Amir Khan at IIM - Bangalore

A colleague of mine informed me that Aamir Khan was playing badminton at IIM(B). Big deal!!! But then I thought, it is less than a couple of minute's drive away...and let's face it...Amir Khan is a bigdeal!!

I have been reading in the newspapers that the Super Star and some of the cast and crew of Three Idiots were camping at IIM(B). So here was my chance.

I grabbed my camera and started off. True to its reputation, the couple of minute's drive on Banerghata Road proved a lot more than that with heavy traffic on Saturday night. Infact it was a big night at IIM(B) otherwise as well as there fest is going on.

Using my contact, and showing adequate at outrage at the poor security guard manning the side gate for trying to stop a Professor.... (my act of outrage actually provoked a stifled laughter from my colleague) I reached the badminton court and clicked away many a photographs and a few short videos.

Obviously, now I feel to bashful to show it around to my colleagues and friends....so here it is....on my blog!!!

You'll find the Ghajini star and also Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Raju Hirani and Prakash Padukone in the photographs.....

Btw...I found Amir K a pretty good player honestly, you was thorughly enjoying the game, partnered with Prakash Padukone. Even with so many people watching him and cameras clicking away (without Flash) you kept up a constant banter with his partner and cheered every good shot.

Petronas Towers

Here are a couple of pictures I recently got the opportunity to click....the majestic Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lampur.

The advantage with this structure is, however you take a picture, it always comes out good ....something like photographing....Aishwarya? ... I would not know, but I guess it is something like that :-)

A man throwing a boomerang...and catching it back!!

During my recent travel, I visited a bird sanctuary. And for the first time I actually saw a man throwing a Boomerang.....and catching it on the way back. Enjoy the video!!

Para capitalism

Sometime back I wrote about my interaction with a Customs Officer in the Bangalore airport (read post).

Well I am travelling again and this time it is the new airport (the Customs desk did not have my friend from last time). This is the first time I am boarding an international flight from the new airport….(I just cannot get over a mindset that the phrase international flight sounds pompous)…and…this time...(music and cheering) there are separate lounges for First Class and Business Class passengers.

Well, in retrospect, I guess the new airport is symptomatic of the journey that India has made over the past decade and more.

The old airport, true to our country’s socialist roots, was class-less. Whether you are an Economy Class or a First Class passenger you would be treated the same way. It was only when you stepped into the plane (the check in counters and queue at boarding were not very significant) that class privileges kicked in.

Now India has moved well away from its socialist past into a new era of para-capitalism and Bangalore, which has been at the forefront of the new nation, appropriately has a new airport which provides added privileges as long as you can pay for it.

Is it a change for the better? Something inside tells me I liked it the way it was before, not the old airport, but the classless airport. And no, this is not a case of sour grapes.

By the way, my attempts at increasing hits by putting in semi-nude pictures in my previous post came a cropper. I somehow ended up with nil comments (not even from my good friend xh) and lowest hit rates ever. So much for sex sales!!

Let's blame it on Eve

Now we have all heard, read or been told about Adam and Eve and how they were made an offer they could have refused!

We are living in historical times as far as the global economy is concerned. We are re-learning the ills of high risk finance deals, outcome of wrong valuations and the ills of greed.

Now who causes such crisis? If you do a root-cause analysis, this is what you’ll get (assuming ofcourse, that you have the same twisted logic as I do):

Financial crisis (loan defaults, credit crisis, asset bubbles, market collapse) – are possible because we have these glamorously named entities called Financial Institutions. In the ancient days when these institutions did not exist in such scale, such crisis would not have extended beyond the one village.

Financial institutions act as intermediary between people who have excess money and hence want to invest and people who need money, hence want to borrow.

People who have excess money – the want to invest only because they know there are others who are ready to borrow and pay interest on it, had such people not been there, the people with excess money would have simply stashed the cash in their pillow.

So who do we have left as the root of all evil? People who borrow and who taught us to borrow? Gotcha Eve!!! QED.

Whoa!! What was that? Well here’s why:

In the Garden of Eden, the snake offered Eve a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, an apple if we believe Milton. Now was this offer a 1. Gift? 2. Offer for outright sale? 3. A financed sale?

• Considering the heavy price that has been paid, it certainly was not a gift.
• If it was an outright sale, it would have been a bullet or one shot payment. Not exactly the case here as we continue to pay the price. Now when the price is paid over a long period of time and the payout amount fluctuates based on systemic changes eg: times of war, disease, famine (you know same way how changes in PLR caused by repo rate changes, changes your EMI), it was certainly not an outright sale.
• If you ask me, it was a financed deal, financed by the snake itself (Satan in an appropriate disguise).

The book of Genesis makes it clear that Eve had no idea of the valuation of this item she was financing. In-fact it was not even an asset, it was more a consumable, so at best it would have qualified for short-term WIP financing. However, what Eve got, appears to be to involve regular payout of only the interest accrued amount, floating rate, till perpetuity.

Such payment terms appear very attractive as the periodic payout is very low (no principal component) but if you see the cumulative payout over a period of time, you’ll realise how you big a ride you have been taken on....all your payout has not reduced your principal liability one bit.

So Eve was the first person to be offered and avail a credit…and she did pay a heavy price…and all mankind is paying till today!!! What’s worse, we are continuing to do similar deals. .

We are buying or financing assets whose valuations are in question at interest rates that increase regularly but with terms and conditions that appear attractive initially but bleed us for a long time to come!!!

Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

By the way, the various pictures you see in this post are totally unnecessary, but I am hoping the nudity will attract more visitors!!!

Mera Joota Hai Iraqi!!!

Now I am not exactly pro-US or pro-Arab, but I certainly consider George Bush’s Iraq policy all wrong. When one undertakes a noble act (deposing a despot like Saddam) for the wrong reasons (control of Iraq’s oil reserves)…the outcome….is what the US is facing in Iraq today.

I also agree that decorum and protocol is important especially in the world of global politics.

However, I cannot but find comrade reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi's action of throwing a shoe at the US President most entertaining. The fact that it is Bush Jr at whom he aimed his shoe somehow makes it appear ok. Read full report.

Even as Bush learns where the shoe pinches, the Arab world…in their usual distorted sense of priorities, hails the attack. That is so wrong! These acts give your country a bad name, don’t you know. Bombs, bullets and now shoes!!! What next, smelly socks?

Incidentally, lest people think this was a spontaneous outburst the reporter made it amply clear that he had been planning it for a long time. Attaboy Zaidi!!

Five signs that you are growing old!!

I vividly remember a conversation I had with one of my long time friends when I was 27 years old.

Me -“Imagine J, it seems like we were in school in just a few years back, and now we are 27”

J – “True. Somehow 27 does not seem so old, but 30….man that will really mean death!!”

Well, much water has flown since that conversation….30 has come and gone and it has not yet been a disaster. Yet, the other day when I spent sometime in café Coffee Day with some colleagues from a former employer, I could not but feel old looking at the milieu around me.

So here’s a truly depressing game you may want to play…..list 5 things that you have noticed of late that tells you that you are growing old….do not mention your age, it is for the reader to guess, within a range of 5 years (eg: 15-20, 21-25, 26-30 years etc).

No matter which age range you are in, the truth is, you are growing older….can you guess my age from the list below:-

My top five:

1. You go to café Coffee Day and feel out of place

2. You no longer like loud music and would rather go to a bar than a pub

3. New entrants to the Indian cricket team are way older than you, benefit matches are being held for the cricketers you used to idolise earlier.

4. You cannot name any of the Grammy winners in the last five years but remember the lyrics of a couple of hits from your school days.

5. You read the business page in the newspapers before you read the sports page.


Incidentally, I do not know how to tag, if I did , I would have done it with this post (maybe I should add it to my list)!!