Business Magazines and Business Journalism

Like pigs sniffing truffles from afar, I chase down any book on stockmarket or a magazine that claims to know the "secret". Sadly, then, I chronicle the rise and fall of stockmarket magazines in India. Of course, you always had magazines like "Business Today", "Business India" (can you believe it is still there?) and "Business World" with occasional banter about the markets but magazines and tabloids on stockmarkets were always springing up from nowhere and capsizing in bad times. "Fortune India", "Intelligent Investor" (now known as "Outlook Money"), "Shree Profit", "MoneyTimes", "Kompella's Portfolio Advice", and one magazine brought out by RR Capital, New Delhi-"Investment Portfolio Watch" or something like that - the list goes on...There are few which survived like "Dalal Street Journal" and "Capital Market" but amongst those which came with fanfare there are few which are edging up sales - "MoneyLife", "Money Today", "Wealth Insight", "Mutual Fund Insight" and "Investor India" (mainly captive to Bajaj Capital). Outlook group started "Outlook Profit" a few years back but now they have closed down with December issue in the same month that saw the release of Vinod Mehta's autobiography "Lucknow Boy"- I keep wondering what led a group with deep pockets like Outlook merge "Outlook Profit" with "Outlook Business". I guess what undid "Profit" was reliance on mostly research reports - in the guise of covering company profiles and market views - sourcing reports by CLSA/Motilal/MS/GS etc. Sourabh Mukherjea was probably the only writer I used to follow in "Outlook Profit" - the rest is ho-hum and below-par or external research content. It was hardly original even if its is informative. Another magazine I suspect is Valueresearch's "MF Insight" - it reeks of paid advertorials - between the mutual funds recommended and the ones advertised. Except for Sanjiv Pandya and Paronjoy Thakurta, there's nothing worth reading really that makes a difference to Advisors. I always treat any report from Research desks released to public with suspicion - if somebody is leaking such reports to public, it means they want to find suckers on the moon. If your research is really that good, you should share with your clients and make them money - or else, it tantamounts to front-running. Amongst the newspapers - my best and foremost is always "BusinessLine"- Investment World - I have not missed an issue since 1994 and it has the best legacy of objective views on the stockmarkets. The fact that IW is edited by my friend is no excuse for not picking a bone with it - it is still a trustworthy source of opinion and analysis on the stock markets.iA leaf out of Businessline's "Investment World" is more than all the future babble that permeates the business & money magazines. There is ET, BS , Mint, DNA Money, and FE but more drivel than insights except the occasional columnist pieces - a'la Ruchir Joshi or Madan Sabnavis or Sanjay Prakash. Almost no magazine covers stock markets with independent thinking and unbiased opinions - except maybe "Capital Market" and to some extent "MoneyLife". Equity Master - the group that runs Quantum Fund is good - but they are trying hard to garner assets and clients in a world dominated by distributors. They send good newsletters but appear like teaser ads for baiting your subscription money for multi-bagger stocks. Instead, rediff.com gives you better insights on markets and asides.The best way to read any of these magazines is to use their data and process through your own prisms of analysis, interpretation, reasoning and conclusions. It is easy for anybody to do that if you see what I mean - ask your searching questions and have "contrary" thinking approach. But I subscribe to all these mags and papers and journals - they keep us anchored to the tenets of filtering the "flat earth news" through your mind. They tell me that in hearing views and news about the markets - you can stand out and go against the grain and still make money. I welcome if anybody has to share any other sources of markets that is different and reliable.

"Journey" Movie Review

"Journey" directed by M.Shravanan and originally produced by AR Murugadoss is another feather to divvy up the golden year of Tamil dubbed movies into Telugu. Wonderfully crafted and innovatively shot - "Journey" is a story of what happens before and after a major collusion of two buses coming to and fro Hyd-Vijayawada. (Trichy-Chennai in original). Two love stories of which one is almost of impro...bable origin (like a Black Swan) are enchantingly woven by M.Shravanan with lots of cuteness and credibility. A story like this which ends in a fatal bus collusion killing 50 pc of the people deserves a rich screenplay toggling past and present quite easily. Director achieves that too and succeeds in giving a few messages, inter alia, on organ donation, choosing a life partner and of course, reckless and speedy driving on roads. The entire sequence of the two buses ramming into each other is shot in outstanding slow motion that brings out the brutality and fatality of such accidents in a telling fashion - you will shudder to hit road like that after seeing the havoc that follows a moment of lapse. Its remarkable how bold and evocative these Tamil movies are and what a mix of class and variety they have. This year, I was lucky to spare a dime to see half a dozen movies of Tamil dubbed into Telugu- "Rangam", "Vaishali", "Vaadu-Veedu", "The Gambler", "7th Sense", and now "Journey" - all of them have a tale that sets each of them apart from one another. Of course, there were notable must-misses like "Sega" and "180" but by far, despite movies like "Kandireega" and "Dookudu" and "Sri Rama Rajyam" methinks 2011 belongs to Tamill dubbed movies in Telugu. They are bold, imaginative, different and refreshingly evocative despite being hauntingly closer to reality. No wonder, Tollywood producers who don't have the guts to make different films are hell-bent on raising the entry barriers to these dubbed movies. Tollywood is 90 percent formulaic, only 10 percent is experimental -thats not enough to launch a renaissance of new wave cinema. Come Sankranti- you have half-a-dozen Telugu films which will again have tons of bizarre violence, obscene dances, and dialogues that sound like " I will make you piss" or something like that. We have to watch because there is no choice. I hope we have more films dubbed into Telugu from sensible film-makers. This started off as a movie review but became something else- year-end outpourings of a mad Tollywood fan who expects the industry to grow-up and make mature films. Otherwise, we will continue to make films that are atavistic but commercial hits.

How to React in a Bear Market?

A Bear Market can do more damage than a bull market if you react in two ways- 1. Are u surprised? 2. What do you think is going on? If u think, its end of the world, U will panic out. Will you bail out before being bailed out? Ask yr Advisor or yrselves..

"Twirly Men" Book Review

Even though my interest in cricket waned after the new high Indian cricket hit on April 2nd and subsequently its lows in England and the yo-yo series in West Indies., I go to ridiculous lengths to read good writing on cricket. I still re-read the works of Neville Cardus - that masterly writer of Manchester Guardian - and the occasional PG Wodehouse stories based on cricket. In India, Rajan Bala had his style of writing but I was a big fan of R.Mohan who wrote for THE HINDU. He was the reason to read about Cricket in any sports newspapers those golden years of 1980s-1990s until he was sacked following an investigation by THE HINDU in the infamous Azharuddin betting scam. After that, R.Mohan wrote but the halycon days were behind him as he never found the same sweet spot of THE HINDU. I used to follow Peter Roebuck almost regularly until his shocking suicide jump - I never really understand what makes anybody jump the gun, I mean, buildings in reacher upper echelons of heaven - for whatever reason. But lets leave that - I feel that Cricket Writing has not improved so much and even Nirmal Shekar and other writers for Wisden don't have the flashes of brilliance that earlier writers used to have. Until, I found a fascinating new writer whose book I strongly recommend - AMOL RAJAN. He writes for THE INDEPENDENT newspaper in London and has written the singularly best book ever on the history and craft of SPIN Bowlers of cricket. Titled "Twirly Men", the book is a masterpiece on the art and history of spin bowling - and must be a treat for all connoisseurs of cricket. For those who missed the golden era of Indian spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna, and Chandraskar or the spin bowlers of yore like Graeme Swann, Larry Golmes, Abdul Qadir,Swanton, Richie Benaud, Zaheer Abbas, Len Hutton Amol Rajan weaves a fascinating and almost read-out-loud, delightful and gripping account of those masters of deception who rarely get their attention like Percussionists of a Carnatic music concert. What amazed me is that Amol Rajan, I googled to find, used to be a spin bowler in English county cricket before taking to writing about the game due to failure from injury and half indolence. If you love books on cricket and revel in reading about WG Grace by Sir Neveille Cardus, TWIRLY MEN deserves an ovation for a rollicking read. Rajan not only traces the craft of spinning through the game's greats over the years, he weaves tales of drama and gets you inside some of those pitch-turning battles that made the spin bowlers heroes of the day - including today's Muralidharan, Warne, Kumble. The book also has a chapter each on a variety of balls that the practitioners have used over the years - the "doosra", the carrom ball, the arm ball, the zooter or slider or nothing ball, the flipper and the googly - each of this ball is illustrated with drawings too. Can't miss this book if you love the game and a writing thats worthy of the game. I will be turning out my best reads of the year category-wise shortly - but having finished this one sooner - cannot resist the read. Take it like Geoff Boycott's commentary on spinning with R.Mohan's literary flourish and Neville Cardus's lyrical beauty of language. "Twirly Men" - best book on Cricket in 2011.

Stockmarkets

When it comes to stockmarkets, fear leads to panic, panic breeds the inability to distinguish between temporary declines and permanent losses. That, in turn, leads to the well-documented propensity to be massive sellers of good investments near market bottoms. We seem to be getting there if you see Equity Mutual Fund inflows have recorded a 31 month lows. Some never learn.

India's Triple Transition and Work-in-Progress

We are seeing a colossal work-in-progress in India's next-level transition in three areas - Social, Political and Economic - that it is easy to see the ongoing flux as turmoil. I am fully convinced that this is India's second or third-greatest inflection point before we get back into the world orbit of adulation. Parliaments are challenged, ministers are getting jailed, Judges are impeached, peopl...e pose questions to Prime Minister that should have been raised elsewhere, Gandhian incarnations re-enter the national consciousness, business icons are getting milched. I don't bother if the stock markets or currency or gold markets or bond markets take a beating from here - thats the bye-product of bellweather reactions. I am more concerned with what the "cause" is, not effects. I am 500 per cent convinced that these transitions on many counts are going to cleanse India more and make our future brighter for all of us. I mean it and can smell it in my blood as someone who knows India since the 70s that this phase is going to do multiple good to our country in many ways that historians will extol. You can deride India or ride this wave - and the opportunities it provides in many ways.

Hyderabad Book Fairs and Book Reading Culture

Hyderabad Book Fair opens for the 26th year in Necklace Road. In the last 26 years, I would have missed only once when I was abroad. What pains me about this book fair is that the quality of book fair has been only deteriorating over the years. Shifting of venue from Chikkadpally to Nizam College grounds to Necklace Road hasnt done wonders to the book-reading culture nor improved the Society's thi...nking level. The tragedy of Hyderabad is that people here don't read books or read books as much as a Book Fair Organiser feels encouraged. The footfalls are good but many stall owners tell me not many buy at the Fair. I just had a cursory round - the customary first round and was apalled at the quality and the vision of the Fair. The entry ticket is priced at Rs.5/-. That tells how diffident the organisers feel about footfalls. Five Rupees is not even inflation-adjusted since 1990s - might as well open the doors for free. The parking and pop-corn and chat items outside the Venue of Book Fair actually fetch more than the price for entry. Jewellery Fairs and Career Exhibitions fetch higher entry charges. Besides, the choice of stalls has always been unimaginative. This time, you even have a stall sellilng Pirated Hollywood DVDs apart from Handwriting Analysis workshops and Multi-color Web offset Printers and Maps and White-board markers and Games. How the hell are all these related to Book-Reading and Book-lovers? In one of the book-shops, the owner was haggling with a Distributor at what discount to sell a book that's exclusively marketed by them. Its titled: "Tragedy of Hyderabad". I didn't even bother to look at that book. Might be an apt description of the book-culture in Hyderabad. This is a city where parties are thrown to drown beer, play pool, brag about the acres of land in Vikarabad and Gandipet, and of course, the latest political and filmi issues. Books? A Big No. I have been to International Book Fairs in New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai and dream of going for Frankfurt one day - and wished that Hyderabad will have a Fair thats worthy of world renown. Now, I am reconciled that the city will get the Book Fair it deserves. Even the Vijayawada and Vizag Book Fairs get more book volumes according to the organisers - and atleast people there are starved of good books to see and read and buy. Hyderabad Blues for book-lovers!