I watched the movie ‘Barfi’ Yesterday. The movie is about a deaf and mute guy who find happiness in the smallest of things. The movie made me think. Is money everything? Is there more to happiness….

My quest for money started because of sheer paralysis that lack of money brings to your life. I worked myself up till I could cover my own expenses. After all the money, was I happy? I don’t know. People do say, I killed the child in me through the process. But every one grows up ye ?

I am sure that I can work like a dog now and make lot of money. Everything comes at a cost of something. I’ll be trading my immediate happiness here. Will I be able to buy back all this lost moments later ? Will I be healthy enough to live those moments again? I don’t know.

There is a lot more to happiness than that meets the eye. I think its going to take a while before I actually find out what makes someone happy? What makes someone keep going through? What makes it all come together? What makes it all worth it !

Lately, I was looking into Dubai Financial Markets. I was looking into details of how I could buy and sell shares of Dubai Based Companies. First of all, there is very little information out there. Second, the trading volumes are really low. Not a lot of people involve in stock markets. Third, the broking fees are fucking high.

The normal broking fees is 0.275 percent of the amount + 10 Aed or 75 Aed which ever is higher. Based on the high broker fees, I need turnover at least 30,000 AED to justify the brokerage fees. A little too high if you ask me.

If you observe the graphs you’ll notice that the index has actually gone no where so far. Some companies have trading volume of like 10-100 shares. Either no one wants to buy or no one wants to sell.

I think from my preliminary analysis it was quite clear. I was better of with Indian markets. The scope for growth and volume is higher. The broking fees are less and the system has more transparency.

UAE is the 7nth largest producer of Oil. We rank 17nth in term for GDP per capita. All this numbers suggest that people in Dubai have a lot of money. The local population comprises of 16.5% of the population, rest is expats.

The oil income goes to the government. This income is used for infrastructure. Majority of the big construction companies are owned by locals. Same with any other major industry. So basically the flow of money here is making Jobs for expats. This expats are keen to save and send the money to their country. They know sooner or later they have to settle there.

So a good part of the wealth is controlled by locals. Locals like to spend on luxury goods, the luxury goods store owner is again a local. As far as the needs of expats are concerned a lot of people are already doing it.

I am not sure what kind of business would thrive here. I am not sure if this is the rite business environment. I am not sure if this is the rite demographics.

With every passing year, the men and women on this planet tend to get more selfish and less grateful. One of the principle blocks to happiness is to appreciate what you have around you and be grateful for everything.Unfortunately, a lot of people are just too busy and full of themselves to notice it.

A Mercedes is appreciated all over the world because it doesn’t come easy. The bigger the price tag more its appreciated. That is a wrong mindset and a completely wrong state of mind. I am not saying, don’t buy expensive things. What I am saying is just because the thing is not too expensive doesn’t mean its of no good.

This is also applicable in our day to day lives. Just because you are available for them whenever they ask, your time goes unappreciated. They take you and your time for granted.  Dealing with such ungrateful fucks is always a pain.

Make it count. Be grateful for everything. Be grateful for things that came easy and the things you struggled for. There is nothing wrong in being humble.

I am an Indian but I have lived majority of my life in Dubai. To be honest, only thing Indian about me is my passport. This summer when I was in India, I realized how I took clean streets, even roads and silence for granted. Indian streets are chaotic, administrative system is corrupted deep down till the roots and no one accountable.

Even after so many negatives, the Indian Economy is doing what it is doing. Administrative bottle necks, corrupt decision makers, selfish mottos and wide spread opinion conflicts are hampering growth all around. Still we are posting some of the best economy numbers in the world.

I still look around in India and see there is so much that needs to be done infrastructure wise, product wise and marker wise. If someone manages to run the show in a decent manner India is gonna grow two times faster than it currently is.

I am optimistic things are gonna get better. Not today, Not tomorrow but some where down the line it is going to happen. My money is on the Indian consumption story for next 10 years for sure.