Drama King

I did it again. Inadvertently, every 3-4 years or so, I manage to create such hype about something that it blows completely out of proportion for a few hours or days, and when the airs finally clear up (the facts appear), I find myself in the middle of, let's say euphemistically, an embarrassment. Think withdrawn electoral candidate leading up to a day of the sop-box making a hue-n-cry over a theft alarm, the student council taking up the matter with the administration, a jeep load of cops arriving, and clumsy old me finding my 'stolen' wallet in front of 15 onlookers. Fiasco ultimatum. Just the moment when you wish tele-portation had been invented and there was civilization on the moon.

Now let me recall the incidents in finer detail, when the student council president banged the administration, I was all fired up. I had withdrawn from the polls because of the emotional drain I felt leading up to d-day, but this executive member fired me up. The way he handled the situation, I figured if I can become even half as good as he is in an year, it'll be worth the job. So I worked over an emotional speech that I was ready to deliver this evening to an audience of a couple hundreds, relating the realization I just had and how my calling in life is to lead those who have faith in me and work the system to greater heights. Soon the cops arrived. The FIR register pulled out, and as I related the incident, the cop suggested I continue searching my room for that one stolen wallet. I was confident in my previous searches, but just to display cooperation, played his tune. And there it was, my missing baby. Where it came from I don't know, but it was there, hidden in a corner, and I picked it up in the most ashamed and sorry look I've had to make in 3-4 years (since the last time I did something similar). My fiery speech suddenly completely eluded me. And forget the sop-box, now I was looking for hiding-spots.

Let me put it this way. I have a very unique and personal way to make a difference. Drama. People join clubs and have to be taught the arts of composing and enacting theater. To me, on the other hand, it comes naturally. My dramas are real (read with smiley). And they shake the system, albeit only for a short while, though somewhere deep down, the undercurrents are altered. Sorry to those who were considered with suspicion.

This was an experiment to measure the length of public short term memory: how long does it take to relegate this from the-latest-drama-on-campus, to something they'd remember when they're recalling funnies from history.

Jeez, a Month and a Half? I've Become Lazy.

What's new now. Let me think. The sub-prime crisis, maybe. It isn't actually new, the effects have been visible for over an year now, but, recently, things seem to be spiraling out of proportion. The Indian Sensex touched 20K. Whew! I'm scared of such heights, what goes up must come down, etc.

What wasn't quite clear was when large mortgage loans against and for expensive residences were given to creditors with low-ratings, couldn't anyone figure that the appreciating housing prices was an over-inflated bubble that was going to burst? This was a repeat of the dot-com frenzy of 7 years ago. With slow markets, the real estate sector became the target of hot money, ultimately, at the expense of the innocent people who were shown the dream of owning their own house, or 7-8 years ago temporarily enjoyed a 6 - maybe 7 - figure net worth, albeit for a few months. Didn't anyone question the underlying fundamentals before the build-up of the frenzy?

Come panic-time and who gains? The investors who see the bubble bursting just before it actually bursts. The BSE-Sensex will correct itself sometime in the future, when and how much, I don't know, but lots of people will lose money, while the smart ones, usually sitting in skyscrapers, in the cosmopolitan cities round the globe, with knowledge at their finger tips, would probably have exited and would be in search of the next big wave to ride on.

There's something about the market that's fascinating. Millions of humans, all pitted against each other, think in many ways similar to one another. As for myself, I am incurring a heavy opportunity cost. Instead of studying the markets and riding the upturn, I'm a student, trying to understand the theories behind everything, watching those-who-don't-quite-care-about-the-technical-analysis buy their flats in Mumbai and Mercedes.

Isaac Newton, the famous physicist, lost some of his money due to speculation in "The South Sea" Company stock in the 1720s. Isaac Newton lost over 20,000 pounds (£1.68 million in today's money) of his fortune. As a result of this crisis, he stated "I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people"(ref). Sir Isaac Newton actually invested twice in the South Sea bubble. The first time he made a very good return on his money. But greed and desire caused him to re-invest his money near the top.