In 2010

01/01: Celebrated New Year with Abhishek and Mahendra

01/14: 1st 100 ticks, last in the group

01/19: 1st net profit score after transaction cost adjustment

02/05 – 02/07: Navdeep Mama's marriage ceremony

03/12: US Retail Sales (Q: Short, short, short? A: No. Long, long, long)

03/27 – 03/28: Hrishikesh Trip with colleagues, amazing trip though the driver was a sucker

05/06: Flash Crash, People were saving their asses and I made a fortune

05/15: Rajasthan trip with Anti

05/28 – 05/31: Gurgaon – Bhopal (Abhishek’s wedding) – Indore (Kartavya’s place) – Mumbai (Home) - Gurgaon

06/05 – 06/14: Hong Kong trip (IFC, LKF, Peak and more to it)

06/14 – 06/26: Kolkata trip

06/29: Scratcher’s party, last in Gurgaon @ Barbeque Nation

06/30: Transfer, Gurgaon - Jaipur

07/01: 1st day in Jaipur office

07/13: My birthday, first of its kinds till date and I hope, the last too

07/14: Biggest loss incurred, first time had a discussion for stop loss limits

08/13: Tarun’s birthday bash

08/16: Missed my Mumbai – Jaipur flight, started Atlas Shrugged finally

09/07: Highest profit

10/29: Last day at Futures First Info. Services Pvt. Ltd..

11/01: Met Gurpreet Sir, Vanshika and Baijal Sir. It was good.

11/04: Jaipur – Mumbai. Hmm.

11/ 25 – 11/28: Marriage ceremony of Sonu Masi

12/23: Met Dhole

Alien and I

Has it not become increasingly common to compare actions of a Human to a machine and vice-versa? 'Lives of Humans are becoming mechanical with every passing moment', is a statement that has become rhetoric. 'Urban life is responsible for robbing people of their charming and vibrant nature', has become a cliché.

Progress in artificial intelligence is happening at a neck-breaking speed. Human is investing His efforts and brains in automating and speeding up His lifestyle. Robots are summoned for duties that span the entire spectrum; from cleaning of a house to solving a multi-variable 'p'th degree, 'n'th order partial differential equation. To get a rough estimate, in the time You finish reading this article a leading motor-bike company would have assembled at least a double digit motor-bikes, a cigarette producing company would have rolled thousands of cigarettes and a trading algorithm would have generated millions for its Owner.

Undoubtedly, Human progress in the materialistic realm has been phenomenal. Human has defied convention; He has proven conventional wisdom fallible. Human has defied boundaries; He has gone that extra mile. Humans have hailed Scientists for achieving supernatural feats and damned the same Ones for being resistant to intellectual developments. He has been extremely ruthless and mediocrity has been unacceptable to Him. He is relentless, even today.

I have complete faith in one thought, ‘Nothing comes for free, if it does, it’s worthless.’ When Human did set himself standards as great as those He had to pay a price to emulate them. His mechanical lifestyle is a direct outcome of the kind of balance He showed in his professional and personal quests. Valuation of materialistic success probably outweighed emotional satisfaction, which in itself is very difficult to fathom as there has been no reliable quantification of emotions.

After pondering over it all this while I am remembered of my childhood days. Aliens, UFOs, Extra-Terrestrials and high end technology. Aliens must be like You and Me, but technologically advanced. Aliens must be advanced Humans Who have managed to find life or developed one outside Our planet Earth with exceptional technological development and innovation. They have Their civilization based there. Most of Them are portrayed emotionally subnormal and lead mechanical lives in our fiction series. It may be just that They felt nostalgic (a rare kick that makes Them emotional about Their past) or had technology and money (conceptual: medium of exchange) to splurge on an inter-planetary/ galaxy travel that They came around and We happened to spot Them. Big deal, do We not get nostalgic and visit ancient caves?

Emotional interpretation of music

Today, while listening to 'Fade to Black - Metallica' I thought about one of my favourite topics. 'Emotional interpretation of music'. According to me, a song has two parts, to both of which I attach significant importance without any priorities: music and lyrics. 


When I hear a song devoid of its lyrical content, I can feel multiple and contradicting emotions depending on my imagination and visualization. By that I mean, I can interpret an extremely depressing song as one of a very inspirational quality, if it is without lyrics. The point that I am trying to drive home is that lyrics help in selection of 1 or few emotions that an artist wants to convey in the song from an ocean of emotions that a person could otherwise feel.


'Fade to Black - Metallica' is an extremely sad song. When I was hearing it today, I ripped apart it's lyrics in my mind and concentrated on music alone. I thought of musical notes as blows delivered by a person to his pain and sorrow, as his will to fightback against all adversaries. With each advancing note I could imagine him reaching closer to his goal. When the music ended, he emerged victorious. But, then I recited the lyrics and they were screaming of a disillusioned person with shattered self-confidence. 


Hence, I manipulated it's lyrics and made them sound real positive and symbolize a determined person. Here is a beta version of the same.

Life, I say, will shine from today
Brighter, brighter every day
Getting lost within my work
Nothing matters, no one else

I have found my will to live
Now have everything to give
There is so much in it for me
I accept, it won't come for free

Things not what they used to be
Loving one inside of me
Deathly loss, and that is real
Will stand the hell I'll feel

Confidence, bubbling in me
To the point of ecstacy
Fading darkness, fading dawn
I wasn't me, now am my own

No one but I will save myself, it's not too late
Now I can think, think how will I put up a fight

Yesterday seems as though it never existed
Tomorrow greets me warm, now I will just say 

"Come over guys."

Link to original lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/metallica/fade+to+black_20092126.html

I think, with same music and above mentioned lyrics if a song comes into existence, it'll be an inspiring one. It leads me to a question. Is music non-absolute?

Hi Sis.

Hi Sister,

            I avoid expression. Expression of thoughts, expression of feelings at interpersonal level. Probably, I dislike it or feel awkward, am unaware of the reason. But you should know, the feelings I harbour for you in my heart.

            I am lucky to have you. You have played an excellent catalytic role in my life. You stand silently at every step while I climb, just to make sure that I don’t fall. You never reflect in your behaviour, but I strongly believe that you yearn for my success, my well-being as much as I do.

            Over the years I have changed, changed a great deal. You have seen so many phases that I have been through. You have been supportive at each step. Although you do not agree with my decision at times, you respect it as it is my freewill. You think like me when it is difficult to justify myself to people around me.

I personally am very selective in deciding my confidant(e). You have naturally become one among the very few I have. It is hard to hide things from you. It helps a lot to have someone whom you can confide in. It keeps me away from the trauma and frustration or hysterical attacks.

Note that all the way I have loved you for some selfish reason. Go back and reason it out yourself if it skipped your attention. I see nothing wrong in it. Had you been bad to me what was the point in loving you? But...

            Your smile is blissful. Your voice is sweet, you are comforting. You are beautiful, playful. Kindness and generosity are your forte. Boundless patience, unmatched maturity and innocence all tip me off. I lose control and all I can do is fall in love with you.

            Although words are struggling to do justice with my feelings, I just thought you should know this. Thank you. Thank you for everything.

With love,

Vishal.