Sumir Patel the man from Greece after having been caught quietly slinking in & out of Mumbai a couple of times in the last 10 months, finally decided to spend a long weekend in Mumbai. Milind was supposed to join him, but his patients & suchitra got the better of him. Though Suchitra & Milind both have promised to spend the weekend of 31st oct - 2 nov in Mumbai, God & Patients willing.

Sumir needed to attend a nice vegetarian kid’s party at Prabhadevi on Sunday 19, 2008 so planned to come in on 18th & leave on 20th. However Ajay Padhye’s presence & a promise of MNDFCK party on 17th made him change his plans. Read the rest of this entry »

On the way to Ahmedabad, took an impromptu decision to stop by Baroda. Called Dilip & Sumir from Surat. Reached Baroda late on Saturday 11, 2008.

Dilip & Sumir were meeting up with Ajay for dinner, so we called up Milind, who insisted that we meet closer to home as he was likely to get delayed; so the venue was decided as Prashant’s residence.

Whilst waiting for milind to join, we started calling up others (hoping that by Baroda standards they were not fast asleep) Tushar, Amar, Dramil, Dharmendra, Anil, so on asking them if they were free to meet up the next day at Sumir’s farm with Dramil being specifically warned not to bring his car. Read the rest of this entry »

After a long time & quite a few requests, MNDFCK an offline socio-eco-pol evening was decided. For all of you who know about it, well & good….For the others….it is a afternoon/evening meeting of people with 2 qualifications:

1) Age above 40
2) Not Technology dependent or partially challenged.

It is basically Pay as you eat or drink!

Dates – 17th October 2008

Venue – Willing don Catholic Gym with Neil kindly agreeing to sign everyone in.

Let me have AYES!!! RSVP

A deluge of mails confirming their Ayes were received & the plan was underway with Neil coordinating in Mumbai & yours truly from Baroda. Read the rest of this entry »

A good friend Anil Machado working in the Middle East shared a mail reproduced below that is doing the rounds there.

“Dear All,

Recession is coming… make your own judgment, don’t panic! Do what is
wise.

The recession looks very eminent. It is really time to take pro active
steps to avoid a painful time in the next two years which is how long
the is expected to last. Read the rest of this entry »

Sitting with friends (ranten, bharatt, kirit, arvind & a few others) during the festive season, cribbing about the social networks in general…..everyone agreed that with age, meeting in the physical world is what drives us rather than the virtual world.

This gave birth to MNDFCK - an offline meeting either afternoon/evening of people with 2 qualifications:

1) Age above 40
2) Not Technology dependent or partially challenged.

normally twice a year or more depending on need - and the first one was held at the Renaissance club Andheri west. It was well attended, with people from cross industry expertise. The conversation flowed along with the food & drinks and a merry time was had by all! Party Photos

With time hanging on & the wife wanting some time without interference for Divali cleaning, shopping pushed me into visiting Baroda (Nay I refuse to call it Vadodara & there is no MNS there).Since I was travelling alone, decided to travel by train after a long time (7 years). Booking thru the irctc site was easy & with a confirmed ticket was all set!Reached Borivali station on a Saturday afternoon, the crowd waiting for local as well as upcountry was spilling all over.The train came in just 10 minutes late & got in. Even before I could put my bag in the rack & identify the seat, a NRI said, please sit on the other side so that I & my wife can sit together. Mind you this was not a request tone, but wearing a shorts, university T shirt & keds, with pouch hanging screaming (NRI/NRE whatever) gave him the right. Having booked my ticket, specifying a window seat, since the aisle always ensures you get banged into every couple of minutes, I respectfully declined. Immediately the NRI started speaking to his wife in Marathi (whilst I am not a complete marathi manoos, can definitely understand & make myself understood:)) “India will never change”; we should have flown; there are no manners, so on & forth. Finally in disgust, a gentleman commented that you should have flown & if you have a litany of complaints, why have you come back to India!!! Bravo….. Quiet went the couple…. Read the rest of this entry »

An extremely disappointing discussion & meeting took place today that made me recollect a thought -

“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person, is like expecting a lion not to attack you because you are a vegetarian”

3/A Crystal Plaza, Opp. Infiniti Mall & Cinemax, New Link Road, Andheri (W), Mumbai

Yeh bhi trishna, woh bhi trishna

Had an opportunity to try out both within a week of each other. The only difference was the space at Andheri.

Had relatives over from the US who had wanted specifically to visit Trishna at fort….ordered 5 different variety of fish after a couple of beers each & were swinging away thereafter.

The couple of veggies along with us also had a good time with the options available.

It is truly consistent & amazing back from my CNK days in 1997-99

A month ago, Bela a dear friend, who runs Spink Marketing a retail consultancy invited me for coffee at the TiE office early morning to meet some entrepreneurs, learn from them & her presentation and try to provide some inputs also.

Since the time was early morning, this was really tough, but decided to go!

The topics covered Global Retail challenges versus Local current challenges. Improving Services offerings in Retail context… creating more moments of “WOW”… Read the rest of this entry »

Sampath Iyengar sent his take on Havoc in Indian Markets!

Some husband should ask the bahu, saas, and beti: why did they gamble the family food money into stocks? Of course the husband knew – but he kept quiet as long as the going was good.

Just as the regulators should ask: what kind of institutional investor would be buying and selling Rs 4,000 crore of shares every day – and then being a net seller or net buyer of Rs 100 crore every day. Imagine, making daily bets and then being a net buyer or seller of only 2.5% of the overall volumes every day.

These licenses were given on the basis that FIIs were long term investors.
They were of some institutional quality.
What a joke!

These so-called FIIs are the biggest punters. Worse than our bahu and saas and beti.

They will gamble on the Indian stock markets till they find a better gamble in any part of the world.

They are not providers of capital to help India build a long-term economy; they are here for the “2/20″ fee structure and once those fees look difficult (like they do now in a declining market); they will run for the exit door.

They sneaked into the Indian stock markets from a back door via the issuance of P-Notes. And they continue to cause havoc on the Indian stock markets.

As an Indian if you invest more than Rs 50,000 in the markets, you need to get a PAN card and Know Your Client clearance.

You invest more than Rs 2 lakh in any mutual fund and the income tax department sends you a standard list of 30 questions.

These FIIs and P-Note champions buy and sell Rs 4,000 crore of shares every day – and we don’t even know who they are!

What a strange situation: The P-Note holder is under an I-don’t-care-who-you-are-rule and the made-in-India bahu is scrutinized by the bank, the broker, the mutual fund company, and the tax man