Another travel record

During my trip to India (first time to Kerala) in dec 2008, this was my record:

"On this trip, so far been on almost all modes of transportation - plane, train, car, bus, houseboat, speedboat, bicycle and walk. Spent a day and night in a houseboat, went through the most modern and one of the biggest shipyards of Asia, saw Viraat- the lone aircraft carrier of India on the dock, 8 different temples and watched the sunset from the southern most tip of India-Kanyakumari.

The body aches, but it is worth it..."

Travel record

A personal travel record.

(29th april) Manila -> Singapore -> Bangalore -> Mumbai -> Trivandrum -> Colombo -> Male -> London -> Male -> Colombo -> Delhi -> Baghdogra -> Kolkatta -> Chennai -> Bangalore -> Singapore -> Manila (29th June).

The last ten airports in 6 different countries were travelled in 10 days flat.

A total of 17 airports, 6 countries, 5 different time zones in 2 months.

Unless I get into marketing or on a world tour, this record of mine is going to be hard to break in the coming years.

Parameters to define success in life

How should one measure success in life?

based on which of these?

age v/s life stages (graduation, job, a car, marriage, kids, own house, job of kids, retirement, job of kids,etc)

average level of happiness throughout life?

how many lives have you impacted positively and how impactful has it been?

Or is it a combination of all these?

What do you think the life's success parameters should be?

Nice thought

Found this while surfing. Real words of wisdom:

"Love is not about finding the right person, but creating a right relationship. It's not about how much love you have in the beginning but how much love you build till the end. Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude."

Friends

I have wondered many a times, what are your rights and duties as a friend? Legally, I dont think a friend has any privilege in over a stranger. Sad, but true. Even some not so well meaninged relatives have privileges/rules conferred by the law.

So we dont have a legally bounded duty for anything for a friend.

So is is right to assume certain things for friends and take decisions on behalf of them? On very small issues, I am sure friends wont mind. But what about bigger issues? What if a major decision has to be taken and no family member is available at the moment? How does it work then with no one really listening to a friend of the person in case of major medical emergencies or such scenarios.

The newspaper test

Well, this is one of those rare myriad of useful tests I have learnt in my MBA. My professor told me about this test.

So what is the 'newspaper test'?

Ok, here it goes: If at any time you ever have an ethical dilemma of whether I should or shouldn't then ask yourself this question: "Will I be ok with it if whatever I do will be published in a newsapaper and the whole world knows about it?"

If the answer is yes, then you have passed the newspaper test/ethical doubt and you can do it. If you fail the newspaper test, then better dont do it.

Family picture

Bullfighting

Once the new govt. came in, people expect reforms or new policies in every industry segment. This has driven up prices of stocks by over 50% in the two weeks after the announcement of results, even before the ministers or their plans were told. Now, some sector stocks like zodiac clothing which I own, has shot up 15% the on june 4 and another 20% on june 5. I talked to a fund manager too regarding this and he told me that whatever the announcement, it cant help the textile sector much if the demand is just not there. This reconfirmed my thoughts on the sector and I am planning to sell them off on the next working day with hopefully as much precision as a bull fighter inserts the sword in one shot into the charging bull right behind the neck and thrusts it deep enough to enter its heart and kill the bull. Only time will tell if I am that good a bull fighter or not.

Innocent guess

I opened economictimes.com somewhere in the afetrnoon to just take a break and check out the latest happenings. Right there on the top right of the webpage, I see in the Latest news table, in bold: "Top-earning Models: In pics".

Wow! it could be useful to know how earnings are predicted or what helped companies make great earnings or who are the top earning companies now taht it is results season and I am waiting for the 2008-09 results. Then I think about the last few words "In pics", and I wonder how can earnings be depicted in pics?

It then strikes me that the models heer mean "female models doing catwalk in fashion shows and posing for magazines"...

Uff... Either my brains are totally cooked with finance and earnings or economic times has started gone mad by putting such useless things in latest news and in bold font.

I was so amused that I showed my colleague here and he asked "what does it mean?". When I told my story he told me that he was also thinking on my lines.

Now, I am convinced that economictimes is s big screwup.