Erosion of shareholder value

Here's an example of how shareholder value is destroyed by PSUs on a continuous basis.

I've come to a conclusion that PSUs do not have the shareholders value in mind at any point of time.

 MOIL:  Share price since its IPO.

If this is what is going to happen, I would prefer there is no disinvestment in the PSUs. 

Heights is how the hell did the lead book managing bankers ( IDBI Capital, Edelweiss Capital and JP Morgan India in this case) manage to price the shares so high. One should learn from these companies to create a hype, make the pitch and sell a useless product with audacity. These I believe are the pure markting companies, guess even better than those FMCG companies. These bankers know how to use their brand power to mobilize money.  A perfect way for government to get public money.

I was thinking of investing in MOIL but thankfully I didn't do so because of my habit of delaying.
No investing in PSUs.

On Bus conductors

I've now got used to traveling by BEST buses in Mumbai for daily commuting and have been observing and talking to the bus conductors about their life and experiences. I used to think that the job of a bus conductor is quite simple but looking at the mental and physical effort put in by them, I have come to a conclusion that the job is really a tough one, especially on crowded routes like Sakinaka where the buses are perennially overcrowded.

The job of a bus conductor not just issuing proper tickets to the commuters but management of a lot of things simultaneously, especially during short crowded routes.He has to see that bus waits for adequate time at bus stops, interact with people with all sorts of background for tickets, not allow the bus to be overcrowded, resolve quarrels, give directions to people to reach their destinations and move back and forth the crowded bus aisle where it is nearly impossible to move. The working conditions are pretty harsh with space barely enough to allow him breathe. At times, they get pretty much worse than a factory worker too.

Their work involves problems like getting exact change especially during mornings when everyone is helpless, getting on time for the next assignment, the union issues, manager (HR) issues who cannot understand traffic conditions and schedules things quite impossible to achieve, etc. The introduction of new ticketing system has made matters worse especially when 1 out of 7 ticketing machines doesn't function as required.
All this for a salary starting with around Rs. 12k/ month and a yearly increase w.r.t an inflation adjusted index.

Yet, despite all these harsh work conditions, the bus conductors, most of them, are some of the most humble people around. Most of them love talking to and are glad to discuss all about their jobs and the BEST when they have free time. "It was very smooth & enjoyable some years back when it wasn't so crowded" said one of them while describing change in their work loads.
This Khadi clad public servant, who is is taken for granted by people, remains one of the many unknown faces who make our life comfortable.

Makes me wonder how come the younger generation which has more hospitable working conditions & better salaries are not be so humble.

I simply love this scene from  'Swades' where a combination of stars depict the simple plough.

Crib

There are times in life when you start thinking about your life and your future. A time when one starts questioning the decisions made by him during crucial junctures of life - future determining decisions. Sometimes I think, I'm generally only operationally sound yet that basic strategy of life (to be followed) is missing and I am taking life as it comes without adequate planning. How different would life be had I accepted the US university offers or had done a PhD or had taken up the bank job offered at my B-School or had not left my first job. Destiny it seems always has different plans, especially for me. I did masters in operations, finance management and, thankfully,  landed up in a marketing job. Never has the normal course of action taken by peers been my course. While it is nice to hear of such absence of strategy in movies (like Jab we met, znmd, etc), implementing it becomes an issue especially when you have financial obligations and peers who are doing way better than you in this regard.

Wonder what life has in store for me in the future.

Arranged marriage

One of the tougest decision in life is deciding whom to get married to - especially when you plan to get married in an arranged manner. I call it the biggest gamble in life. It is very difficult to judge a person and decide whether you want to spend the rest of your life with that person in just 2 or at max 3 meetings with that person.

I have now been in this arranged marriage market of my community for quite sometime and found that it is extremely difficult to take this risky decision especially in my community.

Now that I am currently based out of Mumbai, my parents are looking for bride from Mumbai. While it may be true that I like Mumbai, I do not like it anymore than the growing and enterprising Sangli. I may or may not continue to stay in Mumbai for the rest of my life. But its wierd that girls (whom I met) insist that they want to be settled in Mumbai -reason being that Mumbai is a place they have been brought up and that Mumbai is a land of opportunities and blah blah.. I might even consider thinking about this demand if the girl has a decent enough job and is planning a career in the corporate world. But for a girl with not too many ambitions of a corporate career, such a demand is not justified - especially when the reason they give is that they do not want to be away from their parents. Even I stay away from my parents and my house back home. I will try to be settled in Mumbai / Pune but it is not a given. Putting such a condition for marriage is way too much.

One more condition I saw which the girls' parents put forth is that the boy with whon their 'princess' will marry should own a house of his own in Mumbai/Pune. This is just too much. How can anyone expect a young boy who has just started his career to own a house in Mumbai? Why should the boy own a house? Can't their 'princess' stay in a rented house? Kahin raaste mein toh nahi rakhne wala mai usko. Why do they want the boy to take up a huge debt or money from his parents? One side they want the boy to be independent with a job and on the other hand they want him to be too much dependent on his parents for buying a house.

One more thing I found wierd was that it is the oy who has to visit the girls' place. (May be this is the system only in my subcaste). Also, when the boy goes to visit the girls' place, she appears in the living room for a very short duration only to serve some coffee or snacks (almost always not prepared by her). The boys parents get to only see her for a while - no conversation with her possible in that short span. The onus of judging the girl entirely falls on the boy when he is allowed to spend some time with the girl alone. So, the whole purpose of taking parents along for judging the girl is defeated.

I intend to change some of these things if not all when I go for the exercise next time.

Should have chosen one amongst the 100 odd girls at my B-school :P
Anyone reading this is advised to strictly go for a love marriage.

Working with promoters

Working with the promoters of an organization on a daily basis has a lot of advantages like being a part of the larger picture, getting to know how business decisions are made under uncertainities, getting to interact with important people of the organization, getting to know their management style, etc.
While all of this is true, it also has some disadvantages:
1. The promoters do think along a lot of things simultaneously and it becomes difficult at times to catch up, especially when you have promoters who do not give away all the information to the managers. While reporting to them you have to be thorough with not only the current work but also work done previously. You never know when their mind will race from one project to another, from marketing to strategy to operations and finance.
2. Promoters generally do not reveal the complete picture to one person, specially to a newly joined person. Hence, it becomes most important for him to keep a track of all the current happenings of the organization through networking and work accordingly in a dynamic manner.
3. I have generally observed that promoters have a firm grip on numbers. One must be sure before passing on numbers to them. They quickly do mental calculations and use thumb of rules to come at approximate answers. Also, one must be very careful while passing off numbers because major decisions are taken based on these numbers. So, whatever work you do must be carefully done.
4. One must be very careful when disagreeing with the promoters. They are the ultimate authority in the organization. (Except the shareholders of course) it might lead to serious consequenses. Also, the work assigned must be done in as timely manner as possible, else getting into wrong books of a promoter can be detrimental.
5. Working with promoters and getting to socialize with them is a great experience in itself - you get to go at expensive places, know about their lifestyles, etc. But here the employer-servant distinction clearly becomes visible and might also cause inferiority complex at times.
6. Promoters generally work under uncertainities. They have to take decisions using limited amount of information. A person reporting to a promoter has to do the hard task of collecting the data good enough to help them take decisions. At times, the getting the relevant data to take logical decisions becomes very tough and might test your patience in case you have tough task masters as promoters, which generally is the case.

These are some of the things that could be issues faced by a person reporting to the owner/promoter. Yet, the task is highly rewarding and an ideal platform to learn a lot of things about business.

Dear parents, Thank you.

Sitting in a bus jam-packed with people, watching the rains of Mumbai, seeing the bus driver crazily driving through potholes splashing water all around, listening to the music, looking at pretty girls in the bus, it feels like I am on the top of the world.

Reason: my parents. They have done something for which I cannot thank them enough, something I cannot repay them for. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks God for giving me such visionary parents. Without their support, I do not know what I would have done all through these years. They have always made it a point to give me everything possible. The lines from a song I like 'Chahane se pehle hi saab kuch diya hai' is apt for them.

Right from small things like choosing a lovely school for me, paying for all my education to helping me apply for this wonderful little job, they have done everything for me. And now this. That too for a child who is not going to stay with them for the rest of their lives to support them.

Thank you for all that you have done for me. Hope I never let you down and do everything possible for you.

Ya, and now am officially in the shaadi market. A lot of observations have been made about the gujju way of arranging marriage. Will write about it may be next time.

Thank thank you papa and mummy. Hope I manage to keep you happy and do everything u expect me to do.

Comparison

While the Birlas are on a buying spree to secure raw material for their coal based business and the Tatas too are focussing on such inorganic growth in these uncertain times, if I compare this to my beloved Reliance, it is not doing anything to secure crude oil supply. Infact, other than the shale gas source acquisition in the US, RIL has not even contemplated any major global acquisition. So, on comparison, it seems in that Mr. Kumar Mangalam is focussing more on the future as compared to Mr. Ambani. However, we cannot ignore Ambani uncle coz he is currently focussing on pertochemical consolidation which is not much told in the news. (Inside info hai :P).
Talking about comparison, I am really annoyed when people, specially relatives compare me and my parents with other cousins - specially those staying in Mumbai.
Sometime back, an elderly person of my family asked me about my salary and my profession and stuff so that they can put up this info in the shaadi market. It was fine till then but later on things became more annoying when I eavesdropped. It became like the 'Daadi' sa sort of thing from 'Balika Vadhu' where they started comparing me and my job with those of other eligible cousins. They had the following issues with me:
1. I come home early as compared to all others which suggested that I am not much ambitious kind and do not work hard enough.
2. I am in the profession of chemicals which is not considered very highly as a profession in Finance and allied services.
3. I work at Saki Naka which is considered to be a down market place as compared to places on the Western line like Churchgate, Charni road.
4. I am from Sangli and even though I have spent quite a lot of my youth days in Mumbai, I love Sangli more than Mumbai. This might prove to be a big issue to find a possible prospective girl for me.
5. I avoid boarding in crowded trains and buses as far as possible,not a very talkative person nor seem an interesting person when compared to others or similar aged boys.

Yeh comparison na, is really irritating. First it was about the kind of job and salary comparison with peers and now this. Dont know when people will stop comparison.

Saki-Naka

Most of the people who have a fair amount of knolwedge about Mumbai should know about this area for sure. It is a place in Andheri East - One of the most dreaded places for driving any vehicle. A place where, no matter what time it is, the traffic is always slow moving if not standstill :P. It is one of the few commercial places in Mumbai which is far away from any local railway station, thereby connected only by road & BEST buses, making it a tough place to commute to everyday.
Especially, from Andheri station to SakiNaka is one of the most tiring journeys. No matter what you travel in - a bus, a bike, auto or even a car, you take around 1 hour 15 mins to reach station in the evening - the same time it takes to reach Borivali from Churchgate.
It is said by people that once you start from Andheri, we cannot guess the time to reach the place (Kaab pahuchega bata nahi sakte).
The construction of metro on the road has made the net travelling side of the road very small. At places the effective size of the road is just enough for a bus to pass through.
In the peak hours, there is a bus from Andheri station to sakinaka every 5 minutes, yet, the place being commercially important, the frequency of buses does not seem sufficient. All the buses departing the station run full capacity.
Autos generally refuse to come there and understandably so because the opportunity cost because of the time lost is just too much. He can definitely earn far more in the same time on a different route.
Add to all these things, the unpredictable Mumbai rains, water logging and increase in construction activity in the region make commuting to this place everyday a nightmare for a person who does not like too much crowd and who is from a smaller city.

Hopefully, the metro gets functional fast and ease the trafffic condition in this area. But thats atleast 1 year away. Till then toh commuters have too suffer.

But all is not bad at this place. There are quite a lot of good places around the place - like mcdonalds, urban tadka, ccd, maharaja, 5 seasons, etc where one can get good food.

It is the place where, unfortunately, my office is situated and I have to commute to this place daily. Thankfully, i have this phone with me which can be used for reading newspapers, blogs and chat. And sometimes when i have nothing to do, I sleep or sometimes i write such dumb posts :P.