This post is a salute to those who strive to become great. (e.g. A great lady from Section B, who ran an NGO in Hyderabad or my NetImpact club president who made his career helping people see, again). And a wakeup call for others. (like me)
In our own limited ways, we all strive for greatness. Whether by becoming the Sports Club president..Or by giving the most insightful CPs in class.. Or by being the most active party bopper in campus...
Underlying all types of personalities is a desire for being the best. Being different. Being somebody, who others almost feel jealous of.
Everybody starts from the same page. Over the course of a "lifetime", the spirit craving for this greatness grows old and feeble. For some, this ageing process of the spirit is faster.. Their spirit dies even when they are young..in body.. Others grow old in body.. But somehow never cease to amaze others by their spirit.
Lesser mortals like us, recognize the former types as "mediocre"s. The ones who are just like any other Tom, Dick or Harry. It turns out that these mediocre types are actually the happiest. They give up on themselves. Concede defeat. And cease to strive for that one something that will make them different from the one billion souls sharing the planet. Their lives revolve around the petty issues in life. They quarrel, love, lust, envy, become slaves to selfish pleasures.. But they remain happy. Till the time the Grim Reaper arrives. Then they realize that their time was actually a limited resource. And they delivered such a low ROI. By the way, I havent come across any mediocre type in ISB so far.. (not sure about myself though). But then, when I use people like Narayan Murty, Vikram Akula as reference points, then I have second thoughts..
Think again. What makes you great. Is there something in you that will outlive you? Trust me, nobody remembers the investment banker who left a million dollars in his bank account to his third wife.. How miserable can that be. Is'nt it?
Does that mean, everybody should turn to nonprofits and become monks? Does not make sense, Right.. But I think (under heavy influence of readings of Stephen Covey), that everyone should imagine the one achievement that he wants to be remembered by.. when he is gone.. Surely there must be something that he desires to do. That makes him not like every other Tom, Dick and Harry. Chances are high, that most people will identify something that is noble. Very few will like to be remembered for their material exploits (like the promotions, academics, financial success etc).
Once there is a goal, it all becomes simple. Without a goal, everything is pointless. So before you drown in the constant excesses of fast corporate life, take a few moments. Figure out what the hell you want, in the longer run.
I would hate to end up as the mediocre guy next door. Wouldn't you?
cheers,
C
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Life under normal curve
Before coming to ISB I always wondered what is the difference between the ordinary colleges and the premier B-schools. I tried to justify by considering aspects like Infrastructure, courses taught, Alumni network, Professors and few other aspects. But after about 2 months I have realized what's the key differentiator.
And it is "The Competitiveness." Once you realize this you will lead life only under the normal curve, not a normal life. Every aspect you are challenged and there is struggle to move to the right side of the curve not to the right side of life. Sometimes moving to the right doesn't necessarily mean right side.
Finally it started raining in Hyderabad but I really didn't enjoy the first as I had been doing every year. Every year I used to wait for monsoon so that the heat goes down and the water woes come down and I used to watch news specifically note the levels in the reservoirs. This year I didn't have time for anything of that sort. But I'm looking forward to the small pond at ISB getting filled up.
But academic pressure has taken over everything else for now. On one side we have all the professional club elections going on and on the other hand Term 2 is moving ahead at a brisk pace. The weekend has just begun for our section but so the pressure to finish the assignments.
I have started liking life below normal curve and it appears to be best simulation for me.
And it is "The Competitiveness." Once you realize this you will lead life only under the normal curve, not a normal life. Every aspect you are challenged and there is struggle to move to the right side of the curve not to the right side of life. Sometimes moving to the right doesn't necessarily mean right side.
Finally it started raining in Hyderabad but I really didn't enjoy the first as I had been doing every year. Every year I used to wait for monsoon so that the heat goes down and the water woes come down and I used to watch news specifically note the levels in the reservoirs. This year I didn't have time for anything of that sort. But I'm looking forward to the small pond at ISB getting filled up.
But academic pressure has taken over everything else for now. On one side we have all the professional club elections going on and on the other hand Term 2 is moving ahead at a brisk pace. The weekend has just begun for our section but so the pressure to finish the assignments.
I have started liking life below normal curve and it appears to be best simulation for me.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
If you decide you don’t have to get A’s....
“If you decide you don’t have to get A’s, you can learn an enormous amount in college”. Though I wouldn’t want to be inspired by this quote (From the book “My life as a Quant” by Emanuel derman and attributed to the legendary physicist I.I.Rabbi), I cannot but help wish that this was the philosophy followed by all the students in all the premier institutes of our country.
When I came to ISB, I had the notion of not wanting to repeat what we did in our undergraduate course at REC, which was to learn by rot and not understand the underlying principles. We have been, as a generation, lucky to have a booming economy waiting for us engineers to pass out of the college and embrace us in the folds of the IT and ITES sectors. But for these sectors, students passing out of the college without a firm understanding of their respective trades would have found it difficult to get a job.
In ISB, with all the world class professors, it would have been ideal for the students to try to understand the finer aspects of a subject and its application in the real world, rather than to cram for exams at the end of the short term.
Let me clarify. To a great extent, this does happen out here, the learning aspect does figure in the priorities of each and every student at ISB and the institute provides a conducive enviroment for the same, with all the world class faculties, state of the art facilities and an amazing library. The only thing that derails a student from the pursuit of knowledge is the over relevance of grades.
Yes, grades do matter and I don’t deny it.
But if grades matter with respect to how it is going to help a student perform in the campus recruitment process, then the reason for securing the grades deviates from the ideal reason for which it should have been done.I can sense that there are a lot of students in the batch who want to learn the subject rather than cram for the exams, but towards the end of the term, the pressure is so high that you tend to somehow master how to do the numericals rather than to understand why you are doing what you are doing.
Trust me. I did the same for the term 1 eco paper.
Yes, this will help in scoring good marks, but I cannot help feeling that somehow I lost the essence of what the numericals were testing me on, even though I managed to get the answer correct.
The above observations might look weird or abstract to a lot of people, so let me change track and recommend the book by Emanuel Derman for everyone who is intellectually oriented and also to those who are aspiring to work in an investment bank! :) I came across this book when it was recommended by one of my senior colleague when I was working with GS technology. The author of the above mentioed book is famous for the Black-Derman-Troy interest rate model in quantitative finance which he co-developed when he was at GS. In the book, he narrates his experiences as a physicist and then his stint at GS heading the quantitative strategy group.
Happy reading, if you get your hands on the book!!
When I came to ISB, I had the notion of not wanting to repeat what we did in our undergraduate course at REC, which was to learn by rot and not understand the underlying principles. We have been, as a generation, lucky to have a booming economy waiting for us engineers to pass out of the college and embrace us in the folds of the IT and ITES sectors. But for these sectors, students passing out of the college without a firm understanding of their respective trades would have found it difficult to get a job.
In ISB, with all the world class professors, it would have been ideal for the students to try to understand the finer aspects of a subject and its application in the real world, rather than to cram for exams at the end of the short term.
Let me clarify. To a great extent, this does happen out here, the learning aspect does figure in the priorities of each and every student at ISB and the institute provides a conducive enviroment for the same, with all the world class faculties, state of the art facilities and an amazing library. The only thing that derails a student from the pursuit of knowledge is the over relevance of grades.
Yes, grades do matter and I don’t deny it.
But if grades matter with respect to how it is going to help a student perform in the campus recruitment process, then the reason for securing the grades deviates from the ideal reason for which it should have been done.I can sense that there are a lot of students in the batch who want to learn the subject rather than cram for the exams, but towards the end of the term, the pressure is so high that you tend to somehow master how to do the numericals rather than to understand why you are doing what you are doing.
Trust me. I did the same for the term 1 eco paper.
Yes, this will help in scoring good marks, but I cannot help feeling that somehow I lost the essence of what the numericals were testing me on, even though I managed to get the answer correct.
The above observations might look weird or abstract to a lot of people, so let me change track and recommend the book by Emanuel Derman for everyone who is intellectually oriented and also to those who are aspiring to work in an investment bank! :) I came across this book when it was recommended by one of my senior colleague when I was working with GS technology. The author of the above mentioed book is famous for the Black-Derman-Troy interest rate model in quantitative finance which he co-developed when he was at GS. In the book, he narrates his experiences as a physicist and then his stint at GS heading the quantitative strategy group.
Happy reading, if you get your hands on the book!!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
State of Shock!
No wonder, there has'nt been any post on this blog since a while. What do you expect? 90% of the ISB population came here believing in their guts, that they are gonna end up in the top 10% of the batch, a.k.a in the Dean's list.
Term 1 Exams are over. Scores are out. Unfortunately, maths does not have any emotion. As a lot of folks figured out, only 10% can come in the top 10%. So what about the remaining 80% "junta"? As I said, they are in a state of shock.
I think I would be a "representative sample" (Thanks to Prof Stine, I know exactly what I mean by that) of this 80% crowd. So you will get the drift if you check out my story.
The day I joined ISB, I carried a lot of baggage. This baggage I had earned from my past life. Some of it by sheer good luck, a few I had actually slogged to achieve. More often than not, I had found myself amongst the more lucky ones. Then I realized, that hey, I am not lucky. I am actually a great performer. I am able to achieve my goals, where many do not..Thanks to many successes, I was tempered to believe that results are always within reach. I just have to stretch enough. In short, like the rest of the 420 individuals who joined ISB, I thought I am SuperMan.
Now, the writing is on the wall (or blackboard, you could say:-)) The truth is, I may be SuperMan. But there are 419 more of them. And you know maths does not have emotions. So you end up with 380 Supermen, who cant be supermen, as they used to be, because they are some 40 Super Supermen.
It is not something easy to digest. It is not pleasant to find out a new weakness in yourself, every damn day. Thats true. Every damn thing that you did well, there are a dozen others who do it even better. Things about yourself that you never knew, now stare glaringly at your face. But come to think of it, am I not better off now? I am.
So that is why many of us are probably in a state of shock. Some of us will come out of it instantly. And accept it. Some will accept it and fight it. I hope I end up in the latter group.
Anyways, the moral of the story is that ISB is very competitive. As an alumnus has said, ISB will give you the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows.
So folks, if you are reading this from outside ISB, thinking about whether to join next year or not, trust me. You can only gain from ISB. Forget about the salary gains. I am taking about something more profound. To be honest, you have to actually live through it to understand it.
And by the way, I have requested many foks from my batch to write on this blog. So you should see more interesting stuff. If you are an ISB applicant and would like us to write about any specific thing, please leave a comment. We will try and share our views on that.
cheers,
C
Term 1 Exams are over. Scores are out. Unfortunately, maths does not have any emotion. As a lot of folks figured out, only 10% can come in the top 10%. So what about the remaining 80% "junta"? As I said, they are in a state of shock.
I think I would be a "representative sample" (Thanks to Prof Stine, I know exactly what I mean by that) of this 80% crowd. So you will get the drift if you check out my story.
The day I joined ISB, I carried a lot of baggage. This baggage I had earned from my past life. Some of it by sheer good luck, a few I had actually slogged to achieve. More often than not, I had found myself amongst the more lucky ones. Then I realized, that hey, I am not lucky. I am actually a great performer. I am able to achieve my goals, where many do not..Thanks to many successes, I was tempered to believe that results are always within reach. I just have to stretch enough. In short, like the rest of the 420 individuals who joined ISB, I thought I am SuperMan.
Now, the writing is on the wall (or blackboard, you could say:-)) The truth is, I may be SuperMan. But there are 419 more of them. And you know maths does not have emotions. So you end up with 380 Supermen, who cant be supermen, as they used to be, because they are some 40 Super Supermen.
It is not something easy to digest. It is not pleasant to find out a new weakness in yourself, every damn day. Thats true. Every damn thing that you did well, there are a dozen others who do it even better. Things about yourself that you never knew, now stare glaringly at your face. But come to think of it, am I not better off now? I am.
So that is why many of us are probably in a state of shock. Some of us will come out of it instantly. And accept it. Some will accept it and fight it. I hope I end up in the latter group.
Anyways, the moral of the story is that ISB is very competitive. As an alumnus has said, ISB will give you the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows.
So folks, if you are reading this from outside ISB, thinking about whether to join next year or not, trust me. You can only gain from ISB. Forget about the salary gains. I am taking about something more profound. To be honest, you have to actually live through it to understand it.
And by the way, I have requested many foks from my batch to write on this blog. So you should see more interesting stuff. If you are an ISB applicant and would like us to write about any specific thing, please leave a comment. We will try and share our views on that.
cheers,
C
Saturday, June 2, 2007
XAMS XAMS
As the sun sets on the hills beyond ISB..
As the birds fly back to their nests..
As the peacocks come out from their hiding..
As the office wallah decides to call it a day..
As the Ibanker looks at his watch – “5 hours more..”
As the city traffic swells to go back home,
As the birds fly back to their nests..
As the peacocks come out from their hiding..
As the office wallah decides to call it a day..
As the Ibanker looks at his watch – “5 hours more..”
As the city traffic swells to go back home,
(credit to: photography club)
The lights at the LRC switch itself ON
And so do the lights on the snaking paths around it..
I am looking outside from my window
Thinking..thinking…
Oh GOD!! What is it telling me? What is it telling me that I don’t know?
Somewhere deep within the pits of my mind, I hear a sound..
A faint one initially but then increasing in intensity…
Yes you guessed it right..
It is the sound of the small tick of the watch..
Silently ticking away to glory..
Laughing Laughing Laughing away..
And so do the lights on the snaking paths around it..
I am looking outside from my window
Thinking..thinking…
Oh GOD!! What is it telling me? What is it telling me that I don’t know?
Somewhere deep within the pits of my mind, I hear a sound..
A faint one initially but then increasing in intensity…
Yes you guessed it right..
It is the sound of the small tick of the watch..
Silently ticking away to glory..
Laughing Laughing Laughing away..
Just look at them.. look at the bunch of ISbians..
Struggling against all odds to learn what others do in a lifetime
They try to do in less than three weeks..
And yet they think they can solve 8 of the allens in 2 hours flat..
They think they can tick the right ones on waterman’s gate..
That some divine grace will guide them through the finns of mark..
And AHhhh they think Piyush will give an easy one…NO WAY!!!
The watch knows…
The watch knows that soon it will all be over!!!!!
And life will be back to the three D’s
Daru, Daru and Daru…
The watch tells me another thing…what you may ask..
That the watch no longer shows time…
It shows time left… and that is 39 hours left….
What the *(!*@##!@*# am I doing writing this….
Have I gone mad….. ?
Man these admission wallahs enjoy diversity….
If only they could hear the shrieks and pains.. when exams come calling..
Man.. you still reading this??
You must be out of your minds!! GO BACK TO STUDIES>………………………..
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