“Are you a vegetarian or non-vegetarian?” asked the waiter at the hotel to my South Indian colleague Swami. This question always confuses him. “I am a vegetarian mostly, but I can eat chicken, except on Tuesday and Friday. So it depends on what everyone else is ordering”, he replied. Such responses always confuse waiters in … Read more
Human motivations are complex to understand, and sometimes funny when experienced. Yesterday a colleague of mine relentlessly kept on enlightening me on the so many bad things about his job. He started with how things were getting from bad to worse, and how they could get even worse going forward. On how he was never … Read more
Over the past few days, I was privileged to have read another masterpiece of a book – “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits” by the legendary investor Philip Fisher – the father of growth investing. A complete opposite of Graham and the theory of value investment, Fisher proposes a set of 15 ‘scuttlebutt’ principles that work … Read more
“You Shall Not Pass.” This was famously used in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. In the novel as well as in the movie based on it, the wizard Gandalf declares staunchly, “You shall not pass!” while blocking the Balrog (a demonic creature). A bit … Read more
Avada Kedavra said Voldemort for the last time yesterday, and in the final battle, when the curse rebounded, it signified the last victory of Harry over his evil bete noire. The audience applauded heartily for the final time, and as my son and I left the cinema hall, he was left with an empty feeling … Read more
Travellers on Indian roads would be very familiar with this sign. Almost every truck, specially the big inter state ones that cross highways, has this funny term written behind them “Horn OK Please”. I have seen it often, and have never quite understood its significance. Having asked a few people, even they seem to be … Read more
The wife has been feeling a bit unwell with frequent abdominal aches for the past few weeks. (I am going to refer to my wife as “the wife” like the humorist Busybee used to in his articles in Mumbai’s “The Afternoon” so many years back – I used to find it so funny). So well … Read more
I am a Maruti vehicle owner, and a highly satisfied one at that. The overall cost efficiency of their vehicles and the tremendous value they provide is legendary. It is aptly shown in that funny ad in which a rich man is being sold a luxury ship by a sophisticated salesman, and at the end … Read more
The banking industry is a very funny one – whose basis for lending is that of insecurity. A smart individual investor can use it to his advantage to create wealth. In a consumption oriented and growing economy, most households have some exposure to debt of some kind – the most common being housing loans and … Read more