Truly Inspiring...

One day I decided to quit...I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality...

I wanted to quit my life.I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God", I asked, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

His answer surprised me... "Look around", He said..

"Do you see the fern and the bamboo?""Yes", I replied.

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.

I gave them light.I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth.

Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year, the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.

And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

He said."In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.

But I would not quit. In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed.

I would not quit." He said."Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just 6months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

It had spent the five years growing roots.

Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.

I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."

He asked me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots".

"I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you."

"Don't compare yourself to others." He said.

"The bamboo had a different Purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful." "Your time will come", God said to me."You will rise high"

"How high should I rise?" I asked. "How high will the bamboo rise?"

He asked in return. "As high as it can?" I questioned.

"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."

I left the forest and brought back this story.

Courtesy: Forwarded message from Naresh

An year into enterpreneurship

It an year since I started off as an independent stock broker and its been really great. The amazing run of the markets during this period has been a memorable one. And to be a witness to this historic run as an enterpreneur has been more enjoyable. From the business page, the news about markets has now shifted to Page 1, a tribute to the strength of the Indian markets.

I still remember a friend asking whats this "Enterpreneur" and what does he do ? And my good friend Shenoy pulling my legs all the time using this word. I still remember the days when i sat jobless at Karkala enjoying my break after leaving my job and before starting up office. During the times when everyone was looking to earn a good salary with a risk free employment, here I was leaving a good job (that too in Bangalore) just to return back to Ujire. And for what, to become a stock broker. One of the finest advice was from a good friend from Karkal Puranik Mam (who's also a stock broker) who narrating his own experience told me, " Its difficult to get a bride for a stock broker, so just think again" (PS: Of course, when i met him more recently and reminded him about this, he had changed his view on the above subject)

What I have gained during the last year ? Well, I work like a true MNC (strictly for 5 days a week), be at home during weekends, attend almost all samaradhanes in Karkal & Mulki, get to visit festivities at these places, watch movies at Adlabs.

Coming to what i miss, I miss my friends in Bangalore. And also my addas with friends Mayuri, Mcdonalds, Adiga, Upahara Darshini, Paddu, Shantisagar Paav Bhaaji n Dahi puri, Ganesh Juice centre and vada pav at Rajvardhan. Also none of my good friends are here now, they are all at different places.

I can see a change around. When i started investing at 21, people used to tell me stock markets are gambling and its like a aclohol, so better avoid it. Now the same people ask me about investing in stocks. As they say, hmmmmm success changes everything, isnt it ?

Am i planning to quit ? Well, yes, if one of the following 2 things happens:

1. Government decides that markets will be open even on saturday (obviously to boost Service tax and Securities Transaction Tax collections for the government)
2. If i am able to acquire 0.01% stake in my favourite stock, Reliance Industries Ltd (Someone please calculate the amount and mail me :) )

Then, there's lot of speculation about my income. Well, my comments, "Denewala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phadke"

Of Sensex and new records

I still remember being ecstatic when sensex hit 10K. That that time I thought it was a great achievement by the markets. Now a realise it was a small milestone and a precursor to the things yet to come as we have seen over the past 18 months.

Let me first make it clear SENSEX has nothing to do with SENSE or SEX, its just the acronym of Sensitiviy Index. It needs no reason to rise or fall. A sneezing Sonia, a harsh talk by FM or ever changing stance of the Left can bring it down or pull it up all in a matter of few hours (or minutes like last wednesday).

But one thing is for sure. This market is not going to retrace in a hurry. And today has been a historic day. Its up by 879 point thus recording the single largest gain in its history. This whole month itself has been a memorable one for me. After missing the bull run in September (was in Pune for training at National Insurance Academy during last two weeks of September) I was ruing missing watching the largest gain of 600 point during my stay there. But all that was made up on October 9th (incidentally, its my good friend Sandeep's Birthday too) when markets raised more than 700 points.

After a brief break, markets are at back at doing what they do best. Open up, move up and up and up. Records they say are meant to be broken, but so soon, i never imagined. The tremendous amount of money (both domestic and foreign) are taking it up.

Well its all begining, aage aage dekho hota hai kya !

Pic: Yours truelly at BSE building during the recent visit to Mumbai

Mungaru Male - a must watch

I must admit that this has been the best movie i have watched over the past year, hindi movies
included. Everything is right in the movie-storyline, narration, acting, music, dialogues. It
doesnt have any superstar in it, yet leaves a incredible mark on you.

Starring "Comedy Time" Ganesh (a familiar face on Udaya TV where he anchors Comedy Time and has just one film as hero to his credit before this) and new comer Sanjana Gandhi along with Anantanag in supporting role.

Shot is beautiful locales of Malnad including Jog, the film is a visual treat. Shots at Jog falls
are amazing and hats off to cinematographer for such as amazing work. Music is another plus point. Music by Mano Murthy (of Amruthadhare fame) is melodious and can be listen again and again. The lyrics of songs are well written too. This guy is a NRI just comes here once a while, creates some great music and its a super-hit already. Lending their voices are Sonu Nigam, Kunal Ganjawala, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan.

Ganesh is the heart and soul of the film. From comedy scenes to tragic ones, he executes each scene perfectly. His timing, dialogue delivery and language have been rightly exploited by the director. His expressive eyes expresses his feeling in the right manner.

Heroine is beautiful and has done a good job. Anantanag as her deaf father, is as usual, in his
natural self, comes out with another astounding perfomance.

Director Yogaraj Bhat deserves a pat on the back for such a good movie. Keep up the good job.

Of weekends and reunions

The greatest irony of life has been that when i have relocated to my native place, most of my close friends are now living at far away places and have been meeting them once in bluemoon.

Over the past few weekends, i am really busy with catching up with such old friends. Jayanth's
visit was a surprise indeed. He just landed from US just like me dropping into mulki from ujire. No information of his impending visit at all. Sandeep was here for Kodiyal Teru, Ditto with dilip. Meanwhile, Deepak had been to belthangady in the previous week.

All in all busy weekends since a month.

Guru, Inspired by Life....

"Nakal mein bhi akal chahiye", goes an hindi saying and must say this aptly suits Maniratnam's
movie, Guru. Inspired by the life of Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani, Guru is an enjoyable movie.

The director denies that its anyone's life story, but the jury is out already.Just like DA, Guru is
doesnt complete his education, works in gulf as a petrol pump attendant, comes back to india to
find wealth in polyester and then into refining, suffers paraltyic attack. Thank God, Guru has only 2 daughter unlike DA who had 2 daughters and 2 (illustrious) sons.

Full marks to Abhishek who performs the lead role with ease. He is just awesome and the journey from a flop hero to sharing hits with co-stars to now, where he carries the whole film on his own is truelly amazing (Please note that yours truelly is a big AB Baby fan since Refugee days). Aishwarya is good too. Given the role of a simpleton village girl, she wears simple dresses and looks she looks more beautiful with lesser makeup reminds me of John Keats saying "A thing of beauty is a joy forever"(Needless to say i am an Aishwarya fan too, moreover
"enklena Uruda ponnatta"). Ab itni sundar heroine hogi to hero ko pyaar to hoga hi naa ?

Mithun is a revealation indeed. Mani, as in the past, has brought out roles other than the lead pair are well. Madhavan and Vidya Balan do justice to their roles as well. Music by A R Rahmanis outstanding, especially the theme music. Cinematography has been given back to Rajiv Menon, after a long stint with Santosh Sivan and has done a good job too.

All in all a good movie.

The only thing i dislike about my profession is that i get too few holidays and that too are mandated by exchanges. Its a different issue that i overcome this problem by carrying my trading terminal on my laptop, so that i can sit and provide service to my clients sitting in anywhere.

So whenever there is a holiday on a monday, i take an off on friday and plan a trip. If it was Hyderabad last time, this time, it was Chennai. I am always a shrewd planner when it comes to travelling (though i never plan my studies). Why Chennai ? Well, the target was to reach Vaitheeswarankoil around 250kms from chennai on the southern side. Its a place which is famous for nadi jyotishya, where a person's future is predicted thru his thumb impression.

Started off from Mangalore on thursday night by West Coast express to reach Chennai on friday afternoon. My plans went awry when i realised that no bus tickets were available to reach my destination from Chennai. This turned into a blessing in disguise as it gave me an opportunity to travel by bike.

Chennai program itself was a story of strange twists n turns. While my cousin Praveen Anna was told to go to Vizag on the day i was scheduled to reach there and my other friend Gautham had planned to visit Tirupathi with his friends. But luckily their programs got cancelled. Visit straight to their offices on friday and then stayed back at my cousin's house in Anna nagar.
Woke up early (tooooooo early if you go by my standards, let me put on record that i woke up at 4.30AM) on saturday. Reached Gautham's flat at 5.30am. Let me tell u about Gautham Shenoy. He is the only the second person i know who has travelled by bike from Bangalore to his native place (first obviously is yours truly). I had seen him only once before in Karkal during Okli this year. Apart from that, the only interactions we have had is through orkut or yahoo messenger.

We travelled through East Coast Road(ECR) thru Mahabalipuram, Pondicherry, Cuddalore, Chidabaram to reach Vaitheeswarankoil. The road runs parallel to Bay of Bengal, just like our own NH 17. Travelling by bike is really the greatest thing, though its tiresome a bit you can always enjoy nature unlike journey by any other means. Watched sunrise (Dont ask me when did i last see a sunrise), made a "Boni" to a restaurant at Mahabalipuram on our way.

The place is a Nadi Jyothishya industry in itself. I think you can find atleast 200 people who claim to master this art. All you need to give him impression of the thumb, date of birth and a few details which he asks for. The legend is the one's life story is written on palm leaf by Sage Agastya (some say by saptharshi or seven sages) and the astrologer traces the person's leaf thru the means of finger impression and date of birth. I too visited one of them who told some blah blah about my future. The exact predictions is sealed in a cassette (which i plan to throw soon or conceal it at some untraceable place, as it contains a bit too hazardous material) Copies will be given on request to anyone to gets it touch with me (obviously at a nominal 3-digit price, afterall i need to recover travelling cost as well as the amount paid to astrologer). I have no quarells with those who believe this, but i really feel that it was fake. Anyway, let me keep my fingers crossed on the predictions.

Return journey was pleasent. Had lunch at Chidambaram but could not visit the temple there as it was closed and was scheduled to open at 4pm. The route we travelled was the worst affected by tsunami in 2004. All through the journey we could see lot of rehabilitation work done by various organisations both national and international. Reached pondichery (oops puducherry) at 5 and somehow managed to get a decent room to spend our time. After taking rest for a couple of hours, we walked through pondi's shopping areas. There's not much to shop there (except liquor of course which is damn cheap - no use for us since both of us were teetollers and so are most of our friends ). Visited Mahabalipuram enroute to Chennai during our return journey to chennai. This place is famous for its shore temple, is also one of the UNESCO Heritage site in India. The later part of that evening was spent with praveen anna's family.

Food in Tamilnadu is never a problem. You get good breakfast, lunch and dinner everywhere. Visited the famous Saravana Bhavan chain of hotels in Chennai on friday for dinner. In pondi, had our breakfast at Adyar Anand Bhavan. Tried out the Khara Kozhumbu and button idly at Saravana Bhavan. Not only, i took parcel from Saravana bhavan at railway station while coming back. As the saying goes, " while is Rome do what Romans do", I always look out for local delicacies whenever i travel. A lot of local stuff in out of bound for me since i am vegeterian, yet i try to eat local food as much as possible.

Returned back by West Coast Express. Slept most of the way thru the return journey (which i like the most). Where next ? Heading to delhi later this month, so just wait and watch for the next blog.