Pre-Monsoon Showers

It is raining like mad house right now!! After a very hot afternoon about 4-4:30pm in the evening it suddenly became very breezy and by 5:15 it started raining and it is more than an hour now and this is relentless!! The sound of the rain is so loud in this metal topped single storey structure that it is useless to talk on the phone and we are almost shouting talking to each other in the office!!

Rain is treated with a mixed emotion on any construction site. It is a very painful season to work during as water wreaks a havoc on speed. But it is always a welcome respite for a worker after the endless and tiring heat! We treated this rain with exact same emotions!!

I wish I had a better camera though. My Blackberry curve camera is the most unsuitable apparatus for catching the light and motion.. But still I took pictures because I wanted to remember this rain.. how it felt.. how it looked.. 'cos some things about these days I don't want to forget in the usual marathon that my life is!

Interpreting Data

I read a fabulous article in Wired yesterday! It unravels beautifully and simply what happened in the US that led to the credit crisis. Read it here. It is a total must must read!! 

The last paragraph of the article goes like this:

"In the world of finance, too many quants see only the numbers before them and forget about the concrete reality the figures are supposed to represent. They think they can model just a few years' worth of data and come up with probabilities for things that may happen only once every 10,000 years. Then people invest on the basis of those probabilities, without stopping to wonder whether the numbers make any sense at all."

And OMG, I soooo agree!! I have seen a number of 'analysts' in analysing real estate projects ONLY on excel sheets and wondered if they really understood the reason why money will be made! The money will never be made because the calculations say so but if and only if the assumptions are executed verbatim on site. And most of the financial analysts and deal makers I met never really understood this. Some of them paid heavy price by both over investing or letting go of an opportunity! I am so glad someone's penned it down so well!! 

Crisis of ...? And the Clinical Optimists

A number of times in the past I have read that current crisis is the crisis of confidence and not cash, at least in India. This is not referring to the ever plunging indices. There indeed it is a fair lot of foreign money that was buying has been selling. But the statement above largely refers to the contraction of consumption. Consumption of goodies in malls, supplies in supermarkets, vehicles in auto lots, houses in residential markets and all those other purchases that have been either cancelled or put on hold by millions of Indians, fearing, hmmm, well, what??? Job loss? Respective industries going to dirt? Erosion of savings? General fear for financial well being? Impending political changes? Terrorism? Perhaps, a concoction of all these has made a drink potent enough to pull the rug under our feet. And rightly so. 

There is never a small talk over coffee or drinks that does not find this topic creeping into it these days. A topic of how robust is India's internal consumption story? To what extent are we export economy driven? We all agree we are no China (didn't we mourn that until not so long ago?) but we do not seem to be able to place the economy on the continuum of worse hit to less hit. (There is no one, in my opinion, who is unaffected.)  And it is through these conversations that the pessimists slowly start turning this crisis of confidence into the crisis of cash! A Self full filling prophecy! 

When does our collective caution turn into a collective disaster? Are we there yet as a country?? I strongly believe not. I am no expert in other sectors. But for Real Estate (I am no expert here either, but it is just that I work in this sector!) I always felt that February would bring a small cheer. And it has been the case. This month has been substantially better than anything we have seen post September 2008. For a variety of reasons! The 'doomsday predicament' of the buyer has at least changed to a 'fairly glum outlook'! And the media since the beginning of 2009 has decided to belt out relatively positive notes as opposed to what they were doing for 12 months prior to it. Most of it is still as ill-researched as it was then but now they are spinning the web the way the people who pay for fancy adverts want. Survival! I believe the month of April and May will again see a change in outlook for two reasons. First is obviously the political uncertainty will start to get reduced and secondly because the common folks  would know whether they are keeping their jobs next year and how much is their expected income! 

Even then the pessimists will cry foul. They will try to tell that it's is not over till it is over and over it will never be to these good Samaritans who are spending their hard earned cash on making this a crisis of sentiments and therefore, for the good of the entire country including those sly pessimists! Ha! 

So kudos to you people, who take a more balanced view. Who decide to cross the bridge of a total utter failure of financial world when we (if we) get there! Who look for opportunities and make a grab at them! Who understand the sinusoidal curve of life! Who can see, relatively well, through the BS of extreme negative and dispairing (and if you care to remember the extreme positive and euphoric) sentiments. Who are driven by logic but understand sentiment.

Basically if someone will make this country weather and come out shining much better is those 'clinically optimistic' people!!

Republic Day Getaway!

The whole W and J clan went away to Kumarakom, Kerla over this Republic Day weekend (and a few more days' of extra offs!) Here are some snapshots!

The whole idea of the trip was to do nothing!! A lovely lovely thing one gets to do never!! We stayed at Taj Garden Retreat in Kumarakom which fronts the famous Vembanad lake. It is a lovely rustic hotel! Cleanliness in the hotel could have been better but I think they have a formidable task on hand given the setting they are in. The biggest credit to them is definitely their hospitality! Taj's service is legendary and we find ourselves seeking a Taj wherever we go. But the team here was par excellence even by Taj's standards!! Apart from the lovely ambiance the best part of the hotel was also some excellent and delectable variety they served us thrice a day (minimum that is ;) ) We had some superb chettinad preparations of prawns and chicken and feasted on the traditional vegetarian Kerali cuisine of Appam and Avial and Toran and Payasam!! 

We took the much necessary trip to Kottayam for shopping and eating dosas in the local hotels and we were not disappointed a bit!! We rewarded ourselves to multiple Ghee Dosas after a tiring(!) shopping experience at Seematti. Kottayam is a funny city I thought! It has way too much contour for the part of the world it is located in.... We kept travelling up and down the streets - quite literally!! I once again realised how urbanised the city of Pune is where I live. For good or bad Kottayam is about 15 years away from that level of urbanisation...

Large rooms with wooden sloping roofs were complete with dormer skylights. 
But the best part of the rooms certainly was this sit out that overlooked the hotel lagoon.
Toilets opened on a lovely (locked from outside!) courtyards! It took me some getting used  to!!!!
This hotel shares a boundary with the large bird sanctuary of Kumarakom and thanks to this lagoon there are a lot of lovely birds inside the hotel premises as well. If you cared to wake up early (well relatively!) and sit out by the lagoon you could see a lot of them! Following is the picture of cottages from across the lagoon.  
A lot of varieties of Herons were seen and I am no expert in identifying them but we tried and captured them in the lens as much as we could!
The hotel had lot of water bodies woven through it and such water fountains were created at a number of places which served as aeration mechanism for the water.  
We saw a wood pecker here up in the trees but he refused to let us take a picture!! I loved its triangular head!! 
Ain't these lovely?? Look at their colour!! They were almost transparent!
This was the West side end of the hotel. It had a lawn with couches that you could lounge on endlessly! They also served snacks and chai in the evening here making it lovelier still! (Yup I am a certified foodie!) The Vembanad lake seen till the horizon...  I was mesmerised by the size of this lake.
This picture should be named melancholy... Though I wasn't feeling particularly so when clicking it!! 

This is the view of the Baker's bungalow across the lagoon with the beautiful island in between. They have a restaurant in this bungalow now but it has been preserved well from its colonial days.   
The hotel had a lot of fearless rabbits! I and R discussed that rabbit or hare does not explain the squishiness of this cutie as well as the Marathi word 'Sasa' does!! (For some reason the links to post in Devnagari have disappeared from my toolbar. Grhh)


Though aplenty birds could be seen at the hotel we took a 0600 am (on a holiday! I am so proud!!!!) tour through the bird sanctuary. The weather was mildly cold (Yes, we were indeed in Kerla!!) And according to the guide all the birds populate the Hyacinth in the lagoon that separates the backwaters from Vembanad at this time of the day. And well I must say he was quite right!




There are about nine varieties of Kingfishers here. We saw two kinds! Every time it took a flight it dazzled with its brilliant blues! I wish we had a pro camera...  
This is an eagle with its catch!! Kudos to S for snapping it!

This ubiquitous Heron I nicknamed as The Hunchback of Kumarakom!! :) 

Such a small birdie but what rattle it was making!!  
Can anyone tell me what flower this is?? It was 'planted' in large vessels filled with water the way lotus is usually, well, 'planted'! The total life of this beautiful creature was only a few hours of the day.. 

Sunset point again!

We just loved these creatures!! 

This silly bird sat every morning around the same spot for hours on end!! 
All those black forms in the tree are Herons actually!! They have turned that Green tree White by doing you know what all over it!! There is a covered walk way beneath these trees to save the mere mortals from continuous droppings!! 
View of the cottages from the Baker's Bungalow
At night they would light diyas (panatya) all along the lagoon! Such a simple and inexpensive idea, albeit with a lot of efforts involved! But what effect!! This picture hardly does justice to the magnificent site that was!!  
Overall a rocking trip!! Well all the holidays are always like that, aren't they? :)

When?

When does an 'event' become a 'memory'?

When does 'memory' become 'trivia'?

Do all 'events' become 'memories'?

Are all 'memories' 'trivia'(l)?

Edited after Comments

R said: 

memory becomes a trivia, when it looses its importance..
and event becomes memory, when you start remembering it
I feel a memory cannot be trivia at the same time, once it becomes trivia it no longer stays a memory

R, if memory cannot be trivia what would you call quiz masters asking exact number of fire men deaths in 9/11?? Is it Or Isn't it 'trivia'? 'Least in colloquial terms? And if trivia does not stay as memory then what do you call it when you remember a completely inconsequential detail about a friend, such as a dress or a style of handwriting or something??? 

M said:

surely i hope all memories aren't trivia !.. trivia is something of little importance .. im sure there must be something that isnt trivial !..

M, Oh! I agree and hope there are a lot of memories that are not trivia! I am more perturbed by those memories that should not be 'trivia' but end up becoming so... Know what I mean??

In these times...

of trouble, it is heart warming and inspiring to read articles such as this by eminent thinkers.. 

Really!

This is a must read..and a quick read too. A small excerpt  I liked best..

"...My friend switched the subject to the poor condition of India’s roads, its dilapidated cities and the constant blackouts. Suddenly, he stopped and asked: “With all this, how did you become the second-fastest growing economy in the world? China’s leaders fear the day when India’s government will get its act together............"

I hope!! Soooon!! 

Happy New Year!

On this last day of 2008 I find myself mostly thinking about the later half of the year that was so packed with recession, terrorism,  politics.. Not the nice stuff.. So much so that I have forgotten numerous nice things that have happened in the earlier half of the year!! I think we all have a short term memory loss problem!! 

But I am already sure that the new year is going to bring a lot of reasons to cheer! Professionally as well as personally for me!! Economically and politically for all of us! Even as I write this the cynic part of me is scowling and grinning scarcastically! But I am just reminded of something S had said when we were debating when to get married (and whether!! ;) ). And he said quite nonchalantly that we need to now change our set of problems! That's it! The problems will be omnipresent! So long as we face a different one each day we shall feel alive! (and kicking!!)  

Happy New Year to all of you!! Party hard and hope there are ever more reasons to party in 2009!!