Reserve v/s Deserve?

Well, what starts as good may not remain good always....(or that is what usually happens). Yeah...may be reservations fall under the same category...different people have different opinions, here's mine:

Venkamma, the woman who sells flowers near our house was quite excited the other day. My mom usually buys flowers from her, and seeing her enthusiasm that day...enquired what was the matter...

She replied that her daughter's SSLC results may be out that day, and was hoping she would pass the exams (SSLC is Secondary School Leaving Certificate equivatent to 10th Std in Karnataka). Naturally.....she was elated at the prospect of having a 10th Std passout in her house!!!

Really, the so called educated populace of our nation would be delighted to welcome a new member to the SSEC (Secondary School Educated Club)!! Well, the sad part is, even if Venkamma's daughter scores good marks in 10th, she would not be sending her to college (and take advantage of the quota reserved for the backward classes)...what an irony, when the real 'leverage of education' for the downtrodden starts...Venkamma is closing the door on better prospects for her child.......

Its really sad that there are many Venkamma's in our nation, who just stop at the point where the real push begins...Alas, most of them climb the mountain, only to go back on the same side, rather than continuing in the journey and finding the easy descend on the other side to the the smooth valley down under.........tut tut.

Its really ironical that not many really deserving people get the benefits of our systems...do they need reservations in IIM's and IIT's ?? (well, it would be a surprise if they even know..... that such institutions exist!)

Need of the hour is free education to economically and socially backward classes till secondary school level, give active encouragement to people in the lower strata to cross the hurdle called 'high school'.......and then think about IIM's and IIT's.


Well, here's a funny article I read the other day in Business World (Wanted to just paste the link, but you need a password to logon to the site):

"From Business World, Diary of a Non-Obc Man: An excerpt from Emcee's diary exactly 50 years from now.

Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked about how so many of us had progressed from reserved seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls ? he wanted equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party ended in a pitched caste battle.

1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM Board of Directors. Under the present rotating presidency system, a member of each caste is made the president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs for president, they had to choose me because

I'm the only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope to restore the high standards at IIM ? I overheard some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of Morons, the other day.

2) May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The selection committee lamented that it was gross discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe (the Stone Age tribe in the Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket team. A squad has since been dispatched to the Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the national team. I hope he will improve their performance ? they had an innings defeat against the Maldives recently. I would have played myself except for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota extracted my leg instead of my tooth.

3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has gone down the drain after job reservations were implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have become so popular.

4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able to win back the territory we lost ever since reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC general will turn the tide.

5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will be an MBFC-SBBNSBC.

I must lobby for reservation for her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has a great future".


Ciao till next time...Harsha

Holi@NITIE!!

Have we redifined holi as a game of not just colors, but also mud, slime and dirt!!??. Holi here is a never before and a never after experience......here are some pics of the same:





Ciao till next time...Harsha

The gr8 train journey.....in the making!

How not to travel in train?!

The situation: I ask a friend of mine to book a train ticket online(well....dont have a online account myself) from Pune to Bangalore on Saturday mid-night (5th @ 2.30AM....note tht date will be 5th and not 4th...haha)........as i had thought of attending SIBM's fest Transcend. Amit Karale also wanted to go to bangalore frm pune.....so, we plan to go together.......

As things sometimes dont work out as planned, i somehow stay back in mumbai (while karale goes to pune). So, have got to take a ticket till pune.....and then go to bangalore as planned.

What went wrong: Ticketz wrongly booked as 4th March, instead of 5th March. Well, the date would be 5th March since its morning 2.30AM. As it so happens, well....i end up with a ticket which is not valid.......and wat worse.... i did'nt realise this till quite some time....

Here's a nice chronological sequence of events.....that happened today.


7.00PM: i leave nitie, catch an auto.....and reach Kanjurmarg station. Immediately, i take a slow train to Dadar.
8.15PM: after enquiring, i take a ticket to pune. something fishy when i dont find my name in the list of seats booked in the list on s5 compartment.
8.30PM: have a masala dosa and mosambi juice outside dadar station....really gud one, a karnataka reataurant!
9:00PM to 10.30PM: start readin this book called 'Blink' based on how intuition can suggest u stuff which data cannot proove....nice book. make a mental note of finishing it in train.
10.30PM: board the train, and quietly occupy the seat.
10.45PM: train leaves, all happi:)
11.20PM: something wrong.....why has someone else got a seat to bangalore for seats 5 and 8 in coach s5??
11.30PM: TT asks for the ticket. well...well... i am travellin with a old ticket!! yes, i should have got on the train yesterday!!
wat now?!
11.45PM: call up karale who's in pune(he's a little bewildered).....weighing my options.
12PM: Ask the TT wat can be done: 2 options- take a ticket frm pune to bangalore in general (or travel in sleeper waiting for a confirmation) or quietly get down at Kalyan and get back to 'welcome to nitie'.
12.05PM: i call home....well more abuses, still thinking.....
12.10PM: i call up karale and tell him tat me goin bac.....yup...he's also a little edgy
12.20PM: i get down at Kalyan, apply for a refund (for the ticket....gone waste)...catch a train to kanjurmarg.......well, yup Kalyan is quite far frm Kanjurmarg man....never knew it was this far...
1.10AM: i reach kanjurmarg station....thank GOD......so many autowallahs are night soldiers!
1.25PM: welcome to nitie! am so happy, literally....pay the auto chap 80 bucks.....plz keep the change.
1.40AM: update blog......and now, go back to sleep........................azzzzzzzzzzz

better chk out the details frm next time:)......small things do matter, dont they?


Ciao till next time...Harsha

Long time no see?

Well, its been an awfully long time since I last blogged (yup, 2 months is quite a long time)....I somehow feel that I have slowly mastered the art of feeling and looking busy on the outside, though on the inside.....things may be monotonous, a bit boring.

Yeah.....may be I have fallen into what one may call as 'routine'......have been lately having some regular classes and assignments which have somehow kept me occupied, along with extra heavy dosage of IMpress wrk (student media relations committee of NITIE).....drudgery, hah.

One good thing which has brightened my spirits is the excellent, fantabulous placements. Placements went along on expected lines....bringing smiles to all 98 ppl in the senior batch. The important factor one needs to look into a B-Schools placement figures is- the lowest salary one bags.

Well, frankly speaking its amazing..... that the gap between the highest and lowest salaries at NITIE is very small (according to me the difference is the smallest among all the top 10 B-Schools in India). Its an awesome feeling if a fresher from an engineering college with no work experience at all gets a minimum of INR 6 lacs p.a., on passing out from NITIE!!!!

Well, that has been the scenario this year (I hope we can expect the same next year!!). The average and median pay packages have been another comforting factor (both zooming well over and above the 8 lac mark).

Ah.....am I boring you with stats?? oh,oki......tats enough about placements.....!

The other important thing which has just come out is the the GD/PI shortlist for NITIE. Good to see a lot of prfile based selections (more like the SP Jain model) than just selections on sole criteria of CAT scores!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Bye bye 2005!

With a herculean effort I could sustain my interest levels for a week and complete the second module exams. Am sure this was better off than the first module exams for most of us at NITIE. The reason being, all of us studied more after the debacle of module 1.

Year 2006 beckons as we say adios to year 2005. It brings with it new hope, new resolutions, and newer surprises. The year gone by has been one of unexpected turns and twists for me. It all started with me getting settled down in SAP Labs as a Development Specialist....was really thinking of settling down in the job probably for a year or two and rethink my options later. CAT scores were pretty good, felt a little unlucky to miss out on the IIMs and really did'nt have any great interest in joining NITIE either.

After speaking to a few people about career prospects and a few more people about moolah aspects, finally settled down on taking up an MBA at NITIE. Leaving SAP was never too easy though, with my manager none too happy with my decision(as he put it.......why are u going to NIIT?.....oops sorry NITIE), I had to give a months notice and say quits.

NITIE beckoned and everything seemed rosy and a little too cosy( check my blog on Life in a B-School??!! ). In the meanwhile lots of stuff have happened- mandi, summers, prerana, mastishk and more recently laterals. Yeah with all that to add some twist, there was the nature's fury to reckon with, what with Mumbai flooded for a couple of days and creating much havoc and bringing untold miseries to the common man.

Meanwhile India has been emerging as a stronger location for MNCs to set base(Agriculture and Industry have maintained the Gandhian growth rate though). The BPO industry has moved again at 63% CAGR, and estimates are rife that it will continue to do so. IT companies continue to set up shop in India inspite of crumbling infrastructure. The year saw more than 200 companies set base in Bangalore alone(talking of the saturated infrastructure in the god*** city!). The forex reserves stand at a all time high of 143.8 bn$, relations between Pakistan has been more sweet than sour and UN Security seat to India seems a mirage once again.

The world has moved too, what with Bush weeding out Saddam(yeah, finally after spending 30 bn$; for heaven's sake that man would have voluntarily walked in for half that money!), terrorism remains as rooted as ever with Laden bringing his bag of tricks here and there, with a smattereing of sarcasm at the hallowed powers of the western world. Disaster has been the second name of the year and 'Tsunami' seems to be the second most searched word on the net(none can beat that first word though).

Finally to sum it up, rich have grown richer, the poor more poorer. Common man has again withstood everything and still hopes to become rich as in the desi bollywood films(by the way, film industry has done decently too...). Me too thinking of doing better than the soon forgettable year 05.

Will finish this off with one of my favourite poems by Oliver Goldsmith:

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Lats ka 'funda'.....and the looming test mein 'anda'

The 'laterals' happened at NITIE a few days back......boy, was it a roaring success!! Well with salaries zooming up up and above, it does sprain one's neck to keep a glimse of the salary figures.

For the uninitiated, non-B School junta, lemme explain wats this Lats....the people with a minimum of 20 months work experience have a chance of entering into lateral positions in the organisation in this phase of placements. The funda behind is very simple. Some companies coming down to campus have a minimum work experience criteria for recruiting people....so, such companies were bundled into the 'laterals' placements day. Well, the obvious result of such a scenario is that salaries just crashed the roof and flew over the top of everyone's expectations....with salaries repeatedly crossing the 7 digit mark.

Yeah, just came back from Chennai after taking part in 'Latitude', the fest of Great lakes Institute of Management. We were accomadated in a beach side resort....nice stay for 2 days....won some prizes and at the end of it.....a feeling of 'ye dil maange more'...still lingering!

Exams looming in the sights, but have'nt started my preps......gotta sit and slog, else will surely be topping in the reverse direction this time too.....so will be signing off with this trademark calvin clip just for u all!




Ciao till next time...Harsha

Why is the court soo small??

Tried my luck at playing tennis today.....well, it was really a spectacle to watch me play. Seeing Roger Federer or Andy Roddicck on the TV makes one feel that its all too easy. All one needs to do is to give the ball a good hiding....well, found out that its not soo easy to do that!(after almost losing the ball on a couple of occasions.. trying to whack the ball). Trying to find the corners of the court, i managed to hit it right out of the fence into the dense undergrowth surrounding the tennis court. Finally realisation dawned on me that all one needs to do is to try hitting it back onto the playing area(yeah, the court seems too small at times when trying to do this..).

Trying to hit the ball onto the court is one thing and trying to 'serve' is all together a different 'ball' game... Here one needs to try and hit the ball as hard as possible giving it the right trajectory, right direction and also the right altitude. Now, if any one out of these 3 go awry, u are in for another gruelling mental contest to get it right the next time. At the end of my first service game, i finally won the mental battle though i lost the physical one....after serving 8 times continuously(some at the net, some outside, and some on the wrong side of the court) learned to keep the ball within the court. This cycle went on for quite some time...with each new game bringing new hope. Tactically wanted to try too many things, but somehow things were entirely out of my hand. Finally after more than an hour, lost the best of 5 games match..... Have made a mental note to play tennis more often and learn to play this wonderful game better.

But still thinking.. if only the court was a little bigger and the net a little lower, things could have been easier!

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Mid mBa life crisis..!

The lack of posts from my side can be squarely blamed on what one can call as 'Mid mBa life crisis'....yeah, been pretty retrospective about how things have been unfolding here. Its been more like riding a car without brakes.

Last few weeks have been a period of soul searching and sleeping types....what with all the marks for our first module pouring in one by one and giving me a clear indication of where i stand in my class.. I was somehow hoping against hope to salvage pride atleast in some subjects, but alas...that was not to be. Finally i find my rank hover somewhere in the lower middle half of the class. Yeah, a nose dive from my engineering days.....(this i think is the reason i have been listening to 'tose were the best days of my life' nowadays..). Well....hopin for some luk tis time atleast:)

Well....other than acads everythin's been rockin...been makin some money from winning in B-school fests(yeah...its the season for many fests...). I hav sort of decided to enjoi life and participate in as many fests as possible....after ICFAI, IIM A and SP Jain lookin at the othr fest frm Great Lakes, IIM C, FMS....etc. More abt these in future posts......

Lemme tell ya a funny incident at IIM A's Confluence(yup...tats the name of their fest).... The ppl at A generally hav a wee bit of wat i may call as 'head weight'....most of their games are usually won by teams frm IIM A only( well, well....i don't think its gotta do much with superior standards, lol). Found an interesting mention in their comments book from someone, here it is...

'First prize-IIM A
Second Prize-IIM A
Third prize-IIM A
.
.
.
the saga continues'...

well, interesting really.

Seriously, other than this...it was a pretty gud learnin experience, no other fest would attract such large participation from foreign B-Schools. Also worth noting was the fabulous list of speakers...which included the who's who of corporate world from Mukesh Ambani to Sunil Mittal. With more importance to 'interaction based' events and 'workshops', it was gud to be part of it.....

Some of these incidents hav made me think abt common perceptions ppl have. One thing that rankles me is the mental glass wall that people usually have about the differences in various B-Schools. Afterall the difference between say, a guy from IIM A and NITIE for example would be '2 marks in CAT'......so, practicaly speaking the intellectual standards are not vastly different(rather i would say there's no difference at all..). Still the percieved difference is vast....which is both incorrect and based on wrong assumptions. I strongly believe that the most important value add anyone gets in a B-school is the interactions one has among his/her peers in the institute.....which according to me is not much different among the top 10 B-Schools of the country.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

PS: Well.....crossed 1000 mark... yo...thnx to all readers of my blog.

Bac to 'amchi mumbai' from 'namma bangalooru'

Nearly 10 days in Bangalore and it still feels as if its yesterday i came here...... yeah, time sure flies and im jus findin that i need to catch the flight bac to mumbai today not knowing where i just lost all the time i wanted to utilise and enjoi in bangalore!!

Too bad to figure tat now....anyways...as i came here,
1. I could see that the famed pot holes hav jus started takin dangerous sizes with surface of road resembling more and more like craters of moon
2. Traveling from koramangala to banashankari(about 12 kms) took me nearly 2hrs.....yeah, last time i could cover the same in an hour;)
3. Rains followed me everywhere, wen this time of the yr is supposed to be just the startin of spring here!!
4. The city authorities have started another demolition drive, razing illegal buildings while new ones are comin up in a frenzied pace...
5. There seems to be more people speaking other languages(than kannada) from the last time i came here..
yeah....the list can go on.....

A few days bac, i was watching a program on NDTV......heard Deve Gowda(a former PM, who has come right bac to state politics after futile attempts to make any progress at the national level) speaking abt resignation of Narayan Murthy as Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) head. Here's a funny answer to one question posed to Mr. Gowda:

Q: Did you feel sad that Mr. Murthy resigned as head of BIAL?
A: No no....i only felt bad when Sir M Visvesvarayya resigned as Diwan of Mysore....( funny that Sir MV resigned as diwan in 1918, when Gowda was not even born!!)

Well.....with such ppl around no doubt all changes in bangalore hav been for the worse than gud!

Hope that there's a miracle frm somewhere to change things around........i'm just hoping, yup may be hoping against hope;)

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Bored....

I was feeling very bored today......not much to do, feeling somewhat low and quite edgy....i am counting the no. of days before i go back to bangalore for diwali!

So, was randomly searching the net....came across a chap called 'Edgar Allen Poe", yeah...the same chap who had written most of the poems which used to be there in our high school text books. Just started reading about him....was a very unhappy man, full of sorrow and melancholy.

Here's about him:

'Drug addict, alcoholic, suicidal, and insane; none of these are the words that come to mind when you think of great minds of our time. However, one poet fits all of these categories. The author of hailed literary works such as "The Raven," and the short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe had many mental and personal problems throughout his life. His poems reflect his emotions toward the events of his life. For example, his feelings of isolation from family and peers appear in the poem "Alone," and many of his poems, such as "To Helen," and "Annabel Lee," are about the women he loved. One poem stands out, as a tribute to the melancholy that accompanied him throughout his days; the poem "A Dream" speaks of lost love, forgotten happiness, hope, and a cruel awakening to the real world. Poe’s writing exemplifies his brilliant imagination through metaphors that describe his life.

Edgar Allan Poe made many contributions to the world of literature and poetry. The academy of American poets says, "Poe's work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and international literature" (http://www.poets.org/poets/). He was the first true writer of thriller and horror stories, with tales such as "The Cask of Amontillado." His clever mind dramatically altered detective stories, he took the writing of short stories from a mere profession to an art, and he was a brilliant poet. His fame was known through America, England, and France, with renowned works such as "The Raven," "The Bells," "The Purloined Letter," and countless others. Though a troubled individual, Poe’s effect on literature and poetry was mind-blowing. It is impossible to read a poem or story written by Edgar Allan Poe without being terrified, feeling great remorse for the characters, and noticing the breathtaking power with which Poe wields his words'.

Here's one of his works:

How often we forget all time, when lone
Admiring Nature's universal throne;
Her woods- her wilds- her mountains- the intense
Reply of HERS to OUR intelligence!

Yeah.....just a stanza from one of his poems, donno if it makes sense;) though!

Mumbai sucks man.....just waiting to get back to bangalore!!!!!..........Happy Diwali to u all!!

Ciao till next time...Harsha