Happy Birthday to me, huh?

Six girls plan religiously for a dear friend's birthday.

Cake, candles, decorations, gifts, cards, everything is taken care of. Yours truly, with other friends, work really hard in background to get all this done, without her knowledge.

You send out a mail to the whole batch saying be there sharp at 12o'clock to celebrate her birthday.

So the whole batch assembles at midnight to celebrate her birthday.

She cuts the cake, we sing "Happy Birthday to you", wish her, put cake, water, eggs, n everything that we could see in the vicinity, on her :)

Suddenly the girls take out another cake and lights candles. Me, inspite of being in the core organising committee is totally unaware of this. I innocently asks the question "Why another cake"??

Thats when i get the biggest surprise of my life. They got the other cake for celebrating my birthday. Tomorrow is the last day of our exams and we are all going to be away for six months, for our summer internships. Seven of us are going to be in four different cities. So they planned to celebrate my birthday one month before so that they all can be with me during my celebration. My constant rant that 'no one of you are going to be with me on my birthday' prompted them further to do this.

I cut the cake and the usual rituals associated with the birthday happens to me also. Get bums, get drenched in water and cake, girls decorate my room, gives me a beautiful birthday card, books and perfumes as gifts. So I had a birthday celebration one month in advance of my real birthday. I dont know what makes me more happy - the way they cared for me and surprised me or the way they planned everything without my notice.

I am gonna miss this place for the next 6 months. No matter how far i am from my home, the people surrounding me, always makes me feel special.

Mn,Pj,Sh,So,Nl & Nv, you girls rock. I will miss you people a lot.

One of those memorable conversations :)

So what happens when two finance enthusiasts chat?

Before we move on to that, let me give a background of the story, we girls went for buying some things from our so called 'tech market', and while returning, we meet a bunch of guys from our batch. For one and a half hours, the two groups sit in front of an eating joint named 'veggies', demanding a treat from each other. In the end, girls back to their hostel, without eating anything.

So one of my good friends here, Md (also a Finance enthusiast) pings me in the night and so goes our conversation.

(Presented as it is, in the chat lingo)

Md: see...today we returned from the veggies w/o having anything.. :(

me: guys r supposed to treat girls not otherway round

Md: yeah agreed...but when guys dont have money then? :)

come on...atleast someday gals should lend them some money...so that they can treat the gals and then return the money...

me: return the money??? should we expect that :)

Md: wat !!!

why such bad credit rating? :)

me: credit rating of C for Md and S :)
(S is a common friend, who is always with Md)

Md: i have strong cash flows, good amount assets of piled up, lot of goodwill and AAA rating by other gals..!!! :D

i m not sure why ur company is not lending the money ..!!!

me: we don’t believe in other banks’ credit rating, i think all will agree to S&P(my) rating :)

Md: no ..actually their experience speaks in their credentials given to this investment bank..!!! u havent dealt with us...there are windfall profits mam..!!!!

me: we feel tht the company you have recently merged(S) have bad rating also, goodwill of tht company has degraded, esp after it has liquidated(with drinks) some of its assests and made some funny declarations :P

Md: no no..thats rumour in the market...we are not merged with that "Sachs" banks...there might be some transactions of securities but those are general and simple debt obligation payments..we are a stand alone white paper company..:)

me: ok, then we can reconsider your offer, let my principals do some more research and look at the market conditions, if the market feels tht investing in your company is a good option and returns r high and assured, then our bank will be able to lend u some money, and mind you, our credit rating goes a along way in giving confidence to other investors :)

Md: You are welcome...!!!! my books are open for due diligence..but you will have to do Systematic Lending. In which you will lend one ice cream every week till May 2009 and then my bank will start paying your bank in chocolate currency...:)

me: first of all we dont believe in systematic lending and we believe in a floating rate interest with put option, so lets see how we can work this out

Md: see Ice creams to Chocolates...the NPV is really delicious..:)
the risk is really worth taking..:)

me: with the exchange rates for chocolates fluctuating, we dont really believe in a transaction through tht currency, i think we can fix it in icecream currency

Md: ok no issues..!!! but i m telling you...chocolate rates are bound to go up only...as we will buy lot of chocolates in this KGP street, ppl will run to buy them as well..we can infact do a futures contract where you will get future chocolates at current rates..:)

me: i think the same applies to icecreams as well, so i don’t mind having a futures contract in that

Md: hmm...dont u think an icecream with a friendly gesture would have been much better rather than going into these tantrums..:)

me: we r investment bankers, we dont do simple things, we assess,hype up and then do the deal. U know we live life kingsize (courtesy “D”) :D

Md: yeah...that means that you can offer Kingsize icecreams to your fellow bankers also.. ;)

me: only if it comes back in the form of a double kingsize family pack icecreams :)

Md: cool...idea is actually not bad...!!! anyway it will mean that this banker will get more ice cream than normal times... ;)

me: sure, i think ROI is good in this deal :)

Md: you are welcome to announce the deal in the market...wat will be the deal declaration date and when will deal happen?

me: deal declaration date and deal happening will be informed to you in the due course of time, thanks for dealing with us, we hope to maintain a successful relationship with you in the coming years

Md: wow.. that was wondeful...i seriously never thought we can be this geeky..!!! :)

me: seriously :) it was fun :)

Md: out and out FinFinFin...God please let some recruiter see this chat..!!! :P :P

me: we will put this chat along with our resume and give it to placecomm(placement committee) :)

Md: he he..:) colleague recos :P :P

me: :) :) :)

Md: my head is so heavy with the stuff that i have to have one ice cream now :)

One of those memorable conversations which puts a smile on your face everytime you think about it. Dedicated to all the FIN enthusiasts around us :)

Unemployed again

I will miss you

We will miss you

All the best

Good, timely decision

Keep in touch

Don't forget us

These were the most common sentences that i was hearing for the last few days. Today is my last day in my office. I have finally decided to resign my job and go for my higher studies. I was planning for it for quite some time and everything is falling into place now.

First job always has an emotional attachment to it, the job which gives us the much needed financial independence, the job which takes us one more step closer to knowing ourselves. I have experienced a gamut of emotions during my last two years on job. There were moments ranging from sheer excitement to deep disappointment. Now that its time for me to leave, my heart feels heavy with emotions. During the last few hours in bangalore, i could sense tears welling up in eyes at many instances and i fought to hold them back.

During the last two years, I have learnt a lot, worked with many a wonderful people and made great friends. Friends who made me laugh, friends whom i argued with, friends who stood by me through my highs and lows. I will miss J,M and Ar for making me laugh with their innumerable jokes. I will miss C,S and B for the coffee cup conversations and gossips that we shared. I will miss Ab and Ro for the laughs and the infinite site issues that we solved. Above all, i will miss my hectic schedule, deadlines and call conferences.

Now i am off to my home town, on a self imposed sabbatical, for one month, before i become a student all over again. Goodbye to a city which gave me such good friends, rekindled my reading interest and helped me know myself more.

Goodbye bangalore. I will miss you, I will miss the bookshops, restaurants, traffic jams and busy lanes.

Miss ya

Two years back, when i came to bangalore, far away from my hometown, i was apprehensive about being in a new city, away from my parents and starting a life on my own. I was all the more worried about being in a paying guest accommodation and sharing a room with someone else. Having a room all for myself for the first 21 years of my life, i was worried how my roommate would be, how will i adjust with her, etc.

Here, in bangalore, i met her. We got along with each other at the first go. We had similar interests and similar perspectives in many things. We both liked to be independent, we both loved reading, we both had hectic jobs and always came home at erratic hours. She was in fact the person who rekindled my interest in reading and the inspiration for this blog. Though i haven't met any of her friends in her office, I know all of them and what is happening in their lives and vice versa. There were even instances when we had enlightening conversations late into the night.

We both being single, we spend many lighter moments with each other. When pizzahut announces treat for two, i know with whom will i go to have a pizza, when a romantic movie comes to play in PVR, she knows with whom will she watch it. Despite being single, we both enjoyed whatever was meant for a couple, sans the hassles of a relationship(wow!!!). Once we even went to the nearby barista in our night dresses and had chocolate brownie. I still believe that the guy at the counter served the brownie only because we paid in advance.

We bitched about people who made us sad, we went coochy-coochy about handsome guys in office, we eased out our frustrations by having long conversations, we argued, we laughed, we talked about our dreams and ambitions well past midnight only to realise its too late for bed. She is one girl in my life whom i could relate to, so much. Someone who spoke my language, echoed my dreams and walked the world in my shoes. While other girls talked about boyfriends and husbands, we talked about books and authors. When others went gaga over recipes, we talked about our career goals.

Now when its time for me to move away from this city, i realise how much she meant to me. I will miss you my dear roomie. I hope we will meet each other often in our life to relive all those moments again and again.