Memories

As people passed by, Pushpa kept ranting at them. Sitting on a bus stop with her grey hair neatly tied up, wearing an old used pink white punjabi suit. She kept talking to herself as she stared back into people who looked at her.

A little girl walking down the road with her mother saw Pushpa as their eyes met. "Mummy, who is she and why is she talking to herself.?" "Beta, woh pagal hain, aise logo se durr rahena chaiye" ("she is mad and one should keep away themselves from such person"). Her mother said as she passed by Pushpa.

Pushpa heard what the mother told the child. "Pagal nahi hu main. Pagal nahin hu main" (I am not mad. I am not mad) she kept mumbling away as she felt the hurt on the inside.

The only solace she could find was in her memories, the ones where she was surrounded by people whom she called her family...

Mutual Funds Sahi Hai

I am sure everyone must have seen the ads on the television sets of "Mutual Funds Sahi Hai". It is being promoted in a big way.

With the dip in the interest rates of Fixed Deposits, the only option for a person looking to making better returns on their investments is the stock market and mutual funds.


It kind of reminded me of my days when I wanted to take the plunge into it but was unaware how to go about it. I guess it has to be about  somewhere  around 8 years back.

The first thing that I did was to get a demat & trading account opened. Since I am a bit tech savy, I played with the online platform to understand how it works before making my first purchase. Post that I did ended up buying more shares of different companies.

How did I make my purchase of shares? It all came down to gut feeling. Its a wrong way to buy stocks in this manner. One should always study the company financials, stability, opportunities for growth before making a buy. Something I started to do later on.

Even though few of the stocks I owned did made a lot of sense to me predicating their growth. The management of those companies were though not that keen to be transparent to their shareholders. I ended up burning my hands by selling them at a loss.

At that point of time, I knew of mutual funds but did not knew how it worked out so never invested back then. Now I do and so invested in a couple of them.

The only point that I disagree with the ad that it forget to mention the risks involved which a majority of people would avoid to take. Even though the last line of the ad says "Mutual funds is subject to market risk...."

Yes, it does give better returns compared to other forms of investments. The only problem is that you need to time your exit to end up with a profit. Something that most of the advisors will not talk about.

One might keep their money locked for a year or maybe three. Chances are that even after three years, there is a possibility of not getting returns or seeing your principle in negative. This will happen when the market conditions are not right to make a exit. One needs to make a note of it.

Alas, there is a sure upright trend in more people opting for mutual funds/investment in shares. I just hope they don't have a twinkle in their eyes with the offering of moon in the sky when a pit below can drag you down.

Market is all about timing. When to enter and when to exit...

P.S.I share a fascination for personal finance. In fact had a blog too, which I shut down as I did not had the time nor an idea on how to go about it. Sharing here my two cents.

Monsoon Trip

"Will you take your bike on our trip?" I asked my friend #4 "You want us to take our bikes for the trip? It will be raining". He said. Post that began a list of reason (excuses) of him not being ready enough to take his first long distance road trip.

I speak to him for the second time trying to convince him that we need bikes to wander over there or end up hiring vehicle. It all seemed in vain and we ended up buying train tickets for our trip for the four of us.

On a flashback, the trip was planned in the month of May, not the place and people accompanying. Three people were confirmed. It was to happen on the fourth weekend of June 18.

The scouting for the place began. We were certain that it was not going to be Lonavala. Over the years, it has become too crowded and certainly not worth the effort as you end up seeing more of humans than enjoy the nature.

Post the place decided, began the search for people to join in. We had a car at our disposal. All we needed was to stack up people together to get the trip going.

We got to the magic number of 7 required and then in a whoosh we dropped down to 4. Time was running out...

Back to the present. We were all set to go on a train for our trip, till I and my friend #2 started talking again about how it will be better to have bikes to travel and wander once we reach there.

I spoke to my friend #4 again for taking up the bike and finally he relented. He was going to come all padded up with gloves, riding gears.

The day was great for bike ride as it was hardly raining and yes seeing the lush green mountains and empty roads only got your adrenaline pumping. We reached around noon and took a break in the hotel.

Evening was spent in the swimming pool and in the night we explored the place around. It was fog everywhere. It just made the climate more awesome with cats & dogs pouring down.

The next day we checked out of our hotel, visited the vipassana center and yes in the midst I got my bike skills tested on a muddy patch. Post that we wandered out to a location that reminded me of Manali trip like it was seeing the snow for the first time.

The road was scenic with green cap mountains and fields, little drops drizzling from the sky. It was just awesome. It could not have been enjoyed any better than on the bikes. It certainly made the trip a memorable one.

On the way back, it was raining incessantly and yes we found the fog making it presence too. The empty roads, greenery and the rains made me wish not to leave the place. Then again its trips like this that gets you going, wanting for more and come back again to relive it.

It was a trip that was totally worth it!!