The pleasant morning doesn’t last long,
with the haste in the chores each day.
He travels countless miles by bus,
to Achieve what others say.
He sips coffee every hour.
and agrees to our opinion.
He has so many dreams in his eyes,
But struggles to realize even one.
He reads news papers, blogs and story
To know what financial crisis says,
The market recession makes him frenzy.
as misery is mounting in every way.
In group he goes to lunch every day,
and shares an sardonic table talk.
Some show overwhelming sarcasm,
Some suffer a shock.
His performance was decent this year,
But He no more gets that fat pay.
Now it’s luck that all matters
by the "End of the Day".
He spends time at desk,
And solves the issues fast,
Still there lingers a thought,
"How long my job will last?"
The bill Soars high,
The EMI needs concern,
His weekends are consumed at work
Or with a peg of liquor
and some fun.
He is just an entity,
Known by his employee number,
As the time passes by,
He grows frailer and dumber.
Was he content? Was he happy?
These questions are absurd.
This is a story of a Techie,
Lost in this beautiful world.
Dec 23, 2008
Dec 12, 2008
To my Brother
"Let us stop this brother"
They told each other.
Come; join the party by the lagoon,
Allah is teamed up with Ram,
And Gurunanak joins Jesus soon.
They wanted it all over by either bank,
The banks of Indus and Ganges;
It touched the limits of Himalayas
And Suleiman Mountain ranges.
Let us stop this brother
They told each other.
They sent me down to live with you,
And play a healthy game.
This is not the true spirit,
It’s a shame.
Fight for blood, fight for land,
Fight for tears and pain
Is this we are here for?
It’s a shame.
Let us stop this brother
They told each other.
My Allah feels hurt, Ram seems so estranged.
The city is bleeding to death
Is this what you gained?
I know they didn't teach you so,
To harm thy friends and not your foe,
Bury your tools and the knife;
They will love you again, I ‘m sure;
Let us stop this, my brother
They told each other again.
Sep 16, 2008
Death of Lehman (1850-2008)
September 15, 2008: They are walking down the sidewalk past police barricades as scores of New Yorkers and tourists’ gawk, some asking, "Which star is coming out?" - Not knowing what's going on. A big cop issues the standard "keep moving" line to those of us who stop to gaze. He tells the crowd, "Go home. There is no one famous coming out. You are looking at a whole bunch of people who just lost their jobs."
Six months earlier and five blocks away, a similar scene played out as Bear Stearns collapsed. But today, it was Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc turn. Failed talks with Bank of America and Barclays resulted in a sudden breakdown of this giant firm. Its shares fell by 94% in a day ($ 3.79 -$ 0.12, 15th September 08) and the company that was worth 46 Billion US$ few months ago had an insignificant worth of 145 Million US$ before it filed chapter 11 of US bankruptcy code for protecting its assets and maximizing its values.
Looking Back
Lehman's history from its Alabama roots to its demise on Wall Street:
1850: Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman, immigrants from Bavaria, founded the firm as a commodities house in Montgomery, Ala.
1984: The saddest thing of all is that decades ago Dick Fuld, now Lehman's CEO, bitterly opposed having the firm do big, aggressive deals with its own capital. But during one of Lehman's recurring crises, Fuld's decision to do the risky things that he opposed in the 1980s hurt Lehman badly. Back then, Fuld's trading faction from the old Lehman Brothers was struggling against the firm's banker faction, led by Steve Schwartzman and Pete Peterson. The bankers wanted the firm to use its capital to do deals. The traders opposed it. The trader-banker war so weakened Lehman that it sold out to American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) in 1984. Fuld, a Lehman lifer, stayed on, while Schwartzman and Peterson went off to found the Blackstone Group (BX) and become billionaires.
1990: Shearson Lehman Hutton revives the Lehman Brothers name
1994: AmEx, giving up its "financial supermarket" strategy, spun off a small, undercapitalized firm called Lehman Brothers, with Fuld as CEO. (That's why, despite what you read, Lehman wasn't a 158-year-old firm; it was a 14-year-old firm with a 158-year-old name). Firm goes public on the NYSE as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
2003: Lehman acquires Neuberger Berman money-management firm.
2008: Battered by the mortgage-market downturn, Lehman files for bankruptcy-law protection. The sad fate of Lehman Brothers is a cautionary tale of what's gone wrong with Wall Street.
Lehman ended up on the financial scrapheap because it played - and ultimately lost - a dangerous game involving high-stakes bets and huge borrowings. The firm's reported profits grew nicely through last year. But to keep its profits growing, Lehman was taking on more and more risk.Lehman (LEH, Fortune 500) borrowed too much money, put too much of it into deals of dubious quality, and then insisted for months that all was well without reporting quarterly losses even once and conveying it to the stakeholders that the institution was financially stable and it was apparent that all wasn't well. Monday's bankruptcy filing is a sad end for a firm once regarded as prudent and well managed.
Lehman's leverage - borrowings relative to capital - grew and grew, even as other firms were cutting back as the credit crunch worsened. Last October, with the real estate collapse well underway, Lehman (in partnership with the Tishman Speyer real estate firm) had paid a whopping $22.2 billion to do a leveraged buyout of a big apartment developer, Archstone. Losses on the deal began to surface almost immediately.
Lehman looked as if it would be able to survive more or less intact after the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) announced in March that it would make huge loans available to eligible investment banks. Six months ago, when Bear Stearn's faced a similar fate, the Federal Reserve intervened with the Treasury Department's support.
So, the Lehman's collapse was first, triggered by the refusal of other banks to do business with it because of its complex and, at times, opaque ways of trading. Housing loans made by the bank to people with little support made these loans very risky, and when interest rates rose, these borrowers could no more repay Lehman. This led to huge losses, the extent of which is not yet clear. Thus other banks stopped trading with Lehman. This led to it losing almost all business and triggered its fall. Second shock to Lehman was the fact that both Barclays Plc of the United Kingdom and Bank of America Corp pulled out of takeover talks. BofA bought out Merrill Lynch for $50 billion.
The Federal Reserve and Treasury’s Role was the third and the final nail in the coffin. The US government could have helped Lehman, but US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that it would not use up any more taxpayer dollars to bail out Lehman Brothers as it would lead to investment banks getting away with their gambling ways. Paulson had bailed out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns, saying that if the government had not done so, the US housing loan market would have collapsed leading to gigantic losses for hundreds of banks all over the globe that have invested in US property. Paulson, however, believes that a brokerage major like Lehman, which does not have a direct connection with ordinary people who have taken on home loans, need not be bailed out as it would not cause any systemic damage to the US economy.
This leads Wall Street to learn a lesson from Lehman: that the Fed and Treasury can no longer control events as they once could.
The Impact on India Inc
Lehman does not have direct large holding in the Indian stock markets. These holdings are estimated at around $200 million, including Participatory Notes. This figure is not enough to cripple the Indian stock markets. But Lehman has exposure to the Indian stock market through special purpose vehicles. This exposure to real estate stocks is said to be of about $1.5 billion, enough to shake up the markets. Some prime development projects funded by the Lehman Brothers were with HDIL, Unitech and DLF Assets. But these companies have started looking for alternative investments.
But for IT, Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing may well prove to be the last straw for Indian IT firms, which were expecting the second half of FY09 to be better. As a result of the US financial market crisis, analysts do not expect Indian IT firms to sign any significant contracts in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space in the months to come. Lehman Brothers, say sources, works with 14 services providers in India - Wipro and TCS being the largest. It also has investments in a few IT firms. It's not clear if these holdings will be liquidated to raise funds. Moreover, the sources add that Lehman Brothers' unit in India has issued termination letters to a majority of its 2,500 employees.
Jul 21, 2008
Satanic Rules
The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
Jul 17, 2008
Persuit of Happiness
its strange that our emotions are largely dependent on others feelings. Its may sound apt and strangely different from the belief that at least our emotion is truely ours. May be, it is true to some extent.But I felt unusually happy and gay throughout the day yesterday whenever the blushing and smiling faces of the people in the movie "Jane tu ya Jaane na" lingered in my conscious mind. Actually, it was not a normal good day for me to find a reason to smile with no reason. It was just the story and its associated fragments of imagination pregnant with love and practical relevance that i could imagine, kept me in merry mood throughout the day today. My mood changed.
There have been so many circumstances that have given me a reason to smile though they hardly relate me to the situation. Movie, cricket/tennis/football matches and several other trifle of things. I have tried to capture few of them that really keep on lingering in the mind every time when i feel like being happy. I am sure this will inflate your heart too like a balloon,about to burst lest you cross the threshold.
* To go for a vacation to some pretty place
* To listen to your favorite song in the radio
* To go to bed and to listen to the drops while it rains outside
* To clear your last exam.And feeling happy after finding a person who has got less marks than you.
* Reaching station late and got to know that train is also late.
* Remembering all those streets and mohallas near your house where you spent all your school days ..!
* To receive a call from someone, you don't see a lot, but you want to.
* To find money in a pant that you haven't used since last year.
* To laugh at yourself looking at mirror, making faces.
* To accidentally hear somebody say something good about you.
* To wake up and realize it is still possible to sleep for a couple of hours.
* To laugh .......laugh........and laugh ...... remembering stupid things done along with stupid friends.
Let us cherish them.
There have been so many circumstances that have given me a reason to smile though they hardly relate me to the situation. Movie, cricket/tennis/football matches and several other trifle of things. I have tried to capture few of them that really keep on lingering in the mind every time when i feel like being happy. I am sure this will inflate your heart too like a balloon,about to burst lest you cross the threshold.
* To go for a vacation to some pretty place
* To listen to your favorite song in the radio
* To go to bed and to listen to the drops while it rains outside
* To clear your last exam.And feeling happy after finding a person who has got less marks than you.
* Reaching station late and got to know that train is also late.
* Remembering all those streets and mohallas near your house where you spent all your school days ..!
* To receive a call from someone, you don't see a lot, but you want to.
* To find money in a pant that you haven't used since last year.
* To laugh at yourself looking at mirror, making faces.
* To accidentally hear somebody say something good about you.
* To wake up and realize it is still possible to sleep for a couple of hours.
* To laugh .......laugh........and laugh ...... remembering stupid things done along with stupid friends.
Let us cherish them.
Jul 7, 2008
The Nine Satanic Sins
1. Stupidity
2. Pretentiousness
3. Solipsism
4. Self-deceit
5. Herd Conformity
6. Lack of Perspective
7. Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies
8. Counterproductive Pride
9. Lack of Aesthetics
2. Pretentiousness
3. Solipsism
4. Self-deceit
5. Herd Conformity
6. Lack of Perspective
7. Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies
8. Counterproductive Pride
9. Lack of Aesthetics
Pessimistic Inspirational Wisdom
“But Man, you could give time to me too!”, a feeble voice on mobile fumed me up as often and antagonizing me to give up the penultimate chapter in my decisive project presentation. I suffered a zener breakdown.
The girl was none other than my girl who had kept me spellbound and agonized right from the wee days of my B.Tech. Love; from its very idiosyncratic and alleviating gesture impairs human feeling by forcing it unidirectional. Her playful villainy provoked me against the entangling love.
She was indeed the inspiration who stimulated an experience of failure fury thus helping me rise to eminence as a graduate engineer. She by her recursive emotional torture had detached me from studies. Observing the faux pas; as love is often portrayed; I was intrigued by the second thought besides love, my career. Without something to hate, we lose the very spring of thought and action. I hated her to extent of breakdown. In retaliation, I developed the feeling of love for myself. I gave her up for my family and career. And today I thank God for instilling hatred in me for her. She was indeed the utmost pessimistic inspirational wisdom I had ever attained. And I will be grateful to her for my entire life. Thanks Buddy.
This is just an essay that I had written for a competition.Its just figments of imagination.Believe me.
The girl was none other than my girl who had kept me spellbound and agonized right from the wee days of my B.Tech. Love; from its very idiosyncratic and alleviating gesture impairs human feeling by forcing it unidirectional. Her playful villainy provoked me against the entangling love.
She was indeed the inspiration who stimulated an experience of failure fury thus helping me rise to eminence as a graduate engineer. She by her recursive emotional torture had detached me from studies. Observing the faux pas; as love is often portrayed; I was intrigued by the second thought besides love, my career. Without something to hate, we lose the very spring of thought and action. I hated her to extent of breakdown. In retaliation, I developed the feeling of love for myself. I gave her up for my family and career. And today I thank God for instilling hatred in me for her. She was indeed the utmost pessimistic inspirational wisdom I had ever attained. And I will be grateful to her for my entire life. Thanks Buddy.
This is just an essay that I had written for a competition.Its just figments of imagination.Believe me.
Jun 4, 2008
UnNamed Feeling
Been here before couldn't say i liked it
Do i start writing all this down?
Just let me plug you into my world
Can't you help me be uncrazy?
Name this for me, heat the cold air
Take the chill off of my life
And if i could i'd turn my eyes
To look inside to see what's comin'
It comes alive
And i die a little more
Then the unnamed feeling
Takes me away.
Its pretty difficult to understand the complexities of the human emotions. Though such individualistic thoughts are from the innermost conscience, but I even let the fiend have his own say, though forcefully. The unperturbed silence eventually gets dissolved in the overpowering ghastly shrieks. I am terrified. I feel emotionless, I feel myself transformed into a Zombie.
Do i start writing all this down?
Just let me plug you into my world
Can't you help me be uncrazy?
Name this for me, heat the cold air
Take the chill off of my life
And if i could i'd turn my eyes
To look inside to see what's comin'
It comes alive
And i die a little more
Then the unnamed feeling
Takes me away.
Its pretty difficult to understand the complexities of the human emotions. Though such individualistic thoughts are from the innermost conscience, but I even let the fiend have his own say, though forcefully. The unperturbed silence eventually gets dissolved in the overpowering ghastly shrieks. I am terrified. I feel emotionless, I feel myself transformed into a Zombie.
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