Stock markets? Fall or rise, the speculation shall go on...It's a poort sort of memory that only works backwards..

At 3:30 pm on a Friday afternoon, if you overheard this conversation, you would be excused for mistaking it to be about the stock markets...After all, the ups and downs, in recent times; more often than not, inexplicable seem to be understood only in retrospect.

Before I talk about the conversation he had late this afternoon, let me take a detour to what lead to the conversation...

Lewis Carroll once said that "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards".

Now, our "The Namesake", (For the want of a better name, we shall call "Him" thus from this post onwards...)...Our Namesake,
He had read this quote while reading random stuff online a few years ago...But, his thoughts were provoked recently by a really gentle man who, among other things, said that
"Everything happens for a reason".

Now, if there really was no such thing as coincidence; if everything was predetermined, one would automatically be curious to know more about what would or would not come one's way in the near, far and far-fetched future. One would even consider expending efforts towards changing what is to come, if Destiny was really all that believable.
However, "Everything happens for a reason" is something that got him thinking the previous evening, and tempted him to interpret it under the current circumstances and recent occurrences (and non-occurrences alike)...

That one statement, apart from sparking so many thoughts, raised several questions, three of which are worth mentioning; the rest of the questions being worth not mentioning although they were nowhere close to being "unmentionable" in the colloquial sense of the term...

Questions:
1. If Everything was really happening for a reason, what really were the reasons for whatever was happening?
2. More importantly, what was the reason for everything that was not happening? Especially all that he would ideally like to be happening?
(Desiring is not the same as deserving, he was told; but it is very human to desire, and for once, or once in a while, let us suppose that he is human ;-)
3. And, most importantly, what "all" or "everything" was going to happen? And for what "reasons"?

As would "happen to him" more often than not, that one statement "Everything happens for a reason" sparked off so many thoughts and questions, that all other things that were spoken, by that Steely Human, The Vice President of Resources; a man who appeared to have a heart of gold although he could make Steel...The Vedas, "Deserve, then desire", "Shut up and listen"..were all gems, more precious than steel or any other metal...
(If all this is too confusing, imagine the VP-HR of Tata Steel delivering guest lecture in a free flowing question-answer format, and your imagination will not be far from the truth!)

So, the previous evening had generated these random thoughts and questions..But this "raw material" had set off some "work in process" in his mind, and in light of the time constraints and scheduling specifications, he had decided to inventory the work in the "warehouse" that his mind was...
Attempts to make the conversation at 10 30 am the next morning (this morning) had failed...And he was wondering if and when the conversation would happen..
Finally, at 3 30 pm, the constraints seemed to have all disappeared, and it was time to "reduce inventory".
So, while his legs pedalled the bicycle on his way back to "the room", there was, in his mind, now room being created for some fresh air and fresh thoughts alike...

Conversations with friends can sometimes help "reduce inventory", and remove bottlenecks that often unnecessarily and unfortunately choke people's minds...
Now, this friend was "special" in the extra-ordinary sense of the term. "Extra" ordinary only because they could talk and joke about anything..With most others, it would be "talk and joke about almost anything"..But, with her, it was anything...
You could even be excused for concluding that friendship between a man and a woman, when qualified by that most abused adjective "special", almost always means that there is something "brewing" or "cooking"...
But, if you were to know that they had been over a decade now, you would probably consider labelling the relationship "Platonic"..
Well, it was more of a tonic than Platonic, because he could border on being flirtatious, only there would be no room for misunderstanding. The understanding was such that the Platonic or tonic nature of their relationship would almost certainly never change...
Again, "almost certainly", only because, the conclusion of that conversation was that
"Everything happens for a reason" is a debatable assertion...The arguments favouring the assertion were not infallible as they discovered that afternoon...
They agreed that the debate would be inconclusive, but, they nevertheless concluded that the assertion was debatable, especially in the context of the circumstances they were in...
Cities can separate friends physically, but one of the greatest inventions of the 2oth century, the cellular telephone, helps conversation addicts like him and her to continue to live with their innocuous addiction.
Innocuous, it really is, because, the conversation would normally comprise of anything from daily life, to work life to life in a Bschool, to philosophy, to flirting with the idea of flirting, to dreams and desires...basically (am sure you got the point sometime back!) everything.

So, everything happens for a reason. The reason for the conversation about everything was that he heard this one statement the previous evening..
"Everything happens for a reason"
So, while you are totally confused with how everything, including a conversation about everything happens for a reason; the reason being the very statement, let me now tell you about one of the most interesting parts of the conversation...

After all, this post was supposed to talk about stock markets right? Or so you had thought and then initially you had been told that the post was not about stock markets although you would be lead to believe that if you had overheard that part of the conversation...

So...now for that conversation about the stock markets...Remember, this is all light hearted, and conversation for the sake of conversation, in the true spirit of friendship and conversation...

Holy Beauty:
1. Would you show even be a 100th as concerned or caring if you had known that I was not keeping well?
2. Would you have been as caring to me?

The Namesake:
1. But, I never had the opportunity Holy Beauty! We were both staying in our homes, enjoying the care and comforts of our families and homes!
2. And I know that its a bad excuse....but its the best I could come up with spontaneously ;-)

Holy Beauty:
Yes! That's a lame excuse if you don't mind me saying that...And then you say "Its not about the legs"!! How ridiculous!

The Namesake:
But then I had made so many advances. You spurned all my advances ;-) ;-) ;-)
My life was like the bear "run" in the stock markets..
More declines than advances!

Holy Beauty:
Hahaha! (Please imagine a train that speeds past the stations of "Chuckletown", "Giggletown" and roars past "LaughterTown")..
So, where is the "Index" headed now? If the face is the index of the mind, how well are you doing the face-reading?

The Namesake:
Aaah well! Its the Sensex you gotta be talking about...After all it stands for the "Sensitive Index" doesn't it?

Holy Beauty: Hmmm...

The Namesake:
The Sensex has been fluctuating widely these days man...All indexes are, in fact! There is nothing I can say for sure...

HolyBeauty:
Patience is a virtue Mister...Although you have enough, these are testing times for you..


The Namesake:
So, it is Optimism and Quixotism yet again! The best things to "fall back on" that I have ever known!

Holy Beauty:
Look forward to the bright future...
Remember, "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards" :-)

End of conversation

So, an "MBA in the making" and a "software" engineer can talk about stock markets alrite!
You wouldn't even know about such interesting conversations about the stock markets...Unless I had overheard it and put them here, in a long, possibly boring, and quite confusing post ;-)

If you now ask me
If "It's not about the legs", what is it really about?
What is this blog all about?
What is this post all about?

I would say, "You tell me!"..Scroll right back to the top of this page; Read carefully whats right above that Google Ad..
And yeah, "it" is not even about the Google ad ;-)...It is only above that Google Ad :-P