A Place called Freedom

This is of a different genre by Ken Follett, the master story teller. This is a historical fiction novel set in Scotland of 1766 when slave trade existed. Mack McAsh is a coal miner in the employ of Sir George Jamisson. Sir George has two sons and apart from mines he has some plantations in Virginia and some sugar plantation in Barbados. But he is perennially indebted. So he has to marry off his eldest son to Lizzie Halim of the Halim Estate. Lizzie's mother is also severely indebted and she seeks the hand of Robert the eldest son of Sir George. Mack is involved in a coal mining incident where he rescues several people. He constantly seeks freedom from slavery. The Halim estate does not have any mines but it is reckoned that after the marriage between the two families, mines can start there. But Lizzie is against such thing having seen with her own eyes the kind of degrading lives led by the miners. Follett is brilliant in his narrative and the pages moves exceedingly fast. Goodreads 5/5  

The Abduction

The Abduction by Mark Gimenez, my first one by him. Quite an engrossing and thrilling book of an abduction of a school girl with links going back to the Vietnam war, politics, bullying, neo Nazis, FBI. Mark takes the story on several levels but stays in contention with his narrative. Good book for those looking for a fast fiction. Goodreads review 5/5

Genesis

Genesis - a 1986 movie starring Nazeeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and MK Raina. Nazeer and Om are leftovers in a remote, barren, desert and their only contact with the outside world is a trader MK Raina who comes weekly to take their products which is woven blankets and supplies them with food items and all. Nazeer discovers a human skull while digging the ground one day which bemuses both of them. Then Shabana comes out of nowhere - hungry, emaciated, desolate and narrates her story of her family lost in the floods. The three of them bond together until the sexual desire overpowers them and Shabana gets pregnant in the movie. There is a kind of eeriness to the movie more so to do with the discovery of the human skull. The landscape is true to plot and of course when you have three power houses acting in one movie, it is bound to be dramatic. Mrinal uses a lot of natural light in the scenes and his direction is of course outstanding. Rating 5/5

Neel Akasher Neechey

This was a beautiful movie directed by Mrinal Sen and starring Kali Banerjee, Manju Dey in the lead roles. Set in the 1930s it delves into a brother sister relationship between a Chinese hawker and an Indian housewife who is active in the Indian resistance movement. The Chinese hawker is played by Kali Banerjee and he speaks only Hindi or English in the movie. He has a background in China where he loses his only sister because he has to pay his debts to the landlord and because of overworking he falls ill and his sister pledges one necklace which he had given to her for getting some money. Instead she gets raped and when the brother comes to know it, he mercilessly throws her out of the house losing her forever. Therefore when Bosonti played by Manju calls him brother he showers all his brotherly love on her causing some friction and jealousy amongst her family members and his lady love also. Manju Dey plays the role of Bosonti quite brilliantly. Mrinal Sen has done a super job with the movie.  

Ocean's 8

One look at the star cast of Ocean's 8 and I am like "oh no" not her. But yeah Sandra Bullock was in the lead cast and more so as Danny Ocean's sister coming out of 5 years jail term. Danny has apparently died off in 2018. How Danny died is conveniently left out. So this is an all girls heist program to steal a diamond necklace off the neck of a model (Anne Hathaway) using the varied skills of an Indian diamantire, an African American hacker, a Chinese shoplifter - so you have all the markets covered - India, China, the African American - they left out Hispanics this time. Of all the cast Cate Blanchett was the only saving grace. Watch it at the risk of losing your nap time. Rating 1/5, frankly they should have killed the franchise then and there itself after Ocean's 13.

Delisting

SEBI (Delisting of Equity Shares) Regulations, 2015 has been amended vide SEBI circular dated 13th March, 2019 to allow promoter(s) / acquirer(s) to make “Counter offer”, in case price discovered through reverse book building is not acceptable to the promoter(s) / acquirer(s).

2. In order to implement the “Counter offer” process and to provide the framework, the “Timelines for Counter Offer Process” is enclosed as per Annexure – A.

3. Further, public announcement of counter offer shall also disclose the book value per share of the company.

4. Letter of offer for counter offer shall be in the abridged form containing the relevant details pertaining to the counter offer inter-alia including details of the counter offer, activity schedule etc.


Copy of the SEBI circular can be found here

foreign portfolio investors

SEBI has issued a circular dated 12th March, 2019 that all investments made by foreign portfolio investors in the debt markets shall henceforth be guided by RBI vide their guidelines on the subject. So FPI shall comply with the guidelines and instructions by RBI on this subject from time to time. But any non compliance with RBI instructions shall attract as per SEBI guidelines.

RBI has recently liberalised certain conditions for investment by FPIs in the debt markets and given more liberal limits thereto.

So does makes sense for the regulators to co-ordinate with each other and avoid duplication of regulations.

A copy of the SEBI circular can be found here