The confessions of a clueless mind

It is believed among the Hindus that the Himalayas are the abode of the Gods. In fact, Mount Kailash is believed to be the mythological Kailasa where Lord Shiva resides. Accordingly, the Hindus also believe that these mountains are the resting place for the spirits of their dead ancestors. The Hindu association with the mysticism of the Himalayas doesn’t stop at that. It is also believed that one cannot go to the Himalayas until their destined time. Of course, a pragmatist would dismiss these beliefs as just mumbo-jumbo. And I set out to do the same as well, when some of us friends went on a Himalayan trek a few months ago. We planned to start our trek from Solang , and go all the way to the Beas Kund , the source of the Beas River, where, as the legend goes, the great Hindu sage Veda Vyas (also known as Beas ) wrote the epic Mahabharata . What followed, however, was a series of events that seemed to warn us to not proceed on our expedition. Call it coincidences, or omens. But they d...

Continuing with the Independence Day fervor, my good friend Maverick has an interesting list of things that will make India an icon in the next 60 years. Click here to read the article. While I agree on all of those, I also have a few other points that I think are equally, if not more, important in curing India of its ills. 1. Ban Caste/Religion based politics and policy making This has been the bane of our system ever since independence. The country has not been able to overcome the strong caste/religion divide, and politicians, in their vote-bank appeasement policies, have exploited this to the hilt. Minority appeasement, for example, has reached such sick proportions that one wonders if it is a crime to be born in the majority community. Further, the lack of a uniform civil code has reduced our secular credentials to a farce. The so-called intelligentsia has always turned a blind eye to such critical issues as these, but pounces upon irrelevant issues to garner press and mileage ...

As Independent India is about to turn 60, here is a list of 10 things about our country that I absolutely hate, and desperately wish I could change. 10. People who make an appointment, and then forget about it ( Some of us are lousy about our punctuality and professionalism ). 9. The Bangalore Auto-rickshaw drivers ( everything about them makes me see red ) 8. People who park their vehicles in front of garages/street corners/congested lanes with no regard to the inconvenience caused to others. 7. People who argue without even attempting to use their brains. 6. The Right Wing Politicians who forget their basic ideology, and put " Jai Maharashtra " above " Jai Hind ". 5. The Congress leaders who claim to love their mothers, and yet, at the slightest opportunity, sell their motherland. 4. Communists who live in India and worship China. 3. The ignorant Islamic Fundamentalists, the ones that are taught in the Madarasas that killing non-believers is their path to salvati...

The Crumbling Wall, The Gaping Hole in the Wall, the Sycophant, Traitor, Toy-Captain, BCCI agent – These are all the names that are being used to describe Rahul Dravid in recent times. You can find these and many more abusive nicknames for Rahul on the Rediff forums where people, especially those hailing from the eastern corner of the country, take it upon themselves to blame Rahul for everything wrong about Indian cricket, and sometimes, about everything wrong about everything in the world. As an ardent admirer of Rahul Dravid, both for his cricketing talent and his unerring composure and decency, it is appalling to read those abusive comments about our captain. But in a country where each and every one of the one billion plus population thinks he/she is then only authority on Indian cricket, it becomes impossible to please everyone. And just as true is the fact that it is the unhappy lot that makes the most noise, and therefore, it is this abusive section of our cricket fans that ma...

“ Ooooooooh Ooooooh……… ” If you have lived in India during the last couple of years, you’d recognize that nasal humming instantly. The capped-crusader has been everywhere since early 2005 when Aashiq Banaya Aapne (ABA) was released. That was the first appearance of Himesh, the star. For those of you who were following Zee’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 , you’d know the startling image makeover in Himesh before and after ABA. The shoddy wig gave way to a hep cap. The dumb gujju look had been smartly replaced with a grunge stubble look. The soft, shy Himesh had metamorphosised into an aggressive, confident, vociferous personality. HR had arrived! Since then, he has gone from strength to strength, churning innumerable hits, as a composer and as a singer. The nasal twang in his voice is very pronounced, but the masses simply loved it, and lapped it up with open arms. The so-called connoisseurs of classic music dismissed HR’s singing as cacophony, and sniggered at his success. But that di...

A cat named Oscar is reported to have the “ psychic ” ability to sense within hours when someone is about to die at a nursing home in Rhode Island. The cat, apparently, visits the residents of the nursing home regularly, but when it curls up near a particular patient’s bed, the hospital staff and the doctors know that it’s time for them to let the patient’s family know about the impending death. The doctors at the nursing home acknowledge this unique phenomenon, but refuse to attribute it to psychic powers. Instead, they claim that there must be some biochemical explanation for the cat to be able to detect signals that humans can’t. More details available here . This episode reminds me of all the horror flicks on TV where the witch/ wizard/ tantrik/ messiah is usually shown to be surrounded by cats because of their ability to sense the supernatural and communicate with a world that is beyond the human realm. In many ways, this cat episode is actually scary because it has blurred the fi...

It’s funny the things I do to appear busy at work. Not that anybody cares what I do. Heck, it doesn’t even matter if someone notices because anyways I am going to be evaluated on my sales targets, and not on my utilization levels. But yet, that 6 and half year stint in a delivery role has affected me much more than I give it credit for. Whenever somebody walks past my cubicle, I feel guilty about not doing any “ work ”, and immediately open some sales presentation and start staring at it blindly. A couple of minutes later, I am back to my browsing ways when sanity returns to tell me that I don’t have to show to anyone that I am working. But this episode has been repeating so many times over the past couple of weeks that I am sure most of my colleagues have branded me the " Indian Idle ". It’s not that I am not trying to work. I am. I have read through tomes of collaterals, and presentations. I have met quite a few people within the organization to understand the practices, an...

There was a time, not too long ago, when I would read Archie comics and think, “ Someday, I’m gonna be doing the exact same things ”. I was really looking forward to the teenage years, and all the rebellion and fun that came along. One fine day, I woke up and found myself having grown past the teens, without really passing through it. The rebellious streak, the fun and frolic, the dangerous lifestyle- I never saw that in my teens. As I was struggling to come to terms with the situation, I started empathizing with the “ 20 something ” characters, usually portrayed as a combination of a career-oriented professional and a social butterfly. For a brief while, I thought I was living that character. But, something always seemed amiss. The experience was good, but it never seemed complete. The proverbial “ 20 somethings ” were always more successful, had better social skills, were in more interesting professions etc. By the time I decided that my life needed a serious revamp, I was almost run...

Location: Interview Room at ISB, Hyderabad Scene: Top IT MNC (Firm X) conducting placement interviews Characters: Top honcho (code name Wolf ) from Strategy Consulting Division at Firm X, prospective candidate (code name Leo ) Wolf : Good Morning Leo, I see you have a very impressive CV Leo : Good Morning, and thanks Wolf : First up, let me clarify that we don’t really do pure-play strategy consulting. We only do the IT strategy. So don’t expect us to do what a McK or BCG would do. Leo : (thinking to himself “tell me something I don’t know”) Yes, I understand Wolf : Leo, I see you have worked with Firm X before you came to B-school. And you have been there longer than I have. That’s good to know Leo : (Beaming with pride) Well, yes. I have had a really good stint at Firm X, and look forward to getting back real soon. Wolf : Well, since you’re an ex-employee, I won’t have to explain how we work as an organization. That’s good. But at the same time, I can’t sell you the organization...

I took the quiz and found that my intelligence type doesnt suit the job I have taken up. Time for a career change? Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator. What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

I have always been an ardent advocate of free press. And consequently, I have always loathed the fact that all our so-called top media houses use their well-entrenched network to promote their affiliates ( for want of a better word ), and vilify their opposition. Some of our most revered newspapers are believed to be unofficial mouthpieces of various political parties. With the advent of 24/7 news channels, the use of media as a tool to promote one's self has only increased several folds. Amidst all these developments, the neutral observer has been left in the dark. The dream of Free and Fair Press seems to remain just that. A dream. On another tangent, the power of “ free press ” has been conveniently abused by certain journalists to the extent that they even resort to threatening their victims of a public vilification if the victims don’t comply with their demands. In many ways, this is tantamount to the extortion business that the D-company and the likes have been running for...

This little poem is inspired by a close friend who is currently trying to shake off some old debris, and looking to settle down at last. If he ever reads this, I am sure he'll know it was for him. The Casanova He walks with a swagger, and smiles with a pout, He wants you to know what it’s really all about, He shows you all his messages, and makes you read his mails, He tries to talk in riddles, but gives away his trails. He calls you at odd times, and begs you to help arrest the damage, When the women in his life, start to suggest marriage, All he wants to do, is have a little fun, But before he even knows it, his life is on the run. The girls have got his number, they’ve wisened up to his game, He knows his time is over, that things won’t ever be the same, He’s looking for your help, to get rid of the grime, Trying to absolve himself, although guilty of the crime. He wants to start afresh now, and find the perfect wife, He is counting on the family, to help resurrect his life, A ...

I am back! After a really long time, I am attempting to write again. My last post was way back in December last year. Since then, I have tried writing a couple of articles, but decided not to post them on the blog due to certain privacy needs. Anyways, here is a quick update on how life has shaped up since December 2006. Got placed at MindTree Consulting in Feb 2007. The placement week at ISB was “ interesting ”. I have a lot that I want to write about regarding the placement season, but will refrain from elaborating in the interest of the school. Graduated from ISB in April 2007, and drove back to Bangalore. Embarked on a Himalayan Expedition with a group of ISBians, and spent a good 2 weeks in the Delhi-Punjab-Himachal Pradesh-UP belt. The high-point of the trip was the trek up the Himalayas, including an overnight camp in a cold valley amidst the beautiful snow capped mountains. We also indulged in a lot of adventure sports such as skiing, rock climbing, rappling, river crossing, ...

I couldn't have done this without your support. I owe it to all of you and would like to say Thank You . Without you, I would not have been named " TIME Magazine's Person of the Year 2006 ".

The Google experience has left me completely confused. It would be an understatement to call it less than satisfying. I certainly wasn't expecting the interviewer to ask me to explain the detailed algorithm used for AdWords . If I knew it, I would have been in Google already. He kept prodding me for the exact alogorithm, and what formula can be used for ranking ads in the AdWords product. Despite rattling off all the various ways to improve the ranking, I was still getting nowhere since he was looking for that magical formula. And so the "Aha" moment simply never came. Tough luck. I guess I was also plain unlucky in the fact that I was being interviewed by a person who worked only on AdWords, and therefore, focussed only on it. All my preparation on the wide variety of Google products simply went waste since he didnt seem interested or aware of most other products that I tried to lead him to. When he concluded with a " Google is looking for generalists who can work o...

This term I decided to humor myself a bit, and enrolled for a course called " Creativity, Innovation and Design ", CID in short. From what I saw in the first class, it seems like a fun course, unlike most other courses in a B-school curriculum. Our first assignment was to write a 55-word story. The word count restriction, at first, sounded ridiculous. But as I started thinking about it, I realized this had to be like a 3 panel comic strip. And Calvin and Hobbes was a classic example of how the most memorable stories are written in the fewest of words. With some heavy inspiration from Calvin's Spaceman Spiff alter-ego, here's what I conjured: The great escape “ We are taking you to Planet Kroz as proof that intelligent life exists on Earth ,” the alien chief glorked in perfectly accented English, tentacles awkwardly clicking and scrolling through the online “ Krozzian–English Translation Manual ”. As he moved to close the Explorer window, his cuticular eyes fell on m...

The life of a software professional is full of insecurities. When you start out with your career, it is all about getting into the most reputed MNC. If a college-mate with lesser academic credentials that you got into a better company, with a higher pay, you'll have sleepless nights. Insecurities. A couple of years later, when you realize that academic credentials have very little to do with who ends up in which company and earns what salary, the angst at being underpaid subsides. The comfort of being part of "the" most famous IT company provides consolation for all the under-achievement. The next goal is to go to the US, and live there for a few years. When you finally manage to do that, it gives you a new high in your career. You are sitting in the US, and sending mails to all your batch-mates, who had gone past you in terms of salaries and achievements. " Sup guys, how is our India these days? I am missing it badly, although USA is a pretty neat place to live in ...

It’s been a while since I last did any writing on this blog. The past few weeks have been super-hectic. The elective terms have been extremely busy, thanks to the many groups that I am part of for each of my subjects. Coordinating group dynamics when you are involved in multiple groups is a real test of one’s people and time management skills. Add to that, the added pressure due to the placement processes being initiated this term. Countless resume reviews and case-based interview sessions have further complicated the time-management problem. Speaking of placements, my initial attempts have been rather disastrous. The un-real application to DB was, in hindsight, totally avoidable, considering I have 6.5 years experience in IT, and absolutely none in finance. Heck, I am not even doing a fin major . But the guy from DB was so convincing in his pre-placement talk that even a staunch non-finance guy like me was blinded into applying. And making a mockery of myself. Although that didn’t hu...

My humble attempt at serious writing, within 400 words. Note: If some parts seem abrupt, blame it on the 400 word limit. A COMMENTARY ON “INDIA: DEVELOPMENT AND PARTICIPATION” When India opened its economy to the world in 1991, it heralded a new era of liberalization, a break-away from the “ License Raj ” regime that had constrained the growth of the Indian Economy. The liberalization programme opened the doors to International Trade, and resulted in a renewed interest among the International Community in the possibilities of the Indian Economy, with Forbes magazine declaring in 1994 that “ India may be the best emerging market of all ”. However, despite creditable growth in its development performance in 1990s, India’s economy never attained the anticipated “ spectacular ” growth. Although several MNCs entered India in the 1990s, contributing to the boom in economy, the growth did not percolate to all sectors and regions of the country. Although India’s economy has posted an excellent...

It’s been a rather quiet term break, thanks to my not visiting Bangalore during these holidays. With Mom and Dad away, there wasn’t much use in going to Bangalore, although I definitely miss not being with my precious little angel. So it’s been mostly a lot of sleeping, and a bit of work regarding my Entrepreneurial Venture (God bless the noble attempt!). While I am not doing either of the two, I keep myself entertained watching utterly useless stuff on the telly. Of late, I have become addicted to repeat re-runs of Karan Johar movies. I hate admitting this in a not-so-personal forum, but I have always liked K-Jo movies, right from the KKHH days. Despite everyone else around me criticizing everything about them, I am an unabashed K-Jo and SRK fan. For all my pragmatic pretensions, I do have a penchant for the “ larger than life ”. Although I liked KKHH the best, I am equally fond of K3G and KHNH. However, sitting through Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was not half as entertaining as any of hi...