A Thousand Splendid Suns

So little does the world knows about Afghanistan, and our view is solely based words/pictures from a few sources. Most of the times we forget that there are ordinary people like us living there, who are now suffering more after US help then they were before. And yet, no one is raising a finger. 

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is a story about a little girl, who was an illegitimate child of a rich man. However, his father never accepted her, and instead, sold her to an Old man in Kabul to send her away. It talks about all the tortures she goes through while trying to be a wife to an old drunkard. It a beautiful story about the real sufferings in the country, and why the world should have been united against its rulers. There must a lot of similar books from the region, and I would love to read a few of them. 

Life Otherwise

Life apart from the job has been quite good recently. Have been watching almost every new bollywood release, and have been reading a lot of good books as well. Apart from the weather and traveling, have got quite comfortable living in Mumbai.


Recently finished the book 'Life of Pi'. The book starts off with a family in Pondichery who looks after a zoo. Then they decide to move to Canada, and boards a ship. The ship sinks in the pacific ocean, and a small boy named 'Pi Patel' is the sole survivor. The book is about this boys journey in his lifeboat through the vast Pacific Ocean. The book is very similar to 'The Old Man and the Sea', only much more detailed.

Overall, a good read, though I should warn that the story is very slow, and hence may not interest the fans of Jeffery Archers of the world.

The City that was Bombay

When the British left India, Calcutta was perhaps one of the most happening City in India. It had a great history, scholarly people and one of the best literacy rates in the country. 60 years after independence, Calcutta is dead. It was replaced by Kolkata, and that represents everything that went wrong with the City. You might ask what's in a name? Well, there is nothing in the name, and that is the whole problem. Whenever a City's name is changed, the following things are at play - (1) The government is bad enough to develop the state, and hence it resorts to these kick-out-English-in-comes-Hindustani stunts, (2) The government is also playing the regionalism game here by using a name in local language, and hence creating a vote bank of locals for the themselves, even at the cost of their state being branded anti-nationalist and against the unity of the country, (3) It is a symbol of one's preference of locals over cosmopolitans. And these are the reasons why Kolkata could never match Calcutta irrespective of all the efforts by the IT Czars and the government.

Some people refuse to learn from history and Bombay is forced to make way for Mumbai. Bombay is everything that represents India's advancement in Finance and Industries. Once it is dead, Mumbai would never be able to match the splendor of the City. Mumbai would become another Kolkata, a City known for its monuments, and traditions, a City that is a must visit who wants to see the India's glorious past, a City from the history books rather than from Business Magazines, a City that would stop its growth, and put all its energies into preventing its decay. And once it decays, it would be known as another Antique City.

So where does this leaves us? This leaves a scope for another City to come forward, this leaves a room for another Shanghai to leapfrog Beijings of the World. And the City which might take the lead would be Delhi, for the simple reason that it has been known as Delhi for more than 60 years. I am surprised that no other State has taken the lead to call all the companies that are reeling under political pressure and sky-high rentals in Mumbai. It makes sense to pay even exorbitant amount in a City for the future, but not Mumbai. Mumbai is being pulled back by its political class, and its only a matter of time when it joins Kolkata.

Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator

On someone's recommendation, read the book 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator'. Its a real life story of a very successful stock trader who practiced the habit of tape reading. It a story based set in the begining years of 20th century. Its a story about the legendary trader Jesse Livermore, and how he made and lost fortunes on the wall street. There were numerous instances when he lost all his earnings on the street, but everytime learnt something from the mistakes.

The book more than anything else stresses on the art of tape reading. The trader here concerns himself only with the story told by the tape. He sites innumerable stories of great traders, like the one below:

One day a very close friend of Livermore came to him and passed a tip that some Mr. XYZ was buying all the suger in the market, and he too should buy as there might be some good news expected on it. He added that Mr. XYZ was literally grabbing all the suger contracts available. Livermore, instead of buying, gave an order to sell 10000 lots. He waited for the fill, and after getting the fills, gave orders to sell 10000 lots more. His tipster was baffled, but he was calm. All the offering was gone in a second. Then he gave the order to buy 50000 lots. As he explained later, by selling 10000 lots twice, he was just testing if the information was correct. If he was able to sell everything without moving the price at all, it meant that someone was ready to buy everything at the market price. He tested it twice, and once convinced, bought the largest stake he could have afforded.

Its really a wonderful book, and anyone aspiring to be a good trader should read it atleast once.

Six months

Its been a long time since I had written on anything except my job-related activities. My life revolves around my job. And there are very few things outside finance that I have a genuine interest in. I have had a couple of hobbies in the past - playing cricket, watching movies, writing poems and stories, TT and a few others. But lately, I have been thinking and living only my job life. It may be more due to the fact that I have been traveling so much that I haven't had the time to settle at a place, and plan my activities. Everything has been relegated to the future tense.

I have a lot of plans for the immediate future. After I set up my home as well as office in Mumbai, I would then start with a few things I had long planned -

1. Making an album of things I have been doing, and places I have visited

2. Reading 'Atlas Shrugged'

3. Reading 'Traders: Guns and Money'

4. Watching LOTR and Harry Potter series, as well as reading the books

5. Reading the autobiographies - Richard Branson, and a couple more

6. Learning Standard Mandarin

7. Learning and Playing Tennis

8. Try my hands at Guitar

9. Visit Goa, Kerela, and Darjeeling

10. Watch the Olympics at Beijing

11. Play AOE, and other computer games

These are a long list of things to be done, and would take me around an year's time. But hopefully would be able to do them.