Random Musings

 I was born in a Hindu Kayastha family in Rajasthan. But the first thing I learnt was that I had been born in privilege! My houses were huge. The police used to guard them and my father was a powerful influential person. What was he - an IAS officer in the poor state of Rajasthan. As the son of a Collector- I assumed this is how life is meant to be. Later I also learnt that I belonged to a UP Kayastha family. Kayastha - are the sons of Chitragupta in Hinduism. They are the ones who read out your karma when the time of judgement comes.  Hence we were not part of any of the Brahman, Kshatriya, Baniya grouping. We were a small elite group who were accountants of god and our true wealth was our “kalam” or pen! And as the pen grew mightier than the sword, Kayasthas gained tremendous importance in an Independent India. Mostly human gods in Hinduism were Kshatriyas (Rama) or Yadav (Krishna)  or Buddha (Kshatriya). We were worshippers of Shiva/Rama/Krishna. Later, in my 20s I fou...

 The latest dream of every lazy man is to become a “Fin-influencer”! Get a large following on You Tube, brag about one’s portfolio returns and then start online tutorials where you give some tips to your followers in the garb of teaching. And of course you charge a fee for educating people! Everything legal and hunky dory! Now I worked as a Product Specialist across big Indian and MNC platforms and it took me 10 years to get to a stage where I could understand investing deeply and give correct advice. I have seen the bull market of 2006-2007. The bear market of 2008, the resurgence in 2009 and then the PIGS crisis in Europe that wiped out equity returns from 2011-2013 before Modi rally came in late 2013 and 2014.  Today’s blog is about one such Influencer who is a BIG name. He recently started his Podcast and using his intelligence and reach - producing world class content. But then he talked about Sovereign Gold Bonds which he said are a good idea since a lot of central banks...