Balle Balle....Chandigarh to Amritsar

I know title doesn’t rhyme but who cares :P
After coming back from my trip to Bhubneswar (will post later), I was feeling all charged up. I wanted to visit all the places where I always wanted to go. Amritsar was one such place I never visited (You will find it odd if you know that I have stayed all my life in Punjab). Plan was finalized on Thursday's snack time in FC and we were on our way on Saturday morning. After a round of paneer paranthas and lots of toll check posts, we reached Amritsar at around noon. All of us were full of enthu and after finding our ways through narrowest lanes on earth, we reached Jallian walah bagh. Its small park where British soldiers gunned 1600 Indians for no reason at all. RDB had painted a very romantic picture of the place. After coming out of it, I must say, we were very disappointed. I think disappointment has to be blamed to over expectations. Govt. had installed quite a few monuments in there and it was pretty clean. But we rated it B-. So much so, we thought of curtailing our trip short and going back same day but then some sense prevailed and we decided to stick to our plans.
Lunch we had that day was unique. Khasta Kulchas with chhole we had were apparently "patented" by that shop and were not available anywhere else in Amritsar. Very crispy, full of butter and very delicious. yummmm....After that, we were on our way to Wagha border. En route, we saw the most majestic college I have ever seen in my life. Khalsa College. Edinburgh folks, it beats Fettes college hands down when it comes to grandeur. It was so awe inspiring that we started looking for relevant deptt where we can get admission.
Next pit stop was at Wagah. Road to border was full of trucks. We were pissed off to know tones of onion, tomato and garlic were being exported to pakis but were smiling when we were told that we get dry fruits in return. It made me remember Oye Lucky Lucky oye scene where Lucky impresses his cute little GF by telling that his dad exports peanuts and brings almond in return :)Wagah border is one of the few functional official road links between us and lost lands. It’s manned by BSF from our side and Pakistan rangers from theirs. Both sides host flag hoisting and retreat ceremonies daily. By the time we reached there, galleries were full. Men's sections resembled Bangalore's sky bridge. It can be quite annoying when you are made to smell other's sweat but it didn’t matter because the atmosphere at that place was awesome. BSF jawans, fluttering flags, patriotic songs and vociferous crowds. What more you want. Ladies were having gala time there. One, their seating area was very comfy. Two, they were allowed to go down to the road and run with national flags in hands towards border. Three and most frustrating of all, they were allowed dance on that road whereas boys didnt have space to adjust even their legs. Too much for equality of sexes. Grrrr.............. But to be honest, entire sight was so damn good that you feel over the moon even while shaking your heads. Retreat ceremony started. Our soldiers looked very smart. Their actions were crisp and officer-like but paki rangers sometimes resembled clowns. Their antiques made me remember black caps (Kiwi rugby team). Slogan mongering was going on both sides with BSF and rangers egging crowds on. We obviously out-shouted pakis. Ceremony got over at sunset. After couple of snaps with tall jawans and a cup of tea, we came back to Amritsar high on Dev D songs.
After praying at Durgiana Mandir in the evening, we went for dinner at world famous Kesar ka Dhaba. This place is way too small for its huge reputation (may be thats why its so famous). In the absence of any token system, you have to bear with so many eyes staring at your plate and waiting for it to get over. Even with all these "hindrances", their food made its statement. It was awesome. Bowl of Dal full up to brim with upper 1/4th layer being only pure ghee. Shahi paneer and laccha parntha were also dripping with ghee. But the best of the lot was Phirni. In Himesh Reshamiya's words, it was "superb, fantastic, mind blowing, history". After such sumptuous dinner, we had lovely sleep which was disturbed at 5:30 by my alarm.
And by 8:30, we were ready to go to Harmandir Sahab (whosoever says girls take more time getting ready haven’t met a friend of mine). Atmosphere in Golden temple was very pious and calm that it transcends one to different zone all together. We were in queue for almost an hour but we didn’t feel it as people were not hustling each other. After Darshan, we went to see Akal Takth, Dukh Bhanjani Beri and Jassa Singh's place. Then we went for langar. As expected, Langar was very tasty and clean. Arrangements at that place were so efficient and methodical that I think even million people can have their meals on a single day without any major hassles. One is simply amazed after looking at scale of preparations which goes behind Langar. Awesome.
After coming out, we had Jalebis and one big glass of lassi with butter and malai thrown into it. It was so filling that we had to skip our lunch. Then we visited a place called Ram Tirth which is built on place where Luv Kush once stayed/played. The place was very peaceful with 80m Hanuman ji overseeing entire area. After that we were on our way back to Chandigarh.Overall, this trip was very nice. Even though it’s the most visited city in Punjab, tourists destinations have managed to maintain their purity instead of getting drowned into waves of commercialism. In its small bye lanes, Amritsar has so many good things hidden. You have to know a local otherwise you will never find these gems. In these two days, though we thought we ate too much but we missed too many things. Glass of hot milk, Amritsari bhature, pithi puri, rabri, plain poori, Kulche.....phew
I must add that health freaks must avoid trip to Amritsar. One can not enjoy Amritsar with butter naan in one hand and calorie meter in other :)

Banking in deep shit? Naaah !!!

All of us are already well verse with current financial scenario which has unfolded before us. Free economy is under serious distress in Uncle Sam’s country and in the entire world. Sub-prime is the terror word nowadays. Each and every company, financial analyst, trader, banker, investor and even Pakistan are accusing Ninjas (No Income No Assets) of USA who were granted loans but they never bothered paying back for their recent downfall from grace. This crisis has bankrupted biggest names in B-world and severed many dreams of career switches.

These rumblings have impacted India as well. Markets are slumped to their lowest lows because they are emotionally attached to global cues. ICICI is rumoured to go bust. DLFs and Unitechs of world are on free fall. Even Infy has deducted my salary component even though dollar is up. Our esteemed PM says "we are not immune to global problems but our banking system is well capitalized and insulated from sub-prime crisis"

I dont know much about health of our financial system but I have no doubt that what happened in US can not happen in India. We will not see any sub-prime crisis in Indian real estate market. We will not see our banking system crash. Reading this, you might tend to feel proud that our banks are based on strong foundations and they would have been following the principle of banking and leveraging very religiously. Well, I think its partly true but the main reason why sub-prime crisis can not happen in India is corruption. Yes, you read it right. India has always been Utopian country in all corruption indices but its due to corruption that we will remain immune to sub-prime.

Before I explain how, lets have a quick primer to understand what the hell is this sub-prime crisis [people who know can move next para]. In a bid to increase their profits and to help beggars realise their "home sweet home" dream , US banks started disbursing home loans to people who didnt have enough income and हैसियत to pay back that loan. This was done on assumption that property value will always rise and banks can always takeover the property in case of default to recover their loan amount. It was come all, take all scene. Banks were doing it for higher interest rates. Loads of scums (having poor credit history) started availing these loans to buy homes which couldnt even dream of. This bubble started ballooning and so did the commissions of bankers but as Prem Chopra once said famously "नंगा नहायेगा क्या और निचोडेगा क्या?" people started defaulting on loans. Some of them defaulted at their first instalment itself. Suddenly market was flooded with these flats and obviously prices came down. With prices, bank's recovery amount came down. Now banks were forced to write-off these bad debts. This issue had an "action-reaction" effect on entire banking sector and world started facing another recession. [There are many other related factors but lets leave those just now]

As you know sub-prime is related to property. In US, when somebody buys any property, they get it registered with govt. after paying registration amount on cost of flat. Say if flat is of 1 Million, they will declare that to govt and will pay fee on full amount and loan will also be disbursed on registration amount.

In India, if a house costs 1 Million, we will get it registered for only 5 Lakh to govt to save on registration fee (which is 8% on registration amount) Bank will still disburse loan on registration amount. Buyer will give seller 5 Lakh in cash, black money as they call it because neither buyer nor seller have declared this to govt or IT deptt and they intend to keep it black. Property will be in bank's name only and in case buyer defaults, bank will auction the property to recover their money. Now, picture this, property's actual value is 10 Lakh. Bank need to recover 5 lakh. In worst case scenario, property value will come down by 50%, bank will still recover its entire amount + EMIs already paid. So bank will never have to write-off a loan as bad debt and our banking system will never crash due to sub-prime crisis.

As Gurdaas Mann once said, "Maade bande ch vi koi gun changa hovega, jyon hunda gunkari vadkhu lahsoon di gandi da". There's always a good aspect of worst. So, corruption is our insulation from sub-prime rather than strong banking practices (we all know how we are sold banking and insurance products).

So, dont worry. Invest, trade, speculate and live life to fullest till 2012.

City of lights

Well, I am not talking about "real" cities of lights like Paris or Las Vegas here. I am talking about my very own city beautiful, Chandigarh. I have been staying here for last 15 years. In last 15 years, I have been to most parts of it. ok ok, I still dont know where is International Dolls Museum or where Capitol complex is but what the heck. That doesnt really matter. I think most of you would concur with me if I say that the one of the best thing about Chandigarh has been its quality and density of girls. Err, I am again going off the track.

Well planned roads have always been Chandigarh's USP. Residents here as so used to straight lines that find it tough at other places (at least I struggled in Bangalore). Whenever, I used to tell anyone that I am from Chandigarh, their first line used to be compliment about good roads. I still remember college days when I used to vroom across these straight roads on my little Puch (and Vespa later on). Along with these straight lines, the thing we liked most were green roundabouts that had dotted all the intersections here. These intersections always gave me a great chance of getting ahead of those high flying kineys as girls used to get slow down there. The way I used to zigzag across the traffic maze, it always made Keshto wary sititng behind me and Gogs will still remember his high flying slam and dunk. I used to feel like Gladiator showing off my high centres of gravity and small turning radius [:p]. I used to go as fast I could and then take a turn without taking hand off accelerator and without pushing the breaks. It was real fun.

(Photo courtsey: Tribune Website.)

Now, after being away all this while from these lovely roads, the thing which I am missing most are those free flowing round abouts. Owing to tremendous pressure on city's traffic, administration has gone ahead and converted all those roundabouts into traffic light signals. The places where we used to drive like sinosoidal curve have now been changed. Now, you must stop, wait and then wait and then wait and more wait and then finally crawl through it. Traffic lights stand on these intersections teasing you, counting down the seconds to take off but green light will fizzle so quickly that even Jim of American Pie fame will be proud of his timings and you are left with another red countdown. Even if you manage to get past one signal, another awaits you after next 1 KM and then next. There was stats that a cigratte takes 2-3 mins of your life. Dont know how much of my life has been wasted waiting at these traffic signals now and how much would I be wasting more? It becomes so frustrating that one feels like going Bangalore way of driving on cycle tracks (yes, we have dedicated cycle tracks here) and pavements but then we far more cultured (in traffic sense) than any other place in India that we prefer to wait for next green light. I am missing my old chandigarh (but it doesnt mean that I am not loving its new Avtaar. that story later)

P.S. The thing which is most frustifying is the way kiney girls cover their faces behind kilometers and kilometers of veils. Je kar eh Nakaab na hon tan banda roz savere B21 the gaana gaanda jaave. "Ni, tere hoye savere darshan. Ajj din vadhiya langunga"