:: Sense - The Way I Sense ::

Watch carefully and thou shalt uncover the mystery of the X-files !!!

ps: post made thro’ Blogjet.

The media as an instrument of shaping (sic) public thinking has never ceased to interest and amaze me…Have always believed in the immense power that the pen wields and the extent that it can shape a modern “thinking” man’s reasoning abilities….Courtesy the extended break that I’m currently having, had a good chance to observe the news channels on air today and try to notice any difference that they’ve gone thro’ since their inception…..and boy…..was i surprised….A news channel tries to provide solution to a Muslim women’s personal dilemma, on national TV….a problem that was only confounded by the acutely low awareness levels that public in general have of the shariyat….so regular jabs at the Shariyat were found in no small measure during the entire duration of the program….Another very popular debating program seeks to determine if the Indian civil services needs to be disbanded, if foreign consultants need to be shown the boot from planning commission, et al ….all in the space of, what was it, 40 odd minutes….. !!!Now, agreed a nation needs to be engaged in a constructive debate on matters of national importance…..But, frankly speaking, dont really see how by having extremely skewed audiences and extremely articulate speakers of extreme positions could do any good….The word, both spoken and written, have great influence…and the possessor of the skill of persuasion can work his way around very easily….

And truly speaking, one of the underlying assumptions that anyone makes while going to participate in a healthy debate is not to have any pretensions and/or biases before the start…That really doesn’t seem to be the case nowadays….inspite of all that ppl/journos feel of the left, a point to be made is that it is the left that has been the strongest votary of equitable social development, their methods for achieving the same, however, being far from satisfactory…..But what do we get to see on debates/discussions??? Left is branded as being in a time warp….true they are ,most of ‘em are…..but the onus also lies on the others to bring them into sync with the present situations, keeping in mind their reservations…. Everyone is in a mad hurry to give suggestions/recommendations/conclusions in real time….Instant polity, like instant coffee, is so in !!!

ps: A thoughtful article on Gudiya & Arif written by Sevanti Ninan can be found here . And this is one blog whose demise i really felt…..

Story goes that long long ago, so long ago, nobody remembers how long ago, there was a guy called Ramu. Now Ramu was just like any other Rahul, Rohit or Karthik that most of our run-of-the-mill engineering colleges produce by the thousands. And Ramu wasn’t just satisfied with whatever he had “learnt” during his engineering days. He felt that his “education” would be complete only if he buttressed his engineering skills with a , u guessed it, management degree. But pray, why a management degree Ramu. You could very well have gone for some M.E. or M.Tech Program in any of the dozens of “premier” technical institutes in India. Or, You could have chosen the ubiquitous path of GRE/TOEFL and flown off to the land of promises- the US of A just like your nearest cousin or his friend or your next door neighbor or like any second guy on the street !!! That would have given your parents that much more leeway when talk of brides arises… They could, for example, harp on the fact that you were the first person from say charminar/saidapet/borivili/dariya gunj/god-knows-where to get an assistantship in the very first semester and that too at an Ivy League school!!! Why were you so bent on depriving your parents and your neighborhood of such lip-smacking gossip?? But like they say, human nature has this unique knack of working against all favorable odds at the most unwanted of times and as time would have its say, Ramu finally decided that he has had enough of “technical” training and its only a management degree that would satiate his thirst. The thirst here translating to quite a few tangibles like hefty pay packets and a few intangibles like being able to flaunt an “M.B.A.” in front of all his videshi desi cousins…

Okie…Now that Ramu has decided that a management degree is his beckoning, there lies a gargantuan task ahead of him in trying to decide where to do it, in which field to do it, what are the procedures, what are the loopholes that he should be aware of, and more importantly, what are the relative standings of each institute …..now, while questions are aplenty, answers ain’t that easy to come. So, what does Ramu do first?? He approaches his dad’s colleague’s son who has already done an MBA from one of the so-called Premier institutes of management. With humility personified, Ramu asks this archetypal know-all “I’m planning to do an MBA, could you please advise me on the same ?”….And lo, before Ramu could realize what has happened to him, he is blasted out of the milky way by a volley of questions from the dyed-in-the-blue MBA. Why MBA, for what MBA, Do you really think it is your inner calling, do you know which field you want to end up in, do you really think you have it in you to become an MBA, do you understand the vagaries of what i-banking or consulting or equity research or business analysis is…. Have you done a SWOT analysis of yourself. Think of the number of MBAs that are being churned out, do you really think you have even half a chance to stand apart from the crowd. Poor Ramu had discounted a lot, or rather all, of these when he had decided to embark on his MBA journey. For him an MBA was nothing but a beautiful way of escaping from the rigmaroles of designing circuits or writing bits and pieces of code. Faced with such a barrage of questions, Ramu was, as was to be expected, shaken to no ends. But before he could gather his wits and try to answer him, our good ‘ol MBA friend already had the next set of questions up his sleeves. Have you applied for the CATs, XATs and the rest of the _ATs. How much have you been scoring on the SIMcat, AIMcats, MOCKcats, FLTs, and what-have-you…do u have a swell undergrad gpa, if not forget applying to A….No, if nothing else prior, these statements had a profound effect on Ramu. He withdrew from there and started digging around to see if all the people that he knew were planning for an MBA actually had answers to half of these questions…. And that was when he realized he wasn’t exactly alone in his quest for an MBA….Most of his friends, if not all, have themselves come up against this wall….from where they weren’t exactly sure of the direction to proceed and have paused to consider if the direction that they have indeed chosen to tread is right for them or not….This undoubtedly lead to a fair amount of introspection amongst Ramu and his friends. All of them shared their experiences of their initial days of their MBA journey…and ultimately, most of them came to one broad conclusion…..an MBA, irrespective of whatever, has been, and will remain, a degree of higher studies. It does not purport to be anything more or anything less. Infact a startling fact that they realised was that the halo sorrounding this MBA has been something that was attached to the degree by those wanting to deceive themselves that they haven’t plunged into the wrong field, by those who believe the only way of increasing their self-worth is by taking extreme positions on their MBA education and thereby add a size perspective to their hollow arguments, by those who feel that the only way to justify their existence in an organization to their bosses is to cry aloud about their credentials rather than their actual worth…. Indeed, Ramu and his friends realized that asking for advise from MBA pass-outs and MBA students was something that they could ill-afford to, for they were convinced of the worthless replies that their questions would generate…..This was when Ramu started to look at things in a “holistic” manner. He tried to visualize his MBA mentor actually getting a job done, he tried to understand how things work in an organization, how he would fit in the scheme of things, and most importantly, is “being” an MBA more important than “being” yourself….Ramu now had more questions in his mind than he had before he embarked on his journey….problem is, he has not many good samaritans to guide around……….But thankfully, he now has his own rock-solid self to back him up ….
Disclaimer: All that is not said cannot be the only truth and all that is said cannot be said to be the only false

Been on the move for the past few days….Presently @ home, which just changed course to singaara chennai….and something that i’ve been dreading for quite some time actually happened…..the dental miseries that i’ve had on and off have decided to pay a visit en masse to this poor li’l mouth o’ mine…..and boy…do they create a ruckus when all of them come together… :p anyways…bottomline being…might be outta action for atleast 10days to two weeks…. Have to be spending the next few days in the company of people belonging to one of the most hated professions (who else, dentists!!)…. Also translates to being outta college for two weeks….Not really sure how my college folks are gonna take to this one….Guess will have a pretty hard time before they allow me to jump back….Also am gonna be missing bigtime certain people and certain activities that are quite close….

Still haven’t taken a decision on my future course of action, vis-a-vis my career moves….Still weighing the pros and cons of a decision in favour of either job or further studies, although am personally inclined to the latter….also a fact that it might be a wild goose chase for the same :p , considering my illustrious track record and my abilities at acing competitive exams …..If nothing else, then one score from any gmat practice test, if and when i take ‘em, should set at rest all my lingering doubts on whether my packet would get past the first filter

Been on the move for the past few days….Presently @ home, which just changed course to singaara chennai….and something that i’ve been dreading for quite some time actually happened…..the dental miseries that i’ve had on and off have decided to pay a visit en masse to this poor li’l mouth o’ mine…..and boy…do they create a ruckus when all of them come together… :p anyways…bottomline being…might be outta action for atleast 10days to two weeks…. Have to be spending the next few days in the company of people belonging to one of the most hated professions (who else, dentists!!)…. Also translates to being outta college for two weeks….Not really sure how my college folks are gonna take to this one….Guess will have a pretty hard time before they allow me to jump back….Also am gonna be missing bigtime certain people and certain activities that are quite close….

Still haven’t taken a decision on my future course of action, vis-a-vis my career moves….Still weighing the pros and cons of a decision in favour of either job or further studies, although am personally inclined to the latter….also a fact that it might be a wild goose chase for the same :p , considering my illustrious track record and my abilities at acing competitive exams …..If nothing else, then one score from any gmat practice test, if and when i take ‘em, should set at rest all my lingering doubts on whether my packet would get past the first filter

Been on the move for the past few days….Presently @ home, which just changed course to singaara chennai….and something that i’ve been dreading for quite some time actually happened…..the dental miseries that i’ve had on and off have decided to pay a visit en masse to this poor li’l mouth o’ mine…..and boy…do they create a ruckus when all of them come together… :p anyways…bottomline being…might be outta action for atleast 10days to two weeks…. Have to be spending the next few days in the company of people belonging to one of the most hated professions (who else, dentists!!)…. Also translates to being outta college for two weeks….Not really sure how my college folks are gonna take to this one….Guess will have a pretty hard time before they allow me to jump back….Also am gonna be missing bigtime certain people and certain activities that are quite close….

Still haven’t taken a decision on my future course of action, vis-a-vis my career moves….Still weighing the pros and cons of a decision in favour of either job or further studies, although am personally inclined to the latter….also a fact that it might be a wild goose chase for the same :p , considering my illustrious track record and my abilities at acing competitive exams …..If nothing else, then one score from any gmat practice test, if and when i take ‘em, should set at rest all my lingering doubts on whether my packet would get past the first filter

Been on the move for the past few days….Presently @ home, which just changed course to singaara chennai….and something that i’ve been dreading for quite some time actually happened…..the dental miseries that i’ve had on and off have decided to pay a visit en masse to this poor li’l mouth o’ mine…..and boy…do they create a ruckus when all of them come together… :p anyways…bottomline being…might be outta action for atleast 10days to two weeks…. Have to be spending the next few days in the company of people belonging to one of the most hated professions (who else, dentists!!)…. Also translates to being outta college for two weeks….Not really sure how my college folks are gonna take to this one….Guess will have a pretty hard time before they allow me to jump back….Also am gonna be missing bigtime certain people and certain activities that are quite close….

Still haven’t taken a decision on my future course of action, vis-a-vis my career moves….Still weighing the pros and cons of a decision in favour of either job or further studies, although am personally inclined to the latter….also a fact that it might be a wild goose chase for the same :p , considering my illustrious track record and my abilities at acing competitive exams …..If nothing else, then one score from any gmat practice test, if and when i take ‘em, should set at rest all my lingering doubts on whether my packet would get past the first filter

Something pretty interesting happened today….actually, today happened to be one of those “forced attendance” seminars that actually turned out to be reasonably interesting….but for reasons far from related to the core purpose of the seminar… It was some meet organized by TIE-a grp of silicon valley entrepreneurs..major speakers were the CEO of pramathi technologies and Intel Capital’s director of strategic investments….so far, so good….the event was also attended by a few members of TIE as well as a few members of that ubiquitous breed called journalists….and one gentleman who was supposed to be firing questions happened to be the bureau chief of a popular financial paper…..as it happens in most moderated events, the anchor of the day had to give a brief intro on the participants and the moderators for the day….the two industry people had impeccable credentials, as was expected….with the person from Intel having close to 23 patents against his name !!! But the real surprise of the day was when the anchor had to read the “brief” intro of the journo….boy….did that journo have some guts !!! he did have some credentials…sure one needs ‘em if one were to become a bureau chief….but this anchor had to endure reading about this person for a whole 6-7 mins….imagine his discomfiture when he has to wax eloquent on a guy who’s intro is longer than the guys whom he’s gonna be asking questions !!! and consider how the audience would be feeling !!! and for all that i know, this guy ain’t a Thomas Friedman or the like…..and definitely not a guy who has a few pulitzers slashed away !!! :p And all this for ??? what else, but a favorable note of the event in his newspaper along with prolly a pic or two…. seriously beats me why people indulge in such “u scratch my back, i scratch yours” games!!!