Stuck in escapism

The modern world has accustomed us to the idea that we keep needing to make money.  Make money to do what? To do things that will make us happy, things that don't involve work!

Now this puts us in an unenviable trap. While working, we are all the time fantasizing about our time off. We don't enjoy the work as a consequence. While taking our time off, we want to "maximise" that limited window, so we try to pack more and more things in it, go to better and better "destinations", and have better and better insta pictures in order to make our friends more and more envious. 

Our friends when they look at our insta pictures of our road trip in our newly acquired Tesla, are not thinking about us - they are thinking about themselves in that situation and having FOMO. The time we don't spend on actually doing something is the time spent on FOMO. 

So we are all the time doing something that we want to escape out of, that thing called work, in order to earn money to do high octane things to impress others who don't give a shit but which cost a lot of money, and at the same time envying those who are somewhere else! 

There is something drastically wrong in this whole construct. 

It is both sad and hilarious at the same time. Like most tragedies in life are.

Thoughts on food processing

Raw fruits and vegetables are good, human beings have the ability to digest it. 

Once humans shifted to agriculture, we started making denser foods like grains. Grains were initially used only to feed cattle, and not for human consumption. It entered the human diet only about 6000 years back. Due to population pressure, grains then became a large part of our diet. 

For optimal health, reduce grains in the diet. There is a huge amount of time spent on debating why Ragi or Quinoa is better than rice or wheat. These kinds of debates are needless if you anyway decide to reduce grains in your diet. 

If you anyway  have grains, then remember the following. In case you have a lot of inexplicable health problems or allergies, IBS, etc the first thing to drop from the diet is wheat.  Wheat has undergone so much modification in the last two thousand years that the modern version has become a problem. You can try "emmer wheat / jave godi" , that may work for you. 

Milk is in general not required for the human body. Eliminating milk is a healthy option. However, the vegans have it all wrong. Butter, ghee, curd and buttermilk are good for health, extremely good in fact. The vegans, in avoiding these, are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. 

Naturopathy is generally in favour of raw foods. Ayurveda however typically recommends light cooking. When it comes to cooking, heating in the presence of water or steam is better than dry heat, since the yang of fire is balanced with the yin of water. 

Rava, Poha, Sabudana, noodles, pasta,  are all "processed" foods. They are made from rice or wheat after boiling, heating, dunking, rolling, flattening, etc, processes. In today's parlance, this is not what we refer to when we say "processed" foods. 

The rice that is milled in the rice mill is processed in a manner of speaking. The more the "polish" the less the nutrients that remain. However, this is not a major concern for two reasons. (1) I do not depend on rice for my main nutritional needs, for that I have vegetables, fruits and spices. (2) In any case, rice or any kind of grains are not great for health.

Best not to worry about how much processing the rice has undergone, and try to keep progressively reducing the amount of all grains in your diet.

With all these caveats in place, now remember that processed foods are extremely, extremely bad for health. When we say processed food, a short and sweet definition is: any food that is made in a factory. As to the reasons why processed foods are bad for health, those can fill a book. 

Rather than getting into huge debates on what constitutes "processing", to what extent is processed food ok, which processed foods are ok, or into semantical arguments on the definition of processing, it is best to understand the spirit of what is being said, the broad contours of what foods are good, and to maintain an eighty twenty principle. So long as eighty percent of the food you eat is "good", the body can handle the other twenty percent. 

On second thoughts, make it ninety ten.

On Nutrition Labels on Food

Reading labels on food packages is a useless pastime. The food industry has deliberately misled you into looking at the wrong things, irrelevant things. 

It is good to broadly know what are the important nutrients that body needs, and know which foods give you more of those 

It is also good to know what foods are "superfoods", foods that pack a nutrient-dense punch. 

But right now we are talking about why not to read labels, and what to focus on instead. Ok, so here goes. 

Any food that is minimally processed is better compared to highly processed. An example of highly processed is instant coffee powder. Ever thought how the poor innocent coffee seed is converted into that wonder? 

Any food with a wonky name, like Dairy Whitener for milk powder, or Frozen Dessert for Ice Cream, is a definite problem. 

Any food with a very long shelf life is a problem. 

"Added nutrients" are a fraud. 

The bigger the set-up of the company that makes the food, the more of a problem it is. A McD is worse than your local Darshini. 

Refined carbohydrates are bad. White flour is horrible. 

Refined oils are bad. 

White sugar is bad. Substitutes for white sugar are worse. 

Reading any amount of labels will not make these facts go away. 

When I started penning this, I thought I could give guidelines on which processed food is better and / or what to look for when it comes to processed foods. 

Unfortunately, as I am thinking this through, the conclusion is again becoming apparent. 

There is no alternative to cooking at home. 

If you can't do that, catch hold of a neighbouring auntie who cooks fresh food every day and let her send you a dabba.

India is full of such aunties. Every lane has one of them. I believe the US is full of them too, New Jersey for example has enough supply of Andhra or Gujju or Tamil aunties doing this. 

It's not practical, my lifestyle does not permit it, you say? 

Well, then face the fact that you are eating junk, and give up the pretence that reading labels will improve the situation in any way! 

Belief

Every age has its beliefs, and belief by its very definition, excludes rational analysis. 

People believe that a dip in the Ganga will wash them of their sins. A dip in the Ganga where it meets Yamuna and Saraswathi will do the same thing, except perhaps more potently. A dip at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj when the stars are favourably aligned, which happens once in twelve years, is even more potent, the best of the best. 

That is a belief that has carried forward since ancient times, and it is in our DNA. We saw the result of that in the Kumbh. No rational analysis is possible here, so let us just assume that India is about the most sinless place right now, since so much sin has been washed away. It won't help, because people will take that as an opportunity to commit fresh and newer sins; after all there needs to be enough to wash by the time the next Kumbh arrives in twelve years! 

Meanwhile, statistics say that fifty crore people visited the Kumbh in the last forty five days. 

Now that is a big number. It is forty percent of the population of India. 

I know many people who visited the Kumbh, it is by far the biggest event in terms of people I know attending it, yet, and here I have to pause... Have four out of ten people I know visited the Kumbh? The ten people here includes children, senior citizens, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, everyone in the population. 

Seems a bit of a stretch. 

Ok, start applying the caveats. First one is that people who go to take the dip twice in their visit are counted twice. I don't know what the other caveats are, I am sure there are some. And then tell me the adjusted number in terms of number of visitors counted only once. 

The Kumbh that is just  concluding is by far the biggest, best organised, most inspiring gathering in human history. Of that, there is no doubt. 

But the way people bandy about that statistic of 30 crore, 40 crore, and now 50 crore, is amazing. They just accept that number, there is no attempt to grasp it, understand the magnitude, critically examine it, parse it, or question that number in any way. 

Personally, I would be equally impressed if the number was 10 crore or 50. The scale still is awesome. 

But I am amazed at the capacity of humans to believe anything without questioning.

That is what I call Belief.

The dilemma of gold

The government introduced the Sovereign Gold Bond ( SGB) scheme in order to save foreign exchange that was being spent  on gold imports. 

India has historically been the largest importer and consumer of gold. Indian people are smart, they always held their wealth in the form of gold. 

Since India does not manufacture any gold, all of it has to be imported. In times past we paid for it with pepper, and other valuable things for which India was famous. Nowadays, we have to pay for it with precious foreign exchange. 

So the government said, give us your money, and we will give you a certificate for an equivalent amount of gold in grams, that you can redeem eight years later for the prevailing gold price at that point in time. We will make it tax free on redemption they said. But the public didn't bite, so they said we will give you an additional 2.5 percent interest per annum. They called it SGBs. 

They kept coming up with issue after issue and the public bought the SGBs. Everything looked good for a while, till gold prices suddenly started shooting up. 

Madam Nirmala cannot  harangue gold into submission, like she tries to do with all those who trouble her. Both Parakala and gold are outside her control, though she may terrorise the rest of the world.

It is not just that gold prices are outside her control, it is also that there is no certainty about future prices. So the government  stopped issuing SGBs a few months back. Word is out that they may even offer a premature redemption window. I wouldn't be surprised if this is accompanied by an unsaid threat that the capital exemption on redemption may be taken away soon. 

In any case, the best way to hold gold is away from greedy eyes, and governments are always most greedy and untrustworthy. 

Expect a spate of articles in the financial press running down gold and saying how those who buy gold are unpatriotic, anti development, anti poor and in general enemies of civilised society. 

When that happens it is time to buy more. Physical gold, mind it!

Gold!

Gold is the only real asset there is. All governments are scared of gold, because it takes power away from them and puts it in the hands of the holder. 

Governments can play around with fiat money. They can print more of it as they please, devalue it, or manufacture inflation. Inflation is nothing but a hidden tax that we all pay to redistribute wealth to the haves from the have nots. 

All commodities are good as investments, but gold is the ultimate commodity out there. 

It is a store of value. The gold that your great great seven times removed great  grandmother bought still exists, undiminished, undestroyed. Where is the currency note that existed five hundred years back? 

It is a medium of exchange. In fact it is the best medium of exchange there is. Everyone accepts gold, from the most primitive tribe in the jungle to the highest echelons of Wall Street. 

It is indestructible. Even if your house is destroyed by fire, when you go back to retrieve what is left from the debris, the gold will be intact. 

It packs in very high value in a very low volume. A one kg gold bar which costs almost one crore today ( 90 lakhs to be precise) can fit into your pocket and you won't even notice it. 

It is easily transportable, hideable, and handlable. 

In times of war, the currency becomes worthless, the stock markets shut and your stocks are, I was about to say not even worth the paper they are printed on, but nowadays there is no paper certificate also! The only thing you can carry with you when you run is gold. 

It has never been known to erode in value. It may not give you astronomical returns but it will keep you inflation hedged. 

Gold is also a good hedge against rupee depreciation, since the prices are internationally the same. 

It is time to look at increasing the gold allocation in your portfolio. I would suggest, keeping real estate aside ( that's lumpy), one third each in gold, debt and equity. 

What form to hold gold in? Physical is best. In the form of 24 carat gold biscuits. Having said that, any other form is fine, so long as your government is stable and the markets are holding up. The moment there are signs of great uncertainty in the macro environment, it would be wise to shift etf and other non physical holdings into physical gold. 

But the prices have already gone up, etc etc? That doesn't matter, trying to predict future trends is at best an interesting intellectual pastime, ignore all that. Any time is a good time to buy. 

Having said all that, time to look at silver also, in the immediate future. The silver: gold price ratio is at an all time low. The allocation to silver can be from the same bucket that you have set aside for gold.

REVIEW OF CHHAAVA

Saw the movie Chhava yesterday. It is loosely based on the story of Sambhaji, son of Shivaji, battling Aurangzeb and finally becoming a martyr. I say loosely based, because the narrative is heavily dramatised and fictionalised, and, in any case, there is nothing about the film that is tight. 

The story is simple enough. Shivaji dies. Sambhaji his son, Chhava "the lion cub" played by Vicky Kaushal,  takes over. He sacks Burhanpur, a city that is Aurangzeb's pride and joy. Aurangzeb, played by Akshaye Khanna,  goes berserk. Mobilizes his entire army and marches to the Deccan. After many years, Sambhaji is finally captured by Aurangzeb, thanks to the treachery of two of his key commanders, tortured gruesomely ( this part is historically true) and killed. 

That's a good enough story for a good Director to get going and make a decent movie. 

But then, our Director, Lakshman Utankar, is not one of your ordinary directors. He seems to be from the school of Tamil serials. The first half is full of characters assembled in a room mouthing dialogues, and after each dialogue, each character's face is shown in turn. You know how it is in those Tamil serials, it's the same  here. And the dialogues, oh they are cheesier and more banal than the characters assembled in a room. A kid writing dialogues for a school play would do a better job. 

And you would think that A R Rehman as music director, would salvage something from this mess. I think A R Rehman has surpassed himself in this movie. It is not easy for anyone, I repeat anyone, to produce such a bad output. What the director set out to do with his dialogues and close ups of hamming characters, A R Rehman resolutely completes. He is determined to make sure that you the viewer, who are already cringing, positively gets embarrassed and ashamed at the shoddiness of the whole thing. 

In short, it's a cringe fest. All the way. 

Vicky Kaushal, the hero, has been asked by the director to throw out his chest and walk like a lion. Ask your eight year old son to do that, and roar like a lion. Well, you get the idea. Vicky does that throughout the movie and mistakes it for acting. 

Akshaye as Aurangzeb is the only saving grace of the entire movie. Subdued, kind of meditative even, he gives a good performance. Maybe the director didn't direct him and just let him be. 

And the director has fights of fancy. Oh he and his flights of fancy! Every now and then, The hero will go back and relive a childhood memory, talking to his mom and dad, in a kind of floating dream sequence. More cringe. 

And the director really thinks his screenplay is so good that he inserts long stretches where the dialogue is the chief character and stretched, and stretched... Utankar thinks he is divinely inspired during these scenes and the viewer will be blown out of his mind. Well I was definitely blown out of my mind. Whatever was left of my mind finally exploded. 

Any good thing to say about the movie? 

Well, it is so bad that is good! 

So yes, go watch it, to see how completely cheesy and cringey a movie can get.

We Indians are lucky when it comes to food

We Indians are lucky in many ways, but we don't realise it. 

Ganne ka Ras, Sugarcane juice, is the healthiest drink you can have, including for diabetics, and we have it at every street corner. But we will still pay more for a cool drink which is nothing but aspartame and  colours mixed with carbon dioxide, a deadly concoction if you think about it. My friend while staying in California, used to drive 88 miles each way to have fresh ganne ka ras, but being a crazy Indian, he would still do it twice a month. 

In India, as you are driving, you can stop the car and buy boiled peanuts. NRI's can't do this, since anyone who has breathed the air of USA even for a few months is very likely allergic to peanuts. 

We get healthy "plate meals" at less than hundred rupees. But we will still prefer the Mc Burger or pizza or Subway sandwich, all of them extremely harmful to health, at five times the cost.

We have very healthy breakfast options, and they are as varied as there are regions in this country. But we will eat Kellogg's with orange juice, both of which qualify as the junkiest of junk foods, and be happy to be privileged enough to pay much more for them. 

I roamed around London for a week, and believe me you, it is not possible to get freshly cooked food anywhere. The Brits' idea of fresh food is quaint, most beggars in India will refuse to accept those foods as fresh. 

Travelling in the north east by road, all we had to do was stop at a random place and order food. Fresh, tasty, and hot, all for less than hundred rupees ( in most cases less than fifty) a meal. Ditto of course is true for anywhere in the country. 

Our chaats are actually very healthy if you think about it. And so is most of our street food. A little bit of a premium place to ensure that the guy doesn't use margarine instead of Amul, and avoid the ice - but you will learn those tricks soon enough. 

We Indians just don't realise how lucky we are when it comes to food. And for us, those who are reading this, considering that clothing and shelter are already taken care of, of the three basic necessities, food is the only thing left isn't it?