Water on Moon

For the last few days, TV channels have been carrying this piece throughout the day. Two things which I find quite ridiculous are -

• It was India's first moon mission and we were able to find water, whereas Americans went there so many times and were not able to find it.
• In future, we will be able to use the water on Moon for drinking, making rocket fuel, making oxygen etc.
• Till few days back, Chandyaan-1 was declared a disaster, and suddenly it has become a huge success.

To the news channels: please put the discovery in some perspective.

There was enough data available to suggest that there is water on Moon. However, the latest findings have given the scientific community conclusive evidence. In a nutshell, this has been an ongoing process and not a Eureka. Secondly, the amount of surface water on Moon is less that what is found on the hottest deserts on Earth. There are no lakes or ponds or glaciers there, not even a puddle. Nothing is known about the quantity of water buried deep inside the Moon, and whether there is any at all. That's what was crystal clear in the NASA press conference last night.

To all the scientists and governments: please manage the water on earth well. Otherwise we will have to really depend on the thin film of water that is present on the Moon.

Beauty of test cricket

Yesterday, I was watching the final test between England and Australia. The uncertainty - whether England will be able to bowl Australia out on day 4 or whether Australia will fight it out - was quite gripping. In the end, England did manage to win but Australia did fight it out, but it was quite gripping.

Hussey played really well, so did Katich & Haddin, but they made one mistake and that was the end of their innings. This is the beauty of test cricket - you make 1 mistake and you are out. As a bowler, you really have to bowl well (unless its your lucky day) otherwise you will get smacked all around the park.

I still remember in 2004, Rahul Dravid smashed a boundary of the bowling of Stuart McGill to win the Adelaide test match. How can we forget that? and India winning the Perth test after losing the Sydney test due to the most horrible umpiring in modern day cricket. How can we forget that? I belong to the school that believes in "test cricket is the real cricket"...

These days, T20 has resulted in an overdose of cricket, to the extent of causing indigestion. Test cricket has a soothing influence. 50-50 is the unfortunate victim of T20 overdose :-)

Finished reading "The Da Vinci Code"

For quite some time, I wanted to read this book. When I saw the movie, I could not understand one bit. I seemed more like a hollywood suspense thriller rather than anything else. Finally, I could lay my hands on it, and amidst a busy schedule, I managed to finish it over a period of 2 weeks. Quite interesting.

Next one will be "India After Gandhi - by Ramchandra Guha". The Jaswant Singh - Jinnah controversy has revived my dormant interest in history.

DDCA Vs Sehwag Saga

Last night, the news channels continued with their coverage of DDCA Vs Sehwag et all controversy. That is when I came across one of the DDCA selectors. The news channel was ranting about how the son of an influential office bearer of DDCA is being selected despite his poor performance and at the cost of other more talented players. Then they showed a piece of a TV interview with one of the selectors on why that particular player was being favored.

(A piece of unsolicited advise to news channels: This is not news, this is common knowledge.)

As far as I am concerned, this selector seemed very sensible. His argument was that the player in question is in the team of 15, but has never been given the opportunity to be in the playing 11. Since he has never played in the 11, how can we gauge his performance?

In pure hindi - "abhi tak to woh player paani pila raha tha. to jab woh bahar hi hai, to use aur bahar kaise kar sakte hain?".

Makes sense :-). Dude ! You have got to be a national selector. I am positive Salil Ankola (a competent bowler in my humble opinion, who very seldom got to play cricket) must be cursing his playing days when selectors did not have the common sense that you have shown.

Creativity at its best

Abhijit forwarded me the snap on the right. The snap on the left has been downloaded from google images for the sake of comparison.

Enjoy the contrast :-)

Litti Chokha

This Saturday, we friends went to a place called 'Chili Pepper' to eat Litti Chokha. Its a Bihari dish. The Litti is similar to the Baati from the famous dish 'Daal Baati', except that it is filled with 'sattu' and 'mustard'. I would say, it has a pretty heavy dose of mustard. I like that extra mustard. It just runs up my nose and makes me feel as if I have put my nose in a container of ammonia.

Chokha is nothing but mashed stuff - typically consisting of egg plant, tomatoes, potato, garlic, coriander and mustard oil. Except for the egg plant, everything else is raw. I love this combination. You can call it "Kachcha Bharit" in marathi.

The food was good. I really enjoyed the Litti-Chokha and along with chicken curry, it tasted fantastic.

Something that was really different was the attitude of the waiter. I guess he had a bad start to his evening because he was in a really foul mood. Some instances of his bad mood -

• He was unwilling to join two tables. When we told him that for 1 hour, we will be uncomfortable, he said - "aapko 1 ghanta baithaunga kya main?".
• Later, when we left some tip for him, he was unhappy with the tip and was grumbling under his breath.

Fortunately, there were more sensible waiters over there who told him to keep quiet.

Start-ups, Biggies, ESOPs, ESPPs

I have been part of both types of companies - start-ups and established companies. For those who are seeking thrill, start-ups provide a great platform. Unfortunately, this thrill can be short-lived because most start-ups do not succeed. There are many reasons for failure of start-ups. The most significant one in my opinion is working on something hi-tech or cool rather than actually solving some real world problem. Other important reasons are that start-ups are mostly run as per whims and fancies of one person - the founder. His judgement is central to the success or failure of a start-up.

On a different note, why do people get attracted to start-ups. One reason is they seek thrill in their work. Start-ups do offer a lot of exciting work with stiff deadlines, but more often than not, a person ends up doing a lot of direction-less work. In contrast, things proceed at slow pace in an established company. A thrill seeker will definitely get bored by the time the project actually starts. I like both forms of working, as long as there is some direction and vision associated with what I am working on.

Another reason why people opt for start-ups in ESOPs. 20000 ESOPs worth 1 cent. Sounds great. Even if the stock gets listed at 1$, one will make 20000$. By this time, one actually starts counting the money in his own hands. All this is complete eye-wash. Many even agree to salary cut, and opt for the start-up instead of joining an established company. Quite foolish in my opinion.

Let me tell you why I consider all this foolish -

1. First of all, if you are chasing big money, you have to realize that very few start-ups actually make it big; so the chances that your 20000 ESOPs will see any reasonable valuation is very very slim. Even big companies play the ESOP trick quite well. When the stock is over-valued, they give large no. of ESOPs and when the stock is low, they give less no. of ESOPs.
2. Big companies give you the option of ESPPs. With ESPPs, if you time things right, you can make decent amount of money. Taking into account a minimum post-tax return of 10%, the annualized return for ESPPs is much higher. (10% for 5 months, 10% for 4 months, ..., 10% for 3 days). You can do the math.
3. Another benefit with ESPP is that you can start with as less as 1%. Some times when the stock price is high or market is falling, invest small amounts. The benefit is that in a falling market, your lock-in price keeps getting revised downwards. When the market starts going up again, increase your contribution to full 10%.
4. Another benefit is RSUs and bonuses. RSUs are like ESOPs but with a base price of 0, so you always make money on RSUs. The no. of RSUs given is generally a fraction of no. of ESOPs.
5. If you file patents, you can make decent amount of money with them. If your patent is business critical, every year you can make some money on it.

In short, if you want to make money, I think you can make enough money in a big company and you need not join a start-up. Join a start-up if the start-up is doing something radically new (not if it is doing some thing low-cost which more often than not turns out to be low-quality also, or is trying to outgun biggies like HP, IBM in an existing market etc), and you want to be part of it. Judging this is quite difficult and depends on one's experience and judgement. However, one has to always be prepared for some frustrating times and wasted effort. The good side to all this is that you can make some very nice friends and have some very nice conversations.