The end of an Indian decade

So its 28th today and we are on verge of end of the year 2009 and with this ends the first decade of 21st century. As we enter the new decade, the new year 2010 i just wanted to think of last 10 years of my life, of an Indian life and of nation India.

lets go back to the year 2K when i was in 10th standard. It was amazing feeling for me and many of other students to welcome 21st century. My mind was so curious about Y2k bug. Few of the newspapers do helped me but still i was not able to manage to get enough of those. There was no pc with most of the middle class families at that time. No internet, no cellphones. But still those are the best days for us.

Then started the era which totally showed up the world the power of India in economic, political and financial fronts. Politically Indian center govt started running for continuous 5 years. Economically Indian GDP started rising and financially a lot of banks,service sector companies, mid size entities were coming up.

I remember the year 2002 when lot of things happened in India. December 2002 when Reliance came up with there mobile phones worth rs 600 with free incoming, free sms from reliance to reliance and various other features. That was really a remarkable time which lead to tremendous growth in cellphone handsets and service providers companies. Reliance, Tata and Airtel were the once which grow with a rapid speed leading to increase in GSM and CDMA users of india. A lot of guys started having a cellphone in the college. I somehow resisted myself from owning one. Nokia 3300 was the famous model among college goers. It weighed more that a kilo but still people having them used that to show off. Its usual for people to show off everytime then own something which others don't.

Another incident of 2002 was the launch of Delhi metro maiden link. It changed the way people looked Delhi.

2003 saw a lot of success coming in telecom, IT and BPO service sectors. IT was booming so are IT companies and BPO. Cellphone users are increasing day by day. I still remember college guys and gals having nokia 2300 and nokia 1100 with the BSNL prepaid connection.

India was shinning only till april of 2004 when a Indian citizens voted for formation of center govt amidst the india shinning campaign of BJP. Every TV channel predicted BJP or NDA to get clear majority but indians voters have something different in store for the NDA thats a big BYE BYE....

I still remember when during lunch i went to the hostel tv room to play carrom on the results day. I was totally amazed by seeing the strong lead of congress and failure of BJP india shinning campaign. I was a strong BJP supporter at that time. Infact i still support BJP. Dont argue on this. I am an anti congress guy but my perception is changing fast. I was totally shocked at that time. I wanted to see NDA to form govt again and wanted to see the pace of indian growth between 1999-2004 to be doubled in next year. Every true indian expected that. But later i realise people of india really voted for the growth and not for the parties.
2004 was really a year which changed the next half decade for India. Sonia gandhi stepped out from Prime minister's post and nominated Manmohan singh for the post.

Then started the congress era where indian economy started growing by 8% annually. Strong GDP numbers along with strong service sector growth led to markets rallies. Everyone was going just great for India.

Year 2004-2006 was really a great boom for IT industry in india. I was placed in infosys in 2005 and joined infy in 2006 alongwith other 20000 employees who joined in the same year of recruitment 2006. Everyone was getting into IT. Engineering colleges were flourishing so were the management and other professional institutes.

Its 29th today and just 2 days left in 2009. So lets remember the period of 2006-2009. It was the year 2006 when IT companies hired at an enormous rate. I still remember the 26th June mysore batch. Life does change from college to company, to proxy to proxy cards, to mass bunks to working on weekends but one thing that didn't change for me and other fellow infoscions was the study and exams. Every week we use to have our online perception tests which were one of the deadliest exams across various companies. What put more pressure is that if you don't get a minimum marks then infy might show you the doors as well. Ahhh well lets get back to the Indian decade. Yes i totally mean that from 2006-2007 outsourcing to India increased leading to increase in small and mid sized IT and BPO companies across India.

Bangalore had no space for a single company but expansion was the mantra which ultimately led to companies searching for tier 2 and tier 3 cities to setup there centers in India. Infosys expanded business to Chandigarh. Tech M (MBT) also followed the suit.

Time was flying and companies were getting a lot of money but a real trouble has yet to come as ripple to the world. The early signs came in Jan 2008 when world markets fell almost 10-20% on a single day. Indian emerging markets BSE and NSE both suffered huge losses. No one was able to understand the actual cause. It was just like a shock which stayed a too long. Market kept falling and touched 8000 during the diwali 2008.
Recession hit the world. India was however not under any direct recession but Indian companies suffered a lot due to the same. There were lay offs, salary cuts, offers being abandoned and a lot of other things which were really a setback for Indians working for such companies.

2008 was the worst year of the the decade. Yes its due to the series of bomb blasts that took place over the year and then terrorist attack of 26/11 on mumbai. I already had enough of those in my previous posts. 2008 shook india on all fronts. But i suppose all is well thats ends well and so we had a good year 2009 wherein Indian citizens give a second chance to Manmohan singh led UPA Govt. The market rallied and closed just 5 mins after opening due to upper circuit on the first working day post election results. On next day too we saw a major increase in indices. It really proved to be booster for markets which were trading below 11K and which later on reached 17K. Various economic plans proved good for India. Overall the year 2009 was a great year. Indian cricket team lost T20 world cup but became No 1 test team of the world later in decemeber after beating srilanka in home series by 2-0.

I wanted to discuss my view on the last decade. Would like to have your view as well. Let me know which event changed the India, which event changed your life as an indian and where do you see India by the end of next decade.

26/11

26/11 has a significance in India. It was a tragic year of 2008 wherein the series of blomb blasts started from jaipur, ahmedabad, bangalore and new delhi. Those were the mild one timer fit bombs which killed just few people.
Mind you and me the killing can never be measured using the term few. Even the 1 life killed is a huge huge thing. In same way saving a single life is also a huge huge task.

But 26/11 had something BIG. I know the impact was huge one. No one imagined such a kind of attack from the terrorists. No one thought any his dream that such a attack can happen. This can be compared to 9/11 when US also had same thinking but let me clarify that this is different from 9/11 in many ways.

Pre 9/11 there were no low power attacks on US however india was facing a terrorist attack after every 3 months. Even then also India didnt learned any lesson. Not from the US 9/11 and not from the bomb blast that were occurring every 3 months. India always acts late in learning the lessons.

I hope india have learned a lesson from 26/11. Today i saw a lot of news channels flashing the news and visuals from last year 26/11. They also flashed the parade that took place from nariman point to chowpati. Also saw interview of retired NSG chief.

I only again thought that are they prepared for any other attack. will the police be able to save each and every life. The answer i got from my mind was that i am doubtful. Why does my mind dont want to believe that India is secured and there is no possibility of any similar terror attacks. (Yes my mind has the data that 2009 was much safer as compared to 2008 in terms of terror attacks). But still do we have such a good force, intelligence which can stop terrorist before crossing the indian territory.

A lot of questions are unanswered and even i or anyone else dont exactly know what will happen in coming days. I and we can only wish India to be a safe and secure nation which is free from terror. But i also dont forget to do my part. Yes the one i discussed 2 days back.

Long live INDIA.

Fight against terror

Today is 25th of November.
If we go back to the past i mean 364 days back something happened which shocked all indians. Yes i am talking about mumbai terror attacks 26/11.

Something was wrong that day, somewhere there was an error from security agencies, somewhere someone from india might had been involved. All these questions cant be answered.

On 26th at 9.30 just like any other day i was switching between the channels. I always been fond of the news channels (not of aajtak and india tv). A normal day, a normal dinner but there was something which really let me to think that this is surely not a normal day. How can 10 of the terrorists can attack mumbai like this. No way.. where the hell is the coast gaurd, navy and police. Where the hell are shivsena and MNS workers.

With so many things going in my mind i thought that indian forces will surely be sending these terrorists back to 6 feet inside earth by morning. But hearing the news again in the morning that there are hostages still in Taj, nariman point and Oberio i felt like this is not a good morning for me and surely not a good morning for our nation india.

The news channels kept on making news and we indians watched each and every breaking news cautiously. Few of us even though to tell the police to march into the hotels and other impossible scenarios but we all knew that these are just our opinions. The guys there in the field are much more experienced and they will surely be saving the lives of the citizens.

it was a long counter attack which took almost 60 hours to complete. Almost 200 people lost there life and many were saved as well.

After the operation taj ended, the new focus was on martyrs. News channels flashed the names of the martyrs including mumbai police trio who died fighting at cama hospital ( we are still not sure if they were fighting or if they died due to faulty bullet proof jackets).

why the hell news channels need to show this again and again and again.

26/11 clearly shook each indian. We saw one week of news channel drama and started living the same normal life. But i am still shaken with that. when i visited marine drive, mumbai few months back we were actually discussing Taj, Trident and the way from which terrorists entered mumbai.

Does discussing makes sense, should i write this lines and ask others to read them.
No way. I dont want you or anyone else to just read this lines. we think what can we do in case of such attacks. we can only discuss.

You need not to be an army men to show your patriotism. Which nation wants every person to join armed forces. You show your love to your mother, father or girlfriend not just by staying together, there are ways you express your affection, may be by a gift, a kiss or a hug. In same way we can show love towards our nation by showing that we care for it. Stop giving bribe, stop littering the roads, stop smoking in public, stop breaking the laws and many more.

I pledged one year back that i wont be breaking any law, will never litter anything on roads and i am happy that i am doing the same. I love my India and no matter which part of world i am, i will always love and respect my nation, my country INDIA.