Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Bevede Zameen Par

Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin
Bar main daily jaata Hoon Main Maa ...
Yun To Main,Dikhlata Nahin
Daru peekar roz aata hun Main Maa ....
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata, Hain Na Maa...
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata, Meri Maa...

Theke pe Yun Na Chhoro Mujhe ,
Ghar Laut Ke Bhi Aa Naa Paoon Main Maa...
Paua lene Bhej Na Itna Door Mujko Tu,
Ghar bhi bhool jaun main Maa...
Kya Itna Bura Hoon Main Maa...
Kya Itna Bura Hoon Main...Meri Maa..

Scotch main ,itna peeta nahi,
Peg Se Seham Jaata Hoon Main Maa
Chehre Pe Aane Deta Nahin
Lekin kabhi ludak jaata Hoon Main Maa
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata...Hai Naa Maa
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata, Meri Maa ...

 

Welcome October

We are already in the 10th month of the year. This year will be over soon.

Get up folks and have something to remember 2008 by

Found it somwhere, Wanted to read it myself

Wanna know how exactly the credit card system works?

Priya:
I want to buy a Sony digital camera costing Rs.20,000, but I don?t have any cash right now.

Raj:
Why don?t you use your ICICI Bank credit card? Never heard them say ? Hum Hain Na ??

Priya:
I am quite skeptic about using these cards. I pay using the card, get a bill after 30 days and pay after another 20 days. This is a maximum of 50 days interest free loan. Why does any bank do it?

If I borrow Rs.20,000 on personal loan at 11%.
Interest to be paid for 50 days = Rs. 20,000 * 11% * (50/365) = Rs. 301.40.


Here the bank is giving me a loan without interest when I use the credit card. Something is wrong somewhere!


Raj:
Well? let me tell you how it works when you use your card to pay for the camera.

  • You present your ICICI Bank credit card ? a VISA card.
  • Sony World swipes your card on a machine provided by Citibank. Lets call Citibank ? the acquirer bank and the process of Sony World swiping the card on that machine ? requesting authorization .
  • Citibank communicates with the card issuer ? ICICI Bank through VISA Network to check if the card is valid and has the required credit limit.
  • ICICI Bank reviews and approves / declines which is communicated back to Sony World.
  • You sign a receipt called Sales Draft given by Citibank. This is the obligation on your part to pay the money to ICICI Bank. Data on this receipt can be captured electronically and transmitted.



At the end of day or at the end of some period Sony World chooses:

  • Sony World submits the receipt you signed to Citibank who pays Sony World the money. Sony World pays Citibank a fee called Merchant Discount . Let us say this is 6% of the sale value = 6% * 20,000 = Rs. 1200
  • Citibank sends the receipt electronically to a Visa data center which in turn sends it to ICICI Bank.
  • ICICI Bank transfers the money to a settlement bank which in turn transfers the funds to Citibank.
  • Citibank pays ICICI Bank an Interchange Fee of 4% of the sale value = 4% * 20,000 = Rs. 800
  • 20 to 50 days later ICICI Bank gets the money from you ? and you don?t pay the interest!!



Priya:
Interesting! So Sony World pays more than the interest that I should have paid for the loan that I take. I, as a cardholder have the following benefits

1.        Convenience of not having to carry cash.
2.        Credit availability ? free of interest.



However what benefits does Sony World get for paying so much money? Isn?t it more profitable for them to take cash? They can save as much as Rs.1200.


Raj:
Certainly. Some retail outlets offer you discounts if you pay by cash, don?t they?

However when you don?t count the money that you are spending, you tend to buy more! Cards encourage this ? called impulse purchase .


If you did not have access to credit, you would not have bought the camera this month ? or may be not any time soon either. By accepting cards, the merchant is actually extending you credit at the risk of the card issuer. He pays money to the banks to carry that risk.


Priya:
So ICICI Bank uses this money to pay back to us when they announce 5% cash back. They insist that the Sales draft that I sign at the retailer should also be from ICICI Bank. This means they are saving on the Interchange Fee and also pay me a part of the Merchant Discount that they get.

Raj:
Exactly! If you have noticed, ICICI Bank gives you the cash back in the next credit card statement. They keep the ?cash back? money for a maximum of 60 days before passing on a part to you. This accrues them interest too.

Say if ICICI Bank earns an interest of 6% per annum for the cash they carry ? they get Rs.1000 * 6% * (60/365) = Rs. 10


That is not huge, but money nevertheless. And when you consider that almost everyone in this city shops with a credit card these days, it is a big sum.


Priya:
And that also explains why banks tie up with petrol pumps ? like ICICI Bank has tied up with HPCL and I could re-fuel there without having to pay the fuel surcharge of 2.5%. The card issuer and the acquiring bank is the same and that saves interchange fees.

Some one said fish

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.

 

The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh.

The Japanese did not like the taste.

 

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.

 

They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

 

The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

 

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan ? If you were consulting the fish industry, what would you recommend?

 

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh?

 

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

 

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep us active and taste better...

 

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a challenge.

 

If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are Conqueror. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions.

 

One good one

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the remote reservation asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks
like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more Wood.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "It's definitely going to be a very cold winter.”The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"

"Absolutely", the man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever."

"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, "The Red Indians are collecting wood like Crazy."

This is how stock markets work!!!

 

ICICI again

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/stocks_in_news_home/ICICI_falls_to_two-year_low_at_Rs_493/articleshow/3542745.cms

 

 

Found this piece as interesting, I know that many of you would be reading it anyway, but still to bring others to the right page if by chance they land on my site

The poems will be soon published

Out of work Authors, and also to them who have time and again tried their best to get hold of at least one publish them

 

Do you know why the Bengali authors suffer the struggle all their lives, especially now when any small  author in English is getting the lime light,

 

The sole fact that the people who could read you , buy your books and take the language to the next level are all outside, sitting in Bangalore, (7 lakh Bengalis stay in Bangalore )

There are many more in Pune, in Hyderabad, in Chennai , in Mumbai and in Delhi,

They have Durga Pujas I”n Coimbatore, There are many in Andaman, in short they every where else and not only the poor lower class, who go out in search of better jobs and atleast a square meal in the day.

 

They have Durga Pujas as far as in New Zealand, Search the web and you will find a lot of them, There is no dearth of them. The elite, the literate, the scholars who could give your books the review and the fame you wanted or atleast the respect that you deserve and can command.

They right fully say that that Kishores song “ Yeh laal rang, kab mujhey chorega “

That is the fate, you are soaked in red and red it is will you will meet .

I though have by some sheer fate finally met one of you authors who could make it big. I will soon be posting the poems he has composed here,

Please use Internet Explorer to read them.

Durga Puja in Bangalore

Need more information , Please visit

 

http://www.sarathi_forum.webs.com/

 

Contacts

Mr.Saurabha Majumder                                                       Mr. Sumit Datta       

Executive Committee Membership                                         President                    

+91 9845695317                                                                   +91 9845164427      

 Mr. Subhayu Basu                                                               Mr. Hari Sengupta Secretary                                                                             Chairman  9845088736                                                                         +91 9880064540

 

And also there is another  beautiful group that is planning out on its first music album by the end of 2008.

 

Back benchers, (Orkut: http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=17408517)

They don’t have a site as of now, but the schedule for their programs is here with me now. It is as follows

 

 

Saptami, 6th Oct, Monday: R T Nagar Durga Puja, R T Nagar
(evening 7 PM onwards)

Ashtami, 7th Oct, Tuesday: North Bangalore Durga Puja, Mahalaxmi
Layout (evening 9:30 PM onwards)

Nabami, 8th Oct, Wednesday: Sarathi Trust Durga Puja, Koramangala
kalyana mantapa (Afternoon)
Prabashi Durga Puja,
Maleeswaram (Evening 8:30 PM onwards)

 

Enjoy

Some of the Bangalore Durga Pujas

This year, Bangalore hosts 39 Durga Pujas, the cultural invasion has a started,

 

Despite the Bangalore airport now getting shifted to another town all together, the Anandabazar still reaches to the nooks and corners of the city,

From Hal on one side to JP nagar on the other,

From white field to madivala  I have been able to get hold of a Anandabazar everywhere I go , Soon I believe that the local people will start getting  involved and that is when it will all bloom out in the open. Bengaluru would have by then bengalized,

This is a complete scenario change, things change ( I remember one of the writings in one of the museums in New York ) .

The Polish immigrants to New York came in search of jobs ( whatever that might be ) , they were really hard working and had their own skill sets to sell, they came to New York ( thinking about earning and leaving back to their own lands with enough money , but that thing never happened, the children settled there. Married the local people there, and led their own  culture in the coming years,

Thus leaving your own land in search of opportunities doesn’t make you a  traitor nor does it make you an intruder in the correct sense, The world is running on all kinds of businesses , some contracts unsaid and some un heard but they happen and they happen to you,

Our government in west Bengal was not able to provide for us, but the skills we possess are to be rewarded , India is where it is because it suffered years of non merited people in government jobs , we had quotas to kill the talented people) corruption  to kill the poor and nepotism to kill the deserving,

 

All these worn out souls left the country and celebrated un parallel freedom and opportunity in a foreign land called USA.

Same is the fate with Bengalis in India, they have made a prosperous Chittaranjan Park , one of the most prestigious Durga Pujas in India, they are now in Bangalore .

 

I will add some of the links of the Durga Pujos in Bangalore in the next post

All the news, ICICI

Well,

I was away for the Digha trip and so many things have changed in the mean time , life is coagulating into a mans life with so many things to take care of, look into and think of. More trips in and around the memory lanes don’t happen much nowadays, but moments that will surmount into memories of tomorrow is what I add on each and every moment as the days go by.

 

Slowly the 9th month of the year is towards its end and here I am back to my seat here in Kolkata,

I am usually away from it for longer periods nowadays,

There are a few small things here and there. I applied for a loan in office to get hold of two shares that I think are underpriced ( Actually a Patel friend of mine thinks they are underpriced ) , GSPL and RPL, which has already touched rock bottom, They  are hovering near their major support marks,

 

Since there will be tons of reports like that strewn all over the market and internet and all the channels just blabbering into it, I felt that that the most important thing for me to do will be to get hold of The Patels intelligence in this matters and here am sitting here waiting for the loan I applied for to be sanctioned so that I can play in .

 

Well, many will advise not to play on credit money, but trust me guys , if ever the 100 years of hard work that the Indian middle class ( or at least the last 40 years that the middle class has put in ) , if that has to bear fruits, these share indices, just being a quantitative markers are bound to increase,

 

I am sure that Indian markets that lay far safe in the sub prime zone ( , we don’t even figure in most of the world reports for successful nations ) , it is the internal media hype that completely bull shits in to the US sub prime market crisis to ours.

Black money being allowed in the real estates and infrastructure sector, people with all their unaccounted money are now bound to pay  off the remaining small amount of money in white money which helps the nation as well as them on the bigger picture,

 

The average urban scene improves, the markets starts doing better due to rapid urbanization and the face of the towns and cities in India start lookin better.

 

The final go is, this is the right time to invest in the money market ( people like us are called the contrarians  ) Nothing bullish and nothing bearish ,just plain contrarians,

Well, go ahead, even I was planning for RPL and GSPL but now I will buy the ICICI guys after they reach their bottom 300 s which they will in the near coming future

Time again for some more fun

Finally,

Now I have some poems in hand. Will download Avro today, the laptop has come ( the keyboard is in a kind of mess)

 

Well, some journey into the heart of West Bengal, to the  Chandigram , to Mecheda and finally to Digha.

This is not the best time of the year to go though and the last we went they did tell us to come during the new year , the reason for it being the beaches are not safe to bath .

 

The high tide will pretty much affect even your seats about 50 meters away from the winter sea. The view is good during this time of the year and if you really love the sprinkle once in a while you can take a safe seat some where up and enjoy the view,

The wind is cool but one thing funny about the place is that it no way resembles a typical Goa evening and the breeze is pretty much invisible a little away from the beach , Some how that was astonishing for me . I had taken a room a little far away from the beach and it was the last you could say in the line.

 

It was more like , we are tired and please please please lets use this room ( it is fine  ) We will choose a better one tomorrow if needed,

Moreover , they sometimes ask for marriage certificates , “you know that feeling don’t you?”

Still, the hotel people treated us well as we were the only people around. We looked like the cool guys around,

 

They don’t bother couples much. Yup , especially if you look happy with life, ( the problem started with many romantic couples thought it better to end their lives in the shabby 150 rs hotel rooms out there ) near to the sea away from their homes.

 

The shopkeepers don’t loot you and the food in the hotel was godsend , in future I will prefer somewhere else to stay because Gitanjali ( the hotel where we stayed ) is not clean any more ( the old one looks a complete mess  ) with insects strewn dead here and there and the room smelling like morbid morgues .

 

The new Gitanjali just opposite to the old one is better but still I will prefer the newer ones which are closer to the beach. The only thing that completely ranks it on the top is the food .

 

Well, that is pretty much for the Digha trip ( but though it is a small writeup ) immediately after returning I am feeling tired to do anything else now other than a small power nap to wake me up completely.

 

 

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Long time

Almost for a month, I did not notice how the time went, but it had a lot to offer me  in the last month.

I had written almost about 140 blogs in May but the pace has slowed ebbed down. There are number things that I have been trying to do .

 

Well, in the mean time, our author for the Bengali magazine is ready , he will be sending his stories and poems to my Kolkata house. I will try finish my translation

and site presentation there.

 

Tomorrow we are leaving for the annual office offsite .Searching for a swimming costume for the same here in Tippasandra. Brought a cargo pant yesterday and when I tried it here at home it did not fit me, they were too tight.

We used the Brand Factory , off distance from Dairy Circle.

Man there are some far away places in the current Bangalore. Fomr whitefield to Dairy Circle it is about 25 km, That is great. I went all the way to IIM B in the end of Bannerghatta road to meet a friend there.

 

The IIM guys are a bit pissed , since some of there day one companies have died  ( actually killed mercilessly )

Well, so much happening and I had pulled my shutters down, Marriot Islamabad is down , god knows what else is in store for them since it is inhouse for Pakistan ,

 

More of that later, I also completed some of the books I wanted to read for so long ( Lajja, The prince ( Machiaveli ) , Atlas Shrugged )

Well,  so that’s more like , Durga Puja is round the corner , Don’t know whether I will be able to be of any help to the Hyderabad Puja committee this year,