The Oracle of Chennai

After two months of being tutored about the 'Market / Street', I feel compelled to share the knowledge gained or not gainedL (no, it’s not a reflection on the tutor but on my intelligence). It’s about my hubby - this post. You see, he always had this gamblers' streak in him and I always knew he would pursue this full time, one day. No, it’s not the illegal bets and match fixing deals I am talking aboutJ. Ah yes, I am referring to the little money he stakes on equity, commodity and whatever else he takes fancy that moment... seems pure fun? Well, not for me, I can assure you.

Let me give you a sample of our daily conversation... "Petrol prices are going to touch Rs. 100/-", I say. Pat comes the reply, "never mind, we have x barrels of crude"L. I was naturally horrified & speechless!

Another day, I remarked about a news headline on 2G scam or some other scam being the trending topic, he just looked up abstractedly from his screen and gave a lecture on how to study trendlines of stocks!! I gave up and stuffed my head into a book. And needless to add that the only channels we get to watch are Bloomberg, NDTV Profit, ET Now or some such... The favourites setting in the TV have either these or CN! Talk of bipolar tastesJ

Talking of books, years ago, I had mentioned about joining the British Council, he guffawed and said it was archaic and old fashioned, in the internet age, to read booksJ But now, its suddenly trendy to hangout there and sip hot chocolate and browse through reams of print - on markets, and read up on 'how to be a successful trader, investor'. There is even a book titled, “Make more money than God” or some such thingJ that he reads like the Bible. Does it make any sense??

He announced very gladly that he had enabled internet on his BB. No, he doesn't surf the net or catch up with friends on Fb or twitter, he has downloaded Apps that stream stock prices 24/7J Can anyone get more mundane and boring than that?

In any average household, people would talk about family and the usual stuff... but here, I have to endure a lecture about the lives and times of famous traders. I get to hear about the different categories of men – the employee, employer, entrepreneur, investor… get the drift? One day, I got home after my usual round of stocking up of groceries and veggies for the week and our man looked up absent-mindedly from his laptop and asked me if I had heard of some Big Five Corporations in Agriculture. I almost faintedJ