"Good Morning, Sehgal sa'ab". It wasn't a reference to Mr. Sehgal's car. "Sa'ab" was short for Sahib, the equivalent of "boss" or "sir". In any case, Mr. Sehgal had a Honda.

"Hello, Sudhir. Good to see you after all this time. Don't tell me you have a tax problem", said Sehgal, in a worried tone, wondering why a chartered accountant was always the guinea pig during tax return time.

"Not really, Mr. Sehgal. This is Rakesh Mannan. We want to start a company together. Tell us how. We're going to make software for solar cars, and make loads of money. "

Good luck with that, thought Sehgal. Great ideas, and very little operational knowledge — however, crazier ideas have succeeded and you can't let an opportunity go. So he started.

"So you have many choices — a partnership, an LLP or a private limited. A partnership is the least cumbersome, but you do have the issue that each of you as a partner has full liability".

"What does that mean?", asked Rakesh.

"Rakesh, if your partnership takes a

It all started because the Indian government, reeling from the Great Fiscal Crisis of 2014, decided to tax the  foreign income of Indian nationals. All Indian citizens--from the rich taxi driver in Sydney to the poor investment banker on Wall Street--were told to get their PAN numbers forthwith and start paying taxes. The Non-Resident Indian income tax rate was set at 15% and to increase to 22% over the next five years. It was decided to impose severe penalties on non-payment, at the time of passport renewal. Passports would be valid for no more than five years. The legislation effecting this change sailed through parliament, without any debate, within seconds, surprising and infuriating the global community of pravasi bharatiyas and their deshvasi families.

It was  Jagmohan Mehta, a bright spark from Navi Pune (then called Boston) who first raised the famous slogan, "No Taxation Without Representation!" If the Indian government wanted to tax NRIs, he argued, it must also give them the

One of the corner-stones of accounting is "mark-to-market". Meaning, a company must tell its shareholders the value its financial assets would fetch in the open-market. When these prices fall, the real worth of the company takes a hit, which must be reflected in its quarterly accounting.

When the crisis hit Western banks last decade, sharp losses in the value of financial instruments set off a chain reaction — huge book profits turned to losses; to cover these losses, banks sold assets; the selling pressure forced market prices down; this required banks to sell more assets, etc. To prevent a total melt-down, governments stepped in with emergency loans, which created some breathing room.

However, this borrowed cash did not make the assets —especially derivatives - any more saleable or valuable. To allow banks to repair their balance sheets, a magic wand was required. Governments, acting through financial regulatory boards, wished away Mark to Market (MTM)

Practitioners of yoga have been much in the news these days — sadly, not because of the practice of yoga. Such a practice, as we should all know by now, has been firmly established as a discipline that's Good For You.  Another such activity, clearly, is reading. (Remember reading? Making sense of a page filled with letters organized into words and sentences?)

Given our frantic urban lifestyle — with little room for life, leave alone style — finding the time to pursue both disciplines for a sustained period has always been difficult.  No longer. It's time to take heart: in a dazzling breakthrough, this column presents a series of poses that combines yoga with reading.

Each one has been tried and tested by your faithful, fatigued columnist. Fasting is optional, but make sure your tongue is firmly in cheek before commencing.

The Upside-down Turtle: A good pose for the beginner. Lie on your back on any firm surface with your hands by your sides, palms facing upward.  Slide one of your