Category: Anecdotes

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Anecdotes

Jamie Dimon on getting fired

I went home and I sat my three little girls down. They were probably at the time 10, 8 and 6. I said girls, I’ve got to tell you something. I resigned, but that really means I no longer have my job. I was fired but I want you to know I’m completely okay. And my little one said ,”Daddy, do we have to go sleep on the streets?” I said, “No, sweetie, we’re here, we’re fine, we’re fortunate everything’s going to be exactly the same except Daddy’s going to be home a bit more.” And the middle daughter, who was always obsessed with college, said, “Can I still go to college?” I said, “Of course you can still go to college.” And the oldest one said, “So if everything’s okay, can I have your cell phone? You won’t be needing it-from Bloomberg

 

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Anecdotes Politics

It rains money in Indian Politics

Telugu filmdom is now full of tales about how Dasari Narayana Rao, who had fallen on hard times financially, suddenly seemed flush with money after he became MoS for coal and mines in 2004. “Dasari used to stay in Prashasan Nagar in a police officer’s house on rent,” says another filmmaker, refusing to be named. “He could not pay his dues for 10 months. This was in 2002. He was in such debt that every hour he’d receive calls from financiers and lenders asking for amounts ranging from a lakh to a crore.

Dasari owned a school in Chennai opposite Prasad Studios and was to sell it to Vazhapadi Ramamurthy, a politician, in 2001 in order to recover some money. But after Dasari took an advance, Vazhapadi passed away and the sale was called off,” he says. About a month after he became Union minister in 2004, Dasari called financiers to his place and settled dues worth Rs 3.75 crore. “They were all stunned because he was literally subsisting on hand loans at the time. But they were glad to get their money back,” says a film distributor.

Overnight, Dasari seemed to have come into big money and bought distribution rights for big films such as Jai Chiranjeeva (starring Chiranjeevi), Sainikudu (Mahesh Babu), Super (Nagarjuna), Balu ABCDEFG (Pawan Kalyan), Desam Muduru (Allu Arjun). “He spent Rs 6 crore to buy the distribution rights of Jai Chiranjeeva for Nizam and Vizag areas and the movie tanked. But his company was strangely making profits,” says a director. “This way, Dasari bought rights for 40 big films soon after becoming minister. Where were the funds coming from unless it suddenly rained money in his native hometown Palakolu (West Godavari) district,” says the director.-from Outlook

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Anecdotes

Plight of Indian Mutual Fund Distributor

Me:So business is down?

He:Very down

Me:So how do you spend your time?

He:Go to office in the morning.First I have tea and then I read the newspaper

Me:Then?

He:Return home for lunch.After some rest, back to the office

Me:Then?

He:Now I read the newspaper first and then I have tea !!

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Anecdotes

How Nehru treated Sardar Patel’s daughter

These anecdotes are from Verghese Kurien’s memoirs I Too Had A Dream

Maniben Patel,Sardar Patel’s daughter, was a woman of tremendous honesty and loyalty.She told me that when Sardar Patel passed way, she picked up a book and a bag that belonged to him and went to meet Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi.She handed them to Nehru, telling him that her father had instructed her that when she died she should give these items to Nehru and no one else.The bag contained Rs 35 Lakh that belonged to the Congress Party and the book was the party’s book of accounts.Nehru took them and thanked her.Maniben waited expectantly, hoping he would say something more,but he did not, so she got up and left.

I asked her what she had expected Nehru to say to her. ‘I thought he might ask me how I would manage now, or atleast ask if there was anything he could do to help me.But he never asked.’ she explained.She was extremely disheartened and in a way the incident revealed the strain in the Nehru-Sardar Patel relationship.It was quite distressing to see that neither Nehru nor any of the other national leaders of the Congress ever bothered to find out what happened to Maniben after her father died.”

“After all the sacrifices that Sardar Patel made for the nation, it was very sad that the nation did nothing for his daughter.In her later years,when her eyesight weakened,she would walk unaided down the streets of Ahmedabad,often stumble and fall until some passerby helped her up.When she was dying, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Chimanbhai Patel,came to her bedside with a photographer.He stood behind her bed and instructed him to take a picture.The photograph was published in  all the newspapers the next day.With a little effort,they could so easily have made her last years  comfortable”

 

What an amazing contrast in fortunes of Nehru’s family and Sardar Patel’s family !!!

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Anecdotes Realty

What does India mean for foreign realty investors?

Michael Hollande, Member RICS, South Asia Board, believes most foreign investors are apprehensive about investing in Indian realty due to lack of governance and accountability in the sector. “When I asked my Austrailian friends whether they would park money in Indian real estate, they had only one thing to say. INDIA means I will never do it again,” he said.-from Firstpost