Saturday, November 17, 2012

Goa Trip Takeaways

For most people, Goa is only about beaches and beer. So it was for me too, until I went alone to a less explored part of Goa last week and had wonderful 3 days amidst nature and myself. I also met some great people, can call them my friends now, with whom I had many interesting conversations on a wide range of topics. The place was Devaaya at Divar Island in Goa. It calls itself an Ayurveda & Nature Cure Center. But I would call it more of a place for relaxation and being with oneself away from the noisy world, in quiet with only the sounds of nature. On the whole, it was an intellectual journey. I felt rejuvenated by the Yoga sessions they had every morning, the delicious food they offered, reading and introspecting for hours sitting at the banks of Mandovi River and sleeping in my beautiful room on my comfortable bed. They did have guided meditation sessions - sitting and listening to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's audio and following his instructions - but they failed to have any impact on me - possibly because I find that guy's voice, style and personality very irritating and fraudulent - although this is just a feeling without knowing much about him - but an opinion formed is formed and am not interested in getting it right about this guy by looking for more information.

The best part of my journey and stay at Goa was talking to unknown people. The only Indians in the resort at that time were me and a Punjabi family. The rest were all foreigners - about 40 from various countries in Europe. So it did indeed feel a little weird initially. But I soon got used to it, although I always felt like I was in a foreign country coz, besides the foreigners, the place has a homely touch to the way it is built and maintained, and also has the cleanliness and etiquette of a western country. But I realized that in spite of the different ways we build and decorate our surroundings, we are all inherently the same. Life is complex, but the complexity is strikingly similar the world over. I realize this every time I speak to a stranger. I start over with a basic and implicit set of assumptions about the person, although not consciously - I guess the overall personality is drawn in my subconscious mind based on my past experiences with people who look and behave in the manner I can make out from the first glances at the stranger - and this picture of the person adjusts itself as I talk and acquire more information. I am not sure of the degree of precision of the picture our mind draws of the stranger's personality before we initiate conversation - it may be very high because it involves our learnings from the past - it may be very low as it must be needlessly biased and affected by past experiences - it may be very high coz it involves our gut feel which is supposed to give us right advice, but who knows. However, I don't find it difficult now in finding things to talk about. People the world over have similar issues and problems with the world and life. For example - relationships, politics, money, power, cheating, values, emotions, and a million other things - are so strikingly similar and relevant to all our lives that you can relate to any one in the world, if you are really interested to. But not every person would be easy and nice to talk to as personalities vary and compatibility between individuals is a real thing. That explains why I started talking to many, but with only one I talked many many times with increasing comfort.

This is the first time I went to a new place alone as a tourist. I am very encouraged by the experience and will definitely do it again. Next time - When? Where? Let's see!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Indian Culture on the Road

The Culture of a people is sum of stuff like religious beliefs, social structure and values, art forms, books and tales, leaders, racial mix, immigration, emigration, history and economics, and a lot more. And it is constantly changing with each passing moment creating a new set of these variables. It's not necessarily evolving, as human history tells us we have always found ways to screw up our lives and those of others on grounds so stupid that we feel ashamed of ourselves, and we are definitely not getting more civilized in our ways. (What does "civilized" mean anyway?)

I think a great way to evaluate the culture of a Nation is to study how people behave on its roads. Look at India for example. The following, which I witness every day, characterize our behavior on roads in general:
  • Extremely poor adherence to traffic rules is a characteristic of India on the streets. The unwritten and unacknowledged, yet all-pervading rules are the following:
  • Totally ignore all traffic rules when there is no Traffic police watching
    • No need to bother about the traffic signal if there is no traffic police around
    • Leads to mass traffic signal violation and dangerously concentric traffic, which somehow escapes collisions
    • The irony is that even those who want to follow traffic rules are forced to join the herd, otherwise they'll be crushed by the stampede of vehicles
  • In case of heavy traffic, while everyone trying to push his/her way through invariably leads to a logjam, yet  nobody gives way to anyone else
  • Don't give way to anyone, even if it is an ambulance with its siren roaring loudly
  • It is perfectly fine to stop your vehicle in the middle of the road even for trivial reasons without bothering you are blocking the traffic
    • Narrow roads without exists and space for stopping is definitely one reason, but what's really alarming is the total insensitivity with which some people stop and don't bother for a long time
  • If someone shouts at you, simply shout back, irrespective of whose mistake it is
  • Honk as much as you can to make way for yourself
  • Look down upon everyone else on the road especially those with smaller vehicles
  • Believe in Me first, everyone else later, as far as possible
  • If you hit someone, run away if you are sure you won't be caught
  • If you are in a car, you don't need to worry if you are splashing water or dust on someone walking by the road-side
  • If you are in a car, those on 2-wheelers and those on foot are a nuisance. If you are on a 2-wheeler, those on cycles and those on foot are a nuisance. If you are on a cycle or if you are on foot, everyone who is on a motor vehicle is a nuisance. If you are on foot, everyone who is on a vehicle of any sort is a nuisance.
  • Lanes drawn on the roads are just for aesthetic appeal, and they are not meant for anything else
    • It is sometimes fun to drive with one of those white lines running through the middle of your car
    • And of course, the concept of lanes does not apply to a vehicle with less than 4 tires
  • Taking random turns at will and assuming those behind will notice and apply brakes
  • If you hit someone, fight with all your might but never accept your mistake
  • If yours is a bigger vehicle, you can assume everyone else will give you way
  • Honk often to clear the road and make way for yourself
  • Tease girls and women on the roads
  • ...
  • ...
  • ...
And so on... I think all the above together portray Indian Culture to a great extent, if not completely. The aspects which I see coming out clearly are - Corruption, Hypocrisy, Lying, Deception, Cheating, Cruelty, Dishonesty, Cowardice, Herd Mentality, Pretension, Selfishness, Self Centeredness, Carelessness, Recklessness, Ruthlessness, Immaturity, Distrust, Weakness, Apathy, Lasciviousness, Power Hunger, Avariciousness, Arrogance, Atheism, Argumentativeness, Ignorance, etc. etc. etc.

Herd Mentality

Following the herd is a natural tendency in all humans. We grow up focussing on specific subjects in school, we take up specific & popular streams for professional studies and most of us land up in similar jobs, if we are from a similar social, economic and educational backgrounds. And those who choose to enter business, some of them called entrepreneurs, pick popular lines of business and end up repeating, without much of a difference, something done by many others.

I was fortunate to study in an IIM for 2 years during which I saw herd mentality demonstrated in the most conspicuous ways by some of the most intelligent people. As soon as you join, the seniors bombard you with theories on how to spend your time best at IIM - what to do, which committees to target, which courses to take, Consulting or I-Banking or Marketing or Entrepreneurship, which companies to look forward to, how to prepare for them, importance of building your CV, importance of building your CGPA, importance of participating in all kinds of competitions, etc. And all this takes only moments to get ingrained into each of those heads listening intently hoping to making it big in life. The brains are instantly reconfigured with new dreams, new ambitions, new desires. My batch was fooled by telling us BCG was coming on the day we joined, for recruiting for summer internships, and believe me, almost the entire batch went crazy preparing CVs. The seniors even did a fake pre-placement talk. Many who didn't care still went ahead and submitted their CVs, coz everyone else was doing so. A few didn't bother, mostly coz they knew it was all a hoax. Very few actually didn't care and didn't do anything, and had the nerves to tell those "angry" seniors that they didn't give a damn. A lot of such pressure tactics were applied officially and unofficially - by calling it a "hoax" - to mould our heads in shape of that of a typical MBA.

A few do manage to shake themselves up soon after such brainwashes and get back to their original sweet world. (Many of them succum later on.) But most are carried away and the scattered paths of their lives quickly align themselves in a few popular paths. The seniors don't do it just for pleasure, although they do draw a lot of it while trying to shape views. They do, in fact, genuinely believe what they are doing is the right thing - partly because they are also victims of the same brainwashing tradition, and partly because they still haven't seen enough to learn better, coz this being a 2 year MBA, the 2nd year batch is still just aspiring for what they chose a year back and they draw their strength to keep working on the chosen path by displaying firm belief in it - by pretending and by teaching the same to others.

Another striking display of herd mentality can be seen in matters of breaking rules, even law, especially when it is not perceived as rational enough or if following it is costlier than breaking it. Or it could be a cultural phenomenon - not to follow rules, and break them in a herd so that the blame is shared and in effect is on nobody. I see that everyday on the roads in India.

One of the reasons herd mentality sets in so easily in choices people make may be lack of reliable information and insecurity in common people, due to which they rely on social channels for forming opinions and choose seemingly less risky, well-tried and tested alternatives. Secondly, while our societies and families do play the good role of providing a check and acceptance/rejection for everything we want to do, they also, in the process, instil in our minds a lot of doubts and fears. And we end up training ourselves not to apply our minds but to flow with the tide. It may not be conscious, but that's one of the cases where nurture tries to overcome nature. It doesn't always succeed, of course. And thirdly, it could be purely a cultural phenomenon, like the case of violation of traffic rules in India.

Friday, October 19, 2012

kuch to timepass comparison

Every bald man alive and dead has seen a moment when he came to know the schocking reality that he is on the road to baldness and has already covered half the distance without knowing and with the belief that he can't ever get bald. He still covers half of the remaining distance keeping himself in denial and covering bald patches with smart comb-work, which the world knows and notices, yet doesn't comment or does so with suppressed smiles and mildly sympathetic ayyayyos. This is the Sachin Tendulkar phase of baldness. And finally when the man decides he can't deny it any more and lets his strands loose, he realizes the world doesn't care and it knew all along of the barren islands which never erupt.

This sounds like the lifecycle of a bollywood star, especially a heroine, once in huge demand for her youth and beauty, and later thrown into oblivion once the first signs of aging appeared and Olay didn't help. Or a sports star who can no longer play well enough. Although the important difference is that a baldy was never paid for his hair while a heroine earned money for her beauty (and the sports guy for his ability to play the game well), I think the emotional states of both are still quite similar, particularly in the Sachin Tendulkar phase. And I guess the parallels end right there. Post that phase, a bald man usually regains confidence and does well with his life and work. But bollywood or sports celebrities go one of two routes - (1) get more and more frustrated sine die and finally die, i.e., enter a Rajesh Khanna phase, or (2) make a new beginning in a new avatar and create new goals with a new zeal, i.e., enter an Amitabh Bacchan phase. The main reason the parallels end is that for a bollywood or sports celebrity the cause of frustration was also work-related. For a baldy, it was only an appearance issue, and his appearance never earned him any money. I guess the differences are more obvious than the similarities, and I won't write more on this lame comparison :)

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Manmohan Singh Robot! Let's build a smarter PM!

What would you do if someone calls you an idiot? Or inefficient? Or Incapable? Or dumb? Or helpless? Especially when you were once one heck of a Sheldon! It has happened to me many times, especially when I am new in any job, as I have the habit of getting into new jobs with no similarity to any I did before. But with Manmohan Singh, it has happened after he's finished 8 years as Prime Minister, and let's not forget the successful stint before as Finance Minister. Not that it hasn't been said before about him, but we hear it more often now with our PM's situation worsening with each passing day and his alleged direct involvement (possibly by accident and without his own knowledge) in scams. I say it's worsening coz as everything moves in its natural course in whatever direction, our PM is standing still. I sometimes feel he might be a robot with an external human appearance. He doesn't even wave his hands when he walks, although he walks real fast when the key is wound. We can easily build one of those I guess, by taking some money out of some coal mine auction, or have the mine run over by elephants (someone told me when I was a kid that if 1000 elephants run over coal, it becomes diamond), taking some time out of DRDO or ISRO or something and have our Scientists build something like that, of course without Pakistan coming to know. I was thinking whether we can have something like that - Build a Manmohan Singh Robot that walks like him with one hand in pocket, wears same dress always, doesn't talk - for Techfest Robotics Challenge, but I am not sure if doing it in public would be in the National Interest, as guys from Pakistan and guys/gals from Sri Lanka also participate in those competitions. But if someone can confirm that our PM is not a robot, then may be we can have this kind of a competition. I don't think this would be seen as offensive, coz celebrities happily take pics standing next to their own wax statues. This would be a high-tech robot. We should have the PM judge the event. If he can't decide, we can have a walking race with the PM as the decider, unless Sonia ji recommends some robot be declared the winner. She might pick up one of the robots for the next PM. But since Manmohan Singh is officially aging, she should rather have a Rahul Robot built for the next time Congress comes to power.
 
The context of this post, is of course the article - India's 'silent' prime minister becomes a tragic figure - by Simon Denyer of The Washington Post. I have realized that it is very dangerous to let yourself be ruled by a geek. Reputations of honesty, sincerity and meticoulsness to detail drawn from performance in homework, exams and research often have no relevance when it comes to getting things moving in practice. Blame it on academic stuff that has no right to be so interesting - which it happens to be for humans wired in certain way - in spite of being disconnected from reality. Blame it also on the way we form opinions of goodness about geek people, which may be true in some cases, but lead us to make conclusions that are justified only by our fear and distrust of people in power. A silent, expressionless face may mean an intelligent, possibly (or necessarily?) confused, mind lost in analysis which we correlate spontaneously to honesty and sincerity (relationships made in heaven which need not have earthly rationale), and thereafter jump and decide that such people becoming our leaders would be great. While we possibly think a weak, intelligent and honest person would let us have fun and also do what's right for us (ah, the kid in each one of us!), the powerful and chaaloo (like Sonia Gandhi) want such a person to be at the forefront to make us credulous masses happy, and also to push the puppet the way he/she likes. It's fun for all. Win-Win is a way of looking at it. But an intransitive "win" is empty by definition, unless you are a Buddha and can't define in words what he's won.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

What the hell is going on?

Coalgate is the latest feather in the UPA government's cap. And the latest ingredient in the spicy saga of corruption in India. If it hadn't been for a couple of Finance chapters I read during my adventures with academic pursuits, I wouldn't have appreciated the rationale behind something being called a loss just coz it could have been earned and the government gave up the possibility of earning it. I still don't often understand that way of looking at things, but if that's the rule, so be it.

It would be interesting to go through the methodology of calculating the loss, although my past record with Valuation tells me that I won't understand much of it. Damodaran on Valuation is considered a good book on the subject, but books are never the best way to learn stuff in college. And as far as learning from peers is concerned, stuff like laziness, inferiority complex, superiority complex, shyness, arrogance, etc etc., each applicable to different subset of peers, stopped me from reaching out, and I was left wondering on most topics, but passed the course nonetheless, like I did most others at IIM and IIT, from whatever bits I understood and from whatever bits I managed to cover up with good english.

I didn't intend to discuss this topic here, but like law, my articles take their own course. I was a great notes-writer at IIM. I wrote good notes at IIT too, but there I was outdone by people like Abhishek Bhargava by miles of written crap. I did have a couple of loyal customers like Ratnesh Bansal and Jeetu. And a few others who played safe by xeroxing notes by Abhishek, Saumya and me, just to make sure they don't miss anything at all. But sadly, half of my time at IIT was spent figuring out what the seemingly better people did, and writing good notes with the mind shut and ears open was one of them. I utilized in IIM that skill developed over 2 years in IIT, and it didn't take me long to become the 'notes-guy' of my section. IIMs are culturally a little different from IITs, in that you cannot and need not totally rely on class-notes. The curriculum is full of the so called 'Case Studies' which you can solve, resolve, analyse and answer just from common sense. Some part of the remaining stuff can be tackled through the gyaan in class-notes, which must also be there in some form in the books, I am sure. But you need to be a Schizophrenic John Nash to find those bits and connect them in a way that it makes any sense. So a few who care a little, look at the notes. For those who care more than a little, and there a few of those, there are the books. You are charged in your fees for books and they are thrown to your face, even if you don't want them. And naturally, very few actually see those books after the day they register for a term, when they have to collect the books from the Academic Office. So proud or amused they are on that day that they take pictures of stacks of books and put them on facebook. Some perverts see a phallus and worship it in hope that it bears some fruit. The few who do study them, are either in BCG (and the like) or in some unknown company which they joined after they were forced to sign out of placements without job just coz it was convocation day and the diro had to declare 100% placements!

Coming back to Coalgate... Why the hell do they make a 'gate' out of every damn scandal? They should have avoided that here, at least, coz they ended up naming the scandal after a popular toothpaste, sticking to the phonetics. But who are 'they'? I don't know. I wish we had some democratic way of naming popular newsy stuff. A discussion in Parliament may be a good idea. Afterall when we are known by our Scandals, we better have good names for those.

As it gets more and more ridiculous with our leaders throwing blames in defence and playing defence when blamed, some channel(s) highlighted yesterday or the day before the fact that we lost 147 crore in the Parliament sessions where nothing happened except shouting and gossip. Well, I wonder if we should consider this a loss at all, given that even otherwise, those parliament sessions are no good. However, from similar to but slightly different from the Chidambaram logic, one can say that if the session happened and the cost of the session was incurred, where is the loss? At some level this makes sense coz there is always a way to justify chaos in Parliament, as something done in National Interest. Also, given the fact that our leaders do everything for National interest by default - from watching porn in Parliament when they are not sleeping to dancing naked with prostitutes to making favors to lobbies for 'nominal' monetary gains. 'Nominal' because the numbers are so huge, you can't key them into calculators, and have to settle with the names only. Of course technology has advanced and now we have stuff that take long numbers... but we will not tell those politicians of the ancestral generations. Otherwise, they may think beyond their calculators. They already carry iPads and stuff, although turned off. The moment they learn how to poke into their screens, India will have bigger scams. Unless somebody comes up with 'politician-lock' app like they have child-locks in TVs.

Lastly, with all this talk about huge numbers, that too of money, stuck in various messes - some here, some there, some nowhere - I am really confused how money really works. Does anyone really know how much there is, how much there can be and how much there needs to be, and what the hell is going on?

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Fighting over Religion - Can we stop it?

Many Pakistani Hindus are seeking refuge in India and none of them wants to go back to Pakistan. They say they had miserable lives in Pakistan. Pakistani government officials say it's not about religion, but just the feudal system in Pakistan which affects the poorest guys most, and that's Hindus. Feudal system may be responsible to a certain extent, but for a nation like Pakistan which came into being purely on religious grounds, it is hard to imagine a secular environment with equal status for people with all faiths.

Religion, which for most of us is a hereditary attribute rather than a chosen belief, is the root cause of most tensions between humans. I was wondering about the possibility of abolishing all the existing religions and starting afresh. I realized that it requires a round of devastation of human civilization at a scale big enough to wipe out all our luxuries and take us to a level of misery such that we lose faith in the existing manifestations of God we believe in or have imagined. If that really happens, and we do indeed start afresh, it is very unlikely that the humans spread all over the globe will develop new concepts of god and religion with consensus. There is bound to be different schools of thought and imagination, and therefore we will most likely end up again with this situation with many religions. If we cannot have one religion, we should somehow have peaceful coexistence of all religions. Is it possible with where we stand right now, with our 2000-3000 years old religions or is there an easier way to achieve it with a new set of religions? If it is possible now itself, what should be done to make it happen?

Sunday, August 5, 2012

An Opportunity Wasted...

It is difficult to say whether forming a political party is the right thing to do for team Anna. Sadly this anti-corruption movement by Anna Hazare and his team has come to a point where most people just don't care any more. There was a time when everyone looked up to them with admiration and hope. For once, the public did make them heroes by placing them all on a pedestal. But they wasted it.

I wondered for a moment whether wasted is the right word. Possibly they are honest individuals with genuine concern for the country and they did what they felt was right. If that is true, they should not be blamed for losing an opportunity, coz according to their judgement they were making the best of it. Their fighting against corruption was totally voluntary. So it is not really justified that we blame them for misjudging at a certain point and leading the movement to its doom, coz we did not elect them for the cause. We, the common people, were only going to be beneficiaries if the movement succeeded, i.e., we were there to share all rewards, but not contributors to the movement in any significant way. Of course the public support did give strength to the movement, but the public also left when it got bored.

But the opportunity was indeed wasted by team Anna, thinking from their own point of view, for whatever aspirations they had. May be they indeed want a clean political system. Or may be this whole movement was one huge show to gain publicity and build a reputation, that can lead to a direct and strong entry into politics with possibilities of fastest rise to the top. Or may be it is something else. In any case, they wouldn't be happy about the way things flopped for them after the first two super-hit shows. So much so that they couldn't even motivate themselves to fast for the cause they so much expressed belief in, and ended it all in haste, as if they found it totally useless to do it any further when people didn't care and government didn't bother.

On another note, it is interesting to understand what could be the incentive for someone to launch a movement against corruption and fight for a clean system. At an individual level, the motivations and benefits sought are generally too personal and micro to really justify a mass-movement. Still, we have definitely come across individuals who have died for causes beyond their own. Or did they internally link the cause to something their own and found a personal benefit big enough to justify embracing death? Suicide bombers, army men, social and political fighters who don't fear death - what really drives them?

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

the pursuits of unhappiness

A few days after Rajesh Khanna's death, we now have lots of articles pouring in which talk about his being just lucky in getting a super star status, his failure to manage his career, his failure as a politician, his fear and hatred of Amitabh Bachchan, how bad he was with relationships and his inability to handle success or failure.

The world is a damn competitive and ruthless place, where struggling for success in everything and maintaining a happy face have to go hand-in-hand. And if they don't lead to tangible achievements, you are simply lost. And if you do achieve success of the magnitude the world envies, you become the object of criticism in whatever you do. And if you are not in control of your emotions, and by controlling we mean suppressing them to an extent that they are practically non-existent, you will die of the immense stress the world subjects you to. So, you are either unhappy or incapable of experiencing any emotion including happiness. Success sucks. Even wanting it sucks. But without it life sucks because of limited resources. We are basically trapped in endless unhappiness or as emotionless dummies. My feeling is that emotionlessness is an impossible situation. At a practical level, what it means is that nothing happening in one's life is able to create any emotional change in the individual, and his/her mind is instead occupied by an endless emotion of sadness. That endless emotion could also have been happiness, but that happens only with spiritually enlightened people who reportedly existed only in 4th century BC and before. So, basically, it's all unhappiness. Only possibilities are the kinds of unhappiness - i.e., unhappiness coz of scarcity and physical pain or unhappiness coz of stress and mental agony or unhappiness coz of emotional suppression. We can choose which one we want to pursue. What we get is again not necessarily what we want. The pursuit of happiness is just a euphemism. We do want to be happy and often consciously indulge in many experiences that make us happy. However the pursuits of life, which we want to believe are pursuits of happiness, are really pursuits of unhappiness.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Intellectual Pursuits and Intellectual Growth

As we go through life, we learn a lot of things - most of them about dealing with human creations and humans. None of us knows where we, as a kind, came from and why we are here. We may be incapable of knowing that, or perhaps we'll know in future (or past if we manage to travel back). The restlessness in our mind arising from the lack of knowledge about our origins and the purpose of our existence is not as great as the instinct to protect our life and the desire to continue living forever without pain. I can imagine why Maslow must have come up with the concept of the hierarchy of needs, which broadly states that humans crave for satisfaction of physiological needs and such, before they seek filling their intellectual voids. However, from my own observation, I feel that human cravings come as multiple threads of parallel processes rather than as stacks of needs approached bottom up. And the intellectual growth of an individual is best derived and achieved out of struggle for what one would technically consider purely physiological needs. One may argue that it is accidental and not intended, and what Maslow is really talking about is the perceived and pursued need of an individual - i.e., a person will not strive for intellectual growth until he feels he has fully satisfied his physiological needs and is in a comfortable position to do that on a continuous basis, as physiological needs need to be satiated on a daily basis.

In a nutshell, I making two points here:

  1. Human efforts to fulfill their various kinds of needs are not in a perfect hierarchy as Maslow put it, but are rather in the form of multiple, parallel complex threads of striving for everything. However, this observation still does not refute Maslow's theory, as I am sure Maslow realized the complexity of the human mind, and knew that his overly simplistic hierarchy of needs is really true at a broad level. For example, a man hanging from a window of a building on fire, would not really think about anything else but saving his life. A man whose life is going fine (i.e., enough food and water), would then look at his days more closely and contemplate about people and situations. And so on.
  2. Intellectual growth of an individual is of the deepest and highest quality when it is drawn from the real struggles of and for life. All struggles of our lives are to work with and around people to get what we want to make our lives better. We are not born equal and so our struggles to grow also vary. Humans are selfish and self-centered creatures at a very basic level, and it takes immense amount of hard work and persistence to really make our lives work. The fight for resources is never ending. But the inequality, right from the moment we are born, and the greed with which humans want to amass and disproportionately grow and protect the resources they own and control, makes this world a ruthless opponent to fight with. It not only takes all the strength of the individual, especially those who are unfortunate at the start, but also demands that all their mental and intellectual resources be fully focussed on getting the best they can out of this world. And I believe the intellectual ability of the highest order is the understanding of human behavior and the ways of the world. Philosophy and meaning of life are ingrained in this ability, and the stuff in books written by scholars looking out of windows of their cozy cottages in snow is just confusing pieces of interesting literature which entertains and enchants coz it speaks of the ultimate truth, which neither they know nor does anybody. Drawing inferences based on assumptions is like assuming the inferences. It is through dealing with life's hardships that one learns the truth that is relevant to us. Beyond that, it's pure academics, which has huge respect but no utility.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Energy and Blah

I think, on the whole, we have made ourselves too dependent on petroleum. Even our renewable means of energy production require some bit of petroleum input, to be produced and sustained. To really derisk ourselves from this erratic and mad scramble for oil, I think we need to look for ways of energy production that don't have any dependence on petroleum whatsoever.

Yesterday, the petrol price increased by a whopping 10%. And over the past couple of years, it has increased many times. Well, it doesn't affect me so much, as I do have some extra money, and it really doesn't matter to me if my monthly expenses increase by a few hundreds or even a few thousands. I won't even come to know if it's just that much, coz I don't really keep track of exactly how much I'm spending (beyond some approximation). And I don't have to support a family. But for the millions of Indians who just manage to make the ends meet, and for those who don't, every rupee rise in petrol price is a new disaster. Not that if we have another powerful and efficient energy source, the problems will end, coz politics will spread its wings to engulf all opportunities for political exploitation at the cost of the common man. But may be having another means will spread and lessen the intensity of the pain. Having said that, I am sure capable people are researching on ways and means of energy production that can replace petrol and other fossil fuels, and are also safe. And I am sure the world will change tremendously in the next 50 years, as the fossils will reach their exhaustion, and human energy needs will keep on increasing.

It's crazy how we discovered an energy source and finished it off in a couple of centuries. And in the process created a human world running on interesting stuff that work with energy controlled, stored, flown, burnt, etc. to give us great lives. And soon we need to find another energy source big enough to keep this going and grow it further.

Probably this post does not bring in any new insights or thoughts or information. Anyway, I had to do something lying down in this beautiful park :-)

Have a great weekend!






Sunday, May 20, 2012

Let's live and die

Life is so uncertain, particularly when it comes to the end of it. I feel that more nowadays than ever before. Probably after the death recently of one of my batchmates at IIML. And the thought has been getting reinforced by news of deaths of famous young people.

The realization that all this is going to end soon for me too, and possibly at any moment, and that we all have very limited and short time alive, is so sad and disillusioning. Of what consequence is all that I think, feel and do? What and why is all this going on? Why should anything be given any importance?

Thanks to our design, we all have an internal urge to live, to create, to want, to understand things, apply and demand logic, feel emotions - enough of a recipe to make us do something of our lifetimes. Come out of it, though I guess we can't, our existence is over. Or rather, we are not capable of talking about what we would be if we are not what we are. Is death that state of liberation from the trap of being human? Of life? Or is it just and end of what is, and there is nothing thereafter? We don't know. We can only imagine and write stories of crazy Gods, who are supposed to know everything but never show up. May be we are designed too weak to get into all that. But certainly we do poke our noses into everything that's going on. May be our innocent laws and equations, to explain what is, amuse some infant God, for whom we are metaphorical teddy bears who play when the key is wound, and who stop when it's totally unwound. Rewind and we are in a new life. Perhaps God needs a rechargeable battery for us. Perhaps we'll create one for him some day. Till then, let's live and die.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tips to an IIML prospect

A couple of days back, a guy called me on the eve of his IIML GD/PI, for some tips. He was one of those high work-ex MBA aspirants, who crack CAT partly by chance and partly coz IIML gives low-percentilers some respect if they have slogged for a few years somewhere after graduating. But he ended up revealing his worries about whether he would get a good job post MBA. I couldn't lie, and told him that high work-ex is a disadvantage at any IIM. But then, there had to be a reason for him to perform the next day. So I tried to convince him that job should not be the sole reason for getting into IIM, and that there are many other things, of a far greater value. For me it was loads of free time, sleep, jogging, booze at insti-parties, books (non-academic), good internet connection, tension-free education loan, Sahara Ganj, Gomti Nagar, Dominos Pizza and the wonderful winters of Lucknow. I couldn't get laid coz a couple of alpha males in our batch dominated that department. I did try Axe and Wild Stone, but I guess it's not just about smell. So, in a nutshell, the best thing about MBA from IIM is the experience. There is not much of any real value otherwise, which you wouldn't have had anyway if you were frustrated enough with life. Of course I did not tell that guy what I actually liked about my MBA at IIM. Instead, I talked about stuff like personal growth, personality development, value addition, contacts, friends, etc. He was not going to be convinced anyway, coz he had a dream job, which he described to me, and nothing else mattered to him. (Dream jobs exist only in dreams. I think I have enough "diversity" in my work-ex to make this statement with a high level of confidence.) I told him many companies come to IIML with such jobs on offer and so he had good opportunities. And, that probably worked. Although, my earlier point of high-work-ex-you-are-doomed-at-IIM point had cast a permanent dent in his mind, I am sure he'd temporarily overcome that with the pre-MBA I-can-do-anything mindset.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Learning Guitar

Am enjoying learning guitar these days. Little by little, as I have begun playing sounds that make musical sense, it feels awesome! I want to play it well. And I want to be able to sing along. Can't wait to get there. Hope I do get there this time :-)

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Win Down-Under

Finally the Indian Cricket team wins a match down under. I suspect it's all been one smart strategy - to not waste energy playing hard to win those boring 5-day so-called test matches and to focus on one-days and 20-20s, which are smaller in length, more exciting and more lucrative; and while Indian team did this, let the Australians get exhausted. It's too early to make this conclusion though, coz this last victory may just be an aberration. But still, what the heck... I'll make it nonetheless.

A funny comment I read under a TOI article last night said that India, Pakistan, West-Indies, Sri Lanka etc. should all voluntarily and officially move out of test-cricket altogether. And let only Australia and England play the boring version and feel proud about it if they will. I couldn't agree more.

Even if indeed this victory is not representative of the Indian team's abilities, the fact still stands that test matches are terribly boring and need to be gotten rid of ASAP. Although I am proud that it was a test match in which Bhuvan and his team defeated the angrez to shut their mouth that shouted teen goona laggaan, they really had no choice and power to decide or enforce the version.

Let's hope now that we win a few more matches and our team of uncles makes us proud. Don't stop expecting from them. Remember the times when the team had only one uncle - Robin Singh - who was more active and energetic than every youngster in the team. (Handsome kahaan hai aajkal?) I am sure he can still come back and dive like a kid, if only some of the youngsters could retire.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Got Some Change?

Let’s talk about one common problem with the available denominations of the Indian Currency – the fact that there are things available at prices for which coins/notes of right denominations are scarce, and which is forcing a lot of vendors in the unorganized sector to price their products at the higher and nearest round figures, or charge somewhat like that with the difference either covered with Dairy Milk Éclairs or just a plain simple thhenga. We may even be adding, as a result, to some inflation (unaccounted) and consumption (unwanted) in the economy. (Who would buy Dairy Milk Éclairs otherwise?)

There is one Panipuri shop in Magarpatta (Pune) where the shopkeeper refuses to give any change that is not in multiples of 10. But his Panipuri is priced at Rs.15.00 per plate. So you have to either pay him the exact amount of Rs.15.00, or eat 2 more Panipuris by paying Rs.20.00 or not eat there at all, which he doesn’t mind. Interestingly, he always readily accepts when you pay him exact Rs.15.00, but whenever I didn’t have change, he didn’t have it either, or he just said so, and he didn’t bother if I went away and ate somewhere else. And this kind of stuff keeps happening very often with me these days. And probably even with Chikni Chameli, jo pahua chadha ke hazaaron ke note khulla chhutta karaane aayi! Some vendors even forgo a few bucks here and there, as running around for change is not always worth the effort.

So the point is - most of India still transacts in cash and coins, but sadly, we are not minting them enough to allow ourselves all combinations so as to easily arrive at any odd natural number.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Bollywood Bonanza

Actual Answers by Callers:
Konkona Sen - Ranbir Kapoor
Diya Mirza - Imran Khan
Vidya Balan - Bobby Deol
Sushmita Sen - Upen Patel
Rimi Sen - John Ibrahim
Madhuri Dixit - Sunil Shetty
Katrina Kaif - Akshay Kumar
Aishwarya Rai - Tushar Kapoor
Vivek Oberoi - Manisha Koirala
Deepika Padukone - Ashmit Patel
Sonam Kapoor - Aftab Shivdasani
Esha Deol - Harman Bhaveja
Vidya Balan - Sunny Deol
Sunidhi Chauhan - Karan Johar
Sonakshi Sinha - Salman Khan
Rani Mukherjee - Salman Khan
Sonam Kapoor - Salman Khan
Shilpa Shetty - Salman Khan
Lara Dutta - Salman Khan
Kareena Kapoor - Salman Khan
Bipasa Basu - Salman Khan
Asin - Salman Khan
Juhi Chawla - Salman Khan
Anushka Sharma - Salman Khan
Neha Dhupia - Salman Khan
Karisma Kapoor - Salman Khan
(At this point a hint was given that the gal's name started with the letter "P", and after this hint, last 4 calls were to be taken...)
Priyanka Chopra - Salman Khan
Prachi Desai - Salman Khan
Pooja Bhat - Salman Khan
Preity Zinta - Salman Khan

Can it get crazier? Can I sue Zoom (or whoever makes this stuff) for fraud?

Have you ever tried calling them up to play? I did once, but only ended up wasting a lot of money without even getting connected. Ya, I was stupid. Is there anyone else like me? And someone who got connected by any chance?

Saturday, January 28, 2012

CAAAR!

It's foolish to own and use a long so called CAAAR in India. Nissan Sunny is simply not for us. Our roads don't have turning radii that suit a Nano, let alone a CAAAR. And our roads don't have exits, so when a car wants to take a sharp lane out, it ends up causing a traffic jam. And where the hell will you park the CAAAR? Forget all that, I even sometimes feel that having a car, a normal one, for use on Indian city roads is itself a bad idea - it requires extremely careful driving, has to be driven extremely slow, and parking is a big problem. But interestingly, a lot of people in India do buy cars, coz the metallic chariot that runs on oil is still a status symbol here. And besides, there is indeed the necessity, when a few people have to travel together, however bad the roads might be, coz the public transport is sometimes even more horrible. And high smoke and pollution levels often make you want to travel indoors, and you don't mind investing that extra time, coz of the extra space you occupy in the traffic, and extra money you've to spend on fuel. And many still hope, although against much hope, that this state of infrastructure will turn around and they will have the roads where they'll be able to unleash the power of their powerful cars.

I still remember the surprised look on the face of guys at an exam center in US when I told them I did not have a car, and needed a place where I could keep my bag (the way we keep them in front in exam halls during exams in India!). Yes, there are very few in the US who write CFA exam and yet don't have a car.

Just another parallel thought which sprang from this - most guys in US start their companies in garages. It's understandable, coz it's decent space, totally not necessary, without rent to be paid, and huge office space for a start-up. In India we keep cars under our buildings, or in open air and covered at times with plastic. To make a sweeping conclusion, it's easy to start companies in spacious countries like America, where the basic physical infrastructure is virtually everywhere.

I'm cold, but...

It's getting less and less cold now, with each passing day. I love winters, especially very cold ones. The two winters I lived in Lucknow were my coldest and the most memorable and pleasant. The cold in Bilaspur is nowhere close to the spooky foggy chill of north India, of which I got great experience in Lucknow. Of course, if you go further north, you have snow and ice and sub-zero temperatures, which I experienced only for a couple of days when I went to Sikkim. But cold feels awesome only as long as it does not start freezing stuff around...

Snow and Ice reminds of the thing going on at Davos right now - The World Economic Forum. I wish I could be there. The thought of so many intellectuals and crooks at the same place talking stuff that shape the world definitely gives an intellectual erection to anyone suffering from paralysis of analysis, like I do. But the way I am going about my career, I don't see that possible in my whole life-time. I know that at the core of nature, there are stuff called quantum leaps, but they might just be the operating procedures of god to execute this world. Not that steep rises at macro level are rare - we have people turning billionaires in USDs within short time-spans - but I am deeply pessimistic at this point of time. Although I often feel these are not quite normal in humans (but important to note that one's concept of normality is only relative assuming himself/herself as normal), I wish I had a single strong passion to drive me in some direction, a single strong goal and motivation to pursue it or a single strong pain I would have fought with all my energies.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Religious Intolerance & Conflicts

Just like some people cannot live without praying to the god they believe in, some people cannot live without talking shit about others' gods. And for atheists, criticism of the concept of god and of specific gods is the biggest source of strength for their belief in non-belief. Sometimes, I find it totally illogical that we humans should respect each other's choice of religion and gods (and being sensible and logical species, humans indeed have this difficulty in accepting religions, gods and such faiths not our own), coz anyone would agree that the actual god or creator must be the same for all humans - basically for the following resons: (1) No religion speaks of co-existence of other religions or of different gods creating and ruling different sections of humanity, (2) All existing religions are fairly recent, i.e., only a few millenia old, whereas human beings have been hanging around for lacs of years, and other creatures for hundreds of millions of years, (and therefore, I am afraid, the first point I made becomes redundant), and (3) History of human evolution indicates common geographical and ancestral origins. Therefore, it is hard to imagine many gods independently working on different non-overlapping sections of human beings.

Furthermore humans evolved from apes, to whom human gods with human characteristics kind of funda cannot apply coz apes were there even before humans existed. Although this argument cannot stand in front of the counter-argument that evolution is false theory, same god created everyone, that same god is human-like, coz humans are some ultimate species meant to rule this planet and represent god's loved ones and all that shit. You cannot argue with logic to counter things said as facts with disclaimers that those facts need no proof. Although, I agree that logic too fails after a point coz of human ignorance, but it evolves with time and does not refuse to change its shape in light of new learnings and evidence. For example, all arguments of religious folks to support their beliefs are based on what someone said 1000-2000 years back or what someone wrote in some book such long time ago. Whereas, all arguments of atheists, who generally argue in light of evidence, are based on recent discoveries, learnings and knowledge - like the theory of evolution or quantum physics.

What about animals? I am sure each of our human-like gods created all of them too, according to respective ancient scriptures. If however there is some possibility that there is a bunch of gods, perhaps playing video game or something using us, each creating stuff living and non-living... What can I say? The thought itself is too human, in the present sense of what 'human' means. May be gods behave differently. May be only gods are qualified enough to talk about gods. Some humans have also spoken about them. Can't tell now whether they were just schizophrenic and told stories out of illusions or they were results of some bug in the video game software that resulted in some guys knowing stuff of the gods. The latter is also a possibility, besides the former, coz of late, we've had fewer such genuine enlightened guys, possibly coz the bug is fixed now!

Whatever be the case, the point is, that religious tolerance just does not come naturally to humans, although religion probably does. We'll always have people fighting over gods. Unless by some iron fist, we can achieve a gradual convergence of all religions to one concept of the almighty creator, which we all agree upon, with the best of human understanding and knowledge. Unfortunately, this is never going to happen, unless the world is flushed of its shit a couple of times (which I heard is going to happen once in 2012), coz none of the religions has a sunset clause and coz powerful humans use the human propensity for religion and the existence of different religions, to play politics and derive more power, so as to rule other humans.

If humans are part of nature and nature is perfect in the way it evolves, then all that is happening must definitely lead to something good. Of course, we don't know if nature really evolves in ways that are best... and best for whom?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Sad state of Indian Manufacturing Sector

Just got up and found this headline on the economictimes website that Indian factories fail to move up competition ladder. Sad, but we are consistently driving ourselves further in the same direction.

Most of our engineers get into IT, coz they get paid better there, have better working conditions and get a better raise in money each year, although the quality of work is quite the opposite at times. Strangely, these Software companies are categorized as Tecnology Stocks in our share markets, while Manufacturing is a separate sector - as if all the technology lies there in what you do with computers, while it is not even true as far as most of the Software work we do in India is concerned, which is mostly cleaning up or updating or maintaining stuff created by Americans.

Having said that, it is not the engineers that determine the area of focus in a particular section of an economy. The Manufacturing sector is probably not able to reach the critical mass where it can push for further investments and aggressiveness to achieve higher scales. It is either just sustaining itself or shrinking each day in a milieu that is a total turn-off. While the milieu and mindsets are changing and will further change once we have better incentives, job opportunities and quality outputs to prove the viability of the sector, the fundamental driver even for that lies elsewhere.

I believe we basically need strong policy action by the government, to push the Manufacturing sector, which will not happen as long as we go on taking too much pride in our IT sector and ignore the other areas which are important if we want to be fundamentally strong in the long term. A strong policy action, and encouragement through perks and incentives is enough to drive our systems and businessmen towards creating the right ingredients to generate resources for growing the sector. Resources, like people with right set of skills and adequate technical knowledge, are immensely scarce. But so were C and Java resources once upon a time. The funny thing is that our mechanical, civil, electrical, electronics, chemical, metallurgical, mining engineers, and others whom I missed, all somehow learn C/C++/Java or some other such thing in weeks, and become professional software engineers for life, while the stuff they learn for 4 years of engineering study, is just to get them degrees, and what they learn during those 4 years hardly matters to them or anyone. Then where's the incentive to improve the education standards of our engineering colleges?

I had this feeling often when I was a software engineer, that if I had done the same job when I was in my 10th standard, I would have done it 10 times better and more efficiently. Afterall, the skills you require for being one, are not beyond 10th grade. And the maturity you require for such jobs, is also not beyond 10th grade. But I had no other option, coz that was the best job I could find.

Of course, the world will always be imperfect, coz we don't have a deadline to make it perfect. Our movement forward or backward in any area seems to be the sum of human push and shove (which, I realized just now, is a vector!). Government action, therefore, has to be driven by push from the Industry, and vice versa. We have to get it right somehow :-)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Meaningless Existence?

One question arose in my mind today (although not the first time) and it span my head round and round. What's the meaning of my existence in this whole seemingly infinite universe crawling in this ever ticking thing called called 'time', with an incomprehensible monodirectional infinitude and bidirectional geometry. It may all be an illusion, but there are dimensions or elements to our own domain of illusions which uncover themselves as we figure them out. Or, perhaps our scientific progress is just our marginal propensity to illude (if there is such a word), like they say about a lot of other stuff in economics.

I don't know what to do. If I choose to believe that we are all living in some illusion, then I'll have to fight the uneasiness of not knowing the reality. This belief, however, has the nature of non-belief in things being real as they are, and therefore does not crave for evidence so as to exist. If I choose to believe that all this is real, I'll have to fight the uneasiness of believing something without any evidence. In any case, I am unable to make choices of belief or non-belief. It simply does not happen with me. I either know, or I don't know. But when I don't know, and I know or feel that I can't know, it sucks. What should I do?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How we did assignments at IIML :-)

Chat with Sai Harish on 24th March 2009
Being posted unedited with his consent...

8:35 PM me: anna, how to find WACC





6 minutes
8:42 PM Sai: narendra..
  edaina sare..





17 minutes
9:00 PM me: edaina sare ante?
  arrive at a figure somehow?





32 minutes
9:33 PM me: there?





16 minutes
9:49 PM Sai: edaina sare ante
9:50 PM e doubt aina contact narendra
 me: he is not online...
  i figured out something
  listen
  what r u doing in the CAPM analysis?
9:51 PM Sai: I will try to find out Beta for India cements
  and compare it with betas of those competing companies
 me: but beta values are available na
  how will u find?
 Sai: where?
 me: capitaline
 Sai: capitaline lo Beta undaa
 me: yes
 Sai: Jayant said, it has to be calculated
9:52 PM me: it is there...
 Sai: by fittin regression line over the last 24 months
  oh cool..
  capitaline lo india cements ledu kada
 me: don't know... i saw it for ACC
9:53 PM Sai: is it..
 me: may be u can find out using regression or whatever and then compare with values from capitaline
 Sai: ok
 me: 0.6575
  that's for ACC
 Sai: I will also consult jayant..
  :)
  full fast kada
 me: hehe
9:54 PM but WACC includes CAPM thing
  i am doing WACC...
  ok do one thing, i will use the beta that comes from your analysis
  is that fine?
 Sai: okay
9:55 PM till then... if you are using excel
  put some dummy values
 me: yes
 Sai: and proceed..
  or else your time will be lost
 me: i am using some values for corporate tax rate and risk-free rate
9:56 PM Sai: okay..
  is that not available in income tax website?
  risk free rate ante govt. bonds coupon value ee kada
 me: wow, good idea
  will see
  what's the URL?
 Sai: :(





5 minutes
10:02 PM me: :)
  will see
 Sai: okay





30 minutes
10:33 PM Sai: Shree cements is out of our list
  right
  ?
 me: no confirmation from narendra
  let's consider it out, we have too many companies
10:34 PM am using data from capitaline, as far as possible
 Sai: okay





14 minutes
10:48 PM Sai: where is beta given in capitaline
  under which section?
10:49 PM me: Share Price
  there is a link called beta Analysis
 Sai: yes got it
  thank you
 me: can i assume this is unlevered?
  welcome
10:50 PM and lever it first and then apply barra equation and do the adjustment?
10:51 PM Sai: bouncer!
  NSE ke chestunnam kada
  manam
 me: NSE?
10:52 PM never thought that... ACC beta value is given for BSE
 Sai: I mean Beta and stuff related to NSE nifty
  there is option to select NSE
  I will take thosee and send them across
  all betas..
10:54 PM me: ok fine...





8 minutes
11:02 PM me: Ambuja Cements India Ltd
Ambuja Cements Ltd
  there are two
  i am taking the latter
11:03 PM Sai: okay
 me: okati cheppu raa
 Sai: gujarat ambuja kaada
 me: expected market return elaa telustundi?
 Sai: !!
  so many bouncers in a single day!!
  manaki FM lo intha undaa
11:04 PM me: gujrat ambuja, i guess is the same... Ambuja Cements is the official name right now... let's use this only
 Sai: okay
 me: yess man, this WACC when i first saw i got totally blank... it seems too simple to be correct...
11:05 PM plus am not taking into account whether there r preferred shareholders... already too much haziness due to cost of equity, cost of debt, equity beta, debt beta bla bla bla... so assuming all equity as one...
  is that ok?
11:06 PM Sai: cheseyyi..
  where from did you get cost of debt?
11:07 PM me: there is another way... find a beta-asset, which is a weighted average of debt beta and equity beta
  this beta-assed can be directly used like in the SML equation to find WACC...
  in this approach debt-beta has to be assumed
11:08 PM bhaskar said i can assume it 0.3
  0.2, sorry
 Sai: oho





6 minutes
11:15 PM me: bhaskar disconnected :))
  ate his head a lot
 Sai: :D
  ha ha haa!!!!
 me: another discovery
  7.5%
  that is the avg market premium in india
11:16 PM Sai: oh cooooll..
  source of data?
 me: bhaskar
 Sai: ante how to mention in the report?
 me: so the CAPM eqn becomes Rf + beta * 7.5%
 Sai: good..
  chala thanks
  inka rechipotaa
 me: :)))
  wow, mere sher
  naa puli
  :P
11:17 PM Sai: do you maintain notes in Mat Man?
  inka better.. puli raja analedu
11:18 PM me: no yaar, i wrote 1-2 classes, then got fed up
11:19 PM how come debashis asking the same question?
  no. of quity shares
 Sai: everybody in class is planning to bank on your notes
 me: the data was there somewhere
 Sai: ee time lo heart breaking news cheppav kada
 me: :))
  the guy is giving slides na
11:20 PM Sai: ya...
 me: i wrote 3 lectures
  something
11:21 PM copied slides ;-)
 Sai: :)
 me: am trying to find where number of shares r given
  it was there somewhere
  go to shareholding pattern
  under equity
  that has all the numbers
11:22 PM Sai: oh okay...
  will it be of use to me?
  :D :D
 me: now don't copy to debashis
  like u copied his message to me
  :))
  and he copied it to me too
  same wordings
 Sai: coincidence!!
 me: i sent him the reply
  wow
11:23 PM Sai: debashis is not in my list
 me: amazing
  !





13 minutes
11:36 PM Sai: sent you an email
11:37 PM check if that report is of any use for your analysis
 me: hey, i can't open docx
  can u resend as doc?
 Sai: okay
11:39 PM re sent





10 minutes
11:49 PM me: thanks
  am using beta assuming it is levered
  when we have the values from your part, we will put the levered values into ine
  mine
11:50 PM Sai: okay
  is the value from capitaline levered Beta
  ?
 me: i feel so
 Sai: I will find unlevered Beta..
11:51 PM from it then..
 me: it shud show the actual correlation right
 Sai: yes
  any idea of corporate tax?
 me: bhaskar said 38.5%
 Sai: oh..





11 minutes
12:03 AM me: yaar am not getting this treasury rate anywhere
  this saraswat bank link says it is 9.23 %
  high value
  am taking it as 9%
  low value is 8.67%
  this guy says
   I have used a 7.5% risk free rate going
12:06 AM me: oh
  so i will also use the same
12:07 AM Sai: kpmg tax rate survey 2008
12:08 AM India (2008 rate = 33.99%/
 me: ohhh
  what about our CA
 Sai: emo
  was looking around for sources..
  that can be mentioned in references..
  came across this
12:09 AM me: ok
  using 33.99 then
 Sai: okay
 me: preserve the link
 Sai: sure
12:11 AM me: beta values i have to use capitaline ones only na?
12:13 AM Sai: yaa..
  i am using them ..
12:14 AM me: sent my excel
  take a look once, i will write some crap on it
 Sai: cool!
12:19 AM I was about to do an exactly similar analysis
  You globe about WACC
  I will globe about asset betas
  and CAPM model
  Thanks for the sheet..!!!
  naa work taggindi
12:20 AM one small doubt
  did Vinay kumar tell that debt Beta is zero in the class?
  as it is not risky
  ?
12:21 AM me: i don't remember
 Sai: okay
  debt beta = 0.2 ki any logic?
 me: brealy mayers mein it has been taken 0.1 and 0.2 in 2 places
 Sai: oho
 me: so this is realistic value
 Sai: coll
  okay
12:22 AM keep up the good work!!
12:23 AM me: hahaa, sure...





8 minutes
12:31 AM Sai: arey
  how did you find out asset beta
12:32 AM in what way is asset beta different from unlevered beta?
12:37 AM u there?





6 minutes
12:43 AM me: yes
 Sai: ee pdf lo...
12:44 AM oka diff formula
12:45 AM undi
  I am getting some thing else..
 me: asset beta is different... if u use asset beta wala formula, then u don't need to use the weighted avg of returns wala fomula
12:46 AM Sai: what is asset beta formula
 me: weighted avg of debt and equity beta
 Sai: oho..
  anthenaa..
 me: check the doc i sent
12:47 AM Sai: I was under the assumption that asset beta = unlevered beta
12:48 AM me: no no
  unlevered is different
12:50 AM Sai: 7 page..
  he gave the same formula
12:51 AM me: the doc u sent spinned my head
  i closed it
  :))
 Sai: 7 page in your doc
 me: hmm, it looks fine to me...
12:52 AM Sai: where is your Beta unlevered
  formula in the same doc
12:53 AM me: did not find that
  i assumed beta given is the levered beta
 Sai: okay
  unlevered nuvvu calculate cheyyaledaa
12:54 AM me: cheyle
 Sai: okay
 me: what shud i do?
  go ahead with it?
 Sai: yes yes..
12:55 AM me: :)
12:58 AM Sai: I got some thing else with that formula
12:59 AM me: hmm
 Sai: Asset β
0.55244898
0.619724771
0.413505747
0.771509434
1:00 AM sorry
  man needi correct
  pukka
  now I am eating your brain
 me: how?
  :))
 Sai: :D





32 minutes
1:32 AM me: now what to comment
1:34 AM Sai: globe it
  based on text book theory
1:35 AM I don't think we need to make a huge report
 me: ok, will make it 2 pages... aur nahi ho raha
 Sai: bas

Short-Termism - Focus on Today at the cost of Tomorrow

"Strategies don't come out of a formally planned process. Most strategies tend to emerge, as people solve little problems and learn...