In The Name of Love

Finally The poet has to come for the rescue of the blogger.Today I am posting an intimate part of me-A poem writtten in summers of 05.

In The name of Love

This

is not a poem

to be read with rapt attention

Nor

a sketch of palm

of an unfortunate fatalist.

This

is not a map

drawn in the name of lost treasure

Nor

a truth untwisted.

Rather

It is a distance

measured from wrong end.

It is a moat

which drags one down

with feet up and chest downwards.

It is a weightless feather

of sparrow's broken wings

floating aimlessly in afternoon wind.

It is the last stone

one always leaves unturned.

It is the curse accepted

in the name of love.

Loosing my virginity

“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull”

-Shakespeare: All’s well that Ends Well

When I first heard of “Mandi” I thought of a witty remark of great American Film producer Sam Goldwyn-“What we really need are some brand new clichés.”When I joined NITIE, I was sceptical about the idea of an event of MBA students selling the toys on street under an unjargonized (pun unintended) name –Mandi. Our Prof Dr T. Prasad had been quite successful in making us “Confused-Unconvinced-but–Ready to go” first year MBA students to assemble in front of distinguished guests and alumni of our college in the media-shinning inaugural ceremony of Mandi. I was hearing some terms arbitrarily “Experiencal Learning” .

And I was praying it not to be another "brick -in -the -wall"event. With all apprehension about the merit of the product we were hoping our stars to smile on us to help us sell some “straw-confetti-made-educational-toys” to Mumbai residents. And we sat on the bus destined to go to Andheri. I with my friend Aashutosh virtually jumped out of the bus near Andheri station (as it was a red signal) and we saw our customers. It was a sea of almost running people coming out of station. Some were standing but staring at us with a grimace on their sweating face. We were at a loss. Two twenty something persons educated in premier engineering college of India and having an experience of two years working in a well known manufacturing company, were dumbfounded. We realized that our 16 year education was a waste; it has never sent us in the ocean to experience the pain …..We were virgin …innocent. We were like larva just trying to come out of their cocoon. Our Education system hasn’t taught us how to sell. I realized the whole educational system is a travesty.

But we fought and after initial hiccups we started selling. We learned the basic lessons of art of selling. We had read about it in textbooks and in Prof Dhume’s marketing ppts-Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning but we had never met these gentlemen in class. But on the street of Irla we came across all of them at once in the face of customers. When hawkers on Andheri penetrated their menacing eyes and police bulldozed us away from railway station we learned the might of Porter’s five forces. But we came out quite successfully and sold our package in 3 hours. But what was important was the experience.

This kind of experiment are still in nascent stage but there is one hard truth that is expressed by the Shakespeare quote above:A great deal depends upon what we do ourselves and not by the grace of God. It is the time for us to challange the disillusioned intellizentia which stress upon rote learning. I Hope that the events like Mandi ,which inculcates the learning by doing ,will someday end the tyranny of voyuerism in education.

Fighting Perception

Yesterday I had attended a lecture by a 69r old veteran of Sales & Marketing-Mr Jayant Ghosh.Mr. Ghosh quoted a great Marketing Guru ,John Strut- "Perception is reality,everything else is illusion."Today while reading the blog of swapnil (http://antarayan.blogspot.com) It strike me that the perception of being Bihari as Bad has become reality.The same message vapours out from many other fellow bloggers ,like Aashutosh .It has evolved 'God-knows-how ' but It has became as cruel as a reality.If we Bihari can change the perception we can change the reality too.The perception is domineering and Sometimes some of our mates from our state succumb to this overpowering stigma and react in a silly way .I think every person should either act or pro-act something,rather anything. Whatever done in answer to some act i.e. reactively,becomes a source of public ignominy.Anything reactive has a propencity towards hatred and hatred breeds hatred and caluminates in violence which conforms to the perception,The unforgiving perception of we being unruly,unsophisticated.

If we fight something we become it.The oneness with the enemy-It is the epitom of struggle.When you really start thinking about your enemy you become just like him.In ,"The Rise of the Evil", the movie based on the life of Hitler -the protoganist who had waged the war aginst Hitler through press during his salad days, had started behaving like Hitler.So fighting a perception is an useless proposition.In Judo the fighter never defends a strike ...he evades it.That's the art we Biharis need to learn from Japanese martial art."A wednesday" gives us the same message in different format-We need to stop returning the "Dhakka"(Push) to each other.It has to end somewhere...

A day with Guljar

Winding a day with a poetry of Guljar
मुझे खर्ची में पूरा एक दिन हर रोज़ मिलता है
मगर हर रोज़ कोई छीन लेता है ,झपट लेता है ,अंटी से

कभी खीसे से गिर पड़ता है तो गिरने कि आहट भी नही होती
खरे दिल को भी मैं खोटा समझ कर भूल जाता हूँ !
गिरेबां से पकड़ कर माँगने वाले भी मिलते हैं !
तेरी गुजरी हुई पुश्तों का कर्जा है ,
तुझे किश्तें चुकानी है

-"जबरदस्ती कोई गिरवी रख लेता है ये कह
कर अभी दो चार लम्हे खर्च करने के लिए रख ले
बकाया उम्र के खाते में लिख देते हैं ,
जब होगा हिसाब होगा

बड़ी हसरत है पूरा एक दिन इक बार मैं अपने लिए रख लूँ
तुम्हारे साथ पूरा एक दिन बस खर्च करने की तमन्ना है !

NITIE GD/PI experience

I am just back from NITIE GD/PI at Mumbai.GD was a massacre.We all have heard of teen-schoolboy turned-mass killers.But I faced one of them in the group discussion.The bigmouth, born in Chandigharh had spoken throughout the GD just for the sake of speaking. 2 more people followed his footprints.So even if I tried for around 6-7 times I could speak for only 1 or 2 times.Finally It got over .
Personal Interview was also unique.There were 5 panelist in the room.First question on describing myself.I spoked about career ,education,strength and hobby.They asked me what you read.I muttered about "Stay Hungry,Stay Foolish",But these masters of Ops hav'nt heard of the book,So I continued about "The monk who sold his Ferrari".They asked me to summerize the book.Then question on Why MBA.One panelist asked me which is the largest manufacturer of Step Up Transformer?I had no clue,So I said that I dont know about Which is the largest but we at TATA motors buys from a local Maharastra based firm.2 nd question-How to decrease Transmission & Distribution losses? 3rd question how we generate 12 V from Spark plug ?I had no idea why he asked me that ?That was a core mechanical question.Who are the suppliers of wiper .I replied that I am looking after Electronics equipments so I can tell you about Electronic suppliers of Tata Motors.I said about some of them.He asked me how you choose a supplier?I replied comprehensively.Then asked me about Vendor rating.I said we do it at TM but I dont know how they do it.They asked me about my opportunity cost of doing MBA.I said about break even in 2 years .Then one of the profs chuckled -some of the student break even in 3 months.I said that's great.asked me about Hobbeys.I said yoga.they asked abut Dhyan Mudra.Shakuntalasana which I could not replied because I havnt done that aasan ever.They asked Who was Shakuntala,which I replied fairly,So one of the panelist was satisfied.The other one asked me what are the other calls I have got?What are tha parameters to decide the b school.I said parameters as quality of peers and faculty.He asked again "faculty and peers "or "peer and faculty"?I said sir I might be disappointing you but Peers first then Faculty.They said sheeepishly no no we are not disappointed,then I justified it by saying that for setting up an enterprize I will need like -minded prople around me so..They said thank you and Best of Luck.In last legs the PI turned into discussion.In toto it was around 18 min long.I came out happy I dont know how it will turn out.Let us wait for the results.

Jai Ho...IIMB GDPI experience

And the day had come for which I was waiting for more than 1 month.Mine interview was scheduled on 25 th Feb in Kelling Worth Hotel,Kolkata.I remember Napolean saying-"Reaching the battlefiel first is the half battle won."So I reached at 1 o'clock (1 hour early to scheduled 2 o'clock.).One smiling guy from IIT Guwahati had reached the battlefield before me.One after one other guys/gal started coming in.Total 8 persons including one girl were there for the GD.One common denominator was that we all had wasted our four years in some college to attain a piece of paper which we were carrying with us that day.We were given tea n snacks and we were assigned a no,mine was 4.We entered the collosium for the battle unto death at 2:30 PM .Two profs of IIMB were sitting in the central couch and we were sitting in a half rectangular shape.I was almost in the middle,Usually the central position is considerd as good but on the flip side you are always at the risk of looking at the panelist.They declared the rules and timelines:It's a case study ,8 min for reading the case ,15 min to discuss it and 5 min to write the summary of the discussion.The case was titiled "what an Idea".Based on Idea Cellulars Ad featuring Abhishek Bacchan.The point of debate was that in what cases taking referendum is justified?I noted down 4-5 points in my sheet.The first speaker was the most experianced fellow from Daniel(He said we make Steel plants).He started giving examples of Indian Postal System and Indian Railways taking referendum etc.Then we all jumped into the game.I put up words like Decision making,Planning, Stategic decision etc.In my 2nd attempt I could say about some welfare issues where referendum can be applied.In 3rd instances I spoke about Semco initiative of Democracy @ workplace,but since nobody in the group had heard about it so group didn't discussed my thread.Overall I made around 5-6 entries and I came out quite satisfied with my performance.
For Interview my turn was fourth.One prof came out and called my name.I will mention him as JP(Junior prof as he was the one who was always taking the involunteery pain of coming out from the couch.The other one SP,Senior Prof)
Me:May I come in Sir?
SP:Yes come in ,please close the door.
Me: Good afternoon sirs.
Tey said me to sit down.I thanked him,then
SP:how you are feeling?
Me:Sir I am fine.
SP: What feedback you have got from the persons who faced the interview so far?
Me:(Weighing the options of telling that If I tell that no technicals has been asked then they will ask me technicals and I will be screwed for good)Sir they said it's going cool.
SP:Cool??
JP:Because AC is ON here.Ha Ha
Me :(Smilng)No sir I meant that the interview are normal,no stress interview.
SP:Given a choice to choose,what you would choose a stress interview or a cool interview?
Me:Cool interview.
SP:This means you can't work under pressure.
Me:No sir,I can work under pressure but when somthing big is on stake then I would prefer a cool interview.
SP:Tell me a case where nothing is at stake but the person is stressed?
Me:Sir In sports when we compete with our rivals..
SP:(inturrpted) We always compete with our rivals I think.
Me:Oh I wanted to say arch rival.then even if it is a friendly match we get stressed.
SP:But there Teams's pride is at stake.
Me:Yes sir but it is result of performance of the team throughout the year or season.
SP:Tell me the example in Business scenario.
Me:May I take some time.
Meanwhile they asked for my certificates.
SP:What are you doing in work?
Me:Blah...blah...
SP:What you don't like about Tata Motors?
Me:Prepared answer.
JP:Okay,Tell me about your weekness?
Me:Blah blah...
SP:Last time when you faced this problem?
Me:prepared.Blah blah...
SP:Why you want to do MBA?
Me:talked about entrepreneurship,VC,idea prototyping,Shaping the idea etc.
SP:What qualities VC looks for in the entrepreneur?
Me: (prepared answer) and said finally that for credibility I want to join a good B school.
SP:Tell us about your enterprise.
Me:Blah....blah..and my target customer would be working professional aged 20 to 35 years,then i realized that both were 35 plus.
SP:How you arrived at this data?
Me:Quoted HBR.
SP:Which issues?
Me:3- 4 months back so can't remember.
SP:That is true for US but your enterprise would be in India.
Me:Talked about talking to friend about this in different sectors.
SP:How many 35 plus you have discussed?
Me:Told about 2-3 professors of Globsyn B school .
JP:Which co will be your first client?
Me:My existing employer.
SP:Have you talked to them regarding this?
Me:No Sir.Talked about HR being peculier about keeping GETs on board.
JP:I believe you get paid well in Tata Motors.
Me:Yes sir,there is no discontent about the salary,but I have became an expert of vehicle testing and it wold take 7-8 years to come over and get some general management exposure.This is not in line with my long term plan.
SP:okay.do you have any question for us?
Me:No sir.
SP:Okay ,you can go now.
Me:Thank you sir.
and came out.It was 20 min long interview.
Should I be Hopeful for the Seat In IIM B? Talking about Hope I remember what "the archetect" said to Neo in Matrix :"Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. "
Jai Ho.

Khwahishen....

Ek chand ki khwahish hai mujhe,
Jo ho mujh se bekhabar lekin ajnabi na ho.
Ek sham chahie thahari hui si
Jise jana to ho lekin jaldi na ho.

The Turning Point

It all started with a call ,a single call on my CAT score card.Here it goes-"You have been shortlisted for the PGP for the following IIMs -Banglore."I took an hour or so to adjust myself to the reality.After messing up in verbal I was not so sanguine about IIMs calls.Life is like that when you feel that you have screwed yourself for good ,life shows you your trump card.Life is smiling on me or it is a hallucination ,time will tell.
"Na danyam na palayanam-I will not beg and I will not run away". let us see what lies in future.Just giving my best shot is my greatest responsibility ,nothing less or nothing more.Ek purane shayer ki najm yaad aa gayee- "Manjil mile na mile iska gum nahi/manjil ki justajoon me mera karvan to hai". Cheers