the inner voice

Well isn’t this a philosophical question?  A year has ‘passed’ like ‘मेरा सुन्दर सपना बीत गया’ and still, there is no sadness in the air, no obituaries written…rather everyone seems to be pumped up to celebrate the ‘birth’ of the New Year. That’s life…new generation leads…while elders guide.  जो बीत गया सो बीत गया…. One always looks forward to the day...afresh… who wants to remember the night before…रात गई बात गई. Is it possible to drive ahead by looking into the rearview mirror? In Olympics, do we have a race that runs backward? There is an old saying that one should always look towards the rising sun. The rising Sun symbolizes hope, energy, vitality, and positivism. That’s what the New Year has in store for us. The year ahead is full of unknowns…yet people see it filled with opportunity, hope, and boundless possibilities rather than fear. It is this attitude of humankind that is fascinating. If all of us could integrate this attitude into every sphere of life, we would be...

Is it End of 2008 or the Beginning of 2009… As the year comes to an end…this question always comes to my mind. How should one look at it? I think it’s good to do both…while the coming year holds a lot of promise, the year gone by serves as a great teacher. Rarely do we look back individually to analyze how did the year go, what were the lessons learned, what we did right, where did we go wrong and what we could have done better. So let me put down my intellections on what I think about the year gone by and what plans I have for the New Year.  I am yet to come across a more intriguing year than the current one. The year experienced such a blend of events, each watershed in its own right, leaving my head tossed. Rarely do we see spectacular highs and worrisome lows within the same year for e.g. oil touched a high of $150/barrel giving shock to world energy managers and low of $38/barrel, making it cheaper than a bottle of water.  2008 was a watershed year in many ways. Let’s ...

I have been having many a round of discussions with my friends, Aman and Nitin, on this topic. I, with a finance background, end up having the task of explaining what caused this. It’s those endless discussions, leaving our spouses frowning, which forced me to write this blog. An attempt has been to put together in a layman’s language on various aspects of this economic seizure, of the financial tsunami, popularly called these days. We will stray here and there to understand various concepts as it comes along. Any economist worth his salt probably knew that recession was on its way. What probably they couldn’t figure out was the depth of malaise and consequent magnitude of seizure, leading to the collapse of global economies. But what intrigues me is only very few had the guts to take a position and write about it convincingly, against the popular public opinion, while it was sunshine. History has it that public opinion is based on ‘expectations and euphoria’ and not on facts and it’s ...

Last week was one of the sad and disturbing weeks of my life. The dastardly terror attacks on Mumbai left all of us very shocked, angry and frustrated. The scale and sophistication of attack was unprecedented. Different access routes, loads of ammunition to survive days of fighting, simultaneous attack on multiple locations - some of them iconic landmarks and aiming of diverse nationalities leading to brobdingnagian damage to life and property. Indiscriminate firing on innocents commuters at VT, guests at Taj and Oberoi and the Nariman House, a Jewish settlement, has left approx 200 dead and 300 plus injured. Infact the damage goes beyond those dead, it has left everyone alive, scared and vulnerable. The battle was witnessed live for 3 days on TV bringing Mumbai massacre right into our homes. It collapsed the sense of distance and made everyone part of the city. It’s their city, which was burning. Everyone was a Mumbaikar. Over weekend, we have been talking about this with friends. Th...

This downturn though very scary in terms of job security is resulting in some unexpected benefits.  We have more time than usual in our hands. I have decided to stay positive by making most of this time to visit the gym in the morning and hone my golfing skills. That said; let me talk about my current passion. I got inspired to pick up this game by a couple of events. The first and foremost reason happens to be my pal Rajiv Kapadia, who took me to the range and subsequently to the course, during one of my visits to his place in Detroit. Somehow I had this perception that it’s not affordable and very elitist. As I grew this notion weakened but finally gave it away when I played with Rajiv. Two days to the driving range and then to the course - this act was enough to bury my apprehensions of what people would think if I am unable to hit the ball, what happens if I take more shots than usual, what about etiquette, rules, etc. He said, “just enjoy the game and that’s all that matters”...

We recently witnessed one of the historic events of the century - Barack’s win and election as the 44th President of the United States of America.  With Barack Obama getting elected as the 44th President, it tells many things about American society. Society has now truly become ‘Americanized’. I think this was very important to the spirit called America. Though no one admitted it openly…it was still a white-dominated polity. But things have changed, people’s views have changed and they have backed ‘change’. Barack’s election has changed the landscape forever. Society revisited the ideals around which America was built by its great founding fathers thereby keeping their dream alive.  It revived my memories of the Rosa Park bus displayed at the Henry Ford museum in Detroit. A few years back I had visited this museum and learned about the 'freedom and equality movement. Rosa Park happened to be heading back home on the Montgomery bus and was seated just behind the seats (first te...

The downturn is bringing along with it other forms of casualty besides losing trillions of dollars. It is witnessing steep erosion of moral values. The moral fabric of companies and managers running has weakened. As they get increasingly jittery, they tend to break away from promises made and don’t fight back within the respective hierarchy with the same ebullience as they would in good times.  The concept of morality and justice implies that commitments made in advance must be acknowledged even if it’s to one’s own disadvantage. To one’s own disadvantage is something we are not prepared to live. Why is our moral fiber built so tenuous that a simple sudden tension snaps it? Why do we people start tending to take decisions by popular demand than by principle? Managers try to postpone or run away from the existing promises by blaming the ‘change in circumstances’? Changing times as a reason comes in handy in business like situation and everyone’s exploits that to cover his or her sh...