Trip to switzerland: Update#2

Switzerland is one country that looks like an energetic kid when it sunny, like an old man when its snowy/ wintery, but is at its worse when it rains!! Having seen the snowy side last year, I was totally exhilarated at seeing the sunny part this time. So on the great sunny Sunday, woke up early and decided to go to Interlaken. But as we were about to leave, I messaged Sharmazee asking him his plan and to our utter dismay, while we were planning to go all the way to Interlaken, these guys were on the train to St Gallen. So we decided to stick here only and wait for them. Since we had about a couple of hours to go, I came up wth the brilliant idea of going to my favourite place in Switzerland, Appenzell.
Appenzell, made famous by the beer that goes by its name is one of the places that are not quite on the tourist office map but is sure one of the most brilliant places. So Shefali and I caught he appenzell train and went there. The journey all the way up is very serene full with sylvan beauty. Since it was a Sunday, the people there were all dressed up in the traditional dresses which were quite corful and there were huge preparations for a community mass. It really amazes me as to how these people still manage to find the time, money as well as the effot to carry out such traditions and customs. But sure was darn nice. After a few hours of wandering around Appenzell, we got back to st gallen. When these guys did not turn up in the train that was coming from bern, we called them again. To my utter dismay (yet not to the level of astonishment), these guys had tken a direct train to Schaffhausen. So we duly decided to go to that place. The train trip to Schaffhausen was long, but it was very beautiful. This entire train journey was next to the Lake Bodensee and hence we could see all the people dressed up in their Sunday casuals taking a dip in the lake, sun bathing, playing soccer etc., but my personal favs are watching them yachting and cycling/skating. These guys even have cycles with prams attched to them. Its amazing as to how much these guys enjoy themselves. So we finally met up Nijhara and company in Schaffhausen as we were descending towards the Rhine falls. It was nice to see everybody, except for the fact that everybody was sooo tired and completely sans any energy. Apparently sharmanzee had them get off a couple of stations early and so they had walked a fair amount before doing the various touch points in rhine. So we decided to take the train and go to some place called the Stein Am Rhine.
Although I wasn’t quite enthu about this place but it got mentioned in some magazine as one of the  most beautiful places in Swissland with the best marketplatz or the city square. I was like-” What the heck!! All cities are beautiful and their city squares are chuu.” But its was indeed a very very beautiful small town with a typical Sunday crowd and lots of fun. It was sunny and we clicked ourselves to glory. My only regret was not carrying a boxer or a swim suit. I was so jealous of the kids who climbed up the city bridge and were taking jumps into the river flowing underneath!!!! So we finally winded up from there after a couple of amazing hours and took the train back to St gallen. Here we went to the famed red lounge and the church. And finally called it a day.
I always wonder when will things be in India the way they are in Europe. Believe me I have always believed that probably our traditions and culture is far stronger than the ones here. But the level of personal interest and enthusiasm towards life that these guys take is tremendous. They play hard, work hard and party hard. And not just in words but in spirit as well!! Long live this spirit!!
J
end of day 2

Holidaying in swissland!!! Update # 1

Well so am in Switzerland .. well in Switzerland again on the way to Db training in London with the entire Db gang.

And am I enjoying it? Well yeah sure !! its awesome.. its mind blowing and I dunno y but it feels like am home again..
Having stayed here for like 3 months and having traveled and seen every gaon, gali and nukkad and the returning back is a feeling that I don’t think a lot of people can relate to. I mean I have the memories and joys and the brilliant moments that I spent here last time. And now suddenly its all nostralgia. The memories keep coming back.
Well yeah! That’s wat it is to be back!!

So to begin with we had a perfect flight all the way to Zurich. The Swiss people known for their wonderful and caring nature were very receptive in the flight, catering to all our needs and more than made up for the very less leg space in the flight. In one line, they kept us “full” literally but stuffin food onto us. There were like 4 times when the snacks bar was taken around and same was the case with the drinks trolley. Wll I know why I am so happy. That because I had my fave beer “Heineken” and it sure tasted like crazy!!

So once we had landed, the immigration was plain and simple and so was the currency conversion and other formalities. And so began our wait for our two guides:: Nijhara and sharmanzeee!!!! And they for once did not disappoint us and turned up duly in time. Sharma for once hasn’t changed a bit but nijhara with his cropped hair was looking like a pucca “Southhall Punjabi munda”. I cant believe myself that I used that term!! Well I mean I haven’t touced base in London yet and all I am doin is using their terminology!!

So while the group decided to park their luggage in Sharmazee’s place, I decided to tag along and have ameet up with nijhara. Its always nice to meet friends, good to meet best friends and great to meet best friends in Switzerland!!!! So that really sums up my emotions in meeting nijhara there!!!

So after dumping our dumping at sharmazees place, we went to our ex home, St Gallen’s. St Gallen’s is a city which can be best defined by something that Parvathy said about it. And it is that “St Gallen’s is one place in Switzerland that has both the old traditional look (well the Church) about it and at the same time has a very contemporary urban and city look (the Red Lounge) to it.

So we went back to Zurich haptbahnof and w/o even looking at the timings (which we obviously knew by heart) took the first train back to home J.
And then it was like the old times all the way! Well Zurich flugafen, Winterthur, Wil, Utzwil, Flawil, Gossau and finally St gallen. So we got down at the station, took a long breath and finally to our apartment.

It had been a long and tiring morning and with such huge amounts of luggage (thanks to the n number of ready to eats and masala’s) that we decided to take a cab to the apartment. One thing about taking cans here is that you get to sit in the cars which you only talk about in India. So I made myself comfy in a sweet Volvo (well “sweet” is the only word that can probably describe the car!!!!!) and then paid a huge sum for a ride of barely 4 mins!! But it was more than its worth in the currency!!
J
so we dragged our luggage upto the first floor ( believe me it was quite an ordeal) and made ourselves at home. Refreshed soon enough and made our journey back to Zurich HB.

Zurich is one of the places in Switzerland that actually doesn’t have too many places to boast of. But it sure has one of the best high streets in the world. Its not only got the best brands but more importantly its got the best crowd. The people are soo stylish and wonderfully dressed that it make sthat place even better and makes you realize how inadequately dresses you are!!! But yeah who cares!!! Having filled our empty stomachs with some Mc Chicken we made our way to the famed Zurich Zoo. Zurich zoo happened to be the first zoo that I have ever been to. Its tagline is what interests me the most.
“Its not a zoo, it’s a Zooh!!!”

the experience inside the zoo was quite awesome. I mean apart from the real attractions like the rhino and hippo, tiger, lion, elephant and others they had awesome facilities for children. But my fave area was the penguins. These are such surreal yet not so surreal animals and can stay w/o moving at one place for so long that its quite unnerving!!!!
So in all it was quite a wonderful experience and we finally managed to make our way out of the maze of the zoo/wildlife park and then took the first tram to the main station. The best thing about the Swiss youth pass (one that I have) is that it is not only valid on the trains but on the intra city transport as well. And so it sure solves all head aches associated with buying expensive tickets and other stuffs!! But the best part is still to come. Over the period of my travel and through something that my friends from the Sweden trip called the “Learning Curve” is that – you can best see the entire city but taking a day pass and then sitting through the buses of that city. These buses take you from one end of the city to another and so not only do u see the entire city but also you do that w/o straining a single muscle. So that’s precisely what we did in Zurich and saw the entire city. By then we were totally exhausted. So we took the first train to St gallen, and then I hit the sack!! It sure was a darn tiring day but making the most outta it was the most satisfying task!!!
End of day 1!!!!!

Awesome office: Bloomberg!!!

Its not that you daily get to be in an office which blows you off and you just have the feeling, if and only if your own office was like this.
Today I had my Bloomberg training and believe me that their office in Maker Chambers is probably the best I have seen. The interiors were impeccable and very beautiful.

Me and Navneet reached office at about 11:15 and the traing was to start at 11:30. The guard at the gate greeted us then duly called us at the reception where there was a list with our names on it. He got us to sign on that sheet and took our photographs and almost immediately provided us with our Bloomberg training passes with our pictures on it. It really was the height of efficiency. We were then guided into a training room with lots of Bloomberg terminals.

We waited till about 11:45 for the program to start. Well if you ask me, it really was one of the most worthless/useless trainings that I have ever attended. Probably worse than the most useless HR classes that I had on campus. Having said that, I feel and know that the Bloomberg terminal is a work of art and is one of the things which is indispensable for the working of any finance guy. But yeah! The training was something I could have done without. The only respite was that Navneet sitting next to me was plotting all his shares ke prices and showing me his annual returns!!

So when the training finally ended at about 12:45, it was more of a relief than anything else.
And it was then that I got to see the whole office. I was superb; I really don’t have any words to express that. The interiors were very beautiful, lighting was yellow and nice. But the best part was that there were flat screens that were plastered all over the walls, ceiling and also on the floor!! To add to that there were people working on the Bloomberg terminals(all blues) all over the place accentuating the beauty!!

And now for people like Shefali who think that to work good, you should eat like a hog!!! :) :) :) :) .
This place was like paradise. Right in the middle was a buffet for employees, with a person serving everybody. Also they had a huge rack with loads n loads of goodies packed in ranging from magi, 5 stars, mentos all kinds of biscuits, and lots of beverages!!

So while walking out, we managed to flick a couple of 5stars and a packet of coconut biscuits which we duly finished while only in lift!!!

So I think it was really fulfilling training, if not in terms of knowledge, but surely in terms of appetite!!!!!

Thank you Bloomberg!!
:) :) :) :)

This is Jonkoping!!!!

some areas that my colleagues mite remember!!!

1) Raslatt: The name of the Society we used to live in!!
a. Socertopen: The community centre or the hangout place of Raslatt full with a fusball able, pool table and a steam bath!!! And who the hell can forget the “whore and pimp” party for Halloween!!
b. Willy’s: The supermarket. “Chuchu” aka manish might remember the days spent in buying “peas”, “tortilla” and most importantly “ice tea”!!!!
c. The Indian Gujju store!! He was our connection with the world!! Coz he was the one who sold us the recharge coupons!!

2) A6: The only mall in the city!!
a. Ikea store: The biggest store around. It was a furniture store but was huge and awesome
i. And wow!! Do u remember the “HOTDOG waala!!! And the pepsi and other drinks that came free with it!! Completely and totally awesome!!
b. The electronic shop: was awesome
c. Finally remember that pizza place that had 1 hour as much as u can eat pizza for 48 Kroners!! That was probably the only day when Kansal looked totally happy and satisfied!!!

3) Huskwarna: Our first home in Jonoping!!!

4) Lazarathsparken: the bus stop we used to get down at for the university. Chuchu thought that the name was particularly aexy!

5) Apsara or some thing: The Sri Lankan Restaurant:
a. That was the place were Harsh , the hussie boy gave his budday treat!! All of us ate like crazy coz it was a buffet and we finished tea like there was no tomorrow!! Eventually the owners had to come out and request us to LEAVE THE FOOD ALONE and tell them in advance if we were coming so that they could shut down!! Btw that was the day when we realized that dude aka suneil wasn’t a real Tam (he cudnt speak with the Tamil owner!!!)

6) Centrum: well the railways station and the main bus stand

7) Academia: well this was the student’s pub where all went except me!!! L But yeah it sure gave me one of my fave songs “Everytime we touch!!!!”

My Memoirs: Eurotrip!!!!

My very first memory of my euro trip is when me, kansal and harsh were standing outside the Sweden consulate and we were trying to get a visa. We had to catch the flight at night and we still hadn’t got our visa!! Well I wonder how many people have done that. But I was different, well to correct that, we were different. We were lalloooos!!!
But did we do it? Yes we did it and that was because the Swedish consulate bent some rules and upped their efficiencies to give us a visa the very same day!
And lo behold! We were on our way to the most amazing 4 months of my life. We took a cab and finally ended up buying ourselves some bare minimum clothes and our best buy till date: Eurail Pass. Well one and all will agree that the ROI on Eurail pass was crazy and that if those people could actually track our total journey, they would have killed themselves or filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

So having filled up my suitcase to the maximum level ( the bulge would have put Obleix to shame) with hundreds of Ready to eats and maggi’s, I finally drove to the airport. I was lucky coz I had my home in Delhi. Harsh and Kapil had relatives and parents coming late at night.
So we finally boarded the Turkish Airlines and were off for the much awaited “trip”.
The first happiness of being on a “foreign shore” was when we landed in Istanbul for the stopover in Turkey. We rode through the escalators and the whole of the airport like kings. We were amazed and totally jazzed out with the shops and showrooms of the brands we had just seen on the channels or read in the magazines. It was totally electric.

So finally we did have our body search. This was on the flight from Istanbul to Stockholm. Well if we were expecting any harsh treatment for being Asians, we were in for a surprise. Everybody had to take off their shoes!!! Well if its everybody then we are game for guys!!
Finally a European flight. We had loads of drinks and all and we had a party. But yeah guys!! We did not drink like buffoons. You know of the air travel scares. So we kept o ourselves. I was feeling a little sleepy so I went and slept but lifting the armrests of three chairs. And know what? When I got up I had a quilt on me and a smiling airhostess looking!! Well it was good. It sure was!!

So we finally landed in Stockholm. We were so very happy to be finally there. From Arlanda to Bus stop and finally from there to my favorite place on earth: Jonkoping.

India @ 60 vis-à-vis “Adam Smith-Problem”

As the youthful, ebullient and exciting India turns 60, there is a cheerful optimism everywhere. Be it on stock market (we can discount the recent bloodbath), in the movies (rhetoric Chak de India), on the streets, on the playground (a series win in England after 21 years). It is everywhere.
But yes we may be on the way to becoming an economic superpower (thanks to the best seller called the BRIC report) but are we anywhere near to being a social superpower. A friend with whom I was discussing this said that he was happy that we are better than China in this at least. But can we really derive any succor in that?
One of the lines that has always haunted me in the past is
“In India we don’t cast our votes, we vote our caste”
Reservation is all over the place. Riots are not a thing of the past. But not just that, I think all of this is a result of the huge and ever widening economic divide between the people.

Two questions plastered by DNA newspaper all over the Mumbai city are

1) Stock market crosses 15,000. Will 40 million Indian cross the poverty line?
2) What has India done for you? What have you done for India?

Well enough of the crying hoarse stuff from me. I know you can counter me by saying that I am probably a leftist and am against the success of our financial bodies and that these problems might be a price we are paying for development. But all I can say is that I am a humanist. Warren Buffet said-“if you belong to the top 1% of the lucky people in the world, you owe it to humanity to think after the rest 99% of the world”.

Ohhhk…
Well now about “India and Adams Smith- Problem”

As I was thinking about India, Indians and our push from developing to developed country’s league, I couldn’t stop thinking about the “Adam Smith problem” and how that fact that it is probably more relevant for India than ever before.

In his book, “An enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” which he wrote on account of the Industrial revolution he said that there were three main concepts which formed the foundation of the laissez faire (or the theory of free trade) and thus were essential for forming the wealth of a nation. These were:

1) Division of labor
2) Pursuit of Self interest
3) Freedom of trade

Of these three, pursuit of Self interest had always remained a bone of contention. Smith maintained that self interest alone can lead to socially beneficial results. But in his other equally famous books he argues sympathy is required to achieve socially beneficial results. More specifically, Smith in his book “The theory of Moral sentiments”, divided moral systems into:
Categories of the nature of morality. These included Propriety, Prudence, and Benevolence.
Categories of the motive of morality. These included Self-love, Reason, and Sentiment.

On the very face of this, it looks and sounds contadictary
On one side you have self interest and on the other you cite reciprocal altrusim.

So that’s the case with our youthful India as well. In our aim to be a econimic superpower, should our growth be inclusive or exclusive. Can we be selfish and make a complete mockery of our poor brethren and adopt a simple behavior of denial and go on with our daily routine of contributing to the GDP or should be take a proactive role and try to make the growth more “real”.
I personally believe that Mr. Adam Smith was not as big a fool as we may think him to be. I believe that he probably interpreted Self interest as a community behavior. Also I think there are more differences between “Self interest” and “Selfishness” than just the difference in their spellings. J

So although you and I might differ on the ways to get there, but I think the best part is that our destinaton is one and the same thing!!!
And though I don’t want to sound like a complete whaco, but being the complete movie freak that I am, I can only say

“Waqt hamara hai!!”


Ps: this was a crazy movie starring Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty!!!!!

Global Subprime Meltdown!!:: Explained for Dummies!!!!

SUBPRIME MELTDOWN

Considering that this is prolly the hottest topic so far, I decided to make this very easy for people.

What is Subprime Lending?

All financial institutions while lending have a credit worthiness check on all borrowers. Eg in India, all banks refers to CIBIL as well as conduct other credit history checks like Pay slip cheque, tax returns etc, so as to find out the “riskiness quotient” of the borrower.

Similarly in US all banks have a FICO credit score (scale from 300 to 850) to define every individual. Subprime borrowers are typically individuals who have FICO score of less than 620. This is nothing more than an index to display the reduced repayment capacity of the borrowers.

Thus for
Borrowers: Its high interest rates for home loans
Lenders: High Risk , but then high gain!!

So big deal.. This happens all the time.. So what is the problem and what is it that is causing just global impacts on the equity market.
Well this is through a special instrument which is called the “CDO or the Collaterized Debt Obligation” which is nothing but a type of asset backed security and a structured credit product. In simple words Asset here is the Loan that the bank has given and thus a lot of them are grouped together and issued as security to the common people. Thus the banks reduse their total risk through using CDO as a funding vehicle for pertfolio investments in the credit risky fixed income assets!!
So this is how this comes on to the capital market. From 2003 to 2006, new issues of CDOs backed by asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities had increasing exposure to subprime mortgage bonds. In 2006, $200 billion in mezzanine ABS CDOs (mezzanine ABS CDOs are mainly backed by the BBB or lower-rated tranches of mortgage bonds) were issued with an average exposure to subprime bonds of 70%.So we have people like Bear Sterns
So we know the theory about it.. Lets see how all of this started!!!

Well it starts from the very basic individual who is at the crux of it all.
He is the one who was given the loan , and that loan wa particularly the asset on which all the secirities were backed. So when theidicvidual defaults on the payments of his Home loan or mortage, then the loan goes bad, and when the loan goes bad, the aseets become non performing and finally you have no money to pay to the holders o the security.

One thing that I see here is that, the number of securities that people like Bear Stern isued on these assets were very very huge w/o taking into consideration the default risk.

So in 2006-07 when Fed started to increase rates, the interest rates started rising, people who had got easy home loans due to the real estate boom in US, were now under pressure to pay higher and huger interest. Thus people started defaulting on their mortgages.

Thus in early 2007, many subprime mortgage lenders filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection, ceased originating mortgage loans and/or ceased conducting business altogether.

So companies like Bear Stern were hit because their assets went bad and so their shares went down. Other big player also started going red and finally all the investors started going red. In India also ICICI is grappling to reduce the effect of the global meltdown as much as possible.

So that’s it guys!!!

To me She is........

To me, she's a winter morning sunshine,
As tantalising as a bottle of French Chateau Wine.

She smells and feels like a morning Dew,
As exciting and bubbly as an Ocean so blue

She make me happy with just one big smile
And know when to say at the right times "Lets walk for a while"

When she hugs me tight, it feels like hmm like a sunny Sunday
It feels like heaven and that now all problems have been kept abay

She is by far the most beautiful girl I have seen
These moments with her are the best the have ever been.

Our good pleasnt times are like Beautiful Monte carlo sea shore
But beleive me all I want is this, and my Dil maange more!!!

Sanjay Dutt: "Crime"d for Life!!

sunju baba..
Its all over the news channels, splashed across the newspaper and now also on the billboards (thanks to Amul ad which goes like " we support you Baba").. Amidst the the whole mess of the judiciary, press, family (including the overnight gossiper's superstar "Maanyata")and the angry fans is a 48-year old human being whose life has just been trashed and all his hopes of being a free man crashed. He has been able to scrape out of being branded a "terrorist", but who can remove the unwashable stain of being a "criminal".
So what is the whole thing about him.
A son of a superstar couple, a spoilt rich brat

a popular student of Lawrence school , Sanawar.////OR//// a spoilt kid who was caught smoking in school,

a superstar with his first movie "Rocky" .////OR////junkie at a very young age

a helpful human being .////OR////a druggie who needed rehabilitation helpinUS

a doting father a two time divorsee a loving Robin Hood types goon on screen .////OR////a terrible citizen dabbling with handguns, grenades and even AK-56

a friend of friends (AB, Salman Etc etc) .////OR//// one who attended parties in dubai with Dawood, Chotta rajan Chotta shakeel

a helpful friend in film industry.////OR//// a man who made his friends criminals who are now spending the sentence with him in jail all for no real faults of theirs

a son of a great nationalist parliamentarian .////OR////a son of India with Scant respect for the Law

As a great fan of his I have all my loyalties in the wrong side of the law, but am quite aware of the famous saying

Do the crime, Do the time

Sanju Baba, you will have to serve the time for your crime.. Yes you have to!!!