Unlimited returns limited liability

First Northern bank, and now AIG. The money crisis has led to government takeover of some of glamor boys and bedrocks of a market driven economy. The fall of these companies would have had severe implications on the economy of these countries, banking sector in particular. So a government bailout with tax payers money. This was the only way to continue operations in these companies. The other option would have been the companies filing for bankruptcy which would lead to the company's assets stripped apart by creditors, and continued operations unlikely.

Now my goat with the whole process is that the government in these occasions made the tax payers pay for operational mistakes for which the management and shareholders who chose the management are responsible, while putting minimum costs on the shareholders. On the event of a bail out, the shareholders can still liquidate their shareholding and leave with whatever they get. They shouldn't be getting anything in a government bailout. A government bail out happens only when the market does not value on going operations of a company higher than the sum of its parts. The first right of whatever is earned out of the parts auctioned in the market is with the employees, debtors etc in that order, and equity holders come last. But a government bail out serves the shareholders before anybody else. And the economic cost of buying at a price higher than the fair market value is passed on to the tax payers. This is not just. This is my goat.

Everyone farts in my general direction

You let them ride on your back, just to be polite.
You let some water flow under, coz then it seems right.
You are tolerant but someone else might not be,
Slack, my brothers and sisters, is your enemy.

A little neglect caused the Bhopal tragedy,
For the current reservation crisis blame middle class voting apathy.
The reduce-weight industry trigerred by burgers and french fries,
And an ambiguity in requirement scope has led to kiddo's demise.

Jab Sam ko mausi ne kaha ki 'Woh sab toh theek hai beta, lekin mei bhi basanti ki mausi hu, koi dushman thodi hu, usko kuwe mei dhakel toh nehi sakti na. Itna toh pata hi hona chahiye ki ladka kamata kitna hai!'
toh Sam ne mausi se kaha 'Baat aisi hai mausi, ki kamane ka kya hai, agar naukri rahi toh kama bhi lunga!'
Fir gao waale ne kaha 'Mausi, yeh kya kar rahi ho!'
Aur mausi neh kaha 'Wohi karungi joh Chapman nei Lennon ke liye kiya tha, Godse ne bapu ke liye kiya tha.... Murder!'
Gao waala 1 'Yeh murder kya hota hai?'
Gao waala 2 'Jab koi angrez kisi aur angrez ko maarta hai na, toh usko murder kehte hai.'
Gao waala 1 'Agar koi desi koi angrez ko maarta hai, toh usko kya kete hai?'
Gao waala 2 'Usko suicide kehte hai.'

Random musings

We all are young, and we have dreams about our future. Some of these dreams we can achieve on our own. These are the easy ones. There are other dreams which we build around other people. Long term goals, future plans. Who’s to say our future will be to plan? Who’s to say jobs will be as easy to find ten years down the line? Who’s to say you wife will not run away with her colleague? Who’s to say, you friends will not drive drunk and leave you paralyzed limb down for life?

What you have is your today. And if you’re not happy with what you have, you probably will never be. People are too busy trying to make their future secure, secure mind you not happy, that the present is full of shit. 14 hours work, half a pack of cigarette a day, two square meals with multiple coffee breaks, six hours of sleep. And no body is complaining since everybody else is doing it too.

Today, my today is going down the drain and I am satisfied with just a meek ‘too bad’. On the other hand why don’t I just take care of my today, and if I do it consistently for the rest of my life will not my future take care of itself?

Let’s face it, we don’t really know what the future has in store for us. And what we don’t know, we fear. And what we fear, we try to avoid. So we do things we feel will not jeopardize our future. We play safe. And yet some of us do get fucked up.

Some of us find out that we’ve been fucked up. Some of us don’t even realize it. Perception is confused as a satisfactory reality. It may be sufficient to avoid pissing us off, but it’s not the reality. Reality may be that no matter how hard you work you might still get passed over for that bosses’ favorite. Reality might be that the love of your life might have had loves of her own before you and is planning more ahead. You’ve seen it happen with other people, who’s to say it’s not happening with you or can’t? What you perceive may just be a cruel joke you haven't had the exposure to understand.

So what’s stopping me from enjoying now? Why am I still putting in 12 hours of work a day? Why am I saving for a house over mine and S's head? Why is it that I don’t even think of flirting around although she’s miles away from me? I miss her so much, but should I? Is sanity holding me back, or is it madness?

Insomnia

Things look bright, and that is when I am the most suspicious. People like me, my work is being appreciated, and I have been clean for quite some time now. And the immediate future looks very very promising. I wonder how long it will last. I'm not used to this. I can't sleep these days.

Hunky Dory

I've played in every position. Kept goals, scored goals, prevented people from scoring goals, helped people score goals. It's probably the only thing I do well. My favorite team is Barcelona and sometimes I wish I was born in Brazil. They say angels send their wanton daughters to Brazil for vacations.
Haven't played the game for quite soemtime though. Haven't done many things I earlier enjoyed for quite some time actually. Did onething today though. Pigged out on channa/boot during lunch like I used to when ma used to cook it during my school days. Feeling better these days for no apparant reason.
Went to Styx yesterday. Found out that I am probably growing old. The souls of the dead apparently like grunge metal. I swear Purple Haze is the place for people long in the tooth like I. I should have guessed the first time I saw VH1 playing a song I remember being released in their retropicks. Still enjoyed a lot at Styx despite the music. Would have headbanged had my head not been already spinning with the beer.

Just another day

Oh aaj mausam bada be-i-maan hai!
Aane waala koi toofan hai!
Just when you are planning to hang up your gloves for the day, up comes S asking you to complete that proposal we decided to shelve for a week yesterday. Deadlines like this are worse than that at B. And that was MBA, this is you know.. the actual thing. But S is somebody I admire for his own ability to create something out of nothing. And the guy has vision. Yeah its possible for people to be foresighted.
Who I can't stand is the PL idiot. This org structure is not proper. I should not be made to report to idiots who can't track a fucking schedule. Assclown, if I was so interested in tracking and maintaining excel sheets you would have by now found yourself out of a job.
So now while you guys enjoy the weather out there, if you would kindly excuse me, I have some documents to attend to.

Did you ask me how I was?

You usually won't associate me with a sunny disposition, but neither am I really gloomy until somebody asks me the question 'How are you?'. Then I feel an obligation to be depressed. I never knew why, until today when I drew up a list of circumstantial evidence to substantiate and corroborate my claim to being dull and dreary.

My laugh lines are fast dissapearing and I'm not happy about it.
I look down when I walk and talk.
I stare aimlessly down the road as I puff into my cigarette.
I would rather sleep than go out.
I can't read anymore.
More often than not, I don't complete a movie, or a book. I've started reading comics.
I've stopped calling my friends, and they've stopped calling me.
I've stopped playing football, only watch it these days.
My eyebags are larger than my eyes and I've got pretty big eyes to start with.
I hate work..... still.
Hey in case you're wondering, I'm still sexy, but I don't feel that way anymore too...
Bugger!

They're writing songs of love..
But not for me.
A lucky star's above..
But not for me...

Boo Hoo Hoo!!!!!

Looking for a guy named Charlie!

Dada told me about the uproar on the movie 'Tango Charlie' yesterday. Let me disclaim at the onset that I have not seen the movie yet. But since I would rather go on a date with Aishwarya Rai than see that movie, there is little possibility that an infinitesimal increment in the Bollywood coffers would be driven from my pocket. Although it has been my tendency to justify anything on the grounds of human folly, somehow this incident has irked me. Probably because I've had Bodo friends, and they come across as good civilised people, with certain quirkiness inherent in every community, but none have ever exhibited any nefarious design on my ears. And Bodo girls, like all other good girls, like attention, manipulation and gifts. But earlobes is stretching the imagination a little too far, even by Bollywood's standards.

My bad!

A: I’m sorry dude! About your pen, I really lost it. That’s true. I knew I would lose it, no pen of mine or somebody else’s stays with me for more than a week, half a day mostly, but I don’t care. I accept that as a universal truth. It always gives me a pleasant surprise to occasionally see a pen at my disposal. Getting back to your pen, you must have put in a lot of emotional attachment with it; an office stationary provided cheap free pen is something that doesn’t come by everyday. Oh wait it does, all you need is to walk up to C and ask him for one. Ya, ya I know. C is a sort of a retarded asshole, who gives you that look like he’s handing out some family heirloom of his. That’s precisely the reason I come to you to ask you to lend (?) me your pen. Hope you don’t wise up too soon.

S: I’m sorry dude! I didn’t laugh at your joke now. It was not even funny when you first said it an hour and a half ago. Why I pretended to like it then was that I can laugh at H’s reaction when you and U take Spiderman’s ass during lunch. He is the one that really cracks me up, every word that comes out of his mouth is precious.

B: I’m sorry dude! I have not done much work today. I have a splitting headache from yesterday’s debauchery and contrary to popular wisdom smoking is not helping the headache at all. By the way, keep up the good work.

Su: You remind me of my college days really. And it has nothing to do with your cheerfulness and bubbly character. I know you’d frown and say ‘What was that again?’ You actually remind me of B, who assumed she was beautiful because of the quality of opposition she had. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not bad looking. The triple I Tian is a lucky chap, he really is. He couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Finally, my slate is clean for the day!! I feel better already.

Don't spread your legs if you don't mean it!!

Two families moved from Pakistan to New York. When they arrived the two fathers made a bet -- in a year's time, whichever family had become more American would win. A year later they met again. The first man said, "My son is playing baseball, I had McDonalds for breakfast, and I'm on my way to pick up a case of Bud, how about you?" The second man replied, "Fuck off, towelhead."

Ok I thought I would start my blog with a joke because some idiot in ManCom class said that that is a sure shot way to grab attention in a presentation. What that idiot forgot to tell us was that the joke must be relevant. Guess he just assumed that it would be obvious. But I have always been the man who choses to ignore the obvious. You may also chose to point out that this is not a presentation. I know. Isn't it obvious? Dumbass!!

So the deal is that I am finally writing something in my blog out of desperation. Good ideas are hard to come by, especially for me. My ideas don't retain my own attention for ten minutes. This doesn't mean that you should stop coming back to my blog, I've had some pretty decent ideas in the past, just that I cannot remember any of them right now. But they are sure to pop out, albeit infrequently, like the Indian cricket team's unexpected decent performances. You know they are capable of blowing your mind away with a spectacular performance now and then, but you are not sure when, and you are mostly cynical about the next. But you don't stop watching their games do you? You hang on. So hang on to my blog and I assure you that one day I'll write something that will enrapture you with bliss and enlightenment. But please don't expect it in every other blog of mine, too much pressure, and my dad doesn't own a coffee shop too!

Anyway, yesterday our company sponsored a dinner at this restaurant which was preceeded by a dance program by this famous Natya ensemble. Dinner was fine, but it was the dance that got me pretty irritated about our great Indian art form, dance forms in particular. The cabal nature of our heritage upset me. Most of our dances are arts skills for which are acquired through years of extensive practice, they are not for the common man. It is almost that the originators of most of our dances designed this exclusivity. Dance according to me should essentially consist of a few basic steps and a lot of improvisation. The few basic steps are easily learnt and everybody can improvise upto the extent of the inventiveness, enthu and body rhythm he/she has. The enthu part is very important, a dance should be an outlet of frustration, an expression of joy, an escape. Thats it, when you try to incorporate education into it, the dance becomes exclusive. Who wants to do background research when he goes to see a dance? Thats why I like Bhangra or Bihu, and try to avoid Carnatic, Kathak, Manipuri etc like poison. There is a difference between playacting and dance, and the pretentious smiles of the pretty girls in yesterday's program drove the last nail into the coffin of my disgust.

Did I tell you about the dinner? I did? Oh! Good thing is that it doesn't take years of extensive practice to appreciate good Indian food!