Writing here has come down significantly due to my feeble attempts at trying to take it a bit easy over the last couple of days. Not like I have succeeded much in the endeavour, since I have been pretty much up coding about 10-12 hours a day ever since I decided to go for 'easy'. I am afraid this will not be one of the typical technical or business rants that I normally post here. This is where you push the 'eject' button if that is not the kind of stuff you would like to read.

2008 has been a crazy year in every possible way for me. Having always been someone who has worked in a proper company for close to ten years, this is the year when I decided to break with the pattern and strike out on my own. The idea was cobbled together much before the catastrophic collapse we are seeing in the world economy came into being and many have said it is not the wisest of things to do, but for me it was a case of 'now or never.' And 'now' it had to be.

It is very easy, in retrospect, to say that there was a particular moment in which it all came together, while that is seldom ever the case. Both building and tearing down, if you discount natural calamities, are things that happen over time and not at a particular point in time. 'Today' is really just a milestone in a journey that was started about three years ago to consciously try and find a way forward, when there was nothing resembling a clear path to be found.

To have given up on that journey because of adverse economic conditions would have been a terrible thing to do. On the other hand, you never know, but time may just prove me to be quite silly in having gone ahead with it, but I, for one, was never fond of going six feet under wondering, if it came to that. It is not easy, though. Lifestyle switches are often quite inconvenient, but they also teach you to appreciate the value of what you have when you can't play footloose and fancy-free with it.

Looking forward, 2009 will be a very interesting year, in an even tougher environment. The awful state of the financial system apart, we will see the first effects of strain on a young generation who have not really known what it means not have well-paying jobs and comfortable lives. The smarter ones will go back to schools and invest in their education and future, while others may try to hang on, working for harder and longer for lesser. Not every story here will have a good ending.

We will probably see another round of layoffs and job cuts in January, which should be enough to hold things together for most unless the global economy tanks even further, which would then change everything we know about everything at this moment. I just hope we don't come to that. Otherwise, we should start to see hiring going up and cautious economic activity picking up once the feeling grows that the turbulence is over and that things have leveled out.

For me, the greatest positive of 2008 has been the cementing of the concept of a new India, which is not tied to any generation. As a nation, we have been through a lot this year which would have ripped apart most other countries. Instead, we have not given into that temptation and have emerged as a nation which is stronger and more accountable, without involving coups and the military running the country.

The changes maybe slow-paced, we still may have a huge part of our population that is backward and poor, but you can't miss the pulse of the nation underneath all of that much and it is a positive and rising one. The crucial difference for me is that we are slowly getting to a stage where it is realistic for a nobody from a really remote part of the country to dream of making it big. Twenty years ago, that would not have been the case.

Why? Because she/he would not know what to dream about. Aspiration is one of the least appreciated qualities in human beings. Without it, any kind of enablement falls flat. With the humble cable television and mobile phone, an entire generation now aspires to things beyond "making it big in Bollywood." Television has brought to the lives of many uneducated, even in the remotest villages, the aspiration to see their children do well in life, by educating them, because a picture of prosperity paints a thousand words for them in their minds, which they could not read otherwise.

Yes, the changes are slow. Things are still pathetic. But best and the most persistent of revolutions are the slow ones, not the ones that take birth, strengthen and die, all in the space of decade. We often forget how young and how diverse we are as a nation. And nations are never built during a business cycle or even over a bunch of business cycles. It is an activity that happens over many generations and I've never been more positive about my country.

On the personal front too 2008 has been very trying. I turned 30 this year, which does not actually feel any different from being 29. I did cross my peak of youth about two years ago, maybe that is the reason why it does not strike that hard. The body has been increasingly unforgiving since then, making the liberties that I can take with it a bit smaller with every passing month. The peak, seen in the rearview mirror, is a humbling experience, but I am the better for it.

There has been many changes made, some of which even I have not entirely come to terms with. But I can't thank enough the generosity of some wonderful people who I have had the absolute good fortune of calling friends and an amazing partner who have persisted with me through them and also helped me through some really difficult times. And again, it is a work in progress. I do not quite know where it will all end up eventually, but, I am throughly enjoying the journey in the meantime.

On that note, I should end this post and call curtains on 2008. 2009 should see something bigger and better being attempted on this blog. Posting will continue to be light or non-existent till then. Here is wishing all of you a good 2009.