You  are standing in a crowd your friend comes and throws his car keys towards you and says “will you drop my parents to Egmore..I have to rush to the hospital for an emergency, I am taking my wife’s car”. You immediately say “I don’t know how to drive” but will drop them in an Ola. Fair enough he says.

When you are asked to cook you say “I never learnt to cook…but hey I can call Swiggy (or ..various options..like zomato, food panda or uber eats…or…).

However when a retired botanical engineer was asked to manage his son in law’s portfolio, he just did not say “I don’t know”. He just took charge.

It is a bloody sad detail that is to follow.

Background: Let us call this man F (for Father in law). He was a diploma holder working in various jobs – which did not have too much connection with his BSc botany degree. He scraped through life, had 4 children – 2 daughters first and then 2 sons. His eldest girl was a married off very early – when she was just 20 and she married a Bsc Physics boy who was working in a bank. He was doing well in India when the ‘going to Middle East’ bug bit him.

So son in law goes off to Middle East to earn money.

Suddenly the F becomes a banker and portfolio manager. We are talking 1980s. I was introduced to F and we got talking (he died recently, and hence the post). I was shocked at his complete lack of knowledge – but remember he had created some portfolio by 1995 based on some IPO, and some super blunder buys. Let me tell you his lack of knowledge. If a company declared say 40% dividend, he would buy the share. If a company declared a bonus, he would buy the share. His logic was simple. After all I am paying only 60% he told me. He had no concept of a face value, book value or market price. I saw him creating a ‘portfolio’ – he would sell an IPO acquired share at exactly double the price – future or past did not matter. He had sold Dr. Reddy Labs (no i do not remember the price) and Gujarat Ambuja cement (He sold it for Rs. 21). His logic was he would buy a share for Rs. 400 (when a bonus of 1:1 was declared) saying see I will get one share free…SO MY MONEY WILL DOUBLE instantly on allotment of shares. I remember how his broker had used his son in law’s shares for doing the pay-in for another client. I got him to scream at the broker (he is a big registrar too) – and he got compensated for his screaming!!

Anyway you get the drift of the man’s competence. To say the least, it was a bloody mess.

F had very little money. Whatever he had he had ably squandered in the market (his own money). For his rich son in law he made some stupid moves not only in the equity market but in the real estate market too. What the S (son in law) bought did well and what F suggested either did not do well or they sold it too early.

So the mess in S’s portfolio was about Rs. 3 crores loss. An amazingly big sum – and I am not even talking of missed opportunities. Cash loss.

S was furious. S came to me and was screaming.

My predicament was that i knew him well, F very well, and the daughter. She was a few years elder to me and was as innocent as a cow. She was caught in the cross-fire.

…..story continued…wait for tomorrow!