I will not forget...those amazing days

I was going thru orkut and saw a few testimonials written to me and by me. Just stirred a few old memories and I thought of writing something about it…

Engineering days were truly amazing. Our college- RMK engineering college- had a lot of stupid rules and was very strict. We really resented that when we were students. In fact we used to call it ‘the jail’ But after coming out of it we realised that there can be nothing like those days again in our lives…Despite all the rules and all, we did enjoy! I was in the hostel for the first 2 years. By nature I am shy and reserved. So I hardly interacted with anyone in the first few months. It took me 6 months to even become friends with my room mate, Chaitanya. It was Prasanna who helped bring me out of my shell. Had a good time with the ‘Tamil gang’ in the hostel… Cant forget those countless mokkai sessions we had before and after elections, cricket matches and during weekends and study holidays…Then there was the Hostel day skit in which I participated. It was deemed so vulgar that they stopped it midway through the show :).

I will not forget the long discussions with Srikanth that went long into the night. I will not forget the fights I had with Prasanna everyday we were room mates. Its truly amazing how you can fight with someone for so long and so much and you get irritated by that person so much, but still, at the end of the day you count him as one of your best friends…

I will not forget the boring long days during study hols when the only thing we all looked forward to was breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can assure that anyone who has passed out of RMK will never forget the food there. Truly mouth watering ..mmm… The chicken briyani, Dosai, Parota, sweets and much much more..

Then I moved out in the 3rd year. I started interacting with the day scholars- Ananth, Vicky, GK, and others.. We had lots of fun especially in the last year when we hardly attended classes. Had the first taste of alcohol with these guys..Three of us (Prasanna, Vicky and I) started drinking on the same day, and one of them is a hopeless drunkard now :)

I will not forget the chicken briyani in Vicky’s house. Nor will I forget those Dec 31st nights in the last 3 yrs of engg… I will not forget those truly thrilling rides sitting behind Vicky in his bike. Ananth and GK fighting was always fun for all of us. Jothi’s powers with girls remained a mystery to all of us till the end. So was Ananth’s lack of powers with girls despite his looks…Vicky trying hard to convince Sumanth to join us for a dinner or party became a regular affair.

Engineering ended, and slowly everyone departed to where life took them. Prasanna to Hyderabad, Ananth and Jothi to UK, Sumanth also went to Hyderabad and so did Chaitu, Rakesh and so many others. After a few months realisation came that ‘those days’ are over. Perhaps the best days of our lives were behind us. We still keep meeting each other occasionally. I know those days will not come back and things will not be the same again. But I want to settle down in a place where we all can meet each other regularly, have a weekend together every month and share our happy and sad moments together. I know that will keep me happy. It’s the kind of happiness that money can’t buy.

Some shocking Facts

Here I present some shockingly glaring facts which strengthen the case against reservation. These facts will show that:

-->There is no real need for reservation for OBCs

-->The existing reservation for SC/STs is not working and even after 50 years of its existence the reservations have not been able to achieve the motive behind them

-->If the govt goes ahead with the decision to increase seats it will severely hamper the quality of education and infrastructure available to the students. This is because the educational institutions simply do not have enough infrastructure and facilities and these restrictions cannot be overcome in a short time.

-->Even the first congress prime minister did not like the idea of reservation even though he was the one who initiated it.


***What is the proportion of OBCs in this country?
The report of the Mandal commission which came out many years back, states that it is 52%. But the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), a govt appointed body reported in a more recent study that OBCs form 32% of the population.

***The NSSO in its research in 1999 (which is the latest available research) stated that OBCs occupy 23.5% OF ALL UNIVERSITY SEATS

***A study done by the IITs themselves shows that 50 per cent of the IIT seats for the SCs and STs remain vacant and for the remaining 50 per cent, 25 per cent are the candidates, who even after six years fail to get their degrees.

***A report of the Parliamentary Committee on the welfare for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes says that looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled.

***Sukhdev Thorat, the Chairman of the UGC. He points out that today, at higher education levels - that is all universities, IITs and IIMs - there is already a 1.2 lakh vacancy number. 40 per cent of these are in teaching staff, which the IIT faculty themselves point out that they have shortages of up to 30 per cent

***Jawaharlal Nehru: “On the 27th of June 1961 wrote to the Chief Ministers of the day as follows: I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain
second rate or third rate. The moment we encourage the second rate, we are lost. And then he adds pointedly: This way lies not only folly, but also disaster”

***In India only 16 per cent of the places in higher education are occupied by SCs and STs. The quota is 22.5 per cent, which means that only two-thirds of the
quota is occupied. One third is going waste.

Let me make it clear that I am not questioning the capability of students from the so called backward classes. I am a person who believes that all humans have the same inherent capability. My only point is that if there is to be any reservation, then that should be given to people who are really handicapped in a certain way in the society and are at some disadvantage. Basically it should be given to people who come from economically backward and oppressed sections f the society. Because these are people who are genuinely at a disadvantage when it comes to education. I wouldn’t really mind if a guy whose father is a railway porter and mother is a housewife, gets into an IIM even if he has a 75 percentile score and I don’t get through even with a 95 percentile score. But once a person gets the benefit of reservation then the same should not be given to his/her offspring.

Finally students in my institute have started discussing about this issue. We have decided to come out with a statement in support of the anti reservation protest. Students from the IIMs have also declared their solidarity with the protesting medicos. Students from DU and IIT Delhi have also joined in the protests. I, along with a few friends will hopefully be joining the protests in Azad Maidan this Sunday. Lets see how it goes…

The Issue of Reservation- Do we need it?

I’ve been thinking of writing on this subject for a long time…The students reservation issue. Its perhaps the most important national issue today. Its bigger than the volatility of the sensex, the assembly election results or LN Mittal’s Arcelor bid.

Is this democracy? Is this equality? I have nothing against SC/ST s or any other castes. But I feel unfairly treated, I feel cheated! Damn, I work my ass off for a whole year and struggle to get a 95 odd percentile in CAT and get into some top 15 B School . And then there’s a guy from a “backward class”, whose father is an IAS officer (and he got into the IAS cadre thru the reservation quota) and is hence quite rich , enjoys through his engineering days roaming around with his GF in his bike, having parties in weekends when I was giving SIMCATs and MOCK CATs. Finally he gives CAT coz his dad wanted him to, and being moderately bright, he manages to get a modest 75 percentile. But lo and behold, he gets calls from all 6 IIMs.
Wait a minute, 75 percentile ???? Gimme a break…I could’ve scored 75 percentile even if you had woken me up in the middle of the night when I was dead asleep and asked me give the test. I work my ass off, made all those sacrifices and still did not manage to get a single IIM call despite getting 95 percentile, and you tell me that this undeserving asshole is now thru to IIM A! What the heck! C’mon, there must be something wrong in the system somewhere! Yeah, damn right, there is something wrong. Quotas are OK, if they go to deserving candidates. They must satisfy the objective behind the quotas. If this isn’t happening then there’s no place for quotas. Isn’t this simple. Aren’t our politicians smart enough to understand this? Well, they are smarter than this. The only reason we still have caste based quotas is because it is a tool for certain political parties with which to play vote bank politics.

The following is the reaction of Narayana Murthy:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-802267813236081900


There are strong student protests going on across the nation against reservation. I hope somehow they succeed. I wonder whether the student community must ve been more proactive. Perhaps we should’ve started a student movement for reduction and elimination of quotas even before this episode started. Having this amount of quota for so many years itself is bad enough.

I don’t have the guts to go out onto the streets and join the protests that the medicos and many other brave students are currently participating in, across the country. But I will do what’s possible in my own way. And I am really proud –like I am,of our freedom fighters- of all the brave students and doctors who are putting their careers and much more on the line for such an important national issue.

I am shocked that there is little voice being raised by the corporate world against these govt moves. We all know that in this country if such reservation happens, its near impossible to reverse such a move. And I am sure that if this happens, it will have a mush bigger and long lasting effect on the economy than any budget or market crash. God help this country!

BTW, if there is anyone reading this article who feels that caste based (rather than economic status based) reservation is necessary, please let me know along with your line of reasoning.I would like to know

I urge all youth in this country to stand up and do something (apart from forwarding chain mails) , some little effort that will help this cause.

The following are some inspirational lines from a poem many of us have read in our schools:

“Ab Bhi Jiska Khoon Na Khaula, Voh Khoon Nahin Voh Paani Hai,
Jo Des Ke Kaam Na Aaye, Voh Bekaar Jawaani Hai“

Internship starts

My internship started a few days back.The actual field work started yesterday.And I made my first sales pitch! But haven't made any sale yet though..And by the looks of it so far, there will be no sales for the next 2 months unless the company reduces the prices. Boy, its a tough job to sell something thats available from other sources free of cost!

To tell the truth, I enjoyed the day yesterday despite the fact that I had to roam around in the sun like a dog with parched throat and sweaty clothes.I had expected some bad treatment from the clients like closing the door on our faces,etc.But no such thing happened so far.All the clients treated us well and they atleast let us give a proper pitch.

For one of the clients we walked for arnd 2 kms and when we reached the address finally,we found that its his residence and not his office.Cursing our luck, we went to the office.And let me tell u, most of u (and me) could never imagine an office to be located in such a place! That too, the office of a investment planner/MF distributor. It was in a small industrial 'estate'. There were a lot of manufacturing plants, all kind s of dirty stuff was being manufactured.There was a murky looking
building with rickety stairs.A narrow corridor in the 2 nd floor. There was no flooring or paint on the walls.And of course no lighting. It looked like a scene from a Ram Gopal Varma underworld film.I wondered who the hell will have an office there..But then, there was indeed a small office there. I have no idea why anyone will have an office in such a smelly,dirty,shitty,murky place!! And that guy
is definitely not poor! He has a nice double flat for a residence. Whatever..

Today I again go out, this time to another corner of Mumbai.And I have an asshole from another institute to accompany me.Lets see how it goes..

One thing looks to be for sure.I ll probably become more considerate towards salesmen.

MBA Myths?

I recently got this forward from a batchmte here. Its supposedly written by a MBA student, I dont know who or from which institute.But I can tell you from my own experience that its very close to the truth.

Yesterday Term 2 ended. I am now roughly 32 per cent of an MBA. As I evaluate myself on the huge costs (opportunity and real) that I have incured over the past 6 months, I ponder on the learnings (Cudn't help it fellow ManDevIans... WAC ka bhoot utara nahi hai!!!).

1) MBA is about making shit look like hot shit.
2) The faster you understand and implement point 1 above the higher will your Grade Point Average (GPA) and hence CGPA be, and the less expectations will you have, and consequently your satisfaction will be maximised.
3) Recruiters dont give a damn to how many Balance Sheets you balanced, how many models you optimised, what strategy you proposed (for the googled project you did for an MNC which you dint even visit once), what is your understanding of human resource mgmt, what is the positioning of the crap that FMCG companies generate, your exposition on world economics,.... and I could go on.
4) B Schools pressure and academic rigour are myths.
5) People will give their left ball/boob for an extra grade and a fellow batchmate.
6) Point number five is very valid in the corporate world too.
7) Job Job Job... is the light at the end of this MBA tunnel; at least in India.
8) Management is about bullshitting with elan and quoting esoteric gurus (with keywords thrown in for effect) to fool others. Finance guys fool investors, Marketing guys fool customers, HR guys fool employees, Operations and Systems guys join the fun (and the chaos and end up fooling each other)

So in the end its a fools game. I dunno why companies come in hordes and recruit MBAs in such large numbers?? I dunno.. seriously.. hope I am proved wrong!!!

I must tell you, its a very valid question this person is asking in the end.I myself was stumped by a question asked by a friend of mine a few months ago when he was preparing for his XLRI interview.He asked, " Tell me what have you really gained from these 8 months into your MBA?" And I was like..really clueless!

Another of my batchmates offered an answer to the question in the article. He said,

"why companies come in hordes and recruit MBAs in such large numbers is : companies also wanna fool all its stakeholder,shareholders and match the fleecing capability of it's competitors in the marketplace, esp. during the carzy times as we r witnessing now.hence the mad scramble for MBAs."