Monthly Archives: September 2011

From Boom to Gloom – A crises for all

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No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again! Sometimes I just want it to stay saved, you know? For a little bit. I feel like the maid: “I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for, for 10 minutes?! Please?!” –  Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles

Not too many years ago, the West was ravaged by a storm of complex financial debacle, it was known as the Sub-Prime crises. The crises brought upon the death of Lehman Brothers, large scale bailouts by the Federal Reserve, unemployment and bear markets. It also was often hailed as the end of Capitalism as we knew it, for the Federal Reserve was bailing out private financial institutions using the tax payers money. It was also the time when I was about to finish my B School studies and was promptly the victim of the recession, I wrote about it here.

Three years on, this is another September of gloom, and this time its bigger and badder than ever. I am no economist, while I can often understand the trail of disasters, I am not able to interpret the complexity or the severity of the crises which is about hit both Europe and US (or has it already hit us, and we are just sitting in denial?).

US with its trillion dollar debt, failed housing revival, and stubborn unemployment is barely growing. On the other end European Union is battling its debt crises with Greece in tatters, and the other members of the PIIGS doing no better. It is only a matter of time, when general constipation of better solutions will fail to avert the crisis which could explode in a few weeks.

While I have been closely tracking the situation as the crises unfolds, it puts me ill at ease when I cannot picture how insulated will I be from this crises. The current world is deeply interlinked, it is chaos theory redefined, the ripple effect is global.

Economic crises often results in political crises, is this the doom of capitalism? Maybe not, maybe what the world needs is a mixture of capitalist and socialist(or state involvement) philosophies being balanced as the situation demands…or maybe it is a cyclic phenomenon between the two extreme concepts

These are turbulent and exciting times for us, and I hope we all survive long enough to tell the stories on the life and times we lived in.

I Love Vienna

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I have never been to Paris, so I don’t know if Paris would score above Vienna.
Last week, I was out to visit Netherlands and Austria(locally written as Österreich) . While the trip to Netherlands was quite busy in work, where I could not visit any place of interest (and neither was I in Amsterdam), but the second trip to Vienna(also locally written as Wein) allowed me to spend a Saturday.

I had never expected to fall in love with Vienna, the rich town where you could hear music anywhere you’d go. The soul of the town touched me, right from Stephensdom to the Danube, Vienna had so much to offer, and I had so little time accept it all.

Streets filled with musicians, dancers, random performers, quartets there was always something which demanded my attention. The architecture of the town from the Opera House to the Parliament left me spell bound, and to top it all was Sacher Torte. The dessert, which is an institution in itself, a trip to Vienna is not complete if you have not tried this delicacy.

What I did do was not take any guided tours except a small Ring tram across the town for a quick overview, and then a walk from the Opera House towards the Parliament, covering each building like the Imperial Palace, Art Musuem, Museum of Natural History and the People’s Park. A useful tip was to buy the Vienna card for 18 Euros and using it for all local travel and a few discounts at various places, the underground system in Vienna is fairly straightforward and would take no effort in figuring out.


I know there is more, for the country which gave birth to Mozart and Beethoven, for the people who love spending time in kaffeehaus, life is filled with music and art. I bumped into folks dressed up as Mozart selling tickets to Mozart concerts, mime artists whisling Mozart tunes and chocolates in the name of Mozart. It was indeed a surprise to know that Mozart was from Salzberg.

I also chanced to visit the Prater and the Madame Tussauds wax museum, the first wax musuem that I’d have visited. It was indeed an impressive affair with Arnold Swachzennger (an Austrian by birth) welcoming you in!

Yes, the time was limited, and there was so much to see, but I know that this is cannot my last trip there, Vienna shall call me again, until then just follow the music…