M DAMODARAN: My first ground rule has always been that I say nothing off the record. I believe if anyone says something, he or she should be man or woman to stand up to own up to it. Hopefully, nothing that I say is also inconsistence with my organisation. Regulators have a habit of saying upfront that what I say does not represent the views of my organisation. It does. I earn pay at the end of the month from an organisation for speaking its mind more than mine. One minor detail Gautam did tell you about in his language -- how we engaged -- some years ago. He did not tell you the whole story. But now that it has come up, let me tell you the rest of the story.

There was this cover story in the Intelligent Investor, as it used to be called during those days, which said 'Run…abandon this…it is a sunk ship, not a sinking ship…etc. They were distributing copies outside the Lotus Court House, the UTI's main office. Somebody called me up post lunch when you are not at your brightest, assuming there is brightness here, saying they were giving copies away free to everyone who is walking in front of it, and that isn't doing us any good.

So we did one thing. Gautam knows about it but he won't tell you. Let me tell you. We also sent a lot of people to walk up and down and pick up as many copies as possible. And those copies since then have disappeared from the face of the earth. I'm telling you all this to give a sense of completeness to the story.

... contd.