I’m trembling, numb, frustrated, angry, sad, shocked, helpless, speechless and even in tears by a senseless terrorist act that involved senseless killings of soft targets by terrorists who did not even spare Women and small Children… shooting indiscrimately at point blank ranges

Are we living on a civilised planet !? How do we bring up our children on this planet !? 

This Terrorist Hell began in South Mumbai on the night of Wednesday, November 26, 2008 and we salute our Security Forces,especially the Marine Commandos and the National Security Guard (NSG), for ending it this morning

Eleven Terrorists have been chased and killed and one captured. 195 people have died in their strike including a top encounter specialist, the head of our anti terrorist squad, an Army Major assigned to NSG duty and an Additional  Commisioner of Police

These Terrorists came in by Sea and struck Terror at several places including at the Taj and Trident Luxury Hotels in South Mumbai entering them on Wednesday night and firing indiscriminately at Hotel Staff and Guests in the Lobbies and Restaurants and even Rooms…. they were well armed and well trained and knew the hotel layout, having conducted recees in months earlier.

We, Indians, salute our Security Forces,especially the NSG for quick and effective action and flushing out these evil men and killing them and their plans to blow up these Hotels that are icons for India’s growing Economic Strength

Our Coward Politicians who hide behind these NSG Black Cat Protection, should learn Life’s lessons from these very same  NSG Commandos… Humility, Selflessness, Patriotism, Sense of Duty, Professionalism… Commandos were humility and patriotism personified when they were interviewed on TV….. “it is our duty” …”We will protect everytime and not leave any terrorist from where ever they come” On being appreciatively queried how they are able to “Keep Smiling”  one of them said “That’s our strength and spirit and morale booster” .

NSG, WE ‘SALAAM’ YOU !

While immediate Family and Close Friends are safe, we sadly lost a few who we personally knew, who were dining or staying at the Hotels on this Fateful Wednesday Night

Many Politicians across parties in Maharashtra and even around our Nation should be shamed in their insensitiveness and ineptness in handling this crisis and not thinking twice in trying to extract political mileage from this crisis

If these politicians had any moral conscience they should resign from their posts and swear never to contest elections again… Their Hide is even thicker then the Bullet proof Vests worn by our security personnel! Many of them are themselves responsible for Financial Terrorism and even Physical Terrorism in our Great Nation

Over 30 News Channels were carrying the seige live or in deferred relay for security reasons. There were three hostage situations at the Taj, Trident/Oberoi and at the Nariman House (largely Jewish residents) in Colaba. Operation Black Tornado and Operation Cyclone were names given to the rescue and assault operations by the NSG 

Those responsible for this dastardly and inhuman and animal act have created their own Hell

We mourn all those who have died in this Senseless Tragedy

We salute those who took on those bullets for us… We Love you all

We are proud of all of you

Humble and Heartfelt Thanks

Just yesterday I blogged on Citigroup facing a survival issue…and this morning news came that the US Government stepped in to bail it out for now….It will guarantee US $ 306 Billion in losses on high risk assets and will inject US $ 20 billion as fresh Equity from the Troubled Assets Rescue Program of US $ 700 Billion

Fed has taken the View that Citigroup is too big to let it collapse like Lehman

Expect the Share Price of Citicorp to move up from Friday’s closing of US $ 3.77 as this move by the Fed will certainly boost Investor confidence…but don’t conclude that troubles are over for Citicorp….Far from it

Their Ad Tag line says it all ‘ citi never sleeps’…. Well ! Citigroup should !… so that others too can !

Citigroup is facing serious survival issues

It’s share price has dipped below US $ 4, closing on Friday at US $ 3.77, from over US $ 30 just a year ago when Vikram Pandit, of Indian origin, took over to try and save the bank. This past week itself it crashed 60%. On Friday it even reached a low of US $ 3.05 before recovering. It’s now quoted at a fraction of the Book Value and may look very attractive as it does to it’s major shareholder and saviour more than once, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia who announced that he is raising his stake to 5% in Citigroup. 

The Bank has showed losses in the past four quarters. It’s profits dived to US $ 3.6 Billion in 2007 from US $ 21.5 Billion in 2006. The Balance Sheet at September 30, 2008 shows total liabilities in excess of US $ 1.9 Trillion supported by an asset side of US $ 2 Trillion with Shareholders Equity at US $ 126 Billion.

However cash and Cash equivalents and Short Term Investments make up just under US $ 400 Billion. A major asset chunk is US $ 1.3 Trillion in Long Term Investments of which reportedly over US $ 700 billion are related to mortgage securities and of which many are suspect… The Bank would probably require close to US $ 200 billion to bail-out of troubles… The Share Price is now below Book Value and the Market Cap has dramatically dropped to US $ 20 Billion from over US $ 200 Billion a year ago.. It has made huge losses of Billions of Dollars in Hedge Fund SIVs and is now closing nine of them them to prevent further loss

Should Citicorp be bailed out ?

It never sleeps because it cannot !…having created such a mess it’s now trying to clean it up……. Like Lehman, Citigroup too needs to finally go to sleep…. that’s my personal opinion based on both the deep financial malaise and the deep rooted arrogant and condescending psyche within the bank for decades now

I am not really anti Citigroup but my reservations on it have grown over many years now.Have a look at some of the reasons why these reservations came about.Some  have involved my clients in  India…..The Issues are varied in nature

• A client had an account in Citibank and had issued a cheque which bounced… He said this was not posssible and obtained a letter from Citibank which acknowledged their mistake and asked me not to judge the financial position of the client adversely
• A Non Resident Client has Deposits with BCCI, a notorious bank which collapsed. He had given Citibank the Deposit Receipts with the authorisation to them to present them to BCCI on due dates and have these deposits transfered to Citibank… Citibank forgot to do this and BCCI went bust and the clients monies got locked up … I had to personally intervene and fire the Bank for this… would you beleive it that the Bank said they reserved the right to file a case against their own concerned Division responsible for this crisis… Fortunately, the Citibank CEO, Mr Jerry Rao, intervened into this issue and personally requested the liquidator to let Citibank release the Monies to my client and they would later claim the clients BCCI deposits
• Before the Dematerialisation of Shares, all shares sold had to be physically delivered to the Markets. A Client had sold shares which were pledged against an overdraft in Citibank. He had already applied to the bank to withdraw the share certificates…. Citibank failed to deliver on their stated due time to collect the same… I had to personally go and fire the Bank offcials and warn them that if they do not give the shares the same day they would be liable for the auction costs and price differentials… The Bank’s safe custody facilities were located elsewere… but they urgently despatched their officer to get  the shares
• In 1991/92 just before the late Harshard Mehta’s Bank and Stock Scam was exposed, I had approached the bank to place Certificates of Deposit of Good Amount with the Bank for  Clients… The Bank refused to entertain me because, as I later learnt, they preferred to restrict their association and involvement with only a certain cartel of leading Brokers who were on the other side of the Road of the Big Bull, the  Late Harshad Mehta… When Hell broke lose and the Big Bull Banking Receipt (BR) Scam unfolded in April 1992, it is strongly rumoured that Citibank hired Hotel Rooms and had shredders installed in them and Day and night, their employees destroyed evidence of questionable deals… The Bank’s Operating License in India was under threat….. the Citigroup Global CEO at the time, John Reed, had to personally fly in and, I believe, warn our Government that if they took away the License then Citibank would withdraw Deposits of Billions of Dollars from India…at the time we were very precariously poised with our FX reserves which at one point had dipped to just US $ 1.7 Billion  
• When I was on an assignment in Doha, Qatar last year, I learnt that Citigroup was lobbying hard to enter Qatar in a big way as huge gas reserves and rising prices were proving to be a goldmine for the country and the bank wanted to tap into this wealth… Qatar was not to keen as when it was facing financial issues, Citigroup had disdainfully refused to support the country… banks which did support Qatar when it needed it most, rightfully were allowed to scale up in Qatar and reap the advantage of tapping into the growing wealth 

Citibank had this very transparent policy of hiring young Indian Professionals whose parents were either well known Industrialists or held top and influencing and powerful positions in Private and Public domain… the lure was material… wisely, many realised that they were being used and expoited and left the bank… a close friend was man enough to show them his middle finger when they blatantly told him they would offer a job if he got along with him the account of a Leading Indian Company which his father headed   

So it’s a people’s deep rooted malaise as well…extremely difficult to cleanse this sort of psyche

The US Government may not allow the demise of Citigroup as it would affect 387000 jobs (Total No of Employees as on December 31, 2007)…. it may chose the best available option to merge it with another bank….or may just nationalise it !…. Banks work and grow and thrive on Trust…. and if Trust is affected then the Total Liabilities of US $ 1.9 Trillion will start to play up in the immediate short term….. Long Term Investments of US $ 1.3 Trillion would be unable to fund this

Citigroup CEO, Vikram Pandit, has just stated intentions to lay off 52000 employees by June 2009 and that he is not in favour of splitting up the many divisions of Citigroup as a weapon to battle falling share prices…. He’s battling the Citigroup Board on this one !

The Clock is Ticking Loudly for Citigroup…It needs a Miracle this Christmas

2008 has been a poor and humbling experience

At end 2007 all had predicted a continuing upward Sensex and Nifty Trend,albeit with a slower growth rate and little downside to both the Indices…we thought we were Leading…but were actually being led !

It was inconceivable at the time to predict that the Financial and Buisness Pillars of USA will crumble in 2008…Lehman,AIG,General Motors,Citicorp,Bears & Sterns,Merill Lynch,Freddic Mac and Fannie Mae…the list goes on and on…..what follwed was global financial capitulation and devastation

What continues to unfold in 2008 continues to shock everybody

USA is clearly the culprit and it is no longer amusing to read Steve Forbes and Forbes Editor, Tim continuing defending a lame USA and claiming that other countries too are responsible for bringing the World to the Financial Edge….the Epicentre of this Financial Earthquake is USA and the tremors and aftershocks are reverberating around the world 

The Quicksand Capitulation of Financial Powerhouses and leading Corporate Icons in USA ,who were revered as God, is a Black Swan Event ….As the Cover Title of a recent issue of ‘The Economist’ starkly put it “The World is on the Edge “

USA,Germany,England,Japan..all developed nations have declared a recession…all markets are down-commodities,stocks with price trade-offs between Oil,the US Dollar and Gold

So how will 2009 playout for Stocks?….Not very Good

The Hole is too deep and USA continues digging with it’s flawed thinking that supports flawed bail-out plans

Is USA,itself going Bankrupt and Broke ?

There is strong evidence of a deepening Hole in USA…If one has a look at some of the latest US Economic Indicators like the US $ 200 Billion Current Deficit,the negligible Savings Rate of One % ,the Aggregate Deposit base of US $ 415 Billion  with the depository institutions (Before adjusting the US $ 700 Billion TARP Bail-out Plan) and the Corporate Giants in the Banking and Retail and Auto Sectors collapsing or on the verge of doing so and filing for bankruptcy

Removing the Cap on Financial Leverage for the Big Five Investment Banks in 2004 was a crucial mistake….From a cap of 12 Debt to 1 Equity,the banks began to leverage to dangerous plus 40 levels…Cheap Money led to inflated Assets…when the Housing Bubble burst and defaults began scaling up the leverage risk too played up…There is a deterioating quality of assets and excessively High Debts in many US Corporate Giants…this cocktail is made all the more explosive with rising losses

Solution is to deleverage…that is,to bring down the Debt/Equity ratio…How does one do this ? You either infuse fresh and sizeable Equity or you repay Debts or both…your liquidity position is already imperiled and so you need to sell assets to repay debts…the problem is that even the value of your assets as shown in your balance sheet is overstated and need to be continuously marked down considerably to market…Fresh Equity Infusion is difficult as Issues of Trust,Sustainabilty of Business,Valuation and Liquidity have to be overcome

How long will this Deleveraging Process take ?…that’s the Question !….The Hole is Deep…that is now accepted…but how deep is it ?…that’s another big Question !…the process is likely to take years…three? five? more? 

India is not isolated or decoupled from USA

Share Prices of Companies in India continue to fall as Sensex gravitates back from 21200 levels in January to test 8000 levels currently

Prices have dropped below Valuations as indicated by traditional methods of earnings and assets…There is some justification for this…There is a real scare on earnings Growth going forward…In fact a negative rate has been forecast for Sensex Companies Earnings for FY 10 by many…Derating to single digit 6 to 8 times Multiples of Earnings is inevitable…… and any loss will reduce Book Values too 

So if the FY 10 Sensex earnings is to fall below 900 and we take a six multiple,it gives us a Sensex level of 5400 !…oof !…we’re at 8900 today…The next few quarters are going to be very tough indeed for Indian Corporates and the way i see it,only the second half in 2009 may bring in some glimmer of an upward trend,if at all.

So what should we do with stocks we already have ?…I’ll take up this call in another blog soon

You’re making Money by only shorting the markets ! How Healthy can this be ?

You can’t grow your Economy by shorting it ! can you ?…or should you look at the Markets and the Economy seperately…as our FM would now like us to do…”Don’t keep on looking at the Nifty or the Sensex…it’s only an Index “ says he….But I thought markets reflect the Economy and are barometers of it !  

Ashok Kumar Parmar has surfaced yet again to make an unsolicited hostile Bid for Bhilwara Spinners.He is making the Mandatory Public Offer to acquire atleast 20% of the Equity of the  Company at Rs 15,having already accumulated 15% of the equity stake…Bhilwara is locked up by 5% on Upper Circuit at Rs 11.99 today on the BSE 

Does this name,Ashok Kumar Parmar, ring a Bell ,other than his efforts to buy into the Videocon Group ?

Is it the same Parmar who made a killing in SUZLON ? If so, all else is Petty Cash for Parmar except for Suzlon

Let me stir all of you up

The Suzlon IPO was at Rs 510 for a Face value of Rs 10.The Issue opened on September 23,2005 and closed on September 29,2005 and was oversubscribed nearly 46 times

The Pre IPO Shareholding in Suzlon reveals some really interesting facts…While all of India craved to be allotted shares in Suzlon,those who controlled the whole IPO Process,Citigroup and ChrysCapital, were the largest beneficiaries

Citigroup initially invested just Rs 50 crores for an allotment on April 19,2004 of 2577320 shares at Rs 194.It is this lot that it offered for sale at Rs 510 in the IPO.However the Pre IPO Holding swelled to 23195880 shares through the largesse of two liberal 2:1 Bonus issues on September 25,2004 and June 24,2005 reducing the holding cost per share to just Rs 21.56…The Company clearly had a premeditated gameplan in issuing such liberal Bonus and were probably influenced by Ajay Relan and Ashish Dhawan,who came on the Board of Directors,representing Citicorp and ChrysCapital respectively. 

ChrysCapital too made a fortune…investing on August 10,2008 ,Rs 50 crores for 2049180 shares at Rs 244 and with the subsequent bonus issues taking their holding to 18442620 shares reducing average holding cost to just Rs 27.11 per share.It then sold a total of  3041000 shares at average Rs 365.18/share to entities of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd on July 6 and July 11,2005.It was left with a holding of 11252620 shares

On March 28,2005,just before year closing,a Suzlon Group entity,Suzlon Capital sold 1245000  shares to 13 entities of the Parmar group for Rs 100/share aggregating an Investment of  Rs 12.45 crs.With the Bonus of 2:1 on June 24,2005 the Holdings shot up to 3735000 shares reducing the holding cost to Rs 33.33/share

SEBI has just directed a Suzlon IPO allottee,Himani Patel, to pay Rs 33.52 lakhs plus 10% Interest from October 19,2005 (Date of Listing) to actual date of Payment, for unlawful gains made in the Suzlon IPO 

I want to ask SEBI ….What about this obscene cornering of Suzlon Shares Pre IPO by Citigroup,ChrysCapital,Government of Singapore and the Parmar group !? aided by the unwarranted two liberal bonus issues before the IPO !

The IPO was at Rs 510 and in January this year Suzlon was quoted at an all time high of Rs 2300…since then the share split to Rs 2 Face value and has seen a high of Rs 344 and a low of Rs 40…Today it is Rs 48 

Citigroup invested Rs 50 crores only and would have made gains of over Rs 4800 crores in quick time,assuming they sold their initial lot at the IPO and the rest at peak price in Jan this year of Rs 2300

ChrysCapital Invested Rs 50 Crores and would have made over Rs 2800 crores in quick time on similar assumptions

The Parmar Group invested Rs 12.45 crores and would have made nearly Rs 850 crores in quicktime,again on similar assumptions

Government of Singapore Investment Corporation invested Rs 111 Crores and would have raked in gains of Rs 588 crs if they had exited at peak price of Rs 2300

If one assumes that the sales were made even at an average price of Rs 1150, the gains would go down by half from the above and yet remain obscene !

Something just does not smell right here !…you allow Pre-IPO cornering of shares largely by Foreign Shareholders at the cost of Indian Shareholders…you let the Pre IPO Big Fry get away with hundreds and thousands of crores of gains without questioning and penalise the small fry who made a crore or two by cornering IPO allotments !

The Pre IPO Gameplan stinks and has,to put it mildly,unethical and unfair undertones….It was wrong to do what they did to corner Pre IPO shares..I don’t buy the argument that it was legal and within the guidelines…Substance over Form,it was clearly wrong  

When I addressed the youngish Citigroup Asia Pacific and Indian Research Teams…would you believe it !…they were completely unaware of how Citigroup controlled the Suzlon IPO and possibly made a billion dollars of it  under the guise of Long Term Private Equity !…I can understand and even salute Warburg making a billion dollars from it’s investment in Bharti Airtel…it had invested in Bharti when no one was willing to expose and commit to this Mobile Service Provider…but a sure winner like Suzlon ?…we Indian Investors were clearly deprived of Suzlon Shares in 2005

Life is a full circle…Suzlon now at Rs 48 (FV Rs 2) has slipped to below 50 % of it’s IPO price of Rs 510 (FV Rs 10) and is one tenth of the peak price of Rs 2300(FV Rs10) it had reached in January 2008…it is facing Property Tax issues for hundreds of locations where it has installed it’s windmills…Promoters, the Tantis, are surely facing their most challenging times in India and even overseas where Suzlon has committed to buy out more of RePower by early 2009.   

To be honest,I did not initially connect with the ending of ‘Rang de Basanti’,where the young Indian Youth with a moral and social conscience kill the Defence Minister, and one of them ,even his own father, as they were shamelessly involved in scams and corruption on a gigantic scale with little or no remorse that they were looting their own country

It dawns on me now why young people are compelled by circumstances to take law into their own hands to get rid of such ‘old’ and ‘ongoing’ menace…This is not the India they want to Live in..so they are Changing it

With the increasing Scale of Scams…there is just no end to Greed !…It is not too difficult now to connect with the ending in ‘Rang de Basanti’ and the role of ‘Shahenshah’ where the angry Amitabh Bachhan plays the title role in a one man mission to destroy all who are criminal and corrupt

Just look at what is happening !…The Judiciary is supposed to be supreme…yet Supreme Court Judgements are blatantly flouted by Political leaders and their Parties…there is ongoing debate that even the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over Parliamentary Affairs !

The Telgi Stamp Scam of Rs 30000 crs (US $ 6 Billion) exposed the high and mighty in the political arena,to no avail…Major Defence Scams have been exposed but little justice done…. The recently exposed Telecom Scam of Rs 80000 crs (US $ 16 Billion) in granting 2G Licenses at Throwaway Valuations too may meet a similar fate……The scale is put in perspective if you view it against the fact that over 20%, or over 200 million people, of the 1.13 Billion Population In India live officially below the poverty line of just over Rs 500 (US $ 10 only ) for urban areas and even lower than this for rural areas

Land Scams,Stock Market Scams,Pyramid Scheme Scams,Defence Scams,Health Scams,Employment Scams…the list is endless…I now fear that with the Indo US Nuclear Treaty having been signed,the Mother of all Scams may be just ahead ! 

Yes, we are the world’s largest democracy and love our Freedom…..Freedom of Frustration,Freedom of Anger,Freedom of being Shorted,Freedom of Poverty and the Continuing Inequality……

We have ourselves to blame….we vote these Legislators to our Legislature…they pass the laws,often guided by pecuniary interests…they are guided by The Executive….often how not to leave footprints in the Trail…..we are protected by a Judiciary who itself has repeatedly thrown up it’s hands in frustration…when Deliberate Delays and Denials and Destruction of Evidence has become the order of the Day

The Godhra Carnage and the Gujarat Riots that Followed threw up two ‘Independent’  Commisioned Reports….The Nanavati Report and the earlier Banerjee Report..both are reputed names in our Judiciary……In essence ,the conclusion of one of them is a Deliberate Lie as both give remarkably conflicting reports on the same evidence…so which one does one Believe ! ?…Nanavati has concluded that the Godhra Train Fire was a deliberate act and 160 litres of Fuel was used to set the Bogies on Fire which resulted in the Death of many karsevaks….Banerjee,in an earlier report has stated that there is no evidence of any Fuel being used and that the Bogies caught Fire by accident ! …Whatever ! but the reality was that this Fire was followed by the Gujarat riots in which it appears that the Minority Community was targeted and thousands of them died with the accusation that the State abbetted this by deliberately delaying police rescue and protective action

We have only Two Tools to stay within the Law…File a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and liberally use The Right to Information (RTI) Act to elicit Information on Issues…unfortunately the PIL and RTI does not apply in Switzerland were Indians have stocked away undeclared and ill gotten wealth of over US $ 1456 Billion according to a 2006 report of the Swiss Bank Association !

We can ofcourse continue encouraging and supporting’ Reel’ Life to reflect ‘Real’ Life…While I blog this a Movie ‘Deshdrohi’ has been held up for release in Maharashtra by the Court on a petition that it may create a law and order situation as it portrays the plight of the North Indian Migrant…an issue made extremely sensitive and brought to the forefront in debate by a political party in the State who has taken upon itself to protect and promote the identity and rights of the Indigenous Citizens of the State

And of course we can continue to Invest in Equities with the Prayer that we are not made continuous suckers in Insider Trading and Stock Manipulation and IPO Scams…..key word here is ‘continuous’ !

We blame Cricket Players for Performance Inconsistency…But just reflect…We too are guilty of Inconsistency when assessing them

A Strong Case in point is our own Cricketer ‘Yuvi’ or Yuvraj Singh

We revered him when he hit those record Six Sixes of a Six Ball Stuart Broad Over in the T20 World Cup in South Africa…Our Board rewarded him with a Luxurious Premium Car…We all agreed that he was from ‘Another Planet’

We Reviled him when he failed to perform after the T-20 World Cup and dropped him from the Test Team…Cynics and Critics agreed that we need to send him to ‘Another Planet’

We brought him back into the ODI Team and he has won us the first two ODIs against England ,literally single handed…he remained unbeaten in Rajkot with an aggressive 138,his ninth ODI Hundred and won the ‘Man of the Match’ Award…In today’s second ODI,he came in at 29/3 and scored a back to back hundred,his Tenth Hundred in ODIs..His all round performance of scoring 118 and taking 4 wickets got him back to back ‘Man of the Match’ Awards

Yes,Yuvi,you’re surely from ‘Another Planet’…When you perform like this you’re simply ‘Out of this World Man !’…Teach me how to play that Block Shot Six that you did of Flintoff soaring way over his head into the Crowds !..Nah ! you can’t teach anybody such Shots !..They are Divine..and you are Blessed you can play them !

Keep Going ‘Yuvi’…you’re in great Orbit !    

This Sunday, like every Sunday in recent times, was reflecting at what’s happening to the World and How would My Family and I be impacted….. and like all Sundays was convinced to go Back to the Basics and fundamentally re-boot our lives

The Sunday Editions of Newspapers were packed with some incisive articles… Three worthy of special mention are linked below

Indian Express : Check out Uday Kotak’s insightful interview and reflections on funny money and the financial chaos and the deleveraging going on 

Asian Age : Paranjoy Guha Thakurta has written an explicit article on the Telecom Scam  perpetrated by the Telecom Minister, A Raja of the DMK, in issuing 2G licenses…In his estimation the scam is the biggest in post Independent India involving roughly Rs 80000 crs loss (@ US $ 16 Billion) to the Indian exchequer… An earlier Blog covers this scam

The Financial Express : Vanguard Group of Mutual Funds Founder, John Bogle’s Investment mantras of No Load, Low Cost, Simple, Index based plans for Capturing Market Returns

Economic Times : A Continuing Expose covered Companies who are under the Intelligence Bureau Scan for Stock Market Manipulation. Sterlite, Uttam Galva and many other companies have been blatantly flouting Insider Trading and Other Laws in making suckers of Traders and Investors in Indian Stock Exchanges… often in cahoots with Brokers, Media and even Mutual Funds and FIIs

Just wondering how SEBI took corrective action in the IPO Demat Scam and fined the perpetrators significant sums that reflect the illegal gains made in the IPO…. will they again demand that the promoters of these companies and brokers and others involved return the obscene gains made while flouting Insider trading and other Laws !

In the Times of India Sunday Edition was also a captivating and inspiring coverage of Marine Commandos or Marcos for short… These commandos are closest to a real life James Bond and pride themselves as better than US SEALS... Their Gruelling Two year Training involves a 60% rejection rate in the first two months itself and finally only 10% go on to become Marcos… Marcos are experts in all weapons right from Ninja style darts to the sniper rifles and hand guns… they specialise in counter-terrorism and electronic survelliance-a rare mix of brawn and brain… they are both paratroopers and combat divers… their training involves the real killer ‘Death Crawl’ – an 800 m struggle through thigh high mud, loaded with 25kgs of gear and after a 2.5 km obstacle course that most would fail… then when the trainee is half dead, he has to undergo the final test – shooting a target 25 m away with his buddy standing next to it – if the exhausted hands tremble, his buddy is history… this is where many give up

To inspire her, I read this Marcos Training  out to my 13 year old daughter…. She is training hard for her  Black Belt in Karate … she appears for the gruelling physical tests next Month… 35 rounds of the Track at PDP in South Mumbai (14000 meters)… one round each of duck walk, bunny hop, crawling, front roll, knuckle walk and firemen lift… 500 Squats, 500 Push-Ups and 500 Sit-Ups….. followed by a four day camp in Pune for Katas and Shios… she’ll have to weather stomach punches and combat bruises… “I’ll do it, Dad” she calmly states…. her rigorous and vigorous Gymnastics (year round, two hours a day, six days a week) and Football (thrice a week, one and a half hours to two hours, in ongoing season) training is clearly standing her in good stead here… on topof it she’s determined to tackle Inter School Squash and Elocution and School Athletics too this month and next…. Phew !  

Last week 700 Citizens of this World, highly reputed and respected in their field were invited to Dubai to debate what is happening in this World of ours in every area… They were closeted  in small relevant groups in open-air cabins within a huge Conference Hall and were involved in animated debate and discussion over two days in the areas of Gerontology, Terrorism, War, Nuclear Power, Climate Change, Faith, Finance, Business, Sciences, Health, Education, Food, Energy etc…… The Consensus was that the World needs to fundamentally re-boot…. The Risks are just too much in every area to overcome…It’s better and wiser to simply forget and eradicate the past and begin the Future on a clean plate… Easier said than Done… for Example General Motors is asking for a Bail-Out of US $ 25 Billion immediately… It’s a Catch 22..Bail-out only delays the Death of GM… To let it collapse will involve a payout of close to US $ 200 billion to Employees etc… That’s worse… Ironically and Paradoxically there’s no Liquidity to let GM to Collapse !

That was a really ‘Heavy’ Sunday !… needed to balance all of this with  the slapstick and no brainer of a Comedy Hindi Movie… ‘Golmal Returns’…. If all of us don’t re-boot together, than ‘Golmal’ certainly will return… in fact may never have gone away at all !.. these challenges of Climate Change, Cash Crunches, Colour and Race Issues, Corruption and the Continuing Cons among other Capitulating Issues

Back to the Basics !… “Dal Roti Khaao,Prabhu kay Guun Gao !”… a line from an old and popular Hindi Movie song…. translated to ” Eat Simple and Ordinary Food and Praise God”!… and you’ll survive this Financial Holocaust

A delightful tête-à-tête with my kids

Kids : Have you been to Egypt ?

Me : Yes,I’ve been to Egypt

Kids : That explains it

Me : Explains What ?

Kids : We were wondering where you got this ‘Mummy’ from ! 

My wife was chiding them for being too relaxed and too laid back…I had to remind her that they are enjoying a welcome four day break and tomorrow is Children’s Day…and so what if their ‘Wit’ is not original…It was well used