Diwali Get-Together in our office

We had a Diwali get-together in our office. A small one from 4 till 4:30. The invitation for it said that we need to come prepared with Diwali stories from our past. Hmmmm.......

Anyways, some interesting tid-bits from it:

• It is used to celebrate victory of Good over Evil. That is the easiest one.
• Some use Rangoli to decorate their house during Diwali
• As a student, some guys used to hate Diwali Homework.
• Diwali Wishes change with years
• When we were young: New clothes
• Mid Age: Celebration through crackers
• Now: Sleep - Agony of engineers
• In south in some places, first diwali after marriage the guy goes to the girls house. He is treated like a King there. WoW or Duh
• You are woken up at 2 in the morning by the elders who put oil on you and then you bathe and so on - happens in south
• Time to thank for everything you are gifted by God with
• Time to thank God for so many people whose blessings are with you
• Lots of sales at lots of places
  

Thing of the day

While coming back from our walk after lunch, I noticed a person having a Tata Indigo get out of his car. When he got out of this car, the windows of the driver seat were half open. After he was out, he started walking towards a shop nearby. Then he pressed the Auto Lock button on the keys. As soon as he pressed that, the windows also closed. This was something I did not know. I always need to check manually the windows of the car when I go back home. Sometimes I need to come back at mid-night to confirm that windows are closed.

Try these good things out

Some good habits which we should incorporate in our everyday life:

1. Develop a habit to look at a list at the start of the day and end of the day
1. This will help in putting things which are in your basket immediately to this list at any point in the day and get you a reminder at the end-of-the-day
2. Try to learn one good thing everyday and note it down
3. Learn to tell good things to others if you think so
4. Try to concentrate on the thing you are doing and put it to a logical end to carry it on at a later stage, if there is a need to take a break in betweenPlan your financial in terms of targets to achieve twice an year
5. Do a small review of your financial at the start of the month
6. Spend some time during the week on how to build your wealth for short term

Mere Doston Mere Pass Aao

Mr. Natwarlal

This famous song from Mr. Natwarlal (An Amitabh Blockbuster release in 1979) reminded me once more of the enormous things one can learn from Bollywood.

Mere Doston Mere Pass Aao, Ek Kissa Suno

Amitabh calls on the kids to come and what follows is a brilliant story, only in a way Amitabh can do. Sung by him, it reminds me of the kisse kahanian (stories) that Grandmothers have in store for the younger ones and they need one every night.

Deewar

Similarly a scene from Deewar wonderfully summarizes how adjustments in relations can be equally happy for both parties. Amitabh is shown as a person who does not enter temple but always goes with his mother to the temple. He would stand at the footsteps of the temple. His mother offers him prashad from the temple. Amitabh is reluctant to take it and what follows is a dialogue from Shashi Kapoor which I can never forget:

Shashi Kapoor: Bhai, Maa isey prashad samajh kar deti hai, tum bhi mithai samajh kar kha liya karo.

Bluffmaster

Scene from Bluffmaster which defines love.

Abhishek to Priyanka: Na hasata hai, na rulata hai. Iska matlab abhi tak dil par kuch bhi asar nahin kar paya hai.

Love without emotions and its high and downs would be so cheyyyyy

There are numerous other scenes from the Bollywood movies, each of which has a story to tell. Love Bollywood and love the stories it has :)

Guru

There is a scene in Guru where Aishwarya is expecting a baby and standing in front of the mirror. Abhishek keeps his head on her stomach. Aishwarya asks "Kuch sunai de raha hai?" Then Abhishek (who is more fatter than usual in this movie, maybe for this scene) stands in front of the mirror and Aishwarya keeps her head on his stomach.

Abhishek: "kuch sunai de raha hai?"
Aishwarya: "Bahut kuch"
Abhishek: "Kya?"
Aishwarya: "Ismein mujhe bahut se logon ki awaaz sunai de rahi hai jo keh rahe hai ki hamein kaam do"

Talking about an inspiring scene for someone who wants to open a company for the well being of the nation. You cannot beat the above one.

My personal guide to Investing In Stock Markets

Are you planning to invest in stock markets? Thinking about making money and doing well. Here is my personal guide which I use to invest:

Divide your money into different funds at the start of the year. This will help you in setting targets and achieving them.

Planned Equity Fund: Money that you plan to invest into Equity at the end of the year. For me, the first year end target was 75,000

Planned Mutual Fund: Money that you plan to invest into Mutual Funds at the end of the year. For me, the first year end target was 75,000

Shopping Fund: Extra money that should be ready to be invested when market goes down. Keep a cap on it and do not be greedy when the market goes down.

Non Performing Assets: Take a regular look at the non-performing assets in your portfolio. The duration after which you review these assets would depend on how much time you can spare for your portfolio. Try to remove the non-performing assets and replace them with something which grows faster.

Year End Target: How much do you want your money to grow by at the end of the year? For me, I wanted my money to grow 15% at the end of the year. Conservative by todays estimates, but as a fresh entrant to the stocks, I wanted to play it safe.

Now the strategy is simple:

Invest in stock market through the shopping fund when market goes down.
Refill the shopping fund when the market goes up.
Keep the shopping fund constant.
Do not worry if Planned Equity Fund exceeds Planned Mutual Fund as long as the combination of two is below your limits. Equity is better if you know basics about stocks and have a good GUT feeling about stocks which you can back. For ex. My Equity Fund is more Loaded right now that Mutual Fund but I have a little more faith in my equity skills than choosing mutual funds.

If the planned fund goes above limits, then get it back to planned levels as soon as you get a chance. You will always have funds in your portfolio that are not giving returns as expected. Take a decision and get rid of them. DISCIPLINE your investments.

This can change the way we work!

The thing which we discussed (and I will go into the details a little later) today can completely change the way we work, only if we execute it. We have tried doing it some months back and it fell flat. The adrenalin flows for a day normally for these things and then everything comes back to the same level. Anyways, its good that we find the courage to discuss it again because if we are able to win this one, we would have what we call a "World Class Team"

What we did today was come up with a list of positive and negative points about the way we work? We are a bunch of guys who wanna work hard, do some good stuff and make money. We have been working together for around 3 years now and know quite a few things about each other.

Positive:

1. We are very fort right with each other. We say if any other person is doing wrong at his face and that is the hallmark of a good team.
   
2. We are almost at the same frequency.
3. Koi angrez nahin hai humme se, no doc / ppt only guy
4. We all want to work technically even after 5-8 years experience, so we can be very efficient
5. None of us is a politician
6. We have trust in each other
7. We are open to sharing our knowledge if the other person asks
8. Despite of cribbing and criticizing everything, we continue to work hard.

Negatives:

1. We speak in hindi even in meetings where people who do not understand hindi are present.
2. We are negative in our thoughts.
3. We look to criticize everything.
4. We do not focus.
5. We talk a lot and waste time.
6. We mix emotions with logic.
7. We do not show interest in meetings in which we are not interested.
8. Somo of us do not want to do Docs / testing
9. We do not take proper initiatives, we want to be managed by someone.
10. We want that every decision should be made after asking us, which is not possible.
    

People with Time Vs People with Talent

Karwa Chauth

October 29, 2007 was the day when the moon decided to play hide and no seek with the ladies in India. Karwa Chauth is a festival in India where the married ladies keep a fast and pray for long lives of their husbands. One of the infinite reasons why I love my wife :)

Some sound bytes from this festival:

Couple of years back on Karwa Chauth, the moon was not shining bright. Question asked: Why does the moon not shine so bright on Karwa Chauth?

Because there is so much demand for the moon, the voltage drops :)