Yes this is a humor article, this is not meant to hurt anybody, especially not the kids who wanted to interview me. I told the kids that I am a long term investor and will say ‘no comments’ to questions which are meant for traders or speculators…these are the questions which were asked…and the answers:

1. The recent fall in the market from the July highs has not deterred retail investors? – No, as of now NO. I do think that there is a huge range of people doing SIP – from the tea garden employees in Assam to the car cleaners of Mumbai. Luckily all the people will NOT panic at the same time, and hence the SIP flow will become a tide, so this is a great signal for the Indian market.
2. What is the big India sector centric call that you are making in 2017 for equities because the dollar has gained in strength? -Ans: sorry, speculative, leading, wrong, and a question assuming that I know what the dollar will do in the next few days or months, sorry, but I have NO answer at all.
3. What will be the impact of demonetisation over the next 2 quarters? Ans:  I invest for 2 decades, I do not know about 2 quarters
4. Which are the sectors that you would recommend and avoid in 2017? Ans: what a question. I am expecting to invest and be invested for 20 years, how is 2017 a special year?
5. Will you look at Nbfc, Housing finance and banking as important sectors for 2017? Maybe. I already have a position, and I may or may not make any change in my portfolio in the immediate future. Anyway I have no clue what the market will do in 2017, so my call is generic and your question is specific, so this is not an answer I want you to publish.
6. Many pharma companies are down in 2016, will you buy them for 2017? Ans: No clue, almost stupid question. I do have a lot of pharma in my portfolio over the past say 10 odd years. We will keep adding and reducing in our pharma portfolio, but yes, nothing specific for 2017.
7. Subra do you think that LTCG will come back? Me: I have no clue is the truth. This question is better directed at Arun Jet Lee, or even better NaMo himself. I am the wrong person to stupidly attempt answering this question.

———end of interview—————————

Yes the interviewer was from a big branded magazine/ noise paper – it rarely gets bigger than this. Now imagine if I were the CXO of a mutual fund, I would have had to reply to these questions much much better, right? I could not be so impolite and actually tell her these questions do not fit into my fund house’s philosophy. What would I have done? Replied to each question politely, given her a coupe of good questions, SO THAT I CAN LOOK GOOD…and then had it published all over the world.

I find that in most cases when I write an article in a magazine or newspaper, they get MORE hits from my blog than me getting any hits from their newspaper.

I will continue to write for a few websites (like Rediff.com) a few magazines and news papers, but you will see less and less of me in EVEN in the print media. I am sick and tired of their slavery to the short term trader / speculator.

Whose father what goes? – this was how Eknath Solkar (one of the fine cricketers of India) translated ‘kiska baap ka kya jata hai’ – when Tony Greig asked him what it means. In our office we used to say wfwg.

Happy new year 🙂