Of Diwali and India Visits…

~ Alok Singhal

It is that time of the year when you should be in India – to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights! This year the D-day is October 19.

Well, I long for celebrating Diwali in India every year, but my work doesn’t allow me to take off between September through November. Every year, the deadlines get pushed back and everything piles-up to be completed in October or November…nobody tinkers with the Christmas time in the West though! So, early this year, I closed it with my manager to allow me to be in India to indulge in the festivities with the family back home. And, gladly, we are taking off for New Delhi tonight 🙂

alok singhal diwali
This was shot last year on Diwali in the US
Actually, had it not been for a medical emergency in September, we would have spent a few weeks in Europe (my dream destination) and then a couple in India. We had to cancel our bookings at the last moment. We are sort of fine now, but the situation threw us off physically and monetarily. Whoever said “Man proposes, but God disposes” did say it loud and clear! Anyway, seems my dream will have to wait a bit long.

We were supposed to take off on September 21 and, coincidentally (on the positive side), I achieved all of my Stock Market-related targets for the Indian fiscal year April 2017-March 2018 the same day. What a day for such extremes to happen! The profits came at the expense of many sleepless nights though, because of the time difference between India and US/Canada. I have often questioned myself if I should be doing what I do, but then money does matter. Consequently, I got a bit too ambitious and created another plan to be achieved by the end of 2020. Maybe I should be leading some global firm managing billions of dollars 😛

Just a bit on the markets – I am a huge proponent of the incumbent Modi-led government in India. Things have been looking up ever since he came to power a few years back, courtesy some bold reforms. I expect Indian Stock Markets to remain hot for another few years. Btw, US Markets are not doing bad too…if you had invested money in any of the two a couple of years back, you would know what I mean. Let me not delve deeper into the topic, as I have written on it quite a few times earlier – here and for the Money View blog.

With that, let me wish my Indian readers a very happy and safe Diwali. I’ll be off for a month as our trip will culminate with my sister’s marriage in November.

*I have a few posts in draft and would publish them on the go. Your comments are always welcome 🙂

46 thoughts on “Of Diwali and India Visits…”

  1. I can understand what you say. Diwali is meant to be spent with family. I am sure they are all waiting with bated breaths for your arrival. So sorry to hear about the medical emergency and that your Europe plans did not work out. There will be another time soon for that. Glad to hear about achieving your financial goals. If you and Saru plan to travel to Bangalore, do ping me. It would give me great joy to meet you both. Have a fabulous Diwali and a lovely trip back home. Congratulations for your sister’s wedding as well.

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  3. Wishing you Bon Voyage and Happy Diwali Alok…enjoy the festivities and the wedding. The attraction for the native land is always exhilarating…meeting familiar faces and that special treatment! Wow! Enjoy every moment!

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  11. Welcome to India, Alok! I’m sure both of you must be excited…for celebrating Diwali with the family.
    In many ways Christmas and Diwali echoes similar sentiments- celebrating the festival with our near and dear…gifting. Not being able to celebrate Diwali with extended family is surely a downer!

    I hope things are better for you guys now having been into a medical situation. As for Mr Modi, yes, the stock market will only go up. There’s a huge disruption that has happened because of “Notebandi” and GST. The worst affected is SME sector and biggest gainer is organized players…so yes, the corporate results will go up, money will flow into stock market either via direct equity investments or MF’s because at the moment traditional investments like gold and property market have taken a back seat! So I agree with you on this front. Mr Modi’s action plan? well, we can talk about it on some other day!

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  14. I’ve never celebrated Diwali in India but I’ve heard its just so much fun there with the shopping, sweets, and fireworks! However, I do celebrate it here in the US with family but its not that fun lol. Hope you have wonderful Diwali 🙂

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