Gujaratis are all smile

The people from Gujarat state make about one third of indian shareholders population.Other one third are from the city of Mumbai and the rest are from the rest of the country.

Gujaratis and Parsees were the earliest shareholders of India .They dominated Mumbai Stock Exchange (MSE)-India's premier stock exchange.Till some years ago Gujarati was its official language .The Exchange used to publish its daily publications in Gujarati and one could hear official announcements in Gujarati in corridors of that famous building at Dalal Street .

Bombay Stock Exchange Share Index is made up of selected representative listed companies representing major industries .This is popularly known as SENSEX .This Index measures the overall direction and broad magnitude of change in market price of shares.

The index was around 6000 at start of the year 2005.Since then it is going up and of late it is jumping up by 500 points almost every month adding billion of rupees to shareholders' wealth.
The Gujaratis are all smile with daily upwards movement in the index .

With every hefty rise in index their womenfolk plan to add yet another layer of jewelry on their bodies and the men another level to their houses.

What next though.One hardly find any significant contribution from them to arts, literature, cinema, journalism, science and sports in modern India .

Dear Bhais and Bens-keep smiling nevertheless .

Kyoto and Doha

Two world conferences are scheduled in the current month . Both are on topics very important for mankind.

First is on Kyoto protocol which concluded in Montreal yesterday.The meeting was succesful.The delegates agreed to draft a new long range long term plan to combat climate change post 2012.It also isolated USA.

Second is on Doha round of world trade talks , to be held in Hong Kong from 13 to 18 December 05.New Zealand wants to see the talks progressed so that it does not have to depend on bilateral deals for its export merchandise .

These talks stalled at the last meeting on contenous issue of agricultural subsidy to their farmers by the developed nations .

As per the current indications it is unlikely that this meeting will make further progress as some European countries are not willing to slash the agricultural subsidy.

More on that later.

Decline of governance values

Last week at a meeting of parliamentary select committee on immigration issues it was revealed that

1.Former cabinet minister Mr Field had asked then Immigration Minister O'Connor to intervene in 438 immigration cases over the term of the last parliament.

2.The then Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter asked for intervention in 176 cases .

3.And yet another minister Gorger Hawakins made 172 such requests in the same period.

I am surprised on reading about of these interventions ( and their numbers ) in the operational matters of Immigration department.

I thoughts these things happen only in other countries.

There has been general decline of governance values under Labour Party rule in last six years.

These statistics confirm and remind us about this again.

Doubling credit card limits

My bank has sent me a letter advising me of doubling my credit card limit.The letter tells me that I should phone by the specified date if I do not want the increased limit.

I never requested for this increase.Why should I waste time phoning them and asking them to cancel this unsolicited increase.

The customers when phone the banks will have to go through various options , spend considerable time in getting to the right person and then identify themselves by answering the personal questions and then "request" for cancellation of the increased limit.

Do the banks think their customers' time is not important.

I use the credit card for convenience and not for getting free credit.I also never take "advantage" of their offer of paying pay only a small part on due date.

My credit card bank will never be able to trap me with increased credit limits and offers of payment of a small portion on due date( and keeping balance on very high interest rate )

I did phone the bank to cancel the increased limit but simultaneously as revenge got them to slash my original card limit too.And I am thinking of invoicing them for about 20 minutes I had to spend . Would I succeed .

"Samose me alu"

The creativity of Indian politicians/common people to coin slogans at election times never cease to impress me.These few words slogans convey the message you just can not convey even in an hour long speech.

Other day I read the slogan"Congress ka lafada hai,Natwar to Bakra hai"
Wonderful.

This is in context of Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh resigning in the wake of allegations of kick backs in dealings with Saddam in Oil for Food program.The opposition party is alleging the ruling pary Congress is involved.

Remember Lalu's supporters had many years ago used to shout at election meetings "Jab tak samose me alu, tab tak Bihar me Lalu"

Lalu ,his wife and their cronies have lost power in recent state assembly election.

Lalu's opponets have been now saying 'Samose mai hai abhi bhi alu ,par Bihar mai nahi hai Lalu'

It seems Indian immigrants are bringing the same election passion to New Zealand .

New Zealand recently held its parliamentary election.I was watching the results on television .
At end the party leaders were giving speeches about the verdict. Brash was entering his party office to make such speech. And suddenly there were shouts of 'Brash Zindabad'(Long live Brash)

For a moment I was taken back .I wondered whether I was in India or in New Zealand .

I watched on TV the several Indian faces at the Labour Party office at the same night .

Someone asked me why Indians are so crazy about these things.

I said in India there are many elections -parliamentary, state assembly, local bodies etc.
They enjoy the experience .It is unlike immigrants from many other Asian countries who may not have seen the ballot paper in their life time in their home country.

Long live Indian democracy.

Interest rate

The governor of Reserve Bank of New Zealand Alan Bollard will announce the decision about the interest rate on Thursday 08 December 05.Half of New Zealand is waiting with anxiety his decision .He is widely expected to raise it by 25 cents .

Reading between the lines his statement at the time of last rate rise in October 05 and his public comments since I however personally believed until last week that he would increase it by 50 cents .Not any more .He can not afford to raise it by more than 25 cents.

Expecting the hike the foreign investors are buying NZ dollars in large quantity pushing the NZ dollar at unrealistically higher level and this is hurting exporters .The exporters are also coming under pressure from softening of commodities prices in the world market.

Ballard can not ignore their plight.The Stock Exchanges are the first to sense and discount the future economic situation .The NZX index is continuously falling for last some days indicating difficult economic situation in short to middle term.

There was another bad news today.A major international credit rating agency has hinted at lowering of NZ' s credit rating mainly due to continuos adverse current account situation.

All in all Bollard will raise the rate .He wants to halt the boom in house prices which are at unsustainable high level now .However the rate rise will again be usual 25 cents and no more.

"Khachakhach" Hall

I have some feedback on yesterday's Bollywood Stars show.
I was listening to radio Tarana this morning ( I was at home on sick leave)

The female presenter on air then it seemed had attended the show last night and was impressed by Kunal.

When Kunal Ganjawala came on stage and said "hall to Khachakhach bhara hai"the presenter informs her listeners of her reaction - hum Kunal ki is bat par fida ho gaye .

The presenters of NZ Hindi radio stations are not less entertaining than Bollywood stars .

Keep it up..

Unaccompanied children

On debate of banning men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on their planes by Air New Zealand and Quantas I think I would add my five cents.

The ground staff should have ensured that the sitting arrangement made by them followed their company's policy rather than leaving it to the air staff to sort that out.

The air staff should have shifted the child rather than the man.

They both did not do their work properly show unprofessionalism all around .

Now the ban itself is symptom of the sick minds .

Why not ban women too from sitting next to unaccompanied children .There have been many news stories of the female teachers or custodians developing the relationship with the minor boys under their charge.Women can be as dangerous as men.

Why not charge extra fare for unaccompanied children to discourage their parents from sending them so .

That extra money can go towards providing exclusive space for them and taking extra care of them by air hostesses.

Air New Zealand Flight

I went to Melbourne for an overnight trip early this week.

This was the first time I flew Air New Zealand.I did not have so good experience.

First of all our travel agent did not do their work well.As required by them I filled in the traveler profile form with my details including my preferred meals -vegetarian.

I thought nothing more is required to do as they would automatically pick up it from the profile and order vegetarian meals .They simply did not look at at the form.

On flight the passenger sitting besides me was vegetarian too .He had taken care to order the vegetarian meals .I came to know this much after the meals incident.

The air hostess brought one vegetarian meal tray to our row and asked for my "name" , I said Shyam and thought she would put the tray in front of me . But no.

She then asked my fellow passenger his "name" and he told his "surname" and guess -what was his surname .He had the same surname as mine.The air hostess promptly put the tray on front of him.

I then realised that my travel agent had not done their work.I wonder if I would have told my surname and not my name -my fellow passenger would have gone hungry .

It is a rare coincident that on a flight from Auckland to Melbourne , the passenger sitting next to me would have the same surname .There are not many of them in Auckland.

The air hostess later did bring some pasta for me however I hardly could eat those tasteless pasta and so went hungry all the way looking at others enjoying their meals .

The sight of obese air hostesses moving around on the plane hardly helped improve my mood.

On advise of my colleague, immediately after check out at Melbourne we went to Air NZ service desk and ordered vegetarian food for return flight next day.

On return flight Air NZ served me a samosa as a meal.I do not believe one samosa make a meal.
Anyway ,what disappointed me most what that with it they served Birch and Waite brand Italian dressing with clear marking that it was "best before 15 November 2005".

We were flying back to Auckland on 21November night.

Overall an experience worth forgetting.

Did anyone go to Bollywood stars show Friday evening .How was it.
I did not go .I would not pay the astronomical entry fee to watch second grade and use by date Bollywood stars.If stars like Rani, Kajol, Priti, Ashwaraiya,Kareena. Abhishek, Hiritik, Ameer come I might think.