Tony Robbins - Life Force

 With so much negativity, chaos, pain, and suffering in the news, the weight of the world can feel unbearably heavy right now.

But here’s the truth: regardless of everything happening in the world, there’s so much progress being made and so much to be grateful for.

And if you’re ready to feed your mind with something empowering, look no further than the breakthrough science that Tony reveals in his new book Life Force.

And he reveals many of those breakthroughs right here. Breakthroughs like...

How stem cell therapy is eliminating chronic, debilitating pain...

How organs are being grown from scratch and successfully transplanted into human bodies...

How some of the brightest minds on the planet are turning science fiction into reality...

And more.

Tony reveals countless scientific breakthroughs to marvel at, to give us hope and to show us what’s possible.

As Tony says, you can't be angry and grateful simultaneously. You can't be fearful and grateful simultaneously. So, gratitude is the solution to both anger and fear.

At a time when you could be overcome with negativity, it’s on each of us to manage our state and take 100% responsibility. Replace fear for gratitude by swapping your morning news podcast for something more empowering, something that provides resources and new ways of thinking.

So if you’re ready for something you can feel really good about...

Something that will give you hope and excitement about the next few years...

Something that could actually save your life...

Recently, Tony sat down for a conversation with Ben Greenfield – a top human performance consultant, speaker and New York Times bestselling author – about some of the incredible breakthroughs happening RIGHT NOW.

Click here to listen to the episode now :) (Fast forward to 5:40 when the conversation really gets started!)

This conversation is packed with breakthroughs that will blow your mind, simple tips that will empower you to make better choices and become the CEO of your own health, and information that could save your life or the lives of those you love.

To your health,

Team Tony Robbins

P.S. What you’ll hear in this podcast episode is just a fraction of the breakthroughs in medicine and health science that Tony shares in his new book, Life Force.

Tony spent over three and a half years obsessing over his research and interviewed over 150 of the top doctors and scientists in regenerative medicine to bring this book to life...

So, if you’re ready to dive in and get ALL the details of the breakthrough science that could save your life (or the life of someone you love), click here to get your copy now.

NSE

 Set up to ensure there is no monopoly and corruption at BSE a  competitive exchanges was set up, and it was turning out to be the only default exchange. Thus funnelling all  Indian traders/investors towards NSE.

They then instituted co-location of servers and created a way to front run all high volume trades. Thus along with HFT Algos they could skim the cream out of the daily volume of NSE Trades.

Thus they created a Kamdhenu for people in the Finance Ministry and Bureaucracy along with NSE top brass. They  enjoyed a slice of the pie. The daily volume of NSE is in excess of Rs. 60,000 crores. A 5% of the daily volume they made about Rs. 3, 000 crores/day!!! Which tanslates to Rs. 66,000 crores a month and about Rs. 700,000 crores a year!!! 

Looks like some of the biggest people in India across UPA and NDA are involved and everyone made a lot of money. They ensured that Regional Stock Exchanges were closed.

Now is there monopoly or healthy competition? 

5 am Club – Day 1 - The Ultra Action Framework - Purpose

 5 am Challenge – The Ultra Action Framework – Dharaneetharan

Ikigai.

2 years + this program, Digital management company and 2 to three start up. 

28th Feb 2022; Day 1

1. 1 litre work

2. Pen and paper

3. Confidence

4. Build I new habit

5. Whatever is said here, is not new – you can hear it in another place – Be non-judgemental. 

6. First, we should listen to ourselves, only then others will listen to us. 

7. All we need is a small success – It will bring hope, and grow bigger. 

8. Even if you believe in God or not, in horoscope or not, look into the possibilities. 

9. We might not listen to others, but we do things, only when we feel like doing it. 

10. We give our own definition for success, we decide our path. 

11. What are the hinderances to our success - ) write 5 and circle a major one. 

12. Why we delay things? Procrastination. What’s it’s opposite. Action taker, Immediate implementer, speed implementer. 

13. Lazyness – opposite energetic, super active, vibrant, brisk. 

14. Put the positive word before your name. Example Action Taker, Super Active Meera. 

15. Where your focus is, there would be the energy, where is your energy, your action and effort is there. 

16. To maintain the energy through out the day – important is water. Drink it as soon as you wake up, in empty stomach preferably 1 litre water. You will have Freedom and Freshness through out the day, with receiving mindset. 

17. Eat before 8 pm, go to bed by 9 or 9.30. Drink more juices, vegetables. Daily drink 3 to 4 litres of water. 

18. If you wake up early and save 3 hours daily, you save one year in 10 years. 

19. It’s delayed gratification, it will give energy, over a period of time. Be ready to put effort.

20. What is life according to you? Experience, success, challenge, journey, unpredictable, travel, learning – each of us have our own definition, which has come through our past experience. – Our family, society, friends, school. Happiness - Inward and outward journey. 

21. Unexamined life is not worth living. Keep Experimenting. But life should not be only experimenting. Feel free to ignore, what is not applicable to you. There will be different point of view to everything. 

22. Ikigai – Like what you do. Do what you like. If you are doing what you don’t like, it will put your in pressure, if you do what you like, it will give you pleasure. Find what you love. 

23. We do not know what we love – write down what you love. – writing, travel, interior decoration, See what you are good it – if you like travel – write it, create video – are people looking at it? Will you be paid for it?Do the world need it?

24. List 7 things & figure out what you deeply desire which might help you find true calling

Sl.No/Love/Good/Need/Paid for

You can do it for fees or without fees, it is upto you. 

What is one take away for the day? 

Finding Purpose:

It's okay to live a life without purpose, carefree. But having purpose, will add happiness. To know the purpose, Ikigai, 5 way approach, or ask these 5 questions:

• Who you are?
• What you love to do?
• Who you do it for?
• What they need or want?
• How do they change?

Day 1 summary:

• 3 minute meditation
• One Positive word
• Water Therapy
• Life
• Happiness
• Purpose

Onam In A Nightie by Anjana Menon

 In India’s tropical paradise, stands a town wrapped around a giant roundabout, at the centre is an imposing temple so ancient that no one knows exactly when it was built, and this happens to be my hometown too. Onam In  A Nightie by Anjana Menon is set here, and is my 21st of 2022. 

This novel is an absolute fun and quirky read about the author’s days in Kerala during the first lockdown. It begins with her own quarantine journey in Thrissur, Kerala (her hometown) after travelling from Noida. There is oodles-of information about this beautiful state and its people, culture, food , festivals etc in the chapters. There are quite a few comparisons between  Delhi way of life , habits vis a vis Kerala  making one take sides and well agree to few of her jibes . Her characters were sketched authentically - I’ve met them in my life too, especially Shiva. Others too - “Boredom sat with her like her dentures firmly in her jaws.” Its clear she has had so much fun writing this. I loved her analysis of the nightie, and her car transport/truck story was just like her - and so many others. I particularly enjoyed reading the chapter Good Morning America, The law of attraction and the US Election. Along with the letter there, this book by itself is full of wit and sharply observed incidents, this was clearly her love letter to her home state of Kerala, both as an outsider and an insider. Here, even a tiny railway station has set its own rules for acceptance and belonging. On the other side of the tracks, a baker runs errands for total strangers in the middle of a pandemic.

So true, "All year long, scores of old parents wait for the family holiday when the children and grandchildren will visit, and a fortnight or slightly longer will go off in a flurry of visits to shopping malls, the hunt for antiques, good food and finally, instructions. Instructions for the parents on how to live better. And as soon as the holidaymakers leave, a pall of loneliness descends on the folks they have left behind."

It concludes with "Survival is forged by the undying human spirit, and the wait for a better tomorrow. The spirit that will see us through life even in a sodden pandemic, not always unscathed and unbroken, but always hopeful. And to that spirit hangs Kerala, as do us all."

True, here, Malgudi Days meets reality in the search for joy and belonging in a book that is alternatively heart-warming and hilarious. Anjana Menon takes you to a place that you wish stays that way forever, in these true stories of hope and resilience from a midway Kerala town.

Midway Kerala Town, where I was born. The Round, with the pooram in its belly, is the old and the new, the unyielding and the pliable, the familiar and the foreign, community and isolation, the joyous and the sorrowful. 

Anjana Menon has been wrestling with words for as long as she can remember. After studying literature, she got sucked into a journalism career that took her to Southeast Asia and Europe with Bloomberg News.

She returned to India as one of the founder-editors of the business newspaper Mint and then ran a television newsroom before setting up her own content strategy consultancy. She is a co-author of What's Your Story? The Essential Business Storytelling Handbook, published by Penguin Random House.

A columnist who thought she would grow up to be an artist, she likes people more than gadgets, dogs even more than people and slow life over hurried living.

Anjana divides her time between Delhi and London, wishing instead to be in Kyoto, knowing fully well the foolishness of her desires. This is her debut creative non-fiction book.

KPSC Lalitha Chechi on 22022022

A special day, ended with a sad news. We grew up watching true legendary actors  like Tilakan, Nedumudi, KPAC Lalita, and in the last year, we had two of them bidding us good by back to back, and there has been so many over last few days, it was a spree, starting from Lathaji, Bhim, Bajaj, Bhappi Lehri and now KPAC Lalitha 

Just like the songs of Lathaji,  KPAC Lalitha was just superb in her part. She was like anyone of us, lady next door, not artificial, but very real. So also, any memory of her, bring in the memories of all the sorrow, that she had to go through. 

She started working at the age of 16, and has been acting for more than 50 years now.  In a career spanning five decades, late KPAC Lalitha has starred in over 550 films in Malayalam and Tamil. She has held the position of the Chairperson of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy for five years. Born as Maheswari Amma in Kayamkulam of Alappuzha, the actor had joined K.P.A.C (Kerala People's Arts Club), a prominent drama troop in Kerala. 

When girls her age went to college, or got married and settled, she worked in movies and plays. Got married, to Bharathan, and it was as dramatic as movie. They first tied the knot on May 22, 1978, and the marriage registration was held on May 23. Another round...of ‘pennu kannal’ was held on May 26 and they got married on June 2 again at Guruvayoor. First Bharathan was going around with Srividya, which did not work out. KPAC was viewing that. But they were good friends even then. Later Bharathan proposed her, but his parents opposed. KPSC was about to give up her life, but Bharathan put a big puttu on her, and said, both of them could remain like this. But after few days, they decided to get married. Parents agreed when the news of the wedding was floating around. He breathed his last in 1998 after prolonged illness, leaving behind two children Srikutty and Siddharth. She was born in 1948, got married in 1978, and lost her husband in 98.  Life was never easy for her.  At times , many have wondered and commented, if the sad scenes she enacted was bringing out her real feelings. Though she has been constantly working and earning, she had debts, had tough time bringing up her children, and even after they were grown up, she was witness to divorce, near death of her son. She kept acting untill she was almost bedridden. Last I saw her was in @Home.  

Unfortunately she was always short with her finances, and others did support her.  

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

20th of 2022 was My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Finally, Read it. My name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, which was with me for almost 7 years now, is a book loved by many, set in the late 1590s,  in Istanbul, this book is about The Sultan, secretly commissioning a great book; a celebration of his life and his empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. But when one of the miniaturists is murdered, their master has to seek outside help. What caused the the death of the painter, who investigates and what it leads to is what rest of the book is all about. 

Enishte Effendi, the maternal uncle of Kara (Black), is reading the Book of the Soul by Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, a Sunni commentator on the Qur'an, and continuous references to it are made throughout the book. Part of the novel is narrated by Elegant Effendi, the murdered miniaturist. Al-Jawziyya argues, in the same fashion as Islamic doctrine, that the souls of the dead remain on earth and can hear the living.

Each chapter of the novel has a different narrator, and usually there are thematic and chronological connections between chapters. The novel blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles, illustrating the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III during nine snowy winter days in 1591.

My Name is Red explores how identity and perspective are created through storytelling, and it conveys the idea that any one story is best understood through a multiplicity of narrative perspectives. Though it is not an easy read, it is an excellent combination of a strange but beautiful narration style, a philosophical discourse on art and a murder mystery. On the backdrop of Istanbul in 1590s, Pamuk has set a murder mystery based on the clash of systems of art in the city at the time of European renaissance.  The seven human narrators include a corpse, other narrators: a dog, a miniature representation of a horse, a tree, Death, the color Red, a gold coin which has “changed hands 560 times” Though it features a large cast, My Name Is Red is essentially the story of Black, a failed illustrator who has spent 12 years in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire after falling in love with his beautiful cousin, Shekure, and being rejected by her. As the book is a commentary on religious oppression and cultural norms, the author chooses to use art as the medium in which these elements are narrated.

As Black begins the investigation, three other miniaturists, Butterfly, Stork, and Olive, are the main suspects. What was the motive? professional rivalry, romantic jealousy or religious terror? Meanwhile, Shekure has fallen in love with Black again, after seeing him, even if he hasn’t seen her. Hearing about the murder of the miniaturist, she decides to stop waiting for the return of her soldier husband, who has been missing for more than four years. She has three suitors: the first is one of the miniaturists, the second is Black, and the third is her brother-in-law, Hasan. She does not want to marry Hasan—when she and her husband lived with him, he was cruel to her and flirted with her inappropriately under his brother’s nose. Hasan threatens to sue her to return with him Back at the local coffeehouse, the three suspect miniaturists share their illustrations and the content of the book they are working on with another storyteller, who broadcasts these stories to the public. Being as the book is provocative, and creative oppression rampant in those parts, hearing the stories angers a fanatical religious group. As a result, Enishte is murdered.

Black, now looking for two murderers, Shekure and Black marry, With time, religion and tradition grows more popular, and the use of illustrations and paintings diminishes, giving start to their own little dark age. This is a Noble price winning, book, which is an enthralling look into politics, art and love.

Hiring system

Jason Shen’s full TED talk- Looking for a job? Highlight your ability, not your experience.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jason_shen_looking_for_a_job_highlight_your_ability_not_your_experience?language=en

Hiring system, we build in the 20^th century are failing, and causing us to miss out on people with incredible potential.

Only a quarter of graduates, work in the field that relate to their degree,

We all know of people who were overlooked or ignored at first but went on to prove the critics wrong. Brian Acton – engineer who was rejected by Twitter and Facebook, cofounded whatsapp with Jan Koum.

With the speed in which automation is happening, we all should expect to do the jobs, which we have not done before, for the rest of our career.

What are the tools and strategies to identify, tomorrow’s high performers?

Three ideas to take forward:

1. Expand your search: If you keep looking the way you have been doing, you will get what you have been getting. No one person holds monopoly or talent. Look beyond major tech hubs. Focus on portfolios and not pedigrees.
2. Hire for performance: Headlight – hiring performance. Demonstrate skill. Don’t wait for employer to ask, seek out and show.
3. Get the bigger picture – Don’t label a person job hopper based on resume or reject anyone based on their name or current location. Until we get holistic view of someone, our judgement of them will be wrong.

We could live in a world, were people can realise full potential, by showcasing their real talent.  

He got his job, as he created a dummy site for the company, before going for the interview, to showcase his knowledge and talent.

3M's of Money

 Make, Manage and Manifest Money are the three M's of Money.

TWCGO Formula:

It's not about making money, but it is about managing money. 

T is for Tax  - 40%

W is for Wealth Creation - Investing - 10%

C is for Charity - 10%

G is for General - bills, outings, groceries - 20%

O is Operations/Business - 20%

Create multiple streams of continuously growing residual income. Let all income come to one account. Once it hit your current account, move it to another 4 accounts for  each of different categories - Like Tax, Wealth, Charity, General and Operations. 

Fresh Water For Flowers - Valerie Perrin

Fresh Water For Flowers by Valerie Perrin, my 17th of 2022 reminded me of Selina Michael who has been managing and supervising Thrikkakara Muncipality's crematorium for around  15 years now. Her mother passed away when she was 2 years old, father was handicapped,  she thought she would be happy after marriage,  but her husband turned out to be irresponsible and drunkard. She had two daughters but no means of income, and without much formal education,  she took up the work at crematorium.  She got handover from the previous supervisor who was a kind hearted person. It's a real life true story, she cremated three people dear to me.  

The story as much that of her alike, Violette Toussaint, an orphan, now a caretaker at a cemetery  in Bourgogne who married the first man she loved Philippe Toussaint and had a daughter named Leonine,  is also about her mentors and guide Shasha who ensures she is not complacent, gives her lessons  in gardening,  life and her job eventually leaves to Kerala, to walk across ganges , 'keep going until death' near his best friend  and years later comes Julien with his son Nathan who takes us through the story of his mother Irene Fayolle and Gabriel whose love story reminds us of Bridges of Madison Country.

It tells us :

Present life is a present  from heaven.

'Make up to each other! Apologize! Make peace with those we love before it's too late.'

Invisible thread links those who are destined to meet, that this thread can become tangled, but never break.

Death - The further back it goes, the less hold it has on the living. Time does for life. Time does for death. Death begin when no one can dream of you any longer. It's the greatest luxury  to be the owner of ones time, 

We never meet people by chance, They are destined to cross our paths for a reason. 

She did caretaker with her three gravedigger and the priest,  with cats around her. Her husband is a proof that men are men, irrespective of where they are .

Beautiful stories, layered , lyrical, with thought provoking  quotes at the beginning of each of the 94 chapters, short and sweet is one of the amazing books read. 

Happiness @ Post Pandemic Graduate

HOW TO BE HAPPY 

Happiness is both a journey and a destination. Remember, no one wakes up in the morning thinking, "May I suffer the whole day?"  Whatever you do, wherever you study or work, the underlying desire of every individual is to be happy: happy at college, happy at home, happy generally. Our respective profession be it medicine, engineering, journalism, whatever, is only a road where the ultimate destination is happiness. 

In my generation, the goal was to go to the IIM. We told ourselves that if we get there, we will become big shots in corporate India, earn lots, marry the best girl, have a high social standing, etc. We never realized that getting into the IIM was just a first step. Once in, you have lots of other issues: grades, competitions, placements, Moorish professors, etc.

Some may say, "If only I had a better boss, life wouldn't be difficult." Or if only I went on that vacation in Zurich, life would be fantastic. 

I tell people that if you get into this idea of 'if this is done, then that will happen, then you are on the wrong path. It’s my rule one, “Don’t get into the IF-THEN model. We need to accept the world as it is.” This is not to say that we should not be aspirational; yes we must have goals and be ambitious, but I don't think we should set out to change the world. Change yourself. 

Let’s move to our second rule; the spaghetti sauce model. In the 1980s the Campbell Soup Company made Prego, which along with a competing product Ragu were top spaghetti (pasta) sauces. While Ragu was the front runner, Prego was a fantastic sauce. It had tardiness: if you poured Prego on to spaghetti, it would stay there. Whereas Ragu flows out. And taste-wise also, many people felt Prego tasted better. Notwithstanding these Prego was only a challenger, not the market leader. 

It hired a man called Howard Moskowitz and sought his advice. Moskowitz made 45 different variations of the sauce: based on sweetness, tartness, sourness, visible solid etc.,. He then got loads of people to a town hall and gave each of them 10 small bowls of soup. They were to rate the 10 bowls on a scale of one to 10. 

Six months later, he had a mountain of data. He broke them into three groups and said, "Americans like sauce, which is plain; some like that which is spicy; and there are some who like sauce, which is extra chunky." The third finding was remarkable because no mall in the US at that particular point in time sold heavily extra chunky sauce. So, Prego asked Moskowitz, are "you trying to say that we in the sauce industry are not producing a product, which 33% of America likes?" And Moskowitz said, "yes." 

Prego went back to the drawing board, decided to make an extra chunky sauce, marketed, and then the next 10 years, made some $60 billion of money.

The moral of the story is  simple. Happiness lies in embracing diversity. It not about I have a car, I want a better car, I want the best car, I want a still better car.  We must realize that different things bring happiness to different people. What brings joy to me does not bring happiness to you. In fact, in medicine, people say that there is no such thing as cancer. Your cancer is different from my cancer is different from her cancer because people have different versions of cancer. Also for the same person, many things may bring happiness: winning in matches, scoring high grades, getting into a great summer placement, etc. 

We move to our model: the tyranny of choice. I love jeans. The great thing about it is that you never have to wash. You can wear them for three years and then burn them! Some four years back, I wanted to buy another pair of jeans, so I went to a mall, and told the guy, "I want jeans. My waist size is XX." 

“Sir, do you want a slim fit, or easy fit, or relaxed fit?”

I didn't understand anything. You see, in our times, you walked into a shop, gave your waist size, and presto they would give us a jean pant. 

The guy said, “No Sir. It isn’t like that. You will have to tell me which.” 

“Get me an easy fit.”

“You want zipper fly or button fly?”

It took me a moment to realize what a zipper fly was, and I ordered, “zipper fly.” 

My Math mind worked. I now realized I had 3x2, six combinations. 

The man was not finished with his questions. “Do you want it stone-washed or acid-washed? “

“Acid-washed,” I said, without much thought. Already there were 12 combinations.

Then he came with the final one. "Do you want it bottom cut or bottom tapered?" 

I was tired and told, “anything will do so long as you have my waist size!”

When I walked out of the mall, I'm sure the jeans I bought was better than how the one I bought years ago. But after walking 100 feet, I wondered, "Hey, if I had not bought acid-washed but chosen stone-washed, would it not have been better?” And then, after walking another 100 feet, I thought, “Oh, why did I buy bottom cut? Bottom tapered would have been better!” 

Now in my earlier way of buying, if my mother said the jeans of yours is looking bad, I could tell her, "This is the only type available." The choice was not mine. Today, if the jeans are not good, the problem is on me. 

So, I have always believed that the lesser the choice is actually, the better. If you endlessly look at options, you run into trouble. When your ‘jeans’ is bad, the world is at fault. When there are 100s of choices and you make one and it fails, you have no excuse for failure because you are responsible. And therein lies regret, opportunity cost, escalation of expectations and self-blame.

The moral: reduce your choices, and the secret of happiness lies in low expectation. 

To summarize: The objective of life is to be happy. Everything else flows from there. The three rules of happiness are: (a) Accept things as they are. (b) Enhance diversity and © Have less choice and lowered expectations. 

6 F OF HAPPINESS

Fame:  Fame brings you happiness. Make no mistake about it. 

Fortune: Some people say money does not bring happiness. I won't agree with that. If you have money, it's good. With it, many things can be taken care of.

Family: If you have a sound support system, you will be happy. 

Friends: If you build three good friends, whom I can call and speak at three o'clock in the night and sob over your problem, then your life is well lived. 

Fitness: We are going to live longer, thanks to science. Lot many people are going to live well into their 90s. So, you will have to be fit. 

Future: Suppose you think you have a bright future, have a good education, and constantly rescale yourself. In that case, you will be happy—Denmark, the happiest country globally, names two reasons for happiness: fitness and education. 

HOW TO KEEP YOURSELF HAPPY : TEN IDEAS 

Learn what gives you happiness.  A number of small things can create a large impact on your life, health, and happiness. Here are a few that psychologists suggest.

1. Be grateful: Before going to bed, write 3 to 5 things that you felt grateful for that day. 

2. Give back: Give 10% of your income to charity. 

3. Foster relationships: You are your happiest when your loved ones surround you. Make the time to build and sustain strong relationships.  

4. Me time: Step back and take some time for yourself in order to cultivate self-care. 

5. Volunteer time: When you give your time, your focus shifts from your life to that of others.

6. Exercise and Eat: When you take time out for exercise, you’re doing your body well. By eating healthier food, you’ll feel more vibrant and energetic. 

7. Avoid regrets: Laugh everyday. Regrets are an appalling waste of time. Let the past bury the dead.

8. Meditate: Make time to be still. If your life is a mad dash from one thing to the next, happiness will have a hard time catching up to you. Slow down, and reflect. Do some deep breathing for 10 minutes. 

9. Stay positive: A big chunk of your happiness comes from how you choose to see the world.  Ignore noise in social media.

10. Experience things: the first love, the first kiss, the first baby, etc., these are memories that would last a lifetime. Experience them. 

FINDING YOUR PURPOSE

From our childhood, we are programmed by the expectations of our parents, family, and society.  These expectations lead us to take a  path which may not find comfortable.  Often, parents want us to play safely in life. They don't want us to fail and fall. Of course, they want the best for their children, but their expectations may not be the purpose of our life. By mechanically following those expectations, we will be playing someone else's game. 

Each of us is born for a purpose, and you must find out that purpose for you.  We exist in this world for a defined period, and during this time, we do many things. Some are important, and others unimportant. Those essential things give meaning to our lives and provide us with happiness, while the unimportant ones just kill our good time.

We will have to discover the real purpose in our life. Whether it be becoming a businessman, spending your life on a social cause, or working for a leading company. Are you driven by money or a purpose? Most of today's youth wants to make a meaningful impact on the world. Read books, network with like-minded people, cultivate good hobbies and look at what people appreciate at you to identify the purpose for your life.  All you need to find out is what you love to do. Listen to your heart.

Business Line Knowledge Series on NSE's Himalayan Scam

  A zoom session :

Raghuvir Srinivasan – Editor

M Damodaran – Left SEBI 13 years before

Lokeshwarri SK – Associate Editor

Palak Shah – Senior Assistant Editor

JN Gupta - 

We do not know how mighty the scam is and if at all there is a scam like the Himalaya’s. 

Failure of Corporate Governance is for sure. Today you make a law, tomorrow people will find loophole. 

Disagreeably shocked. Element of shock was huge. Colocation scams had discoveries, and there were findings of lapses. 

Responsibility to ensure, adequacy and timeliness of information. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performances – MF term. Flower Vase director. Public Interest Directors role is to challenge the question of Board, they are for Public. Bright individuals at top position, temptations are huge. 

Are there links to appointment without board approval, colocation scam? SEBI’s report doesn’t say any. But there are. Co-Location has started in 2009 before the new appointment, while the appointment was in 2013, Direct market access, Algo trading had started before that. Laying of fibre was done by Sampath, who was not in the list of service provider. As Strategic advisor and Operating officer, one would be driving; there is circumstantial evidence. Main leadership at NSC has changed, and they have said that better systems have to brought in place. 

Who is the Yogi? We don’t have to worry. Chitra will answer. To take the story forward – Kuch tho hey kispa parda hey. Board of NSE is responsible for this cover up, as they knew about these. They not only remaind quite, but let her resign, with substantial amount paid to her. SEBI did not reveal many information. When Chitra was caught read handed – why did they not alert the govt. and investigative agencies, but covered up these? Colocation scam and Yogi Scam are two sides of the same coin. Information was shared with Ajay Shah and Susan Thomas by Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna. Suprabhat Lala, is BIL   of Ajay Shah and Susan Thomas was the key in co-location scam. 

SEBI kept asking – it was like pleading for information. It is time to visit the control processes, checks and balances. Culpable offence is the destruction of evidence which is committed by disposing of the laptop as E-waste. 

• We can’t have same two persons in the position of power, for such a long time. Here two people were for 2.5 decades.

• We should not have the immediate predecessor in the position of power, as part of the board. 

• Proper systems and it’s evaluation is needed. Even if it is not listed, they deal with so much of listed companies, and so should act with values. Systemic Integrity has to be restored. 

Horse Man and Horse made mistakes; chariot is blamed. Horse Man and Horses are changed. Best systems, even if designed by God, but if the Poojari is corrupt, it is bound to fail. Appoint people who are willing to devote time and take risk. We can install fear but cannot install integrity. Integrity has to come from within.  Let us not malign the institution, let us malign the people. There are learning everywhere and take away are important. Credibility must be restored. Confidence has to be regained.  There will be conspiracy theories coming out. What went wrong, why did it go wrong, who was responsible, and How do we stop this? People seems to get out by doing fraud. Let SEBI be away from appointing Directors. There should be no room for conflicts. Semi regulators cannot be a profit making institutions. SEBI reforms are required, and arm itself with right kind of people to be on top of the job. Surveillance, investigation and Enforcement has to be enforced. Regulation is a function of law and accounting. There should be system, to have the right people in the system with right energy and expertise with the precision  of a surgeon. 

Will these effect Investments and markets? No, it should not. There is reputational damage, which should be fixed.

Before we can learn from this, and put in place systems, we need to get into the bottom of this. We need blessings of the Himalayan Yogi, to get to the bottom of this.

be-ḳhudī be-sabab nahīñ 'ġhālib' 

kuchh to hai jis kī parda-dārī hai

Ghachar Ghochar - Vivek Shanbhag

Set in Bangalore, India, “Ghachar Ghochar” by Vivek Shanbhag follows an unnamed narrator and his family as they encounter sudden wealth and find themselves irrevocably changed by its influence. The story is about the shifting consequences of success. “It’s not we who control the money,” says the narrator, “it’s the money that controls us.” A deep psychological portrayal of a family, Shanbhag’s novel is a gripping tale of financial and moral ruin, providing a portrait of India that is rife. Newly rich carry umbrellas to keep moonlight at bay. 'One story, many sides.' - Is what Vincent would say, and not take a side. Like the book, this was my 19th of 2022, and like the name Ghachar Ghochar with others. So the review for the earlier one is yet to be published. 

As the book opens, the unnamed narrator is at a Bangalore coffee shop, where he is speaking of his troubles to his waiter, Vincent. Vincent, who is beautifully attired in a turban and cummerbund, riddles him with enigmatic responses. Coffee House, whose name has remained unchanged for a hundred years, has rich oak-paneled walls that are covered in old photos that reveal the splendor of the city as it was a century ago. Coffee House is the narrator’s sanctuary from modern-day life as it reminds him of a time before money-making and domestic disputes were such a concern.

At the coffee shop, the narrator witnesses as a girl at another table gets into an argument with a young man and throws a glass of water at him. The scene causes the narrator to think of another strong-willed young woman named Chitra, who worked for a woman’s welfare organization. However, this reminiscence is brief, and we learn little else about Chitra or Vincent throughout the course of the novel.

We learn that the title of the book is a nonsense phrase that roughly translates to “tangled beyond repair.” The narrator describes first hearing the phrase on his honeymoon when he tries to stir up an intimate moment with his wife, Anita, and cannot untie the strings of her sari’s petticoat. She says it is knotted up—ghachar ghochar—a word her younger brother came up with to describe a tangled kite string. He expresses that he is ecstatic with this closeness. It is as though he has discovered her secret language. The next morning, he nods at the tousled sheets and their interwoven bodies and utters ghachar ghochar.

The narrator, we learn, lives with his wife and his older sister, Malati, as well as his parents and his uncle, Chikkappa. Each of the narrator’s relatives is introduced with a reference to his or her financial situation, and every family member seems to fulfill a specific function. Chikkappa runs a spice business, the narrator’s father acts as co-owner of the business, and the narrator’s formidable mother and sister defend against those who would disrupt their close-knit family unit. The narrator feels his duty is to stay out of everyone’s way.

The narrator’s father, we are told, used to be a spice salesman who worked for a large company, but his income hardly allowed his family to keep their ant-infested shack. In a flashback scene, we watch as the father comes home after collecting his customers’ payments and discovers he is eight hundred rupees short. The family panics as the father adds and re-adds columns of numbers, and the narrator’s mother bombards him with questions about mistakes he could have made. They rejoice when the father discovers his mathematical error, only to despair when they learn the spice company the father works for has been bought out, and he has lost his job.

The father decides to take a gamble with the remainder of his money when Chikkappa suggests they start their own spice company. The company is successful, and we learn that it is Chikkappa’s lucrative spice company has allowed the family to become part of the middle-class. As a result, Chikkappa and his income become the focus of the entire family, and they see to it that his every desire is fulfilled.

The narrator then turns to his wife, Anita, who belonged to the lower class before her marriage. Anita is wary of the money-centered family dynamic. She despises her husband’s dependence on his uncle, whose way of business, we learn, is somewhat less than honorable. However, confronting his uncle could mean losing the fortune the narrator has become so accustomed to. Anita is slightly repulsed by the family’s situation. The uncle is the only family member who works, and while the narrator goes to his office every day, he never actually does any work there. Anita goes to Hyderabad for social work, after a family feud, as he thinks, 'If women don't support other women, who will?' - Then end, I believe is left to the readers. The well-being of any household rests on selective acts of blindness and deafness. Anita had outdone herself when it came to suicidal forthrightness. She even spoke of going to the police. And when she is gone out for a week, one evening family rejoice, and there are signs of blood. Language communicates in terms of what is already known; it chokes up when asked to deal with the entirely unprecedented. 

The nostalgic narrator seems to feel that life was more intensely emotional before the family gained its new status. The entire family, he says, seemed to stick together in the face of its circumstances. Their change in fortune, of course, is analogous to the far-reaching economic boom India has recently undergone. The narrator’s observations on Bangalore’s social classes—full of laborers, the leisurely, and those who are stuck in the middle—give insight into Indian society’s class anxiety and social ambition, providing commentary on the nature of a country in the midst of intense economic growth.

As members of the family realign their equations and desires, new strands are knotted, others come apart and conflicts brews dangerously in the background.

Hridayam

Vineeth Srinivasan has mesmerized millions and touched the 'hridayam' of the audience with his latest movie 'Hridayam'.

What's new in the movie? Nothing. That's it's beauty.  Realistic. Curiosity and not confidence has been his guiding factor, and he has followed his fathers advise of having 'Common Sense'. He says- 'Dil Chathe hey' had inspired him, and he wanted to be like Farhan Akthar someday, writing and directing movie. He is a living proof that dreams and goals do come true. Man the way this guy speaks with conviction is so nice.. and it is reflecting in his films too!! 

Vineeth is a complete film book a director,writer, singer, lyricist ,actor ,producer  talented person, simple son of a Simple father,  of which both can be proud of . One of the polymaths of malayalam cinema. Started his career as a musician, then as an actor, then as a scriptwriter, as a  wonderful director and as a producer. All his films gives us a heart warming experience.

His father, Sreenivasan, another legend can be proud of his son❤️

He says Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu is his- favourate place. Ask people How are you in Kerala - kozhapam illa - Tamila Nadu - Super. That's the difference between two place.

First half and second half - 2 film : Train comming to chennai and going out, 2nd half - feel good - Tweek to clishe situations - Simplify the surface lever and deeper inside. 

Darshana - first sight, Maya - Illusion, Nithya - Constant. Three girls in the life of Arun Neelakandan - punch in surname, as the names were then, and when he has a son he name him Selva Nitya Arun. Selva- son of the soil, Sambar Sadam are other prime characters of the movie.

The movie starts with a soulful background violin music composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab, which transports you to this surreal environment.  This bgm later comes in a song and never fails to make us fall in love with it. The film revolves around the life of Arun Neelakandan, starring Pranav Mohanlal, the love, ego battles, self-realisation and transformation he faces during his young adult phase. Arun, a Keralite comes to the happening Chennai for his four year college term. He falls for Dharshana, played by Dharshana Rajendran herself and we see an organic relationship brewing at first. Arun boasts of a love-power in him, that he can find out whether the girl he loves is single or commited, by just looking at her eyes.

The college setting is quite cliché and has several "seen before" tropes like intense ragging, boys fighting over girls, occasional drinking and porn, but it doesn't seem to affect the overall impact the movie makes on us. Suddenly, a silly, ridiculous fight ensues between Arun and Dharshana, after which they separate. Egoism and personal crisis never lets them be together. Arun struggles at a point for the guy, the break-up made him become which puts him in a dark phase and makes him do stupid mistakes. Fortunately, he gets a wake-up call, a chance to change his messed-up self, under the solace and good company of Selva, a Vada Chennai student from an humble background, who plays a major part in his extremely heart-warming transformation. This Selva character provides many breakthrough moments. One of which is when Arun asks Selva, how can an Engineer marry a lady who comes to Iron, Selva says, "Ellathaiyum plan panni panna naan enna Malayali ya? Thamizhan Da!!" (I am not some Malayali to plan and do something like you, I am Thamizhan Da"), a goosebump moment to the Thamizhians who would be watching this movie. Selva - Arun conversation "Enna dream selva "Amma Appa nimmathiya thoonganum ". Cycle  two broken people.

The whole intermission sequence, after the conclusion of his college life, goes right into your heart and plays with your emotions in a sweet way.  The post college life sees Arun choosing a career, different from his degree, as if it is a trend among engineering folks. Though Dharshana and him do not get reunited, they become the best of friends. Life finally leads Arun to become a wedding photographer, after which he meets Nithya, played by Kalyani Priyadharshan, and gets married to her.Podiye uru logam (hook) - cold play song - spirit is lifted. 2nd half - 2 years later . Bathekaro, bathekaro, man me jo hey, marriage changes everything - Nitya - do not over think, nice sweet person, understand people come with baggage, child birth, is not easy , but to be enjoyed and is second life. 

In the climax moments, Dharshana gets cold feet on her marriage, and decides to meet up with Arun to the place where they sneaked out during college, and asks him if marriage really matters. When you watch that scene on the film, you would know that it cannot get more real.

Coming to the technical aspects, as I said before obviously the music and the bgm is the USP of the movie. Hesham has done a brilliant job with 15 beautiful songs and one from Chitram - Nagmo . Dharshana Rajendran shines as she is a total badass in this film. Kalyani Priyadharshan delivers a commendable performance too, especially during the back and forth between her and Dharshana's character, the tension between the wife and ex-girlfriend is well-portrayed. The cinematography, the colour pallette chosen and editing offers ultimate artwork. Arun goes to the alley where he had not written anything before 

and now writes:

"Thank you for making me who I am."

Thankfully, Hridayam is now available on Disney+ Hotstar Streaming Platform, I was waiting,  as I was unable to go to theaters, but am sure with the amazing music, it would be much better there.

Arun and Dharshana similar people - deep, confused, - very similar but cant be a couple. Push the limit - want to hurt each other, exptemen emotions. Chip of the old block, parents generation, express love differently, - angry, say nasty things but deep love inside May had to go through grief of lossing a father, and lossing the person you love. Her character was honest and real. The question and the timing 'have you every loved me like you have loved Darshana?' She then attends Arun's wedding,  how pretty she looked then. Her new boy friend asks Arun why he left Maya, he says, she deserved someone better. That's the positivity of the film. She wanted genuine relationship, and she got it. Let go. 

Theme - abheri Raga  - Pleasent on surface and meloncoly inside evoking nostalgia. Ragdurga - Happiness. 

Valentine's Day

 An important distinction - learning to love others in a manner they feel loved is an science by itself 

And communicating how you would like to be loved an art 

 “Strangely, it is only as teenagers that we plunge into love as if we were going to die the next day. The older we get, the more we hem and haw; as if time no longer mattered. Isn’t it funny?”

~ Cathy Bonidan, ‘The Lost Manuscript’

Love is divine, universal. It's Valentine’s Day – it’s the day that we set aside every year to celebrate love and connection. 

You know, love is oxygen for the soul. Without it, we won’t survive. In this crazy beautiful world, our evolutionary advantage is that we have the capacity to love one another. 

It’s the force that can bring us the greatest pleasure... or the deepest pain. It can bring a warrior to their knees. And yet, it has more pure magic and ecstasy when the feeling of love is combined with passion.

Valentine’s Day. The holiday dedicated to love, (usually) celebrated on the 14th of February.

Those who assume Valentine’s Day is a commercial invention created to sell flowers, candy, and cards will be surprised to know that this day has ancient roots, with traditions changing from country to country.

It all started in the third century, when a man named Valentine rebelled against Emperor Claudio II’s ban on marriage. Valentine, a clergyman, arranged marriages in secret before being found out, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. While in jail, the romantic Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter, and sent her a letter on the day of his execution (you guessed it — February 14th) signed “from your Valentine.”

That’s the official story, anyway. But toasting to love at this time of year has older Roman roots, specifically the festival of Lupercalia, a celebration of fertility (men and women were paired off in a lottery system!) and the beginning of spring. As Christianity spread, many such Pagan holidays were rebranded as saints’ days — in this case, St. Valentine’s.

Let’s find out more about Valentine’s traditions around the world.

UNITED KINGDOM

In the UK, Valentine’s Day as we know it started to gain traction in the 17th century. Lovers and friends alike would use the holiday as an excuse to swap small gifts or handwritten love notes. This led to the exchange of printed cards in the 19th century, thanks to the development of printing technology. Indeed, the practice became so popular that it spurred the mass production of greeting cards we have today. These days, Valentine’s Day in the United Kingdom is typically celebrated with a romantic dinner, either at home or in a restaurant with a special dedicated menu.

ITALY

Valentine’s Day, known as San Valentino, is a big deal in Italy with a lengthy history. Originally celebrated as a spring festival, it gradually became a day for couples to take long strolls, listen to music, and read poetry together. Young unmarried women had a special Valentine’s Day tradition of waking up before dawn to look out for a future husband — it was believed that the first man she saw would be (or at least resemble) the man she would marry. These days, couples in Italy exchange flowers and chocolates with little romantic messages or quotes concealed in the center, Baci Perugina being the most popular kind. Romantic dinners are also a San Valentino staple.

SPAIN

Exchanging flowers and chocolates and going out for romantic dinners are also par for the course for a Valentine’s Day in Spain. However, certain Spanish regions have their own twist on the festivities of love. In Catalonia, for example, couples celebrate their love on the 23rd of April, “La Diada de Sant Jordi” (Saint George’s Day), which is also Catalonia’s national day. According to tradition, women buy a book for their lovers on this day, and in exchange receive a rose. For this reason, April 23rd is also called “El Día de la Rosa” (The Day of the Rose). In Valencia, love is celebrated on the 9th of October, the day of Saint Dionysius (the patron saint of lovers).

BRAZIL

Since 1948, Brazil has celebrated love on the 12th of June, which is known as “Dia dos Namorados.” Unfortunately, there is no romantic explanation behind this change — this time it is indeed pure marketing. Back in the mid-20th century, a marketing professional was tasked with finding a way to boost sales during the then-slow month of June. He strategically moved the celebration of love from February 14th, where it was dwarfed by Brazil’s famous Carnival, to June 12th, just before St. Anthony’s Day (the “marriage saint” who helps couples getting hitched).

SOUTH KOREA

Delightfully, South Korea has a double celebration of love, with Valentine’s Day on the 14th of February featuring women as the primary gift-givers. On this day, women present men with chocolates. A month later on March 14th, men give their significant others non-chocolate candy or flowers in return. This is known as “White Day.”

PHILIPPINES

People in the Philippines also exchange flowers, cards, and sweets on February 14th, but recently Valentine’s Day has become the day when couple decide to get married or renew their vows.

GHANA

Valentine’s Day in Ghana is also celebrated as “Chocolate Day,” which was started by the Ghanaian government in 2005 to increase tourism. On this day, performances and music events appear alongside special themed menus for the enjoyment of citizens and visitors alike.

SOUTH AFRICA

In South Africa, local traditions amplify the usual exchange of cards and flowers. In some parts of the country, women literally wear their hearts on their sleeves — usually a paper heart bearing the name of their love. According to the tradition, this is how men discover the identities of their secret admirers.

NIGERIA

Nigerians celebrate Valentine’s Day in a very personal way. While the customs of buying chocolates and flowers do exist, traditionally people in Nigeria cook special meals and make their own cards on this day. In Lagos, the streets are decorated with pink and red streamers and heart-shaped signs, and everyone wishes everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day.

How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Knowledge Vs. Skill

Knowledge is the condition of being  aware of something.  It encompasses the cognitive  or mental abilities to retain or process information. 

Attitude  is a way of thinking  or feeling  about someone or something.  It includes the manner in which a person may deal with things emotionally.  It is often  reflected in a person's  behavior. 

Skills are a person's ability to perform  an activity or task. It includes  physical movements, coordination,  dexterity and the application of knowledge.  Skills are measured in terms  of speed, precision,  proficiency  and/or technique.

'Skill to do comes of doing'. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Habits are those aspects of a person's behavior that are repeatedly and consistently done without effort or conscious thought. Done often, it becomes a dominant disposition or tendency.  It is created, by repeating a learned action. 

Good habits include effective organizational skills such as making  checklist, checking email regularly,  or using a calendar. 

There is a fundamental difference between knowledge and skills. Knowledge can be transferred from one person to another. It can also be acquired through observation and study. Skill is the ability to apply this knowledge to specific situations. It is a more hands-on activity, and you become better through experience and constant practice.

Knowledge knows what to say. Wisdom knows when to say it. One can equate wisdom to skills here. Skills refer to the application of knowledge at the appropriate time and manner. While both knowledge and skills are important, the former is of no use without the latter.

Knowledge is the theoretical understanding of a subject. It is acquired through learning. Skills are the proficiencies you develop through training or experience. It is acquired through practice

Ex. Knowing how to bake a cake ( theory). Aware of the steps involved in changing a car tyre  Ex. For Skills: Having baking or cooking skills or practice in baking. Being able to change the car tyre

Knowledge increases with experience. Skills can be developed with practice.

Knowledge is essential, but it is skills that help you leave a lasting impression. I may know how to fix a flat tire, but can I actually do it, or do I need a mechanic? For that job, the mechanic gets paid more. Being nice to a patient is part of a doctors' duty, but it cannot be taught. You have to learn by watching and experimentation. 

Life skills are a must to go ahead in life.

Knowledge is power: You will have to be thorough in your area of expertise. If you majored in marketing, you must know marketing inside out to one day become the head of marketing. But if you want to run a company, you will have to understand manufacturing, finance, HR, and technology. Yes, to score high in your career, you must have multi-functional appreciation. 

Beyond Knowledge: Earlier, to win in the workplace, IQ (aka knowledge) was necessary. These days, you must also have the skills the job calls for. Everything is not taught in colleges and many are learned at the workplace. You should have both emotional and social skills. Your ability to communicate, be a team player, lead small groups, generate and take through ideas, and motivate others are crucial. These are the emotional (EQ) and social quotients (SQ). 

Keep Running: Earlier, the availability of knowledge in the world doubled every 50 years. Later, it started doubling every 15 years, and then every 3 years. This means that if you don't update for three years on the trot, you will become a museum piece. Learning is now lifelong and continuous. The moment you stop learning, your career is over.

Robot As Coworker : Newer technologies are disrupting organizations. The constant question is how much can be automated and be replaced with AI. No, the role of people has not been abated; it has only been transformed. You will spend more time working alongside key internal stakeholders, modeling and predicting different scenarios.

Have an an array of skills. In his timeless article, Skills of an Effective Administrator, Robert L Katz wrote, "A skill implies an ability which can be developed, not necessarily inborn, and which is manifested in performance, not merely in potential." Two things follow from this. One; skill is not what you are capable of doing; skill is what you actually do. Two, skills can be developed. 

Skills are like a moving target. What is skill today could be passe tomorrow. There would therefore be a need to learn, unlearn and relearn. Past skills are not an indicator of future abilities. So you must continually reinvent. 

There are 'hard skills' and 'soft-skills.' Teachers teach hard skills. You watch and imbibe soft skills. "Hard skills can be measured, such as typing, writing, math, and reading." By contrast, soft skills are harder to quantify and is an umbrella term for people skills, social skills, and personal attributes.

22 Habits for 2022 - Ankur Warikoo

 22 Habits for 2022 by Ankur Warikoo

1. Start your messages/emails by addressing them by their name - One thing that truely belong to you

2. Send emails to yourself - whatever you feel will disappear, document it. Do not relay on memory.

3. Do not try to remember anything - Write it, user your brain to comprehend and process. 

4. Smile at the mirror - Love yourself, If you do not acknowledge yourself, no one else will.

5. Meet someone new every week - They will help you see the world differently from how you know it. 

6. Brush twice - Don't ignore 

7. Read for 30 minutes daily - for the joy of it.  Read Everyday.

8. Say Thank you - Even when someone can't hear you 

9. Make inspiration a choice - Don't leave it to chance, do it actively

10. Invest every month - Amount and Market conditions don't matter, but how long and how regularly you invest matters. 

11. Before emotions, bring numbers in - Do the math, start with numbers.

12. Do one thing every week where you are likely to fail - Practice failing, so failing doesn't hurt

13. Act on the thoughts that keep you up at night. - Take small possible steps

14. Breathe deeply through your nose, let go through your mouth. 2 mins everyday.

15. Dress well, wear a perfume - 

16. Compliment people

17. Work out everyday - Anything that gets your heart beat racing and you sweating - Feel alive

18. Follow the POMODORO technique for work - 25 min work, 5 min break, repeat and after 5 such cycle, 15 minutes long break.

19. Follow positive people - You're the average of the 5 ideas you spend most time with. Unfollow that you don't want. 

20 . Schedule your day -  Set time aside for no-work, mindless scrolling, chilling and random banter. 

21. Call your parents - You have much lesser time with them than you imagine, do not regret later. 

22.  Ask yourself everyday "What am I doing wrong, that I know I am doing wrong?" - Asking will help find answer to the wrong, what to fix, answer will not be the one you want, but the one you need. 

Once it becomes a Habit, our brain dispenses the least energy to accomplish it. 

Habits are nature's way to conserve energy! We are our habits! Choose wisely!

WOW - W Words

Women, wife, 

Wonderful, Worthy,

Worry, Waste, 

Worst, Wrong,

Whore, Whoreson,

Work, Worship,

Weather, Whether,

Wants, Ways,

Wake, Walk,

Wander, Welcome,

Wall, Wrap,

Woggle, Wafer,

Wagon, Wages,

Watch, Water,

Waste, Wave,

Week, Weak,

Willing, Willpower,

Winner, Witty,

Wholesome, wholehearted,

Wonderful, Worthy,

Wunderkammer, Words

We, World.

The Bourses - Institution Building

When in my 9th Standard, I remember, Picking the book 'The Dalal Street' from the library, and a passer-by remarked, what would people this age understand about Dala Street? I loved knowing about stock exchanges since then, but have never understood, or invested there. 

A stock exchange is a place where people buy and sell commodities. India has 8 active National Stock Exchanges, and 21 regional stock exchanges in this only one, i.e. Calcutta is operative but not functional, there is a legal case going on as of 2022. All the regional stock exchanges were closed in the last two decades.  All these exchanges render the facility to trade in numerous financial segments such as equity, currency, derivates, etc. The active stock exchanges are:

A Complete List of active stock exchanges in India

Name                                                                     Location

Bombay Stock Exchange                                     Mumbai

Calcutta Stock Exchange                                     Kolkata

India International Exchange (India INX)             Gandhinagar

Indian Commodity Exchange                                     Navi Mumbai

Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India                     Mumbai

Multi Commodity Exchange of India                     Mumbai

National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange         Mumbai

National Stock Exchange of India                         Mumbai

NSE IFSC                                                         Gandhinagar

Bombay Stock Exchange was started by Premchand Roychand in 1875. While BSE Limited is now synonymous with Dalal Street, it was not always so. In the 1850s, five stock brokers gathered together under a Banyan tree in front of Mumbai Town Hall, where Horniman Circle is now situated. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Rajasthani Jain businessman, it is BSE is the oldest stock exchange in Asia,  and also the tenth oldest in the world.  The BSE is the 9th largest stock exchange with an overall market capitalisation of more than ₹276.713 lakh crore, as of January 2022.  With a rapid increase in the number of brokers, they had to shift places repeatedly. At last, in 1874, the brokers found a permanent location, the one that they could call their own. The brokers group became an official organization known as "The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association" in 1875. The Bombay Stock Exchange continued to operate out of a building near the Town Hall until 1928. The present site near Horniman Circle was acquired by the exchange in 1928, and a building was constructed and occupied in 1930. The street on which the site is located came to be called Dalal Street in Hindi (meaning "Broker Street") due to the location of the exchange. On 31 August 1957, the BSE became the first stock exchange to be recognized by the Indian Government under the Securities Contracts Regulation Act. In 1986, the BSE developed the S&P BSE SENSEX index, giving the BSE a means to measure the overall performance of the exchange. In 2000, the BSE used this index to open its derivatives market, trading S&P BSE SENSEX futures contracts. The development of S&P BSE SENSEX options along with equity derivatives followed in 2001 and 2002, expanding the BSE's trading platform.Historically an open outcry floor trading exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange switched to an electronic trading system developed by Cmc ltd. in 1995. It took the exchange only 50 days to make this transition. This automated, screen-based trading platform called BSE On-Line Trading (BOLT) had a capacity of 8 million orders per day.

Shri Ashishkumar Chauhan is the MD & CEO of BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), the first stock exchange of Asia. He is one of the founders of India's National Stock Exchange ("NSE") where he worked from 1992 to 2000. He is best known as the father of modern financial derivatives in India due to his work at NSE. Incorporated in 1992, the NSE has developed into a sophisticated, electronic market, which ranked fourth in the world by equity trading volume. It was recognised as a stock exchange by SEBI in April 1993. Trading commenced in 1994 with the launch of the wholesale debt market and a cash market segment shortly thereafter. 

Dr Ramachandra H Patel Patil had said, “Indian capital market around the early 1990s was akin to the Stone Age.” Patil, then an executive director at state-owned Industrial Development Bank of India, was hand-picked by the lender’s Chairman SS Nadkarni to end the rule of broker-ruled exchanges and to build a bourse run by public institutions. This was a time when the existing exchanges were riddled with bad delivery, fake certificates and price manipulations, all leading to small investors being gypped.  Patil, whose firm belief in automation and paperless trading, would change the way trading would be done in the country. Under him, the NSE linked trading terminals across India using the V-SAT technology and introduced electronic order matching system.

Patil pioneered in creation of not just NSE, but also of National Securities and Depositories and the Clearing Corporation of India. Investors who have been in the market in the last few days would recall the problems of shares in certificates before NSDL- which held and transferred shares in dematerialised form-came into the picture. Patel was open to new ideas and was willing to experiment. 

BSE’s current chief executive officer Ashish Kumar Chauhan, who was part of NSE’s founding team, recalls an incident where imported computer and telecom material meant for NSE was stuck at the Bombay port due to a customs strike. Patil requested the then customs chief commissioner to release the material. Behind the institution builder’s persona was a calm persona, unfazed by brokers’ clubs or any other challenge for that matter. Simplicity was another attribute that defined his success as a manager of the national bourse.

Once, on a trip to Cochin to inaugurate Geojit’s NSE trading terminal, Patil insisted staying in the IDBI guest house which cost about Rs 100 instead of an accommodation in a five-star hotel. His closest colleagues remember him as a person who encouraged young talent. Indeed, when he stepped down from his role as MD & CEO, he passed on the mantle to Ravi Narain, who went on to serve at the position for 12 years. Patil passed away in 2012 after battling lung cancer for over three years. He was 74. At the time of his death, he was the chairman of NSDL and Clearing Corporation of India.

In life, he inspired a change in other organisations and not just NSE.

National Stock Exchange was incorporated in the year 1992 to bring about transparency in the Indian equity markets. Instead of trading memberships being confined to a group of brokers, NSE ensured that anyone who was qualified, experienced, and met the minimum financial requirements was allowed to trade. In this context, NSE was ahead of its time when it separated ownership and management of the exchange under SEBI’s supervision. Stock price information that could earlier be accessed only by a handful of people could now be seen by a client in a remote location with the same ease. The paper-based settlement was replaced by electronic depository-based accounts and settlement of trades was always done on time. One of the most critical changes involved a robust risk management system that was set in place, to ensure that settlement guarantees would protect investors against broker defaults.

Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna as well as J Ravichandran, were part of NSE’s founding team. Narain occupied the chief executive’s chair after RH Patil, NSE’s founding chairman. Within a few years, NSE, with its electronic trading platform overtook BSE.

Major Difference between BSE and NSE:- 

BSE  is the oldest stock exchange. It was founded in 1875. NSE is Largest stock exchange in India in terms of daily turnover and number of trades.  It was founded in 1992 Benchmark Index of BSE is Sensex 30. Benchmark Index of NSE is NIFTY 50. Total Listed companies in BSE is around 7500. Total Listed companies in NSE is around 1900. BSE is 9th largest in world while NSE is 10th largest in world Indices: – The main Index of BSE is SENSEX while that of NSE is CNX Nifty. The other indices at BSE are: BSE 500, BSE 100, BSE 200, BSE PSU, BSE MIDCAP, BSE SMLCAP, BSE BANKEX, BSE Teck, BSE Auto, BSE Pharma, BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), BSE Consumer Durables (SYMBOL: Cons Dura), BSE Metal. NSE also set up as index services firm known as India Index Services & Products Limited (IISL) and has launched several stock indices, including: S&P CNX Nifty, CNX Nifty Junior, CNX 100, S&P CNX 500, CNX Midcap (introduced on 18 July 2005 replacing CNX Midcap 200).

NSE was formed with a Purpose Committed to improve the financial well-being of people.

Every once in a while, there occurs an event in the life of institutions that shakes up carefully built reputations and raises questions on their governance and integrity. National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) managing director and chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna’s resignation was one such moment. That it came close on the heels of the publicly unknown, yet forced exit of the NSE group’s chief operating officer, Subramanian Anand, adds to the mystery.

The story that emerges reeks of hubris, favouritism, disregard for corporate governance and a casual approach to institutional processes.

It's sad to see educated Women continuing to be the targets and falling prey to the misdeeds of the society, when the real beneficiary get away with. 

Financial well being of all stakeholders was the mandate - Dharma.  Demutualisation.  Market framework - objective and rule bound. While setting up the process was the learning, none had the domain knowledge. What helped was:

1. Open mind - go out and meet brokers. With absolute no knowledge - so was not sceptical. 
2. Took lot of risk, and experimented, under radar.  Environment then - college learning feeling, true sense of entrepreneurship. Kind of risk taken were - figuring out, where to get members from. Latent demand to become first generation entrepreneur/broker who had no opportunity. People from outside Bombay, took membership, was not sure if they would bring business. There are crossroads, and choices that institutions have to take. We need to have the risk taking ability. No pain, No Gain.
3. Team, not worried about the constraints - consider them of something to be overcome. - Telecom not so popular, needed Satellite communication. First became telecom company before becoming an exchange.- Do whatever it takes mindset. 
4. To install confidence - if we commit to something, we do it. Put in discipline of having a settlement calendar in the beginning of the year. - 52 settlement went through like a clock. - commitment, and culture of discipline - to deliver what is promised. 

Nothing is so sophisticated or path breaking - it's not a great product or technology - but our sense of urgency. 

Quarter to quarter focus is needed from discipline perspective, but that do not build an institution. Short term approach should match the long term approach. 

Strong facet of regulatory responsibility. It runs counter to business development - we can argue. But it is what helps us improve the governance in the sector and manage risk, improve intermediary standing with the end customer. 

Derivetive market in 1997 - It was said to be weapons of mass destruction - it was like letting the Gini out of the box. 

Merck - we create medicine for the wellbeing of the patients - profits follow. Same thing apply for the industry. Conscience keeper. Integrity, fairness, deep social impact, financial well being - are you delivering the same end goal. Keeping up your values. 

Closing - 18 years - every day new opportunity. Do new things - there is progress; Questioning the basics everyday - learning every day. Are we taking risk or is it making us sloppy. Passion, discipline, commitment. These are the things that has worked for NSE, and the lessons learnt. Constituently contributing to the society, to last beyond our times. 

Financial Literacy is a life skill. Lifecycles - Save/Non risk instrument/Mgt. by others/self managed. - Cycle of investment. 

Provide variety of instruments, that satisfy the market appetite. So we teach people. Understand risk/return - Get into non risk products and only then get into risk products. 

NSE - growth and regulatory - Any down turn marking is an opportunity to get into service; and look into new products innovations.  It is the time to look for better opportunity. When going is good nobody has time. 

Takeover, mergers and trends - American market - rate of growth slowed down, so their way was Balance Sheet expansion - go to the market and find more opportunity. Technology integration, people integration are not trivial. Jury is still out. 

In India there is huge opportunity for domestic growth, they should plan that, before any acquisitions. There should be business strategic alliances between countries. But that does not mean we need mergers and acquisitions.  

Beauty of Index is that even the retail investor can make decision without looking at Balance sheet. So Nifty helps. It is the second most widely traded product. 

Business decisions at times by instincts and not by analysis, is it fine - To be completely instinct driven is perils. One has to look at data and understand what the story tells. Data will not give solution. You need to know the point when the data cannot tell anything more, and make decision. 

No SEBI, No NSDL, No Technology. - Parallel Stock Exchange when BSE was there for more than 100 years - is an institutional building. 

Ended up just like Chanda Kochar. Both had god fathers; but no morals or competence

The Market Mafia - Palak Shah

Ms. Chitra Ramkrishna, who was the MD and CEO of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016, referred to a yogi as "Sironmani" a spiritual force that could manifest itself anywhere it wanted and did not have any physical or locational co-ordinates and largely dwelt in the Himalayan range who has been guiding her for the past 20 years on personal and professional matters. This crazy statement made me google about her, and with nothing much available in the internet, landed up buying this book. NSE was the best in terms of technology. But all the present news appears to be cover for skelton in the cupboard, else why all this come out now? In 2015, a whistle-blower's letter had opened a 'Pandora's Box'.Was the Regulatory body sleeping all these years? Is it so difficult to trace Emails the mode by which the spiritual force was communicated to? Why did they not use telepathy to communicate, and soon  the laptop was earmarked as e-waste?   These were the thoughts running in my head, as I grabbed the book, feeling sorry the way a beautiful qualified CA (hope even that is not a fraud) was used as a puppet or wondering if she was really involved in all this, if so to what extend.  

The Market Mafia by Palak Shah was my 16th of 2021. The author’s path-breaking investigative journalism fleshes out the meticulous planning and organization behind the COLO scam, the dark drama involving SEBI probe and its loosely-knit final verdict. With each chapters, each engrossing, they are:

1. House of Cards
2. Life in the speed lane
3. The Great Data Theft
4. Battle of The Bourses
5. The Goldmine's Code
6. The 'Heart of Darkness'
7. Some Gambles are 'More Equal'
8. The Whiff of Money

Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh are considered the ‘formidable villains’ for exploiting the systemic loopholes to manipulate share prices. Once the Demigods of Dalal Street, the rogue stock traders attracted such severe crack-down from government investigative agencies that could shock even the most hardened criminals. But a scandal of much larger magnitude involving data theft at NSE and the Multi Commodity Exchange(MCX), that Mehta and Parekh could ever rev-up, has largely remained a mystery. The former exploited the loopholes in the India's banking system, stock market infrastructure remained unharmed. But the data breach by Ajay, Susan and their associates was India's first fraud that laid a direct Siege on NSE and MCX, where billions of dollar worth transactions take place daily. 

The cabal hand-picked by SS Nadkarni, to set up NSE from scratch, was a turning point in the History of bourses in India. On one side was Ajay and Susan, two leading stock market scholars who never formally employed by NSE yet remained perfect insider and on the other  side were Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna, two of the longest-serving bosses of NSE . NSEs board was filled with Babus retired from FM or entities regulated by it. Political patronage served to ensure that SEBI remained friendly to them. To the outer world, the BSE was brokers club but NSEs image was cast in its lofty standards of legal compliances. Soaring stock prices and the market capitalisation greatly influence board policies and deal-making in companies. It is also a cash cow, which can be milked simply by price-moving policy announcements. PC was Prima uomo to Stock Market. When Chitra Ramkrishna was made MD & CEO, Mr. Anand Subramanian, who was delegated substantial power of management akin to the powers granted to the MD and CEO. Mr. Subramanian was offered to join the NSE in the role of chief strategic adviser from April 2013 for an annual compensation of ₹1.68 crore. Prior to this, he had worked in Balmer and Lawrie in a middle level management with zero exposure to capital markets and was drawing less than ₹15 lakh per annum as of March 2013.  In addition, he was re-designated as Group Operating Officer (GOO) and Adviser to MD. These appointments were against the Hiring policy. He was given charge of people management, new business, corporate communication, marketing, business excellence, research and development, pricing, strategic planning and subsidiaries—IISL, DOTEX, NSE Tech and NSE IT. According to a source, the letter was not even made available to company secretaries SN Ananthasubramanian and Co (SNA) for audit. The management is said to have claimed that it was an internal communication. His wife Sunitha Ananda was heading NSE Chennai. 

In 2015, SEBI was woken up by a whistleblower, who described the contours of a front-running market operation perpetrated for over five years involving the use of COLO and High-Frequency Trading. Surprisingly, SEBI never scrutinized NSE’s COLO grid – an omission of duty – before the whistleblower highlighted the skulduggery.

In 2008, the then SEBI Chairman C B Bhave’s detachment from his Dharma as ‘the market watchdog’ opened the door for data theft at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), India’s largest asset pool. It also led to the installation of defective Co-location (COLO) trading infrastructure at NSE, by an unofficial decree, which gave a select few brokers preferential access to equity derivatives. Fast-moving trading bots, deep-rooted nexus between enterprising PhD scholars Ajay Shah and Susan Thomas, economists, top dollar earning executives, politicians, bureaucrats and salivating brokers were at play.

Chanakya, (meaning the most clever) the Algo software developed by Sunita's company IFPL, derived its name from the third century BCE Indian teacher cum philosopher, jurist and economic scientist born as Vishnugupta. TBT data gave Ajay an insight into the probabilities of an exchange order book. 

"When regulation is weak, it encourages players who have strength in fixing the regulatory system to their  own advantage. Even a few years of faulty regulation can do long-term damage to an industry by killing off firms with high ethical standards and endowed with skills in running a business as opposed to skills in fixing the system." This is not about NSE, Bhave or any secret TBT data expedition. It is what Ajay wrote in his column 'The X factor in regulation' about the metoric rise of Shah and MCX in a leading financial daily.  Ajay was member of NCDEX and split his fury against MCX. The battle of supremacy in India's financial market did not end abruptly since MCX SX fell behind in the race. There was the National Spot Exchange Ltd. (NSEL) Fiasco. The NSEL owned by FTIL group, was India's first electronic commodity exchange that facilitated the purchase and sale of commodities, including agricultural products, by providing spot delivery of goods. Then, the exchange said, it had secured permission from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs under the Central Government to Start trading, under the argument that it would ease the pressure on the farmers to sell their proceeds at a lower price due to lack of warehouse. It was allowed to operate in 16 states in India. Once operational brokers played for profit, and trading went on a feverish pitch, as it was violating the norms of the delivery cycle by extending the contract beyond 11 days, and allowing traders to enter into simultaneous pair contracts. Stock prices came down, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala picked up Shah and FTILs stake in MCX, and FTIL was rechristened as 63 Moons Technologies Ltd. Shah was arrested. Shah dragged the exchange to CCI (Competition commission of India) holding NSE guilty of monopolistic practice in 2011, case is pending in SC where it is languishing pending trial. Paranjape, joined MCX, and the exchange started secret data pipeline to Susan under the pretext of usual research by IGIDR. HFT-driven Algo trading volumes were on a rise at MCX. What Anand did with the data he got from HFT remains a mystery, like what IFPL did with the data it got from NSE.  It appears to be for developing Algo Strategy. 

Forsensic auditor managed to find email exchanges for communications within.  The key mandate was to check systemic lapse, the emphasis was never on detecting fraud, and accesses were not given to them. Two of the largest exchanges suffered an unprecedent data breach. Nobody, including super-cop SEBI, wanted to conduct a thorough probe.  During the data breach at NSE, Bhave relinquished the path of Dharma. During MCX, it was Tyagi, Chidambaram recommended Bhave and Jaitley recommended Tyagi. 

FMC (Forward Market Commission) is a regulator to commodity markets like SEBI was to equities.  BSE had some of the marquee names in its lists of shareholders including Thomas Caldwell and George Soros.  Nifty and Sensex are benchmark index values for measuring the overall performance of the stock market. Nifty is the Index used by the National Stock exchange, and Sensex is the Index used by the Bombay Stock Exchange. NSE had a tech arm called NSE IT, lot of work outsourced by exchanges top brass was just in the domain of it's sister company. NSDL was established as the head of the depository, Bhave made demat of shares compulsory for listed companies and refused to handle any physical or paper shares by institutional investors. NSE created to break the monopoly of BSE, but with demat, BSE became - bread crumbs. The digital transfer of shares from one account to another took place in NSDL, when its stock was hitting peaks, IT investigation shattered NSDL and Bhave's reputation as the pioneer of Corporate governance and compliance measurement system, shook. NSDL came under a cloud for fake demat accounts scam. 

The Whistleblower wrote from Singapore in 2015 under pseudonym - Ken Fong, the elaborately detailed, 8 page letter was enough to set the cat among the pigeons. It was send to SEBI, and veteran financial market Journalist Sucheta Dalal, who published it in her personal finance portal Moneylife.  She is the investigative journalist who blew off the humongous Harshad Mehta Scam of 1992. Rajeev Kumar Agarwal, SEBI's then WTM seeked NSEs response on the letter. The SEBI Cross Functional Team (CFT) in 2015 was the first batch of regulatory officials that went into the details of NSE's COLO farm since it was established over 5 years ago, and took the matter to SEBI's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), employed IIT Bombay to do the audit of NSE. OPG securities from Delhi had the fastest access.  External Forensic auditors too were appointed. Before Deloitte submitted its first report, Agarwal was made to quit SEBI in an undignified manner.  Agarwal's ouster from SEBI was a peculiar case that shows the power play of the 'bureaucratic brotherhood' in India and the cable that was accustomed to armtwisting the administrative system. After his exit, the probe did not move much further. Half-baked orders were issued, with several gaps, leaving enough loopholes to give escape routes for the accused. 

Just as ore has to be processed to extract gold, raw data must be processed to extract its true value.  Since 1987, CMIE, Ajay's family enterprise made all its profits from the mining of data that was later sold to brokers, bankers, policymakers and other finance professionals. 

These are to investigated and tried by a law enforcing agency beyond the scope of SEBI. Wayback machine is used to dig out past information that is hidden by organisation to wash off records. It is an internet archive library that stores billions of web pages that have been taken down by the operators or organisations but were created in the past. 

For the May , 2010 flash crash in US, 5 years after in 2015, April 21st; the US Department of Justice brought in 22 criminal counts, including fraud and market manipulation against Navinder Singh Sarao, a British financial trader. (another interesting story, googled about it and here is what I found

https://theprint.in/world/story-of-indian-origin-autistic-futures-trader-behind-flash-crash-gets-hollywood-ending/356850/

Ajay was ingrained into the workings of NSE's core operations since its inception, wrote the risk management codes for derivatives, created Nifty, held board seats and committee positions in crucial exchange subsidiaries and sister companies. Yet Ramakrishan, NSE's joint MD since 2009 and associated with it since inception, say "I may have met him infrequently. He was known to NSE as a researcher and academician. I'm not able to recollect any arrangement for sharing data with Ajay"; but ended up awarding key contracts to his associates and friends. Narain once said with regard to Ajay "One of the few economists known in the capital market who writes policy papers based on data analytics."

NSE purchased 26% stake in Omnesys Technologies P ltd. in 2008 set up by Shrikant Pandit and inducted CR on its board as a shareholder director, it looked like a move to ward off competition from FTIL's ODIN, but has more to it. It had a sister concern Omnesys Tradenet (OTN) Pvt. Ltd. a stock broking co. playing in NSE, and Gana Yantrika Systems P Ltd. was the parent company to both.  OTN was sold to Way2Wealth, a client of IFPL, using Chanakya to trade in NSE, owned by VG Siddhartha of coffee Day. The loss making companies share started going up after the collaboration with NSE, and in 2014 sold it to Thomson Reuters and soon after the price started falling. Omnesys could give access to NSE's DMA facility and COLO trading grid. There was the mystery of the 'Secondary Server' sitting at NSE. Data at NSE was hijacked by traders, data thieves and wily executives, and no one was taking note, definitely not the super-cop. The entire system ran on the whims and fancy of NSE officials. Abhishek Soni, the COLO employee who revealed this to Deloitte was asked to quit. There were 'dark fibre' lines providing private jet like service to two brokers, Way2Wealth and GKN capital an entity owned by OPG securities.  A Mauritius entity controlled by a United States parent made profits of  Rs. 20-30 crore between 2013-14 by trading in currency futures on NSE and BSE accessing feeds prohibited to Non-bank participants. 

Who is Ramtoola, who contributed Rs. 2,842 crores in True North, a front to laundering money for politicians, businessmen, senior company executives, bureaucrats, cops, brokers, bankers or researchers from India? Why had both the previous and current Govt. not investigated links? 

History shows that the origin of any market scam can be traced to 'procedural lapse' at different levels. A deep dive will show that faces or the front in any mega fraud are the boorish bunch of operators who fall victim to their greed, not knowing that the tie-suit executives are their silent handlers exploiting the systemic weaknesses they created themselves, knowingly or unknowingly.  Follow up based on initial lead, often lead to unearthing of mega scandals. Criminal investigative agencies can be hired.   'Inadequate Transparency, (lack of) Public accountability and Parliamentary oversight are the four structural fault lines in SEBI's legal framework, that had made this power abuse possible. 

Another article on the recent developments, like a fairy tale story - https://ranganathan.substack.com/p/a-mystic-mesmerises-a-mermaid?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1OTc2MjEyNiwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDg4NDMyNTQsIl8iOiJ1UExxRSIsImlhdCI6MTY0NTAxMDY5NSwiZXhwIjoxNjQ1MDE0Mjk1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzM5MjQ1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.j3J4sBW3BGR8v6n7Aju7NluQDqgMkXXPLENuZJvESKM&r=zkwr2

Chitra Ramakrishna’s statement to SEBI’s queries on the mysterious ‘yogi’.

SEBI: Can you please share the identity of the email id holder ‘rigyajursama@outlook.com’?

Ramkrishna*: The Siddha Purusha/Yogi is a Paramahansa who may be largely dwelling in the Himalayan Ranges. I have met him on occasions in holy places. No locational co-ordinates are given.

SEBI: Given the fact that the Siddha Purusha largely dwells in the Himalayan Ranges, kindly explain how He would have accessed emails and corresponded with you regularly.

Ramkrishna: To the best of my knowledge, their spiritual powers do not require them to have any such physical co-ordinates.

SEBI: Can you please share when you met him and who introduced you to him?

Ramkrishna: I met him for the first time on the banks of the Ganges nearly 20 years ago directly. Subsequently, over the years, I have taken his guidance on many personal and professional matters. Along the way, since he would manifest at will and I did not have any locational co-ordinates, I requested him for a way in which I could seek his guidance whenever I felt the need. Accordingly, he gave me an ID on which I could send my requests.

SEBI: Is the Siddha Purusha some person who was from NSE/NSE Governing Board at any point of time?

Ramkrishna: No, he is a spiritual force.

SEBI: Can you please elaborate as how the ‘Siddha Purusha’ was aware about a lot of intricate details on the functioning and hierarchy at NSE?

Ramkrishna: Largely, I would have provided that inputs.

SEBI: In the majority of correspondence, it is observed that Anand Subramanian was marked a copy. Please explain?

Ramkrishna: Primarily, I had clarity on issues that I sought. Who else and whom he would correspond with was outside my purview. He may have corresponded with many others too.

SEBI: As per the organisational structure and the governance principle, independently constituted board was available for consultation and guidance on aforesaid organisational matters. Please explain as to whether above consultation with the Siddha Purusha violates the principle of governance?

Ramkrishna: I would like to state that all discussions and guidance that are sought from board and or other available experts is always done. As an MD and CEO, before I am able to come to a perspective of my view only, the guidance is sought. It is only to enable me in my role to have a primary view. As we know, senior leaders often seek informal counsel from coaches, mentors or other seniors in this industry which are all purely informal in nature. In a similar strain, I felt that this guidance would help me perform my role better. Being spiritual in nature, there would never be a question of any confidentiality or integrity issues being compromised for the organisation. There would be no question of any personal gain because of the information shared. Hence, I felt that this would help me perform in the best interest of the organization.

* In the SEBI order, Ramkrishna has been mentioned as Noticee No 1

Ramkrishna met the unknown person several times: SEBI

According to SEBI, based on the e-mail correspondences between the unknown person and Ramakrishna and her statements to the regulator, it emerges that they allegedly met several times during the year 2015.

* In her statement to SEBI dated April 14, 2018, Ramkrishna submitted that she attended the meeting with the unknown person at the Swamimalai temple in Delhi and also met him on occasions in holy places.

* E-mail dated February 17, 2015 from the unknown person to the Ramakrishna said: “…p.s, keep bags ready I am planning a travel to Seychelles next month, will try if you can come with me, before Kanchan goes to London with Kaanchana and Barghava and you to New Zealand with two children. HK is a preferred transit or Singapore for onward journey. In case you need help pi let me know Seshu will do the needful. If you know swimming then we could enjoy a sea bath in Seychelles and rest in the beach. I am asking my tour operator to connect with Kanchan for all of our tickets.”

* E-mail dated February 18, 2015 from the unknown person to Ramakrishna: “Today you are looking Awesome. You must learn different ways to platt your hair which will make your looks interesting and appealing!! Just a free advice, I know you will grab this. Keep March mid a little free.”

* E-mail dated February 25, 2015 from the unknown person to Ramkrishna: “…PS : I overheard with Kanchan when you said lets pack and leave, Get ready count down starts now I accommodate for Seychelles where you can chill it out.”

* E-mail dated September 16, 2015 from the unknown person to the Ramakrishna: “Did you hear that Makara Kundala song I sent? You must hear the resonance of that iterations. I am happy to see cheer, on your face and absolutely from your heart. I did rejoice the time yesterday with you. These small things you did for yourself make you feel younger and energetic.”