9/15

Imagine - 30,000 depressed / anxious employees packing up from the offices across the globe, as the fourth largest investment bank in the world has just filed for bankruptcy and a bunch of 20-30 people in an office of that bank celebrating a birthday, with cakes in their mouths and birthday song on their lips. Sounds weird? - That was my 23rd Birthday and I am talking about no other bank but Lehman Brothers.

To make the story more interesting, lets go back in time - 

1. It is September 13, 2008 and a group of 3 have arrived at IIT Kanpur to take a lecture on "The Changing World Economy - A Journey through Bubbles and Busts". As per the schedule, they lecture on various aspects of the world economy, the events preceding the Asian Crises and the Russian default, the IT Bubble of 2000-01 and  the march upto the  current mortgage crises covering Bear Sterns etc. They also delve into the details about the genesis of the current crises and give reasons as to why banks are going down causing turmoil across the seas.
2. Next day i.e. September 14, 2008 when they were scheduled for an informal session of Q & A on finance,  after the session one of the speakers on being asked casually to share his perspective on Lehman replies - "Who knows? - may be even Lehman can go down tomorrow".
3. On September 15, 2007 early morning when that speaker boards the flight back to Mumbai, he receives a call from his friend who tells him that Lehman has filed bankruptcy. 

Now, that speaker was none other than ME and the celebrations which I have described in the first para take place after I reach the office (of course, I was a Lehman employee) a few hours later. 

I know what I have described above looks like a movie plot but it is true that it happened for real and that was my 23rd birthday. Probably, the most eventful birthday I ever had. So, yesterday when I received calls from friends who are still in the office (now Nomura), most of them wished me for the second anniversary and told that as soon as they read the date in the morning newspaper they remembered the day, the events and my birthday :).