Another new year, end of a decade, actually the last year of the decade, but newsmakers just can't resist misreporting facts in lieu of getting something juicy to write about.
2009 has been a fruitful year for me, my loved ones, friends, my institute, my erstwhile employer, my home state, my adopted state, the Indian and the global economy as a whole.
सो कैसे हमने इस अत्यंत ख़ुशी भरे साल के बीतने का जश्न मनाया ?
A group of friends headed for a bungalow in Lonavla and ushered the new year with bottles of wine and bubbly, pizza, lovely fireworks lightening the midnight sky, an awesoem view of the expressway, warm locals and a game of monopoly (in which i was bankrupt by the time we decided to wind up).
It was fun except for the fact i had to nurse a huge hangover the next day and couldn't enjoy the next day much which came out bright n sunny welcoming n daring us all to forecast a gloomy yr ahead.
I had to do some last minute firefighting for the RBI exams next two days and in the meantime thr was news of a possible goa trip on the anvil for some meet organized by some mba coaching magazine, who cared as long as we were getting to go to Goa.
The 2nd of Jan dawned, the reason for me coming so early to Pune was finally upon me and I was all prepped up.. bring it on, the exam was a damp squib to say the least but I don't know if my performance was satisfactory enough. simialr was the case on the 3rd of Jan too. My fingers were numb n my wrist was writhing in pain till I was thru with the papers, I also managed to drain my ink pen of the last dregs of ink it had stored.
But all the pain was overshadowed by the upcoming Goa trip the next day onwards. Specific coverage of the Goa trip in the next blog with pics of course.
Lets go back n reflect upon 2009, how it started with the backdrop of the crisis and forebode doom for all of us, where did the inflection point materialize and how things started turning for the better.
We had cruised thru our summers recruitment in fall of 2008 despite lehmann crash and bailouts of AIG, failed banks, etc. but our seniors took the brunt, wherever we saw ppl were being laid off, there was a drop in ppl willing to pursue higher education, everyone wanted to stick to their jobs but the companies were equally reluctant to keep them. Our capital markets were on a downslide, most of the countries including US, EU, India were looking at elections and a regime change. Would the new leadership be able to deliver on the promises of checking unemployment, kickstarting growth, protect the hurting investments?
We entered the new year with fear and trepidation prepared for the worst!
Slowly but steadily we passed the lowest point and the utter lack of confidence started ebbing out. There were talks of green shoots amidst rubbishes of yellow weeds, brokerage houses started assigning letters of the english alphabet to chart out the growth pattern of the global economy, it ranged from 'V', 'W', 'L', 'U' and wat not, but it did give a lot of matter for newsmakers to stuff us with. In this age of of 1 sec reporting they have a huge hand in propagating the epithet of 'self fufilling expectations', even pure speculative rumours are magnified and twisted to bring about the doom of the safest of corporations. Its 'bizness' after all.
Our seniors bid us a teary farewell, we conducted an overwhelming admissions process battling all odds, admitting a bunch of starry eyed younglings with renewed hope and anticipation.. we hoped they would have a better future than what awaited us.
All of us, barring exceptions, had awesome summers, as for me, I got to go to Chennai..
. it keeps coming back to me again n again but I still luv that city more than ever. I had an awesome time with by matchmates and 'my significant other' who also happened to visit me in between.
Coming back to the college we were tasked out for a tough sem which would end with the all important CRP.... the zenith and focal point of an MBA. We slogged it out, buoyed by an upbeat economy, strong governments with a resolve to set things right, the future all of a sudden wasn't very bleak, the silver lignings were standing out in stark contrast to the waning storm.
Post the 3rd sem, which we somehow lobored thru hoping for passing thru and nothing else, the college sent us to Mumbai. Mumbai is a city i was scared off, it was demon that i hadn't had a chance to conquer yet. But i got allies this time, who had been won over by the cit
y, it was my turn. I went the the place that had made a permanent blot in my head ever since Shantaram. Spent an evening at Leopold's, something I had been wanting to do since a long long time. Travelled in mumbai locals, albeit in non rush hours but the experice was worth it.
Coming back, the moment we were all dreading(in anticipation) was upon us, I suffered two blows before success lifted me away from all the messy soup around. The first blow was hacked by my own, unexpected but in retropsect I was glad, the second blow was self inflicted which I wud rather not discuss but I was lucky the third time in as many days.
After that it was a whirlwind of emotions, celebrations and happy times, good news came pouring in from all sides, my bro cleared cdse, Rads got into her chosen practice, i introduced her officially to the family, etc.. hope all this and much more continues in the year to come and we have a whale of a time!!
Apparently this train has two routes, one via Pune takes in-toto 44 hours from Delhi to B'lore, the other via nagpur-hyd, takes around 38 hrs for the entire journey. Earlier the SK Express(as announced on the PA system) had an awesoem pantry and lip smacking food but this time it was a huge disappointment, the pantry was only forcing biriyanis down our throats, me with my voracious appetite had to venture out to get delicious vadas n idlis from the platform, short journey but the recall value and coincidence feeling was awesome. Enjoyed every bit of it.
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