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.