The Goldman Story

The whole Goldman story has been nothing short of a Bollywood potboiler over the past couple of years. And the best part is that there are no good guys and bad guys here. The more the saga unfolds, the more interesting it looks! But it has brought to the fore the very duplicitous nature of business and regulation, both!

When the whole sub-prime season was on, Goldman beat the Street, so to say. And suddenly people were looking to Goldman to lead the way and show the world how business is done despite a slump in the sector, and a slump in the economy. The CEO was lauded, the world looked in awe as Citigroup was brought down to its knees and almost nationalized and Merill was rescued by the Government and BofA, while in the midst of this carnage, Goldman kept looking extremely strong.

And while all this has been happening, comes news that the CDOs that Goldman had been marketing had underlying instruments that had been chosen by Paulson & Co. a hedge fund that had intentions of shorting these same securities. The implication? Imagine sailing on the high seas in a boat knowing that the boat had a hole in the hull! And now, after the SEC has sued them and there has been sufficient hue and cry over the lack of governance laws, there has been an out of court settlement of sorts. The heads won't roll, the penalty will be at $550 million, and the core issue has now been reduced to a lack of completeness of marketing materials. All this, after Goldman initially denied any of these allegations. How then suddenly did they acquiesce to a settlement at all?

And then comes the insider aspect. Stephen Friedman, former Goldman Chairman and then audit committee chairman was accused of picking up Goldman shares when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve. All this while the Government was busy bailing out AIG and paying people caught in AIG's tentacles. So while the Fed clearly perhaps knew that such a bailout was imminent, they perhaps also knew that Goldman would be a key benefactor! How then could Friedman pick up shares that resulted in him netting a cool $3 mn in paper profits? The case is feeble, since they are looking at a possible exception. But reasoning begs that one understand how a legal exception can preclude common sense! Even if the law allows it because of a loophole, wouldn't a Fed Chief who knows about an imminent windfall not be making use of this inside information when he nets a cool profit through this benefactor? Another lapse in judgment came when another former director let slip news of Berkshire Hathway's $5 bn investment in Goldman. At least he didn't stand for re-election to the board!

While all this has been happening, people have wondered about the law. On one hand, one can see glaring errors of judgment. But they can also see massive loopholes in the law that allow one to simply commit the transgression and still skip away free. So who is the bad guy here? The transgressors themselves, for not having a conscience? Or the lawmakers for leaving laws so lax? We can argue both ways. One can say that transgressors will always exist. And it is up to the regulators to ensure that they don't run riot. But then, what happened to the Classical theory of Economics, that needs the least Governmental intervention? Can that theory effectively be put to rest having fallen prey to the machinations of the human mind?

The debate will forever go on. But till then, the media will have a circus to pry on. Had Merill not gone under, someone would have covered John Thain's multi million dollar loo as a Wall Street Heirloom, rather than glossing over the 'John Fiddled while Wall Street burned' image of Thain. But I guess this is indeed the flip side of capitalism - amazingly good as long as the going is great, but at the ebb of gloom when things go a bit awry.

Football and the European Crisis

Once upon a time, there was a colony of ants that was slogging it out on a hot sunny afternoon collecting and stocking up on food. While the ants were toiling thus, a grasshopper who was making merry and singing away to glory. The grasshopper ridiculed the ants and their toils in the hot boiling sun, while the ants just kept about their job. In a few months, winter set in. The ants were happy eating the stocked food, in the warmth of their ant hills. Suddenly there was a knock on their door, and the grasshopper was outside, asking for some food. The ants replied, "You sang all summer and didn't show foresight. You made fun of our work, so now spend winter dancing."

A fiercely capitalist ideology would perhaps hold on to this notion of pure meritocracy. Indeed the whole concept of 'too big to fail', that has been dealt with at length in several news articles over the past couple of years and also mentioned several times right here on the lilac avenue is criticized by economists. They are of the view that this whole backing of large corporations by the government or bailing them out of bankruptcy is in a way condoning their faults and gross mismanagement. And that gives a signal to industry that once you bloat up in size, it's your way or the highway.

So when Greece teetered on the brink of collapse, and several Eurozone nations looked rather precarious, (they were called the PIGS - Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain), people started worrying about the Euro. They looked towards Germany that has been steamrolling its way towards becoming a strong force to reckon with. Their laws are robust. Their industry is solid. Other statistics are strong as well. Indeed, having paid reparations through 2 World Wars, battling hyperinflation and having almost a generation of people wiped out thanks to the wars, taught them the fine art of fiscal balance and thrift. So they didn't go about borrowing and spending their way to progress. They were the ants in this story!

The PIGS were the grasshopper. Greece is rumored to have debts = 150% of their GDP. Thrift or spendthrift? And so, when all hell began to break loose, and people started looking at the country, they realized that this bubble needed to burst. Having burnt their fingers once through the sub-prime balloon that looked bright and yellow for a while, before a ghastly blast, people realized that the kind of social security measures, the benefits, the lax labor laws, all were pointing towards economies that were living way beyond their means. So they dropped Greece as if their hands were smeared with grease! And pretty soon, IGS followed.

The world worried whether Germany, whose progress looked like it was in a way not being allowed to reach it's full potential thanks to being bogged down by the Euro, might want to break away and restart with the Deutsche Mark. It looked like a very tantalizing proposition. Indeed there were discussions happening to that effect! But then, here being fiercely capitalist and meritocratic may not really be the right option. A corporation is one model and a country is yet another. A corporation can fail, and cause temporary pain to some people, maybe even an industry, resulting in long term gains achieved through improved legislation and measures. But if a country like Greece failed, or rather was allowed to fail by Germany, Germany would have faced dire consequences. Germany's growth is to a large extent dependent on exports, especially to other European countries. So, if one of those countries failed, Germany would lose a large chunk of her GDP! So in a way, condoning the past follies of these countries and propping them up, seems like the best option for the greater good of European humanity.

That said, in a way Spain winning the FIFA World Cup is good news. No doubt Casillas and Co are a happy lot, having won Spain's maiden World Cup. The mood in Spain is upbeat too. Rafa won the French Open and Wimbledon after a one year hiatus. And now Spain has the World Cup. So people would be happy. Happy people perhaps would spend, and boost confidence in their economies and that might just be the point where the European economy turned the corner towards the good! Weird thought, but worth the cogitation, right?

Crash and Burn

As if the woes facing the airline industry are not enough, we now have one of India's worst air crashes since over a decade to add to the list of issues. It is more like the recession of 2008. Bear Stearns went down, followed by Lehman, and then a whole slew of institutions went belly up. And just as the world was trying to emerge out of the turmoil thanks to a cartload of bailout packages and hand holding, Dubai screamed out for help. Then Greece, which threatened to set the world on fire!

What is really sinister is the fact that there was yet another crash in Libya on the 12th of May, hardly 10 days back. Again a crash at Tripoli, soon after landing. Last seen, there still was no clear idea of why the crash happened. And now again, at Managlore, just after touchdown. Some ideas being floated are that the aircraft's tyre burst, the plane hit a pole, broke, and skidded into a ravine. But the real cause is still unknown.

The discussions and theories abound. People blame the pilot. They give ideas on what else could have been done. Like he could have just taken off again, circled and come back. Why didn't he do that? No one knows what happened in those last few minutes before the crash, and it is quite stupefying, since the pilot was indeed a very experienced captain, and errors are typically not expected of such experienced pilots. The question still remains.

But in the interim, what will ensue is a dirty blame game, with the airline blaming amenities, ministries blaming airlines, victims' families blaming everyone. The solution? Well, one must realize that while embarking on a journey in the high skies, you must be ready for the worst consequence. No one would crash a plane on purpose and so, perhaps any underlying issue would need to be looked at. Are the pilots' working conditions not conducive to their composure while flying? Are they being stressed out? Can any other precautions be taken in such airports that are on top of ravines, or abutting sea coasts, like say in case of Vizag and Goa? A lot perhaps needs to be done, and unless some clear steps are taken, I am sure the airline industry would be staring in the face of several more controversies that sure do not help its prospects!

The more humane side of justice

There has been a lot of hue and cry on a new judgment passed by the US department of Justice. The decision involves the scrapping of a punishment - life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for juveniles in crimes that do not involve the taking of a life. On the face of it, it looks cruel to imprison a child for life without the possibility of parole. Think about it. Kids at ages below 18 are considered too immature to buy alcohol, too immature to vote for a government. So, how can one decide that they will never reform themselves ever? How can someone decide that the crimes that they have committed should have a punishment that makes them bitter for life? Everyone has a right to reform themselves and everyone has the right to a second chance, right?

Usually some juveniles, fall into the wrong ways from a very young age. Not their fault, perhaps, since they may have grown up on the streets, or may have been raised by addicts, other offenders, and may have had to participate in crimes to save their own lives or protect themselves from abuse. At such a time, they perhaps are so brazen towards rights and wrongs that they can't quite distinguish them. Or rather they can't realize that what they're doing is wrong. That is their immaturity. Take the case of children who have been accomplices in an armed robbery. The reason why they participated can be anything - fear, joblessness, lack of education, or just some way to earn some money. They get caught and they are tried. Suppose they are repeat offenders in such misdemeanors, because of which, when found guilty, they're put into a juvenile delinquent's prison. The idea is that they undergo some sort of reformation while in prison. But what if they come in contact with worse criminals? Maybe kids who've committed murder? At those impressionable ages, the wrong impression gets formed first. And society is perhaps better off not letting such newly formed criminals out.

But that does not mean that their chance at clemency should be withdrawn. The kids can be checked regularly, their psychological growth can be measured. But more importantly, while such a scrapping of a punishment brings forth the more humane side of the justice system, one must think of reforming prisons as well. They should be a correctional facility in the real sense of the word and not a dirty marsh that breeds further crime.

Mental health - a ticking bomb for the emerging world

Speaking of mental health, the number of news pieces on flash, gory violence, murders, suicides is definitely on the rise. On one side, terrorism is wiping out people by the hundreds. Civilians caught in the crossfire of anti-terror missions is again killing people. And adding to that list now - the criminally insane.

Yet another spate of killings at a Chinese school. No sane person would want to go on a killing rampage in school filled with helpless children. But what perturbed the perpetrator so much so as to want to kill so many children, I can't understand. Then again, what are the authorities doing against such crimes? Yesterday came news of the finding of a beheaded corpse of a boy in Pune, India. Again, the cause of such a devilish act is unknown, but no sane person would have the mind to do something so sick. Day after day news of devilish murders, suicides, cases of people killing all family members before killing themselves, incestuous acts, all really bring to the fore a gory reality.

Countries like India and China with a humongous population that is growing fast in numbers and also economically will soon be faced with growing numbers of diseases of the mind. Now, mental diseases do not begin and end with insanity as is childishly depicted in several of our Hindi movies. They do not just involve people dressed in ragged clothes, with unkempt hair and acting weird. The issues go deeper. Schizophrenia which involves hallucinations, and a disconnect between oneself and the real world is one such example. The patients may look normal, unless hit by a bout which if left untreated will result in the patient internalizing the split personality. Depression is another major disorder, which is always hushed away. In extreme cases, when left untreated, the patient develops bipolar disorder or a state which leaves him/her with extreme emotions - deep sorrow at the smallest of issues, and delirious happiness the very next instant. Rage is yet another issue, which results in spur of the moment crimes. I can see for myself in a megapolis like Mumbai, people so angry with crowds, traffic snarls, losing their temper, and allowing their anger go on a crescendo in a war of words. How all this will shape up going further, I do not know.

Some of these disorders are actually illnesses. Just like a headache or a broken leg which can be physically seen and felt, these are disorders which reside in the mind, and play frightful games with the victims. The victims suffer too, but more often than not, their suffering are seldom ever appreciated by the sane man. Why? They just don't understand the disease. A lack of awareness is the criminal here. Also, some cultural aspects kick in here as well. Many-a-time, in smaller villages, where access to proper sophisticated medical apparatus is missing, people rely on the local physician. I personally know of a maid of mine, who having had several personal problems got afflicted with depression. We tried to get her to a proper psychiatrist here. But her family was vehement in wanting to take her home to her village, where she had been told that she had been possessed by a ghost! The solution? I can only guess here, based on what I've read and the treatment involves hitting the patient, and giving them painul burns with hot iron rods. Brutal and stupid indeed. But again, when facilities are unavailable, the rural physicians don't have a clue either! It is a sorry state of affairs indeed.

And then again some of these disorders like say rage, are man-made. The usual suspect - stress. The race to the top, for the best house, the best car, the best education for your kids, the best vacation, the race to be on top in the showing off game is turning into a nightmare. People are forever in a hurry to go somewhere, just the where is a mystery to everyone. The frivolity of a life lived on the fast lane is lost on everyone till it is too late.

So, one thing that countries like India and China would be immensely benefitted by, going forward would be augmenting awareness about mental health issues, and also strengthening the mental health apparatus in the nation. Till then, God save those whose minds have wandered off into a dark place.

Pannas Varsha of Mazha Maharashtra (50 years of my Maharashtra)

There is a huge hullabaloo outside, that Maharashtra, my state is all of 50 years old. Today is May Day, Labor Day, Maharashtra Day. A day that marks the event where Maharashtra was given the status of being an independent state, disjoint from Gujarat. It was given a special place, as being for the Marathi speaking Indian. Ok. The papers have screamed their heads out about the struggle, especially around the mill areas of Lalbaug and Parel in Mumbai, where in total 105 lives were laid down in the demand for a separate state.

Sitting in Mumbai today, I really wonder what the deal is all about. Through the past one year, I had a ringside seat in the middle of a similar struggle for Telengana, where people were fighting to have the state split into 3 -AP, Rayalseema and Telengana. What the issues were, that pushed the people into demanding the trifurcation of AP, I perhaps won't really understand, since I moved out of the city within a year. People who have lived in AP told me then, that the whole movement was political and somewhere some of the common men didn't even want it!

MP broke into Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh. Bihar broke into Bihar and Jharkhand. Maoism is on the rise in Jharkhand. What is the whole funda behind wanting a separate state? Yes, May 1st was a well looked forward to holiday at work, but what has changed? Gujarat is steamrolling towards progress with several huge companies setting up shop there. Maharashtra continues to be one of the most prosperous states, thanks to Mumbai. I love my city and my state, and the cardinal love of unconditional love is to be able to see the faults too.

So Mumbai is growing. We have a Mumbai-Pune expressway, a Bandra-Worli sea link, a bunch of metros blooming, the best rail network in India, the best public road transport infrastructure in India. But that is Mumbai's story. We also have the notoriety of still having farmer suicides in Vidarbha and interior Maharashtra. Somewhere in between, there had been a demand for a separate state of interior Maharashtra as well. Will that solve the problem of drought, poverty and a crumbling infrastructure? Maoism and dacoity also show up in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. Growth, clearly has not been inclusive. Movements against north Indians, non-Maharashtrians keep cropping up every now and then. But again, mainly concentrated around the political hub of Mumbai.

Yes, my state is all of 50 years old. A lot has been achieved. I couldn't be prouder of being a Mumbaikar. But somewhere in between, maybe the winners have been chosen over the laggards and the support has pulled the winners all along, leaving the laggards to languish somewhere at the bottom. We do have a lot to be proud of as a state. But we also have a lot to achieve as a united state.

IPL. Period

A couple of years back, the whole world was talking about the Indian Premier League. For all the right reasons. Today everyone is talking about IPL, for all the wrong reasons. The frachise has gone from glitzy to sleazy within the snap of one's fingers and even now, the papers are filled with stories as more muck comes to the fore.

So, we've had a roller coaster ride, with Twitter being the central character here. One Union Minister, perhaps new to murky Indian politics, was consumed by the seasoned alligators of Indian politics and business, but not before the media made a spectacle of his in-office and alleged out-of-office life. Some lady who was living her own life was also splashed across the front pages of newspapers. Some other ministers vowed and swore that they had nothing to do with the whole IPL muck, only to meekly squeak out a possibly remote connection. The kind of money that has moved hands and accounts between every available tax haven is obscene and one wonders what one person would do with that amount of money. I can't build a shopping list with even the wildest of my imagination - private jet : check, BMW : check, a palace for a house, chalets in the French Riviera, and I could go on, but yet not exhaust all that money. But then again, maybe that's why common people seldom ever end up with that kind of money. And finally, we had Mr Lalit Modi make a charged up speech at the final presentation ceremony, making everyone wonder why this speech here. We got our answers the next day in the papers - Because he was suspended!

What does all this mean for a simple observer on the outside? Well, cricket has always held the imagination of the Indian population. Now, the IPL was a welcome change on the Indian television, a way out of the drab soap operas that had stultified the Indian imagination. People had a reason to rush out of work and head home to cheer for their state team or for their favorite player. There was a topic to talk about by the coffee machine the next morning at work. So, with the franchise mired in controversy, does it change anything for the average Indian? If we just walk past the roadside chaiwallah, we get to hear the opinion of the aam aadmi. And in one of my walks, I came across a discussion on the IPL brouhaha. One chap blatantly said, “Who doesn’t get involved in corruption these days? Construction companies, businessmen, everyone is involved and the common man is not so stupid as to not know of the existence of such misdemeanors. But what can you do? Just take it as a way of life and any anomaly over and beyond the existing corruption should raise eyebrows. This is everyday stuff indeed”. True. Every business has its own fair share of skeletons in the closet. This business involved top political honchos. This business involved wayyy to much money. This business had managed to capture the imagination of almost the entire Indian population. Decidedly, the magnitude of the corruption should also be large enough to match, right? So everyone is a winner here. The sport of cricket has found another interesting avenue. The initiators of this enterprise have made bundles and bundles of money. Politicians have gotten more than their 15 seconds of fame. Media has gotten itself a really juicy story that it can enjoy for quite a while and the Indian population stands to benefit the most. On one hand, we have cricket, always a pleasure and on the other hand, we have gossip and scandal, another topic that manages to scintillate the human mind. Yes, ethics have gone for a full toss. But hey, tell me something new.

Eyjafjallajo...KULL THE CONQUEROR!!!

On Saturday, this was a tiny snippet in BBC and a tiny one liner in the papers. That such a blink-and-you'll-miss-it piece of news could bring 27000 flights a day to a grinding halt, cripple an already debilitated airline industry, strand passengers all over the globe, give the jitters to anyone traveling towards that part of the world, was unimaginable to say the least!

The other day, I was telling a friend about this volcano that has erupted in Iceland. I typed out the name to her - Eyjafjallajokull. Her response was - 'Please turn the webcam towards the kid who's playing with your keyboard!' Yup. No one knew about this poor volcano till date. I never knew volcanoes existed under the ice in a country called ICELAND! But now I know. And I know so very well, that I could never forget it even if I so wished! So, ***** Kull the conqueror, as I'd rather call it, has managed to throw a whole world into disarray. Several things are coming to the fore thanks to this volcano.

One - Europe is still the center of the world. The other day, I was stuck at a level crossing in Mumbai. I was on the road and the gates were lowered to signal the arrival of a train. To get to my destination, I had to cross those railway tracks and move on. While I waited, anxiously looking at the watch, knowing I was running 20 minutes late, I kept looking at the tracks. Almost 7 trains went past in quick succession. And I wondered - Had I not been standing here, I never would have realized the fact that so many trains ply on that line! Likewise, it takes a volcano to realize that 27,000 flights ply the European airspace per day! Even though Africa is not too far away from Europe, it is almost unimaginable to think of Dubai airport supplanting Heathrow, let alone Entebbe or the airport of Cote d'Ivoire!

Second, a non-third world passport is a boon in such a case. I saw a small report on BBC today, where a correspondent on holiday somewhere in Europe. Hearing about the volcano, he tried to go via road back to London. Not being able to rent a car there, he crossed the border to the neighboring country and hired a car there and drove down to Barcelona, from whence he spoke to BBC! I can only imagine what would happen to someone holding an Indian passport being stuck in Heathrow. I guess the maximum that can happen would be that the BA guys, out of goodwill could let the passengers to go on a transit visa to an airport hotel. Maybe some may not be given that advantage either! As an Australian friend remarked one day, his passport was of use in traveling, without a visa in Europe, North America and a greater part of LatAm, since it was a valid ID. His Indian wife's passport on the other hand, was of precious little use. So, any Europe - wide travel plans he may have had were pitifully scuttled by the prospect of having to stand in never-ending queues for his wife's visas!!!

So Kull has taught us a lot. And now that the lessons are over, I sincerely wish Kull cools down and let's the planes fly.

The life and times of Sania Mirza...

So, the toast of the town is the Sania-Shoaib wedding. Given that a tiny event of two people getting married has had a saga of sorts woven around it making it look like a rerun of the Bold and the Beautiful, I guess the Nikah did indeed need to finally have a climactic ending!

So we have the groom, a disgraced Pakistani cricketer, who is known more for his politically incorrect statements and terrible English and we have the bride who is known more for the number of hornets' nests she has raked up than for her tennis skills. And the result - A story that has more punch in it than perhaps any other movie that has been released in theaters over the past one month!

Now, we know quite a bit about Sania. She won the girls' singles Wimbledon and shot to fame. India finally seemed to have found some strength in a sport other than cricket. But unfortunately the spark did not last. But the craving for fame did! So, controversies surrounding her clothes, her dressing sense at India's Olympic parade at China in 2008, and goodness knows what else surfaced. Then she declared that she would stop playing for India since she did not feel wanted here. There was a huge press conference for this and she grabbed a few headlines again. Then there was talk of her planning to wed her childhood sweetheart, and then news again of the cancellation of that plan. And then finally news of this whole cross-border love affair. Then the whole drama surrounding Mr. Malik, whose mystery wife surfaced out of nowhere, conveniently just weeks before he planned to tie the knot. Then the hue and cry that surrounded this story with our groom vehemently denying it all, only to meekly submit and divorce the hapless woman. Then finally the drama ended with a pre-poned nikah, in an attempt to beat papparazzi. I am sure Karan Johar can build his next tear-jerker around this and call it an action-packed romance.

And if I may, I would love to add some creative frills here. So imagine. Our tennis prodigy is our symbol of peace. Like several of our filmstars campaigned during elections, that they were so-and-so state ki beti and so-and-so state ki bahu, Ms Mirza-Malik can now say that she is an Indian-Pakistani. A perfect symbol of 'aman ki aasha'! And then she could suddenly say - ' Now I don't know which country to play for, India or Pakistan'. So whether this story is picked up by some Bollywood producer or not, I am sure that in the years to come, Sania Times will not end, and as usual, Sania Times will have a lot less to do with unforced errors, winners, backhands and double faults and a lot to do with everything else!

Sociopaths on the loose - Maoist Massacre - II

Flanked by China. Chinese goods in our markets. China snooping on our secrets. And now Chinese doctrines causing severe loss of human life in India. Can it get any worse? Except for colonization, I guess we are being sufficiently Chinisized!!

So, yesterday, another lot of CRPF Jawans lost their lives to Maoist rebels at Dantewada in Chhatisgarh. Sitting miles away, I have the benefit of an outsider's view and I see the gross frivolity in it all. How will killing CRPF Jawans bring Maoists freedom, growth or whatever end they want. The whole problem, I agree lies in non-uniform and non-inclusive growth. The basis of the whole idea of Maoism in India - an armed conflict against the landed class was an uprising against inequality between land-owners and landless laborers. Reforms have come through, but one must realize that the process of ensuring all-inclusive growth is a slow one. It will take time and there are several impediments along the way. We are a democracy and consensus takes a lot of time. Now, all central governments do not achieve their mandate in entirety. But does that mean that all of us should procure illegal arms and go on a killing spree in the nearest police station???? No matter how noble the ends may be, the means used by these cowards in no way justify those ends.

Who is answerable to the families of those jawans? Could those jawans have gotten those Maoists their 'freedom', 'or whatever nonsensical need' they had? And by killing them, are they any closer to their goal? Take a piece of bamboo and try bending it. It may deflect a bit. Keep putting pressure on it and it will break into two. Neither would it help you, nor would it help itself. Beyond a point, reliance on force will cause the opponent to become stiff and safeguard his own ego and refuse to give in. And who is accountable for the lives lost in the crossfire? Generations have been wiped out in clashes in Sudan, or in the war between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, and closer home, between the government and the LTTE! Did any of these warring factions achieve their end? No. Did any of them take responsibility for the lost lives? No. Did anyone see the frivolity of these mindless clashes? NO!

I ask, if I can see the frivolity in this violence, why can't the perpetrators themselves see the same? And then again, maybe those perpetrators lack the IQ and the EQ. Why are our defence forces always underprepped? Take Mumbai police in 26/11. Take CRPF v/s Maoists. We know we're dealing with psychopaths, sociopaths, people who belong to an asylum. Then why on earth do we send 'sons of our soil' on suicide missions? Why do we keep repeating our 1857 uprising, where we fought gun-wielding British with swords, bows and arrows?

Every time I hear about Maoist extremism, I develop a sense of disgust. Fine, so you lack economic progress. Killing innocent people suddenly catapults you into higher echelons of society? Blind killing of civilians results in economic progress? Ambushing and killing security personnel results in growth? And worse, this nonsense is happening in the land of Mahatma Gandhi. With enemies like these within the country, who wants external terrorists????

3 cheers to collective human IQ

Today is momentous, since a 106 year old mathematical problem has been solved. The field of mathematics has somehow intrigued me all these years, since I associate math with the highest level of profundity. Physics and chemistry study tangible entities. Put a pellet of sodium into water and you will get sodium hydroxide, although accompanied by an explosion. Forces of attraction, in physics are measurable by finite formulae set forth by a genius who, ages ago was not hungry enough to eat an apple that fell on his head. But math is such that you see numbers, equations, an elegant sigma or an integration sign and these abstruse symbols hold together the foundations of everything known to mankind.

So, the Poincare conjecture is a concept floated in topology. The original statement in 1904 was - 'Consider a compact 3-dimensional manifold V without boundary. Is it possible that the fundamental group of V could be trivial, even though V is not homeomorphic to the 3-dimensional sphere?' In other words, consider a connected, 3 dimensional, finite sized, boundary-less space. Now, in this space consider loops, like rubber bands. If these rubber bands are slid down this space, thus continuously tightening them to a point, then the enclosed space is a three dimensional sphere! And Grigoriy Perelman proved that this is indeed the case. Alliteration, anyone? Poincare solved by Perelman! And why is this momentous? Well, there are 7 millennium problems, each carrying a million dollar award. Now there are just 6 more for the taking. Existential questions in the field of mathematics are slowly being solved, and somehow it makes me feel really proud that our human race is getting progressively sharper. Imagine, 106 years ago, a genius put forth a thought, a concept and 106 years and several mathematicians later, this has been proven! Collective human IQ has been proven to have been boosted by several 1000 points today!

What strikes me more starkly, is the fact that the problem has been solved by a genius who is perceived to be eccentric, and a recluse! Think Mozart, Van Gogh, Nikolai Gogol, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky - geniuses in their own right, consumed by a disillusion, overwhelmed by their talent that made them reclusive. Maybe it is something in their cognitive structure that makes all of civil society look trivial, as a mathematician would say. It is rather ironic that the world wished to fete a true genius for his brains and his commitment and contribution, and he who is supposed to be at the receiving end, sees the inherent worthlessness of the felicitation, since he is way beyond such temporal, trivial matters! And in a way, his respectability somehow shoots several notches higher!

I can't help but mention the movie 'Goodwill Hunting', which back then introduced me to the concept of the 'Field's medal', the equivalent of a Nobel in Math - there is no Nobel Prize for math, btw. Seemingly abstruse problems, in the movie, are solved by a genius janitor played by Matt Damon, who is simply brilliant, and lacks the gentility that goes with scholarship. And as happens in the movie, true genius shines through no matter what, and finds what it looks for. And the world that till then is too busy caught up in designing codes of conduct, sits up and takes notice when genius stands up and suddenly proves that societal mores and codes of conduct are the last things on its mind!

So we passed the Women's Bill... So what??

So, we passed the bill for Women's reservation in the upper house of parliament. Yay!! Ok, now that the rejoicing is done, let's look at the story. Rediff had a good piece giving the gist of this whole hullabaloo. Why people are against it and why it is a good step. Our PM says that the passage of the bill shows that in India democracy is still alive.

But let's look at it this way. It took 14 years to see daylight. Why? Because ruling coalitions were afraid to push the bill for fear of hurting dissenters who incidentally were on the ruling coalition. And back then, most of our time in Parliament was spent in no-confidence motions! So, every time a government tried to push for the bill, it faced dissent from within and it had to scuttle the bill for fear of scuttling the government! The usual process is - introduce the bill in the Lower house - the Lok Sabha, get approval and then go to the Rajya Sabha and then back to the Lok Sabha. Having faced obstacles at each and every step while trying the Lok Sabha, this time, the Government got smart and introduced it first in the Rajya Sabha. The dramas in the lower house are still to come.

We need to note that the RS is still an elitist house, since members are not elected, but rather appointed. So, passage here, actually does not mean much! Yes, the elite part of society sees the benefits of reservation for women. They are educated and so may be expected to stay away from the sways of political groupthink! May.. I am not sure, but this is my guess, based on the membership of the house. The Lok Sabha, in comparison, is larger in number, it has a greater proportion of dissenting members, and in the past, the dramas in the Lok Sabha have been LEGENDARY! So, I feel, that the crux is yet to be reached. Yes, it is a step in the right direction, and something at least, which has not been achieved this far has been achieved.

Yet the question remains, why the dissent? The model has worked as we've seen at the Panchayat and local self-government levels. I am traditionally not someone who supports reservations, but when situations are so lopsided, as to not allow a certain faction of society to find its true calling, reservations are necessary. Just like how, beyond a threshold, affirmative action was necessary to make life livable for African Americans! Just like how, after years of condemnation, reservation managed to bring some glimmer of hope for Dalits in India. Although that part has been grossly exploited politically of late. So, reserving seats for women, would certainly empower women at large. They have an empathetic ear to voice their concerns to.

But on the other hand, you can have a man and a woman from a certain area contesting for 2 seats. Think Laloo and Rabri contesting for 2 different seats in Bihar. Both win. No prizes for guessing the direction of policies in that scenario. Unless the bill is made water-tight, preventing any form of exploitation, the process could fall flat. Women in households in North India, are already suppressed. It wouldn't be hard to imagine a time when despite reservation, a woman MP is a dummy thumb-printing a personal agenda of her husband's in Parliament. Yes, that is a gory thought, and one needs to factor all of these into law making.

But Indian democracy is young, and we learn every step of the way. Till the bill gets passed in the Lok Sabha and gets ratified by the states, the job is as well as unfinished. Even after passing the bill, we need to proactively guard against exploitation and the media certainly has a responsible role to play in the same. But till then - a good start and a strong hope for the future defines the state as of now.

Int'l Women's Day 2010 - Does it really make any sense?

Last year my article was stark - talking about how women's liberation was miles away in India. And it's International Women's Day again - 10 years into the new millenium. Yet again, people are going ga-ga over the whole phenomenon of 'Women's day'. Facebook is full of status updates with people wishing their female friends a happy Women's day. Women themselves saying - 3 cheers to women empowerment and so on. Yes, we've come a long way. From being disenfranchised and restricted to the house, to running Fortune 500 companies, the woman has indeed come a long way. Texts and references nowadays, always refer to a pronoun as 'she' and never 'he'. I am not a ideologue. But I just feel that having one day to rejig our memories that women were once upon a time supressed and so need emancipation and liberation, according to me, speaks volumes about where we stand as regards gender equality. I am not a feminist. The very fact that I need to keep declaring that I am not a feminist, shows the disdain associated with espousing the cause of the woman! And all these factors really don't make me think that women are looked upon with equal respect as men, in today's world.

So, the topic of today in the news is the Women's 33% reservation bill in parliament. The timing honestly seems too coincidental. And as paranoid as I may sound, coincidence is one thing I don't really give too much credence to (Thank you Jason Bourne). So... now, move over minority religious communities, the target is the woman. As if what they have had to endure for so long has not been enough, the reservation in legislature bill is also dragged into the open. When I first heard about the bill, I was stumped, for in school I'd learned that 33% of seats are reserved for women. What I learned now, was that this bill sought to enforce the same across all levels of government. And I guess it is a step in the right direction.

In one of our visits to some parts of rural India for a project, we found that those local self government bodies that had ample representation of women, actually prospered. And there was an anthropological reason to this fact. Simple, the rural men were used to alcoholism, and the women were used to being exploited. Savings would be squandered on alcohol and the woman had to endure. The minute they found a presence in the Panchayat, law enforcement became possible. If the Sarpanch's wife was on the Panchayat as well, the women had a powerful ear to listen to them. Education was being supported, development was coming through. The model has been tested and it works. Then why the disapproval of a formal law?

Why is 'equal opportunity for all genders' still so difficult to enforce? Why is talent not appreciated regardless of gender? If we can look at talent beyond economic status,why is gender still a bias? Why is the 'upper hand' of the man so insecure as to not want to allow the woman to shine through? These Whys have somehow never found an answer. Any woman who sets out to find an answer to these questions is branded a feminist. And a feminist tag carries with it the notion of an inherent bias and inherently biased voices are seldom if every heard!

The situation is poor. The woman has to be subservient even now. Granted family has requirements that are met only by the woman. But I personally feel that that is for the woman to decide. Whether she wants to work and manage a family, whether she wants to be a maid servant or an aaya at a school is for her to decide. Whether she wants to be a corporate honcho or a scientific researcher or a school teacher who can work at her kids' school is for her to decide.

Now this incident is truly ironic. Maid servants are tough to come by in Mumbai city. Especially the good ones. I happened to have a good maid servant who surprisingly showed some ethics towards work. AWOL was not in her vocabulary and that was great news for us! So, one day I got to talking to her, and she said that she had studied till grade 12. I asked her why she didn't go work in an office as a minor clerk or typist or any other role that would justify her literacy. She said in a plaid tone, that her husband did not want her to have a secure job. It's anybody's guess why her husband, a daily wage laborer did not want his comparatively more qualified wife to have a better 'social standing'. But she was happy that she was at least able to come to work and earn a living outside of the house. Then one day a couple of weeks ago, she stopped coming. When she finally came to collect her settlement money, her explanation was - 'My husband did not want me to go and work. He got a job as a contract laborer at a construction site for a whole year. He said that he was competent enough to support me and and that his house did not need a woman's income. So, I stopped coming.'

As long as this is the attitude towards women of all social strata, I guess all we'd do is put up messages on FB and wish each other a shallow happy Women's day. I still look forward to the March 8th, where the post on this blog would be cheerful and optimistic. Amen!

Tiger

This has been one helluvan eventful weekend indeed! And yes, Tiger has been in the middle of it all as well. There are just 1411 left, the hoarding claims, and today's papers spoke of 2 more that succumbed. So, 1409 pieces of our National Animal! I just wonder. If this is the fate of our national animal, what could be the fate of all other species in India?

Hoardings, TV ads scream out - 'SAVE THE TIGER'. The idea is to spread awareness amongst our people, about the plight of the tiger. But you know what? Those who need to know, know. The poachers know that the numbers are dwindling. But Chinese medicine demands a killed, mutilated tiger. And how does it matter? Some random animal is killed for medicine. After all, a human being would be cured, only to go on and pillage the environment further. Ok, I may sound harsh. But there are always alternative routes to co-exist, right? If Chinese medicine exterminates a species in totality, tomorrow, this same tiger-parts driven cure would need to move to something else. Why not move to that something else before Stripey loses its mom?

But I guess, we can blame this on the very nature of humanity. I allude to the movie Avatar - (pop culture drives points across more effortlessly). So, the huge red bird, in the movie is a predator and slays the smaller birds, which are the Navi peoples' mounts. So, the princess makes a comment, that the red bird never looks up, since it is never the prey. And this point is used by our hero to tame the red bird and win the peoples' respect as the movie pulls on. So, my point is, that the human race has never been plundered and preyed upon by a more superior species. And yes, this feeling of invincibility has made us nonchalant towards others we share our environment with. Every other entity is inconsequential in the human side of things. And unless something comes to sting us personally, we don't bother about anyone else. Tomorrow, if an arcane tribe develops a medicine for H1N1 or HIV, that needs human liver oil, I wonder about the consequences!

So, what can we do? Honestly, I don't know. The poachers clearly don't care. China is too huge a market. Chinese are known for their scant regard towards anyone but themselves. Laws are lax. Poaching is not punished with severe penalties. The money is huge in the grey market for tiger parts. Here is some perspective. A newspaper report says that 10 grams of tiger parts sells for $30. 10 grams of Silver costs $5! In front of the bullet, the ferocious tiger is powerless. We faced a similar situation early on vis-a-vis the ivory of the tusker. But then ivory was banned, and the problem subsided. Does anyone have the guts to ban Chinese medicine that needs tiger parts? Does anyone have the guts to take on these international cartels and nip the market at its source? A mass movement by you and I, to spread awareness is good. We care. Granted. But this issue is like terrorism. Nabbing the terrorists and punishing them, is just a symptomatic cure. The issue is in the source, and unless terror funding and terror perpetrators and planners are picked up and taken out, the problem shall prevail. Till then, Save the Tiger, Save nature - from us...

Mumbai - Please leave my city as she is

I am a Mumbaiphile. I love everything about my city - the people, the lifestyle, the culture, the vivacity, the safety, the public transport infrastructure, the everything. Yeah, I know, people may exclaim, "Public transport? Dangling on the foot board of a Virar local is public transport?" All I can say is, well, we at least have a Virar Local, unlike several other cities, where one needs to call a cab to get to places, let alone hail one on the roads. So comparatively Mumbai is a lot better.

But of late, the more I mention Mumbai with the fervence and affection of a Carrie Bradshaw (The New Yorkphile from the show Sex and the City), people look upon me derisively. They say that I speak fondly of a city that is apparently only for the Marathi people. And I feel like screaming - Mumbai would lose its charm if it became yet another vernacular city. I know how tough it was for me, despite being a southie to find my way in a city like Thrissur in Kerala. All signboards were in Malayalam, hardly anyone spoke Hindi, let alone English and my sign language skills just got perfect post my stint there! I can't begin to imagine my city without my Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu speaking friends. In fact the multi-lingualism is what defines the pot-pourri called Mumbai.

India alone is home to several 100 languages and dialects. The Constituion of India recognizes 18 regional languages. Which is why we have a national language - Hindi. Granted, one language should not supplant another. But trying to fractionally distillate a country that has finally merged into one united entity (calls for separate states notwithstanding) is not just counter-productive, it is wrong. Imagine petroleum. It takes millions of years to form and only a few hours to fractionate. At least some good comes out of the fractionation process, but dividing a country as diverse as India on the basis of language, serves no purpose whatsoever.

Take the example of politicians blaming actors for supporting Pakistani cricketers for the IPL. I find that rather funny. The purpose of a sport or music is to unite warring factions. This has been the case right from the days of the Olympics, when all wars were suspended during the period of the games. And now statements like 'SRK is a Muslim first and an Indian later' are ridiculous. Both SRK and Aamir Khan have Hindu wives! How on earth can they possibly be religious fanatics??? Just to score media brownie points, our politicos make statements and that really shows our country in poor light.

Several foreign countries would do anything to have our kind of diversity - geographic, cultural, linguistic - you name it, we have it. And we, instead of thriving on it, squander it away on mindless, petty things. I hope we realize the gift we have and learn to cherish it, before it's too late. Mumbai, my city the way I know it, is great just because it is a melting pot of cultures and languages. I hope no one kills the soul of my city by bringing in mindless divisions, that serve no purpose whatsoever.

60 years of the Indian Republic

60 years of the Indian Republic today. We do have a lot to feel proud of. Two years ago, when we celebrated our 61st year of independence, I wrote this piece on 61 years of aspiration. Yes, we do have our problems and issues, vis-a-vis all-round development, all-inclusive growth, corruption, population, caste differences, etc etc. But the hope remained. Since we are a young nation, we have a lot to learn and a long way to go. We are very very early on the learning curve and as classical global economics says, the lesser developed you are, the faster you grow (the concept applies to capital accumulated by a country, and I choose to extend it to development as well).

We have made a mark in several areas. We have won accolades in the international arena for our deft manner of handling the economic crisis. Our financial systems have been robust. When the world around us was crumbling like a tower of cards, we showed a minor dip in GDP growth, still clocking 7.9% when a greater part of the world reeled in negative growth numbers. We won 2 Oscars last year, won an Olympic Gold and we also reached the moon. Over the past 60 years, we have never had a miscarriage of democracy, with the only attempt during the emergency being cruelly punished in the subsequent election. Our democracy continues to be our strong point, with the world having more faith in the Indian story primarily because ideologically, our country risk is a lot lesser.

But we still have a lot of ground to cover. We are the only stable peaceful nation in South Asia, and that puts us in a precarious position, with our neighbors being consumed by the tentacles of terror. Our own peace and safety were very cruelly jolted in 2008, with the terror attacks in Mumbai. The perpetrators have still not been brought to book. Sardar Patel, all of 60 years ago went on a mission to integrate all our princely states and built an India. Now again, separatist movements are raising their ugly heads, demanding a separate Telengana, a separate Gorkhaland, and now UP apparently should be trifurcated! When I was in school there were 25 states and 7 union territories. At this rate of fragmentation, I hope we don't say that India is x countries, y states and w territories. All inclusive growth is still all elusive, and the repercussions of the same are train hijacks, maoist attacks and demands at gun point. We still have the dubious record of hosting Asia's largest slum, and we take morbid pleasure in this pain point, by indulging in 'slum tourism' - disgusting indeed.

This post might look pessimistic, with the paragraph on issues being larger than that on achievements. But that is not true. If anything, we Indians believe in optimism and given that by 2050, India's average age of population would only by 35, ours is indeed a young country with stars in her eyes and an ebullient enthusiasm to match. Yes, the path is fraught with challenges, but we will surpass them all and emerge developed!

Biting more than they can chew? M&M

Is Mahindra really biting more than they can chew? That is the question here. Just last year, they took over the dubious Satyam. Experts say that big clients are still wary and are still keen on pulling out of Mahindra-Satyam because there is still some murkiness as regards Satyam's books. People are still unclear of how far the virus has spread and what other skeletons could emerge from that closet. And after over 6 months, the jury is still out on whether Mahindra-Satyam was indeed a marriage made in heaven. At a time of such uncertainty, Mahindra's announcement of a vision to equal Brazilian Embraer is nothing short of stumping! In December M&M acquired a majority stake in Aerostaff Australia and Gippsland Aeronautics in forming what became Mahindra Aerospace. Aerospace is expensive, and such diversification even before the previous debt-laden acquisition (Satyam) could get consummated is looked upon by many as being risky. True, markets thumped Mahindra on the 7th when he announced his plans at the Auto Expo in Delhi. But can we really write off the plan?

Well, this is India - an Emerging Economy. Emerging economies are called so because in a way they are highly unpredictable - a euphemism for the unpredictable third world if I may say so. The ways of the land, the way people conduct business there and almost everything about these countries is different. Even typical Government bond rates are higher! Risk is higher as well, which is why during the Asian crisis, although the problem was mainly with the Thai Baht, the contagion spread through Malaysia, Korea all the way to Brazil, since everyone was bundled under the mysterious ways of the 'emerging land'. So conventional wisdom really doesn't apply to doing business here. Besides, Mr Mahindra is known to have walked away from the JLR deal when he realized that he might have to end up paying too much. So one can eliminate the possibility of managerial hubris in his operational methods. Besides, M&M is known to operate a strategy of initiate, incubate and cash in on any venture. So, given their past successes, one is tempted to think that some serious thought has gone in to making this decision.

Traditionally observers are averse to change. Mahindra brings to mind tractors. We can imagine the Tatas to be everywhere from telecom to steel to autos to IT. But imagining another global conglomerate spanning autos, IT, aeroplanes and more is tough. Come to think of it, it really isn't a highly unrelated diversification. Although capital intensive, they are moving from one kind of autos to another - in a broad sense. So, I guess we need to watch M&M for a year and see whether Mr Mahindra is a calculative businessman, or whether M&M has displayed classic irrational exuberance. In the same breath, another thing to watch out for is Bajaj. Many spoke of their plan of hiving off the scooters in favor of motorcycles as being flawed. They said why kill the goose that laid golden eggs in favor of an unknown swan? In both these cases, the business leaders have shown immense guts, believing the fact that fortune favors the brave. Whether this tenet holds in business, especially in Indian business in the wake of a fragile, just improving economy is what we need to wait and watch.

Right time to withdraw the stimulus???

So now, when we speak of India, we have the debate on whether it is too early to withdraw the stimulus package. India’s stimulus had a lot less to do with pumping money into the system than it had to do with tax cuts to the industry, lower interest rates and so on. So now, many feel that the recovery has been fragile and so stimulus should continue at least till September 2010. I am tempted to call in my great ‘Band Aid’ concept here :) . Are the wounds still green? And would prematurely pulling off the band-aid hurt? Observers and analysts feel, yes. I ask, was there a wound in the first place? What recovery are we talking about? We never slipped into negative growth, that defines a recession. We went from 9% GDP growth to 5.5% and now we are back at 7.9% GDP growth. Even this quarter the growth is expected to hover around the 8% mark. So, I ask – stimulus for what?

China entered into a stimulus since her economy was steeped in exports to the developed world and when the developed world was hit, it stopped consuming. And so China’s bread and butter was stolen away. But we are not so dependent on exports. And we can’t say that just because everyone in the world is stimulating themselves, we need to continue as well. If we keep up stimulation when the economy looks good to go, we’d be fuelling inflationary pressures. Through easy credit we’d be stepping into callous lending! At an extreme, we could be stepping into sub-prime territory in lending! Stimulus packages are a burden on the Government kitty and they divert funds away from much needed developmental expenditures. If India has been less hit by the Great Recession, we must thank our economy for having been resilient. We must thank the policy makers for quick action. And we must capitalize on this resilience to bounce back and out of stimulus-induced growth. The leading economic indicators spell cheer for India and so now is the time for the stimulus to be slowly decreased and eased off. This may be a bold step, but extreme times call for extreme measures.

Air India - the blunder of the decade!

‘Bailout to sail out’ spoke of bailouts and how economically they are wrong since they in a way condone wrongdoings and mismanagement. When GM asked for help, everyone was up in arms against the whole way in which they refused to change according to the times and still produced the fuel guzzling behemoths that consumers had fallen out of love with. ‘Why should taxpayers’ money go into rescuing a Jalsaghar (Satyajit Ray’s epic on pride and ego in spite of decadent poverty)’ was the question everyone asked. But then the ‘too big to fail’ card was played and the cascading effect a GM failure would have on Detroit, Ontario and the employment of millions was brought to light. I remember reading an article around 2008 Christmas in The Globe and Mail, about this family that lived in Ontario, where the only breadwinner was a 55 year old lady who had worked all her life in GM. She chronicled how her life and career had revolved only around GM, and at age 55 she wouldn’t find work anywhere. ‘Maybe this is the last Christmas we can spend together as a family, for next year perhaps we all need to move out of here to find jobs in order to survive’, she lamented. Such stories resulted in GM being bailed out, GM filing for Chapter 11 and so on.

Believers in classical economics, (me included), feel that free markets should be allowed to decide who is good and who is bad and poor performers should be penalized. Yes jobs would be lost, and there would be intermediate pain. But in the long run the cobwebs would be dusted off and quality would prevail. Keynesians believe that the State is present for a purpose and when corporate mess up, they are deigned to step in and clear the mess. So ‘the too big to fail’ funda has been bandied about and the verdict is still divided on whether it is the right thing to do or otherwise.

So speak of Air India. They have paid € 5 million to enter the Star Alliance group and another € 5 million is to be paid. They are in doldrums. They have a liability of Rs. 16,000 crores on their balance sheets. They asked for 5000 crores as Government bailout and got only 800 crores approved! And now they have engaged McKinsey at a whopping 14 crores to pull them out of this mess. Accenture and Booz Allen are already in the fray to rescue them and McKinsey has jumped on the loss maker’s band wagon as well. It really reminds of the Ferrari racing team between 1979 – 1999 when ace drivers and engineers joined the money bags team, milked it for big bucks and left without achieving that all elusive championship victory! What is the outcome of this massive bunch of blunders? Accounts payable amounts would increase albeit to consulting firms now, fat reports on glossy solutions would increase but implementation bugs would continue to persist, since clearly AI’s management team has management issues! And when AI goes beyond salvage, the eternal money bags – the Government would be called upon to HEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLP!!! The saga would just continue. I wonder what steps are going to be taken next in this biggest blunder of the last decade which began with the IA-AI merger, which sought to rationalize operations and ended up just spending more on painting all planes with the new logo! Integration went for a toss and from then on AI has been on a nose-diving tailspin! Perhaps its time to stop heeding the SOS.

2009 - a year that was

Ok, almost everyone chronicles the past year. On thing I like, is the one liner event history that figures on Wikipedia or the year round-up in the economist. But for me, the events come to mind at the top of my head at the end of the year, hold most consequence. Here's the roundup of things that defined the past year -

This year marked many things. It began with a bush fire in Australia and surprisingly ended with one in the same place as well - almost setting the tone for the fiery year in politics and the world ahead. Barack Obama became the 44th US President - after a well crafted, technologically and ideologically vibrant campaign. Although post election a number of factors have called into question the success of his presidency. Parleys on whether we were looking at a recession, or a depression, or whether countries like India were in a recession at all, occupied intellectual coffee table talks for a greater part of the year, while countries like Iceland collapsed, Dubai stared at sovereign default in the face, China boosted spending and India recorded 7.9% GDP growth.

Some things stayed staid, with a miscarriage of democracy in Iran and Afghanistan, which felt as though democratizing the Middle-East, an area famous for its tribal population suddenly were forced into something that they did not know how to handle! The Israel - Palestine conflicts continued. Zimbabwe saw the semblance of order with the power sharing deal to form a government, before a deadly car crash wounded the new President and killed his wife. The LTTE was finally defeated with the death of Prabhakaran, thus ending decades of civil war in Sri Lanka, opening a new can of worms related to human rights violations, displaced Tamils and alleged excesses by the Sri Lankan army. The Air France flight from Rio crashed into the middle of the Atlantic in one of the worst air crashes in history, killing all of 228 on board. The UNESCO launched the World Digital Library. Michael Jackson is gone - the music scene will never be the same ever again. This year also marked the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was much less the fall of an Iron Curtain, as it was the triumph of capitalism over communism.

Typhoons and hurricanes continued. India saw drought in the first half of the year followed by terrible floods in South India that almost wiped out portions of age-old villages. Climate change was becoming a reality and countries had to act really fast. Copenhagen came along, resulting in an eyewash of a climate treaty, which many hailed as at least a step in the right direction. Whether tangible benefits would come out of it, or whether the 'cold' war on who needs to blink first between the developed and the developing world would continue remains to be seen.

Sport faced several disgraceful moments with Lewis Hamilton and McLaren caught spying on Ferrari's technical documents, Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet Jr caught in crashgate, only to be topped by the great Tiger Woods proving he loved something more than the 18 holes of golf! Then again, the FedEx - Nadal duel got better, with Fed-Ex snatching sweet revenge thanks to an out of form Nadal. The Indian cricket scene never looked better, but the overdose of the willow implied that cricket now became almost akin to a 9-5 corporate job, with weekends off!! And then came the icing on the cake - the final and sure return of Michael Schumacher to competitive racing, thrilling several Schumi fans across the world.

2010 is not just a new year. It marks the start of a new decade. A decade that began with a promise post Y2K, saw the rise and fall of several governments, terrorism rise to its peak, economic crises of enormous proportions, a new Pope, an American President from a minority community, Saddam Hussein, Benazir Bhutto gone, shards of democracy in the middle east, strife in Pakistan, growth in the BRIC nations, the sudden rise and rise of China, the lost decade in Japan and a lottttt more. I could go on and on, but I'd perhaps reserve all that for another post. That said, hopes abound for 2010. Hope the economic downturn swings into an upturn. Hope there is peace in this world, with none of the disgruntled nations engaging in conflict. Hope that the blue moon that showed its face in India yesterday heralds a new beginning for everyone. Happy New Year everyone!