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 .

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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.

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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.

4 comments »

2008  

Posted by Ram in , ,


an year which has reminded us of some age old lessons, an year which has given us some great memories to cherish and above all an year which has presented us with a fantastic opportunity.

Lesson 1: Greed Kills:

Yeah it does, does not matter how big you are or how mighty you are. Ask Lehman Brothers or AIG or Barclays or the average Indian Investor for a confirmation. Everyone be it small or big forgot this simple truth and are now finding themselves in Intensive Care.

Lesson 2: Back offices can't get decoupled:

"Decoupling" a term which was on the lips of every person whom I met, everyone spoke of India as an Insulated Economy conveniently forgetting the fact that India's growth was predominantly driven by the Service and the Manufacturing Industries which catered mainly to the needs of the US n Europe. Now that Europe n US find themselves in a deep recession, India has started to feel the heat. Time to move on and become a world leader and not remain a back office of the world.

Lesson 3: Nothing lasts forever

Be it the Australian Supremacy in Cricket or the Dominance of Federer in the lawns of Wimbledon or the American hegemony in Olympics, nothing lasts forever, everything has got to come to an end.

Lesson 4: Pseudo Secularism Hurts

As the Congress government in India is now finding out. Having taken a soft stand on terrorism to please the minorities, congress is now finding itself in a huge hole getting out of which is not only necessary but mandatory for its survival. Too bad that it has taken so many unfortunate incidents for Congress to realize this.

2008 also gave us some wonderful memories to cherish

Who can ever forget the sight of Micheal Phelps winning his 8th Gold to beat Spitz's record of 7 gold medals. Here was a man who came with a mission and he achieved it in style. Donno when and by whom will this record will be broken but I am pretty sure that it is going to remain unchallenged for a long time to come.

Usain Bolt's stunning runs in the 100 and 200 metres at Beijing. I cannot forget forever the adrenaline rush that i felt when Usain ran his 200 metres. Bolt is now gearing himself for breaking the 400 metres record and I am already looking forward to it.

Spain got the monkey of its back, with a stunning performance to lift Euro 2008. They played like true champions and Torres and Villa became superstars. As i had written before, Euro 2008 was a wonderful spectacle and its end made me really sad.

Rafeal Nadal winning his first Wimbledon title after an epic struggle. Federer or Fading light nothing could deter Nadal from his destination. I was reminded of "Rumble in the Jungle". I had read so much about it and here I was watching a similar contest. A Match for a lifetime.

Now to the Opportunity, well I have said this time and again and now I end with the quotes of 2 of the greatest Investors of of all time, Buffet's "Be Greedy when others are Fearful and Vice Versa" and Sir John Templeton's quote "Before this century is over, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will probably be over one million versus around 10,000 now. So for the long-term, the outlook is tremendously bullish if you buy stocks blindly to keep for a century."

Lets Take the lessons of 2008 and remember dear friends that "People who don't remember the past are bound to get punished in the future". Njoy 2009 and lets hope and strive for a peaceful and hunger free world in 2009.

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Thoroughly Entertaining  

Posted by Ram in ,


A marathon journey and had it not been for Movies and Music, the journey would have been excruciatingly painful one too. Thanks to technology,I was able to keep myself engaged and entertained for the length of the journey.

By the end of the Journey I can say, i became eligible to call myself as "A Movie Addict" and a "Music Maniac". 6 movies in a span of 21 hours is I believe too high a number by any yardstick. The good thing about the whole exercises however was that most of them were real good, with a couple of them in the league of "Extra Ordinary".

All started off with "Sparrow" a Chinese movie, which deals with the story of a pick pocket and his gang of men and how they go about freeing a girl from a Big Shot. It was a a movie which started off well and tapered off towards the end. Then came Taimur n Shafia an Arabic movie which dealt with the story of lovers and the ego clashes between them. The movie must have been made as a full fledged comedy movie, however the director made it a regular commercial flick by adding some unnecessary elements towards the end.

After 2 movies i got a bit tired of movies and I moved to the Music Section where Haydn provided me not only the much needed entertainment but great comfort with his symphony Number 88.

With over brimming joy i returned back to continue my movie marathon and resumed it with "45 Yoam" an Arabic movie, which deals with the mindset of a youngster, who is charged with having murdered his parents. Did he really murder them? If so why did he do it?, the movie although moves on predictable lines in the second half makes for a good watch with a really moving climax. Wall- E followed and Pixar Studios with this movie have covered a subject which is not a subject which is usually covered by Animation movies. Handling a sensitive subject and handling it with finesse,the makers have made an all time great movie.

After taking a short nap and recharging myself i switched back to watch "The Dark Knight" and i felt so happy and joyous after watching this all time classic. If i were to write about this movie that alone would take up a few pages on itself. If Heath ledger's performance was brilliant to say the least, the Script work was simply out of the world. The whole angle in which the subject has been approached and dealt with calls for a "Thumbs Up". Amazing movie. After a series of emotional movies i needed to get myself out of that mood and i decided to go for Mamma Mia a light hearted musical characterized by Cool songs, awesome locations and an average screenplay.

After all this, i still had time and what better way to spend time rather than to listen John Williams, Indiana Jones, ET, Jaws, Jurassic Park,Goodness Me!!! Hats off to U Sir. And when my journey ended and i reached my Native Place with Superman and Olympic Fanfare theme ringing in my ears, I felt like a KING notwithstanding the fact that I dont have a fortune or a Kingdom or a Queen ;)

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