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By:

Kaustubh Kale

10 September 2024 at 11:37:15 pm

Modak and the Art of Investing

As the aroma of freshly steamed Modaks fills homes during Ganesh Utsav, the festive spirit comes alive instantly. My mouth is already watering at the thought! The humble Modak, prepared with love to honour Lord Ganesha, may look simple from the outside. But anyone who has tried making one knows that a good Modak depends on several things coming together - the right ingredients, the right recipe, patience with the process, and finally, enjoying the result. Investing is surprisingly similar....

Modak and the Art of Investing

As the aroma of freshly steamed Modaks fills homes during Ganesh Utsav, the festive spirit comes alive instantly. My mouth is already watering at the thought! The humble Modak, prepared with love to honour Lord Ganesha, may look simple from the outside. But anyone who has tried making one knows that a good Modak depends on several things coming together - the right ingredients, the right recipe, patience with the process, and finally, enjoying the result. Investing is surprisingly similar. Choose the Right Ingredients A Modak is only as good as the ingredients that go into it. Fresh coconut, good-quality jaggery, properly prepared rice flour and the right flavours all contribute to the final result. Our investments and financial products are the ingredients of our financial plan. Equities, mutual funds, fixed income, gold and other investments each have a specific role to play. The objective is not to pick whatever appears most exciting at the moment, but to select suitable, good-quality investments that match our financial goals, time horizon and ability to take risks. Health and life insurance are equally important ingredients. Adequate coverage helps protect savings, the family, and their financial goals and dreams. Good ingredients provide the foundation. But ingredients alone are not enough. Get the Recipe Right You may have the finest ingredients in the kitchen, but if the proportions are wrong, the Modak may still not turn out well. The same applies to investing. Asset allocation is the recipe of a financial plan. Too much of one ingredient can spoil a Modak. Similarly, excessive concentration in one asset or too much money in low-return products can spoil a portfolio. Balance is key. A thoughtfully constructed portfolio brings different investments together in the right proportions. To keep asset allocation very simple - short-term goals can be planned through bank fixed deposits, recurring deposits and debt mutual funds. For long-term goals, one can consider hybrid mutual funds, equity mutual funds or direct stocks. Trust the Process Once the Modak is shaped and placed for steaming, constantly checking whether it is ready will not make it cook faster. Investors often make the same mistake. We keep checking markets, reacting to every correction, chasing recent performers or changing strategies because of short-term noise. Good investing requires patience and discipline. Invest regularly, review periodically and allow your financial plan enough time to work. Compounding is powerful precisely because it rewards those who remain invested for long periods. Sometimes, the best thing an investor can do is simply avoid unnecessary interference. Enjoy What You Have Created Finally comes the most important part - eating the Modak! The purpose of investing is not merely to accumulate the largest possible number on a statement. Wealth should eventually help us fulfil our goals, support our families, create financial security and enjoy life with greater peace of mind. A good Modak needs the right ingredients, the right recipe and trust in the process. A good investment journey needs exactly the same. This Ganesh Utsav, may Bappa bless us with the wisdom to make good financial choices, the patience to stay disciplined, and the prosperity to enjoy the fruits of our efforts. Ganpati Bappa Morya! (The author is a Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial Advisor. Views personal. He could be reached on 9833133605.)

Eyes in the Dark

Correspondent
May 1, 2025
3 min read

The execution of an alleged Mossad operative by Iran underscores the power and peril of Israel’s long tradition of pre-emptive intelligence. 

The Iranian state media recently announced the execution of Mohsen Langarneshin, accused of being a senior Mossad asset. He was hanged, reportedly for helping orchestrate the 2022 assassination of Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Tehran’s verdict was swift, but the underlying message cuts both ways: Israel’s intelligence arm can reach deep into the heart of its most implacable enemy and Iran knows it.


Langarneshin’s story reads like a chapter from Mossad’s storied playbook. According to Iranian authorities, he was recruited in 2020, met handlers in Georgia and Nepal and provided ‘technical support’ for Khodaei’s killing. He allegedly rented safe houses for other agents across Iran including in Isfahan, near sensitive military and nuclear sites, and was involved in logistical planning for a drone strike on a weapons facility in 2023.


Israel, for its part, neither confirmed nor denied the operation. It rarely does. The results speak for themselves: a steady stream of disrupted plots, neutralized commanders and mysterious explosions. Mossad’s reach into Iran is no recent development, merely the continuation of a shadow war that Israel has mastered over decades.


One of the earliest and most audacious examples was Wolfgang Lotz, a German-born Jew who posed as a former Nazi officer sympathetic to Arab nationalism. Lotz penetrated Egyptian high society in the 1950s, reporting on German scientists working on Cairo’s missile program. His intelligence helped blunt Egyptian advances in rocketry, showing how Israel could undermine its adversaries from within, often without firing a shot.


Then came Eli Cohen, the legendary Mossad agent who infiltrated the highest ranks of the Syrian regime in the 1960s. Under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet, Cohen dined with generals, toured military installations, and transmitted intelligence that proved critical during the Six-Day War in 1967. His eventual capture and execution by Syria in 1965 turned him into a national hero in Israel and a cautionary tale for the Arab world.


More recently, Mossad has evolved into a high-tech juggernaut. In 2018, agents slipped into a warehouse in Tehran and walked out with a trove of nuclear documents, half a ton of secrets that laid bare Iran’s duplicity over its nuclear program. In 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the father of Iran’s nuclear project, was assassinated near Tehran, reportedly by a satellite-controlled machine gun.


The assassination of Colonel Khodaei in 2022 had followed a similar pattern: sudden, clinical, and humiliating for Iran’s security services. The colonel had reportedly overseen plots to target Israeli civilians and diplomats abroad. Iranian officials had initially described him vaguely as a “defender of the shrine,” referring to his role in the Quds Force, the foreign operations wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But Khodaei was no ordinary officer. He had reportedly been involved in overseas operations targeting Israeli and Western interests, including attempted attacks on diplomats. Eliminating him in broad daylight at his doorstep was not only a blow to Iran’s capabilities but also a message that Iran’s reach has consequences.


Langarneshin's presence points to a deeper Israeli network operating within Iran. That he was caught only confirms the Mossad’s presence.


For Israel, such operations are not reckless adventurism but part of a doctrine of proactive defence, born of necessity since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. A nuclear-armed Iran remains the greatest strategic threat to the Jewish state. Intelligence, not diplomacy or deterrence alone, has proven to be the most consistent tool for delaying Iran’s ambitions.


Langarneshin’s execution will no doubt be trumpeted by Tehran as a victory over foreign subversion. But beneath the bluster lies a nervous regime, haunted by what it cannot see and who it cannot trust. Mossad’s long tradition of reaching behind enemy lines - from Damascus to Cairo to Tehran - has not just reshaped the region’s security calculus but forced regimes like Iran’s to turn inward, breeding paranoia and purges.

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