'Section' that became 'Whole.'

Today was the last class for Term 4 and our last class as Section E – probably the 'most rocking' section of Class of 2008. I dare say there were many who envied the section for the unity and the spirit of togetherness that it had – but thats besides the point. [Ok guys! we all like to blow our own trumpets, right? I blew it for my section ;-) ]

I still remember the initial few days in ISB before the sections were formed. It was like a lost world. One felt suddenly lost in huge pool of 450 students. It was only after the sections were formed that formal and informal groups actually took shape and we, at least I, felt comfortable in this huge crowd. The beauty of our section was that the section itself became a whole – a whole big group.

We had some of the most amazing times together, be they

In cheering for our Section in sports competitions

Birthday Dunkings

Our section parties

Theme Dressing

Or our last day as a section today.

We were always a close knit circle of friends having “the time of our lives.”

There could not have been a better person than Professor Ramana Sonti to do the cake cutting honours for our last class as a section. Professor Sonti is perhaps a testimony to the fact the resident faculty at ISB are no less (in some cases, may be even better) than the top notch visiting faculty form the top notch universities of the world. (Thank you, professor, for making learning a greatly enriching and 'fun' experience).

The section part of the Section E might be split into several sections from the next term based on the electives that each one of us opts for, however, the ‘whole’ that developed in the section, I hope, will last for a much much longer time.

Coin-Box initiative on ISB website

“There is so much to talk about, but so little time…..” standard cliché it is but absolutely true for any student of ISB, especially for me. I keep thinking that I will write about a particular thing on the blog. However, by the time I find time, the issue gets stale and I end up not writing anything at all.

I wanted to write a post on the ‘coin-box’ (Yes, another post on it. If you have heard the word ‘coin-box’ for the first time on my blog, read the link posted in the end) but conveniently forgot about it. Nevertheless, here it is.

The ‘coin-box’ has become quite famous and quite a star. The initiative was carried as a news item on the ISB website and was widely appreciated by all the students and also by many eminent people in corporate and academic field. Some of the mails that I got appreciating the initiative were really heartening. The best was perhaps by Dr. Krishna Tanuku who saw this simple initiative going way forward.

Read the story at http://www.isb.edu/media/UsrSiteNewsMgmt.aspx?menuid=733

P.S. Yeah! Finally I managed to post another post fast and also keep it short! Hope I’m able to do that more often.

Secret Behind India’s Twenty20 World Cup Win – Me!

Outrageous! Is that what you said on reading the title of the post? I can give you statistical proof that it is me who is really behind the Indian victory. Don’t believe me? Read on.

I found perfect ‘statistical correlation’ between me not watching the match and the Indian cricket team doing well. I ran a regression analysis on several data points, with each point recording my watching the Indian team play and the actual happenings in the match. Believe it or not R² came out to be 99 % (For those with no stats background it means that my not watching the cricket match and Indian team doing well are closely related to each other).

I did not watch the first match between India and Pakistan and India won. All excited about the prospects of our team, I watched the next match with New Zealand and India Lost. I didn’t see the next match with England and again, India won. My friends somehow noticed this ‘correlation’ and didn’t allow me to come near the television set in any of the matches. Result? India won all its matches to reach the finals.

I believed that it was a case of statistical correlation and not of a causal relationship. Hence, I dared to watch the finals. But guess what? The moment I entered the hall in which the match was being screened live in ISB, India lost its first wicket. A couple of my friends saw me come and banished me from the hall. I somehow, slowly managed to again sneak into the dark of the hall and gosh, India lost its second wicket! I could not understand why this was happening. I was again blamed for the loss of second wicket and now no one would allow me to set foot in the hall.

I desperately wanted India to win, so I went back to my apartment and kept myself away form the live telecast. On and off, I kept following the score on the news channels. In the last couple of overs of the Pakistani Innings, believing that Pakistan had no chance, I dared to switch on to the live telecast and saw four sixes being hit by Pakistan. My heart sunk. Was my watching the match really so bad for the Indian team? It could not be. I convinced myself and stayed put to watch the last over. First ball bowled: a huge wide. “Switch off the TV, switch it off,” my heart told me, but my mind wouldn’t listen. Next ball: a huge Six hit by Misbah! I was aghast! “Shucks, I thought, I actually bring bad luck to Indian team,” and immediately switched off the TV. Dejected that I had put India in a losing position, I move out of my room. But the moment I moved out, I heard huge roars of victory all over the campus. I came running back to switch on the TV and to my great joy, found that India had won the match.

"Yippppeeeeee," I screamed! My sacrifice and efforts had finally born the fruit. “My sacrifice?” Is that what you are asking? Hey, who do you think won the match for India? Jogi, by bowling that silly ball which even Boycott's mom could have hit for a six? Man, it was not Jogi but me who won the match for India by switching off the TV at all the right moments, the most important of all being the last ball of the match!

P.S. If you are convinced and would like to thank me for my 'efforts' then you can send some of the prize money being given to the team members to me also or you could also just thank me by leaving a comment on the blog (Well, I’m quite considerate you see). And if you don’t believe me, you could mail me and I can send you data of my regression analysis....:-)

Manthan at Tata Institute of Social Sciences

This post is to raise a toast in honour of all the students of the TATA Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in general and the organizers of ‘Manthan,’ the flagship event of TISS, in particular. Man, some hosts the students of TISS are! The warmth and hospitality they exhibited during our stay in their beautiful campus is truly remarkable.

I and other friends of mine went to the TISS campus in Mumbai to participate in the finals of an event called ‘Anveshan – The Assessment Centre,” designed to select the “Best Managers of India,” and were floored by the royal treatment meted out to us and the other participants. We always had someone escorting us to wherever we wanted to go or needed to go. We just had to ask and there was a volunteer to help us out – actually we didn’t even need to ask! In fact, we felt a little embarrassed by the importance being given and asked the organizers not to bother much. However, for them it was not a bother at all but in fact a great pleasure to help us out and ensure that we had a great time.

The event (Anveshan) itself was really enjoyable and well designed – except for the results. I didn’t win, so I can’t obviously say that the judges were right, can I? ;-) Nevertheless, the event was won by my other friends from ISB so I didn’t have any real reason to complain. ISB actually made a clean sweep at Manthan, also winning Udghosh, their B-Plan competition.

I, personally, had a really great time at TISS and this has a lot to do with the great company I had of the student organizers of Manthan. Renjeni, Shamil, Vaibhav, Shibashish, Yuvaraagi, Mandip (hope I got your spellings right. Do mail me if that's not the case) and several others. A big thank you to you all guys for making our stay at your campus so memorable. You can count us to make your visit to Hyderabad and ISB as enjoyable, whenever you choose to visit us. I am not sure if we can match your hospitality but nevertheless we would try. We would love to have you all as our guests at ISB and have a chance to express our gratitude.

Hyderabad Blasts - questions worth asking.

There are certain aspects about the blasts that seem to be ignored in the media. Some of them are given below:

First time children have been targeted (Lumbini Park is essentially a Children's Park). It has always been religious places or localities with large populace of particular communities that have been targeted. Presuming that terrorists are actually behind the blast what brings about this change in strategy?

Gokul is a very busy place. Gokul Chat Bhandar is a place always crowded with people. You would not find an inch of space to stand in the place. How could someone plant a bomb without anyone noticing? It should not be difficult to find out form the people about any suspicious objects placed at Gokul

How was a ‘terror-hand’ unearthed within an hour of the blast? What is the info that prompted the police to ‘declare’ terrorist intent behind the blast?

Explosives found at 16 other places. What the heck are the police and indeed the political establishment doing? Intelligence agencies have warned time and again that Hyderabad had become a beehive for a lot of terrorist sleeper cells. Yet, no action or efforts were visible at the ground level of any efforts made to unearth the sleeper cells.

Why does no one ever get caught for such blasts?

Why do such acts always happen in Congress regimes? This is no outlandish claim but perfectly verifiable fact (You could browse the net for a chronology of the incidents). Hyderabad was prone to communal riots and terror attacks before NTR became the chief Minister. While NTR was the CM hardly any incidents of this nature happened. However, once NTR lost power and the Congress came back, the incidents of communal and terror disturbances resumed again. They stopped when the TDP party of NTR came back to power. Hyderabad saw a long period of peace for 9 years under the TDP regime (Chandrababu Naidu replaced NTR as the Chief Minister after a year). Unfortunately, the TDP lost power again and guess what? The communal disturbances and Bomb blasts have resumed again. Who is in power? The Congress Party.

This comes as no surprise to the Hyderabadis for most of them know where the priorities of the Congress lie. The people here have a special phrase to describe the Congress regime – “Mana Rajyam” or ‘our government.’ The ‘our’ in this phrase, however is not the common man but the powerful businessman, leader, politician or a powerful goonda or a terrorist. These sections have great freedom to do what they want that is why they call it their government (‘Our Government’).

Man! I’ve already written a lot……Can’t write more – have two exams on Monday. Will try and update more once the exams are over.

Let us pray for all those who lost their lives in the blast and also for those who engineered the blasts. May God give the perpetrators of the crime good sense to see and realize what they are doing.

Blog-Life Balance

Well, it has been a long absence from the blog. I had been giving a lot of time to the blog at the expense of other activities. So, I decided to stay away from it for while but not this while. I’ve got the blog-life balance all messed up. Will be working towards getting it right.

A lot of ‘river’ flows down the bridge in ISB in a matter of days. We had speaker sessions, more speaker sessions and yet more speaker sessions at ISB in the days gone by. We had Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Rajat Gupta, Kush Medhora (CEO of Home Solutions, a Future Group Company) and a host of others who shared their pearls of wisdom with us. However, the most impressive of all were our guest faculty for the PaEV (Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture) course – Manish Sabharwal from Team Lease and Sanjeev Bikchandani and Hitesh Oberoi from InfoEdge (the Naukri.com) team.

Manish Sabharwal was a revelation. He spoke non stop for 90 minutes without ever losing the audience’s attention. Not a single pause, no umm….aahh….fillers and a brilliant inspiring speech. I was floored by his wax-eloquence and his knowledge.

Sanjeev Bikchandani and Hitesh Oberoi walked us through the trials and tribulations of their entrepreneurial journey. Their, especially Sanjeev’s, faith and belief in the idea and passion towards entrepreneurship were so inspiring. Both of them were quite modest about their success and had none of the airs usually associated with great achievements. All along their presentation I was looking for the factors that made them successful and gave them the competitive advantage over their competition. For some reason, I felt really glad that they succeeded and I really wish them much greater successes. They inspired so many of the students to actually take up entrepreneurship rather than look for placements – this to me was the biggest gain of this session.

Hope to be back with you all soon after setting my ‘blog-life’ balance right!

Calvin on DMOP

Woof! Two exams of the term 2 are done with and two more to go but it already feels like the exams are really over. Marketing and Economics are left and neither seems to be much of a problem. The only problem that most us faced was DMOP (Decision Models and Optimisation) and that is now behind us.

No amount of problem, however, it seems can stifle the creative juices of some of the students in our batch. Find posted below, a Calvin comic strip sent to the batch yesterday. I don’t know whose creation it is – but it is a really great one. If you know who created this ‘piece of art,’(or if you yourself are the ‘creator’) do send me a mail or leave a comment so that we can recognize this ‘creator.’ Here is the comic strip: Calvin & DMOP

(Apologies for the low resolution. Hope you all will be able to read!)

Meanings change at ISB

ISB it is said changes the way you look at things. Words and concepts acquire and different meaning after the great ‘gyaan’ you gain here. On the verge of completing two semesters, I could not agree more. Please find below some of the meanings I find changed after coming to ISB

MODEL

Before ISB: A beautiful creation with long legs and ……. ;-)

After ISB : An ugly creation with long rows and columns of data (Spreadsheets)

DOG

Before ISB: Dog

After ISB : A brand on your portfolio that you can divest/harvest (BCG Matrix)

T-SHAPE & I-SHAPE

Before ISB: Some ‘things’ possibly in the shape of a 'T' or an 'I'

After ISB: Shapes of ‘consultants’ working at McKinsey (T-Shape=Generalist, I-Shape=Specialist)

SLEEP

Before ISB: Necessity of Life to be indulged in for minimum 8-10 hours a day

After ISB : ?????!!! What’s that?

Well guys, I have to stop now. Have two exams tomorrow and two more the day after. Got a lot of syllabus to catch up with. Will catch up with you all after the exams.

Wish me luck!

Yahaan Itna sannata kyon hai bhai?

The classes of term 2 are over and the entire student community is in a studying frenzy right now for the exams beginning the day after. If you venture out in any of the Student villages you could easily get an impression that ISB is closed for holidays or something. Fed up with studies, I moved out and sat in the lawns of my student Village (SV) for about half an hour, sipping one cup of coffee after another but did not see a single soul except for the Security guard. Man, some studious batch this is. Come on, guys get a life! Don’t study so hard! The grades are all comparative. So if we all decide not to study we will still have the same grades. Don’t make life difficult for all.

P.S. I just realised this post would be the shortest post yet on the Blog. Feels nice to be so brief. Let's see how brief or vest I can be in the posts to come. (Excuse the PJ guys! It is just the effect of the PJ club here! I'll write about this club sometime later, otherwise the post will no longer be brief).

More witty one-liners

Term 2 is supposed to be the most hectic of all terms at ISB and aren’t I glad that it will soon be a thing of the past. There is so much to write about but so much more to study. So, I won’t write much but will leave you with some more of my status messages on G-Talk (You didn’t read my previous post on Status messages? Find it here: http://nirvanatisb.blogspot.com/2007/06/status-messages-on-g-talk-and-lull-in.html)

Here are some of the taglines that I remember

Some on Markstrat ( Markstrat is a Marketing Simulation game played in Term 2. It accounts for 50 % of our marketing marks. And it gives me great pleasure to let you all know that we rocked MarkStrat (literally too!). I’ll write more on this later)

Mark Strat is real bad – All are going Mad

MarkStrat is great Fun – We found our Big Gun

MarkStrat mein hum – Phode sab par Bum

MarkStrat mein abke – Hathyar nikle Sabke

In MarkStrat abode – V cracked its Code!

Markstrat khatam – term ka maza khatam

Tere Bin, Markstrat – Kaise jiye tere Bin!

Some on the Gtalk - Taglines

Tagline: ka maza le – serious na le

Tagline: ka maza lo – Dil pe mat lo ;-)

Some on Studies and Exams

Sab ko mile A – Hamaari dua hai ye.

Phir chale Padne – apne dimaag se ladne

Exam wala bhoot – Phir hua mazboot

Koi upaay mazboot – batao hey avdhoot

Tidbits from Actual ISB Application Essays

If I could list one ‘mantra’ that I followed for my essays then it would be – “Be yourself, be truthful” – and I must say it paid rich dividends (Should you be truthful only if it pays some dividends or should you be honest no matter what? This is a topic very dear to my heart but not a topic that I started out to cover for this post. So, I’ll probably deal with it as a separate topic sometime later). Now, being yourself could be dangerous for some as indeed it was supposed to be for me. Nevertheless, I stuck to my guns of reflecting my true self and today, here I am as a successful applicant to ISB, doling out advice on essays to others.

Let me cut the faff and get to the actual topics and the actual ‘stuff’ I wrote in the essays. That by itself should make it clear why others thought that being myself could be dangerous for me and why I think that giving out my actual essays could be dangerous for the potential applicants.

One of the topics for the Essays:

“Three things that I’d like to change about myself, and why?”

I devoted around 60-70 words to the first change and used up 210 of the remaining 230 words for the second change. The second change that I want to bring about in myself, moreover, was highly philosophical in nature and half of my friends who read the essay (before submission) could not make much sense of it. Added to this, as if I had no word limit assigned, I used an Urdu couplet (or ‘Sher’ as it is generally known) and even gave its English translation in the essay. Sample it:

“Shaayad main zindagi ki sehar, leke aa gaya,
Qatil ko aaj apne hi ghar leke aa gaya!”

(May be I bring with me the dawn of my life, But sadly it seems to be the end of my life!”)

“What the hell is a ‘sher’ doing in a B-School application essay?” asked my friends. Some of them even begged me to remove it. I, however, did not budge from my position and let both the ‘sher’ and the second desired change (which this ‘sher’ tried to explain) remain.

My reviewers made another vain attempt by asking, “Ok! Do as you wish but please tell us what now about the third change? What change are you going to write in the remaining twenty five words?”

This is what I wrote:

“The last thing that I would like to change about myself is my receding Hair Line – this for the sake of my loving wife!”

(Guru, ise kehte hai Bijness! Poora ek word abhi baaki hai!!!)
The reviewer in question laughed on reading the third change and said similar would be the reaction of the ad-com. The ad-com would send the essay to a creative writing contest but would in no way send it to the section of short listed applicants.

When so many people were advising me against the existing essay, I finally decided to change the essay and readied an alternative one. However, I was not satisfied and in the end submitted my original essay with all its idiosyncrasies and with all of it reflecting the real me. “The rest,” can I say, “is history?”

The above tidbits about my essays are in now way given to suggest that you (if you are an applicant) should tailor your essays according to what I did i.e. to include ‘sher-o-shaayari’ or poetry in your essays, or deliberately make an effort to make an essay humorous. However, this is definitely to suggest that you be yourself irrespective of what others may think about you or about what you write.

Then again, “being yourself & being honest” may or may not work. The question is that are you truthful and honest because being so promises you some dividends in life? Or is it that you are actually honest and would like to remain so – no matter what?

My turn to live the tradition

Around 30 of our section ‘dunkards’ got together to dunk me on July 2^nd (my birthday). The Cake was cut and smeared all over my face and then as per the commands of ISB tradition, I too was dunked (thrown) in the pool. Now, Cake was being smeared on my face in public, but I was loving every moment of it – that is the power of this wonderful tradition of dunking.

Many a times previously I had escaped dunking using my camera as my shield. However, this day there was no escaping and in fact I was warned before hand by our ‘dunkards’ against getting my camera. There was no dearth of photographs though as there were many who had brought their cameras. We had some strict deadlines to meet the next day and most of the ISBians were busy breaking their heads with Markstrat. Yet, a huge number of my section mates turned out for the dunking and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the big turnout. Thank you guys for all your love and affection.

The day was made even more special by my family who joined me on that day in fact joined the other ‘dunkards’ in dunking me. My three year old son was also there to witness it all and he still laughs recollecting that night of dunking.

I am still not very clear about my exact goals at ISB. My son, however is absolutely clear about his one goal at ISB – that goal is to dunk me again in the pool – and this time all by himself!

P.S. The second part of my previous post on Admission Essays is due. I shall post that part in the next few days.

Pointers to Application Essays

STATUTORY WARNING:

You are reading this post to the benefit of my blog and to your possible peril. If you benefit the credit is all mine (and only mine) and if you suffer because of any information provided here then you (and only you) are responsible. What may have worked for the author may not work for you and you are advised to exercise due caution before using any of the info given below.

I first thought and had even communicated the same to the ISB-PGP yahoo group that I would post my actual essays which I had submitted to ISB as a part of the admission application. However, on second thoughts, I decided against it. I somehow felt that instead of helping the prospective applicants - the essays, especially mine (I’ll give the reasons later), could actually work to their detriment. Therefore, I shall not post the actual essays but shall give a few pointers to some of the stuff I wrote in the essay.

First the reasons for not posting my actual essays (and you could look for pointers all through the reasons):

1. My essays or essays of any other ISB admit/student could be (mis)construed to be the model essays. There is no way of finding out if the essays posted are actually model essays or not. For all you know, the essays could have been treated as pathetic by the ad-com and the person could have got the admission not because of the essays but in spite of the essays (surely, this is not my case man! My essays were truly ‘top class' ;-) )
   
2. Even if the essay posted were to be a model essay, it would still be just ‘a’ model and not the 'only' model. The best of all 'models', indeed, could be the essay that an applicant (could also be you, if you are an applicant) is yet to write.
3. A sample essay might lead an applicant to tune the essay in harmony with the given model rather than tuning it in harmony with the real self of the applicant.
4. Each applicant is different in terms of the applicant’s work-experience, education, interests and aspirations etc. What might have worked for one might not necessarily work for the other.

Therefore I am not posting the actual drafts of my application essays.

Nevertheless, I shall post in the next few days some of the pointers to what I wrote and some ‘gyaan’ on what I think worked in my favour.

Keep watching this space for more….

Coffee & Coin-Box Experiment - Update

,

Ok guys, the results are out - not of the exams but of our “Coin-Box” experiment - and the results are quite surprising.

For the benefit of those who haven’t read my previous post on the experiment of “Coin-Box”, here is a brief recap. (Those who have read the previous post can skip this paragraph). A lot of students at ISB like to have a cup of coffee in the midst of a class break. ISB makes it easy for them by stationing coffee vending machines outside the class rooms. However, the unavailability of five rupee coins (for use in the vending machine) with the students often deprives them of the much desired coffee. To address this problem we tried out a simple “Coin-Box” experiment. As a part of this experiment we keep a box having around 50 -100 coins of five rupees each in the classroom and the students can take any number of coins out of the box after putting an equivalent amount of money back in the box. The catch is that there is no one guarding the box or monitoring the process. So, what do you think has been the fate of the money in the box? Read on for the results.

“Will the guys ‘loot’ the entire money in the box or will the money remain constant?” This was the subject of much debate and discussion in our class. Let me put the debate to rest – the money has neither been looted nor has it remained constant, the money in the box has actually grown! Eight hundred and fifty rupees have been drawn from the Coin-Box in four days over eight lectures and towards the end of this period the box has eight hundred and sixty rupees in it i.e. Rs. 10 extra! Therefore, the good news is that the “Coin-Box” will continue and the guys in our class will never, not have coffee for not having a five rupee coin!

It is worthwhile considering what is it that actually prevented the class from ‘looting’ the Coin-box? Is it the trust posed in them and the moral obligation of living up to the trust? Or is it pure selfishness of having the Coin-box alive kicking? Or is it just that the amount was too miniscule to messed around with?

The conclusions are for you to draw and I am not making any authoritative statements on what actually worked. However, there is one lesson that I feel we can learn form this experiment - that in an organisation less (stringent) rules and more trust posed in the members can sometimes be a more effective way of running the system than setting up an elaborate set of rules or regulations that betray a sense of mistrust in the members of the group.

The great ISB tradition of Dunking

As the clock strikes 12:00 in the night, a bunch of around 20-30 ghosts descend on to the rooms of some unsuspecting students at ISB and whisk them away on their shoulders through the dark and chilly nights. They shout and scream as they devour their prey and take it to the altar of sacrifice – the SWIMMING POOL!

If you still did not get it, I am talking about not actual ghosts but just about this wonderful tradition in ISB of ‘dunking’ the students in the pool, on their Birthday. I do not know when and who in ISB started this tradition. Whoever it were or was deserve a big, big THANK YOU from us all. We would have missed out some amazing amount of fun in the absence of this tradition of dunking. It is great fun not only for those who have their birthday on the designated day but also for those who come just to dunk or just to view the dunk. It is all the more fun for photo enthusiasts like me for it is a time for some really memorable photo ops!

Dunking is enjoyed by all in ISB but the guys who seem to enjoy it most are the guys from the Section E. And the credit for this goes primarily to the two ‘office bearers’ of the ‘Section E - Birthday Club,’ Swati and Bikhyat. These two are the ones mainly responsible for remembering each one’s Birthday, organizing the parties, cakes, booze and for rallying the ‘big gang of ghosts’ to devour the Birthday Boy/Girl in the dead of the night. It is really surprising to find, in ISB, students who take up an initiative that will not give them any ‘spike’ or a ‘bullet-point’ on their resume. It is even more surprising to find them take this initiative forward with the sincerity and dedication that Swati and Bikhyat do. Great work guys! Keep it up!

I should also not forget to give credit to our section junta which turns up in huge numbers for dunking and for anything else related to the section or ISB. Some amazing spirit of camaraderie we have in the section. Hope we all keep it that way.

May be I should think of a way of putting up ‘Kaala – Tika’ on our section to ward of any possible ‘Buri – Nazar!.’

A few photos from today's dunk...(rest at flickr)

ISB, Coffee and Experiments with Truth

This post is about an interesting experiment planed for our Section E.

If you were or are an ISBian you would be familiar with the shortage or the difficulty of finding five rupee coins to purchase your coffee(off the vending machine). A lot of students want to have coffee in the midst of class break but are unable to have it for the want of five rupee coins. Some of the students do carry a few extra coins but still the coins are not enough.

The experiment planed is to address this problem of five rupee coins. What we plan to do is to keep in each class/lecture (of our section to start with) around a hundred five rupee coins in a box from which the students can take the required number of five rupee coins. Please do not let your wily side go wild! The coins will not be distributed free but the amount taken from the box will have to be reimbursed by the student by putting back (in the box), a currency note (or coins of smaller denominations) equivalent to amount of the coins taken out – ten rupees note for two coins, twenty rupees note for four, fifty for ten and so on…

The catch is that there would be no one monitoring the process (of taking money out and then putting an equivalent amount back into the Coin-Box). Therefore, it is quite possible that a particular student might just take the coins without reimbursing the equivalent amount in the box. The question is will someone actually stoop to this level and betray the collective trust posed in whole group for an individual gain of just a few rupees? Or will the bindings of personal / collective morality and conscience prevent him/her from doing so?

This is the question our experiment is trying to find an answer for while trying to fulfill the collective need of five rupee coins for coffee.

My take is that we have no reason to worry. All humans, I believe, are basically honest and are many a times led to dishonesty because of the dishonesty around. However, if the surroundings, system or milieu is trustful, truthful and honest I don’t see much of a scope for the dishonest. In fact, the honesty in the milieu, I feel, will rub off on the dishonest and lead them towards honesty.

It could all sound like some philosophical mumbo-jumbo but it actually is pretty simple. It is just about sending a message to your group/community about the high level of trust you pose in them and about building up a kind of a moral binding to let this culture of trust and honesty prevail.

Will we be successful in setting such a precedent and in starting the desired culture of trust and honesty?

To find out we will have to wait till Monday, 18^th June 2007, the planned kick-off date for our coin-box experiment.

So, guys and gals of Section E from the Class of 2008, are you ready for the experiment?

Watch this space for more....

Status messages on G-Talk and Lull in Posting.

There is a lot about which I want to write but very little time in which to write. I took a conscious break from blogging as it was eating into a lot of my study time (as it is I didn’t devote much time to studying!). I thought that I would write a lot in the Holidays (Oh yes! We do have holidays at ISB though only for a few days that too at the end of a semester) but alas I went back home and my net connection was down all these days. Now, I’m back in ISB, back to a reliable net connection and hence back to blogging!

Term 2, I am told, is going to be the most hectic of all terms and finding time would be really difficult. However, it will be a conscious effort on my part to sneak in at least one post per week and if possible more.

For now, I’ll leave you with some of the one-liners I coined for my status message on G-Talk. I coined a new one-liner every day for my first few days at ISB, just for the fun of it and had no idea then about what I was getting into. However, after the first week, whenever I didn’t change my message, I was forced by a barrage of messages from my G-Talk friends to change the status message. And the result is that I have been coining a new one liner every day for the past 55 days! My friends and now even I want to see how far I can take this i.e. for how many more days (keep in mind that around 55 days are already gone and there are around 300 days more to go!) can I keep on coining a new one-liner per day by the day.

Sample some of the one-liners.

Chaandni raat, Books ke saath!

Baat Sun meri, Kitaab Phek teri.

Baat Suni meri? Band Bajegi teri.

Blog padh mera – gyaan badaa tera.

Flickr pe mere - dekh chehre sunehre

Naya Post, Pada kya Dost?

End of week Three – I want to Break Free.

Exam ka kaam tamaam – kare Ram ka naam

Aayi Shaam, Uthao Jaam – Bhulao Exam!

Election news – Don’t blow your fuse!

Uda kya fuse? Absolutely no use!

Uda fuse – Total Confuse – Study, No use.

7 Question aaye – Aadhey kar na paye!

End of Term 1 – Amazing amount of Fun.

Term 1 khatam – Do laakh hajam!

Waiting to see how many more one-liners I can coin.

Blood Donation Camp @ ISB

“Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe FROOTI doonga!”

Given above is one of the catch phrases that did the rounds at a Blood donation Camp organized, a few days back, by the Net Impact Club at ISB. This phrase here is not to signify that someone actually came to donate blood enticed by a frooti, a brand of mango drink offered after blood donation, but just to underscore the fun that all associated with the event had organizing the camp and mobilizing people for it.

The camp was organized in collaboration with Red Cross and was a stupendous success with around 207 volunteers, including students, faculty and staff, donating blood. A number of 207 donations in just one day is no mean task and all credit for achieving this goes to the dedicated souls working for the Net Impact club.

There was one thing, however, that really surprised me about the organisation of this entire event. The team working for it i.e. the members of the Net Impact Club, did not have an officially designated leader (the elections for the Clubs are still to be held) and yet everything moved as efficiently as efficient can be. In the absence of a formally elected leader or a proper official structure for the club, it was surprising in the first place to see this activity actually being taken up and then more surprising to see the activity being turned into a huge success. This would not have been possible without tremendous dedication and team spirit within the members of the Net Impact Club. A big hurrah to you all!

I could not help them out in organizing as I had a lot of studying to do. But then who in ISB does not need to study? That these people, who organized the camp, chose to sacrifice their personal benefit (by not studying) for the benefit of the overall community speaks for their commitment levels.

P.S. The post on CP that I promised in my last blog, was in the pipeline but there has been a temporary break-down in the pipeline due to the scheduled end term exams. The post shall reach us as soon as the break-down is resolved.

The thrills of blogging

It is only my third post on the blog but the blog already seems to have become a part of me. I don’t seem to find time enough to call up my friends and family or even to study enough. However, I seem to find enough time to log on to the blog and check for any comments or log on to the site-meter and check the number of visitors to the blog. It is really a thrilling experience to find people unknown to you visit your blog from far away places like US, UAE, Australia and Indonesia etc. and spend quality time on the blog. It is gratifying to see the random thoughts that crowd your mind take a concrete shape in the form of posts on the blog. It is even more heartening to see your ideas and thoughts, of which you yourself were not very confident, being appreciated and praised by others.

The number of visitors to the blog, especially the ones coming back again and again to check for updates, evokes a sense of great responsibility in me. It feels like a duty now to give the readers both the quality and the quantity of posts that they desire. At this point of time, however, I am not too sure about the extent to which I can live up to their (your) expectations. Nevertheless, I shall try and do my best.

P.S. Next update planned – “My views on Class-Participation or (CP).”

Affects of ISB on Normal life.

I went to a restaurant called ‘Basil’ the other day and was about to leave after a happy meal when the feedback form of the restaurant, lying unfilled on my table, screamed for my attention. There was a certain strange quality to this scream. I could not believe my ears when I heard our Statistics Professor Bob Stine screaming out from the feedback form! I’m not kidding guys, I’m serious!

Bob was shouting that this unfilled form would go as a ‘no-response’ in the statistical estimations of the level of customer satisfaction at the hotel. He asked me how, after all that he had taught us, could I make life more difficult for a statistician. Bob had drilled deep into us, in his classes, the adverse effect that ‘no-response(s)’ could have on such statistical estimations. And for the love of Bob and for his subject – Statistics – I could not help but sit back again and fill up the form.

My family who were waiting at the gate while I filled the form really wondered what had come of me. When they asked me I said, “Nothing, I just met my Professor of stats from ISB - Bob Stine!” They found nothing normal in my reply but then they have hardly found anything normal in me ever since I took this ‘abnormal’ decision (for person with his own business) of joining ISB.

P.S. Well guys, I ‘m baack! And as promised earlier, this post is about ISB or rather about the ways in which the learning(s) from ISB have already started ‘affecting’ our lives. I actually had couple of other interesting (oh yeah?) tales too. However, I shall let them be for some other post. For now, I’ve got to finish my Economics assignment and also upload photos of a dunking session.

Friday Bomb Blast in Hyderabad – Amusing Incidents and Disturbing Aspects.

“Maa#$**#$@ band kar!” shouted a young fellow of around 18 years while he hurled a stone missile at a shop in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad yesterday. Then giggled away to glory saying “Kaisa phaada nai, dukaan waale ki,”(“See, how I scared the S--- out of the shop owner”) in his group of around 8-10 guys with age ranging from as young as 15 to a maximum of around 25-27.

While this incident to an extent was amusing what didn’t amuse me one bit was the reaction of the police. They just stood by, as is now expected of them, and just warned this group of ‘hooligans’ against having too much ‘fun.’(“Masti karo par zyaada nakko.”)

To top it all this policemen passed on a message (on his wireless radio) to the control room that a group of people were going around the area ‘requesting’ shop owners to down their shutters!!

Wow! What a definition of request the police seem to have. Wonder what their reaction would be if we were to ‘request’ the police in a similar way – by first abusing them and then by hurling stones at them.

Stray incidents such as the one above, of which I just happened to be a witness, aside there are a few other aspects about the blast in Hyderabad yesterday that bother me.

1) There are reports that the police went around the city on Thursday warning some of the petrol bunk owners against selling petrol in cans or bottles to anyone over the next two days. Never before was such an instruction / warning specifically given to the petrol bunk owners. Why then was it given this time and why again only for two days – Thursday & Friday? Did the Police have any prior inkling or info?

2) No stones can be found lying around on the roads or on the footpaths around the mecca masjid area. (I frequent the area often as many of my relatives have their shops and establishments in that area) How then did the miscreants find sacks full of stones to hurl at the police and at the shops around mosque?

3) Previous such incidents of stone throwing were found to have been preceeded by a massive stock-piling of stones in the area. Many a times school children were found carrying stones in their school bags. No action, however, was taken then and similar, I’m sure, will be the case this time too.

4) CCTV cameras and metal detectors were later installed as a precautionary measure around that mosque but they were removed just recently.

5) Frisking and searching, a routine security check carried out at the mosque, of all visitors / devotees was not carried out only on this Friday – the day of the blast.

6) The most bothersome piece of information, however, has been a news article in the Times of India today. It draws the readers’ attention towards an organisation called Tablighi Jamaat which is holding one of its big congregations today on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The previous congregations have been held in Nanded and Malegaon. And guess what had happened in both these places prior to the congregations - A BOMB BLAST IN A MOSQUE !

P.S. Just created the blog, so I didn't have any ready stuff to upload here except this article that I had written for the ISB collaborative Blog. Will get back soon with more stuff - more specific to ISB this time.