An Illuminating Visit to IISE!

The idea of writing on this subject had crept into my mind before Ramki Sir and Hari Sir (sitting on the back-seat of the car) discussed as to how difficult (and dark) was that an incident to describe. So here, I put my efforts to describe the same…

International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE), Vellayani was the place we [I, Ramki Sir, Shyamla Ma’m (Ramki Sir’s wife) and Hari Sir] visited on the evening of October 15, 2009. The institute is situated right-next to the largest fresh-water lake in Kerala. We were welcomed by the young fleet there. Several activities were going on there. One camp was dedicated to ‘Blind Massage’ where one visually-challenged women and a sighted man were providing the service of neck and leg massaging.

One camp was totally dedicated to the awareness of Braille script, completely handled by visually-challenged people. A young lady skillfully showed us how she handled the laptop. That was a ‘Dell’ J (Batch-4 students know the secret behind this smiley) laptop and several ‘Braille’ stickers were stuck on the keys like ‘Tab’, ‘Enter’ etc. There were special buttons/lights on the right top corner of the laptop. The Operating System was ‘Ubuntu’ and an additional plug-in was downloaded to help with the voice explanations & description.

Another person was sitting with a Braille Typewriter. The Typewriter had 3 keys on each side with a spacebar in between. One Tab key (most probably) was on the left. I was wondering how everything of the English language is covered just by 6 keys! Another person was demonstrating the way to write in Braille script. He had a stylus, a net (one needed to force the stylus into the paper to make bloated dots), and a thick paper. I followed his instructions to write my name and ended up writing ‘JNUKIN’. Finally, I was able to write my complete name correctly.

Another interesting thing was the ‘Obstacles Course’. Actually this was the event which I liked most. Initially I was a bit afraid but then I thought to ‘explore’ it. So, I was blind-folded, was handed a white cane and had to slowly stumble a zigzagged way which included an artificial wooden bridge. Thanks to my reasoning abilities, I didn’t find it much difficult. In the middle of stage I was smelled clove and some other spices and was asked to name them. Now, in the second stage I was handed a bowl of water and I was supposed to go to and fro on an obstacles-loaded path with 3-4 ropes. Blindfolded, I had to decide just by touching the rope and obstacles by the white-cane, whether I had to climb over the rope or just bend and pass through the rope. 20 minutes, complete darkness and bingo, I attained the task.

Then followed a stage-show comprising of songs, experiences and play. The spirit of the visually-challenged people was awe-inspiring. Next came the much-awaited ‘Café in the dark’. Here we were supposed to have snacks in complete darkness. I had the feeling in my mind that there would be at least, at least again (its not a type-error) some light. Coupons were of different shapes so as to be touched and felt as to what they stand for. So, we four people were taken inside and to describe the darkness inside, I’d say it was something more than darkness. And I mean it; Its very low a probability that the reader of this blog had faced a situation of complete (more than complete; how do I express myself!) darkness for around 30 minutes. Generally eyes adjust to the darkness and one slowly starts seeing things whatsoever darkness one faces, but that was an exceptional situation.

We were welcomed by a visually-challenged lady. She made a train of us, of which Hari Sir was the engine and I was the guard’s coach; and there the train left chuk chuk chuk… We were made to listen various sounds in the dark and then taken to a table on which several fruits were kept. Sheer darkness, and we’re asked to touch and smell fruits and recognize them. Another table and there were spices instead of fruits. Then we were handed our ‘samosas’ in a plate and were guided to a table. We sat and the visually challenged lady who, in those circumstances was ‘more efficient’ than us, brought tea for us. After some time Ramki Sir asked, “Nikunj! Are you done with your tea?” I replied, “Sir, I don’t know how much I’m finished with my tea”. The Samosa and tea were indeed delicious by themselves; needless to say the unique atmosphere added its own flavor.

One serious take-away was the thought of comparing my live with theirs’. They can’t see what they eat. They have to stumble slowly. And, here I ‘m afraid of trivial issues.

Collection of some Scribbles!

Isn’t it so different an experience, when all of a sudden people around you start speaking a language familiar to you. That actually is happening when I’m coming back to North India. Till this point of time, I didn’t care much what other people around me spoke (even in Hindi). But when I happened to stay at Kerala & Tamil Nadu and people around me spoke an unfamiliar language, I having no other work, tried to extract the sense by some English words and their gesticulation. Obviously this didn’t work much but, now when I’m sitting in a train destined to North India and people are talking in Hindi, I’m much alert of their conversation, just for one reason that there could be an unfamiliar-lingo situation.

In the course of exploring my fellow-passengers, I had to reveal that I’m a Commerce Graduate. My fellow-passenger was working in a bank and had some “Commercial Law” book in his hands (most probably he was preparing for some exam, though he didn’t reveal this). So he asked me, “Did you study the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881?” I replied in positive. ‘Okay, then explain me the difference between “Holder” and “Holder-in-due-course”’. I said that I would try and took his book. The book was in Hindi. The words for “Holder” and “Holder-in-due-course” in Hindi are “Dharak” and “Yathavidhidhari” respectively. So I went through the book for 15 minutes and tried to explain him. Irrespective of the fact that he understood the difference, it was a nice time pass.

July 26, Sunday, 0845 hours; Tring-Tring. I woke up. My friend Sandeep from Lucknow told me that he was going to take the first SIM-Cat and he also got my name registered for the test held at Gorakhpur (First SIM-Cat at IMS is free). I was left surprised, but as usual I having no other work, thought to explore the test. Hopefully, my old pencil and eraser were there in my old pencil-box which I used to carry in one-day examinations. The test was scheduled to begin at 1000 hours and I left the preparation exactly one year ago.

Thanks to my reading habits, I found the English section much easy. DI was so-so, thanks to some Operations sessions & the novel “The Goal”. So I scored 30 in English, 10 in DI and just 2 marks in Quants. I guess this is where overconfidence came into play. But those two and a half hours were pure fun; I mean I didn’t have any stress/tension as I took the test aimlessly and I think that this is one of the most optimum ways to take a test, but yes, preparation should also be there.

I watched the movie “Luck” with old friends and was lucky enough to not to get bored. One should leave the critical-thinking mind home while watching a bollywood flick. Yet, there were some logical inconsistencies which I can’t help but mention. In the scene where our “lucky” Imran Khan, in the course of igniting the cigarette-lighter for five consecutive times, tries to turn on the lighter for the fifth and last time, the lighter doesn’t turn on for the first some three seconds. Imran Khan just keeps it holding and it turns on all of a sudden. Now, how does a lighter work? The happening of ignition and the supply of gas should start simultaneously. How come the ignition took place three seconds after the cock was pushed.

Second scene pertained to the release of our Bhojpuri star Ravikishan who was awarded capital punishment. Just because the rope slipped and the court cannot make a person hung “twice”, he was “ba-izzat” released. But where was he hung in the first place? Did not the slipping of the rope obstruct the hanging procedure? Probably I should have left my mind at home.

Sandeep evaluates me "frankly"

Nikunj Barnwal , The name of a person whom I really respect and follows the most of the things which he does. Knowing him more than 3.5 yrs I try to judge him .He is not only my true friend but also my mentor.
At the age of 27 he has the same positive attitude n enthusiasm, which I think had in his child hood, to learn and grow. He doesn’t care about present but he want to make his future safe and prosperous. Having done the work for 2 yrs in government t org I have doubt that he has saved some money. The monthly salary is 7K he is having 10k per month expenses ,Luxurious mobile and P/c this shows that he doesn’t care about the money but want to use the technology to learn and grow .He uses the technology at optimum level.
He thinks information is a source of inspiration to learn, to search and to absorb that info.

I think he is fortunate enough to get such a generous and a humble parent who has fulfilled his all the genuine desire to grow .He has a strong and loyal friend circle. I think this the most important saving he made throughout life. I have no doubt that there is any city in this country where his loyal friends are not there. The best thing is that he maintains that relationship .it is hard to maintain but he believes in friendship so he has to make that.
If u tell him yr problem (Personal/academic) he ll try his best to solve that or ll tell the path to go through .where ever he goes he leaves his memories in the heart of colleges/friends think he loves 3 things most in his life those are technology, books and food. He has done proper investment on these things .mobile he uses, books he reads, food/snacks he eats. he is so generous and munificent that he gives the money to other friend by taking that money from other friends, Where we ll find a such friend. Some times it disturbs him but what can be done when those thing are in his gene and habit.
I m sorry to say but in this regard he has not learned any thing from his previous mistakes
. When ever u ll try to do new thing u'll be asked many times why this, why here etc.
He likes to find the faults and correct that at same moment without caring abt the feedback forms others. he seeks the opportunity to eat , to travel and to read .this is the reason which motivates him to grow .He appreciates the efforts of others without caring of result. of others.
Although he is a good planner but he fails sometimes. he fills the form but doesn’t go ot take the test. he thinks that any investment is fruitful but this doesn’t true always.
I lived with him for 2 months I found that I was criticizing him at that time but I think that he was right .I learnt a lot of things from him of which I ll always be grateful.
He knows how to use the people (I think this thing help him working as a manager.)
How he can get his work done. but the best thing is that he doesn’t leave that person after that who helped him any how..
Although he is nothing today but he tries that the people can get a lot of thing s from him whatever little good things he has. I have doubt that he has patience but at the age of this I would follow the same path what he has followed 
Being an average student, he is continue with his study, never lost the hope for better, this is the reason he is going to become some valuable for his friends, for his family and for himself.

I think his motto of his life is never ,never ,never give up .always think positive have the good attitude The success will be yours


I am also fortunate to have the friend like u.


All the best!!!!!!!!!!

--
With warm regards
Sandeep Gupta
SBI CARD- Trainer
north
9015057540
9935024984

Birthday bash or Punishment Anniversary

It so happened that one of my flat-mates birthday fell on June 23. Everything happened as usual, in the sense that everybody greeted him at 12 midnight, cake was cut, distributed and cake splashing on face etc. etc. Well! The unique thing started after that. All the other flat-mates (obviously, excluding me) made him lie on the ground (fortunately between him and ground was a mattress), switched off the lights, one or two people held cameras to take shots and they started beating him.

I guess the birthday-boy was also having fun in screaming while getting beaten. Some more adventurous people had arranged sticks and all to beat him. I, in another room was thanking god that it’s not September 24 and was wondering whether they are punishing him as to why on this day did he come in this world. This went on for 5-6 minutes. Needless to mention that the cameras keep switching hands as nobody wanted to miss his chance.

Having spent 23 months in a Government Organization and two months in private organization, I guess that I've been able to squeeze out some differences between the two. This one I’m very keen to write- Things are nowhere perfect and nor can it be made perfect. As one of our ASB super-seniors told us on the very first day that “If everything is going perfect, there is something wrong.” The problem which I see in the Government Organizations (When I talk of Government Organization, I refer to the majority of the non-productive organizations) is that bureaucrats over there try to make procedures and things perfect. They keep on complying with rules and that is where the vicious circle of delay and non-competency begins (DMRC being an exceptional exemplar).

Whereas in private sector people will know that things are not perfect, nor will they strive to make things perfect. They will just try to adjust with the situation. I’m not trying to say that people in private sector are happy with their imperfect situation or they are impotent to make things perfect. These people are concerned with results and not so much with procedures and rules.

When I didn’t have a cell phone, I used to carry a pocket-pad where I used to note important numbers, events, dates etc. Also, on coming across some nice quotations, I used to make a note of them. This holiday when I was randomly going through them, I thought to share some of them. So, here it goes-

Kshama sohti usi bhujang ko, jiske paas kaal-garal ho.

This simply means that forgiveness suits to only those people who have the power to punish (otherwise people may think that one is forgiving because of one’s impotency to punish).

She is special, in the sense that she has nothing special (no need to explain :p). -niks

Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure that he will never hit the mark; yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher than who aims but at bush.

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

Never measure the height of a mountain until you’ve reached the top. Then you’ll see how low it was.

Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope up with it.

I can forget you, this cannot happen and you may forget me, this I’ll not let happen.

A smiling face, a word of cheer; can stop the falling of a tear.

Dena hai to aankhon mein wo rubaai de,

Ki aaine mein mujhe tu hi dikhaai de,

Aur kaash aisa taal-mel ho sukoon-e-sada mein...

Ki pukaroon main jab tujhe to meri awaaz sirf tujhe hi sunaai de.

[Rubaai means light (roshni)]

And the best one comes from Oscar Wilde:

Women are made to be loved, not understood.

Satellite by Sathyabhama

I was talking to one of my flat-mates, who all of a sudden told me that he was working on a Nano-Satellite. I was left surprised and we got into a bit detail. Sathyabama University is sponsoring this low-earth-orbital Nano-Satellite of which the primary aim is to measure pollution. He is working for the Ground Station Subsystem (there are two students in total). The total crew comprises of 27 students, 7 faculty members and a Research Dean. ISRO has agreed to launch this Nano-Satellite for a few crores.

I mean these people are just pursuing the IIIrd year of B.Tech and they are launching a Nano-Satellite! India Shining haaan!
For the First time in India-
· Till this point of time, no Nano-Satellite has been launched to detect air pollution (especially Green House Gases).
· The Cross-Yagi antennae has been used in the Ground Station to receive signals from the Nano-Satellite.

As per my flat-mate, Dr. Raghav Murthy was one of the people who encouraged them to go into it. They are into it from the 2nd year of B.E. and approximately 40% work is completed and it is supposed to be launched by 2010.

So he asked me, “Bhaiya, mera presentation dekhenge kya”? I said, “Zaroor”. Going through his presentation, I interrupted him at various points. Like, at one place the Signal-Noise Ratio of the satellite was written as minimum (those who are not interested in ratios may skip this part). I took the Signal-Noise Ratio as Signal/Noise and argued that for the numerator to be maximum and the denominator to be minimum (i.e. to receive the maximum signal with minimum noise) the Signal-Noise Ratio should be maximum. He became a bit confused and told me that he’ll get it clarified from his faculty-members. [Next day, the moment I returned from the office, he explained me that it’s not simply a ratio. This ratio represents how much noise is there in a signal and therefore this ratio is minimum.]

Next came the Poisson Ratio and I was reminded of the IAD classes. I enquired about it but didn’t understand much. Further he explained me how did they zero in on two crossed yagi antenna for the Ground Station.

Needless to say that this person named Tinku has been the topper at the Satyabhama University and this satellite-launching-news was covered by the Times of India- Chennai Edition on 26.06.09. visit this link.

Illustrating Internship!!!

Before I write more about South India, I thought to write about my internship. So, I reached Chennai and reported to Mr. Subbaraman who introduced me to his boss Mr. Ashok Kumar. He asked the duration of my internship. Hearing two months, he said, “Okay, we’ve got two projects for you; each for one month. Apart from that if something else comes up, we’ll let you know. One will pertain to shrinkage. Do you’ve any idea about shrinkage?”

‘Shrinkage of stock’ were the words which came out of my mouth. Then I went on explaining that in the course of examining products, (prospective) customers may end up spoiling products. He added not only spoiling; they’ll take the products home which causes a major reduction in stock and consequently a loss for the store. So, you have to analyze the shrinkage-data and give a conclusion. Mr. Ramesh will be your mentor for this project.

“The other project will be about accounts. The stress will be on cost minimization; rather cost optimization. It’s about ‘triggering the trigger before it triggers the Books of Accounts’. Once an entry is made in the books, you cannot do much about it. So some things need to be done before posting the entries in the books. Mr. Subbaraman will be your mentor for this project.”

After that Mr. Ramesh took charge. He explained me the three types of size of Reliance stores and added that 87 stores are there in Chennai and ___ stores are there in Tamil Nadu. He further said that all the stock are first collected in the Distribution Centers and then dispatched to various stores. Certain perishable-prone items are directly distributed to the stores without the need of going through the Distribution Centre like bread etc. I added, “fruits and vegetables”. He said, “No, Distribution Centre acts as a collection centre for umpteen vendors as they can’t go individually to separate vendors.

He further said that ideally the %age of shrinkage should not exceed 0.5%. The moment it crosses 4%-5%; margin gone! I asked what the margin % is. He replied that some things are kept on a high-level.

After the verbal briefings, he opened an excel report sent by one of the stores. There were circa 4800 items and their various details. For the first time I was seeing the handling of such big data. He started using Auto Filter in various respects and bingo! the results started coming. I haven't used Auto Filter till that point of time, so I was trying to observe minutely. By that time I started feeling very sleepy. So, at the end of the day, he squeezed some meaningful insights from the raw data (I didn’t follow much!) and mailed back his questions (based upon the insights) to the store. I saw the professional thing happening.

Next day, Mr. Ramesh has to attend some meeting. So he forwarded two files to me and asked me to attempt them. I was allotted a corner of a cubicle with a decent hp desktop. For the first hour I didn’t have any idea what the files were about. I started reading the contents of the file and slowly understood that the first file is the file which was refined yesterday and the second file is the raw data of another store. Once I understood them, it hardly took 30-40 minutes to sort 50% of the data accordingly. Two terms which I didn’t understand were Zero-Count and No-Cost-SKUs. In the lunch I went to the Mount Road for some other work and had lunch at the Sarvana Bhawan.

Food is almost same in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. I think here they don’t have ‘toran’-a dry ‘sabji’ of every possible edible. Anyways, I liked the food at both the places. After lunch, he explained me both the terms and I sorted the data accordingly.

vacations!!! got nothing to do...

Whenever there is an exam, lagta hai ki jaldi se exam khatm ho. And once the exam ends, there doesn’t seem any work to do. Obviously one can read books, lekin wo mazaa nahi aata jo exam ke ek din pehle aata hai. After the exams, I left Trivandrum on 02.05.09 for Chennai and I left the same on 03.05.09 for Jamshedpur which I will be leaving on 06.05.09 for Lucknow and finally I expect to reach Gorakhpur on 08.05.09. It being such a diverse itinenary and many interesting things happened on the way. 

The relationship between the mood of passing vendors (selling edibles) and that of my stomach initially remains directly proportional, but after a certain limit becomes inversely proportional. At the cost of former becoming cheerful, the latter becomes upset. One such local vendor came selling something shaped like flattened potato with some jelly-sort-of-thing filled inside. After buying 7 of it for ten bucks, I asked its name. He replied ‘Taadi’. I picked one of them, eager to explore the taste and experience, squeezed only to find that the water inside the fruit fell on my jeans. My fellow-passenger (who spent 2 years in Andhra Pradesh) taking pity on me picked another one showing me how to break it apart. This time the water inside it fell on the novel ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ leaving him uttering arey re re... and embarrassed. Now I took the challenge of drinking the water inside it. But despite my efforts only a few drops of the last piece was I able to savor. 

“Nobody writes about me these days” Yakshi complained. “Now, now, sentences like these are my patents. How can you be so alone? I asked, “Where is hp? Go and I’ll ask him to write something about you. He writes so beautifully, I have appreciated all his works and was quite missing his blogs”.

When hp posted my previous blog in our batch’s blog entitled “South Indian life on a North Indian perspective...”, I became a bit excited, as I've got a new issue (South India) to write about. So, my first visit to South India was in July 2007 when I came to Bangalore (via Chennai) to attend the GD and PI of Bharathidasan Institute of Management. 

The moment I entered kind-of-South-India (there’s no clear-cut boundary separating South and North India), I started feeling a bit different. Movie-posters in regional languages having most of the actors with goggles and moustaches, different actresses, people with mundu (dhoti) and tilak on forehead, Women wearing ghazaras etc. all these factors excited me. At that moment I even started to frame the answer of the question (which might be asked in the interview)- What did you find different in South India?

to be contd...

06.02

Got the maximum score in the first round of the quiz and the minimum in the mains and the fact that it happened for two consecutive times cannot be a coincidence. There could be two possibilities. Either I’m not habituated to stage-performance (I become tooo excited) or I don’t think before I answer the questions. Whatever the problem is, I've to get rid of it.

        People from Aviva came for the project-training and final placements. They expressly said whatever topic of project you choose, the work which you are going to get is sales. No comments on that. Then they again asked the same set of arid questions. What's the objective of your life? What do you want to do in your life? How much money do you want to see as your bank-balance? At one point of time, their representative even questioned our pursuing of this PGPM course (kind-of who-had-asked-you-to-pursue-MBA?). I didn’t have the guts to counter his statement because I wasn’t sure of my goals and several other questions he asked. The same set of questions was asked by Dr. Mathai Fenn in an earlier session.

At a post-graduate level, if one asks me my life-objective (or let’s say career-objective) and am unable to answer it, it’s a very embarrassing situation. I used to think that I’ll go for research and the topic of research will be decided in due course of time (I still wonder, if that time is not now then when that time is going to come). I think that I may consider a project in an NGO. Let’s see how they work and then make the decision of final placement (as if everything is in my hand). But, still I need to make a career objective. Let’s hope that I’ll be more clear in my next blog.

I don’t understand why my dear classmates are unable to understand my problem of not-understanding-the-regional-languages. But, their going this way will at least help me exploring some nuances of Malayalam (can’t help being optimist). I recall an incident when I was discussing some accounts problem with Dhannya in the presence of Amitabh. I and Dhannya were talking in Hindi and Amitabh was unable to understand anything. The moment I felt Amitabh’s presence, after saying sorry to him I explained the whole thing to him in English.

So, when I went to my home this vacation, I started eating fish. I left eating non-veg for moral reasons but then I thought if I have to explore the food-world, (to be frank, the taste-factor was also there) I’d start eating the sea-food. Lets see how well it goes…

 I was thinking of the crisis-situation which India Inc. is facing and therefore resorting to all the cost-cutting measures to the maximum extent (this extent differs from company to company). For sure, this is the best time to advertise on the products on which the company has the most belief. Its also the time to focus just on the core competency. The common reason is that competition is low and all the competitors would be cutting costs. So the thought which came to my mind was how good it would be, if these companies continue these cost-cutting measures even in the normal-times. Won't it cut costs to a great extent in the short as well as long-run? The only negative points am able to find are that the companies won't dare to expand in other businesses and this current sacking of employees in the pursuit of cost-cutting.

Idly resting in peace and having no work to do I was thinking about the last passed four and a half months. The first semester of the PGPM program has ended and still it seems that it’s just a matter of yesterday that I came to ASB. Well! Lots of studies, fun, work-pressure (sometimes, at least) we’ve dealt with. But the million dollar question is how much have I been able to extract out of the time and money I invested in! or shall I go for a holistic approach (evaluate only when the complete program finishes up)?

The subjects were Information Analysis and Decision Making, Marketing Management, Critical Thinking, Organizational Behavior, Business Communication, Interpersonal Skills. In IAD, we’d to deal with lots of concepts and numbers-crunching. Broadly it revolved around the concepts of probability and normal distribution. I’m sure that at least these two concepts will be quite handy in actual business environment.

Then, in Marketing Management we’re broadly taught the a,b,c to x,y,z of marketing. Lots of new complex terms and every concept was kind-of ideal. But we did undergo some case-studies which were superb. Whenever I used to prepare for the tests, it always seemed to me whatever is written in the textbook is obvious, but then, in exam that only thing didn’t use to come in my mind. Can’t help!

Critical Thinking! How logical one can be? Undoubtedly, I’ve been benefited by this course, but it seems that I’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg. Much more is to be explored. Organizational Behavior! There was some feeling inside me that culture could be different of different places, but I didn’t know that a couple of chapters were entirely devoted to this aspect. Besides this, I learnt a LOT of new things, particularly, how to socialize. ;-)

Business Communications and Interpersonal skills! Writing formal letters in a completely informal environment and having discussions on sensitive issues with comical comments.
So! Have I changed even by a bit? Broadly no, but seeing from a micro-perspective yes.

to be continued...