e-Nagar

I joined a reputable MBA college recently…

Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah. I know you have come across lots of books on mba’s and iitians. Why this post again?

Just to tell you how my personality has been affected in the few months I have been here. I have become more cynical, a little darker and am operating on Peter’s Principle…inside the institute. But once outside my present peer group, I am a very confident, cheerful individual. (You can associate other good qualities of you own accord, they won’t be off the mark.)

So, what’s the point I am making?

It is quite similar to what dad told Calvin for their fishing trip- Instead of taking a vacation from your regular, boring life, make your vacation so bad that your regular life feels like a holiday trip. That’s how I see an mba course actually helping you.

Though I still wish I could call this two year stint just a bad vacation…

Maybe going though this flowchart help

We have all heard of double standards prevalent in all societies across the globe. A good friend of mine decided to add another dimension to it over dinner. ‘The Indian society’, he said, ‘has not double, but triple standards. One for me, the other for my wife and a third for the other fellow’s wife’. I thought it was quite cheeky. But the fact of the matter remains that it’s true.

‘My standard’, elaborated my friend, ‘is that i should be allowed to get ‘a lift’ from the other fellow’s wife. Simply put, i should be allowed to flirt around. My wife should have the second standard, not to let other buggers like me approach her. She should be comparable to the likes of Sati Savitri. And the third, applicable to those whom i flirt around with, is that they should allow only me to get near them’. Odd.

‘The third standard doesn’t make sense’, I complained. ‘Well it does’, he continued, ‘if you understand that the majority of such people are those who want to achieve a lot but don’t have the will to go out and get it, professionally or otherwise. So they feel at least one place should be reserved exclusively for them, that too with no strings attached. And this is the mentality which leads to the beginning of any dirty office politics.’

Quite an insight, ‘So what’s the solution?’ ‘What damn solution? If anyone gets a solution, shoot him. It’s the flavour of India, and i am a proud part of it…cheers!’

Officer: Soldier, do you have change for a dollar?
Soldier: Sure, buddy.
Officer: That’s no way to address an officer! Now let’s try it again. Do you have change for a dollar?
Soldier: No, SIR!

Last summer an Iraqi general summoned Saddam’s 48 body doubles to a safe house in Iraq. “I have good news and I have bad news” he told the doubles.
“The good news is, Saddam is alive!” Everybody in the room gave a big cheer, “Saddam!” “Saddam!” “Saddam!” “Saddam!”
The Iraqi general then turned to the doubles and said, “The bad news is, he’s lost an arm.”

A year ago went I had gone to Singapore, one of the first thing that my host wanted me to see was the Library. According to him, the big public library of Singapore was one of the biggest perk of staying in Singapore was that library. I knew him as a learned man, but since I never would classify him as a bookworm, naturally I did not share his enthusiasm.

Its only when I read this article by Gurcharan Das did I realize that we Indians are so much deprived of these basic amenities that we are not even in the position to comprehend what we are missing.