The Bombay firings are sad, my prayers for the souls of those dead to rest in peace and for their near and dear to be able to develop enough courage to get over this agony.
Although the firings are sad , whats sadder still is that the educated, the rich of India are clueless about what they can do to help in this hour of crisis. Yes that list includes me too. That said when you cant do something good, its better not to do something harmful. You can sit silently and think of ways to help, voice your concern(is as little words as possible) and pray for the affected, try and improve national fervor- make people more patriotic. But that said ironically the educated that i am close with these days had the following to say
disclaimer : These are not my words, these are words of some educated (highly educated) but (IMHO)immature Indians.
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"It’s time that we pull up our socks and said that enough is enough………..It’s time we questioned our senile polity about what is being done to ensure our safety………… It’s time we stop we stop feeling and being so helpless…………"
"Its very easy to say enough is enough – what do you suggest we should do ? Go to war with Pakistan? Kill innocent Pakistanis in return? Its easy to ramble – how about some constructive suggestions, thoughts . . . . What happened to peace and prosperity – what happened to love thy neighbour – what happened to forgive and forget."
"But aren’t we have forgotten too much. Whenever there is bomb blast, we all forget it in a week. And go on with our lives. Cause by God’s grace, we did not have to go through the pain ourselves."
"Keep on forgiving, keep on forgetting and keep on reliving these moments. "
"I think we need to boycott a government which due to its inefficiency is becoming a source of pains of many fellow nations.. Killing is not an option, but pain points have to be cut out.. There is a limit to everything.. "
"Just because we haven’t retaliated ever….we are looked at as a soft nation…attack at will…kill…and kill again…Some kind of deterrence has to be developed. Forgiveness won’t buy us that."
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I am not sure if i am the only one who sees immaturity in all that talk, also am I the only one to notice that these people are adding to the problem by increasing the tension and through war of words and what more they haven't suggested a single thing that will help alleviate the pain, solve the problem, control terrorism.
So am I suggesting that people who cant do shouldn't talk. Not exactly , but these are people who are after big money(bigger pay cheques), these are people who wouldn't miss a day of opportunity to get richer or secure their future, these are people who would probably never volunteer to fight for the country and to me it seems hypocritical that these are the people who talk all these big words. (My apologies for the generalizing but then "some of these people" at every place i used these looks weird). Whats even more interesting some of them don't even have a voters id card or have at least skipped a couple of elections. hmmm........................
Ya i am no good either, i vote and all that , but know of no solution to the problem, so till the time I find a solution all i can say is be sensible dont flare up like the people above, most problems get aggravated cos someone chose to get flared up when he/she shouldnt have , dont spread rumours, dont give aggravated speeches and pray for those affected. (btw if you do know of a solution please stand up)
P.S: on another note, i cant believe TV channels are back at it, they are trying to improve their TRP by making people cry, what kind of a dumb idiotic question to an affected is "how do you feel now that you know you are safe here and your loved one is trapped inside as a hostage" obviously they feel sad, bad and the whole world knows it. Stop being so business minded BD and stop conducting interviews that will pierce knives into the wounded hearts.
--Badri--
Now Playing "Mundhinam partheney" - from the movie "Vaaranam Aayiram". Awesome Sax , Harris Jayaraj has done a wonderful job in this song, cant stop listening to it This number from the movie lingers in me.
Overall although the movie sucks(ok tolerable) , harris jayaraj has done a wonderful job. Too bad Gautham messed with him and they wont be working together anymore.I dont know why but i liked sameera reddy's character in the movie. But that said the movie is tolerable and can be watched only once.
Cheers,
--Badri--
Term 5 ended 1hr before schedule for me, i finished the Managing Teams exam at 3.30pm even though i could have carried on till 4.30. That ends 62.5% of our course at ISB. Although technically 5th term aint over till I turn in my FINS and NEGA assignments , i happy that the exams are over.
5th term was the most demanding of all terms so far, way too many assignments, I took 5 papers hoping to complete as many as possible ASAP but in hindsight that added way too much to the pressure.
MPSD- Managing Products Services and Development was my favorite of the 5 i took, not much pressure , good learning value and a real good prof. I know there are folks who disagree with me but then this is my view. I definitely recommend the course to anyone interested in product development.
NEGA or Negotiation analysis rocked too, Dishan is awesome and the learning value from the course is definitely very high.
MGTM or managing teams gave me mixed vibes, its a course that teaches you that people can hold only 5-7 pieces of information at a time and has a final exam that tests 20 odd concepts.
FINS was a waste of a time for a anti-fin guy like me, although the subject financial institutions was very informative, the 8 o clock class and my attraction to the subject made me sleep in every single class.
And finally OPFR - options and future, i loved this class, dont know why, wouldnt say there is much learning value from the class and dint turn out to be a scoring paper for me but was definitely fun.
Bad health, interview preps, resume preparation and all that saw to it that i missed a good number of classes this term but hopefully I will end up performing above average.
In all as with all other terms, term 5 was grrrrrrrrrr8 and yet am glad its over :-)
cheers,
--Badri--
In the last one week, in spite of the several assignments that needed completion, the resume building and the job applications and yada yada yada there have been things that have cheered me up and made me feel good. The chief among those is that several of my classmates are stopping by to say
"hey you are looking different" ?
"whats new have u put on weight" :-(
"whats up u are looking good man, new hair do or what" :-)
"hey badri looking smart yaar, putting on weight but looks good" :-)
The best part of it is that a few of those classmates who complimented my new looks are gals :-)
Anyways here is my analysis on why perhaps I am looking "good" ;-)
i) I used to sport a beard for a long long time but recently decided to do away with it
ii) I havent had a hair cut but i started combing my hair (yes i attended classes for 6 months without combing hair and with a beard)
iii) I have been wearing formals, business casuals the last few days cos of some meeting or the other.
iv) and finally this is what I would like to believe , there is an old tamil proverb that goes "agatthin azhagu mugaththil theriyum" (the state of the mind is reflected in the face).
Recently i made a decision to be free from all worries, I decided that irrespective of where i land up and where i am headed i wont gripe, I decided that I will follow the "happy go lucky" strategy. Why this sudden awakening, i was going through my blogs and realized i have griped a lot over the last 6 months(I am sorry u guys had to put up with it :-) ) and that all this griping is bringing me down and making me depressed.
Anyways bottomline i would like to believe that the change in attitude and the positive energy is reflecting on my face and making me look good.
So here is my new moto "Dont u dare gripe again"
Cheers,
--Badri--
P.S: I have put on weight , 2kgs of excess fat thanks to Pizzas with extra cheese
hypothesis : every system is flawed what varies is the degree to which it is faulty
proof : my strong belief in the hypothesis
after spending some time evaluating applications and conducting interviews i have been wondering what the ratio of drop and go errors would be in the ISB application evaluation process.
For the uninitiated
Drop error: a mistake made by a company in deciding to abandon a new product idea that, in hindsight, might have been successful if developed
Go error: a failure at any stage (but especially at the screening stage) in the new product development process when a decision is made to proceed with a product which, in hindsight, should have been abandoned.
I have also been wondering if I am an ISB student now only cos of a "Go Error" ;-)
cheers,
--Badri--
I had the privilege of being in one of the interview panels that interviewed ISB 2010 chennai and bangalore applicants today and boy was it a wonderful experience. Although the whole idea of having to spend time from 9 am to 6.30 pm on something other than studies, with 5 assignments to complete seemed daunting , i decided to go for it and i can gladly say i made a good decision.
I conducted several mock interviews over the last few weeks for prospective students but the real interviews were way more exciting. Here are some fields into which i got valuable insight
i) The diversity of people applying to ISB
ii) Self selection bias(smart people applying to ISB cos its a big brand name and the vicious circle)
iii)How to bowl questions to an applicant, how to see if he is shallow, really talented or ...
iv) How to make the applicant feel comfortable and confident before starting the interview, how to help me get on his feet if he feels helpless or nervous
and finally the most interesting
v) What is the hottest fake trait/experience that people mention in their resume to get an ISB admit
I also learnt how the process works, got to meet several good canditates, got to spend more time with the alums and thus got to know them better and personally i also felt quite important today ;-)
This being my first day at my new office i was very lenient with all the folks i interviewed but tomorrow i plan to test out my stress interviewing skills ;-) (jus kidding)
cheers,
--Badri--
