In 2003 a young MBA joined a big bank…..and when he joined there was a big cabin which was kept vacant. When he asked he was told ‘Mr. Risk’ sits there, he has gone on leave.

The whole of 2003 that cabin remained unoccupied.

So our hero did not see Mr. Risk for the whole of 2003. It was in 2004 that he asked again

‘Where is Mr. Risk?’

He was again told ‘he is gone on leave’…so people generally lost sight of Mr. Risk.

The same thing happened in whole of 2005, 2006 and 2007.

So sometime in 2005 they dismantled the cabin and used the place for some other work. In fact 5 workstations were installed for printing ULIP illustrations.

Having done that they assumed that Risk had left, and would no longer come back.

In 2008 – Jan, Mr. Risk came back. He claimed his RIGHTFUL place in the risk management team. He said if there was no risk why should there be a risk management team….many of them could not recognise him….but he took his rightful place…in the portfolios of the clients!

Now come to 20xx again Risk went missing – this time in the office of a real estate builder, and all of us believed that Risk is dead. So for the price of a ‘flat’ in an unwanted eastern suburb of Mumbai you get a 2 bhk for Rs. 2.9 crore. That is US $ 500,000.

I have no clue about what are the relevant taxes on that, lets add another 10% .

For this amount of money you could buy : 1. A luxury villa in Dubai AND 2. A luxury villa in Thailand AND 3. a villa in Australia – with about 2 acres of land thrown in.

Not a bad deal, right?

And how much do you get in this suburb? about 600 sq ft of usable space. Builders tell you it is about 900 sq ft – well that is Builders speak for you, take it or leave it.

I only hope when Mr. Risk comes back, and the music stops, I have already left the party. Till then I will have tremendous pleasure in seeing my networth go up – with a huge itch to rebalance the portfolio. Sigh.