Wall Street meets Main Street

The past few days have been very unsettling. The financial markets the world over have taken a nosedive. Fears of a double dip recession have returned and looks like investors and those of us in the financial sector have no where to hide. Of course, the markets are usually a leading indicator and things may turn out to become worse for the "main street" as well.

What is more unsettling however, is the sudden and inexplicable violence in London. I woke up on Sunday to see images of burning buildings and people trashing stores. At first, I thought this was a one-off thing, although pretty scary and not something that you would expect to see in a city like London. When people started calling me, and had sent emails overnight to check I was ok on Tuesday morning, things really hit home. I quickly turned on my computer to see what was going on. Some of the images were horrific to say the least. The sounds of sirens, ambulances and helicopters have continued over the last few days and parts of England do look like war zones.

What struck me the most is that people are not really protesting about anything at all! They are just taking advantage of the situation in a very organised way and looting items like plasma TVs, iPads, shoes, clothes..How were they so organised, they used blackberry messenger, of course! Only in the UK will you find people in £100 trainers robbing shops because they feel that they have been wronged by society..

Who are these people? What do they want? They say they are angry, but what for? For having council housing? for having the chance to get an education? to get unemployment benefits? How about they tried to go to a real poor country and saw what poverty is all about. What it means to have no food, no home and no education. What it means to be living off the streets and have no real prospects.

These riots also brought home the fact that the UK authorities are unable to deal with widespread disturbances like these. They are still debating whether it is actually "legal" to use batons and wondering if the use of water cannons is "appropriate". In fact, on the very first day of rioting, the police simply watched as rioting went on, much preferring to look at CCTV rather than actually trying to stop the events as they unfolded.

Reminds me of the free market regulatory policy that most of the western world has followed. The theory that markets are always right and that the market will correct itself and weed out the outliers is completely wrong and has been proven wrong many times in the past. As for the current sell-off, seems to have been triggered by the US govt downgrade by S&P, but no-one has a put a finger on the real issue - over leveraged consumers and governments. The response of the western world to shore up the economy for the last few years has been to print, print and print more money ergo leading to further increase in government debts! Very few have pointed out that credit fueled culture will need to be reversed and it will be painful.

On the social side, there has been talk about "bad parenting" here and how parents need to keep a tab on their out-of-hand kids. Is that the real issue here? Why did these kids or certain sections of society get out of hand in the first place?

Maybe all this is because the rich and the poor both felt entitled to have things that they could not afford in the first place. The educated used their credit cards, while the un-educated used their knives and the power of the mob.

I almost feel that police and regulators have been too soft here. Increasingly in the west, you get the feeling that Big Brother is watching. Phones are being tapped, emails are monitored, there is CCTV everywhere you go. But where is the Big Brother when you actually need him?

I hope that the fires are put out quickly and the sirens go quiet again. I hope the rampant sell-off in the markets stops and firms start generating business and start hiring again. But the reality is that all measures are stop-gap and temporary and no one has a real long-term solution yet. And so we will go along our business, till we get shocked to the core again..

Rock on!!

What a wet spring its been in London! Certainly doesn't provide much inspiration as I've been trying to learn the opening lines of "Spring" by Vivaldi on my guitar.

The spring began with much promise - My first trip to the Royal Albert Hall and second concert by Nitin Sawhney. Royal Albert Hall was something else! It is definitely the most beautiful venue and Sawhney did a piece on the hall organ - which was interesting.

Sawhney mixes new elements into his performance every time. His music can be best be described as "world music". Although "Nadia" remains my favorite and I hope to hear the Rina Bhardwaj version on stage some day.

The following week, Roger Waters was in town on his The Wall tour. I had been thinking of going for a long time, but was still debating. But after the Nitin Sawhney show I felt I could not miss this for anything in the world. And how right I was!

The show was spectacular. I knew every sound, every little note..The show was a complete walk down memory lane and I couldn't help but miss my friends with whom we used to listen to the album every day and night...I am short of words at this point, I absolutely loved it! But it was also bitter sweet - I wondered if Roger Waters or Pink Floyd would ever tour again..

Last week, I went to a concert that completely moved me. It was a Pandit Ravi Shankar concert at the Barbican. He is celebrating his ninth decade! He looked un-recognisably frail and had to eat "energy food" in between recitals. But other than that, it was pure magic.

It made me nostalgic to the time I first heard the sitar. It was sometime during my school days when I heard a friend of mine play and loved the sound so much I felt I had to learn to play this instrument.

He started with Alap in Yaman - Kalyan followed by Raag Tilak-Shyam (his own Raaga creation) in teen taal. In between, he suddenly felt the urge to Rabindranath Tagore, so he played a song by Tagore! The highlight was "Khamaaj" a seamless amalgamation of many raagas in different taals. He played the sitar in a way that I had never heard before - dulling the sound to make it sound like a percussion instrument rather than a stringed one (something I had learned on the guitar just the week before!) The performance ended in a smooth jhala.

We all gave a standing ovation and asked for an encore, but I guess he was just too tired. I just hope that I get to hear an encore soon!

Overall, its not been a bad spring..afterall, how often do you get to listen to two musical legends in completely opposite genres in the same season.

I'm a Believer!!

Today is a rare day, its the morning after...and for once, it is not filled with regrets, finger pointing, confusion, arguments or pure disbelief and denial. People are not coming up with accusations, arguments and justifications. From the logical - "they are paid so much for the ads (and now IPL) that they have no incentive to play for the country", "its only Sachin the rest are useless", "they come under pressure too soon"; to the downright inane - "Indians are vegetarians so they can't compete as athletes" or "Gods are against us" and of course "the match was fixed"

After more than 25 years of every Indian of my generation expecting the "best team on paper" to win and every time being let down just as fabulously. But today is indeed a different day, coz we are truly the world champions!! Not only that, we are now, the only team to have won the World Cup in all three formats (60 overs, 50 overs and 20-20). We are the leading Test side and of course we are the commercial capital of Cricket Land.

And so today, I go down memory lane and relive the world cup moments - some great wins, some bitter disappointments and sometimes the only cheer was provided by the special cricket commercials. (PS - click on links)

I don't remember much of 1987 World Cup, we used to live in Shillong, Meghalaya and I cared more for Football and Tennis than for Cricket...

1992 - We move to Kanpur (home to Green Park, the only International Cricket Stadium in the state of UP) and therefore get caught up in Cricket frenzy. The tournament was a complete washout, the only saving grace was the win against Pakistan and of course the image of Javed Miandad doing the frog jump as he imitated Kiran More.
Pakistan led by Imran Khan went on to famously win the World Cup and we all wondered when our team would ever be as spirited...(and whether we could ever understand what our captain Mohd. Azharuddin said after the first phrase i.e. "the boys gave 100%...")

1996 - I remember that our final exams were going on at the time, and we were only allowed to see India matches :(

India was playing in the sub-continent and we had a real chance of winning..Sachin Tendulkar had become one of the best batsmen ever and had practically broken all records. The mood was up-beat and the TV commercials capitalised on this big time

In the Quarter-Finals, Team India play spectacularly against Pakistan and the term "doing a Jadeja" was coined when he thrashed Waqar Younis for 40 in two overs..India was all set to take on the mighty Sri Lankans at Eden Gardens. The match started well, but what happened in the second innings is a shameful event for Indian cricket - India collapsed (predictably) after Sachin was out and the crowd started Rioting..The crowd was not justified in rioting and I don't think Eden Gardens has still recovered from that match..But then it reflected the state of affairs of the Indian cricket team - it was a one man army and was completely dependent on its star player - Sachin Tendulkar (leading run scorer of the tournament)

1999 - A not so great tournament for India who couldn't progress beyond the super sixes..But then the lasting image will always be South Africa vs Australia in the Semis where a mis-understanding caused SA to get knocked out of the tournament...

2003 - BJP was in power and their campaign was called "India Shining"; From the outside, India was indeed shining, the telecom / mobile revolution was in full swing, the markets were up, the Cricket World Cup was going on and Team India under Saurav Ganguly looked formidable. A convincing win over Sri Lanka and New Zealand (and of course Kenya) got India into the finals against the mighty Aussies..We never had a chance against the Aussies, because we never really tried! The cookie just crumbled and Team India lost by the largest margin ever!!

Once again, the only thing to really cheer about were the TV ads...

The BJP India Shining Campaign didn't last longer as well, they too lost to the Congress led Coalition.

2007 - Was it because I was too busy with my investment banking internship, or India were in such bad form, but either way I don't remember watching a single match!!

2007 - T-20 World Cup; I wasn't a fan of T-20 at that point and missed most of the league games (India wasnt playing well anyway). But then "youngistan" team India took over in the knock out stages and the images of Yuvi's 6 sixes and India winning against Pakistan in a nail-biting match remain.

2009 - T-20 World Cup; My friends and I bought loads of tickets for matches at Lords. Watching games at Lords was a real treat! But India let us down again and was knocked out in the qualifiers. PS - found this great ad though

2011 - Expectations are sky high, it is a lengthy tournament, Sachin's last world Cup, etc etc.
I almost gave up on them the way they played against England; My hopes were regained after they played SA - because even though they lost they played well!! Knock-out stages were a complete emotional roller-coaster..We all know what happened, the team finally rose to the occasion, this time the symbolism (the famous huddle) was missing, but the firecrackers were not.

1983 was always an image for us, finally we have new images, new memories to cherish. Virat Kohli summed it up for all of us when he said "Sachin has held carried the burden of Indian cricket for 21 years so its fine if we carry him on our shoulders today" (did he really come up with that on the spot??!!!)

And so here I am, I confess I am not cricket crazy like a lot of my friends but a fan nonetheless, and today, I am a believer!!

PS - check out this MS Dhoni ad (I'd not seen it before)

Hey there Georgie girl!

"this is a meeting about having a meeting" -brilliant line from Larry David's Curb your Enthusiasm thats on the telly right now. The meeting is with "George Costanza" from Seinfeld who wants to move back to acting but the only roles he gets are that of "George Costanza".

How many actors would kill to have a role like that of "George Costanza" but then most actors end up being stereotyped and have to live the rest of their lives as "Joey" or "Samantha". Although we value versatility so much, we rarely cultivate it..

Change is sometimes the only constant, yet we are opposed to change. We continue to follow the same routine - wake up, go to work, "meetings about having a meeting", more meetings, networking and then some! Trapped in a corner office, in the corporate maze that our lives have become...chicken and egg problem surely, the chicken desperately trying to burst out of the egg.

And so George will probably always be George, and Kramer will always be Kramer...Damn!! I miss Seinfeld...Sky Atlantic, bring it on please...

All that glitters is not gold...

A Lamborghini is always an absolute head-turner, an orange one more so, and one parked outside the DLF Emporio mall in Delhi entrance leaves you completely awestruck..

For a self-confessed mall rat like me, it was becoming a matter of intense trepidation that I had not visited the luxury malls in Delhi. I finally made time, literally on the last day of my long stay in Delhi and strode into DLF Emporio.The pride of Delhi, supposedly its what makes Delhi cool these days..a sign of the times, a bastion of India's progress and prosperity.


Malls in India are such security fortresses, you are frisked everytime you get in, it makes me wonder how people are so determined to go to them still. Anyway, the Emporio is certainly a high security zone, with x-ray machines and security officers who speak to you in accented English.

Right, security check done and my first stop is as always, Gucci. As I enter the store, I overhear this pre-teen boy asking the salesperson "do you have this shoe in my size?" Unfortunately, they don't...but really, are Gucci shoes for your average pre-teen?

The Fendi store was full, everyone needs a Fendi spy bag of course...


I continued strolling about, making regular stops at Rohit Bal, JJ Vallaya, Tarun Tahiliani and all the scions of Indian fashion, but when I saw a sari at Abu Jani Sandeep that retailed at a price equivalent to the annual income of many Indians, I began the wonder what the whole point of luxury was.

But then how different is this from a trip to Selfridges or Harrods? Why am I not really shocked at the price tag of an Alexander McQueen gown? Why am I perfectly comfortable with the people in a Channel showroom in Paris, while the ones in Delhi seem so out of place?

Cut to Burberry, there's a sale sign on, perhaps I can find a steal after all. Women of all shapes and sizes are clamouring to buy a Mac...or maybe even an umbrella, of course must haves in the relatively rain free Delhi...

As I walked out empty handed from Burberry, I began to wonder really, who are these people? Where did they come from? Why the mad rush to buy anything "designer"?

As my true-blue Delhi friends Mohit and Amrita say, but thats how it has always been. The Delhi crowd was always rich, always driven to splurging; its just that people have just graduated from buying gold and diamonds to LV bags...Or maybe it is because in today's day and age (malls, access to information et al) luxury has become democratised; What was once just the vanguard of the rich and famous is now accessible to the commoner;


As I drove out of DLF Emporio and turned around the corner, I couldn't help but notice the cliched slum with rags serving as walls, leaving a bad taste in my mouth...

Winter 2010 / 2011

As I woke up, I noticed the date: 1st Dec 2010; the beginning of the end, the end of another year; yet filled with so much anticipation for the countless celebrations, parties, events, sales and of course holidays. Where there is so much expectation, there is bound to be some disappointment as well...

Would that make December one of the most stressful months as well?

too many boring parties, or not being invited to the most happening parties; not finding the perfect dress, or overpaying for the gorgeous one; endless gift shopping or worse disrupted holiday plans.

To fly or not to fly...that is the question? As Londoners watched with bated breath as fresh snow descended upon us (a meagre 1 inch, mind you...), I too hoped and prayed that my flight would take off. It eventually did, after a last minute plane change due to a snow induced snag....To steal from someone's FB post - the Germans cleared 300km of Autobahn but the English couldn't clear 3km of runway!

December in Delhi is usually chilly, but filled with warm and sunny days. This year, of course, was different. A heavy fog descended upon Delhi causing much havoc to flights and trains.

Holidays have also become a way for some groups / sections to try and submit society to their demands. Last year's (err wait that was 2009) BA flight strikes were a case in point, so much so that most people began to stop booking flights on BA especially during holidays. The Gujjars were similarly inspired and decided to strike when it would hurt the most - during peak season in Rajasthan. Road and train links into Jaipur were disrupted and we hoped in vain that our trip could continue as planned. Endless phone calls followed to try and get refunds / cancellations / rebookings.

We did manage to go on our family holiday, but only when the "official" peak season was over (the Gujjar agitation got over just as the season ended...)

But for all the stress, the holidays are probably still worth it!

Maximum City

What is it that makes some cities great? What makes some places the stuff where dreams are made of; What makes New York, the Big Apple; and Mumbai, the Maximum City? 

Having been to many of the world's greatest cities, it had begun to surprise and annoy me as well, that I had never been to Mumbai (yes, really!) Somehow, I never really had a big reason to go; but then I decided that perhaps visiting the city was reason enough.

And so here I was, in this bustling metropolis. A whirlwind of people and places followed, seamless amalgamation of new and old, rich and poor. As I whizzed past neighbourhoods of Mumbai - Borivili, Kandevili, Parel, Worli...I suddenly realised that these names have transported me back to scenes from various Bollywood movies;

Despite the constant streaming of images from famous urbanscapes into our homes; despite the demystification of large cities; why is it that their charm still remains? Why am I still breath-taken by the view from Marine Drive; Why has the chaos of Times Square taken me by surprise everytime I go there; Why am I still awestruck by the grace and grandeur of Regent Street every single time I visit?

It is true that Rome wasn't built in a day, and perhaps the fact that you can see the old mix with the new in these cities that lends to its charm. The constant evolution probably inspires, challenges and presents new experiences to everyone who visits....

The city really does not seem to sleep; The hurried pace exhilarating and exhausting at the same time; A city constantly in the state of flux....

But then, doesn't the state of flux make big city life all the more difficult? Most people living in Mumbai crib about the traffic, the pollution, the extremely high cost of real-estate.....Something that every New Yorker or Londoner would identify with. Why then, do people stream into this city every single day in the hopes of making it big? How does a city built on landfill continue to make so many dreams come true?



Is it the high rises, the bright lights, the history, the monuments that make a city tick?  The high-octane life-style, the glamour or the money? Or is it the fact that one visit (or many visits) is not enough to discover the highs and the lows of the place?

Or perhaps, it is the spirit of its people: determined to change and yet not let change affect them; distinct yet united - the spirit of the Maximum city.