Inflationary Wows & Woes.....

These days the only news that seems to grab almost half the entire screen of all major National News Channels , in the form of Breaking News , is that we are reeling under the ominous slope of the inflation Index . With the index soaring week after week and all the efforts put in to contain it going for a toss, it is high time we do some time travel and find out the exact reason for the unnerving phenomenon for most households. Why is that even after all the measures taken in the form of imposing duties to control exports and reducing or shedding off import duties we are still unable to contain it ? Even the fiscal measures have not shown any tangible results as of now. Maybe in the forseeable future it might show signs of frutition , but it might not be significant enough for our banks haven't touched upon the repo and the reverse repo rates. Looking at the way the crude is behaving we can do little from our side to contain the losses. Where have we slipped or what is it that we are not following here ? To admit frankly I am a simpleton when it comes to economics and statistics. I am definitely not a good commentator on our economic policies and nor am I judging any one's decision. From a common man's perspective I feel that somewhere we are to be blamed for what's happenning .With changing times we have had more money coming into our hands .Which means the purchasing power per capita is rising with times. Looking at the way the Gen Next is throwing of money at each and everything the others have sooner or later started following suit. People have gone in for more of spending and less of saving . This means we have more money chasing goods . Inflation indeed !! Today we can't do with 3 ACs and still complain . Earlier we used to adjust with things. Has someone ever thought that if we were to live more judiciously , understanding the value of things we probably would have spent money where it is actually required . Splurging the extra money is what is kindling this inflationary tendencies. We clearly ought to contain our spendings and learn to save things rather than getting extra and wasting things . This would solve most of our problems. With many billionaries created every passing minute our nation is unshackling all its limitations and raring to grow . Such things are common with a developing nation .With time , this knowledge and rationality would definitely creep into our minds . Maybe this is a learning phase for our nation. With this learning we surely would go a long way in scaling out our economic superpower status.

Extracting the essence of Life

A Bonfire of Vanities . Thats what Life is . Peering into its never ending abyss , we can only derive more out of it . That might be the reason why many a philosophers , saints and scholars gave life the sobriquet " Infinity " . Seems impossible and sounds too preposterous. Our limited life is full of limitless possibilities and events . Rationality would speak otherwise and so would science , but Life is something beyond the realms of our shunted and stultified rationality. William Blake had rightly described Life when he penned down “Auguries of Innocence.” He says

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”

Each event in our lives is multifaceted in itself , throwing endless possibilities for us to grab onto. It is only the human eye which takes only what it wants . We have become so engrossed with our latitudes that we hardly bother to look beyond the periphery of our existence. Life is a strand of infinite events . Happiness and Sadness add vibrance to it , resulting in a beautiful fabric that is invaluable and can't be replicated . Few days back, while standing at a bus stop and hurling invectives at the lack of proficiency of our governance , something caught my attention and gave me a reason to smile . The sight of two little puppies canoodling each other rekindled my thought and set me thinking about looking beyond the periphery. I am no philosopher but as far as I am concerned I would definitely try to beautify the fabric of my life . Spend the life is "Pursuit of Happyness " . There are always opportunities hidden even during the darkest hours . Most of us give up on our pursuit and fight just before we reach our goal. We just need that extra zeal in us to cover the last lap . Rather than getting entangled in the deadly maze we should persist and persevere towards reaching our goal . Life may not be always about Winning but it is definitely about Having that insatiable tendency to Win .

Life @ One Quarters

Here it goes , I find almost the entire gmail list online at 12 in the night . Why would it not be . Most of my classmates are abroad . Almost 80 percent of my friends are in US the rest in some corners of the world and the ones like me still here . The craze for getting there just hasn't subsided . My friends in office are crazy for the onsite opportunity and waiting to send snaps to their loved ones once they land there . My inbox gets flooded with mails from my college friends regarding their get together in Down Town Manhattan or New York City . I quitely glance through their locations on orkut and come back to my senses . I at times feel that I am not as others for I had enough onsite opportunities but I didnt take them, even dropped my MS plans after receiving admits . Something crazy is going on with me for sure . Standing and having covered a quarter , I find that am yet to cover many miles . The very thought of being abroad and living a luxurious life seems quite fanciful but they too come with a premonition . So for now my dream is still on the horizon and I hope to realise it and make it big in the days to come . Earning is no big deal but dreaming and making dreams possible is . Even though the grass is greener on the other side I prefer cultivating my own crops and reaping the rewards later .After all Its my Life !!

The Sunday Morning @ Matunga

The unusual cool Sunday Morning . Thats what I refer to Sunday Mornings as . Unusual because it is the only morning I feel fresh enough . Quite unlike the other mornings when I have to kick myself to get off my bed for office , Sunday provides that extra zinx to wake up early . My Sunday is usually spent visiting the temple at Matunga and having my breakfast at Manis ..

Well to be honest enough having that divine darshan of Lord Guruvayoorapan and others does make my day . Just being there at the temple and spending some time in that atmosphere makes me remind of Guruvayoor in Kerala . A place I make sure I visit whenever I visit Kerala .Listening to the sound of nadaswaram makes for an eternal bliss that keeps ringing throught the day .

The amazing breakfast at Mani's is the second important thing .The typical keralite breakfast is a welcome break from the flakes and sandwiches I have on the other days . How can I not mention about the flowery sidewalks of matunga where you get to see flowers of all kinds most of them being made into a garland for someone's wedding . With a slight chill in the early morning air and the mild warmth of the sunrays , I take the darshan and have my sumptuous breakfast thereafter. It makes my Sunday.

Beating Inflation

The belief has been belied . There is no more decoupling left in our economy or should I say that our economy never actually decoupled . Adding on to that our inflation worries is gripping the pockets of every Indian. How do we deal with such a scenario where our gdp growth is slowing down , liquidity in the system is in excess , markets are performing horribly and inflation has almost deflated our wallets ?

Firstly , our markets are yet to decouple or shall I say that we are not that our markets are not economically independent . The sub-prime has almost left the FIIs moribund . The FII investments in our market has decreased drastically over the last quarter. To add to this domestic HNIs and Retail investors are cutting down their losses . Our markets are totally directionless. We are infact one of the worst performing markets today . Why is it so ? There was already a bubble building up in our markets and now we can say that the stocks are really coming down to their proper valuation .Lesson : We need to be a smart investor rather than a speculative investors .

Is the government policy in easing supply side constraints justified ? Maybe in long term but it might but not in the short term. The problem actually stemmed from America converting one third of their maize produce to ethanol , Ukraine stopping wheat exports and almost no wheat coming out of Australia . Thus the local hoarding at national level s has led to surging inflation in almost all teh developing countries . The first step to curbing inflation would be to stop national hoardings .

Secondly , if RBI tries to suck out excess liquidity the repo rates would go up which inturn would affect PLRs ..something which our FM doesn't want . With such a starking scenario , we have to come up with a sensible mix of monetary policies , governmental policies and increased investment in agriculture and related areas . Our markets need not worry as our fundamentals are still looking good and we have nothing to worry as long as we grow at 7.5% + steadily .

So lets all look forward to a bright resurgent India.......

Reflexions....

How often do we introspect ? Ever felt like comparing yourself with anyone else and finding out if the rationale behind seeking the ever elusive happiness is infact uncalled for . It occured to me and yes it occured strongly . An experience I wouldn't forget , maybe a normal situation but it left a huge impact on me . Saturdays as usual was spent in reading books . This time around I was reading " Maximum City" by Suketu Mehta . The book had me enthralled to the hilt . Even for a split second it didn't allow me to take off my concentration . What should I say , maybe the writer's ingenuity or the plot's charm. After reading almost 100 odd pages I put down the book and thought of catching off with some DVDs. I then scooted and got the bus to station . All through my journey I kept thinking of the various problems and how to handle them at times even wondering why god was so unkind to me ,not allowing me even a iota of what I have asked for . It was almost late night when I was returning by the same bus . The cool winds which had swept the city over the weekends had me gasping for some warmth. All of a sudden the seat adjoining to me was occupied by someone. I turned back to find that a small boy , shabbily dressed was shivering with cold . He was having something wrapped in his hands. I just kept noticing the boy as he began to open the wrapped thing in his hand.I noticed the sparkle he had in his eyes when he was opening it. It had boiled nuts in it . I said to myself , " This boy is so happy with the little he gets . To him it means the greatest source of enjoyment " . That led me to introspect and the answers which I got were just Reflexions. Reflection of my emotions .....