Its all about money, honey !

Yes... Yes... I remember that I promised to post on the blog more frequently than I used to do for the last few months. And I'm trying to make sure that I keep up my promise.

I could not post anything after the last post since I was busy with my brother's wedding. Yes, my brother got married. Now, just like everyone I come across, don't start commenting "Agla number tera hai..." or "Teri line clear ho gayi ab toh !" :)

I was in Mumbai for the last 18 days or so. And back here in Pune, my good for nothin' college had planned something else for me. They sent a 'love letter' at my place, back in Falna, claiming that I had attended barely 16% of the lectures. Well, the last time I met my co-ordinator at the college to collect my first sem marksheet a couple of weeks, she told me it was 55%. So, how does it go down to 16% in a matter of just a few days??

What raised my doubt was that the Defaulter's List claimed that one good friend of mine, who was successful in grabbing a government job just before Sem-1 exams, who did not appear for the exams and who has left the MBA course, had an attendance of 6%. A lot of the other batchmates also had some random figures in front of their names in the defaulter's list. And the fine print said that a fine of Rs. 500 would be imposed on those having attendance below 50%. This fine print made me think that it's al about money honey !

With this 'love letter' reaching my home, I had to listen to a lot of bhajans from my folks !  On reaching Pune, when I saw the Defaulter's List myself, I noticed the following:

• The highest attendance was 66%.
• Nearly 90% of the students had attendance below the mark of 50%
• A few of the names that I haven't seen for the whole semester, had attendance upto 10%.
• And no one had attendance of 0%.

It confirmed that they had put random numbers in the list, some of the most favourite students of the faculty had attendance above 50%, and yes, it's all about money honey !

Its all about money, honey !

May be this is because my college, one of the nicest MBA colleges in Pune, has the least fees in Pune University. And may be because they want to make some money out of such unfair means. Shocking, but true.

These twists and turns make life frustrating !

Such is life !

Proud to be a BANIYA :)

Although I don't believe in the castes & the erstwhile caste system which was prevalent in India, but here's something which I couldn't resist posting on my blog. Here's a very very interesting story about India's castes...

A few weeks ago, the prestigious Forbes magazine has put out a list of the world’s 1,210 billionaires. 55 of them are Indians. A billion dollars is somewhere around Rs. 4,920 crore.

A Baniya is a member of the Vaish caste, originating mainly from the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. They constitute less than 1% of India’s 1.25 billion population.

Here are a few interesting facts regarding the Indian billionaires who feature in the Forbes list of billionaires.

• India’s richest man, Lakshmi Nivas Mittal (Mittal Steel & Arcelor Mittal), world’s sixth richest man with $31.1 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s second richest man, Mukesh Ambani (Reliance) with $27 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s third richest man, Azim Premji (Wipro) with $16.8 billion, is a Khoja.
• India’s fourth richest men, brothers Shashi & Ravi Ruia (Essar) with $15.8 billion are Baniyas.
• India’s fifth richest person, Savitri Jindal (Jindal Steel) with $13.2 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s sixth richest man, Gautam Adani (Adani Group) with $10 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s seventh richest man, Kumar Mangalam Birla (Aditya Birla Group) with $9.2 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s eighth richest man, Anil Ambani (Reliance-ADAG) with $8.8 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s ninth richest man, Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Airtel) with $8.3 billion, is a Baniya.
• India’s tenth richest man, Adi Godrej (Godrej Group), world’s 130th richest man with $7.3 billion, is a Parsi.

 Score: Baniyas - 8, Rest of India - 2.

If we consider the two Gujaratis, Godrej and Premji (from the Lohana caste), as coming from the mercantile communities, then actually Rest of India wasn’t even playing this match so far.

Well, lets continue further...

• India’s 11th richest man is K P Singh of DLF ($7.3 billion). He is the first departure from the trend of mercantile castes. Singh is a peasant (not now though), the most populous caste grouping of India, about 50% of our population.
• From numbers 11 to 20, there are four Baniyas. They are Anil Agarwal of Vedanta ($6.4 billion), Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharma ($6.1 billion), Uday Kotak of Kotak Group ($3.2 billion), & Subhash Chandra Goel of Zee ($2.9 billion).
• The non-Baniyas are Shiv Nadar of HCL ($5.6 billion), Malvinder & Shivinder Singh of Ranbaxy ($4.1 billion), Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV ($3.5 billion), Mukesh Jagtiani of Landmark ($3 billion) and Pankaj Patel of Cadila ($2.6 billion).
• Between 21 and 30, there are five Baniyas. They are Indu Jain of The Times of India ($2.6 billion), Desh Bandhu Gupta of Lupin ($2.1 billion), Sudhir & Samir Mehta of Torrent ($2 billion), Aloke Lohia of Indorama ($2 billion) & Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon ($1.9 billion).
• The five non-Baniyas are G M Rao of GMR ($2.6 billion), Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute ($2.3 billion), Mumbai builder Rajan Raheja ($2.2 billion), Narayana Murthy of Infosys ($2 billion) & Gautam Thapar of Avantha ($2 billion).
• Of the non-Baniyas, three are from mercantile communities: Poonawalla (Parsi), Raheja (Shikarpuri Sindhi) and Thapar (Khatri). Murthy is Brahmin.
• Between 31 and 40 are two Baniyas: Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto ($1.6 billion) & Ajay Piramal of Piramal Group ($1.4 billion).
• The non-Baniyas include three Brahmins: Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys & present Chairman of UIDAI ($1.8 billion), S Gopalakrishnan of Infosys ($1.6 billion), & Vijay Mallya of UB Group ($1.4 billion).
• Three of the others are from mercantile castes: Mumbai based builder Chandru Raheja ($1.9 billion), Brijmohan Lall Munjal of Hero MotoCorp ($1.5 billion) & Vikas Oberoi of Oberoi Realty ($1.4 billion).
• The last two are K Anji Reddy of Dr Reddy's Labs ($1.5 billion), from Andhra’s dominant peasant community, & Ajay Kalsi of Indus Gas ($1.7 billion).
• Between 41 and 50 are five Baniyas. They are R P Goenka of RPG Group ($1.3 billion), investment banker Rakesh Jhunjhunwala ($1.2 billion), Brij Bhushan Singhal of Bhushan Steel ($1.2 billion), B K Modi of Spice ($1.1 billion) and Mumbai builder Mangal Prabhat Lodha ($1.1 billion).
• The non-Baniyas are Baba Kalyani of Bharat Forge ($1.3 billion), Keshub Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra ($1.2 billion), Infosys co-founder K Dinesh ($1.2 billion) & S D Shibulal of Infosys ($1.1 billion), & Yusuf Hamied of Cipla ($1.1 billion).
• The last five, from 51 to 55, include two Baniyas: Mumbai builder Mofatraj Munot of Kalpataru ($1 billion) & Ashwin Dani of Asian Paints ($1 billion).
• Two of the others are from mercantile castes: Parsi Anu Aga of Thermax ($1 billion) & Khatri Harindarpal Banga of Noble ($1 billion).
• Delhi builder Ramesh Chandra of Unitech ($1 billion) ends our list of Indians with a billion dollars or more.

The list has three Parsis, two Muslims and Sikhs in one spot (shared by the Singh brothers of Ranbaxy). Banga is also a Sikh name but Harindarpal is clean-shaven. All of them, except Poonawalla, have inherited their wealth, though in the case of Premji, he took a small firm and made it global. There is nobody from the scheduled tribes or castes.

India’s large peasant castes have some representation (Singh, Patel, Reddy), but not much. There are 26 Baniyas on our list. Many of them inherited their wealth, but just as many (Mittal, Ruias, Adani, Dhoot among others) are self-made.

The list has 16 Rajasthanis, and 13 Gujaratis. Every single Rajasthani is from one caste, Vaish, though they are from two faiths: Hindu and Jain. Only Gujarat is capable of producing billionaires drawn from four different faiths: Hindu, Parsi, Jain and Muslim—and three different castes: Baniya, Khatri and peasant.


This is unique in India and there is something about this secular mercantile culture that produces great men across communities. What is it? Three out of the four biggest leaders of the subcontinent under British rule were Gujarati, and they were drawn from these three castes: Gandhi, Jinnah and Patel. Only 5% of India’s population, Gujaratis don’t have the numbers to dominate its democratic politics. But businesses are not run in democratic fashion. And to rise, you need quality, not quantity.

The heartland of India, where our quantity resides, is missing from this list. Bihar, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh have little or no representation and this does not surprise us. On the list are 10 south Indians, in proportion to their 20% share of India’s population. The famous five from Infosys are obviously self-made. Of the others, four are first-generation wealthy. This is a good indicator for the future, and it restores some balance in favour of Rest of India.

One final observation. India’s greatest businessman is not on this list. Why is that? It is because Ratan Tata owns less than 1% of Tata Sons. He is exceptional in every way.

Proud to be a Baniya. Business is in our genes. We think business. We breath business. We live business. We love business.

With the hope that I make it to this list sometime in the future, signing off.....

Marwaris = Smart !

While surfing through some random blogs, I came across this story of a Marwari salesman. I, being a Marwari myself, couldn't refrain myself from reading it. I loved it sooooo much. Read it and know how good Marwaris are at business !

A keen immigrant Indian lad applied for a salesman’s job at London’s premier downtown departmental store. In fact, it was the biggest store in the world – you could get anything there.

The boss asked him, "Have you ever been a salesman before?"

"Yes sir, I was a salesman in Rajasthan in India", replied the lad.

The boss liked the cut of him and said,

"You can start tomorrow and I’ll come and see you."

The day was long and arduous for the young man, but he got through it. And finally 6:00 PM came around. The boss duly fronted up and asked,

"How many sales did you make today?"

"Sir, Just ONE sale." said the young salesman.

"Only one sale?" blurted the boss.

"No! No! You see here, most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. If you want to keep this job, you’d better be doing better than just one sale. By the way how much was the sale worth?"

"Three hundred thousand three hundred and thirty four pounds", said the young Marwari.

"What? How did you manage that?" asked the flabbergasted boss.

"Well", said the salesman, "This man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him new fishing rod and some fishing gear. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast. So I told him he’d be needing a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty-foot schooner with the twin engines. Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn’t be able to pull it, so I took him to our automotive department and sold him that new Deluxe 4X4 Blazer. I then asked him where he’ll be staying, and since he had no accommodation, I took him to camping department and sold him one of those new igloo 6 sleeper camper tents. Then the guy said, while we’re at it, I should throw in about $100 worth of groceries and two cases of beer."

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, "You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook!!"

"No." answered the salesman, "He came in to buy a box of sanitary napkins for his wife and I said to him, "Your weekend is screwed anyway; you might as well go fishing."

So, this is what being Marwari is... I'm proud to be a Marwari ! Kasam se....

I love Winter !

Winter's here. I love the season, although many of those I know don't. If I had the control of the seasons, I'd reserve 8 months for winter, 3 months for monsoon, and just one for summer. But alas ! its just a wish and I don't have any control over it. Someone called the weather god had been controlling it for quite sometime, but now he's handed over the charge to "Global Warming".

Jokes apart, I've tried to jot down the top 11 reasons why I love this season (Actually I made a list of 10 reasons, but I couldn't afford to miss the 11th one by any chance) :

1. Being a Marwari, food has to be one of the main reason to have a love or hate relationship with someone. This rule is applicable in some cases of "something" too. I love the food that's available only in this season, especially Haldi ki sabzi, and that too in a cold winter night !! (Ahhhh.... muh mein paani aa raha hai??? lolz) To those who have tasted it, miss it.... And to those who havent, you're already very late, and you've missed a lot !!
2. The protective gear - sweaters, pullovers, jackets, etc. They help me look a li'l healthier than I actually am. Another advantage of the jackets and pullovers is that you don't need a change of clothes that often. I mean I can attend a less important wedding reception or a party with just a change of a pullover. ;)
3. The early morning sun and the fog !
4. Urad ki dal ke laddus.
5. Early sunsets, comparatively late sunrises. In short, SHORTER days and longer nights :)
6. Garma garam cups of chai (tea) and coffee.
7. Catching a friend in a monkey cap. He/she is gonna be the butt of jokes for the rest of the day or at least until we catch another bakra (or should I say monkey?)
8. Although I hate sweets (mithaai suits better), I love Suttar Feeni, a mithaai entirely made up of milk, ghee, and of course sugar. I'm sorry I can't explain how it looks or how it tastes, but its yummmm....  (I've always maintained that being a Marwari has its own advantages...)
9. Sitting by the fire (this doesn't happen much, still I love it whenever it happens)
10. Its party season - Christmas, New Year and the likes.
11. And yes, last but not the least, eating ice cream when its chilling cold. Its like sardi ko thenga dikhana.

So lemme know what do you love about winter... and of course, there are haters for everything that's loved... so tell me what you hate then????