Happy Diwali

Wish all of you " happy an prosperous diwali".

New generation Alto –A star

Recently Suzuki showcased its Alto A star at Paris Auto Show, and in coming days it will be launched in India too.

Suzuki is targeting European market with this car and will be called as Alto out there ,but will be A-Start in India .
As maruti want it to co-exist with current alto and to challenge Hyundai ‘s i10.
It has got great looks and with its beautiful look it will please the fairer sex.

A-star will be price between Rs3-4 lakhs(petrol version). No plans for the diesel version yet by Maruti-Suzuki.

Buick –General Motors

“Buick” may not be that popular or say known brand in Indian automobile market but it has potential and history attached. Most of us have certainly heard of Opel, chevrolet the well know brands in India .But do you know ? it’s the buick which goes back to the origination of General Motors.
I first heard of this brand when I was in Shanghai (China) ,and guess what !China is the biggest market for Buick.
Peek
Ok ,lets peek into the history of Buick and thus the origination of GM .
Buick was at time independent motor company know as Buick Motor Company ,started in early twentieth century ,1903 @ Detroit(Brith places of many auto giants) .
William Durant took over in 1904 to manage Buick and Buick soon became the largest car maker in America. He used the profits earned out of Buick success for series of corporate acquisitions and thus emerged the great General Motors.
Durant philosophy was each General Motors division to target one class of buyer, and in his new scheme Buick was near the top only the Cadillac was more prestigious.

Even today Buick is sold in large numbers in USA ,Canada ,China ,Taiwan .
In china Buick is left back VW in the sales figures .

Checkout some of the models of Buick .

Buick Enclave (2008 — Current)
Buick Lucerne (2006 — Current)
Buick Park Avenue (2007 — Present, only sold in China)


I hope to see Buick on Indian Road some day.

Intuition – The Sixth Sense

Intuition ! what is intuition ?Do we believe in it and should we believe in it?
Is intuition an supernatural phenomena or is it purely analytical ?
With these questions in mind ,I thought of putting my understanding of intuition.


To start with I am a firm believer in intuition. But what is intuition ?
Intuition is the ability to sense and come at conclusion without putting thought process into it.
This word has always excited me and it is integral part of my life .Being a teenager I thought its supernatural phenomena and its not analytical but off late I have changed my perception of intuition.

I have at times taken quite a number of decision on intuition. And to my surprise it worked almost without exception ,and to add more to ,after deciding on intuition and later putting the thoughts to it I never regretted my decision.

So is intuition the subconscious mind of ours which direct us with an instant response based on the experiences we have gone through. Yes ,is my answer as far as I understand.
I am sure a person having positive attitude in life will always come up with intuitions that are positive too.And I feel the more to talk and feed your intuition is simply become stronger and accurate.

Recently while going through some biographies of the successful CEOs ,I found that its part of there personality too and just not that they use it quite frequently even at crucial points.As its not always possible to have all the data before you start. So its better you start quick with 80% info then wait longer for the rest 20%.

To conclude i feel its good to listen to our intuition it might help most of times.

Bullet Classic –Bullet Reborn

Here is a good news for the bullet enthusiasts. Royal Enfield will launch the bullet classic soon.
It will be a 500 CC bike .This will prove out to be beast with 27.2 BHP,looks are stunning too.

Just to give you some brief info ,Bullet is the longest running model since 1932,a great achievement I feel.

For more details check the link below.

http://www.bulletclassic.com

Hyundai i20-The new one in Hyundai stable

Come december 2008 and the car lovers have another gift from hyundia motors in the form of i20 after the much talked about success of i10.

In the recently held PARIS MOTOR SHOW October 2008 ,hyundia showcased its i20. Its an replacement for the supermini Gets. The style of i20 is quite influenced by i30.

The i20 with a price tag 4.5-6L and will take on the new Skoda Fabia, Suzuki Swift ,Swift desire . The car will be manufactured in Chennai and exported to other part of world just like i10.


So do we consider the regime of much acclaimed Swift is gone from the Indian roads.

Some specs to look for in i20

Model: Petrol
Car Body Type: Hatchback
Displacement: 1248cc
Engine Type: Petrol
Maximum Power: 78bhp

Buffettology(Warren Buffet’s philosophy)

In the trying times of market meltdown and global recession looking inevitable it looks to me as if it’s the right time to follow buffettology (Warren Buffet’s philosophy).

Warren Buffett the greatest investor and philanthropist of modern times is disciple of Benjamin Graham ,the founder of value investing philosophy .Value investors look for securities with prices that are dramatically low compared to there worth i.e value investors seek products that are of high quality but underpriced.



He chooses stocks totally on the basis of their overall potential as a company . When Buffett invests in a company, he isn't concerned with whether the market will eventually recognize its worth; he is concerned with how well that company can make money as a business.
So his idea is buy a stock or say business thinking that share market might be closed for 10 years. Although the share market will be closed but the sound business you have invested in will keep on growing irrespective of markets.


Buffett typically only considers that have been around for at least 10 years.
As a result, most of the technology companies wouldn't get picked up by Buffett.
Another point to focus here is Buffett will invest only in a business that he fully understands.
He says never underestimate the value of historical performance which guides you about the company’s capabilities to increase worth of its investors. But remember that the past performance of a stock does not guarantee future performance.

He believes that its better to invest in companies dealing in cola ,chewing gum than to an technology company as people will never stop chewing gums or drinking coke.

Some of the important Quotes from buffet to remember and follow:

1. Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

2. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will.

3. Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

4. Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future.

5. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

6. It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

7. For some reason people take their cues from price action rather than from values. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

8. Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

9. All there is to investing is picking good stocks at good times and staying with them as long as they remain good companies.

10. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

11. What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history.

12. You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.

13. You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.

14. The best business returns are usually achieved by companies that are doing something quite similar today to what they were doing five or ten years ago.

15. Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth.

Is it right time to invest in Indian Share market ?

Yesterday there was statement given by SEBI and RBI regarding P-Notes & CRR rate cut.
Is it an right move ,is that panic or a right step.
I am totally confused with whats going at BSE & NSE ,Monday again saw a bloodbath with sensex shedding more than 700 point to close below 12000.

Now question comes is there anything fundamently wrong with indain market,or its just an action reaction game going on.
I am quite scared of the comments and suggestion these analysis and expert give.Remember Jan 2008 ,when everyone one talking about more and more higher level and sudenly look at there comments and views in recent times.

I feel no one is sure about what happening and whats gona come in recent times ,everyone is just speculating things.

Sometimes at this point of time i feel its the right time to invest into the markets ,but am not very sure if we had already botoomed out or we still have 10-20 % fall waiting ...will it be 11K,10K or 9K ...no one has clues.

But still i feel we should atleast think about having a fresh start at this point of time,definalty if we have an longer prospective,say 2-3 years or may be more than that.
Is it the right time as the legendry BUffet suggests ,that buy when everyone is selling?

Hope i get the answers to my questions soon,and so everyone else.

Trip to CHIKMAGLUR (Belur-Kemmangundi-Baba Budan Giri-Mullayanagiri-Manikya dhara)

Thanks to two days off in last week 1-2 Oct 2008,we took an off on friday as well to make it an long week off.
Plan was to start on 30sep night but as we were four families it was a tough to make it.
So we started on 1 st evening.
We booked an quails + we had one car (verna).So we settled with two family in each car.Let me introduce my friends …kaustubh ,raghu,venkata and there families.


Although idea was to start at 5 PM from Bangalore but it was 6 by the time we left Hebbal and to add to our inconvenience it was loads of traffic on the way to neelmangla vai jalahali .

It took us around 2.5 Hrs to cross neelmangla and we stopped at some outskirt dhaba for the dinner.
It was a decent one if not good ,named Farm restaurant around 3 KM after neelmanagla.


Then we started for Hassan ,and by 12 we reached Hassan .
We had done a hotel booking there ,we simply went of to our rooms and decided for a start at 7 in the morning to BELUR temples .
And just like always we started at 8 AM and I feel that a decent time to start when three couples out of four had babies and I have two.


We went to belur via Halebid (about 17 kms from Belur).Both the temples are done by Hoysala dynasty and are pretty old ~900 years.
To sum up halebid was a treat to watch from outside and belur temples from inside.
For the first time in my traveling Experience we did an Guide but not by me,it was done by my colleague Raghu. Although it was not an bad experience .

The temples were simply awesome I wish we could have spent some more time there .


After belur we started for chikmaglur .we were not sure on reaching chikmaglur how to proceed further .
There were two options ,one was to stay and chikmaglur ,have rest and then move ahead for further spots another was keep moving and see what we can cover on the day left .Finally we went with second option.

And we raced towards kemmangundi ,not very sure were to go first ,as there were many points we were looking forward to ,it was 1 in the afternoon at this time.
And on the way we decided to first finish with Mullayanagiri …it road was decent enough with great view ,green all around.

It took us around 1.25 Hrs to reach at the top ,but it was worth it.
Three of us except kaustubh decided to track up to the peak around 500Mts ,and it was awesome experaince .My wife was also interested enough to come with us ,but she has to handle our small kid (3 month old …..his first long trip).


We spent some 20 minutes on top and then back .
We then headed towards Baba Budan Giri ,but were not lucky enough to see the cave inside the peak ,and it has been closed since some time due to some fights among the Hindus and Muslims both of them claming it as there sacred place.

But reaching there we came o know there is another place to watch for MANIKYA DHARA.
We had spicy mirchi pakoda out there ,it was gr8 as we had not done any lunch that day and it was 5 Pm that point of time.
We noticed a strange thing at this place ,there was a small fall out there ,and it was mentioned on the boards that drop your cloths here if you are taking bath or else a fine of 50 Rs. I couldn’t relate some rationale to it.

At 6 we left back for chikmaglur.
We were at chikmaglur at 8 searching for hotels,after looking for couple of them we setteled for Rajmahal lodge ,although first choice was Soundarya residency but the deluxe room were not availbale out there.

Although we had a plan to sit together and have fun ,but most of us were so tried after the full day out that we preferred to have food at our rooms and go to bed.

The food @rajmahal was disaster.....so i have to look for something else afetr having it and then i looked out for fish curry in some nearby restaurent ,which was one of the best i have had,simply wonderfull.

The plan for next day was to start for kemmangundi around 9 ,but this time we were too late and started at 11.

On the way to kemengundi we droped at Kalathi falls.Its an small fall ,but good for bath.
I was the one to start having it and withing minutes all of us were enjoying the waterfall as cool as ice ,but it was real fun

There is a small temple out there between two rocks overall its a nice view.
We then left for kemmangundi but we spent quite a time at kalathi falls,it was 3 by the time we reached kemmangundi.we were dying for food at this point if time to our disgust we have to wait for 30-40 minutes to have rice with sambar with no other option available.

It was 4:30 and next target was Hebbe fall ,but somehow it didnt clicked,one major issue was personal vehical were not allowed,and we rushed back inside to kemmangundi to checkout what is available there .

There was one beautifull place called Z point and one has to track to reach there .as it was around 5 in the evening and we didnt had proper gears like ,shoes and torch as it was confirm that by the time we wil return it will be dark ,so we returned back .
So we missed two important places ,Hebbe fall and Z point but with an resolution that we will be back here soon to conqure them.

it was 6 and we started back to bangalore.With two breaks one for tea and another for dinner we were @bangalore at 2 AM on sat morning.

So overall it was just wonderfull.

Dara Singh Hooda: Short Trip to Chikmangalur

Dara Singh Hooda: Short Trip to Chikmangalur