Why can't we host websites that work ?

This was the headline in the Economic Times - with the following text

"...Over 2.3 lakh students who appeared for a shot at the seven IIMs and another 100-odd B-schools logged on to the common site, www.catiim.in, only to find their results inaccessible..."


I have heard of this time and again - every time there are any results for competitive exams published online the website goes down. Why is it that even though we are a country that is supposed to be leading in producing software engineers not able to put up a website that can service quarter of a million visitors at a time. I think this has nothing to do with the lack of knowledge it has everything to do with carelessness and an attitude of not ensuring that every single aspect is tested.

IIM is the premier institute in India where students get phenomenal jobs at the end of their course - these institutes compete with the very best in the world. How can we aspire to be in the top if we cannot even host a website that can service quarter of a million visitors. Such bad publicity also will not help the image that the IIMs are portraying.

How to manage your home loan ?

Having control of the interest portion of the home loan is the most important part of managing a home loan. The reason is because the interest portion of the home loan is an expense. And controlling this expense is very important in order to save money. After having a 20 year home loan for sometime there are a few things that I have learnt in the course of it which I would like to share.

• Even if you get a tax break for 30% of the EMI (Equated Monthly Installment) on a home loan remember that the remaining 70% is an expense so unless you are making up that 70% either by renting out the home that you have or are saving it in rentals (if self occupied) it is not worth having the loan.


• Always keep track of your home loan by using an amortization sheet. You can use a sheet that I prepared by reading this post. This sheet calculates the principal and interest payments that are going out based on the interest rate and principal outstanding at that point of time. The issue with this sheet is that you will have to maintain the changes in interest rate and the principal repayments made by you. The advantage of this sheet is that you can play around with it by doing a prepayment or by changing the interest rate and see how it will effect your loan.
  If you have taken a loan from ICICI bank then link up the home loan to your ICICI infinity login and you will be able to see the amortization sheet online. The disadvantage with the sheet they have is you cannot download it and you cannot play around with the numbers but it will give you the numbers that you need to fill up the excel sheet above. I think it is absolutely key that you have this sheet to keep track of your loan.


• Making prepayments in the beginning of the loan tenure where the interest payments are high and the principal payments are low has a great effect on reducing the tenure of the loan. So try and make as many prepayments as possible right in the beginning - try and channel as much money as you can in prepaying the home loan.


• If your disposable income goes up (in the case when salary goes up) then try and change the tenure of the home loan - this will increase the EMI but what it will do is that each month it will increase the principal portion of the loan and reduce the interest portion of the loan. There is a cost associated with this so ensure that the savings incurred are a lot more than the costs involved. You can calculate the savings by using the amortization sheet.


• If you are on a variable rate home loan then interest rates are always calculated as PLR (Prime Lending Rate) - spread. Home loan companies in India rarely change the PLRs but if you visit property exhibitions you will realise that they are offering new home loan customers a cheaper interest rate and they do this by changing the spread. So you can look into changing from one scheme where the spread is more to a scheme where the spread is less. Doing this can cost as you have to close the first home loan and take another one with the new spread so the savings have to be worked out before you decide to do this. You can calculate the savings by using the amortization sheet.

Wires support pumpkins too

One thing about India - you will find a lot of wires hanging about electricity wires, telephone wires, cable television wires, banner wires, broadband internet wires and a lot of other miscellaneous wires. The other day on the road I noticed a pumpkin creeper growing on a bunch of telephone and cable television wires and look - there is a pumpkin too pulling on the wires !!!

More learnings from the sale

Here are some more learning from the sale. If you want to read more about the sale then go here.

• When you do something like this be prepared to give up a lot of things that you would have done otherwise. During the Christmas sale we had to give up all the preparation for Christmas because we were busy with the sale. You will have to be present from morning to evening at the business doing sales and many a time you will have to spend the night doing strategy or marketing - so you pretty much don't get time to do much other than the sale.
• There will be times of insecurity and doubts. It is important at these times to back yourself on what you planned and believe that it will work. You should not let your shoulders drop. At these times it is important to evaluate and change direction if needed but these changes have to be subtle and small. If the change in direction is too big then you might lose focus.
• Have different people to do sales and marketing. Since we were only 2 of us to look after sales, marketing and a home (we have a 2 yr old) we found that since we were doing sales the whole day, marketing was effected and if we were doing marketing then it was not possible to do much sales. So its important to have someone strong in sales and marketing looking at each one of those tasks full time.
• Always remember that there will be defective products and damaged items. You will also have to put items on display which cannot be sold at full price. You will need to estimate what is the percentage of these products and you will have to make sure that you take this into consideration when you decide on the price.
• Be prepared to repackage and change your product presentation in the middle of the sale. What we realised is that a lot of people who came in to buy did not know much about Christmas trees so it was easier to sell them a complete tree set (tree, ornaments, lights) rather than have them choose the ornaments themselves. So we broke up the sets of ornaments that were there and made our own sets mixing up all the ornaments. This was one of our hottest selling items.
• If the item that you are selling are reusable and not perishable then be prepared that you are not going to get repeat customers for the same product. In last years sale we had a lot of people who bought Christmas trees but this year very few people came back and bought the same. So if you have products that are non perishable then make sure that you have something new for the new customers. So this year we had nativity sets and wreaths which were lapped up quite quickly.
• One of the things that you need to do if you have a lot of stock is that you need to make some bulk sales in order to move the stock. We decorated a couple of offices and so were able to move a lot of our stock there. You will not get as much money as a retail customer but at least you will be able to move the stock. Also look at selling to other retailers so that you minimize the risk of being stuck with stock that cannot be sold. It is especially essential to do this if you have products that are season driven. In our case there is nothing we can do with our remaining stock till next Christmas.
• You need to enjoy what you are doing. It is hard work. You have to believe in yourself and back your instincts.

Hyderabad Zoo

On Sunday I paid a visit to the Hyderabad Zoo and it was a lovely experience. The name of the zoo is Nehru Zoological Park and it is present on NH7 which goes to Bangalore and it is fairly easy to find using Google maps.



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Timings of the zoo

It is opened from Tuesday to Sunday and every Monday is holiday.

April to June: 8.00 AM to 5.30 PM
July to March: 8.30 AM to 5.00 PM

Tickets :

Entrance : Rs. 20 for adults and Rs. 10 for Children.
Camera : Rs. 20 and Video Camera : Rs.100
Own Car : Rs. 200 with free entrance for five members.
Visitors Van : Rs. 25 for adults and Rs. 10 for children.
Safari : Rs. 25 for Adults and Rs. 15 for Children.

For more information visit their website.

We reached the Zoo at about 10:30 in the morning. The Zoo is 380 acres and it is nice and green. What we realised that by about 1:00 PM it gets really crowded with a lot of cars and its not a pleasure to drive around the zoo anymore. So get in early and get out by about lunch.

The first thing we did was to take the train ride as it gives a good idea of what is in the zoo and the general layout of the zoo. The train ride costs Rs. 25 for adults and Rs. 10 for children and its for about 10 min and its quite a pleasant experience. After we finished the train ride we did the safari - it consists of 4 safaris - lion, tiger, bear and bison. Its completely your luck to see any animals in the wild - we got to see a lion and lioness from far (about 100 yards) but we got to see a tiger right in front of the van. We did not see any bears. The safari takes you around enclosures that are about 130 acres and you get some good views of Hyderabad from here.

We then drove around the zoo and got to see some animals but after about an hour we did not even see half the zoo and we were quite tired. The zoo is huge so be prepared for a lot of walking. There are pay and use toilets in the zoo which are decent and there are also a couple of restaurants that don't burn a hole in your pocket. So go with a view that you are going to spend a considerable portion of your day in the zoo. A lot of families come there for a picnic getting their own food.

On the whole the experience was good and everyone had a lot of fun. I would put it on my list of must visit places in Hyderabad. The only issue being that it will be a full days trip and on a weekday going there can take some time. So on a short trip to the city it may not be really feasible.

Incompetent ICC

With all the furore over the current test series in Australia there is one thing that is coming out very clearly and that is the incompetence of the ICC. I feel that the ICC is incompetent due to the following reasons

• Having laws that are vague - the law regarding racial discrimination is very vague and is completely left to the interpretation of the person who is administering it.
• With so much tension created by bad umpiring the ICC should have made sure that there was an amicable settlement to the racism issue by intervening and ensuring that it did not become the issue it is now.
• Dragging its feet on umpires - it does not have any method where umpires have to be accountable. Right now an umpire can do how many ever mistakes they want and there is nothing that can be done to them.
• It has hardly acted in a powerful manner as a governing body should - it has dragged its feet and let things escalate to a situation that it may be hard to come out of.

Its time the ICC woke up and made its presence felt. Changing the laws of the game will not effect the game much. Helping the game to be conducted in a fair manner where there is no bias towards any one team should be the most important act that the ICC does. It should create an environment where teams can grow and compete together in a competitive manner where there is no favouritism. If this kind of environment and level playing field is not provided then it is cricket that will be the loser. Currently the whites control the power and the Asians that control the money. If the ICC does not step in and bring about a reconciliation of the two then cricket will be the loser.

Coin Collection - Canada

• 1969 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 1971 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 1973 Uncirculated Coin Set (100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
• 1974 Uncirculated Coin Set (100th anniversary of City of Winnipeg)
• 1975 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 1976 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 1977 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 1978 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 1979 Uncirculated Coin Set
• 2006 Commemorative Holiday Coin Set
• 1972 1 dollar - 2 coins
• 1974 Winnipeg - 1 dollar
• 1975 Calgary - 1 dollar
• 1976 Library of Parliament - 1 dollar
• 1977 Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee - 1 dollar
• 1978 11th Commonwealth Games Edmonton - 1 dollar
• 1988 250th Anniversary St. Maurice Iron Works - 1 dollar