Foggy Fireworks

The last week of the year is gone. It is a big holiday season with the entire week being off either officially or employees anyway take off otherwise. I went to office on the two working days in these holidays deciding against working from home, just to make sure I don’t forget the routine of getting up in the morning when the actual working days start. With only me and the driver in the big bus that I take to office and with number of people in office – atleast in my block- a finite single digit number, it just turned out to be mere exercise than anything.  Just 3 days into the holidays, with the devil playing tantrum in it’s workshop - my idle mind – I was looking forward for the holidays to end.

The situation was not helped by the weather either. It was snowing heavily for the initial part of the week and was then suddenly followed by incessant showers making the snow turn to ice. The temperature has suddenly gone from being below zero to more on the positive side making the entire city wet because of melting snow and ice. This has made walking particularly a risky action as I found it yesterday when I slipped spectacularly during my daily walk to coffee shop. The thing to notice is, it was a small downward slope, slippery because of ice and knowing this, I was walking as careful as possible to avoid the fall when I did fall. Luckily (or I must say as usual) there was no one around to notice and laugh. But I wasn’t sure and came back home to check not my bones  but YouTube as I was pretty sure, the event would have been caught in any of the security cameras that might be around.

As the days pass, the New Year Eve day arrives. Atleast this was one day, I was eagerly waiting. This was the day, where there is going to be fireworks spectacle to welcome the New Year.  I was fully padded up to keep me safe from the cold and stepped out into the evening, caught a literally jam packed bus and reached the place well in advance.  I went along with friends of mine and we were peering into the darkness – a perfect time for fireworks - waiting for the spectacle to begin.

And so it began at the stroke of midnight with a single streak of light soaring up into the sky and exploding. It was a red one. Expected to see a perfectly formed circle of red sparks lighting up the night sky, but all I could see was a semi-circle! Norway, though being in Europe has a separate set of rules for everything. Like alcohol – read beer - is available even in smallest of stores like in other parts of Europe, but they are not allowed to sell it on Sundays and on weekdays after 8 PM! So, is there any rule that controls the intensity of fireworks on display? It could be, after all, fireworks are supposed to discomfort dogs and having seen the care given to people and animal here it is possible. But applying more of common sense that seems to dwindle everyday and by seeing the fireworks continue to disappear after going up the sky, we could see a thick fog that has built up at precisely the same location the fireworks are meant to show their full glory. We did not realize the presence of fog peering into the darkness before the fireworks. It soon turned out that, the semi-circle was the best shot we could ever get as the rest of the fireworks manage to get high in the air, more into the fog and completely disappear from the view.

The fireworks ended close to 10 minutes after the start. I was more inclined to think, they ended it early so they don’t waste the fireworks when nobody could see it. Having watched the fireworks around Eifel tower few months back and bit of the spectacle here, today’s effort by the organizers indeed would have been spectacular, if only we were able to see it. Disappointed, we walked back the entire way home as it was too late in the night for public transport.

The working day starts tomorrow and will start with the customary question of how the holiday was. May be I should say, hazy, foggy, fuzzy... Or on a scarier note, was this an indication of the Year that is in front of me?

WHOSE BROTHER IS HE?

Dedication

To all those who find time and most importantly patience to read this which doesn't add any value to anybody.

Prelude

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Well, this is not Dickens, but a set of random scenes that occurs during the time of financial crisis that started in 2008. It was the best of times as the entire world was in economic ascendancy  It was the worst of time as the so called financial system that builds an economy collapsed spectacularly, leaving economists in the world in situation they never envisaged – atleast the majority of the economists. But credit has to be given to the collapse as it is single handedly responsible for instilling the word “recession” in the vocabulary of millions of people – even people who do not speak English. It also gave opportunity for many employers to get into crazy cost saving mode like reducing or restricting the access of coffee vending machines in office premises. They still don’t understand neither the work nor the employer motivates an employee as much as a shot of caffeine. It was exactly at these times, the random events are set to be unfurled.

Scene 1

Location: A metropolitan city in India.

He is married for little over 2 years. He lives with his wife in a modest apartment not far from the city center. The apartment became part of their life 3 months back and is still in debt with the bank. He works in a leading software concern with satisfying pay check and a fancy job title and is now waiting at the dining table fully dressed ready to welcome the day at office which predominantly involves writing software code irrespective of his job tile. Flipping through the television remote, he settles on a business news channel he watches everyday to plan his next move in stock market. On reaching the channel he suddenly notices a frenzy of activity in the television screen. It took some time to find the cause of all activities as the screen is mostly filled with word “flash news” and “exclusive” in big fonts and in line advertisements. Finally he reads the news that runs as a ticker in mush lesser font size - “Lehman Brothers to declare bankruptcy”.

Indian IT industry employs more number of people than the population of some countries. But the sector is divided into technologies that, some time the world is too short for a group of people, no matter the number of companies they change. With the advent of social networking, it just becomes all easier. On seeing the news, his mind comes up with some of his friends working in the IT project outsourced by Lehman Brothers to his company and starts to wonder what will happen to them and future projects. At this time, his wife enters with a plate of breakfast and keeps it in front of him. The breakfast is as usual Idli – the humble idli prepared and savored for centuries and which the modern day dieticians declare to be unhealthier breakfast than the utterly hopeless and tasteless pack of oats.

With eyes still glued to the television set, he meticulously adds chutney to his plate of breakfast and starts eating. The precision of this action could have made a robot working at a factory blush. His thoughts now wander about what will be impact of this on the company he is working for as the economic impact of the news seems to be far more graver than his initial understanding. His wife joins him with her own plate of breakfast.

“Forgot to ask you, is salt ok in chutney?” said his wife.

“Yes” he replied. He has almost completed his breakfast.

Seeing her husband glued to the television and the tone of the answer given by him, she adds a spoon of salt in chutney and starts her breakfast.

Few months later

Scene 2

Location:  A remote village in India.

The pair of eyes is concentrating on the mirage that could be seen at an unknown distance. The eyes belong to The Master. The Master knows it should happen now and it happens. A giant ball of dust seems to raise and engulf the mirage. As it approaches, he could see the mini bus in the middle laboring through the unpaved road. On seeing the sight The Master enters his shop. The shop is just a structure made of thatched roof with a steaming boiler at one end of the entrance and a six feet long bench at the other end littered with newspapers. It is a typical village tea shop. He is called The Master as he has mastered the art of making one full glass of tea with half a glass of black tea and even lesser quantity of milk. The dust storm passes the shop and the bus stops at a distance from the shop. The Master sees The Villager getting down the bus and go straight to the village cooperative bank right opposite to the tea shop. Some people enter the shop and The Master becomes busy showing his expertise of making tea.

The Master knows The Villager as honest and straight forward person. But many people call The Villager a loser. While everybody else waited for the government to waive the interest off - which in turn did waive it off keeping the polls in mind - The villager had repaid all his dues against the agriculture loan he had bought. This tinge of honesty was enough to brand him as a loser. Whatever others say, The Master and The Villager are friends and they go a long way.  With all his customers served to their satisfaction, The Master patiently waits for The Villager to come out so that he can get a chance to speak with him and duly The Villager comes out of the bank and enters the tea shop.

“What made you come here and why are you worried?” said The Master after seeing the disappointment in The Villagers face.

“You know the monsoon was very good this season and I made some good profit this year. I wanted to use the money and with some loan from bank wanted to buy cows to start a small dairy” said The Villager.

“Well that is good news! You can do it with your hard work”

“But the bank did not give me loan”

“Why?”

The Villager took a sip of the tea handed over by The Master and stared at The Master.

“I don’t know, the manager says the bank is not having enough cash and is not authorized to give new loans. The manger was kind enough to explain why and what happened, but I did not understand anything. In the end, I am not getting any loan for now”

“May be this is what many people are saying as ‘recession’”, pitched in The Master.

“Could be! The manger said it all started with the collapse of Lehman Brothers”.

The Master looking at the disappointed face of The Villager asked, “But whose brother is he?”