Friday, September 14, 2007

10 Lessons in 3 Months

Disclaimer: The following article is not for the people awaiting their first employment in next few months. The MBAs in making should stop reading it here. Please don’t forward this article to author’s boss, HR Dept. and all his peers who consider him a threat as they can use the following text against him.

The ideas expressed in this blog are in no way any statement on the state of affairs at the place where the author works. It is purely a work of fiction because the reality is much more gloomy and dour than what has been mentioned below ;-). The writer just intends to have some fun.

Start

It has been three months now since I joined work. The so called “Honeymoon Period” is over since ages. Earlier I used to wonder about this term – Honeymoon Period – why is it called so? What happens in it? I was so naïve to think that it is the period in which you get less work to do. Naah! That was a myth. They don’t pay you dough to work less.

So what actually is a “Honeymoon Period”? It is the period that starts from the first day at your job till the day you think, “Oh! My God, where have I landed?” Now this period may last for a day for some to years for a miniscule population. But it definitely gets over one day – the day when the truth dawns upon you, when the skeletons (of HR) come tumbling out from the cupboard. The average length of this period has a strong correlation with the length of the Induction Training program. (For starters, that’s the program where you get free lunches and lot of vision statements and inspirational messages from senior management and when the HR of the companies go gaga over the work culture and blah! blah! – they are so far fetched from the reality)

Anyways let me directly jump to the 10 lessons I have learnt in the last 3 months. These lessons will not help anybody in any manner. They are not any guide to survival in an organization. They don’t provide help to extend the duration of your honeymoon period. These are just few plain truths known to many already which I have realized off late. So let’s get started.

Lesson # 1 – HR never lies, they just put things in perspective. This perspective is the same kind of perspective which makes an inmate in Yerwada Jail believe that he is staying at a beach resort.

Lesson # 2 – The certainty of death is questionable, but taxes are certain. There must be a crash course for every new employee in subject of taxation. I think NAAC should make this course mandatory for MBAs. Hey do they cut same taxes for people working in tax department?

Lesson # 3 – The most important person in your office is not your boss. It is the admin and accounts guy. You have to pamper him / her so that he / she reimburse your expenses on time. Don’t worry BOSSIE; you are the second most important guy in office. Man, you would have done better in accounts department anyways.

Lesson # 4 – If your boss is in the middle management, company should train its middle management. If your boss is in the top management, company’s middle management training is rubbish.

Lesson # 5 – Never complete your work before the deadline given by your boss. Your boss will get an inferiority complex and he will turn into a dastardly homosexual being soon.

Lesson # 6 – Never leave the office earlier than your boss. It ensures that the moron thinks you work hard. Let efficiency go for a toss. You can extend your lunch time or even write such blogs to create an impression of your diligence.

Lesson # 7 – Your boss is always right. If he liked RGV ki AAG, you better go watch it and prepare a presentation titled “Management Lessons – RGV ki AAG.”

Lesson # 8 – If your company gives you a perk don’t feel happy. Just go home and calculate the perk tax. CTC (Cost to Company) is the good looking hero of the story while take home pay is the quintessential villain of the same story.

Lesson # 9 – Complicated Excel Sheets and Power Point presentations are your escape ways in the moment of misery. They may be full of crap but you always get some brownie points for the fact that you tried to do something. They always believe that you will learn through mistakes. Haha! I told you they are far fetched from reality.

Lesson # 10 – If you follow lesson # 6 and write such blogs during office hours, please don’t get caught. I have been caught red handed and thus can’t give more gyan. For more lessons come back soon.

The End

P.S. – I never claimed I am going to write anything original. If you find above lessons too common and well known, that’s not my problem. At least I showed guts to document them. Now let me run for cover!!!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

CHAKDE! INDIA

Chakde! Chakde! Ek Hockey Doongi Rakh ke…

Before the Yash Raj Films’ disaster of the year Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom – though I personally loved the abstractness of the movie and also appreciated the way director has played with the allegory of Prince Charmings and Dream Girls - appeared on the screen; loomed large the image of Shahrukh Khan in his new avatar (in a teaser of a forthcoming movie “Chakde! India”) as the coach of India’s women hockey team, gearing to win the World Cup. I hope it is not another sports based movie gone wrong from YRF camp, after their really tacky take on NASCAR in Ta Ra Rum Pum – which in turn was a very bad copy of Russell Crowe’s Cinderella Man.

Also YRF has this habit of unashamedly depicting Punjabi culture, traditions, songs and even Punjabi conviviality in a bad taste. I mean Punjabis are just not like that. But may be this sells, so much so, that these film makers are tempted to repeat the formula over and over again. But seemingly in Chakde! India, there is some semblance of reality and moreover this movie is based on a true story. Also the game hockey is so Punjabi in spirit. So Chakde! to that. The sports based movies are nothing new in Hollywood but in Bollywood these themes have rarely been tackled successfully and as far as my memory serves me Chakde! would be the first movie with hockey – our national game – as the premise. Another first which can be attributed to Chakde! is that it is a sports based movie where the players are from fairer sex unlike its predecessors. I am just yearning for this movie to be good and a big hit. Hopefully it will bring back certain glamour to the game hockey as I am really disappointed with Indian Cricket in general and also the predictability which has set in cricket matches.

The promo of Chakde! India (depiction is courtesy,
Abid: Glamsham) is a long theatrical preview of the movie. The promo comes just before the start of Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom and commences with Shahrukh Khan looking classy in sober but sophisticated white-grey attire, and announcing to the audience (in a confident manner) - ' I'll introduce the team that is going to win the world cup for us.' After that we have some matter-of-fact rap singing by SRK, where he goes on about, 'Chak 2', 'Chak 3' , 'Chak 4'... , thereby introducing the team members to the audience and letting them know exactly what they can expect from this never-say-die, all ladies hockey team. In the background is the extremely infectious, aggressive yet so very different title track (by Salim-Suleiman) from the movie, “Chakde, Chakde, Ek hockey doongi rakh ke.” One by one the hockey team members, from different parts of India, appear on screen, with their own bits and subtle humor. In the end the whole team unites to talk about the 'Chak 1', their coach 'Khan', that is SRK!

I liked the promo for its realism and for the absence of razzmatazz which is part of any YRF product. I just hope movie is as good. Though Bollywood has rarely churned out good sports based movies, Aamir Khan seems to be a pro at it. With Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (cycling was the premise); it was again proven that audiences love to see underdogs winning. But the skill of the director was also in weaving a story around universal emotions like love, friendship, brotherhood and a father son relationship. If it would have been just another sports based movie, it would have met the fate of Aamir’s Awwal Number (based on cricket) or like that of Sohail’s Aryan (boxing) which were just trying to woo the audiences on blood rush and gore which happens in these sports.

Lack of sports based movies in India, clearly is an indicator of the society which doesn’t have a great sporting history and culture. But movies off late have tried to reverse the trend. Lagaan is a great Indian Classic. It pitches the underdogs against the strongest of enemy and unleashes a dramatic saga. Here again like all great sports based movies, the focus is not just on the game but on the emotions playing in it. It is a story of valor of one man and at the end reinforces the famous adage of fortune favoring the brave. In IQBAL all through the movie, the viewer empathizes with Iqbal since Kukunoor attempts to mirror the hardships a small-time guy faces when he dares to dream. Treating the story in the most realistic fashion, IQBAL works due to its Straight-out-of-life setting and Never-say-die spirit of the underdog. Also there have been some recent attempts like Hat trick where a sport is used as very powerful motif to depict similarities with life. That’s also a new way of story telling in Hindi Cinema. Then there are movies like Ghulam (again Aamir as a boxer), where though the game itself is not important to the movie but the qualities required in playing that game provide depth to the characterization of the protagonist.

The latest movie in this genre is truly Punjabi, Apne (partly inspired by Rocky and Raging bull). For the first time a boxing choreographer is used in Hindi Films adding authenticity to fight sequences. There is a high pitched training montage song here – one that goes “You gotta survive/you gotta hit the bullseye”. It sounds like Eye of the Tiger from Rocky III, but entire credit goes to the director to weave an emotional family drama around the game, providing wholesome family entertainment in otherwise very violent movie.

It is not surprising that most of the movies described above are cricket related considering the hysteria this game generates in our country. So Chakde! India is a welcome and refreshing change. I just hope more good movies are made in Bollywood and some fine day some Lagaan comes home with an Oscar…

“You gotta survive/you gotta hit the bullseye”

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Finally MBA

Finally MBA, huh!
Finally MBA, aahhh!
Finally MBA, yippee!
Finally MBA?
Finally!
MBA? What’s that?
Finally MBA, trouble over…
It’s only an MBA, come on!
MBA… ho gaya?
Just 2 years…
MBA Vroooooooooooooom……………
MBA – Mazaa Bahut Aaya


Aah! Finally writing a blog. It was a long hiatus by any standards, actually by many standards. Thomas Friedman would say, “The world has flattened even more. While you were sleeping Charan, ten flattening forces synergized more intensely and all of a sudden Bangalore has ceased to be the epicenter of this phenomenon of flattening. India is no longer invincible outsourcing hub, though USA has still to learn its lessons.” I would reply, “To hell with you Tom, I wasn’t sleeping. I was busy doing something more important. I was doing my MBA. More importantly I was in the second year.” I believe everyone in MBA fraternity would vouch for it. All the non MBAs please read the previous blog for instant enlightenment ;-) its difficult to believe that I wrote it more than a year ago.

After going through the justification of my long time-away, wherein I amply used Friedman’s Global Gyan a.k.a Gas, I think my avid readers (I like to live in make believe world. Hic Hic.) would forgive me for being away and busy like hell. Mind it, such global and intellectually stimulating Gyan can come only from MBAs like me and there is a high probability with a level of significance of 0.99, that it would be better understood by MBAs or of their ilk. Finally I should start talking some sense now and actually try to unravel the phenomenon of “Finally MBA.” At the very onset I must make it clear, this phenomenon is bigger than anything you have dealt with till now. Even if Ravi Vishwanathan C R declares that Sivaji and Rajnikanth is Baap of all phenomenons or Behzaad Patrawala alias Baap thinks that he is the best thing that ever happened to this world, simply ignore them! After all they both are MBAs themselves.

Before one can declare that I am finally MBA, there are two things that need to be done. The first thing is to complete the first year and the second thing is to complete the second year. Sounds silly? Simple? If your answer is yes, you need to do an MBA. I had already taken a lot of pain to tell the world about my first year in the last blog. So allow me to skip the first thing and let me talk about the second thing. There are only two seasons in the second year i.e. Placement Season and Non – Placement Season. You needn’t study in any of them. Parties, booze and lots of sleep are the key common characteristics of both seasons. What differentiate both are the increased level of attendance in Placement Season and the substitution of mostly pedestrian faculty with dream companies as most worshipped entities on campus.

In a nutshell second year is all about having fun and lots of fun. It’s the time when one forges great friendships which last for lifetime. In second year nothing seems too distant and too difficult. There is a certain sense of well being. Some of us keep their feet on the ground while some balloons float. Then placement season comes, balloons burst. Thud! Humility is the last lesson which MBA taught me.

** During placements - Anxiety for sometime, tension and stress. Running around. Yeh form, woh form. Yeh company, woh company. He is the CEO material. She would do wonders. GDs and PIs... Phir se? Koi jeeta koi haara... par sab sikandar. Kuch din ke liye party band, jeans pehnna band, daaru band, classes band, sab band… and then after all this megalomaniac pandemonium. Farewells and convocation, vacations to goa, fun times and party times. Everyone is king of good times. After all these times didn’t last forever.” **

It feels great to be “Finally MBA”; it gives me a sense of achievement. But then I am so much more anxious and so much more uncertain. Case studies are over. Now handle the real cases. Still those two years will always invade my memories. Wish it was for two more years.

Finally MBA, huh!
Finally MBA, aahhh!
Finally MBA, yippee!
Finally MBA?
Finally!
MBA? What’s that?
Finally MBA, trouble over…
It’s only an MBA, come on!
MBA… ho gaya?
Just 2 years…
MBA Vroooooooooooooom……………
MBA – Mazaa Bahut Aaya