Treacherous Territory Part 2

So it's been about 13 months since I wrote Part 1. I have been thinking of writing a follow up blog for a month now, so in my head it feels like a year has passed (and not 13 months). It's been an eventful year.

There is a problem. I am not an extrovert by nature, and even if I was, I cannot write everything that is on my mind without revealing company "secrets". I have to balance. I have to weigh. Who is my audience?

Well, we did decide to hire people and open an office in Singapore. We did decide to replace Patrick Cox when he quit. We did see Paul Brunner retire. And we managed to get office space in Singapore at the bottom of the market. If you had known the company 1.5 years ago, gone to sleep and then come back today, you will find it looking completely different. Even in the (now) outpost of Darien, CT there are changes (says he, tongue firmly in cheek).

I am now officially the oldest person in the company after Jim Amaroso (Gina does not count as we have officially agreed that she stopped growing in 1999). I am the problem solver. That is perhaps my main job now. The Board gives me an amazing amount of rope to hang myself with. I still have some customers but for the main part have stopped being involved in direct day trading.

All of the traders are weighing in and doing a wonderful job. We are all talking to each other. We are often on the same wavelength. We are young and react quickly to events. We are teaching each other to overcome emotions in trading. We have firmly re-established the Trammochem name. People call in and admire what we have done this year.

When I look at the performance data, I cannot but help feeling exhilarated. There has been a lot of sweat and sleepless nights and air miles gone into this; but the end result fills all of us with pride. I called RPS last night and congratulated him on the results so far.

But you know the saying: A trader is only as good as his next trade. We need to go on. We need to build further on the success of this year. We need to avoid hubris. A man's work is never done (to misquote the old saying). The decade is about to end and a new one beckons.

What's in a name - said the bard

Indians have the tendency to put other Indians in a box. The moment we meet another Indian and hear the name, our gray cells start to agitate a la Hercule Poirot. Rakesh Khurana, must be Punjabi. Aditya Mhatre, zaroor ghati hoga. Debasis Basu, eta to Bangali. Suresh Patel, hello gujjubhai! You can further believe that once we decide that the person next to us is a Punjabi or Maharashtrian or Bengali or Gujarati, a further slew of thoughts and pre-determined judgements of that community take over. Welcome to multiple "blink" moments of the Indian character. (Debasis must be eating fish every day)

I have tried hard to think, but cannot figure out why this is so. The only brainwave I had was that we are seeking to find comfort by having knowledge of the person we are talking to without asking any questions. If you read this and feel the urge to contribute, be my guest.

Did you know that hundreds of years ago, commoners did not have any family names? The ruling class prevented them from having one to stop them from banding together. Imagine that a bunch of Agarwals got together and staged a coup against the Gandhis? Well, there were no Agarwals at that time. Only Rakesh, Anil, Maya and others. Then they started getting names from their professions. Consider a village in England where there were 3 Johns. One had to become John Carpenter, one John Smith and the last John Taylor?

I have been living abroad for over 20 years and spared these blink moments when I meet non-Indians (I meet more of these than Indians). Indians that I meet tend to get foxed by my name. I guess Abhishek Kumar would have the same problem. It is hard to put me in a box on the basis of my name alone. Over the years, I have heard different types of questions as well as assumptions about my origin and "box".

Let me try and put this to rest. My name is Ashok Kishore. Kishore is my family name and I am the 3rd generation of Kishores in my line (Perhaps there were more, but we don't know any further back). My children will be the 4th. (If they continue to live in the West, they will not be faced with this question from other Indians.) My father's family comes from a town called Rampur in UP. My mother's family comes from Meerut in UP. Now, all you guys and girls, please put away your "blink" hat!

By the way, I am susceptible to this disease as well, even with Westerners. I know my Dutch from the Germans from the Spanish and so on. Tomorrow I may meet John Taylor and start to think: Hmm .. American, English, Aussie, Canadian (visualise me scratching my head)?

P.S. : Last week in Singapore, my nephew asked me why so many Indian first names started with A. His teacher had asked him. Obviously, I have a theory about this. I am full of theories. But lets hear yours first.