My Latest Playground

Stock Markets !

Yep. I've decided to help out the troubled Indian economy by lending a helping hand. And I've been putting my money into stocks that are going from red to 'redder' :-S

But then, this is turning out to be a great timepass (if it could be called that...) Nothing like throwing your bucks into thin air and seeing them vanish. BSE and NSE have become such good friends of mine, that a market holiday leaves me bored, with nothing to do :-D

Along with operating a demat account comes the most important aspect of investing - reading and researching. Moneycontrol.com helps me control the outflow of money. Economictimes.com gets its share of time as well. Then there are fellow traders (Gasper, Bin etal) whose red-redder-reddest profile stories keep me inspired. The market "guru" of all times, Dipu has now stopped helping the Indian economy. Sad state of affairs :(

There are self-proclaimed market analysts - the kinds of Udayans, Sukhanis - who are always busy giving tips and predictions. Some typical lines "Sensex to remain flat today", "Nifty to open lower", "Euro fate to decide market movements". They seem to be right most of the times. Is that the "Probability Theory" at play ? Who knows..

There are these statistical games that I dont understand too much - the candlestick pattern, the 30-day moving average and jargons like that. I would blame it onto the BTech curriculum for not including Statistics into the course line. (Or was it part of the course ? I really dont remember ! )

Reading through news, and having seen a lil bit of markets over the past 5-6 months, I've started coming up with my own predictions. Take this one for instance "Sugar stocks are beaten down, but will be a good long term bet". Nice one, huh ? :-P

One smart thing I've done is to diversify the portfolio to a decent extent. So there is automobile, metal, IT, oil, telecom - all of them balancing the anvil. When one sector goes southbound, there is someone else going green and keeping the overall picture pleasant. During bad days, everyone goes down, and its "red" all over..

Going green has new meanings to it. The greener, the better :-)

Chung Waaaaaaahhh

Sounds very scary, doesnt it ? Chung Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh...
More like SRK shouting 'Bhaagoooo.....' in Om Shanti Om.

Quite a nice analogy - for the fellow diners :-D

So, after stuffing the tummies sufficiently at Gasper Residence (we once named it Vuvuzela, but he seemed uninterested. We should have got, rather, inspired to fix that name, after his response), we headed off to our treat venue - Chung Wah at Koramangala. It was long since we tasted some Chinese stuff, and this seemed to be a good option at hand considering proximity and budget. Budget shouldnt have been a major factor of concern for somebody who almost acquired permanent citizenship in the US with his extended 5-yr stay there. But we dint want to make others (hoteliers) rich , while we ourselves remain poor :-D

The traitor..er... treater, Dipu, was all the way trying to make a point clear by asking "So, whose treat is it?". We chose to ignore this, as we (and he) knew , his turn would come :-P

A comfortable travel in wagonR was in the offering, but Sowji preferred to beat the night cold (perhaps, to take a break from the non-stop "push" from Dipu). We reached the place well in time. But wagonR didnt. They took a 'short-cut' to reach the place, thanks to Rat for the route suggestion, and landed 10 mins late :-s

Even before the wagonR reaching, Sand arrived. With KK and the wagonR arriving, all had come but for Geo. (Geo has had real 'good' experience last time for his treat, reserving two tables - hugging one, laying foot on the other - at a busy eat-out in Koramangala. Eventually, he was thrown-out by the restaurant guys. We turned up at the venue after an hour :D ). By the time, Geo arrived, we had managed to empty 4 platefuls of starters, and 3 tablefuls of eaters. KK was a major contributor for the latter development.

Soon we saw that the bearers were guiding prospective eaters who dived into the restaurant to the upper floor. A daring family of 4 that managed to seat at the table adjacent to ours soon went into pensive mood. The big-hearted (bit-tummied) head of the family was staring at our table all the time. But then, we chose to ignore them altogether. Why would we want to get into trouble. We continued to be at our noisy best...

The food was good.. Some dishes couldnt be emptied, perhaps due to the fact that most of us werent hungry. In the end, the waiter came with the bill along with a broad smile .Did I hear him murmuring "Finally the termites are leaving". Dipu did the honours and we were out.

Tail:
1. The 'noise-less' discussions extended even after we came out of the restaurant. The discussion was primarily between Geo, Dipu and Sow on having some 'dessert' after the treat :-P
2. KK left soon (we dint hear much of noise, hence this conclusion)
3. All all guy-get-together, we had some real good time, with uncensored recollection of old times :)

Tea Kudikkaan Povaam

'Tea kudikkaan povaam' is one of the few malayalam sentences that a kannadiga friend of mine can utter with ease. He is now in a different location but the tone and the pace at which he says this is unique and stays at the back of the mind.

Now to the point... It took me 8 months and several bashings from Soo to come back to this place. First up, approved some comments amidst tons of spam entries. (tons =18 :-D ) This happened yesterday.

Today I have an extra hour of free time (that takes the total available office free time to 8.5 hrs - 1 hour for lunch, you see...). So took this brilliant opportunity to scribble a few lines about our recent 'surprise' home visit to Gasper's house for tea :)

We dont go just like that to any house for tea, you see.. .We "BARGE" in :-D
Luckily for Gasper and Joel , mummy was home, and things were easier for them.
Otherwise seeing a bus-ful (okay, 4 of us) any by-birth generous host would have found respite on floor.

Our 'surprise' visit, actually ended up to be a surprise for us. The delicacies that were dished out onto the table were hot and freshly prepared. Chakka-puttu (scientific name Jackfruit-steamCake) was one of a kind, and a first for me. Then there was the jackfruit itself (which somehow managed to escape the wrath of Gasper). A few other plates of home-grown fruits and we were full. Nobody dared go extra-full, coz in an hour's time, we had Dipu's Chung-Wah treat (details of that in a later(???) blog) to go to.

With mummy around, it was Gasper's turn to keep shut. We recollected some of the super jokes that were cracked by mummy during our visit to the Kalathippady House. Phew what a treat that was. We also had good times reminiscing the table-emptying exercise that we carried out at Mridul's residence, having visited the place soon after a wedding feast (Bin's bro's).

Sowji did a rather close-to-formal wedding invitation to mummy. But mummy outrightly rejected the invitation discarding it a informal. Sowji was bowled out :-P.

All of Dipu's attempts to show off went down the drain when he heard the comment 'even otherwise, Kottayam natives are all selfish and rude minded' :-D

Bin was busy finishing the jackfruit.

Jim was half asleep, but managed to munch in his share of goodies.

Gasper, as expected, remained silent for most of the time - perhaps cursing himself to have invited the noisy fella's home.

Tail:
1. While zipping tea, Rat sent an sms to Geo "dipu's treat at Chungwah. Time 7.30PM". Came his reply "okay see you there at sharp 8.30PM" :-))))