It is becoming colder in Delhi and mornings generally very foggy. Today on my way to the office i watched "The Guru" . Pretty gross yet hilarious movie.
Dec 18, 2002 : - I used to think that running a search engine firm must be easy. This article on Google was actually an eye opener. There can be so many intricacies involved from Foreign relations to relegion
New Vodafone CEO is an Indian - Arun Sarin
Dec 16, 2002 : - Apologies for writing after a rather long break. I am feeling stronger after the few days of turmoil over the Idealist, pragmatist debate. Things are in better control now. I have put up a new link on the site � Lolita � A story close to my real life�.
Interesting article on the how weblogs are aiding in saving the environment
Dec 10, 2002 : - I am planning to go a tour of south India during the Christmas vacations. Life is going along without much direction and that is troubling me. I have also started taking a lot of interest in spiritual matters. I guess I would have become more drab for people around me. I am sure when I start speaking most people around me feel, � Heavens he has started again�.
An economic view on the costs of a war with Iraq. The writer is a professor of Economics at Yale
Dec 9, 2002 : - I wrote the previous log in time but could not upload it. Will still upload it. On my end have done very less reading. Have just started reading �Barbarians at the gate� about R J Reynolds LBO. Pretty interesting.
I am now in New Delhi or Guragaon to be precise. I am again doing that 2 hour commute but this time i do not work on my laptop. I just enjoy talking to the driver. My driver for these days is "Dev Sharan". He has been driving taxis for the past 18 yrs. He owns two TATA Sumos (A MUV very popular in India).
Dec 5, 2002 : - Writing my log after a gap of over 10 days. I was busy after arriving back in India. I am now trying to put that �Idealist� Vs � Pragmatist� episode behind me. Life has to go on and so should I. The past cannot rule the future. The past has to be buried and so It will be. I have to get over it.
Presently I am trying to enjoy my vacations. Getting up late in the morning and lazing away to glory
Nov 23, 2002 : - I cannot still get over that �Idealist� Vs � Pragmatist� debate. It still keeps coming back to my mind. I have lost sleep over it for the last two days. But I guess life must go on amd
Writing this log from Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. From the window on my left hand side I can see different airplanes parked on the tarmac. I must say Airplanes are not aesthetically designed. Had a discussion about this with my co-passenger. They are aerodynamic but no aesthetic beauty.
My trip to India is going ahead with not many surprises. Except the last minute packing glitches in Minneapolis.
Came across this �Geek� code. Considering that I spend so much time on then net I have decided to have a �Geek� code. In a few days I will upload my Geek code on this site.
Off late I have been thinking of how to manage people with different styles of working. How to make them perform in a team and deliver. The problem comes because each individual is quite capable of doing the work alone. But the issue comes when there is a need to make them work in a team. How does one split work, manage expectations.
Now I am wondering did I miss a lesson or two of the �Organization Behavior� course at IIM .. any comments
Nov 20, 2002 : - I could not provide substantial arguments for the debate between �Idealists� and �pragmatists�. The very fact that I write � I feel� before every sentence is an indication of my being an �Idealist�. And as people put it , a very strong idealist! My question is �If everyone becomes a pragmatist then who will challenge existing rules, who will think of the better world out there to be taken. I know I have a bad habit of rambling on and on..
Very interesting article on increasing life of human. Earlier in my blog I had mentioned about a way to save bodies from decaying by freezing them (ref. blog July 09, 2002)
My trip back home may impact my blogging! There may be no update on my blog till Sunday (Nov 24)
Nov 19, 2002 : - Airlines are heading towards big losses. I wonder if these are because of a crazy cost structure or the so called "9-11 impact". Contrast this with SouthWest which has posted a profit
Nov 18 ,2002 : - Was sick on the weekend. Down with some throat congestion. The SONY Clie line of PDA's is excellent. Though i just have an SL 10 ( the lowest in the range) it really looks slick. I changed my photograph today on this page.
Nov 14, 2002 : - Interesting article about Virtual networks taking over the real network space. Their competency is in picking up different providers. Similar to the hedge fund of funds where the fees is for picking up the right kind of funds. Reminds me of keynes statement on speculation
Professional investment may be likened to those newspaper competitions in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from a hundred photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole; so that each competitor has to pick, not the faces which he himself finds the prettiest, but those which he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of the other competitors, all of whom are looking at the problem from the same point of view. It is not a case of choosing those which, to the best of one's judgment, are really the prettiest, nor even those which average opinion genuinely thinks the prettiest. We have reached the third degree when we devote our intelligences to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be. And there are some, I believe, who practise the fourth, fifth and higher degrees.
Keynes, John Maynard The general theory of employment, interest and money. London : Macmillan, St. Martin's Press, 1936. page 156
If one wants to read the India Today the code is a simple 4 word combination. Easy to crack. Wonder why India today folks did not get it
Nov 08, 2002 : - I will be in SFO for the weekend and back to minneapolis on Sunday evening.
Nov 07, 2002 : - I came across this site on keeping track of calories in our indian food. Though it is for Diabetic patients i feel everyone could use the site's personal food meter, guide for healthy food etc. Worth a visit
I never used to believe in palmistry but this site on palm reading is pretty interesting. I have put up what my palm says on the my site. I cannot say it is completely true but this is what my hand says.
Nov 05, 2002 : - Interesting article on laser beam being used a weapon. Isn't it true that all that we can dream of will one day become the truth. Interesting quote from one of my random searches
"Dream as if you�ll live forever. Live as if you�ll die today"
Nov 04, 2002 : - Today is a big day for my web log. I am now in google�s search results. My site�s name appears first for search word �Kakul Sinha� and fifth for �kakul�. Cool isn�t it.
Have been reading this site on psychology and the article on our dreams nad their interpretation by Freud is pretty interesting.
For the first time in so many years I felt like being at home for Diwali. I guess it is a function of growing up and one starts feeling more and more insecure. So many things in this world seem to be out of ones control.
Was having this discussion with a friend about being productive in the society. This friend of mine is very influenced with Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". I personally feel everyone cannot be productive in this society and some people will always be dependent on others. We have decided to finish the discussion after my friend has finished reading the whole book.
Nov 03, 2002 : - This is the festival season in India. I am missing home quite a lot. On this weekend I have done nothing major except make plans for the future. I received lots of e-cards and a flurry of mass diwali wishes mails. Sometimes I begin to wonder if such mass mails actually make a point. I have started feeling one to one interaction is a must for human existence. Computer, emails in specific and technology in general are taking away that human touch ( not to undermine the importance of being in touch with people whom you can�t visit). A case in point is 2 people sitting across the cubicle chatting on a messenger service rather than talking to each other
Substitution of products( the old economics theory) at its best. With the spread of viagra across the world, animal lovers can breathe a sigh of relief because people have found a substitute for the so called aphordisiacal animal products. There has been a marked drop in global demand for animal products used in traditional Chinese medicine -- like Alaskan reindeer and Canadian seal
Oct 28, 2002 : - Did nothing much on the weekend except watching a hindi movie, "DIL CHAHTA HAI" and going relegiously to the gymnasium. the daylight saving created some stress in my schedule. I could not stay awake till late yesterday and also got up too early today.
I am looking forward to my trip to India in Nov end.
Oct 25, 2002 :- I have been guilty of neglecting my website for quite some time now. I did not realize that it has taken a life of its own. I seriously feel like apologizing to it. Am I hallucinating!
The weekend is here I have tones of things lined up apart from the usual office work. The weather here has become colder. Am presently reading this book on the "Risks in Hedge funds" . Pretty informative on all different strategies of hedge funds. A good site for information on hedge funds is hedgeworld.com
Oct 21, 2002 : - Did a 10 Km jog in less than 57 minutes. I am very happy about that apart from that I did not do much on the weekend. It has been snowing over here for the past 2 days. Have been trying to read for quite some time but have become very lazy. I am planning to go to San Jose for one of the coming weekends.
Intuitor.com is a good physics website. Definitely worth one visit
The U.S. index of leading economic indicators fell in September for the fourth month in a row, the first time that has happened since the start of the 1990- 91 recession. The drop suggests the recovery may stall through the first quarter of next year. I hope the indicators are better for October .. complete article at Bloomber site
Oct 17, 2002 : - There seems to be a lot of synergy between theTV industry and cell phone messaging firms. Was wondering if there is a synergy between communication companies and courier companies. Both are moving goods ( information or physical goods). By the way FedEx worldwide already has a fleet of planes(662) which is far more than some of the big airlines of the world.
Oct 16, 2002 : - I have started feeling that i need to give more direction to life. It's been 7 months since i left campus. I have not read a single book after that. I have started feeling that i am just drifting. And the problem is magnified by my exponentially increasing efficiency. Last night i had a thought of going on a sabbatical. :-))
I hope to become more efficient today. The best part is that i have been going to the gymnasium everyday (Okay for the past 3 days) but i plan to be lighter by 5-6 pounds before i head back to India.
There has been a lot going on in the stock markets. Will update on my site soon. Till then listen to old indian songs which have been inspired by tunes of foreign origin.
Oct 14, 2002 : - Interesting article on the scientific reasoning on the changing colour of leaves in autumn. This is probably the best time to visit Northern USA. Falls colors are really a sight to see
Oct 10, 2002 : - Very interesting article on catastrophe bonds. This led me to read more about credit derivatives. Boy! it is an interesting area.
Oct 9, 2002: - Future of light bulbs may be in complete darkness. Good article on the use of LED's as light sources
Oct 6, 2002: - Had a great time in Florida. This place overflows with oranges. They have a pretty neat car number plate too. I was thinking that Tampa would be a good escape from the cold weather of Minneapolis. But I found it to be a bit too hot. As I stepped out of the car, I was reminded of the heat in Jaipur, India.
Met up with a lot of II generation Indians in US and was very happy to find that they are so much similar to me in so many ways. Kudos to their parents and them too.
Oct 4, 2002 : - I am going to Florida for the weekend. People here tell me that it should be a cool get away from the cold and damp Minneapolis. It has already started reaching 2 deg Celsius during the nights. I am actually writing this log on the way to Tampa. It is rather unfortunate that I cannot update it from the plane itself. Well there is a way but it is way too expensive for me to do it.
Was reading about this article on the application of mobile commerce to Pharmaceutical industry. Though pretty informative but I have my doubts about the extent of the possibility
Interesting news about the Federal govt . decision to look into the practices of IPO policy of Goldman Sachs. The future of one stop shop for all financial solutions seems to be at risk. I guess this was there all along but it needs a big jerk to move the Fed into action. Well this also makes firms my belief that conglomerates with unrelated diversification should be tolerated by the investors. GE is one big example of what should "not" be allowed. There seems to be no connection between Aircraft engines and Televisions, then why not invest money in two different companies and do the diversification oneself.
I have stumbled across this excellent site on macroeconomics by a Prof at Stern. This site has enough information to keep a person busy for a good 2 months. It is one of my favorites now.
Oct 2 , 2002: - Read this interesting article on luxury submarines. Well I had thought about it long ago when luxury jets were being talked of.
Weather bonds seek to convert weather changes into a security. The following cartoon appeared in Wall Street Willard and tells us how would the weather channel on the TV look like, when weather bonds become the order of the day:
I was wondering if someone could securitize the earnings of films made by certain producers / directors or films of certain actors. I would surely do it for Tom Cruise or Meg Ryan. Any Investment banks listenning. Last i heard an exotic structuring was a bond floated on the diamonds of an Indian doing diamond trade in Belgium.
Sept 26, 2002: - Read this interesting article using the link of Anand. It is about the parallels between the Roman and the American empires. The point is that the autor talks only about the Julius ceaser era. It is assumed that Roman empire was the best under him. This is something that i do not fully agree with. What about emperors like Nero etc.
Sept 25, 2002: - Interesting Economist article by Drucker about The Near Future. I have always liked to look at things about the future.
Sept 24, 2002 : - Missed writing the log on monday. Have got a lot of reminders from my blog readers to update it regularly. I will update regularly.
Learnt about the distressed debt market and the intricacies of investing in them.
Was reading about the availability of the genomic sequence of a bacteria on the net. Pretty scary for me atleast
Sept 22, 2002: - Today is a Sunday and there is some office work to do but I feel bad that I haven�t been able to write my log for the past 2 days. Not that I have been terribly busy but just plain and simple vanilla lazy. The whole of this week I have been thinking about why are people so worried about things that are hardly in their control. Isn't it true that there are somethings that one can't change. Why does not one learn to let go and live.
So many times I have felt that I am not in total control of things. There are so many things that I cannot do sitting here. One needs to live with that ambiguity and learn to live in a world where everything is not going according to plans. It is some times so difficult to train the human mind which has always sought state of lower entropy to accept the fact that entropy will increase and there is nothing one can do about it.
Why I get disturbed is that I see a direct impact of this on my definition of selfishness. For argument sake if one decides that one cannot do much in a certain situation and sits back to let go is it also a sign of not empathizing. Or much worse does it show that it is plain and simple selfishness. I know this is getting too philosophical.
Sept 21, 2002: - Was having an animated discussion about the efficient market theory with a person who have spent trading in Fixed income instruments. My question was if markets are efficient then why do we have fluctuations in prices every day in the stock exchange. I proposed that the valuation philosophy of PV of all future dividends and Present value of growth opportunities should not change everyday as there is very little change in the expected dividends / the growth opportunities on a daily basis. His point was that the discount rate can change everyday and thereby the valuation and so the stock price. Any comments
Then we had a discussion on hedging of convexity of Fixed income instruments by going long and short on the same underlier. My view was that convexity can be hedged by the above strategy. He said that convexity is not important as it cannot be hedged and the only was to hedge both �duration� and �convexity� is to have no bonds at all. Any comments
Sept 16, 2002 : - Scientists are lab-testing a death fish that will wipe out its own species. We first create havoc in our environment and then go about bringing it back to normal. Interesting !!
Sept 16, 2002 : - Cloning of the animals has actually started impacting our lives. We may actually be consuming food products from cloned animals by 2003. Is the answer to the survival of the human race? Any comments
Sept 14, 2002 : - Came across this urdu dictionary site. Actually one of my colleagues had mentioned to me about this a month back but got time to see it only today. It has an English to Urdu translator.
Sept 13, 2002 : - Microsoft researcher Mike Jones et al have dug up the first instance of the smiley emoticon. Details of this critical academic research here. (new architect mag)
Sept 13, 2002 : - Came across so many new blogs that i felt embarrased seeing mine. i wish i can do a good job here.
Sept 13, 2002 : - came across this urdu dictionary site. Actually one of my colleague had mentioned to me about this a month back but got time to see it only today. It has an English to Urdu translator.
Sept 11, 2002 :- If you thought that working for FBI as a computer analyst was simple even for geeks... boy you r mistaken
Sept 10, 2002 : - Reached minneapolis yesterday. Interesting article on the latest breakthrough in solar cell technology. This article talks about the capability of putting solar cells in the plaster on a wall, inside a wall paper. The possibilities are huge !
Sept 06, 2002 : - The training was interesting. Learnt a lot about myself. After a long time I saw an instructor so interested in her topic that she actually read out a piece from a book (just like it used to happen in tenth grade). I enjoyed the session
Sept 06, 2002 : - Today we have a training in a 5 star hotel. I am right now surrounded by 5 of my colleagues and I have done a good job of selling my website to them. I hope they go and see the website for once.
Then there is a question of having a laptop. Someone may feel that a laptop may also fall in this category.
Sept 04, 2002 : - Nowadays my travel time to office is around 2 hrs each side. quite a time to pass. I have therefore decided to write my daily log on my way to office. Infact i am writing this on my way to office. I wonder how people are able to manage it in places like mumbai where travel to office is by metro.
Sept 02,03 2002 : - I am in some training. No updates for today.
Sept 01, 2002 : - Attended a marriage of two of my colleagues. The boy hails from Andhra Pradesh and the girl from Uttar Pradesh. Got an opportunity to see two seemingly different cultures come together. I missed the initial �muhurtham� but was there just before, what i call the "rice ceremony" .
Rice Ceremony: The boy starts by throwing two hand full of rice on the bride. After that the girl does the same. this goes on for 4 times alternating between the boy and the girl. And at the end the girl and the boy do the same ritual simultaneously.
And then it is a free for all. It then becomes a test of strength on who can throw the whole pot full of rice on one another
South Indian music: I was under the impression that traditional south indian music instruments are not capable of playing much foot tapping music. Boy was i wrong. After listenning to the marriage songs at the ceremony i did a 180 degree flip. Not only was i tapping my feet on the beats of the music but have also decided to buy that cassette. Really music does not have any language. There was a main band also playing the normal bollywood marriage music. But who cares when the real thing is out there!
August 29, 2002 : - The rafting was fun. We also did rappelling. it was a great site to see even 40 yr olds trying to do it for the team sake. The trip back was uneventful. Slept almost for the whole trip. reached delhi after 7 hrs ( a hour too much).
August 28, 2002: - Attended a "Reality Learning" TM exercise on the "trust". Was amazed to see that how important things come out of small exercises. After writing this log i need to go for Rafting. Should be fun.
August 27, 2002: - Embarked on the journey to Corbett National park for a team building exercise. The interesting thing is that as soon as we paid the toll for the toll road the road became much worse than it was before. An unexplainable event. Saw my roots ( the real india) after such a long time. Though i was sitting in the cool comfort of an Air-conditioned bus but the scene outside was one that i could relate to. It emphasized the point that if India has to progress the villages and small towns need to see progress. One Bangalore or one Shanghai has not made India or China a real progressive country. It sure is a beginning. I also felt that hollow words like this will not make an impact. It needs to be backed up by action on my part.
Insha-Allah action will follow from my end.
August 22, 2002:- Was trying to book a cab to take me from the airport to Jaipur. The information was too vague for me to take any decision let alone book it. These firms are still not geared to give what the customers may want, rather it seems they want to sell what they can produce!. 1. 2. 3.
days
August 22, 2002:- Was following the news of the Inverse floaters in the Indian capital market scene. Wondering if the slew of inverse floaters is a forecast of worse times to come
August 10, 2002: - Was reading this article on Siachen turning into one big dumping ground. What a pity we will be gifting a much worse world to our next generation than the one we got. The question in my mind is whath s mankind achieved after so much science and technology. Even today if we look at the spending on health research and military research we will find a huge mismatch. We are more interested in destroying than in creating. Is it a fault of some human beings or a few of them. Did such kind of activities lead to the destruction of the big and prosperous empires of the past ( INCA's of the Indus Valley civilization)
Aug 05, 2002:- Has been a rather long time since i wrote my log. Need to get more regular doing this. India trip was good though a real quick one. Have decided not to look back and regret for mistakes done in the past.
Aug 05, 2002 :- How far people will go to show loyalty to Macs ( if a tatoo was not enough it is the haircut now)
July 29, 2002:- For a few tenths of a second, at the micrometer level, the Second law of Thermodynamics can be violated.
July 26, 2002:- Came back after a small vacation in India. The monsoons may not arrive in some parts of India this year.
July 12, 2002:- Interesting article on use of laser beams as weapons in modern US fighter. It is presently designed to strike enemy missiles. The high-energy beam, which will be about the diameter of a basketball, will heat the side of a missile until it fails structurally. Brings alive the memories of the original "Star Wars" and its space fight sequences.
11 July, 2002:- Found that there is a real god site of the Jane's Defence weekly. Atleast the photograph section is for free use. One just needs to sign up. For other articles there is a hefty price tag. Read this article on an Objective Force Warrior. Basically what a future US ground soldier would look like. It is cool
11 July, 2002:- US scientists have made a synthetic virus. Science has no boundaries!!
10 July, 2002:- My trip to India has got preponed. May not be posting weblogs for a few days
9 July, 2002:- Read this news about "Cryonic suspension" -- the freezing of a dead body such that the body does not decay. There is even a price war among the different labs that give such a facility. The interesting thing is that people expect that in future, science might develop a method to provide life to these dead bodies.
Was wondering whether it is safe to play GOD. Well then it leads to the question of whether there is GOD at all or not. If not than can we assume science is complete as we know it. Well that certainly is not true because scientific truths have been found to be doing a 180 degree flip from times immemorial.
9 July, 2002:- Read this article on white parents giving birth to black twins. Well the explanation was simple. A case of mixed up fertilized test tube baby. Now there is a lot of hue and cry over the legal parents, hospital negligence etc.
A colleague of mine threw up an interesting question: " What will the kids feel once they grow up" . I reflected a little more on that. Was it their fault? Or will it ever be their fault that they were brought in this world. More often than not we punish people for mistakes that they have not done.
For those interested in seeing a very touching movie on a similar topic they could watch "MASOOM" ( which when translated to English means innocent). It is a story of an illegitimate child and the question of his acceptance in his father's family. It was released in the early 80's
7 July, 2002:- Came across a calvin and hobbes statement " Reality is an illusion caused due to lack of alcohol". It reminded me of the dialogue in Matrix "If you don't wake up from a dream , you can not tell a dream from reality". They appear so similar. Or is it that I am dreaming
4 July, 2002: - Had gone to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota for the independence day long weekend
29 June, 2002: - I had gone to my brother�s place at Syracuse and took part in a family function. It was for the first time that I saw such a big concentration of Non resident Indians in the US.
Jun 28, 2002:- My trip back to India has got postponed by a fortnight. So I will get more time to enjoy the summer of Minneapolis. Had a discussion on what is final, what is limitless, is there something as right or wrong. Or is it just a picture that is created by social norms.
Jun 22, 2002:- There is this interesting site about funny law cases in the United states. Interesting leisure reading. Appropriately named too
Jun 22, 2002:- Writing the weblog after almost a fortnight. Summer has arrived in minneapolis and suddenly it is a better place to be in. A different achivement so far has been my ability to finish a 10 km( ~ 6.25 miles) run in under an hour.
Jun 02, 2002 :- The latest article on HBR talks about using War strategies in corporate world. Am also looking for a web subscription of HBR
May 28, 2002 :- Worked on a way to instantiate a website and do some retrievals using MS excel
May 26, 2002 :- Did some shopping and relaxed. The Economist Technology Quarterly. Great tech news, a little infrequent though.
May 25, 2002 :- After lot of discussion with my team mates we went to Duluth, North Minnesota to see Lake Superior and some hyper marts. Hey i am still filling my log
May 24, 2002 :- The long weekend is here but i am not going anywhere :-(
So i have decided to make this webpage. Inspiration drawn from S Anand ( a yr senior to me at IIMB).
Came across an chilling PhD thesis on hypothetical nuclear attack scenario on Bombay