2008 : The year that was

It is almost new year and for many, this is a year better, best forgotten. The world has been hit by one of the worst ever economic crises since decades, with no clear sight in view, about when the mood will begin to be bullish again. However, this has been a year that can actually be remembered for some good reasons as well. So while we do indeed have the bad news, we do have the good news as well.

The start of the year, for Indians began with a slump in GDP. Perhaps we should have taken a hint from that piece of news, but we were quick to reassure all and sundry that everything was fine. The months went on, and as America sneezed, everyone in Asia began slowly catching the bug.

Britney Spears went through an awful year swinging in and out of insanity.

The American Presidential election became prime time watch for people all over the world. Lipstick, pit bulls, war veterans and the bridge to nowhere became commonplace topics to talk about.

The Indian embassy in Afghanistan was bombed and 44 were killed and another 140 innocent civilians were injured. Terrorism still showed that it had the upper hand in the world.

Madonna divorced Guy Ritchie and paid a fortune in settlements!

The phenomenon called the Olympics happened. In China. People had finally awakened to China. The arrangement and the organization was phenomenal. The gross disregard for human rights was totally condoned. But this was China. How could anyone care?!? India as usual went in with a teeny tiny contingent, in gross discord. Not even a uniform dress code!

But who cared about Ms Mirza? We won one GOLD in shooting courtesy Abhinav Bindra and two bronzes. Boxing and wrestling - Vijender Kumar and Sushil Kumar, respectively. Consistency was missing, since Rajvardhan Rathore, failed to impress.

Consistency showed elsewhere, since Nadal won French open and an Olympic Gold. AND ALSO WIMBLEDON. In matches that can thrill generations of YouTube watchers, history was written. Federer displayed chinks in his armor, but still went on to win the doubles gold at the Olympics.

The Marriott in Islamabad was bombed my suspected Al Qaeda operatives with a truckload of RDX, killing foreign nationals, and destroying the building. PoK was shook by a massive earthquake that killed thousands. Zardari became President. (I don't know whether I can say elected, since democracy and Pakistan don't sound good together). Musharraf had to run for his life, (expected).

THE DARK KNIGHT RELEASED. A cult film by any standards, setting a new threshold for villainy in the late great Heath Ledger. A terribly underrated actor, who starred in Brokeback mountain and A Knight's tale, The Joker was a new high for him. Unfortunately another form of going high, killed him, and the world lost a fine actor.

Barack Obama became President. Racial prejudices went to the dogs. Analysts, bloggers, people all wondered whether America would be able to take a wise well-informed decision, and no one was ready to bet either way. The economy by election day was teetering on the edge and no one knew which way the scales would tip.

Michael Jackson became Mikaeel.

The world lost Lehman Brothers. Merill Lynch went to Bank of America. Bear Stearns was gobbled up by JPMC. AIG almost went kaput, only to be rescued by the government.700 billion dollars was earmarked as a TARP bailout fund. We still don't know how that will be spent. American auto manufacturers are now paying the price for not having been prudent by going green and small. They now beseech the American Congress to bail them out.

Lewis Hamilton won the F1 World Championship. I don't want to speak much on that, since I still feel that was unfair.

Mumbai was attacked by terrorists who actually ran amok wielding AK-47 weapons and killing innocent people in a train station, and in key five star hotels in Mumbai's posh South Mumbai area. This set into action a whole host of events right from restructuring by the government to key steps to up the security in the country.

Vishwanathan Anand retained the World Champion crown. Yay!!!

Thwarting appeals by separatists to boycott elections, a 62% voter turnout in J&K showed the triumph of democracy. I kinda feel proud of that. In spite of all kinds of nonsense, Indians still have the power to elect their own leaders.

Israelis launched an all out yet retaliatory attack on Hamas in the Gaza strip, in one of the bloodiest attacks of all time.

Ugandan rebels are being fatally tackled in DR Congo. Zimbabwe is going through an economic breakdown with a terrible attack of cholera debilitating the country. Almost all of Africa is going through a humanitarian crisis.

A student was accidentally shot dead by police in Greece, and riots are still on in Athens. I guess the simmering dissent just needed one tiny burst of the bubble to just erupt like a volcano. A youth was killed in Bangalore by army personnel in a case of mistaken identity. Nothing happened.

India beat the Brits in the test series that comprised an almost lost test match as well. Australia lost the Boxing Day test to South Africa in a thrilling encounter.

Bittersweet year? I guess. A great year for Obama, sport in general, and a terrible year for the economy, Africa, Mumbai (thanks to BSE and the terror attacks). How will next year be? Who knows! But what else can we do, except look to the new year with hope and anticipation for a new beginning. Happy New Year everyone......

Boxing Week 2008

It's Boxing Week. Well, all along, I thought that Boxing Day (day after Christmas) held some historical significance in terms of the sport called Boxing, and hence is celebrated as such! Only later did I learn that Boxing day is when Christmas presents are to be unopened and kept / exchanged / returned. The 'boxes' represent the 'Boxing day'. Simple? Oh yeah! This whole week is Boxing week. All malls, shopping places run deals, good deals. Loads of discounts, since this week traditionally invites shoppers in hordes! There have been stories about stampedes outside malls on Boxing day, that apparently even killed a store employee! Now, people spend a lot before Christmas. They spend to buy presents for everyone. And Boxing week is like a bonanza, more like a ritualistic shopping expedition, as a means to add cheer to the white holidays. Basically, Boxing week is like shopping week, in a greater part of the Western World.

This year though, the story has been slightly different. Given the economic slowdown, analysts, economists, retailers have all been speculating on how the mood would be this year. Given the fact that people need to spend in order to boost the economy, the economy watchdogs were actually 'watching'. They wanted to see where the consumer would go, whether he would head to the shop or whether he would hide money under the mattresses. To lure customers almost all major shops advertised 50 - 70% discounts. They advertised freebies, and what not! Just to make the consumer come out and spend.

This time, with loads of people being laid off, mounting debt, lack of free funds to spend coupled with a general sense of uncertainty over where the economy is heading and when the bear would hibernate giving way to the bull, people were not really in a mood to splurge. No stampedes at Wal-Mart, only marginal queues. To make the crowds look bigger, some cash registers were closed off. Many people said that they had exhausted their budgets buying Christmas presents and so, did not wish to spend more in Boxing week. Some were prudent to keep aside buying a much wanted item like a pair of shoes or a bag for Boxing week, just because of the favorable deals. But that's it. No splurge shopping. Some were restrained because they did not feel right shopping when so many people were being laid off or were facing the brunt of the economic slowdown. The only contrasting report however was about Amazon reporting 73 deals per second on day 2 of Boxing week. Heartening to know. But a conspiracy theorist inside me asks whether this was a media byte to boost consumer confidence.

While some actually took pains to go and buy something, some others chose to window shop, for sake of the ritual. So Boxing Day actually took on the significance I first thought it to hold - Boxing... Only this time, fighting the urge to splurge in favor of a bit of prudence......

Bail out to sail out....How much is too much?

Help!! SOS!!! Bail me out! These words resound all over the place. A month ago, the biggies of Investment Banking - Bear Stearns was the first to buckle. Then, Lehman, Merill Lynch and JP Morgan, saw the red. Black rock became DSP Black Rock. AIG was 'rescued'. Lehman became 'Nomura'. It was a massive bloodbath - so to say, with other global biggies clamoring to devour the spoils. There were talks of people wanting to purchase the hardware assets of Lehman - the servers, routers, cables, et al. Understandable, since IB needs a robust infrastructure, and so decidedly these 'assets' would fetch a lot more. Clearly that was true, since all said and done, these were tangible assets, unlike the banks' prized high priced assets called Collateralized Debt Obligation instruments - which actually brought about the mayhem. The economy showed signs of collapse, recession - of global proportions. The pillars of economic boom crumbled like a pack of cards. And before one could blink, the symbols of growth and economic prosperity were gone! At the threshold of B school, people dream of a job at Lehman or JPMC. And now, those entities are gone without a trace. The feeling is akin to that felt by one who flew out of NY on Sept 10, 2001 and came back on Sept 12, 2001.

So the banks are down and out, people are seeing the value of their real estate assets plummeting earthwards, the stock markets that hold a greater part of the Western World's hard earned money are going through negative uncharted territory, people are losing jobs, uncertainty prevails. Human nature - when it is uncertain whether I would have a job tomorrow, I wouldn't wish to go buy Jimmy Choos! Oh, well, I may wish, but I wouldn't get myself to go buy em! So no one wants to invest in investment bank funds and portfolios. They demand capital protection. They do not want 'negative' ROI - at least. So, when no one buys, who buys? Uncle SAM!!! The result - bailout packages for AIG, nationalization of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, 700 Billion dollars worth of taxpayers' money forms the Herculean backbone against which the crumbling pillars of the American (I'd rather say Western - Barclays was rescued as well) economy. Citigroup is the newest entrant into the 'Bhikmangoo' group, screaming, "Rescue me, I messed up!!" At the end of it all, it seems like Lehman and JPMC were not favored! But how long can the government condone 'overdrives', mismanagement and a gross lack of prudence?

Incidentally I seem to have overshot my credit card limit while I was busy being fascinated (read enchanted) by Louis Vuitton, and Jimmy Choo. Can the government bail me out as well? Please?

Global economic meltdown - a new dimension

There have been loads of reports in the newspapers these days on how the global economic meltdown is affecting shoppers. There have been reports on how people are cutting down on spending, on account of the terrific uncertainty in the markets. In just a matter of 8 months the Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE Sensex (for sensitive index... Man! it seems more sensitive than a Cancerian woman!!!) has tanked almost 13000 points! 20,000 to 7000, and still nose-diving! So most urban Indians whose wealth is locked up in the markets are a little wary about spending. To the extent that on Dhanteras, when people generally buy gold or some other valuable - considered auspicious to do so, many refrained from purchasing anything other than essentials! So sellers want to lure people somehow or another.

Now, as we face a bust everywhere, with real estate prices going for a correction, the stock markets diving deeper and deeper, people do not want to invest any more, at least not to the extent that can hold up the exaggerated property prices. So builders who embraced the whole 'redevelopment of old properties' concept face either unfinished projects, with huge outflows or finished buildings with no takers! The result - they have had to slash prices and also offer freebies!!!! Buy a house, get a car free. Buy one house, get one free. Bizarre how things have shaped up in just a matter of months.

But the most bizarre thing is, that this dire attempt to lure customers has hit other markets as well. Just this evening, while I was at a food mall, there was an announcement - "Buy half a kilo brinjal, and get another half kilo absolutely free."

Tata says tata

Tata leaves Singur for greener pastures – literally. As a rather strong proponent of capitalism, like most of the younger generation these days, I feel vindicated again. For enterprise to grow and thus foster growth of a nation, the answer does not lie in Communism! Look where Left Bengal has gone!

Politics is a media circus. The whole US Presidential election 2008 replete with moose, pigs, makeup, racial sentiments, feminism, and blockhead politics is testimony to that fact. But that a political party would ditch potential growth for those measly 15 seconds of fame, leaves me wondering whether India has been hit by another syndrome post the global economic meltdown. A syndrome called ‘idiocy in politics’!

The scene in West Bengal - A friend of mine who has lived his life in Calcutta says that the sleepy city is in no way comparable to a metropolis. He’d been to Cal for around 10 days on an assignment, and when he came back, he said that he was happy to be back, since had he continued there, he would have become lazy and lethargic. His case you can argue, is an exception, but who can argue against the number of stirs and strikes that are commonplace in WB? Every other day, shutters are down for some reason or the other. But with a growing population, and more number of graduates the dearth of jobs is a reality. Where do they go? Move to other cities. Brain drain on a smaller scale. But what does that do to the state and its infrastructure? Every state, no matter how small or inconsequential, has state machinery that needs to run. And for that the state needs investment. An investment to the scale of the kind that Tata envisioned, would have opened up the floodgates of investment. Maybe Reliance, Vodafone? Daimler Benz for all you know??!!!?? Ironically ,the Communist government in WB noticed that fact, which Ms Banerjee chose to ignore. She went on and on hammering into the heads of anyone who would listen and also those who wouldn’t, that she wanted to protect the farmers, whose rights had been cruelly snatched by the alligators of corporate capitalism! Whoa, and this poor alligator could have given jobs, much needed tax revenues to the desirous millions in West Bengal. India is an agrarian economy, no doubt, but somewhere one needs to move on. Agriculture alone cannot feed, clothe, house and develop the zillions of people. Khmer Rouge and Polpot had such nefarious intentions – a complete regression to farming and the ways of the olden times man. The result – a wipe out of a whole generation in Cambodia. Which again brings me back to wonder how one woman could have been so foolish???

Two instances make me believe that perhaps West Bengal is opposed to anything new. They abhor change of any sort! Traditionally the Left with roots in West Bengal, have been very good ‘opposition’. No, I don’t mean it as a compliment to their political methods, but they operate in the true sense of the word – oppose anything that comes your way. The government said – ‘Without nuclear energy we would literally be left groping in the dark. So support the nuclear deal’ The Politburo said – ‘we hate America and all things American. So shoo the nuclear deal.’ I wish someone had then told them that nuclear energy does not belong to one country! It is property of the world community, scientific community, rather. Second, an Indian company made bold and decided to set up shop in WB. Two years ago. Why did the agitation begin to reach feverish levels only just now? Where were the protests before this? Save for a few breaks of the gate and screams here and there all this while, why protest now when the plant is at a stage where relocation costs are exorbitantly high? Where were these disgruntled farmers for so long? Spending the money they received as compensation? And when the moneybag ran dry, they found a reason to ask more? Has greed reached such abysmal levels? Ms Banerjee perhaps never imagined that the man of steel – Ratan Tata would move lock stock and barrel. She thought she could formulate a truce plan that would benefit her so called oppressed farmers and also bolster her long lost plans of becoming the CM next year. Unfortunately, the whole plan backfired. Now the youth are aghast, since much needed employment is gone. The state as a whole is disgruntled with her, and the glacier between her and the ruling government has received 10 more layers of ice! And irrespective of what Mr Tata may say to anyone, any future investor would think a billion times before embarking on a project in hinterlands of Mamtaland.

The biggest loser, however is West Bengal. They were legendary for being thought leaders. Rabindranath Tagore, Shantiniketan, Bengal Chemicals, a majority of the freedom fighters, all have their roots in West Bengal. With the advent of the Left government, the state started sinking into the oblivion. Blame it on policies, or the lack of it, reticence towards development, a cushy comfort in the status quo or whatever. But now, such cruel selfish politics has managed to sound the way downward for one of India’s once most illustrious states.