A year called 2008

With lot of aspirations and loads of hope, we move into a new year of 2009. All of us are hoping that the new year will turn around their fortunes and would have welcomed it with a lot of joy and happiness by partying and waving goodbye to a relatively gloomy 2008.

A similar thing happened exactly a year back, when we welcomed 2008 in the same way. We were expecting it to be great year with lot of aspiring growth personally, professionally and financially. Considering the fact that the few years which preceded 2008 were great for the economic and professional growth and the path that India is following to become a super power, everybody were expecting the year 2008 to be better than its predecessors. Happiness of the new year didn't last long. It started with the markets crash during the mid of Jan.. followed by several economic downturns across the globe. After all the rise in prices and inflation, we were only able to see the downward slide of the global economy which was mainly due to the economic inefficiency of USA. I cant justify the word "inefficiency" used by me, because I feel that the events that occurred in US during the year triggered a chain of reactions across the globe which eventually resulted in a lot of turmoil. The oil prices played their part in the total downward slide of the global economy.

As it is said that small drops of water become an ocean, the economy of every country had its bad days during the year because of the small events which were not taken care of, like the sub prime crisis, the oil prices, etc etc.. which resulted in a Oceanic pressure the countries to act immediately to save their economies and also their countries. We saw global players like Merill Lynch and Lehman Brothers bite the dust because of the over speculations and optimism. These incidents created fear in every individual dependent on others for their daily earning. These resulted in companies incurring losses, which eventually triggered the job cuts across the globe. Almost every sector... from aviation, it/ites, banking to education, almost every sector faced a downfall.

We Indians were very optimistic about the growth of the country which was registering a GDP of 7-8 percent for the past 4 years. Everybody started speculating that even 2008 would be great for them. This resulted in increase of speculation and anticipation and eventually greed. People started their own ways of minting money whether its from the markets or from others. Everybody were dreaming of making huge profits from the stock markets and from the other businesses such as real estate and retailing. But they were shocked by the events that started occurring globally. These events not only stopped the growth of various sectors but also some of them saw a negative growth. All the aggressive players in the market started defending themselves. Suddenly everybody started realizing the importance of saving money. Everybody started looking at various options to park their money, so that they can be used during the times of distress. The sudden shock given by the job cuts across the major sectors of the country like airlines, IT etc etc, which were major contributors of the growth of various cities, added to the trouble. Growth rate started decreasing. The anticipated growth rate of 8% came down to 6% by the end of the year. Inspite of several steps taken by the government to control the downfall, the economy showed no signs of improvement. People feared to enter the stock market because they saw the SENSEX fall from 21,000 in Jan to 8,000 in October.

To add to all these headaches, India Inc faced a very serious issue, the terror attacks. We saw bombs being exploded across the country.. right from Rajasthan to Karnataka and from Gujarat to Assam. The terrorism reached its peak with the incidents of the Mumbai terror attacks. Many people thought that they were able to identify new definitions to terrorism.

With all the bitter experiences of the year, people would have thought that the new year would bring them better luck and prosperity unlike the year 2008. That is the reason why they stared partying early than normal in order to welcome the new year. How sure are they that the new year would bring them good luck? How sure are they that the events that occurred during 2008 would not repeat or even get worse in 2009. I agree that we should be optimistic about the future, but how optimistic can we be regarding the issues that we have dampened on our own. Many would not agree with my thought that we have degraded our own economy. Instead everybody would start the blame game saying that the global economy is the cause of these. If we would have played defensively and if we would not let greed control our thoughts, the effect of the down turn would have been reduced.

Let me explain the situation relating it to a cricket game. We can neither hit every ball for a six nor play every ball bowled can be played defensively. In both the ways, we cant win a game. Each and every ball should be analyzed properly and then it has to be played according to its credit. Loose balls can be hit for a six, but the tough ones.. should be given a thought. We should be prepared for the worst. Instead of doing these, we always expect that we should get the best of the lot. Is this optimism or "Over optimism"..?

Instead of reacting to the incidents, should we be proactive in our thoughts.? Instead of expecting that somebody would come and change our lives, why wont we mend our own minds and lives. The very old saying of "Prevention is better than cure" holds true here. Each and everybody is a contributor to the national and global economy. Each and every individual is a contributor to the national security. Unless and until we realize these, and contribute to our roles, we will remain in the same state even after several years, only with soaring prices and gloomy economic situations. Its better late than never. Realize these at least now.. :) ..

What does "Write an essay" mean.

What does "Write an essay" mean..? Can anybody answer that..? I was asked the same question many times during my examinations. I felt it as writing a long note about the things that we know about the topic that has been asked. I think many people has the similar kind of misapprehension about writing an essay. But I know a person who has defined "Writing an essay" in a different manner.

I appeared to many exams in hindi literature. Those exams were conducted by Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. There were a total of 8 levels in the exam which one has to pass, so that they can be certified as Hindi Pandits. I passed four of them, but didn't give them a thought there after.

When I was appearing for the first level of the exam, I had a friend, who was also appearing for the exam. That guy didn't knew anything about the exam. He applied for that at the last minute and appeared for the exam directly. He wasn't prepared to take the exam. The main reason for his appearance for the exam was to improve his Hindi skills, as he was poor in that. From the time we got to know that he was appearing for the exams, we were thinking of the guy who is going to correct his paper.

There was the question of writing an essay about any of the listed topics in the question paper. We were astonished as he was taking more and more additional answer sheets to answer the questions. We were very eager to know what he was writing. To our surprise, he was the one who has taken the most additional answer sheets among all the people who has written the exam. After finishing the exam, we all gathered near him and asked him, what topic made him write the most number of answer sheets. The reasons and the descriptions that he has given were the most humorous ones that I have ever heard.

As there were many topics listed in the essay writing section, my friend choose to write about Cinema. Instead of writing about topics like cinema's impact, its pros and cons, its effects on the society etc etc... he started writing a cinema story. That too in Telugu language in a Hindi examination. He described the whole of the cinema story in Telugu, together with the songs and dialogs. He wrote the whole of the film story and that made him take the maximum number of additional sheets. We all praised him for his sincerity in writing the exam and also encouraged in to become a film writer in the future.

School days......

Child hood.. the best days that anyone can ever get in their lives..... Those days when I eagerly waited to come out of school to play with my friends in the evening, those days when I desperately waited for the holidays so that I can move to my village and spend time over there, those days when I waited for the summer holidays to finish off, getting bored of playing in the heat and wanted to meet my friends once again and wanted to share the "summer achievements". I miss them all a lot.
My school... The great kurnool public school..... "KPS", to be short. It had several nick names appended to it. Some people called it " Khana, peena aur sona " and some called it " Kothi pillala school " (a school infected by monkeys). But, we used to defend ourselves expanding it as " Khoob padna aur seekhna ". May be we were a lot optimistic at that time. It had a great reputation in various regards, like studies (it should be, as it always topped the district rankings) and sports. Our batch which completed its SSC in 1998, is known as a team which is a master of all traits, coz it topped in studies as well as sports. I myself was a member of the football team which went to the finals of the inter school district competitions.
Exams.. forget about them. We never used to study, but we used to forge a lot. Right from leaking the question papers to replacing the answer sheets with new ones after the exam is finished, we had a style of our own. The main mastermind behind all these activities were the gang which was known for its forging activities. I too was a member of the same, but not an active participant. I was a tough competitor to get on with. The one thing that I want to let everyone know is that I was awarded a gold medal, for my work in the fields of arts and crafts and also for the setup of the crafts exhibition in my school, which was a grand success. With all those memories, certificates and achievements, I got on to my post school studies, which is called as intermediate...

About me

I am a very cool and casual guy. I take and think about the things in the most casual way. Taking things lightly doesn't mean that I am a person who doesn't care for anything or anybody. I take up the responsibility when it is needed the most and i am reputed for that. People think of only me in the times of despair. If you havent got anything nice to say about anybody, then you can always come and sit next to me.