interesting article by Yogesh Chhabria

It's interesting article by Yogesh Chhabria.....

LATELY, I have been thinking a lot about the Lehman crisis .. Spending money
that they didn't have and going beyond their means is one of the mainreasons for their situation today. In fact that is the cause for thecurrent economic crisis in the US.
When I see all this happening, I can only remember the good old days. Then,
karz was bad. People looked down upon those who took loans. Parents wouldnot give their daughter's hand in marriage to a man with loans.
But of course, the times have changed now. Everyone I know has a loan. Thebuzz word is EMI (equated monthly installment). Today, you can buyeverything on EMI - a house, a television, an i-Pod. In fact I know ofsomeone who just bought a fancy BMW 3 series on EMI, instead of buying acheaper car outright with cash. I mostly prefer to take public transport,but then I am an old man with old thoughts!
Anyway, coming back to what caused the crisis. Imagine having Rs 2 lakh inyour bank account, no regular income, yet buying a house worth Rs 65 lakh,in the hope of selling it for a higher price. Even if the price of thehouse fell by just 5 per cent (that is Rs 3 lakh), you will go bankrupt.This is what Lehman Brothers did; with around USD 20 billion they went andbought assets worth over USD 600 billion. Isn't it suicidal and simplyfoolish?
I am sure things would have been different, had I been the head of Lehmanbrothers. But who wants an old conservative man like me to head a complexfinancial institution.
But there are a few lessons that we can learn:
1.Live a balanced life and avoid overspending.
2.Don¢t buy things we don't need.
3.Don¢t buy Branded good¢s.
4.Don¢t buy excess Food, Cloths, Cosmetics, Footwear, electronics andFashion accuraciesjust think before you buy.Tip: World still has a lot of growth ahead and the future holds immenseopportunities for us. Let us make the most of it and save and investitwisely instead of wasting our precious little on things we don'tneed.
5.Try to balance life with work (No one is happy to work in thereprofession¢s).
6. Don¢t stress out your self, after work try to do some extra activitieslike swimming,yoga, walking, running where you can divert your mind from stress.A thumb rule: Health is more important than money.
7.Try to understand each other (Wife and Husband) in financial matter¢s andhelp eachother.
Tip: As soon as you get your monthly salary, set aside a fixed amount,usually 35 per cent, for insurance, savings and investments. You can thenspend the rest.
8. Not all loans are bad. Loans that are 'need based' (home loans,education loans) can always find a place in your finances against thosethat are largely 'want based' (Credit cards, personal loans, car loans).
9. Borrow only if repayment is financially comfortable.A thumb rule: Keep EMIs within 35 to 45 per cent of your monthly income
In that respect, there is one American who I really respect - WarrenBuffet. He has lived in the same ordinary house for over three decades,drives his own medium sized car and leads an extremely regular 'middleclass' life. If that's all it takes for the richest person on earth to behappy, why do all of us need to take extra stress just so that we can getthings which aren't even essential?

Happy Birthday to you....

Wow! Last night has to be tops on the list of one of life's greatest moments!...What a great party it was.... the guest of honor (Assad) was totally surprised. ...Everyone had a great time and there were so many fun moments....i was eager to keep the bash under wraps, and used fake plans to make it...
it was tough to fool assad, because he kept asking what we should do to celebrate the milestone birthday.... I told him "it was such a busy day, that I might not be able to do anything, (he kept asking) 'What are we gonna do for my birthday?"We had a surprise birthday party for assad this past weekend — He himself admitted that he was not expecting this....
Assad was shocked when he wokeup with a room full of friends yelling, "Happy Birthday!" He had no clue! We had a great time that night.We ate, joked around ...Assad and I agree that we have the greatest friends around here....Priya, chinu, teju, sachin, ishmeen, gurpreet....you guys totally rock!!! thanks again..."I can't believe we pulled it off. He was so blown away."

Dolphinarium...

Now now, is dolphin shows your thing?... Do you love dolphins? .... Yesterday we visited Dubai Dolphinarium for Dolphin show. It is one of the best places to visit when you are around in Dubai. .... I was honestly a bit skeptical about the quality of the show but it was a fabulous place for the three dolphins that perform and the four seals..... The dolphin trainers obviously know what they are doing because the show was simply amazing! ....It was 45 minutes of jumping, dancing, singing, and ball-throwiing... If you live in Dubai, this is a must see show ..we had ok seats (back row) and people were splashed by the dolphins in front rows a couple of times. At one point, one of the dolphins actually painted a picture and it was then auctioned off to the audience for 200 Dirhams( 2200 Rs!!!!!) .... All of us enjoyed and laughed throughout the entire show and just loved it..... Fabulous......The show runs for about 45 minutes and is full of excitement and entertainment. You may find some intresting events also in the show and may get a chance to ride with dolphins. The best part was... four Seals performing at the instructions of their trainers.
It was amazing to see that animals can be made to follow instructions of human beings with such ease. In real world if one can achieve even part of discipline which Dolphin show depicts then it would be different world......

Just a thought

Just a thought...today morning i was sitting in joseph polyclinic waiting for my appointment with my doctor...i ended up having a conversation with a firang.....its funny how big a barrier language can be... even though all of us generally talk in english, all our studies are in english, im writing this blog in english. and we may not realise it but everyday conversation in english with an Indian is so different with an everyday conversation in english with a firang..... the english that we speak is filled with hindi-english normal conversation suddenly feels very very formal with a firang... when you are comfortable around soemone you automatically want to use informal language... which is a combo of english and hindi , and when you consciously have to make an effort not to speak anything other than english..it becomes formal. and thats a huge barrier to become really close with someone.it is difficult to be friends with a firang... all the cultural differences that exist .... you can talk to them, spend time with them, have a good time even.... that doesnt mean that i cant be friends with these people. its just that they cant be my really close friends. and maybe that will never happen and maybe thats my own personal barrier. knowing that i wont be here for very long prevents me from wanting to become too close to anyone here. i guess i have to settle for having casual friends while im here.but i have so many great friends here already, and those are the friends that will stay friends forever.......