Luck By Chance

With Farhan in the lead I couldn't miss this movie ! As Ajay was in India on a vacation, I took him along. He knows I am a crazy fan of FA :-)

The other day I saw an old episode of 'Oye, its Friday' on Youtube of course hosted by Farhan. Guest in that show was his childhood friend Duggu(Hrithik). Hrithik played a small cameo in this movie. He said Luck by Chance will easily be one of the biggest bollywood hits of 2009! amazing... I am a crazy Hrithik fan too. Hence I had huge expectations on this movie but I must say at the end of the day I am a lil disappointed. Luck by chance is yet another average movie. Very much similar to Fashion which also projects the real life scenario. Even in terms of story line this movie is quite predictable and there is no real juice in it. Prior to Rock On release I thought its going to be a trendsetter... even Rock On turned to be yet another average bollywood movie. But Rock On scores high(5/5) for its music. Same is not the case with Luck By Chance.

Every scene is quite predicable but I must appreciate those bits and pieces in the movie which are hilarious. There are few scenes which will have a rib tickling impact on you. The great thing about these scenes is that there are very few dialogues... mostly done with expressions and acts. I thoroughly enjoyed this dialogueless humor. Zafar Khan's(Hrithik) role was even more amazing. You need to watch this to appreciate the humor in it. & of course Rishi Kapoor's role is no less. I must say his role has life in it ! Delete Rishi Kapoor & his role from this movie... and you wont have anything much to watchout for!! apart from the sexy, curvy & drop dead gorgeous Isha Sherwani who also delivered her part quite successfully. Note: She has become my desktop wallpaper :P lol

Its worth giving a watch for those bits and pieces.

On the right track ?

Part III

Finally there is a sigh of relief among all of us with govt stepping in & taking swift measures to get Satyam back to normalcy and Jan salaries being paid off ! We lost few major clients as reported by media but managed to retain most of them. Now we can find the light at the end of tunnel as many prominent players are showing interest to takeover Satyam. They include L & T, iGate, Hindalco & Spice Group !

Even if some other company buys Satyam layoff will be inevitable. The first thing any new management focuses on will be increasing the Bottom line of their balance sheets (Operating margins) by cutting cost. And in any IT company chunk of the expenses are on its associates. Axe will definitely fall sooner or later but the good news here is that jobs of thousands of other associates will be protected.

I personally believe, initially when this crisis broke out govt acted promptly and taken few very good decisions. But things now are now very sluggish. For the past one month, the headlines of very news channel and paper is Satyam. With elections in the sight of visibility news on Satyam might be sidelined & can be found only in the middle pages! Slowly, steadily but surely they are bringing it back on track. It might take another couple of months to unfold the future of this company and 2 more quarters it should be business as usual ! We might also see a change in the name, another CEO, CFO etc.,

Sector Destruction Ceremony

Part II

Continuing from where I left in my earlier post....

This post deserves to be called the sequel of 'Self destruction ceremony' which focussed on how it all started and the immediate consequences. But I guess, that was just the beginning. 07.01.2009 is the date when the next part was released, roof broke down & things went upside down. This time it was more like the 'Indian IT sector destruction ceremony'.

'Satyam' has gone truly global this time. Of course for bad reasons. We kept saying that we have clients from 6 Continents and we operate in 66 Nations. I am pretty sure, the rest of the world too must have heard 'Satyam' by now! Generally movies of SRK, Aamir or Hrithik are released with huge hype & the movie becomes a blockbuster hit even before it gets released. This time its the turn of 'Satyam', starring Raju Brothers. The only difference is marketing & publicity for any theatrical movie happens before the release & here in Satyam's case it was the otherway around. Media has come together to project the 'Satyam Fiasco'. on the small screen. Trust me, I have never seen such a mass media coverage till date filled with hype & hoopla. 5 Days & still the coverage in full-fledgedly ON ! May be coz the budget of this movie is a whopping Rs. 7000 Crores !

It was an absolute shocker as things like these are quite unnatural in India. Not so shocking in the west as they have witnessed fiascos of several manfolds like Enron, World Com, Lehman etc., Many say Satyam's situation is very similar to that of Enron which has gone bankrupt in 2001. At that time Enron was the 8th biggest company in the world with over $102 Bn. But lemme tell u... Satyam's case is not as deep as Enron's was(atleast for now). Yes... Raju confessed that he inflated topline and bottom line numbers along with liquid assets. But that is not the end of all... we are in troubled waters, we are in quick sand but remember one thing we still have sizable revenues which are not fake. The issue was purely created by the top management & things hopefully be alright once some kind of takeover or strategic tie-up happens. Ofcourse, there are several other factors to be considered. Gaining new projects and more revenues seem to be quite an uphill task atleast for now. They might need to sack a portion of non-revenue generating workforce, focus more on cost cutting, bring something completely out of box etc.,

To be very frank its very exicting to be associated with this company, now more than ever. As my cousin rightly said, its a life time experience which many few people get. Every crisis has an opportunity if u are bold enough to look for it. I am lucky in one way that I am with Satyam(though at this point in time I cant proudly say) just because it makes all of us stronger. So much has happened in so less time. I am not really sure if a day will come when I can be proud of being a part of a dramatic turnaround(if any), as many things are not in my control. Satyam as a brand has gone for a toss... absolutely no doubt in it. But a Merger with some other well managed company might help clear the scars that were left by Raju's stupidity.

Next couple of weeks are going to be very crucial for us. A lot depends of the investigation, Q3 Results, cash reserves that company hold, Board Meetings, M or A. and ofcosurse Government. What I can do meanwhile is just wait and watch and may be.... be a lil proactive & start making a lil bit of preparation for my next job !

Self Destruction Ceremony

18:00 IST, 16-12-2008, Tuesday. We all received a mail which contained the breaking news 'SATYAM aquires MAYTAS' !! What rubbish... and IT company acquiring an Infra company? I dont find any common thing between both verticals expect the initial 'I'. The first thing that striked me is divestment(not diversification). I heard a lot about divesting business. One such classic example is Indiabulls which divested its businesses into Real estate, Finance & Securities an year back. But mearging of companies of two difference genres is something which I didnot hear till date.

Raju says... "its an unconventional move !". Analysts say it is a "foolish move." Shareholders say it is a "fraud move"! Whatever it is, this move has already effected the reputation of the firm.
The deal was called off overnight as there is a strong dissent among the shareholders. Satyam, stock was down 55% in NYSE & 30% in Indian bourses. Maytas stock was down 20% on each day for the past 3 consecutive trading sessions. Many deals in the pipeline will be effected and thereafter the impact of this act might cost its employees too. I will not be surprised if there is a change in top management in the next quarter or two. There are a series of similar things which have against Satyam in the recent past. First UPAID case. Then the WORLD BANK case & now the MAYTAS deal. This is no less than a self destruction ceremony. Dont know where we are headed & whats next in store but one more such immatured act might cost us dearly.

With major US financial & auto comapanies queuing up to file for bankrupcy and there after seeking bailouts, the future of all IT companies is looking bleak. This quarter can easily be the last one where the IT comapanies can show reasonable profits & growth rate. Its going to be too tough to sustain this growth from next quarter. If rupee starts appreciating once again, it will add to IT woes.

Fruits, Vegetables & Stocks !

The other day, on my way to home I saw a vegetables & fruits shop. To be frank I personally never go to buy any food items for my home. My mom takes care of all that... but for a change, I thought of buying a Pineapple. I don't even remember when was last time I bought some fruits/Veggies. I am clueless about the prices & measuring units!! I have learnt from the shopkeeper about the prices of various fruits in there. Interestingly SAPOTA(chikoo) last time when I bought(may be half a decade back) was given in dozens, now they are selling it in KGs! He said the cost of one Pipeapple is Rs. 20. One Apple - Rs. 15. Dozen Bananas - Rs. 20

I reached home without buying anything as I was a little skeptical about the prices. Better my mom handle this !

Now, when I look at my STOCKS PORTFOLIO, I saw half of my stocks are trading lower than Apples & Pineapples !!! It was surprisingly shocking to know that stocks have become cheaper than Vegetables,Fruits ! When I thought about this strange thing, I realised it is because of the infamous economic jargons - 1. Sub Prime Crisis & 2. Rising Inflation. Of course who doesnot know what effect these two had on us. If the former had taken a toll on the Multi National giants & Big Boys then the latter had a deep impact on the common man. In my view, the word of the year award should be given to 'Subprime'.

Approximate numbers: Sensex lost about 65% from its alltime high & Inflation has touched an all time high of 13% but my anual salary hike was just about 6% :-(

Thanks to the booming Indian economy :P