Thursday, January 20, 2005

GOD

I saw a beautiful movie called 'Anbe Shivam' where the protagonist says that he belives there is a God in every one of us. When his companion cries at the death of an unknown child, he says that there must be a God in a man who cries for a total stranger. I thought it was a lovely way of defining God. For doesnt each one of us have our own God?
It seems to have become a chracteristic of those who consider themselves 'itellectual' to be an atheist. I have no pretensions to being either. Yes, I do believe in God. But I dont believe in religion. I did believe in temples and idols till 5yrs ago. I dont anymore.Now I think belief in God goes beyond that. I guess for every unconventional believer in a supreme power, his idea of who or what God is changes with time, age, experience and wisdom. My notion of God keeps changing. Im still grappling with the question of what God means to me. Maybe simply put, I believe in the existence of a supreme power. But it goes beyond all that.God for me is also not a supreme power...but a source of comfort...that one person who knows all your deepest darkest secrets...and lets you feel comfortable about him knowing it.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Choices

In one of the strategy classes, the Prof asked if any of us were the NGO types. After a long hesitation, I uncertainly raised my hand. I am not ashamed of the idea. I think it is a noble thing to do. Im just afraid that I wont have the courage to follow it through. I do not if I would be able to give up a well paying job for something which is lowly paying. I know a lot of people who want to be social workers...but all of them say they would like to work in the corporate world first, earn money and then serve others. It is a sensible idea...it is not for me because even for those few years in the corporate world, I want to do it because I want to and because it brings me satisfaction...not because I have to.
Ideally, I would like to work for children. Those who are suffering for no fault of those. Maybe all I really want to do is try to bvring a little bit of justice in an unfair world. Is that really so hard?

Friday, January 14, 2005

Incidentally, Im doing an MBA

My blog has been shamefully non-academic to date. In fact, to the extent that a total stranger reading my blog would not even realise that im doing an MBA. And it is not such a bad thing to be doing after all...
So now a little about my academic activities (or lack thereof) at IIMB.
In term 3 we have 6 courses totalling 17 credits.3 are compulsory courses and 3 are 'core electives'. First about the compulsory courses

1. Competitive Strategy and Policies (atleast thats what I think it is...we call it CSP): Its being offered in the 1st year itself for the 1st time. Its a very interesting course...requires understanding and integration of the courses we have done in the 1st 2 terms. It has a little bit of marketing, HR, finance, operations...a lil bit of everything.Our Prof J.Ramachandran (called RamC) is GOD.We had 2 classes till now and for the first time since Esther Jogi, I sat in a class and listened to every word the Prof spoke without my attention wandering. Itz more than just interesting teaching...the method in which he discusses the case, I get the feeling of light dawning slowly in the one and a half hour. And the nest part...he brings out flaws in our analysis, stuff we missed out when preparing for the case and even the final solution, through us the students. He doesnt say 'OK guys this is the solution'. He actually draws out the solution through us, and somehow, that makes so much more sense for us because we see the whole process of reaching a solution through strategising happening 'by' us.
Btw, RamC is one of the guys who quit Reliance and also one of the highest paid consultants in India.
However,he can be an extremely sarcastic with people whose ideas he is not to pleased with...so kinda apprehensive putting CP in his class.
Hmm...I do want to write about the rest of the courses also but Ive had a busy day and I wanna do some reading before I crash. So Im off now.Next course tomorrow!!

Monday, January 10, 2005

Back in Business

I got back today.I could not find my toothbrush, as usual. Its like some kind of jinx...everytime I travel overnight, I forget or lose my toothbrush. So this time I used the old one. Then I rushed to collect my books...I seem to have the thinnest set of books and that is the cause of a grin which refuses to get wiped off. I do not have classes till 4:15pm so I thought Id clean up my room. Instead I chatted with Sunil and Chilly on messenger, PP and Ramya on Skype and felt at peace with the world and even Gundu Rao.
I went to the dry cleaners and then the beauty parlour so Id attend the first term with a radical new look. For the nth time, my guts failed me and I came bak without so much as a snip, leave alone the short, tousled hair look I imagined. The I went shopping...for a toothbursh!!! I bought a bright pink one which looked really, for want of a better word, 'eyecatching'. I then debated whether or not to buy new notebooks since I had hardly used the ones I had bought in the last term. But then I got a little carried away by the 'new beginning' I am assuming I will make this term and bought brand new notebooks.
Lunch at the mess and me back to blogging again. Moi hopeless. Moi will never change.