Feb 04, 2012 “Somehow the milk here seems to have too much water” said my Swami’s mother, while serving us tea. Having spent most of her life in Mumbai, she had come over to my Swami’s place in Bangalore for a few days. Her identity, for all practical purposes, was not just linked to being … Read more
“I washed the dishes today” Swami proudly proclaimed, when Jigneshbhai and I visited them. For a change, we had met today at Swami’s house today for our coffee. The purported reason for that being that Swami had lots of work at home so he can’t make it today. Jigneshbhai insisted that we must meet, and … Read more
Another weekend another book. This time it was about irrationality and actually how it helps being irrational – The Upside of Irrationality! We are an irrational species, and that was amply demonstrated through a set of experiments that the author conducted over time. Irrationality One of our irrationalities has to do with lack of acceptance … Read more
“Take the first left after the third signal from here” my friend Swami said to the person asking him directions in cold Delhi over hot coffee. “This is the 10th car since morning asking me for the address of the Ministry of Human Resources or Ministry of Information Technology” remarked Swami. “Looks like there is … Read more
I recently finished reading ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the Lebanese essayist, writer, philosopher. I had read his ‘Fooled by Randomness’ a few years back, and the essential message of this book is, more or less, similar. The basic premise of both the books is this: The … Read more
My friend Swami had just returned from Australia, and joined us directly over the weekend coffee, straight from the airport. My broker friend and I were discussing what’s in store for the markets, specially after this mass downgrade done by S&P to European nations, when Swami barged in. After a long time, Jigneshbhai was not … Read more
“There is one thing tougher than catching ‘Don’. Call it Mission Impossible if you will, though it is tougher than that. Can you tell me what it is?” asked my South Indian friend Swami as we sipped an evening coffee. I gave it some thought for a while and ventured a guess. “Beating Australia in … Read more
Dec 24, 2011 “A friend of mine recently left his job for a funny reason” Jigneshbhai told us when we met last weekend for our coffee. “Funny or serious – as long as he has left his job, good for him” Swami reacted, reflecting his state of happiness with his job perhaps. “Anyway, what was … Read more
“The investor’s common stock portfolio is almost certain to fluctuate in value over any period of several years. The investor should know about these possibilities and should be prepared for them both financially and psychologically. He will want to benefit from changes in market levels, perhaps also making purchases at advantageous prices.” – The Intelligent … Read more