Should I buy a car ?

Should I buy a car ? This is a million dollar question every professional has, particularly software engineers in Chennai. There are quiet a number of questions to be asked and number of aspects to be considered to answer this question. Some simple questions are if you are single or married, how long do you commute to work daily etc. In this blog, let me try to analyse this question in a financial perspective.

For this, let us consider a hypothetical situation. There are 3 guys in the similar financial status. Let us assume that each of them commute a distance of 20 Km daily. Let us assume approximately that they commute 600 Kms per month.

At start of year 1, each decide to take 3 different modes of commute for the next 5 years. Guy 1 commutes using public transport, guy 2 in call taxi daily and guy 3 goes for a car. Let us calculate what is the total expense spent by each guy for commute.

Let us assume guy 1 spends Rs. 30 every day on commute. Considering 30 days, the total spend approximately would be Rs. 900 per month and 54,000.00 for 5 years.

At the same time, guy 2 using call taxi spends Rs. 4,200 per month at Rs. 7.00 per Km. The total comes to Rs. 252,000.00.

Let us say that guys 3 buys a car taking a loan of Rs. 4,50,000/-. At 9 per cent diminishing rate for 5 years, the EMI comes to Rs. 9341.26 per month. The total loss on interest on this loan after 5 years is Rs. 110475.59. If he drives 600 Kms every month as assumed, with a mileage of 13 Kms, he spends Rs. 2215.38 on petrol @ Rs. 48 per liter. Additionally , let us assume that he spends Re.0.5 on maintenance. It comes to Rs. 300 per month. And there is insurance to pay. Calculating insurance at 2.5% of the value of the car, for 5 years, his outgo will be Rs. 50212.12. So, his total expense for 5 years comes to Rs. 610,687.71. Looking at the expenses, he decides to sell his car. With a lot of new models available at much lower rates, second hand card don't sell for much. Considering a depreciation of 12%, his car will sell for Rs. 237,479.36 after 5 years. So, his total ex pence for the commute for 5 years is 610,687.71 - 237,479.36 = Rs. 373,208.35.

From these arithmetic, it is obvious that using public transportation is the best option in financial perspective. But there are other intangible things to consider. Some are positive and others negative.

With our own vehicle, we can do better time management and can travel faster. Also in a society like ours, there is a pride associated with owning a car. It feels good to go in a car for a family function or official occassion.

There are some flip sides too. Firstly, it is not an easy task to drive a car in a city like Chennai. It is a tense affair particularly if you are retruning back after a busy day. There is always risk of liabilities arising out of any accident. When we hire a car, this risk is transferred to the owner of the car. And for folks working in software service industry, it is possible that they travel long or short term and the car may be idel for months if there is no body to care. During this time too, the car is going to depreciate in value.

But again, there is a please in driving a car. Particularly with your loved ones, in a winter evening through a highway with not much traffic is an experience worth it.

Finally, your decision to buy a car should be based on the above intangibles. Be aware that our priorities and weightage do change over time. Weigh all the options and how they are likely to change over time and take a informed decision.

Google's new Feature for Mobile Users

Google India has introduced a new feature which enables mobile users to send SMS to a specific number and get information back as messages. We can get a whole lot of information from stock price, PNR status of our train ticket to weather. You can see the detailed information from the google site http://www.google.co.in/mobile/default/sms/. If you are on the move, you can send a SMS with text "help" to the number 9-77-33-00000. In seconds, you should get a reply from the same number with information on what information you can get. This is not much useful unless you go to the site.

The site says that we get this service for the standard charge we generally pay for sending SMS from our mobile. I have tried a some things and I am getting replies back. For example, I send the message with text "stock hcltech" to 9773300000 and in some seconds I got a reply with the stock price. I have to check with the customer care or will wait to see my monthly bill. For customers having corporate plans most of which allows sending unlimited local SMSs, it would be very useful. Before using this, make sure with your mobile operator for the charges applicable for this.

The Gujjar Demand

It is more than 2 weeks since the Gujjaras have been agitating demanding ST status for them. About 45 activists have been killed till date. It is reported that the Railways is loosing about 3 crore INR every day the rail traffic is disrupted. The CM and other top bureaucrats have been wasting a lot of time on this. The loss the daily commuters and the companies that employ them may incur in not reporting to jobs in time and the resulting productivity loss would be hard to calculate. The mental trauma of people who had to commute or travel urgently trough the trouble torn areas would be more difficult to quantify.

In spite of all these, the Raje Govt. is taking a tough stand by not yielding to their demands. With a sizable 15% of the population in the state belonging to Gujjars, it would be a very easy political decision to grant their demand. Just imagine what would happen if this causes a 5-6% vote swing against the ruling front. This would mean a disaster for any party, leave alone a party which has an opposition which is at least as popular. A more worrying factor would be that the state is going for assembly polls shortly.

In spite of all these, I think the Rajastan Govt. is sensible in not yielding to their demands. If a community gets the status of SC / ST just because they have agitate so much, it would send a wrong message to the other communities, particularly those which have sufficient strength in their side. Each of them would start agitating and it would be a total chaos in the country.

In fact, the attitude of the political parties to appease a community or a section of the society has boomeranged back at them. I believe that at least now, the top leadership in most of the political parties would start thinking about the bane of community / caste based reservations. Perhaps this is the start of end of caste / community based reservation. The saying goes that there is an opportunity in every adversary and here too, there is an opportunity to get rid of caste / community based reservation. Hope the policy makers wake up sufficiently early.

Indian Cricket Team - Now at Where It Belongs

I am not sure how many of us ardent cricket fans of Indian expect India to lift the world cup this time. For all those fans, the Indian team had their answer in the match against Bangladesh and Srilanka. This is what will happen when a bunch of models represent the nation for the cricket world cup. Any thing that need specilised skills should be done with passion. These guys are not passionate about cricket, but about the money they earn out of it. They spend more time in the shooting spots and studios than in the nets.

Consider the match against Srilanka. They needed to chase a moderate total of 254. Considering the hype that India has one of the best batting line up and we have 3 of the so-called best batsmen in the world, it is a meak surrender. Tendulkar came in when the scope was at 43/2. How come can he get out for such an ordinary ball from Fernando. He knows it is a crunch game and we need some good partnerships to turn the game. But he didn't seem to have had a thought of how important it is. If he is not able to concentrate and deliver when needed, what is the use of all the hype around him. Why should he be playing at the hightest level of any game. Just for promoting the lables in his bats ?! Very bad. Yuvraj Singh did play some good cricket in the last 2 matches. But the way he got out in the match is too silly .

I don't understand why Agarkar and Harbajan are in the team at all. Anyone can bowl 10 overs and give 50 odd runs. At the highest leve of the game, we don't need a specialized bowler slots wasted for that. They certainily should have delivered better. How does Agarkar justifies bowling 3 full toss deliveries in the last over of the game. Did he have any plan for getting the batsman out or restricting him. I hope any seasoned street bowler would have a better plan for their bowling. With such performance in the team, they certainly don't derserve to be in the super-8. They are left at where it belongs to.

It is the selectors who should take the responsibility for such a dismal performance of the team. They certainly cannot justify selection of people like Agarkar or even Tendulkar. If they have any concern for the tens of millions of Indians watching cricket, the BCCI should revamp the selection board first. They should have a new bowling and batting coach. The team should be selected afreash. The team should have people who have fire in the belly to perform. They should have strict norms on minimum time the players are needed to spend on the nets. Also, the time they spend in studios should be restricted so that it doesn't affect their practice hours.

It is a blessing in disguise for India to have been eliminated even before the super-8 stage. Had India qualified for the super-8 stage, it might have given a false sence of well being of the team. Even if India have had got eliminated in the super-8 stage, the need for a revamp of the selection board and team may not be felt as much as it is now. The BCCI should take this opportunity to revamp the system here.

On a not so lighter note, there are many a good things about the elimination. To mention a few...

1) Getting out an early stage leaves most of us Indians lesser prone to BP.
2) We get to watch some good quality cricket with the non consistent teams getting out.
3) Indians don't need to waste time watching the team play and expecting India to come with the cup, only to seem them goof up at the later stages.
4) These guys have their levels known and be trimmed.

Leadership - The Monkey Way

There was a family of 4, a couple and two children, living in America. There was also another important member of the family. It was a monkey. The monkey was so much involved with the family that it used to share the same living place with the family and also traveled with the family everywhere.

Once the family went to a cocktail party. The monkey too joined them. The couple were enjoying the drinks and the children the cakes and chocolates. The monkey too had a good time with cakes and fruits. The party ended and family started traveling back home. All of a sudden, there was something happening in the car and the car soon stopped after hitting a huge tree.

Soon, all the members of the family were in the ICU. The investigating office wanted to find the reason for the accident. But the officer couldn't get any information as all the members of the family was unconscious. The only traveler who was in a position to provide some info was the monkey. So, the officer went to the monkey and gestured to mean "what was the head of the family doing when the accident happened". The monkey gestures to mean that "the gentle man was kissing". The officer gestured to ask "what the lady was doing". The monkey replied back with the same act. Now the officer gestured to find what the children were doing. The monkey replied back with a pose of a sleeping child. The officer got curious and wanted to know what the monkey was doing. The monkey replied back with the posture of a driver. The officer understood that monkey was left to handle the wheels while the couple had a nice time kissing. All these years, we know this as a very good joke.

The joke apart, there is a good learning in this with regard to leadership and management. If the correct person, doesn't take the leadership when neeeded or if the team trusts the leadership position with some one unequiped for the position, it will be a disaster for the entire team.

In the above scenario, the head of the family is the one who has the management capability (the skill to drive the car). He, in an inebriated state, neglects his duty and trusted the monkey to do his job. This in turn lead to the accident which hurts even the passive members in the team, the children.

Also, it is the responsibility of a true leader to snatch the leadership position when needed. If the correct person doesn't take the leadership position, the wrong person would chip in and will lead to a disaster for the entire team. So, it is important that the true leader takes the leadership position in the greater interest of himself and also the team as whole.

Applying the same paradigm to our political, social and economic scenarios, Are we not playing the role of either the children or the couple and our leaders that of the monkey ?. Yes of couse. We in many a ways are not happy about our social and economic environment. But how many of us dare to take the leadership position to drive the change we need. When we are complain how those things affect us in innumorous ways, most of us have just been mute spectators to what is happending around us. So, not just the leaders (monkey), but also us (the couple and children) are to be blamed for the way our country is now. So, the next time you complain about anything, think about how you can change it. For sure, you will either find a solution or atleast you would stop complaining.

A trip to meet your forefathers

How it is like to go to the places your fore fathers have lived it. Will not it be very interesting ?. This is what happened to me, my dad and some of my chitappas went to Virupatchipuram on 27th and 28th of Nov. Virupatchipuram is a village about 2 Kms from Valangaiman and Valangaiman is about 20 Kms from Kumbakonam on the route to Rajamannarkudi.

By word of mouth thru some generations, this is where my Great grand father (Shri Maha Ganapathi Sharma) was born and lived in. Shri Maha Ganapathi Sharma is also my upanayanam name. My grandpa Shri V.G. Venkatrama Sharma was born in 1913 and his elder brother Guruji in 1910. Considering that, Shri Maha Ganapathy Sharma should have been born around 1890.

His father Mr. Maha Linga Sharma seems to have lived in this village and he was not blessed with a child. After a boy was born to him, he named him after lord Ganesa("Maha Ganapathi") and also constructed a small temple for lord Ganesa inside the Shiva temple there.

We went to the temple and also the houses they lived. There is a brahmin family living there. In those days, with not much of transportation facilities, I hope many of the previous generations also would have lived in those village. It was infact a very energising experience for me.

'Occasion'al Bakthi

I use to go to a Kabaleeswar temple atleast once in a week. Today being a Saturday, I went to the temple. I know it would be crowded by peek hours(6.00-8.30 PM). So, I reached the temple around 9.00. Believe me, in spite of spending only 5 min in front of the deity, it took me 1 Hour for me to come out of the temple. The queue was not less than 100 Mts long and most of the time, I was just standing in the queue. Later, I found that today is "Maha Prodosham" that comes once in a year. That too this is falling on a Saturday is more auspicious. This is how it is with any other auspicious day like Diwali or Pongal.

This is not the case just with the Kabaleeswar temple. There are 9 Siva temples in and around Mylapore and all these temples are equally crowded. So are the temples in Triplicane, Adambakkam or even with temples in far south like Thirunallar or Thirukadayur. Go to these same temples on some other ordinary day, you might not even get to see the priests. From my childhood, I have known about "Prodosham". But the concepts of "Sani Prodosham" or "Maha Prodosham" are fairly new to me. I am not sure if these are new terms introduced to commercialise Gods more and more. But one thing for sure is we Hindus are running short of temples or auspicious days on which we can go to temples.