our traffic sense

it was yesterday. actually i was thinking abt this for quite a while, but yesterday i experienced it so intensely tht today i wil have to write abt it or i wil vomit!

first of all, i m talking abt traffic sense of Amdavadis. for starters, Amdavad (or Ahmedabad) is a crowdy, dusty metropolis but now full of multiplexes n malls. Amdavadis are mainly known for their prudence n enterprise. the city got renewed fame coz of the earthquake, riots n coz of the best of the Indian Institutes of Management (on the positive side).

alright now let me come to the point i wanted to make.
we amdavadis have got terrible, no, horrible traffic sense. see we are business minded people n just as we dont leave any business opportunity unexplored we also dont leave any space unoccupied on the road, especially on the crossroads.

wht happens exactly is: we have crossroads wher ther s no traffic signals n no traffic police (tholo, as we call him). usually tht happens when a small road is crossing a busy one. 3-4 two wheelers from the small road get to cross one of the two sides of the busy road. now traffic is in full flow on the other side. so, instead of waiting, those two wheeler riders keep pushing their vehicles on the other side. they know tht they wont be able to cross till the whole flow passes. but the 'persist'. n persistance pays! now, see from a car coming at this mess from a traffic signal. the road is 30-40-50% intruded by those two wheelers. he, too is in hurry n in no mood to let go (after al, he too is n amdavadi!). so he wud go a bit on the left n go away. now tht makes congestion on the left corner of the bigger road at the crossroads.

the two wheelers who r intruding dont understand tht they wont be able to get thru anyway. tht they wil have to let the whole traffic get cleared befor they can cross the main road. they wud do this day in n day out, everytime they r on the road....may be just to save a milisecond by gaining tht extra inch.

economists say man is a rational animal. he wud make economic decisions based on pure rationality. but the rationality is not pure actually. its married with stupidity.

in the 'booming' Indian stock market whenever the market is up ppl talk abt entrepreneurial abilities of Indians n the great job our companies r doing in n out of India. but the day or the week the market falls consistently, everything changes. those who were singing abt the 'Indian growth story' start panicing n advice ppl to be 'watchful'. now wht this 'being watchful' means? who knows? ther is absolutely no rationale behind unknown stocks touching sky in a unimaginabley short period of time. n just the way they have gone up, they may come down too. actually ther s only 'postmortem' in the stock market n no 'premortem' (i know ther is no such word, just wanted to convey the point!). we can very well analyse wht has happened in great detail n with much enthusiasm. but tht analysis doesnt serve to predict the future. ther s a simple principle: choose a good stock with due research n then stick to it. Its like marriage said Warren Buffet. a booming stockmarket such as India can give u returns anywhere between 20-40% p.a. with moderate risk (for the record, the BSE index has increased by 46.9% in 2006) even when u r underperforming. however, ppl dont expect further 47% rise in Sensex in 2007 but still it gives much assurance of handsome returns. so u can get handsome returns (5 to 6 times the inflation rate) without much heartburn of say May-June and Dec firts week. but ppl wont agree. they wud trade day in n day out. morning 10 to 4 in the afternoon their heartbeat follows the index. with great stress the whole day the manage to earn 15000 to 50000 rupees a month. n then some black monday/tuesday/wednesday/thursday/friday comes n washes away most of the earnings. so, wher is the pure rational behaviour?

our accountancy professor used to joke abt economics. he said in economics u learn, in first 55 mins of a 1 hr lecture, tht 'other things being equal' when demand of a product increases then, supply remaining constant, price also increases. then in the last 5 mins u come to realize tht 'other things' (including supply) never remain equal!

so after all this stuff wht point i want to make exactly?
1. if u happen to come in amdavad, hire a rickshaw instead of driving on ur own!
2. theories are important - only when they can be explained with 'practical' life examples.
3. invest in stockmarkets for long term.

by the way this is my first adventure to write on my blog......

comments invited.

regards
God bless
antariksh