CWS Hyderabad - A success against all odds!

I landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad in the wee hours of 13^th December 2009. I was in Hyderabad after 8 long months, this time to conduct Coffee with SIBM. Ever since I had quit working and packed from Hyderabad, I had this soft corner for Hyderabad in my heart. I closely used to follow the happenings in Hyderabad every day. So when Hyderabad was selected as a venue for CWS, I literally ensured that I got the whole pie and nobody even dared come close to it.

As I took the all familiar and most convenient mode of transport into the city, the Volvo, I observed that lots of things have changed in the last 8 months. The city looked a lot cleaner and roads looked a lot wider. I observed a lot of changes in the intersections, the traffic and the buildings. Change was staring straight into my eyes in whatever I chose to see.

Ever since I had selected Hyderabad as one of the venues for conducting CWS, I had taken loads of initiatives to ensure that CWS Hyderabad was a huge success. I ensured that we rented the best auditorium in the best place within our budgetary limits. Within our team, I wanted Hyderabad to come out with the best outcome in CWS. Having worked in Hyderabad for 3 years, I had struck a chord with the city which made me all the more focused towards the goal. Overall, I had left no stone unturned for this event. I made sure that the publicity was done properly for the event. I had even asked my friend Shreyas to be in Hyderabad, a day before the event to sense the pulse at the venue.

Hyderabad, had just then, been released from the tight vices of what had threatened to be a dangerous agitation for Telangana. At times, we at Pune who were closely monitoring the situation had thought to cancel the event at the last minute. Different people from different sources in Hyderabad gave me starkly conflicting opinions. The situation was oscillating from good to bad to worse and to good again like a pendulum. And this was not helping at all. There have been times when my mood has also swung like the same pendulum!

And finally when we had decided that the event would happen, I made sure to travel that extra mile to ensure that all the efforts put in so far, will not go waste from now on. We sent mails and SMSs to the participants to ensure that awareness is created about the event in the city.

And when the day arrived, we reached the venue well in advance. I had asked a couple of my friends there to accompany me so that they could be of some help. I was in for a big shock of my life when I saw people turning at the venue a good one hour before the scheduled time. We made some basic checks in the auditorium, fixed all the connections and started letting the people in. The auditorium was full even before the scheduled time. We arranged for some additional chairs to be placed in the auditorium and these were filled in no time. And to rub salt on our wounds, the length of the queue outside was only increasing.

We were suddenly into fire fighting mode. With the turnout only on the rise, we were left with no option but to have two sessions now. I asked my friends to control the crowd. We got some classrooms nearby opened and asked the people to sit in those classrooms. We explained them the situation, and luckily they all understood. I was expecting brickbat showers when I went down to take them into confidence, but it all happened the other way. There were people who were willing to stand and watch the entire proceedings. In the meanwhile, Shreyas had already started the proceedings inside. I was shuttling between the auditorium and the classrooms to make sure that things were under control. Arrangements for coffee had to be made for the incremental number. The merchandise that we had carried from here was definitely going to run out of stock soon. We had to judiciously use them. Some people started to walk out in between. We did not do any attempt to stop them as we would have done in a normal situation. We avoided unnecessary questions and unwanted interactions were simply snipped off. We ran through the session fast, so that the people waiting outside did not get too restless. One session got over and we started with the second. The auditorium was as filled in the second sitting as it was in the first. At the end of the whole event which ran for more than four and a half hours, when I gave the last CD in my hand to the last person in the auditorium, I was one relieved person.

CWS Hyderabad was definitely one big effort. The intricacies involved and the complications that we ran through the process are enough proof for me to be personally satisfied with the outcome of the event. I would not hesitate to call CWS Hyderabad as one of the best phases of CWS 2009. Even in the wildest of my imaginations I had not expected such a huge turnover. That, a similar event supposed to be held the previous week was cancelled, also helped our cause to some extent. It also looks like the tension in Hyderabad had stopped only for the couple of days preceding and succeeding the event. It was like everything in and around us helping us make the event possible.

“When a man pursues his destiny, everything in the world conspires to make it possible” – The Alchemist

Watching the sun set……. Drowning into memories………

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever” - John Keats.

With nothing significant to do at the end of the day, I was just watching outside my window as the sun set into history, behind the Sahyadri ranges for the last time in 2009. I hurriedly rushed to get my camera so that I can treasure these moments forever. What makes these moments special is the fact that there never has been a similar sunset in the past nor there ever will be a similar sunset in the future. The mountain ranges, the cloud formation, the birds flying back to their nests all at a time in different permutations and combinations almost always ensure that you never get to see the same view again. The sun draped in golden charm, lighting the surrounding mountains in a light orangish red view was indeed a feast to watch

Right on the opposite side, the full moon was rising. And for some reason, it was looking different today. The colour was light yellowish and it even seemed a bit larger than always. As I saw it rise over the highest part on our campus, I was never so excited, alternating my camera between the two giants of the universe. How I wish I had an SLR!!!

As I sat in my room whiling away my time for the last few hours of the year, I quickly plunged into the oceans of memories of how 2009 had been for me. The very first day had good news for me with my name being shortlisted for consideration for promotion to the next level at work. The next couple of months were hectic and testing in terms of my ability to make some quick and consistent decisions. There have been quite a few occasions where I had to choose between two alternatives, both of them which I would have equally loved to have selected. Summer of 09 was fully in vacation mood and went totally in de-stressing physically and mentally. Come rains, and it was time to go back to school. The only difference was that this was a B school! The days in this B School also have been enlightening. They have given me a newer and broader perspective of life. The activities I have been a part of in this second innings with the books have been a big learning experience and I for sure can vouch that this would never have happened otherwise. Temporary bouts of panic and confusion, apprehensions and distress also were also seen throughout the year. It was like those necessary spices and additives without which a meal becomes meaningless. What made the year more exciting was the increased amount of time it kept me hooked on to the cyber space. Got re connected to a lot of old friends and also made some new friends online. Also enjoyed loads of evenings sometimes over work and sometime over dinner with new found friends. I am pretty sure that 2009 was one of the most memorable years in my entire life so far and it may very well be a milestone for me.

Wishing that 2010 bring happiness, peace, satisfaction, success and over and above everything, good health to one and all. J

Coffee with SIBM 2009 - Memories for Life!!!

2 weekends of action...

More than 2 months of intense back end planning...

18 Cities...

5500 plus aspirants...

Memories for life...

There was discussion, there was ambition and there was.... Coffee with SIBM....

The event was the biggest event I have ever handled in my entire life. Big in terms of the objective of the event, big in terms of the magnitude of expected turnout. Big in terms of the budget involved and big in terms of the details in planning.

I would rather call CWS as a project rather than just an event, because it in essence had all the ingredients of a project. It involved conceiving the ideas, planning various aspects, designing the entire process, working out to the minutest details and over all, the actual execution and implementation of the project.

It all started in mid October when 6 members of the Junior Aspirant Relations Team met one evening to chalk out the strategies for the same. Planning needed to be solid and strong in each and every aspect to ensure that we did not falter anywhere. 6 people with diverse backgrounds, varied talents, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, each a genius in his or her own way, joined hands together for this and made it possible.

It is impossible to forget the numerous late nights spent in the team room for discussing strategies, evaluating alternatives and options, freezing on one or two final options and sometimes going half the distance only to realize that we are walking in the wrong direction. There have loads of moments of fun and equally good number of tense moments. There have been as many moments of madness as those of seriousness. There have been moments when the decibel levels due to celebrations of each minor milestone in the project reached the sky. On the other extreme, there have also been moments when the silence has paralleled that of a graveyard.

Planning and designing the process was the most important aspect that decided the success of the entire CWS. Drilling down to the minutest details was the necessity and all of us managed to do that quite efficiently. Our team dynamics were especially tested rigorously, when each of us handling different aspects of the event had to sit and work with the others to ensure that there was enough smoothness in the process. Most of the aspects in CWS required a lot of co-ordination between the different people. The one handling logistics needed to work closely with the one handling publicity. The one responsible for finances was required to be in great sync with the one who was actually spending. In order to ensure that there was no clash of anything, we met every day and discussed the progress. Above all, we had a wonderful Senior team, which at each and every step, critically evaluated our plans and gave us the necessary feedback. This was an icing on the cake, because getting inputs from the people who have already been there and done that, actually gave us a readymade platform to work on.

There were instances where we have had to change or drastically modify our plans for some reasons beyond our control. There were instances where we saw some danger on the actual occurrence of the event. But what was important was that we were quick to realize the impending trouble and flexible enough to change our plans. Changing one aspect of the plan automatically meant that a lot of other aspects that were related to the same also needed to be changed. But then, we managed to pull it all off.

The small ego clashes, the big fights. The great arguments and the humble confessions. The moments of lending a helping hand to others, the pranks in and outside the team room. The memories of these two months will remain etched in my hearts for the rest of my life.

There have been glitches in the event in spite of the meticulous planning. Most of these have been because of our over reliance on people and parties outside the team. But this taught us the importance of follow ups and continuously monitoring the situations. There have been hiccups in the event, but that taught us the importance of having an equally solid Plan B in place. There have been times when things were going exactly the opposite way we had expected them to, but perseverance and patience showed us the way out.

Having done all the ground work, it was important to execute the entire plan effectively. What was important here was to have the right people at the right place doing the right things. With the amount of constraints we had on the time, the resources & the manpower and keeping the objective of CWS in mind, it was imperative that we leave no stone unturned. We gave our best shots at publicity using multiple channels for publicizing the event. We tried our best to have the right people accompanying us. We all travelled that extra distance and took that extra effort, because we all realized that after taking the responsibility of an event of this magnitude, we could not afford to fail. Having taken all the pains so far, it was all the more important to make sure that the event did not fail just because we did not bother putting that additional bit of an effort.

The real action, which took place over two weekends, actually was a test of the entire planning and execution process. I am glad to say that we did a great job. I personally felt that we exceeded our own expectations. We did a wonderful job with whatever we had at our disposal. With the support of loads of friends and wishes of batch mates, CWS 2009 was a phenomenal success. We managed to visit 18 cities, a never before achievement. We managed to contact 5500 odd aspirants, a first timer again. CWS had never got this big!

On a closing note as I said earlier, all these would never have been possible without the continuous support given to us. The main players behind this are the Senior team members and also the faculty and admin. We were entrusted with responsibility and were given total freedom in making decisions. And with this type of an exposure, we all enjoyed working together.

At the end of it all, when graffiti sheets carry your names, when lots of unknown people add you on Facebook and Orkut, when you exceed your own benchmarks and when people look up to you as someone really great, there is reason to cheer. The sense of gratification is simply so fulfilling.

False Alarm

This post is written as an epilogue to the post I had written exactly a month back. It was about my exams and my apprehensions on whether I will be able to handle the exams well.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. The examinations were such a damper, that after writing a couple of papers, most of the students actually lost interest in the exams. There were two particular reasons for it, maybe three.

Firstly, the question paper was printed in the answer booklet itself and after each question, there was a limited space to answer that question. And with that kind of space limitations, you cannot simply beat around the bush. Your answer needs to be specific, precise and to the point. This was actually appreciated by the faculty and majority of the students as well.

Secondly, some of the papers were so simple that it was nothing more than elementary fill in the blanks. One paper was even so straight forward that some people were actually wondering if there was any hidden catch in the paper. Few other papers tested the concepts and that did not obviously require lengthy descriptive essays to be written. So the exams were a case of ‘either you know it or you don’t ‘type of questions.

Third comes the grading system. Though it’s said that relative grading is followed, it’s not truly relative or normally distributed. In a normally distributed grading system, someone ought to get the highest grade and someone ought to fail. Our system gives more weightage to the class average. Based on the class average, if you are in certain bands above or below the average, you get a certain grade. Now, what happens in a very easy paper is that everyone scores well. The average is very high. And to pass, one needs to score atleast 70% of the class average. Which usually happens quite easily. And to get the highest grade of 4.0, one needs to score atleast 125% of the class average, which becomes difficult in the case of a high scoring paper.

The paper itself is so easy that it ensures nobody fails and also ensures that nobody gets the top grade!! When the college public realized this, nobody even bothered to study properly. Cricket was the most famous pastimes during the exams. Something which I had not seen even once during the last 5 odd months, had become so common in the last couple of weeks. Some other people kept themselves busy by watching movies and some more slept their way to glory.

I remember only a couple of papers where I sat in the exam hall for the entire duration of the exam. With a major part of the evaluations already done internally, there was no real motivation to study. Plus when you have a question paper where you need to answer 3 questions for 20 marks each and each question has a maximum of two blank pages to be answered, how long can you actually sit in the exam hall? Time was never a constraint anymore, only the space was!!

And for people who have seen work pressures earlier, the last 10 days were probably the most chilled out in the first semester.

An experience called Airavat

‘Airavat’, in ancient Hindu philosophy is the name of the six headed elephant which used to be the vehicle of Rain God Indra, the ruler of Swarga. The description itself is sufficient to denote the type of luxury associated with the name Airavat.

The Airavat I wish to talk about here, is the Volvo service run by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). Started in the early years of this decade, this Volvo service is truly one worth its weight in gold. KSRTC has over the years improvised on its existing fleet and is today one of the biggest customers for Volvo India Pvt Ltd.

The B7R and the lately introduced B9R buses from Volvo itself are a revelation in the Public Transportation Sector. With the infrastructure in the terms of good roads complimenting, Volvos have certainly taken off in the right direction. Of course the more recently introduced luxury buses from competitors of Volvo have been successful, but Volvo has clearly got the early bird or the first mover advantage.

Over a decade back, the journey to Mumbai from my place Udupi used to take atleast 24 hours. Starting at 9 in the morning, it used to drop us in Mumbai at not before 9 the next day. But today, given good roads and weather conditions, an Airavat covers the same distance in hardly 15 hours .

Of course, all these doesn’t come cheap. Airavat is definitely a bit expensive than some of its competitor state run Volvo services or even the private operators who run the same. But with the benefits that an Airavat offers, that extra bit of an amount seems like peanuts. Without a doubt, I can say that the Airavat Volvos are the best maintained Volvos today. An Airavat Volvo which has been running for the last 2 odd years will still be as good as a new one which has just rolled out of an Assembly Line (For that matter, any vehicle owned by KSRTC is better maintained than its respective counterparts from other competing State Transports). Be it the suspension or the AC, be it the steering or the power, be it the seating comfort or the cleanliness in the maintenance of the interiors, be it the accessories provided or the quality of the AV system, an Airavat beats everything heads down.

Part of this goes to the wise decision by KSRTC to forge an Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) with Volvo India Pvt Ltd. KSRTC also ensures that the vehicles are driven by only those handpicked drivers who are trained properly by Volvo itself.

The popularity of Volvo was risen when Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), the younger brother of KSRTC became the first to introduce Volvos for City Transport also. Yes, Bangalore is the first and probably the only city in the country to have Volvos running on all major routes. And this became a feast for frequent flyers, when the Bangalore Airport was shifted outside the city and BMTC introduced special Volvo services from various points in the city to the Airport at a very very nominal cost. And the beauty of this service is that these buses are specially built by Volvo for BMTC and have enough space for the luggage as well. Other than most of the top businessmen and executives, majority of the flyers actually take this service.

The greatest feature of these Airavat’s is their punctuality. They start on dot and more often than not, they reach the destination on dot. Hardly have I seen an Airavat reaching the destination more than half an hour late than the scheduled time under normal circumstances.

I became a fan of Airavat when I was put up in Hyderabad and needed to go to Bangalore very frequently. With train tickets availability at short notice being a big question mark, Airavat was a viable alternative. And with every passing trip, and with improvements on the NH 7, my love for Airavat always grew. Whenever I now look for travel options, if there is an Airavat available, it wins straightaway. Nothing else will even be considered. Every bit of the experience is enjoyable. You can relish every moment of the journey. And the best part is, even after travelling whole night, you can remain fresh enough to go to duty the next morning, completely normal.

If you have not experienced Airavat so far, I bet you have definitely missed one of the best experiences you can ask for in life.

Exam Fever

After an eventful fortnight, which comprised of a hectic week of Summer Placements followed by final days of classes, where we had on an average 2 internal assessments per day, the time is coming closer. The temperatures are rising. Not in the literal sense, but the exam fever is on.

After having spent a good four months on campus, now is the time for the real test. Though the course lays a heavy weight age on the internal assessment unlike the engineering days, the externals carry significant weight age too. The internals carry 60% of the course credits to facilitate continuous learning (Err!! What’s that?? ) and 40% of the course credits are dedicated to the externals. The main problem here is that one needs to clear both external as well as internal separately. This makes things slightly tougher, though not impossible. For people who have cleared 8 semesters of engineering, nothing is actually difficult.

These exams are going to be a tough test for many of us. It is not going to be a test of what we have learnt. It is more of a physical test as to how we are going to write continuously for as less as a hundred and twenty minutes to as much as a hundred and fifty minutes. For most of us, who have worked prior to coming here, it’s really going to be a race against time. We have literally lost the touch and the last I personally had written continuously for three hours was the last paper in my final semester of engineering. That’s over three years now and I am really struggling to hold a pen in my hands and write continuously. I observed the trailer of the same a few days back when I was writing a subjective internal assessment paper for 45 minutes. At the end of it all, I could barely manage to read what I had actually written.

Over the years after leaving college, I have hardly written consistently. I have never had the habit of maintaining a diary or a record. Whatever writing I used to do, was either one page handwritten reports or totally electronically written reports. Such was my inclination to the computer that, when last week I had to submit an assignment in a time crunched situation, I actually opened the laptop and started typing it to the surprise of many of my classmates. I was convinced that my typing was definitely faster than my writing, and also more legible too!

With this background and almost 55% of the batch in a similar situation as mine, the 10 days period from 22nd to 31st October is going to be challenging indeed. Though I am not explicitly worried about the subjects and the paper as such, I am definitely worried about what I am going to write in those hundred and twenty minutes.

Touring Troubles!!

I had joined TVS Motor Company as Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET) in July 2006. After a few months of general orientation, I was placed in the Sales and Service Department. Then I was trained on specific aspects pertaining to the Sales and Service portfolio. On completion of the training, I was deployed to Hyderabad, where I was re-designated as Territory Manager – Service. My job was primarily to handle after sales service in the territory, which for the time being was limited only to the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. This was the place where I was first exposed to all the intricacies of the job and what was demanded out of me.

Once I had fit into the groove, and I had started showing sufficient progress in my career and significant results, my territory was expanded. It now covered the northern part of Andhra Pradesh which is better known as Telangana. This contained 6 more districts and 8 more dealers. So on paper, my responsibilities had been doubled. And covering the dealers in the districts meant that I had to start touring. This also meant waking up early in the mornings and reaching my destinations late at nights. I was prepared for that and eager for new experiences.

Fortunately for me, most of the places I travelled were connected well by train. Except for two places, which were not, the remaining places had good rail connectivity. With experience, I started planning my tours such that I covered all these places in one shot. I would generally leave on a Monday morning and return back on a Friday or a Saturday evening as required.

Telangana is well known to be a Naxal infested area. Though the troubles now were minimal or literally zero, it was one of the strongholds for them early on. On one such tours in this territory, I had to travel from a place called Karimnagar to Warangal. Though Warangal is a major railway junction between the south and the north, Karimnagar is not connected by train to any of these places. Fortunately, the road connectivity between Hyderabad and Karimnagar is excellent and even the road transport is good in entire AP.

When travelling from Karimnagar to Warangal, I was late. The two places are approximately 70 kms apart and it takes roughly 90 minutes to cover the distance by road. So I started from Karimnagar around 10 PM in the night, expecting to reach Warangal by 11:30 PM. The buses between Karimnagar and Warangal are not too great. One has to travel in simple luxury buses as they are known, but to this day I have not understood what is so luxurious about those buses.

There was hardly anyone in the bus at that hour. I could hardly remember 12-15 people in the bus. By the time the bus had crossed the town limits and started moving on the highway, it had around 20 people. Half way through, I was trying to catch some sleep. The bus was travelling through a dense forest, with literally no human inhabitants for miles together. Suddenly, the bus stops and a mob get into the bus. I start cribbing to myself about the driver, public transport and God knows what else. I was too sleepy to realize what was happening. Slowly the noise started becoming louder and people starting yelling at each other, something which I could not realize.

After a good three minutes, I was fully awake. It was then that I realized that we were being held hostage! People around were shouting, crying, pleading, yelling at each other, blaming the driver and there was chaos all around. The mob which had got into the bus, were also shouting at each other and only panic was ruling the situation. They all had some crude weapons in their hands which they were pointing at people in the bus and trying to recover something. I was not sure if they were drunk, but they were definitely behaving as if they were. I was sitting somewhere in the last few seats, waiting for the drama to unfold in front of me. And was indeed sleepy to think properly and react.

One of them finally came to me and shouted something to me in Telugu. I did not understand that and I did not react. And from his reaction, I was sure that he did not know anything other than Telugu. But from his gestures and body language I understood that he wanted to rob me. Within no time, two more joined him. I was probably the richest and well to do person they could find in the bus at that hour. I was still in my company uniform and wearing the company badge. The weapons in their hands were indeed frightening. I was not sure what to do.

Luckily for me, I was not having any ornaments or valuables. And fortunately, I had forgotten to even wear my watch that morning. My MP3 player, which usually accompanied me on most of my tours, had also been betrayed this time around by my absent mindedness. I was just carrying a few clothes and a few office papers in my bag. The only valuable that I had was probably my mobile, a Nokia 1200. So I fancied my chances.

I told in Hindi that I don’t have anything with me. One of them started speaking to me in crude Hindi. He asked me to show him whatever I had. With the limited options that I had, I opened my bag. No sooner that I had opened it, the three men pounced on it. They emptied it outside on the nearby seat, only to find nothing of their use in it. Another person started frisking me in anticipation of finding some valuables, only to be unsuccessful again. One of them laid hands on my wallet, which had a few notes of tens and twenties, a few coins, my driving license and a Debit card. They probably did not know what it was. Angrily, they threw it back at me. He then laid his hands on my mobile, but my 1200, was too old fashioned or cheap for him. So the mobile too met the same fate as my wallet did. Everyone in the bus was eagerly anticipating for something to happen.

Suddenly someone shouted from outside, and they all emptied the bus in a hurry and vanished behind the trees. Within moments, the driver started the bus and we were back on our way. I was sitting and wondering whether it was a dream or it had really happened. Within a few minutes, I got a call from the manager from my Warangal dealership, who had booked a hotel room for me. He was worried why I had not reached yet, as I had informed him when I had boarded the bus. I spoke to him in broken Telugu, and told him that the bus had got punctured. I told him I’ll reach in another half an hour or so and asked him to inform the hotel and not wait for me. The gentleman sitting in the seat ahead of me was watching me in awe.

To this day, I did not know who they were. At times, I felt they might have been the Naxals, but then Naxals would have been much more professional. They would have carried much more standardized weapons. I thought they might have been some local villagers who were most probably drunk. I even at times thought that the entire episode might have been masterminded by the Driver and the Conductor. But I did not put much thought behind this possibility, because I have always believed that it’s wrong to point fingers at someone without having concrete evidence. The most surprising part was that nobody was actually harmed physically or assaulted in the whole process.

Whatever it is, I would say I was fortunate enough that I was not wearing something valuable. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was not having much money in my wallet. Luckily, I had forgotten my watch and MP3 player at home, and the mobile that I was using was simply too old and outdated. And most importantly, better sense prevailed on me to not converse in Telugu with them and act dumb, which probably was one of the reasons for me to have escaped safely. God knows how many times I had cursed myself that morning for having forgotten to get the MP3 player and the watch. But then, it was just another example for “Whatever happens, happens for a reason!”

I reached Warangal just after midnight and checked into the hotel. Next day, I went to the dealership, completed my duties, took the train in the evening and returned back to Hyderabad. On Monday when I met my boss, I explained to him whatever had happened. Till then, I had not told it to anybody. By the time I was done, my boss and a couple of my colleagues who were listening to me were simply dumbfounded. Their reactions could be very well judged watching their wide open mouths.

After this incident, we at the Area Office took a resolution that whenever we are on tour, we will not travel after 8 PM. Wherever we are at 8PM, we will halt there itself and travel early next morning to our destinations. Though this was taken seriously for the next few months, all of us including me forgot it and found exceptions to the rule when the work at hand was more important. Even after that, there have been lots of instances when I have reached Hyderabad late after midnight, or even some other places. But I made a point to at least not travel the Karimnagar Warangal route so late.

Google..... Wikipedia...... and MBA.......

Imagine. You wake up one day, switch on your laptop and try to find something on the internet. Only to realize that the Google server is down, Wikipedia is not working. Just imagine what your reaction would be in such a scenario.

We are all so much addicted to the internet in general and Google, Wiki in particular that we simply cannot live without them. Who other than an MBA student can understand the importance of these? Google is the starting point of anything we do. Without google, our assignments can never start. What Sergey Brin and Larry Page started a little over a couple of decades ago, has become the life line for millions of people around the world today. Hardly would they have imagined anytime that it would be so successful. When they first came with the search engine and went to sell it, they were rejected. In a way, it came as a blessing in disguise. Even today, if they make google a paid site, even a nominal fee of say Rs 100 a year, I am sure that people would still be willing to enroll for it. Simply because, google has become like air and water. Just imagine the revenue potential that the founders of Google are sitting upon.

As I have said in one of my earlier posts, technology has made life so simple for people that it has become unimaginable to live without technology. This is a classic example for the same. What used to take probably weeks for an MBA student a decade ago, can be done in a matter of hours now. Just contrast the MBAs of the 1990s and the MBAs today. A presentation on any topic, would require them to slog for weeks, toiling for days and nights together, looking for information on the topic. Compare this with the amount of effort that’s required today. Type in a few key words and technology itself would direct you to hoards of information sites across the world. Thus being in your hostel room, you could get all the information that you needed and probably even much more in a matter of a few clicks.

Consider the case of an assignment I had to submit last Monday. Last Sunday, when I got to know the topic, I just clicked on Google and typed the key words which appeared in the topic of the assignment. Its highly unlike of me, because I usually complete my assignments and other submissions whatever it is, well in advance and do not keep anything till the last moment. But this was a one off occasion because probably I had something more important, that I had to keep this aside. But since I was so sure that I would get the required material even at the last moment, I trusted the internet and kept it pending till the eleventh hour.

Within seconds came a list of search results and in a matter of a few minutes, I found exactly what I wanted. What was more fulfilling is that I got everything I wanted from s single source. So it was only a matter of time before I restructured it along the required lines and published it as a part of my assignment. Sometimes, even presentations on common topics are readily available on the internet.

So coming to the point that I was making a couple of posts back, has technology really helped us? In this context, it definitely has. There is no denying that Google and Wikipedia have changed the life of millions of students across the world. But consider the flip side of it. The art of reading books and gaining knowledge and information is slowly vanishing. The general knowledge level of students is slowly falling down. They hardly read newspapers these days, even if they do it’s most likely to be an e-paper. Arrival of PDFs and e-books have definitely contributed to the environment, but look at the other side. People don’t even read books these days. Everything is on the computer and people spend hours on the computer now. The skill of reading and information searching has slowly moved from books to the internet. And with Google coming in, the information is available in a matter of seconds.

With presentations and materials readily available, you don’t apply anything to analyse it. More often than not, it is simply ‘Ctrl C’ed and ‘Ctrl V’ed. Those who are a little aware and careful, take slight efforts to change the fonts, layouts, graphics and animations. But does it serve the real purpose? Even when it comes to assignments, they are literally copied word to word, and submitted only by changing the formatting, the layout, the text and text size and importantly, the name and other details on the first page. So are you actually adding value to your work? Are you really learning something from the assignment or exercise which was given to you with some intention? I am not sure.

All I can say is that Google, Wikipedia and Internet have become inseparable parts of our lives and it’s indeed difficult to imagine even a single day pass without logging on to the internet even once. Google and Wikipedia have indeed revolutionized the way an MBA is done.

My laptop... my new friend???

Life has never been the same since the 13th of July 2009. I found a new friend for myself on that day, and since then it’s almost like I have literally forgotten all my other friends. I bought myself a laptop on that day, and ever since things have changed drastically. In this case, I am not really sure, if my Dell Vostro has been a friend or otherwise.

As I have mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, technology simply keeps people away from others. The human touch and the personal attachments that we have go missing. I have experienced similar feelings. Ever since I have got this piece, I am always online. God alone knows what I do online for so long. Our classes on a normal day end at 6 pm and I usually retire a couple of hours after midnight. It seems as if I am doing a lot of work and I don’t find time for myself. But at the end of the day, once I reflect back on the day’s events, I realize that I have wasted 8 good hours doing nothing productive. Before I got my laptop, I at least used to read the newspaper properly. It would be astonishing for you to know that I came to know about YSRs death, a good 36 hrs after it actually happened! I started reading a book a couple of months back. The book was seemingly interesting and I expected to complete it in at most a week’s time. But till date, I have hardly covered a fourth of the book. Once I was in my room, I hardly even ventured out. My social life had also gone for a toss. Unlike others, I hardly watch movies on the lappie nor do I waste time browsing unnecessary things. I attend all classes regularly and I think I do a fair job in doing all my other responsibilities on time. It’s not that the additional responsibilities that I have taken have actually burdened me. In fact, I feel relieved at the end of the day, when I am actually able to look back and say to myself that I have done something really quantifiable that day.

I lived with that guilt for a long time. I even used to isolate myself from others and at times, felt like crying at my condition. I have never been in such a bad condition earlier in my life. I was not able to understand what I was doing wrongly and what is it that I need to work upon. Because, as I said, everything simply seemed fine as long as I was doing it, but once it was time to reflect back on it, it was really depressing. That’s when I met Roshan. Now it’s a strange coincidence that we both are in the same city, and for the past 3 odd months, both were too busy to not meet each other. Having understood my plight, he insisted we meet. And once we meet, he helped me realize that the root of all my problems lied at my laptop itself. Yes, it was so obvious. The problem was right in front of me, and I could hardly realize it. And all it took him to tell me that was 15 minutes over a pizza. That’s what best friends do to you. They are indeed not different from you, but a part of you. They can feel every breath of yours and that’s the best part of it. When I came back that night and shut down my lappie at 10 pm, my roommate was in for a rude shock.

I hope that I don’t get too addicted to my laptop that I get obsessed with it. I really love my lappie, but let it be under control. I have lots of other friends in my life, and don’t want to miss out on those just because I have found one new friend!

Customer Surveys and its nuances...

Last night, I was reading a post by my friend Himanshu. He has written about his experiences in conducting a customer survey on the streets outside a busy mall in Pune. When I was reading it, I remembered my initial days with my previous company. As we had just joined the Sales and Service department, among the top of our assignment list was a requirement for us to study and analyze customer satisfaction. Me and my best friend Roshan, who incidentally happened to work with me in the same company in the same function, had one hell of a time in Bangalore. We went to Cubbon Park, where couples come to spend some ‘quality’ time together. We went to Majestic Bus Stand and City Railway Station parking lots, where most people are ‘almost going to miss a bus or a train’. We went to the busy MG Road, only to realize that MG Road was way too posh for the customers that we were looking for. Three full days of toiling, sweating, hard work yielded us not more than 38 filled questionnaires.

A couple of months back, when I had met Roshan over lunch at Inorbit mall in Mumbai, we saw a couple of people in the food court handing over survey forms to people having their food. When we saw that, we relived the days that we had spent in the dusk of 2006.

Taking a customer feedback is indeed difficult. Especially when you do it in an unstructured manner. The hit rate is not more than 10%. If you ask 10 customers for their time, hardly 1 or 2 will oblige. It really sounds so trivial to them, that sometimes you need to listen to their abuses, foul language and what not. Of course some of them politely refuse, but that number is a limited few.

Yes. It actually feels bad to go and ask someone to spend time for you on your survey, especially when someone is out on a weekend to spend some good quality time with someone very close to them. You actually feel that you are invading into their privacy and feel guilty about it. When these surveys are conducted professionally (that involves a lot of cost), it may give better results, but when it’s done in an unstructured manner, its way too far from giving you the desired results.

Having learnt all these, and having personally experienced these things over the last couple of years, whenever someone, be it a college student or a salesman, comes across me asking for a survey, I make it a point to answer it honestly if I am not too busy. If 5 minutes of my time, can help someone with his work, I would rather do it. I know how frustrating it is, when you are frequently turned down by people. And I ensure that at least in my case, the person doesn’t feel the same. It’s always a nice feeling to help people!!

So next time someone comes to you for a feedback or a survey, unless you are really too busy, please spend some time to fill in that questionnaire. The poor chap will thank you for his life. And if you are really busy, refuse politely. He is most likely to have heard abuses from lots of other people. So a few calm and composed will do a world of good to him.

At the end of a satisfactory day....

Today is one of those days, where I can be proud of myself. I have been a part of the Aspirant Relations Team for over two months now. All this time, we all have done loads of work. But nothing has really been noticed. All this was related to the seemingly ‘back office’ type of work, which is as necessary as water and air, but often tends to get forgotten or neglected. Unless someone sees what you are doing, it is definitely not going to be appreciated. As some quality guru has said, “What cannot be seen, cannot be measured; and what cannot be measured, cannot be improved upon.”

We had been to Mumbai today. The entire team. One of the coaching centres at Mumbai was conducting an awareness programme for their students and we were invited to speak about our institute. I had personally put in a lot of efforts behind this, and all my junior teammates too had given valuable inputs and participated fully in this. When I was working for this, I felt that we have really started working as a team. Not too long back, I was a bit perplexed and worried about our chemistry and team dynamics. Personally we were all great friends and great people, each coming with diverse backgrounds and as bunches of talent. But as a team, perhaps we were not delivering to our potential. But this event has kicked it all. And I am sure; we as a team will go a long way.

When we reached there and finished our presentation, the amount of self satisfaction I personally had, was simply overwhelming. When we are doing something with all our heart and soul into it, we generally set a standard for ourselves. And when we are able to live upto our own expectations or perhaps even exceed it, it feels really great. When the organizers come and tell you that you did exactly what they wanted, that you have really lived up to their expectations, when people appreciate you for whatever small things you have done, when nice things happen when you least expect them to, you indeed have reasons to be happy. Believe me, the satisfaction of a job well done, is really at its best, when you break your own records. As some great person has said, “Winning doesn’t always mean finishing first. Sometimes, it means bettering your own performance.”

I also had the opportunity to go and spend a couple of hours with my grandmother. And yes, that satisfaction is again out of the world. When someone who loves you as dearly as them, and when you appear in front of them unannounced, the pleasure at both the ends cannot be described. Luckily, I got to spend time with my uncle as well and it was a trip worth remembering.

I love you all ARTists. Our entire team is simply great. Eagerly looking forward for more of such sunny days in life, I sign off!

Keep smiling. Life is beautiful

100 days...

Today is yet another 31st. The last day of August 2009. Exactly 4 months back, that is the last day of April 2009, was an important day. Yes, it was on 30th of April 2009, that I along with crores of other Indians had soiled our fingers, as our duty towards the nation. As I was cutting my nail today, I realised that the faint and remaining part of that ink which I proudly carried on my nails so long, had to disappear. As I cut the nail, I began wondering how have the last four months been for India as a whole. As the Manmohan Singh Government completes hundred days in office, lots of significant measures have taken place in this period. The only requirement at this stage is sustenance of these measures. Though this should not be taken as a shot at imporvement, the signs are definitely positive. Hoping for a great term governance from Sardar Manmohan Singh and his team!

Group Discussions... Is something actually ‘discussed’?

Group Discussions (GDs) are being increasingly used as a tool to evaluate a candidate’s ability to communicate in a group. GDs are used by corporate looking to recruit candidates from campuses. GDs are also used to check the candidate’s ability by B Schools during their admissions process also. There are still lots of various instances where GDs are conducted. In a GD, members are supposed to discuss on a topic. Sometimes, the panel expects a conclusion from the group, whereas sometimes it’s the discussion that is more important.

But having watched and having been a part of a substantial number of GDs of late, I have an important observation. In most of the GDs, the focus is on talking as much as possible. More than anything, the members want to hog limelight and make sure they have spoken something. Rather than actually discussing anything, people go on adding points, irrespective of that fact whether it is adding any value to the discussion at all. Nobody actually even cares to bother if the discussion is heading somewhere.

Ideally, whenever a point is raised, the group is expected to discuss on that point from various perspectives before going to some other point. But what generally happens is one member raises a point and another member raises a totally different point. Though both may be relevant to the topic being discussed, the discussion as such is not at all happening. And many a times, when the discussion has to be concluded, rather than getting into the gist of the discussion and concluding on it, what happens is every member starts contributing his own ideas to the group.

A big reason for this is most of the GDs are not elimination rounds. In the sense that, immediately after the GD, candidates are not eliminated before the next process. As a result, the expected aggression is not seen to be on top. Also, this gives the candidates a breathing space as to nothing is going to happen even if your performance is not exceptional in the GD. You can always showcase your talent and demonstrate your case in the succeeding rounds of evaluation. An elimination round would require you to be in the top, or rather not be in the bottom. But in a GD which is non-eliminating, you can walk out free even by underperforming. As a result, the required quality in the discussions doesn’t generally exist.

What I fail to understand is the actual motive behind a GD. The GDs are in fact no way close to the discussions that happen in organizations over issues and anything for that matter. These discussions are generally structured and in a way the focus is on adding value to a point raised by others in the team and concluding it logically before moving on to another point. But the GDs, (at least those that I have watched and have been a part of) of late, fail to actually do that. They actually fail to test the group dynamics and how people actually discuss. Partly to be blamed is the time constraint on the discussion, which makes it impossible to discuss as happens in the industry. GDs generally are 30-40 minutes long to the maximum. But discussions in the industry actually go far longer than these and sometimes, run up to late in the nights, when the matter is critical.

So I personally feel that GDs don’t add any value in terms of analyzing how good a candidate is in communicating and team work, because the team work simply doesn’t exist. The discussion doesn’t happen at all.

Back to the battlefield....

I am back to my ‘Karma Bhoomi’. After a good two weeks (almost) at home, I was not in a mood to come back. But the opportunity cost of not coming here, actually pulled me here. And what a welcome it has been! Two tests and a presentation on the next day of arrival! Man, am I really prepared for this?

But there is another reason to put this post up. As all good reasons are celebrated, I wanna celebrate this by dedicating a post for it. This is probably the first time I am coming back from home without forgetting anything at home! Everytime I leave home, I have always forgotten something or the other. Sometimes it has been things of necessity and sometimes, not so important things. Wallet, ID card, Cellphones, bus/train tickets, ATM cards, Chargers, Camera, MP3 Player, Clothes, shaving kit, Important office documents when it was most needed, CD’s and pen drives, laptop charger etc. The list will only get longer if I devote more time. The point I want to convey here is that I have always forgotten something or the other over the past several years whenever I have travelled away from home. Call it absent mindedness or whatever, it just used to happen no matter how much care I take. Something or other will happen in the last moment, and I end up forgetting important things.

Now, after two days of being back in Pune, I can confirm and tell confidently that I have not left anything back at home. Two days because, I wanted to be doubly sure. So I am really hoping that this is an indication of things changing for better in and around me. Hoping for brighter days ahead. Till my next post, keep rocking!

Walking down the memory lane..... roughly after 3 years!!!

I had been to my earlier college today. And man, I could not believe it was indeed the same college I had graduated from barely three years earlier. Loads of changes in the infrastructure have happened. Large buildings have cropped up here and there and at the least expected locations. Certain structures have been demolished and some new ones have mushroomed out. Overall, a trip I had made for some certificates that I required, turned out more of a revelation trip!

As I got down on the highway from the bus, I was greeted with the 4 lane road. And as a special gift to the NITKians, the 4 laning just starts before the college. The road looks a lot wider with 4 lanes and service lanes on either side also. This means that a lot of trees have been cut on either side of the road and also the greenery on the highway is lost. The main sufferers are those who wait for buses in the scorching sun. And yeah, whatever rusted bus shelter was there is also missing.

On the other side of the highway, opposite to the main campus are buildings dedicated to IT and EEE departments coming up (they have rather come up and only the painting work is probably pending). Not this makes 4 departments on the other side of the highway, along with CSE and ECE. The location of the entrance gate to that side of the campus has also changed.
With so many classes on supposed to be held on the other side of the dangerous highway, and this in turn requiring a significant proportion of the students walk over to the other side more than a couple of times a day, there is a flyover constructed for vehicles on the highway. The students now walk under the flyover to reach their respective classrooms on the other side of the road.

‘Krishna’ who used to be the savior of faggers on campus, has moved his location to opposite the main door. So has Reddi moved inside the campus. Not much seems to have happened with the Guesthouse and International Hostel though.

As I walked in through the ‘Main Entrance Dwara’ towards the ‘Main Lobby’ I was greeted by huge flex banners welcoming visitors for the Golden Jubilee Year. Incidentally NITK is celebrating the Golden Jubilee of her existence from 6th August 2009 to 6th August 2010. This made me wonder how many ‘quality’ engineers had she given birth to in these 50 years and how many of them had indeed made her proud.

The main lobby also has been totally revamped. The first floor has been converted into ‘Directorate’, work for which had actually started way back when I was still a student. The main lobby looks a lot brighter and more spacious, unwanted hindrances having been removed. Proper demarcation has been made outside for the vehicles to be parked and the signages too look far more professional. They are planning to have a lift in the main lobby, the reasons I was not able to understand. The classrooms also look a lot cleaner. The ‘Co-operative Society’ which was known as SCOOPS, and was famous for the bastard who existed there (and eventually got kicked by agonized students of our batch on our last day in college), which used to be located at the end of the corridor, seemed to have disappeared (probably for good!). I dint even bother to check out.

I went to the examination section to complete my work and to my surprise found out that the ‘Exam Section’ had been clubbed with the ‘Academic Section’. Overall, there have been a real lot of changes that have happened. I was hoping to meet some students who I knew, but unfortunately no one really came across.

Having done all the formalities, I started walking towards the Mechanical Engineering Department which had been my home for 4 years. The most primitive in size, yet the biggest in impact, this department building was still the same. But for some minor changes, I did not find much of a change there. Only a few professors had switched their cabins. Major work on the department had already happened when I was still studying there. So as it was, there wasn’t much scope of improvement on the existing building. The new building, about which talks were so much in the air during our final year, simply seemed to have disappeared in thin air.

The workshops also have got a major uplift. The CAD lab has become bigger and more computers are now working in there. The AC also seems to be working nicely. Individual cabins are made of aluminum fabrications for individual foremen in the workshops which has given them the most required motivation. The Machine Shop is now gleaming with a few more CNC machines and the required infrastructure for them. The ‘Fitting Shop’ has now become ‘Power Tools Shop’ with Bosch sponsoring the capital expenditure on the tools as well as their maintenance. The Mechanical Laboratories, IC Engine Laboratories also dazzle with new equipments, most of which failed to enter my thoughts.

I had the opportunity to meet quite a lot of the lecturers and professors who had made me the proud ‘Engineer’ that I am! And I was more than happy that most of the actually recalled either my first name or last name or both! Though they were not able to recollect the exact batch I graduated, they were able to associate me with my batch mates and the major events that had happened during our time.

Lots of events had unfolded in the Department ever since the current Director had taken over. A few of the great professors had left the institute and some new faces had joined at various levels in the hierarchy. Also the batch strength has been steadily increasing with the progressive implementation of the OBC quota. So the entire batch which used to comprise of around 440 students, now comprises nearly 900. The mechanical engineering class which used to have 90 students now has 140. Other departments with are handling batches with strengths of more than 100 in single classes. I really do not know where all these is headed, because with the increase in the strength of students, the infrastructure and faculty strength has not increased correspondingly. So quality on a whole is bound to suffer. So is the big question of what is going to happen to the placements at the end of 4 years. The addition of more courses like management makes things even difficult.

A great moment for me came when a Professor asked me to address the final year students. I was definitely not prepared for this one. I politely told him that it would not make sense for me to speak to the students at this point of time when I myself am a student. I also promised to come back when I become something and achieve something substantial.

I walked around the campus for a while. The hockey ground had made way for a grand hostel. So has the empty space between fifth and eighth block. I also heard that first year students in 1st and 2nd hostel blocks are made to stay 4 in a room, which is meant for three. There cannot be a bigger atrocity for someone who has probably come to stay away from home for the first time in his life. The Nescafe parlour which had refreshed thousands over the years with hot coffee and ‘half maggi’ over the years still existed physically as a structure. But I am not sure if it still operates the same way. The STD booth outside the parlour which used to host long queues in the evenings, also existed in structure, but I am not sure if it functioned. With mobile phones becoming an essential commodity rather than a luxury, STD booth operators have gone for a six. Though there was news of certain facilities for sports being constructed behind the boys’ hostel blocks, I am not sure if that has actually happened. A1 prints behind the college, is still making huge business there. Probably he is still a monopoly. The SBI ATM in campus is still probably the nearest source of students for instant cash. The ‘SNP Canteen’ as it used to be known back then, is taken over by a different management. It is now called ‘Food Court’. But insiders say they still find cockroaches and flies in the food as used to be before. So other than the name, nothing significant has changed there either.

On the other direction, towards the girls block, more barricades and higher fences are found. Seems like someone actually tried to break into. The ‘Coffee Dabba’ outside the GB is also there, and I heard that it’s still active. The Applied Mechanics and Hydraulics department and all its associated labs have got a brilliant facelift. The ‘Down Corps’ or ‘DC’ still hosts the co-operative store, but the bakery in the basement, which was a popular hangout and a temporary solution for hunger, has closed down. Sad news for the students though. I assume that nothing much would have happened in the staff quarters on that side of the campus. The swimming pool still seems the same. Don’t know if it attracts people. The SAC and the football ground brought back some pleasant memories.

Of the hangouts for students outside the campus, there has been one significant restaurant Suraj International on the way to Surathkal, a few meters before the Surathkal bus stand. Other than this, there isn’t any significant change that I have seen. The small roadside dhabas keep cropping up and down as mushrooms during rainy seasons.

The beach is probably the only place which I did not visit. My favorite hangout for the 4 years of my life where I used to stroll with my friends many a times in the evenings, the early morning jogs along the shore in final year, the temple on the beach, the loads of things technical and non technical I have discussed with my friends sitting on the beach are all things which I miss even today. To this day, when I discuss about my UG college with anybody, I derive pride in saying that ours was the only college in the country which had a private beach.

As I was walking back, memories of the four years I had spent there started coming back. I started remembering the fun we had had, the pranks we had played, the mischief we had been involved in, the hard work we had put in, the long hours we had spent in the library, the PJ’s we used to pass outside the classes, the visit to the ‘SD’ canteen every 5 minute break, the classes we mass bunked, the blunders we had made. I told one of my professors that I feel like coming back to the college at least once a year and spending one full day there reliving those four years again. I wished that I had my friends and my partners in crime so that connecting back to those days and relishing those memories becomes more fun and an enjoyable experience.

I was totally thrilled and walked out with Goosebumps. At one point of time, I had tears in my eyes also. Thank you NITK for being largely responsible in grooming me to what I am today. I owe a deep sense of gratitude to you!!

Hurdles!!!

“Life is like a 110m hurdles dash at the Olympics. You need to be fast, you need to be accurate and you do not have the time to sit and celebrate every hurdle that you have crossed. By the time you have crossed one hurdle, another one is already in front of you”. That’s the example I constantly keep giving my young cousin to motivate him continuously and remind him not to stop after tasting success but to keep moving ahead. The days of the hare and the tortoise are long gone.

A few days back, we in college were discussing among various other issues, whether people at my college, deserved to be in the IIMs. A very vast majority agreed that they in fact were as good as any other person who has actually entered the IIMs and it was one factor called LUCK which was not with them on the 16th of November 2008. And it is because of this that they could not really make it into the esteemed institutes in the country. But a few of them had actually not yet come to terms with the fact. One of our professors at that time told us this, “CAT was the deciding parameter a few months back. But now CAT is over and the deciding parameter has moved to something else. The decision will be made based on how you perform from now on based on some different parameter and not CAT. The parameter may be how you perform in your summer project, how you utilize your time here to gain the maximum, how you innovate and come up with new ideas or how well you are able to prove that you are indeed better than your peers elsewhere. There are people already in the IIMs and they will now have lots of advantages and facilities at their disposal, which you people may not have. And your competition is not the people who are in your class, but those in the IIMs, the people who were as good as you all were only till a couple of months back. So don’t dwell upon the past now. CAT is over, forget it. Think about how you are going to tackle them in the future. Evaluate the deciding parameters for the future and devise strategies on how to prove yourself in those”

What struck me bluntly in my face was the naked truth in the statement. A classic demonstration of the case ‘Do not worry about the past, its already gone’. Even if things in the past have been to your benefit or otherwise, you just have to move on. Though I have been telling this to my cousin for the past so many years, I found a bigger meaning in the discussion that day.

Another beautiful concept given by one other professor goes something like this. It is called ‘handicapped race’. In this, cars of all types (from the vintage era to the latest sports demons) are raced. But the slowest car is given a head start and the fastest cars start last. Thus everybody is on a level playing field. We also need to ensure that we take a head start in case we know that we are not the best or that someone else is better than us. Here better and best are all relative terms. However capable we are, we need to realize that at the given moment, people in the IIMs are definitely in a better position than us, be it due to the brand name or be it due to the exposure that they get. And we do not have an option but to race against them. We only have a choice of starting the race earlier, so as to ensure that we are on par with them. And this requires us to sacrifice something else. So it is all a tradeoff between what we have and what we want to achieve over a period of time.

I am really enjoying some classes and some professors we have are too good. It is these minute points which we need to pick up and build further. Hats off to those professors who actually help us unleash the potential in us and show us the path, and are yet not spoon feeding us. The age old saying, “When the disciple is ready, the master appears” is indeed true.

H1N1 & precautionary vacations and life thereafter....

I am having the time of my life. Am I really?

Vacations as all educational institutions are one of the lots of places shut down as a measure to prevent the spread of H1N1 virus or Influenza A, better known as Swine Flu. Pune where I am currently studying, is the worst hit by the pandemic in the country and having no better choice, I felt it best to come down to Udupi, my hometown. The past one odd month has been really great for me. I had the opportunity to attend the ‘Bhajana Saptaha’, a weeklong extravaganza at Udupi, late last month. This was something I had missed for the last 3 years. And no sooner had I reached Pune and was just settling into academic mode, came this bigger news.

In the back of our minds, most of us were actually making pretexts and finding reasons to convince the college administration to give us a break from the hectic (?? Read on...) routine. Swine Flu was the most preferred excuse. As luck would have had it, even before any of our attempts, the Govt. of Maharashtra came as our Genie and granted us exactly what we wanted. A week long holiday, and we were in fact encouraged by the college to go to our respective hometowns. 95% of the people actually vacated the place in awesome speed. What was more appreciable was the efforts by the university to provide more frequent transportation to the city from the campus to enable people take flights / trains / buses to their respective places. Everyone actually went home and was actually having a great time. I too came home and this time, I got to be a part of the Sri Krishna Janmashtami celebrations after 3 years.

But some of us were greedy. We again started finding excuses that Pune was not safe and the holidays be extended. We even made ‘logical’ reasoning and came to conclusions that classes would “anyway not commence” till the coming Monday and that visiting faculty will also “not want to come” to the campus and so on. We also started calculating probabilities that the Govt. itself “may extend the holidays” beyond Ganesh Chaturthi which is a very big festival in Pune and draws huge crowds. We started praying for the holidays to be extended beyond the festival, and yes our prayers were answered once again. Again, I will be celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi with my family after 3 years.

But somewhere in some parts of India, some intelligent people silently saw this as the silence before a storm to come. When I too started thinking of it, I realized what type of a hurricane we are heading into. We will not have holidays for Deepavali; we may not have holidays after our semester is over. What’s more worrying is that there won’t be any holidays for studying before the exams. As if to rub more salt on the wounds, we may have classes from 9 to 9 everyday, Saturdays and Sundays included. Daily assignments, submissions, presentations, evaluations and tests will anyway continue.(If that was hectic, what will you call this??) We may have to forget our social and personal life for the next few months and adapt to a fully ‘Gurukul’ style of learning where we are totally isolated from the outside world. Few friends have already started making analogies of what we will be going through come 24th August 2009. One of them said, we will be the ball, college admin will be Sehwag on a juicy wicket with a fast outfield and the outcome will be ‘zabardast dhulai’! Another said that we will all be put in a pressure cooker for the next 3 months and the lid will be opened only after it is totally ensured that we are all ‘fully cooked’. The crux of the matter is that we better be prepared for the tough days ahead.

So, my dear reader friends, I am pretty sure that I will not have time to write these posts as often in the near future and that is the reason I am writing it now!

ALTOPHOBIC?? HOPEFULLY NOT ANYMORE...

I am altophobic! Yes, I have a fear of heights. It has to be ironical that a tall person like me has a fear of heights.

Though I do not remember distinctly, how long I have been carrying this fear with me, I can vividly recollect memories from my childhood where there have been instances where I have had terror wreaked in my mind only because of heights. I can still remember instances where I have simply closed my eyes and let things around me happen by itself. There have been instances where I have run for shelter in the safest place – my mother’s lap. There also have been instances where I have prayed religiously for it to get over as soon as possible.

Whenever I see down directly from the terrace of a normal building, I feel odd. Giddiness takes over my senses and I feel that something is going to happen. By normal building, I mean a double or a triple storey apartment building. Giant wheels in those yearly fairs (which have literally become history now) were another thing I hated and avoided sitting in. When I see straight from the top of the building, even if it’s taller than a normal building, there isn’t a problem. When it comes to seeing vertically down, comes the trouble. And to add to the misery is the fact that I am tall and I always feel that the containing railings are too short for my height and may not contain me in case I lose control and something happens. Dying doesn’t bother me as much as the feeling of living handicapped for the rest of my life does.

I have tried to get over it at times. I had the privilege of studying my engineering from probably the only college in India which had a private beach and a lighthouse. We had the opportunity to go to the top of the lighthouse which was something like a 12 storey building. I have climbed to the top a couple of times. But whenever I have done that, I have closely held the railings while climbing up as well as down and also always ensured that my back is always in contact with the wall of the lighthouse. Even on reaching the top, I made sure that I did not look down at the base of the lighthouse directly; my hands were firmly on the railings and my back comfortably against the wall. I recently tried the same on another lighthouse nearby, but the fear still existed.

But then came my day. It was just the first week of our induction module at college. The entire batch was out on an ‘Outbound Training’ program on the foothills of Sinhgad fort (one of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s numerous forts across Maharashtra). The program was handled by ex service men and was a great experience of learning and team building. One of the exercises involved was what is known as wrappling or abseiling. Each and every one of us was supposed to come down from the terrace of a three storey building, along the walls with the help of ropes. People who had done it earlier did it with ease. Some of them who were doing it for the first time did a really good job and some others faltered badly. And the sight of this group of people made me look for reasons to abscond!

Escape routes were hard to find. Even girls were not spared. Eventually I thought this might as well be my opportunity to fame (at least in my own eyes). I thought this is the time when I should actually get over my fears and weaknesses under the supervision of trained and qualified people. I somehow made up my mind and reached the top of the building. As one of them was tying the ropes on my waist, I tried to remain cool and composed. I tried not to look at the base of the building as much as possible. And when the big moment arrived and I stood on the wall, I was surprisingly calm. This was really commendable considering the fact that there were people who have literally shivered while on the wall. For a brief moment, as I was standing backwards on the wall (me facing the building), I badly felt like asking for a bottle and get myself photographed in the ‘Lose Control’ style from RDB. Then an inner voice told me, “Zyaada herogiri dikhaane ki koshish mat kar beta, tu ab tak neeche nahi pahuncha”. The instructor casually repeated the set of instructions, dos and don’ts for the umpteenth time in the day. I listened to him and started my journey downwards.

I was at the base in roughly under 5 seconds. I simply could not believe that I had done it so comfortably. And people who actually saw me coming down and were cheering me said that it was a very ‘professional’ attempt for a beginner. By ‘professional’, they meant it was closest to the one as demonstrated by the instructors. I was indeed proud of myself. Unable to contain my happiness, I called up mom immediately. As expected she too wasn’t able to believe it.

But yes, it had indeed happened. I was not daydreaming. I had actually got over one of my worst fears. Someone had actually clicked everyone doing the heroic feat, and I am still looking for the snap.

So the big question is whether I have really got over it? Well, I don’t know and can’t say anything as of now. I haven’t tried anything like that ever since, nor have I even tried looking down directly from a high rise building. So it may be too early to claim something now, but I’ll definitely have it at the back of the mind that I have done it once in my life. This feeling is definitely very gratifying and I am sure that it will give me a lot of confidence the next time I decide to look down from the balcony of my hostel room which is equivalently on the fourth floor!

Technology and its ........

I wanted to write about this topic for a long time now. I have thought about it very often but somehow or the other it has not succeeded in completing the journey till here. This time though, I am very optimistic about that.

A lot has been said about the positive effects that technology has had. It’s actually hard to imagine life without technology today. And rightly so, it has made life so simple, so comfortable and so very convenient for people today. So much so that off shoots of technological advancements has become more of a necessity than a facility. I will not dwell too much into the positive aspects of technology here. There is no doubt that technology has indeed been a boon. Let me try to explore the other side of the coin.

I was travelling by train a couple of months back from Hyderabad to Mumbai. The journey takes around 16 hours and I was travelling on train for such a distance after a long time. I was looking forward to meeting new people and getting to interact with them. But my expectations turned out to be damp, not because the compartment was empty. But because of technology. 10 years ago, something like this could not have been imagined. One chap in my coupe was busy watching movies on his laptop. Another was busy talking to someone on his mobile. I really don’t know what was he doing throughout the journey. And there was another girl who had a book in her hand and a pair of earphones continuously plugged into her ears. She was continuously banging her head in the air, proving that she was actually listening to some sort of music. Few travelers have always been eternal sleepers, and their proportion has always remained the same. So considering this fact, I can only say that technology has separated people. If I had taken a similar journey 10 years back, all these people could have been seen interacting with each other as if they were long lost friends who just met by chance. But with technology improving every day, it has even increased the distance between people.

Technology has also reduced the personal touch which used to exist between people. Consider a formal communication which used to happen a couple of decades ago by the way of handwritten letters. People used to preserve these letters and read them leisurely. They used to get emotionally attached to them. It is debatable whether such emotions are good or not. But the point I am trying to make is that the personal touch is missing. Now a day when it is the case of e mails and letters through e mails, it has become instant, but with this it has also brought a whole lot of questions. Similar is the case will telephones. A couple of decades back it was hard to talk to people who are abroad and for that matter even those in different cities. Now it has become some cheap and affordable that it has no value. Cheating has become so easy, and again the personal touch is missing. Imagine what we all are missing. The anxiety with which people a generation ago used to wait for the postman to come, the host of reactions which used to come when some loved sprang as a surprise, the great deal of euphoria surrounding a family get together, are all nowhere to be seen these days. Credit cards have made purchases easier, but what has happened after that? People have started spending excessively and a part of the subprime crisis which has led to global recession is also because of this!!

Technology has no doubt given lots of benefits for us. But if we see that in the real sense, it has only given alternate solutions to needs for which solutions already existed. It has not come up with things out of the box and it has not come up with any new solutions. It has merely made existing things simpler, comfortable and convenient and nothing else. People may call me a traitor or a fanatic or I dont know what, but this is really a debatable point. As much as I acknowledge the merits of technology, I also at times start thinking too much about the other side of it which is also factually true!!

I am confused!!!????##^&%*%^

“I am back after a long time”. I am actually fed up writing that statement again and again. Every time there is some discontinuity in my blogging, my first statement after comeback will be that!! I really want to do away with that and hope I will be successful with it in the future. After a brief surge in my blogging frequency just after I started the second innings of my student life, it was almost a month of silence. Now owing to the precautionary holidays declared by the college in the wake of the spreading havoc of the H1N1 in Pune, I have again found time to write something. I will not write on any topic specifically, but will try to dwell on whatever crosses my mind at this point of time.

The period of silence for my blog in between has been really a topsy turvy journey for me personally. There have been lots of ups and downs for me. Especially a week in between which went real bad. And I am forced to believe that it was all the result of a well planned divine intervention. I cannot but help the Almighty for having pulled me up from this mess that I was in. I feel that it has made me emerge stronger mentally and emotionally. I really do not want to go into the details of it all and relive the agony. So don’t bother asking me either. If you already know it, you know it. And if you don’t know it as of now, don’t really bother to think about it either.

The last couple of months have been a real different experience. Having come to studies after a brief stint working, it feels like heaven to be back among the books. Having seen the way corporate work for a great part of the 33 months I have worked, I realize what it takes to be back in the student’s shoes. The exposure I have got in my working career has helped me in clearly defining what I want from the two years of this MBA course. I know how exactly I should approach the education and what exactly to take out of this. A very close friend of mine said to me just before I commenced this course of mine, “Don’t take your grades seriously. But make sure that you take your learning’s seriously”. The statement is very true considering the fact that having good grades all through my academic programme so far has not helped me a great deal. I was a topper in my UG days, but that put me in place with lots of other common grade holders in my job. Not offending any of them, I realized that grades are not of any importance. So it won’t really hurt concentrating on things other than academics alone.

Now this change has been more evident from outside. Friends and relatives close to me, who know everything about me, have acknowledged a clear change in my attitude. I have become more carefree and do not worry unnecessarily. I am much more relaxed and easy going now. However much you try to not be so evident about it, you cannot really be so. It eventually shows out. And for people who are so close to you, it’s not so difficult to realize that change either.

A couple of years back when I was working; I was a part of a management workshop. There was this consultant trying to stressing on the importance of not worrying and thinking of the worst which can happen if something we were worried about did not happen. And he was asking us to compare it with the troubles and complications created by worrying and reflect on whether worrying on it was really worth it. I initially took it as just another gyaan but slowly when I started practicing it and found it to be really helpful. I do it even today. I believe that at the end of the day, life is not permanent. So there is no point living it worrying over small and petty issues. After all, issues are temporary. Things will change in due course of time and things will be forgotten eventually. Nothing in life may be serious enough to waste time worrying on it.

I know this sounds very weird and without knowing the facts, it’s actually difficult to make sense of what I am trying to write. But I desperately wanted to come back. So what if its not with a bang?? Every comeback in cricket does not mean a century; every movie by Amitabh Bachhan was not a hit. So I do not expect this post to be great either. Hope to come back soon with a more sensible post soon.