So the coffee arrives on the table...the strong aroma of the coffee filled the room and diverted my attention to the coffee mugs ...... naturally being a moron at dealing with pretty women, i did not realise that this lady was trying to start a conversation......"What do you do?" she asked...Hmmm ..... good question.....one of those standard "lets cut the ice " kinda question ... "well ,I am a head hunter for the erstwhile soviet nuclear scientists who Hooke's them up with the governments of rouge third world countries",extending my hand for a shake and expecting a surprised and dumb look ...."Oh really....i work as a part time mercenary for the Ethiopian rebels who intend to legalise the conflict diamond trade ...i am currently the second-in-command ....interesting... how come we never met " ..boyy i never thought she would come up with something like this ..almost there...one of my famous foot-in-mouth situations...this was enough to generate a laughter that only subsided about 15 mins later...here was someone that i might just take a Little interest in... i thought..... This continued with some more of my PJ's ...
"Seriously" she said .." tell me what do you do "....loosening the neck tie and trying to relax on the bean bag .....i said ..well i am an Analyst with a consulting firm and we do Software customization for the data configuration of several MNCs ....."Sooooooooo"...with a look as if she had seen a pre-historic dino creature or heard an Original Composition by Anu malik ....btw that elongated "oooo" in her "sooo" still rings in my ears and is one reason i dont listen to Himesh reshamia anymore...she continued... "are you saying that you are one of those mumbo-jumbo desi-samosa guys who fill in numbers into some coloured columns in Microsoft excel from 8 in the morning to 10 in the night" ....
For an instant I lost what she was saying as the "oooo" was still reverberating in my ears ....
"Life around ....
"Excel "
"Sirff excel ....hmmm ...Sad hai na ".... she said ....
" ...surf excel.. what!!! ....well not always... also Aerial and Nirma super some times ..."
" ouch ...." ....it hurts da .....i said holding out my shoulder.....
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Great Indian MBA Dream....
Fews days back i was going through an interview published in an old business Magazine."Management education and associated economic growth in the India" it read.
It was very interesting to hear one of the directors of IIMs exquisitly differentiating the MBA education in india as compared to the rest of the world.Its only in india that a majority of an MBA class is comprised of Grads just out of college with no or very little prior industry experience.He said that in india the eduction system is a continues process.That is, an Average indian student undergoes various levels of eduction in sequential order.If there is a break its difficult to fit into the system again.Also there is a huge potential and constant discontent that is seen in them which finally leads to these pattern.Then he went on to explain the advantages and disadvantages of this.I totally agreed with him. But that thought remained.....
As Thomas Edison once said "Its not brilliance but restlessness and discontent with what we have, that actually fuels growth" .I always believed thats this is the truth.Its this restlessness and discontent that has shaped into what iam today.Talking of MBA,there is very strong debate in the Academic circles as to why there is such a mad rush among the Engineers to get an MBA degree.As per the Statistics,majority of the Engineering graduates today tend to get into the B-schools right after the college.Well, i did take a dig at the CAT exam and ended up getting gracefully rejected at two IIMs.But its tough to explain why most engineers want an MBA degree.Would pursuing an MBA right out of the College really help you shape a career in the industry and company ofyour chioce.I have been in the technology consulting domain for some time now and believe me if you really intend to do anything meaningful to you career in here, an MBA is a must.That too with some domain knowledge and the nuances of the trade.With the explosion in the IT and the ITES sector jobs and the booming economy at home ,management edcuation has seen a tremendous growth.Given a choice folks now would investment into an MBA degree than an M.S degree from a University in the US.The choice is quite evidant as with definate returns from day one or say day zero(MBA placement lingo).An indian MBA degree is a safer bet than anything else.Comming back to the question " Why MBA".Its a tough one to answer.But for me back in the days when i was about finish my under-grad studies...i was mesmerised by the placement reports of the B-schools featuring the top tier consulting firms recruiting the indian B-grads.Probably it was those dreams of wearing black suits(MIB types)and sitting in the high raised Manhatten offices that fuelled my dreams.But its not that fancy i hear .....Most of my friends who have done their MBA give me a direct and less obfuscating answer when i put across this question.Its the flexibilty to go into another domain thats more fascinating than the fat pay cheques.Its true, an MBA gives you the flexibility to go into say investment banking from IT services , into marketing from from Banking services ...in short the sky is the limit....
It was very interesting to hear one of the directors of IIMs exquisitly differentiating the MBA education in india as compared to the rest of the world.Its only in india that a majority of an MBA class is comprised of Grads just out of college with no or very little prior industry experience.He said that in india the eduction system is a continues process.That is, an Average indian student undergoes various levels of eduction in sequential order.If there is a break its difficult to fit into the system again.Also there is a huge potential and constant discontent that is seen in them which finally leads to these pattern.Then he went on to explain the advantages and disadvantages of this.I totally agreed with him. But that thought remained.....
As Thomas Edison once said "Its not brilliance but restlessness and discontent with what we have, that actually fuels growth" .I always believed thats this is the truth.Its this restlessness and discontent that has shaped into what iam today.Talking of MBA,there is very strong debate in the Academic circles as to why there is such a mad rush among the Engineers to get an MBA degree.As per the Statistics,majority of the Engineering graduates today tend to get into the B-schools right after the college.Well, i did take a dig at the CAT exam and ended up getting gracefully rejected at two IIMs.But its tough to explain why most engineers want an MBA degree.Would pursuing an MBA right out of the College really help you shape a career in the industry and company ofyour chioce.I have been in the technology consulting domain for some time now and believe me if you really intend to do anything meaningful to you career in here, an MBA is a must.That too with some domain knowledge and the nuances of the trade.With the explosion in the IT and the ITES sector jobs and the booming economy at home ,management edcuation has seen a tremendous growth.Given a choice folks now would investment into an MBA degree than an M.S degree from a University in the US.The choice is quite evidant as with definate returns from day one or say day zero(MBA placement lingo).An indian MBA degree is a safer bet than anything else.Comming back to the question " Why MBA".Its a tough one to answer.But for me back in the days when i was about finish my under-grad studies...i was mesmerised by the placement reports of the B-schools featuring the top tier consulting firms recruiting the indian B-grads.Probably it was those dreams of wearing black suits(MIB types)and sitting in the high raised Manhatten offices that fuelled my dreams.But its not that fancy i hear .....Most of my friends who have done their MBA give me a direct and less obfuscating answer when i put across this question.Its the flexibilty to go into another domain thats more fascinating than the fat pay cheques.Its true, an MBA gives you the flexibility to go into say investment banking from IT services , into marketing from from Banking services ...in short the sky is the limit....
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