Nishit's Weblog

The map of USA has changed…USA has the best relations with all the countries of the world…terrorist organizations have become ‘bum chums’ of the USA, North Korea and Iran are allies of America, USA has changed to Utopia...no no no…that’s not the ‘change’ or the type of change we witnessed in the history of USA…but, wait, the entire world is talking about a HISTORIC CHANGE in USA, even the brand new President of the US said, “Change has come to America”! Ah, yes, there’s a change in the USA, George Bush Junior is no longer the President, nor is the Republican Party in power anymore. So, what is it? Well, we have the man of the moment, Barack Hussein Obama, America’s latest Prez. Nothing unusual, USA always had a new Prez after at least two consecutive terms (if not one). Here, the situation is ‘different’…Mr Obama is the FIRST, yes first Afro-American President to be elected, rather the 1st Black or ‘coloured’ man to ever come to power at this zenith! Barack Obama owes allegiance to the...

Avalanche, Tsunami, Earthquake, Cyclone, Hurricane, Whirlpool...just to name a few...are 'attacking' the 'Markets' worldwide and the Indian Markets can never be left far behind, they can go 1 step further. Bettering the battering...as hearts and minds go shattering on our Indianized version of the Wall Street, aka the revered Dalal Street. It was 'khoon ki holi' (Indianized bloodbath) amidst the festivities of Diwali, wherein ideally people are out on a buying spree, not only shares and commodities, but also sweetmeats, apparels, appliances, jewellery, et al. The 'festival of lights' has certainly become lacklustre for most of the Indians as they cant go on a shopping spree that they are used to! Even though the Wall Street was the epicenter of the financial earthquake, the tremors were felt throughout the world. Presumably the Richter Scale, wouldn't have been in a position to measure the intensity of this 'quake', which will not only go bey...

Its bloodbath, mayhem and carnage once again as the benchmark BSE Sensex, headquartered in Mumbai, was battered yet again on October 17, 2008 and its been hammered for quite some time now. Seems it will have to be business as usual for the regular investors(day traders & deliver based), arbitragers, stock brokers, HNIs, fund managers et al as some people survive purely on the financial markets, more precisely the stock markets. Here the question is about survival as thriving seems a distant possibility taking into consideration the almost consistent downfall, the choppy and flat markets. Records show that it took 484 trading sessions for the Sensex to climb from 10,000 (on February 6, 2006) and touch an all time high of 21,207 (on January 8, 2008). However, it’s taken just 191 sessions to collapse to 10,000 and below! Furthermore it was Black Friday again on October 17…17 does ring alarm bells in our systems…May 17, 2005, days before the swearing in of the new Government, when the ...

Naresh Goyal, the big boss of Jet Airways assumed that he will have the last laugh and/or save his beleaguered company from losing over Rs.5 crores every month...alas his idea and dream went for a toss, as now he's in for a bigger loss, in spite of being the big boss! For the moment, the axed employees are having the last laugh. Naresh Goyal & Co. showed the pink-slip to at least 850 cabin crew members and had planned to retrench another 1050 more across several functions. The employees who were shown the door, were definitely in for a rude shock. However, they decided to take the bull by its horns and approached none other than the firebrand MNS Chief, Raj Thackeray, to bail them out. As expected, Raj gave a befitting reply to Mr Goyal's game plan, threatening to stop Jet Airways operations in Maharashtra if the Airline didn't reinstate the laid-off employees. Surprise, surprise (or was it evident)...Mr Goyal takes a quick sharp U-turn - probably under the spell of a c...

With the death (rather murder) of the Australian tourist in Calangute, Goa...Indians have added yet another feather in their cap- for awful, uncalled for and 3rd grade customer service. We are all familiar with incidents of wretched customer service in relation to 'domestic' call centres, some restaurants (even hotels), Government hospitals/offices, etc (as the list is humongous). The highlight here is bad/unprofessional customer service leading to murder, YES murder of the customer allegedly at the hands of the person rendering the service! An Australian tourist in India is murdered in Calangute, Goa allegedly by waiters and a security guard of a restaurant in Goa...sounds ABSOLUTELY shocking, at least to me!! The story so far- Mr John Kelly, the Australian national picked up an argument with the waiter over beer not served in the 'right' way. Let's take it for granted that the tourist was rude or misbehaved with the waiter. But, when were Indian waiters famous for...

Cheers may be a long forgotten word, or rather a word spelling luxury for an Indian banker, financial wizard and techie- who would otherwise have been gung-ho about his/her prospects in the USA and even UK! The collapse of financial behemoths in the USA is definitely bad news for the Americans but worse news for the Indians holed up there, with an ‘American’ dream. They were not wrong in dreaming big or harboring great ambitions in their minds…it’s just that (the right) circumstances didn’t give them company. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is definitely the mantra today and for many days to come, moreover, its ‘test amongst the fittest’…not only will the ‘fittest’ win but the fittest of the fittest will only survive…thriving seems miles apart. So much negativity, gloom and distress…one can’t help but be BEARISH as the Bulls have NO choice but to run for cover as the Wall Street…which millions of the world looked upto, is no longer a positive indicator! Of course, Bears had their time too, i...

Mr AA Zardari, Pakistan’s President goes gaga, almost drooling at the sight of Sarah Palin, USA’s Republican Party’s Vice Presidential candidate. Looks as if he is keen to emulate ex-Pakistani PM Shaukat Aziz, who unsuccessfully tried to charm Condi Rice, the US Secretary of State, who showed him ‘his place’! Mr Zardari was so much in awe of Sarah Palin that he couldn’t conceal his admiration for her. Zardari went on to say, “You are even more gorgeous than I expected…and now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you” . Sarah Palin was a beauty queen in her yesteryears, though now a mother of five! She reacted blushingly, at his comment. This is not all, when a photographer asked Mr Zardari to pose for a photo-op while shaking hands with Sarah, Zardari said, “if he (the photographer) is insisting, I might hug her” . If he could go this far in ‘public’, he may cross bigger ‘lakshman rekhas’ in private. Interestingly, Mr Zardari is a Moslem and the ‘Islamic world’ is currently o...