Harbour

The Harbour

To the harbour, he came

To be the same

He was willing to give up

his name and his fame

To the harbour...

He wanted to know, where should he dock

Where to trade ? He was hopeful of a gain, he came to trade. 

Be knew he better, that time ticks tock

A teacher does well, without a chalk

There is never a trade, his brain had fade

He thinks again , on the circular dot

How complete and rounded and same for all

Though some like to think big and small

There is no give up, and nothing to 'gain'

 

Cryptic confession

Normally i dont do something like this. There isnt any need to express, share, vent. The windows are closed always. The smoke gets absorbed in a carbon filter. We are carbon right. 

The filter needs cleaning from time to time but please stop thinking about the filter now and lets move on ? The  writer should not care about readers otherwise he ends up explaining or defending a bit too much. 

A judgement made few years back can reveal something about life and yourself, may be only now or still further in future. That seems to be an acceptable view but would that 'something' be acceptable. Probably yes, if you know you can handle it. You are a good carbon filter right ? 

You made a decision, you probably knew it was here good and there bad. You hoped still that you would still tune the outcome. The sentence needs addition and words will come at a price. The price is what you pay if the your decision doesn't help deal present and future. Still, still and finally still your share of good and bad has to be owed up by you. You cannot complain either as you are yourself not a spherical halo of divinity. 

Do you think you should change the outcome. Do you think its right to coursecorrect? Still, still and still ..

This Earth is His, to Him belong those vast and boundless skies;

Both seas within Him rest, and yet in that small pool He lies.

Which benchmark?

I do not write much about the topic i am writing about. This may not make a 'Wren and Martin' grammatical sense. But it is as 'present' as the moment between exhale and subsequent inhale of breath. Who are you. The quality of your life is your conversation with yourself (or may be with a mirror). If it is sounding direct and  giving direction to what is outlined here, you can be beware of what may be incidental. The writer does not have to be a philosopher to write something sober or arrogant. He writes in one blank state of mind on a blank slate.The primary motive is selfish for sure. But to what end. It is the purpose which defines us and paints two selfish men in different colors. If collection has to be done, thoughts must be collected. For they alone, are worth collecting.
I must be very careful not to miss chances life offers. I must pick all the pollens while sitting on the string,  pulsating in harmony with the rhythm of life. I see the photographs of the two hundred years old Scottish distilleries and inculcate their distillation finesse. Others may tell me that I miss a lot. But like them, i have my own limitations. In my case, i am sitting on the string and like to pulsate, drift for a while. But i try not to miss pollens. I throw the lumber like some Jerome K. Jerome. I sing like the solitary reaper, i open the door of every new day like the boy of 'Someone'. I also know of a coal miner who sometimes digs deep.There is no hurry. The coal miner returns unbothered by the coal. He relishes the food at the end of his day. Where are you sitting. What are you collecting. There are lot of ways to make honey.

One for the virtuoso - much like me :)

Raikkonen would rather be left alone

MONACO (Reuters) - Kimi Raikkonen would much rather be left alone but he is happy to admit that sometimes he does not know what he is doing.

Social media is never going to be the Finn's thing and the Lotus driver has never hidden his distaste for interviews but he overcame his reluctance and spoke to Reuters at the Monaco Grand Prix - albeit stressing: "That's not the reason why I am here.

"I am here for driving and racing and to try to win races and it's as simple as that," added Formula One's 2007 world champion and current title contender, his penetrating gaze shielded by sunglasses even inside the team motorhome.

Raikkonen's directness, his refusal to play the PR game and pretend to be someone he is not, may not have endeared him to all his sponsors over the years but his army of fans would not have it any other way.

They love the party animal who wants to be left alone, the technophobe who earns his living in the most technologically advanced sport in the world, the snowmobile racer and James Hunt fan with 'Iceman' tattooed in gothic script on his left forearm.

Beneath the taciturn exterior, and behind the growling monosyllabic replies in group interviews, Raikkonen is a racer who could be leading the championship after the weekend and is on course to chalk up his 23rd successive race in the points - one short of Michael Schumacher's all-time record.

LEAVE ME ALONE

On his way to victory in Abu Dhabi last year, the 33-year-old added to the legend that is Kimi Raikkonen by telling his race engineer over the radio in decisive terms to "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing".

The outburst spawned T-shirts and mugs with the phrase on it, one of the latter proudly owned by Frank Williams who tried to sign the Finn for his eponymous team in late 2011.

For many it has become Raikkonen's motto, but he does not see it that way.

"It's not that. For sure, sometimes I don't know what I am doing," he laughed, perhaps mindful of those old photographs of him drunkenly embracing an inflatable dolphin outside a nightclub or powerboat racing in a gorilla suit.

"But that happens to everybody. The whole story came out of proportion. It was a normal thing.

"It sounds like we are shouting, because the radio is not very good and you will shout as loud as you can to make sure that they hear what you say. It happens always. I am not a big fan of getting messages. I am sure I will ask if I need something.

"For sure it has happened in a Ferrari and a McLaren," he added. "I said many things but on those days you didn't get them on TV. Even now you get often in the races some odd things coming through but they don't put it in a live form for whatever reason. It's not like a new thing for the team."

That Raikkonen is not a big fan of unnecessary communication becomes even more evident when he is asked about other drivers' willingness to post photographs and put their private lives on display through social media.

"I don't use Facebook. If I could throw my phone away I would probably do it," he said. "It's always on silent and I don't like when it rings and people are calling.

"We could live without those things in the past when we just had a phone on the street somewhere, on the corner or at the house. I have no interest in telling all the people what I do every day and where I am.

"I want to do my stuff privately with my friends or family and that's it."

Surrounded by a backdrop of floating palaces swaying in the harbour, the Monaco Grand Prix tops the list of favourite races for many Formula One drivers.

Not Raikkonen.

An ideal race weekend, he suggested, would be at the Magny-Cours circuit in the heart of rural France - a now discontinued date on the calendar and unloved by sponsors and corporate types due to the dearth of hotels and nightlife.

"That was pretty nice. There were no people. The hotel is next door and it's a pretty good place. I always enjoyed it there. It was purely racing and not a big hassle," said Raikkonen.

The winner of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix is just four points behind Red Bull's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel after five of the 19 races and hitting the sort of form that brought him the title as a Ferrari driver.

Next season, he could even end up as Vettel's team mate if some of the paddock speculation is to be believed. Raikkonen is out of contract at the end of the year and was backed by the energy drink company when he quit F1 and switched to rallying at the end of 2009.

The Finn recognised he had options other than Lotus, who hope to keep him, but said having the best car would only be part of the equation when he came to decide.

WINNING CAR

"You always want to have a winning car but there is no guarantee that it will be," he said, mindful of the sweeping technical changes being introduced for 2014.

"Obviously they (Red Bull) have created a very good car for many years but we don't have such a bad car either so we cannot really say that if you go there it is certain that you will get the best car and will win always," he added.

"I think it is more the overall picture, that you have to have a good feeling in every aspect. You have to have a normal life, you have to have certain things in a certain place and it can be a small thing.

"It's just some simple thing that gives you overall happiness on all the things and how the life goes overall. That will make a difference and be the biggest effect on whatever the decision is."

Raikkonen entered Formula One with Sauber in 2001, with the then-president of the governing FIA Max Mosley concerned that the rookie lacked the experience to be granted the mandatory super-licence.

By the end of the year he was a McLaren driver, replacing double world champion compatriot Mika Hakkinen.

One more race win now would take Raikkonen's career tally to 21 and make him the most successful Finnish driver, in terms of grand prix wins.

Not that such statistics matter too much to him.

"I have already achieved something that I always wanted and anything I get more is nice," he said. "Of course we want to win more championships but if it doesn't happen or we don't get fastest laps or wins or whatever it will not change my life.

one for the blog..

Old article by Vir Sanghvi,

Most modern Indian cities strive to rise above ethnicity.Tell anybody who lives in Bombay that he lives in a Maharashtrian city and (unless of course, you are speaking   to Bal Thackeray) he will take immediate offence.We are cosmopolitan, he will say indigenously. Tell a Delhiwalla that his   is a Punjabi city (which, in many ways, it is) and he will  respond with much self-righteous nonsense about being the nation's capital, about the international composition of the   city's elite etc. And tell a Bangalorean that he lives in a   Kannadiga city and you'll get lots of techno-gaff about the   internet revolution and about how Bangalore is even more cosmopolitan than Bombay.But, the only way to understand what Calcutta is about is   recognize that the city is essentially Bengali. What's more,   no Bengali minds you saying that. Rather, he is proud of the   fact. Calcutta's strengths and weaknesses mirror those of   the Bengali character. It has the drawbacks: the sudden   passions, the cheerful chaos, the utter contempt for mere   commerce, the fiery response to the smallest provocation.And it has the strengths (actually, I think of the drawbacks   as strengths in their own way). Calcutta embodies the Bengali love of culture; the triumph of intellectualism over   greed; the complete transparency of all emotions,the disdain with which hypocrisy and insincerity are treated;the warmth of genuine humanity; and the supremacy of emotion   over all other aspects of human existence.That's why Calcutta is not for everyone. You want your cities clean and green; stick to BANGLORE. You want your cities, rich and impersonal; go to Bombay. You want them high-tech ;hydrabad is your place. But if you want a city with a soul:come to Calcutta.When I look back on the years I've spent in Calcutta.I don't remember the things that people   remember about cities. When I think of London, I think of   the vast open spaces of Hyde Park. When I think of New York,   I think of the frenzy of Times Square. When I think of Tokyo, I think of the bright lights of Shinjiku. And when I   think of Paris, I think of the Champs Elysee. But when I   think of Calcutta, I never think of any one place. I don't   focus on the greenery of the maidan, the beauty of the Victoria Memorial, the bustle of Burra Bazar or the splendour of the new Howrah 'Bridge'. I think of people.Because, finally, a city is more than bricks and mortars,   street lights and tarred roads. A city is the sum of its   people. And who can ever forget - or replicate - the people of Calcutta?I was told that the city   would grow on me. What nobody told me was that the city   would change my life. It was in Calcutta that I learnt about   true warmth; about simple human decency; about love and   friendship; about emotions and caring; about truth and honesty. I learnt other things too. it was a revelation to live in a city where people   judged each other on the things that really mattered;where   they recognized that being rich did not make you a better   person - in fact, it might have the opposite effect.I learnt also that if life is about more than just   money, it   is  about the things that other cities ignore; about culture,   about ideas, about art, and   about passion. In Bombay, a man with a relatively low income   will salt some of it away for the day when he gets a stock   market tip. In Calcutta, a man with exactly the same income   will not know the difference between a debenture and a dividend. But he will spend his money on the things that   matter. Each morning, he will read at least two newspapers   and develop sharply etched views on the state of the world.Each evening, there will be fresh (ideally, fresh-water or   river) fish on his table. His children will be encouraged to   learn to dance or sing. His family will appreciate the power   of poetry. And for him, religion and culture will be in   inextricably bound together.Ah religion! Tell outsiders about the importance of Puja in   Calcutta and they'll scoff. Don't be silly, they'll say.Puja is a religious festival. And Bengal has voted for the   CPM since 1977. How can godless Bengal be so hung up on a   religions festival? I never know how to explain them that   to a Bengali, religion consists of much more than shouting   Jai Shri Ram or pulling down somebody's mosque. It has little to do with meaningless ritual or sinister political activity.The essence of Puja is that all the passions of Bengal converge: emotion, culture, the love of life, the warmth of   being together, the joy of celebration, the pride in artistic ex-pression and yes, the cult of the goddess.It may be about religion. But is about much more than just   worship. In which other part of India would small, not particularly well-off localities, vie with each   other to produce the best pandals? Where else could puja   pandals go beyond religion to draw inspiration from everything else? In the years I lived in Calcutta, the pandals featured Amitabh Bachchan, Princes Diana and even   Saddam Hussain! Where else would children cry with the sheer   emotional power of Dashimi, upset that the Goddess had left   their homes? Where else would the whole city gooseflesh when   the dhakis first begin to beat their drums? Which other   Indian festival - in any part of the country - is so much   about food, about going from one roadside stall to another,   following your nose as it trails the smells of cooking?Certainly, you can't do it till you come and live here, till   you let Calcutta suffuse your being, invade your bloodstream   and steal your soul. But once you have, you'll love Calcutta forever. Wherever you go, a bit of Calcutta will go with   you. I know, because it's happened to me.And every Puja, I  am overcome by the magic of Bengal. It's a feeling that'll  never go away.

idle thought on valuation

When in my usual numb and dumb state, i think about valuation ( so i think in my numb state, hypocratic statement), first lines that come to mind are:

i. nothing less than Mergers & Acquisitions
ii Buyer synergies
iii One can debate endlessly ( with other person of course) about the difference between Fair Value and Fair Market Value
iv. Even Trading and Hedging do not escape valuation.
v. To quote from Adkins , Matchett and Toy, " valuation is fundamental to nearly every aspect of finance"

Valuations are needed for stand alone firms or for combined entities for
mergers
acquisitions
company sales
start-ups
joint ventures
share-option programs
IPOs
re-capitalization
etc

Basically, wherever and whenever there is a transaction, we might need a valuation.

When two boys do a transaction in a playground ( purchase of a cricket ball in return for a promise of a homework or for some money), they are evaluating.

Since, in large organizations, lot of people are involved, transactions such as these have given opportunities to some other firms and persons to claim some consultation fee.
There are mainly two things to care about in any situation:
i Your own basics on how the company works, what different financial terms and numbers mean
ii what is the proposed transaction

Sometimes, a third point you need to care about is the legal/ regulatory aspect.

People who are experienced enough can think of transactions that comply with laws as well as provide maximum possible benefit to their clients.

Most of our intelligence is required only to know our basics and to fully understand the transaction. We all succeed with varying degrees on these two accounts. There is very little 'creative' about finance. It is in general more about retaining your fragile understanding. And definitely, there is nothing that is out of our intuitive reach.