... a fable written by James Thurber, entitled “The Scotty Who Knew Too Much.”
The fable tells the story of a small Scottish terrier from the city, who goes to the country for a visit. The Scotty soon comes to the conclusion that farm dogs are cowards, because they are afraid of a certain small black animal with a bushy tail, and a white stripe down its back. “I can lick you, and the little animal with the white stripe, too. Show him to me,” the Scotty says to his country cousin. “Don’t you want to ask any questions about him?” the farm dog asks. But the Scotty declines, and is soon led to the woods, where he is pointed in the direction of the white-striped creature. Growling and slashing the Scotty closes in. But before he knows what happened, the fight is over, and he is flat on his back. When he regains consciousness the farm dog asks what happened. “He threw vitriolic acid at me. But he never laid a glove on me.”
A few days later the Scotty learns there is another animal all the farm dogs are afraid of. “Lead me to him,” the Scotty says, “I can lick anything that doesn’t wear horseshoes.” “Don’t you want to ask any questions about him?” “Naw, just show me where he hangs out.” So the farm dog takes him to the woods and points out the animal. “What a clown, what a pushover,” the Scotty says as he closes in. In a split-second the fight is over, the Scotty flat on his back. As he wakes up, the farm dog is pulling quills out of him. “What happened,” the farm dog asks. “He pulled a knife on me, but at least I now have learned how to fight in the country, and now I am going to beat you up.”
So the Scotty closes in on the farm dog, holding his nose with one paw to ward off the vitriol, and covering his eyes with the other paw, to keep out the knives. Since he can thus neither see nor smell his opponent, the Scotty is beaten so badly that he needs to be taken back to the city and put in a nursing home.
The moral of the story: It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.
Shagun Dayal Swarup, a media professional in her twenties has started worrying about her 9-month-old daughter Arin’s wedding, from now only. Her worry is solely because of the rising price of gold. “Possibly when my daughter will be in her twenties, people will start wearing jewellery made of wood. But you never know, even wood may become very expensive by then,” she says as she cracks a joke with her colleagues.
Jokes apart, though not much has changed over the years in the Indian wedding ceremonies – colour, hospitality, joie de vivre, sumptuous food, yet just one ingredient is now different: the bride’s gift, as gold price is soaring high.
At a recent wedding in the city, an indulgent father decided to take a break from tradition. Instead of gold and diamonds, he gifted his daughter 100 shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions.
This is not a case in isolation. In the past, as also now, affluent North Indians gave away gold, land, four-wheelers when their daughters got married. Today, with gold prices shooting up by the day and blue-chips within reach, parents are opting for shares, bonds and even managed portfolio accounts.
Din Dayal Sharma, a Gurgaon-based businessman, gifted 300 shares of Reliance, among other things, to his daughter on her wedding day. At one stroke, he dropped the idea of buying gold and put his money in the stock markets instead.
“When I started shopping for the wedding, yellow metal prices were trading at record highs. The markets were still lukewarm and a lot of blue-chip stocks were available at throwaway prices. It seemed like a great idea to gift my daughter shares of some good companies which would stand her in good stead when the markets looked up,” he says.
Financial planner and chartered accountant Nitin Madan expresses, “Yes these days people are opting for other gift ideas as the price of gold exceeded 17k. We have seen sensible options like bonds, capital protection funds, gold mutual funds and other structured instruments being gifted. Of course, gold and other precious metals are being bought too. It’s just that newer and more practical options are being tried out.”
“Recently, one of my client gifted 100 shares of Infosys Technologies at a wedding, while another one presented 150 shares of Yes Bank for a naming ceremony,” adds Madan without revealing his clients’ identities.
Arnab Sarkar, Project Manager with AA NASS, a leading construction company based in Bahrain says, “Organisations too are choosing to gift shares of IT companies, banks and PSU bonds on festive occasions instead of gold coins.”
Adds a city-based jeweller, “When prices fall a bit, people are buying. People still buy gold though they are opting for other gifts also with the rising price of gold.”
Every day that passes, some new facts and trends are impressed on our minds. That is not the breaking of age-old traditions, it’s simple realism. It means, on the other side of the gold price-rise, somebody somewhere is building a new concept – a just economy with genuine freedom. Wouldn’t you like to be part of that re-building
David St. Hubbins memorably said in the movie This is Spinal Tap, "It's
such a fine line between stupid and clever." In investing, the line
between being patient and being stubborn is even finer, unfortunately.
'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in
Joined: 22/Jun/2009
Location: India
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Posts: 241
Posted: 02/Jan/2010 at 10:08pm
Originally posted by Hitesh Shah
David St. Hubbins memorably said in the movie This is Spinal Tap, "It's
such a fine line between stupid and clever." In investing, the line
between being patient and being stubborn is even finer, unfortunately.
Similar lines by Gene Hackman in Enemy of State to Will Smith - Either You are too smart or simply too stupid .
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