One Story - 2 Story Tellers

This is my second attempt at story writing. I am going to try something different this time, I am going to write the same story twice, one as a blog writer with a profound love for the melodramatic and the other as an Engineer/MBA, with a tendency to be as brief and to the point as possible.

The Writer’s Version

As he stood there gazing at the abyss, the sharp pain of loss stabbed him in the heart. He just realised that in one instant he had lost her, his one true love and all that was in front of his eyes was the  dark emptiness of a life devoid of all purpose.

It was just this morning that they had been so happy together, locked in each other’s arms blissfully unaware of the world around them, for them the whole world revolved around each other. And then something started happening, he couldn’t explain it but she started becoming silent and unresponsive. He tried to talk to her, but she didn’t say a word. He would try and start a conversation only for her to go silent again. And this continued, until finally she fell asleep, never to awaken again. He tried everything, all that his mortal being allowed him to do, but she simply refused to comply, it was as if the world could not bear to see them happy together. Her heart was beating but there seemed to be no life left in her, she seemed like just another piece of furniture.

For two days he had no clue what to do, he had no one to call out to, he felt like the man who wakes up one morning to find that his whole universe has been destroyed and by some cruel twist of fate he is the sole survivor. For two days he just wandered dazed and confused, without a clue as to what had happened. He wanted to cry and moan her loss, but the tears refused to come,. He would scream but the echoes would only reverberate through his mind. Somewhere he knew that she was still alive, and every second he hoped that now, at least now she would wake up and say ‘April Fools’ and all would be well again. Her lifeless countenance had become the shackles which were now confining him to solitude and loneliness.

And then one morning, he decided that enough was enough. He needed to reclaim his life, and the truth was the way to freedom. He needed to find out what happened. He had to find how and why he had gone from a prince to a pauper in a matter of hours. He decided that he needed to see what was wrong with her, find out if she was alive or dead. So he called up the one man who could provide him with the answers – the Doc. The Doc was the all powerful entity who controlled the fate of all of them, in fact it was the Doc who introduced him to her, and now he would have to bring her back.

After frantically trying to reach the Doc, he was able to get through. The Doc aware of his hold over the hapless young man probed him incessantly, making him wait, not giving any solutions to the problem. He continued to bombard him with question after question, treating him as a suspect rather than a victim. The bereaved lover had to struggle to prove his innocence and show his suffering before the Doc was finally satiated.  And then like Manna which fell from the heaven for the hungry Jews in the desert, the Doc said those magical words which once again brought hope back into his life – “She is not dead”. And then the Doc said that he would send one of his several minions to see if she could be revived.

And so he waited the whole of the next day. He didn’t leave his abode, he skipped his work, and he even forgot to eat. But it was all worth it, because he knew that in a short while he could maybe be with her again, see her smile, hear beautiful voice, hold her, run his fingers over her. He knew that those magical feelings would not be lost forever. Hope was alive. And he waited, and waited, but no one came. It was like a mirage in the desert of despair, which promised to quench his thirst but only succeeded in arousing a desire which would never be fulfilled. And soon his thoughts began to wander. What if the Doc was wrong, what if she was really dead. How would he ever replace her, what if her brain was damaged, even she could recover would she remember him, and would they still share that same strong bond. How long before he could build that relationship again? And while these thoughts were torturing him, there was still no sign of the Doc’s minions.

And as the messenger of hope didn’t come, he grew more and more weary. His hands began to tremble, his mind began to wander, and he was like a nomad who had no purpose. Soon the nervousness began to transform into anger, he was getting agitated, and he needed her badly, like an addict who badly needs a fix after a few days of sobriety. He was overcome with anger and despair, and he was at odds as to what to do with his life. And finally he could not control it anymore, in a fit of anger he once again called the Doc and let loose all the frustration and anger built up inside of him. And after a heated argument the Doc was able to see the pain in this broken hearted young man’s life and decided to put things straight and send the minion again. As fate would have the Doc’s servant fell prey to a vicious accident and our hero’s anguish was prolonged for another tormenting day.

And so one more day went buy and the torture continued, and just as he was about to reach the breaking point, he received a call from the messenger, who had arrived bringing with him possibility of a return to a normal life. The messenger arrived and the moment he saw her, he knew that she was not looking good, but all hope was not lost. He still could save her, so he carefully began examining her. And as her soulmate looked on, he could not bear to see this painful examination of his true love. Every cut that the messenger applied on her to examine her, was tearing a hole in our hero’s soul. And the painful procedure continued for an hour, until the messenger finally declared that he had found the problem, he needed to replace a part of her brain. Stunned beyond belief, the young man could not believe the words, how could this have happened to her, there were no symptoms, no signs nothing. And now all of her sudden this man says that a part of her brain is rotten, it could not be, he must be mistaken; maybe he doesn’t even know what he is doing. But the messenger was insistent and said that he needed to perform the surgery, so despite his inhibitions, he allowed him to do his job. And as he watched the surgery taking place, he again wondered will his true love really return to her old self.

And then suddenly he could see a glimmer of life on her hitherto barren face, and slowly but surely she opened her eyes, and he could see the twinkle in her eyes again. And she looked up at him, and the moment he saw her sweet smile, he knew she was back. It was her, mind and soul, and she was the same woman that he loved and lost. The dark clouds had parted and sunshine was pouring down on him and he once again basked in the glory of this wonderful life which had been returned to him, and he vowed that he would never ever let her go again.

 

 The Engineer/MBA Version

·         God damned laptop crashed. Started hanging repeatedly, then after a while the stupid thing refused to start. Every time I pressed the power button it would show a blank screen

·         Seemed fine in the morning, I was happily playing FIFA in my Consumer Behaviour class, seemed to be working then.

·         The damn thing had to crash on a Saturday, bloody Dell tech Support also doesn’t work on weekends. For two days I had no clue what to do. Totally bored, no FIFA, no movies, nothing. Totally irritated.

·         Finally called Dell Tech support on Monday. The moronic support guy kept asking idiotic questions, like ‘Do you have a screwdriver’. As if I have no better business than carrying screwdrivers around to class. Why the bloody hell did I pay 12k to Dell for tech Support, so that I can tinker with the damn thing myself. The bozo says that engineer will come on the next day before 12 or after 2.

·         Bunked first class in the hope that engineer will come. Looser doesn’t turn up the whole day. I am now getting really annoyed, suffering FIFA withdrawal symptoms. Hands are automatically curling up in ASDW positions.

·         Started worrying whether the hard disk had crashed. What the hell would I do then? All movies gone, all of FIFA gone, all the changes I made in the Arsenal squad gone. It would take me days to recover all of that.

·         Get really pissed the next day and call the Dell guy. Give him a serious tongue lashing. He finally agrees to send an engineer immediately. Stupid engineer, who can’t drive gets into an accident, Dell guy says he can send another engineer only next day.

·         Next day engineer comes, and starts dismantling my laptop immediately without even telling me the problem. I am really worried that he is a rookie who has no clue what to do. He then says motherboard is screwed needs to be replaced. Jaw Drops. But I say, ok replace it. He starts replacing; again I am worried because when he can’t locate the processor on the motherboard. I hope he knows what he’s doing, otherwise I am joining the ‘I hate Dell’ Society.

·         Somehow he finishes it and then starts the laptop. And I finally see the Windows logo and I almost jump up in the air. Computer starts, all data seems to be intact.

·         Laptop working again. Engineer leaves, I start playing FIFA 09’ immediately.

·         End of Story

 

P.S – This story is based on a true incident.

Thank God Its Wednesday !!!

Since here at SPJIMR we live our lives in between Wednesdays, i've decided to start a sort of "my week in review" section, every wednesday.

The High Points:

Well never thought I would say this, but the high point of my week was my trimester end exams. Oh yes those God awful exams which made me cringe during my times in Engineering, are actually a welcome relief in a B-School. Without saying much more I'll just give you guys a few facts; I slept for about 7 hours on an average during the 3 days of exams, while my average sleep time durina a normal working day at SP is about 4.5 to 5 hours. Perplexed! Me too. In fact my average sleep time during exams in engineering was about 3 to 4 hours. Somehow studying for exams seems utterly pointless, considering I actually ended up doing reasonably well (well enough to be in the middle 50% of the class, where I am extremely happy to be).


Well enough of exams, another good high for the week was the Federal $700 Billion bailout being rejected, although the stock markets didn't react to it that well. However I feel it is a good thing, particularly because the bailout would be equivalent to rewarding the recklesness and greed of the largest corporations in the world, which put us in this mess in the first place. However personal feelings aside, the B-school student in me tells me that in the long run it would be in the best interest of the economy as a whole for these companies to survive, even if it means rewarding (or atleast rescuing) their stupidity. Again however opinion on that front is divided, read this point of view from a Harvard Economist

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/29/miron.bailout/index.html



The Lows:

"What the HULL?"

Sorry for ripping of Times' headline, but that was my low point in the week, to watch agonisingly, on Saturday, as Arsenal lost (at home) to Hull City.It was a truly painful experience. Didn't help my exam preparations either! And it was made worse by the, awesome performance of Arsenal against Porto yesterday, which shows how awful a day Saturday truly was. And it troubles me that Arsenal are become one of the mercurial sides, who can go from the sublime to the ridiculous in a matter of days. And the problem is, earlier when Arsenal lost it was because of some lack of killer edge, or failure to convert their exceptional football into results, but this season whenever they lose, it it because they have played terribly, without any commitment or desire. That hurts as a fan.


Well I have to mention it cause it happened, the bomb blasts. Seems every time I sit down to write a blog, there has been a blast. And I am truly speechless about what to say about these hideous acts. We seemed to be trapped in a vicious cycle of hate and counter-hate, which just doesn't show signs of ending.I truly regret my words in the last blog where I said that I wouldn't think about these things till the next blast. I get the feeling maybe I tempted fate there. But honestly I would consider it a perfect week, if the next time I write a post I could do so without using the words bomb or blast. However tomorrow is Gandhi Jayanti and the 'International Day for Non-Violence', I just hope God does not like irony.



WTH Wednesday

Well this is the moment of the week which made me go WTH!!! (What the Hell), I do it quite frequently but this is the one moment where I meant it.

Well for this week's WTH (more of a WTF) moment; it's a truly comical moment, and I am sure Mr.Murphy will be rolling over in laughter in his grave, looking at Ferrari and saying "I told you so!!!", because what happened with Ferrari in the Singapore GP on Sunday, must surely come under the category of "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong".
I mean allowing a car to move with the fuel hose still attached to the car, is something I wouldn't expect from Indian petrol pump attendents, let alone a Ferrari pit crew, who I guess might be better paid than most B-School graduates (well maybe not)! It was just one of those moments that doesn't make you just laugh but rather roll on the floor with the kind of sarcastic laughter which Nelson has in The Simpsons (he basically points at the person and goes "Ha Ha", repeatedly). I mean for all the money that Ferrari spends on the car, and the fuel and the technology, you would think they can refuel the damn thing without a glitch. Too bad it happened to Ferrari, would have been even funnier, had it been Mclaren, or funnier still had it been Fernando Alonso, in fact Alonso might have gotten out of the car at that very moment and started throwing a hissy fit, as it happened the whiny cry baby spaniard, went on to win the race.

Random Nonsense

One interesting thing I realised this weekend was that, somehow exams seemed to bring out the worst in even the most talented people. And by worst I mean, people who you think could breeze through papers are actually fretting over it, losing sleep and getting nervous. Which kind of really surprised me until I came across this really good article:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Columns/Impostor.html

And it really seemed to connect with me, cause this is a feeling I have gone through personally, especially in a place like SP, where I am sorrounded by some incredible talent, it seems difficult not to feel out of place and wonder whether I deserve to be here. But then after reading that article, it was sort of comforting. And as Harsha Bhogle says, in his speech at IIM-C (a must watch), "One thing the college taught me is...that I after coming here I felt that I have arrived". And it is true, because for once after going through one rigorous, hellacious month at SPJIMR, I finally feel that this is something I can do, that maybe SPJIMR knows what is is doing when they selected me. And maybe soon I will be able to say, I too have arrived.

On that bright note. Ciao .

And SP Rocks!!!

Random Words on a Wednesday : "They claim to be be free-market advocates when its really an anything-goes mentality: no regulation, no supervision, no discipline. And if you fail you will have a golden parachute and the taxpayer will bail you out." - Nancy Pelosi

"Pinky: Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?

The Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. "

An Innovative Business Model for Helping the Society

One of the first things you learn in a B-School, is that for any business to succeed is the need for a good business model. The same I believe can be applied to social service. The problem with most social service initiatives in the country today, is that they don't consider the basic understandings of the people working for them. Also most of them struggle to become self sustainable and are overly reliant on the altruistic spirit of human beings. Which is my most of them get underway but fail to take off and don't make a significant impact.

Recently however I had the opportunity to listen to a very impressive presentation by a group, which I really believe have an idea that will work. The organisation was called Teach For India and they proposed an idea which can go a long way in eradicating educational deficiencies of the impoverished section of the country. The basic idea was this : the organisation planned to go around the country to the finest educational institutions and aim to recruit the best students from these universities, through quite a rigorous selection process I might add, and then train them to teach in a government school in a poor section of the country for 2 years. Now after this is where the real innovation comes in. After the 2 years of teaching experience the participants in the program are free to stay or leave to return to their careers and ambitions. And in order to facilitate that the group plan to (and have already started) to establish ties with corporates and educational institutions, to allow people to take up deferred job placements and the educational institutions provide preferential treatment to people who have undergone this program. This program which has already been tried in the USA included institutions such as Harvard and organisations such as Goldman Sachs.

Now here is why this plan can work:

- The people who sign up for this program are amongst the most intelligent and well educated, which increases it's chances of success.

- They have something tangible to gain out of this. A great experience which will add on to your resume`. A better chance to get into a good college (SPJIMR has already signed up for this program with Teach for India, and several other prestigious institutions might do so).

- For graduates with time on their side, many of whom often spend few years unnecessarily in meaningless jobs only to go on and do an MBA, this is a great chance to do something worthwhile and also to improve their chance for success.

- Most importantly, the organisation is self sustaining in the long run.

I wanted to share this idea with you because I believe it's a model for not only improving education but also for all other forms of social service in the country. Basically what we need more than just a spirit it needs to be modeled properly, we need to provide sufficient value to the people who are a part of it. The problem with our country is that we jump into action without enough thought and planning. Whether it be improving education or flood relief, we are far more comfortable throwing money and charity than trying to finding a viable solution.

I truly hope that the 'Teach for India' innovation succeeds, at least it will act as a fine model for others.

The Gun(ner)s were Blazing...But unfortunately,so were the bombs...

Well, another saturday goes by, where the rest of the world enjoys a nice weekend while the future leaders of the country at SPJIMR slog their asses away. We had yet another gruelling mid-term today, DMS. And although my performance wasn't particularly heartening, I will say one thing, God bless the man who invented relative grading (you are not screwed, If everyone else is also screwed). And btw, if you seem to discover a pattern amongst my posts, wherein almost every post has some quiz or mid-term mentioned in it, it's because of 2 reasons mainly : 1) There are just so many of them!!! As one of my friends puts it, when we first came here our reactions to quizzes was - WHAT!!!, and now it is - So what!.

2) With so many quizzes around it's probably, there is no time for anything else here, its the most worthwhile bloggable thing that happens around here.

It was a mixed day really, after the dampner of the DMS mid term, my favorite team in the world, brought a smile back to my face, as the The Gunners demolished Blackburn Rovers with a 4-0 scoreline and a 5-star performance. And it seems Adebayor finally put his shooting boots back on,as he got a hattrick. And if anyone wonders why this team is so special, Arsenal finished the game, with a team on the pitch whose average age of the outfield players was around 23. And the entire team probably costs less than one whiny cry baby Dimitar Berbatov, whose presence could not prevent Manchester United from losing to a Liverpool team without their 2 best players. I do remember somebody saying Man Utd sucks without Ronaldo, oh wait a second, that was me. 

Earlier this week I posted about the futility of rankings, particularly for educational institutions. A couple of my friends told me that I was wrong, and not that I am trying to justify my position, but take a look at this, a ranking for B-Schools, by one of the most popular networks in the country:

http://campusfever.com/blog/forms/zee-bschool-survey

Please do pay attention to the positioning of IIPM in the rankings. And every B-School student or aspirant knows where IIPM stands. And its not just this one fact, look at the various sub-categories given in the rankings. With any amount of decent research and information gathering it is extremely easy to see what a piece of crap these rankings really are. I am not even going to get into the details. But just one glimpse, MDI, Gurgaon, arguably one of the best in the country when it comes to infrastructure is ranked as low as 13th.

The day however ended on a sour note, with the bombings at Delhi. Its really sad to see these kind of incidences occuring so frequently now. And I don't what to jump on the 'attack the government' bandwagon, but really isn't there anything we can do about these things. The cloud of fear is slowly creeping over this nation, and it has almost reached a stage where all the citizens of the major cities are living in a constant state of fear. In fact I remember about a couple of months ago, when the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad took place, a week after that I had to travel to Marine drive by train for a class assignment, I had to think twice before travelling and almost postponed the trip, because of the threat of an attack. It has almost become a perennial Sword of Damocles, hanging over our heads. And I know we have almost made a catchphrase out of the whole India bounces back again and again thing, but there has to be a limit. We shouldn't have to bounce back so often. Someday we might just stay down. And this attack comes on the eve of one of the biggest celebrations in Mumbai, the Ganesh visarjan and I do believe the mood for the festivities will be dampened by today's events and the extreme security bound to present tomorrow.

May peace be with the families of those affected by this act.

Random Quotes for the Day: "Terrorism is contempt for human dignity"

It's been a good Weekend...

First of all a little fact about life at SP, we consider our weekends to be Wednesday night and Thursday (Thur is the only day off for us), but since the rest of the world still considers Saturday and Sunday as weekends, for their convenience I'll refer to them as such.

And this has been a good, wait scratch that out, excellent weekend.

To start of with, Man Utd got their rear ends handed to them on Friday night by Zenit St.Petersburg in the UEFA super cup. Which also proved what I told all those annoying Man U fans, who happened to be my roomates a year back, that without Cristiano Ronaldo, Man Utd is like the Apple portfolio without the iPod, big name with a lot of stature but absolutely no substance (I have reserved my judgement for the iPhone for later).

And then we had a quiz on ITB (IT in Business) on Saturday, which I managed to survive with absolutely no preparation. After that I was able to watch Arsenal return to their old self against Newcastle with a fab performance (it was like watching poetry in motion).

And then today I had an Operations Management mid-term which I yet again survived. And I also came to a very important realisation. The fundamental difference between a B-School and Engg is that the performance in a test is not directly related to the amount you study. Which suits me just fine!!!! I almost wanted to scream out "Im Lovin it!!!" after the test, but then realised best not to anger the almighty test Gods, who haven't been particularly kind to me this trimester. The icing(s) on the cake came when, Chelsea and Liverpool both drew, and just on a side note, Liverpool have now officially become the most boring football team on the planet. And those good for nothing snobs, AC Milan also got what they deserved, losing their first match of the season (no team has ever done well after stealing players from Arsenal).

Well now I'm off trying to study for my FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) Mid term tomorrow. Hopefully my good weekend will spill over to the week also.

Random Thought for the Day: "Fast, Cheap, and Good... pick two. If it's fast and cheap, it won't be good. If it's cheap and good, it won't be fast. If it's fast and good, it won't be cheap." Fast, cheap and good... pick two words to live by. - Tom Waits

Cheers.

Arsenal and SP Rock