Is Spring on the Way ?

The arrival of spring is heralded all over the world with celebrations of various kinds. And while everyone thinks spring in their part of the world is the most special, I must confess, I must agree.

Spring in upstate New York is perhaps the most anticipated season of all. When the landscape transforms from the cold, barren grey to sunny, less cold, and the promise of life - held forth by yellow daffodils dancing in the breeze and multi-colored flowers springing to life in gardens everywhere. The road salt is washed away by gentle spring showers and everything is suddenly fresh and new. Windows that have long been shut tight to keep out the cold air are opened to let the springtime in.. It is a glorious season - energizing, uplifting, with the promise of good things to come.

I remember my first spring in New York - it had been a cold long winter of removing snow off the car, scraping ice off the windshield, that perilous feeling in the bottom of your stomach as your car spins out of control because you dared go 15 miles an hour in the snow, constantly feeling cold, hands, feet and nose never ever getting warm enough - what had I been thinking - snow was not fun, and pretty only when it fell in the distant woodlands. The best snow was the kind that had melted already.

It had also been a very difficult winter - adjusting to the realities of the new country I had moved to, getting used to the people I had been living with. Everything was so different from Bombay and its warmth and friendship. There were no people on the street, not even one. My successful advertising career in Bombay seemed so distant and irrelevant in this town that recognized just computer scientists and lawyers and doctors. I think that was the winter in which I put on my first 20 pounds. Was it the depression, low energy gloominess ? Was it the fact that you never walked anywhere ? Never got to see yourself in the mirror without 3 layers of clothing ? Or was it that everyday seemed dark and grey ?

And then early one morning I was making myself a cup of tea - indian style - and I looked out the kitchen window to this glorious sight - a tall tulip/magnolia tree covered in buds that were about to open. 23 years later, I can still feel the sense of joy and euphoria that shot through me upon seeing it. Yes, winter is finally over. Yes!! There is hope. Yes!! There will be renewal. Yes!! The good times will return..........

Of course everyone who has lived here for a few years is familiar with this phenomenon and so no one was impressed by my discovery - especially my brother whom I must have called at 6:15 his time on a Saturday morning to tell him I had seen the light.

Twenty three springs have come and gone. And yet I continue to be delighted by this renewal of life and energy. Five years ago, when I moved into this house, I planted (or got the landscapers to plant) a beautiful garden that would bloom with flowers from spring to fall. Carefully placed, in my line of sight outside my home office window, where I spend most of my day, is a beautiful magnolia tree. It stands there looking like an ordinary tree all summer long. In the fall it sheds its leaves and stands barren through the long, cold winter. But at the end of March it sprouts the most promising buds that in April turn into the most incredible blooms that covered a tree.

Five years - and I have never once seen this tree in bloom - because invariably I have been away from my home office, only to return to see the spent blooms on the grass around it. The first year the weather was bad. The second year it was a 3-week trip to Australia. The third, fourth and fifth years I was in Delhi while the tree did its thing.

The tree is covered in tight little buds and I have no long trips planned away from home this year. So will this be the year I finally see my magnolia bloom ?

Ponzi Schemes

Ponzi schemes have been in the news a lot lately - thanks to one Richard Madoff who bilked a large number of people out of their hard earned money. Richard Madoff, at 70, has had to move out of his posh luxury penthouse in Manhattan and move into a 7x10 jail cell after pleading guilty to a multitude of charges of "Ponzi scheming" brought against him.

So what exactly is a Ponzi scheme ? Its easy to guess from the context in which the phrase is used that it involves the taking of money from one group of individuals with a promise of incredible returns - often numbers that seem too good to be true.

The label was coined after a fellow named Charles Ponzi who spun his web around 1920 when he scammed about $15 million - Richard Madoff is estimated to have scammed upwards of $50billion 90 years later.

Charles Ponzi's scheme used International Reply Coupons or IRCs - the very same things I remember using as a kid to get pen pals. These coupons were used in the receiving country to buy postage stamps equal to the value of the IRC Coupons. Ponzi claimed that the difference between the amount paid to acquire these in one country, and the amount of postage stamps they could buy in the country where they were being redeemed, represented profit. The difference was enough to yield a 50% return in 45 days and 100% return in 90 days. There are many articles that chronicle Charles Ponzi's scam - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme .

Apart from the fact that the real cost of purchase, redemption and distribution would have wiped out the huge margins, because the per unit cost of these coupons was very small, Ponzi did not actually buy the IRCs , he merely said he would. He used new money that was flowing in to pay off the older creditors. With no real value being created, or real profit being generated, he quickly ran out of new investors to pay off the rabidly growing group of older investors.

20 years ago, I had the opportunity to witness the evolution of a Ponzi scheme as my employer tried one "cash flow" based scheme after another to run a business while maintaining a flamboyat lifestyle.

The first venture was recruitment that received "Retainer Deposits" from corporate clients with the promise to find them people to fill jobs in their company. In theory the deposit was fully refundable. The deposits put cash in the bank to allow the comany to pay the salaries and incur the expenses of running a recruitment or placement firm.

The second big phase was "leasing" of office space and furniture. A private investor purchased the fine furnishings for our fancy Nariman Point office, and charged the business a monthly rental fee. This allowed the company to have a very nice office, without the cash outlay. However, it did drive up monthly expenses, and with it the need to pump more cash through the system. The recruiting business never did generate the cash flow required to sustain the fancy office digs.

This saw the introduction of a "Auto Card", where private individuals placed a deposit with the company, who issued them a "card" that they could swipe at gas stations around the city. Funds would be deducted from their deposits and settled with the gas stations on a daily basis. Gas stations and individuals could get out of the business of handling cash.

Funds for the daily settlements with the gas stations ran out almost within the first two weeks. And thus was invented Cash Card - a similar deposit based debit card scheme - which got you a card that you could use at subsequent retailers.

The lights went out on this business, figuratively and literally, about 3 years after the first recruitment retainer was collected. The schemes originated from the rich, US educated imagination of the Gujarati business man who founded the company. There was an indictment, there was a trial or the start of one. And then the scheming business man died - leaving thousands of unpaid bills in his wake.

The sad part in that particularly Ponzi scheme was that no wealth was actually accumulated. Mr. Shah, the founder of the company went back to living in his mother's apartment, as penniless as the day he was born. While the fact that he had frittered away the precious savings of hundreds of middle class families, it was sadder still that he had nothing left to show for it.

Maddox's $70M penthouse atleast gives people something to figuratively hold onto.

What a Day!

It is almost midnight as I start to write this blog. But it has been too special a day to go unblogged. There are two parallel dramas that unfolded today

The first is the ongoing drama on Wall Street. Despite the mayhem and bloodshed -there are significant opportunities in Wall Street for an IT company - and we are out there seeking them. Even as we spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on a presentation for a client, word was leaking out that they were going to announce their quarterly results and were expected to post the biggest loss ever in corporate history. They called to postpone their meeting by a half hour so that the people could listen into the Chairman as he shared the results with the employees.

In the skies - another drama was unfolding. An unusual pattern of cold air formed somewhere over Tennessee and made its way East and North through Atlanta, Raleigh, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York all the way up to Boston and Maine blanketing the east coast of the United States in a thick white cover. Most of our team had assembled in New York on Sunday night - those that planned to travel on Monday morning never made it in.

We caught the subway from Times Square to Fulton Street and then walked over to our office on Maiden Ln. The snow was coming down in big fat flakes and I realized that this was the first time I'd ever walked in falling snow. It was a special, magical experience - but I am still not anxious to repeat it anytime soon. It was COLD. Upstairs from the office window we watched the snow come down and cover the roof tops and the street, while we started taking bets re whether this meeting would happen.

They called to say that they were going to postpone it until tomorrow because most of their team had not made it in. And just as the winners started collecting their bets they called to say that the meeting was back on.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 7000 and closed around 6700 - territory it had not been in for 12 years - since I moved from living in a rented apartment to my own house.

The carts and food stalls that line Maiden Lane were all closed today because of the weather. But it will be interesting to see how many come back with the good weather. In fact it will be interesting to see how many of the Wall Street firms are still in business a year from today. I pray along with every other person affected by current financial debacle for a speedy end to our winter of sorrows.

Chicken!!!

There are many advantages to living in Stormville. Convenient access to New York city is not one of them. My choices are -

• I take a limo to the city which is very convenient and outrageously expensive, unaffordable if the company isnt paying for it,
• Take a train - There are 2 flavors to the train Either I drive myself to the station, pray that I will find a spot to park and be able to sprint up and down the stairs in time so that I do not have to wait for an hour on a freezing cold windswept platform, OR I pay Luis a handsome sum of money to drive me over. The latter also requires planning ahead. Once I get into Grand Central I have to catch a subway to get me to Wall Street. 3 hours door to door each way.
• Drive myself - 90 minutes to get from the garage attached to my house to a garage in mid-town Manhattan.

I've made atleast 20 trips to New York City this past year, and it wasn't until the end of January, that I decided that enough was enough. It was time to conquer my timidity and fear of driving into the city and give myself a little more time and flexibility.

The 90 minute ride means I hop on to the Taconic Parkway and then onto the Sawmill River Parkway and onto the Henry Hudson Highway. Parkways in the Hudson Valley region (my area) refer to highways that have been cut through forests. These are typically narrow, winding roads open to non-commercial passenger traffic only - no trucks allowed yeah!!

Someone once told me that the Taconic Parkway was built along the old horse-buggy path that went from New York to Albany. I have not found any evidence to corroborate this theory, though it is definitely a plausible theory. Forests, State Parks and farms line either side of the Taconic -and spectacular pastoral scenes with deep blue mountains as you come into Dutchess County. There is a particular bend in the road where I am always swept away by the beauty of the scene - even 20 years after I first laid eyes on it.

But I digress. There is a reason why I avoided driving into the city. For this beautiful scenic road that takes me into the city is also a major challenge. Even under normal circumstances, I am a timid driver. I have this absolute fear of brushing against or scratching my car on something.. be it a bush on the side of the road, a gaurdrail, a rock, another car or a deer. That doesn't mean these things have not happened - I've even rubbed the car against the side of the garage door and I once almost had my car wrecked by a deer who decided to cross the road at the wrong time. Neither experience has decreased my fear of these things.

Before, when I was content to drive in the right lane following any old slow poke on the road, it wasn't a huge problem. Just meant that I had to watch out when you were going over a bridge or narrow part of the road if someone was trying to pass (overtake) you. I would usually encourage them to pass me where the road was wider by slowing down.

But then I lived in Delhi for 3 years, and learnt to become impatient. And decided that I too should stake my claim on the road. And so now everytime there is a slow poke ahead of me, I prefer to pass them. Legally and in the left lane.

Atleast half the slow pokes decide that they must speed up when I try to pass them. Its almost as if I've woken them from their trance or re-acquainted them with their competitive spirit. And so we'll go side by side - or me just a notch behind them until I can psyche myself into passing them. Sometimes, I find I have to give up and hang back into my position a few feet behind the slow poke until I see a nice wide path opening up and then I swing into the left lane with a heavy foot on the gas and zip past them. This happened to me 3 times this afternoon on my way over.

And I kept telling myself I was a big chicken. And then I remembered... If I was a real chicken I'd be on the train with my feet up reading a book or taking a nap. No I am just a "used to be chicken" aspiring to something else.

No Consequences

I was visiting my niece (yet another one) in college - about 4 or 5 weeks into her first semester. She had traded in a very close knit, highly supervised environment for life on a college campus in the United States.

"So how's it going ?" I asked her - "Good, I am starting to make friends, figure things out.. some classes are easy, others not so much... but you know what is weird.... you have all this freedom... there are rules, but there are no consequences for breaking them.. of all the changes, that is the one I've been most surprised by".

"No consequences ?" the logic student inside me bristled. "You mean there are no immediate, direct, visible consequences ?" She gave me the look that the very young and intelligent reserve for crazy people to whom they are being polite only cos the crazy person is picking up the dinner check and says "Yeah no consequences".

The logic student noticed that she hadn't acknowledged her point - "Let me tell you my dear, there are consequences - they are just waiting for the right moment to catch up with you!" What do you mean ? she says.

"I too was young and skinny and beautiful like you" said the maiden aunt, "and I was certain that nothing could take it away from me. I loved batawadas - oh never mind, you don't know what a batatawada is - I loved batatawadas the way you love ice-cream. Oh come to think of it - I loved ice cream as well and french fries and anything that had potatoes in it and was deep fried. And I was young and skinny and beautiful.. and I could eat as much of these things as I wanted to, and I did. To the point that I could make a meal out of batatawadas.... You ask me dear, why I have to shop at the plus size store ? Its cos the damn batatawadas and poor food and poor lifestyle choices finally caught up with me!!"

By now the young woman was starting to think that the aunt might be going crazy - was this free dinner worth listening to her rant about batawadas ? Then she got it - this was the consequence of accepting a free dinner, even if it was your favorite restaurant, you had to sit and listen to the aunt - cos she was paying for the dinner, and she was going to drive you back to the dorm. If she was extra polite, the aunt's generosity might stretch to ordering an entree that they could takeout for tomorrow night. A good consequence.

"Interesting" she said, "but you must have continued your poor food choices - this could not be the consequence of a batatawada you ate 30 years ago" "Well, if we had enough time, I could probably show you the connection - but let me help you with one that is a little easier to follow. 20 years ago, I decided I did not want children. That career and financial stability were more important. There were no consequences back then - or if there were I did not notice. But here we are 20 years later. And I cannot undo that action from 20 years ago. Thank God my brother and his wife followed a different path. Whom would I be visiting today if they too had decided they did not want to have children ?"

Is Marriage Necessary ?

Over the last 20 years well wishers have tried to persuade me to tie the knot - the arguments are often along similar lines "You need to have someone who cares for you", "You cannot live alone", "Man (and woman) is a social animal" - the last one being my favorite, a direct transplant from the Civics syllabus in the 4th standard. Those arguments failed to make me give any significant thought to the topic.

All that changed yesterday, when my young niece asked if marriage was necessary ?

Clearly, if one was to look at my life as an example, probably not. But as some good friends remind me - I am hardly the appropriate role model. And so I thought about it as I sat in conference calls, and as I cooked, did laundry, and as I went about my business in the peaceful, solitary confines of my home. Is marriage necessary ?

And so I asked myself why do people get married ? In a hair-raising moment, I was transported back to my Moral Science class at Carmel Convent - the Moral Science text book published by the McMillan press that have left such an indelible imprint on my mind. "Because it is the only way a man and a woman can be together" came back the answer. In 2009, that moral science text seems rather naive,

Why does society want people to get married ? Generically, without considering local customs and mores, it would be to provide a stable, orderly environment in which people procreated, and so that children were raised in a nurturing environment.

And that got me thinking of a young woman I had met in Paris - about 20 years ago. She had decided to have a child out of wedlock, because she really wanted to have a child but was not ready to commit to marriage. When I saw her living in her own apartment, raising her child by herself, I realized that I could atleast take care of myself. That is what had given me the strength to go out and get my own apartment. Marie's children were raised in a nurturing environment - grandparents, uncles, aunts, even a father - except he did not live in the same house. They are grewing up to be great kids. So clearly marriage was not necessary to raise children in a nurturing environment.

In modern day United States and many other western countries, where society does not require people to get married to either live together or have children, people are still getting married. In the United States - it is expected that once a daughter grows up, she gets a job, and establishes her own home - with or without a husband.

And yet people continue to get married.. In fact the gay community is pushing to legalize same sex marriage, so even more people can participate in the institution of marriage. Why ?

Because for the most part, people here get married because they want to, because they love someone so much, that they want to spend the rest of their lives with the other person. And many of them stay married for a very long time. Others live together for the same reason, and avoid getting married to deny Uncle Sam the opportunity to take more of their money.

Aha - says the young niece - but I am neither in the United States, nor am I in love. Is marriage necessary for me ?

When my parents got married 60 years ago, women did not have much of a choice in the matter. Girls were married very young - 11, 13 - my mother was married just before her 21st birthday. After independence the government set a minimum age requirement - girls had to be at least 18 before they could be married.

Perhaps it is the only reason so many women of my generation got to go to college.. they were just too young to be married, and you couldn't have them sitting at home all day. Most got married within a year or two of graduating from college. Very few of them found their own partners. The rest all had arranged marriages.

In recent years, Indian urban society has become more accepting of career women. More and more single women are opting for higher education and working. Several are doing very well for themselves. I remember reading an article in an Indian newspaper that talked about how these women had to "dumb down" so that they would not scare away a marriage prospect.... It also mentioned that more and more women were opting to remain single because they found it easier to pursue their career that way.

As an employer of women in North India, I acquired new insights into how life for a traditional Indian career woman was very different from that of one in the United States. And how different her life was compared to that of her husbands. While the husband worked late at the office, and sometimes weekends and workdays, the woman was also required to keep the household running and the kids taken care of. Sure they had help, and often there were in-laws around to share the load. But it was as one of my colleagues advised a group of women - "If you want to have a successful career, you need to first go and enroll your mother in law in your cause". Because if she supports your career - then the house will run well, and the kids will be fed and she will be proud of you. But if she doesn't like what you do - your life will be hell. You know better than to expect your husband to help you around the house (it was a male colleague delivering this advice) or with calming his mother down. It is upto you and you alone.

And yet, as a rule, women in India also tend to get married. Singlehood is the exception rather than the rule - and the majority of society still struggles with understanding how to deal with a single woman.

Choosing to remain single in this environment, is like trying to stop the tide. Many think about it,but very few have actually done it. Why ?

First of all - that is what you are raised to believe - everybody gets married. Being single is "strange" and like being an outcast.

Second - that is what your mother and her entire peer group expect of you. They truly believe that that is the only way in which you can be happy. Indeed getting a daughter married is considered a sacred duty, the execution of kanya daan being a special privilege. This is a very powerful force to reckon with.

Third - Indian joint families will look after a grown up spinster. But unless it is a very special family , before she knows it, she goes from being the revered aunt to the one that is consuming more than her rightful share of space, food and air. The amount of tolerance meted out to her will frequently be in line with her financial contribution to the joint family within which she lives. In this respect, spinster aunts are no different from anyone else in the family that does not contribute, for power has a funny way of sticking with the money. And oh by the way, joint families will rarely tolerate disrespect of social customs such as having a child out of wedlock - so forget about having a child if you decide you don't want to get married.

So why does an educated, well employed woman get married ? After all isn't she just committing herself to a harder life ? Because in Indian society, that is still the only socially acceptable way of having children. Because they actually do fall in love with someone enough to want to formally commit to live with them for the rest of their lives, in a manner that their parents would find acceptable. Because it is far more fun to live with someone than to live alone. Because even these smart women are "social animals" and marriage is the fastest way in which you magically double the size of your family. Because once you take the plunge and start swimming, you want all your other friends in the water with you, so you tell them its a good thing. Because they studied Moral Science for 10 years and at an impressionable age. Because an Indian wedding is one of the most spectacular pageants you could ever be part of. Because they want to have someone to grow old with. Because their mother says they HAVE to.