What impacted young Indians most in 2010

2010 could have well been the Year of Scams with the Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum and the Adarsh Society scandals making Harshad Mehta look like a babe in the woods.

Earlier this year, a bomb exploded at Pune's German Bakery, a fire tore through a prominent building in Kolkata, Naxalites struck terror, Ajmal Kasab was found guilty of the 26/11 massacre, an Air India Express flight overshot the runway in Mangalore killing 158, flash floods in Ladakh cost hundreds of lives and the Panama-flagged MSC Chitra overturned causing one of the biggest oil spills along the Indian coast.

On the brighter side, the overall employment scene improved and despite the CWG administrative fiasco our athletes gave us a lot to cheer there and later at the Asian games; some of the top brass from international politics came calling -- British Prime Minister David Cameron in July, followed by Barack Obama in November, Nicolas Sarkozy, Wen Jiabao and Dmitri Mededev in December.

We spoke with young Indians in Mumbai to find out what was the one thing that affected their life the most.
To read what they had to say, do click to the next slide...

Have you been affected be something in 2010? Tell us about it! Write in to getahead@rediff.co.in with the subject line 'The one thing that affected me' and share with us your experiences. Don't forget to mention your age and the city / state you come from. We will publish the best ones, right here on rediff.com

Everyone says that the recession is over. It may apply to majority of the sectors across the world but things have been quite tough in the oil industry.

I have been out of work for the last eight months because the American company I worked for shut shop in April.

As a production testing engineer my job is specialised -- I test for natural gas. In India there is little or no scope for me.

If I need to join a government company I have to pass written tests, which is fine but these companies are also often bound by caste reservation rules.

I am planning to change my line of work entirely but it isn't easy. People look for prior experience and I've always been in the oil industry. So moving industries is difficult.

They exposed the dark side of the Indian political system.

We finally came to know how a government really runs. It doesn't matter who we vote for because it looks like the capitalists run this country and not the people.

Because of the Best of Five controversy between SSC and ISCE boards, our colleges opened more than two months behind schedule.

Click here to find out just what the Best of Five controversy is all about

We hardly got time to make friends or enjoy like we would have.

Although there was very little to study for our first unit test, we have to rush with the syllabus because the year is almost over.

These days it is becoming more and more difficult to sell insurance policies. Last year I sold about 50 policies. This year I haven't been able to sell even 10.

People tell me that they don't have money to spare on policies.

Prices of everyday goods have gone up a lot. For instance, garlic costs Rs 300 a kilo!

I am not the only Indian who has been affected by inflation. Everyone has. Because prices of fruits have gone up, people are buying less of them.

As it is, fruits are not a must-have in people's list of things (like grains or vegetables like onions and potatoes).

When prices go up, people in businesses like mine are affected immediately!

The one thing that has affected me the most is the so-called development of Mumbai.

Property prices are rising; there are skyscrapers everywhere and people are talking about turning it into Shanghai.

But the more I see these tall buildings and posh apartments it occurs to me that this development is somewhat skewed. The gap between the rich and the poor larger than it ever was.