The Cabbie Menace!!

Anyone in Mumbai who takes Public Transport to work, especially cabs and autos knows how hard it is to find one, especially at the times when you need it the most. These cabbies or auto drivers flatly refuse people wishing to travel short distances and openly flout all the traffic rules and regulations. During the peak hour and the rush hour when people are scrambling to get to work or reach home at a decent hour, they are often held ransom by these drivers.

It is not that there are not enough cabs or autos in Mumbai city, it is just that you can't find one during peak hour. I have heard countless people in the Mumbai suburbs complain about this menace. I for one have often picked up a fight with many a auto drivers, especially when I am in a hurry and I have literally forced myself in an auto refusing to budge unless the driver takes me to my destination if choice. Further I have often swore and cussed at all the drivers who refuse to take me to my destination. I have even tried complaining about one particular driver to the authorities, but to no avail.

This was until Mid-Day, the popular news paper in thee city decided to address this issue and teamed up with the Traffic Police Mumbai and bring the offenders to book. Since a last few weeks they have set a up a special team of constables at places where this nuisance of cabbies and auto drivers in most chronic and started fining the errant drivers. This drive initially started with the cabbies and was very successful and popular among the general public. Needless to say the cabbie drivers were not amused and tried to come up with a novelty of excuses to wriggle their way out of fines. The drive has since last couple of weeks shifted to the suburbs and the errant auto drivers are now being taken to task.

This act by Mid-Day team has led to some relief for thousand of commuters who take autos and cabs everyday. I personally find it much easier now a days to find a auto when I need one. Just goes on to show how Media can take a pro-active role in helping the citizens of Mumbai. I wish that Mid-day as well as other newspapers who have been in the city for as long as one can remember continue to come up with such socially beneficial initiatives so that people like us benefit.

In the mean time if you ever come across a cabbie or an auto driver who refuses to ply to your destination, you can register your complaint at 022-24937755. Once can even file a complaint at http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/

IPL Awards

I was watching the telecast of IPL Awards last evening and was saddled with a lot of thoughts as I sat went through the motions. First of all.....SERIOUSLY...IPL AWARDS??? We do have cricket awards from time to time, but they are more of an Annual affair and are conducted in a dignified manner. IPL Awards on the other hand seem to be nothing but a sham organized to have that last ditch attempt to maximize viewer eyeballs. I mean the whole exercise seemed pointless and futile to me. Are we now judging cricketers on the basis on cricket (a lot of people claim that IPL is just not cricket but I ignore that reasoning for the purpose of this argument) tournament that lasts for 7 weeks and is more like a lottery. You have a bunch of world class batsmen hitting mostly not so good bowlers all over the park. Is this what cricket is all about? I know at least IPL is.

But more than the sancity of the awards, I was more ashamed by the manner in which these awards were presented. I mean having Karan Johar as a host!!!!!! I have nothing against that guy, but aren't these "cricket awards" and shouldn't a cricketer be hosting these. Thankfully the winners kept their winning speeches short or else it would have been hard to distinguish between IPL awards and Filmfare awards.

Finally, there was a Fashion Show involving some of the cricketers. And the choice of cricketers was hilarious to say the least. While seasoned 'models' like Yuvraj and Virat Kohli were warming their chairs, the awkward ones like Praveen Kumar participated. It seemed as if the poor guy was in some sort of an ordeal. Cricket has never been commercialized to such a nonsensical extent. I have nothing against the IPL. In fact I really feel that it has widened the viewer base for cricket matches and has helped a lot of youngsters achieve their dreams and aspirations. At the same time, it has become easy money avenues for budding cricketers who are no longer proud in representing their country and are just content playing in the IPL and rake in tons of moolah. A lot of cricketers who have appeared for couple of seasons in IPL have decided to retire from World Cricket and focus solely on IPL. Easy money provided by IPL also has its drawbacks for cricketers. They are now expected to shoot X number of days for their sponsors and employers. Further they are expected to attend post match parties where cheerleaders strut their stuff and booze is on the house (how is that a drawback??, but according to some cricketers it really is). In short it made me realize that post IPL there is little difference between Cricketers and Street Whores except for may be the price!!

However it was a huge relief to see Sachin Tendulkar absent from the IPL Awards.....may be the master still regains his Sanity!!

The Big Short!!

I am a huge Sucker for books based on Finance. My favorites include Monkey Business and Liar's Poker. Some other books that I have enjoyed include the Predator's Ball, Barbarians at the Gate, When Genius Failed and Den of Thieves. All these books have a very vivid description of some of the major financial events in the US Economy, including the Stock Market Crash of 1987, the evolution of Junk Bond Markets and so on. I was waiting for someone to write a book on the recent Mortgage crisis that hit the US Economy and led to a worldwide recession. And I was not disappointed. Michael Lewis, the author of Liar's Poker came up with the book called " The Big Short" that describes the current financial crisis.

And as all Michael Lewis books, this book is brilliant. If you have to read only one book about the recent financial crisis, then let it be this book. Lewis tells his story through the eyes of a few small hedge fund mangers who were easily among the first to recognize that not all was well with the US Sub prime markets and the housing bubble was supposed to bust..and soon. They further found ways to bet against these sub prime mortgages and make money out of it, even when the rest of wall street thought these guys as crazy!!

Michael Lewis explains in an extremely lucid and concise manner how the crisis was unfolded. He goes on to explain how sub prime mortgages were created and CDO's originated. However he does it in a way that a layman can comprehend. You don't have to be a finance geek to enjoy his book.

A great deal is discussed about the entities that were responsible for the crisis, be it the loan originators who provided housing loans to people who could not afford one, the agencies who turned the package of these loans into CDO's, the rating agencies who rated the mortgages as AAA's without really understanding them. But more so, the Investment banks who bought and sold CDO's without really comprehending the risks associated with them. The term here is 'risk'. Since all the players were able to shift the risk to one another, it was left on to the gullible investors to bear the risk and ultimately the US Taxpayers who had to spend billions of dollars to bail these banks out.

This book is another example of how greed and wall street excesses can time and again disrupt the financial markets and challenge the whole financial system of the country. Only with the advent of Globalization, such excesses can lead to whole world plunging into recession.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Finance and World Economics!!

M' back...for good (hopefully)

OK....I really haven't had a chance to visit here since last few months. Was totally loaded with work and other commitments. Anyways... was guilty as hell...so decided to see if I could revisit this page, this time hopefully with some regularity and consistency!!.

Too many things have happened since I was last here. The IPL once again was equally entertaining and was in the news for as much action off the field as it was for action on the field. Was highly disappointed with Mumbai's performance in the final and Sachin's captaincy was just mind numbing. Anyways there is always a next chance. Have decided however to stay off Idli till Mumbai beats Chennai Super Kings, hopefully in Champions League.

Lalit Modi's ouster was again a very controversial topic. Almost seemed as if whole of BCCI's top brass wanted him out. I don't know whether Mr. Modi is guilty of any of the charges that have been levied on him, one has to admit that he has been a brilliant administrator and has been instrumental in making the IPL one of the richest sports brands in the world. Staying with IPL, just need to add that while the crass commercialization of the sport will get you money in the short run, I as a viewer felt totally helpless, watching advertisements and commercials between deliveries this time rather than between overs as is customary in cricket. Too many ads like this and I shall switch off from watching IPL on TV at all. I am sure there are many more frustrated viewers like me out there...so the IPL needs to watch out and keep the viewers in mind when allotting ad space.

India's performance at the ICC T20 World Cup was once again disappointing. They have now failed to win a single match in Super 8 stages for 2 years running. Speaks volumes of the team that won the inaugural edition of the same tournament in 2007. More than the defeat, it is the manner of defeat that brings anguish and grief. The batsmen looked totally out of sorts even against pedestrian attacks, the fielding was sloppy - even gully cricketers can catch and field better and the bowling was just ordinary. Dhoni's excuse that the IPL was to blame for this poor display is just a hogwash. Even the players from other teams played in the IPL. attended all the parties and still managed to put up a better show. Dhoni's captaincy recently seems to be full of tactical errors, which can be masked when the team is performing well, but are exposed when the team fails. So he needs to pull his socks up.

That's all I can remember for now....hope to add more soon!!