Pyramids

If you think that pyramids were of interest to only the stiff-necked Pharaohs who believed in 'life after death' (mannnn.....human beings love to live forever......even if that life is after death!!!!!!), then think again......and you need not think hard. 

Pyramids have attracted almost everyone, from historians, to physicists, to mathematicians, to archaeologists, to tourists, to students, to film-makers, to photographers (professional or freelance) to international bodies (desperate to put the Pyramid of Giza on the list of the Seven Wonders of the World), to management gurus.

Not really sure about the life of the Pharaohs but the pyramids are surely going to live on in the minds of the generations of people forever. I sometimes wonder how on earth would it have been possible for the management gurus to explain the basic theories of their respective subjects. From Maslow's hierarchy of needs of a person, to the Consumer Based Brand Equity model, to the Pyramid sales concept, to the relatively new strategy of targeting the bottom of the pyramid etc; we have pyramids all over the place. Sometimes, we even show the hierarchy of the managerial levels in terms of a pyramid. Then, we have the inverted versions of these diagrams as well. 

It seems as though we are not specializing in marketing or finance or operations or strategy, but we are all generalizing in Pyramid management. And if that is the case then I would like to take the liberty of describing a situation which is “universal” across the length and breadth of India and according to your truly, is not in sync with the concept of a welfare state.

The situation I am referring to is the distribution of the number of students as per their grades in the academic exams. The figure proposed by me would be a diamond.

I will just broadly divide the diamond into 3 parts horizontally. The top part is that of the top scorers, who are few in number. The second part is that of the above average and the average scorers who are in the sheer majority. Then comes the bottom part which houses the not so average and the casual scorers, who are again few in number; maybe this time it’s even fewer.

However, the number of job opportunities follows the inverted pyramid format (whatever happened to the equitable distribution of wealth and resources?) Not only does the number of job opportunities fall as we move down the figure but also the quality of the jobs (judged on three parameters: brand-name, profile and pay).

A job opportunity enters the inverted pyramid at the top, goes through the perusal of the “achievers”, if not found suitable by them, it slips into the purview of the “competitors”. If it’s not found upto the mark even by these “competitors”, then it percolates down to the group of “strivers/freelancers”.

For generations together, people have spoken large-heartedly, rationally and with concern that grades are not indicative of how much knowledge and applicable talent a person possesses. But no concrete action has been taken in this direction till date and neither does it seem to be a likely scenario in the near future.

Well, each view has its own set of advocates who have vowed to safeguard the opinion they stand by steadfastly. Whatever people might say or do, we can rest assured that if this predicament is not treated properly and in good time, many of us would see their dreams and aspirations being mummified, time and again, and put in these pyramids for good. And believe me when I say that these mummies wont “rest in peace".

Interesting!!!!!

Hey everyone!!!!! I am back!!!!! Well, not that anyone has been actually missing me but no one can change my belief either.......the belief that people around me long to see me and they miss me the moment I am gone......now that I have been able to convey how humble I am and how I think myself to be a lesser mortal, i would like to pen down (rather type down ) a few observations about how the first year in IMT was and how it changed my life, adding some value to my life along the way.

Firstly, I would like to make this very clear that there has been no change in my life whatsoever......not the slightest bit..........there might have been changes in my lifestyle but not in my life. There has not been any value addition either, be it in terms of lessons in life or managerial knowledge...  (sounds very happening ,doesnt it?). Happening or not, I liked the way it was (sorry.....I loved it!!!).

Life in first year in IMT was hectic and tiring...........there was some cut-throat competition going on among the students..........it was nothing academic...infact it was regarding watching movies and sitcoms and soaps and serials and the like........every next person you would have bumped into would have been a bigger movie buff than the previous one.

Parties happen all the time......but they are not just any party.......they were for a reason and I have realized one thing; that IMTians are Masters/Mistresses in coming up with reasons for such parties. Parties can be for celebrating some success or for relieiving yourself of the depression of some failure, they can be after the exams get over (be it mid-term or end-term) or before the exams start off (to gather enough momentum to carry yourself through the exams), they can be for busting the stress of heavy project work or for simply killing time since there is no work in hand.......the list can go on. One thing goes without saying that all these parties were "daaru parties". (if you had been thinking otherwise all this while, then you should drown yourself in "chullu bhar beer"). 

The other thing that every IMTian did without fail is gossipping, better known as "bhasad". It is something which is known as "Adda" in Bengali. It is hours of some intense discussion on some issue, which the members of the discussion feel very important at that particular time. However, the discussion does not have any productive value as such and like many other hundreds of discussions, they do not prove useful to anyone other than the fact that it helps kill a whole lot of time. Well, there is a group of people who actually reap the benefits of such seemingly "important" discussions, and they are the owners of the canteen, the tea-stall, the roll-stall, the paan-shop, the cigarette shop and the like. 

When people grow bored of bhasad (actually they never grew bored of bhasad; they suddenly remembered that they had to chat with their loved ones), they would go to their rooms and sit down to chat online (if the financial condition is on the lean side) or to talk for hours at length (if the financial condition is on the lean side.....but the person is unaware of it........you know, how people lose their senses in love).

After all these productive and knowledge-rearing activities, we tried and worked; and ofcourse finished the projects and assignments on time. We attended lectures, open-houses, a few more lectures and more open-houses. Then there were extra lectures (which people hated) and guest lectures (which people hurled abuses at.........emotions were stronger than regular hatred......more so because we were required to wear formal dresses).

The subjects were strikingly interesting. I have developed a simple model to help you find out how interesting the subjects were to me. The model is called the "Sleep" model. I will explain it with an example:

Finance: .......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Economics: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Human Resource Management: ............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........zzzzzzzzz

Operations: ....................................zzzzzzzzzzz..............................zzzzzzzzzzzzz..................zzzzz..........

Business Communication: ................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Marketing: ............................................................zzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........................zzzzzzzzzzzz..............

Now carefully observe how long I slept at a stretch in a particular lecture. The longer the duration of the sleep at a stretch, the more boring it was to me.  As you can clearly see that I found marketing and operations to be the most interesting of all. This was pretty much how I used to attend lectures in the first year.

Now let us come to the most awaited part-the girls, the fairer sex, the next best creation of God (the first being marijuana ofcourse). It would be a mild way to put it if I say that there is a dearth of good looking girls in IMT because the fact of the matter is there are........NONE!!!!!!!!! ghhrrrr!!!!! (I am referring to only my batch; there were quite a few in the senior batch; however,as can be expected, they were all engaged to some loser or the other). As it is,the sex ratio is as low as 1:6 and on top of that the beauty (or the lack of it) of the lasses is way too much to be captured in words. We have females in all shapes and sizes; from drumsticks to pumpkins but not a single pretty damsel. I wonder what's wrong with the God's manufacturing plant. But I have realized one thing, that I must have done something mightily wrong in my previous life, some heinous crime, and now I am paying a heavy penalty for that. Four years in engineering and now in MBA; without a single pretty looking girl in sight!!!! If you think economic recession hurts, you will not survive in a recession of pretty lasses (you have no idea how much it hurts!!!).

That's enough for now!! i have got to go back to finish up my work and there is a lot of work lined up after that as well........because I haven't downloaded The Reader, Silence of the Lambs, My Best Friend's Girl, Before Sunrise, Angoor etc. etc. to only create a movie library (because then I won't use it ever; I suffer from a "terminal illness" which disallows me use any service or place which has the word "library" in it's name!!!!! )