Shaadi Dus Rupiah!

Today's theme of my blog is somewhat different and its come from observing the world around me more closely... tinkering my grey cells a little more in understanding the nuances of life, our culture and the whats and the whys of it.

Here we see is the perfect imbalance our culture has evolved, along with the "eternal bonding" of a guy and the gal... imperfect because while the couple accepts the each other tan and mann se... Indian marriages so very ensure that the "dhan" part is not left out. Well the case in point is the dowry system that so very exists in our culture.

Let me take you along to my world of analysis of this whole system...
Dowry, for the uninitiated, is the "token" money given by the parents of the girl to the guy's family along with the marriage. Now, this trend must have started long time back, in the archaic world of "prea-var, tum aa gaye"... "haan meri mumtaz, main aa gaya".

It was that time that the women did not work/earn themselves and so, the father, as a goodwill gesture gave some money, for she would be on the "demand side" while the supply side would be the same. OK! Maybe so!

However, the "best" part of culture is that it evolves in the very queer way. It wears away the true essence of its very existence and ensures the unwanted part to keep it afloat. Well, to put things in the right perspective, its like eating the fish and expecting the bones to do the swimming.

In contemporary times, more and more women have started to focus on their careers, their individualism, their identity and their contribution to the family and the world at large. The moot point is... is dowry still applicable in such situations? Is it justified to give away the stupendous amounts of money as "token" of donating your daughter (literally speaking, the kanyadaan")? Today, the woman of the family may even be earning more than her counterpart... so financially speaking, her Net Worth could be worth more than the guy... will the oh-my-GOD Finance geeks be ready to give a fair valuation of each individual?

Well, to be honest, I find marriages as the best example of "charity", that even Mother Teresa may suddenly want to marry each day of her life. Its like, you do all the hard work, you work all the days to make the event a success, and hey hey hey, its the "janta" that walks away with the fun and the life of the show.

So now I see why charity begins at home... aha!

And I, with no dearth of confidence can say that it is one custom, that sure has led to grave consequences. Is it a mere coincidence that states as rich as Punjab ( most famous for the great Indian weddings and the generosity with which they dole out on weddings) also has the most skewed sex ratios?

While expecting marriages to be totally based on present-value of Net worth of all future earnings capacity would mean the primary invitees be the CAs, CFAs, and MBAs (thank God I still am almost two of them, so even in that case, I would be employed), I do urge that marriages need to be more balanced, the rules be more contemporary.

The woman of today may fight it out at very level for the right to equality, removing the corporate glass ceiling and so on... well, this is one "glass tennis court" all the women of today's times have. A glass court in which they do not see that they have more than half of it. Putting things in a perspective, even if they have the ball in their court, unless the world of tennis has exact half courts, their aim to put the ball across the shorter other half of the court could just be as much more difficult, just as life is, when such inequalities exist.

Well, as they said... too much of everything is bad... so it really is.

Its a matter of pride, of dignity that we contribute equally to the very occasion that redefines our life. It is the first sign of equality in status, self respect that the couple might show to each other. Think about it... the experience of sharing it all cannot be more romantic.

Well, after all this, still, for the brains-like-a-baggage,
You know, there goes a saying...

A sheep heading an army of lions
can easily be defeated
by a
A lion heading an army of sheep...

So who do you want to follow? The sheep or the lion...

...
...
...
...

"As a guy and a finance stud(ent), I couldn't help myself thinking...

WHY EQUAL SPENDING IN MARRIAGES IS BENEFICIAL

The girl could also be spending more so as to acknowledge her 51% and above shareholding post marriage. Hence she has a management stake in everything and every decision thereafter and uses the "husband wife company" credit cards like redemption of everything"

So now I really wonder if its actually better to have a 50% shareholding? Else... the money you get early on would be a perfect case of "Haath ko aaya, muh na lagaa".

No weaklings this week

I heard it somewhere, for a building to be strong, you need to ensure the foundation is perfect. For a building to be exemplary, see that the paint is perfect.

Well, the thing I am trying to emphasize here is that, for the task to be perfect, the final touches need to be the best, need to be so very artistic, so very Da Vinci types, where the work says it all.

Its been a long journey, since I took a small step in my life... or rather, my academic career... to put it articulately. I ventured into the unknown world of CFA... unknown for the fact it emphasized on the very principles I have, as a principle kept out of my life - ethics, hard work, perserverence, dedication, targets, goal ... all in all some words, I barely managed to understand once when I was trying to "bell" the CAT... (forget belling the cat, my ears still say I am in the Tirupati... city of temples for the uninitiated)

It is said - " Work smart, coz, if you put 10% of labor for 90% of your work time, try putting 90% of that 10% , in the rest 10%, results shall be, you get 100% of the job done with just 19% of the efforts" (I leave the mathematics for you to work out...)

People say, words say it all. I say, words save you from a "bare it all" situation...

Well, as I see myself in the last two months, I see that while I had been regular in being kicked out of school by my principal , for the first time, I was kicking my principles of life out. The perseverance which still was a virgin vocabulary for me, was like my most potent weapon, the targets I am seeking to achieve have become much more appealing, than perhaps the most divinely beautiful damsel I have ever sought in my life... (though I got one nonetheless) and hah!!! ethics... no no... I still have to cram their rules and try to scape through in whatever remotely close comes before me.

And this is it. The stage is almost set. A week before my grand finale is held. Well, as I say, while I shall be taking solace from the fact that the 90% time factor has been over, there is a lot of encouragement and motivation to be taken from the mere thought, that its time the 90% is worked through.

Talk about the driving force, trust the power of dreaming to success

Now, as the final week approaches, I look behind and say... this is the best you can do... however, the best is yet to come. Its easy to say, I have done my best, lets see, but inside, we all know that success is the sweetest thing ever...

While I do not doubt the OPINION that its fate that one is destined to, changing it is impossible, I also firmly believe in the FACT, that life is all about missions, and it's not always "Tom Cruise" who can do the "Mission Impossible".

I am, thus I can

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On 21st July 2006,

This blog is written on the outset of my stage in life, when I sometimes make myself so aloof from everyone and when I feel there are certain goals I have to achieve, certain targets I have set for myself to reach. I feel mocked down by problems, which were of most important nature to me. But now, I realise, they are actually petty things to what I should be thinking of, to what I should really think or ponder about.

And its written as a testimonial for myself, to know after many cycles later, whether I corrected my thoughts the right way or not.
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This is another such night
when i sit down thinking all right,
that what is it, that life wants out of me
that what can i get out of it for me.


I dream to strike it big
to make my life story a big hit
My ambitions are those of a super-hero in a flick
To achieve those, I have a plan to stick.


Sometimes I see my peers around
who make most of life all time round
And sometimes I feel so left out
and feel I have lost before a single bout.

Now,
I know I need to aim high
I know I dream all out for the sky,
But,
I think I am too weak and sly,
for I also know that I can't fly.


So,
I have a plan in mind
to make small goals to which I will bind
I won't care what my peers do or think
I would in my terms, live life as vibrant as a sling.


Whatever it comes, I will fight hard
however it is, I will think smart
I will define what I am worth for,
I will live my dreams galore.


Because,

I know I have my loved ones
who stand by me all the time not once,
who are always my source of inspiration and hope,
for whom, me and my very presence is never a dope.

For,
When I have them around with me
my all worries start betraying me,
and I thank god for blessing with with them
and my life and its journey begins a new journey then.

A journey that brings more satisfaction
a journey with fear and failures only a mere infatuation
I become more aware of my responsibilities and duties,
for I know there are people for me, with all their love and affection.

So, today as I sit down,
I vow to work hard and bring smiles for all of them,
To stop thinking of the world and work for them I will,
all the doubts and all the sorrows I have to kill.

So,

Dear my loved ones,
many thanks to you for now and for all of the time span,
I promise to bring smiles for you and do my best always,
for its you who made me believe,
I AM, THUS I CAN.

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Dedicated to my loved ones, who have brought the courage, the will and the sense of responsibility and respect for myself and for them.

Dreams galore!

The ambiance and the setting was just perfect. I was here, sitting down under the fading lights of the old "Philips" bulb in my shabby hostel room (more because of my "strict" housekeeping habits). There were some dry biscuits on my table well complemented with stale water and thick 1000 or so pages books. Midnight well past, I was the last person keen on finishing my readings for the day, or for the night (well thats another paradox as it was supposedly night, well past midnight but the sun was seemingly much brighter than all the lights in my room combined and the moon... ah, it was amavasya (no-moon) night).

Just then, I wondered, why am I doing all this. Why do I need to work hard and long for something I want to achieve. Can't life be simpler?

People say, thats the lesson life teaches.

I say, why does life keep teaching me something I just don't want to learn.

And more food for thought gave me the burps of - "What will I be, what do I want to be, five years down the line?" And just then, I draw the curtains of my room, and in the cool and dim serenity of my room, I partly fall asleep. Well partly, coz while I am not actually sleeping, I fulfill the "dreaming" role of a sleep. And below is that magazine article, which publishes in the 10th Aug 2012 publication of Business World, a famous business magazine in India, which talks about what I am, what I have become, what I have achieved and what it took to achieve that.

As if dreams were all about fantasies and cupids!!!

The magazine article:

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Trust this guy, he'll make you rich!

Aug 10, 2012 :

Today, for our “guest of honor” column, we highlight the career growth of Mr. Varun Ahuja, a renowned equity analyst and investment guru. He was recently accredited by Forbes, as the Financial Guru of the year 2012. In fact, many people in the financial world say he is bound to be the Indian version of Warren Buffet. Varun has worked for 4 years with MyMoney Financial Services, an equity research firm which has been a meteoric rise in its popularity and value ($1.5b) and has developed (through Varun), one of the most innovative and best-performing funds of all times, the MyMoney NewIndia Fund, which had the stocks in the growth sectors in India, such as infrastructure and textiles and which saw its NAV rise by 8000% in just 2 years. Currently, he is the chief analyst of the firm and fund manager of the company’s Mutual Fund division

However, not everything has been so rosy about the career of Mr. Varun. He left his job with Tata Motors, as a Finance Manager, which he got after his MBA. His ambition and career interests were towards investments, equity research and i-banking. He left the job with a plum salary and joined his friend’s small time equity research firm. His hard work in that firm was shown when he managed to add more than 200 new clients in just 1 year from all around India and abroad.

Says Mr. ABC, his collegue, “There are so many instances, when I saw Varun in office overnight, studying the world markets, before finalizing of portfolios of our mutual funds”. Also, there were some crucial decisions he took, such as the famous “Mehta scam”, where he almost lost his job, when he opposed his fund manager, Mr. Arshad Mehta, the unethical use of insider information to take company positions in various vulnerable stocks.

The last few years have been historic for the Indian Capital Market. The reforms process has catalyzed the growth and efficiency of the Indian capital markets and thus despite the last 2 yrs of bull run, lead by textile, infrastructure and power firms, there have been no scams or irregularities seen in the market. Also, the more robust and mature SEZ policy of the govt has ensured cities like Surat and Ranchi (made complete SEZs) bring as much FDI as the whole of India attracted some 5 years back.

Says Mr. Rahul, MD, MyMoney Services, “Varun has the habit of taking calculated risks. I have so many instances to remember, when we have endlessly fought over certain key issues such as new sectors to target and companies to invest in. There is not just one single occasion when he has gone against me, betting on his strong belief and meticulous hard work and calculations.

Truly, Varun Ahuja has shown whld at it takes to become a successful man, and how to nurture your dreams, and work towards them. In his words, “What lies before you and what lies behind you are trivial things, to what lies within you”.

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I realise that its easy to dream all this and then happily forget it. But then, if we don't dream, how will we know what we want, or what we should aim for. "

But honestly speaking, I don't just to dream this. Check this out:

A father killed himself, after having the biggest of houses in London and the best of luxuries he aspired for." He wrote in his last letter - I have achieved what I aimed for in life. Now that I don't have any aim in life left, why not leave life now?"

His son, thought of dreaming something which he could never achieve in that case.

He dreamt to make every human on earth, know about every other person and every other happening on earth. And he knew dreaming this, while he would never take his own life, he would most certainly earn fortunes trying to fulfill his dream.

That man was none other than Ted Turner, founder, CNN news services.

This is the power of dreaming and "yeh hai meri kahaani, khaamosh zindagaani"! (Translated: and this is my story, a silent story of my happening life)


Oh by the way,
Did I forget to mention -

I am therefore I dream,
I dream therefore I think.
I think, therefore I do,
I do, therefore I will be!

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