Costly Love & Killer Affection

I love risk proposition; interested to enter risk based instruments and commit money on such contract, I like speculating the things for which decision is expected. Recent such commitment was for the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) decision pertaining to the Number portability. Though the implementation has to be made before 31st Oct, but I’m sure that it will not go as planned. The reason for my belief is that there have been at least three occasions when the deadlines were extended and this time also it will be extended by few more months. My commitment to this contract is beyond 31st Dec-2010.

But this sort of contract, occur as a result of off the line discussion and are not sufficient for my risk appetite. In my constant hunt for the risk based instrument, I ventured into a new of kind of stock market instrument i.e. “Writing option”.

I have tried buying call and put option many a times but never tasted success, though the indices were more or less towards my opted call/put price but not enough steam left in the market to cross those strike prices with heavy margins. My diagnosis was right but the prescription went wrong. As a result of which the current prices of my call and put were trading at a lower prices as compared to purchase prices. Contract reaching the expiry added more to the losses as premium for call and put options started eroding with each passing day.

But this time I wanted to take the premium of such contracted and decided to write a call. There were some clues that market has some steam to touch new high but will end up correcting heavily. But since my purchase, a correction seems to be ruled out and premium for my call has doubled amounting to huge losses.

Call options are more In-The-Money if the stock price goes higher, and if one sell a Call option and the underlying stock price goes down below the option's strike price (the option becomes Out-Of-The-Money), the option will expire worthless. And one can pocket the profit earned by selling the option. Which is exactly what I intended to do.

However, what happed was entirely reverse, these contract are infinite risk as the call price can rise to infinite. The real danger happens when the stock price keeps climbing and if it keeps going up, it will never become worthless, and near to expiration day someone is going to exercise the option and buy the stock from the seller who has earlier sold at a cheaper price as compared to today’s price. The seller is now in a heavy loss. Unfortunately the seller was me.

In a nutshell this article and experience is worth 4,000 bucks. Anyways I’m still interested to write the same call which has doubled by this time, at the same time I also admit that My love towards risky proposition is proving to be very costly and affection towards equity instrument to be Killer.

Let see if this works as per my expectation and will pray for a steep correction in the market.

POLICE

P for Polite
O for Obedient
L for Loyal
I for Intelligent
C for Courageous
E for Eager to help

Anywhere in the country the only state justifying the abbreviations of word “POLICE “in its entirety is “Gujarat”. The state known for its entrepreneurship skills, business community, best infrastructure, woman liberalization, rich culture and heritage has well transplanted the ethical code, good practices among the Police Department. Policemen give due respect to the citizens and are always eager to help, right from the traffic police to the Sheriffs, they purely serve public.

I have visited many states/parts of the country but I have not found in any state, the machinery of police being so genteel, so friendly to approach, so helping!!

But this onslaught of leniency has its price too… people take them for a ride!! People violate traffic rules even if a cop is standing on the other side and observing him. Overtaking from the wrong side and intercepting from any direction is a normal practiced behavior and not only this, if someone is caught violating a rule he gets into the argument till he is out of breath. Many people try to flaunt their contacts when caught breaking the norms.

Cops getting abused, manhandled and threatened are very much a part of deal than a daily affair. There are cases, where offenders even tried to run down the policemen with their bikes or cars!

Mostly the offenders are well educated and from well to do families and if you think that that men are brash, the women were no less abusive, ‘fairer sex’ took unfair advantage of the situations. Totally unarmed cops, without backups and interceptor vehicles are easy targets to the offenders who just don’t want to follow any rules.

I realized that the cops may be at fault sometimes, but it's the public who is more responsible for the mess on the roads. Such insensitivity towards traffic system is a public nuisance. Public needs to observe the rule and abide by the law, no matter there are cop on the crosses or not. Discipline and respect towards the law and partaking systems has to come from within.

Driving is a thrill, but one should learn how to behave with the engines..

Image source : skyscrapercity.com

Land is not equal to money

Out of the three primary reasons of disputes which we generally tag in India (Jar, Jamin and Joru) the Jamin (Land) disputes are turning out to be bloodshed, disturbing public life and damaging public properties

Whether the land dispute is between the countries say India and Pakistan (LOC and POK) or within the states (such as Hyderabad issue) or between state and farmers they are always prolonged and turn to be controversial.

Lastly we learnt about the land acquisition in Bengal for the upcoming factory project. The entire deal was in news because of the agitation by the farmers protesting for project and the entire acquisition pricing and method. Farmers who exchanged there land bank to the state government also got compensation in lieu of there land, Later they realized that the compensation was not enough and protest against the deal.

Damage to human life and public property was never like before; the entire state was gripped in the protest, series of allegations, and unrest. Finally the project couldn’t be kicked of, huge loss suffered by the company who intended to set up the factory, un-accountable loss to the state and people of state in terms of revenue and employment.

But lately who cares, should have been a prudent decision to derive to a pricing mechanism for the acquisition by the state government and land bankers, it could have proved a win-win proposition for all the parties.

Again one such headlines is making waves and occupying the front pages of national dalies; the land that has been acquired for setting up an eight lane express highway and business zone between Delhi and Agra. Farmers are protesting the deal demanding better compensation and allegations, that the land has been acquired without there consent, the unrest resulting in loss of public property and life.

Use of agricultural land for industrial purpose has been always a controversial issue in India; protest and unrest for such projects has already stalled projects in the country in turn hampering the growth of the country.

Growth is important but at the cost of what? What the farmers are supposed to do once they have made a settlement against there land? How many years the settlement money will last for? What the next generation of farmers will be doing ? Why agriculture is the easy scapegoat? Why the land prices are different when brought by Government and Locals? Lets address!!!

All down

I happened to travel up and down via a long distance train bounded to a city, which is also represented by the central railway minister. And if you ask me to give a rating to the journey it was all down and no up. Up train was below expectation and so was the down. The journey was a real hell, journey being long; with hell number of stoppage; now imagine the condition of washroom and wash basins. Utilities were getting cleaned frequently but I didn’t find them sufficient to take the load of the passengers as there were double the occupants as compared to the number of seats.

The trip was not planned as a result I couldn’t get accommodation of AC sleepers and I was forced to compromise on the non air conditioned sleepers. The coach was a real torture room; one out of the three fans was missing and whatever was left was not moving, they were simply rotating at snail speed; humid climate adding more to woe. There were no arrangement wherein a passenger can help himself in taking the meal neither I could see water bottle and magazine holders. Berths were hard enough to ensure that nobody could take a sound sleep and hence no threat of theft occurring while passengers are asleep. Cockroaches roaming in the compartment were sufficient to justify it as a torture room.

Washrooms were in a pathetic stage, stinking like anything and were adamant enough to get closed during the use. I tried with one of them and found that the door ditched the latches and was keen to free him from the compartment, the entry door were all rusted and at a first sight appeared very lethal and dangerous.

My woe doesn’t end here; entry and exit to the compartment was free, everybody and anybody could enter the compartment and leave at his wish, there were hell lot of ferry walas from the pantry staffs and other local vendors as well, lot of noise for tea, coffee, snacks and what not. Tobacco based products are not sold on railway station and neither in the train, but vendors were making a mockery of this rule.

Long distance train have very few stop but this train… my god… it is too old to run a long distance! Wanted to take rest at each and every station as a result it was running late by 6 hours, after some chit chat with the fellow passenger I discovered that the train has a normal habit of running late, and I realized that this might be the reason of pathetic condition of the coaches.

Whatever might be the reasons but the journey was a real nightmare.

Rain Drain Aftermath

Till the time it was raining and water was logged things were simpler, even though one has to make his way through knee deep water. Proposition was simpler because a lot of mud got accumulated during the heavy rain, the housing societies nearby were also equally responsible for trafficking the mud to the new catchments area which is unfortunately my society ….lol. The mud beneath one’s feet gave an experience of cake walk, really very smooth, fine and soft to walk. J

But as the chocked water founded exit, things got changed… lot of mud which is surely black in color and stinking like anything got showcased…. Hummmm….. This was the carpet which uses to give a pleasant experience while walking. Oh no….

I miss the rain and pray to god, to bless us with more rain, rain with strategic angle and quantity so that at least the mud gets washed away.

When it was raining heavily many entrepreneurs mushroomed in the vicinity of my society making huge money by taking the advantage of the situation. People having no other alternative paid to those entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs sensed that people are having problem/ hesitation in wading through the storm water so they started helping the residents on a chargeable basis, Some were charging 100 rupees for toeing the vehicles which were stuck-up in the water, while other charged 10 rupees for ferrying from point A to point B.

Well some are making money while others are facing the fury of mosquitoes, foul smell, disturbed routine and what not. In the mean; metrological statistics indicates that it will rain today.

Let see will it be a strategically balanced rain which can wash out the mud and bad smell or it will it again create water logging again.

Image source: citybirder.blogspot.com

Rain Drain Pain!

With monsoon setting in, there is a new lease of life for everyone as this year summer proved to be too long, too shiny and intense hot. With each passing day mercury broke pass its own records and almost all parts of country were recording higher and higher temperature, well no specific reason for higher temperature but we can blame global warming for that.

Monsoon initially we delayed and there was a dip in average rainfall on month on month basis, with all these status-quo things were appearing more difficult in days to come.

Thank God that we got blessed with a good rainfall in the August month which helped in covering the deficits of previous month even. But sudden spurt in rainfall proved more devastating, flooding many states and damaging the crop. Modern cities were flooded with knee deep water throwing life out of gear, as modernization has left very little free land which could work as an absorbent and things become more difficult in absence of proper drainage and storm water treatment.

As I also live in one of the modern cities I also faced the brunt of mother nature and faulty town planning, believe me or not my locality is still submerged in knee deep water; water which is stagnant from last 5 days, with drainage water mixing to it creating a killer combination.

Population of Mosquitoes has surpassed the population of inhabitants by at least million times. I even observed that the size of mosquitoes have got enlarged, might be they have sucked the blood never before. I fear that they will grow more in size and if the situation continues they will be in a position to lift the person from the bed itself…. lol J . They will not come to my home, they will carry me to there home ……J

A close observation to the room gives me an impression that I’m sitting in a bird sanctuary with lot of birds flying….

Hey wait look closely they are mosquitoes of different colors and sizes and not the birds….. J

Mosquito repellents are not effective as they are meant for mosquitoes and not birds…J

Oh god what is happening…..:(

Beauty is only skin deep

Fashion and makeup are two different terminologies but still complement each other a lot. Makeup being integral part of fashion while makeup itself indicate being fashionable.

Though I’m yet to understand fashion but I believe that, fashion will always be in evolving stage. I’m not at all a fashion freak but also not averse to fashion as I believe that change is inevitable. One has to dress and carry oneself as per time, situation and trends. …..

Make up is something for which I couldn't open myself; to accept makeup the way I accepted fashion to some extent, thought makeup is a domain of fairer sex and not much to do with the masculine, but still I believe that by putting makeup one is trying to hide himself behind the curtains, one is projecting oneself what he is not in reality. But the fact is that one can pretend to appear something else but can't for too long.

One wants to look more beautiful than the reality, but beauty is not only about the color of eyes, long eyelashes, rosy lips, figure and hair colors. These are mere the attributes of the body. Beauty is something which is inside and one need to be beautiful from heart. Beauty has different meaning for different people and it is a person perspective that is looking towards it. And as said earlier they are attributes and that’s the reason every person thinks beauty in his own way.

Beauty i.e. Look beautiful is awareness created by media and conceived by beauty products and cosmetics industry. The industry promotes the idea of “Look beautiful” as they want to sell their products; they try to register that one needs to be beautiful, to be successful and to look beautiful they need to buy their products. Since the definition of beauty is defined by different attributes, any change in attributes; the product positioning also changes and companies promote new products to the customers.

Makeup has covered our original faces and we have forgotten what we are actually. Beauty comes from within, one is as beautiful as is heart and soul is.