The curious case of Recession

Yesterday evening, when I got off the Metro, I saw Honey and Ashish (GL colleagues) also getting off. Just as we met, Honey told Ashish that this man (me) knew what was coming in GL (I recently quit GL and joined ION). I said how come? To which Honey answered that people are getting laid off like the leaves from a tree. He added that these days even the star performers are not spared. If anyone is warming the bench, s/he is asked to leave the organization. I was sad to hear that ... but then to be very honest; it didn’t felt that bad because I’ve been hearing such news – almost daily. The recession is causing real havoc these days ... every day I hear/read news of massive layoffs across all organizations (especially in IT). Very recently, I saw breaking news on CNBC ... Sapient laid off 500 people. One of my friend, who is in a big telecom domain IT company ... he told me that the organization has asked everyone in Delhi office to relocate to Banglore office or drop the papers. Another friend of mine, who is in finance domain IT company, told me that her office has started to shut down the entire company on weekends (for which the workers are not getting paid). Another friend of mine, who works for a Fortune 500 company, told me that her organization has eliminated the HRA component from their salary (HRA is a very big component !!!). Stories like these are getting very common everywhere ... and not just in IT companies only. My brother in law works for a jems (precious stones) company. Their industry is also laying off people ... cutting salaries ... making unpaid working days. If I recollect all such stories, you would end up scrolling pages and pages. Everywhere you look these days, you see worried faces ... worried about bills ... worried about livelihood ... worried about practically their survival. Never in my life (am almost 30 now ... d’uh), I’ve seen such gloomy situation ... and so many worry lines on people’s foreheads.

In India, the recession started to make its presence felt last year. But this year (we still are in the second month), the things are getting bad to worse. Before this crisis, nobody really knew what recession/depression meant. As they say ... you live you learn. The world faces crisis situation every few years ... its cyclical ... but none as severe as this one ... since may be 1930’s depression. But then, things have really changed since 1930. The impact of this crisis has jolted the entire economics of the world. As we are progressing, all the economies in the world are getting coupled. Its like a chain, if there is a weak link, the entire chain has to bear its consequences. The greed and recklessness of few Wall Street players is making people of main street cry. This crisis has made all of us commoners realized the real importance of savings. We all heard the phrase that we should save for rainy days ... but c’mon how many of us really took it to heart. We spend like kings on things that we probably didn’t even want (let alone the need for them). We all had credit/debit cards at our disposals and we spend like there is no tomorrow. The government and market regulators kept their eyes closed ... relied upon the proven theory of demand and supply. Well ... time to wake up now ... rain check. Today’s economics is not as simple as demand and supply ... its much more complex than we think it is. There are tools/instruments which can tweak this simple theory, which resulted in this mess. So much so, that not only organizations, even countries are getting bankrupt – Iceland is a shining (read disheartening) example. We, India, are in a better position (just a little) because our economy is not as free as other developed western countries. We have massive red tape and regulations, especially on banks and markets ... which seemed like pain in arse a while ago ... doesn’t seem all that bad now. In addition, we Indians are really thrifty when it comes to spend money. We are a poor country, so we know the importance of money ... little more than a suburban family in ... lets say ... in Connecticut (ahahaha). Even then, we too are in the grip of this hurricane ... so you can just imagine the countries on the warfront. I wish this end soon. There must be sunshine after this rain.

I guess we all learn important lessons from this ... never take anything for granted ... NEVER. If you think this cant happen to you ... THINK AGAIN.

Mohini's Baby

Yesterday, we (I, Anshuman, Honey, Sonal, Gaurav Sharma) went to Mohini’s place. She has recently given birth to a baby boy. NICEEEE !!! Ruchi, Deepak and Gaurav Sarda were also supposed to come with us, but due to something or other, they could not make it. Anyways ... we all reached at Mohini’s place at around 5:30 PM. We congratulated Mohini and stayed there for almost couple of hours. We also met Aarav (Mohini's baby boy) ... he was sleeping. He was cute as button ... really tiny.

After that, we planned to play some Poker at Honey’s place. Anshuman got an urgent call from home so he left. Therefore, it was only four of us for the Poker game. We played Poker for couple of hours and then came back home. All in all, it was a fun filled evening yesterday ... feels good to catch up with good friends once in a while.

Basement and Super Sitare

After a long time, the basement gang got together yesterday and had some fun. The basement gang – Me, Gaurav, Payal, and Vihan – was formed in the basement of GL (hence not so clever name for our group ... ahahahaha). When I joined GL in June 2005, I got the Bowstreet project. Gaurav, Vihan, and Payal were also new to the project. Even though the entire project got on famously, we 4 really formed a good rapport and we remained good friends even after all these years. Gradually, most of us left GL, but that doesn’t meant that we didn’t met ... although the frequency of our get-togethers have decreased over the period of time, but we still do meet and party once in a while.
Yesterday was one such fun filled night. Couple of days back I was chatting with Payal and I told her that it has been a while since we all met ... and since all of them are in India (which is rare these days), we should seize the moment and party. So we all gathered at Super Star (we call it Super Sitare ... ahahaha) ... had little bit of booze and food (yeah ... just enough to get filled and soaked ... ahahaha). The masti (fun), the jokes, pulling each other’s leg, booze, food, catching up with life and work, the cheque fights ... aah ... good old days. We all decided to take a break and go somewhere ... the plan was for the coming weekend, but Gaurav’s has a family function to attend. So the plan is postponed by a week ... so I am hoping nothing else comes up.

Travel Blues

This week I tried lots of travelling options from Noida to Delhi. Coming to Noida in the morning is not an issue as I take a chartered bus from Pitampura to Noida Sector 62. The bus leaves from Powerhouse (my bus stop) at around 7:40 AM and it reaches Noida Sector 62 at around 9:15. So it’s kinda OK to travel in it. Getting a seat is little difficult but still this is the best public transport option to reach office at time. However, the evenings are bit tricky. There are two chartered buses which ply from near my office, but the timings are not great. One leaves at 5:15 PM and the other leaves at 6:45 PM. Both of them are not suiting me well as the first one is too early for me and the second one is too late. So I’ve been trying out different modes of transportation throughout this week. I tried taking buses from sector 62 and sector 12. Yesterday I even tried the Sector 62-Anand Vihar-Dilshad Garden route via autos and then took the Metro to Pitampura. After trying all of them, I found out that all takes the same amount of time to reach home. And since all of them are not direct ways of travelling, they are really tiresome for me. So I think I have to stick to the 6:45 chartered bus for the time being unless I find a better alternative.

Wasting nearly 5 hours in travelling to/fro office is not the best way to spend the day, but what can I do? I gotta earn the living so I guess I have to bear with it. Sometimes I feel that I should start doing the carpool, but then it also has its own problem. The worst being – I have to wait for everyone to get in the car. If I try coming on my own car – alone – then that would cost me dearly. Aah !!! why am I not filthy rich ... why do I have to work hard for every thing.

I miss can't haves

After coming back from London, I have been bingeing a lot. This makes me wonder ... why? Before going to London, I was on a controlled diet to make myself healthy. But after coming back, I have been eating like I never ate before. The only rationale that I can think of is that I didn’t had the option of eating home made food in London. This might sounds little weird, but it is the truth. My mind plays such games – when I stay at home, I don’t eat food like daal-chawal (pulses-rice), rotis (Indian bread), etc. I prefer to eat salads and fruits to keep my weight in check. But when I came back, I just ate and ate over the weekend. The thing is – I started missing solid food when I did not had a choice ... weird isn’t it. Similarly, when I stay at home, many a times I don’t interact with family ... probably I take them for granted ... my bad. But when I was there I missed my family ... dearly. Again, the rational remains the same. I feel the worth of things only when they are not near to me or when I know that I can’t have it. I feel restless ... it drives me crazy.

Is it human nature to miss things when they are not near or is it just me?

Back from London

Yippee !!! I’m back ... back to Delhi.

On Tuesday, I went for shopping at Primark (Oxford Street). I heard about this store from few of my colleagues at Delhi. They told me that it’s like Mecca for all foreign budget tourists. Even though I was not too keen on buying anything from London per se, but Divya (she came to London with me for training) was very keen on shopping. Girls ... what can I say ... they are inherently shopaholics. Anyhoo ... I tagged along and got out of the office little early (5:30ish). The store was just outside the Marble Arch tube station and it was really big. On weekdays the shop is open till 9 PM, so we had ample time to shop around. I was just roaming here and there and when I saw some of the good stuff at almost throwaway prices, I just couldn’t resist and bought few gifts for my kid cousins. I also treated myself with a pair of jeans, a white shirt, and a backpack. The cost of backpack was ₤3 ... imagine that. I would recommend any visitor with limited budget to look no further and visit this place. Little by little I bought few gifts and amazingly it all put me back by mere ₤60.

Next day I went to Tesco Metro near Liverpool station and picked chocolates. Took me a while to pick up chocos because there were so many varieties ... most of which I have absolutely no clue of. Anyhoo ... final day came and I woke up early to pack up all the stuff. The cab (booked online by office) came at sharp 8:30 AM and we reached Heathrow Terminal 5 after little more than an hour. At Heathrow, you got to tag your check-in bags at automated check-in machines (before getting the boarding pass). While tagging the bags, the machine told me and Divya that we do not have a confirmed seat yet. That was shocking ... we rushed to the British Airways counter and asked them about it. The person at the desk told me that since there were many flight cancellations in last few days due to bad weather, the flight is over booked. So he gave us 2 options – either go for next flight or wait for an hour to get the status of the existing flight. He also informed us that if we go for voluntary scheme of next flight, we would be compensated with €300 (in cash) or €450 (in gift vouchers) ... EACH. Ohhhh yeah ... my mouth was filled with water ... so I asked when is the next flight and he told me that it’s after 4 hours. €300 cash for 4 hours of patience ... seemed so cool to me. But I said NO ... I wont be going for that scheme and asked the guy to put me on stand by for the current flight. OK OK ... I know it sounds little crazy not to take that €300 for mere 4 hours of wait ... but I did not took that because of couple of reasons – first I knew about the weather forecast ... it was not good at all. I didn’t wanted to take the risk of staying back and then get stuck in snow or thundershowers. Secondly, I am a very impatient man ... I cant wait for anything to save my life ... so 4 hours seemed like 4 days to me (and I really wanted to go home ASAP). So we were put on the stand by list and the helpdesk guy told me to come back after an hour to get the final status about the boarding passes. At 11 AM, when I reached the helpdesk again ... I got the boarding passes ... that was surprising because I remembered the guy telling me that I was 50th on the list. But when I turned around I saw a huge line of people standing in the voluntary zone – mostly Indians – aah the lure of money ...

The flight took off at 12:30 PM (EST) ... after 40 minutes delay (scheduled to be at 11:50 AM) ... due to air traffic. Finally I reached Delhi at 2:30 AM (IST) ... and reached home at 4:30 ... did not sleep because I had to go to office. I was feeling very sleepy so I thought of writing this post ... now the eyes are little open ... opps gotta go ... lunch time. C ya.

Snowing cats and dogs

It started to snow on Sunday evening and continued until Monday night. It was not mild flurry – it snowed cats and dogs (if that is an emphatic expression). The roads, tree, buildings ... everything wore a snow-white look. Is it my luck or what ... I like snowfall like I love chocolate ... and it snowed like the heaven’s gate were let loose by the almighty. Aah ... the weather is bringing out the writer in me. Well anyhoo ... where was I ... ooh yeah ... the snow. I just saw on the telly (very British ... ahahahaha) that this was the worst (magnificent to me though) snowfall in last 2 decades. So much so that the entire city’s public transportation stopped. It was Monday ... but judging from the streets you would not have guessed it. The streets were empty like it is a curfew. My office was almost empty ... in fact none of my teammates came. To be fair ... they simply could not because there were no buses or trains to travel. This was the story across all the offices ... the schools were closed ... most of the tourist spots were empty ... overall the entire city stood still.
 This brings me to the famous Mumbai rains couple of years ago when entire Mumbai was crippled due to relentless rains. We all were quick to point out the hapless public infrastructure. I distinctly remember that I said that if something like this happens in any rich city they would have handled it in better way. Ooh ... how wrong I was. I saw what happened to London and to be honest I felt like Mumbai dealt with it in a better way. At least the Mumbaikars showed more grit and determination to deal with the nature’s fury. My brother in law walked 15 kms back home from office and his brother stayed at office for 2 days. But Mumbai never died like London did yesterday. It is very easy to point figures when the public system breaks down. But today I realized that no matter how affluent a city is, it is still a pawn in nature’s hand. When Mother Nature unleashes her fury ... no amount of planning or organization can save us. Nature still dictates the terms and we human beings are still way behind to calm her or face her wrath.

Talking about mother ... I miss my mommy ... coming home soon mom ... I so miss you.

London Tour: Tower Bridge and Westminster

After a hectic day, I was sleeping like a baby ... suddenly at around midnight, fire alarm broke out in my room. I was horrified ... I thought that it was the wakeup alarm ... I was still half asleep ... so I tried to shut the phone alarm ... but to my surprise the alarm kept ringing. I tried to switch off every electronic stuff in my room ... but the alarm kept ringing. Darn !!! Then I got out of the room and saw everyone was outside ... bemused and little bit annoyed ... just like me. So we all went downstairs. Man ... it was freezing outside. So I went back to my room (climbed 6 floors ... wuf !!!) ... got little cosy in my thick jacket ... grabbed the money and passport and ran back downstairs. We all (around 200 guests) stood in the freezing cold ... tired and sleepy ... oh what an ordeal. The fire brigade found that someone broke the fire alarm at 10th floor. They checked all the floors for fire and then we all were let inside. Goddam ... what an anticlimax to an eventful day.

Sunday ... time to see the rest of the stuff today. Today was Westminster and Tower of London day. Took the tube to Tower Hill and as soon as I got out the tube station, I was little horrified to see the weather. It was cloudy and very very cold. Well ... should have known because the weather channel predicted to be a bad weather day. Anyhoo ... got to the tower of London ... boy, it was sooommmeee bridge. I remember that whenever I saw any picture of London, it always had either Tower of London bridge or Big Ben. Seeing it with my eyes ... it felt kinda surreal. As a kid, I always dreamt of visiting all those places whose pictures I saw ... like New York, London, Paris ... and to actually see them in person ... the feeling is indescribable. I crossed the bridge and got to London Bridge Pier from where I took a ferry ride to Embankment. I always enjoy the ferry rides ... there is something in water bodies which makes you go ... mmmmm !!!. After getting out of the ferry ... I went straight to Big Ben. I tried to snap pictures but due to bad weather they all appeared a little dark. So I decided to come back to that place after doing the London Eye and Aquarium.
 I crossed the Thames and went to London Eye. Since I already bought the ticket in advance (group ticket at Madame Tussads), I simply got it vouched at the ticket counter and got in the line. The line wasn’t long and soon I got inside the famous London Eye giant wheel. Basically London Eye is simple a monstrous version of a giant wheel ... its monstrosity makes it FUN. The wheel circled very slowly giving us ample time to see entire London and snap plenty of pictures. It took almost half an hour for the wheel to circle ... plenty of hang time I must say ... hahahaha.
 
 When I was boarding the London Eye, it started to snow. But when I got off it, the weather changed drastically ... plenty of sunshine ... aaah what a relief. I went straight to London Aquarium. I had a discount coupon with me (which I picked up from my hotel) and asked the ticket lady to give me the 20% discount on the ticket. She told me that since the aquarium is not fully functional they have reduced the ticket prices and the discount won’t be levied on the reduced fare. Oh what the heck ... I took the tickets and saw the aquarium. Fishy I must say ... saw plenty of fishes ... big and small ... most of them were simply breathtakingly beautiful. When I got out of it ... my stomach was asking for fuel. So went straight to McDonalds and got the only vegetarian burger along with some fries and soda.
 
 After the refueling, I went to see Big Ben. So again I got to cross Thames ... and on my way I saw loads of police personnel trying to control people’s movement. Then I saw a lady ... she was standing on the bridge ... she was trying to jump and commit suicide and the police was trying to talk her out of it. I tried to stand and watch the proceeding but the police man told me to move along. Poor lady ... I prayed that the policemen successfully get her back to safety. Anyhoo ... I went to Big Ben. What a building ... marvelous is a small word for the architecture. You got to see it to believe it ... aah ... I know I keep repeating this line ... but what can I say ... it is true.
 After the Big Ben, I went to Trafalgar Square ... it was buzzing with people. When I reached there I saw a huge stage ... it was a Chinese new year celebration show. From there I went to Oxford and Piccadilly Circus. Another hectic day ... and by the time I reached hotel the weather took a turn to worse. It started to snow again. Perfect timing I must say.