"Purpose"

Purpose, the question that haunts us every-time, every moment of our lives. like for the instance you are now trying to understand whats in my mind when I am writing this. Sometime we add incentives to our purposes as we grow, but most of the times we just keep one to feel we have one. This keeps us busy and sometime makes us proud, as we believe we are the only species that can have a purpose and simultaneously understand what it is and why it is. From the moment we start understanding things around us we start manipulating them within our mind, with our previous understandings to find a new purpose in them. Its like a thing in us, as we are designed to do it. Most of the times when we just give up understanding things when it goes beyond our limit to understand we just accept what others tell us, still somewhere inside we want to try that our selves, like that feeling to press that red button and see what happens next.

From one purpose we keep we develop our understanding, then from that understanding we develop our next purpose. So the next purpose is always linked to the percent completion of the first one, when we gave that up. Now the question comes, is it our choice of how and what we make of our lives. May be yes may be no. But we can always decide when to have one purpose that will have positive outcome and when to leave a negative purpose from our mind that may have negative outcome.

To get a look into it from another point of view, consider of the society we live in, with time our society had developed its rules and perceptions, these perceptions were present before we were born. Sometime we think most of the perceptions are correct not knowing and challenging why, like praying, helping others, celebrating festivals and most of the times we all agree some perceptions are rudimentary, old and no longer exist with present system, like wars, male discrimination and so on still we follow them cuz they were there and everyone had understood its significance from his our purpose of perspective. That is the exact behavior of purposes we keep and how they effect our lives. We need to recognize with time what purposes will benefit us and what we need to de-attach from.

Another problem is we have a tendency of personalizing others purposes. We always think we gonna be heroes someday, whose definition is decided by others, and as we grow with tijme we keep manipulating the definition of hero. This is what we call later complexity of life, which we all understand till some point and then give up understanding. That's where I believe religion comes in and gives us a feeling that someone more knowledgeable than us might know and from there we leave it up to that fictitious person. I am not considering the emotional aspect of religion here just trying to interpret one part of it.

So now having said all of the bullshit above I can easily say that its better sometimes to switch off our purposes and get a new, random one when we feel the previous one is getting too difficult to understand and making things too complex around us. Ultimate goal of each purpose is mental and physical happiness. When we start feeling unhappy due to that, its healthy to find a new one and redefine happiness for ourselves. We need to remember nobody can define our happiness viz our purpose for us but we ourselves are the deciders to when we need to keep stuck to one purpose and when we need to let go.

The purpose of my article here was to have a point of view about the first thing that came to my mind and it was purpose to find a purpose to write up :)

--Aman

My Beautiful Nirvana

On June 25’ 2010, my 25h birthday, I lost my elder brother in a car accident at a place called Narvana…Ramandeep Sallaria, owner of this blog. He was always ahead and challenging in every phase of his life. Took things differently, challenged them why they are not changing and changed them with sheer hard work and pulled others also in due to his dedication. An avid reader, speaker, athlete, traveler, and I bet no body beats him in any quiz when he prepared for it. I had never felt so lonely before, not that I am weak, but hadn't been so silent with him for so long. Wish I could ever hear you again.

And for those who are reading this, his friends/colleagues or just who were touched by his presence, anywhere/anyhow, please just pray peace for is soul.

Miss you Raman! Wish you were here.

Hero worship..our inherent nature

Great to see Abhinav Bindra win solo gold for India in Olympics...was heartening to see an Indian compete witht the very best and achieve laurels. 

But considering the hero worship being showered on him....it seems quite ironical of govt, with al the babus following the pecking order diligently right from our rev. Pratibha Patil in order to get clicked witht he national hero at the moment. I rem some 8 yrs earlier reading about abhinav bindra and his struggle to get good training facilities at home. Now that he could have afforded the foreign training and coach is another matter. What particularly bugs me is the sycophant bureaucrats and ministers heaping praise on Abhinav. And media going gaga over his achivement. I imagine what happens to countries like USA , Australia etc...where gold medals are churned by the dozens..

This brings me back to point...the inherent hero worhsip tendency inside us. We Indians need to be more mature at digesting greatness. We want not sportsmen....we want heroes..from Sachin to Sania ....we cant react maturely enough to a talented person.

What brings us to raise a talented sports[person/movie star/young poplitician to a god like level. Media plays very active role in bombarding and reinforcing the already religious devotion to that person. And we are also very fast in making a temporarily fallen person remain there....we are like that only....We can burn effigies of the cricketers who sold us everything...from sugared cola to cars....

And advertising machinery understands and plays the God card to the hilt...knowing fully what status these demi gods have in the minds of Indians...

But if step back and try to analyse this behaviour of ours..we can find a pattern going back to the centuries...a pattern very well reflected in the praja following its raja like blind fools...to a massive class of people who wanted the britishers to stay in India and rule them. If Fruid were to analyse we as a nation, I wonder waht kind of sub liminal associations would have emerged for us, neither so i care to find out!

I think we need Heroes, more than Idols...and this shows in the cyclical celebration of popularism over meritocracy in awards ranging from Bharat Ratna to National Film awards. There is a display of almost universal worship in incidents ranging from people accepting VIPs' special status to enter a religious shrine to media placing importance on the Bacchan family's trivialities more than our national borders being violated!!

I am very elated at Abhinav Bindra winning gold medal. But I feel frustrated at the apathy shown by the government towards the sports infrastructure. How many can afford like Bindra to get the level of coaching and exposure. And to top it all, this "Hero worship" is dangerous in the sense that it makes us complacent...too comfortable in our monotonous existences..never daring to dream..just becoming very happy to see a handful of privileged ,whether having born with a silver spoon, just plain dumb lucky, or struggled their way to top(and now dnt want others to come there)...

Sports competitions are the modern day equivalent of wars between two countries...a far less damaging way to prove their strength, supremacy and superiority over other nations.

Do we ought not to do the same. Are we less proud in our abilities..both athletic and psychological? Or are we happy to settle to less demanding game of cricket and enjoy those 11 plus making billions and rest of "demanding" and more challenging team sports facing a step motherly treatment from the government.

Ms. Bijapurkar....We are indeed like that only...!!!

Che Guevara, Capitalism and the contemporary times

A close friend of mine recently returned from Cuba after completing his Medical studies. We sunk into conversation ranging from sugar to cigars, and soon the inevitable happened. As I am an ardent admirer of a legend named Che Guevara, and hold his spirit of rebellion as a mark of the power of the youth, we drifted over to discussing the country where Che was shot down allegedly by the CIA and Latin American government. My friend, it happens, is totally against the communism of any sort and detests Che in particular. So you can rest assured that in the country of argumentative Indians, sparks were bound to fly.
I came across an article in the Economist last year on the birth anniversary of Che, condemning the man as a rebel without a cause, a mercenary and an assassin. Yes, the man was a rebel, but we sometimes fail to recognize the real essence of his struggle.
As per me, Che was a rebel against the corrupt and opportunistic establishment, and not essentially the anti capitalistic communist. His armed rebellion against the government-industrial-militarily complex of Latin American countries is reminiscent of our own extremists of the freedom struggle like Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad.
It is not wrong to resist corrupt and self serving machinery which exploits the society and plunders the natural resources in the name of development and progress. This was the same view taken by the legendary Karl Marx in his magnum opus Das Kapital. I am not a socialist by any means, not counting my anguish over the detractor policies over the development by the CPI (M) and CPI here in India. But whenever we study History, according to Herodotus, we have to identify the correct ‘context’ first. The context in the case of Che and his times was the oppression of his Latin American brothers and sisters by the self serving capitalists. Capitalism, unrestrained and unfettered, can be the single largest danger to the mankind and we have the examples galore in form of the Sub Prime Crises and Housing Bubble in the US and Food price-inflation led by the cultivation of agriculture land by the capitalism driven Bio-ethanol advocates.
If Che though that an armed resistance against those corrupt bureaucrats and MNCs was the right way, then we cant blame him. And the demonizing image ascribed to him by the Media(most of times backed by USA) all over the world should be no news to us, who are all aware of the modern pseudo internationalism and love of democracy shown by USA in the garb of a self serving, jingoistic and colonial ambitions. It was the interests of the US that were being harmed by Che and his followers, who wanted a batter deal for his people. If that is a wrong thing to do, I don’t know what a right thing is?
Che epitomizes the spirit of youth to change something, well, anything. During his cross Latin American travels with his friend, as described in ‘the motorcycle diaries’, he came across a diverse sect of people suffering from the vagaries of mindless capitalism. Non inclusive growth anywhere is bound to cause unrest and strife in a society. Be it the French revolution or Nandigram.
As recently shown in the promos of a domestically made animation film, ‘Dashavatar’, on the 10 avatars of Vishnu in different ages to salvage Dharma and truth, the tag line goes as: Every age has a hero.
I think Che was the hero of his times. In the right ‘context’!

Personal finance and young India!

Recently finished reading “The complete Idiot’s guide to personal finance in your 20’s and 30’s”. I must say that though I had no intention of finishing that book, I could not help but read on and on this highly practical book by Sarah Fisher and Susan Shelly. Before recommending this book to my contemporary young Indians, who are working/will be soon working or in their professional/graduate courses, I will like to emphasize a few points below.
Though written against the American context in particular, its suggestions and guidelines can be applied in any country. Especially, the topics on Investing, Credit card abuse and buying ones house were so universally appealing that I though they were written with the present Indian economic and social context in mind. Though one can skip the IRA, 401K and other US specific topics, the book should be like a bible to many young persons striving to make a mark in the world by starting off their professional careers. Managing ones money is something that is not taught to us anywhere during our grown up years. And many a times, we end up being Paisa wise, Rupee foolish!
The essence of the book is that like other Complete Idiot’s series, it is not a self help book, but a pragmatic guide to making one aware. It focuses on the repeated dictum that financial freedom can be achieved through prudence and self discipline.
One particular learning that I want to mention here is regarding the highly spending young crowd, swiping their credit and debit cards mindlessly across the malls, departmental stores and supermarkets across the country. I could not help but relate the phenomena witnessed in the Generation X of the US to the Present day consumerism and extravagant profligacy in the young and working class Indians. (Includes me too!!).
It goes like this. Young people spend due to a couple of reasons. Some of them ranging from Boost in the self image one gets from buying a new pair of the Nikes and Blackberry’s. It can be the deep longing of satisfying ones desire to have more, in order to offset the deprivation one felt during the growing up years. (Something the lower middle and middle class young people will fully relate with). I must say, and always have said, that understanding one’s psychology will aid in the personal development. More on this later.
To sum up, in books own words, (my favourite lines), “There is no shortage of companies willing to take advantage of a person’s lack of financial knowledge. Bank Card Companies and retail stores make it very easy for the young and financially uneducated people to start raking up debt at a very early age. There is a glut of information on the persona finance, but it is deliberately made confusing with all the Jargon and terms.”
In case someone is unable to obtain this book, I have an eBook version with me too. Will be more than glad to help financially challenged youth (like me). Just mail me at er.raman@gmail.com

Pricing and psychology of consumption

Well, well, here speaks the MBA (an ever present vigilant and suspicious being, paranoid of the workings of the society) inside me and raring to raise his head now and then with a rambling and a unique point of view on almost any topic under the sun. Well, don’t blame me. We MBA’s suffer from this serious problem of discussing a plethora of topics and love arguments. Blame this on the argumentative Indian genes (or Amartya Sen for highlighting this primordial instinct of ours!) or the Harvard Business School’s invention of the case study method of imparting “Management education”.
See, there I go again…..
Neways, coming back to the point, I read this sometimes back in the Business Standard. It was about the study conducted by a western university on the psychology of consumption and its direct relation with the price. The subjects were given a similar sample of wine and told that some of the glasses had very expensive wine than other glasses. This control experiment resulted in the confirmation of the view that pricing affects our outlook towards a particular product. The subjects who drank the “expensive” wine were sure of the “superior” taste and finesse’ of that wine.
Come to think of Indian situation. As we have yet to mature in the hospitality and service industry at large, as compared to the standards set by the West, this experiment holds valid today more than ever. Whenever I have visited some of the more “up market” restaurants of Delhi and other cities, I have been appalled at the lack of customer orientation and product quality being served there. But the hordes of families visiting these restaurants only affirm the experiment results being mentioned above. Either it is the boosting in the self image one gets by spending more money, or the perception that better quality necessarily comes at a better price, or a combo of two. It is also confirmed by the second grade garments and shoes on display at many of the swanky malls of Delhi and NCR (of rest of India, I am yet to explore) carrying a hefty price tag on them. Take a closer look at these private labels by some of the most reputed names in the Indian retails scenario longing for your attention at the glass shelves, and we can surely perceive the difference in quality. But when bought, we tend to think it of as a better quality one! And not all of us consumers are so discerning ones; neither have much time on our hands to become an undercover economist every time we go to a retail/departmental store. So this keeps on repeating.
To conclude, it can be very safely said that consumption is driven not so much by the actual cost of a paid-for product as by its perceived cost. This perception is influenced greatly by the manner in which the product is priced.

FRIENDS

Getting bored at home and waiting for my joining at Henkel, Chennai, I have recently watched the whole 10 seasons of Friends all over. Fascinated and smitten by the series ‘that never ends’ as always, I was forced to Google and wiki about it and came across a plethora of information on Friends.
Most fascinating was the influence series had on the American society in terms of Fashion and lifestyle. With the ‘Rachel’ becoming the most popular hairstyle for the coming years, it spawned a change in the way Americans’ view over the living together and relationships. Joey’s line “How you Doin” became a catchphrase all across the world. People emulated the dressing styles of the 6 immortalized characters create by David Krane and Marta Kauffman. So many popular apparel styles were introduced by Friends that one can lose count of that.
The popularity of the series might be a little behind the other popular ones like M*A*S*H and Seinfield, but it was a major influencer on the lives of American in particular and world in general. Such is the power of Television over society is seen to be believed. Whenever I have watched an episode of Friends, the timelessness and freshness appealed to me uniquely. The café culture we are witnessing today in India came, like many good and bad things in the past 40 years, from USA. And the originator was Friends.

Inherit the wind: Right time for the youth of the nation to make their presence felt

Modern day Nazism- Raj Thackeray and his MNS party!

If someone has not seen the classic movie – ‘Inherit the wind’, by all means see it. It is a gem of a movie and portrays the classic standoff between right and wrong in an entirely soul stirring fashion. Not delving too deep into the details of the movie, it is a courtroom drama between the defenders of the Darwinian theory of natural evolution versus Biblical creation theory. At its core, it is the struggle between the right to think liberally and independently and the forced dogmatic belief by the self styled sentinels of the religion and faith.

Recent outbursts of Raj Thackrey against north Indians are a similar portrayal of mindless micro-jingoistic fanaticism. Only Mr. Raj Thackeray knows what political mileage he is going to get out of the ‘jai Marathi, condemn all else’ campaigning, but one thing is very clear here, the dogmatic and narrow view forced upon the multitudes by a singularly obsessed person. At time when the nation is looking forward to break its shackles of the rigid regionalism and trying to come out of the shadows of the linguistically divided factions to work towards an integrated and inclusive growth, someone from nowhere is trying to push us back to dark ages!

What is the reason that there is always someone like Raj Thackeray poisoning the minds of his clan/creed always pops up from nowhere and tries to detract the intellectual and material growth of the nation as whole. To me, the roots lie in the lack of awareness and an overall sense of oneness among the citizens of the country. While India does poses as a Union of the states, as opposed to the federal system of USA, there is always a sense of lacking on the behalf of the centre to curb these kinds of uprisings in a proactive fashion. Be it the Terrorism in Punjab, Naxalism in the affected parts of the country, Strife in NE India, and now the latest show of Nazism in Maharashtra by Raj Thackeray.

Only solution to the problem in the long term is the youth of the nation understanding and developing their own thought process. The only reason the extremists since times immemorial have been successful is due the backing of the young population of their times. Be it the Civil Disobedience of Martin Luther King or the now notorious Klu Klax Klan. If the youth of Indian develops its own perspective, it may stop getting so gullible and a pushover. Since the current youth population is more preoccupied with getting fair amount of success in these supercharged times, which is an excellent thing, it will help if they only stop letting their support for the wrong.

It is time we think logically, liberally and rationally. This will send a clear signal to these protégés of the Hitler and Milosevic of our age that we can’t be taken for a ride.

I recall the quote from the movie I described in the opening part of the article, which is also a Biblical quote: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart!”

Marketing campaigns and product advertisements with specially youth in the mind- the underlying changes

I recently happen to see the new Godrej Cinthol commercial with Hritik Roshan swishing and splashing in the uber cool way. Another ad of Vimal having an old corporate honcho handling over the reins of his company to younger blood, clad in Vimal fine suit is what points the trend of the advertisement is taking in India. May it be Virgin Mobile or the Maruti SX4, all seem all geared up to pamper the youth (read 20-30 somethings) with their offerings. Sprite and Thumps up have already gone that way, following the lead of Mountain dew in the youth centric campaigns.
Gone are the days of a family centric ad for a particular product (not in Toto but you get the hang of changing things). What we are witnessing is the slow but steady shift from the collectivistic thinking patterns of the late 90’s to a more individualistic decision making pattern of the contemporary India. With most of product categories gearing their advertising campaigns centering on the younger crowd, we are in the middle of a definite paradigm shift. We need to remember what Nike and Pepsi did with their campaigns featuring exclusively youth. Be it Whirlpool ad featuring a younger couple (onscreen- Kajol and Ajay) or an HSBC ad focusing on a young leader in the making. And we need not forget the well though campaign of Aditya Birla Group, enticing youth to work for the true Indian Multinational. As more and more youth go to work in the Tier 1 and 2 cities from their hometown/ other cities, it becomes a growing phenomenon of new settlers driving consumption. (More on this later). And with a renewed confidence in sync with a buoyant economy, the youth of the nation is finding flavor with the life style advertisement campaigns which focus experiential marketing as an in built tool.
For example, the HUL- Sunsilk “Life cant wait” campaign focusing on the independent and self conscious young women of today hit the base with its core appeal and emphasis on the self coming first before anything else- a clear indicator of the changing ideologies of today’s Indian Youth. FMCG sector as such seems to be preparing for capturing heart and mind of the youth, and I think many more life style campaigns are in the making from various FMCG majors like P&G, Marico, Henkel, Dabur, ITC etc. The scooter king of the yester years- Bajaj seems to hit the bull’s eye again with its fantastic commercial of the new Pulsar. For saying mildly, it left me awestruck. It hits on the core appeal of youthful exuberance coupled with I-am-the-king of the road mindset. Long way from Hamara Bajaj Campaign!
The Indian advertisement scene is set to witness more unprecedented campaigns, according to me. Consumer Durables majors will be shifting their focus from traditional joint families to a typical young couple. With Murjanis bringing more and more Luxury brands in clothing to India, watch out for more youth centric ads in the media. And automobile sector may just be opening to the change in the buying power of the youth, a long way from a typical family decision to buy a family car.
I may sound way futuristic in my views here, but we can’t just ignore the zeitgeist. We are in the middle of a rapidly changing time. And I strongly feel that marketing is just undergoing a massive transformation.
And results are all too apparent to u, pointing to something more fundamental- priority to Individualism.

IPL- A Marketers dream come true

A self professed expert perspective on the T20, changing marketing tactics and ICL!

Well, we have been witnessing it all here and now. The IPL had started and what a start it has been! An extravaganza of Entertainment and Superstars (both Bollywood and Cricket), combined with a slew of promotional blitzkrieg will certainly go down the case studies’ curriculum of the MBA students, if all this frenzied and high pitched “Great Indian Masala Cricket” format succeeds. It remains to be seen whether this league system, originally lifted from European system of Soccer clubs, fares well in coming 2-3 years. Initial marketing tactics apart, the biggest test will come when the initial hype will die after the current season. After all, the majority of European clubs have a major number of players from the same region and fans come out to support them like anything. With Indian mindset, according to me, it’s all well when it comes to international cricketing rivalry. At least, it can be said with confidence of the local football and soccer clubs who have been out of sight and mind of the general public. But we will have to wait and see how this league format goes through the acid test of customer acceptance and retention in the coming years. My all very best wishes to the format and its success. Lets witness the coming of age of the Indian consumer (no, not audience…as it is a product offering and not really a first class cricket).
Anyways, coming back to the topic of marketing which I love to rant on for hours. The tremendous initial response to the matches and record ticket collections are all indicators of the success of the Marketing efforts undertaken by the professionals of the industry. A lot of billboards and Highway hoardings that one can witness across all the metros is the proof of the seriousness on the part of Marketers of IPL to capture the central piece of the audience mindshare. The official corporate franchisees may have different purposes for owning the teams, but the ultimate winner seems to be the T20 format of cricket getting a new level of acceptance by the audience (as it seems from the initial packed stadiums).
Branding, a very important part of Marketing nowadays for any industry (barring the commodities of course!) in the face of intense competition, IPL campaigns have been successful at this to a greater extent. With a plethora of brand building tools to capture the piece of consumer’s attention and brand recall, ranging from Music Videos to host of merchandising tactic and co branded product launches.
This campaign had shown the full utilization of the integrated marketing campaign for probably the first time for any category of product launch, in any industry. The choice of the Media has been remarkable and the timing of the campaign’s airing could not have been better on most of the Media.
I think that we will witness a whole new experiential marketing and lifestyle branding campaigns from the franchisees of the 8 teams.
The only loser, I feel, is the ICL. It has sure been dealt a harsh hand by both the ICC and BCCI. Formed with a relatively noble purpose of employing the retired and ageing cricketers as well as giving a new platform for the younger players, it has been rendered a poorer cousin of IPL. The trailblazer of the league cricket format deserves a far better treatment than this. BCCI should legalize the ICL and Govt. has to stop the interference and political patronage and favoritism that were so well a notorious activity in the License Raj era. Let it be a free market and may the best marketer with the best product win!

Bodybuilding and contemporary youth

To be precise, it happened circa 2001-02, when me, like most of my adolescent brothers, decided to build big muscles and develop a good physique. There were a lot of ‘powders’ and supplements available in the market at that time. One of my very close friends almost persuaded me to try some magic pills and powder to build muscle quickly. Needless to say that I had almost given in to them, if would not have been for my coach at that time in the gym.
That was my 10+2 standard. After that, I went to Engg College and finally am an MBA. Recently I have started going to the same gym that I used to go earlier. I saw a change in the ‘demographic profile’ of the gymmers there. Majority now comprises of young boys of 13-16 yrs of age. Needless to day that I feel a bit older than what I really am! Neways, today itself, I met a 14 something Salman Khan Wannabe, pumping his way to glory on the bench press. After doing away with that, he came to me and asked about the type of supplement I use. Quite taken aback at his question, I suggested him against the so called ‘powders’ and capsules. He gave me an astonished look like I had created some kind of blasphemy! He told triumphantly that his coach had recommended to him certain ‘creatine’- a form of protein supplement capsules and Mega Mass Muscle building powder. I went over to the coach (he is some new fellow) and asked him about that. He told me quite matter of factly about the rising trend among the teenagers, esp. boys, to build muscles rapidly, without putting in too many efforts. So the era of fast results-less hard work (smart work?) has caught up here too.
Only recently had I seen a lot of TV programs dedicated to the same issue which I today witnessed in the gym. Youngsters have started copying the new sleeker looking Shahrukh, Saif and host of other idiot box churned ramp-model lookalike stars. There seems to be a regular hammering from all kinds of media on the impressionable minds of young boys to build cool bods to attract opposite sex and look cool! Nothing wrong with it, but as with most of the western adopted and locally adapted fads, we Indians tend to blunder here too. I you want to really see this, just visit a nearby Gym and see the 13-19 years old boys hogging the coach over latest supplements and Whey protein diets available in the market. These diet supplements were meant for serious/professionals some years ago. But incorporating in our regular diets is neither advisable nor healthy. Since these trivial pursuits are taking most of the time and mind space of the young blood, I wonder whether they get enough time for sports or other so called ‘old time activities’.
Also, a lot of advertisements have been focusing on the lean-mean kind of macho looks for the males. But someone has to stand up for the fertile minds of young generation getting really spoiled by these provocative commercials. And to add to that, there will be (if not already underway) a tremendous psychological pressure on the plump/baby fat bestowed youngsters, who will start feeling outclassed. It all had already happened in the western country. Teenage anxieties and growing blues just got more complicated. But I am not here for criticizing the establishment or the system. What I want to convey to my younger generation is the importance of overall physical development and mental sharpening in their prime age. As we all know (if not, just Google- whey proteins+creatine+side effects) the long term side effects of these short cut formulas to have a muscular body, there need to be a sense of awareness amongst us so that we can guide our younger brothers/sisters/cousins etc. Also, as with some of the cases I had been personally privy to, youngsters tend to take Steroids once they find even the Dietary Supplements a tad slower!
Only way out seems to me is the awareness of the harmful and long term debilitating side effects of this ‘stuff’. It includes uncommon physical developments, brittle bones, kidney problems and a plethora of other ailments in the later life. Also, once you have stopped working out regularly, the body tends to shrink and muscles slump.
A better way is to play, cycle and run along with some gym activities. In the prime growing age for boys, from 13- 19, there should not be more emphasis on gymming, as muscles and bones are naturally growing and weight-resistance exercise tend to produce counter results more often than not.
Neways, when that same boy comes to me, he sure is in store for a long lecture!

Bollywood and mediocrity

Well, as with economic growth where we overlooked manufacturing for services and agriculture, and are paying a relatively higher price, things seem to be going the same way for our very own Bollywood. Marketing tactics, Complex financial instruments to insure the movies, new age corporatization and vertical integration of the movie making process and state of the art production techniques are all the good things to have happened to the film making lately.
But Bollywood seem to have overlooked one very critical thing in going a la Henry Ford way of churning pot boilers every financial quarter. And that is QUALITY! Yes, with the frenzied mass production of the movies and seemingly mindless comedies and multi starrer non sense dramas, I wonder where exactly is the industry headed to. Take recent example of Race, an overhyped thriller with songs and trailers set to capture the mind space of the consumer (I dare say not audience, as we have been turned into mass consumer per se). On seeing the actual product (rather a commodity I dare say!) I was disappointed to the core, to say the least. I was expecting a decent slick action flick from a progressive looking Bollywood, but witnessed a dud performance and storyline very shamelessly trying to sell its audience a host of dance numbers and scintillating music videos. Well, if the real purpose of such type of movies is to present a CHITRAHAAR, enveloped in some kind of movie scenes, that’s another thing.
I want to ask the producers and the directors of this kind of mindless in your face kind of cheap comedy, mind numbing music videos and very very pathetic acting, that do they really take us audience for granted or what. Or don’t these film makers trust the intelligence of the common Indian audience and think that the majority is still living below the common minimum level of aesthetic and artistic taste and cant appreciate some really good piece of story and acting?
I agree with most of the defenders of the Indian cinema who point their fingers at the mind numbing low quality movies being churned by the Hollywood itself. But they more than make it up with some exceedingly well directed scripted and acted movies.
After all, movies have been the face of the society since the turn of the twentieth century. Raj Kapoor and Akiro Kurosawas of the age are still remembered and cherished for the quality they had produced. Not to talk of the art movies, Alfred Hitchcock, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppolla, Robert Zemeckis, Clint Eastwood, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg are among the many commercially successful directors who have been able to capture the breath of audience by the sheer merit of fine art of film making. And don’t tell me that Indian film makers are not capable of such masterpieces as their western counterparts have produced. Satyajit ray and Shyam Benegal have been among the luminaries of the Indian film making.
As one of my Marketing professors very famously used to say, “Indian movies are going the same way that Indian higher education is headed for, in coming decade. With falling levels of the higher education, people will sooner or later start looking for better alternatives as their per capita income grows (I guess that has already started to happen, which many of us very jingoistically claim to be brain drain). And as foreign institutions of higher education sense the potential here (they already have!), they will set up their shops here. It will soon happen. Indian Movies will follow suit with our higher education, with dubbed Hollywood High quality Drama, romance and comedy flicks finding way to the Indian audience’s mind space. (Action already had!)”
Hmm…I think I can extend my Professor’s argument a bit further. As with some of our Institutes of higher learning doing a good work (Count IITs, some NITs, IIMs and other good B schools), all is not lost with our Bollywood too, thanks to a handful of thoughtful filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowarikar, Shekhar Kapoor, Nagesh Kuknoor, Mira Nair among others, along with a couple of highly talented and visionary actor, who really make the audience sit up and think.

Studying abroad for undergraduate/graduate courses- My personal views

It is not uncommon to see a lot of young people gearing themselves up for GRE/TOEFL/GMAT etc. What I, from my personal experience, have seen is that there are two kinds of student categories in India (speaking very broadly). One is the serious bunch of students genuinely seeking a quality education abroad, in some of the best universities/colleges of the world. My best wishes to them. It is the second type- the typical middle/upper class students who just want to go abroad! Whatever socio/cultural/economic/psychological reasons they might have, I want to share my thoughts with some of them here (Blogging per se allows one to speak his mind out, isn’t it!!)
With a lot of foreign students flocking our universities to study here and experience the phenomena called India, I feel really bad for the students who want to go to third and lower rung colleges/ universities and blow a cool 15-20 lakhs of appreciating Indian rupee on their education. I mean, money spent on Ivy league/Oxford- Cambridge is understood, as they are and will remain the Mecca of Quality education for times to come. But as in India, many countries are replete with a lot of forgettable universities and colleges. I had around 19 of my classmates from school studying at those kinds of universities at various point of times. With all due respects to their decisions, what I feel is that there needs to be a rigorous cost benefit analysis by parents and most importantly, students themselves. Is that university degree acknowledged in India? What value addition will that university provide which an equivalent Indian degree cant? Is the money spent worth it?
Now there I have treaded into an uncharted territory, where I am sure to attract a lot of brickbats. To logically solve the issue at hand, let me enlist the reasons for why a particular student may want to study abroad in those kinds of universities:
To permanently settle there. ( A phenomena till lately seen only in youth of Punjab, HP and Haryana, now a nationwide trend)
To escape (for a lack of a softer word) the current circumstances at home and enjoy the period of stay there.
To attain a particular bargaining power in the Great Indian Marriage Bazaar (Believe you me, one of my very close friend told this as his real reason to study in a non descript Canadian University)
S/he might not have done well in the studies till school level and is unfit to clear tougher competitive exams. And since their parents can spend, why not go abroad and study?
To find a foreign job for some years.
Now, the real reason may be different from the above ones or a combo of some of them. Apart from 1 and 5, which seem to be more of a choice made after many deliberations, 2, 3, and 4 seem to me the most absurd of all. Spending hard earned money on those courses which an Indian education will get you for a fraction is what should be emphasized. And for those vouching for the better quality of education in those institutes, think again. More often than not, the quality of education is really bad there. And by that I am not taking into consideration the ‘Hardware’ or the infrastructure of the institution. I am talking of the quality of time spent in real learning and knowledge development. And if not getting any better than here, what is the use of even going there?
In these better times, it is better to stay over here and start a decent, well defined career. Entrepreneurship is no bad option, which can be explored for the money that you would spend on a useless foreign exposure. A decent undergraduate degree combined with a fair amount of work experience, and you are among the sought after job hunters in the market. With a lot of MNC’s establishing their captive units here, they are need of the local talent, not a foreign educated/job exp one.
My views and reasoning may have a lot of weak points in them. But I hope that it may actually help rethink at least a few of my younger counterparts.
More on the details of evaluating the foreign education and comparative analysis later on.

Managers Vs Leaders: Blurring lines or sharpening chasms?

The old and hackneyed topic had been reiterated by our worthy MBA professors all across India numerous times. But still, I haven’t to date found a perfect, or even close to perfectly logical definitions of the two in the context of present changing business environment.
MBA’s are typically trained to be managers. Managers are people who judiciously allocate meager resources (human, financial, marketing, raw material etc) for better productivity and hence profitability (text book definition from 1st trimester!). On the other hand, leaders are people providing a guiding light to the organization as a whole. I had once a lively discussion with one of my professors regarding this only. While I was arguing that Winston Churchill was a leader and Chamberlain a manager, he refused to put the things down in such stark black and white contexts. Me, with my I-am-in-first year MBA-trimester brashness, just nodded my head in disapproval and settled with a self satisfied grin of having stirred a debate among the class.
But today, I think the prof to be right. Things can’t be put in such stark binary figures. Look at today’s corporate culture. Leaders like Mr. Ratan Tata, Mr. Steve Jobs, Mr. Carlos Ghoshn and countless other Indian business Maharajas, prove time and again their visionary leadership and guts to achieve the impossible. But they have been managers at some point of their lives. So does that means that they cease to be managers now, with the ‘post’ of a Leader being bestowed upon them? I offer my logic against it and try to forge a hypothesis of my own (blame it on my MBA degree, but I have developed a habit to standardize things!!).
The view I prefer is of a change in roles rather than positions which define a manager and a leader in corporate terms. In today’s changing and fast moving economy, leadership is exemplified in various strata’s of the corporate hierarchy. What do we call a Product Manager of a growing FMCG MNC in India who takes entrepreneurial decisions to fend off competitions by engaging in price wars all by himself for a quarter or two? Or how do we define the ‘managerial’ role of a HR manager of a Pharma company in India, who takes her employees on a ‘motivational’ and ‘team building’ exercise to Shivpuri (a famous adventure getaway of Uttrakhand all by herself and informing her superiors later on? Such cases of Intrapreneurial ventures are being recognized by Top Shots of corporate world as essential to survive in an increasingly uncertain global economy.
I take a third example of IBM. We all know how the Big Blue of the past had managed to regain its once lost status as a Global Behemoth. Without getting into much detail, it is a classic story of hiving off noon core businesses and thinking as a Global company, rather than an American MNC. An important credit of its revival goes to its captive unit in India and its second largest R&D unit in Bangalore outside US. IBM nurtured its human resources and talent right from the start. I have read about the legendary freedom and innovative latitude allowed to the employees at its Bangalore center. The cases of individual leadership displayed by the employees are nothing short of Jack Welch or Lee Iacocca may be only lesser in magnitude.
Indian corporate houses too seem to have identified this culture. What with Marico and MindTree making headlines as one of the most coveted employers. MindTree is especially famous for giving freedom to an employee and display leadership in various domains. No one can afford to lag behind in these times of quality management talent crunch. And it seems to have become a common interview question of various corporate coming for B school Campus Recruitments al across the premier and respected B schools of India. Moreover, many companies management trainee program has begun to be called as Young Leader program (eg Bharti’s).
So, manager vs leader is no longer a debate, according to me. Both are desired traits for corporate success. While managing things is a perennially desired trait from executive level onwards in the corporate world, leadership is what required from managers who are getting more and more positions of responsibility in their respective verticals. Leadership grooming the managers has become the primary pitch of leading Business schools of the world like Harvard and Wharton for their Executive MBA programs. As complexity increase around the globe, the traditional typical organization structure of an American CEO commanding its Asia Pacific and Mediterranean divisions with panache will soon become a thing of past, if not already at many corporations!
My advice to young managers is to develop a leadership trait on their own. Many are born with it, but it can also be acquired through conscious effort. Unlike in past, there is no lack of information or equal opportunity playing fields for you. Try to inculcate risk taking appetite in your activities, however small they may be in magnitude (like organizing class party or taking the lead in coordinating with your case study group to make a presentation on Sales Management). More on this part later on sometime.
To sum it up, Indian corporate sector is moving towards fully professional setups and in the wake of a strong competition from MNC’s trying to capitalize on the Indian growth story and smaller local players cutting teeth and growing confidence to take on the world, it is becoming increasingly necessary for overall corporate sector to retain best talent. My OB (Organization Behavior) Prof of first trimester often used to say that next corporate battlefield will not be technology, best practices or finances, but over Talent acquisition. And this is very evident in today’s world. With leadership roles and freedom being provided at one organization, quality talent will certainly like to flee the archaic culture of his/her present work environment. But sadly, present MBA education, though doing a good job at imparting the best practices and other functional domain expertise, is severely lacking in inculcating leadership as an institutionalized effort. I strongly hope that things get better sooner for seeing my country on the development path rising and fulfilling of Indian 2020 vision of rev. A P J Kalam fulfilled at least from the Corporate India side!

Preparing for the CAT verbal section: An Intuitive approach

I had long thought of writing this article. But in wake of very good and useful sites like Pagalguy.com around, I always dithered. Today, as some of the days when my internal writes wakes up from the deep slumber, I felt an urge to share some of my thoughts with the CAT aspirants pertaining to the verbal section.
During my preparation stage for the CAT at South Delhi PT center, I came across many fellow aspirants who used to fear the verbal section. Being good at verbal made me wonder (and sometimes sadistically happy) at their position. But one day while analyzing a mock CAT paper with a close friend, I came to know how deep the fear of verbal ability runs in them. Though not a very proud thing to say, but yes, I must admit that I was never really great in the quants section. But I never used to be afraid of it. DI was ok with me. But I have seen people who don’t understand the fundamentals of the CAT verbal section, live in a paranoid state of mind up until the CAT!
First and foremost, I will like to dispel a few myths about the CAT Verbal section that are being propagated by some of the CAT-coaching machinery complex:
Myth 1: you can clear verbal section, esp reading comprehension only by daily reading news paper for 3-5 months, esp. The Hindu!
Give me a break here! Is verbal ability some kind of basic linguistic aptitude test being done for low skilled workers from poor country? It is a very special test comprising the use of both our right and left brain faculties. It is not a simple comprehension test, but a test of your appreciation of the theme, spirit and logic of the article in the reading comprehension. So reading an undoubtedly great English daily like The Hindu will not be a sufficient condition to clear the ever toughening levels of CAT. I suggest you to first start off by reading comics like Tintin and Asterix (for the uninitiated in the reading world only though). For otherwise initiated, it would be good to augment the articles read by discussing the finer points of that article with your peers, or to yourself in thought. Imagine the article like being a slush of words and sentences in the Mixer of your brain. Imagine it being tossed up and down in the literal sense. Once you start focusing on the intent of the article, the theme and the basic punch that it carries, you will slowly start realizing that you have actually to feel intuitively, rather than merely applying a typical schoolboy learn-by-rote, think-by-steps approach! This should be taught at the coaching institutes in more simplified forms. Also make a habit of reading and appreciating great books by great authors. Those are the means of communicating their thoughts to you via a medium- the book. Don’t treat reading a load of books like a necessary evil kind of thing.
In essence: Cat is more about your ability to unlearn our faulty learning and thinking process acquired during the archaic schooling system which doesn’t takes into account the creativity and original thinking of the mind!

Myth 2: Apply speed reading techniques and skim/skip the lines and focus on the key words of the reading comprehension
Hmm….well…can there be a greater heresy being promoted in order to satiate the aspirants in a short amount of time by our so familiar and ubiquitous CAT-coaching machinery complex!
Speed reading is good when you read newspapers and have to skim through the columns to retain only the key words. But CAT comprehension needs you to literally get in the writer’s shoes and think from his/her perspective. And this cant be done by skimming/skipping the paragraphs for answers. This only promotes the bad habit of reverse engineering of answers by the test takers, who keep hunting the paragraphs for the key words asked in the question. But the CAT verbal questions are increasingly getting analytical and intuitive in nature, as I had gauged from the recent trends of CAT papers. And this faulty approach won’t help my dear aspirants.
So my advice is: make it a habit to be patient while reading and don’t lose focus of the bigger picture. As you keep on reading the passage, imagine yourself getting higher in the air and seeing the bird’s eye view of the things….this will surely help. But you have to develop a love of good quality reading stuff. The coaching institutes are more than happy to refer you a number of good books.
It is said that it takes about 21 days of sustained activity for our mind to convert that into a habit. And when the stakes are so high, it is worth coming out of our comfort zone. Also, a well read person reflects an aura of his/her own, and is respected everywhere.
Myth 3: good vocab is very essential for success in CAT
No…this is a totally false statement. Tell me, how many new words can be learnt by cramming word lists alone. And also, are they really worth the effort in CAT verbal? Is it a GRE or a Scripps Spell bee contest where the knowledge of obscurely tough words a differentiating point for success? A decent vocab is built by enough reading good books. And people often complain about having to refer to a dictionary every time they encounter an unknown word (this is perhaps one of the top reasons for people to start reading, since they detest referring dictionaries every time they come across a difficult word).
My advice is: don’t refer to dictionary often while encountering tough/unknown/alien sounding words. In fact, don’t refer to a dictionary for 90% of the times. In stead, try guessing the meaning of the word intuitively from the theme and genre of the passage, and especially the sentence containing the word. If you cant think of a meaning, fair enough. You will eventually come to know of it. But yes, 10% of the words are really exotic and ungues sable by many. For that, you can refer dictionaries and that should also add to the joy of discovering new and exotic words.
I urge the CAT 2008 aspirants to seriously start building there literature repertoire. It is very easy than it sounds. But since this is an open secret, and a simple key to success, people often try to take the harder, winding path (as with most of good things in life being free and simple, good books and coaching practice material may not be free, but yes, the technique can be simple)

Best wishes to all. For any type of query, post it as comment or mail me at ramandeep.sallaria@gmail.com. I promise to reply ASAP, my job and other trifly simple pursuits permitting!

MBA and the elephant theory

I came across an HBR article on the way MBA’s of the world are being churned out and the way in which a fundamental problem solving technique is lacking in them.
The article related the lack of a structured and wholesome approach towards the problem solving, to the fable of the blind men and the elephant. All of them treated different parts of the elephant as a direct result of their perceptions. One of them treated leg as tree, and other treated trunk as a big snake.
Is not we ‘specialized’ MBA’s more often than not acting like thee blind men. We take pride in being a specialist Marketing MBA or a Finance MBA. I have seen , and have got confirmed from my counterparts in some other B schools, that batch mates in different streams of MBA (read specializations) don’t see an eye to eye for matters they treat as their home turf. That is perfectly right, but the real problem creeps in when they refuse to take a holistic view of the problem being offered to them. I take my example as well. Being a Marketing specialization, I always gave step brotherly treatment to finance issues in the case study solutions. And vice versa happened with my Fin major roomie!
That brings me back to the blind men and the elephant theory. During my summers in Becton Dickinson, my mentor Mr. Probir Das often pointed towards this inconsistency that we displayed during mid term and end term presentations. We as specialized MBA’s do need sensitization to other verticals as well. I don’t see a purpose of creating a specialized MBA, when we, as Managers, have to tackle a diverse set of issues related to different domains. Don’t we have to handle our sales team in the role of an ASM? Or don’t the Corp fin guy need to be sensitized to the supply chain bottlenecks facing the logistic company s/he is working in to design new cost structures?
With all due respect to the course curriculum designers, I want to emphasize upon this issue which is not an anomaly arising due to lack of proper foresight on the part of administrators per se. It is more due to a lack of Kaizen approach in the curriculum design. Though there is a wide choice of electives during the second year of Indian MBA (well almost all B schools have it), there is an inexplicable lack of motivation on behalf of system to encourage the future managers to tackle the case studies and other simulated class discussions in a holistic manner. It is something that we all budding corporate managers detest, not overtly but covertly.
We all want to see ourselves in a specialized position, but yes, I suppose many of us in due course of time get to realize the gravity of our narrow thinking horizon. And I am very hopeful that most of us do rectify that anomaly in due course of time.

A Modern Yogic school for a Modern India?

The incident that inspired this debate in my mind was in the mid of 2007, last year. There was shooting in a up market school of Gurgaon by a schoolboy! Whenever there used to be such incidents at the American universities, we pooh-poohed the topic by our ‘we-are-Indian-rich in culture- and –tradition’ high nosed attitude towards lack of morality in the western nations. But seeing the sorry state of present day schools (esp. in Metros and upcoming metros) we should realize that something has gone wrong somewhere for sure. What values are being taught to our younger generation in schools, apart from violence, modern fads (tattoos, mobiles, Play station 3, drugs, cigarettes, unhealthy viewpoints for the opposite sex and so on…) I am not being paranoid, but am telling from my first hand experiences with various cousins and neighborhood children of the age group. Are our youngsters standing at the crossroads of the socio-cultural transition? Are thy not confused enough? Do they really know what does being an Indian means, apart from the obviously hyped Cricket and Bollywood potpourris?
After discussing innumerably times the sorry state of the educational institutes of all levels in India presently with my lobby mates at IMT Ghaziabad, I think that establishing a modern Indian school with one foot in the future and one foot firmly rooted in the our traditions. And by that, I don’t mean countless ‘International’ schools that have cropped up in the suburbs of metros and other tier1-2 cities of India. And certainly not to talk of the elitist Doon valley schools which command their prestige on the basis of being exclusive and out of reach to most Indians! I am talking of a well planned methodology driven school that creates a child imbibed with our values and bestowed with the rich wisdom of our culture. India is perhaps one of the only countries in the world where own tradition and values are looked down upon and ‘western’ type behavior is considered High class! What hypocrite of a country having much wisdom and knowledge in its 5000 years old scriptures.
The modern yogic school should combine the attributes of the gurukul system of education. We should not forget that even foreigners from far away used to come and study the 64 arts taught at many of the Himalayan foothill ashrams in the ancient times.
The well rounded development of the child is essential, and this was taken care in our ancient education system by sensitizing the child to both sciences, arts, dramatic and music at the same time. What do we see today when we look at the countless young faces carrying bags heavier than them going to schools, only to learn by rote?
At the same time, the modern schools will teach Yoga and meditation techniques to the children. Yoga is the technique of controlling ones emotions and getting in touch with the sub conscious mind of your. It helps a person develop a positive outlook toward life and tackle the problems efficiently without getting emotionally overwhelmed. Isn’t that a desirable trait for success and overall development of the society? Didn’t we have lost the touch of creativity and innovation which was displayed by the ilk of Ramanujam, C V Raman, Sarabhai, Tagores etc?
Combined with these, the study of science and other social subjects and languages will also be taught at this type of school. Problem solving by original thinking will be given importance there. Also, an in house and wise child psychologist is essential at schools. s/he will help growing children with a lot of issues (family tensions, teen worries and blues, other anxieties etc) which is not taken care of, gets them imbibed in the subconscious of the child and later affects his/her decisions in life, thus shaping his/her destiny.
Also, there needs to be a special section for ‘gifted’ children. These are the special children having enhanced level of IQ levels and can prove out to be tremendous asset for a nation. All developed/forward looking countries like USA, Israel, Germany, Scandinavia, Canada etc have these type of schools for the gifted children, where they are trained to hone their skills in advanced forms. These can turn out to be prodigies for our country.
Phew….I keep ranting on topics like these. But how can that a school be feasible financially? Why not, weren’t the IIT’s and IIM’s established in India at the time when funding was a big issue? A political will and vision is more necessary. Funds will follow suit!
A PPP model can be viable here. Roping in the intelligencia of the country who can actually put their visions into actions, rather than attending Page 3 parties and filling the sleepy Op-Ed columns of leading dailies and magazines will provide much needed administration guidance for such type of school.
This can be good entrepreneurial venture idea for budding young entrepreneurs. And it can well create wealth for all, be it investors, country, students, society et al.
Interesting and like minded people are invited for further talks. My email id is er.raman@gmail.com

CAT Crackers....series 1

Well... the right way to utilize coming six months for the prep for cat for the uninitiated...

I will broadly divide the english improvement into 3 categories:1. vocab building :: to have an impeccable vocab, u should start learning new words everyday...i may suggest that the right way is to use some coaching insti's material..which will be containing the word list...these types of word lists are competitively made and provide u with the right amount of word ammunitions to crack mba entrance..but rem that vocab building is a life long process and goes on throughout life..secondly start reading THE HINDU, for the hostelers, it may be a bit difficult to get latest copy in the library ( advantage gurdaspur !!!)..but still read it online or even read previous day's copy....but try to read it..it is VERY VERY good..trust me..u wont regret its quality and english level..it is not for nothing that IAS ASPIRANTS prefer this...2. sentence structure improvement :: for this, try solving the various types of questions given in the coaching material's books...refer to the WREN AND MARTIN grammar book and go to basic sentence structures. grammar level in the cat is very tough and only way to improve is via practice.3. reading speed and comprehension:: thsi again forms avery important part of the test. a whole section in the exam is of RC,and it is very very scoring also...if u have sufficient practice at it. again, HINDU will come handy..its editorial and opinion pages are of mind blowing quality and sufficient to prepare for the exam. but u shud not only stop at this only. start reading a lot of novels...these wil make u retain long para of literature for long

The second part of the ongoing series of cat prep pertains to the data interpretation. this is a very scoring section of the exam, only if u understand how this stuff basically works.data interprtn is basically a test of ur managerial potential, the abbility to act fast under pressure and most importantly..how u can visulaize problems in ur mind and then go on solving them rationally. DI comprises frerquent use of smart guesses.one has to be clever to not fal into the emotional trap of satisfying ones ego if a question is not solved.DI prep doesnt needs anything except hardcore practice and ur will to go on solving different type of questions despite temporaray setbacks.now, the most important part of how to go on for DI prep? well, u can refer to the notes from some coaching insti(mentioned in previous topic). this is, well..necessary..'coz u have to be professional in ur approach, and coaching insti's material is tailor made for this.

always rem while solving DI problems, that the exam is going to test u for ur managerial potential by indirectly subjecting u to these type of twisted and intricate questions. always keep in mind this hidden agenda of paper setter in mind..that what is he really looking for ?? is he looking for how difficult a question u can solve( by devoting most of ur time to that question and solving it in the end!!) or is he looking for ur ability to solve max amt of questions in the given time (which shows how adept u r at handling ur emotions and leveraging ur strengths to ur max..!!)DI comprises of tables, data given in various forms and graphs, caselets etc. there will be a lot of data in the tables and graphs , and u will be required to grasp the extent of data in the least amount of time , without getting surprised!! then there will be various questions on that data given..and u will be required to answer those questions.most effective step to crack data interprtn problems is to PLAY WITH NUMBERS!! yeah, that is the way u can get familiar with numbers..try to use max of ur mind..since we engineers are prone to use calculators, our mind power for numbers becomes latent...try solving sudoku frequently and gradually remove the inertia in ur mind towards numbers.data interpretation is very vry scoring, once u get the knack of solving the DI problems. more on other sections later....

India’s youth-The career options one can make in the context of social, economic and personal preferences

“So Beta, what have you decided to be after XIIth standard?”, a typical question that I am sure many young people (age bracket 17-21) will find difficult to answer. On same lines, “Yaar, what now!” a typical question of one of your friend from your engineering, commerce or any other graduation college in India.
This article is something that I would have loved to read when I was deciding about what exactly to do with my life. It was way back in year 1999, the year I passed class Xth. The question became of paramount importance in the class XIIth, when there were a lot of pressures, including the teenage adrenaline pumped thoughts combined with strange changes happening around (read IT boom and Web 1.0 bubble). I was very perplexed at the rapidly changing environment. Like the baby boomers of the west of the 70’s, my generation (those born between 1981-86 roughly), can be safely called as the revolution witnesses in the true sense. Apart from witnessing two millennia, we witnessed a sudden and momentous transformation in many fields. Coming back to the career options, at that time, there was not much awareness around, and traditional advisors of most Indian Middle class families (as in uncles, aunts, well-wishers, teachers, neighbours etc) were mostly at loss when guiding us (me and my millions of teeming brothers and sisters in India).
Today, as things have settled down and there has begun advanced phases of development in the growing economy, career choices today are far more numerous than ever. These are the best of the times, as some may like to point out. Youth can’t just let this beaming time slip from their hands and choose traditional “ever green” careers like engineering and medicine. All said and done, when it comes to real decision making, many middle and upper middle class families will still persuade their off springs to persuade relatively safe careers. The mindset might have changed, but not with fast moving times. From my personal example, when I started preparing for CAT, my parents wanted me to take IAS instead and settle for a “traditionally esteemed” option. Same was the case when I tried not to sit for my medical entrance, as parents and family wanted a very own doctor of the family. This is not to undermine the wellbeing and noble intentions of our parents. But sometimes in life, there has to be informed decision making. Making a bad career choice is like a merchant ship, travelling slowly from Rotterdam to New Jersey making only a 3 degree change in it course by mistake and instead ending up at Barbados!
The psychology and underlying factors involved in teens making their career choices:
I have listed following factors which influence the decision making: (in no way an exhaustive list)
· Societal pressure
· Peer pressure
· Choices made subconsciously from a host of environmental factors, including media
· Access (or lack of it) to relevant and unbiased information (most important to according to me)
· Parents’ mindset and their reference group
· Personal preferences and understanding of one’s strength and weaknesses (the most ignored factor according to me)
· Economic condition of the family
Explaining all these factors in some detail below, I will also mention some of the guidelines on which young people can act and take the rudders of their lives in their own hands. I will try to put my views on some of the important issues which affect our personalities, which in turn impact our career choices, which eventually decide our destinies. I am not a professional career counselor though, and won’t be able to put detailed options in front of you. That will be like giving a fish to you. Instead, I want you to learn how to get ready to learn expert fishing.
Societal pressure is one which forces a lot of pre conceived notions in our minds. IAS, Medical, MBA, Engineering, Law, Commerce is the typical ranking of many sub cultures of India. In today’s environment, where such different fields are open, these archetypes still rule the roost. One may become an environmental engineer and further his/her career prospects by specializing in Carbon Credit markets and alternative fuels. A lawyer may open a taxation consultancy as easily as an AFMC passed army doctor may opt for tele medicine specialization. But this is to talk of specialization. We are talking of primary colours of career rainbow.
Don’t ever form your opinions by the way society wants you to think. It will require courage to look beyond the easy options. But a trail blazer in truest sense will be able to capitalize upon the growing economic prosperity. Your decisions at the same time have to be made on well informed opinions. Develop original thinking and a tendency to gather as much information as possible. The youth in Metros and some semi Metro cities have a relative advantage over their tier2 and 3 city counterparts in this case. But this apparent information asymmetry need not keep you back from deciding about your life. Study the attend various career conferences held in your city/nearby cities. Good colleges of India organize career counseling. Try to take part in them. Ask your friends in metros to help you out with current trends. But that is not going to be of much help though. You will have to find out reliable sources. They may be some informed and intellectual neighborhood uncle/aunt or websites/blogs having discussion forums. Pagalguy, rediff.com and other good content websites offer this today, which wasn’t available earlier.
Always remember, that before seeking the specific information, you have made up your mind on a general area you want to focus upon. Now, here is what we can safely call a catch 22 situation for many young people. But don’t worry. If you keep your mind open and try to gauge yourself from an unbiased angle, you may get an inkling of the career you want to specialize in 5-6 years down the line. But his introspection calls for a very important thing:
Self belief and confidence
When I was in my engineering college sophomore year, I was driven by what many may call adrenaline rush. And I am sure males will identify with me when I mention of some crushes, which at that time seemed very serious to us! Only things that revolve around a young male/female of 18-22 years of age are his/her self image, construed largely as s/he compares with the reference groups. These may be seniors in the college, relatively older neighbours, Film and sport stars etc. An uncle elder son went to merchant navy, and that will be a good enough reason for you to pursue the same, not to think of the implications of choosing that career (both positives and negatives).
What is lacking especially at that point of time in most of us is self belief. It is true, and don’t try to run away from it. We may seem sure of ourselves on the surface, but on the inside, a demon of unceratinity haunts many of us. And that is a normal thing. Nature didn’t want all of us to be child prodigies. But with self enlightening, one can make a more mature decision.
I reiterate the point that you are very special and very very unique. Don’t get carried away by the peers and relatives want to see you as. Just think what type of role in your later life you will be more comfortable. Don’t think absolute long term; just think for coming 5-8 yrs. You can always change your choice from generalization to specialization later on. Don’t worry, booming economy wont let you get off track for long. But it is important to form at least a primary domain of choice.
Don’t feel trapped at all. Choose wisely where you want to go. Finance and opportunity will follow your desires, and won’t be a barrier when you truly desire something from the bottom of your hearts.
The major part of decision making is again the basic one, believing in oneself. There happen instances in one’s post teenage years when one feel it to be end of road. It may be anything, from “betray in love” to passing away of your loved ones. Or it may be some instance where you fail in life to live up to the expectations of your parents and carry a guilt feeling around your neck for a major part of your life.
Learn to let go. Learn to forgive yourself and remember one thing. These things one will realize sometimes later in life anyway, but by then, your prime age of career choice might have passed away.
Read the biographies of great men and women of science, medical, commerce, industrialists and rags to riches success stories. That will inspire you the will to fight in the adverse circumstances and also make you appreciate the most opportune times that you are in presently. History is replete with example of these famous men and women, who eventually blazed trails in their respective fields, had to make many tough and life changing choices at many times. They were opportunistic and inherently motivated to make most of their lives’.
Tackling parental pressure:
First things first: your parents are your well wishers. They want you to succeed in life. But this is where the problem creeps in. In the western countries, children are forced to do part time jobs and they leave their parents by the time they are around 20. They have to choose their life partners themselves (mostly), so have to remain in good physical shape also. Here in oriental cultures, parents take care of their children for the major part of their maturing to adulthood.
But why do your parents force things on you? Simple, they don’t assume that you are mature enough to make your own career choices. They may be right many times though, but many times, they turn out to be wrong. Forcing an artistically and creatively conscious child to army may mean dissatisfaction and possible grudges in his/her mind for many years in life. The way out is simple. Make your parents see your level of maturity in simple day to day handling of things. Your posture, way of talking, daily dealings with your friends and relatives are the involuntary signals you give to your parents. Try changing these. Shun some bad habits that your parents think you have. Engage in meaningful and healthy discussions with them, instead of ME versus THEM fights.
Once your parents see positive change inside you, they will be forced to change their point of view too.
A final word:
My friendly advice to you is this; always gauge your position in the life path. A life path is your life chart, with its time periods divided in 4-5 years time periods. Each period encompasses a major change and a couple of minor changes that shaped the life which you presently are having/forced to have.
Just take a break from everything and be as impartial as you can to yourself. Never lie to yourself. Think over your actions and their validity in your and your family’s current economic condition. It is never too late to correct yourself. And think big. Think pragmatically and imaginatively at the same time. Build castles in air, but at the same time, put bricks under them. For example, it may be fine to become an aeronautical engineer from a good US university after your B tech. But for that, you will need good scholarship, requiring a good GRE score. That will require a very good verbal and analytical skills and your parents’ confidence.

India vs. Bharat- a real life example

Yeah yeah….we all have read heard and discussed about it with our peers endlessly about it. We have been bombarded with the prestigious news magazines ranging from The Economist to The India Today about it. No brownie points for guessing……the Great India vs. Rural divide…..or the Great rift between haves and have nots….or simply put….The Great Indian dream vs the Nightmare!
Travelling to my ancestral village Madinpur yesterday, I came across a family which is quite close to us, more in a family friend kind of way to my forefathers. Madinpur was still a good hour drive away (travelling in an overloaded bus, which has service only once a day from nearest rail head- Pathankot, my native place)and we needed to rest a bit after a rickety ride. After the formalities, the usual chat session began, and I couldn’t help notice a girl around 12 yrs age doing most of the household chores. I casually asked the mother about her schooling, and her face stooped lower than current sensex levels. She told me in a part complaining, part dejected tone that getting a quality education for child is getting prohibitively expensive. They were actually thinking of getting her married in a couple of years, and so have to teach her household chores. I was perhaps prepared for such kind of reply after reading about the plight of rural and deprived Indian hinterland. But actually witnessing is really different from reading and forgetting from the B school books.
We left their house and boarded a shared auto rickshaw en route to Madinpur. The road started getting bumpier, dustier and narrower. On my way, I saw a number of small farms and yes, the ubiquitous Mobile towers on the roofs of many a villagers. With whole nation getting younger and more mouths to feed being born, will these fragmented farms sustain? We too have some land in Madinpur and I asked the caretaker about state of the affairs. His look told more than he chose to say. Dejected at the rapidly falling water levels and bureaucratic inefficiencies pertaining to elimination of middle men from the Grain Mandis has caused the persisting poverty amongst the farmers (usually small ones). Minimum Support price is all fine, but what about the filtering down of the benefits being announced in form of incentives to the production. The infrastructure too is pathetic, and makes it a nightmare for most farmers to transport their produce to the markets. A totally different view from the swanky SEZ/NEPZ of Noida or the IT parks in Delhi! How can a government ignore agriculture so much in favour of another sector? After all, this is our basic requirement. Reading about the rotting grains in the FCI godowns and food grain inflation, coupled with government mulling over buying the food grains at $ 500 from foreign markets when the MSP for wheat is Rs 1000, there seems to be something wrong somewhere! I mean, this is common sense dude! Doesn’t need a rocket science!
Finally we reached Madinpur after 55 mins of backbone breaking ride. I visited my uncle who happens to be a sarpanch there. I asked him about the role of the collector (IAS officer of the district) in development, and got the expected reply- Neglect. But he doesn’t out rightly blasted the system. He told me that the Collector of the region has been over burdened with work. And we all know of the “Well oiled machinery” that our Indian bureaucracy is! So I needed no answers from him. I just rambled off towards the village school to get my cousin, studying in standard 9th. I expected to see a bunch of children clad in shabby dresses, squatting in front of an equally uninspired teacher under a tree and cramming some inaudible words. But it was worse than that. There was no teacher on that day. He was on election duty, so the senior section of the school was closed. I asked my cousin about the internet facility in Madinpur, and got an alien expression in return. He doesn’t know what an e mail is. He is content to play the Chinese hand held bricks game which was presented to him some time back by some relative from Jalandhar. I compared it to my cousin in Mumbai, who chats on Skype to his sister in US, and plays game on PS-3!
That very moment, I witnessed the great Indian Nightmare in the making. Who wont predict a deep resentment in the have nots of the society towards the haves (us!). And this chasm is widening. Government is not putting in enough for the betterment of grass roots education. The fancy numbers ranted off during the pre election pitches are just an eye wash.
And then I wondered about my hypocrisy! It is so much easy for us to publish blogs and articles on the topic we feel strongly about. But what are we doing for the betterment. But hey! Can we really make a big difference? Can we actually go out of our ways, chuck our jobs, and form political parties and work for the grass roots. Can we actually bye pass the golden years of our careers towards the long and tiresome journey. Can we stand being outcaste from our families and society for being lone warrior? Can we imagine our peers getting ahead from us in the Hamster race (some people object to my using Rat race too often!!) Can we expect that political system will change one day from being a union of states to the federal system? Will there be any negative voting to oust the corrupt politicians?
And then I feel…..why not? I sometimes dream of an Indian form of V for Vendetta. But then I ask myself…..do I have the courage to make a difference to my surroundings? Do I have the moral courage to not give in to corruption when there are enticements galore?
India continues to prosper only externally. The country where people don’t get the desired justice for years together, where the naxalism and extremism is rising at the same rate as the increase in FIIs, where instead of abolishing the middlemen and corrupt public distribution system and malpractices in the agriculture marketing initiatives, the ilk of Mayawatis and other cry foul against organized retail, and where we talk of IIMs, IITs and the great demographic dividend at our disposal, but fail to look at the unskilled, unimaginative and pseudo literates being churned out by no other than the National Capital of India’s public schools. Where the basic amenities like healthcare is an elusive dream for millions and where for sure, the next civil war will be over water and/or food grains (the example of farmers near Gurgaon siphoning off the main water canal to their villages on account of Govt apathy seems to be lost on us recently)!
Sometimes I really wonder about this country…..my country…my motherland…India!
Is this why they say in the west that to truly see God in action, see India…coz there is no other way a country of this magnitude of paradoxes might be adding millions of mobile connections each month!

Amarchitrakatha and my younger cousin

“Bhaiya, who was this hero named Karan who fought so well. And who was Vikram and what was the vampire named Betaal doing to him all the time?” these and many other volleys of queries were fired on me by my 9 yr old cousin from US. I had to diligently explain to her the complex yet uplifting tales of Hindu mythology and our very own superheroes and heroines. This made me take into cognizance a laudable attempt by a group of business savvy consultants’ plan to revitalize the Amarchitrakatha and Tinkle comics’ brand. The move is a welcome one, more so in the face of the assault of Pokémon, Harry Potter and Spiderman fed younger generation of ours. I also happened to read about Richard Branson’s Virgin comics having lately launched Indian superhero and heroine themed comics named Saadhu and Devi.
This is a great way to make the coming generation aware of our rich and awe inspiring literary heritage, with its larger than life heroes and role models. I remember the times when I read Nandan and Chandamama very fondly. Geodesic group owned Chandamama may be in for a cool makeover, but Champak, Nandan and many other magazines have simple vanished into the thin air. Looking at my younger cousin, and taking my other cousins of the same age group as a sample size, I wonder what a divide is there between us and them in form of sensitization to the cultural diversity. As far I remember, there used to be serials like Alif Laila and Chandrakanta in our growing up years. Though related to mystery, they were much better than today’s’ mind numbing array of Song Talent hunts and the ubiquitous K factor drilling poison in the fertile minds of younger generation, who have no choice but to watch them at the prime time hours (and thus gets to like them too!)
Reading the Upanishads and Jatka tales make us wise in more than one way. The morals in the Panchtantra are engraved in our hearts till this day. I wonder why no corporate house has gone for making it big in infotainment domain such as this one, where one gets satisfaction of recreating cultural icons and hero/heroines and present them to the youth, who will need them more than ever as they move from the present cross roads and confused identities of Indian or Hindu to a next, more mature level. After all, Vikram Baital is an old, and thoroughly hindu legend composed in Sanskrit, and is the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and which inspired the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius, Boccacio's "Decamerone," the "Pentamerone," and all that class of facetious fictitious literature