Wall Street Saga...

Want to read a succulent, tempting thriller that keeps on your toes. I am not suggesting you a Agatha Cristie, Dan Brown, Michael Clayton or Archer’s fiction book. I am talking about the Wall Street saga, never has been a time when I have taken so much interest in the financial turnarounds. Assets, liabilities, interest, profit and loss is something my financial knowledge was limited to but now what the hell is leverage, hedge funds, private equity fund, debt, equity, securities and many more?? Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are financial institutions; I thought they were twin daughters. AIG is a top insurance firm, oh thought it was something on the lines of NIKE sponsoring a football club. Hank Paulson, Ben Berkeley, Timothy Geithner…. who are these people??? Why am I despised when taking names of Richard Fuld and Jimmy Cayne?
So, what went wrong? How does one explain this to a layman like me :-)
Lehman Brothers was like the little kid pulling the tail of a dog. You know the kid is going to hurt eventually, so no one is surprised when the dog turns around and bites the kid. But the kid only hurts himself, so no one cares about that much. Bear Sterns is the little pyro – the kid who was always playing with matches. He could harm not only himself but burn his own house down, even the entire neighborhood. The Fed stepped in not to protect him, but the rest of the block. AIG is the kid who stumbled into a bio-tech warfare lab found all these unlabelled vials, and headed out into the playground with a handful of them jammed into his pockets. Federal Reserve was the babysitter who gave the kids the dog and the matches and forgot to lock the door to the lab. The politicians hired the babysitter. The babysitter did not behave like a responsible parent and let the kid become big, fat and diabetic and was now seeking redemption by taking the whole family on a diet of rice and beans. Fannie and Freddie were the two twins who bought bad meat and made poisonous sandwiches. Henry Paulson was the good babysitter who tried to pamper the kids with a candy of $700 billion bailout plan so that the kids stop crying for a short while.
All said and done, it’s a sad time for the financial market but a good time to learn facts from fiction. Perhaps, this saga too like any other will have its up and down with a not so happy-ending. For all the fin-heads unable to answer to people who have lost their money are escaping by saying………….
Never Ask for money spent
Where the spender thinks it went
Nobody was ever meant
To remember or invent
What he did with every cent…!!!!!!

Not a really good way of calming the people isn’t???

Panacea of Life

Composed by me on a morning when i was out of this world..........
There is a strange feeling
My Lips are murmuring
To let out my my unspoken words
But something is holding me inside
For they are the hard facts of life
Why is that the sky not beautified
With the rainbow everyday?
Why is that the flowers do not bloom everyday?
Every day is not our day
Every moment is not our moment
All this and much more
Makes me bedazzle and swine
Why Am I not heard always
Or Why do I not lend my ear to hear
If what you sow so shall you reap
is what we all hear
Its true fact that reciprocation is part of life
that one needs to adhere
Your smile makes one feel good of others
And so does your ignorance makes you part from others.
You may meet many wrong people
before you meet the right one
But you must walk with the wrong ones to reach the right one
For Realization comes from experience.
For just being alone in the race makes you only weaker
For the world is survival of the fittest
And so hold the hands of the one who can make you strong and not let you down.
Dont be suppressed by anyone
For you have your own self-respect
And there is much to learn in this aspect.
For every twist and turn choose your way
Choose the right one to reach your destination
For its better than salvation
These are the authentic facts of life that i lend to you my dear friend.

Old Wine,Older Jokes

‘What if I have a few grey hair strands,
I am still a lot wiser.
What if I take more time to speak,
I am quite more patient.
What if I walk a little slow,
I am far more steadier.’
Minced by an old man he feels wiser, patient and steadier than all of us. In this oldie context there is only one thing that gives me a pause is the ‘AGE’. Two great icons turned into archives with that ‘AGE’ context. Sachin Tendulkar, the world’s greatest batsman has lost his contract as brand ambassador of FMCG PepsiCo. John McCain seems to be losing out against Barack Obama way before the final verdict of the presidential race. Apparently, I don’t see any signs of old age in Sachin though his jet black hair could be misleading courtesy: Garnier or Godrej hair dye, his face shows no wrinkles that could also be misleading courtesy: Botox treatment. Whereas McCain has all the signs forcing to withdraw my evident support. I’m unquestionably not alone; in a university poll of swing states (Florida, Ohio, Pennyslvania) published two weeks back, nearly a quarter of respondents said that his age made it less likely they would vote for him. It wasn’t just the young who had an issue with it, either. More than 20 percent of those 55 and above agreed. So what makes him fall flat in the public face. Surprisingly, he is the culprit for the string of self-deprecating jokes. On ‘Saturday Night Live ‘he joked that we should be looking for someone ‘very, very, very old’ to be the next president. I guess his inspiration lies with the Indian politicians age bracket. It was disconcerting when he flubbed a joke on MTV about ‘being older than dirt’ with ‘more scars than Frankenstein’. It was quite alarming to hear his confession about computer illiteracy in the age of Google, YouTube and MySpace, when jehadis maintain their own websites and the rival candidate is Obama-a Borg-like Internet juggernaut. Perhaps, there is no political botox (Sigh! The stilted grins & blank expressions) in his self-flagellating humour. It’s not good to be too modest that it takes the hell out of you.
Coming to our homeland, Sachin did nothing unlike McCain to prove his age. PepsiCo brand gurus are for ‘Youngistan’ run & Sachin seemingly doesn’t fit in. A price of 4 Crores is too much wherein with the same sum two young goodie players Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma can be roped in. Inflation affects everybody isn’t it! So ‘young’,’youth’ are the new buzzwords. We are awed by the pageants of ‘Young CEOs’,‘Young Entrepreneur’,’ Young politicians’,’Young diplomats’ and of course ‘Young actors’ .The media and society have become more conducive towards the young and perhaps berated the old. All said and done, one must act one’s age & stop talking about it all the time. If you really can’t resist than lauds its merits of wisdom. No witty streak please ;-)

The Undomestic Goddess

Mom: Nidhi, no office today rite?
Me: Hmmm…. Yes Mom No Office today what a relief (Smiles)
Mom: Nidhi, go and make tea for everyone, I am a bit tired today
Me (Sigh): Alrite, Mama (Tread heavily towards the kitchen)
Now, TEA-Making has an interesting backdrop. I, for sure dread going to the kitchen which was quite an implicit fact known to my dear mom. As always, mother knows best and they surely know how to tackle brats like me. You have guests in the form of aunties from the neighboring area, who turn up every time and then like vodafone smses on the cell ‘A time waster with useless suggestions of dating, movie, masti, magic n crap’.You need to treat them with fake smiles and agreeable expressions (Then only are you awarded the title of what-a-nice-daughter maybe!).Turnaround to the testimony my mother furtively made her secret mission and asked me to make a nice cuppa tea n coffee for my what-a-nice-daughter arbitrators. This kind of rigmarole has happened so often that it proved to be win-win-win situation for my title, my mother and of course tea-making.
Me (Served the tea and look at everyone’s face for their verdict to be): How is it Mom?
Mom (Smiles): Good, U certainly make good tea (Getting a Good remark from her surely counts she has all the traits of a Virgo Critic). But I would appreciate if you could learn and manage to cook at least a decent meal for yourself. You should take some interest in the kitchen chores too.
Me: Yes Mom, I’ll try………..
Moms have always something to add on, they are never happy with the child’s current status. She never minced these words earlier because she wanted me to be completely focused on my grad. Studies. But then eventually all this ought to be learnt sooner or later.
I was turning the pages of ‘The Undomestic Goddess’ and Bang! There you go, the story revolves around a girl just like my types with no idea of the household chores .The girl is Samantha Sweeting, 29 year old high profiled lawyer smart, gutsy and a complete workaholic. Her whole journey is a complete joyride from her career in Carter Spink to her mistaken identity of a housekeeper at Geiger’s house and her chick-lit romance with the Geiger’s house-gardener Nathaniel. The author Sophie Kinsella surely knows how to keep her readers charmed. After all the funny accidents in Miss Geiger’s kitchen, her innocence eventually proved in the 50 million pound blunder case, her partnership offered back to her she called it all quits and chose to be’ the housekeeper’. She chose what she wanted the most and found most satisfying. Crazy Isn’t! She was making the biggest mistake of her entire existence. No at all for Samantha---‘If I’ve learned one lesson from all that’s happened to me, it’s that there is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out’.

Inconvenient Truth Unfolds

Geyser for the hot water bath. Toaster popping the crispy toast sandwich for the high-powered energy breakfast. Fans rotating in full speed to respite us from the hot summer of 2008.Rooms all illuminated with the halogens and PL lights for its easier to locate things and give credibility to Edison. Cell phone needs to be kept ringing all day to flaunt the no of friends and business exhibits and charged for the important communication to be. Air conditioner is a necessity for the good night sleep in the unbearable summer warmth. Iron steaming out working over the crease of the shirts for Looks matter and clothes definitely adds to it. Huh! That’s just a quarter of the whole electricity consumption that the billion population across the world makes on a SINGLE DAY. Not surprising at all!
We have other tendencies also .We just don’t switch off our PCs at our workplace; it is such a tedious job of booting the computer. We throw and litter things around and spitting is our contribution towards the red mosaic painting on walls, road, footpath, you name it and there we go. We are so good at nit-picking such as if incidents like the Mumbai Deluge do occur we have a thousand reasons to blame the Municipal Corporation for the poor drainage system and poor infrastructure. We love to experience the heavy downpours, the rising temperatures and shaking and swirling EARTH. Deluge, Floods, Tornados, Tsunamis, Earthquakes we have seen it all. As a matter of fact all are natural disasters so naturally they are bound to happen.
We are quite cool and calm and don’t even waste our time on the petty things of life.
We haven’t even learnt the meaning of consequences so far.
That’s the Inconvenient Truth; we are inhibiting ourselves from facing the truth of Global Warming a problem so severe that it will destroy the flora and fauna of our mother Earth. This is the truth. Face it.
An amazing documentary Inconvenient Truth presented by American Vice-President Al Gore is enlightening and brings to light the grueling and shocking facts of Global Warming. When he points on that blue dot in a satellite picture taken, he said something so stirring-In his exact words: ‘You see that pale, blue dot? That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs all the tragedies, all the wars all the families, all the major advances…….it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake , our ability to live on Planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization .I believe this a moral issue , its your time to cease this issue, its our time to rise again to secure our future. What we take for granted might not be here for our children’. After hearing him there is a gearshift inside you and you say inside ‘Oh my God is that all true!’
Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, what were our parents thinking? Why didn’t they wake up when they had a chance? We have to hear to that question from them , now.

Critics Call:The Class

This is my first book of the year and must say what an apocalyptic experience! The book
‘The Class’ by Eric Segal is not a romantic tale unlike his bestseller ‘Love Story’ nor is it the one discussing societal issue of the rich and the poor class as the name might suggest; its about the Harvard CLASS of 1958.
‘The Class’ is a powerful and moving saga of five extraordinary members of Class’58. Its about their journey of twenty five years which culminates with their alma-mater 25th REUNION at which they confront each other and the balance sheet of their lives. Daniel Rossi, Jason Gilbert, Theodore Lambros, Andrew Eliot and George Keller are the heroes of this story. Each guy from a different background and each had a different story to foretell but what stands in common is Harvard-the symbol of who they are and who they will be. If you are not the son of Harvard this is what one gets to hear-
‘There must be……some possible background in reason for one’s boiling over with joy that one is a son of Harvard, and was not by some unspeakably horrible accident of birth, predestined to graduate at Yale or Cornell’.
Its about the revelation of life that unfolds with the college years.
‘We took the world as given. Cigarettes

Were twenty several cents a pack, and gas

As much per gallon. Sex came wrapped in rubber

And veiled in supernatural scruples-call
Them chivalry
Psychology was in the mind; abstract
Things grabbed us where we lived; the my life
Worth living was the private life and- least
Worth scandal in this characterization-
We did not know we were a generation’
Each protagonist had something to share with its readers in terms of the realties of life. Eric Segal has portrayed in a remarkable way what it is like to be a ‘Harvardian’. He writes that the guys out there have such uncanny confidence, self assurance emanated from these dignitaries like a halo- whether they were discussing metaphysics or the merits of a new instructor’s wife. The guys have the ability to love themselves and treasure their own intellects. There are some fillers as to the lingo used in the college; the secret word that is the key to making good at Harvard: bullshit. With tongue-in-cheek remarks as to greater the opportunity for tossing the verbiage like so much salad(unimpeded by the need for such trivia as facts) the more likely the course would be a snap. To let the cat out of the bag , tell you the Harvard guys may not be that great at essay writing they have a secret recipe for it. Pad paragraphs with useful phrases such as ‘From a theoretical point of view’ or ‘upon first inspection we may seem to discern a certain attitude which may well survive even closer scrutiny’. The entry of the freshmen was animatedly described as ‘They glanced at one another like tigers taking measure of a menancing new rival. But in this kind of jungle you could never be sure where the real danger lurked’.
The author dynamically puts the fact that everybody pays a price for his success. Though you may learn a lot of things from such paradise symbolic places but ‘How to be happy’ that’s one thing that even Harvard can’t teach you. You may have a talent for success maybe and maybe no talent for friendship , such cold selfish nature can cripple you in the years to come.
Definitely a first class entertainment for all those seeking success (who doesn’t!) and that too from pride places like Harvard (could be IIMs here)
Leave with this quintessential message of the Odyssey
‘ The imperfections of the human state are outweighed by the glory of human love…..’

Dis(This)Ability

Well, This is about the most self-satisfying experience of my life lived so far………..
How do you react seeing the children on the traffic light area selling articles?
How do you react to a child polishing shoes-giving it a nice shine where as his future looks dim?
How do you react to children in a bad state singing and begging in the local trains?
AND how do you react to those little angels who were not born as normal kids and have to live with those abnormalities such as mental retard ness, hearing-impairness or low vision throughout their lifetime?
You pity on them, you are taken aback with this harsh reality, Ok!then people what are you doing about it?
Well I was always like this; I used to talk and brag about the state of these children with family and friends but never did something about it. We all like to comment and criticize things but never ever have we tried to set the example or be the CHANGE we want to see in the world. But this time around it’s a different story from my side, my colleague and good friend suggested me about Indian Council of Mental Health (ICMH) and told me to go ahead, find about it and make a decision. I got in touch with Manisha, trustee of ICMH Mulund School and she told me all about her school and the special children they cater to. ICMH has two schools setup in Mulund and Nerul for the mentally challenged and hearing impaired children. It is a partner-NGO of GiveWorld Organization based in US. Well we decided why not share this my entire project team, to my surprise with my friends help we could make a big contribution of 15K towards the Mulund School. All my gratitude to the team who supported me. One doesn’t get an emotional connectivity Unless one sees with one’s own eyes and I didn’t want to lose on that.
My friend and I attended the school’s first ever cultural program, its annual function on 9th Feb. Seeing the spirit of the children and the immense efforts of all the teachers guiding them, encouraging them was all worth taking in our stride. Imagine the state of the parents when they are told that their newborn is born with abnormalities and their state is even worsened by our very own society who considers it as a social stigma and talk about bad karma. How insensitive can we get to such facts and I feel it’s the generation of our times who can really bring about a change in our outlook towards these children with special needs. I plan to visit their school soon and share even more……..
But next time I look at them, things are going to be definitely different !!

Namesake.

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
-Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ‘What’s in a name?’ has become quite an adage for our times. But honestly, who would like to be called by some other name as Mr. and Miss so & so. As a matter of fact, everyone who belongs to this world works towards success to make his or her NAME in the world. If the NAME gives u an identity, I surely would have lot of problems in not having one or being addressed by some other weird name. Truly, author Lahiri and Mira Nair too realized it with her book and movie ’Namesake’.
When a child is born a special name ceremony is kept and from that very day he is entitled with that identity. Our politicians are too not sparing us from displaying our identity in the capital city, without which u could be suspected and can get screwed up jus like Dr. Haneef in Australia. For me, everything is in our name, would OBAMA, the candidate giving a wild chase to Hillary Clinton would like to addressed as OSAMA. Never.
It was quite interesting to find the root meaning of my name ’NIDHI’ the other day. According to the Hindu mythology, Nidhi is a treasure constituted of nine treasures [navanidhi-that’s quite a lot of wealth ;-)] belonging to Kubera, the god of wealth. According to the tradition, each Nidhi is personified as having a guardian spirit, and some tantrikas worship them. The nature and characteristics of nidhis have remained largely unexplained and have not been fully understood.
So its no use in putting efforts in understanding me- I stand misunderstood!!! And mind you that I stand for precisely my name-Nidhi. Shakespeare defied.