Expressions – Bhagwad Jal Park

Ever since I gave up and lost hope of us preventing catastrophic climate change, I’ve been getting the feeling that I’d better know how to grow my own food. Of course, now that I’ve gone vegetarian, it’s less than a pipe dream than it once was. But till now I was always deterred by the magnitude of the task. Clearing land, sowing the stuff, mixing up the veggies, etc etc. However, I decided yesterday that enough is enough – I’m going to start no matter what. If with nothing else, then by putting a seed in the damn mud and pouring water on it!

So that’s what I’ve done today. I watched some videos on Youtube on planting tomato seeds and today I went with Anupa to the Chennai Horticultural Gardens and picked up this little packet of Tomato seeds for Rs. 5 :

Nuggets of life

I opened it up and found dozens of tiny little paper like seeds and I caught myself thinking – can a plant really grow from one of these little buggers? Well, I guess I’m going to find out!

This is what they looked like:

The poor little tomato seeds

Along with the seeds, I bought some compost, which I understand to be a mixture of decayed plant and animal stuff which will make my tomatoes go gaga. This was the packet which I got for Rs. 30:

Plant heaven

And here’s what’s inside:

Yum yum!

So I took some nice soil from the garden, mixed around 200 gms of this compost into it, and transfered the ensemble into a pot or gamla with some stones at the bottom near the hole for the water to drip out. I then placed 6 or 7 tomato seeds on the soil, covered it with more soil, patted it down and gave it a nice watering. And here is the end result:

The watered pot with the soil, compost and seeds

I placed it in an area that gets good sunlight, but not too much. The guides I read on the Internet which were meant for denizens of the UK and said that tomatoes need lots of sunlight – not less than 10 degrees C! Ahem ahem – this being Chennai where the minimum temperature is 30 degrees, I put it in a nice place that I thought I would like if I were a tomato plant…

Not too lonely is it?

And there we have it! I’m supposed to find some activity in three days or so. But I have no clue if I’ve done it right. But I figure that these tomato fellows must be pretty hardy and take their conditions as they come, or else they wouldn’t have reached the 21st century. So I’ve done my bit, now it’s time for the plants to do theirs…

Stay tuned for more updates

1 person likes this post.

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• India vs America – How Indian cities are better – May 15, 2009
• Indian Elections – Why voting is difficult – March 14, 2009
• Using Moneybookers to send money to India – Paypal alternative – March 1, 2010
• Two more days – then back in India! – January 6, 2010
• Pretentious crap that pisses me off – 3 examples – December 3, 2009

As a freelance writer, I was hit hard by the recent Paypal outage which prevented me from withdrawing funds from Paypal into my Bank account. Out of desperation, I decided to try Moneybookers [That's an affiliate link btw ] as an alternative to using Paypal for withdrawing money to my Indian bank account. And while I still get payments into my Paypal account, oDesk has an option to withdraw my funds into a Moneybookers account.

I was a bit hesitant going into Moneybookers because I had heard a lot about how they supposedly freeze accounts and charge high fees. But as I said, I was desperate and I’m glad I decided to open a Moneybookers account – it’s cheaper than Paypal with better currency conversion fees and it delivers cash into my account just as fast. The only hurdle to using Moneybookers fully is their highly strict verification process. I had to verify my Email ID, my card, my Bank account, my address (twice) and finally my ID. After all the verifications however, my account is fully operational with very high limits.

Moneybookers - An alternative to Paypal in India

Moneybookers is based in Europe, and their strict verification rules stem from implementing the UK’s anti money laundering procedures. People who have their accounts frozen have likely not completed all the procedures required by Moneybookers.

For those in India thinking of using Moneybookers as an option for withdrawal of funds into Indian bank accounts, here is a detailed account of how I set up my account and got verified step by step.

Opening an Account

Opening a Moneybookers account is simple. Head over to the Moneybookers home page and click the “Register” button. Be very careful while filling out the registration form, cause I gotta warn you – they’re going to check everything! Also, ensure that you choose your account’s currency carefully. You can never change it after this. And finally, be warned that you can have only one Moneybookers account. If you try and create two (they’ll likely find out if you do), your accounts will be frozen and there’s no use crying afterwards. They take their security procedures very seriously.

I receive all my payments in USD and I chose to have my Moneybookers currency set as USD, since this allows me to escape two currency conversion fees. If you instead choose a currency such as Euros and you receive a payment in USD, you’ll be hit with currency conversion fees twice – first from USD into EUR and then EUR into INR when you withdraw to an Indian bank account. So choose carefully!

Email ID and Physical Address Verification

Once you’ve opened your account, you’d better start the verification procedures ASAP. Your account is never fully functional until you do and even if you don’t hit your withdrawal limits, Moneybooker’s security team is likely to force you to verify your account if you don’t do it soon. The Email ID verification is simplicity itself. They send an email to the address you provide and you click the included link to verify it.

There are two physical address verifications. The first verification is designed to check whether the person who has opened the Moneybookers account really lives at the address provided. Mind, this isn’t a name verification yet. Just a check to see if you’ve given a valid address. When you try and verify your Indian address, Moneybookers will send you a physical letter containing a 6 digit number which you have to key into the Moneybookers verification page. If you enter it correctly, your address is verified and your money sending and withdrawal limits are increased.

I live in Chennai and I got the letter from Moneybookers in 5 days or so. Pretty neat!

Credit/Debit  Card Verification

The second step is to verify your card. It’s important to note that you can verify your card only if the name on the card is the same as the one you signed up with on Moneybookers. For verification, they charge your card a small amount and you have to then enter the exact value taken from your card. This proved to be a bit difficult for me for two reasons. First, I don’t have a credit card and when I tried using my ICICI debit card, the verification failed. Apparently Moneybookers didn’t like it.

I bank with ICICI and some time ago, I signed up for a b2 branch banking account – a completely online bank facility which has an “eWallet”. I tried using these details for card verification and it worked! But then a problem occurred. Moneybookers wanted me to enter the amount debited in USD and since my ICICI account was in INR, I only saw the INR value! I tried guessing the value based on the conversion rate and was confronted with a stern message in red saying “Please DO NOT TRY and guess the amount” after which they disabled the verification for 24 hrs – Ouch.

So I contacted the b2 bank using their online chat facility (damn neat that is) and asked them to give me the exact USD value debited. After a bit of checking, they confirmed that it was exactly $1.51 . I waited for 24 hrs, input the amount into the Moneybookers verification screen and voila! It was correct, I was verified and my account limits were increased further.

Adding and verifying a Bank account

This was the most difficult part of the verification procedure for me. There are two ways to verify your Indian bank account with Monebookers. First, you can upload some funds to the Moneybookers account via a wire transfer. The other is by withdrawing some funds to your bank account from Moneybookers first and then entering the verification code that they send along with your first withdrawal. Neither of them worked for me though…

The first step is adding your bank. You need to know the SWIFT code of your bank for Moneybookers to wire the funds to you. On the receiving end, my ICICI bank charges me Rs. 25 for each incoming wire transfer – quite reasonable. Sadly, though all banks have a SWIFT code, not all branches do. After trying in vain to find out the SWIFT code of my ICICI bank branch, I decided to call ICICI and find out what it is. The customer rep asked me if the sender was sending funds in USD or INR. I naturally assumed that the funds were being sent in USD (since my funds are stored in USD) and I obtained the USD specific SWIFT code for ICICI.

However, when I put in the SWIFT code, Moneybookers didn’t recognize it as an Indian bank. So after a lot of searching around, I finally got the correct SWIFT code for ICICI which is ICICINBBNRI . What seems to be happening is that Moneybookers is first converting my USD to INR and then sending it to the bank I specify. So naturally it counts as an INR transfer and not a USD. At least, that is what I think is happening. At any rate, my funds sailed through to my bank account in just two days. To be on the safe side, I had withdrawn only the small amount of $14 the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find a conversion rate much better than Paypal’s.

Moneybookers Bank Verification

Eagerly I searched for the verification code that was promised along with the wire transfer details, but didn’t find any such code. I was informed by Moneybookers that it would be a 6 digit alphanumeric code preceded by “VRF CODE”. But after many calls to the ICICI NRI department, no such code was found.

Disappointed, I decided to opt for the other method of verification namely uploading funds from my bank account to Moneybookers. Armed with all the details I walked over to ICICI to make the transfer, when I was informed that each transfer would cost me more than $30! I couldn’t afford that, and so I came home disappointed.

I contacted Moneybookers customer support over the phone (using Skype)  and told them that it was too expensive for me to upload funds to Moneybookers and that I hadn’t received any VRF CODE in my first withdrawal either. They kindly offered to verify my bank account manually and asked me to send over either a screenshot of my online bank account or a scanned copy of my bank statement. The details they wanted shown on the document were:

1. Bank account number
2. Name of the person (my name)
3. Transaction details showing the withdrawal into ICICI from Moneybookers
4. Date of the Transaction
5. Moneybookers as the sender of the funds

I took a screenshot of my online statement and circled the relevant details in black. Here is what I sent over:

Bank Statement showing Moneybookers transfer

Unfortunately for me, all the needed details are visible except No. 5 – the name of the sender (Moneybookers). Their security team rejected the screenshot saying so, and asked me to send them the physical statement of the bank. I called ICICI and asked them if the physical bank statement would show Moneybookers as the sender, and they told me that they couldn’t see the details of the sender themselves!

I was stymied and once again called up Moneybookers and pleaded with them saying that my bank couldn’t provide me with a statement showing them as the sender. They got back to me saying that if that was the case,I must at least get a full print out of the SWIFT transaction from my bank, scan it and send it to them. So off I went to ICICI the next day to do just that and obtained this document:

Moneybookers SWIFT details

Praying to the (non existent) gods that they accept this as proof that I am indeed the owner of the Bank account in question, I sent it off to them and was rewarded two days later with an email from the security departing saying that my bank account has (at last!) been verified by their department. And my withdrawal limits were raised once more.

After my bank account verification, there was just one more thing for them to check up…

Commercial account vs Personal Account

I was reading some forums a week ago, when I came across the disturbing news that if I was using Moneybookers to receive payments for goods or services (which as a writer, I am), then I must have a commercial account and not a personal one. When you sign up for a Moneybookers account, you’re asked if you’re an individual or a company. Since I’m an individual, I got a personal account instead of a commercial one.

I went back and read the Moneybookers TOS and saw that if they suspect that I’m using a personal account to receive commercial payments, their security team will freeze the account and ban me. I was scared, and once again placed a call to them telling them that I’m a freelancer and that though I use my account for commercial purposes, I’m not a company but an individual. They got back to me with a mail saying that if that was the case, they would treat my account as a commercial one and that they wanted two further documents from me to prove my identity, namely:

1. A scanned copy of a government issued document with an expiry date
2. A utility bill that has actually arrived by post in the past 3 months

I was only too happy to send them a copy of the front and back of my passport, but I had a problem with the second requirement. Internet techie that I am, I pay every single bill of mine online and when I sent them my reliance Internet bill which arrived by email, the security team told me that it must be a scanned copy of a bill that was actually received by post in the last 3 months. Since I’ve just got back from outside India, I don”t have any such bill and had to wait for a while to obtain it.

They also sent over a “Merchant questionnaire” word document requesting details about my business and what I do etc etc. They told me to leave out the fields which are not applicable, and there were many like this since I’m not a company.

As matters stand, I’m still waiting for my Internet bill to arrive by post so that I can finish up this final verification stage. I finally got my Internet bill by post, scanned it (and scanned the envelope before opening it for good measure!), filled out the questionnaire with all details that were applicable to me and uploaded all three documents to the Moneybookers security team. I got back a reply in less than an hour thanking me for sending across the documents and informing me that all was well.

So that was the end of the verification procedures for me. I’m completely verified and all set to go! I’ve already withdrawn several thousand rupees into my ICICI bank account from Moneybookers and it’s been a better experience than Paypal due to the higher conversion rates.

I only wish there was some way to transfer money from my Paypal account to Moneybookers, since Paypal withdrawals into Indian bank accounts are more expensive and are fraught with complications thanks to the recent RBI ban. Moneybookers seems to be a professional company, and though their verification procedures can get a bit on one’s nerves, it’s that very scrutiny that inspires trust.

So here’s hoping that more Indian providers will ask their clients if they use Moneybookers for payments and if so, open an account with them.

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Saving for Retirement – I’m almost done! – September 28, 2009
• Settling Down – September 10, 2008
• Death of a cute cuddly Rabbit – October 18, 2009
• Indian Elections – Why voting is difficult – March 14, 2009
• Paypal disallows Indians from receiving payments for services! – February 4, 2010

I use Paypal to receive payments for my freelancing work from my clients all over the world. Today however, I got a shock on receiving the following mail from Paypal:

Hello Bhagwad Park,

Thank you,

Paypal

To be sure, they’ve given a workaround – they want my buyers to pretend they’re buying “goods” instead of services. There are several problems with this. For one, some of my largest clients are corporates whose payment system is automatic. They don’t “click” anything or “select” anything. The payments just goes from their systems. For me to ask them to change the way they do business is impossible.

Secondly, Paypal is asking me to encourage my buyers to lie! I don’t provide any goods and it’s quite possible that my buyers will refuse to falsify their accounts just because the almighty Paypal says they must.

Mind you, this is only for Indian Paypal accounts. Why has this happened? Paypal refuses to divulge more details on this issue and who knows how long this will last? There are very few reliable options to transfer money from abroad into India and Paypal is like a gateway. It’s tragic that there’s no real alternative to Paypal – most of my buyers know Paypal and will use it and if I tell them I can’t receive payments in Paypal, I don’t know how they’ll pay me.

Fortunately a lot depends on this and some corporations (like oDesk – the organization where I get part of my work from) and unless they find a way to resolve this, all their Indian providers will be unable to withdraw and hence work. And since they get large portions of their revenue from places like India, they simply have to find a viable workaround. Also, all web hosting payments to and from India will be canceled creating mass chaos – so I’m really a smaller fish

Crossing my fingers and hoping this goes away soon…

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Saving for Retirement – I’m almost done! – September 28, 2009
• Why buyers should pay freelancers even if they dont’ like the work – September 18, 2008
• Settling Down – September 10, 2008
• Why Freelancers can’t take Vacations – October 5, 2008
• Using Moneybookers to send money to India – Paypal alternative – March 1, 2010

Been very busy reading the Sword of Truth series, and painfully waiting for the days to slip by. As the weather in Chicago gets colder and colder, I find myself thinking that I’m leaving for India not a moment too soon!

My wife and I have our arrival all planned out. We arrive early morning. Reach home and give mandatory (and much missed) love to doggy and other family members. Then we grab a few winks of sleep if possible, and head out for DOSA breakfast! Cheap dosas and philter kaapi with grumpy waiters who don’t expect tips. Did I mention that we’ll be going on a bike? Oh yes. It’s been well over a year since I sat on a bike and felt the hot humid air roasting my skin…..mmmmm

And I’ll be able to take walks in pajamas without having to layer myself in clothing like an onion. And having to peel off said layers when I get home. I can stroll up to my local chai waala for a cup of tea which I don’t need to tell him how to make with how much sugar and which tea leaves, at what temperature etc etc. And while strolling I can hear the crazy birds chirping and crows caawing and see people all around me instead of being cooped up in a room like a tomb.

And that’s just the beginning! My cycle will be waiting for me in case I want to go to Landmark or the Oxford book store or to the local cheap restaurant where I will gorge myself on spicy delicacies instead of the bland veggie stuff I’ve been trying to eat all this while. And of course if I fall sick I can go get my own medicines from the drug store without getting a “prescription”. Or if I do have to go to a doctor, I can get by with a Rs. 200 consultation fee instead of a $200 one!

My wife can then buy a “normal” unlocked and unsubsidized phone into which she can shove in the SIM card of her choice without being bound down to a two year contract. And as I walk down the street, I will see houses of different shapes and sizes – some of them deliciously unkept with crumbling walls and overgrown lawns instead of the sanitized pseudo fairyland I’ve gotten used to over the past 1.25 years. Never again will I have to “check the weather” before any outdoor activity and see the wind conditions!

And of course, there will be people on the road. Jobless old men squatting down, drinking tea, and even professionals coming out of their offices for a smoke or for lunch. And as evening dawns, my wife and I can go to Baskin robbins on our bike, and from there we can go to Spencer Plaza (a typical American mall it is NOT!) or even Marina beach – which I hear has been done up nicely in our absence. Or we can sit at home and order spicy goodies from our two or three local restaurants who know us over the phone and will ask us where we’ve been all this time!

In short, we’re going home baby!

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Saving for Retirement – I’m almost done! – September 28, 2009
• Settling Down – September 10, 2008
• India vs America – How Indian cities are better – May 15, 2009
• Using Moneybookers to send money to India – Paypal alternative – March 1, 2010
• Moving to Chicago – August 23, 2008

Today I watched the last episode of an awesome series called “The Prisoner” (1967). I won’t tell you what it’s about, but it’s pretty mind bending and makes you think about new and interesting concepts. Unfortunately, as the series progressive, it becomes more and more “arty” and begins to stray into allegory. The finale called “Fall Out” turns out to be a total mess with the entire episode seeming like a disjointed nightmare. The worst of it was that this episode was hailed as a major accomplishment and a testament to the skills of the director.

Now let’s get one thing straight. I’m a barbarian. I like things to be straightforward and have a clear meaning. Movies should have good and interesting plots – otherwise they’re pretentious crap. Those who praise “Artistic” movies that rely on “style” and “technical accomplishment” should, in my opinion keep their views to themselves. And for good reasons. There are a class of people (I’m sure you’ve met them) who need to feel superior, and when they’re told that such and such a thing is “classic”, will harp on about it even if it bores them to death – perhaps because it bores them to death.

Image Credit: emurray

Wine - Snobbery at its finest

Here’s a powerful illustration of what I’m saying. You know how “sophisticated” people talk about wine? They’ll drone on and on about how each wine is unique and reflects the vineyard it came from. Then they’ll taste it and pretend to pass judgment on its quality and talk about it’s “history” etc etc. I’ve always itched to do a proper randomized double blind test on these pretentious snobs who just want to look “cultured”. Well, we recently found out that the notion of “minerality” – being able to taste the soil of the wine is a complete and utter myth. And people have been believing this crap for centuries.

I can find similar examples of people claiming to be able to distinguish between good and bad art. There is no such thing as good art and bad art. If people didn’t know they were supposed to appreciate Van Gogh, almost everyone would say his paintings are childish and immature. But because they know it’s a Van Gogh painting, they’ll ooh and aah over it and find hidden mysteries that only their eyes can see. Coming back to movies, there are similar tides flowing here as well. Movies that are crappy as hell are praised by critics merely because they’re supposed to be praised. Once again, I would love a randomized double blind test to be done to weed out these phonies.

Citizen Kane - A boring dump of a movie

Citizen Kane is one such overrated movie. The American Film Institute however, thinks it’s the greatest movie ever made and has repeatedly put it at the top of its list of best 100 movies of all time. The truth however, is that it’s one of the most mundane movies I’ve seen. And if a movie is boring, it deserves not to be seen. I’m throwing down a challenge to whoever reads this. Watch “Citizen Kane” and tell me if it’s interesting. I don’t care about how groundbreaking it was in 1941 and how much it’s affected film making since then. I want to know if you think you can stay riveted on the plot and whether or not you can bring yourself to give a shit about a boring rich man who says “Rosebud.”

How a movie can be called the greatest of all time when it’s like watching flies fuck (to borrow a quote from the immortal George Carlin) is something I can’t understand. Movie connoisseurs who cream their pants thinking of Citizen Kane feel that just because a boring movie introduced new techniques in 1941, it has a right to be called the greatest.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Slow paced with no plot

Next in line is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another movie that’s as interesting as watching paint dry. Nothing happens until half an hour into the movie. We actually have 20 minutes of watching a space ship fly through space (and nothing else) with Beethoven Strauss music playing in the background. Mind, I enjoyed watching Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” immensely. It has a plot. But A Space Odyssey is an exercise in frustration. The only reason I forced myself to watch it was because I was waiting for the supercool computer villain HAL 9000. But even that wasn’t enough to make up for the sheer boredom of the experience. And the ending is confusing as hell. You don’t know what happened!

Of course, we see the same trend in literature and poetry too, where snobbery is the norm and a means of showing superiority. It’s so pervasive and frustrating, that it’s more noble to take a stand on the opposite extreme. So here’s my message to the “sophisticated” ones: I’m a philistine. I don’t understand all the “arty” stuff. Give me movies and literature with proper plots, paintings that are easy to understand and don’t expect me to know better. I’m sure you don’t really understand either.

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Settling Down – September 10, 2008
• Death of a cute cuddly Rabbit – October 18, 2009
• Indian Elections – Why voting is difficult – March 14, 2009
• Paypal disallows Indians from receiving payments for services! – February 4, 2010
• Moving to Chicago – Almost but not quite! – August 28, 2008

I’m 27 years old and have been a meat eater all my life. I’ve always loved meat and I still do. Right up until a few months ago, I would proudly proclaim that I was a “pure non vegetarian” and would disdainfully ignore any vegetable preparation on the table. I would consider my meal to be a failure if I so much as touched a vegetable with my knife and fork.

Till a few years ago, I had always held that animals killed for us would never have come into existence in the first place, since we breed them for food. Therefore (my logic went), we had a right to eat them since our net effect was zero. Something like cutting down a tree if we had grown it in the first place. But I’ve come to realize that this reasoning is false. Once life – and when I say life, I mean conscious life – is created (by whatever means), it belongs to itself. We still don’t know how consciousness is formed and so in a sense, we’re not the true creators of it.

But even if we were, we still don’t have the right to do what we want with life that we generate. Otherwise, my mother could kill me since she’s responsible for my birth. I don’t believe in a divine creator, but even if there was one, he or she would have no moral right over my life since once I am created, I am my own person.

Image Credit: Sandra Mora

Going Vegetarian

But even now, this doesn’t stop me from eating meat. I have no ethical problems with eating animals for food as such. Animals can die to feed others – that is the way of nature. But there is something else that gives me pause. Every life form has the right to defend itself. When a tiger kills a deer, the deer can run and the tiger has to earn the right to eat it. In our civilization however, I’ve come to realize that it’s not fair that animals are mechanically killed and eaten by a person who has never even seen them. They have no chance to defend themselves. Doomed from the day they’re born, they are shown no respect and are powerless. It is this aspect of their death – more than anything else – that has been troubling me for a while.

I feel comfortable hunting an animal for food. If I had a (fair) weapon and the animal had a good chance of saving itself, I think I could kill it and eat it without ethical problems. The key for me is the knowledge that the outcome is not a foregone conclusion. The way we kill animals these days, it’s just not right they have no means of defense.

These thoughts had been building up in me for a couple of years now. I had reached a tipping point, and had decided that on my return to India (at the end of 2009) I would take the plunge and go vegetarian. The thought gave me nightmares. Vegetables! Me, the confirmed meat eater – it was unimaginable. But I knew I had to do it.

Then something happened that hastened my resolve to go veg by a couple of months. I saw the documentary called “Earthlings”, which revealed the systematic torture of animals who are killed for our food, clothing, and entertainment. That was enough to make me stop eating meat at once. I could not be party to something like that. It was out of the question.

So here I stand – Bhagwad Jal Park – former meat eater extraordinaire. I still love meat. I probably always will. And if I can get it in a way that respects the natural laws of life, I won’t hesitate to eat it. There must be no torture, and no foregone conclusion for the animal. The meat has to be earned by hunting and cause swift death.  But given the way we currently obtain meat, it seems highly unlikely that I would ever get to taste it again…

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Saving for Retirement – I’m almost done! – September 28, 2009
• Death of a cute cuddly Rabbit – October 18, 2009
• India vs America – How Indian cities are better – May 15, 2009
• Indian Elections – Why voting is difficult – March 14, 2009
• Moving to Chicago – August 23, 2008

When I was five or six, I directly caused the death of Floppy – our pet rabbit. A dog grabbed and made off with him to the back of our quarters, while I stood by and watched helplessly. I don’t know what got me thinking about it after all these years, but I was suddenly awash with feelings of guilt, sadness, and oddly enough, forgiveness. He was a cute fellow – like all rabbits I suppose – pure white with red eyes, long ears and soft fur.

One afternoon I wanted to show off Floppy to my friends, and so I took him out of his cage downstairs and we were playing with him. He was on the ground and I remember pinching his tail as he scurried away underneath our car. A dog nearby took notice, crawled up on him and simply ran away with him holding him by the neck. I could only cry out as one of my friends let loose a volley of stones at the dog who succeeded in whisking away the unlucky Floppy.

I was overwhelmed with grief and guilt. It was because of me and my foolishness that this had happened. I went wailing and woke my mother from her siesta. I guess I was also petrified that she would dole out punitive measures against me for taking Floppy out of his cage. There was little to be done. We went and leaned out of our back veranda and what we saw only made me feel worse. There was Floppy lying dead surrounded by the dog and a few of her puppies. That was 20 years ago.

Image Credit: Halans

This is what Floppy looked like when he was alive

I still feel bad about that day. It seemed such a normal afternoon. Floppy had no idea that his life was going to end in a few minutes. He didn’t know that the stupid kid who was taking him out of the cage was the messenger of death. Makes me realize now that one day, I will be Floppy! One day it will be me who will not realize that death is on its way with swift wings that very morning, afternoon, or night. Unnerving.

I also saw that the dog wasn’t at fault. She had starving puppies to care for – and when I saw them at their meal they were very happy, wagging their tails and all. Death to Floppy, happiness to three souls, and all part of the game.

But why do I feel guilty about it? After all, I’ve killed hundreds of mosquitoes, and crushed ants now and then. I’m sure I’ve been indirectly responsible for hundreds of more deaths through my carelessness and stupidity. Why feel so bad over Floppy? Perhaps because it was personal. And because I had to watch Floppy die – but I’ve seen insects die and don’t feel the same way. It’s all very confusing.

One thing I know. The larger the creature, the more guilty we feel over its death. I wouldn’t want to shoot an elephant, but wouldn’t feel so bad if I killed a rat. It may have to do with watching them struggle. I’m sure if I actually saw the mosquito dying, and heard it’s death cry I wouldn’t be so at peace. Lately I don’t kill anything willingly. Even spiders that climb over me or insects on my bed. I try my best to lift them on a piece of paper and throw them out. After all, their life is as important to them as mine is to me isn’t it? So why should I end their life unnecessarily?

I wonder if Floppy has forgiven me? After all no matter what I do now, I did kill him then. I only hope he realizes I’m sorry for it and doesn’t judge a little kid too harshly…

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Saving for Retirement – I’m almost done! – September 28, 2009
• Why Freelancers can’t take Vacations – October 5, 2008
• Going Vegetarian – October 29, 2009
• Pretentious crap that pisses me off – 3 examples – December 3, 2009
• Moving to Chicago – August 23, 2008

In this post, I’m going to lay bare my finances to the wide world. Most Indians I know are hesitant to discuss this aspect of their affairs (perhaps even more than their sexual ones!), and here I disclose full details with screenshots of my finances with nothing hidden. Call me an exhibitionist, but it’s fun to do what I haven’t seen anyone do before!

Retirement Goals

But to start off, this is my retirement goal: I need to have a monthly income of Rs. 3L (3,00,000) when I retire. I figure I’ll need this much when I retire since inflation will be 7.8% and Rs. 3L will be equal to around Rs. 30,000 in today’s value after 28 years (time till I retire). My wife and I feel that if we were old right now, we can easily get by on Rs. 30,000 a month.

So to get a monthly income of Rs. 30,000, I need to accumulate Rs 3.11Cr (3,00,00,000) by 2037. I want to retire when I’m 55.

So final goal = Rs. 3 Cr by 2037.

Current Status

I’ve been investing since I started earning (haven’t missed a month in 6 years) and over that period, have managed to accumulate 8L till date. The recent crash and subsequent rise of the Indian Stock Markets has more than tripled my assets. So here are my assets as of the 27th of September 2009 (Click to Enlarge):

(The red smudged “Other Liabilities” is a person for whom I’m temporarily holding some cash – so it counts as a liability). And to ease the fears of “other” security conscious people in my life, I have graciously consented to blur some account numbers….Ok ok, I guess it makes sense – As the Chief Whip said in Yes Minister – “Open, but not gaping!” In case you’re wondering what cool tool I use to generate my financial reports, it’s called Yodlee – a free online financial aggregator whose clients include Bank of America and other large corporations, so I trust them.

What I need to do to reach 3.11 Cr by 2037

I invest only in the Stock Market and as such, I expect excellent returns over the next 28 years. I never take cash out and keep investing per week. Based on historical records, I should get well over 15% per annum, but to be on the safe side, I’ll forecast for only 12%. Plugging the figures into a simple retirement calculator, this is what I get:

So the good news is that I now only need to invest a minimum of Rs. 5000 a month to reach my targets by 2037! I currently invest a minimum of Rs. 7,000 per week – half in a Tax saving ELSS scheme and the other half in Mid Cap companies (I can afford to take on risk since I have a large time span). Here are my investments for the past one month (Click to Enlarge).

So I find that I’m currently investing around five times more than what I need to invest. Ooh la la! It makes me imagine how much bare minimum I need to earn to live comfortably and keep investing at the same time. When I calculate it, I need to earn just Rs. 15,000 a month (instead of the 35 – 40 thousand I earn right now). Given that I charge $20 an hour, I need to work less than an hour a day – on weekdays only of course – for the next 28 years to achieve my retirement goals!

Makes me think I have quite a good life. No babies, no house rent etc. The only thing maybe I’ll need to worry about is medical expenses. Thinking of taking out some insurance when I get back to India – I’m still not convinced either way. Ideas anyone?

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Why buyers should pay freelancers even if they dont’ like the work – September 18, 2008
• Going Vegetarian – October 29, 2009
• Death of a cute cuddly Rabbit – October 18, 2009
• Growing Tomatoes – Day 1 – March 12, 2010
• Moving to Chicago – Almost but not quite! – August 28, 2008

I’ve been in the USA for almost a year now and have had ample time to look at and view the structure of urban development in this country. Of course, there’s no doubt that due to greater affluence, there is a higher standard of living over here, but when it comes to India vs America from the point of view of the structure of the cities and villages, there’s no doubt in my mind which is better. For my Indian readers, let me try and explain how US cities are organized.

US cities and Zoning Laws

Let me start off by saying that what you see on TV regarding US cities isn’t true. On TV, you only see the big cities like Chicago, New York, DC, Los Angeles etc. Those are like the Indian cities of Delhi, Chennai and the like. Most of the US (95%) is organized into areas called suburbs – like our villages. Unlike the villages in India however, people are moving into the suburbs instead of away from them. So they’re growing. And as a person who has lived in Indian cities both big and small all his life, I can tell you first hand that the suburbs of America are a nightmare.

The major features of US suburbs is something called zoning. Zoning means that residential areas where people live are completely separated by large distances from areas where you can shop or go to work. This in itself would be ok, but for one hitch. The density of the suburbs is so low, that there is almost zero public transportation. No buses with any degree of proximity, and no trains that can take you within the districts themselves (only between districts).

Image Credit: Barrie Sutcliffe

This means that there is no viable means of transportation other than cars. And for someone like me who doesn’t drive at all due to environmental issues, it’s completely unlivable. Just imagine – to step out of the house to get a tube of toothpaste, you can’t just walk upto a kirana store nearby. You have to drive! You have to drive everywhere, with no exceptions. And in cars. Forget motorcycles. Most bikes here are specialized for power racing and are more expensive overall than cars. Also, the cold weather makes driving impossible for most of the year. In other words, you can’t suddenly feel like having a cup of coffee and stroll over to your local chai shop.

Cycling is also not viable since the distances are simply too large to cover. What I would give for some small little grocery stores littered around like in India! Where you can just step out in your sandals and walk across for a quick bite and a bar of soap maybe. In 25 years, I have never had a problem with living in any Indian city without a car. Even in Delhi University, a rickshaw would take you to Kamala Nagar in 10 mins for Rs. 5! Here there are no cabs on the streets you can just hail down like autos. You have to call one to your doorstep.

US suburbs are lonely places. There is nothing on the roads except for cars. While walking down the road, you see no humans at all! It’s just the whoosh of cars all over the place. In India, if you step out, there are people everywhere bumping into you, boys playing cricket on the roads, dogs roaming around – you feel that you’re not alone. Here you never meet any living creature on the roads. Just birds.

Image Credit: Beppie K

India vs America – the car culture

The US is a car based society. It’s unfortunate that Indians want to be like that as well. But in my opinion, it will never get as bad as it is in the US. For the simple reason that the US suburbs were built from the ground up keeping cars in mind. So there are large spaces and wide gaps that you can cross only with cars to work and to shop for the smallest thing. In India, the cities and towns are already built and you can’t demolish them. So you can always walk here and there. We’re lucky. We’re also lucky that politicians keep bickering and can’t make up their minds what to do. True, this prevents good long term policy from being enacted, but it also prevents stupid policy being enacted like that of suburban development in the US.

Image Credit: Rich_Lem

So to those of my fellow Indians who are thinking of coming to the US. Forget the image. It’s not a nice place to be. Don’t come here. You’ll miss the heat and crowds before you know it. You’ll miss the ability to walk to your local tea stall. You’ll miss driving on bikes. You’ll be stuck in a smelly tin can day after day for 405 hours each year. How this can be anything that anyone wants, I have absolutely no idea.

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Settling Down – September 10, 2008
• Going Vegetarian – October 29, 2009
• Two more days – then back in India! – January 6, 2010
• Paypal disallows Indians from receiving payments for services! – February 4, 2010
• Moving to Chicago – Almost but not quite! – August 28, 2008

It has been widely observed that the middle class in India doesn’t take part in the electoral process. As of this writing, I’m 26 years of age and have yet to meet a friend of mine who has voted, even though we could have done so almost ten times till now. Why does this happen?

After reading several articles on the net about the responsibility to vote, I am ready to do so for the first time. I want to vote. To not be partly responsible for the mess of politics that we’re in. After all, I have no business to complain if I don’t do at least this much.

Image Credit: counterclockwise

Indian Elections

However, when I was trying to make a decision, I came across hurdles which seem insurmountable. Here was my experience:

Read more…

Like

Unlike

Similar Posts:

• Going Vegetarian – October 29, 2009
• Growing Tomatoes – Day 1 – March 12, 2010
• Using Moneybookers to send money to India – Paypal alternative – March 1, 2010
• Two more days – then back in India! – January 6, 2010
• Moving to Chicago – August 23, 2008