How do you feel when you go into a restaurant and find that a table is marked reserved? The manager informs you that that table is booked in advance by someone who is intelligent enough to call on time, before you walked in…
Now consider the situation where the manager informs you that the table is reserved for a particular caste who may or may not come and who may or may not be able to pay for what they are eating and they may actually dirty up the entire place before leaving such that the restaurant’s other customers may feel disgusted to eat there… and that you will have to wait till some of the other limited tables get free…
Why do we need reservations? Are these helping the backward castes in any way? If your aim is to only get them jobs and not bother whether they get a good education or not, why bother with the process at all… I feel there are better ways to counter the problem of uplifting the economic status of these backward classes…
1) the government could levy a tax or collect some fund (similar to the tsunami/earthquake relief) and just distribute it among the people who are registered as the backward people so that they don’t have to work…
2) break India into two countries, one called backward India and the other called OC India. This way there would be no problem and in fact the reservation would now actually jump to equal 50-50 share
3) better still would be to recruit all these backward people into the middle management positions in IT companies so that they don’t have to do any work and they would get all the facilities and good salaries anyway…
4) another way would be to issue backward class certificates to OC candidates who pass a minimum level of negative IQ test so that they can be eligible for these kind of reservation policies.
5) Go on a mass conversion crusade like the Christians and Buddhists and convert everyone to backward castes
6) Send these people on high paying jobs to hostile/competitive countries so that we can encourage mediocrity in those countries and emerge as better outsourcing hub due to relative grading
7) Special homes like blind schools, schools for the mentally challenged and deaf and dumb schools can be created for training these classes of people so that they do not get shunned by society… in these schools we can teach them how being below the mediocrity line will help them rise above the poverty line
And so on… if I can think of these many wonderful ideas for the upliftment of the backward classed, a think tank of eminent personalities drawn from different walks of life like lakshmi mittal, azim premji, narayanamurthy, Abdul kalam, greg chappel, and many more industrialists and leading money makers and social workers whose priority should be on how to start businesses with “people who won’t change in a land of opportunities” rather than tap the enormous intellectual potential based on merit…
Imagine what would happen if the reservation quota was encouraged in say the Indian cricket team… 5 out of the 11 players would be from backward castes and handicapped players… if the Indian team currently considered to be the fittest and stongest team can lose against teams like the windies, we will certainly win with this new reserved team…
driving through the journey of life
on the roads of Chennai, hot, dusty and stuck in slower than a snail's pace traffic... i was tired of criticising the system that so efficiently clogged up the arteries of one of the country's metros and biggest business cities... tired of complaining that the bloody government should stop scheming ways to counter the opposition's scheming ways... so i tried getting philosophical - actually got lost in some thoughts...
how many common things between life and the journey that i am taking now... and how many parallels between me and the others on the road with me... everybody has a destination to drive to - an objective to aim for... everybody has their own means according to their economic condition, their jobs, their mindsets, their karma... how many obstacles to reach your destination... how do the others block your path - some mindlessly, some intentionally causing you the frustration over your inability to achieve your aim within your time contraint... you constantly look at your watch, mainly because you have nothing else to do other than fume afterwards...
some take a different route to their destination hoping that it would take them wherever they want to be faster... a risk worth taking while most others would stay rooted to the one dimensional right-royal-routine-route... who is right you never know, unless you can compare the parameters of evaluation throughout the journeys of the risk takers and non-risk takers... there is nothing to do in the coagulated traffic but wait... wait until an opportunity presents itself in front you, opening a gap to move on and move quickly enough so that somebody else does not seize your chance... but even while waiting, there is a lot to do... look around and the world presents you with sights that are really worth seeing... be it on the gearless scooters around you or in the great machines in the SUVs, or the surroundings that you have so painstakingly reached - beauty is everywhere in the etes of the beholder, along with all the smoke and dust... now that there are lots of mobile phones with mp3 players and/or fm radios... listen to music and relax... as their is no point shouting or getting irritated, why not appear cool and be the envy of others... there is never any use in getting tensed or frustrated... in times like this why not plan for something...
the honking indicates i should move on... stopping and day dreaming is allowed, as long as it does not affect the flow of others... an irritated glance showing only pity at what the impatient fellow has missed all along, i move the few millimeters that have been granted by the people who are way up front and moved on...
how many common things between life and the journey that i am taking now... and how many parallels between me and the others on the road with me... everybody has a destination to drive to - an objective to aim for... everybody has their own means according to their economic condition, their jobs, their mindsets, their karma... how many obstacles to reach your destination... how do the others block your path - some mindlessly, some intentionally causing you the frustration over your inability to achieve your aim within your time contraint... you constantly look at your watch, mainly because you have nothing else to do other than fume afterwards...
some take a different route to their destination hoping that it would take them wherever they want to be faster... a risk worth taking while most others would stay rooted to the one dimensional right-royal-routine-route... who is right you never know, unless you can compare the parameters of evaluation throughout the journeys of the risk takers and non-risk takers... there is nothing to do in the coagulated traffic but wait... wait until an opportunity presents itself in front you, opening a gap to move on and move quickly enough so that somebody else does not seize your chance... but even while waiting, there is a lot to do... look around and the world presents you with sights that are really worth seeing... be it on the gearless scooters around you or in the great machines in the SUVs, or the surroundings that you have so painstakingly reached - beauty is everywhere in the etes of the beholder, along with all the smoke and dust... now that there are lots of mobile phones with mp3 players and/or fm radios... listen to music and relax... as their is no point shouting or getting irritated, why not appear cool and be the envy of others... there is never any use in getting tensed or frustrated... in times like this why not plan for something...
the honking indicates i should move on... stopping and day dreaming is allowed, as long as it does not affect the flow of others... an irritated glance showing only pity at what the impatient fellow has missed all along, i move the few millimeters that have been granted by the people who are way up front and moved on...
CAs - the omnipotent
One thing you learn during an MBA is that your engineering degree is as useless (as the adage goes) as a comb to a bald man... and that the commerce you scorned upon when you were in high school are the strongest force here...
yeah the underdogs become the hunting hounds... their performance hounds you... they are everywhere solving any goddamn problem or case - and even if it were something in hard-core chemical engineering...
most of the top ranks, about almost all of them go to the CAs... they solve economic problems and quantitative probability... they can write pages of p&p gas and also write IT-B bullet points... they can solve cases involving chemical sales and also strategise for transformer sales... man give the engineers a chance... the inferiority complex is compounded everyday...
and today was the heights of it... yeah literally the heights...
the p&p tower building contest... our group, as were the others, equally composed (or rather proportionately composed) of engineers and commerce grads... but what happened was a total take-over here too by the non-engineers... though some occasional acknowledgement was made of our existence, we were not even part of the design team... talk of core competency...
so the materials cost was calculated and estimated height of the tower was given... though we did not actually get to build the prototype... all we engineers could not hide the smirk on our faces as we knew that these bloody commerce junta have bitten off more than they can chew... we won't get our hands dirty by pitching in... there was enough chaos already... material costing was their core comptency, tower building was not...
when the 3 minute contest started, the enthusiastic commerce junta pitched in and started building... end of 3 mins there was a shaky and chaotically colored tower from which we took off our hands put their to keep the building from falling after threats of disqualification from the prof...
we went back to our seats and saw that the other groups too had done some good job... and our tower like the rest stood the test of the bench-thumping-quakes...
and the judgement was made - we had missed the quoted figure by half a centimeter... and the others had of course exceeded their quoted figures... but the tallest standing tower was - no points for guessing...
We don't need engineers any more... just CAs are enough...
Engineers beware - your jobs are no longer safe...
(Please note: I got nothing against CAs... I am scared to think where I would have been without the 2 of them in my group... :) )
yeah the underdogs become the hunting hounds... their performance hounds you... they are everywhere solving any goddamn problem or case - and even if it were something in hard-core chemical engineering...
most of the top ranks, about almost all of them go to the CAs... they solve economic problems and quantitative probability... they can write pages of p&p gas and also write IT-B bullet points... they can solve cases involving chemical sales and also strategise for transformer sales... man give the engineers a chance... the inferiority complex is compounded everyday...
and today was the heights of it... yeah literally the heights...
the p&p tower building contest... our group, as were the others, equally composed (or rather proportionately composed) of engineers and commerce grads... but what happened was a total take-over here too by the non-engineers... though some occasional acknowledgement was made of our existence, we were not even part of the design team... talk of core competency...
so the materials cost was calculated and estimated height of the tower was given... though we did not actually get to build the prototype... all we engineers could not hide the smirk on our faces as we knew that these bloody commerce junta have bitten off more than they can chew... we won't get our hands dirty by pitching in... there was enough chaos already... material costing was their core comptency, tower building was not...
when the 3 minute contest started, the enthusiastic commerce junta pitched in and started building... end of 3 mins there was a shaky and chaotically colored tower from which we took off our hands put their to keep the building from falling after threats of disqualification from the prof...
we went back to our seats and saw that the other groups too had done some good job... and our tower like the rest stood the test of the bench-thumping-quakes...
and the judgement was made - we had missed the quoted figure by half a centimeter... and the others had of course exceeded their quoted figures... but the tallest standing tower was - no points for guessing...
We don't need engineers any more... just CAs are enough...
Engineers beware - your jobs are no longer safe...
(Please note: I got nothing against CAs... I am scared to think where I would have been without the 2 of them in my group... :) )
BANG THEY BASANTI
I saw the movie 'Rang de Basanti' and i don't like it... i am a heretic... because i think with the organ i am supposed to use for that purpose... others use the organs that are used to pump blood or something else...
so wot was wrong with a movie that scores no thousands no millions of people are going to like or already liked...
the concept was too good... 5 directionless youth... do something for the country... that is a very socially relevant theme...
the music by ARR... who could deny the greatness of it... not even dissatisfied ones like me can argue with that...
the actors ?... no way man... they were all too good... aamir khan, atul kulkarni, madhavan, and siddharth... and the rest of the gang too... they were all too good and too natural...
too natural... may be that is the reason... too naturally impulsive...
the first half of the movie was interstingly fresh... the build-up for the mega event was good... though the turn of events were predictable the path was enjoyable... so what went wrong ?
i could not digest the fact that 5 + 1 of the nations youth die so cheaply without causing a scratch in the glass... what happens... madhavan dies in the MIG crash... and the corrupt minister denies that there is anything wrong with the planes and that the fact that the pilots are immature and unqualified is the cause for their deaths...
so what happens - our band of heroes get a pistol and shoot the minister down. result: the minister is given immediate martyrdom and elevated to patriotic status. what do these guys get in return - death and a horrible one at that... and the point that they are so casual about losing their lives is very disheartening...
the heroes thought with their heart - very impulsive decision to kill the minister in the first place... without an evidence to show that the minister was guilty of corruption you shoot down a minister - which obviously in today's era of accepted terrorism, the praise went to some unworthy parties.
next - they decided to turn themselves in ? man you expect to kill a corrupt guy and expect his friends to give you shelter and good food and take you to court to testify against themselves - in short commit suicide ?
i really did like yuva... no in fact, i loved it... michael achieves his dream... he gets elected to the house and is now in a position to make a difference... he took the fight to the enemy... and of course he didn't die in the process... though of course he did get hurt... or say Indian (an old movie of Kamalhassan) - he survives and he has achieved what he wanted - fear of corruption... so why do these rebels or revolutionists (as i would like to call them) have to die ? why scare the already fearful population of the repurcussions of their positive step ?
so what did they achieve - the nations students were stirred... the nation was stirred... so what if 5 families have a loss of their son, some their only son... a son who they lavished love and affection for almost 25 years... but it is ok... they are only a small part of the population... the rest have their eyes opened... they have voiced their opinions against the corrupt government... their blood boils and their eyes are full of vengeance... they want change... they want to eliminate corruption...
why they - WE... i am part of this population too... i am also angered with the injustice of corruption... i too am stirred by this movie and am ready for action... so, what am i going to do ? i don't know yet... but i will surely do something against corruption and other society evils...
but let me first settle down in life... let my exams get over, then my placements, then once i am financially secure, i will certainly do something... till then, whenever some idiotic youth takes an extreme step of sacrificing his life to generate awareness, i will keep voicing my opinion...
so wot was wrong with a movie that scores no thousands no millions of people are going to like or already liked...
the concept was too good... 5 directionless youth... do something for the country... that is a very socially relevant theme...
the music by ARR... who could deny the greatness of it... not even dissatisfied ones like me can argue with that...
the actors ?... no way man... they were all too good... aamir khan, atul kulkarni, madhavan, and siddharth... and the rest of the gang too... they were all too good and too natural...
too natural... may be that is the reason... too naturally impulsive...
the first half of the movie was interstingly fresh... the build-up for the mega event was good... though the turn of events were predictable the path was enjoyable... so what went wrong ?
i could not digest the fact that 5 + 1 of the nations youth die so cheaply without causing a scratch in the glass... what happens... madhavan dies in the MIG crash... and the corrupt minister denies that there is anything wrong with the planes and that the fact that the pilots are immature and unqualified is the cause for their deaths...
so what happens - our band of heroes get a pistol and shoot the minister down. result: the minister is given immediate martyrdom and elevated to patriotic status. what do these guys get in return - death and a horrible one at that... and the point that they are so casual about losing their lives is very disheartening...
the heroes thought with their heart - very impulsive decision to kill the minister in the first place... without an evidence to show that the minister was guilty of corruption you shoot down a minister - which obviously in today's era of accepted terrorism, the praise went to some unworthy parties.
next - they decided to turn themselves in ? man you expect to kill a corrupt guy and expect his friends to give you shelter and good food and take you to court to testify against themselves - in short commit suicide ?
i really did like yuva... no in fact, i loved it... michael achieves his dream... he gets elected to the house and is now in a position to make a difference... he took the fight to the enemy... and of course he didn't die in the process... though of course he did get hurt... or say Indian (an old movie of Kamalhassan) - he survives and he has achieved what he wanted - fear of corruption... so why do these rebels or revolutionists (as i would like to call them) have to die ? why scare the already fearful population of the repurcussions of their positive step ?
so what did they achieve - the nations students were stirred... the nation was stirred... so what if 5 families have a loss of their son, some their only son... a son who they lavished love and affection for almost 25 years... but it is ok... they are only a small part of the population... the rest have their eyes opened... they have voiced their opinions against the corrupt government... their blood boils and their eyes are full of vengeance... they want change... they want to eliminate corruption...
why they - WE... i am part of this population too... i am also angered with the injustice of corruption... i too am stirred by this movie and am ready for action... so, what am i going to do ? i don't know yet... but i will surely do something against corruption and other society evils...
but let me first settle down in life... let my exams get over, then my placements, then once i am financially secure, i will certainly do something... till then, whenever some idiotic youth takes an extreme step of sacrificing his life to generate awareness, i will keep voicing my opinion...
MBAs and humility...
"Hi, My name is ... I have done my MBA from..."
doesn't it sound good ? i had always dreamt of this intro of mine (of course ever since i joined my first company and decided that i was too young to get into the job grind so early). in india, it is the general perspective (mine too) that mbas are gods if not demi-gods... they do the work of 10 men, in a fraction of the time and they don't make mistakes... of course they are paid very high salaries, but are we not above all these materialistic pursuits.. :)
yeah baby... being an mba elevates you to super status... people start looking up to you... and why not ? 'I' wrote the painful and toughest test of managerial aptitude - the CAT and emerged on the tops amongst about a hundred and fifty thousand and ever increasing competitors. 'I' made it into a top b-school through their tough scrutinizing interview and GD and group-interviews and essays and psychometric tests and management aptitude tests and what not... and 'I' am among the few that have been selected - with the success ratio being about 1:100, that is something to cross the post-CAT stage...
now enters the first stage of realization and it hits you - there is about 30% of the population in the form of non-engineers who have already done some of the majorly important subjects that you never even had an inkling about their existence... so there goes the 'A' grades.. but that is ok guys, the remaining 70% is with you... and you sleep peacefully...
but whammo, while you were sleeping a part of the 70% had remained awake and gotten the knowledge transfer, though not completely... but still there is enough knowledge in their heads now to at least automatically nod whenever the prof says something in a language like greek or chinese... so there goes the 'B' grades...
now all that is left is the 'C' grades. but what do 'I' care... marks are not everything in life... so chill yaar, there is a lot of time till the exams. party on and watch movies all you like even if it were the worst movie of the century and you are watching it for the 124th time... but come exam eve, you cannot remain awake beyond midnight becos the moment you touch your books you fall asleep - reason NO PRACTICE... but the last part of the 70% have some grit in them and somehow manage this one night - resulting in them getting into a low C grade... bu twho cares: a C is a C is a C...
but were are you ? 'D'rowning.... after all the clowning, wodidja expect ? i am splashing around helplessly and hopelessly groping around for any small tip of a lifeline...
PS. this is when you realize that the part of the 70% that back-stabbed you were not actually turncoats... you failed to read the signals. they were participating in the events and winning prizes and accolades and fame...
what does the first year in an MBA do to you ? it makes you think -
"it is time that 'i' realized how small 'i' am."
doesn't it sound good ? i had always dreamt of this intro of mine (of course ever since i joined my first company and decided that i was too young to get into the job grind so early). in india, it is the general perspective (mine too) that mbas are gods if not demi-gods... they do the work of 10 men, in a fraction of the time and they don't make mistakes... of course they are paid very high salaries, but are we not above all these materialistic pursuits.. :)
yeah baby... being an mba elevates you to super status... people start looking up to you... and why not ? 'I' wrote the painful and toughest test of managerial aptitude - the CAT and emerged on the tops amongst about a hundred and fifty thousand and ever increasing competitors. 'I' made it into a top b-school through their tough scrutinizing interview and GD and group-interviews and essays and psychometric tests and management aptitude tests and what not... and 'I' am among the few that have been selected - with the success ratio being about 1:100, that is something to cross the post-CAT stage...
now enters the first stage of realization and it hits you - there is about 30% of the population in the form of non-engineers who have already done some of the majorly important subjects that you never even had an inkling about their existence... so there goes the 'A' grades.. but that is ok guys, the remaining 70% is with you... and you sleep peacefully...
but whammo, while you were sleeping a part of the 70% had remained awake and gotten the knowledge transfer, though not completely... but still there is enough knowledge in their heads now to at least automatically nod whenever the prof says something in a language like greek or chinese... so there goes the 'B' grades...
now all that is left is the 'C' grades. but what do 'I' care... marks are not everything in life... so chill yaar, there is a lot of time till the exams. party on and watch movies all you like even if it were the worst movie of the century and you are watching it for the 124th time... but come exam eve, you cannot remain awake beyond midnight becos the moment you touch your books you fall asleep - reason NO PRACTICE... but the last part of the 70% have some grit in them and somehow manage this one night - resulting in them getting into a low C grade... bu twho cares: a C is a C is a C...
but were are you ? 'D'rowning.... after all the clowning, wodidja expect ? i am splashing around helplessly and hopelessly groping around for any small tip of a lifeline...
PS. this is when you realize that the part of the 70% that back-stabbed you were not actually turncoats... you failed to read the signals. they were participating in the events and winning prizes and accolades and fame...
what does the first year in an MBA do to you ? it makes you think -
"it is time that 'i' realized how small 'i' am."
In life, you never get what you deserve... only what you negotiate...
how many times have you bought a book from a platform shop for half the price quoted by the shopkeeper and felt happy for some time... only to be shattered by the remark of a friend that he bought the same book from the same shopkeeper for much less...
once on a visit to palika bazaar, i chanced to see the book that i had been wanting to buy for so long... price quoted - 250/- ... now was that a random number that came to the guy's mind or was it really worth it (pirated of course) - it was anybody's guess... still anyways, i have been in delhi long enough to chuck my benevolence and i was planning to do my mba... so i decided to put my negotiation skills to test... and voila i got it for 60/-... a 10 rupees increase from my initial quoted price... then the shopkeeper gave me these final parting words "though i am selling it off at a loss to you, i will make it up with someone else"... that made my day...
to reality - the nego skills prof gave the above statement "In life, you never get what you deserve... only what you negotiate..." on the last day of the lecture and the incident was among the first things i remembered immediately...
the frequent blackmail letters (also known as resignation letters) that are used by people to screw their manager's happiness and spend their vacation on company's expense abroad... man do the silent observers, who don't have the nerve to negotiate hate you for all the privileges that you receive... the bone of contention here is not the company's wish to retain you because you are irreplacable, but the way you adopted to get what you wanted...
how many restaurants have you frequented and how many times have you asked for a discount flashing your company / college id cards... is it because you cannot pay that measly 10% when you can pay the 90% ? or is it the mental satisfaction that the restaurant manager respects you as a customer who can bring in more people... whether he gives you the discount grudgingly or beneath a false smile, a discount is a discount is a discount... :)
right from a measly meal discount to your salaries, you only get what you want if you ask for it... people who evaluate you are both dumb and stingy... you need to give them an easier job of identifying your qualities for which they should pay you, and then make them pay for it...
man i am capable of doing it and i deserved it, but i have to fight for it...
once on a visit to palika bazaar, i chanced to see the book that i had been wanting to buy for so long... price quoted - 250/- ... now was that a random number that came to the guy's mind or was it really worth it (pirated of course) - it was anybody's guess... still anyways, i have been in delhi long enough to chuck my benevolence and i was planning to do my mba... so i decided to put my negotiation skills to test... and voila i got it for 60/-... a 10 rupees increase from my initial quoted price... then the shopkeeper gave me these final parting words "though i am selling it off at a loss to you, i will make it up with someone else"... that made my day...
to reality - the nego skills prof gave the above statement "In life, you never get what you deserve... only what you negotiate..." on the last day of the lecture and the incident was among the first things i remembered immediately...
the frequent blackmail letters (also known as resignation letters) that are used by people to screw their manager's happiness and spend their vacation on company's expense abroad... man do the silent observers, who don't have the nerve to negotiate hate you for all the privileges that you receive... the bone of contention here is not the company's wish to retain you because you are irreplacable, but the way you adopted to get what you wanted...
how many restaurants have you frequented and how many times have you asked for a discount flashing your company / college id cards... is it because you cannot pay that measly 10% when you can pay the 90% ? or is it the mental satisfaction that the restaurant manager respects you as a customer who can bring in more people... whether he gives you the discount grudgingly or beneath a false smile, a discount is a discount is a discount... :)
right from a measly meal discount to your salaries, you only get what you want if you ask for it... people who evaluate you are both dumb and stingy... you need to give them an easier job of identifying your qualities for which they should pay you, and then make them pay for it...
man i am capable of doing it and i deserved it, but i have to fight for it...
working sundays
A beautiful Saturday spent idling around and towards the end of the day let your hair down and party on till late into the night... loud music blaring and ending with a very good movie... some friends over at the house for a pizza party... wake up real late the next day - a Sunday - with no work to do, but rest for the entire day with a light pleasantly painful hangover of the previous night...
crash !!!
sorry to wake you up, but welcome to reality...
you actually sleep late the previous night not because you want to watch a couple of movies, but because you were finishing that nagging Financial Management assignment to be submitted the next day in class... actually the CAs do it, while you sit next to them nodding - sleepy dazed and tired after the long lectures of the day wondering how the CAs seem to be such a bundle of high energy... well coming back to sunday morning, you are actually forced to wake up at 7:30 am otherwise you will have to make-do with deos (this may work out becos your neighbour in class has probably done the same thing if not forgotten to buy the deo 2 weeks before when the schedule actually had a half hour slot free...)... ok "7:30 am !!!" you may ask... well the prof is a visitor so he likes to see discipline - everyone in class by 8:25 for the lecture that begins at 8:30... that is you should have a breakfast by 8-8:15... the prof does not give a break until about 10:30...
now 2 hours of non-stop FM may sound nice on radio, but not live...we can't even switch it off... then after the break which is about 20 extended minutes people drag their feet into class... becos the topmost part of their body wants to sit in the class, however the rest of the body wants to escape... but sorry you are not spared... another 3 hours pass by and you secretly imagine your prof to be prof.Binns (the ghost teacher in the harry potter series, who no one pays any attention to...)
Now it is 1pm and there is a mad rush to the mess... is it becos people love the food... nope... it is just to gulp in some stuff and do some reading for the surprize quiz that shocked our way down the stairs... converting a bunch of slow relaxed happy students into stressed schumachers whose only aim is to stuff in some food for the stomach and also for thought before 2... man it surprises you how much irrelevant stuff u can cram into yourself within that 1 hr none of which is asked in the quiz...
Quiz over, you move on to the next mega ordeal of another set of classes which actually run from 2:15 to 7:55... the accuracy in the timings maintained lending a sense of relief to the masses (but god only knows why...) at the end of the day, it is not over yet with pre-reads, post-reads and mind-reads for the next day's planned surprises...
Man these guys really make you appreciate your ex-boss...
crash !!!
sorry to wake you up, but welcome to reality...
you actually sleep late the previous night not because you want to watch a couple of movies, but because you were finishing that nagging Financial Management assignment to be submitted the next day in class... actually the CAs do it, while you sit next to them nodding - sleepy dazed and tired after the long lectures of the day wondering how the CAs seem to be such a bundle of high energy... well coming back to sunday morning, you are actually forced to wake up at 7:30 am otherwise you will have to make-do with deos (this may work out becos your neighbour in class has probably done the same thing if not forgotten to buy the deo 2 weeks before when the schedule actually had a half hour slot free...)... ok "7:30 am !!!" you may ask... well the prof is a visitor so he likes to see discipline - everyone in class by 8:25 for the lecture that begins at 8:30... that is you should have a breakfast by 8-8:15... the prof does not give a break until about 10:30...
now 2 hours of non-stop FM may sound nice on radio, but not live...we can't even switch it off... then after the break which is about 20 extended minutes people drag their feet into class... becos the topmost part of their body wants to sit in the class, however the rest of the body wants to escape... but sorry you are not spared... another 3 hours pass by and you secretly imagine your prof to be prof.Binns (the ghost teacher in the harry potter series, who no one pays any attention to...)
Now it is 1pm and there is a mad rush to the mess... is it becos people love the food... nope... it is just to gulp in some stuff and do some reading for the surprize quiz that shocked our way down the stairs... converting a bunch of slow relaxed happy students into stressed schumachers whose only aim is to stuff in some food for the stomach and also for thought before 2... man it surprises you how much irrelevant stuff u can cram into yourself within that 1 hr none of which is asked in the quiz...
Quiz over, you move on to the next mega ordeal of another set of classes which actually run from 2:15 to 7:55... the accuracy in the timings maintained lending a sense of relief to the masses (but god only knows why...) at the end of the day, it is not over yet with pre-reads, post-reads and mind-reads for the next day's planned surprises...
Man these guys really make you appreciate your ex-boss...
Driven by inertia...
why name a blog "inert matter" ? is it the very nature of the blog to be inert ? Or is it something to do with the nature of the blogger ?
what is the state of being inert... dictionary says something like "being sluggish and non-reactive"... (actually i am a bit lazy to even look it up in the dictionary so u got to trust me on this).
Ok... now that the definition is somewhat in place, let us come back to why i name this blog inertmatter...
Newton was probably the only person who gave a "good" usage to the name. He said - "every body continues to remain in a state of inertia unless acted upon by an external force to change its state..." . So when Newton means everybody, he means everybody - i am a law abiding citizen.
I am a non-conforming idealist... at the same time i am lazy too... i don't wish to take up the onerous duty of ridding the world of all its evils and making this a utopia... so all my outpourings (also called cribbings by those who hear me) should go somewhere... i am running out of patient listeners... even my roomies seem to be spending more time in the library reading rooms in the company of big books (yeah, no typo there !!!).
So here goes - i exercise my right to freedom of speech and expression. All my views are mine only. If it affects you in any way, you are free to exercise your free will to be either affected or not affected. And based on the affection, if you are acting, it is again your free will, not my free gifts...
As always, my matter is always inert, you bring the external force.
what is the state of being inert... dictionary says something like "being sluggish and non-reactive"... (actually i am a bit lazy to even look it up in the dictionary so u got to trust me on this).
Ok... now that the definition is somewhat in place, let us come back to why i name this blog inertmatter...
Newton was probably the only person who gave a "good" usage to the name. He said - "every body continues to remain in a state of inertia unless acted upon by an external force to change its state..." . So when Newton means everybody, he means everybody - i am a law abiding citizen.
I am a non-conforming idealist... at the same time i am lazy too... i don't wish to take up the onerous duty of ridding the world of all its evils and making this a utopia... so all my outpourings (also called cribbings by those who hear me) should go somewhere... i am running out of patient listeners... even my roomies seem to be spending more time in the library reading rooms in the company of big books (yeah, no typo there !!!).
So here goes - i exercise my right to freedom of speech and expression. All my views are mine only. If it affects you in any way, you are free to exercise your free will to be either affected or not affected. And based on the affection, if you are acting, it is again your free will, not my free gifts...
As always, my matter is always inert, you bring the external force.
Ignorance WAS Bliss
What is the philosophy of an mba course ???
Why did i ever decide to do an mba ? come to think of it, if i had mentioned the actual thoughts that were running through my head during the interview i wud not be writing abt this here ...
well coming back why did i... some people may think this is a bit wierd, but the main reason i wanted to do an mba was because i wanted to own a laptop ! wud you believe that ! absolutely wrong interview reply !!!
secondly, i was tired of looking at my tyrannical boss's face (that had changed 3 times during my tenure there) that i decided to come over... in other words, "from the frying pan into the fire"...
third : i felt i was losing focus and doing with full interest only those things that i found interesting... that means i was not doing good at my drab work... was just loafing around in the office warming the seat and getting a fat sal in return... i was getting too soft...
fourth: was an opportunity to maybe earn a better salary after my 2 years... can't comment on this and i don't feel like it either having quit a high paying job (very high paying by my current standards)
as u can see all wrong replies that wud have landed me back in hell - the seat at my workplace... but come to think of it was that hell... then what is this ? hell^2 ? or hell^3... or is hell + hell = hell anyways...
no actualy i think that i was better off there... frankly speaking i did not know that i was happy out there rather than now. then i did not have a clue about india's fiscal policy nor the concept of demand forecasting... now, i don't know wot they are still... but others around me know it or rather seem to know it... now that made me get into a disadvantage as here it is all relative grading... at the job it was only your performance that affected your appraisal (or at least that is what they said).
here they tell you "not everyone is perfect... if you can't do good math hire a CA... that is why you are a manager dammit..." and then when you perform badly at math, they award you a 'F'...
i am still trying to understand y ? if so many people are passing out of b-schools every year, not all of them could be wrong... after all there are a lot of engineers passing out of engg colleges too every year... and the majority of students @ b-schools are engineers... well engineers cannot be wrong, can they ?
Why did i ever decide to do an mba ? come to think of it, if i had mentioned the actual thoughts that were running through my head during the interview i wud not be writing abt this here ...
well coming back why did i... some people may think this is a bit wierd, but the main reason i wanted to do an mba was because i wanted to own a laptop ! wud you believe that ! absolutely wrong interview reply !!!
secondly, i was tired of looking at my tyrannical boss's face (that had changed 3 times during my tenure there) that i decided to come over... in other words, "from the frying pan into the fire"...
third : i felt i was losing focus and doing with full interest only those things that i found interesting... that means i was not doing good at my drab work... was just loafing around in the office warming the seat and getting a fat sal in return... i was getting too soft...
fourth: was an opportunity to maybe earn a better salary after my 2 years... can't comment on this and i don't feel like it either having quit a high paying job (very high paying by my current standards)
as u can see all wrong replies that wud have landed me back in hell - the seat at my workplace... but come to think of it was that hell... then what is this ? hell^2 ? or hell^3... or is hell + hell = hell anyways...
no actualy i think that i was better off there... frankly speaking i did not know that i was happy out there rather than now. then i did not have a clue about india's fiscal policy nor the concept of demand forecasting... now, i don't know wot they are still... but others around me know it or rather seem to know it... now that made me get into a disadvantage as here it is all relative grading... at the job it was only your performance that affected your appraisal (or at least that is what they said).
here they tell you "not everyone is perfect... if you can't do good math hire a CA... that is why you are a manager dammit..." and then when you perform badly at math, they award you a 'F'...
i am still trying to understand y ? if so many people are passing out of b-schools every year, not all of them could be wrong... after all there are a lot of engineers passing out of engg colleges too every year... and the majority of students @ b-schools are engineers... well engineers cannot be wrong, can they ?
How to begin
Suppose someone gave you a pen—a sealed, solid colored pen.
You couldn’t see how much ink it had. It might just run dry after a few tentative words or last just enough to create a masterpiece or several more that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things. You don’t know what would happen before you begin.
Under the rules of the game, you really would never know. You might lose or you might just win. You have to take that chance!
Actually, no rule of the game states that you must do anything. Instead of picking up and using the pen, you could leave it on a shelf or in a drawer where it will dry up, unused.
But if you just decide to use it, what would you do with it? How will you play the game?
Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word? Would your plans be so extensive that you never even got to the writing?
Or would you take the pen in the hand, plunge right in and just do it, struggling to keep up with the twists and turns of the torrents of words that take you where they take you?
Would you write cautiously and carefully, as if the pen might run dry the next moment, or would you pretend or believe (or pretend to believe) that the pen will write for ever and proceed accordingly?
And of what would you write??: of love? Betrayal? Hate? Fun? Misery? Life? Death? Nothing? Something? Everything?
Would you write to just please yourself? Or others? Or yourself by writing for others?
Would your strokes be tremblingly timid or brilliantly bold? Fancy with a flourish or plain?
Would you even write? Once you have a pen, there is no hard and fast rule saying you have to write. Would you sketch? Scribble? Doodle or draw?
Would you stay in or on the lines, or see no lines at all, even if they were there? Or are they?
There’s a lot to think about here, isn’t there?
Now, suppose someone gave you a life…
I donno the origin of this article, but it really applies to me. So many blog sites so much to write, but what to start off with ???
my intro ? who would want to know about me anyway... if they wanna know abt me look into my profile...
my family and personal life ? No way... gets too personal that ...
my school ? though they were some real good memories, they are fast fading... cannot remember most of it...
my engg days ? man were they too good ... the best days of my life... but the 4 yrs can be condensed into a nutshell...
my present mba ? if engg was 4 years, mba is only 2yrs... half a nutshell ? no maybe considering the actual hours put in an mba to that of engg, maybe it wud fill a nutshell complete
what the heck... let me write about the rest of my life - which begins from now...
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