Being Woman – Untold Truth

I am very inquisitive person; I always wonder how those beautiful and sexy women could be in my arms, what could turn them on? Is there anything apart from my look, brain or money; which can turn them on? Because that is what I don’t have…!!! Is every time a man has to check her out or she also scans us inside and out? Who decides the pick man or woman? Who says first “Hold me Thrill me”

The second thing what I was wondering about is what is the secret about the lesbian sex? How girls really turn each other on – and how both girls can bring their skills into the bedroom? The lesbian porn what we see on the Net, full of straight girls, fake-orgasm after 45 seconds, but I think we are getting wrong idea when it comes to how two women have sex? There are so many questions wandering in my mind and only one person can answer or rather to only one person to whom I can ask without any hesitation is my NRI girlfriend Kanta Pushkar from LA…!!!

She walked out of the arrival gate of Mumbai International airport, she is tall, perfect vital stats, not fair, not beautiful, dusky but glowing skin, big bright eyes, she was wearing baby pink cotton trouser, white top, baby pink scarf around her neck, white sandals, well groomed hairs, highlighted flicks, diamond studded Cartier watch on her left wrist, she walked straight towards me gave me tight hug, she was wearing some expensive perfumes, that really turned me on –  I put her suitcase in the boot and both jumped into my new Ford Figo, she looked at me smiled and said “hmm American Car”  and I quickly replied back “yup that is for my American babes” and we both laughed.

It was 4 in the morning, she was visiting her parents at Lucknow on 8 am flight from the Santa Cruz domestic airport, to kill the time, I parked my car into nearby 5 star hotel, we went into coffee shop and took a corner table in smoking zone, order a pot of coffee and some grilled sandwiches, she lighted her Marlboro lights, inhaled deeply down her throat and blew the smoke on my face, I was staring at her, smiling and nodding  “smoking too much” she laughed and said “than what do I do? I am divorcee for 10 years, no kids and loneliness kills” her eyes got moist she looked away from me, I put my hands on her hand and consoled her “it’s okay, cool down babes” and she laughed and cried and I hold her tightly and quickly she gathered her wit, she composed herself and asked “tell me what’s up” and I asked the questions which was haunting me from long time “What turns you woman on?” she laughed loudly, the coffee and sandwiches was served on the table, she looked straight into my eyes…..and replied;

“Surely, it is not money, that is the misconception, imagine what happens when your money is spent and when your car has run out of fuel, it finally rests in your hands; the touch is the most basic, most primitive form of human interaction. Before we learn to speak, we communicate by touching, as we grow older and society tightens its grip around your psyche, we learn to underestimate the power of a simple touch. I can’t stand a man who offers just the tip of his fingers a livery handshake. But then I don’t want to put my hand into a walnut cracker either, I like a warm, firm, brief, but full-handed handshake”.

“Hands play the man-woman mating game. It does not matter how far and where those hands will travel on woman’s body, but if they do, it is because the woman liked the way they looked and felt even in that first handshake”. She paused for a while, I lighted my Classic Mild, I lifted my coffee mug and took sip, she took a bite of her grilled sandwich with some extra chili sauce and she continued….

“It might seems odd but I waited for the moment you to reaches for the coffee mug, if you hasn’t hooked your index finger and middle fingers into and through the handle, curled them upwards and sealed them with an authoritative thumb, than you are dud. For me, a man’s fingers are like the talons of a falcon. Rough, sure, powerful”. I looked at her with a question in my eyes and she continued “if you can’t hold a coffee mug well what the hell you going to do with me”? And I laughed a loud saying “I cannot imagine what you says” I puffed my Classic Mild with tip facing my palm and she said “It is strange, but I find it sexy, looking your cigarette tip facing your palm, as if you are flirting with fire in more ways than one and that is a power of touch without touching a woman.”

She continues “for me sexy man has warm hands – winter, summer, rain, he can melt me and turn me into helpless mush. That man is a raging furnace and I want to be consumed by that heat.” She laments “the biggest turn-on for me is the restrained touch of a man, when I know his hands are so strong that they can turn into weapons of destruction and yet when they caress my skin, they are tender and gentle. I feel that potent, leashed energy coiled up in those fingers and it so makes me crave more.”

The waiter served the bill, I signed my credit card voucher and she describes “My eyes take on a glazed look when I see a man, who needn’t even be very nattily dressed, wield a pen. Masterful strokes across the paper, when you signed and that what makes me think of strokes of an entirely different nature and that is the effect a single touch can have on women, who have the evolutionary upper hand when it comes to being selective about the power of their mates.”

She continues “Every man must realize that the human female is a soft creature and that her skin is silk. That’s where texture matters the most. If rough hands are warm as toast, they can turn any woman on”…!!!

She snapped back to reality, quickly drove off, flushed and embarrassed with her ended up the story “I haven’t been able to forget those hands. They keep coming to me, waking and dreaming. I am divorcee but no hands gave me pleasure of the unimaginable kind. Absolutely, that is the latent power at your disposal. Your hands speak a million words. And your hands are those that can – in one look for a woman – give pleasure or promise pleasure”…!!!

I asked her my next question the secret about a Lesbian sex?

“I had my first encounter of Lesbian sex few years back, when I was travelling from LA to New York with my office colleague Anne, we were sharing same hotel room and same bed as well, that night we finished full bottle of red wine and both got drunk, it was cold outside, I just removed my clothes and got into the bed naked, till then, I didn’t know that Anne was lesbian, she took the advantage of the situation and started exploring my body and before I try to resist, she came over me and gave me a gentle kiss on my lips….and I surrendered, kiss is the first step in turning woman on next morning when we woke up naked, I was embarrassed, but looking back it was hot because it was new and forbidden and sexy”.

Today apart from Anne I have few other women partners” she poured coffee for herself and continued “May be part of the reason oral sex is so important to lesbians is that it’s where they excel, basically girls can grind up against anything and get off – a knee, a hand, whatever” she was shy admitting  “I love being fingered” and she looked down, playing with the spoon and continued “but not before I am properly kissed and licked, dryness is the roots of all evil for straight sex as much as lesbian sex”

“Anne like our heads at the same end of the bed; One of us will be on top so that we can be chest to chest and able to kiss and touch, but we all position ourselves for maximum stimulations, we ride each other missionary, just like you do with a guy. I think it is instinctual, because we are so familiar with how the female body works, the keys are taking your time, reading her reactions, and making sure everything’s is wet” and then she got up saying  ”is enough for today or else we both have to check-in in the hotel and cancel my flight ticket”

We got into the car and she advised looking at me “so next time when you hold a pen, turn a handle, or clasp a hand, pause and think; will your touch turn her on, or drive her away”? She put her head on my shoulder; I knew she was crying and I let her, I drove her at departure gate of domestic terminal, I put her bag on trolley, she hugged me and walked away, I saw her passing through the gate and then she disappeared, I got into my car back home.

Author’s note: Some of the content in this post has elaborated expressions, it is not intentional but to understand the expressions correctly of Untold Truth – I apologize for the same.

Facebook or Google – Who Rules On Line World?

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and its CEO since April, was just born 11 years before Mark Zuckerberg, his counterpart at Facebook; the two belongs to different Internet generations with different worldviews.

In Page’s web, everything starts with a search. You search for news or for a pair of shoes or to keep up with your favorite celebrity. If you want to learn about a medical condition or decide which television to buy, you search. In that world, Google’s algorithms, honed over more than a decade, respond almost perfectly.

In the recent years the web has tilted gradually and perhaps inexorably, towards Zuckerberg’s world. There, rather than search for a news article, you wait for your friends to tell you what to read. They tell you what movies they enjoyed, what brands they like, and where to eat sushi.

Facebook is squarely at the centre of this new universe, which connects the people and much of what people do online these days starts there. But Facebook’s masterstroke has been spread itself across the web and allow others to tap your network of friends. As a result, thousands of websites and apps have essentially become satellites that orbit around Facebook. You can now go to yelp to find out what your Facebook friends says about the new coffeehouse down the street, or play Zynga games with them. To make matters worse for Page, much of this social activity can’t be seen by Google’s web-trolling algorithms, so every day they become a little bit less accurate and relevant.

This shift to a more social web changes everything for businesses and consumers alike. Among the first industries to be rocked: advertising. Google may capture 41% of today’s US$31 billion U.S. online advertising market, including the lion’s share of the search-ad market. But the growth in search advertising is slowing, and advertisers are putting more of their limited dollars into Facebook, with its 800 million users, many of whom spend more time on Facebook than on any other site.

Facebook displays-ad revenue is expected to grow 81% this year, while Google’s display-ad will rise an estimated 34%. Both Google and Facebook would have you believe there is room for each to drive forward and could grow by the billions in the display market without engaging directly and stealing market share from the other.

Like Bill Gates a decade or so earlier, Page is seeing his company’s grip on the tech world loosening. So he’s fighting back with mammoth effort to grab a piece of the social web. His first substantial act as Google’s new CEO was to ramp up the considerable financial engineering, he aimed at Facebook’s turf by releasing Google+ and 40 million people have signed up in only four months.

Zuckerberg knew Google+ is the first credible threat Facebook has faced since it sailed past MySpace to become the world’s No.1 social network. (Anything that tarnishes (Facebook) its halo could impact its long awaited IPO with a valuation that is expected to top US$ 80 billion)

Shortly after Google+ made its debut, Zuckerberg signaling that employees were on notice to work around the clock on, among other things, replicating some of the most praised Google+ features. Zuckerberg doesn’t like the defensive moves, and in September, at the company’s F8 developer’s event, he unleashed a sea of new features that alter the current service radically. And it’s expected the company will launch an ad network eventually that will harness all those social actions to help advertisers target consumers better across the web. Smartly deployed, it could further threaten Google’s position as the king of online advertising.

While most of us spend our days casually toggling back and forth between our Gmail accounts and our Facebook newsfeeds, down in the heart of the San Francisco Peninsula it’s on war.

Google finally introduced Google+ in June. A social network that cloned much of what people like about Facebook and eliminated much of what they hate about Facebook. You will find familiar home and profile pages, tabs for photos and games, and of course the endless updates from friends. Google+ 1 button works much like Facebook’s Like. Facebook lacked a good way to separate workmates from classmates from real friends, so Google+ was built around Circles, an intuitive way to group people in buckets.

After word leaked that Google was starting work on “Facebook killer” in summer 2010, Zuckerberg called on engineers to work nights and weekends for 60 days to revamp key social features like photos, groups, and events.   Just as it did then, the cafeteria opened up on evenings and weekends this summer, and children dropped in for dinners and good-night hugs before their parents logged back on for late nights.  By September they released a slew of new features like better grouping tools to mirror those Google+ circle. “This is serious, and we should take it seriously”

For Facebook, the early success of Google+ mean Zuckerberg can no longer afford to screw up. In the past, Facebook’s frequent product missteps and privacy snafus were by and large forgiven or forgotten. From now on, Google+ will stand at the ready, more than happy to welcome any disgruntled Facebook uses – not to mention their friends. In other words, as he soldiers on Zuckerberg must now keep an eye on Page and his troops.  In most of the recent quarter, Google added nearly 2,600 employees. That’s almost as many people as work at Facebook, and they have a clear mandate: to turn Google into a superpower of the social web.

3 Powerful Women – Maya, Mamata & Jaya

Three Chief Ministers, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalithaa are not only in control of the political destiny of over 360 million people (roughly 30 percent of the Indian population) they are also shaping the future of Indian politics. They answer to no one, they seem to trust no one, and they do not subscribe to the politics of dynasty, after all, they all are single women without any heirs at sight.

Consider the terms used for the 3 Chief Ministers: Amma, Bhenji and Didi these CMs are seen as matriarchal figures, a mother or an elder sister, as the case maybe; such tone demands that their sexuality be toned down. Mamata with her plain cotton saris; and to a great extent with Mayawati, in case of Jayalalithaa you can see she completely disassociated herself from her cinematic past. Her cape, the term Amma all this seeks to de-sexualize her, distance her from her cinematic image.

Jayalalithaa justifies her authoritarian ways and her vindictive politics as the legitimate response of a woman long wronged and exploited by men, till she rose in fury and decided to give tit for tat. MG Ramchandra could have, perhaps even more theatrically, made the same promise to his protégé and love, Jayalalithaa. During her first phase in power, she tried to create a cultic image. There was an active identification with religious symbols through the huge cutouts on every street corner – Jayalalithaa astride a lion, Jayalalithaa as Mother Mary. A signboard even dared to proclaim, “Henceforth History will be Her Story.” Soon enough, MGR, much like Kanshi Ram in Mayawati’s case, was a figure relegated to the background.

Mamata Banerjee has built her political career more in the tradition of an avenging deity than a politician. She presents herself as a victim of CPM’s dictatorship who will not rest till she has destroyed their power. On every Thursday there were long queues of people at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s house, she gave away Kali puja Prasad, greeting VIPs and commoners alike…she has been organizing the puja at her Kalighat house residence in south Kolkata since 1978, when she was a student leader. It was her idea. “The rituals are conducted by strictly following the scriptures” in a state where the Cult of the Goddess is all important, it is not difficult for people to make the association.

Mayawati does not use any personal history of persecution but claims to be avenging the collective, historic insults heaped upon the entire Dalit Community. The monuments built during her rule speak for themselves. She presiding female deity in the temples built to celebrate a religion that commences with Amedkar, is taken forward by Kanshi Ram, and culminates in her success. When Kanshi Ram first visited her house, she told her wish piously “I am studying to pass the IAS exam and become a collector so that I can serve my community properly.” Kanshi Ram’s prophetic reply summed up the essence of power in India: “I can make you such a big leader one day that not one, but whole row of collectors will line up with files in front of you, waiting for the orders.” Collectors cowering in Mayawati’s presence are a fact of life in UP today.

All three in these role is to be beset by a deep insecurity, there is no one you can completely trust. This is not peculiar to Mayawati, Jayalalithaa or Mamata. Regional parties built around a cult of personality tend to force the same insecurity on every politician, be it Mulayam Singh or M.R. Karunanidhi. But as women who have had to renounce their sexuality, they do not have families to turn to, whereas Mulayam has his son, and Karunanidhi has an entire clan.

One common characteristic that Jayalalithaa, Mamata, Mayawati, and to a much lesser extent Sonia Gandhi, share with each other is that they act as though no one could get away with trying to intimidate them…The mesmeric power these women exercise over our political life provides with interesting insights into the Indian male psyche. None of this can be said about the women who first inherited power purely through birth or marriage, such as Rabri Devi or even Sonia Gandhi, perhaps Indira Gandhi falls somewhere in-between, even her attitude and politics are the closest to these three women.

The question of where their political ambitions will take them next is crucial to the future of Indian politics. And it would not come as a surprise to anyone that each sees herself as a potential Prime Minister.

Mayawati’s chances of becoming Prime Minister depend on how the political melting pot…gets stirred… A supreme opportunist who has always managed to exploit other people’s compulsions and vulnerabilities to her advantage, she is capable of doing business with both the Congress and BJP

Mamata’s aim had always been to eject Communists from power. She achieved that in West Bengal, and she already seems to be floundering.

Jayalalithaa only represents herself; the ideological impetus that formed the basis for the Dravidian assertion in Tamil Nadu had been subsumed under the cult of personality even before she joined politics. This leaves Mayawati. Of the three, she is the only one who stands for something larger than herself…?

No surprise if these three women launch a new political alliance called ABD? (Amma, Bhenji & Didi) Fourth Front…?

Cargill Rules the Food Business

Food security – the challenge of feeding the world – has recently raised to the top of the G20 agenda. The UN says that billion people go to bed hungry every night, and that we need to double food production by 2025 just to keep up with population growth and better diets in the developing world – grim truths that concern Cargill deeply, whether Cargill believes that solving world hunger is its job or not. “We are not philanthropy’ says Greg Page “I think we have to be careful not to lay claim to an altruism that doesn’t exist.”

Mr. Greg Page does not disagree, although his take may surprise you “Clearly the volatility can be an opportunity” he says, acknowledging that sharp price swings can play Cargill’s vaunted trading expertise. Then he adds “the big part of our business is the physical handling of tens of millions of tons of food. If we believe that world is headed toward a varied weather pattern, those services become more important.”

In other words, signs point to Cargill’s influence – and profits – continuing to grow. But is what’s good for Cargill good for the world?

Cargill’s impact on our daily lives; you don’t have to love Egg Mac Muffins (MacDonald’s buys many of its eggs in liquid form from Cargill) or hamburgers (Cargill’s facilities can slaughter more cattle than anyone else in the U.S.) or sub sandwiches (No. 8 in pork, No. 3 in turkey) to ingest Cargill products on a regular basis.  Whatever you ate or drink today – a candy bar, pretzels, soup from can, ice cream, yoghurt, chewing gum, beer – chances are it included a little something from Cargill’s menu of food additives. Its US$ 50 billion “ingredients” business touches pretty much anything salted, sweetened, preserved, fortified, emulsified or texturised, or anything whose raw taste or smell had to be masked in order to make it palatable.

Cargill’s big acquisition agenda, completing deals for a Central American poultry and meat processor, a German chocolate company, an Italian feed company, and the grain business of AWB, formerly the government-owned Australian Wheat Board – Mr. Greg Page says “the US$ 1.3 billion AWB purchase fills a hole in Cargill’s global grain network: “We are in Russia, We are in Ukraine, We are in Canada, We are in the U.S. We are in Argentina, and we just didn’t have as vibrant a footprint there.”Cargill also has a pending US$ 2.1 billion offer for Provimi, a global feed company with 7,000 employees in 26 countries; the deal is expected to close by year-end.

Mr. Greg Page may not be under pressure from the family shareholders, but that doesn’t mean that he is unworried about the future. The real threat to Cargill’s long-term prosperity, Page says “is that forces beyond the company’s control will infringe on its freedom to operate across markets.”  Cargill is clearly concerned with the way the global conversation is bending on food security. “You don’t end up with policies that are counterproductive to feeding everyone,” says Page, “and we don’t want to end up with a business model that doesn’t have any freedom to operate.” Trust us, he’s saying, to feed the world, to keep our food safe, to respect the environment, and, by the way, to not gouge farmers or food shopper at the supermarket. That’s asking a lot. Greg Page is keeping a weather eye out. We’d better do the same.

Sources: All the 3 post on Cargill is summarized from an article in Fortune India magazine of January 2012

Cargill – Cocoa in Vietnam

One business Cargill is not in, curiously, is farming. With exception of two large palm plantations in Indonesia, Cargill does not own land. That’s partly a capital deployment choice, much like its decision to charter, not own, ships.  ‘Pure trading opportunity’  developing in the next four or five years and has set up a partnership to buy distressed shipping assets: “we will buy when things are looking bad and at times sell when things are looking better” Shonda Warner, a former Cargill trader says “They are not corporate farmers, farming is not their business. Grain handling and grain trading – trading the produce is their business”

That means stimulating new markets, opening new trade routes, matching producers with consumers, and above all, ensuring steady flows of agricultural commodities in a changing global environment “as far as our corporate strategy works” say Conway “we don’t say, we think the world going to look like this, let’s define our strategy for that world” We say, ‘we don’t know what the world going to look like, we need a strategy or a set of strategies that can be successful almost irrespective of what the world looks like” which explains how Cargill got into the cocoa business in Vietnam.

Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa grows in West Africa, and most of that in one country Ivory Coast. Since 1999, Ivory Coast has been through a bloody succession of military coups, rigged elections, and civil wars. “We were concerned about running into a ceiling on production there” say Harold Poelma, managing director of Cargill Cocoa. So Cargill began looking for other options. The solution that it came up with perfectly illustrates the company’s global reach and long view.

Cocoa trees don’t grow just anyplace. They need shade, warmth, and humidity, as well as deep, rich soil – conditions generally found within a band 20 degrees north and south of the equator. That band passes through Vietnam. Cargill was one of the first U.S. MNC to return to Vietnam when President Bill Clinton normalized relations with the government in Hanoi in 1995. Today it is the country’s largest domestic producer of livestock feed and central player in Vietnam’s fast moving shift from a state-controlled agricultural economy to one where small farmers are encouraged to work private plots for private gains.

In 2004, Cargill launched a public-private-partnership with one of its biggest customers, chocolate giant Mars, and the governments of Vietnam and the Netherlands. The aim: to create something that had never before existed in Vietnam, a cocoa- export economy.

First, Cargill had to convince a front line of growers to switch to cocoa from well-established crops like coffee, black pepper, and cashews. The two years before the first harvest before there was anything to buy, Cargill opened two fully-staffed cocoa buying stations on major roads, in Ben Tre and Dak Lak provinces. It made an early commitment to transparency, posting on the Cargill website and offering by text message both the daily international price on the London market and what Cargill is paying locally; growers can lock their price for three weeks, the time it takes to ferment and dry the beans after harvest. Cargill also built a network of more than 100 demonstration farms. And in February 2011 the company took delivery of the first Vietnamese cocoa beans to carry UTZ certification.

Mr. Poelma sees the potential for 100,000 tons by 2020. Cargill hopes to have a Cargill factory in Vietnam by then, processing cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder for export to growing markets in China and India.

To be continued…

 

 

Cargill – Success Mantra…!!!

At 60, even in clean white shirt and rimless spectacles, he still looks like a farmer. He’s tall and angular with thick silver hair, ruddy skin, and a chin like a block of wood. At Cargill’s HQ Wayzata, Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis, in the Founders Room, surrounded by oil portraits of CEOs past. The Founder Room is only for Cargills and Macmillans, the two families joined by marriage at the turn of the last century; they built Cargill and ran it as a family business until CEO Whitney MacMillan’s retirement in 1995.

Mr. Greg Page only misgiving about the job offer he received from Cargill in 1974 was that it was from Cargill. He had grown up in tiny Bottineau, North Dakota, six miles from the Canadian border. Mr. Greg Page took the job anyway. He labored happily, for first 24 years at Cargill, beginning with the feed division, then in meat, a home and abroad, until he was picked for bigger things. Eventually he was promoted all the way, in 2007, to chairman and CEO of the US largest private company. Today he runs a business that is vastly larger and more influential that the Cargill of his youth.

Mr. Page is the third CEO in a row to come from outside the family. Today not a single Cargill or MacMillan remains in a senior executive position at the company. What hasn’t changed is the ownership. Cargill introduce a limited employee stock ownership plan in the ‘90s that allowed some family members to cash out. However, roughly 100 descendants of the founders still own around 90 per cent of the stock, worth some US$ 52 billion as of the last official tally. Generally, they’ve been content to plough profits back into the business and watch the value of their asset grow. Dividends are calculated on a rolling two-year cycle and paid at a minimum rate. “The capital’s not only private. It’s patient and permanent” says Page.

Cargill’s roots lie in the ancient, risky business of buying, storing, and selling grain. William Wallace Cargill, the second son of a Scottish sea captain, started with a single warehouse Conover, Iowa, in 1865. Conover is a ghost town now, but Cargill still deals heavily in grain. Wherever it grows and wherever is goes.

Cargill ships other commodities too: soybeans and sugar from Brazil; palm oil from Indonesia; cotton from Asia, Africa, Australia and the Deep South; beef from Argentina, Australia, and the Great Plains; and salt from all over North America, Australia, and Venezuela. The company owns and operates nearly 1000 river barges and charters 350 oceangoing vessels that call on some 6000 ports globally, ranking it among the world’s biggest bulk shipper of commodities. “In one sense, you can think of Cargill as just a big transportation company” says Wally Falcon at Stanford University. “Their game is: extremely efficient, high volumes, low margins, and just being smarter and quicker than anybody else”

Sometimes the same ship that picks up a load of soybeans at Cargill’s deepwater Amazon port in Santarem,  Brazil, after unloading in Shanghai, will carry coal from Australia to Japan before rinsing out its holds and returning to Brazil for more beans. In fact, Cargill ocean-transport business moves more coal and iron ore for third parties than it does foodstuffs, oils, and animal feeds for itself, by a factor of two. “From places of surplus to places of need” is the Cargill mantra.

In 63 countries markets in which Cargill operates around the world. It derives 60% of its income outside the U.S. – 531 million bushels Cargill’s US grain storage capacity, the largest of any company; it’s also No. 1 in beef.

When asked to Mr. Page What does Cargill mean when it talks about food innovation?  He replies “An array of things. In some cases it’s fiber you enjoy eating. In other cases it’s the sensation of sweetness that comes without a calorie burden. In some cases it is healthfulness promise: phytosterols from soybeans, antioxidants that people are concerned about. In some cases they’re high-performance sports drinks that have a glycemic response that coincides with an athlete’s needs. This is probably things that a lot of people don’t think about, but there are sports beverages where our role is to understand metabolism to the level that we understand how the energy is released into the bloodstream”

With US$ 119.5 billion (Rs. 6.31 lakh crore) in revenues in its most fiscal year, ended May 31, Cargill is bigger by half than it is nearest publicly held rival in the food production industry. Archer Daniels Midland, if Cargill were public, it would have ranked No. 18 on this year’s Fortune 500, between AIG and IBM. Over the past decade, periods when the S&P 500s’ revenues have grown 31% Cargill’s sales have more than doubled.

To be continued….

Jim Rogers – Commodity 2012 & Beyond

World markets may be riddled with uncertainty, but billionaire investor Jim Rogers anticipates gains in one sector for years to come.

“If I were buying anything I’d be buying agriculture commodities,” he says “Going forward we’re going to have huge shortages of everything – including farmers (Fund Managers can become farmers) – I think agriculture will be a great place for the next 10-20 years,” he says “But don’t take that to mean that agri stocks are a buy” – that’s not what he means.

“Yale did a study recently showing that investors made 300% more by putting money in commodities themselves rather than commodity stocks – that is unless you’re a great stock picker.” In other words, he’d play his thesis with commodities futures or ETFs that track them.

His thesis is based on massive research, part of which involves the performance of commodities in the year 1970’s. “At the time economies did nothing and yet commodities went through the roof,” he explains.

Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in year 1973. Although a native of Alabama, Rogers famously moved to Singapore due to his on-going belief that Asia is on the cusp of great prosperity.

“He is an investor who eats his own cooking,” says Fast Money trader Stephen Weiss. In other words, he doesn’t just talk the talk, Rogers walks the walk. And largely he is short because he is not optimistic about what’s going to happen in the world over the next two or three years.

“I am short emerging markets, short American technology, short European stocks – I don’t see much reason to own equities,” he says.

In nutshell, Rogers expects global economic problems to get much worse. But whether that happens or not he still thinks a long position in commodities makes sense. That’s the one area of the market where he sees potential.

Here’s why?

If his thesis doesn’t hold and the economies of the world improves, “I will make money in commodities because (increased demand will generate) shortages,” he says “But if the world doesn’t get better, the government print money and the way to protect against that is to own real assets.”

In other words, he thinks commodities are a win/win.

And in case you’re wondering about his thoughts on gold, Rogers says, “it would not surprise me to see gold go to $1200 –but if it goes that low I’d buy a lot more – gold has been up 11 years in a row it deserves a substantial correction.”

In April 2011 – he said in one of his interview “I am still bullish on silver & rice, I am not sure I would buy it today as it has gone so up so fast, but I am not selling, if it goes down I will buy more” he further said “I am still bullish on rice, I still have all my rice. I use silver chopstick as well and I have not given up yet.”

Anna Hazare flop show in Mumbai

Never take people of India for granted, they punished Team Anna….people of Maharashtra clearly showed that the people have no time for the likes of BJP and SS, who may be appear to be less corrupt, but far more communal. For millions the choice was between communal or a corrupt party, it is always the latter.

I stopped fasting because the day I fast I fart a lot, I also bark because I am angry when I am hungry…!!! My wife has given me a strict instruction No Religious fasting, No weekly fasting, No Medical fasting, No Navratri, No Ramazan, No Paryushana, No Janmanstami, No Ramnavmi, etc… my wife believes that fasting is religious but  farting is unreligious; thank god Anna is unmarried…!!!

Why Anna’s fasting is different than mine? He is not married so he is not worried, one thing I don’t understand who decide when Anna will fast? At which city he will fast? How many days to fast? Why to do marketing of his fasting? I am confused that why he needs to rent out MMRDA with the size of 20,000 sq.mt meters for rally, 10,000 sq.mt parking (total area is 48,000 sq.mt) this will accommodate around 40,000 people at the time? Distributing pamphlets at railway stations and roads, a free bus service from Bandra and Kurla railway stations to BKC, volunteers were deployed at the railways stations plead commuters to attend rally and directing them  to free buses – over and above…!!!

It was like big reality show a separate stage for media, his stage with 12 feet height, consisting of 1 rest room with a cot, bed sheet and mattresses, and washroom, a live musical program, The team of Doctors from Jaslok, Asian heart and Bombay Hospital and 8-10 ambulances standby – also 3000 police for day and night security and the live screen telecasting the Parliaments proceedings…!!! What a fast, very fast, super fast!!! Is this a fasting, feasting or farting? Why can he simply build a small tent in the close proximity of parliament to protest? Why the big fuss? Did Mahatma Gandhi market his fasting?

Members of Team Anna like Kiran Bedi acting like a Chulbul Pandey of Dabaang and Arvind Kejriwal the Rancho of 3 Idiots, both were desperate to promote themselves and were targeting the congress the ruling party, common man saw that congress led government actually making effort to get the bill through and now, paradoxically, team Anna was against it, that was the perhaps biggest mistake of all and cause of the flop show.

It was surprising that BJB voted against Lokpal Bill, Anna abruptly left the stage and when media persisted in asking him why he wasn’t targeting the BJP, which had voted against the bill to give the Lokpal constitutional status? No one has the answer. That shows there motives and hidden agenda on upcoming elections!!!

I told my wife that I will fast for 3 days, she warned me “if you fast for 3 days then I am not going to stay with you? After sometime she questioned me “by the way, why you want to fast?” I replied “I want to support Anna” she laughed and said “team Anna winded up their baggage one day before and gone home, it was a flop show” she checked with me “three groups are fighting in Team Anna, North-Indian; Maharashtrian or Ralegan Siddhi to whom you will support?

That reminded me the philosophy of  Mahatma Gandhi who believed in the purity of means to achieve noble ends. Anna showcased that as long as the ends were noble, the means did not matter. This Mahatma Gandhi would never agree with.

Just by wearing Gandhi topi you cannot become Mahatma Gandhi…!!!

This post dated: 29^th December 2011

 

Bhagwad Gita – “an extremist literature”

The Bhagwad Gita, one of the holiest Hindu scripture, is facing a legal ban and the prospect of being branded as “an extremist” literature across Russia.

A Siberian court will soon pronounce its verdict in case of calling ban on Gita in Soviet Union. The reason: Gita is apparently spreading social discord.

If a lack of cultural understand can get a sacred text banned, there is a strong case to ban even the Bible & the Quran, which don’t lack the controversial passages themselves. A complex text that can be interpreted in many ways, it is no surprise people un-familiar with the Indian culture and ethos might read all kinds of subversive meaning into it. Since the context of the Gita’s message is a war. But that does not make it war mongering text.

Like any sacred text of the world, the Gita offers both eternal principles to live as well the contextual guidance, so it is important to acknowledge both the context of its message, and broader bits of wisdom.

The context is this: after repeated attempts to obtain an honorable peace, the Pandavas realize that there is no option but to go to war with the Kauravas. When the army assembles for the combat, Arjuna loses his nerve on finding that he will have to battle and kill his own cousins and family, nearest and dearest and many of his teachers and elders. He was about to abandon the war when Krishna intervenes.

Krishna’s advice is simple: when you have decided on war after all the options for peace ended, you have a duty to fight, that is your dharma, and Krishna does not say that war is the first option…!!! The Gita’s message on war is given on this context and is not a general exhortation to wage a war on your neighbors.

Just imagine what would have happen if Arjuna had opted out of war? There would have had a less blood-shed, but it also sent the powerful message of cowardice, where truth and honor are not important. The war had to be fought to prevent other warmongers from assuming that the nation will not fight – Even Gandhi said non-violence is weapon not of the coward but the truly brave. Likewise Gita core message is about war and peace!!!

In the Second World War, Vichy’s France and Quisling’s Norway did not fight Hitler and the fascists. They were saved because of Churchill’s England and Stalin’s Russia did not opt for the same cowardice. Vichy and Quisling let Arjuna’s doubts stymie them; Churchill and Stalin followed Krishna’s advice. It they didn’t do that, Hitler would have won.

Even today we are the children of Arjuna’s doubt – Pakistan are like our kith and kin the same way Kauravas were to Pandavas, we have repeatedly turned blind eye their aggressive intent and ill-will and paid a heavy price. After 1965 war, we gave back all we won at Tashkent. After 1971 Bangladesh war, Indira Gandhi returned 90,000 prisoners without even a written that Pakistan will give up its stand on Kashmir and recently we have given up our demand for action against the culprits of 26/11. Not only that, we are now treating Pakistan as an equivalent victim of terrorism – an equivalence it does not deserve.

Why we worry if Russia bans Gita? Why we have ban Gita in our heart? Why we live on the doubts of Arjuna and not living on the wisdom of Krishna?

Praful Patel and the fall of Air India…!!!

At around noon on 28^th July 2008, Air India’s newest plane descended from the silver cotton clouds of a pale monsoon sky, escorted by a pair of Indian Air Force fighter jets. In the Delhi’s Technical Area at Indira Gandhi International Airport, where dignitaries usually gather to greet visiting heads of state, the roar from engines of the Boeing 777-200LR was met with euphoria by the assembled VIPs, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the minister of state for civil aviation, it was a moment of triumph for Mr. Praful Patel and he stood beaming in pearl-white-kurta-pyjama, feeling every bit like the tallest man on the dais.

It was among the first of the Boeing jetliners that had been ordered under Patel, part of an enormous purchase of 111 aircraft placed in 2005 at a total cost of Rs 450 billion. It was also sporting the brand new logo and livery designed to reflect the planned merger of Air India and Indian (formerly Indian Airlines), which had been initiated by Patel in 2006 and cleared by the cabinet in March 2007; a red flying swan morphed from Air India’s “Centaur” logo, incorporating the stylized Konark Temple Sun Chakra of India.

In Mid-November of 2010 Praful Patel in his new office at Udyog Bhawan in Delhi “Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises” when asked about Air India his displeasure became visible and replied “Don’t talk about Air India, this interview is not about Air India. I refuse to talk about Air India. Air India’s problems have been historical. NDA was trying to privatize Air India in 2001. Even when I came to the ministry, Air India was not doing very well” when asked why did the UPA government not privatize it? He replied “The government in its wisdom has taken a policy decision”  Praful Patel replied with a bit of sarcasm, before reiterating his frustration with the subject one last time “please don’t make this an Air-India centric interview, I am not interested in talking about Air India”

In letter to the prime minister in June 2009, the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), the largest of the IA unions, attacked the merger as ‘THE FINAL STEP IN THE DESTRUCTION OF AIR INDIA AND INDIAN AIRLINES’ and accused the ministry of having initiated the merger for the benefit of Jet and Kingfisher. No evidence exists to substantiate the allegation, the disastrous results of the merger have been widely dissected in a series of reports: a March 2010 report by the Parliament’s Committee on Public Undertakings, chaired by Congress MP Kishore Chandra Deo, described it as ‘an ill-conceived and erroneous decision neither arrived at by the two Airlines on their own accord nor mutually considered by them to be in their best interests’ and noted the loss of brand equity and market share to private competitors. It is pointed to the airline abandoning profit-making routes and timings in favor of private airlines, leading to significant loss of market share.

After the merger, the two airlines had to share (route) entitlements while the balance was given away to private carriers; it was a clever move to gift the market away – George Abraham AIEG General Secretary.

Various employees’ unions had begun to write angry letter to the prime minister, pointing finger at the aviation ministry for the calamitous state of Air India. In a letter dated 13^th July 2009, the All India retired Personnel Association accused Patel of having “single-handedly and systematically stripped the two national carriers – AI and IA and brought them to brink of bankruptcy by a series of well planned out maneuvers, which we have only now been able to comprehend and unravel.  All along, all these actions have been cloaked under the garb of unleashing India’s civil aviation potential, even as they struck at the very root of AI’s and IA’s existence”

After the 2004 General Election, Patel was named minister of state for civil aviation – one of three ministers from the NCP, then the fourth largest member of the ruling UPA coalition. He took ministry like a fish to water; confident, comfortable and knowledgeable from day one. The NCP lobbied to place Patel atop of aviation ministry, and he knew he’d landed the portfolio before the cabinet was announced, he told media before it was official!!! “I have seen this sector from close enough” Patel told Business Standard in an interview two weeks into his tenure “besides, my business and corporate background help me understand what the private sector wants. These will be my assets here” Patel was undoubtedly familiar with the aviation sector:

Patel ran the Ministry of Civil Aviation like a businessman; he speaks good English and is very sophisticated, which is important in aviation circles. He is good at remembering names. When the minister says ‘hello’ to a junior officer, one gets very impressed. That’s how he gets things done. He holds parties himself. Air India will spend the money for the events and he will invite all the people, including from other ministries, like the finance secretary. He will go around and talk to everybody. Patel’s social graces and his networking abilities have also helped him a great deal in finding friends across party lines, and he has masterfully navigated the dynamics of the coalition politics to his advantage.

Praful Patel forced Air India to buy excess aircrafts: When Air India board approved a revised plan to purchase 50 aircraft for AI, in addition to the existing proposal of 18 aircraft for Air India Express – the only objection came from V Subramanian, then an additional secretary and financial adviser to the ministry, as well as a member of the Air India and Indian Airlines boards, who protested that no business plan had been presented to justify increasing the size of the order. His objection was not recorded in the minutes of the meeting, and he was soon removed from his post and transferred to the rural development ministry.

When contacted him, he is mild manner and soft spoken man, his face betrayed no more that a hint of anguish “I opposed the plan to revisit the proposal and increase the order” he said “they never recorded any of my objections and I got a letter from PMO in four days shunting me out” he continued calmly “it was pushed through without any business plan, which destinations will you go to? What are the rights available? Is there survey done on load factors? They had no answers for these questions. Even if you decide to run a bus between Dwarka and Old Delhi you will see the number of passengers and the frequencies”

He was very friendly with Mr. Naresh Goyal of Jet and Mr. Vijay Mallay of Kingfisher airlines- Air India loyalist says “Patel killed the national airlines to benefit Jet Airways, Kingfisher and other private carriers are an article of faith. Patel defended himself against accusations of favoritism towards the private sector in political terms: saying that “I am also the Minister of Civil Aviation, not just the Minister for Air India” pointing to the undeniable growth in the aviation sector that followed the ‘opening’ of the skies.

His defense would remain much the same, buttressed by the undeniable reality that completion had benefited the consumer – according to government figures, domestic passengers traffic rose from 11 million in 2003 to 51 million in 2010 – and the unquestioned implication that the very same competition would inevitably reveal the weakness of the ageing state owned airlines. As he put it in the Rajya Sabha: ‘If every issue of connectivity or people’s aspiration cannot be met only by the national carrier, this role will have to be performed by others also. This is a fundamental decision taken by the government. Everybody has accepted it since 1993 onwards. This is the process of liberalization.”

Praful Patel was born in 1957 in Gujarati family…!!!

(Inspired from the article in The Caravan December 2011)