I learnt about serious conundrums in life quite early. My father was a pretty easy-going individual, who let his children be. We all studied well, got good marks and the parent and educationist in him was happy he did not have to intervene often. He played cricket with us (my brother, myself, a couple of his own friends and lots of our friends) and was more of a senior advisor cum friend than a typical parent. But even he had to behave differently in certain situations which, in his opinion, demanded a slightly different take for the sake of other elders in the family. In such contexts, he would rave and rant about our misdemeanours for a while and stop to look at us, as if he was expecting our response. And here lay the conundrum. A couple of times I earnestly tried to put forward our side of the story, thinking a very reasonable man like him would appreciate the why of it, even if the logic was a bit warped childishly. Then I was shut out brusquely with a reprimand `Why dont you accept your mistake? Instead you are talking back to me and other elders, trying to defend your lousy action'!
Having got that rap in the knuckles a few times, subsequently when the same scene was re-enacted for some other juvenile error, I used to clamp up and steadfastly look down on the floor, determined not to respond and invite chastisement. Now, a few times, this boomeranged too. My father or mother would get angry and say `I am raving like mad here, trying to seek an explanation, there you are standing like a statue and not opening your mouth'! The last thing one should do in these situations is to take the bait and aggravate emotions by pointing out one's dilemma whether to respond or not. So, I used to let it pass with stubborn silence and took the verbal slaps gracefully. When we all were grown up and there was no need for any shouting match or reprimand, we used to sit around with our parents and joke about such situations and have a good laugh, in which my parents joined heartily. My father used to laugh the loudest, probably he never took any of these seriously; he was indeed a theatre actor and a good one at that.
Such conundrums repeat themselves all through our lives. Whether to respond with this action or that or respond at all in a particular context, when there is something onerous in all options, is baffling most of the times.
Recently one of my apartments, rented to an expat company fell vacant. When I rented it a few years back, I was asked by my broker to put in some furniture pieces, some equipment etc. to be competitive while also being attractive to expatriate renters. My thinking being conditioned by all those years of expat living, when we had our own furniture and equipment, I gently turned him down. Knowing fully well that this is a situation when you are damned if you did and damned if you did not. I wanted to avoid this additional headache of worrying about the stuff I put in, every time there is a turnover. If you did not comply with such requests, it is likely that the apartment will not be rented for a while because as your luck would have it, all the expats streaming into Bangalore and looking for rental seem to want equipment and furniture to be included. It does not work even if you are willing to take lesser rent so that the renter can hire furniture etc. on his own. Simply not convenient for them, unless they have a single, all-in deal. This means loss of rental for a few more months, until someone after your own heart comes forward to rent the apartment only, because he has his own furniture and equipment.
My reluctance to include some furniture/equipment is not a bull-headed resistance to a fairly common request from renters. I had done this earlier for a tenant. Lo and behold, when he vacated the next chap who came along said `I like the apartment and pay the rental you are expecting, but please remove all the furniture and equipment you have in the apartment because I have my own stuff'. Now, I was not in the furniture rental business to shove all the redundant pieces into a warehouse and move on. If you put the items into storage, rental expense would be involved and after a few years when you take the things out, you will find that nothing is in the same shape or condition it went in. Probably more money would have to be spent in restoring them than in buying new ones. Which means a write-off of the remaining value of the stuff, taking a financial hit.
The other problem I encountered was that while the previous American tenant had demanded Whirlpool fridge and washing machine, the incoming Japanese expat wanted Mitsubishi or Panasonic equipment. Nothing else would do. So, it became my responsibility to cater to their nationalistic preferences, as if I was running a high end equipment store. No one was interested in dealing with the earlier equipment I had on hand. Having gone through this a couple of times, I made the Solomon-like decision that future rentals will be shorn of furniture and equipment, come what may, even though my dear wife made faces every time we lost a good deal due to my intransigence. So, in order to avoid more serious domestic discord, now I have an arrangement with my real estate broker that I give the apartment and if equipment is required, he rents or buys that for the renter and takes rental for that. There are issues with this rather convoluted arrangement obviously because the broker is not a just a good Samaritan to pander to such requests and extracts his pound of flesh by demanding a sizable refundable security deposit and one year advance rental for all the supplies. This financial cost erodes your rental income, but I still think this is preferable to being saddled with a sofa set, tables and chairs, fridge, washing machine etc every time one tenant moves out (and one never knows which company expels which expatriate when), while you await the next one with trepidation.
Another context in which one does not know which way to go is when you are confronted with an option to invest in a start-up. Especially, if the opportunity is brought to you by a good friend you consider financially savvy. Not that anyone compels you to invest, but one feels left out if such an opportunity passes one by. The tricky question is if such an investment will make any money any time soon, since most of these companies deal with untested ideas and have fierce competition in their domains. Again, no one can answer this since this is akin to intensely peering into the crystal glass and predicting if monsoon will arrive in Bombay on June 15th some five years later. If you are investing in the initial stages of a start-up, even if you know the promoters and are somewhat familiar with their idea or product, there is absolutely no guaranteeing the well being of the company a few years later. Which is why all such investments come from angel investors (angels do not worry about returns?) or venture capital companies (they have a greater risk appetite). Even evaluation of such ideas, products and companies is difficult because one is more comfortable with conventional companies and the new ones are all so heavily skewed towards new or evolving technology. So I have taken the easy way out generally by letting them pass, preserving my hard earned capital. But, after a few years, someone can rub it into you that there was an chance given on a platter to invest, you let it go and now the company is worth a hundred times. That is the nature of the beast and there is this inbuilt conundrum with these always.
My dear wife tells me that the best way to avoid all these is to sell all other holdings, invest in some bank FDs or Treasuries or tax free bonds and forget about all the hassles. She cautions that I should look for solvent, good banks and avoid co-operative banks which offer one percent extra interest but are very likely to put the principal at great risk. I thought may be she is right when yesterday my son called and asked me to look at cryptos to invest in. Another conundrum to grapple with for the next few months. That is life.
