Courage under fire?

Under round of cowardly attack on the psyche of the common man. Lives of the injured and the dependents of those who were blow away to smithereens will be charred forever. But the pent-up emotions had to give away sometime. And it did! Rioting and sloganeering against the state machinery.

Not a justification. But all this while, the reactions to such attacks have always been courage under fire. But this time 'Is courage under fire?' 

Attacked again using our very own resources and more dastardly! We had always seen this coming; it was just a matter of time before the attacks became more professional. Unfortunately for the lack of a better word to substantiate the fact that they are improving their organizational skills. The politicians of the state too have to be credited for the same and more so the oldest political party of the nation. The hunger of votes at the cost of their own and the state has been done for!  

However the feeling right now simply does not go away that the politics of the state and specifically the oldest party of the state has completely failed its common man. Maybe it would have been more worthwhile to be parochial in nature. Which self-respecting political party in the world enforces and tolerates a law favoring foreigners to their own. A law that leaves the bonafide citizen to stand at fault for questioning the legality of an illegal migrant's right to citizenship. And to avoid being at fault for sounding parochial, 'illegal' here stands for unauthorized migration of foreign nationals across the international border. Call it the boon of geography being overwhelmed by the bane of history crafted by the vote bank politics of the region. An international border should have led to trade and commerce. Not so it seems after all. 

a JUMBO innings

Anil Kumble retires at Kotla that stands testimony to his achievements as a champion cricketer. 

Ghoom Ghoom ke ad

The Sprite Express 300 ml ad is a breath of fresh air. Looks sleek and desi at teh same time with the India soundtrack.

Sprite scores 1 up on Mount Dew .

Piggybacking ho toh Big ho ;)

Over the last few days we have had an African jungle man, a cowboy and a few animation characters promising to 'See you at home' standing next to a red couch. The teasers made me sit up and look, wondering what is it all about. What followed was ad where a digitally superior quality red couch free falls on a slightly less bright red couch with a bang alongwith a punch line - 'See you at home with digital picture and sound with BIG TV'.

The red couch in the BIG TV was so ubiquitous of the teasers that  I was almost sure that the teasers were a forerunner for this BIG TV ad. It was until I saw the curtain raiser ad of Digital TV that the realization came that BIG TV piggybacked on AirTel's Digital TV teaser campaign. :)

Wicked yet stylish. Quite unlike the below the belt cola wars we have been subjected.

Piggybacking ho toh  Big ho ;) 

Indian Economy 2008 [Source: rediff.com]

     

Us and Them

A forward I picked up ...

Wake me up when September ends :)

Glimpses of Goa - Oct 2007

A Crisis of Confidence

Is a Liquidity Crisis

• Perception of higher inter-bank lending risk
• Banks are unwilling to lend to each other
• leading to a ripple effect across the financial markets

Ironically

• Inflation is not the main issue here
• Strong fundamentals leading to high economic growth

Requires Intervention

• From the Central banks to restore confidence in the markets

Essentially

• a financial market crisis
• however if there is no intervention from the central banks this will spill off to the economy leading to a systemic risk.

Affecting

• Investment Banks
• No assets

Not Directly Affecting

• Commercial Banks
• Has a huge deposits base

Not Affected

• Manufacturing / Brick and Mortar
• Fixed asset base

Historical Perspective

• Sub-prime loans
• Affect Alt A loans in the short term
• Affect Higher Loans in the mid term

- a synopsis of a NDTV program telecast on 19th September - "Financial Tsunami - The Ripple Effect'

Thank God!

Had bought insurance from TATA-AIG. US treasury bailed out AIG at the last moment with $86Bn!

However from the news reports it seems that the TATAs is fully covered with capital for all its liabilities. TATA holds 76% stake in the Indian JV with AIG and promoters are planning a capital infusion of Rs250Cr to meet its solvency requirements for business growth projections over the next 2 years. Quoting ET Kolkata Edition dt 18th September - ' "Currently TATA-AIG Life's capital stands at $293Mn(Rs 13000 crore) and the company's solvency margin is 304% against IRDA's stipulation of 150%" said TATA-AIG Life MD Trevor Bull'

Things look hunky dory at least in the medium. I am tied with my investments for the next 4 years. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Clock is ticking

Lehman Busted and Lynch Bought

Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for $613Bn and Merrill  Lynch is bought over by BofA.

Testing connection

1 2 3 check

'Sub-Prime Crisis: After Effects' for Dummies

History:

1930s Great Depression

Collapse of the national housing market discourages private lenders from from investing in home loans.

1938 US Housing Bill signed

Fannie Mae, nickname for Federal National Mortgage Association established as an US Government organization in 1938 as part of Roosevelt's US Housing Bill to buy up mortgages and sell them on to investors. The idea was to raise levels of home ownership and the availability of affordable housing. Thus building a secondary mortgage market. 

1968  Private company with a direct credit line from the US Treasury

Under pressures created by the Vietnam War, Lyndon B Johnson privatizes the lender to remove it from its accounts. Fannie starts operating as a Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) thus generating profit for its stockholders with a special claim for government assistance in case of any financial trouble. Being a GSE, ensures that Fannie Mae has a direct credit line from the US Treasury, exemption from State and Local Taxes and SEC oversight.    

1970 Monopoly to Duopoly 

To end the monopoly of the Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation - Freddie Mac was set up as a competitor. Another GSE.

2003 Financial Accounting Scandal

Investigations by Justice Department and SEC into Freddie Mac's accounting practices reveals errors of $4.5 billion. 3 top executives forced to quit.

2007 Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis

Hits the US Housing market.

2008 US Government Bailouts

Loses 74% shareholder value of investments on escalating concern that Fannie and Freddie do not have enough capital to weather the subprime debacle. 

Stats:

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac control 90% of US secondary mortgage market.
• Combined current assets is 45 % greater than that of US's largest private bank (Citigroup)
• Combined current debt is 46% of current US national debt. 
• $3+ trillion of debt and guarantees
• $800 billion of junky mortgages  
• China holds $376 billion of long term US agency debt and most of it is in Fannie and Freddie asset. 

The Economic Cycle - Vicious or Virtuous ? 

Virtuous Cycle?

• Local bank disburses loans with low down payment and fixed interest rate. 
• Freddie and Fannie buys mortgages from local banks, securitizes them and sells them as bonds to investors.
• Freddie & Fannie as GSEs operate as private enterprises with US government guarantee of backing in case of financial trouble. Thus their securities are as good as US government securities.
• Being least risky of securities due to US government backing, these securities have high liquidity.  This allows them to have low yield.
• Freddie and Fannie makes profit from the difference in the interest rates charged to borrower and interest rates serviced to the investor to their securities. 
• Due to the direct line of credit from the US Treasury a major buyer of their securities are foreign governments and central banks to hold their foreign reserves. 

 Vicious Cycle?

• Post the the subprime debacle, there is a growing concern amongst investors ( Foreign central banks) about Freddie and Fannie's ability to service their securities.
• Liquidity of these securities decreases resulting in increased risk thus raising the interest rate of borrowing of these securities.
• Interest rate of mortgages increased subsequently.
• US Housing market busts.
• Bad debts for such mortgages run into $800 billion.
• Concern amongst invertors continue to escalate and the vicious cycle of bad debt continues.

To break out out this vicious cycle US government bails out these secondary mortgage company as a measure of reassurance to the investors .

Monday Blues

In office, will take atleast an hour to recuperate.

Live Maps - Not bad

Snow

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow lyrics

Roam roam mein Chrome!

Using Live Write to blog on Blogger about Chrome.  What more can you ask for?

Besides Chrome on cyberspace, lotsa other things to talk about in the last one month.

Kosi takes its toll. Wake up Indian administration.

Mama says Na-na to Nano. Grow up guys. Pushing WB back by 20 years. Reincarnation of the grassroots leader into the commie of this decade. 

India in Beijing: Jiyo Abhinav :). Finally the elusive gold for India. Rapachage love you! Sushil brilliant comeback.  Quite unlike the typical snatching defeat from the jaws of victory syndrome we hear and see so often. Dedicating my fav song "Eye of the tiger" to Vijendra, Jitendra and Akhil. Well done Saina Nehwal.  Expecting much more from you budding teenager. Hesh & Lee not bad huh? With all that fighting over last few months wasn't expecting too much actually. Ending the Olympic update with "3 and counting" for the years to come.

"I had an accident last night. I somersaulted and hit my head. Don't remember what happened after that. Just woke up now. Was unconscious through the night". :( She is a lot better now. The A-hole she is, she has already started working and that neck rest is still on.  God bless, spare the poor child. 

3 cities in 10 days - B'lore, Hyd and Bombay. Highlight was the night out at the first couple's new home.

That its for now.

Live on Live Writer

Live on Live Writer  :)

Black Friday :(

Our city under attack from cowardly faceless bastards!

Holiday!

Got so used to these short weekend trips that this 5 day vacation seemed almost unreal. Though the so called objective of the trip was to attend Chins' wedding, it actually turned out to be an after-thought. With all the con-calls notwithstanding (which are nothing more then silly cacophonous banter and winner's take all mud-slinging contests) for the wedding plans we must have actually spent just about 3 hours there over 2 days.


Day 1 - Safe Landing on a Turbulent Flight: Took the flight to Pune with an irritating old aunt who simply wouldn't stop talking about how she has never travelled in a LCC, why she won't eat during travels and what not. However I am really proud to say that my ability to totally filter out white noise helped me put a fake a smile and nod as I read my book.

360 degree reach - Indigo ad on the conveyor belt.

We, Swat, Ghone and Tipsy took off to Ynis-Ynus! Surprise! Surprise! Dino was already there and so was Setty! Now who is Setty? Setty is a young kid doing his grad from IIT M who by a quirk of fate landed in 309! Now how's that for life experiences? :P

We headed off to attend the 1st ceremony in the evening, only to leave the
location within 15 min to watch JTJN. Would leave that for another post.

Day 2 - Hitched! :

I believe this pic covers the essence of the wedding! Can you believe it??!!! :D

Moha, Zak and Nak joined the troupe in the morning. And Teja in the evening. Now Teja is quite a dude - he broke away from the system and is pursuing a career in film-making today.


Day 3 - The road trip minus the dope :
Rented this cab!

Notice Teja's film-making skills in the next. Though I was reluctant, it came out pretty well. The guy who was walking past and took this snap didn't know what hit him in between our squabble.

Drove down from Pune via the "Legendary Highway" in Setty's words.


Light at the end of the tunnel. Took this one as Vara zoomed in at 120! Moha not being behind the wheel scared the hell out of us.



Lonavala! I also happened to save a life here. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for him - its was a guy. Held on to him as he as he fell of a ledge.

Day 4 - Local Train to Matheran :

After droping the car :( at the airport we headed off to Vile Parle.

Vada - Paow in Mumbai.




Lala in his typical 'bickering old lady' style cried all the way to Matheran lamenting the fact that we took the local.

Treking in Matheran- If we don't have the photos from Matheran, then blame it on Dino! He remembers to bring his stupid American football and Mitt - baseball glove but forgot to charge his camera. BTW he only plays poker and blackjack these days. American returned A-hole :P
Day 5 - Back to our Mallu roots (Courtesy: Moha, Zak & Nak):

Had lunch at Rice Bowl and everyone flew back one by one. Lala totally freaked out on being fooled by Nak & Zak of another local to the airport. Poor guy! :))

Best 5 days in recent times. Wish we could do this more often. :)

A brief intro to junta

Maybe I am getting nostalgic today, another email from my favourite one on the junta. No one could have done this better.

oops!

Ok here goes...allow me to give a brief intro to the crowd here. And i think i'll introduce Nakul and Chins first 'cos the ladies will be curious and before I start, here goes the

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are totally mine. I'd written them under the influence of a sleep-inducing lunch. Nobody can hold me responsible for any vicious aftermath.

1) Nakul - the guy with a toothy grin has his way with gals. His nick while playing black hawk down was tweety! Now tell me, which girl would'nt wanna know more about this "oh! so sensitive, sweet, soft spoken" guy ;D

2) Chins - he was touted to be the "most handsome guy" in the girls hostel (now you know how "good looking" the other guys on campus were!). And I can remember quite a few junior gals batting their eyelids with hopes of catching their attention. lol.

3) Mithun - this true blue mallu boy loves to think he is of the leather jacket-harley-beer gut guys....gimme a break! He is the total opposite of course!

4) Gunz - this is the guy who'd eat curd rice irrespective of the place! A tamilian, his sentences start with "hamare keral me..." and he thinks Mohan Lal is God!

5) Vara - this is the gentle giant... and in his own words "I am a sportsman!" This creature (dino) is slow moving like the sloth and ppl have to strain their ears to listen to him (this kinda behavior can be observed outside the basketball court)

6) Pot - this guy would probably want to have a serious discussion on economics on his honeymoon (if he ever gets married that is!)

7) Akhil - he hates ppl calling him lala (so, pls refrain!). He has truly graduated after his MBA from being a milk drinker at bars to drinking alcohol

8) Dips - the baby of the gang! Need I explain more?

9) Swat - fondly known as the Mother Hen and World Bank (both of which are self explanatory!) And NO HR faff pls...

10) Me - i'm just the cool guy with long hair! :)

Coldplay, Long Tail and an Email from my favourite friend :)

listen to violet hill by coldplay if you've not already..

Pot - to bring an esoteric angle to it which otherwise will not titillate you enough to listen.. coldplay's latest album, viva la vida has cleaned up the charts in the US, UK, Aus and other parts of the world. This is more like what Chris Anderson says..they sold 125,000 copies in 1 day in UK alone and has become one of the biggest selling records in the first week of release.. they have all the makings of becoming a good marketing case study esp for records. They did a free gig in London with a few select songs from the album and used social network sites and other music download sites to promote 2 of the 10 songs from the album by offering free downloads. The song also features in iTunes' latest ad campaign.. So music companies are still managing to reap profits despite the digital barricades when marketed right!

I'm bored at work and need to do something fun to keep myself sane.. so today, I'm gonna leave work at 4 and until then just reply to mails and not do any work.. :)

So, all ye buggers, pls reply

First one bites the dust!

One down!

Batte Royale

What a match? What more can you ask for in a Wimbledon final? 2 best player of this era taking on each other in a gripping 5 setter.

In fact its more like the end of an era and start of a new one. Wish Nadal had waited for another year! :(

Anyway! Overall its a big :D

Run Forrest Run

Place: Bombay
Its wet all around.
Status messages of friends & foes on Gtalk :P
- i love....... rains :)
- "all i can say is that my life is pretty plain... i like watchin the puddles gather rain..!" :)
- the rain is getting wilder....the trains are getting late...and i'm enjoying every minute of it!!

For a rain-hater like me and being vocabulary-challenged I use (with due apologies to Ms Lyngdoh, my nusery teacher )

- Rain Rain Go Away! :( Come Again when I Go Away! :P

Its like when the rains follow me there a voice inside my head that keeps shouting - "Run Forrest Run"

Nice to be back home

Time: 4:15
Place: 309 Laa Heritage :)
Wide awake! Those 2 cups of cappachino acting on me. What else do you do? Catching up with gang after 2 months.

Phew!

Phew .... hope that suffices for this long absence.

In the City of Joy

Landed in the City of Joy on the 2nd of 2008. Bodes well for the year ahead. ;)

Its been fun till now. Been busy of late. As for the city, obviously its different from the others I have been to and upto to me to discover. Actually right now I am reminded of the 2x2 matrix that HyperBarni had framed. This is how it goes - take Pace of Life on the X axis (Low -High) and Work Life Balance on the Y axis (Low - High) then Cal (I kind of like the older anglicised name) would be placed on the 2nd quadrant. I will be here for quite a while to place it on the right quadrant. ;)

First impression: Good. I am starting to like the city. Maybe 'cos the culinary tastes here are much like home and so is the language. Atleast now I understand what the masses are speaking.

Checked out Some Place Else which everyone here talks highly about. Old English setting very much like Firangi Pani. The best part is the fact that it has a live band playing every night. And the icing on the cake is the fact that its open till 4 a.m.

The Other Bill retires :)

Nice spoof! Just goes on to show his good sense of humour.

Really liked the part when he calls Obama for a job as his running mate. ;)

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