Some people NEVER learn - CitiBank

Today I got a call from a Citibank guy hawking Citibank investment products. Being the seventh call about this in as many weeks, I was pretty pissed off, but was trying to be polite. He asked me "CitiBank would like to help you plan your investments", and I told him "No thanks, I have already planned my investments". Most citibank guys usually leave me alone at this point (which was why I was generally polite to them.) But this guy was persistent.

"But Sir we will give you free counseling on how to make investments...". Trying to end this pointless conversation I replied - "OK, I dont have any money left with me after my previous investment". That I figured would effectively end the conversation, since you cannot sell to a guy who is broke.

"Sir, Do you have a CitiBank credit card sir?" he asked. what the ...? Now he is selling me credit cards? "No" - I snapped. He then explained to me that if I got a CitiBank Credit card, I can take out a loan on it (@24% interest rate) and then use the money to make Investments. I ended the conversation with a "no thanks".

This is the EXACT thing that burned CitiBank (and Wall Street) - Taking Loans to make investments - Leverage. If these big shots could not handle leverage and went to the Fed for handouts, how come common people are supposed to handle it? How can they even make these kind of stupid suggestions? No wonder so many subprime mortgages got sold! Something ought to done about these bloodsuckers, before they precipitate another meltdown.

Falling off the grid - An Experiment with my Life...

Off late I have become kinda addicted to email, browsing, social networking - basically to computers. So I am planning on doing a small experiment with my life, where I try to fall off the grid. I will try to see how much more productive I can be if I keep away from these computer related activities... I was planning on it for sometime, and now appears to be a good time.

In a way, I am partly off-the-grid already, since I do not have a television at home. It leaves so much spare time and I really loved it! I will try to blog about how long I can carry on this "experiment", and what all additional things I have done, and how there was an increase (or decrease) in the quality of my life :) Maybe I will do stuff like clean my room, visit places, go for a jog, read a book, wake up early and enjoy the finer things in life. I believe, for a start, a week should be enough.

So why am I doing this? Sometimes in life, we think some things are so indispensable that we cannot live without them. Once we start thinking that way, we inadvertently hand over control of our lives. This exercise will hopefully put things back in perspective. And when Judgement Day strikes, I would be better suited to fight SkyNet :P

Ofcourse, I will still be using a computer for office work and will be available at my office email id. Well, what did you think? I am trying to fall off the grid, not get my ass fired :D

Nights on Necklace Road

If you are bored at night in Hyderabad, and dont know what to do - here is a new destination, visit the Necklace road, which true to its name, is like an ornament on the Hussian Sagar Lake, in the center of the City. We live a couple of blocks from the necklace road, so whenever my friend and I feel bored at nights, we take our high-end bikes and jolly ride to the necklace road at late nights. But you need to be on the lookout for idiot bike/car racers. Racing is common, and so are accidents and deaths on this stretch.

There is a Heritage Parlour which sells milk products etc until 11PM, which is our regular hangout point. (Big names like Eat Street close by 10 or so, and are too crowded). Besides this there are a couple of the Ice Cream Bandis too.

There are cops prowling the place at late nights, and they are decent enough to leave you alone until about 12:30-1AM. But after that you better not park your bikes there. But cars are safer all throughout. Also, due to these regular patrols, the area turns out to be very safe.

Coming from the Destiny City - Vizag - I always loved the beach there, and missed it a lot after moving to Hyderabad. The Necklace road is the closest, one can get to such an experience in Hyderabad.

Trek to Kudremukh - Touching the face of God!

It had been a very long time since I had been on a trek. This summer was a complete bummer, with temperatures soaring in Hyderabad and surrounding areas. So after the first monsoon showers, I decided to go on a trek. With none of my friends having the time to join me, I decided to go with a professional club, and the Bangalore Mountaineering Club (BMC) was the BEST among them.

So I started a day earlier and landed in Bangalore on Friday morning, and worked that day and then joined with the BMC team leaving for Kudremukh on Friday night. We reached Kalasa and were put up in a local hotel, as the local nature camp did not allow large groups (we were 35 people). The next day morning, we reached the base of the trek at around 9:30 am, and started the trek.

Initially the trek was on a muddy road for a couple of km, and then it branched out into the forest. While waiting for others to catch up a couple of us also took a detour to a nearby waterfall with a check-dam which was beautiful. Back on the way, after crossing the first stream, I realized that there were leeches all over the place due to the incessant raining in the past few days. I have a serious fear of leeches (I looked it up and the actual term is "Bdellophobia" :), and these were really big ones at almost 4-5 cms long (without any blood i.e.), wiggling around vigorously to attach themselves to the nearest blood source. After reaching a patch of dry rock, we checked our shoes and sure enough there were 2 leeches, which were quickly removed by my teammates (thanks guys! I was really really grossed out :).

After climbing for some more time, we could see the actual peak we were about to climb. It was awesome, like a serene giant, being engulfed slowly in milky white clouds. The mountains around were majestic. After some comparatively steeper climbing, we reached the peak by 2:00 PM and relaxed there for an hour while enjoying the lunch of chapattis & chutney which our BMC contact Ram had provided.

On a nearby mountain, we could see a herd of bison, walking slowly, and it felt very exciting seeing them. On the peak, I realized that I ran out of my 2.5 litre supply of water, having misjudged the strenuousness of the climb. So, I had to drink some water from a nearby stream directly - since I did not have any iodine to purify it, but it was very pure. We started our way back down, after climbing down from the main peak, I was deep in leech territory, so I started running all the way until we were close to the mud road, which was safe from leeches.

Four of us were lost on the way back on the mud road, and reached a local village. Two local women were kind enough to lead us back to the Bus. It was almost 6:00 PM by the time we reached the bus. We went back to the lodge and the next day we went to a nearby waterfalls which were very beautiful, before starting back to Bangalore. It was almost 1AM by the time I reached my friend's place in Bangalore.

I did not carry a camera with me on this trip, so the pics from my cell are subpar, I will put up the remaining pics once the remaining team members upload their.

I was very happy with myself for completing this trek, since my strength and stamina training over the previous 5 months had paid off handsomely, with me being able to carry a lot of weight uphill without getting real tired! Hoping to do a trek sometime real soon.

Racism & Color - NOT the same everywhere

Recently my friend pointed me to this article on a Times of India Blog. The author of the article raises the point that Indians are as racist as any other people, and gives the example of the preference for fairness prevalent in many matrimonial ads as well as fairness cream ads.

However, this author, along with the countless others, always go wrong here. Dont get me wrong - most Indians ARE racist, hell they might be even more racist than most other peoples. But I entirely disagree about this author's example that preference for fairness is racism. It is taken out of context from the Western civilization's tryst with racism and color.

Some time back, there was this huge uproar about two cheerleaders to an IPL match being given marching orders because they were dark skinned, and the media raised an uproar about Indian "racism". While this is the correct thing to do in a western context where racism and color are intertwined so closely, In the Indian context it is just a preference (albeit very stupid and insensitive) of Indians. If you think this is racism - tell me why are all the cheerleaders (or for that matter actors, tv anchors etc) good looking? Is it not racism against the not-so-good looking people? The author mentioned in the Times blog asks rhetorically - 'when did u last see a matrimonial ad seeking attractive, dark-complexioned life partner'? Well I suppose he saw may ads which were seeking - 'fair skinned, fat, short, unattractive life partners'!!

Many Indians have a preference for fairness. While it is despicable in itself, it is NOT racism. You never see a group of fair-skinned guys way-laying and assaulting a darker skinned guy in India. (It might happen with people from a different caste, religion, place etc). Preference for fair skin is as much a preference for a trait like being taller, skinnier or good looking. But noooo.... these are all just "silly preferences", but use color and it is actual racism. The Indian authors import even the opinions from western authors without bothering to mold it to an Indian context.

Which is what makes me so angry about these articles. While I completely understand a western author mis-reading an Indian's preference for fair complexion as racism, it is completely idiotic for an Indian author make the same mistake.