e-Nagar

Finally finished my MBA. Now I am at home doing absolutely nothing, waiting for my joining date, which is some time from now. I had decided to use the time productively, learn a language or get fitter or at least take a trip around. But then, finally decided to give it up for the lazy comfort and pampering at home…be a complete vella.

During these slow, sunny, idle days, I was having a conversation with one of my friends over coffee. Incidentally, he is as vella as yours truly. He struck up the following note –

“Can you guess who is the busiest man?”
“In India or around us?”
“In India, the world…whatever.”
“Umm…the waiter, the PM…or not, the police. Maybe the bellboy. Politicians, definitely politicians.”
“Nope, it’s the vella public.”
“I believe vella people are defined as jobless.”
“My point exactly. The person with no job is the busiest man.”
“Like the happiest man is the one without the shirt?”
“Huh? I can’t draw that analogy, but ok. The point being, the vella is someone whom everyone takes for granted. Hence, he is assigned the most time-consuming, non-productive, boring and frustrating jobs by everyone around him. It takes up his entire time, and at the end of the day, he has nothing to show.”
“For example?”
“Like…you doing nothing, get in line for the telephone bill, today is the last day. Or, go and receive relative xyz from the airport. Or to top it, drop your cousin for his tuition and then get the exam form for him from the bank across the city.”
“Nice, but do you know who is giving us the dirty looks and wants to get busy?”
“Who cares…ok, who?”
“The waiter. We have been here for over three hours over jus two cups of coffee. I think he is reaching his breaking point. Let’s go.”
“Ok. As it is I have some work to do.”
“What, actual work or the vella style?”
“What can I say; I am a really busy man.”

One of the easiest things in the world is to lie and pass one as someone else. If the interaction is brief enough and if the other person is not paying too much attention/significance to the interaction then any person with even an iota of IQ can also get away with it. However just because one can do it, should you do it?

Over the past 1 month or so, I have spent 20-30 hours over phone trying to coach a kid on CAT interviews. He wants to pursue MBA because he intends to use those skills to get into healthcare management, where he believes he can contribute significantly and get a lot of satisfaction. However being an engineer from an unrelated field, he wasn’t sounding very convincing in the mock interviews. Hence he was literally pressurized and forced to change the storyline of “Why MBA” to finance where he seems more natural and presentable. He says just because “I am good at something that does not mean I want to pursue it as a career. Healthcare might not be the most glamorous of the sectors (relatively speaking), but then with my qualifications and dedication I am sure I will never have problems of bringing food to the table.”

IIM Interviews are a chance for which many people would be ready to kill for. During interviews and discussions where one is being evaluated, everyone blemishes the facts or is economical with the truth. However just because everyone lies, does not mean that he should also become phony. I am not questioning the moral or ethical standards because I believe they tend to change/evolve with time and based on the context. What I am asking is that if the stakes are too high, then is it ok to let go of one’s beliefs and conviction in order to make a favorable impression?

PS: He went with the finance story.

Recently I had a debate with a friend over what is good for the society multipurpose machines or vehicles or efficient specialized machines and vehicles?

My friend’s assertion was that society is better off if we use experts, specialists, machines and equipment. 1 bus for commuting, 1 truck for transport, 1 tracker for ploughing the fields would consume less fuel, time, give more comfort and be less costly for the society than having 4 tractors doing all the above purposes. A tractor is a multipurpose vehicle which can do almost anything under the sun, but that does not mean that it should be regularly used to do it. After all its common sense that the wheels designed to function in mud and fields would consume more fuel on tarred roads.

My assertion was that there are 2 costs associated with any machine Capex and Opex. It is well known that most agricultural families might have needs that require them to work in the fields, transport produce and passengers. However they might not have the financial means to own 3 different vehicles for these specialized tasks. Also even if they can, they won’t be able to fully utilize them and hence making it expensive for the society.

For Opex, one has to take a leaf from the Queuing Theory. Multipurpose vehicles can adapt to the needs of the day. They can be deployed on the fields on one day, as trucks on another and as busses on the third. This way there will not be shortage in any of these varied areas and hence the rental that a farmer has to pay for these equipments would also be manageable. Finally the cost to the society is rental + operating cost. End of the day it’s the economics that guide these decisions in life. As long as village economy feels that their needs are not so large to justify specialist vehicles they won’t have one.

The debate could not be conclusive because soon we drifted to the professional services space. We questioned that for a company/team/project is it better to hire generalist or specialist. When is the tussle between expertise and flexibility which of the two should be given precedence.

Hence I am writing this post to ask for opinion from the readers.

This one dates back to a period when I started having my usual fits of “I don’t know what I want to do with my life”. Someone present at one such occasion described to me that we live in different levels of consciousness…all of us.
Level I is the vegetable stage. People in this stage are those who do whatever the society or the people influencing their lives dictate. They live a life akin to a vegetable grown by a farmer. The farmer spruces, chops, cleans and cultivates the vegetable as he wants, without any say from it. The farmer in this case is the society and the people in this level of consciousness are the vegetable. The very thought that life, or even a part of it, can be led in their own way, never occurs to them.
Level II is the stage of consciousness in which people realize that it is their life, to be led their way. This is the most troublesome stage since you realize that in the jigsaw of your life, there are a few pieces missing but you don’t know which ones. This is the stage when you get fits like I did…and still do. Most of the enlightened people in my surrounding are in this stage. They want to do something, but they are not sure what exactly that something is.
Level III is the highest consciousness and thus, most difficult stage to attain. In it, you are sure of what you want to do and are doing it. The missing pieces have fallen into place and you can look at the bigger picture of your life. I don’t know how to attain this blissful stage. If anyone does, please tell me.