Colors of life

It has been buzzing around for quite some time now that India is shining and it is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. I had never been able to relate the story of emerging India in a true sense, until the day, way back in the year 2003, when I started trading online. Although, in those days, I used to have a dial-up internet connection, it gave me a sense of elation being able to buy and sell shares sitting at home. At the backdrop of the exposure I had to the stock market, it made me feel a bit hopeful that soon all the luxuries of the world would be at our feet. It was during the period 2003-2007 when the stock market bloomed to the unprecedented 21K mark. It was truly a boom time, since Indian companies across sectors demonstrated robust performance. It seemed to be as if everything was on a roll. I saw people flourishing around me. I saw small provision stores transforming into a mini super market or super market. It was only during this period when our en...

After completing my graduation I got an opportunity to work with IFFCO, a fertilizer company. Along with me there were many other boys who had also joined IFFCO to work as an apprentice under various trades. As an apprentice, we used to have hands-on training so that we can have the required expertise in our respective trades after completion of the training. As a part of training, on every Saturday, all the boys were required to come to the training centre where managers from different units of the plant used to take lectures explaining the theoretical concepts essential for running a fertilizer plant. After attending several sessions at the training centre, it was very strange to notice a man, who must be in a managerial category, sitting idle in a room for the whole day long. We used to wonder how IFFCO could afford to have a manager whose output is zero. We never saw him interacting with anybody. We never even saw any of his colleagues visiting his room. One day, when ...