How I got the girl, her money and learnt to invest in stocks

They weren’t easy times, but armed with a degree, a pair of Bermuda shorts and oodles of enthusiasm, I joined the workforce around the time when Sebi wasn’t born and when Harshad Mehta was becoming a phenomenon and his ‘buy-lists’ were the most sought after paper in the financial sectors — attitudes were turning, investors were winning, and the market was rising. The day I joined, the Sensex, which to me then was a mere number, rose 8.5 points. A good omen, I thought.
When I saw her, a humble wide-eyed trainee like me, I knew this was it. That made it three in one day - a job, a Sensex rise, the girl. But how do you woo a girl who apart from the flourishes also has a brain that questions? My editor — the first of many who would invest in my ‘potential’ — gave me the answer in the form of a dream assignment. “Take charge of investing pages for us,” he said. Before I could say, I don’t know the S of Sensex and the I of investing, he was gone.

Opinion in The Indian Express, August 04, 2007