People living in glass houses should not throw stones at others!!!

There seems to be no end to the attacks happening on the Indian students in Australia. But the bigger point to be wondered is whether the way Indians are protesting against these attacks are justified.

You simply cannot go and block the traffic or shout slogans and protest as it happens in India. No country would tolerate any outsider coming there and protesting against it. The Australian Government has time and again said that they are in the process of providing security and protection to the Indian students, but most of it is still going in vain. Every morning, we get to read of "just another one off attack" on an Indian student. Yes, we get angry. We get frustrated. But going and protesting like this is not a solution to the problem.

We find racism everywhere. Even in our own country, look at the way foreigners are treated. Molestation, rape and even murder in some cases are not new in India. You can hardly forget a Scarlett Keeling who was raped and murdered on the beaches of Goa not so long ago. Nor can you forget a couple of German tourists molested in Mumbai. So its not that we are all gentlemen. Why talk about foreigners? Have we really been able to get over what Raj Thackeray and his MNS has been doing to Biharis and UPites in Mumbai? Isn't that a sort of a racial discrimination?

Having said that, I do not say that we should keep mum. The best way to solve the Australian issue is to build diplomatic pressure on Australia to do something "effective". We all agree that Australian Government is doing something. But we want results. The attacks should stop. They should realise that if that does not happen, people would stop considering Australia as a destination for higher education. Currently, Australia is the second largest country after the US of A which attracts 36000 Indians every year for higher educations. If things do not change, it won't be long before UK or Germany may take over that coveted position. One more thing that can be done is boycotting Australian products. Do not buy their products. Protest in this way. In fact I was glad to note a couple of days back, a wine shop in Mumbai openly protesting against the attacks by not selling the Australian Fosters beer.

Though much more needs to be done and the onus solely lies on the Governments, both Indian and Australian, I can surely say that violent protests are definitely not the way! As they say, people living in glass houses should not throw stones at others!

Never give up!!

"Failure is only when you give up trying; till then its only that you have not succeeded".


These words may seem very heavy and philosophical at the top of the page. But lets just ponder over it. I came across it in one the book of success stories of IIM A graduates - Stay Hungry Stay Foolish. I had put this up as my tag line in gtalk and one of my friends asked me if i really believed in this words. I spent no time in shouting "Yes, Of course!!" Somehow we could not debate much over it. But then, I started pondering over it.


I recently came across the address by Apple CEO Steve Jobs' Commencement Address to the MBA graduates at Stanford a few years back. I have recently finished reading autobiographies of Lee Iacocca and Lance Armstrong. Why go so far? Take the case of our very own NR Narayanamurthy. All of these have not become so successful just by chance. And its not only hard work. Its much more than that. More than anything, these people had a strong will to succeed
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Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, the company he had founded. But he came back strongly, founded a new company, and forced Apple to take it over and now he is again a part of Apple. Lee Iacocca, was the CEO of Ford. He was fired from that coveted position by Henry Ford because of some differences. He went on to become the CEO of Chrysler and lifted it out of bankruptcy. Lance Armstrong, battled testicular cancer which had spread up to his chest, recovered from it and went on to win 8 Tour de France titles from then on. NRN needs no introduction to us Indians. The hardships faced by him and his team in the early days were simply innumerable. Compare it to what Infosys is today!


All the people have only one thing in common. They never gave up when situations were tough. They never quit trying. They led by setting examples and that is why they are all role models and icons for millions of people all over the world today.


This quality is all the more important for leaders. Because they have a huge number of people following them. Here I can give a classic example of what I have closely seen. When I was working, we had launched a new vehicle which failed to meet our expectations. Moreover, we were entangled in a legal battle with a competitor over some IPR infringement, which we lost in the interim injunction. As a result a lot of us were disappointed and demotivated. But our MD, never gave up. He asked the R&D team to change the design and come up with an alternative till such time that the final order of the court came. Because of this perseverance, the R&D team came up with a modified design in record time. If the MD had given up, the top management too would not have taken much interest. The field team was anyway demotivated. And if this continued, the dealers and vendors would have totally lost confidence in us. And the competitor would have achieved his objective.


So I still stand by whatever I have written. Because I am a strong believer in the words, "If everything is going fine in life, enjoy. It is not going to last long. If things are not going fine, even then enjoy, they aren't going to last long either"

Test of patience!!!

Student to faculty advisor.

S: Sir, I wish to apply for finance specialisation. Will there be any test for it?

F: If the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats available, then a test will be conducted for screening the people.

S: Sir, was the test conducted last year?

F: Yes, it was.

S: Sir, will it be onjective type or subjective?

F: Last year it was objective, so it may be objective this year also.

S: Sir, will it be computer based or on paper?

F: Last year it was on paper, it will be on paper this year also.(Whats this guy up to ????????)

S: Sir, do we have to use pen or pencil?

F: You can use anything (He is definitely gonna kill me!!!)

Now this is getting on the nerves of the professor

S: Sir, do we have to tick the right answer or shade the circle?

Professor gets mad and escapes!

Incidentally, in our college the maximum number of seats offered for finance is 45. So if there are more number of people opting to take finance specialisation, there will be a test conducted followed by an interview to filter and select the 45.

Tip of the ice berg!!!

I just saw the tip of the ice berg today!! Yes, little did I think when I woke up this morning that the day was going to be so hectic. In fact, as it was a weekend, I thought the classes may get over soon and we may get some time to relax. I was even expecting a couple of free hours here and there. But in what turned out to be an anti climax of all sorts, we had classes till 8:30PM.


The biggest test of the day, was a run against time. A Case was handed to us at 9:00 AM in the morning supposed to be analysed and solved in a particular format and submitted before 4:30 PM in the evening. And all this in the midst of classes that were going on except for a couple of hours which we could dedicate for the case. The biggest irony here was the non availability of enough number of PC's to sit and work on. Somehow we managed to do it all, but in the end, the satisfaction of a job well done was lacking. This was more so because of the periodic disturbances in the form of other classes we had because of which we were neither able to fully concentrate on the case nor the classes. I frankly believe that such short deadlines do not serve any real purpose, because with the pressure of submission hovering over the head consistently, its actually more difficult to do a fair justice to the case. The quality of the analysis is most likely to suffer. I really am not experienced in this matter, so this may just be the initial fears!!


Most of us missed the lunch for the first time today. And as time passed on, hunger caught up with us. That's when we learnt a precious lesson. Always carry some food item in your bag which you can simply gobble up in a small break here or there. You never know when you'll have to skip lunch or dinner or both.


We are all still waiting for our laptops. We were told initially that the university will strike a great deal with the vendors. When that was not seen happening, the IT team volunteered with a deal. As the details of the deal are still yet to come, most of us are waiting with our fingers crossed. As the IT lab doesn't have enough systems to cater to the entire batch strength and moreover the timings are not too suitable, I wonder how we are going to cope up with the further pressure. As I said, this is just the tip of the ice berg. 90% of the drama is yet to be unfolded. But there is a definite ray of optimism. We at least have a fully functional IT Lab, which our seniors did not have. In spite of all this, if they have managed so well, there is no reason why we should not be!!


Monsoon has finally arrived at Lavale. The breeze is very strong and I am sure we will get to see a lot of umbrellas turning into buckets in the coming days. Moreover the climate is very cool and serene. The evenings are even more awesome. Moreover, the great part is that the clouds are almost passing through our windows. As a result, the outside view is more beautiful than ever before. The sunsets are awesome with the faint tinge of orange over the horizon clearly visible. How I wish I had an SLR!!


Till my next post, cheers!!! Have a great weekend!!!