Will be right back!!!


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A professor at Texas A&M University is giving a lecture on the supernatural. To get a feel for his audience, he asks: “How many people here believe in ghosts?” About 90 students raise their hands.
“Well that’s a good start. Out of those of you who believe in ghosts, do any of you think you’ve ever seen a ghost?” About 40 students raise their hands.
“That’s really good. I’m really glad you take this seriously. Has anyone here ever talked to a ghost?” 15 students raise their hands.
“That’s a great response.” “Has anyone here ever touched a ghost?” 3 students raise their hands.
“That’s fantastic.” “But let me ask you one question further… Have any of you ever made love to a ghost?” One student in a flannel shirt and baseball cap way in the back raises his hand. The professor is astonished. He takes off his glasses, takes a step back, and says,
“Son, all the years I’ve been giving this lecture, no one has ever claimed to have slept with a ghost. You’ve got to come up here and tell us about your experience.” The redneck student complies with a nod and a grin, and begins to make his way up to the podium. The professor says, “Well, tell us what it’s like to have sex with a ghost.” The student replies, “Ghost?!? Sheeyit. From baaack there it sounded like you said ‘goats!’”.

-Duckshit

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Off late I have been in the mood of writing too many stuff. You could have grasped that from the length of my blogposts itself by now. Anyways just giving a warning that all these may stop for a while now since my exams are starting this Friday. I have three more papers this semester and hopefully I will be done with 'em all by the end of the 22nd June.

Lets see how it goes....


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After being in a competitive arena for years, playing the game in life-death situations, and also being in team atmospheres at work & here at the business school, I can say that there are two types of people I have come across so far. The first types are the ones who prefer to be in a winning team regardless of their contribution to the team. The other types are the ones who go for personal glory and may choose to be in a ‘not-so-strong team’. For example I always preferred to be in a team which won rather than be a champ in a ‘run-of-the mill’ team.

The way I always thought was about getting more chances to display my talent since we will get to play more matches in a given tournament, taking into consideration that we are a good team and will reach up to finals. And more importantly a fifty in the finals of a tournament will make a big difference than a hundred in the league stage. This tactics worked very well for me all through my cricket career. I would never give up meek in any semis or the finals of a tournament. But few people differ in their opinions and options. They would rather be wanting to lead in a given environment rather than being one among few in a team without much of a contribution.

Again this is a “two-way street” situation, if you look at it more in-depth. Psychologies of people are getting into act and scrutiny. It was another matter of fact that I eventually became the captain and the best player of most of the teams which I was a part of in my life. It may also be the fact that I was good enough for the position; it didn’t make a big difference which one I was a part off, sometimes. (Only sometimes)

Even in the b-school I have noticed the same trend happening. The first class is generally the time the partners are chosen for an activity, project, assignment or a presentation. It means to say that, there wouldn’t be much interaction between the students at that given point in time, unless they know each other. This is highly unlikely due to the difference in demographics.

So at this kind of a situation, a student who impresses the class most or the peers most holds the advantage. Hence the impression at the first sight comes into picture. It is common for students to form groups from a similar type of demographic suitability. Say for instance, a Chinese student may prefer to be in a group with a fellow Chinese student, just for the case that they have certainly lot in common. But the whole emphasis of a foreign education is to have a cross-interaction among variable cultures and creeds, then what’s the point in doing the same?!

In this given situation how do you act? If I am asked this question, my strategies would be as fallows. I wouldn’t get into a group of people instantly unless I am familiar with the majority. So till that time I would wait for my turn. The most important factor in a group will be the attitude to think alike. When I say thinking alike, I mean having few common traits, like attitude towards getting a typical grade, for example Distinction. If only you want to do well and the rest are just looking to scrape through, I would recommend you to talk to it out clearly and then decide.

Communication is the most vital and liable tool. If the student is having any difficulty in communicating his thoughts across, I would bid farewell the very instant. Since my dogma lies in the vitality of interpretations and delivery. If he is not able to communicate at the time when there is no pressure then I am sure he won’t be able to do it at the desired moment.

It’s like a mini interview but here you are the interviewer and peer is the candidate. But the process is done without the knowledge of the candidate. This is very vital since 90% of the problems can be solved by having a strong and sensible peer in your team.

The guy who impresses the most on the first day will turn out to be the leader of the group, since he will have the flair for leadership more than the other team mates, simply due to personal charisma. Team mates will start looking up to him. The advantages of being a “Yaayoo” guy can be that he might receive more proposals for teammates, so if he doesn’t choose the right ones he is out to sail at the dark. On the contrary if he chooses the right set of people, then, a lot of expectations will be levied on his shoulders to show the guidance and he better be up to the mark, else there will be lot of chaos inside the group until another leader emerges.

So my initial strategies pertaining to picking a group are displaying an ability to be a leader, such that you attract ‘the best spots out of the parking lot’. Then secondly have a clear chat about the history of the team mates to gain knowledge of his past life. Suppose if we are doing a Marketing project and the “wannabe-mate” has a background is astrophysics, then I would absolutely differ from being the teamie.  

And mostly importantly it also better if you have a solid understanding of the project you are going to be dealing with. With that understanding you can plan the composition of the team and amass the students as such.

Now I know what question you are thinking about asking me. Should a group have a leader? Personally, burning the theories on leadership, I would say that we need Leaders. I will come out with another post concerning that issue.

But as far as now is concerned think which type are you?

The wide arrays of topics that I want to cover are being constrained due to the main factor called ‘time’. My previous post had ‘sustainability’, as a key opening stanza. When I am traveling or working I think ‘this-is-what’ is going to be my next post on and start to frame ideas between the ears. Some how, it doesn’t materialize at the time of delivery.

One of these days while working, I met an interesting Australian character. When I say interesting I mean it in literal sense. Its out-of-the-equation that an Aussies can be interesting. She was one of the customers who never left the frame even after my service, without me responding to her “namaste” & “shukriya”. I thought it was not decent to reply back in Hindi, since there were other customers who were waiting behind her. She was a woman in her late thirties or may be even early forties.

In the end I was compelled to thank her in the same way as proportionate to the “No worries mate” or “cheers” or “Taa” that’s used here in normality, when someone thanks or appreciates you for your help. “So you know hindi?!” I asked her. “Ohh, offcourse I do. I love India. I go there every year. Beautiful country, amazing people…I simply patronage them” was the reply. I asked her for the reasons and the conversation grew a little more than expected.

“I know you people want to be like us. But there is no life here to tell you the truth. When there are options in life there can be no life. I don’t know why all of you are hell-bent on this”. From one angle I was astonished by her benefaction and from the other side I was made to think more on the lines she conveyed. I couldn’t get the actuality behind her words. It can be interpreted in two ways.

Firstly you can think that India is a country where there are no options available to a entity, which makes him glued to one form of life that ‘has-to’ make him to happy; so he is happy. So this takes an inversely proportionate assumption that there are lot of options else where, which may not be all together a reality. Secondly, she might have addressed the simplicity of the existence there. If she has addressed that, then may be there is a rational meaning which more and more people are believing in nowadays.

This happened before two weeks and I am stuck up with this thought for a while now. I know the fundamental ethos of this subject matter revolves around an ‘idealism’ point of view. The problem with idealism is that, it differs to person-to-person. What may be ideal or superlative for me may not be the same to you. So when I compare my idealist notions with another mortal soul he sees a variance in priority or preference.

This is a much more dubious topic than I have put forward. The notion of idealism revolves around the same topic of ‘benchmarking’; if only it can be measurable. Say for instance if I say, hypothetically, I want to sing like Harish Raghavendra; then it means I have benchmarked myself with someone idealistic for me. But the ‘benchmarked’ may not be ideal for someone else, so the rationality in the subject matter disappears out of the equation. So benchmarking cannot be rational unless it’s agreed upon by a group of individual working on a given project, for example lot of organizations have extensive benchmarking practices.

But in the given context we are debating over benchmarking ‘life’. According to me life cannot be benchmarked. Beware, I am not trying to say what we achieve or do in life cannot be benchmarked rather I am trying to say life itself cannot be benchmarked. Instance I have heard lot of people saying that America is the most idealistic place for me to live in. I want to live my life there since it’s in accordance with my wants and needs. So the basic fact is that the process can be benchmarked and not the entity.

Considering such a situation there is a big problem which arises. You have to assess all the considerable options, and then will be the time when you can benchmark upon something, since then you can asses the relatively of a better existence than the given situation you are in. That means this individual knows about the life in Papa New Guinea or in all countries which form the globe to form his benchmarking on the US.

Most of us get influenced by the terms called ‘peer-pressure’ or ‘branding’, that we forget sometimes what we really need in life. To conclude for me life or anything for that matter, shouldn’t be made comparative to a greater extent. You can make it look beautiful regardless of whether you are in Uganda or Rwanda or New York City.

Go on, make it beautiful!


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It is pouring in Sydney. Like the way Richie Banaud says “Its thunderstorms here, down under at the moment”. The intensity is nothing short of it. Every soul is locked up inside the house and waiting for that moment where the skies would bless them and stop coming down.

I hate rains. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I know I shouldn’t be making this statement coming from a place like Madras, where in, rainfalls are the most awaited sacrament, which bamboozles everyone. I keep trying to discover the reason for my disgust. So today I went out in the rain to my non-existent balcony to get a glimpse of the measures.

It was as though, the rain gods blessed Sydney for some reason. I was there standing inside it, covering it, making the pool of water touch my mortal entity, loving it to the core. But still there was something which I detested about the rains.

It may be due to the reason that the first year I started playing cricket; I missed an opportunity to play for the state due to the rain. I forced a shot outside the off stump which flew straight at the hands of the point fielder; due to wet conditions. I know I shouldn’t be blaming the nature. But then begun my journey of odium. Ever since I have related rain for some bad happenings in my life. It was like as though every single time something awful happened to me, it rained.

I thought of this way; it rained since the gods forced nature to cry for me. I hate someone crying for me, I hate crying myself; but I do. Rains are good for the natural and the nature; but not for me. They bring nostalgic feelings inside me, whenever it comes down.

Rain…rain…go away!!!

update: yday i lost my USB cord in the rain. Shit!

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“A conceptualized civilization reflects upon its mere existence. It’s like a snowball being pulled upon by gravity, which gains more volume and speed, as it progresses.”

I have never had such a week like the last one in my whole academic career. Two presentations back-to-back in two days on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by a final exam on Thursday. And ever since I worked like crazy to subsidize my living expense. This is a big tangle any international student will face in a country where in the index or cost of living is way too higher than the base country; the country of the students origin.

But this concept is nothing new to any western country. No matter who your dad is, you need to work to subsidize your share of living for yourself. I saw an advertisement on a public transport bus while waiting for one. (I admire the mixed advertising industry of Australia. They sometime bring in the best of advertisements to the market scenario and other time you will feel like hitting yourself with a $2 footwear.) But here this ad made lot of sense to me. It said something like “After 18 you go to an University, but first we will teach her to be independent”. It was for some sort of a university wherein you become a boarder.

Independence is a relatively big term. It attracts lots of adolescence. When the idea is induced during the very same years, the chances of learning are lot more than afterwards. I am not trying to say that it’s not existent in India. Though I lived in my parents shadows, I was given my share of freedom and respect for my points-of-view. But the difference in here is that, you don’t even get that umbrella to a greater extent.

I know few of my Aussie friends living outside their homes, since they feel it’s an obligation to do so. This is why may be there are lots of baby boomers, who are being to suffer some worst case scenarios. Due to the efficiency in the health care systems in Australia and the “healthy” country as it is, the death rates in Australia are much lesser than an average country.

This has a particular reason also behind it. The baby boomers here have a life. The social architecture is built upon in such a way that you have the best time of your life when you are retired. The Super-annulations compared to something similar to Gratuity in India, are being devised to calculate in such a manner that, first they are not taxable and more importantly form the average salary of the last five years before your retirement. By which you will receive that amount every year till the age of 95 (if you are alive!). There is a problem here. Due to such a social architecture there is this problem which is more evident in the society that experience gets rewarded than education.

The prime assumption of this is that knowledge is not proportional to education, which is untrue in most cases. So the corporate society lays emphasis on an individual who is more experienced regardless of the qualification than an individual who has passed out of a good business school for instance. I am not trying to say that it may be untrue. But that doesn’t undermine the fact that Australia has more Nobel laureates than India. The significance of this is that, there is rift in the society between the work culture and the education society. An academic will perceive his own paths of illusion by becoming a scholar, in most instances, than to try becoming a corporate super head.

If you compare Australia with some progressive or progressed nation, the difference you will see is in terms of the entrepreneurs in the society. All of us have learned a great deal from works of Peter Drucker and many more along his path of chimera, who believed in entrepreneurship societies. To a greater extent even I believe in the same perception. Sometimes I get a feel that Australia may be a socialist country. When I mean Socialist, it is not evident in the surface when you see. But if you try to exploit the undermining point of view, you find the difference.

Australia believes in equity and equality doctrines, which they have been able to keep it running for sometime now. Think deep inside and then you will realize that these two terms are purely myths. It is certain there cannot be any nation which enforces equity principles till it fades away. I will say this illusion is given way. Due to the problems in lack of man power to exploit the manufacturing and industrial atmosphere, the perils of capitalization have become delusional.

But the value for quality education is extensive here. On comparison to few US universities, I will say they are lot more quantifiable, in terms of the cost advantage they provide with eminence of the output. Due to the social architecture it may happen that, a good student may not get a job in his desired field of excellence.

Also to add I would say that this concept is by enlarge changing. With the introduction of amendments in the ‘Permanent Residency’ policy, there seems to be more hope of better talents who can be induced into the working frame of the society than never before. The amendments are expected to be introduced very soon. We will have to wait and watch to spot any significant changes and impacts it can make.  

In short Australia has come up a long way from its convicts mentally. It was a place where mediocrity was accepted but not anymore!

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One hurdle out of the 16 hurdles is cleared; now looking forward to jump the next 15!!!
Bring it on!


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Most times I get overwhelmed with the array of topics which I want to blog about, without making it a reality. Sustainability becomes the key here in these issues. Regardless of process that you are involved in, sustainability sometimes becomes ‘the’ most important factor.

This as I announced in my blog before, is the last teaching week rather the non-teaching week, since it is filled with presentations of our work and understandability out of the subjects. So I thought I would compress the 14 weeks semester outcomes into one post giving the priority to the top course that I loved to be a part off.

Will start with my favorite subject Organizational Analysis and Design. Even though the subject outline was inclined towards restructuring and the modern approaches of management, my lecturer gave us the ice in the cake by taking us also on a vivid journey into post-modern approaches. The teaching methodology was inclined towards segmentation of organizations into four crucial frames, structure-culture-power-human resource and analyzing & evaluating the need for changes within them. It was believed that the frames have an inter-linkage between them; by that a ‘need-for-change’ in a particular frame may be also beneficial for another frame of the organization, which is evident.

As I had written before there is a difference between ‘book-lecturer’ and ‘out-of-book-lecturer’. We were fortunate enough to have the head of my business school as the lecturer; easily the best in the business inside the business school. ‘EPOCH’ model was the prime base of his discussion, with adoptive strategies into the post-modern era mechanisms. ‘EPOCH’ is times where in things are not as they were before and will not be in the future.

He ventured into unknown or tentative social concepts like identity, social engineering, empowerment, leadership, authority, power with individuals within organizations, etc to name. Some of the ideologies which made me to go gaga over where the ones related to Power frame. Discussions like “Whether Leadership is dead?” made lot of meaning to me now. He made Mintzberg models ‘ethnic-pedestal’; Foucault ‘divine’ and Clegg ‘sovereign’.

But my personal view of being the “Master of Jack-of-All” hasn’t still changed considering the management methodologies is typically disposed into specialization or the need-for-specialization.

Easily the best concepts I have been grounded with as I am starting the journey into lunacy. When I spoke to a close friend of mine, he mentioned “Anyways MBA’s don’t have a life”. My take-back from the first semester has been nothing horrendous, so far. May be a by-product of studying at ‘the’ cream business school in India!