Book Review - The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

I have always held the notion that books that win accolades with the critics and literary prizes are almost always boring and not worth the read. But this book dispels all that. Its a simple story (something that can be summarized in 2 pages but presented nicely without complexities) was the recommendation from a friend of mine. And true to her word, the book had depth of story without the usual intricacy that tags along.

The story is that of a young man, who rises from the "darkness" of his village, a place called Laxmangarh to become rich and powerful on the dint of his hard work, predilection for eavesdropping and clear decision making of when to do the right (or wrong) thing to move ahead in life. The story captures the image of a deep rooted lack of ambition in the lower castes in India, and how they voluntarily give up a life of freedom to embrace slavery of the rich and powerful, who are elevated to the status of Gods and who become a law unto themselves by this meek surrender of the villagers. It also captures the images of corruption that plagues the top echelons of the potilical and social hierarchy in India and paints a gloomy picture of the society as such. Gloomy, yet very accurate. And it captures the two visions of India, the poor yet moral and the rich yet amoral. And it does so with the simplicity of narration that is hardly the flavor with critics. That it won the "Man Booker" is a testament to the wonder that Adiga has created. A sure-shot read.

Politics and progress dont go hand in hand (click the title to read the article)

I was thrilled and saddened at the same time reading the above article. My heart had yearned for some political personality to rise above the idiosyncrasy of religion, to make decisions that are not religiously colored and who upholds the law against all else. So i was overjoyed when I read this report of Narendra Modi demolishing unauthorized religious constructions in Gujarat. Unauthorized constructions of religious structures for long has gone unpunished, and mostly due to the predictable yet obnoxious tendency of politicians to keep distance from all religious issues lest they attract controversies. For a very long time now, people have grabbed government land and the first thing they have built on it has been a temple or mosque and then their homes around it, safe in the knowledge that the structure would never be broken down, that even if it is touched by the authorities, they would take out a religiously colored protest against the govt and force them into submission. I have watched in dismay as the road widening operations right opposite my apartment building have been stalled as an unauthorized temple has come in the way, making that stretch of the road a bottleneck for motorists during rush hours. And then there are numerous other such cases as well, which i come across in my daily commutes, brazen lack of respect for the laws of the land in the name of religion. So, i hope that politicians see through the veneer of their self-created soft-spots and uphold the law of the land come what may. I hope Mr. Modi continues on his demolition drive and set a standard for others to follow.

Who lost what

For the best part of this week and last, I tried to put pen to paper and jot down my agony as Lehman became bankrupt. I grappled for words which could best depict my helplessness, anger and desperation in the past week. I tried to put into words feelings which I realized I could not. And it is in these times of pain and agony that you realize what someone in a similar situation in another company or georgraphy would have undergone. For the duration of the uncertainty, you become brothers with that other unknown person. It is also these times in which you realize that fine line between friends and pretenders. And though I'm not out in the clear yet, I can still recall the events of the past couple weeks and have many takeaways from it. But most of all, I realized that I hadnt lost anything. Sure, my job and career was and still is at risk, the prospects in the job market dim and all my dreams and plans with the near and dear ones shattered. Yet I have a family to fall back on, my prior savings to keep me going for months and no real liabilities, wives or children to provide for. For all my senior counterparts, who have been in the firm for years, the loss has been substantial. Years of loyal service and hardwork were rewarded with handsome pay packages and benefits but most of them being in the form of stock options. What was designed for the benefit of the employees and the firm, with a view that employees with vested stock options in the company would have a sense of ownership of the firm, became the cause of grief for many. It was cruel irony for people who held on to the shares and watched it dive from $70 to around $20 and then down to zilch. It was as if they were being castigated for showing loyalty. The older the employee, the greater the loss. People lost their entire savings in the bankruptcy. Many had taken up huge mortgages against the securities and are now saddled with huge interest payments which have become unaffordable. For many, the Lehman Stock represented savings for the college education of a young one, for others it meant retirement savings. I had a conversation with my analyst immediately after bankruptcy and he sounded more despondent than anyone I have ever spoken to. I had naively thought then that it might have been a late night for him and therefore he was still drowsy after waking up. I recall that same tone now and realize that there may not have been much sleep that night for him and for many nights thereafter. He had some months ago talked avidly of the investment he had made in Mumbai and the plans he had of visiting his family in Jaipur and going to visit the Taj Mahal. All that went up in smoke in a matter of hours on that fateful Sunday. One newspaper had reported that Lehman's failure was personal for its employees. It couldn’t have been truer.

What have I lost in comparison. A job….Not my entire future.

Early bird catches the worm!! Certainly not….

My travails started a couple of months ago when I booked my flight ticket from Mumbai to Delhi for Diwali. I marvelled at my foresight of getting them at the cheapest rates by virtue of having booked them 90 days in advance. As people began realizing that Diwali would be a good time to visit family, the interest in the flights started escalating and so did the prices. I was immensely happy when people started howling in obvious displeasure when they came across the ticket prices and bagan cribbing about the unaffordability of air-travel. But then, as has been a case numerous times in my life, lightning struck. Airlines slashed rates dramatically as the oil prices subsided to more reasonable levels. My foresighted-ness had turned into a curse. I realized that my ticket was 50% more expensive than the fares on offer as per the new rates. It was now my turn to howl and crib. And worse, I couldn’t do so as people would easily recall my sly smiles and artificial efforts at pacification when they were agonizing over the ticket prices. I could become the object of their sly smiles and placation efforts now. So, I had no choice but to cringe, seeth and crib all internally and accept my fate. Cancellation penalties were huge so I had no option left. The old adage that early bird catches the worm certainly had lost its relevance for me….

Mumbai v/s Delhi

Now that’s a debate that’s been running for ages with obviously no one right answer. And it’s typically Mumbaikers and Delhiites who are at the end of such debates, which often turn into heated arguments. It’s almost as if quasi-patriotism for the native state overtakes the warring parties, which overrides all arguments. I, ironically, belong to a unique or rare breed of Delhiites who would stick my head out and say that Mumbai would score over Delhi, despite all of the capital state’s obvious advantages. I have been looked upon as a deserter by my Delhi friends and a hero by my Mumbai ones, which kind of balances it out. So I ponder over the course of this article, as to why Mumbai holds such allure for me and I hope I would have the answer by the end of it.

To start off, there is the most obvious differentiator which is the sea. It’s not so much the beaches that attract me as much as just the location of the place, the sea and the sprawling city that has developed on its coastline. Marine Drive is definitely one of the most beautiful stretches of road that I have ever been witness to. And going by the vast numbers that throng the place all day long, I would have lot of company to back me up on this.

Then there are the high rises. While Delhi spreads itself horizontally, Mumbai, by virtue of space (or lack thereof) has to spread vertically. And it is a breathtaking sight with high rises dotting the horizon. I stay in a 7 storied apartment in Delhi, and that is like the tallest that there are as far as residential complexes go. Not here. 20 stories is a common sight here. And then there is something about standing on the 19^th floor and gazing at the world below, a charm that is absent in Delhi.

Food definitely stands out. On all occasions that I’ve been out, the food has been tremendous. Yes, as I recently discovered, Mumbaikers do have a fascination with sugar, which they add in magnanimous quantities to most food items that in my view should be left alone. But that apart, food has been terrific in general, the same cannot be said of Delhi, where one would generally have a few places lined out for a visit, as all others suck.

The attitude comes next, towards the fairer sex in particular. While in Delhi, a decent girl would always have a reason to be cautious about the way she dresses, the time she stays out and the locality which she visits, the same is absent here in Mumbai. The taunts and the lecherous looks that generally follow any girl in Delhi would be a rarity in Mumbai. And so there is a great deal of equality here, which comes as a breath of fresh air in a mainly male dominated society like India.

Readers here would definitely point out that Delhi stands far ahead in infrastructure, space per capita, and greenery and what not. But all that is superficial in my view. What purpose does all the infrastructure serve when travelling from one part of the city to the other usually costs a fortune both in terms of time and money if owning a vehicle is out of one’s reach and what good is space per capita and greenery when all the vehicles spewing smoke make Delhi one of the most polluted city in Asia, far ahead of Mumbai.

So this in a nutshell was my view about the city. I’m sure there is more to Mumbai than just the points above, but then I have not been able to pin-point those intangibles till now. I hope to decipher those feelings sometime in the future. But one thing is for sure for now, I am a definite covert. Go Mumbai!!!

Laughter – the best medicine

I have never been a very lecture-loving guy, preferring a more hands-on approach to the theoretical one. On very frequent occasions, I have sat through a complete lecture, with all the seriousness associated with a typical “maggu”, but have left the lecture not being able to recollect a single word that the professor had said. I advise all my juniors, peers and anyone who would listen to pay attention in class, doing so would reduce the after-work significantly. It is then ironical that I have been the worst practitioner of my own advice. So, when I joined my new job, although I was sad at leaving the college, recollecting all the days lazing and doing nothing or playing multiplayer online games all day long, at some level I was happy that I was escaping a life that was ridden by a compulsion to sit through lectures. Obviously I was dismayed then, when I discovered that I would have to compulsorily attend lectures on financial markets and valuation and accounting, and that too lectures spanning not just an hour or two, but several hours at a length, and many days in continuation.

It’s now almost the end of the class-room training, and I have come to realize that I have never learnt as much in a class setting as I have in the past few days. It has been a revelation being attentive in the class, and actually absorbing the views of the lecturer. And the one single thing that has stood my current instructors apart from all others in my college days has been humor. It has added spice to the otherwise bland and monotonous nature of the topics covered. Someone who has attended an accounting lecture will associate with what I mean. It is one topic that cannot be tutored without an element of fun involved. My attentiveness in these sessions can be attributed not only to my enthusiasm to learn, but also to my desire not to miss a single snippet of humor that escapes the lecturer’s lips. Below are some of the most hilarious lines I have ever heard

• 1.       Prof: Muslims are always saying they gave us the Prophet and they gave us zero.
  

(The whole class erupts in laughter)

Prof: Err…Two mutually exclusive events of course.

• 2.       Prof: I went to Aura (a bar) and I was really excited and all would have an Indian beer you know Kingfisher and all, and all they had was Stroh’s. I couldn’t believe it.
  

  Student: But that’s an Aussie beer isn’t it? (The Prof is an Aussie)

  Prof: Yeah, but we don’t drink Stroh’s in Australia. We keep all the good stuff and export Stroh’s to US, India, Japan…we say take it all, we don’t want it!!

 

• 3.       I have been a very successful trader, and I have always without exception made a trade at a wave or a trough. And on one of those occasions, I maximized my losses.
  

 

• 4.       …they think that if we use both sides of toilet paper, that they would stop global warming….
  

 

• 5.       Nobody wants to sell steel today, everyone wants to sell Tata Steel.
  

 

• 6.       …. jo kaam kiya,mehnat kiya, steel banaya uska pagaar 12000. Aur mba karke nikla uska pagaar 12 lakh….aur usse pooch kya kiya…M&A kiya !!
  

 

• 7.       God does not give everything in life. So God asked humanity, what do you want; a good balance sheet and a crap P&L or vice versa. And for ages humanity has said, balance sheet ka kya karega, P&L achha do. Par ab ye private equity waala aya, bola P&L kaun dekhta hai, Balance Sheet achha do. And thus we are moving towards a fair value based balance sheet rather than cost based system earlier…..