Leverage Rich Vs. Poor

Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank was asked on CNBC what is so different with micro credit from the current credit crisis that makes it a success. To them Micro credit can also lead to something similar to the current credit crisis. Micro credit gives credit to non-traditional (high default risk) credit seeking people in a more tradition way (the other way for Grameen's customers is to go to Loan Sharks) through Grameen Bank. The current credit crisis is also caused by excess debt taken on by people who do not have a decent income to pay the debt and have bad credit scores.

The host of fast money (true to the Show's name everyone on the show, including the host Dillan Ratigan, speak really fast cutting into each other ever so often), asked the same question to Mr.Yunus (Nobel Prize recipient for his work on Micro Credit). He answered that the Grameen's goal is not to make money out of the loan from the people but to help the people develop self employment. After the interview with Mr.Yunus, the gang on the show was shouting on top of each other that the goal of capitalism is making money and that there is nothing wrong in that thinking. Here is the video of that episode of Fast Money on CNBC.

On a brief thought the Fast Money experts (not so truly experts) appear to be correct. How can the people with no income and no credit history at all be given loans without the expectation of any returns? Would one loan a beggar 10 dollars and expect him to repay the loan? Conventional wisdom says 'NO'. Now replace the beggar with any other human with abnormally low income producing job or one that is struggling to lead a day to day life. To me, day to day life means feeding oneself and his/her family a decent enough meal three times a day. Again, conventional wisdom tells us 'NO'. If we look at the current crisis, people were given loans that at least had some kind of income though they were reported to be earning more than their real income. With this loan they bought homes in anticipation that the home prices will continue going higher for ever and that they (The lender and debt holder) could live happily ever after. But we have seen the credit crisis unfold before us in the last 2 years. So how can we trust someone with one credible source of income, when the smartest loan lenders in US and across the globe failed?

To that traditional thinking if we add the fact that the repayment rate of the micro credit loans is as high as 99.5%. Yes that is a staggeringly high number, a number so high not even the best banks lending to the richest in the world could match. So where is the difference between these two worlds? Mr.Yunus recreated this success over the last three decade or so with his Grameen bank in Bangladesh and around the world.

So we see that both traditional and non-traditional systems lent money to high risk credit seeking people. But one lost a limb and an arm and is still struggling to get up, while the other is walking tall with a aura of improving the human lives and conditions in the remotest and poorest parts of the world.

The Grameen bank was started and still operates with the motto of helping the poor. There is no expectation of a repayment leave alone the expectation of a profit. But to everyone's surprise including the founders, the loans kept being repaid at a high percentage. This micro credit is their only door to a brighter future and they could not risk losing that security blanket by defaulting the loan.To these poor people taking loans, Grameen Bank was their last straw at changing their lives; changing lives where they can have food for themselves and their children, send their kids to school, have a safe roof over their top, clean water to drink.

All these are basic amenities where the lenders and debt takers of the modern rich world are totally unaware of. They were loading themselves with debt beyond their abilities not because they were lacking the basic amenities, but out of greed. They wanted to make a quick buck; they did not want to be left behind in the race. This greed is what caused the leveraging and this greed is what's causing the collapse.

Here is a video of Mr.Yunus on CNBC during the recent economic summit in Davos. Here you can see in the early part of the video that the Brooklyn branch of Grameen has given out loans exceeding million dollars to about five hundred seekers with a repayment rate of 99.5%. The experiment paid off in West as it did in the East. Geography was not a factor in its success.

One question that truly surprised me in that video was 'Who does not have enough food in the world and how do we feed them?' - that is the world some of these people live in, but for millions in the world 'hunger' is a reality and helping these folks gain income producing employment should be the priority. May be it is time to rethink the traditional teachings of modern education and do something on my part towards this cause.

AR Rahman best

In lieu of the 3 Oscar nominations to AR Rahman, I compiled for my colleague at work a list of some of my favourite AR Rahman songs from over a period of time. Here is the list. Click on the song name to open the video in You Tube. The Oscars are live on ABC at February 22nd, 2009 at 8 PM EST.

Rang De Basanti - Roo Ba Roo
Jiya Jale - Dil Se
Taal - Taal se taal mila
Rangeela - Mangta hai kya
Dil Se - Chaiyya Chaiyya
Meenaxi - Chinnamma Chilakamma
Prema Desam - Mustafa Mustafa
Premikuldu - Mukkala Mukkabula
Kadhalan - Urvasi Urvasi
Gentleman - Chiku Buku Raile
Roja - Roja Jaaneman

Ofcourse the latest has to be in the list. So here it is.
Slumdog Milliannaire - Jai Ho

More on my problems with Airports

This is a concluding part of my previous post - Why I hate Airports.

Also one has to deal with one or all of the following people - 1. Indifferent, 2. Meddlesome and 3. Moody. To fully understand my case, I have to explain my recent experience where I had to deal with all three kinds (Indifferent, Meddlesome and Moody) of people and the other baggage (pun intended) that comes with it.

We reached the airport at around 3:00 PM. The sign board at the ramp signaled that the Air India departures were at Terminal B. That was all good. But on reaching the Terminal B, there was hardly any space to stop. Nor was there a sign for Air India on the gates. I saw Jet Airways gate and that is where I decided my stop would be. I somehow found a nook to stop and put my hazard lights on. I unloaded the bags from my car trunk and took them into the terminal to find the Air India gate. I had asked a couple of airport personnel where the Air India ticket counter was. Both of them were indifferent. Finally a third guy responded that the Air India was level 2 and pointed to the right. I thought from his pointing that Level 2 was the far right end of the same floor. As I dragged along, my eyes fell on the elevator and I saw a small yellow sign reading Air India.

Apparently they shifted the Air India to the basement of the airport, I mean Level 2, while all the other airlines were at the main level. I handed over the responsibility of the bags to my wife and headed back to my car to park it. All this while, I was scared of my car being towed away. It had been parked for a long time without anyone in the car.

I drove to the parking lot, took the parking ticket and headed to the Air India check-in counter where my wife and mother-in-law were waiting. The line was huge as always. But in all this chaos I saw a digital weighing machine at the end of the line. There was a row of seats to the left of the weighing machine with two old men sitting. They appeared to be in their mid 60s. A few feet in front of the weighing machine were a few other passengers and their families. I took the bags and placed one bag on the weighing machine. This action of mine somehow generated an extreme interest in one of the old gentlemen. He jumped out of his chair and began to look at what I was doing. He saw the same thing I saw and he quickly blurted out said 52 lbs. He said that to me and his friend who was still sitting. He turned to me and said 'Its OK'. I took the bag off the machine and took it back a few feet where my wife and mother-in-law were standing. I came back with the second suitcase and laid it on the machine floor. This time I saw it as 25. I couldn't believe it. The old man who was still there jumped again and said in some broken Hindi 'I changed it to Kgs. It is now easy for you. 25 may be tough'. I knew that Kgs is short for Kilos or Kilograms.

I am already bothered now by the actions of the old guy. I brought the cabin bag and weighed. The old man said 'It is 8.8 Kgs you should be fine'. My wife took out the heavy hard cover books from both the suitcases. I weighed them again. The meddlesome old man now gave me a pass signal with for 23 and 23.5 Kgs each. I did not know if I was to feel happy for the help or feel aggravated at his meddlesomeness. But I couldn't be distracted by this; I had miles to go before I sleep. Yes, literally I have 125 miles more to go before I really sleep and that was hours away.

We waited in line at the check-in counter. When it was our turn, the guy behind the counter greeted us and told to place one bag on the pedestal to weigh it. I put on of the check-in suticase and for some reason it was already showing 2.0 Kgs and did not change. He rudely says to me in a low voice, 'Can you take it off the machine'. I had him repeat twice to understand what he was saying. I took the bag off and he reset the machine which showed 0.0. I replaced the bag and it read 23.2 Kgs. I was relieved when he took the bag in and said it was ok. The calculator inside was telling me it was overweight by a pound. I placed the second bag and it read 23.8 Kgs. This time also he took the bag in and said it was ok. I was really happy now as I had passed 3 pounds of excess baggage. It was kind of a sweet revenge from my previous experience where I had to pay the fine for excess bag weight.

He seemed to be in a pleasant mood. He silently came close to me said I could put any stuff in the 2 bags that were checked-in if I wanted to. I was surprised at his generosity and asked my wife to hand me the books she was holding, to put them in the bags. Before I could put them, he asked if I had carry-on bag. I said yes and placed that on the scale. It read 8.8 Kgs. He said 'You can put whatever you want in this bag and I will check it in also. You can pick them up at the Mumbai Airport'. I explained this to my Mother-in-law to see if she was comfortable doing that. She said no and wanted to keep it with on the flight. This must have pissed off the guy. He said 'I put the tags to the carry-on bag. Do not ADD ANYTHING to this after you go up. They will check the weight again and fine you'.

I should have noticed the change in his tone and mood. If I had enough Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), I would have known not to bother him anymore and move away from there. But the Indian in me wanted to bargain. I asked if I could put the books for kids (I was using the sympathy bait too) in the already checked-in bags. He said ‘NO, that would make the bags overweight’ and that I had to pay for the excess baggage. Sanity prevailed in me and I took the tickets. We quickly moved away from there to the ticket issuing counter at the left end corner of the room.

From here on, my wife took over. I guess women have a better EQ or others tend to be nice to them. It may be a combination of both. The lady behind the counter was very courteous to us now. My wife even requested an aisle seat for her mom and got it. I am sure if it was me, I would have gotten 'NO AISLE TICKETS FOR YOU'.

So we went upstairs after collecting the tickets and stood in a long line for coffee and some food. For some reason, people go crazy over food in crowded places. It took thirty minutes to get a cup of coffee and Vegetarian flied lice (I mean fried rice) at a Chinese fast food vendor. I had to go vegetarian as it was an auspicious day. We said our goodbyes to my mother-in-law at around 6:30 PM, paid the insanely expensive parking fee ($3 for every 1/2 hour) and headed to the Bridgewater temple, and then reached home at 10:05 PM.

I thought that the ordeal was over. But life of late seems like a day in the movie 'Groundhog Day' where the lead weatherman lives the same day over and over again. I have to make a trip to the airport again this month. Only this time I will be picking a different person, my brother, at a different airport.

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As a side note, there is also a certification in Emotional Quotient. One of my friends recommended Daniel Goleman's 'Emotional Intelligence' which is on my list to read in the future.

Sahityam in Telugu Movie Songs

I had the Telugu movie bug in me since child hood. I was not an avid movie goer, but movie songs were a different story. I literally grew up waking up to the AIR Bhakti Lahari at 8:00 in the morning and Commercial movie songs at 9:00AM. My mom is a big fan of AIR even today when TV is a big thing. So I had listened to a lot of good Telugu movie music during those days.

While there definitely was a lot of good music then, there is load of bad music the last decade or so. I am not just talking about mediocrity of the composition, but more importantly the lyrics - Sahityam of the songs and the diction of the singers. Here are some of the few lines from here and there that bother me a lot.
1. Jakir Hussain tabla nuvvena - What kind of a reference is that?
2. Kullina Vankaya lo Jata purugulamai undam - Really, is that the best a couple would want to be like?
3. Naa Dress meeda ice cream vesi po - Oke Okkadu Movie Shakalaka baby - Yes that is a great way to entice a guy to make him fall in love with you.

Much of the above can be attributed to the hugely popular music by A.R.Rahman (hereto by referred to as ARR) where the translation from Tamil to Telugu was literal. In fact some of those dubbed movies of ARR were produced by A.M.Ratnam and he took the onus on himself to script (translate) the lyrics. I am not attributing the sole cause of this to ARR. But somehow the genius in his music lead to some unpardonable lyrics in his songs and became very accepted. His instrumentation and foot-tapping music dominates so much of the song that nobody other than few miserable souls like me have tried to make any sense of the lyrics and raised their voice against them. In Telugu everyone from Veturi, Bhuvana Chandra to Chandrabose are guilty of doing this. Sirivennela to certain extent has not been a part of this menace. Apparently, the same fate had been with Tamil Music composed by ARR and lyricist accomplice in this case was Vairamuthu. But the astonishing fact is that, the same fate escaped the Hindi music that ARR composed. He produced some great music in Hindi without compromising on the lyrics of these songs. Clearly the cause should be attributed to someone else other than ARR. It could be the Lyricist, Director and/or the Producer of these movies.

All the above examples were from dubbing movies. But I would be completely out of my mind if I put the blame on dubbing movies alone. That takes the blame away from our own industry which for decades has produced some insane lyrics themselves. My recent memory of bad lyrics is from a direct movie of our ever young hero Balayya's song 'Lux papa Lux Papa Lunch ki vostava'. What do you mean by Lux Papa and why are asking Lux to come for Lunch with you? That is sheer madness. Some other examples are 'Adis Ababa Allam Murabba choosthava naa debba' and 'Koko Komali korukku thinnadi kolatam lo'. I did not mean to pick our Balayya on this, but all the examples that I can think of came from his movies coincidentally (or are they).

The other common thread that runs common in dubbed as well as direct movies is the singers of these dreaded songs. Our industry has encouraged the blatant killing of our language by a non-Telugu singer. In fact the first one to introduce and encourage this was our own great late NTR (the irony is that he started a political party based on the pride of Telugu speaking people) who made the great Rafi sing a song in Telugu. The song was ’Naa madi ninnu pilichindi’. I can appreciate Rafi Saab's greatness in voice and his classical music background, but his lack of learning the basics of the language he was singing is very disturbing. I love his music in Hindi, but the 2 songs that I know he sung in Telugu were terrible. The other Telugu song of Rafi I know is ’Entha varu gani’. He breaks a word into multiple words and puts the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Taking the baton from late Rafi are Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Sonu Nigam, Suresh Peters, Adnan Sami, Sukhwinder Singh etc from our own generation. I don’t think the singers are to be blamed on this. They are probably paid very good money to do what they are doing and I would not be surprised if they were encouraged to sing in as bad a language as they can. It is the movie producers and music directors who in the name of novelty pay exorbitant amounts to these guys to bring such shame to our language. I guess the singers were only doing what they were told to. The producers and directors are doing it because we keep on accepting these songs every time they are thrust on us. We hate them, we find them funny, but we still listen to them and somehow accept them or get used to them.

To this the chorus and some incomprehensible phrases added at liberal doses make the matters go south. E.g.: Mukkambe Mukkambe, Addis Ababa(some one found it funny to have the name of a African Nations capital city as the start line for a song); Jumba Re Aa Jumba Re; Chuku Chuku Cha Cha;

The silver lining is that every once in a while a movie comes with some neat lyrics. Of late the movies made by Sekhar Kammula have some nice enjoyable music with good lyrics, the recent one of which is Happy Days. I do enjoy such songs with a good coffee. There is still hope.

Why I hate Airports

Last Wednesday I had to drop my Mother-In-Law off at the airport. I should tell you upfront that I am not a big fan of airports. I am nervous as hell going to the airport. And that's wether it's me or my family or friends. I am not afraid of flying. I have other reasons for disliking it.

The process begins 2-3 days before the day of journey, in packing the bags. I pride myself in packing bags, not just mine but others too. I found myself volunteering to bag my friend’s suitcase while in school and spending (read wasting) nights at it. I hate overweight baggage. The airline services used to be more tolerant on weight, but the times have changed a lot in the last five years. Not only did they reduce the weight of bags from 70 lbs to 50 lbs each, they are also strictly imposing fees for overweight bags even if the bag was a pound in excess of the specified limit. The last time my wife had to go to India, I had to dole out $50 for the 2lbs excess weight that one bag had at the Air India terminal.

The anxiety kicks into full gear with the packing and weighing at home during this period. Adding and removing the stuff on speculation that the weighing machine is faulty, or in the hope that the airlines will be tolerant this time makes it worse. And this goes on till the day of the journey. This is more or less like the mood swings of a manic-depressive person. One day you add and other minute you remove.

While going to airports, the public is in a mad rush there trying to outwit the authority and one another. The reasons can be several and each person's story is different. Some are in a rush to reach the airport before everyone else on time to pick their loved one at the airport. Some park their car illegally on the ramp/shoulder a mile or two on the highway from the airport if the flight is delayed or waiting for the call from the one they are picking. They do this to save a few bucks on parking and in turn get busted by the police sometimes. While there are few who are there to drop off someone and park the car at the terminal gate for long hours before being asked to move by the police or the parking authority.

In saying all the above I am not trying to portray myself as a saint. In fact I succumb to the same vices I listed above. All of the above wrong doings have affected as to be pressured sufficiently to commit one or all of them myself over a period of time. I guess this is what they call peer pressure. But these wrong doings by others and myself adds a lot of pressure. This is more compounded when the passenger is International bound(read to India).

Then there is the day of the journey. One has to be there at the airport hours in advance. If the airport is two hours away and the weather like Northeast Pennsylavnia had last Wednesday, the whole day is gone. To make matters worse, if the day is a weekday that means a day off at work and loss of pay. In my recent case the Air India flight was at 7:00 PM and the ticket said the check-in must be four hours before the flight time. If I had to be at the airport by 3:00 PM, I must start driving at Noon as the airport was about 120 miles from my home and the weather was bad. If you add the same amount of time for the return journey, it makes it almost ten hours for the whole process. That is twenty hours of productive time wasted if you count my wife's time as well, as she accompanied me in dropping her Mother at the airport.

The story is continued at Airports 2

Au Chem 94-98 Get Together 2008.

While I was watching the LifeTime made for TV movie 'A Kiss at Midnight' with Seshu (my wife), I decided to post something on my blog. Yes, it is a great chick flick and I was giving her company doing my own thing. While the movie was going and Seshu was deeply engrossed in the trivial travails of romantic misgivings of a mother and daughter, I began to think about the get together with my friends from college the day before(12/26/2008).

I was hoping to mark the title of this blog '10 get together in 10 years', but the numbers did not add up. There were about 10 in 86 from our class who I thought (read hoped/wanted) would meet for the NE USA gathering. But only 5 made it to the eventual meeting. Rajashekhar agreed to be the gracious host in his new bought spacious home in Easton, PA. Aravind took care of the food. Sarat Chand drove in from Plainsboro, NJ alone as Sireesha could not make it due to her current situation. Raghu Ram drove in from NJ also where he is currently vacationing at this Brother-in-Laws place. I joined them from Scranton. Krishna Mohan got sick and Sai mailed that he couldn't come this time. Sai you took a rain check (You said in the mail'...Now I know that you are in PA and not very far away...will catch up with you later...').

Of the four classmates, I had met few previously and some I had spoken to over the phone. But it was the first time in 10 years meeting them for much of the evening. I was supposed to be the last one reaching Konda's home, but if not for 5 minutes I would have been the first. Time is a precious commodity once lost can never be recovered and I wanted to use this oppurtunity to catch up on lost time. As a side note on time, here is good speech on Time Management by Randy Pausch. It is long, but humorous and touching at the same time.

It was 6:30 when Aravind, the last among us came in. We all introduced each other to our families. Yes, I am getting old - I am talking about family in my discourse. When the families got settled down and got familiar with each other, we had our own chit chat session at the dining table.

The discussions ran helter-skelter on a gamut of topics from Roll 1(Chemical 1-Wahid) to 512(Petro Chem 12-Saran), Faculty(KVR, ARP etc.,), Hostel life, Seniors (Laxman Nyaya, Kameswari, SSS, Mouli, ChandraShekhar, Revanur etc), Juniors(Sampath, Madhavi etc.,), Other Branches at AU, Politics, Professional life as well as Personal. Politics ranged from Somalia to Belarus, Economics from Inflation in Zimbabwe where currency had expiration date to Outsourcing to Belarus where retention is higher than in India.

The discussion also ran into prosperity - the bigger the belt line the greater the prosperity. Sarat was to dishonor me with the distinction of being the least prosperous. Leaving aside the award for the prosperous person, my vote for consistency will go hands down to Aravind. I found him to be much like what I had pictured him 10 years ago. The rest four of us had some nature(read genetic) induced reductions and self induced additions to our morphological forms.

We discussed about what each of us was doing now and what/where we doing/were since 1998. We talked about careers, wealth made by some and lost by some. We also discussed about how some went places and some went nowhere in the conventional sense of material well being. We also talked about the bachelors in town and the first family(Sireesha Nallaapaneni among girls and Wahid among guys).

I surely had a great time and I hope others did too. The spouses looked like they had a fun time discussing what appeared to me was mostly about kids - kids are one common thread to a discreet set of people who were there because we were there.

Please find the link to the pictures from the get together here. If the link doesn't work try this in your browser http://tinyurl.com/7cm5c6.

Have you seen my Brain Cells?

One day at work, a bunch of our colleagues were going to a restaurant for lunch. I was waiting at the elevator lobby for a long time with them. Right when it came, I remembered that I had forgotten something. So I got excused and went to my desk, picked my wallet from the drawer. One my way back to the elevator lobby, another good colleague friend asked me, what is happening. I said I am losing my brain cells. 'Let me know if you find them', I said half jokingly. Having a good sense of humor, she replied 'I will keep them if I find any'.

A few weeks later, there was an event at work called 'Casual for a Cause'. Basically the idea is to solicit donations for a cause and the donor can wear casual for that day. I was informed about it a week or so before the event and I agreed to donate. The day happened to be a Tuesday. This was the day when this bird does its weekly migration down south to Philadelphia.

I forgot about the event and got dressed in formals. When I came down to put on my shoes, the ‘casual cause’ struck my memory. Now I had to change pants. I went up and changed my pants to jeans. In my normal senses, I would remember to transfer the contents from my formals to my jeans. Not this time. I went down, had my breakfast, took the car keys and went straight to the car. As soon as I headed to the car and put my laptop bag in the car, I thought about the tea that I had left on the kitchen table. I went back, picked up the flask and began my ride. After a few yards, I saw the gas sign and looked for my wallet. I had to go back again. This time I thought I had everything that I needed. So I took off for the highway.

After about 30 miles down the road I remembered that I don’t have my cell phone on me. It is my habit to call India on my drive to Philadelphia. I could not imagine myself without a cell phone for three days. So again I drove back home. I went up to my bed room to find the cell phone. But as the Murphy's law states, I could not find the cell phone there. Actually the cell phone was in my formal pants that I had switched for jeans earlier in the morning. Now where is that pant. It is neatly folded and kept in my travel bag. This I recollected. So where is the bag I thought?

Well, the bag was in the trunk of my car. I had the cell phone in my car all this while. I ended up going 2 hours late to work and smilingly gave my $5 contribution towards my 'Casual for a Cause'. So much for the cause. As someone rightly said 'No good dead goes unpunished'.

Long before this happened I would think, what is wrong with my parents? They keep saying that are losing memory. I would, with air of arrogance, say ‘How can that happen?’. I explained to them that it is all in the mind. If you put your mind to it, you would not have this problem. So instead of letting your mind wander, think about the current work you are doing. If that does not work, may be you should write down a checklist of things to do etc. All of that was BS.

The memory loss virus has hit me quite early. As life becomes more and more complex, I am carrying more and more items. They have become a way of life though they are not necessities. The following is the list of items I need to carry - Wallet, cell phone, keys, IPod, office id and of course chap stick. I have created a mnemonic for my end of drive - LWICK that stands for Lights, Wallet, IPod, Cell phone, Keys. First I thought of LKWIC and WLICK but no combination of them sounded any better than LWICK. If only I can remember the mnemonic every time I need it.

A few weeks later, I was having a severe headache at work and was visibly different than my normal self. The same lady who wanted to keep my brain cells enquired if I was doing fine. She joked that I was working hard and that I should be taking it easy. I replied that cause of my headache is my brain cells that are actively multiplying to make up for the lost cells. I hope that there are truly multiplying. If not, I would have to see my mother-in-law's sad demeanor many more times on watching me go in and out several times that day of my adventure. She was probably feeling sad for her daughter for having to put up with an absent minded man like me.

Who is Bummerman?

Coincidence or not, I meet Bummerman every time I post a blog about him. My first post on him can be found here and the subsequent one here. I met him this time under the same bridge he used to live few months ago. I was on my way home to my car on a chilly Thursday evening.

I said 'Hello'. He remembered me quite well and said 'Hello, I haven't seen you after we met at the park'. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him remember me and our conversation. I asked him what he was up to these days. He replied that he is reading Sociology and Political Science. I said to myself 'Sociology. Interesting coincidence.' I on the other hand, have seen him couple times, but I was either in a rush to go to work or he was sleeping until now where we were both in between our next scheduled rush hour.

He said that he is trying to catch up on his reading. I asked him if he attended college. He said he did for a short time at Temple. I asked if he thought about going back and completing college. He said, he had thought about it, but it gets difficult to go back to college after a big break like the one he has taken as 'they make it difficult to take back students like him'. I took his 'they' as University admissions.

I asked him where he has been living these days, he replied 'Here and there, I try to sleep in the day and walk around with my bike in the night'. I saw his bike loaded with his belongings leaning on the fence under the bridge and a backpack next to him on the ground. I remember that the other side of the fence used to be his home for a long time and how he would keep the block clean for pedestrians like me.

He asked how my work was. I said it was fine and that I was heading to my car. I saw the traffic on the interstate behind the Schuylkill River in front of the brightly lit Philadelphia Boat House Row. If you have not been to Philly, Boat House Row offers a spectacular view of a row of Regatta clubs brightly lit whose shadow fall in the Schuylkill River.

I saw the traffic and said that is where I am headed and I am not much interested going there, though I have to. He then said 'Are you still analyzing'. I was shocked a bit to hear that question. For a moment I thought, did he suspect me of analyzing him. It took me only a second or two to understand what he meant by that. I recollected my previous conversation with him where I stated that I was a System Analyst. I described my job and what I do at my client’s location. He remembered all that clearly and was only inquiring about my job casually.

He had no hidden agenda behind that question. I on the other hand, had an agenda. I am only talking to him because I want to know about, his past, his present and most importantly the circumstances that lead to his current state. I felt largely guilty for trying to find about him and write about him without his consent. Am I subconsciously seeking guilt pleasure of peeking at a different world and a different life that he is part of and one I want to study? Having recovered from the shock on being asked the question, I replied that work is still the same old and nothing was new there. It was getting late and the traffic was only getting worse.

I said my goodbye and before I walked past him, I remembered that I need to know his name. I asked 'What's your name? I forgot'. He replied Roy. I asked ‘What is your last name?’ to which he answered Gibson. So there it is Roy Gibson. I shall address him as Roy from here on. He patted me on the shoulder and said 'Take care and drive safe'. I said 'Take care' and walked off from there towards my car thinking about the three hour drive that I was about to take. The impending road rage consumed my mind and all the guilt I felt a few moments ago was long forgotten.

What happened to prudent living?

Being prudent with your life and your lifestyle is the single most thing I learned from my parents. There are times I felt if I am like a dinosaur among the easy credit user folks around me. As they say, for every question, time provides an answer. Sooner than I expected, I found the answer in the current financial crisis. As most of us know, the credit based lifestyle is what caused this mess and the virtues of prudence are being sung along with the Christmas Carols.

I have always been afraid of debt. I have not used my first credit for almost year and half as I was afraid of the word credit. I could not fathom the fact that I had to pay somebody 12.99% interest for what I used for convenience. I did know that if I paid the monthly statement in full, I did not have to pay the interest. I still was afraid of the late fee in case I forgot to pay it off and I was also worried that I have to spend the 33cents on the stamp. To me that was an extra expense when I was only earning $400 a month. My monthly rent then was $220 and international calling card bill from AT&T was almost $50 leaving me with only $130 for the other expenses.

The vices of current society have devised their tangles in a way to lure everyone into its arms. I my case, the draw to credit card use was credit history building. I have been bombarded by well wishers and media stating that I need to have a good credit history. The lure is the fact that a good credit history is imperative to get loan for a home or a car in the future. The real estate boom was only beginning then, and I did not want to miss out on that boom by not having a good credit history. All I have to do was swipe my card and it builds history. It is that easy I was told.

I had my share of missed payments where I was penalized. I would pick up a phone, I would apologize to the CR rep and get the fee waived off. I have also three laptops in the last three years. In hindsight one of them was probably not warranted.I also bought a car that died on me in 3 months and had a laptop stolen all in the gap of a month. Barring those two, I think I have been prudent and been careful of my possessions. I never paid interest on any statement, excepting the month where I missed my payments when I got my late fee waived. I have always bought the big items with cash or have used the 0% APR convenience checks that the credit card companies mail ever so often. If I don't, I delayed the purchases until it was absolutely necessary. Clothing and kitchen items are an exception. I have to blame the Gabriel brothers from Morgantown, WV where I could get clothing for T-shirts for a buck or two. Kitchen items are not my blame.

Reading news is like one horror story after other. People were offered mortgage loans with nothing to show as seed and income. Financial firms were allowed to borrow 30-40 bucks on a single dollar of assets. Since they had no skin in the game they risked all of it, packaged and repackaged them to numerous clients.

Long before these news stories broke, I have seen some amazing characters who had absolutely no concept of prudence. Our next door neighbor in Vizag was one. The family was a bunch of misfits lead by the mother. She would manage a rotating loans from multiple people. Spend it off and when it is time to repay, take a loan from someone else. If no body is willing to loan, there were the chit funds. After she exhausted the friendly neighborhood chit funds, she turned to finance firms. That was where the buck stopped. Finance firms unlike ordinary people do not use the conventional methods of repetitive pleading. They use the method of what can be called an Italian job.

She had to sell her inheritance and moved out of the city to rented home in the suburbs. She had fun while it lasted and fun continued for the neighbors watching the drama unfold. I know someone in my family who bought a flat panel TV in India for Rs. 200,000 or $4,000. Crazy isn't it. I hope someday sense returns to people as to how they spend their money and lead their lives.

Did I reap something?

This is a follow up previous post dated 06/28/2008 on my experiment with indoor gardening. My goals were really simple. I was hoping to see some flowers in my wife's hand and atleast a pepper in my food. I think I have achieved both the objectives but at a small steep price of $10/pepper. That pepper must be priciest pepper. The cost of flower in my wife's hand - priceless.
There is space between the images and the text which I am not sure how to remove. Please pardon.