What Price Glory?

It is like a paranoia, when one thinks the new year has actually some thing new about it, believe me it doesn’t! As one goes through the daily actions of corporate life, especially being in a dot com, you would like to know, when will you be leveraging in form of hockey stick(J-shape). This is not just a financial comment, it is a philosophical comment, I hope you can decipher it. This Blog I will be using quotes of movie and also a book by John Grisham, “The Rainmaker”.

“Sworn in by a fool and vouched for by a scoundrel. I'm a lawyer at last”

It is outrageous the way things are moving here in India, on both social and economic front, money is the name of the game. The government is hell bent on economic policies, which are pushing wealth into a certain segment, and the differential between rich and poor keep increasing. I saw a movie called “Lost in Translation”, which has lot of scenes in which they have shown how people in Japan are madly following US ways of living and how ridiculous is that? One sees similar trends in India, with spends rising on cars, new homes, consumer durables and not to forget clothes, and all on debt. Now one big difference between India and US, is the percentage at which debt is picked up, we are serving the debt @ 11% on an average today, which is a huge number. In case you are running a 20 year home loan, for first three years, the principle is bared scratched.

What's the difference between a lawyer and a hooker? A hooker'll stop screwing you when you're dead.

The bank is a step ahead of the lawyer, and the government and the RBI, who is backing the bank on this is another step ahead. One simply, completely and totally fails to understand the growth in auto sales, and some other items. One also fails to understand as all other countries, like Singapore became affluent, they built on infrastructure and strong law enforcement. Also the people in these countries looked for better quality of lives, becoming independent and classy, more catching the positive vibes of the west. Where as in India, we have shattered infrastructure and people becoming whorish and lawless, in the malls, on the road, when you see, well dressed people in big cars, jumping lines shamelessly on toll roads, you imagine, are we getting somewhere?

Every lawyer, at least once in every case, feels himself crossing a line that he doesn't really mean to cross... it just happens... And if you cross it enough times it disappears forever. And then you're nothin but another lawyer joke. Just another shark in the dirty water.

Now seriously introspecting, one feels that is true for most of us, we do cross a line in many ways every day is pursuit of money, career, glory or something really petty. Exercise: can you try to think where did you cross the line today? Maybe our politicians and bureaucrats, have crossed the line enough times, maybe you and I have too! One feels like crossing the line, when he takes a step back in fear of loosing something, but later on, you would have lost a lot by not being what you are. How companies hypnotize us in buying things, and political parties into following them, is not difficult to understand. We are no longer confident about ourselves, our identity and individuality, this is the core reason of American sub-prime crisis, not the easy loans. People there wanted to live beyond their means, so that they could outdo each other, they bought the American-corporate dream.

Rudy Baylor: I'm curious.

Leo F. Drummond: About what?

Rudy Baylor: I'm just wonderin'... do you even remember when you first sold out?

Are we selling ourselves out? Lying through our nooses, pretending stuff which we are not, making commitments which we do not want to keep, and chasing life which is totally artificial. This may sound like an old fashioned rhetoric, but it is not, one has to seriously believe that countries, companies and families, which do well are on basis of high commitment and integrity. “Honda” builds the best engines, and intention is to create real value, Singapore has been built over hard work and real “patriotism”, and “Bush family” is a happy family, as George Bush only sleeps with his wife(courtesy: Mr. Bill Maher, pun intended!!), unlike some family called “the Clintons”.

Q: Did you achieve glory today? At what price?

A: Higher price than last year, greed is experiencing high inflation.