MBA in Practise

“The optimists and pessimists both contribute to the society; optimists by inventing an airplane, pessimists by inventing a parachute.” – G B Stern

  When I surface out of the subway of the underground tube, I evidently see myself emerging at one end of the Waterloo station, near platform 16 and staring at the long hallway across to the other end where, typically, trains going via Wimbledon are stationed. My switch from the underground tube rail to national rail, plying above the ground, transpires unwaveringly every evening at London Waterloo station. I’ve observed so far, the trains halting at Wimbledon are mostly positioned on platforms one to four. I monotonously board one of those trains on either of the platforms to reach Wimbledon – where my house is located!
 

  What’s so interesting about this?? Well, if proceedings are just as bland as described above then I inarguably agree there is nothing exciting. But on the contrary, the events unfold in a rather finicky way, uniting and manifesting many of the learning in MBA in that short span of time. Let me unravel the mystery: To being with, let me assume I arrive at the far end of the hallway, out of the underground subway, at 6.15 pm. I customarily now know that there are trains to Wimbledon every 3-4 minutes and by and large, they are parked on platforms one to four. I begin to trot towards the other end of the hallway. As I jog through the initial few yards, I come across multiple indicators on my top-right, transmitting departure information of various trains. I skim through that information that endows me with the requisite knowledge that there are two trains, of my interest, about to vacate their platforms in the very nearest future – one at 6.18 pm from platform 1 and next at 6.21 pm from platform 4.

  This is when I introduce and implement the first of many aspects of learning in MBA – Goal Setting! People have always preached this aspect adding a cautious connotation – to choose a realistic goal! But I believe the word realistic is a relative term. What may seem realistic to one may seem superfluous to another. Nonetheless, I am highly influenced by the words of Robert Browning – “…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp…” So, I set my realistic goal – to board the train on platform 1 that is geared up to vacate the platform after 60 seconds! Once the goal setting phase is over and just 60 seconds in my pocket, I introduce another crucial aspect of learning in MBA – Resource Planning and Optimal Utilization. I ostensibly realize, the trot will simply not help my cause and hence, to make optimum use of my 60 seconds, I changeover from my brisk walk mode to sprint mode! So I now begin to sprint from platform 12 towards platform 1 to accomplish the goal set.

  As with any project, there are unplanned hurdles. In this case, the numerous people leisurely strolling around, distinctly unmindful of my tenacious goal. Generally two thoughts would jolt the mind – either boggle down and give up or change the goal. This is when the obstinate words of Mary Kay Ash resounds in my subconscious mind and redeems my faith – “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right!” I promptly introduce another important facet – Dynamic Planning! With no clear and straight way to perceive, I instinctively pave my own path by wriggling through hoards of unhurriedly veering people to achieve my goal.    

  With the final 10 seconds now hastily diminishing, I race through to the middle of platform one and enter the train compartment with a swift hop. I hear the doors of the compartment automatically closing behind my back and it is then that my mind perceives the most delightful and enchanting feeling of all the learning in MBA – Sense of Accomplishment of a Goal! I scout for a vacant seat and enjoy the immense feeling of accomplishment. That further sows many seeds of motivation and re-strengthens the inherent faith and belief for the next day. Such daily unfolding of events, though monotonous, helps me to unfailingly reinstate many of the salient tenets of learning in MBA!

  …the gone by week witnessed a great, legendary, visionary and a talismanic leader leave his earthly abode for his heavenly abode. Steve Jobs truly remains one of the greatest inspirations for me and I sign off with one of my personal favorite from his many thoughts on life, “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary…”

MBA – Served HOT

“In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.” - Winston Churchill

  Never felt at home like this before! With the temperature breaking the record for the hottest day in October 2011, I was compelled to experience an Indian summer in London; an obligation I didn’t desire. I couldn’t have more emphasized and exhibited my discontent than the fact that I chose to remain indoors today and give the much appreciated ‘prolonged autumn heat wave’ enjoyed by the majority of Britain inhabitants, a confident and conscious miss. Amazingly, the last time Britain experienced such record soar in temperature was in the year 1985 – the year I was born – and then, now in 2011. I wonder, whether it has anything to do with me, fatefully! And to top it all, residing in the land of Englishmen today, I paid tribute to M K Gandhi, who had won freedom for India from the very same Englishmen!

  We were bombarded with rigorous lectures right from day one, as the first official study week unraveled without much fanfare. Every day of the week was crammed with sessions from each of the modules for semester one and the module leaders each, very ritually, handed over a heavy book packed with infinite pages. The week began with the delivery of trivial insight on the ceremonious topic – Leading and Managing People; and the sudden quip of the words of Casey Stengel in my mind educed a silent smirk – “The secret to managing people is to keep the guys who hate you, away from the guys who are yet undecided.” Next day followed and we were introduced to a rather precarious subject – Identifying and Evaluating Value (of an organization/of a nation). The discourse was particularly made interesting for the students who hailed from non-finance background, who got to taste the syntax and semantic of accounting and finance. Nonetheless, I invariably couldn’t help but ponder, gasp, and sigh on the moribund economy of many European nations, as much as the connoisseurs of finance and accounting world can swank!

  The middle of the week saw us imbue fundamental interpretations of my personal favorite theme – Marketing; fittingly titled ‘Creating Customer Value’. The omnipresent phenomenon of marketing rides solely on one crucial aspect – hope! It incessantly sells hope, nourishes the hope, further enriches the hope and more pertinently, keeps the flames of hope alive and burning. As the noted French writer Francois de La Rochefoucauld wisely understood, “Hope is the last thing that dies in a man...” And nothing exploits it more than marketing! And finally, Thursday concluded with us playing on MS Excel with zealous efforts to draw some sense of statistics. At this juncture, I must not fail to cite the famous quote on statistics by Professor Aaron Levenstein – “Statistics are like bikinis.  What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” Guess that pretty much sums up all about statistics!

  Just as we were about to heave a sigh of relief on the supposed culmination of a long and laborious schedule of 10am to 5pm every day, Friday sprung up with a surprise – of us having to undertake a psychometric test – under the last significant module for semester one – Personal and Professional Development. Although initially deemed punitive by many, further insight about the module revealed relevant and rather applicable use of the course curriculum. On that note, each member of the MBA cohort survived on to enjoy the impending weekend!

  I, addicted to photography, couldn’t have waited any further to explore new places in London. But ominously, Saturday saw my camera give up on me due to my irrefragable negligence to charge the batteries. We frantically surmised for a solution and it was then that a brilliant idea conceptualized to elevate us from the tyranny of unfortunate predicament. We visited the Houses of Parliament, where photography was prohibited!

  …as I look forward to another arduous week of the MBA menu served hot in my plate, the statue with a belligerent pose of Winston Churchill in the Houses of Parliament evokes memories, eliciting the desire to conclude with yet another witty quote from the same man, “A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen….”

The Eternal Pursuit

“When I discover who I am, I'll be free.” -Ralph Ellison

  Tears started to roll down my cheeks. I summoned up the introspective train of thoughts from the depths of my subconscious mind. It steadily left a beguiling effect on me and simultaneously, humbled me. Just for the information, I am currently residing around the vicinity of the ‘The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Limited’ located at Church Road. To cite more uncomplicated cue, I am staying around about the same region which was unanimously conquered and ruled by Swiss Tennis ace Roger Federer for five years in succession, only to lose his reign to a determined and vigorous Spaniard Rafael Nadal who astoundingly dethroned him. Then followed a juggle of supremacy for the next few years, until a Serbian, Novak Djokovic, with his unassailable backhand and service returns, took over the ‘grass court kingdom’ in July 2011. Got that? OK, let me put in a blunt manner – I am staying in Wimbledon in London!

  As cliched as it may sound, but never had I imagined that I would get to breathe in the same place, that I, more than once, used to watch about sitting intrigued before a television, 4500+ miles away! If that wasn’t enough, every day as I board one of the Southwest Trains to London Waterloo station, I come across Vauxhall station wherein you can get the resonance of the famous Oval cricket ground that is just half a mile away! Indeed, having come so far, I bear an earnest desire to watch the Wimbledon’s final at the center court in July 2012 and a cricket match at the Oval.

  My gaze caught a couple passionately embracing and kissing in the bustling evening time at Baker Street. They were unmindful of the public around and unequivocally, the public was reciprocating in an equally unmindful manner! Without any efforts, the sarcastic words, that I encountered long ago, popped in my head – “Here kissing in public is allowed, but pissing is not; In India, pissing in public is allowed, but kissing is not.” If I have to scout for a commonality between the two, people in India are undeniably unmindful of the public pissing as much as the people here are explicitly unmindful of the public kissing!

  Many people have come in my life. Some have stayed. Some left hastily. And those who’d stayed left rather abruptly! There was a period when I’d wasted my precious time, precariously touching the threshold of worrying and trying to find out the reason behind. But then once, fatefully as I crossed the threshold, did I realize that divine awakening was waiting to dawn on me on the other side of the fence! I realized that things happen for a greater purposes and reasons beyond the timid and diminutive nature of human grasp. It will always be the case – many will come into your life; many will go away from your life after some time; then next set of people enter your life and stay, till the time comes for them to depart. And amidst these musical chairs, some will understand many; many will mistake some! There will always exist, the quagmire of right and wrong, providentially dispelled by the judicious and eternal time as per one’s augmenting learning and fate.

  The purpose behind such a heavy discourse is to highlight the distinctive fact of the conglomerate structure of the cohort in the course I am pursuing. It is truly diverse in the sense one could imagine. Students represent varied nations across the globe – Germany, Russia, Albania, Croatia, Philippines, Ukraine, Madagascar, US, UK, Pakistan and its politically friendly neighbor (pun intended) – India! There was quite a dispute, when I was in India, on whether to pursue a course abroad or not, but as further understood here and stated in my earlier blog, the very experience of interacting with all of them and learning, discovering and rediscovering yourself thereby, is simply irrefutable. There are at times difficulties in communications, predictably, due to the extreme variety of culture people have inhabited in and have come from and respective diverse experiences they’ve accrued in their past. But nevertheless, communications do occur successfully, by one’s unrelenting efforts or indomitable will to break the self-made glass shell of ego and ignorance. And it is in this process, rediscovery of oneself occurs!

  As per the words of Ralph Ellison, it is in that eternal discovery pursuit to attain endless freedom, I must unwaveringly toil – “If not me, then who; if not now, then when.”

  …and with those stimulating words etched in my mind with no dispute, my train of thoughts reached the platform of sublime peace and tranquility. I finished cutting the onions and moved on to cut the tomatoes; and hence, inadvertently, tears stopped to roll down my cheeks…

A Bird Out Of the Nest

“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

   Andrew clasped his fingers of his right hand, firmly, between the comforting and reassuring fingers of the left hand of his female acquaintance on two occasions – while take off and then during touchdown. Andrew was the person sitting adjacent to me on the flight to London. I got a taste of the shrunken globe when Andrew exclaimed vociferously after he’d got a chance to peep onto my filled-in Landing Card. The instigating factor, out of all that I could speculate, was my mentioned birthplace that caught his chirping eyes – TRICHY, a small township in Tamil Nadu, in Southern India! There I was who was born in Trichy, flying to UK, sitting alongside a native bloke from UK, who’d just visited Trichy, out of all significant tourist places in India, and returning to UK. At that moment, I couldn’t gauge the odds of such occurrences transpiring but simply marveled at one of the many bedazzling coincidences in play.

   On the day I’d arrived, London welcomed me with the most pleasant weather I’d ever anticipated. I got to travel in the much talked about London underground tube that very day to reach my place from Heathrow airport. Traveling in the tube evoked reminiscences of my travel in the New Delhi Metro Rails. If the tube plies beneath the surface of the earth in London, the Metro Rails ply overhead on an elevated bridge in New Delhi. Barring this contrary, I suppose, from the design of the tube map to the entire modus operandi of local rail transport, India has taken more than just cues from the London underground rail system to implement its currently operating Metro Rail in its capital. Nevertheless, it’d be unfair to say that India has only managed to replicate everything from nuts-to-bolts; I’d say, fairly, India has bettered the design and modus operandi wherever it could!

   It’s simply an indescribable feeling to behold a sight of bouquet of animated students from various nooks of the world, gathered for the International Students Welcome Programme (ISWP) organized in the university. London – a beguiling stage – plays a perfect host to many of the aspiring students and stands true to the words of being one of the finest cosmopolitans in the world, by cohesively uniting students from different cultures and society and making them congregate under one wise and unanimous roof of education. It’s quite noteworthy to learn that almost 25% of the Brits currently residing are native inhabitants of other countries; and heartily, London continues to welcome and embrace overseas and unfamiliar citizens, with open arms!

   “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – These prudent words of Saint Augustine bore its true meaning in my mind when I exchanged thoughts with various students from diverse ethnicity, on a boat trip organized on the river Thames as part of ISWP. As the light faded following the sunset, so did the cultural barriers. Although very few could pronounce each others' names, the splendid distant view of the circular London eye, the sparkling reflection of illuminated Westminster Abbey on the waters, the passing of the coveted London Bridge overhead as we sailed below, and the evidently striking cold winds, all conspired universally paving a path to find like-minded people and bond with them. We aptly decided to shun the name game. After all, what’s in a name! The indulgence in wholehearted interactions, further on, categorically helped to dispel and dissolve the accrued and preconceived notions, into the sea of truth and enlightenment. Eventually, and more pertinently, I believe, each stood conspicuously corrected with the judicious words of Aldous Huxley ringing in the back of their mind – “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”

   A recent survey declared that Britons say sorry up to eight times a day on an average. Sorry and Thank you are used by the Britons for almost anything and everything! From the part of the world I come from, it takes a lot of gaffe on an individual’s part, for him to elicit the highly expended word of the Britons. Invariably many things are implied back in my society and country. But I am aware I am dwelling in London at present and have to inculcate the customs followed here, to thrive and be accepted as one in here. That is an indispensable truth all ardent travelers bear in mind. I, having designated myself as an ardent traveler, have perpetually etched the words of James Michener in my mind – “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” So, expect me to soon hit, if not surpass, the Britons’ average of uttering sorry!

   …I’ll be off on a one day journey to Brighton tomorrow. As a bird out of its nest, I intend to explore and keep my inquisitiveness craving for more, all along rediscovering myself and weaving a fine garland of friends in the journey. After all, as Tim Cahill impeccably stated – “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”…

The Make Up

“… faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

 There were persuasions for quite some time that I should be blogging. I like to write. No doubt. But I love to talk! However, later than sooner, much to people’s ill-fate, I realized their persuasion to blog was a conspired modest approach to escape listening to me altogether. In fact I was hauled up many times for talking to great extents, unmindful whether the person has, at the most, set the direction of his ear towards me, leave alone listening. But then, talking has always been my passion, not conversing! As I encountered a recession in the audience who would cater their coveted gossip-yearning ears to my incessant talking, I’d no choice but resort to writing.

 I did no better in my new endeavor, initially, and the abomination continued crushing my hope and faith – this time for my text being too long! But then I thrust few selected write-ups onto my close acquaintances, who dared not to refuse on my face. Out of those, few managed to complete and more importantly survived reading my text; and to my surprise and liking even relayed positive feedback. In addition, they encouraged staunchly that I write more than often.  I was touched. My faith got redeemed! Nevertheless, albeit earning scarce yet loyal readers, I couldn’t write that often as my life didn’t witness that regularly, stirring, inspiring, and enriching new experiences – ingredients that I considered (still consider) essential to propel me to pen my thoughts in words.

 Unlike then, my life has now entered a momentous change, an enthralling realm (thanks to my parents). I want to believe that my new phase of life will spring experiences prefixed with the adjectives mentioned above, thereby goading me to pen regularly. Although this time I will consciously make efforts to keep the length of the text to one page of a word document, I confess, religiously, that I may encroach upon the space of the header and footer section, at times out of old habit!

 THHHHUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDD…..that was the sound produced as my bag hit the ground once I dropped it on the surface of the earth outside the airport. On this day, as entire India bid farewell to the beloved guest Lord Ganesha, I quietly took off on a plane from IGI airport, New Delhi – 9/11 a significant date to bear in mind – only to make a smooth and monotonous touchdown at the runway of the airport, much unlike the dreaded intentions of the two planes, eleven years ago. After a comfortable nine hours of mid-air soaring, I was finally able to set my feet on the capital land of the Englishmen – London!  Least used organ inside my cranium – brain – was overwhelmed and secreted abundant hormones generating sporadic signals, out of sheer excitement. I reckoned in anticipation – a new beginning beckons my life obsessed with nomadic desires. Some come here to play the gentlemen’s game, some come here inspired to meet Lady Gaga, some come to find their future while some to lose their past, some come to wax, and some to be the wax! But I have come here, because I had to. Destino! Besides, in the least, salubriously, I suppose the excess sebum secreted by my sebaceous glands would be well dealt off by the marginally humid and cold weather conditions here, keeping the irritation level at bay.

 I had only high regards for all dictum on faith, until recently. Now, I possess a stabbed belief system doctored by a thought-provoking maxim that I recently encountered, by Friedrich Nietzsche on faith: not wanting to know what the truth is! After all, blatantly when the entire annual appraisal process, though farce, is made up and legitimately shoved upon the employers, blatantly when hundreds of thousands of tax payer’s money is coughed up by the corrupt politicians and officially made up to seem for the welfare of the society; I leave for you to solemnly speculate and decide as to blatantly why can’t I make up all of the above and walk away freely……

…and now, in the hindsight, when I re-examine the above words of Martin Luther King Jr. in conjunction with the recently encountered maxim on faith, I fervently wonder what would happen to the person who takes the first step, and thereafter, factually there is no staircase at all…