The One With All the Resolutions

MY NEW YEAR RESOLUTION: To update my blog at least once a month!

Of Lions, Politics and the Gita

It has been a looooooong time since I blogged. But finally, a completely chill weekend and a cup of coffee has made me decide to revive my rusty literary fingers with a small writing session on blogosphere once again.

Quite a bit has happened in my life since I bid adieu to IIMA in my last post… For starters, I got just about a week off before I joined work . Consultancy beckoned… and so did aamchi Mumbai. Shifting from campus was not that big a deal, but getting my parents to shift into the city was an additional responsibility. But thank God, that went off without a hitch.

I have accumulated a lot of thoughts during my three-month old career in consultancy, which I have been itching to put into words. Apart from the substance of these thoughts, I also realized I had spent too much time with Nat Geo and Discovery channel in my formative years J. The similarities between living in the managerial fast lane and the life that many animals live out there in the wild are striking. I now understand the meaning of the phrases ‘rat race’ and ‘dog-eat-dog world’ in their truest sense. Let me draw an analogy.

Take the instance of a male lion’s life in the African Savannah. The male lion’s entire adult life revolves around getting mating rights over the females and defending his ‘harem’ from other adult lions. Territorial disputes are a way of life for our harassed, yet majestic feline. There is no such thing as a harmless male adult in lion society; each is interested in building its genetic pool and thwarting its competitors for survival.

Now consider life in a city like Mumbai, which is renowned for its ‘survivor’ attitude. Not only do the people here have to fend for themselves in order to get ahead in life, they also have to be wary of other individuals encroaching upon their ‘space’ in the race for resources. The same behaviour gets exhibited in different ways in different spheres of economic activity. At the lower levels, the auto-wallahs fight their daily battle by trying to extract that one rupee extra from the unwary customer. In the corporate world, people’s ambitions to get to the higher levels or to protect their current jobs are paramount drivers of their behaviour. This desire makes them aggressive. Power and politics rule the roost and establishing one’s territories as wide as possible is a way of life. I observe these ‘instincts’ at work every day in my project.

But given the phenomenal success of our species in infesting pretty much every part of the planet, I often wonder what is the reason in fighting tooth and nail to establish power hierarchies in corporate circles… does it have any meaning whatsoever? What is it that they want to achieve in life? And will these ‘territorial disputes’ help people achieve whatever they seek to do?

This was the primary question I posed to myself recently. I found something which resembled a satisfactory answer to the question (and not unsurprisingly, it related to animal behaviour J), but surprisingly I realized that it was not so much an interest in these ‘territorial disputes’ as it was a question of that elusive thing called happiness. Will I be happy running the race on a day-to-day basis? It was then that I turned to my source of eternal advice and comfort – The Bhagavad Gita

The Gita talks about the way of action: devoting oneself to the achievement of excellence in one’s chosen sphere of activity without bothering about the results of the process. And to borrow a line from one of my favourite professors in IIMA, ‘you should find joy in the process, and not in the result’. In a way, I also think the Gita talks about choices. People (especially out of B-school campuses and into their jobs) often question the choice they made in taking or not taking a particular company or field, so much so that attrition rates in the first year after leaving campus is often in excess of 60-70%. The Gita on the other hand, I believe, talks about picking a choice based on the available information and not looking back at it to see whether it was the right thing or not but rather, to do that which is needed to make the choice work.

But will doing ‘that which is needed’ entail doing something unethical or immoral or against one’s code of conduct? I for one firmly believe that there is very little role for aggressive conflict in people’s lives. But such conflicts are a reality in everyday corporate life. My sattvik nature rebels against getting into the quicksand of conflict, but then how do I defend myself when being faced with it? My ‘survivor’ instinct tells me that I should become aggressive myself but I somehow believe that this is not the way I want to live my life… but then, having made the choice to be in the field of management, I need to do ‘that which is needed’ to make my choice work. What will it involve? It simply involves defending my territory against ‘encroachment’, clearly demarcating my boundaries and letting people know kindly but firmly that intrusions beyond those boundaries are not permitted.

I have my place in this world; I am a unique individual and nothing which other people say will make me question my abilities or my capacity to learn from others. I am here to do something which I have chosen to do and I will do it within the framework of my morals and my way of life. I will find happiness in doing the thing I have chosen. I WILL NOT have regrets. At the same time I will do what I think is fit to make the world a better place for all of us to live in. If I have to bide my time, so be it.

I now feel a bit sheepish at writing all these on my blog but I believe this is something all of us face as adults in an intensely competitive world waiting outside for us.

Bye bye IIMA

My last class of PGP got over yesterday. End of a chapter? Or end of an epoch? I would like to think it is the latter.

The two years spent here at IIMA have given me more experiences worth treasuring and cherishing than the 'lifetime' I spent before coming here. Where do I begin my journey down memory lane? Do I start with the eternal appeal of the LKP? The scintillating qualities and character of the people (students and profs included)? The everlasting impressions of the pressures and tensions of PGP1? The exhilaration of unbridled freedom of PGP2? The legalised addiction that is DBabble? It is a journey of reminiscing with a clear beginning but with no end in sight - I love you IIMA.

I remember last year seeing the senti NB get flooded with thousands of little reminiscences of various things - midnight cups of tea at CT, various CPs, ACPs, SACPs and disagree CPs, walks in the LKP, tempo shouts in the mess, T Nite chants, 'My two pence nostalgia' and what not. Let me start with my own list [RCP disclaimers apply :-) ]

What will I miss most about IIMA? Difficult to answer - IIMA is an experience beyond words; you have to live it to believe it. Where else will you get a pot pourri of the brightest minds, biggest ambitions and strongest characters mingling without inhibition, with IIMA being the touchstone of their aspirations?

The first week at IIMA - best described by the phrase 'Ohhh....maaaiiiiiii...........gaaaaaaawd' - brought together the dorms (at least many of them) in a way that would never be forgotten ... be it the concerned tucchas who made us run from pillar to post, applying for various clubs or the assignments which were bestowed with the 'well meaning' intention of making us experience a nightout as soon as we arrived here... by the end of the week, a weary batch of facchas and facchis would be left hoping for better times around the corner...we could have scarcely been more mistaken - PGP 1 first term does not strike terror in the hearts of a WIMWIan without reason.

How do I describe the unique brand of terror caused by a little piece of paper fluttering inside a wooden notice board which read 'QM Quiz at 2.30 (or Manac quiz for the engineers :->)? The endless poring over casemats, blackbooks and notes taken down by the literally inclined was enough to make me freak. Blood curdling shouts of 'Muggo facchon muggo' in the mess, in the dorms and wherever there was a tuccha congregation did precious little to ease the frayed nerves. WAC runs and HR assignments ruled the roost.

But soon, TNite came and proved beyond ample measure that group bonding was here to stay, even in THE most competitive of places. Memories of hundreds of eager facchas partly running - partly wading through the monsoon-soaked LKP lawns, of stentorian tempo shouts and ingenious posters, of colourful classes and people sleeping on benches or curled up in the corners of the classrooms will remain evergreen. PGP1 was all about mugging, so I thought - Tnite changed that. After that, exams came and went, quizzes flew past us but nothing would ever be the same again.

Second term gave a small peek into what a PGP2's life would be. Chaman lal and co brought colour to a rather drab academic existence. Third term was rather like the famed story of Sisyphus and the boulder, with one expecting liberation to be just around the corner but that corner never seemed to come. Life was one long story of bleary eyes, mountains of books and endless cups of tea with the only thing sustaining me being the hope of attaining the Nirvana that was PGP2. Exams came and went and voila! salvation was at hand!

Fourth term and a completely new experience - no staring anxiously at the quiz notice boards, no more huddling over black books - whatay! It was time to say goodbye to a harrowing one year and welcome a new set of unfortunate sufferers into the PGP system - OM Shanti OM I thought. Soon it was birthday time at D21 and what do you know? A new hobby! And entertainment for all!

In a way, it is futile to distinguish between terms in the second year... it was one long extended holiday - a holiday where one could do whatever one wanted, no questions asked. Some typical instances
- CG Road? Fun Republic? Pani puri anyone?
- Can someone tell me the best places to visit in Timbuctoo ? I have a 5 day weekend
- Can someone share the latest episodes of Naruto/Scrubs/24/South Park? whatever!
- Acado, can assignment xxx/ IP report submission be postponed till after we
graduate pleaaaaaaaaaaaaase?
- Mid terms? What are they?
- Muggo facchon muggo! MANAC/OM/QM ka tempo high hai, facchon ki le li zig zag zig zag
- How many people are planning to take the CG exam tomorrow? :-)

As someone said, time is not measured in moments, but heartbeats. Going by that I have spent longer than my physcial lifetime here. My heart beats for you WIMWI - these are the experiences of a lifetime which are forever part of me as they are part of you. Now it is time to step out of your benevolent arms into the big bag world of corporate existence, but the lessons you taught me and the friends that you have given me will be there always to help me out and give me solace when I am down and give me humility when I reach hitherto unexplored heights...

Bye bye IIMA

Ranga

The Ravi C gems series - Part 2

I have taken a course called Logistics management taken by Prof. Ravichandran in the sixth term. Boy! It is the most awesome fun! I have taken some pains to document some of his classic one-liners in class. This blog is a small sample:

a long discussion in class over a point ... same point gets repeated 20 mins later as if the guy is making a fresh point ... Ravi C says "I thought we had already covered this point some 20 mins earlier... Does sound travel so slowly here? "

I don't know why, but RaviC used to mercilessly tease some foreign students who came to IIMA on Exchange and were (un)fortunate enough to choose his courses. Here goes a small sample:

We were discussing a case on the supply chain for Hoechst Pesticides and he gets irritated at the speed the case discussion is progressing"You know you guys should have been able to complete the case discussion in 40 mins if you had thought clearly... now we have spent the better part of 4 classes on it - 9 times as much time.

With a sideward glance at the exchange students, he follows up "With increasing globalisation, the Indian students are also becoming world class..."
[silence for two seconds and a riotous thumping of the benches as the message sunk in..]


Bright student: Sir, this inventory is stocked in the head office whereas the recommendation is to stock it at the regional offices.

Ravi C: " If there are four members in your family and one of them goes abroad, then how many members are there in your family? It doesn't matter where the inventory is stored bhai as long as it is stuck in the system"

On the idea of debating options for transporting goods from factory to markets: to illustrate the idea of buying low value-add items locally the prof said :
"If you are going to transport cowdung, will you transport it by airplane?"

more to follow... :-)

Ranga

Reflections for the new year

I have always been fascinated by the concept of new year resolutions. It is almost like a capsule of all the good intentions that one can have. It is like one of those rare flowers, (I think it is called kurinji in Tamil) which blooms only once in 12 years, only to fade again as quickly as it came.

I have tried to give up the habit of making new year resolutions for quite a while now, but even if I don't declare something formally as my new year resolution, I find myself unconsciously becoming determined that I would achieve something worthwhile or do something better this year and Hey Presto! I have a New Year Resolution even before I know it. Needless to say, not one of those good resolutions has materialised fully till now.

What causes the human brain to make resolutions? Fundamentally, I think we are a dissatisfied lot. The ability of the human mind to reflect analytically and/emotionally on past happenings and dissecting them into some specific cause-effect relationships is no doubt well established. But it is during some landmarks in time such as birthdays or New Years that there is this trigger which prompts reflection much more than during normal times. Again maybe the human mind is fundamentally optimistic? There is always the inclination to believe that the future will be better than the past if one takes the necessary actions... maybe that is what has made our race so successful?

But then, what prevents most resolutions from seeing the light of the day when it comes to action? In my opinion, it is that reflection is generally almost completely internal but action is completely external. And being external, there are a lot of forces in the environment that influence action a lot more than they would influence reflection. The really exceptional people can focus upon their reflections and use them to take the necessary actions to influence the environment in such a way that the reflections bear fruit in terms of actions and results. Will I be one of them? Till date, I haven't been able to achieve even a tenth of what I set out to do, but that will not keep me from trying :-).