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The Cult of Nationalism

This Tagore essay on the cult of the nation could have been written in 2016 (and not 99 years ago)!! "When this idea of the Nation tries to pass off the cult of collective selfishness as a moral duty, it attacks the very vitals of humanity." टैगोर की "राष्ट्र का चरमपंथ" पर करी गयी यह टिपण्णी शायद 2016 में लिखी गयी हो, न की 99 वर्ष पूर्व!! "जब राष्ट्र का विचार सामूहिक स्वार्थ के अनुयायियों द्वारा एक नैतिक ज़िम्मेदारी की तरह  प्रचारित हो, तब वह मानवता की जड़ों पर सीधा हमला होता है" राष्ट्र का विचार और राष्ट्रीयता आज लोगों के लिए पूर्ण-कालिक व्यवसाय बन गया है। और यही विचार और उससे उत्पन्न भेड़चाल जैसे राष्ट्रवादियों का पंथ इन सबके लिए भी सबसे बड़ा ख़तरा बन के उभर रहा है , क्योंकि इसमें इनको शुरूआती तौर पे मिली अकल्पनीय सफलता अब इनके आते चढ़ के बोल रही है और इनको दिनोंदिन और अधीर बना रही है की यह ज़्यादा से ज़्यादा तथाकथित उच्च आदर्शों (Higher Ideals) पर अपना आधिपत्य जमा सकें। जैसे जैसे इनको मिलने वाली सफलताएँ बड़ी होती जा रही हैं, उसी अनुपात में हितों-का

Money Management 101 for Students

Hello young friends. the title of this post may seem out of sync with your realities and current priorities, but let me have the opportunity to prove otherwise. Money, as we know, turns the keys and moves the levers - it is important and a necessary tool to get many things that give us pride, joy, comfort and upgrades in life. Money helps us to get education, get best medical attention when we fall sick, enables us to throw parties and have pizzas and watch movies with family and friends. So it is central to almost everything we do. And you know what, it is the prime reason that most of you have chosen a professional course over the more traditional ones. So, lets first make up our minds that it is a necessary thing to have. Like it is famously said that         "it is better to suffer with lots of cash in hand than without it." At least we get to choose our many of the sufferings!!! :) I am not a very successful person when it comes to measuring success with the ba

On the Couch, Jan-2016 (Notes on Memo by Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Management)

On the Couch, Jan-2016 Notes on Memo by Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Management By Mudit Khetan, Jaipur ------------------- This is only a humble first attempt to distill the knowledge of the greats with MY OWN perspective. It's not a commentary on the Memo or the great Marks, BUT ON HOW I TRY TO [OR AM LEARNING] to think and understand things. The phrases/sentences in [] are my own. Many sentences are incomplete and are taken from a bigger one to drive home the larger point. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. ------------------ NOTES [Markets] On the Couch, Jan-2016 - [Understanding the psychology of the markets as a shrink] Professor Richard Thaler of Univ. of Chicago is a leading expert on behavioral-economics and decision-making. He opens his new book 'Misbehaving', with Vilfredo Pareto's aasertion taht "the foundation of political economy and, in genera, of every social science is, evidently psychology." I'd apply that equa

deepawali wishes

इस दिवाली पर आप सब को मेरी और मेरे परिवार की तरफ से हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं| यह मंगल पर्व आप के जीवन में समृद्धि, सुख, शांति, सकारात्मकता और संतोष लाये| लक्ष्मी के आने से पहले हमारे मन व मस्तिष्क का  पूर्ण काया-कल्प हो सके जिससे की उस धन व ऐश्वर्य का हम सदुपयोग करें और परिवार, समाज, राष्ट्र व समस्त पृथ्वी के लिए आगे विका के मार्ग में सहयोगी बनें|

Timing the Markets with Daily SIPs

Timing the market is completely unrealistic dream and a trap that an investor can lay for himself. Secondly, if you go for daily SIPs then also you will over do the overall goal of disciplined investing. There are few things one should consider even while choosing the appropriate date for a SIP. 1) The frequency and date of income – As one of the thumb rules of investing is to carve out investments before spending from income, the date and frequency of your income plays a crucial choice in deciding your date of investments. Mostly in case of salaried persons, like me, the date of SIP must coincide with the date of salary being transferred into bank a/c. Like in my case salary is generally credited between 12-14th of every month so most of my SIPs are on or after 15th of every month. If you have irregular income like in case of business/professional income, you can start a separate bank account which may maintain sufficient balance only to meet your monthly SIP/insurance

रावण दहन

कल शायद सबने रावण जलाया होगा, या फिर रावण को जलते देखा होगा, या फिर किसी को रावण के नाम से चिढाया होगा.... क्या कल किसी ने एक बार भी राम की बात करी.....? शायद रावण हमारी ज़िन्दगी का ज्यादा बड़ा हिस्सा बन गया है, राम से भी बड़ा... ::::::::::: यहाँ रावण और राम वाल्मीकि रामायण वाले पात्र न हो कर हमारे जीवन में और हमारी सोच में चलने वाले विचार हैं.... अगर कल हमने बहुत तेज़ पटाखे चलाकर पड़ोसियों की नींद में खलल डाला था तो हमने रावण को थोडा पोषित करा था..... अगर कल हमने किसी दोस्त को ज्यादा चिढ़ा कर खिजा दिया था या अपने माता-पिता को नाराज़ करा या किसी अनजान को गाली दी तो हमने रावण को और पोषित करा था...... पर हमारे लिए तो दशहरा का मतलब तो सिर्फ रावण, मेघनाद और कुम्भकरण के पुतलो का दहन रह गया है और उसके साथ लगने वाले मेले में से चाट-पकोड़ी खाना और बच्चों को खिलोने दिलाना रह गया है....

Medical insurance and related matters

There have a been a few good articles recently that i read about various types of medical covers that are available on the market. Some of them were very good reads and informative I am sharing those here: 1) How Critical is Critical Illness Insurance - on The Financial Literates by Hemant Beniwal. There were my comments on it: Hi all, As usual Hemant has produced a master piece for drawing our attention to a very Critical issue that we usually keep on the back-burner as we do with all critical issues. most of the time URGENT takes over IMPORTANT in our life and urgent is not always good for all of the people. Many a time it fulfills the prophecy ‘Haste makes Waste’. Purvesh has given valuable insight by bringing to fore a new way in which one can get cover against critical illnesses. But as I had this cover from PNB that came along with my Debit card, I later checked out that it was only for the first year and not for subsequent years like the group accident policies banks offer dur