Execution "Unfortunate" it seems

New Delhi has called Saddam's execution as "unfortunate" and "disappointing". I guess we are talking about the death of a murderer who killed innocent people for his selfishness and not about somebody who served people. But what we forget is that 3 bags of skulls and skeletons of little children have been found in Noida. It was found that these children were sexually abused before being killed. It is really more unfortunate than Saddam's execution. When will we realise our priorities ? I hope the government knows about this incident. Please wake up guys. Know your duties. Give importance to issues that affect the common man more than the political issues.

Of course Saddam is punishable, but how innocent are you?

Orkut is under construction. So I have to do something else online. I better write a blog on something that I wanted to write for a long time.

Now that Saddam Hussein has been executed by the so called "Iraqi" Government which I dont agree with, lets look at the issue from my perspective.

Of course he killed innocent civilians and committed brutal murders. He raped young girls who visited Iraq. But what did u do? You killed more people than he did and you have made a bad country worse which is killing itself with civil wars. Who gave you the authority to go and raid Iraq? Is it because of your money? Time will decide the worth of your currency. It is not long before your currency will be treated like toilet paper. Your so called "dominance in the world" will be shattered in another few years.

You claimed that there were weapons of mass destruction at Iraq. So you brought in some (not some, very huge amounts) weapons of mass destruction to Iraq to counter them. But I am sorry, you have not found any weapon of mass destruction. You killed whomever you wanted to by linking him with Saddam. You destroyed the whole country of Iraq. Can you give back life to those innocent millions of people who lost their life just because they were in Iraq.

You supported Saddam when you wanted him to counter Iran. But when he stopped doing that, you go back and stab him to death. You are very good at this art.

I am glad that your country is being served by a "good and intellectual" person as the chief. As long as your country has such a person, no weapons of mass destruction is required. He will take care.

Im leaving for now, waiting for another opportunity for orkut to go under construction.

INDIA WINS ATLAST

Now here I am, pressing F5 every 30 seconds, waiting for Indian Institute of Foreign Trade(IIFT) results, I have nothing more interesting than to write a blog. India has at last won a test in South Africa(We have won in Australia but not in South Africa) . The good point in this victory was that, we cannot pinpoint on a particular player to have won the match singlehandedly. It was more of a team effort that paid India the goods. Let us now look at the individual performances of the match.

Sourav Ganguly:

The comeback man, who played with guts in the game scored a 51* in the first innings. The very fact that he ran out of partners shows his grit and determination.

VVS Laxman:

The man who demolished the Aussies is now back to torment the South Africans. His technique is very good and he is the man for our middle order. His 75 in the second innings helped us stretch our lead to more than 400, an important psychological barrier.

Sreeshanth:

This dancer boy from Kerala showed us the character to be shown on these kind of pitches. He never gives up . His 5-wicket haul in the first innings virtually sealed the match in our favour.

Sachin Tendulkar:

Our Master batsman showed hints of his old form during his first innings knock of 44. Lets see how he performs in the rest of the series.

I am looking forward to good knocks from Sehwag and Dravid. They are due for a long time.

Dhoni has to play his role of a cameo like a quickfire 70-80.

Zaheer and Kumble are bowling well and if they continue so, India has the chance to win the test series.

Come on INDIA dhikado !!!!!!!!

The Master is Back!!!

The Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar blasted his way to his 40th one day century in the comback game and once again proved that he is truly a master. The way he hit those cover drives and pull shots made his critics run for cover. However it was tough luck that Windies were awarded the game according to Duckworth-Lewis method inspite of the fact that the game could have gone anywhere in the next 30 overs.

Tendulkar began his innings in a not so great manner with a few nicks and edges. That was understandable because he is back from an injury and also that the pitch favoured low bounce. But once he got his eye in, he showed to us why he is Tendulkar. He increased his strike rate as the innings progressed and ended up scoring 142 off just 148 balls with 13 fours and 5 sixes. The 3 cover drive sixes were just examples of his genius. It is worthy mentioning that he batted through the entire 50 overs without any big strain. That he is able to bat through 50 overs comfortably shows that he has completely recovered from the injury.

Long live Tendulkar!!!Long live thy cricketing career!!! Long Live thy centuries!!!

(Looking forward to writing another blog on his 41st ODI century in the next match against the Aussies)

BLOGS BLOCKED

I am here to express my anger at the Dept. of Telecommunications(DoT) since they have blocked most of the blogsites including blogspot which most of us use. They claim that thay have blocked the blog sites because terrorists apparently used some of these blog sites. So what! If some terroroists use an e-mail client, will they ban those sites too. If some terrorists eat 5-Star will they ban 5-Starts altogether? Those in charge of this should bring in some rational thinking rather than taking illogical idiotic decisions. I am now viewing my own blog through proxy servers. The DoT should rather try to improve their infrastructure than acting as a censor board. I hope I made myself clear. Looking forward to some better decisions from the DoT.

Zizou - Your Head-Butt rocks

This may be a belated blog on this topic. Better late than never. I am one of the very few people who support the Head - Butt of Zidane. Who will not do it if his/her Mother and sister were insulted by a stupid opponent in a soccer game? I feel that Materazzi should also have been given a red card for provoking Zidane to do what he did. But looking at the result, had Zidane controlled his emotions, he could have taken his team to glory. He could have signed off in style. He could have taken the World cup to his country with his final game. That would have been a fitting finale for this great footballer. Who can forget the way he played against Brazil and his penalty kicks against Portugal and Italy. He has to be appreciated for the fact that he took his team to the final which was not even expected to go to the second round. "The Golden Ball" is a fitting consolation for what happened to him. We should only pity him and not say that he is arrogant . This is an example of what will happen to even the best of players if they dont control their emotions even for valid reasons. So keep your cool guys and never ever lose your temper. I guess I am giving a lot of advice and I will stop it. So bye now, will try to get back to blogging as soon as possible.

INDEX OF SITES THAT I RECOMMEND

I have created a page that lists out the links to sites that I have visited . U can visit this page and check out on these cool links.

VOTE PEOPLE VOTE

This is my second blog after the first one I wrote about 2 months ago. I never found time to sit and write my second blog and at last here it is. I was contemplating on to which should be my blog about, whether the death of the great charismatic leader Mr.Pramod Mahajan (or) the brutal murder of Engineer Suryanarayana by the Taliban (or) the Vadodhara riots where a person was burnt alive inside his car (or) the ever soaring Indian stock market which is surpassing all its records and closing at all-time highs daily. But finally, Tamilnadu Politics gets the priority and everything else takes a back seat.

This is the first ever election in the history of the state (as far as i know) in which the two opponents DMK (along with Congress, PMK, CPI, CPI (M) and Muslim League) and AIADMK are equally likely to form the government. This is the election which has seen the entry of "Captain" Vijayakanth into an already confused State politics. This election has most freebies from all the ends (DMK-Colour TVs and 2 Acres land, ADMK-10 Kg Rice, gold for mangalyam and Vijayakanth-door delivery of 15Kg of rice and 500 for provisions.).

The DPA(Hereafter referred to as DMK+) has definitely lost some of its support which it had during the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections the chief reason being the lessons learnt by the ruling AIADMK after its poll debacle in 2004. The Vaiko factor is also going to haunt the DMK+ as it was not able to hold on to its wining ally. The AIADMK has definitely gained a lot in the past 2 years by reverting on its policies like Anti Conversion Law and Softening its stand towards the Government employees. Captain Vijayakanth is definitely making a difference this time even if not in terms of the no. of seats his party wins but his sheer potential to change the winner in closely fought constituencies. This election has also seen the entry of "LOK Parithran"(LP), a party formed by a group of IIT-ians who have left their million dollar jobs to fight for good governance. First of all I would like to congratulate them for their bold initiative to bring in young, educated, saner brains into Indian politics. And Actor Karthick is also trying his luck this time by joining the All India forward Block and is expected to hamper ADMK more than DMK.

Crucial aspects of this election:

1. The Vijayakanth Factor:

Nobody knows what his exact vote bank is, but his party is expected to garner a handful of votes enough to spoil DMK's chances in areas like Madurai and Theni. His voters are expected to be more of previous DMK voters than previous ADMK voters. According to opinion polls he is expected to get 5% of the votes but my gut feel tells it will be more than that. This might become a blessing in disguise for ADMK. He might also get votes from people who are pissed off with both DMK and ADMK.

2. Change in stance of Jayalalithaa regarding Rice:
Jayalalithaa strongly opposed DMK's 1 Kg Rice for Rs.2 by saying that it is not feasible. But she quickly changed her stance @ Andipatti promising 10 Kg Free rice for every home. This might bring down her credibility and can even help Vijayakanth or the DMK.

Effects of the Result:

1. On the DMK:
Winning the Assembly Elections will help DMK establish itself better @ the Centre. Whereas losing this election will make DMK lose some of its importance @ the Centre.

2. On the ADMK:
If Jayalalithaa manages to win this election she will be next to only MGR to have successfully defended the post. Losing this will be a big blow because the party has the support of Maximum Film stars, has managed to bring in Vaiko and has also improved its Chemistry with the people.

3. On Vijayakanth (DMDK):
This is the debut elections for our Captain. Even if he manages to capture very few seats this time, it is a laudable effort considering the fact that he floated his party hardly a year ago. He has a long way to go unless and until his party loses in all the constituencies.

4. On MDMK:
If AIADMK loses this election, then the decision to leave the DPA would have backfired for the MDMK. It will lose its credibility with ADMK and its vote bank also will start diminishing. So this election holds the future of MDMK in a big way.

5. On Lok Parithran:
It will be good for the country if at least one of these candidates win. Getting back their deposits should enable them to come back strongly next time (May be Lok Sabha) by contesting in more seats.

6. On the People:
This election will showcase how many people from Tamilnadu want freebies and how many want good governance.

This is a once in a 5-year chance to give the mandate. So people even if u don't want to vote for anybody in your constituency, choose the "None of the Above" option, which will reflect people's dissatisfaction in the past governments.

THE GROWTH OF INDIAN STOCK MARKETS

The benchmark 30 share SENSEX (Sensitive Index) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) crossed 10000 for the first time ever and celebrated Valentine’s Day a week earlier on February 7th 2006.

The BSE Sensex is a weighted index of India’s top 30 largest and most actively traded stocks on the BSE. The 30 stocks represent various sectors like IT, Pharmaceuticals, Banking, FMCG, Metals, Oil, and Automobiles amongst others. Stocks like Infosys, Reliance, ONGC, SBI etc. form a part of the Sensex.

The Indian Markets have been on a bull run* for the past 2 years. Sensex first hit the 6000 Mark in January 2004 and since then there has been no looking back. It had a few hiccups when Congress came to power in May 2005 when Sensex stooped to a low of 4500.

It is remarkable that the market which was once in the hands of people like Harshad Mehta (early 90s) and Khetan Parekh (2000-01) who were manipulating stock prices for personal gains, has recovered from the lows and it now represents India’s economic growth and the strong fundamentals which have been laid by our PM Dr. Manmohan Singh when he was the Finance minister during Mr.P.V.Narasimha Rao’s tenure.

AN INSIDE VIEW ON THE STOCKS AND CAPITAL MARKETS

“Putting money in stock markets is investment and not gambling”

What are stocks (shares)?

Stocks are issued by a company to raise capital for its operations or expansions. When a person buys some shares of a company, he partially owns the company.

What can a person do with shares?

A person who holds the shares of a company has to find the right time when the price is high to sell-out and make profits. If the person sells his shares when prices are low, he ends up losing money.

Where can we buy/sell (trade) shares?

Stocks are traded at stock exchanges and the most prominent of them are Bombay stock exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Why do stock prices go up/down?

When more people want to buy the shares of a company, i.e when the company is performing well, the share prices tend to go up. This happens because when there are more buyers than sellers, the supply is lesser than demand and the sellers sell at higher prices since buyers will want to buy shares even if they are highly priced. Similarly when more people want to sell the shares, the share prices go down since supply is more and demand is less.

How can one gain money from markets?

The ideal strategy would be to buy at lower levels i.e when the share prices go down and to sell at higher levels i.e when the share prices go up.

What should we do to trade shares?

Any person of age 18 and above can trade shares. The person needs to have a trading account as well as a demat account. The trading account is used to buy/sell shares. The demat account holds all the shares bought by the person.

What should one do to avoid loss?

Stocks should be bought on the basis of their fundamental value and not their short term price movement. NEVER buy penny stocks** neither because they go up daily for a few weeks nor that they are cheap. That is a sure shot way to lose money. You never know when they’ll start crashing down.

What if the shares bought by me go down in price?

Patience is the word for you if you have bought fundamentally good companies and there is no need to worry. In short term the markets may have wild swings but it the long term the markets tend to be stable. If you have bought “not so good” shares please sell them off immediately because there is a possibility of the capital being eroded completely.

Future Prediction:

The Indian markets have never gone up so consistently and they are expected to grow @ 30% annually, provided the companies give good results. If they continue to do so, the Sensex will probably hit the 30000 mark at the end of the year 2010. The Great Indian Story has just begun.

Bottom-line:

Stock markets are not for the faint hearted. So if you cannot afford that extra bit of risk in the short term, kindly avoid the stock market. You have other risk free options like Bank deposits, Post Office deposits amongst others.

Starred Terms:

* Bull Run: When the markets go up consistently over a long period they are said to be on a bull run. When the markets go down consistently over a long period they are said to be on a bear run.

** Penny Stocks: This term was originally coined in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to denote stocks whose price is lesser than 1$.In India they are the stocks whose price is less than Rs.10. These companies don’t have strong fundamentals and their prices move by mere speculation. You have more to lose than gain here.