Two big stories, in a cosmic sense:

Astronomers find a hole in the universe

Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That’s got them scratching their heads about what’s just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That’s an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday.

Planet Formation Mystery Solved

Planet formation is a story with a well-known beginning and end, but how its middle plays out has been an enigma to scientists-until now.
A new computer-modeled theory shows how rocky boulders around infant stars team up to form planets without falling into stars.

News courtesy: Yahoo! News

Investments – Part 1

With all the news about the global stock markets traversing the path of a sine wave ever so frequently, I have been reading a lot of reports about investors being worried and not knowing whether to buy or sell their shares.

The golden rule that has been around for a long time is that during a slump, one should buy. I am not sure about these rules, and like many others, view the stock market as a strange creature that I have nothing to do with and would gladly not give it any notice.

But again, the temptation to make a quick buck is always inherent. What I will detail here is a systematic way to make your investments, without requiring a knowledge of mumbo-jumbo phrases like the stock’s beta, trading, intrinsic risk factors.

Disclaimer: I carry no responsibility for your actions of course. And stuff mentioned here is for India alone.

Firstly, ensure that you have sufficient amount of funds in fixed deposits. Now, sufficient is a vague term. The amount in safe havens like fixed deposits should depend largely on your current age and your immediate demand for liquidity (read cash).
So, if you have just started off in your career, try and split your capital (read the total money you have with you) in a 70:30 ratio – 70% being in debt. For making it easy, debt refers to investments in fixed deposits and other government run investment options.
This will ensure that you are well grounded and safe to start off with. (Assumption being that you don’t have too much demand for hard cash right now)
This post will talk about investment options for the debt part.

Now, why fixed deposits? Reason: They are safe and guarantee you a decent return. Please note that fixed deposits should ideally be made with nationalized banks, so that in case of any calamity hitting the economy or the bank, the government will usually make an attempt to bail you out. With private banks, you might get some additional services, but their liability (read responsibility towards your money) is not all that great. Nationalized banks may make you do some extra paperwork, but with the peace of mind it provides, it is well worth your time.

For how long should you lock in your money with fixed deposits? This solely depends on your requirements – whether you anticipate a sudden need for cash a couple of years down the lane or not.

A part of your debt should also be invested in insurance policies (read LIC, again a government sponsored institution) to provide some sort of coverage against unforeseen events. Private life insurance policies might seem appealing, but there is an inherent risk that the company might go through turbulent times or face threatening government regulations.

Another great place to put in some money is the Indian Post Office. They offer very good savings schemes (return rates are just about okay, but they are prompt in their services and your money is definitely safe with them). If you have a couple of lakhs of rupees to invest for a very long term, you could put them in the post office under a monthly savings scheme. This scheme ensures you get a certain percentage of money every month for a fixed time period. It can definitely go towards paying off your monthly fuel and phone bills, while your money stays safe. Then there is the Public Provident Fund, which was a decent investment option some years ago and has become even better now due to their reduction in the locking-period.

A little bit of your debt should go towards government bonds (specifically, the RBI bond). The returns are again, as is the case with most debt instruments, average, but the purpose here is to safeguard your money anyway. RBI bonds usually have a 3 year or a 5 year lock-in period.

Having explored these options, the next question is how does the ratio 70:30 change and when.
70:30 is a very safe portfolio to have (I am yet to talk about the 30%, so we can hold on that part a bit).
During the initial year of your career, try and stick to the 70:30 rule. A couple of years later, you can be more adventurous and go for a 50:50 or a 40:60 ratio, depending on how life is unfolding for you. (40:60 refers to 40% in debt instruments and 60% elsewhere, the elsewhere part will be explained later). Again, these are my opinions based on my understanding of how careers unfolded back then (which is just 5 years ago).

I shall explain the non-debt part (read equity, a no-sense-making term given as a placeholder here) in the subsequent post.

In the meanwhile, its back to good old work for the day.

Owing to the photo bug that I have been afflicted with, there will be photos on this blog today as well:

Yesterday was Onam and we all decided to have dinner at Coconut Grove, a restaurant on Church Street serving authentic Kerala food. Things to order in this place: Appams, Kerala Parathas, Veg. Stew, Ulli Theeyal and the coconut water mixed with honey.
If you can’t keep alcohol away from you while dining, try the Cocoknock – Vodka with coconut water served in freshly cut coconut!

Enough said, time to bring the photos on:

Enjoy and have a great day, ladies and gentlemen

Weekend update:

Day trip to Talakad. Beautiful pristine lake (or was it a river, not sure!).


Played cricket after a long time, with the girls playing brilliantly (Mary, who was quite angry about me referring to her Trichologist incident here, held on to a brilliant flick from Bandar and got him walking back to the pavilion in no time).
The point I was trying to make is that the girls played brilliantly. I do not make this point to prove that I am not a chauvinist, before Mrs. 38 kgs starts accusing.

After a game of cricket, the focus of attention was on whether the Foosball table was manufactured correctly or not. There was some dispute about whose mid-field should have been where. However, having gotten over the initial confusion, people dived right-in into the game. Future Spouse and I played against Chilli and Pamsy in a fiercely fought (by us) and easily won (by them) game of table tennis. The rotation of team members ensured that everyone was part of a winning game.

Then came the highlight of the trip – canoing. I was over enthused upon seeing the pedal boat which, I thought, would be an easy thing to use (I would put the blame on all the 70s and 80s bollywood heroes and heroines who would sing songs while gingerly peddling the boat, appearing to enjoy every moment). Chilli and Avi in the back seat and Dhi better half and Dhi in the front. Started off pretty well, but soon realized that the good start was due to the push that the assistant gave the boat. After a 15 minutes of intense workout of our legs and calf muscles, we decided that now was the time for us to use the rowing boats. So, off we went on to our rowing boats, with yellow oars in our hands. Chilli and I sought a two seater and set rowing into the middle of the water, soon realising that the current was quite strong.
A group of 6 people though, decided to take the 9 seater rowing boat and set off straight into the heart of the strong current. Now, these 6 people had 2 guys and 4 girls. One of the girls decided to suddenly don a leadership role and set about giving instructions to everyone.
The result: a mess and the boat steadily drifting away with the current. After an hour or two of painful and hard rowing, these guys finally got back to land and were the reason for our half-hour delay in lunch.

Lunch was then followed by an intense session of Taboo. I have said enough of this game here and it continues to be a rocking board game.
After Taboo, it was time to just relax and do nothing for a few minutes before deciding to go fishing. A sudden realization of the fact that fishing could be quite painful to the fish (who else!) made us abandon the plan.

Tea arrived while people conjured up some weird game that served to act as a filler for a while.
After tea, it was time for us to leave this beautiful place.

Another photograph that deserved mention here (solely because I think so):

A small shop selling curios near Kamath Lokaruchi, where we stopped for breakfast.

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the end of a wonderful trip and a great weekend.

Photography updates:

For more of such photos, view my Flickr album.

Entertainment is not dead, yet.

China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission, reports Newsweek.

You there! You think you are dying? Fill up this permission form please.
Fast, else no reincarnation for you and you shall float around in space idly watching The Great Wall of China for the rest of your life.
Er, drop the life part in that sentence.

An advertisement observed on a concrete wall in Mumbai:

English speaking best courses of india now in Malad.

Notice “now in”.

Reminded me of the Rasna International ad some years ago, with the tagline “Now in India”.

Malad ad received via SMS from sis.

The Devil would light-up in glee upon reading this article: Is this the end of English literature? by A. N. Wilson.

What do the following have in common: Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, T S Eliot, W B Yeats, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Evelyn Waugh, Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis?

The answer, of course, is that they were all smokers. Each one of the magnificent contributors to English literature was a prolific smoker.

But is it mere chance that the lifetime of Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?-1618), who introduced tobacco-smoking to England, was also the time when the great story of English literature really began? Milton – a smoker -and Ben Jonson – a smoker – ensured that the Elizabethan glory-age was not to be a flash in the pan.

I have been racking my brains to find a single non-smoker among the great English poets or novelists of the 17th, 18th, 19th or 20th centuries. Possibly, Keats had to lay off the pipe tobacco a bit after he developed tuberculosis.

Otherwise, from Swift and Pope to Cowper and Wordsworth, from Byron to Charles Lamb, they were all smokers.

The author infers that the recent ban on public smoking (including in bars) in Britain will , rightfully so (my opinion), result in the death of English literature since the writers do not have the free will to smoke and interact socially with each other.

Cornwall, where I am writing this, has completely changed since the Ban.

My wife and I have found formerly much-loved pubs all but empty or, worse, filled with middle-class eight-year-olds sitting on the bar stools, slurping J2O through straws and giving their views on global warming in the high-pitched tones of Fulham or Hampstead.

The grizzled old smokers of yore are still smoking, but, rather than enjoy one another’s companionship, they sit melancholily at home with their six-packs and watch telly. It is no substitute for the pleasure (albeit sometimes a boring pleasure – an oxymoron which all pub-goers will recognize as apt) of meeting real people.

If you are a smoker, the next time you light a cigarette do think about sitting down to write a book or two. Might get you some fame.

It is surprising to see that the newspapers haven’t changed much for the past 4 to 5 days in India.
All you see is UPA vs. Left, BCCI vs. ICL and a speculated impending stock market crash.

About the crash, I am not sure if it is going to hit India that hard.
Banks here are still very fussy about their lending (unless of course it is a nationalized bank and you have a prospective Presidential candidate dictating the bank’s actions). Overall, sub-prime lending (the term needs to be thrown against a hard wall until it breaks into small fragments) is not quite that huge in India, as per my premature understanding of the Indian lending market.

This is primarily because sub-prime loans or loans given to people with low or zero credit history are usually not via established banks. India has the pawn brokers making merry with high interest rates and close proximity with the borrowers. A farmer in a village doesn’t go through lines of paperwork in a bank, but instead heads to the local lender’s place for some instant cash at alarming rates. The lender, of course, knows the farmer personally and thereby the issues of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection are not that relevant.

In case of banks, these two subjects are reason enough to lead to shortage of cash and a halt on recovery of loans. In a way, although the seemingly cruel money lenders charge exorbitant sums of money for small loans, they ensure that the economy as such does not yield to doling out sub-prime loans and hence keeps you, the safe investor, cushioned from certain types of market crashes.

This social fabric involving close dealings between local lenders and borrowers is quite unique to our country and has, in my opinion, helped to withstand a crash of the kind we are seeing in the US.

The weekend was perfect, and for some reason a lot more relaxing than most weekends in the recent past.

Cutting the clutter, the one thing that deserves special mention here is the board game – Taboo. A highly addictive game, Taboo is the perfect companion when you are in a group of 4 or more people.

The game involves one player picking up a card. The card has a single main word and a few taboo words. The idea is that the player has to convey to his/her team members the single main word and in the process of doing so should not use any of the taboo words. Needless to say, the taboo words are so close to the main word that it becomes very difficult to not use them. All this has to done within a time limit, at the end of which an enthusiastic player will sound the buzzer

The first session of this game was on Saturday and the time just flew by. Since we were a group of 5 guys (no ladies), the descriptions used were of course a lot more bold and sassy.

On Sunday, however, we had a sober session with 8 of us playing the game over a span of two and a half hours. Mary raised the bar with her usage of words like Trichologist and Trudging. We floundered for simple words like Mummy and John Travolta.
Ameya was sorely missed for the usage of technical words and all words related to physics, chemistry etc.

Hopefully the next session of Taboo should be around the corner soon.
And yes, in case you know of any other interesting board games, do let us know.

Picture Courtesy: www.boardgamegeek.com