Strange ways of this city!

This incident happened to one of my friend here in Bangalore yesterday. I want you people to know about this because i never thought some one will come up with such a noble excuse and do a bad thing to a unsuspecting human. Well, the story goes like this. My friend is walking to his place after he gets down from the office transport after the day's work. A normal looking guy comes in a motor bike and stops by my friend. He asks my friend if he could borrow my friend's phone to make a call to a person he knows who has met with an accident and needs help. Naturally if someone comes with a request like this what would a normal guy do is unsuspectingly help the stranger as it might be a emergency situation. Now once my friend has passed this Mr.Stranger his cell phone to make this supposedly urgent call, he promptly takes it and speeds away!!! wtf! My friend is shocked and before he knows what is happening, he has lost his cell! I wonder if you guys have come across such an experience ever but this was something new to me. I've heard people snatching the cell phones away from pedestrians or from people's hands and neatly running away. But coming and making up some genuine looking reason and then fleeing with the phone is something new to me! Now, the question is how to ever trust someone on the street? I'm not sure I'll ever trust people easily henceforth from now on.

Recession! What the HELL!

Where has all the money in the world gone that seemed to exist an year ago? So everyone was holding on the "virtual" assets all this while? Well, take a look at this interesting article that describes things in a very simple but effective manner as to how it all starts:

[ I found this forwarded to me by my friend. Since he didn't quote the source, i'm not sure who is the original author of this. Please excuse me for publishing it here without the original guys permission. but i couldn't resist but copy+paste it here. Anyways thanks to the anonymous soul for now until i find him ]

Here you go......

Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around.

(1) There were 3 citizens living on this island country. A owned the land. B and C each owned 1 dollar.

(2) B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own 1 dollar each while B owns a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.

* The net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.

(3) Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country, and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, he borrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought the land from B for 2 dollars.

* A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.
* B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt to A, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.
* Thus, the net asset of the country = 4 dollars.

(4) A saw that the land he once owned has risen in value. He regretted having sold it. Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2 dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars. The payment is by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed) and cancellation of the 1 dollar loan to C. As a result, A now owns a piece of land that is worth 3 dollars. But since he owes B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.

* B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.
* C now has the 2 coins. His net asset is also 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up.

(5) B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own the land. So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars. The payment is by borrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.

* As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 coins. His net asset is 2 dollars.
* B owns a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debt of 2 dollars with C, his net Asset is 2 dollars.
* C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
* The net asset of the country = 6 dollars; even though, the country has only one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation.

(6) Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.

(7) One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C's mind. "Hey, what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan. There is only 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B owns is worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more."

(8) A also thought the same way.

(9) Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.

* So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
* B owes 2 dollars to C and the land he owns which he thought worth 4 dollars is now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.
* C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.
* The net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.

(10) So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country? Of course, before the bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, right before the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper. B's net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.

(11) B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2 dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1 dollar now.

* A owns the 2 coins; his net asset is 2 dollars.
* B is bankrupt; his net asset is 0 dollar. (He lost everything)
* C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar
* the net asset of the country = 3 dollars.

—————End of the story; BUT—————

There is however a redistribution of wealth.

A is the winner, B is the loser, C is lucky that he is spared.

A few points worth noting –
(1) When a bubble is building up, the debt of individuals to one another in a country is also building up.
(2) This story of the island is a closed system whereby there is no other country and hence no foreign debt. The worth of the asset can only be calculated using the island's own currency. Hence, there is no net loss.
(3) An over-damped system is assumed when the bubble burst, meaning the land's value did not go down to below 1 dollar.
(4) When the bubble burst, the fellow with cash is the winner. The fellows having the land or extending loan to others are the losers. The asset could shrink or in worst case, they go bankrupt.
(5) If there is another citizen D either holding a dollar or another piece of land but refrains from taking part in the game, he will neither win nor lose. But he will see the value of his money or land goes up and down like a see saw.
(6) When the bubble was in the growing phase, everybody made money.
(7) If you are smart and know that you are living in a growing bubble, it is worthwhile to borrow money (like A) and take part in the game. But you must know when you should change everything back to cash.
(8) As in the case of land, the above phenomenon applies to stocks as well.
(9) The actual worth of land or stocks depends largely on psychology (or speculation)

Snaps from the ground...

Posting a couple of snaps of the match that we lost... The ground was lush green and the track was slow because of the dampness due to the drizzle.

Back to reading...

A Nicholas Spark novel was the only thing i held on to in the weekend as there was nothing much i could do during the weekend that was so damn lousy. The novel was good. I liked everything except the fact that the novel started with lot of characters already dead and then on it's course it killed a few good ones too.
Hmm.... Saturday our cricket team lost to Microsoft(Bangalore) cricket team in a must win match thus throwing us out of the tournament. :( I'm disappointed not only because we've lost but also because i batted out bad and was in a situation where i could take control for our team and then i let the team down.. And the result is we lost not very badly but then loss is a loss right. No excuses can be made. Hope to put it at the back of my mind and need to get ready for the next game that is coming up soon against the Canon team....
And for the weekend the major show stopper was weather which was so damn cloudy and with the drizzle coming every now and then i remained most of the Sunday inside. Needless to say how disturbing it gets when we least expect it to rain and then it is there not really pouring but making an appearance every now and then just to get us wet.... aaargh!

More or less nothing but a printer!

All day long i see and deal with printers 5 days a week in my office. And this has just been 5 months now doing it. Already I'm feeling like a printer myself. Not that i'm feeling bad about it nor is it boring but it's jus that I'm saying it out loud now! And as if to add to my feelings i've been transferred more of printer intensive driver work at me now at work from last 2 weeks!! He he he.... Cool. I'm enjoying it at the moment. The first 2 years of my career i dealt with printer based testing in my job. So life has been revolving around printing all these moments and i guess it is something that i cannot help being away too! For once between those first 2 years and these last five months in my career it was bliss at the gaming domain. But it didn't last long and that ensured i move away from it and again it was printing... Hmm, looks like some kinda strong bonding between me and printers! He he he... I'm feeling funny when i think of it.. so I'm not going to bother much on it and jus accept what is thrown at me right now... ;)
Off i go to another training.. :)

Ah! i watched...

...'The dark knight' finally! He he he. It was wonderful. The way the characters take you into the world of their own is such a worthy experience. Everyone around that is almost everybody i know off have watched this movie a long back. Somehow i could never get time to go watch this flick. And now finally when i'm done watching it am just glad that i have watched it. Maybe a little bit of disappointment on the fact that i actually had to wait so much to watch it. The character of Joker is so so freeky and i loved the character so much thanks to Heath ledger's awesome portrayal of the character. :)He freaks you out.. :)
Other than this i was able to catch up with a couple of movies in all these days that i've been silent on this blog. The mummy 3 and a movie called Taken. Both of them good time pass. Taken is more of a super hero dad who saves his kidnapped daughter! Good watch if you are not in a mood to watch something real attention needing.

Life on fast track!

My life has been busy all these days... And what a perfect example i have here in the form of a snap of my speedo.. ;)



This was yesterday en route Big banyan tree in Bangalore.... Had a nice ride through NICE road.. :)

Border-Gavasker Cup finally back...

Ah! The sweetness will lingers around for some time from now after this terrific win against the best team in the world. Auzzies though didn't look like capable of beating India this time. The bowling attack lacked the once know deadliness that they had... I think now Pointing and his exhausted men can go back and think seriously on what needs to be done to get back into the kind of form that they were in couple of years ago. :) And Dhoni now gracefully has been appointed and taken over as the Indian team captain for all forms of the game. Finally a worthy leader has come for the team. Not that there were none earlier but this is the best phase that is going on for the team as i can see in a long long time now. As the man of the moment Ganguly played his last game and bid goodbye to his playing career i remembered all these years that i would watch him play with so much interest. I'll remember him all for right reasons as a man who bought Indian cricket team a lot of respect and fame... :)Wonder who is going to come in for the two greats who have already retired from the team now... and who ever it maybe might as well be as good as these two as it is the need of the hour now....

Watched...

I found this one an interesting movie....



Interesting plot.... and the characters had a lot of chemistry... :)

Jumbo is gone...

The Jumbo of Indian cricket team's plans to retire from cricket has not come as a shock as such. As he has been under media and public scrutiny for quite some time now as to "when he would retire?". I feel so much sorry for such a thing has actually happened to a player of Kumble's stature. Anyways, It's good that something actually happened for good when he decided to retire. He is going out of the team with lot of respect and when he was still considered more than a threat to opposition. He is retiring as a potent bowler. No more discussions and no more speculations on his ability. 619 wickets in the longer format of the game of cricket is no joke and as a player most of them can only dream of such a feat! Suresh menon has something to write in his column for Cricinfo and do find it here.
One more final round of applause for a cricketing gaint... :)

Can find more written on him by his peers and others here...