Pasta in White Sauce .. *sluurrrpp*

A few months back mom happened to try a new recipe .. for Pasta in red sauce .. and I went like .. 'mommmm .. pasta in white sauce offers a much better pet pooja" .. to which she replied .. 'Why dont you cook it urself then?!' ... :-o ..

To be frank the best i had come up with date was a 'Russian Salad' .. which merely involved boiling certain ingredients and mixing them with some other non boiled ingredients ..

Pasta was .. err .. to say the least .. a leap into the unknown and strange world of culinary skills .. but all the same mom refused to cook it up even after a month! and so here i was searching on the net for recipes for one of my favourite dishes ..

After four recipes and plenty of help from Bhabhi, mom and Bau i finally shortlisted one recipe .. and hunted down the ingredients from the cupboard .. fridge .. shelves and the local kirana store ..

The Ingredients!

The recipe then involved juggling of several tasks ... and in brief had the following 'stages' :

1. Cooking of the pasta to make it eatable

2. Making the white sauce.

3. Frying of the veggies to make then tender.

4. And finally the sequence of adding mixing adding and mixing to get the final result ..

The outcome .. !!

And well .. it turned out to be ... yummmmmmm ... :)

Yummm!!

Though i would have liked it if it was a bit more gravy and a less more gooey .. taste wise it turned out great ..

The end result! :)

For more info on the recipe .. confidence boosting .. humble suggestings .. and tips n tricks .. pls do not hesitate to contact .. Yours truely! ;)

Two States!

I happened to pick this book up .. my first novel after a long long long time ..

and what irony that i read it as AP gets divided into 2 .. the way it was brought about was like slicing a cake into two .. long fast .. bandhs .. garnering of useless attention .. and lo .. a promise for a new state .. without any heed to the fact that this may call for further such proposals from the 27 other states within the country .. but anyway .. thats another story for another day ..

2 States ..

A fantastic read .. With this novel Bhagat has established himself as a master story teller .. the way he effortlessly weaves the plot .. (it apparently is the story of his own marriage .. but for all reasons he says .. that the book should be considered as a work of fiction) .. and goes about presenting it is sheer genius .. there are little or no narratives .. the story is constant and fast paced .. its similar to a joy ride .. where u sit .. and starting from the initial anticipation .. there is thrill all through till the end .. and like all his previous novels .. this ones witty too ..

I guess the story needs no summarizing ..

1 love .. 2 sets of parents .. 2 contrasting states .. Delhi and Chennai .. (now thats like upma and halwa .. :))

Most people would resort to the 'ek duje ke liye' approach .. elope .. run .. force .. sucide .. cry .. tantrums .. blah blah blah ..

Bhagat on the other hand chooses a more simpler approach .. 'CONVINCE' .. try all methods .. never say die .. hum honge kamyab .. and when all looks lost .. then luck strikes .. :)

Am not gonna spoil it now .. read it .. it hardly takes 18 hrs .. and is priced at 95 .. trust me you will not regret it .. :)

Malchance!

Some days .. one needs .. inspiration to write ..

at times .. plain bad luck to blow off steam will also do .. :-|

1. KCR 'unrest' creates a social unrest in the city ..

2. Shops pelted at and people forced to stay inside ..

3. Missed the intro talks on Yes!+ where i was a volunteer ..

4. Not allowed to go to vinays place wich was on the other end of the Hyd ..

5. Television not working due to voltage probs a day before .. cant watch the city game ..

6. Pull out the old television as a replacement .. Old is gold .. (i swear by it!!)

7. TV blackout by the TRS activists .. cant watch the city game .. AGAIN .. x-(

8. Log on to the comp .. and lo .. nets not working either .. voltage prob ..

9. Manage to find a password less wifi .. :D

10. The guy shuts it down 10 mins before kick off .. x-(

11. Felt like hell when city equalised and even went one UP ..

12. Turn on the idiot box to know that the telecast is back .. Can watch the last 10 mins of city game .. :-s

13. Only to see lampard miss a penalty in 3 years and yea .. Chelsea LOSE .. xx-(((

Update:

Satsang .. scheduled for 6th .. gets cancelled .. :-|

Grrrr ...

Somedays are just not meant to BE .. :-|

Congress and their Quota laden Manifesto!

Before i shoot off .. let me warn u .. this is about politics .. (Something we all hate to talk about).. and yes .. as an indian .. i feel it SHOULD interest you .. especially keeping in mind the coming elections ..

As I sat back in cab which took me to my workplace .. i caught a copy of Deccan Chronicle to catch the latest news ..

~Congress announces SOP laden manifesto!

I read on ..

.. 3kg rice/wheat for below poverty line families .. hmm .. ok ..

.. Free education for dalits and adivasi students .. hmmmmmmmmmm ..

.. Free Insurance for BPL families in 3 years .. What??!! ..

.. Installation of broadband in every village in 3 years .. good enough .. but .. whos gonna maintain them pray??

.. Model school in every block in 3 years .. hmm .. depends on what they mean by model ..

hmm .. i look up .. feel the wind .. hmm .. its NOT blowing in the right direction .. lets read on ..

And sure enough ..

.. Reservation in private Sector .. Bull .. i knew it ..

.. Quota for Muslims in education and job sectors .. crap crap crap ..

.. Free scholarships for students to be increased .. Increased?? As if 25 lakhs wasnt enough!

Coaching fees for all entrance exams for at least one lakh scheduled caste/scheduled tribe students every year will be paid by the Central Government. National scholarships boys and girls belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes will be further increased. .. There goes our tax money!

Note: I have already forwarded mails to all on the topic "Tax money floundered" .. in case you havent read it .. you can read it here --> http://bawandinesh.name/inconvenient-questions-i/

The congress has already handed 25 Lakhs worth of scholarships to students .. who were all from minority! So this is where the Education Cess collected alongside the various taxes went .. and we thought they would be used to better the educational infrastructure!!

Further, our dear government has given money to universities like cambridge and harvard .. guess how much .. ?? 50 Crores!! Dont ask me what they got in return .. if it was anything to note .. you would know it already!!

Damn .. i losing the sight of this .. shifting to point wise elaborations ..

3. Congress plans to give CBSE status to Madrassas! While shouting at pakistan to shut its various madrassas .. here its playing nothing but stupid vote bank politics .. !

4. Congress has gone a step further .. it has announced a Quota Laden Manifesto .. This despite the fact that the implementation of quota in their regime had virtually paralysed the government during its rule .. the manifesto is now nothing but a smack on the face of majority and the middle class .. who all stand to lose if merit is not the sole criteria ..

5. What about minority students who have rich fathers and can afford the best education ?? Yes u guessed it .. they qualify for quota .. !

6. What about a OC guy who has a coolie for a father?? ahh .. am sorry .. hes not from minority .. so i guess he has to slug it out ..

7. BACKWARDNESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MAJORITY / MINORITY!

8. What about places where Hindus and other majority are in minority?? Like Assam? Mizoram? Do they qualify for quota?? No .. Majority is majority .. !!

9. This is nothing but dividing the country on the lines of religion and caste .. while also ensuring that they remain in power .. and guess why .. ?? coz they are shwerd .. and know that the majority doesnt vote .. hence .. lets concentrate towards the minority .. !!

10. If ever you thought of giving a fitting reply to government for the whole reservations SCAM .. the time is now .. go out and vote .. and please ... vote for a CHANGE!

11. This is what the congress had to say in their poll manifesto ..

"The Indian National Congress practices the politics of consensus and cooperation. The BJP practices the politics of divisiveness and discord. Instinctively, the Indian National Congress unites, while the BJP divides. "

While they themselves have been doing jus that .. dividing the country based on religion/caste.

For you better illustration .. let me give u a example .. I know a friend of mine who got a 98.7 percentile in the CAT examination .. he could not make it to any of the IIMs coz

1. the cut off was 99 percentile
2. he had not scored very well in his inter exams

Now on top of this .. another SC/ST candidate getting less than 80 percentile get selected to the IIMs only coz he was born to a certain family in a certain caste .. can u belive this .. ?? Tomorrow your child might be in a similar situation .. what then .. ??

Besides the fact that the meritious candidates lose out on quota .. it also helps in bringing the standard of the premier institutions down .. imagive IITs/IIMs brimming with 49% candidates being average .. 60% scoring students??

This is no way to rule a country .. ! Please go out and vote .. and please vote for a change!!

Mahn! You got steam rolled!!

Muahahahahah ... A picture is worth a thousand words .. :P .. and this Pic says it all .. :P

(one of my fnrd says he looks constipated! :D)

Manchester United (Man U) hosted Liverpool on the 14th of March, 2009 in the ongoing season of the Barclays Premier League to be defeated 1-4!!

Bitter rivals .. many regard this as Man U's Derby contest ..

Going into the match .. Rafa Benitez upped the ante by having a go at Sir Alex Ferguson and claiming what he said to be the 'facts' .. all Sir Alex said was .. 'sparks are expected to fly' ..

Liverpool wasnt gonna take it lying down .. their task was cut out .. three of their players echoed this sentiment .. by urging the squad to "attack, attack and attack!" ... it is thus surprising .. that despite all the hoopla .. Man U came to nought and .. surprisingly .. looked short of adequate preparation compared to liverpool ..

Ok .. before i go into the details of the match .. let me make it clear .. I AM A DIE HARD CHELSEA FAN .. two reasons justify this post and undue praise on liverpool in my blog ..

1. As put by Vinay, My friend and a fellow chelsea fan .. an enemy of a enemy is a friend ..
2. A Liverpool win meant less gap between Leaders Man U and 2nd placed Chelsea pointwise .. :)

So .. Back to the game .. the teams .. sir alex .. adamant about his rotation policy .. leaves out nani .. scholes .. giggs .. and berbatov .. all on bench .. instead .. u have park ji sung (hes good .. but still not the best amongst the Man U squad) and tevez .. (who hasnt scored convincingly/consistently yet)

Formation : 4-4-2

Liverpool .. sends out a full strength squad .. leaving out those due to injuries ..

Formation : 4-5-1 (My Personal Fav!)

Kick off ..

Possessions shift .. Opportunities created .. and the game moves on ..

Soon .. quite sooner than expected .. Man u goes one up ..

Reina pounces on to get the ball .. which Ji Sung Park .. cleverly deflects .. resulting in a foul by the former on the latter .. Penalty!! .. shuxx .. half the time the ref is either partisan towards Man U .. or they earn their wins thru a penalty .. but hell ... thats football ..

Ronaldo nets one in .. and Man u Fans Cheer .. (I Jeered!)

Game continues .. and boy o boy .. the way the game unfolded after that .. was simply awesome ..

Goal 1: Martin Skrtels Long Ball .. lands beyong vidic .. torres races ahead .. out speeds, out wits, out smarts and out lasts Vidic .. to get the ball .. gallop into the D .. and face Van Der Sar alone .. one on one .. Equalizes .. :)

Goal 2: By now liverpool had gained all the confidence they wanted to .. and were playing some awesome football .. Torres again .. sends gerrard racing into the D .. evra mistimes his tackle to send gerrard sprawling .. and guess what .. its just inside the D .. :D .. Penalty .. Gerrard takes it and converts .. the goal being the action replay of the earlier penalty taken by ronaldo .. except .. ronaldo sent one in the left side corner .. while gerrard chose the right side ..

Half time: One of the first times in this seasons BPL .. forcing sir alex for a rallying call .. :)

Post half time .. shared honors .. until .. united decide the raise the tempo .. by substituting 3 on trot .. berbatov, giggs and scholes IN ..

But it all seemed in vain .. as Man U get reduced to 10 Men .. Gerrard sprints past .. tackling vidic .. who by now had little choice .. and chose to resort to physical measures to bring gerrard down ..

"Red Carded" .. 2nd time this season .. against the same opposition .. :) .. loved it .. !

Goal 3: A scorcher that one .. While vidic made his way to the dressing room .. the resulting free kick by Aurelio sent the ball soaring .. curving into the net .. Van Der Sar all but stared at the ball as it made its way to an AWESOME goal!

*Beckham would have smiled and nodded his head in approval*

Goal 4: Liverpool were not done yet .. Dossena with possession .. battling ferdinand .. notices Van Der Sar scanter ahead inside the D .. much too ahead for his own good .. and he LOBS .. VDS stares again .. as the ball soars over his head and bounces before entering the net .. :D .. this is what u call the 'icing on the cake'

The game gave me and vinay immense delight ..

I for one was jus gleeful to see Man u In TATTERS .. it was a hapless performance by a star studded team .. !! Complacency or not .. there were no excuses for the way they played ..

As for Vinay .. the Dude had bet on a Liverpool win .. and bet that the scoreline would be 1-4! His friends laughed him off .. while he watched the match smoking a hookah royally enough!!

Haha .. he was justly rewarded by the 'last laugh' and a treat!

Satyam Fiasco. Raju's Confession. An Analysis.

A lot has been happening in the previous few days. The SATYAM mayhem followed by the investors fury and coupled by the regulators outrage. I have been into the audit industry for close to 3 years now and can’t help but wonder what the auditors were doing (assuming they weren’t hand in glove with the CEO himself).

Let’s start the analysis with a prelim on the books of account and the role of the auditors. Every company has transactions. They buy, sell, trade, fund. All these transactions are to be recorded in the books of account to enable the management to arrive at the profits earned/loss suffered. With regard to this, all company’s books of accounts are required to be audited by Chartered Accountants. The role of the auditors is limited to reporting the “truth and fairness” of the Financial statements (summarized from the books of account). In other words, the auditors report, that the books of account significantly represent the transactions of the company and the financial statements are true and fair with respect to these transactions. Auditors are not responsible for unearthing a fraud.

Having said that, let us come to the case in question. Raju in his famous confession has highlighted four Major issues. (I use the word ‘major’ because I find it difficult to comprehend that those are the only discrepencies)

1. Rs. 5,040 crore inflated cash balance.
2. Fictitious accrued interest of Rs. 376 Crore.
3. Unaccounted liability (himself being the creditor) of Rs. 1,230 Crore.
4. Overstated debtors of Rs. 490 Crores.

He further goes on to state that in the September quarter itself the revenue was inflated by close to 540 Crores.

Lets see how the above could be affected…

Mr. Raju in his mail mentions, the same was due to a gap between the actual and the book profits which escalated over the years. Profits can be inflated by either showing revenue to be higher than it actually is, or by showing expenses lesser than they actually are. As Satyam has been showing increasing revenue on a consistent basis, it would be fair to assume that Mr. Raju resorted to the former method. Inflating revenue and showing higher revenue than the actual.

Revenue can be inflated in the books of account by way of the following:

1. Recording the succeeding year sales in the current financial year. The same paves the way to the recording of higher revenue in an accounting year. Of course the subsequent year will then show lower sales. But the same won’t happen if u follow what you did in the first year. Auditors, use sales cut off to see that the same is not done. By sales cut off, I mean the auditors verify that only the sales which pertain to the current financial year are accounted in that year. This can be done by verifying invoices and comparing the same with the status of the job work.

2. Passing fictitious sales entries in the books of account. In other words simply passing an entry of sale where there is no sale. In this case even the debtors get inflated. The same can be detected by auditors by reconciling the sales and debtor balances. Obtaining balance confirmations from the debtors (on a sample basis). Following up long outstanding debtors. All a piece of cake considering the amount in question.

3. Booking higher sales in a particular year and following it up by sales returns in the subsequent year. Satyam, being an IT industry, the same is ruled out. As service rendered and charged, cannot be returned back.

4. Deflating expenses. Booking lesser expenses in the books. I don’t think this is probable. As then Satyam would have long outstanding creditors nagging them for repayment of their balances.

Strictly speaking following the above procedures would result in a gap between the actual profits of the company and the profits as depicted in the books of account. The above entries in the books do not affect the Bank Balance in anyway but only results in long outstanding debtors. Which is tested by the auditors on a regular basis by way of an ageing analysis (you can google the term!)

What I think is Mr. Raju went a step ahead. To avoid the long outstanding debtors he transferred the debtor balance to cash and bank i.e. passing an entry for realization of cash from the debtors. The debtors come back to their original figure and cash and bank balance gets inflated by fictitious amounts.

Here is where I feel the auditors blundered. Every audit requires the auditors to obtain confirmations from the bank regarding the balance of the company with them. The same is to be taken by the auditors directly from the BANK and not through the client. Further, the kind of entry (transfer of debtors to bank) would result in a reconciling item in the BRS (Bank Reconciliation statement). A simple review of the BRS would reveal that everything is not alright.

Thus far things go great. Increase in revenue -- > Fictitious Debtors -- > Fictitious Bank Balance.
But here’s the catch. Satyam did not really have a revenue base as per the books. Which implies no real profits which further imples increasing costs but no correlated increase in revenue. So, what does Raju do?

He pledged his shares, to get funds, and pumped the same into the company to meet the growing costs. The funds, of course, were outside the books of account. And pertain to the unaccounted liability of Rs. 1230 Crores mentioned by Mr. Raju.

He Pledged shares worth (say for example) Rs. 5000 Crores (market value) and borrowed funds of Rs. 4000 Crores. Things went great till the stock markets rocked. And the rest, as they say, is history!

What lies ahead?

1. Role of auditors in the fraud. Were they active participants? Or mere onlookers. If found guilty, PWC could be debarred from practicing in India.

2. If they were mere onlookers to the whole thing. Their role as auditors, that of exercising due diligence in conducting an audit is liable to be scrutinized. If found liable, legal actions under the companies act and not to mention the wrath of ICAI. (PWC is already guilty of professional negligence in the conduct of the audit of Global Trust Bank. It failed to recognize the mountain of Non-performing assets imminent in the books! There is another case pending involving lovelock and lewis, an entity of PWC!)

As for Satyam ..

1. New management to take over from the existing one.

2. Merger seems the most likely option as the promoters are no longer the promoters. The shares pledged with the institutional investors, the investors can choose to continue the company or liquidate it. Not really known, I guess the picture will be clear only when the accounts are restated to the actual figures.

As for investors ..

Do you really wish to read expletives on this blog??

As India weeps .. ..

Planting bombs .. and detonating them .. secretly .. is something ..

arming urself with grenades .. and AK-47s .. storming a country's financial capital .. through water vessels .. taking hostages .. seiging two of the city's flagship hotels .. causing mayhem for close to 65 hours .. is something else .. :(




.. In wake of the terrorist attacks .. the most bold and macabre of all tat i have seen .. urging India .. to stir and awake ..

(not my poem .. came across it elsewhere .. but you will know why am posting it here .. once u read it)

The giant sleeps

A violent sound,
Death abound;
A mother weeps,
The giant sleeps.

No time left,
Promises unkept;
Fear creeps,
The giant sleeps.

Faraway lands,
Fettered hands;
Village Burned,
Giant Unturned.

The myth divides,
Love subsides;
Intolerable bleeding,
The giant sleeping.

No end in sight,
Fight or Flight;
Vision blurs,
The giant stirs.

Giant, Awake?
No Escape;
Dreams help me cope,
I have but hope.

P.S. News pours in that Shivraj Patil quit. And the finance minister P Chidambaram took over .. The government knows how to go only from bad to worse .. :|