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.. :) ..