Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Lehman Brother's Again : An Open letter to all Americans

Dear Americans,
Happy Independence Day !!!
What ! Not your independence day. I think it's your second Independence day. 15th September 2008, you became independent of your own greed.
Thanks for shutting down your 20 years long running Con on 15th September 6 years ago. You gave us the concept of milking billions and billions of dollars from Human being's housing needs. You showed us how to do banking and create billionaires in excel sheets. You showed us how to sell insecurity by selling Credit Default Swaps. You showed us how to consume resources on debt without having the capacity and money to pay for it. You showed us how to funnel all of world's money into a balloon and inflate it faster than The Big Bang.
And One fine morning on 15th of September 2008 you said it's over. The balloon burst and so did the world. You took that burger / pizza I was eating from my hand bcoz I couldn't afford it now.
Lehman Brother's !!! What a fancy name it was till it lasted. Thanks for shattering the Crore plus salary dreams of every MBA aspirant. Nothing will come close to this Con that you ran.
Any ways, Happy Doomsday on it's 6th Anniversary ! And Happy Thanksgiving in advance. I suppose you are planning big on sending those mindless gifts to your relatives this year as well. And Happy Christmas in advance. I suppose you are planning to have a blast and drinking those beers and eating those pizzas and driving those fuel guzzling cars and doing this and that. You consume again and the world starts feeling good again. And manufacturers are happy again. And banks are happy again. And those Saudi oil barons are happy again who put their money in the banks. And those bulls are smiling again.
Until we hit the next reset point again. And this con, how long you are planning on running it. But see, now I am wiser. I won't fall in your trap again. I will be keeping all my liquid savings in the piggybanks behind my window again rather than those Goldman Sachs and J.P.Morgans, just like old times, just how my grandmother taught me.
Try my money and I will send Arvind Kejriwal to your White House.
Regards
Survivor of the last Con

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Why I want Abki Baar Modi Sarkar !!!



I am not a Modi-fied and yet, I want Abki Baar Modi Sarkar !!!

India never had a strongman (much more than a strong leader) at the top in recent history. And the definition of strongman can be a subject of debate. But one key ingredient of a strongman is decision-making, one who can take decisions on his/her feet. When I look back through the peephole of history, first stop would be Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was the strongest leader and finest statesman of post-independence India. And he would come close to be called a strongman under whom BJP was united all over India, no BJP leader created ruckus, much unlike today when BJP is in real turmoil. He was instrumental in India becoming a nuclear power. I don’t call him strongman because of Kargil war. Oh yes ! He won us Kargil war in 1999 but that is where he failed also, if you want my opinion. He just reacted to what had already happened, just freeing up parts of Jammu & Kashmir whereas it was the best chance to cross LOC and redrawing the geography maps and show Pakistan that India can take a strong action when it comes to protecting its people. That would have been a real dent in psyche of Pakistani leaders to do any nuisance in near future. In game theory terms, I would say, Pakistani leaders keep doing nuisance because they know their opponents wouldn’t do anything unexpected. They know our playbook. Game theory says your actions always depend upon your opponent’s action and Pakistani leaders have really learnt this theory which has won eight Nobel prizes.

Next stop would be Indira Gandhi. She was a strong but selfish woman who always thought of herself before nation. She used Emergency to protect her fiefdom. She had power but no brain. If she ever thought of nation before self, she would have been the Indian leader to rewrite Indian history.
Next in the list and the last one post-independence would be Jawahar Lal Nehru. But he wasn’t a strongman. I would stop short of calling him a strong leader too because he was selfish and somewhat elitist. He changed Indian politics forever by bringing in dynastic politics in mainstream. 

20th century pre-independence India had a lot of strongmen / women. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose were people India deserved as its mainstream leaders but they remained on the fringes. The reason was not only that they were selfless and abhorred any power but also because India has always been a docile nation and they were always eclipsed by Mahatma Gandhi. It is only now that we realize their importance and that’s why these people always top India’s popularity charts and greatest Indian charts.

Rani Laxmibai, Tantya Tope, Babu Veer Kunwar Singh are the examples that India produces its strongest only in times of crisis. They would have shaped histories but were never given a chance. Aurangzeb was strong and so was Muhammad Bin Tuglaq but both were without common sense. In between Akbar was a strong leader but he was also wise. And he always dealt anything with wisdom and hence, he is called one of the greatest Indians to have ever lived. The last time India had a strongman at the helm was during Prithvi Raj Chauhan in 1192. Whoof ! It is our misfortune that I have to go so far back. Pre 1192 era, India was the real superpower because it had always had strongmen at the top be it Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka The Great, Samudra Gupta, Skanda Gupta or Harshavardhan.

Coming to present, India has a rare chance to select a strongman at the helm and see if India’s image of being a soft nation can be changed. And to see if India can really change. And to see if India can really react strongly in world affairs. And to see if India can really pull its levers of growth engines and most of all, it will be a test if Narendra Modi is really strong ?

Now there will always be danger with these type of people. The biggest of them all is the equilibrium of Indian society and stability of internal fabric. These people tend to be a little authoritarian. Like that was with Indira Gandhi when she declared Emergency to protect self and presented India with greatest democratic and human rights problem.

But I am ready to take that chance. I want to see how a strong India behaves and how world reacts to it. And the world is already reacting. USA, UK and other European nations are already in a fix on how to deal with a strong India if Narendra Modi comes to power. The Economist article was just a reflection of how those nations are already worried. China must also be hoping Modi doesn’t come in power. And Pakistan is almost fraught with Narendra Modi coming to power. 

Sometimes, sitting in my room and having a cup of tea, I think how would Narendra Modi have reacted during Kargil War or during 2008 Mumbai attack or how would he have dealt when 2 years ago, Brahmaputra waters were diverted by China and UPA government found no evidence of it even by satellite. 

I want to give him one chance to show what would he have done in these situations.

Caveat: 
1. I am not placing Narendra Modi in the league of those great Indians whose names I have mentioned in the article, not even comparing with them. 
2. The opinions expressed here can not be used against me in the court of law because my history was always weak and I never got good marks in history.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Baby's Day Out - Solo Trek Into The Unknown

Prologue: This blog was written in the real time during the journey.

Date: 23rd February 2014
Time: 2:20 PM

This is the most inexplicable blog post that I have ever written. I am sitting in the shade of a huge rock face half way down a huge hill 65 kms from Bangalore on the Kanakapura Road NH 209. Three local people, the only ones to be seen in miles, have spotted me and are trying to wave at me. I think, they think that I am stuck on the hill and want help. But they don’t know what I am feeling. Only if I could tell them that I am feeling over the top. That’s when I decided to write this blog. And yes, I always keep pen and paper with me on these wild trips. Don’t know when inspiration may strike. Anyways, I wave back at them but they don’t leave. So, I have to change my place and sit somewhere where there is some shade and the place is not exposed.

Now that they have left, I am just thinking how come I am here in a desolate place far away from civilization. No one is visible for miles. That’s why I have to write this and I have to write it now. Also, I could use some rest while I use some ink.

So, yesterday was a bad day. Returned home late at around 10:30 PM. I was in indifferent mood and was thinking how to make myself feel better. That’s when I decided to do a solo trek after first successful solo trek that I had done three weeks back. But there has been huge differences between these two solo treks. First one was on Skandagiri, 70 kms on the other side of Bangalore. Although Skandagiri is higher, it was no match to the one I have done today.

Skandagiri is a popular, populous but a beaten trek. It has well laid out path on which one can find a lot of traffic if it’s peak time. Though I was alone there too in the afternoon with some cameo appearances. And yes, there I cooked my lunch – Maggi. The real adventure happened at the end of trek when I took an unknown path on my way down and after a lot of exploration and route finding, I did find an alternative route. There might be some people out of all those who have done this trek who would have discovered this route but that number must be less than 0.1 %. Although that was wonderful experience but that was nothing compared to the experience that I already have had today and it is just 50 % complete.

After breaking my fast at Kanakapura, when I started my FZ, I had no destination in mind. I just kept going. After 4 kms, hills started emerging both side of the road. Hills on the right were closer. I left the first one but got seduced by the second. Parking bike was a problem but found out a clearing just in front of the hill which had three makeshift huts. It seemed some kind of construction site. I parked my FZ in the shade of the hut but lo, I have another problem. I don’t have a helmet locker in my bike. I had been planning to buy it from a long time but I was too lazy. My laziness came to bite me today in my ass. After thinking for a while, I headed back to Kanakapura. After a lot of searching, I found a shop. Came back to same spot again, parked my FZ and I was at it again.

It’s already 11:30 AM. Sun is out in its full might. I have no knowledge about this mountain (Ok, it’s a hill but I will call it mountain for the sake of inflating my personal achievement and of course, it gives that feel). But I am high on spirits. I start walking towards the mountain but only after 5 minutes of walking, there is something that can’t wait. It’s nature’s call. I have only 2 litres of water with me but nature’s call is, what it is. And luckily I find an empty bottle. I am already far away from the road. I find a suitable place hidden by a huge rock. It feels heavens to answer nature’s call out in open in lap of nature. Believe me, it does and I am stating that from my cumulative experiences of treks.

So, refreshed and reinvigorated, I start again. Some of the rocks are really simple to climb. After 10 minutes of walking and climbing through some bushes and shrubs, I reach a small cave. I rest there for a while, eat some biscuits and snacks that I have and start again. Firstly there are small rocks which are grey and black in colour. After another 10 minutes of walking, huge rocks start to appear. I climb up a couple of them and then, I have to stop at a place to decide which way to go. There is no way but I can go either left which should lead to the stiffer southern face or can go right which should be gentler slope. I look at the mountain and start left. If there is no route to top I have to find one. 








Southern face looks exciting and sometime by its looks, give me a feel of Machapuchhare which is situated in Nepal and a very popular trek. Climbing up the big rocks with regularity, I am half way up in no time. There’s a vent between two the southern and eastern face of the mountain. I can go up on bare face or I can take the vent. I decide to take the vent. After climbing for a while, I reach an open somewhat horizontal place. I take a pit stop and look towards the road. I am already up 70 % of the mountain. And suddenly, a thought strikes me what would a person think if someone sees me solo climbing alone from the road. I am really exposed out there. Next moment, I reason it out in my mind. At the most he would think I am crazy but what difference would it make. None. I start climbing again at a frantic pace and in no time reach within 90 % of the mountain. Now, above me there’s a stiff slope of 70 degrees the same that was visible from road and which gave it a look of Machapuchhare. It was looking a lot like Savandurga climb. Savandurga is the largest monolith in Asia and a very popular trekking destination around Bangalore.

I sit down and start pondering over whether to go up or to abandon the climb. Then I look down the road and it’s an amazing view and all my anxieties melt away. Then, I look up towards the peak and decide to go up. As it is very stiff, I am on my fours. Slowly and steadily, I climb up to within 50m of the summit. If someone would have seen me climbing at that time, he would have thought that I am going for suicide. But now, for the first time, fear strikes me because it is very steep and it’s slippery. I think of going back But it’s my inner self and my ego that’s egging me to go on. I climb another 20m very slowly. Now my backpack feels heavy and suddenly I feel like I am losing out on the balance because of the backpack. And that’s it for me. I decide to go down immediately at that point of time. My ego can’t be larger than mountain’s ego. Fritz Weissner would have felt the same when he had to abandon his climb of K2 in 1939 much before it was finally climbed. He had reached within striking distance of the summit when his fellow sherpa refused to go any further that day and he had to go down. Next day the weather closed in and he never climbed K2 again.





So, now I have to go down. But how, especially with this backpack ? I have no rope to lower it down. Hence I just slide it down gently. Thankfully it stops where I intended it to stop. Then I climb down that stiff face. Picking up my backpack, I go down and down till I reach half way down safely. It’s the same place where I had taken left. I am still thinking of the peak, so I take right and start climbing again. It’s a little gentle slope but full of dry grass and bushed. But nature has made my path smoother by burning down dry grass all over, a la Australian forest fire, but on a much smaller scale. Going up and sideways, I reach a place where there are a lot of shrubs. I see a huge rock and decide to reach there. But reaching that rock I had to go through a lot thorny bushes and shrubs. My skin feels allergic. I don’t know what it has come in contact with but it is itching  very badly. I pull out my water bottle, see the amount of water left and pour some down both my hands. After at least 10 minutes of rubbing and scratching, it feels somewhat normal.

I look around and feel trapped. Behind me is a huge vertical rock. I am sitting in the shade of a very big thorny bush which is covering 90 % of the rock I am sitting on. Other side has two huge rocks with vertical edge. The only way seems down through the same bushes and I fright what would happen to my skin now. But I don’t want to go down. There is one way which seems feasible. If I can go around the bush on the edge of the rock at least I can see if there’s a way or not. But that would mean going around the edge of the cliff. It’s a dilemma to take the backpack or not.



Finally I decide to leave the backpack there itself and go alone around the edge. Once I start sliding and crawling, I reach the other side of bush. I find a vent. Climbing up the vent, I see a route to the top and I feel ecstatic. Though it is still stiff climb of about 60 degrees but it’s manageable. Now there’s another dilemma whether to go back for the backpack or not in case there’s an alternative way down the summit. I go along on the top without backpack. It’s good climb because rocks are rough. So it’s easy to find the spot to hold on to and besides it has much better friction. I run to the summit and it was thrilling. I look around the top and on one side there’s a very gradual slope which could be my way down the mountain. So, I go back fetch my backpack and come to summit again. I walk around the summit and then I sit down on a rock just to feel the air and let this feeling sink in. I don’t know the name of the summit. There must be something that the locales would call but I decide to name it personally. By the end of the day, I have to find a suitable name for the summit.

Oh !!! it’s 4:15 PM and I have got very late writing this blog. I will have to scram but I will follow this up in the next blog.