tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29852434932421130462024-02-08T10:31:38.605+05:30e.s.c.apeBe neither a Optimist nor a Pessimist. Be a Realist.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-72133265802571454372009-07-09T21:20:00.000+05:302009-07-09T21:21:26.290+05:30Operating margin across sectors<table class="fintable" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="40%"><tbody><tr bg style="color:#eeeeee;"><td align="left"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><b>Sector</b></span></td> <td align="center"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><b>Operating margin range</b></span></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Engineering</td> <td align="center">10% to 20%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Cement</td> <td align="center">13% to 33%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Retail*</td> <td align="center">7% to 11%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Pharma</td> <td align="center">10% to 24%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">FMCG$</td> <td align="center">13% to 15%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">IT</td> <td align="center">26% to 30%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Telecom</td> <td align="center">27% to 37%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Hotels</td> <td align="center">18% to 40%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Power</td> <td align="center">15% to 20%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Automobiles#</td> <td align="center">8% to 16%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Steel^</td> <td align="center">9% to 28%</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td align="left">Construction</td> <td align="center">12% to 23%</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <center><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;">Source: CMIE, Equitymaster Research; *</span></center>SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-69330637676633666632009-07-08T16:26:00.000+05:302009-07-08T16:27:37.060+05:30Investory physcology<p align="justify"><br /><br /></p> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr> <td><img src="http://www.equitymaster.com/images/2009/070809-Emotions-and-sensex-So-what-were-you-doing-equitymaster.gif" alt="Emotions and Sensex: So, what were you doing?" /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;">Source -- EquityMaster</span><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table>SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-82294609905830973052009-01-06T07:55:00.003+05:302009-01-06T08:34:55.049+05:30Markets goind ahead and SuzlonStock markets yesterday have crossed the key resistance levels of 3100.Every move from here would be a cautious move as there would be sellers at higher levels of 3150,3200 and 3250.<br /><br />Fundamentally things are looking good with the inflation coming down sharply and interest rates falling down.Government has reduced the CRR ,repo and reverse repo.Banks are still not lending but this move forces banks to lend money as the interest rates of parking money with RBI is very less at 4%.<br /><br />Things may not be looking good for the interest rate sensitive sectors right now,but this would be the time to invest in these sectors.With the rates falling the demand would slowly start coming back into these sectors.One can expect a very good returns of 50% in 3 to 6 month perspective.<br /><br />Suzlon has sold 10% of its stake in hansen to finance its REPower acquisition.This is a positive move.As the debt to equity ratio of suzlon is around 1:1,more leverage would have been negative to Suzlon.This money is not sufficient for the acquistion but they are in a right direction.REPower acquisition is very important to Suzlon as REpower is the largest wind turbin maker in Germany,in the country which has highest wind energy production.RePower has excellent technology and brand name which would help Suzlon to build the confidence which it lost due to the broken blades.If Suzlon as planned completes its acuquisition of REPower on schedule there can be heavy buy in this stock which would move the stock easily to 90 to 120.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-42037298321789658532008-12-16T08:24:00.006+05:302008-12-16T15:32:40.563+05:30Indian markets and youMarket is gaining strength with good buying coming in from the FII and DII.Has the market bottomed out?.Are these the lower levels for the market.Is there any bad news coming in to take the market lower.Not sure about all that but it looks like there is lot of value buying coming in at the lower levels.<br /><br />The next set of news can be seen in terms of the quarterly results.Which are expected to be worse.It has to be seen if the market has already factored in those results or will the results be much worse pulling the market down.Q4 results are expected to be lower but might be better than Q3 as the huge fall of commodities would reflect more in the Q4 results which would increase the margins of the companies overcoming the sales.So it can be expected that the market has already found its bottom or may find its bottom when the Q3 results come out.<br /><br />Apart from the market it is very funny to see how the mood of everyone changes with the market.When the market is going down,it all seems as if the we would loose all our money and is better to get out by selling atleast at breakeven.When the market is going up,we feel oh my god why didn't I buy at lower level,why did I have the fear at that levels.<br /><br />I guess one has to be very specific in markets by defining themselves what they are.If they want the returns immediately then they are traders and they would be looking for returns within a day to a week.Hence they should be looking for news which might come out in that week and hence decide how the market would react for them.If one is medium term of 2 to 4 months then one has to think in the same terms and should not react for daily news and swings in the market.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-250869668250299502008-12-12T08:05:00.000+05:302008-12-16T15:33:08.750+05:30How will the week endMarkets on Thursday ended flat coming off the lows of the day.There was a support for the market at the lower levels indicating some strength against the selling pressure seen earlier in the day.<br /><br />Government has hinted on Thursday that it will declaring a second stimulus package next week targeting mainly at the export market to lift the employment in the textile industry and other export oriented companies.Package may also support Agricultural sector as the inflation of food articles is still on a rise as all other commodities fall and push the overall inflation down.<br /><br />MTNL has started India's first 3G service yesterday in Delhi.BSNL will be coming out in mid of January.3G in India is just in a starting phase.Today there will be a guidelines for 3G aution which may happen by end of Jan.Its the next big development in the India Mobile industry.All mobile operators are getting ready for the aution by selling part of there stakes to foreign telcos thereby generating enough funds to finance the aution.With only 2-4 licences available for private operators in each circle it has to be seen till what extent these companies would stretch themselves in the aution.<br /><br />Telcos have to wait for a long time for the returns to be gererated out of the 3G.With 90% of the indian Mobile operators being the middle and lower middle class it is very unlikely that they would upgrade to 3G.In the intial years 3G would be mainly used only by the corporate sector.The next segment of users might be the younger employed generation.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-37488522969323233182008-12-11T08:23:00.000+05:302008-12-16T15:33:08.751+05:30Was a big dayIt was a very good day on Wednesday for the markets posting a very good gains of 5%.It was only on Wednesday that markets have reacted strongly to the news which came out over weekend.<br /><br />With US markets ending up marginally up by 1% and Asian markets being slightly negative ,Indian markets might find themselves slightly up as the mood might be still bullish on account of market breaking the key technical levels on Wednesday.With Inflation data to be out today,which may only bring good or very good news.<br /><br />Auto sector is certainly seems to be very bad with Mahindra shutting down the Logan plant for about 3 months atleast .There have been drastic cut in the prices across all segments in the auto sector but the hopes of demand improving is not looking good.<br /><br />RBI has officialy declared that growth for India is on slowdown and actual growth might come out lower then what they were expecting it to be.This news has been making rounds but its only now that govt has come out officially.This will effect the foreign inflows to the country.Relatively growth in India is higher when compared to growth Globally.But it has to be seen how FII's would see it.<br /><br />Public sector banks have started reacting the RBI's move of moving home loans below 20 lakhs to priority sector loans.Banks have started to reduce home loan rates by 2% for home loans below 20 lakhs and 3% for loans below 5 lakhs.This a good news for propective home loan owners as 80% of home loans fall under this category.But still people may find themselves on waiting side as interest rates may further come down in coming 6 months.But the end of the day it is a good news and may push some people to get ahead and purchase.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-91419113346773078802008-12-09T19:11:00.001+05:302008-12-16T15:33:08.751+05:30Will the rally go onMarkets have ended positive on Monday in reaction to the Govt's monetary and fiscal action.But markets were off days high indicating some weakness.<br /><br />There is a impression in the market that the stimulus provided by Govt is not enough to boost the economy.A further cut in CRR and SLR is needed.Which might only be declared once the inflation is seen cooling down.Stimulus declared by India is very nominal considering the $580 billion package by Chinese govt and drastic cuts by European banks.<br /><br />The excise duty cut is a positive sign for the auto sector,helping the companies to slash prices by 2 to 4%.Cooling down interest rates also adds to the hopes auto sector which is seeing a huge slowdown.<br /><br />With no major news in line Indian markets can be seen in line with global markets.Going ahead markets would start aligning itself to the results which would start coming out in early Jan.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-58641501329669037852008-12-06T20:53:00.000+05:302008-12-16T15:33:08.752+05:30Will petrol price and CRR cut helpLong awaited petrol price and CRR cut has been declared.But they were expected.Govt has not slashed the rates more than what the market has been expecting.So its almost sure that there may not be a rally on Monday morning reacting to these steps by government.<br /><br />With inflation already coming down and seen at 8.2% this week,it can cool down to still lower levels once the impact of reduced petrol is felt.That will give flexibility for the government to reduce the interest rates further.With elections in few months ,government would try max to please the public by reducing the petrol prices and interest rates further.<br /><br />But effects of all these cuts would not be seen immediate.It would take time for CRR cut to be reflected in the banks liquidity and then the business.The exact time frame may not be guessed but it might be around two quarters.Till which we would see all the companies facing tight liquidity problem and hence would end up reporting poor and poorer results for the coming months.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-87218557587597940772008-10-21T19:17:00.000+05:302008-10-21T20:23:24.482+05:30Sector investingSector indicates a group of companies doing similar business. These sectors fall into two categories Cyclical and non-cyclical.<br /><br />Non-cyclical sectors are the ones which do well irrespective of the prevailing economic condition like the Food ,Health care and daily needs ... . People will not stop using them even if the economy is in downturn.<br /><br />Cyclical sectors do well when there are favorable conditions for them.Like the real estate sector does well when the interest rates are lower similarly cement and auto sector.As a result earnings of these companies are very good pushing the stock prices up.Hence before investing it is very important for one to consider the economic conditions in which the sector is in.<br /><br />Following are the Cyclical sectors.<br /><br /><p>The graph below, courtesy of <a href="http://stockcharts.com/index.html" target="_blank">StockCharts.com </a>, shows these relationships and the order the key sectors respond to the economic cycle. The Stock Market Cycle precedes the Economic Cycle as investors try to anticipate how the market will react to the changes to the economy. </p> <p align="center"><strong>Sector Rotation Model: </strong><br /> <img src="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images/sector_rotation.jpg" alt="Sector Rotation Model: " height="220" width="395" /></p><br />To understand the above graph one needs to know the different phases a economy can be in.<br /><br />Full Recession -- Interest rates are high , cost of borrowing funds is high as a result no any expansions are planned.Customer spending is low as a result companies produce less goods,more news about layoffs.<br /><br />Early recovery -- Interest rates start to ease a bit,customer spending slowly picks up as a result companies start increasing the production as a result they need more staff as a result the jobless claims reduce.<br /><br />Full recovery -- Whole economy is doing great ,interest rates are lower.Customer spending increases a lot as a result companies start the expansion plans.<br /><br />Early recession -- Inflation has peeked up so the Government increases the interest rate making money tighter to get. Customers find everything costly ,thereby reducing the spending,expansion plans of the companies comes to a halt.<br /><br /><br />Stock market is always 3 to 6 months ahead of the market.You might find a company declaring great results for the present quarter but you find that the stock price of the company is indeed falling drastically.Reason for this fall is that stock market is considering that though the company has come out with great results the future of the company is not looking great and it forecasts that the company would not come out with great results in coming quarters.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-35515395560215381252008-10-13T22:26:00.000+05:302008-10-13T22:30:08.943+05:30Why following a mutual fund portfolio is a bad idea.Individual investor does not have all the access to the data which mutual funds have.So he might think it is a better idea to follow the portfolio of a mutual fund and there by get returns which are equal or more than the mutual fund returns.<br /><br />But this strategy has more pitfalls then gains.Lets see what are the reasons for this.<br /><br />1.Wider diversification.<br /><br />Mutual funds have a diversified portfolio having around 30 to 50 stocks.Out of which some stocks may do good while others may fail.On average resulting positive returns to the fund.<br /><br />Individual investor who tries to mimic the portfolio of a mutual fund , may not have the ability to maintain a diversified portfolio,who instead would choose only fewer stocks from the mutual fund portfolio.<br /><br />To his bad luck if these are the stocks which have not done well ,then investor has to end up taking loses.<br /><br />2.Incomplete information on portfolio.<br /><br />Mutual funds shuffle their portfolio and it is not possible to gather information about the when they are changing the portfolio.They might be knowing a insider story and might sell a stock immediately knowing a bad news is in line.<br /><br />Individual investor might find himself late catching the falling knife.By the time he knows the action taken by the mutual fund ,damage would have been done.<br /><br />Hence it not a profitable idea always to mimic a portfolio of a mutual fund.Hence an individual investor can use the mutual fund information to find which stocks are hot and not among the mutual funds and can make a investment decision.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-3379990763438773552008-02-17T00:57:00.001+05:302008-02-17T02:23:16.486+05:30Knowledge MattersIts been long time since I have blogged and things changed a lot in meanwhile.One of them is I slowly started to invest in stock market.As a result of which I have also started to watch cnbc tv like my father did,I also read economic times as if I understand it completely(ofcourse not).Not sure how many days or months this passion is going to be,but I am enjoying it.<br /><br />First I started to follow the market for few days,I saw a lot of market analysts predicting the power sector is going to show great signs of growth.So I have picked up a stock PowerGrid at 136 investing 3k in it.Why powergrid?,because I heard one my friend saying about that it would do great in long term(<span style="font-weight: bold;">First mistake</span>).Without knowing what the company is actually into,what is its turnover,profit,operating margin.The stock started to do good and it went upto 154.I was patting myself for how intelligent I am.Then I picked up one more power stock Ntpc at 255.It also started to move upto 270.There was no stopping for me.I was on top of the world.<br /><br />I saw a website recommending that BirlaCorporation stock will go up a lot in near future.I looked into the stock compared it with its peers,saw that its at a very low price,so I picked it up.But to my dissapointment stock price fell badly.(<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mistake -- </span>I haven't done industry analysis and haven't found out why the stock was quoting lower than its peers).<br /><br />Then came the big crash of January 2008 whipping the market from 21k levels to 15k level.My portfolio crashed it was 30% down.Then I have invested double the value of my portfolio .Later market recovered to 18k levels at which I booked profit.As of now I am sitting with 10% profit.But there are so many things I have done wrong and so many things I have learnt.<br /><br />With the experience I had in 2 months , I see two things are important before investing.Fundamental analysis and Technical analysis.<br /><br />Fundamental analysis this is all about knowing the company.What is its business ,revenue , profit ,competition , market cap.Step wise following are the things one needs to look at.<br /><ol><li>The Capitalization of the Company<br /></li><li>Revenue, Profit and Margin Trends</li><li>Competitors and Industries<br /></li><li>Valuation Multiples<br /></li><li>Management and Share Ownership</li><li>Balance Sheet Exam<br /></li><li>Stock Price History<br /></li><li>Stock Options and Dilution Possibilities<br /></li><li>Expectations<br /></li><li>Risks (Further reading can be found <a href="http://investopedia.com/articles/stocks/08/due-diligence.asp">here).</a><br /></li></ol>By doing Fundamental analysis one may find out that company XYZ is having great prospects of growing,one may pick up the stock of XYZ company and expect its stock price to just head towards north but proving him wrong the stock price might be moving in opposite direction towards south.Even though fundamental analysis was 100% right that the company would do good.One who knows about Technical analysis could have predicted rightly why the stock price was falling.<br /><br />Technical analysis is all about determining the price movements of the stock based on its past price movements.This would explain why even though the performance of the company does not change day by day but its stock price does.You can find good tutorial on Technical analysis <a href="http://investopedia.com/university/technical/">here.</a><br /><br />By having a good knowledge in the topics mentioned above one would be able to take wise decisions instead of just following the herd.<br /><br />Hoping this would be of some help to people who are just 2 months behind me in this new world.Going ahead I would try to post my experience and things I learn in stock market.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-26838490426573699862007-06-18T12:51:00.000+05:302007-06-18T12:56:12.468+05:30Romeo meets Juliet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhya3CTn_3cxtVWHoIqT_YPuxENsHhTk2IMfH1bIJzkkLBWKWMOk2dFil1o0vFIiKQsaQ3z1tpVe6g5pc1QQxSYGm0Wv6-CE90VNHmdCIblCc7nhAg4adqjw2bY4x877cwvWZ9CvXNlh3KN/s1600-h/beau.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhya3CTn_3cxtVWHoIqT_YPuxENsHhTk2IMfH1bIJzkkLBWKWMOk2dFil1o0vFIiKQsaQ3z1tpVe6g5pc1QQxSYGm0Wv6-CE90VNHmdCIblCc7nhAg4adqjw2bY4x877cwvWZ9CvXNlh3KN/s400/beau.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077301652937423250" border="0" /></a><br />Not sure if this is real snap or not and not sure who has taken it . But an awsome pic.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-59658953709944434812007-06-12T08:20:00.000+05:302007-06-17T19:17:19.555+05:30Breaking the gap with Google GearsThe most of the applications which were limited to desktop are made available online now.Like <a href="http://docs.google.com/">google docs.</a> , picasa for playing with images.So what does this mean,do we need to leave all the applications on desktop and starting using the online versions.Well both of them have their own pros and cons.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Desktop Applications<br /></span><ul><li>More features to manipulate the data</li><li>Easily accessable</li><li>Secure ,only accessable to oneself.<br /></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Online versions</span><br /><ul><li>Easy to share </li><li>Can be viewed and modified from any machine.(Machine independent).<br /></li><li>No issues with backup and data loss.</li></ul> The pros of desktop applications are cons to online versions and vice versa.So how do we break the barrier.Can we come with a solution were we can use both the versions together and come up with the unique solution.<br /><br /> <a href="http://gears.google.com/">Google Gears</a> is a application where one can offload the data from a website to a local server and work on the data locally and finally the modified data can be uploaded and synched with the actual server data.Google is providing this feature with Google Reader , through which we can download the feeds locally ,read through them.Google claims this feature is very useful when we don't have a reliable internet connection.But I feel this feature can also be used to bridge the gap between the online and desktop version of applications.Lets see how it can be done.<br /><br />Lets take the example of Excel.Consider online version of Excel is available too.Now using google gears using a single click we should be able to offload the content to a local desktop machine.Considering Excel is installed on local machine.We can play with the content , modify it and when finally done with it,with a single click we should be able to upload the data back to the server.With this we have all the advantages , we were able to locally use the full featured Excel to modify the content,use the online version to take care of sharing and backup issues.<br /><br />This feature can also be extended to get the complete OS state.If I am using a desktop at my home and my operating system can give me its state information,then I can upload that data to a server.I can go to office and download the server state on office machine and start working from where I stopped at home.<br /><br />That would be a ideal win considering the disadvantages of present desktop operating systems and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_operating_system">Web operating systems</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-2074516-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-36897001421689475152007-06-09T16:44:00.000+05:302007-06-17T19:18:10.684+05:30Art of WarWhat makes a person more talented while the other a loser,what stops a average person to be a winner these are the questions one encounters in all faces of life.<br /><br />God is THE BEST architect.No one knows why the world exist.Who created it.Why do we exist in this world.And what is life.we go through the complete cycle of life.Not knowing what is the meaning of its existence.<br /><br /> This is the same state we are in right now.I can't answer any of those above questions,so i go ahead in living my life.The only thing which we are in control of is our life.God creates some as in born champions,some average and some stupid.Its a beautiful balance maintained by God.So if I am stupid ,I ask why is it I am a stupid,why wasn't I a champion.The easy one to blame is God :).<br /><br /> Lets take a scenario.Where a champion , a average and a stupid is given a sword each which are of same quality.Three of them are asked to fight with 3 average persons.The champion wins over his apponent easily while the average may or may not win and the stupid loses it for sure.What made the champion win and stupid loose.All of them were given same swords , all of them were to fight with same level apponents.This is how our life is , when we enter the battelfield called life we all have swords in terms of strengths and we all face the apponents which is world.But at the end of the day some of them are successful and some or not.<br /><br /><br /> So everyone has a sword ,its up to us how to use it.The one who uses it best to his strengths is the champion.So here I redefine the definition of champion , average and a stupid.A champion is a person who improves his strengths in battelfield irrespective of whether he wins or not.A average person is one who just plays to his strengths.A stupid person is one who loses his strengths(even if he wins).<br /><br />We need to look at our swords (strengths) .Need to identify the sharpest edges and weakest ones.We have to make sure that the sharpest ones remain sharper and we need to concentrate on the weaker edges and improve them one after the other.<br /><br /> In several instances I have been as a stupid and a average person.I am learning atleast to be at average consistantly.<br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-2074516-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-74288386777413978452007-03-24T16:41:00.000+05:302007-03-24T18:11:08.199+05:30Worst day of Indian CricketIndian loss to Srilanka in the final group match has knocked out India from the World cup.Its the worst thing a India cricket fan would expect of the team.What are the reasons for this poor performance of the team.Well there are many.<br /><br />Cricket is the main sport in India.Almost every Indian kid plays cricket,it is involved in the life's of almost every Indian.So naturally when so many people are around it ,so is the craze for the game and so is the money involved in it.And when there is money,in comes all the bad elements of the world.<br /><br />A normal kid who grows up in the streets playing cricket and who slowly emerges to be a good player,makes his way into district level cricket,state level cricket and then finally the big stage of International Cricket.A cricketer to make this long journey,goes through many hurdles of bribing the selectors at district level and ranji level.And there is hardly any public attention over him,before he makes his way into the International cricket.And during this journey he concentrates a lot on his cricketing skills.<br /><br />Once the player makes it to the Big stage,he performes and performs really well,as this was his dream since childhood .But the world around him suddenly changes,he is not just a cricketer anymore,he is god to 1 billion people.Where ever he goes he has public attention ,now cricket is not the only thing he has to concentrates on.He will be concentrating on his public image , being a brand ambassdor for major brands, his banking accounts,being a celebrity,.................................<br /><br />So naturally comes down the performance of the player for whom cricket was his life before , now it becomes only a part of his life.He is no more consistent,he is no more eager to improve his skills,He will just play to keep his position safe in the team.This is the stage of all the players in our Indian Cricket team.<br /><br />We cannot change the interest people have for cricket,we cannot bring down the money involved in the game,so what is it that can be done to improve the quality of cricket in India.<br /><br />Well the change has to come from the BCCI.The largest Sporting body on Planet Earth.With the huge funds BCCI has , it can setup a academy in each district of India.It can identify young talent at district level.And it can frequently organize and monitor the games at district level.And then instead of having ranji trophy,where all states meat each other.It can organize games between states in each zone and then select a team for each zone.And let those 4 zone teams play each other frequently.<br /><br />In this approach , you finally have top 44 players of the nation playing against each other.In this way we build up a lot of latent,which puts lot of pressure on the players of International cricket team.For all that to happen,there should not be any bribe involved in the approach.Players should be picked only based on talent and not on recomendations of the politicans or by bribe.<br /><br />But in reality , BCCI will not think anything other than earning money.Its not going to change any process,at the most it will remove the poor coach Greg Chappell,it will remove some poor performers from the team,thats the max its going to do.(BCCI started a t.v channel to increase its income)<br /><br />Again India will play a tournament at home ground , it will perform better in that and again the poor fans will start following the game in a hope that India is coming back strong.Its a cycle which is never going to change.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-6692637463678451982007-03-18T07:14:00.000+05:302007-03-18T07:46:29.081+05:30Business Man's Cricket.It was a game played between 11 of Indian business men and 11 of serious Bangladesh players who are dedicated to cricket and eager for a win.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPCK42JyMQZo0rWHjcMfhKkyHfOees78MvGmNlYJXoM0dwnKVQNMED8yT8QxwyQ5GDQnObOKzABSq_-GX5t1ndMGZSYdxH64QAHqhoEc6Nmkmk6a-XIPsf81ckB0qOz_Eb2lp6ROTNk4zv/s1600-h/73022.icon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPCK42JyMQZo0rWHjcMfhKkyHfOees78MvGmNlYJXoM0dwnKVQNMED8yT8QxwyQ5GDQnObOKzABSq_-GX5t1ndMGZSYdxH64QAHqhoEc6Nmkmk6a-XIPsf81ckB0qOz_Eb2lp6ROTNk4zv/s200/73022.icon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5043074994808367986" border="0" /></a><br />In time Indian cricketers have been concentrating a lot on adds , money and celebrity status.Eventually forgetting what they are made up for.We were not even able to give a proper fight to the Bangladesh in our opener in the world cup.<br /><br />Inconsistency comes when a player is not dedicated for the team.Indian players are so carried away by all other things around them that by the end of the day,cricket is not the main part of their life.When you give a player like Shewag innumerable chances even when he fails consistently,it kind of<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvAn05sJWzIrnUwYDD7dKTgcdIPKxWL4kumJU1i9bNx3SpwKKDkonWZ8jJG183fpmf9Fsmo93oUCsgnqtAybejVEn09-hF1K9OtcDBu48WvRS3lVBOzUtAvF-dHH6elsafLSPTEji6c-f/s1600-h/73019.icon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvAn05sJWzIrnUwYDD7dKTgcdIPKxWL4kumJU1i9bNx3SpwKKDkonWZ8jJG183fpmf9Fsmo93oUCsgnqtAybejVEn09-hF1K9OtcDBu48WvRS3lVBOzUtAvF-dHH6elsafLSPTEji6c-f/s200/73019.icon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5043074921793923938" border="0" /></a> builds a comfort zone for other players that its ok not to perform for a short while.And eventually players become inconsistent in their approach and game.<br /><br />Its a bad day for Indian cricket and all of its fans.But for Indian cricket team its just a day of cricket,what matters to them at the end of the day is their huge paychecks.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-32647777845288163562007-02-23T08:17:00.000+05:302007-02-23T11:48:55.526+05:30What can you ask moreIf you ask yourselves who wins the world cup this time.Australia might have been the answer 1 month back,but now it can be any one of the top 8 ODI teams.Heres my ranking for the teams who might come out as the leaders at the end of the day.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1.Australia</span><br /> Strengths -- Great talent,Ponting,Hussey,McGrath......................<br /> Weekness -- Five straight losses before world cup<br /><br /> They will hit back and hit back very hard.Even with the lack of Symonds and Lee,they are still equipped with best talent in the world.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2.SouthAfrica</span><br /> Strengths -- No.1 ODI side at present,Fighting ability,Pollock,Nthini,Smith...............<br /> Weekness -- Not so reliable batting line up.<br /> <br /> They should have won world cup twice till now.They always enter the world cup being favourets to win it.But they find it hard to go past the semis.Their is bowling line up is in great form and on pictches like WestIndies thats going to be a great weapon to have.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3.West Indies</span><br /> Strengths -- Home Ground,Batting line up,Gayle,sarwan,lara........<br /> Weekness -- Bowling line up,Inconsistent batting<br /><br /> They certainly carry a lot of advantage being a hosting nation.They have suprised a lot in the recent times,by winning the ICC Champions trophy 3 years back. If they want to win a world cup then its all up to the big guns Gayle, Lara and other batting line up.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4.NewZeland</span><br /> Strengths -- Confidence,Fighting ability,vettori,bond.........<br /> Weekness -- No real stars in batting line up,injury to oram<br /><br /> They have the highest confidence compared to all teams and why not ,they have beaten the world champions thrice in a row.But the problem is with batting line up,which does not list any great batsman ,but they do have lot of allrounders.They play key role in the success of NewZeland.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5.India</span><br /> Strengths -- Batting line,Yuvraj,Sachin,Ganguly..........<br /> Weekness -- Bowling lineup,form of key players<br /><br /> They hold most of the records for batting line up,their batsman have the best numbers interms of runs.But its all upto how their batsman click and they hold the key.Bowling is weekness , but the great batsman can make it up with their batting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6.SriLanka</span><br /> Strengths -- Batting and Bowling,Vaas,Jayasurya........<br /> Weekness -- Inconsistency,bowling line up at times<br /><br /> They are the suprise package always.They dont have extraordinay talent ,but they can be a great team on their day.They have some key players like jayasurya , murali, vaas, jayawardane .Performance of these players will hold the key to their success.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7.Pakistan<br /> </span>Strengths -- Batting line up,Inzamam,yousuf........<br /> Weekness -- Inconsistency,feilding.<br /><br /> They can be the most harsh apponent on their day.But they hardly continue their form for couple of matches.If they can improve their consistency and improve the feilding , no suprise in seeing them the world champions beating every one above in this list.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8.England </span><br /> Strengths -- Confidence,Flintoff,Collingwood,Peiterson.....<br /> Weekness -- lack of Experienced players,Bowling line up.<br /><br /> They are high on confidence right now with a try series win over Australia and Newzeland.They seriously lack experience in their side.They heavily depend on players like , Collingwood,Flintoff.You can't win world cup with couple of good players ,you got to have good team effort if u have beat the top teams.They do have chance ,if they can have other players in form.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-27751513479598220312007-02-22T07:11:00.000+05:302007-02-23T11:56:45.532+05:30Holiday in Goa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5xyTXXHw6WGSmAoTp5pkrkIYaAbBNBM_TFrJULIxYXLsRkpL5pKHY0cyONewCTruIVN002xtEtEO1fruUaFlysPFm0ey0PHwtEQ46_8Kkxb4Je7WuB36CFI1MQIsGBa_8FzE_e25IKin/s1600-h/IMG_0462.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP5xyTXXHw6WGSmAoTp5pkrkIYaAbBNBM_TFrJULIxYXLsRkpL5pKHY0cyONewCTruIVN002xtEtEO1fruUaFlysPFm0ey0PHwtEQ46_8Kkxb4Je7WuB36CFI1MQIsGBa_8FzE_e25IKin/s200/IMG_0462.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034187640965215282" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Dil chatha hai was the movie which introduced Goa to me,that was the destination which i was dreaming to go since then and finally came the time.<br /><br />Well the plan was sudden,we decided to go Goa and got the bus tickets and were there at the bus stop on time by 6.30pm but to our bad luck we were waiting till 10p.m when we finally boarded the bus.That was a horrible journey which included one puncture and one change of bus at the Goa border.We finally reached Goa by 2p.m ,counting totally 16 hrs of journey.But finally we were there.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD8n6iJEo0yjJA4ZmhVK3PUiA7GlvqOsDzCuwBhXHrH1VzGpcHZ8i620Ybb_8COqK4SaboHSS4pTrhb1dqQk9JUgDFzl-uPX_r5KT3mDYwFyUjSDrtTA4D4xrSbyaenYkl0OJlwO9Xcazz/s1600-h/IMG_0331.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD8n6iJEo0yjJA4ZmhVK3PUiA7GlvqOsDzCuwBhXHrH1VzGpcHZ8i620Ybb_8COqK4SaboHSS4pTrhb1dqQk9JUgDFzl-uPX_r5KT3mDYwFyUjSDrtTA4D4xrSbyaenYkl0OJlwO9Xcazz/s200/IMG_0331.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034194547272627394" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After a quick bath we were ready to explore Goa,we took a bus to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Miramar</span> beach.It was not a great beach to visit,but its very near compared to other beaches in Goa.So for people staying in Panji(Goa Bus stand) , you can visit this beach in spare time or in night after 10 to have cool breeze.<br /><br />Then we came back from Miramar to Panji in a bus and then took a taxi to North Goa.Well Goa is divided into North Goa , South Goa.You can have one day trips to each<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqiF86mJzLo62jtTjWCOnBLmWHmFT3de3deiaDqJ33XT05KlLTBc4VcnngjUb9Q8MUrDq28YBJ0Eq10FU7KRuLDrs1GXoP_wsSVpc7pttgaBU79JMMYB2bRKzmoXQZZSSdXFhH6a2n98K/s1600-h/IMG_0334.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqiF86mJzLo62jtTjWCOnBLmWHmFT3de3deiaDqJ33XT05KlLTBc4VcnngjUb9Q8MUrDq28YBJ0Eq10FU7KRuLDrs1GXoP_wsSVpc7pttgaBU79JMMYB2bRKzmoXQZZSSdXFhH6a2n98K/s200/IMG_0334.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034193718343939250" border="0" /></a> places to cover the beaches in those areas.So coming back to the trip ,we went to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Calangute</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span> beach,that was supposed to be the one of the best of beaches.Well i cant say it was great,but it was ok.It had huge crowd but to add to our luck there were mostly Indians.But the beach had water biking at a cost of 100 per head,para gliding over the sea and boating too.If you want to have some fun with water sport then North Goa can provide you that.<br /><br />After the beautiful evening on the beach ,we had a long walk for about half n hour on the beach.By the time it was completely dark we<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEs4Ysp_poP2wKBinh2GG4Kjqdo2bKDXa3X4tW8oaAStms6wfQhg9sCc2egdVd0KjuZeyG8sQcJpmayvu0fHLio0Xbo9vZ4tt5eoAG1p-3MS1TU6iJ6qrZ2QJDJ2t9jIFE2wORMl3YAM3Q/s1600-h/IMG_0341.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEs4Ysp_poP2wKBinh2GG4Kjqdo2bKDXa3X4tW8oaAStms6wfQhg9sCc2egdVd0KjuZeyG8sQcJpmayvu0fHLio0Xbo9vZ4tt5eoAG1p-3MS1TU6iJ6qrZ2QJDJ2t9jIFE2wORMl3YAM3Q/s200/IMG_0341.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034189577995465826" border="0" /></a> settled ourselves for a candle light dinner on the beach with waves at just 50 meters from our table.Everything was perfect , candle light , perfect whether with slow a breeze and the beautiful sound of waves.What can you ask more.The dinner was long with lots of boozing and chatting.And then we went to check out the night life of Goa,on the way we found a disco,which was charging nominal 300 per head.Considering the good crowd which was going in , we gave a try.We all went in and had a great night,we danced for 2 hr.That was great day,we were on bed by 2,eagerly waiting for the sun rise.<br /><br />We got up at 8 in the morning ,we booked the taxi to go for a trip of south Goa.We first went to<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVER6gsnP1UG_R4fkO2dkX-izMPY1uS4EkA_yLOC_qQMwDc45qkpXmQhbBbTTkVfpNPLYifwkaU4eOc9DU_b9d_wZnxb-Asf4bEsZNSXNVPvKFIZkSFJzsEbSdqjUb857NWc8e8pAty6Kx/s1600-h/IMG_0386.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVER6gsnP1UG_R4fkO2dkX-izMPY1uS4EkA_yLOC_qQMwDc45qkpXmQhbBbTTkVfpNPLYifwkaU4eOc9DU_b9d_wZnxb-Asf4bEsZNSXNVPvKFIZkSFJzsEbSdqjUb857NWc8e8pAty6Kx/s200/IMG_0386.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034190827830948994" border="0" /></a> the church <b>Basilica of Bom Jesus</b> where the body of St Francis Xavier is present.It was not a great time spending for us,so we completed that fast and went to the beach <span style="font-weight: bold;">Polalam</span>.Its the best blue water beach in Goa.It is 70 km from Goa so it took some time for us to reach this place,we had our lunch over there,and then had a long walk over the whole beach,to primarly check out the huge foreign crowd.It being a bit far from city,the place was filled mostly with foreigners,that was the time we really felt that we were in Goa.You get to see a lot foreign crowd sun bathing,playing or swimming.The water is very clear,so we went in and had fun for some time before we started to Coval beach.<br /><br />We reached <span style="font-weight: bold;">Coval</span> beach by 5p.m,may be it was the right timing,we got to see a beautiful<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fJuiZD6JcW2u-2shDVQSWv5p5W9OdWEMb_gFe3A1dJaiUrEtgmZQKWR2ceTMiIMca4d62Q796yOcpXZBblMR34OrdYV0dyYWr7adR9gUXYkNmDOkaa563ahYlhw_xVw0tE7R4ODtWj9n/s1600-h/IMG_0447.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fJuiZD6JcW2u-2shDVQSWv5p5W9OdWEMb_gFe3A1dJaiUrEtgmZQKWR2ceTMiIMca4d62Q796yOcpXZBblMR34OrdYV0dyYWr7adR9gUXYkNmDOkaa563ahYlhw_xVw0tE7R4ODtWj9n/s200/IMG_0447.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034191974587217042" border="0" /></a> sunsetAs it was a sunday and this beach being a bit close to the city ,there was a huge crowd.We took a lot of snaps at the sunset.Water is clear here and you get to see a lot of coconut trees on the beach,overall its a very beautiful place to be.Thats the end of the second day,lets see whats in store for the last day.<br /><br />Last day we booked a taxi to take a tour of North Goa.We started up with the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aguada</span> jail.That was a great place to be.You get to see the sea from a great height ,You see a lots n lots of ships from that height and small islands.That was the place,where prisoners used to be kept,i feel you have to be a lucky prisoner to go there.Do<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWSYWlFVpu9lfaf9G5RQQtTOcLnyMCWCOVl0A-syz6XHiLf851mRbup48RRUhsLzvCIiYsdtY1AJhTMLQaoYQ1GZrfRgHYG6tSMW-g387DbWEjveUMCO6wCRJqlGIKDelQhk41w1os1Y-M/s1600-h/IMG_0479.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWSYWlFVpu9lfaf9G5RQQtTOcLnyMCWCOVl0A-syz6XHiLf851mRbup48RRUhsLzvCIiYsdtY1AJhTMLQaoYQ1GZrfRgHYG6tSMW-g387DbWEjveUMCO6wCRJqlGIKDelQhk41w1os1Y-M/s200/IMG_0479.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034192678961853602" border="0" /></a> not miss to visit this place,if you visit Goa.<br /><br />We were then to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Anjuna</span> beach,where we just posed for some snaps and we made a quick move to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vagator</span> beach.We spent a long time at that beach , playing beach volleyball , boozing and swimming.Thats a beautiful beach with lots of rocks on the shores.It also has black sand unlike all other beaches.<br /><br />The gang was Bhaskar,Guru,Janardhan,Raghav,myself,Theja and Venkatesh.All in all it was a great trip and its a great place for a holiday.Plan everything well,better travel by train and 3 days would be a sufficient time to cover goa.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-67298545313860157642007-01-14T16:17:00.000+05:302007-01-14T17:02:49.608+05:30Guru not inspirationalComing to "Guru",expectations were heavy for me as the movie was from Maniratnam and the story was of Diru Bhai Ambani,the legendry Business men from India.Ambani was a guy who started his career as a small employee in a petroleum company but later went on to become a head of Reliance Industries and worlds 113th richest person.<br />Movie runs the complete life story of Ambani,but was not successfull in being inspirational. Though credit goes to Abhishek bachan in handling the role of Guru,he adjusted himself very well to the role of a bussiness man with a look of 50 years of age and he was exceptional during times when he had to act as a man with paralysis stroke.Music of the movie is good,specially one song "Barso re".All in all its a good movie, you will be happy watching the story of Ambani , how he grew from no where to become a legendry bussiness man and the acting of Abhishek Bachan.<br />I have been a hard core fan of Maniratnam since i saw his movie "Nayagan" ,it has been my first movie since then and later follows movies like Godfather,Cast Away,Beautiful Mind.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-37675629862936918252007-01-10T08:55:00.000+05:302007-01-10T09:06:58.793+05:30Download mp3Well after my struggle to find a place where i can download english mp3,i think i finally hit on one.You can go to this <a href="http://www.vinden.nl/?where=mp3">website</a> and search for the song you wanna download.It lists several sites from where you can download your song.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2985243493242113046.post-28672491005195854292007-01-08T11:41:00.000+05:302007-01-14T16:17:33.294+05:30web2.0 around the world and in india.Many new web2.0 sites came into picture in 2006,some of them have created a revolution while some are struggling to survive.Sites like digg,youtube,flickr are some to name.All these websites involve the community around the world.But considering the talent and community in India,its bad to see that none of the major web2.0 sites emerged from India.SharathChandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100492502235772204noreply@blogger.com0