Soham

This thought occurred to me a few days back.

Before that, let me give you some background on my beliefs so that it would be easier for you to reach the conclusion I reached.
1) I am an agnostic - It is very difficult for me to have blind faith in existence or non-existence of something.
2) I wonder about consistencies in different religions and philosophies - about the ultimate truth or about realizing that you carry a part of the God-ness in the universe (Paramatma or the equivalent).
3) I believe that taking an initiative (leadership so to say) is an individual decision after your own realization (the defining moment). Leadership cannot be taught or inherited (Leadcap)

Putting all this together, I think one carries a part of the ultimate power (God/Paramatma etc) BECAUSE one can decide to make a change to the world, and see it happen. To me, that is the most profound realization over some time.

In short - "Soham" - is the realization. I am him. I am the one who can change the world for good. And so is everybody else, if they wish.

birthday wish

I hope dada gets to choose what he wants by doing well in his remaining UPSC exams a week later.

A reason to start over new

Few wonderful things have happened amidst of summers.

1.Spicmacay concert - We got violinist duo Ganesh & Kumaresh to perform in IIMB on 26th. It was a short but beautiful concert.

2.Music room got set up - We had a budget of 3L! We have got Tama drumkit, Ibanez bass, Kramer (electric) and GB&A (acoustic) guitars, Yamaha keyboard, 3 Stranger amps and a Marshal amp. Plus the music room is acoustically padded on all sides. Yey IIMB! Can't wait for summers to get over (that explains the title)

3.Saw a few TED videos online - all were interesting. From relating probability of heads & tails to length of pieces of DNA strands to making rural cooking smoke free, all give valuable insights.

4.Had read about Aravind Eye Care Services before, but now was the time to write about it. Do read and if you have time, do watch abridged or full documentary - very inspiring indeed.

awww

Which one looks cuter?


this -















or this?
















It took two years before those 20 minutes in hair saloon, to try being this -








sigh.

second term

(credit - Naka , modified to suit local context)

So what does term 2 bring? A colourful marketing text book? A 'god level' finance text book? A heavier load of case studies?

What does term 2 promise? A 3-month marathon of what kind? A summer internship selection process, one too many PPTs, reams of application forms, vault guides, case-books, surprise quizzes, Vista, sleepless L²s, and an indirect rat-race till death with 259 others for a place in the sun- these all and some more.

Rats! I have to begin somewhere to fit myself to companies.


So what does life after IIM bring? Professional nostalgia for the alma mater? 'God level' finances in your bank account?

What does life after IIM promise? Decades long marathon of what kind? A job with huge load of binding responsibilities & expectations, one too many formal PPTs, losing sleep over deadlines and another indirect rat-race with thousands of others for proving the worth of the brands - these and more.

Rats! I have to begin somewhere, to seek the purpose of this life.


Though I keep rationalizing by saying "This too shall pass away", whatever comes next, will also pass away. So will life, universe and everything.....

Sigh....

That is 42.

on rakshabandhan

लड़की - मैं तुम्हे राखी बाँधना चाहती हूँ.
लड़का - वाह ! तुम कोई धागा लाई हो और मैं बाँध लूँ, कल मैं मंगल सूत्र लाउ तो पहेन लोगी क्या?


(courtesy - a mail forward, incidentally by a girl)

IIMB transparent on admission criteria

IIMB has decided to make the criteria for admissions to Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) transparent to everyone. The details can be found on the website (pdf). The following structure was for admissions to PGP 2007-09, but it is expected that similar framework was in place before, and it will probably continue to be with some tweaks in the following years.

Some surprises (or spoilers you may say) -

• CAT score carried only 20% weight, the cutoffs are much lower than those thought of (85% sectional, 90% aggregate for general category)
• Previous academic record carried 40% weight.
• GD summary carried as much weight as the GD itself (7.5% each).
• Work-ex had an optimum value of 36 months (contrary to the more the better)

Now it will not be a surprise that IIMB gives single calls, or may not give calls to people who get most others. It may also explain why an IIMB-batch is perceived as diverse. It is also heartening to know that one of the most complex and subjective procedures is objectivized in a way similar to what I used once.

While others have blogged about this already (1,2), for me the conclusion is - my being in IIMB was not dependent only on 19th Nov 2006. There was a lot of 'karma' associated.

(More on experiences in IIMB some other day, have to study for a test with 10% overall weight, happening in about 5 hours.)

new keyboard layout

While reading an article on slashdot, this idea struck me. Now I have a business plan, surely this product is going to be a huge success among the users who will be watching movies on windows :D

A good option to have

Everytime some good news comes, there is one bad. Last year, some of my friends could make their way to IIMs, but i could not, this time it was the other way round.

With smaller system boundaries, the good news is that I got admits from IIMB and IIMC, and bad news is that I am unable to decide between the two. All the advice I have sought from friends in this regard has just added to my confusion.

Here is an exercise to put an end to it. The relative weights given are subject to my perception (and all you friends because you are the cause of bias), and may not represent the reality. The favourabilities are approximated on a scale of 100, 100 being the most favourable case. For example, I am expecting some rigour in both IIMB and IIMC, so peace factor has a less favourability value in both (yeah, blame relative grading!!).

Factor	Weight	IIMB	IIMC	B score	C score
reputation	6	99	95	594	570
maths	2	70	80	140	160
peace	4	15	25	60	100
climate	1	85	40	85	40
campus, mess	1	80	65	80	65
distance from pune	1.5	70	40	105	60
ease in moving	0.75	90	40	67.5	30
friends in/near city	0.5	80	50	40	25
proximity to city	0.5	65	45	32.5	22.5
traffic in city	0.5	0	0	0	0
diversity of students *	0.5	86	83	43	41.5
rock culture in pubs	0.5	50	85	25	42.5
rock shows	0.1	95	60	9.5	6
interview **	0.25	90	50	22.5	12.5
TOTAL				1304	1175

*Based upon statistics quoted by one of friends
** Based upon my own view that my PI was interesting

For one of my senior's advice ("You will like it here in C") I would add bonus 100 to IIMC's score.

We still have the winner - B by quite a small margin ~2.5% (and what else would one expect!).

Disclaimer: The outcome of this exercise does not assure that it will be same as the actual choice. I reserve all rights to discard this outcome and flip a coin instead.

(Congrats to all who made it - Sahan, Aravind, Lather, Churu, Majhi, Nishant, KC and others. Hard luck for who could not convert the calls they wanted, there is something else waiting for you this time.)

ततः किम्

Here is post on this blog after a long time, since most of my time is being spent in my job, music-practices and (maybe wasted in) preparing for IIM interviews. So the habit of blogging on every weekend has now taken a backseat, and doesn't seem like driving for some time to come.

Here are the reasons one should appear for IIM interviews -

1. Irreproducible percentile
2. IIMs calling (and a promise of bright future therefore made)
   

Reasons it might not make any difference

1. Same old story of "घर से ऑफ़िस, ऑफ़िस से घर, बॉस का डर, बीवी का डर"
2. It does not answer the question "ततः किम्"*
3. The world might not exist in a livable form after only a few years due to either/combination of

• US foreign policy and a feared chain reaction
  
• Chinese space policy and another chain reaction
• Standstills on Hosur Road in Bangalore and continuous addition of running vehicles
  
• Increasing global warming and increase in natural violent activities thereof
• Decreasing biodiversity - on land, in air and in water
  
• Aliens getting frustrated of increasing stupidity on earth

And here are the reasons I would think twice before going to an IIM

1. Need to get a haircut. And keep doing that till hair stops growing.
2. Need to revise dept fundae, HR questions, general awareness and what not
3. Need to learn to be a hypocrite, especially in the interviews
4. Need to move on - Hate trying to find amicable people every now and then, especially regarding one's musical activities.
5. Not earn financially for following two years and still face hardships.
6. Face a stiffer and faster job-life after that.
7. Foresee an early retirement out of exhaution, frustration and long suppression of one's non-professional penchants.
8. If you win a rat-race, you win, but you are still a rat.

Given a choice, I would go to IIMs if haircut was not a concern, but now I am confused.
So right now I am in a moral dilemma, similar to the person around whom a typical GD revolves - "What should s/he do now?"

* "ततः किम्" means "what after that?"

p.s. there has been an update on this post to add reasons for indifference, so don't get confused if you read the post differently now.