I have stopped blogging in English and started my blog in Marathi
मनातलं जनात, ब्रिजेश उवाच 
(http://brijeshmarathe.wordpress.com/)

Please visit this blog, this blog is selected in top 10 blogs of 2012 in "Star Maza Blog Maza 2012" contest.

After long time...

It's almost 2 years after my last blog. I want to start now blogging seriously. It's time of web 2.0 where I can write the web and want to be in the cuttign edge of the technology.

Gurupournima at Kinkar Sensei's Sankyu 2007 Batch

Yesterday on auspecious "Gurupournima" we had very good time at Kinkar sensei's class. We managed to get Kinkar Sensei sing a song for us. All the students took blessings from him.

Visapur Trek

Last week it happened to go for a Trek to Visapur Fort near Lonavala with enthusiastic group of trek-freaks. It was a splendid affair that I ever did in last 10 years. Here it goes how it transpired:

Manohar Joshi, who works with me in my company, a young chap with full of energy and always busy in lots of social affairs, told me about his group has planed to go for a Trek to Visapur Fort. I conveyed my wish to join and it got accepted.

On 14th July 2007 from Shivajinagar station we marched for this trek. I met all the group members over there first time other than Vishal Borgaonkar. I met Darshana, Kranti and Rohit. Now I can bet all of them are really very good trekkers. Prachi joined us at Chichwad station.

We reached Malavali station at 9:45 and started our walk towards Bhaje, a village on the way to Visapur. After half hours walk we reached a beautiful waterfall at Bhaje. We had some leisure time at that waterfall. Manohar did a dramatic incident with the Vishal’s expensive gadget over there :-)

Till now the road was normal road. After that we marched to the Visapur with the real thrill of trek by taking unknown and hilly roads to reach a junction. From this junction one can go to Lohgad or to Visapur. On that junction we had a beautiful and splendid view of Visapur Fort. From this point we started trekking Visapur fort.

After walking for 1 hour or more we reached a place where we could see no road, way, pathway to go further. Absolute mess we thought but it was not. That was the start of a marvelous journey to Visapur fort. There is no way to go to Visapur fort one need to actually climb a waterfall. Yeah yeah you read it correct “climb a waterfall”. And I can assure you that was an awesome event to perform. It can’t be explained in words, rather I’m not an author who can play with words and explain it, but I think no one can express that experience in words. One must experience it in reality.

Around 2 o’clock we reached on top of the fort, in fact we were on top of the world though we all were little bit tired. All of us were hungry. We found a shelter in the “TATBANDI”of the fort and had our lunch there. After lunch everybody was revitalized and was ready for expedition to roam around the plateau of fort.

We noticed the weather was extremely overwhelming. Tremendous wind was blowing, little bit raining and we were surrounded by clouds. For a while we all were numb. We could see nothing beyond 10 feet. But all of a sudden the weather was clear and we had a bird’s eye view of the entire Bhaje area. We could see the way we came to the place where we were standing.

We did not want to go back with the same route by which came as we knew that there was some other was to go down. We were in search of that route. For long time we could not find that. But what we could see an another short cut way to go down. It was again through a water fall.

We didn’t know that I could go down by that route. Manohar first went down for 10-15 meters and verified the route. He gave us the green signal in a very innovative way which stopped my heartbeat for a while :-). (I can bet now that only Manohar can do these things.)

Here manohar is showing from where we came down.

We followed the route for an hour and we were down and back to junction again. We had tea at world famous“BABA DHABA”and marched back to Malavali station to catch 6:30 local to go back to Pune.

How to reach Visapur (By rail way):

From Pune Station or Shivali Nagar Station catch a local train for Lonavala and get down at Malavali station. (1 hour 20 min. approx.)

From Malavali station cross the express highway and walk straight on the road which will take to Bhaje village. (Approx. 30 Minutes)

From Bhaje Village to Lohgad and Visapur Junction (Approx. 1 hour and 30 Minutes)

From Junctin to Visapur fort road will take backside of the fort from where one can go on the fort. (Approx. 2 hour and 30 Minutes)

For coming down once can return by the same route or by an innovative route that one can think of.

:-)

Manmohan Singh to Bush - We are sending Indians to the moon next year.

Bush - Wow! How Many?

Manmohan Singh - there are total 100 people.

25 - OBC
25 - SC
20 - ST
5 - Handicapped
5 - Sports Persons
5 - Terrorist Affected
5 - Kashmiri Migrants
9 - Politicians
and if possible

1 - Astronaut

Here is a Message posted by Gautam Kumar, an OBC student from IIT.

Message:
They made me feel low.

I belong to OBC class.
I am from a place where discrimination based on caste was very common.
I grew hearing I am inferior because I am from back ward class.
I had regretted in my childhood why was I born in backward class.

When my friends used to tease me on my caste my ma (mother) used to tell me only way to make you friends mouth shut is to study well and top in the class.
I took this idea seriously and channelized my frustration towards my studies. There was a big change in me
I started working very hard and transformed me from a poor performer of the class to the district 2nd topper of X exam 1996 supaul.
After that performance also some of my racist friends disparaged my success by saying, I must have some connection with the govt of Bihar.
Since the then cm of Bihar belongs to my caste.
I was very disappointed not by the disparagement by my friends but by thinking why I belonged to my class.

Then I started preparing very hard to prove that my performance of X was genuine.
I worked real hard and got through IIT JEE 2000.
I got a place in B-Tech chemical engg at IIT KGP.
I was apprehensive about-facing the same experience here also.
But I was surprised when no body asked me my caste there.
I was surprised from the environment there. No body really cared which cast I belonged to. No body at iit ever care from which religion or which cast one belongs to.
Feeling of equality was for the first time felt by me there.
I feel no place on the earth will be as secular and as racism free as iit

Slowly my feeling of inferiority because of my class started fading away. I started believing in equality of human.
I started loving people not based on their cast but based on their ideas. I forgot all the discrimination. I feel proud of living in such a great environment.
This place not only made me grow technically but also socially.
I am real secular I don’t only say it but also feel it.

But when one start feeling good about something in life god takes it away. Before this announcement of reservations I had started believing that India is growing not only economically but also socially.

I was feeling freedom from boundaries of caste and creed.
But suddenly our leaders asked me to feel that I am a backward.
They made me remember my childhood days.
Now it has become difficult for me to feel same as I felt before this announcement.


I am really worried for my alma mater.
I feel our leaders are going to spoil the haven on earth for their own benefit.
I would like to suggest one thing if all the leaders will be sent to iits then only they can know the real meaning of secularism what they keep on trumpeting around.
I will not mind if some of the seats of iit will be given to our leaders to make them understand the real meaning of secularism.

But now I am sure once they make reservations mandatory for admissions in institutes it will replace the equality with the hatred and discrimination.

I urge our leaders don’t do this to us.
Our generation has changed. Please don’t separate us on the basis of our birth.
Over which no one has any control.
We have started believing in equality, hard work and dedication for success.
Please don’t break our faith.

It will really spoil the unity of our nation. Please let the new generation of India live in a world where ideas matter not the birth class.

Plan your Investment

Plan your work and work your plan. In seven words, this sums up one of the best ways to be successful in life. And as investing is one of the important parts of our working life, this strategy can be extended here too. And as all good things in the investing world come in nice small packages, so does this plan. In investing jargon it is called asset allocation. This complex sounding terminology is all about having a plan. It is also about how to continuously manage this plan.

When an investor is young and with few liabilities, risk taking ability is at its highest. As one approaches middle age, liabilities tend to increase. Your risk-taking ability diminishes. Children's education, insurance and owning a home take precedence. Consequently, equity allocation should be less. After retirement, the lack of a salary severely curtails the ability to regularly invest. However, lumpsums received from provident funds and other sources have to be deployed to generate a steady income. Risk-taking ability is minimal at this stage. Preservation of principal is usually a pressing concern. Equity funds can be used to give a boost to overall returns. As returns from fixed income instruments have fallen over the past few years, the only way to boost returns is to veer towards equities. But this brings with it a whole new world of risks. In such a scenario, it is essential to understand one's ability to take risk.

And much of this flows from examining the existing financial status, earning potential and financial goals. An asset allocation programme factors in these requirements, thereby providing a personalised investment strategy. It is the most crucial step, which must be taken before contemplating any investment.

Incom Tax calculator for 2006-2007

If anyone needs Incom Tax calculator for 2006-2007 please mail me at brijeshmarathe@hotmail.com. I'll also provide the investement planner along with that.

New Funds Slip Below Rs 10

Two tough weeks and suddenly new funds have started to look ugly. Of the 21 funds launched this year, 19 have slipped below Rs 10, eroding investors' money worth over Rs 2,400 crore. This is when majority of them are yet to deploy the money they raised during their NFOs.

Between May 10 and May 24, the BSE Sensex tumbled a little over 2,000 points or 16 per cent. New funds lost an average 15.31 per cent with five of them losing over 17 per cent. The worst hit are investors of Birla Infrastructure--the fund lost 17.72 per cent during the period. Newsmaker Reliance Equity fund lost 12.19 per cent with only 59 per cent of its portfolio invested in equities at April end.

Fidelity India Special Situations fund, that disclosed its first NAV yesterday, opened below par at Rs 9.73. Same is true for Templeton India Equity Income and Sundaram Rural India--the funds' NAV dropped to Rs 9.62 and Rs 9.82, respectively. ABN AMRO Future Leader fund, which had began its life at Rs 10.41 on May 11, has seen its NAV crash to Rs 8.97 yesterday, a drop of 13.81 per cent in a matter of just days.