Why don't you get it when you need it the most?

Connectivity! Connectivity??

It was supposed to be a lazy Sunday afternoon. All the possibilities of nuisance to this relaxing schedule is sorted out the day before.

Sunday morning all you had to do was click on <CONNECT> and then <SEND>. All this is supposed to be done while you are still rolling and curling up in the bed.

Guess what? The trusted data card simply won't take you to even to the archaic 56kbps speed leave alone the promised 3.1 mbps.

So there goes out of the window all your weekend plans, sleeping that is. You end up sitting in a noisy mall lobby with a lousy coffee with cream (I simply don't understand why people can't take simple instructions like - " Coffee, no cream. Thank you")

Now when you finish connecting to a WiFi network after a zillion permutation and combination of the numbers .. (12345... , 7890.., 12345). Suddenly there is simply no stopping the speed of the dear ol' data card at 3mbps.

Connectivity why do you do this to me!!! Guess will have to spend the time window shopping now.

Now this is what you call an aggressive ad

Source: http://epaper.livemint.com/

Living up to LE's aggressive ways.

 

Technorati Tags: Oracle,Larry Ellision

The 'Samosa Index'

The eyes lit up! The excitement and buzz was back in office today. All it took was sight of the enticing Samosas on the plate.

One of the shouts that could be heard was "Is Recession Over, kiya?!?" besides the regular "Wow!", "Awesome!" and the "Arre Wah Singara!". Singara being the local parlance of samosa.

Alas it was not the case, it turned out to be one of the more benevolent colleagues way of celebrating a small success at office.  Here in Kolkata offices, we are simply crazy about this sinful flour paste and potato fillings, deep fired in saturated fat. 

Economists talk of the McDonald Burger Index and Underwear Index. Why not the Samosa Index then?

Till mid of last year, the evening office snack - samosa used to be a regular feature. Now in Kolkata, the city of joy and more so the city of foodies, Samosa holds supreme as a evening time snack.  If the company is not offering it, the foodie will fight monsoon rains and summer humidity to have it from the road-side store.  

For the organization it is a necessity that they are offering to the employers, as the "overtime incentive". Its a different matter altogether that people slog it out for a good 10-12 hours anyway. If Chai is the stress buster and then Samosa has to be boredom killer.  

With recession in the high tide, alas SAMOSA the evening office snack was the first of the many cutbacks. So we can safely deduce within the confines of this old office building that as and when the Samsoa makes its comeback as the regular evening office snack recession would have gone back to its shell!

Hey! You mighty Samosa, make that comeback. Bring back the joys to the office-goers in this office.

Recession Simplified ~ Capitol Hill Baby-Sitting Co-op - Goes through the Business Cycle

Paul Krugman quotes the Sweeneys' anecdote to explain recession.

Economy ~ 100 odd yuppies in Capitol Hill form a Co-op for baby-sitting.

• Couples baby-sit for other couples in exchange of COUPONS
• COUPONS can be redeemed for free baby-sitting hours by another will couple
• Each couple is given a fixed COUPONS on joining the co-op.

Buyers : Redeem the COUPONS for bay-sitting hours

Sellers: Earn COUPONS by selling bay-sitting hours

Central Bank role ~ Board members managing the co-op

Business Cycles comes to play. Over a period of time couples start saving their COUPONS for future use. More couple are willing to earn COUPONS rather then use COUPONS. Not enough are willing to spend or redeem their COUPONS for free evening. SAVE SAVE SAVE!

Liquidity Crisis ~ Not enough COUPONS are in circulation. Members of this economy are focused in earning the COUPONs rather then consuming the goods.

Cash in this economy ~ COUPONS

Goods or Services in this economy ~ Baby Sitting Hours

STIMULUS PACKAGE ~ Central Bank ~ Offers a stimulus packages. Increases circulation of COUPONS in the economy. The economy bounces back.

A foodie's guide to Goa

The Portuguese had come for the spices. I was there for the spicy Goan delicacies. The idyllic South Goa beaches, Old Goa history, the Aguada & Chapora Forts was the bonus.   :)

Breakfast @ Sea View Guest House, Patnem, Canacona, South Goa

After previous day's tiring long travel from the airport to South Goa, nothing like a sumptuous early breakfast to pep you up for hectic sight-seeing through the length & breadth of Goa.

American Breakfast: Coffee/Tea, Bread toast, Bacon, Backed beans, Mushrooms,  Eggs made to order,  a choice of fruit juices   (Price: INR 150)

Cornflakes with curd : (Price: INR 35)

My take: Filling :)

Lunch @ Ritz Classic, Panjim, Central Goa

When the hunger pangs kicks in and attempts to find the highly recommended restaurant takes you close to 2 hours, the spicy Goan curry is your only saviour from your visibly irritated wife.

Goan Fish Curry : Plain rice with curry, Fried fish, with two vegetable side dish (Price 100)

Chicken Vindaloo: Red hot fiery chicken curry (Price INR 150)

Lunch @ Lobo Suza, Calungate Beach, North Goa

The sea facing restaurant has an elaborate menu of Goan dishes. The crab peeling attempts just added on to the fun.

Fish Masala Fry, Crab Curry, Chicken Vindaloo, Fish Xacgute

Dinner @ Martin's Corner, Verna,  off NH17

Upmarket crowd. Live Music - 70s & 80s. Exotic Fish platters

Goan dishes again?  Bring it on:).   Xacgute, Vindaloo, Shark fish masala fry.

~ The Mumbai Stopover ~

How does a foodie spend 6 hours in Bombay ?

Snack @ Gateway of India, Colaba, Mumbai

Samosas with cutney from the road side hawker (Price INR 10)

Snack @ Leopold Cafe, Colaba, Mumbai

A visit to Colaba without a visit to Leoplold is highly unlikely.

Club Sandwich (Price INR 120)

Snack @ Cafe Mondegear, Colaba, Mumbai

Draught Beer Mug (Price INR 100) to while away an hour.

Lunch @ roadside restaurant, Domestic Terminal, Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport

Lassi, Pav Bhaji & Egg Burji is a perfect finish to this 3 day frenetic gastronomical affair. (Price INR 110)

Games people play:

Beating about the bush

Blame Game

Passing the buck

#$*&!@@@

Videocon Logo

The new logo reminds me so much of the Sony Ericsson logo. Brand image transformation to a fun brand - connecting with the youth and at the edge of technology.

MJ :(

Aila!!!

The cyclone that was always predicted to hit Kolkata but never came every Monsoon since I have been here, finally came through on Monday. 

So I have made a list of 5 things not to do when hit by a cyclone, as I have learnt my lesson:

1. Don't shift into a new place on the day the cyclone

2. Don't take the roads in Kol in the worst affected place as you have protestants blocking the roads against the power failure

3. Don't work for the local electric supply co as the power and water deprived citizens might become extremely violent to the technicians

4. Don't wear good formal clothes to office on such days cos you might need to walk back home as none of the taxis, autos and rickshaws would be willing to take you back home.

5. Don't haggle with the taxis and autos. Its their day today.

Things that I noticed when I made the valiant effort to reach office yesterday but couldn't make it

9 AM All roads were blocked in the area that I happened to pick as my dwelling place for the next 3-6 months (hopefully this does not get extended!)

11 AM Taxis were unwilling to take you anywhere. Finally the one that agrees takes you through the longest possible route. Then you are stuck in a Bypass as the protestants create a road block to restore power at their homes. If you don't allow the traffic to pass how do you expect to restore normalcy after the biggest cyclone in 100 years.

12 PM A couple of youngsters desperately trying to reach their destination to take the university exams. And all that I could do was provide a lift to the nearest place from a metro station.

3 pm The road blocks were conveniently removed and the power didn't return either. So did it pay off that the roads were blocked.

6 PM People shopping for their daily rations in the most crowded market of the worst affected area. The power is still not restored.

So that leaves a couple of questions in my mind:

i) did it pay off that the roads were blocked?

ii) did it help that we kept on cursing the electric supply company?

iii) did we respond as an united community in the face of the worst disaster in recent times for the local population?

Aila! I getting all ......

Wonder Boy gets the youth enthused!

Boy Wonder has got me enthused about Indian politics as much as the Grand Old Man had done over the turn of this century.  Maybe its because Success makes one look sexy and today India politics definitely does.

Elections 2009 will mark the coming of age of young and smarter (? time will tell) politicians. Hope to see a couple of them take up cabinet ranks this time on.

My Take 3 on Elections 2009

• Urge to Vote - though turnout % is around 59% this seemed like the real "Jagoaree" for the urban consciousness. I am guilty of not voting but I really felt the urge to vote this time around
• Supremos - spoilsports of last LS - eating the humble pie.
• Wonder Boy redeeming himself in the largest state by going it alone

Recession Era TVCs

Super TVCs in the last few weeks

• Limca -
• Hero Honda Passion -
• Vodafone - Zoozoo

The first 2 are simply mesmerizing with a Music Video kind of jingles. Infact ET refers to the Limca ad as a new age advertising where the Music Channels keep on beaming the ads for the music content at ZERO cost. Recession era advertising solutions? Hero Honda Passion ad is also on the same lines

Move over Cheeka here comes a cuter and more interesting ZooZoo.  Simply taken over the average channel surfers mind by storm. Recently got a forward on the making of the ZooZoo ads. Will upload the same soon.

HNY 2009

Know its a bit to late to say this, but could not help it as I have been away. far far away. 

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  :)