Sculpt Gym in Sector 14 Gurgaon is a unique setting. The owner and chief instructor of the gym is a female Yashmeen who is obsessed with fitness. And if the choice of words seem offensive, fitness fanatic can also be a compliment. None the less, because of her, lot of people enroll in the gym overlooking the fact that gym is overcrowded. Maybe the owners feel that lot of people would stay enrolled and never show up. And people who are joining feel that so what if it is overcrowded, atleast we have Yashmeen as an instructor. Such a setting is hardly conducive for philosophical thought. continue reading…
In his latest “editorial” Chetan Bhagat expressed his disgust at obnoxious display of wealth by Mayawati. He was going on and on about how ostentatious display of wealth is well ummm – ostentatious. He cited Warren Buffett as a model of frugality for all the youth of the country to imitate. But why exactly is Mayawati flaunting her “wealth”, if that is what one think it is. 
This book is half the size of Snowball (the other buffett biography). On top of that, it was written some 15 years before Snowball. So I did not expect to up any new insight about Buffett having read Snowball already. Indeed Snowball manages to do a much better job of demystifying Buffett, the writer of snowball would have had used this book among other materials for her research. Snowball makes a more earnest attempt to get to the bottom of the person rather than the businessman. Maybe fifteen years ago Buffett was just a business curiosity and since then has become much more.
So, Saint Valentine day massacre is here again. All you husbands, lovers , boyfriends and wannabe’s would be forced, coerced or manipulated into buying gifts. Or maybe you are aware that women feel enormous pressure to give away their modesty once they have accepted an expensive gift and want to try out that theory. Whatever be the reasons, many of you would be hunting for gifts in the world which is truly the devils workshop – the fashion world. You would come across this high end luxury brand – chanel and would silently curse the company and buy one of its product. 
I always thought that Indians should be instinctively good at value investing. I mean we love bargains and like to minimize our expenditures. And if there is any community which would be best at value investing it has to be Gujjus. Mohnish Pabrai makes the same point in his book Dhando Investor. Dhando ( dhanda or business) as practiced in Gujarat has always been minimizing the downside risk while retaining the upside potential pretty much what value investing preaches , or so the author claims. 
First things first; this book is about 1000 pages. So, you may think that by completing the mammoth task of finishing this book you will accomplish the mammoth task of understanding Warren Buffett. After all he is a business man and not some complicated artist and Warren himself has always made things easy to understand. But the thing about Warren Buffett is that he is easy to understand for a beginner, but has profound depth that will continue to amaze an “expert”.
In an episode of Seinfeld, the gang is bantering at their café hangout about the ugliest world leader of all time. It is the show about nothing after all. Dare I raise the question of ugliest corporate leader of all times – I think it begins and ends with N R Narayana Murthy. But jokes aside I admire the person and businessmen are not usually admirable.
