Author: SK

Old classmate from school is a facha in a premier B school (one that is ranked 2 notches below us in the league tables). He asked me to look at his resume for summers. It was one which had been passed through 6-7 seniors in his school. And which has been sent to quite a few companies already.

Was quite a shocker. Reminded me of the crappy resumes our fachas had made in first week. Looked very empty. Too many lines with just one word on it. No proper framing of sentences. So many simple rules ignored.

It took me all of two minutes to transform the resume. At the end of it, I had left no empty spaces in his resume, created three extra lines (to put in more stuff), highlighted the relevent portions, etc. And this to a resume which 6-7 people in his school had already seen!

Wondering if the difference between #2 and #4 (going by most league tables) is so much, what is the fate of the rest? Looks like there is something seriously wrong with management education in our country. And today we had a debate on our internal forum where we discussed that IIMB itself stands nowhere internationally.

went to the IIMB student general body meeting today hoping to raise some dhamaakedaar issues. Before going i had drummed up support from people so that i wouldn’t be a spearman poking at an elephant. Then just before the meeting I was told that the support was being withdrawn. Kept quiet.

Now i’m pissed with myself for not raising the issue which i consider slightly important. Why is it that I keep allowing the rebel in me to get suppressed by the “saner” side? And then regret it? Why is it that I am frequently overcome by bouts of enthulessness? Why is it that the most hifunda of my plans generally never take off? Is it something wrong with me? Or is it that what I consider great is not that great after all? Or is it just that I’m actually doing the right thing and regretting about nothing?

Have this course called “Tracking Creative Boundaries” this term. We get artistes from various fields every week and they talk about their art and the creative process that goes behind it. The following is the text of the midterm question paper, which was “take home”. Submitted it early this morning. Prof would go through our answers and then there would be an individual viva!

\begin{question paper}

1) Do you want to identify your core barrier? (yes/no)

2)
a. Is your core barrier represented here? (yes/no)
b. If not, write it down and that is at the root of your core incompetence.

3)
a. Are you willing to do what it takes to overcome that? (yes/no)
b. What support system (or buddy system) do you need?
c. How can others reach you and remind you?

4)
a. What do you enjoy doing? (What do you lose yourself in?)
b. What do you enjoy thinking about? (talking about, reflecting about)
c. What do you enjoy learning about? (you learn quickly and develop rapidly what you are interested and have talent)
d. What do you enjoy as a process? (writing letters, singing, talking)

5)

a. Identify three competencies that you are good at.
b. Identify three competencies that you would like to develop over the next year

6)
a. If you could share one bit of wisdom, what would it be?
b. Is there anything you’d be willing to put it all on the line for? If so, what?
c. What has been the most important lesson you have learned in your life? Why?
d. What is the basic philosophy of your life?

\end{question paper}

some “fan mail” that i’ve gotten… in a small chit in a “postal envelope” with a Rs. 5 stamp… reproducing the whole thing here verbatim…

Hai Karthik,
First of all i really hope this letter reaches you coz i don’t have a clue how to get to you; all por little me wanted to do was express the esteemed regards that i hold for you.
I really hope you don’t take this as a practical joke. To introduce myself – I’m a doc….. (hope sex dosent matter!)
Dude, its such a pleasure to read through the articles you’ve contributed; considering the fact you guys are considered “gods of geeks”! one would wonder if you guys have time for small pleasures!
I prefer to remain anonymous for the time being. but please check your postal mails often!
I would like to end ; a note “Wise Men Possess Ideas, Most Of Us Are Possessed By Them”

Sincerely Yours

Ps: You seem so entertaining in your articles, do you belly dance by any chance 🙂 chill

had an “optional exam” today. If we wrote it, it would count for 40% and the end term for 60%. If we chose to bunk this, the end term would count for 100% of the course evaluation.

Initially thought of bunking this as I felt too lazy to mug. Announced this to the world. Half the class followed suit. Then, a friend came to me with doubts and i was able to solve them easily and decided to take up the paper. Think i’ve done pretty well.

And of course, as (he chose not to write the exam) was lamenting the other day, one question was a direct ripoff from last year’s paper. With only 1/2 numbers changed here or there. And this paper being set by the director of the institute!

My parents expect too much out of me. And i’m not able to live up to it. And whenever I tell them that they start putting senti and talk about moral obligations and similar crap.

Why don’t they understand that I can lead my own life? Why do they still treat me as a kid? Why do they feel they want to take the decisions for me and tell me what is right and wrong? Why can’t they simply let me lead my own life and allow market forces to take over, and allow me to figure out for myself what is right and wrong?

Stuff like “we brought you up in a disciplined manner which is why you are such a stud today” or “look we’ve gotten you a car and stuff” or “when we were kids we never got … ” or “we love you so much and … ”

I am extremely thankful to them in bringing me up the way they did – which has made me academically brilliant and moderately socially challenged. Times have changed, so don’t compare to what happened when they were kids. Yeah I know they love me a lot and I am damn happy about that. And I don’t really want the car, I can travel by bus/auto. All I want is freedom. All I want is to lead my own life.

Click here for part 2 of the story

Click here for part 1 of the story

Getting to the main thing now…

Dear Mom,

Today’s L^2 party was good. Had a lot of fun. I mean the last one I attended was over seven months ago. Initially was a little hard to get involved in the action but then later managed to quite enjoy myself. I must tell you that I didn’t drink (psst… had a couple of *drops* of rum and vodka). I didn’t need to. I told you I’m on a perennial high right? And as always, the best part of the party was the conversation I had for the last hour with a couple of KT (kannada type) juniors.

The party was sponsored by our juniors who won the AVB scholarship this year. And i trust they didn’t have half as much fun as we did last year. Probably the fact that they were all girls while we were two guys and two girls made the difference. They came quietly, cut a cake, at all of it, danced for a few minutes and left. The sidelines, though were interesting.

One guy, a regular drunkard, got drunk again and took to hugging some exchange females. Another, who was in the final scholarship shortlist but didn’t make it, got drunk for the first time in his life and had to be carried back to his room. Felt a little sorry for him.

Then there was this regular quota of outsiders who unfailingly turn up whenever the booze is free. There was one pretty girl but it looked like she had come with her boyfriend. Those people were around even when I left the party half an hour ago.

Attending a party after seven months, it was initially difficult to settle in. There seemed to be some fixed groups on the floor and I didn’t seem to connect with any of them. Did some brownian motion and proceeded to talk to a few drunk friends. Still hadn’t gotten hang of the party. Tried dancing but my cellphone kept in my shirt pocket fell off and the LCD is broken. Dunno if i’ll be able to fix it. Oh god, it belongs to dad’s office right?

Then I came back to my room, kept the phone, changed into a more comfortable cotton shirt, tied my red bandana (to prevent sweat enterign my injured-forever (thanks to ) left eye). People said I looked like a VHP activist. Don’t mind that comparison actually.

Suddenly the party took a turn for the better. Music got better. I got headbanging. The bandana slowed down the rush of blood to my brain, thus getting me higher. Managed to gel with some juniors and a few batchmates.

People kept talking to me about falling in front of girls and hugging them (reminding me of episode one). Didn’t find any of the girls there huggable or fall-at-feet-able. Got a little senti though when i remembered i had had a fifteen second crush on a number of them. Nothing untoward happened.

Then I met 3 KT juniors and we got talking – about how people from NPS indiranagar have a lot of attitude and stuff. Was damn good fun. And the music got worse. Some arbit punjoo stuff. Dunno how people can tolerate those songs. There were a couple of English songs in between but they were rudely cut out leading to shouts of “DJ sucks” by the exchange students.

Finally made a move when I realized more value couldn’t be added by the party.

Once again, mom, I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot also. I know better how people behave when drunk. I was able to do soem arbit research on social networks (nohting concrete though). Lots of other stuff I learnt which i’ve subsequently forgotten.

Yeah, i’m going out for lunch today. Will be back home for dinner. And yeah, more importantly, the running nose I had at the beginning of the party seems to have stopped running now.

Bye
Karthik

called up my mom today and told her i’ll be going home only late in the evening tomorrow because we have a party on campus tonight. she went on this long senti trip saying why i shouldn’t booze.

sample this: “don’t you like those cute babies that come in the johnson ads? if you booze, your blood will get corrupted and you’ll get ugly babies”; or “look we’re not from that kind of a family. and drinking is not part of our culture so you shouldn’t drink”; or “i’ll refuse to help you out with chickfinding and even if ;you find someone i’ll convince her that you’re a drunkard and convince her to ditch you”; anyways, the “best case” that was mentioned was that i won’t be allowed home.

dad was a little more pragmatic. he said “look at some point or the other you’ll want to live with us. and such things are not tolerated in our house. so if you want to booze keep in mind that you’ll get thrown out of the house”…

ten minutes of senti later, my mom asked me to promise her that i won’t booze. i told her that i won’t but i can’t promise. i told her that i don’t believe in breaking promises and wouldn’t like to promise in something like this where i may not be able to keep it. more senti.

mom said that she’ll come to my room early tomorrow and make sure i didn’t drink tonight. i start laughing loudly. then mom says that i’m already high and might have started already. i try explain to her that of late i’ve been perennially high.

she fails to understand, puts lots of senti and says “i won’t talk to you” and slams the phone down…

my cousin’s recent wedding was weird – the reception was on wednesday evening and the wedding on thursday morning. and it so happened that due to other commitments, etc. i attended the reception and my parents attended the wedding. here follows the approximate (and translated) transcript of a phone conversation with my mom yesterday night…

I: Mom, I must tell you, for a change, I saw a few pretty girls at yesterday’s wedding
Mom: You’re right. Even I saw quite a few pretty faces today.
I: hmmm..
Mom: Did you make an effort to find out who they are?
I: No, which is why i’ve been telling you i missed you at the wedding. Had no way to find out. And no one to ask for a second opinion. Even putti (my cousin who i’m pretty clsoe to) wasn’t around.
Mom: I thought when i told you I’m not going for the reception but for the wedding instead, you’d get the cue and change your plans. This is what happens if you don’t listen to me.
I: ok…
Mom: Anyways, there’s a wedding in Mysore next month. The same crowd is expected there. And now you have another good reason to come there. And this time, if you notice something tell me so that we can try make some progress.
I: (speechless) ok i’ll come
(hang up)