India-US-India-US again.

Well, right now I am in the US again. But unlike the last time, when I studied and worked and stayed back for almost five years, this time, I am here only for three months on an exchange program that IIM-A has with its business school partner, Washington University in St. Louis. So, how do I feel about being in the US after two years? Has anything changed in these two years?

Well, nothing, coz nothing has really changed here in the US. Consumerism is still high. The average American is still ignorant about the world out there. His world is still the city, town or village where he lives in. But the winds of change, can you stop them?

Wall Street is dying.. Its monsters - Lehman, Bear Sterns, Merill are all dead, and the remaining - Goldman and Morgan have been tightly reined in. The economic indicators are crying out loudly - Recession. The Government has 'bought' the free markets and one can but wait for the next big corruption. In unprecedented moves, the capitalist is becoming a socialist.What seems sad is the the silent democracy.

On a different note, the democracy did surprise me by electing its first African American President. The racial pretensions between the blacks and whites, as per the Wall Street Journal, are at all time low - 25%!! The papers are awash with rumors of the increasing importance of minorities in Government. The black VPs in different organizations are silently being promoted since they might now be more influential in driving business to their firms. On the surface, you perceive a calm. But I suspect the tides of tsunamis are brewing within American society. Change always faces resistance and for a country to embrace a black President after centuries of Caucasian Presidents, might lead to more turbulence in these tumultuous economic times.