musings

just a random updates of some of things around which my daily life rotates.. friends form a big part of it but space is limited here to write about them :)

• books - have purchased 5 odd books during the last one month, reading "wind-up bird chronicle" for more than a month now.. still 200 pages left.. written in typical of murakami style though different in the length of the story.. this story is told in 600 pages, unusual for murakami.. don't know how the story will unfold in the remaining 200 pages but for the time being will rate "norwegian wood" as the top murakami book that i have read..

• movies - finally watched memento. yes full 8 year late, but as they say, der aaye durust aaye.. movie is really amazing, have to watch some portions of it again to understand it properly.. though still not clear about everything.. was reading some discussion about the movie and read this tagline by one of the person based on the movie's theme.. it goes like this "i remember, therefore i am".. found this tagline quite interesting.. a hindi version of this movie is going to release around christmas, it's called ghajini, don't expect it to be as good as the original.. they are sure gonna focus a lot on the romance with many songs which might spoil the charm of the original.. also watched into the wild and loved it.. wish i could take the courage to do something like that.. one of my batchmate from iimc (abhimanyu) has resigned from job long time back and is on a bike-trip all across india.. you can read about his daily accounts here .. good to see that at least some people are pursuing their passions rathing than fighting in the rat-race..

• music - after rock on (where i like all the songs except for the zehreelay), the next album that i liked was dostana.. music is by vishal-shekhar and the songs have a very fresh appeal to them.. 2 of 3 best songs (jaane kyun and khabar nahin) are actually sung by vishal himself while the 3rd one (kuch kam) is by shaan.. next came yuvraaj, a collaboration of gulzar + a.r. rahman but this doesn't come even remotely close to the magic of dil se.. though the music is different in that some of the songs are a fusion of indian & western classical but i think it could have been better.. my personal favorite is manmohini money.. next in line is rab ne bana di jodi, stars srk and the newcomer anushka sharma and is directed by aditya chopra of ddlj fame.. music by salim-sulaiman and lyrics by jaideep sahni (they have collaborated in earlier srk movie chak-de india too).. the album has just 4 tracks and an instrumental track but simply love all the tracks.. the most unique number is without doubt the phir milenge chalte chalte track.. sung by sonu nigam, it consists of 5 stanzas.. the lyrics of each stanza is composed of the lyrics of the songs from the movies and name of the movies of one particular actor, the 5 stanzas thus take care of raj kapoor, dev anand, shammi kapoor, rajesh khanna and rishi kapoor in this particular order.. this also matches the chronological order in which these actors were the kings of bollywood.. what else each stanza of the song starts with the signature tune of a hit song of the respective actor.. you have to listen to this song to understand what i am saying here.. after this only last week i downloaded songs of sorry bhai.. liked only 2 songs (jalte hain and mere khuda), coincidently both are sung by kk.. though not as good as the songs sung by him in gangster, woh lamhe or metro, but still always good to hear the refreshing voice of kk.. may be if the music was composed by pritam, it could have made the difference.. lastly, i downloaded ghajini soundtrack last night, this one is a.r. rahman + prasoon joshi (earlier they worked on rang de basanti and taare zameen par).. till now have listened to only one song, tu meri guzarish sung by javed ali (last heard in jashn-ae-bahara in jodha akbar), but this has really grown on me very fast, actually from the first listen itself.. don't know if i will care to listen to other songs :)

• sports - playing football regularly every saturday, hope this continues.. also playing squash regularly every sunday except for the last sunday, my squash partner was out.. he is also out for the coming sunday but will be playing with another of my office colleague.. the court will be closed down for many months from december for some renovation work, will have to look for another court then.. one thing that i miss is tennis, haven't played since may :(

• office - obviously this has to come at the end :) nothing great on this front, except that my colleague has gone on leave since yesterday.. he won't be there till next friday.. so i have to manage the work all by myself for 9 days, of which i have successfully completed 2 days.. besides the usual work, today i gave a briefing of all the products that i work on to two of the sales team member, the whole session lasted for 2.5 hours with a break.. at the end of it, they told me that i taught them very well and so i felt good.. my previous teaching experience is the stint as the statistics tutor in second year of iimc.. that was also a good experience for me.. one thing that i have noticed is that i teach better when i teach a small group and when i am teaching on a paper using a pen as compared to teaching a big group and teaching on a black/white board using a chalk/sketch pen.. i don't know what is the reason for this but i felt the same thing at iimc also.. even in office, when i was briefing a bigger sales team yesterday, i don't think it was as good as it went today..

reality bites

i came across the following article yesterday.. though after reading its contents, one would surely remember metallica's "sad but true", nonetheless it is very hilarious if you focus at the language of the content which bears a striking resemblance to the financial jargon..

Investment banking groom valuations fall in Wedding

Hyderabad : The subprime crisis in the US has made its effects felt in India as well, this time in the highly lucrative weddings futures market in Andhra Pradesh. "An IIM passout at a US investment bank like Lehman Brothers was as good as it got, a few weeks back. But now parents of brides want to stay as far as possible from such profiles", said Dr Rajan, an expert with over 20 years of experience in the matrimonial industry.


The first visible effects were noted in the online space yesterday with scores of investment banking profiles being "blocked" by women across matrimonial & social networking sites. Apparently the average "Be my friend" request index from 20 - 26 years old women to investment bankers have dropped from 24 to 2 in a period of three weeks. "As Indians, we have always been trained to think longterm", said an unrepentant Sophia after deleting 6 investment bankers from her Friends list.

Mrs Narayani, head of the Old Wives & Aunts Network, the most powerful lobby working in this industry said that the offline impact will also be felt sooner than later. "As of today, we are downgrading Financial services, Investment banking & Outsourcing from 'Marriage Material (MM)' to 'Ignore Politely (IP)'. But we stand committed to all deals that have been mutually agreed upon before Sep 15th, provided the groom can present evidence of fresh employment & adequate capital reserves", she said.

Raj Malhotra, a Lehman Brothers investment banker who was holding out, hoping for a better valuation said "Maybe I should not have waited so long & should have accepted the buyout offer from the Mysore based girl". Utopia has also learnt that a number of investment bankers have lowered their next quarter projections and are now ready to marry any girl who will let them.

It is also reported that the worst fears of any banker - the girl insisting on a sense of humour - might also come true as the market prepares itself for a long winter.

Comment: For those who are grinning - Well done, For those who are left behind - Dont worry, its just a matter of the next cycle (5 year +-)

some of the noteworthy similarities are commented on below:

• weddings futures market : as if weddings are an asset class on which futures are traded in the market
  

• be my friend request index : like the Sensex and Nifty there is index in matrimonial sites
  

• index dropped from 24 to 2 in 3 weeks : 90% fall in 3 weeks, wow !! this is even worse than the year to date fall in stock indices

• Old Wives & Aunts Network : some kind of rating agency like S&P, Moody's

• downgrade from MM to IP : just like a stock is downgraded from Buy to Sell

• 15 Sep date : a date for perfect market timing, sell all your investments before market starts to go down
  

not to mention terms like better valuation, buyout offer, next quarter projections.. might have missed many more :) goes on to show how the current financial crisis has become a true global crisis engulfing things which are not even remotely connected with finance..

tennis and edberg

i have copied this article from rediff verbatim to keep it in my recods.. edberg was my favorite player when i started watching tennis during the late eighties and early nineties.. i became a huge fan of him while watching the wimbledon 1990 final against boris becker.. he was a great player of serve and volley.. in fact the logo of australian open grand slam tennis tournament is dedicated to his unique style of service.. besides being a good tennis player, he was a great sportsman and won the atp sportsmanship award 5 times !! the article follows now:

Stefan Edberg: A Champion reflects

Seventeen years ago, the US Open showcased a maestro at work as Stefan Edberg put together a flawless display of tennis to defeat Jim Courier. The legendary sportsman reflects on the win, his rivalries and the state of tennis today.

It came as a surprise to many that Stefan Edberg had gone his first eight visits to the US Open without a title. But in 1991, the stars finally aligned for the Swede.

Edberg and American Jim Courier both entered their first US Open final on a roll. Edberg, ranked No. 2 at the time, was coming off a straight-sets semifinal win over long-time rival Ivan Lendl. Courier, who did not drop a set en route to the title match, had defeated defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals and sentimental favorite Jimmy Connors in the semifinals.

With the on-court temperatures eclipsing the 90 degree mark, Edberg put on one of the best performances in a US Open final. With a perfect display of serve and volley tennis, he completed a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 masterpiece victory to capture his first US Open title.

Afterwards, Courier said, "I remember walking off of the court knowing there was no way I could have beaten him on that day. He played a nearly flawless match in every facet."

Edberg followed it up with a repeat title performance one year later in what would turn out to be his final Grand Slam title, but the 1991 championship remains his favorite US Open memory. "Lifting the trophy after beating Courier was the best match of my life," he says.

Courier, who would finish No. 1 in 1992 after Edberg held the top spot the previous two years, said about their rivalry, "I had many a fierce battle with Stefan inside the lines and I consider him one of the all-time gentlemen of our sport. Our match-ups were interesting ones as we had contrasting styles. He knew what I was going to do and vice versa and it was simply a matter of who executed better on the day as to who won."

But theirs wasn't the only classic rivalry Edberg was involved in during his outstanding career. The Swede played long-time nemesis Boris Becker 35 times, and also battled countryman Mats Wilander, Lendl, and Michael Chang at least 20 times each. Edberg says, "Thinking back, I was lucky to play in this era of great players."

From 1983-1996 when Edberg competed on the ATP circuit, he faced nine players who were current or former No. 1s at least nine times: Jimmy Connors (6-6), John McEnroe (6-7), Lendl (14-13), Mats Wilander (9-11), Boris Becker (10-25), Courier (4-6), Pete Sampras (6-8), Andre Agassi (3-6), and Thomas Muster (10-0).

Edberg, in remembering his own rivals, is highly intrigued by the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, which has taken center stage in the world of tennis.

"Wherever they play, they reach the final and they've had an incredible run," says Edberg, from his countryside home outside of Grimslov, Sweden.

"They have very few letdowns and I've never seen anything else like that. There hasn't been two guys dominating the game the way they've had, as much as they've done. This rivalry is great for tennis and the quality of matches are extremely high level. Now you need a new name or two, like (Novak) Djokovic, and it would be nice to see some new faces coming up."

Edberg, who won the ATP Sportsmanship Award so many times it was renamed in his honor in 1996, is impressed by the way Federer and Nadal have handled themselves during their lengthy stays at the top two ranking positions.

"What an incredible record to stay at the number one position for 237 weeks to one of the best players ever playing the game," he says of Federer's record reign at No. 1. "It's also a tribute to his sportsmanship as well.

"Nadal is a great player with incredible charisma and fighting spirit and he deserves the No. 1 ranking, especially after winning one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever following the French Open win."

No stranger to playing in championship finals himself, Edberg won six Grand Slam singles titles twice at Wimbledon (1988, '90), the US Open (1991-92) and Australian Open (1985, '87) in addition to three Grand Slam doubles crowns.

During Edberg's run to his last Slam title at the US Open in 1992, the serve-and-volleying Swede defeated three straight opponents in five sets, including Chang in the semifinals in the longest match in US Open history at five hours and 26 minutes.

"That was by far the most difficult Slam tournament in my career," says Edberg, who capped it off with a four-set win over Pete Sampras in the final. "I beat Chang in a marathon and then had to come back the next day to play Sampras."

Edberg looks at today's game and says he's a little disappointed not to see any serve-and-volley players like from his era. "You have some bigger servers today but they don't follow-up going to the net. With Boris and Goran (Ivanisevic) you wouldn't get any rhythm and if you dropped your serve it was extremely difficult to come back and win the set.

"Being a serve-and-volleyer myself, it would be nice to have one, two or three. The guys are playing good, effective tennis today but it would be nice to have variation of styles. I played Chang and he would stay back. You look at Borg and McEnroe and they had different styles. That would be the only thing I wish to see variation."

But Edberg continues: "Tennis is in pretty good shape right now and Federer-Nadal have played some quality tennis matches. It's also nice to see (Novak) Djokovic playing well and up there."

Today, the 42-year-old Edberg is a part-owner and board member of the Swedish investment company Case Assets Management, and lives in the Swedish countryside with his wife Annette and two children, Emilie, 15, and Christopher, 11.

And, while he'll be watching the action at Flushing Meadows closely, Edberg predicts that this year's US Open will come down to the Big 3 of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, with "Federer winning once again!"

east or west, olympics and ice-cream

i had successfully avoided getting addicted to nicotine and ethanol, but i think i am failing against caffein.. surprisingly, it is not in the form of liquid coffee that most people resort to for avoiding sleep during boring office hours or exam preparations.. i don't mean to say that i don't drink coffee at all, i go for my daily dose of medium latte or mocha depending upon whether i am feeling more sleepy or hungry :) sadly, the caffein addiction has come in form of something to which i can never say no, "ice-cream".. yes, i have been eating loads and loads of this coffee flavor ice-cream, even if i eat a heavy dinner i need to have my daily 95gm of "espresso croquant" unless it is out-of-stock at all the nearby seven-eleven, park-n-shop or wellcome stores.. and just like people have their favorite brand of sutta or daaru, i am loyal to movenpick when it comes to coffee icecream.. i don't like compromising on quality and so prefer to wait for the movenpick stock to get replenished rather than falling for the lowly hagan-das :P the other problem that i face is logistics, earlier a few times i had purchased the 500gm pack at a cost of approx 85 hkd but now for months i had not been able to find the 500gm pack at any of the stores.. so i have to regularly purchase this 95gm cup now which comes for around 26 hkd and is roughly 1.5 times costlier than the 500gm pack:( also while the 500gm pack used to last for roughly a week, it is difficult not to eat the entire 95gm cup once opened and leave something for the next day.. so in a way now i am eating roughly 500gms in 5 days :( i hope this excess of caffein doesn't cause much harm to my body..

at the beijing olympics, indians have given their best performance till date winning 3 medals (1 gold and 2 bronze).. in the past, we had won 2 silvers in 1900 and 1 gold & 1 bronze in 1952.. i was hoping (for a change) that federer would continue his bad form in doubles also and lose against our team in QFs but he seemed determined to win an olympic gold, if not in singles then in doubles, and so our team of paes and bhupathi couldn't win a medal in tennis.. anyways hoping that the medal count will only increase at london in 2012 :) on a lighter note, i am wondering what was going through vijender singh's mind during the boxing semi-final match yesterday.. he was assured of a medal irrespective of the result, a bronze if he lost and a silver or a gold depending on the result of final if he advanced.. but he must have been under a lot of pressure during the match not because the whole nation was praying for his win but because bipasha basu had promised to go on a date with him if he wins a gold.. think of poor vijender, first he had to win the semi-final, then the final and then eventually to date bips "usse john abraham ki laash ke upar se gujarna padta" !! looks like vijender also heard about the change of guard in bollywood with aishwarya, preity and rani getting replaced by katrina, deepika and genelia as the brand ambassadors of nakshatra, bsnl and munch respectively :) so he took it easy and decided not to get involved in too much fighting over bips, guess his decision if the proposal had come from kareena.. would he have played it "saif" even then ?

talking of olympics, the two week long tournament held in beijing is coming to an end on sunday.. to the surprise of many, china had overthrown america as the winner of maximum golds even though america still managed to hold the numro uno spot when it comes to total number of medals.. but going by their performance in this tournament, one just thinks that china mightn't have to wait for too long and may end up winning the most medals in london.. though there has been much criticism of the way china had prepared its athletes for the olympics.. at a very young age, many chinese kids are sent to these sports camps where they are groomed for years in the various sports, they have to follow a very strict and dedicated schedule in which they are cut-off from their families.. at the end of this training period, only a select few are chosen to represent the country at the olympics while the rest are more or less discarded.. now the ones who get discarded are likely to face a very tough life going ahead since due to the sports training program, they also miss on the schooling part.. since all the people who stay at these sports camps are cut-off from the rest of the world, they have no option but to marry someone from the camp itself.. but even then the husband and the wife have to stay in different wards.. all in the name of "focus" for games and avoiding any trace of "personal life".. china had tried to use this tournament to project a good image especially after the worldwide criticism over its actions againts the monks in tibet.. it had used "one world one dream" as the theme of this olympics to convey a message that it is more open-minded and accepting nation than what the world thinks of it.. but in my view, using these kinds of dedicated sports camps is a curtailment of human rights in itself..

critic or no critic, america will have to do something to stop the chinese dragon from breathing fire in london olympics.. else they will lose their stronghold on the arena of global sports.. their position as the powerhouse in global politics is already getting a threat by the resurgence of russia.. since the breakdown of ussr, america had consolidated its position as the powerhouse for the last 15 years or so.. but as they say, nothing is permanent accept change.. the conflict between russia and georgia over occupancy of south ossetia gave russia a chance to make incursions in georgia.. and though they have finally accepted to withdraw their troops from georgia after numerous demands of ceasefire from america and france, tension still persists in the region with claims that russians are not fully complying with the terms of ceasefire.. in fact, the western powers (america and europe) had to accept almost all the terms put forth by russia for bringing ceasefire in the region.. many are taking this as a re-emergence of eastern powers with china also keeping a mum over this whole matter since it plays to their advantage only (with their crackdown on monks in tibet being severely criticised by the west).. with the white house elections due in next three months, rest assured the new president (be it obama or mccain) will surely be a busy man from day one..

ps: i ate 2 cups of coffee icecream yesterday..

pps: no offence meant to vijender or any other resident from bhiwani..

ppps: waiting for "rock on" to hit theatres next week, more on it later..

random queries

1. there are two things that can't be divided by boundaries: birds and music, i don't think i need to explain this point.. i can't think of other things at this moment.. let me know your thoughts..

2. read this article on rediff which summarises the indian political scene in a very nice way.. irrespective of which party is ruling at center, the prime minister (be it manmohan singh now or atal bihari vajpayee earlie) finds it difficult to take actions which could be in nation's benefit either because of the dissent from his own party members (who will keep on threatening to resign as MLAs and weaken the ruling party) or from the supporting parties (like CPI, CPIM, SP, BSP etc etc. who will keep on threatening to withdraw support from the coalition).. if in some exceptional case, all is agreed between the ruling party and its subsidiaries, there is always the opposition party waiting precisely for this moment where they can make their presence felt by opposing the idea suggested by the ruling party irrespective of what it is and its consequences.. they just have to oppose it, i guess that's where they get the name "opposition party" from.. they will surely come up with some convoluted logic to suggest how this idea suggested by ruling party is not in the interest of nation and will ask the PM to resign or face a no-confidence motion in the parliament.. i have no clue how this chaos can be solved..

3. there is this exchange of contradictory opinions between the two leading characters Red and Andy (played by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins respectively) in the movie Shawshank Redemption.. i don't know which of this makes more sense in real life though ideally being a natural optimist, one should stick with Andy's version.
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Andy: Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

4. on a lighter note, my orkut fortune today read "you are soon going to change your present line of work".. for some time now, i had been thinking if i am really good enough for this line, the answer is yes.. then i think if this line is good enough for me, the answer is no.. so then what are the alternatives ?? i don't know but will surely think about them.. for the uninitiated, my present line is finance (credit derivatives structuring to be precise, for those who look for details)..

5. am going to india for a week long trip this friday after 8.5 months of coming to hongkong, in fact this is the first leave that i will be taking since i joined my current job.. have also been thinking about when will i go back to india, the answer varies depending upon how things turn up in coming days/months.. since i don't know what will happen in future, don't want to mention now what course will i take.. let us see.. for the time being, looking forward to india trip and having a blast of time at thakur's wedding.. a long wait, but as they say, all is well that ends well..

the sound of music

finally watched the musical "we will rock you" last saturday, the show was running since mid of may and it was the second last day of performance.. though i have seen live music concerts in the past, this was my first experience of a musical.. and it turned out to be a good one.. the prods/sets were good, music was rocking and the plot was awesome.. the screenplay is very cleverly written and all the songs fit in their situations very well.. it was a show worth spending 400 hkd (in fact, our seats were upgraded to the area with tickets worth 600 hkd)..

as some people can guess from the name of the musical, it is a compilation of songs by the band Queen.. the plot is set in a futuristic world where all musical instruments are forbidden and development of original music is prohibited.. the world is controlled by a software company and only computer generated music is in fashion.. the company tries to suppress any rebel who thinks of rock music or is against the idea of computer generated music.. the hero with the help of his lady love sets out on a journey to discover the secret land where a small groups of rebels are hiding, there he realizes that he is the chosen one who has to find the musical instruments hidden by freddie mercury & co.. in the end, he is successful in his conquest, the company is destroyed and the saga of rock music is re-established in the world..

the musical made me realize the importance of music.. at least for me, it is a very important part of my day-to-day life.. every day after coming back from work, i listen to old/new hindi/english songs till the time i go to bed.. for people like me who live alone and don't have someone to talk to on a regular daily basis, you need a way to relax.. some prefer to work it out in gym, i prefer to lose myself in music.. it has a very soothing effect and helps to get over the pains of office hours.. at times like these, i so wish i had put some more effort in learning guitar.. let's see, may be i give it another try in future and be third time lucky..

kahin to hogi woh

singer: rashid ali, vasundhara das
lyricist: abbas tyrewala
music: a.r. rahman
movie: jaane tu ya jaane na

(rashid ali)
kahin to, kahin to, hogi woh duniya jahan tu mere saath hai
jahaan main, jahaan tu, aur jahaan bas tere mere jazbaat hain
hogi jahaan subah teri, palkon ki kirnon main
lori jahaan chaand ki, sune teri baahon main

jaane na kahan wo duniya hai
jaane na woh hai bhi ya nahin
jahaan meri zindagi mujhse
itni khafa nahin

(vasundhara das)
saansein kho gayi hain kis ki aanhon main
main kho gayi hoon jaane kis ki baahon main
manzilon se raahein dhoondti chali
kho gayi hain manzil kahin raahon main

(rashid ali)
kahin to, kahin to, hai nasha teri meri har mulaqaat main
honthon se, honthon ko, choomte o rehte hum har baat pe
kehti hai fiza jahaan, teri zameen aasmaan
jahaan hai tu meri haseen, meri khushi meri jaan

jaane na kahan wo duniya hai
jaane na woh hai bhi ya nahin
jahaan meri zindagi mujhse
itni khafa nahin

after a long long time, a mesmerizing song by rahman, got hooked to this one the very first time i listened to it.. though a friend says that the music looks influenced by MLTR but to me this is a vintage rahman !! may be it is the effect of the way rashid ali sings the song, he simply pours his heart out.. and listening to the refreshing voice of vasundhara das is always a joy.. abbas tyrewala as a debutant has written some magical heart-touching lyrics.. thanks a lot guys for this number..