Coincidence?

I walk into my library (mylib.in) to pick up a couple of books.

I pick up “Trekking holidays in India” and “The Man-eaters of Kumaon” by Jim Corbett. As I move towards the check-out counter, I see an old queer looking book. The word that captures my attention is “wild“. The title is “Into the wild”.

Out of curiosity, I pull out the book and read the brief at the back. The gist interests me and I end up picking it (and dropping Jim’s book). The day is Sunday, Aug 16.

I go home and start reading it. I find the story interesting, but a bit dark too, delving into human emotions (whichI believe is the most complex thing to understand). I discuss the book with a colleague on Monday and come to know about a movie based on the book by the same name. I get so interested that I read the book late into the night on Monday. Deeply influenced by the character Chris, I tweet a quote of his which I like so much.Also end up putting the same line as my Orkut status message.

“Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit of a man than a secure future”

And on Tuesday, I finish reading the book. I get hooked into knowing more about this guy. Chris McCandless. I read a wikipedia article on him. I review a movie based on his life. Also, out of more curiosity, I do a google image search to see more ‘real’ pictures of the guy (and not from the movie).The date is August 18.

Finally, I find that there is a fan created Facebook account of his with a few photos and lots of comments there. I am flabbergasted by one comment I read there.

“Let’s think on him today – 18 August 1992″

I realize suddenly that the guy had probably died on Aug 18 in 1992, which is clearly mentioned in the book.

Oh my god, it is today! August 18, 17 years later! And I, deeply impressed and perplexed by the book’s depiction of the guy, have been googling so much about him. Spending almost all of my evening on a guy who I knew nothing about 50 hours ago. All the while, not knowing that it was his death anniversary!

Coincidence, anyone?

Rest in peace, Chris (aka Alex the supertramp)

3 main steps to create wealth

If creation of wealth could be oversimplified to 3 minimal steps, I would simply say (in order of priority, in my view)

1. Focus on your income. Try to increase it every year.
2. Invest your money using common sense.
3. Focus on reducing expenses.

Well, for these 3 steps there are 1001 things that you can do. A few are listed below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The bible of investing

In the movie “The pursuit of happyness”, when Chris Gardner is an intern at Dean Whitter, the training manager gives them all a copy of a book and says this is your bible!

I couldn’t see the name of the book at first, but guessed it alright. I thought it had to be Intelligent Investor or Security analysis.

Paused the movie…..and went back to the scene again. It was indeed Security analysis!

Then satisfactorily, I resumed watching the movie.

Banker Margayya

I had been to Bangalore last weekend. On the way back to Hyderabad, the famous Kannada movie Banker Margayya (released in 1983) was played in the bus (KSRTC).

Nice movie. It is based on the famous novel “The financial expert” by R K Narayan.

Margayya, initially writes porn stuff, amasses lot of money. One fine day he becomes guilty, quits porn writing business and becomes a banker. What happens in his life is the crux of the movie. The movie portrays his rise, his sons stray attitude, his restlessness caused by his sons behaviour, his friend turning traitor and his eventual fall to ‘nothing’hood.

The last scene was touching. After losing it all, he says that he had lost nothing as his son and wife are all with him!

The main character was tweaked a bit so as to make him appear bit more ‘right’. I think the original story by R K N depicted him as a miser, money-minded, family-neglecting ambitious guy.

Whatever, I liked the ’simple’ story!

It made me think.

1. It was a Kannada movie I had liked after almost 10 years. Lack of good movies has waned my interest in Kannada filmdom.
2. Kannada movies today are worse than TV serials.
3. Some old Kannada movies are too good. Need to watch a few of them.

The Shawshank redemption

I watched this movie on Sunday. Liked it!

There was something about this movie that struck a chord in me. I loved it when the hero says “get busy living or get busy dying”. The part when he talks about “hope” was very nice too.

Its a bit too hard to believe a person tunneling a heavily fortified prison for 19 years with a mini hammer. But the way they showed it didnt highlight it.

The way the hero arranges his escape is fantastic. (if you can believe it)

But apart from that, this is a fantastic movie about the friendship between 2 prison mates! I loved it for that!

Also the movie reflects very well the feelings of people who had stayed away from the society and after several years return back to find that they are ‘misplaced’!!! And now they want to go back!! One old man (Brookes) commits suicide once he is released, because he finds outside world too difficult to handle!

A movie of emotions, of despair and hope!

Please watch it!