Those who are superstitious (or is it religious?) may well be aware that the inauspicious Rahu Kalam starts at 10.30 AM and end at 12 Noon every Friday. It is precisely during this period that the government for some inexplicable reasons publishes its inflation rates. And as the reader may be aware by some remarkable coincidence, the past several Friday’s have not brought any good news for the UPA Government. As this goes to press the inflation rate has touched a whopping 11.05%. And the government, with the big three economic managers of the UPA government – Montek Singh, P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh looking absolutely clueless to tackle the extant situation.

Core banking is the latest mantra of bankers – both in the private and public sector. Never mind, most times the computers don’t work. During the rest, bankers don’t. And when they do work, they work at cross-purposes leaving customers completely exasperated. Try depositing a cheque or getting a TDS certificate from banks, you would know what I mean. Every time after his monthly visit to his bank my aged father, a retired banker himself and a Gandhian, tells me – “I need to shoot these guys” and after a brief pause would add “six inches below the belly button.”

Investing in stock market is surely not for the faint-hearted. With its propensity to destroy the net worth of an individual, corporate or even a bank overnight, investment into the stock market is fraught with significant risks. It is also well known that the rewards are commensurate with the concomitant risks in the stock markets. But what intrigues me is fact that despite the inability of an average trader to stomach such risks, stock markets have become a habit nay a passion, why even an addiction for many. Neither is the stock market for the ignorant. For instance, in a highly integrated world, the happenings in distant America can make or break stock markets in India. But strangely, of late one finds the stock market infested with both the innocent and the ignorant, not only of happenings in distant America but even within India. Put bluntly, it has become a den for punting; an alternative to gambling with all its legitimacy. Naturally all these give stock markets a bad name.