The concept of "I"

I have often wondered, who is "I"? I mean whom do I call "I"? Is it my legs? My face or my heart? This question has been in my mind since I was a kid. I would look into my hands and legs and wonder on the same question. When I say it is me who has written this blog, who is the me over here? My hands which has typed, or is it the eyes which read through the blog in order to rectify typos, or is it the brain which is thinking over.
Believe me I even had a few bizzare thoughts regarding this even when I was just a 10 year old. I would wonder if somehow my hand or leg gets separated from my body, I would continue to live and look at the separated hand or leg from a distance. So the hand or leg was never "me". Are they just not a few machines given to me by the almighty to make my life easy? Strange thoughts indeed.
This bizzare thought was extended by me to the extreme. I would think about a soldier from the Ramayan or the Mahabharata, whose head has just been snapped off from his body. That person would still live for a few seconds. And during this period, who is the "I" for the soldier? The head or the body? (Though I admit that it would be too difficult for the soldier to ask that question/or think about it in the condition in which he is in!!).
So is it the soul that resides in the body, which is the real me? But then can the soul think, solve equations, write blogs? Extremely difficult questions to answer. Often exploited by religious teachers or explored methodically through spiritualism (mind the subtle difference between the two methods). Such questions, however, do make me think. Think deep. Deep thinking needs time though and I never had enough of it.
Still I would explore this question in my blog hereon. As my son grows, perhaps the thought of being "me" is slowly creeping into him. One year down the line as he starts claiming a toy as "his". He would not even remember when this belief as being "me" came to his mind. But I am observing him and would continue doing so in order to at least scratch the surface of the answer.

P.S - Nowadays the traffic in my blog is very few. Hence I freely wrote about those bizzare thought of my  mind. With a heavier traffic I would have surely drawn quite a flak and haters of my blog

And what a year was 2015!!

I wanted to write this post for the last 40 days singing adieu to the year 2015. The year was important to me for more than one reasons and I wanted to blog those down before late.

1) I became a father on 2nd February 2015 and ever since that day my life's routine has changed. I am no more (or in better words "should not remain")  the old Narcissist self I have ever been. Where each and every thought in my life used to be regarding my career and more of "my". Oh no!! Actually I have become an even more Narcissist with "my son", the same which happened on 2nd August 2010

2) I finally have a home that is registered in my name. Although the date of possession was 20th February 2015, I started staying in this new home from 25th July.

My brain is not working well today to add any spice to this blog, which is clearly a bland one. Oh one more update, I am now an one year old father. The little joy in my life is growing fast and I have already started cleaning up my sports shoes and can't wait for the day when we start playing together.

9 month old father

The blogger world...You here it right. I am a nine month old father now. Almost 6 years back when  my would be wife came into my life, I declared it with a blog almost immediately. One may ask, why so late now. The answer lies in the fact that it took some time for the emotions to sink in and to find some time to write the feelings out. Frankly, when I was looking for my life partner, it was like finishing a 5 km race with a podium finish. So I had to shout it out right? Here, it is the beginning of a marathon, and being the runner I had to first build up to the steady rhythm of the run, which is going to be a long haul, and then respond to the world with gestures that I am going steady.
2nd February, 2015, 3:50 p.m. when I first saw my son, though I felt elated, it was not like catch him, or cuddle him, or hug him, it was more astonishment that made me stand back and watch him. It was more like a new creation has come to this world, where me and my wife were just the spacecrafts to bring him into the world (I am sure my wife, being the mom would have had completely different set of emotions). The next day, when for the first time I went close to him lying on a baby-cot, I was still watching him and trying to build a communication.
With days, those feelings have completely changed. With time, my son started responding to me and the communication channel has been completely established. So much so that when I go home after office and press the calling bell, that small creature jumps up like a Diwali cracker expecting to see me, upon opening the door. My son has become my hope now for fulfilment of a lot of ambitions which till now have remained unachieved. Perhaps that is what every father feels and that is what ruins them. Hence, I vow not to force my will on my son. I wish he becomes a good human being, and in the process of being good he achieves everything. Are you wishing alongside me?
P.S - I am also trying to understand a lot of mystery about God,  The Supernatural, Machine Learning and purpose of life seeing my son grow. I will write about those in the subsequent blogs.

Entrepreneur?? What about a political one?

Have you ever wanted to become a entrepreneur but never knew how to start or where to start? Have you ever wondered where would get you a good return. Believe me there cannot be a better opportunity than this. I would sound utopic. But the condition of leadership in West Bengal is such that there is no one whom the common men can bank upon and look upto to give some kind of direction to the state. Most felt that if the CPI(M )goes, Mamata would turn Kolkata to London, but by now at least the urban well educated citizen who voted for the change must be despairing. From left the state has gone ultra left. From a state of bad affairs the state is going towards anarchy or should I say autocracy something close to monarchy where the king rules. In case of West Bengal it is the queen. So such people who do not have anywhere to go who genuinely feels that the potential of this state was actually enormous. The British were no fools to try out this state first. (Or is it the anarchy among the Bengalis was an easy prey for them).
So the opportnity is enormous. If  you would like to have a political career, come over here and form a new party. You simply need to be credible and show the people some light at the end of the tunnel. There is an opportunity for political entrepreneur. Come try your luck out.

~ If only poltics was so simple or at least as simple as economics/business.

The Velocity of Money

GDP is a function of velocity of money. The simple concept which was so easy for me to understand theoretically did not strike me more until a few days back when I was crossing the road while coming to office. I saw a woman presumably from a village (a lower GDP area) who was also trying to cross the road. Pedestrians who are part of the city life (Higher GDP area), could easily find a way through the fast moving vehicles:  they ran, they sneaked through, they maneuvered .The high speed/velocity of their lives has made them accustomed to the high speed/velocity of their external environment. However it was a difficult situation for the village woman, who possibly leads a laid back slow life.
So what is the conclusion. I would sound far fetched as I always do:
The faster your life gets, you run faster, and you circulate your money faster, which in turns implies a higher velocity of money. That should reflect a higher GDP. This is my way of interpreting why the country side would have lower GDP while the city would have higher. This of course would be a vicious cycle, where you would need a fast sports car to travel even faster, however you can only get that when you have a higher gross product.
A few more abstract analogies:
a)  India never had, in fact never believed of fast expressways. However since the beginning of the new millennium, once the economy started having high growth, the highways started coming. Although they are not of the standards of the Auto Bahns, you can expect them to be, as GDP grows.
b) Indians still don't live on fast foods and still wold prefer the ghar ka khana over the canned foods. Implication: We are still not anywhere near US. (Pun Intended)
c) If you remember my blog post on teleportation. Can someone tell me what would happen to GDP under this concept if teleportation is indeed achieved.

For all those who are studying macroeconomics I, forget this crap blog and get back to whatever your Gregor Mankiw says on GDP and velocity of money.

Valuation of Paul the Oracle Octopus

Oracle Paul has amazed me no end. So much so that the recent slowdown of my writing ideas got a sudden boost. No I am not amazed by its prediction power. Rather by the amount of interest it has generated among the football lovers, as well as the people who need a daily dose of the crystal ball in their life. I am amazed because while in lesser developed parts of India you do find people worshiping cows with two heads/five legs or asking the talking parrot to predict their future I did not expect the same from that "advanced" part of the world. And then this business idea came to my mind. I might become a millionaire if I am somehow able to buy Paul and bring him to India and start a prediction business. The amount interest popularity that he has generated means my advertising expenses would be minimal. I only would need to announce to the Indian people his arrival.
So how much would I be willing to pay to acquire Paul? Let me start this valuation exercise. Assuming Paul's current value is based on the revenue (Discounted Cash Flow) that  is generating/potentially can generate in Germany, I will start with a bid price that reflects this value. And his value to me would be the NPV  that I can generate out of him  in India taking into account the price that I will pay.
Paul's Value in India:(Ok My target market segment would be mid level SEC)
In month one of operation in India, I can safely assume that demand would far supersede supply. What I mean is I don't need to estimate demand in month one. Rather I need to see how many shifts Paul can work remaining healthy in a day. I am assuming 6 days of weekly work (26 days monthly) 10 hours a day which means 260 hours per month. Depending on Paul's mood I assume that he predicts once in 5 minutes (I don't have any historical data in this regard otherwise I would have been more sure, but 5 mins look reasonable). So he makes 3120 predictions a month. If I charge 50 rupees per prediction (Again my target class is mid level who would be willing to pay this much amount). I am earning 156000 per month. On the cost side I need to feed him. Assuming he eats 2 kg of chicken a day. It comes to 200 rupees a day. 6000 rupees a month. I would need a sales executive who would be paid 10000 per month. (Including his PF, etc). I would also like to rent a multiplex space. My budget would be 20 K per month including beautification and maintenance. So monthly I am making a net profit of 120000. Hey I am not stopping here. Paul is a celebrity, even to watch his prediction games, people need to pay. I charge them a ticket of 5 rs for half an hour. In a mall I expect 300 guests on weekdays and around 1000 in the weekends. Around 10000 guests in the month. Which means 50000 in revenue. I need one more guy for sales. Pay him 5000. . Another 5K goes in Prints. Net profit 40000. So my Cash Flow in the first month would be 160000. Not bad.  I hope this to continue for the first three months. Then the fad would die down. Assuming Paul has 50% chance of predicting correctly. I can hope 50% of my customers to come back again for service. Oh common Paul's success rate is 100% in the world cup, I hope he can do 75% for me. So for the next three months My revenue would be around 117000. By then I would fire my second sales executive and make viewership free of cost (which in turn would be a good marketing channel). So net cash flow is 101000. Next three months would 75% of these and so on. I would like to continue with my business for a year and a half and then sell it off, either to a dinner plate or to a museum/zoo. I won't charge for the sell of unit. (There should be a limit to making people fool).
Now about my WACC, I am really confused now. Frankly I don't see any risk in the project apart from that the government takes up my case and bits the hell out of me. However the only way to find Beta for the project is through similar ventures. Has there been any similar venture? I doubt. Still I want to go ahead and take WACC = 15%.
Now what do I offer the current owner? I need a professional in Germany who can value him for me. But then he would charge me a whopping amount of money. I stick to trial and error.10000 Euro. Reasonable? After the calculation I find that NPV of Paul in the Indian market is 605857 and IRR 17%. Not impressive but then this is a very simple business case where Paul is made to sit at a particular location. If he is allowed t make an Indian tour. He would be worth in billions. Someone willing to try that valuation exercise out???

Vegetarianism

Let me start this blog by stating:
- No Offense Meant - No Religious Sentiment Meant to be Hurt -
I am not inducing a fight between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Just wondering why people crave for vegetarianism. So what are the benefits of being vegetarian. Health green food, high fiber, low calorie, green lifestyle, healthy lifestyle.......
Don't you get all these benefits of being a non-vegetarian. One might say, meat is one of the causes of high cholesterol & consequent heart disease. All points for vegetarianism and against non-vegetarians accepted. But let me give one example. In the animal kingdom, the king of the jungle is a non-vegetarian or should I say a pure non-vegetarian. Where does he get all his fibers, high value food?? Does he have high cholesterol, any heart disease? He never takes any green leafy vegetable. Last time I heard that a tiger can carry a dead cow by his mouth for miles without resting, without letting the animal touch the ground. Pure strength, Pure Muscle. And this strength is not obtained by being vegetarian. Can anyone challenge my argument for non-vegetarians giving a counter example to the above mentioned point? Then somebody might say Human beings are not animals, they don't stay in the jungle. Humm!!! Though provoking.
Historically human races that have lived on high protein diet mostly on meat are stronger, better built, one of the reasons of Indians being of shorter stature is because of the lesser amount of protein in the diet. Ok enough of going around let me put my point. "Poustik Swatik Ahar" is not going to build on your muscle, your power.
This just came to mind. Does vegetarianism help in building a stronger mind, more intelligent people. Newton, Einstein, were not vegetarians. The Royal Bengal Tiger is one of the most intelligent animal and he is a non-vegetarian. I think I am crossing the line now. I should stop this blog before the animal right activists pull out their "dandas" against me. I am not against animals. I am for non-vegetarianism.