how to buy a mutual fund and how to tell when to sell

If you need to know what you are putting your head into, you must have read Parts 1 and 2 of this 3-part series on investing in Indian Mutual funds. This is Part 3, and quite consolingly, the last part.

How to buy ?

There are 3 ways to do this :

1. Download the application form online, take a print out, attach a draft as specified and courier it across to the address mentioned.

(Note: You are going to have an advantage in this option. Mutual funds usually have something called an Entry Load, usually 2.25%. Means, if you invest Rs.5000/- you may get units worth only Rs.4887/- the rest goes as some kind of "handling charges/commission". If you send your application directly to the company and not through a broker/distributor, you will be exempted from this and you will get units for all of Rs.5000/-). Many agents do not, naturally, mention this to their customers. Also, don't think that a downloaded applicable is not good enough, because it does not have a pre-printed application no. like the one from the broker. Application no. is good, but not mandatory. Broker is good too :), but not mandatory.

2. You can approach the nearest mutual fund distributor and ask for a form, attach a draft and submit it to him. No Cash. Ensure you fill the form yourself or is filled in your presence and verified by you.

3. If you have an online account in which mutual fund investments are enabled (like ICICI Bank 3-in-1 account or HDFC bank), you can invest online. This is the easiest and hassle-free method, involving little paperwork and felling fewer trees. :) :) But, note that, in methods 2 and 3, you are not exempt from entry loads.

I have tried all three a bit, and of late, settled for the third option. You call it laziness, I call it concern for the environment.

SIP : Systematic Investment Plan : This is similar to the Recurring Deposits in banks. You can opt to invest a smaller amount every month on a given date. Works for small-time salaried guys whom the FM regularly targets, you know. You have to issue post-dated cheques for the specified amount and it will be collected from your bank account and the units will be bought in the scheme. Monthly instalments mostly start from Rs.1000/- per month, there are couple of funds where the monthly instalment is Rs.500/- . This is considered, an easier and a healthy option to invest. While you should also know that a SIP does not mean better returns, it may sometimes have some merits like Cost Averaging. Also, it brings some discipline to your investing and puts it on autopilot. Someone has even come up with a Daily SIP !!

How long should I stay invested in a scheme ?

No one knows, actually. But they say (who?), a minimum 3-5 years is a good period to leave your investments untouched. If your fund is doing reasonably well and is well-placed among its peers, one should leave it at that, even if it's not right on top. It's good to review your schemes once in 6 months, and if they are dismally lagging, then probably consider a switch to another fund. No, I won't go on more on this, I don't know how the machine works. I will get back on this after 7 years :) :) . I do hope this blog will be around, and you, the loyal reader will be around too, but I can't assure whether your money will still be around.

How to Sell :

Why to sell ? :) :) Okay, you've decided to sell or redeem. If you've invested online, click-click-click. If you polluted the environment by investing in paper form, then you would have received your account statement with a portfolio number on it. Somewhat like an account number. That statement copy will also have a tearable portion below where you can place instructions of sale or change of address or whatever and sign. If you haven't stayed with the same bank account, you can specify the new bank account. And send it across to the MF company or give it to the broker. Your money should reach in less than a couple of weeks, since there is a nice stipulation that mutual fund service requests be fulfilled within a few business days of receipt. Also, know that dividends from all mutual fund investments are exempt from tax in the hands of the investor. Only because they are already sufficienty (t)axed. Sale within one year will attract short-term capital gains tax.

Also, contrary to insistence by some dealers, the form is not sacrosanct. Photocopy will do. Or even a signed letter on plain paper giving all information will do. If they are denying your request (for example, a nomination request), they will also send you the appropriate form.

What if you are disorganized like me and lost the account statement ? I hope you will also be partially organised like me and noted the folio number and scheme name somewhere. That should do. Also, remember to enter your email address while applying. There will be "Save Trees" checkbox, by which you can opt to receive account statements by email. :) If you do that, and if the scheme is one of those serviced by CamsOnline.com, then you don't even need to remember the folio no. (Why am I giving tips to become more disorganized ?). If you just mention your email, they can send you statements for all your investments in MF companies on their service list. The site doesn't require registration, yes it's all legit, they are the guys servicing many mutual fund companies on paper work, and, of course, you will be asked to specify a password of your choice, with which they will encrypt the PDF and send it to your mailbox. Cool !!

My picks ? :

Oh, why should it always lead to this ? I have just advocated data impersonalisation and now, this ? Okay, here it goes, but only if you promise me that you won't listen to me:
HDFC Equity, SBI Magnum Contra, SBI Magnum Balanced, Sundaram Select Midcap, Sundaram India Leadership, Reliance Vision, Franklin India Prima Plus and Birla Sunlife Index.

You must have guessed it right by now, a beginner's guide often means, that the writer is a beginner, not the reader. And if you haven't figured that out, you are probably a beginner in figuring out things for what they are worth.

Happy interesting investing.

How to choose a mutual fund lazily and hazily

Didn't they teach you at school that you shouldn't be lazy ? Anyway, it's your decision to be lazy and, entirely your decision to invest in a mutual fund, but if you want to do both together, then you are not alone and you have come to the right blog.

This is the 2nd part of a 3-part guide to investing in Indian Mutual funds. The other parts are linked from here.

Time period of investment :

Unlike bank deposits, you don't "contract" a mutual fund investment for a particular pre-defined period. (Except in cases where there is a lock-in period like 3 years). You put money whenever you want, this is called "buying a certain number of units in a mutual fund scheme". You can take your money out whenever you want. That is called "Redemption of units" or "Selling of units of a mutual fund scheme". Usually speaking, the longer you stay invested in a scheme, the better it would be for you. (That is, assuming, the scheme is doing reasonably well than its peers). Because the main returns potential of equity lies in the long term.

The Million Dollar Question:
Is my money safe, will I atleast get back the principal ?

No, It's gone forever to charity. Jus kidding. :) :) Yes, it's pretty safe, as safe as it can get these days in these parts of the universe. There is an element of risk on how a scheme will perform and there is this usual disclaimer of "past performance not indicative of future returns, consult the offer document and don't consult a blog before investing". But there is nothing phoney or hush-hush about it, nor is there guarantee promises of sky-high returns. But if you are an average-risk-taking youngster with an eye on long-term, reasonable wealth creation, then it's meant for you. Also, no one will deny the money due to you except in case of national financial calamities (Just threw that word, I don't even know what it is). At the least, whatever is the current market value of your investment will be given to you. Of course, the basic assumption is that everything is dependent on the stock markets and more specifically, on the stocks that your scheme has bought. The market value of your fund on any given day, is derived from the market value of the stocks that it has invested in. Heheheh, the stock market is itself dependent on a million parameters, including the flap of a butterfly in Timbuktu. :) It's not much different, for example, from investing in gold or in real estate as an investment option.

How to choose a mutual fund :

There are many ways ranging from a lot of work to a lazy click. Since laziness is relative and changes behaviour according to the observer, It's better I'll explain what I usually do at my level of laziness. I like to keep choices simple, without going into detailed statistical analysis. And as far as possible, I want to keep it "impersonal", that is I would rather look at data than fall for someone's marketing speech. If a distributor tries to talk me into a new fund offering, why do I get that faint suspicion :) :) that he has no clue how the scheme is going to perform and his eye is on the 6% commission. How so mean of me! Aren't they humans too and don't they have families to support ?

I usually go to Value Research Online, they have rated the funds as 5-star, 4-star, 3-star and so on. Have a look at the 5-star or 4-star funds. In fact, keep looking at it from time to time, to spot and register names in memory over a period of time. I usually go in only for the equity funds. So I just pick one of them and invest. And try to pick a different fund house or a different scheme every time. Of course, this is anything but time-tested, since I am pretty young in the investing arena, just 3 years. And this is put right in the middle, because it applies to the whole article. This is not professional financial advice and if by any stroke of imagination, you thought it is, then you need professional counselling, psychiatric. If you haven't read the save-skin disclaimer, you haven't read anything at all. :) :) And hello, I am in no way connected to the owners of any of the links, except for the fact that we all share the same vast, wide, internet.

But, you don't have to go by that one site. There are other sites, which my friends find useful. Like PersonalFn , MyIris and mutualfunds.moneycontrol.com. I am also a fan of CRISIL's Quarterly ranking of mutual funds. Rediff Money , Yahoo Finance India and LiveMint also seem to do a good job in data presentation and tutorials on the various aspects but they do a simple ranking based purely on returns. The one good thing that attracted me to ValueResearch and CRISIL, is that their rating is based on risk-adjusted return, means, they prick the returns generated with the risk it has taken and then rank them. You should also know that such a rating methodology might itself be a subject of criticism. There is also this Association of Mutual Funds website, more of an official kind.

Net Asset Value :
It shows the value of your money on a given day. It's declared every day for most schemes. If you had bought some scheme for Rs.200 per unit, last year same day and it's net asset value today is Rs.230 then your investment has grown at 15% p.a. This calculation applies only for the Growth Option, we'll skip other options for later.

What's about this Growth option or Dividend option :

There are three options when you are buying any scheme. In dividend option, the you get dividends on your investment, from time to time, as and when dividends are declared. Growth option, is somewhat like a Cumulative Interest Fixed Deposit, when you choose to sell, you get your "grown-up-value" of your investment. There is a third option called "Reinvest Dividends", that means, dividends will be declared, but for that amount, units of the same scheme will automatically be bought at that day's rate. Usually, dividends suit elders who are dependent on periodic income. Youngsters are better off with the Growth option.

Can anyone invest in mutual funds ? What will I need ?

If you want to invest more than Rs.50000 in a single go, you need a PAN. In fact, even otherwise, you are better off having a PAN, because I think they might make it mandatory for a lot of other things shortly, like sneezing in front of a bank :) or marrying a banker. You would also need to mention your bank account number and probably attach a copy of a cancelled blank cheque leaf bearing your account number. When you sell, they'll give you a cheque for the proceeds and you will be allowed to deposit that cheque only in this bank account. Of course, in the meanwhile, if you change your bank, you can intimate them.

Investments above Rs.50000 also require you to get something called a "KYC Clearance for Mutual Funds". (Know Your Client). It's a one-time thing like PAN and it's pretty simple procedure.

Every scheme has a minimum investment amount. Most equity funds require you to invest a minimum of Rs.5000/-. Some funds also have something called an Exit Load (something like handling charges for exit). Means, if your units are worth Rs.5000 and the exit load is 1% , you get only units worth Rs.4950/-

You won't need a proof of address. For investments below Rs.50000/- Id proof is not required. (Please note that this rule may change after this web page is published)

What range of returns can one expect ?

God knows. But if you want some information from lesser beings, some of the best diversified equity funds fetched between 13-18% p.a. if you look at the last 3 years and between 30-35% if you look at the last five years. Obviously, I have a way of presenting whichever data is presentable and giving a limited picture of the unlimited chaos. Also, depending on where you stand, this might be the wrong time or the right time to look at how the market has performed. As someone put it, the sensex is back to where it all began, at 13000. You should have seen my face when it touched 21000. Anyway, look at data for the last 5 years, impersonally, here.

No, you want to quit, without reading Part 3. Because you may not emerge with your wallet intact. Thats okay, looking at that much data makes me dizzy too, but, by now you must have realized, the whole point of this guide is the wry humour and poor jokes that are embedded here and there.

Look for those in Part 3, that explains : How to buy and how to sell.

A beginner's guide to Investing in Indian Mutual Funds - Part 1

This is the first part of a 3-part guide to investing in Indian Mutual Funds. The other parts are linked at the bottom of this post.

Let's assume you already know about what a mutual fund is. Let's also assume I don't know much :) , and, in fact, I mix up things a lot, but yet I might want to share whatever I mix up. Let's also assume you read disclaimers diligently, even if they are not there and fully understand the implications of asking the half-baked guys about your hard-baked money. Now if thats some average behaviour you come across in life and average information is quite okay with you, join hands, let's get in.

Mutual Fund companies (also called Asset Management Companies or AMC) run different schemes. Investors invest money in one or more of these schemes belonging to the AMC. Ex: HDFC Mutual Fund is an AMC that has schemes like HDFC Top 200, HDFC Tax Saver and so on. Sundaram Mutual Fund, for example, has its own tax-saving scheme called Sundaram Tax Saver.

There are many kinds of Mutual Fund schemes. Let's focus on a few major categories, assuming we intend to generate a substantially higher return, in the long run, than we do from, say, bank deposits.

1. Equity funds - that invest all of their money in stocks of companies - considered relatively higher risk than the other two.
2. Debt funds - that invest in other types of investment instruments, for example, in bonds and fixed income instruments. Considered relatively lower risk among the three. Of course, return potential will accordingly be lower.
3. Balanced funds - A kind of hybrid, investing a portion of the money in equity and the rest in debt. The proportion varies from scheme to scheme. Considered medium risk compared to the other two.

There are such organisms called gilt funds, liquid funds, monthly income plans etc. We'll skip those and reserve for a later lesson.

Among the three, we'll mainly handle equity funds of different subcategories. Why only equity funds, are they not high risk ? Okay, thats relative to the other types of funds. Also, among the three, equity funds are the only ones capable of generating higher returns in the long run, than all other forms of investment. As this rediff page says:

If you look at the market over 25-30 years, the average annual return would be around 15-18 per cent. Data on global markets will indicate that equity will deliver around 12 per cent.

These categories are based on the objectives, restrictions and approach of the scheme as stated in the scheme's prospectus. For example, we have this Banking Sector Fund, which announces that it would be investing only in bank stocks. Are you someone, who believes that the financial services is poised for a growth run in the next 3 to 5 years ? Then thats for you.

Equity Funds

1a. Sectoral Funds : Funds that proclaim to invest in companies in a particular sector, for example, the power sector, the financial services sector or the Oil-Gas-Petrol sector. Among the subcategories of equity funds, considered high risk. Why ? Because, it seeks to put all eggs in a single basket, that is from a single sector. If that sector goes phut, you know what. Of course, if that sector booms, it can outperform other categories. High risk, high potential for return. You have to be like Mark Twain, keep all your eggs in one basket, but keep a watch on it.

1b. Diversified Equity Funds : These are 'Go Anywhere' funds. Means their prospectus doesn't restrict them from buying or selling X or Y types of companies of A or B size. They can buy the stocks of small companies or blue-chip companies or somewhere in the middle. They can buy stocks from different sectors in whichever proportion they want. Discretion is left to the fund manager. Relatively low risk. Why ? Because the investment is spread across different sectors and different companies. Some may do well at some times and others at different times. So the risk is said to be "diversified".

BTW, Diversification would indeed be one of the basic lessons in Personal Finance. Even within a person's money bag of investments, ideally, one should have, some in Fixed Deposits, some in property, some in gold, some in debt funds, some in equity funds and so on.

1c. Size-based funds : You typically come across names like Midcap funds, Smallcap funds, Blue-chip or Large-cap funds and so on. Cap here means market capitalisation, not as in 'Topi Daalna' :). It roughly indicates the size of the company. You can see the exact definition here. So companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Airtel and considered huge, some like Lakshmi Machine Works and Balaram Chini Mills are considered Mid-cap and Bachcha companies like Balaji Telefilms and Gitanjali Gems are considered small-cap.

Again, large-cap companies are considered low-risk, mid-cap companies are of slightly higher risk and small-cap companies are considered high-risk. Why ? Because of a word called "Liquidity". Liquidity roughly means 'en-cash-ability' : If you suddenly want cash and want to sell a company's stock, will many people be available to bid and buy ? Large-cap company stocks are traded all the time, there are more buyers and sellers, so their liquidity is higher. We'll leave it at that for the moment. If we have the knack to spot that potential small-cap company of today, which has got the performance drive to become the giant large-cap company of tomorrow, you have just spotted the next Google or the next Infosys. If you had invested just Rs.10000 in Infosys in the year 1994, that Rs.10000 would have been worth Rs.1.5 crore in 2007. Juicy, no ? Have some pickle to contrast the fascination , mitigate the enthusiasm and understand the risk and patience involved.

1d. Lifesytle-based or Thematic Funds : Some like Sundaram Rural India Fund, Kotak LIfestyle fund etc. come up with unique differentiating objectives and seek to find good performance in such investing styles.

1e. Index funds : My latest fad. These are funds that invest according to a particular index. For example, Birla Sunlife Index fund, invests, in all the X number of stocks comprising the sensex, in the same proportion in which they comprise the sensex. So sensex goes up, your money goes up that much, sensex comes down, it comes down as much. Considered low-risk for three reasons : 1. Unlikely a fund manager will mess it up for you, because his is a passive role. Also the fund management fees are lower. 2. These indices usually comprise of large-cap or liquid stocks and are automatically diversified across sectors. 3. For a small investor, if you put Rs.5000, you get to invest in all those big companies (somewhat like that) and mirror their collective performance.

1f. Tax-saving funds: These are funds that are similar to diversified equity funds in terms of investing style. But they have a 3-year lock-in period. Means, you can't take your money out for three years. The merit is, if you are looking to save tax, this is one of the avenues to do so.

Balanced Funds:

For a beginner, these are a nice place to start. They invest only a portion of funds in equity and the rest in debt instruments, so they have a mix of low risk and slightly higher risk. Their returns are also slightly reduced than that of equity, but as a beginner, if you want to start small with something, you can choose one of these. My first investment was for Rs.1000 in SBI Magnum Balanced Fund in December 2005. It has given an average annual return of 12% till now. Even 1000 rupees can cause a lot of pride, you see. I don't want to take it out for atleast 10 years, just want to see what on earth would happen. It can't go into minus and they can't fine me for investing, right ? :)

Do you get similar ideas ? Then read on for the next part, Part 2 that covers :
How to choose a mutual fund without having to revise your lessons on standard deviation.

If you still haven't given up on me and decided to part with your dough, I won't stop you from going on to Part 3 : on How to buy and how to sell.

Munnabhai goes to the market

There are certain topics you should not discuss during a riverside walk.
Like office work, unless you have an office that overlooks the river.
Bomb blasts, unless you are patrolling on the riverside, not just strolling. Otherwise, you will be patrolled upon.
Windows vs. Linux, because the river can change course and wreak havoc.
And Stock markets, never, even if you work for... err..had till recently worked for... Merill Lynch.

But Bablu is not sensitive to these things. Munna bumps into Bablu on the riverside often, but they come from opposite directions for opposite kinds of reflections. Munna comes to reflect and discuss with himself, because all day he spends discussing with others. Bablu comes because he spends all day discussing with himself and Munna is the only guy who is ready to discuss anything at all with him.

Whatever, Bablu brought it up. Why does he do it all in reverse ? When the whole world is pessimistic, he brings up an optimistic 'thinko' assertion, When the whole world is optimistic, he sees through it all and reflects on their transcience. The sub-prime crisis has just worsened, well, it worsens freshly everyday. The market sentiments are on a low. Aha, what a phrase to denote about being sentimental about the market. And somehow Bablu thought of asking Munna about investing in stock markets. Not that Munna is all wisdom, though he often gives such a picture, unintentionally. Not that Bablu is all naive, but he puts up a show of naivety, intentionally, whenever someone puts up a show of wisdom. Munna had just stepped into the market in a small way, but you know Munna, he thinks he is a deep thinker. On what ? Well, pretty much on anything you ask him to think.

'I just want to beat the Post Office Returns Rate by 5%', began Bablu, 'Say 20% p.a. returns in the long term, of 7 to 10 years. I am not a trader, I want to be a long-term investor'. 'Munna noticed the data mismatch, but he knew that Poet Bablu was never good at quants, so he let it go. A professional financial advisor would ask you about your financial objectives and then about your risk profile or capability. Now that Bablu had spelt out the former, Munna asked him about the latter. 'Oh, I don't rebalance my portfolio according to my risk, I rebalance my risk according to the portfolio', replied Bablu. Munna never understood what that meant, but he knew this must be one of Bablu's eccentricities of doing things in reverse. 'I should learn this way of thinking from Bablu', he thought, 'it might help me become more creative'.

Neways, Munna went on to explain how he went about investing in the markets. 'I have pretty much the same expectation, I would bet on 12% instead, based on international data for the last 30 years', he began. 'Wow, everything about Munna is international, except the river', thought Bablu.

Munna always wanted to minimize research or studying companies or regular monitoring. This trait comes from his school days, where he always crammed on the day before the exam. We carry the same traits wherever we run. You carry your Shani, even if you run to Kashi.

Munna is also slightly inclined against timing the market. Spend time in the market instead of timing the market was his central belief. Besides, He knew Bablu falls for such puns. Also, if Munna advised Bablu to buy low and sell high, you know what Bablu will do.

Munna preferred investing little amounts regularly. Ironic, since he used to be inclined against this some time ago. But did he require permission, even to contradict himself ?

There is a slight paradox here, though. Don't want to study the companies, don't want to time the market, in other words, don't want to move your muscle, this goes against "standard" practices. But it best fits a lazy investor. Munna has a faint thought that investing without studying the companies will take a toll sometime or other, but he expected to reap some merits purely by diversification and more merits by investing in the long term. Moreover, he was always at a loss to understand Profit and Loss statements, Balance Sheets imbalanced him and his dismal performance at the Accounts courses had been meticulously documented at his university. Diversification is one good practice he happened to believe in. Thank God, he agreed atleast on one thing with the society.

Munna also avoided a few other common practices :

1. Asking Bablu where to put his money. He was sure Bablu will go reverse on this. Bablu felt like jumping into the river, but his Guru Bhakthi prevented him from responding to such humiliation in his very presence. Besides, this genre of rivers were suitable for jogging or blogging but not for drowning.

2. Asking a broker. You would have to first establish evidence enough that he is better informed, not just more informed. If you are smart enough to figure that out, you wont need one anyway.

3. Buy low and sell off high. When it comes to timing the market, Munna often remembers this old joke where a car driver asks a village kid to look out for hitting the wall, while he reverses the vehicle. The kid keeps saying ok, ok as the driver reverses and finally when the car hits the wall, he says, 'Yeah sir, now it has hit the wall'. Trying to time the market is like that. You know it after it has just gone past you.

4. Believing about some "inside" information which is not published and we think are unique in having. Munna believes that market efficiency beats insider wisdom.

5. Keep a target profit and sell. Bablu raised eyebrows, after all, what are we here for ? But Munna explained that he still had a target loss, err... a Stop Loss price, at which he would sell to minimize damage. May be Minus 25% in a year ? Whatever, but don't hug a sick donkey forever.

6. General opinion like XYZ stock is "good", or, now is the time, go go, buy that horse.

7. Reading, reacting and getting worried about everyday information about the stocks you have invested. Munna liked to look only at the "strategic" type of news. Somewhat like Lehman falls, Merrill sold and AIG totters.

Munna thinks that pretty much no one, repeat no one, has actually figured out how the machine works. We can always use hindsight to say that worked or this worked, but he didn't think someone figured it out before the machine worked, atleast at the level of the individual investor. He even asked a question on this at The Simple Dollar blog, but the answer seemed to confirm his own opinion. People who study trends and spot potential winners, like the ones who made it rich just by investing, were a different kind though. They worked like people who own a company while buying, not like people who trade a company. When it's time to sell, they work like they never owned the company and they were here just to trade it. But, we were just Post-Office-Plus-5-percent guys.

Since Munna defied some common practices and seemed pretty heavy-headed, there was quite a probability that he might get into a soup. And he knew it. If he failed, he wanted to go down in history, as the one who fully documented the soup and then went into it. He also wanted to make sure he goes into a soup based on his own decisions, good or for bad, instead of blaming some Bablu, Bujji or Broker. If he succeeded, of course, there would be enough people around to document someone's success.

Moreover, the money he put in stocks was a small percentage of his total savings, so he thought he was stoically prepared for consequences. Whether he will have same preparedness when the consequences actually reach, well, he hoped so. As they say in Karma theory, you don't have to be prepared specially, the consequences will anyway reach you. :) :) , prepared or not. It wouldn't be the first time that he leaned on Vedanta to understand his misery, he had done that before. He always fantasised himself to be like King Janaka and can invest in stocks online with the Artham Anartham verse playing in the background. Why does he always bring up that Verse 30 of Bhaja Govindam, every time he discussed stock markets ?

Munna also avoids all blue-chip stocks, since he preferred to invest in them through a diversified mutual fund. Being a fan of The Simple Dollar blog, he always preferred an index mutual fund to invest in index stocks. In countries like the US, they had funds that mirrored a 500 index and diversify across all companies forming it, but in India, you have a similar index, but not a similar fund that diversifies across all those companies. Our funds usually mirror a smaller index or draw a few stocks from the index and churn within the superset, like the HDFC Top 200. Whatever, Munna believed in his principles, but he can't shift to the US for that sake. So he chose whatever diversification the indian index funds offered.

In all, Munna did a quick one-hour "research" from the Economic Times indices. Went to their ET indices page, onwards to the page listing each of the indexes, saved the page as html, took the data to excel and onwards into Access. Then ran a couple of queries to know which are those companies that fall in most indices. With a sort by market-cap, for liquidity. Some like Nestle and Hero Honda came right on top. Then he went about picking up some stocks which he "felt" like, avoiding all Sensex stocks. Partly random, partly brand recall and partly hunch. To start with, he picked just these 12 stocks, one each from a different sector for an identical investment (small) amount in each. And he hoped to repeat the same buy, periodically. May be he'll add 2/3 more stocks to the master kitty later, like steel/cement which he had left out in the initial round. No smallcaps. Most of his picks came either from the ET 100 Growth, ET Midcap Growth or ET Midcap Value indices, but he believed, some day, 'Saara Desh isko Munna Index bulayega'.

If you thought, Munna handpicked his nuts analytically, then here is more disclosure on his sentiments:

Nestle and Airtel, though part of Sensex, still find a place, because Munna loves chocolates and hates BSNL.
Munna feels off about himself as a responsible global cooling netizen, so he wanted to have a green stock. Hence Suzlon.
Bank of Baroda is there because he vowed to buy it someday, after he wrote this blog post.
He is also reluctant to buy too many stocks from the same business group, like all of Reliance or all of Tatas. One each would do.

Munna decided that he will not spend any more extra time on research but he was ready to share the fruits of his one-hour work to Bablu and give the file to him.

'See you after 7 years', said Bablu, 'I mean, we can have a discussion on the same topic only after 7 years, right? Only then we will know whether Munna was right or wrong. '. And shot off across the bridge into his rustic village.
'How about 30 years', shouted back Munna, 'it takes that long for a big recession procession to pass by!!'. And went back to the Blogger's Bench by the riverside.

Why do most discussions abruptly finish with the conclusion "It depends", "Wait and watch" or "Only time can tell" ? . Next time, why don't you begin the discussion with the same phrase, so that you can save time by not discussing at all ? :)

Munna wasn't sure about what Bablu will do with the file, let alone what he is going to do with his money. Who knows, Bablu might even share it (the file, not the money) to people who email Bablu at his blog. And he was sure, Bablu is going to find a way to use the database in some odd eccentric reverse way. He only hoped, he would share it before spoiling it by reversing the sort. At the least, Munna was relieved that Bablu won't bother him on this particular topic, of all things, during a riverside walk.

Happy Investing.

Pranks on the sands of time

In this Part 3 of a series, I think about God and suffering (in the context of killings) and the dichotomy of good and evil in the human mind. These aren't clear answers but just my 2 cents. I wrote these at this Orkut discussion thread. You can find the other parts linked from here.

Creation: Pattern or arbitrary ?

The ancient question is still being researched heavily and quite controversially.
But my take is, Yes, for the pattern part. The advocates of both sides, Intelligent Design and Natural Selection, both agree there is a pattern. One says there is a pattern by design and the other says there is a pattern in the process, in acquisition of traits. The difference, is only about, who put the pattern in ? Or was there one ?

Is God just a fabrication of the human mind in a world of random possibilities?

:) :) Well, some schools say, the world itself is a fabrication of God's Mind. Or Man's Mind, meaning Man is God.

Is God a temporary diversion from the madness of suffering ?

I don't think such a diversion would work anyway. God or not, when the madness (to mean suffering) hits you, it would no more let you bury your head in the sand nor would it spare you even if your head is in. Lot of people, choose God to cope up in times of suffering, because, well, it works for them and effectively so. If it didn't work, God wouldn't have been operating in that segment any more. There are things in life that truly help you in times of suffering. Like love and care, faith can do it to a great deal, if you have it, that is. Even if all other aspects of Faith are debatable, the therapeutic value of faith needs to be given atleast as much credit as that of love and care.

If not,then where are the answers to this dance of death, to this depletion of hope,to these hungry flaming fires of hell,to this downward spiral?

Reminds me of a quip that Ramana Maharishi used to give his disciples, when confronted with the question of how do I find out the cause of the world's suffering and alleviate it. He often said, first find out the cause of your suffering, we'll catch up with the world later.

What meaning to make of suffering...

The questions assume, to a large extent, the reality of suffering and the value of life. I sometimes think, what are catastrophies or achievements for us, are just childish pranks for God. Consider a kid, playing on the sands of the shore, building castles in the sand. He would build for a while, then he would demolish a section of it and build again. Or his friend would demolish it and they would fight about it. Or build one more together after a little while. And when it's time for lunch, they would move away to play another game, the fights fading away. Even if they fought and cried, their parents would know not to take them too seriously and would tell them so too, indicating the transience of both the castle and its demolition and the fun value behind it.

I myself find this ridiculous at times, because how can suffering be unreal ? Someone slaps you, you immediately know whether it's real or unreal. Your arthritis or asthma is quite sufficient to tell you whether it's real or unreal, you don't require news of massacres in the papers to tell. But there seems to be a school or a section of humanity, that want to question that experience and get to its deeper reality.

The whole problem is that, to understand this in actuality, we have to consider the possibility that suffering may be unreal. Or real only from a relative perspective of the kid. That's a colossal problem for us mortals, because, it requires a different plane of thinking and training. But if the Truth lies there (just in case) and if Truth is what we seek, is there an option but to look in ? Reminds me of Einstien’s quote : The problems that we face today cannot be resolved at the same level we created them.

Is that why the Goddess of the Three Worlds is also called "The Playful One" ?

Spiritual, but not religious

This is Part 2 of a series that handles : good effects of religion, religious distortions and the modern phrase "Spiritual but not religious". The contents are drawn from what I wrote at this discussion thread. You can find the other parts linked from here.

There is someone above...

Just to flip the coin around and bring a balance in perspective, how about violence, hatred and killings that have been avoided because of religion ? Perhaps no one conducts a survey to find this, because the good things that happen silently are not the ones that get the eyeball attention. Yet, these are indeed among the kind of people you meet day to day, commonplace. People who want to abstain from certain acts that harm others, because they believe in a higher order governed by God, never mind what name. If you don't want to hear the word God-fearing, call it a general respect for 'Dharma-Nyayam'. This is not to say they are perfect, always make the best choices, but they keep God at the back of their mind while choosing an action. This is not in the context of fear, guilt or hypocrisy (each a different thread) but a general abstention from a decidedly wrong action with a simple thought of 'Devudu Unnadu'. This is something you find in the grocer, the tailor and the street vendor. Isn't there a certain amount of religious thinking behind their goodness ? Between this huge collection formed by little drops of water, from the very people around you and from the selective portrayal of graphic images and numbers found in the newspapers, which one will you believe in ? And which one outnumbers the other ? Whether it outnumbers the other or not, why is the goodness due to religion, not attributed to it, as much as the evil so attributed ?
Religious Distortions and disillusionment...

One can understand that phenomena like casteism can be a major putoff in a quick glance of a certain religion. But using that to debunk the primary need for religion, is like the proverbial baby and the bathwater. How about other oppressive phenomena like slavery and racial discrimination which didn't have anything to do with religion ? Where did Man get those from ? The source of these don't lie in religion, but in men who use religion as a vehicle, to further the evil which they would anyway further. Distortions, but not, 'religious distortions' as in 'arising out of religion', but as in 'distortion of religion' by men. Which system that men found and evolved is not distorted by other men ? Distortion is found in every system: science, language, history, governance and the arts. And just like any other system of thought, religion finds its own rejuvenation from time to time: cleansing, re-understanding of the Code, accommodation of evolving ideas, reflection of learnings from the positive ideas that mankind has collectively benefited from and purging of the demerits.

Spiritual, Sir, but not religious ?

If one is an agnostic and doesn't feel a need for God, thats a different thread. But if one believes in spirituality, but not in religion, then, in my view, such a positioning arises because of the following (not that such a stance is 'bad') :

1. Needless over-differentiation between the two, whereas one is a means towards the end in the other. Still better, some believe the differentiation is unncecessary.

2. An inability to use the positive understandings in one's religion to further one's spiritual development and highlighting the misfits rather than the matches.

3. A general disillusionment (from the other perspective, call, unattractiveness) about all things religious, caused by a maze of factors, that lie partly in approach to study, life events, unanswered questions, environment etc.

What got you here will not get you there....

Assume, you were ‘spiritual, but not religious’. You would carry the spirituality 'in the head', and then, what ? Probably you would believe in a principle, like, for example, 'be a good person' or 'reflect on your own reality'. If you ask me, you are already being religious, because you believe in a set of principles, and by design, you don't believe (or believe less) in another set of principles that goes straight contrary to yours. Having believed in whatever principles, you would then step out to 'do' or 'not do' certain actions based on those. (By now, you are totally religious). Why would you do that ? Because, given your current state, you have a picture of what you want to be, and you want to follow your idea of the map that takes you there and abstain from those that don't. This is what religion is all about, a set of principles and a set of actions and abstentions, directed towards a set of outcomes. Just that, a lot of like-minded people have got together to believe in the same sets, instead of individually carrying it in their heads, and the subject, in this case happens to be 'Man and His Relationship with God'. You are free to update your principles, actions and expectations as you walk along, and those represent the various schools/levels in a religion. Some would like to argue that this is what spirituality is all about, yeah, those are the ones that would agree that religion and spirituality are closer or identical, if they have a positive inclination towards religion that is. Those that don't for some reason, would like to maintain that one is the problem and the other is the solution.

Is religion the root cause of all evil ?

Here is a series of posts on Religion and Spirituality. Most of it comes from what I wrote at an Orkut discussion forum. If you have an Orkut id, i urge you to read the complete thread here, offering many more perspectives, I just mention here a simplified version of the questions to indicate the context for the replies.

Part 1 : Is religion the root cause of all suffering ?
Part 2: Spiritual but not religious
Part 3: God and the nature of suffering

In Part 1, I handle the question:

Is religion the root cause of all violence/evil ?

Oh No, I don't think so. Why single out religion ? Language ? Land ? It's quite fashionable and simplistic to attribute all violence to organised religion and can be reflected in more youth marking 'spiritual but not religious' on the Orkut profile, but I think it's not the case. (I hope to cover this in my review of 'The God Delusion' some day, but here is a primer).

People fight among themselves for all kinds of things. Yes, religion is one of them, but if you assume to take religion out for a moment, people would still fight. People can fight because they feel 'something is being snatched away from them' or 'another somehow calls himself as superior and dominate them'. In history, people have fought solely on the basis of color or race. Solely for the occupation of wealth or land. For certain sections not allowing a certain freedom for certain other sections, it could be any freedom, freedom to grow and prosper, to speak or express or freedom to choose a taste. Whether one is on the south or north of an imaginary line. The snatchaway or the superiority can also arise from religion, but, that is, only as much as it can arise from anything else.

Just as we hold the color/race/wealth/land as dear to ourselves and we feel jittery about any threat to that preference, so also religion is one preference and a threat to it unsettles man. The tribals usually worship an agreed family of gods, (in a homogeneous tribe), but they still fight for things like the prey they shot or the herb they pluck. It's quite possible people primarily fight on one count, the root cause for the resentment is some other snatchaway or domination, but later bring in religion also as one more count ,where possible, to fight even more. Using religion to enlist more people for the fight. The tendency to fight or kill does not arise out of religion, it's inherent in the unevolved Man as a basic tendency and he would anyway fight, religion or not.

Whats about religion thats not about other systems ?

All is not well with any religion. The demerits in each religion arise from the collective demerits of the people who are attempting to codify it or practise it. Their own personal flaws plus the flaws in the institutionalising attempts. This is true about any system or doctrine that seeks to benefit a collective.

To show that religion is not alone as a flawed system, lets take another unrelated field: Economics. Have we been able to arrive a single economic theory that benefits all of mankind the most ? And if we have, have we succeeded in making most of Mankind agree that it's the one ? God wasn't involved, but still we couldn't decide on a school, we are still looking. I am sure, divergent schools exist in every pursuit of knowledge, in science and in poetry. If you ask each school in isolation, they would like to believe that theirs is the best and has the most merits and sure they will promise that their school would lead to the much-sought 'liberation', whatever that might mean in that branch of knowledge. What flaws are so differently found in religion that are not found in other systems of knowledge or human behaviour ?

Just as Economics pursues the question of money, Religion pursues the question of Man and God. It arises out of a need, in Man, to connect with a possible higher power. Why is that need planted or whether it's a delusion is debatable, but it can't be wished away as non-existent, it's as much real as the question of money and economics.

Why is philosophy insufficient ? Because it handles theory. When you reach the lab, however, you need to know, which action to perform, X or X-dash and which one to abstain from. Not that one action is inherently right or wrong, one chemical is superior or sinful than the other, but given the objective that you are trying to achieve, there is a most optimal action that offers to get that outcome. Religion codifies these objectives and preferred actions that lead to those outcomes, assuming you chose to study God, just like if you chose to study money.

Find your own religion, if you can:

Rub off all religion for a moment. Fine, have we found answers to all the questions we have ? Forget the world...have we found answers to the questions of our own disease and death, of separation and suffering, that seem so real to us, yet baffle us without knowing their cause ? If we can, fine, you won't need religion any more, or what you find will become a religion. There is a precedent, this guy did it, devoting his entire life in the study of this subject. You might happily brush away this need but that doesnt mean it wont get to you, right ?Might as well spend some time knowing its nature.

Oh, is religion providing me all the answers then, you might ask ? No, religion is the training academy for a spiritual objective. Everyone is entitled to join the IPS, but it requires enormous amount of focused training, dos and donts to achieve that. If you don't have the fire, then it isn't for you. If you wish to experience that which Philosophy tells you, in your own lab of Life, that takes a certain amount of training. Religion prescribes the set of actions to achieve the reality that philosophy outlines before us. The rest of the masala in religion, hoaxes, oppression and all, well, is the outcome of the inherent masala in Man, the demerits of the codifiers and practitioners.

The final objective is always spiritually pristine, it probably doesn't depend on which religion or which ritual, which route you took to reach the peak. But you have to choose one and take that uphill route consistently and do things prescribed on that route. And this is true about every route, it will take you there, provided you take it well. All routes have a few basic things in common and a few specifics different. Need to connect regularly with a higher power for inspiration, care for the community and cultivating a good character are some basics that take different forms. I think, probably, the consistency of application, matters more than which route you choose.

Free Will and the Video Game called Life

A friend made me sit and watch this Ted Talks video on the human brain last night and it turned out to be a worthwhile session. It gave a fillip to an idea that has been brewing for the past couple of days. Though the video itself has nothing in common with this post. At least, it fired my brain and kicked me out of the blogger's block, that has lasted over two months now.

About how much freewill does a man have ? Oh, the question, I know, is atleast as old as my great-grandmother and probably even hers. But there is a modern phenomenon that resembles the handling of the questions of Life and Free Will. Gaming.

We have heard before about 'Life is a game; Play it'. I am thinking of narrowing it down further. Life is like a video game. Role-play it. I haven't played many video games, so my tech knowledge is not much, just what I have observed, heard and outlined in a broad way. I like the hint from this book, that, as Man evolves, lot of things today he does for War, like flying advanced aircraft, he would do it in a spirit of Games, without the killing.

In the beginning of a video game, you get to choose a lot of things, your profile, your level of difficulty/speed, the cool looks of the bike, probably the colour of the cap of the prince, number and type of bombshells and life-chances/energy chances and so on. But once you choose these and the word 'GO'-es, you have pretty much only the steering wheel. There is hardly anything you can choose after you start off. How much free will ? But it will be fun, though. The events in your life, the twists and turns, the preset or random obstacles that come your way, the preset or random credits you get on the way to bolster your confidence, are they determined by your actions ? Yes, they are determined by the way you handle the steering wheel of your life. So much for Karma and the ability in your hands to make choices enroute.

But that isn't much. You have free will enough, alright, but only as much you can do at the steering wheel. That much, Oh, and Man thinks he has all the power and free will in the world. Why isn't that free will not much ? Because the complete exhaustive set of objects, events and methods have been programmed already into the video game. Gosh, is that why they use these very terms in object-oriented programming ? You get to choose five or ten or fifteen parameters from a hundred or a thousand that have been programmed for. But do you get to do more than that ?

This design of Life covers only the most basic of video games. However, in the next level, there are also MMORPGs where the players get to choose lot more complex things, like characters with roles. The abbreviation might as well have referred to Life in general, Massively Multi-player, Online, Role-playing Games!!. They can not only play games by choosing roles for themselves, but also with hundreds of players. Let me quote here briefly from the wiki page:

In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the player's character (as in role) is a primary goal....there is the eventual demand on players to team up with others in order to progress at the optimal rate....

They might have as well put the same text on the wiki page on Life.

Now that's certainly an improvement on the level of free will in Life, we do get to play it with hundreds of others and improve our character and become better day by day. Take it to the next level of Meta. What if someone wrote a meta-game-writing software, that is a software that allows you to build your own games by choosing a hundred parameters. Remember, not just choosing roles, but building entire games, out of raw material stuff that the software will set out before you. Wouldn't that be the next level of free will ? Life does seem to provide such chances, in that sense, Life is probably the most meta-level-ised, most genericised, video games of all kinds. Today you could be a master violinist, tomorrow you could choose to try out mountaineering and in a said amount to time and a said amount of effort, assuming you have a average startup qualifications, you can probably acquire as much mastery with your foot, as you did with your finger. That definitely is a relief and makes us feel better, doesn't it ? Your life is in your hands, Choose the reality that you want to manifest and there...Booom..... there does it bubble and bloom, dive and dance before you. Your choice made, at time X, and your results, here it is Monsieur, your custom suit, delivered to you at time X + N. I have also wondered that why most video games are modelled on gaining points through combat ? Don't the characters perform good deeds like, patting someone for their good work or give a food packet in charity and get a smile in credit for that ? Or combat the evil within and gain points ?

Now that you have taken video game to the next level of abstraction, shouldn't the question of Free Will be taken too ? How much Free Will, do we have, even at the this level of choice ? Still, not much, buddy. Why ? Because you didn't get to do the programming. Thats what drives, whatever it is you are driving. Sure there are open-source video games, you get to read the code, learn from it, fix bugs and contribute to newer branches and features and probably work with others together to take the game as a whole to the next level. Life allows that too. People who reach a certain level of awareness, not only have their lives in order, they endeavour to raise the lives of those around them, making better steering wheels, showing others how to handle them in those lower level games. Showing how to play our roles better and improve our character (this time, it means a set of principles) and how to perform better even while playing with a lot of other people at same or different levels.

So, is that all, have we achieved free will ? (Oh, finish this, and say yes, please). No. Because we still have to work within the game, within that game we started. You can start a new game yourself, all of it open-source. You can start tens of them, a bike game, a market game, a combat game, a music game, whatever. You seem to have the free will to do that, but wait a minute, that is, as they say, a different ball game. It would no more remain the game, with the same name, which you played in the first place. In Life, do we have such a choice ? If you didn't like earth and its Life, do you get to shift to say, Saturn for a while, and get back after the riots have cooled off ? Oh, don't bother, Sometimes, Saturn seems to control our lives here, instead !!. Even if a geographical location shift were possible, it would still be the same game called Life. The same programmer. The same program, everyday extended with new features and a million parameters, out of which you get to choose very few. May be a few more bonus ones on a sunny day. And hope to have Saturn on your side.

Thats not much of free will. But I should qualify this conclusion, because, thats how it looks from where I stand and see, and only to the level of Meta I can handle. Because I am going to go above my own head in the next paragraph. I tend to subscribe to what Sri Ramakrishna, used to say often about Free Will. That our free will, is "like that of a cow that is tied to a pole and gets to graze the grass around it". It might think, in all its cow-level meta, that it has quite a lot of free-will. But you and I, who are at slightly better Meta than the cow, know the length of the rope and its circumference. The cow, though not meta enough to work out the formula, will surely come to terms with its limitations and pet ideas of free will, once the grass (or the meta) is grazed enough and exhausted. Then, it looks up to the Master, and he releases it from its pole and allows it to graze further beyond. [Don't mention to the cow, that it will be tied to another pole, :) :) , thats part of the original game. ]

There, however, seems to be an even higher possibility, That we are 24x7, co-creators of all of world and Life, just that we forgot, and such Illusion seems part of the design. [Don't say you didn't put that into the design, stupid, you put it and forgot]. Uf! Suddenly, you are promoted to the Board of Directors! Even higher is the school that, 'we' is wrong usage, and all of it is actually ONE single stuff and the dream and waking states are just parameters in a combo box, and one is as real (or as unreal) as the other. Well, there is only one Director, and Thou Art That ! Now, don't ask me, which video game most maps that level of abstraction ? As I said, Life is a meta-kaa-baap-kaa-meta, when it comes to gaming. It seems the Matrix game has characters that are aware that they are under simulation, and they even have a rare one, that has self-substantiated itself out of the game. (What the hell is that supposed to mean in Life ?)

The higher truths about Life and Free Will, we may not be able to comprehend now, we dismiss it in sarcasm and quips, but there may be few die-hard game programmers out there who have seen the software design of the Game called Life and come back. If their experience is anything to go by, we just have to increase our meta and re-meta it until we experience those very truths we find as abstract. It won't be meta anymore, it would just give us the feeling of having designed an amazing game for billions of species to play. Till the end of Time. And start all over again with a different profile. Happy Gaming!

Don't die for a Cause, Live for it.....

After my earlier writings on Bhagat Singh, a friend of mine sent in a link to a recent article on Periyar's stance on Bhagat Singh in those days. The article is based on a recently published book on Bhagat Singh. I should have discussed it after reading the book but I think the contents of the article, even when taken alone, has stuff enough for a blog post, particularly since it mentions an essay written by Bhagat Singh "Why I am an atheist".

I wouldn't ask someone to give up his life by engaging in violent action in the cause of something that is dear to his heart, even against an oppressor. Not that I value Life more than the Cause, but because I think it is better to use Life to further that cause, rather than to give it away on a quick-fix route. Don't say "I'll die for this cause", but say, "I'll live to show how to live for this cause". I called Bhagat Singh a martyr in comparison with Nathuram, because Bhagat Singh gave up his life in acting against an external 200-year-old oppressor, not on a skirmish of money transfer. It's how a spouse or a kid who is oppressively abused at his/her home wanting to break away from the family is different from the kid who thinks of running away because his Dad scolded him. But after Bhagat Singh chose to offer his life (which I think is not always the best thing to do), I would always differentiate such an offering as martyrdom given the context, zeal, selflessness, external oppressor and the awareness wave it created , as against other flimsier reasons for murder of oneself or others. This is not to say that such martyrdom should be replicated (as if it's that easy), but the zeal behind, selflessness and singlepointedness should be replicated towards a cause that is as noble and supreme as the ideal was to the martyr.

There are probably a couple of points in the article where I agree, where Periyar laments that nobody, no leader even condoled the hanging of Bhagat Singh and many senior leaders didn't try to take up the matter with the British in any way. That was real bad, how thankless !

I also agree on Bhagat Singh's general exhortation that exploitation of man by man and nation by nation should end.

That said, would I agree with Bhagat Singh's other views or beliefs ? Oh hardly, which is why I put the agreement first. Here are those where I disagree and most of these disagreements are in the outdated utility of his views in the current times, not on their backdated relevance.

Belief in socialism and communism as a panacea for all the evils of the society was a belief wave of those times, not because of their proven intrinsic healing properties, but more because of the frustrations of imperial colonialism. This would soon get proven by time with, if not the crumbling of such institutions, atleast with the wane in the fascination for these schools and increasing disillusionment about their healing properties. They were definitely worth the try, though.

Among the governance schools that mankind has tried out, Democracy seems to be the one that is working out the best in the current phase of civilization and Man's search for happiness in society. While I personally have a fascination of benevolent autocracy at times, I think, democracy, with all its demerits, will hold the fort as Mankind moves towards better and better forms of this school, hopefully plugging its loopholes on the way. So is the case with free markets, with whatever little freedom it might mean in the actual sense of practice, under democratic intervention through regulation.

"Till people live without unequal status, our struggle will continue. It cannot be brought to an end by killing us..." Oh come on, flip this argument around, will inequality come to an end by killing yourself or others ? How do you define inequality ? How do you define a Utopian possibility of a single equal society where everyone is somehow equally endowed and happy ? Or should we endeavour for the equality of opportunity to make choices and rise ? How about people using the same equality of opportunity to make choices and fall ? Or befall others ? Assuming you define equality successfully, is it something you can achieve ? Even if you were to achieve all equality of the material (which by itself, is an infinitely complex problem), Man would still be unhappy about inequalities in his mind. This is not to say we should glorify the absurd inequalities, but we should pursue the endeavour to remove the absurdity acknowledging the fact that such a pursuit can span civilizations and no single hammer can quickly rest the hall to peace forever.

"only Bhagat Singh’s principle is needed in India" ? That's just Periyar's political wand. Just ignore. We are anyway discussing here why it may not be as fascinating. Among others, He justifies the "use of force in terrible necessity" and non-violence as an indispensable policy for mass movements. I think while it might have had some relevance in relation to abuse by an external oppressor, but it might create utter chaos if individual citizens subscribe to this idea and use force depending on their view of terrible necessity. Leave it to the law enforcers, please.

While some responses to the article have praised his humanism, other online responses the article have handled the fallacious comparison between caste system and economics, untouchability and povery, so I won't go into it. I also won't go into the possible "political" reasons for Periyar to vociferously align with Bhagat Singh or even Bhagat Singh to align with atheism. I would rather look at the reasons for their value and not for their motive.

The other reasons of Bhagat Singh to align with atheism are mentioned in his essay, "Why I am an Atheist", referred to in the article in the context of religion being a tool of exploitation. For one, the essay is definitely a great stirring read, but the meat isn't new, it's as old as God, just the dialogues are different. I wanted to discuss this after I read The God Delusion, but let's have a primer.

If you cut out the part where Bhagat Singh explains that vanity, upbringing etc are not among the reasons, the other main reasons are :

1. He studied a lot on the subject and then found his atheism. He doesn't mention what his studies revealed, I think probably the other reasons mentioned here are the ones. Moreover, Bhagat Singh himself admits that he did a detailed study of the "negative" side, that is, how to deconstruct the God concept, he didn't study much on the "positive" side. Oh, thats bad study, but I will credit him for his open admission.

2. Some of the stuff is rhetoric, hey look at this, hey look at that, don't you know this, aren't you looking and so on. So cut that out too, but I should say, even after cutting, he does go on to some core reasons.

3. "Religion is the cause of a lot of evils and therefore, I don't believe in God": The earlier misconceptions about communism would get disproven by time, but this one still persists. What about other things that cause evil, is that a good reason to say their underlying substratum doesn't exist ? Cobwebs are a good reason to clean the house, but is that a good, (apparaently analytical) reason to deny that the house exists or not to have a house anymore ? Why can't we all stop using petrol and go back to stone age because it causes pollution ? Okay, if religion caused inequalities by caste, which religion caused inequalities by colour in some other part of the earth ? What about inequalities in skill sets, in food, in lotteries and a hundred other variants of inequality. Religion is a major force, and oh we have inequality all over, so we think all inequality must have been caused by religion. People wearing yellow t-shirts eat more apples than those wearing blue ones so there is something about yellow.

We shouldn't admit the evil offshoots of religion, and there are many, but thats a reason we should practise better religion if we believe in God, and even if we don't believe in God, we should find out what causes evil/suffering irrespective of whether God existed or not. As to my take on what's the root cause of all evil, I would turn to one religion that studied this as one of its tenets. Turns out, it has nothing much to do with God.

4. "The God concept was created because of human weakness" : Even if this were true, it hardly gives a reason to prove or disprove the existence of God or otherwise. Since you are the one claiming to be on the side of reason, you got to come up with a better one.

5. "Why did God create the world ? " : If this question was discussed at length, it would have been a different angle, but Bhagat Singh seems to focus on the "Suffering" aspect of creation. He asks the creation question in the context of "Why did God create a world that has so much suffering in it ?". The question presupposes that God should keep the world happy, otherwise he is no God. Look around the world, you won't require God to cause suffering, Man himself is more than capable of it. Moreover, you should first prove God caused it in the first place. Or may be find out, who causes any suffering to whom. And after you find out, you can say, so-and-so is causing it. There are some schools that ask the question "Is there suffering ?" from a particular plane, and, to be fair to the study of the subject, you should ask the question too and find the answer. In fact, if you answer that, quite possible you may not have much questions left.

6. "Who created the world ?": The "Ask Darwin" and "Chemical Accident" arguments aren't new. But if you have to use them effectively as a persuasive argument for atheism, these alternatives should first provide a complete explanation of creation. You might go on pointing out that School A is incomplete and foolish, but to get the point across, you should have School B in your hand and say, here it is, this one answers all your questions. It's well known even in scientific circles that the various disciplines delve most on the How of creation and science, as a discipline by itself, will not be able to provide a complete explanation on the why and who, atleast for a lot of time to come. We are still very far away even from asking these questions in our labs, so come up with something concrete and complete, I'll wait.

I liked the part towards the end of the essay, where Bhagat Singh stays an atheist till the end. Tough job. "You have enough fires, you find God..." - Ladder 49. But I have a faint thought : did he stay so just because he didn't want to roll back ? What if, just what if he was wrong, particularly since he had not found complete correct answers to the God questions he was asking. I am just speculating here, I am sure you can speculate about my being wrong too.

Does that make you curious on what are my arguments in favour of theism ? Thats another thread some day. Frankly, I don't know God well enough to qualify to comment on Him. I like Him though :) . I thought atheists are the ones who knew everything !!

Mobile Panchangam

Today is Ugadi and I received one of those little gifts which banks sometimes give away to customers, a little pocket annual calendar from State Bank of Hyderabad. It has essential information for any given day according to the religious calendar. These are quite common and many calendars in which you can tear away the date every date, often give useful info according to the calendars of many religions, including for example, the month according to the Hijri Calendar and include even a thought for the day. I was wondering why some mobile service provider can't give the same information on SMS for a given day. Panchangam for the day, by SMS, on demand, SMS charges apply. We get all kinds of info on SMS, cricket scores, thought for the day, reservation status, stock quotes and oh yes, coming closest is even astrology for the day. While these services may have something in common with similar operators in other countries, the Panchangam SMS will be a very india-specific service. Setting aside questions of belief or otherwise in the Panchangam, I was wondering if the service will have a market. In my view, yes. If you allow me excitement, quite a big one, in a vast country of believers, where people subscribe to things like virtual pooja. At the minimum, it might have as much reason to be present as a service, as is the astrology option present now. The Panchangam SMS can contain things like Thithi, Star, Good and Bad timings, Rahu Kalam and name of the festival, if any. Who might find it useful ? Anyone who believes in these things, and sometimes keeps track of these in his mind by quickly looking it up in an almanac, somehow can't reach one but has a cellphone. Maybe he is discussing a business transaction. Or planning an investment. Or going on an adventure trip. It will be great if the user can specify which calendar, like Hindu or Hijri.

I was discussing this idea with a friend during my riverside walk and I came to know that, to be technically precise, things like thithi are dependent on the local sunrise time and might actually differ from place to place. This might make things a little more difficult, though user can also the SMS the PINcode of his location!!. The mobile service providers now do give a lot of local content, but I think the categories of content might be similar to those that are offered in other advanced countries. Whereas this one would be a new idea, totally relevant to India. As to users who might find such content useless, Oh yes, lot of people might feel the same way about the other services mentioned above. Also, even when provided, it might not accurately fulfil the needs of some hardcore panchangamites who follow specific panchangams even within the Hindu Calendar, like the Srirangam Kutti Sastrigal Panchangam. But I think, overall, the service might attract a lot of users and also benefit both the customer and the service provider. Particularly, since, in India, localized services like JustDial.Com, which are entirely free to the individual customer, still have found a successful revenue model while giving useful advice, even for free. These days, it looks like in India and China, there would be a volumes market for almost anything, given their vast population. I would also love it, if Google can integrate Panchangam into their Google Calendar, as part of their efforts in offering localized content. Thats a little too much ? Google SMS is already in India and they have started SMS alerts in India for events in the user's Google Calendar. Hehehe, they just have to add a feature, "Subscribe to Daily Panchangam", with Hindu or Hijri, PINcode etc as default settings. At the rate of feature addition of Google, I am sure they'll take it further, and even notify you on upcoming special days like Akshaya Tritihiya and generate ad revenue from jewellery shops. Google Panchangam, how does it sound ?

Your Smile means I am fine...

Similar to the incident where I met the 100-year old man, I happened to meet another elderly person. I was in the hospital to meet a friend and someone mentioned about this person and said he was also admitted in the same hospital for some ailment. I never knew him, I hadn't talked to him anytime before, but I knew he was a resident of the community. A couple of other friends also thought let's go and visit him although none of us knew him well. So we went to his ward. He knew only one among our group but he understood we are a gang. He must have been in his late eighties (or may be in early nineties). As we could see, his ailment had taken a heavy toll. The first thing that happens, I think, to some people who are otherwise healthy, well-built for a long time and suddenly fall sick in their old age is that, they lose their cheeky build and drastically reduce to a thin frame. He had great difficulty having food on his own and his wife was feeding him a semi-liquid from a cup. We thought it wouldn't be good manners to step in but they said its okay and moreover, it was already getting dark and we thought he might wish to take rest later. His wife was also in her eighties and still does voluntary work.

I felt that though his frame had reduced, the shine in his eyes had not. He mentioned about my friend's father and recollected how they went back a long time, though they had branched out into different workplaces. He was happy that we were visiting him although he actually knew only one of us. He said: I am not so sure about the ailment and the pain that has inflicted me, but when I see the (well-wishing) smile on your faces, then I know I am getting well. Your smile is a sign of my wellbeing. I had mentioned in an earlier post, that elderly couples, after a threshold age, go on to become good old buddies, with the bonding turning almost as a spiritual friendship. I felt the same way when I saw the old lady feeding her husband. Seldom do young couples pause to think that the test of true bonding lies far ahead later in life, that the best of fun times are only the beginning part of the wedding promises and keeping them up till the end is the proof of the pudding.

They both probably had come to the plain realisation that the ailment may be terminal. She mentioned, that the God they believed in, whatever He did would be good to them. Wow, I thought. It's easy to debunk or theorise about a belief in God, but it's tough to turn that faith, whatever God you may have, into a positive strength when it matters the most and when all our devices are shutting out in non-co-operation. You know that your most possessive possession so far, your own body, is giving way and you have to use the strength of something that is not made of body stuff. You don't even want to think of trying that, and even tougher to try it at 80+.

His strength was even better. Similar to the earlier incident, his mental strength was amazing. His voice was blurred so I couldn't get it verbatim, words came with breaks, but let me capture the main idea. He said : Suffering is a great test of your spirituality. For a long time, we have been 'knowing' the whats and hows of being spiritual, but in such a situation, it is a test to have the faith that My God is always with me. And I firmly believe He is with me. That the condition of the body is this or that doesn't matter, but in my mind I know, whatever happens we have His Blessings. This is the time to remember, and actually practise what we have always known all these years.

It set me thinking on suffering. Suffering, I agree with him, is really a great test of spirituality. Other times, you probably "apply" your spirituality "on others", to third party situations, but the acid test of your spirituality is when a real suffering touches you directly. Dhoodh kaa dhoodh, Paani kaa paani Ho Jayega. Buddha devoted his entire life in finding the answer for this one question. We live off our lives not bothering about it, as if it were out of syllabus, but dude, thats one sure question thats going to be on exam paper. For, old age and its accompaniments are a certainty and more often, such a certainty that we will most likely be all alone to handle the actual stuff. If at all you want to have an Either-Or choice, now is the time make that choice between becoming a Budda or a Buddha. The others can rally around you in support, speak nice words and may be even help you out, but there is no proxy for living out your pain. You have to do it, yeah scary it is, all by yourself, bit by bit. This requires a lifetime's preparation of your mind, brick by brick, to keep it strong in old age. When the body is strong, the mind may fritter away, but if such a frittering can be streamlined and built to be strong, then such a strength would come in handy when the body is on its withering way.

I and one of my friends are opposites in our lifestyles. There are many unhealthy elements in my lifestyle, I blog after midnight and I sleep late, I have a lot of junk food and less of healthy food, I live like a sin(e) curve, don't keep a standard schedule etc. Whereas he lives his life as if a clock decided to become a human being and bless the earth, and lives in a very simple straight line, while a few others run around in circles. :) . I often joke that he is like The Wall, stay and play, ball by ball and hit a slow century. Another friend of mine jokes that he spends the first 60 years in disciplined suffering so that he may live the next 20 happily, whereas others spend first 60 merrily and suffer the last 20. While I often quip away the flexi lifestyle to be the ultimate exercise of Brahamachari independence, I have to sheepishly agree when well-meaning friends often insist, will rolling eyes, that body will soon show its signs. Come to think of it, the jokes apart, my friend does have a healthier lifestyle than mine, and the compliment is not only about the body. The health of the mind that you acquire across years is going to be a major support when you have crossed most of your years. This recent quote about paradoxes on Prasanna's blog puts it well.

When we moved away from that hospital bed that night, after holding his hand reassuringly for a moment, wishing him the best and praying for his good health, we didn't know he would be no more within two weeks. But those two minutes of interaction with him had set us all thinking on why it is important to live a life in a particular way and not just in any way, anyway.