Retirement Planning - How much is enough?

Disclaimer - Neither I am a financial advisor nor recommending any financial solution. This is plain layman view.

I am back again with a very random post with no linkage to what I do in professional life but certainly one area which always keep me excited. Finance/number crunching it is.

Of late one though kept me bothering how much is enough for future. While philosophical answer will suggest there is no end to what you can call as enough but thinking practically you can probably realize that what you are comfortable with right now will hold good even in future taking everything else as constant. You can certainly think about improving the stature but that is an uphill task where the hill keep on getting changed once you ace it.

Coming back to finance world - corporate finance 101 focus primarily on time value of money. What can be bought with X amount of money might be out of reach with same X amount of money in Y number of years. If this X,Y is troubling just recall the common phrase from your parents/grand parents - hamare jamane mein itne paise mein itni cheeze aa jaati thi (in our time, for this amount I was able to buy so many things). For example - a single lollypop some 10 year back costed may be 0.5 rupee but now probably cost around 2.5 rupee. To put it in simple words, money keeps on loosing value with each passing year and inflation is one to be blamed for that. Historical trend suggests an average 6% (Year-on-year) rate for inflation. 

To answer question how much is enough is a tricky task as this number will differ from person to person. For someone like Super cop Singham for whom 6000 Rs/month is enough because his zameer has dum as his necessities are kam (mere zameer mein hain dum kyunki meri zarurate kam) and may be for our great Ambani jee even 6000 lakh Rs/month may not be enough (not because his zameer doesn't have dum but because his necessities and daily expenses are huge to maintain his current life style). 

Simple excel calculation can tell you for 6% inflation 1 Rs today will be equivalent to 3.82 Rs at time of retirement age of 58 years, that is after 23 considering your current age of 35 years. That will also mean that you will get to live 24 more year post retirement and the value of 1 Rs will balloon to 15.47 Rs (47 years from now). Considering around 20% margin (I invented this number) over average current life expectancy of 69.93 years in 2021 in India . Why more you ask? Because if you were able to read this far and also intelligent enough to search and plan for retirement then you are above average and that would mean that you will get to live more (unfortunately from financial planning perspective). Moreover, when it comes to averages some number have to be above the average to make up for those numbers which are below average. 

Now comes the question how much is enough. If you are a minimalist of age 35 years and able to make ends meet with 20,000/month then multiply 20000 with the column 'Total Corpus needed at time of retirement' to get ideal retirement corpus at time of retirement or 20,000 to 'Present Value of FV corpus (@6%)' to reach amount that you need now (at present time) to stop worrying about retirement corpus completely. Rough calculation suggests that 2.3 Cr s what you require at time of retirement for someone with monthly expense of 20K after 23 years from now. Now doing a reverse engineering with that number will suggest how much you need to save per months to reach that number (roughly 25K/month assuming you have no savings as of now for minimalist person). I am ignoring all other future surprises and commitments like family/child's, your future health expenses, etc for which you should be maintaining separate corpus. If this sounds daunting then you got to relook at your finances and identify ways to either fix your finances or your expenses/lifestyle or probably both. 

Here goes the calculation which I did for person aged 35 years with monthly expense of 1 Rs/month having 23 years of professional career ahead and probable life of 24 years post retirement. I am also taking liberty to assume growth on future investment as 9% per annum and inflation rate aligned with historical inflation rate of 6% per annum. Choosing a expense number as 1 Rs so that you can multiply it with current expenses  to reach your corpus amount. As I have already considered your current saving growth at 6% inflation target you can forget about that part. If you hope to live beyond 82 then too bad! You may have to plan for additional earing avenue or probably cut your expenses. And, luckily if you live lesser then think of this as leaving a legacy for your next generation to act as a seed capital for their startup which you always thought about but never dared to open. After all in my opinion, there is a very thin line between being coward and practical.

What the lower part of calculation suggests is if you have mentioned amount as your current saving in "present value of FV corpus" then you can live peacefully and work only to take care of other commitments. Also, assuming that your current saving will only beat the inflation of 6% and you aren't making any specific effort to grow your capital other than getting into govt/sovereign bond. And finally the calculation for monthly saving you need to meet the retirement corpus target. All can be multiplied with number which you expect to be at your disposal at time of retirement/month.

A very long post but made an attempt just to understand where do I stand. From Gyan perspective, this is what calculation tells us but in real-life there are N number of things can happen and you can't plan for that But planning never harms as it helps to identify the challenges and any future regrets that I wish if I had done this or that. Train will anyways hit you if you aren't able to take any action but at least you will be aware that train will hit you at some point in time and you will be at peace.

Note - I have primarily used FV and PV function in excel to calculate the future value and present value. Used PMT function to calculate the monthly investment needed to meet the retirement corpus goal. In order to keep the calculation I had to make several adjustments but not something difficult to update. Will share the public link of the excel with columns that can be updated to get the actual number. It may not really give the Y-O-Y view but consolidated numbers can certainly be seen.

Last working day tomorrow @ XYZ

Mail was sent on 12th September to my colleagues for 13th September being the last day with the Organization. Surprisingly, drafting the mail took a significant time, but time given was totally worth considering I stayed with my first organization for more than 5 years. And I can shamelessly say that I may have continued for my life time with this organization and I do intend to come back some day. It was/is/will be best company to work with. 

Mail body as below :-

THE 5 year Moment!

This blog page is slowly turning into my random musing. So to not much is there for blog reader for checking my blog page anymore.

The year 2011 is like a year of milestones for me. Completed 5 year of my blogging, 5 years after passing out from college and today marks the completion of 5 year in my organization as well as in IT sector. There were moments when I could have taken a different path altogether but things just happened and I was definitely here to stay. Not sure how long I will last long further but definitely there is air of uncertainty. Have learned the lesson; no matter what happens, what we do, life keeps going on. Though I have said in my previous post to be regular on the blog page, I really find it difficult now-a-days. The inspiration factor is lost, but this is not the end.

Many more to come..

Pursuit of HappYness

How often does it occur to you that you start planning to write something and you don't get the right words to start with. At least this happens to me quite often. I write I press backspace, again write and then press backspace button. And in the end I do not get the right words and eventually start with something totally unrelated like what I am doing here to get the flow.

Pursuit of HappYness - though the title suggest has nothing to do with the movie and its central character Christopher Gardner and his acting on the favorite Hollywood theme or say any movie industry theme, where the hero suffers in the beginning of movie but carries special talent, shows special traits and emerge as champion in the end. Whatever!

I have been thinking lately what people actually look forward for? And reached on conclusion that everyone in this world runs to achieve a single goal - "to get happyness". Crap about being a business czar, a famous personality, a powerful officer or even anything better than their current status is just the mean to reach the common goal. Probably that's the reason we find few people happy with life though they are running with minimum support system and why some people are frustrated to the core even though they are filthy rich.

Happyness can be as simple as getting a tasty chicken burger while standing in the burger shop with appropriate change in pocket or it can become abstract and complex as understanding the mindset and thought process of someone standing in front of you. Well chicken burger was an over do, but I can't help as I am dreaming of eating it since past two days. But definitely one of the most amusing and difficult thing is mind reading until and unless you have paranormal powers.

And as the saying goes we get bored with the thing which we get in plenty and then evolve to aspire for something else every time we achieve our milestone. Take for an example, when we were kid balancing on the bicycle gave us utmost pleasure as we achieved the goal, same was with getting into our preferred course in graduation or later to our preferred job or even seeing India winning the cricket world cup this year. But question is how long does it last, and how quickly we forget the achievement and aspire for something bigger, something better to reach the ultimate goal. Or probably we as human being are never satisfied with what we are, where we are and the reason behind being 'we'. So ultimate goal is just a mirage rather than being a reality till the moment we get or shall I say 'accept' the ultimate GYAN that  - rather than running behind something unknown just enjoy the moment because nothing last longer, neither happyness nor the sadness. A friend of mine recently quoted a very nice thing, it goes as -

"The problem is when ambitions don't meet abilities. I have the ambition for a president , but abilities, that's a completely different story. this is what causes frustration most often."

Ending it abruptly as I don't think I have any other random thought for the moment. Rest for later.

I have used Y in place of I for the obvious reason. If still it is bothering you then the reason is - once you figure out what happyness is all about you will not bother whether its Happiness or Happyness.

P.S. - Though I have generalized the idea but there would be many people who would disagree with this. This post is definitely not written you and not even for those who agree to it. And neutrals - Man! why you are even reading this post.

P.P.S. - I may or may not be waiting for the moment where I can say - This part of my life... this part right here? This is called "happyness."  So, stop getting the idea.

Another Weekend

Disclaimer :- Blog readers - going forward you will not get much of content on this blog as it would be more like a random musing. So you can avoid following my blog (or say to Avoid wasting time) and save some time to read other useful content on the virtual world. Still if its not much of concern then go ahead. :-)

Another weekend with movies and virtual world. I wouldn't say it was a wonderful weekend but left me with some ideas. It seems to me the Indian movie industry has come to an stage were it can proudly say that they are coming with better story, better acting and better box office performance. Though the industry still remains slave of big names and big banner but atleast they have some good story though bad star cast sometime. In past 2 weeks have seen almost 8-10 movies and almost 4 movies had good story and acting though couple of them may not do the good business on box office. But still 4 out of 8 is a good number.

Movie industry has moved from the regular script of rich vs poor , horse riding Dacaoit's (Looter) theme movies to movies which actually have some content. I am not saying those movies were complete waste, instead I would say they were melodramatic and were perfect for that time period. Current movies in those time could have had created a lot of noise with no real outcome. Its like a marketing concept, never launch the product before the market demands nor launch it after the market is overloaded. Do it just on the time and you would be the king maker. Anyways, coming to the topic - We do not see the agony of a person who is not able to go to get the president award for his hard work because of lack of money and other responsibility. Instead, we see the richest of the lot, UK, US based rich people who drive expensive cars, and party hard in some posh restaurants. They never get problem in getting Visa, never have to bribe officials and never get monetary problems(if have, then usually it lies in billions of dollars , lakhs and crores are no more problem for them). Well planned loots happened with billions of dollars at stake which would make earlier loot based movie look more like a child play. Its fun seeing these moments, only reason I was grown in that era of movie which will look more like a shit or melodramatic sequence from today's perspective. Anyways, coming to Movies which I watched during the weekend.

Accident On Hill Road - I guess this movie was released long back but due to some reason I was avoiding it. This movie made me think how a bad star cast can spoil the mood for watchign movie and at the same time how a good story can hold you till the end in spite of having irritating character. This was a heroine centric movie with couple of out of context scenes but over all a good story and which will hold you till the end. This was another movie ( Mein, Meri Patni Aur Wo) which I saw till end in spite of unbearable flow but both for different reasons star cast was perfect for other but not for this. Or may be Celina Jaitly did played the role perfectly well which left me completely irritated with her acting. How far people can go for the sake of their own life and career is something which is unacceptable. And becoming inhuman and emotion less is something a complete NO NO. Bitch would be a compliment for the heroine after watching the story and shouldn't be taken in derogatory sense.

Chance Pe Dance - Another good movie, but was more like a cocktail of 'School of Rock', 'Persuit of Happyness'. Story goes on regular story line of current era - hero wins all and hero is the best type movie. No matter whatever hurdle comes he always wins, exception is something defined for hero. Slow heroine suddenly become 'Schumacher' to get the out of turn opportunity for Hero. Whatever, Shahid do know how to dance, and terrific dancing steps by him. There is nothing as such in the movie which you have never seen if you are a regular movie goer. But still acting and the flow will hold you till the end. Guess this would be doing good business on box office taking into account star slavery and total masala content.

Raat Gayi Baat Gayi - How can Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey and Neha Dhupia become so natural in acting? I am sure this movie will not be doing good business nor it will win any awards but still, its a good movie and should be watched by everyone who cares for natural acting and good story line.There is something about the trio (Rajat, Vinay and Neha) when they come together become natural and make the viewer feel like a real moment. Characters did the justice to the role and lived it well. This is story about a party and moves very fast maintaining the suspense. One more thing which I noted that Vinay's movies are usually low cost movie involving little of 'Movie Set' cost. Songs too are good. This is voted as best movie for this week by me.

Did see some old English movie in free time after watching these and yes, I do not do anything apart from watching movie.

I wanted to book tickets for my 2 week holiday planned in February but couldn't do that because of the unavailability of credit card with me and eventually that made me to apply for it today. Hope I will be able to make it before the cost of ticket become insanely high. I miss India now where the Bank agent were regularly giving irritating calls for new credit card and their scheme and where I had the credit card with me even before I had my regular debit card. I hate the companies who insist to have a credit card to book the tickets. :(

???

First thing first, blog readers - going forward you will not get much of content on this blog so you can avoid following my blog and save some time to read other useful content on the virtual world.

I think I am lost and is running away from the reality. Too Bad for a short life.

I think human kind goes through this self-realization very often but they shun it and move forward without any solution. Thing which made us happy once has become liability now and feels like a load. May be the greed is driving everyone insane and unhappy about the situation they are. I think we never understood our priority and will never. When we were child we wanted to become become adult to take all decision on our own and were never happy about the schools, homework and punishments. And now when the child has grown s/he wish to be a kid again to have the luxury of Schools, homework, punishment and to have someone who will guide at every moment. Much like a paradigm shift - There was a time when we longed for future and now when the future has been reached we long for the past.

Resolutions

I was thinking, when is the right time for making resolutions, though I didn't get the right time for making resolutions but I definitely got the wrong time for resolutions. New year Eve, Your Birthday and any special day in your life shouldn't be day when you should be making resolution. And to top it, your worst day, depressing day also are not the right time to make the resolution. You will get to know why (in totally unusual and incongruous way).

If I check the resolution list on internet, I find myriads of resolutions for the people who are living a public life through blogs, twitter, social networking site etc (Not to mention, I have lot of free time after office to do these things) And most common of the resolutions are one or more among the list mentioned below:-

To give up the habit of drinking / smoking / overeating / procrastination / laziness / latest one is virtual world involvement(too much time spent on internet or computer).

Last item joined the list of of negative habit since 3-4 years only, else it was a positive quality earlier and was in Geek's lexicon only to show supremacy over others. Seems life is getting tougher with each passing year. Good quality are becoming bad and bad are becoming worst. World was much better earlier with less knowledge and less addicting things invented around us.

Anyways, coming to topic - Giving up such habit would be the most depressing thing one would be doing on eventful days (on either of good or ugly day). Depressing because you were habituated to one or more things and you actually enjoyed doing that. And who in the world said that stop doing things which you enjoy doing most (Obviously those things only, which will not make life bad or difficult for others and impacting no one but you.)

No wonder we have more number of people who are not able to keep the resolutions compared to miserable number of those who actually keep it for long time. Because once the threshold is reached you are back to your age old habits. :-)

But I suppose people make resolution on eventful day just to remember since when did they gave up on enjoyment and to feel proud for keeping the resolution for X number of days before giving up on resolution. ;-)

A DaY In LiFe Of SwE

One Day at work, the SWE spoke :-

I hate my job, being answerable for others slow pace is pretty lame and pathetic when you can't get rude with your colleagues. It Sucks being in this situation. I need a change in profession itself.

It was the same SWE who said long long ago :-

I see myself working in same profession after 5 year but at some responsible position.

How fast the priority changed and how fast the mind. Do not wonder if the same SWE will say tomorrow :-

How lame I was to think this profession sucks, this is the most wonderful profession with easy money and growth rate. I love this job.

Phases through which each and every SWE passes, either in a single day itself or during a week. Healthy work environment and enjoying the work has long become a thing of past (or did it ever existed?).

Note: SWE are those class of people who suffers from multiple personality disorder and are called in respectable way as SoftWare Engineer, same way like we call bribe as gift. :-)

Woman and Religion

One question popped up in my mind for which I couldn't get answer or shall I say that, I ran away from reality.

Why most of the religion doesn't have a Woman as a God (Goddess) ? In my knowledge, only Hindu religion have Goddess who are prayed at mass level. Does it mean something?

A question that need to be given serious thought but need not be answered taking into account the sentiments associated with the religion.

Happy New Year!!!

Though its kinda late to come up with such kind of posts when the new year eve is past 3 days. And writing this post at 3 am in the night don't make sense as well except if I would have written it on 1st of Jan. But again, I have a point, when to celebrate as new year moment lose its sense once you are out of the country and are in different time zone. Same was the case with me as well. I was not sure if the click of 12 am 1st Jan in India was THE moment or THE time when actually it happened in my time zone. So I decided its never late wishing my blog readers a happy and prosperous new year. Though I have made lots of resolutions this year and to tell you, this time it is different from last year. Sadly or shall I say happily, I couldn't get last year resolutions (Click on link to see what resolution I made last year) completed though I made them comfortable enough. :D Which made me get one idea about myself. I am perfect and its difficult to improve on perfection(Courtesy : DCH). Hence this year resolutions are tough enough so that I wouldn't think at the year end that, damn I couldn't complete these things as well?

I am more or less addicted to internet now and spend almost xyz hours on computer now. Will not come with the figures as it gives me panic attack writing those figures. And latest addiction is due to twitter. Why Twitter? What so special on it? I will come on this point in days to come. BTW why did I mention Twitter here? Because I was going to take one quotes from there for New Year eve, funny and lovely. And the quote is :-

"Universe is 14 billion years old. Seems silly to celebrate one year. Be like having a fucking parade every time I take a piss."

haha.. whatever!!! Still I would like to wish my readers once again, a very happy and fun filled new year. And yeah keep visiting my blogs this year as I have decided to come on it very often.(I hope so because its not there in my resolution list). Cheers!!!

3 idiots

Forewarning:- By any chance if you haven't watched this movies then stop here itself. There might be some spoiler. But if you are a regular HINDI movie goer, I wouldn't call that as suspense anyways.

3 Idiots? That's just for the the name sake. Reality is something different. But why why why? Why this happens only in movies? Hero wins all as usual and hero is the best of lot. Now coming to few points about movie and loopholes:-

1) Ground work about the engineering could have been done at higher level. Movie forgot important fact that night before the exam is most sacred of all your semester night. If you do not study on this night, no one can save you from failing. In engineering terminology, the amount you devoted a night before the exam is directly proportional to the marks which you will obtain. With threshold differing from person to person, for some its 1 am for some its 5 am. A night before exam in hospital not studying, you can pass but certainly not top until you are in the exception list. More about exceptions will come in point three.
2) No one join engineering thinking about insane ideas like knowledge and learning. Students are immature and their minds are not corrupted with words like Value and Learning. Everyone join it for job and recognition of degree. Leave the terms like value addition, learning etc for MBA aspirants and PHD Scholars.
3) Those who are topper are mostly non-fun kinda people who have a bypass for rule number 1. Because they have devoted all day and night to studies and preparing notes and have read the theory so many times that they can even teach their children after 30 years without looking at book, . And these noble souls are the one whose notes, oops xerox is going through hands of 99% to-be engineer. No offense meant to toppers. In fact everyone will praise you highly entire life for your notes which made those 99% lot getting engineering degree. You were like saints who never thought about wordly desire and gave life for the greater cause - well being of mankind, a philanthropist I should say.
4) Dare to give counter reply to your professor, you can be sure of one thing between two - egoistic, insane and ahole prof/lecture is highly pissed off and will either complain about you to Dean or will make every attempt to screw you while checking your exam papers. However good you are but you won't be topping like Rancho.
5) Names? My goodness, dude how did you came till this far. Children though less known for cruelty but are nonetheless most brutal at emotional level, names like Ranchor Das Chanchad will be hot cake. :D Forget about Schooling for a while engineering will definitely carry some funny name(and may be butt of all jokes) for you rather than being Rancho like some hot dude.
6) Taking cuts at your director, leave lecturer or even professor, but director?? and director needs reason to rusticate you out of college? And pressurize others to stand against you? Dude - day one, one Disco (Disciplinary Committee) And Day two, you will get lucky and OUT!!! Immediately Out of Hostel minimum and suspended from college. College prof takes pleasure in doing such things, one such example in my knowledge, merely for playing Holi(A festival) with no college property loss or physical or mental abuse to prof ,18 noble souls where rusticated from the hostel and suspended from the college for week along with fine. But again these are the things which makes the college life exciting and adventurous. Definitely after coming out not when in college and while passing through such mental trauma.
7) Committing suicide? That too for studies or year back? Cm'on I have seen people partying hard when they had year back and over it 17/18 arrears (fail grade) out of 19 subjects in year. No one commit suicide. Everyone is damn happy. But yeah after coming out engineers are the one who run through identity crisis and may think about suicide all the time. No one in sane mind would give so much importance to studies when in engineering college. Or may be people are camouflaging their suicide by reasons like not able to learn google wave.
8) Real time project? Which world are you leaving in? Are you sure you was talking about Indian engineering? No one works on new idea, they are left for masters degree holder or doctoral candidates. I have seen people taking fake report and fake presentation to get the final degree.
9) Well its not the case that engineering degree from low end college like my college was/is only like this. Even IIT's are like this. Please do not defend on the basis of ranking if it was comparable to IIT's or not . It would still be BS for me.
10) Aha forgot the most important thing, Doing such stunt in ragging? haha, one thing you can be sure of right away - you are not studying in this college for sure.
11) Director complained about the student's performance to his/her parent and talk harshly saying their ward will not get the degree because of poor performance and next day guy found dead as he committed suicide and still police is not arresting the director?Where is media? This is totally bad, you should show some reality in movie.
12) Beautiful girls in engineering college are like rare engineering concepts which will stick to your brain cells when professor is giving lecture, I mean near to nil(for god sake, do I need to tell it again and again). And they going for Chanchad? As in Ranchor Das Chanchad? That's complete insanity and height of fantasy. Girls do go after rich kids but atl east not Chanchad, or probably I am ill-informed. Hey, no offense meant to reader who is unfortunately Chanchad.or have best friend as Chanchad. Anyway, Some great writer had said, "What In Name" but unfortunately he added his signature as Shakespeare so that no one else can own it. hehe

This post was written so that people do not get wrong idea about engineering portrayed by 3 idiots. hehe. Well, I can write tons and tons of matter about engineering and its greatness no need to give proof about it. ;-)

Good movie, a must watch. Low comparing Amir's standard but still can be seen. Dialogs are good in fact would call the best, because even after watching it once, dialog would stick to your mind like mischievous engineering plan's. To end, go and see this movie, because baad mein sochoge ki, accha review the movie ka, hall mein lagi bhi thi, bus ticket black mein mil rahi thi, lekin fir bhi thodi si himmat karke thode aur rupye deta to ticket mil jaati aur movie dekh leta. (Translation, though will nto make much sense : Go and see the mvoie, because you may regret later that movie review was good, it was running as well in the cinema hall, tickets were being sold in double or triple cost, but if would have given some more money would have got the opportunity to watch the movie on big screen)

P.S. :- Its not easy degree but not tough as well. Anyways, engineers always work on the concept of Rockets. Do not start work until your ass is on fire. ;-)

P.P.S : - On serious note, if Aamir/Directors would have taken note of all 12 points and boring stuff about engineering, you wouldn't have had been watching this movie N'th time in same week.

P.P.P.S : - (Disclaimer)Whole post was written on lighter note, and shouldn't be taken seriously. If any of my comment hurt your emotions, please leave your comments in comments section I would edit that part.

P.P.P.P.S : - And here I make world record for my own blogs by posting post notes after post notes. And reason is, its tough to be in real world and have to write disclaimer to make people aware that I can make the change if they did not like anything (Only if ,you think I am trying to defame you).

2009

When the end of this year is fast approaching people have started thinking about the things which they did in last one year, so do I and this retrospection gave some astonishing revelation., not all is coming here.

This year was happening both at personal as well as professional front. This year there were many moment when I wanted to come to my blog and write something but somehow or other I failed to do it. And at the same time it happened first time since I started writing that, I wrote one post every month, though not useful sometimes. Loosing at SPJ call to winning new role in my job, Organized and stable in job to unorganized and screwed career plan, Feeling of standing nowhere to ecstasy of achieving something, loosing out contacts with old friends to making shallow attempt to make new friends ; all seems standing side by side and leave with a awkward sense of being lost. Though I was passionate about writing, but seems that is also dying slowly and now is struggling to write, not sure if I would be writing anymore including the gibberish stuff. One thing which was done consistently was nagging and the procrastinating attitude, which are the main cause for slow progress. Time demands a change, but being a neophobic it would be a tough call. But sooner or later have to go through it before I get caught by stagnancy.

Google Wave

My first impression about Google wave. Well it was supposed to come a month back ,time when I started using the wave but mostly laziness was putting it in 'things to do later' list.

- It is an attempt by Google to save their bandwidth and space requirement. So Google would be the one who would be highly profited by this entire business. Reason - ever wondered when you are sending mail(forwards) to group of friends how much space it takes at Google server? Well they all get a copy of the mail ,so if the mail size was somewhere around 500kb and if you sent it to 10 people then total Google space used was around 10*500kb + 1*500kb (10 for your friends Inbox and 1 for your sent item). And now top it up with another 500kb in your Inbox (obviously how would you forward a mail if it doesn't exist in your mailbox). Now the wave would be using only 500kb space and that's because when you receive a wave you just drag your friends name to the wave . This will eventually save A LOT of space for Google. And I am damn sure however big they are, they too have space constraints, and nothing could be better than wave to handle it.

- It is another attempt by Google to manipulate the way people think. As all the data is centrally stored you would immediately know if someone is manipulating your data or if someone is replying to you wave(I would say it as mail). Now comes the real fun. say you are typing something and your friends too would be seeing what you are typing at each and every key stroke. Again I am not talking about disabling the feature, else it would loose its charm. Now the fun is, other party would be able to see at every point what you are thinking, what you are changing after writing it and crap like this. Think about it, its like reading someone's mind. No proposal would go through wave because once you thought it and wrote it , no matter you edit it later but if the other party have seen it there is no going back. You would be screwed. People would be questioned, why did you disable this feature? Or why did you thought like that. haha. Pseudo couples would get more reason to fight as if existing reasons were less in this world.

- To use the smiley, translator, making wave public and things like this you have to use robots. Its wouldn't be easy for common people to understand the idiosyncrasy of wave. Though features are damn good but how you expect mass to get it. Even have seen techno-savvy people having trouble using the service right now. And tragic but funny - heard one news that someone committed suicide as he was not able to understand how Google wave works. No offense meant to his soul, but man!!! its insane to commit suicide for such silly reason, you could have written in suicide note about bad mess food, stupid college education system or even over stupid education system. And if that was not good he could have mentioned failure to get any failed reason. Crap.

- Google need to do a lot of work on bandwidth utilization, because it eats the bandwidth like hell. And when I am saying hell, it means definitely hell here. With my 6mbps speed it runs like a horse between formula racing cars. Think about India where the internet speed is called BROADBAND when it is 256kbps, which eventually gives a download speed of 32kbps. And anything above 256kbps is luxury and there is nothing above 2 mbps internet speed. You rnet would be screwed once you would be using the wave.

Over all its a good attempt to combine everything under a single window. Google is trying to win the market once again by doing all these tricks and that's the reason they came with this idea quickly in preview version only. And at the same time maintained the charm by making to it by invitation only. Those who started using Gmail since the initial days knows what I am talking. It was by invitation only at that time but it was beta version at least which devastated the yahoo mail completely by incorporating the chat and Google lab features with the mail. Wave too us e invitation but for a change this time it is preview version, God knows when they will actually come up with the beta version and when the full fledged version. One thing which they are loosing right now is the charm of their social networking site called Orkut, which has been taken over by Facebook now. I hope Google is not sitting silently over it and might be thinking something to win it back. May be Wave would do the magic. More to come on it soon.

P.S:- This post was in my draft since sometime and did not care to post it.

P.P.S. :- This is mostly my understanding after going through several document available on forums , if any of the reader have different thought please do post it in comment area.

Life's Ideology

I am not sure if the topic suits the body post but did not get anything better than that. This post is not written to hurt anyone's religious sentiments and post would be removed in case it is being asked unanimously. :-)

Suddenly why this topic came into my mind the reason was I had a discussion with a preacher who was talking on the good thing about his religion and it was good knowing about other religion. But in the end what left me in uneasy position was his question on my take on change in religion to his one. Though I gave some reason but guess real reason was left unsaid. But guess reason given was good enough though funny.

I have gone to few of the religious gathering and someway or other found them talking the same thing. Most of the preachers talk about following God,Allah, Bhagwan and their deity's saying and their holy books . And the funny part is in most of the cases it ends with discussion on life after death like Swarg and Narak in Hindu's, Haven and Hell in Christians & Jannat and Dozakh in Islam. What amuse me the way description about these places are given and life's definition. I didnot meet even a single preacher till now who gave importance to current life and told me to live it to full. All I heard was I have to be thankful to God(read deity of their religion from now on for word God) . And I should look forward for Haven (Read corresponding places for their religion ) and do good deeds and pray God, because life is very short and our 100 year life is just 2-3 minutes as per God's time. And life after death is infinite years of God time (think about it in our time and I suppose Avogadro number won't be able to define it). So whatever may be the religion round about things go in same fashion. And everyone defines the life after death as if the Haven exists is a concrete truth and over it the Haven is the place you need to be. If I go through various religion I see a myriads of religion and their corresponding hell and haven which make me think if these are different place or same. May be one is more affluent over another. ;-)

And irony is no one talk's about current life, rather than being a good citizen and a good person talk is given on what is best about their religion. I have a say over here - life which we are living right now should be the one which should be given utmost importance rather than giving importance to life after death, because no one have ever returned saying - Man!!! Its awesome out there, that's the place you should come man, this place sucks and things like this. So have party, enjoy life, be a good person. Rather then living under terror of Haven and Hell. And to be honest I believe its normal human nature to get bored with their current situation and place with time - for some its quick and for some its not so quick. And I don't think if the identity exists then the nature will not - it will be. So think about it, you are bored of Haven but you can't leave it and then you will realize - Sh*t I am screwed. So utilize this 2-3minutes as per God time in nice way so that it won't hurt you more when you are in Haven or Hell. ;-)

Now coming to reason for me not changing my religion - well I am Hindu and there are almost 0.33 billion (33 crore) Gods and Goddess - so I have opportunity at each point of my life to choose another God or Goddess if I get bored of one(though I pay a very little heed to it so chances are less).

And the reason which I did not speak was - I am a Hindu though do not as such follow it with GREAT attention, sometime gets frustrated with it and speaks bad about it. Never ever read about the religion, never participated in rituals and that too when I have so many opportunities to choose God's from. And definitely other God would help me through his/her sources to get into Haven or Hell. What will happen if I will change my religion to yours? I will say something after getting frustrated about it and there wouldn't be any other God to support and get me the esteemed position in God's nest. I suppose I will be screwed then. Bottom line is I do not care about life after death. And I am happily unhappy with my life and have no remorse. ;-)

Note:- I carry a very liberal attitude about religion and take the view that religion should not be something which would restrict you to some boundary, it should give you enough space for thinking, for doing work and other than normal social norms and one defined by law shouldn't take anything as sin. And holistically all religion have the same ideology.

P.S. - Again I was too lazy to check the grammar and spelling, if you find anything wrong then post it in comment area, I am not going to correct it anyways.

Google Tricks

One of the most amazing feature, simple but no one thought before. Enable this feature in your GMail if you think on some day(oops late night) you may send some REAL truth to your Boss or Friends (acquaintance) , either due to intoxication or due to frustrating events happening with you.


And it will save you from embarrassment later. But yeah dont enable this feature if you think you will propose through a mail either to your girlfriend or boyfriend late night after thinking pros and cons of your action. Because even though you are mentally aware but after solving these 5 questions, probably you may not send the message. ;-)

Gandhi's Talisman

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

- One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought.


Hello All,
Was away for long time with my sarcastic notes though I had lot many ideas but was too lazy to write it down. Few notes before I start with the post main body. First, I live in Bangalore since past 2 year and its my nature to get bored with anything any place where I stays for more than a year(or is it less). Second, I don't think I need to tell about who "Mahatma Gandhi" is/was in this post. Third, Above talisman was present in all the NCERT course book like a preface of any book. Never felt it carries some significance to me. But guess it had. And the talisman still carries the charm with it but in different perspective. ;-)

Last weekend was a happening one with me agreeing to come to Tirupati with my friends who happened to show the gratitude to GOD for making them successful in their endeavor(Read top rung Management college ranked between 1 to 8). And I joined them as this was going to be the last trip(first and last obviously) which I was making with them as they will be heading to northern part mostly and also to show gratitude to GOD for not making me successful in my endeavour(again read some management college).

There were 7 of us, 4 from Bangalore including me and 3 from Chennai (Heaven on the earth). This trip to Tirupati was TOTALLY unplanned we did not have tickets for the temple. Few souls who are not from India and visit my blog read about tirupati because this temple(place of worship) is one of its kind where there is a needs to have ticket/reservation to see the GOD. You will definitely find how great the GOD is because you need to take appointment to see him and that too for fraction of seconds. Govindaa Gooovindaaaa!!!

Due to my work commitment I was not free till 8PM Friday so asked friends to book the train which leaves last from Bangalore to Chennai. Boarded the train at 11:45 PM in night and from there our joy ride started. As its summer season so it was hot in Bangalore too which I thought was unbearable so didn't sleep till the train started running at full pace. Nearly at 12:30AM I slept and was woke up after hardly an hour. I was drenched with sweat as if I had some ghostly dreams. But truth was something else train had entered the lovely and cool weather of TN which was the main cause of my sweating heavily. Couldn't sleep whole night somehow reached Chennai early morning. Took local train and then an auto-rickshaw to finally reach my friends house. But the situation was If it was allowed in India/Chennai, I would have done striptease. Basically the word striptease doesn't fit hear but guess those who are dying in Chennai might understand my plight. Took a bath as soon as I reached his house had breakfast, another round of bath, had tasty food which friend cooked and then again a round of bath. Played cards (famous game of 29) for couple of hours and then we decided to leave for Tirupati in 2 hours. 2 hours time line because again everyone had to take the bath before leaving (after dinner obviously). Somehow I feel in Chennai, people(not all, only disgusting people like us) thinks food and bath are lovely pair which shouldn't be broken. Another friend of mine who was popular for saving water by not taking bath for weeks (or is it months) during engineering days was religiously following the 5 times bath a day schedule. ;-)

Trip from Chennai to Tirupati:-

However much I will say about the trip it will be less only. I guess one phrase what written for such moment only 'Few things in this world are unexplainable and the real feeling can be felt only if you are present at that moment'. Though we started from Chennai after having a nice bath, but the happy feeling was gone as soon as we stayed in the outside weather for say 20 minutes(or is it less, or am I exaggerating?). Somehow reached the bus stand and then we came to know that the bus which is about to leave is the last bus for Tirupati. We boarded it hurriedly and took the ticket. Lucky US!!! But the lucky feeling too was gone after taking the ticket because we got last seat, and you will never know what fun you get when you are traveling on bumpy and hilly road while seating on the last seat. And that too with all enthusiastic people who are excited about going to Tirupati, or is it travelling for first time? Whatever, they were making noise at the peak and at the same time hot weather was aiding to our plight. But guess it was not enough, the bus which we boarded and which was about to leave didnot leave and we were inside the bus for 20-30 minutes contemplating bus will leave now. Grrr.. But wait wait, this too was not enough because we saw another bus with no passenger at all coming to the same stand :'( And unfortunately we cant change the bus too, because we already took the ticket. Grrr.. And you know what, bus which came later left before us. :'( :'(

Thank GOD , after full 35 minutes our bus started finally and then something happened that they stopped after 2 KM hardly. And now we thought enough is enough, its almost 11:30 PM and now weather is cool outside. So lets get outside till the bus starts. After doing some goods loading the bus started at 12 AM. We thought at last we will be reaching tirupati on our planned time and with ample amount of sleep too. But our luck did not leave there too. Enthusiastic people never stopped talking and thanks to the co-passenger beside us and the heat due to whole commotion we were never able to sleep and whole night was gone awake.

We reached the tiruapti/tirumala somehow and started looking for ticket. And then yuppie!!! That thing happened which we were expecting may happen to us. We didnot get the ticket as ticket are sold in tirupati not in tirumala for same day darshanam. And we were thinking what to do now, because if we go back to tirupati and take the ticket it wouldn't have been possible to do the darshanam same day, as informed by few people there. Suddenly, we were approached by our well wishers who want to give us opportunity for darshan today itself. And he asked for 5000 Rs for the well wishing off course. We were taken aback and told thank you and we wont be taking the offer for two reason's. One it was too much and other we didnot carry that much cash combining all 7 of us. And there is reason for that too, software engineer do all the thing either online or through card for him there is little existence of material thing called hard cash!!! We finalized to go for free darshanam and we started for it. And take my experience, never ever try for free darshnam!!! you will be crushed in the queue until and unless you are body builder.

Free dharshanam!!! Was it free? you will get to know it soon. It was nearly 6'0 clock in morning when we got into the queue for free dharshnam. And then reached the cell, yeah its called cell only like one you have in jail, with only difference motif's and out come are different for going into the cell and coming out too. And we were welcomed by big board outside the cell, which said 9'0 clock dharshanam. Wait wait, it was not for 9 AM even though we reached the cell at 6:30 AM. It was for 9 PM, a whooping 15 hour wait for getting into the main queue for dharshanam. And we were like, WTF!!! What shall we do now, shall we go back, shall we stay or what shall we do now. And that indecision moment helped us greatly. Gate keeper started shouting to get into the cell and we told we have to stay inside that cell for 15 hours. Guessing our urgency and feeling we might go away without the dharshanam he asked us to stay outside the cell for a while. After 5 minute, he closed that cell too and then called us, and told 200Rs each person, for putting into main queue and also told we will be done with the dharshanam by 10 AM today itself. Exciting offer!!! but we were little suspicious because we never heard anything like bribery in Tirumala atleast taking into account how auspicious place it was and how people fear about doing anything wrong there. And one thing I want to clear people go to Tirumala because they want to thank the almighty and also sure that the mere dharshanam will clear all the wrong doers they did in their entire life. So it was fine by our part giving the bribe by us. ;-)

The guy was true marketing professional, and he told put away your suspicion, he wont be taking any money until the moment he puts us in main queue, from where it will be mere 2 hours wait for dharshanam. And that's what he did. Now everything in fast forward and boring way(or was it boring earlier), we paid the money, we had the dharshnam and we left as quickly as we can, reached tirupati from tirumala, got into AC restaurant, had good food (though it was not good), and did not leave until we got an AC bus, reached Chennai, had something good (this time is was good), boarded the bus to reach Chennai station to catch the train, got into the train and reached Bangalore. Oops, missed one thing again between reaching Chennai and having good food, and you know what was that. Nice Bath!!!

And reason for writing everything in fast forward, it was too long for a post and second I don't think I will be able to review it before publishing this post and also don't think readers will be having enough patience to read through our plight!!! Though I sincerely believe in on psychological statement, one's plight is others reason for enjoyment.

This is the end!!! Thank you if you were able to last till this point.

P.S.:- It was half written a months back but never felt like completing it. But finally completed it. And also I am sorry for spelling mistake, grammatical mistake wherever it happened. Dharshanam means seeing the God's temple, Temple is at hill called Tirumala, and Tirupati is the starting point of the hill. I guess this will be enough. :-)

P.P.S.:- Why Gandhi's Talisman??? Well I was kinda feeling that Bangalore is getting hotter and it is loosing its charm. But guess it was not the case, it is still better comparitively (on weather front).

Human Psychology - A mess???

Well well well.. Am not here to give a lecture on psychology. Its just an observation and the thought process which gave rise to few questions.

1. In which case we curse ourselves more? Change money which we forgot taking from bus conductor or huge sum which we spent on trivial stuff?
2. What among two options make us feel stupid? Shares which we sold projecting the fall in prices later(which unfortunately rose much higher) or Shares which we did not sell projecting increase in prices(which again unfortunately fell till abyss)
3. What hurt us more? A failed love(one sided off course) or A failed relationship(real one)
   
4. Who is more careless when -? Your spouse who got pickpocket or You got pickpocket.
5. What gives more pleasure? If someone we hate, lose or we winning something(one you hate is not your competitor)?
   

Not sure if honest answer comes as second option for all question. Human mind somehow attracts me for it complexity and dis synchronized and double facet pattern of behavior which it shows. I expect 80% will go for first option. But why? That's somehow unexplainable. Or may be unconscious mind never stop wanting our SELF at top of everything.

P.S.:- I was busy playing game all night past 10 days, and that was the reason of me posting after a gap and also for coming up with such a dull topic. Wanted to write over Oscars and Slumdog Millionaire but somehow didnot come up. Watched a lot many movies past few days and yeah I do such activity when I am lost and bored completely. :(

Inspired by yahoo

In an attempt to revamp the yahoo and to come at the level of google, yahoo has improved the features. But the thing is they, do things pretty late which takes away the market from them. Had they taken initiative before google, they could have been a leading web portal in the world and richest company too, and their share prices in 100's of $  like Google's 342$ per share, in place of current value of  around 12$. But one thing they are still top on, that's the web cam feature in there messenger. Google probably still struggling to get it done.

But thing I like about Yahoo, they do learn from mistake and they never take back step whatever may be the condition is. 

Declining Microsoft hostile bid, in spite of crisis running in the company need a hell lot of courage. People may say the aftermath of declining the offer was devastating for yahoo, but the same rule hit hard Microsoft too. And MS attempt to topple the board of directors gone in vein due to strong hold of Yang and Filo.  

And improving on features, on mail, messenger, personal after taking lesson from GOOGLE success is another learning. 

Hope yahoo will achieve its lost glory again. :-)

Murphy's Law!!!

There are surely something in this world which is above any scientific explanation. And even if some theory is provided its too vague. A similar incident happened with me(say crossed the limits of being an incident) for which I am still thinking about explanation and thought Murphy's law will be the right way of explaining it, if not completely then partially.

Prologue:- It happens that every morning, I have to catch bus(City Bus) after attending the classes from 7-9 AM. It takes nearly 30-45 minutes to reach my house from classroom (depending upon traffic situation). and for that I take bus no 171. But it never happened that I got the bus immediately after coming out of the class. I always have to wait at least 10-15 minutes. So by the time I reach my home,it almost cross 10 AM. And I am always in little hurry after the class because I have to go back to my home and get ready for office (which takes another 30-40 minutes) and again have to come to bus stand to get my office bus which leaves at 11 A.M. And whenever I wait for bus number I see a lot of bus numbered 164. And when at least 3-4 buses with number 164 passes I get one bus numbered 171 which is jam packed and I board it somehow.

Stroy:- Generally I don't work on Saturday but due to project requirement and none availability of any other resource, I was suppose to work last Saturday. But to my relief, I was given flexibility to work from Home and was asked to be online at 9:30 AM sharp to attend the client meeting. I didn't have internet connection at home so I was provided with a data card on Thursday. And from here on, Murphy's law started its play.

> I tried installing the data card software in my laptop whole Thursday and it was never detected and I was not able to configure the card for net accessibility. Was pissed off completely. Sent the communication to my lead saying IF he can assign the work to someone else, as I wasn't able to configure the card. I was told I can go to some cafe and from there I can work. I told, Ok. [First]

> I wasn't worried that much though as I thought I will use my brothers data card which works absolutely fine in my system. But dint take it Friday morning.

>Friday afternoon a mail came to all of us that a riot has started in some area out here in Bangalore so we may have to stay late as buses wont be plying at stipulated time. Late at night while going back to my house I called my brother to tell him to bring the data card so that I can access the net Saturday morning. And I came to know that he wont be coming tonight as the area is little disturbed so he will be spending the night at his friends house. [Second]

>At that point of time I thought I will access the internet from cafe. Then realized cafe wont be opening before 10 AM. And it will take sometime to configure other network to my system too. Done!!! I can't rely on cafe too. [Third]

>Thought I will go to my friends house after the class and will access the internet there and will complete the office work. And as 164 was a frequent bus I wont be having problem reaching on time, as from my classroom it takes hardly 20 minutes if I get the bus number 164. Things were taking shape now. And I slept peacefully.

> Woke up at 6. left for my classes. But just to be extra cautious about timing I came out 10 minute before the class end time. And started waiting for bus at bus stand. And as expected I saw a bus coming at some distance. But number was not clear. And to my surprise it was 171. Crap!!! I thought may be I came earlier thats why I am seeing 171. No issues!!! Wait was still on. I waited for nearly 30 minutes at bus stop and to my surprise nearly 15 bus passed and all where numbered 171. I was so angry with this rally that I decided not to take auto. [Fourth]

>At last, I got the bus 164 at 9:20 AM. And I was fuming like anything. I asked for ticket and got to know that bus wont be going till the stop near my friends house. [Fifth] Grrrrr

> Still boarded the ticket and went till the last stop and from there took the auto and reached my friends house at 9:40 AM. In between I tried calling my lead to inform him that I wont be able to join before 9:45. No one responded. [Sixth] Grrr

Epilogue :- Completed the work sent the communication and I was so tired by that time that I slept for whole day. Woke up in evening. Went to home. Was so frustrated with the unproductive day passed that I made it more unproductive by watching 3 movie in a row on my system. And finally slept at 2 AM thinking never to say 'YES' for working on weekend.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I remember reading above poem by famous poet Robert Frost, during my school days and above it, remember how difficult it was to apprehend the real meaning those days? Or is it today too? While reading today it stroked a chord in thought process. Isn't there any possibility that poet might have written a simple poem with not even a mild thought of relating the flow of poem with real life by taking philosophical jargon of personifying the character to our life ?And then a questioned popped up in my mind. Isn't it the case that we start looking through that perspective only which we are been told and go with the biased thought only until we want to prove something different. And as truly said Human being always look for easy path and stop thinking rationally for better opportunity(If not said, then I am saying it). And I personally feel Human kind is guided by certain age old beliefs and perspective and pass these beliefs from generation to generation. An answer which need to be questioned.