Six Days at NIFM

I had a depressing feeling when I entered into the hostel room allotted to me. The carpet on the floor had, perhaps, not been dusted since it had been put. The window screens looked dirty. It was too hot outside, the temperature being more than 43 degree Celsius. The air conditioners produced only sound; it did not cool the room. I rang up Tarangini.

Tarangini is doing her two year MBA in NIFM. She had won Katha Nabaprativa award for short stories. I always enjoy the company of the persons dabbling with pen or having a taste for literature. She told power cut in Faridabad was rather normal, supply an exception. On an average Faridabad experienced outage for eighteen hours, supply was hardly for six hours. She gave a piece of advice that it would be prudent to store at least a bucket of water in the night for use in the morning. (One could store maximum one bucket of water as there was only one bucket in the bathroom). Often, water did not come in the morning.

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The Management Development Programme (MDP) was on Finance for non-Finance Executives. I am a member of Odisha Finance Service, but my knowledge on Finance Management is almost zero. We are basically taxmen, we administer tax Acts, collects revenue. Of course, I read Economic Times, but only news related to tax matters or from a taxman’s angle. Suppose, there is news that the sale of scooters has gone up by 25% in the first quarter of the year, I would see that tax collection from two wheeler sector has also gone up by 25%. If inflation rate is 11%, I would expect the growth rate in collection of taxes is 11% plus.

The programme was scheduled to be held in May, but it was postponed as they did not get the required number of participants then. This time also there was only nine participants: five from Delhi/Haryana, one from Karnatak, one from Mumbai and we were from Odisha. Thus, the group comprised participants from north, south, west and east, representing whole of India. Of the nine, only three had any commerce background. Nandeesh was a mechanical engineer, Dr Jain a scientist of fisheries. I was a student of History and my friend, Muduli, a student of English literature. But the course was designed and the professors taught us assuming our low level knowledge so as to make the subject intelligible to us.

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I love teaching and love to interact with my students. I was a lecturer teaching History in a degree college before I joined the present service. I take classes on VAT/GST in Madhusudan Das Regional Academy of Finance and Management for the Odisha Finance Service recruits. As training co-ordinator in the Commercial Tax Department I conduct training and also take a few classes. A batch of fifty OFS recruits was taking one month management training course at NIFM when I went for the MDP. Though many of them are married and some are having children, still students are students. I happened to meet them in the dining hall or chanced upon them sitting and gossiping or reading newspapers at the reception of the hostel. Despite the heat and temperature, sweat and power cuts, interacting with them was always a pleasure and it enlivened my stay.

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Dr K P Kausik is wonderful and one of the finest teachers I have ever met. He teaches citing funny anecdotes to make his lecture simple, interesting and comprehending. Later, we knew most of the anecdotes he told were concocted. One of his lectures was on personal finance. He renamed it how to become rich and gave the example of Ambani. He told the friend of your father or grandfather living in the locality where Ambani lived must have come across him riding a cycle in his youth. But at his death, as all know, he left wealth of more than one lakh crores. As a salaried person we should all save and invest our savings to get returns in future. His advice: one, after his promotion, should live as he was in his previous post and work as a person of the promoted rank at least for a year. Similarly, an employee when he gets his annual increment should save in a recurring deposit his incremental amount till he gets the next increment. He gave similar tips for saving and investing the savings in order to become rich to live in style and comfort after retirement.

The things he said sounds well and alluring. But I believe in spending rather in saving and it has been with me since my young days. People say personality sets in before one reaches forty and then it never changes. I am past that age.

I remember a joke.

A fisherman was seen sleeping on a beach in the morning using his rolled up fishing net as his pillow and enjoying the morning sun. A Marwari saw him and asked, “Why are you sleeping in the morning?”

“What should I do?” asked the fisherman.

“You should fish in the sea.” He advised.

“Then?”

“You should sell the fish, and earn”

“Then?”

“ You should feed your family members and the balance you should save.”

“Then?”

“You will work more, save more, and invest more and get more returns on your savings.”

“Then?”

“One day you will find you have become very rich and then you will enjoy.”

The fisherman said, “ What am I doing now?”

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