The numbers…

Almost all through, I have wondered as to exactly what I learned at IIML. Yeah, yeah – despite being topper and all, the regular readers of this blog are aware of my disillusions. But there is one very important thing that I have learnt. The respect for numbers.

Before you stereotype this statement of mine into “that’s what they teach at B-Schools anyway – the number crunching” please read on.

I do not use the phrase “respect for numbers” to mean “number-crunching abilities”. While I did learn that at IIML, couple of courses in statistics at IITK might have taught that to me much better. What I mean by “respect for numbers” is different. There are two aspects to this respect:

1. Ensuring that relevance of using “numbers” (data) in a particular context
2. Ensuring the authenticity of the data, which may include
3. 1. Ensuring that the source is a credible one
   2. Ensuring that the methodology to arrive at those numbers is acceptable (Even the most credible sources are likely to use terribly simplistic methodology). For example if there is index that is being reported, the variables included are exhaustive enough so as not to create a bias and that the index is a fairly representative one of all those variables

A more exhaustive list can be drawn of what else it should include. But this should give you a fair idea of what I am saying when I say “respect for numbers”. Now, there are several diversions one can take from here, for example
These are the kind of diversions I shall be avoiding here. Yes, the criteria are subjective, but even then some basic idea gets conveyed, which are not very difficult to practise while using numbers. Further I am assuming that there is a situation in which people have decided to use number to put forth the arguments.

1. Aren’t all these criteria listed above, by themselves, so subjective that the respectability of numbers can very easily be questioned?
2. Do numbers ever make any sense? Can the complexities of human life and human civilization ever be reduced to a set of numbers? Can the arguments be put forward and policies be made based on numbers?

And you know what difference the two years at IIML have made to me. Now, I really feel appalled at the way the numbers are misquoted by people, and rather blatantly in public, without ever giving a thought over the idea that numbers deserve some respect. And very few people have mind to question those numbers. Probably that’s why they are misused like that in the first place.

No prizes for guessing what has been the recent-most issue, which has appalled me with the disrespect for numbers by people. Of course, the reservations for OBCs. Whether numbers provide a justification for reservation is different thing altogether and I have expressed my views on that earlier. So, I am not getting into that. What I am talking about here is the rate at which anyone, yeah – just any Tom, Dick, Harry keeps throwing numbers at you regarding the population percentage and socio-economic conditions etc. of OBCs (and SCs/STs). It has simply been ridiculous. You just have to recall all those pro-reservation (and some ridiculous anti-reservation) articles, written by people with no respect whatsoever for numbers. They do not hesitate in putting on any number they like (which supposedly strengthens their argument) without ever caring to mention what the source of the numbers was, or what the methodology was that these “number genuises” have adopted to arrive at them!! Rashmi Bansal had done a good job, when she pointed out some of the fallacies about the number floating around. Yesterday I received a link in my mail, which had given some more credible numbers than any other pointed out till now – with sources and all. And that was some relief.

http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/may/08quota.htm

Actually this article was what triggered this post. And I also recall a mail on one of the IITK related yahoogroups, where some supposedly “neutral” pro-reservation person had thrown in some data, which were obviously falsifiable with very easily available source – Census of India. Even after the non-sense being exposed, the person never cared to accept his mistake.

Anyway. Next time you throw in numbers at someone, please think of having some respect for them. Do not create those numbers from nowhere (or your fancies). And at the same time, when a number is being thrown at you, before believing it, please ensure the authenticity.

Numbers deserve some respect.

Technorati : OBC, Population

Reservation is your insult!!

Posted a rather long comment on http://iitkaa.blogspot.com/2006/04/friends-there-is-likelihood-of-govt.html. It can very well make a post here. But since it was posted in context of the comments there, and I am not able to spend time on rewriting it, I’d request the readers to first go through the comments written there.

–

I do not know where all these statistics about so much of population coming from such and such caste is coming from!! I wish somebody would throw some light on that too, before making it a point of argument. Here is a much better researched piece which also brings out some of the questions that need to be answered before making these definitive statistics:

The 2001 census provides data by variables like age, sex, religion, marital status, educational status and disability. But as far as caste goes it only tracks SCs and STs.

From http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2006/04/caste-vs-class.html

(I would request you to read the complete article to get the perspective.)

Next, even if all these population related data is true, by itself it does not justify the quota system… On what all bases shall we continue giving quotas? Why only caste, let there be gender (Even with a skewed sex ratio in the general population, we have a severe under representation of females in these institutes, don’t we?), region (Why should an IITK be full of UPites and Biharis and IITM of Tamils and Kannads? Why should there be so many from Andhra and Bengal in post graduate programmes?) etc. etc.

Yes, let’s have a nXn matrix of all the possible ways our population can be divided and then assign quotas. That’d be the only thing that’ll make sense in this straight “percentage of population” argument.

What I am doing here is not supporting any proposition of this kind, but simply trying to point out how ridiculous this argument in favour of reservation is.

Let us look at some of the other aspects now

• The upliftment: Enough has been said about it. Yes, I belong to a place where I have seen that caste comes in the way of development of people. But you know at what level it is? It’s in the village schools, where the lower caste kids are treated so badly and ridiculed so much, that they drop out despite their unwillingness to do so. What good is a quota in IITs and IIMs to solve this uplifement problem?
• Atrocities of Past: Fine, here I belong to a Brahmin Family. Long ago my ancestors may have been responsible for all kinds of atrocities on the lower caste. But how does it justify the situation today that a so called lower caste person, whose dad works in some really high position in a high profile government department in the capital city of India, who has a lot of clout due to his money and position be given preference over me even unless (s)he has a higher merit than me…
• If you belong to one of these “disadvantaged” castes and are demanding reservation, I can only pity you for your attitude. You are coming and saying yourself that you are incapable of competing. This is ridiculous. I personally do not believe, and my experiences in life supports this belief, that people from any caste display a superior or inferior level of talent simply due to belonging to a class. But you yourself are trying to prove this to me… Look here, I am incapable… Wow!! That’s some self-respect I’d say. And yes – if today someone comes up with a scheme for reservation for girls for 50% (or let’s make it 47% in the ratio of population), I’d be the first one to object since I would consider it an insult. I need reservation only if I do not have personal merit.

The percentage of population argument is, thus, a total bullshit. The only argument that can ever favour a reservation is when the opportunities are not equal. And a reservation in IITs and IIMs based on caste just does not take the opportunities to those really in need. A 12th pass student from a village or a small town, who does not know how to prepare for JEE, is not even sure what it means or is not aware of even its existence is not going to benefit from this reservation. He/she can not afford the JEE coachings and tutions that their counterparts in bigger cities, with high earning parents can afford. And guess what, even if he/she is from a higher caste, it hardly helps the situation. He/she needs money!! So, the sons-and-daughters-of-the-well-to-do-downtrodden-families will get everything, leaving nothing for the real downtroddens, which may or may not belong to the “disadvantaged” caste.

So much for the argument side.

Problem is that all the intellectual, factual, reasonable justifications are not going to move our politicians. As somebody rightly pointed out, what incentives do they have to listen to this, when they are getting votes (we know enough; so we do not to talk of conscience)?

There are only two ways -

1. Either you create an agitation which is as unreasonable as the motion itself, but this is a disruptive idea and may still not work, if politicians are sure that their vote bank stays.
2. Or a more reasonable idea would be to mobilize precisely those who are the intended “beneficiaries” of this reservation and make them see the implied insult to their merit and abilities in this whole drama of reservation. Tougher, but in case we are able to do it, it might as well set a precedent for fighting the unreasonable precedents set by the politicians. Come on people; get rid of these pathetic vote-bank tricks. Do not let yourself be treated as numbers in their vote-banks. Be the individuals you are and say you can achieve it with your merit.

Technorati : IIM, IIT, India, reservation

An advice to PPTers

After attending “n” number of PPTs, I think I have an advice or two to give to all these pre-placement talkers. First of all, please, please respect the time expectation of your audience. Its not necessary that all people in your team have to speak for half an hour each… Trust me, no!! Also, please have a good speaker(s), with a smart personality to deliver your PPT. The number of drab presentations have been so huge in the 2 years at business schools, that it takes no effort to switch off once another one like those start. Especially if you are one of those companies who want to get higher on the priority of students and currently are not, please make sure that the person delivering the talk presents a smart face (no fake smartness please). Then find how many companies have already given PPTs before you. If you are not amongst the first few, you can safely take the follownig steps

1. Cut down all the crap about what all you want in the candidates. “Team work, individual motivation, analytical ability, creativity, energy, having drive” etc. etc. Even if you do not want to believe it, all the companies want the same thing. If it is a must for you to tell all this to us a joke of the kind “we want all the things earlier PPTs have shown to you” would suffice. Trust me, no company has ever told us that they want people who are lazy, who are not driven, who are not creative etc. (even if they would actually want people like those!!) If you really have to tell something, tell us what specialization/majors you are looking to hire from, whether work experience and academics play a role and what the selection process in like (if it is different from the usual).
2. Do not drag on and on about Corporate Social Responsibility. Yes – I know your employee satisfaction surveys and other research with employees and HR consultants have told you that employees seek some inner satisfaction by getting involved in community activities. But then every company tells us in details about their initiatives and we have no way of differentiating one from the other. In PPTs, therefore, it is at best a point of parity and not of differentiation. You can skip it (nobody would not apply to your company because you did not have a slide on CSR). But if put you must because the boss of your boss of your boss wants it, be quick and precise and move on!!
3. Do not say “all companies say this, but we really do it.” Why? Because all companies have started saying that.

Technorati : Business School, IIML, MBA, Placement

As it comes to an end….

These are the last few days of the term. It will be over in another 15 days. Of course, the heat of placement will still keep the place abuzz. But (fortunately) I am out of it.

Not surprisingly, there is so much of difference in these last days here and those last few days at IITK. Even then I was looking forward to go out of the place. It’s no different now. However, the difference was there is the process that led to the desire to get out. I was bored of things at IITK by that time. Had done it, had learnt from it and then wanted to move on. Here, I just never wanted to get into it and was waiting to get out quite early on.

So then, haven’t I missed learning something? It could not have been so totally devoid of learnings – nothing is. True… There would be something or the other hidden in everything. But what I consider my biggest learning and achievement here is how to keep yourself and your personality intact even when the pressure to conform is so high. I am getting out of the place “intact” is how I would like to put it. Yeah, richer by a number case studies, project reports made overnight, regressions and factor analyses run aimlessly, classes attended duly, presentations run through sleeping audience with the speaker himself/herself not know what is being talked about, and facets of institutionalized “surprises” which would no longer shock me. Also, very importantly I have learnt as an spectator (almost for the first time in life). It has its advantages and I think I took this route in the right place. Being an actor here was not that important. You do not always have to be one!

But this fairly successful life away from “mainstream” is not to be credited to me solely. I wish I could do something to thank all the old friends who have been all ears for all my cribbings and boring (well – not always…) tales. To all other blog readers too, who have sometimes silently and sometimes empathically bore my outbursts with me. And no matter what the system is, there are always individuals you meet, who do small, little things to make you feel nice, who would unexpectedly and to your delight present before yourself a part of theirs which was totally overshadowed by the system, who would sit with you at the moment when you, with all your strength, just can not rely on your past and present to hold you, who would make you feel at home whenever you bumped into the territories you do not normally frequent, who would extend a hand of friendship when you are hesistant if you should, who suddenly throw off that cloak of competitiveness, sometimes bordering on being disgusting, when a real crisis comes up and do many more such things. I haven’t explicitly thanked many such people at IIML – you can never do that. If you start doing that, something of spontaneity of the life is lost. So, I thank them all here today. Another important learning from me has been that individuals can not be judged from the system they have come to be a part of!!

Well, this might still be too early you know I am still two project reports and two exams away from completing the term!!

Technorati : IIML

Snapshots from Hell

Finished reading Snapshots for Hell – The Making of an MBA today. For the uninitiated, this is a book written by a Stanford Business School Gradaute based on his experience in the first year of the MBA programme there.

The initial part of the book bored me. What it was bringing out was essentially the difference between the “poets” and “non-poets” of the place. At some place like IIML “poets” will be roughly equivalent to those who have to attend the remedials for Maths and Computer classes. “Non-poets” essentially are the engineers and other Science Graduates. Why I am saying roughly is that it is clear that the profile of students there and those we find in Indian Business Schools differ very much. The average age of the students in the author’s batch was 27 or something. So, Non-Poets were Engineers as well as those who had worked with Investment Banks and other such firms for quite some time. The author belonged to the category of “Poets”.

Coming back to the book, inital descriptions of usual B-School affairs, the Non-Poets being able to get it all, Poets being unable to do so, the rush to get grades, the description of classes and exam papers bored me. Why? It was a Poet’s viewpoint, which I know of, but do not identify with. So, there was neither the joy of identification, nor that of knowing something new. In fact, I skipped several paragraphs where he had explained the questions and concepts where he found the Maths hard. To add to that, at times I felt annoyed realizing Non-Poets were universally being credited with certain attributes. For myself, I felt that I was neither a Poet, nor a Non-Poet. At least in terms of how I felt about the whole B-School affair.

Later on, certain things struck me. On the lighter side, the description of the BBLs (Equivalent of PPTs here) and resume writing was too real to not feel amused. To quote

“By the middle of the term I’d attended half a dozen BBLs. They were all remarkably alike.

“Thank you for joining me this afternoon”, a good looking expensively dressed young man or woman would say. “I’m John [or JoAnne] Smith, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Class [insert a year within the last five].” Then the presenter would hand out booklets about his company……. filled with the photos of young employees… who looked just like the presenter himself, shown engaging in earnest conversations at conference tables, barking buy and sell orders into phones on trading floors…. Each photo will carry a caption along these lines:

Jane Jones, Wharton Grad. “I find working here at [insert company name] endlessly stimulating. It gives me an outlet for my desire to operate at high levels, to make a real diference, and to deal with bright, determined people. And by the way, it’s also fun.”

And then all the comments on the resumes:

“If I were you, I’d put my name in fourteen-point bold typeface, not twelve-point italic. You want your name to look big and confident, not small and fussy.”

“Should I enter my address and phone number under my name? Or put my address flush with left marging and my phone number flush with the right? Hey, it matters.”

) – Yeah, for those intending to utter “What the hell!!”, well this is real and I vouch for it as “an about to become an MBA”

The reaction to ranking by Business Week which suddenly put Stanford Business School at rank 9 was also so hilarious. However, the Dean’s meeting following it to “hear the students concerns” reminded me more of the director’s meetings at IITK

Certainly the attitude of getting a job, making big bucks etc. is in common with what I see here. But there was one incident that struck me. In one of the courses, a student (depicted as the author’s flat-mate) was really frustrated with a professor teaching a course in Strategic Management. He found that the professor in the other section was good. He got the photocopy of the study material given by the other professor and borrowed class notes from the students in the other section to read it. I never did that here (while such situations were not uncommon) and I do not know how many of the others would have done anything even close to this either. They actually used to prepare for cases in their study groups (and what the hell – it seems the groups were actually useful!!!). The quest for learning was not entirely lost.

Ha! And there are other similarlities which I would have liked not to be there. Even they had a name card system wherein there were slots in the desks of the classroom so that each student can display his/her name card in that. Here it is supposed to help in evaluating Class Participation. I assume it was the system there too. Don’t know why, but I simply *hate* this name card thing. And yeah there also the recruiters coming to the campus were not allowed to ask about students’ grades!!!

Some of the parts I really liked were author’s discussion with professors. Taking a plunge into the reason for existence of the B-schools, of the courses etc. The problems specific to Stanford, the research vs. teaching debate… There were no answers, but it was comforting for me to find people wondering about some of these things. I am not getting into details, will leave it to you to enjoy when you read the book

All the epilogue about how B-Schools still help people was a drag I would have avoided. It gave me the same feeling that I often get when thinking about decisions like that of joining a B-School. It is as if every generation makes mistakes, but having made it and finding it difficult to turn back justifies it with things that may not be really important and preaches the next generation with the same justifications. Don’t know how to reason it out, but I think world would have just fine even without B-Schools. May be too exaggerated a statement, may be I would feel like changing it later, but then only thing I wish for is that if I do change it, it isn’t because I have also justified it. But because there is something in the argument which I am missing right now. I know its difficult. Right now there is a mail from a non-IITian friend lying in my inbox in which she has mentioned her struggle with GRE vs. CAT decision. There is only so much I can explain; I know that ultimately her deicision will not come out of her wishes, but the “practical” considerations (which essentially are expected, not necessarily real, outcomes) and then she will also justify them!! What do I do right now? What do I tell her? Most likely if she really listens to her heart, she would be choosing a risky path. Can I just push her to follow it despite the risks? Not really…

But today I am making an attempt to do myself what I have been preaching for long. Do what I feel like. I have decided to join a Software start-up (Before it gets mis-understood, it’s not my start-up. I am joining one). Probably I will be able to contribute there and make it successful, probably I will fail with it, probably that will be a bad beginning of my career, but today I am risking it. A risk of this level – almost for the first time that I am taking it by choice.

I also got this link in a mail today

IIT brains dabble in politics

Am putting the text below

Bangalore: Mani Ratnam’s Yuva is turning real, with five IITians, all in their 20s, deciding to join mainstream politics.
The party – Paritrana – which will be launched in Jodhpur on Friday and its members will then take its message to several cities in the country, including Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.
Its core team comprises Tanmay Rajpurohit, a B. Tech (Aerospace) from IIT Bombay and national president; Ajit Ashwalyan Shukla, as vice president; Amit Beesen, vice president and B. Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay and a law graduate; Chandrashekhar as National Treasurer) and B. Tech (Computer Science) from IIT Kanpur, Bharat Sundaram, PRO and B. Tech from IIT Kanpur and PhD in electronics from Melbourne.
“Giving up handsome pay packages, comfort of family and support of friends wasn’t easy,” says Tanmay, who has done his M. Tech from GeorgiaTech and is a double masters in arts. Shukla agreed: “But my inner voice told me I should invest my efforts in my country rather than making my pockets heavier. People think we are crazy so much so that our families have also failed to understand our motto but we won’t give up.”
Chandrashekhar said: “Paritrana means complete relief from various causes of distress and that is what we want to do for our people.”
Lack of funds has not stopped them from holding door-to-door campaigns in Gujarat, MP, Rajasthan and parts of Maharashtra. “We feel politicians of today are no longer the voice of the common man but instead they voice their own personal agendas through which they can fetch maximum votes,” said Shukla. “We are not here for the power game, as we know that money can buy it and we have had enough of it. We are here to deal with grassroot issues of each and every village we come across.

—————
(Of course, all the stuff about how I feel about B-School is very personal. May be because of my background and past, I did not find much to interest me, which others would have found. So, please do not drag on those things).

Technorati : Books, Business School, IIML, MBA, Stanford

What I hate the most about IIML

It is transport problems (

Unless you own your own vehicle (which I do not!), you are so badly dependent on the buses. And they have their own erratic way of working. Usually, they will make you wait, on an average, for 15 mintues. But then there are other times, when you are there dot on time and they seem to have disappeared. Today, it wasted one full hour of mine ( Reached the bus stop exactly at 4. Even asked a few people if the bus has left… All of them said “No”. And even till next 45 mintues, but was to be seen no-where. What happened? Did the bus disappear. The van at 4.45 did not stop. Apparently it was already full…

There is nothing in this world that I hate more than this horrible level of dependency on something/someone. I am soooo irritated today. (

 

Long due…

was a word of thanks to all the batchmates and PGP-1s, who went out of their way to help their colleagues in need, when the incident of massive illness happened in the campus. Now, I am not supposed to talk about the incident (nor am I interested), it’s just the gratitude for the way the whole thing was handled, that is making me write this post. Majority of the students were ill before the last day of exams, some of them in serious condition. I was lucky enough to escape any serious illness, but was still suffering from high fever. And I can not forget the care taken by all the remaining people who kept making rounds in the hostel during the day as well as the night, arranged affairs at Health Center and the mess, at the hospitals and what not! Despite most of them having their exams the next day. It was wonderful and touching. Several times, in the high fever, I was in such a situation that now I can not even recall who had come to help me out. So, am refrainig from putting in other names too. But you know the gratitude that is felt and will always be there. It was touching – really.

It’s not enough, but still – thank you all!!

What we saw coming…

One and single conclusion of the whole-night administration-bashing (it was a particular person – but for politial correctness, let me omit the name!) at IITK this time was that our fears were not misplaced. In many of the incidents that were recounted recently, I could see a “history repeating” or put in other words institutionalizing the wrong processes.

The beauty of the IITK administration has been its decentralized and participative nature. A system in which you could be fighting with the same faculty outside the class for students’ governance with whom you are doing two courses!

We were surprised at the way in which “buck-passing” was being practised during the GH security issue. Wardens referring to DOSA, DOSA referring to director, director referring to IAC or COW and so on, so forth. And through this whole buck-passing what was being achieved was the will of one person. Then, we realized this and were able to overcome it by bringing all of them together instead of letting several one to one communications take place, which were inevitably being distorted later and which were decidedly stupid! But that was only once. The other party perserves and does it again and again. The new people who come to the system succumb. They have not seen better days. The outisde world does not teach them to dream anything better. It’s not their fault, just their misfortune.

I was the kind of person who understood what happens where at IITK. Still I had not heard of IAC (Institute Advisory Committee) till my 4th year!! Why? Because it is the highest administrative body of IITK, which did not use to interfere with day to day working. The day to day workings, policies and governance were in the hands of people who could understand and do better. It did what it was supposed to do (slightly unrelated point – since someone may point out what about my toutings of students’ representation at all levels – it still had President of Students’ Gymkhana as a member, in case something which concerns students does come up, for example attendence!!) and did not come down to taking each and everything in its hands, for which it neither had capability, nor time.

And now, even after having left IITK, I seem to be hearing of IAC meetings every fortnight. The role of IAC appears to be “defining problems” (whether or not they exist) and then solving them (whether or not a solution is required, and whether or not the solution is effective if the problem exists at all). Again – a repetition of history. I remember the meeting with DD during the GH security issue, “I understand that the chances of it happening it very less, may be one in a million, but *if* it happens that somebody comes to your room, whom you do not want to come, what will you do?” “Sir, one can always ask the person to go away. If it gets worse, she just have to shout. There are people in the wing, there are security guards.” “But what if she is so shocked and frightened that she can not speak at all!” Now that is what you call “creating the problem”. The original problem, itself, had a chance of occurance of one in a million. “May God bless her” was the only thing we could think of saying, which we did not of course, otherwise we would have undermined the concerns of “shy, silent minority”.(People who had to interact with administration recently – don’t you see the parallels?)

Again, all this has been the will of person, now manifesting through more and more mediums like IAC.

How the culture is destroyed? In my first year, entry into the GH between 6 am and 12 midnight did not require you to even show an I-Card. “You mean anyone could enter the hostel?” Yes! Do not look at me with those bulging eyes. It used to happen, still I felt more secure than I had ever felt in my life. But from the next year, despite all our fights, we could not do away with the I-Card showing rule. This time I was talking to a friend of the next batch. They have always seen the “I-card rule” to be there. And despite having all the grudges against the changes that have been brought about after they have come, he found that “showing I-card for entering into GH” is “okay”. “Why?”, I interrupted (it had come in the flow, while talking about something else). And then, of course, some security is needed, haven’t you heard of the rape case in Delhi etc. How do I convince him? I can not. I only told him about the earlier days and drew the parallel to the other things that has happened. He was subdued, but hardly convinced. Despite the fact that like me, even he is worried that people are taking things for granted now! This is how a culture, which does not have a parallel else where, which is ahead of its time, is destroyed. And this is how, step-by-step, thigs start being taken as granted.

Now, one note with respect to my previous post – If any generous IITK alumnus comes across it, and is in a mood of donating something to IITK, do so by all means, but please do not get a building erected there, which will create more walls! Nothing wrong in buildings as such, so long as they are there for people to use and not to awe them (Please refer to my previous post).

The Peril of Case Method

Business Schools world-over talk too much about the use of cases for pedagogy. It used to sound a sophisticated tool, before coming to B-School indeed. And if you are exposed to it once in a while, like I was, it appears interesting to use to…

But come the second year in the B-School. Bombarded with case studies and discussions you are… And what the hell – I am supposed to enjoy those discussions and take part in them! I do not know how I used to do so whenever I used to do so. I mean, no matter how well written a case is, there is no way it can recreate a real situation. Even after all those hints of reading between lines and all, you essentially remain detached with it. You are not in the situation whatever you do! And then you can talk just anything, meaningless or meaningful, it essentially involves no stakes from your side.

And what is the fault of the case as such? None, I can not get my best friend to be in my shoes for most trivial of the personal problems, how can one be expected to get into the shoes of a corporate manager dealing with organizational pressures, career pressures, personal problems and God knows what else, through a case.

Oh okay – may be something is still better than nothing…

But I am bored, bored and bored. That’s it.

If it’s my job, it’s boring

Offshoring.

I had almost forgotten I used to think over topics like that. Was reminded of it today, when somebody, who stumbled on this blog, wrote me a mail mentioning that post.

Somehow, these days, I have stopped thinking about any issues seriously. I never feel like doing so.

Once it becomes your job, once you are amongst people who do things as job, something, some liveliness is drenched out of it. With anything meaningful, there will lot of crap generated, because something needs to be done, whether or not one is in a position to do it meaningfully. And then it is a lot of crap that things are compared with. The system would become such that you can not refuse to produce anything, because other will be ready to produce crap and “crap is better than nothing”. Of course, you can refuse, but then you have to decide that you do not have to survive in the system.

There are leeways, and yet it is not enough.

I have been disillusioned with the system! But at times, these days, I can no longer manage to ignore the people. Their meanness, their meaninglessness. I, often, resist from making such statements thinking that it is not my right to give pronouncements on the human-kind. But then, at times it’s irresistable.

This blog is also not producing anything meaningful these days… What is missing?