It's been a routine for us. As soon as we get up in the morning, I switch on both the television and the computer. I go to CNBC and check how the stock market is faring. By then, the computer screen comes alive, and I open the finance page. I click on the signs for specific stock quotes, one after another, to see whether they were green or red.
While we both (me and my equal half) start the day, with yoga and exercise, our eyes and ears are glued to the signs and words on the television. Why have we become so dependant on the television? Is it doing us any good, giving us ideas, advice on investment? Sometimes I am doubtful. Things happen so fast. It is not merely on someone's advice, but acting or not acting on it, that determines one's profit from the stock market, I think.
But it is all a waiting and observing game. Not totally a casino play, some amount of thought and intelligence is also required. But a lot depends on intuition, and personal opinion. So we both have disagreements naturally, due to our different dispositions. He is cautious, and I am a risk taker. I have less fear and the converse is true in his case.
Accordingly, our buying and selling decisions are characterised by our personalities. Often, when he wants to sell, I want to hold. When he wants to hold, I want to buy. A lot of disagreements arise. But finally we agree on one point, that need to be cautious. I have learnt from him over the years, that I need to be careful in investing hard earned money on something as whimsical as the stock market.
Showing posts with label market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label market. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Pearl Glistened in the Darkness
Last night I turned the last page of the 90-page short novel by John Steinbeck. And here is the feedback. I've been a fan od Steinbeck ever since I read his Grapes of Wrath a few years ago. And now, after The Pearl, my commitment to remaining Steinbeck's fan has become deeper. From here, there is nowhere to go but be his fan forever.
The Pearl is a very short story about Kino, his wife Juana and their son Coyotito. But it is not the length that matters. The power with which their story has been narrated will leave a permanent mark.
It is a simple story about love and greed, poverty and hunger, hardship and social segregation, power and economics. Due to poverty, lack of education and the spectre of hunger, a pearl diver, Kino, when he hunts the largest pearl in the world, wants to sell it in the local market. But he is not offered a good price for it. Meanwhile, the news of the pearl spreads, and people want to steal it or forcibly take it away from him that night. Someone even burns his brush house in greed.
Kino decides to leave his village and go to the city to sell it. He's also haunted by the fear of being stalked for the pearl, which he hibes in his person carefully. His wife throughtout gives him company and accepts whatever decision he takes.
In the long journey to the city, the family faces immense hardship. The baby boy, who has been previously stung by a scorpion and has been treated by the doctor, also faces this arduous day. Then Kino and Juana sees three people on thebeach hunting for them. They hide with the baby, try to walk away into a secret cave.
The only way now for Kino to save themselves from the three men catching them and forcing the pearl out of them was to kill them, which he planned to do with the rifle the men were carrying. So, when the sun set, before the moon rose, he waited to jump on the men and wrestle their rifle out of them.
He was able to kill two of them in a mental state that was possessed, and the third ran away. But then, in the scuffle, he also ends up killing his own son.
Later, Kino and Juana returns to the village, but they were the saddest couple, carrying the dead body of their baby boy. Juana had always said that the unnatural pearl was evil and had asked Kino to throw it into the sea, but he never listened to her. Now that the baby was dead, he listened to her. But it was too late.
The Pearl is a very short story about Kino, his wife Juana and their son Coyotito. But it is not the length that matters. The power with which their story has been narrated will leave a permanent mark.
It is a simple story about love and greed, poverty and hunger, hardship and social segregation, power and economics. Due to poverty, lack of education and the spectre of hunger, a pearl diver, Kino, when he hunts the largest pearl in the world, wants to sell it in the local market. But he is not offered a good price for it. Meanwhile, the news of the pearl spreads, and people want to steal it or forcibly take it away from him that night. Someone even burns his brush house in greed.
Kino decides to leave his village and go to the city to sell it. He's also haunted by the fear of being stalked for the pearl, which he hibes in his person carefully. His wife throughtout gives him company and accepts whatever decision he takes.
In the long journey to the city, the family faces immense hardship. The baby boy, who has been previously stung by a scorpion and has been treated by the doctor, also faces this arduous day. Then Kino and Juana sees three people on thebeach hunting for them. They hide with the baby, try to walk away into a secret cave.
The only way now for Kino to save themselves from the three men catching them and forcing the pearl out of them was to kill them, which he planned to do with the rifle the men were carrying. So, when the sun set, before the moon rose, he waited to jump on the men and wrestle their rifle out of them.
He was able to kill two of them in a mental state that was possessed, and the third ran away. But then, in the scuffle, he also ends up killing his own son.
Later, Kino and Juana returns to the village, but they were the saddest couple, carrying the dead body of their baby boy. Juana had always said that the unnatural pearl was evil and had asked Kino to throw it into the sea, but he never listened to her. Now that the baby was dead, he listened to her. But it was too late.
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