Up for a toss

Is abortion an option ??

2011-10-24T22:40:00.000-07:00

A woman went to a Gynaecologist with a problem :

'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.'

So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'

The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.'

The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!'

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be OK with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point.

Love

2011-08-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

It felt just like it was eight years ago on April 3 2003 when I finally said “something” to “somebody” ... This time I saw her in the metro she climbed at my station , I tried to get a closer look but I couldn’t , I had my doubts she could be the same girl , no she wasn’t; my heart skipped a beat …

I made up a whole dialogue to say if she gets down at my station but she did not.. That’s it.. the moment was lost…

I had seen PS I love you yesterday and though I am way past my teens in some ways I am still a teenager..where I fall for stuff as fast … I would have approached a girl for the first time ( post April 2003) for sure, but well I din get a chance..
It’s just like the “breeze begins to flow” and your imagination begins to run in all directions… After writing this maybe I am considered as a very “filmy” person but I do believe in love at first sight.. I had it eight years ago.. I had it today but I lost her in the rush.. Hope I find her again and u know wat ; I am gonna approach her :):) sometime…

This is a totally different day and I am writing this but I don’t know why is it this a continuation of the previous writeup but it is .. Maybe because I continue with my love theory ahead in this blog.. well I fall in love with things very easily -the nature, my job , people around me but well not with all women though.. ; music -- sends chills down my spine , makes me nostalgic, inspires me , wants me to do more with each moment, live life more..

I watched this movie PS : I love you and I fell in love with this movie and Hillary Swank just like I did with Notting hill and Richard gere or with Remember the Titans and Denzel Washington… and n no of other movies, well I dunno if I am gullible easy to fool but I am always in love with one thing or the other…. And when I am not I feel empty..

I never write down a blog entry on one day this one is a mix of three totally different days. The last one being today..I love reading what I had written earlier and adding to it.. This week I fell in love with RED and Mary louise Parker and Bruce willis , Also with Revolver and Jason Statham and finally with Bob Marley and “Bum Bholey Natha”..,.

And here it is a set of Random entires added to a blog entry… This is a literary disaster I know but one milestone among many which when looked back would make me smile…

A Disappointment ??

2011-08-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

daddy mujhse bola…tu galti hai meri…tujhpe zindgaani…guilty hai meri…
saabun ki shakal mein…beta tu to nikla keval jhaag..jhaag… jhaag… bhaag…
bhaag bhaag… bhaag bhaag…bhaag bhaag… bhaag bhaag…
Oh by God lag gayi…kya se kya hua…dekha to katora…jhaanka to kuan…
piddi jaisa chooha…dum pakda to nikla kaala naag…naag… naag…. bhaag…

Well very funny and nice song but if we relate to it , its just an instance being narrated of how we face a lot of rejections and disappointments in life.. If one does not have the capability of taking a loss with courage, then one cannot enjoy a win..
We are always taught to win but are never taught cope up with disappointments in life, in relationships… In the very fast world we focus on ourselves so much that we forget to empathise.. we may deliver long sermons on empathy but when its our turn we simply ignore it… We name relationships from the beginning and hence increase expectations and when they are not met , we face disappointment..

I think its very important to have proper methodology to make people tough emotionally more than physically,, Its been a rollicking ride the last two years, a lot of learning on the professional front but moreover so on the personal front , I have learned to keep emotions at bay now.. not the best of ideas I know but that’s what keeps me going as of now…

Happy mothers day

2011-05-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

They say if we clone hitler and put him under different external environment from what he would have lived in as a kid he would not grow up to be a dictator, A person is a product of his experiences and who is more important in formulating these experiences than our parents , especially the mother. The role of a father is a support function to assist the mother in creating a stimulating environment for the growth of the kid( Taking nothing from the father away , but I think the mother has a far more important role to play in overall development of the kid.

When I was a kid I was always instigated to come first, fight it out, never give up , fight every adversity , never say no, be empathetic towards other human beings and animals. I did not realize how this became a part of my personality and I now appreciate the efforts my mom took to always correct me by going however far she can.

I remember the n no of conflicts when I had my own value system developing and there were differences between mine and hers, still there are and well I always had a middle path or my path :) but then a mothers' opinions are always very honest and she would have no bias and say it right from her heart, and as we know the heart pumps the blood to the brain to make it work well , it's much stronger and there is no better source of opinion..

I would have written books on this but I think we all know what I have to write, and their would be redundancy … I just want to wish all mothers a very happy mothers day on this day and keep up the good work..

What should i be paid

2011-04-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

i work thrice as hard and have 5 times the productivity and also work 3 hours etc than an average worker who works 9 hours on atleast three of the days of the six days our office is open.. an average worker in my office gets x salary with 1/2 my qualification + adding brand value attached to me due to my college .. What should be my salary.. hehe i am not looking for an answer lol... i know the answer, well i just want others to know it as well...

When Team India Lost against SA - Harsha Bhogle

2011-03-16T00:21:00.001-07:00

Remember when you failed an examination. How many people recall that, your class, friends, relatives? You failed to make it to the IITs or IIMs. Who remembers. How many times have you had the feeling of being the best in your class, school , university, state….., you failed to get a visa stamped this quarter…, you missed a promotion this year…, how did it feel when you dad told you in your early twenties that you are good for nothing…..and now your boss tell you the same...
You keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize you, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry when your own kin scoffs at you. You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?
Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right.
He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin.
True, he has single handedly lifted to moods of this entire nation umpteen number of times. He has been an inspiration to rise above our mediocrity. Nobody who has ever lifted the willow even comes close to this man’s genius. His dedication and metal strength is unparallel. This is specially for those people who would have made fun of him again last night when India lost. They are people who are mediocre in their own lives. Who just scoff at others to create cheap fun. Who have lived in a small hole throughout their lives and thought they have seen the oceans.
Think about the man himself. He is 37 years of age. He has been playing almost non stop for 22 years. The way he was running and diving around the field last night would have put 22 year olds to shame. The way he played the best opening quickies in the world was breathtaking. He just keeps getting better which is by the way humanly impossible. Its not for nothing that people call him GOD.
But still I don’t want to be in those shoes. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people.
And he just converts those expectations into reality. We watch in awe, feel privileged.
Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup.
This is not just a game, and he is not just a sportsman. Its much more than this. Words fail here.....

--- HARSHA BHOGLE

Resolutions for the year MMXI

2010-12-31T10:36:00.000-08:00

I read an article where a foreigner asked an Indian what do you do ? The Indian replied I work in XYZ company as ABC and handle a.b.c.d…. tasks/responsibilities.. The foreigner asked I don think you got me I asked “ what do u do” On those notes my resolutions..

1. Gym
2. Dance
3. Musical Intruments (Min one )
4. Travel : 1 new place per quarter
5. Books : 100

Sometimes even the shortest of Blog entries hold such a lot of info that one is flabbergasted….. :)

Faith

2010-10-22T13:52:00.001-07:00

I was asked about my belief in god, I didn’t have much to say over there..
I was asked why you don’t follow the stream; I didn’t have much to say over there either
I was asked are you not afraid of the dark, the evil, the bad, I said no
I was asked what do you want to do in life, I said learn, teach and study
I was asked what would you do when you are unable to do what you wanted to do , I said would like what I get since could not manage to get what I liked
I was asked isn’t that lackadaisical attitude, I said yes only if I did not try too hard to get what I liked
I was asked why are you rebellious, I said only when I am not allowed to fly
I was asked why do you want to fly everywhere, I said there are no boundaries made by your god, if there are they are made by you.
I was asked why do you have silly answers to all questions, I said silly is subjective
I was asked you are just trying to please yourself I said so whats wrong in that isn’t that what I am supposed to do.
I was asked why is it you don’t listen, I said I hear but listen selectively
I was asked if not god what do you believe in , I said me
I was asked why you write so much, I said because I can read it later
I was asked why do you have an answer for everything, I said because there is a question mark everywhere, and that is not put by me, somebody else is writing on my answer sheet.
I was asked why don’t you do this/that, I said because I am doing that/this.
I was asked why do you think you are so intellectual. There are people ten times as intelligent as you.
I said intellect is absolute not relative and I would love to meet those people btw.
I was told I have lost the game, I said I have my own scorecard, and I am the scorekeeper.
I was told you can’t succeed, I said I have in the past and I would in the future
I was told follow the line, I said a line is the shortest path between two points, the big question is which two points
I was asked what are you so proud of I said faith, faith in my abilities and me.

The Unforgiven

2010-10-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

New blood joins this earth
And quickly he's subdued
Through constant pained disgrace
The young boy learns their rules

With time the child draws in
This whipping boy done wrong
Deprived of all his thoughts
The young man struggles on and on he's known
A vow unto his own
That never from this day
His will they'll take away

What i've felt
What i've known
Never shined through in what i've shown
Never be
Never see
Won't see what might have been
What i've felt
What i've known
Never shined through in what i've shown
Never free
Never me
So i dub thee UNFORGIVEN

They dedicate their lives
To running all of his
He tries to please then all
This bitter man he is
Throughout his life the same
He's battled constantly
This fight he cannot win
A tired man they see no longer cares
The old man then prepares
To die regretfully
That old man here is me

You labeled me
I'll label you
So i dub thee UNFORGIVEN

A maze

2010-09-18T01:25:00.000-07:00

The graph used to have much higher amplitudes, over the years have seen the crests and troughs mellow down, have found very little competition as well, although did not compare too much but there has been a significant difference to let go unnoticed , been there done that now what.. Challenges are hard to find, only ones which are there are self created. Space is important to create those so have been striving to take that wherever and everywhere, writing has been a way of expression because its one way, not much expectation of contribution to make an intelligent conversation because ‘ con’ is with and writing is me with me .

Relationships have been galore, only a few though but long, exit barriers have been there but still exits have been there, the exit route of personal info has seen little traffic .. Words which come have some portrayal but covered with a wrapper to keep stuff enigmatic.. Growth has not suffered though, as spending time with many instead of one has increased, happiness is not sacrificed either, things must happen and have happened. Some posts go to the blog others go to the diary but diaries are so inaccessible and difficult to find and reread.

Music is the best companion and so is the air, falling in love is easy especially when you have fresh air , cool breeze and a wonderful path to take, music is in the ears and in the air as well. Going down the hill is the best thing to do when you are on a bicycle, thoughts have randomness and sometimes no wrappers, we love the wrappers though , that’s why we buy the sweet but we do open it and throw the wrapper away and eat what’s inside .. Reading between the lines and between the words is hence important more than the words themselves, sometimes deep is too deep.

The alphabets are strung into words and into lines and into expressions and into feelings … life has not treated but life has been treated, its been treated good all right, brand building has not been the plan but by virtue of the product the brand has been created , more than the age is how the years have been spent.. As long as the light is seen is what some believe, path is there … if the light goes out... The path is still there but is not treaded by all, so a light has to be created.. if created for one then the path is traversed by one, the best part is to create a light which would make many other follow the same path.

A blog entry not made public is read by few but by focused individuals, the true demand not the latent. A product of experiences is what a person is , a product not sum so every experience has multifold impact … sometimes even after reading an entire entry is unable to get the crux, because there is none, but does lead to rereading and effort of interpretation. But still what is difficult is treated as either juvenile or a piece of literary art. The latter result occurring more often eases the efforts of the creator… The expectation of acclaim is not the motive.. Life is good as it is needs no nods on the path treaded , because no one seen the path beyond it’s a self created light but the path is created for good with illumination all around.. Safe to follow for sure..

Should we abolish Teachers day?

2010-09-04T21:57:00.001-07:00

Is this even a question worth asking?

Read a recent article on abolishing teachers day by a certain writer in HT, left a real bad taste in mouth ..

The article mentions of certain sad incidents that have occurred because of certain teachers who decided to use corporal punishment as a means of discipline. The writer takes to the extreme view of abolishing teachers day (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Abolish-Teacher-s-Day/Article1-595321.aspx) what I say is

“A Sample of ten people is not the representative of the entire teacher’s community... definitely there have been sad incidents but not all teachers can be judged on the base of them... Today we are what we are because somebody made us that way it’s definitely not god because he/she just made the clay but somebody gave shape to it .A person is a product of his/her experiences and education is the part of life where we have most of them at an earlier age… I think abolishing a day where we pay respect and gratitude to the people who shape us, our kids and our society is not the best idea ...”

And for the ten bad examples one may quote there would be thousands or lakhs of examples where teachers would have changed lives of their students and enlightened them. But we do not voice when anything good happens but we shout when something bad happens...that’s why you barely find good reviews and if you do find them they be paid reviews lol..

Teaching is synonymous to training which is synonymous to development. Although I am not a big supporter of the idea that a day to be designated to somebody because I believe why should we show gratitude or love or respect on a particular day when you can do that everyday, but then we as humans need a day to halt in our busy lives to understand that somebody/something exists.. It’s important to have Teachers day. They say that this day thingy is a marketing gimmick by these card/gift making companies.
I say so what if you can’t think first of dedicating a day to your loved ones, let them do it… Guess money is more important to them than loved ones are to you, that’s why they came up with the idea first… But its one hell of an idea!!

This comes from me because I have seen both sides of the community. I have had my teaching stints and I am a student still… my request to the media is to be responsible and do not publish such articles, even in the opinion page because such opinions are very extreme and not in the best interests of all..

A Poem that never was and never is and never will be……………

2010-08-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

I was trying to write a poem, thinking that the last words had to rhyme.
Decided in the middle, that is not the style of mine.

I dunno about styles, neither have I read much.
I just dot know how to rhyme this poem. Sach

This is going to be in bad shape I know, may not deserve a post as well.
I may just end this now and ring the bell.

Atleast I tried is all I think was important.
I was failing all the time, but I was adamant.

I thought I would put in a story, a thought, and an expression
But all I can do was look was last few words and rhyming was the obsession.

That’s when I thought of an analogy.
When you do not care about the marks and study.

The marks come automatically you learn a lot.
But if it is grades you care about , it is a battle lost before fought.

I write quiet Ok they say, but when it came to a poem,
All I could do was write a few lines and moan.

I used the pronunciation of poem as pome in the last few lines.
Gosh if I could change the pronounciation multiple times.

Rhyming would not be a pain anymore.
Verses would come easy and galore.

I do not know the last few lines I put in, were grammatically right.
But my obsession for rhyming is growing with all its might.

I am writing this in very fast time, maybe this is gonna be read and made fun about .
But I tried my best; I know these few lines are nothing to feel proud.

I keep on going and seriously not once am I am thinking what I am writing
It looks as if a word of war is what I am fighting.

The fingers press the keys which go together in an asynchronous way,
But what do I do, it should rhyme they say.

Passion for writing does not mean, I can write anything ,
But this is my blog, my words , my thing.

A poem is supposed to be short some say,
But while writing this, I kept all thoughts at bay.

Go on Go on is what my fingers say, they do not stop and neither feel tired.
I am hooked on to this I am wired.

While ending any line I think of the next line in advance.
Read ahead give me a chance.

You may think that something good is gonna come.
But till now expectations have all gone bum.

Some words are creative, some are made , some are new.
This poem is a mixture of these words few,

Because when rhyming is an obsession, last word syncing is the craze
The poem quality is going to deteriorate phase by phase.

They called me a gasometer, coz I conjured up words out of nowhere.
A proof is this poem was written in less than 10 mins.. just 1 minute of reading more
to bear .

I presumed I was a writer of the degree of harivansh rai bachan
And I forgot one basic thing to mention.

Its not the rhyme that decides the quality of your writing.
But it’s the thought that the reader would be sighting.

But still without a thought if I have made you read till this line in this poem.
I think as a gasometer , one more level I have grown.

Relativity

2010-08-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Everything is relative in life... Happiness is because of a certain benchmark set by you or the society... Many a time you reach your own benchmarks but still you are not happy because the society’s benchmarks have risen…

Traffic is relative. While there can be answers like no traffic and heavy traffic, but no traffic on the roads would not mean no vehicles except your own but a comparison with what traffic you face daily.

Beauty is relative. A few beautiful people together you would choose the most beautiful amongst them.
Being rich is relative so is being poor. Being educated is relative; being sharp or intelligent is relative.

One point we do achieve moksha is where we have no relativity in our mind. Absolute is the word and if you get what you want you would be happy...

Nothing new about this entry, nothing comical m nothing energetic, but how?? you would have read my other entries compared it to them .. This is relativity... Shun it enjoy what you read not comparing, but reading the blog post...

What the heck... This aint me?!?!?

2010-08-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

You know what is the funniest part of a Blog or a diary? When you read an entry say which is one year old... You realize that this is not me... How could I have written this? Although the best part is you have a snapshot of how you were. You always have a point of comparison and a scope for improvement. When you are going somewhere in life you barely realize which direction is that but once you pen it down there is still some scope to look back... because as Steve jobs said” the dots in life can never be joined forward but once you look back at the things you see all has been a plan and whatever you did however miniscule was used and was indeed a part of the plan”

The amazing part I have realized about writing in a blog is you spend time with you. You can talk about yourself and still not be called self obsessed , you can talk for hours and your companion ( That is you ) Will not get bored, and the audience would be very focused , The people who would read your blog would actually want to read it and not just be hearing and not listening as they may do in real physical life( Referred to as RPL from now on .. Funny no I have wasted more words in writing this than I would have wasted in writing Real Physical life maybe ten times lol ). You may get away with some irregularities, you are not afraid of being yourself (Although that should be true in RPL as well).

Now lets move from you and come to me since this is MY BLOG( My Shivani Laugh ( NM GB’s if you are reading would get this..Ms Kumra pls don’t mind you know I created a dot for you as well gives you a reason to look at my blog maybe ten years down the line).I was called a gasometer in college for the fact that I could gas any amount on any topic for as much long and make sense to a few who had their tummies filled with the OH functional group. But recently this capacity has reduced due to reduced time and little scope for imagination... Jobs do kill you but still they are referred to as “what we do for a living “ LOL.. Anyways today I got time and wote this blog post just to have a dot which I could look back maybe a year later and realize this ain’t me...

PS: Gasometer is a term filed under the IPR. Can only be used to refer to a person who can make people high on words, much more than any form of drug or anesthetic can!!

Up in the air….

2010-03-14T12:08:00.001-07:00

Maturity is not dependent on age or sex or any other variable , it is all specific to a person. Well we are always carrying a backpack full of stuff on our back. As very rightly pointed out by Clooney in the movie the stuff is largely the material things- the tangibles and relationships- intangibles. But I did not like the idea of taking stuff out and carrying with a nearly empty backpack , but its important to pack the bag so right, that the stuff with the most priority is most accessible and not out of reach. Most of us get our priorities wrong, But the point is when we realize the stuff in the bag is at a totally inaccessible and would need shaking the bag upside down to correct it. Sometimes one is forced to pack the bag in a particular way: funny no isn’t it my bag …… lol the movie shook me big time.. I need to organize my backpack a lot.. the good part is atleast I know my priorities.

Dhage meri soche ke

2010-02-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

I stood there near the canopy, was at an event.. All alone again, watching the rain drops fall….. Contemplating my every decision of my life, was I wrong somewhere? Am I impatient and would get my deserved due later, or is it just a bad patch of time that will soon pass….

Saw other companies canopies being set up by 8-10 people, surely not engineers and definitely not MBA’s … and here I stood alone, do I need to be reiterated to learn the value of life.. have I not learned enough… How much more should I learn before they call me a learned man…

Soon I see my thoughts as very pessimistic and try to overcrowd this with enthusiasm from inside.. Just felt that a year back used to have a fire in my belly when I called for Enthusiasm.. Could just feel a spark today.. Is it just me or is it the environment…

Well I know it is just time and its going to pass… try to use every weekend lost to my work as a lesson but am nor enjoying my work, my environment.. A corporate slave, I want to break the shackles and make no more compromises..
Lost in the race for success have lost the meaning of present and in the game of future aspirations….see no present compromises.

No wonder people in jobs always quit for an MBA, although an MBA poor guy does not even have that option.. No more future education can get me what I Want.. Just realized What I want does not come from outside it comes from inside... Because What I want has the capital I.. Its “I” … Have straightened my priorities again just to realize that they were always straightened , the path is always correct , Its just how I see it ……

I go back though, to every MBA class… I revisit the views of the experienced people see my views more over aligning with theirs , but still its too small a sample…. Guess may differ with time….

Leadership

“A leader is the person who is a policy maker, implementor and a feedback evaluator . “
My views on leadership too have changed with my experience … I found that a structure in an organization or actually in life is one of the most important things…. And the structure comes from the top itself. Because structure is also a culture.. and a culture is never a product of all people.. its a group think thing and In a closed group that is a company it consciously/unconsciously moves with the thought of the leader… Well no wonder most people leave a company because of bad bosses who just do not know how to handle their subordinates, if a relationship in an office is limited to just work its really shortlived as relation is just too complicated a term to just be limited to one aspect..
Comfort level is another important thing.. most of the times employees comfort zone is disrupted because he is made to do a lot of work against his will without any incentives. A carrot and stick policy too is good for some companies because in those companies there is only stick and no carrot… one waits for appreciation and incentivization only to find the process so abstract that “ It depends” comes into the picture… and when it becomes it depends.. Well then it depends…

A brand

4P’s are just a fragment of the Brand Universe… Because it the 5th P which actually helps us Make the 4 P’s viable.. The place, price , product and promotion are all in the hand of the people and if the people are good and the people policies are good. The other 4 take no time to settle down.. A brand is always in the mind and the stakeholders mind can only be changed by employees who themselves are sure of the brand… If I as an employee , am not convinced would be even more difficult to convince others….
So the Key is the people..

Aniket’s 3D model..

Professional Vs personal

The professional life is a support function for Personal life and not vice versa.. But still professional life is 50% of our life so must choose what we like and not what other’s perceive to be good.

CTC vs Profile.

The curve is inclined towards CTC in the first quarter of the professional life.. while profile in the next two quarters and none in the last..

Brain vs Heart

A heart is a part of the body which pumps the essential fluid which helps the other organs to function.. So other organs are dependent on the heart, so our whole body is dependent on it even the brain … So you know whom to listen to right ??

My comments on this years' holidays

2010-01-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Did you fill up the forms yet???

2010-01-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

Well filling up a form seems to be the most boring thing in the world but it is a prerequisite for an entry to any college....

Criterion for filling up MBA College forms….

Today after a discussion with an MBA aspirant I could gather that there are a lot of doubts in the aspirants’ mind; well just decided to pen down a few of my observations about Entrance forms and colleges in particular.. Mind you these are all my personal opinions and have been created through after being in touch with the post graduate management education sector for the past 3 years….

CAT: Due to the ever-changing patterns its been common to see all aspirants blowing up a lot of money on filling out all forms possible and on the other hand some aspirants fill only the top B schools forms…
An example of either would be a guy who gets 70 percentile in CAT and has filled up all forms of colleges in the above 90 percentile region... Spending 15000 but getting no calls. Or else a guy getting 97 % and not filling up any forms apart from CAT….

I have a simple motto: Do not just reject the college straight off. Let the college accept you first then you reject it... (Applies to at least the top rung colleges, I definitely do not mean fill up the worst college in the country and after selects it , be proud to reject it ) So a guy (in the 2nd example) getting 97 percentile has screwed his chances to get into at least two of the top ten colleges… and the guy (1st example) has not clearly diversified the risk….

So following is a small strategy that helps most of the time...

1. Assess your level of preparation through measurement of performance in simulation tests and also the confidence levels.. Although simulation is not a guarantee but still gives you an indicative performance level. ( for short listing the percentile range you must apply to )

2. Clear your objectives of doing an MBA/Specialized MBA... Example and IRMA, TISS or MICA may offer an MBA which would be very specialized and would only be good for if you if you are really interested. Trust me a 10L package has no value in your life if you do not love what you do. ( For short listing the colleges you must apply to )

3. Talk to people who have done an MBA, talk to a sufficient number of people not just one guy/gal. ( concept of sample size …)

4. Coaching center counselors have a lot of theoretical knowledge and give you a lot of quantitative data… but as far as opinions are concerned (cannot take only their word for it )so collect the facts and do not take the opinions blankly.

5. Finally note down all colleges which come down in your percentile range (take a 5-10% relaxation on both the upper and lower sides). Percentile ranges can be got from previous MBA takers or coaching centers and also through the internet. (Validate all sources) .

6. Now strike of colleges you would not never want to go to (on the basis of locational/course/fees/placement preferences).

7. Fill in at least one college form per 1-2 percentile for the top end of your percentile range (as calculated in step 5) and after the top 4-5 colleges at least one college per 4- 5 percentile range.

8. This way you cover all the colleges you want to go to and also which fit in your bill.

Example: X is consistently getting a score in the range of 80-95 % in Simulation tests…
He is sure he’ll score an 85+ percentile in CAT. And moreover he is interested in operations aspects of business. X has his strengths in QA/LR/PS. X is a resident of Maharashtra . Wants to stay either in Maharashtra or can go to North India but does not want to go to south India or east india. (Would only go to southern parts of India if he gets through the top ten) X’s budget is 25K and says he is not going to fill forms for more than that

Analysis (Assuming cost of forms to be 1500 avg )

X’s percentile range: 80-100 percentile.
X’s special interest colleges: SIOM and NITIE: famous for operations MBA
X’s Rule outs IRMA, MICA... And all locational rule outs.

X’s choice list:
IIM’s , MDI, IMT , IMI , SP jain , Fore , LBS, SIOM, NITIE , XLRI,SIBM,SCMHRD, SIIB,NMIMS,TISS,FMS,DSE-MIB and MHROD,UBS,KJ Somaiya.IITD,IITM

X’s shortlist:

IIM’s : Top 2 percentile
MDI, IMT, SP JAIN, NITIE, IMI : Colleges in 95+ percentile.
Fore/LBS : fills one …college in the next 5 percentile
UBS, KJ Somaiya : colleges in the next 10 percentile

Sectorals: FMS... NMIMS... Symbiosis: 3 colleges (SIBM, SCMHRD, SIOM), XLRI, JMET (IIT Delhi, mumbai)

Will skip TISS: More known for HR and Social services.
Will skip other colleges through XAT.( Locational issues )
Will skip DSE and SIIB. A little redundant in the list

Total colleges filled 23;

Total cost 26K (Estimating 1500 per form for all forms except FMS/JMET/UBS: Rs 1000 avg...)
Forms : CAT, MDI ,IMT ,SP JAIN ,NITIE ,IMI, Fore/LBS , UBS,KJ Somaiya, FMS ,NMIMS, SNAP,SIBM ,SCMHRD, SIOM, XLRI( XAT ) ,JMET ,IITD,IITM

Percentile range : 80 -100 % + Specific exams : CAT (16 colleges) + SNAP( 3 colleges) + NMAT( 1 college ) + XAT ( 1 college ) + FMS ( 1 college) + JMET ( 2 colleges )

College ranks applied to: Top 35. (More or Less)

An experience in my warehouse

2009-11-20T09:57:00.001-08:00

I had a particular order to be serviced by the warehouse , So I wrote them a mail

Mail : Please send the attached order ( Excel file containing the order ) to 186, Ground Floor, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009.

I got an instant reply from them ... We cannot send the order because the given address is not clear . Its very amazing that the "clear" word is so subjective. What may be clear to one may not be clear to the other and vice versa. But we have got used of these age old excuses of shirking the work and hence i was prompt in my reply to send the following mail

My mail ...........

This order has to be dispatched to 186, Ground Floor, Tagore Park, Delhi -110009.

Cotact number : 99XXXXXXXX

Jasola Vihar
Delhi

1. Head south-west 1.7 km
2. Turn left at Rd No 13A 0.9 km
3. Turn right at Amrapali Marg 2.4 km
4. Turn left at Dadri Rd 5.6 km
5. Continue onto Noida Link Rd 4.0 km
6. Turn left at Vikas Marg 2.3 km
7. Continue onto Indraprashta Marg 0.3 km
8. Turn right towards 0.4 km
Mahatma Gandhi Marg
9. Continue straight onto 6.0 km
Mahatma Gandhi Marg
10. Continue onto 3.7 km
Dr KB Hedgewar Marg
11. Turn left at Parade Marg 1.7 km
12. Turn left towards 0.5 km
Ramlal Kapoor Marg
13. Turn right at 0.5 km
Ramlal Kapoor Marg
14. Turn left at Bhai 0.3 km
Parmanand Marg
15. Take the 1st right 0.2 km
16. Slight right 0.3 km
17. Turn right 0.2 km

Total Distance 31.1 Km
Average speed 30KM /Hr
Time 62.2 minutes

If this information is not enough we can also get more details like ..

The no of potholes you may find in your way or the number of stairs you will need to climb to reach the Ground floor of the adddress

if after this one finds it difficult to service the order we can also find out the muber of red lights you may find while reaching the destination address or if there is a probability that the vehicle carrying the order may be involved in an accident.

Even if after this one finds it difficult to service the order we may also look at
the impact on profitability of the company through servicing of this order or any negative imapct on the stake holders due to servicing this order.

I think post this the order could be serviced for sure.....

Rgds
Aniket Narula

Help others! It’ll come back to you

2009-10-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Rarely do I write posts which say things simply and there is nothing abstact in it, because Simplicity is just not my cuppa. Confusion and Chaos is my forte and I am the most productive when I write in that manner. Please read my previous posts for reference and excuse for simplicity.
My motto is Very simple “Productivity amidst chaos “ , why try to simplify things when making things simple would use time and need effort, so reaching equal productivity amidst chaos helps me save time and effort as I find chaos equally easy to handle as simplicity …. Ok enough of Blabber now coming to the point …

Following are a few of my practical experiences which helped me realize that when I helped others it helped me.

Incident 1

I was a faculty @IMS and use to teach LR to students. I have a helping attitude and helped most of my students in and after classes( Excuse for Immodesty ) . One of the few students who I had helped staye in touch with me throughout my MBA ( which I did post My faculty job @ IMS ) and is still in touch with me.When I joined As a brand manager with Lotto post MBA I took up four interns through vaibhav’s contact Devesh who is a BBA student. Devesh and team of Interns did a good job in their internship and Through Devesh and Team I met Another guy who arranged a football tournament where Lotto got to take part in . At this tournament I met a guy Who got me Lotto in two more football tournaments and also I met People who have helped Lotto get to places where it would not have been possible If I had not helped vaibhav and stayed in touch with him. All this happened because I helped vaibhav…….

Incident 2

One of my colleagues in the office wanted to convert a few jpeg files to pdfs . I was in a hurry with some of my work but I took ten minutes out to help him by downloading a driver in my computer which helps do the same. I just can’t remember how helpful this driver has been to me and how many times post that I have converted word,excel,bmps,jpegs to pdfs. Sometimes to reduce the size and sometimes for non editable functionality. I could do all that just because I helped a colleague out on a very busy day.

Incident 3

Again on a very busy day I was given a work by my dad to make a concept note for an event of theirs. I made 3-4 concept notes with a page of literature on all. He liked them and used one. I have used one in my newsletter: (Potpourri) and still have 2 more to use elsewhere.

Not once does the work done go waste. It always comes back in one way or the other.

Transcript of Commencement Speech at Stanford given by Steve Jobs

2009-03-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

On the Mindless Menace of Violence

2009-01-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

Speech by Robert F Kennedy
City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
April 5, 1968

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

Health Money and Love

2008-08-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

My perceptions change every minute I spend on this earth. I don’t know whether this happens to me or this is the case with everybody.
The last week was a real eye opener for me. I suffered from tonsillitis, sore throat; cold and finally allergy which made me go all red (btw it’s still not over). For my tonsillitis I went to one of the plush hospitals who charge an exorbitant amount as their fees and when I thought that it is over, I found it has just started coz the chemist produced even a bigger bill. That day I realized how could a poor man afford all this? The final shock came when I saw a very badly burnt guy being taken to the ICU….. So is money the biggest thing in life? Not really, I guess its good Health. Some think that health can be bought by money, yes if you want to believe in that, but what about those who are born with a disease that has got no cure? If money is that important what about those who are stinking rich but do not have parents? What’s the use of coming back home from a tiring day and find nobody home to greet you? What’s the use of so much money when one day we all are going to have “swargiya” in front of our name…? I am not questioning the “striving nature” of anybody but what I am saying is that life is short. Love, health and friendship: the intangibles have got greater value in our lives than the most tangible stuff: i.e. money. I don’t say don’t have a passion (jazba) to become something but while travelling the path to your destination, value the intangibles as much, if not more than the tangibles because when we all reach the death bed our last wish would not be to be buried with all the money in the world but to spend the last few minutes with someone we love and we will want somebody to remember us when we are gone.
I am not a firm believer of God, but then with each passing day (in the last week) my faith in God has grown and I find myself thanking god for whatever I have. This entry in my blog has used the least number of backspaces and deletes, comes out of no intention to be grammatically correct or to produce any amount of literary delight, but is written to question the morals and beliefs which we follow without thinking . We keep on cribbing for the extra 1 lakh in the CTC, the 0.5 or 1 mark extra which could have us landed in a different course(perceived to be better by some), and the JP Morgan’s and the HUL’S. But it’s only when we sit in the general ward in a hospital see people suffer and makes us realize the ailment we have is a “bacha”, and immediately thank god for our life. We realize the value of a leaking roof only when we see somebody with no roof on his/her head. We crib about not having a DVD player until we see someone without eyes. We crib about not having the latest mobile phone until we see somebody who is deaf and we crib about not having a pair of Nike shoes until we see someone without legs. Now again the same question is it all about money? I would have written granths on this stuff but would love to make this discussion more personal, so please all of you reading this are requested to meet me at the coffee table sometime, I guess it would be more than the coffees worth to come out as a different person.

Deadly Racist Cycle

2008-07-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

This blog entry just came out after listening to the new song of the movie “Singh is Kinng”…The lines were like “Ek colour ke 13 patte lekin sab mein bas ek king”

What is a Leader without his followers? What is a King without his pupils? What is a CAT 100% scorer without the other 1, 99,999 (Maybe more than that) people who couldn’t crack the same. Actually everyone is unique in this society but we all have a habit of demeaning the position of others; Talking about demeaning, I think of racism. It’s a very popular word among us Indians, according to us most of the people (outside the boundaries of our motherland) are totally racist, but it’s we who have perceptions about every culture in our multicultural society. Forget cultures think about colleges, courses, schools etc. How many times have we heard he is pass out of DPS, he must be good …no offence made to all DPSites but I find it funny because over the past 12 months in Global Business I learned not to have preconceived notions about any person in this multicultural society. I don’t know how being from a particular college or a course will mean I am worthless or worth my metal. Although this school of thought cannot be dismissed totally but it is flawed, It’s the newspapers which fuel the demand for MBA courses by posting only the Rs 1 Crore packages that are given to fresh graduates of a leading B School, but then why is everybody expected to earn that amount;

All the above random thoughts come to me over a piece of music which emphasizes the fact that u need to be a King in this society, Actually the thing is its not what u see yourself as, its how the society sees you as; So I try to make an image of mine in which I try to balance my own interests and also that of the societies, so there is confused positioning of my image. Actually at this point only branding can help for the unbranded people; so the best way is to join an IIM or an IIT so the image the society has of you changes and they have an aspirational value for you and they are willing to pay for you much more than what you are worth of. But joining such an institution may lead to increased expectations on your side and maybe having a higher view of yourself and hence demeaning other people leading to racism. So a prey of racism becomes a racist….

Actual Expected and What???

2008-07-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

Branding, Quality, Methodologies, Process improvements Rebranding Total Quality Management, learn unlearn and relearn, Learning Curve, Productivity enhancement etc…

We as managers use rather abuse each and every term from the above list without fail, but yeah we do it in the Global context; But do these actually hold true or are they some words out of the fantasy land, Well I learned in my short stay in Delhi that Harry potter may exist but these concepts are more academic than in reality…………..

My recent experience with a leading bank (which has just spend some millions of Rupees on rebranding) is really worth mentioning.

I landed up one fine day to close my account in the bank at 12:20 pm. I could see four people seated in a 2000 square feet of area each wearing spectacles with lenses (two inches (radius)), but all these people never use there glasses and have a habit of surpassing the big obstacle in front of their eyes by turning their face 135 degree from the vertical axis. Also I read a board, which mentioned, “ We are a bank with a goal of providing continuous customer satisfaction through Total Quality management and process improvisation”

Time: 12:20 pm

12:20 is actually close to the 1:00 break and already the decreased productivity level was evident. They delayed me enough through their super vertical hierarchy to make the clock race another 180 degree and since now it was 12:50, they close for lunch. I on the contrary had very high hopes expecting them to come by 1:30; somehow managed to wait for 40 minutes; but then afternoon siestas are never less than an hour long (A corporate lesson for me). On continuous nagging and repeatedly insisting that I am an MBA( haha) I could get the work done with 75% more efficiency; I would have left much before but each passing moment you calculate the time you invested and the return you get so it gets even more difficult to leave without the completion of your work ( Indian attitude chal na 2 ghante wait kiya adha aur sahi)

Time: 3:00 pm

I could manage to get them and pass through their super vertical hierarchy only in another two hours, finally I got 3000 Rs from the bank and you know what I really felt I have earned my money again

SO I guess that is what Earn, Unearn and Reearn means…..

Who says mario is just a game????

2008-04-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

The world is a place where we have multiple dimensions but its funny how a two dimensional game like Mario has a lot of similarities with our life. Some very sad but true.
First of all we start very small, only in some versions (or rather in real life in case of some people) we start big but that does not mean we will not become small as we proceed in life. We always have choices to grow big in life but not that easily, we will have to bang our head on the wall for it. Life is short and we have limited time, though we may have multiple lives synonymous to multiple personalities and phases. When we grow big, big enough to get guns, we wear a mask, a different outfit to differentiate ourselves. Whenever we get our princess, always we find that she is not the right person ,the real princess is elsewhere. We may buy lives with coins and money but we cannot buy time. To grow we have to jump on top of people (a very sad but true thing which we cannot deny). Some people from the top throw their troubles on to the people at the bottom who suffer because of them, these troubles are very difficult to tackle and only way to get rid of them is to wear different outfit i.e. butter the people at the top. One ups in life are very difficult to find, always hidden somewhere. Most importantly we always travel alone in life but we always have options , to reach the goal is very important but the pleasure of living just like playing the game should be savored every second every minute because life is really short!!

Reversology???

2008-03-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Life is very predictable if we look at the time frames in particular, born brought up married ....... what if it would have been the other way round. First of all we would be born old, have all the problems, and hence learn to appreciate the value of good health and sanity. Then we would become younger and see our spouse become younger too, in the process appreciate beauty (at least physical). Then we would unmarry to decrease familiarity with one and increase with many, and finally would become a child to relish things one could not have done as a grown up. Won’t we look forward for the next day and appreciate life more???

So u r leaving???????

2008-03-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

One of my friends got a job with a leading company in her domain. She gave resignation the very next day in her present company, only to find the exit procedure much more complicated than the entry. So here goes a few lines for her organization.......... hope all the cos are listening.....

A recent article just stated that the "alumni" of an organization is becoming one of the biggest assets it has, gone are the days when the person leaving the organization would leave with much resentment towards the organization, and the person was treated as an imposter. The organizations are much more concerned of the image these employees would take into the market, and what would be the long term implications of sending off an employee unsatisfied. The employees too nowadays look for organizations that don't only employ them but make them "employable".

Most of the organizations that fail in the long run mostly cringe about the fact that some employee is leaving, rather than finding out the reason for his/her decision. It is said that success is not much of an experience because when you succeed you don’t know what could have gone wrong, but failure is an experience because you actually know what went wrong.
Its high time many organizations start having a culture which is not only a result of the few top managers, but what the organization wants to portray. Many times different departments have different cultures in an organization, which defies the concept of an organization itself.

The Human Resource department previously considered as a liability is becoming one of the most important departments in the organizations today because it is not only an entry point but also the exit for the employees. A good HR department is required to work throughout and no only at the time of recruitments and appraisals. The relationship with an employee is not only related to "money" nowadays and has many other inputs which normally are ignored by the HR department and the organization leading to higher attrition.