Flirting With FATE..

When i got a chance to be interviewed by TCS last August, i thought that if i can clear the technical interview then there will be no looking back from there. I breezed past the technical session without much glitches but, then i learned one very important lessons of my life but, probably the hardest way.

I was denied a position just because i expressed a profound interest in management education and also expressed my strong beliefs in working for my self gratification rather than for money. I was denied a position because i missed out on cramming up the answers of pertinent questions like strengths and weakness and 10 things you know about our company types. My mistake was that i tried to be original. Well does these things matter?? I mean i can't take up some menial work just because i want to earn a filthy amount of money or to have a good job profile (at the best i'd have got something like software tester or junior level programmer) to put a little of more weight in the matrimonial profile. I dont want to comment on the recruitment strategies and principles of these software companies.
Six months have passed since then and I am happy to have chosen a different career path. I am glad that i have stayed true to my perception. . A perception of finding some work which i can blend into. A job should be such that you can extend your personality to the workplace, where you can blend your actions into your enthusiasm and creativity.

I have come across a couple of profiles of persons who left their million dollar jobs just to be a part of the greater societal change in their respective societies. What kind of kicks these guyz feel when they decide to start a school instead of taking a lucrative job after passing out of IIMs? Or what could be said about those IITians, who on one fine day, call it all quit and return to their ancestral land just to start a political party? Take the example of this particular person who left his job of MIcrosoft to start a NGO (working in the area of basic education in Nepal and other countries) and who is now happily called the Bill Gates of Charity.. What are these guyz doing? Are they trying to flirt with their fates? or are they creating their own destinies? I don't think that these questions are important but i believe that the answers are...

Rang De Basanti.. A breathtaking masterpiece.

It was after six long months that i was in a theatre watching a movie. And i think that the distance of nearest theatre (about 80 kilometers) will be a good enough justification for that. Another reason is the easily accessible pirated CD's and downloadable movie files or i can say a thriving LAN at our college campus.

Anyways, Rang De Basanti is a kind of movie for which one must take some pains like standing in a queue for good half an hour, travelling in rickety buses and autoricksaws. The only respite was that you don't find long queues for popcorn during the interviews as nobody seems to be leaving their seats for the fear of missing the plot. Everything is justified. Such is the charisma of this entertaining masterpiece from Rakyesh O. Mehra that you wont want to miss even a split second of your three hours.

The movie starts with the restlessness of five Delhi University youth and ends on a note where they successfully discovers their innerself. Now the masterly presentation of this journey is something which will keep you on the ede of your seats. When the background score plays "Kuch kar gujarne ko KHOON CHALA" it summarises the essence of this realisation that we are still capable to do many many meaningful things. A young lady comes to India to make a film over the freedom fighters (Bhagat Singh, Azad, Durga Bhabhi, Bismil, Asfaq) and then she realised that the Indian youth has completely lost his way in the journey to development. They are not willing to be a part of the change however they all wish for a change. Funny is the way that how a lot of the guyz who were auditioned for the movie didn't know how to pronounce "VANDE MATARAM".

The real strength of the movie lies in the fact that not even for a second you will feel like Amir is the only star. The film is nicely carried on the shoulders of all the six actors (Soha Ali really looked pretty, Sharman joshi is outstanding). The editors has done a wonderful job in blending the past and the present. The songs fits absolutely well and truly compliment the story line. AR Rahman's musik is truly amazing.

Thorughout this movie i think i was living a dream. I was watching myself going through the same kind of mental state, of confusion and chaos and then you realize that if you want something to spin your way.. you have to do all the action required for that.. It will surely give you a kick or two in your stomachs and it depends on you that how long you can carry that feeling which floods your thoughts in those three hours..

Being true to myself i can say that this is one movie i don't mind viewing thousand times. Because, you seldom see a movie like this which is sensual as well as entertaining. Go watch it..Don't wait for the pirated VCD's..

FDI in Education Continued...

What will be the benefits of FDI in Education?

The obvious question is that what are the benefits offered by the FDI in this sector? The reasoning in favor can be many. The most important of them is the quality of education at an affordable price. Let’s take up a simple case. Suppose some top notch foreign university is allowed to invest in one of its extension center in India. Now, most of the funds of any world class institute are spend on funding the latest research. Now, the extension center can benefit from the ongoing research at the parent institute (Advantage offered by the cutting edge digital tools like video conferencing, e-conferencing etc). Also the faculty will be drawn from some of the available Indian talents which currently prefer to take the western route due to dearth of opportunities here. The manifold advantage includes low cost professional education for our students, retaining the best available teaching talent within the boundaries of our country and saving of billions of precious foreign exchange. The increase in number of institutes for higher learning will also witness a complimentary rise in the number of preparatory schools, specialized schools, language learning centers and primary schools which would further help strengthening the primary and basic education in our country.

What are the obstacles?

So we see that there are too many benefits than why not the government simply opens this sector for the dollar investments? The challenges are many and some of which are:

1. If we open up this sector without uprooting the existing problems with our educational system, then it would be difficult for the present system to compete with their foreign counterparts.
   

2. Money will soon gain importance in the new system as in capitalism profit is the main motive and therefore, it would be difficult for the less privileged communities to match up with the privileged one.
   

3. The present system needs a facelift which includes reconsidering the present level of reservations to underprivileged communities. It’s a matter of debate that should reservations not be replaced with income incentives for poor?

(I have an interesting example to quote in this regard. Symbiosis Institutes conducts its national aptitude test SNAP for admission to postgraduate programs. This year the lower limit on scores for general category students were 97.25 however for SC candidates it went down to 60 something and for ST students it went further down to something near 38. This implies that a ST student irrespective of his family’s annual income would get to the next stage of admission process despite of his paltry score and at the same time some student with a much better score (in 90’s) will miss the bus even if his family income is lesser than this ST student. What crazy world we are living in? And what absurd policies we are sticking to?)

4. Managing politics of differences will be another daunting task before the current coalition government which has however failed to show the determination and grit to take the hard decisions for a better future.

The best thing is that our government understands the importance of FDI. China and Japan are leading by example and I think that the question is not of a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ type, it rather is of the type When, and how?

Chill out guyz... it's happening in India.. more and more campuses are opening up daily. However, due to the lack of proper benchmarking it still is in its nascent stage.

The New Economic Challenge: FDI in Education.

The New Economic Challenge: FDI in Education Sector.

India has rightfully earned its place among the countries having the largest pool of trained professionals in the IT. The credit also goes to the policy makers who just capitalized on this newly earned reputation in a free-market world and directed a lot of foreign exchange towards the Indian Software companies. INFOSYS, WIPRO, TCS, SATYAMs have successfully made the transition from being merely another Indian software company to a globally accepted brand delivering quality. Now if we delve deeper into this IT success perhaps, the most significant factor which effected this change is the world class educational infrastructure we have in place. The institutions like IITS and IIMS are serving the cause with pride and perfection.

With the advent of Asian Century clearly, the world is getting to the fore of this truth that the most powerful tool for economic growth is a proper educational infrastructure. A system is needed which can successfully meet the demands of the available manpower.
Clearly the number of educational institutions has grown in the last decade but the question is that, do we have a match between the numbers of eligible people seeking for higher education and the institutions we have to train them? The answer is a straight negation. Just this year I took the Common admission Test conducted by Indian Institute of Management which is used as a procedure to screen the candidates seeking graduate level management education. Now, about 175,000 students took the test this year however, the sum total of management seats available at all the management institutions accepting the test scores would come at around 14000. The figure stands at around 8%. And this figure will go down further, if we introduce the variable ‘quality of education’ into the equation. So what we see is that only 8-10% of the admission seekers will have the access to quality management education. The statistics further blurs when we see the ratio of students into other professional course to the ratio of students who aspired for that.

The last decade also has witnessed mushrooming of institutions of higher learning like Engineering colleges, Medical/Dental/Nursing colleges and Business Colleges. States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have attracted a bunch load of these without putting some benchmark for quality of education in place. The picture will become more vivid if we treat investment in higher education as investment in better future. Now investment in quality of education, from both education seeker (the price he is paying for getting educated, factors like time, effort and money) and from the provider of education (may be government or a private firm) would require a return of investment. From the view of a student the return of investment is the pay package and skill sets acquired (however skill sets is not a true indicator as it can’t be converted into monetary terms without comparing it to his salary figure) at the end of the course and from the institution side the ROI will be the money garnered from the individual as fees and a strong alumni base (remember how much money IIT Powai gets in donation from his alumni).

Continued.................

Living in a world of Acronyms..

If i have to sum up the life at SLIET in one line, perhaps my write up will be "it's full of funny acronyms". It Starts with the name itself. SLIET: Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology. Another version which finds acceptibility with most of the students is like Students Life in Endless Troub**.

Today was officially my first activities day of this last semester in college. And keeping in tandem with my sleeping schedule, i woke up at around 12 noon. For some it might seems crazy but, friends this is the GCS standard time (GCS: Read Graduate Degree in Computer Science). Most of my friends love to attend morning lectures but for few of us the day starts at 12 (ofcourse i lost my record in last semester to my friends Sanjeev and Ravi but nevertheless, I know i am here to stay.) Computer science students are considered to be the laziest of all but most of us shrug this allegation as it's just a propaganda against we boys to alienate us from the damsels of our course. And if the numbers of hours spent web browsing (it is no secret what we browse actually) is any sort of indication then, perhaps, we work like dogs. 60-70 hours a week and, we are loving it.

The most exciting of days here are the days before 'TECHFEST', our annual technical festival. I remember that there was a notice put up which read like " the screening for the cultural event will be held at 4:XX hours in 'SAC'". Those who are familiar with slang they might have started laughing and for those who are not ('SAC'- bed). Well the 'SAC' means STUDENT ACTIVITIES CENTER. And almost all the rehearsals/screening/shortlisting is done there. Then we have Chief warden director Ma'm,(title exclusively confirred to the our Exdirector's wife by the girls students), Workshop 'CUM' Tool design room, (I am leaving it to the readers to discover the funny part). Than we have 'DISCO'- Discipline committee (Recently developed by those who want to show off that they have read "Five Point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat. We have subjects like SAD, SOM, TOM, ADA (product of genious minds who always love things shortened of their actual size).

This is not the end. You got to hear people talking about SRK, AB (Big B sounds too Big that's why..) AK (for me it was difficult to comprehendin the begining but, i recently discovered that the reference was made towards Amir Khan). Man i feel like a freak at times when someone tells me that the next lecture is of PC (A professor's name and not a subject's) and DPS is not here (obviously it is not meant as the school chain but again it's a professor's initials). Few days back when i was working on a wordlist (I am a CAT aspirant and hey!! CAT is a well known and a nationally accepted acronym right?), i got myslef puzzled but not over the word but over a friend's suggestion who, asked me to refer a DRY (Dictionary.. )..
I love you all friends , you made me feel the limitless creativity that exist all around me.
Thanx Slietians..(another acronym ofcourse).

Crazy sleep schedule..

Another day wasted in Business school hunting. Cold is on rampage here and all you could do on a cold and windy day like this is to roam on the streets with your hands in the pocket and meet some football practice in the evening in a vain hope to loose some fat.
Anyways when i finally woke up at 11 am in the morning i got the news that a holiday was declared. man why the insti's people always declare holidays at the last moment? I walked the walk to TV room to find some motivation in the indian innings but again all i could find is Imran Khan speaking in favour of Pakistan, sanjay looking mediocre and Nasir continously switching sides.

One more B-School Test.
After the CAT debacle FMS was another surprise. The paper was more on the lines of SNAP "the sweet killer" you never know where do you stand till the end and when you have no time to stop by, think about your mistakes and improve from thereon. I wonder that why these biggies of MBA education in India are so secretive about their papers? Just because nobody can know that there are a lot of questions being repeated? Does that sound logical? May be.. but what i feel is that they should give the students a chance to make ammends for their poor judgemental capabilities, like not picking up the right set of questions and getting a bit carried away with the considerably easy questions.I can most certainly tell that what were my mistakes which cost me my dream and what were the mistakes that could have been easily avoided. A little bit of transparency is needed here atleast. I think that when the results will be out perhaps many of the test takers will feel like a fool and they won't ever be able to know that what went wrong?

Just 17 days have passed in this year and i forgot almost all my resolutions (Well atleast i can find solace in this fact that i remembered them for 16 good days). Today again i found myself unwilling to start with the preparations for GD/PI. Well i dont now what's the reason behind this but somehow this i am getting this sinking feeling that something has gone wrong. there are still some voids needed to be repaired, competitveness is needed to be restored. Guyz.. time to hit the bed now or i'll miss out on my regular sleep schedule of 10 hours. (no i am not getting over-sleep, i have just heard that you get very little of it in a B-SChool. So you see i am preparing myslef today, to take on the rigours of tomorrow).
Good Night....zzzzzzzz...

In a confused state..

The wild chase.

I started my preparation for CAT 2005 somewhere in June when i was diagonosed with Tubercular Lymphadenitis (It was really magical that the tumour didn't get cancerous even after its two years of existence inside my body) and practically had nothing to do than to watch my body growing weaker day by day. The doctor was really puzzled and on the day when my doctor confirmed the diagonsis his words were like "By god's grace Son, you now have a long life to live". Well during those days i thought that let's dedicate this new life to the only dream which i cherished for all my life. Getting into IIMs. Now after six months of prolonged Chemeotherapy i again am feeling like sick. Sick with this feeling that i once again let it go. I let the opportunity sleep out of my clutches . Man now i understand the real meaning of the proverb "Success is counted Sweetest."

So near yet so far.

The test was a shocking surprise and so was the result. When i was mourning for my dismal performance in the test, life again chose me to play a cruel joke with. I got 92.26 percentile. Going with the statistics it tells me that out of the 175,000 people who took CAT this year, i have scored better than some 162,000 people but still i don't merit a place in the any one of those elite B-Schools. Well the worst part is that i have topped among all the students of my institute who took this test and i am being admired for what i consider as my failure. But at the same time, a part of me thinks that did i do anything wrong? IIMs claims that CAT is a test of aptitude and you can't really prepare for that. So was it my fault that i didn't join any coaching institute? Am i at fault that even after making it to the 90 percentile i can't be sure of getting admission into any good institute? Or was i wrong that i donot belong to some more privilegded community? I donot really know that what were my mistakes and have no any way to understand that what it would take for the realization of the dream? I really don't know.. this puzzle is still puzzling me.

CAT-ASTROPHE

CAT-05 (End of a dream)
What a disastrous start to the new year. It was like i was hit by a storm and left wondering that where the things went wrong. And to make it worse, i don't have much time to regret for things, to feel sorry and to console my soul and say let's move on.
Results of CAT was nothing better than a CAT-ASS-TROPHE and JMET made me look like a real dumber. I was not optimistic about CAT results but from JMET i anticipated calls from atleast 2 of the IITs. Well life is truly strange. I can't believe that what i thought to be a disaster, it still can fetch me calls from some of the best instis (92.26 %ile) and where i was living in constant hope turned out to be a real bamboozler. good bye IIT dreams. I had no hope for a 90+ %ile so not applied to a single institute accepting CAT score. Well have to hunt for a couple of them whose deadlines are still a week away. Life has a totally different sense of humour. It smiles and make a mockery of you when you are totally flushed with anger and frustration. Strange ways.

What Next??
The question is what next?? Should i just leave all this behind and invest one more year of my precious time mugging up all the square roots, cube roots or should i take some bargain and make it to atleast some reputable institute. I am pretty confused about the situation.
I know that with the kind of skill set i have (if i am not overestimating my potentials) i can atleast convert 1 call this time. but well there comes the prolems associated with the low rung institutes. Spending five years here in SLIET has taken its toll on my capabilities and i don't want to repeat the mistake.
I have my XAT day after tomorrow and i am still busy surfing the pages of Pagalguy.com to dig out some possible alternatives. Well one way or another i am again working on the same self-destructive pattern. Anyways right now i am hoping against hope for a better tomorrow.. (SNAP results day). Life is really tough and it's tougher when the choices made by you go against you. God bless me... (Puhleeeeeeezzzz)

MBA dreams..
When i was in +2 (Higher Secondary) we were lucky to have a economics teacher who taught us the basics of economics mixed with the mathematical fundas in a way that after passing out i remember that the topper of the class, instead of chosing an IIT went for a graduation from SRCC delhi. She taught us the difference between a degree in economics and MBA. Mrs. Her persona, her teaching style, her swift movements from the fist row to the farthest corner in class, everything was so dynamic that since those days i have always dreamt of just one thing. Doing my MBA from some bigshot instiute.

Strange is Life..
Life is strange. It creates ways to surprise you when it's least anticipated. It is this unique characteristics of life which makes your ship sail smoothly in the troubled waters and sank when it's shalow. Five long years are about to commence and i am on the verge of completing my graduate degree in computer science. At the time when i was well set to join some college for my graduation in economics, i don't know how things changed and i found myself amidst a lot of confused (partly) and hostile crowd. Confused because they too were freshers like me and hostile due to the fear for increase in the level of cometition. The picture now is vague and with the passage of time i stopped pondering over the reasons which made me switch over to this new career path. The consoling fact is that this will come to an end finally.

Five long years.
If i were ever to draw a picture of the memories i have of these five years, probably it will be of an adolscent with his fist half open and sand slipping out of it. True, i never new how time flied past me. I never took time to stopby and have a look at the things that were happening to me. I was really too busy killing time that i didn't noticed that how i killed my own spirits. The spirit to battle it out, the spirit to compete and the spirit to do the innovative. The creative and sensual innerself of mine gave way to the ruthless and passive fellow who weighs things before actually doing them. Who now no longer judges between the right and wrong by his inner wisdom but instead calculate them. Who has lost his vision to see the unseen and imagine the unimaginable and who has reduced himself to a contemplating creature who mourns over his torrid past.

What goes in It goes out..
The original adage is that "What goes out it comes back". But it depends on your perception that how you see the bigger picture. A stagnated life rusts you inside out and leaves you like nothing. There goes the saying "life must move on". I see that whatever you do it has its own impacts on you but whatever are the results, i am sure it won't last forever. It entirely depends on you that how much of the punishments you wanted for yourself. If you allow it to stay close to your heart it will stay there forever but, i say that its better to act like a snake who moves on after shedding the burdens of the past.
I am glad that 2006 has arrived. A year, which i belive has a lot stored in for me. I am graduating and let's see whether i will be able to mark the end of this journey with the beginning of another, cherished one.
Even after enduring all this trauma I still have this dream of seeing myself through the rigours of a B-schools. I have this dream to work hard, to earn my place in this world and i have this dream to see all my dreams fulfilled..
WELCOME 2006. I have always waited for you.

Welcome 2006..

Welcome 2006.
Antoher brand new year is here. Another year marked with resolutions and empty promises. Resolutions to start afresh, shedding the burden of the memories, getting out of that outworn relationship and perhaps loosing weight. Well, inspite of an enthusiastic start to discover a new you, As the year progresses all that remains with you is vague memories of all those resolutions and promises. The thing is all our acts are oriented towards just one thing. Finding happiness. When we make certain commitments to ourselves, we feel happy and when we broke them, again, we feel happy. This is human nature.
I'll never see her again, i would go on a diet, i would quit drinking.. Hahahaha.. what for? To feel happy that we are still capable to do all this. And when you make that phone call, have that extra cup of coffee, go to bed drunk with your shoes on ...Well why?? to feel happy that you are very well capable to behave the other way but you are more than happy to live out this way. An act of choice ofcourse.

Candid Confessions.
For me i think that 2006 is the year to find the real me, discover my real self. I have escaped realities for too long and now it's the time to face the heat. There has been a huge mismatch between my dreams and the potential i have within. And again, there is a big gap between the potential i have and my achievements. I have to discover that what were those factors which undermined my strengths and why i am merely an underachiever. Why i am not able to translate my positive attitude into positive results? I think that the time has come to make ammends for all those mistakes i have made in the past. I have to redo all my plannings for future.

And well Let's see how long this resolution lasts.