Life is almost back to normal but peoples habits have changed.
In the business world most of the companies are very comfortable doing online video meetings and don’t request in person meetings like they used to. Travel is now a revenge travel i.e. almost all hotels/ flights are full and folks are travelling like there is no tomorrow. Hotels like Taj which pre-covid time used to cost around 12K per night is now quoting 25K to 50K per night and even then it is not available. People have come to a belief of YOLO - You Only Live Once, so over-all life has changed.
From the economic perspective in India, something known as the ‘K’ curve has kicked in. Those with higher education (english education) and comfortable using the computer are doing very well, salaries are rising and lots of good job opportunities, these make up around 100 million odd folks but for the others who are more from the vernacular medium, things have become tougher as smaller companies or entities have almost collapsed, salaries have stagnated and jobs are tougher. Hence the K curve, for a section of society it is rocking and for the majority things are tough. The Government of India is giving free food to almost 800 million people (we are socialism at a different level). The sale of high end cars, apartments, motorcycles etc is going on in full swing but the entry level products are not selling. Even Colgate had a loss in sale this past quarter (hence the poorer not brushing as they used to).
In Mumbai lots of things are happening, the real estate sector is booming (specially high end) and YOLO factor is kicking in with folks spending crazy money on weddings and other items or travelling to expensive places like Maldives etc.
On my side, I continue to work from in the software area and life is chugging along with new customers of all types. The son has turned 18 years old and the daughter is now 16+. One is finalising his college for the USA and other one is also in the process. Wifey is doing her fund management and she has become an expert in both the equity and to some extent the fixed income markets. My parents are doing good and they have recently bought a lovely Toyota SUV which is a unique product for the emerging ASEAN market.
So all in all I have no complaints and finally I might have lost some weight (not because of anything but not eating out of home that much), lots of home cooked food. This year I plan on doing some small trips (long trips are hard as kids don’t have time).
I have become very active in the building management ever since I won the building election, spent lots of time on the elevator, fire fighting systems, building wiring, water systems etc. My civil engineering education is underway and it is good fun to learn something absolute new with no official or economic purpose. I stopped by Yoga and plan to re-start it hopefully in April types. What else, hmmm… younger generation is still figuring out how to migrate to USA/Canada/Australia etc (I had thought this will stop but the migration continues unabated).
Till the next blog when ever that happens.
Adios,
Shiva
