Just as I was about to write that last year wasn't hot writing-wise, the cell beeped.

A Festival of Free Verse will formally be launched in A'bad on Saturday.

Reminder: Celebrate victories.

2014: Two important- to-me  essays saw light of day: Remembering Awe and Charcoal & glitter

Work on the mammoth tx and etc continues.

My heap of rejection slips grows larger.

Things I did this year; Continued to live frugally +

1.       Invested in select close ended micro caps funds.  Other than the inherited ELSS tax ones this is the first time I went closed ended.

2.       Invested in small caps watching volumes and rule of ten. Some worked, some didn’t. This is more for my brain rather than some path breaking return.

3.       Disconnected from pink n’papers. Put in more google alerts. Subscibed to some fantastic inv blogs.

4.       Continued to inv in large cap MF

5.        Continued to add to “what has worked” core stocks. Sometimes the price was right sometimes not. What has worked is based on 2008- 2014 CAGR on holdings.

6.       Reached a comfort level with a 5 figure price. At a 52 wk low, I’ll take it.

7.       Continued to look at div payout and ROCE as key factors. Micromanaged dividend payouts. Cash flow!

8.       Continued to inv in PPF. Taxfree, thanks to GOI.

9.       Continued to track costs. Now I have data from 2008 (minus the time I was away on parent duty)

10.   Last few years I was midcap fund heavy for new inv. I can live with that.

11.    Did the paperwork for junk owned. You never know when the land suddenly turns valuable. Or the Co is acquired.

12.   Need to begin to sell based on perf. Need to be able to sell a parent owned stock even though he was very good a picker. On the other hand these amounts were minimal so let it ride.

13.   For the first time bought back something sold if the perf justified it.

I took this off yday after looking aghast at the counter. Put it back today, who cares.

What a beautiful time of the year. 
All the homes decked with lights. 
Everyone smiling and wishing. Carols. 
Marzipans and plum cake!

Yesterdays a wish and tomorrows a dream...
~ Here's to an enriching, meaningful, wonderous 2015!

So DELIGHTED to see the Icestupa project on Indiegogo close ABOVE  target.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ice-stupa-artificial-glaciers-of-ladakh

Forces one to reevaluate one's perception of the world...

What kind of scoundrel would kill innocent children at school?
So this is what a Rakshasa, an ogre is like. May they all burn in hell.
We have a saying-- if you feed a snake milk, he is still a snake, he will bite you one day for sure.

On FB, the page Bloggers of years past or some such has come alive, of course I joined up. And of course I stayed quiet. WHO the hell wants to be reminded of the person-that-one-once-was, naive and delightfully trusting. Very "look- ma- no-hands". Anyway, with the people who mattered one has kept in touch IRL. The rest? hmm....

This whole crowdfunding experiment has been tremendously interesting. More later.

Watching a not-bad movie on TV last night, believe it or not a light flickered on, bright and happy in my mind. A *batti* moment. Sure put the zest back in my mornings.

Usually I don't say no to work or ask for more time. (This is about non-work work.)
But today I did. 
With unexpected consequences. Which is surprising. 
Also opens a window to knowing another facet of a person.

To be too busy at some work. And to not be busy at all. What a dichotomy. 
A different pace. The evenings come in sooner, the colors more pastel than you could imagine.
A time for all seasons....