What Recedes the most in a Recession

A friend of mine got a job today.

I think he deserves the standing ovation of an entire paragraph made out of the sentence announcing his success.

I was with him when it happened. A magic phone-call vibrated his cell phone and he involuntarily gasped out that it was THE call that he was waiting for. With that gasp; all of a sudden the notes, books, lecture timetables, study packs and an unzipped bag that he was juggling with, fast receded into an oblivious speck and the whole world collapsed to manifest itself into the mockingly bright screen of his cell phone. We were a group of four lounging about at the LSE’s entrance, and with my friend moving away to a quieter place to accept the call; our attention followed him like a dog following its master. While not fully culling our small talk, it was evident that we had all lost interest in what we were talking. Instead we were trying hard to scrutinise his face the way people in India stare mesmerised at television screens moments before a cricket match climaxes. And the moment his face betrayed the first signs of relief we knew that it had happened. The face contorted with joy-pure, unadulterated, and mad; was a face not many were destined to have in this milieu. It was a moment that we knew any person would savour. In this dark, decaying and hopeless world of jobs, my friend had crossed the treacherous bridge to the brilliantly lit world beyond. And we all thought that the least it called for was a firm, congratulatory shake of the hand.

My friend however accepted our profuse handshakes looking bemused, overwhelmed and not aware or caring for whose hand he was limply shaking. His face looked dazed as if suddenly having viewed life for a few seconds in full throttle and now unable to forget the images impressed upon him. But he seemed natural enough. After all, getting a call after chocking yourself with a tie for the umpteenth interview, case study, group work and networking huddles; the Olympics of getting a job can easily put any other hurdle race or decathlon to shame.

But if anyone seemed unnatural, I think it were us; the people who were congratulating him. We were behaving as if somebody had been invited to a grand feast in a country that has been struck by famine. Had my friend behaved the way footballers behave after scoring a goal, and ran around LSE shouting, “GOAL, I’ve got a job!”, I am pretty certain everybody on campus would have also reciprocated by behaving like the crazed spectators of the football match. I go back home and over a cup of tea, tell my parents the news. They immediately become suitably impressed. All of a sudden my friend gets elevated to a different pedestal in the eyes of my family. And typical of Indian parents, who never allow themselves to be impressed by their own children; they said with pursed lips, “See, he got himself a great job. You..................”

Me and many others, Dad...............attend classes; and have by now collected enough material to publish an assorted collection of jokes that professors have cracked and will crack regarding the recession. So as one of my professor explains the nuances of an interest rate model, he adds at the end, “So this is the way people at Investment Banks forecast interest rates. (Pause) (Cough) (Laugh) Of course assuming that any more are left by the time you pass out!” (again laugh)

Indeed behind the doors of an university and shielded by a busy timetable, the current crisis can be talked of humorously, airily and can be examined as a case of great academic interest. Economists are after all known to treat crises with as much delight as palaeontologists get tickled by the skeletal remains of dinosaurs. But it’s a grim reality that we need to face once we are out. And the way we were congratulating my friend today- feeling great for him, but at the same time wondering if we would be lucky enough; it concealed a deep-rooted fear and apprehension brewing in us.
And then it struck me that if this is how insecure we were feeling; imagine the state of the hundreds of people who have been thrown off their office chairs and have as a part of their (in)voluntary retirement scheme, only the cardboard box for carrying their personal belongings. While for us students, it’s like a game having winners, losers and lucky people; for them at the sunset of their careers, it’s like being banished to hell. To hear a new person being hired, reminded us of how unemployed we were; but would remind him of how he was fired. At home, with a family, lifestyle, status and plan for posterity; it’s like heartlessly smudging out somebody’s life long work. I am sure he would have not been the most enthusiastic of hand-shakers had he too been standing at the entrance of LSE, and hearing of my friend’s appointment.

Thus what I find most alarming in this recession is infact this recession of morale. A recession that makes us behave as if we are people fighting for survival in a refugee generating nation with no hope or expectation from the future. A recession that makes us victim of envy even when we badly don’t want to and genuinely want to feel happy for the person.

In short, a recession that dangerously enough has the potential of receding our mind.