Air Vistara and Air India

The merger of Air India and Vistara reminds me of an old Khushwant Singh joke.

When Giani Zail Singh became the 7th President of India, his lack of fluency in English led to some embarrassment. So, Mrs. Gandhi personally appointed an English tutor for him. He was to receive instruction every evening.

After 3 weeks, Mrs. Gandhi called up the Singh household and asked to speak to Giani ji. She found that his English was halting, if that. She then had a word with the tutor and asked him to expedite the progress.

Three weeks went by, and Mrs. Gandhi called again. With the same result. This time, her words to the tutor were stronger.

Since Mrs. Gandhi was travelling, she could only call after a month. As luck would have it, the tutor picked up the phone.

"Oh, hello, Martin. Does your student speak English now?" she enquired.
"O seekh jayega haule haule. Kaali kyun karni hai?" Martin replied. (Translation: Punjabi for - He will learn gradually. Why the rush?)

Short version: Air India may be learning a few things from Vistara, but Vistara is learning a lot from Air India.
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Book Review: The Secret of a Telltale Diet

This book reads like a series on TV, screenplay intact. That is to say, the writing is very visual - one can totally imagine each scene being played out. That is one of the biggest strengths of the book. 

The characters are easy to imagine, partly because they are monochromatic. 

I am not sure if we needed all of them though. The story telling might have been more fluid with fewer characters. 

The book tells the story of a certain section of society, and tells it rather well. If one does not belong to that section, the book acts like a window to peek into morning coffees, gym sessions, dinners and parties with family friends, open conversations about attraction (and lack thereof), flirting, and attention. 

It also delves into the many emotions a middle aged (?) woman has to go through - friendship, comfort, insecurity, envy, cattiness, judgement, camaraderie, professional accomplishment, a sense of companionship with the partner... and does so in a rather effortless, non-preachy way. 

At just about 252 pages, the book is an easy breezy two hour read. The writing is effortless and flows naturally. The emotions are expressed just so and are easy to understand. There is neither too much melodrama nor too much stiff upper lip. 

The highlight of the book, however, is the love story of Samar and Siya. Their arguments are glossed over, their good-natured banter, their frank, honest conversations, and way that they are always there for each other. What is unreal is that Samar never reaches out to Siya for help on anything. Maybe I would have liked a little bit of that. 

#SpoilerAlert: 

Oh, and an AND size 6 is a mistake the editor should have pointed out. AND dresses start at size 8. A size 8 is not likely to fit a 52-kilo petite 5 foot 2 or five foot 3 person. More likely a Size 10.  

https://www.indiainfoline.com/blog/key-mutual-fund-trends-observed-in-june-2024

Madam Finance Minister 

FnOs are not leading to the bulging of your equity markets. SIPs are. 

Quoting from this report: 

SIP flows in June 2024 touched a record ₹21,262 Crore. This is the third consecutive month that the mutual fund monthly gross SIP flows have been above ₹20,000 Crore. The month of June 2024 also saw 55.13 Lakh fresh SIP accounts, compared to 49.74 Lakh fresh SIP accounts added in May.

 Active equity funds saw record monthly inflows of ₹40,608 Crore, after setting a record of ₹34,697 Crore in May 2024. 

Now, if you are a mutual fund manager, and you have this much money coming into your equity fund, what will you use it for? Well, buying equities!! 

This is how much FII brought into and took from the country: 

https://www.cdslindia.com/Publications/FIIFPIInvstmntFinYrData.aspx

Book Review: Queen of Earth by Devika Rangachari

First of all, let it be said that this is a children's book, and I am reading it as an adult. To that extent, the review should be taken with a pinch of salt. 

The book is an easy breezy interesting read. I did not feel like picking up the phone even once during this book. 

While the writing style is fluent and easy, the story itself, not so much. There are many things that leave one wondering. Also, the historical note is, sadly, inadequate. 

Devika Rangachari's series on lesser known queens of India is definitely a favourite series. The Queen of Ice, about Queen Didda of Kashmir, was awe-inspiring. But this is the story of a queen who barely ruled, and then left the kingdom for reasons entirely unknown. We get some glimpse into her thoughts and how they work, but their quick contradiction is hard to understand. As is the idea that she had no idea of the conspiracy being hatched by her father. 

Intrigued, I researched the queen and came upon this information: 

The next queen to ascend the Bhaumakara throne was Prithvimahadevi who assumed the title of Tribhuvanamahadevi II. Her reign must have been very short since it was disputed by her nephews. She ruled in her own right, although in most other dynasties the throne would have gone to her husband’s nephews. 

A somewhat singular occurrence recorded in copper plate in Baud says that she gave grants to a common woman who petitioned that she wanted to build two temples in her father’s memory. It is noteworthy that such instances are usually not given much prominence in history books but to me it shows the queen had agency to take decisions, and the one that she took here was to help another woman, a commoner at that.

Source: https://savitanarayan.blogspot.com/2021/04/bhaumakara-queens-of-odisha.html

This book is ideal for history fans, but not for people who need an in-depth exploration.

Its an easy breezy read that could also be perfect for teen book clubs.

For the first time, i put my imposter syndrome aside and said Thank you

AND i finally did it!!! 

This month, I did two things for the first time in life. Please note - I am 47. 

For the first time in life, I: 

Asked someone staring at my chest to please look away. 

When someone complimented me on becoming an Amazon #1 Bestseller, I put my imposter syndrome aside and said, "Thank you! Yes, I am."  

Well done, me! 

 

Investing for women

As a woman who has always made the effort to do personal financial planning myself, there are some lessons that I have learnt over 22 years. 

This is the gist of those lessons. 

If you are a woman who has just started earning: 

The first thing you should get is a personal vehicle. Preferably, a car. If not that, a two-wheeler. 

But a car that is about 20-30% more expensive than what you can afford right now. 

This is because the car has to stay with you for 10-12 years. In a couple of years, your salary will go up and you will wish you had a bigger car. Also, car loan can be paid off quickly - about 2-3 years. 

As your salary grows your savings will automatically rise. Ensure that you keep some liquid cash in FDs etc. that can be easily reached in case of an emergency. 

Be absolutely ruthless about cashflow management. If you need 50,000 rs for your monthly expenses, keep 55,000 in the bank and put the rest in a small 25-day FD if you don't want to commit to a longer period or illiquid investment. 

To the extent possible, use your credit card. This gives you points that can be used for stuff, 45-day free credit period during which you earn interest on your money in the savings bank. 

Once you have 6 months' expenses worth in the bank in liquid investments like FD or Cash fund, start investing. 

The next asset class you should look at is gold and real estate (a house to live in). Unlike men, for women, a house to live in is a HUGE security net. In the worst-case scenario - you get married, you give up your job to look after the house/kids, and then things don't work out. If you have a house to call your own and 6 months of liquid money in the bank, you will be a LOT more confident of your decisions either way. They will be decisions of choice, not decisions of compulsion. This worst-case scenario NEVER plays out for men. Only for women. 

Let us assume real inflation is 8-10%. So, good investments would be ones that rise more than 8% per year, and poor investments would be those that rise less than 8% per year. This puts FD in the poor investment category. Houses and gold are both assets that rise much faster than inflation and general hikes. This means that every year, that 100 gm bar of gold or that 2000 sft flat becomes LESS affordable to you, even if your money in bank is increasing. That asset is becoming expensive at a higher rate. That's all. 

Personally, I bought gold and real estate first (within first 7 years of my first job) and then did stuff like stocks, mutual funds, etc. I still buy gold at every dip. Silver is also meant to be a great asset class, but I dont know enough. 

Understand how your asset classes work and then delve. If you work with an investment advisor also, understand what they are getting into. We have had cases of advisors offering us 20% returns, only to find that they were offering trading expertise with a long term insurance plan also to be bought. They would not offer trading expertise without buying the useless insurance plan with a 10 year premium paying term.  

Majority of investors in FnO and day trading make losses. So, it is very useful to do a dummy portfolio first before putting any real money. 

And most important is this: 

There are many parties in the world. You are not invited to all of them. And that's ok.