All of a sudden I found myself amidst a bunch of financial experts. All around, people were discussing about investment banking, financial depression and market crisis. All of them seemed to be experts to comment about the current market depression, the follies made by the banking giants and ways to recover. What was most astonishing was I found myself reading Business Line and Economic Times. Never in my life had I thought that I would encounter such a situation. It was all Greek and Latin to me. But I was taking pain to read the articles 2-3 times to get a grasp of the debacle.
At cafeteria I overheard one guy discoursing on the mistakes made by Lehman Bros. I suppose, if he was its CEO, Wall Street would not have plunged into such crisis. “US Govt is making a huge folly by spending their federal reserve on the sinking AIG”, announced another expert. I recognized that was a guy who had been put on improvement plan by his manager. I realized that he was in the wrong line of career. He would have done better in a role of financial adviser to US Govt.
Lay offs in IT firms was another point of concern. Panic sailed ashore in the form of a mail from CEO about planned salary cut. News hit as a bolt. People who had set rules to divert mails from CEO to Junk folder, tried to dig it out and poured all over it. All were worried about their huge EMIs and other financial commitments. All of us were trying hard to figure out which pay category would we fall in and optimistically put ourselves in the least impacted one.
But in any group you will find some pessimists and sadists. The first group will not disturb you unless you go and poke them. Leaving them alone is good for all. No one can convince them, but they will keep their woes and concerns to themselves. The later is extremely venomous. They will leap into any cheerful group and become eloquent on how the management is going to trick us. They will blab out on the situation of the company much better than any CFO as if they have all the inside information. In short, we were again pondering on our EMIs after one such specimen jumped into our group.
I am wondering, since when did these global oil price and dollar rates start having a direct impact on my daily life, my peace of mind. I knew that buses and cars ran on petrol. I had happily travelled in them. I knew that there was one rich country called America on the other side of the sphere and their currency was dollar. But I had never tried to know its rate, never worried about its value going up or down. I had never seriously thought about the lives outside my neighborhood. Only times I thought about America was when I saw some foreign tourists with their heavy back packs roaming around the town.
I had vivid imaginations on how their life would be. I would listen curiously to the stories my friends would tell about them. They would showcase their courage by asking any foreigner, "Sir, what is your name?". They would coax me to ask the same, but I could never muster the courage even to go near them. At that time, to me and my little friends, all foreigners were from America. They were completely aliens.
I was happy with my little knowledge. I would pray for securing better marks so that I would get a good job.
My prayer was answered, I got a job. My knowledge expanded. Knowledge took me to this walk of life, work with those people whom I once thought as strangers. I talk to them daily. I just poke the corner of my desktop and chat with them. I work for an American company. I watch its share prices going up or down. I watch its competitor’s shares. I try to link any speculative news in America with my job. Now I am apprehensive about my future, my family's future. I pray for oil prices to go down. Dollar rates to soar. I pray for America to prosper. Life is full of twists and turns....
