I am Gen-Y

This year I have become conscious of money, of livelihood, of sustainability. This is the first recession I am living through and it gives me mixed feelings. Until now, I have only seen growth, I have only seen bank balances grow, I have only seen jobs running after hard-working people and not away from them..

I had once walked into a coca-cola bottling plant. Our factory tour-guide had taken us from a warm office room of the factory into the refrigerator section and then into the deep freeze section and then into the coldest section where the secret coca-cola concentrate is stored..

This recession somehow reminds me of it.

When it all started last year with the bank failures, I felt I was getting into something cold, but it will not bother me much.. Then I saw my stock portfolio get into deep red, and I knew we would have to keep a close watch on our liquidity. But still, this did not bother me much.. This month my employer, a conservative industry leader that is known to value its people, announced the first round of job cuts.. NOW, I am not so sure.. !

I see so many changes all around me.. Just last year, same time, all marketing messages were about "splurge, you have money and there is more to come!" and now all marketing messages are about "buy, because this will help you save money elsewhere..". Every punchline is about difficulties. Even the new Honda City ad says "Enjoy your challenges."

Economic Times is flush with news of negative growth, quarterly losses, tightened spends, interest rates climbing down in tandem with earnings, Gen-Y getting into depression.. And as of date, they say it is only the tip of the iceberg..

Ice.. getting back to my walk into the cold storage.. I sure hope that I and my fellow Gen-Y will be able to walk through this recession, feeling the chill and doing everything to keep their spirits high.

And when we survive the walk, at the end each one of us will find that secret coca-cola concentrate. It would be a concentrated life experience which will make us stronger and which we can proudly narrate to our grand kids on warm spring nights..