Monday, October 27, 2008

Diwali Time

Diwali Day and its a holiday for me. But not really an relaxing one. The day started off with having fau [aulakki] which we make for diwali. Shweta made 3-4 varieties of the same. Once I was done, I was very curious to see what the stock market had for us after the 1017 point rally downwards last weekend.
Actually speaking nothing really surprising. It went down again as if there its an abyss , and didnt show any signs of going into green. It got so boring to see that, that I went to my bedroom to continue reading the book The White Tiger. Its definitely a good book, but not really gripping. I am yet to finish off that book, once once done, you will see the review on the blog.

Later on when I came out for the festival lunch, I was tempted to pick up some stocks. I know that this need not be the end of the bottom but then it didnt make much sense to lose out on these buying oppurtunities. I guess I was really lucky. As soon as I finished exercising all my options I could see a good recovery by the market. Sensex recovred around 500 points, and all the stocks which I bought, I did get into some profits.

My current strategy would be to pick up value stocks , every month and in probably 2-3 years time they should be having good value.

Am planning to go out for some photography. I hope the inertia lets me do it :)
Happy Diwali to all

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Monday, October 20, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

What all you can do with Google Search

I came across a nice link in google. All that I had used google search was for searching. There are many other stuff that you can use it for. I found this in one of my favourite blog of Prashant .

Check this link and you will find many many interesting stuff.
Right from using it as a calculator to finding time at various location rather than using the tedious convertors, this in indeed handy.

Check this link. Its worth your time

Saturday, October 18, 2008

A silent saturday

After quite some time, Tendulkar's advertisements are pick of the lot today, as I scan through the channels. Its not everyday in your life that you see a batsman scoring 12000 runs in test. It was a treat to see Ganguly playing with such finesse in his last series of his life, while Dhoni giving him good company. The cricket match between India and Australia couldnt keep me glued to the NEO sports channel for long. I see that the love for cricket seem to be dwindling over the passage of time. All that matters is who won and who played good.
Malgudi Days has been the only program which has made me stick to the channel till the end. The good old DD 1 programs have a charm of their own which none of the current channel seem to have. I still love that channel. Almost all the programs which would once upon a time would come on DD have been aired on other channels now. But I am still waiting for "Wagle Ki Duniya" and "Nukkad".
Unlike a typical october, its been raining, rather drizzling out here. Its a nice weather to lie on the bed, sip a cup of tea and write this blog. Planning to host some photos on this blog, might attract some more adsense revenue. While the irritating calls from country club , TATA AIG have managed to keep me in the not so good mood. I guess taking the policy from TATA AIG was an bad idea after all. The customer service is pathetic beyond words. I guess something comparable to Reliance and Citibank, who never lose out the bottom most places in the ranking.

The markets have plunged to new lows now, breaching the 10000 mark. Good time to gradually start investing. I am still thinking which stocks to start pick up. I have already started with couple of SIP's in Mutual Funds. I am really not sure why people have started to invest in Gold now, especially when they are at their all time high. I guess people like to buy only whats going up, not realising that what goes comes down also. Doesnt the simple common sense to buy at the lows make sense to anyone? Well thats the so called risk factor I guess and people like to move with the tide and not against it.
I love to move against the tide.

Moving on the books, I just completed one more book of Calvin and Hobbes. I still have one more to complete, before I start buying new ones. Apart from that I am also reading Business @ The speed of Thought by Bill Gates. Will put the reviews of the same soon. I still have a pile of PG Wodehouse books to finish .. am pressed for time..

Please let me know if any good book you have read recently .

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Sensex Plunges 801 points today

Hmmm, so whats the next thing that come in your mind after seeing this news. Withdraw all the money , whatever is currently in your demat account and invest ,rather save it in a FD account. 

Well, if you are the one who is thinking in this line, then your are not alone. You are like one of the many people who have gone into the panic mode. Lets look at all the cases here now.

If you endup withdrawing your investment in the stocks, and assuming a lot of people are thinking in the same manner, the market is bound to further come down, and it gets into a chain reaction. Not something which is advisable for the overall economy. But then why should I be bother of the whole economy. All that I want is my loses to be minimum. 

Again , nothing new in your thinking. Investors would be thinking about redeeming the Mutual Funds and put it in the Fixed Deposits as the interest rates are high. Not a bad thought at all. But the effect that it will have is selling pressures on the MF's, which will again pull the market down. 

My view of the current market is as follows. The value stocks that I can get today, are one of the best. Not that we have touched the lows, but then not bad at all. For a minimum time frame of 18-24 months these stocks are really worth it.  Look at the following points. India is in a very good economic situation in the world today. We are not at all in the mess like the west is in or Europe is in. Yes, the FII has stopped investing or rather pulled the money from Indian Stock market, but the reason is not because of India. When one own economy is bad and money is the need of the hour, why would others  invest. Everyone in the US is in a liquidity crunch. So its high time that we don't depend upon FII to boost the Indian economy. India still has the highest deposits in the Savings till date in the whole world. Our banks are stable, our Insurance are in the best of shape. No one can really shake our LIC. They are in huge surplus and these insurance companies are the ones who time and again pull up the markets when FII pull out the money. 
Even if a fraction of these deposits come into equity, our markets will boom.

I am a person, who believes that this is the best time to invest in stocks. Not all at the same time, but systematically. Say monthly 5000 INR is good enough. It will average out in the long run and will fetch good returns. its definitely no point cribbing at the end of 2 years and saying, "Wish I had invested then". Then and if never have any value in the stock market. 

Invest slowly and surely and systematically. You will never lose. Don't invest to not to lose,  but invest  to win.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Book Review: Go Kiss the World

Author : Subroto Bagchi
Pages : 235
Price :399 INR

The high I get after reading a book like Autobiography of Lee Iacocca, and the High Performance Entrepreneur , it was the same feeling today when I finished through the last pages of "Go Kiss the world". 

If the first book of Sobroto Bagchi, was how to build an ethical profitable company like Mindtree, this book is about how to build you as a person. Initially while reading the book, I thought that this book didnt quite match up to the first book. But then I was proved wrong. As the book reached its end, it just became more and more touching and knowledgeable. I must add that I just love his writing style now, and whats even more important is the simplicity. 

The last few chapters are worth reading again and again in your life, and I am sure that each time you would learn something new or an answer you would be looking for. 

I personally liked the section on Mid Life Crisis. Its something which I havent read anywhere and I could relate to the same very much. Probably most of my questions were answered through that small chapter.

I dont think that anyone should miss reading this book. If you are not a regular reader, atleast the last few chapters in the book are a must for those who want to become a better person.

Thanks a lot for this lovely book.
Though the cost of the book is 399/- its worth a lot lot more.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Monday, October 06, 2008

Saturday, October 04, 2008

13 long years

Its been 13 years since I joined MIT. I had sent an email to my college group. Just putting it here.
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Hi All,
Was cleaning my mail box and came across this email sent an year ago. One more year passed.. 4th October 2008...

13 long years ... rather, short ones. Time flies quite fast.
Past 9 years have been quite a radical change in the field of communication.

I still remember, the internet and the email was still in the nascent stage when we had left MIT. It wasn't a part of our lives like it has been today.
Then once the internet boom started , yahoo chat became an integral part of our lives. The Bakvas Mandalis which we had in our hostels had only been converted into virtual rooms in yahoo chat.
When I had just landed in Bangalore, for my first job, and we had to travel a little less than a kilometer to reach a phone booth to call up parents and friends. Email became popular and so were the "egroups". Many email groups came into existance and suddenly every one had information of every other friend directly in their inboxes.
A little later, mobile phones came in handy. Though one would pay through your nose for the calls including incoming calls, but still they were handy. The initial lines in a telephonic conversations changed from " How are you ? " to " Where are you ?". The standard meeting point of "Food World on MG Road" was changed to " Will call you once I reach close to MG Road". That was technology. SMS's were FREE those days. But sadly they werent used as they are today. And the reason behind these Telecom Companies to give away FREE SMS was only because there was no platform then to bill the Text messages:)

Friends started to move to US, either for Onsite posting or for Higher studies. Calls coming on to your mobile phones from the US became a common feature. But not the other way round. Calls to US were still costly for an Indian earning in Rupees. Folks in the US soon learnt the art of talking to each other on Voice Mails and soon became a part of lives. We got used to the machines and found them more reliable to convey messages. Emails had replaced the snail mails.
By this time, everyone only logged on to one's yahoo chat in the invisible mode. It had begun to create more of irritation then help to be seen online.
The mobile phone competition grew day by day and the phone call rates came down day by day. Communication became very easy mobile phones became a integral part of one's life. Every one, friend and family were just a button away. It was a funny feeling to see someone on the middle of the road talking to himself.

The next big thing was orkut. Suddenly everyone seemed to have found their long lost friends. Everyone got an update of the others through the scrap books, either on your own or on someone else's. Gtalk was more popular.

Skype and VOIP calls were more common and cheaper than regular calls. Roaming calls in India became more affordable. Telemarketing calls increased with the day and do not calls list are floating.

Today we have new gadgets being added every day.
Apple Iphone has been quite in the news.Cell phones with Dual SIMs are the in things today.

Communication has become faster , more reliable and lastly much much cheaper. But sadly while accomplishing this huge task of communication, we have forgotten to communicate.

Gtalk also has an invisible mode now .

Regards
Prasad