hi people. sorry for the delay. every time i think of something to write about, i don’t have a comp around me. so here’s what i remember of whatever i wanted to write.
it’s my third week in JPM. i won’t comment on the work. the learnings are good. my most important learning has been that the theory of homogeneous expectations (which forms the basis of equity analyis) is the crappiest theory in the world. and i’m not working in equities, i’m in interest rates derivatives. and of all things, i’m part of the marketing desk (after my stellar performance in the marketing course back in IIMB).
yeah, i wanted to write about my visits to the “indian” places in london. had been to southall last last saturday. first thing i noticed there was that the signboard mentioning southall station was in gurmukhi! next thing i saw was a gurudwara. and then a poster of some crappy amitabh movie. all shops were indian. i heard hindi all round me. had to locate my cousin’s place but due to his skewed directions i ended up going in the wrong direction. finally my uncle came down to the station to where i’d gone back and picked me up. cell phones rock. i also remembered one of the ‘sayings’ of my BTech project guide:
“When the path ahead is not nice, know even mice, that backtracking is wise”.
then on friday i went to Eastham. someone told me i could buy MTR ready-to-heat stuff in there. was a rainy evening. found “sakthi south indian departmental stores”. found the MTR packets in there. looked for the price tag and found “karnataka 40 rupees, kerala 42 rupees… “. no pound prices mentioned. they’d obviously been smuggled. but who cares, as long as i get some indian food… after going back hostel food will be heaven i guess. coming back to eastham, the guy made a neat arbitrage by charging a whole pound (> 80 Rs.) for each of the items marked “40 rs.”. :((
then, walked down the eastham street. could hear lots of tamil and a little bit of kannada. no gult though! and absolutely no firangs in sight! intriguing. found a “madras restaurant”. but it looked more srilankan than madrasi. walked on. 10 metres down, there was a “chennai restaurant – high class pure vegetarian”. went in. had masala dosa. tasted like it did at RBG back in IITM. the sambar sucked though. felt good…
then during the weekend we went to canterbury. a group of 8 from IIMB. had a good time pulling each other’s legs and stuff… somehow there’s something special about us which is not there in the IIMA or IIMC people. dunno what it is. but i simbly can’t connect half as well with the A or C junta as i can with our people… probably yesterday was my best day after coming to london…
back in office today. work… well i’ll write about it after i get back. got some decent lunch at the canteen though. and didn’t have TOO much work today… hope to leave immediately after i finish writing this.
also, over the past one week in office, i’ve been thinking a lot. lots of philosophy. will probably compile it all once i get back home. stuff ranging from short term career plans to long term career plans to what interests me to why i am like what i am to why someone else is like someone else is to why the theory of homogeneous expectations is crap to dfaklsdjf ;aljad fa 34k;t3j4;3j4 304u3 4jk
then, i’ve been literally penniless for the last few days. the bureaucracy at JPM ensures that i haven’t yet been paid. have a few dollars in my pocket but they’re useless here. have built up huge debts (to friends). also have stuff in my “accounts receivable” column.. for some people are even more penniless than me…
wanna go home now so i’ll stop here. else i could write on…
jai hind!
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