The Summer has been cool, yes. But the Summers had yet to become cooler, "Yes".
So, having been in waiting for coolness of all kinds, life would move on until one day, signs of coolness setting in appear on the horizon ;-)
At CorrectBank there is this young workaholic man who steers clear of all cynicism. Dedicated, is too less a word to even begin to describe him. Always thinking about the markets, portfolios and business, TheLoneWolf had seen him talk little else apart from talking about Bangalore once in a while.
But, on a day when TheLoneWolf seemed good to go, Mr. Portfolio directs a "Baby's day out".
Yes, TheLoneWolf was only a "bachcha" as he would realise on the drive with Mr. Portfolio to a coupla client offices.
Investment strategies, including the famous Value Investing variety, and Mr. Portfolio's experiments with them, make for most of the conversation enroute, and whats especially interesting is that successes and failures alike are equally disclosed :-)
After a visit to a "small" client, who enjoys CorrectBank's and especially Mr. Portfolio's services thanks only to the idea behind "Relationship Banking" (while ignoring Bank's profitability in "servicing" some such customers), it would be time to visit a really wealthy client.
TheCapital has quite a few posh areas, mostly to the South of the city. The Audis, The Mercs, the BMWs, the convertibles, and all other imported variants of auto majors such at the Toyota and the Honda may well be a fair indicator of the wealth that those living inside the huge and tastefully built houses.
Mr. HighFlier, is the client that the baby takes a liking to. Yes, highs on the highway due to stock market strategy discussions soar even higher on meeting with Mr. HighFlier.
Now, Mr. HighFlier, as his name suggests, has reached great heights in life. And that is because there were heights to most things about him. His company had reached great heights by taking people to great heights and bringing them down a few thousand kilometres away.
The man had an Audi among other cars parked outside.. (not sure if there were more within a garage!) and on CorrectBanks other man calling him up, the gate opens due to the press of a button situated naturally in Mr. HighFlier's office room.
Paintings on walls only underline the writing on the wall - that the man is "filthy" rich.
That, he has the choicest of books on philosophy and politics alike in his room cannot possibly overlooked. You cant fail to notice books even if you were to see miniatures of cars and other artifacts around them. Even the Apple I phone can be excused. After all, it is not more expensive than an N series phone.
But, Mr. HighFlier only begins talking of money and oh baby (TheLoneWolf) almost felt his own jaws drop ;-) I guess, hearing such nauseatingly high amounts of money will take getting used to.
Especially because, with someone like Mr. Portfolio around, Objectivity about money becomes the single most important thought in one's mind. And while Mr. Portfolio makes the case for what all can be done with Mr. HighFlier's wealth, listening in rapt attention is the only pleasant thing to do!
Later that evening, TheLoneWolf finds out from his ex-work/work-ex network that a man's real "Aukaath" can be fairly assessed with further observations about his clothes. While cloth brands were a bit hard to observe without being observed while observing, what TheLoneWolf did observe was the Breitling watch. Yes, may be you would argue that Breitlings are anyway worn by high-fliers because they are meant to be. After all, Breitlings were originally designed for navigation and aviation. But, but, but, cigarattes, cannot be ignored after all!
Davidoff, was what Mr. High Flier smoked, and as the ex-work network knew almost everything about Imperial Tobacco (the manufacturer of Davidoff), it is soon known over a coupla email bounces that the Classic variant of Davidoff would cost a minimum of Rs. 500 for a pack of 10.
For once, Mr. Portfolio was wrong after all. He had estimated the pack to cost 5 USD. But then, a non-smoker as a smoker would argue, never really understands the value a smoke has ;-)
The drive back to office would make for equally (if not more!) interesting conversation about among other things, wealth creation and wealth management and wealth creation through wealth management. And then, talking in private about banking is not the same as private banking, but talking in private about private banking to someone like Mr. Portfolio could be the cleanest and most educating of private conversations two men can ever have! ;-)
Every day in a summer may not be as cool ; but then, greed is a virtue only when under control ;-)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Reviews: Rakt Kalyan (Hindi play), "Little Does Matter" - a painting exhibition, Karnataka Restaurant.
India Habitat Centre on Lodhi Road is a convention centre with facilities for the simultaneous conduct of 20 odd meetings or conventions, and the marathon reading of newspapers the other day had lead to planning for various possible ways to kill time on a weekend.
I had initially set out that evening to watch the play "Me, Kash and Cruise", a play about three men and their years between 1984 and 2008 in Mumbai.
As my luck/fate would have it, the tickets for both Saturday and Sunday were sold out completely.
I am not sure if part of the reason for the sell out was the delay in my attempt at being calculative and thrifty.
I was waiting for the DTC buses for 15 minutes before I realised that even 50 bucks for an autorickshaw was not bad compared to what I would have spent in Bangalore. When one uses ones own transport, apart from the money one spends on petrol, one also has to shell out a lot of money for parking if one were to frequent malls. So, if I was in Bangalore, meeting up with old friends in a mall, I would have spent a lot of money on parking too, I thought and finally took an autorickshaw.
Lodhi Gardens and the monument ( I later found out that its called the Shish Gumbad) are probably for another day!
The India Habitat Centre near Lodhi Gardens, luckily that day also had an art exhibition and a Hindi play on. Luck, apparently is what people call this. Nothing really bad happens, unless one wants to feel victimised.
So, after a real long time, I guess I had a near ideal weekend, nearly as ideal as idle could be ;-)
Little Does Matter.
On going into the gallery, the first thing a visitor finds is the description of the idea behind "Little Does Matter". While I cannot recall all of it, and trying to type it into my cellphone would be nowhere close to covert, subtle or suppressed, I made a note of only this :
Sanjeev Verma, (http://www.sanjeevverma.com/) says:
For me, Art is a world in itself. A world in which an artist chooses to live with his creations; himself not ruling over it, but merely standing in the middle of this circle of a created beautiful life within the life, enjoying this potent gift that he inherits from the universe.
While I did make a note of the names of a select few of his works, I was badly missing Darshana (my camera), who, in keeping with the dual meanings of her name, would have helped both see and visualize at the same time ;-)
I do not really want to comment on any of Sanjeev Verma's works, especially since a novice is hardly ever a great critic. I did wonder about how much any or all of of the works on display would cost, and then, how they would appreciate in value over time. Investment in art is after all, an area that has recently been receiving attention from an investment perspective.
I must say, I could barely say what each of the paintings was trying to say at first glance; but on reading the title displayed alongside, I could reverse fit the theme onto the painting. I hope this a first step well taken, although appreciating and understanding art is a science in itself!
So...here are some of the names....Self descriptive only to an extent, because the painting cannot really be imagined only given the names...
Blue Streak, Little Does Matter (at the least, 7 variants on display), In between black and white, Beginning of the end, Dreamscape, Green patches, Regress in Progress, Even the mirage is vanishing.
I did like all of the Little Does Matter variants, but Dreamscape was easily my most favourite :-)
Finally, in defense of all artists, here is what I close this review with - An extract from one of Oscar Wilde's works -
Rakt Kalyan - Asmita Group
The play is based on Dr. Girish Karnad's Tale Danda, and is set in the days of the Bhakti movement, largely lead by Basavanna in the southern geographies of India during the 12th century. The play has been translated to Hindi by Ramgopal Bajaj, and has been directed by one Mr. Arvind Gaur, who heads the Delhi based Asmita group.
Having paid only Rs. 50 for a ticket, I had found that the play was going to be staged at the amphitheatre, and to my continuing good luck of the evening, there were no mosquitoes to play spoil sport!
The play was absorbing, to say the least, and 2 hours went with less than 2 glances at the watch. The theme and backdrop were something I could associate with, but were really thought provoking, when portraying moral dilemmas, Basavanna's growing popularity and how he was uncomfortable being thought of as an incarnation of God, or being a Godman. The issues of religious faith and belief as against tradition and religious orthodoxy of the Brahmins driven laregely by self-interest, and the issues of inter-caste marriage - something that wouldn't be short of earthshaking in those days.
The acting, and portrayal in the case of a few actors was nothing short of brilliant, and Bajrag Bali Singh (Basavanna), Deepak Ochani (King Bijjala) and Viren Basoya (Jagdeva) easily stood out. The other characters were well enacted too, save for a few peripheral characters failing to recollect dialogues on a few occasions.
The sound and light were reasonably well co-ordinated, but I did think that the music could have been composed or compiled better.
On the whole, watching the play could easily be passed as an evening well spent, and even if it were a small way of promoting theatre, the entertainment and enlightenment angles to socially relevant theatre can never be ignored.
I hope to go back to more of Asmita's plays in the future.
Karnataka Restaurant
On not being able to find buses around 10 pm, time was running out and in about 10 minutes, my patience would give way and the autorickshaw would again come to the rescue of this "LoneWolf" in TheCapital.
Just when I was thinking of dinner, and how back in Bangalore, it would have been as easy as going to a Darshini and quickly downing either a Dosa or any thing North Indian and South Indian quickly and cheaply so what if a bit dirtily, I thought that one of the conveniences and "homely" feel Bangalore had for me was its food and eating out options.
Soon enough, at Yusuf Sarai near AIIMS, I saw this "Karnataka Restaurant" and almost jumped out of the auto ;-)
One of the hazards to running an affordable speciality cuisine restaurant in a city is I guess, having to cater to the local tastes as well. So, I think, when I excuse people around eating Rotis and Paneer curry in a Karnataka Restaurant!
The look and feel of the restaurant resembles that of a typical Karnataka restaurant one can find in some parts of Bangalore (untouched by the glitz and glam of malls) and tier-2 cities like Tumkur, Maddur, etc., Those wooden furniture with laminated plywood table tops are things that remind a Kannadiga of his homeland. The menu of course, is quite important!
The menu lists all that you can possibly imagine eating in a typical restaurant in Karnataka - except for the BisiBeleBath.
The Masala Dosa is TheLoneWolf's all time favourite anyway; so the missing BisiBeleBath doesn't bother him too much. But, if you have been badly missing Karnataka, you might want to have the Karnataka Platter.
At Rs. 60, you can have an Idli, a Vada, with authentic Sambar and Chutney, and a serving each of Kesari Bath and Upittu/Upma. Finally, you have a choice of Dosa between the Masala Dosa and the Uttapam.
Easily, the most authentic and yet affordable Karnataka Restaurant I have ever seen or heard of in Delhi.
Jai Kannada! (So much that I was listening to Kannada songs while walking back!)
I had initially set out that evening to watch the play "Me, Kash and Cruise", a play about three men and their years between 1984 and 2008 in Mumbai.
As my luck/fate would have it, the tickets for both Saturday and Sunday were sold out completely.
I am not sure if part of the reason for the sell out was the delay in my attempt at being calculative and thrifty.
I was waiting for the DTC buses for 15 minutes before I realised that even 50 bucks for an autorickshaw was not bad compared to what I would have spent in Bangalore. When one uses ones own transport, apart from the money one spends on petrol, one also has to shell out a lot of money for parking if one were to frequent malls. So, if I was in Bangalore, meeting up with old friends in a mall, I would have spent a lot of money on parking too, I thought and finally took an autorickshaw.
Lodhi Gardens and the monument ( I later found out that its called the Shish Gumbad) are probably for another day!
The India Habitat Centre near Lodhi Gardens, luckily that day also had an art exhibition and a Hindi play on. Luck, apparently is what people call this. Nothing really bad happens, unless one wants to feel victimised.
So, after a real long time, I guess I had a near ideal weekend, nearly as ideal as idle could be ;-)
Little Does Matter.
On going into the gallery, the first thing a visitor finds is the description of the idea behind "Little Does Matter". While I cannot recall all of it, and trying to type it into my cellphone would be nowhere close to covert, subtle or suppressed, I made a note of only this :
Sanjeev Verma, (http://www.sanjeevverma.com/) says:
For me, Art is a world in itself. A world in which an artist chooses to live with his creations; himself not ruling over it, but merely standing in the middle of this circle of a created beautiful life within the life, enjoying this potent gift that he inherits from the universe.
While I did make a note of the names of a select few of his works, I was badly missing Darshana (my camera), who, in keeping with the dual meanings of her name, would have helped both see and visualize at the same time ;-)
I do not really want to comment on any of Sanjeev Verma's works, especially since a novice is hardly ever a great critic. I did wonder about how much any or all of of the works on display would cost, and then, how they would appreciate in value over time. Investment in art is after all, an area that has recently been receiving attention from an investment perspective.
I must say, I could barely say what each of the paintings was trying to say at first glance; but on reading the title displayed alongside, I could reverse fit the theme onto the painting. I hope this a first step well taken, although appreciating and understanding art is a science in itself!
So...here are some of the names....Self descriptive only to an extent, because the painting cannot really be imagined only given the names...
Blue Streak, Little Does Matter (at the least, 7 variants on display), In between black and white, Beginning of the end, Dreamscape, Green patches, Regress in Progress, Even the mirage is vanishing.
I did like all of the Little Does Matter variants, but Dreamscape was easily my most favourite :-)
Finally, in defense of all artists, here is what I close this review with - An extract from one of Oscar Wilde's works -
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he
does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless
thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.
Rakt Kalyan - Asmita Group
The play is based on Dr. Girish Karnad's Tale Danda, and is set in the days of the Bhakti movement, largely lead by Basavanna in the southern geographies of India during the 12th century. The play has been translated to Hindi by Ramgopal Bajaj, and has been directed by one Mr. Arvind Gaur, who heads the Delhi based Asmita group.
Having paid only Rs. 50 for a ticket, I had found that the play was going to be staged at the amphitheatre, and to my continuing good luck of the evening, there were no mosquitoes to play spoil sport!
The play was absorbing, to say the least, and 2 hours went with less than 2 glances at the watch. The theme and backdrop were something I could associate with, but were really thought provoking, when portraying moral dilemmas, Basavanna's growing popularity and how he was uncomfortable being thought of as an incarnation of God, or being a Godman. The issues of religious faith and belief as against tradition and religious orthodoxy of the Brahmins driven laregely by self-interest, and the issues of inter-caste marriage - something that wouldn't be short of earthshaking in those days.
The acting, and portrayal in the case of a few actors was nothing short of brilliant, and Bajrag Bali Singh (Basavanna), Deepak Ochani (King Bijjala) and Viren Basoya (Jagdeva) easily stood out. The other characters were well enacted too, save for a few peripheral characters failing to recollect dialogues on a few occasions.
The sound and light were reasonably well co-ordinated, but I did think that the music could have been composed or compiled better.
On the whole, watching the play could easily be passed as an evening well spent, and even if it were a small way of promoting theatre, the entertainment and enlightenment angles to socially relevant theatre can never be ignored.
I hope to go back to more of Asmita's plays in the future.
Karnataka Restaurant
On not being able to find buses around 10 pm, time was running out and in about 10 minutes, my patience would give way and the autorickshaw would again come to the rescue of this "LoneWolf" in TheCapital.
Just when I was thinking of dinner, and how back in Bangalore, it would have been as easy as going to a Darshini and quickly downing either a Dosa or any thing North Indian and South Indian quickly and cheaply so what if a bit dirtily, I thought that one of the conveniences and "homely" feel Bangalore had for me was its food and eating out options.
Soon enough, at Yusuf Sarai near AIIMS, I saw this "Karnataka Restaurant" and almost jumped out of the auto ;-)
One of the hazards to running an affordable speciality cuisine restaurant in a city is I guess, having to cater to the local tastes as well. So, I think, when I excuse people around eating Rotis and Paneer curry in a Karnataka Restaurant!
The look and feel of the restaurant resembles that of a typical Karnataka restaurant one can find in some parts of Bangalore (untouched by the glitz and glam of malls) and tier-2 cities like Tumkur, Maddur, etc., Those wooden furniture with laminated plywood table tops are things that remind a Kannadiga of his homeland. The menu of course, is quite important!
The menu lists all that you can possibly imagine eating in a typical restaurant in Karnataka - except for the BisiBeleBath.
The Masala Dosa is TheLoneWolf's all time favourite anyway; so the missing BisiBeleBath doesn't bother him too much. But, if you have been badly missing Karnataka, you might want to have the Karnataka Platter.
At Rs. 60, you can have an Idli, a Vada, with authentic Sambar and Chutney, and a serving each of Kesari Bath and Upittu/Upma. Finally, you have a choice of Dosa between the Masala Dosa and the Uttapam.
Easily, the most authentic and yet affordable Karnataka Restaurant I have ever seen or heard of in Delhi.
Jai Kannada! (So much that I was listening to Kannada songs while walking back!)
Distractions....Weekends, Weak-ends.
Humour, apparently is the best pretense and defense mechanism. It can also serve as an offense mechanism, when used with some effort and careful consideration. And coming across as being light hearted, especially at work, is quite important. I may be rather opinionated here, but, this was just one of the many theories I had come up with during my youth ;-)
And then, there was this theory about how most human beings depend on work to keep them mentally occupied, and even if there wasn't too much work to be done at the workplace, it helped one engage oneself in some activity, irrespective of the social, commercial and personal utility value of the activity.
It is the weekends which are particularly curiosity arousing.
On weekends, there is no running away from boredom or solitude or the otherwise successfully suppressed lack of direction that most amongst us hate to admit.
Of course, some people meet up with friends, some others "chill out", a few others have hobbies and interests and some of them actually have a lot to do on weekends. Even I had once (jocularly?) claimed that I work to keep myself mentally occupied between weekends.
But, some weekends expose our weak ends.
Distractions often do the trick, and this weekend was a tricky one no less ;-)
Peripheral talking has been a disease that has always plagued me, and I now realise that I need a separate post to brag about what I did on a Saturday in the Capital.
This post was only about the theories I guess ;-)
And then, there was this theory about how most human beings depend on work to keep them mentally occupied, and even if there wasn't too much work to be done at the workplace, it helped one engage oneself in some activity, irrespective of the social, commercial and personal utility value of the activity.
It is the weekends which are particularly curiosity arousing.
On weekends, there is no running away from boredom or solitude or the otherwise successfully suppressed lack of direction that most amongst us hate to admit.
Of course, some people meet up with friends, some others "chill out", a few others have hobbies and interests and some of them actually have a lot to do on weekends. Even I had once (jocularly?) claimed that I work to keep myself mentally occupied between weekends.
But, some weekends expose our weak ends.
Distractions often do the trick, and this weekend was a tricky one no less ;-)
Peripheral talking has been a disease that has always plagued me, and I now realise that I need a separate post to brag about what I did on a Saturday in the Capital.
This post was only about the theories I guess ;-)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Rain rain go away!
Just when I was thinking of how it has been raining almost every other morning and night, the newspapers helped me interpret it to my favour; of how Fortune has favoured me, although I am not really brave ;-)
The capital has seen a temperature dip - at 15 degrees below normal, 25 degree centigrade max, it beat Bangalore that day. It has been the coolest May in the last 5 years, going by average temperatures. And then, the number of days mercury has touched 40 in May has been only 6, with most of them being amongst the days before I came here.
Aren't some people (undeservingly?) lucky?
But yes, on one of these days, the weather was so good that even I was in the mood for poetry and romance. Its another thing altogether that neither of those are my forte ;-)
The capital has seen a temperature dip - at 15 degrees below normal, 25 degree centigrade max, it beat Bangalore that day. It has been the coolest May in the last 5 years, going by average temperatures. And then, the number of days mercury has touched 40 in May has been only 6, with most of them being amongst the days before I came here.
Aren't some people (undeservingly?) lucky?
But yes, on one of these days, the weather was so good that even I was in the mood for poetry and romance. Its another thing altogether that neither of those are my forte ;-)
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Home is where the heart is!
Does one actually exclaim thus (Home is where the heart is!!) only on returning home to find the heart one had either lost or left behind?
Steering clear of all argument, let me request you to consider the following argument.
Having returned home, if one doesn't stay at home to one's own heart's content or to the contentment of others' hearts, what does one say then?
And then, if one keeps running in and out of home all the time before leaving home again, whatever happens to the heart?
Enough confusion for the first post I guess. This post, along with the blog description and title, is enough confusion material to start with.
And whoever said encryption involved a lot of mathematics? :P
Using words to express an idea by itself often changes or degrades the quality of the original thought behind the idea. To use words to describe ideas, thoughts and feelings is to draw boundaries. Language is an imperfect communication tool. Encryption, in this context, is often a side effect of language. And when encryption is intentional, the effect is compounded ;-)
Steering clear of all argument, let me request you to consider the following argument.
Having returned home, if one doesn't stay at home to one's own heart's content or to the contentment of others' hearts, what does one say then?
And then, if one keeps running in and out of home all the time before leaving home again, whatever happens to the heart?
Enough confusion for the first post I guess. This post, along with the blog description and title, is enough confusion material to start with.
And whoever said encryption involved a lot of mathematics? :P
Using words to express an idea by itself often changes or degrades the quality of the original thought behind the idea. To use words to describe ideas, thoughts and feelings is to draw boundaries. Language is an imperfect communication tool. Encryption, in this context, is often a side effect of language. And when encryption is intentional, the effect is compounded ;-)
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