Soumik'z Diary

Mid day thoughts!

2011-06-13T12:00:00.003+05:30

It’s been almost a year in Singapore now. The World has been changed a lot since I last wrote any public blog. July 2010 to June 2011 has been a crazy time for me - 2 semesters and 3 internships and many more things. This week is the most relaxed one so far - just after CFA Level-2 exam.

Life is almost the same every week. From Monday to Friday - wake up at 7:15. Catch the bus number 10 at sharp 8:20 for raffles. Bus timing is superb here; it is almost accurate considering 75% confidence interval-:)

Then it is VaR, Market Risk, Basel II and Basel III, AMA, and most importantly ICAAP for next 10 hours at DBS Bank. There is a sad story in between. I take my lunch with my Singaporean and Chinese colleagues everyday and waste around S$6 per lunch. Considering the quantity and quality, the lunch shouldn’t worth more than S$2 in my opinion.

Saturday is different. I attend Fund Management lecture from 9 to 5:30 on every Saturday. This is one of the best modules I am taking in NUS so far. And finally Sunday is for sleeping, cleaning and watching movies online..

Not very exciting anymore. And I am missing my wife too. Yes it has been a good learning in MBA. I have learnt to see things in a different way. Now it’s the time to go back to the corporate life, lead a decent life and have a car again...

December 2011 come soon!!

Life at office as a Consultant in Risk IT

2008-12-22T20:08:00.013+05:30

Since 27th August, 2007 I am working in Investec Bank Ltd., South Africa.
It is totally a different experience working onsite with the Risk Analysts. But at the end of the day I feel like I not only save my time working here, but also learn a lot about the business in Investment banking. The job is not like a conventional Java Web Developer or hard core Analysts who do only requirement mapping and documentations. It’s basically a mix of Developer and Analysts job and need to work on series of different technologies.

This is what a typical Monday to Thursday, Jan to November life looks like:
8:15 AM – Start my car. Leave for the office. It takes just 10 min to reach to if there is only average traffic.
8:30 AM – Office is already 75% full when I come in. People come to office very early here…n leave early too. At around 3PM
Then I check the score of the cricket match going on in the TV in front of my seat (Burden of Indian Cricket – Rahul Dravid is again spoiling the test match!).
Then login to machine and check the news at http://news.google.co.in/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=in&topic=b and at http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=b what I missed at breakfast time.
8:45 AM – Check the MS outlook. Check the Overnight Errors logged for Development by the IT Operators last night. I have to fixed those and move the tasks to Production by today.
9:00 AM - The Business Analyst from Market Risk had sent me an email. Prime Brokerage Recon Process has some erroneous data for Option Futures. I checked the SQL Database...the stored procedure has a wrong multiplying factor for the currency ZAR. I rerun the process correcting it and ask the BA to generate the RISK report again.
10:30 AM – letz go for a tea break for 5 min. Lets meet at the cafeteria...then 2 tea bags+2 spoon sugar +boiling water+milk+30 sec in micro wave....thtz my tea)
10:40 AM - got a mail from UK Market Risk Analyst...need to bring though new future forward trades in our Risk Report. I login to the Front Arena to check the trades and construct the query to bring it through. I need to change the Java PreProcessor also.
12:00 PM - ohh I have worked a lot till now! Itz lunch time...I walked to the parking to drive home for lunch. 40 min lunch at home + 10x2 min driving....
1:00 PM - The Credit Risk BA has come to my desk to explain about the missing trades in Algo Limit Manager today. It's the Kondor Currency trades....I need to check
3:00 PM - Almost all Risk Watch and ACLM issues are resolved now. Now I have to spend some time to fix the yesterday's overnight error and then document the functional spec of my last project. It is still in development and we have issues with Swap Fixed and Floating Leg
4:00 PM – Team Meeting - about the status report, pending tasks and issues regarding E25k server blah blah!
5:00 PM – itz coffee time now
5:30 PM – fill up my time sheet of 8hrs. Browse the news sites again…what is happening across the World, especially across India
6:00 PM – leaving for the day…I walk towards the car parking again..

Office hours end here but sometimes I need to fix Production issues at midnight connecting remotely from my laptop.
This is the scene of a typical Monday to Thursday. I am excluding Fridays and December as they are little bit different from others days and months. On Friday…we mostly have parties and funs..so it doesn’t fit into this routine.
This is my job - Enhance and Maintain the applications which captures trades from diffrent trading systems of the bank and feed into the RISK Systems...

~ Soumik

love is like chewing gum

2008-07-11T17:04:00.002+05:30

Love is like chewing gum... sweet at the beginning, boring after sometime and then bitter at the end. It can be very pleasant if you take it on purpose. But when you don't see it coming, and step into it with no prior warning, it sticks to you like crazy glue. You can't get rid of it with any conventional methods. You can't hose it off, you can't rub it off, it's with you forever. And even if you manage to get it off, it still feels as though its there... haunting you.. And when you've truly lost it, you feel relieved, until you realize, "hey, I want a stick of gum"... Love is like chewing gum... permanent, annoying, and highly rewarding...

The M

2007-02-10T02:24:00.000+05:30

Hopeless bound Never fulfilled,
The end less desire never got ruined;

Those long black hairs and beautiful eyes
Still reminds me your innocent lies.

It started with a miss call and the sms,
But soon after life went beyond emails.

Do you remember the bus where I saw you first,
We never miss the journey thereafter.

Do you remember the night you called me first,I felt like talking to you forever;
You were so new, so crazy and so unknown,I just knew our friendship would never be out of tune.

There might be lots of crowd around you,
But I know you are always alone.

But the Sun has to set everyday,
The call waiting never ended on those days.

We had so many moments, some bad, and most great.I'll always remember the love and erase the hate;

Your loneliness and greatness still reminds me of you
Lots of wishes are in queue.

Today I am leaving you very far
But life really doesn’t end here-

One day I’ll come back , please wait for me,
That day you will find a more mature Me…

1st day 1st Blog

2006-11-24T09:00:00.000+05:30

It’s a time-wasting Picnic like day so far. MQ down, Oracle Server Down…Nothing is working from the morning.

4:30 pm: we were spending time in Canteen. All were quite hopeful of getting rid of office at 6.But as usual…the worst possible thing happened again. Oracle was up at 5:55!!

GOD!!!!!!!!!!

The day started at 6 pm…:(

But One thing was really good today. I have created my 1^st blog …thanks to Rupreet. He really encouraged me.

Hope I’ll get enough time to keep posting regularly…

Cu guyz..