Statutory Warning: This post was composed in an 8:30 class, after having drunk all night and sleeping for like 2 hours. So if you don't value your sanity, continue reading.
WHAT A CLASS!! This is going to be fun. Sample the questions on the slides being displayed in the class right now -
What is a supply chain? (Why are u asking us this question after like 8 classes of SCM?)
What is a decision?? (Are we really supposed to answer that? This is an MBA Class right?)
What are decisions in supply chain??? (Ummmm... Well, is the answer "decisions we make in the supply chain"? :P)
Please note that the number of question marks at the end of each question follow an arithmetic progression. Well, this is not exactly what the Prof. had put up in his slides. I had to make a decision in Supply Chain Management (Class). I had the choice between using what Sir had (i.e. 3 Q marks at the end of the 2nd Q), or using this AP pattern. I like the patterns. And I am allowed to make assumptions. I fact, during my internship, I became so comfortable with making assumptions that it now comes naturally to me. So I assumed that the Prof. wanted to convey the increase in his excitement as he went down the value chain, oops, down the slides.
Why am I striving to achieve this symmetry, this pattern? Because I'm blurring the patterns elsewhere. Or maybe I'm perfecting this pattern of self-destruction. I have this knack of getting inextricably (and inexplicably? :P) involved in complex situations; maybe I don't like a life devoid of complications! Anyways, too bored to continue any more. And I guess you're too crazed out to read on. I think I've successfully shown you how to implement the concept of laddering - jumping from one thought to another. What a respectable name for a random thought process. Hope u enjoy using it and making some more people crazy!
What’s with the small attention span I have??! I’d started writing something a few days back, but I just realized I wanted to write about something totally different. I had no idea what, but not what I had started. So I thought about what I’d been doing and feeling for the last few days – Nostalgia?? I mean, I had the most rocking weekend ever, literally. I spent a whole weekend jamming, with people I’d never met before. And it seemed like the most natural thing to do. It’s amazing how music can bind people. I guess that music room, those amazing alums I met and jammed with, the mind-blowing PJs Harish and I cracked, and the looks of exasperation on the faces of those who heard the “jokes” (esp. Bed and PP) will always stay in my mind.
Waking up at 7 in the morning to get to a jamming room in Andheri by 9 (I obviously got there half an hour late :P), thinking of random songs and being confident that we’ll be able to pull it off, making medleys out of continuous drum beats, discussing various stages of inebriation and what songs would be perfect for them – even song lists are decided through a lot of strategizing (although that strategy might go for a toss once the show starts). I’ll remember going to Barista to get hold of a guitar so that we could practise yet another song, the dal at the restaurant where we lunched, JBS alums telling us how things were done 4-5 yrs back, this alum talking about how his random though process led to an acclaimed book, being able to perform just 8-10 songs when we’d practised about 30. I’ll remember those 2 days as the best weekend of my great internship.
It’s amazing how seeing my batchmates and seniors cheered me up, it’s weird that it felt like I was home again, it’s incredible how ecstatic I felt when that IIMC video was shown, it’s overwhelming to see the passion and energy that “Early Days” can build up in any IIMCian. I guess this is what we’re talking of when we speak of “IIMC culture”. And I’m so thankful I came here after those amazing 4 years at Kgp. I don’t think anything other than IIMC would’ve been worth it.
Is the way you shop an indication of the way you live? I mean, all our life is about shopping - shopping for a degree, college, matrimonial prospect, job. In fact even the small things we do everyday - what to eat, choosing the template or URL for your blog, what to wear, what to sing in the next JBS party - it's all shopping. They totally accept this fact at IIMC, and hence the concept of bidding and shopping for courses.
But back to the question of does the way you shop for clothes also show how you'll choose other things in your life. There are those for whom shopping is a well-planned economized decision, they save money, make a list of things they need purchase exactly what they need and come back. They might even club the shopping with an outing. These are the organized, financially prudent people we see around us everyday. People who take decisions on the basis of a proper cost-benefit analysis. They have a simple, uncomplicated existence. They know exactly what they want, they look for it, take it and then live life as usual.
At the other extreme are those who don't know what kind of clothes they're looking for. They know they want something - either because they're short of clothes, or because they want to relax and unwind by indulging themselves. They go around looking at everything available - kurtas, jeans, tops, everything, and might end up buying nothing. I believe that for them, the experience of shopping, of pampering themselves is more important than what they finally buy.
Then there are those impulsive shoppers who just walk into a shop and buy something they're not sure they need, just because they liked it. There are those who look at something and know that this is exactly what they're looking for. There are those who need to see all their options to reaffirm their decision to buy something.
Look at recruiters shopping for people. What sort of a shopping strategy do they have? They first see the whole pool available and decide who's worth looking at. Then they try those on (interviews, GDs - I guess they are trying to find ppl who fit their company!) and decide which ones to finally purchase. In fact this is the way I shop when I have too many good things to look at. I obviously can't try on 50 dresses to decide what to buy!!
I guess the worst possible decisions are mercy purchases - when you've shopped for too long, are too bored, too tired to decide. you buy something you don't really like, because of the sunk cost of the time spent in trying to find something worth purchasing. So you buy dresses you never wear, you study Instrumentation Engg for four years and never use it again.
Please don't ask me what I'm trying to convey through this post. Frankly speaking, I have no fricking idea. In fact, most probably, only a few people who know what I'm talking about will be able to identify with this. Its just that in the past few days of shopping for blog template, blog url, foreign universities and electives that my friends and I have done, I saw these weird connections. I saw that people shop differently in different moods, different situations, for different things. I guess even the way you shop makes you unique!!
Well, there's this well-known species of people known as "Drama Queens". People who're always looking for excitement in their life, who get bored of too mundane a life and can't stick to anything. Any kind of drama will serve their purpose - romance, action, grief, pain, comedy - as long as its there. As long as its there to assure them that they're not insignificant enough to be ignored, that they matter enough to someone - a human, or a God. And you'd be amazed to see the extent they go to to feel significant. They dream of having a handsome BF/husband riding on a white horse, they tolerate abuse from their BFs because it helps them feel the pain. I've always thought of these drama queens as an alien species, who live in a world far away from mine.
But then, something a friend said to me made me think otherwise. It made me realize that even I belong to that species. Agreed I'm not one of those dreamy-eyed people who imagine having a handsome/crorepati husband. In fact, I don't even want them :P. But I do dream of a perfect life. I dream of being a great student, a hotshot career woman, the ideal housewife, which practically speaking, is next to impossible. I like to be liked, unless of course, I'm really pissed about something (God save u then :P). But ya, all those other times, when I like to be liked, I go out of my way to be good. I guess if God had made a doc enumerating the eligibility criteria for being a drama queen, I would satisfy quite a few of them. Anyways, there are many other things.
But what confuses me even more is - how can a practical person like me belong to that species? I mean, in all the decisions I take always first comes a feasibility check. Not that I don't do big things. I think of and do stuff which would qualify as breakthroughs, but then, anything which seems impractical goes into the rubbish can.
And this combo of "Drama queenliness" (this was the only way I could describe what I felt :P) and practicality is exactly what I have a problem with. Those who openly indulge in impractical drama and dreams endear themselves to people by falling into the categories of the naives, the innocents or the plain dumbs. But what about people like me - drama queens masquerading as hard-headed, practical people? Usually when we do something irrational for excitement, we let go of our senses. Since we've always been practical, we can't see when we've entered the irrational territory, in fact we end up doing extra-stupid stuff. And that's where the problems come. Because we're not dreamy-eyed enough to continue with it all our lives. And when realization comes, that's when it hurts, that's when you realize you let yourself down. I figure it's good for people like me to look for drama in the small things in life. But when it comes to big things, I guess the head's decisions are the best. Because for people like me, drama and practicality mix to form too potent a drink; we shouldn't take more than a few pegs of it! :D
In continuation of my previous post...
I left the previous post halfway. Then realized that half an hour of "sitting in the class listening to the boring lecture" was still left. So I guess I can take off from where I left because I got bored.
From my previous post, getting somewhere decent in your life leads to complacency. And we are inherently lazy. Changing ourselves needs a lot of work. I believe in conservation of energy, and so I have to push myself a lot before I start expending energy on changing myself. But I guess once I've really decided, it works. Notwithstanding the periods of extreme laziness, I usually manage to push myself hard enough. I know I've seen lots of things, but there's still so much more to see. I guess this dissatisfaction, this yearning to see and do more will do the trick.
Now I hope to God this class gets over soon. Otherwise either I or Sonali, whom I'm torturing with these ramblings, will strangle me.
What does this obsession with perfection do to people? Why do I always HAVE to be perfect at everything? Why can't I be ok with doing things wrong at times? Be it acads, music, work, extra-currics, I always have to do the job perfectly. Its good on paper - identifying what I'm good at and excelling at them. After all, what can be more useful than knowing your strengths and weaknesses? Considering the amount of value recruiters put on it, this must be a life-changing realization.
However, knowing what you're good at has its downside. It makes yout cautious, conservative. Knowing what you're good at makes you wary of moving out of your comfort zone, scared of taking risks (Yes, since I was writing this in the Corp Fin class, I had to put in the word "risk")!! With this reluctance of doing new things comes stagnation.
And since life keeps changing, even you have to change. What was perfect once may cease to be perfect in a changed scenario. So does knowing what you're good at make you imperfect and outdated?
Anyways, pretty tired of thinking now. Just one question. Am I the only person who has such random thoughts and convoluted thought process? If yes, do I need to break out of this weird art I've perfected?
Well, the last few days have been so hectic. And with so much work, my sleep cycle has got totally reversed. I've been sleeping at 5 in the morning and then getting up on time for the 8:30 classes. Just made me wonder, can this even be called sleeping? The dark circles under my eyes are turning into black holes, absorbing any light that falls on them :|.
Anyways, on Saturday, I slept at 5:30 in the morning and woke up at 3:30 in the afternoon. I remembering thinking that I was turning into an owl. But then I realized, owls get to sleep so much more than us. 8 hours of sleep are considered to be sufficient for human beings. But owls come out only in the dark hours. This gives them at least 12 hours of sleep, even in the worst case. We sleep about one-third the time that owls sleep. Is that why they are considered to be wise creatures?
Also, the world looks so good when you can't see people around. So owls effectively stay awake when most humans are asleep (except B-school students, of course)! They get to see the world at its glory, when its sleeping and freshening up for the next day, when its so calm, when there are no vehicles polluting it, very few humans spoiling the peace. They get the best of everything. And here we are, fighting it out, staying awake at nights - to get to a place in life where we get to sleep even lesser. I guess owls are wiser than MBAs.
This might cause a lot of heart-ache and dismay to you, but I guess this hobby of mine is here to stay. I've always known that I love writing, but I guess my laziness overcame my desire to write. Till I decided to start again. I believe in penning my random thoughts on blog, and this can sometimes cause pain to my friends who have to read through my insufferable writing. Anyways, after reading my previous post, a friend of mine asked me to write about "Why people write". I love taking up challenges, so here goes.
Why do people write? I can think of lots of reasons, the first of which could be simply because they love writing. You see, there are people who love to sing, or cook, or play cricket. Noone raises an eyebrow when they break their neighbours' window panes with their high-pitched snging and cricket balls. So why so much hullabaloo over someone writing in the closed confines of his room? After all, what better way to relax than to write about what's bugging you? If that doesn't do the trick, you could always resort to more violent means like hitting hard your laptop keys or mauling the paper with the tip of your pen :P!!
Then there are those who write for a living. Remember those who write newspaper columns and magazines? These are people who have managed to change a pastime of theirs into a means of living. I've always wondered how it works. I mean, I sing. But that's my refuge in the tough times. It's the shelter I go back to when I need a break from my professional life, when I want to unwind, when I want to have fun. Your professional life is supposed to be stressful; you have to adhere to rules, do your work in a way that doesn't hurt your seniors' egoes. What happens when what you used to do for fun gets limited by these constraints? Do you start doing something else to unwind? Or did you never love it so much in the first place?
Anyways, the third category is of those who write for others. They believe they have something great to share. It could be the fantasies you've had as a child, like Christopher Paolini. It could be a mother who wants to share a story she used to tell her children, like J.K.Rowling. It could be someone who wants to share her experiences as an immigrant. It could be someone who believes that he has achieved a lot in life or has solved an indecipherable puzzle, and should share his thoughts with the rest of the world for the larger good of the society. I mean, isn't that why self-help books, books that give dating tips, etc. sell like hot cakes? This category of writers could also include someone who believes that the names of the top (public!) institutions he has studied at, or the great organizations he has worked for, make it necessary for him to give back to the society. I have no idea what this person wants to give back, but empirical evidence would suggest that it'd be some sleazy, steamy material which gives people the motivation to join an IIT or an IIM, or work in a BPO, or maybe get married!!
And finally, there are people like me, who write for a very selfish motive - to stop themselves from turning into vegetables. People like me believe that thinking is too much work, and hence stop exercising our brains. And then we realise that if we continue to go this way, we might be nothing more than decorative pieces. Hell, I'm not even good-looking enough to be a decorative piece! Anyways, we figure out that to write, you need to think. That's why I decided to write - to give my brain some much-needed exercise. Not really a very romantic reason, but then, I guess like so many other things in our lives, romance has gone out of our writing too.