Double Dip - RECESSION ?

NEWS UPDATE : Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced to call a controversial referendum on his country's $130 billion European bailout plan in early December, and caught European leaders completely off guard and scrambling for a response.Papandreou's stunning announcement that he would stage a referendum roiled world financial markets and threw into question an ambitious and costly European deal worked out in torturous negotiations a week ago. 

A ``no'' vote in the referendum would have enormous consequences not just for Greece but for the rest of Europe. It could lead to a disorderly Greek default, force Greece out of the 17-nation eurozone, topple many fragile European banks and send the global economy spinning back into recession. 

Playing hardball, eurozone officials said an (euro) 8 billion ($11 billion) loan that Greece needs within weeks to avoid bankruptcy was conditional on Greece backing the latest rescue deal....blah, blah

FOOTNOTE : Is it enough living through these theories of speculations, fearful days on repeated recessions, even the day's weather affecting the fuel prices in the country etc etc....

Why cant we simply go back to age old theory of earning-to-spend and supply-demand equation, to forget what a bail-out or globalization strategy mean ?

The Strange Power of People

It had been a while since I sat to key-in my thoughts for the blog and I am definitely not happy about the same. It just happened so, where my mind went clock-ticking with a buffer-overflow of many things and I had to keep myself out of these little things I love to do, through these days. Not that I am promising to be a regular on my favorite blog table, but I promise to be better for sure.

Enough with the prelude and this time around I want to share an account of one of the very best experiences I have had in my life. I would like to describe it as ‘the strange power of people’ and it just means talking about those intense, colorful, passionate, fun-filled, humbling , inspiring and cherished one and a half days I had, few weeks back.

It all started with a visit to my elder brother’s place where we got an invite for a first Holy Communion function, from Chechi’s brother. It was just another invitation for a family function and since I had missed couple of them earlier I made up my mind to make for this one. Off-late I have become a person who avoids big gatherings of relatives, as much as possible, since I had found it disgusting to see all those elders trying to poke their nose into anything and everything in my life. Moreover, being the un-disputed title-holder of being the most outspoken, insensitive and irreverent one in the family circle, I seriously enjoyed being only in smaller and closer groups. Above all, for me being consciously away from big gatherings, my family had started losing all those fun times and it made me decide to attend this event for sure.

Then came this day, and I could see myself stepping into a much different world all together. Chechi’s family was BIG…and I mean it. Big with a capital B, I & G. They were six siblings and I knew about it. But, a house with all of them, their kids (teens to toddlers) and cousins were little different than my expectation. Now, to talk about my expectation: My grandfather too had seven kids and my father happened to be the youngest of the lot. All through my childhood, whenever we had family re-unions, I felt about the same as more a convention than a reunion. Being one of the youngest of the big group of kids, I felt about the big-bully elder brothers and mommy-ish elder sisters as more trouble than good. The last thing I wanted was to have a house full of people who take turn to make you obey to their commands. To be frank, I loved only very few of them, by my heart & therefore, here I am, one of the stand-out disobedient in the entire family of second generation! Now, back to present. I set my foot inside to a home where all (yes, I mean all. Right from the parents, the siblings, their spouses and all kids) we seated in a big hall to have food. It reminded me of the big fat greek wedding and my mind aimlessly wandered to those family reunions of my childhood. We never had eaten together. My grandfather always ate at his regular time and no one dared go and trouble him. My parents, uncles and aunts ate at their own sweet time and we (the smaller kids) were fed as a group at the table by our own mothers or one of those mommy-ish sisters or aunts. I don’t count it as a difference of culture. But more that it was the norm of those years. Even family relations were kept with definite honor and pride. One will never crack an adult joke to your uncle and it was treated as a mandate of treasured culture. I still see that my dad’s voice become softer (and sometimes he even gets up from the seat) when his eldest brother is on phone. Not, that the current generation has lost the sheen of all good things in life. My point is that, we have learnt to express love more evidently. And, according to me, this had made all the difference.

Now, I was in this world. It seemed really magical for me. Festivity was all in the air. Lot of cheer, music, laughter, fun and love was all around. And, moreover never even once did I feel that I am not one among this big grouping of siblings. All of them were just brothers, sisters and kids than being different individuals themselves. Even though I do admit that I have more brothers and sisters in my life, my parents had only two children; me and my brother. I love to put it this way as I am a person who believes that being a sibling is more than just being born to the same parents. I don’t want to get diverted in my thoughts here and hence let me speak about how it feel to have a sibling. It is always wonderful to be together. On a lighter side, If I had been alone in my growing years, I would not have got the chance to beat-up my brother. I would have had things go my way more times than naught. I would not have had to contend for time doing the many things that we used to do to occupy our time. However, as much as I used to consider this as childhood fun, the reality is that I would not be who I am today without him. I always thank god for having given such a wonderful brother for me. Also I had not been so supportive of the bigger count (like seven or six) ; courtesy my experiences with my uncles and aunts.

And, here I see the picture all different. The boundlessly varied feelings, those small bursts of laughter which had travelled miles altogether to meet each other, the special bonds between the next generation of kids, all were different. A realization of that much needed care and warmth that we all feel in this faster world of today, flashed in my mind and I learned through my experience of those moments that the best thing we can give to ourselves in this life of rat race is to spend time with our family.

In fact, I would probably only vaguely remember parts of my childhood if it weren’t for my brother. Now, here I see a multitude of this feeling. There are brothers and sisters all around. There are nephews and nieces all around. May be because of this century and because of the more free world around us, I couldn’t see any big-bully brother of mommy-ish sister who were trying to execute commands on the younger lot. My daughter, who is just over one, had been playing with the eldest couple from Mumbai and with their kids (again the eldest among the cousins) and also with the little sweet-heart who was very much a centre of cheer and exuberance. I see here, that generations are enjoying the moments of togetherness. Maybe all do realize that from the very next day of week, this will fall back as a beautiful memory and the world around will change us back to the seasoned traveler. There were no highs and lows in these days, there were no you and me and it was like a picture perfect time of re-union. I think the difference is not just because of the generation change, but also mainly due to the expression of care and warmth which our generation has learnt to practice. I always felt that our previous generation had been misers when it came to expressing love and we have changed for good. A simple example would be that we were never permitted to draw on walls but now, we do enjoy drawing on the walls with our kids. A simple, but much welcome change in our way of looking at life.

While I drove back to the city and during all these days while I had been thinking about these beautiful days, I felt happy to have joined this blessed family’s get together. I re-iterated in my thoughts that the bond between siblings is the most enduring bond that we can experience, the bond which may not be as demanding and critical as that of our parents, children or spouse and this is potentially the longest relationship we will ever have in life. But, the bond that is shared with our siblings helps us to determine the quality of bond we will experience with our other relationships in life. In this world of ‘no time’ to ‘stand and stare’, I think the biggest blessing one can receive from God is to have a wonderful family who can be together in simple moments of life. Moreover, I stand corrected, the bigger the family is, bigger is the love and warmth around and bigger is the blessings in life!!

It is an incredible thing to be able to be there for a sibling in their time of need. It is all the more incredible to be able to celebrate the joys in the lives of your siblings: graduations, weddings, and the birth of children, communions are joyous times in the life of the family that brings you closer together. Siblings are a part of us. If we allow them to continue to be a part of our life, they can be an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, and a conscience that knows us almost as well as we know ourselves.

So, can we afford to stand and meet our Brother or Sister, at every turn of our life’s journey? If yes, I think we are making a definite difference to the life of people around us. The more is the love around us. The more is the happiness inside us. Next question is, will we be able to hand over this warmth of togetherness to the next generation? We better be, or we will lose a generation! Kendall Hailey had put it right “The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you"

Time Keeper

I always cherish the fond remembrances of my childhood days. We usually hear from all those renowned celebrities who give interviews in television, that they had a very colourful childhood which always had a mango orchard at the backyard of their house, lot of festivals, fun-filled days with lots and lots of cousins etc etc. My intention is not to question any of those recollections, but to stay with mine. I never had a house filled with cousins and never had such pampering during festivals. But, my childhood had been really good as far as I am concerned. If not a mango orchard, I too had the privilege of climbing atop all the known and unknown trees in our backyard to my heart’s content. As I had mentioned earlier, I stayed with my grandparents since my parents were away with their govt jobs. It was a world consisting of myself, my grandfather (an ex-service man from the royal british army) and my grandmother (a retd school teacher). Initially I did attribute both of their commitment to time to their oft-reminded professional lives, but soon did I realize that not just my grandparents, but the entire town was conspicuously serious about one thing, ie time.

Now, coming to the thought which provoked me to sit and write. There was this strange sound which echoed in the whole locality, twice daily. While questioned, I was enlightened with the name of this sound – siren. Puzzled to the core, I always wanted to see this monster who used to cry twice every day, at the same time. Like we heard from John Wheeler that ‘time is what prevents everything from happening at once’, I had to wait for many many days to see this guy who always shouted, keeping an alarm. I never realized how many days, I had this question of ‘who’, but one day, I had the rare chance to see him. That day I had accompanied my grandfather to see some guy called ‘counsellor’ at the town’s municipal office. While we were there, this ‘siren’ fellow started shouting. And, it was like deafening! I knew he was somewhere near and ran out of the old big municipal building. Thus I had spotted him, on top of a small elevated column, rested a black coloured, stupid looking creature. Wow, I gasped, as this thing could make such big noise! Now, my question had been ‘why any of these guys never bothered to make this guy silent, even after he repeated his shrieks day after day, that too at the same time!!

Years passed and in the mean time I realized the soberness of this monster. I did realize that it was made to shout everyday at 10AM and 5PM, so that the small town people realize time. When I first heard about this, it didn’t make much sense to me. Why should somebody shout at all the people, that too twice daily, just for a time-check? As always, I accounted this also to the craziness of the older generation, who took things too much to heart. But, slowly, as I observed around me, I found the value of this time-keeper. Everyone in the town, seem to realize that it was start of day and end of day when they heard these ‘sirens’. We all rushed to school, if we hear the morning siren, since we were sure that we will miss the ‘assembly’ in case of any more delay en-route. Not that we had any special concern for the assembly, but if not present by then, what awaited ahead was a guided march to the head master’s room followed by forced apologies from all of us, culprits!

Leaving us, the children, insignificant lot, who doesn’t care about time, I saw the world around me, rushing at hearing the morning siren. Men and women flocked to offices, restaurant owner Pappu Pillai Chettan ensured that his ‘today’s special’ board is displayed outside prominently, Ice stick vendor Rajan made sure of his attendance in front of the school gate etc etc. And, come evening, the siren going aloud meant that our after-school play hours at the school compound was over. We all rushed back home and on the way I could see that the world too rushed to get back home. The only people who used to rush out from their homes were Madathil Swamy and Kochucherukkan. Swamy always rushed to our nearby temple since he is the priest and need to make arrangements for the evening deparadhana. Kochucherukkan (I still wonder how his parents named him so! My first memoris about him is with all white hair and he had grandchildren) had been the caretaker (kaikkaran) of our church and he need to open the church for evening prayers. The point here is, at the evening siren, while these two gentlemen rushed out from their homes, the entire remaining population of the town hurried to get back home. Wow, what an effect, this ‘siren’ guy had!!

Thereafter, everything was almost same routine. The entire town took bath, said their prayers at dusk, had early dinner and went to bed early. It looked to me as if the town always woke up early and awaited for the ‘siren’ to get busy for the day and longed for the ‘siren’ again to sound, to wind up the day. Everything was simple, everybody was un-sophisticated and it was calm and quiet life. People found time to stop and talk to the passerby’s, visit neighbours and celebrate together for all festivals. After all, I believed, all were disciplined and guided by the ‘Siren’ monster.

Now, years further, as I sit here in the hustle-bustle of the city, at the comfort of my home, enjoying a lazy weekend, I feel – we all miss this ‘siren’ in our life. While we are flooded with lot of time-keepers around us – timepiece, mobile phone reminders, outlook/lotus pop-ups – we miss a time-check which guides us. Which ask us to start the day, get busy and also to end the day and get back home. We miss that monster which makes the entire town busy and which makes them relaxed. What we are left with is only reminders, making us conscious even while sleeping, that something or other is awaiting to be completed. While our days extend further and further to make nights look like a wink, we forget the time-keepers. No, I am not going to the oft-repeated topic of city life chaos. Me too enjoy this flow of life in this modern world. But, deep inside me, there is still that small-towner who liked to avoid all this rush. Maybe, this inherent feeling is what making me to avoid my travels as far as possible from the ‘rush hour’, when everyone in the traffic is in standstill!!

FootNote : Sometime back, on one of my visits to my town, while driving past the municipal office, I looked for that old black coloured monster. Neither he was there nor the building remained the same as earlier. Maybe, he too would have realized that his voice no longer remained as a welcome time-check but could be a cranky disturbance in the flow of today’s life. And I understood the meaning within the quote - ‘The years teach much which the days never know’