A load of crap from an idle brainPersonal, Movies, Music, IT, India, Singapore, Politics, Fun

A bit late into the year, but its always better late than never. Its been a practise i have followed for the past 3 years, so here it goes.

• Moved to another department in the company. Got a salary hike, a higher position and not to mention work related stress.
• Attended a weeklong ISMS course and got certified as a ISO 27001 lead auditor at the end of it.
• Read 33 books at an average of more than 2 books a month. The increase mostly due to listening to audio books.
• Watched more than 85 movies.
• Went for a relaxing holiday to Kuala Lumpur towards the end of the year.
• Celebrated Christmas at Hyderabad for the first time post getting married.
• Met some net friends personally after having chatted with them online for a few years.
• Investments in stocks and mutual funds went on as usual.  Towards the end of the year, the whole equity portfolio was in red barring a few stocks. Though the mutual funds portfolio is quite profitable.
• Completed 11 years in Singapore.
• Blogging took a backseat.  I have no plans of abandoning this medium though i have been more active on Facebook.
• Took the longest vacation (of a month) ever since i started working. It started off as a normal vacation but circumstances forced the vacation to be extended.

Previous years recap: 2008, 2009, 2010

More excited about 2012 as i have some big plans lined up and if they all work well, it should be yet another defining year in my life.

Update: And ya, this is my 700th post. Cant believe i have managed to spew out so much in 4 years.

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Over the weekend watched a movie, “Inside Job“.  A movie that tracks the collapse of the Wall Street in 2008 which caused the worldwide recession from which the world is yet to recover.  It tracks and interviews many of those responsible for the financial crash.  Many financial behemoths like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers collapsed.  Many were taken over by other financial firms like Merrill Lynch bought over by Bank of America, Wachovia by Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns by JP Morgan etc.

The whole collapse was fueled by the excesses of the financial institutions and the professionals who were a part of them.  Technology ensured that that complex financial products like CDOs were sold to institutions, retail investors.  People with no jobs were given loans to buy property, excessive salaries for brokers, heads of major financial companies only made them greedier leading to more and more desperation in inflating sales so that they could take a bigger and fatter pay packet at the end of the month.

Prostitution, fake bills, consuming cocaine and other forms of drugs, splurging on luxury goods, bay-front properties, casinos etc was the order of the day for the bankers, brokers employed in these institutions on Wall Street.

According to this list provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 370 banks have closed down since the beginning of 2008. An estimated $14 trillion was lost because of the crisis.  And that is just a lower estimate.  The true cost of the whole crisis might never be known.  Millions of jobs lost, tens of millions of people pushed back into poverty.

All those responsible for the crime were never brought to justice, nor will they ever be. Some of the ones who violently opposed any form regulation of the financial industry which was the basic cause of this financial crisis are now sitting comfortably in the seats of power.  They are today part of the government.  Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner; everyone contributed their part to the crisis not to mention Dick Fuld (Lehman Brothers), Angelo Mozelo (Countrywide Finance), Hank Paulson (Goldman Sachs & Treasury Secretary in 2006), George Bush, Bill Clinton etc were in some way or the other responsible for the mess we find the world in.

During the boom years of the 2000s, there were lots of people hectoring the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for taking a conservative stance and blaming the RBI for not opening up the financial markets to the so-called reform that the US was doing. Its that same conservatism that shielded India and its banks from getting smashed up by the tsunami created in the US and world financial markets.

For years, the Wall Street had been my dream place to work.  I loved the whole idea of minting money the way the bankers made.  From the late 90s till the collapse in 2008, i had a rosy idea of these places. In fact, my dream job would have been working with Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch etc.  As i kept reading about the collapse in 2008 and the circumstances that lead to it, it not only crumbled my dreams but also made me think if i could have handled such a life of debauchery & lies that were commonplace in this industry.

Would i be able to mis-sell a product to a retail investor and then go home and sleep peacefully?  The movie raises a lot of questions about morality and your job.  For every parent who wanted their kids to join the financial industry and make tons of money, this movie is an eye opener.  Money is there in abundance, but what we need to realise is if there is the moral compass that can guide us when the excess money flows in.

Are you an investor in real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds etc?  Are you planning to make a career in the financial industry?  Do you know someone who works there?  This movie is a must watch and the book “The end of Wall Street” is a must read.  Roger Lowenstein writes a blow by blow account of the last few days of the collapse of the Wall Street.  Its a riveting read.

And yes, if this doesn’t outrage you, nothing will.  Because in the world of finance, there is something called TBTF (Too Big to Fail).  Just become big by hook or by crook and then the government will ensure that you will never fail.  They will always bail you out no matter how big an asshole you have been.

“If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” – J Paul Getty

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From Fullhydblogs to Rediffblogs to WordPress to my own hosted domain here, its been 7 years of blogging. From 2-3 posts per week to one post in 2-3 weeks, the speed of blogging has surely gone down, but the interest hasnt waned. With Facebook, twitter and so many books and other sites fighting for attention, i have been guilty of neglecting attention to this site a bit.

Not that many people visit this site. Hardly gets around 100 hits a day unless some troll decides to brighten up an otherwise dull day. When i was with WordPress, the blog used to have thousands of hits daily. Not to mention that i used to blog much more regularly out there.

With the amount of work, i hardly have time to catch up with friends. Blogging has sort of taken a secondary interest in life. But i still cant believe that i could sustain interest for over 7 years. Meanwhile have finished reading some good books. Most of my updates on the blog have been on the Movies and Reading pages. They are the only ones getting updated constantly. Read a book on Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. Being a history buff, i liked the book. Wish i could find some movie or documentary on the same.

Also finally finished reading “The Warren Buffett Way” which i had been reading on and off while simultaneously reading other books. The other one is the unofficial Dhirubhai Ambani biography “The Polyester Prince” which also have been reading in fits and starts. The only way i seem to be able to finish a book faster is by listening to audio books. E-books and physical books seem to be taking months for me to finish. Its precisely why i have no interest of going in for an iPad or a Kindle. I think i will stick to audio book readers till the time i can improve my reading speed.

Still, have managed to finish about 19 books in the first 6 months of the year which i believe is pretty good enough. The target was to read a book a month. I have far exceeded that target. The next book that iam excited about reading is “Why Men Hate Going To Church – David Murrow“. The title of the book so defines me. My parents tried for more than 30 years and my wife has been trying for the past 3 years. I still cant bring myself to voluntarily go to church on a sunday. Not do do anything with my beliefs. I do pray regularly, but church is one thing that has been unable to keep me hooked. Maybe this book will give me some pointers on this issue.

Have watched some good (Hanna, X-Men, Millenium trilogy of Stieg Larsson) and lots of not so good movies over the past few months. Pyaar Ka Punchnaama as well as Shaitan were good too. As for telugu movies, the lesser said the better.

Time flies. We are almost into the 2nd half of the year. Time for me to take stock of the situation and make some hard choices. Do i still want to continue with what i have been doing all along or take the plunge into the unknown? Maybe the coming few months will give me the answer. Meanwhile what i need desperately is a holiday.

Above picture courtesy: Lifeconnectionchurch

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The last post has been about 2 weeks earlier.  Meanwhile work has been heavy and persistent.  Not to mention grown up people with their child like minds causing more problems than necessary and increasing the temperatures in the team. Sigh…. Am a serious believer that when people join an organisation, they should be put through people handling skills before they are let into the actual fire.  Most can cope.  Its the minority few with no people skills, no idea of how to talk to people and take up every issue as an assault to their king-size ego, who cause all the mayhem and frustration in the workplace.

Anyways, once out of the workplace, i try to shut myself off and turn to my other interests.  Reading and music.  Finished reading the Andre Agassi biopic.  Its simply an awesome read.  A flawed genius with no genuine interest in the game, Agassi with his talent and hardwork became the true legend of the game.  Forced into a game he hated, by his father and sent early on in life to the Nick Bollettieri academy which Agassi describes more as a prison than a place for kids to enjoy the sport, he rebels.  Against the system, against his father, against Nick, against the sport, against media and against himself.

On his path to self-destruction he meets people like Gill (his trainer), Brad Gilbert (his coach) who pull him out of the morass he keeps digging himself into.  Not to mention his friends like Perry, JP and his own brother who form a protective cocoon around him to try shield him against the pressures.

The book is a magnificent read.  Agassi doesn’t yield, nor does he stop from pulling his punches.  I cant believe that a sportsman can write in such beautiful way so as to completely arrest you to the description of events in his life.

Love tennis, hate tennis, one thing is for sure that the book is not a put down.  Some of the games that he describes is sure to transport you to the minds of the person that is Agassi.  His sudden self doubts on his ability, his inability to finish off games, his on court rivalry with Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and numerous other players, the book is a riveting read.

I have read quite a few biographies till now.  Lance Armstrong, Louis Gerstner, Jack Welch, Warren Buffett etc…but this one sure is one among the best i have read.

I have always been a Sampras, Becker, Stefan Edberg fan, but never had any kind thoughts towards Agassi because of his constant threat to my favourite Sampras.  Reading this book has completely changed my opinion of the man.  Ya, he might be a flawed genius…but yes, he is a genius still.

The only other enthusiasm that i share with Agassi is Steffi Graf.  The only female tennis player i have ever idolised. Two champions and their offsprings are sure to be prodigies themselves, but then both Agassi and Graf decide that their kids will never be forced to take up the sport that both despised so much.

Now, that is what i call…perfect parents.  Not trying to see your dreams being realised through your kids, but to appreciate your kids own talent and let them bloom in whichever career they want to.

Open: An Autobiography
Author – Andre Agassi
Pages – 400
Publisher – Knopf

My rating: * * * * *

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Got a promotion at work and moving to a new department. Lots of handovers and takeovers.  Work is simply doubled.  Stressful. Am supposed to absorb something in 2 weeks what takes months for someone to understand.

Another phase in life.  Hope to pull through this period of transition successfully.

Meanwhile read so many books and iam yet to find any time to write their reviews.  In the past month have finished reading the following books

The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins

Mobs, Messiahs and Markets – William Bonner & Lila Rajiva

Good to Great – Jim Collins

Cultures of the World – Austria

Moscow – Eyewitness Travel

Currently am reading  Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid.

Above picture courtesy: Neptune Library

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