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The Great Crash:
As 2008 began, the investors and traders began the year just like us with new commitments and better initiatives to boost trade and speed growth. The SENSEX began at around 10,000 and steadily progressed like as if it would conquer great heights. And soon within a couple of months it did and conquered the 20,000 mark. Then like as if the fuel got over, amidst the party and celebrations, the bull came crashing down. Investors lost millions of rupees and thousands went bankrupt. The uprising engineered the richest man in the world, but the downfall threw-out the biggest loser in the world, and yes he was once upon a time, the richest man. While the downfall wasn’t local but global, India was lucky enough not to be as badly hit as the other countries. The government rushed in to the rescue shelling in cash and bailouts, ensuring liquidity in trade (I don’t know what this means), etc. to ensure companies don’t go bankrupt and lose out in the race. While most of the money traded in the process is just mere paper and ink and not hard copies of the same, a loss or a gain is just a matter of erasing or adding a couple of zeros from your profit of 100,000. The misery of the Great Crash was the number of people who committed suicide. Young families were found dead because they went bankrupt. Even till now cases are being reported of such suicides.

The Marathi ‘manoos’
He got arrested, well to our curse and discomfort. He was put behind judicial bars, so that we could be barred in our own houses. People say he is their Savior. But I find him as a nuisance. He is Raj Thackery. Not that I support or like the Thackery family, but this guy is a real big nuisance. He would be having hundreds of people just to scratch his arms or legs when a mosquito bites him. That’s the kind of support he enjoys. Following the tradition of Shivaji Maharaj, the Thackery family are on the roads trying to ensure that every Marathi ‘manoos’ enjoys all comfort and privileges. Wow, that’s dedication and commitment to a cause! I love such commitment but I hate his attitude. I hate his methodology. I hate the echoes of his footsteps. All that he does is resort to violence and aggressive agitation so that his word is counted as law. What is better to do - see your car being smashed up or sit home and watch other cars being smashed up? Obviously the first one, unless you own a car factory. That’s what he does to ensure he is law. Yup, to ensure that he is law.

Recently he launched violent assaults on North Indians who came to the ‘city of dreams’ to see their dream unfold its wings. These poor people didn’t know that their wings would soon catch fire and disappear into pits of misery. Then he sent out inciting and provoking messages to the North Indians asking them to evacuate Mumbai. Well even the police fear this guy. Even if they try act fearless in the media, bribes would shy them down to their former state. That’s the police – a group of people struck by corruption and ignominy.

He talked in the media like a king and challenged the police to arrest him – and that’s what they did. He got arrested, his supporters ran out on the streets with stones and sticks and the city griped in a hidden fear. Most of the people were barred behind the four walls of their houses fearing the worst. I love this guy’s commitment, but I hate his approach. Why does he have to resort to violent agitation to get his cause done? Why does he have to disrupt the whole society and defame the society? What does he think of himself - someone greater than the law? Isn’t there a better way to develop a society and bring progress to your community?

The Revolutionist
He came, he saw and he conquered. He shook the world with his ideas. He won hearts of millions through his speeches. He stepped down to the level of children, the young guys and well, also stood up firm, collar to collar amongst the best in the society. When he stood to speak, the world wondered, when he spoke, the world admired, when he ceased speaking, the world applauded. They wondered because he is not their own. They admired because he spoke their hearts out. They applauded because they ‘believed in change’. “Yes! We can”, “The change has come”…he echoed down these mottos into the hearts of the people and into time and history. An Afro-American, he’s writing a new era of change in the history of America. Hail, Barack Hussain Obama – the revolutionist.

While America was cumbered under the fears of her crashing stock market & her economic woes, her miserable state in Iraq, her children crying for cheaper education, the gays and lesbians fighting for recognition, her standards going down in the world, there arose the revolutionist and addressed the nation the answers to her grief.

His first speech, “The audacity of Hope” got him a Grammy. But his victory speech, as the critics say, lacked quality. He’s just began his presidency, but how long will it survive? The world has put their trust in him. Will he uplift their hopes and deliver? Will he be able to paint his incredible speeches into works of art painted into the heart America? Will he be able to overcome his immaturity in politics and mature into a President? Will be bring in ‘the CHANGE’? Will he indeed be a revolutionist?