Taarinie's Guru: Miscellaneous Sundries

It’s been some time since I wrote anything here. Been quite busy for a variety of reasons and the only thing that has a continuum in this memory-chain is the fear of being disappointed in the semi-finals of the World Cup 2011. Well, here is what I would have written on various issues if I was regular.

CRICKET: A commendable performance against the Ozzies. Raises expectations and makes me believe that the law of averages will not apply this time. The three heroes who i expected to deliver in the World Cup, have done it in style. Ponting scored a century in possibly his last WC match. Tendulkar is going great and Murali, remains the real maestro. Both Tendulkar and Yuvaraj are in awesome form while the rest too are – in failing to perform. Ashwin – was he a secret weapon and kept away for key matches or was it a case of media becoming part of selection committee. Whatever, this guy is really talented. And deserves to come ahead of Harbajji in the batting order. Wishlist includes Sehwag getting his rhythm atleast once again, Dhoni keeping wickets well and we playing the same that team that played in the QF. Whoever wins the cup, richly deserves it. If there is a commercial need, then India. If it is an issue of the most remarkable effort, then Pak (what a team-effort despite losing three-secondth of the real team.. hahahah, that fraction is not a typo), if it is alround talent and class, then SL and if is none of these, then NZ…

DREAMS: That has become life now. From uncorking a champagne bottle after winning the F1 to making a simple but neat 30 percent gain on my nifty shorts overnight, the range is exhaustive.

MOVIES: I saw a few recently-released Hindi movies. Nothing worth writing about. Except a reiteration of my long held belief that even such classics like ‘Sholay’ or ’Gone with the Wind’ would be a bore if you watch it from a DVD.

BOOKS: I have given up reading any form of printed material, for quite some time now. And that continues. I didn’t read any book in recent times

FRIENDS: Same story – apart from a few mails, smses, telephone calls, skyping and periodic visits - nothing much (what else does anyone do besides these????). Unable to remember my passwords properly, I have created half a dozen Facebook and Orkut IDs and nothing works now. As a precaution, I created a spreadsheet of all my IDs and the corresponding password. And mailed it to a few of my mail IDs. It was a healthy and safe method I thought, until I realized those spreadsheets also had a password and I haven’t stored that anywhere. As a last resort, I am planning to change my name, if I can’t change my face.

WEEKENDS: Since work-days were always busy for me, I had decided to join a gym, a yoga class and then regular cricket at weekends. The trouble is all of these require waking up early so I am Googling hard to find out if there is anything that could be achieved without having to disturb a lovely sleep. Suggestions welcome.

TELEVISION: I love to watch pulp and nonsense. The decrees of fate are so wayward that I hardly get an opportunity to indulge on that favorite pastime, now. We don’t get almost 99.9 percent of the channels that I used to watch in India. As if to hurt me further, I am getting to watch the same Tamil program every day for the last 4 months. It is very similar to DD coming up with a news bulletin just when Zaheer has appealed strongly for a first-ball wicket.

ADVICE: I hardly believe in taking one. Call it God’s gift to me in some ways, packaged as arrogance. And hate to give any (I don’t believe in giving something that I don’t take!!) as well. So this one appealed to me to post it dispassionately : Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced daily and failure is nothing more than a few simple errors repeated daily.

INFLATION: Have spent most of my time trying to understand if this recent one is from the supply side or from the demand side, if it is just commodities or it is from crude and food prices in addition to commodities. Is it the QE2 from the Federal Reserve that is fuelling easy liquidity and therefore inflation, or is it for want of a credible asset class that the common man, having access to easy liquidity at almost no rate of interest, is buying commodities and metals and wheat futures. Whatever, in this deep and tireless research I have forgotten to pay some important bills and the penal rate of interest for such non-payment reminds me that the world is far ahead of the rate curve!! It is the beauty of investment science that whenever I have large surpluses interest rates are almost negligible (thankfully my bank never asked me to pay for depositing) and whenever I borrow to invest, the interest rate is prohibitive enough to get a value from investment. No economist ever created personal wealth I suppose.

PS: Part 2 in this series will cover more important issues like my food habits, the T-Shirts I liked, the journey in my building-lift, difficulties of standing in an ATM queue etc.