Living Through the economic crisis

I haven’t written any blog for a month or so, I was busy shifting to another apartment. I would rather say shifting is also side effect of the crisis but eventually its in our favour. The previous place was 10 minutes from the city, in a posh locality surrounded by embassies & wealthy sheikhs & what not but there we where not much at peace; probably due to the ambience or the brown dim flooring, something wasn’t quite right. The present apartment is 20 minutes from the city;11 kms from the previous apartment in a posh area but the ambience, feel, peace in this apartment is so soothing. Living here on the 2nd floor, walking on the terrace or just sleeping is such a soothing exercise in toto by allahs grace.

Now back to the crisis which is hanging on our heads. The world plunged in a global economic crisis is getting more frightening by the day. I first heard of the crisis in mid October when lehman brothers declared bankruptcy. Back then, I was someone who was least interested in finances or economy. Sensex, wall street, currency rates etc where words which didn’t mean much to me. My first job had just started ; I was full of ideas & things I could do as time goes on & lastly how could the oil-gold rich Abu Dhabi be affected by any sort of crisis.

But all this seemed to fizzle out the moment I was told that my office couldn’t pay me as the work had ebbed down as the crisis had finally struck. Its four months into the crisis & yet nothing is clear about whats going to happen or what should be our next step. Being expatriates in global crisis is unnerving to say the least. With no official clarification on how things will be dealt with or whats going to be the modulus operendi each day brings a lot of anguish.

So far I was just hearing that thousands of people where leaving the UAE every month. It was frightening but it seemed more of statistics. A month ago we came to know how close the affect was. One of our cousins who was ion a leading MNC of abu dhabi was confused if or not he should pay the fee of his daughters school for this year as the condition was full of fear & panic. His manager informed him that he should send his family back & it was furtile to deposit the school fee as he would be sacked in May, the manager had himself signed my cousins sacking orders.

Since then cousin had been packing up & today he left with his family. His family had arrived in Abu Dhabi just six months ago. All of them excited about relocating to Abu Dhabi for good. Seeing them pack up to go back was very depressing, however I feel they know what to expect & what to do. There is not even an iota of doubt in their minds about tomorrow.

On my part, I always pray to allah that whatever is in store for us, please let us know beforehand. Two of my cousins forwarded me some email id’s which could help me get a job. It would be a good experience but the way I see it, things can go from bad to worse now. The official statement of aiding the ongoing projects hasn’t shown any improvement in the construction sector. Many opine that things will seem to clear up after 31st March, the start of another financial year. I do hope that something concrete comes out by the end of the month so that we can plan accordingly. If god forbid we have to leave UAE then we will only prefer India, just because its nearer to home, we are citizens of that country & rent wise it aint as costly as abu dhabi.

Till there is life, there is hope.

Survivng the Economic Slump

i feel the time has come for me to start writing again. as a student i was always into writing , reading novels,debating,attending seminars & what not. but slowly as my professional education started,somehow i drifted away from my hobbies.now having completed my PG in Engineering & settle din life,i feel i have the time to write about whtever comes to my mind.

the first thing that strikes my mind is the economic crisis that has affected nearly every country.i was always the last of people who would be remotely ever interested in buisness news,but since the past few months thast what i have been tuned in to daily. life seemed easy for me,the job was good,people around where happy & no one had any major troubles to lamlent over..nobody,no even the rulers thought that if the economic crisis widened, it would affect UAE..but when the black clouds spread its wings,there was no stopping them.slowly the investors stopped investing/buying new projects…even in exhibitions like Cityscape 2008..slowly MNC’s began sacking employees randomly & sending them home  with a months salary;people began to feel the sword hanging over their heads;slowly the banks declared bankrupcy & investors realised that they couldnt lean back upon banks to loan money or bail them out so obviously they stopped funding projects;with funds dry the contractors on site had to freeze the projects…in all this chaos the engineers where the worst afafected.

its not been even a month since i started my career & within a month i am back home,my job is going to be functional only after the condition improves,as new employments have been closed & all commercial establishments have been directed to cut down on their expenditure.

Each day we think of contingency measures we might take in case,just in case the situation turns from bad to worse.One day we think of Kashmir as an option to Live & practise till UAE economy gets stabilised & returning to UAE later, sometimes we look for job oppurtunities outside kashmir but within India so that we can be near to home & nor far away from UAE,sometimes we think of pursuing some course @ foreign universities till the crisis ends & then returning,sometimes we think of struggling it out here & sometimes we think of the most bizzare ideas.

there is a strange sense of calm around us,its like the calm before the thunderstorm.we all can sense the danger engulfing our jobs if the real estate /construction goes further down but we dare to hope against hope.as they say “till there is life,there is hope”.we hope of surviving this melt down & coming out stronger & happier.however hard the situation,i feel if your family is with you not much can possibly go wrong for you cause together we can make life more worthwhile.

till next time