Flames

Have you ever been tempted by somebody cooking Mediterranean food, gently pouring exquisite red wine in a pan and heating it so that it catches fire and shows some of the most enticing colours; colours such that you feel like you want to dissolve in them for the rest of your mortal life?? The only thing that would hamper you from living this fantasy is probably the absence of such conditions in the first place in a day to day life. Well…meet someone who just overcame that barrier and found a way to enjoy the same feeling in a normal Indian kitchen!!!

Actually it’s just that I’ve been trying my hand at cooking lately. My journey in the kitchen dates back to the times when I was about 9 years old when I had my first encounters of the fiery kind. My hunger had driven me into the kitchen and like many other fellow Indians, my cooking started with the good old Maggie 2-minute noodles to satiate my writhing guts. The war on terror (of hunger) has continued unabated since then, just like its namesake; with no hope of a truce in the foreseeable future. 13 years old and I baked my first pizza. (Not joking at all…though it was more of Indian food than Italian & the recipe included some bread, capsicum, tomatoes, onions, cheese & of course ketchup; which due to lack of a better noun would be called a pizza.) Later at the age of 14, I successfully made my first cup of tea without using any clay or a potter’s wheel. Just like the hero grows up in a 1980s Bollywood movie, my cooking continued with stupendous pace with me learning to make laddoos, coffee, shakes, curries & earning a perfect 10 at the age of 20 to make my first chapatti which was just-the-right-thickness, just-the-right-softness, just-right-grilled…and behold thy breath; A PERFECT CIRCLE! (Though this was just a prototype and mass production would take a long long while…& efficiency, another 3 millennia.) Today I learnt to successfully make much-better-than-just-edible dal & rice. And this is where I found the treasures of the kind known only to Mediterranean chefs, (except for all those who also happen to be in direct contact with fire.)

Place: Kitchen at my home
Preparation: “Tadka” for my dal

I started heating the oil and put some “sarso” in it. My hunt for some of the other exquisite ingredients (read Asafetida/ “Hing”) took me longer than anticipated and when I returned victorious to my workstation, as if out of nowhere, I was greeted by the sight of a three coloured flame in the “tadke ka katora”, just like we learnt in our 6th grade text-book!!! And as the towering inferno went higher & higher, and for a cross-section in time, I could unravel the mystery of what would be the feeling of burning the house down!

Thankfully the size of the inferno towered to just about 7” and the fire department’s services were not availed. Much needless to say that I managed to escape without a scratch or a burn (actually I didn’t runaway...to quote from the poem Casabianca, “The boy stood on the burning deck!”). The tadka was then remade by my very educated mother who just showed how to make a proper tadka, (can’t one see anything else except the cliché nine planets?) And when I started boiling it, I put a few “Aritha”s (used to treat hair) instead of “Kokam” (an ingredient that gives tang); identified the error & corrected within a response time of less than 58 million nano-seconds. For the record, the dal was highly delicious & I savoured it with my mother & sister. Hope that in the times to come, I manage to cook up something as delicious everyday with as much fun as today and lesser danger...

Hasmukh :)

Time out

As they say...well, there've been a host of quotations about endings & friends & changes & the likes in my G-talk friend's list, but it’s simply much more harder than this to digest the fact that the wonderful journey of MBA has ended. The exams ended today & I spent my evening photographing the campus...I'm uploading the favourite one below (& for those who don't get it; its a view of the acad-bloc's main entrance, the haziness signifies a nostalgic feeling to me):

And with this, 0nce again the time of changes has come knocking on my doorstep. It was not so long ago that I left the comforts of my home and came to a totally new place. But the thing that hurt the most was to leave my family.

Segue to being gregarious has been a hard one and still incomplete, but I must say that I’ve made considerable progress & that I’m no more a rock island. Some of my friends will never believe this, let alone agreeing to it; so I’d just leave it aside.

But the shock of shocks came to me when I realized just how much I’d changed…when I was studying for my penultimate exam and I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d do without any of my new family members around.

I’d ping for old question papers of OOB and have a group-discussion on IPMsg about “Chameli Ki Shaadi”, just to realize how I’d miss searching, sharing, transferring and chatting in groups. I’d go to the men’s room to realize how important a part the mens’ rooms play as a socializing site in the hostel. And when I’d return back to my book, I’d open it to find that I’m going crazy at 5:00 A.M. in the morning & I hadn’t read a word, just due to my mind racing all the time about my new fear…

Thankfully, I am in a much better shape (not physically of course), now that I can watch movies and play games on LAN. But this too shall be a thing of the past soon. Tell me, all you unfortunate souls (because you selected the papers in such a way that your exams get over a day after mine; and the electives are just too heavy to be tackled bye post-placement-4th-sem-MBA mood) who took up FRM (Financial Risk Management), RMB (Risk Management in Banks) & the likes as electives, is there any way you can "manage" this risk of losing friends & relationships? Again, like at countless other times, my B.A. roots have shown me the way...

Not forever does the bulbul sing

In balmy shades of bowers,

Not forever lasts the spring

Nor ever blossom flowers.

Not forever reigneth joy,

Sets the sun on days of bliss,

Friendships not forever last,

They know not life, who know not this.

---from 'A Train To Pakistan'
by Khushwant Singh

Hasmukh :)

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I am a 22 years old kid. And I still believe that you are real & are watching whatever I'm doing; maybe by some other name, in some other form. As a child, I learnt that it is wrong to hurt or cause pain or grief to someone. Today, I've committed that sin again & the child inside me is weeping of guilty conscience.

Her name is Aishwarya Rai (name changed for the sake of secrecy). She is a good fast friend of mine. She was a bit upset today. I wanted to just make her happy, but just the moment I started talking to her, tears welled up in her eyes and there was nothing I could do. I had only her best interest at heart, just wanted to cheer her up or lighten her heart.

But would it matter?
Can you please forgive me??
Will my guilt suffice for my punishment???

Thanking you...

Hasmukh :'(

TaleSpin

Here is trying to make some sense out of sensex. Read it & you thought, “Big deal, just remove the ‘x’”! Well, I too wish it were that simple…but then I wouldn’t get paid for that! The point is to just see how things have changed in the recent past.

Have you ever thought why do engineers make some of the biggest investment big-shots? Because they understand the Laws of Physics very well and they know, "What goes up, has to come down!"

The entire financial community is crying about the sub-prime crisis hitting all the markets everywhere in the world. Yesterday, India joined the bandwagon fulltime. Though there were a few ups & downs time and again, this was something which was not expected. After the crisis hit, the BSE Sensex had crossed the magical 20,000 figure a number of times and managed to stay there for a while too, but the ultimate logic won yesterday. To simplify it and put it in nursery rhymes’ fashion (…after all, I'm still in a school; so what if they call it a 'B-School' eh?):

Dow came down and broke its crown,

And we (Sensex) came tumbling after!

Just yesterday, an unlucky bunch of MBAs who were studying portfolio management (imagine doing that after getting placed and it being the last semester, haven't they got guts??) discussing about the fall of the markets and were saying "That's it, it can't go beyond 17,000". As per the breaking news, Sensex closed today at 16,729.94!

Just then, I thought of having some fun with these numbers. After all, I’ve done my majors in Finance/Banking and these numbers have been the things that quite a few of my nights have revolved around... (Don't imagine me doing 'it' to a zero, they were those infernal assignments...) So I just thought about having some fun with them for a change & came up with something interesting:

The closing value of BSE Sensex as on 27-Aug-97 (about 11 years ago from today) was 4,097.56; the fall in Sensex in the last bear trend starting from 11-Jan-08 (which has completed 11 days today) is 4,097.51!!!

All data collected from http://finance.yahoo.com/;

All the values considered are adjusted closing quotes of the day;

Today's Sensex closing quote being 16,729.94.

And it doesn't end here, instead it keeps getting better (or worse?)! What do you think the market regulators can do about this?? There were times, just in not-so-distant-past, that a statement from the government's inner circles could considerably increase the subscription percentage of IPOs. And Mr. Arun Shourie would be quoted in papers the next day saying, “A frown from the market regulator is enough to pep up the market!" with a deadly style only a moustache bearer clad in a safari suit can wield...

(visit http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2004/feb/27ipo.htm)

I bet that today Mr. Reddy, Mr. Damodaran and all their allies would be frowning a million times and still not help a thing; I wonder where have their powers gone since Liberalisation took place!? Are they in the coat pocket of Mr. Ben Bernanke which is being dry-cleaned by close associates of Mr. Mervyn King in a posh laundry in Paris? Or has it been bangalored to money-launderers back home???

Think about it...

Hasmukh :)

2 little mice

How many times has it happened to you that some song/dialogue/quotation fits your mood and you think you should've said it?? It was one of those countless times when I was watching the movie "Catch me if you can", I noticed that a few lines just perfectly described the conditions I was in.....and I quote:

"Two little mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up & drowned. The second mouse, he wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard, that he eventually churned that cream into butter & crawled out. Gentlemen, as at this moment; I am that second mouse!"

Hasmukh :)

_________
P.S.: I got my first job through a campus placement (after a very long & at times intense waiting) on 'day 55' (Novemeber 23rd, 2007).

A year (since he) passed away

It was the morning of November 17th, 2006; just another ordinary day. I woke up feeling cold, for the winter had set in & went to drink tea with yellow coloured business newspaper in my hand. The newspaper was full of crap about politics, business, etc. of which I was expecting to make some sense. Tucked away in some corner was a small note, with the title "He Freed Men". The man in the picture below is Milton Friedman, and today is his first death anniversary.

His career as an economist began with a small paper published in some journal during his graduation, which caused a stir half-way across the world; and since then, the name has become almost legendary in the field of economics.

He won "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" (more popularly known as "The Nobel Prize for Economics") for the year 1976, "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy".

This post is an amateur economist's tribute to one of the greatest economists of all times. Visit the link below; after all, its the least we can do for some one who "freed men"!

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/11/16/stories/2007111651780900.htm

Hasmukh :)

Indications

With the placements around, people are getting really sick of not getting placed (at least I am!) and for others who are already placed...they are unhappy with themselves & asking themselves why they didn't wait for the better companies. And each time I encounter the situation; I am always reminded of the fact that whether good or bad; the past is no indication of the future!! Consider this...

On January 24, 1848; James W. Marshall found the first piece of gold and hence began The Great Californian Gold-rush. The pity is that the piece he found was only a few grams in weight; with people later on, reporting to have found pieces weighed in kilograms!! Furthermore, it was the first and last gold nugget ever found by Mr. Marshall; but there were others who made big fortunes; and I mean, really BIG (after all, they had quite literally, STRUCK GOLD!!!!)

On the other hand, while the markets were just about to go for a tail-spin as a result of the sub-prime crisis, Bear Sterns became one of the first houses to declare losses...a whopping $ 700 million. But looking at it in hindsight; it seems to be almost a winner. The biggies like Merill Lynch, UBS Securities, J P Morgan, etc. had booked losses; none less than a billion dollars each, with Merill Lynch topping them all at about almost $ 5 billion!!!

The moral of the story: don't judge your condition based on the present...lookout for what the future holds. After all, who knows, it may not be as severe as you percieve it to be...!

Hasmukh :)

Of grass & grapes

It's every mortal's innate desire to loom in people's memory for something he did after he has crossed the bar...but I have neither done anything worth writing; nor written anything worth remembering. In the words of Chandler Muriel Bing (born April 8, 1968), "If I were to die right now, the only way people could know of my existence would be by the ass-print I leave on this chair!"

In a desperate effort to make one's own name the first thing in history, a chinese king once destroyed all the clay-tablets (the means of recording history in those days, quite a few millenia ago) which predated him. I doubt not that my best friend, who happens to be a history geek, would start recalling the entire chapter in an orderly fashion...but the paradox is that I, myself, still don't remember his name; thus for me, His Excellency's entire excercise has proved only too futile!

So in an effort to make my contribution, I hereby call upon to unite the entire world; on the mere fact that we all at some point of time face failures. And then, I divide it once again into two parts. From my wide & rich collection of anecdotes I could deduce a theory (which is not to be taught in class-rooms of course!) about how poeple take the events happening to them.

The happy lot following the theme of "half a glass full" more often than not, keeps thinking about what they didn't get & keeps cursing it; what Aesop's fox did, when it didn't get the grapes.....what is known as SOUR GRAPES SYNDROME!

The unhappy lot, on the contrary, following the "half a glass empty" theme; keeps thinking about how they could have got something better and that they still don't have something good enough. To summerize in one line using the language of a glibberty gibbets, they believe in "The myth of the pastoral foliage being inequitable for the better being consistently induced in the onlooker of the meadow which is made marginally inaccessible by a palisade!". Now rephrasing it for those less well-versed with the lexicon & 'Wren & Martin', these are effectively the people who believe that "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence!".....what I like to call the GREEN GRASS SYNDROME!

Always remember, whatever decision you make, you are constantly falling in either of the two categories, because as of now I don't seem to find any grey areas. And though the world will neither come to know of my theory nor get to the imprints I leave on my chair; it will continuously & consistantly keep justifying my theory, like it has always done so far. Now the reader might dare ask what new I have propounded, but then, did you look things up in this light ever before? There lies my claim to fame & immortality...!

hasmukh :)

Now it is my turn to "keep the faith"

Phew,

Placements season on in our b-school, and today was my first interview; failed miserably. Then I thought of listening to some sad songs and hence turned on the lappy and when I got signed into g-talk, there was a friend's status saying "Keep faith in him"

And the most amazing part was when I read the poem by Arthur King Clough, serving as my desktop, for the umpteenth time...:

SAY not the struggle not availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been, things remain;

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed;
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves vainly breaking
Seems here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.

-Arthur King Clough (1849)

It so happens that I used to sign-off my emails (and other communications) using the words "untilnextime:keep the faith".......so I believe that now, it is my turn to "keep the faith"!!!

Hasmukh :)

One small blog for man...

Hey,

I have finally managed to enter the world of blogging...the credit goes to the MBA which has put me (of all the people) into the habit of continuously doing something. The third semester being officially over today and about 3 days to go for "day-0" of placements, I am left with pretty much nothing to do and have thus chosen this path.

While I am typing this, there is a spell-binding scenario seen from my fifth floor balcony. I hear the sounds of rain & thunder as the omnipresent green horizons are faded by the rain, wind causing waves in the falling water (just like what we see in Hindi films when the "actress" is standing in the rain wearing a chiffon sari and a lace blouse and is embarrassed of the situation, which of course she didn't think would arise when she was in front of the mirror!). I feel like having tea while I am looking at this, but the thought reminds me of my home.....

Home; place where I can lie in the position I want to, looking at anything I feel like, and wearing anything I am comfortable in. Home; place where the juniours are going today. Home; place where I spent 21 years of my life. Home; place which brings to my mind the most nostalgic emotions. Home; place which dictionary.com primarily defines as “a house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household”, but still fails miserably to capture its meaning. Home; where you return to when you feel like you want to stop feeling. Home; place which, to me, still remains but an abstract noun.....just like a major chunk of my dictionary. Home; place where I can have the amount of tea I like, just the way i like it.

But coming back to tea, I see that the rain has stopped, the sky is clear and the spectacular window by the table (which is much more advanced than an electronic canvas) is now portraying a sunset; which tells me that I am again going to be late for tea in the mess.....I'v got to hurry!

Hasmukh :)