Sri's Musings from Bangalore

This is just a “random thoughts” mail on the subject of stocks, money and elusive wealth…. Read in your spare time if the topic interests you.




Pic 3 & 4 – Times of India Oct 17, 2007 about the Sensex Peak!
Looks like an eventful day, that Oct 10 2007. The other front page headline was “Centre approved Prez (President) rule; “ (in Karnataka). “House in limbo. Parties can re-group, Bid for Power.” The coalition govt. fell in our state but no one seemed to bother or care. (Karnatak is still under President’s rule). All news was the “good” news about the soaring stocks… The fall of the state Govt. and the soaring stocks were related events? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Who is to know?


Want to share a couple of passages I read recently in a book by Juan Arias – in interview fashion with Paulo Coelho. It’s called “Confessions of a Pligrim”. And Paulo expresses his voice on a “hot topic” – globalization and stock markets…he narrates…
“To start with, all that about globalization of the market, the stock exchanges and so on, is the most magical thing in existence. That is real magic. Because, don’t tell me that today’s economists know anything about it. They’re lost. They are incapable of making a prediction, of planning anything, because the magic of the international markets, the stock exchanges, comes along and it’s enough for the Japanese economy to get a cold and they all catch fatal flu. They put up with all these magical effects they don’t understand and cannot control”

When asked if he plays the market… Paulo says… “Very little. And I have always challenged and disconcerted the broker. ‘These falling stocks are going to go back up’. He says ‘No’ and I say ‘Yes’. And when they go up he asks me, ‘But how did you know?’ And I answer him, ‘Because I have feminine intuition, and if they’ve fallen so far, it stands to reason that they are going to go back up….I’m guided simply by the movement of the tides, where if the tide is low, it’s because it’s got to come back in later’. It’s that simple. They just make the scientific conjectures. We believe they know, but the truth is they are completely in the dark…It’s like the forces of good and evil. If one day the forces of evil decide to devaluate Brazil’s currency, and ruin our economy, they will do it and there is no economist who can do anything about it, no government capable of stopping it. That’s why I very rarely get involved in those things. I put my money in savings account and that’s that”
….
Here’s a “PS” (Post Script) note quote I picked up from a friend’s mail:
“People with experience earn money, People with money earn experience on stock markets”
…

Along the trail of thought, on what’s in it for me or for you or for anybody else, how about thoughts of a previous birth? It’s not believing or not-beleiving in the philosophy, it’s just an explanation of sorts, of perhaps why things are the way they are. To “chicken out” sort-of, a belief in Karma – fruits of labour maturing in this life for bonus points gathered in some previous lifetime – by a soul that’s eternal...

"The past is the future, the future is the past… It all gives me a headache!" - "Captain Kathryn Janeway" ("Star Trek: Voyager")

Few months ago I read the book “Many Masters, Many Lives” by Brian Weiss. I’ve lent it to my cousin and will pass it on to more people after she is done. It’s a fast read and intriguing. I got it from one of my good friends. It’s a very different – Believable? Unbelievable? I’ll let you be the judge about the persistence of the soul.
ASIDE: There was a recent Times of India front page article about past life. I’ve re-produced a part of it here…it was titled:
Hot Fad: Discovering past life (Sunday times – Bangalore, Sept 9, 2007)
“Scared of Flying? Maybe you died in an aircrash years ago. ….. In a county where the concept of re-incarnation is as old as life itself, it isn’t surprising that past life regression therapy (PLRT) has become the hottest treatment for upwardly mobile Indians demanding answers to all their problems.
First uncovered by psyhiatrist Brian Weiss, in his best seller “Many Lives, Many Masters”, abroad, PLRT is the “it” treatment for anybody who visits a shrink. “the human soul is ethernal and only keeps changing the the body it inhabits. In PLRT, the idea is to take the soul back to the symptoms – sometimes centuries back – and deal with them”, explains Delhi based psychiatrist Sanjay Chugh, who learnt the art and science of PLRT from Weiss himself”.
…..
In Bangalore, extensive research is on to profile people who claim to have memories of incidents they never practically experienced. Bangalore based counselor, Ali Khwaja has come across 3 such cases last year. The one that tops the list was a case where a five-year-old born in a Kannada-speaking Hindu family spoke Urdu with ease. “The boy spoke better Urdu than an average Muslim youth. His thought process seemed to be in Urdu and he used to switch to the language frequently while conversing in Kannada”, Ali reveals.”
End ASIDE

But, then again “Your Thoughts Create Your Future” Chapter three - By Stephen Knapp http://www.stephen-knapp.com/your_thoughts_create_your_future.htm

Pic 5 & 6, 7 & 8: Astrology in Dasaprakash hotel in Mysore

I wonder if the Astrologers than Abound in our neck of the woods (I see that “hand” sign on so many streets here), are able to tell the future and throw light on our past, past lives also perhaps? I was amused at the sign of the board in a hotel we had lunch at recently in Mysore. Room #55 in Hotel Dasaprakash has been occupied almost permanently by this astrologer - N. Venkatesmurthy (see pics 5 & 6, 7 & 8) – for over a couple of decades at least. He knew this was his calling and his life’s mission I suppose.

Speaking of “fate” and “losses” of a financial nature, many of us have experienced this in a big-way or small. I’d like to share my own trials and tribulations with recent financial losses which very much could be avoided by just a little caution, just a little prudence.

But then again:
"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us." - Marcel Proust
….

So, just as even the great Balaji or Lord Srinivasa - lord of the seven hills, (most sought after God!!) continues to pay his debt to Kubera, for the loan he took for his marriage to Padmavathi Devi (only interest payments are being paid thus far – the legend goes), so do we -- sheer mortals, have our share of pay-backs, I suppose (in those epic days men spent for the weddings I suppose, why else would the Lord be in debt. It’s the girl’s family now-a-days that bears the burden of all marriage expenses. So burdended they are, that the birth of a girl child saddens while the birth of a “son” is time for rejoicement).

Ever since our move back, we seem to be paying random people here in Bangalore (indebted to them in our previous lives, perhaps?) large and small sums of money – at regular intervals it seems!

The rich TISB (the International School Bangalore) made us over Rs. 3 lakhs poorer – in 1 year of fees we paid, then a school switch for our daughter to repeat 6th grade in a local school. We did it for a smooth transition from US school system to the Indian system (where one needs to learn a myriad local languages!). But, the experience at TISB seemed much more local than the current gloablized methods at the Brigade school., I must say!

A realtor in Jaynagar we met just 2 times and who showed us no good houses, grabbed a Rs. 8K for his dis-service; The Brigade group of builders – rich and famous made us poorer by Rs. 50 K for returning a flat we booked in the Jacaranda Block at the Brigade Millenium flat complex (changing our mind in 10 days – due to dismal roads and being dismayed at buying a near 1 crore 4 bedroom flat); A dog breeder did not return our money when we retuned our puppy after just 1 week; The ABN Ambro – International Bank took away Rs.5K for a loan application which they cut-off due to not being partners of Metro Corp anymore! Metro-Corp Nirvana – a house we booked and paid nearly half the amount for in Oct 2005 – no house in site yet (and we are not "enlighened" yet - perhaps we will when we live in our own "Nirvana" home!)! Shoba Developers – rich and famous, now publicly traded too, took away Rs. 25K from us – cause we returned yet another booked flat. If you heard people are making big bucks in Bangalore Real Estate, you have not heard our real estate woes, and losses indeed! Once, I was conned by stangers on the street, who appealed to my soft heart and drained me of Rs. 500 – believing in their unrealistic story
………
So, we are some Rs. 4 lakhs poorer (about $8-$10K USD!) lost/given away, not as charity, but as a write-offs, a loss to us in the past 3.5 years L Money that did not belong to us in the first place? Rightfully belonged to those who took it away from us (in this life) perhaps? Nice way to console ourselves, for sure :) Perhaps these were things to be returned and now gone to the rightful owner? Thus we satisfy ourselves -- The Hindu Philosopy of “karma” helps solve depressions such as these losses (cause there were meant to be, you see!).

And so it is, despite the “losses” or should I say “no-gains” (financially) there is happiness and satisfaction, just like anywhere else, in this bustling city too!

"If you want to know the past, look at your present. If you want to know the future, look at your present." - Gautama Buddha