Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Real Estate Investments

With express highways coming up, lots of new flyovers, with metro rail planned to reach Sushant Lok (an important residential area) in Gurgaon by 2010 and this high population growth, real estate prices are bound to skyrocket. Would it be really possible for a middle-class person to invest in real-estate then? But for that matter, is it easy to invest today. Nah!! The prices are already too high to be considered for investment unless one has a solid financial background from family. It's just not possible for a service class person with an average salary to purchase a flat here in Gurgaon. Average stands for 4-6 lacs pa.

I've been considering to buy a flat for past few months. The only possible way is to get some money from dad for the initial down payment/investment and pay the rest through EMIs which would take away more than half of my current salary. But then that's a safe investment indeed and would help with tax savings too.

The cheapest 2-room flat here in Gurgaon (given that the society is decent) is around 35 lacs and it goes over 70-80 lacs in some other societies. Note that this is for an unfurnished 2-room set. I only wonder how people buy all those luxurious flats costing over a crore.

Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes

Monday, October 09, 2006

Sad love songs

Wanted to make 200th post on love. Aah!! Don't worry, everything's fine at his end.

There's this recent song from Khosla ka Ghosla - Interzaar Aitbaar Tumse Pyaar and a hundreds of others both desi and angrezi in the category (refer title). All of them are his favorites any day. Especially considering the fact that he's had some tough times with loved ones recently, he tends to like those songs even more. They're always there in a loop on the playlist.

To add on, Khosla ka Ghosla is an amazing movie and most of it was shot very near from where I stay in Gurgaon. "World Famous Property Dealers" shown at various times during the movie is my broker's office itself, one who helped me getting my PG. Khosla's house shown at the end of the movie is my broker's house except that they changed the color combinations a little. This broker got a huge money for all that. He's even got pictures clicked with Anupam Kher and Boman Irani. Was telling us (me and my friend) about his experiences with them. He found most of them really humble, especially the Khurana (Boman Irani). All Khuranas seem to be humble indeed.

Time taken to write this post: 13 minutes

Good night!!

It's very rare that he really feels a need to write a post and when he does, it doesn't matter at all getting up from the bed, switching on the notebook at around 1:30 am at night and connecting net to open up blogger. All he needs at that moment is a silent listener for all the problems, to share all the things dumped deep inside the heart.

It's difficult to express how badly he hates people who give high priority to their sleep. No, not the people but probably their sleeping habits. He's had friends who just do not get up even if you break open their room doors, has had some others who shout back if someone dares to wake them up be it an urgency then, others who just don't want to help out when asleep be it for their best friends then. There've been some others who just don't realize that there are some other more important things as well.

Sleeping is definitely one of the key ways to re-energize yourself but how could one keep it as their highest priority is still confusing.

Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

An experience with a 'big' guy

Was traveling with General Manager (India) Sales, Fritolay this Monday evening. My sister happens to work in that company and thus we got a chance to travel with the 'big' guy from Ambala to Gurgaon, a 5 hr run. Though initially I was a little hesitant to talk to him, it turned out to be a great journey. He was not only polite, was really friendly too. Apart from the fun talk, we discussed a couple of knowledgeable things such as:

- Are Pepsi (parent co. of Fritolay) drinks safe?
- Pepsi vs. Coca Cola
- Fritolay's standing in Pepsi
... etc.

But overall, I conclude myself to be a stupid person. Had a chance to discuss things and gain knowledge but was talking fully faaltu fun things for most of the time - things like bollywood, traffic, buildings, sunsigns etc. So stupid of me.

Time taken to write this post: ~5 minutes

Fundu Managers

Our managers have a unique way of talking, impressing people. When they talk, it's all logical and meaningful. I remember one of my colleagues making a small remark about the possible losses that a small nearby restaraunt made. This restaraunt didn't seem to be doing good according to my colleague. Within seconds, this manager at Bain calculated the complete market for the restaraunt estimating his revenue, profits and expenses.

It's not about consulting guys being overall better than others but in business they are. Actually, they got to be or else why would anyone hire them for building business strategies.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

How Cool

After a relatively longer weekend, it's generally so boring to attend the office early in the morning. Engrossed in day dreams, when I reached the cafeteria for a water bottle, guess whom do I meet in there. A living motivation for hardwork. To rephrase, I bumped into one of the most senior partners at Bain, managing director of Bain India and one among the top 25 consultants across the world - Ashish Singh . Had to recollect all my senses immediately, wished him and asked him if had a nice festival celebration last evening. Now at that point of time, won't I be surprized to hear that he happened to visit a small town (bigger than a village, smaller than a district) on the eve of Dussehra which also happens to be the place where my paternal family spent most of their lives. He looked so excited when he said that he spent time with his family at their relative's place in Shahbad Markanda. Never did I imagine that such big-shot people could have heard of such small towns and not just that, could even visit those places during festivals.

This place, Shahbad isn't very far from my current hometown. Had I known of his visit earlier, would have definitely invited him over to our home. It would be amazing to have such people visit you during festivals.

Time taken to write this post: 30 minutes