I am twenty. Exactly in between the tug of war between fifteen and twenty five. From the dreamer of fifteen to the anybody of twenty five, its not at all just numbers that become years that become ages. It is about the I in the me. On the day the date became the tangent of my life I exclaimed casually to a dear friend that i didnt feel the enormity of the number that has just become my age. I was told to wait.

I didnt have to wait too long. Different was on its way. My handwriting has changed. Its become more horizontally illegible rather than the previous vertically hyper sharpened lines that looked like some egyptian script which was really beautiful to see from far, but from near could only be comprehended by moi. Next, i suddenly find the color orange very attractive. No more purple or violet. hmm. what was the difference, one is light one is dark..blah..ive been told again and again.ok then where does indigo fit in to all of this. someone needs to stop calling colors by its name, and just describe how the color makes you feel. and not only the favourites. everything. Maybe there are still a lot of colors that i havent seen to truly have a favourite. But in total accordance to who i know i am, i will never have a favourite color. All colors make the world i know. And i love the world i know.

And then the shocker. We've got to choose our area of specialization next semester. And i have decided to choose marketing. No more finance. Well heres the reasoning, on turning twenty i realised what i would be doing if i were in the field of finance. probably become an investment banker like id wanted to become and then what... Ive only got less than a hundred years to live and I AM NOT going to spend that crunching numbers for some rich guy.. yes thats what investment bankers do.. they can never sleep.. they make bets on other peoples money.. they have to make money from money.. and if they dont they are fired.. no wonder they get paid really high.. its not that i no longer love risk... I will risk only for myself. eg. if i still get a chance to become a sailor. i would. Even if the risk element in the form of the somalian pirates are there, that would be classified as a challenge and not a rrrrrrisk..Simple point.. i wont waste my emotions... for someone else.. ive only got a hundred years to live.. repeatez.. But this doesnt mean i dont want to become the finance minister of this country.  and not its not the 15 year old winning the tug. If qualified in public policy and given a chance. I would certainly accept the post, the only caveat being that the communists must come back  to power.

I am going to choose something that ive always loved. Advertising. And it is my conviction that given the economic conditions at the time I graduate , marketers will be the ones that will be needed to pull the economy from the abyss, not people who can cuddle numbers. They are for the times of prosperity. And that is when?

My thanksgiving day is today. To the heroes who made my performance possible. My dream team of mentors.

Mum, Dad : The true masters of my endeavour.

Mr. Gautam Puri: For teaching us to solve geometry using the admit card as a scale and coins of 50 paise and 1 rupee for circles.

Mr. Chandramoli, for helping us build the thought algorithms needed to think logically. Sir, you puzzled us as much as you taught us.

Ms. Geeta, for the endless gyaan on the language. Who told us not to learn the rules of grammar, but to read so much that you would become a grammar auditor and discover the audacity of words when they become sentences.

Mr. Govinda, The gardener in our college: for letting me sleep on the grass and study, especially when he does such a hard job everyday tending it so that beautiful species of butterflies and squirrels can be invited.

Mr. Victor, for all the times he slapped my wrist and took the fiddle from me. Who kept telling me that I am no good with the instrument. Who was never satisfied with what i played(rather how I played). Telling me that my notes were never close to perfect and when i somehow managed to get the notes right tell me that i had no emotion in it. paradox of perfection. Notwithstanding you never tuned my ears only to play another bach or another mozart. You tuned me to play my own song.

My coach on the field, you taught us more than football. You taught us to face our deepest fears. uncensored performance. to compete without recognizing the enemy. win without knowing you are winning.

Friends: the champions of my life.. who inspire me to inspire myself.

The list is endless.... i could go on and on from the ice cream factory that made the ice creams that i ate to hike my emotions when i was feeling low, the artists who sung the wonderful songs outlandish 'walou". david cook ''time of my life'.. switchfoot 'dare you to move'''. paulo coelho for producing an amazing book that never ceases to inspire. I would like to end with a quote from his book that helped me cool my nerves today:
"The warrior smiles because nothing frightens him and nothing holds him. With the confidence of one who knows what he wants, he opens the door''                                                                                                                                   

THANKYOU! THIS DAY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU ALL!

Change is constant. Can Obama become a constant. Maybe, ofcourse, goodbye, hello. Im so lucky theres no television around. Only good old youtube (old??). So I didnt have to see repeated images of journalists trying to prove that they supposedly have a greater job than the next president of the United States. Telling us how to think and blink. Im talking about the analysts who rip our minds of all the personal convictions that we could have otherwise formed. Journalists who look straight at you, with gelled hair and fingers with muscles (they make the inverted cups of nothing as they try to place an issue on the table).

So heres a soliloquy from someone who watched today without a tv.
One. Americans had to lose more than a trillion dollars, watch their banks go broke and homes get sold, to realise that Bush had messed up. They didnt realise it in 2004 when they were dropping bombs in Iraq, torturing people in Guantanomo or making money out of thin air.

Two. Impact on India and the rest of the world. Millions of young Indians who would have watched obama  today would have realised what a leader really is. That is if the television channels bothered to translate his speech to the vernacular. I am sure they didnt. And im sure that they instead must have focused on some IT honcho telling that jobs wont be shipped to India anymore and created a drama out of it. Obama is more than americas november santa claus. He is a gift to every young person in this country and the rest of the world. The gift of inspiration. Rather than wondering if we are living in a democracy, they would have looked at themselves in the mirror and decided that they too could become leaders of new India. One that can lead the new breed of Indians that are eager to become everything and anything.

The last time i became overwhelmed with tears was seeing Ussain Bolt sprint in Beijing. Today was a testament to triumph. However the challenge that lies ahead requires more than leading a nation with a microphone...

Money. where art thou go? Money is running and its not a marathon. Unlike people, for money fleeing is not the only way to escape. It escapes by hugging assets. People with degrees call it investment avenue. When the economy is in spring mode, money bounces. We see money hugging equities and other capital market instruments. When we see the reverse happening, we see money flowing out of equity and going into debt instruments.. Well this was how money behaved. But right now, at this recessionary moment. Money is just not hugging anyone. Money has started spinning across continents, and making economies spin. And instead people are running after it. But even money in the form of money isn’t safe for anyone as currencies are depreciating faster than you can get hold of them. Ask the Japanese yen or the Korean won whats happening, that is if you can find them.

You know the thing about liquidity. It condescends finance for being the brain of the economy. It makes finance seem like a zero sum game of confidence. Confidence branded as pessimism and optimism. Confidence can murder risk and elope with trust. But at the end of the day money hath no emotions. It doesn’t  know the millionaire that has it or the beggar that gets it. I miss barter!!