Financial Innovation

Any innovation arises out of a visible need or to improve current standards that can vary from cost reduction to ease of use to make money. Thus by birth, an innovation is not good or bad. It is decided by how it is used in future. It can die unnoticed, serve human mankind or lead to destruction.

Imagine a life without money that in financial terms is known as currency. How will you buy stuff from market?  It is impossible to think. Financial Innovation dates back to as early as in 7^th Century B.C. with the introduction of coins in the Greek state of Lybia which today in the form of currency we use in our daily lives. Thus, if it were not for that financial innovation we would still be using the barter system.

The last two decades have seen a sudden increase in financial innovation with one of the reasons for it being the more use of Information Technology in the financial world. Some of the beneficial  financial innovations  had been zero coupon bonds, puttable bonds , Treasury STRIPS etc. With growth of derivatives and other financial tools, the circulation of money in market has increased exponentially and contributed to the development of economies. When junk bonds were introduced in 1980s they were ridiculed by many but today they are lifeline of many start ups and companies who do not get access to capital otherwise. It has lowered the cost of borrowing for firms and helped in building the entrepreneurial culture. Thus, financial innovation is very much important for economic growth and is a lifeline for any progressive system.

Recent recession has aggravated the debate on whether financial innovation is an evil. However, at the same time the recession has put forward a very important question on what should be done to ensure that these kinds of events does not happen again in future. Clearly stopping financial innovation is not a solution. But some measures need to be taken to prevent this to happen again. Clearly, there is a need to scrutinize the financial products more closely in future. Regulations need to be strengthened. Recession also points out to the fact that the policy environment needs an overhaul. It is easy to declare Financial Innovation as the evil behind the crisis but it is actually a result of a clear policy failure. The risk taking mistakes by the financial managers in the subprime mortgage market were encouraged by the weak policy environment that allowed them to underestimate the risk involved. Credit was made available very easily thus again pointing towards failed policy environment. Rating agencies failed to guide the customers properly. Hence, pointing fingers at financial innovation is running away from the root cause of the problem. In addition, any financial innovation like other innovations is seen by the world with same skepticism and distrust. Thus, just blaming the recession which was more a cause of human greed to the beautiful innovation of CDS is definitely unjustified. The actual idea behind subprime mortgage was to help people who dreamed of owning a home to realize their dream.

Currently the regulatory reforms fail to match the dynamism of the financial sector .The need of the hour is to understand that the economic growth, financial innovation and regulations are linked. Financial innovation and regulations have to keep evolving with time to sustain economic growth. Instead of regulations curbing financial innovation, the regulations should ensure that the innovation does not lead to destruction and actually does what it was intended to do.

One cannot deny that the improper use of financial innovation can lead to harmful consequences. But the same is true for any innovation. But the important point is that the positives of financial innovation do outweigh the negatives and at same time negatives can be controlled with better regulations and policy environment. Thus, stereotyping it as an Evil is completely unjustified and inappropriate.

Category of Girls

Jisse dhoondta hoon main har kahin

Jo kabhi mili mujhe hai nahin

Mujhe jiske pyaar par ho yakeen

Woh ladki hai kahan

Jisse sirf mujhse hi pyaar ho

Jo yeh kehne ko bhi taiyyaar ho

Suno tum hi mere dildaar ho

Woh ladki hai kahan

The only question I ask myself after every relationship ends is that Rahul why I end up in wrong relationships. This led me to another strange thought about the girls I dated or met till now. I tried categorizing the kind of girls I fell for or met. And strangely I realized that I can do that because till now I met girls having a similar kind of characteristics.

Before going deep into categories let me share my ideal girl. I do have a picture of her in mind. She must be highly educated , have expressive eyes , long hair and height atleast 5 feet five inches. I will love to see her not smoking and drinking after entering into relationship with me. I will also like to see her having little focus on her career because I feel those kind of girls are self dependent and good at decision making. She should be ready to live with my family. She should be someone who values what she says and also what I say . In short a good speaker and listener. This is because I believe that success of a relationship matters a lot on how well we communicate and are transparent and honest to each other. I do not believe in the philosophy of understanding silence of the other partner.

Now the categories . After giving a lot of thought I came up with three categories for girls in which am sure every girl can fit themselves either completely or in between two.

I have named them as Category A,B and C. It doesn’t by any chance mean that A is better than B and B is better than C. All the three are equally good and also those who fall in between this categories like between Category A and B & between Category B and C.

Let me start with Category C first because I have just heard of them. Thankfully never met any of them personally but some of my friends have and had bad experiences. They are kind of total girl types , the one who believe in the concept that a guy will come on horse and take them far from this world. They are waiting for that guy and not ready to talk or go on a date with any guy. I can’t understand how without going on a date they can find out which guy is best for them. Am scared of these kind of girls because the only line which I always say to myself before approaching a girl is  “ rahul don’t worry , koi ladki thappad nahi maarti “ . And these Category C kind of girls will slap you if you even if by mistake touch them, so think what they will do if you approach them to ask her out on date.

The second category is Category B. They are the ones who hangout in groups consisting both guys and girls. They are the ones who respect their family values and culture a lot. They know their limits and do not ever cross them. A guy need to wait a lot to know her better as she does not open up easily and talk from her heart. The most beautiful part about these kind of girls is that once they begin to trust you , you will start to feel the changes in the relationship with her and respect her more. The bad thing about them is that in spite of feeling the changes in relationship they wont come in front to admit the importance of that guy in their life and eventually leave the guy confused. Even if the guy will make a move on her she will push him back.  In today’s world I feel these kind of girls need to get little bold and come out of the shell a little more fast otherwise they end up losing from the third category which I name it as Category A.

Category A is total tomboy types. They are not scared or bothered to go alone with guys because of two reasons, one they feel lot more happy surrounded with guys and secondly they don’t end up as good friends with girls because of their nature. They are always expecting a lot more from other end without doing anything for other person. They show themselves to be very career oriented, confident but I believe they are not. I believe short term happiness means a lot to them and they don’t even try to think about long term happiness. Guys who have dated girls earlier  know and understand their mindset and thus never fall for them in serious manner. For these kind of girls holding hands, hugs , dates are not a big deal. They are not at all an ideal girl friend and I pity those guys who enter into serious relationship with them because am sure that would be their first love and they will end up with only hurt.

Now where my ideal girl should be. I will love to be with a girl who falls between Category A and B. This is because knowing the kind of person I am now , I myself will be scared to take next step with a girl and thus will like to see the girl to help me in taking the next step. I believe I wont ever be able to take a step if a girl belongs completely to category B and surely I will never like to end up with a girl of Category A. In addition, I will never like to meet someone from Category C.

So someone in between Category A and B will be great for me.

Phases in Relationships

Phases  in relationship. These three words together sound strange. If the first thought that comes to your mind is “Relationships are beautiful and this stupid creature is trying to create phases in them”, it is perfectly fine for you to think like that. My first reaction was also the same when someone talked about this to me 2 years back. I didn’t agree to the thought which am going to talk about ahead. However, today writing this I totally believe in the idea of Phases in relationship. When I look back at what little I experienced in my life and also what I have seen happening around me , I can surely put up my hand and say “ Yes there are phases in relationship “ . But at the same time the whole idea is these phases happen naturally in a relationship.

Even for someone who believes in the purity of soul than looks there is a basic thought in mind on how the partner should look like. The first phase in a relationship starts when the two characters meet. There is an eye contact between boy and girl. Both of them in an instant are able to decide if the other person fits that basic criteria. If both of them feels YES then the excitement phase is ON. You exchange phone numbers, add each other on Facebook, messengers etc and try to know each other. Goodnight and good morning messages become a norm soon. The strange part in this phase which I believe can last from few days to few months is that each of them talks all the good things about themselves . You start talking in a way that you feel will impress the other person and suddenly you end up sharing the same likes and dislikes. The good thing is that even if nothing romantically happens in future you end up having a good friend. Some are so much inclined to enter into a relationship that they talk about this in the first phase itself without getting to know the actual person and regret later. They end up losing a friend. Again, Category A girls come to my mind who enter relationships in the beginning of this phase.

After few months, the talks of a possible beginning of relationship start. They try to find out what other person thinks. Girls hold an upper hand in this, as they are actually the ones who decide whether and when to initiate these talks. Guys have just two options, either to wait for girl to start this talk or if they sure girl isn’t interested start looking for other girl. If both of them are interested then they enter into a relationship and term each other as boyfriend and girlfriend.

With time you actually start to know the real person and his or her shortcomings. You start to understand that there is a world outside your boyfriend/girlfriend and you have a career to pursue. A sense of feeling of taking the other person for granted starts to begin. Frequency of texts starts to decrease. This phase is Meltdown phase. Three things are possible in this phase.

First :  A relationship is bound to end in the beginning of this phase if one of them is sure after getting to know the real side of other person that he/she does not fit the boyfriend/girlfriend he/she is looking for. They don’t survive to see the third phase in relationship and never talk in future again.

Second :  Only one of the characters has reached this phase and the other is still in first phase itself. This is where you have the first fight in relationship, the first big fight. The most famous senti line is spoken in this phase “ Tum pehle to aise nahi the “ . The person who is still in excitement phase needs to show high level of maturity and the other person needs to show commitment towards the relationship to reach the third phase in relationship. Else, sadly the relationship comes to an end.

Third : Both of them are together in this phase ( a very ideal situation ) then there is a sense of understanding that we both are there for each other and both share the same level of commitment. They sail through this phase but someday are bound to enter the third phase.

A time comes in your life when things are not exactly the way you wish them to be both in your relationship and professional / personal life. A kind of gap has set in your relationship and you feel like god is testing it. This scary phase is Reconciliation phase. You try to talk to your partner and find solace with him/her and at the same time are scared to be pushed back. If you are lucky the partner will share the same anxiety about the relationship as you are and talk with heart to clear things out. Otherwise, all the nightmares you had about your relationships will come true and that is going to break your heart. This phase normally comes in second to third year of the relationship. It’s a test of real love and is bound to give sleepless nights and tears. The base of relationship “Trust and Honesty “is at stake in this phase and it is very important to put ego at a side while conversing.

If the relationship survives the third phase then it enters the Forever phase. The relationship has seen the ups and downs and both the partners trust and value each other more than themselves. They now share love and respect for each other and understand that the other person will stand by even if the world turns it’s back on to him/her. You dream of marrying the person , talk about it and continue the beautiful journey of Life together.

If you were in a relationship/love am sure you would have figured out until now in which phase and why it ended and what went wrong.

 If you are in a relationship try thinking which phase you are in. Am sure similar things which I talked about must have happened in your relationship. There must had been a time when you felt that things are going in wrong direction and a fear must had set in.

For others, who are yet to be in a relationship or you secretly love someone, you wont agree to even a word of what all you read just now. But I request you to keep this in mind and try to make your first love/ relationship reach the fourth phase. Don’t jump into a relationship just for sake of experiencing it. Keep your honesty and purity intact and wait for the right person.