Lessons in Empathy by My Wife

We at times get trapped in a web casted by facade of our own principles.

I found engulfed in one  such situation.

It was drizzling on a sept evening, wrapping work early, we went to bazzar to stich up pending work to station and rain god's took a pause.

Mumbai rains can come in  colours of romance, irritation and sticky sultry spells of humid  sweaty weather.

We finished our work it was twilight time but felt like 8, in a quest to go early and have dinner before Sunset, we rushed ro a custard apple vendor.

The usual suspect a lady begger showed up in typical irritating way she started her elevator pitch. The pitch was to buy a fruit.

I have a principle to not to pay in cash especially to those who are capable to put in a labour. The weather got better off me made me tick, I have her a stare, she seemed young as a daisy, eyes were nice and bright and had no remorse of perils of asking for help despite of competencies to earn bread.

I convinently ignored her and continued to bargain with the custard apple vendor.

My wife had a rise smile on her face, sorted a ripe custard apple carefully and gave it to her from our bag.

She could see what my judgemental eyes missed on the ladys bulge belly. I froze and my heart just sunk, before it could recover it was plunged into depths of darkness by my Wife's explanation to her act of kindness,"_She was Expecting"_

I was speechless, i marched towards my car , anxious me couldn't restore my heart by one nostril breathing.

That that I learnt lessons from my wife about observation, kindness and mindfulness.

What If ?

What if i was evolved to know you were ready,

Ready to walk that walk with me,

What if u were not blinded by what I never wanted,

What if you and me would watch the setting sun in Tuscany,

What if we didnt have our constraints,

We would breath better,

Less anxious, less half empty,

Filling each others life with hope,

What if and only if I could travel back and fix a few stitches,

Our fabric of lives could be so better !

I Like the 90s

I Like the 90s... Life had less options and more fun. I captured secrets in a dairy and won't spray them for the world to watch.Spoke hours on the landline calls and even though difficult I was more connected to friends and family ! Now wishing birthdays on WhatsApp group has become a tick box exercise. An invisible unknown peerpresure creeps in what if I have missed out ? At times I keep messages unread to keep unwanted folks at bay! I laugh less type more write less, worry more, care less. Man I use to love the 90s when pockets we're halffilled and we had overflowing hearts with love. Now l get a very short lived instant gratification on my each conquest of a purchase I make online. I have gadgets gizmos to save time, still i am stressed for lack of it...Back in the days I was back home early and stress-free.. I seem to be more happpy on pictures and selfies than I really am. I at times wonder all the time that tech has saved me is lost on making my profile better or uploading a story which never unfolded on social media. I am caught an analog signal lost in Digital World !

Things To Say If You Get Caught Sleeping At Your Desk

**************Sleeping On The Job******************

Things To Say If You Get Caught Sleeping At Your Desk 

15. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen." 

14. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the last time management course you sent me to." 

13. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the liquid paper" 

12. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm!" 

11. "This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people!" 

10. "I was testing the keyboard for drool resistance" 

9. "Actually I'm doing a "Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan" (SLEEP) I learned it at the last mandatory seminar you made me attend. 

8. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work related stress." 

7. "Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem." 

6. "The coffee machine is broken...." 

5. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot." 

4. "Boy, that cold medicine I took last night just won't wear off!" 

3. "Ah, the unique and unpredictable circadian rhythms of the workaholic!" 

2. "I wasn't sleeping, I was trying to pick up contact lens without hands." 

AND THE #1 BEST THING TO SAY IF YOU GET CAUGHT SLEEPING AT YOUR DESK: 

Timeless Men!

Things are meant to be timeless and.... Men... immorta

Quote

RBI IS A BIRD FOR SURE...IT CAN BE HAWKISH..DOVEISH..But...poor ..Markets can't fly.. they can only be Bull or a Teddy Bear!...

Fear an Enmy of Growth !

Fear is a big factor in corporate world, as we grow up we are taught to be fearless, be afraid of nothing take the world in your stride,but as we grow old the system is fabricated and weaved with a thin thread of insecurity,which engulfs you in a web called faliure, and one can define an indiviuals movment towards getting stuck in the web as fear.  What if something happens to you?, What if you lose your job,fear invites an invisible ally in name of pressure, we go through all kinds of pressure right from passing your semester exams with good grades,fear of failing to achieve  defined target  to pressure of performing in bed! Its embedded in every action which has some degree of expectation attached. I am not saying its bad and should not exists, pressure is good and gets best of some indiviuals, but using fear as a motivation hardly works... its incredible what a human mind is capable if bombarded with positive ideas !

A Letter to First Bench Toppers

Before I proceed, let me clearly accept that I am a back bencher since my school, I still am and I still will be if given a chance and I also accept that, I’ve never been a topper in academics. BUT, that doesn’t mean that I’m writing this just for the sake of taking any grudges out of those who’re successful in their academics. So, keep this in mind before reacting or making any comment.




An Open Letter to the First Bench Toppers by a Last Bencher

Dear toppers,

A simple hello from me, a last bencher. All of my life, I will regret not being one of you guys and only I know how difficult it is to be a back bencher no matter how cool we are and this and that and sometimes I really feel jealous of you guys for the very same reason but that doesn’t mean you’re superior.

I know how you show us your ego when we come to you for any academic help and just feel so happy inside for being a topper and start talking nonsense and ignoring us. I know, I’ve gone through this situation many a times but I’ve never complained yet.

It’s not that I do not have topper friends but they don’t show attitude like you first benchers do. All you know is how to keep staring at the white board and your books and top the class with good grades. Come out and have a real battle of life with us and you will be nowhere, I bet. I pity those teachers who even encourage them to get “just” more grades and kill their creativity. Shame on yourself for being a teacher.

I am finding no words right now because the words said above has hurt me so much so I would just like you to know what a last bench students or a dropouts can do. How they’ve changed the world.

Thanks,

A back bencher, Rahul Banker.

Actually, we live in a culture where people seek for the “permission”. Permission to do what they love to. Permission to let their ideas and vision have place in the world. They wait for someone to manage them and their dreams instead of taking responsibility for their own lives. They complain instead of solve and wait for a list of tasks they can check off and say “done”.

Education isn’t bad. But too many people use it as an excuse. I have a list of many people who chose to be different. They didn’t wait for the permissions, they went out and made their own fortune.

I TYPED (not really) these words on a computer designed by DELL founded by a college dropout . The program I used to write it was created by Microsoft, started by the college dropouts Bill Gates and Paul Allen and as soon as it is published, I will share it with my friends via Twitter, co-founded by the college dropouts Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams and Biz Stone, and Facebook — invented, among others, by the college dropouts Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, and nurtured by the degreeless Sean Parker.

Well, the above lines were those I read somewhere and had it saved in my notes but I found them pretty attractive and inspiring that degrees ain’t everything in life. If you need more, read below.


I didn’t complete my University : Bill Gates
I Stitched Shoes in childhood :Abraham Lincoln
I was the one who served in Hotels : OBEROI
I was Conductor : Rajnikanth
I worked at Petrol Pump : Ambani
I Failed in class 10th : Sachin Tendulkar
I was a Drop out n Keyboard Player : A R Rahman
I Slept on a Bench & borrowed Rs. 20 everyday from friend to travel to filmcity : Shahrukh khan
I used to serve Tea to support my Football Training : Lionel Messi

My recent inspiration Gautam Adani who is a dropout from my college itself and there is of course Larry Page of Google – another Stanford doctoral program dropout.

Bill Gates, Carl Icahn, David Geffen, Gautam Adani, Jack C Taylor, John D Rockefeller, Ralph Lauren, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Jobs, Ted Turner, Michael Dell are the few names I can recall who were not one of those first bench toppers and instead, they were dropouts. Do you know what the total worth is of these 11 people? $805 Billion as per Sept. 2011 records. Does that make you feel “awwww”? icon biggrin An Open Letter to the First Bench Toppers by a Last Bencher

I can recall a very nice quote from the karate kid which I personally like that goes like : “People will knock you down, its your choice if to get back up”. I am not saying that toppers can’t achieve what dropouts does. Look at Warren Buffet, a Masters in Economics and is definitely a billionaire but why he is a billionaire? Because he convinced himself to take a risk for the dreams he wanted to pursue rather than joining any other economic or financial firm.

So what does this say about the utility college education? Perhaps nothing – college is a reasonable way for most people to launch their careers. On the other hand, these examples prove that for the truly intelligent, motivated, and brave, there may be better ways to spend several youthful years than sitting in a classroom.

I don’t want to have any verbal battle with a topper but I just want to put what I really feel when we feel like we’re not one of them but today I want to tell you that you’re not one of us either. Watch your words because now I know how words can kill!

This is ME, Rahul Banker just giving out a message to all those narrow minded people who think college education with good grades is necessary to be successful in life. Please don’t kill the creativity your child has or you have. To the teachers, please understand that not all students are same and don’t try expect from each of your students to get good grades, some are just not interested. Recently I had a very bad experience with my own teachers and now I openly say, I don’t like either of them and I really do hate my college for trying to kill my passion and creativity.

I am not saying that being a back bencher or a dropout is an easy thing! You don’t know what phase we go through and what difficulties we face in our success stories but we somehow gather all the power to fight against all the odds and at the end, here goes what a great man said :

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Be strong enough to fight against the world. All the best and if you’re a topper, please never say to your mate that he is ruining his/her life. Life has a cruel/intelligent way of changing things in a flash. cheers.

-- 

Decoupling Theory Goes to Bin

The Blood bath on the street has rejuvenated the chances of Double dip recessions, the last bloodbath on street was due the failure of the Banking system, this time around we have another reason for the plunge ‘ fear of Sovereign Debt crisis in Eurozone’. 

Now today’s (19’th May 2010) fall was purely due to tinkering with the free markets, history has proved time & again, banning of short selling has never helped in the past (Academic Study), but even regulators as experienced as SEC have failed to understand that short selling is a simple tool to avoid asset bubble formation, still we have politicians with their own whims & fancies & they expect the markets to work according to them. Last week we started on a good note but as expected Germany’s Chancellor’s comments made its ending weak, markets rejoiced on 11’th of May on the news that EU and IMF agreed to act as fairy godmother and pay a $1 trillion emergency-bailout package to stem the sovereign-debt crisis. Sounds good but I have my doubts that we will come out of the tunnel unscratched, & I have my reasons to believe so:-

1)     1)The Bullish pattern in the Fear Index: -   The INDIA VIX index , many call it the fear index is trading well above its 15 day moving average. Thus indicating the fact that volatility is the only reality. CBOE VIX is also trading well above its 200dma & staying there. 

 2)    Yellow metal still shining bright:-

The very fact gold is able to close above $1200per ounce on a consistent basis, indicates the aversion of risk from EM’s, Currency , Crude & Commodities ( Non precious).

3)No takers for Euro :-

The Euro index has seen a freefall & has also breached the lows it had touched after the Lehman Bros. crash. It has breached a strong support of 123-125, still people are feeling the good old dollars are safest currency to stay in.

1)    4)China Commodity Scare:-

I       I am scared of China’s growth & fear that its insatiable thirst for Natural resources  could lead to

  A bubble formation, which if burst’s it could create a catastrophic scenario.

  So if Money is not parked in EM’s, Commodities, Eurozone, Equities in developed markets, then Gold seem to be    the most likely option. So its safe to assume that 2007 high’s of 21K on sensex is still a distant dream, but a  possibility if we see the so called as ‘ Decoupling Theory ‘  coming true due to good monsoons, but I personally expect Nifty to first go to 4600 levels & then 6200.   

PS:-  Many facts & figures are taken from Mr. Deepak Singh’s Blog. ‘ State of the Market’,  Deepak is a vetran technical analyst, and my role model.

In a Stock Broking Firm who is really happy?

Was taken aback by gigantic screen's showing CNBC TV 18.... Series of Computers with dealers punching ...plush office... beautiful girls who also seemed intelligent... all nicely dressed people.... they looked so happy & rich? I had doubts... do I belong here...forget winning can I survive here... After all it is India's Biggest Broker.....

We work hard, we spend sleepless nights, we make it to the best schools, we struggle to survive, we fight to compete to get the highest paying job, we strive to outperform peers, and end up being victims of our Business Cards & Designation’s inscribed on it.

Designation becomes our destination & we are in this blind Rat race running on treadmill weaved by the numbers, targets or KPI’s designed to extract best out of us. I see this in my Office, yeah a top notch Sock Broking firm, the people who really seem to be happy are the traders in the dealing room, the analyst seem to be under extensive pressure to generate those research report with highest ‘hit-rate’ so we can claim that our research is the best in the market & we have the arsenal to tame the vilely old beast called Stock Market. But the Analyst are a  breed one of its kind passed out of Ivy leagues, never tasted failure or pain, they will always be in the most aspired & envied job in Investment Industry. But the grass always seems to be a tinge greener on the other side of glass cubicle, what we don’t see are the thorns on that chair of an Analyst.

So let me talk something interesting, let me talk about my team oh-yes we are the rain makers!...We are the self proclaimed sexy bitches, of the company, oozing with confidence, oh yeah we are the sales guys, we seal the deals, we bring business on the table, the most important leg (again self proclaimed) of the broking tripod, but behind the ooze there is lot of midnight booze just to get some sleep & few hours of target-less life.

And if you think traders are a jolly bunch, then I need you to dig deep, as there is more to it than what meets the eye, beneath the laughter & joy there exists a deep sorrow of small child who sat on the trading desk & never grew, always one regret I wish to learn more, know more , grow more.

How can we forget the back office guys, there name has nothing to ride home about, nothing appealing, no lime light, there life gets stuck up in not so cheesy words like T+2, delivery, settlement, compliance.

So we conclude the clients who make money rest in eternal bliss, wait a minute when you are deep out of the money or when your netwoth has reduced to half & in middle of operation in Operation theater if your dealer calls & ask “Saheb tamaru MTM loss vadhi gayu chee aane position continue karva maatein tamne bay lakh bharva padsse”( Meaning: Sir your MTM losses have escalated, your a/c is showing a debit bal of Rs 2 lac, you need to pay so as to continue with your existing positions.)

How can a doctor possibly operate under this severe traumatic condition?

So who is a happy bunny in all this process, without a speckle of doubt it’s the Brokers...    

“You Win Big… You Lose Big…. I only Win!”

It’s a great irony of life that everybody wants’ to go to heaven but none ready to die for it.

Still we work hard in a belief “We are just a trade away from being a millionaire & bankruptcy, there exists a grey space somewhere in between that’s where we reside.”

Disclaimer:-

I have no intention to malign any profession,employer, or any entity living or dead, the article should be taken in the right spirit. The events in this piece are part fictional.