a movie that leaves u thinking

Yesterday I got a send-off party from my long-time PESIT buddies: Prashant, Veda, Harsha & Khalid.
Despite the largely looming terror threat in Bengaluru, we decided to go for the much awaited movie, Taj Mahal.

Few of the songs on the promos were good & the posters indicated that it was pretty quality stuff. But half of our josh was down when Veda indicated that the feedback was lukewarm. We've seen this pattern reccuring: good promos--all of our spirits are high, can't wait to get a First Day First Show ticket---later, u come out right after the interval, as though you are escaping from a prison.. :) I was thinking we are heading for such a disaster once again..

Overall, the movie seemed to be like a ODI between the good-parts of the movie & the bad-parts. The initial opening was a movie-crazy young boy running away from home fearing his father & finding a diary of the protagonist. This seemed like story telling with-in a story that was well presented. Then the bad-part took over: which place on earth had a number plate with S-143?? Switzerland??
Then following that, the hero puncturing his bike to wish good morning to our heroine (sakkat hot Pooja Gandhi) & ending off with an insequential romantic song. This was enough to put us off.
Then the movie continues with many absurdities, such as: the heroine, who has never talked to the hero & admittedly doesn't even know his name, agrees to go for coffee with him!! Unfortunately, it seems, the director didn't know that real girls in this real world aren't that liberal :(
Its only the occassional dialogs by Rangayana Raghu that really keeps the spirits up at some places.

But the highlight of the movie, that makes it worth wathching is the metal pressure that the hero goes through in choosing between his extreme love for the heroine & his duties & responsibilites towards his parents who have have sold their everything & living in extreme poor conditions so that their son studies well & becomes an engineer.
Its isn't that difficult for any of the guys (esp. me at this juncture of my life) to draw an analogy to the hero's state that really makes the impact on all of the guys.
The parents fetch more brownie points by forgiving the son who comes back & surrenders himself in front of this telling his bad state & parents accept him for what he is & forgives him. This again, seems to be a gentle reminder that parents, from the times of the Prable of the Prodigal Son, are a trove of forgiveness.

At the end of the movie, you really start thinking what did the hero achieve, after all?
Couldn't have he lived happier if he hadn't gone out of his small village or hadn't fallen in a wierd love with that girl?
This's what makes the movie a memorable one, even thought there are quite a few absurd, vague & far-fatched scenes.
Here's a link to one of my fav songs in the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYs-InGHMtQ&feature=related

m-commerce - the way people do business in 2015

I attended a session at Sasken on mobile Value Added Services. One of the most important avenues for growth for mobile VAS will be m-commerce. The speaker, Mr. Raja Chetlur shared with us some interesting prospects on this topic.

So, what is m-commerce? Suppose you are browzing through e-Bay with your new iPhone. You found a diamond necklace that you want to gift to your girl friend (obviously you are a rich guy). You just click on "add it to my cart".
The rest is taken care of e-Bay & your mobile service provider. Your service provider will act as your credit-card company, pays for that item & provides your billing address to where your item will be shipped to.
Thats how simple shopping is going to be in future.

Basically, m-commerce will be a spin-off from e-commerce, powered by broadband wireless speeds, Web 2.0 technology & new service delivery platforms like IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem).

M-commerce seems to be the next ultra-cool app after SMS. But when looked at 2nd time, you'll realize there are more subtle things associated with m-commerce than what meet the eye. When your service provider pays for your product, it assumes a financial role, a role that's currently done by banks such as Citi, ICICI, etc.
As m-commerce grows rapidly, the banking biggies are certain to have a look at SP as possible acqusition targets. This development might revolutionize telecom space. Until now, it was just telcos acquiring or merging with other telcos, but with m-commerce even banking companies will get into the picture.

So, interesting times lie ahead.. :)

A million $$$ question

Dear friend,

Here’s a million dollar question to you.

Suppose you suddenly hit a jackpot of Rs 20 lakh. You spend Rs. 10 lakh lavishly on all your favorite things & now you wanna invest the remaining amount that would give you a good return on investment.

Let me try to help you with this problem.

Consider some of the options you have:

1) Fixed deposits – this is a traditional investment plan with low returns & low risks involved. This lacks the challenge that we seek whenever we make investments.

2) Real estate – this is in pretty bad shape now, esp. around Bengaluru & as it is you may nothing for Rs. 10 lakh these days :)

3) Stock market – with soaring oil prices & inflation, there doesn’t seem to be much in favor of investing in stocks. There are predictions of US Presidential elections reviving the market. But as we have seen, Indian market seems to be sometimes aloof of global cues. So it might be an unpredictable investment.

At this juncture, let me provide you a new option. Say suppose, I need Rs 10 lakh for my MBA course & I request you to lend some money from your Rs. 10 lakh reserve. If you do so, I’ll pay you back your initial investment amount with additional incentives after my MBA. Would you do this investment?

All of us have heard that the best form of investment is education. But of course the primary benefactor of education will be the student himself. Can there be some form of mechanism where even others can obtain monetary profit from your education?

Lets forget for sometime that we are friends & see my proposition from a purely investment perspective. Here is the description of the returns I’ll give:

After passing out from my MBA & obtaining a job, I’ll set aside half of my salary for my yearly expenses (including income tax payment), a quarter for paying back my student loan and the remaining quarter as payment for my “education investors”.

Here are some objective facts that might help you in your decision making:

1) Placement rate in Rotman School of Management (the school I’ll be attending) with-in 1st 3 months : 94%

2) Average salary: CAD $ 120,000, highest: CAD $ 300,000, lowest: CAD $ 50,000

3) Average work-experience: 4 yrs, my experience: 4 yrs.

4) Average GMAT score: 640, my score: 720. Please note that GMAT score can’t be directly correlated with academic performance. Moreover I happen to be from a very competitive Indian IT pool which will have much higher average GMAT score (my estimation is ~700)

5) An important macro-economic consideration you’ll need to make is the increasing trend of CAD $ against the Indian Rupee. Would it continue for few more years?

Let me explain your returns with an example. Say you’ve invested Rs 1 lakh. After 2 yrs, I get a salary of CAD $120,000 (i.e Rs 48 lakh @ Rs 40 per CAD $). I have allotted 25% of my salary for returning to my investors which will amount to Rs 12 lakh. Since you’ve invested Rs 1 lakh, you’ll get 10% of 12 lakh, i.e Rs 1.2 lakh. So your return on investment for 2 yrs is 20%.

You’ll be entitled for more if my salary is more & lesser if lesser. But you may lose some money if my salary is less than CAD $ 100,000.

So my million dollar question is, are you ready to invest in my education? If yes, how much?

Please add your answers/doubts/suggestions in the comments section below.

N.B. some of the numbers mentioned below may be deviated from actual figures.