Saturday, November 29, 2008

The start...

The various operations of flushing out terrorists from Trident, Oberoi, Nariman House and Taj are over.

Now will begin the investigations, but one of the most important question after the planning part is the import of arms and ammunition in Mumbai. Be is the Coast Guard or the Police, everybody is involved in some way in overlooking or maybe turning a blind eye while this consignment was coming in.

The corruption started by traders and businessmen to avoid taxes and levies, made them start corrupting the very people who are responsible for checking every thing that comes into a city. These officials are so used to turning a blind eye towards normal consignments that they dont even realize that the consignments they are allowing through might be of dangerous kinds. For them, it might be a "regular" trading item on which the taxes are to be saved for their clients and pocket the money.

This level of corruption needs to be halted at ground level. Everybody needs to understand that one day, the seeds which they are sowing might turn out to be that of a nasty weed. Trading and business community needs to understand that while bribing the officials, they have set such a precedent that has blown up badly in their faces also. Businesses have suffered because of the recent attacks. Everybody is so jittery that even a small rumour is leading to shutting down of establishments for the day.

The officials need to understand, that they have been put up to prevent something, and it is because of their lapse that such huge consignment might have entered Mumbai.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Falling property prices and the sane mentality of the purchaser...

Daily, we are reading about the fall in the prices of property and the further expected falls. While speaking to a gentleman who stays in my building, and happens to be a doctor, I asked him about the progress of his plans to shift from rented place where he runs his dispensary to a place of his own. He informed me that he has put off the plan as of now. He explained that he had infact seen a place for 32 lacs. But now that the expected fall is to be in a range of 25-30%, he feels it is better to sit on his money and save atleast 10 lac rupees. Not a bad saving. So the old saying of cash is the king surely works for this gentleman. Saving 10 lac is not an easy thing and is certainly a big thing. He says even if I pay around 20000 rent per month, I am shelling out only 2.4 lacs. So still I save 7.6 lacs. Smart guy.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Recession and Vacations.....

I have written in the past also how recession is affecting vacations, not to the point of people not ready to spend, but because people are afraid of facing pink slips. Though that was totally my point of view, now it seems, it if seriously affecting a  broad spectrum of people.

Outings, shopping, everything is on a fall nowadays. The malls which normally are fully lit and colourful....have reduced jazz as they are trying to cope up badly with the falling sales. I have had an opportunity to visit two big malls, and was surprised to see such a low foot fall on Sunday. Infact one of the shops has partitioned its premise into half and shut down the other half. I wouldnt be typing this without seeing it myself. But now people are coming out in the open and admitting drastic fall in sales.

But one mistake most shopkeepers are doing is increase the cost of the product to cover up the fall in the turnover, and cover the profits. This is a very wrong thing to do. Ok agreed that your volumes are down, but by increasing the prices of your items and trying to cover up for the fall in profits is certainly a very wrong thing to do. What one is doing is losing out not only on a regular customer, who is aware of your rates, but also on a prospective new customer.

So finally do I agree to the fact that we are in recession????? Our Government doesnt agree so. Hope they are right and hope the same government presents the years balance sheet and confirming that their targets have been met. Otherwise.....Lord save the common man......

Short term memory and Marketing

It is said that the general public has got very short term memory. And this is used to full advantage by the biggest marketing man of Bollywood......i.e Shah Rukh Khan. If one notices a pattern, than most of his movies are always released by the year end. Nothing much to it except for the fact the most of the Award functions take place in the end of the year or in the first few months of the next year.

Public voting always goes in favour of the latest movie which they have seen. And with due respect to the great SRK, his movies work more on marketing strategy, which he carries forward to the award functions.

Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar have also realised this potential, though personally, Aamir Khan has always shown disinterest in the awards. This year we are going to see their movies compete with each other. Lets see how the short term memory of public is going to help them in the award functions.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

A fuel and his money are never parted

Traveling daily for nearly 60 kilometers, the best form of entertainment other than listening to music or reading is see what's new on the roads. Be it new shops coming up, or old shops having their name weirdly spelt in local language, or infrastructures development or hoarding's.

But of late, companies seem to be cutting down on their expenses on hoarding's. My estimate would be that 60-70% hoarding's in Mumbai are currently without advertises.Most are painted with "available" tag. Is it the effect of recession? I am not an expert to quote on it. But it does seem so. And if it so, then why is the Government still trying to paint a rosy picture.

Automobile Industries, are shutting down their plants for weeks together to avoid buildup of inventory. Banks are laying off staponappa21lff. In real estate, where builders were putting up 2-3 slabs in a month, are currently going slow and completing only 1 slab in a month. Crude is falling down, but our Government is saying they want to cover the losses. But at the same time the Government is reducing the cost of fuel for airplanes. What percentage of people travel in plane compared to people using road transport?

The best joke I have read about the Finance minister is "A fuel and his money are never parted", after his stand of refusing to reduce the fuel prices in India. It is very apt in the current scenario.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Recession and vacations

One thing which recession has done is increase the number of job cuts in most of the firms. There is fear amongst employees, as to who will be the next in line. My neighbor's son is working as a Software Engineer in USA. He was supposed to come home during December for vacation, having spent his last 2 years over there. But now as the neighbor informs me, his son has decided against traveling. He is afraid that there might be a chance that they might not take him back at all. He is afraid that he might receive his termination notice against the leave application which he has to file.

My wife's cousin sister is one more example I came to know of, having a similar fear. Though she is coming for her brother's marriage in December, her husband has expressed inability to come , and the reason being the same which has been stated above.

Forget thinking of vacations, my mom's aunt was telling me, her son is in tension daily. Daily morning he prays to God that he should not receive a termination notice once he reaches office. Daily before leaving his office, he thanks God that he has not received it.

God Bless all.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Updating my family tree

On Saturday, I found myself having some free time and started updating my family tree. With the help of Facebook, I was able to add birthdays and many more members to tree and it was quite an enjoyable experience. While searching for other data, I happened to land on one more family tree and really admired the efforts put in my that gentleman to update the family tree of our community, with his list containing more than 4000 names. It made me realise that I am infact missing out on many names.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Behenji and Obama

Obama's victory in the US has created history...the first black man to preside over the Americans. It has certainly started a debate in India....regarding a Dalit Prime Minister.

Bhartiya Janata Party's alliance with Mayawati is certainly heading towards it. If the Indians vote against the ruling Congress Party considering factors like inflations, recession etc....though personally I am more sure of a hung parliament, who has got a brighter chance of becoming the next Prime Minister?

Advani is an old war horse now, Modi is too dicey for ruling the entire country. But then the question of electing a BJP prime minister will never arise, should the BJP-Mayawati combine stake claim in forming the Government. And this time Behenji will surely be driving the nail in the coffin for the premier seat.

So what we are facing at is .... at a possibility of having the first Dalit Prime Minister of India in the next elections .....i.e if again this time we have a hung verdict.....

Ghosts and spirits

My first tryst with them was way back in 1992. My brother said that we can call spirits by using a paper and a coin. My sister, my brother, and myself set upon calling the "Holy" spirit. Not trusting my brother, we asked him to keep his eyes closed. Me and my brother started calling for whatever spirits were there around us to answer back. All of a sudden the coin started moving around, and when my sister asked "Are you there", the coin just went to where we had written YES. She started crying and my grandmother, hearing the commotion came in and made us tear the paper, scolding us for believing in something like that. However since our age was one which could be termed as rebellious, we did it again and again and again.

There were times, when I wanted to believe in it and times when I felt that my brother is doing some mischief. However there were two incidences against which I dont have any rational explanation....

Having completed our meeting with one particular spirit, we sent him back. This one was always difficult to send back. Later in the night, four of us, me, my brother and two of his friends who had attended the calling of the spirit, were walking down a dark lane, wanting to go to a xerox shop. And I am not exaggerating by saying it was dark. Personally, I was feeling kind of ODD. As if someone was following us or was with us. I dont remember which one of us all of a sudden said that someone is following us, and immediately everybody agreed. My brother removed the coin used for calling the spirit, kept in on a car hood and asked "ARE U THERE". The coin shot in the upward direction. It really scared the sh@# out of us and we just threw the coin on road and moved out from there. But the feeling of someone following us was no more there.

The next issue is something which is very close to my heart. A day before proposing to a girl who today after 15 years is my wife and mother of my two kids, I had asked the spirit, what will be the reaction if I propose to her. Running all around the paper, it started spelling out....She will feel like dancing.

The next day when I did propose her, her first words were...I FEEL LIKE DANCING. Call it coincidence(which my wife is ready to support) or a truth to prove that spirits do exist, it was the last of my encounter with the dear departed. I dont remember why we stopped all of a sudden, or how we stopped, infact I have no memory of that. But I havent even given it a thought to sit back and think if spirits do exist. ODD.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Mobile - A boon or???

Recently one of our acquaintance called up for help in tracing her daughters lost mobile. Inspite of telling her it of no use, she was quite hyper. She wanted the phone to be blocked so that it could be rendered useless.

All her efforts were coming to a naught, with the service provider and the mobile manufacturers call center stating quite clearly that they have no authority to block the mobile using the IMEI number, inspite of the the lady even getting a letter from the police. The police infact stated that in a day, 10000 mobiles are misplace/robbed or lost.

While talking to her, I understood a far graver concern she had regarding the mobile. She agreed with me that a new mobile could be purchased, the same number could be obtained from the service provider. However, she was more concerned about her daughters photos in the phone. SHE WAS APPREHENSIVE THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE MISUSED. This is one thing even I had not considered. Even if she would have suceeded in blocking the phone by IMEI number, the memory card is still one thing which can be accessed without a proper password. And even if one does put a password on the memory card, it is quite easy to hack into it.

We click our photos, but how safe are they incase of the cell being misplace or lost or stolen. With the technology advancing fast, it is not a difficult thing to superimpose ones face on any other photo.

Atleast I have decided to transfer my photos immediately to my computer and keep my memory card free.