Let There Be Light...

This is it. The end of the world. The prophecy of Nostradamus has come true. The Armageddon has begun. The JJ Abrams show, “Revolution” (on NBC) has become a reality. The Mayan prediction of the end of the world has moved forward from December 21^st, 2012 to October 29^th.

The dark clouds have covered the sky. Winds have started to gain the momentum and are almost reaching the hurricane speed. Trees that withstood the test of Hurricane Irene have had enough and the roots have started to lose their strengths. The power lines are swinging like pendulum. The roads are getting deserted by each passing minute. The homes have lost power and more importantly we can’t watch TV. Well, we do have fully charged laptops, ipad’s and iPhone’s (well, who am I kidding, I am probably one of the few thousand who are still affiliated to the once prosperous, Scandinavian brand, Nokia) to survive for couple of hours, although without wi-fi and more importantly without Facebook, it’s going to be tough.

It’s been almost 2 hours, well so I thought. Habit prone, I looked at the cable box for time, alas, it was blacked out. I looked at my phone and it was only 15 minutes since we lost power. Life indeed comes to a standstill without power, both literally & figuratively. Literally being me and figuratively being Mr. Prime minister.

It’s been 2 hours for real now and I can’t take it anymore. I took Nyquil and passed out. The next morning was still dark. The leaves were off the branches. The black clouds were still overhead. The world was still quite and yes, the cable box was still not showing the time. I had it enough. I was almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To add salt to the wound, the overly advertised T-Mobile service was over and out. For some reason all my commercial brand affiliations are not so popular in the market today. Be it Nokia, T-mobile, HP, Long John Silver, Papa John’s or Adidas.

                I went to a friend’s place, which not-so-surprisingly was also without any power. Fortunately one of his outlets was working. So using our always alert, overly-leveraged, Desi(Indian)-minds, we plugged in the surge-protector and fed in all our battery-hungry e-devices. The GE 15 Watt (65W equivalent) Energy Smart Floodlight Dimmable R30 Light Bulb, never looked so bright and beautiful. We were all immersing in the golden light of the GE bulb that was lighting the one room that had power.

                And then I saw a glimmer of hope, literally. I saw one of the bedrooms light up, as if someone has said, “Let there be lights”. We all sprang up with joy- Yelling, praying, hugging, high-fiving, going berserk with joy. And as if the God of light, Apollo would have smiled, the blacked out cable box lite up again with the bright blue lights. More importantly it started showing the time again.

                Sorry Mayans, for now we have skipped the Armageddon. And our beautiful lives are back to normal, again.

The Master of Moments

“I will always make films on human relations, because it touches all walks of life and no two relationships are same”, so said the master, the storyteller, the filmmaker, the legend - Mr. Yash Chopra. The masterful storyteller, who made gems like SilSila, Chandni, Lamhe & DDLJ to name a few; The man who epitomized varied versions of human relations on the celluloid, made the viewer’s fall in love, all over again. 

He made human relations & situations a protagonist in his movies. Take the innocent love story of Kuwar Virendra Pratap Singh aka Kuwarji and Puja or the ever green love triangle between Amit, Shobha & Chandani. He was so good at reflecting the depth of human emotions on the silver screen, that his kind of cinema came to be known as Yash Chopra genre; a style to which each and every cine-goers will identify to.

For many of us who belong to either the Vijay generation or the Munna generation or the Rahul generation, Yash Raj films were binding us all. In the times of Dev D’s and Rathore’s and the new age Don’s, his was the genre that cut through the age, race, caste, creed, political and economic barrier. He was the one who brought back emotions or should I say, a little Indianess back to the Indian cinema.

The Yash Chopra story won’t be based on his life, but on his movies for that was his life…Jab Tak Hai Jaa!!

The Man, The Moments, The Movies—Yash Chopra.

All Is Well...

Down But Not Out

After a long hiatus, I am back…

So, Is America doomed?

Are the world renowned financiers, economists, journalists, historians correctly predicting the end of the Superpower that has shouldered the world’s economy since the beginning of the last century?  Marc Faber, Jim Rogers, Nouriel Roubini and countless other famed commentators (including my friends & colleagues), are they placing the right bet by shorting on the US economic future?

I for one don’t think so. US economy is hurt and a little down, but definitely not out. Let’s take it point by point:

Federal Spending

I definitely share their concern with regards to the debt burden and its unsustainability. But given the situation that we are in, I think this is the ‘only’ way out. I am not asking the federal government to expand the social welfare programs, NO. I only ask for investments in two sectors. I am hoping that the federal government’s spending goes towards infrastructure, which is much needed and with that you will have jobs for the people. Follow the lead of the most successful developed nation, Germany and invest in the workers training programs. Make them more efficient and educated so that they can face the ever changing world of technology. US can’t fight against the low cost labor, but they can always become more productive.

Austerity measures

I had said this in one of my blog’s last year. It’s about math. Consumer, Business & Government makes up the national GDP (for now don’t focus on EX-IM).  We are very well aware that Consumers and Businesses are going through a rough patch since last four years and it seems that the status quo will remain for couple more years. So, now if you ‘still’ want to grow, who do you think will have to take the lead? Right, the Government. Of course financing the future with Debt is not a prudent move, but as long as the world trust’s the all might dollar and falls heads over heals to buy the Treasuries, you do not need to worry. US have about $15 Trillion of debt (almost as much as GDP) and still the yields on Treasuries are at a historic low. Why? Because US is the best place in the worst neighborhood. UK had taken strict austerity measures couple of years back and look where it is now. It’s still teetering at 0 to 0.5% growth, add to it the increasing unemployment and a whole lot of other domestic issues.

China syndrome

Enough with the China scares. China needs us more than the other way round. China needs to keep Yuan undervalued, to keep the manufacturing sector running which in turn keeps the domestic population employed. 20 million Chinese move to the cities every year. They need to be employed. China’s economy unlike US is not based on consumers, but on exports to the ‘rich’ countries like US, EU & Japan. If they don’t keep their currencies undervalued, the trade favorability will increase the value of Yuan, which won’t be good for the manufacturing sector, which will lead to job cuts, which will lead to innumerable social and domestic issues for the Communist party.

The world might not like US government printing more Dollars, but they don’t have any other alternative. And this is what US should take the advantage of. Issue debt but make sure it’s ‘invested’ for the future.