Get your decisions atleast half right...

I sometimes wonder why parents so badly wanna get their kids married off so early. I do understand that its a burden off their shoulder once they get their daughters married off much before she comes up and tells "dad, i like this guy. He is not from our cast or religion but he's a nice guy. I really love him dad. I want to get married to him". It saves them of all the social stigma they need to go thru if they have to face a situation like that. So they play safe. At times the daughter is smart enough to take her time and convince her parents also to take some time before making decisions. I really don't believe anybody can just blindly go marry someone your parents have found for you without even interacting with the person for a week. Its called absolute stupidity and sometimes you have to pay dearly for such acts of foolishness. Whether the reason is your Kundali saying you have to get married before so and so date or the society putting pressure on the parents to get their kids married off before its 'too late', there is no excuse for playing with and spoiling a girl's life with such hasty decisions. This is one thing i see in a lot of malayalee families these days and i so hate it. Come on man, nobody is gonna eat your daughter up. Give them also some time to settle down in life. 23 is too bloody young to take care of a family for girls of this generation. These are gals who have been pampered by none other than their parents themselves for their whole lives and all of a sudden they want them to go to another family and take up all the responsibilities that comes with running a family. And my dear gals who are reading this. Dont fuckin ever be foolish to just tell your dad, i know you will find the right guy for me daddy. i will marry any guy you find for me. I trust you and your choice. I will say FUCK U. Its your bloody life man. So you make your own decisions and not you dad. There is no guarantee that the guy you find for yourself is foolproof, but atleast you wont have to live with the guilt that you married a guy whom you never really liked or wanted to marry but did so just to make other people happy.
Read an article in times of india today which showed the drastic increase in divorce cases in bangalore among the IT sector. Just like the bomb blast issue, such articles never hit you hard until your near and dear ones are affected by it. And today it did hit me hard when she told me "Sandy, I am officially divorced".
I still remember her tell me how nice a guy she has found and that i should meet him once to understand what a wonderful guy he is. I just posed this one question to her even then, how can you be so sure about how good or bad this guy is whom you just met a week back and to whom you are getting married to the next week.
I really don't know the exact reason behind the whole thing. So i cant make my assumptions to why it happened in this particular case or reach any sort of conclusion. But i had seen a similar issue around 3 years back when one of my classmates got married just in the same fashion and it all ended almost in the same fashion. Its not that simple as it sounds for a gal in her early twenties to live with a divorcee tag.
Its a very big decision in life that you are taking so please make sure its a wise one. I know some of these marriages end with a happily ever after tag line. But not everyone is that lucky.
Extremely frustrated cos when i spoke to her i didn't know whether to talk about her past and try consoling her or talk about her future and try encouraging her. So all i could do was to use the present tense perfectly and talk as though nothing ever went wrong.

I AM LEGEND - the comeback is complete

"Might never be able to get back to my magical best, but still assure you that i'l never give an opponent defender an easy game on the pitch"
This was how i ended my previous post:) and it didn't take me 72hrs after making that statement, to prove what i actually said. Sandy was still not hundred percent fit, nor was Sandy at his magical best. But Sandy led arguably one of the best teams he's ever played for to glory. Team ANTI VIRUS(the story of the origin of that name is explained later) went on to win the McDowell Futsal Friendzy and become the best team in Bangalore out of a total 100 odd teams. It was not a team filled with extraordinary talent, but it was six guys who gave it their all and played for each other throughout the tour that led to this triumph. It was what you call a complete team effort:) But none of this would have been a reality after we almost returned on the day of qualification rounds without taking part after looking at the 700 odd footballers flocking the BRV ground to prove themselves;)
It was around 10 days before the tournament that one of my Budweiser cup teammate asked me if you would play this tour, but i was unsure cos i thought playing without being fit might just hamper their chance of winning the tour with me being a liability:( So initially rejected the offer. But after playing for the office team and scoring four goals in my return match, i just got a feeling that i might just be able to pull it off. So agreed to play. But it so happened that all my Budweiser mates were not convinced that i was fit enough to play, so i had to step back out again:(
Somebody's loss is someone else's gain;) At the same time some of my college juniors were bugging me asking if i was playing this tour and if they had a chance to play in my team. So an idea struck my mind and sandy just thought, "why not make my own team and then go play". And thats exactly what i did. Didnt take too much time to organize a team with six out of seven guys i had in my mind for forming the team, accepting the offer immediately. Thats how the fairy tale begun;)
Now next step was to register online. So for this i also needed a team name which was funky. Asked for a few opinions from teammates and friends, got a variety of replies from blitzkrieg to trojan. thats when somebody told virus, i just tweaked it a little bit and made it ANTI VIRUS. It was indeed a different name and it added a jazzy outlook to it when it was on the newspapers the next day after our victory.
On the day of qualification we arrived at the ground at around 8am in the morning. A overcast morning with a slight drizzle and trust me we were in no mood to play then. But when we saw the number of ppl who had come for the competition we literally planned to walk out of there and go to someother ground and play some good footbal there than waste our time here. There were ppl of all ages, young, old. Loads of school and college kids. I myself was looking old in front of all these kids. After a long and hard thought we finally decided to go ahead and participate in the obstacle course which looked pretty interesting with the top 32 teams with best timings qualifying for the finals the next day. So after the verification and all the other formalities were complete we went ahead with our obstacle course. It went on pretty smooth with just a few bloopers with Cisa handling the ball even though we were instructed not to use our hands. Finished it in 99 seconds which was a really good timing. And when the results were announced in the evening we were more than relieved to know we had qualified for the finals:)
Had to do a little shopping since studs were not allowed for the matches. Tried Ramya's brothers shoes which were a little too big for my tiny foot:( so went ahead and got myself a white canvas shoes for 140 bucks, just like the ones i used to wear in school on saturdays;) Looked pretty funny but comfortable nevertheless:) at the end of the day the 140 bucks turned out to be a very good investment.
The day when 32 of the best teams in bangalore go head to head to decide who the best in bangalore is;) Have still not introduced my team yet. Let me do that first.
Vivek Easwaran aka kullu, one of the young kids on the block. Have played football for the last few years with him and know he's an immensely talented kid even though his under the bench activities have hampered his game a bit;) This is a guy who might just be the worthy hire to Sandy's throne since he's joined cmrit now:)
Mahesh Krishnappa aka Mash and Abhishek AS aka Cisa, two guys who are running the show now with respect to footbal in Cmrit. Again my juniors from college who are great footbalers and i had recognized their talent long ago. This really helped me hand pick each individual whom i felt will fit into the team.
Robin Chentamara, my colleague from work. I know he has a very big heart when it comes to playing football. And trust me he just proved that with a fearless mindblowing performance. Brother if only both of us replicate this performance of ours for Capgemini, that team will win a lot more matches;)
Maad... not many people know his name is Sunil. If i trust one guy to stand like a monster and protect my goal at all times, thats this guy. Have seen him chalk out some brilliant displays in the past, this one was equally good. When people were talking to me about the size of the goal post and the fact that goalkeeper might not be able to use his hands, i just had a simple answer which more than answered all their queries, " I have MAAD on goal" ;)
First match was against UAFA(we assumed it stands for united arab football associations). None of the players looked indian, they were all from the middle east. So finally sandy was leading his team in a big tournament after long and i was not even sure i would last a single match with this still damaged leg of mine. But the team pulled off a good performance winning the match comfortably 5-1. Kullu and Mash scoring two goals each after Robin opened the account. Sandy had 3 assists out of the 5. Very unlike sandy(who's normally a selfish bitch in front of goal). Dont remember passing so much when i had the goal at my mercy ever in my life:D But i am a senior player now, and i do have to set an example to the younger generation:P Frankly speaking it was a very matured performance from me, for once not looking to play for the crowds and for once not looking to bask in all the limelight. Just proves one thing Sandy, you are a bloody OLD man now:) All the while in every single huddle before our match all i was telling the guys was to forget about winning and just to enjoy your game:) The minute you get desperate to win, the pressure on you to perform mounts immensely, Rajesh just told me before we started the day. And it was indeed pretty true.
Second match also was a walk thru against a team named Josephites united. Scored early and then killed off the game with some good ball possessions. Won it 3-0 with me scoring twice and Mash adding the third. Even though we guys upfront were doing all the scoring the guys doing the mopping work behind were simply outstanding. Robin was sliding into every single tackle and then next moment up on his feet and chasing the ball again. Never seen him this aggressive in any of my office matches. Cisa was following the ball everywher when its with the opponents intercepting almost all attacks and shifting gears from defence to attack in a flash. And Maad was sound and secure on goal just doing the neccessary.
Next was the quarter-finals against a team named One Touch. We literally tore them apart in the first half. I remember hitting the post almost thrice in the first half myself but we just could not find a breakthrough:( 0-0 at halftime was anybody's game. But some sheer brilliance from Mash with a magical long range effort opened the floodgates. We went on to score three more with Mash completing his Hat-trick and kullu adding the fourth from my assist after i twisted and turned past the entire opposition and squared an inch perfect pass which he duly converted. I was just feeling myself regain my magical touch and for the first time in the tour,celebrated slightly aggressively after the goal was scored responding to the constant support of my Budweiser team mates who were cheering us all the way.
Semis was a fiery affair. It was an ASC team which looked extremely good. We watched one of their games and they slotted in ten goals in fifteen mins against their helpless oponents. And in the quarters they defeated my Budweiser team. So it was sort of a revenge encounter for me and i delivered in stlye. Won the match convincingly with a 2-0 scoreline with me netting in both the goals in the first half. A clinical performance by the team. This was actually our most important match since we were assured atleast a prize money of 20,000 whatever the outcome of the finals:)
Finals was a cat and mouse affair with both teams being cautious in the beginning. It was against a strong Murphy Town team which played aggressively but we took the lead when Kullu backhealed my through ball into the net. After that Maad pulled off a string of excellent saves to deny the opponents the equalizer and then against the run of play Kullu scored the team's and his second goal to literally kill the game. They did manage to score a consolation goal towards the end even though it was highly controvertial. But we held on to a famous win. We were officially they best team in Bangalore and returned home with a fat pay cheque of 30,000 for our efforts over the weekend. ANTI VIRUS had literally swiped all the other teams off and reached the pinnacle of glory.
It was definitely my greatest win till date since the level of competition was hundred folds of what we had in the Budweiser tour. But we defied all odds to be crowned the champions. Supposed to represent Bangalore region at the national finals in Kolkata but canceled that cos of the semester exams for most of the engineering boys. Murphy Town boys who were gutted after their defeat were overjoyed when we asked them to participate in the finals in our place.
We were all over the papers the next day:P had become celebrities overnight, specially the ones in college. Robin even gave an interview for TV9:)
All in all it was a one of a kind experience. We were the underdogs throughout and we used that tag to our maximum advantage. I still dont really understand what i blabbered before every match to the team in our team huddle, but one thing was clear and evident. We didnt come here expecting to win the trophy but just to enjoy ourselves playing some good football and we managed to do that in style. Thats all i kept reminding them and they definitely didnt let their captain down. A big thanks to Rajesh who came along with us even though his team didnt qualify, and supported us throughout the day with his valuable advise when we guys needed someone to point out our mistakes. Hats off to all you guys. It was an honour playing with you guys. You guys really played with your hearts on your sleeve. Get your passports made soon;) We'l be headed to Old Trafford soon because next edition of Budweiser cup in not too far away:)
And on a personal front. I guess my comeback is now complete:) But never expected it will be with this big a bang:P
Definitely my most mature ever performance on the football pitch;) 4 goals and 7 assists in the tour is not bad either;) Hopefully this rich vein of form continues, i guess i have another good two years in me;)

Day 2 ends in disappointment

Was not able to score the two goals i had promised to score:( nor were we able to win the match:(
Disappointing 2-1 defeat with me scoring just a consolation goal towards the end of the game. Nevertheless was a successful return for me on a personal front. My leg's never felt better in the past six months. Looking forward to scoring more and more wonderful goals with my beloved right foot ;) Might never be able to get back to my magical best, but still assure you that i'l never give an opponent defender an easy game on the pitch :)

Mixed emotions on Day 1

Would have been a fairy tale comeback for me today had few of the results gone our way. Personally a very satisfying performance from my side considering being out of action for so long. Most importantly the leg has responded brilliantly and no concerns whatsoever with it :)
Lost the first match against SPT after a sloppy defensive performance 8-6( a tennis like scoreline). Scored 4 out of the 6 goals coming on as a super-sub. So it was an eventful return indeed, victory might just have been the icing on the cake :(
Second was a much tougher game against Logica and we too improved our display and played out a hard-earned draw :) was very impressed with the way the boys fought this one. Some of them just gave it their all. I didn't score, but nevertheless a good result.
Got Pro-Fx coming up tomorrow morning and it will invariably be our last tough match. A victory there will mean we had a good weekend overall in terms of result's.
Something tells me I'll score atleast two in this one :D

I still consider him my god :)

Big match coming up today after a pretty long break.
What better way to get you all geared up and prepare yourself mentally before the match, other than watching 200 of my idol Thierry Henry's best goals at 4 in the morning :)
I know people still criticize him, but in his peak there was no matching the man.
He was truly magnificent :) Hats off to you. Hopefully i can replicate some of his magic today ;)

Return of the wounded soldier

Six months or to be more precise, 197 days. A really long time for a passionate footballer like me to stay away from playing a single competitive match. Have put on a few extra kilos over this period and my slight ponch is more than evident to the naked eyes these days. To put it in simple words, i am highly UNFIT these days. Cant climb two floors in my office building without panting :(
So to actually think that i am going to represent my company team(which i once was the captain off, before my injury) tomorrow seems far fetched. Might just play a cameo role of a super-sub. Or might just be that driving force needed for the team which helps them put the ball in the back of the net more often than they normally do ;) Whatever the case, i just get a small feel inside that i will somehow manage to pull it off in style tomorrow :)
Just wait another 24hrs for the result to be updated here. Now just go do what you do best my dear, focus on the match ahead without making big pre match statements ;)
There is absolutely no pressure on you to perform for once. Hehe
Make your performance do all the talking :)
- The Passionate Footballer

Emotional abuse ;)

One of the most touching personal mails that i've received till date from anyone. Was initially supposed to be a mail to abuse me but it literally turned out to be something so emotional that my eyes were filled with tears by the time i finished reading it. Here it goes, a mail from a person i have never met and our only real interaction was over phone calls. Never expected him to get so deeply hurt due to my actions ;)

Dear sandeep,

As per your phone calls i booked the room at cheraibeach resort. I am not force you to take the room at cheraibeach resort. You asked me to book for you .Several times I called to your mobile phone and rings it, but no response. If you are not interested to stay there, please inform me about that also. I believe your words, but u mislead me lot.

Never do this in your next journey, other wise no one never believe you and never believe your words also .

Best regards
Ajay

Poor guy, i am sure he would have wanted to really abuse me. But the way he expressed himself over this mail somehow was extremely hilarious to me. Dont want to get really deep into the incident and explain why he actually sent this to me. Part of the mail is anyways self explanatory. My dear Kerala boy tried to take advantage of 8 people who were desperately seeking accomodation but somehow this cosmopolitan egoistic bangalorean soul just didnt feel like taking all this lying down. So it resulted in a last minute change in plan and hence the outcome was this cute little piece of literature :) Will never repeat this mistake Chetta ;) i've learnt my lessons :)

Wenger: Success And Experience Are Not Synonymous

They really do confuse me off late... A frustrating draw against local rivals Spurs after conceding two goals in injury time. Then a defeat to newly promoted Stoke city courtesy two Rory Delap long throw-in's and a dull draw against Fenebache at home in the champions league. Thought thats the end of the title challenge and they come up with an absolutely spirited team performance to gun down MAN U. Just loved the victory. Still not convinced they really have the title credentials, but never know. Off late they have become so unpredictable that even a hardcore gunner like me am unsure whether to back them or write them off. Another three months down i will be in a better position to judge. Arsene - you continue to baffle me. But in you, we trust :)

Anniversary wishes to my dear footballer :)

Hope you are enjoying your time there and i am sure you will also be rejoicing watching me play some good football. Will return from injury and showcase some better football because i know you will enjoy watching me play well. Somewhere deep inside i know that for how ever good a footballer i am now, you had a big part to play in that. And don't ever think i have forgotten you even though its been really long now. One corner of my heart is always reserved for you. You will always remain in my memories and the date will always be remembered :) The day that changed my life :)
Rest im Frieden :)

Rangoli at its creative best...

The boys did it again.. three hrs before the whole thing was complete none of us other than tiger seemed any bit interested. Archit was laughing "in your face" types trying to ask us wat the fuck we guys were upto?? have you lost it?? ;) very familiar words they were indeed from a man who has to oppose atleast for the heck of it, every single time someone comes up with something different. Our interest levels were so low that an hour before the competition we didn't have a single raw material and not a single soul wanted to accompany TIGER to get the stuff. Typical RODHNEY characteristics. We finally had to pick lots and Dpai turned out to be the lucky one who had to accompany tiger to do all the shopping. We knew we will not be the best, but we didn't want to be like the rest ;) that was our motto for the day :) A unique concept we came up with(talent and tiger are still fighting over who's brainchild it was). For the next two hours it was a complete team effort from six amateur Rangoli makers(not sure if thats the right way to call someone who makes a rangoli) full of arguments and abuses exchanged during the course. The man who initially was laughing at this whole idea, was now the one who wanted to do everything. Way too many Rodhney's . hehe... but who cares. By the end of it, the outcome turned out to be a masterclass. At the start we didn't thinking of winning a prize but all we wanted was a mental satisfaction that we did take part in this just like we do for every other event and we gave it our best shot. Anything other than that was an added bonus. Praise poured in from all quarters after our masterpiece was complete and we were overwhelmed with joy for not even did we expect that the end result will be so splendid :) Well done guys. I am really proud of you :) We just proved today that if we really decide to do something as a team, there is NO MATCH FOR US :) We might not have won the prize for our rangoli today, but we did win a few hearts :) Three cheers to THE RODHNEY BOYS... Cheers to Chandrayaan... and by the way if you still have not realized it our whole design was that of a postage stamp with the launch of chandrayaan depicted in it :) But i doubt even the judge for the day noticed it was a stamp. The finer aspects are so easily ignored, but no complaints. All in the game :)

When the bubble burst...

Read this article a few days back and sort of got a basic idea of what led to the present global financial crisis. I know most people are still unaware of why the sensex is plummeting so much all of a sudden. So this article will give you a brief idea of what really went wrong behind the scene...

While some blame the greed of Wall Street investment bankers and the dangers of a totally unregulated system for the current financial crisis, what can’t be denied is that lives, and lifestyles, have been suddenly changed across the social spectrum and careers built up over a lifetime have vanished in an instant. Apart from the revised $700 billion bailout plan, can the U.S. government do enough to restore confidence and assuage the trauma?

The real question is: Who is going to compensate the common investors across the world who have lost their wealth in the resultant market meltdown?

The bursting of the speculative bubble in the U.S. housing market has destroyed billions of dollars in investor wealth across the world, crippled the banking system, expunged close to a million jobs…and India has not been spared either. With banks failing by the day, definitely, these are uncertain times for the financial services industry. While many people who have lost their jobs are faced with permanent shrinkage of their lifestyle, others in the industry are going through the trauma of not knowing if and when their turn would come. Who is to blame?

Flashback to year 2003:

Rohit (name changed to protect identity), a good friend of mine and someone who was officially considered to be a genius with an IQ of 150+, graduated from one of the leading IIMs. Rohit managed to make it into the New York Headquarters of the most sought after firm that had arrived on campus for the first time — Lehman Brothers — a top U.S. Investment Bank (then). On joining, he was assigned to Lehman’s mortgage securities desk that dealt with Collateralised Debt obligations (or CDOs).

Following is an extracted transcript of a chat session I had with Rohit back in 2004:

Me: So man, you must feel like you are on top of the world.

Rohit: Yes dude, the job here is amazing, I get to interact with people around the world, investment managers who want to invest millions of dollars

Me: Great…so tell me something interesting. What’s your job all about?

Rohit: You know there is a great demand for American home loans, which we buy from the U.S. banks. We then convert these into what is called as CDOs (Collateralised Debt Obligations). In plain English, this refers to buying home loans that banks had already issued to customers, cutting them into smaller pieces, packaging the pieces based on return (interest rate), value, tenure (duration of the loans) and selling them to investors across the world after giving it a fancy name, such as “High Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leverage Fund”.

Me: Wow! I would’ve never guessed that boring home loans could transform into something that sounds so cool!

Rohit: Hahaha…actually we create multiple funds categorised based on the nature of the CDO packages they contain and investors can buy shares in any of these funds (almost like mutual funds…but called Structured Investment Vehicles or SIVs)

Me: Dude, you make your job sound like a meat shop…chopping and packaging. So, in effect when an investor purchases the CDOs (or the fund containing the CDOs), he is expected to receive a share of the monthly EMI paid by the actual guys who have taken the underlying home loans?

Rohit: Exactly, the banks from whom we purchased these home loans send us a monthly cheque, which we in turn distribute to the investors in our funds

Me: Why do the banks sell these home loans to you guys?

Rohit: Because we allow them to keep a significant portion of the interest rate charged on the home loans and we pay them upfront cash, which they can use to issue more home loans. Otherwise home loans go on for 20-30 years and it would take a long time for the bank to recover its money.

Me: And, why does Lehman buy these loans?

Rohit: Because we get a fat commission when we convert the loans into CDOs and sell it to investors.

Me: Who are these investors?

Rohit: They include everyone from pension funds in Japan to Life Insurance companies in Finland.

Me: But tell me, why are these funds so interested in purchasing American home loans?

Rohit: Well, these guys are typically interested in U.S. Govt. bonds (considered to be the safest in the world). But unfortunately, Mr. Alan Greenspan (head of Federal Reserve Bank, similar to RBI in India) has reduced the interest rate to nearly 1 per cent to perk up the economy after the dotcom crash 9/11attacks. This has left many funds looking for alternative investments that can give them higher returns. Home loans are ideal because they offer 4-6 per cent interest rate.

Me: Wait, aren’t home loans more risky than U.S Bonds?

Rohit: We have made home loans less risky now. In fact they have become as safe as U.S Govt. bonds.

Me: What are you saying, man? What if the people who have taken these underlying home loans default? Then the investors would stop getting the EMIs, and their returns would take a hit. Wouldn’t it?

Rohit: Boss, may be some will default, but not definitely more than 2-3 per cent. Moreover, we have convinced AIG (a leading insurance company) to insure our CDOs. This means that even if there were big defaults,the insurance company would compensate the investors.

Me: that’s amazing. What are these insurances called?

Rohit: Credit Default Swaps.

Me: Definitely you guys are the most creative when it comes to naming.

Rohit: Thanks.

Me: And why has this AIG guy insured millions of home loans?

Rohit: See man, the logic is simple. Home prices in the U.S always go up. In fact over the last three years alone they have doubled. So even if someone defaults paying the EMI, the home can be seized and sold for a much higher price. So there is no risk. Insurance companies are actually competing to insure this, because they can earn risk-free premiums.

Me: No wonder investment managers from all over the world want to put money in your CDOs.

*A global financial cobweb started getting built around the American dream of purchasing a home and it rested on the assumption that “home prices will keep rising”. As demand for the CDOs started growing across the global investment community, the investment bankers (like Lehman) who were meant to sell these instruments also started investing a significant portion of their own capital in these. I guess after selling the story to the whole world, they themselves got sold on the seemingly foolproof concept. Gradually the markets for CDOs and Credit Default Swaps started expanding with traders and investors buying and selling these as if they were shares of a company, happily forgetting the underlying people behind these products who took the home loans in the first place and on whose capacity to repay the loans, the safety of these products depended.

As Wall Street firms like Lehman were churning more and more home loans into CDOs and selling them or investing their own money, there was a pressure on the banks to issue more loans so that they can be sold to the Wall Street firms in return for a commission. Slowly banks started lowering the credit quality (qualification criteria) for availing a home loan and aggressively used agents to source new loans. This slippery slope went to such an extent that in 2005, almost anyone in the U.S could buy a home worth $100,000 (45 lakhs INR) or more without income proof, without other assets, without credit history, sometimes even without a proper job. These loans were called NINA — “no income no assets”.

The U.S. housing market went into a classic speculative bubble. Home loans were easy to get, so more and more people were buying houses. The increased demand for houses caused the price to increase. The rising prices created even more demand, as people started to look at homes as investments — investments that never went down in value.

When I touched base with my friend Rohit in late 2005, he was on cloud nine. During the previous one year, he managed to buy a home in Long Island (a posh area near New York City) worth almost a million dollars, and got himself a Mercedes. All this was interesting to hear, but what shocked me was that although he was earning close to $20,000 a month (that is what CEOs in India make) he was not able to save anything because his lifestyle expenses where growing faster than his salary.

Unheeded signals

In late 2006, Mortgage lenders noticed something that they’d almost never seen before. People would choose a house, sign all the mortgage papers, and then default on their very first payment. Although no one could really hear it, that was probably the moment when one of the biggest speculative bubbles in American history popped. Another factor that lead to the burst of the housing bubble was the rise in interest rates from 2004-2006. Many people had taken variable rate home loans that started getting reset to higher rates, which in turn meant higher EMIs that borrowers had not planned for.

The problem was that once property values starting going down, it set off a reverse chain reaction, the opposite of what had been happening in the bubble. As more people defaulted, more houses came on the market. With no buyers, prices went even further down.

In early 2007, as prices began their plunge, alarm bells started going off across mortgage-backed securities desks all over Wall Street. The people on Wall Street, like Rohit, started getting calls from investors about not getting their interest payments that were due. Wall Street firms stopped buying home loans from the local banks. This had a devastating effect on particularly the small banks and finance companies, which had borrowed money from larger banks to issue more home loans thinking they could sell these loans to Wall Street firms like Lehman and make money.

Everyone got into a mad scramble to seize and sell the homes in order to get back at least some of the money. But there were just not enough buyers. The guys who had insured these loans thinking they had near zero risk (e.g. AIG) could not fulfil the unexpectedly huge number of claims. The best part was that since these insurance policies (credit default swaps) could themselves be traded, multiple people had bought and sold them, and it became so tough to even trace who was supposed to compensate for the loss.

The global financial cobweb built around mortgages is on the brink of collapse. Firms, large and small, some young some as old as a 100 years have crumbled as a result of suing each other over the dwindling asset values. Lehman’s India operations, that employed over a thousand staff, is up for sale and many of the employees have been asked to leave. The Indian stock market has crashed almost 50 per cent from its high (and so have markets around the world) as the Wall Street giants sold their investments in the country in an effort to salvage whatever is good in order to make up for the mortgage related loss. Hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies all over the world have lost billions in investor’s money. Many Indian B-School graduates with PPOs (pre-placement offers) in the financial sector (India and abroad) have either received an annulment or indefinite postponement of joining dates. IT firms that built and maintained software for the U.S. mortgage industry or the related Investment Banks, have shut down their business units, laid-off people or transferred them to other verticals.

Fragile system

For all the hoopla over the sharp and sophisticated people on Wall Street, the current financial crisis has exposed the fragility of the system. Wall Street is blaming the entire episode on people who could not repay their home loans. But the reality seems to point towards the stupidity of people who lent all this money, financial institutions that built fancy derivative packages and in effect facilitated billions in trading and investments in these fragile low quality loans.

The U.S. Govt is planning to grant 700 billion dollars to the Wall Street firms to compensate the financial speculators for the money that they have lost. Isn’t this like rewarding greed and stupidity? The head of a leading Investment Bank has stated, “This is necessary to sustain financial ingenuity. We don’t want to spend this money on ourselves. We just want this money to go into the market so that we can carry on trading complex securities, borrowing and lending money.” (Yeah…right, so that one can act as if nothing had happened without analysing too much into it). The real question is: Who is going to compensate the common investors across the world who have lost their wealth in the resultant market meltdown? (either directly or through pension funds).

After being unreachable for a month now, finally I heard back from my pal, Rohit, saying he is back in India to take a break from the roller coaster ride that he had lived through. After Lehman’s collapse he has lost his job and probably the house that he had bought by taking a hefty loan. I really don’t know whether to feel happy for him, for getting an opportunity to learn a lesson or two from the experience or to feel sad for him for losing his job. May be I’ll get a better sense of things once I meet him next week.

Kelloggs - the road ahead.....

After exactly 466 days, my time warming the bench of Capgemini india is finally coming to an end. Guess i was the longest serving member of the bench community in my company. Anyways got the confirmation mail of tagging to the new project today, so now its official that Sandeep Balan is going to work for Kelloggs atleast until march 2009 :)
Never expected my life to change so drastically in a matter of two days. Guess thats how life is and all its taught me is to remain patient and wait for your chance.
Anyways a fruitful week has come to an end with a totally entertaining party at Flambe with lots of nautanki and masti. Gulped down a few screwdrivers and also made a profit of 10 bucks playing thambola. So there is lots to look forward to in the next few months. I know time will run pretty fast from now on. Plan to perfection and do not even waste a single minute.
Wishing you all the best for your first live project engagement. Give it your best and the rest will fall in place automatically.
"jab bhagwan deta hai, tho chappar phad ke deta hai"