This and That aka Daily Musings

Gayatri has participated in a creative story writing online contest on Internshala.com. Internshala had kept an online training programme which participants had to complete before they could submit their stories. Gayatri found the course too mundane and basic but she had no choice but to complete it. But I guess, she got a bit tired of waiting endlessly for the boring e-lectures to end. To add to her plight she was also doing the himtrek (Delhi) internship till the 20th and is also actively involved in the DIFS (Department of Interreligious Faith Studies – I am not sure if I have got the acronym right!). To put a long story short, Gayatri was finding it difficult to write a story based on the four prompts provided by internshala. She chose one prompt in which they have shown a young girl, alone, probably facing a lake, maybe forlorn. Gayatri had the outline of the story ready but was unable to put it in words. She was dejected because of this and was on the verge of discontinuing her e

Himanshu Joshi has been after me for a couple of days regarding the renewal of Office 365. We have merely 5 licenses and the total order value would be in the vicinity of Rs. 25,500. Not exactly a scintillating order size. But today no business is doing well and people are now employing desperate measures to grab whatever orders they can get. Yesterday Himanshu called me and offered me a credit period of 1 month. I would still not budge as there is no clarity about where our business is headed. A little while ago, someone from Microsoft (allegedly) called me to check on the renewal status. I told him that we would be deferring the renewal by a few months. Upon hearing this I got to hear the usual crap about the imminent hike in prices and how it would be wise to lock the price before 30th June. I dilly dallied. He then out right offered me a credit period of 2 months! This is unheard of. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Microsoft or for that matter no major software company

I find myself feeling melancholy for the past couple of days. It is the consequence of the threat of corona which we are enduring for the past 3 months. The lock down, when announced in March, seemed like a stop gap arrangement and everyone felt that we would be back at work within a few weeks. If one had thought rationally, one would have realised the fallacy in this optimistic outlook. Governments across the world had imposed strict lock downs, many before ours did. This was not without any reason. Seen from the Indian perspective, the lock down achieved only one thing – numbing people's fear of the dreaded disease. The shut down was purportedly meant to enforce social distancing and for building capacities. The objective of social distancing was achieved, well sort of, but capacity addition in the healthcare field seems way off the mark. People struggle to get admitted to hospitals. People are largely unaware of any helplines or quarantine centres, what medication can one take.

Meditation is supposed to help you declutter your minds. The thoughts going around in our minds resemble chaotic traffic where vehicles move around happily ignoring the 'one way', 'no entry', 'zebra crossing', 'red/amber light', 'no parking' signs. This analogy would be apt to explain what goes on in our minds. Even as I am typing this piece, I find my mind stray very often. Whoever can master the mind and is able to concentrate on the task at hand has some superpower which deludes most of us! Our mind is very unstable, one minute we are happy and the very next, nervous and edgy. It has this tendency of allowing negative thoughts linger for a very long time (hence the 'no parking' analogy). Positive, happy thoughts seem to evaporate very fast. Philosophers say that we have to live 'in the moment'. This is easier said than done as our mind keeps us either in the past or in the future but never in the present. We keep cursing indivi

Sushant Singh Rajput, a 34 year old promising actor committed suicide yesterday. Yet again we witnessed the media doing its damnedest best to outdo each other in being crass and insensitive. Where is society headed? Is media a reflection of society. Do people really want to know what Sushant's bereaved father would be 'feeling' at that moment or for that matter the method he chose to end his life? If the media is showing a mirror to society, I am afraid we are a sick bunch of people. This perverse mentality is a much bigger threat than COVID-19 or the economy or joblessness. We have been on a downward slope as I distinctly remember the media being a lot lot different when I was young. First of all, we were never bombarded with breaking news throughout the day. We just had to contend with two or three news bulletins for the entire day. No one missed anything in such 'news deprived' times! People were less edgy, more tolerant, more inclusive and much happier. At least

This is in continuation to what I wrote yesterday. This checklist makes stock selection seem easy. But how does one remove bias? How does one bring behavioural changes while investing? This is a wonderful list for beginners or for that matter even seasoned investors (mail received on 13th June 2020). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For example, this may include asking just these seven questions – Is the business simple to understand and run?  (Complex businesses often face complexities difficult for its managers to get over) Has the company grown its sales and earnings consistently over the past 5-10 years?  (Consistency is more important than speed of growth) Will the company be around and profitably better in 10 years?  (Suggests a long runway of growth and continuity in demand for the company’s products/services) Does the company have a sustainable competitive advantage?  (Pricing power, gross margins, lead over competitors,

Yesterday VGO and I had a discussion about how the world will change in the light of COVID-19. All goalposts, reference points, ways of doing business etc. have changed permanently. In India most businesses across sectors have suffered a lot and many are on the verge of closure. Young men and women will have to search for employment or think of a business idea which hasn't been explored yet. It has to be such a field where there would be a supply scarcity. There are a few businesses in the financial services space which have opened recently. Brokerages and depositories have listed. Private insurance companies are making their mark in the capital markets. Specialised, niche NBFCs are operating in a very crowded space. The telecom sector was similarly placed a few years ago. Now there are only 3 players left. The rest have perished or have merged with bigger players. NBFCs would see such churn in the coming years. It would be prudent to be employed or stay invested in only those comp

The females of the house are prone to squabbling over the most trivial of matters. Egos get bruised fast and even get healed easily. A good old fashioned quarrel at the top of their voices gives the women a much needed vent for boredom and day to day frustrations. It may also be a good exercise for their vocal chords! Who better than your daughter/sister/mother/mother in law to bicker with? At our house my better half and the young one are constantly at each other's throats. Sometimes I am concerned about how the future might shape up in such a hostile environment. The relationship of these two is based on mutual animosity. Both firmly feel that the other is just waiting for an opportunity to pounce or to point fingers. Accusations are also sometimes made that the 'other' person is just arguing for the sake of it. Both women will be tolerant, graceful and friendly with others of our tribe but when it comes to cooperating or discussing with each other, all knives are out! Th

What is it about hair loss that makes it such a dreaded condition? Men, more often than not face this malady after they turn 35 or are at the cusp of turning 40.  After puberty hits and boys become men, hair starts sprouting at the most unexpected places. One wonders what the purpose would be of having hair in the unmentionable areas! They are perhaps remnants of the evolutionary process and a few thousand years from now would have disappeared completely. I have been hirsute right since childhood. There was a time I had developed a complex about going out wearing half sleeve shirts or going shirtless when some of my buddies did. I had abundant hair on my legs, chest, face, hands. Only my palm, nose, and some parts of the leg have been saved. Why am I so hairy? So rewind a couple of years when I had a severe scalp infection and started losing clumps of hair. The fungi/bacteria or whatever it was, damaged a portion of my scalp permanently. So as a consequence while I had bountiful hair e

Today is 8th June 2020 – the first day of Unlock 1.0. I started coming to office from today sans any of my staff. No one would be able to travel because of the restrictions. Just visiting office at regular intervals and keeping regular hours would be therapeutic for me. I had started getting 'office sick'. I will follow all guidelines like using a sanitiser, wearing gloves when I visit a toilet etc. I wonder how long it will be when we finally have 'business as usual'. My technical analysis course ended yesterday and I now plan to type out all my class notes. I do not see myself achieving much success as a trader. Maybe a long term investor is what I may be able to do. Mr. Thakur very skillfully demonstrated how much money one can make trading in F&O. But it is easier said than done. Mr. Thakur has a 25 year history of learning. This has to be acknowledged. Everyone would have a different strategy to approach the market. The past two and a half months have been trau