Mission Failure :(

Well mission failed....Back to smoking again...Though I guess it has reduced somewhat...Will make more attempts at quitting later....

By the way, started my new market blog in interest...Check it out if interested.

Starting a new blog

Planning to start a new blog solely dedicated for the purpose of our Indian Stock Market commentary and analysis. Address is given below....I will try to post as simple as possible
so that beginners and veterans alike have something in it...

Will start aggressively posting soon :)

http://theindianmarketblog.blogspot.com/

Mission not exactly a success

Well in reference to below post, the mission did not turn out to be a success as I has hoped it would be. Well keep trying I guess. A relapse was to be expected I suppose. But my average has been brought down drastically - so its a step in the right direction. I'll get there.

Man on a Mission!

Well as you could probably see a few posts below, I picked up a smoking habit the last time I came over here and havent been able to kick it off since...Well you can imagine what the wife thinks about it....Time to quit? Well I will...right after this one...lol...Same ol Same ol.

Anyways, coming to the point, finally decided....thats it...I'm gonna quit...Bought some gum to aid me in the process....Starting today. Wish me luck guys! :)

I'll need it.

I'm back!

Well after a long long time I post again..Just thought like doing so.

Its almost a year since I posted last I guess...What all happened in between?
Well, I got married - ofcourse the subject of a few posts below :)

And I am back onsite in the US of A...This time in Houston however...And before that in Florida!
So having a good tour all over the US...At the expense of my company...So nice of them..lol

So I am back working at Amex...Wife also working after a long hiatus in between of getting a work permit and job ofcourse...So back to the ol dogs life of the software programmer...

Well to tell the truth, my work over here in Amex is becoming more of my 'secondary job' or 'timepass' as I focus more on becoming a successful trader in the stock markets...How that will work out over time I dont know...But the good thing is I am still solvent and trying to make a mark in this cut-throat business. Believe me its not easy. Put in a trade and you have go a hundred people trying to take your money away from you. It needs some strong discipline and method to be successful in this business....

As someone said once, to make a million in the stock market......
You need to start with a billion... :)

Hope this does not become true for me!
Luckily I dont have a billion :)

Lee Reporting from Chennai!

Back in India...Back at Chennai...its back to the gud ol life...away from the onsite oncall excitement, this seems pretty bland...But I'll take this any day...And it is a good change...well until I get getted bored again with this life anyway.

Nowdays the shedule is more or less like...

Morning 9:00: Fast asleep :)
10:00: Hopefully awake and making haste to get to office (not before a smoke ofcourse!)
11:00: Sitting at office checking mails and wondering what to do next
11:30: Smoke Time
13:00: Lunch Time!!!
13:30: Smoke time again :)
14:00: Back to work(?)
15:30: Smoke/Tea time again!!
16:00-18:00: Variable Timings but objective is the same - Get your ass back home!
18:00: Food/Movie Time/Smoke time/Drink Time...hehehe
Starting 22:00-02:00: Sleepin Time!

Thats pretty much the schedule over here at offshore :)

Contrast that with the Onsite shedule...

06:00: Getup...start working right away...checkin and replyin to emails...attending meetings and so on!
08:30: Get to office...lucky if you can sqeeze a bath in between :)
09:00: In office...WORK WORK WORK...!
12:00: Lunch
12:30: More work..more meetings...more headaches :(
17:00: Hopefully back at home...and a few hours of rest
20:30: Again WORK...Offshore calls start from now....for the next 4-5 hours!
02:00: Sleep(?)

Life here is cool...very cool...compared to onsite being in the line of fire...well I am gonna enjoy this untilI am dragged back into all that! :)

My first lakh from the stock market

Yes!..you read it right!...I finally achieved it...my first lakh scalped off the stock market...the past few months have been good to me and in effect, I guess I now have probably totally wiped out all the losses I managed to make over the past few years...well as they say...what goes around comes around..


Probably two of the most rudimentary and prominent characters of man is greed and fear. And this is what often leads to our failures..


In the beginning, leveraging and overleveraging myself over and over...never learning from mistakes...I managed to let my losses grow and grow and never during this time did it dawn upon me that I was not doing things right...I guess its the gambling gene that we have in us...


Then I decided one fine day...Thats it! enough is enough...enough of greed...
Any scheme that promises quick gains and instant riches is nothing but a dream. These kind of schemes and scams come over and over and still people jump into it...I just had a fight recently with a friend on something like this...we need to let go of our greed...thats the only way to be successful in what we do...


Its probably been 5 months since I have moved into cash investing...and it is safe..its beautiful...its a great way to make money...its theonly way we can stay ahead of the game....


Having said that, even though I am slightly ahead now, no idea when this will turn around again...!

Back to India?

Finally my visa is approved..that was actually a big surprise but a very pleasant one at that...So plans have started on the trip back to India! I am not planning to be here for more than 50 days from today.

A change of scenery would indeed be very welcome! :)

soooo....India...here I come!

Bethanians Galore Part 4

After another long hiatus, I am back.....this time to refresh on the earlier started series...still a lot of 'characters' to cover!!


Sowji
=====
When I first met this guy, I remember thinking : there is no way anyone can be as thin as this and still survive!!...Ofcourse this was before meeting Kiron :P


Also the name...I was sure I hadn't heard correctly...Its gotta be Soji or something...but no it was Sowji alright...


Okay First time I met this guy: he started out with a story...a long winding tale...went on and on and on.... :)) Thats Sowji foryou...He will take even the most drab boring event and make a story out of it...filled with lots of masala ofcourse! :)


Sowji was and still is a very innocent character but there was no shortage of pranks or mischevious ideas brewing in that head ofhis....one incident still fresh in my mind even though its close to 7 years since this happened!...the eve of April fools day..all sorts of pranks happening around us...we were on the prowl looking for someone to 'get'...the unfortunate and unsuspecting victim was my then roommate Sho aka Shobin :D (read previous posts for details on Sho)...this guy was supposed to leave for his home the next day...me and Sowji hatched the plot together...what do we do...ofcourse we came up with the perfect plan...Sho put his alarm at around after 4:00 AM so he could catch the first bus home early morning...What did we do? As soon as Sho slept, we turned forward the time and made the 4:00 AM alarm ring at sometime after 12:00 midnight....Sho ofcourse unsuspecting...got up and went about his business of preparing to go home...brushed teeth and got ready...all the time Sho was looking out for pranks that we could have sprung on him....still unsuspecting that we had gone for something like this...Sho all ready and packed got out andstarted walking for the bus stop...finally we told him the truth...boy he was so mad at Sow(and me the roomie - you too Brutus!!!) at the time...we had a tough time getting him back to the hostel...that was Sow for you...mastermind behind such elaborate schemes like this...


Me and Sow have had lots of fun experiences together....We also took a mess together...me Sow and Sand...which was probably one of the best of bethany...(KK, Dipu Rat etc ippo thallum :)) )


Anyways...one thing that Sow used to overdo was his temper which used to explode at times..especially during high tension times ofthe exams...this guy was one fellow who used to take his studies very seriously...infact in the beginning there was some sort of unofficial competition on who would get the highest sessional marks :D (of which I was least bothered!)


I remember a 'slipper fight' that Sow had with Gasper and Dennis in the front of the Bethany hostel...I dont remember the details except that Sowji was very mad about something(obviously we were making fun of him with some girl :)) ) and slippers were being thrown around...Dennis machan and Goosper were being chased around the courtyard and so on... :P...fun times....


Well I guess Sowji has matured from there...and he says that he now has his temper under control :D


Always a great friend...always a great storyteller and fun to be with(slipper throwing included :D)...Thats Sowji for you!

US Stay Extended

Its been confirmed. I am sentenced to be in this place for a 3 more months :(

My I94- which is a kinda work permit which you need to have in
order to stay in US legally- was expiring on the 25th of August.
The very 'competent' staff at the immigration dept of Syntel was
supposed to extend out the dates of my visa. Well no surprise
the idiots botched it up good and proper that I thought that I'd
be going back 2 days before the 25th.
Fortunately or unfortunately after being royally screwed from
my projects Delivery Director and above, they decided to file for
the extension and supposedly I can stay here legally for 240 days
until the results of the application comes through.

I really dont know whether to be happy or sad. I was okay either way.
Infact part of me hoped that they'd send me back home. Well thats not
to be. I am to slog it out here for a few more months. So be it.

I dont have any papers even proving that I can legally stay here in
the US :-S .... I cant drive - license expired in tandem with the I94 and
in order to extend it, I dont have any papers I can use for that. Quite a
predicament. Looks like its a house arrest for me for atleast some time.
Hope that the ever so competent idiots at my company send over the
documents to me as soon as they can. Its sad that such levels of idiocy
can exist at MNC companies.

Well in this period of waiting for the visa extension, I cant travel
anywhere out of the US :-S ....Coz I dont have any papers with me.
None that are up to date anyways. So again I have to be here until I
get the visa approved or rejected!

I do hope that everything is resolved before November when I was
hoping to get back home.

Also wanna go give those idiots at the company immigration
department a piece of my mind...but well...thats just another dream!

A Rather Mellow Birthday

My first B-day in the US. Ofcourse it was earlier this month
but did not feel like writing anything for a long time. Since I
am back, thought I'd pen down something about that day.

What is so great about a B-day. Its just another day in your
life. Dipu also voiced the same thoughts a day back on his B-day.
I suppose thats really enhanced by the fact that we are away
from close friends and family. Just takes the specialness out
of the day.

Well the B-day ofcourse started with a kicking of my life which
contributed toward some bad back problems for the rest of
the month :( My ever so kind roomies got people from the
nearby flats also to lift me up and give me an asskicking of
my life! Thanks a lot guys!

Neeways...I think that was the highlight of the day. Well that
and a cake :-) And ofcourse some whisky!! A very normal day.
Did the usual stuff. Went around a bit. Visited a restaurant for
dinner. Not so great - I could have done a better job at home!
Watched acouple of movies and that was about it on the Birthday.

Just another day!

Busy Busy!!

The year end is fast approaching and projects I am working on are really ramping up. Wow just seems like last Sunday that I was lazing around like this. One whole week just flew through. 6 different projects all implementing along the same timeframe. Thank God for my offshore team!
:-)

I think this is a pretty good enough explanation for why I did not blog for over a month. Well that and ofcourse laziness! :-)

The health wasnt so good also during the past month. Which made me realise something very important. Health is probably the most important of our own that we have. If we dont have good health, we dont really have anything. So Folks, take care of your health!!

And the other thing is after writing a few very significant posts before this, I suppose I wanted all that to sink in before taking on anything else. So with this, I break the month long absence of blogging.

The Significant Other

Why do they call them the significant other? I guess its because that person completes you...makes you whole.....And your life feels empty without them.


After writing the previous post I guess I owe this writeup also....So here goes:

What do I see in her. I dont know. If you ask me if I love her, the answer is yes but it sounds so corny when you say it out aloud. I guess that this might be a possible common thing with guys but I dont know. I am not sure...But I think in one Raymond episode, Raymond voices my exact feelings on saying 'I love you' aloud. I mean I think thats not really meaningful. Love should be shown through actions and not words.


Anyway, coming back to her. I met her when I joined my first job after college. At the time I was in a rather messy relationship which was at the verge of collapsing if at all you can call it a relationship. I dont know - what do you call a couple of calls and a couple of days of actually 'seeing' and then endless e-mails? Well at the time I guess it was a big thing and I referred to it as a relationship....But sadly the other side of it wasnt obliging! :)


Well....that did not last long...and the days at my new job helped to wipe out the 'painful' past...and the great friends I made over there helped immensely. Of all of them, I got closest with a certain girl..which is really a big thing for me...I mean the longest average conversation I have had with a girl before that would have a few syllables at most!!....I wonder what she saw in me :D


What brought us closer? I had a bike...the fact that we went a few places together helped I guess...but the road towards becoming soulmates was very bumpy alright!! The fact that we were of the same church denomination also helped as we used to go together to church regularly...I guess it really did not take long for the friendship to blossom into something more long term...well it didnt go so smoothly..we had lots of problems...believe me lots and lots of them...but still its all worked out well till now..even over this distance ;)


It was difficult at the beginning...wondering what people would think and what we would do to go forward with the whole thing...what would our homes sayand so on...but in the end we decided 'to hell with all that' and decided to go forward!... :)


Whats funny is that at first there was nothing...it was just a friendship..and that was very new for me...and it did help me to get over the previous one


When we first started going out, it was just coz we enjoyed being with each other...I think all long term relations should begin with a friendship and thenfor a long time this will be in 'no mans land' of being in between friendship and something more....I suppose that this is what makes the whole thing so bittersweet...


Anyways, we covered the whole of the city on my bike...restaurants, theatres, parks, beaches, amusement places and so on...I guess I reallydont know when it all began...but I think it was mutual...and the question came up sometime..resulted in a lot of fights between us...I guess it was the whole part of coming into terms with the new status of the relationship...well...when you enjoy the company of a person from the opposite sex and are withthem for most of the time, what are the odds of something like this not happening?! ;)


Well from there, it has blossomed and now I guess she is so much part of my life that I cant even think about life without this friend and soulmate. A great friend who understands me and has been more than a friend...amazingly fun to be with and whose mood is almost infectious at times...a great person and my significant other.


To My Significant Other : You complete me!

Embarassing moments

One fine day in December of 2003, I get to office and boot up my system and open up mail and start going through them....There is one fromKK...not thinking much about it, I open it up...The Subject is 'Sand defeated-- has to be satisfied with Silver!!'

I have absolutely no idea what this means at the time...So I start reading the mail(editted to include here)....

Chennai 22/12/2003:
In a very interesting development, Master Craftsman and the favorite to win the title, Sand was defeated comprehensively in the "Romeo of the year " contest by Upcoming Terror, Lee , Reuters reported here on Sunday.

It all happened when chief judge of the contest Mr. B Sho was on his way to buy some groceries. He saw lee, the winner and a girl on the road and mistook them for a married couple. Put in his on words, the incident is as follows.

Yesterday at noon 12:30 pm I and S went to food world for some purchase.. while we were coming back, two young enthusiastic couples r going in front of us.. The guy who put his hand over the lady's shoulders in main street without knowing what others will think of their activities.. anyway as usual i was eagerly watching what is going to happen.. i walked at a fast pace, to come to them, closer...

NO... i cannt believe my eyes.. Itz our .... . I called him.. He turned back and looked with an .... feeling.(I dont know what he might have think about me at that time)..

No one else it was our lee.. I was laughing.. any way i tried to control my laugh and asked him who is the lady.. she without knowing anything walked away..

He discussed the matter with Rat and KK, the other two judges and it was unanimously decided that, a performance that made an impression of "a couple WALKING AWAY " in the mind of the chief judge really deserved the title. The official crowning ceremony(and the burial of the judges) is expected to take place whenever the judges meet the winner next.

The chief contender for the title Sand seemed really upset with what has happened. When asked to comment on the incident, he told "I had foreseen it all, but what went wrong for me was the semester exams in PESIT". Anyway he has not lost hope and told our special correspondent that "He'll be back".




Funny!...I had to get through half of the post for it to dawn upon me that they were in fact talking about me :-S

Well...At that point I did not care anymore coz almost half of the group already knew about me and my significant other half! :D

So it was real funny...Anyways coming back to that particular incident..boy at the time was that one of the most embarassing incidents of my life..whew!

Footnote: Its only in India that an incident like this would create such a big issue...come here and you will be surprised at what all you see if you go down to the mall!!

Boredom

Another Saturday another boring day...what is it that makes us go through mood swings??

I used to think that only women suffered from this syndrome butnot any more...Its definitely a thing common to both sexes..Why - I donno...Today after getting up at around 9 (I couldnt sleep more than that after sleeoing more than 16 hrs the previous day :D )...what do I do..so damn boring that its actually depressing..what I have found out is that this place has got the quality of doing that to you...I havent been able to figure out why yet..So I put in some Jon Bon Jovi - 'Have a Nice Day' in an attempt to spice up things...helps a bit but not much...Ok Damn!...I take out the phone and call my significant other half...maybe that will make me feel better...after some sweet words and sympathy thats over..after all the meter is ticking in dollars on these long distance calls :P...But I am little better right now...

Then a gtalk message from dipu - 'dai'. I say 'Yes' and in the ensuing conversation inform him of the unbearable boredom...And he asks me why dont I blog..And I think oh theres an idea...and this blog is the miserable result of that conversation...I know it sucks!! :P

So lemme start on another one! ;)