Mamata Banerjee, Bengal's Fire-Brand Leader!

The splendid electoral mandate that has been devoted to the Trinamool Congress party in the recent Lok Sabha elections truly inspires a leading political “Change" in West Bengal. And post assembly polls: during 2011, it will surely seal the peoples’ deal in favour of the Trinamool. 

There is now not an iota of doubt that TMC is certainly going to be the most-wanted beginning for the dismissal of the CPM’s political grab in Bengal.

Ms. Mamata Banerjee, the new Indian Railways Chief, may be conveniently identified as a trailblazing commander, and she may not be, perhaps, as one of the regular women, but whatever her credentials are with respect to her (un)lady-like conduct sometimes, her often what seems to be impulsive behaviour, at least she has been brutally honest all through and sincere to her own promising self and to the people of Bengal who are so very anxious to see an encouraging change at the helm of affairs: political, economic, and social.

Indeed, the Trinamool Congress leader has always dared to take a leap forward to becoming a new champion of a leader: a leader with a clear agenda to exonerate the communist raj before actually bringing about a new decisive arrangement of which Bengal desperately is in need of. Ms. Banerjee has advanced that appeal several notches higher now after her recent triumph in the Lok Sabha elections.

Being a fire-brand solitary woman like the way she is, with no dynastic family advancement whatsoever, has given a royally tough time to the deeply-entrenched CPI(M) comrades of the state. (For that alone I am ready to forget the loss of the Tata Nano project in Bengal!)

Definitely, when TMC forms a state government in Bengal as a first-timer - which seems a given possibility - post-2011 assembly elections then the legislative challenges will be unleashed in full blast on the administrative capabilities of the party. But on the other hand - in the foreseeable future - it’d be really fruitful for Trinamool Congress to precisely identify and understand what the people want in terms of all-round mobilization of the state’s economy which is “at a near standstill”, and address all grievances pertaining to the industries, primary education in the rural areas, create first-class infrastructure and jobs in the state.

The Trinamool party should consciously avoid dipping into any kind of impracticable hard-core party ideology syndrome, which it always did though because it can be said that hard-core ideological stuff may prove to be a staccato factor – which the ruling CPM never could evade such a fixation from its own party histrionics – to draw in the virtues for just doing good work for the people, but not get unduly worried about some kind of hard-hitting ideology that may prevent a political party from carrying out its tasks evenly.

Meanwhile talking of Bengal:
A competent Bengal-centric economic manifesto that equally complements a functionally utilitarian economic agenda (over which everything is dependent really) should be able to bolster the common man’s expectations for a better life in Bengal. In the present set-up though, Ms. Banerjee shouldn’t vociferously worry about her demand for the dismissal of the Left government, because the CPM rule is now destined to end anyway. 

Instead, she should direct all her fiery productive steam engines/energies to enjoy her Ministry of Railways portfolio at the Centre for further betterment of India's dismal-performing Railways.

By Arindam Moulick

The Wonder That Was Michael Jackson

What a tragic loss for the whole wide world. The King of Pop is no more. 

I grew up listening to Micheal Jackson songs night and day. When I was a teenager I aped his dancing style, his trademark moonwalk, mimicked his howls, and faked his accent while half-learnedly singing his great Pop songs. No wonder, those were the best days for us teens to bring the whole world down! 

Not just our gang of teens; everybody literally ate and slept his rasping music. Like Micheal Jackson, I too once wore black shoes with white socks.

He was one of the most awesome sensations, especially throughout the late 1980s and even in the early 1990s when his albums ‘Bad’ and ‘Dangerous’ were out respectively. I remember I rushed out of my house the moment I found out on TV that his brand new album was out! I bought a music cassette (no CDs back then) from a local store and played it at home for hours and hours together. Everybody used to go crazy at home with his superb music played on full-blast volume; even in the local stalls his ultra-modern music used to blare up and could be heard in the entire neighbourhood!

He truly rocked my world big time.

I remember when the album HIStory was released in the mid-1990s, all my friends went into a tizzy to borrow the cassette I bought and brought home to show them; later, of course, each one of them went off to buy their own copies from the nearest cassette shop. We played MJ’s album over and over again on the terrace and played stylish cricket there! Today, when I read the breaking news about his sudden death I couldn’t help but let go of my tears, even as I am feeling shattered and stunned in equal measure to barely being able to say anything except - “Oh dear Micheal, don’t leave us like this. No”.

Alas, an era has passed and passed away forever with Micheal’s death. The world of music will never be the same again. Forever bereft it will remain of Micheal Jackson’s great music and dance. 

We love you Micheal: for all the terrific music we owe you our unshakable gratitude. You were the last man standing in the world of Pop. It was you and your wonderful music that gave us so much to rejoice and wonder about! Your phenomenal musical genius will continually live in our hearts. May your soul rest in peace and find a way to the abode of God's Kingdom. 

Goodbye Micheal. RIP.

By Arindam Moulick

The Impact of Financial Crisis on World Economy: A Personal Perspective

We are living in the strangest of Recessionary times. 

People call it a Meltdown, or better still Economic Meltdown, Depression Economy, Economic Slow Down, Downturn, Crisis, etc. Simply put, the impact of the financial crisis on the world economy came as a huge shock. The fantasy of economic prosperity has gone bust.

A large part of this crisis-laden story that is doing its rounds all over the world like a Damocles’ Sword hanging over our heads has been hardly surprising to us. But all this turned up, nevertheless, as a shocking reality of sorts! Even as we know that the world’s so-called globalized economy is largely supported (purported?), buoyed, or even propagated by the U.S., the very roots of globalization which began germinating in the form of all-round prosperity have been found to be recklessly pounded upon. 

The so-called “trickle-down economics” funda had taken a thorough beating in the hands of our made-up market forces! That great western nation has almost single-handedly corrugated the entire market economy of the world into its own private enterprise; and even as we talk, its evil effects - no less - have been awfully catastrophic for the whole world to bear. It broke the stable economy of several developed and underdeveloped nations into smithereens and in the near future, as we might be able to foresee, the Economic Meltdown nightmare might not be something any nation in the world will be able to come out of successfully, sooner or later.

Instant job losses the world over, companies shutting down, projects getting cancelled and abandoned, pink slips handed out, emotional and psychological disasters befalling, out-of-work sickness, etc., etc. For those people who have withstood or are in some way surviving this continuous turmoil, the meaning of life for them has suddenly become a hopeless burden to carry on with.

Let me relate a small experience to you. I represent a major New York-based software solutions IT corporation. Our company began its professional dealings with a major banker in the US and other financial behemoths from the same country. We fixed software projects such as software financials, web development, and other software product development. Each project was worth millions of dollars. So beginning to labour on these fresh assignments, we settled down to our individual business production practices and, as we did that, a mild tremor of a recessionary slow down picked up a race with us last year in September 2008 and set up a wall of injustices against us. It’s going to gobble one full year now and there’s hardly any sign of it letting go. Decidedly, we moved on to other greener meadows, hoping to be away from the abject misery that seemed hell-bent on destruction. But there too the same miserable story of recession played out, day after day! How much time will it take to subside and eventually ward off its foul iniquities? No one knows, and everyone is enormously confused and crestfallen about it.

Before the advent of the financial crisis, and when things were just as even as we have known, the United States of America lavished money-flows into India in the form of a variety of corporate investments, including perpetual philanthropy. The Information Technology (IT) that India mastered over the long and hard years of toiling work and its world-class production of computerized software for the nations of the world, mainly the US and Europe, has presently gone out of sheen. Loads and loads of project cancellation bills crashed in on us. The funding stopped due to the transient crisis that rose from its own botched-up attempts at loan recovery and the sub-prime financial banking system. India, for good or worse, has always been invariably dependent mainly on the US for its products to be bought. But India survived solely due to its excellent and orderly financial systems.

Is the Great Meltdown of 2008-2009 somehow had to come after the Great Depression in the US of the 1930s/40s? Whatever reasons we might deduce and try to explain to ourselves; it has thrown up some very pertinent questions about the very nature or idea of globalized Financial Markets and Financial Economies; the way it is being handled; the bottom lines the companies keep talking about and go great lengths to achieve by hook or by crook; the cooked-up profit and loss statements, the commodity markets syndrome, the ever-increasing need for the market sources and resources and all their ubiquitous workings and dealings have all crashed like hell upon the aspirations of the common people of each nation involved in this conundrum. All this has been clearly - and undeniably - devastating in their consequences for us to sanely and calmly reflect upon.

So what will stimulate our stagnant economy? What will give this horrible fiscal deadlock a break? Who or what will break the ubiquitous coconut to usher in a refreshing change of economic normalcy? When are we going to be back in business, just the way we were before this monstrosity of a Recession began hovering over our heads? Perhaps, only time will tell.

A fundamental aspect that we can readily understand is that if our country’s strong-willed globalized economy has to get back on track – probably back with a vengeance now – then it is for our foremost governmental agencies and watchdogs to take up the cudgels and react fast to enforce some healthy confidence-building measures for the general market economy to revive. Surely, they did act responding in the way it is meant to be done. 

Our revered Reserve Bank of India - R.B.I. – braved this challenge admirably with all its might and took up several fiscal dealings, even altering some tried-and-tested policy measures, to positively enthuse our country’s financial system with intense capital flows; all for the general spectrum of our economy to come about posting robust results. Therefore, as experts say, creating more jobs, bringing down the food prices, driving the capital markets by offering concessions, discounts, and bailouts, and enduring some practical cost-cutting alternatives, will soon hound the hydra-headed monster called “Recession” to put its tail between its legs and run! It will gradually and effectively seize to exist.

Lastly, the implications of this huge impact on the financial economy, in combination with the major commodity market shocks, and the housing downturns in the US are mighty hard to scale and talk about insane terms! The consensus is that the global economy is set to weaken further. Growth is slowing and it will be so for a long time to come! In emerging economies, like that ours, looking forward to the opening of markets is a tough cookie to savour! The sole concern for developing nations like India should be whether the slowdown will be superficial and somehow be pursued by a steady recovery later, or whether the downturn will be profound and prolonged. The recession is not over yet, mind you.

Yes, as far as we understand, the core issue about this “clear and present danger” called Great Meltdown (Downturn) is that it will have to be addressed eventually of how to thwart excessive risk-taking in the future, without actually stifling the potential (or whatever of it is left now in the present context) of ‘effective financial markets’. Still, hope floats.

Keeping in view of the trying times we are facing, I, for one, truly wouldn’t give cent percent marks to the decaying roots of the idea of Globalization and the trifling concept of Market Economy because of the dreadful consequences of having to keep fresh and rotten Apples both in one basket are far too severely crippling than we could care to imagine before; and all those inescapable degrading effects - such as all the shreds of evidence discussed above - are there for anyone to judge, but, folks, judge for yourself judiciously.

By Arindam Moulick

English Evaluation: A Personal Perspective

At the dawn of the hot summer month of the year 2007, I wondered aloud - a bit contemplatively then - that I should without recoil have to be exemplifying my sense of right and wrong that would go into expounding the entire gamut of English Evaluation dispensation. 

And once into the team of E.E., I stepped onto the novelty of my lingual efficiency of the English language.

A ‘sense of right and wrong’ is pretty apparent a rationale, I know, but a fine combinational basis of deep-set assessment parameters furnished by the company and a sagacious ability to promptly identify or distinguish the best from out of the sizeable (sometimes sundry) restless lot seemed totally different a challenge for me. Furthermore, to be able to judiciously recognize and assess the employable resources for our diverse list of clients is bound to remain a lucky inclination for me as long as I am working at this company.

Based on my personal experiential knowledge, I tend to hypothesize on the lines that few of the job aspirants or test takers who take our wide-ranging tests seem not to realize the fact that almost every step of test-taking is ‘measurable’ by standards (often defined standards) or is at once scalable based on the scores of assorted parameters relating to which we test administrators get on to score them.

Conversely, even if they (test-takers) are superficially aware or are quite clearly knowledgeable about the aforementioned aspects, then they seem to take up all into their stride and score well, eventually ‘coming out’ with ‘flying colours’ and, then, an impending selection process awaits them. But, by sheer happenstance, maybe, or like each cloud is said to have a silver lining, some likely selects most often than not happen to flounder. Well, this too can be reasonably explained as to why they happen to do so as they do! Several reasons have been propounded but let not for the life of this article delve into that reality. That may be for some other time with another cup of tea.

I have had my “laughter challenges” during and after the English assessment procedures I carried out over the duration of the three months. I can’t help but think pretty often and habitually share them with other English Evaluators in my team, and I do so only for the sake of agreeable experiential know-how though! There are so many unheard-of bloopers, slip-ups, lapses, gaffes, and so many meaningless howlers that my personal list has already gone bust and gone out of order, all smacking of some inconsequentially misused and abused English Language terrorism! But there is going to be an article written soon on that subject too in this blogosphere. So, puh-leeze! Hasten to fasten your seatbelts!

There was a significant yet compelling itch to relate a few innocent offenses made by some fresh-off-the-boat aspiring candidates who were lined up for our English assessments, especially for the Spoken English first round, with my equally industrious associates. And I, eventually, could not help but surrender laughing at the often splitting or even atrociously funny, comical bloopers experienced first-hand! God is with me! Innocent mistakes are so sweet to know and almost therapeutically rejoicing! Likewise, there have been some silly peccadilloes and during that time amusing within ourselves became the first point of release of our stresses and strains of our jobs. In the present times, it is more of a been-there-done-that way of thinking that generally prevails upon us, without letting it concede on our deductive capacity. Bloopers or no bloopers, they matter a little less now.

The most significant facet of the E.E. exercise on a more epithelial level – depending upon the assessment criterion, for instance, whether it be Spoken, Written, or Persuasive - is the elemental detection of ‘plausibility’ of the resource in question, besides which - hardly considered necessary to mention - there are other auxiliary technical traits like articulation (for Spoken - SET), sentence formation (both for Spoken and Written - WET), Indianisms, writing abilities (clearly for Written), persuasive abilities (for Persuasive Communication - PCT), etc. (all these based on a defined set of parameters, normally on a scale of 1 to 5). ‘1’ is ‘poor’ and ‘5’ is ‘remarkable.’

On a personal level, I almost always tend to believe that any candidate or test-taker must have to be free from claustrophobic ideas because the answer to the given question should have to be only in accordance with the question asked and not fumbling into anything else unwanted that the interviewer never wishes to give all ears to. Because, if your answer has to be most suitable in its desired effect in that spur of the moment, then it should really have to come within the purview of the question asked and not get “uncomfortably imbalanced” (only an opinion!) with the asker of the fine question! If not, the candidates lose marks and their general gravity is found flaking off the scoreboard! The million-dollar question is how do we do it? Clear the mind from the unwanted pounding that distracts. I think one needs a good night's sleep after which in the morning a nice cool shower and a light breakfast in the belly! This thought is surely unconventional but, trust the good Lord, it helps the most.

‘Events’ is the most popular action-oriented word in the Operations department and in the English Evaluation dept. of this Bangalore-based company (where I worked as a freelancer during weekends along with my other regular job in Hyderabad), is quite a weighty source for a good first-hand learning experience. I dub it as ‘action-oriented’ because it is really so based upon a display of pursuits and activities, what with all its direct surprises and learning expectations from interactive sources and, in fact, be as it may, the opportunity to represent a company of repute at the most fundamental level and that which is happening right at the client’s place is most opportune a moment for English Language workers everywhere. 

For any individual who is looking out for some added bonuses in terms of intermingling with a lot of business customers, then this is it: the right channel for us to represent like professionals our assessment competencies and know-how and to a progressive extent, as assessment executives, our kitty full of comprehensive skills assessment portfolios as well.

I have had my sojourns assessing for different customers where I noticed people performing distinguished work solely on the basis of opportune ideas that get generated while at work. At the helm of affairs were fairly consummate opinions and thoughts in rapid exchange with each other. These ideas were those, which were related to the exercises we all were primarily put out for. The stake of it all was hinged upon our very basic sense of business acumen. There has been a superior sense of belonging to the tasks at hand, by all accounts, to the good ideas and their continual consequences: mainly those which were simply generated at the spur of the moment. These ideas and exchanges most often than not look very logically bare and almost always are unaccounted for merely because they happen every day on a daily basis. But to a generic observer of ideas and thoughts of all kinds, wherever they might exist, in whatever form or substance, they eventually do form a chiseled gem quietly embedded in the chain of a wholesome experience.

I end this critique with bated breath and, therefore, basking in the glory of the English Evaluation sunshine I shall never allow myself to sail my humble boat to the last sunset! The legend of good English language speakers does exist, but the associative contraband myth that it doesn’t, if there was one, has gone outdoors forever!

By Arindam Moulick