I was discussing this current trend with one of my friends, and found that I had a naive understanding of the dynamics of the global market. So I did some basic research, and will list down my findings, so that others in my state can benefit out of it.
The discussion started when we saw the newspaper clipping which read that rupee had fallen to a 2 year low against US Dollar. What surprised me the most was "Why the hell is the rupee value falling, when it should have been the other way around? The US market is at its worst, India is not hit as badly as the US, Indian companies are still making a 2 digit growth, then what was the reason for the falling rupee." And to my surprise there was a perfectly valid reason for this.
As I write this, the rupee is trading at 47.2 to a dollar. To put this into some perspective, it was 39.3 to a dollar in January 2008. That is a 20% increase in the value of the dollar in 10 months. Just to illustrate this point, it was not too long ago, the Indian Software giants were sacking people, just because they could not cope with the increase in the value of the rupee to a dollar, which resulted in them getting lesser income for the same client billing.
Let me just give a small description of my understanding on how this index is created. It is calculated as the amount of foreign investment in another country, i.e Amount of Dollars invested in India to the amount of Rupee invested in US. There are many participants in any foreign exchange market. These entities -- like banks, corporations, brokers, even individuals -- buy and sell currencies everyday. Here too the universal economic law of demand and supply is applicable: when there are more buyers for a currency than sellers, its exchange rate rises. Similarly, when there are more sellers of a particular currency than buyers, its exchange rate in the global markets will fall. This does not mean people no longer want money; it only means that people prefer to keep their wealth in some other form or another currency
With this knowledge let me list out the main reasons for the fall in Rupee:
1. The main reasons behind the fall of the rupee are an increased demand for dollars due to a spurt in crude oil prices and the flight of foreign funds from the Indian market (the market situation in India is growing grim by the day, with the main index BSE going below the 12,000 mark as I write this). Demand for rupees, simultaneously, has dipped because capital inflows are down. The American sub-prime crisis that shook the global financial markets has seen unprecedented bailouts and infusion of dollars into the US economy. This infusion has been at a cost of many an emerging market, from where funds have been pulled out to plough back into America. India has been one of the worst hit countries on this count, as foreign funds took flight, thereby making dollars scarce. The sudden and colossal demand for the US dollar has seen it strengthen, while the rupee's exchange rate has depreciated dramatically during the same period. India's stock market regulator, the SEBI, has said that foreign investors sold more Indian shares than they bought.
2. The higher price of imported goods, especially oil that is now ruling at over $90 per barrel, has also led to an increase in domestic inflation and a fall in the value of the Indian currency. High inflation and a strong growth in the Indian economy have already forced the RBI to raise interest rates. The inflation is hovering around 12% mark for the past 2 months.
3. One more reason for the fall of the rupee, as propounded by some economists, is the overseas non-deliverable forward (NDF) market that is not sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India. An NDF is a non-deliverable forward contract where financial institutions buy forward dollars (that is, they book dollars now for delivery at a predetermined future date) in the Indian market and at the same time sell a similar amount of dollars in an overseas market -- or vice-versa -- so that on the delivery date they make a profit or loss, which is the difference between both the rates.
So what is the conclusion of this? Who gets affected, and more interestingly who is under loss and who is gaining out of the current situation?
As the rupee falls, foreign investors will want bigger returns for their money to compensate for the higher risk. This means that the Indian government, companies and individuals will have to pay more for the money they borrow: in other words, higher interest rates. This will also mean that Indian Govt will have to pay that much more for the foreign loans, like from the World Bank. This could further deter foreign investment, which results in a cumulative effect (people stop investing because the rupee is devalued which is a result of foreign players divesting).
So how do we reverse this trend?
One measure that can be taken by the RBI, is to change the interest rates, so that value of the rupee is appreciated in the global market. Another thing is for RBI to sell US greenbacks in the open market, thereby getting this situation under control momentarily and stopping the spiraling downward trend.
But the best thing to happen is to hope for a bull run in the market, similar to the one we had in 2007. This will ensure that there is more foreign investment, and as a result the demand for dollar falls, and strengthens the rupee considerably.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Understanding Sub-Prime Mortgage
Sub-Prime Mortgage is no more a unknown word. People have started discussing it over coffee and it has suddenly become a buzz word. In the past 2 weeks I have notices at least 5 headline articles having this keyword in newspapers. So, its natural that everyone is eager to know more about the crisis which brought about the downfall of a 150 year old company. Here, I try to explain this crisis in simple "human-readable" terms.
Before dwelling into this hot issue, let me describe the current state of affairs (majorly in U.S market). We have seen that Lehman Brothers have filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. AIG has been taken over in a multi-billion dollar deal, to keep it afloat for god knows how long. Merryl Lynch was taken over (the deal was more like a give away price). Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are no more just investment banks. Freddi Mac was brought by the US govt. And looks like many more are going under the hammer. So why is this chaos in the market. Well, to explain this I will have to start with the happenings as back as in 2001.
The US real estate industry witnessed a boom between 2001 and 2005, with property prices soaring to historic highs due to low property loans, interest rates and other factors. Some of the weaker borrowers, who were either on the verge of defaulting on their financial commitments or had already done so, owned house properties whose values had risen dramatically on paper. So lenders looking at increasing their margins were quick to spot an opportunity and lent money to such borrowers on the basis of this increase in the paper value of their homes and these loans were either used to repay the old loans or for other expenses. All was fine till the housing party crashed.
The US property bubble collapsed, and interest rates began to rise. The rising rates led to a spate of defaults by borrowers, as a result of which several US sub-prime mortgage companies had to declare bankruptcy.
The result was that the shares of lenders dealing in sub-prime mortgages took a tumble. That's not all. The effect spread to the entire financial markets because these lenders had raised monies on the basis of such loans and were now not able to pay them back. And the ripple turned into a wave, affecting a wide section of the markets, and then spread overseas.
Exact definition of sub-prime mortgage:
A sub-prime mortgage is a loan offered by a lender to a borrower with a poor credit history (meaning he has defaulted on his financial commitments in the past) against the security of his house property. Such borrowers are called sub-prime borrowers. Since the risk of default is high, these loans are offered at relatively higher interest rates compared to loans offered to people with an impeccable repayment track record. However these sub-prime mortgage loans are relatively much cheaper than completely unsecured loans to the same profile of borrowers.
How does this affect Indian market and does this slow down the Indian Growth Wagon?
The US sub-prime crisis has had a short-term impact on the Indian stock market and on credit instruments with overseas investments. Collateral damage in India was extremely limited, as Indian entities do not own structured finance instruments. In effect, all it has managed to achieve is to create panic among investors. But soon those who were too quick to shed off their shares will repent their hasty decision. Our market is strong (or as strong as before the Wall Street crash), and it is highly unlikely that a sub-prime mortgage crisis will ever happen in India, since most of the Indian population which has bad credit rates are Non-prime users. Borrowers falling in this category may have never defaulted, but have low incomes or may not have proof of such incomes. These people may have borrowed earlier, but from local moneylenders and not banks or formal institutions. This is the case even with the ridiculously high interest rates the local money lenders charge. There is a reason for this. Since lower income group people do not find the need for large capital investments, they only need to borrow to sustain their daily needs. So they would prefer small amount, short duration, no surety loans, which no banks offer. Because of this, I think there is extremely less chance that the Indian markets will fall as it did in the US for this reason. But I do think that it is time the property bubble collapsed in India too.
Before dwelling into this hot issue, let me describe the current state of affairs (majorly in U.S market). We have seen that Lehman Brothers have filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. AIG has been taken over in a multi-billion dollar deal, to keep it afloat for god knows how long. Merryl Lynch was taken over (the deal was more like a give away price). Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are no more just investment banks. Freddi Mac was brought by the US govt. And looks like many more are going under the hammer. So why is this chaos in the market. Well, to explain this I will have to start with the happenings as back as in 2001.
The US real estate industry witnessed a boom between 2001 and 2005, with property prices soaring to historic highs due to low property loans, interest rates and other factors. Some of the weaker borrowers, who were either on the verge of defaulting on their financial commitments or had already done so, owned house properties whose values had risen dramatically on paper. So lenders looking at increasing their margins were quick to spot an opportunity and lent money to such borrowers on the basis of this increase in the paper value of their homes and these loans were either used to repay the old loans or for other expenses. All was fine till the housing party crashed.
The US property bubble collapsed, and interest rates began to rise. The rising rates led to a spate of defaults by borrowers, as a result of which several US sub-prime mortgage companies had to declare bankruptcy.
The result was that the shares of lenders dealing in sub-prime mortgages took a tumble. That's not all. The effect spread to the entire financial markets because these lenders had raised monies on the basis of such loans and were now not able to pay them back. And the ripple turned into a wave, affecting a wide section of the markets, and then spread overseas.
Exact definition of sub-prime mortgage:
A sub-prime mortgage is a loan offered by a lender to a borrower with a poor credit history (meaning he has defaulted on his financial commitments in the past) against the security of his house property. Such borrowers are called sub-prime borrowers. Since the risk of default is high, these loans are offered at relatively higher interest rates compared to loans offered to people with an impeccable repayment track record. However these sub-prime mortgage loans are relatively much cheaper than completely unsecured loans to the same profile of borrowers.
How does this affect Indian market and does this slow down the Indian Growth Wagon?
The US sub-prime crisis has had a short-term impact on the Indian stock market and on credit instruments with overseas investments. Collateral damage in India was extremely limited, as Indian entities do not own structured finance instruments. In effect, all it has managed to achieve is to create panic among investors. But soon those who were too quick to shed off their shares will repent their hasty decision. Our market is strong (or as strong as before the Wall Street crash), and it is highly unlikely that a sub-prime mortgage crisis will ever happen in India, since most of the Indian population which has bad credit rates are Non-prime users. Borrowers falling in this category may have never defaulted, but have low incomes or may not have proof of such incomes. These people may have borrowed earlier, but from local moneylenders and not banks or formal institutions. This is the case even with the ridiculously high interest rates the local money lenders charge. There is a reason for this. Since lower income group people do not find the need for large capital investments, they only need to borrow to sustain their daily needs. So they would prefer small amount, short duration, no surety loans, which no banks offer. Because of this, I think there is extremely less chance that the Indian markets will fall as it did in the US for this reason. But I do think that it is time the property bubble collapsed in India too.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Adaptability at Workplace
Recently me and my team performed a skit on Adaptability at Workplace. An interesting idea on its own, we had to perform on this topic as it is one of the Foundational Competencies of our company. Excited by this new opportunity to show our creativity, Darshan, Padmashree and myself assembled in a small Discussion Room to script and enact this skit. The most important decision to make was the fact that we got to know about the skit just 2 DAYS in advance. We had several doubts if the time was sufficient to come up with a script, and also the dialouges. We also had doubts of our ability to come up with an innovative idea for the script. But two things probably cleared the dilemmas. We found out that this was a competition, so there was that extra motivation to participate ;). But more importantly we came across the book "WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?" by Dr. Spencer. This was the "inspiration" for our script. Let me take some time in describing this amazing book.
This is a simple book, with a huge moral. This is that kindof book we generally have in middle school as Moral Science text books. It is a simple parable book that reveals profound truths about change. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a 'Maze' and look for 'Cheese' to nourish them and make them happy. Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are little people' - beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw. 'Cheese' is a metaphor for what you want to have in life - whether it's a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, good health, or spiritual peace of mind. And 'The Maze' is where you look for what you want - the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in. In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. Written for all ages, this story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime.
We just took the basic idea from this book. We had 3 charecters in our skit
1. A person who anticipates change, keeps himself ready by being upto date in current technologies, and basically plays the role of Sniff and Scurry. This was played by Darshan.
2. A person who is dejected by change, is at first reclutant to accept the change, but later realizes it is better to overcome the fear of new and unknown, rather than rot in a place where there is no future. This person adapts to change, allbeit a little late. But finds the journey to be fruitful.
This was played by Padma and she depicted the role of Hem.
3. A person who is angry that there has been a change. Who is adamant that his environment has to change with him, and not the other way around. Is constantly brooding over the changes that have taken place, and will never come to terms with it. This was played by me, and I tried my best to depict the charecter of Haw(I always play the bad guy role ;) ).
The 'Cheese' was depicted as AWESOME PROJECTS (which everyone desires for). And the change was depicted as the project getting shelved.
The skit started with all the 3 of us playing new hires in our dream company. We go through the rigours of training, and after 2 months of hard work, we get rewarded by getting the AWESOME PROJECT. In the beginning we are all enthusiastic about it. But 5 months down the line, when we are comfortable with the project, and can handle all the situations with ease, Padma and Me start to relax. But Darshan keeps himself upto date with the current growing and 'happening' technologies. 1 year into the project, we get a disastorous news that the project has been shelved. Although all of us are disappointed over it, only Darshan decides not to brood over this, and makes some calls and gets into another project since he was upto date in the new technologies that he had voluntarily learnt. Padma is dejected, and I',m angry. We feel that we have been cheated. This is the part where we try to potray that some one has moved our cheese. But after sometime Padma realizes that its not worth waiting for the project to come up again and decides to search for new ones. But it has been a long time since she has learnt anything new, and finds it difficult in the beginning. But she decides to enjoy the learning phase, and finally lands into another great project.
The final moral that we tried to portray was "Change Happens, Anticipate Change and Adapt to change as quickly as possible. Change is inevitable, So Enjoy the change as it will happen again and again."
And needless to say, with this script and an incredible performance(sorry for being modest :D) we won the first place!
This is a simple book, with a huge moral. This is that kindof book we generally have in middle school as Moral Science text books. It is a simple parable book that reveals profound truths about change. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a 'Maze' and look for 'Cheese' to nourish them and make them happy. Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are little people' - beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw. 'Cheese' is a metaphor for what you want to have in life - whether it's a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, good health, or spiritual peace of mind. And 'The Maze' is where you look for what you want - the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in. In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. Written for all ages, this story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime.
We just took the basic idea from this book. We had 3 charecters in our skit
1. A person who anticipates change, keeps himself ready by being upto date in current technologies, and basically plays the role of Sniff and Scurry. This was played by Darshan.
2. A person who is dejected by change, is at first reclutant to accept the change, but later realizes it is better to overcome the fear of new and unknown, rather than rot in a place where there is no future. This person adapts to change, allbeit a little late. But finds the journey to be fruitful.
This was played by Padma and she depicted the role of Hem.
3. A person who is angry that there has been a change. Who is adamant that his environment has to change with him, and not the other way around. Is constantly brooding over the changes that have taken place, and will never come to terms with it. This was played by me, and I tried my best to depict the charecter of Haw(I always play the bad guy role ;) ).
The 'Cheese' was depicted as AWESOME PROJECTS (which everyone desires for). And the change was depicted as the project getting shelved.
The skit started with all the 3 of us playing new hires in our dream company. We go through the rigours of training, and after 2 months of hard work, we get rewarded by getting the AWESOME PROJECT. In the beginning we are all enthusiastic about it. But 5 months down the line, when we are comfortable with the project, and can handle all the situations with ease, Padma and Me start to relax. But Darshan keeps himself upto date with the current growing and 'happening' technologies. 1 year into the project, we get a disastorous news that the project has been shelved. Although all of us are disappointed over it, only Darshan decides not to brood over this, and makes some calls and gets into another project since he was upto date in the new technologies that he had voluntarily learnt. Padma is dejected, and I',m angry. We feel that we have been cheated. This is the part where we try to potray that some one has moved our cheese. But after sometime Padma realizes that its not worth waiting for the project to come up again and decides to search for new ones. But it has been a long time since she has learnt anything new, and finds it difficult in the beginning. But she decides to enjoy the learning phase, and finally lands into another great project.
The final moral that we tried to portray was "Change Happens, Anticipate Change and Adapt to change as quickly as possible. Change is inevitable, So Enjoy the change as it will happen again and again."
And needless to say, with this script and an incredible performance(sorry for being modest :D) we won the first place!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Billionaire College Dropouts!
I recently came across an article which listed some of the billionaires (present and past) who had not completed formal education. I'll list out some of them first and then give my take on this topic.
Dhirubai Ambani:
Dropped out of school when he was 16. Went to Turkey and worked as a gas station attendant and later as a clerk in an oil company. 10 years later he returned to India, and started a business with a meager capital. Today Reliance Industries is one of the biggest, with both of his sons in the Top 10 richest men list with a net worth of $40 billion each!
Subhash Chandra:
Dropped out of school when he was 12. Started his own vegetable oils and rice trading unit at 19. Later he launched Zee Telefilms, India's first Hindi Satellite channel. He also pioneered new business - amusement parks Essel World. His personal wealth is estimated to be $2.3 billion.
Bill Gates:
Dropped out of Harvard when he was a junior there. Started his own company Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen. For long the world's richest man, till he was upstaged by legendary investor Warren Buffett recently, Bill Gates wears many a hat: computer whiz kid, entrepreneur extraordinaire, compassionate capitalist, top management thinker. . . His personal wealth is estimated to be over $50 billion.
Steve Jobs:
Dropped out of Reed College after just one semester there. In 1976, 21-year-old Jobs and 26-year-old Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Co in the family garage. Jobs revolutionised the industry by popularising the concept of home computers. Introduced the Macintosh to the world. He had an influential role in the building of the World Wide Web. He is also the former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. Today, with the iPod and the iPhone, Apple is bigger than ever. Incidentally, Jobs worked for several years at an annual salary of $1. It got him a listing in the Guinness Book as 'Lowest Paid CEO.' He was once gifted a $90 million jet by the company though. And his net worth? More than $5.4 billion.
Michael Dell:
Dropped out of University of Texas when he was 19. He started his own company Dell Computer Corporation. By 2003, Dell, Inc. was the world's most profitable PC manufacturer. His personal wealth is believed to be more than $16 billion.
Roman Abramovich:
Dropped out of school very early. Richest Russian alive, Roman is popularly known as the boss of Chelsea Football Club in which he has invested $500 million. His personal wealth is estimated to be over $23 billion.
Ralph Lauren:
Dropped out of City College of New York while studying business. He was in the army for a while and later went on to work as a sales man for Brooks Brothers. He started a necktie business under the label 'Polo' in 1967, and then went on to build a global reputation for himself as a fashion designer and a formidable businessman. His net worth is estimated to be around $3.8 billion.
Henry Ford:
Dropped out of school when he was 16. Worked as an apprentice machinist, married, tried a bit of farming, ran a sawmill, experimented with internal combustion engines and eventually formed the Detroit Automobile Company with a few other investors. When the company went bankrupt, he formed the Henry Ford Company, but was forced out by investors. He returned with the Ford Motor Company. And here's something everyone should thank Ford for. In 1926, he instituted the five-day, 40-hour work week. And the modern weekend was born.
To list some more:
Gautam Adani : Adani Groups.
Li Ka-shing : The chairman of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. Worth $18 billion
Carl Icahn : Leading shareholder in Yahoo. Worth $14billion
David Geffen : Founder of Dreamworks SKG. Worth $5 billion
Larry Ellison : Co-Founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation. Worth $25 billion
Richard Branson : Founder of Virgin Recording, Virgin Flights, Virgin Mobiles.
Francosis Pinault : Owns Christie's auction house, Samsonite luggage, Converse sneakers, Gucci, YSL, etc. Worth $15 billion
So what makes these achievers great. For one, most of them have achieved against all odds, even when the society around them did not permit. But is it because of the fact that they did not have a formal education? Let me explore this a little more.
There are many college and school dropouts who have amassed a huge amount wealth. But good education is never a waste of time, because there are millions of dropouts, but only a few of them go on to become billionaires.
But there is something in these people that makes me think that they would not have achieved what they have if they had got/continued their education. I feel that these people have learnt more from the experiences of life. These people did have education, the education that life teaches everyone of us, but only few can grasp it to become achievers.
The billionaire college dropouts list shows that a combination of qualities like vision, determination, hard work, business acumen, ability to spot an opportunity and turn it into a winning venture, leadership and motivational skills, etc is more important than a college degree.
Dhirubai Ambani:
Dropped out of school when he was 16. Went to Turkey and worked as a gas station attendant and later as a clerk in an oil company. 10 years later he returned to India, and started a business with a meager capital. Today Reliance Industries is one of the biggest, with both of his sons in the Top 10 richest men list with a net worth of $40 billion each!
Subhash Chandra:
Dropped out of school when he was 12. Started his own vegetable oils and rice trading unit at 19. Later he launched Zee Telefilms, India's first Hindi Satellite channel. He also pioneered new business - amusement parks Essel World. His personal wealth is estimated to be $2.3 billion.
Bill Gates:
Dropped out of Harvard when he was a junior there. Started his own company Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen. For long the world's richest man, till he was upstaged by legendary investor Warren Buffett recently, Bill Gates wears many a hat: computer whiz kid, entrepreneur extraordinaire, compassionate capitalist, top management thinker. . . His personal wealth is estimated to be over $50 billion.
Steve Jobs:
Dropped out of Reed College after just one semester there. In 1976, 21-year-old Jobs and 26-year-old Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Co in the family garage. Jobs revolutionised the industry by popularising the concept of home computers. Introduced the Macintosh to the world. He had an influential role in the building of the World Wide Web. He is also the former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. Today, with the iPod and the iPhone, Apple is bigger than ever. Incidentally, Jobs worked for several years at an annual salary of $1. It got him a listing in the Guinness Book as 'Lowest Paid CEO.' He was once gifted a $90 million jet by the company though. And his net worth? More than $5.4 billion.
Michael Dell:
Dropped out of University of Texas when he was 19. He started his own company Dell Computer Corporation. By 2003, Dell, Inc. was the world's most profitable PC manufacturer. His personal wealth is believed to be more than $16 billion.
Roman Abramovich:
Dropped out of school very early. Richest Russian alive, Roman is popularly known as the boss of Chelsea Football Club in which he has invested $500 million. His personal wealth is estimated to be over $23 billion.
Ralph Lauren:
Dropped out of City College of New York while studying business. He was in the army for a while and later went on to work as a sales man for Brooks Brothers. He started a necktie business under the label 'Polo' in 1967, and then went on to build a global reputation for himself as a fashion designer and a formidable businessman. His net worth is estimated to be around $3.8 billion.
Henry Ford:
Dropped out of school when he was 16. Worked as an apprentice machinist, married, tried a bit of farming, ran a sawmill, experimented with internal combustion engines and eventually formed the Detroit Automobile Company with a few other investors. When the company went bankrupt, he formed the Henry Ford Company, but was forced out by investors. He returned with the Ford Motor Company. And here's something everyone should thank Ford for. In 1926, he instituted the five-day, 40-hour work week. And the modern weekend was born.
To list some more:
Gautam Adani : Adani Groups.
Li Ka-shing : The chairman of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. Worth $18 billion
Carl Icahn : Leading shareholder in Yahoo. Worth $14billion
David Geffen : Founder of Dreamworks SKG. Worth $5 billion
Larry Ellison : Co-Founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation. Worth $25 billion
Richard Branson : Founder of Virgin Recording, Virgin Flights, Virgin Mobiles.
Francosis Pinault : Owns Christie's auction house, Samsonite luggage, Converse sneakers, Gucci, YSL, etc. Worth $15 billion
So what makes these achievers great. For one, most of them have achieved against all odds, even when the society around them did not permit. But is it because of the fact that they did not have a formal education? Let me explore this a little more.
There are many college and school dropouts who have amassed a huge amount wealth. But good education is never a waste of time, because there are millions of dropouts, but only a few of them go on to become billionaires.
But there is something in these people that makes me think that they would not have achieved what they have if they had got/continued their education. I feel that these people have learnt more from the experiences of life. These people did have education, the education that life teaches everyone of us, but only few can grasp it to become achievers.
The billionaire college dropouts list shows that a combination of qualities like vision, determination, hard work, business acumen, ability to spot an opportunity and turn it into a winning venture, leadership and motivational skills, etc is more important than a college degree.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Olympic Sports in India
I had a few thoughts on this topic. But before i jot them down, I would like to take a moment and applaud the efforts of all the athletes who represented India in Beijing. I would also like to congratulate the medal winners - Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar, Vijender Kumar and all those people who might get added to this list by the end of Olympics.
This Olympics saw a lot of firsts for India. First Individual Gold, First time more than 2 medals, First time more than 1 medal in a day. So the natural questions that can be asked is - Is this enough (i.e are we going in the right path in the right speed) and has anything changed from the last time?
According to me, or for that matter any lay man, nothing has changed wrt to the infrastructure or the monetary benefits to the budding athletes. But there is some change in the confidence shown by our athletes. They now have a feeling that they belong to that stage, and compete with the rest of the world. It might also have something to do with the growth and recognition of India and Indians in areas other than sports. What ever might be the reason, its nice to see Indians competing with self confidence.
As for the other question - is this the right path and pace. Yes it is the right path, but I still can't come to terms with the pace of the growth. If you see the growth of China in the last 24 years (after its re-entry into modern Olympics), I feel disappointed. There is a lot to be done. Hopefully the CWG in 2010 to be held in Delhi will inspire the Indian athletes as Beijing 2008 has done to the Chinese.
I also have some thoughts on the sports we should concentrate more on. I would like to see Indians build specialization in certain sports like the US in swimming, Cuba in boxing, Jamaica in Track&Field etc.. As we have won a lot of medals in Shooting, that should take the top priority. Not only because we have a Olympic champion there, but the fact that the number of medals to be won in Shooting is too huge to take it for granted. Many of them can compete in more than 2 events, and with rifles, pistols, shotguns , and the difference in distances, and also the team events, there are many medals to bag. This also goes for Archery. This sport does not require great infrastructure (which Shooting needs), but what is necessary is a excellent coach and well paid and content athletes.
Next comes events like Weightlifting, Boxing and Wrestling. The important thing to notice in these events (apart from the fact that we have individual medalists), is the fact that there are lot of categories. Which boils down to lot of medals. The weight classification is one of the key areas that we need to concentrate and get the medals. Finally a gold in Hockey is same value on paper as a Gold in Flyweight Boxing. And I feel that our country is looking more for Individual heroes rather than Teams.
Some other events that can bag us a lot of medals are Badminton, Table Tennis(have to figure out a way to beat the Chinese).
One event which we should minimize our investment in is the Track & Field. We have to accept the fact that, we are genetically disabled compared to the people from Africa and the Americas. We might get a surprise winner in that sport, but it is definitely one sport which we can't dominate.
PS: I do not intend any disrespect for any of the athletes who have represented India. Nor do I intend any disrespect for their sport.
This Olympics saw a lot of firsts for India. First Individual Gold, First time more than 2 medals, First time more than 1 medal in a day. So the natural questions that can be asked is - Is this enough (i.e are we going in the right path in the right speed) and has anything changed from the last time?
According to me, or for that matter any lay man, nothing has changed wrt to the infrastructure or the monetary benefits to the budding athletes. But there is some change in the confidence shown by our athletes. They now have a feeling that they belong to that stage, and compete with the rest of the world. It might also have something to do with the growth and recognition of India and Indians in areas other than sports. What ever might be the reason, its nice to see Indians competing with self confidence.
As for the other question - is this the right path and pace. Yes it is the right path, but I still can't come to terms with the pace of the growth. If you see the growth of China in the last 24 years (after its re-entry into modern Olympics), I feel disappointed. There is a lot to be done. Hopefully the CWG in 2010 to be held in Delhi will inspire the Indian athletes as Beijing 2008 has done to the Chinese.
I also have some thoughts on the sports we should concentrate more on. I would like to see Indians build specialization in certain sports like the US in swimming, Cuba in boxing, Jamaica in Track&Field etc.. As we have won a lot of medals in Shooting, that should take the top priority. Not only because we have a Olympic champion there, but the fact that the number of medals to be won in Shooting is too huge to take it for granted. Many of them can compete in more than 2 events, and with rifles, pistols, shotguns , and the difference in distances, and also the team events, there are many medals to bag. This also goes for Archery. This sport does not require great infrastructure (which Shooting needs), but what is necessary is a excellent coach and well paid and content athletes.
Next comes events like Weightlifting, Boxing and Wrestling. The important thing to notice in these events (apart from the fact that we have individual medalists), is the fact that there are lot of categories. Which boils down to lot of medals. The weight classification is one of the key areas that we need to concentrate and get the medals. Finally a gold in Hockey is same value on paper as a Gold in Flyweight Boxing. And I feel that our country is looking more for Individual heroes rather than Teams.
Some other events that can bag us a lot of medals are Badminton, Table Tennis(have to figure out a way to beat the Chinese).
One event which we should minimize our investment in is the Track & Field. We have to accept the fact that, we are genetically disabled compared to the people from Africa and the Americas. We might get a surprise winner in that sport, but it is definitely one sport which we can't dominate.
PS: I do not intend any disrespect for any of the athletes who have represented India. Nor do I intend any disrespect for their sport.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Much needed break
After a week long deliberation and discussions, Anirudh, Sathish, Madhu K V and myself decided that we needed to take that much needed and deserved break. But the planning was not a smooth ride. We had half of our college gang dropping out of the trip for different reasons (but the most ridiculous one was given by Adi). Then we had the rains. Unfortunately for us it started pelting down that week, and in course flooding most of the Karnataka rivers. But none of this mattered for us, as we were determined to have a blast!
We decided to go to Kemmangundi, which is a hill station in the Western Ghats. We had booked the Horticulture department cottages by phone. Even though the weather forecasts showed
torrential downpour near Kemmangundi, we decided to try our luck. So the jaunt started on 14th August (all of us had applied leave except Sathish). Everyone assembled at my home at 6:15 AM. We filled the tank of my Swift and loaded our bags and were on road by 6:40 AM. We took the NICE corridor road till Nelamangala (this 40 km distance took 30 mins to cover). From there we took the Tumkur road. The road was awesome, even with the intermittent rain. We had our breakfast at the Kamat restaurant just before Tumkur. After Tumkur we took the Bangalore-Honnavar road which is narrower (single lane - which takes a couple of turns to get adjusted to) and of inferior quality. We constantly clocked around 70km/hr.
Our first pit-stop came after the town of Gubbi (famous for the theater artists). We stopped near a field where farmers were sowing paddy. It was a nice experience to watch it, marred only by
Sathish's obsessive nature to take individual pics. We continued our journey towards Kemmangundi, with a second pit-stop in front of a sunflower field. After this there was a scary moment on the road. I decided to overtake a Scorpio, who was much slower than me, but not letting me go through. I saw a lorry from the opposite side, but calculated that I could overtake the Scorpio. But that person, seeing me overtaking suddenly increased his speed. The result was that I went pretty close to the lorry. But the scarier thing was that a Tata Sumo was trying to overtake the lorry from the opposite side. It was a pretty close shave.
We reached the town of Birur which is 230kms from Bangalore. There we took a deviation to the
left to a small village called Lingadahalli(16kms from Birur). The road started to get worse from here. Due to the constant downpour and also bad quality of roads, there were more pits than tarred road. Reaching Lingadahalli, we saw a deviation board (about 1km) towards Kemmangundi. This road was even worse, but it prepared us for the next 20kms upward climb to Kemmangundi. We stopped on the way (this was where Sathish called office to tell he wasn't coming) to take in the magnificent view of the hills. There was a cool breeze. I remember mentioning atleast a couple of times that I wished I had my office desk there.
Next stop was the Kalhatti falls or the Kallhatgiri falls. It is a stepped falls. So even though it falls from a height of 160 feet, there are a lot of places where one can get under the falls. The falls is more famous for its temple. There was some kind of big pooja going on there. So we had to be content at having the darshan from a distance. We started to trek to the top of the falls. We 
found a secluded place, where only 4 of us could enjoy the water. I think the temperature of water was below 10 degree. With my first step in the water, my feet went numb dude to the chill water. It was the best waterfall I had ever been to. I wished we could have stayed in the water a bit longer, but we were hungry and it was already 2:00 PM. We were hoping that we would get a nice hot meal in Kemmangundi.
After enjoying the euphoria, we headed upwards. Slowly but steadily the fog grew thicker. At first we started encountering running water on the road. It was actually fun to see that. But after some time we saw a couple of uprooted trees and some landslides. It was a scary drive to the top. But once we reached the top the view was spectacular. It made us get rid of all the tensions in our mind.
We reached the cottages and we were in for a shock. The rooms(or so called rooms) were the most disappointing part of the trip. It was no more cleaner than a godown. More over there was no power in entire Kemmangundi. We somehow digested this fact and felt it was our destiny to stay in this place and went for lunch. Comparing the canteen to the room, the room seemed to be heaven. This canteen seemed like a place where they feed criminals in jail. I haven't been there or tasted that food, but I guess nothing can be better than what was served to us!
Around this time it started raining. Only people who have been to these places know what rain really means. In the Malnad region, when it rains, it pours. And it pours for hours together. Unfortunately for us, the weather forecast for once proved to be right. But the bad room, pathetic food or the rain was not enough to deter our enthusiasm. We ventured out in the rain for a trek to a tourist spot called Z-point. Half way through the trip we realized that there were other creatures that was living on our blood. We had leeches all over our shoes and socks. We made a hasty retreat to the godown. We were wet, cold, and all our warm clothes were wet now. Some of them did not even have a dry pair of socks. We were occupied through out the evening with removing leeches from our shoes. It was a fun exercise in retrospect. Sathish acting like a girl. KV acting like a child. Me and Ani trying to teach them that a leech bite would not kill them. I am disappointed to say that we failed miserably. Sathish at one point used the torch as a focus light to put a foot down!
We settled on the beds(as it seemed to be the only safe point). We had lot of caching up to do. Some of them had moved on a lot in the last few months, and it was time to share all the experiences. We had lays and biscuit for dinner, as we decided we would not eat at that god forbidden place ever again. We slept pretty early, as we had plans for early next morning.
We got up at 6:00AM the next morning, and started climbing down by 7:00AM. Me and Ani had hot tea during the downward journey. It was still raining when we had started our journey, and we expected more landslides because of the rain. But we were lucky and we hit Lingadahalli by 8:00AM. We took a right deviation near Lingadahalli towards Chickmagalur. The road was of top quality. Especially the ghat section roads were a real surprise after the roads of Kemmangundi. We had breakfast in Chickmagalur.
From there we went to Belur(50kms). There is a temple in Belur of Sri Channakeshava which is famous for the stone carvings on the temple's outer wall. The road was pretty decent and the journey was smooth. Although I have been to Belur several times now, it was the first time for KV and Sathish. But every time I go there, I feel dumbstruck. When you first see the carvings on the stone, the architecture, and the imagination sculpturer, and the fact that it was done in 10th century, with such under developed tools, makes one feel that God has done this in the hands of man. Those who have never been to Belur will never get to know what stone sculptures really 
are. From the top the temple is seen as a 8 rayed star. The pillars inside the temple are all of different design. Its like every sculpturer is trying to better another one. The outside of the temple has carvings that depict a story. The Mahabaratha, Ramayana, Sri Bhagavath have all been depicted in stone carvings.
From here we went towards Hassan(60kms). Again, it was an awesome road. We had our lunch in Hassan and continued towards Bangalore. On the way, we decided to visit Shravanabelagola. It is a place of worship of the Jain's. But for us, it is the place of the largest monolithic stone statue in the world. Shravanabelagola can be reached by taking a deviation to the right on the Mangalore-Bangalore highway after the town of Channarayapatna. We have to take the State Highway for around 20kms. We have to climb a hill on steps to have a glimpse of this mammoth
yet beautiful statue of Bahubali. It is said that the dimensions of each part of the statue if reduced to that of a 6 foot man, would result in the perfect features for a man. At the top there is matap, where we rested for some time. The weather was really good, and we ate some of the things that we had carried to the top.
We left Shravanabelagola at around 3:30PM, and continued our journey towards Bangalore. We reached Bangalore at around 6:00 PM. We had covered 620Kms in the entire journey. In all it was a real fun trip, with lot of adventures, beautiful places, and most important of all with amazing friends.
Cheers guys,
We Rock!
We decided to go to Kemmangundi, which is a hill station in the Western Ghats. We had booked the Horticulture department cottages by phone. Even though the weather forecasts showed
torrential downpour near Kemmangundi, we decided to try our luck. So the jaunt started on 14th August (all of us had applied leave except Sathish). Everyone assembled at my home at 6:15 AM. We filled the tank of my Swift and loaded our bags and were on road by 6:40 AM. We took the NICE corridor road till Nelamangala (this 40 km distance took 30 mins to cover). From there we took the Tumkur road. The road was awesome, even with the intermittent rain. We had our breakfast at the Kamat restaurant just before Tumkur. After Tumkur we took the Bangalore-Honnavar road which is narrower (single lane - which takes a couple of turns to get adjusted to) and of inferior quality. We constantly clocked around 70km/hr.Our first pit-stop came after the town of Gubbi (famous for the theater artists). We stopped near a field where farmers were sowing paddy. It was a nice experience to watch it, marred only by
Sathish's obsessive nature to take individual pics. We continued our journey towards Kemmangundi, with a second pit-stop in front of a sunflower field. After this there was a scary moment on the road. I decided to overtake a Scorpio, who was much slower than me, but not letting me go through. I saw a lorry from the opposite side, but calculated that I could overtake the Scorpio. But that person, seeing me overtaking suddenly increased his speed. The result was that I went pretty close to the lorry. But the scarier thing was that a Tata Sumo was trying to overtake the lorry from the opposite side. It was a pretty close shave.We reached the town of Birur which is 230kms from Bangalore. There we took a deviation to the
left to a small village called Lingadahalli(16kms from Birur). The road started to get worse from here. Due to the constant downpour and also bad quality of roads, there were more pits than tarred road. Reaching Lingadahalli, we saw a deviation board (about 1km) towards Kemmangundi. This road was even worse, but it prepared us for the next 20kms upward climb to Kemmangundi. We stopped on the way (this was where Sathish called office to tell he wasn't coming) to take in the magnificent view of the hills. There was a cool breeze. I remember mentioning atleast a couple of times that I wished I had my office desk there.
Next stop was the Kalhatti falls or the Kallhatgiri falls. It is a stepped falls. So even though it falls from a height of 160 feet, there are a lot of places where one can get under the falls. The falls is more famous for its temple. There was some kind of big pooja going on there. So we had to be content at having the darshan from a distance. We started to trek to the top of the falls. We 
found a secluded place, where only 4 of us could enjoy the water. I think the temperature of water was below 10 degree. With my first step in the water, my feet went numb dude to the chill water. It was the best waterfall I had ever been to. I wished we could have stayed in the water a bit longer, but we were hungry and it was already 2:00 PM. We were hoping that we would get a nice hot meal in Kemmangundi.
After enjoying the euphoria, we headed upwards. Slowly but steadily the fog grew thicker. At first we started encountering running water on the road. It was actually fun to see that. But after some time we saw a couple of uprooted trees and some landslides. It was a scary drive to the top. But once we reached the top the view was spectacular. It made us get rid of all the tensions in our mind.
We reached the cottages and we were in for a shock. The rooms(or so called rooms) were the most disappointing part of the trip. It was no more cleaner than a godown. More over there was no power in entire Kemmangundi. We somehow digested this fact and felt it was our destiny to stay in this place and went for lunch. Comparing the canteen to the room, the room seemed to be heaven. This canteen seemed like a place where they feed criminals in jail. I haven't been there or tasted that food, but I guess nothing can be better than what was served to us!
Around this time it started raining. Only people who have been to these places know what rain really means. In the Malnad region, when it rains, it pours. And it pours for hours together. Unfortunately for us, the weather forecast for once proved to be right. But the bad room, pathetic food or the rain was not enough to deter our enthusiasm. We ventured out in the rain for a trek to a tourist spot called Z-point. Half way through the trip we realized that there were other creatures that was living on our blood. We had leeches all over our shoes and socks. We made a hasty retreat to the godown. We were wet, cold, and all our warm clothes were wet now. Some of them did not even have a dry pair of socks. We were occupied through out the evening with removing leeches from our shoes. It was a fun exercise in retrospect. Sathish acting like a girl. KV acting like a child. Me and Ani trying to teach them that a leech bite would not kill them. I am disappointed to say that we failed miserably. Sathish at one point used the torch as a focus light to put a foot down!
We settled on the beds(as it seemed to be the only safe point). We had lot of caching up to do. Some of them had moved on a lot in the last few months, and it was time to share all the experiences. We had lays and biscuit for dinner, as we decided we would not eat at that god forbidden place ever again. We slept pretty early, as we had plans for early next morning.
We got up at 6:00AM the next morning, and started climbing down by 7:00AM. Me and Ani had hot tea during the downward journey. It was still raining when we had started our journey, and we expected more landslides because of the rain. But we were lucky and we hit Lingadahalli by 8:00AM. We took a right deviation near Lingadahalli towards Chickmagalur. The road was of top quality. Especially the ghat section roads were a real surprise after the roads of Kemmangundi. We had breakfast in Chickmagalur.
From there we went to Belur(50kms). There is a temple in Belur of Sri Channakeshava which is famous for the stone carvings on the temple's outer wall. The road was pretty decent and the journey was smooth. Although I have been to Belur several times now, it was the first time for KV and Sathish. But every time I go there, I feel dumbstruck. When you first see the carvings on the stone, the architecture, and the imagination sculpturer, and the fact that it was done in 10th century, with such under developed tools, makes one feel that God has done this in the hands of man. Those who have never been to Belur will never get to know what stone sculptures really 
are. From the top the temple is seen as a 8 rayed star. The pillars inside the temple are all of different design. Its like every sculpturer is trying to better another one. The outside of the temple has carvings that depict a story. The Mahabaratha, Ramayana, Sri Bhagavath have all been depicted in stone carvings.
From here we went towards Hassan(60kms). Again, it was an awesome road. We had our lunch in Hassan and continued towards Bangalore. On the way, we decided to visit Shravanabelagola. It is a place of worship of the Jain's. But for us, it is the place of the largest monolithic stone statue in the world. Shravanabelagola can be reached by taking a deviation to the right on the Mangalore-Bangalore highway after the town of Channarayapatna. We have to take the State Highway for around 20kms. We have to climb a hill on steps to have a glimpse of this mammoth
yet beautiful statue of Bahubali. It is said that the dimensions of each part of the statue if reduced to that of a 6 foot man, would result in the perfect features for a man. At the top there is matap, where we rested for some time. The weather was really good, and we ate some of the things that we had carried to the top.
We left Shravanabelagola at around 3:30PM, and continued our journey towards Bangalore. We reached Bangalore at around 6:00 PM. We had covered 620Kms in the entire journey. In all it was a real fun trip, with lot of adventures, beautiful places, and most important of all with amazing friends.
Cheers guys,
We Rock!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Truly Inspirational!
I was reading another blog and came across this story of a Naga Naresh Karaturi. Everybody has to read this story. For those who think they are in deep shit, this will show you a way out. And for those who think are leading a great life, this will show how to be humble all the while. And finally for those who are in between these two categories like me, it will give you that little doze of inspiration, which I hope will make us achieve great stuff, and more importantly will give a new sense of how important it is to be happy in life. Please leave all your work for 10 minutes and read this story.
http://battakiran.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/from-banks-of-godavari-to-google-on-wheel-chair/
http://battakiran.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/from-banks-of-godavari-to-google-on-wheel-chair/
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