Facing the Bangalore Mirror

It seems to me that I have grown older and the city of Bangalore has grown younger.  The time span is over twenty years. Today’s Bangalore has gained a brand status in the growth map of India. Bangalore has emerged as India’s growing millionaire’s city.

The brand status of Bangalore has created many agreeable doubts in my mind.

I am not going on an epic rant either for or against the impressionable changes that I noticed in the past two decades in its social, cultural and political circuits.

Local Daily Print media is flooded with advertisements on cookies, noodles, honey, gold, real estate dreams, shopping discounts and latest gadgets covering wide range to suit consumer’s taste and purse.     The road side bill boards prove the fact that Shopping Malls, here, mastered the art of attracting” shopaholics” and “cosmoholics”.

Attractive Ads on admissions to colleges and schools are also very visible. Ads on Hospital facilities are very wide and in detail enough to attract patients from all over the world.

From time to time mild protests do crop up from the citizens about the wrong side of felling off trees and other serious municipal services deficiencies and also about the impending ballooning of water crisis to the city households.

Last week the diary of Bangalore has been the busiest one. Democratic election resulted in new Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri. Siddaramaiah, assuming office, for a change. Bangalore experienced one of the hottest summers in the last decade.

The city also celebrated the mother’s Day in its own style followed by Akshya Trithiya Day. Boulevard got a rangoli touch to facilitate the urban side of Mahatma Gandhi Road to meet the urban art of Bangalore. I like the bus daily pass system and the management of the urban Public transport system. Bangalore is eagerly waiting for the spread of Metro Rail transport. I am not touching how the chances are balanced for RCB in the current IPL cricket match season, although I crossed the stadium twice in the last week.

Now I have become a Bangalorean. But I am not a digital tribe. Nor I am a Smartphone empowered countrymen. Nor I am enthused to scroll on my computer to read self important updates, soppy quotes and haiku tweets. I am not interested to get in to the illusion of celebrity hood by downloading my picture updates frequently and forcing others to draw attention towards it in this attention seeking age!

I believe in social situation and hold firm conviction in respect of the point of view that good things come in small packages, all nonsense eases instantly and one could always not follow bores. I am of the view that you ‘dress to the face and not dress the face.

I know every temptation has a price. That is why last Sunday I did not plan to accompany my family members to go to any shopping Malls to gaze the arrival of limited edition gadgets. I don’t seriously subscribe to the point of view of limited edition gadget purchasers’ club.

On the other hand I decided to drop into my neighbor’s flat to listen to the  Bhajan - voices of promising group of talented youngsters. It was indeed thrilling, positive and a new experience for me in Bangalore. Like mirror few things are timeless in our life. You will agree with me that devotional songs recited in praise of, and expressing love for and gratitude to the lord almighty is indeed time less.

 

Hey Camera- Kolkata’s Hidden Identity

I am back to blogging after a long hiatus.

I never wanted to queue in my memory lane.

Nor I am on a self rewinding movement of my thoughts.

Of course I cannot avoid when I think of the hidden identity of the city of Kolkata, India.I spent the May Day of this year in Kolkata I am conquered by my nostalgic bites of this great city.

Some call this city as the city of joy and others call it a city of processions and so on.

The city life has been a theme of many hit movies and filmy songs in India.

I know that the trick is in telling the story and carving one’s own identity.

My loyalty quotient in respect of the city of Kolkata is very high.

The remembering must go on.

I agree that orderly chaos in the city is perpetual.

Streets are never silent.

Public finds a problem in any solution.

It is known for its street junk food.

Political, economic or social or any other issues are often very much sensationalized.

On many local forums the city’s unique life style has been debated widely.It never escaped the internet sensation going viral about its random chaos in all walks of life.

Street corner ’Adda culture” over sipping a cup of tepid tea sitting on a wooden bench is well known folklore here.

The city is very well known for its affinity and love for its music, literature and theater Though one could visibly notice some municipal backwardness the city is remembered for its glorious past.When I was busy in clicking my camera in taking pictures someone behind me called hey camera.

In every piece of activity in this glorious city you will find a story to tell and reason to ponder

My camera captures pictures of some hidden identity for anyone to think that while time passes the object and the unique style and spirit lives on.

I boarded the train to Bangalore, India, by recollecting what Voltaire said “They are fools who light a candle to look at the sun”.

Life Style: Where does the hobby of stamp collecting fit in?

I am hearing a lot on the eve of the New Year 2013 about recession ready ‘pop-ups’ culture in consumer life style circuit which is set to redefine  our habits relating to from marketing to consumption.

Pop-ups are micro-events that are put up at temporary venues.

It will prefix everything from restaurants to folk music with flexibility in venues and timings.

I also hear more about meggings and leggings style for new age men’s sartorial circles.whether it is a lifestyle hobby or attention seeking syndrome, I don’t know.

The generation that I belong to(60 plus age group) could not capture the essence of it.

I cannot navigate  gadgets quickly and swiftly between 2D and 3D or between 3G and 4G.

In the context of ever changing life style environment I am trying to recollect the echoes of my mind about the oldest hobby, lifestyle or fashion or status symbol like stamp collecting a wild thought and recollections indeed!

I was taught in my school some 55 years back that how stamp collecting was known as “The king of Hobbies and the Hobby of Kings”.

I still remember the slogan of the American Tropical Association ‘Knowledge through stamp collecting’.

I still recollect the day of my school quiz contest when I answered Rowland Hill as the father of adhesive postage stamp Penny Black.

The hobby of Stamp collecting, I wonder, in the context of public turning into email and social networking, easy to use web apps and the dwindling habit of written correspondence through posting letters and so on, what direction the hobby or pastime is taking.

In short can I simply say stamp goes unnoticed?

As a casual collector of stamps I don’t find answers to the question will stamps become historical artifacts?

I could see an overall shift in its market size and spread.I also stopped collecting stamps longtime back. Just like that.

I read ‘Nostalgia’ really can give some people a ‘warm glow’.Now I am going through my Stock book – with the thought that whether Philately has become out of fashion?

It is really inspiring in this context to read the title ‘The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors’ by Stanley M Bierman. 

While going through the pages of my old stamp album I still remember an anonymous quote that-‘Life is a teacher it gives you the test first and the lesson later’.

Mind viruses-It’s all start with extremes in investor psychology

I don’t know how to understand the market indicators and chart lines. I get perplexed by the vocabularies used by stock analysts and punters in defining the market trends. I am an average Joe and not a self proclaimed wizard when it comes to stock investments.

If I say so that one has to apply what is popularly called “Failure mode and effects analysis”- (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- Failure Mode and Effect Analysis: FMEA from Theory to Execution) into financial and stock investments I may be called as pessimist by my friends but in today’s global financial and economic situation one cannot avoid perhaps.

I know that the market is always filled with full of volatility and fluctuations. I also know there cannot be two moons. To my surprise stock punters and analysts very often bet on to prove their point that there exist two moons.  Sometime they do succeed surprisingly!

Some would say market shows the gale sign and for others it may be showing a hurricane trend. Often I think such analysis is routine activity like buttering on the loaf of your breakfast breads. Is it becoming any one’s skill and all think that any one can understand and accordingly place their bets on it. It is not as true and simple when you try to execute it practically.

I know that stock market always come out with two tales. One is bullish and the other is bearish story and the common villain for both the stories is ‘bubble’. Normal investors often get themselves drenched in it and fondly on the look out for ways to get out of their (mostly wrong) entry from their investments with loss peeping out.

I have very simple and normal investment attitude and believe in getting rich slowly.

Therefore, I don’t fit myself into the community of cyber- market tribes hunting for tips and scoops by searching out in the net religiously to influence my investment decisions.

It would bring out in you a different kind of perception if you could lay your hands on the best-selling book-Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme, Richard Brodie.

I always remember, when it comes to stock investments and financial planning the words of Publilius Syrus” “Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.” Equally such point of thinking applies to all our financial and stock investment decisions.

Stock investors- in search of hidden shine

I get asked many times by my friends, relatives and business associates to tell some stock investment ideas. I generally avoid prolonging any talk on the topic.

Further I don’t have any idea go down to share with!

I know it all will have bright start with and ends in bed bugs.

I feel personal finance and investments are purely individualistic in nature and hence omnibus suggestions and opinions don’t work at the ground level.

Like an artist, investors too try to explore deeper and more intimately rewards beyond the shadow of big signatures.

I wondered very often why people ask for suggestions and in search of news columns and media discussions when it involves finance, taxation and buy or sell tips on investments.

Is it really connected with the human tendency to run on the track with the herd blinkers?

Personally I have experienced on umpteen occasions tips relating to the above have become routine column feeder stuff.

I simply don’t know why do small and retail investors are on the look out for such kind of stuff with neither head nor tail in it.

While dealing with your investments into stocks one need to understand that your investment success is as interesting as your investment failures.

Simply put it at the end of the day a bit good luck has to work for you.

No amount of wisdom brings out to you good balance sheet.

I don’t have any answer if you ask me who will estimate your good luck.

If good luck is not favoring, your investments will direct you into a foggy future.

And continue to hurtle your vision.

You may turn out to be bit cynical.

Your cynicism would expand in circles in your mind.

Avoid any type of investment stress to conquer your mind and thoughts.

If you feel so at any given point of time simply quit your investments without bothering about the consequences.

Unless you understand with your experience that the two distinguishable bearish and bullish strands running parallel at a given point of time in stock investments with patience it will be hard task for you to search the hidden shine in your investments within the time frame work that you have in mind.

You will always feel that your choice is less than ideal.

To bet even for an average return in your stock investments you better know yourself first and understand what you are buying and selling and ask the question why to yourself.

One thing you have to know always that you are not the spell maker of Wall Street.

At the end of the day I understand and experienced that nothing quite grips human ambition and expectations as forcefully as the allure of luck.

As you know, even Napoleon wanted lucky (war winning) generals in preference to merely brilliant ones. In stock investments logic is not an impediment; but superstition leaps across paradox.

Stock investments look promising from the outside but the process of ascertaining your risk reward is full of roadblocks especially for small and retail investors.

Your self sniff test will tell whether you have built up a portfolio with flawed or failed investments.

By just putting a little individual effort in terms of managing ‘timing’ and ‘irrational exuberance’ you can surely find out the hidden shine in stock investments.

Avoid hyper aggressive attitude towards your investments.

Good luck to your 2013 investments.

My book shelf 2013

Good luck to you all on this new years’ day of 2013.

I learned over the years that trial and error may successfully beat academic knowledge. My management school never taught me any stock investment tricks. I am puzzled over a question when it is put to me should you credit or debit your luck in stock investments? I quizzed to myself that how come “Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”~ Viktor Frankl

I picked up some thought provoking book titles with fascinating concepts on finance and stocks with a wider angle to one’s understanding of what is called popularly as financial deception.

Follow me to my book shelf:

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman-Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) – Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself (Sheila Bair) – Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global Financial System (Scott Patterson)

Hedge Fund Market Wizards (Jack D. Schwager)-How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life (Thomas Gilovich)

The Art of Contrary Thinking (Humphrey B. Neill) – Black Monday: The Catastrophe of October 19, 1987 . . . and Beyond (Tim Metz)-Underwater Dogs (Seth Casteel)-

Memos from the Chairman (Alan C. Greenberg)-The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins (Jeff Connaughton)-Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds (Charles Mackay)

Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen (Mark Buchanan)- Broken Markets: How High Frequency Trading and Predatory Practices on Wall Street are Destroying Investor Confidence and Your Portfolio (Sal L. Arnuk)- Wait: The useful art of procrastination (Frank Partnoy)

Tap the good and lucky investments awaiting for you in 2013.

Time to Say cheese – 2013 unfolds with jewel of smiles

I know pictures are beyond postures.

Any picture is connected to a camera, focus, person and an event.

Shoot, edit and share are the mantra of the day.

Who says you cannot focus beyond cheese?The truth is zooming lens really talks with photographers.

My family members ( amateur photographers) are grouped together to catch a pose of a family event.

I present here a wider lens from my family photo frame.

Note in your 2013’s New Year diary what FOCUSES beyond CHEESE!

Explore newer facets of yourself in 2013.

The spotlight is exploring the possible in 2013.

I find lucky in both 20 and in 13.

I find more energizer and vibrant new year omens in Bill Vaughn’s words-

” An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves”.

New year 2013- I am in search of a caption

In no way I can give any explanation for how Calcuttans have been adjusting to the coldest December in decades.

Kolkata, in India, extended its streak of Celsius lows to a record straight eighth day.

Like any other person in Kolkata I have been celebrating the self gifted holidays with my family.

I had been to a dream road trip to 2012.

I know it is fitting to talk not about the past.

But sometime you have to rewind yourself to events in your personal, social and professional life.

I had some duds and disappointments in 2012 from my near and dear ones.

I don’t want to carry any faulty perception for 2013.

Nothing big is going to come up with guns blazing.

You cannot brand this as my exclusive pessimism.

Personally I don’t want and cannot put up any wish list for 2013, unlike the world of glamour, politics and finance.

For 2013, Commercials are ready with its exclusive wish list ranging from dress, style, stage background techniques, screens to dinner plate.

Fashion industry has spotted emerald green as a theme for 2013.

Many stock market punters have also come out with their wish list.

My youngest son, who was here with me for a brief winter holidaying, presented me a Nikon camera to chew on.

I am ready to a draw the map of pictures with the new camera I got.

I am ready to click on to the pictures of sun, sand, snow, street scenes, and smiles

I look forward to 2013 through a mirror of consolidation and strength.

My best wishes to my blog readers and followers.

Are Stock Traders and Investors in search of lamp of Aladdin?

Everyone loves a good deal. “All you need is a dollar and a dream”, says New York’s Lotto slogan. Agreed and not questioned but I wonder reality strikes how many. That is the moot question.

The best slogan that I like most in the year 2012 is “you get rich slowly’. Many may not agree with me and I will be branded as pessimist. I don’t mind. I know at the end of the day I have to acknowledge my waist lines.  Therefore, I cannot get into an argument with any one whether the current market is in a vibrant or somnolent mood. I don’t know should you follow the herd or not?

When it comes to your personal investments in stocks I once again wonder how many of us could chase successfully the verticality in our balance sheet when stock prices appeared to be curled up in a cozy snooze in recent years. Today’s buzz word in investment circle is the fiscal cliff reforms waiting to see the take off from 1st January 2013.

While taking a hard look at the stock market investments in recent years I cannot resist citing what Prof. Niall Ferguson of Harvard University, in his book “The Ascent of Money” said, “Financial history is the essential back-story behind all history”.

There cannot be any second opinion to the fact that from the recent web of global financial crisis it is evident that the most profound theories in the history of finance have been disproved.

In the words of former Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker who said that it’s “clear that among the causes of the recent financial crisis was an unjustified faith in rational expectations [and] market efficiencies”. A shift in approach is gradually taking place. A new mind set is emerging when it comes to approaching finance and investments. Investors and traders are increasingly relying on to studies connected with social data to get the pulse of the market.

I also read that in recent months major financial institutions are digging deeper to know investor’s mood deciding and changing information that are available in social networks such as Face book, Twitter, Blogging sites, etc.

Now ‘speed’ matters most when it comes to taking investment decisions.

Undoubtedly Social media has emerged as a biggest connects between business and finance and surely the lamp of Aladdin for investors.

My Mindset- Money -2012- the Bottom Line

I don’t think that I would ever imagine that I would never make a mint if I don’t make smart investments.  At the same time I will not conclude that in today’s economy, it is difficult to look past now to see the promise of tomorrow.  I always remember one thing in life that the barking dogs cannot stop the moving Caravan.

Of course I am firm in my conviction that numbers in any one’s personal finance balance sheet changes their mind. It may sound simple, but at the ground level whether it works at your end or not completely depends on your money mindset.

I am certainly not a scion of a noble line of disciplined financial gurus? But I follow what I was taught by my parents in my younger days about savings and investments and my gathered commonsense experience over these years.

As the year 2012 is drawing closer I just had a talk with myself on my mindset on money and investment matters and would like to share the following thoughts with my blog readers.

 (1) First flash that comes to my mind is how I got bruised much with financial infidelity from my near and dear ones. This discloses the fact that too many people live in the moment. Their money mindset is beyond cure. They are mostly suffering from incurable financial amnesia. It is very difficult for me to pardon any sort of financial infidelity. I subscribe to point out that any journey in personal finance is a journey in behavioral psychology.

(2) I believe that I should invest independently from the herd.

(3) When it comes to stock investments I should learn to ignore the Mainstream Chatter to Spot Big-Picture.

(4) After experiencing the market volatility in 2012 I learnt that the downside fall is faster and steeper as opposed to its upside.

(5) When it comes to market analysis and corporate research reports I experienced that most of them engage themselves constantly to spin the latest news and statistics to serve their predetermined outlook.

(6) After reading and experiencing more about the spread and the size of financial scams across the globe I fell that the financial safeguards in the law (irrespective of the region) at that moment are tragically antiquated and weak.

(7) Investing and getting the expected rate of return in stocks is unpredictable. Investors are failing to meet their expectations and promises of both the ends of the risk return pyramid.

(8) If you don’t make saving and investing a priority, your account balance will never grow. Asset buyers are always  biased to think bullish about asset prices.

(9) Budget and diet control makes a person wealthy and healthy.

(10) I cannot subscribe to the morals of borrowing for personal consumption. One should not fall prey to any sort of merchant pushes. What I think is better to understand the minute aspects of merchant push versus consumer pull in a given market situation.

At the end of the day one should understand that regarding personal money matters you are the referee, you are the rules,you are the player and you are the playground. You will come to know your financial epiphany. After-all you are umpiring your money(dirty) secrets!