Recession…

What good recession has done to us:

1. Going green. All the hoopla about conservation, environment – well how about saying being environmentally friendly is being nice on our pockets. The environmentalists had been shouting from the rooftops and not many corporates even took notice – now that energy conversation means lesser electricity bills, saving money by recycling etc everyone is getting the message! Just see the change! If you are a business, not going green can mean going green with envy to see your competition making more money. Years ago I used to wonder where we are going.Now I know we are on track!

2. Ever paused and thought about your money. Especially in India among my generation, saving for rainy day seemed almost mythical. Savings seemed to be something that old fashioned people(read parents) did! Saving was never a discussion to be done openly. You would probably get ridiculed if you mention saving, planning etc when economy was going great! What seemed to be a private matter(savings!) is now public, people, ads, media, forums talk saving. Its not out of fashion to be talking about saving money! I used to think US of A was leading the world in teaching consumerism, but I see a lot of awareness being created on saving, and ads boasting of frugality!

3. A couple of years ago, I used to wonder -look at our banks, the way things never looked up, the way overseas banks seemed to give so many benefits, so little guarantees sought. Our folks only seemed to be so painfully old fashioned. I somehow could not understand how they planned to survive against such competition that any customer would find irresistible. There you go! Boom –the bank that used to exist yesterday is now gone! No one knows how or why! Again, it turns out that it’s the “values” that really weren’t in their right places and brought down whatever!

Being middle class in India, means being weighed down by “values”. You like it or not, you have to take it. There were times when I was almost sure it could take us nowhere. I don’t claim to be the most honest person or the fairest or never to have done anything wrong– but there were sometimes when I played fair and lost the game, now when I look back they don’t even seem like disappointments, but at a certain age – certain things seem big and important - I had felt cheated. I would tell my mother – had she not taught me the crap(I meant “values”) I would have been far more successful!

I somehow feel all the disappointment melt, and in fact some “joy” when I put all the “blame” of my not making something on my mother. She gives me that knowing smile followed by an affectionate hug, which probably make all those disappointments worthwhile! Haha. Opps, now I almost homesick!

The bottom line is "values" are here to stay, you like them or not, you stick by them or not! When going gets tough, the tough get going!