Well I started going to the park for walk in the afternoon. Slowly and gradually with few days I have started to do 2Kms and feel good about it. Its usually a time when its mostly house wives who come to the park. But surprisingly in the last few days I am noticing lot of young and middle aged guys in the park at 4 in the afternoon which is unusual. Then I realized that they are mostly coming from lay offs or there companies now going to 4 or 3 day week. A bad sign. The roads also suddenly look less crowded and what usually used to take us almost 20-25 mins to come home from work now we reach in 15 mins. Clear signs of a huge slow down in economy. This really looks bad. Everything looked so good till September and suddenly by November we are talking recession in India. There seems to be no money around. I am sure there is going to be tough times for every one in months ahead. The best way to survive at this time is to sit quiet and let the storm pass. We all know good times are round the corner and have to be be patient till they come.
Another incident which has really shook the whole country has been the terror attack on Mumbai on 26/11. The horrifying events of those 60 hours will be embedded in the mind of each and every Indian. There has been tremendous display of anger and the TV channels have been propagating it hopefully for the country's benefit and not to increase there TRP's. But I believe most of the anger being displayed was directionless and will not reach us anywhere. The so called celebritiies who came on TV spelt rubbish ideas – dont pay taxes(like they are paying religiously in the first place), hand over the country to army, bombarding pakistan and so on. I believe why India is stable in this world is because we are tolerant and have a strong democracy. We need to strengthen these qualities more with rooting off corruption, education for all and stronger implementation of our laws. The war on terror can be won if we strongly fight corruption. Its not just politicians who are corrupt , the whole society has degenerated. But what most hurt me as an Indian was repeated reference of Mumbaikar fighting and Mumbaikar spirit and so on. Its not just Mumbai , its India and Indians which is hurt and wounded – whether terror strikes at Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad or jaipur. Its the Indian spirit and greatness of our culture and society that helps us fight back. In any case do we have a choice?