Tides are changing

Indeed. Yesterday was the first glimpse of my attitude changing. I was an emotional investor who believed that no-matter-what, the stocks in which i invest will surely give me returns when i needed. All i did was buy and buy and buy. But never sell. I didn't want to pay the govt 10% (from this year its 15%) captial gains tax by selling profit. For the all greedy investors, paying off the 10% tax is more logical than hold on for 1 year and lose 50% principal. The Stock market is moving because of the FIIs and the traders. Investors are the ones who are the lame ducks in the market. I held on to my stocks when in Jan 2008 the markets peaked . Even though the profits were there, i didn't cash. I wanted to be an investor who stayed invested during bad times than exiting. I paid heavy price. All i learnt was, get what you want and then throw the bledy stocks. As long as you are selling it for profit, you should be happy. I did chuck out some shares (which went on to gain a little at the end of trading :D).
There are many more areas where my attitude is simple and reasonable, i think it needs to change. Time to cash in. I am sick of making a fool out of myself by giving silly reasons.

Quarter and a one

One more year completed. It was a very eventful year. Too many things happened in the last one year and am happy that it happened that way :). Last week also marked the completion of four years in bangalore and also as an engineer. Same kinda jeans, same kinda Tees, but different attitude. My day was made special by my family, cousins and friends. It was special in a different way too. Will cherish it for a long time to come. Thank you all those who remembered, and advance thank you for those who will remember it next year ;). I always had the bad habit of turning off alerts in social networking sites, end of the day, its special only if someone remembers and is not reminded. I love it that way :D.

First Drive

This post is a long pending one. 2 more drives have been completed before the post :D.
Mid June, Asko and I decided to get some driving practice(read learn). We decided to drive to Mysore. The timing was critical since our next plan was Chennai and we didn't want to go slower than the trains.

We started from home at around 10 AM on a fine sunday morning. We got delayed because we thought 9 AM was too late to start. It was my turn first. I took it slow and didn't want to get the car scratched (I guess in highways you don't get to scratch :P). The speed was amazing, 90 minutes into the drive and we were 50 KM from home. Thats when Asko decided, enough is enough. At this rate we would complete the round trip only by midnight. He took to the wheels and then went berserk. We were cruising at around 90k. The lost time was being recovered. The scenery around was pretty much okay. We didn't try too many stunts, we had to respect our first highway drive. People driving in the Highways seemed much sensible than the ones back in the city. I meant, people are in complete senses when driving on a highway, may be the traffic jams are the catalysts contributing to the city driving characteristics. Or may be people know that highways typically don't give you a second chance ;). Either way, except for one or two pesky drivers, the others were decent.

The only problem was that we had to cut through 3-4 towns and they had some mountains built on roads. The road sign said speed breaker but they were huge and didn't look like one. This was dampening our already battered avg speed. Time to switch driving seats again. Taking cue from Asko, i decided to keep up the pace and we were heading in decent avg speed. After one more round of driver switching we reached mysore in just 4 hrs (:-O). Thats 40K average. This was an insult to the capability(and capacity) of the car. But we were not too perturbed by the stats (we had no choice). After getting lost in the Mysore Town (was it a city?), we reached our destination. The good part was that we didn't have any pitstops for input/output. This saves a lot of time.

It was time to return back home. We started around 6 PM (add a few more mins) and were determined to break the 4 hr record (record!! :-?). The start was pretty good and we were lapping the Ks in no time. Alas, we didn't know about the damned traffic on the Mysore-Bangalore highways every weekend :(. It was jam packed and we were crawling. At one point of time, it took us 30 mins to cover 3K. Thats when we stopped chasing the 4 hr target and decided that fate was against us. The Jam ended after we crossed the bottle neck bridge (some construction was going on). We were back to our highway speeds again. It was dark and we dropped atleast 20K speed. We were surprised to enter the city limits in less than 3.5 hrs. We decided to chill and took a pitstop. By the time we reached home, it was 10+. Hmmm, 4 hrs again. Big deal. Good night!

oh, did somebody say that max speed of a car in the first month should be maintained below 50k ? We thought it was Avg 50k.

First Drive: 14th June, 2009
Destination: Mysore
Distance: To 160+ KM/ Fro 160+ KM
Time : ~4 hr / ~4 hr

[Started this post on 15th June, but completed & published in sept.]

Test Drive

The first time i drove a car, i felt horrible (May be 6 years back). Its crap man. It was so irritating to forget which gear i was in. Sometimes i would accidentally press the brake instead of the clutch. I also remember bending down and searching for the brake when the car was moving at 60 kmph. Seriously, i need a car like the one shown in Flintstones. After my exploits with the bike without a DL in college days, it was the turn of the car. Most of the car lessons i got was from my friends in college. At home, my cousins and bro would occasionally take the Goa registered car for a drive on Chennai roads. After all the "Just-Missed" driving, i decided to get a DL so that insurance can be claimed in case of bang. I love the RTOs, i got my DL without giving the Driving Test >:). Time passed and i forgot that i had a DL for a car, may be i forgot how to drive too. I had an opportunity to get behind the wheel in my Bro's marriage. Of course, as expected i made a mark in atleast 2 cars :D. I realized that when in reverse gear, we need not reverse our sense. In the hindsight, it was seriously funny.

Last weekend was very interesting. My friend bought a car. Since he did not have a DL, we decided that i would drive the car home from the showroom (!!! Are we mad ??). I was going to get behind the wheel after 3.5 years. Wow, Asko, you had the guts to give me the new car :D. Since i was out of practice (tell me about it, i need to know driving before i can practice), i decided to take a Test Drive. The showroom guy arranged for a Test Drive of Maruti Ritz (Diesel). It was the closest to the Swift Diesel that Asko bought. So it made perfect sense to check what i can do to a new car. We all sat in the car and managed to push the showroom guy to the backseat. He assumed I knew driving and was interested in buying Ritz. But the moment the car stalled in the first gear, the only thing he asked was "Sir, do you have a DL?". Of course, I have. But that doesn't mean i can drive :D. After a cautious start, i could find the clutch/brake/accelerator with my legs without using the eyes. That was a good enough start and after a few Km of drive i was satisfied that i could move the four-wheeled thingy without much incidents (Oh, really ?). Not to mention the stalling of the car again at the entrance (it was a slope), when the showroom guy insisted that he can take over the reins from me. Now to do some experiments with the new thingy.

We all got into the brand new Swift VDi, and decided to burn some rubber. It was a long wait to ensure that i did not bump into any of the cars inside the showroom. When i turn the ignition, some idiot would come and stop right in front of me, i would coolly turn off the engine and wait for them to move off. After some 10 mins, my friends decided that we will not be moving from the place if i decide to operate in such a safe manner. Then we decided to forget that i was driving a new car. That really helped. Slow and steady, we were on the ORR, broad road with lots of over speeding buggers around. There was one other swift which desperately wanted to overtake us. Honk! Honk Honk!!!, man. I was already at 60+ and didn't want to go beyond that because i knew that 2 KM in front of me there are a bunch of uniform guys waiting with a speed gun. The other swift wanted to show us its power and zoomed past us at more than 90 kmph. All i could do was sit there and watch the swift swiftly get into the arms of the hungry policemen >:). By the way, it was being driven by a lady :D (Male chauvinist me). Knowledge is power, its true. Had i not known about the police fellas, i would have touched 80+, which i anyways did after crossing them ;). I was not rash, its just that i didn't realize the speed. On the bike, you can feel the wind and you feel you are going fast. In a car, you just press the gas pedal (for my american friends who get confused if i say accelerator :D ), and zoom you go. It doesn't matter if its 80/100/120 or whatever rubbish. As long as you can get it to stop on time. Same applies for the bike but controlling a bike in high speeds is not easy. I am not getting into the topic of slippery roads and blah blah. where was i :-?, we cruised to our home and then both of us together clocked more than 100 KM over the weekend. I managed to scare a couple of them when they were waiting behind in the queue on a slope. I loved their expressions when the car moved backwards. As long as it doesn't touch them, they are happy, i am happy. Signing off. Vroom Vroooooooom.

Gone with the wind

Is it just me?

June 2001: swimming+skating. One month affair. >:)
Mar/Apr 2003: Website designing. few months may be :-?
June 2003: Gymming, hmmm, i dont remember a thingy.
May 2005: I started blogging. I stopped blogging (http://amevil.blogspot.com/)
Oct 2007: Re-Started Blogging. Stopped Blogging again !!! ( Current one)
Oct 2007: Started playing Tennis. By december, my love for tennis vanished
Feb 2008: Inline Skating. No Comments
May 2008: Running + Gym. By Sep 2008, it was curtains
Jan 2009: Restarted Blogging. Current status is not encouraging :).
Mar 2009: Cycling to office. After 6 weeks break, restarted again last week :D

Just a few of them which i remember. I might have missed a lots of things in the above list.
Wonder how many more hobbies to be developed and left half way through. Probably learning a foreign language next ;). No comments on Investing because its not my hobby :P. Did i forget cooking :-? ...

Jagore, then what?

It was a pleasant and quiet morning. I woke up around 9 AM, i was feeling powerful but still powerless. It was the D-Day when the citizens of this wonderful nation would stand up and get their finger marked. Most of the companies in bangalore had declared a holiday, so that the 80% odd unregistered voters could watch IPL matches and have a blast. I suspect some of them might have taken the friday off and extended it for a wonderful loooong weekend.

Surpringly, yours truly is a registered voter and this is the 2nd time that he would be casting his vote. Of course, I did cast my vote (don't expect me to reveal the candidate, as if u care :P). I pulled up my sleeves (damn, i wear only Half sleeve Tees), decided that i will use my right to vote and make a mark in this elections. Given the fact that many like minded people are not voting, i didn't bother to go through the profile of all candidates. No point voting for some independent unless there are many people who would evaluate like you and vote for him. So i decided to vote for one of the Big 2. (I am not a fan of the 3rd Front and to me the 3rd front represents Doom of India). After some thought, i voted for one of them and i am not too emotional about the results.
The most interesting parts of the 2 elections where 'i exercised my right to vote':
1. The polling booth where i vote has been empty in both the occasions. I just walked in, cast my vote instantly. No Queues, No Hungama; just vote and get marked.
2. There is a rule that the Party workers cannot put their tents in 100m/200m radius from the polling booths. So they choose the most convenient spot which is allowed by law and put a nice little tent there. The innocent (read ignorant) citizens believe that they are the guiding force and park their vehicles all around their tents and rush to them. After they confirm that their names are there in the list, they rush to the polling booth by walk. Why all this drama? Illiterates know better i say.

Turnout at the constituency where i voted was 45%. This means 45% of the registered voters voted. Probably the number of registered voters would be around 50-60% (my guess) of the actual population which in turn means that only around 25% of the eligible voters cast votes this time around. Even with so many awareness programmes running around i the voter turnout didn't increase very significantly. I was able to get lots of information about each of the candidates who were contesting. Many of them commpained that they couldn't get enrolled in the lsit easily even though they tried hard. I have no choice but to pity on them. I remember being stranded in the 2004 elections. The corporation office was in the same lane as my house and the polling booth was next door, still my name was not in the list. Thats the irony. Some di$%head is trying to apply his intelligence to manage the voter's list i guess (or its just another bug in the software)

The day online registration and online voting come into play, the elections are going to be kick ass. I am eagerly waiting for that day. For heavens sake, i transfer all my money online, so why shouldn't i be allowed to vote online.

If 3rd Front comes to power, i better sell all my investments in equities. And for all those so-called-literates who voted for 3rd Front, you have made the mistake of ur life. Election commission and other authorities should bring a 2 party rule to this country. I just hope the Big 2 individually win 'atleast' 55% of the seats. I don't care which one of them gets more. I can list down 'n' things here but whats the use if i just list it in my blog? Someday, when i am really irritated and lose all my patience towards this dirty game of coalitions, i might do something ( may beee ).

Be Kind, Rewind

Tring Tring (Of course, I am not going to type the junk tunes that my reliance box gives out), rang my mobile phone; I was on my way to Agra from chennai (looong train journey); the number was different and it seemed like an ISD number. I wondered who this could be, i decided to pick the call (Given that i was looking out for a job then and was optimistic, he he).  It was my school friend. It was her marriage and she invited me. I was touched. It has been almost 8 long years since i was in touch with most of my school mates. I was really happy. I was happy to know that she was trying to reach out to each of our batchmates and invite them personally to her marriage. You don't come across such people these days, do you? 

I managed to attend her reception this long weekend. It was very nostalgic to see my high school classmates. I had a chance to interact with them again. I don't know whether i was snobbish (of course, "Amrit" was Snobbish) or just a jerk in school (and possibly, a jerk too). I never interacted too much with girls back then (okay, don't fall off ur chairs and start laughing).  I don't intend to reason out why i was like that! Anyways, i did get to interact with some of them again. I hope they don't see me as the same snobbish guy now ;).  Some of them had kids and i was like wow. Everyone had taken new roles in life, and were really responsible and mature.  It was a wonderful sight.  Thanks to her marriage that i was able to re-connect with my friends again. A very sweet gesture indeed.

There are plans to have a Re-Union in 2011 (10 years since we left the school). I hope more friends turn out for that event. No one stops anyone from meeting before that anyways. Sometimes you wonder how difficult it is to pick up your phone and reach out to your friends or just drop a "Hi" mail ... 

[One more sentibega blog, and everyone will boycott ur blog forever!!! ]