Welcome 2007

It is that time of the year again .. where we are all buckled up stay up the whole night, drink and party into the Midnight till the next day ....... all in the name of stepping into the new year ...... welcoming "it" in style .......my 2 cents on this .. it is yet another reason for the party animals or rather the drinking animals to go on a drinking binge ..........

Parties apart the new year has another pecularity ...... the resolute resolutions which the junta vows...... the most common being . ........will exercise .. will spend time effectively .. will not procastinate and so on but the top ones have to be ..will stop smoking ....will drink less or stop drinking all together ........how many of them are really able to keep up these promises ??? ...I bet even if 50% of these smokers and drinkers kept there resolutions and promises........the ITCs, marlboros and the Kingfishers of world would have been out of business by now ..........

the problem with the human psychology is that he always looks for exceptions to any rule..(be it as simple as wearing an helmet while driving a bike .. how many of them wear helmets to go to the neighbourhood grocery store ??) ........ so the human exceptions begins to take effect after "some" days into resolutions .... your frnd throws in a party .. your thought ??? it is ok to drink in Parties afterall drinks in small quantities is good for health........ next u eat your stomach full at the party .. and remember the old cliche ....... " smoking settles the food nicely ".......so I will smoke whenever I eat some good food........ next you say .. I will smoke only post dinner and lunch .........and so the resolutions story continues .........thru the year .......... circa 01.Jan.2008........ you are still thinking..... should even take a resolution this year ??????..nay .........

PS : I don't have such resolutions this year. If one needs to change some habit of his .. you don't have to wait till the new year for it ...... it can happen anytime anyday........all it requires is the right trigger .......

Of Lunches and dinners

If you are in an Indian male, who has just accomplished the great task of surviving 25 yrs in the world, then better be on the watchout......and if you have survived these 25 yrs successfully ( read you have the tag of a Dr. or an "Software" engg.) ..... then u can hide, u can run ......but can't escape the customary invites to lunch and marriages of people( read relatives and distant and distant far off relative's relatives) whom you have barely known till now........

why the sudden magnamity.. you wonder !!! ......but then who cares .. you are getting some real good food.. so what the heck..... a customary namaste, hello and good food and a burp to satisfy the hosts..goodbye and a sound sleep ... but then economist dont lie when they say.. "there are no Free lunches (and dinners of course) in this world ."..

As a Step on the gas pedal to head home, comes a bombshell from mom-dad combo..... "beta did you like the gal" Gal??? err....... I thought this was all about food........where was the gal ?? I ask .....mom-dad combo says ..."is ladke ka kuch nahi ho saktha..... he does not have any observation ability".......... I say I only have "digestion" ability .and that is suffice as of now ........ as for the gal.. .. if you really want me to see gals....... better make sure the food aint that good .........I can only concentrate on one thing at a time

PS . I have read somewhere.. the way to a man's heart is his stomach .......................

Year of Indian MandAs

phew!!!! what an year the I- bankers the world over and India in particular have had ........ the year started with the great Mittals trying to buy out Acrelor Europe's No 1 Steel maker .....only to trigger a price war with Severstal.. the other big Euro Steel maker ....... but finally pulled it off by seeking the support of Acrelor shareholders and giving up some of his own control .like moving the HQ from London to Luxumberg. .......

then we had the Pharma sector ( read ranbaxy) trying to buy into the Generic markets of Europes.......... with so much happening can the Indian IT sector be far behind.. we had Wipro making a slew of Acquistions though small ones .. TCS too buying some Latin American Footprints...........

IF TCS can do it .........then can the Flagship Tata company sit idle...... it came out with a offer to buy out Corus ( yet another Euro company .. Euro-india combo?? coincidence??) ...... but seems like the offer has run into some real rough weather as of now ....... with another BRIC nation's Steel maker (CSN) trying to beat it penny for penny literally .......no sooner than I-Bankers Cobble up the additional $1 Billion required for tata to buy out Corus .......does CSN come out with a revised higher offer ...... this story is far from over .....let us keep watch in 07 for this

As if all this was not enough.......we now have Hutch up for grabs ..... the bankers cant have their Christmas holidays this year for this is deal is being touted as the mother of all MandAs.. with the valuations at an astonishing $18Billion and slated to go higher .. given the high interest it is generating......Vodafone wants it .. Reliance wants it ......If bharathi does not want to buy .. it atleast wants to stop Reliance ..else the battle for Subsriber numbers will be over .. Reliance 45 million .. Bharathi 25 Million ....+ there are a host of others looking at hutch as a Tandoori platter which will leapfrog them into the Fastest growing mobile market in the world....... 2007's most keenly watched business case will be the Hutch Battle Vs the Tata-CSN fistfight for Corus .......

Rickety Autorickshaws

I am sure most of us have travelled in the yellowed hooded creature (they call them Autos or ricks or rickshaw ) in bengalooru .. or for that matter any city in India( where they will be green or black hooded) ...... they help you catch ur flight or train or bus on time despite the traffic snarls of our city .........but for some reason the poor souls who control these creatures are always at the receiving end from our public (especially in namma bengalooru) .. with the most common complain being .. Rickshawallas refuse to go to places where we want to go !!!!!!!!!! or they ask more than the meter charge blah blah ........ I think they sure are doing a thankless job out there

now I am by no means a sympathizer of the rickshawaalas... ( I face there ire almost everyday ) but I don't understand why a person who pays Rs 100 for a Rs 60 beer in a PUB is not willing to shellout the extra 10 bucks to the poor autowala... is this a classic case of double standards.. " I will pay whatever is needed to get a high since I am spending my hard earned money to have fun" ....but paying an Auto extra 10 bucks to reach home safely after 5 pegs of Whisky ? .. no way!!!!!!!!!

I wonder what the autowaalas is thinking. Here is my 2 cents....... A lot of them in the city are prospering from "software" which btw the Autowaala thinks is some kind of thing made in factories one of them asked me " sir illi yenu thyyaar aaguthe"..(translated what is manufactured in these buildings)............earning millions of rupees... why should I be left behind.. lemme give a try .. A lot of these "software" guys and gals have deep pockets and atleast someone will agree to pay the extra bucks to reach his destination.......make hay when the sun shines ....

Sidhuisms

Life is a like a box of Chocolates. You never know what you get. One look at the turns and twists in the life of Sidhu .. and u are left wondering .. how true........ here is a man who came into public life as a Cricketer in the early 1980s, was condemned by the public for being a murderer in late 80s, came out clean as commentator in the post retirement and defined "sidhuism" to the oxford dictionary , became laughing king of the Indian TV , only to be convicted of murder by the Delhi Highcourt. As they say .. life is a great leveler .. you pay for what you do in your lifetime .. so may be it is payback time for our Sidhu .. or will he come out clean again from this mess .. may god be with this exordinary multitalented multifaceted personality ...hope he continues being on the Indian TV .. afterall I can't sleep on Friday Nites without listening to his rip roaring laughters