Of cute singing kids, lightening bolts and crying men....

So, the 2008 Olympics are over, after all too brief 17 days of non-stop action and (perfectly coordinated and choreographed) public interest. Right from the stunningly extravagant opening ceremony (some of it -- fireworks and like -- meant only for the TV audiences worldwide) to an equally impressive closing ceremony, China succeeded in showcasing what it sought to portray itself as -- a confident, aggressive nation on the move, prepared to deal with rest of the world on an equal footing, no more the reclusive middle kingdom of the past.

So, while pre-game concerns about Chinese abuses in Tibet and elsewhere were conveniently shoved under the carpet, the Chinese, to their credit, made sure that the world sees only what they wanted the world to see, going to extreme lengths to remove everything ugly from the public eye. And, in their fanatic quest for finishing at the top of the list in the medals tally, the games got mired in one refereeing/forged paperwork controversy after another, prompting one Swedish wrestler to even throw away his medal in disgust and another Cuban athlete to kick the referee, prompting comparisons with another 'coming out of wilderness' Olympics in another emerging nation 20 years ago -- Seoul 1988, where such blatant rigging cases as this were commonplace.

The 'beautiful' voice and the 'ugly' face: Lin Miaoke was used to lip-sync 'ugly kid' Yang Peiyi's voice

From an Indian point of view, the games were the most successful in our history, we finished with 3 medals, no less -- the previous best had been a healthy 2 medals in 1952 Helsinki Games (and of course, in Paris 1900, if one includes Norman Pritchard's feats). Being a strong advocate of good things in life come in small packages theory, I must admit 3 was a big surprise to me (as it surely must have been to Mr. Kalmadi and co.). But then, I'm nowhere close to as smart as these learned consultants/analysts from PwC (predicting no less than six medals for India here and here), who after missing almost all their predictions, undoubtedly, are already busy building models to predict medals in 2012 London Games.

A rare event in Indian sport history, an individual gold

But, all credit to Abhinav Bindra and the 2 chaudhries from Haryana, Vijender (who, apparently, got distracted by this and missed out on a gold) and Sushil (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Pappu Yadav, here). With a little more Govt. support (too much to expect, I guess) and better training facilities, there's no reason why these boxers/wrestlers can't do even better in 4 years time.

Sushil and Vijender, battled against odds to win medals

Elsewhere, records were being broken in these games almost everyday, especially in swimming, where, all of a sudden, swimmers seemed much better, much faster, much stronger than swimmers had ever been. All eyes were obviously focused on Micheal Phelps, who was looking to take an unprecedented eight golds, thus shattering the old standing record of most medals in a game (seven, Mark Spitz in 1972 Munich). And he didn't disappoint, as he took his first six golds by sinking six world records, seemingly at will. Amidst controversy in 100m butterfly, his 7th event (and one he doesn't relish), he was seemingly on course to finish second for once (to the Serb, Milorad Cavic), when he lunged forward and managed to win yet another gold, by the smallest of margins.

A very common scene at the Games, Phelps with his 7th gold, the Serbian on his right almost denied him this

After that dramatic finish, the 8th gold was merely a formality as Phelps swam his way into the record books.

8 events, 8 golds, 7 world records, not bad for 10 days, is it? Phelps with his 8th gold

Another one goes down, Phelps celebrates yet another record

However, just as comparisons were being made between Phelps and other greats and he was being celebrated as the best Olympian of all time, in the same league as Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi, and probably greater, the athletics events started. And, in keeping with the vagaries of modern sport, public attention immediately shifted to focus on a certain Usain Bolt.

This man, sure knows how to put on a show, Usain Bolt 'shooting' arrows, just before 200m finals

First there were the 100m heats; Usain Bolt, inspite of jogging through his heats, finished comfortably at top. And then, in finals, all hell broke loose. In what must be the most one-sided races of all time, Usain started celebrating at least fifteen meters behind the finishing line and still managed to set a new world record. (Unfortunately, due to copyright issues, the video of the race is not availbale online).

Probably the most iconic of images from the Games, Bolt demolishing the 100m field

Another view, he's not even running full steam

And that was it. One race was enough to push someone like Phelps to the center pages of the newspapers, let alone the lesser athletes. All time greats like Michael Johnson jumped like children when watching the race. Suddenly, the sprints were back in fashion, and all eyes were fixed on the next event -- 200m. And this time, he ran, rather than jogging along. Michael Johnson's record, set in Atalanta in 1996 was a tough one to break and he knew it. I remember seeing Johnson, with his golden boots, running two unbelievable races all those years ago, but they paled in comparison to these.

Usain Bolt shattering the 200m record, the others are not even close

But if there were any doubts before the race, after the race, there were none. For the first time since Carl Lewis did the famous 100m-200m double in 1984 Los Angeles, was the feat repeated. Bolt was in the elite company of athletes like Jesse Owens and Don Quarrie, he held the world records for both 100m and 200m sprints and all of this at the age of 22. And so one sided were the races that someone remarked later, "it's not eight guys competing for 3 medals, it's seven competing for 2".

Bolt running basically against himself and the records

Well, Olympics is not all about individual human excellence (though that's what it seeks to celebrate), it's also about the Olympic spirit. Heart warming stories of passion, courage to fail and then get up and strive for success again, raw grit and determination are some of the other traits that make up the charm. These involve athletes who will never win eight golds as Phelps did, nor will they ever rewrite the history books as Bolt did, but by their sheer tenacity and will-power to overcome any odds, they become legends on their own. And, these games had their share of such stories. For reasons best known to media, such stories don't seem to get as much coverage as they ought to. After all, these tales are what symbolise the games more than anything else.

Probably, the most touching and inspiring of it all was the story of south African swimmer Natalie du Toit, who lost her left leg in an accident in 2001 and is a multiple medal winner in Paralympic Games. This time round, she wanted to qualify with the able-bodied swimmers, and managed to qualify for the Olympics (first disabled athlete ever to do that). She participated in the marathon of swimming, 10,000 m race, with half the power her competitors had and still finished a credible 16th out of 24 participants.

Natalie du Toit relaxes after the 10 km marathon swim event

Then, there was the German weightlifter Matthias Steiner, who lost his wife, Susann in an accident last year. The Austrian born athlete refused to give up, took German citizenship, just to participate in the games and then, when all looked lost (his first two attempts being fails), with a almost superhuman effort, he lifted 258 kg and won the gold, thus fulfilling the promise he made to his dying wife. And, as he stood on the podium, just crowned the world's strongest man and still crying, with tears rolling down his cheeks, with the photograph of his wife in his hands; I am not ashamed to admit that even I (normally, not the most emotional of people) had a lump in my throat.

Gold medal in one hand, wife's photograph in the other, eyes full of tears: World's strongest man

But not all stories are about success. There is also the US shooter Matt Emmons who threw away an assured gold in Athens 2004, when he inexplicably, fired at the wrong target. It wasn't, however, a total loss for him as he met his wife Katerina (a Czech shooter and bronze medalist herself at Athens) after the event. She actually won the opening gold medal in these games. This time round, he looked like he'll make amends for the past mistakes when he shot his way into a healthy lead and needed only a score of 7 in his last shot to assure gold. In shooting, scores of even 8 are considered below par and so everyone assumed that gold was his. But, again, in a panic attack, he ended up shooting only 4.4. He had blown it yet again. But, the impressive thing about this whole story is the attitude of the man -- he reportedly said after the event that he's gutted, he takes responsibility but he'll come back again.

Then, there are the always unheralded athletes, absolute champions in their sports but never getting a lot of publicity/media space as they can never win more than a gold medal every four years (as that's what the sport allows them). The queen of pole vault, the czarina, Yelena Isinbayeva being the prime example. She has broken the world record a record 24 times and has ruled the sport for the better part of a decade. Unlike her male counterpart Sergei Bubka though, she has managed to reign supreme in Olympics as well. And, of course, there is the great Kenenisa Bekele, the long distance king, always winning his events in a quiet, unassuming way, no recognition asked for and sadly not too much given. His Ethiopian female counterpart Tirunesh Dibaba too won the golden double of 5,000 m and 10,000 m.

Another day in office, another world record for the 'czarina': she won the gold after just 2 jumps and then proceeded to compete just against herself for the next 30 minutes or so

Anyways, the torch will reignite in four years time in Lodnon. Already there are concerns that a weakening UK econony can't match the glamour and picture postcard perfection of the Chinese games. Also, it'll be really interesting to see if the Chinese can match their performace or even improve that. Whatever happens, one thing's for sure -- Boris Johnson and his team are going to have a tough time coming anywhere close to the organizers of these games.

Will London be able to put on as big a spectacle?

A year gone by....

Work can never be enjoyable; if it was, there would be no need to compensate you for it.

~Scott Adams

It's exactly been a year a year (at least it was when I started writing it, me having wasted a month already in getting round to write it) since I landed here, for my first job. And, it's been a busy year, just whooshing past, much faster than a year used to take not too far back.

Like all years, I have learnt a few things, unlearnt a lot more; met a few people I liked, met a lot more I disliked (and, who in all probability, returned the favor). Anyways, more on this later.

I have learnt to take all hype with a more than a healthy dose of cynicism (yes, I breezed through IIM after being prepared to meet the smartest, most innovative people around) and so honestly, I had no qualms/illusions about the highly intellectually challenging nature of work and the opportunity of rubbing shoulders with the brightest in the business, the creme de la creme, as they say (that's how the financial/consulting jobs are sold back in the campus).

I was always sure about student life being much better than anything that work can offer (except, of course, for the compensation), but even the cynical me underestimated the extent.

Not a long post this time, for a change (am not in a verbose mood). Just a few relevant strips of my favorite comic characters should suffice.

Yes, work hours are long, most of it devoted to stupid, mindless, and completely unnecessary things

Yes, I was in office on 24th December and 31st December, being the junior-most guy around has its perks.

A look at the sophistication and the extensive logical analysis involved in the business.

Yes, believe it or not, bank stocks actually rallied each time they announced layoffs or more writedowns

But then, ultimately, the joke's on clients.

So much for the long-term, 'strategic' (and what not) views

and

Being 'client-focussed' actually means the entire focus being on separating the clients from their cash

As for being meritocracy being the sole criterion, here goes:

The dreaded P45 form - find a new job, mate

The banks, after writing down massive amounts every quarter, keep claiming that the books are conservatively marked. The truth is a little more sombre because no one has any clue where they should be marked.

Sometimes, having a Nick Leeson or Jerome Kerviel type traders is actually desirable

Still, inspite of the self-righteousness of the industry, I don't hate my job (yet), not as much as Dilbert below seems to do, at any rate (primarily, because of the compensation involved).

Scott Adams is not very subtle sometimes.

More on the subtleties and intricacies of financial markets later. As a parting (no pun intended) shot.

This is what 'managing' is all about.