My article got published !!! Am sooo happy !
You can read it at http://theviewspaper.net/i-p-l-t-20-is-here-to-stay/
Pssst...and also my second one !!
Read it at http://theviewspaper.net/the-gift-of-the-nile/
And my third one toooo !!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Coffee=Bankcrupcy!
The Company which ‘kept rolling’ through the two world wars, the great depression and the 9/11 attacks, finally met its match this Monday.
General Motors was founded in 1908, and manufactures cars and trucks across 34 countries.
Today, America’s largest Car manufacturer, GM, filed for bankruptcy protection under chapter 11 in the New York Court. This is the fourth-largest collapse in American corporate history, preceded by Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and WorldCom.
It is the largest crash yet for a company of the Industrial sector. It has $172.8bn in debt and about $82bn in assets. The giant is being provided assistance by the American treasury and Canada.
The New York stock exchange announced that the stocks of GM would be taken off the charts before trading began this morning. GM saw it’s lowest in 70years, when the value of its stock hit 27cents.
This surely does betray the ‘balancing on the borderline’ situation that GM is facing. It is indeed unbelievable that a company of its magnitude and importance could face such a situation. But the past one year of other bankruptcies, including, the most recent sale of Chrysler to the Italian Fiat, shows that nothing is impossible anymore.
GM believes that, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes, it too, will be able to boomerang back into the market with lesser debts and operating costs, which will help it become stronger than it is now. It is expected that the whole process would be completed within 60-90 days.
The American government will now hold 60%, Canadian government will hold 12.5%, and United Auto Workers will hold 17.5% and the bond holders will hold 10% stake of the resurrected GM.
It is expected to shut down 14 plants and retool one, to build small cars. The brands will be limited to Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC.
GM assured that its Indian arm would continue work as usual and the Indian markets would not be affected. They say that the GM India dealers, warranty and customer services will remain unaffected.
This crash has been on its way for a long time, it’s just that the beans are spilled now. It is impossible that a firm run into bankruptcy overnight. Bankruptcy is like a well brewed coffee, it cannot happen in a jiffy.
Even the beginning with Lehman brothers, and others, the phenomenon had been gnawing at their insides for a long time, probably as early as late 2006. It is more or less the same with GM, just that President Obama’s timely ‘push’ into bankruptcy, had made the impact less harsh.
Now, everything depends more or less on the response of the general public to GM, whatever pieces have already been manufactured is being offered as buyouts. The question of how the public will react to this crash and consequently to GM, will pen down its destiny.
The general public is already wary of its investments; the fall of GM may just add to their fears and dampen spirits.
Is the sun rising or setting for the American automobile industry?
General Motors was founded in 1908, and manufactures cars and trucks across 34 countries.
Today, America’s largest Car manufacturer, GM, filed for bankruptcy protection under chapter 11 in the New York Court. This is the fourth-largest collapse in American corporate history, preceded by Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and WorldCom.
It is the largest crash yet for a company of the Industrial sector. It has $172.8bn in debt and about $82bn in assets. The giant is being provided assistance by the American treasury and Canada.
The New York stock exchange announced that the stocks of GM would be taken off the charts before trading began this morning. GM saw it’s lowest in 70years, when the value of its stock hit 27cents.
This surely does betray the ‘balancing on the borderline’ situation that GM is facing. It is indeed unbelievable that a company of its magnitude and importance could face such a situation. But the past one year of other bankruptcies, including, the most recent sale of Chrysler to the Italian Fiat, shows that nothing is impossible anymore.
GM believes that, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes, it too, will be able to boomerang back into the market with lesser debts and operating costs, which will help it become stronger than it is now. It is expected that the whole process would be completed within 60-90 days.
The American government will now hold 60%, Canadian government will hold 12.5%, and United Auto Workers will hold 17.5% and the bond holders will hold 10% stake of the resurrected GM.
It is expected to shut down 14 plants and retool one, to build small cars. The brands will be limited to Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC.
GM assured that its Indian arm would continue work as usual and the Indian markets would not be affected. They say that the GM India dealers, warranty and customer services will remain unaffected.
This crash has been on its way for a long time, it’s just that the beans are spilled now. It is impossible that a firm run into bankruptcy overnight. Bankruptcy is like a well brewed coffee, it cannot happen in a jiffy.
Even the beginning with Lehman brothers, and others, the phenomenon had been gnawing at their insides for a long time, probably as early as late 2006. It is more or less the same with GM, just that President Obama’s timely ‘push’ into bankruptcy, had made the impact less harsh.
Now, everything depends more or less on the response of the general public to GM, whatever pieces have already been manufactured is being offered as buyouts. The question of how the public will react to this crash and consequently to GM, will pen down its destiny.
The general public is already wary of its investments; the fall of GM may just add to their fears and dampen spirits.
Is the sun rising or setting for the American automobile industry?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Excitement over an empty box
I've heard this being said like a billion times by most of the elders around me, but experience taught me this lesson, just a couple of hours back. This might just get a bit too philosophical, but please bear with me!Purely a work of fiction, bears no resemblance to any emotion existing or non-existing. No offence intended.
Expectation leads to disappointment...
I'm such a spoilt brat that 'no' is the word i have rarely heard. Owing to this phenomenon in my life, never has it happened that i have not received what I've expected. God also added to this miserable plight of mine by bestowing me with amazing brains. Hence i turned out to be pretty brilliant in the academic arena and even there, my expectations seldom failed to yield.
Now comes the twist in my misery. There entered an anomaly into my life, which decided, that 'no' must be the only word that i must hear henceforth. So, this lead to a drastic change in my till now miserable boring yet beautiful life. I was forced to hear that two letter word as often as a zillion times every nanosecond. I was doomed. I wished that I'd be blessed with Surya's case of short term memory loss, so that i forgot the negations i was being subjected to. But again the divine intervention had other plans. HE, unfortunately gave me a brilliant super cool memory which a super computer would kill to acquire. I was condemned to remember every single instance that i had been denied something.
This lead to me leaving the company of my senses every time this wretched word was uttered. I began losing my temper every time i heard it. My Anger was forever ready to gobble up unsuspecting people who refused to satisfy my horde of expectations. But, whenever i felt anger, i felt drained, tired, lost and even guilty at times. It was a scary situation for a person of my calibre and intelligence. This anger, guilt, loss of energy, built up so much tension in me, that i finally burst and ended up in the dumps of disappointment. Disappointed with everything that was happening. Finally, even disappointed with disappointment itself.
Then it struck me. Its all the fault of these expectations. Too much of thought and energy had been channelised into forming and again deforming expectations and hence according to the laws governing the transfer of energies, the anger, guilt and loss of energy were the outcomes, finally ending in disappointment. So, the root cause of my entire misery was the expectation, i decided to ask it to take the boot. It wasn't leading me anyplace, but was just propelling me deeper and deeper into the dungeons of disappointment. This acted like a seat under the Bodhi tree, and realisation finally dawned.
Get rid of expectation from your dictionary and along with it no, anger, guilt, energy loss and disappointment too will gleefully walk out.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Is that all?
'What?'
'No joke. Absolutely true, haven't you watched the news?'
'You must be kidding me, this can't be true! I did read a couple of days back that he was speculating, but I didn't think it was happening.'
'No da, I'm not. If you don't believe me, go watch the news.'
'Oh my God! Our country is going to dogs...no..not going to dogs..its worse than that. I can't believe people are letting this happen to them!'
'See, no matter what people like you and me think, what has to happen will keep happenning in our country.'
' I know that, but still, its outrageous! He's the same man who was convicted of selling the pride our nation and today he's on his way to occupying a seat of authority. Isn't there any kind of criteria for joining a political party? You just have to be Indian, seems like more than enough.'
'I agree. A man who couldn't belong to his country's cricket team cannot belong to any political party either.I could bet that such a man is up to no good, except his own. But, like you've said, ours is a country, where, even a dacoit like Phoolan Devi can become the Home minister!'
'You know, in fact I have a feeling, that people like us should come forward and do something about it. Even if we cannot stand for an election and win, we can at least educate the masses. You understand right? Come election time and these politicians make long flattering speeches, and the common man is floored. He is provided with packets of chicken biriyani and liquor, and he'll be ready to vote for even a pig! We can educate them and prevent them from falling for these vote-collection tricks.'
'You mean the 'Yuva' style?'
'Absolutely.'
'Actually, we should rally for some criteria to be brought in, to both create and join a political party. We should fight for a set of rules to be brought in to have the right kind of political people to vote for. Get at least the better set of leaders, so that we can vote for someone worthwhile.'
'Something like, every person who intends to enter politics should be minimum a graduate?'
'Yes, things like that.'
'The person should have no previous record of crimes against him. He should have a super-clean-glossy history. I'd like to see that happening.'
'You know, i just got this idea, the public should have the right to fire a politician if any charges are laid against him. Like in the case of the Mumbai Terror attack. Also, i think there should be an experience criteria laid down. A person should be allowed to contest in an election only if he has had previous experience of the same at a lower level.'
'Wow, all this sounds so wonderful! wish we could actually do something on these lines.'
'Wish we could make it come true, then we wouldn't be living in a garbage dump like we are today.'
Monday, January 19, 2009
Journey
No matter how hard,
the path that life chooses,
we'll dare to tread on it,
fulfil destiny without losses.
These journeys I promise,
we shall embark on together,
I shall give you love and hope,
And you shall shower more love than love giveth.
Such will be an adventure,
Life to us,
We shall fulfil, my love
we shall fulfil.
the path that life chooses,
we'll dare to tread on it,
fulfil destiny without losses.
These journeys I promise,
we shall embark on together,
I shall give you love and hope,
And you shall shower more love than love giveth.
Such will be an adventure,
Life to us,
We shall fulfil, my love
we shall fulfil.
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