Love Thy Neighbour ?

Me : Can someone tell me why we are playing cricket with Pakistan ?

You : Why not ? What's cricket got to do with it ?

Me : Sportsman spirit is when your opponent plays brilliantly and you have the character to walk up to him and congratulate his performance. And sport between countries is essentially a celebration of the spirit of friendship and brotherhood. I don't think this is a time for India to be celebrating with Pakistan.

You : Look, you are probably protesting against the 26/11 Mumbai attacks by Pakistanis and the clean-chit given to Pakistani terrorist leader Saeed Hafiz yesterday......

Me : Yup.

You : Duuude, why punish the Pakistani cricket fans for that ? - most of them had nothing to do with it.

Me : Neither did the 170+ Indian people who were massacred in cold-blood. Why were they targeted ? They were just going about their normal lives. What did they die for ?

You : That is the nature of terrorism. The exact targets don't matter to the terrorist. You should look at the big picture. It is about making a statement - sending a message.

Me : Ah, now you understand. So, I am not against the cricket match per se, it is about *refusing to play* and making a statement - sending a message.

You : Duuude, there are diplomatic channels available to register protests. Haven't you heard of the UN ?

Me : LOL. What have we achieved so far by merely "registering" protests ? Let me see, first we said we were "unhappy" and then there was the attack on the Parliament, then we said we were "disappointed" and then there was 26/11 - not to mention the regular loss of Kashmiri lives for which we are officially "unhappy" and "disappointed"....

You : Okay, you have a point.....But still, cricket man ! Pick something else dude.

Me : Givvve-uppp.

The Great Indian Middle-Class Dream

If you are an Indian aged between 15 and 18, this is the season of maximum anxiety. It is the time when results of the biggest rat races in the country (a.k.a competitive exams) get declared. SSLC, PUC, CBSE, CET, JEE, AIEEE - the list is endless. The stress level run high, visits to Tirumala shoot up - "Did I make it?" "Did I?" "Did I?" sleepless nights galore.....

Bang !! Euphoria for some, dejection for many. The kids('Gods') who "did it" get mentioned in all the daily newspapers - it is an extremely proud moment for their parents and their respective schools.

Lets look at the press statements these kids give. "I want to do engineering", "I want to go to IIT", guess what ? it is the same mantra repeated over and over again.

Really, what DO these kids know about "engineering" or "IIT" ?

I'll tell you. I was there a decade ago. Here's what comprises the vocabulary of a bright Indian 16 year old.

1. Engineering = Science + Math. If I am 'good' in science and math, I HAVE to 'do engineering'...whatever that phrase means.

2. IIT = Social Prestige. If I am a bright kid, I am supposed to be in IIT. I will be the neighbour's envy, I'll be the parents' pride.

That is the (delusional) world they live in.

I don't blame the kids. It is the entire ecosystem. Parents, teachers, uncles, aunts, elder brothers/sisters - everyone has the chronic illness of 'Engineering Obsession'. Call it the Ultimate,Unquestionable Middle-Class Truism.( U.U.M.C.T )

Imagine! All those SSLC, CBSE toppers in every school - EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was BORN to be an engineer ! Don't blame me if I find THAT a little curious. There are at least 10,000 schools in this country. I thought the idea of a school is to recognize and nurture talent...for the love of God, how did ALL of them ASSUME that
Talent = Science + Math !?!?!

Lets dig a little deeper. What is the reason behind the U.U.M.C.T ?

It is because every member of the Indian middle class has a predisposition to move up the ladder of economic success. If you are reading this and belong to this great class, look at your forefathers and the family tree. In most cases, you would find a natural progression of increasing economic wealth with every generation.

In other words, Wealth Creation remains the single most important goal of the Indian middle class - it is that aspiration which fires the imagination of almost every member of the group. It is in the movies they see( mere paas bangla hai, gaadi hai..) , it is in the (blatant!) blessings they receive - Oodhi Mundhay Baa! 'Study well and Move ahead'..

And in today's context, an "engineering degree from IIT" is (arguably) the EASIEST WAY to launch an Indian middle-class kid into that Wealth creation mode. (Software engineer and/or MBA etc etc...you know the beaten track). Plain and Simple.


So, engineering is essentially a short-cut. And everyone wants to take it. Irrespective of what their real talents are. Hence the death-knell to Art, Literature, Pure Science and a host of other fields.

Certainly not a healthly progession for Indian society as a whole. India's bright kids do not want to pursue and innovate in fields such as Art and Literature, remember there is wealth there too, only it is HARDER than the engineering way.
Art and Literature are major constitutents of a country's culture. When there is no innovation, consumers have no choice but to IMPORT it from the West. It is free and well-made - ready-made , oh - and they don't have these troublesome distractions called IIT's !

---------------------------X--------------------------------------

UPDATE [Thanks to Parul Bajaj for this video]




"..The education system...came into being to meet the needs of industrialism...The most useful subjects for work were at the top. You probably stayed benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that.."

Tejasvinavadhi....Lead Us From Darkness to Light

I shook hands with Mukesh Ambani as I received my degree. His words, “Srinivasan Congrats” still ring in my ears. For whatever it was worth, the MBA is truly OVER.

Whatever it was worth….now that’s a curious phrase. What WAS it worth, really ?

It was worth the peer group. That’s it. The peer group.
You can stop reading this post. That’s all I have to say.

You see, when someone tells you they ranked 4th or 17th in IIT-JEE , you simply KNOW their DNA is different ! Jokes apart, it is easy to acknowledge the stupendous nature of such achievements. Now lets say you pull out a random set of CV’s from the IIM Bangalore PGP Class of 2009. Here’s what you will see :

The first CV will read ‘1st rank in SSLC for the state of Maharashtra’. The next one will repeat the exact same wordings, just that the state would be Kerala this time. Then there will be one with a 1st rank in CET(Kerala) , yet another with a 2nd rank in CET(Karnataka) . Then there will be a couple of CV’s with CAT percentiles as 100. Yeah, you read that number right.
[ wtf this is max phootage !]

Amazing. Those of us who have written these exams probably know what it takes to get there. The mind boggles!

Now imagine setting up similar such individuals one against the other in an academic ‘battle’. Believe me, you DON’T want to get caught in the crossfire ! It is fair to say the words – ‘test’, ‘quiz’,’assignment’ and ‘exam’ get a different MEANING inside IIMB.

We pride ourselves that the best part of our Indian education system is its competitive nature. In that sense, my college is literally the culmination of that system. Indeed a (Very) Indian Institute of Management.

Success, in the business context, is the reward you get for hardwork, perseverance and intelligence. Ambani corroborates.
I believe high performance in academics is the best measure of that (esp for an age group predominantly under 26). So, the unique selection criterion of IIMB, with its ‘over’ emphasis on consistent academic performance, is really a clever strategy of Well begun = Half done.

I must admit, IIMB has been a humbling experience. In school, I used to have a condescending attitude towards people who were not in my circle of high-achiever friends. Here, I have had to stand outside that circle….
To say that talents differ amongst individuals is not enough, you have to experience it. Every person in this world is...different. Not unequal.

So much for the professional side.

On the personal front, I made some great friends. Really smart, perceptive individuals with whom you always end up having a witty and engaging conversation – be it cribbing about the system, or gossiping about who’s going out with whom. ( What are colleges for!)
Oh, I will certainly miss them : Them and all the L^2’s, Shubho’s quizzes, SecB-Bracket, IIMB Lingo, Tsepak, Section contests, Boston Legal marathons, arbit CP, Shyamal Roy’s classes, inter IIM & Sista, H-Mezz, F-top, and Gundu Rao.

And now, like T.S.Eliot, I say : Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi



**END OF PART II** [Anticlimax! no story this time]

Vaishnav jan to....

Over and over, we make ourselves the fool
Fighting over material possessions, was that Gandhiji’s rule ?
Stupid Government, where were you all this while !
Pseudo-Patriotism and the voters you beguile
If it is cultural heritage you want to protect
Then start with Sabarmati, she screams of neglect.

The Goodbye Mood

I wrote my last exam at IIMB today.

The MBA, as I know it, is OVER. No, I am not emoting yet - it hasn't sunk in. I will reserve a separate post for the time when I get sentimental! (possibly after the last L^2)

I made a lot of friends at IIM. I wonder how many I will "keep in touch" with. I'll probably say that to everybody I meet over the next few days - but I know that is such an abused phrase. When I left Oracle, I thought I would never lose touch with my colleagues - today, I hardly talk to 2 or 3 of them regularly.

Makes me wonder : there are 3 circles of acquaintances we all have:

The "Like" circle
The "Dislike" circle
The "Indifferent" circle

The first circle comprise those people whom you really LIKE being with. The ones with whom you feel the urge to share ideas, opinions, cribs, and more importantly - the ones with whom you can be yourself - AND be comfortable, being yourself.

The "dislike" circle is the opposite - would be quite small for most people.

The largest of the 3 circles is the Indifferent circle. These are people who don't dislike you. It is just that they don't care. You have your life, I have mine :). We don't realize this, but almost 75% of all your acquaintances will belong to this category.

Managing your social relationships is about understanding the asymmetries between the 3 circles : You might place a friend in YOUR "like" circle, but he might place you in HIS "indifferent" circle - and vice versa!

It is interesting to see how these relationships will play out in the coming years.

For now, here's what I say to my "like" circle at IIMB:

I'll Keep in touch !!

Half-a-story of a Stony,Grey Building

In the land of LORE’B, there was a Grey, Stone Building and the Grey, Stone Building was important. It was important because the Elders had established it with a specific purpose : The high and lofty goal of Learning, that of dispeling the darkness of Ignorance. Someone remarked that the grey was symbolic of the darkness-to-white light transition. He owned a zebra.

Over the years, the grey stone building developed a reputation for selecting the brightest kids in the land. And all this was mainly due to an animal. A cat.

To be precise, it was a cat with a whim. And this capricious cat roamed at the entrance and would never let kids enter unless they strung a bell around it. So kids of the land began to obsess over felines and bells. And that’s when things began to get ..….very, very arbitrary.

Somewhat arbitrary were the kids themselves : for whom, it became more important to ‘get into’ the Grey, Stone Building – rather than think of what they would do once they were inside. A million kids were trying to squeeze in, and by some inexplicable reason - it turned into a stupid competition of who-can-squeeze-in-first. One kid was asked, “ If everyone jumps into a well, would you jump too? “ For which, he nonchalantly replied “ Of course, there must be something in the well ! “

Somewhat very arbitrary were the kids’ parents: for whom it became a matter of 'social prestige'. Their starry-eyed neighbours would exclaim : “Wow , did you say your daughter entered the Grey, Stone Building ?”. It felt good. It felt so good that nobody wondered why.

Probably the most arbitrary were the things that happened to the kids once they entered the Grey, Stone Building………

The lives of the kids inside were governed by the great decree of Gaussian Curvature. By this decree, the kids had to wear electronic headgear with lots of tiny, white bulbs. The bulbs were digital display, so each kid had a number glowing over his head – 3.25, 2.41, 3.67 etc.

The numbers came about through an extremely elaborate, entirely random process.
The process was this :-
Every few months, the kids were given books to read. Every few weeks, the kids were asked questions on what they read. Early in the morning, the Elders would take the kids on top of a hill. The shape of the hill was specially designed to suit the great decree of Gaussian Curvature.
One Elder would shout the question, the fastest kid would answer it, so he got to stay. The rest were pushed off the top by the Elders and they came tumbling down the hill. It was that simple: Question, Answer, Push. Question, Answer, Push. The system was as perverted as it was curved.

It ran like a well-oiled machine - the only thing that mattered to the kids was to absorb every book thrown at them. It didn't matter whether the books were relevant to their lives outside the grey walls. 'Absorption' was the only way to avoid the ignominy of tumbling down the hill. Everyone hated being pushed around. It was the grand decree of Gaussian Curvature.

The system was so evaluative that it began to change the kids’ personalities. Having been constantly pushed and bruised, most kids became aggresive. They also became very judgemental. They would measure each others' self-worth by the numbers that the Curvature assigned for their digital displays. The higher the number(glow), the greater the respect a kid got.
The junior kids would outstretch their hands in salute of their senior: "Hail the great one!" It was an obsession.In every definition of the term.

Even the elders rewarded the kids on-top-o-the-hill. If they desired feedback, they would call only such kids for the discussion. Apparently, they didn't seem to know that talents can actually differ amongst individuals.


And such was life at the grey, stone building.

Now, was that the whole story ? No.
After all, it was not as if everything was wrong about the grey, stone building. Certain things were , in fact, truly amazing - they made all the 'squeezing in' worthwhile. To speak of these great things, a moment has been chosen - A month from now, an event of great significance is about to take place at the building. The pen shall write again. Peace out.

**END OF PART I**

A Simple Thought

Certain things are just not meant to be
And realizing this is really the key.
Obsess with them and you are your own foe
You can't have it all, so LEARN to let go.