Month: January 2006

Ponder This !

Got these in an email …

Life is sexually transmitted.

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?”

Who was the first person to say, “See that chicken there? I’m gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt.”

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don’t point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that Acme crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?

Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Alt + Tab Replacement

When you press Alt + Tab on a computer running Windows Xp operating syste, you get a list of all the programs running on the computer.

If the number of programs running is large, using Alt + Tab could be cubersome and hard. I recently came across a tool called PowerToys for Windows Xp released by Microsoft that makes the lives pretty cool and esay.

With PowerToys Alt Tabreplacement tool, the Alt + Tab becomes something like this…

The text on the website says…

Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.

PowerToys Alt + Tab Replacement Tool can be downloaded from this link. I have been using this for about a month now and I face no problems at all of any sort.

To Design or Not To Design

To design or not to design is the BIG question in front of me right now. I bought saurabhgarg.com about three months ago and I haven’t really made a website.

I have a couple of choices in front of me right now. I can design it from scratch; display all my creativity to the entire world and boast of the excellent design. On the other hand I can use some ready made template, customize it and save on a lot of time.

I would now proceed to do a decision tree analysis. Assuming that I design it myself, following things are bound to happen…

1. No CMS. I would have lots of static web pages. Updating each of them would be a huge task. But again even if I go for a template, I still don’t have the expertise to make even a simple CMS. The template thing would also have static pages.
2. Time. I right now have nothing to do at all. And with all the travel coming up in the later half of February, I would not get time to design and update it.
3. Effort. I hate to work! and I can’t even imagine putting that much thought into the work. Although working is fun for me, I still hate doing small things such as editing HTML etc. I enjoy working on Photoshop and other editing software but I believe that they lack the power to keep me busy.

If I decide upon a template, following things would happen

1. Plagiarism. Even though I would have a nice, good looking website, it would be work of someone else and I would certainly be using it without giving credits or royalty. I do not want to do this. I guess this reason alone is more than enough punishment to not to use a template.

So the decision has been reached, I would create my own design, go the hard way and hopefully try to complete the website soon.

AND BY THE WAY THIS IS MY 150th POST !!!!

Sarkar – The Movie

Yesterday I went to see a screening of the latest Bollywood movie Sarkar. The star cast included Bachchans – Amitabh and Abhishek in the lead roles.

In the words of Producer and Director of the movie, Ram Gopal Verma, Sarkar is his tribute to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. Indeed many sequences are inspired from the legend of the Godfather. Infact the very name Sarkar is a synonym to Godfather.

The movie is about one Sarkar who believes very strongly in his ideology and distinction between right and wrong. He believes that if he thinks something is right, and then he would act on it irrespectiv of the fact that it may not be legally correct, politically correct, morally correct or ethically correct. The thing to question here would be practicality of such a line of thoughts. Since a man has to live in society – there is no man in isolation, should someone stand out and make his presence and individuality felt or should he tone down himself to be acceptable to the society? The very first day when you start learning, you are taught to conform to the social beliefs and if you deviate, there are a lot of negative reinforcements given out. Are we helping propagating the norm? Since we are making everyone think in the same way, follow the same rules, behave in an expected manner, are we terminating the genesis of newer perspectives and thought processes?

The movie also portrays that people are ready to do anything, ANYTHING to realize their goals of power and money. Although there people were among the most powerful ones as shown in the movie but they seeked more power and the clichéd saying is hence proved that power and greed have no bounds.

However certain things were missing. The most perplexing thing was the fact that the revenge that Sarkar seeks is incomplete. Sarkar eliminates everyone who had betrayed him, tried to kill him/his father, destroy the family except one. The Police Commissioner. May be because the commissioner left him alive, he did not seek revenge but in my humble opinion, one should never ever forgive and forget someone you don’t trust at all.

There were attempts of humour in some dialogues of a certain character but they were totally uncalled for and deviated from the theme of the movie.

One of the biggest positives was excellent photography and art direction. The camera work is amazing and although I do not see a lot of movies, I believe that it had very very innovative and unique camera positioning techniques.

Another thing that I realized after watching movie was the importance of having a cool, composed and a calm brain on the shoulders. I for example am amongst those people who would take decisions in haste and without giving much thought and repent later. I am not sure how many things from a fictitious story could be applicable in real life but yes, patience is something that helps.

Saurabh Garg

Pearls of Wisdom

24th June 2004. I landed with a couple of bags at MDI. My new home for next two years.

23rd June 2005. One year of the two is over and when I look back, there sure is something that I have been fortunate enough to learn in this year. This post, although is a bit late, has few pearls of wisdom that I could gather in this year at one of the best business schools in India.

As they say, management education is about participating in class and contributing to other people’s learning and understanding. There are times when some of us tend to overdo it a bit. Everyone must have seen, heard or experienced some obnoxious people who love to speak up their minds. A component of evaluation is based on the contribution you make to the learning of other people in class. And there are people who want to make a killing with this component. They would keep their loooong arms stretched out all the time. I don’t know if they have something to add, but they would keep their arms as stiff as a scarecrow’s. This phenomenon is called DCP. DCP is an acronym for Desperate Class Participation and is used very conviniently for people who speak without adding anything substantial to the class.

Next thing that I learnt at my BSchool is a word called Arbit. If you try searching for it on Dictionary.com, you would not find it. Why is that? Because this word is used exclusively in management studies. In fact I think that this is the most commonly used word in business schools after the sacred F word. Lets try to learn the meaning and origin of this word. Many enlighted souls say that this word is a short form of the word called arbitrary.

“Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle” – Source:http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=arbitrary

This sounds like a plausible explanation. When people speak up their minds, get creative, determine by whims, forget reason, ignore logic, what comes out is called Arbit !!!!. I can post a few examples here. Lets say the entire class is involved in an intellectual discussion about a car being an HIP (High Involvement Product). A reasonable addition to discussion would be that a HIP is something whose selection involves a lot of thought process and an arbit addition would be that a HIP is something hep. Hip as in hep and happening. Hip as in

“Very fashionable or stylish.” – Source:http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hep

I might not be able to give a very good example of arbitness because am not talented at that and am certainly not the gifted one. By the way a lot of people say that this statement that I just made itself is arbit.

Saurabh

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON July 10, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Interviewing Skills

I was supposed to take interviews of the first year students for the events Delphique and Imperium. I interacted with about 20 odd students of the first year batch. Following were the things that I learnt from the experience…

1. There are better people than you are. There were about three or four people who were excellent in terms of thought clarity, were street smart, could deliver the message effectivly and above all were humble.

2. I learnt that interviews ARE really effective in judging people. I am not among those specialists who would know how to talk to people, judge them but I defintely could find when someone was lying, someone was talking the truth etc.

And finally a few random thoughts …

Since we take these events very very serisouly, the people who are out there to select other people mkae sure that they take in only the absolute best for these events’ and the managing teams. Sounds alright when you first think about it but as far as I understand, the real objective of being at a BSchool is the to learn through these events and enhance your personality (apart from regular things like studying etc). Now lets say someone tried real hard and cracked the selection process for a BSchool and now he wants to groom himself, an excellent way to do it would be through these events and committees. But the paradox is that the people who are in the selection committees wont pick him cos hes not that great. I cant think of another way to help this guy and let him develop himself. Any thoughts?

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON July 13, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School – Mark H. McCormack


I never thought highly of the book until I read it. I thought this is yet another book that talks about what management educatoin lacked. The best faculty here at MDI recommended it and I thought if a Prof as good as Prof. Bhushnurmath is recommending it, there has to be something to the book. I got hold of this copy and wow !

The book is an absolute piece of gem and should be read by not just business school graduates or managers but everyone. The book is written by a man that was considered the most powerful person in the sporting arena. Sporting Arena where luck plays absolute ZERO role in your success. Everything is dependent upon the amount of hard work that you can put it. Sporting also puts you into unfamiliar territories and brings out the real person from behind the mask.

Some interesting quotes from this book…

“I once heard someone say that if Thomas Edison had gone to business school we would all be reading by larger candles.”

“Companies never function according to their organizational charts. They are made up of people and personalities and politics and power plays…”

I can personally relate to this one…
“… many people in business seem preoccupied by a fear of being left out.”

“If you aren’t afraid to fail, then you probably don’t care enough about success”

I think apart from there interesting quotes, there is more to the book. The book is very practical. The experiences of Mr. McCormack help a lot in understanding the issues.

However there are somethings that I would agree to disagree with. There are many places where Mr. McCormack talks about throwing in the towel even when you know you are right. The thing is that this may be right thing to do to reach higher the corporate ladder but at what cost? Cost of your identity and your self-respect.

Just yesterday I was reading about Mr. McCormack and I found that he passed away in 2003. I wanted to meet this man so dearly … 🙁 Details about the legend can be found here and here.

This is a 9/10 book and a must read !

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON July 28, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Business School Education – A Farce?

When I landed at my dream institute, I had twinkle in my eyes, high hopes and aspirations about the entire concept of going to a B School, I knew I have arrived.

But it all changed during the time I have spent here. Its been just over an year and I have figured out that B School education is atleast not for people like me.

Most people that I have encountered (not only at my B School but also from other BSchools and I estimate this number to be well above 500) do NOT have even a vauge idea where they want to end in life or a question as simple as why did they decide to pursue management education.

I found out (I don’t have any marketing surveys, data and analysis generated using SPSS or Excel) that the single most importnat reason for choosing management career was because of the image attached with B Schools. It is viewed as an extension to education. Its like a transition – complete secondary, move into higher secondary, complete that goto college for graduate and once you are done with graduate educatoin, next in line is – you guessed it right ! post graduate programme in management.

As I understand and infer from a few books that I have been able to read so far, management education is mostly about people skills. The onus is on preparing managers rather than say Chartered Accountants (equivalent to CPA in US) or HR professionals who would go by the books all the time. I think management education should be about only one thing – PEOPLE. Its the single most important thing that can make or break any organization.

The business education atleast in Indian context is a paid vacation. Either you ewre working or fresh out of college, you need a break from dull routines and what do you do? Join a business school.

Trust me, I have seen people dropping like house of cards after those numerous booze parties, hitting each other knowingly what they were doing, copying in examinations, blatantly plagiarising from the web or the library books for not so techies. We have done it all. The only stone we left unturned – management education.

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 1, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

A Prison Diary: Belmarsh: Hell – FF 8282 aka Jeffery Archer


A Prison Diary: Belmarsh: Hell, is the first of three books written by Jeffery Archer when he was in Jail on charges of Perjury.

I completed the first volume in about 100 sittings. That is expected when you are trying to read six books together.

Some bits were REAL amusing like the joke wherein he predicts that the next sermon would be Honour Among Thieves after his previous two sermons were Cain and Able and The Prodigal Son.

The book gives interesting insights about prisons and the way of life on the other side of the fence. If someone is interested in knowing more about Archer as a person, this can be a fabulous guide. You could read about his daily schedule, his preferences, his choices, his love for the game of cricket and what not.

Apart from these couple of highlights, very ordinary book I should say. Very light read, chapters done as days make it easier to read and follow-up if someone is interested in reading in innumerable sittings (the way I did it).

I know that I may never know if he was infact guilty but as they say History is often skewed and is reported by the winning side, throughout the book, it is literally preached that Mr. Archer is innocent and there was a conspiracy against him. I sincerly hope he is NOT guilty. I absolutely adore some of the books and cant believe that someone like him would do something like that. Anyways, the point is not if he is indeed innocent or not, the point is to realize the fact that how to turn a crisis situation to your advantage. Archer was in jail and he had nnothing to do. What does he do? Write a book !

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 3, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell – David Michaels


Wow !!!!

The writing style is AMAZING. I have read so many books, fiction, non-fiction and what not, never came across something like this.

I would definately like to be like Sam Fisher in lot of ways. Infact I am almost like him in many ways. He hates human civilizations… I hate em too. He is not comfortable with people around, I definately aint comfortable. At one point he says that he appreciates beauty and thats that nothing more nothing less. Dittoo for me. He loves to read on history and speaks 7 languages, I sure want to know whatever there is to know about.

And since I am very passionate about anything remotely related to Computer Gaming, we have an entire game on Splinte Cell. I infact was one of the beta testers of a cell phone adaptaion of the title when I was working.

Great Character, Amazing Storytelling skills, All in all … a must read.

Ratings: 8/10

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 13, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND

15th August 1947 – Independence Day


Today, 15th August, we Indians celebrate our independence day.

It’s been almost 60 years since we were freed from British control and we became masters of our destinies. We have come a long way from what we were at the time of independence but there are long long way to go.

We are now amongst the top three countries on the watch list of everyone (along with China, Brazil and Russia). Economy has been doing very well. We are a world renowned source of competent and trained manpower. Our say in international political scenario has never been higher.

There are few things that we can improve on. First and foremost being the removal of red-tapism. The accountability is almost absent from all the sectors. If we can work on these and some other pressing issues, we sure would be going ahead in every sense.

Today I was part of the Independence Day celebration at my campus. Our director, Padma Shri Dr. Pritam Singh raised a question and asked us why do we celebrate any festival or for that matter Independence Day? He said that we want to remember the sacrifices made by millions of people to achieve freedom. I partially agree to what he says. I think I celebrate because its close to me. Its close to my heart. I cherish the freedom. Thus I celebrate the functions.

Also I never understand why do people think about and sing patriotic songs only on Independence Day? I think its all propoganda ! If you were truely patriotic, you could sing all the songs all the time. Why wait for a special day to sing your songs?

Talking of Independence at the individual level, even though we might be independent as a nation, there are many people (including me) that are still dependent on others.

Benjamin Franklin says independence is when he is lord of himself and accountable to none. I think no one else talked about independence in a better manner. When I try to define control and its antonym independence, I can come up with things like political control, physical control and thought control. A political control can only influence the actions; the thoughts however are as independent as a bird in free sky. The power of these thoughts converted into action and played a key role in the independence struggle.

I also believe that there are ways to control the thoughts as well. A very simple example from world of marketing: Word of Mouth Advertising. It is more or less a subtle form of thought control. One might say that since a friend liked the product, there is no harm in reducing the risk of trial and going for it, there is no kind of thought control being attempted here. I would like to disagree with this school of thought. When you are influencing other people, selling yourself to people, doing anything, you are trying to control (successfully in some cases) other people and their thoughts.

Another thing that comes to my mind right now is emotional dependence. As has been said many times, man is a social animal. Man can not exist in isolation. Everyone needs someone to fall back on.

There is yet another aspect called the interdependence. Interdependence is when dependence and independence coexist together. The first question that comes to my mind is how the two faces of coin coexist? How can independence be dependent on dependence? Simple answer … change the very definition of independence to incorporate for necessary dependence. Very basic example is that even to think independent, sustain one self, one needs an elaborate support structure (like dependence on others for food etc.).

I think everything comes down to the definition.

There was this discussion in a class where a Prof and MS got into argument about the effectiveness of team vs. individuals. This is not related to independence and control and thus would be thought about later when I wouldn’t have anything else to do.

More Later !!!!

ORIGIANALLY POSTED ON August 15, 2005
REPOSTED FROM ABOUT2EVOLVE TO SEPTEMBERTHE22ND