ICICI's PruTracker - Analyze Scheme Performance

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund is one of India's leading AMCs. They manage a lot of money (AUM) and are innovative in their product offerings. They also have a good track record of technology use. Their web site was one of the first to offer direct purchase of Mutual Fund units as well as portfolio tracking.

Read more on my main blog...

How much is your Religion Worth?

Most Hindus visit their neighborhood temple on a regular basis. Puja is done by the temple priest who uses the offerings brought by the devotee. Things like fruits, a coconut, insence sticks, flowers etc. The puja typically ends by the priest bringing out the aratii with the burning camphor for the devotees who after blessing themselves from the flames, put their offerings in the plate. This money typically goes to the priest and helps suplement their often meagre income.

How much do you give? How much is the priest's services worth to you?

I normally see small denomination coins in the thalli. With the odd 10 rupee note thrown in. I don't remember ever seeing anything higher than that. The hundies of the larger temples typically attract the 100 rupee notes. I don't know if any of the hundi money benefits the poor priests. I think not. It typically goes to the temple committee.

So, what is it worth to you?

The Temple on New Year's Day

We visited the local temple today and the did the usual puja. The place was crowded. I was stuck by a thought. Why am I here today? We go the temple fairly regularly but why on the first of January? Then I realised that I do not know the new year day as per the Hindu calendar! That was a sobering thought. I am a practicing Hindu but I lack fundamental knowledge about my religion. A sad state of affairs I must rectify as soon as I can.

Call For Interview - LMS?

I received a call from a consultant who found my resume on the web. He was kind enough to tell me that he used Google to search for "CV of LMS administrator" on Google (without the quotes and my resume came up as the last result on the first search result page! That is a position of 9 on Google for this particular search!

I have developed LMS systems. I have developed EAI systems to interact with LMS systems but I have NEVER administered a LMS!

Should I blame the idiotic Indian IT HR consultants who have a well deserved reputation for being idiots or should I blame Google for wasting 2 minutes of my life?

Goa Vacation!

We are off to Goa today for a much needed vacation. The kids are very very excited and so are we!

Growth In Coconut

I broke a coconut on September 15, 2007, and found a strange growth within. Padmaja was very excited to see it. It seems this is very very rare and is considered to be very auspicious. I had never seen such a growth before though Padmaja had.

Ram Setu: Advani questions Center on affidavit (video from IndiaTimes)

A video from the IndiaTimes web site showing a Times Now News about L. K. Advani, the leader of Opposition speaking about the Ram Setu issue and the Lord Ram.

Original video web page. Copyright resides with original copyright owners.

Indian Central Government Says No Proof Of Ram's Existence

The Indian Central Government in New Delhi claims that there is no historical proof of the existence of Lord Ram, the King of Ayodhya and of the hearts of all Hindus the world over. The beloved God of a billion Hindus never was. The shining beacon of Truth & Dharma is a mere hero in a fairy tale. He was not of this earth. He did not walk the land, with his brother and wife, fighting Ravana, He Who makes The Universe Scream, and his demon hordes that threatened the very existence of life on earth.

He did not exist!

He did not show the world how to live a life of Dharma. He did not show how compassion, truth & love conquer all. He did not show how even the Gods suffer from human frailties when they walk the earth among us as men and women. He did not show what it means to stand & fight shoulder to shoulder with the forces of Dharma & Good regardless of the nature of the being fighting alongside him. He did not show that humans alone do not own this world. That Vanars and all other beings also have a place and a right to live a life of Dharma.

He did not exist! 

 

Rise ye, all you Hindus! Rise! This is blasphemy! An attempt to subvert the very faith that our lives are based on. A blow to every Hindu. Rise now and bring them down! Throw out these people that dare to say that our Lord Ram did not exist! Rise now before it is too late!

AMCs come together to oppose entry load waiver

The Economic Times reports that leading AMCs have joined ranks to oppose the SEBI's move to scrap Entry Loads on direct fund investments, i.e., investments that do not go through a broker.

What SEBI is trying to do here is to ensure that when an investor approaches an AMC directly to purchase units or set up an SIP, he or she should not be charged an entry load. Quantum AMC is the only Indian AMC that allows investors to purchase funds directly and does not charge an entry load. Investors can create an account on their web site and transact directly. That amounts to a 2.5% saving every time you purchase mutual fund units, either through a bulk purchase or via the SIP route.

If an investor is capable of making their investment choices then why should they pay an entry load? SEBI's move makes perfect sense. Then why are the AMCs opposing this move? Or is it the brokers who are opposing the move and hence the AMCs are under pressure? I suppose the latter is the case because most AMCs pay out the entire 2.5% charge to the brokers.

The argument is that brokerage houses have spent huge amounts of money to set up investment centers across the country and AMC will have a very difficult time replicating this reach.

What? Does that argument make sense? Not to me!

We are talking about direct investments here. I don't talk to a broker anyway. I do my own research on web sites like Value Research Online and make my own decisions. On my own time. So why am I paying an 2.5% entry load?

Quantum AMC has a solution. You can either do all your transactions online if you have Internet banking facilities from your bank (like ICICI, HDFC, SBI etc). Otherwise you can download their application form, print it, fill it in and post it along with a cheque. Simple. Total cost is about 30 rupees even if you have to use a cyber cafe to access the Internet and print the form. Plus postage.

Do the math people. 2.5% of your money is lost every time you buy an mutual fund. That 2.5% would have earned the same return as the rest of your money.

The Story Of Krishna

Cartoon Network is showing an animated series on the life of Krishna. The first part, The Birth of Krishna, was telecast last year and has been rerun many time since. The second part, Kansha Vaad (Killing of Kansha), was telecast on Tuesday, Sept 4 on the occasion of Janmastami, Krishna's birthday.

The entire family watched the Kansha Vaad and we all enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended,

Bomb Scare In Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Public School

August 17, 2007. The scariest day of my life.

My children's school (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Public School, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad) received a bomb threat in the late morning, close to noon. The children were rushed outside into the playground while the police bomb disposal squad took over the premises. My 3 year old son and his class mates from LKG & UKG were sent home by bus at the regular time. My daughter (class 4) was still at school. We finally received the all clear after 1.00 pm and then the children were allowed to go home.

Those were the worst 3 hours I have ever spent. Thank God the threat was a hoax.

Mamli & Bablu On Independence Day (August 15, 2007)

This year both Mamli & Bablu participated in the Independence Day celebrations in our complex (Steel & Mines, Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad). They had practiced a song each and sang them after the flag hoisting. Watch the videos below.

Mamli's Song

Bablu's Song

Vande Maataram - Another Video (Lata)

Happy Independence Day

60 years and counting...

What does this mean to you? Are you proud to be a citizen of India? Or are you ashamed?

I went hunting for Vande Maataram on the web today and found a number of videos on You Tube. The one below is a copy of A R Rehman's video based on Vande Maataram.

A. R. Rehman's song based on Vande Maataram.
Download Vande Maataram from the Government of India web site.

What Is Green Like? The Best Advertisement I Have Ever "Seen"

I don't have to say anything to introduce this advertisement. Please see for yourself.

 

This copy of the advertisement was posted on You Tube by coderedreel on February 13, 2007. Thanks coderedreel for sharing this video.

ICICI's Online Banking, Infinity - Service Unavailable!

ICICI Bank offers online banking facilities free of cost to it's customers. Their banking portal is called Infinity and is pretty good.

However it does have it's off days and today is one of those. I am not sure what is wrong today but I ended up with a blank screen with only "Service Unavailable" on it. No apologies or regrets. No we will be back in a while. Just two words.

Lack of good manners? Laziness? Or just the default web server setting? If it is the last, then I am scared about my money.

 

[Update - 9.41 p.m.] - Service still down. I was able to access the site for a little while at about 4.00 p.m. but have not been able to connect since.

Picasa Web Album Slide Show

A slide show of our trip to Srisailam in early June 2007.

 

 

Create you own Picasa Album Slide Shows here.

Reading A Book - How To Find The Time?

I read for pleasure. The information content is incidental as far as I am concerned. That is to say I don't go looking for books that will teach me something. Rather I read books that I want to read because they are fun to read. I would rather curl up with a pot boiler than read Jack Welch.

That is not to say I do not learn anything from the books I read. I do. In addition to the pleasure factor, every book has something to give. Some piece of information, a thought or two or simply a different way of looking at things.

The problem is that there are only so many hours in a day. Weekends are for householdy things. Groceries, the broken clock, insurance premium payments, etc etc. And of course to catch up on sleep

Anyway, I read a number of blogs regularly and one of them, Life Hack, has this post titled "How To Automatically Read A Book Per Week Without Taking Any Additional Time Out Of Your Day". The title caught my attention and I eagerly started reading. Agreed with the author for the first few paragraphs. And then I started getting irritated.

The author talks about Audio Books as the solution. Nice, techy solution. But will it work? Say in an Indian context? Let us look at an example:

My wife, Padmaja, is a professional with two kids and a husband. I mention the husband part because she claims she has a lazy bum of a husband. She commutes to work on a scooter. A drive of about 8 Km's which takes about 30 minutes each way. Her day starts at 6.00 am when she has to cook breakfast & lunch for everybody. Then she kicks my butt out of bed at about 6.30 and goes to wake up our daughter, Mamli. She then spends about 45 mins with Mamli reviewing homework or preparation for any tests etc. In the meantime I do my morning stuff (teeth, tea, emails, shave, shower etc) before waking the boy, Bablu. Then we rush through the rest of the morning ritual of getting the kids to school (they commute by school bus) and getting ready for work. Padmaja returns from work at about 6.30 p.m. The rest of the evening is usually taken up by homework and dinner. The kids go to bed at about 9.00 p.m. and we have dinner right after. Bed by 10.30 - 11.30. We rarely watch TV. The post dinner hour is reserved for husband - wife discussions. Plans, moans, etc.

So how does Padmaja find / make the time to read a book? Will audio books work for her? If not, why?

• Audio books are expensive. Paperbacks are relatively inexpensive in comparison.
• They take time to setup on a player like the iPod. Paperback books do not need any "setup". They are ready to go out-of-the-box.
• It is easy to put down a book and then pick it up again after a while. You can quickly scan the previous lines and pick up from where you left off. Try that with an Audio book!
• Unlike for Audio books you don't need a computer to buy and read a regular paper based book. Padmaja hates the home PC anyway. Claims she spends enough time staring at a computer screen at work.
• You can read a book on the pot, leave it in the bathroom till you come back without worrying about damaging a 10,000 rupee gadget. Same with the bed. I am usually very careful where I put down the iPod. The kids are always jumping on the bed and I don't want one of them landing on my precious. 
• Driving in Hyderabad, India, while listening to an audio book is a recipe for disaster. Very very bad idea. Listening to music on a portable player if fine as long as you are not trying to understand each and every word of the lyrics.

So on and so forth...

So how does Padmaja find / make time for a book or two?

• Get the lazy bum of a husband to share some of the house work. Let him grumble and scowl but make him do it anyway. A kiss or two (or more)  at the end of the day would work nicely to reduce the grumbling and increase the householdy contributions 
• Read in bed. She is normally too tired.
• Read on the pot.
• Read in the kitchen. I feel safe making this suggestion because I know Padmaja is a fantastic cook and the end result even with a book in the picture will be excellent. My rotund self is living testimony to this fact!
• Read during coffee breaks. Carrying a paperback in her handbag is not difficult. Of course she would rather spend it speaking with other people! Ecch!

Our lives leave very little time for the things that make life worth living. And to me a good book is one of those things. I am willing to sacrifice other things like sleep to be able to read a book.

Maybe Yama Raj will put me in charge of Patal's Library.

Indian Govt. Blocking Blog Sites

The Indian Govt decided to block certain blogs that spread hate for India in an attempt to fight back against terrorism. They ended up blocking all sites on Blogspot.com and other blog sites. For example, my photo blog, Mo-Chitra, is blocked. I can of course still access it from work because our gateways are in Japan & Singapore. It is only from home that I am unable to access my blog.

I ran a tracert to mo-chitra.blogspot.com and got the following output:

d:\>tracert -w 20000 mo-chitra.blogspot.com

Tracing route to blogspot.blogger.com [66.102.15.101] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 13 ms 8 ms 8 ms 172.30.69.1
2 25 ms 10 ms 12 ms 203.109.92.1
3 18 ms 26 ms 22 ms 125.16.0.73
4 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms 59.145.0.226
5 43 ms 34 ms 25 ms 202.56.223.109
6 59.145.11.73 reports: Destination host unreachable.

Trace complete.

Querying the IP Whois tool for the last two IPs shows that they belong to Bharati Tele.

inetnum: 202.56.223.0 - 202.56.223.255
netname: BTNL
descr: Bharti Telenet Ltd.
descr: Bhopal
descr: India
country: IN
inetnum: 59.144.0.0 - 59.145.255.255
netname: BHARTI-IN
descr: BHARTI INFOTEL LTD.
descr: ISP Division , Long Distance Group - Telesonic
descr: 234 , Okhala Phase III
descr: NEW DELHI
descr: INDIA
country: IN

So Bharati is blocking access to blogspot.com... Mr. Mital, I assume you are not a fool. With this assumption, I hope that you will instruct the idiots in your IT department to work a little harder and not block legitimate web sites. It takes a few seconds to block an entire domain. It takes a lot longer to block specific web sites. Somebody in your organization is cheating you of the salary you pay him.

I managed to access my blog inspite of your blocking access by the simple device of using TorPark. Only a fool tries to stop the Ganga from flowing to the sea. Are you one of them Sonia, Manmohan and Mittal?

Shree Shree Jaganath Ratha Yatra 2007 - Photo Gallery

Puri Online has a photo gallery of this year's Ratha Yatra.

Also a video gallery with videos of the Snana, Hati Besha & The Yatra.

Great work Bulu & team!