Girish's Blog

I was introduced to online trading by Indiabulls in August 2004. The Indiabulls trading screen was a snapshot of the BSE trading screen and was very easy to operate. The trading was almost real time – a gap of maybe 5 seconds between the BSE time and the online trading time. Once my account was set up and I had transferred shares into my linked demat account as margin, I was ready for day trading. I had no intention of doing day trades – my initial thinking was to use the online trading facility for investing in shares in the short term and supplementing my professional income with short term profits. I was doing reasonably well having made about Rs. 70000 odd in three months. All trades made were confirmed by an e-mail received from Indiabulls, also I could download all contracts and bills for my records from their site. Being an accountant, documentation has always held importance for avoiding tax headaches at a later date. Sometime in November 2004 I got an e-mail from Indiabulls st...

The Padma Shri awards are given by the Government of India generally to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including the Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and Public Life. It is the fourth in the hierarchy of civilian awards after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Uptill the year 2008, 2059 people have been given the Padma Shri since its institution in 1954. The sports awards for the year 2009 have created a controversy as the Olympic medal winners who were short listed have been removed from the final list of awardees. This to my mind is gross injustice to the sportspersons – boxer Vijender Kumar and wrestler Sushil Kumar. In fact these two had created Olympic sporting history as far as India was concerned, by giving two bronze medals to India on the same day at the 2008 Beijing Olympics along with Abhinav Bindra’s shooting gold. We have never won anything apart fr...

I have been a BJP voter for as long as I can remember, but the so called activism by right wing off shoots of the “ hindutva ” parties has left me hanging my head in shame. Whether it is the hooliganism perpetrated by the Sri Ram Sene in Mangalore on Saturday, the vandalization of churches in Bangalore by members of the same group earlier or the bullying tactics of the MNS in Maharashtra in 5 star hotels or the Mumbai University – these acts are beyond condemnation. I strongly suggest that these people should be hospitalized and checked for psychiatric / schizophrenic symptoms – that is the only thing that can condone such ridiculously violent behavior. Maybe these guys have been molested in their youth, denied basic human rights for their behavior to become inhuman and animalistic – I think I am being impolite to the animals as they also indulge in violence only to fill their stomachs – these guys seem to be indulging in violence to satiate some other base instinct which only psychiat...

Subsequent to my earlier post on the Satyam episode it has been established that Satyam had only 40000 employees and around 13000 employees were fake generating around Rs. 20 crore per month for Mr. Ramalinga Raju! The question is how were these ghost employees created. The banks follow or are supposed to follow strict KYC norms (Know Your Customer)before opening a bank account. You will understand what I mean if you have ever tried opening a new bank account. The bank requires your Income Tax PAN, your photographs, identity proof as well as residence proof for opening a new account. If 13000 fake employees have been created and the salary was being paid by cheque to these bank accounts implies that a very well thought out fraud was taking place. This fraud would require a lot of agencies being hand in glove to make it successful. The investigators would first need to see whether all the Income Tax PAN numbers created were genuine, if so - whether 13000 different photos, addresses were...

What appears as a fact today is deemed to be real, but the same fact tomorrow may not appear to be real due to disclosure of other related facts. Reality also differs when seen through different eyes and through ones perception of the so called reality. Have you ever recalled an event in your memory, a place you may have visited or an object you have visualized and then you actually the event occurs or you visit the place or see the object and then realize that it is not in any way close to what you thought about it. You my think of visiting a tourist resort or watch a movie based on descriptions given by friends, and then when you actually visit that place or watch the movie you find it to be completely different than what you imagined it to be! This is because you were trying to see what your friend saw – what you perceived was your friends reality hence your reality of the place visited or movie seen is different from that of your friends. For instance if you taste something bitter ...

Two incidents reported in the Press today highlight the fact that some members of the Mumbai police do not have a clue as to their role while policing this vast city. In the first incident the Police were silent spectators while the Shiv Sena goons vandalized and terrorized a 5 star hotel, namely Hotel Intercontinental Lalit at Sahar in the guise of unionism and trying to restore the jobs of the so called 11 youth who lost their jobs. If the management has sacked 11 people they must be having valid reasons, even if they don’t, there are more civilized ways to protest with adequate legal remedies available to the sacked employees which can help re-instate them. Are these politicians people friendly or they just interested in their petty political gains which could help them garner some funds? We have not yet got over the 26/11 terror attacks and here we have our own home grown goondas terrorizing and vandalizing another 5 star hotel. It has been reported in the Press that the police wer...

Yesterday was a historic day with the swearing in of the first non-white President in the worlds oldest and most powerful democracy. The celebrations and party before the swearing in showcased the hopes and expectations of a nation mauled by economic scandals, recession, banking losses and a multitude of bankruptcy filings by some of the largest corporations in the US leading to unprecedented job losses. The world has seen a global economic meltdown triggered by events which transpired in the US. There are problems in the Middle East and Afghanistan/Pakistan plus the Bush created mess in Iraq to take care of. Mr. Obama is definitely going to have his hands full and his acceptance speech was serious and hopeful of tackling the various issues over time. It was probably one of the most inspiring speeches given in modern times. Hope our politicians learn something from Mr. Obama! He has selected a high powered team of individuals with the strength of character and with high levels of integ...

We left home at 5.15 am, my wife, younger daughter Vallari and myself for VT. We had to take the route via saath raasta to JJ Hospital and thence to the Police Commissioners office. As we had left early parking was no problem. We parked the car and walked all the way to Gate number 3 which was our entry point for the Corporate Challenge. There was pretty decent security, with screening of people entering the holding area for the participants, this led to long lines at the entry points. As I had come early, I got in well in time, some of my colleagues who came late had to stand in long lines and missed the start time for the half marathon and had to rush off without warming up. We had 16 people running the half marathon from our company and 27 participating in the Dream Run. As usual we had quite a few drop outs but I guess these guys missed out on the experience once again. We were running for a cause to support “Project Crayons” an NGO which works for the underprivileged girl child –...

There is a very nice story which is a part of the Indian fables. Let me narrate the story to the best of my ability. Once upon a time there lived a King who was very handsome and vain about his looks and clothes. He liked to wear expensive silk and muslin dresses with jewelry embroidered into the clothing. He was a good ruler but being vain and proud was sometimes not too well inclined towards the masses. His preference for expensive clothes and jewelry was well known in his kingdom. In the kingdom there were two very clever robbers who decided to take advantage of the Kings vain attitude. The two of them approached the King by attending his weekly durbar. At the durbar, when it was their turn to speak, they told the King that they had come from Persia and had heard about the Kings liking for quality clothes through travelers and that they were tailors by profession. They said they had the skills and god given gift of preparing the most beautiful and exquisite clothing for royalty. The...

We are just six days away from one of the single largest sporting events in the world – the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2009. I am sure most of us have been training vigorously for the event – each in his/her own way. This is for all you people who do not find time to keep themselves fit – I had promised my friends in college that 25 years hence I would still be running – guess what guys I have kept my promise. The older I grow the younger I get. The upside is it helps me raise the pledges for the charity of my choice. Also remember all you guys who do not find time to exercise – there are 24 hours in a day and with proper time management everything is possible – a good healthy run in the morning gives you the testosterone rush to take you through the rest of the day – far better than sitting in front of a TV and exercising your thumb on the remote – don’t you think? Most of us are so desperate to try and get ahead in life by trying to earn a living that they forget that ultimat...

This article is dedicated to a young friend of mine who has too optimistic a view of the stock markets and never sells when he should and then keeps wondering what happened when the markets collapse. He then walks around with a shell shocked look on his face which tells you he has missed the bus – again and again. I have lived through three stock market boom-bust cycles starting with the Harshad Mehta days (1990-1992), followed by Ketan Parekh (1999- 2001) and the collapse which happened post January 18, 2008. The Harshad Mehta days were different from the other two because in those days physical delivery of shares was required – there was no dematerialized scrips then, you see. We used to have firm allotment of shares to NRI applicants of IPO’s so as to bring in scarce foreign currency. Those were the days when India had gone virtually bankrupt and had just about a months foreign currency reserves – in fact the Indian Government had to pledge it’s gold to finance it’s short term forei...

Today’s “honest” disclosure by “ Satya m” Mr. R. Raju in his resignation letter submitted to the Board of Directors of Satyam and filed with SEBI and the stock exchanges is at the outset the outpouring of the frustration of managing an organization which has “grown” bigger than it’s boots to keep its investors happy, is how I would look at it. The holes which the disclosure has put in the audited financials, corporate governance and regulatory oversight are too big and far too many to be ignored. The issues raised by the disclosure have a wider import and impact on industry as a whole and on the software business in particular. Valmiki – a dacoit by profession was struck by remorse and was advised by Narad muni to meditate on the word “Rama” - as Valmiki could not say “Rama”, Narad advised him to say “Mara” which is what he had been doing – but in a continuous chant it sounded “Rama”, thereby achieving the objective. Similarly Mr. Raju after the “Mara” phase is trying to enter the “R...

This is the second anecdote from my teens which I had said I would write about in my previous post. I had gone to stay for my summer vacations at my aunt's house in Churchgate. My aunt sent me back to Matunga on some errand. Once I reached my residence, I found a group of friends sitting down near the water tank. The summer vacations had just started and the 'jam' fruit tree was full of sweet, luscious jams. I saw them eyeing the fruits longingly and wishing they could get their hands on it somehow. Now the tree is located in the Ruparel College vice principals garden, which in turn is a part of Ruparel College's botanical garden. Ruparel College at that point in time had still not shut for summer vacations and students and staff were still around, which is what makes this narrative all the more interesting. I joined the group and asked them why they do not just cross over the wall and get the fruits. They were actually too scared and said what if they were caught. I to...

I would like to share two interesting incidents which occurred in my teens. The first one relates to a cycling expedition and the other to a "jam fruit" plucking incident from Ruparel College botanical garden. The "jam fruit" incident will be in the next post. Cycling Expedition It was January of 1979, Sunday - nice and cold, and my circle of friends (Two Girish's, Vivek, Arvind and Yeshwant) was extremely fit. We used to exercise at Talwalkars and I used to train for the half mile and mile event for University and State. In those days I used to run 15 rounds of Shivaji Park in one and a half hours. Five of us decided to take our bicycles and go to Vashi Creek bridge and return. Of these four bikes were relatively new, and one was an old bike but in good condition. We used to service our bicyles ourselves and decided to carry a puncture repair kit just in case. Of the five, Yeshwant was not into physical fitness like we were, but neither was he a pushover (he ha...