The Roaming Foodie  

Posted by Ram in , ,



Yes that is what i decided to become one, even if that meant I ran the risk of putting in a few extra pounds :)  and I was sure of becoming poorer by a few thousand Rupees :D.


The reason being that, its been a long time since I have given myself the permission to enjoy and I just wanted to get away from this maddening crowd who speak about "Recession" and predict "doom" on a daily basis.

Now that I decided to let myself loose for a week, I now had to decide the cuisines on which I was going to feast upon. This was a much more difficult task than giving myself the permission to enjoy as my love for food cannot be put in words and hence the selection process always is mighty difficult.

After much deliberation and a lot of pain I made the final list. I was going to go for Lebanese, Mexican, Japanese and Italian 

So how did it go? 

Started off with  Lebanese, which is very very close to my heart. It was the first foreign cuisine which I tried and i cannot forever forget the experience of munching on Falafels and loads of Humus. So it was a very emotional feeling when i stepped into the restaurant which although claiming to be Mediterranean, is in my opinion more Lebanese than Mediterranean. For all those foodies out there you can  look at Chicken Sharwams, Grilled Chicken Wings (as opposed to the usual Batter Fried Wings) , Grilled Fish, all with Pita Breads , Falafels n Humus, apart from the Lambs and Tunas. I went for the Grilled Fish along with a Tuna Salad and a Herbal Tea.

If Lebanese has Pitas, then Mexican has its own Tortillas and if Lebanese has hot Sauce, Mexican has Salsa ( in various flavors) and if Lebanese has Cream, Mexican has Cream + Cheese. No am not rating any of the cuisines for I love all of them, but I am tryin to showcase some of the similarities which I have noticed across some of these cuisines. I personally went for Seer Fish grilled in Barbecue Sauce with Rice and Chicken Soup ( for my Soul :D ) along with Lime Margarita. In case if you are venturing out for the first time, make sure u don't miss out on the Burritos, Fajitas and the Quesedillas.

Pizzas and Pastas have become so so famous and popular throughout the world, which leaves hardly anything on the table for me to add, but I would sincerely suggest people to look at Italian restaurants as opposed to the restaurants which sells Pastas n Pizzas along with "N" other dishes belonging to "M" odd cuisines. The reason being the authenticity can only then be appreciated. My personal favorites Include Lasagna with Sea Food ( I must confess here that I m a huge fan of Sea Food :D ).

Finally to Japanese, which is markedly different from any of the aforementioned cuisines. The sight of a Sushi with a Raw Halibut or Raw Tuna could even put off some of the hard core foodies. (Andy Murray who now is a fan of Sushi was so apprehensive of it in the beginning). The best thing would be to get the mind rid of any "Blocks" and "Prejudices" and to get there with an Open Mindset. Once you get there with that mindset then it becomes that much more easy for you. The Saashimi and the Sushi will then taste nothing but delicious. I personally went for the Sushi with Saashimi( Halibut, Tunas, Shrimps ) and Miso Udon ( Udon is Japanese for Noodles ) with Shrimps in it. Dont forget the Tempuras if you are interested in fried items.

The journey has ended and now it is time for me to tighten my belt( literally I would say) and to shed off those extra pounds. It is a sad thing that I cannot afford all this on a daily basis, even the low fat versions of them ( low fat versions are in fact costlier). Either I need to earn huge to make this affordable or I need to get hold of a girl who is an expert Cook :) .

P.S: This is one blog which you can check out as it contains some highly valuable information for you. http://yummyrecipies.blogspot.com/.  Readers are welcome to share their personal experiences here :D .

9 comments »

Tit Bit -8  

Posted by Ram in ,

Stripes are back in Fashion: Stripes which were previously considered as a design favored by people who were mentally disturbed are now back in Vogue. British designers are busy designing dresses with stripes says a news Item.


Well, believe that Stripes are going to remain in Vogue for at least a couple more years :) , any second opinions ???

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An Attempt  

Posted by Ram in ,


Yeah it is an attempt at understanding how important is Understanding Culture in picking up Stocks? Sounds bizzare, doesn't it? I bet we wont feel so, if we were to look at this at a deeper level.

Consider this, Coca Cola, Gillete some of the gems in the crown of Warren Buffet. These are not only good companies but also companies which are a part of American Culture. Put in Simple words, to Americans water and soft drinks are almost similar.Shaving everyday again is a part of their culture. Sounds silly isnt it? Well believe me, it is not so easy and understanding this seemingly easy but rather difficult facet of Investing is in my opinion a key to the monumental success of Warren Buffet. Once you have got this in place, you start zeroing in on the companies which operate in that sector and then all your valuation principles come into play.


Now, this process will help you in picking companies which can give you consistent returns over a long period of time regardless of the economic conditions, thus forming the foundation of your portfolio.

OK now to Indian Context, what are the companies I can think of which form a part of Indian Culture? Too hard as the country is extremely culturally diverse. However if this Organization is made into an Institution, I will be the first person to go ahead and get a stake for myself.

This Organization employs about 14,000 people, runs Universities, manages thousands of acres of assets and rakes in around 100 million US dollars and above all manages the activities of the most temple, which is the most visited in the world. In case if you have still not got it, it is none other than TTD(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Tirupati_Devasthanams).

If at all anything the recent crisis have made more people to turn to this place with the hope that God(if there is one?) will bail them out of the crisis. Hope TTD is listening :)

Well on a serious note, lets start our homework and hope to hit on something which can form the bedrock of our portfolios. It could be anything from a Beer Company( the changing demographics might make it a reality) to a Hospital ( the amount of Junk Food and Unhealthy life style) to a Fast Food Joint or of all a company which supplies clean drinking water ( don't be surprised if that happens :) )

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New Year Treat  

Posted by Ram in

This New Year has opened with a bang. Mr Raju of Satyam has given Hollywood and Bollywood a wonderful script, has given Media with loads of fodder for them to conduct debates and discussions and special programs,has given People like us material to discuss during lunch breaks, has given Employees with Uncertainity,fear and finally has given Investors, the best possible shock.




It has been an amazing story to say the least.Enough and more has been written about in the media. Hence i refrain myself from presenting the numbers again. But i would like to put forward just a doubt that is just killing me.




Mr.Raju says that he has been fudging the accounts to keep the company going and neither he nor his family members have taken a rupee nor derived any benefit out of this fudging process. Ok let us assume this to be true for a minute.




My doubt is that, the company has been and it is still doing the business of providing IT service. The company's workforce is around 50k. The company derives its revenues by billing the clients who are mostly Fortune 500 companies. The billing rates of the company are almost on par with most of the other IT Majors like Infosys, Wipro and TCS. This means that money has been flowing into the coffers of the company.




Now lets look at the expenditure side, the company is half as big as Infosys technologies Ltd, which pays twice as much as employers as Satyam does. Now looking at the Remuneration which Satyam pays to its employees, it is again on par with Industry majors.




Hence based on the aforementioned points we can safely conclude that Satyam has and must have got enough money to keep the cog moving. So the claim of Mr. Raju that he has brought in 1300 crores of his own money to keep the company moving is baffling to say the least. What has happened to the money which the clients must have paid Satyam?




Now let me give my version of what could have happened. Mr.Raju must have siphoned off the money to fund his real estate purchase and other purchases. He must have pledged his shares and obtained money for those activities. As long as the share price remained high and the prices of real estate was moving up he must have been a happy man. Once the Share Price of Satyam started to fall he must have been worried as his borrowing capacity was decided by the price of the Share.




His statement that All his efforts such as dividends and bonuses must have been to infuse confidence in the Investors was to make sure that his borrowing capacity remained intact. Global recession played spoil sport and it took down the price of real estate and the Sensex down.




This meant that he could not sell off the real estate holdings to bring back the money which he has siphoned off and he could not borrow any more and in fact on the contrary needed to pay the lenders for the drop in the share price. Our man was struck in catch 22 situation and then came out with a master plan to purchase stakes in Maytas using Cash that was not there. Had it gone through he would have made Maytas poor but carried on with the game, unfortunately it failed and he decided rather was forced to confess.





Readers let me know if u feel otherwise :)





Mr.Raju has come out with the Joke of 2009 so early in the year when he said that "None of the Board of Directors knew about what was going on in the company"





P.S: Why didn't SEBI remove the Satyam counter from F&O segment? The removal would have meant Satyam could not have fallen by more than 10-20% max in a day. This fall has wiped out millions of Rupees, all of which belong to the average Indian. While I do understand that exit routes needed to be provided for Investors, I believe in this case a freezing at least on temporary basis until the situation was brought under control would have definitely helped the common Investor.

1 comments »

Well Done and Good Luck  

Posted by Ram in


We are living in a time where Media in general has got only one aim "To Sensationalise". The context or the significance of the news item is irrelevant. All that is needed is sensationalism in the presentation. So those news items which are very "dry" are ignored, even if they might influence the society in a very positive way. However I do not blame the Media alone, after all the Media delivers what the majority of the population is interested in knowing about.

So if that means covering Film fare awards and Reality shows and controversies surrounding them in detail, so be it. It is at such a juncture has "The Week" come out with an article highlighting the impact that little known Indians have created with their Ideas in rural parts of India. Aptly titled as "The Indian Genius" the article contains details of those wonderful human beings and their simple but highly effective solutions and how it has transformed their villages and neighbourhood.

The fact that the magazine chose to cover this story during New Year Time was more commendable, as New Year is that time of the year when magazines and Television are agog with Best Songs, Movies, Man/Woman/Animal/Moment of the year contests. It is generally viewed as a time which is ripe for minting money. Kudos to "The Week" , which chose this time of the year to come out with a story which in today's jargon can be labelled as a "Dry" story.

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Good Luck to "Chennai Live" a Radio FM channel which has opted to take the Road less travelled by opting to air English Music for major portion of day as opposed to airing Tamil music ( the Native language of the Province in which Chennai operates) I am reminded of those days when the city as well as the country had few Restaurants which sold "Pizza". Fast forward to the present and you have almost every small Bakery selling Pizza. Such has been the extent to which Pizza has become a part of our daily life. The Same is the case with Sushi cuisine in America.
One common feature in both of the aforementioned examples is that the owners were able to customize the food to suit the needs of the target audience.Now whether this channel goes on to establish itself in such a way depends on the way it is able to market itself and the degree to which it is able to customize itself. However one thing is for sure, it has decided to break the monotony and dared to be different. Whether this will bring success to it or not? Time alone can answer. The result immaterial, I appreciate the courage and wish them good luck.

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