Independence Day Speech at XLRI

Respected Director Fr Abraham, Dean Academics Prof. Pranabesh Ray, Dean Administration & Finance Fr C. L. George, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Fr Panka Toppo, distinguished faculty members and my dear friends, it gives me a sense of immense honor standing before you on the Independence Day of our motherland and addressing such an intelligentsia.

India today is celebrating its 64th Independence-day and we are standing here to remember the contribution made by every man and woman who stood up in the remote corners of this country and fought for freedom. It is because of their sacrifices and contribution India is what it is today!!

After every Independence-day ceremony that I have attended in last few years, few questions have invariably come to my mind? “What is the take away from this ceremony? How am I contributing to the nation? And if I am contributing, am I doing enough?”

This ceremony invariably generates a sense of pride, love for Mother Nation in all of us but how far does that sense of pride and that love go? Does it lead to any action or any particular behavior in the long run? How conscious we are about problems that our country is currently facing and do we realize our role, or assume any responsibility for ourselves in finding out solutions to those problems?

If the answer to some of the questions I raised before is Yes, then attending this ceremony today and in the coming years makes sense to me. I am raising these questions here knowing every one of us has different answers to these questions and everyone has to find it himself/herself. But I think it is necessary that we do ask this question to ourselves and find out how we are actually contributing to the nation.

I truly believe that XLRI is a unique institute in the sense that it is able to generate a sense of concern for Society & Nation in its students. And it is visible in many ways in our day to day lives. Now in command of our own destiny, we the younger generation of this nation are perhaps the most fortunate generation of Indians in last five decades. We are the greatest beneficiaries of India’s rise as an economic superpower. We have opportunities that our parents never had. We as the future of India have this great responsibility on us. We need to take care of the world around us, to make it as beautiful for others as it is for us today.

To quote our first Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, who in his speech on the Granting of Indian Independence, on August 14, 1947 said
“The future beckons to us. Where do we go and what shall be our Endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman."

I earnestly believe that this dream can be translated into reality and this is where the role we future leaders of this country come into picture. I am sure that all of us present here believe that we have it in us to achieve this dream and that India can achieve this dream. Jai Hind!!

Dynamism

Some days Ago I was watching a movie. In the movie there was a scene with a large field of mustard flowers, a long road, sun shining and a lazy farmer. The Farmer woke up, looked at sun and slept again. Warm breeze was blowing through the fields. It looked as if time had stopped. There was a charm in this pause. Doing things at slow pace, relaxing and sitting back also gives a lot of pleasure in life.

If so, why do we run after so many things? What would be end state? What would make us happy? Do we stop anywhere? And if we do at that point would we be healthy, capable enough to relish that moment. Why achievements matter to us?

I thought about it. Would a static life like where I do nothing and just sit back make me happy? For how much time would I enjoy it? But am I enjoying what I am doing? I know the good thing is that I am experiencing so many new things. But do I relax enough and observe these experience and enjoy them. After all purpose of life probably is to live and nothing else. And if it is so, One should live happily.

The ideal state according to me would be being dynamic and enjoying everything that one does. And you would enjoy it only when you are able to observe yourself involved in these activities. It should be the dynamism that makes one capable of having the best possible pleasures out of life.

As it is said by Buddha, Be dynamic. Never stop. Charaiveti charaiveti.

Leading for Change

Recently realized that Leading people for change is a very arduous task. Nobody likes change. I think a leader has to be very motivated, Driven and assertive if he wants to bring any change to the existing system. Making promises for a leader is also very easy but carrying out your promises is a very difficult. Because when it comes to follow your vision, you need to change the way things have been working for last so many years. Certain things I think are very important in this regard:

1- A clear vision for future has to be there. This should not get lost in Day to day activities Long term focus should not be lost.
2- A leader has to stand for what he believes.
3- A leader has to change himself first.
4- A leader should not have Ego but should be very assertive.
5- A leader has to be considerate also otherwise he can easily loose connect with others.

Learning continues@XL

It seems that yesterday only fourth term had started. Last 20-25 days have passed very quickly. During these days I have been busy with a lot of day to day activities and have really not been able to focus on Long term plans. I saw a lot of ego clashes also during these days. I also learnt theories related to Latent motives, Manifested motives and now I can see all my altercations, discussions with people using this perspective. I also got a chance to learn Finance as Philosophy and similarity was striking. I had some emotional moments and found my friends standing by me whenever required. I learnt Power of Belief and some Indian Philosophies. I saw some enthusiastic people and some seasoned business men. I saw myself running behind time trying to do my best but still not being able to catch up. I thought I could be more rational but sometimes logic did not seem to work. One thing that I think I learnt and is really unique is to keep smiling with everything going around. I read Siddartha from Hermann Hesse before coming to XL in this term and that small book has been very relevant all this time :)

"Pragya if you understand it, else it is wisdom"

Gita says,"Man should act and should be indifferent to the results".

With most of the things in my life I have been able to follow this philosophy. Gita however Reinforced my belief that it is a good way to approach life.

Some recent experiences made me see the paradox in this approach however.

Then I realised Gita also has an assumption of one Supreme power !!!

Can we assume that ever??

< To be Decided- 3>

PS: This part is continuation of last Part 1 & 2. Please go through them once before reading this part.

Next Day Amay Called Raksha in the morning and told her he would talk to his parents about them getting married. Raksha smiled and some drops of tears fell from her eyes. Amay told Raksha that he had some work at Cannaught place in the afternoon and they would meet at Metro walk on Sunday. Raksha was feeling like hugging Amay and say "Cutoo" in his ears.

Raksha also had some work at office. She went to office and came back in afternoon. She was feeling very sleepy. She ate some Bread Jam and went to sleep. She woke up around at 8:00 pm. She thought Amay should have called her by now. She tried calling Amay but his phone was switched off. She had received some missed calls from her home but she thought she would call home later.

She went to the kitchen and put some "Khichdee" to be cooked in the Cooker. She took a bath and then put on some light music. She opened the cooker and then then switched on the TV. She thought that first she should call her home and she called home. Her Mom picked up the phone and asked with anger where she had been and why was not she picking up the call. She calmed her mom and asked, "Kya hua Mummy??" Her Mom said, "Are tumhein pata nahee Delhi mein Serial Blasts huye hain, Kahan thee tum??". She was shocked. She almost cried,"Kya?? Accha mumma abhee mai phone rakhtee hoon..aur dekhtee hoon kya hua hai.." Her Mom said, " Dekho Jyaada Baahar mat nikalna.." Raksha had disconnected the phone by then.

She tried to call Amay but he was picking up the phone. She browsed through the channels and reached Aaj Tak.

Delhi was rocked today by serial Blasts. There were Blasts at Cental park, Cannaught Place and......

The worst ran in front of her eyes. She could not move her hands. Khichdee was getting cold. But her hunger had died. She tried Amay's number again. But Phone was switched off. She called his friend Raman. But Raman's phone was busy.

What could she do?? She had a shivering feeling. She felt as if she was not able to breathe properly. But she calmed herself that it is not possible. She did not want to think about it. She tried Raman's number again.

< TO BE CONTINUED>

Aaraam Karo :)

A beautiful Poem:

http://www.manaskriti.com/kaavyaalaya/aaraam_karo.stm

Hasyaras kee uttam rachna :-)

( Taken from FB post of Ankur Sir)

NOTE: The story < TO be Decided> would be completed soon. I could not continue with it because of illness for a while.

< To be Decided- 2>

This post is continuation of last post.

Raksha warmed "Daal Chawal" while Amay helped her with preparing some Salad. Amay mixed some "Haldiram Mixture" in “Daal Chawal” as this was the way he liked it most. While Amay was eating Raksha was looking her. He used to eat as if nothing else mattered to him while he was eating. Raksha found it very cute. As soon as they finished their food, Raksha kissed Amay. Amay was little surprised at this, but he smiled and kissed her back.

Amay Switched on the TV while Raksha went to Kitchen. After she came back, she switched off the television and asked Amay that she wanted to talk to him. Amay sensed something in her eyes and became a little serious.

Raksha: Amay, Mom ka phone aaya tha. She was asking me that I should get married first and then continue with higher studies. Papa kee Tabiyat bhee thodee Kharaab rahtee hai aajkal.

Amay: Raksha, You know that I want to marry you too. But I cannot marry in next 2-3 years. I need to support my family.

Raksha: But I don’t understand how you marrying me is exclusive from that.

Amay: Raksha kuchh aur bhee problems hain jo mai tumhein nahee bata sakta. Tum apnee Mom ko kyon nahee samjhaatee that pahle tumhein Higher studies karnee chahiye and then marriage. This way we both will get time also.

Raksha: Amay, Maine bahut samjhaya hai unko. Par Mom nahee maantee. She asked if I already have someone whom I want to marry. What should I tell her?

Amay: Raksha, You don’t understand my position. There are some other problems in my family which I cannot tell you. Even I am afraid if I would be able to marry you or not. But what you know that I would try my best.

Raksha's eyes were wet. It looked as if she was about to cry. Amay holded her hand and told her that he would do his best for them to be together and that Raksha should give her some time. He would sort the things out. Raksha Hugged Amay .

It had become dark as Amay reached his home. He was having a slight headache. He took 2 Disprins with water and felt relieved. He called his home and talked to his Mom. He picked the novel "A Thousand splendid suns" and slept as he was reading it.

Raksha went to temple near her home, came back prepared coffee for herself. She checked some websites about GMAT preparation then slept after some time.

Both dreamt the same dream in night as they smiled in their sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED..

< To be Decided>

It was third traffic Jaam she was caught in today in her way. Raksha almost cried and said to Auto Driver, "Bhaiya Mai yaheen utar rahee hoon, Aap paise lelo" and she started walking towards Keshav Nagar Metro station. Raksha had promised Amay that she would meet him there at 3:00 pm. But it was already 3:45 by her watch. She was thinking that Amay never kept her waiting. Amay had met Raksha through a social networking website. They had known each other before that also but had never talked to each other. Amay had done his graduation from IIT Madras and was working as a Business Analyst in a firm in Gurgaon. Raksha had completed her Engineering from NIT Warangal and was working with a public sector company at Delhi. Both belonged to same city howver these days both were staying at Delhi. The most loving thing Raksha found in Amay was that he cared for everyone and for her he cared the most. He was slightly Chubby and Raksha had nicknamed Amay as "Cutoo". Amay thought Raksha was very beautiful and one thing that made him fall for Raksha was that she was only girl who could understand him well. Today it was a Sunday and they had decided to go to "Delhi Haat". However it has started to rain since morning and now only in the afternoon rain had stopped. Weather was pleasant and Raksha was very happy today. She did not want to go to "Delhi Haat" rather wanted Amay to come with her to her place where she had cooked "Daal Chaawal" for him which he liked very much.

Reaching Keshav Nagar Metro Station, Raksha saw Amay. Amay smiled seeing her and she smiled back. Both grabbed each other's hand and Amay told Raksha that lets not go to "Delhi Haat" today, lets go somewhere else. Raksha smiled and said," Mere Ghar chalte hain". Amay Said,"Tumhare ghar kyon..I am very Hungry. Lets go and have something". Raksha said," Are Mai hoon naa" and she smiled. Amay suddenly understood something and smiled.

Raksha had a decent work profile but for further growth in her career she wanted to pursue MBA. Raksha was an Engineer but had also worked for CNN IBN as a part time reporter. She also had worked for many social initiatives and also with many Nationwide covered magazines during her graduation. Considering her profile Amay suggested her to write GMAT and apply for ISB and foreign B schools. Raksha however on the other hand did not want to leave Delhi as Amay was there. Amay did not want to quit his company and also had no plans for higher studies. His family was pretty much dependent on him and he wanted to support them. Raksha many times thought that she would marry Amay and they would happily stay at Delhi. But She was not sure about her parents agreeing to the marriage. Amay & Raksha had never discussed their future seriously and Raksha was not even sure what Amay thinks about it. She had however convinced herself that she would sacrifice her career ambitions if Amay agrees for marriage.

Raksha had applied for GMAT and was planning to appear next month for the same. But today she had decided she would talk to Amay about them getting married. Her parents were already receiving many proposals at her home town and she had told her parents that she wanted to pursue higher studies and hence she was not ready to marry right then.

Amay and Raksha reached Raksha's place. Raksha opened the lock still holding one hand of Amay.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Egos & Limited perspectives !!!

I recently faced many situations where EGOS of various persons were involved. And I noticed one thing that people can be very silly due to their Egos. People get stuck only with a single stand because it feeds their egos. They do not want to see other side of the issue. They do not want to take a larger perspective and look at things with very limited perspectives.

In Organisational Behavior course we read about Sub-unit orientation. I thought this is because an unit in an organisation sees things from its perspective and hence misses larger perspective. But after my recent observations I think the main reason for sub-unit orientation is that people cant think beyond serving their Egos. They don't want to be defeated by accepting a different view point than that of their own. They do it even it they know what they are saying is illogical to a large extent.

If you see from Historical perspective it is the Ego of human that has driven progress of mankind to a large extent. However the same ego caused battles as big as "Mahabharata" which decimated whole civilizations. so effect of EGO is paradoxical in some sense. Some confuse EGO with Individualism which I think is a very gross mistake to do. I personally think that Individualism is key to development of any civilization but at the same time Egos if inflated can create havocs.

Well, from last some exchanges I understood that if you come across such a situation where inflated EGOs are involved, always be determined and make sure that you put your point forward. Give the person sometime to think beyond his ego and talk to him later again. There is a chance that person sees the other perspective also. This worked for me and I think can always work as an effective strategy in similar situations. :-)

busy times at XLRI

#I have had very hectic last few days and many more such days are awaiting me. Have been forced to use all sorts of methods to manage my time ( prioritization/avoiding work/slogging hard etc.) Still have not been able to focus of all the things. But I foresee good times ahead.

#I have also been completely out of touch with many friends and infact have not talked to some of them in last 4-5 months.

#Learned many things about myself and others during this period. That has been the best thing in these days.

# XLRI evenings & nights have become beautiful. A tree graced me with beautiful flowers today. felt like going back to Almora. I decided to buy a good Camera.

# Made some good friends in recent days. That is another good thing.

# A Friend of mine @ IIMB writing a book. waiting eagerly for the same.

Friends for ever

People do MBA for money, career goals, Intellectual stimulation and what not. But somethings those come along with all these things are friends. Its difficult to understand value of friends when they are around you. However when you know that they are about to leave you, sometimes heart says, No, Don't go away mate. You cared for me, you supported me. We shared joy and sorrow together. I never felt alone in your presence. How would I go further from here?? Time passes by and you make new friends. But it takes a lot of time and luck to find friends like old ones. People say life moves on. May be it does. but somethings can't be forgotten. A true friend stays for ever and friendship stays for ever. True friends stay for ever.

Eyes Closed

It is said that Outer world is a reflection of our inner world and our eyes create this veil in front of us which prevents us from seeing the reality. I closed my eyes and my last few days rolled over in front of me. Only that images were different. these images were originally hidden behind faces of people, sound of loud speaker and smile of our gatekeeper ( Bahadur Bhaiya). But Now I could see them. These were images of Hope, images of Happiness, images of Mental Strength, images of concern for others, images of Resolve. These images were shining bright. However there were other images also those of Smugness, irresponsibility. I opened my eyes and closed them again. Now there was only one image that I saw and that was Image of Hope. That is why I kept my eyes closed for some more moments !!! I felt relaxed.

My moment & your memories

You are not here but your memories definitely are
You can not be here but your memories definitely are
You will not be here but your memories definitely will be

It seems it is not you but some auxiliary verbs those troubling me here!!!

Impact of history on business

Our civilization has a huge history of conflicts. These conflicts have impacted our patterns of thinking in a huge way. For instance most theories of Strategic management are driven out of wars. Some people define strategy as the bottom-line behind actions of a firm to gain competitive advantage. However with globalization in most business scenarios today, defining competition for a firm itself is a huge task. This makes it very difficult to employ strategies which are driven by competition. Therefore the new era is era of blue-ocean strategies or developmental strategies. There is also a huge discussion going on these days about Cooperative strategies. Today only companies which are able to innovate and develop new businesses are able to create huge profits. If you take a list of fortune 500 companies and consider their growth rate on the basis of revenues, you can easily see that top 10 companies are the ones who are innovating very fast. The point that I am drive forward is that our history has impacted our patterns of thinking to a very large extent. Had it not been so, the business practices could have been very different from what they today are. So in this world of differentiation, a good strategy is to start with out any frame work or preconceived plan of action. Thinking afresh will help to be succeed in business today. You can see Google has done just that !!

@XL-4 (Republic day at XLRI)

Today I woke up at morning 8:30 and rushed in front of XLRI academic block for attending flag hoisting ceremony at 9:30 am. It is nice to see so many people attending this ceremony without any compulsion. There were professors, their families, students and working staff of XLRI. Today it was 61st Republic day for the country. The first song performed by Bodhitree( The official Band of XLRI) was " Aye Mere Vatan ke logon, Jaraa aankh mein bhar lo paanee, Jo shaheed huyein hai unkee, jaraa yaad karo kurbaani". The song asks us to remember all the freedom fighters of the country who donated their lives in the cause of freedom for the country. We are the young generation of our country and fortunately we have not seen any major debacle/insurgency in our country. We are MBA students and the biggest tragedies we remember are 2002 Dotcom burst or for that matter the recent economic recession. We are troubled by "Satyam Saga". We are one of the most genuine persons in the country who have worked enormously hard to make our ways to XLRI. But we have a tenderness in our approach. We have a fear against instability in our lives. Do we truly remember the sacrifice of people done by our freedom fighters. How many of us do understand the enormity of the cause that our forefathers took up or how many of us can feel even a fraction of pain that instigated them to donate their lives to freedom movement of India. I think our generation is well past that pain because if there was even a slight feeling of gratitude, respect to our freedom fighters, we the so called capable ones would have fought prevalent poverty, illiteracy, improper health care in our country. Each of us would have at least taken more responsibilities in our lives. I really believe that we have potential to become a great country but we need people who assume their all responsibilties and make it a point to fullfill them.

@XL-3 ( An assumption is mother of any Goof-up)

I recently faced a situation where a small assumption led to a big trouble. It is highly disappointing when you try your best to ensure that everything goes right and still there are Goof-ups. I think one should try to learn from these mistakes and should not assume to many things in future about others/situations etc.

Other aspect of these situations is behavior of persons around you. Some people will just forget all the right things that you have done in the past and will behave in a very disrespectful manner. However some would support you on your face but would actually doubt your potential. There would be some others who would try to understand the real cause of the problem and will think rationally about your mistake and the outcomes to be drawn about you because of this mistake. I think we should try to check our own behavior if any of the persons around us is caught in any such situation.

@XL-2 ( Finance and Music go well together)

Today is going to be a night out again. I have a long assignment to do. A lot of financial calculations to be done. Its 4:18 am in the morning. I am listening to "3 Idiots" song, Give me some sunshine.. and I am loving it !!! Finance and Music do go well togther.

Or may be it is effect of the lyrics of this particular song ;-)

Up to you to comment.

DCP war !!!

People have many innovative ways to get fun at classes at XLRI ( learning is ofcourse fun ;-) but ppl always demand more fun). A Recent innovation is DCP war. DCP is "Desperate Class Participation". This is a common term across all B-School where teachers allocate some marks for class participation. Students however in order to get these marks will ask questions just for nothing and then it becomes Desperate Class participation.
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@ AOL course we were told that there are 3 kinds of questions ppl ask:
1- The questions that they dont even care to ask. like "How are you" etc.
2- The questions that they seek answers for. The questions where they disagree/agree, where they seek confrontation/confirmation.
3- The questions they ask to show their knowledge. Or questions they ask to show that they are interested? (Well DCP belongs to this category)
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So Next level to DCP is DCP war. Where we have made some teams in the class. For every question asked the team gets a point. And the team which asks the maximum questions wins. Now there are many ways to spice it up further. Like There are rules like if a member of a team asks a question, another member of the same team should ask a question before member of any other team asks a question. Otherwise the first team gets negative points. Then other ways are creating rythms in DCP where a moderator controls the time when a question has to be asked. And as soon as he shows a sign, a question has to be asked by a team with in 5 seconds.

Overall this is fun. And this does not even hampers learning. :-)

DISCLAIMER: Its just fiction with no reality. We are very serious about academics at XLRI.

@XL-1

I will continue to post some random thoughts and observations at XLRI under this title.

Gyaan@ART of Living:

Live with Happiness not pursuit of happiness.

Random Gyaan:

1- "Our Great Grandfathers lived only as rich as our grandfathers as rate of economic growth was almost negligible at that time. Our fathers lived in more riches than our grandfathers. We will be richer than our fathers. So we are a generation of value creators for the Society"

Well a very limited thought I must say. There are many other dimensions which can be added to it. Many objections can be raised against this statement also. But if you see all that hard work that our generation is putting up must be creating some value somewhere!!!

2- Learnt through an experience that to make good friends you have to invest time with them.(Well, yes, it works in practicality for sure)

Art of Living @XL

XLRI has arranged a 3 day "Art of living" program for us. Program has a great reputation across the world. Apart from other regular exercises somethings really struck me during the program. One was Sudarshan Kriya. I went to sleep during this Kriya(As a matter of fact most tormented souls of XLRI, who had barely slept in previous nights went in deep sleep). When I woke up, I woke up blank.It looked as if I had slept for hours. Before sleeping, I could feel vibrations in my head, similar to when you have drunk some glasses of Alcohol. And when I woke up I felt as I was at some other level. It was a wonderful experience. I dont remember last time when I went in such a deep sleep.

During the program we were asked to think about things that bother us. One thing that came to my mind was "Unrest" in the world. I was asked to imagine how world would look like without any wars and conflicts. I tried to imagine it and it was a wonderful sight. I loved it. There were no conflicts and humanitarian crisis like today at Iraq and Sudan. There was technological progress all around and everybody cared for everybody's gain. It is really difficult to understand basic reason for people doing things those take us away from this possibility.

Other thing was about living in Present. If we can even for a moment think just about present and nothing else, we would be smiling in that moment. So why not live every moment in itself and give you 100 percent to it rather than caring about past or future. On another level it seemed that disconnecting future and present is very difficult. But at least we should stop bothering about Past.

Overall it was a nice experience for a day. and there are 2 more days to come. I am looking forward to them :-)

New year resolution

New year resolution to be regular on the blog :-)

Merry Christmas

Its Christmas today and it is time to be around your loved ones. There are times when we express our love very explicitly and sometimes our love is very implicit. I think what matters the most is to have at least one person in this world whom you can tell, “God only knows what I will be without you”. Our lives have become very busy and target driven all the times. Sometimes they are professional targets and sometimes personal targets, we rarely sit back and enjoy the warmth of affection of our loved ones. We do spend time with them but our minds are at our work or even sometimes focus is only spending time with them. But human is created to have emotions by God and he wants our hearts to share love, happiness, sorrow with others and I think life is more fulfilling when we do just that. I think one can take a test to check if he is really getting the affection that he deserves in life or if he does love his loved ones wholeheartedly. The test is to watch two movies in a straight sitting, first is “Notting Hill” and other is “Love Actually”. Please repeat last 10 minutes of “Love Actually” once again. Now try to think of last time when you had the similar feeling. If you can remember at least one time in recent six months, you are just fine. Otherwise there is something that you are missing. You should start sharing your feeling with others, should open yourself. There is a lot of love waiting in the world for all of us. Have a great time ahead. Merry Christmas

PS: Post was drafted on 25th December only :-)