Return Of The Rajma...

Nothing can be more torturous for a true-blue hardcore Punjabi than a dish of ill-cooked Rajma shoved down his throat. And that is exactly what has been happening since I joined MDI. To put it in Gordon's words, 20 kilos of Rajma in 10 mths!

Make no mistake, I am a Rajma freak. So much so that when at home Rajma was my agony aunt. If nothing at home is worth my while, ask mom to warm the Rajma stock in the freezer.
But 10 mths of mess Rajma shook my belief in it. Did not even have them when I came home for 8 days in December end.

Finally gave in and had it for dinner a few days back. In one word- AWESOME. Brought back old memories...of ghar ka khaana, the lil timepass fights wid mom and the constant bickerings wid dad. But like all good things come to an end, so is this too...in 25 days. And then back to the same old bland, tasteless boiled Rajma-10 kilos of it :)

A Strike...Finally!

Okies...

Finally managed to strike a deal. Talking about my summer project here!

It involves meeting the heads of the Centres for Innovation in various companies or the CEO's/CIO's etc..basically anyone who is in sync with the conditions existing in the industry he is operating in and plans for the future. The aim is to see how scientific is the process of Innovation and whether my organization has a role to play with respect to the tools and methodologies developed by them.

Got this after a lotta hassles...first had to fight with the HR who
gave me a googling project. Tried explaining how it was a waste of my time and their money. Not that they cared about either of them! And then, when I got this, had a tougher time convincing them why I need to shift to Mumbai and how Mumbai would be better simply because my guide is based outta Mumbai. Oh and by the way-the dame who approved my shift to Mumbai resigned the very next day :D GOD bless her!

Coming back to the project, I had to get appointments...though the one in TCS was arranged, I was asked to rough it out and get the rest on my own. 'Use the phone, send e-mail do whatever...' The condescending look on my face (well, I am an MBA, my assistants would be gettin me appointments, why the heck should I get em on my own) enticed this response from my guide : " Ronnie, if ever you happen to start your own consultancy, this is what you would be doing. It would do you a world of good if you can shrug off your attitude and come of the high horse you are riding on since your claim to fame is zilch."

This of course invoked the choicest English/Hindi/Punjabi/MDI expletives targetted at him and muttered under breath.

So there I was- all of 23 years and a few months making frantic calls to people of the level of CEO's, CIO's etc trying to explain who I am, what am I doing and what do I need from them...a few million calls later and trillions of e-mails, finally I have it...my first own appointment with a Director of an Innovation cell. Me superstitious so won't reveal the name of the firm till i meet em :)

Don't know whether I will be able to do justice to these guys-after all their claim to film aint zilch :D But as of now, euphoria has taken over...2 confirmed and a few more scheduled for late next week that need to be reconfirmed.

Finally I have got a taste of what business is and what selling
yourself is all about. Have managed to come down a bit from the "high horse" that I was riding :D Not completely cos then that would make me a completely different person :)

Lack of ideas

As I write this post, I am sincerely out of ideas. Have no clue as to what am I gonna write here. Maybe it has to do with the general lack of enthusiasm around me.

Been almost a year since I left home. And stepped into hostel life for the first time. The 10 odd months I have spent in a hostel have been great to say the least. Probably thats what has spoilt me.

The absolute freedom-sleepin at odd hours, boozing whenever the mood is in...spending time doing absolutely nothin in a sprawling 40 acre campus...all of it has taken a toll on my pshyche.
Not used to discipline anymore-detest rules all the more. And of course, the vocabulary enrichment that is a part of the process :)

More than all this prolly what is pulling me down even more is the fact that another 10 months and thats it. No more of student life, back to the corporate world and dog-eat-dog mentality. Not that it doesn't exist here, but heck, at least my circa of friends isn't like that. Come to think of it, actually missing their weirdness...some of em esp Cheetah and Monty are downright funny. The tussle between me and Monts is silly most of the times but then its times like these that I guess I am gonna cherish all life long...

Moombhaii

Me back! Home.

Been away for 10 months-not counting the 8 day long stupid little thing in late December. This time it is for a good month and a half.

What's changed? Nothing. Just my perspective. Having lived in Delhi, I suddenly find this city much much better. Better people, better transport, better freak-out joints...most importantly, a city with a heart.

Oh yeah, talking about change-finally got a summer project a monthy into summers. "Change Management and Innovation" is the name. Sounds like loads and loads of gyaan even though my mentor promises me otherwise. Let's hope he is right.

And the other major change- Oven Fresh has gone pure veg! Discovered this yesterday when I decided to be generous and take Mom out to lunch. Mom loved it-hardcore veggie-pure me survived on an itsy-bitsy sandwich. But looking at the positive side-someone had promised me a treat there: now that aint gonna happen!

Really excited about being here...and lets hope I have a great time. Need it after the month long stint in Delhi

What should a Manager NOT do

Dear Patrons (if any),

This post has no gyaan. As usual . All this has are some randomn musings that I decided to pen down.

My net work-experience now stands at 22 months 3 weeks. 22 months as a techie@Syntel and 3 weeks as a summer trainee.

If you ask me take-aways from the corporate life, all i know is this: ass-licking, back-biting, manipulations and smart work rather than hard work.

I worked closely with 3 managers at Syntel, interacted big time with the HR(quit twice before I officially quit) and am into 3 weeks of my summer training wherein I apparently have 3 reporting managers.

Having observed all of them and now armed with a wee bit of Management gyaan, I can relate their behaviour and mannerisms to all that a good Manager should never ever do.

Not in a particular order, some of them go like:

• Cutting yourself off from employees
• Taking your employee for granted
• Mistaking someone's politeness for his/her weakness
• Giving an already overburdened guy more work thinking he is anyways addicted to work.
• False promises
• Keeping an employee idle for lengths of time
• Shitty work
• Involving HR (this won't go down well with you hottie, but pardon me )
• Blatant favouritism

The more I interact with my engineering buddies and with other summer interns, I see their Managers posessing all these characteristics. It's funny how we spend a year trying to make it to the best b-schools, spend quite a bit of time studying hard there and when it comes to implementation; we forget the basic management principles.

I have always believed that text books should be banned literally at the MBA level. We learn much more by getting our hands dirty. Looks like thats what happens: all we fresh MBA's, armed with jargon and our "skill set" hit the corporate world hard-just to learn from the people around us and unlearn our 2 years. And we end up inspiring posts like these on what all should a Manager not do.

I am still waiting to find out the traits of a good manager. Looks like will have to wait till eternity...

Back Again!

Me back!

Don't ask me what kept me away. It's not b-school pressure(nothing of that sort exists by the way) nor is it laziness. Just circumstances which forced me to concentrate on relationships rather than penning down my thoughts in a virtual scenario.

What has got me back? Stupid as it may seem, Chetan, a batchmate at Somaiya posted about Gordon's blog on the MDI thread on PG. Gordon's thread shows my blog link as the 2nd most popular outgoing link. Thought I might as well live up to it!

What am I upto? Summer training. Yes, the wonderful 'corporate' experience and the 'must be experienced' phenomenon for b-schoolers. My comment-stop bullshitting.

For someone like me who has work experience, exposure to 'corporate' culture is a waste of my time and their money. For a fresher, it is useful-but honestly the attitude displayed by all those around me, be it from my college or from other good b-schools is appaling to say the least. Reaching work late, bunking office etc is something that we Engineers never ever imagined. And now that we are more 'mature' and amongst the certified 'top brains' of the country all this is least expected.

But then again, to be a little less self-critical, I don't know why the hell do companies dish out summer projects when they don't have an asses clue about what is needed. Relationship building,yes...but heck it would be much easier giving out projects throughout the year to b-schools.

Before people plan to lynch me, all of this is true in 94.5% of the cases...so the other 5.5% can relax!

Coming to my summer experience-all I can say is I am grateful for it cos as Prof Dhruv Nath pointed out (a man I respect greatly btw for his help academic wise and otherwise) IT sales is intellectual googling to begin with! Go for consulting, go for CRM, SAP etc. Thanks Sir and thanks to my summer project which has convinced me that as usual Prof Dhruv Nath is extremely practical in his advice. And that the few people I respect deserve it!

ronnie

After a looong hiatus...

Its been over a month since my last post...had almost forgotten I "own" a blog.

So what has kept me away...if I say lack of time, I am damn right. The late night TT sessions and general hanging out and having fun with my pals definitely has taken a toll on my blogging. Though a coupla peeps mite wanna say Placecom and dry runs, its a whole lot of BS! They haven't kept us busy for more than 15 days in all in the last month and a bit more...

A lot has happened since I came back here...and it concerns my life in MDI and otherwise too. Old contacts re-established, coming across Profs who can finally teach and seeing right now for myself the absence of any link whatsoever between marks, grades, academic performance etc etc etc and getting the right break.

Oh yeah, Mom had come to campus; and it went off well. She failed to see Monty with a cigarette, realised Mayur and co were simply pulling my leg when they were talking about my marriage (!!!) and met a 'prof' who actually thinks I am a good student :) Its been ages since Mom attended any parent-teacher meet so this was fun for her-interacting with coupla my profs and trying to decipher how bad a student I am...

Exams start in a few days...have written 28 exams in the last 7 months, so have obviously lost any kinda respect for them. Study somewhat, do ur best, but dont fret over em is my mantra. Have pledged that its gonna be different from next term when I finally get to choose my subjects rather than some arbit bullshit concerning Hamada and Modgiliani Miller for which I don't give a squat :) IT ROCKS !!!!