A TRIBUTE TO BSE SENSEX

SENSEX-Y

Hello Mr. Rao, remember me? I am Sensex, we met in 1979 in Bombay. I was a teenage girl standing pale but full of promise in my eyes at the Bombay Stock Exchange entrance and you were passing by my office walking towards that PSU bank just opposite my stock exchange building to deposit your savings. I had walked towards you gingerly and requested you to take me in your arms, but you looked at me with disgust and refused to do so and had walked to that bank and I saw you depositing your hard-earned money that was offering a 12% annual return. You were young too, all of 21 years and you had started to earn a small salary. You should have taken me in your arms, but you did not.

Over the next 10 years, we kept meeting regularly but you continued to ignore me. The deposit rates had gone up from 12% to 14% and you seemed to have been thinking that the rates would continue to rise in the future as well. But you overlooked that I had grown from 100 to 1000 in those ten years.

We met again in 1992, you were 34 years old, the prime earning years of your life; I asked you then too to take me in your arms, and you again snubbed me. Never mind, there was a big scam masterminded by Harshad Mehta which brought me crashing from 4500 to 2000 and you had that smirk on your face which I will never forget. You continued to overlook me year after year and in between you had started to get older but I had started to mature with each passing year.

I know what are you about to say that there were too many negative things that were happening such as scams, bomb blasts, assassinations, geopolitical issues, election-related issues, surging oil prices and the like. You were too worried and sceptical all along without realizing my potential. At least you should have let me hold your fingers if not lifted me into your arms. You did make a horrendous miscalculation and misjudgement, didn’t you Mr. Rao?

Today in 2024, almost 45 years later, you are 65 years, old and fragile, struggling to meet your retirement expenses; your wife curses you for not giving her the life she deserved, your son does not think highly of you because you did not get him in the university of his choice and your daughter too is unhappy that you could not afford to make her a doctor. Why Mr. Rao, why? Because you were risk-averse than being risk-aware.

You were too indulgent with your risk-averse attitude and fancying that when you get old the deposit rates would be higher and you would retire rich, but what happened you see? I have grown from 100 to 80000 in these 45 years and your deposit rates have fallen from 14% to 6%; I have given returns of 16% year on year and your trusted deposit has averaged under 8% in these years.

All you should have done was believe in the possibilities of a growing India and the opportunities that the stock market was bringing right to your doorstep. You could have invested small amounts over the years and you could have given your family the life they deserved and you could have had a handsome retirement corpus too.

Stop giving me that stare. From 100 to 80000 now I am all curvy and vivacious and more people have started to follow me than before, they even chase me. I may not remain young but I will be a lot matured as time passes. I might be down at times for a few months or even a couple of years, but that is my hibernation time. When I return, I return with vengeance and vigour; you can hate me but cannot afford to ignore me. At least teach your children to be better investors and not to follow in your footsteps of investing. Let them be wiser than you were. Right, Mr. Rao?