The Year 2008

I guess am a wee bit late in coming out with this blog about the year gone by but, as they say better late than never. So here are some reflections on the past year that has been quite remarkable in more ways than one. Well to be utterly honest, what triggered this blog was a visit to good old Planet Etti and a chat with the inimitable Deepak sir who insisted on seeing a post from me very soon. But I should say that work on this post had begun a few days before the visit to ASB, after a reading of The Hindu’s Sunday Magazine. So here I go without further ado…
I have seen people use quite a few terms to describe the past year but I guess every word falls flat when you take into account the plethora of events that have taken place. It was truly a year which had its share of happiness and grief in equal measure. It was a year that saw the stock markets tumble and crash, a year that found global financial giants like Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers in murky waters. It was a year when the US had to pour billions of dollars into its sinking economy to save a number of big names like General Motors, AIG & Citigroup. It was also a year when an Illinois Senator with a Muslim middle name and a multi- racial background took the world by storm by becoming the first black president of the USA.
2008 also saw the word terrorism take on a much more dangerous and sinister meaning. A year that saw a bunch of guys with a few AK-47’s and hand grenades bring the great city of Mumbai to its knees. It proved yet again how unsafe our cities are and how ill- prepared our nation is to tackle such situations. Indian’s have been known to be a very resilient lot but this time around Mumbai was truly enraged with the way the entire incident was handled by the politicians and the media. The year saw a blatant disregard for something that the Indian media seems to have almost forgotten - media ethics. While the entire hostage drama was played out, the only thing the media seemed to be interested in was getting the juiciest stories with an almost inhuman disregard for the people held hostage. The year also saw a series of bomb blasts rock the nation starting with Rajasthan moving onto Bangalore and the Gujarat. Religious violence reared its ugly head yet again this year in the nation that prides itself on its secular nature. The Kandhamal violence was a silent testimony to this.
On a positive side the year saw India’s moon mission turning a spectacular success. A quite chap with a trigger happy finger bagged the billion strong nation’s first ever individual Olympic gold and took the focus off the gentleman’s game for a little while. Yet another man made history in black and white in Bonn by being crowned the king of chess. Yet another Indian bagged a Man Booker with a rambling but thoroughly distorted (according to critics) account of India. CERN, the European research organization made famous by Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” unveiled the biggest experiment in the history of physics- the Large Hadron Collider.
Quite a year isn’t it? And before I sign off on a personal note this year saw batch 2006-08 of ASB “officially” becoming MBA graduates although I must say the times are not rosy for a management grad. Anyways, all the very best to everyone, especially to my juniors. Don’t be bogged down by the bleak sentiment in my post or the depressing market conditions. Trust me landing a job is not a measure of your true worth. And like someone once said “You are not what you are in times of hardship, you are better than that”. Good luck and a happy new year.