I - Alone.

Standing alone, I ponder.
Is it real or just my minds creation?

I wonder, amazed, at the gnawing questions.
At the thousand little doubts, at a million unknowns.

Should you just ignore them,
Or seek answers to the unending queries.
Or just let them lie in vacuum for eternity.


Somethings are best left untouched.
Happiness has an uncanny way of finding its way into your life.

A Modern Greek Tragedy

The world is fretting over the potential default by the Greek government on the debt it has issued. Various scenarios are being envisaged and implications being discussed by Central Banks, Governments, economists and analysts alike. A similar scenario was witnessed just last year. At the time, members of the European Union stepped in to ‘bailout’ (word of the year nominee) to the errant nation.

Greece piled up the debt to fund its infrastructure investment when they hosted the Olympics in 2004. Time has now come to repay these debts and the coffers are empty. The sustainability of the infrastructure has been questionable right from the beginning. Huge stadiums with no utilization plans post the event, swimming pools rotting, velodrome covered with dust and a hockey arena which hasn’t been used since (no one plays hockey in Greece apparently!!). This is just about stadiums and sporting facilities. Greece upgraded its airport (old one lies unused now), updated its metro systems, built a tram network and improved its road. The infrastructure created is a positive but the huge operating costs are unsustainable.

It is not just the Olympics that have single handedly caused the spiral of the nation. There are various other factors that have contributed to this situation. The major factors are government policy on pension, taxation systems, government employee salary structures and corruption amongst others.

It’s no longer the issue of interest or principal not being paid to lenders. Huge amounts of derivatives and insurance (hedging) products are issued based on this debt. So it is possible that entities insuring Greece does not default will face billions in claims which could potentially render them insolvent.

Bailing out Greece will not cost too much financially (in the region of $100bn, a drop in the ocean) but raises the further complications of how many such nations will wander the path of default knowing they will be bailed. When Lehmann went bust, the world discovered that they had hardly imagined the consequences.

If Greece goes bust, we may just revisit the experience of the last few years. A déjà vu of sorts with a hint of Greek Tragedy!!

Demographic Divide(n)d

1.2 billion people and growing, more than half under the age of 25. That’s present day India for you.

“Wow” scream economists and financial analysts, “that is such a huge opportunity”. It most definitely is a huge opportunity but a lot of things need to fall in place for it to become tangibly beneficial. The opportunity will translate into a reality when this huge chunk of people get an education, enter the workforce (either jobs or as entrepreneurs) and earn an income. After all, the market will get bigger only when more people have money. That’s the whole concept of Demographic Dividend.

Here’s my issue, there are too many if’s to be addressed and honestly some of them look insurmountable.
Getting over a 150 million into school, another 40 million to college and completing higher education. The challenge to fight illiteracy has never been so significant.Our system is not strong enough to support such volumes. Yes, there are some great organizations (Pratham, Teach India etc) doing some excellent work to encourage education and they have broken traditional models to achieve great success. But the fact remains vast areas of India are not as accessible.Education is half the battle, creating employable talent is a whole different ball game.

Lets talk about infrastructure, roads teeming with cars, trains overflowing with people, lack of housing, inefficient supply chain etc and the worst part is the total apathy towards the situation. It is a wonder how we have sustained our high GDP growth. The India story is definitely one which will be told as one achieved despite a million 'inspite off's'.


I would love to talk about politics and the impact politicians can have on demographic dividend. But I risk sounding more cynical than this post has already become. So I am just going to say "No comments" on that topic. The less I say, the more it will be heard I guess.

We as a nation surprise and that is probably our greatest asset. Overcoming obstacles and shocking the ordinary, that's India. Just hope the Dividend pays off..

World Champions

Truly exhilarating.

Happy for Sachin!!

Glacier

Standing on the glacier, I wait to slide. The expanse of white is numbing. My spirit is awakened by the jaw clenching cold.  Nobody is around, no warmth, no fear. Just the vapor from your breath rising towards heaven.  It is here that you find yourself. Frozen inside you know the depths that really matter. It never seems enough.  You strive for more, push harder and fight longer. the journey continues but your still standing there.

Suddenly, with a leap of faith you take a step. And that makes all the difference. You slide on the glacier, cold and hard but exhilarating. Watch out, your mind says but then the adrenaline takes over. You dodge the obstacles, a few knocks are fine. Your efforts are not in vain. The slide gets you on track.

The rapid nature of the event leaves you gasping, the air is rare in any case. The chill hits your lungs but the joy is evident and the pain is forgotten. You look up at the summit, think to yourself, this was worth it.

Theme 2011 - Reach for the Sky

The air smells a bit better, the fog has subsided a bit. One can see a bit further in the horizon now. 2011 provides an opportunity to be a more ambitious which is truly welcome. 

As I look around the world, the West still seems to be finding its way out of the hole it fell into. There are no guarantees of everyone getting out too. Moving to the East, things are reaching a point where you might feel nothing ever happened. Well there is still some caution in the air, and justifiably so. That caution has prompted me to keep the goal at the sky and not the stars.

I see the foundations in place, the base seems strong. Its now time to build while keeping one eye on the future. And if there is no catastrophe, there is no reason why the sky should be the limit.

Conform Or..

In the initial stages of our lives all we want to do is fit in. As we grow older all we want to do is be different. It’s a strange dichotomy for the same lifetime. That’s allowed of course, you can change your perspective towards life.  The reason behind the transition is what fascinates me. 

Let’s journey back to school. A bespectacled lady in the classroom tells you what good behavior is and that you are constantly being watched. The same saga is repeated during the impressionable years. Now different people react to this discourse in a number of ways. Some follow the path, some do the exact opposite, some differ but stay aligned when being watched and some accidentally disobey. This phase has a telling impact on the personality, sometimes lifelong. Toe the line or face the back of the hand. Now that’s hardly a fair choice.

Cut to the next phase, college. Ah the smell of freedom coupled with the rashness of youth. Brilliant!! A potent recipe for disaster or and a big or at that, foundations of a grand success. So which way does one go? Follow the path of conformity or break free. To be honest that’s not a real dilemma; in a country of over a billion even the rebels are fairly mainstream purely on the basis of absolute numbers. 

Statistics apart, as you grow up, there is a compelling need to distinguish yourself from others. This is sometimes driven by questions like, ‘what sets you apart from others?’, or ‘how are you different from the next guy?’, or ‘what difference will you make?’ Standard questions asked in various settings and perfectly relevant too. 

Now this gets me wondering, apart from the true rebels (don’t ask me to define a true rebel), are the others who are ‘being different’ actually different. They are in a sense conforming to the need to be different as expected due to external forces. So the next time you are asked to display you difference, you may want to ponder on what you as an individual really want.