Simple thoughts for a simple life

What is your number Mr.Banker?

2012-02-20T00:41:00.001-08:00

How best to describe investment banking industry is a million dollar question? Is it a roller coaster ride that makes you feel jittery as it goes up, like you cant breathe without screaming but still smiling, it is scary yet fun, an adrenaline rush; or is it like playing a video game where losing to your competitor bestows the darkest reputation, where winning is everything and where you constantly strive to move to the next level?

I think investment banking is nothing more than a number game and every person part of this industry is a number as well. If you are a banker, your only identity is a number; it can be the bonus number, the grade number, stock options number, the profitability number, the head count number or the pink slip number. You are a headcount, you are a cost, and you are a money-making machine. You are everything but human.

Reminds me of Mr.Gekko from Wallstreet:

“How much is enough”
“It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody looses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another”

In a good year, you are million-dollar something and in bad times you are a cost that needs to be cut. In recent times, many banks around the world have been “cutting cost” to keep the bottom line profitable. It is very cyclical process and anyone who has worked in this industry for few years has been part of it, either as a player or a spectator.

On a chop-chop day, there is a pin-drop silence in the office. It’s like watching a suspense thriller when you are scared to death but do not want to be the first one to scream. Then your phone rings and you are called into a meeting room; the room that you never knew existed. You meet the HR person; the person that you never knew worked at your firm. You are given the same standard old crap; the crap that you have heard or told many times. If someone could echo your mind in the room, it would go like this: "You have been a valuable part of this firm” (right, what you do know of value?), "Times are tough and company has no other choice" (why aren’t you fired, you do nothing valuable), "I’m sure you understand” (jeez, I just paid for my new Porsche) etc. I think you can pretty much write a standard script and let a robot read it out. Then you are given the magic number, something called "severance package" and the HR strikes off one more number from the list.

For the next few months, central banks around the world comes together to save the doomed world. Money is printed so that banks can make money. Banks become extremely bullish and everyone starts fighting to hire everyone on the street. Head hunters are calling the same person they placed two months ago. Anyone who walks in for an interview walks out with a job offer. Everyone gets hired, and rehired, with bigger dreams than they ever dreamt. They all start buying million dollar villas, fancy suits, expensive cars and flashing their business cards to girls in bars. It’s as cyclical as it can get.

"Its all about bucks kid, the rest is all conversation". That for you, ladies and gentlemen, is the fascinating world of investment banking.

The quintessence of Togetherness

2012-01-16T23:43:00.000-08:00

One of my dear friends asked me to pen down my thoughts on togetherness. I really don’t understand the concept of this word. It is an abstract notion which can only be symbolized through gestures such as holding hands together, eating dinner together, have a drink together and so forth. So I was really struggling to find true value of this word, especially in this age and time when the world has started shrinking from larger open communities into smaller isolated families.

Why do people crave about togetherness if it is such a simple gesture? Why have our great leaders of past quoted togetherness thousands of time?

Having meditated over the thought for few hours, I went back to my social network browsing, and just while I was accepting some new connections I realized the concept of togetherness. Mankind has made tremendous progress over centuries, but the emotions and feelings that human being is born with, still stays the same. We may not be living together with our extended families but we still try myriad ways to know our family tree, we still find ways to get in touch with our high-school friends and we still try to find new people who may be our soul mates. The success of social networking sites is a clear validation that people want to stay connected to one another and it is this desire, though in digital form, that brings them together. We may have changed the form of gestures of hand holding to digital hugs, but the basic premise of togetherness remains the same. It is still an antidote to loneliness.

The foundation for togetherness is based on commitment, which for some, means end of freedom. In pre-industrial era, families were tied together with common social obligations but in the modern world, families have moved apart due to reasons such as better prospects in other cities/countries, need to get away from traditional routines, need for privacy, become independent etc. Sometimes people think that living together means end of freedom to choose what constitutes their personal happiness and rights, that they might be forced to devote their life for the collective happiness of the house hold. This is obviously not true and relationship based on such foundation is weak at best.

The way relationships work may have changed but the essence of it remains the same. People still fall in love, people still crave for intimate partners and people still wish to be gifted by parenthood. The number of divorces may have increased but so has the number of marriages, including the second and third marriages, because at the end of the day, people still believe in “happily ever after” stories and people still wish to be with someone, though the gesture of love may be through SMS, Emails or WhatsApp. People still carry family names, accentuating the association of an individual to a larger group called “family”.

Ideas are born out of an individual’s mind but ideas are brought to life by a group of people. The very origin of man kind is conceived by bringing two souls together. No natural wonder on this planet was built by an individual, no battle won by an individual.

Every man is supposed to walk down the path on his own, but having someone walk the path with him can provide strength, happiness and determination. Togetherness provides the courage to carry on your personal legend, as penned in the beautiful song “Stand by Me” by Ben King.

why are people envious of the rich?

2012-01-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

I read an article recently in FT that suggested poor people are more generous than rich when it comes to charity. A behavioral study done by University of Berkeley also concluded that lower class give more of their resources away, whereas upper-class tend to preserve and grow their wealth.

It makes me ponder if we take every opportunity out there to stab the rich. After all, one can crunch data in many different ways to define human nature and rising inequality in the society. It can as easily be shown that the richest are contributing most to the tax, which provides critical support to the society. We have seen multiple discussions on higher taxes on the rich instead of giving them a choice to spend their hard-earned money as they please and support the economy.

There are many better ways of forcing the rich to contribute to the society. Promoting capitalism that can create jobs is a much better way to reduce social inequality. As someone rightly said “Capitalism is the worst form of society, except for all the others that have been tried”

Many rich people have worked their way up with sheer perseverance, hard work and risk taking ability. Protecting ones future with financial security is basis of survival ship and there is nothing wrong for the upper class or for that matter anyone, to act in their self-interest. The world has already witnessed that governments, including that of developed nations, are incapable of securing the future or providing any social benefits to its taxpayers, so naturally saving and preserving wealth and future is crucial.

Have we forgotten all about Objectivism (as defined by Ayn Rand) that individuals hold free will, are autonomous and independent; by using reason, they determine their own beliefs and values and thus create their own life? Society as a whole would be a much better place to live if we don’t force altruism on every individual.

Is the society moving towards altruism as the new fashion statement? Do we need to define the moral worth of an individual by his values of egalitarianism?

I certainly agree that the some affluent people have exerted more influence on the government to define policies for their self-interest. Instead of hating the rich, the society should lobby to select the right leadership and government that can create environment conducive to equal and fair opportunity for all. But the political dreams of our so-called leaders rely heavily on the donations from the rich.

Once again, I might be perceived as a seriously empathy-deficit person but I do believe that the core problem in today’s world is government structures and leadership rather than capitalism.

Why kingfisher is one of the worst airlines and Mr.Mallya one of the worst business leader?

2011-12-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

What makes a great airline; hand-picked stewardess by the CEO of an airline company, red hot glamour image and a top-model to make people believe that they will have good time. What makes a great CEO; imitating the flamboyant lifestyle of another flamboyant but successful leader. That is certainly the mantra of kingfisher airlines and its flamboyant CEO. Even a guy who is rejected from the worst MBA School can tell you that this strategy will just not work.

First the airline – Kingfisher (KFA)

KFA was built on the same concept as Virgin Atlantic and they do compare well side by side

· Virgin provides top quality experience and service to its customer. KFA does the same except dropping “customers” from its precept.

· Virgin is profitable from its very inception. KFA has no plans to get there since its inception.

· Virgin’s market share and profitability has zoomed up. KFA’s debt and losses have zoomed up as well.

In a futile attempt to provide luxury and glamour, KFA has lost focus from the very basics of running an airline, even if we drop the word competitive. Punctuality, basic customer services, attentive and quick response is all but missing from KFA mandate.

I wouldn’t say that other Indian airlines have out-rivaled Kingfisher in terms of the service, but they are at least able to function normally, at least pay the salary to their employees.

Expensive labor contracts, skyrocketing fuel prices and passengers used to cheap cross-country fares are some of the handicaps in the Indian aviation industry, but airline companies in other parts of the world run successfully within similar constraints.

The shareholders and creditors of UB group and KFA have certainly paid the price for vanity management.

Now to the infamous Dr.Vijay Mallya

Mr. Mallya is among the lucky few who are born with a golden spoon, as he inherited the cash-cow from his father, in the form a liquor business, United Breweries - maker of the popular Kingfisher beer.

Mr. Mallya is known to be a person of “high spirits”. Mr. Mallya spends most of his time partying and rubbing shoulders with celebrities and models, cruising around the world in his yachts, burning tyres at F1 races, cheering his cricket team etc.

He has very skillfully made many crap acquisitions, mounted enormous debt and now in the process of annihilating even the healthier business. On one side his airline company is bleeding to death, not able to pay tax dues or even salaries to its staff while on the other side Mr.Mallya is busy picking models for the kingfisher annual calendar.

The guy is a supersonic loss making machine. And he has cloned his super powers in his son as well.

I wish Mr. Mallya had adopted the same principle as Sir Richard Branson of putting a one year limit to succeed in his new ventures or exit the market. In that case he would have had lot lesser things to manage except his father’s inheritance.

Mr.Mallya should also get his biography published like Richard Branson’s “Loosing my virginity”, except his book will be titled “Loosing my sanity”.

This blog is published by an anonymous author who is not flying good times tomorrow on Kingfisher Airlines.

Why women prefer security over love in their partner?

2011-12-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Before you get furious from the headline of this blog, let me tell you that I don’t perceive women as superficial or gold-diggers chasing rich guys. Neither is my intention to portray women as such nor am I rich enough to make that statement. I’m not trying to prove any point or making these comments from my personal experience. It may be a very complex issue that depends on extremely personal interest and I may be unsuccessfully trying to oversimplify it.

The fact that women prefer security over love can be understood by the fact that genetically and behaviorally men and women are designed for different purposes. Nature wants male species to propagate its seeds as wide as possible and so men are overly generous to engage in casual relationships and sex without thinking about the future. Female species, on the other hand, has to bear the consequences of begetting a child; so she is programmed to seek security. This is probably also the reason why men engage in more casual encounters and infidelity than women, who prefers long lasting relationship.

Most women would disagree with the fact that they prefer financial security over love because it doesn’t sound right morally. There is nothing to dispise about it though. Women probably aren’t looking for the richest guys out there, but their million-dollar-wanting heart is definitely looking for guys who can provide a good lifestyle for rest of her life.

We have all heard about the argument “Money doesn’t bring happiness, love does”. Though this statement holds true in a utopian world when men and nature lived in perfect harmony, and men’s needs were few and desires limited. In the new golden age, it is almost the opposite, so even though money can’t bring happiness directly, it can definitely make the journey to contentment easier. It provides women with the freedom from bills, daily chores and all the drama related to it. Probably it is one of the reasons that arranged marriages around the world have had a higher success rates than “love” marriages as element of security has already been factored into the relationship.

Some women have told me that it depends on the time and age, which may be true. In many cases, women over 40 are career oriented or have inherited family wealth; they wouldn’t care about financial security as much as women in their 30s. However there are reports (including the infamous Newsweek article) that claim that women that are not married by 40 wouldn’t marry forever. We can leave this aside as a separate topic of discussion for another day. Even if an affluent woman did seek a partner, she would be looking more for emotional security than financial; someone who is atleast an equal match to her.

I do agree that it is not always “either security or love” situation. There is always a problem when you select a partner just for money or love, and such relationships always end up at a junction that leads to two different roads.

Women are wise and they know that the probability of making her rich man fall in love is much higher than making her lover boy rich over time.

Japanese women are super attracted to men who buy government bonds

2011-12-14T17:59:00.000-08:00

“What would you like to drink” asked the bartender at one of the most popular night clubs in Roppongi. The 35-something man, dressed sharply in a black suit and tie replied “I’ll have a JGB” looking intimately into the eyes of much younger girl standing next to him, expecting to get lucky tonight. The girl says in a soft husky voice "You have a good taste"

You may be wondering if this is a new cocktail. Indeed it is a cocktail made by Japanese government which has a base of debt, mixed with some security and a dash of low interest rate.

What was the Japanese government thinking when they started an ad campaign to reinvigorate interest in the ever-inflating government debt? Who wants playboys when you can have Jboys? They must have hired some of the best PUA (Pick-Up Artists) or what they called Nanpas in Japan to come up with this brilliant creativity.

They have run the celebrity campaign, the sex appeal focus campaign and more recently gold campaign (where you get a free gold coin on purchase of JGBs). Wonder whats next in the creative kitty of the Japanese Finance ministry.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/06/japan-men-who-buy-government-bonds-are-super-sexy/58249/

Why Japanese restaurants serve the best food in the world?

2011-12-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

Cooking is an art and not science. Art can only be mastered by years of practice and dedication. This blends in perfectly with the Japanese culture. No wonder

Japan

has highest number of Michelin restaurants (247 in

Japan

vs. 70 in Paris) in the world. I’d go one step further to say that the quality of Michelin restaurant in

Japan

is way higher than some of the other countries.

Last night I went to Pierre Gagnaire and few months ago visited Le Bouchon, both in Hong Kong, with two and three Michelin stars respectively. I’ve visited both these restaurants and many others in Japan that has Michelin rankings and the difference in quality is substantial. There is no mention of seasonality or ingredients in Hong Kong whereas that takes predominance in Japan.

So what sets the standard of Japanese cuisine and restaurants so high? Japanese palette has changed dramatically from the ancient Haein era to the modern era, from Buddhist influenced vegetarian cuisine to the French and Italian cuisine. Irrespective of the time and cuisine, Japanese chefs have not only mastered the art but elevated it to next level and in fact preserved some of the cuisine that has ceased to exist in other parts of the world such as pasta with sea urchin (one of the most popular dish from Puglia, Italy).

Japanese cuisine, though very simple combination of staple food such as rice, noodles, soup and okaze (that adds flavor to rice) is an art that can be mastered by years of learning because it is perfect blend of techniques, ingredients, seasonality and presentation.

It is only in Japan where one craves to go back to the tiny restaurant, tucked away in a small ally that can be never found unless you know about. It is only in Japan where you can find 10 dollar lunch set with the freshest ingredients made right in front of you. It is only in

Japan

that can take gastronomy to the highest level.

The only thing that sets New York and London food scene apart is the myriad number of restaurants that brings flavors from all around the world. Japan has pretty much restricted itself to Chinese, French and Italian cuisine from the outside world. It would be great to see some Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and African food in Tokyo. Japanese cooking is so interesting that it can easily blend itself with any cuisine from any part of the world and create an exceptional food fest.

Some of my favorites in Tokyo are Quintessence, Sushi Saito, Sushi nakamura, Sant pau, Esaki, gyouza in omote-sando (don’t even know the name), Fuku yakitori, Elio Locanda, Cogito, Le Bourguignon, Suzuki, Teppanyaki Ebisu, XEX, Keyakizaka, Ban Thai, Tonki, Kimukatsu, Curry coco ichiban, numerous ramen, yakiniku, tempura, soba places, ryokans, pension that serves incredible home-made food. The list goes on and on !! With thousands of restaurants in Japan i'm sure I've many more left to explore.

Life is too short to eat shit food.

50 places to visit before I enter 40's club

2011-11-28T00:56:00.000-08:00

Traveling is addictive. So many places to see with limited amount of time, money and miles you have. It is interesting that there is no universally accepted stats on the number of countries on this small planet and the best answer is somewhere around 195. Do you think anyone has visited every single country? Am sure there must be some free-spirited soul, who has wandered the globe to step his foot on every single country but unfortunately most mediocre souls like myself is busy building up retirement pension, and we still believe that we will be able to get some benefits when we grow old and feeble.

I came across an interesting website recently http://mosttraveledpeople.com/ whose members claim that the world is made up of of 872 countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and provinces. To visit all 872 would be to go everywhere. How many have you visited?

I think traveling is fun because it accumulates memories that can help us live in peace and die with a smile. Most materialistic things such as bags, cars, houses etc bring momentary satisfaction for individuals that believe in collectivism rather than Objectivism (as Ayn Rand defined in her book "The Fountainhead"). Lets leave philosophy aside & keep it simple!! Traveling provides wholesome experience to all our senses. One can not only experience the sights but also the food, culture, traditions, festivals etc. Everything seems to be new and exciting (except the horrible cattle class on airlines). It is truly a complete package of pleasure .

Mark Twain summed it up "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover"

I'm now compiling the list of countries (or rather places) that I'd like to visit in next few years to complete my 50 places bucket list before I enter the 40's club. Any interesting ideas? My next trip is to the pink city - Jaipur in India. I've been there many times but still looking forward to it especially the food. More on follow after the trip.

TODAY IS VERY SPECIAL DATE (11.11.11)

2011-11-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

Today is a special date -11.11.11. This is a palindrome date and it happens once in a century. So seize the day and make sure you make the most out of it.

Blue mosque, Istanbul

2011-10-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

There are very few places on this planet which provides a unique architecture, history and spirituality at the same place. Blue mosque is one of those places. From outside you can’t stop admiring the size and majesty of its structure until you step into the courtyard which is as big as the mosque itself, but the true realization of its grandness happens as soon as you step inside the mosque that is adorned by the blue tiles, from which it gets its western name – Blue mosque. It is considered as the last great mosque of the classical period and it always will be.

Naturally the place ranks at top in any guide book on Istanbul, so it often gets crowded with thousands of tourists that visit the mosque everyday. This is one of the occasions when I really feel the power of the politicians of the world when the mosque is vacated for their visit. You can’t get luckier than that. Since I didn’t have the power I tried creating my own luck and visited the mosque at 6am even though the hotel concierge said that the mosque opens at 9am. I couldn’t believe that the mosque opens that late as there must be people offering prayers much earlier than that so I tried to use my bit of intelligence and luck; and I was truly rewarded with the peace and serenity inside the mosque.

Certain things in life are to be enjoyed in sheer silence to feel the space and moment like the blue mosque.

You sit there in silence and you can feel the power

You sit there and you can’t stop admiring the sheer beauty of the dome, the minarets, and the myriad number of designs on the beautiful blue tiles

You sit there and you flee away from your darkest fears

You sit there and you want to pray, to believe in God

You sit there and you want to embrace life and for all that it symbolizes

You sit there and you just want to sit there forever

It is truly a remarkable place. The only other place where I felt the same was at the Lotus Temple in India.

An interesting bit of history is the mosque was built by its leader without any symbolic victory and just out of public funds which lead to controversy and criticism by the Ottoman population. If the ottoman population could only see how public funds are used in modern era to save disgraced banks and companies they would have praised their leaders for at least creating something symbolic that would be admired for centuries to come.

I think the Blue Mosque is everything and lot more than what I expect from a symbolic structure like it.

Why Blog?

2011-10-23T22:54:00.001-07:00

Just because one starts doing something doesn't mean that he knows the motive behind it or embraces that idea completely. This is exactly my dilemma with blogging? Very often I ask myself "Why blog?" Why do we want some unknown person, in some remote part of the world know about your opinions or feelings in a digital form and in some way relate to us, support our thoughts or even reciprocate to it? Why can’t we confine our thoughts to ourselves? Is it because we want someone to affirm our ideas or is it just to convey the superiority of our knowledge over someone else or is it just to pen down our thoughts of the day to kill time. Sometimes it is purely for commercial reasons such as celebrity blogs, food blogs, business blogs etc. In some cases it is out of profession such as author’s blog, critic’s blog etc

I'm neither an existing or hopeful celebrity nor does my boring job requires any kind of blogging. In fact I work in an industry where time is money and I’m naturally not living up to its principle by spending my time in typing these blogs. I don't have any interesting stories (at least the ones that I can share without putting a child lock on this website) or any wow factor in my life which makes my blog unique. Last couple of lines also proved how bad I’m in marketing myself and naturally not helping sell my blog.

We have all heard that "we should live life to the fullest and live every moment as if today is the last day of your life". In this beautiful journey of life, there are moments when your mind is loaded with amazing thoughts (usually happens to me when I’m tied to a tiny seat that is floating 35000 feet above ground with couple of drinks down the throat) and you want to capture those thoughts. It’s like photography. You are capturing an experience, a moment and, creating a memory out of it that you can cherish in future. Your thoughts are all like small drops of moments that may fall upon you from experience of any of your five senses, or just wander wildly from some unknown world, and it is great to capture them and share it with your friends and strangers-waiting-to-be-friends. These thoughts can inspire people, uplift their mood or even put them on the right path to follow their dreams. Thoughts are very powerful and Buddha summed it by saying "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world"

My blog is my humble way of sharing my world with you. I hope it will make your world as beautiful as mine. I guess this is a reason good enough for me to spend (in my financial term "invest") my precious time blogging.

ipad2 vs. galaxy tab

2011-10-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

My first blog and i thought I'll keep it simple.

Lately life has been not very exciting. Its already 2 weeks since my last holiday and normally the best way to uplift your dull mood is to go shopping, so i decided to finally buy a tablet. After being a die-hard fan of apple for many years i gave up on apple since they started launching iJunk every month thereby putting themselves in the same position as Microsoft. Yes, the visionary Steve jobs said it "2011 be a year of copycats" and Apple has unknowingly copied the Microsoft model. So i thought i should look at the known copy of iPad, the Samsung galaxy tablet, but couldn't make up my mind.

When confused i use my sixth sense to reach a decision. My sixth sense is all around me in different shapes and sizes. So i asked couple of friends who all gave me their own view on why i should buy one over the other. Some played safe saying Apple is a long term story while some said that galaxy is cool and you can do lots of interesting things. I also got an intelligent piece of advice from my wife "You don't need either"

After all the insights from my sixth sense, I've finally made up my mind that I'll buy Samsung galaxy tablet and I've a strong argument for my decision - for some reason i just don't like apple, especially now that the visionary Steve Jobs won't be able to do anything but watch from above the fate of Apple. Rest in peace Mr.Jobs.

Life is too short to have an apple everyday.