A normal day

My work is keeping me so busy these days that I don't get any time to give to my blogs. Its not that I work 60-70 hours a week, but its the time of the work that makes me feel drowsy in the day time, as I work mostly at nights. But I will make sure that I write atleast a few words from today onwards not necessarily something exciting but my day to day experiences.

 Yesterday I took my first driving lesson in England, and it is very very necessary to take good amount of lessons before taking the actual test atleast here in England. I have driven cars and bikes in India for almost 4-5 years, but what depressed me yesterday was the fact that my instructor told me that I may need atleast 30-35 lessons before I take the exam. It was a shock for me as I thought I just needed to brush my skills and 10-15 will be fine enough, and that's definitely not the case. Apart from that this weekend is turning out to be one of the most relaxed and normal weekend for me, otherwise I am normally at work when everybody tends to relax and sit in the lounge watching tele or partying at some night clubs.

Today I had both lunch and dinner at time and that too of my choice, thanks to Amrita. It was a day off for both of us after a long time. She has become a wonderful cook after coming to England, she can cook anything from Chicken Tikka Masalas to Dosas, Sambhar Vada's, Chilli Paneers and ofcourse my favourite Aloo Parathas and Pooris. Thanks puntsss for the wonderful dinner.

A 

My second home

My friends always tell me to write something about myself, my experiences and finally today I decided to write about my last year's visit to a small but wonderful place in the Central Europe - Ostrava, Czech Republic.  For me, it was a lifetime experience, thanks to the lovely people of Ostrava.

It all started when Amrita and me were selected for the Dissertation Abroad Program (DAP). We were given a place in Data Servis and Datamar. Both are market research companies based in Ostrava, one of the largest cities of Czech Republic. We applied for a visa and got it after slight push from the university authorities. 

I was a bit nervous and to compound my anxiety the flight was not the best one, as I had terrible pain in my ears and was just praying for the flight to land. Finally the flight landed at the Prague Airport and we went through immigration checks and all. Our next job was to reach Ostrava, so we took a pendelino train from Prague to Ostrava. It took 3 hours to reach Ostrava and we both were mesmerised by the scenic beauty of the place. Mrs. Marketa from Datamar came to receive us at the Ostrava station and took us to our accommodation which was booked by the company. She then took us for dinner and we were just amazed by the hospitality that we received.

The next day we went to our respective companies and were illustrated about our work. I was placed at Data-Servis, which is a fun place to work. All the employees were like one family and they enjoyed each others company. Both the company took good care of us and they planned some sort of traveling for each weekend. One weekend we went with the employees of Datamar and the next with Data-Servis and so on till our stay in Ostrava.

Its a very beautiful country and you can only really feel it when you experience its beauty with your own eyes. The mountains are beautiful as are the castles. The people just love the outdoors and we were lucky that we went during summers when the weather was pleasant. Our first trip to the mountains was with Klara,an employee from Datamar,  and we went to Jeseniky mountains.  We went to Beskedy mountains the next weekend and enjoyed the air lift ride. We saw many places in Czech Republic, stayed for 3 days in Prague to visit the magnificent city. We also went to Vienna in Austria with our other University friends who were working at Prague. Our last trip was to Krakow in Poland were we visited the Krakow Palace and a salt mine.

The real fun started when I met Premek. He is one of the most fun person to live with. He will always be cracking jokes, laughing and playing. After our work, we used to go out for playing mini golf, tennis, pool, beach volleyball etc. It was all like a family to me. Premek, his wife Zuzane, his friends Lukas and Daisy, took great care of us during our stay at Ostrava. I can't describe how quickly those days passed and how much fun I had during those days. I never wanted to come back from there. 

Premek and zuzka are the loveliest couple you can imagine of. I am blessed that I met them and stayed with them. We even cooked Indian meal at Lukas place and they really enjoyed the meal. One interesting thing about my trip to Ostrava was that daily I used to eat the same thing, my favourite chicken and chips. It was hard for Amrita though, as she could harly find anything vegetarian and she had to eat salads, boiled potatoes and brocolli to fill her tummy. Almost daily in the night I used to go to a restaurant Jarosu which was very near to my hostel. I liked a girl there whom I saw when I first went with Premek and hence went there almost daily but couldn't find her again. Hard Luck!!!!!!

But since I visited the restaurant daily, the other staff liked us and they were also very sad when they heard that we won't be visiting to the restaurant again, and to my surprise, the Chef himself came and served our last dinner in Ostrava. I was overwhelmed by the love and affection showered by the people of Ostrava. 

Our last few days in Ostrava were a bit emotional as neither we wanted to return nor any of our friends at Ostrava wanted us to go back to England. They also arranged for a small farewell at my office and when I was just saying good bye to everybody, Daisy started crying, it was very emotional moment for me. Premek and Zuzane came in the evening to our place and they looked really sad, even Amrita was a bit sad as she enjoyed a lot with them. 

It is not only that it is one of the most beautiful places but what makes it even more special is the loving nature of its people. I never for a second also thought that I am in a foreign land, it looked as if I am at my home  and I used to say that It is my home away from home, its my second home. We miss Ostrava and our dear friends Premek, Zuzka, Lukas and Daisy.

Fight the Recession

For the last couple of days, I was thinking of writing something but my work was keeping me away from all this. Today I have got some time, and there are a plenty of issues to be penned but one thing which is keeping me engrossed is the whole issue of fighting the recession. In every nook and corner of the world, there is discussions going around amongst the top business leaders, financial heads of state and other political leaders. 

The finance ministers and Central bank governors of the G20 group countries are meeting in England over this weekend to reach an agreement before the meeting of head of states of G20 in London in April. There is a division of opinions between the member countries with US and UK demanding for more stimulus packages to put economy back on track, European members demanding for more regulations in the financial sector instead of spending on stimulus packages and BRIC countries demanding for more say in IMF and other financial bodies in return for increasing the stimulus packages. The only point where there is consensus is that they want to fight the recession together.

For me, we should instead of submitting to the blues of the recession come out and fight it. The only way to come out of this recession is to start the flow of money and goods. And for that to happen we have to make sure that both the consumers and the banks are confident enough.  The banks have more responsibility as much depends on them and they should start lending as soon as possible. Its not going to happen only by pumping money into the banks  or the badly hit banks because it doesnot increases its confidence to start lending. Governments across the globe has to chalk out plans so as to make sure that the bank starts lending, because if it doesnot happen soon then almost all of the sectors will be hit and recovering then would be a difficult task. To make it simple, let's take for instance the automobile industry, it is also hit by the cause that since banks have stopped lending money, the customers have stopped booking new cars and that has led to decline in sales and this has compounded the woes of already struggling car industry. Similar is the case of other sectors.

UK has also recently started Quantitative Easing which means pumping cash into the economy. This was earlier adopted by the Japanese during the asian crisis of the 90's, which backfired and its economy went from bad to worse. Quantitative easing could be a good tool to boost the economy but only if it is able to boost the confidence of the customers as well as banks. The government should and is buying the mortgages and should also make sure that the house owners pay their mortgage amount on time. Once the government buys the mortgages, the bank should atleast gain a little confidence and start lending carefully.

It is obvious that greed of the banks played a part in starting the financial crisis but its us who defaulted on our payments and mortgages which led to the collapse of some of the biggest banks. We are almost as much responsible as much are the banks and the government. We should have gauged our limits how much we can spend. I do believe that wrong recruitment policies of these companies also led to their collapse. The big banks such as Lehmann Brothers and others hired best brains from the world's best universities irrespective of their field of specialization. Engineering, arts and science graduates were recruited for managing the banks, that is something weird. They might be indeed having the best of brains, but surely they didn't had much knowledge about business and economics. The reason why I am saying this is simple, an economist can understand the basic principle of supply and demand, but what these people did was they created demand by providing (supply) house mortgages to almost anybody and everybody without even checking their financial history.   

And its not only for banks almost every sector does that. Most of the employees in Infosys and other IT companies in India hire engineering graduates irrespective of the field of specialization. All of my friends from mechanical and other allied engineering courses are working for IT firms. I mean I dont understand the whole point of studying so hard for 4 years and then working in a totally different environment. And I don't blame the students for that, because they have to get a job because they just cannot waste an opportunity in this competitive world. 

Imagine an engineer going to perform an heart sugery on you, will you ever go for that. Every job must be given to the right people. Firms do say that they don't differentiate students as far as they are graduates, they just look for analytical and logical bent of mind and they can train them.  I mean you can train anybody for that role but whats the point in wasting so much time and effort when there are hundreds of graduates with the required field of study. 

I think I have deviated much from the topic but the point that I have raised is worth taking a note of. Lastly, we should all try to be optimistic and hope that the government does something to ensure that the confidence of consumers and banks grows. Let's hope that the meeting of G20 members brings some sign of happiness in not so happy times.

Bye for now.

A 

Delhi 6: A Directorial misdaventure

After reading good reviews about the movie Delhi 6, finally yesterday evening I took out some time to go and watch it at a multiplex near by, and when I was going with my friends I nearly missed the bus, but the desire to see the movie made me run for the bus. I would have been lucky had I missed the bus, because the movie didn't live upto my expectations. One doesn't expect a movie of this kind from the director of Rang De Basanti and the lyricist of Taare Zameen Par, Mr. Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra and Adman Mr. Prasoon Joshi. Even I didn't liked the end of RDB, but it had all the ingredients for a good movie with a gripping screenplay which made the audience stick to the chair. Delhi 6 on the contrary doesn't seem to grip the attention of the viewers.

Delhi 6 excelled in only one thing that it brought the best from each of the actors involved. There were some fine performances by Abishek, Sonam, Om Puri, Rishi Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Prem Chopra and others. The inspector, the Jalebi wala, the Imam sahib, the whole family of Om Puri, each individual excelled in their role. But the direction and screenplay missed to create the sparks and it looked like small documentaries joined together without any coherence as it moved from Ram leela to household dramas to the monkey man episode and finally to the Hindu-Muslim tensions. 

Abishek Bacchhan is the dil of Delhi 6 and the story revolves around him. He brings his grandmother from Newyork to Delhi as her last wish was to die where she was born. and the story starts from here and ends in a communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.  At one point, Abhishek decided to return back to America when the situation was getting out of control, but Delhi as a city never ceases to mesmerise you with its mysticism and he decides not to leave Delhi. I love Delhi and it was good to see the lanes of Delhi, the autorickshaws, and its crowded street after a long time. He plays his part with great finesse and he proved that he has matured as an actor tremendously. He now doesn't even need to mince any words as his eyes, his emotions and his body language can speak for him.

Even though there was less scope for Sonam Kapoor but she played her part with ease. Sonam looked like a princess in her portrayal  of girl next door who is full of life. You will just fall in love with her at the very first sight. The scenes between Abhisek and Sonam were very little but the chemistry was awesome. My favourite scenes from the movie are the scenes between Abhishek and Sonam,  be it the scene between them when they were returning from Agra and Sonam was looking at Abhiskek's mobile, or be it the scene when Sonam gifted a sovenier from Agra to Abhishek, or when she came to thank him for telling Ompuri that she doesn't want to marry. Every scene between them are shot with perfection.

The music is also not that good as compared to Rahman's previous works. The song masakali is a hummable number, Arziyan is good and title track is trendy, apart from them the other songs are not upto the standards. The background music is good though. 

Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra has some fascination with social issues and has again tried to send a message for communal harmony. He also has fascination for making the end bloody, the end was a bit unrealistic also as Abhishek came back to life after shot by a pistol and after the severe thrashing he received by the local mob, but this is cinema. The movie is a directorial misadventure and could have been made better. I will give one star out of five and that too because of individual performances by its actors. Let me give half star more just for Abhi and Sonam. All in all, a complete waste of time, but if you do want to watch it, go for Abhishek and Sonam.

Oscars 2009: India makes clean sweep for the first time

It is a wonderful morning, I was continuously tracking the Oscars night, as it was to become one of the proudest moments for Indian Cinema. I was so elated by the fact that India almost made a clean sweep at the Oscars 2009, that I couldn't hide my temptation to write it straight in here.

A R Rahman made us proud again by bagging twin oscars for best music and best song (Jai Ho).  The Mozart of Madras as he is often called, studied western classical music at the University of Oxford, UK. He had earlier won all the major global awards, including the Golen Globe and the BAFTA's this year. Overall Slumdog Millionnaire bagged 8 oscars at the 81st Academy Awards Ceremony in LA.

It was truly a night where Indians shone and made their presence felt. Rahman shared the award with Gulzar for the best song, Jai Ho, for which Gulzar penned the lyrics. Resul Pookutty of Black, Saawariya and Ghazni fame also won an oscar for sound mixing. Smile Pinky won in the best short documentary category. The film is based on lip deformities in children , and how pinki a small girl from Uttar Pradesh, went for a corrective surgery to lead a normal life.

All in all 4 oscars for the Indians, great achievement considering the track record of Indian Cinema at the Academy Awards. India is getting truly Global and has started to make its presence felt in almost every field.

Hats off to Rahman, Resul and Smile Pinki for them they brought cheers and smile to a billion of Indians.

Global Recession

After a long and tiring week, it was my first weekend break this year and I had the comfort of relaxing this weekend. For me last couple of months were so draining mentally as well as physically that I desperately needed a break and once I got a transfer from Nuneaton to Birmingham, I got this break. I passed my time watching movies, news, and meeting up with friends.

These days wherever you go, where you are in a pub, in a business meeting, in a university or whatever you do, where you work in an automobile industry, or in a retail store, you will listen only one thing from your colleagues, friends and that is Recession. There are no jobs in the market, companies are going bust and people who have job are thanking god and hoping that they don't get a redundancy letter. The unemployment is rising to all time high everywhere. The number of job losses in US alone has reached 5 million that is its worst ratings in about half a century. In UK the unemployment rate is similarly rising and is at approx 7.6% which is again highest in the decade. The job loss in UK has reached near to 3 million. Other EU countries are in similar financial crisis and the state of their economy is as bad as UK/US or even worse. Emerging markets are also vastly affected by the recession and their growth is halted if not stopped. The growth of India and China is also affected and there growth is projected at 5% and 7% respectively for the year 2009 unlike there unprecedented growth at around 10% per annum for the last decade. There have been huge job losses in these countries as well, with Guandong facing most of the burns of the recession in China. The 

People often blame the greedy western banks for this mess and they are in a way right. The global recession can be seen as a successor to sub prime mortgage crisis that started in US. The banks started giving home loans to almost everybody without anticipating whether these people can return the amount or not. Most of these people defaulted and banks faced the burnt. The property prices hit an all time low and the banks who gave money as credit for the properties started going bust. Most of the big investment banks including Lehmann Brothers, Washington Mutuals and others filed for bankruptcy in US or suffered huge losses and the federal government had to propose bail out plans. In Europe the situation was similar with most of UK banks requiring bail outs by the Bank of England. Falling of some of the major banks rocked the whole world and the financial crisis deepend. The investors were wary of the returns and hence remained far from investing money and hence the global crisis worsened with stock exchanges hitting all time low ratings. The credit crisis has taken such tolls in terms of rise in unemployment, closure of banks and other companies, job losses that it is compared to the great depression period of the 1930's where the global economic growth had seen a rapid downturn. The banks are wary of lending money now which has worsened the matters and government is finding it difficult to motivate the banks to start lending money again. In UK alone the government opted for interest rate cuts five times since October 2008, it now stands at 1%.

 

UK retail industry took a hit and some of the biggest retail chains like Woolworths, MVI, Piers etc all closed their stores. The trend is still similar with Zavvi, Barrats, Priceless have started closing their stores. Automobile industry all over the globe saw reduced sales and profits declined, with Japanese major Toyota showing negative growth and losses for the firts time in its 79 years of history. The big three of America GM, Ford and Chrysler has requested an interference and bail out package from the federal government. US senate has just passed the bill for bailout for the banks and recession hit industry and the stimulus package is of $787 Billion. 

Feb' 2009 saw some growth in retail business as the inflation dipped largely due to fall in crude oil prices and the retailers in struggle to survive reduced the price considerably. There were good news for retailers in London as shoppers from foreign countries are coming to the city to shop, thanks to the falling value of Pound which is now almost equal to Euros.

Chinese and Indian economy which were growing at more than 10% for the last decade has also felt the shocks of the financial crisis. Chinese growth model was based on exports which made them richer in terms of foreign exchange. The major chunk of its exports went to US, but as US is vastly affected by the crisis that it has started to adopt a protectionist policy which has led to closure of factories in China. There have been huge job losses in China as the companies are now closing down as the demand from US is declining. But one thing positive about Chinese model is that they are investing in resources in other countries which will give them fruits in the coming years. They have recently signed a deal with Brazilian petroleum major Petrobras, and Australian mining company. Investing in natural resources can turn things around for China in the coming years. There are huge job losses in India and the companies have freezed any hiring, but the situation is not as bad as in West. Inflation has touched 3.9% this month as compared a year earlier and the RBI has suggested for further interest rate cuts. It has also urged the companies to cut the salaries instead of making them redundant.

This is surely one of the worst financial crisis that this world has seen and it needs an overhaul of the financial system and major work from the government all around to fix it. The world leaders are all having meetings almost daily to fix the problems and to tackle the issues of financial crisis. EU leaders met today at Berlin and they raised several issues from protectionism, to further regulation and supervision of financial institutions. One of the most important tasks of these leaders would be to motivate banks so that they start lending again and also to encourage the otherwise dormant investors to rise and start investing in the economy. There is another meeting of G20 in London on 2nd April and let's hope that these leaders are able to do something to put the gobal economy back on track.   

St. Valentine's Day

As always today was also a very tiring day for me but I am delighted that its Valentine's day, and for me it's a day for the dear and loved ones. I got some small presents for my friends and my sister, and they are preparing something special for the dinner.

I was coming back to Birmingham by train and it was full of lovely couples dressed in designer attires. The town centre was all red with the heart shaped balloons and glittering decorations, it was looking beautiful. 

When I came home, I watched Indian news channel and they were full with news of people and parties opposing this wonderful day. In India we generally call them moral police. Now a days it's a trend or norm in India to do such kind of things to come on TV. There are many parties, political or non political that act as protectionist of Indian culture without knowing the essence of Indian culture. There were many incidents in different parts of India where innocent couples were beaten or manhandled and this shows how intolerant we are as a community. We Indians always boast about our culture, but does this culture preaches us to beat a boy and a girl if they walk together. There should be liberty and freedm to express one's love and affection. Sometimes the policemen also act as moral police  and they take undue advantage of their position. I sometimes feel that we, the common people live in virtual jail, we are either frightened by the might of police, if not, then surely by the goons and goondas and if this was not all that we wanted, we have one more thing to be scared of and it is Moral Policing.

I was shocked at seeing my country and my people behaving in this manner, but I can take solace as there are some people who do care about the liberty and freedom. In many cities, old people came out for peaceful protests again these moral police or in better words the hooligans.

On one hand our country wants to go forward and on the other hand these people are dragging it back, I sincerely hope that our government and our leaders will do something so that these hooligans can't take the liberty of doing whatever they feel like. These moral policemen should be prosecuted as criminals as they encroach on a person's right to live, which is a fundamental right of every citizen. If the police helps them and acts a moral police,  a manner in which they have acted in the past, they should be dismissed from the duty as they are not the one to teach morality. 

I hope a good sense prevails in everybody and they start loving each other instead of hating. They have made this wondeful day of love into a Hatred day or the H-Day. I request everybody to respect every culture and become more tolerant towards each other. Valentines day comes once in a year and it should be celebrated with great enthusiam, love and zeal, because only love can diminish distance between two hearts, only love can bring two people close, only love can connect two lives and only love can unite our India. Let's take our beloved nation forward and not backwards.