1. The US has made a new weapon that destroys people but keeps the building standing. It’s called the stock market – Jay Leno

2. Do you have any idea how cheap stocks are? Wall Street is now being called Wall Mart Street – Jay Leno

3. The difference between a pigeon and a London investment banker. The pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW.

4. What’s the difference between a guy who lost everything in Las Vegas and an investment banker? A tie!

5. The problem with investment bank balance sheet is that on the left side nothing’s right and on the right side nothing’s left.

6. I want to warn people from Nigeria who might be watching our show, if you get any emails from Washington asking for money, it’s a scam. Don’t fall for it – Jay Leno

7. Bush was asked about the credit crunch. He said it was his favorite candy bar – Jay Leno

8. The rescue bill was about 450 pages. President Bush’s copy is even thicker. They had to include pictures – Jay Leno

9. President Bush’s response was to meet some small business owners in San Antonio last week. The small business owners are General Motors, General Electric and Century 21 – Jay Leno

10. What worries me most about the credit crunch is that if one of my cheques is returned stamped ‘insufficient funds’, I won’t know whether that refers to mine or the bank’s.

I’m writing this as a blog because I’m unable to think of a unique topic which I can write… Forgive me swami, still I’ve one request from you which I’ll will write it next week… Other thing is I’ve severe memory loss and thought you readers can help me recollect things…

1. Paying Pre-EMI to IDBI which is 100% interest just came to know a week back that pre-emi’s are 100% interest… Had been paying pre-emi for last 28 months which is of no use, still the principle stays in tact… It can be converted into post-emi only when I construct a building as per IDBI terms… I’ve no idea to construct any building at the moment… So, need to look for a bank which offers me home loan for just land purchase I can transfer this loan also I want to merge my personal loan with it, if there are any banker or if someone can help out would be appreciated…
2. Brought a Nintendo WII and the adapter got burned… Need to fix it and start using it… Also need help in finding someone who can fix adaptors…
3. Claim refund from Country Club for the land purchase I made… I recommend everyone to stay away from this company, totally unprofessional and they are conning people… My take them legally if they don’t give me a refund…
4. Must be regular to workouts and must at least reduce 3000 calories by this year end…
5. Write a book about my college days, already started writing it, must wrap it at least by this year…
6. Must finish writing content for cogzidel.com by next week…
7. Join a photography course and must become a good photographer…
8. Must tour Theni, Kambam, Thekadi, Kaniya Kumari, Munnar in next 6 months and shoot some good snaps…
9. Create platform get residual income by this year end…

 

I think I can stop with this and concentrate on this and try to accomplish all the stuff… I think I can spare some time from my professional responsibilities… Will write a blog next year same day to tell how many of these I was able to do…

Thank you…

Off late we are hearing a lot of bad news starting from Lehman brothers to Satyam Computers… We all must be aware that we have just opened the Pandora box and we are yet to reach the peak of the recession… It is time for all of us to wear the socks and start planning for lean days ahead… I started my cost cutting activity already, as I clearly stated that I don’t have a lot of new year resolutions, these are some things I’m doing and I’ll be doing till I overcome this recession…

• No new expenses list other than basic expenses…
• Stopped buying merchandise. It is time to collect all the reward points in credit card and start using those points to buy things we need… To my surprise I’ve accumulated Rs.30,000/- as my reward points and made big shopping last month… I brought merchandise for next 2 years…
• Cutting fuel cost… I stopped going for long drives on car… In fact stopped using car for this spring, just using scooter as climate is not that bad and started using more public transport…
• Cutting on my visits to malls as I can’t control my desires and I tend spend more… In fact for last two months I’ve not visited Chennai Citi Center & Bangalore’s Forum or Garuda mall…
• Work on your financials. There are two types of financial things we have to do, one is to plan our finance and the other is to monitor our existing finances…
• Plan finances means planning our “expenses & savings” with our income…
• Monitor finances is checking of Return on Investment, on investments we have made… Look into banking charges on our bank account & cards… To my shock only now I noticed I’ve been swindled by banks by making lot of charges and just made a visit to banks and got all things sorted… I’m saving almost Rs.5000/- a year on getting waiver from charges…
• Cut on lavish parties… Generally I throw lavish parties for my birthday, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop it, but it might not be the way I did for last 3 years…
• Paid a year for GYM and I saved 50% of for the charge and also working on my fitness is the only New Year resolution… So, I think I’ll serious in my workout…
• I’ve been an avid spender and most of my spending will be in fuel, food & merchandise… All that happens only when I go to lavish places… So made some investment to stay at home…
• Brought Nintendo WII and will be playing inside my house
• Brought a Camera and planning to learn photography… Will be visiting places where I can shoot and that too will be using Public Transport only :)…
• Writing blogs so that I’ve the pleasure of sharing my experience and also improve my writing skills…
• Networking and getting more friends…
• Cutting on my mobile bills, I’ve been a High Value Customer for my service provider and no longer will I be one :)… Thought this is very hard, some how I managed to cut 20% but I still want to reduce this by 60%…

Over all I want to cut 75% on my expense compared to what I did for last 3 years… I’m somewhat successful in it as I was able to cut things by 30% and in months to come I’m sure I can reach my goals… Other important thing is I’m also looking on alternate source of income other than my salary like making some money  from my blogging, thought it is too early to reap results, in time to come I must be benefitting on the efforts I’m putting today… Also we have enjoyed the sunny days and it is time to be careful for the rainy days ahead… Think more than once before making an expense and do shopping during festive seasons to get some good discounts… Enjoy what you are doing so that you don’t feel the pinch of falling down…

For your information I got a report on past recessions and think it would be nice to share it here so that you can get some idea from history on duration of recessions and how you can plan… Wish you all a happy recession :)…

Peak (Recession Start)*	Trough (Recession End)*
	December 1854 (IV)
June 1857 (II)	December 1858 (IV)
October 1860 (III)	June 1861 (III)
April 1865 (I)	December 1867 (I)
June 1869 (II)	December 1870 (IV)
October 1873 (III)	March 1879 (I)
March 1882 (I)	May 1885 (II)
March 1887 (II)	April 1888 (I)
July 1890 (III)	May 1891 (II)
January 1893 (I)	June 1894 (II)
December 1895 (IV)	June 1897 (II)
June 1899 (III)	December 1900 (IV)
September 1902 (IV)	August 1904 (III)
May 1907 (II)	June 1908 (II)
January 1910 (I)	January 1912 (IV)
January 1913 (I)	December 1914 (IV)
August 1918 (III)	March 1919 (I)
January 1920 (I)	July 1921 (III)
May 1923 (II)	July 1924 (III)
October 1926 (III)	November 1927 (IV)
August 1929 (III)	March 1933 (I)
May 1937 (II)	June 1938 (II)
February 1945 (I)	October 1945 (IV)
November 1948 (IV)	October 1949 (IV)
July 1953 (II)	May 1954 (II)
August 1957 (III)	April 1958 (II)
April 1960 (II)	February 1961 (I)
December 1969 (IV)	November 1970 (IV)
November 1973 (IV)	March 1975 (I)
January 1980 (I)	July 1980 (III)
July 1981 (III)	November 1982 (IV)
July 1990 (III)	March 1991(I)
March 2001 (I)	November 2001 (IV)
*Quarterly dates are in parentheses

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research

Last month we had a reunion in kodai and got opportunity to meet my college mates after a long break… I’m surprised to see friends getting changed for different reasons… As we grow we loose the importance of our friends… Their priority in life gets changed… And their character and personality also changes…

We must understand one thing that this happens even to us, we change without our knowledge and this can be felt only by our friends… Five out of eight members of our gang made it, in fact it is only we five stay in touch and other three are almost out of touch… I was really amazed to see how my friends have changed… We were all people with common synergies during our college days… We all lived and cared for others wellbeing than thinking about ourselves…

I can openly see that I’ve lost touch with Balaji with whom I spent 90% of my time during college days… It would be less than 10% of the time we would have spent for each other during post college days… Balaji got married and he is a father of 4 month old and I’m surprised to see him becoming more responsible… He has already started talking about sacrifices he has to do for raising his son… Then it is Vicky, he has been my best mate in college with whom I share all my happy and lull moments, we see to it that we share some quality time for each other… But I can’t believe how Vicky has changed from his US visit, Vicky has become more practical guy unlike what I’ve seen him 3 years back… But still he a  good hearted guy and I wish he remains the same for ever…

I can also see a lot of change in me… With people taking different paths, different priorities we no longer have same sort of synergies and we find different people filling the space, where we get linked with people whom have common interest and synergy… Every time we reach a destination we have to shake hands compliment each other and start back with our own journey and move ahead with the memories of our old journey… That is life and we have to move on with it…

I’ve have been thinking how my life was till I was 20 and how I was able to catch up with this highly competitive rat race… Lot of things has changed in this eight years… When it comes to childhood dreams nothing happened as I thought… I was told by my parents that once I successfully finish my education I’ll be successful person in life and I grew thinking I’ll be successful without any struggles once I finish my college…

This is one big challenge in Indian system… As students we are kept inside a shell and we are not aware of the competitive world… We are raised as if life is a destination… But in reality ones life/woes starts only after finishing our education… By the time we understand “Life is a journey and not destination” it becomes too late… In India we have to learn many aspects of life in a hard way…

It is high time parents raise their kids with fighting instincts in life… When I was out of college and started my business, I simply call people or visit them directly without any appointment… Many times I get insulted for that approach, today I understood and know how to manage such satiation… But those times I get so much demoralized and many times I thought of giving it up…

I’m fortunate enough to have good mentors to help me come out of this trap and culture… I feel sorry to see many of my friends and peers who easily give up without giving a fight… In my office I’ve seen people resigning or running away from office because they are unable to finish their tasks… I’ve seen a lot of my friends getting depressed for small/petty things…

This is all because of unpreparedness… We are never taught to be warriors… Our system doesn’t allow us to be innovators… I remember in my schooldays folks who mug and write ends up scoring more than people who understand and write things on their own…  

To over come this we have to change a entire generation for which we have to change the system… But don’t know that would be an immediate solution… I’m working closely with my subordinates and helping them to transform like warriors who are ready to face change and uncertainties… In a system where we have no choice we have to learn ways to motivate ourselves and fight against the odds… If you understand LIFE IS A JOURNEY AND NOT DESTINATION you can definitely become competitive and become successful…

Dear Wiproite,

More than two centuries ago, the famous author, Charles Dickens described in the opening lines of his famous book, A Tale of Two Cities that ‘it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair’.

That is how it looked a few months back. But events after events in the last few months, weeks and even days have begun to indicate that what appeared like a squeeze in the first half is threatening to become more of a bear hug as we go further.

According to some estimates, the present downturn is the worst since the Great Depression in 1930. It encompasses all sectors, not just IT and Telecom as it was in 2001, but all geographies including the US, Europe, Asia and Emerging economies, all asset classes including Real Estate, Oil, Metal and others and all sectors of the economy.

While the much touted disaster of derivatives of Lehman Brothers has been splashed all over the newspapers, the phase of downturn represents just the first of three phases. The second phase, which is shrinking real economy such as manufacturing will be next and the final phase will be of capital flows. Estimates indicate that the last phase is only 5% complete. Already over 100000 jobs are lost on Wall Street and in the US as a whole in Fiscal Year 2008 to date more than 600000 jobs are no longer there. So how long will the winter of despair last? Nobody really knows but the estimates vary from 2 quarters to 2 years. In fact, one study of 113 downturns suggests that it may be as long as 3 years!

Yet, to continue with my opening quote, along with the winter of despair is the spring of hope.

Oil prices that had reached 140 USD are less than 50 USD. Estimates are that these prices will fall further. Large economies have problems of productivity and demographically weak. Customers will face significant cost pressures and that could be a driver for more Outsourcing. Companies that have large Offshore teams in countries such as India have less than half the population above the age of 30. Technology will be a significant enabler of Productivity in developed economies with Solutions such as SAS and Cloud Technology.

What can we do as a company to weather the storm and make the most of the silver lining?

First, we must become absolutely Customer Centric. We must have a clear Solution that will help our Customer’s business in these troubled times..
Let us understand the business of our Customer so thoroughly that we can be seen as a partner of choice compared to our competition.

Second, let us stretch to the hilt. We have to squeeze out every ounce of productivity we can. It’s no longer a question of working hard or working smart. It is both. In fact, those companies that work harder and smarter will survive.

Third, spend thriftily on capital expenditure. Make assets go as far as they can by increasing their use.

Fourth, cut down discretionary expense wherever possible. Every dollar or rupee saved is a dollar or rupee earned.

Fifth, at same time invest in the right opportunities. The best time to invest is always when things are at rock bottom. Look for opportunities in markets like India and Middle East .

Sixth, align people to business opportunities. Re-skill and right-skill to make this happen.

Seventh, we have to manage our risks. The fast changing environment also creates uncertainties for our customers, vendors, technology partners and service providers on whom we depend to create value for our stakeholders.
We need to be watchful to ensure that we do not fail in our obligation because of their failure – we need to be vigilant and take swift but decisive actions.

You may have heard of the saying that the higher things go, the harder they fall. The reverse is also true. The harder the economy falls, the higher it has the potential to grow when things recover. Only, it will not be easy for anyone but the best to survive in the meantime. Both organizations and employees have to put their best foot forward.

In his book, The Prize by Irving Wallace, he says that the blessed one is he, who, confronted with a crisis in his life is driven to call upon resources of the spirit, to use them to survive, even triumph over life itself. Everyone must know the supreme value of challenge, the eternal necessity to meet it and grow to fullest life.

Let us gear up and use all our energy and resourcefulness to triumph over this challenge.

Azim H Premji

It has been 8 years since I finished my graduation and from then on I’ve never had an opportunity to get back together with my friends… After 8 years we had 5 out of our 8 member gang… So, it was myself, Vicky, Balaji, Sathish & Sudhir who made it to the tour… Vicky came along with his PG mates… It was like going back to college days… Don’t know if we can still behave like kids, but still we had the childish attitude in us and really had ball of a time… But people were never the same I was able to see a lot of change in their personality, Balaji has just become a father of 4 month old baby and he behaved more like a responsible family man, Vicky is back from US after a gap of 3 years to India and he found it difficult to get back to Indian life, Sudhir has become an extrovert, he has been an introvert in college days, I can see some leadership skills in Sathish, he was the one who lead and coordinated the tour… Sill we tried to go back to the ooty tour which we went when we were in our final year of graduation during 1999, still that ooty tour lives in our mind and whenever we meet we still talk how we enjoyed each and every time of it… Coming back to our kodai trip let me share some snaps…

There are lots of shops selling fruits at Kodai Road railway junction… Really admire the color of fruits, smell of the fruits and the way it is arranged…

Kodai road…

We have to buy a platform ticket, but had to search for the platform :)…

Condition of platform…

I was told the train will reach kodai road by 5.30 AM and folks woke my up by 3 AM and I reached Kodai Road station by 5 AM… On reaching there I was told train will reach only after 7.30 AM and I was made to wait for 3 long hours… Thank god I had Balaji to give me company… At last train reached Kodai Road Station by 7.45 AM…

Finally I was relieved to see the train reaching after a long wait…

From right Balaji hugging Sudhir, Vicky in stripped T-Shirt, followed by Sathish, followed by madhu with red trousers, Sunder with half trousers, at last it is Subbu…

We are always fond of roadside food… We asked for bread omlet and wondered to see them using Bun instead of bread… So, it is Bun omlet… We ate some bun omlet, veg. sandwich, ice cream’s, home made chocolates & some tomata fruit which is available only in dolphin nose… Then we started walking to Dolphin nose… This is the second time I’m visiting the place and I knew it is going to be a hard task & I really got exhausted…

Me taking a diving catch en route to dolphin nose…

Returning back to CAB which was parked some 2 KM ahead of the place… Really exhausted and I don’t have strength to even stand and pose to this snap…

These are only first days snaps and I’ve to get 2nd and 3rd day snaps from Sathish & Sudhir… Over all it has been a great reunion and don’t know if we will make it up next time… But enjoyed every moment of it…

SMS (short message service) is available in every mobile phone, and network operators mostly charge for using sms.There are certain free sms plans, but they offer free sms at a monthly "topup" or "booster pack".

About 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones in 2008, and 3.3 trillion messages are expected to be sent in 2009, an estimate by Gartner group.

Lets take a look at what are the costs incurred by the network operators(Airtel,Aircel,Bsnl…) for processing sms. (From NYtimes)

"A text message initially travels wirelessly from a handset to the closest base-station tower and is then transferred through wired links to the digital pipes of the telephone network, and then, near its destination, converted back into a wireless signal to traverse the final leg, from tower to handset. In the wired portion of its journey, a file of such infinitesimal size is inconsequential. Srinivasan Keshav, a professor of computer science at the
University of Waterloo, in Ontario, said: “Messages are small. Even though a
trillion seems like a lot to carry, it isn’t.”

Perhaps the costs for the wireless portion at either end are high — spectrum is finite, after all, and carriers pay dearly for the rights to use it. But text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel,space reserved for operation of the wireless network.
That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted. "

Cost of sending an SMS is almost nothing, yet the network operators charge upto .50rs or 1re per sms , depending on the plan. Consider it along with the fact that 2.5trillion messages are sent last year, that will make a fortune for the telecom companies.

Permalink: http://www.bharathtech.com/2008/12/sms-scam.html

Just signed off 2008 in style… The year has been a mixed bag too much of turbulence than smooth sailing but the learning’s were much higher than what I learned in 27 years… Just thought I can blog my happy and hard moments…

Started the year in Style: Started 2008 in style with party in Taj Bangalore… Had great fun partying and it was a feel like I was flying high in life…

Trip to andamans: Made a vagabond type trip to andamans, didn’t know till 2.30 AM that I’m going to Andaman, just thought I needed a break @ 2.15 AM and booked my flight tickets to Port Blair & the flight was @ 7.30 AM… Just noticed after reaching air port that I didn’t do a hotel booking… My data card came handy and helped me to login to yatra and block a room… Got carried away by the lust green trees and green beaches from the plane… On landing got into the cab sent by the hotel… Even more thrilled to see lots of tamilians out there… For me Andaman has always been a forest kind of place and didn’t expect this much population… Then as usual made visits to Cellular jail and other spots out there… Then was simply walking on the streets around 12 mid night and was happy to see 2 folks talking in Tamil… Went to then and started enquiring about Port Blair and the friendship still continues with them… I think I must write a separate blog to share my Andaman experience which I’ll do it soon…

Problems in Agriya: This is the year the gap between me and aravind widened and the relationship broke altogether…

Loosing of relationships: This is the year where I has to loose couple of friendship and relationship…

Walking out of Agriya: This was an emotional and tough thing happened in my life… Still I can’t believe that I out of a company which I founded…

Periods of depression: Almost from April to June was under depression and was doing nothing other than staying @ home and watching movies… This was the tough times which I’d have ever faced in my life… I must thank Major & Balaji to help me come our of this depression…

People with me on tough times: I must take this opportunity to thank people to be with me in my troubled times… First I must thank Major who was giving me moral support and he had more confidence in me than myself, it was only after talking to him I want to fight back… I must thank Major, Samson, Murugesan, Balaji, Sriram, Bala(Both from Contus), my parents & sister, my chitappa, my mama & mami for being with me and help me to fight for my right back…

Fight back for my right: Then some time was spent in fighting to get back for my right from people in Agriya…

Finishing MBA: This was another thing which gave me confidence in life… All people who are my class mates are from top management from top companies… Their words of encouragement helped me a great deal… Also finishing my MBA was a great sign of relief as my mother wanted to finish this somehow :)…

Starting Cogzidel: At last by September Cogzidel was started and from then on it has been a new life… There are new challenges and new opportunities which I’m doing it on my own and have pleasure to do things which I love to do…

Must work on Cogzidel for years to come and make it a grand success and that I my main goal for the year 2009… With all this I’m signing off 2008 and wanted to close it the way I started… So, went to Taj Chennai and had a buffet dinner and signed off 2008 on a nice note…