That WTF Moment

Every now and then, I come across a traders forum (where fellow traders discuss trades and strategy) and find a post that has me doing a double-take and going WHOA!!
Sometimes it's because some trader has pulled off a brilliant trade and cleaned the market up, and sometimes it's because a trader let his ego get in the way of making money and he saw his backside in technicolor.

It's not often that I go WHOA! because a trader posted his account balance, strategy and advice and ALL THREE WERE RIDICULOUSLY LAUGHABLE!

Now I know many of you don't speak Forex, so I'll try and keep this simple.
This 'trader', and I use that term very very loosely here, had a trading account of $300.
In Forex, that's like taking your kindergarten piggy-bank, dressed in your Ben10 pyjamas, and walking into a Ferrari showroom hoping to be taken seriously.
Forex ain't for sissies, and it requires deep pockets and an even deeper understanding of risk!
He then proceeds to start trading with a strategy reserved for traders with at least $500 000 in their accounts. Just to be clear, that's HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.
He blows his account in under 2 minutes.
And then proceeds to give advice to new traders!!!

(This is a true story just so you know!)

Above is what a professional traders chart looks like.
You really have to know what you're doing in order to regard this as a profession.
If you last less than 2 minutes, clearly trading is not for you. Maybe you should donate your body to the manure industry. Even a circus clown may be aiming too high. I don't know.

I don't even know how to end this blog post.
I'm so shocked that there are idiots out there so stupid, the SPCA hasn't put them down yet and the Zoo allows them to roam free amongst us.
I think I'll just sit here and shake my head. It's starting to feel really good.

To Shafi & Roxie On Your Wedding Day

There's an old saying about marriage and the union of two souls being destined and preordained in Heaven.
I don't quite recall how it goes, but I'm almost certain I just summed it up right there.

So there I was, sitting at this gorgeous wedding venue set amongst the hills in a magical place called Makiti, witnessing the marriage of my dear friend Shafi to his beautiful bride Ruxina..... When it dawned on me that it really is something remarkable and special when two people can find each other amongst 7 billion earthlings. To be able to pick that one person that you're ready to declare your love to. To be able to find that one person that you want to spend the rest of your life with. To be able to find a single diamond that fits you just perfectly, you and only you, in a mountain of rock and stone.

Shafi found this in Roxie, and she found this in him.
Today was a truly special day, with the coming together of bride and groom, of families, and also of long lost friends. It's the very reason why days such as today are visited by angels themselves.

Their union was destined, their souls forever as one. And so their new journey together begins.

I'd like to wish them all the very best on this new chapter in their lives.

"Be close to that person who makes you happy but be closer to that person who can't be happy without you."

To Roxie : Love him, honor him, cherish him, and forever be his rock.
To Shafi : Just do the dishes and pick up your socks, and you'll be fine my friend ;)

All the best guys. I truly was honored to have shared this day with you.

Life Is Swell

I realized the other day that I'm one of those annoyingly positive people. Not annoying in the way that I like force-feeding joy down people's throats like foie gras. I just don't get down and depressed easily.
I do throw tantrums though.
Just ask those nice people at Nestle who overcharge for Hot Chocolate, or those Amila Ice-Tea people who sold me fermented drinks.

So when I sat down to review my 5 year Plan, which I do every so often (like once every 5 years), it dawned on me that the things which I had achieved had far outstretched my bucket-list.
Sure everybody wants to run with the bulls and jump out of a plane at 10 000 feet and swim with the dolphins, but in the absence of TV how many of us would really want to do any of those?
Would it not be infinitely more fun and exciting to spend an evening underneath the stars listening to the fish jumping in a moonlit lake?
Or maybe take the one you love to watch a sunrise upon a mountaintop?
How about attending a festival in the company of friends, and form memories that will truly leave you smiling in your golden years?

The irony is that many of us have done these and so much more, yet failed to look upon the very moment as one which we'll never get back. One so perfect at the time, that had we known we would have cherished it and hoped it would never end.
Years later, we make a list of all the things we'd like to achieve before we finally breath our last, forgetting the awesomeness of the life we've already lived.

There's a really simple rule I have about prayer.
When I get down on my knees and raise my hands skyward, it's to say "Thank You" instead of "I Want".
This simple rule when applied to our friends and family has an amazing effect. Just to be grateful for what we have, and thank those around us for being a part of our lives, makes all the difference. It is the very definition of a wealthy and successful individual. To be able to look around us and want for nothing, need for nothing, and know that we are blessed with what we have and who we have to share it with.

In an earlier blog I made mention of the fact that I am about to embark on an entirely new chapter in my life.
I know not where it will take me, but I am excited and anxious for the journey ahead, for in truth Life is about the journey and not the destination.

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
Ayn Rand

Hello. Remember me?

One month.
That's how long it's been since I last blogged!
Trust me, this absence has been more difficult for me than it has been for you. Yes, both of you that read my blog.

It's been a month of change, and hopefully in six months I'll be able to look back on this and say that it was a defining moment in my life. My business, Sikama Contracting, was started on less than a shoestring of a budget. It was started on the dust at the bottom of a worn out sole of an old pair or tekkies that didn't even have a shoestring. Seven awesome years later and I'm at the crossroads where I have to decide between taking the business onward and upward, or follow a passion I've kept subdued for far too long.

And so it was that I chose to follow my passion.
(*note to self... Mrs Pather was wrong. You CAN start a sentence with 'And'. See, I just did!)
Life's too short to sit back and wonder "What if I chose the road less traveled by?" I choose to take that road and see where it leads. It's either going to be a spectacular success, or an amazing failure. Either way, I will be able to sit back and say "I did it!"

There have been many inspirations along the way. Words spoken that once voiced can never be unheard. Encouraging pats on the back and a smile that beamed pride. All of these have helped mould and nourish. Yet there was that one defining moment when a family member looked me in the eye and said "It's tough out there. You'll never be able to do it without me."
A defining moment. An impact moment as some would call it. A moment that I will carry with me through the rest of my  life, always knowing that it spurred me on to prove him wrong.

Yet there were those impact moments that left me inspired and thinking "They believe in me."
Moments in life that make you grateful for the people you surround yourself with.

Shortly thereafter I was sitting in my little flea-market stall named "The Blue Aquarian Room" where I had found a niche' market selling Valentines gift's months after the actual day had passed.
I didn't know it at the time, but when Selma walked in and browsed around, which in that tiny stall literally meant turning her head 180 degrees, she was the only person who appreciated the brilliance of my business plan. Needless to say, over Black Forest Cake and tea's which she thought were coffee's, we cemented the kind of friendship that most people never get to experience in two lifetimes, let alone one!
(I checked this fact out with my Hindu friends.)
Someday when I'm rich and famous, hopefully sooner rather than later, I shall have a huge party and invite everybody who's ever shared and inspired my journey.
In the meantime, if you're reading this, consider yourself already a part of the inner circle :)

That's How We Roll

Moe, Reaz, myself and Faheem

You know you've had an interesting and eventful week when you finally settle down to write a blog piece and smell the burnt rubber on your soles and notice the smoke emanating from the rear of your pants.

Between working on a new business venture which has me more excited than Oprah at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and my home renovations, I've had more highlights than Snooki from JerseyShore (don't ask).
For those that follow me on Twitter (@kaloo5) or are friends of mine on Facebook, you may have seen the pics from our recent family photo shoot. Tons of fun.

My ankle is still in the healing phase which means a drastic reduction in physical activity has resulted in an equally drastic increase in girth. On the plus side, my dream of emulating Marlon Brando in The Godfather is now within reach. Or maybe the Oros man. Either or.

I'm tempted to write another politically motivated piece, what with all the recent shenanigans our elected officials have been up to, and two retarded models having put the icing on the cake this week.... but I figured I need to ease myself back into my blog.

Did I mention the new business venture?
If there were smiley faces on this blog, right here --------> (___) is where I'd put a big fat smile.
All will be revealed soon, suffice to say that it's been a long time coming and I think the time is right. Sometimes you need to be in the right place, sometimes it needs to be the right time, and sometimes you need the right partner to pursue the dream.
This is the right time in the right place with the right partner.

The Siblings : Myself, Shamima, Aadilah, Faheem

Princess Sabreen & cousin Sameeha

In other news, Princess Sabreen is doing splendidly.
She turns 6 this year, with an attitude that turns 26 before that. Next year she starts at primary school. I'll be sending out apology letters to her classmates parents in advance, and maybe keep a few on standby for use throughout the year.

A Time To Kill, A Time To Chill

Is it just me or are people generally more highly strung lately?

Maybe it's all that processed food and coffee we're shoveling into our bodies. Maybe it's something in the water, or the music we're listening to. I don't know.
I wish I did, because then I would have known how to handle the incident of road rage I witnessed yesterday.
Some huge crazy poster-boy for McDonalds Supersized Meals driving the regulation Hilux Bakkie issued to all steroid junkies tried to skip a clearly red robot, but was impeded by a skinny Ethiopian-looking refugee cyclist crossing the same road.

I sensed a fight a they both began a screaming match.
It was like watching two angry women fighting over the last pair of shoes on sale at Socrates.
So I did what any decent peace-loving citizen would o an whipped out my camera. Unfortunately it never escalated from a screaming match, which was a waste of time for at least 8 cars that had stopped to watch the show.

Remember when we would be kind and courteous to strangers for no other reason than it being the right thing to do? Remember when a kind word and a smile achieved more than anger and violence did? I recall such a time fondly. I want that time back, for myself an the generations to follow.

I think we should start by banning fast-food, processed foods, and coffee.
But not KFC HotWings. They can stay. Nobodies ever had KFC HotWings and then gone out to pick a fight. Nobody I've ever heard of. 

Of Fathers & Daughters

To Sabreen, for today and everyday

Before you came into this world, I said a few special prayers for the things I wanted my child to have.

I wanted a child who was intelligent.

I wanted a child who was beautiful.
I wanted a child who was funny and pleasant and sweet.
I wanted all these things because I wanted you to be perfect.

Then you were born, and I held you in my arms for the very first time... and I realized...
That you would be more intelligent than I could ever imagine.
That you would be beautiful beyond words or description.
That you would be funny and pleasant and sweet and everything else in-between.
But mostly I realized that you were healthy and smiling and just so perfect.
From that day to this, you've blessed me with the kind of joy and love only a parent could ever understand.

I wish you many things in life, but mostly I wish that you live your life with passion.
In all that you do, do it passionately.
In all that you aspire to be and all that you hope to achieve, strive toward these with passion.
Live your life fully and live it completely, but mostly live it passionately.

When you write the final page in your journal of life, as some day I will write mine, let it end with the words 'Love, always' for this is the truest sign of a life well lived :)

Love, always
Dada

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.