Fido Dido

One Big School

2007-07-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

You would think that one thing a school, that is in the nascent stage of its life cycle, in this new global economy, that survives on how many students enroll for its course, would want to have a strong School principal and staff of teachers!

But what if there is "One Big School" that feels that anyone can perform the duties of the School Principal - even a Secretary to the founder of the school!!

What if it would make its students put in black and white that study for at least six months or pay up INR 75,000 just to attend a course that is being taken by the teacher for just INR 10,000 per person! The icing one the cake would be a 2 year, INR 200,000 contract not to leave the school before you enroll yourself... but what if you pass out?

Dude, Thank God I don't study in this school!

The heart of Incredible India!!

2007-06-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

Til dekho, Taad dekho,
Marble ka pahad dekho, Aankhen ohad ohad dekho,
Sher ki dahad dekho!

Chanderi ki shaadi dekho, Bandhavgarh ki jhaadi dekho,
Mandu ka mahal dekho, Jungle ki hulchul dekho,
Cheetal dekho, GAur dekho, Barashingha aur Mor dekho,
Shivpuri ki Chhatri dekho, Chaandi ki rail patri dekho!

Ujjain ke sant dekho, Baudhik mahant dekho,
Orchha mein bhulo bhatko, phir Sanchi mein khud ko dhundho,
Geeta aur kuran dekho, Indore ki shaan dekho,
Kaise banta paan dekho!

Ta thaiya ta nana,
Khajuraho shilpkari dekho, Bhimbetka kalkari dekho,
Sacche prem pujari dekho,
Ankhen meechey meechey dekho, Ankhen phaad phaad dekho!

Satpura ki rani dekho, Bhopal rajdhani dekho,
Rajdhani mein jheel dekho, banta paani Jhil-Mil dekho,
Dharmon ki mehfil dekho, Hindustan ka dil dekho!!!

Courstey - Madhya Pradesh Tourism!!

Prince catches India's fancy

2006-07-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

India has its very own Prince!!!

Last weekend a 6 year old known as Prince gave news channels enough material to form a very own soap opera.

50 hours rescue operation brought together the entire nation including a fire brigade team from Mumbai (don't ask me why). The 50 hours in the 18 meters bore well paid off for the lil prince with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announcing Rs. 200,000 for the kid and the money has been pouring in.

A lunch table discussion a few days back ended up in indentifying other potential revenue streams for the boy. In this media crazy world it wouldn't be surprising if marketing agencies try and cash in on the event. Here are a few probable advertisements that can be made

India Army - We save lives!! Do you have it in you?

Airtel - I love you bona hai Rs. 10, Prince ko papa ko hello bona hai to bus Rs. 5 ka recharge.

hutch - (Just kick in Pug) Wherever you go, our network follows!!

Amul - (Supposedly Prince was given some milk, bread and butter) The taste of India - don't matter where you are!

Siyarams - (after the success of the rescue operation) Coming home to Siyarams!

You could go on and on and on. But the fact is that with over 1,400 manhole/pit related deaths in 2003 will anything be done about the country's ditches and pits that lie uncovered and unattended waiting for its own royal occupant.

Overworked.. Underpaid

2006-06-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

that pretty much summarizes my worklife as of now... found a weekend after a loooong time to relax at home... looking at the rate in which people are switching jobs, or sud i say joinign CTS, lets c what life has in store.

Personal front - Found out a couple of weeks back that our song, Diet Smoke's song, "Far from home"'s mp3 is doing the rounds and people are liking it.... the song, for some, defined us in more ways than one at IIM Indore.

Books - Reading 'Shantaraman' currently.. amazingly gripping book!
read Scott Adam's "Gods Debris"... real mind twisting book...

....and i dont know if its a coincidence or watever but the last two books, both the books when they talk about the universe, God, the purpose of life and of existence of people have the same theroy.... but the concept actually makes you THINK! are we actually moving towards being the universal being, are we all realy debris of the ultimate complexity??!?!?!!?

Movies - saw a few movies - Munich, 36 China Town, Ice Age 2, and yeh how can i forget, Gangster!!!! all of them nice movies... except for the obvious one on the list.... i know there are people who will not agree with me and will swear by Gangster as if it were their own home production but hey guys mans entitled to his choice, aint he?

well that was one hectic post.....

later!!!

Life at the front

2006-04-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what it must have been like for the people in the infantry division in armies in the old days?

"Yours is not to question why, yours is but to do and die!"

Walk when you are told to, stop when you hear the command and then just go and stand in the front to get killed till the big guys on the horses think its wise to pull off or send in the real cavalry.

What would it have been like to be in the infantry. One second you standing with your friends, brothers-in-arms and the next thing you know is they are down and buried and all of a sudden you the only one standing, in open view and all of a sudden in the front line.

Ever had that feeling??

Anyways, am really happy for my brothers-in-arms who laid down their lives last week for the greater good of the society. But that does put me in the front row seat. :o)

Update

2006-02-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Its been long since I posted anyting... call it lack of time or jus plain lazy me....

well here are a few things worth mentioning

- Went to Golden Temple, Amritsar. Its simply beautiful!

- Finally visited the Wagah Border. It should me a must for every Indian once in their life. The emotionally patriotic feeling that I got for that 30 minutes was just amazing. Makes you realise what it is to belong to a Country.

- Saw Rang De Basanti. (A lot has been said about the movie in the blogging world so will leave it at that)

- Appraisal season going on at my place of work. Made me realise that all those things they tought us in HR and OB are the ones that are really important. Only if some people at my office had studied them at a decent institute. (Will leave it at that also. Dont wanna get started on that)

- Going home for Holi - Something to look forward to.

- Hope to post more stuff soon.

Performance Appraisal and the Indian Army

2006-01-26T11:36:00.000-08:00

The year end evaluations are round the corner and it seems like the mid year appraisals were just here. The system is the same like it was in school, you get evaluated on each project you do and then all projects add up and you mix it up with certain tit-bits that you have done around the office during the period and ultimately boil it with the rapport that you have with people in your group and your boss/career manager/your GM and wait and watch what happens at the end. Well all this is simple when you compare it to the yearly evaluations system that the Indian Army has.

There was this coverage aired on a news channel titled "Measuring Success at J&K" throwing some light on how the army's efforts are measured and how the different units performance is measured during the year on the J&K front in order to decide which unit is better among the best and deserved the award at the Republic Day. Considering that new channels have become more of a entertainment zones these days this story grabbed my attention and I stayed on.

It turns out that General Joginder Jaswant Singh, after assuming command of the Indian Army as the Chief of Army Staff on 31st January 2005 made an announcement the very next day that the performance of the army units will now be measured not based on how many militants they killed during the year but based on how happy and satisfied the people of the village are in which the unit operates. Hearing this all the jargons that I had come across during the 2 years in MBA started coming to my head - 360 degree feedback, customer satisfaction etc. and it seemed a bit weird. I mean how many of us have actually thought about hows the jawans efforts are evaluated or how they are rewarded?

I started wondering how they must have done it before and my questions were answered as the story went on. It seems that in August 2005 General J J Singh thought it best to go back to the earlier system wherein units were awarded points based on how many militants they killed, how many men they lost etc. It went something like

Points for killing a Militant.............4
Additional points if he had a Gun.........3
Points if he didn't have a Gun.............1

Points get deducted if the unit loose men

On loosing a jawan......................(10)
On a men in the same unit
killing a fellow jawan..................(20)
If a suicide takes place................(30)

Points were also deducted if a Human Rights Violation occurred - Rape, harassment etc. but only if it was proven and the men were convicted but the opinions of the villagers were not considered at all. As the General mentioned - If the villagers have a problem then they will complain on their own (don't know how that is supposed to work). Surprisingly the story reported that there were no negative points on incidents like mistaking innocent villagers for militants and killing them and let alone the bad will thus created. At the end all the points are totaled up and the winner is declared.

The first few comparison that crossed my mind was the one of the traffic police trying to meet their quota of chalans as the month end approaches and of some of my batchmates who start pushing applications to the credit department as the month/quarter end approaches with the hope that it will be 'passed' and they will be able to meet their targets and get their bonus at the year end. But the same thought process might become a serious issue when it is the army instead of my batchmates and its killing militants instead of disbursing loans etc.

Disclaimer: All the views presented in the above post are just based on the news clipping that I saw on TV. They have been taken on face value (it was just a news clip afterall, God knows how much of it was true). The post is in no way meant to degrade the systems of the Indian Army or their efforts and sacrifices. Hats off to the Army. Borrowing from the dialogue of Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholas) in A Few Good Men - We need men like them to stay out there protecting us so that men like us can sit in front of their comps and have the luxury to post stuff like this on blogs.

Interesting Comparision

2006-01-22T02:51:00.000-08:00

a fwd.... interesting read...

Men & Women

Godfather

2006-01-21T01:30:00.000-08:00

Nope am not talking about the movie. Am talking about having a godfather at your job. While I had never thought about it before recent incidents at my office just got me trying to figure out the entire thing... from both the parties perspective.

So who is a Godfather? What does he do? A Godfather would typically be someone high up in the value chain, quite senior to you and/or to whom you might be reporting to, who will promote you and look to it that you do the right things at the right time? Create a situation where "Uska haath tere sir par ho aur tereko koi phikar nahi" (Literal translation "If his hand is on your head then you have nothing to worry about").

So why would someone high up the food chain take up your cause. Well nothing is free in life, so there has to be some gain for the Big Boss as well. If you come to think of it its very simple. Even your Big Boss is at the bottom of some value chain that goes high up to the CEO or someone. So he also is trying to come up with ideas, actions that might put him in a better light than his counterparts and get the Biggest Boss to notice his efforts or his group/division as better than the others'. The only difference is that he has people under him at his disposal through which he mobilises his efforts and earn brownie points. On the other hand the mear mortals like you and me dont have anything to complain. You start getting visibility, start getting rewarded and have a protective shield from others in the organisation. So noone has anything to complain about. The only issue in the entire thing is that its not a game that either party can start. It has to be initiated by the Godfather.

So what is a mear mortal like in such a case? What is the profile of such a guy? Well wont comment on it right now. Not after jus witnessing a couple of examples, but my guess is that it is also dependent on the kind of person your Big Boss is!

The 'X Factor

2006-01-15T02:04:00.000-08:00

Am sure most of you understand what I am referring to however for those who didn’t have the privilege of having studied Services Marketing under Prof. Ramkumar will soon understand it.

Prof. Ramkumar was one those few people who achieved the next-to-impossible feat of having full attendance in his lectures and that too with 100% attention from all of the attendees. He managed to criticize every little thing in life but not in a negative manner. His aim was always to make people think and see the simple logic of things and appreciate common sense. Am sure most of the guys n gals would agree that he was one guy who made us see the obvious (which is must say is not an easy task). This post is dedicated to him.

The other day we were shopping and found ourselves in Big Bazaar. This chain of stores are basically discount stores and are jam packed, no matter what time you are there. While standing in the queue at the checking counter my eyes went on a sign which didn’t make much sense. So let me know if you can make something out of it. It went something like...If within 2 days of buying a product at Big Bazaar you find the same quality/quantity of product at a cheaper rate somewhere else then bring it to us within 10 days and we shall give you double the price (or was it double the difference, don’t exactly remember but that’s not the point). What I couldn’t figure out was why was the "within 2 days" mentioned out there?

If I actually do find a cheaper rate somewhere do they expect me to buy the same product again (within 2 days) and bring the receipt of that purchase (within 10 days) so that they will jus pay me the difference or something?? If you want to give a guarantee to a customer then make it simple. 'find a cheaper rate within 10 days and we pay you back your money' or something like that.

Happy Lohri

2006-01-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

Friday the 13th was Lohri - The Bonfire Festival. Its celebrated in northern India. Had gone over to a colleague's place to celebrate. In true spirit of the festival a huge bonfire was lit and punjabi songs were playing full blast. It was only when I reached there that I realised why he and his flatmates had gone through all the trouble of arranging for the music, the snacks (gajak, rewari, kurkure, etc.) and the bonfire. It turns out that there are a couple of girls' hostels in the same society. To cut the long story short the place resembled Lord Krishna's Raas Lila! with 50 odd girls dancing round the bonfire and a few of us guys to 'help' them out :)

Btw the DJ sucked and for the couple of hours that I was there I dont remember any song going beyond 2 lines.

Current Song - 'Masti ki pathsala' - Rang de Basanti (sud be a good movie, hope it aint another Mangal Pandey)

New Song that I heard today - 'Big City Life' (nice catchy rythm)

Hell just froze over

2006-01-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

Someone once mentioned that Gurgaon is like hell. Well this winter I am experiencing what the expression "when hell freezes over" actually means. Yesterday mercury broke all records in the past 70 years!! ...and people out here were telling me that this year it aint that cold. Its so cold out here that waking up in the morning should be a criminal offence or something.

The other day my boss was telling me how Delhi does not have its own weather. Summers is influenced by places like Rajasthan and Winter is influenced by places like Srinagar and Jammu and blah blah.... well duh, who cares?...doesnt change the fact that its still freezing out here and that he expects everyone to be in the office at 8 in the morning.

Btw last week went to IIT-D for placements. Will talk about that some other time.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Its 2006 and as they say, you dont realise where time flies.

March 2003 - Was busy giving interviews, trying to convince the B-Schools that i fit the bill perfectly

November 2003 - Before I could catch my breath, was busy trying to convince companies to hire me for summer placements

December 04/Jan 05 - Was running between interviews so that i can get a decent job to start off my career with.

December 05 - Am on the other side of the table. All of a sudden I find myself taking interviews. Its a bit "wierd" when you know that one tick on the feedback form will accept or reject the candidate for the next round.

Lets see what 2006 has in store.

Quarter-life Crisis

2005-12-31T05:14:00.000-08:00

Was cleaning up my mailbox the other day and came across this fwd that talks about being 'twenty-something'. Some of it does make sense.
_______________________________________________

They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't.

One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward. You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic.

You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.

Here I am..

2005-12-31T04:38:00.000-08:00

This is finally it I guess... never thought I would have a blog of my own. Never believed in keeping diaries or journals let alone an online one. Recently, however, have been actively following a few blogs and well, just wanted to try it out I guess. Lets see how long this lasts.