Gift

A designer, a researcher and a son looked STUPID on a saturday afternoon walking the streets of Milan. Purpose - Finding a gift to the mother of the son. As the son had already narrowed down gift list to a designer bag the task should have been simpler. It looked that way when the journey commenced, with the gift decided, shopping zone picked this one was supposed to be a walk in the park. Alright with the designer who was shopping zone guide too we embarked this adventure. Adventure it was -- 3 guys trying to pick out a designer bag from the fashion capital.

H&M outlet was an outright reject for all 3 at the first glance. Pathetic it was for us until we found UCB which was ridiculous. At UCB neither did we have options nor did we think that we will get value for money. A walk into Zara outlet to me was a little dull except for one master piece bag which was priced at 50 Euros. Value for money may be or may be not but it had Zara's brand value which convinced me it was worth it. I expected more from Zara especially after the dozens of case studies i had done in my course on their new product development and supply chain spread. I thought i will be spoilt for choices but they surprised me with lack of them to say the least. With almost an eye fixed on the 50 Euro one we dragged ourselves to another outlet a local one just to feel the difference between branded and non-branded. Not that we understood the difference but during that walk probably all of us were convinced that Zara one will be the fall back option to say the least if our adventure doesn't yield any more fruits.

Jasmine was our next stop. It was an exclusive bag outlet and a powerful local brand in this field but way way out of the budget and too stylish and trendy for the purpose. At UPM we fell in love with couple of bags worth 35E. Almost the credit card was peeping out of the pocket when our eyes landed on the Carpisa outlet whose visit was a must before we buy. With the designer and son convinced that the bags in UPM would make it all their way to India as a gift we crossed the zebra. At Carpisa we did find bags which fitted into all the requirements that we were looking for, may be the one that we did finally select at 26E was a little less stylish than those 35E ones. But then the Carpisa sales girl was what that clinched the deal for the Carpisa and not UPM where we were gay abonded. The gal was smart enough to give us options on colors and this human touch finally made the deal. Fortunately the dark brown one had little treads coming out and was the last piece. Once she found out that we were Indians and we found out that she had a Paksitani boy friend both seller-buyer wanted to work this deal. She offered us a 10% discount on the threaded piece and we asked for the undamaged piece at 10% discount. After a talk with the cashier she with a beaming smile agreed to give us at 10% discount on the piece we picked. Both buyer and seller happy that they got the deal; a win win trade. The son was happy that he isn't returning empty handed, designer was happy as it was from Carpisa (though he would have preferred 35E one for his mom) and researcher was elated because he helped the lazy son pick his ass up finally to buy the gift. STUPIDS - 'Super Talented Useful Person In Demand' S they were as it took them nearly 3 hours to get this done !! Thanks designer Thanks researcher ;)

Greece

Greece sounds like Grease. Now to European Union it even stands the meaning "Anything regarded as making something unclean". It has infact been 'THE' news in Europe but for a day or two when the ejaculation of 'Ejya' - the icelandic mountain took the limelight. Thanks to Greece being very clear on making others unclear of what it intends to do on the crisis it will continue to Top the charts. Greece is literally Grease !!!

But hold on, was it supposed to be one of those countries outside European Union which was happily making progress. Wasn't it happy and slowing but surely mapping its way into prosperity with certanity. But then they where lured into the Euro world and they happily took the helping hand. Now who on this earth would deny Million Euros for 'free'- you just say 'Hail Euro'. Greece took the easy option and with tail in between the legs Hailed Euro for the prosperity and freedom it brought to them. The slow and certain progress was giving way to fast and uncertain progress, but who cared. They were getting millions of Euro's at such low interest rates that they kept on taking debts. Now that's all Greece did - as my dear friend once said "she was like a kid who was given loads of chocloate when she met her love" she just could resist the temptation.

Blame this on the European Gurus who appaling had made Greece and even some other growing economies a part of European Union. They just threw the freebies and kids happily kept asking for more. It seems a cruel Irony that lower interests rates - which helped greater borrowing, thus spreading debt crisis which was what Euro was designed for has been the root cause of this misery. Euro was intended to be a superior debt financing machine against dollar which would allow member states to compete with US for a share of the global reserve currency business. Euro was born to breach the monopoly of US to these global reserves and creating the very credit explosion that strangles it today. Euro creation thumbs up, but briniging in too many economies too fast has misfired. Greece has hit rock today, Portugal is in touching distance and Spain is not far either which on the hindsight shows a greater probation period from European Union masters would have worked better.

PS: Euro dropping from 66 to 58 against INR is something i am enjoying as a student ;) 'Hail Euro' :D

Creative Destruction

Recession probably the most talked word in 2009 and 2010. Blame in on this 9 letter word and you will find support from all and as bonus sympathy. This cloud - a dark devil is taking life away. The whole world has been hit with unemployment and sovereign debt crisis are mounting but to me i see a silver lining. A necessary part of a 'reset' that we all needed. This reset has taken many of us closer to our families, brought in those smiles back with the loved ones, has given has time to retrospect. This has resulted in greater flexibility living and work wise. It has lowered the debt levels, given better personal development opportunity and access to more and better experiences.

Every turmoil has given us a new lease to life. From 1870'e economic crash where we learned to broaden our horizon and expanded our selves to customization. Patents were on rapid rise and so too multiple industries came into exsistence. Come 1929 "wall street crash" we experienced 2.3 percent of total factor productivity the most we have even seen in that era. This 'reset'was based on mass consumption, sub urbanisation and credit. Credit the virus was created then. Now in 2009-10 crash it is nothing different. We needed to reset ourselves as we were loosing it professionally and personally. This 'reset' will make us more flexible, sub urban theory will go to garbage and the need to have better infrastructure has been highlighted enough and also the real estate boom created more my speculation rather than demand needed the reversal. I see that this 'reset' will make the generations to come wary of the mortage lendings which will die sooner rather than later and also real estate will be ripped. Infrastructure that connects the villages to urban towns will soon become a reality or to say the least an indispensable measure of economic growth. The people who recover and see this will have the power to rule and for the first time i see the ignorance of western world turning out to be their bain rather than boon.