A Consultant's Life - Part IV (Incomplete)

This thread of posts must take the record of being the longest set of chronicles I have written under the same title. Is it that two years of working has taken its toll on my imaginative capabilities? Hope not!

In terms of content, this is a follow-up of the 1st part of the series with the above title: Some things don't change and some things do...

Of the things that do change, especially on the personal front, the most prominent and significant is the change in marital status - tons of my friends, batchmates etc. who were leading single, unattached lives have decided to take the plunge and step over to the grhasta side of life.

The latest bachelor to bite the dust among my friends' circle is Avishek Addy (the PJ king of my batch) - he is getting engaged this May. Guess he hid his PJs well during the time his would-be made the choice :D. A months back, couple of my best friends, Poza and Bhars, also got married. Is it something about the stage of one life? A little introspection leads me to a very consultanty answer...

I figured that people by and large go through a 2x2 matrix of life [my non-consultant friends call this the point of no return, the point where I form 'frameworks' for the heck of it :)] - I call it the JOL framework (nothing bengali about this, though!). In a nutshell, the journey of many people's lives follows a 'Z' pattern through the following matrix

The JOL (Journey of Life) Matrix

Most people start their lives by being single and happy about it and somewhere down the line, that happiness vanishes and a desire to be with a member of the other sex takes over- neatly described by the following masterpiece


JOL-ly Roger Calvin here is in the bottom left quadrant of the matrix and Hobbes is in the top left quadrant. From the "Girls/Boys! Ewwwwww... yuck! I hate girls/boys" phase to the Hobbes phase of "Whom do we smooch?", it is one turbulent journey!

Another natural question which cropped up was: where do you fit "Relationships" in the picture? To that the answer is: Substitute "Marriage" with "Relationships" in the matrix and you get the answer in a more generic way

(Incomplete)

An in-flight experience

PS: This article below is meant purely for fun and not intended to hurt the sensibilities of anyone. Apologies :)

Once, I had to go to Jamnagar and, expectedly, the only airline to serve that destination was an Indian Airlines Flight (looking at the number of people on that flight, I could not but think that there was a huge market opportunity - but then, that is another story).

I boarded the flight and was greeted by a stentorian "Welcome aboard, sir" - except that it had as much warmth as a graveyard. I was confronted by an imposing woman, some ten feet in height and a width to match. Every cell in my body froze. I had the irresistible urge to cower into a corner; my past seemed to come rushing back to me and I felt like a little schoolboy again.

I hurried to my seat and fastened my seatbelts, finding an odd comfort in doing so - she would have to take the trouble of unbuckling me first before she could throw me out of the window/door you see...

Time passed and they safely locked the doors (phew!) and the plane taxied to the runway. In the meantime, the airhostesses started serving 'preliminary' refreshments, namely fresh lime juice. However, the juice wasn't as fresh as I had wanted it to be. So I asked for a change.

To borrow a Wodehousian phrase, ice formed on the stewardess's upper slopes. She said, "Let me check, sir". The "welcome aboard" sounded quite cheery in comparison... this felt like I was in an Arctic graveyeard with a Polar Bear breathing down my neck. I was significantly alarmed at having fastened my seat belts. I could have at least dived under the seats for protection otherwise. There I was, helpless, immobile and unarmed, with Jezebel herself in front of me. Damn you, Ranga! Foresight! Foresight!

Anyway, there must have been a hint of mercy in her (somewhere deep down I think), and she finally condescended to give me a fresh cup of juice. The experience left me deeply reflective and weirdly relieved. I thought for a while and suddenly it struck me... the airhostesses on Indian Airline flights could not even help being cold; it was part and parcel of their existence. It was pre-ordained when they named their employer.

... All Indian Airlines Flights are called IC(y) flights...

The Yoga of Despondency

To put it concisely, the plot outline for the context for the Gita (and the rest of this post) is as follows:

Villains and Heroes ready for battle - hero commander goes to see who all he's going to fight - hero sees his relatives on the villains' side - hero gets the heeby-jeebies - hero questions why he has to fight

To put it as I have just done above is the equivalent of saying a Beethoven MP3 is just a series of 0's and 1's - true, but not quite true enough !

So, in slightly greater detail

7 armies on one side (for the Pandavas) , 11 armies on the other (for the Kauravas) stand armed and ready in Kurukshetra ready to annihilate each other. Arjuna, one of the greatest warriors in the Mahabharata is in the middle of no-man's land, facing the Kaurava army, ready to raze his opponents to the ground...and he raises his eyes to look at the 'enemy'.

There he sees his kinsmen - uncles, cousins, brothers, sons , lined up in row after unending row, ready to do death unto each other. His mind wavers, his body trembles and despondency takes over... "Is the end that I am fighting for (namely, kingdom) , worth killing my kinsmen?"

Following this question is a series of rants against war:

• Those for whose sake we desire kingdom are themselves here, waiting to kill each other - why should I fight?
• How can we kill our own people? They might be overpowered by greed and might be willing to kill us, but we can't do the same because we know that it is wrong to destroy a family like this
• If we kill entire families, their traditions, customs etc. are lost forever. What greater sin could I commit?
• If they should destroy me in battle when I am unresisting and unarmed, that would be better for me, rather than my taking up arms against them

It is worthwhile to note here that Arjuna would not have had any qualms killing the opponents had they NOT been his relatives. He was a warrior and it was in his blood to fight. As much as it is in a businessman's blood to trade or in a good student's blood to learn. He was trapped by the attachment to his relatives, and that prevented him from doing his duty.

The author makes a beautiful point : Arjuna was at odds with his svadharma. If he had really been converted to Non-violence, a la King Ashoka, he would not have been satisfied by Lord Krishna until his real objective was met. He was trying to talk his way out of his dilemma , out of doing his duty. His path to doing his duty was clouded by attachment, by illusion.

This 'attachment' is a common issue faced by people all over the world. And many in the corporate world can especially identify with this:

• Should I dump stocks on a distributor in order to meet the current sales target or should I find ways of creating demand?
• Should I sell this medicine even if the side effects have not been fully tested?
• Should I report higher quarterly earnings by valuing stocks higher and adjust them in time for the annual report?
• Should I recommend the client against what he/she feels is the right course of action, even if it means I won't get future work from them if I disagree with them?

All the above situations arise from an 'attachment' to the results of one's action rather than doing the right action. The right action in this case is set in the context of one's conscience. The purpose of the Gita is to rid us of our illusions and attachment in the pursuit of our svadharma. What is svadharma? Literally, it is "one's own way", determined by our unique DNA! It is what makes us tick, what makes us who we are.

Each person's svadharma is his/her own and holds the greatest attraction to him/her. However attractive/easy another person's dharma seems, you should never follow it. You should follow your true vocation. The path might be strewn with thorns but that path is yours and yours alone. By treading your own path, you never have regrets and grow as a person.

By treading your chosen path with a sense of devotion to duty, you also demonstrate a willingness to live by the consequences of your choice, as it is yours and yours alone. Nobody forced you into it, and nobody can force you out of it. So if it means a change in career paths, do so by all means. But once you have changed, be prepared to live with the consequences.

I chose consulting as a career because I felt it represented the right balance between learning, business and interpersonal interactions. The path I have taken has been tough, yes, but I am proud at sticking to my choice. I have taken the rough with the smooth, and a year and a half after I joined consulting, I am completely at peace with myself. The paths are never easy, but it is your willingness to fight it out and stick to the choices that counts.

That's all fine, the reader might say. "You have got a job that you like. Great! But that is not the same for me... I was forced into a banking job because there was more money there. All I really wanted to do was marketing. I was forced into a job because of the money - I have a family to support". People often say they are 'forced' into doing certain jobs/tasks. Such short term aberrations do occur and are quite common in fact. But then, they are the outcomes of their own desires.

If I desire something and expect it to fall in my lap, it is not going to happen. I have to work to get it. If the path is tough, then I live with it. I work hard at whatever life throws at me, even if it is something that I dislike.

At the same time, if I am forced into something that I 'dislike', I have to ensure that I am always on the lookout for something that my heart lies in, so that, if the opportunity presents itself I am not found napping.

When you do something with your heart and soul, you often end up creating a competitive advantage that none can replicate. Given that 'competitive advantage' is what businesses are endlessly in search of, finding where your heart lies and working that to your employer's advantage is something that will be mutually beneficial in the long run! This feeling of dedication of one's heart and soul is what is called vikarma elsewhere in the Gita. But then, that is the subject matter for another post :) - enough for now!

On poetry at the workplace

Interesting interview on how poetry, imagination and creativity at the workplace are important and how they need to be nurtured carefully to achieve tangible competitive differences. A side-effect of our over-analytical upbringings (and I presume to represent the majority of the managerial and working population here.) is that the softer qualities like creativity, imagination, artistry etc. are ignored by and large. Maybe we need to fight for their rightful place in any workplace.

As a 'creative' person , I also feel, however, that creativity needs to be controlled as much as it it needs to be nurtured. Creativity is a 'childish' thing, knowing no bounds once the 'creative connect' is made. It makes one rush headlong into any activity. Some tempering of the emotion is essential, to bring a more 'detached and rational' framework within which creativity can thrive. "Ain't this paradoxical?", one might say. But from experience I can say that the 'framework' needs to be there, however broad it might be. The trick lies in making the framework broad enough that creativity is not stifled and yet defined enough that it meets the business requirements of the organization.

For the entire article, refer http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1745

(those who are prompted for a subscription are recommended to sign up...some fantastic articles there!)

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Eight Skills of Highly Successful Consultants

An interesting article I came across recently http://ezinearticles.com/?Eight-Skills-of-Highly-Successful-Consultants&id=2075.

This article talks about the skills needed to make highly successful consultants, the skills being
1) Designing
2) Delivering
3) Selling
4) Contracting
5) Relationship Building
6) Separating Process from Content
7) Socratic Questioning
8) Saying No

The article does not talk about "values" of a consultant, but those I feel are equally important and will finally influence the way the above skills are built.

Any consultants reading this out there? :-)

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On decency at the workplace...

Interesting article from Knowledge @ Wharton. My favourite bit given below:

"Decency is not just about being nice," noted Harrison, author of The Manager's Book of Decencies. Rather, it is about creating a "bubble wrap" of good deeds that will protect a company in hard times. "Our willingness to be decent at work cannot depend on whether business is up or whether we're in a bad mood or whether it's raining. Decencies don't amount to anything unless we take the trouble to make them come alive through concrete acts in all kinds of weather."

Again, implementation is the key, but then, I have it in me! :)

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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

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 :-).

Confluence of emotions...

Confluence 2005 the event is over. Done. Finished. Khallas. Khatam...whatever.

For me, being involved in an event of this scale and complexity was a first. It has taught me many lessons, brought me closer to many people and probably taught me more about management than the entire first year course. It has been a great journey so far and for me, as financial controller of Confluence 2005, a lot more work remains. But as of now, it is time to celebrate.

Confluence 2005 has also caused a few reflections in the muddied pools of my mind and played with a wide basket of emotions. I plan to put them on blogosphere later. But the most important takeaway from the event, I feel has been the extent of pride I have taken in my job as head of Finances and the co-coordinator of Corporate communications. This I believe will stand me in good stead wherever I go and whatever I take up.

Lesson for me: "Take pride in excellence and you will go a long way towards achieving it"

Ranga

My day of shame...

I am feeling terrible today. One of our group work reports got trashed by the very professor who I regard as my role model for his philosophy regarding his life and work.

It is simply eating me up. But then, that is why I am writing this blog. I am not a student of IIMA for nothing. I have taken the pains to work hard to come into the best b-school in the country. I have pride in my work and that is the way it will stay.

I am reminded of a famous incident in Hindu mythology where Sage Vishwamitra persevered and persevered in his spiritual pursuits till Sage Vasishtha himself hailed him as "Brahmarishi" (Vasishtha was the sage who humiliated King Kaushika by proving that the might of the King's army is nothing before a sage's spiritual powers - for more details refer this link)- it is up to me to figure out how I am going to impress the professor again, but figure out I will.

Ranga

Of influences and writing styles

I recently got to know that one of my friends had started a blog. Now, this guy is one of the most well read people on campus and is the coordinator of the LSD (our literary activities club) as well. I came back to my room and immediately started going through this blog. It was amazingly crisp and coherent. Just reading it made me ponder over what I sought to achieve when I started off this blog.

My blog has seen varied phases - from severely emotional to contemplative to descriptive alternating in no particular order. But there was something about Shubhang's writing style that touched a chord in me. It made me get goosebumps all over. More importantly, it set me thinking...

There are a lot of things happening around us. It is up to us to assimilate their effects and use them for self improvement. The first step in that however, is reflection; reflection on what has shaped our lives so far and how each day is shaping our lives further. Reflection needs to be, but often is not, followed by resolution - resolution to make a difference to our lives and the lives of those around us. Often we are in a state of inertia, content with our humdrum daily lives unless something drastic happens to us. Resolution is something which has an unbelievable capability to stir us into action. What made me admire his blog the most was the way he managed to connect various incidents to some deep reflections he had been having or was spurred to have. It was also apparent that for him, the link between reflection and resolution was very clear.

Resolution is one thing, action is another. Neither can exist on a sustained basis without each other. Where I and many people fail is in converting resolution to action. Action generates consequences which tests resolution to the fullest and in turn, leads to further reflection. It is a fitting tribute to one's character if one manages this cycle with regularity throughout one's life and makes a difference to the lives of those around.

I could clearly see the seeds of such a character in Shubhang's blog. Time will prove me right or wrong I guess, but whatever happens, I continue to read on and admire...

Ranga

Mean reversion

My previous two posts have been more like diary entries than anything else. Why did I get this urge to post these entries over the last few days? My feeling is that I needed to find an outlet to my 'misery' (only a comic misery mind you - exams don't really matter in the second year:-p).

Of course, other people are there in campus with whom I can share my experiences, but then during exam time, everyone is busy mugging away and there is a natural urge to cut to size something that is looming large over me. Writing provided a natural outlet for me. Once the exam fever has passed, I am back to wanting to write on things more abstract and not related to mundane day-to-day life. Still, I want to get back to writing on some things that I think about.

Once in a CRI (Careers, roles and identity is the actual expansion, though many people call it "Child Relief and I" :-)) Class, I professed a desire to be a writer of comic fiction a la my idol PG Wodehouse. Of course, any idea of comparison is blasphemous. But the thought that one could give happiness to others by providing them a world of fantasy and escape from the drudgery of life was an appealing one. Others soon asked me whether I really meant it as I often come across a person who is serious and incapable of cracking jokes.

My favourite means of expression is written and spoken english and my attempts at humour generally originate from the use of words in a rather literal sense. Still, people tend to label my attempts as Dry jokes or Poor jokes or, as one would put it concisely in Tamil, "Kadi" jokes. Well, I really can't help it. It makes me happy to keep cracking such jokes :-).

What is it about humour that is so appealing? Is it the escapism that it provides? Maybe yes. But fundamentally, it seems to stem from the need for humans to feel good about something. Also, there is nothing better than bringing smiles to people's faces and making jokes is one way of doing that. So what if my jokes are 'kadi' jokes?

English, by the way, is a language which seems to be ideally suited for comic twisting of ordinary words and situations. Of course, I don't know the nuances of most other languages to say whether they are better or not. Still, it can be very elegantly used to represent many comic ideas.

Anyway, enough on language. Here is a line from one of PGW's books - "Ring for Jeeves", if I am not mistaken, that goes like this...

" It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A.B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't."

Can it get better than this?
PG Wodehouse rocks!

Blogging off,
Ranga

God save me!

One end term exam till date and this is without doubt the worst I have ever done inside an exam hall. I mean, this is even worse than some of the utterly miserable performances I put up in drawing class in school (not that I am bad at drawing, by the way. I can draw sketches and cartoons as good as if not better than the next man :-))
...the saddest part is that I can't even say I have learnt something from the course. Still, there are four more exams and three more submissions to go in the next three days. Time to pull up my socks and start fighting again!

After all, I would not have come to this place if I had not fought tooth and nail for the things that mattered to me the most. Guess this is one more time that I have to go to the trenches...

I really wish I were more mathematically oriented though...

Blogging off in a very very sombre mood...

Ranga

PS: I have deliberately omitted to mention the name of the course, though more than 2/3rd of the WIMWIans would know what I am talking about...

Diversified portfolios and principles of Human Resource Management

I have been meaning to write for a long time now. But all I have been able to do is to get a few draft headlines. I keep thinking I will come back to them but that time never seems to come. Anyway, here is one thing I am itching to write about.

We were talking about valuations of companies in our Finance II class. The issue was whether a merger would increase the value of companies if there were no synergies to be had. One student recalled an earlier lecture where Ajay Pandey said that in an efficient market, people will not pay more for a diversified company because they can themselves hold a diversified portfolio anyway. Of course, this discussion assumed the absence of synergies. This discussion sort of set me thinking on tangential lines. Human Resources is one of my better favoured areas of study (ask anyone in my class and they can tell you :-)) and I applied this theory to principles of human resource management to come up with an interesting analogy.

When we receive our initial undergraduate education, we are trained to be specialists in our respective fields. Be it computer engineering or medicine or accountancy, the narrowness with which we deal with our respective areas of study is astounding. Once we go into organisations as specialists, we are valued for the specialisation that we bring in.

Then there are these people who decide to go in for doing a post graduate degree in management. This is where things become interesting. When we exit b-school and go out into the job market, expectations of the recruiters change dramatically. Of course, we are initially expected to work in the areas of our touted specialisation ( or, if the companies aren't that smart at sensing our aptitudes, for some area where they deem fit to put us in). If the companies think they need a different specialisation they will hire a different person. In that sense the HR process resembles efficient markets. But later, we are valued for the synergies we bring to the workplace; synergies in terms of our ability to integrate knowledge from various functional areas, synergies in terms of being able to get along with people and so on... This value is much harder to estimate and often companies spend a huge amount of resources trying to get the right person for the right job.

However, there is no denying the fact that, early on in one's career, be it as a techie or as a management student, the recruitment market behaves as if it expects little synergies from diversifying our initial portfolio of knowledge. But later, those very synergies become crucial for managerial success and significantly influence the money and respect we get. Basically, time can improve synergies depending on the extent of integration we achieve within ourselves. This again is a function of our willingness and ability to learn.

On a more personal note, I would like to achieve the abovementioned synergies as quickly as possible. But I wonder whether the job market would value me for that...

Bloggin' off
Sitan

The Innocence of Childhood

When we grow up, we lose an important part of ourselves - innocence. That pure, childlike quality is soon lost as we are forced to fend for ourselves in the real world. To children, the world always appears black and white. Things are very simple - good/bad, hot/cold, like/dislike, joy/sorrow all are simply interpreted and experienced. But this process becomes more and more complex as they grow up. There was a line in the movie "Courage under fire" where one of the actors says "Imagine what it would be like to be like kids - never bothering about the consequences of their actions".

As children, many of us are not required to bother about the consequences of our actions. There are always their parents to guide and direct them. And as far as satisfying wants goes, their main source of satisfaction is provided by the parents. Effectively, they structure their interactions in such a way that the parents form their window to the world. Hence all behaviour needs to be concerned with getting the right reactions from them. Later on, they realise the need for social interaction. They find that they need to behave in certain ways with certain people to get their things done.

Soon after they enter adolescence, things become more complex. They have to start thinking about reactions and counter reactions of a lot more people now. At some level, there must be some manipulation of these behaviours in order to achieve their purposes. The sad part is that everyone has to indulge in this sort of activity to continue leading a life (unless the life is one of Sanyasa) - be it the Chief Executive of a large organisation or a farmer struggling to see where his next meal will be coming from. Soon they realise a need to put up a 'front' to others in interpersonal relationships. This leads some to wonder, "What is the purpose in my behaving in the way that I am?""Am I really achieving something worthwhile by doing all this?""How do I define something as being 'worth it'?" and many more fundamental questions.

Most of us spend a lifetime looking (unsuccessfully) for the answers and continue leading a complex life in the midst of innumerable interactions with ourselves, other people and the environment in general. There are instances where we come across incidents/lessons that make us immensely uncomfortable both with ourselves and with others. We try to analyse them within the limited framework of our experience and try to make 'sense'. There nearly always comes a time when we decide to choose to stick to or not stick to a particular path/course of action. What makes us pick one over the other? I'm not really sure, though I believe that upbringing plays an important role in our choice.

As far as I am concerned, I was always taught to be honest and truthful in all my dealings with people. This feeling has entered my blood in such a deep manner that I feel the prick of conscience every time I put up a 'front' while dealing with someone. It makes me really uncomfortable and I feel that nothing can be worth hiding your real feelings. After coming to IIMA, however, I have realised that interpersonal relationships are not always about saying what you feel or think. Impulsiveness has to be controlled and a rational and more mature approach is called for. Actually the transition has been pretty tough and I am not sure that I am fully 'there' yet. But I am trying and will persist as well. Dealing with the "Is it worth the effort?" question is the toughest thing though. I am trying to find reasons that justify this transition - every one seemingly more plausible than the other. Well, I guess the journey will continue till I reach a stage where I am comfortable with the new me...

Rangarajan

Of Profs and proofs

We have this finance professor called Ajay Pandey (I am proud to say that he was one of the panelists who interviewed me during the IIMA admission process). Oh man! His fundas in Finance are the strongest I have ever seen! The man truly knows his subject. In fact, I have never seen him at a loss even once when handling some fairly tricky questions from the students. He seems to be a storehouse of knowledge and I am not the only one who feels that way. Even guys from IIT, who have had exposure to some pretty great profs rate him very highly indeed. It makes me really proud to have made it to IIMA, you know. Having exposure to some of the best faculty in the field is a rare thing and it really is upto us to maximise what we get from the classes.

Talking about maximisation, I have been maximising my sleep off late. While my colleagues are slogging away and sleeping barely six hours a day, yours truly manages to snore away for at least 7.5 to 8 solid hours :-D. Initially I felt guilty about it. But later, I realised that sleep was not a bad thing after all. Some people consider it a waste of time. It is not that we do not "waste" time otherwise. The most important thing is that we manage to stay productive during class hours and absorb whatever is being taught. I mean, imagine if one were to sleep even for a few minutes in the Finance class ( and mark my words, if you keep having less than 7 hrs sleep a day, you are bound to 'sleep' at least for a while in any class), one would miss a few pearls of wisdom from the prof. The profs here are unbelievable, especially Ajay Pandey. But the thing with his classes is that you have to be constantly attentive. One small lapse is what it takes for some fin funda from being highly interesting to being pure Over Head Transmission!

Come to think of it, I have never learnt Fin the way it has been taught here. In CA, all we used to do was to accept certain statements and formulae at face value and never bother about the foundations. But here everything is about proof - not in the technical sense of having to prove how a formula came about but more about understanding the theoretical foundations of a formula. I realised that I had been conditioned to accept whatever explanation was thrown at me without really questioning the motive behind it. That I realise no longer applies. I must learn to question and analyse the underlying ideas. That is when I get true insights into the concepts and can use them in a variety of situations.

This approach also ensures that nobody is able to pull the wool over my eyes in future managerial situations as well. If there is one thing good about IIMA, it is the way it teaches one ot question one's assumptions and re-examine truisms in a new light. I realise that it is a whole new way of thinking. God help me change my mindset now!

Blogging off

Sitan

Memoryless Systems and my experiences with QM

Oh My God!

We had a Quantitative methods class today... the prof was talking about exponential distributions and some illustrations of the same. Ooof! Are they ever hard to understand! All the theory he taught seemed to make sense...then Kabooom! He thrust some seemingly "simple" problem on us.
That effectively destroyed whatever confidence I had in the subject. It was Overhead transmission pure and simple... I could hear the whooshing sound of all that gyaan passing right out of my brain.

Eeek! If a CA like me (who has had a prior exposure to Probability and distributions) can resist QM like a bucking bronco, I can well imagine what it is to have a non-maths background. It must be like a rustic Greek being caught in a Tamil Nadu village.

There was this concept of memory-less property of exponential distributions being taught in class. Memory less... Memory less... Memory less... What was actually taught ? Oh..I feel my memory is getting progressively lesser. ;-). I thought of me having a good head for data...Facts, figures, trivia - everything was right up my street, or so I thought. But this has been a rude awakening. The way things are taught here are a lot more about concepts than mere facts. Abstracting the concept from the data is extremely important...Thankfully, I have a set of very helpful friends who can make sense of the distributions, probabilities and stuff.

Actually it was not as bad as I paint it to be, once I get some help... God bless the IITs(and the other Quant focussed colleges) and Thank God for the Mathematicians of the batch! And God bless their helpful hearts! After the event I actually feel that Quant is not such a tough subject after all. All it requires is some acquaintance, a helluva lot of practice and some common sense. As future Managers, all of us will be required to use/interpret large quantities of data and this is a useful way to make sense of it all...

That's enuf for now....
Sitan

Pride in work...

My Blogging rate has increased exponentially over the past few days...Is it that I don't have anything else to do? Of course not. Somehow, I have fallen under the spell of blogging and the strange mix of openness and privacy that it offers. And then, when it becomes a sort of necessity, I can always find the 10 minutes required somehow :-).
There are many incidents taking place nowadays which teach me the real meaning of some fairly commonplace words. One word which really got meaning for me a few hours back was the word "Pride". By this I mean taking pride in one's work.
My friend was disappointed at a poor performance he put up in one quiz sometime back... I thought, "Hey what's the big deal? Everybody makes mistakes in some quiz or the other..." . But then I realised that it was not the actual grade that he got that mattered so much. What really bothered him was that he had "failed" (in a relative sense of the term :-)) to do well in the subject that he loved most. The pride which he took in his performance was a lesson for me as well.
I realised that we need to take pride in our work for us to really excel in it. A "chalta hai" attitude may still result in our doing good work, but it does not promote excellence. In the world today, where excellence is the name of the game, pride in one's work is an absolute must.
However, this has a caveat attached. Having pride in one's work is all fine. But one should not let it get overboard and feel dejected at having made a mistake. Disappointment is fine only to the extent one can learn from it.
Life will keep teaching me new lessons everyday...the only thing is that I have to be a good student and keep the learning spirit and take each lesson as an invaluable contribution towards the development of my personality

Bloggin' off
Sitan aka Rangarajan