Titleless

Amidst all the so called “stress” different people behave differently. Some take up the challenge and perform exceedingly well, some decide to sit and crib about it, some give up and a few like me decide to ignore it. Hence when the morning of a term paper presentation when groups went around swearing at the group members for not formatting or collating, I was looking thru my old photographs. (My Group had completed it thanks to one guy’s awesomeness)

I can’t help but recall and relive small moments that made me human. This is like the last episode of scrubs where things run thru your mind painting a picture of all the happy and sad moments that now seems so desirable. I had read in a couple of autobiographies or B-school books that all the protagonists go thru this phase. To quote from a movie “In your life you can either be the hero or the side character. If in your life u can’t be the hero, where else can you be?”

School, home, idealness and exploratory conversations – all seem too far away from here. Now you attribute them to be kiddish, but somehow they seem so ‘safe’. I’d love the unaccountability, the sameness of the ppl around, the mock fights, the unsaid crushes and doting teachers. I’d want those moments where i stay up at night to chat with friends, roam around on the roads on cycle and fear dad’s scolding for the same. I’d want ppl, who are no longer alive, to worry about me feeling bad before telling me to study.

I had probably the most rosy college life. I know everyone feels the same way, but mine was like pages out of those Disney books, lively and colourful and so far away from reality. But it was blissful, even amidst the “Garrrryyyyyyyy” and other expletives that i seriously miss at times (maybe not the expletives). Wonderful people, nurtured bonds, petty fights, flirt sessions, long walks, serious counselling, night out sessions, philosophical bakars, leg pulling sessions.. What life!

Somehow the corporate life was ‘lovelier’ probably cos of my frame of mind. I was blessed with a team that eventually had 3 important ppl in my life. An apartment i could call home, roomies who made it seem so, friends who always understood the touch of professionalism.. Gave me a bit of grown up feeling that seemed so different from college but at the same time more confident. Bringing smile on your parent’s face with all seemingly grown up decisions and activities, I loved the independence.

Now, well, things aren’t bad at all.. In fact it is one of the most challenging times I’ve faced and hence naturally the crest and trough of emotions. An awesome gang, a good understanding with each and a great bit of peer learning. Whole lot of bakar. Moments – the good, the bad and the ugly accumulate and all it takes is the expectation of something to give to unsettle you. Rattled nerves and deluge of situations. Mistakes from past revisited, repeated and repented.

Can’t wait to get home. As they say, away from the maddening crowd.

Out Cold and Not so Loving It!

After exhausting all the bad puns like getting cold feet, receiving cold shoulders and giving me the shivers, i decided to explain my first real winter in Shillong. For a normal guy from Chennai whose only definition of winter is to keep the fan at speed 4 instead of 5 - 2 room heaters, gloves, socks, cap etc is an overkill of some magnitude. Its 2-3 degrees in the night and 10-11 in the day. I can imagine all the log in US smirking “dude, you call that winter?” but let me assure you, people who have seen 0 of Delhi say this is worse.

What about the winter, I have a problem with, i wonder. I guess the answer is a long list. The fact that we have to wake up before 9 for class, fact that it gets dark at 4pm, fact that u just can’t stay awake, fact that u can’t walk around the campus without being covered in truckloads of clothing and swearing under your breath, trying not to shiver in front of specimens of the opposite sex – its seriously not so fun. To compound that, a problem probably that shouldn’t be mentioned here, but having to contemplate “doing your duty” in the evening time for the fear of ice cold water....

As very philosophically I observe, every cloud has a silver lining; its the gold digger who is disappointed by that. Amidst all this while I’m all cuddled up under the rajai with the laptop actually on my lap top, can’t help but think of the positives. Like the frequency of baths – just once a day is sufficient! (this is for all my classmates). An excuse to laze around without a reason. And how can i forget the oh so beautiful winter foliage of trees that are completely pink!! This place is beautiful.



You know, its not helping..I surrender. I just went out to get a book and i was squirming like a 3rd std kid who had a full bladder. Till two weeks ago, while the ppl from rest of India were wearing jerkins and sweaters, we south Indians were the studs walking around in T-shirts. Now u should see us :D Give me hot, burn the place down, call it hell, I would be just fine. But cold and to that assignment deadlines, talk of limits.

I now dread to think I’ll have to prepare for 9 exams on a trot in 2 week’s time in this cold after which, Oh wait! I’d be flying home! Yo Chennai! I miss you :( More so after I read the 2 states. Nice book. Loved it and was able to relate to most parts :D Guess we are like that only! Wonder how tough it would be to convince my parents for a punjabi girl.. :P

PS: Just wondering.. noone in mind :).

Talk about fairness

Every time I faced a situation that warranted saying “This is not fair”, i would get back a prompt reply from any corner that says “Who said life is fair?” It never used to answer the question but it seemed an extremely calming reply. Like blaming politicians, Government, population, terrorism and now recently recession for anything and everything that goes wrong at the micro level. Somehow it is built into the system to take it in our stride i guess.

But at times, situations arise that will push to the limit like a Roadies task with Raghu in it. In all this corporate mist, there is an often over hyped but undervalued concept called honesty, sincerity etc that everyone stresses but no one bothers about. I mean i can imagine a prisoner’s dilemma problem with 2 really honest thieves that will always arrive at the dominant solution all the time. But in reality there ain’t much impetus for such ‘vices’ is there? I mean this is not the honesty that does the entire assignment days in advance and presenting the facts. No one ever does that!

2 years in my ‘corporate life’ (my ex-colleagues would jump up at this), i made friends. Professionalism to me atleast dealt more with being a straight shooter, probably choosing your words, but getting the point across. That is probably the reason I can still call them up one odd weekend and discuss their new car or marriage plans. But situations change, where shitload is all that is ever dumped on u for things u do and things u don’t do and to top it all u get penalized for your stupidity in believing in such stuff as fairness.

While i sound like the beaver (??) in Ice age who has lost his acorn again, it registers on me that it is all an srk movie dialogue of two paths etc etc. Somehow, at the moment though, i don’t see much logic in all the shit that needs to be taken over such outdated concepts. Perhaps it is high time to put a for sale sign over soul?

Talking of fairness, i got reminded of one of the gems. At some point of time 6 months back, 3 of us guys were discussing girls.
P1: “Which one is .......? Is she the fair one?”
P2: “I don’t know! I have never seen her arbitrate anything before”
P1: ?????
Me: ROFL

To that my favourite quote of Jack sparrow.
“You can trust a dishonest person to be dishonest. It is the honest ones who u have to worry about because u can never say when they would do something stupid”

A declaration that none of what is mentioned refers to some level as to the magnitude of Ramalinga Raju who thought the internet was the confession chamber. Nor am i planning to go around scheming (i generally do) devious plans to have my revenge. Guess this is just regretting the opportunity cost of a stupid decision. :)

Of Hospital Vigils and Idli Escapades

Experiences can be fun. No, its not that kind of a write up where u talk of learning from mistakes etc. Its pretty much about having a fun time and reminiscing about that.

Last to last Sunday, a friend of mine got admitted in the hospital at 10:30 in the night. Not a great start to the fun part, but when I decided to bunk the assignment and went over to be of some help, I didn’t know what i was getting into. 4 people had decided to stay vigil – 2 guys and 2 girls and as luck would have it they wouldn’t let guys into the ward and only 1 visitor per patient. So of the limited things to do, we decided to stay put in the car for the night. Swear words of the driver, trying to sleep, notwithstanding, it was a nonstop riot. I mean when you have nothing to do but practice corny lines on targets who just keep laughing or commenting on batch with people with excellent sense of timing, its more like a David Dhawan movie – cheap humour and yet time pass :)

Btw after a saga of phone calls and surgery arrangements, the friend was discharged the next day without a scratch and the doctors having no clue as to what was wrong. Prayers do work. Except for enjoying the looks of the extremely judgmental lady in the opposite bed who was going into conniptions at the idea of guys who are not husbands/brothers staying beside a girl, the friend missed out on most of the fun part. Thanks to sedatives and bottles of saline. The friend later tried to trip one of us and then poison two others so that she can also have all that fun. :P

When parents of a fellow student come to visit, u generally don’t get all excited. Not unless you are in Shillong longing for south Indian food and they got with them 120 idlis with sambhar and molaga podi! I’m generally not one for exclusion, but when it comes to love, food or war – it is an altogether different game! Around 12 Tamil people and a chance few others (guys and girls), did the job of emptying all the 120 idlis in less than 40 mins to a very skewed distribution! Topped off with Sambhar rice made from the excess sambhar with an all out dip of hands into the container, I’m sure its not one pic i’d put on facebook :P More than the food, the way we had it, God! We thanked the guy’s mom profusely and assured her we’ll sponsor her tickets next time she comes :)

A mid night birthday party with wine(?), consecutive food outings, planned bunking strategies, shit load from different fronts and then laughing about it – all this amidst a week schedule that read 9 to 6 and a near 10 degree temperature.

People keep cribbing life is screwed up without realizing that it is this screwed up nature that keeps things from falling apart. Its not gonna get all that different. Faculty are gonna screw ur happiness, deadlines are always gonna go whooshing past, grades are gonna be in soup, but thats not reason enough to not enjoy the small moments that come your way. (:P just trying out JD’s method of summarizing at the end of the episode (scrubs-for the uninitiated))

A Sleepwalker's cup of coffee

Its tough to describe how exactly it feels, but i guess the closest will be the feeling of a live fly caught in butterscotch icecream. It knows it loves the surrounding, but there’s just too much of it and getting out alive is the prime concern.

I can say, without shame, i’ve sat through classes in engineering that were terribly sleep-inducing and at the end of it cover crap as passable questions and confuse the profs. But here i’m sleeping through classes that others find interesting and regaining consciousness only to realize I have missed some good 15 mins! The last time i did that was watching Jodhaa Akbar. Oh wait, i did that midway during my last blog....

Tho i thought ki i’ll write an extremely random updates kind of thingy (i remembered someone now :D), that have as much relevance to each other as Rakhi Sawant has to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan to cheer myself up.

Weekend following the term-end was awesome. Went to movie, food and cherrapunji and probably the best weekend in a long time! Awesome batch, cool bande aur truckloads of awesome pics. Something to cheer about. Of course not to mention a chewing gum is not a great thing to have in your mouth when cameras click. And ya, caves are places where a flash reminds you of how a deer feels, caught under the headlight.

Then a week of coming back to reality where after making fun of the profs we met for the first time, they started screwing us. Somehow i can’t seem to remember how I actually managed to read stuff in term 1 while all around ppl are frantically scanning pages of multiple books!

The last weekend had more drama than a sunny deol movie and since we were all players, had to dance around giving out threatening dialogues, open challenges and then senti monologues as well. The only thing missing was a badly choreographed song sequence.

One of my friends mentioned her hatred for the term roller coaster associated with life. Well, i agree totally. Roller coasters are so much more exciting and while falling, u at least know u are gonna be just fine. Anyways not a great deal of importance is ever associated to people’s words as it is to actions. As the song on my playlist plays as if on cue, you say it best when you say nothing at all :)

One more crazy thought that dawned between yawns in class is on temporal long distance. Spatial or geographical long distance can be bridged through diff mediums, but what about time driven? No its not about relationships, just the gap between want-to and have-to. I guess this should seriously be thought about.

Assignments beckon. Sigh.. Sleepwalking on a treadmill..

One sixth a Manager

One trimester over and here I am indulging myself in a movie marathon. After a bonfire and exercising my right to make a fool out of myself, I can’t help but think what has changed in the last 2 months!! (to what made me think of this, it was the dialogue “Its not who you are, but what you do that defines you” from batman begins) I can feel the change. Its in the form of jargons that I use, the way I break up the problem into concepts and the way I think letting your friend make a fool out of himself in front of a girl should not be stopped, since u never stop a competitor who makes a mistake :P But its extremely tough to study with nature’s breathtaking beauty around you :)

These are few truths realized in the trimester gone by in the most non academic way.

1) There are 3 types of people, the hard workers, the smart workers and those who think they are smart workers. I belong to the 3rd

2)Any professor who takes the time to develop his/her own theory, it pays off to paraphrase his viewpoints in class and ppts. Its not a suck up strategy but knowing your consumer needs say experts.

3)Professors who seem really friendly are the ones who are gonna screw you in papers

4)Any class, we can have A to Z varieties of DPs (Desperate Participation) and a combination of stuff too. I personally found it hilarious that people exhibit persistence, courage and a sense of conviction to ask such questions.

5)Bees love me. (Ph(f)oolish?) Courtesy of Keshav: With the number of bees around, tell me if this is a B-School or a Bee-School?

6)A smaller campus permits you to get up at 8.55 for a 9 class..

7)A 5 minutes ppt can be presented for 15 mins. If you have never seen the ppt before and u have to present it u can present it for half an hour.

8)Weekdays are better than weekends in terms of work load in a B-School

9)Exams that u need to write pages are the ones you generally don’t need to study much for.

10)All the horrible B-School experience based books, when they talk of staying up crazy hours, feeling you are slogging your posteriors off, are true.
Having said that, its a myth they actually work all that many hours.

11)Dilbert and Calvin philosophies work best in a B-School

12)After 4 years “Take it and Go” is again popular! History repeats itself

13) The key to reducing stress in an IIM is to have low expectations or be confident. I know, it sounds defeatist, but seriously, looking at a few friends slogging like crazy, its really tempting to tell them to google for some life and download the same!

After i slept off in front of comp while chatting with a friend midway thru post, i realized sleep is much more valuable than any movie, book or chat. 3 days of recuperation before the drill starts all over again.

Effect of a night's overdose

As i sit at 2 am with my thoughts filled with QT, normal curves and its variances (strictly statistics), two things strike me as odd
a) When stats can be interpreted in any way u want the data to read, why go thru so much trouble?
b) Which sadistic statistician abbreviated the damn subject QT!!!

Hence i decided to chuck thinking on this line. I'll embrace the inevitable outcome of a cruel experiment whose results will again be expressed as mean, distribution curve and relative ranking!

Now here's one more opinion that is doing rounds. That engineers will find QT a piece of cake. first any engineering student reading this would mutter a 'bullshit' under his breath. second, engineers are programed to think analytically in as narrow a term as possible. To substantiate whatever comes as answer, gather proof for the same. If statisticians collect data, engineers make them up! Hence on behalf of all engineers, its still a screwed up subject.

There was an interesting debate on ethics and social responsibility of Leaders in last BS class. I got reminded of an earlier mail chain in office on ethics (a rare intellectual one - thought of u ppl now). I believe, ethics are prone to change and history is written by the winning side. Had Hitler gone on to win the WWII we'd probably be talking of ethics that demand the Jews be persecuted. I don't know how many know this, but major leaders and writers like Churchhill, Roosvelt, HG wells, Bernard Shaw believed in a concept of Eugenics (wiki it). Which essentially was similar to ideology of Hitler. So who's the bad guy?? What is social responsibility is defined by the demands of a time.

And strategy seems to be on everybody's lips here! but the one live strategy that is reaping benefits is my roomie's, i must admit. After a couple of pens and markers that I took for granted and borrowed on a long term, now he's gone for the pink strategy. A pink pen and a pink marker and all pink highlights makes it impossible to borrow without being caught red handed(ironically) :P Move over Blue ocean strategy, here comes Pink strategy! (sorry da, had to mention this)

Now that i have successfully piled on work load, thanks to the match(awesome) and some more essentials, here i'm in classroom ready to take the plunge. Bye for now, sleep and all :)

When values are held accountable

Though tempted to use accounting parlance thanks to two HBR cases over the weekend, i restrain myself. Plan to do so sometime – accounting for dummies :P

Last Friday we had a day long marathon of Business Communication, a subject akin to dupatta for our bollywood heroines – Required, but no one cares. However in the first hour, there was a value judgement question on values and it kind of set me thinking. I’m not sure if there are any copyrights in this, but since it is not said so in so many words, i’ll risk the question anyway.

“One beautiful girl on an island wants to go the next island to meet her lover who is going away for many years.She approaches the ferry boat and requests the captain to take her to the other island – the ferry is the only means of communication. Since she does not have any money the ferry captain refuses. However, the captain says he will take her across, provided she sleeps with him. She refuses. She approaches Hermit 1 for advice. Hermit 1 tells her to decide on her own. She approaches the captain again, and agrees to his terms. She fulfils the conditions and reaches her lover’s island. The lover is happy finding her, and wants to know how she came since she did not have any money. She tells him, and her lover rejects her. She is tired and goes to hermit 2. Hermit 2 comforts her and gives her food. She wants to know how she can repay him. Hermit 2 says – you don’t have to repay me; I did my duty as a human.”

The question was something as to who we like the most and hate the most, without mentioning ethics or values. Of course a lot of people said a lot of stuff, but i thought there was much more to this than a simple discussion. The opinion of people kind of smoke out either the logical aspect or theatrical aspect of ppl (DP not included) that mirror the persona or so was the intent. But my point is what you perceive to be good does not mean that is a value for you.

The majority wanted to believe they liked the hermit 2 a lot. From a previous behavioural science test I also noticed most of them were type A personality, extremely competitive and more and more goal oriented.

The romantics wanted to believe they liked the lady a lot for she did what she did because she was in looveee. Somehow most of these people do not seem the type to subscribe for compromises. Most of them persons who get offended at the slightest hint of unfavourable situations.

The philosophical ones wanted to like hermit 1. Ironically most of them consulting aspirants!! I wonder how that option sounds in business decisions – do what you want, its your business. Since i actually know a hermt 1 character who’s only job when u are confused is to confuse you more by saying high fundu philo crap, I didn’t think it was a great idea. But again everyone is free to have their own opinion.

Ironically, no one liked the lover. Honestly, How many of us would have done the exact same thing under the circumstance?

The one character, who liked the captain cos he gained the most, somehow was extremely harshly judged. She being a good friend of mine, the line of thinking was apt for a very practical manager. But again, the “perceived value” part of it kept people from acknowledging the logical flow i guess.

Now here is my question. How can your perceived value be related to your actual values?! Its like saying just because u know what is good, u are good. If i were the most corrupt person who is trying to manipulate people the first thing i need to know is to identify the ‘good’ ones. So when people are actually trying to find out ‘good managers’ who can manipulate people in the best possible manner, i guess these tests hold good  (Did u notice i never said what my answer was? :P)

Now just the other day someone commented on how judgemental I am. I totally agree and further confirm that the person who commented on me must be crazy :P When u are interested in people, u tend to draw conclusions extrapolate behaviours and finally come up with misconstrued opinions and land up with belied expectations. Its ok. Its perfectly natural, since every third person i met here say’s he/she likes to observe people.

There was a beautiful article on Sustainability that i wrote in the mid term. Not by marks, not by the handwriting, but by the honesty of the content. I meant every word of what i said and felt good writing for long with the flow not dictated by books. If only i can say everything i want to say  Lot of small beautiful moments studding my vast sky of monotony and hardship. Reminds me of something i read recently.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.”

On that note i end a somewhat disorganized thought process.

Marketing - The courtship exercise

As I have come to observe, thanks to 5 different books we were asked to read and a class which gives the 6th view, that everybody has a Goddamn opinion on Marketing! Agreed they are experts and have done some research to coin words that’s accepted as buzz word. So I thought let me also try to put into words how I understand the current consumerism works from the perspective of a consumer.

We have changed from adjusting with what you get to demanding what we need. Its more like a shift in the marriage trends - from arranged to love- making the best out of what you get and choosing what you want. Now comes the complication of what in the whole wide world does a customer/consumer want?

Earlier people used to 'buy' commodities. Now a days they go shopping. What is the difference? The consumer is no longer a person who has needs to be met but wants his needs met in style. He now likes to be wooed, to be impressed, to make businesses put an effort to please him - visually(packages), economically(pocket friendly), with 'value addition' and in other words to be courted. And how does the consumer react? Like the most unfaithful lover, he basks in the attention and blatantly sidelines the last product that made him feel special!

Now comes the concept of brands. Someone captures the attention, engages you in multiple 'dates' manages to win a place in the heart of the consumer. Its like a speed dial on your mobile, the name you automatically remember. The consumer is willing to go for your brand despite the other brands that try to woo him with offers and features. That’s being in a relationship - brand relationship to be precise.

As every relationship grows, there comes expectations. Expectations from the consumer for lower prices , increased features, more attention and being made feel special. Now if the brand cannot do that, thanks to pressure from competitors or their own constraints, you're looking at a marriage on the rocks. Brand loyalty needs to earned and trust me, businesses are working hard to save the relationship. Thankfully, atleast here, insecurity is not the spoil sport :)

If you look at the trend of brand loyalty in recent times, its dwindling at a rate more than the skirts of bollywood heroines! Add to it the amorous tendencies of both, the brands and the consumers and you have a concoction with more potency than gin and tonic to give you a high. However, the stress in this field is so much that more and more marketing managers are tiring out much before their finance and operations counterparts. But the adrenaline rush, the uncertainty, the glamour coefficient sure hooks most people.

At the end of the day, its all business and everything is fair in love and war. Whether you see it as love or war, the subject has its appeal. Hope the enthusiasm doesn't get curbed with too much definitions and theory, that I basically suck at :)

Disclaimer: I'm a novice who has probably read a few pages in books and blogs and fallen for marketing hard. All views are my own and not to be related with the classroom teachings (my prof will kill me!). All types of inputs are welcome :)

When things suck the most

Of all the things i wanted to write, from curve analysis to sustainability, here i'm writing yet another sober piece. As someone who had a realization that life gets you immaterial of how much on top of it you see yourself, I've never been carried away in happiness. Gives me a look of sensibility they tell me, but more often than not I end up making a mental note to say a prayer not to 'balance' it out.

The reason i'm in this sober a mode today is that my mom called me at 12.00 am to tell me my bro fell from his bike and has a wrist fracture which needs surgery tomorrow. Its not a major one and hope to God, he will recover fast. More than the news, I got hit by the pangs of guilt for my 'busy'ness and a feeling of impotence that comes from the knowledge that you can't help how much ever u want!

I've been there before, for my grandparents, right outside emergency halls, waiting for doctors to give me some news. Answering calls of worried relatives, comforting my mom and dad that things will be alright while I myself have had to call up a few angel friends for that mental strength. But then, I was doing Something! Here, far away from home, listening to my loved ones worried, just doesn't let me carry on with my work. I read up so much on net and and found its pretty normal surgery. Still doesn't help.So much so that I'm pouring out here where I least expect to expose myself.

God, seriously forgive me for the jackass I might have been to anyone. I'm not gonna be asking for good grades or beautiful brides to be. if need be i'll work for them. For the next 2 years, all i ask is peace of mind, in the comfort of the knowledge that my loved ones are really fine, hale and healthy. a simple enough prayer i guess.

Seriously!