Raju Srivastava - My all time favorite..

This is one video which I liked most about Laughter challenge. I don't know how much time has elapsed since I have watched the part 2 but then I am not to be blamed as the deterioriating quality of the laughter challenge 2 contributed a lot to it. The challenge could be better described as Reading SMS jokes challenge. Have stumbled upon this video on google video site and found that I can share this bit of humour with all my MBA friends. Enjoy friends, you deserve this one.

Taking 'M' out of "MBA"

When people start preparing for MBA entrance exams, the only thing which hovers around their mind is this Master word and not Business administration. The kind of media publicity that the MBA’s have got in India over the last few years, have contributed significantly to this distorted perception. Young students freshly out of college and young executives with a couple of years of coding or manufacturing behind them gets a shot of adrenalin even at the recall of this word Master. You ask any fresher, they will say that they want MBA for value addition, seeing the bigger picture, completing the education cycle in one go and blah blah blah. Executives will go one notch ahead and you will hear reasons like their team leaders actually does nothing or their project managers just keep going on world tours, they are unable to connect to whatever they do, no excitement left in their present jobs, they want some challenging career and some more blah blah blahing.

I am not saying that these reasons are all craps. Some people may relate to whatever they are saying but majority of Indian students belong to that category where the manifestation of thoughts and the actual thoughts bear no correlation. I myself can give thousand reasons but somewhere down the core of my heart I know that the only thing that provoked this need was that rosy picture being painted by media year after year.

Poor thing is that the realization of the shattered dreams does not come immediately. You go through weeks and months of business education to reason out that whatever you are reading will go obsolete in next five years and whatever you are doing bear little resemblance to the actual picture. We talk about average salaries which has changed to median salaries and which may further change to a combination of average and standard deviation (statistically this is the best measure) to prove that which institute is better than which but then in the process we forget the emotional trauma of those who fall below average figures.

Today, after spending close to six months here, I look around myself. All I can see is some confused people who are becoming more and more confused. Or may be they are focused towards their subconscious goal (consciously thought but putting it forward in a way that it should sound like their last priority) of getting a job which pays above average salaries. I wonder, I was always under illusion that we will learn how to be masters but what the profs can do when we are hell bent on learning only the business administration part?

Some more perfume ideas..

Flattered by the idea of perfume for innovators our professor asked that how you will find that how many innovators are in the country or how many people are going to innovate in future? Will it be something like you'll sell your perfume to only those who will wear a T shirt with "I'm an Innovator" printed on it? Well, that was one doubt which we were not able to clarify.

Some of the suggestions that came from him were:
Perfume for professors:-> If we can come up with a perfume for innovators then why not a perfume for professors or a perfume for shop-keepers or one for non-teaching staff members.
Offensive perfume;-> Which smells like shit and can keep people away from you.

Well the idea clicked with me and I started thinking about some of the buyer segments for which to positioning this perfume. Well to start with:

Film stars:-> Specially for those stars who keep saying "No Media Please" and who are too shy to brush the public and media gathering aside and be rude. (I am not talking about Salmaan Khan, his biceps and his famed driving skills are good enough to scatter the media person everytime he shouts "No Media Please"). They can now have their say without actually saying anything.

Item girls:-> I think Rakhi Sawant will be a celebrity customer or perhaps not (Some people say that with all that makeup on, she already smells like **** you know what). Well the problem is that when these girls say "no" that means "more". But yeah she would have saved herself a "Mika" by putting on that perfume. But wait! who will invite you to a party then? Well we have an idea of hosting theme parties where only regular users of this perfume are invited. Don't worry we promise who's and who's of film industry and sports world and some top corporates.

Indian Cricket stars:-> Will be another set of regular buyers as it will make the fast bowlers of the opposition team bowl from a longer distance than the regular 22 yards. It is evident that even seniors players like Sachin and Dravid are finding it tough to face the chin music from the even the slowest of the fast bowlers. Well this will keep the bowler 10 yards behind and they will get some more time to watch the ball. It will also keep the fielder's away so no chance of getting caught out. But yeah the problem is that you have to wear a nose filter to stand at the non-striker's end. Okay! we have a solution. We will give away nose filters for free for some time.

Daughter in laws:-> This could be a good gift idea as a daughter in law can give it to her mother in law to make a bold statement " Don't come anywhere close to me or I will start wearing this perfume".

Well, these are my crazy ideas about this offensive perfume. I am dying to hear my friends to critically evaluate my ideas and send in their suggestions. I am still to come up with a brand name for my offensive perfume. Friends! wat do you say??

Crazy, Crazier and Craziest..

Customized toothpaste:-> Buy toothpaste in four different tubes each containing one special ingredient like fluoride, calcium,whitening agent or a dental cream. Buy any number of them by your choice and mix them to get that freshning morning breath. Wait, toothpastes are no longer for morning brushing only.

Toothpaste for diabetics:-> Sugar free or non sweetened toothpaste.

Toothpaste for smokers:-> Which makes them feel score that whatever harm tobacco does on their teeth, there is one toothpaste which is going to take care of that.

Perfume for innovators:-> Wear this perfume and feel like an innovator. decide for yourself what you are going to innovate.

Perfume for achievers:-> To make a statement which expresses your personality and for those who oozes confidence. This will be a perfume for those selected few.

Soap with a hole:-> I don't know exactly what was the basic idea but people are claiming that this soap will be easy to rub and will last longer as very less water can stay on the soap.

Soap with goat milk:-> These soaps are popular in the best but for price conscious Indian customers they are still a distant dream.

Soap for water scarce area:-> Will save water as will give little lather (not convinced by the idea actually.. to save water you always have the option to skip bath. Ask any person who has outlived Punjab's winter he must be knowing how to conserve water.

Seasonal bathing soaps:-> A soap for every season. WEll it's a crazy shot at leveraging the four season advantage of India and selling four different kind of soaps but then how would one know when to switch soaps?

Bollywood fan club calling card:-> Call Amitabh Bachhan and talk to his recorded voice, leave a message. Or sing a birthday song to your favorite actress Aishwarya Rai. You can now live your fantasies with the bollywood calling card.

Calling Card for farmers:-> Send these people the local mandi rates, EMI information and local gossip. Farmers will be very loyal to you if you succeed in doing even a small value addition.

Refrigerator-AC combo:-> Both are almost identical in working. But then the challenge is to integrate the two. You open the door it's refrigerator and when it's closed, its an AC.

Wondering what is all this? Well, these are the inputs from the segmentation exercise for our marketing course 1. Morale of the story is: People can go crazy, if given a chance. And they can go crazier if they are marketers.

Tournament Effect..

We often wonder that we were too good in school and then somehow not able to sustain the same level of enthusiasm and energy during the later part of our career. We pile on a bundle of dreams thinking that life will always be like this. I will get the same people to compete with for all my life. After entering a college with student population much bigger than the combined strength of your school you still think that this is almost the same set of people. Competition will be the same. Slowly the feeling sinks in that life has changed and pace of the change requires you to revise your goals. Now you don't want to be the topper and you will feel satiated even if you manage to get the second rank. What happened? Has your competencies changed? The answer is No. Why? well keep reading.

You are in college where you are the okay with academics but excel in extracurricular and especially good with quant and verbal ability (yeah! you know what I am talking about). You read one article in the daily editorial and feel confident that someday you can make it to the CEO level and MBA is the route to it. You feel confident about the pedagogy followed in MBA. Case discussions, presentations, group discussions and group exercises, you relate all this to your college life and you think you have enough substance in you to make it big in MBA. You target the CEO position of a company of your dreams. Well, you enter a MBA course. For the first few days you find the going easy but then you start feeling that something is not right. We call this "WHAT YOU THOUGHT IS NOT WHAT YOU GET" effect. You slow down to analyze yourself and revise your goals. Now you target the CTO,CFO, COO or any other higher level position ( just below the CEO). Well slowly and gradually, after two or three revisions of your goals, during the start of your placement season you will feel happy if you bag an entry level position on Day 1. Well, it seems logical that you should be realistic but then have your competencies really changed? Again a "NO".

What is this which makes us feel smaller and insignificant over a period of time? Well, the answer is "TOURNAMENT EFFECT". The explanation of this effect is that we are so absorbed with ourselves that we never realize that the stage is getting bigger and bigger. And people around you are becoming smarter and smarter. You are sharing your stage with some of the handpicked people who were perhaps the best in their own comfort zone.

For MBA students this effect has really a meaning. To excel in life you need not always look inside you, you have to be an excellent reader of the environment also. You can not take it for granted that if you were good at something in the past it's an advantage. Well it's rather a disadvantage as it will act as a mindblock for you. Continuous improvement of your skill sets is the key. After all, you are not in your comfort zone. Well, the moral of the story is respecting your self for what you are respecting others for what they are and if you have to revise your goals/targets then please don't feel bad. You can always blame this “TOURNAMENT EFFECT".

Mania of 43..

It has been a month…30 and thankfully not “43” days (k…not sure but, it doesn’t hurt to hope can it?) Since I’ve been haunted by number 43 more than once a day, my disbelief in numerology is getting shattered and ubiquitous reappearance of this number in my daily life is making me think about it and dedicate a post to it. A search on google reflected zero results and it did not help much to sideline my worries about the mystery of number 43. I get a phone call; I hang up and see that the call timing is 8 minutes 43 seconds or any number of minutes + 43 seconds. I talk about this to one of my friends and then the next car that passes ahead of us has its number plate marked 20”43”. I look at my computer clock and find it’s exactly 43 minutes past some hour. I check with one of my friend randomly and ask her the time. She says it’s 2:43 now.

Don’t know what the connection between me and 43 is but, it feels wonderful to think that “43” used to be our teen code for “Love you”.

What Ram Jethmalani wants??

This is the question all those people are asking who walked side by side holding candles and demanding Justice for Jessica. I hope this name “ Jessica” is still fresh in our minds. The two slogans which brought India closer this year were “ Youth for equality” and “Justice for Jessica”. While the former was self made the latter was coined by Media as they were falling short of news stories in those un-eventful early summer months.

Anyways, the fire slowly died out and what remained is the long procedures of filing papers, court dates, appointment of public prosecutor and then hiring a legal defendant. The story got much bigger this time as the person who is going to defend Manu Sharma’s case is undisputed king among the criminal lawyers. Ram Jethmalani has this knack of being in news for all kind of reasons. When he was in ministry he made it into news several times but then his position in BJP was slowly taken by young and brilliant lawyer Arun jaitley and the frustration out of this made him target leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The move is well calculated now. The fire inside him is slowly dying. The young bunch of Yale and Harvard educated lawyers have this capability of delivering a bigger better show anyday anytime. The magic is fading away and this is his chance to prove that he is the best. To choose to defend Manu Sharma is like making a statement that public was completely wrong and they have no rights to decide the fate of a person in the court of public when the case is lying pending with the court of law. Manu is innocent and Jessica was murdered by some non-existent person or Jessica might have provoked him to shoot her or he was already in a drunken state and he didn’t know what exactly he did in that state. Whatever may be the verdict, at-least I am not going to buy this argument that Jethmalani is doing this for a big fat cheque that Manu’s family is going to write to him at the end of the “FAIR TRIAL”. The only other probability is that he wants to prove this thing to the world that a candle burns brighter just before it dies out. I don't know exactly what motivated Mr. Jethmalani to take up this challenging case but well in the court of public perhaps you will no more be an ideal figure.

Getting started once again..

With placements of the final year batch getting almost over now, for first years, its time to jet, set and go once again. It’s the time to be prepared to meet the hard life ahead. The three day’s discontinuity from studies has given us enough time to sit back and reflect over the past four months that we have spent slogging for grades. I am wondering that I took four months to realize that grades don’t matter at all. What matters most is the flair and penchant for work and the way you integrate your academic knowledge into your action. Most of the students who got placed on day 1 and landed the best jobs are those who had this hunger in their eyes and for some reasons fighting for grades do not excite them all.

Anyways, the three days layoff followed by a busy Friday evening and now a seemingly bitchy week ahead (with shit load of work, case presentations and quizzes), I think it’s the best time to think over that final decision that What I want to be in life. But then my gut feeling is that for a person as confused as me, he has to wait until the need arises to update his resume once again.

"Aloo ka Paratha in Chennai"..

My friend called yesterday night and asked whether she can drop by to have breakfast with me as she had to go to some church in Chetpet with her roomie. Well, we planned to eat a Punjabi breakfast. Nungambakkam is supposed to be one of the most cosmopolitan area of Chennai and with all the famous eating joints located within a radius of 2 kilometers, it sort of try to live upto that reputation. There is Pizza Hut, Pizza Corner, Cafe Coffee day, Barista, Mocha, New Yorker and many others to list including Dhaba Express. Some 20 restaurants are located within 2 kms and I guess that most of their menus have listed "Aloo Paratha". So i was confident that we can easily get Aloo Paratha and would try to revive our taste buds for Punjabi food.

Well, the search started at 9 in the morning. WE went to Raj Bhavan and learnt that they serve parathas only after 1 PM, Sangeetha offered paratha but of different varieties, Most of the restaurants open after 11 so it was like we were walking to each restaurant, asking the first question and then walking out. It continued till 10:30 and we reached Dhaba Express only to find it closed. Finally we returned to Sangeetha and settled for a quick Cheese Sandwich and a cup of coffee. We finally tried one Sambhar Vada and found it really satisfying.

Well, I remembered my CAT preparation days, when I use to leave my hostel at like 5:30 in the morning to travel to Chandigarh which was about 100 Kms from my college. North India is famous for its bitchy cold. The plains of Punjab are famous for enveloping fog which refuses to go before spending three days on the land. Well, even during those months of cold also I use to find a lot of eating joints in Patiala and even in this small town Sangrur (which is closer to my Institute) which serves you hot "Aloo Da paratha" with curd and tea from 7 in the morning. I use to walk in one of my favorite restaurants at 7 as the first customer and in a matter of 15 minutes I use to see all the seats occupied for morning breakfast. I am still wondering that typical south Indian dishes like Idli, Dosa and Vada was also available at 7 in the morning. That was something amazing.

I am not trying to draw any comparison. The early morning crowd in "Sangeetha" was enough to explain that the eating out habbit of North Indians are almost same as that of South Indians who go for heavy and rich breakfast. The only thing is that may be there are not too many takers for the North Indian breakfast here and poor people like me have no option other than to convince our Punjabi friends to eat a Sandwich or to try Sambhar Vada... ANyways, it was fun to go out and hunt for Aloo Ka paratha. We were really looking like two fool out there at the wrong place. But then these small things are what I am going to remember about Chennai... Slowly developing a strong liking for this place..

Abhyudaya- Rising Sun, Growing Challenge

Abhyudaya is our annual B School fest and we have taken the responsibilities of organizing the second edition. Back in engineering college we use to have about 30 student committees with 15 members in each who share the burden of the daunting task. Now, here we are only 27 people taking up this seemingly impossible task to rope in sponsors, plan the event, send invitation, arranging the boarding and lodging of the outstation participants and then make this whole event a unique experience for the participants.

In a way, this is going to be the most challenging exercise for us as most of the other B schools have large number of students involved behind organizing activities of the similar magnitude. We don’t have the number advantage but then we have the advantage of working in a closely knit group where each one of us knows the other person inside out. Now, when I look back at my text book, I don’t think that reading about “Customers Experience Management” from Kotler’s marketing manual is going to help us making this event a unique experience. All that it takes for delivering result is a clear vision and holistic efforts towards turning your vision into reality.

Let’s see how far we can go ahead with this. The going is surely tough but when the going gets tough, the tougher gets going. That’s suo-motto.

Between Competition and Complacency..

I think that these two words represent two extremes of characters. You can survive your under-graduation easily being complacent but for a professional post graduation degree, being competitive is the key. Now, again it’s a matter of personal values and attitude which subconsciously moulds your character. First trimester is over and with 2 A- and one B in 3 subjects here I am, feeling the heat for being complacent for all this time.

Studying hard and working like a dog has never been my priority and I think that till now, whatever I have achieved even if it’s not substantial at-least is significant and that is where complacency creeps in. My feeling of satiation with whatever I have achieved or with the pace of my life is the thing which is becoming the matter of concern for me. I see life as a set of priorities. You assign weightage to them and the way a person decides and assigns weightage to their priorities makes them unique in their approach towards life. For some a good salary could be of higher priority then having a family or vice-versa. However, the priorities keep changing depending on the environment. And again the pace of change varies from one individual to another.

In a B-School setup, I think that the change is pre dominant. The pace of this change gives you the competitive edge over others. People have started complaining that I have changed but when I try to see around me I think that they all have changed. The change is everywhere, in their conducts, in their behaviors and in their level of academic commitments. I might have changed too but then I still sleep for 10 hours a day. I tried to think about it but then decided against it as it’s not worth that much of my time. Analyzing people’s behavior and molding my behavior accordingly is now out of my priorities for the next one and half year at-least. “A rough exterior is what you need to protect that softness inside”.

I still remember that during our initial days of confusion and chaos here, one of my friends asked me that what these people are going to do with us to transform us into managers? I was unable to answer this question then but now I think that I have an answer. They will teach us how to get our priorities right. And that’s all.

NO Subject..

One trimester ended, one is about to begin. So here I am sitting at the threshold of one and initiation point of another. On Friday evening we were informed to collect our books and other materials immediately after the exams. The sight of Kotler - Kellers Marketing Management book and the book on corporate finance was just enough to make me week on my knees. I felt numb holding the book as if something is being forced on me and intruding into my peace for the next three nights three days. I don’t want to give myself any credit but I can’t deny that I have tried my level best for the papers except for the economics paper where I was really bamboozled by the paper. The point is that in our Engineering College end of the exam meant a lot of fun for at least a couple of weeks.

Well the speed of the life has changed. Maturity is slowly creeping crawling into our system. Movies are only subject of discussion during weekends, girls are no subject now. Wine and Vodka is now a part of fantasy, Food doesn’t matter anymore. However bad it may be, people will eat and complains are restricted to the dining table only. Sleep is unimportant for most of us (exceptions are there). Sleep deprivation is compulsory. Suddenly any distance above 5 kms sounds too far away and silence seems to be too good.

I remember how we use to drive for like 40 kilometers at early hours in the morning to get something to eat. Here, everything is available on a click of the phone but take the fun, frolic and friendship out of my food, and food has no meaning for me then. MBA has started making sense for me. It’s really about unlearning and relearning. I am unlearning the meaning of fun for me and relearning about how to make this fun into a Business plan. Well, the thing is that I just can’t complain. The pseudo Punjabi factor in me makes me gregarious enough to enjoy whatever I have on my platter. Be it the food, the amount of free time I get, the friends I have here and well also my MBA. Classes from tomorrow, I think I will get enough to pen down.

They really sucks..

Well, this is not an actual image and is just an example of how image morphing is becoming simpler day by day.. This is just an online banner facility where you just write whatever you want to see on the banner and the script will do the rest. The reason I chose this text is that B school Rankings by these magazines fail to fulfill some of the basic statistical requirements. A common complain is that they are biased well, I will delve a bit deeper into the reasons behind this bias and will try to explain some other things related to the whole procedure. I am thinking about putting my three months of statistical learning to some good use without making it sound like statistics actually. Have two more papers to go and after that three days of life (One is Dry Day ofcourse).

I almost forgot about the banner. Try this link and have fun. Who knows, may be someday you will be a B school student, and have to sit tight in your room with your books even on your birthday. So Enjoy..

http://www.lintukoto.net/viihde/mielenosoitus/kuva.php?teksti=Happy%20Birthday%20Raji..%20

MAC Run..

For the entire trimester, I had only seen my friends runnning frantically from their room to computer lab and then to faculty room three times. And without any exception all those three frantic attempts were for just one subject. Management Accounting 1. It's better to call it MAC run. We were provided with the course catalogue in the beginning and Prof. himself makes sure that he gives us atleast a deadline of two weeks. Prima facie, every assignment looks okay but the moment you get indulged into it, it goes on stretching you beyond the normal working hours.
Latest, we finished our financial statement analysis assignment and 29 students means we anlysed the financial position of 29 companies. If we club it all together it will be atleast better than the A*B*C* Business magazine rankings which probably do not beleive in a proper statistical analysis.

Well, with midterms on, it was really worth watching everybody making a valiant attempt for the MAC assignment. We had an exam till 5 and the deadline for the submission was till 6 PM. So the scene was that someone was crying foul over the stapler, some were cursing the printer, someone suddenly found that the printer driver in their laptop is missing and they can't take the print outs. While one person was busy giving the finishing touch to his assignment the person sitting next to him suddenly ralized that she didnt do the analysis properly. With the rain god obliging us with a rainy relief today, It was all messed up. For me, I first went into the lab thinking that I have transferred the things from my computer to my friend's laptop but then I realised I need pages. I climbed three flight of stairs and then the moment I came downstairs it occured to me that I forgot my books in the lab.

Well that's why we chose to call it MAC Run. This is the only subject which is making us feel that what's the life in a B school like? Well life is getting tougher but then it has its own share of fun and pleasure.. If I have to follow up my life here.. I can say that I am Lovin it.

Writing on the wall: "Implementation is difficult"

Another compulsory seminar but well this time I was more than enthusiastic to attend this in spite of the fact that tomorrow I have to write the end term paper for the most dreaded subject and my decision making go well with the theme of the talk. We Indians really give a lot of emphasis on emotions rather than facts and figures and the moment I saw the name of Edward De Bono, it immediately clicked to my mind that I gonna enjoy the discussion.

Well, the fact is that I have done little for the accounting paper tomorrow (in a sense haven’t started actually) but still due to some emotions attended the seminar (making it compulsory obviously helped). It’s true that the most difficult art to master is the ability to think. As per the speaker, days of logical thinking is over and now is the time for creative thinking. To add to it, if I take my case, my thinking is completely unorganized so I need a certain amount of logic to be rational in my thinking. In a sense I rate logic as a measure of whether I am thinking in the right direction or not and creativity as the measure of how far I can go on that path. We can’t take out the importance of logic from the individual thought processing but being too much logical is a problem as you are putting a bound on your thoughts.

Another important point that clicked me is that “Out of the box” is not a process, it’s again a framework. I remember one instance when we were doing a presentation and the point of debate between the group members was that we were not able to think out of the box. I thought for the instance that what exactly is this “Out of the box thinking”? Is it just a flash of spark which will come to your mind when you keep saying to yourself that “I have to think out of the box?” I guess “no”.

Well, in a brief period of about one hour Mr. K. R. Ravi who has trained under legendary Edward De Bono, explained us the issues related to our education system, common mistakes that we often make in taking decisions, importance that we give to emotions and the way we tend to overlook facts and figures to drive home a point. This is something that we have inherited from our culture and my personal opinion is that reading books and merely thinking about thinking is not itself sufficient in infusing a dose of creativity in our thoughts as the most difficult thing to do is IMPLEMENTATION. I am going to write it on my wall in a bid to make it a part of my memory that “IMPLEMENTATION IS DIFFICULT”. I honestly believe that this one idea has the capability to change your whole life but then again implementation is difficult. Isn’t it?

In-"dulL"-gence

What is the worst indulgence before a big examination? Probably a compulsary seminar. Well, that is the perception with us. Friday we have a big examination of the most dreaded subject (for engineers atleast) and today we were made to sit up for whole two hours in the afternoon for a seminar. The organisers were wary of our response so they made this compulsary to attend. So, half asleep, half awake I finally reached the hall and occupied the seat in the back row. Well, the first five minutes and we were there in the first row, listening to every word and pondering over every graph. Economics is interesting but only when you somehow relate to the subject. Well, the Canandian professor was comparing the disposable income figure of Indian household with other developed countries and we had a laugh to see that India figures at the bottom. He started comparing the infant mortality rate and most among us shared that laugh again when we found India at the top. Well, he had to cut short his presentation due to time constraints but what we thought to be boring and monotonus initially, came out to be a good learning exercise in the end.

Well, do you know about this another indulgence which ideally shouldn't be there before exams? That's blogging. But here I am, with my favorite companion-my blog. I feel like talking to it at times when I have nobody to talk to. The good thing about this companion is that it has always been a patient and silent listener.

Santa Claus in US..

The way we have been taught micro-economics here is simply superb. Equations followed by derivation which again involves equations. It is another thing that most among us hate microeconomics for the same reason, too much of mathematics. Well, one of the complains that I normally hear from my peers about this subject is that, where the hell we are going to apply the knowledge of micro economics? Well, atleast I found one case where it makes a lot of sense to have knowledge about the govt. regulations (well, all the govt. regulations keeps into account the microeconomic principles)..To award a green card to Santa Claus or not. I have adapted this from Exploring Microeconomics by Robert L. Sexton.

................................................. ..................

IT'S a good thing Santa Claus lives and works at the North Pole rather than in the U.S. If he had his shop in this country, Santa would have to function under so many laws and regulations that the federal government would likely close him down, leaving millions of boys and girls disappointed on Christmas morning.

Just consider some of the government agencies that could threaten Santa's work:

The Fish and Wildlife Service. Santa's sleigh is pulled by reindeer. But while reindeer are not an endangered species, flying reindeer are quite rare, and there is only one red-nosed reindeer known to exist. So under the Endangered Species Act, Dancer and Prancer might be allowed to continue working, but Rudolph would have to be placed in a safe habitat.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It is not at all clear that Santa's workshop would pass federal OSHA standards for workplace safety. Does Santa have too many elves packed into a small room? Are there an adequate number of fire extinguishers and fire escapes?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It is clear that Santa hires a large number of vertically challenged people--elves. But all of these elves appear to be white males, which leaves the suspicion that Santa is in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

The Federal Aviation Administration. Santa's flying sleigh would need to be equipped with seat belts to be used on takeoffs and landings. Since he flies over water, his sleigh would need a life preserver. The sleigh would also need the proper lighting--a real problem since Rudolph's nose is red, which would normally indicate the rear of the flying object rather than the front.

The Commerce Department. Santa is involved in the transport of consumable goods, which means he would be subject to certain weight restrictions and proper placarding of his sleigh if any hazardous materials were on board. Furthermore, regulations limit the number of hours a person can operate a vehicle transporting goods. After 10 hours behind the reins, Santa would probably have to take an eight-hour break, impeding his ability to finish his world-wide job on Christmas Eve.

The National Labor Relations Board. Is Santa using cheap elf labor, or is he paying his elves at least minimum wage? Is he giving them a lunch break? Paying overtime? Providing elf health insurance? A retirement plan?

All of these issues are important, yet Santa is avoiding them by doing business at the North Pole. Which raises another vital concern: By "dumping" toys in the U.S. at below-market prices (to wit, free), Santa is subjecting U.S. toy manufacturers and dealers to unfair competition and putting countless Americans out of work.

There's only one solution: Washington should impose stiff tariffs on goods imported from the North Pole, lifting them only when Santa ends his unfair trade practices and brings his operation up to American health and safety standards.
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(About the original author:
Mr. Matthews is vice president of domestic policy for the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. )

Open Ended Questions..

Quantitative methods was my favorite subject at the beginning of the session. And call it Pygmallian effect or simply "self fulfilling prophecy" the professor saw some sparks in me which I honestly beleive were non-existent. Anyways, as the trimester progressed, as usual I slept into my undergraduate mould and decided to study only when it's absolutely necessary. So here are we now. We have a big presentation coming on wednesday and the case that is given to us is "Open Ended". I didn't realise the actual meaning of this jargon "Open Ended" until I did a google search on the case "Hershey Food" and found that the case is also non-existent on internet.

Well, I was not the only person who was brainstorming on this case. Everyone tried their luck with google and answers.com but well only the spark worked. PK Vishwanathan is not someone who gives you cases which are considered to be "baby food" he will rather wish to grill you down. Well, that is another case that he gives you fill in the blank questions which he only can fill and the very moment he mentions the word " Analyze,Criticize and Explain" that drives the whole batch crazy. We have still not answered his question that "What is the correlation between electricity and buffalow"? I guess that Lalu Yadav can answer this question well but that too will be possible only when he gets time out of his IIM lectures.

Now less than 36 hours are left for this case presentation and I am still struggling whether to perform this statistical test or that test. Truly its an open ended case. Anyways, this is life in a B school. Open ended. Always open ended.

Balls...

Playing cricket is a luxury in a B school. That's for sure. Three days back we kinda freaked out and started thrwoing cricket balls at each other at 1 in the night in order to divert others from some serious discussion. We played for like half an hour. Later the next day during lunch we were discussing it with others. One of our friends started complaining about not including him in the game. We asked him that okay next time if we decide to play, we would call him but he has to bring balls. No probs, he immediately responded, I will bring both my balls with me. Everybody at the dining table started laughing.

We asked, we lost one last night so could you bring another one. Yeah, I have three he rplied and another frenzied laughter broke out. He didn't realise his mistake and went on adding, Anand gave me two of his own so, now I have three. Well, we kept laughing like crazy. And when he realized he just said " Dirty Minds".

Sleep Deprivation..

Friend: Yaar I am having a bad headache.
Me: Okay, may be because of the hot and humid day or it could be either from the tension of exam. It seems that you are studying too much. Did you sleep well last night. I can see that you were in the lab till 4 in the morning two days back. Maybe, because of all these night outs that you are putting in to study. But anyways, wat do you think? Why this headache?

Friend No, nothing like that. I think that it is due to over sleeping I guess.
Me: Oversleeping? Don't tell me that. How much you slept last night?

Friend: 6 hours.
Me: 6 hours is still too less how come you say it is oversleeping?

Friend: I am sleeping for like 3-4 hours a day, and yesterday I slept for 6 hours so I guess, this headache is because of that only.
Me: I see.

**Sleep deprivation is not a myth in B-Schools. Its a reality on average. For me, the consoling thought is that atleast I am above average in some thing.

Beating the stress..

Trimester end examinations have been anounced and the schedule is enough to drive everyone crazy. But, I am at peace with two of my three favorite movies. Over the years I have observed that whenever i feel stress piling up on me, I take my refuge in watching either Lord of the rings, Saving private Ryan or Forrest Gump. These movies had such a great imapct on me that somehow I always find them new refreshing.

I have started thinking that taking too much of stress is somewhat against my character and I will study only when its absolutely necessary. The result is too much of back log piling on. I started with an aim of getting all A's. Now, the revised estimates are getting atleast 50% A's. Let's see whare I end up after two weeks but well, atleast I won't be regretting for not being grade conscious.

I have just started with my MBA and if there is something to be jusdged from the restlessness of all people around me then, I can very well sense the things which are in line. That's the strange thing about MBA, when you study you wish you could have 30 hours in a day and when you sleep you again wish you'd have 30 hours in a day. But well the trick is in deciding your priority. Learn whatever you can in whatever time you get from whomever is possible. Now, the question is what I am learning from movies? I hope most of you can answer this question and if you can't, then try watching one on a night when you are very tensed.

The word ASS has a different meaning..

Attention Seeking Syndrome (ASS)

I remember one instance from my school days where one of my friends asked a question related to the subject being taught in the class. Teacher first tried to convince him that this will confuse the other students as it is to be dealt in the subsequent sessions. But, then he answered that question and my friend went on to argue. Finally our instructor sarcastically commented that “it seems, you have read something” and a frenzied laughter broke out in the class. Now, that was just one random case and I am glad that CBSE do not follow CGPA system otherwise there could have been many more cases like that.

More than five years have past since then, and now sitting in an Organizational Behavior lecture, I am trying to attribute reasons to similar kind of behavior. Even in our undergraduate days students just loved to ask questions, not for satiating their intellectual hunger but only for the sake of asking questions. Asking stupid questions is not at all bad because that is a manifestation of your confusion but asking questions and making all others look like stupid is a real problem. Anyways this whole ASS syndrome is all about insecurity. People wants to look more confident than they actually are, they need attention because they treat this “gathered attention” as a measure of their accomplishment.

Well, this syndrome needs much more detailed analysis as many factors can be attributed to a particular attention seeking behavior. However, according to me the two major factors could be environmental or psychological. When everyone around you is suffering from the same syndrome then it’s not ASS it is GASS (General attention seeking syndrome) and the factors are largely external. It could be strict dead lines; stringent benchmarking for performance appraisals or it could be a strong competitive environment which drives the people to call for attention every time. But, when one or two individuals tries to capture the attention it’s because of psychological factors. People like these have their own agendas and they are always in a hurry. The underlying factor is that they need attention and they get a feeling of satiation when they get it.

Their ASS makes them vulnerable too. They expose themselves to others for exploitation. Now, next time you see someone trying to over impress you, you know what they are suffering from, ASS.

Honest advice***. Before asking something stupid or making some stupid remarks in public ask yourself this one question, is this ASS? And yeah, if someone else does exactly that, have some pity on poor guy. They do not know what they are suffering from.

Back in the undergraduate mould..

I thought that I was changing but no, I haven’t changed much. Just yesterday one of my friends commented that he has heard of only one person who sleeps for 14 hours a day in his MBA. Well, I myself even haven’t heard of any such person. So I am back to my old engineering days where a day seems to be worth enough sleeping for like 14 hours. Life has certainly changed in some ways. Time is flying by so fast that we have almost reached the end of the first trimester. Till this time it has been a joy ridden for me. I was taking everything for granted. But, now I guess that a few more dismal performances in the quizzes and case presentations will put me into the back seat where I will be reduced to a mere spectator watching other people zoom past me due to the hard work that they are putting in now.

Now, if you are planning to go for a MBA, then I must warn you that this is the time (third month) when you will find everyone around you busy with their own things. You have to be choosy here with things like friends and study group because at this point of time the only thing that people care about is scores, scores and scores. Barring a few close friends, for others, their marginal willingness (have learnt this term only today in micro economic class), to help you will be nil.

Anyways, mid terms are all about sleepless nights, but for me MBA is turning into a long vacation. I am eating more, sleeping more and yeah thinking more. You know what is that stuff that I think about normally? Yeah, how to cut down on my sleeping schedule and the normal modus operandi is that I set up alarm for 5 in the morning to wake up only at 8.

Just another day..

I woke up at 7 in the morning. Tea here is really good but seldom we get up in time to catch hold of that hot cuppa of morning tea. Today, courtesy Shiladitya, I had enough time to read newspaper also. But, then over the cup of the tea, I realized that I am still to do the group assignment. Now, there was the tradeoff, either a proper bath and a good breakfast or an hour at laptop doing some database stuff. Being a management student, you must be aware of your core competencies. Which means, you should be knowing it well that what are you good at and what are the things that you just can't do. Well, I finally settled the tradeoff in the favour of my peace of mind and that was another cup of tea, a 15 minute shower and a decent breakfast. 3:30 hours of lecture can grill you from inside. Economics was my favorite subject during my higher secondary and initially I felt very much comfortable with the concepts but now, I am slowly realizing that there is some difference in an elementary course in micro economics and a 3 credit course in the same as a part of your MBA.

Lunch is like a formality here. I eat it, because I have to. There is no other way out. You can't just eat out during weekdays as the one hour lunch break do not give you liberty enough to be choosy about lunch. It's like, during that half an
hour, my taste buds become insensitive. I can't even properly diffrentiate between South Indian and North Indian taste.

MBA curriculum definitely has an edge over other courses as it has a great tendency to keep you busy even without work. It emphasizes to a great extent on group learning but during the initial days you realize that groups are not always the best way to do things. Rather, sometimes it's more or less drives inefficiency in certain section of the group. Also, due to the competition creeping up into the system, interaction across groups reduces largely to a very formal level. Well, it's almost midnight and I guess tonight I am feeling a loss of sleep. Have studied all the way till 11:30 except an hour break for dinner but it seems that still there is a lot many things which demands my attention.

Most important of them is my people's skills. I guess, I am most often in contradiction with my own views. I get upset very easily, argue without reasons with closest of friends, becoming more and more self-centred day by day, things like me, mine and myself is corrupting my thoughts. I keep telling myself that things are under control and I am cool but the fact is I am becomoing more and more consious about the environment around me. Since the last few days, I am trying to find justification about this change in behaviour of mine, but the best explanation I can associate with it is that I am not different from others. But then, another question haunts me, Why do I need to be like others.. See, again I am confronting myself.. better I should sleep. I guess I am pretty normal, and it's nothing but a little loss of sleep and too much studying Organizational Behaviour. I am about to crash.. Good night..

Let Hope Take Wings..

Let hope take wings
Let love blossoms
Lets make a difference
Lets show we care.

I couldn't resist myself thinking about that time which I spent with those children where I realized that what actually it takes to follow your instincts. The equation of life is really strange. Sometimes, you need to be selfish to serve your self and then at some other times, you have to be selfless to achieve self-fulfillement. Anyways, without dwelling much into philosophy I wanted to highlight this fact that contribution of small organizations like Pankhudi can go a long way but they lack is man power and finance. The main problem is of finance. The nuisance of corporate life do not give enough freedom to their employees to devote their time towards the support work but then we need to channelize whatever help we are getting from the general public towards creating awareness about social responsibility. I was surprised to see persons from HCL, WIPRO, COVANSYS and INFOSYS doing their share of work in putting up smiles on the faces of those children which probably know just one way to live. I know that Corporate social responsibility is a vague term and I personally believe that it's existence is based on the amount of tax benefit a corporation is getting. But, then Individual Social Responsibilty is nothing but our own consciousness.

I think that everyone should atleast be a part of one such activity in two months. It's nothing for us but then it will surely justify the mission of Pankhudi. But my opinion is "Lets make a difference" won't be justified until and unless we become a creator of the change..

New Life...

....

Don't get confused by the title. I am not going to talk about my life here and no MBA stuff. But yeah, I might try to explore another side of the life here. New life is a small charitable organization started by a working couple and which is now engaged in helping old age people and children who are underprivileged. I was really moved to see that how far a person can go when they want to do someone and how unequitable the life is. It's normal human tendency to compare yourself with someone who is privileged then you, you crave for all those beautiful things in your life which you don't have. This give rise to a complaining tendency. We complain to our parents, we even complain to god that why you made us like this. Well, I also had my fair share of complains in my life. Now, it's like we never look at those who are worse off than us. We tend to ignore the hardships of life and always try to look on the brighter and better face of it. So I personally feel that individuals like me need to stay close to the kind of work that the New life people are doing in the remote villages.

Our batch size (only 27) do not allow us to have a large group of volunteers for social service initiatives. And given that most of us are not comfortable with the Tamil language, it makes this task even more complex. Anyways, initially when my friend proposed me the idea of going to this village Eraiyur, located in Sriperumbudur about 50 kilometers from my place in Chennai, I reacted that I can go but what's the point in going to a place to talk to people when you can't speak their language. He also was having this thing in mind but then we decided that we should go atleast to see how the place is. Now, after spending some 6 hours with those 100 lovely people I can really say that smile is an universal language. They ask you something, just smile. the message immediately gets conveyed that this someone is your friend. For children there is no language like Tamil or English. They can read your faces, they can even look into your eyes and can see through your heart. It's simple, you smile and if they smile back, communication is complete. Now you both are on the same wavelength as you are talking the same language. For old age people it's enough that you talk to them. It's right that they need food and care but the one thing that they all crave for is personal attention. They just want somebody to play audience, somebody who can patiently listen to their small stories is their best friend. I can remember that carpenter father who worked hard to buy the best education possible for his two sons but after 30 years of love and affection, the return he got from his sons was an old age home. I can still see the tears in his eyes when he was like looking into our eyes and talking to us (he didn't knew that we had language problem and one of our friends had actually to translate the whole story).

That was the lesson for the day. Smile has got immense power. It is the way through someone's heart. Now, another experience was to meet this couple Mr. A.A. Swamy, (President) & Mrs. G.Lalitha, (Founder Trustee) and heard the whole story behind New life society. Warren buffet donated most of his wealth towards charity and I believe that it will go a long way in improving the living conditions of the millions of people around the globe. But, that kind of thing is like you read in news, discuss about it and then forget it. People like Mrs. Lalitha and Swamy are no lesser mortals than those who donate millions of dollar in charity. They started this society on their ancestral land which is now a shelter for 110 people.

The question which is now troubling me most is that what was their moral fiber? How can they think about providing selfless service to those people whom they never have met, not even they are related to them in anysense? How come a person who is seen as a liability by his own family is accepted here and treated as a part of the extended family? What kind of mindset these people have when they adopt children who have lost their parents and pledge to make them a responsible citizen? I kept thinking about these questions for most of the time when I was there with those energetic kids.

For me, it's more or less two years of education and then taking up some respectable job, have a family, have kids and life goes on. I Will think about donating only when I make enough for me and my family. That's it. Simple man with simple dreams. I guess it's the same for majority of us. But yeah person like Lalitha and Swamy makes you think that there is another side of life, which is more human and less mechanical. There is this side of life where you not only think about you and yours but also about others and theirs. Where the whole meaning of life lies in putting up a smile on faces of those who are little underprivilged than you. I salute to this human spirit. God surely exist and it exists in the mortal form itself...

One Sunday Morning..

My eyes were full of sleep when my alarm went off at 6 am. I still remember that I slept at around 3:40 last night. As usual, I put it to snooze and went back to my dream (don't ask what B schoolers dream about). Suddenly, I felt that someone entered my room and is looking for something. I woke up to see what time it is, but wasn't able to locate my cell phone. So picked up my roomies mobile and dialled my number, the call is connected but I can't hear any ring tone. My mind was too slow to process that my phone is in silent mode. Now, I recall that to avoid bulk good morning SMS (which actually disturb your sleep) I usually put it to silent mode. So I started with the hunt and found it beneath the towel in five minutes. The time is 7 am. Well, breakfast is served at 9. So I have still two hours which i can spend sipping hot tea/coffee and watching TV (which airs all kind of Tamil songs which is beyond the comprehension of my mind and news which you don't want to comprehend actually) and i decided in the favor of the tea.

The tea was okay but the news was not. I thought about calling home and surprising everybody that I am up early and I did that. But well, it is always like this. We hate talking about academics and parents just love talking about them. Anyways, after a 10 minute call I now decide to make a list of "To DO THINGS" and put it on the wall. This actually looks like:

1) Read chapters 5 and 6 from Management Accounting book. (3 hrs)

2) Practice the exercises from 5 and 6. (3 hrs)

3) If doubts, read from slides (30 mins).

4) Work out stats problem and prepare for the quiz tommorrow. (2 hrs)

5) Solve the micro economics assignment questions. (1 hr)

6) read Microeconomics for the expected quiz tommorrow (1 hr).

7) Do the laundry (1 hrs).

Now, i calculate the total time required and still feel comfortable but suddenly I realize that there is a convocation function for the senior batch and attendance is mandatory. I calculate in my mind, 4 hours wasted. Lunch, dinner, coffee and magazine discussion session, another 2 hrs. Group discussion of probability and stats quiz will take up one hour and I still have to complete my MIS assignment. I do the calculation, about 20 hours of work. 24 hours in a day. When will I get the time to sleep?

But, then I see my roommate, who is happily sleeping. Probably I even know what he is dreaming about. Not only he, I can honestly tell that most of us dream about getting more than 24 hours in a day. i suddenly make a note of something. What will I do with my newly acquired DVDs from the burma bazaar? I also promised one of school time friends to take her to beach. Man! where is the time? It's already 9, I havent' even brushed my teeth, Also have to search for movie tickets for my friend.. Oh shit, I missed calling one of my friends on his birthday. What should i do now? I hear this internal voice.. sleep for some more time. It's sunday morning idiot. And guess what? I exactly gonna do that.

Three weeks, Three different emotions.

I am blogging after a long long time not because I get too little time to do this but, just because I have really started enjoying my life here. Now this is normally what happens when you get into a B school. Initially you find so many variables in your lives changing at the same time. The nature of the change during the starting days is really radical. You stay all night up but not for chatting and movies but rather for working on some assignments. You never wish to bunk any of the lectures and if you do that it's purely unintentional and just because of an upset tummy or lack of sleep. You start taking your assignments seriously and all those surprise quizzes really start making sense. Well, this is what is happening to most of us. You can call this some sort of crisis where you really find hard to cope up with the change in you. I mean when you want everything to remain up to your comfort level but subconsciously you just keep on changing. This whole transition phase can be characterised by the complaining period. You complain about the crazy schedule, quizzes and teaching methodologies and sometime even about the kind of food that they serve you in the canteen.

MBA is considered to be a great value addition in India. The common perception is that your salaries will more or less get doubled after two years of time. But, the moment you enter into a B School campus, it seems that the assumption is not at all wrong. There indeed is a great value addition but that comes with the hardwork, determination and a high level of motivation. We know that there is a value attatched in the 'change' but then you just don't want to get out of that mould that you have constructed for yourself during your undergraduation life. So you find yourself in some conflict sort of things where a part of you feels that "do this and do that" and another part asks that "why this and why that"? But yeah, this is the justification phase. You try to justify your decision about joining a B School. You try hard to enjoy things, you desperately push harder to play an active part in the group assignments. You wish you could score well in all the quizzes and more importantly you want to grab attention.

The thing which I have started feeling now, is the third phase. Now, I have started enjoying the environment. I now have made truce with the pace of change. Now, this usually happens when that feeling of "MBA as something special' sinks deep down into your heart and you just stop feeling excited about your prospects after two years. You suddenly realize that two years is really a hell lot of time and only way you can prepare for tomorrow is by learning the concepts being taught today. You suddenly realize that food is okay and it no more bothers you. Putitng up all night for an assignment or a quiz or even for a presentation do not drives you crazy and you are quite comfortable even if you are sleeping for like 3-4 hours in a day.

Suddenly, the whole point of getting a MBA starts making sense. It's all about changing. The jargon is "Unlearning and Relearning".

Life @ MAC 1

Well for the lesser mortals like me who need to do a Google search on what does this word MAC means, I am telling you that MAC does not always mean a unit to measure speed of sound. For B Schoolers like us, and who are unlucky enough to make the transition from a career in engineering to a post graduation in business administration I must tell you that “MAC 1” means a first course in Management Accounting. When half the population of the class is from commerce background (one CFA also), you know it from the very beginning that you are out of the top 50% (too much to worry when you have relative grading system in place). So, what’s the solution then?

I was recently complaining to one of my class mates (I recently discovered that he has scored 100% in his undergrad paper of accounts) that this MAC thing is taking the hell out of me. Most of the time I am finding myself lost among the various accounting jargons. He replied that the course is the superset of all that they learnt during three years of undergraduate and the advanced management accounts. And guess what? We are supposed to do all that in three months. This is not enough, the instructor just recently made an announcement that he intends to finish the whole course before august end and that effectively means, two months only. Now, the pedagogy is something like we have to follow a book and then we have slides for revision and then loads of assignments and case studies to follow. And that is just one subject. We have five others too. And it has one of the craziest evaluation systems in place. You don’t get any marks for completing your assignments but you will get a -10 (minus 10) for not completing them in time.

Hey, it just occurred to me that we have a quiz coming up on Monday and well, my life has to really start moving @ MAC 1.

In comfort Zone.

Here I am, sitting on the sofa near the hostel reception desk and watching news on TV. I am really delighted with this surprise news break that we have no classes for the second half of the day. Though I am still dressed in my formals and reluctant to walk three flight of stairs to my room, I know that I am in my comfort zone.

I remember that back in undergrad days, the very thought of a presentation or a seminar was well enough to give us sleepless nights. But here, if I go on behaving like the same, it'd be more like I won't be able to sleep for months. Last night was just one of those nights which was completely wasted on presentation. But, slowly my body and mind is becoming accustomed to it, I no more wish to sleep for 10 hrs a day. Just yesterdy after a nap in the evening I felt like mild fever running down my body.

After the crazy first and second week of the course, I am feeling that the third week is kinda easy but no, the thing is that third week is more hectic and as per the experience of the seniors, all the subsequent weeks will be more and more hectic. But once you accept this fact that life is really crazy here, it all becomes simple and you enter into a phase of learning. In a sense, you reinvent yourself, start getting accustomed to the new situations and then one fine day.. stop complaining.

Well, so the complaing part for me is over now. I am into third week here and I have realized that the only way to survive here is by actually surviving it. The only way to put my misery to an end is by actually cutting down on my sleep schedule and start enjoying my studies. I can summarise my learning from the first two week as MBA is all about attitude and emphasizing the fact that there are no right and wrong answers for a question. It's not about how much you learn? Rather, its all about whether you can learn or not? And yeah, the most important part of it is the definition of your comfort zone. Well as long as you are in a B School, your comfort zone will be your cozy little comfortable bed. Guess what? I am already half asleep. after all, no classes in the afternoon.

In the middle of a crazy week..

Its only the second week here and it feels like I have rushed through an year of my engineering life. Honestly speaking, I never pulled an all nighter for the purpose of completing assignments or making presentations in the entire of my engineering life. Being more honest I can accept that I haven't studied for like 50 hours total in the entire of my last semester of engineering course. But yeah, B schools teaches you a lot. It teaches you how to become innovative (Just make one sure of one thing that no body knows about what you are doing into your room), it teaches you how to be competitive (just hold the important information with you and you will be there at the top). You learn your first few lessons of your professional life here.

I am unable to understand that where my time is flying by? I have no idea how much productive work I am doing and how much I needed to do in the recent future. But, I guess I am fitting in well here. Was really feeling a bit depressed about the banning of blogspot and blog sites in India, so thought to check this all out.

Have to hurry, or I might miss my lunch (and I cant afford it as I have already skipped my breakfast courtesy an Organizational Behaviour Presentation. Well, that is a different story. But I am all set to make this blogspace of mine as my B School's diary. My only worry? Do I have time? Huh.. all B schoolers might want to answer this..

Wanna Do MBA? Think, Think.

I am lucky that I have survived the first week of my MBA program but the rigours of the course is making me ponder over the reasons why I chose to go for a M of Business Administration. I remember that I was always good in economics and if I could have resisted my father's insistance on me to chose engineering as a career option, then perhaps, I might have completed my masters in economics by this time. The whole idea is that, my like for economics grew into a desire and the engineering way of thinking that I developed during my engineering course added a twist to it and I started thinking that, a career in Business Administration will be the safest (*Jargaon is Value Addition) and the best option for me. So, my perception about MBA was that if I can relate myself well with the jargaons in economics then perhaps it's all going to be easy for me. But, well, "It Depends".

The beauty of the phrase "It depends": On the very first day of the program, we learned just one thing and that is about being diplomatic. One plus One is obviously two, after all, we have cleared CAT, got good percentiles and posesses good mathematical skills. We must know this thing. One plus one must be two or the fundamentals of counting won't exist. But well, we have learned to say that 1+1 can be 2 or cannot be 2. It depends. A plain question asked, Are you good with maths? The answers could be either Yes (egoistic will be the HR officer's perception about this person) or a No (Humble but a person who is low on confidence). We all know our potentials. But well ask this question to a MBA student and you will get the answer "It Depends". Price is rising, clearly the demand should fall, now a question is asked, should the demands for a good go down? well, the same good answer, "It Depends"

Ubiuqitously you will find this phrase "It depends" in the dictionaries of all the MBAs. Well, are they really trying to be diplomatic or behaving like a smart ass who believes he knows all the other aspects of the question? Well, again my answer will be "It Depends". Yeah, it really depends on the origin and orientation of the question. Like 1+1 could be somewhat like adding the efficiencies of two persons together as a team. Now, this could be exactly twice their individual efficiency but again it depends on how they go along together. The chances are that if they really click together, they might add up to 2+anything. But then, a conflict in interests/ambitions might depletes their combined theoretical strength. So the safest answer is "It depends".

For the mathematic question, again it depends on what kind of mathematics skills you posess. A ninth grader will also say that yeah I am good in Mathematics but then he is good only with mathematics till grade 9. So again it depends.

I picked up this jargaon really fast because I know I am going to use it all the time. It's really a beautiful word. Anyways, I really thought that MBA is all about economics, accounting and philosophy. But then I realised that again it depends. Management accounting is condensed into MAC and believe me, it really zooms past you like a fighter plane flying on the same speed (MAC is like the speed of sound, if I am correct, which is used to represent the speed of fighter airplanes). Organizational behaviour alone is a combination of more than 5 mainstream subjects of education. Even computer engineers (I am not talking about computer engineers like me who obviously find everything difficult and are constantly complaining about the deadlines and all) find it difficult to cope up with the nuissances of Management Information System. And if this is not enough, a first course in statistics will blow the hell out of your mind. Wait, these are only four subjects, two more in a trimester. Surprise quizzes which are announced only half an hour earlier, assignments (forgot those good old engineering days of mass copying) and yeah you won't get any marks for completing them in time but you will loose marks if you miss the deadline, Presentations (that's really a scary word for the MBA students) can very well make you go crazy.

Well, this is just a picture of how things can change from graudation to post graduation. But well, again the same golden rule applies here. "It depends, It always depends".

What’s the first day in B school like?

To start with, it could be like anything. It could be like a two hour interactive session with one of the senior faculty members where you were explained about the do’s and don’ts of the institute followed by the lunch break and then continued with some ice-breaker sessions so that you could easily intermingle with your course mates. It could also be like an intimidating experience where in a span of two hours, all your misconceptions (read your dreams about the life in B-Schools) will be washed out by the free flowing language of an expert in his own field, who puts it down in very simple words that even chartered accountants can fail in their first term course of accounting. It’s scary to know that the attendance requirement is almost 100% (I am wondering I have no any plan 'B' to cope up with that because for all my life I have faced this attendance problem. Yeah, for all my life, right from grade 1) well, this is not all, you have to clear all your papers in one attempt. You come to know that there is a strict grading system and the moment you cross the lifeline of two D’s, it can very well shatter your MBA dream. You slowly realize that as the course will progress, it will unveil many more surprises for you (though they will be termed as “Challenges”) and if there is something to learn from the experience of the seniors, it’s like you would soon start wishing that why there are only 24 hours in a Day?

Lastly, there is one more side to this first day in B-school. It’s the time to continue from where you left your preparatory days. We all must have worked hard during our preparatory days (remember those days when we were like writing one examination every other week) and it’s the time to take charge of our lives. All those passage which we have read for the sake of clearing cutoffs now increases in length and become case studies. You have to read them in record time. All the vocabulary you have learnt by heart will now be used to impress your instructor. Quant questions will be replaced by quantitative methods in the first term and DI with statistical reasoning thing. Night outs will take a new dimension and you might wish to carry your laptop with you also (I have heard that some B-Schoolers even take it to Disocs also).

But yeah, things change for good. You can see happy faces around, some anxious ones and even some calm ones (We just discovered that we had only one calm person among us). People are happy as they see this thing as a partial fulfillment of their cherished dreams, people are anxious as they are still to come to terms with the nuisances of a B-school life and people are calm because perhaps that’s the only way they live. I represented those who were having mixed feelings as I am still to feel the rigours of the course. The seniors have helped us calm down a bit by showing their indifference towards interfering in our lives during the early days (that’s really good thing about this place that you have some really cool seniors).

Anyways, have to attend a 9’o clock class and me and my roomie are still to use the bathroom, have to iron my clothes (well, have to iron clothes of one of my friends’ too, that’s the price I have to pay for living in hostels). I guess, I’ll be late for breakfast, or for the lecture, man! Crazy times ahead. Well who cares? I am a B-Schooler now.

Back to Work again.

It has been a long time and it seems that I am almost dying to hit the keyboard. Well, it really was a long layoff time for me mainly because of two reasons. Partly because of my final semester examinations and excitement about starting with my PGDBM course, and partly because of the cumbersome documentation procedure required by the banks for processing of loan applications. I was made to run from pillar to post to get my loan application sanctioned and thanks to the the typical Indian business framework where having contacts in the right places always helps.

I am in the campus of my B- school now but I guess that this feeling will take time to sink in that I have started with my MBA. well, I really have a lot to write about. About education loans (well my experience will really help all those people who wish to obtain a loan sooner or later), about my Soccer fever (I guess I am not the only one suffering). And ofcourse about my life in B-school (after spending the first couple of days here, I am really getting positive vibes about this life). Well, right now I am feeling like starved though I ate three omlettes in the morning and which made the contractor to put a placard saying, Two per person only. Going to find out, what's there in today's menu.

Leaving Campus.

Sliet, Boys Hostel

19th June 06

Dear Friends.

Right now I am in middle of packing my things.. and I have started feeling sick about leaving this place and moving ahead. For the lastfive years, it has been my home, my comfort zone and my private cornerin this world. And now, this feeling will take time to sink that weare moving out of our small world to venture into the crazy world ofcompetitions, distrust, un-loyality, disrespect and defamation.

I have a 20 hour journey by train and these 20 hours have startedseeming like the longest journey of my life. I am getting mixed vibesabout leaving this place. part of me says, I am happy that somehow Ipassed out of this college and part of me says that this was perhapsthe golden period of my life. Well, I haven't spent much time withmost of you but I will miss your presence around me and for those whomI know inside out.. friends I want to tell you that you were the bestpeople I could ever hope to be together with...

Thanx for tolerating me for all these years. and Guyz i am reallysorry if I have ever looked rude or arrogant or an idiot. A lot ofpacking is still left.. well it's time to say good bye...See you all as successful professionals..

Will definitely miss you all..

lots of love

Rajneesh..

Quarter-life Crisis

That same sinking feeling of "leaving your past behind and moving ahead in life" type chose to pay me a revisit. I am glad that a friend of mine passed me an email message to which I can relate myself and it helped me get a hint of the fact that why I am feeling like this? I think that all confused souls like me need some inspiration at this time and messages of these kinds must be shared with one and all. So I am posting it as a blogpost giving due credits to the author.

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Being a twenty-something

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at wat ur studyin or ur job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.

You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay
where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone! but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you are scared just to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to your twenty-something friends... maybe it will help someone feel like they aren't alone in their state of confusion...

Its called "Quarter-life Crisis." nothing is constant......except change. wats life without a few risks? keep playing the game !
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*source- unknown

One Sinking Feeling..

Today was my last day in this campus. Should I feel happy, or should I feel sad? Well, I can't answer this with the same proficiency that I have displayed during my written examinations for all this time. I know I am feeling confused and so is everybody else around me. The story has finaly reached its conclusion. A gruelling three hour session in examination hall, chants of three cheers afterwards, bhangra in the open, a ride across the college campus and a sinking feeling that a dream is over now. Today was the last day of undergraduate life and from tomorrow we have to start worrying for our future, responsibilities, finances and commitments.

I am wondering that I hardly spent any time together with most of my classmates but still I am getting this feeling that from tomorrow onwards I will miss them like anything. I will miss their presence which was being taken for granted for all these years. I will miss those familiar faces around me and miss the bathroom songs of my not-so-sweet-voiced friends. I am definitely gonna miss my ex-roomie who has seen me through all my ups and downs and I will miss my I- don't-give-a-damn attitude friend... I will miss those crazy phone calls in the middle of the night just to disturb my sleep. I will miss the girl whom I secretly admired for all this time.

friends, I will miss you all for sure.
Wish you all the best in your life...

PTU at it's Predictable Best..

If you ask a final year engineering student at PTU that "What terrifies you most?" Without hesistation he will reply, Advanced Computer Architecture. This is one paper which is the most dreaded subject and is compulsary for every computer engineering student. But then, if you ask me that What's most predictable about PTU then I'll say, the pattern of question papers. It was my hunch that has helped me finally and I am now happily posting on this blog after completing a marathon three hours paper (three hour paper indeed seems like a marathon to lesser mortals like us who only study during the last couple of days and sometime don't even have enough material to go on for three hours). I remember that, in the afternoon I went to one of my friend's room and asked him to study the simplest topic in the syllabus and said that this question will be there. To my utter disbelief, it was there and was the first question of 20% weightage.

During the last few minutes before the schedule of start, my friend Mayank walked into my room and seeing my condition he asked " Should I say this just in time, or the last minute, die-hard effort?" I said call it anything but this question will be there and again it was there. So 20% more and that too just in time. There were three other questions of the same weightage which I have crammed during the last moment. So i guess that the paper was a bit predictable and ofcourse, all theoretical..

Now, if you see the syllabus, it's the vague definition of the whole advanced computer architecture. No detailed information was there and it seems that the designer has copied and pasted texts from the prescribed book into the syllabus manual. It spans almost all the topics and everybody was confused as what to read and what not to? Well, this was not the question for me as being a late starter I am always left with only one option, to do only whatI can. I was really worried about this paper and now when it went smoothly I guess, I can sleep light tonight.

The fact is that PTU examination papers are becoming more and more theory oriented and all it test is your aptitutde for a three hour examination paper. If you can sit there for three hours and even write all the rubbish you want you will get a good score. But, could you afford to be reckless like this in your normal life? Well this is something to think about, but I don't want to waste my time in doing useless stuff like thinking and planning..After all I have to do a lot of cramming for the next paper.

Exam Time

Well after much deliberation we have got our datesheets for final semester exams. We can't call this one month lay-off time as preparation leave, rather it was something like a month long vaccation before a spending sleepless nights. The classes were called off on or around 28th April and since then, we all were just waiting for the university to decide and declare the dates for the final examinations. But nothing happened for long despite of all the talks and discussions with authorities and we just patiently kept trying to beat the Punjab's summer heat.

Anyways, exams are here and well, I guess that this blog page will soon be filled with the colors of life of an aspiring MBA grad. Will try to capture the survival story of an engineering graduate into a B School. IFMR, here I come.

Cricket: Ghosts of the past chose to haunt back again..

Ghosts of the past have chosen to haunt the Indian team once again. The recent golden run of the Indian cricket which resembled the steep ascent of the stock sensex ended just like that. Collapsed from a season high to perhaps an all time low. Indian teams has shown the signs of its past and it seems that the cricket crazy nation of 1000 millions/Justify Fullns is felling cheated after the series loss to a depleted west indies which is by no way close to what it use to be a decade ago. One of the characteristics of Indian team was it's unpredictibility. Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappel gave signs that the era is bygone and the Indian cricket is getting a face lift. But, well fans like us will be happy to find that no, it's the same old Indian team which has given many an heart attacks to it's ardent fans in the past.

Like every other cricket fan, I too like to have my own opinion about the team and I don't care even if it's the billion'th one. Long live freedom of speech and expression. Well here is my analysis into why India Lost the series with West Indies? Five reasons.

1) Opening trouble: Sachin's position might be debatable like of Ganguly's due to his recent run in cricket. But, then see what a non-regular opener can do the morale of the team. No doubt Rahul Dravid is a thinking cricketer who likes to meet the challenges head on but you need to learn this Mr. Rahul that no body is suited for all the roles. He hit a century in the first match but failed in the rest of the three and same is about the Indian team. What was the role of Robin uthappa? Was he picked up for serving the drinks only? It seems to me that letting Rahul Dravid score a century was a part of the bigger plan of the West Indian captain Lara who excelled Dravid in the art of putting his pieces together.
***Suggestion: Dravid should stick to the number three or four and let Dhoni/Uthappa open the innings if you don't have Sachin playing.

2) Number Three batsmen: For opening the innings, Rahul Dravid had to abandon his post at number three and it served as a weak link. I mean you can't afford to discharge an experienced soldier of his duties and ask a lay man to fill in for him at a post of strategic importance. Suresh Raina was happy playing his shots in the end of the innings and he was asked to fill in for Rahul Dravid. Well, he failed regularly.
*** Are you afraid of Dhoni garnering more publicity than anybody else? Then why he is not finding his place at number three during crunch situations. Do you want more experiments at that position?

3) The Dhoni Factor: Indians have got a cannon which can surely blast away the West Indian attack but, they chose to hide it behind their lesser capable batsmen. He has scored both of his centuries playing up the order and it's completely beyond my understanding that if players like Irfan and Raina are getting chances up the order then why Dhoni is instructed to play cautiously because the once he departs there is no sting left in the Indian tail.

4) Inconsistency of Sehwag: He hooks, he pulls, he flicks off his leg stump and then he cuts with raw power. He shows you signs of brilliance here and there and the moment you start feeling good about him, there he goes with one foolish looking shot either played in the air, straight in the hands of some fielder or on the stumps. He is no doubt an accompolished batsmen but his incosistency is costing us matches.

5) Selfish cricket: Kaif on the field and Kaif batting both are different situations. In the former, he roars like tiger, jumps over the ball with much fury and guard a territory which will require two fielders for sure. But, when he is batting, he gives you the feeling of a fragile looking player who is struggling hard to keep the ball away from his body. The brand of cricket he has started palying lately is nothing but selfish cricket and thanks to the captain and coach to create this sense of insecurity among players. Well, the fact is that this insecurity could well become inspiration for you (Raina, Uthappa, Dhoni, Sreesanth) or could play havoc on your mindset and in the long run with your career (Kaif, Venugopal, Pathan).

Well, Mr. Coach and Captain, Would be ever beat the eighth ranked team on their home turf? Or you need more experiments to get the results? Well accept my suggestion then, throw Sehwag and Kaif out of the team or give them some rest, and adopt rotation policy for your fast bowlers also. This Irfan boy is stressed out, don't burden him with more responsibities. And Mr. Dependable, please refrain yourself from opening the inning. Nobody wants to cut his fingers instead of cutting the ribbon during opening ceremonies, can't you understand?

"Voice of the nation" or "Voice of the national Government"

I am in habbit of reading newspapers everyday as soon as I can find one. Well, I have a subscription of The Hindu (The Indian NationalDaily) and I was pretty much satisfied with the contents it carries over the day. But, since the last few days, I am seriously considering over calling off my subscription and persuading all my colleagues and batchmates to do so. I am hugely dissapointed not to see any concerns being raised by the editors and journalist of this leading Indian daily over the recent reservation fiasco.

Today's national edition carried a front page column titled "Talks with doctors inconclusive" I want to ask that whose side you are on. Isn't it should be "Talks with the government inconclusive"? I mean don't you have any opinion of your own (or of your editors who are being paid to have an opinion of theirs?). Though I am not a pro to comment on the journalism as a whole but, I see that even print media is acting biased. The title definitely shows that you are favoring the governement policies on reservation and you are all set to brand the agitating doctors as the devils. I can't understand that why the "voice of the nation" has changed it's status to the "voice of the national governement".

In the yesterday's edition it carried an article on page 3 with bold letters that how 40 Doctors wrote a letter to complain that the AIIMS chief is supporting the anti-quota protests. Well, I can't understand that how come you completely ignore the plights of thousands of youngsters sitting in the open facing the sun, rain and police and instead you chose to gave a significant amount of coverage to these 40 of their colleagues. Though you prefer not to have an opinion, I
believe that no communication is also a means of communication. The GOM report anouncement was given a space on the front page though the plight of the doctors failed to find even a corner.

I don't want to say that only Hindu is adopting the policy of "Low coverage, negative coverage, kill the news" but, I am really dissapointed with it's negative coverage policy. I am wondering now, that even the so called messiah, the guardians of freedom of speech can be manipulated so easily then, it's better not to read a newspaper then buy one and get misleaded.

Punjab's Terrible University.

I was busy with the internals. Life of a final year student is really crazy. You have to meet the project deadlines and then have to keep an eye on falling grades. Have to attend all the parties and most of them include booze. So if you do not drink life could be terrible. Apart from these, we are getting troubled by a different kind of problem, so thought I can enlighten some folks around me and my juniors about the issue and well, attempted to vent out the frustration inside me.

Before starting with this article I have a few questions to ask.

1. Does your university asks you to fill the forms for reappear before even declaring the results?
2. Does the declaration of results always takes four to five months?
3. Does your university often spin surprises for you ie; by awarding you more marks then the total questions you have attempted or awarding a reappear in the subject where you had the chances of scoring maximum?
4. Does your university declares the re-evaluation result after six months or in some cases, after an year?
5. Does your university makes a mistake in spelling the names in your marks card and then taking forever to make the correction?

If you answer all the questions in a No, then perhaps you are missing all the excitement and fun of being an undergraduate student. Welcome to PTU. Punjab Technical University aka Punjab's Terrible University.

PTU is in news again, but this time for locking horns with IGNOU. IGNOU claims that PTU has jurisdiction only in the state of Punjab and thus, by no means is elligible to run distant education programs in states like Rajasthan, Himachal and Haryana. A petition is lying pending with the Apex court for the hearing. The students registered with these distant educacation centers immediately launched a counter offensive as they know that once the PTU claim is defetaed in the court, they will all have to give up their hopes of a degree or a diploma of PTU.

Well, I have a completely different side of the story to tell. PTU can take the credit of running several courses which benefits thousands of students in and around Punjab but, does it really cares for the future of all those students? I guess I have an answer for this question. Five months have passed since we appeared for our pre-final semester examinations and still the two junior batches are waiting for their results with bated breaths. Due to some peer pressure and a decent diplomatic stance put in by our newly appointed director (again a make-shift one), we the final year students have been awarded a bargain in the form of early declaration of results. Man! what a crazy definition of early.

Our academic session was scheduled to end during the last week of April and it did completed on the scheduled date. But, we were really shocked that what is taking so long for the declaration of results. The students went for a strike and then only the authorities at our institute woke up from their slumber took the trouble of dialling some number. The results of the final year students were declared in a haste but the results of the junior batches are still lying pending with the university and so are the examination dates.

Well, my question is that if an university fails to take care of it's regular students and compromises with their future life (due to the late examinations an imminent danger is lurking on the careers of those students who are either placed or are all set to go for higher studies) then, on what premises it could justify it's stand to run correspondence courses and distance education programs? This is the university which was once served by the expert scientiest and a colleague of president APJ Abdul Kalam, but well, I am forgetting this fact that he resigned (or was made to resign due to the totally inept system) from his post. May supreme court do the justice.