Memories

It can become very diffcult if you can associate yourself with songs. It might be possible the other way round also. At the moment, I belong to the first kind. They bring back memories that I am so fond of, or rather, I was. Memories that will be memories and might never be repeated in reality.
It adds on, if you dont want to let go those memories, feelings associated with them. But, I suppose, at times, you want to be sad, get sunk into those memories, which made your moments of your life. I visualise that I am embracing those moments with both my arms. Can't just let go them. They are part of my life. I dont want to move on with my life without them. I am in love with my moments of life, so what, if it makes me sad now.
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Cold Cold Delhi

Delhi is getting colder with each passing day, and i seem to be the only one having problems....Its fun to be staying at home watching TV sipping RUM wid frnds....
This weekend will be great as 6 friends go out to explore RAJASTHAN....
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DELHI ROCKS

Weather in Delhi is just AWESOME for the last 3 days, and its been justa great weekend, looking through the balcony and sipping tea/coffee all the time...It was rather LAZY coz i ended up watching 4 episodes of FRIENDS and fininshing KING ARTHUR....

Love

SA

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FROG Story-Sweet and Inspiring (be DEAF and u will be HAPPY)

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AIG Bailed Out- Excerpt from Wall Street Journal

The U.S. government seized control of American International Group Inc. -- one of the world's biggest insurers -- in an $85 billion deal that signaled the intensity of its concerns about the danger a collapse could pose to the financial system.

The step marks a dramatic turnabout for the federal government, which had been strongly resisting overtures from AIG for an emergency loan or some intervention that would prevent the insurer from falling into bankruptcy. Just last weekend, the government essentially pulled the plug on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., allowing the big investment bank to go under instead of giving it financial support. This time, the government decided AIG truly was too big to fail.
[Businessmen leave an American International Group office building, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008 in New York. Worries about AIG] Associated Press



Businessmen leave an American International Group office building Tuesday in New York.

The U.S. negotiators drove a hard bargain. Under terms hammered out Tuesday night, the Fed will lend up to $85 billion to AIG, and the U.S. government will effectively get a 79.9% equity stake in the insurer in the form of warrants called equity participation notes. The two-year loan will carry an interest rate of Libor plus 8.5 percentage points. (Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is a common short-term lending benchmark.)

The loan is secured by AIG's assets, including its profitable insurance businesses, giving the Fed some protection even if markets continue to sink. And if AIG rebounds, taxpayers could reap a big profit through the government's equity stake.

"This loan will facilitate a process under which AIG will sell certain of its businesses in an orderly manner, with the least possible disruption to the overall economy," the Fed said in a statement.

It puts the government in control of a private insurer -- a historic development, particularly considering that AIG isn't directly regulated by the federal government. The Fed took the highly unusual step using legal authority granted in the Federal Reserve Act, which allows it to lend to nonbanks under "unusual and exigent" circumstances, something it invoked when Bear Stearns Cos. was rescued in March.

As part of the deal, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson insisted that AIG's chief executive, Robert Willumstad, step aside. Mr. Paulson personally told Mr. Willumstad the news in a phone call on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the call.

Mr. Willumstad will be succeeded by Edward Liddy, the former head of insurer Allstate Corp.

AIG's bailout caps a tumultuous 10 days that have remade the American financial system. In that time, the government has engineered rescues that insert it deep into the housing and insurance industries, while Wall Street has watched two of its last four big independent brokerage firms exit the scene.

The U.S. on Sept. 6 took over mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they teetered near collapse. This Sunday, the U.S. refused to bail out Wall Street pillar Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy-court protection and is now being sold off in pieces. That same day, another struggling Wall Street titan, Merrill Lynch & Co., agreed to sell itself to Bank of America Corp.

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The AIG deal followed a day of high drama in Washington. The Treasury's Mr. Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke convened in the early evening an unexpected meeting of top congressional leaders. Late in the trading day Tuesday, anticipation that the government might assist the insurer helped propel the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a 1.3% gain.

In bailing out AIG, the Federal Reserve appeared to be motivated in part by worries that Wall Street's financial crisis could begin to spill over into seemingly safe investments held by small investors, such as money-market funds that invest in AIG debt.

Indeed, on Tuesday the $62 billion Primary Fund from the Reserve, a New York money-market firm, said it "broke the buck" -- that is, its net asset value fell below the $1-a-share level that funds like this must maintain. Breaking the buck is an extremely rare occurrence. The fund was pinched by investments in bonds issued by now collapsing Lehman Brothers.

Money-market funds are supposed to be among the safest investments available. No fund in the $3.6 trillion money-market industry has lost money since 1994, when Orange County, Calif., went bankrupt. A number of money-market funds own securities issued by AIG. The firm is also a big insurer of some money-market instruments.
Credit Downgrade

AIG's financial crisis intensified Monday night when its credit rating was downgraded, forcing it to post $14.5 billion in collateral. The insurer has far more than that in assets that it could sell, but it could not get the cash quickly enough to satisfy the collateral demands. That explains the interest in obtaining a bridge loan to carry it through. AIG's board approved the rescue Tuesday night.

AIG's board said in a statement that the deal would "protect all AIG policyholders, address rating agency concerns and give AIG the time necessary to conduct asset sales on an orderly basis."

The final decision to help AIG came Tuesday as the federal government concluded it would be "catastrophic" to allow the insurer to fail, according to a person familiar with the matter. Over the weekend, federal officials had tried to get the private sector to pony up some funds. But when that effort failed, Fed Chairman Bernanke, New York Fed President Timothy Geithner and Treasury Secretary Paulson concluded that federal assistance was needed to avert an AIG bankruptcy, which they feared could have disastrous repercussions.

Staff from the Federal Reserve and Treasury worked on the plan through Monday night. President George W. Bush was briefed on the rescue Tuesday afternoon during a meeting of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

That the government would prop up AIG financially offers a stark indication of the breadth of the insurer's role in the global economy. If it were to have trouble meeting its obligations, the potential domino effect could reach around the world.

For one thing, banks and mutual funds are major holders of AIG's debt and could take a hit if the insurer were to default. In addition, AIG was a major seller of "credit-default swaps," essentially insurance against default on assets tied to corporate debt and mortgage securities. Weakness at AIG could force financial institutions in the U.S., Europe and Asia that bought these swaps to take write-downs or losses.
Crisis on Wall Street

* Greenberg's Letter to AIG CEO Willumstad
* Wash Wire: Bush Not to Comment on Paulson Meeting
* Crisis Blog: Questions and Answers on AIG
* AIG, Lehman Shock Hits World Markets
* Old-School Banks Emerge on Top
* Complete Coverage: Wall Street in Crisis

AIG's millions of insurance policyholders appear to be considerably less at risk. That's because of how the company is structured and regulated. Its insurance policies are issued by separate subsidiaries of AIG, highly regulated units that have assets available to pay claims. In the U.S., those assets can't be shifted out of the subsidiaries without regulatory approval, and insurance is also regulated strictly abroad.

Tuesday afternoon, after the market closed, AIG put out a statement saying its basic insurance and retirement services businesses are "fully capable of meeting their obligations to policyholders." AIG said it was trying to "increase short-term liquidity in the parent company," but said that didn't "include any effort to reduce the capital of any of its subsidiaries or to tap into Asian operations for liquidity." Asia is one of AIG's largest markets.
Financial Pain

Where the company is feeling financial pain is at the corporate level, even while its insurance operations are healthy.

The urgency of federal aid came into stark relief Tuesday as other options fell off the table and pressures continued to build. On Tuesday, AIG's attempt to raise as much as $75 billion from private-sector banks failed. The banks advising the firm concluded it would be all but impossible to organize a loan of that size, making the government AIG's chief hope.

As a result of its credit downgrades, the insurer has to post $14.5 billion in collateral to bolster its credit rating. In the debt markets, AIG also has to post additional collateral to investment banks and others it trades with.

Adding to AIG's woes, investors continued to pummel the company's stock on Tuesday, pushing the share price down 21%, to $3.75. It was the third double-digit percentage decline in the past three trading days. AIG's shares are now down 94% for the year.

AIG's cash squeeze is driven in large part by losses in a unit separate from its traditional insurance businesses. That financial-products unit, which has been a part of AIG for years, sold the credit-default swap contracts designed to protect investors against default in an array of assets, including subprime mortgages.

But as the housing market has crumbled, the value of those contracts has dropped sharply, driving $18 billion in losses over the past three quarters and forcing AIG to put up billions of dollars in collateral. AIG raised $20 billion earlier this year. But the ongoing demands are straining the holding company's resources.

That strain contributed to the ratings downgrades on Monday. Those downgrades, in turn, ratcheted up the pressure on the company to come up with more cash, quickly.

Most insurance companies don't have financial-products units like these. But over nearly four decades, former CEO, Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg built AIG into a firm that resembled no other. He transformed its insurance business, both by expanding abroad -- notably in China, where AIG has its roots -- and by buying up other firms.
[AIG chart]

Mr. Greenberg pushed into areas that have little to do with bread-and-butter businesses like selling life insurance or protecting companies against property losses. In 1990, for instance, he bought International Lease Finance Corp., which leases planes to airlines.

In 2005, Mr. Greenberg stepped down amid an accounting scandal. But Mr. Greenberg, who is fighting civil charges related to the scandal and has denied wrongdoing, didn't fade from the scene. He still heads a firm that is AIG's largest shareholder, and on Tuesday, he sent a letter to current CEO, Mr. Willumstad, saying he was "ready to offer any assistance that I can."
'I'll Do It'

Now, however, Mr. Willumstad himself will be leaving, after having been asked to step aside by the Treasury's Mr. Paulson. Mr. Willumstad, who recently took over as AIG's chief executive to try to turn around the firm, was surprised by the request. "If that's what you want, I'll do it," he said to Mr. Paulson, according to a person familiar with the call. AIG's board was unhappy with the decision but felt it had no choice but to go along, as the only other option was bankruptcy.

The fate of a corporate chief executive is normally the province of a board of directors. The decision by the Treasure Secretary to essentially oust Mr. Willumstad underscores further the magnitude of the government's intervention.

Mr. Willumstad's departure marks the end of a brief, tumultuous run. He joined AIG as a director in early 2006, after leaving the No. 2 post at Citigroup Inc., and became AIG's chairman later that year. In June, as AIG was reeling from record losses, the board forced out Mr. Willumstad's predecessor and gave him the top job. He had planned to unveil his own strategy for AIG on Sept. 25.

By tapping Mr. Liddy as AIG's next CEO, the government is turning to someone with deep experience in the insurance industry, having served as chief executive of Allstate from 1999 to 2006. He stepped down as chairman earlier this year. Allstate is a different type of insurer than AIG, focusing on selling car and home insurance to Americans, whereas AIG sells an array of insurance policies to individuals and businesses world-wide.

Mr. Liddy also has experience pulling apart empires, having helped dismantle Sears, Roebuck & Co. (from which Allstate was spun off) in the 1990s. Before joining Sears, Mr. Liddy worked under Donald Rumsfeld at drug maker G.D. Searle & Co. Mr. Liddy is on the board at Goldman Sachs Group, the investment bank that Mr. Paulson led before becoming Treasury Secretary.

As confidence in AIG declined recently, the amount of money it felt compelled to raise to calm its constituents continued to rise. Over the weekend, the figure was $40 billion. That climbed to $75 billion on Monday and, according to a person close to the company, rose further on Tuesday.

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Movie Review- A Wednesday

Though i am late, but i think i have been lucky on not having missed an opportunity to review and watch such a GREAT movie....It is only in decades you see something so flawless and amazing and without any doubt its going to me the most acclaimed and debatable movie of the year....The movie proves very strongly that in Bollyowood, u dont need a Srk or Amitabh to make it a commercial success....The movie also reiterates the greatness of Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher's performances and its just a treat to all the viewers....Despite covering a topic on which 1 in every 5 film is based on these days (BLASTS) the movie has enough suspense and thrill to keep u on the edge throughout

The movie starts with Anupam Kher, Commissioner of Police sitting at Nariman Point (Mumbai)telling the story about the secretly guarded case which was closest to his heart, but coz it was highly confidential that no one ever came to know abt it. The case deals with Naseeruddin Shah who plants Bombs in Mumbai and calls the commissioner to give him the news and his demands...He demands freedom of 4 terrorist, 2 of whom had been captured by Anupam Kher....The movie is just awesome, with Naseeruddin sitting cooly on a terrace of a under construction buliding monitoring the progress of the Police on a TV and communicating via his Laptop and "n" number of sim cards.....Naseeruddin Shah's planning is impecable and the ease with he plants 5 bombs in the city speaks about the THREAT that we in our daily lives face coz of such hate filled and brain washed terrorists.....All attempts to find out the identity and location of Naseer fails and the police is forced to humbl accept all his demands and conditions....

Its hard to judge who amongst the veterans has acted better coz both of them just blow ur mind off....Jimmy Shergill in a short role as a Police Inspector is awesome, and Deepal Shaw with her irritating voice as a Media representative working for a News Channel is tolerable.....

Movie deserves 8/10, and its a 2 hour treat at the end of which u will too have your own opinion or conclusion.....

Luv

SA


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Movie Review-The Last Lear

Its an ok kind of a movie, nothing great. There are some scenes in the movie which are really good, but thats very common on AB to give his Midas touch to some simple scenes in any movie and prove that he is the best. Watch it in a CD, dont waste hard earned money in the theatre.
BASED on Utpal Dutt's classic play, Aajker Shahenshah, The Last Lear is a sad example

of how adaptation can sometimes scuttle a good script and transform a landmark theatrical experience into flawed cinema. The film only works for Amitabh Bachchan aficionados who can savour the desi bard bellowing out the best of Shakespeare in his characteristic baritone. The actor still manages to create magic moments on the screen as he portrays the arrogance and the naked need of a has-been actor who believes he is always good, simply because he can never be bad. Yet, he clings desperately to his last chance to display histrionics and is even ready to grovel before the filmmaker for his famous last shot. The film traces the resurrection of Harry (Amitabh), a retired actor who lives in a dimly-lit house with memories of a glorious past, until he is pulled out of anonymity by Sid (Arjun Rampal), the avant garde filmmaker who wants to make a realistic film. After some drunken camaraderie, Harry consents to play the clown in the movie and forges a friendship with both the director and the lead actress, Preity Zinta. But, when the curtains go up, and the accolades begin to pour in after the premier, Harry is back behind the tightly shut blinds of his house and the show simply goes on: ruthlessly, selfishly, unkindly. It's a poignant story that loses most of its bite because of the rambling screenplay and the unnecessary subplot about emotionally battered women and feminist wailing. Preity Zinta, Shefali Shah and Divya Dutta form a chest-beating sisterhood that consumes most of the screen time with their pointless tales of emotional abuse. Also, the story is told by a narrator who gives a whiny voice-over that rids the film of all its subtlety. Add to this, the unconvincing climax, and you have a film that becomes watchable, here and there: when Arjun Rampal and Amitabh Bachchan indulge in creative banter.


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