State of Mind!!!

Coming back home has been a feeling of ecstasy and joy. Back to familiar surroundings, familiar people and a very familiar way of life.

However, the confusion creeps in when badly miss the people who have become a very integral part of my life over the last year and a half.

The times spent together, be it happy or sad, shall always be remembered and cherished forever.

As we all look ahead to a new life after the post graduation, guys lets be in touch!!!!

And guys you all know whom I am talking about.

Miss u all !!!!

Identifying Priorities: A challenge in the current Indian scenario

Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to take pot shots at the media (print or television) for what they think is news.

It's weird when it comes to the kind of things which hit the news with a high level of priority from the point of view of publicity.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni marries childhood sweetheart

Would we give a rat's ass if he married his maid servant??????

Sania Mirza's not a 100% fit during Wimbledon 2010

Well it seems justified to rob Leander Paes of his mixed doubles glory.

BCCI all set to take legal action against Lalit Modi

Maaaaan!!!!!!!!! When would you initiate the process? After IPL 2020????????????

Sharad Pawar wants Ministry work load decreased

So he actually plans to do some work at the ICC??????

Aamir Khan joins Twitter

One more person, who has a lot of free time.

With all this useful information dominating the news, are we forgetting the fact that there is still violence going on in Kashmir, the naxals are having the CRPF for breakfast, the nationwide Bandh on the 5th of July was for a roll back in fuel prices and not food prices.

Why crib about fuel prices? With CNG and other sources of fuel, is it not important to focus on the prices of food items which are a necessity and the Government has classified it as a luxury?

It's not as if you need to have a cup of petrol with your morning toast.

The education level in the country is not what it should be, whether it is computer education or just reading or writing skills, so why bother about another hot shot bugger who decided to join Twitter.

Honour killing cases keep popping up like bubbles and it's important to focus on some half wit who married his childhood sweetheart?

News is what creates awareness.

Mr. Pawar becoming the ICC Chief is creating awareness on how Indian Bureaucracy is all set to make some noise in international sport, unfortunately through the misuse of the right medium.

Priorities definitely need to be prioritized!!!!!!!!

The ultimate combination!!!!!!!

Smirnoff Vodka

Mixed with Red Bull

A touch of Bacardi Breezer Cranberry

Accompaniments - Chicken Sheek Tikkas from Z.K.

Good combination to have with the monsoons approaching and the world cup going on.

Cheers!!!!!

When the hunters become the victims!!!!!

After having a string of upsets in the ongoing FIFA world cup, these thoughts end up doing the rounds in your brain; Are these football giants really the ones who have achieved so much glory in the past??

Spain - Euro Champions - What the hell happened against Switzerland?

Italy - 2006 winners - Still to soak in the nostalgia of the previous world cup.

France - Considering all the world cups after 1998, this one has been the biggest joke.

Germany - Good start. What happened against Serbia? What the hell is Serbia?

England - *^*^#@#$^%&^*&%^#@#$%^&**^%$#&*^@# and so on!!!!

The teams in this tournament which have been a revelation, are the ones who can be written off not only the football fans, but the experts as well.

New Zealand, Switzerland, Serbia and a few of the African teams who would have managed to pull of the greatest upsets ever.

If we look closely at all the teams in this world cup, most of the players are playing their club football in the English Premier League or the Spanish League or the other European Leagues.

Each team would have a few players who would be playing for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, AC Milan, Inter Milan or Borussia Dortmund.

It is Europe which is breeding the best talent in world football today, and the fans are upset that the European teams do not do well at the national level.

European Club Football has enhanced the skills of the Asians, Latinos and the Africans, which helps them deliver their best for their countries against the Europeans.

It can be compared to the simple concept of a Mentor & a Protege, where the mentoring has been taking place for a very long time and has started showing its effects in since FIFA 2006.

The hunters are becoming the victims!!!!!

or shall we say......................

The mentors are mentally being ripped apart!!!!!!!!!!!!

FIFA 2010 - Carnival Time!!!!

Its that time of the year again.

The major soccer playing nations battle it out for the mother of all titles in an attempt to be crowned Kings of the World (Or Queens judging by the overall profile of some teams)

There is a lot being said regarding who would win this year.

Brazil - Hot favorites

Italy - Bad boyzzzz

Argentina - Hot favorites (only according to their coach)

France

England

The list is endless.

But seriously hope to see England pull it off this year.

A team that has a brilliant combination on the field, but somehow does not make it the stage required in such tournaments.

Steven Gerrard & Frank Lampard - Known as one of the best mid fielders ever, somehow have not clicked at the national level.

They seem to be at their best when their talents are on display for Liverpool and Chelsea, but when it comes to England colors, a lot still needs to be taken care of.

Would just like to say - Its about time we saw some glory England.

Gerrard & Lampard Rock!!!!!!!

People Centric HR Guy???????

Halfway through my summer internship, I have had two field visits to remote locations. I visited a place first in Surendranagar district and just earlier this week I came back from a visit to Junagadh district.

Interacting with employees of an NGO in all the field offices to try and understand what it is they do and what are the types of skills and experience they think they lack. In addition to this, comparison of notes with the feedback given by their reporting officers.

The profile of most of the employees in the field offices are that of a person who has done a ITI Surveyor course after S.S.C. and have been with this organization for the last 20 + years. It has been due to their loyalty and dedication to the organization that they have been around for such a long time. Interacting with these people has given me a lot of insights, which I might probably not get in a corporate setup.

People were thrilled at the fact that someone from the HR department is interviewing them regarding their training needs instead of making them fill up a questionnaire. They are extremely happy with the fact that someone who is not a Gujarati, is speaking to them in Gujarati.

To put it in brief - these are the very people who feel on top of the world, when someone from the HR Department asks them "Kem Cho"????

These are the people who have never in their life worked for their salaries. It has been the most genuine example of service to the community.

Being HR students, I think this is one very good example of an organization which is for the people, irrespective of their performance.

In corporate, HR tends to sway towards the person who seems to be performing.

I have been extremely lucky to see the HR department function in a non corporate setup.

Summer Internship in an NGO

It has been quite some time since I added a post to my blog. Been too busy with exams I guess.

Now that I am done with 3 full semesters of my Masters, I have come down to Ahmedabad to apply whatever I have learnt in college in my Summer Internship.

I am interning with a reputed NGO in Ahmedabad in their HR Department.

It is a very different feeling, where most of my friends are interning with the best names in the industry, I have come down to an NGO for the same purpose.

Many people ask me why did I choose this sector for my project?

Honestly it is something which I had given a lot of thought before going in for it.

Plain and simple - I would be one of the very few people to do a project in NGOs and at the same time this is a field which not many people have explored when it comes to the HR point of view.

I am writing this post, just one week into my internship with 7 full weeks still to go.

This project would need me to travel all locations where the NGO has their field offices for the purpose of collection of data.

Excited for what awaits me on my journey to remote locations in search of HR practices!!!

Will definitely add on to this as time passes by.

Life as it is!!!!

What is life?

There are two ways of looking at it.

• The way we are living
• The way we want to be living.

The way we are living may seem to be satisfactory to us but not to the ones who are close to us.

It can also be the other way round, where we may be dissatisfied, but not the ones close to us.

This is a state of affairs where we may be satisfied or dissatisfied with what we have in the present. It is just a feeling or opinion about the current status. It has nothing to do with the future, nor is it too clear about what exactly we want.

Whereas, the way we want to be living, definitely proves that we are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs and we definitely know what it is we want to be doing.

Life is all about two states of mind. What you are doing & what you want to be doing.

That's life!!!!

Amitabh Bachchan - Gujarat Brand Ambassador!!!!

This has been a hot topic. Too hot for me to ignore.

Mr. Bachchan who has always been seen with the Congress bigshots, all of a sudden accepted an offer from Mr. Narendra Modi to become the brand ambassador of Gujarat.

Now this is a good thing, as Mr. Bachchan feels that his name should be associated with a state that has been progressing at a very fast pace, under a leader like Mr. Narendra Modi.

The issue is that, the political scenario in our country would term Mr. Bachchan as a manipulator or a publicity hungry maniac.

Congress thinks that Mr. Bachchan should justify this move.

They have even asked him to justify the role Mr. Modi played in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

It is so amazing that nobody asked this affable personality to justify, why he was the brand ambassador for Uttar Pradesh.

Now when it comes to Gujarat, there are justifications being demanded.

Is Gujarat the only place on this earth where unfortunate things have happened to people?

Why were his justifications not demanded when the Babri Masjid was demolished?

Where was his opinion when riots took place in Meerut in 1987?

Why was his opinion not asked when the Taj Corridor controversy was at its peak?

Why was he not asked to justify the "best practices" of corruption Uttar Pradesh was famous for?

Whenever a person is attacked or his integrity is in question, there should be a certain level of uniformity maintained.

Gujarat Brand Ambassador was not something which was put on his head. He accepted it when offered.

It was a simple agreement (Offer + Acceptance)

And that is what counts the most!!!!!

Human Nature - Really Dynamic!!!!!!!

Nishith - Thanks for the inspiration for coming out with this one.

Human Nature

We always use this term when we talk about how something important was hashed up by someone not so important.

The shit ideologies of a person or his/her personality is never blamed for any goof up or mishap. It is always human nature which is spoken about and blamed in the same manner when Sachin scores a duck.

Why do I say Human Nature is very dynamic?

It is the character, personality, thoughts or attitudes of the person which gets him/her into trouble or puts someone else into trouble, however the blame goes on poor old human nature, which having the capacity to withstand such an assault on its integrity (or existence for that matter) still survives today, since the evolution of mankind.

It is the same situation when a small kid eats up all the goodies, and when the parents ask where the goodies are, the kid calmly points towards the pet dog.

Just an example. Request all the Maneka Gandhi fans not to take the previous line seriously.

Hyderabad!!!! Colours of Life!!!!!

Date: 24/3/2010

Place: Hyderabad

It has been 10 months since I moved down to Hyderabad, to pursue my MBA-HR (HECH R- as it is popularly known out here).

Honestly speaking when it comes to South India, I have always visited as a tourist. This is my first time as a resident. And it is definitely my first time in Andhra.

Now, lets cut to the chase - HYDERABAD.

Popularly known as the land of the Nizams.

Home to Golconda, Charminar, Hitech City, Deccan Chargers (IPL Champs 2009) and much more.

But this is not being posted with an intent to increase the tourism revenue for the city. There are many capable people who would do a much better job of it than I would.

Lets talk about life in Hyderabad.

People - The word "Bindaas" would be an understatement.

There does seem to be a very happy-go-lucky mentality that haunts the people of this land.

When I say this, they really know how to live life. I have seen people going back form work, stopping off to have a full chicken biryani before going home ( Do these guys actually have dinner when they go home?)

The best part about Hyderabad is the rickshaw drivers. Finding a guy who would be willing to take you to your destination and charge according to the meter would be the equivalent of witnessing the solar eclipse.

Rickshaw drivers in Delhi seem to be very reasonable after experiencing the lot in Hyderabad.

My favourite part is the lingo used here.

Normally in Hindi - Yes means "haan", here yes means "haao"

No means "nahi" or "na", here no means "nakko"

This is the Hyderabadi way of speaking hindi.

A typical statement made in a bus by a passenger to the conductor of a bus:

"Arre miyaan, busaa chalate ki hum tumhare sab kaachaa phod dalte"

Hyderabad - a place you would fall in love with.

My problem - IBS campus is 40 kms out of city limits. The number of trips I have made to the city are not enough for me to fall in love.

Sad!!!!!

Victim of Changes!!!!

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the smash hit by Judas Priest!!!!!

Change has become pretty normal these days. (Not the one used to purchase Rajnigandha & Manikchand)

Life changes too fast, sometimes it is not according to one's liking.

A person who happily accepts change, tends to get a better deal out of life.

A person who is forced to accept change, would not succeed, as he/she would waste most of the time remembering the good old days.

A person who refuses to accept the change, goes into frustration and is aptly given the title "Victim of Changes".

We can encounter stuff like this in corporate life as well.

A banking operations guy in the early 90s was just supposed to handle cash and stamp cheques for clearing.

Now if you check out the work culture @ places like ICICI Bank, where the branch personnel are handling cash, cheques, fixed deposits,etc. also have their sales targets for life insurance, general insurance, mutual funds, gold, loans and credit cards.

From organization point of view, this is called multitasking.

But if you look at it from the employee point of view, it is defined as change, particularly for the guy who has been into banking operations in the 90s as well as the 00s.

To put things into perspective, here are a few lines from the song Victim of Changes (inspite of the disclaimer @ the beginning of this post:

Takes another look around, you're not goin' anywhere
You've realized you're gettin' old and no one seems to care
You're tryin' to find your way again
You're tryin' to find some new...
Another woman's got her man
But she won't find a new...

Takes another drink or two, things look better when she's through

City Based Loyalties

An interesting experience!!!

We all know that the IPL is going on. This is the only time of the year when we tend to realize which part of the country we belong to.

Date: 17/3/2010

Venue: Feroze Shah Kotal, New Delhi

Fixture: Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils

Mumbai smashed 218 of their 20 overs. An achievement considering the fact that uncapped youngsters like Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu displayed fireworks towards the end, justice done as they were sent ahead of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo.

Delhi were cruising at 68-2 after 9 overs. My best friend Nishith was following the match on rediff. That is where it all started to go wrong.

Being a Maharashtrian and a die hard Sachin fan, I was naturally supporting the Mumbai Indians.

Nishith was all out for Delhi (as that is the closest IPL center to his home territory)

As i came into the room, we started following the match together.

Delhi was 68-2 when i entered the room. Within 45 minutes, they were all out for a 120.

Nishith thought that it was my presence and not the tornado launched by the Mumbai Indians, which wiped out Delhi in the middle of nowhere.

When I came into his room, he was chanting "Jai Dilli".

But being my best friend he was also chanting "Jai Maharashtra" on my behalf.

Finally after the match was over ( As Mumbai butchered Delhi by 98 runs), life was back to normal.

I was chatting with my warden regarding the television subscription in the hostel (which has to be renewed, because of which we have to follow matches on rediff).

Nishith got back to studying Leadership. Test in class next week, otherwise there was no intention of him doing so.

Moral of the story - We may belong to a particular city or a region, which makes us passionate for certain sports. But when such moments are experienced with friends from other cities, it is the kind of friendship which one would cherish forever.

However, according to Nishith it was my presence in the room which lost Delhi the match, so I would have to make Delhi win the next battle ( not bottle - just in case you did not read this line carefully Nishith).

It just struck me,what the atmosphere in the room would be if Mumbai & Delhi play this years finals.

Nishith -

Sharma's Dhabha - A home away from home!!!!!

Coming to Hyderabad, specially 40 kms out of town to study in ISHRD ( part of the IBS Hyderabad Campus), one does tend to miss the food one is so used to back home.
The mess does not understand these sentiments of the students a 100% (which is something i should not be saying since I am part of the Mess Committee).
These circumstances bring us to the main part of the point - Sharmaji & Ramdev - The two brothers in charge of the Sharma Dhabha outside the IBS Campus.
This is a place where u get to eat the basic kind of stuff. Parathas (Aloo, Paneer, Mooli, Onion, etc.), Omlettes, Roti, Sabzee, etc. A taste which reminds you of home. In addition to this chicken/fish/mutton is made on weekends.
A place where u can sit and enjoy good food and a decent ambiance.

Over the past few months me and my batchmates (Nishith & Aish) have become pretty familiar with the place. Ramdev and Sharmaji have both become good friends of ours.

If you ever want to see a dark version of Sunny Deol speaking in a Bhojpuri accent, Sharmaji is the man to catch a glimpse of.
Ramdev always thinks that he is a gang lord of some sort. Man if Bollywood producers were on the lookout for the right guy, Vivek Oberoi may not have worked in "Shootout @ Lokhandwala"

The USP of the place is this guy called Neeraj - whose experitse in making parathas is basically running the place.
Now that Neeraj has gone back to his village, it is good to see Ramdev get serious about his work and concentrate on making parathas.

The main inspiration for this post was that my friend Aish wrote about Prajee and his Punjabi Dhabha. Refer http://www.sinhaaish.blogspot.com/ It was just not fair to leave Ramdev and Sharmaji out of this attempt to provide glory.

I suppose the next one to watch out for is Nishith's blog for a similar gloryfying article on Sinu and Ramulu Provision Stores. Keep checking http://www.nishithdev.blogspot.com/.

Management Education: Glorified Nonsense

26th February, 2010
Special acknowledgement for this post: Priyanka Shalini - for giving me the inspiration to write on this one and Prof. Padmashree Radhaswamy inspiring Priyanka to giving a presentation on the same.
Students over the past few years have this dream of becoming a management graduate. In simple words if you ask a student in the final year of graduation,what their future plans are, they would reply that, "I would like to go in for my MBA".
As a result of this we see that huge crowd of prospective students inside the IIM's and others in the same league for the purpose of ruining each others happiness through performances in group discussions and interviews.
Over the past few years a degree in management has come into great demand by corporates. As a result of this we see engineers sacrificing the noble designation of creators and are running after the coveted title we fondly call as "Manangers".
After making it to the 3rd semester @ ISHRD, I have finally figured out one thing.
Some people tend to ask why is a degree in management required?
Let me give you a few examples -

• Management - It is in all business and human organization activity is the act of getting people together and accomplish desired goals and objectives. This is what we learn in business school. Our general orientation towards this concept is very generic, something like "handling people or things"
• Leadership - It is the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the support and aid of others in the accomplishment of a common task. In normal circumstances, we would just wind up on this concept by saying that everyone is a leader - from Mahatma Gandhi to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
• Cognitive Dissonance - It is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. This is a concept from Individual Behaviour. In normal circumstances we would not give a damn about this concept.

These are just a few examples. There are many more for all of you to find out.

In the end, we have to understand that what we learn in management courses provides us the theoretical aspect of what we are set to encounter in our future (our jobs).

The theories of behaviour, learning and training are useful to make it through to the end of a hard day @ work as a HR professional.

The art of preparing a compensation manual or a performance appraisal system which would help us to prove to the workforce of the organization that a MBA HRM graduate is not just any fart who does not know how to shit.

It's true what Mr. Vikas Sethia said - We have to become HR professionals and not just HR managers.

A professional would be a flexible all rounder. A HR manager may slowly get phased out and might be seen carrying water bottles on the field of play.

Country Club Management!!!!!

25th February, 2010

This is something interesting that I experienced during the Leadership lecture. I was supposed to present the Leadership Grid Styles - a topic assigned to me by our dearest Prof. Pandugala Narendar in class as part of my internal evaluations. I was explaining the Blake & Mouton Grid, which had Country Club Management as a leadership style in addition to team management, task management, middle of the road management and impoverished management.

I had put a question to the class, that apart from team management, to state a style which they find best and to justify the same. One of my classmates, Divya voted for the country club management style. Now to explain this style in detail, the leader only has concern for people and no concern for production. A leader following this style is only concerned with maintaining harmonious relations throughout the organization even at the cost of attaining results.

Divya said that it all has to start with total concern for people. Now this is not a style of leadership which management professionals would prescribe, but it got me thinking.

Being HR students, we are taught about human capital and how investing in the same can reap excellent results for employees as well as organizations. So it would all have to start with a genuine concern for people, by making them feel at home before they move on to the next level.

Team management is a concept which is the best combination of concern for people as well as production, but before moving on to this style of leadership it is of utmost importance to make people feel at home. One cannot be production centered at the beginning and all of a sudden when most of your subordinates hate to look at your face, you start showing a concern for people. It does not work out that way.

I think what Divya was trying to get at was, that you can start off with a country club management style and then move on to the team management style to reap the benefits of a long partnership based on mutual understanding.

A leader is never complete without a group of motivated and loyal followers.

Please note - The line above is not inspired by the Raymond advertisement.

Think about it!!!!!!!

Sachin aala re!!!! Explosion @ Gwalior

24th February, 2010. The Roop Singh Stadium @ Gwalior witnessed one of the spectacles which would be hard to describe in words. The ones who witnessed in at the ground were the luckiest people on earth for this date.
Sachin Tendulkar, who had aldready earned the title of "GOD" in the cricketing circuit many years ago, managed to pull of a feat which many have only come to close to achieving but have never quite made it.
The first double century in one day cricket coming from the blade of one of the icons that India has produced, makes me proud to be an Indian Cricket Fanatic.
Many stars were voted as the best bet to achieve this feat in one dayers.

• Virendar Sehwag
• Chris Gayle
• Brendon McCullum
• Adam Gilchrist
• Mathew Hayden
• Ross Taylor

Many people had come close to achieving this feat before. One can never forget the 194 scored by Saeed Anwar against India @ Chennai. An innings which came to an end, thanks to a spectacular catch by Saurav Ganguly.

Mathew Hayden managed 181 against Bangladesh. He was unbeaten, but never made it to the magic figure.

Sachin had himself come very close to the 200 figure twice. Scoring 186 twice, against the Kiwis, once at Hyderabad and once at Christchurch.

But it was Gwalior which was destined to witness GOD @ work.

25 hits to the boundary and 3 in addition which crossed the ropes.

India winning the match and the series was just the icing on the cake.

Sachin - The person who had a very modest beginning to his career. Getting a bloody nose from a Waqar Younis bouncer in hist first test match and smashing the next ball to the boundary. It was from then he made the news. Career progression happened really fast.

5 world cup appearances.

Mentee under Kapil Dev & Mohammed Azharuddin. Contemporary to Saurav Ganguly & Rahul Dravid and a mentor to Virender Sehwag & Yuvraj Singh. A stunning feat of being part of three different generations of Indian cricket.

A salute to the greatest India and the world has ever seen.

Unfortunately there was no way i could witness all this, for a few reasons

• Afternoon classes (HRM KI & OCD - please note - no choices - it is HRM KI & OCD and not HRK KI or OCD)
• Reading 3 case studies for class the next day ( just a precaution in case the faculty happens to ask you some question or the other related to the same)
• Referring to some notes ( which is necessary, as the concept of a study break becomes obsolete by the time you reach post graduate studies)

By the time i started writing this post, South Africa was all out. Tried catching the match on crictime.com which is known for video streaming, but then i remembered that i use a hostel wifi connection, and there are other desperate souls using the same connection (for whatever purposes that might interest them), so i gave up on that attempt as well.

Sachins achievement today was something that i did not witness myself, but was proud of the fact that it could not happen to a more deserving person. I was passing through phases of euphoria since this evening and now that i sit typing out this post for my blog, in the company of two friends; one who is making futile attempts to search google for the operations strategy of the Reliance Group of Industries for a classroom assignment, and another who has pretty much withdrawn himself from this hallucination called academics and gone off to bed.

This has reminded me of the fact that it is time to get back to some more of what my learned friend (fast asleep from the time of the previous reference to him in this post) would glady refer to (and justify) hallucinations.