Book Review : Liar's Poker

Liar's Poker an autobiography written by Mr. Michael Lewis. It elaborates the journey of the author in Salomon Brothers', an Investment Banking Co. in the 1980s, which was a dominating force in the Bond Markets. Beginning from his recruitment at the firm while pursuing Masters of Economics at the London School of Economics, he is invited to the Queen's birthday celebration by a distant relative who has married royalty. As fate would have it, he shared his table with the wife of a Salomon Brothers' partner. The partner's wife getting impressed with the author presents him with an offer to join the firm and he gladly accepts.

Within a few days the partner calls him for a chat to his office but doesn't say anything about a job and again a few days later he has breakfast with Salomon Brothers HR head, and even he doesn't drop any hints regarding his job. Perplexed the author consults his friend and he tells him that it is below Salomon Brothers' to offer anyone a job, instead one needs to go out of the way and take it from them, as they only give hints and make no concrete offers. After staking his claim he goes off to New York to join the new recruits for the induction programme.

The induction programme consists of about 100 recruits and from here begins his journey into one of the Biggest and Meanest Investment Bank in the country. The heart of the organisation is the 41st floor of the building and here sit the Bond Traders - divided in to Government, Municipal, Corporate and Mortgage. The rule of the floor is "caveat emptor - buyer beware", as the traders are only interested in making profits for themselves. While the induction is going on, the recruits are informed that they will be assigned to different groups as per their calibre, from here onwards the recruits start looking for managers who they can please/flatter so that they are assigned to them. The ranking were as follows 1) Bond Trader 2) Bond Salesman and 3) Equity at Dallas. Equities were for the dumb and low people, a metaphor for people with low incomes, the reasons are elaborated in the book itself.

So our author opts for a position of Bond Salesman and to his respite he is sent to London, six months after working in New York. This book basically provides an insight into how traders behaved and functioned in Salomon Brothers, the politics between the Managers and their short-sightedness which eventually led to the bank's downfall. It's a humorous book, I suppose our own Indian version is 'The Dork' by Sidin Vadukut. The book also provides information about how a Bond Market functions and its various products. It makes for good reading in the end. I would rate it 8 on 10.      

Red Political Theory

Was never fascinated about any political theories and Communism was no different. Having come across this political thought in school, various newspapers and news channels, had a vague idea about the same. One day while through roaming about Landmark I came across " The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown" and in my quest for reading up on new subjects, I gladly picked it up. It was after nearly a year that I started reading it and have been captivated by the way in which a political theory which was going to emancipate the proletariat was contorted by a few individuals for their own benefit.

Firstly when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels purported the theory, their intention was to create a system in which power was in the hands of the proletariat and this power was to be exercised democratically. Economic means were to be owned and controlled by the society. The concepts were Utopian but some of them could be implemented for sectors which are of national importance.

The term Communist was coined in USSR by Vladimir Lenin and his idea of socialism was somewhat different than its proponents, it was more draconian and autocratic. Post Lenin who used to defeat his detractors by using his oratory skills and his hold over his ideas, Josif Stalin who followed him used fear to put his point across. Instead of getting into the the pros and cons of their actions, we need to better understand the original thought process and its efficacy in the 21st century.

Post reading this book I will have to get into Karl Marx's theory in much detail. Hopefully I will be able to make a better case for socialism a few months down the line.         

Overwhelmed by Facebook

Logged on to Facebook after a very long time , most probably six months. And wow what an experience it has been, so blogger.com is not the only site which has improved interface since the time I signed up. Am getting a feeling that my perceived failures have made me more introverted than before and visiting FB just exacerbates that feeling.

But is FB the benchmark I would like to keep to judge myself and while I am writing this I now hope that henceforth my posts are read by none because I have to make this into a personal diary which I can refer in the future, for all problems related to myself. So going back to what I did on while surfing through FB was looking at people's pictures whom I despise like hell, why do they have to display everything ? What happened to privacy ? Keep somethings to yourselves, lame, shallow and people with low self-esteem like me get jealous.

Someone is married to my school crush, man that hurt but what hurts even more is that they look good together and I wish they have an amazing married life. What I need to do next is the remove all those who are following my Blog, excuse me this is too personal and can and will be used against me everytime an opportunity presents itself. I hate the internet even more because it has created seamless linkages between everyone and everything that exists on this planet. God please shut down Google, Apple, Amazon, Twitter, Blackberry etc etc.

We need to go back to the days when we didn't so many sites to communicate, I reminisce about the days when I used to go downstairs to meet my friends and they didn't need any prior intimation, now we hardly meet  but keep ourselves updated via FB and even if we do manage to get-together, it is surely going on FB as a latest event. So I seriously doubt whether we have met to meet or met to put it on the net. Finally when I was done surfing through FB, I realised that people who are so addicted to FB are the ones who are afflicted to Update Syndrome and I am still pretty much doing okay for myself.

The Year gone by

So I have logged on to this site after 1 whole year, wow. Wouldn't have believed it if someone told me this on the day I started writing, but here I am once again and this time I feel there will be no looking back because I think that I am a changed man now ( once again ). Life in the last one year has really screwed up, finally have broken my long held beliefs (I hope for the good) and made new ones (hopefully they are not as screwed as the old ones), so once again I am at the beginning line. It feels that I end up at the beginning line over and over again, just can't get enough of it.

But I feel more rejuvenated and tired at the same time, age is catching up to me in body and soul. So now have to make fresh starts in many fields. This time though I have decided that if I take up something then I am going finish it in a respectable manner, have been prone to make up my mind on things and not take them to their logical conclusions and just wander about in the millions on things that I want to accomplish. Henceforth will take up one or two things up and religiously follow up on them and not let my mind wander about. It's time to get "SERIOUS BUDDY".

I had started writing the blog because I enjoyed it, but then due to misplaced priorities I felt that others should like them as well, that made me eventually stop writing as I didn't get the number of followers that I wanted. After serious thinking and cajoling by people I realised the reason for the discontinuation and finally after facing the bitter truth here I am writing once again not for others but myself. Being a selfish person I do things only for self-gratification and right now I need to stick to it. A major step that I have decided to incorporate into my self is to FINISH things that I have started.

Lets see where I will be on 16/09/2012.

Goodbye Freddie

Gosh am gonna miss Freddie and more than that the chants of Freddie.....Freddie. So it's that time of the year when everyone will be bidding adieu to one of England's most prodigious all-rounder. For me he had already retired from the game when he decided to quit playing Tests after the 2009 Ashes. One of the best moments of Test cricket for me was the 2005 Ashes and Flintoff's bowling spells.

So his announcement from all forms of cricket was something of an anticlimax as everyone had already discounted the fact of not seeing him play again. Everything said and done he does deserve laurels for only one epoch making series, other than that everything was mediocre. He stood between the Aussies and the Urn in 2005, the English team was made up of mere mortals and Freddie in 2005. The POMS have moved on since those days and look a much improved side (thanks to foreign imports and Swann). Another feather in his cap was that he made Cricket re-enter the English conscience; many financial gains have been made not only by him but it has cascaded to other players as well.

Who can forget Flintoff shirt-off episode in Mumbai in 2002 and the subsequent event in Lord's when Dada let loose in Lord's Dressing Room. Add to that the most sporting gesture of 2005 when he consoled Brett Lee after the Aussies lost the Old Trafford test during Ashes 2005; has been portrayed as a behaviour to emulate by other cricketers. These events are going to stay in our memories forever and whenever we reminisce Freddie we will relive those days. So in the end we and I in particular will miss his antics. Goodbye Freddie, thanks for entertaining us.

Spot Fixing

This is the latest scandal to rock the beautiful game of Cricket. Don't know why ICC hasn't been able to weed out this problem once and for all. Even though this is something new compared to Hansie Cronje's days, one needs to get into the psyche of players to comprehend the reasons behind indulging in such deeds. The reason for doing this comes to down to one thing only i.e. Money.

Money has not been a problem since IPL started, we could pardon the past players on this reasoning that they didn't have this avenue to make money. Loads of money is being made by players since T20 came into the mainstream, especially IPL. We all missed one fact that the players who have been alleged in the recent spate of events belong to a country whose players have been barred from the IPL riches and to top it off IPL Nights as well. How can one bear not being a part of IPL Nights !

This ain't any reason to pardon the guilty, but this greed is not only because of the disparity of earnings between cricket and other mainstream sports. Cricket being a sport played my only few countries and having an addictive fan following only in the Indian Subcontinent; which is even now considered a developing region. Come to think of it these guys might be the highest earning sports-persons in their countries and way above their Per Capita Incomes.

The main reason behind players not being apprehensive about indulging in Spot Fixing can be lain on the lax regulatory and reprimanding policies of the ICC and respective country Cricket Boards. Everyone knows that all the players indicted in the earlier cases are still having a great time, they have found better sources to sustain themselves; some have been let off after serving bans of a maximum of 12 months and others have taken gladly to remunerating careers as Sport Commentators, Book Authors or Politicians.

So I feel the change should start from the top, making the ICC more responsible for the sport that it had been mandated to not only preserve but also spread.

Confusion Unlimited

This is that part of the year where one looks back at the goals and targets shortlisted at the beginning of the year.As always 2010 was ushered in with magnanimous goals and overflowing hopes. All's not well though, didn't clear one goal and dropped another due to under-preparedness and lack of motivation to pursue it. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, have pinned my hopes on a new goal, though am not sure whether I will pursue it or not. The clairvoyant's prognosis hasn't been encouraging, he told me that as per my stars I am not destined to achieve the new goal even if I try hard enough.

Thought about abandoning it as well, until I read a quote which goes as , " The difference between Successful person and Others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will ". So here I go once again on strength on this inspiring quote, this quote won't be strong enough to push me through, I will have to dig into the god given will-power. More than being successful this is one peak which I want to scale for the journey. And am doing it to beat my long time nemesis 'Sloth'.

Moving on from professional goals, other aspects of life are going pretty well. Waiting for Mom to get back. It's been long time since she left, and there's a constant feeling of something being amiss at home.