My funda about networking

First get this straight. U* need people - All kinds of people - The good, the great, the bad,the back-stabbing type, the gundas, the jealous kind, the enemies, the liars, the innocent, the innovative, the initiators, the do-ers, the boasters, the slow people. (Everyone maybe except the panickers.) But the most important thing is that you should know to which category(ies) they belong to. Secondly, have an open mind in meeting people (through acquaintances)- however bad they may be because U have some relation with a person who is introducing his friend/person. And it can affect/help you as U are related to the first person. Thirdly, no one knows everything, and how to do everything, how to get the things done, the right contacts. It really helps in this world to know people from the security-wala to the CEO to the neighbour to the president. In this world knowledge and access to the right information at the right time is critical to break or make things. Accept these 3 laws and go ahead. U wont find anybody obstucting U(because of law No.2) This is one of the many valuable unntold/non-theory lessons I have learnt/stumbled upon since my hostel life. * U refers not only you but everyone.

SOP for choosing hostel room

The standard operating procedure for choosing a hostel room are as follows: 1. Avoid rooms near the main corridor, bathrooms & lavatories. 2. Choose rooms at the end of the wing. Though you may have to walk a lot, it will be more peaceful as others wont come so far just to disturb you. 3. Choose rooms which have windows facing north or south. This way there will be no direct sunlight coming into your room. 4. Do not choose a room very near to the water purifier. This may sound illogical, but the main problem is that when there are more people standing in line, they tend to just barge in to see what you are upto and eat away your precious time. 5. Avoid rooms at the ground floor. These are the mostly the oldest rooms and have high chances of water seepage. Insects and rats are closer to you than any other floor. 6. Choose rooms with peaceful neighbours. This way all you people can live peacefully. I hope this will help you choose a good hostel room to stay in.

Rain riding

There are a few exciting water sports one can engage in beyond the water parks like fun world, Wonder La that are more natural. One of them is riding pretty fast on a wide empty stretch of road when it is raining heavily and there are heavy winds. The feeling is just well, awesome!!!! With the visor of the helmet open, and all the big drops of water coming at an angle and hitting the lower part of the face at a high speed (due to the relative velocity of the bike and the wind), it feels like sharp small objects being thrown at your face at high speeds. Initially this hurts a bit and after some time, your face becomes numb and you can actually enjoy the hits on your face. So the next time it rains, stop cribbing, wear your raincoat, put on your helmet, start your bike, zap the road and enjoy the experience.

Unexpected question

There I was, today at 10.08 am lying in my bed, awake, thinking what my activities for today are, thinking could I sleep till 10.15am or would that be a little late for office :-) And then, I get a call from a colleague(my previous project teammate). I was quite surprised to get the call at this time and expected the call to be for a lift home or a lift to the office as she stays close to my place(and two-thirds of the time it is for this reason she calls up). FYI, she will be going to Finland this month end on an official visit. And then she asks me"Today I am meeting an agent to buy 400 euros of foreign currency. Where do you see the Euro-Rupee exchange rate going in the coming fortnight? Since I need it for the month end, Is today a good time to buy it or can I buy it after a fortnight.? " I am astonished with the question. I am not sure what to tell her. I have never followed the currency markets actively and dont have either somebody's or my own opinion on this. As a matter of fact I have viewed TV this week only on two days and that too not CVBC-TV18 or NDTV profit. So not even any passive idea about it. Even in CNBC-TV18, during the midnight shows they mostly talk about oil prices, US dollar weaknesses, but hardly ever about Euros' strength/weakness. So I gave her one of the most diplomatic answers "When even the experts cannot predict the currency movement for a such a short time, how can I" :-) After that I was thinking for some time about the concept of hedging and came up with a solution for her. Buy half your foreign currency today and the other half after two weeks. This way, you may have mitigated some risk. But the most ideal (not exactly practical way) of getting an average rate is to buy some currency daily during the period.

Movers & Shakers

Ah! At last.... I have managed to move the price of a stock single handledly by 5% on the NSE(National Stock exchange). A sense of achievement. Now I know what it takes to rig the price of a share in the market. I have been watching this stock(Lets call this MNO) for over a year now and always wanted to buy it at a fair price to its earnings. And on the 16th may, I finally got a good price and even more importantly, I have enough cash to keep buying it till i could make it go from -1.4% of the previous close to +3.8% of the previous close. As I kept buying my only worry was if there were any big players trying to rig it the other way. Well, my worries were after all, stayed only as worries as no such thing happened. Now I feel proud to be a "mover" of MNO stock. P.S: The stock I am talking about is Zodiac Clothing Company Ltd. If you know this stock better, you would be knowing that this is a very illiquid stock with very low volumes being traded daily on the exchanges. On 16th may, till afternoon only 2 shares were traded. on the NSE. I bought 8 bought shares at market rate which caused the stock to go to +3.8% over the previous close all with the amount of just over Rs.3500. :-)

Life aKa Biker

Imagine you being created in this world and given a bike in the world of infinite roads, tunnels, bridges and various places. You learn to ride this bike as early as possible. But then, you don’t know where to go, what to do and the only thing you know is you want to reach a place, a destination where you will find eternal happiness. This my dear, is life. You are born to be a biker. All the time at home in your early years, you learn to ride a bike. Education teaches you about the rules with which you ride your bike more responsibly for the safety of others and yourself. College tells you about the infinite roads and places that exist. Then you start your long journey in search of that elusive, unknown place called destination. You go through some slopes, some difficult terrain, have a few punctures travelling in search of even you don’t know what. You will find similar confused people on the roads you travel and they may tell you that they are taking the a wider more cleaner looking road as it seems important. You either follow them or tell thank you and take another route based on your gut feeling. You will find yourself on bridges looking down on certain people below the bridge asking you how to reach the top of the bridge, and a familiar nostalgic feeling that tingles in your head remembering "I too was there doing the same". In this process of travelling, you will find places where you can upgrade your bike with a better higher capacity engine which will in turn let you travel faster, or even a nitro shock absorber which will give you a smoother ride on rough roads, or a better griping tyres for that tight turn you may have to take when you suddenly see a sign board to a place you want to go through. All these better parts are like the qualifications you may need to get to some places you otherwise will not get to see with the otherwise slow or incapable bike. They of course do not guarantee you anything but you will obviously be at an advantage as you will be able to go to more places and visit them and check whether that place is where you want to be(your destination). As you travel, you will learn to expect certain things noticing certain signs. If you know there is always regular garbage on the sidewalk you can expect to see a dog crossing the road as you are travelling fast on that road. So you will look around more carefully for those dogs and slow down a bit on that stretch. Likewise you may notice people zooming from a side and may learn to be more careful while switching lanes by using the rear-view mirror. You will of course go through some potholes and in all this travelling if you come across the same road you will dodge it successfully. If you observe a little more carefully, you will find the problems others are facing and how they overcome the same. This is by far the best learning because you have learnt from others experiences. As you zoom across a main highway you may see tens of cuttings while there may actually be a lot more which you have missed seeing because you have been travelling so fast or have not bothered to look at it or have been so focussed to going to the end of that road to see what is there, while the truth of the matter is that you may find a nice place at the end of that road or just that the road never ends, but leads you to other roads. It is for you decide where you want to go, which way to take, when to slow down and enjoy the view and the pleasure of riding, take a break, relax, which place to like and consider it as destination. So go ahead and ride well to find your destination and hopefully find it, while I am still searching for the path that leads to the place I know is my destination.