thousand for keeping your shoes and a host of other hostilities if you don’t pay up. Isn’t India renowned for its hospitality? Wonder what the West thinks about when we talk of our hospitable culture.

On another note, five years later on a fateful September morning, two planes rammed into two very important buildings on the opposite coast of America. And it forever changed how Americans looked at us Indians, Pakistanis or any brown-skinned Asians. Hostilities and mistrust have cropped up. People have got divided. Boundaries built where they should not exist. I shudder to think how that American in Anaheim would have reacted to seeing a stranded Indian family now.

I wish I could go back to 1996, when most of the Americans had not heard about Afghanistan or Iraq.

Of Ahmedabad and Gujarat

I have landed in the most prosperous state of India.

And it shows vividly.

It shows in the amazing roads and transport network. It shows in the never ending lack of power. It shows in the constant supply of water everywhere even though last seen Sabarmati looked like a never-ending football ground. Gujarat it seems has championed the modern version of roti-kapda-makaan which is jal-sadak-bijli. If you ever had any doubts whether NDA’s India was shining , Ahmedabad, the pin-up city of Modi’s Gujarat, is a superb example.

The first thing that struck me was how Gujarat has seen and overcome the horrors of its past. Through ravaging earth-quakes and the worst riots in the country, it has seen it all, yet it has not hampered its growth in any way. Businesses are thriving, infrastructure is mind-blowing and the array of flyovers have no sign of the Richter breaking quakes that had ripped apart the city.

I sometimes wonder if Gujarat functions like China, a communist state within democracy, with extra emphasis on growth

Of Google Status Messages

Have you ever realized how something as trivial as Google status messages be an object of discussion ? Probably not, but in an age where a group of IIMC students got top grades for their behavioral economics project on Philadelphia and where supply chain professors in IIM-A are attending Film Studies classes, the world seems to be full of possibilities. Only, you have to learn to look.

Think about it, can there be a difference between the status messages “Busy” and “DND” (Meaning, Do Not Disturb of course). I unconsciously knew there was a difference without really knowing it. First here are my observations. Keeping “Busy” as my status message never served the purpose. People simply never got the message, hence I had to switch to DND which surprisingly put an end to “hey wasp”s and “hello dude”s. Surprising, isn’t it. Both mean quite the same thing but evoke different reactions from people. I have tried to explain it in my way.“Busy” is a standard template built-into Gtalk hence people take it for granted- “He’s not really busy, he just forgot to change his status message” but it seems “DND” creates a no-entry kind of image which people have apprehensions about and hence ping only if it’s really important. The rate at which DNDs are spreading , I’m sure the day is not far when people will take DND itself for granted and further variants such as “Please DND” would emerge (though it has already, some users currently employ it at times).

Of course another trend is staying invisible which in my opinion completely negates the purpose of being online itself (unless like you know that your Other One knows that you are online and want to chat undisturbed). Google apparently doesn’t really encourage these things, it seems. They have limited this feature to only on Gmail but not on Gtalk. The ones you find on Gtalk are hacked ones,not actual installations. Which kind of makes sense, since you know you would not want others to bother you if you just checked in to see if you have important mail.

Gtalk status messages have come off age. Just like with other web products somehow Google always manages to take its products to one level up the hierarchy. It’s the fastest, runs on snail-speed connections and the interface can’t get any simple. Status message these days vary from being funny quotes to ego-boosting (Such as “at Deutche Bank,Mumbai”,”@Munich”,etc ) to emotions (“Frust”,tired”etc) to simple news headlines( “Sachin scores 200”,”Union budget coming up”).Sometimes I give way to the slander as well especially on days when Liverpool beats any of the Big Four. (My status read “Manure raped at Theatre of Screams” after the 4-1 drubbing by Liverpool last year). Google keeps finding more convenient ways of people communicating with each other.

Waiting, waiting for my turn to come

I have been on a hiatus from NIT Trichy Inc., primarily because of my final Sem exams and also since I have been writing for another website as well. This will be my first personal post in a long time. Right now, here I am , staring at some 3 hours, stranded at the Mumbai CST International Airport till 5 AM in the morning with what seems to be like two really opinionated (and loud) Greek passengers for company.

You see I have an internship at IIM A over the summer. I flew down to Kolkata and had to painfully leave my home town within 24 hours for Mumbai where I would be taking the early morning flight tomorrow bound for Ahmedabad. To add to my inconvenience of course, the flight is from the international terminal and is overbooked, and if I miss it I will be stranded here for another twelve hours, and royally screwed of course.

The infrastructure at the Mumbai Airport is fantastic. I last visited CST international Airport when I was on my way to Stockholm via Paris and that was a really long time ago. This airport I am sure can match any other in the world in terms of infrastructure, carrying capacity, and of course aestheticism. The free international terminal transport service via shuttle that AAI offers was a fantastic experience. Fantastic because the shuttle takes you through the inside of the Airport wiggling between planes. We actually had to wait (like Mumbai traffic signal waiting) for an indignant looking Air France to squeeze itself between two oriental sisters (A sleepy Thai and a boarding Singapore Airlines) as a Continental Airways gleefully whistled by.

The waiting area outside the terminal however resembles what India epitomizes to the world- crowded, chaotic and erratic. Wish they would make the waiting area more accessible and made the walking area a bit broader so that I wouldn’t have to literally fight to enter the airport. The airport is business as usual or maybe more than that with so many people of various nationalities littering the check-in area. I have a long wait and a low battery life, hence will be signing off. Lets waste the remaining five minutes on “Mercy Me” by Alkaline Trio. It might be long time I hear any music again. Hope I get the seat. Lord save me !!

Primary Education and India

When the Government came up with the OBC quota much was said about the deplorable condition of primary education in India and how the Government must look for avenues to improve basic education which points towards a better solution to the education crisis in India.

The Government recently came up with the Right To Education (RTE) which directs private schools to reserve 25% seats for the poor children. Central schools also come under the purview of the law. Its primary objective goes as such : till now the concept of free-lunch for attending school has been a dismal failure for the simple fact that even if a poor child goes to a school there is a huge difference in quality between municipal/panchayat schools and Central/Private schools. So even after spending the crores we are back to square one. Reservations in private schools aim to provide access to quality education for backward children.

Of course now the challenge will be to fend off the huge section of lobbyists of private education market who will definitely leave no stone unturned in making sure the Bill stays on paper. A good balance to ward off such conflicts will be for the Government to offer incentives and financial remuneration to private players. The stigma associated with sending one’s ward to such private schools can be taken care of by strictly imposing the rules such that better-off parents are left with no other choice.

Private schools will definitely come out hard on such quota rules and regulations and will try its level best to work within the system such as creation of different classes for different people (under false pretences of merit), altering time schedules etc. , but here the great Indian Media plays a very important role. You must have noticed how the number of “Save Trees”, “Stop Smoking” campaigns promoted by these private schools has increased off late. So while there is an attempt to promote social causes through pedantic events such as these, they have no real social responsibility to live up to when the time and need arises. The media is responsible in defaming an institute/private school when and if it attempts to bypass the Govt. Laws and look to promote discrimination.

Corporate Social Responsibility : An Example

 

Ventura 10 came to an end and I had a lot of takeaways,indeed .

The respective speeches by Dr. Dinesh Awasthi and Mr. Nawalkar quite made up for the losses of Dr. PK Padhari and Mr. Sanyukt Saha.

I especially loved a part by Awasthi where he relayed the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility something , entrepreneurs, businessmen and managers seem to be in short measure of, these days, given how it requires investment in both time(strategy-charting) and resources(men and money), while yielding what is seemingly low returns.

But then we are past the nineties and the noughties, aren’t we ? Everything doesn’t run on the paragons of investment and optimization now. CSR is a responsibility, a requirement – not an investment anymore.

Take the case of how the TATAs function in the heartlands of Naxal-ridden Bihar and MP. Some districts in these places are so intensely volatile that even the Government doesn’t dare to go in, leave alone interfere. Yet somehow the TATAs have managed to function without any hindrance. They have employed hundreds and thousands, invested lakhs in basic infrastructure like water-supply and education, such that for the locals its impossible to pursue life without them. A standing example of how CSR can yield results, provided they are employed with the right intentions and sustained throughout.

Musings

Just some 3 quotes from 2 movies I’d seen back some time ago.

“ 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there’s, like, two million people on the planet. Now there’s between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? ‘Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth’s time. You know, so at best we’re like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking…I mean, is that why we’re so scattered? You know, is that why we’re all so specialized? “

“Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?

Later in the movie

“ The truth is that I’m a bad person. But, that’s gonna change – I’m going to change. This is the last of that sort of thing. Now I’m cleaning up and I’m moving on, going straight and choosing life. I’m looking forward to it already. I’m gonna be just like you. The job, the family, the fucking big television. The washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electric tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisure wear, luggage, three piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing gutters, getting by, looking ahead to the day you die.”

Growth of Human Resources Department

If you have been following companies which were established in the 70’s and the 80’s and even some in the early 90’s, most of them initially did not feature HR or Human Resources as a fully fledged department. HR was usually an offshoot of the usual departments or it was some added responsibility of certain managers very high up in hierarchy.

Back in those days, things were simple. Operations were run, there were labor managers to take care of the administration along with a few assistants, and back in the headquarters, decision-makers, policy makers and record book keepers did their job. Their main focus back then revolved around resource optimization and material cost cutting techniques to increase profit margins.

We now live in an era when these techniques are not likely to fetch substantial increase in profitability. But competition has remained the same; it is just as hard for newly formed companies to survive as it was then, if not more. With the usual techniques (which are still hugely relevant today) not fetching the usual high margins, the centre of attention turned to what is a company’s most prized resource : its employees, people who ensured the wheels of the company rolled.

Soon inter-company poaching became a regular feature and hence rose the importance of Human Resources. These days HR performs so many integral operations such as employee hiring, allocating hierarchy, cutting out redundant posts and dysfunctional departments, other than of course employee satisfaction which is its de facto responsibility.

According to Dr. Dinesh Awasthi, Director, EDI Gandhinagar, people are the most integral part of any company since, you can clone a product, lift a marketing strategy, copy a organization hierarchy but you can never clone employees unless of course you resort to unethical poaching.HR is here to stay and will only grow in importance, with time.

Low Cost Carriers

The 1970s were a good time to live in, especially if you were in The States or the Europe. The economic boom seemed endless with no end in sight and people had lots of money to spend. Corporations had sprung up everywhere and the markets were flooded with capital. It was no wonder then that the newly commercialized air travel industry was a booming industry, and the Transatlantic London-US East Coast route was a goldmine.

Which caught the eye of one Sir Freddie Laker.

An aspiring entrepreneur in the airline industry he spotted a golden opportunity to make money. His company Laker Airways became the first airline to offer no-frills transatlantic service known as the famous “Skytrain” service between London and New York City. After enormous lobbying and price cutting, British Airways and Pan Am together were able to out-price it out of the market. Laker Airways dint last long, but it conceptualized what is today known as low-cost carriers.

Low cost carriers are mainly airline enterprises which offer dirt-cheap tickets compared to other carriers and still operate on a profit, however very small. They have grown from being cheap limited entities to major market share holders in recent times and their unique business model of all has attracted the maximum attention. In order to offer cheap fares they are into a lot of purse-tightening and cost-reduction schemes. However two techniques stand out from the rest since they are almost universally adopted by all LCCs.

1. The point-to-point system rather than the hub-spoke model. In point to point an airline would not operate out of a particular hub but will fly to all places directly. ( Eg .Mumbai-Nagpur-Bhopal-Pune-Mumbai instead of Mumbai-Nagpur-Mumbai-Bhopal-Mumbai ). However they do concentrate on a local region and try prizing out the local market from established players first.

2. A single uniform class which is reduced in services including no food or in-flight entertainment etc. The object is always to put in as many seats per airbus space as possible.

Modern LCCs do not enjoy the luxury of stagnant oil prices and hence while operating on slim profit margins, are extremely sensitive to rising oil prices. Government regulations do play an important role since, more often than not; they bias the playing ground towards the established national carrier. These problems notwithstanding LCCs have a history of innovative methods of cost cutting. Some players indulge in Reduced-Thrust-During-TakeOff (RTDT) which when performed expertly saves engine wear and tear and more importantly fuel. The saving of engine wear and tear is critical for LCCs since not only do they greatly reduce maintenance cost but also allows more airborne time between maintenance groundings. Others use minimal optional equipment and others still reduce the weight of the airplane using weight reductions since weight can determine the fuel usage of the aircraft. They operate on a single type of aircraft for easy parts reusability and economy when buying, and each of these aircraft is very intensively used.

Southwest Airlines was the first LCC in America and has actually survived giants like Pan Am Airways and KLM both of which filed for bankruptcy. LCCs are extremely popular in Europe, due to certain reasons.

1. Shorter haul between cities.

2. Most cities have multiple airports which offer cheaper parking alternatives.

3. Being a centre of corporate activity, cheap air travel has a larger consumer base.

The advent of LCCs in India was pioneered by Capt. Gopinath who started Deccan Airways, which gained immediate but short-lived success. A lot of LCCs came into existence following Deccan like Indigo, SpiceJet etc. Kingfisher followed suit and the major players Jet Airways and (then) Indian Airlines lost a major part of their market share. So serious was the impact after deregulation of the aviation sector in India, that many erstwhile airlines went bankrupt and got merged into bigger companies. Jet Airways bought off struggling Sahara Airways and re-branded it into JetLite, while Vijay Mallya acquired Deccan Airways. Indian Airlines and Air India merged together and is officially known as NACIL (National Aviation Company of India Limited) today.

Post 9/11, when security measures and hence costs across airports and airlines have skyrocketed, LCCs are being pulled to the last strain. Add to that the ever-growing fuel costs and lesser consumerism, post recession, the future does not look exactly bright. But LCCs have now come of age and time-tested that they are, it’s only a matter of time when they pull off yet another innovative scheme and fly into the bright skies of the future.

Of Abstraction and life

 

You know what, object oriented programming may claim to be modelled exactly on real world objects but it seldom has any relation to them. However the concept of abstraction is an exception.

The meaning of abstraction is pretty simple. You take out certain features out of a particular model so that it looks less complex and only represent certain necessary facts. Or in other words, no one needs to know everything, the nitty-gritties and the complexities are kept obscure.

It applies to life in myriad fantastic ways. You hide facts from your parents, partner, close friends. You don’t hide them as a requirement but just for the simple fact that not everyone needs to know everything. Lies like you dont do drugs in college keeps mommy-daddy sane. Imagine how all hell can break loose when a simple but pretty commonplace transition of a non-smoking teenager into a drug-addict over a course of two years is made public to parents,relatives et al. Imagine a world where your partner always knows when you have a secret fantasy for someone else (again commonplace) or when she always knows if you were flirting with someone else (which is kinda unavoidable for some!). Of course , relationships dont always break up just like that( or maybe they do) but why strain something which is beautiful ?

Sometimes in life, just let it be.

End of Endlessness

Sample these.

“I should get into the Pragyan organizing committee “

-          With days left and you know what.

“9/11 never happened. Bin Laden doesn’t exist. Man didn’t land on moon.”

-          A close friend.

“My girlfriend got placed in Google.”

-          After “she” got placed in a franchise of an Indian subsidiary of Google Ads.

And so it is official, I am sick of debating and arguing with people. It was so long ago that I had made a promise to myself that I shall live and let live, but have done anything but live and let live.

Our lives are complicated. We all are individuals.

With individual opinions.

There are battles to be picked in our lives.

Hand-Picked.

From now on, whenever there is a potential debate steaming up and headed for the endless, I am out.

Thanks for all the fish,

And no thanks.

Sleepless Thoughts and a Blank Mind

 

I really don’t personal blog but sometimes you just cant help it, can you ?

Like for example when it is your semester exam of your most boring subject. You are “kinda” prepared and its 4 in the morning and you know you need to get some sleep but somehow you just cannot get any sleep. What do people think about when they are not getting any sleep ? I mean they cannot be doing anything, so it must be what’s going throught their mind that’s keeping them awake.

I dont know about them but I know about me !

4.30 AM

I really really don’t know what am i doing in college. Neither is my life happening nor is my life going anywhere. These guys have fucked the education system so proper that it is even pointless to discuss about it. Yes, in Civil, like any other department I had my Eureka moments, you know, like “Oh ! That’s how they do it ?” but five painful, mugging-filled, brainless, impractical semesters worth of coursework has finally managed to completely tire me out and my logical senses. I have seen Risky Business thrice and thrice have been on the verge of saying “What the fuck !”. Helpless as it may seem, I dont have the balls to do it maybe.

4.57 AM

Getting inside the anatomy of a break-up is like suicide without the actual death. I should have never ever got into the Karan-Sakshi debacle and now everyone hates me. WTF do these people think, newbies who lift lines out of How I Met Your Mother, thinking it applies to our youth junta, so full of Chetan Bhagats and Chetan Bhagat-wannabes. Love, like life, is complicated; so apply game theory, get into it knowing you are getting ripped off like anything and suddenly pessimism does help.

5.17 AM

Maybe that guy was right, Rafa has actually achieved more than what Arsene Wenger did in his initial years.But then again, Wenger has a proven track record, while Rafa does not. Torres was already a star when Rafa bought him while Henry was just a have-run at the beginning of his magical tenure.Rafa had groomed stars like Alonso but Wenger actaully signed superstars like Fabregas out of his home country from a fantastic club like Barcelona for zilch. “I zit not zee that”, my ass, but he is a genius.

5.35 AM

Hmm…. its already nearing 5. Maybe i should just get up and study for a bit. I have been joblessly tossing around for almost an hour now.

On second thoughts, lets just let it be. I have been joblessly doing nothing the last four months, so it doesn’t matter anymore.

5.47 AM

I aaam sooo frustrated. Really really need to kick some ass. Whose birthday is it next ? Oh forget it, i dont even keep count.

6.00 AM

[sleep,sweet sleep]

Football and Girls Don’t Mix

I am fresh from an extremely boring but quite inflamed lecture on how we guys stereotype girls into rigidly drawn categories from a friend of the opposite sex (Duh !) and guess what happened when I remarked that she should write a feminist article of a girls magazine. Deviating into the wrong direction with the first line of my blog apart, its December and its Calcutta , which means its football and lot of interaction (shall we say !) with the opposite sex.

Sample some actual quotes from some of my friends from the opposite sex.

“Offside means different things in football and cricket, na ? “

“How many goals does a team concede for giving a penalty”

“I can’t figure out when it is a corner and when it’s a throw-in”

“Liverpool is a famous hotel in London, right ?”

If C.Ronaldo is a Portuguese why is he playing for Real Madrid ? Isn’t Madrid in Spain ? “

“Samsung just scored a goal” – referring to ‘Chelsea’

“If you have equal points and equal goal difference, Teams are arranged int the table in alphabetical order”

I hope this does not make me sexist.

If you still think I am, stop reading my blog and tell other people not to read it. Foot

Consolidation Vs Expansion

What do AOE players , modern entrepreneurs and ancient rulers have in common ? No points for guesssing – The dilemma of consolidation versus expansion. As of April 1998, Subhiksha seemed to be the brightest kid on the entrepreneurship block. Started by an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate, R. Subramaniam, when the Indian retail industry was still in its nascent stage, it set off to put everyone from local groceries to pharmaceutical shops out of business. The Indian Walmart revolution started off in style with cheaper rates and 365-days-a-year model of business bringing home neat profits. Meanwhile the retail industry in India kicked in and Subhiksha achieved a miracle of more than 1600 outlets all over the nation by 2008 and with a promise of adding another 2000 within a year, a decision which later proved fatal. Rapid expansion requires huge loans and with stiff competition and thin profit margins(remember it survived on its no-frills, discount based business), it was already treading a very thin line, and this was exactly when recession struck. It led to severe liquidity crunch which resulted in supplier arrears and huge debt burdens.Subhiksha had no choice but to close down a large number of outlets and the great Walmart dream is all but over for now. It is just another example of how young entrepreneurs get lured into excessive expansion which, more often than not, proves fatal.If only Subhiksha had consolidated at a time it was on an expansion overdrive, it had the potential to be the market leader in retail. A smart entrepreneur should be able to look into the future. Thinking big is not a crime but foresight and adaptability to situations is what separates the Ambanis from the rest.