Once in a while its good to be on a very long vacation, there is lots of time on our hands to look at what has been happening around the world and reflect on it.
It was interesting to read about how the so called strong economies of the slowdown year (2008) are getting a bit shaky -- Canada, China, India and Germany. That’s something to worry about especially if you are living in one of them. Maybe it might us a chance to make some money, the mid 2009 way. Turmoil in Middle East and North Africa, whooha, it would be good fun to read some of the articles by conspirator theorist. It may give some nice ideas on writing short stories, probably even a novel.
Falling skeletons from the 'cabinet' of the Indian government. It seems the so called smart businessmen are not so smart. Their smartness is more a result of willful negligence on the part of our so called leaders of natural assets like spectrum, oil fields, mines etc.
Ambani's were famous of pocketing the government for their benefit, the Radiia tapes have put a blot on Ratan Tata as well. But who cares, most people will not fail to praise the advertisement which are part of the 'Jago re' campaign and fall flat on their face when the time of action comes. Ironically the advertisement is supported by a Tata group company. Wonder if they will shut it down.
This reminds me of an incident. One day, I went with a friend to a nearby mom and pop store. There was one customer shouting over the shopkeeper. Apparently the shopkeeper was trying to sell an expired product. It was his bad luck; the customer caught the plot and threatened that if he tries to pull the trick again, the shopkeeper will have to deal with the consumer complaint department.
This threat was the result of an advertisement campaign by the state government. The ad was on the lines that consumers’ should not allow themselves to be cheated and if they notice something like this then they can get help from the consumer complaint forum. The ad used to end with a quip "Jago grahank jago". (Wake-up customers wake-up)
Coming back to the scene of the incident. After the customer left, the storekeeper turned to his friend, who was also present there -- "Grahank aisa jaga hai ki sone ka naam hi nahin leta". (The customer has woken up in a way that they are not even thinking of falling asleep.)
It would be nice if the people of the Republic (of India) someday also ‘wake-up’ the way it has been put up in the advertisement campaign. Perhaps then we will get the chance to fulfill our tryst with destiny.
