I found an interesting article in the DNA paper Bangalore edition today that says banks are liable to label you as defaulter if there is a situation that your property’s current value falls below your loan outstanding amount. They are liable to ask you for more guarantee in terms of mortgages or for that matter sieze your house and put it up for auction. This is a thin line clause in the agreement you sign when you take the loan which we dont notice. More details from the paper given below!

If you are yet to buy a house, you should rejoice. If you have borrowed to buy one, you shouldn’t, and not only because the value of your investment is going down. Reason: Even if you have been assiduously paying your equated monthly installments (EMIs), your house is potentially under threat.Most home loan lenders put in a clause in the mortgage agreement which empowers them to seize the property or ask you to bring in extra collateral if house prices fall dramatically.

If you are not able to do so, you can be termed a defaulter, giving the bank the right to seize and sell the flat or house bought on the home loan. Typically, a default happens when the borrower of the home loan cannot carry on paying the EMIs to repay the loan. Trouble comes from an innocuous sounding “Depreciation of Security” clause, one of the 15-and-odd clauses that constitute an “event of default” in case of a home loan. A typical “Depreciation of Security” clause reads: “If any property on which the security for the loan is created depreciates in value to such an extent that, in the opinion of the bank, further security should be given and such security is not given….”

What does this legalese mean? Any bank gives out a home loan against the house as security. In case the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank can recover the loan by simply selling the flat or house. For this to happen, the market value of the flat at any point of time should be greater than or equal to the home loan that is still outstanding. To protect itself, the bank can ask for some extra security or collateral from the borrower.

If the borrower cannot come up with any extra security, the bank can term him a defaulter. On being termed a defaulter, the loan outstanding becomes due and immediately payable and the bank can take possession of the house or flat and sell it to recover the balance.

Technorati : agreement, bangalore, bank, bengaluru, blog, clause, decreased, default, flat, home loan, india, interest rate, loan, mortgage, property, public, rates, sbi, sector, sieze

Life has indeed been tough. Coping with the loss. The loss of my beloved grandpa. I miss the pat I gave on his back everytime I saw him. I miss his fond questions on my well being. I miss the blessings he used to shower on me for each of my achievements. A man of grit and determination, he used to really head the big family, much like a sarpanch for a village. One year has passed, time has passed quickly and many things have progressed further as though his existence or his non existence did not really matter.

He had many children, grand children (like me) and even great grandchildren (like my son). He was the trunk of the large banyan tree that spread far and wide providing shade, and shelter and care to everyone under it. He yearned for all of his children to do well in life and be well settled too. While most of his sons would silently admire him, without speaking out much, I was surprised to get this email from my uncle (his youngest son) a while ago. In his own words he described his father thus:

A year has passed, too soon, since the legend ‘my father’ left for his heavenly abode.A man who reigned through “sheer courage” and “will power” till his end, fought all ‘odds’that challenged him, through ‘determination’. Attached to him, in and out of my life span so far, I cry in silence, on this day, when we all miss him so much.Nostalgically speaking, I like to recall my younger days, when he groomed all of us by giving us the best affordable education in the most difficult days, to see us grow in our respective disciplines.His love as a father, knew no bounds, since he would always share with me, that he lost his father when he was only three, hence would see his father in us.

I personally learnt from him many management principles and skills, which no ‘B’ schools would teach today, that “experience” alone could make one learn for oneself.He shared with me his style of ‘deft handling of situations while serving under his British bosses’ who are known for their “arrogant culture” and “abusive behaviour”.His way of handling them, got him a ‘pat on his back’, that made even the last British boss whom he reported, give him an “exemplary” conduct certificate, which he treasured till his last breath. I owe my gratitude to him even today, for having given me the best early education in a ‘Convent school’ at KGF even with his meager monthly salary of Rs. 400 p/month. [I’m sure his kith and kin would agree today that with Rs. 400 in hand, they can’t even step into a ‘ Mall’.]This educational background has made and moulded me into what I am today, to be of some use to the society and my family.His mastery over mental arithmetic always fascinated me and made me believe that experience and expertise is the ‘Mantra’ for success.

Spreading a huge size ‘ muster roll’ ledger of those days, he would simply work out the salary details of nearly 10K labour work force under his control as a “PAYMASTER” of his organisation, within a few hours. Dashing his pencil up and down to do the magic total of an entire month’s salary calculation. [Today I wonder what we’re up to using “Excel” worksheets and fighting with all types of noisy printers! ] . On dot, the 7th of each month, his promptness in distributing the entire salary for his work force would be over without any ” cash difference” at the end of the day, tallying so neatly up to the last pie.[ Ironically, even the Almighty decided to call him to his Abode on the date he loved-the 7th].”Subbu”, as he was fondly called by his pals in his office, used to admire him for his qualities and abilities as a “Crisis Consultant” and a helping friend in need and deed.

He almost spent his last decade being sightless after losing both his vision after a “GLAUCOMA” surgery in his eyes. His sheer ” Memory power” helped him to cope up even with a lost vision till the last. He selflessly managed his daily chores by himself much to the astonishment of everybody.As a loving and caring husband to his wife, loving father to his sons and daughters, loving grandpa to his grandsons, granddaughters and great-grandchildren, he had the rare distinction of participating and witnessing every ceremonial event including the naming ceremony of little Ved, his great grandson who had the golden oppurtunity to listen to his last swansong, lying on his lap.

This great occasion also marked his “Kanakabishekam” which he could fulfill in his lifetime. Today, as a year passes by, let us all pray for his soul to rest in peace and pray that he continues to live with us and be a guiding beacon to all of us in our lives. Tears roll down my eyes each day and moment when I miss him so dearly.

The fact that my uncle who wrote this is the most silent of all sons, surprised me even further upon reading this mail. All I can say is – HE STOLE MY THOUGHTS & WORDS about my grandpa.

Dear Gran, You will continue to live in my eyes, and in all those people whom you fondly brought up as your own. And someday when my son grows up, I shall show him this mail and the only photo of you holding him in your lap to tell him more about you and your life.

This is a private and personal blog post. If you share similar sentiments on people you love and care within your family, I would like to hear about it, please use the comments section to give your thoughts.

Technorati : Ramaswamy, SRS, Senapiratty, Subramaniam, colitis, death, family, glaucoma, grandpa, life, rangarajan, story

It was about a year now that all festivities were stopped in our house due to the demise of my grandpa. But a year has passed and we celebrated Karthigai Deepam along with friends who celebrated the Tulsi Habba this time yet again.

Simple, elegant beautiful lamps were lit all over our house and the illumination it provided made the house shine in a brilliance of its own. The mythological significance of the Karthigai festival goes thus:

Mythological aspect of Karthigai Festival

Lord Siva appeared as a huge flame of light before Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma (hindu gods), who each considered Himself supreme and said that the matter could be tested if the two could search for their Lord Siva`s Head and feet. Lord Vishnu took the form of a (varagar)boar and delved deep into the earth, Lord Brahma that of a (Annam)swan and flew into the top, Lord Vishnu failed in His search and returned. But Lord Brahma, chancing upon a piece of `thazhambu`, a flower learnt from it that it had been floating down for thirty thousand years from Lord Siva`s head. He seized upon this and claimed to Lord Siva that he had seen the other`s top. Lord Siva realized the falsehood and pronounced that there would never be a temple for Lord Brahma in this world. He also interdicted the use of the flower thazhambu in His worship. Lord eswaran(siva) appeard as a flame, this day is called Maha Dheepam

Technorati : , Tulsi habba, brahma, brilliance, deepam, diyas, festival, glow, karthigai, lamps, lights, mythological, shine, shiva, thiruvannamalai, vishnu

My wife was back from office early on Saturday (its been two decades since I believed others work on saturdays 🙂 ) and asked me to come along to the Society collection exhibition in the indoor stadium at NGV. Her hopes of having a free entry was shortlived when the counter guys charged us 100 bucks to enter the place. Its advertised as india’s biggest handicrafts exhibition, so you have to expect such nuisances as entry fees and the likes. I would like to call it Indias biggest exhibition in India’s smallest enclosure 🙂 Thats perhaps more fitting.

The exhbition did have good amount of fashion fabrics, paintings, knicknacks, all ladies fashion accessories, bathroom items, wooden furtniture and antiques, a lot of jewelry, and some interesting stuff which I ll talk about later. For now here are some snaps of the place

There were only two things that impressed me in this exhibition, one was the hose pipe that had innumerable amount of fittings with different threadings for fitting different taps, different spray types, easy portability – this costed 1900 and though I was very much inclined to buy it for my dad, I decided not to go for it right now (yes the recession bug has bitten me too 🙂 ).

So then what was the other thing that impressed me: – an electromagnetic induction based gas stove based on Eddy currents. It had no heat, no shocks, no smoke, no fire principle. Awesome. Just to prove the point, the guy there put a 10-buck note inbetween the pan and the stove. And nothing happened to it even though the water in the pan was boiling and steaming. Just to cross check I even put my hand on the stove and nothing happened as promised!

The stove comes in different varieties and typically based on weight that be loaded onto it, 30kg, 20kg, 10kg, 5kg, etc. The prices varied between 3,500 bucks to 9000 bucks for a double stove. And there was another caveat. He would sell only to corporates or to those who had orders of three and above units. No single units except when booked at the exhibition. Having said that, I was not in the mood to buy, (recession!), so I took down their contact details and walked out of the place. I am leaving it here in case you are interested.

If you need the numbers, here they are:

Bilwaa marketing inc, 2334 6440/1, 99164 24880, 99866 22106, 99803 68612, & 99028 77075. Their address is 133, 11 cross, sampige road, malleshwaram, bangalore 03.

Finally to sum up on the exhibition: It had some good food stalls at the end much better than what I have seen before in the same stadium. But for paying 50 bucks, I ended up buying some earrings for my wife, if not anything costiler (again the recession 🙂 ). My suggestion : if you really want to see the two items I mentioned by paying 50 bucks, go there, else go only if you want to seriously end up buying something. The entry cost is pretty exhorbidant and is in other terms called daylight robbery!

Technorati : 6th block, 80 feet road, bangalore, bengaluru, blog, current, eatables, eddy current, electromagnetic, exhibition, fire, gas stove, handicrafts exhibition, heat, indoor, induction, jewelry, koramangala, national games village, ngv, shock, shopping, smoke, snacks, society, stadium

The advertisement in question that caught my eye is this: (source: TOI)

I immediately jumped at the thought of having a SUN DTH at home by disposing the earlier hathway connection, considering I am getting this offer at just Rs.499/-. One look at the asterisk (*) next to it prompted me to go right down to the ad again, where I was expecting a Conditions Apply, which indeed was there too!

I was further expecting they would ask me to sign up for atleast a year, but what I actually found was quite contrary to my expectations! Installation charges Rs. 1000 extra, + taxes (@ 12% of 499 bucks, which is almost another 50 bucks!

So there you go Sun Direct DTH is yours now for “just” 499 + 1000 + 50 = Rs.1550/-. Sun, who do you think you are hoodwinking? We are smart for all this guys. Try something else more genuine. Like adding Worldspace might sound like a better bet now that Airtel is giving us that!

Technorati : Bangalore, Bengaluru, Blog, Cable tv, DTH, Dayanidhi, Dayanidhi Maran, Dinakaran, Direct to home, Dish TV, Dish TV India, Flextronics, Jayalalitha, Kalaignar, Kalanidhi Maran, Karnataka, Karunanidhi, Maran, Reliance Bluemagic, Reliance Fresh, Reliance Insurance, STB, Set top box, Sun, Sun TV DTH, Sun TV direct DTH, Sun direct dth, Sun network, Sun tv, Tamil nadu, Tata Sky, Technology, azhagiri, doordarshan, hathway, james murdoch, madurai, million, remote, rupert murdoch, stalin, subhash chandra