Editor’s Note:There will come a time when our little child will grow up. And then we will learn from them too. What happiness that will bring us. Here is our member Kamalji‘s experience. Share your with us too here.
Rakesh, my neighbour and good friend’s Son, is working with a good Company and he is in charge of managing portfolios of clients,and they buy shares for the customers.
Rakesh was sitting with me for a few hours today, and explaining to me the nitty gritty of the stock markets and mutual funds, of which i have no knowledge at all.I am zero in all these matters.
In Sept 06 he made me invest a small sum in two mutual funds,and I was telling him I don’t believe in all these, but he said do it for me Uncle, and i told him ,OK, here is this X amount, and you put in whatever you like, just to oblige him, and he being a son of my good friend.
Today we checked the returns, and they are a mind boggling 40 % in 13 months, which i am going to redeem tomorrow.I was sure i was going to lose money, but i was proved wrong by this young man.
He was born 15 days before my elder daughter,and i could hear him bawling all the night.Seems he had a voracious appetite, and was not getting enough, so says his mother.And he used to scream so loud,a few times at night we used to wake up and wonder if the kid is all right, and should we go and find out if they need any help or medicine.!
And today this kid,Rakesh, teaches me about money,and he taught me so many lessons today.About future investments,IPO’s in which i have never invested ever before,and hes advised me not to invest in MF now, as the market is very volatile,and we wait a while for a good correction to come.
And looking at him in amazement, i wonder , if this tall lean handsome Rakesh is that crazy kid bawling his lungs out every single night, driving away even would be thieves.How kids grow up,today i saw and realized it.I also reminded him of the many times he has peed on my clothes,and the poor guy was just embarrassed.
I also wonder about teachers,who have kindergarten kids in front of them, some who cant hold themselves,and have to be changed in school at times.The teacher does not know, that this fellow may one day become a Narayan Murthy, a Laxmi Mittal,Nilekan,or any of the first generation industralist.We are not talking of Doon Schools, we are talking of ordinary Convent Schools,where middle class parents send their children.
Mittal’s teacher will remain a teacher,and retire with a pension, and the kid of his class may go on to be like a Mittal, being counted as one of the world’s top 10 richest kid,who may become more smarter,taller and richer than him at some time in the future.But one thing is for sure,the student will always touch the feet of the teacher,if and when they meet,because he will always be a kid for the teacher.Life is so ironic,I feel,but it is true.The old has to give way to the new.
Same is the case of the parent.For him however rich and famous their child becomes,he or she will always remain a child.And when that child ill treats the parents, or forces them to an old age home,and hardly bothers to visit them,or find out how they are doing,what must go through the hearts of the parents.
A living hell, every minute of their existence a torture,memories flooding in of the child, his birth,the first day of school how he yelled not be left alone,and the mother telling him i will be back in the afternoon to pick u up, and how the child is relived when the mother comes to pick up the child,and give him a chocolate or an ice cream,the look of joy on the child’s face, and the parents in the old age home will repeatedly tell everyone who cares to listen, all those stories,but every inmate has the same story to tell too.
Sorry to go offtrack,I meant to write about how smart our kids become, they grow before our eyes, and today they teach us a thing or two of finance, and other technical jargon of which we know nothing about.My daughter Sita, sits with me every night, she is preparing for her CAT, and keeps asking me phrases and their meanings, and now she tests my knowledge.Like she will ask me about a phrase BITING THE BULLET, and I answer her correctly and she says papa i did not know you knew that.I tell her, do you think i am a dumbo or what ! Then she will stump me with the next one,and now it is her turn to smile.I love this cat and mouse game.God knows how long she will be with us,and this is what i will miss the most, the conversations, the company,the eating of pizzas together, her scolding me not to eat too many calories,that i should look smart.Smart for whom i ask her? Do you want me to be attractive to other pretty females ? The way i am, other females don’t bother to look at me even once, and that keeps me away from temptation, and it is better for me, and my wife.I am treasuring every moment of my time with her, because after she is married, just me and wife,and it sure looks lonely from out here.
That is why i am happy also with a few good and bad habits that i have,one is blogging, playing cards, reading, watching cricket, which will keep me busy when we are all alone, and this is a reality i have to ignore at my own peril.
Those who held our hand for support,we may need theirs a few years down the line.That is why i want to be like Khuswant Singh, living on his own terms, with his brains intact,and I hope i will continue to blog right till the end,this gives me an opportunity to match my brains with some of the best in this business, and force me to be alert, and write something worthwhile.That is until u guys tolerate me,or throw me out.Amen !
