Khana and Khazana...

The Bombay Stock Exchange, 28th floor, 12:30 pm:

It’s been more than an hour that I have been on my desk and there is so much to do! My to-do list includes:

Checking the IFMR chain mails…

Following the volatile status message wars…

Watching NDTV profit and trying to lip read what the anchor has to say…

And of course pretending to work…

The markets are trading at the day’s low due to weak global cues and concerns over the Greek debt crisis. It’s not only gloomy on the dalal street but also inside BSE. The mentors are worried that the interns are good for nothing, the interns are in turn worried about their stipends and the folks in the adjoining cubicle are worried that their lunch order is not yet delivered. Among all these global and local worries strikes the big question of the day. Where do we go for lunch?

Respecting our whims n fancies and the mood for the day, we decide on what cuisine we want to eat. Then we burrp for the restaurants which can satiate our wish list and hopefully our taste buds too. After saying “chalooo” for half a dozen times to each other, we finally lift our bums from our seats and land on the dalal street. It’s usually the four of us: me, Chaitanya, Priyanka aka chirkut and Pawan.

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Dalal Street and fort area, 1:00 pm:

The markets crash further after the opening of the European markets. Global and local worries continue to haunt us! While heading for lunch, Chaitanya and Priyanka are worried about getting tanned in the sun and its future consequences. Pawan is worried about the distance left to be covered. I am wondering if we are walking in the right direction or the opposite one. Finally we find our place, get in and start browsing the menu card.

Hmm… Well, my silly internship project is to do a comparative study of algo trading strategies across exchanges. It is certainly not to do a comparative study of food quality across restaurants. But the sincere, hard-working, dedicated guy I am, I always go an extra mile and push myself to deliver more than expected. So here you go… few quick reviews of eat outs near fort!!

Mahesh Lunch Home ****

Excellent sea food, says Chaitanya. Good hyderabadi chicken biryani as well. Not bad for veggies too (although nothing is good for them). I’ve tried veg pulav and biryani. The quantity is decent. Ambience is ok. They play instrumental music, usually old hindi songs. Check out the restroom on the 1st floor :) . And also check out the drinks menu, even if you can’t have them.

Welcome Restaurant (Since 1924) ***

Tried Chinese (choupsey) and Pav Bhaji. It’s the typical udipi style restaurant with a loyal customer base.

Fort Central (Since 1942) **

The aamras was ok but puri and batura sucked. It was pretty crowded and one uncle actually threatened Chaitanya to finish her mango shake and vacate the seat. That’s probably the only time I have seen fright on her face.

Nandus paratha’s *****
Among the finest and the heaviest parathas I’ve seen. They offer a good diversity in paratha stuffings like chocolate, wadapav, pavbhaji, cheese chilly mili, pizza topping etc etc. A very small and cramped place to sit, but the food compensates for the discomfort.

Jimmy Boy *Forget it, boy! Tried dhansak, a raspberry drink and few other parsi dishes. It does nothing other than sucking your dhan. The food was bland and expensive.

5 Spice *****

It’s known for its Chinese food. The quantity is really good and the taste is even better (or maybe we were just too hungry). You may also try brownies and pastries like ‘death by chocolate’. We did not have the appetite to die for it.

Army Restaurant (Since “Rock on”) ***

Decent pav bhaji and kheema pav. It’s the same restaurant where Arjun rampal, Farhaan Akhtar and gang met often in ‘rock on’. The Khurshid chacha in the movie still manages the counter. It’s a noisy place, but worth going once if you are a rock on fan. Food is average.

Fountain Plaza ****
Awesome kerela style food. Their chicken biryani is world famous in the fort area. Little choice for veggies though. Nevertheless, it is value for money. Biryani is just about 60 bucks. Good range of sea food as well – all mallu style.

Lalit Restaurant **
Gujrathi and Marathi thalis on offer. I did not think it was authentic Marathi food. Misal pav was below-average. Some weird music is played here.


BSE Canteen **
The food is okiesh but there’s almost no variety. Mysore masala dosa, utthappa, lunch, dal rice and couple of more dishes – that’s what the menu looks like.

Yazdani Bakery (Since ages) *****

A heritage bakery which takes you in the past. The wall clocks, the posters, the tables and chairs, the roof, the machine that makes bread slices, even the waiters. All of them make a good pre-historic ambience. The cakes and desserts are nice. They taste like homemade cakes as they are prepared on wooden ovens. Some of the items I can remember are golden sponge cake, chocolate cake, apple pie, carrot cake, mava samosa etc. Also try brun maska with chai on a relaxed evening.

Chaotic Juice shop ***

This juice shop in front of the ICICI bank near dalal street is chaotic and the operators just multiply the chaos. But they do have a good choice of juices, milkshakes and combination drinks.

Food Inn, Colaba ***

It’s a run of the mill Punjabi veg restaurant. Don’t go by the hype and the ratings on burrp.

Peshawar ****

Visit this place if you get a craving for aloo parathas. The parathas were indeed good but a bit expensive. Not recommended for students or interns who are yet to get their stipends.

New Anand Bhavan ***

Not really new. This place reminds me of the taste in Chennai. It gets a loyal tamil customer base.

Anna Leela Modern Café **

A small place with a good variety in the menu but the food is just average. Entry restricted on the 1st floor if your height is 5 feet 8 inches or more.

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The Bombay Stock Exchange, 28th floor, 2:30 pm:

We are all satisfied and at peace, no matter where we had our lunch. Meanwhile, the markets have recovered from the day’s lows and are now trading in green. Priyanka has changed her status from “I am hungry” to “I am sooo full”. I am feeling very sleepy as I continue to pretend to work and wait for 5 pm.

My experiments with the sensex!

An eventful day today! – I thought as I switched on the TV in the afternoon. Most news channels were buzzing about the two big records made today. Oops… forgot to mention, I was watching the Business news channels. Not the humorous, entertaining likes of India TV or aajtak. Because two records are too little for the entertainment news channels… they broadcast hundreds of records broken by bhutiya’s, baba’s or reality show celebrities everyday!

Back to the topic, one of the records was broken by… guess who?? Come on... there is just one guy busy breaking all records. It’s none other than the master blaster, Sachin Tendulkar. Huh… can’t remember when he last blasted some useful runs for team India. Anyway, the reality is that he finally surpassed Brian Lara’s 11,953 runs to become the highest run getter in the tests.

The second record was broken by the ever unexpected, uncertain, volatile (more adjectives to be added) Indian stock market. The sensex crashed below the psychological 10k mark to settle at 9975.35 for the first time since July 2006. That reminded me of my adventures with the stock market and I went into flashback…

October 2006, Chennai
Baj (my dear friend) – Jaadu, did u hear about ICICI bank offering free DMAT accounts for corporate employees?
Me – Is it?? It is used to sell and buy shares right?
Baj (with an expression saying “you dumbo”) – Yeah! Lets get our own DMAT account.. Its free, you just have to give them a 1 rupee cheque.
Me – Yaar, All I know about shares is that they have a share in the economy but I don’t know how. I also know that they rise and fall like a bouncing cricket ball. By the way, has ICICI gone nuts? Why the hell are they charging a rupee? Processing that cheque would cost them more!
Baj (again with the same expression) – I donno, there must be some rule that asks them to charge for a DMAT account… and you can learn trading in a couple of days buddy… It’s all about money, honey! And it’s very exiting.
Me – Yeah Yeah… (and we moved to the ICICI bank)

May 2007, Chennai (this was the recession/bench time at my workplace… no projects, no work!)
Mrao (another dear friend pings on messenger) – Hi, Just wanted to inform you that Murali (my boss) is ready to teach us the basics of online trading. Come to his cubicle.
Me (replied to his message) – Oh great! So you finally managed to get something useful out of him!
Me (multiple pings to everyone, copy pasting Mrao’s message) – Hi, Just.. ..cubicle.
Wow! Soon people poured into the cubicle with contented looks. Finally we got some work and a way to earn a bonus for not working, they must have thought. I have never seen so many people pouring in even for a meeting.

Jan 2008, Pune
One fine morning I got a mail from ICICI securities. It was a Rs. 500 bill for DMAT services. I quickly forwarded this to Baj… and added a line “Dhokebaj baj, you told me that it’s free :(”. He replied that it was free for the first year and the charges were for the second year. He also advised me to start investing as he had made good profits.

Well I must start investing now, at least to make a profit of Rs 500, I said to myself. I was on my favorite bench (no work period) again and I thought it was the best time to research and invest. But what about the money? I had hardly saved anything in the past 2 years and my parents always groaned for not having saved anything. I decided to take a loan to invest in the market.

I googled day in and day out and decided to start with the over hyped reliance power IPO. It was the second last day for buying the IPO, so I tried to log on to ICICIdirect. Damn, I had forgotten my password. I had logged on more than 6 months back and there was no way I could remember my password. I requested for a password and got a reply that it would be sent to me in 2 weeks. Thus, my first IPO hopes went for a toss. But when the IPO opened at a very low price, I really thanked myself for forgetting the password.

March 2008, Pune
I was all set to trade. The markets were trading exceptionally low. I was inspired by the stock market guru, Warren Buffett’s Quote, "Try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful". Its time to be greedy, I said to myself. I checked out the loan options that my company offered. A 50k loan with a 4% interest and 20k loan without any interest… I decided to be more greedy and take both the loans… after all I wanted to be the next Warren Buffet! I checked out the market gainers and invested in a Reliance stock. I had observed that reliance stocks are highly volatile and thus give good returns in a short period. I never realized that they could be also volatile, the other way - downwards! I booked a profit of 3k on the first day itself. I was excited. Why I need to do this boring job if I can earn 3k everyday, I thought.

Today (October 17, 2008)
The markets kept on falling and the 3k profit was the only profit I have made so far. All my investment is in red and I am still repaying the loans. In short, my journey with the market was like marriage...The first day was honeymoon and the remaining days have been a nightmare! I have decided not to look at stocks for another year or two… or at least till I get professional education in trading. I am still better off than most of my friends as I invested when markets were not at their peak. And I realize that trading is not for everyone…

Some of the lines that my friends said when I asked them about their share in the shares:
Baj(dejected expression) : Arre yaar, kuch aur baat karte hai… (Let’s talk about something else)
MRao(starts crying) : Whenever I invest yaar, the markets go down…
AAdi (Yet another friend): Once upon a time, I was making a profit of 50k, now it’s a loss of 75k.. I am just waiting for a no-profit no-loss situation to come. I will withdraw all my money and never trade again!