Do you use credit card?

Hey everyone!

Its been actually ages since I wrote anything for Spotalks and I very much regret it. So as I was browsing through it tonight, I thought of writing something that is on my mind for the last few days- Credit Cards!

There is definitely a race out there among banks that offer credit card services! Every day calls, offers, redeemable points, gifts etc etc they can really turn our day into hell. But when I was offered a credit card by my bank, I enquired with some people about its uses and misuses. My findings were peculiarly strange when seen with an analytical eye.

Firstly, entrepreneurs and businessmen who enjoy a luxurious lifestyle (Lets use the Kiyosaki term 'Rich Dad' for these people) advised their kids against using credit cards! Perhaps because the kids are brought up in a 'need preceedes the cost' atmosphere at home (which means if you want something then get it, don't bother about the price) or perhaps they fear that the kids might not understand the need to save, or perhaps something else that I am unable to think of!

When I asked the same thing to my 'Poor dad', he said use of credit card must be encouraged! Why? He said 1) it helps to make the most out of offers and discounts,
2) helps you compile all your monthly expenditure to a single document (the credit card statement),
3) helps you curtail your lifestyle out of the fear of overspending (capitalising the fear of credit),
4) can be used across the globe so saves the forex trouble and also
5) helps you take loan in case of an emergency.

It is surprising that the two identified category of risk takers clearly hold contrasting views on Credit Cards. While businessmen who are considered risk loving people advise against use of credit card, the ordinary employee who is known for being risk averse seems to not care about the risk involved in Credit Cards.

However I feel that since it brings with it a risk of overspending, it is important to develop the right attitude of spending (what is that? the one that validates the necessity before spending) before one starts to use a Credit Card. I also believe that a good spending attitude necessarily does not involve meticulous maintanence of the expenditure down the paisa (or cents/shillings...)

Are you comfortable using your credit card? Or do you fear that you might tend to overspend? And is it correct to relate one's risk aversion to his readiness/inertia to use his Credit Card?

Cheers!
Shyam

the rude boy revelation

Whatever little hope I had of the american pop scene had completely dissolved into thin air(or a nauseous mixture of a various set of not so nice ingredients) when I started listening to a song "rude boy". Let me start with the first line, please bear with me.(dont make jokes about bears)

"come here rude boy, boy can you get it up. come here rude boy, boy is you big enough"

Now, I have nothing against the meaning of the song. I am viciously turned on every time I listen to this song, that my mind starts painting very vivid scenes of, well, scenes of... OK(i actually wanted to write something involving my pants, but i will let it pass). Something else bothers me. "Is you big enough"? Seriously, is this the best you can muster? Isn't the native tongue English? Or has anyone managed to change that to something else, because it was not too democratic enough, and wanted an american intervention? These kids are young, they can be taught to change, and together, we can. Can what?

"buckle up, I ma give it to you stronger, Hands up we can go a little longer, Tonight I ma get a little crazy..."

I ma? seriously? Why do we have a problem of reading normal words like 'am' these days? Selective retinal inversion disorder? I have a serious problem, I know. I fuss. too much. about a language that is not even my mother tongue. Its none of my business. I am not grammatically perfect! I dont care. I will whine when I feel like whining, that is something everybody should be allowed. Its the only thing that we can do for free. So, ma? really?

The last line is redundant. After listening to the song upto this point, it is crystal clear that the singer is crazy and had the audacity to impose this song on us; the song listeners, including myself, are crazy that this song has 30 million hits on youtube. Now, its time to blame youtube for censorship, and moral right violations, and how this can cause a serious dent in the youngster's mindset, and start talking about segregation, and how the singer is black, and how the black people live in too much poverty, and how the american president is black, and how america is not the bit concerned about oil spills and its crumbling economy, and how oil rich countries like saudi dont care two hoots for other religions, and how India is shining for 2 % of its population while none of this ever seems to matter for the millions who have nothing...(I am delusional now, I think I smoked too much weed).

"rude boy"

Oh, wow. Phenomenal. This is the kind of stuff that John milton missed out in paradise lost. This is paradise regained, rehash. This is the illiad of the crack heads. This is the opium of the trivially challenged american urban/semi-urban(?) youth. This is the short lived anthem everyone talks about. This is a song that can buy a meal for some. This is the song, that is meant to be just a song for some. This is the song, that is meant to be make sense for some. This is high school girly crap for some. So much for a song, eh?

For India to be Super power

I have some thought process on what India and Indians have to do if India wants to be super power. Most of the thoughts are Utopian, humorous and some are non sense. There are as following

0. Eradicate Poverty

1. Abolish religion

2. Abolish casteism

3. Eliminate gender inequalities and inequities

4. Educate everyone

5. Don't reproduce (most people should not do it because India has alarming population growth)

6. Move towards open society

7. Free thinking should be embraced

8. Wealth should be redistributed

9. Legalize and regulate every taboos that society think it is...

10. Make English a mandatory language

11. Provide subsidized Healthcare

12. Abolish arrange marriage system too ( Will reduce dowry incidents)

13. Embrace interbreeding ( will improve the IQ of ordinary Indian people)

14. Implement compulsory sex education from primary schools

15. Penalize traffic offenders

16. Abolish nepotism in Indian politics

17. Criminalize racism and casteism

18. Abolish single sex education and embrace coeducation

19. Embrace consumerism and abort socialist policies

20. Make female education a fundamental right

21. Provide full employment opportunities

22. Modernize infrastructure

23. People should become polite

24. Selfishness should become normal

25. Individuality should be embraced

26. Pollution should be curtailed



 List goes on.. Commentators are kindly advised to include their list..

The usual whine. The same old bottle.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article509720.ece

Sirs and Madams,

How much I love India Pakistan cricket matches. Have you seen the excitement? It borders on jingoism. You know why? Sometimes people need trust and credibility, as you rightly pointed out sometime earlier to overcome barriers. Whom should we trust? No offense, we know the pakistani people are a beautiful set of creatures just like us Indians, but do we trust the army that seems to be silently calling the shots? Do we trust the words of ISI that is feeding propaganda to any muslim on the streets of kashmir for azadi? Do we trust the mujahideen who have the patience of a 2-year old, but the military arsenal of a whole nation? Whom should we trust?

Why do you care, is the usual question.

My country, unfortunately doesn't care about serious issues-we are worried about IPL not making enough money to buy poor millionaires yachts and multi-storeyed buildings, we are interested in Dhoni's engagement and marriage because that would feed a family of four, we love spending our money and resources on ulaga tamil maanadu which is exactly what people need given most of them have TV sets donated free of cost, we must concern ourselves with hiking fuel prices every now and then so that the aam aadmi can squirm uncomfortably when he goes to the petrol bunk, and we must ask the vegetable vendor if we could pay by a cheque, since you know, the prices...

Something bothers me. I hate it when people have to die unnecessarily. When people starve and starve, of hopes of one meal a day. When wars are fought for trivial reasons such as mad men's propaganda. When the rains play 'ringa ringa roses...all fall down' with already starved villagers. When women have to face pigs who are high on libido and low on morals in every f**king place. Let's face it, life is f**king unfair. But there should be some fairness in being unfair-some men cannot have all the money. The money, it is of no use when you are dead and eating maggots inside the grave.

Communist, aren't I? Ah, I must the left leaning, arrogant, union creating, work hate mongering russian spy from the cold and snowy hills of kodambakkam...

Am I doing something about cleaning it up? I am sure as hell not going to, so why am I really bitching about something over which I am so indifferent? Because, there is something called justice. I am sorry, I meant to say, there should be something called justice. You know, the balance thing, with the lady with her eyes blind-folded? If she were to see some of the things that people do these days, she would definitely not hesitate to throw the scales at them along with 3 tons of TNT.

Ah, the times...