If you turned 30 this year

In my nostalgic moments I think about those times when things were more simple. I am putting together a list of things that existed in the early 90's but are unheard of today:

So if you turned 30 years old this year (or a few years ago) you would remember the following

1. 5 paise coin. You would have seen it and used it too. 10 paise, 25 paise coins too
2. You wouldn't have heard about an inverter till you were 12-15
3. You remember Black and white TVs with wooden shutters
4. Antennas on rooftops
5. TV serials "without' commercial breaks
6. White Coloured Horlicks Powder
7. Cable Television with 3 channels: Zee TV, MTV and Star Plus
8. Kapil Dev and Prabhakar opening India's bowling attack
9. Ravi Shastri's slow strike rates
10. Sachin Tendulkar as ray of hope (well that still hasn't changed!)
11. One Day Cricket in White Uniforms
12. Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg matches
13. Pink Colored Movie Tickets
14. Calling your neighbors when their family members called them up on your phone
15. Cartoons were a luxury
16. VCRs and VCD players with one cassette to clean the "Head"
17. People without phones and phones usually dead
18. 1 rupee plastic ball, 2 rupee plastic ball and the super rich "2.5 rupee" plastic ball
19. Making wickets by bricks
20. Playing "Business" - buying cities for 100-800 Rupees
21. Played Dave on computer
22. Scooter called "Sunny"
23. Discussed with friends about something called "mouse" in computer
24. Color monitors in computers were a dream
25. Waited till 8:30 for News
26. Watched movies on Doordarshan- waited with baited breath before the movie slot to know the movie name and brief story
27. Watched Rangoli and Doordarshan
28. If 2-3 songs of the same actor were shown on Doordarshan he was presumed dead
29. 6 o clock on Sunday evening roads would be empty due to movie on Doordarshan
30. Regional movie on Sunday afternoon in Doordarshan
31. Cars without A.C. or power steering (In fact 3 car types only - Fiat, Ambassdor and Maruti)
32. Audio Cassettes and two brands-HMV and T Series
33. Fountain Pens- filling ink and dirtying hands

I think i may still have not filled even 5% of the possible list. Oh how i miss those days.

Anybody has anymore thoughts

Who never lies

There was Satyawadi Raja Harishchand in the ancient days. But contemporary times do have not one but many such compulsive truth speaker. However these truth speakers are not individuals. They manifest themselves as a body- a group that involuntarily manifests itself as a collective and unapologetic voice. This body is called "the market" . The market needs, it desires and it reacts. It does not lie.

If market does not like something it simply says so. There is no way that the market does not like something but still buys it. It cannot be forced it cannot be coerced. It rewards what it likes and it is fair.

It does not do any favors. It won't buy from you because of the largess of its heart. It will dump you if your competition brings something which is better.

Rules for a perfect society

Human Existence has never seen one thing: 100% compliance. I can't and I can bet nobody can quote a single rule, directive or law which has ever been followed to the T by the subjected populace. Therein lies the seed on why we as a species have never been perfect. We set rules for ourselves and thereby evolve a set of profession: One which helps you follow rules, One which helps you bend rules and one which earns by breaking rules.

Essentially human beings are not meant to follow rules made by themselves for themselves. It is seeded in the human mind's propensity to free thought. Simply put you can't tell a person that something is right and just expect him to take it on face value. They will always question. On the face of it they may adhere but they will always question.

Human nature in itself can't be subdued and controlled. No matter how much you try to force, it can only try to break free. Sometimes mere instruction may lead to a egoistical response- why? why should i follow? It may end up following but the spark remains- the question lingers on.

On a normal curve where most of the people may end up following whatever rules are set for them there are always outliers who would not care.

I am not sure but probably this is why we don't have a perfect society- because we can't have 100 % compliance. On the other hand some may believe that this inherent incapability of not being able to comply fully gives our society the necessary balance for basic existence.

Consumerism: how we get trapped

I have had a realization as I spend my money (hard earned?) on things like Pizzas and movies on really what keeps the world going around. Its the fact that nine out of ten people on the planet are thinking about ways to make you part with our money with our own consent.

All the wisdom throughout the ages have today ended up into a strategy which makes each and every one of us part with our moolah. One wisdom that I heard on convincing anybody was to make the person "feel" empowered. Just make him feel that he is doing the right thing or rather the smart thing.

The best form  of marketing thus is to make a person believe he is a winner when in actuality the case is that he you are making him/her buy something he/her does not actually need.

Another wisdom is a theory on guilt augmentation. Whenever a person feels guilty he will "invent" reasons on why he did it. The reason may be lame but he will do it in order to sleep peacefully. So a good marketeer simply needs to give a consumer excuses to avoid guilt and he will buy whatever you sell him.

Buying in itself demands that a consumer spends two different assets- time and money. Think about it as consumers these are the only two assets that we as consumers have and nothing else. Interestingly people only want our money they don't want our time.

The traps in order of lesser to bigger evils:

1. The first trap laid was Debit cards- withdraw cash from ATMs anytime you want- No need to stand in queues of bank- get your cash soon and spend it soon.
2. Second trap- Direct shopping through debit card- Don't withdraw cash we will do it for you and pocket it neatly.
3. Third trap- Credit cards- Spend now pay later- We take your future money. Since its money in future only don't feel guilty about it now.
4. Fourth trap-Online Shopping- Sit at home and while enjoying the comfort of your own making spend money on my products. Since you are not putting too much effort please go through a whole lot of useless catalogs and spend money on things you don't need
5. Final trap: Reward points- Get rewarded for your shopping- I am taking your money but you should feel good because I am rewarding you (insignificantly- 0.007% of your spend)

All these traps make you feel smart, alleviate guilt and save time. You end up spending more and most probably on things you don't need.

Best way of saving money- Go to a bank withdraw cash and commit to not spending more than that. Food for thought.

Disclaimer: The author of the above piece is definitely never going to follow his own advice and keep wasting his much loved earnings.



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A company= Goose that lays Golden eggs

This post will be a digression from my previous posts. Just that my recent passion for stock markets has made me think about what a company means to an investor. So my analogy is this- A company is like a goose that lays golden eggs. The analogy goes like this:

A goose (company) is typically reared (managed) by a farmer who takes care of it day to day. The goose requires to mate with other gander (customers) in order to lay golden eggs(Profits). To lay good eggs the goose should be healthy (Healthy company-operationally) and attractive (marketing/positioning). In order to ensure the same the farmer has to keep the goose in best condition through regular supply of fodder (working capital) and other upkeep(governance, processes etc.) to keep it attractive and healthy (day to day management). Also the gander are pretty finicky and unfaithful. The gander easily get bored and are ready to move to new goose(competitors) in the vicinity. To remain attractive the goose needs to stay healthy, take on new look (restructuring)etc. Goose may even find new ways to attract Gander (diversification). All this is a heavy task for the farmer and he needs money.

So to raise his goose the farmer can either borrow money (debt) or raise money by selling ownership of goose (equity). So a farmer goes to other people (investors) and says that he is willing to forgo a fraction of his future earnings to someone provided he gets reasonable money for it. Now these other people are supposed to make an assessment of the number of future golden eggs they can get and value the price they should pay (valuation).

This in short is my analogy of a company and the goose that lays golden eggs.

Zen master in Communicating through hollywood

I once incidentally saw a movie on HBO. (ohhh.... I love watching movies)-Charlie Wilson's war. Following is a dialogue in the last scene  of the movie


Gust Avrakotos: There's a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse... and everybody in the village says, "how wonderful. The boy got a horse" And the Zen master says, "we'll see." Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, "How terrible." And the Zen master says, "We'll see." Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight... except the boy can't cause his legs all messed up. and everybody in the village says, "How wonderful." 
Charlie Wilson: Now the Zen master says, "We'll see." 


Reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/quotes?qt0436729

Probably it may not sound so powerful while just reading it, however in the movie (based on US' covert support for Afghan rebels during Russian occupation) it is masterfully placed and conveys a very serious and thought provoking message.

Summary of the message was thus : You may think yourself to be doing good while in the end the result is f**ked up beyond recognition. Similarly you may be messing up and suddenly there is a heap of rewards in front of you.

I wouldn't go too much further in this post because probably zen master explains it the best.
Just  simple questions for you whenever something positive happens to you: What just happened was good? really? should i rejoice? or maybe should i not?

Probably this positive may lead to something not really positive or something real bad.

Similarly for every negative outcome: Is it bad? really? Should i be sad? or maybe not. This negative may lead to something positive which you might have not thought of before or considered possible.

In short be a little skeptic when good happens and little content when something bad happens. It is a natural course of life and what happens is how it is meant to be.

The Power of Pilgrimage

I am a very recent believer. I don't know if it is me or the influence of my wife but I never knew I would become so. For a person who has tries not to go temple I have been to Shirdi and Shani Shidnapur twice. Both the places are considered by devotees to be a place where wishes come true. Just go there and ask what you want and it shall be granted.

Probably i found that something worked for me. Probably it would have worked anyways. However i went with the thought "As well believe it".

I am a rational human being with scientific thought and philosophical musings. God to me is not a figure. To me God is a system too elaborate in complexity for common human comprehension. Still I believe that a trip to a religious place does help you "wish and achieve".

A major driver of what we do and what we are able to do is our subconscious. We achieve only what we think we can achieve. Only a thought is  deep rooted in our subconscious that we can do something and no shred of doubt exists there, there is very little that can stop us from achieving it (I didn't take that idea from inception, i took it from Kung Fu Panda). Lets say when I heard of it i thought about my life and saw how it really happened in a few situations and have come to believe in it.

To those wondering what I am doing digressing here and there let me tie the two threads- pilgrimage and subconscious. I would like to define the rewarding effects of pilgrimage as follows: Pilgrimage is a way of programming your subconscious.

It starts with a thought of doing it. The thought of just going to visit God makes you feel good thereby setting the base (there goes your # include).

1. Once you start planning for it you start setting yourself up. Well begun is half done you think, and when that half done is meeting God himself you are just sailing in the wave of self congratulation.

2. After planning starts the journey and hard work. Be it time and effort (driving or walking) or only time (Sitting in the backseat) you are investing yourself- committing to a purpose of meeting God.

3. The final step is when you actually end up in front of the deity itself. Just that it is only a view. Nothing apparently happens. Rather in order to be politically correct nothing manifests itself. Its just there in front of you and it is completely stationary. It is just then when you bow with respect and reverence that you take a leap of faith. You believe that God is in front of you and can listen to you. Mind you it is the conditioning in the first three steps that take you to this state you are ready to believe anything as you think God is in front of it. There is a heightened state which makes you feel powerful and there is nothing that you feel is above you. You can do anything, anything at all. When you make a wish in such a state you already have started believing that you can do it.

Therein lies the secret on how wishes are granted in pilgrimages. Or rather this is my theory on how prayers come true.

As usual do let me know your comments. Also do let me know if I have by mistake hurt any sentiments1

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