Arsenal, SLR and Nadal

Not having blogged for sometime and feeling good about the missing hangover which I was destined to have, thought its time to type away the significant happenings that made my micro environment the least bit interesting or depressing the past couple of weeks,

The death of Arsenal
The very existence of Arsenal was exemplified by free flowing, creative football. The past 4 years have been especially tough for me as a Gunners fan having not won anything since the 2004 FA cup. But the past couple of weeks have really pierced my soul. The flair which was apparent even as we didn’t manage to win anything for the past 4 years was missing. For the first time in my life I was bored to watch Arsenal play. Pride lost as we drew 3 games in 1 week, to lowly Cardiff, resurgent Everton and West ham. Let the leg breaking spirits of English football haunt Ninian Park, The Mersey side and Upton Park.

Rupee Overvaluation
How on earth does this constitute my Micro environment? Well I’m pro export and pro ‘’lets makes this economy work’’ hence the disgust at how the SLR is been pegged against the US$ amidst falling foreign reserves as the central bank compromises our reserves position to defend the rupee. My dad rang me up the other day and he tells me that his Chinese suppliers offered him 20-30% discounts on most products since the Yuan has been depreciated and they wanted to help business boom. Wish we had a similar position on the rupee which will help exporters. The rationale that we need to keep the rupee pegged against the US$ to ensure inflation is controlled is a pretty short term thinking strategy, the damage done to exporters in the form of factory closures, lost customers etc. will not be recoverable and will adversely affect our BOP position in the future. 2 of my best buddies are now unemployed due to bad policies which have resulted in manufacturing job losses.

Rafael Nadal
For once I’m with the crowd favorite. Nope, it was not the French open winning rafa that impressed me. Rather it was the Wimbledon runner up Rafa on 2 consecutive years that impressed me. The manner in which he continued to challenge the King of grass was amazing and his 5th set loss to Federer in 2007 was heart breaking after missing multiple break points in the final set. But he came back; on top of a 4th French open title to finally win Wimbledon in the longest game in Wimbledon history with a 5th set that seemed to go on forever. (Since 5th set games do not go onto a tie breaker, but continues until someone breaks serve). And now he has the Aussie open!! The US open is the last frontier of what is now a fast contracting federer empire.

The exams and assignments which have taken up much of my time during the past weeks are too painful to bring up and hence would be avoided!