21 Years at the helm - a Tribute

It was July 2004 & the summer in Chennai was just abating.  The day was Saturday and a memorable day for me , it was to be my first overseas travel. 

I was flying Lufthansa from Chennai to Amsterdam via Frankfurt. The flight's departure time was 01:45 AM in the morning.With typical German efficiency,the flight took off from Anna International airport to Frankfurt Main airport slap bang on time. Flight time was just under 7 hours and the expected landing time was 07:10 CET . Flight was uneventful and landed on a cold morning at the destination.

I disembarked from the flight and had to hurry as my connecting flight to Amsterdam was less than 1 hour away. As i was walking from one gate to another , i could not but admire the developed world. I just got a glimpse but my mind was already thinking of when India would become anything closer to what i was seeing .

My next flight was just 50 minutes from Frankfurt to Amsterdam Schipol Airport.

As the flight was taxiing down the runway at Schipol Aiport , a huge white billboard caught my eyes.In it was written " Tata Consultancy Services " . A moment of pride overtook my thoughts & unknown to me trickle of tears were flowing down my cheeks. Am sure , this could just not be an isolated thought just from me , many Indians would have been made proud by the ubiquitous " TATA Group" . 

This blog is a tribute to the man who took Tata group to the world stage and turned the heads of many a nation, Mr Ratan Tata. 

A span of more than two decades at the helm of what is the parent company of the giant Tata Group company " Tata Sons" . In those two decades, Mr Tata has put the Tata name & India firmly on he world radar through his tenacity , business acumen, spotting trends & opportunity , not to miss out on being audacious & ambitious at the same time.

Starting from Feb 2000 with the acquisition of Tetley tea to become worlds second largest tea producer to the acquisition of Corus in 2007 at that time India's largest overseas acquisition to the most recent acquisition of premium car brand " JLR", Not to undermine his vision of creating worlds small car in "Nano" against all odds right from technical issues through to political backlash in Singur . His sights were always big & bold. He has been determined & has carried his vision through. Not only was he a businessman , he also showed his emotional side , when he went all out to ensure that the attack on the Taj Hotels in Mumbai would not be a deterrent & went to ensure the hotel opened in record time.

His contribution to Indian business community & India as a whole has been immense & through this blog , i would like to personally thank him for all his contribution & for making many of us proud in every which way possible.

I admire him for the statesman & the astute business man he is .He took on the mantle from the venerable J R D Tata and is now handing over the batton to Cyrus Mistry. I wish him & the tata group the very best.

Six Months & Ninteen Days

It's been that long since i last wrote a blog. The last blog was a combination of the famous Williams F1 win in Barcelona, much awaited & messed up Facebook IPO coupled with thoughts on the ever sliding rupee.

While fundamentally nothing much has changed snce then, post that famous win for williams F1 by Pastor Maldanado in Barcelona , they have been laggards the whole season . Facebook recuperated some of its losses and the rupee is still sliding but is more range bound & expect to improve during 2013.

It was a similar story for me during the last six months for me , fundamentally no big change but just that i was planning & executing step by step relocation back to India & believe me it wasn't easy but was made possible by support from lot of well wishers to whom i will always be thankful.

In those six months i travelled to India twice, Dubai , Abu Dhabi & Hyderabad once, that equated to travelling about every month & half over last six months.  In a nut shell my time was consumed by things which were  important for my relocation.

It's been a fascinating second half of the year 2012, i learnt a lot . Some of what i learnt were networking ,planning & execution,using time to your advantage etc.

Now that am back here and settling down , am hoping to get my blogging upto speed and be a regular, expect to write about experiences in the last six months.

Watch this space!

Last Few Weeks - Story of Facebook, Williams & Indian Rupee!!!

I haven't blogged over the last few weeks, so this blog is aptly titled " Last Few Weeks".

What's been happening in the last few weeks. 

For me , the world hasn't changed much , my time has been split between office chores and personal work. However few other things have happened.

FACEBOOK IPO

I have been following facebook ipo through news channels ever since they filed the prospectus with the SEC back in Feb 2012. 

Its been a roller coaster ride for the firm and their underwriters Morgan Stanley. Not to miss out Nasdaq. The hype was so feverish that CNBC and other business channels were covering the whole story leading upto the IPO date almost 24 hours every single day.

I still remember that there were panel discussions about how the company would raise an eye popping 104 billion $ in the IPO and how the founders and the venture capitalists who backed the firm would become instant billionaires etc.

What was interesting was that the increase in IPO price and the insiders selling a large portion of the shares to be sold to public was never scrutinised prior to the IPO . 

When Facebook chose Nasdaq for its listing , everyone said that NYSE missed out on this massive IPO , i bet they would beg to differ now.

On the day when it listed , the whole listing fiasco was exacerbated by the NASDAQ technical glitch .

If that wasn't enough , the stock closed at a meager +o.6% up from its IPO price and all the investors who wanted to make money in an IPO POP were ruined. Incidentally one major fund - Citadel is supposed to set to loose close to 35 Million $ . 

If all this wasn't bad enough , the next day the stock tanked 16% of its value . Then all hell broke loose with investors trying to blame the underwriters for misjudging the demand and valuing the company much more , which meant the IPO price was set way higher than the book value of the stock which in turn meant there was no IPO POP.

Then came the scrutiny by the media about how GM pulled the plug on facebook just days before the IPO and how Morgan Stanley's Analyst had casted doubts on Facebooks monetising model just days before the IPO and how the firm sent out the note only to select investors.

Morgan Stanley was vilified for it in the press over the last week. In the same time the shares have slid further and closed at $31.91 down 3.39% on Friday meaning its lost 16% since its IPO.

For a stock that was touted to be the next big thing to have underperformed so badly calls for lot of questions.

No doubt the debate would still rage for the next coming months and the SEC will investigate Morgan Stanley for their role and the media frenzy would continue further.

It was interesting to see how Media suddenly switch sides.

WILLIAMS F1 VICTORY IN BARCELONA

One of the most illustrious names in F1 history, which had been win less for more than five years . All that changed in Barcelona when a little known Venezuelan named- Pastor Maldenado drove brilliantly to take the podium.

It was a bitter sweet victory for Sir Frank Williams and his team .

However the victory was over shadowed by a big fire in the garage after the race.

I watched an interview in BBC where they interviewed Dickie Stanford Williams F1 Race Team manager.

He was asked what the problem was and why the fire had broken down in the garage.

He Simply said - " Our Process was wrong and it was static current".

That statement took me aback , for a sport know for its absolute accuracy and razor sharp minds such a statement of acceptance made me think.

If a team like Williams say that their process were wrong and they have rectified it , well there could be opportunities for other organizations around the world who can look at their process and re engineer them continuously.

If someone comes to me next time and says my process is perfect , i would quote the above incident as an example.

INDIAN RUPEE SLIDE

Here we go again .

India Rupee to the Greenback is now at 55.355/$ . Indian rupee is now the worst performing currency in Asia .

This is a cause of concern on two counts

1 It is hurting the business , mainly exporters 

2 As the central bank is intervening in the market , it drains up our precious reserves

3 This thing hurts our overall economy 

Bofa Merril Lynch , Morgan Stanley have already revised our growth for year ending Mar 2013, expectation is that we will grow at sub 7% level , probably at 6.3-6.5% 

Which is not good news . 

Of course what we hear is that most of this is Macro Economic driven , well that may be only partially true but most of why we have ended up in such a situation is due to our own misgivings.

We have had several hiccups and no major political will to stem this slide.

Me , along with many other Indians are hoping that the government will get its act together and ensure that it comes up with policies that are more conducive and ensures that these policies are agreed and implemented swiftly.

Currency futures traded in BSE & NSE are pointing to further slide of the Indian Rupee , markets expects rupee to slide around 56.8 levels by end of this year per the futures contracts traded.

That's not good news.

Fingers Crossed.

That's been mad few weeks already!

Have a great start to the new week. 

We Have Shot Ourselves in the Foot!

Last few weeks have been a mix of key news for India as far as am concerned.

The list of news is as follows

1. Launch of XOLO X900 by Lava
2. Google Measures Web speeds around the world
3. Deepak Parekhs interview with Shereen Bhan

What is so special about these news, well read on to find that out.

The first one is special because XOLO X900 is the first phone in the world to have an Intel chip , the Intel Atom Z2460 SoC chip inside it. All phones in the world run on chips made by UK company ARM . The XOLO is the first foray by Intel into mobile market and guess what it has been developed in conjuction with LAVA , an indian company. Although not the biggest mobile market in the world but this news shows the importance of the Indian market in the minds of worlds big corporation.

You can read all about the phone - 

http://www.gsmarena.com/intel_medfield_based_lava_xolo_x900_launched_in_india-news-4118.php

If you are smiling having read that, you have just had a pre mature good news , as the bad news is just to follow suit.

The second news that i heard was about a project that google carried out to compare internet speeds in many countries in the world. To be precise 50 countries.

The result was surprising. 

The top speed achieved in desktop/laptop based internet speed was in Slovak republic and the best speed in mobile internet was in Chile .

I was searching for the name that i was most interested in the list " India". Well India did not score well to enter the top ten countries in either list.

Did we then come in the top twenty , the answer was a big NO . The internet speeds were so poor that we came in the bottom ten in both the categories.

Reading the news i felt appalled .  Read full story below.

http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-blog/2012-04-19-whos-fastest-google-measures-web-speeds-around-the-world/

If that was not enough , the shocker came from the man whom i have always considered as the flag bearer of Indian corporations the most respected business man in Indian and world circles - Mr Deepak Parekh.

In an interview with CNBC TV18 , Mr Parekh lashed out at the indian government for not being able to push through reforms.

He also made two alarming references

1 Foreign Investors , companies inclusive are reluctant to invest in India , due to unfavourable investment climate

2 Two years ago , India was the darling of the board rooms of world corporations, now we are not on their radar.

That should shock any one who is even remotely interested and wants India to grow and become the torch bearer of the world economy for the ensuing economic periods.

Mr Parekh neatly summarized - " We Have Shot Ourselves in Foot" .

Watch the video here .

http://www.moneycontrol.com/video/economy/govts-7-75-growth-target-over-ambitious-deepak-parekh_693652.html?utm_source=Article_Vid

The Excerpts of the interview here

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/economy/govts-7-75-growth-target-over-ambitious-deepak-parekh_693652-2.html

Apart from the above , There has also been a new book called " Breakout Nations" by Ruchir Sharma ,  head of Emerging Market Equities and Global Macro at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

In the book , Mr Sharma has been too pessimistic about India and its growth prospects , in general he has been pessimistic about whole of the BRIC countries.

Right from Retrospective taxes for which Vodafone is going to take India to court, through to the latest thoughts from key business leaders, there isn't any room for India Shining!

We seem to have risen meteorically and now find ourselves fading away .

Doesn't make for a good reading .

Hope things get better over the coming months & years.

Itunes University - The Unsung "I" Hero

Anything "i" these days is a winner whether it is Ipod, Iphone, Ipad or the new Ipad . The line of products from Apple has always been a winner and path breaking. 

Having said that , there is one product in the apple line up which i have come to use in the last year, its been a winner as far as am i concerned and what i like the most is not so much as its features but more its contents.

Am speaking about the unsung hero " The Itunes University" aka " Itunes U" 

The Itunes U is embedded within itunes and is part of the Apple's drive into education. 

It contains numerous educational material and in some cases full course lineups from some of of the worlds most premier institute, some of the ones i know of are listed below.

• Wharton Business School
• Yale University
• INSEAD Business School
• HEC Paris
• Oxbridge University ( Oxford & Cambridge are fondly called Oxbridge University)
• SDA BOCCONI

These are just a handful of universities which have a presence in Itunes U . Looking at the list of universities, they go from A-Z , starting with Aberdeen University to Zeppelin Universitat

If that is not enough , the course list is even larger, there are plethora of subjects covered in Itunes U , some of them are

• Business
• Engineering
• Fine Arts
• Mathematics
• Fine Arts
• Social Sciences
• Health & Medicine

The best part is most of these courses are free to download, for example i have downloaded the following courses 

• 2011 , Financial Markets Course - Yale University - by Prof Robert Shiller
• Moon An Introduction - Open University

This is just to name a few. These courses are actual courses thought at the university & the videos of these courses , their actual course curriculum along with term exams are loaded in Itunes U . 

Listening to a Ivy League professor without actually being on the programme is just such a pleasure. Of course not to miss, we can start, stop and listen to these lectures when ever we need . Isn't that cool!

Earlier this morning i saw a guest lecture by Stephen Schwarzmann founder of one of the most successful private equity firm " The Blackstone Group" .

There are a number of other course videos that i have downloaded for viewing later.

So far this year, i have put Itunes university to a good use and would recommend this to anyone.

All you need it access to Itunes - " Who These days doesn't have access to one" & you are ready to access the courses.

In my view , its blindingly obvious that its a good thing to disseminate knowledge one way or the other . I personally think it would make knowledge to flow easily and it is a good thing for the society.

Now if you ask me would this reduce poverty in this world ? Maybe not , but this could very well be a proof of concept for a much bigger thing that could be executed using Internet as the backbone which in the years to come might be a catalyst to reduce poverty.

Am sure most of you all would agree with that. 

Oh by the way there is a Itunes U app if you are interested . Hope you enjoyed this post. Have a great week ahead.

Investing Uncomplicated - I Wish !

It's a wish that's been every investors wish for long. 

Should ones money work hard? obvious answer " yes" but question is how to make it work ? " Invest it and make it work" quite simple. If you think its that simple , probably you are the next whiz .

I wouldn't consider myself an active investor however over the last few months I have been spending lot of my time understanding which products to invest and its not only for me but the aim was to understand and see if i can pass on the knowledge - Strictly not Financial Advising but just information.

Given that we live in the Internet age creates one of the many problem , I.e. information overload. 

When I kicked off my preparation it was hard to navigate through the maze of information. Sitting like a lame duck, I just couldn't get to grips with what I wanted to do. 

First question on my mind , which product/s to invest in? 

With this question in mind , I scouted for various information to help me out. Starting the information barrage was the age old adage " don't put all your eggs in one basket" holds good in investing as well , simply said that "Diversification" is king! Which seemed to be a fair call, but over diversify one tends to loose more than gain.

This now complicated things a step further , diversify but how and what? 

Further mining and understanding led me to a phrase " Risk Appetite & Profile" I.e. investing and it's residual components are dependent on individual circumstances and ability to assume risk. 

That sounded about right , everything in this world is driven predominantly by personal preferences & situations , so investing should be no different. 

Meticulously I sat down to prepare on what I needed to invest in & made some rough notes on products which might help. 

1 Equities 

2 Bonds 

3 Funds 

4 Commodities 

5 Real Estate 

 OK, that was a good start, what should I consider per product came next. 

Equities 

Investing in this asset class has been made simple by the advent of demat form of holding the shares and online trading . Shouldn't this been simple then to dive in and put your money in ? Well if only it was well simple. Here I called upon my better half's assistance , being masters in finance, I had asked her for assistance. 

Her first question , which broker do you want to trade with ? Aghast I asked why would that matter , she simply said service & commission. I was becoming tired by now, however with further encouragement and the need to understand I plodded on . 

Working through enormous amount of paper work , we finally chose a big financial house offering brokerage services. 

Next came the stocks to choose . I was by now loosing patience . My better half poured over few companies we choose , she came up with various numbers . 

• P/E 
• EPS 
• CEPS 
• ROCE 
• Dividend Yield 
• Management Value Add
• Business Outlook
• Sector Outlook
• Economy Outlook on sector operation outside home country

Combined with the above , we had one more ingredient to add " Instinct" to it to make the concoction before choosing some of the stocks. Phew , that was just a kick off.

Didn't bother getting into understanding Fundamental or Technical analysis in detail. 

 Fixed Income 

Our fixed income market is still shallow , although IDBI has launched its samriddhi web portal for retail bonds,but one cannot trade all government securities in question , at the time of our investigation, there were only handful of securities on offer . The corporate bond market is even more shallow, making it extremely hard to invest directly. This Asset class is my favourite but we had to skip this altogether

 Funds 

This was an absolute monster with plethora of choices .

With opening up of the markets , we now had options to invest in

1. Mutual Funds
2. OEIC
3. SICAVs
4. Investment Trusts
5. Fund of Funds

There were numerous literature's about the fund industry and the underlying intricacies .

Difficulty was which one to choose , this has now been left open as we are still studying the market.

The place we have started at the moment is the BSE Morningstar website , which has been launched by BSE as a part of the investor education series .

One thing which i did learn was TER - Total Expense Ratio of a fund can actually diminish returns, am still trying to comprehend what this means in real terms and make my mind up.

In the mean time i have been pouring over a book about exchange traded funds , understanding the nuances of this latest piece of financial engineering pioneered by American Stock Exchange just around the turn of 2000's.

A clear indicator seem to be the fact the mutual funds and investment trusts perform poorly compared to  ETF's and fund managers add to the overall cost of managing the funds.

If that was not enough , ETF's have their own pit falls i.e. one has to understand how the index tracker or the ETF is constructed, if its physical replication then the tracking error could be minimal but if its sample sized based creation then the tracking error could magnify and diminish returns. If its a swap based tracker or a ETF then the return could be guaranteed but it could well mean that there is a counterparty risk.

Oh my god why doesn't some one make it simple...

Commodities

An Inflation busting asset as its often called, commodity is seen as a the darling i.e. queen of all assets . Its predominantly driven by supply demand factors err that's strictly not true.

The question on commodity investing is 

1 Do i invest in physical commodity

2 Do i invest in a commodity mutual fund

3 Do i invest in Exchange Traded Commodity 

My research has so far pointed to ETC because its much easier to invest without the necessity to actually worry about holding the physical asset.

Real Estate

Still Researching on this sector but looks very likely i'll drop this all together .

Not to rule out fixed deposits which might be safe haven

Oh i forgot the big daddies " Income Tax" & " Capital Gains tax " 

Well that's complicated enough for now !

Most of the countries in the world both developed and emerging markets have taken steps to step-up investor education programme , having said that there are still a lot of unknowns . 

When East Meets West!

Most likely people who are reading this blog must have definitely encountered a situation where we are in a midst of a conversation with a fellow colleague or a friend who happens to be from a different country or continent. and most often than not such conversation which normally is restricted to common interests , however ever so often the conversation deflects to items which the other person is unable to relate to due to cultural differences and  up bringing .

I happened to have had a very interesting conversation with a old colleague and a friend of mine in a restaurant last Wednesday. 

At the start, largely the conversation was restricted to usual suspects i.e. Office work, recent trends in employments, projects , market conditions etc etc of course not to miss out current bonus issues . 

After about an hour , my friend asked me an interesting question.

You have worked so hard , i have hardly seen you taking holidays , why don't you take holidays and take your wife out for say six weeks?

Bewildered , Six Weeks? How can i take Six weeks of holiday, what happens to work? 

You are entitled to take the holidays which you have , so why not?

Suddenly eastern ideas kick in . Well , it would be very expensive to go on a six week holiday isn't it?

Am sure it is expensive but its price less , how can you put a value on such a holiday?

Of course i understand , this is priceless , but i have large list of responsibilities.

Well, everyone has responsibilities as if i do not?

True , but going on a six week holiday means i shell out a lot of money , instead of that i can save money  and ensure that i help my parents out . Dad has retired and i can give him and mom some more comforts.

Why would you want to give your mom & dad comfort?

What do you mean , Am their son and in our culture its a moral responsibility

In ours, its more independent and our parents will look after themselves based on their pension funds post retirement .

But wouldn't you want to make sure that they have all the comfort and they are happy?

Of course i do but when i was 18, i left home and fended for myself and my mom & dad were cool with it and they managed their lives and will manage it based on their pensions when they get old by themselves, we meet them probably once in six months .

Scratching my head , i said . Our values are work hard, save , take care of children & take care of your parents. Our entire value system was born out of respecting & taking care of elders when they get old & its the son and daughters responsibility to take care of their parents.

Scratching his head he said , i understand , our values are work hard, spend aka enjoy life , save for rainy dad (pension) , be independent.

We were both looking at each other as if to ask which one is better? Each one had their own opinion.

I concluded by saying, i respected his views and thoughts and he said he completely understood my culture and the process.

I came away thinking, when East Meets West, both of them do understand each other, its just that each of them depart thinking they are better off with the way they are.

Am not entirely sure how much of an influence each of the respective culture has on the other but certainly west seem to have had a lot of influence on eastern youngsters in the recent past, however recent trends show that one of the key value of East i.e. savings seem to be paying off.

That was it for this week, see you next week. Until then take care.

My World This Week

I did not know what to blog this week , so i thought best is to blog about what all had happened during the week.

That was alright but what would the title be? When i was young , I was inspired by a programme which used to air in Doordarshan presented by India's first psephologist Dr Prannoy Roy titled " The World this week" , i thought i could tweak that a little bit and apply to my blog hence " My World This Week".

My week actually started in earnest on Sunday evening . I watched a programme called " Orbit" a three part documentary series presented by Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski . The documentary airs in BBC 2 . Both the presenters travelled around the world separately & try to educate us about the effects of the Earth's Orbit around the sun , the spin of the earth and the angle in which the Earth orbits relative to the Sun . The documentary was not only revealing but also thought provoking. Am looking forward to watching the final part in the series which airs on Sunday 18th March.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xztbr

By the time the documentary had finished, the new week had already begun in New Zealand & Australia. Events for the week had already started to kick in.

Hung over by the weekend break, i woke up to the weekly grind on Monday morning . It was a chilly day & after my routine morning activities i was off to work . This bit just did not change throughout the week.

As is my custom ,  got in nice & early to work . Thought about the things i had to do for the way , by this time the week had already begun in earnest . There was nothing way too unusual at work that day, just normal.

Back home  after work i hit the gym and even before i knew the first day of my new week was over . However there were events that were happening around the world. Syrian government continued their crack down, the stand off between Iran and US wasn't looking like it was going to stop . Markets started to stabilize . It was widely expected that the Greek bond holders would agree to the haircut and finally the EU would release its rescue package.

Both Monday & Tuesday were near similar in terms of work at office . Simply run the mill stuff.

Wednesday was a challenging day as i understood the term " Pitch at the right level" as i had to review a presentation with my manager , well he was right , knowing ones audience and ensure that you speak at the right level is as key to the overall delivery & success of the presentation . Its not just the content & style itself. 

Apart from that i learnt what they call " WWR" & " RWR" in Risk Management. These two acronyms expand to " Wrong Way Risk" & " Right Way Risk" . I was not aware that these two terminologies existed prior to Wednesday gone by . It was good to learn about these & also understand in what context these are applicable. These two form a part of what they now call CRD (Capital Requirements Directive)  4 aka Basel III regulation.

It was interesting to know that there is something called a right way risk.

I came away on Wednesday from work highly positive and satisfied as not only was my work rewarding in terms of learning but it was also challenging. Same  evening i hit the gym and did a 5km tread mill run , usually i run a bit longer but i reserved that for Saturday.

Thursday started off in a flurry as i watched the Indian Finance Minister present his bill in the parliament prior to heading to office. Thursday's are always long for me as it is the day when my Mandarin classes happen.

Thursday lived up to its expectations as it was really a tiring day . I had the opportunity to learn few nitty gritty details about the China - Taiwan issue in my Mandarin class from my professor . It was quite interesting. Although a tiring day , it was also gratifying to learn new things.

Friday started off with the news that " The New IPAD" had started going on sale in Australia , commentators dissecting the Indian budget. It was also the day when Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th ton a feat that many pundits believe would be near impossible to match. As usual social networks were abuzz around the merits of the century and tales surrounding Sachin commitments etc.

Work was ultra busy on Friday and there was last minute requirement to complete a task by Monday morning which on one hand looks daunting but something in me said it was a challenge to relish . As time ticked, another day had gone by & another working week had gone by.

On Friday evening, i watched a documentary presented by Professor Niall Fergusson about China. Titled " Chine : Triumph & Turmoil" , this documentary series looks at China's history, its political system and its emerging economic clout. It was elegantly presented and explains the current situation in China compared to its long and powerful history. The author explained why certain things were the way they were.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/china-triumph-and-turmoil/4od

Saturday started off on a cracking note . I woke up early and hit the gym . Did a 8.5 k run on the tread mill and sweated it out. Back home my better half made a smashing lunch . It was nice to sit around the table , chit chatting with her and having a sumptuous meal.

After that i completed my daily routine i.e. speaking to my mom & dad. Hearing parents voice always lifts one's spirits.

I watched the F1 qualifying session on BBC which was a recorded show. I did not buy the sports channel in which these are being shown live , at the age of austerity , such things face the axe first. I was content with watching it replayed . Took heart from the fact that it was not the same old story as last year.

Late in the afternoon , i had to complete some office work , which i dutifully did so. Not right to carry office work to home but in this age of Blackberry and work from home access who doesn't? Took a walk in the park later in the evening , it was nice to enjoy some greenery and also be calm and reflect on myself.

All in all, this week has been a very good week. Looking forward for the F1 race tomorrow & the week ahead!

That was my world this week, see you again next week, until then take care.

Book Review : Revolution 2020

Title : Revolution 2020

Author : Chetan Bhagat

ISBN : 9788129118806

Publisher :  Rupa Publications

First Published : 2011

By far one of the best known Indian authors of modern times. Chetan Bhagat appeared in the top 100 list of most influential people published by the TIME magazine not so long ago.

This is his fifth book and i have read all but one of his books.

The last book that i read of his was " Two States story of my marriage" which for me was one of his best and the story that i thought was well written . I became a fan of his after reading that book due to its originality  and expected his new book to be along similar lines , breezy, entertaining and society driven. Did this book live up to that expectation , read on.

Book Review

The book starts with the author being invited as a guest speaker at a college " Ganga Tech" in Varanasi and inadvertently the author ends up visiting the director of the college Mr Gopal Mishra, the central character at his house. 

Surprised by the youthfulness, success and the wealth amassed by the young director , the author is taken in by the conversation at the directors house and all it takes is a few glasses of malt whisky for the conversation to flow in. 

The conversation flows towards the author describing the "Ganga Aarti" in varanasi as really special while Gopal freezes when he hears that name " Aarti"  .

Most of us readers who might have seen many Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood or numerous wood's would have got the hint of what is to come.

We are definitely not let down by the author.

The conversation & the whisky starts to flow when all of a sudden Gopal having had too much of the drink falls to the floor nearly unconscious . The drama begins to unfold as the author has a flight to catch next morning but he is a catch 22 situation on what he has to do given Gopal's situation.

Commonsense takes the better of the situation . We find ourselves in the hospital in the next scene when the author overcome by instinct to know the more beings to listen to the story of Gopal.

From here on Gopal becomes the narrator .

The story line is very simple , Two close friends Gopal & Raghav are brought to life from their very young age by a young girl called Aarti .

The story starts when these three are in their fifth standard and the pace begins when Gopal steals a piece of chocolate cake from Aarti's lunch box .

As a young student Aarti makes a fuss of it & Gopal is caught . Days and years go by , as most of us know oppostie forces attract , Gopal is attracted to Aarti but Aarti feels for him more as a friend than anything else.

Gopal desperately wants to get Aarti but Aarti tries to keep him at bay. Meanwhile, Raghav makes his career by clearing IIT JEE and securing a place in IIT BHU while Gopal miserably fails and is forced to make a second attempt due to his ill father forcing him to make him proud by retaking the exam and securing a place.

Gopal leaves to Kota in Rajasthan for a year of IIT JEE preparation penance while Aarti & Raghav become close enough to cause Gopal concern.

As predicted Aarti falls for Raghav , soon news reaches Gopal who is devastated & fails to clear the IIT JEE exam.

News that his son has failed , takes Gopal's father's life & leaves Gopal an orphan. In the meanwhile Raghav who although got admission into IIT does not feel highly of engineering . He wants to change the society , so he starts to venture into engineering , first as a intern at " Dainik" news paper.

As in indian movies, the scene changes, enter MLA Ram Shukla who sorts out Gopal's land issue and also funds building a new engineering college " Ganga Tech".

Raghav in the mean time is shown as a revolutionist and writes a report on the MLA about his scam , this forces to MLA to take action and is forced out of his intern job. Meanwhile Gopal works hard and takes his college to new heights .

Raghav goes alone to start his own news paper "Revolution 2020". 

Raghav gets busier with his new job as editor of his own news paper and a rift between him & Aarti is inevitable . This is seen as an opportunity for Gopal who becomes closer to her using various methods & ensures that Aarti is on the verge of dumping Raghav.

Meanwhile Raghav writes another article with hard facts and evidence about the MLA who this time gets arrested . An arrest of Indian MLA means that he enjoys five star hospitality is vividly shown in couple of chapters.

Gopal gets his taste of victory as Aarti wants to marry him however his conscious hurts him so he creates a scene on his birthday by having call girls in his home when Aarti is due to visit him and wish him birthday .

This creates chaos and ensure's Aarti leaves him for good & marries Raghav . In the mean time the MLA post vacated by Ram Shukla is being finalized and Aarti's father whose family connections are deeply routed to the party is being shortlisted.

Finally Aarti gets married to Raghav, who as a son in law of Aarti's dad contest's the election as MLA .

Story ends there and returns back to hospital where by now Gopal

On his way to airport , author call's up Gopal and says " You are a nice man" & the book comes to a close.

Am not sure how you felt about the story , my view is that the story does not manage to connect to the title . Whether the author deliberately let it stay away given that he ends the story at a time when Raghav is contesting the elections and the readers are left to make up their own conclusion that he will bring about revolution in 2020 doesn't seem too logical tom me but looks like the most possible thought from the author.

The book captivates the audience and as in his previous books, author has managed to keep the pace . The book is written on a typical movie style with its pace , drama and surrealism. 

Author could have elongated the book a little further to conclude the book as to what it says on the cover but that is just my opinion.

All in all, the book is readable but it doesn't live up to the author's reputation and to the hype that the book created.

In my view an average book to read at bed time or to pass time when you have nothing else important to do. There is nothing new or refreshing , number of movies have been made along similar lines.

Disappointing to average is my verdict on the book. Don't get me wrong here , my expectations from the author having read his previous books were high , hence this score.

Hope you enjoyed this. Until next time , take care.

Book Review : Flight of the Titans

As most of you know am a avid reader and generally post the latest book that am reading and the one i completed on social media . I also publish top ten books that i read during the year at end of every year . However have never attempted to write review of any books that i have read . This is my attempt to venture into that and i intend to write reviews of each of the books am going to read going forward.

The below is review of the latest book i completed . 

Title - Flight of the Titans

ISBN - 9780753513453

Publisher - Virgin Media

Author - Kenny Kemp

First Published - 2006/07

Review

The author of the book Kenny Kemp is a journalist , business writer and author . His book attempts to look at the commercial airline industry, specifically the two large commercial airplane makers Boeing and Airbus .

The book is aptly titled the Flight of the Titans , as most of us are aware that these two behemoths i.e. Airbus & Boeing deliver 90% of the planes that fly in the commercial segment.

Given the complexity of the organizations in question due to political involvement as both Boeing and Airbus are keenly supported by the US and European governments respectively , it is understandable that the author has tried his best to explain the political intervention although he has also tried to keep the political equation simple to understand .

The book specifically focuses on the strategy undertaken by the respective companies. On the one hand he looks at how Boeing is betting on a small point to point 250-300 seater and ultra efficient Boeing 787 as the future. On the other he also looks at Airbus' opposite strategy as they look at the delivering a sucker punch to what is the most known object on the skies i.e. the Boeing 747 by delivering the Airbus A380 which at its peak can have capacity of upto 600 passengers .

In order to discuss the future strategy , its inevitable for the author to get into the roots and history of both the corporations.

Various chapters have been devoted to look at the history of the companies, one cannot miss the fact that the history in the book is overwhelmingly skewed towards Airbus given extensive interviews with Airbus founder Roger Beteille. 

The author enthralls the reader by giving a mix of history and related politics behind the scenes with various degrees in different chapters . To avoid dragging the reader into boredom of history and politics , the author has kept these components very simple and enjoyable to ensure that the book isn't too heavy.

The flow of the book is really nice as each chapters move in logical steps. The author has not limited the book to these two companies but he has also devoted specific chapters to the engine makers i.e. Rollys Royce and the Engine Alliance (GE , Pratt&Whitney alliance), The employees and the sales people . This is key in ensuring that book feels complete to the reader.

It goes without saying that such big organizations and mega projects often have controversies intertwined in their history , author has discussed the Boeing labour union strikes, design issues, infighting , insider trading to name a few to add spice to the book. 

Book has focussed on key areas ,History, strategy , growth markets and expectations, controversies and the future.

It has been written very well and the author has had the lay man in mind while writing it . It is a very enjoyable read and has lots of information .

Given that the book was published in 2006/07 long before either Airbus or Boeing made their deliveries of the planes ts quite commendable that the author has been able to write this book in such vivid style and character .

What i did miss in the book was a chapter devoted to Air shows , as a general public , we tend to see lots of news around these air shows would have been good to have a chapter on this to explain why these take place and what happens here and which are the premier air shows and why. Apart from that it was a very enjoyable read.

As such this is my opinion and you can clearly see that this is my first stab at any book review , please feel free to give your opinion and i'll improve upon this.

London to Dubai & Dubai to Chennai

Its been three weeks since i blogged & lots have happened in the last three weeks.

Just about three weeks ago , I had the opportunity of meeting and spending time with my old friend and mentor Suresh Iyer. We spent one evening having dinner, nothing fancy as Suresh just could not bear the cold , so we settled for a near by Mcdonalds. 

Braving the freezing temperature, we also went shopping.

Then it was time for some hectic work in office as i was busy preparing for my ten day break and travel to India and there was some residual work to be completed before i left.

Thursday a week before last , i left to Dubai where i was to stay with my sister and my brother in law. It was a great escape for me as my flight took off just before the snow started , i was mighty relieved.

I touched down in Dubai , i had pre-arranged my visa's online so it was easy to pass through customs and immigration. Once i was out both my sister and brother in law was there to pick me up. It was an amazing two and half days in their home , as we went to different places. The highlight was south indian food in " Vazha Ellai" and the desert safari . Not to forget my niece Sriya , she was just amazing.

After two and half joyful days , i left for Chennai . It was another Emirates flight and another upgrade to business class :)

As such i did not greatly enjoy the flight , did not eat anything , just had a glass of water . Flight was smooth and touched down on time.

I was coming to Chennai to participate in my dad's " Sasthiapthaboorthi" function . For those who do not know what that is , " Sasthiapthaboorthi" is a function to celebrate 60th birthday.

Prior to the function i had lot of work to do . I had to specifically open a bank account and also a trading account . The latter was specifically an advice from Suresh who did insist that i start looking at investments .

The days in Chennai flew by . I also had the rare opportunity of buying gold for the first ever time. Appetite for gold never dies . I had presented my mom and dad with gold during the function . I had it as my goal for several years and was pleased that it was fulfilled at the right time . 

The Sasthiapthaboorthi function was well attended , the function was held in our local temple with food being served at my home . As with every other function in my family , this was also done as per our custom and tradition and was attended by everyone from our whole family.

I also had to attend One reception and one bethrothal function in the mean time and also had to meet relatives of my better half.

I now have couple more days in Chennai and then am back to London.

Its been a hectic seven days here but i have thoroughly enjoyed it .

YENGA INGA ANNACHI KADAI YEDHUVUM ILLAYA ?

This one is going to be very short & i expect you will smile at the end of this, i really do.

To start with , Annachi Kadai in my local language (Tamil) means a small shop sometimes it can also mean  tea shop. Normally the owner of the shop is fondly called "Annachi" as a form of respect.

The reason i write this blog is actually funny , having moved out of country one tends to forget what all he/she misses . Top of the list comes that one misses is family , friends, food etc . Having said that there are other subtleties one tends to miss during certain times or occasion/s.

This post is just another reminder of one such thing.

The occasion for me was last Thursday evening.

These days thursday evenings are packed , its a day which is extremely long for me . Normally Thursdays tend to be busier as its closing in on the much anticipated day of the week i.e. Friday . With so many people want to get everything done and closed out by Thursday so Friday becomes less hectic , means Thursday's are always hectic , its not different for me and apart from it i have also packed my thursday with linguistic class i.e. my Mandarin class in evening, which makes it a day that i least look forward to.

Last Thursday was a particularly busy one , lots of meetings and massive amount of work to do. Compounded by the fact that there were other issues in office which took up considerable effort . There was a nagging issue which was causing lot of stress , hey ho it comes with part of my job . Can't complain much but the day was busy and i was very tired.

Just as my work day was coming to close , it dawned to me that its not over yet and i had to get to my class.

I dutifully packed my things, just had a quick face wash and left to take public transport to my class. While i was walking across the road to get to my class , i just realized that i completely forgot to do my homework to be discussed right at the beginning of the class.

I was tired and this homework thing got me even more irritated . As you can imagine  i signed upto the class to ensure that i gain maximum advantage of the time i spend and also ensure that i gain maximum advantage . Naturally feeling dejected , i was angry on myself.

For reasons unknown when one is tired & angry, hunger isn't far enough . I was hungry by now. The bitter cold was not helping either . I wanted to have something quick to eat . I walked in search of a shop where i could eat something sitting comfortably knowing that in this country prices vary if you are to "Eat In" or "Eat Out" . I just couldn't find anything. All i could see were up market coffee shops or pubs . I felt irritated , finally went into a shop and bought a bottle of water and started walking to class .

While i was walking to my class, i replayed the situation and thought what if this same situation i.e." someone hungry and wanted to have quick bite" were to happen back in my hometown . Suddenly it dawned to me that the outcome would have been drastically different . How & Why ?

The answer is very simple " Annachi Kadai aka Tea Stall aka Chai Shop in another avatar called Bakery "  for every 100 or so meters i would have found them and where i could have savored on local delicacies such as -

" Onion Bajji or Vazahakai Bajji or Masala Vada ... oh big daddy Samosa  for that matter puffs or something along with a hot or cold drink not only that i could have actually savored all of these sitting comfortably " 

The above list of delicacies isn't exhaustive but just a sample .... the list is just endless.

As i replayed the situation in my mind , lots of emotions flowed i my mind . I just smiled and said to myself sometimes we do not consider such subtle situations when we decide to work overseas .

On that high note , its time to say good bye. Hope you enjoyed this post.

Have a cracking week ahead!