I still memorize my childhood days when we used to write LWD (Last Working Day) on small pieces of paper and throw them in entire town from School bus on our way back home finishing the last exam of the academic year. That used to be lot of fun !!!
Since we all are done with that academic stuff, today is our LWD for Calendar Year 2011.
With less than 35 Hrs to say Good Bye to this year, let us take a look at the highlights (Good & Bad) of the year, at a glance.
Technology:
Apple’s Co-founder Steve Jobs died. When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was weeks away from Bankruptcy. Over the next decade he orchestrated Apple to become the World’s most valuable company by market capitalization. Exxon Mobile is the nearest challenger to Apple.
The creator of C Programming language Dennis Ritchie died in October
One of the leading manufacturers of Computers, HP announced they will stop PC production.
T-Mobile merger with AT&T to become the biggest wireless provider in US ended abruptly.
Google launched its own face book like environment, Google+ after learning people are spending more time in social networking than on search engines. Google+ now boasts of 60 Million users compared to Face book’s 800 Million active users.
To face the economic meltdown most of the companies resorted to little “convenience” fees, like Bank of America’s famous $5 ATM usage fee. But was later turned down after uproar from its customers. Now it’s Verizon turn to charge $2 fee who make online payment using credit card.
American Airlines and few other prominent companies applied for bankruptcy including City of Harrisburg.
Economy:
S&P started 2011 at 1250 points and is now flat at 1260 points with not much of a difference.
Strong Dollar and weak Rupee helped the Dollar Exchange rate to Rs. 53 which is highest in last 10 years
Gold opened the year at $1415/oz and ending nearly $1565/oz (11% Gain). At one point in August Gold peaked to $1900 (40% Gain) in 2011.
Silver opened this year at $31/oz and ending nearly $28.5/oz (8% Loss). In July Silver peaked to $49/oz (60% Gain) in 2011.
Bank of America started 2011 at $13/share and will end around $5.45 (60% Loss). Most of the other banks are in same scenario.
Other Big companies that lost face value include AMR (95% Loss), Netflix (70% Loss) etc.
In the top gainers Apple is in the front starting this year at $322 and is currently at $406 (25% Gain)
Around the World:
The most wanted person by US since 2001 was finally executed in Pakistan in operation Geronimo
A Hero, Anna Hazare emerged in India fighting against corruption. He made the whole country united on this issue.
A strong Earth Quake followed by powerful Tsunami shattered Japan and gave a major setback in its race to become one of the superpower. This is the biggest disaster for Japan after World War II in 1945. Had it been any other country in place of Japan it would have taken decades to heal this wound.
Citizens had to resort to violence to end military leadership in Egypt and few other countries paving way to democracy.
Occupy Wall street protests expanded to major parts of the world. Thanks to media and social networking sites that bring people across the globe on one stand.
Cricket:
India is the official champion of ICC Cricket World Cup. 28 years long wait for another World Cup was finally over. If we need to associate a year to cricket, it was 1983, now 2011 will be remembered until Cricket is alive in India.
We all knew one or the other day Sehwag will score a Double Century in ODI. That dream came true this year. Sehwag till date is the only human being to score a double century in ODI’s. Of course Sachin is the only God who achieved this feat earlier.
One thing missing this year is Sachin’s 100th Ton. We have to wait few more days for this.
Movies:
Ticket sales in Hollywood this year marked 16 year low since 1995 with only 1.28 billion tickets sold domestically according to Hollywood.com. This is a 4% drop from last year. The reason for the disappointing results is due to weak economy and expanding home theater options. I personally think this might be due to lack of blockbuster movies like Avatar.
Aamir Khan disappointed us again this year with no film in his lead role. His last movie was 3 Idiots released during Christmas 2009. There were 2 films from his Production House in 2011, Dhobi Ghat and Delhi Belly.
Shahrukh Khan on the other hand released 2 movies this year, Ra One and Don 2. Both of them failed to live up to expectations.
In Tollywood “Prince Mahesh” Dookudu created collections Tsunami on par with Bollywood films. This movie recorded the highest collections in 75 year old industry.
Song of the Year:
Finally there is one song that is going viral and creating tremor. With over 30 Million You Tube hits in a month, Kolaveri Di is awarded CNN Song of the Year. With this unexpected craze from all over the world, Super Star Rajini Kanth from here on will be called Father-In-Law of Dhanush. Till now Dhanush was identified as Son-In-Law of our Thalaivar.
Wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012 !!! Let us all pray the world doesn’t end here.
Chaitanya Manne
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