2008 - Year that was!

This post is pending for few days now.

Beginning of 2008 I had listed set of people, things and events that was poised to make news. Some of them were picked up from JWT list for 2008 from yahoo.com and then I add few to the list. A quick review of the list:

Beijing 2008 - Hats off to China for putting a spectacular show but did not go off without its share of controversial issues, be it Olympic flame sabotage or under-age participants!
Facebook suicides – Ah! So much interweaving of web 2.0 technologies with our lives, rightly they had predicted that one of the effects of emotional distress would be in the virtual world. Heard few friends randomly telling that they would drop off from orkut but did not really see any suicides personally!
Google's Android – The much awaited product in 08, just one phone launched till date. I hope I am correct. Should see more of android effect actually in 2009.
Deepika Padukone – The only Asian to make it to the JWT list. The Bangalore dream girl won all the accolades for OSO from 2007 but did not see much of her on the screen in 2008 however you rock Deepika!!
U.S.election 08 – Probably this one will make to the list of top 10 events of the century. The land of opportunity for the first time elected a black President – Barack Obama. Socially it has lot of unwritten connotation but truly spectacular event. He has come in the midst of huge financial turmoil and war legacy left by Bush, can he meet people expectation across the globe? Big ticket item for global debate in 2009.
Weak dollar/strong euro/rupee/yaun – This hasn’t worked for India. Thanks for all the financial turmoil, emerging markets took the beating. Rupee dropped from a high of 39/dollar to 50/dollar.Exporters must be making a merry!
Tata 1L car – The black episode of 2008 in the India Corporate story, probably in the India Growth story as well. Mamata didi re-iterated how illogical politics can stop growth & development and nobody can do anything about it except watch helplessly. Kudos to Mr.Modi for bagging the project. Need to wait for a while longer to see the Nano on the roads.
Gary Kristen Impact - ah!! what a win! Indian cricket came back with all the form and spirit. Kristen coupled with Dhoni is rocking the Indian Cricket. Keep it going boys!
Reliance Blue Magic – Except for scoring some brownie points on Airtel ads really did not make the expected impact.
Karnataka elections – As predicted BJP won absolute near majority creating first-to-form-BJP-government-in-south India. The win did not go without all the drama. However Operation Lotus went overboard I guess.
Pakistan – Least said the better. From bad stage at Benzir’s assassination went to worse with Mariott bombing and 26/11. It appears one army general has taken over from another. The only difference is that this time there is a bunch of puppets to execute what army wants.
Climate sightseeing – Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and the time-lapse photography were not lost on a number of people. And increasingly, people are wanting to see these sights of the world before they change shape or change form however did not hear much in the media. Probably fears of recession in US and Europe ate away this phenomenon.
Couch Surfing – Innovative concept linking travel and social networking. Not heard much in India, should work well in India, isn’t one of our cultural ingredient - “Athithi Devo Bhava”?
Bengaloru International Airport – Finally my city has an international airport after 17 years of starting the project. Airport opened amongst drama from all quarters – Political, Corporate, taxi services etc. Ride to airport has not been that bad, personally had few national and international trips this year, got to see domestic and international wing. Sad part remains, Albert Brunner has decided not to renew his contract. Hats off to the man for holding the fort together!
SEZ – No full blown official policy, offcourse government did not get anytime to think about SEZ apart from Nuclear deal. To add, wanted time to think and plan to pay huge insurance premiums for 2009 General Elections such as 60K crore loan waiver and 6th pay commission.
Teleco Spectrum – Too much drama. Drama had all the elements of political accusations, corporate blame game, typical interest group lobbies and scent of kick backs. Continue to remain shady deal of the year.
Vickram Pandit – The man who took over the toughest job on the planet at the start of 08. Fortune ran a 5-8 page story in Q108 with a very positive tone of Mr. Pandit, not all is well coz problems for Citi appears never ending but Mr. Pandit still holds the fort and will clear the exam with distinction.

Following add to the list that marked 2008.
India Nuclear deal – First country to get NSG waiver without signing NPT or CTBT.
Olympics – India’s first individual gold medal, thank you Abhinav Bindra.
Global Financial Tsunami – Most devastating financial crisis that has challenged the idea of free markets.
MNS – Raj Thakrey’s attempt to score brownie points challenging the “Idea of India”
26/11 – 9/11 of the east.

Hope 2009 will be a year of rejuvenation, triumph and success of man kind more than ever.

Boat se Vote tak via Ramu

An interesting quote that a colleague shared today…

“I am not worried about the men who come thru BOATS

I am scared of the men who come thru VOTES”

Very ironical and true, not sure if this originated from despair or creativity.

Thinking of creativity, on a different note, I guess all the media bashing on RGV for accompanying Maharastra CM to Taj on Monday was uncalled for.

Common, give RGV some credit for creatively thinking about nexus between underworld and terrorist forces in his last movie – CONTRACT.

Now, please don’t argue that his movie provided the plot to do the same in real life. At least, Ramu was creative in predicting such incidents if not in similar fashion.

At times to draw up huge predictive, preventive and pre-cautionary measures and mechanisms not only intelligentsia is required but also creativity.

Deaths have not woken up our governments; hope some of Ramu’s creativity can make our representatives think adding to the futile list of attempts to wake the duds.

Yo, long live the Buffalo.....

Back from a very long blogging vacation!!

Its a very sad, despair and anguish week, its not easy to digest the fact that my country is and was at WAR.

First and foremost, deep condolences to all those who lost life in 26/11 - Mumbai Terror. Hats off to security forces and the officers who laid down their lives for us. They are the heroes of the day and lets treat them that way for ever.

Btw, I am not a mumbaikar but cannot stand the fact that life can come to an end in such a disastrous manner in this beautiful and democratic to-be superpower.

Lot of thoughts run thru my mind and heart but couple of them are too disturbing. One, time & again we are struck and son of a gun who takes my taxes uses only for his security and leaves common man like me stranded. Two, its scary, living in Bengalooru and at this rate, that day is not far when my lovely city will be turned into another war zone. It sounds emotional outburst because its not about right or wrong, left or liberal but its a matter of being ALIVE.

I know some politicians may argue that its happened in an urban arena hence so much attention and call for an action but there are lot of people who are suffering and dying in the rural arena. I would call that line of argument absurd for two reasons, one the bloody political class has failed to do something positive for rural arena and urban arena as well. They have failed in both.

Two, DEATH by TERRORISM according to me is worse, heinous and highest form of ego, pride & self-respect being hurt in a free country like India.

To start, its a situation of "Aa bale mujhe maar". Starting with 1993 mumbai blasts to till date, numerous blasts & terrorist incidents have happened and our government machinery & political class have just not learnt any lessons. They have failed to value human life for years, 15 years since 1993 is a enough time to change the system, process and more important ATTITUDE. They have not changed and we have allowed them to be that way.

In the corporate world we live with the line "You do a mistake once you will be forgiven and repeat it you will be forgotten". We need to extend this line to measure the performance of the government at least limiting to Terrorism issues in the near and short term.

We need to absolutely learn from Kiori Singh Bainsla,the Gujjar leader who brought NCR to halt for the cause of identity, right or wrong is debatable but can we bring the nation to a halt for the cause of being ALIVE until our politicians and governments act.

All causes branch from two roots - VOTE BANK POLITICS and CHALTA HAI attitude especially latter one which has dwindled us into such a pity situation where we have become soft targets.

I hate the term soft target, this is a country which has seen birth and rise of warriors such as Chatrapathi Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Tippu Sultan and now we cannot save our people and come across as a weak & helpless country. I wonder if the political class has any pride living in this country and being an Indian.

As somebody mentioned on the TV today, MIGHT is RIGHT. Its not sufficient we show our might as a reactive process, it needs to remain in our DNA and ATTITUDE of legislature which will automatically reflect in our laws, judiciary and all executive machinery. Fanatics will think 100 times before entering our soil to cause harm.

* Can we learn from Israel and Operation wrath of god, every Black September conspirator was killed within 2 years of the deadly Munich incident?

Had we done this after 1993 carnage, today the same conspirator would not have masterminded / supported this deadly war today.

* What did we do when our Prime Minister, the charismatic Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by external forces, absolutely nothing. I am no INC fan but a successful external attack on the Prime Minister is the deepest insult on this country. Lack of will of our governments to bring the conspirator to justice and all associated exposes the vulnerability of our lives.

Its this sick attitude shouts out to the world "Aa bale mujhe maar", if Prime Minister's assassins are left to scout free, rest of the citizens and respective lives will be wiped out.

* Least, can we learn from animals, the famous Battle of Kruger (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM). The video shows the FIGHT

BACK of buffalos against lions defying the order and logic of food chain. In comparison, it appears that we have lost our instinct and its the worse harm we can inflict upon ourselves. Are our politicians' intelligentsia and attitudes worse than buffalo?

Problem is not entirely about neighbors, religious radicalism, processes and systems but our governments' ATTITUDE and just ATTITUDE. Set the WILL and ATTITUDE into appropriate mode, all our neighbors will mind their business.

Finally, I am forced to remember my text books from school thru which I learnt about Netaji, probably we need Netaji today more than ever.

I know all of this is easy to blog by punching few keys, I have not done anything so far but I will start searching for avenues and opportunities where I can contribute to make CHANGE in this regard.