Sundae Bar at office

For the last few weeks this part of the country has been going through a very arid and hot summer, the sun has been at its sweltering best. Though we don’t feel the heat from within the confines of our office (all thanks to the air conditioning system which is always on the cooler side) the brightness outside was always a grim reminder of how it felt out there.

With the weather in such a harsh mode it was so timely and appropriate to treat us with some ice-cream (nothing beats an ice-cream to beat the heat!).  Our HR had arranged for a Sundae Bar at the office yesterday (July 14). Lizzy's in Waltham provided the ice cream and toppings, all we had to do was to eat and enjoy. 

We did enjoy the ice-cream, it was awesome. Most of us gathered around the kitchen, made our own customized version and had great fun. We should probably be doing this more often!

Bone-dry: Does it really have anything to do with bones?

A few of us have made it a routine to get together and spend a few minutes over a cup of coffee. Though this routine itself has become monotonous the discussions that we have are sometimes very intriguing. A few days ago during one of these discussions a colleague of mine used the phrase ‘bone-dry’, obviously to refer to something that was ‘very’ dry. The usage of this phrase (bone-dry) is very common and most of us do know what it means, but I wondered how this term actually originated. What has bone to do with dryness and who actually came up with this relationship first?

I was hoping that one of us (among our coffee group) would have answers, but to my surprise all of us were equally ignorant. Later that day I checked the Wikipedia for any information on bone-dry, and again to my surprise wiki did not have any mention either. It does have a mention of ‘bonedry’ which apparently is a type of clay that is completely dried. So I did the next best thing, just googled it, and found some interesting thoughts (though none of them mention anything concrete about the origins).

According to one source, 'Bone dry' derives from an allusion to the dryness of bone after being left in the sun (Clearly someone out there tried to dry bones under the sun!). It goes on to say that the earliest known use of this team was in 1830 by the clergyman Robert Forby. Then there are those who think that ‘bone-dry’ actually is a variant of ‘bonedry” (the dry clay which forms porcelain). Once source points to the Bible, where a reference to bone dry is made, but here a lot is left to imagination (as is the case with most of the interpretations from religious texts).

To sum up, there is no clear answer. If someone else has anything interesting to add about ‘bone-dry’ please don’t hesitate do so. 

Rendition revisited!

A few days ago I watched the movie ‘Rendition’ and subsequently a few events took place in my life which I could relate to the movie. It’s amazing how life sometimes throws so many coincidences at you.

For those who have not watched the movie, here is a brief summary to put things into perspective. The movie is about the impact of US Foreign Policy post Sep 2011 that allowed US authorities to detain suspects in secret facilities (mostly at foreign locations) and interrogate them. Basically rendition involves detention and interrogation without a trial. The movie is a good one, albeit a little slow paced, it has a very good plot and two stories have been presented very well that gives the viewer enough to judge the policy.

Coming back to my story, a few days before we watched the movie I had received a call from my cousin who lives in Dubai. He calls me every now then, just for the usual family talks. This time when he called I was at work and was busy so I informed him that I would call back later. I called him the day after I watched this movie (Rendition), nothing spooky till now. Somehow I must have goofed up the number, because when I dialed someone at the other end picked up and acknowledged in Arabic (guess so). I had no clue what he was talking about, I tired English and a couple of other languages that I can speak but this fellow kept talking in his language. I tried repeating my Cousin’s name, hoping this was some friend of his who might have accidentally got hold of this cell or maybe someone who works with him. No luck, the person at the other end went on non stop. Frustrated (and a little scared), I said ‘sorry, wrong number’ and hung up.

If you are wondering why I got scared, it had something to do with ‘Rendition’. In the movie the person they detain is a good law abiding citizen who is detained only because the intelligence agency traced some calls to his cell phone from someone in the troubled parts of the world. Does that ring a bell?

Later that day, a little past midnight, a message popped up near the taskbar on my laptop indicating that I had received an invitation from a new contact on Skype. Apparently someone wanted to be in touch with me, nothing wrong with this until I find that the name of this new contact is ‘Pervez Khan’. I really got terrified, not just because of the name, but because of the things that had happened earlier that day and more importantly because I have never come across anyone with this name. This was too much of a coincidence for me, I immediately blocked the contact, turned off my laptop and tried to get some sleep.

Phew! What a day it was, I am hoping that the coincidences in my life related to ‘Rendition’ ended that day itself.

The changing dynamics of worlds Banking Industry

Recently I came across an interesting little piece of stati.stic and I figured it is worth pondering over.

The statistic that I came across is the “The World's Top 20 Banks 1994-2010” list. Here is a good snapshot of how the banking industry has metamorphosed over the course of the last 2 decades.

A lot has changed in these two decades. In the early part of the 90’s the Japanese ruled the world, a fact well corroborated by the fact that in 1994 top 6 banks were all from Japan and no less than 11 banks from Japan figured in the top 20 (Phew! That’s more than half of the list). But soon the Japanese economy broke down and their banking system fell apart. The Japanese presence on the world’s banking sector has never been same since then, the very fact that in 2010 only one Japanese bank figures in the top 20 sums up their sorry plight.

The growth story of America banking institutions to become the dominant force today is equally remarkable. Back in 94 only two American banks belonged to the top 20 but since 1999 they have always had a strong presence with at least 4 banks in the top 20. The transition from 2008 to 2010 is the most fascinating part of the statistic above. Since the Japanese economic turmoil had led to the ultimate downfall of its banks one would have expected the recent economic downturn (which initiated in America and had the most adverse impact there) to have the same effect on American banks. Apparently, that hasn’t quite happened. On the contrary from 2008 to 2010 the American banking industry only got stronger. It seems that the heavy government intervention did indeed save these American banks and maybe even gave them a competitive edge.

Another noteworthy fact that this statistic presents is the rise of China. Anyone notice that? Just for the record, I won’t hesitate to place my bet on seeing 5 Chinese banks in this list 4 years from now. On a different note, I would have loved to see the SBI on this list some day!

Source : Chris Skinner, the Financial Services Club and The Banker Magazine (with permission)

Want to take control of your money? Get fresh, get Mint!

Ever since I got my first paycheck I have been tracking where my money went. It started with the good old excel spreadsheet, the first one that I created relied on manual inputs. I have a fascination for numbers, charts and statistics so despite the pain of having to manually key in my income and expense I did persist with my tracking spreadsheet.  After a few months the lure of more advanced charts and excel macros got to me and I ended up downloading a template. This made my tracking sheet look good, but I still had to enter the data manually.

Later I realized that instead of manually keying the data I could download the monthly statements from my financial institutions and have an excel macro make sense of the data. This was a great improvement over the first spreadsheet, but it always needed some manual correction. On top of it the fact that each of my accounts had a different statement date made it kind of a weekly task for me, and I wasn’t too pleased with it.

Then came Quicken, it was the first (and only one till now) personal budgeting software which I paid for. It did prove worthy of every penny that I invested in it. It could fetch data from all my accounts automatically on a daily basis, help me create detailed budgets, project future balances based on trends, consolidate all my investment accounts and so much more. I thought this was the tool that I was always looking for; tracking my finances was so much easier with Quicken. But it did have a few problems: sometimes it would not fetch data from a few accounts, sometimes it lost the past transactions, sometimes it would not be able to differentiate between a transfer & a payment. All this was trivial but I expected more from a paid service.

After using Quicken for a year I started researching for a better tool. By this time all major banks had added a new feature in their online banking, you could get a consolidated view of all your accounts at one place within your online banking page. But it was very basic, did not have detailed budgeting options, trends, charts or predictions. This is when I accidentally stumbled upon Mint and since that date I haven’t looked back.

I think Mint is the best personal budgeting application out there. It’s all online, the signup process is a breeze, they cover almost all the financial institutions in US and have a sophisticated categorization and matching algorithm which makes managing money so much easier. The way they depict the trends with the use of charts is so cool and the budgeting is not primitive either. In two years I have never had a problem with it.  To top it, they have apps for your smartphone that is equally amazing. Although it doesn’t offer all the online features it does everything that you would probably have wanted to do on your phone.

Some people are concerned about the security about such a service. Mint is owned by Intuit now, it’s a read only service, you can register anonymously without providing personal information and they use the latest security protocols that leading banks use now.  So in my opinion they are no less secure than these institutions. If you feel good about the security of your online banking I bet you should feel safe with Mint.

If you are looking forward to a better way to manage and track your money, do give it a shot. I am sure you will not regret it. And what’s best …it’s free!

Blizzard of ’78

I was talking to a friend last Friday about how we were fortunate to have avoided the bad weather. I was referring to the blizzard that missed New England and instead tormented the neighboring southern states dropping close to 30 inches of snow in certain areas. We talked about how states like Virginia, so ill equipped for snowstorm, might be crippled in the coming week.

Over our conversation, my friend talked about another blizzard of similar magnitude. It was 32 years ago, exactly the same time period (first week of Feb) the only difference being that it did not spare New England. He mentioned how the blizzard had brought the entire New England to a standstill, cars were stuck on the MassPike, people left their cars on the highway and walked miles to reach the confines of their home, schools were closed and most offices were closed for a few days. Over a few days the snowfall had accumulated up to 44 inches (with 27inches on one day).But he didn’t remember that blizzard for the damage it inflicted; instead he remembered how it brought the best out of everyone. He remembered that after the first day people came out of their houses, walked together to the grocery, tried to help each other in clearing up the snow, small kids teamed up to make snowman and older ones took up tubing and snow boarding. It was kind of a festive atmosphere, with the blizzard and its affect taking a backstage.

Adversity brings out the best in people. So true!

“That guy is always there”

An interesting little incident took place while I was on my way to office today morning. It wasn’t groundbreaking nor eye-opening but it did epitomize what the fourth estate has been blaring about for some time now.

As I entered the first floor of my office building, a woman entered through the door on the opposite side. Something about her caught my attention; she was probably in her late thirties, petite and good looking. But it wasn’t that which distracted me, she was staring in my direction rather ungainly. Even though the cafeteria (filled with people queued up to get their morning coffee and bagel) and the large television screen was on the side where I was walking, my limited skills in kinesics was indicating that it was probably me that she was disturbed about.  As we got near the elevator door and I pressed the elevator button my mind began racing – was it my dressing sense that bothered her, was it about this Indian guy (me) walking into office when so many Americans (probably some close to her too) were out of job or was it the middle age crisis that she might have been going through. Thankfully before my mind could come up with more absurd reasons the elevator door opened and I let her go in first, so glad that my etiquettes were still intact.

In the elevator, she got a chance to look at my confused expression and probably realized what the cause was. To my good relief she said “That guy is always there”.

I was so glad to hear that. So, it was not me. It was some other guy. The relief that sentence brought, reflected on my face and I smiled at her in acknowledgement.

But now I wondered who “that guy” was? Was he the colleague on my floor who could always be spotted at the kitchen area or the canteen? There is a joke going around in my group that “Wherever there is food he will show up”. I began to think if this guy was equally notorious on the fourth floor too (where this lady worked, I am on the sixth floor).

I politely asked her “I didn’t notice… who was it”.

“Didn’t you watch the TV” came the pat reply. I almost blurted “Lady…I was so perturbed by your distraught expression that I missed the big screen!”. So it wasn’t my colleague that she was talking about, he could not be on TV, at least not on the AM news primetime. Then who was it?

I realized she was better at kinesics than me as she answered the question I had only asked in my mind. “It was the President”.

I quipped “Certainly it had to be him, the President”.

She went on “It’s been more a year since he took over. Nothing has improved, things have only got worse. All his big promises have fallen apart. But, he still lives the life of a rock star and is always on TV. He is no different than Woods or Edwards who are always on TV these days just for the wrong reasons and does not deserve that star treatment …”

Before she could complete her sentence the elevator stopped at the fourth floor, she slowly moved out and I could barely hear her say “Have a good one!”

I did not respond to her as I was still in a trance. Her statement was not an out of the world revelation by any means, but I was surprised by the level of resentment. That too towards the same guy who was the darling of the masses, not just America but the whole world loved him, a guy who I think is genuinely capable but somehow has not been able to walk the talk yet.

As I reached my office the first thing I did after logging onto my machine was to google for “president approval”. Google returned tons of blogs, news articles and polls. The Gallup poll pretty much summed up the presidents plight. I remember having woken up to “What goes around…comes around” in the morning, the graph on the Gallup poll reflected that so well.

The firm believer that I am in the president’s abilities and vision, I hope for his good, for America’s good and for a better world that he is able to turn the tables soon. Hopefully the graph has reached its nadir with only one way to go now…up!

Till then “that guy” will continue to take the flak. 

My GMAT express : Approaching a temporary halt

I know I had barely started off with my preparations but I have to bring it to a temporary halt. The circumstances that have led to this decision were totally unavoidable and this was the best choice (actually there was no choice, it was the only option!). In any case, here is what led me to this decision:

1) Work – I was hoping that post thanksgiving it will cool off a little. But it is getting more hectic, the fact that two of my colleagues will be on month long vacation (one after the other) only compounds this.

2) Vacation – I am planning a month long vacation (visiting India) early next year. This will be our first trip in three years and lots of people are looking forward to meet Rhea (my little daughter) for the first time. What this means is I cannot take any leave since I have to save them all for my vacation. Also, there is going to be a lot of planning involved and yea shopping too!

3) Rhea’s first birthday - Rhea will be turning ‘one’ next week. We are planning for a get together for our friends. Till now Sony (my wife) has been taking care of most of the planning and I feel really bad that I haven’t contributed much, but she has never complained! I am going make sure that I can contribute more to this and make it a really memorable event for all of us.

With that said, the GMAT prep is on hold (for now). I think I will start from ground zero after our India trip.

PS: Sony (my wife) puts a lot of effort to maintain a blog for my daughter. It’s really cute, I am sure you will like it. Check this out yourself – http://rheasabode.blogspot.com/