Interesting Convocation Speech by Ajit Balakrishnan

Let me start by telling you a modern tale: Five private equity funds get together to buy a large international steel company. The seller states his price: he wants half the money that the first fund has plus all the money the other four have. He gives them other alternatives as well: he will sell his company for a third of the second fund plus all the money of the others, or a fourth of the third fund plus all that of the others, and so on.

The question is: what is the price the seller wants for the steel company and what size fund does each private equity player have?

Those of you who are mathematically inclined will recognize the problem as one of solving a set of indeterminate equations.

Those of you who are students of history will recognize this as one of the many problems from the Bakshali Manuscript This manuscript, written on pieces of birch bark, was found by a peasant in 1881 in a village called Bakshali near Peshawar. It is written in a language that was a precursor to Sanskrit and has been dated as from between the 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD

In the Bakshali manuscript, it was five merchants who set out to buy a jewel and not five private equity funds to buy a steel company. But otherwise, the formulation of the problem and the method of finding the answer is the same.

I can see from your faces that you are all eager to go on to the real world of business. I want you to remember that the Bakshali manuscript serves as reminder of the great intellectual tradition you come from.

In 1971, I remember waiting in cap and gown, like you wait today, eager to receive my diploma and set forth to conquer the world. It was on a day much like today, the romantic Calcutta winter had receded into memory but the dog days of May had not yet set in. But it was different in other ways. There was the sound of guns outside, some from a distance, some from quite close. They served as a humbling reminder that though we were armed with the latest tools of operations research and psychology, there were fellow citizens outside fighting more basic battles. It was the peak of the Naxalite uprising. The government, desperate to find a solution, called an Election. The usual election officers, the state and central government employees were wary of volunteering so they called for students. I was eager to contribute to a solution to the strife and volunteered for election duty.

Thus I found myself, Sonagatchi, the red light district of Calcutta, soon after graduation assigned the job of marking indelible ink on the fingers of voters while guns went off all around us

This is why I have boasted for years that I have held hands with most of the sex workers of Calcutta.

As I stand here today it is quiet outside. The social battles of the 1970’s seem so far away and quaint.

What is different in today’s India compared to when I graduated in 1971? I suppose the e big difference is that the world’s macro economic factors have swung India’s way.

It started with the Western world’s information technology industries developing in the 1990’s an insatiable demand for low cost English speaking manpower to convert billions of lines of computer code that had been patched together in the early days of the computer industry. India luckily had large numbers of such programmers idling because Indian trade unions at that time would not allow computers to be introduced Smart entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to ship these programmers abroad and moved on from there to build IT services companies that are now the envy of the world

This labour cost arbitrage opportunity has continued. Western financial service, health care and customer service industries have started a transition from a craft mode to an industrial mode. During this transition, they need a large supply of reasonable skilled, low cost, English-knowing workers. Low telecom costs have made it possible to serve this need long-distance from India When that transition is complete the arbitrage opportunity will disappear but that is still some time away

A second fortuitous wave that is propelling India farther forward- the tremendous liquidity surplus in the world. Capital today is gushing out and finding its way to Indian equity markets, into real estate, into almost anything that you can name.

But big questions stare us in the face and yours is the generation that will have to find the answers to these questions.

What if the rupee that today trades at about Rs 45 to a dollar goes to Rs 20 or even Rs 10 per dollar in the next decade?

What if the current excess liquidity situation in the world tightens and capital becomes risk averse and expensive ?

What if millions of our countrymen say we too want to be part of this Shining India that is currently available only to the sons and daughters of people already in the middle class .

Remember, one day, one of you will be invited to make a Convocation Speech just as I have been invited today. If it takes the same time it took me to be invited, it will be the year 2040.

By that date, some say , India’s GDP in US$ terms will exceed not only the European countries and Japan but also perhaps the United States.

But what these reports also say, and this part is often overlooked, is that in 2040, , India’s per capita GDP will be just 15% of that of the United States and a third of that of even Russia.

Another way of putting it is that even thirty five years from now, the average Indian will earn just Rs 5000 a month. On this income he will have to feed and educate his children, look after their healthcare needs, afford entertainment and life insurance. This means he must have a place to stay with clean water supply at say Rs 200 per month , un-interrupted electric power perhaps at 50 paisa per unit at the consumer level, medical insurance at say Rs 10 per person per month and Life insurance perhaps at Rs 5 per person per month.

If we have to achieve this we need to convert our economy to one that has the lowest transaction and transformation costs in the world.

These seem impossible targets to achieve using the current management methods and present economic institutions. We need to devise new paradigms that achieve these targets without any subsidies, and one that allows businesses that provide these services excellent returns on their capital.

In finding answers to such challenges, in the past, all of us in Indian management have borrowed paradigms from the west and force-fitted them into the Indian situation.

For example, we often hear calls for reducing “labour rigidity” in India. Every such call should remind us that we are trying to force fit Henry Ford mass manufacturing system to India. We forget that this paradigm assumes a social system in which business cycle down-turns can be dealt with by lay offs and production cuts. It assumes both a labour shortage economy where people who are laid off quickly find jobs and a social security system that pays you for the time in between jobs.

Similarly, when people cry to “improve quality” as a panacea for competitiveness problems ,they forget that the Six Sigma Quality paradigm was developed by Deming in the context of the 1960’s Japanese consumer electronics boom It works very well in industries like electronics and auto where efficient assembly is the key to success. Transplant it to creative software product development, for example, and it becomes merely a marketing gimmick and makes little difference to results

Finally, a third example, the much admired US National System of Innovation as it applies to the healthcare industry. We forget that it assumes a State that lays out vast amounts of money in research, allows private companies and individuals to own the patents that rise out of this research, employers who bear the cost of the resultant high-priced health care system. US companies in the older industries find themselves in an impossible situation today and American business and political leaders are desperately trying to find a way out of this debilitating system.

In a few years many of you will head large corporations and will be responsible for producing the vast array of products and service that our fellow country men will need. Others among you will hopefully join academics and contribute to theory. Whatever you do, please remember the inheritance you carry within you and the obligation that you owe to your less fortunate countrymen.

Please remember that each management paradigm has its societal context and cannot be that easily borrowed. Original management paradigms to address the Indian challenges have to be developed and it is your generation that will have to do that.

Be inspired by the early examples that demonstrate such a possibility:
The Aravind Eye Care System that treats over 1.4 million patients each year, two-thirds of them – or almost a million patients – for free is often cited as an example. They apparently succeed because they have improved surgical practice and invented low-cost eye implants

If you succeed in doing this you will release a tsunami-like demand that will not only create jobs for the millions coming on to the job market but also allow them to live a fulfilled life in which life’s necessities are within their reach.

If you succeed, Indian managers and management theory would have made its own unique contribution to the world and you will personally have lived a worthwhile life.

Our ancestors have been doing cleverer things and for very long. The Bakshali Manuscript is evidence of this.

If you occasionally wonder whether this immense task is within your talent, remind yourselves that you come from ancestors that created the Bakshali Manuscript. If you ever doubt the power of ideas to transform the world, be inspired by the Bakshali Manuscript- it’s written on crude birch bark, the language in which it is written has been long extinct, but the power of its methods is relevant even today.

Thank you very much for inviting me today - I wish you all a very successful management career.

India - the ant and the grasshopper story!

OLD VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha
Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising
Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services. The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden'

Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly. Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley. 100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ... As a result loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing country...... Can any one dare to bring India out of this clutches...

Award winning cartoons

Suicide Scenario
Leader
LOC (Drawing lines, trapping free birds)
Terrorism (That is the flag of peace)
Humanity (Modern)
Population

Poverty
Environment

Some facts about the greatest investor of 20th century

At only six years old, Buffett purchased 6-packs of Coca Cola from his grandfather' s grocery store for twenty five cents and resold each of the bottles for a nickel, pocketing a five cent profit. While other children his age were playing hopscotch and jacks, Warren was making money.

1. He was the son of a stock broker and made his first stock purchase at the age of 11 buying 3 shares of cities services for $38 per share for himself and his older sister Doris.Shortly after buying the stock it fell to just over $27 per share.A frightened but resilient Warren held his shares until they rebounded to $40. He promptly sold them - a mistake he would soon come to regret. Cities Service shot up to $200. The experience taught him to invest in good companies for long term.

2. At the age of 13 in 1943 he filed his first income tax return deducting his bicycle as a work expense.

3. At the age of 14 he spent $1200 he saved from delivering newspapers to buy 40 acres of
farmland which he then rented to tenant farmers.

4. At the age of 15 he and one of his friend spent $25 to purchase a second hand pinball machine,
which they placed in a barber shop.within months they owned three machines in different locations.
At the age of 17 he passed high school he had then a personal savings of $5000 from delivering news papers. He never wanted to go to college.

His father had other plans, and urged his son to attend the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. Buffett stayed two years, complaining that he knew more than his professors,he managed to graduate in only three years. Warren Buffett approached graduate studies with the same resistance he displayed a few years earlier. He was finally persuaded to apply to Harvard Business School, which, in the worst admission decision in history, rejected him as "too young".

5. 1950: (20 years old)
Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business school after learning that Benjamin Graham and David Dodd two well-known securities analysts, taught there.
He obtained a Master's degree in economics in 1951 at Columbia Business school , studying under Benjamin Graham, alongside other future value investors including Walter Schloss and Irving Kahn. Another influence on Buffett's investment philosophy was the well known investor and writer Philip Fisher. After receiving the only A+ Benjamin Graham ever handed out to a student in his security analysis class, Buffett wanted to work at Graham-Newman but was initially turned down. He went to work at his father's brokerage as a salesman.

6. 1951: (21 years old)
Buffett discovered Graham was on the Board of GEICO insurance at the time. After taking a train to Washington, D.C. on a Saturday, Buffett knocked on the door of GEICO's headquarters until a janitor allowed him in. There, he met Lorimer Davidson, the Vice President, who was to become a lasting influence on him and life-long friend.
Buffett graduated and wanted to work on Wall street. Buffett offered to work for Graham for free but Graham refused. He purchased a Texaco gas station as a side investment, but that venture did not work out as well as he had hoped. Meanwhile, he worked as a stockbroker. During that time, Buffett also took a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach a night class at the University of Nebraska, "Investment Principles." The average age of the students he taught was more than twice his own.

7. 1954: (24 years old)
Benjamin Graham offered him a job at his partnership at a starting salary of $12,000 a year. Here, he worked closely with Walter Schloss.

8. 1956: (26 years old)
Graham retired and folded up his partnership. Since leaving college six years earlier, Buffett's personal savings grew from $9,800 to over $140,000. Returned home to Omaha and created Buffett Associates, Ltd., an investment partnership.

9. Buffett established Buffett Associates, Ltd., his first investment partnership in 1956. It was financed by $100 from Buffett, the general partner, and $105,000 from seven limited partners consisting of Buffett's family and friends.
Buffett created several additional partnerships which were later consolidated as Buffett Partnership Limited. He ran the partnerships out of his bedroom, adhering closely to Graham's investment approach and compensation structure. These investments made in excess of 30% compounded annually between 1956 to 1969, in a market where 7% to 11% was the norm.

Buffett employed a three-pronged approach:
Generals: undervalued securities that possess margin of safety and meet expected return-to-risk characteristics
Arbitrages: company events that are not related to broader market changes, such as mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, etc.
Controls: build sizeable holdings, ally with other shareholders or employ proxies to effect changes in companies

10. 1959: (29 years old)
Buffett was introduced to Charlie Munger, the man who would eventually become the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and an integral part of the company's success. The two got along immediately.

11. 1962: (32 years old)
Buffett discovered a textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway, that was selling for under $8 per share.(below its working capital) Through his partnership, Buffett eventually purchased 49% of the outstanding shares.
At the time,Charlie Munger, Berkshire's current Vice Chairman, remarked that purchasing the company was a mistake, due to the failure of the textile industry. Berkshire, however, became one of the largest holding companies in the world, as Buffett redirected the company's excess cash to acquire private businesses and stocks of public companies. At the core of his strategy were insurance companies, due to the large cash reserves ("float") they must keep on hand to pay out future claims. Essentially, the insurer does not own the float, but may invest it and keep any proceeds.

12. 1965: (35 years old)
Took control of Berkshire Hathaway at the board meeting and named a new President, Ken Chace, to run the company.

13. 1967: (37 years old)
Berkshire paid out its first and only dividend of 10 cents.

14. 1973: (43 years old)
Berkshire began to acquire stock in the Washington Post Company.

15. 1979: (49 years old)
Berkshire began to acquire stock in ABC. Trading at $290 per share, Buffett's net worth neared $140 million. However, he lived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year.
Berkshire began the year trading at $775 per share, and ended at $1,310. Buffett's net worth reached $620 million, placing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time.

16. 1988: (58 years old)
Buffett began buying stock in Coca-Cola company, eventually purchasing up to 7 percent of the company for $1.02 billion. It would turn out to be one of Berkshire's most lucrative investments, and one which it still holds.

17. 2002: (72 years old)
Buffett entered in $11 billion worth of forward contracts to deliver US dollars against other currencies. By April 2006, his total gain on these contracts was over $2 billion.

18. 2006: (76 years old)
Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $44 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

19. He never invests in technology stocks and internet stocks not even in MICROSOFT
his logic is he dont invest in companies where he can not forsee the balancesheet
after 20 years.

20. Management style
Buffett views himself as a capital allocator above anything else. His primary responsibility is to allocate capital to businesses with good economics and keep their existing management to lead the company.
When Buffett acquires a controlling interest in a business, he makes clear to the owner the following:
He will not interfere with the running of the company.
He will be responsible for hiring and setting the compensation of the top executive.
Capital allocated to the business will have a price tag (a hurdle rate) attached. This process is to motivate owners to send excess capital that does not return more than its cost to Berkshire headquarters rather than investing it at low returns. This cash is then free to be invested in opportunities that offer higher returns.

21. KEY FACTORS IN HIS INVESTMENT APPROACH

A. Sector, Brand loyalty for the company, can any company with abundance of
resources compete successfully with the company.
B. cash flows of the company to repay debt when the earnings are below average.
C. the business should not have high maintenance cost of operations.
D. is the company free to adjust prices for inflation.
E. does the company retain earnings for growth.


HIS FAMOUS QUOTES

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
Our favorite holding period is forever.

----------------------------------

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

3. He still lives in the same small 3 bedroom house in mid-town Omaha that he bought after he got married 50 years ago.

4. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.

5. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

6. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

7. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.

8. He has given his CEO's only two rules. *Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.*

9. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch television.

10. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

11. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.

12. His advice to young people: *Stay away from credit cards* and invest in yourself.

Computer Language redefined ...

# Local variable

Mein pal do pal ka shayar hoon,
pal do pal meri kahani hai
pal do pal meri hasti hai..

# Global variable

Main har ik pal ka shayar hoon
har ik pal meri kahani hai
har ik pal meri hasti hai

# Null pointers

Mera jeevan kora kagaz
kora hi reh gaya.

# Dangling pointers

Maut bhi aati nahi
jaan bhi jati nahin.

# Goto

Ajeeb dastan hai yeh
Kahan shuru kahan khatam
Ye manzilen hain kaun si
Na woh samajh sake na hum

# Two Recursive functions calling each other

Mujhe kuchh kehna hein
mujhe bhi kuchh kehna hein
Pehle tum, pehle tum.

# The debugger

Jab koi baat bigad jaye
Jab koi mushkil pad jaye
Tum dena saath mera hamnawaz.

# From VC++ to VB

Yeh haseen vaadiyan
Yeh khula asmaan
Aa gaye hum kahan.

# Untrackable bug

Aye ajnabi, tu bhi kabhi, awaaz de kahin se.

# Unexpected bug (espl. during presentation to client)

Ye kya hua, Kaise hua, Kab hua, Kyon hua.

# Load Balancing

Saathi haath badhana
ek akela thak jayega
mil kar bojh uthana

# Modem ( modem talk on a busy connection)

suno - kaho,
kaha - suna,
kuch hua kya?
abhee to nahin..

# Windows getting open sourced

Parde mein rahne do parda na uthao
parda jo uth gaya to bhed khul jayeha

Long Live Bachelors

Almost everybody in our group (at work) is either already married or ready to get married. In this scenario there are talks that the productivity of the group would touch new lows in the not too distant future. People are trying to dissuade others from marrying with some quotes, which go as ...

Long live Bachelors
Every man should get married some time; after all,happiness is not the
Only thing in life !!

Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.
--Oscar Wilde

Don't marry for money; you can borrow it cheaper.
--Scottish Proverb

I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years.
--Sam Kinison

Men have a better time than women; for one thing, they marry later; for another thing, they die earlier.
--H. L. Mencken

When a newly married couple smiles, everyone knows why. When a ten-year married couple smiles, everyone
wonders why.

When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing: either the car is new or the wife.

I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back to home always.
--Anonymous

I asked my wife, "Where do you want to go for our anniversary?" She said,"Somewhere I h! ave never been!" I told her,
"How about the kitchen?"
--Anonymous

We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
--Anonymous

She got a mudpack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.

--Anonymous


She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, "Am I too late for the garbage?"
Following her down the street I yelled, "No, jump in."

--Anonymous


Badd Teddy recently explained to me why he refuses to get to married.
He says "the wedding rings look like minature handcuffs....."
-Anonymous


If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife yelling at the frontdoor, who do you let in first?
The Dog of course... at least he'll shut up after u let him in!

--Anonymous

Subject is not always essential

• The division of the sale price of a litre of petrol and diesel in Delhi, India. All prices in Indian Rupees

Petrol Diesel

Price/litre 47.50 32.46

Basic (Crude, refining 23.38 22.98

and custom duty)

Surcharge (State surcharge, 00.21 00.18

NRF, Shunting charges, RPO etc.)

Excise duty (Basic, cess and 15.17 05.20

Additional excise duty etc.)

Sales Tax (Cess, Additional tax, 07.74 03.54

Surcharge, state development tax)

Dealer commission + Sales turnover tax 01.00 00.56

The effect of taxes on the prices can be seen from above. The prices of petrol in Mumbai, India were increased by around Rs 4 some time back. After some protests again such a steep hike, the state government agreed to waive its part of the tax, but only on the one which I would have received due to the price hike. Even this caused the price to come by Rs 1.65.

• Telecom Italia, an Italian telecom company has started a call centre for itself in a rather unusual place. It has employed people accused of various crimes who are serving their terms in jail and has started a call centre in jail. Now, this is a model which can be replicated but with some caution. This is definitely good for the jail inmates who have some worthwhile job to be done. On the face of it, the advantages for the company outweigh the initial constraints and some disadvantages. However, it needs to be ensured that the system does not become a tool for the proliferation of crime in any way.

• As one moves higher in the hierarchy of a company, the work one does sometimes seems too simple for the kind of paychecks and perks it accompanies. I recently heard that the job of someone who has around 5 years experience in a FMCG company of India (and who has risen to a particular level) consists of things like: 1. When people of his company come to him with a new soap to be launched, he looks at the new product and uses his full intellectual capability to come to the conclusion that the colour of the soap should remain pink (as is now) but of a lighter shade. 2. When people of his company ask him how can the sales of their company’s toothpaste can be increased, his experience comes into play and he suggests them to increase the size of the mouth of the toothpaste tube. This would lead to greater consumption, as whenever their customer uses the tube, more of paste would be squeezed out.

• An insurance firm in India was offering education plans. As part of their ad campaign they came up with hoardings which enumerated the steps in education. There were various versions, each depicting different logical paths followed by students in their education. So, there was one which said: 10+2 --> MBBS --> MD, which seemed conventional. However, there was another which had: 10+2 --> IIT --> MBA. At first sight, I found it to rather faulty, the assumption is that after studying from IIT, students would not want to tread the path of management education and would go into something more research oriented like MS, PHD. However, the hoarding was quite contemporary and took into account the fact that the above presumption is no longer true. These days, more and more IITians want to do an MBA or get themselves jobs at consultancy firms or investment banks rather than get into research. Even the people getting into core technology jobs prefer these jobs to be in firms like investment banks so that they might get an opportunity to switch to a more of a finance job. The insurance firm also had a hoarding version which went: 10+2 --> Engineering --> M.Tech. This only meant that IITians are not considered engineers (greater or lesser?).

• I have written about how mobiles are proliferating in countries like India. However, can you find those people who started these all in your city. I am talking about those original users who took to the mobile even when the rates were as high as Rs 16/min (incoming and outgoing; rates now at max of Rs 1/min for outgoing, with free incoming). These are the people whose numbers go as 98100…, 98200…, since these number series were the ones introduced initially. However, if these people would be the ones having the highest amount of the mobile bills is debatable (and even verfiable).

Discussion and more

I was talking to someone and he shared with me one of the principles which were told to him by his professor at his college. The professor said that consider a company with a president and some vice-presidents. Then if a situation comes where the company has to select a new president from among the vice-presidents, the one who would be selected would, more often than not, be the one who is in charge of Finance department. The person who told me this gave a few examples where he himself has experienced the same. Even I had observed this in some cases in the corporate world, where a retiring CEO is replaced by the existing CFO e.g. Indra Nooyi becoming CEO of Pepsi from CFO.

One of the reasons for this is that working in the Finance department makes you knowledgeable of a large variety of issues concerning the company. Every employee of the company is affected by different departments of the company to different degrees. But most of these are indirect. What happens at the company’s marketing department, the production department etc. is important but only at a macro level. Also, the involvement is minimal.

But when it comes to the Finance department, it is a different story. Firstly, the connection comes every month (in fact, saying every minute would not be an exaggeration) from the pay packet, the sole reason for people working. (If you disagree, and are ready to give a list of the reasons, apart from compensation, why you work then; ask yourself, what would you do if I give you say $50 million; would you still be doing your job?). Next, finance is at the core of everything. You have a worthy project in mind, you are confident of its success etc. but one of the first things you ought to do is to prepare a plan keeping in mind, what the management will feel about the revenue generation as well as the costs associated; whether the finance people have enough funds at their disposal; how can I put across to the people who would fund this, in a manner in which they understand what I am planning and why they should release their money.

The fact that you ensure that the finance people understand everything reiterates the fact that they become more and more knowledgeable. Also, as funds have to be sanctioned by the Finance department, irrespective of the department concerned with the project, everyone has to make contact with the finance people sometime or the other. And as such, the finance guys (I have recently realized that guys has become so common a term to address, that even a group of females is being referred to as guys; maybe this is because females keep on saying that they are in no way inferior to males) know everyone and everyone knows the people in finance. This makes them the default choice for the top position.

One other unrelated thing. There’s a conception that parents always consider their children as kids, irrespective of the age (physical or mental) of the children. The person I was talking to gave another remarkable insight. He says parents do not feel that they have no longer remained modern. This is due to the fact that they have always been “more modern” in their teens, when they saw themselves with their own parents. Now, they cannot somehow digest that their children are a few steps ahead of them.

One other thing he mentioned was that we should always remember the people with whom we shared some kind of relationship; wherein, it was not necessary for these people to behave in a manner which would be beneficial to us, but they did. Suddenly, what came to my mind was my stay at IIT. Though I can write the book with the most number of pages on this, I will cut it short to about one post. At IIT Delhi, I had been assigned a particular hostel, J but I started staying at my local guardian’s place, and so I no longer had any hostel room allocated for me.

Though there were not many close friends, I had formed a kind of group (now, incorporated in the bigger group called ‘bpappu’©) with fellow students of my department who were staying in one particular hostel, S. Initially, my contact with them was limited to the academic area and had not extended to their hostel rooms. It was not long from the time that I first went to their rooms, that I became an integral part (at least I see it as such) of the group and the hostel at large. People of other hostels at IIT started assuming (and still do) that I originally belong to hostel S. When someone asked about my hostel, I started to say ‘hostel S’. However, when someone asked my room number, the answer was not that apparent. Not giving the room number was also not an option (in that case, I would have to tell them the entire story). So, I started giving them room numbers of any one of the group members.

Some specific mentions are essential. Mr. KS has been very instrumental in my incorporation in the group. With nowhere else to go, I used to stay at his room for most part of the day; when we did not had classes or when we wanted to think that there were none; when I wanted to just vile my time; and even when I had some motivation to work. In short, if I was not in a lecture I was at his place. Initially, I used to think that he would not be comfortable with my staying in his room, but his sheer adjusting nature left me dumbstruck. I still feel that if I had been in his place, I would not have such an understanding behaviour. He never said ‘no’ to my proposal to watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S, regardless of whatever his plans were and the time the proposal came.

Mr. RKM, Mr. AR were the people with whom I spent my nights. Now, before, you start jumping to conclusions, I mean these are the people in whose rooms I used to sleep at night. There was a single bed in their room so one had to sleep on the ground. However, unlike what normally would happen elsewhere, these two did not mind sleeping on the ground, if they saw that I had already fallen asleep on the bed. If the times we slept did not overlap entirely, they took care that I was not disturbed by their (and for that matter, anyone else’s) movements in the room. On the other hand, I was not that sensitive to their sleep and did not give the same kind of treatment (which they, surprisingly, never complained of.

Mr. NJ was the kind of person who would do anything for a friend. Though a nocturnal creature and sometimes hard to meet for a few days, yet, when in times of need, he was always the first to reach. He was the first to offer to give me a duplicate key to his room. The feeling was as if it was my own room. It made my life very easy as otherwise I always had to search for some hostelite (so that I do not find all rooms locked) before I can think of going to the hostel.

Though there are many others which require a mention, it is because of my laziness that I am ending here. Hope they will overlook my offense.

Letters from London - Zeroth

I reached London on the 9th of September, on a day when the climate was ready with a warm welcome. Now, almost half way through my stay, it has not given me any reason to complain. Though I can make this a long post by mentioning all the details of my travel, there is something more than the characteristics of my travel, which I would like to share; things which are so much different than in India.

One thing which I had heard from almost everybody who had been to a place outside India is the degree of cleanliness they experienced in the foreign land. Though I always believe that we ourselves are responsible for the untidiness we observe in India, but I leave that topic for a different post. What I will say though is that the information was indeed right. The scene on the roads was pretty different. The buildings, the shops, the roads, the traffic, everything was different. Yet, there was kind of a lack of awe which I had somewhere subconsciously expected. May be it was because it was me and any other person would not be writing this.

The amount of Asians you encounter is quite remarkable. For that matter the number of people who are not speaking English is also remarkable, atleast for a city like London, the capital of England. This only reiterates the cosmopolitan demographics of the city and that it can be said to be a land of the inhabitants. Even in my office, I encounter people of many many different nationalities. The Asians however are one class I can easily identify and hence admire their volume. This weekend I went to a place near West Ham, which is such that you definitely cannot distinguish from a place in Asia, if you just look around at the people and the shops. There were shops selling sarees, sweets (which is rare in this part of the world) and even freshly prepared sugar cane juice; shops playing Bollywood music (and for that matter, Himesh Reshammiya); gurudwara; temple and most importantly not a single non-Asian. It was kind of a small Indian subcontinent within London.

Some things, which I encountered in the city, I found remarkable. One is the amount of information provided; you normally do not have to ask anyone for directions. There are signs and directions everywhere and even a first time visitor can easily come to terms with the city, in that aspect. The railway, or the underground/tube, system and network is incredible. There are various lines or routes that are available. You can reach from any end of the city to another using these; though you might have to change trains/lines. Add to that a reasonably good bus transport which hardly leaves any place you will have to walk.

And finally a well integrated system of public transport with a single card (known as Oyster) which could be used for both buses any kind of line you want to travel. There are regular announcements in the trains as well as on platforms giving relevant up to date information about the services. Entire city is divided into zones and the tickets are based on zones rather than particular places. For a traveler like me, a good option is to buy a travelcard (available on the Oyster) for a week (or whatever time you plan to stay) of the zones you would be traveling the most and then travel as many times as you like. A top-up on the card would be helpful if you want to travel in other zones.

The people in general are nice. Though there is an initial reluctance to talk to them, yet whenever you come in contact with someone, the reluctance is rendered without any basis. In general, what I found myself doing was to put every person I saw (non-Asians) into categories or characters. These categories and characters were those which I had encountered earlier with my virtual interaction through Hollywood films, watching television etc. And some of the people fitted in the categories very well due to different reasons ranging from their attire to their looks.

Also, though I had seen the fairer sex to be obsessed with makeup, I found it to a larger extent here with females carrying all their tools in their handbags and using these whenever they had times available to themselves, like while sitting in the train. One widespread thing that people do in the train is reading. If its morning, we have people with their newspapers (many of which are available for free). Otherwise they do not forget to carry a book to utilize their time.

Vegetarians can come across some problems with the food, but I found these much below what I had expected. In general, almost everything is available in a form which is ready to be eaten (no surprises there!). And a feeling of independence (I do not want to comment, if this is good or bad) already creeps in when you are buying things alone from a superstore; things which you had never purchased earlier yourself.

I met some of my mates from my alma mater here on the weekend. They had been staying in London for the past month. They have started handling their daily homely chores rather well, and I sometimes feel if I would have been able to do so myself.

One thing that this trip has reiterated within me is my desire to stay in my own country. I just cannot find the incentive which would compel me to setup a base outside India.

What do you know of the world's oldest profession?

Up to now, when someone referred to the term ‘the oldest profession’, I interpreted it as you would do. For, by now I had come to know what, the user of the phrase, wanted me to understand. But, recently I came across another article which claims to challenge this. It says that ‘commodities trading’ is the one which should be holding the title. The title goes as:

“The idea of a commodity future in the true sense is not an invention of the 19th and 20th centuries but goes back over two thousand years. One of the earliest recorded types of commodity derivative was in options. Around 500 BC, a copper mining industry developed in the Mediterranean. When Phoenician traders had guaranteed a sale of material, space was limited on board the Greek ships to deliver their goods. To avoid this problem and put themselves in a position to trade, the Phoenicians bought options on vessel space to guarantee their business, at the same time allowing them to fix the price the customer would pay for the copper.”

A look at the Wikipedia entry for prostitution gives:

“Prostitution is often described as "the world's oldest profession." It has been thought prostitution (at least in the modern sense) cannot have emerged before the emergence of money, which can only have taken place after the emergence of several trades, and it has been claimed that midwifery, or perhaps gardening or teaching, are really the world's oldest professions. However, prostitution in exchange for goods or services may have been common for many thousands of years and may date to early man. Additionally, prostitution has been noted in Bonobo chimpanzee behavior based around access to food and gifts of food, and in penguins in regard to access for suitable stones for nest building. Until the age of industrialization the world was basically agrarian, so goods and services were most often obtained by barter.”

I think the claim makes sense, at least for the case of humans. If the concept of prostitution to be the oldest profession is based on the assumption that it may had been used for exchange of goods, the exchange (or trade) of these commodities were taking place. In addition, commodities were considered to be kind of important, as people were virtually agreeing to do anything for this. So, the concept of ‘commodities trading’ has to be born before the so called ‘the world's oldest profession’.

Long time no C (mostly perl and java)

For a long time the only one speaking on this blog was probably Silence. Yes silence speaks... learnt that recently from some reliable source.

Anyways, since the last time I posted (that would be long long ago, when there was a king...) , things have changed drastically. I got employed and relocated to hyderabad. Its almost two months now and I have sort of settled. Till now I am satisfied with the work I do and the work I don't do here.

So today my friend Mr. SS (also a contributor to this blog) sent me this. If you have seen the Matrix trilogy and your thoughts did not wander on similar lines, you must now consider watching only Karan Johar + Shahrukh "cult" movies, because you were easy meat (rather batteries) for the machines. Yes you are mere power resources.
I can go on and on on this topic, but I choose not to, reason being going on and on sounds like the job of Amaron batteries, and it would be amusingly ironical to do that after calling most of you easy batteries.

Moving on... the title of this post should give an idea about the work I do here. Although it may sound as a plain old coding job, but we have to have some knowledge about the financial world that our codes deal with and hence we are not totally like the "techies".

The first month we joined here was spent in training and apart from perl and java and some other technical stuff, we enjoyed foozeball to the extent of breaking down one of the two tables and one of my two thumbs... Now our cricket team has got active and I am really excited about that. Heard there is an intra company match this weekend and some corporate tournament starts the weekend after that.

Well I'll try to keep posting here and hope other contributors too start doing so more frequently.

Friday evening stock market report

As I mentioned, I have joined an investment bank. So, my posts have got to be influenced by what I do (or at least am trying to do). This post is the first in what would probably be a long series of posts related to things I do. But I would definitely try to keep it on the lighter side rather than giving you something, you are not expected to comprehend. Below was a Friday evening stock market report. (Courtesy: one of my team members)

Stock market report

Today's Stock Market Report:

Helium was up, feathers were down.

Paper was stationary.

Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading.

Knives were up sharply.

Cows steered into a bull market.

Pencils lost a few points.

Hiking equipment was trailing.

Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline.

Weights were up in heavy trading.

Light switches were off.

Mining equipment hit rock bottom.

Diapers remained unchanged.

Shipping lines stayed at an even keel.

The market for raisins dried up.

Coca Cola fizzled.

Caterpillar stock inched up a bit.

Sun peaked at midday.

Balloon prices were inflated.

Scott Tissue touched a new bottom.

And batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.