Prakash Kumar

🌟 The last day of 2024 feels like the perfect moment to pause and reflect on what has been an unexpected and transformative year. As I look back, I vividly remember the final week of 2023, entering 2024 with moderate enthusiasm and a sense of steady anticipation. However, the year unraveled in ways I could not have predicted, bringing challenges on professional, personal, and familial fronts from the very first week of January.  🎒 The year unfolded as a mixed bag of deep experiences and travel. There were highlights, including one international trip, three visits to Goa, several visits to Delhi, and journeys to Uttarakhand and Sikkim. Yet, these moments of travel and exploration contrasted with an overarching sense of internal reflection and reconciliation. 🛑 2024 became a "Pause Year" for me—a time of slowing down, both physically and mentally, to prepare for the next decade of life. It was a year marked by introspection, as I grappled with errors, unmet expectations, ...

On Monday January 22, 2024, history was indelibly marked in the hearts of Lord Rama worshippers worldwide as the Ramlala idol found its permanent abode in Ayodhya. This momentous day will resonate through generations, fueled by the unwavering devotion of Lord Rama's followers. The nation witnessed a collective jubilation akin to a grand festival, with major offices closed to honor this significant occasion. Millions of temples in the country in its own way celebrating the Lord Rama  Pran Pratishtha at Ayodhya. Today is the day for Indians to become Rammay. Lord Rama transcends being merely a religious figure; he embodies the spirit, devotion, and way of life in India. He is the soul of India. His cultural significance transcends religious boundaries, with Hindus taking immense pride in venerating Maryada Purushottam Ram, whose ideals continue to inspire every Indian. Notably, many Muslims also hold reverence for Lord Ram. The great Urdu poet, Iqbal described Lord Rama as “Ima...

Throughout history, civilizations, communities, and individuals have sought to uncover the true purpose of human existence. Rationalists, scientists, spiritualists, and religious leaders have all contributed their perspectives, resulting in a vast array of literature on the subject. Yet, a universally humane definition of the purpose of mortal human life remains elusive. Each entity endeavors to define it in its own unique way, varying widely across regions, communities, and individuals. Amid this diversity, a unifying thread has often been missing, leaving the multitude of definitions on the purpose of life seemingly disconnected. Recently, I came across the thoughts of Nick Cave, a multifaceted individual—a musician, songwriter, screenwriter, novelist, and actor—whose reflections seemed to serve as a connecting point, shedding light on the fundamental purpose and meaning of our existence. Cave delineates two essential pillars that lend meaning and purpose to our brief sojourn on this...

Reflections on the journey through 2023 have been a profound learning into the complexities of life, akin to navigating through a maze of professional, personal, emotional, sentimental and familial challenges. As I sit here in the final week of the year, the external facade of control belied the internal maelstrom that persisted, known only to the depths of my own being. At times I enjoyed this inner struggle to come out of the situation. Throughout this tumultuous but remarkable year, I endeavored to employ every learned life skill and experience to weather the storms, yet often found myself in the throes of inner turmoil, occasionally erupting into harsh external manifestations. While there were moments of brilliance, quietness, and remarkable events, the overarching narrative was one of enduring internal strife, conflict, and confusion.The solitude which I was used to was no where. In the midst of this chaos, I grappled with the struggle to exist in the present moment, wrestling wi...

Some time back I read an article on improving productivity and came across a fine definition of personal thinking  which all leads to the loss of productivity and slowly affects other sphere of life. To improve productivity we need to understand  and stop these unwanted mind games and idle thought making.  1. Procrastination " I will do it later." 2. Low Confidence " Will I actually succeed." 3. Perfectionism "It is just not good enough." 4. Judgement "What will my network think of me." 5. Competing commitments "If I do this ,will it get in the way of my other Goal."

     Wednesday, 5th August 2020 will go in the World History and more particularly in Indian History for several centuries as the moment of triumph for the believer and worshiper of Sri Ram as the foundation was laid for grand Ram temple at the same place where it existed till 1528.    1528 was the year when Ram temple was demolished at Ayodhya and Babri Masjid was erected on the same land. It was a most cowardly and sinister act in the human history done during initial Mughal rules (1527-1761) in India. The Hindu faith were compromised , tormented through this act to send a subtle message to the majority Hindu community that their religious freedom , dignity  at stake with advent of alien muslin rule in the country. It was a moment of shame, fear, angst and frustration for the Hindu community in India and of their utter helplessness to stop such action. It left a strong imprint on the heart and mind of Hindus and it passes generation to generatio...

       I remember adoption of National Health Mission (NHM) 2017 after merger of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) 2005 and National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) 2014, which presents a holistic approach to improve health care services in the country. It envisage the "Continuum of Care " and seek to end the fragmentation of health care services across the country by increasing access to health services, improving quality of health service from Primary Health Centre (PHC) to Tertiary level and significant lowering of the cost of health care delivery by leveraging digital technology. NHM 2017 vision is to build comprehensive health ecosystem on the latest digital architecture and technologies.      It visualizes use of digital technology at all level, component and stakeholders. Care providers to care takers, testing to diagnostics, education to training, medicines to vaccines and above all building a system where mobility of data, record and diagnosi...

    I have keenly watched and notice that selfishness increases with the age. I mean selfishness to certain aspects of material life. Selfishness towards one's  health in old age should certainly increase with the age. But here I mean overly self- centered, self serving, stingy to others both emotionally as well as materially. As if life start revolving around few. The opposite of selfishness is self sacrifice who supports and help others.       It bothers me because my understanding since childhood was that with age one become experienced, exposed,matured and practicality of life makes one to understand the meaning of human life better and also the mortality. Life is not immortal and everyone has to depart and this should teach us more compassion, more support to others, more giving and helping. This is my understanding of  life maturing with the age ,inculcate the sense of giving  and preparing yourself to depart on a happy and giving note....

    I start with Jim Kim, former world bank president remarks that, The World has seen repeated instances of cycle of panic,neglect ,panic,neglect, whereby the tremor created by an adverse outbreak recedes , attention shifts , and we let out vital outbreak fighting mechanism atrophy.       This is so true and relevant to this day. The world has faced enough pandemics and epidemics since 3000 BC but every time our response is such that this is the first pandemic. It shows our mentality that we only think to overcome it in shortest time and then forget about it. We have not bothered to include huge experiences learned in fighting all previous pandemics and incorporating these to our future responses . Each time a new war with no memory, reinventing the wheel afresh.      There were several large epidemics and  pandemics which changed the course of history starting from the first recorded epidemic in North East China in 3000 BC. It wiped ou...

     The recent China-India conflict in the midst of pandemic Corona has confused many strategic thinkers as well as common people like us about its timing, need and its overall effect on the India-China relations and the  World order.      The way Chinese economy has grown in last four decades was unthinkable and it put China as the number two economy in absolute dollar terms but on the basis of purchasing power parity it already surpassed USA to become number one. And not only economic , militarily also China has advanced very rapidly.       The economic prosperity has helped China in reducing its poverty in record time and also raising the living condition of its citizens almost comparable to middle income countries. The World envy the growth and power of China and in return China seek to be treated as world power by rest of the world. Both are right in their perception, those who are envying China is also being threatened by the...

I don't know how many times I miserably failed in building a good  descent portfolio due to several reasons, mainly  not enough information, slow in reaction, emotional attachment etc.  This year also my pre-corona portfolio was battered badly and I tried to shuffle it but again the shuffled portfolio were poorly selected. After too much back and forth finally I decided to do it again and this week picked seven stocks out of 20  with glancing whatever the information available on net for long term , minimum two years. It is a mix of large , medium and small cap companies with moderate risk. My choices are: 1. Bharat Dynamics (large) : Public Sector  2.Jubilant Science (medium) 3. Torrent Power (medium) 4. Deepak Nitrite (medium) 5. Birla Soft (small) 6. IRCON (small ) : Public Sector 7.Garden Reach Ship Builders (small) : Public Sector

I don't have any memory of such a wonderful summer at Patna in last three decades. Through out the season the weather was so pleasant and tolerable that during this period only 3-4 days in third week of May there was some discomfort due to heat. Otherwise the weather was pleasant. There were several days when in fact one do not require even fan forget about cooler or air conditioner. It is easy to notice its  linkage  with complete lock down due to Corona which gives the much needed breathing space to our environment.   Less pollution, less movement, less toxicity in air  and also less outing, it all added to this once in a life time feeling of natural tolerable summer. It certainly remind me of our childhood days in 70s without cooler/A.C and also absence of consistent electricity to run fans. Summer were manageable without too much fuss till late 80s or early 90s but suddenly after the opening of Indian economy in 92 and rush to cities situation got out of control ...

Building a robust stock portfolio  is like chasing a dream that never comes true. It is like finding the meeting point between earth and sky, balancing your greed and rationality , fear and triumph , finding a common thread between logical and illogical , emotion and detachment, loss and profit , stillness and response , being patient and impatient , picking up fast and slow, able to see long and short etc. It seek a balance between  almost all human behaviors and then only one can think of building a robust portfolio.  It is about diving deep inside the business and understanding more and more about the company and its future. There are so many determinants that it is sheer impossible to satisfy all parameters and then comes the emotion , likeness and longing for a particular stock or sector or business. It only indicates that trying to build or construct such portfolio is almost near impossible. There are few wizards who may have achieved this but for a normal worldly h...

It reminds me the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez , " Love in the Time of Cholera". I am sure there will be some compelling love , romance and human touch during Corona time as well. But largely the Corona time of 2020 is a big shift in terms of human and  social interaction for the society. This is true for both who got infected and  those taking precaution and safety not to. The agony for those who got infected is unbearable due to isolation/quarantine and this makes them bereft of seeing their loved ones and also the care providers. It is slowly instilling a strong sense of alienation, depression and mental agony. People are not getting the food for heart through human interaction , touching , talking, seeing and feeling. The life is more difficult for those under treatment in hospitals ,slowly getting robotic and mechanical and becoming getting a untouchable thing . The human touch is missing and it is frightening them to their core. The corona fear is not only limited to ...

These days media and particularly digital/social media are full of past references to almost every aspect of life in India. Be it the development of country, culture, religion,poverty alleviation,politics, external affairs , India-China relations, India-Pakistan relations, you name it any and there is backlash. It seems that after independence only after 2014 India has moved. There are propaganda like 6 years versus 60 years etc. There are clear goal of these propaganda but a sizable number of educated people with understanding of the situation has also become part of this brigade to denounce our past. They become critical individually as well. Why this is happening ? and why people without thinking too much become part of this propaganda machinery  and started criticizing the earlier periods since independence . One thing is very clear that they don't have any interest in going to the details and become part of the crowd and to some extent hypnotized by the daily doses of such new...

Different pulls in different directions for mind , body and soul makes one indecisive. The trios act independently on their own frequency without synchronisation. The task become so tough when the desires of mind , body and soul are at loggerheads. A vicious war starts in the mind to know which one is right and takes one to right path. This duality of right and wrong keeps one confused and ultimately leads to status quo or no decision.this breeds stillness in thought and act. To come out of this stillness would be the first task.

I set aside many a times valid reason to reach out to my friends, professional colleagues and relation thinking that I need to be humble , understanding ,rise above little things and flexible to understand their side of story or stress which causes them to react like that. But what  I have noticed that due to this they take me granted . I now entered into my final phase of life and many of my own dreams are unfulfilled. I have to now focus more on meeting my unfinished agenda since life is running fast. Comfortably another 15 years are left to sign off .

21 steps of harmonious  existence 1.Love your environment 2.SMS, Wapp and call in moderation 3. Present is precious 4.Disciplined use of social media 5.No use of cell after 11 pm 6.Regular reading of choice 7.No talk while in bed,just sleep 8.Some voluntary work on weekend 9.Community interaction on Sunday 10.No gossip of others direct or indirect 11.keeping busy 12.Travel to unknown place at least once in a quarter 13.Limit non veg food 14.Some yoga  15.Play one sport 16.Meeting with old friends 17.Help  needy 18.Dedicated time to family and friends 19.Letting go things which hurts 20.Life is mortal ,complete your unfinished agenda 21.syncing mind with heart