Daily Musings 001

 Daily musings 1:

When people come to know that you enjoy reading, the best thing they do is start giving you books as gifts.

This would’ve certainly sounded great few decades ago when I wasn’t able to afford the relatively expensive books because of total lack of any income. But this time it turned out that the books became actually cheaper than the growing income levels of people. Now as it happens… I get to have more than 2-3 copies of the same book.

And when people come to know that you are mainly interested in personal finance, start gifting, you books on finance And that too of people like Warren Buffett, whom I don’t consider much of my competition for obvious reasons …hahaha…

Anyway, the book that I have been more prolifically gifted is IKIGAI - Certainly very much talked and the least read and even lesser understood book.

IKIGAI as it turns out means the reason of one’s existence.

But it is not so much as the reason rather the understanding of the reason of being or existence.

The elements of  IKIGAI are least understood and even lesser followed.

In the world where our eyes,ears, and hence the mind is always being torpedoed by Constant external stimuli, which may or may not have relevance to us it is very difficult to make a selection of those stimuli before they actually impinge on your sentence, but it is very easy. Erase them immediately once a person has screamed them.

So today, a person who gifted me the last of the additions of IKIGAI book phoned me up. First, she wanted to test me by asking if I had opened the gift wrapping and when I confirmed the name of the book to him, he asked me if I had read it and when I confirmed that also ,then she asked me the inevitable question what is your IKIGAI …

IT WAS RATHER EASY QUESTION FOR ME BECAUSE A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME THIS QUESTION AT VARIOUS STAGES OF LIFE AND SPECIALLY IN THE PAST 11 YEARS SINCE I GAVE UP GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT.

I told him that the way I live and what I do is my IKIGAI .

Since we were not on a video call, I could only sense her thoughts behind the long pause in the discussion. Finally, he said that can you enumerate that for me?

I said OK then take it down in the classical exam book style:

I get up at different times in the morning without an alarm and the first thing that I do is thank the people who come to my mind for the difference that they have made in my life.

Then I thank various parts of my body for still working in the morning at my age.

I raise the blinds to look at the vast expanse of my town or on the other side the mighty Himalayas being slowly denuded and torn down.But I do not feel any animosity or remorse at the conditions around me. I feel that it is simply a change that is taking place around me and I cannot and should not try to stop it or change it because I know that I cannot.

Then After sumptuous breakfast, I sit down to answer my WhatsApp messages, emails or schedule the phone calls that come in from various Mariners. 

To this he retorted How can I equate material gains to IKIGAI. 

I replied - for me It is not the gains that I am trying equate For me, it is an education to self sufficiency and security of self and family that I am trying people to help build up.

I told him about this Capt.,, who is in the hospital with serious issue and the family needs close to 10 lakhs every month. This, I had precisely foreseen Quite early in life and had been working towards it rather whole of my life.

I said that I find fulfillment in that department for two reasons and that ;  firstly I do not seek anything in return and secondly, I’m simply trying to share a knowledge that I did not acquire from any formal education.

When I gave up my career, I was given a choice of teaching in a few institutions and even going back to my own college, but I realized that there were a lot of people more qualified than me who could do those jobs better than me. But this was one thing in which I have been marginally, successful and satisfied for myself. Therefore, if I tried to reach out to people and teach them the same thing, they would probably have a reason to listen to me.

And what about your personal front? What do you enjoy?

I said that I have enjoyed various things that different points of life. 

There was a time when I enjoyed long drive of few thousand kilometers .

I also enjoyed physical activities specially those that I had not done earlier in my life like scuba diving.

I enjoyed going long bicycle rides daily.

I enjoyed learning various languages to speak and scripts to write.

In the same series now I enjoy long and daily Vipassana meditations and playing with my grandchildren.

I enjoy connecting Buddha and his teachings with all archaeological discoveries and finding the connect between the two. I have started learning the most ancient language of Pali and Brahmi script to understand what people in those times felt.

By now my friend was visibly getting bored so she finally threw me a Trump card…No, not of the contemporary American variety…

She said that she had just given the book to me recently So how could I possibly find so many Ikigai.

So now it was my turnTo call for a show…

I said the first time I heard about Japan and their few words was very early in childhood and possibly I was in class fourAnd had been read out the travelogues of the editor of a children’s Hindi magazine called Parag.

The few sentences that my mother read out to me, made a great impact on my mind about the civilization, which was considered to be very violent and aggressive because of their military pursuits, but on the personal front, they were so gentle and caring about themselves and those around them.

Finally, she hung up..

So it is not about various terminology that we use what we need to be a simply be at peace with ourselves And to be normal in our interactions with the external world of people and nature. There is no need to be projecting what we are not and there is also no need to hide of what we actually are.

An explanation on my investing methods

 An explanation on my investing methods

I have been asked in the past and also constantly every few weeks that why am I so conservative and my suggestions for fund Selection .

I am asked why I do not suggest ETF or direct stocks or other avenues like REIT or INVITS.

The simple reason is that when I have to offer a common advice to over 1000 people it has to start on a plane and a simple platform.

The question here is not just of investing, but developing a habit and a subconscious activity that you’re saving and investment is a very important part of your working life.

And since our working, life is very unpredictable and uncertain, it is important that we accumulate that Wealth as soon as possible.

At various stages of wealth generation that is after reaching levels of 30-50 lakhs or even one CR people contact me to ask what changes can they make in the portfolios?

Since this communication is mostly direct with me, I suggest that they can diversify into various other channels because then the discipline becomes intact and it is possible for them to take calculated risks.

But all this has to be built up upon a base of a minimum corpus, which can be different for different people.

In the process of accumulating and building wealth up to a certain amount that is 50 or 60 or 75 lakhs you develop a kind of patience and also become familiar with different aspects of investing NR ready to take any risks further on.

By then your salary also increases, and then apart from the standard mutual fund portfolio, which you have been investing in, you can start taking your own chances with sector, funds, index funds, thematic, funds, and other formats of various hybrid funds.

By this stage, you will also realize that all the current themes which keep coming up every few years are actually seasonal and if you get into them, you must also learn how to get out of them.

This group serves as a kindergarten for lifelong financial planning. It is not your college or university for that either you will have to contact me directly or you will have to take your own route with the help of a professional financial planner or MFD.

I have absolutely nothing against direct stocks you can always invest in them, but a small warning from my side would be to keep it parallel with your mutual fund investments.

One mantra that I will give you for your direct stock investing is that whatever amount you set aside for investment you should never let it disappear .

that is after selling a particular stock Make sure it comes back to your stock portfolio back account. 

I have seen that even multi bagger stocks been sold the proceeds are spent on frivolous things.. and that is why the Wealth is never built via stocks.

Mutual funds create wealth because one rarely touches them even if they are not performing adequately.

The moment the moment fluctuation of prices in stocks and the high profile treatment on the television and social media gives a very short life to each stock and does not allow you to hold it for long for it to give you benefit .

I have myself been investing in direct stocks and later in ETFs for as long as my working life, but two things that I have been able to understand this …

Firstly, the returns overall are not worth the time that you spend in it 

Secondly, only about 10% of your stocks may actually turn out to be multi bagger or worth investing and their history becomes much longer than the human memory .

So if you are new to investing join the group to get into the habit and start building your wealth and later with the help of a professional financial advisor, you can decide on other formats

Parallels between Health and Wealth

 Parallels between Health and Wealth

I have never been a sportsman or an athlete. Despite being the house captain in school, I could never lay a claim for anything except a consolation prize in cross country.

However, despite that since early childhood, I have been a yoga practitioner and something that I have managed to carry through my college and three decades at sea .

Even though I have tried running and Gymns in between but yoga stayed.

Around six months back, I discovered HABUILD yoga by Saurabh Bothra who is an IIT engineer. 

While doing yoga with him, I realized that his movements were too simple for me and actually his asnaas were very few but repetitive and hence very effective.

Every time he gets us on the mat in the morning, he just says one thing that coming for exercise is what matters and is sufficient .

While mulling over my coffee today, I realized that isn’t that precisely what we also insist on this group .

Just get into the habit of investing in simple products, but be continuous and consistent .

In the past, I have tried cycling in a big way had two accidents and gave it up .

Went on to body building in the gym got bored and slightly injured and again gave it up .

Isn’t that quite synonymous with what we do in investing .

Jumping from one format of investing to another . Moving from high risk to higher risk and losing capital and then coming back to bank deposits and saving accounts and calling stock, investing, bad and  synonymous to speculation and gambling.

So in various walks of life, I have seen that similar high profile movements don’t really make much difference in one’s life.

I have been an ardent fan of following the middle path in life- right from school time when I read Richard the second by Shakespeare.

It clearly says that violent fires and thunderstorms don’t last long , he who runs fast gets tired, very easily and fast, he who tries to eat like a glutton chokes on his food…

So in life, it is consistency and discipline which matters . And of course, we know that daily consistency and continuous discipline is the most difficult.

Those who have been to the gym, maybe knowing the difference between repetitions of an exercise or using higher weights or resistance, in a single movement for long. Both are good, but serve different purposes.

So certainly take up different avenues and formats available to you in investing your hard earned money and grow it more and more in keeping with your risk appetite…

But before that, make sure that your basic joints and muscles are in good shape in form of a good bank, balance, and wealth, created by regular investing in vanilla mutual fund schemes.

Once your approximate corpus is achieved, or you feel that your main investing process has been going on for a few years and nothing will move you away from that- then you can take the decision of going in for slightly riskier things …

Risk is not something that is in an activity which you take without understanding or knowing of.

Risk means a calculated uncertainty, the process of which is well known to you, but only the outcome is not certain.

So define the philosophy of your life on your own, and please move on always keeping in mind that MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE, BUT BEFORE SAYING THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE ENOUGH OF IT…

So help you, God …

A Century here as well

 Weekend Musings 

Today is a very special day for me .

A young master is celebrating his 39th birthday today .At the same time he has given a feedback about his retirement corpus which he has reached about 95% value.

Not everyone gives me a feedback after reaching their milestones, but of those who do this young captain is the hundredth person which makes it a century for me .

His success has also encouraged me to think about reaching your retirement corpus, much before 45 .

What this gentleman makes me happy about is his desire to do something for the society now and he has expressed his specific desire in doing something for senior citizens or the geriatric care in the country.

This is exactly what happens when you become financially independent through your own efforts .

The organic growth up to your milestone makes you think about so many people who may have helped you in your journey, but remain largely unrecognized . And then a really sensitive person thinks of sharing his wealth acquired by noble way with less fortunate ones in the society.

Very often have I said that when a piece of property which may have costed, you one lakh becomes one crore, then it does not involve any of your efforts or intelligence . The value of that real estate increases because of the collective efforts of every small to big person in the society and also the government actions. Therefore, in such cases, it makes a Dharmik sense in paying your correct taxes is a mark of respect to the under privileged of the country.

May all of you have a successfully, Dharmik life, and peace and the time to think about others .

So help you god.

NCDs and other Debt Instruments

 NCDs and other Debt Instruments

- Rajeeve Kaushik

I have been getting regular queries about investing in NCD on nonconvertible adventures and various type of bonds .

To start with as a nonresident, you cannot apply in these NCD and few other type of debt instruments, except the debt mutual funds .

However, you may  invest in your spouse name by first transferring to her bank account and then letting her invest directly from her account.

There has also been appointed that these are SEBI regulated and controlled .

This may be a matter of slight comfort, but actually in case of a default which is more likely in case of a debt instrument than equity- the process to get your money back maybe quite long.

Secondly, you must remember that with the new tax rules. The interest on those date instruments will be added to your income and not your spouse’s .

And now the mechanics of debt and debt instruments …

Debt is most essential to the working of the economy and development, whether of a country or a company or any entity, which needs to work . Just like you take various loans for your needs the government and companies also do the same.

The same way that you have the rate of interest attached to your loan. It is also part of the debt instrument which the government or companies use. 

Only thing here is that the debt paper, whether it be the government treasury bill or corporate commercial paper or debentures of various types or corporate fixed deposits they are all tradable in the market, which means somebody can buy them at a higher or lower interest rate than what is printed on it, which is called the coupon rate .

It is this buying or selling, which creates the opportunity to make profit in various types of debt funds .

The tenure for which a debt paper is issued determines that which category of the debt fund it belongs to .

For a individual, it is virtually impossible to invest directly in a debt fund, because not only each paper is of substantial value which goes in lacks and crows, but there is a quality of debt rating, which is issued by various agencies that determine the safety of a debt instrument .

So just like you prefer not to buy shares because you have to do too much research in that and you prefer to buy via equity MFs - in the same way it is always advisable to invest in different types or duration of debt funds.

This is the best way to secure your investment while ensuring reasonable return returns on it .

I personally find debt funds as the best asset allocation to fix income instruments .

Grihastha at 60 or AN Ode to Vanprastha

 Grihastha at 60 or AN Ode to Vanprastha

With 15 years of serious meditation in the Vipassana format behind me and having been eulogising the virtues of letting go of physical acquisitions, it must have been quite a fall for the natural forces around me when yesterday we moved into a new small hutment on top of a hill. 

Picturesque or otherwise it certainly provides an ideal atmosphere to delve inside myself, And even though it may not be exactly convenient for my wife but she is loving it more than me.

Economically and from investment point of view it certainly does not make sense to have or expand a physical acquisition at this age but perhaps my progeny and her young ones will probably understand my deviation from what I recommend as ideal financial situation

Technically located at exactly 1000 metres above MSL at least at present it has an untrammelled view of the Doon Valley around it. 

But it is true so many times we do things irrationally which normally would be considered in the range of human stupidity. However again the question arises that if one does not do such things then what does one spend on apart from charity; As a young entrepreneur told me some 16 years ago that how much can you drink and how much expensive car can you drive for how long?

With the children topshot busy in their own world and being unavailable for important milestones, the happiness and satisfaction is only partial.

Nonetheless let's see how far this goes and how much we are able to enjoy this...

Make your own Rules

 Query: Sir you said if your profolio is good redeem them in alphabatic order.should we redeem one alphabet one year & another next year or redeem A completely 1st then go to B.

Reply:

Good morning 

We are the first generation of mass investors, and the children of liberalized India .

So who will set the rules for us? 

Our parents provided the land, but we sowed the seeds and now we will see our trees growing, and very soon the overhanging fruits will be there.

Just imagine your Orchard will have different trees for different fruits and some just for shade .

When the time will come, you will yourself be able to select which ones to the redeem .

Each of the fund will be a portfolio by itself, and you will be easily be able to decide on your own .

Everyone’s story and situation would be different .

I will give a very good example here .

Generally, I was redeeming the funds which were not performing very well for past three years and one of the funds which came up quite high by looking at the XIRR was Birla SL  Frontline equity with a return of about 12% over the last 13 -15 years.

However, this year for the purpose of offsetting my cost of building a house  against capital gains I had to sell off some funds when I was doing it from the DSP small cap which, in my opinion would have been most volatile and expected to fall during the downturn, which I was expecting last year.

But a meeting with my CA revealed that in order to take the maximum benefit, I need to look at the gross returns rather than the percentage.

In this category again, the fund which came up was ABSL FL and ICICI which have actually been multi baggers over last 3 decades.

So different situations will require different response from you, but one thing is for sure that you will be in a sweet spot.

Reconstructing the portfolio

 I have received few messages from the old members of the group, specially.

They're asking for rationale regarding my shift to index fund and back to face on next Nifty and all market index funds.

I fully understand their concern because I have changed my advice and strategy over the years. But this is not unnatural and infact one must keep reviewing once owns stance and portfolio with the changing Times. 

10 to 15 years ago there was no total market fund and index funds were just being introduced with no clear direction from the AMCs.

The large and midcap funds were giving decent returns and the small caps were having a good run. 

On my personal front I was always preferring what are now called Flexicap  funds because the multicap fund had also not had a separate Avatar.

In fact 2018 when various funds were re-classified with not just the change of name but also the mandate.

This naturally disrupted lot of things and before we could say Jack Robinson COVID struck.

After covid there was a massive Bull run which gave astronomical returns across all funds and very soon the valuations became unrealistic.

The small cap and mid Cap fund managers started becoming scared because there were no stocks to buy.

In this entire turmoil which people saw as opportunity I observed that just sticking to 1 particular market cap was becoming very difficult ; as in a short time the scrips were moving from small to mid and mid to large caps. This was making selection of fund very difficult.

Therefore in an attempt to further automate the decision making of investment I decided on two strategies: 

1. Firstly to have one active and one passive fund in the market cap that we were investing. e.g. if you had a large cap fund then add a next Nifty index fund to it.

2.  Secondly instead of trying to catch the Nifty 50 or sensex 30 index fund aim to maximize the profits by investing in more active companies which were less volatile than the midcap and more active than the larger index which is Nifty 50, you can say taking the middle path. 

3. Thirdly I observed that over limited period Nifty 500 give an average return of all the large mid and small cap. And just about 2 years before Nifty total market index was formed which included over 766 top funds of the country. 

In my view this was the best fund which could impart stability to any portfolio without compromising on the returns or any AMC falling out. 

This is a calculated strategy which will work as long as your expectations are not unrealistic and you should not hesitate in making adjustments to the strategy as you move ahead.

You should not limit yourself to this group and take professional advise also whenever you feel unsatisfied with your portfolio. Always select the best advisor and pay the top dollar to get his advice.

But you should always remember to ask the rationale if the advisor suggest some radical changes.

What to do in this down market?

 What to do in this down market?

Quite a few of you on this group, maybe seeing a market falling like this for the first time and it may be unnerving you and some of you may have started thinking if you have done the right thing .

Today I must say that this has happened so many times before not only for a day or week, but even for months together . 

So naturally to a new investor the most automatic question which comes to mind is what to do in this type of market situation. 

Usually, there are three types of actions which a person wants to do, and depending upon what kind of a person we are, which means that the action is actually in the mind much before we even take it.

To a very new investor who gets unnerved- the most natural reaction is to sell and run because he thinks that he has come to the wrong place and this is not his fault and the FD or maybe even the saving the account is much better.

To the second analogy, more experienced investor the thought comes that let me sell and wait to buy again at a lower level .

A third type of investor who still has money will like to put all at once to take the advantage of the situation.

But an even more seasoned investor will start making bulk purchases, but in steps and in addition to the SIPon STP that are undergoing . This is of course, the most equanimous  situation.

It’s A no-brainer that the last situation, obviously the best . 

In addition to this, then maybe other people like me who have been invested fully and have nothing more to invest. Such people would be like yogis who just sit  still and either watch things happening or don’t watch them at all but definitely don’t do anything at all. THIS IS CERTAINLY THE MOST DIFFICULT THING TO DO, BUT IT IS WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. 

But there are other things that a person can do as a investor apart from simply investing more or not investing at all..

1. They should review each and every Fund of their portfolio by opening out the list of all funds from Value research and checking how much their fund has lost in the last three months. They should go to a longer history and see how the fun has performed at different times like during the last election or the two lockdowns or in 2022 .

comparison with other funds and checking out the weather performance who have kept themselves in the top 25% will give them a fair idea of what is the nature and capacity of their fund and the fund managers.

2. They can also compare their funds with the index funds and the ETF funds of the same category and the benchmark. This will provide them with a self-made Plan for future.

3. We should check the performance of all the star funds and their managers which they had been listening to in the last two or three years like those of Quant , canara robecco, Motilal, and the others.

4. Lastly, the above observations will provide them with food for thought whether it should exit their star fund to move with the more seasoned and vanilla type performances or should they give more proportionality for their existing funds.

I GET LOT OF MESSAGES EVERY DAY ASKING ABOUT EVALUATING THE PORTFOLIO OR ASKING ME TO APPROVE THEIR FUND FOR INVESTMENT OR ANY OTHER ADVICE REGARDING FINANCE. but I am happy to say that this time even with the market falling somewhat no one has actually come with the question if they should sell most of them in fact, I’ve asked if they can go for bulk purchase purchases..

This is a sign of great maturity of the members of this group and I must commend group for that.

As you may have read so many books on finance, (which, fortunately I have not), you may have come across the famous words  That-  be  greedy when others are fearful.

So this is the time to apply that saying, however there is something weird that is happening this time and that is the people are not fearful at all.

Almost every day the mutual funds are making buys in 3 to 4000 crores.

This is again the immense faith of the people in the markets.

So Godspeed, all of you and a very happy Makar Sakranti Pongal and happy kite flying.

Tenth anniversary musings

 Tenth anniversary musings

… And so today I complete 10 years of exiting my career and sole means of livelihood and maybe to others what may seem as the only identity that a person bears.

I have tried to write something about my life into self-imposed retirement, almost on every anniversary, but nothing ever made any sense; and that may have been it is a point in life, which maybe , has no bearing to anyone else.

…And why should it be?

A person is born as a piece of statistics every second and is only important to his mother or his immediate family. Slowly as he keeps growing he keeps finding out that he’s actually of no importance to others and his life actually makes no difference to this vast World.

Like every other human being, capable of doing something… he keeps doing something for himself to grow his small feathers which can make him capable of flying in this world. The process keeps on till he further gives birth to another human being and imposes his will on that entity by giving his selected name, religion, nationality, and further subdivisions that Society can recognize him with.

Very soon with the passage of time he finds that his agile body does not remains so anymore and his spine, which could at one time help him stand in the face of this world … now starts getting a little bent, but not flexible.

This inflexibility does not remain restricted to his body, but becomes a part of his beliefs and psyche, and it refuses to change but expects that everyone should adjust to his ways of thinking… how comical is that?

As a male and probably some female too, all that remains of its identity and entity is the profession that he has been known with. Even in the modern world, he is no different than the other menial task carriers of century old underprivileged people who were known by the profession that they carried out . Just like people were known with the surname of leather workers or pottery workers or jewelers, etc. even in the higher economic group their only identity was that of engineer, Dr , chartered, accountant, politician, etc..

He never tried to show to this world, his other facet of his personality, which actually make up one’s character.

It is this conventional image that I wished to shake up and shake off. Having taken up the profession of an engineer, rather very reluctantly I did feel very proud of it as long as I practiced it because it helped me keep my brain working and the fire in the hearth burning.

However , all through my career and life I was very sure that I had to only work as much as it could provide the means to sustain my future life and no more.

Even in my childhood, I could see thousands and thousands of people getting up in the morning and rush into the jobs coming back in the evening and at the end or beginning of the month getting some paltry money which just about kept them alive. Of course, this was not applicable to those who did the conventional jobs which could sustain the society, but even to those of the creative and artistic Creed, like writers, poets, musicians, singers, actors, etc. Almost everyone had very sporadic bursts of financial means which somehow could not sustain him or his family for life and do some good manage to keep their head above water. Most of them died in abject penury and tuberculosis.

I knew I had to change this. I also knew that I had to change it not only for myself, but those who worked with me and those worked like me and around me. 

What I did and I am doing in that direction is known many and there is absolutely no need of going into that but I did realize one thing that be it artistic independence or search of spirituality it did not come to a hungry stomach and it was absolutely no romance in being poor.

Certainly , having too much of financial muscle and too much affluence did make one arrogant insensitive, and disconnected from the society but it also goes without saying that the absence of financial means made one weaker.

Now 10 years into that unknown world of getting up on the morning of 17th November, and not being answerable to anyone was quite a heady feeling and certainly not scary.

My career at see certainly did allow me to feel arrogant and humble (at the same time ) Apna about two things.

Firstly, that once we were outside the port limits of any country, we were beyond the laws and rules of any entity and any political power of this world . Your survival at sea was not dependent upon the political laws laid down by any constitution, but by your own good behavior amongst your comrades and colleagues. There were many who flouted this cardinal rule and ended up at the bottom of the sea.

Second aspect that I realized almost in the first week at sea was that we are almost like paper boats in the hands of the five elements that we saw around us. When I used to read the news about countries and individuals fighting against each other I used to and still do feel pity and compassion at them and their small thinking. Nobody even realizes that they are nothing but small specs , lesser than the dust, in the hands of nature and it takes less time to extinguish them than the flame of burning candle.

However, the morning of 16th November, when I disembarked last time from my last vessel at Amsterdam I was certainly emotional, but very determined and upbeat about my future life and was telling almost everyone from the boat driver to the immigration that it was the last time that they saw me as a sailor.The past decade has mercifully seen me putting on so many caps and masks and trying out every activity that could satisfy various urges of my physical and mental existence on this planet. I succeeded with all of them to varying degrees because when you have set your own goals, you can never fail. 

A Sailor’s career prepares himself for one thing and that is immense faith  in himself. When at sea he knows one thing that except the five elements and his interaction with them , there is nothing and nobody who can come to his Assistance and Rescue. A similar parallel could not be extended to his personal and family life. it was this that I wanted to work on.

At the end of these 10 years of retired life, I have moderately succeeded up  in bringing independence to the financial life of a sailor and make him strong enough to stand on his own without the support of any government or his employer or society.

I have absorbed in a few cases that where a mariner has financial independence, he could still be troubled with various mental phobia and agony because of low self esteem. I am working on this by creating various interactive groups, specially for people who are in the age group where they have to prepare to quit sea .

Members of my brethren did not see me as a person teaching the tenants of financial independence to them, but give me the rare privilege of looking into their most intimate and private life, and help them with various traumas that they were facing .

All this did make me more tender and receptive, but it certainly did not slow down the process of my aging . The physical activity through regular regimen could not still keep the same level of agility as it was on board. Within a short time, I developed various issues because of long driving that I enjoyed and extended period of sitting in meditation..

Now, when I look at the decaying body in the mirror it does not sadden me because I feel that I have gone beyond the body by utilizing every day and every moment to live; and living or enjoying not in the conventional or hedonistic way, but beyond that by utilizing every unit of time and every cell of the body for others. 

My practice of the Vipassana oriented meditation taught me objectivity and not torturous methods of organized faiths.

And know when I looked towards the seventh decade of my physical existence, I wish to do it without any significant change or variation without any grandiose plans .

I do not wish to change the world. I do not wish to make it a better place to Live. Because I know, and I realize that it will change as itwishes to do.

I want no remembrances of it, and I do not wish the world to remember me either .

I do not wish to be known as a person who made any mark in this world or leave any indelible signs. 

I know better than that than to expect all this.

A person on this planet is only capable of just being there How important he may seem to himself he will be forgotten, almost as soon as he exits.

So all that one should aspire for is discovering peaceful way of going into the deep slumber from which no one rises again. If it can be done painlessly, he has succeeded if not, then he should Try better in the next world.

Children and their Foundations

 Today’s ET Wealth had an article about teaching equity investment to teenagers, and there was a case study shown of a 16-year-old who had been using the trading account of his father.
For the first time I felt cheated that such a great publication can actually misguide the youngsters
Instead of actually teaching children about the basic concepts of economics and how it helps to build up national and personal wealth, the publishing articles which will actually detrack and distract the youngsters.
As it is a large number of youngsters have lost phenomenal wealth by doing trading after the lockdown because they got into the habit of it during the Covid lockdown.
Now by doing this, they are targeting the younger age group, which should actually be learning about fundamental subjects to build a great edifice of their life on it.
Or simply teach the children how an individual or a company or any organized entity helps in building the nation that should be good enough .
Simply teaching those children the basics of Bank and banking should also be good enough .
What we need to teach children is that our WANTS are unlimited, but MEANS are always limited .
What we need to teach children is that they have choices to make, and what other factors which can help them in making those choices .
Please do not get swayed by such articles and misguide your children. There are so many things that your children need to learn along with their sciences and other aspects of life.
Please do not be shortsighted by teaching them about simply trying to make money by the stock market instead of concentrating on their profession .
Even I am of the opinion that finance as a subject should be taught in schools, but that does not mean that we start teaching children how to play with fire when it is hardly required .
Please be careful.

The glorious past and us

Ref: a YouTube video was posted as a conspiracy theory questioning why Mount Everest was not named after an Indian.

You can’t take away the fact that Sir George Everest surveyed not only India or the Indian subcontinent but even as far as New Zealand.

Event today in India, the milestones are the ones that were laid down by the British with the help of the Gurkha Regiment. I am surprised that they are not demarcated in miles but rather kilometers and meters. How many of you have seen the subclass stones which are laid out every 200 m.

The office where Radhanath Sikdar calculate the height of Mount Everest and rushed to the surveyor generals office is 3 km from my home.

We must give the credit to the British that they did not name the peak in the name of any Emperor or Empress of the time, but in the name of the employee .

I don’t know why do we get excited every time you see a video indicating the glorious past of India? 

We must not forget that it was some enlightened people of the British and the French colonies, who made us realize our own great scriptures, and are great past .

Our forefathers and ancestors may have made discoveries but they were all lost to us and we were making precious little use of it if you make the exception of  Sawai Jaisingh who made 5 Jantar Mantars.

We keep harping upon Charak , Sushrut , Patanjali and the like.

But why in 3000 years, we could not set up a strong healthcare system with organized clinics and hospitals .

Surely the diseases were not that new that they did not find mention in the scriptures.

It is also a fallacy that our ancient discovery and inventions were not recorded they are very much documented and are found, but only in English publications discovered and translated by the British.

The great Indus valley ,various buildings, Buddha viharas all were discovered by the British French or Portuguese.

We keep saying that Turks and mongols attacked us.

But why did they attack us and how did they manage to get a strong hold? 

How is it possible for someone to come and fight effectively with the resident army? 

All over the world there is a clear proof that the aggressor has never won a war In the land of the defender, then how was it that in India after the other foreigners had a foothOld but we never learnt any lessons.

We kept ourselves divided like the European countries before the first world war and for amongst ourselves exactly like the two world wars were fought.

Hell even the Kamasutra had to be discovered by someone and translated to us to

8J2W83X5+MM

Check the above Google coordinate 

Do you see that road called NainSingh Road?

All the blue part is actually within the campus of survey of India and the 150 m part connecting up to Canal Road is the one that is open to the public .

I have yet to meet a single person in Dehradun who either knows the name of this road or the importance of  Nain Singh.

The above video shows the importance of one man called Ramanath Sikdar.

Why no one knows about Nainsingh who was a spy of the survey of India and is the single person who has mapped the entire forbidden city of Lhasa. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nain_Singh

No one in the entire history of mankind before him was ever allowed to walk the streets of Lhasa .

He discovered and recorded the topography of entire Lasa with the help of a single compass and a thermometer which he used to Calc ululate the altitude of Lhasa because he did not have an altimeter.

Our glorious past has everything to do with the annihilation of Buddha and his teachings and his followers whom we threw out and decimated within 500 years of his existence.

Had his teachings not been retained by a small country called Burma- he was lost till the world

We all know that the martial arts were developed by the Buddhist monks, but nobody ever tried to find out why they did it.

After all what things of material importance would this monk have that could be looted by the thieves as they were flying to Japan, China, and other countries why would their life be at risk? 

We ourselves don’t like to ask questions .

After reading the above wiki article on Nain Singh Rawat would you even for a second not call him a Risshi or a researcher.

His knowledge was simple and pure- nothing about British or ancient , it was just knowledge.

The British never disapproved of our astronomical knowledge ( pun intended) or our discovery of zero. 

They probably built modern edifices on our ancient knowledge.

I am not an Anglophile but I do like to mention quite often that when we were fighting was with each other, Shakespeare was penning masterpieces that we torture our children with now.

So we don’t know if the war was more dangerous or Shakespeare 😊