Walking down the same lane...

While reading and muggofying reams of photostated material and books for my final examinations, I couldn't help but think - would I ever apply this in practical life? Reframing the question, would I ever get a chance to apply this theory in practice? Is real life a simple intersection of the demand and supply curve, so neatly drawn with no single data point violating the elasticity slopes?

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A seemingly very good explanation (at least it seemed to work till now) given to me by a senior who, btw, I whole-heartedly admire is that tough academics is another way to measure your IQ level - after all, ain't that what the companies, which come hovering down here for recruitment, look for.

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Why don't they just take another IQ test than, and get over with? Oh, but then it again would be the same old thing - the engineering entrance exam, the MBA entrance exam - we are different, and the variety need to come out of our actions. If IQ measurement is indeed the objective, I have my previous scores, thank you very much.

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I am utterly confused - and cannot articulate it in a better (or at least comprehensible ) way. I guess it's not the case of not knowing the answer; I am yet to understand the problem.

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I gonna get back to my books.

Let's exchange...

Yesterday, I came to know about something interesting. My university has an exchange program in management discipline with LUMS (Lahore University of Managment Studies)!

These four guys were cheering the Pakistani team in their 20-20 match with India last night in the hostel mess cum TV room, and that's when the entire audience over here in the campus came to know about them, or rather, their nationality. Till that point, not many were aware of them. At least the first year students had no idea.

A little more enquiry and I came to know that none from IIM Bangalore had opted for LUMS in this exchange program while all the four seats available in IIMB were taken up by LUMS students.

So much for talks of Indians being more tolerant and broad-minded than the neighbours. Or maybe, we are not analyzing things from a proper perspective (?)

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In a league of their own...

While working on a report in one of my course assignments, I came across an interesting observation made by a celebrated personality in corporate circles. I am unable to dig out the exact words, but the gist went something like this - Almost all the successful people whom we generally hear about all the time were really subdued personalities in their early life. Majority of them received quality education no doubt (maybe apart from our revered politicians), but really few of them were regarded as the campus studs back in their student life!

Having myself had the fortunate opportunity of having studied from some of the best institutes in this country, this observation sparked an uneasy conflict in my mind.

Back from my IITD days, I can easily recall some faces who were the most popular on the campus. They were the ones you could see playing a central roles in almost every other campus activity - be it sports or performing arts or the general hostel poltu. Some of them even managed to combine all these with really decent grades and were usually the ones who walked away with the prized jobs IITs have to offer.

Here in IIMB, I am witness to a similar scenario - a handful of students, better known as the studs. Terrific academic performance with proven track record of being a winner in their pre-MBA days, be it the good old graduation time or the couple of years they spent in a firm working before they decided to oblige IIMB with their benign presence. The ones from these in their final year already have job offers from companies most of people out here might kill to work for.

And I, for the life of me, cannot imagine any of these demi-gods being overtaken by some random peer of theirs whom I have never heard of. Someone who is not placed in the same league.

Someone, who is out here in the same campus, a fellow student, with a humble personality and few past achievements to talk about, and is yet destined to surpass all of these demi-gods! The mere thought of such a creature existing in the midst of us sounds unreasonable, plainly void of any rationale and logic. And yet, data proves it to be true!

Perceptive Impressions

My fellow human beings bring a smile to my face everyday. Without them, what would I be. Every other day, I wake up, thinking this would be the day when I won't witness another unseen aspect of Homo Sapiens in its prime. And I am proved wrong, yet again..

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And I keep smiling...

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So whats funny these days? I recently indulged in a small, harmless sport: to observe people's reactions to different faces I put up to them whenever I relocate and meet new people. The results were amazing, of course on expected lines. For some, I am an adorable guy when I showed interest in their personal woes; for others, I am a horrible git for resorting to sarcastic comments on their own inadequacies (Give me a break, we are mortals); some find me really amusing, others tag me a bore. For quite a few, I can safely claim to have become the centre of their years of unvented hatred. Majority thinks I am a pushover, and yet a couple of them are still healing the wounds my verbal projectiles caused. And while reading this blog, some will carry home the image of arrogant, mean me. Amusing how people would judge me on the faces I showed them in the first place, instead of my true self which not a single one of them knows about.

As for me, I adore them all...

A learned teacher of mine once told me, they study the impact of first impression and perceptions people form on the basis of it in heavily funded research programs in the West. The world around me is my own little laboratory.

This game is now having unforseen consequences - some of my dear subjects have been (unintentionally) exposed to conflicting faces, and left utterly confused. Not long before one of them actually corners me. So I am stopping this game.

Does that mean I would reveal my true face? I think I will wear a mask resembling closest to it; exposing one's true self is not recommended in this world.

I am glad I have this choice, some of us do not know their own true face and thus, in an effort to hide it, end up exposing it.

Ah, I forgot I had decided to stop this game.