This time it's different - Is it Gold this time?

“Our research makes clear that to achieve true diversification an allocation to an outright position in gold provides benefits that cannot be replicated simply by investing in a wider commodities basket,” says Juan Carlos Artigas, investment research manager at the World Gold Council (WGC). “Gold should be viewed as a separate, distinct asset class, and a foundation to a well diversified investment portfolio,” Artigas says.

Well, I do not know much about future price of anything. It is impossible for me to predict the future, except that I know what date it will be tomorrow or even the day after or the next week or the next year.

However, what I know is a little bit of history and what some sages have said in the past.

The statements mentioned in the first paragraph remind me of the words of the investment sage, Sir John Templeton. He said, "The four most dangerous words in investing are: 'this time it's different.'"

The exact words are not used above, but they sound quite like, "This time it’s different.”

Cricket World Cup semi-final at Mohali

For many, it was surprising to see Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi going into the crowd during the Cricket World Cup Semi-Final at Mohali. Well, it definitely was for me. We are not used to seeing our precious national assets – our politicians – exposed to such a massive risk of going out in the open. 

Were they not afraid of a terrorist attack? Or like the theme of DLF IPL ads, “sara India bandh hoga”, did the terrorists also took an off day to watch the India – Pakistan cricket match? Well, that also raises another trivial question. If he terrorists had taken an off day, did the politicians know about it? Did our intelligence know about it?

Let us come back to the main point.

Were Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi not afraid of terrorist attacks or by anyone else? If one goes by the newspaper reports or what the friends present at Mohali shared, Chandigarh and Mohali had turned into forts. There were massive security arrangements – almost warlike. It is this arrangement that brought out the bravery in the Gandhis and they could easily roam around among public. 

As a citizen of this country, I wonder if such security can be replicated for the country. Is it possible that all the citizens of this country roam around within their own country without worrying about their lives? Someone may argue that it is the humongous BCCI with its vast financial resources that such a security arrangement was possible. I think the Indian Government Budget could be larger than BCCI budget. If not, the Government would be better off collecting taxes from cricket games. 

Someone said, it was not BCCI or the ICC that paid for the security, but it was the Home Department of the Government that took the tab. Wow, I would love to be ICC. Here is one of the richest sports’ bodies organising an event, where the Government mobilises massive security arrangement to ensure success of the event and tax on the ICC’s income is waived by the same Government. 

What is happening? Is this a case of siphoning of funds? In order to understand the meaning of siphoning of funds, I looked up various resources. The meaning of this phrase was explained very well in one of RBI’s circulars regarding “wilful defaulters and action thereagainst”. The same is reproduced below:

Siphoning of funds, referred to at para 3(c) above, should be construed to occur if any funds borrowed from banks / FIs are utilised for purposes un-related to the operations of the borrower, to the detriment of the financial health of the entity or of the lender. The decision as to whether a particular instance amounts to siphoning of funds would have to be a judgement of the lenders based on objective facts and circumstances of the case.

As can be seen from this definition, the Government money is meant to provide certain basic facilities to the citizens, including security. If the money is spent on security cover for a cricket match, what should it be called? 

Can a Chandigarh be repeated for the whole country? I hope the answer is yes – not just in context of the article, but also in another matter – Chandigarh is an organised city.

N.B.: Chandigarh and Mohali turned into forts with tight security arrangements and avoided any attack from anyone. In Mumbai, there is an area called “Fort”, which could be easily attacked by a handful of terrorists. Is this what they call irony?

Spitting on Mumbai roads

News in Times of India, Mumbai edition today: “Road-naming tops our corporators’ wish-list”. Are people expressing their anger when they spit on the roads?

The bluff called “Coalition dharma

Our elected leaders were unable to negotiate on behalf of the People of India with the coalitions on issues of national interest. However, the same leaders, representing the Congress party, could easily negotiate on seat-sharing issue with DMK and get the desired number of seats? Order of priority: party interest followed by coalition dharma followed by national interest.

The story of MS – the Indian leader

Funny, isn’t it? The moment one reads this article header, one would immediately think of M S Dhoni, the Indian cricket team skipper. In fact, this story is not a story about Mahinder Singh – it’s a short story of Mahinder Singh Dhoni as well as about another Singh – Dr. Manmohan Singh as well as some 1 billion characters.

Today, after the loss against South Africa, M S Dhoni might envy Dr. Manmohan Singh. Just one decision of Dhoni – of giving the final over to Nehra – was criticised so much by the fans. First loss in the tournament and it is brickbats for the cricket team.

Dear Dhoni, it would probably help to consult the numerologists and astrologists to check if changing your name from Mahinder Singh to Manmohan Singh is a good idea. At least you might face less criticism.

What are we, as a nation doing? Why are we so intolerant about cricket and so very tolerant about our politicians? Why are we so sensitive about cricketers, film stars, Sensex and so insensitive about what should matter the most to us?

One over by Ashish Nehra would be remembered more than 2G. One last ball six off Chetan Sharma was remembered longer than the Telecom scam of 1993.

Is it escapism? Loss of a cricket tournament and we demand change in the team, captain, coach, selection committee. We love to hold the selection committee responsible. In politics, WE, the people of India, are the election committee. Are we taking enough responsibility?

Purpose of education

Recently, there was an advertisement from an education institute boasting about state-of-the-art facilities and giving laptops to each of the students. There was another advertisement from a college talking about their placement ratio.

Isn’t this interesting: an educational institution talking about offering laptops and not education; talking about state-of-the-art facilities and not about the teachers?

Decades back, when I was a student, teachers were role models and schools used to talk about the quality of education. Now, often the discussion is about air-conditioned classes, designer uniforms and in the end, admission to better colleges or college students getting high paying jobs.

Where has the education disappeared? Can the end (good paying job) justify the means (not providing education but offering the goodies)?

Can the laptops and smart classrooms replace the teachers? What values can we learn from the laptops? Is the role of a teacher only restricted to teaching the subject matter?

I do not understand what is going on!

The insurance tele-caller is back again

The other day, I got a call from an insurance company tele-caller. The caller introduced him as a “fund manager” calling from a life insurance company. WOW, I was delighted to get a “fund manager” call me personally!
What a shame? Look at the cheap tactics these guys use to get attention.
If a fund manager has the time to make cold calls to people, when will he manage the funds? In such a case, should one give him the money to manage? He would be busy cold calling people and will have no time to take care of our money.
God save people from such liars. Is it pressure of getting sales numbers that they stoop so low?
Are these guys more worried about their quarterly target even at the cost of their character? Or they leave the character home when they go to the office?