Recession for India, never happened! ! – An analysis

In my opinion, recession for people of India never actually happened as compared to many of us in the US.

India as a transitional economy, is very vibrant, resilient and to some extent, self sustaining. India enjoys the benefits of being a developing country with much-talked domestic growth, staggering internal consumption from its burgeoning 800 million strong middle class and the new spirit of entrepreneurship . So when the economic downturn started in the US two years ago, the India exports were still steady and imports increased marginally. However as the economic condition worsen over the months, it was only in December 2008, every other country felt the ripples as well.

Indian recession was primarily triggered by a mix of couple of factors. First, the global financial meltdown tailored by few at Wall Street brought the entire US credit market down. With Fanney and AIG going down, the two heavy hitters brought jitters to the people at Oval office.  Beginning of the year and the unemployment rate grew upto 13%, highest in the history of United States in this modern era. Higher credit crunch, means more layoffs. With more and more people becoming unemployment, the number of expats going back home to India rose sharply. The not-so-much expected “changes”  in the fields of money sent by expats to India as remittance exports diminished as the demand globally hit the bottom.

Thanks to the provisions of Stimulus bill and Tarp funds, bad assets were bought out and economic players were freed of the upcoming bankruptcy. In addition to the good work these funds did, they limited the ability to hire American companies foreign nationals. Indian software industry was the worst hit by this. For the ninth year in a row, India has been the top source of sending students to study in the US. Foreign nationals graduating from school, and also who were already here, heavily rely on H1 B visas and the provisions of the Stimulus limited this overflow. Slowly and slowly, as the credit crunch at the Wall street eases, US economy continues to recover from depression bruises.

Less people working in the US means less money sent back home as remittance to India. As a result, the Indian earnings dropped for fiscal year. The world must not forget that US is of course $13 trillion economy and whereas India is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2020. There is a whole lot of dollar gap even if that happens. So developing countries will continue to line up for US’s business.  And as more and more companies recover from red lines in the balance sheets, the business will struggle back to come back to it’s “expected state.”    This means more business for the countries like India, who depend heavily on imports and are in the process of becoming industrialized nations.

Another important dichotomy to be noted is that, many in the BRIC countries didn’t experience negative growth. Indian economy never went down to a negative number in the recession, however the world’s biggest economies did. Japan, UK, Germany and the US contracted by atleast one percent of their economic size during this recession. At worst, the Indian economy declined to a figure near 6.5 % and NOT negative. So I m very convinced that recession for India never happened.

I could have easily bought the argument that Indian economy slowed down in the midst of the economic meltdown, but recession never came to the people of South east transitional economy.

Guy is, I believe.. a racist!

Having a bias is an easy thing to be a part of and when you are in the media, it is even more enticing. So what is Fox news is ( out loud) biased against the Dems!

It was only yesterday we were discussing the classification of US presidents. One would Bill Clinton in one of those orator kinds and Bush into some lower level then that. Don’t blame me for that, his English ( remember the time when you get news saying “InternetS”) is terrible for being American. But the fact is for Obama you can’t find a category.

If I could go in the future and see what category future generations of US have put Obama in, it would most expectedly be in the ranks of Lincoln. I am super sure about it. And fox ended up saying that Dems, especially the comment that Obama is racist.

I am out and proud that I like Obama. But atleast I am not slave of my prejudice and I can stand upto him and say you are wrong here or you need to do this better! Grow up Fox!

Moving to NJ – Deam or Destiny

Random shit happens to all of us. I was laid off without any prior notice and without any fault of mine. Companies just don’t understand how they crush someone’s dreams about life in just moment.

Dreams like yours, like mine.. graduation dreams, dreams to see their proud parents sitting near the graduation rows, pay off your college loan, moving in with your special someone, buy a very cherished and long awaited electronic device or may be just nothing. Just a happy moment in short!

Well honestly, after 6 months of soul and job searching, I figured I had to give consultants a try.

Graduating from one of best schools in the North America, I had a rough time doing this. I adopted a certain lifestyle that I think is the best anyone should be doing. I set aggressive targets for me in terms – rigorous gym, tenacious swimming regime, strenuous book reading, and tough healthy eating, and a strict walking routine.

My walking partner, a female friend “H” decided to send my resume to a couple of friends and float it and see what happens. So I gave my resume to her boyfriend “N” and decided to see what happens.

Two days after in the morning, I got a call from this guy “J” for a phone interview. I got it  So the next thing I know, I have to physically be here in NJ. Ground zero!! I decided to come to the same person “N” for this temporary accommodation and before I know I was packing up my stuff for a 5 day visit to NJ.

Some say dreams are your reflection. Some say dreams are mere revelations; some say some sort of calling. I will buy that! Dreams are generally your calling, and you should listen to it. I did. I do. I was watching this movie called Latter days, and I heard this quotation

“Like the game we played when we were kids, joining the dots. Life is full of those dots and you will see that may be they don’t make sense right now, but they will make sense later on, just keep on joining them. ”

That is what dreams were to me. – Dots connecting my life to a meaning, so that I can fulfill my dream to give meaning to the entire world.

Till my next rambling! Chao!

Review of “Confessions of an economic Hit Man (EHM)”

Book cover

I don’t exactly remember which of my friends and/or acquaintances told me to read this book in the first place, and like always I added this book to my “to be read” list and decided to wait whenever it’s turn comes up in the my list.

Initially I had reservations reading this book. For a guy like me who had none whatsoever background of accounting & economics, words like Economic Hit Man were totally intimidating. My first reaction to the title was of fear. It appeared daunting and a bit of too subjective to read. It is not clear to me, what made me read this book – my internal ability to push myself to do new (read weird) things and keep myself open (read vulnerable) to everything or my ability to torture myself with most awkward things in life just because I want to see myself as strong (read Mighty STRONG) or just random curiosity. But whatever it was, I can’t thank it enough for making me read this book and completing it till the very end.

John Perkins writes very candidly about his life, his geographically widespread professional entourage, turbulent personal accidents and of all the stories which his experience brought to him. The book started with a confused and a not clear note, which is acceptable given the fact that the reader should be able to put things in “his perspective” rather than putting things in “author’s perspective”.

At first I guessed that this book would be a fable of some economic blunders made in the US economy and some of its “free trade partners” in this global economy, but to my surprise this book contained that and much more.

The way John passes through countries through countries and explains tirelessly about what MAIN Corporation stands for and how MAIN reaped him in, intertwined with the notion of personal life as well is nothing short of indescribable. Earlier just professional and later his personal experiences started to revolve around MAIN’ strategy to expand the global empire and meeting to my realms of understanding, this thirst of oil continues to evade US supported MAIN from one continent to another.

Horrifying examples of Ecuador, Panama, Indonesia, and Canal country are meant to open the eyes of the readers and the masses (by a long shot though) to the corporate bureaucracy. The author coined a new term out of it, which is interesting too. The book clearly shows that the oldest democracy in the world has outlawed all the international laws (the experience stories about Vietnam and Iraq war), nullified all the popular democracy movements in the targeted countries (for e.g. Canal), CIA assassinations imprints (for example, murder of Roduge) all over the books, colossal amount of national debts incurred to these countries in lieu of providing foreign aid for building infrastructure ( such as highways, dams, power plants, oil plants and many more), loss of national freedom, and many similar activities.
Why this book & its controversial experiences seem to me as different is a good question that I am asking myself, way before even I thought I would write a review about it.

Big fish still eats the small fish. A mightier country today dictates the smaller country by means money (read foreign aid), technology transfer (read lobbying for concessions and army base) and sometimes war (read US supported army coup). Oil thirst seems to overtake everything else in the world and on this planet. NOTHING stands in front it. The fact that first EHMs are sent to a country to investigate and prepare the ground to a new country and if that fails, the jackals are sent shows the pinch of might these bigger conglomerates have over you and my daily affairs.

Each one of us likes to think that I am free and I am equal as guaranteed by the constitution (this is usually true for most of the countries, irrespective of where you belong to and from where you are reading this), but in the bigger picture, these big money earning and oil thirsty juggernauts will destroy the very fundamental of freedom by enslaving everyone of us with their products, services and money.

To our greatest fear, even today the imperialism prevails. It really doesn’t matter that which nation you are reading this entry from, but it matters what history you nation has and most importantly what it is going through now. Imperialism as we knew it, ended ages ago. Now you don’t see geographically spread colonies and rampant human slavery, but you see huge national debts of countries once rich with natural resources, now we don’t see blacks and browns tortured because of their skin color (partly thanks to the system and partly to education that let’s everyone to be seen as equals), but we see good people like John Perkins working as EHM and helping to create global empires for the countries like this one on the expense of so many others.

You can visit this page to read on goodreads
or visit my page at blogger at http://myownhope.blogspot.com/

How are we doing yet? Still hanging in here or left? — Part II

Continuing from my previous blog post,

3. Prepare a list of word templates you will need to react, reply and respond to the kind of answers you get from Professors.

Personally I had three prepared for myself

The first one was a more generic template. It expressed my interest in clear, concise and crisp grammatically correct English. You have to make changes regarding the research section, papers and your interests, etc.

The second one was a thank you reply! Unfortunately some professors will not “click” with your mails and profiles as some other will. As one of my friend who already got into the Phd program at New Zealand’s University of Auckland Dept of Imaging Science, he told me

Only 20 percent of the professors you approach in all, will acutually reply back.

The point here to be noted is that it is just a reply. It can be the most obvious one

Thanks your interest in our Phd program. You should apply through the admissions office at ZZZZZ@akd.edu

this one takes the cake!

Thanks your interest in our Phd program. Unfortunately, I am not taking any more students And/or Not teaching at the school anymore and/or Not full time faculty at the time
and/or I am on Sabbatical
(No offense. This kind of replies,make my day actually. You push me down. I will keep on coming up even with more force. The more you push me down, the more I will come up again to fight back)

So, if you get one of these replies, please don’t forget to send them a courtesy emails thanking them for time. Because you didn’t ask them before flooding their email inbox(s) and you wanted to see if you reach a common ground!

I know I do this everytime. And I know I would like to see a thank you note(atleast) from the person who sent me the first horrendously complex introductory emails. But that is just me

And the last tip for the post, don’t forget to keep your profile ( Academic Resume, Summary of interests, Linkedin Profile, email accounts, phone numbers, etc.) updated!!

Keep sharing and following! Have a good day! As again, I would love to read your stories

Share your stories and follow. I need motivation so does everyone So, just keep it on !!

Have a good day!

The beginning – How it started?

Disclaimer: This blog post is written with the intention of sharing one of my important life altering moments and is solely written to express my gratitude towards that moment and Mr. KJ.

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
— Carl Sagan

It was sort of early evening in August of 2005 when sun was about to go for the day. Faintly I remember, there was absolutely no hope of winds in the air and with it’s sultry outlook, I understood it was the beginning of fall that year. Entering from outside was my own barely seen shadow passing by the first gate. On the left I saw our dogs Bruno and Tommy. If I remeclearly year 2005 was Bruno’s third birth year and for obvious reasons he was young and sturdy. He would play with me all the time and whereas Tommy on the other hand was fragile and pale looking. Well it is not his fault. Breed of that dogs are known to be of similar health. And more importantly, playing with Tommy was never my fun moment.

As I entered my  own house complex from the gates after the first black gate, I saw KJ aka Mr.Tenant. He is one of brothers of our tenants. Over the last ten years, they have enjoyed living here and as much we have enjoyed having them here. Even though they decided to move out in late 2008 to their own house. I continue to wander myself with them. Last time I talked to him, he works at a deluxe group of hotels in New Delhi, near to the north campus Delhi University.
He as I walked to the main entrance of our house was standing and he looked into my eyes and said “What’s up?”

I replied “Hello! Nice weather outside! I was just coming from my private tuition classes. How are you doing?”

He looked calm and said “How is your application process coming along? So are you still applying for the schools in the US and New Zealand?” He looked intrigued.

I looked perplexed clearly. I was befuddled to decide to lend my voice to which of my thoughts? Agreeably, I had so many of them and all of them crushed my sanity to death every second in my mind. Going into the whirlwind of thoughts and the actions all around those thoughts, I got even more confused..what should I say, yes to US, maybe to New Zealand schools..! Which schools? New York, Missouri or Auckland or Christchurch!! What should I say? Which of the countries I should go to?

He looked at me and I looked back at him and said “Honestly I have been thinking what to do. I have this imbroglio of choosing the right university and country in the background. I am young in my education and I think it would be a decent decision to choose US for obvious reasons.”

I stared right into his eyes and wandered away immediately after that. In the backdrop, I realized that it was hard for me to capture my thoughts in totality and let myself be sure of one definite thought.

I continued saying “I am actually a little inclined to go to New Zealand. I got family there. It might of some assistance when I am alone and may need something. This country is growing and life standards are equally good. May be if I stay over a little longer, I can stay because New Zealand is happy to have educated people on their land.” He looked to the tree to his left in our garden and then he looked at me. He said something that I haven’t forgotten till day.

He said “Look. No matter what comes by your way and what options you have, always try for the first best. If you do not have the option of trying for the first best, then settle for the second best. But never ever settle for the second best!”

Startled I looked at him.

I said to one own-self in my mind “Yeah, this is something concrete. But I still don’t know what option is the right one.”

Again, I looked at him and said “Uh, yeah. You know what, it helps. May be, it’s a little easier with that thought in my head now. Thank you!”. He looked at me & smiled.

“You’re welcome”, he said.

And it was in one moment, it was so clear to me what I was missing. And in one moment I knew what I was supposed to do. No confusion any more grip my mind and I was already ware what kind of school I was going to try.

This is nothing more than a regular short small talk type of conversation. But if you read between the lines, it is easier to see and you will see that the message is a lot bigger. Never settle for the second best option. One should always aim for the first best, that too always. Always First best!! Just the very first best, always!

Thought I would share with you guys how my journey to achieve the very best started. On another note, my journey to achieve the very best has started on a good note, but it is long way from halting now.

Fair day people!

Country/Schools update – New Zealand first

Fair day people! In last two weeks or so, I have applied to various universities around the world ( See my previous blog on which countries I applied). Even though I started and spent most of my learning (how to approach professors and schools) time for US schools such as Cornell and Yale, I am glad to inform that I have completed my first round of phd e-mails to

New Zealand – (1) – University of Auckland

Remember my last post about countries short-listing, for the most part University of Auckland at New Zealand (Business School) ranks low on the catch part for me. As you know I want to research in the field of “the strategic implementation and supply chain integration of information systems”. I applied to the head of the Department since I was unable to find/locate any relevant and descriptive research interests for any of the faculty members. (Tip#1)

On the other note, there are some schools that you think are easy for you and some are tough. This is the easy one. I am sure that my profile makes it very competitive for them to not select them. This is a good thing, as I see for now.

The information systems department is associated with the department of business at UoA and I approached one of the ranked professors at this school. Simple method! Show your interest in the program and professor’s research. Don’t forget to send your latest updated academic resume attached!

Note: Please remember faking your research interest won’t take you anywhere. You are going to be out even before you got in to the school. Since Phd is a very serious affair, do what you really like. It is okay to be confused (for now) however, but liking for the sake of liking will not go very far. Take time to explore Professor’s latest papers and his research interests. In my exploration experience ( as I say it), for ninety percent of the professor’s, their homepage or faculty page will have a separate section called Research Interests which will clearly say what his/her interests are. Now, all you have to do is to figure out if your research interests match upto his/ her research interests. I think even if it is remotely similar, you stand a shot of getting a good reply. So don’t worry if that is not exactly what you are willing to do, just go ahead and write a note to the professor asking for details on his research interests and also don’t forget to write your interests!

Stay tuned for more schools/countries update next!

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