Vikram's Open Diary.

Godgiri - The past and future of communication

2012-01-06T23:01:00.000-08:00

If you have seen any of the TVserial based on Hindu mythologies, you’ll remember the way Gods used tocommunicate with each other; they’ll just think in their head and communicatethe messages to whomever they wished. Someone will have a dream while otherswill get it through self realization. For example - Narada Muni, the eternal reporter, passed on his message to Shiva. Hanuman Ji used to close his eyes and offerhis prayers to Rama, and Rama in turn used to smile and talk to Him. Many devotees still dothe same but it’s not clear for me whether the Gods listen to theseprayers.

There are many communicationmediums, like this blogging platform, available now by which it’s so easy toget your voice heard to other people but it requires highly complexnetworks and processing power which were unimaginable to most of the peoplejust few decades back.

Just think, how convenient itwill be if the Gods' Brain wave communication system really works in our day today lives without the need of these modern digital gadgets. You close your eyes, establish a connection with the person you want to talk to andhe/she listens to you. You can even figure out how many people are thinking ortalking about you. There can also be a deluge of messages but you canpriorities, which you want to subscribe like on Facebook and Twitter.

It’ll obviously have it negativeimplications as well, but you can go into invisible mode or simply blockthe person you don’t want to communicate with. I read an article in the Economistthat scientists have developed a technology by which it’s possible to know whata person is thinking, as a certain part of the brain is activated in theprocess.

Right now, this thought alsolooks childish or quixotic, but I’m sure there will be a time when this will bepossible. There will also be hackers who would like to break into your head andtry to get the access to the data stored in your brain cells, with new rulesbeing drawn up to stop the malpractices.

There are some artificialintelligence applications available now which can talk to you like real people,sometimes even better.

A real chat on Cleverbot.com

It’s only a matter of time whenthese technologies are advanced to a next level when there won’t a need for anytechnology at all and it will be as simple as the Gods have in the TV serials. Evenyou will need to visit this blog as I’ll directly send my thoughts to you andget your comments!

Come, let’s talk :)

2011-12-26T14:37:00.000-08:00

It’s not that I’ve stoppedtalking to you because I’m being lazy. I guess, I was not putting my thoughtsin the right words, so I was writing the posts and then deleting these.

Sometimes, I was talking bywriting it in the notebook. For example- while sitting face to face with US Consulate General in the board room, evincingmy interest in the climate change issue but scribing the squabbling in the diary.Professor sitting opposite to me too had the same kind of diary; we designed it andgot it printed to gift to our alumni earlier this year.

Last week, the marketing head of acompany, the biggest tobacco brand in India, too was giving his life’s learningfor free. He’d given us all a pen and a notebook as an incentive to listen tohim, and I started putting down the bickering to the words instead of payingattention to his story of breaking into top brands league. The page wasshredded into pieces later on, just after coming out of the auditorium. It’sbetter to let the thoughts die sometimes.

Yeah, let’s get back to thetalking issue, which I want to build this story up on.

This goes back a rather a longertime – almost 15 years, I must have been in 6^th standard then.Another guy Surjeet, just in my neighborhood, whose home used to face our homeat ninety degree angle, was also in the same class. He got himself electrocutedfew years back, while trying to catch a bird. It made him sweaty most of thetime, even while sitting under the fan. The black color of his skin made iteven harder for him to get into Sun, as his face absorbed most of the rays, Ididn’t knew this physics concept before reaching into the 12^thstandard. He was very silent most of the time, but we were good friends andused to walk to the school together, which was more than a kilometer away. Itused to take us almost as much time as the rays take to reach the earth.

It was December, the cold gotboth of us coughing like dogs, but he blamed me for his cough because it caughtme first. Other classmates too started pullingmy leg every now and then accusing me that I got the cough from the puppies andwas spreading it to the whole class. In the moment of embarrassment, I hit my friendSurjeet because he was taking side of other students instead of being with me.Both of us grappled with each other, pulling the hair and running around theclassroom. A teacher gave us both good beating for it.

We stopped talking over it. Thecough was gone but not the anger. We had common friends, studied in the sameschool for next four years till the 10^th class but neither of us letgo of our egos. We kept going to each other’s home, talking to other familymembers, who didn’t seem to know that the kiddos were not on talking terms!

The group study, doing homeworktogether, climbing the Neem tree, running the cycle tyre, playing Kanche, all stopped all of a sudden. Wecrossed each other path many times but the eyes didn’t meet. After 12^thclass he got into the Army at the age of 18, I moved to Kota and then to Kgp.It had been almost a decade since we talked. His younger brother too got intoArmy, both of them got married in a joint marriage, as it’s a common practicethere.

Now it was the summer time in2005, I came for the semester break after my 2^nd year; he too camefor two months leave, a tough time to be in the heat of Rajasthan. One fineevening, both of found ourselves in the same kabaddi team. He was almost double the size of me now, a perfectarmy man. We played the match, covered in the dust; we held each other’s hand andstopped the other team’s players. After the match, both of us looked at eachother and started laughing hysterically.

Other friends asked, what’s thematter? I said, guys it’s a special day, we have talked after a decade. Now itwas time for others to laugh at both of us. I asked him, “Did you think abouttalking to me during all these years?”

He said, “yes, But I wanted youto talk to me first. I even forgot why we stopped talking!”

“Yeah, it has been a pretty long time;I guess it was in the 6^th class. Even I thought the same that lethim talk to me first.” I replied.

It has been more than six yearsnow, I’ve not met him since that Kabaddi match, in fact I didn’t even remember ourlast meeting till I started writing this post. All I remember is the time bothof us wasted by not talking to each other. The ego we succumbed to and the funof playing together we missed.

This thought crossed my mindbecause I have got into a similar situation now, I made a mistake. I hope I don’tdevelop a similar ego problem again and I should extend the hand of friendshiponce more.

We should let our personalities bedifferent, if they are so, and start talking all over again.

Nostalgia - IIM Kozhikode

2011-11-13T15:22:00.001-08:00

“Iwant to know each and every one of my batch mates and befriend them all, it maytake a month or two, but I really want to develop this culture of learningwithin a community here.” This is what was going on in my mind when we wereasked by our institute’s director Prof.Debashis Chatterjee to let the mental chatter come out on a piece of paper, on the very first day at IIM Kozhikode.

Thissense of bonding with the fellow students and colleagues probably comes due tomy upbringing in a village, where I know most of the people, not just my neighborsbut people from one corner to another.

Creatingand moderating online social groups for my batch at IIT Kharagpur is somethingwhich is not mentioned in degree/certificates obtained but the experience is verymuch valuable.

Thespirit of building a community continued as I was elected to Alumni Committeeat IIM Kozhikode. Theopportunity to talk to my seniors from different batches and the stories oftheir time in the Kampus has been something which I didn’t imagine that I’llget before coming here. The excitement of preparing to organize our first everInternational Alumni meet, Sangam’11, cannot be described in words. Thepleasure of seeing two alumni of PGP01 batch meet for the first time afterleaving IIMK is something which I’ll cherish for long time.

Asthe days of stay at the Kampus are in double digits, there are many importantthings to happen, appearing for placements being one of them, but the focus isset on Nostalgia 2012 – the on campus alumni meet. It’s just two months awaynow, and we are back to work to make it even better than all theprevious meets.

It’llbe the 10^th year of PGP2002 batch and I’m sure all of themwould like to come together and enjoy the New Kampus, which was ready only by their juniorsadmission. For all of the alumni it’ll be a much needed break from their busycorporate schedule to enjoy and relive the two years of their college life injust two days during 14^th-15^th January 2012. The 2^ndedition of Cultural fest Echoes is definitely going to be another attractionand will surely bring back the excitement of the carefree youthful days.

Forme, personally, it’ll be another chance to work in a family like setting withmy batch-mates and juniors and strengthen the bond with the God’s Own Kampus.

Intoxication Free Campus - A Crazy Idea

2011-11-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Laughing at this idea is encouraged - your lungs will get some fresh air :)

It’svery clear from the studies on smoking practices that most of the people startsmoking while they are living their school or college life. The easy availability oftobacco products in and near the campus increase the chances of students tryingto smoke and being habituated subsequently.

Aperson's friends help in starting the bad habit of smoking, sometimes unknowingly. On the other side,no one can be a better help than a dedicated group of friends who are committedto help their smoker friends in the process of quitting the habit of smoking. Thesocial support along with the alternatives to tobacco products is very much needed ineffectively countering the menace of smoking in the youth.

The biggest fear for the early smokers is to get caught by their parents, partners or close friends who care for their health and well being. However it’s important that the caring person come to know about their smoking problem before they get addicted to it and it’s too late for them to quit.

There is need for anti-smoking campaign targeted on parents as well, so that they can talk to their kids about the harms of smoking and prepare them for the unwanted habits which they might be getting in their school/colleges otherwise.

Thereis a need for Intoxication Free Campus Campaigns across the world. To beginwith we can start the anti-smoking awareness campaign on the social networkingwebsites such as Facebook and Twitter, where most of the educated youthsocialize. Theonline forums for helping the addicted people in quitting are also there, butthey are not as effective as the regular as the personal attention by the closefriends. The online pages/forums and groups can help people in smoking cessation by providing and sharing useful information, however the smokers keep avoiding these as long as they are not self driven and determined to quit. The social help can only support them, but the determination to quit has to come from the within.

Helpinga friend or partner in quitting can be as much difficult as quitting your own,hence it's very important for the friends to be emotionally strong. To quitsmoking is one of the hardest things to do. Theimportance of not nagging and making their life stress free is very important.For example a friend can join its friend to a quit class, so that the friendcan understand the process of the quit and be more supportive.

Whena friend forces something on the smokers, it makes them back away fromthe quit and makes it much more stressful process. One thing we need toremember is that nobody is going to quit anything unless they want to. Forcingthem to quit and bothering them is very different from being supportive.

Rewardingthe smokers in quitting process is important. Reminding them that you are proud of themand acknowledging that it's a very hard process and it takes a very strongperson to go through that process and you are always going to be with them

Theinstitutes of higher learning and the public schools in cities, where theadministration is relatively better than in schools and colleges in smalltowns, can kick start a campaigning for intoxication free campuses. The strict implementation of governmentdirectives in the educational institutions is needed to stop smokers from influencing other students who have not yet started smoking.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/IntoxicationFreeCampus

[ This post is based on a report submitted in Consumer Behavior Course at IIM Kozhikode - PGP/14/123 ]

The Imaginary Girlfriend - My Experiment with Falsehood

2011-10-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Prof. “Fortunate Blessings” asked me not to writethis experience in a blog, but it was a kind of experience which makes me laughwhenever I think about it. As they say “one lie leads to a hundred other lies”and it came true during those twenty minutes. Lying doesn’t come naturally tome but that day it seemed, even to me, as if I was telling the truth. It wasthe GD-PI for entrance into IIM Kozhikode at Monarch Luxor hotel in Bangaloreon 15th April 2010.

I was the second last to be interviewed; it wasaround 5:00 PM in the evening. I did not have my lunch and was quite boredlooking at the worried faces of the other boys and girls in the black suites. Icame down to the reception and browsed through the TOI. A line caught myattention in anarticle about Oprah Winfrey. "I've confronted her and asked, 'whydo you tell such lies?' Oprah told me, 'that's what people want to hear.The truth is boring',”

I came upstairs only to wait for my turn.Finally, Prof Blessings (PB) came out of the room, tucking in his shirt as headjusted his belt. I thought he must be an Alumnus of the college; a professorcannot be so young and handsome. A kind of stereotype formed during IITKharagpur.

“Are you Vikram?”, he asked.

“Yes Sir”, I nodded.

“Please come in”, he invited and went back.

I took out my mobile, switched on the voicerecorder and put it in the chest pocket of the coat. I took a deep breath andwent inside the room. Our GD too happened in the same room. They had removedthe bed of a normal hotel room and put a table and few chairs to make it aninterview room.

Prof. Pleasure (PP) put his mobile for chargingand started with a smile. The questions about my work, technologies like GSM,CDMA etc continued for 2-3 minutes.

PP- So which mobile do you have? Show it to me.

I was ice cold for a second. The mobile wasrecording the conversation. Does he know about it?

I somehow kept the composure, took it outcarefully, saved the recorded file and gave it to him.

“It is an ordinary phone!” You are earning 50-60kper month, why don’t you have a smart phone?

I told that it was good enough for my needs; I’llbuy a better phone when I reach IIMK. (I still have the same phone). Heinquired about its features and returned it to me. This time

I didn’t dare to switch on the voice recorder.

PB asked me about my hobbies- which I said to bereading novel and writing blogs about my experiences.

PB - Blogging is good habit but please don’twrite about the questions which we ask you, it gives an unfair advantage toother people.

Ok Sir, I’ll write only if I make it to IIMK.

PP - So which is your favorite Novel?

Its “My name is Red”; (luckily) I didn’t say“Atlas Shrugged” which I had read just a week before.

I told something about it as my mind wondered fora moment about Shekure – the Lady in the Novel. It brought a smile on my lips.Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel winner, has done some good work while writing it.

PP – You look smart; you must be having aGirlfriend, don’t you?

I thought what a weird question is this? I surelydidn’t have a girlfriend; in fact I didn’t even have a good female friend inthose days. But why should I be a loser!

“Yes Sir”, I replied with a smile.

PP looked at PB and said, now a day’s everyonehas a girlfriend, we’ve asked all the eight students today and every one ofthem has a girlfriend! Time has changed. We are the only people who wereunlucky, or probably we are not as smart as these people are.

I kept mum, I thought it’s over with this answer,but there was more to come.

PP- So what’s her name? How did you meet her?

Now the challenge begun!

Her name is Richa Sharma and she’s my friendsince I was in 12th Class. We went to tuitions together, later on she went toIIT Roorkee and I went to Kharagpur but we stayed in touch.

PP- Where is she now? And are you from the samecaste?

Sir, she’s in Adobe Gurgaon and she’s a Brahmin.(I didn’t know that there is no Adobe office in Gurgaon, but it somehow came onmy tongue.)

PP- Did your parents know about it, didn’t theyobject to it?

Sir, we have already told about our friendship tothem. Even though we are from different castes but our parents are welleducated and they are ok with it.

PP- But you are staying in Bangalore, how are youkeeping up with your relationship?

We generally talk over phone, and we regularlyvisit each other within two months.

PP- Do you believe in Live-in relationships?

I believe that Live-In relationships are alright,but I would marry her before staying with her permanently. (Our GD case wasrelated to Live-In relationships and I spoke on the both sides of it)

PP- So, you are from a village. People mustworship you there; he asked with a quirky smile.

Sir, no one worships me but whenever I go home,people do ask me about education for their kids and which stream to choose.

PB- You raised some good points in GD but youwere not assertive and your spoken English isn’t good enough for an IIM, howwill you cope with it.

I’ll improve it when I reach IIMK. (I’m yet to doit)

The conversation continued for around 20 minutes.I kept smiling most of time. I wasn’t even aware whether I was speaking or itwas someone else who was doing all the talking.

PP- What is the probability of getting into IIMK?as he unplugged his mobile from the charger.

Its 99% my preparation and 1% luck. (What astupid answer for a probability questions)

PP- Well, your interview is over, you may leavenow.

Finally I came to IIMK. I’ve always told myfriends that I have a girlfriend and I’m deeply committed. I don’t know whythey believe it. Probably it’s something like a Fight Club type story.

Now as I sit in PP’s class I think my answers wereaffected by subliminal priming because of article about Oprah or it had tohappen this way.

I think that even Adobe has got a connectionin it, as I was planning to join it if I could not have come here.

Politicians as Brand Ambassadors

2011-09-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

They are some of the most talked about species on the earth, criticized, abused, dissected like a dead cockroach in a biology lab, some of them are not even good looking, every move of them is analyzed by the overzealous media, and millions of new age social networkers have fun reading stories about them.

On the other end of the spectrum, they are revered like Gods; if they sneeze, thousands of well wishers line up to their residence, offering prayers, doing yagnas, plastering walls with get soon well hoardings, filling up the newspapers with advertisements for their speedy recovery. If they want to address a meeting lakhs of people turn up without any marketing. Roads are jammed if they move in city…you can just keep thinking about the influence they have on the day to day lives of common people like you and me.

Source: BBC News

As you must have understood by now; I’m talking about a species called Politicians!

Now as an Management student, with inclination towards marketing, what can I look for in these phenomenal creatures? It’s something which none of your marketing professors may have bothered to tell you even as an example.

Yes, apart from the plethora of duties they have for the society, they can do wonders for the companies and that too in an ethical manner. Just think the value they can add to promote a product amongst the people in their area and even on the state/national level.

For example: An MLA or MP can promote a loan schemes for farmers in his area. An MP from a city can help in selling apartments in a locality. A women leader can encourage jewelry and khaddar amongst her followers.

By now, it’s obvious that you must have got some questions about this proposition. Some of them which come to my mind right away are –

Is it a politician’s job to promote a certain brand?

My friends, if a cricketer or film actor can sell products from toothpastes to under wears of any sort of quality, then why can’t a politician encourage people to use a tractor of certain company which have explicit and proven benefits over its rivals. If a product can help people in genuine ways that it’s wise to give a face to it.

Do they have experience in marketing?

Yes, you must have seen photos of ministers, political party leaders on posters promoting government schemes, even on the schemes which many of them may not even understand about. In fact winning an election involves tremendous marketing efforts. The sheer amounts of people, a leader moves to win a Parliament election, and that too with very tight budget, can be any marketers dream. They may not be having degrees from top colleges but they certainly do have promotion and people management skills.

Are politicians supposed to benefit by promoting a company’s product?

Why not? Even they have their families to feed. Given the amount of supporters and the machinery they have to use to put even their own banners and posters during a high level leaders visit to their area. This all must be costing them a lot of money, what is wrong if they can earn few bucks by offering their services instead of collecting donations on birthdays.

How can this be implemented?

I hope some of you may have liked the idea, so let’s think about putting this in to practice. If companies and individuals can give donations in transparent as well as non – transparent ways, then doing it in open would definitely encourage more transparency in the system. The pathways are filled with the posters of products like TVs, Telecom Networks, Jewelers and the political leaders as well. If we can combine these two, it can be a win-win situation to both sides. A product can be visible to people along with the politicians faces.

On the funny side, just think of A. Raja promoting Uninor telecom. Suresh Kalmani promoting surf excel “Ye daag acche hain” and Rahul Gandhi promoting “Fair & Handsome”!!!

I’ve certainly not put some 4Ps and 5Cs of marketing in this … but this is not so hard to understand..is it?

Cheers till the next post.

The 10th Board Examination

2011-06-20T15:33:00.001-07:00

Yaar, I’ve a case discussion in a class! I’m getting late. Can I call you in the afternoon?

Which class is that? You are still going to classes? When will you stop these studies Boy!

It’s called SDM.

SDM? Sub Divisional Magistrate?

No, it’s not that SDM; it’s called Supply and Distribution Management.

Ok , I’ve called you after many years, you don’t know how I managed to get your mobile number and now you have got a case! You solve your cases later on. I’ve got amazing news to share with you.

Oh ok, what is it?

A chap has got into 10th board merit from our school. Finally someone has done it.

Ohh great! Who is he?

Yeah man, finally it is. It’s the principal’s son Prakhar Bansal.

Really, I’m so happy, we all used to be so much fascinated with the merit holders in our school time. Is that guy from our village?

No, actually that principal got his son registered in our school, otherwise he didn’t study there, he came to write the exams only from the nearby town, and you know some help is always there when it’s all happening in your backyard.

“he he, now don’t discredit the kid of his hard work. You were always suspicious about my marks too. You won’t understand what it takes to get first rank in the school”, I said.

Oh yeah! can you see his name on the internet? How much marks has he got? He asked.

Ok, let me try, Yeah, I found the name and roll number. Wait a second! Hey, here it is. Our dude has got 93.83%, and you know what his mother’s name is?

Hehe, Now what has his mother’s name got to do with it?

Haha, it is Sumita Agrawal! Sounds familiar, isn’t it?

Really?

Yeah, you remember, two girls with the same name were amongst the eight students whose results were declared in our time, out of the 180 students who wrote the exam at the center in our school.

Hehe, right! But there is more in this name. I can guess he was smiling on the other end of the phone.

Dude, I’m already late to the class, I’ll talk to you in the afternoon.

I entered the class, putting the mobile in the silent mode, looking for some empty chairs in the last rows, but as always the rows at the back always fill first, most of us are so scared to sit in the first row. It’s totally opposite to the school days, where we used to fight to sit in the front rows.

I hurriedly sat in the second row, first row was still vacant. I tried to flip through the pages of the case book. I haven’t even read the case; in fact I didn’t even know which case it was.

As I was still turning the pages, I felt as if I was sitting in that class room under the peepal tree, right next to the Hanuman ji ka mandir. All the girls sat in the first row, they had few advantage of being girls, and it was one of those. they got to sit in the first row, no matter how late they come to school.

“So, how are the preparations going for the board exams?” She asked without turning back.

I knew the question was for me only, not for the girl sitting to the right of her. I had come to school after many days as I was busy preparing for the final exams at home, there was no teaching in the school those days.

“Yeah going on fine, it’s just two weeks now. How’s your preparation? Still coming to school?” I replied.

The room was dark; the windows were sealed by bricks and plastered. The black patches looked strange on the white wall. It was second time that school was hosting the board exams and it was one of the sensitive centers. Being a village with majority of Jat and Gurjar population, the authorities didn’t want to take any risk.

Yeah, I thought someday you’ll show up, you vanished in thin air as if you never were part of this school, she whispered again, without looking back, only I and the girl sitting next to her could hear it.

“Good then, I’m leaving, I just came to collect the admit card today. See you in exam. Prepare well”.I said as I prepared to leave. I could see the smile disappear from her face.

I picked my notebook and rushed out of the class room. I didn’t want to stay there. Everyone in the class felt strange to me in those times, I used to feel as if I didn’t have any friend there and everyone was competing with me in one way or another, to get the attention of the teachers or someone else or to become the topper of the school.

It was morning of 23rd March 99; I woke up early, as it was the day when the board exams were to start. I must have been cramming the essays, it was my weak part. I got my tea in the bed that day; father brought it along with the news paper.

Your exams are cancelled. The English paper was leaked last night! He said with a bit of disappointment on his face.

I, on the other hand was quite happy about it. I put the passbook on the side of the bed, grabbed the newspaper and read the news myself. The exams had really been cancelled.

I came out of the room, as if the exams were over on that day itself. Most of the friends, whom I met that morning, were quite happy too. We all went to play cricket in the afternoon that day.

After a week or so, the new date came as 22nd April. We all got one more month to prepare.

This time again we were all ready to write the exams, I was again cramming the essays in the morning that day, but as the luck would have it, the papers were leaked once again. But this time I too was not happy along with my father.

It was getting quite boring; after all it was end of the April, when will the exams start? I was getting really frustrated after so much preparation, how many time would someone read those books, I even had a marriage to attend in the family in the first week of May, which I was planning to go for sure after the exams.

The new date was declared by the end of the April. It was 13th May. The local politicians demanded fans in the class rooms but that was all in the talks, who will arrange fans for a million students in two weeks.

The marriage was on 6th May. Now I worried that I could not attend it, I knew it for sure. But somehow father agreed. He allowed me to go to it, the request made to mummy worked.

Finally it was the eve of day; the 13th May had come at last. I was hoping it doesn’t get shifted once again. It was really very hot during that time. I had really put in my best in the preparation. I had never stayed awake after 10 PM unless it was the Friday night movie on DD-1. But now I couldn’t sleep even after 11 PM, father would ask me to sleep, quite surprising, I thought!

The power cut had its own timings; it didn’t matter if it was exam time. My father would clean the glass of the kerosene lamp and lit it up at the roof top. It was better at the roof; it is a common practice for the people to sleep at roofs during night time. We didn’t have the water cooler either and the fan was useless, as it was just hot air blowing on your face.

I woke up early, still struggling with the essays. This time I had written these in Hindi, and was planning to translate the sentences, which I had mugged up, directly into English. I reached the exam center along with my father. I said I would go alone but he insisted to come along. It was an electrifying scene there. Students had come from nearby villages on cycles, motorcycles and tractors while some on foot. More than students, the people came to see the board exam, what does it feel to appear for a metric exam, they just wanted to have a look at the preparations there.

I was chatting with my friends, wanted to be away from my father, how other students would think about me that I had come with my father, and I was still a kid in nursery. No one wanted his parents to come to school. They used to come only if someone had big fight with some teacher or other student and the rustication was on the cards.

Then one of my classmates tapped me on my shoulder and indicated to one big fat man, it’s him. He smiled at me, shook my hand and said, so you are Vikram!

I think it was the first time someone’s father shook my hand; it was not a common practice for the elders to shake hand with boys of my age. He’s her father, my friend informed!

I was surprised, why would he come to me. Has he also come to know about the rumors which my classmates have made up? I gathered myself hurriedly and said, “Namaste!”

So, how are the preparations? He asked. Which one of you is getting in to the merit list? You or she? Both of you have got good competition. Let’s see who had prepared well.

I smiled, let’s see, I haven’t prepared well. But she is very intelligent. I hope she’ll make it to the merit.

Why not you? Students like you only do it. You have prepared enough for it, he said, smiling at me.

My father saw us both, he came towards us. By this time the gate had opened. It was the first time I had seen policemen guarding our school gate. She too came towards us from a corner where all the girls were chirping like birds at the dawn. She was smiling as she walked towards us, keeping her eyes straight, she didn’t even look at me. Her father kept his hands at the heads of both of us. Do well! He said.

“Take it easy, and don’t rush to finish the paper, take your time before writing the answer”, my father suggested.

Both of us moved towards the gate, tried to see our seats on a display board, students were hurdling in front of it. We are in the same room, she said, finally looking towards me, but still avoiding the eye contact.

We were not only in the same room, but very near to each other. Out of the four rows in the room, my seat was at the end of the fourth row while she was at the end of the third row. We were seated just two-three feet away from each other. Both of us laughed after seeing that, we felt as if our school teachers had knowingly arranged it this way.

The exam started, unlike normal exams, lots of instructions were read out by the invigilator who was one of our teachers from the same school. A team of teachers checked us thoroughly if we had any paper or unwanted material. The first part of the paper had multiple choice questions and it started at 10 AM; it was for half an hour. After around twenty minutes, the peon of the school came with a jug of water, his son was my classmate and he was also writing the exam at that center only. The peon offered me water, I denied, I thought that the exam had just started, and it was too early for the water break. But his purpose of the visit to my seat was something different. He slipped me a small piece of paper, and asked me to write the answers on it and left to make a round of the room with the jug in his hand. He came in two minutes, asking everyone if they wanted water. I had not written anything on the paper and rolled it into a small ball and threw it out of the door which was just in front of my table.

He came back to me and asked for the paper slip. I said, “I threw it”. He stared at me and left, without saying anything.

In next few minutes, the first part was collected and the second part was given. The answers to these questions were to be written on an answer sheet which was given before the start of the exam. It was made of good quality paper; I had never seen such a big answer sheet. How someone would fill it, I thought for a moment.

I started with the essay, it was my weakest part, and it had a significant part of the marks. I started with the translation work. I sneaked a look at her; she too was busy writing with her new pen, which was brought by her brother from Jaipur, especially for the board exams. She too gave a look towards me, which I could notice, but I continued writing, as I was in danger of forgetting the essay!

It was almost an hour now; the peon came back with the jug of the water, and slipped a sheet of paper once again. I threw it away in front of him only and warned him that I’ll tell invigilator. This time he left without even looking at me.

The time was running short, I wrote whatever I could, and English was never my strong subject, so even more worries. Finally the time was over, and I could hear the chatting of other students as I was the last person in the room and still trying to finish the answer but the invigilator snatched the sheet.

So how was it, you were writing all the time, she asked after coming out of the room. I said, “It was ok”.

After coming out of the school we came to know that some of the students in other rooms were caught cheating, their answer sheets were seized and new answer sheets were given, it was all the talk about them afterwards, and no discussion about the paper as it happen in schools in cities.

The exam continued, the peon didn’t come with the sheet again as I had told my father about it and he complained to the center in charge before the exam next day.

It was first paper of the math; most of the students were worried about it. By now everyone knew that she and I were sitting next to each other and they used to come to see us in our room just before the start of the exam, as if we were some items!

In these three four days, the students were comfortable in talking to each other during the exam; we too used to steal a moment from the invigilator and ask each other the answer to the multiple choice questions, we used to indicate the answers by count of showing number of fingers like 1 for A, 2 for B and 4 for D. It was fun!

After almost an hour after start of the exam, someone struck at the window which was sealed by bricks, from outside. It was a loud noise, after two-three hammers the brick came out and fell at the table of a girl sitting by the side of it, luckily she escaped unhurt. The person tried to trough few papers thorough the newly created hole in the window, but the invigilator took it before someone could pick it to copy the answers. This was something totally unexpected. Few policemen rushed to look out for the person who was doing it. After few minutes, they came towards to center in charge’s office dragging and beating a boy, but he didn’t cry. I was just seeing it all from the door in front of my desk.

As the exam time was coming to end, both of us tallied the answers of questions, as it was just a numeric figure in the math. I came to know that one of my answers to a question was wrong, I corrected it and finally the dreadful math paper was over. It wasn’t that tough, and I was quite happy about it.

The next paper was of social science, it was second last paper of the season. While everyone was busy writing the paper, suddenly an outside checking team came to our center. The gatekeeper informed the administration before opening the lock at gate. The invigilator in turn informed us all that the checking team was in another room and it was about to come to our room. Suddenly many of the students started giving many pieces of paper to the invigilator, while some of them tried to throw them out of broken window and the gates. The invigilator was Rekha Madam that day; she tied her Dupatta at her waist, collected the pieces of paper from many students and put them in her kurta. In few minutes her belly looked as if she was pregnant. Even though she was strictly against cheating but that day she helped many students saving themselves from the checking team. I still couldn’t believe that she took such a big risk to help the students which she didn’t even knew as she was a new teacher.

A student threw a piece of paper under the table of the girl, who was sitting next to the broken window. She was unaware of it and was caught by the checking team. She denied vehemently that it was not her chit. But the checking team member snatched her answer sheet and put a note on it in red ink. She was given another answer sheet but she started crying loudly as soon as the checking team left. That day she disturbed most of us, I could not write answers as she kept crying till the end of the exam, teachers from the other rooms kept on coming to console her. But she won’t stop.

It was the time for last paper, I was quite excited, and finally the exams were coming to an end. Previous night, another classmate of mine at the nearby roof top was busy tearing apart his book to make chits. It was final exam and he was ready to take any risks to pass the exams, after all he was preparing to join Indian army and it was necessary to pass the secondary exam for achieving his dream. I turned off the kerosene lamp around midnight and went to sleep.

It was the last day; I bought some toffees on the way to school. I was planning to offer these to her probably for the first time. I called her and threw one on her table. The toffee fell off the table and she bent down to pick it up. She noticed that there were some paper chits inserted in to cracks of the table. She took these out and started searching her table and chair to look if any more are there. I too started searching my table and chair and to my utter surprise, my table was also full of paper chits.

Someone, probably one of the visitors, who curiously used come to our room to see both of us sitting next to each other, had put these intentionally to get us caught by the checking team. But luckily these chits didn’t come out in front of the checking team or the invigilator. Neither of us knew who had put these and when. But there were many who could have done these as no one was happy even seeing us talking to each other. It’s still a secret who did it.

The final exam was a lot tougher for me, as I was still worried about what might have had happened had any one of us was caught with paper chits in the table. I wrote whatever I could write; we didn’t tally the answers as we didn’t want to take any further risk. Both of us were sitting idle just after half way through the exam time as we didn’t have any teacher for social science in our school and we didn’t even complete the syllabus for this subject.

We kept looking at each other; I could see the feeling of sadness in her eyes. It was probably the last time that we were seeing each other, and who knew where we would land up for the further studies. School was the only common place where we could see each other, in fact just feel the presence of each other as we never saw each other perfectly as we were so ashamed of even having a good look at each other’s face, what to say of an eye contact.

The board exams were over; our fathers came to receive us. It was second time that I saw her father. I strangely asked him, where he was planning to put her in the next class. But he had not thought about it. “Let’s wait for the result!" was the only reply came from him. All four of us walked together to some distance before they moved on the way of their village. Both of us looked at each other as if it was never going to be possible for me to even see her again. There were no telephones or mobiles at our homes back then, so there was no question of being in touch with phones. It was over! I felt strange and came home along with my father.

The board exams were over on 22nd may. It was a lot hotter by now, the power didn’t come and it was really tough if I look back, but it was good time.
The result finally came on 26th July in the local news paper. Everyone was shocked, only 8 student’s out result was declared while other’s result was withheld. No one knew the reason. Luckily both of us were successful in being in those lucky eight successful students. The newspaper informed us about the passing division only and the marks could be seen at the internet, somewhere in the Bharatpur city. None of us knew what internet was? But my father went to see it. He noted the roll numbers of all the eight of us and got the marks for both of us. Later we came to know that the other student’s result was blocked because there was mass copy at the center and the answers were matching with one other for most of the students in the science paper.
The report sent by the checking team recommended the removal of the board exam center.

Whether I got to see her again is something which is still a mystery as her presence is always felt, unfortunately she has not grown up in my memories as she still seems to a girl studying in that school. But the time has passed like anything….It has been 12 years since that board exam.

“There are two eternities that can really break you down, yesterday and tomorrow. One is gone and other doesn’t exist! So live today only”

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Sangam 2011

2011-05-16T02:51:00.000-07:00

Experience of a Lifetime :)

Mahatma Gandhi: Are we forgetting him?

2011-01-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

It was 62nd death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. I searched the main web pages of Times of India and The Hindu, but there was not a single mention about this!

My first Business Ethics Case !

2010-12-09T00:31:00.000-08:00

This case presents the situations faced by a newly recruited Development Manager Mr. Fani at the Bangalore office of TeenTare, one of the largest technology organizations of the world. He found the real world quite opposite of what he was taught in the Distance Learning Program of a premier Business School of the country. Will he be able to use his business education to sort out the real life problems he is facing at workplace every day? Which side will he fight on - the senior management or his team members? Is he right in taking the decision based on the situation while performing his professional duties?

Bangalore! The Software and IT services industry hub in the state of Karnataka in Southern India has been attracting the software professionals from the all parts of the country for over a decade now. As the Software Industry is growing by leaps and bounds, major multinational companies (MNCs) are setting up their research and development, services and delivery centers in Bangalore. This relatively new industry in a country like India, which has predominantly rural population, whose primary professions are agriculture and related occupations, has given rise to unforeseen and complex managerial problems for the young as well as the older generation executives working in these newly set up MNC offices.

Mr. Fani had joined the organization TeenTare as a development manager in August 2007 after 7 years of work experience in some of the big names of telecom software development industry. He had been given a small team of 12 engineers, who all are recruited in the past two months, some with 2-3 years of work experience while others are recent graduates from the best engineering colleges of the country. While giving charge of the team, Mr. Morde, senior Development manager and reporting manager to 5 other Development Managers like Mr. Fani, has instructed him to build the capabilities of his team members such that they can tackle any problem given to them. Mr. Fani has planned and discussed the training program he is coordinating for his team with Mr. Morde as well as his team members. After two weeks of intensive training by experts from American office, the team is ready to take the charge of mobile phone application development.

However, after receiving the first project assignment, Mr. Fani discovers that the work is nothing like his team is trained for. The project schedule is very tight and even minor mistakes are not tolerated. There are many processes which he and his team members need to follow which are new to whole team. As there is no one to take care of these small but bureaucratic procedures, his team is busy in sorting these out half of the office time. Mr. Morde in presence of Mr. Fani instructed the team members to follow all procedures as the company’s policy requires all of its employees to do so. In one process Mr. Fani is requested by an engineer Ms. Deepa to review a document which she has prepared to send to an offshore client. Due to lack of time and excess work load Mr. Fani is not able to review the document and asks Ms. Deepa to take care of it herself and sent it directly to the client. The client however finds some mistakes in the document and pulls up Mr. Morde who then asks Ms. Deepa to explain the mistakes. Next time when Ms. Deepa requests her boss Mr. Fani to review the documents, he again asks her to send it directly to the client. Because of the rebuke received from Mr. Morde, Ms. Deepa informs him that her boss Mr. Fani is not available to review the documents prepared by her. Mr. Fani, after getting full dressing down from his boss Mr. Morde, calls Ms. Deepa to the meeting room immediately and asks her to explain why she bypassed him and directly complained to his boss. He threatens her with severe consequences in her performance appraisal. Now he assigns very hard and laborious work to Ms. Deepa requiring her to finish it all in very short duration. She is much tensed about the situation.

Ms. Deepa, being a talkative and much liked young lady spreads the talk about these incidents to all of her team members. As the other team members come to know about this, they also complain to Mr. Morde about the review and monitoring work being sidelined by Mr. Fani, while blaming the team members for the mistakes found in the documents by clients thereafter. These complaints create lot of trouble to Mr. Fani as he had to explain the whole situation to Mr. Morde and his superiors. Instead of setting his house in order as per the learning of his management courses, he determines to teach a lesson to Ms. Deepa and other team members who complained about him. He extends the probation period of Ms. Deepa and one other team member.
Moreover, on the insistence of his senior management to achieve the development targets, He has to make his team members set their yearly targets to very high level, which were very vague and almost impossible to achieve. With ever increasing work pressure and stagnant salaries because of bad appraisal by Mr. Fani, Ms. Deepa and one more engineer resign from the organization while other two apply to change their team citing lack of interesting work and uncomfortable work conditions under Mr. Fani. In her exit interview, Ms. Deepa criticizes Mr. Fani for his lack of leadership skills and technical expertise. However because of the political intervention by other development managers and with the support of Mr. Morde, who is from the hometown of Mr. Fani, Mr. Fani survives the inquiry conducted by Vice President of the Division. He closed the report on Mr. Fani leaving him with just a warning.

The support of Mr. Morde made Mr. Fani even more aggressive towards his team members. Now He sets even stringent targets and makes his team mates come to office on weekends citing work pressure from the client side. While achieving the targets on time and getting praise from the client side as well as from his Boss, he becomes the devil for his team members; they are not motivated at all as they see the work as routine and never ending. They start looking for better opportunities outside the team, and subsequently some engineers quit while others change their teams and projects. In the vacant positions, Mr. Fani hires new engineers, which work whole heartedly till they realize the true nature of Mr. Fani and his superiors. As one of engineer, while leaving the organization remarked, “I came to work for TeenTare, but ended up working for Mr. Fani and his Superiors!”

After some time while reflecting back, Mr. Fani realized that he was able to achieve the targets set for his team by his boss Mr. Morde and clients, but at the cost of his team members and their good feelings towards him. He wanted to change his image among his team members and other development mangers. But he is in ethical dilemma. Should he continue the way his organization wants him and his team to work or take a hard look on the situation and side with his team mates to enrich their work experience at TeenTare with more enjoyment and satisfaction. Given the appraisal policies and nature of work being received and done, he is not sure whether he will be able to side with his team mates while working with TeenTare. He wants to set preference between his professional obligations and his personal values of helpfulness and caring. After a stint of four years he is even considering quitting the organization so that he can be seen as more humane and understanding manager. How can he change his work environment and become a good manager loved by his subordinates?

Language is not a barrier to a Good Friendship

2010-06-15T22:32:00.001-07:00

Just few more days here in Office, and I'm already missing the people here...
a Korean engineer I met during my trip to Dubai and Istanbul in May 08...Used to tell me eat CATS for stamina....then you can work all night....so i did eat CAT finally :)

We had a conversation today....I'm touched really ... a part of it....

Me: hi
YH: Hi
How are you?
Long time no see~
Me: I am very good...how are you ?
I will be leaving SISO this friday. Going for MBA
YH: Opp~~~~~s
really?
I didn't study english anymore
정말 정말 축하합니다
[ I really must congratulate ]
in Korean, 항상 행복하고 뜻을 이루길 빕니다
[ Will always be happy and wish to come true ]
Good saying.
Me: I will translate by Google
thanks
very much
YH: Where do you go for MBA?
Me: its one of the best colleges of India "Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode"
YH: marriage?
Me: haha after 2 year ...after MBA ...i'm only 25
YH: How did you decide MBA?
Me: How is your work now....is it tough like before ?
YH: Nope easy easy very easy
But i have to finish whole work by 8 PM.
Opps
I have a log of conversation for you~
But I can't tell you in english~
Oh my god~~~
Me: send me in korean
YH: 그날 이후로 참 많이 보고 싶었는데
내 업무가 많이 변하게 되었다
그래서 너한테 직접적으로 연락하지 못하게 된게
많이 아쉬웠는데 이렇게 먼저 연락을 해주어서 너무 고맙다
그런데 기쁨도 잠시고
갑자기 MBA로 간다는게 ..
미안하기도하고 다시 만나지 못할까봐 아쉽기도 하고 그러네
Did you get it?
[ Since that day I've missed a lot
My work has changed a lot
So you were somehow prevented direct contact
And had the first contact but it has given me so thank you so
But joy jamsigo
We're going to suddenly do MBA ..
Sorry, sometimes lots of delicious food, and would never meet again, right?
Did you get it? ]
Me: yes I translated by google.

YH: 정말 너 때문이라도 영어공부 다시 해야겠다
[ You should do it again, because even learn English ]
Translation by google is not perfect
Anyway I will be in touch with you on your blog~

Me: yes we shall
tell me when you come to India
we'll meet

YH: I'll~
Good Luck
완전 성공하길~

Its not easy to move away from old friends but internet can keep us in touch ...:)

wanna fall in Love

2010-05-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

As I am planning to go back to college next month. I have been thinking about it for quite few days now. What is it for? I'm not much of a studious. Neither I am much concerned about the job offers I may get after my education there. So there should be a better purpose to go back to classroom. Really!

So, How about finding my love? I think it is good idea. You never know ki aapko kya pasand aata hai. After all I'm still not sure about one thing for which I may be ready to sacrifice my sleep. Some thing which I can hold onto for more than a couple of months. A course which I can attend and enjoy irrespective of how boring or fulfulling it might be. Something which can be done without regretting doing it.

As they say Do what you love, or Love what you do. So there is the NEED to find that Love !!!

I'm gonna fall asleep listining a song on FM...

beautiful girls all over the world
i could be chasing but my time would be wasted, they got nothin' on you baby.....

Good Night.

First lesson of Management !!!

2010-05-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

One of the most hated things I have at work place is the constant stream of E-mails in outlook from colleagues, managers, juniors. Asking hundreds of silly questions. Some are like... I lost my ID card, Lost my goggles, keys, earphones, and God knows what not!. Then there are birthdays, marriage invitations, Thirupati Prasadam, sweet at my desk, Outing planning messages, which in return create a torrents of messages from half of the recipients replying to all in the chain instead of first confused person only.

Now on the same lines, there is one more group I've joined recently for IIM Kozhikode Batch 2010-2012. In the last 4 days only, I've got 750+ mails in my Inbox....Ha! Man!! people are really excited :)

I believe most of the people are of 20+ age in this group, but the questions being asked may put a 7 something kid on back foot. The essence of all queries is almost same..."Guys! Tell me I'll be fine. Someone give it in Writing!" Its as if people are coming into this World for the first time.

As most of the people, who are working, have or are planning to resign from their present jobs, and are simply too excited to go back to college life. Others, who are still in colleges, just want to finish with their exams and wanna ride on the bandwagon as soon as possible.

I can see my first lesson in all this hoopla of emails, doubts, replies...and simple pink noise....Baby! get ready for the mails and replies if you wanna be a good manager....better buy a BlackBerry!!!

MDI Gurgaon Interview experience (PGPM- 2010)

2010-05-02T03:24:00.000-07:00

These are the Questions I remember, which were asked during those 28 minutes. I'm reproducing only some of the answers, rest were just informative ....:)

Prof1: What do you feel about your Group Discussion Performance?
Was it better than other group discussions of yours?

Again another prof2: Vikam, what do you feel about your group performance?
Was it better than other group discussions of yours?

Do you have any other call?
What is your percentile?
What were your sectional scores?
Are you not good in quant section?
to CAT walon ki kuch galti rahi?

Samsung main aap kabse kaam kar rahe hain?
What applications have you developed?
Tell us some Ayats of Quran.
What is the Market share of Samsung and Nokia Mobile in India?

Your hobby is Blogging?
Can anybody blog on that?
How did you create the blog?

Which area of Rajasthan you come from?

You have done your graduation from IIT kharagpur, how was the experience, was it a dual degree program?

What do you want to do in next five years?

How can I make a blog?
Can anybody read your blog?
How many people read your blog?

What is the normal rate for AdSense advertisements?
After retirement, we can blog too...hehehehe.

Only those who know English can read blog?
Can we write in Hindi as well?
How do you write in Hindi?
Write down the URL where we can transliterate.

Do Profs from IITs also blog?
What is the address of your blog?...writes down.
Fine, thank you for all that information.

Prof: Right now you are in Technical and you are longing for managerial job. Now these two are different. Right! You are good at technical job, that doesn’t mean you will be good at managerial job, and most of the good managers are not good at technical job.

ME: In my case, I want my development manager to be good in technical field as well ....laughter. so that when I propose a solution, he should understand the complexities involved.

Prof: That’s why technical people make good managers in most of the cases...
So what is the specific management skill, we should think, you have which will make you a good manager.

Me: Right now, the most important thing I find in myself is that I gel with people very easily. There are some guys which are silent most of the time, while there are some who are very much talkative. What I ensure is that I fall in their comfort zone. Like, I can go out for lunch with them. I want that every manger whether at lower level or at top level should give time to their employees so that he can feel their requirements. And what is the perspective of the employee, it’s more important to know that. And one such example I find is Vineet Nayar of HCL infotech, because his policy is Employee first, consumer second. He has made HCL as one of the best places to work. So first, management should make sure that employees are giving their best and continue to do that. I think consumers can be disloyal, they will find another good product any dump you in a month. They won’t even care whether you existed or not. (Prof: Why one month they can do that in a moment!! ME: everyone takes time to decide.) on the other hand employees will work to come up with the new products.
Apart from that I’m very particular about my performance and when I report to my manager I report in proper way and if I have any issue I directly talk to my manager so that I don’t give any opportunity to him to complain about me. These are some of the aspects which I’ve learned at the Job, actually!!!

Prof: Very good! Vikram, do you have sense of humour? Hahahaha....
Me: Blah blah...

Prof: Give us an example of your sense of humour. Apne shahar ke latife sunayiye....
Me:Ok. One example I can give you is about a marriage I attended recently. Where my friends asked me to do some kind of Engineering Dance!....

Prof: If I may ask you, what is your caste !!
Me: Jat

Prof: To unke kuch example dijiye humko...heehhehe...
Me: Jats are like Just Avoid Them...heheheh

Prof: Accha yah bataiye...what is the difference between Product design and Service design?

Prof: Now, what is the common thing in these?
Me: Consumer !

Prof: Very good !! do you want to ask us anything ?
Me: No sir. I had very good experience with you. I’m very happy with that. Thanks.

Do you have any other call?
How serious are about MBA?
Me: I am very interested in this sir, infact I've been saving my salery for fee for some time.

Prof: How much have you saved?
Me: around X lakhs

Prof1: But that will not be sufficient....
Prof2: Admission ho jayega. Loan wagarah le lena.
Yes, First year I”ll cover with my savings, and for second year I’ll arrange for a loan :)
Prof1: Haan, humara jo banker hai he can arrange ....money is not a problem.
Bahut accha, best of luck. Good Luck. So we should remember that JAT means Just Avoid Them !!..hahaha
Me: No sir, It was just a joke. If you see, even my blog address is JustAnyTime, which also stands for JAT...hehehe...or it depends on the people what they make of it.
It’s like I’m available any time for my friends and collegues.

Prof1: Come back, baithiye. There is one social concern issue. Abhi aapne Khaap ke bare main suna hoga. Kya jante ho uske bare main aur uske bare main aapke views kya hain.
My view is that society should change with time. The reasons for Caste and Gotras were different, but now we are living in globalised world and we should adapt to that instead of being left alone..
And some bakar for next 2-3 mins.....

Verdict: Converted :)

We were 10 ppl for that panel. 2 girls and 8 boys. I found that I am the only boy selected while both girls have made it in final list.

Leave your comments...:)

शिक्षा अनिवार्य क्यों है?

2010-04-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

Written with the help of http://www.google.com/transliterate/
बहुत दिनों से हिंदी मैं कुछ लिखा नहीं है | मोबाइल और इन्टरनेट ने पत्र लिखना भी बंद करवा दिया है | करीब चार साल पहले छटवे सेमेस्टर मैं हिंदी साहित्य के परीक्षा के बाद आज अचानक मन हुआ है हिंदी मैं कुछ लिखने का |
कुछ दिन पहले "बच्चों के मुफ्त और अनिवार्य शिक्षा का अधिकार अधिनियम" लागू हुआ है | बाकी सब तो समझ मैं आता है लेकिन अनिवार्य शब्द का क्या मतलब है? अगर किसी बच्चे का पढाई में मन नहीं लगता है तो क्या उसे जबरदस्ती करके पढाया जायेगा? यह विचार अचानक ही नहीं आया है मेरे दिमाग में, बल्कि मेरे साथ पढने वाले कई ऐसे छात्र थे विद्यालय में जिनका बिलकुल भी पढने का मन नहीं करता था | एक बार मैंने भी अपने पिताजी से कहा की मुझे नहीं पढना, तो मेरा शंशय तो एक चपत में ठीक कर दिया गया | लेकिन और लड़कों को कितनी भी चपत लगाओ उनका फिर भी मन नहीं लगता था, कुछ तो कहते थे की कुछ भी कर लेंगे लेकिन पढ़ नहीं पाएंगे | उनके तर्क भी काफी समझ के होते थे | स्कूल में ५ साल संस्कृत पढने का क्या फायदा, शायद ही कभी काम आये | वही हाल कई और विषयों का था | अब लगता है बिना काम के ही पढाई गयी थी |

हाँ, एक फायदा तो होता है पढाई का, ज्ञान काम आये या न आये, रोजगार मिलने में सहूलियत तो हो जाती है | यह बात अलग है की काम में भी पढाई ज्यादा काम नहीं आती और ज्यादातर नए सिरे से ही पढना होता है, लेकिन फिर भी पता नहीं न जाने क्यों उपाधि धारकों को काम पे लिया जाता है | क्यों न सीधा जो काम करना हो उसी की प्रशिक्षा दी जाये | लेकिन इस में भी समस्या है, कभी व्यक्ति का मन अभियांत्रिकी का करता है तो कभी प्रबंधन का, और उसके बाद समाजसेवा और राजनीति का, मकसद बदलते रहते हैं | इसलिए काफी हद तक जैसा चल रहा है वैसा ही चलता रहता है क्योंकि लोगों को पता ही नहीं होता की उनका उद्देश्य क्या है और किस चीज की पढाई की जाये |

एक और बात, आखिर बच्चों की पढाई का दायित्व किसका है ? सरकार, परिवार, शिक्षकों का या फिर बच्चे का ? सरकार तो साल - साल में बदलती रहती है, बच्चे पढ़े या न पढ़े, बड़े होकर वोट तो देंगे ही ! परिवार वाले भी बस सुविधाएँ उपलब्ध करा सकते है, बच्चे की जगह पर पढ़ तो नहीं सकते ! और शिक्षकों की तरफ से तो बच्चे पढ़े या न पढ़े उनका वेतन तो पक्का है | तो फिर आखिरी जिम्मेदारी रह जाती है स्वंय छात्रों की, अब पढाई अच्छी लगे या न लगे, पढना तो पड़ेगा, जब तक अपने आप से कुछ करने और दूसरों को भी रोजगार देने की छमता न हो और अगर भविष्य में नौकरी चाहिए तो !!

" पढ़ लो बच्चों! आजकल तो अनपढ़ों की शादी भी बड़ी मुश्किल से होती है !"----रामभरोसी मास्टरजी .

Reservation and Situation of Women

2010-03-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

“Aisi ladkiyan ayengi...udyogpatiyon ki, bade bade sarakari afsaron ki...sansad mein...aisi ladkiyon ko dekh kar ladke citi bajayenge pichhe se...haan...aap dekhlijiyega," this is what Mr. Mulayam Singh has proposed as one of his logic for his opposition to Women reservation in the parliament. Now most of the feminist and people with self claimed common sense are deriding him for his cheap mentality and sexism.

But why do we forget that this is not only Mulayam Singh, who thinks in this way, but there are millions of Mr. Kathor, who have elected such leaders, are also having the same opinion. It is true to some extent that females are teased, stared at, and commented upon, and even harassed by few sick men, who probably think that this is the only way, by which they can prove their manliness. Now the most problematic part is not that women have to face such obnoxious elements but the acceptance of the parents of the girls and society in general, that only way to avoid these situations is to keep their Bahu-Betis locked into their houses, instead of fighting for their rightful space in the world. It is not only parents and elders who try to restrict the women, but the females themselves do not come forward and become the party in their own oppression.

There are many such incidents which I’ve seen and felt myself. First is education. Why do we need separated educational institutes for women? Why don’t we encourage them to study in the co-ed school and colleges, where they can grow on par with men? Yes, as I said earlier, there are many problem related to unruly psychos and accommodation in cities. But the main problem is that parents don’t have trust on their own blood. Some of them think if they send their girls to co-ed institutions, they may get involved with boys of different castes and social status. This will tarnish their reputation in the society. They don’t say it to their daughters clearly but they understand it quite well and convince themselves that they are supposed to be like that only.

Next problem is that for some unknown reason females try to hide themselves behind veil instead of coming in public and face the world as it is. I’ve seen most of the women in my village, including in my own family, covering their faces in front of males. When I ask them why it is so, the only answer that comes is that they are supposed to be like that for cultural reasons. Its not only limited to uneducated and village women. We see on the social networking websites that most of the female profiles have hidden their faces in the garb of some different pictures then their own. Why is it so? Yes, I understand that there is a continuous nuisance of hundreds of freiendophiles, who are not on friendly terms with their own female family members but want the unknown females to be their friends without even knowing. There may be chances of misusing the photos by some maniacs. But this doesn’t mean that females should just loose their identities and hide themselves behind the flowers and animations. There is a real need on their part to come forward and fight the world.

Now the solutions, as I can see, lie not in reservations in education institutes, jobs, transportation, or even in legislative assemblies or in the parliament, but in the equal encouragement and opportunity given to females at home, to begin with. In making the girls believe that they can be as good as boys and in raising the girls as tough as boys, instead of asking for reservations for them. By encouraging them for higher education rather than marrying them to suitable boys at young age.

But the irony is that I don't see it happening very soon. It is going to take time. We cant go back and change what has happened till now, but we can surely change our attitude towards women and make the difference in the times to come :)

Garlands !!!

2010-03-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

News Bees have settled down now in their new hives after buzzing for a couple of days over Maya madam's head. It was an ingenuous marketing lesson that should have been taken by aspiring managers. How effectively had Behanji used her garlands made of currency notes to garner lots of airtime and space across media, worth crores.

However the matter of my curiosity is neither Mayaji nor the Currency notes. Its about the Malas(Chains) made of different materials. Why we, in India, are so much infatuated with these garlands? Since the child is born to the time (s)he remains only in pictures and statues. It is tied with garlands. How do people feel when they are garlanded or they garland someone? Really, I mean, does it give some pleasure which I'm depriving myself till now.

If you have had any opportunity ....you may share your experience :)

What exactly are we looking for?

2010-03-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

This is not the first time I’ve been asked or I’ve asked this question myself. Ever since I’m conscious of myself, I’ve no idea what I’ve been looking for exactly. Many times, it has been like reaching the goal and then turning back and saying to myself, hey is it something you wanted?. Or in easy terms it’s like a dog chasing a car only to come back where he started from.

The reason of behaving this way may be curiosity, distraction, shifting goal posts or simply lack of self confidence. Another reason for this may be starting on the task without having clear understanding of the results, or doing something just because others are doing it. One more reason that is more important is that you don’t know how to say NO to your very own people, whom you don’t want to hurt, have asked you to take on the task without considering your interests and you start on it because you, yourself don’t know what is to be done.

Oops lets me close this post here.....I don’t know why I’m writing this ....and even you! why are you reading this...if you have the reason write down in the comments below.

Writing as a Hobby

2010-03-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

You know what; writing is my hobby, that’s what I say when someone asks me about it. But I’m not sincere about it at all. Though there are couple of incidences about my writings which I remember fondly and am going to share now.

First Diary: When I was around 10. I saw two diaries in my father’s suitcase. Let me say one big one (A) and another smaller one (B). I used to wonder what did he write in them? Why kept in locked almirah? So one day I discovered where he kept the key. Next day, I got my hand on the key when he left for school (He is a teacher), opened the almirah carefully such that no one in the home could see me, and then took out the diaries. I don’t remember exactly what was written in B, it was almost blank, but A had something interesting. In the front pages there were some tables full of numbers, probably about his salary, expenses, month wise for past 5-6 years running thorough many pages. And then as I turned pages from the end side. There were around 10 pages full of Hindi songs’ lyrics of Manoj Kumar type movies, written immaculately. It was totally unexpected, as I never heard him singing or even humming. All he used to do was listening to News on Radio. So I just put back the diaries and closed the almirah and took the key with me completely forgetting that I’d to put it back. In the evening he might have searched for the key. He looked around and then noticed something in my shirt’s pocket. Here it is! "Why did you take it? Did you steal something from there", He asked. “I wanted to see the diaries”, I said. “I want the smaller one, its empty!” I continued with the demand till he got me a diary. For that he just cut few A4 size papers in 4 pieces each, pinned them together. Then gave me, my first little Diary, saying, "Get yourself a Big one when you go to college". After some time he wanted to see what I’d written in that? It was full of details about the songs, like title, singer, Music Director, Movie Name, which I used to listen on the radio or watch in Chitrahar and Rangoli on DD-1. All he gave in return was a Smile!....as I had a totally unheard of hobby....collecting song details.

First Letter: Letter writing was taught in primary school and then repeatedly in every Hindi and English class before exams. But It was around 4 years later than the unique hobby, at the dawn of adolescence. The letter was to be written to impress the recipient. To tell her that how much I admired her smile and what did she mean to me. It took 2 days of calligraphy to write those 3 pages, and one more day to draw the symbol of heart pierced by an arrow. On Jan 14th, I thought,” Today is the Valentine day celebration as we celebrate Makar-Sankaranti”. I handed over it to her in front of whole class. Most of the female classmates got their hearts broken as they saw a drawing on the last page. For next few weeks quite of a hailstorm was raised by my schoolmates whom I used to consider my best friends. Letters continued till I got my mobile, but recipients kept changing.

First Essay: Just like letters, Essays too used to come in exams, but this time it was different. It was an Essay writing competition. We, the class 11-12th students, were given few topics. I chose to write on “India’s Population problem and possible solution”. It was to be written in about 1000 words. But what I submitted was a total mess. It ran through at least 15 pages, I wrote whatever I could think of, examples of families I which had abnormal sizes with dozens of children. Examples how a limited family can have batter share of available resources...etc. After a week the evaluator came with the result. I obviously didn’t win the prize. But he asked in the class,”Who has written this drama?”

First Novel: This is something still to be finished; Last year He got the idea to begin on this. He found the topic, even the characters were decided. Story was progressing well, Characters behaved as they should have naturally. Their conversations were recorded. However in the end one of the characters requested another, “Please do whatever in your life but don’t become a writer”. He still doesn’t understand what arose this plea. And He said “Don’t worry I won’t”. Ever! So probably this dream will be unfulfilled unless new characters are found.

PS: Report the mistakes in the comments below, I've got 99.18 percentile in verbal section in CAT-09. but you understand well that exams can never check a person's mistakes...they are bound to be there.

A Bugs Life

2010-02-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

You are travelling in a Car, which is caught in traffic for last 15 min, calming yourself by reading live commentary of India-SA match on you smart phone. Now how will you feel if Sachin is at 199* and your smarty Hangs itself? That means its Screen freezes like windows PC does sometimes, and all you can do is take out the battery, put it back and restart the mobile to find that the inning is over and you are deprived of live text at MobiCast.

For a moment you might feel like throwing away the dumb thing, and curse its manufacturer and promise yourself to never buy any product of this company. This kind of problem is called BUG in geeky parlance. And as you can understand, when the product doesn’t respond in the expected way, it is going to hit the brand reputation, which in turn is going to bite into the revenue, profit, market share etc of the company.

To avoid such unwanted situations, the product development process has rigorous quality assessment tests. The process starts with an initial design, requirements and expected results. But as you move ahead with the development you come to know that there are many scenarios which were not considered in the beginning, and may result in unwanted leaks. These leaks are found either by developers themselves or by dedicated test engineers, they are like sniffer dogs, or like doubt masters, who always think like “What if” to avoid the “WTFs” in future.

After the testers give a list full of these glitches, the product is again on the drawing table, this is when you start with stitching holes, adding new requirements, putting new conditions and bundling up the whole thing to send it back for next round of testing. The process continues till the deadlines can’t be extended any further.

Germs always remain as they do in Colgate toothpaste advertisements and so do the jobs of thousands of development and test Engineers.

Tum

2010-01-31T03:48:00.000-08:00

तुम

दूर होकर पास हो तुम
रेशमी अहसास हो तुम
प्यासी रेगिस्तान की मैं
तृप्ति का आभास हो तुम

अंग लगते छंद जैसे
गीत का विन्यास हो तुम
कुछ न कुछ तो बात है जो
खास में भी खास हो तुम
जेठ की हूँ दोपहरी मैं
और श्रवण मास हो तुम

साधना होगी सफल ही
एक ऐसी आस हो तुम
फूलघाटी मधुवनो की
वास का आवास हो तुम

मौन प्रतिमा सी लगी हो
यूँ मुखर बिंदास हो तुम
क्या भला अस्ततित्व तुम बिन
क्योंकि मेरी सांस हो तुम

--V-S--

Learning to Lie.....making up stories.

2010-01-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

"Jhooth Bolna seekho, Gaaon main nahi ho!"--R.G.
"aisa SOP to koyi bhi likh dega, Create some story"--T.A.

So guys I think, enough of personal stories, I've got to start creative writing, which means that I need to learn, how to lie, how to make stories, after all I want to get an MBA degree atleast....I think even my dad wants it for me to some extent.

So here it goes....
"Specific example of technological change faced by your organization."

Technology is something which is changing the world like never before. What is routine today may be out of sync tomorrow. To stay in the line of current of new technologies and to use these for the benefit of the organization is the duty of every alert manager. Keeping all these points in mind, I, as the chief executive officer of MySun Pvt Ltd, a company with 1436 employees on the roll, decided to introduce the electronic attendance system in my company.

The purpose was to keep track of the efforts put by the employees, Leave requests approvals, holidays etc, and to do away with the burdensome paperwork. We outsourced the required infrastructure related work such as swipe-in gates, Database support, central server maintenances, and individual electronic ID cards, to OnTime services ltd. An electronic ID card, is just the size of a Bank Debit card, has a tiny chip with necessary employee information such as unique identification number, photo, home address and a colour photo on top. It can easily put around one’s neck with a strip, such that it’s visible.

Most of the employees were happy with this move, as they no longer have to pick out a pen and sign in the register. It was easy for our clerks also, as they no longer have to dig through the attendance registers to count the work hours put by thousands of employees. For the first week, things were not as easy as expected, server broke down in the morning as hundreds of people queue up to mark their attendance at the office time of 9:00 AM, and there was a huge rush at the gate. Earlier they used to sign in the registers even after being late for more than an hour. In the heat of the moment, some hot tempered guys broke the swipe in gates, as they worried they might be marked late. We had to ask the OnTime to replace the broken items by 4:00 PM so that it is not the same mess again in the evening. From the next week onwards we increased the entry points to 4 from 2. And things returned to normal.

This system did not make to the older generation initially. They thought all this tantrum was useless, and was put in place to create a show. They wanted to go back to register attendance system. But from my point of view it turned out to be very good thing as I planned. Hundreds of folks, which were late most of the time, could be identified and given notice in written. There was no need for employees to rush to their supervisor with leave applications. At any given time we could see, how many people are inside the premises. We could see how many people did not turn up any given day just by a click of mouse, instead of manual roll call, as we used to do earlier.

This system didn’t come up at huge cost either. The overall system was set up in just Rs 8 lakhs rupees, which is equivalent to salaries of 4 clerks for a year. It did away with manual mistakes, which used to creep in while calculating total working hours and remuneration calculations. All 4 clerks were moved to more satisfying work positions, and they were happy as they no longer needed to do the boring sums and divisions.

In 2 months time I was able to see a significant positive change in employees’ attitude. Now, they were on time most of the time. We could easily calculate the overtime hours and pay accordingly. This resulted in 18% increase in the total product output for same number of working hands.

When I reported the results of the next quarter to our management board, they were all happy and appreciated me for the initiative. Now the next move is going to automate the lunch and snacks delivery in office. Employees will be encouraged to help themselves. This will save time as well as resources. Way to go!

First attempt...You can help me improve....put all your comments for sure.

The year that was - 2009

2009-12-31T05:06:00.000-08:00

Year 2009 has been a mixed bag of events for me. In the monotony of daily routine, here are some of them which I recall as I type this post...

Year started with my refusal to go to Korea, as I was dreaming of ABC, but this dream was shattered as early as Jan 10th. Jan 14th marked the 10 years of a mistake, which turned out to be the best thing I did in the decade. To mark this, I wished happy birthday to a totally unknown person. Got my spectacles on 19th, which I never wanted.

Reporting manager was changed in Feb, but not the kinda work I was doing. March started with New project, which was dropped by the end of the month, all of the efforts wasted. Appeared for my first Group Discussion and PI on March 28th, and I was like, God ! it's totally different experience. Got a call from my best friend on March 31st. I felt like forgiven for everything wrong I did to that person.

In the first week of April, I was assigned to develop a mobile application. It was really good experience. As the complete design, study, Algorithms and finally the coding was done by me alone.

I went home in the first week of May, the only time in 2009. I had a drink with an old class mate,now in Army, for the first time and came home after chewing a dozen of green cardamom. In the mid of May, I lent a couple of grands to another old friend for a week, it's not recovered yet. On 25th of May, Got many calls from friends, a miss call from bro, 3 calls from ....., finally, I called home to tell my Mummy that it was my Birthday, and she was surprised, as it was still to come as per the Hindi calendar, I gifted my self a Dell Studio as a Birthday Gift, with thanks to Rohit and his friend.

Next 2-3 months passed in the same rut, office, home and mock tests on weekends. I was on compensatory leave on Oct 23rd, was getting bored at home. Clicked on JS.com advert on Orkut. Created my profile there out of curiosity. I sent a request and got another 2 in next few days, and finally hide this profile as the fun might have taken some serious turn.

November too passed in the work, exam prep, and a false but exhilarating experience.

December started with very high hopes for many things, Manager was changed in the office, but 9 days' continuous stay at home for some prep was really boring, and it was not fruitful either. CAT came as a shocker, I was unable to concentrate fully( don't ask the reason) and left many sitters in the paper unanswered. 15th and 16th of Dec have really been ...tough but good in a way. I had to lie to my room mate that I got mouth ulcers, mind went into a whirlpool. Sobering up in the last week, canceled the tickets to Home and went on a trip to Ooty and Kodaikanal. It was real fun, around 1400 km in 3 days by a taxi, the great hotel search in the middle of night and the ultimate broker guy!!....today, manager came to me and asked to think about more applications for touch screen mobile phones.....lets see what we can get for you.

over all ....the year 2009 is ending as any other before it.... but T10 is going to be different...some hard decisions need to be taken ...and I'm gonna take this time for sure...another lie!

Wishing you all a very happy and enriching year ahead :)

Don't look 4 mistakes in this post...just go and Have some Party ;)

Hum - Tum

2009-12-20T07:27:00.000-08:00

मैं, मैं ही था जब तुमने मुझे देखा
मैं, मैं ना रहा जब मैंने तुम्हें देखा
तुम, तुम ना थे जब तुमने मुझे देखा
तुम, तुम हो गए जब मैंने तुम्हें देखा

----N.P.

Ek boond ne...

2009-12-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

Cont..

Bhari bhari si reheti hain aankhein..
Inke chhalak jaane se darta hoon..
Bas isi liye aajkal main..
Ghar se kam nikalta hoon..

Chaand mujhe bhi bhata hai..
Par tanhaiyon se darta hoon..
Phool mujhe bhi bhaate hain...
Par unke murjhaane se darta hoon..

Yahi soch kar bas apne aap mein..
Simta simta sa reheta hoon...

Ek boond ne saari mehanat bekaar kar dee..
Aise chhalki ki saari hadein paar kar dee...

Qaid tha jo toofaan mere seene mein...
Aankhon se uske liye ek raah taiyaar kar dee...

Yaadein teri naam tera sab bah gaya usme...
Dil ki zamin phir se banjar bejaar kar dee...

----N.P.

My Roomie has changed....

2009-12-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

He has changed!! certainly.... I have seen him Happy and Sad, but not the same at the same time, that he has been for last 5-6 months.

You see for yourself what has happened, I know he's got great talent, or its result of something...

these are some of his custom messages in gtalk, i like most..

the paths i pave....the doors u close.....the knots i tie....the bonds u break.... :)

I give my love freely... for it is mine to give.... My love has no possessor.... My life is mine to live.... ;)

and for this one, I dont know, how he read my mind, may be we drink from the same bottle, or we breath the same air, he has got this right from my head....

shaam se aankh mein nammi si hai... aaj phir aap ki kami si hai.... dafan karr do humme ke sans mille.... nabaj kuch derr se thami si hai.... waqt rehta nahin kahi tikk karr... iski aadat bhi aadami si hai.... koi rishta nahin hai phir bhi ek tasvir lajmi si hai.... shaam se aankh mein nammi si hai... aaj phir aap ki kammi si hai.... :)

more to come....sure he's got more of it...may be I'll also learn something...

Exams, Cheating and friends...

2009-12-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Exams! Exams!! Exams!!!, Millions of students worldwide get nightmares because of these. I too have been thorough incubus since I’m aware of my existence as a student. Exams, to me, are still as tough as these were when I was in primary school. During the school days, it was all about maintaining the first rank in the toad’s world. In High school, it was all fight related to internal exams, classes and tuitions. Then college, here too it was no less game then earlier, labs reports, surprise tests and yes, Viva and thesis. Getting bored! Ok...finally but not the last, Examinations for professional degrees, crucial observations by big bosses, friends, and society at large.
Even the ways to stop the malpractices in the exams are getting tougher exam after exam. In the school days, it used to be just beating, scolding and answer sheet snatching. In the board exams it became punishable offense, and now in professional courses, even the movements of students are A/V recoded. But I’ve been amongst the few lucky ones, those who have passed through government schools with students insisting on cheating, whatever be the punishment, after all it was their Army career which was at stake. For teachers, catching the cheaters red handed, beating hell out of them was great fun. Some used to say, “Even I used to cheat in my school days, it’s a normal practice. But your crime is that you are being caught. What will your spouse say? That you didn’t even learn cheating in your school days!”
Unlike others, who, used to depend on high amounts of ammunition (Kharre) and even pass books. I was among the small times crooks; we could just tell the answers, show the copies and in some case pass around the supplementary sheets. In one 9th class exam, Vinay Sharma, who used to be just after me in the row, and I cheated. I showed most of the answers to him but not all, because even I had to finish my paper. After exam, he was all fired on; he had to leave two questions because of me! As I didn’t show all the answers. What a show of gratitude. In the next exam he kept on calling but I didn’t turn back. Half of the exam time was over and he was worried. Then suddenly said, “Hey ! there is something in your hair, just above your neck.” “Is it ?”, I turned back, stroking my head. He was all smiles. And now he asked again,”Yaar tell me the answer of no 14.” "what? I just have 10 questions in my paper", I asked. How come you have 14?. I turned over my paper again. But it had just 10, nothing more. He showed his paper to me, and then I came to know that my paper was printed on one side only. Had he not asked, I was happy doing just 10 questions.
After maths, next exam was of science. For this we were huddled in a single hall. As per the seating arrangement, Sonam, the topper, was in my right side in second column. She came excitedly and said, “Let’s tally our answers in objective part of the paper.” I agreed, after all I was going to gain something this time. We decided that we would show 1 for A, 2 for B ...4 for D. After 20 mins both of us were done with first part of the paper, so it was the time to start with the signs. She kept showing A,C,B.....and I kept nodding for all the questions, suddenly something came in my mind and I indicated that answer is A. Apollo-7 not B. Soyuz-T for the last question. She replied in negative, but I insisted and she agreed. I felt strange for a moment but I did this while I kept my answer B only. It was the first time that I’d cheated someone just to make sure that I get the full marks in the first part of paper. For the second part of the paper we didn’t make any attempt to cheat. After exam, she was happy that both of us helped each other for the first time and I was feeling guilty but I didn’t say anything.
After the winter vacation, in the first week of Jan, our science teacher Chandra was ready with the evaluated answer sheets. He first announced the overall highest mark in the both the parts combined, and then he told the marks in first part as well. I got the best marks in both parts of the paper. I got 10/10 in first part. After 10 mins he started to collect the answer sheets back. I asked Sonam sarcastically, “So what happened topper?, you got just 8 marks in first part.” She didn’t reply, but I insisted. Then her friend said, “She left one question unanswered to make sure that you get the highest marks and got another wrong by bad luck”. I said,”I wish you were a boy.I need a friend like you.” Then I could not stand there any further. I felt as if she cut me into the pieces. I betrayed her trust. And you know what; there was no rule to punish this cheating.

PS: Purists please let me know the errors....names are fictitious.

First experience with a Scribe....

2009-11-19T21:45:00.000-08:00

Last month a journo wanted to have my perspective about the proposed change in the cut off marks for IIT-JEE application. Since this article has already been published, I wanted to put it here,....

Mail I received:

Dear xyz,
Trust this mail finds you well. Allow me to introduce myself. I write on corporate strategy for the Forbes magazine.
At Forbes, I am working on a piece around Mr. Kapil Sibal’s recommendation that the cut off for IIT JEE aspirants should be raised to 80% from 60% today. Sure, he retracted that statement last week but his idea was that the IIT system should be freed from the clutches of coaching institutes. I will be glad if you can share your perspective on the subject. Here a couple of questions;
1. What, to your mind, would be the average percentage scored by the 7300 students who got into IIT in the last two years in their 10+2 exams?
2. What is the likely scenario to emerge in the event of the 80% cut off being implemented?
I have a deadline till Thursday to complete this piece and I am really looking forward to your assistance. Thanks for your time.

I am sorry but time is really running out. Will it be possible for me to call you. Can you share your number?

Warm regards,
ABC

My Response:
Hi ABC,
As we know that coaching classes are not unique for IIT-JEE preparations only. These has been in existence for many decades, and now we have coaching classes for the preparation of clerk recruitment, school teacher selection exams to GRE, GMAT, and UPSC and many other competitions. As the Indian economy grows further, people have enough money to provide their children with best of guidance and education, and this has led to to spread of coaching and tuition class culture.

I remember, when my father asked me to prepare well for my Rajasthan board exams first, and if I could score more then 80% marks, then he would send me for JEE coaching to Kota, Rajasthan. I scored 81% and 85% in 10th and 12th standard exams and he fulfilled his promise. I took a year's drop after school education and cleared the JEE exam to go to IIT Kharagpur. I'm sure that it would not have been possible with out coaching, as the JEE exam was very different from Board exams. He said that it was a kind of investment he was making for my better future. And I'm happy that he made the right decision.

The following are the responses to your questions:
· What, to your mind, would be the average percentage scored by the 7300 students who got into IIT in the last two years in their 10+2 exams?
It is difficult to answer this question as the syllabus and marking patterns vary widely across different central and state higher secondary education boards. The questions asked in IIT-JEE exam are based on the application of concepts and complete understanding of the subject, while the school exams are mainly rote learning based. The marks obtained by general category aspirants vary in the range of 60% to 98%. I know one of my batch mates, who had scored just 62% in his 10+2 exam of the Madhya Pradesh Secondary Education Board and cleared the JEE exam in first attempt. One the other hand, another student, who was in the merit list (top 10) of 10th as well as 10+2 exams of Rajasthan Education board, but could not clear the JEE exam even in two attempts. So it does not mean that a student with higher percentage of marks in his board exams is good student for IIT and others are not.
As per my knowledge the average marks scored by students should be in the range of 70% to 80%.

· What is the likely scenario to emerge in the event of the 80% cut off being implemented?
If 80% cut off is implemented, then it is going to be more difficult for JEE aspirants to prepare for both exams as the paper patterns and preparation methods are of different nature. Sincere aspirants may lose the focus of their ultimate target, to make it into an IIT.
It may even lead to proliferation of coaching classes and schools boasting of their students, who got higher percentage of marks in their board exams. Now coaching classes are offering classroom and distance learning courses for students of even 7th to 10th standards, to groom them for JEE and other similar competitive exams. Coaching classes are looking forward to the online education market it will create. And these developments are certainly going to put the rural and poor aspirants in a disfavour able situation.
On the other side, it may lead to some other changes as well. Students can focus on their studies in school; obtain the required percentage of marks and then prepare for JEE exam. But in this case, they will have to play with one year of their precious time. The role of coaching classes and special training schools is not going to be diminished by this change.

My contact no is +91-99864-54428.

All the best for your report.

Thanks,
XYZ

The Sun Rises Again...

2009-04-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

P: shayad aapko pata hoga.......
Me: i dont care
leave the past ... live in present
blog padha ki nahin mera
P: haa....padha......bt that also contain smthings from past.....

I think in some cases my Past will always be Present with me and I'm happy to live with that...

It was the dawn as usual, but there was something unusual for the day, I didn't go to office to exhaust my last remaining casual leave(CL) of the financial year. I woke up at around noon, had Maggie for lunch around 2:00 pm and continued with Midnight's Children.

At 3:01 pm phone rang, and I answered it saying "Oh my God !" I could not believe my ears as I heard that Voice after almost five years....well conversation continued for around....that I'll not write in this open diary.

It was something very nostalgic .... a kind of SUN rising after many Years.

Happy Fools day .... ;)[Written on 01-04-2009]

About ME.

2009-01-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

MY NAME IS RED, am right now in CATCH-22 situation, because I spent A LOTs of NIGHTs @ CALL CENTER (read IIT hostel, Dep or whatever ) to do EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH and to become an ALCHEMIST, but the results were not as expected, so had to be content with SEVEN POINT SOMEONE and had to work with INSCRUTABLE AMERICANS, who practiced FRECONOMICS and their RICH DAD became POOR DAD. now they are going to be the MONKS WHO SOLD THEIR FERRARIs and some of their VERONICAs have DECIDED to DIE. ok...enough of my quibbling.....before the ATLAS SHRUGGs I need to return to my work and reach THE FOUNTAINHEAD of success. Then I'll probably get the FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT.

About Friends:

For me Friends are like Books, I picked up many of them....read some of them....understood few of them and learned something from most of them.

more to add:

The Kite Runner
Plans for Departure
Screw It, Let's Do It. :)

Learning English Words.

2008-09-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

I, along with my brother, moved to a private school when I was in fifth standard. The reason for this switch was the English. English was not the part of curriculum in government primary schools at that time. We were registered in the government school, as the new school didn’t have the authority required to issue the passing certificates. The emblem of the new school seemed to be “bhay se bhoot bhi bhagate hain” (event the ghosts run by fear). Or in other words the students were terrorized by the teachers.

Coming back to English, the English teacher was himself a B.A. student and was working part time. He was younger brother of school owner and had taught in the school before. Since I was new in the school, I didn’t know about him. He came in the last period of the day and talked about how learning the English words was the first necessity. Then at the end of his maiden lesson he asked the class to come prepared with at least fifty new words beginning with “A”. Most of the students were worried because it didn’t seem feasible to memorize that many words. One of my friends warned me that he is as cruel as his brother and it will be better to do my best to come up with the task.
I went home, opened the dictionary and looked for the words with the length not more than six, so that they will be easy to memorize or will take less space in memory. I short listed around sixty words (Because if I will memorize sixty now then I would be able to recall at most fifty) and wrote down in a notebook. Now it was time to fix them in my brain. I broke the words in two parts such that “Abo-ut”. So that it will become easy to remember the spelling and the meaning. I revised all the words at least five times. I wrote the words in a separate paper to see, how many of those I could recall and revised again.

Next day it was again the last period of the day and the class was exhausted. The teacher came with a cane (fresh broken thin Neem branch). Without wasting time he ordered us to write down all the words, beginning with “A”, which we could recall in twenty minutes. There was no need to write the meaning of the word, just spelling was enough. I began writing and to my misery I stopped after thirty four words(I don’t know how do I remember the exact number now). I tried my best to recall the rest of the words which I memorized previous day. But it was in vain I could not write any more. He asked us to stop and collected the sheets. Now he with the help of another boy started counting the total words written in each sheet and wrote the numbers along with the students name on the black board for everyone to see.
Students had written in the range of 20 to 48 words. I had written second highest, 34. Now it was the time for all of us to face the music as nobody scored fifty. As the school closing time was nearing, the teacher knew that he won’t be able to punish all of the students, so devised a method to finish the punishing task (even for him). He subtracted the numbers of words written by the students out of fifty such as 50-48 = 2 to 50-20=30. These were the number of slaps. Now he asked us to choose our slapping partners, such that in a group of two one has to receive his slaps from another and viceversa. All the groups started with the job then suddenly he asked all of us to stop as we were not slapping hard enough, and called a boy to show how hard to slap. He slapped him so hard that the boy’s cheek turned red. Now he asked all of us to start the process again. This time most of us gave good facial massage to one another.

Now it was time to call it a day at the school and all of us packed our bags and started leaving for our homes. Everybody seemed to be ashamed of them for hitting their friends. But there were also some boys who were giggling about the entreating process.

I was thinking how that boy wrote 48 words even though he was not that much studious. I went to him and asked “how did you memorize that many words?” At first he seemed reluctant to tell but then he unearthed the trick with the condition that I should not tell anyone. He told that he thought that teacher himself may not know all the words and all he was going to do was to count the words written by the boys. So he just wrote the words without worrying whether the words he was writing were genuine or not. All he wanted was to make sure that he didn’t write more than fifty to avoid the teacher’s suspicion. He later told me that he wrote the words like “Aklmts”, “Apmtsd” (written for example by me as I don’t remember the exact words told by him) and it went as contrived. I was really impressed with his ingenuity.

Now that smart boy is one of my best friends. He is serving Indian army now a days.

Leave your comments and please report the errors.

Let the Nishachars be free:

2008-09-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Pundit Nehru popularly said "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,"

Yeah, how true it is even after more than sixty years of Indian independence that at the stroke of midnight when the world sleeps (not really though), millions of Indians wake all night to answer calls of some dumb heads, to tell them how their gadgets work, to do all the clerical work at the minimum wages, and obviously to get rid of the unemployment. Well, these people don’t have any option other then proving the Nehru’s statement true.

But there is another group of zealous Indians whom I call Nishachars (Nishachars is a Hindi word for those who roam around in night, synonym of Demons), pardon the discourtesy. These are the people aspiring for their much deserved Night life. Here the night life can have different meanings depending on the activities a Nishachar might like to pursue in night time, such as boozing, dancing and head trips.

Till now there doesn’t seems to be any problem, but there is a catch, the local administration of some of the Indian cities have imposed a “BAN” on the Nightlife, and Nishachars are in trouble. The reasons cited for the ban are multiple, such as proliferations of illegal activities, law and order troubles etc.

Now let’s ponder about this “BAN”. Is it really required to enforce this ban? After all Nishachars are also parts of Indian populous and they include some big honchos from Indian Industry and the cinema fraternity. It may be possible that they are in minority numbers but in a secular state like India, Minorities are the most cared about. So why the Indian states don’t let these ogres carry on their natural activities?

I have just this to say,”Come on you bunch of Administrators, don’t fear the Nishachars. Let them have the fun and improve your Law and order machinery. After all we are passing through the Kaliyug (Dark Age) and you are no better than the Nishachars”.

Hail the Nishachars…..I’m one of them.

What about you?

BMTC bus conductors

2008-09-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

I have been in Bengaluru aka Bengalore for more than a year, and the (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) BMTC buses have been the most affordable transport utility. The buses seem to run as per a fixed schedule for commuters’ comfort and not for the sole purpose of revenue maximization for BMTC. The reason for the observation is that sometimes you may notice a bus moving almost empty like our lawmakers’ heads and sometimes accommodating passengers over the limit like bank accounts of overtly corrupt officials.

The system seems to be quite different than other states I have been in. In some cases the bus driver takes the of conductor’s responsibility of distributing the tickets along with motoring through the notoriously congested roads. It’s here, for the first time, that I have seen lady conductors taking on the task in glutted buses. There are also some serpentine buses, where the rear part of the bus is hinged with the main part in a train like fashion. These are moving merry-go-rounds, because the drivers seems to forget that there some less mortals are graveled in the other part of the vehicle, as they keep oscillating in all possible dimensions because of reckless driving.

Now let me talk about the bus conductors, as you are most likely to “Deal” with them while riding BMTC buses. If you happen to take a comparatively longer journey, then there is no problem as they give the right tickets. But if you are going to hop on for just one or two kilometers, then the ticket charges are in the range of Rs. 3 to Rs. 7. Now, this is the ticket price range where the “Deal” starts. For a Rs. 3 ticket you may pass on the coins in many combinations like coins of Rs 1 and Rs 2 each one, Two Rs 2 coins, or one Rs 5 coin, expecting a return coin(s) with the ticket in last two cases. But in some cases what happens is rather odd; the conductor takes just Rs 2 for Rs 3 ticket, or takes Rs 4 / Rs 5 if the ticket costs Rs 6 and so on, and returns you the extra amount without giving any ticket. In each Deal they let you keep one or two rupees and adjust the rest of the sum for them.

Now it’s up to the passenger, whether he/she insists for the ticket and not let the lenient and caring Conductors keep the money. In case there is any ticket checking by any flying team, the passengers are sole responsible for their tickets. The conductors are not liable for the ticketless passengers, as they can’t force them to take the tickets. If some passengers are caught without ticket, then there are higher chances that they will have to bear all the public embarrassments, the financial fines or whack of the laws.

So, the message is clear, whenever you ride the BMTC bus for the next time, don’t go for the little savings of your (or your family’s) hard earned money, Insist for the right ticket. I will also do the same.
Promise!

Don't forget to comment.

Have you got the Balls?

2008-08-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

If you live in India and don’t know anything about cricket then I can’t help you, because you happen to be an atheist as per the definition of the game. It’s a kind of religion with millions of ardent followers. I don’t remember when I was baptized into the game; probably it was when I came to high school and was old enough to throw the ball up to full length of crease. We (I and younger brother Pushpendra) got our first bat carved out of a scrap wooden plank and then what followed was like an obsession of a newly inducted believer.

After some time we got our new bat and a plastic ball. Team size kept increasing, some time even more than conventional eleven. I kept on being sluggish in all three departments namely batting, bowling and fielding, while other friends were budding promisingly. One day Pushpendra was bowling and I was on the facing side, rooted like obstinate tailender, neither scoring nor leaving the bat to another boy. Next ball was full toss, directly came at the handle of the bat and struck at right hand thumb, as there were no gloves, it took off the nail. I came home taciturnly hiding blood soaked palm. But it could not be hidden for long from the caring gaze of my grandmother (Dadiji). The bat was snatched and used as firewood, and ball was hidden out of reach. For the next two weeks there was calm but after that the bug of cricket won’t let us be at rest. Dadiji would not let us buy a plastic ball as it was too hard to play according to her. There didn’t seem to be any option other then getting a soft ball. Tennis ball was unheard of for us by that time.

So we decided to make a soft ball by using cloth and jute yarn. First attempt was not up to the expectation. Ball was totally out of shape and could not be used. Second time we used another method, tore off the cloth in inch wide strips, wrapped these tightly over small ball made of jute threads, and then the damn thing was sewn with plastic strings taken out of empty cement sack. It was perfect sphere, looked nice and we were proud of our efforts. But it didn’t bounce enough and lost its shape in few rough shots. Now the only choice left was to get a plastic ball somehow.

That time around I read news that waste plastic can be reused for making roads and other purposes to dispose it off. So we decided to make our own plastic ball instead of buying a new one as we didn’t had any money for that. The task was tough and required ingenuity and willingness. We started collecting polythene bags. I took a fused bulb and removed it aluminum cap carefully such that the glass didn’t break. Now the idea was to burn the polythene and put it in this glass mould. We took the stuff to rooftop so that nobody notices our plans. I stated burning the plastic bags and dropping the liquid plastic in the glass shell. But the job was not as easy as we thought; one bag burnt fast and clung to my fingers. The wound was not big but I was severely in pain. We dropped the things there and came down silently. The plan was canceled. But we wanted to make the ball again; this time may be just for curiosity rather than the use of it. We took another fused bulb, lot more plastic bags than before, and started burning it. The bulb was filled in almost half an hour and we left it to cool down.

We broke the glass shell after some time, removed the glass pieces and there it was, the ball. It was like a black stone and too heavy to be used as a cricket ball. But we could not stay without testing it; after all it was made by so much effort and inquisitiveness. We played with it only to break a friends head.

Well, quite an “October Sky” effort. Isn’t it?

Need for education

2008-08-20T02:42:00.000-07:00

When we have something, we hardly think about unusual questions like “what if we don’t have it?” Whether these are day to day basic needs like food, clothing and shelter or little more ensuant things like medical care, education or entertainment. Earlier I never appreciated my education because it was really boring to dig into the books which I never liked or may be because it was hard to meet the expectations of my parents. But I never thought about the life of the people who could not afford the formal education. Some time I even envied them because they don’t have to go through the hardship of classes, assignments and exams. But then an incident occurred which changed my perspective about the need for education.

It was when I was preparing for a competitive exam to get into a good college after my school education. I came to Kota, rented a room and joined a coaching class called “Bansal Classes”. Exam date was close and everything was working fine. But life is not that easy, very next day ran out of luck. I had an accident and was bedridden. My father came with my grandmother and left her with me to take care. It was the first time she came out of village to live in a big city like Kota. I had my books to pass the time but for her it was really difficult. She felt like being in self made prison. She used to pass the time looking at the pictures in the news paper, sleeping and talking about the happenings in village. First week glided by, but soon it was too difficult for her to stay with me in a shell like room, she had no one to talk except me, nowhere to go. It was totally opposite to the village life she was used to.

Then I asked my landlady to take my grandmother along with her whenever she went to vegetable market. It turned out to be better; she now started adapting herself to the surroundings. For the first two days she went with landlady, who showed her the way to grocery shop, fruit market and nearby temple. Next day the landlady was not at home. My grandma insisted that she would go alone as she knew the way. I denied first but then gave way and asked her to be careful of the unruly traffic.

She took some money and went happily. I was back to book, flicking through the pages. Clock kept ticking and to my utter surprise it was more than one hour since she left for a job which could not have taken more than 15 minutes. I was worried, waited for another 10 minutes. Then I could not stay in the room, I thought she was lost. I ran out of the house with plaster on my right hand and severe pain in the back. I rushed to market looking for her. She didn’t even know the house address and telephone number. I was really disturbed and felt. On the other side she was more upset then me. It has been more an hour for her roaming in the wrong directions. People could not help her as all she knew was color of house. Then she told a gentleman that her grandson studies in Bansal Classes. He took her there. Receptionist at the institute looked through the student’s record, found my address and sent her with an office boy. I also came back to inform my landlady about the situation.

I was relaxed after seeing her in the room with landlady sitting beside her. She started sobbing as soon as she saw me. Landlady scolded me for letting her go alone and asked me to teach her at least about home address. For the next few days I spared some time and taught her the rudiment of alphabet and counting. She learned house address, telephone number and how to look for time in clock and set a morning alarm.

Well, now she would confuse between the Hour and minute hands of the clock. When its quarter past midnight she would say that it’s three in morning and I should not study so late.

So, this incident was a kind of eye opener for me about the people who are illiterate. May be you also got some insight about it. Friends!

Translation by Google....really funny.

2008-08-14T00:26:00.000-07:00

English to Hindi Translation:

http://72.14.235.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl=en&tl=hi&u=http://justanytime.blogspot.com/&usg=ALkJrhg9rqQslLs6leRd8fQfV9SBT67HlQ

Terrible moments of life.

2008-08-13T03:12:00.000-07:00

well, I'm stuck again, fingers on keyboard....forgot all the ideas, I was think about to write in this post.....but i have got to begin because this is the only way i can reach unto you all and share my feelings and experiences and all those things we care about.

OK, let me ask one absurd question.... Have you ever been stung by a Scorpion?....yeah you're right. I'm talking about a Scorpion bite. if you have experienced it then there is no need to move your eyes further.....otherwise get along with me.

I was around 12 yrs old, preparing for "Gramin Pratibha Khoj Pariksha (Rural Talent Search Exam)" after my 8th std passing exams. It was 16th June 1997 and my first competitive exam was scheduled on 2oth June just after few days. My parents were off to my maternal parents village and I was at home with my brother and grandmother. I put down the notebook happily as soon as light went out, and felt relaxed after hours of cramming. Suddenly the sand clouds came up in sky, as it regularly does in Rajasthan in summer time, and it was total dark as the moon was engulfed by the sand storm. My brother and I ran towards verandah dragging our cots in darkness.

The next moment was something which I had never felt before. I could not figure out what happened. My body dropped loose, my mouth wide open trying to inhale as much air as it can, and suddenly i cried as loud as Al pacino did at the end of God Father movie. My brother left the cot and hold me in has arms asking vehemently...."what happened to you? what happened to you?" and he started crying as well. My grandmother came running towards us, so did the neighbor, and whoever heard the hollo. I could not describe what happened to me, I was just saying something had bitten me. In the meantime somebody came with a torch and noticed the deadly scorpion, hiding few meters away from the scene. Now they came to know what a terrible thing had happened. I was bitten by it in my right toe. someone took his footwear off and destroyed the little beast in a slug.

On the other side i was inconsolable, feeling thirsty and praying to all the Demigods, whose names i could recall. some one called the Ojha. He broke one Neam tree branch and started revolving around my body, chanting something enigmatically. But it was of no use as i was still crying at full volume. my body was burning. my brain felt the electric pain. Next, some body suggested to soak a cloth in water and wring it hard to extort the water out of it and drop it on my toe. The supposed concept was to expel the pain out of my body like the water out of cloth. But all of this was useless. Then finally some sane person suggested to rush me to a doctor. one of my cousin loaded me on his back and others followed as i was busy with the squall, drinking water in between to wet my throat.

The doctor was trained in Ayurveda medicine but he rolled a small rubber ball over my diseased toe to take the sting out of it, but nothing came out. Finally, he took a big bottle of wine out of his wrack and a glass syringe out of his small bag. He filled the syringe fully with the Liquid and drained it in my toe. The pain subsided and i was relaxed in few minutes and stopped crying after almost two hours. I felt terrible exhausted and couldn't stand on my feet. the doctor gave the bottle and syringe to my cousin and asked him to give me the dose whenever i feel the pain again.

All the night i could not sleep, kept drinking water to quench the unsatisfiable thirst. Finally I slept in the wee hours of the morning after many insertions of the alcohol filled needle.

This was the second most pain I ever felt, first being a broken heart in teenage. I was alright in next two days, and cracked the exam being the first in the district.

welcome note.

2006-08-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

hi well come everybody to see how i kill my time.