erudite - knowledgeable
hackney - over used
precocious - mature/knowledgeable at a very young age
banal - lack of originality
trite - hackneyed/boring from overuse
lachrymal - made of tears
intransigent - stubbornly defending a point

All thanks to The Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Insightful!

obsequious - fawning, servile
servile - slavish
vitiate - invalidate
efficacy - efficient
gregarious - fond of company, sociable
erudition - learning

A thought inspired from Black Swans:
Why are we always wiser after the event?

Go in peace o beautiful one. Close your eyes. Shut out the pain of not having the skin clinging to the sinews of your muscles anymore. Let it go. Close your eyes and go in peace. Let Him embrace you in his arms, and take you away. Go in peace o innocent one ... go in peace ...

Today I believe there is no more humanity left. I don't believe in this fucked up race anymore.

The day draws near. Give me strength, and be with me.

Had to note this down:

Last weekend I saw this dramatic and sad video on NatGeo. A zebra stallion biting, stamping, flaying and trampling a young fawn to death. Reason: it was not his. The traumatized mother put up a brave fight to save her precious fawn and tried to chase the enraged stallion away, but to no avail; it was hopeless. The fawn died a brutal and painful death. Such was the devotion of the grief stricken mother to her precious little one, that she refused to leave its side even after it was dead. She just couldn't accept the fact that her young one was dead.

The camera crew returned the next morning to find the mother dead too, killed and being eaten by hyenas, probably while it was trying to defend its young one's dead body.

“The thing that people don’t understand is it’s not how likely that the exposure becomes a reality, but what if it does?”
- Congressman Darrell Issa, on the U.S Government's risks with Citi.

Prepare for the worst.

The Bottleneck: A narrow, treacherous stretch of ice that has to be navigated just before reaching the summit of K2. The seracs (huge chunks of precariously poised ice) overhanging this route have claimed lots of lives, most recently and tragically in August 2008.

Of every four people who tries to reach the summit (note tries to reach the summit) one dies. This is the savage mountain.

Haunting, fascinating and powerful ... This is nature.

dirge - a slow, solemn, and mournful piece of music
pillory - to expose to ridicule and abuse

"♫ The financial situation is so bad at the moment that women are marrying for love"

... heh heh!

platitude - dull redundant statement

In this world of randomness we have but one choice to be stoic in our actions.
- A lesson learned from Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb

travesty - mockery
morass - a situation that traps/confuses

Today I left Lehman ... slightly sad :(

skittish - moving quickly
stymie - to obstruct

"Dreaming out loud" by One Republic ... love this song.

exigent - requiring immediate action or aid; urgent; pressing
acolyte - A devoted follower or attendant
soliloquy - a dramatic monologue that represents a series of unspoken reflections
impertinence - unmannerly intrusion or presumption;insolence
comportment - bearing, deportment


The Gorilla:
Inspite of the fact that I have nothing more left in terms of dealings with the firm, I guess he'll always be an inspiration of sorts ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMQJV3iJ5M8c&refer=home


"Administrative costs - These include necessities such as postage, record keeping, customer service, cappuccino machines, etc. Some funds are excellent at minimizing these costs while thers (the ones with the cappuccino machines in the office) are not."
- Investopedia tutorial on mutual fund costs.

Its final - Feedback for me is officially over.

Thanks Akhil! You might not know it but you have taught me a lot :)

"They'll still kill you, but they now do it gently."
- A panelist regarding the current job cuts in the industry.

proffer - to present
capricious - impulsive
impetuous - sudden impulsive
sepulchre - tomb
propinquity - nearness
aver - to assert
remonstrate - to say/plead in opposition
fulsome - exceedingly flattering
engender - to cause
ambivalence - uncertainty
bootlicking - flattering
smarm - smarmy speech

"Well I'm not sure that if, you know, it's about something that you should know, assuming that, you know, you didn't know about it already, then, obviously, when you can know will be when Sir Humphrey really knows."
- Bernard to Hacker, upon being enquired about what was going on with Sir Humphrey

"The relationship, which I might tentatively venture to aver has not been without a degree of reciprocal utility and even perhaps occasional gratification, is approaching the point of irreversible bifurcation and, to put it briefly, is in the propinquity of its ultimate regrettable termination."
-Sir Humphrey to Hacker, announcing his being promoted to Cabinet Secretary

Got from Party Games.

"Some of his sentences are longer that judge Geoffrey's!"
- Hacker to the Bursar of Cambridge, regarding Sir Humphrey's sentences

Got from Doing the Honours.
.. hell yeah! It's been a while!

esoteric - confined to a small group

rescind - to invlidate

Born of the Bourne Identity

Let me pen down my thoughts on IT at this juncture ... it sickens me. I hate it. I hate the amicable, lazy arsed bafoons who take their petty salaries, trivial bonuses, and third rate work without an iota of seriousness or earnestness to learn more about this wonderful industry they are servicing. Fuckers get paltry salaries compared to the capital market guys, but all they do is bitch about this marginally and then get on wasting away their time, sitting and gossiping. Fuckers ... I hate them. I hate the place. But there is nothing one can do but wait and watch. Cheers to the staging area.

And hence I am angry ...

I have come up with a name for my CFA+FRM+MBA plans ... it's called the "five year plan".

agnostic - doubtful/non-commital

10th October, 2008 - Nomura! :)

rapacity - greed

At this point of time I am angry ...

expropriation - confiscation of property from an entity for use by the state

With the old notion of investment bankers being opulently rich from their exploits being destroyed by the ongoing credit crisis, folks have come up with some really good puns about the current state of things:

"Q: Whats wrong with an investment bank's balance sheet? A: Nothing is right on the left, and nothing is left on the right."

"Q: Whats the difference between a pigeon and an investment banker? A: At least a pigeon can still make deposits on a BMW."

"Q: Whats the difference between a guy who has just lost everything at a casino in Vegas, and an investment banker? A: A tie. "

"I went to by a toaster and it came with a bank."

"I'm drunk and I'm feeling down
And I just wanta be alone
You should have never come around
Why don't you just go home?"

- Papa Roach, Scars

Fuck! Screwed myself up today. Mridul informed me at short notice to come down to Lower Parel and meet, and I like a fool, acted on impulse agreed and went all the way to the station before I realized it would be a fucking pain in the ass to carry on with the commitment. Fucked myself, fucked Talwar, and fucked Mridul in the process. 100/- bucks and more importantly, 1 hour wasted. Entire CFA studying mood screwed up.

Lessons learned:-
1) No meeting friends on weekdays.
2) No locals on weekdays. Minimize locals on weekends also.
3) Do CBA BEFORE meeting the person.
4) CFA comes first. Never forgo CFA studies for anything else except death/ family.

Learn fucker ....

virulent - full of venom/malice
reticent - silent
surreptitious - doing something clandestinely
in limbo - in uncertainty

Today Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two remaining investment banks, filed with the Fed petitions to become holding bank corporations. With this Wall Street, and investment banking as we knew it, have come to an end.

ruction - an unpleasant row
rancour - a deep bitter hate
pervasive - widespread

"If the rat hits the side of the cage and gets food, then it hits the side of the cage and gets electrocuted so you don't really know (what to expect.)"
-NY State Senate, regarding the Fed's bail-out policy of financial institutions

This part of my life is called "Latency". Having fucked myself up in IIT, I have become the one-minute-too-late man: the one who has always been just a step short. I know shit, I am willing to work 26 hours a day, I am willing to divorce myself from everything (even myself) to wed myself to finance. But my fuck-ups in college have got the better of me.

But thats only for now ...

And thus in one night Lehman is no more. And I am unemployed ...

astute - cunning
dilettante - a person who studies the arts
outlier - the tail regions of the curve for a normal distribution ( read lesser mortals)
burgher - a resident of a Scottish burgh
sobriety - soberness
machiavellian - politically unprincipled, crafty
omniscient - knowing everything
canard - french for duck
non-sequitur - latin for does not follow
segue - to make a transition from one thing to another
apposite - highly pertinent/ appropriate
purvey - to circulate
extraneous - external
internecine - internal conflict

- Got from Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

"You want loyalty? Hire a cocker spaniel."
- A trader leaving Solomon Brothers.

"If you have a bazooka in your pocket and people know it, you probably won't have to use it.''

Henry Paulson, U.S Treasury Secretary

... but you didn't count in the factor of people being armed with AK-47s, did you?

divest - to sell

"He who hesitates, masturbates!"
-Jim Carrey, in the Cable Guy

"The financial sector needs to shrink; I don't think simply having a couple of medium-sized banks and a couple of small banks going under is going to do the job."
-Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics at Harvard

chaebol - family-controlled industrial conglomerate in South Korea

subponea - to summon for a court case
proffer - to present for acceptance
dovish - a person who advocates peace
crimp - to bend or fold
asphyxiate - to smother/suffocate

"A Martinsa spokesman in Madrid, who declined to be named because of company policy, wouldn't comment."
-An interesting Bloomberg news quote.

"Like all dollar-traded commodities, oil prices tend to fall when the U.S. currency rises. A stronger U.S. dollar makes oil more expensive for foreign investors."
-Logical. Remember.

construe - to interpret
dubious - doubtful
cognizance - knowledge
deride - to scorn

Now playing: One Republic - Stop and Stare, Album: Dreaming Out Loud

"Life is what happens, while you're busy making your excuses ..."
- Simple Plan - Miss me when I'm gone

caprice - an impulsive change of mind
demur - to disagree
myopic - lack of foresight
divest - to take away from a person
nettlesome - causing irritation
disparage - to speak negatively about someone
repatriate - to return to one's own country
mire - to get stuck in a sticky situation
fungible - ability to interchange
fractious - readily angered
concomitant - accompanying as an natural result of something


"Historically, a market crash has always precipitated from a bubble (pun intended), and the thicker the clouds or the bigger the bubble, the harder it rains. "

"The effects of the tulip craze left the Dutch very hesitant about speculative investments for quite some time. Investors now can know that it is better to stop and smell the flowers than to stake your future upon one. "

"The demand for investments caused IPOs to sprout out of everything, including companies that promised to reclaim sunshine from vegetables and to build floating mansions to extend Britain's landmass."

"Both actions, joining and fleeing, have very little basis in the quality of the news or the quality of the market. Instead, the herd follows the cow that runs the fastest, trampling the market. "

"We learned at least one lesson from all of these crashes: humans may overact frequently with small effects, but computers do it only once in a big way. "

"When stocks are flying through the stratosphere like rockets, it is usually a sign of a bubble."

- Quotes from the article on stock market crashes on investopedia.com

"Synergy Space-Bovubetribucs forges a new frontier in the introduction of organic entities into the ecosystem of the lunar-scape in order to promote greater synergy. This triumphant new paradigm will be enacted through a leveraged advantaged momentum initiator."

- An actual ad-campaign quote of a failed company before the 1987 stock market crash!

alleviate - a reduce strain
mnemonic - a memory aid/a symbol

Achievement: First salary: 49,393/- ... humble beginnings.

quiescent - inactivity/repose
antipathy - dislike/opposite of sympathy

obfuscation - to make obscure/unclear
visceral - basic needs
modicum - moderate

I won't complain because I didn't deserve anything. Even this is more than what I deserved. I was just not ready. But I am getting ready now. I can feel the rush in my bones. In the future I will earn and deserve whatever I get.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

"As a result of this, you may hear mention of the Useless Use of Cat Award (UUoC), also known in some circles as The Award For The Most Gratuitous Use Of The Word Cat In A Serious Shell Script being bandied about on the comp.unix.shell newsgroup from time to time."
- Got from a very famous shell scripting tutorial site.

stymied - thwart
lynchpin - a central cohesive element
rescind - to repeal/anull
panacea - remedy for all diseases

inane - lacking meaning
urbane - very formal
avarice - greed
facsimile - and exact copy

"Buying new soul" ...
Interesting ... till about 3 months before college placements I was still under the impression that the firm was a consulting firm! The heights of ignorance and unpreparedness ...

Fortune favours those who are prepared, and kills those who are not.

idiosyncrasy - a habit peculiar to a particular individual
fulsome - excessive flattering
unpropitious - unfavourable
superannuation - pension fund

specter - a ghostly apparition
preclude - prevent

"Now one of the world's rarest and most elusive of mammals, the South China tiger is fully protected by the Chinese government, with no more than 10-20 wild individuals estimated to remain along the remote border areas of China's rapidly developing provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian and Hunan."

... let mercy come and wash away what I've done.

tenuous - slender, thread like ... feeble
castigate - criticism
wrest - to pull or take control from

Yesterday marked the passing of Thamma. In a way, I will miss her.

A very important thought, which Rama mentioned today:
I am no longer in competition with my peers or contemporaries anymore. That was in college.
I am now in competition with and only with myself.

Day one at the firm

coercion - manipulating a person's actions/opinions
ergonomics - the scientific discipline for designing

Today was day one at the firm. The full magnitude of the disappointment has now finally hit me. But fretting will not help. This is the means rather than the ends. The road starts here and now.
Note to self: How can you judge them to be inferior to you, when you yourself are inferior?

An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or
shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper
next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled
with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor
Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that
Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .
Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for
not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt
support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in
West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard
in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and
Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway
Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism
Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the
winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government
and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar
company in Silicon Valley,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere
in India,

..
...AND

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers,
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
India is still a developing country .... how is that

sanguine - cheerfully optimistic
fair value - unbiased value of an asset
contango - upward sloping futures curve
backwardation - a futures market scenario where the future price of a commodity is lower than current price
invective - a railing accusation
arms length principle (ALP) - condition stating that the two parties to a contract/agreement are on equal footing and are independent i.e, they are not related in any way, nor do they have common interests. E.g Lehman Bros. and R3 claim to be operating at arms length even though rumours suggest otherwise.
travails - work of intense painful/stressful nature
etymology - branch of linguistics which traces the historical origins of a

arrears - delays in payments
indenture - a legal contract between two parties
po-faced - blank look on the face
hedonism - philosophy which believes in ultimate pleasure
foible - flaw in character or behaviour
doodle - aimless/foolish activity

Note to self: Never have any preconceived notions of anything. Take things as they come and then formulate your opinions/plans.

supercilious - haughty and indifferent
sophistry - sophistication
hacks - journalists (fuckers, at least in general)
bowels turning to water - feeling of horror in a adverse situation

"Yesterday we went to the teetotal reception at Prince Mohammed's palace, and today I've got the most frightful hangover."

- Jim Hacker, The Hacker Diaries from Yes Minister - The Moral Dimension.


Moved to Bombay yesterday, and settled down into the lovely little apartment, I am sharing with Mehta. Not a bad place, Bombay, though not a patch on Delhi. Liking it, will settle down well here. For the time being ...

Disastrous fuck up last night. Bikram and I picked up Mom from the station, and while driving back she told me about how every tom-dick-and-harry in A.P is going abroad for an MS. I don't what I was thinking; I opened my loud gob and started ranting about these useless engineering colleges and how these guys go for an MS to the useless universities of North America. And after that I don't know how I went on about my MBA, and how I will do it from a good U.S B-school, and my grand plans and how successful I will be and what not. Basically it was a session of pan-IIT-gloating and non-IIT-bashing, which was totally uncalled for, especially in the presence of Bikram, who all throughout, maintained a studied and matured silence. Fact of the matter is, Bikram is from a non-IIT engineering college, and must have obviously felt hurt at the non-IIT-engineering bashing I was engaging myself in. Disastrous. Appalling.

Facts:
1) I am an asshole.
2) IIT != great
3) non-IIT != useless

Lessons learned:
1) Must remember to be more discreet; gotta keep my loud mouth shut.
2) Humility and respect for others.

timorous - full of fear
palpable - obvious/perceptible by touch
surreptitious - the act of doing something clandestinely
languor - dreamy lazy mood
impassive - without emotion
filial piety - Confucian thought encompassing love for ones parents/ancestry
catechism - summary/exposition of a religious doctrine (catholic)
banal - lacking originality/freshness
lassitude - weariness of mind/body from strain

- Got from The life and times of Michael K - J.M Coetzee.

"Find the cost of freedom ... buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down."
-CSNY

adroit - showing skill in performing/doing
accede - consent/approval
perambulator - pram

|X--X---X--X--X--|-X----X--X---X--|X--X---X----X--X|---X--X--X---X--|
|--------S-------|--------S-------|--------S-------|--------S-------|
|B--B---B--B--B--|-B----B--B---B--|B--B---B----B--B|---B--B--B---B--|
|HoHoHoHoHoHoHoHo|HoHoHoHoHoHoHoHo|HoHoHoHoHoHoHoHo|HoHoHoHoHoHoHoHo|

- Meshuggah Stengah chorus. Got from http://www.tandjent.com/meshtabs/

"Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs just get slaughtered!"
- Popular trading quote.

The death of the Aral Sea

dessication - loss of water

One hour by the concrete lake ...

"Lake Karachay is definitely not a place to spend your next holidays at. Located in the southern Ural mountains in eastern Russia, it is considered to be the most polluted spot on Earth, after being used as a dumping site for radioactive waste for decades.

Spending only 5 minutes at the shore of lake Karachay is enough to receive a deadly radioactive dosis, spending an entire hour near the lake will probably kill you within the next few hours and in most cases you even won't make it to the next hospital."

- Got from krips.com. Curiosity aroused by Pain of Salvation's - One hour by the concrete lake.

androgynous - nether masculine nor feminine in characteristics
reticent - not speaking freely/openly
growth investment - investing in stocks which are deemed to grow in value
value investment - investing in stocks that are currently undervalued in the market

First two thanks to Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Latter two thanks to investopedia.com.

Accomplishment: Finally replaced my trashy speaker-phone Motopebble with a very dignified Nokia 3110 classic. I think this new mobile suits my personality very well. Not showy and flashy, yet very dignified and suave in appearance.

"I must say, I'm getting a bit fed up with all this feminist crap. Nowadays, if you so much as compliment a woman on her appearance, you're told you are a sexist. This dreadful lesbian lobby is getting everywhere."
- Jim Hacker, Yes Minister - Equal opportunities

"Yes, I do think there is a real dilemma here, in that while it has been government policy to regard policy as the responsibility of Ministers and administration as the responsibility of officials, questions of administrative policy can cause confusion between the administration of policy and policy of administration, especially when responsibility for the administration of th policy of administration conflicts or overlaps with the responsibility for the policy of the administration of policy."
- Sir Humphrey Appleby, Yes Minister - A question of loyalty

"A corny little heavy-pop-rock-latin-world-jazz-avant-garde-metal-blues-record"
-Freak Kitchen's description of their latest album, Land of the Freaks.

Highpoint: Figured out intro drum sequence for Freak Kitchen's - Jerk on the practice pad. Good left/right hand work involved. Will be very challenging to master on actual kit. Cheers to Joakim Sjoberg!

junket - a festive social affair
untenable - not able to defend/justify
bollocking - bullshitting
calamitous - devastatingly bad
precocious - exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age
nonplus - a state of bafflement/perplexity
pedant - a scholarly person
pole-axe - medieval weapon; to stun a person

"Sleep well my so called friend, a virus in your heart
She bends my so called friend and rips my life apart"
- Porcupine Tree "So called friend" lyrics

What is this song about? I wish I could meet a Porcupine Tree expert.

Be smarter asshole!

Yesterday in my haste to get my PAN card made I got in touch with the first person I knew who could get it made, and that was Mr. Kailesh Chand, my parents' crafty, cunning income tax agent. He charged me the moon, i.e, 400/- for the process, and I in my ignorant haste, meekly agreed to his extremely fishy and exorbitantly high charges. Fact of the matter was that, asshole that I was, I was totally clueless about the process.

Today morning I find out that the same process can be done for 67/- ONLY by downloading and filling the form online, and then submitting it at a office ~7 kms from home. Thats ~1/7th the price. And all this because I failed to do any finding out before I plunged myself into this deal. Bad decision making, poor preparation, crippling under-confidence and needless haste.

Lessons learned:
1) I am still an asshole.
2) Always make balanced decisions, with sufficient preparation beforehand, so that you can choose the most appropriate and optimal alternative among the given options.
3)Note to self: Kailesh Chand is a smart guy. Possible candidate for hiring as my IT agent.

deadpan - impassive matter of fact manner
parochial - restricted to the confines of a parish
duplicitous - deliberate deceiving manner
verbal diarrhoea - screwing up while talking
gravy train - lucrative endeavour
acquiesce - to comply with
tacit - implied or indicated but not actually expressed
repudiate- to refuse
irrevocable - cannot be revoked

"Suppression is the instrument of totalitarian dictatorships. You can't do that in a free country. We would merely take a democratic decision not to publish it."
-Sir Humphrey Appleby, Yes Minister- The greasy pole

anachronism - a person/thing that is chronologically out of date
droll - having a humourous whimsical quality
quis custodiet ipsos custodes - latin for who guards the guards
Bennite solution - a term referring to a radical left wing approach to solving a problem. Coined after Tony Benn a radical leftist MP.
primus inter pares - laing for first among equals
sticky wicket - unfavourable situation
decorous - characterized by show of decorum
tautology - needless repetition of an idea
sublime - to elevate/exalt in honour
fawning - to court favour by flattery
servility - slavish/submissive
quid pro quo - lating for something for something
fob - deceive

"I recommend that we set up an interdepartmental committee with fairly broad terms of reference so that at the end of the day we would be in a position to think through all the implications and take a decision based on long-term considerations rather than rush prematurely into precipitate and possibly ill-conceived action that might well have unforeseen repercussions."
- Sir Humphry Appleby, Yes Minister - Doing the honours.

specious - deceptive
privy - admitted as one sharing a secret
egalitarian - assertive

fortitude - courage/firmness of spirit
ignominy - humiliation
bumptious - crudely/ aggressively loud
cathartic - purgative

sycophant - a self seeking flatterer
servitude - a condition where one lacks the liberty to determines ones way of life
harangue - speech with strong feeling/expression

"So I got all these things, but so what?
In the end you can't take them with you
You think you can save my soul? Well OK...
Tell me, with all your conviction
What happens now?

Well I could be boarding an aircraft
With a bomb concealed in somebody's briefcase
And my body will spread through the heavens, across the sky
And my ashes will fall through the cloudburst
What happens now?
What happens now?"
- Porcupine Tree, What happens now?

visceral - not intellectual; crude or elemental emotions
suave - smoothly gracious and sophisticated
aplomb - complete and confident composure with self assurance

"When you go home tell them of us and say,
That for your tomorrow,
We gave our today ..."
- Inscription on the Kohima War Memorial

innuendo - remarks of a derogatory nature
blubbing - to cry/whine with snuffling

"Only the dead have seen the end of the war."
- Plato

Disband the Indian Army

A shattered army
Pay commission has ill-served the nation
by Lt. Gen. (retd) Vijay Oberoi


THE Indian army, used here generically to include the navy and the air force, has now reached the end of its tether, with the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations for the defence forces. The citizens of our country have not really understood the magnitude of despair amongst the rank and file of the army. There is great anger and a high degree of frustration at every level, but particularly at the level of the PBORs (personnel below officers' rank) and the junior and middle level officers. Both constitute the 'cutting edge' of the defence forces.

India has a hundred per cent volunteer army. Officers and men have joined the army for a variety of reasons, the main ones being the honour that comes by wearing the uniform; a desire to serve the nation in the best way possible; family traditions; and of course, suitable remunerations that are compatible with the highly turbulent conditions of service.

Its ethos has been painfully nurtured by the hierarchy of the army for the last 60 years, despite major provocations from many quarters, especially the self-serving bureaucracy, which the country has to unfortunately endure. The latter has consistently prevailed on the political leadership and subtly instilled fear amongst them that the army needs to be kept down, lest it also follow what militaries in the immediate neighbourhood and in the extended region have done, in usurping power by force.

This is despite the unflinching loyalty the army has displayed in even the most difficult circumstances. It is surprising that our political leadership, which is so astute in politicking, nurturing vote banks and diffusing highly volatile situations of all types, has been unable to see through this game of the bureaucrats. Or is it that they deliberately do not want to understand it?

The institutions, structures, ethos and working environment built painstakingly and prevailing in the army, ensures that all ranks fully understand their duties, obligations and power-equations in a democracy like ours. In simple terms, it means that the nation has nothing to fear from the army. The earlier it is understood by the political leadership and all other instruments of the state, the better.

The defence forces came under the purview of pay commissions with the Third Pay Commission and since then every pay commission, loaded as it was by the bureaucracy, has worked very hard to ensure that there is a gradual decline in the pay, emoluments and the status of all military personnel.

All requests by the hierarchy of the defence forces to set up separate pay commissions for the military have been studiously ignored and at the behest of the bureaucracy, even a representative of the defence forces has not been permitted to form part of any of the pay commissions. This, when nearly 40 per cent of the government servants under the purview of the pay commission are defence forces personnel!

That the defence forces have tolerated this skewed arrangement speaks on one side of the perseverance, patience and discipline of the defence forces and, on the other, the utter insensitivity of the political leadership to the only institution that works effectively in our country. The Sixth Pay Commission has of course taken the cake for their utterly callous approach to the guardians of the nation.

There is no need to emphasise what has already been stated regarding the highly adverse effect the recommendations of the pay commission will have on the intake of officers in the defence forces, except to state that every middle level serving officer I have talked to has either already put in his papers or is planning to do so shortly.

The disastrous implications need not be amplified when it is well known that our fighting units are already functioning at 50 per cent strength of officers. The PBOR, unfortunately, do not have the option of leaving the service, because they will end up with no jobs, considering the present situation in the country of gross unemployment and under-employment. However, in the long run, the impact of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on the PBOR is bound to be a fall in standards of the recruits who will be willing to serve for the peanuts thrown at them by the Commission.

The government's response to the large-scale resentment has been the usual ploy of forming a committee! First, a committee of three bureaucrats was formed, but it was the Railway Minister, at whose behest an enlarged Review Committee has now been formed, while the Minister of Defence only repeated homilies and soothing words, as he had done in the past!

Even the Review Committee has no representative from the defence forces, while the railways, the postal department and sundry others not so well known, have found a place for themselves. So, we are back to square one. This committee will repeat, ad nauseum, what the Commission has stated, perhaps in more flowery language, except for some minimal tinkering that will satisfy no one in the defence forces.

A continuation of such inadequate and delaying tactics will slowly destroy a first rate army, which has served the nation with sacrifices and élan and has saved the nation umpteen times in these last 60 years. The political leadership is either unable or unwilling to ameliorate the genuine demands of the defence forces.

Under the circumstances, it may be best to disband the army and let the bureaucracy become 'pseudo soldiers' and look after the security of the nation. In the bargain, they will be able to further improve their cadre too! If the reader discerns a sense of cynicism, déjà vu and desperation, it is indeed intended. Sudden death would any day be a more satisfactory arrangement. The noble "profession of arms" is being turned into a "profession of alms"!

The writer is a former Vice Chief of Army Staff

egregious - outstandingly bad
mollify - to lessen anger or anxiety
quibble - slight object or criticism
proscribe - officially forbid
provenance - a record of ownership of a work of art or antique
cadaverous - corpse like thin and emaciated
condescending - behaving as if one is better than other people
remit - cancel a task/ task given to an individual or organization

"This is the first day of the rest of our lives"
- Dante Hicks from Clerks 2

"In view of the somewhat nebulous and inexplicit nature of your remit, and the arguably marginal and peripheral nature of your influence on the central deliberations and decisions within the political process, there would be a case for restructuring their action priorities in such a way as to eliminate your liquidation from their immediate agenda."
-Sir Humphrey Appleby to Jim Hacker, upon a terrorist organization's withdrawal of its assassination threat to Hacker

desultory - lacking enthusiasm and purpose
dervish - member of a Muslim community vowed to poverty and wild rituals
denigrate - criticize unfairly
ingrate - ungrateful person

"This is war
And I swear that I'm not giving up or giving in
This is war?
Then I swear that I'm not giving up or giving in
Giving up
This is war"
- Il Nino: This is War

Pyrrhic victory - victory won at a very great cost to the victor
egalitarian - believing that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities
inexorable - impossible to stop
colander - a bowl with holes in it for draining fluid
facetious - treating important issues with inappropriate humour
specious - seeming reasonable but actually wrong
veritable - rightly so called
jingoistic - negative way of describing someone who is being excessively patriotic

Got from Yes Minister - The compassionate society.


Billy Fraser: "We are striking against unemployment. We will bring London's hospitals literally to their knees. There will be a complete standstill: no blood transfusions, no operations, no cancer treatment, nothing! Not until we have brought back the compassionate society."

Reporter: "Shouldn't you think twice before inflicting these terrible sanctions on innocent members of the public?"

Billy Fraser: "I can assure you, and I'd like to take this opportunity to assure the general public that every stone will be left unturned in the search of a settlement."

buttonhole - to stop someone for an informal conversation
rigmarole - lengthy and complicated process
kosher - legitimate and proper
rabbit - informal chatter
witter - speak about trivial things
beatific - feeling very blissful/ happy

Got from Yes Minister - Jobs for the boys.

"... certain projects have certain aspects which, with sensitive handling, given reasonable discretion, when events permit, there is no prima facie reason why, with appropriate give and take, if all goes well, in the fullness of time, when the moment is ripe ..."
- Bernard Wooley from Yes Minister

schizoid - having a mental condition similar to schizophrenia
belligerent - hostile and aggressive
ingratiate - gain favour with someone by flattering or trying to please them
flounce - move in a way as to express anger and disdain
burble - make a continuous murmuring noise
self-effacing - not wanting to attract attention to oneself

Got from Yes Minister - The right to know.

A thought: apparently it seems to be the in-thing for today's youth to rant about failed love on their blogs. My assumptions are based purely on the extrapolation of a few observations, and indeed are nothing to go by, but this has just got me wondering whether today's youth are getting more serious about love, or is it just another fad to fill the void? Ah well ...

cogent - very clear, logical, convincing reasoning
incumbent - holder of an office or position
devolve - transfer, shift
concomitant - naturally associated thing

Got from Yes Minister - The Right To Know.

"Minister, the traditional allocation of executive responsibilities has always been so determined as to liberate the Ministerial incumbent from the administrative minutiae by devolving the managerial functions to those whose experience and qualifications have better formed them for the performance of such humble offices , thereby releasing heir political overlords for the more onerous duties and profound deliberations that are the inevitable concomitant of their exalted position."
-Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister.

euphemism - a less direct/blunt way of referring to something unpleasant

Dunno, this word has been ringing in my mind for sometime; no particular source.

"Luck is the remarkable marriage of relentless preparation with well-presented opportunity."
- Robin Sharma

sully - give a bad name
squalid - extremely unpleasant
approbation - approval
sepulchre (british spelling) - tomb
pedantic - academic, bookish
peerage - peers as a whole e.g, lords, nobility etc.

Got from the book Yes Minister, Episode: The writing on the wall.