Folks, I realize it’s been quite a while since my last post on my blog (24th Jan 2009 to be precise). Hence thought of taking a moment to reflect on what has changed since then. And this is the subject of my
latest post:
·
Demographics:
o ~68
million babies were born in India
(~70,000 babies per day * 969 days). Many of these kids now scream in
flights.
·
Economics/Finance:
o Sensex had crashed temporarily, trading at Rs. ~8,500
in Jan 2009. It soared to 21,000 thereafter and now is back to 16,000-17,000
levels. That means, if I invested Rs. 1,000 back then, I would be sitting on Rs.
2,000 today (and about Rs. 2,500 at the peak). No, I did not invest.
o The world was just stepping out of recession and the
economic outlook was turning positive. The world is staring at “double dip”
recession today and potentially a fully-blown out global macroeconomic crisis.
·
Politics:
o 2G scam, CWG
scam, Hasan Ali money laundering scam,
Bellary mines scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam, Lavasa scam, IPL scam, UP food
grain scam, PF scam and many such big-ticket corruption cases one after the
other greatly angered the people and India found a new hero in Anna Hazare (Anna Hazare sangharsh karo, hum tumhaare
saath hai!)
o Middle Eastern political landscape resembled the 90s
(or perhaps the 80s): Osama bin Laden was alive, Egypt was run by Hosni
Mobarak, Tunisia by Ben Ali, Syria by Bashar al-Assad and Libya by Col Gaddafi.
Who would’ve thought these gentlemen would be powerless today (and running for
their lives!)
·
Sports:
o India won the World Cup with a six!
o Sachin hit another purple patch in his career, scoring
200* in an ODI against South Africa. The God just got greater!
o Manchester United won two Premier Leagues and were
finalists in two Champions Leagues
·
Tech:
o Facebook’s user base grew from 175 million to 850
million!
o Groupon was a 2 month old company with 5 employees
then. Today, some analysts peg its valuation at $25 billion!
o The world did not hear of iPads in Jan 2009 (not even
in Jan 2010)!
·
Personal:
o In Jan 2009, I lived off my parents but was the
President of my college and had people working “under” me. After graduating, I
started earning. But I was “under” everyone in both the companies I have had
the good fortune of working with.
o I took over 100 international flights between May 2010
and May 2011 (and now pretend to be a seasoned traveler)
o I was single
I welcome your
feedback/comments. I can also be reached at utsavmitra@hotmail.com
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