StayGeo

Earlier this week, I visited my alma mater, JC International School (earlier known as Jaycees English Medium School, Karkala), to inquire about the school joining age for my daughter. In the course of our conversation, we went back to the year 2003, when I was in 10th Standard and had emerged as a district topper. Incidentally, this year’s 10th examinations were less than a week away and hall tickets were being distributed. The principal, Chittaranjan Sir, felt I would be a good fit to address the students and share my experiences as they prepared to face their own board exams.

When Vandana Madam called to confirm the time, I was filled with mixed emotions. Many thoughts ran through my mind. I was no doubt a studious child, but I often struggled with imposter syndrome and constantly looked for motivation and success stories that I could relate to. At the same time, I realized that the students I would be addressing were likely born after 2008, and the world they grew up in is vastly different from the one I knew.

Standing in front of school students again after several years felt both nostalgic and slightly surreal. I began by asking how everyone was feeling about the upcoming examinations and who already saw themselves as toppers. It was a pleasant sight to see several hands go up!

I then took them back to my own days in 2003, when I had been in the same position as them. I shared how the school leaderboard was a constant source of motivation for me, and how I would look up to the toppers and aspire to be like them. The leaderboard used to be clearly visible from our classroom window.

With less than a week left before the examinations, I encouraged the students not to stress themselves too much and instead focus on putting in their best effort. While being a topper is wonderful, it is not the end of the world if you don’t become one. Back then, it was a great feeling when people would recognize me on the streets and talk about my results. Even years later, I have had juniors tell me that hearing about my success inspired them to prepare better for their own board exams.

I also spoke about how life is shaped by the choices we make at different stages. In my own case, I could not continue being a topper in PU and Engineering, and my self-confidence took a significant hit during those years. That experience taught me how important it is to maintain confidence in one’s abilities. Sometimes, even pretending to be confident can help trick the mind into performing better.

One of the key suggestions I shared with the students was to get rid of social media apps, at least until the exams are over. During our days, parents would often disconnect cable TV for a while to remove distractions, but today the biggest distraction is the mobile phone.

Ever since I bought my first PC back in 2008, keeping my data backed up has been a priority. Those were the ThinkCentre desktop days - reliable machines, and thanks to IBM’s proprietary backup software, I felt safe, at least initially!

But there was a catch.

The backups were stored in a proprietary format, with the actual files buried deep under cryptic folder structures. To make matters worse, the backup would be split across multiple DVDs. Restoring anything manually felt like a small archaeology project.

Over the years, my backup strategy kept evolving. Storage was expensive back then, so I limited myself to burning only the most important files onto optical discs or copying them manually to an external HDD every few months. It worked - but it wasn’t elegant. And it definitely wasn’t efficient.

Eventually, I realized something important: Backups should be simple, fast, and trustworthy. But most GUI backup tools fail miserably at this. They hide everything behind animations and vague progress bars. You never really know:

• what is being copied
• what is being skipped
• or worse, what is being deleted.

On top of that, many tools bury the actual data under odd folder names, or store everything in proprietary formats that require the same software just to restore your own files.

I wanted something cleaner, predictable that told me exactly what was happening and didn’t hide my files from me. So, with some help from ChatGPT, I built a simple, interactive rsync-based backup script that I use to backup to two external hard drives.

Total Transparency

This script shows you which files

• have changed
• were copied
• were deleted (the most important!)

in addition to how much data moved and a fully readable, color-coded log. Nothing is hidden with every action being visible and verifiable.

TL;DR: Correct PAN first. If your broker rejects a demat name correction, transfer holdings (CDSL) to another broker, fix the name, then transfer back. Expect transfer fees and 10–14 day turnaround for transfers.

Brokers fetch account-holder names from the PAN database; sometimes that entry differs from the name printed on the PAN card. Here’s how I corrected my wife’s name.

My wife’s last name was misspelt and was broken into three parts in the PAN database. The steps involved the correction of the name in PAN, followed by the movement of stocks to another demat account and back to Zerodha. We returned to Zerodha because of trust and a better interface.

Correction of name in PAN

PAN correction was straightforward and completed in ~2 weeks. We had to fill the forms online with the corrected name, attach proofs and send them to Protean. You may be able to e-authenticate if the name matches in Aadhaar but that was not the case with us. We only had initials in Aadhaar for the second name.

Attempt to correct name in demat account

Her account was with Zerodha and we tried submitting the account modification form and KYC, Annexure B, new PAN and address proof as outlined here. However, the request was promptly rejected as they considered it a major change and requested a gazette notification for a name change or passport to be submitted. Our attempts to make them understand that ours was a name correction and not a name change were unsuccessful. That is when I sought advice from Manmohan whom I know through the ever-helpful AIFW community. He was quick to point out that these attempts would be futile based on his multiple experiences and suggested that I move my demat account elsewhere and come back to Zerodha later if necessary. Another suggested option was to transfer the holdings to my account temporarily, close the Zerodha account and move the holdings back to a new account - this will have to be backed by documentation.