Blogs

You can do it! Array can't kill your comments...

When it first happened to two of my posts, I was surprised at his name: Array! What an exotic name :) Then an array of thoughts came running… The comments page was left looking like ruined. Let me do some experiments! And when Monalisa got angry, I had to do something… :) (P.S.: One round of the iland and I see many people using innovative ways to abuse the 'guy' called Array Lol:)

Array actually hides the one ‘page’ of comments on the comments page. I don’t know the way to get rid of the array yet, but you can get all your comments back. This is how:

Suppose you have 22 comments on your comments page when Array posts comment and your first page of comments gets destroyed. Now your 10 comments on the first page would get hidden. On the first page, you would see only Array’s comment and on next pages, remaining 12 comments would be there. Now, log off and access your blog again. Start posting comments on your own blog post. Each new comment of yours will push the Array to one step below. And as Array comment goes down each time, one old comment of yours will start appearing on the next page! Wow! But, still there is a catch.

As soon as you will post 10^th comment, the Array will reach the next page and your next page of comments will get disappeared. If you want to copy your comments, you can copy all the comments once you post 9 new comments on the first page; when the Array is at the bottom of the page.

Now if you want to repost your old comments by your friends, you can log-in again, delete all the demo comments you had posted, log off again and post all those old comments in your friends’ names.

Anyway, all you wanted was to get your lovely comments back, right? So, by this way, you get all of them back!

(You can check this blog post of mine, I retrieved all my old comments and reposted them. You can see Array still sitting at one page :) Link: My Bad Guy)

Stop panicking and blaming rediff my dear friends. So far, no website has surpassed the cunning hackers and naïve bugs :) As the bombers can bomb any city in India, bugs can also hit and infect any blog site!

Don’t lose hope! We can do it!

:)

Picture: Let us not allow this ‘virtual’ iLand to get the best out of you when your ‘real’ friends and family would be needing 'you', somewhere… (Rahul)

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Update: 7 Aug, 12:15 PM: Array has striked to this verry post! Wow! That is quite interesting, it didn't have a good night sleep it seems. Within hours of this post, it happened! Wait, I will retrive all comments in the evening, when I get time...

Update: 7 Aug, 19:30 PM: My Goodness! Array strikes on this very post twice! Some of you had posted comments and there is an Array comment again on this  very post! Let me see if I can retrive your comments...

Update: 7 Aug, 20:03 PM: Array defeated again! Here are all your comments, intact. It may happen that the same bug may hit this very post again, so I am pasting your comments as below. (If Array comment appears again, it would mean that there is certainly some human element involved.) Anyways, blogging was never so much fun :) Wish you happy blogging...

MBA

No more fun please…

These are times of boundary less world. These are also times of our obsession with the ‘less’. On one hand, we are trying to fill the gap by addressing sensitive issues in course curriculum, and on the other hand, we keep loosing it because of changes happening where we least expect. The changing profile and attitude of teaching faculty is one such thing. No longer has it remained the profession of the noble, as it is seen as just another profession, and some times a comfortable one. It has also become a feather in the cap of today’s manager. And hence, a very diverse set of people are entering the teaching line, with diverse interests and backgrounds. It is good to a large extent, but bad when we start expecting them of certain kind of nobleness as teachers were always expected to.

As I entered the class late, the teacher allowed me to come in. But he made the class give me a big applause (clap, clap, professors do that to bore the late comers :). I came in and said “thank you”. He seemed to feel that I was a bit intimidated, so he held my arm while asking me to come in and said, “Don’t worry dear, I am not touching you the wrong way :)” Good sense of humour? Let us see…

Two minutes later, he makes a point to one guy, saying, “Suppose you get married” (class laughs) “And suppose you have a child too” (laughter), “And even suppose it is your own child!” (more laughter)… He watches people laughing, stands tall, and says, “Yes, Can you know who the father of a child is? Never! Even DNA tests won’t tell. ONLY the mother knows the father of the child!” He feels himself superior and moves around, while people let the joke passed amidst laughter. Why this example? He was trying to explain the real decision makers in the buying process, and something about consumers and customers. 1.5 hours and 1.5 dozen double meaning jokes… Did we deserve more? :)

Today a friend in another class says his teacher of CRM asked a guy, “Do you think having one-night-stands every day would make you have a better relationship with your girlfriend?” (many worse examples are not shared here) What the hell! The class laughed while some people felt bad. He was explaining how customer relationship management is as complex as real life personal relationships...

Normally we all avoid minding or objecting to such comments because they are occasional ones and in pure humour. But many a times, they are derogatory to a particular sex, caste or religion. Most common is to see women as an object. And they take it that the class will enjoy such jokes! From my personal experience, this phenomenon is seen mainly in the visiting faculty from the industry, who would make their day (evening) by breaking such funny but double meaning jokes at every opportunity. The students just laugh and let it go. In one subject, we tolerated one retired HR manager for 3 months, who kept telling corrupt stories in the name of sharing practical cases. And one professor, who described lewd details in the name of explaining cultural diversities. We rated them low in the feedback forms, but I am not sure if anyone mentioned what they said in the class rooms. All such incidents still make me sure of one thing – no matter how much the new generation has changed, we still respect our elders. And we discount their bad habits to a generous extent.

I had read somewhere that while in public, we should never tell such jokes because public memory keeps that particular impression of ours for a long time. If I meet my teacher after 20 years, it may happen that I will recall him by the double-meaning jokes he told in the class. It is high time the teachers behave themselves. As such I am decided now that if that teacher continues his way, I would politely let him know of my opinion, ok, gyaan :) Complaint is a big decision and something I would avoid. But we never know :)

Everything can be laughed off, but there is always a limit.

***

Note: This article doesn’t generalise the phenomenon or behaviour of teachers in general. Views expressed are personal. Nothing is against any particular teacher or university. For the record, incidents mentioned may be fictitious. And it should not be quoted for any action against anyone.

Setu Samudram

The selective noise...

Hearing from the horse’s mouth always helps. Therefore I believed it when my professor said: “Judges in the Supreme Court are no fools. They know very well which cases to delay and for how long. For example, the Ayodhya's Babri dispute will never be solved; because a verdict on either side will result in riots.” Being a practicing lawyer in the HC, he would know…  

Now, take the stark contrast in the case of Ram Setu. Here, the government doesn’t think twice before saying that Ram didn’t exist, or that Ram himself destroyed the Setu, and goes on passing the verdict that it can’t be a national monument. Why? Because there won’t be communal riots against these statements?

When I read civics in school days, I wondered how the democratic setup of ‘rule by majority’ would be able to safeguard the interests of the minorities. Now I know. Big doesn’t mean strong.

It is much easier to mobilize the minority votes either in favor or against one political party. But to woo the majority is very difficult. Therefore, parties take shortcuts. One of my close friends who is a Christian, avoided any conflict and argument at any cost; he would just run away. It took me much time to understand his psychology. It may not be politically right to connect this to the fact that he hates the BJP and respects Sonia Gandhi, but this is what I could understand. Every minority group has a 'fear psychology'; it is in our basic nature. No government, however just can ever erase that fear by 100%. But to exploit it or not remains an ethical question that the parties have to face.

I was in Chhattisgarh for 2 years and saw one very good example of good administration. Very near to Raipur bus stand, stood an old Hanuman temple right in the middle of a big Chowk. They had widened the roads and the area had become very spacious and beautiful: but the temple was causing traffic jams. The government quickly built a beautiful temple at nearest safe distance, picked up the idol by a crane, established it with all the rituals and funfair: with all its humble respect. Troublemakers would still have cried and made that an issue: how could you touch my idol? But they didn’t. Why? Because the government treated their faith and feelings with respect and sincerity.

In the case of Ram Setu, the government doesn't have to worry about anything when it opens its mouth about Ram. On Ayodhya’s Babri dispute, the same government won’t open its mouth. Irony? No. Politics.

In the short run, keeping the silence and not addressing the fundamental problems may sound like a good policy. It does manage to manage the peace. But it gives incentives to those who start believing that to be able to be heard, you have to make a riot. It is a fact that more number of innocent deaths have happened inside India due to terrorism than due to wars. The end line: the choice is not ours. At present, the state of politics in India seems to be going dumps.

Wait for the renaissance.

Mystery

Survival of the fittest?

I was startled to see the statistics on the survivors of the tragic sinking of Titanic. We already know that women and children were sent back safely, since there were lesser numbers of rescue boats than people on board. But what statistics are these? See the table attached.

First there is an ‘age bias’, then a ‘gender bias’ and even then there is a ‘class bias’! While I really appreciate the way in which those in face-to-face with the death took the decision to offer their seat to kids and women, yeh dil mange more!

There is a hard truth: A ‘man’ in the first class is more likely to be alive than a man in the second/third class. But, a man in the first class is LESS likely to be saved than a woman in the third class! Gender bias wins over the class bias…

What struck me is the irony that the law of “Survival of the fittest” goes down to dumps as we become more civilised and educated… What do you say?

***

PS: As such, this is nothing new. Even Lord Ram asked Sita to get on the boat first… this is part of our culture… But the fact that ‘life’ is not ‘equal’ for all, makes me think. (And even further, those who think women are discriminated against at all places can see these statistics and smile :) Life is not fair. But life is not unfair either.

(Another titanic fact of the present: If you are living in a state with BJP in power, you are less likely to survive... the bombings...)

Kismat Konnection: An average time pass kind of movie that we watch casually. There are good loveable moments; but with a weak plot and not-so-great performances it will not be in the memory for a long time. Shahid is 'regularly' good; Vidya is a bit artificial and I don't like her hair-style :) Can watch type.

Life V2

Better a loser than a runaway

I don’t like bad guys from the movies because of some obvious reasons. But there is one of them whom I can’t have enough. Vivek Oberoi as Maya – in Shootout at Lokhandwala! Is Vivek really a bad guy? I am not sure. But yes, negative characters with some flesh and blood appear very comfortable on him.

He is Maya, brought up on the streets, believing that he was smarter than the good guys in police uniforms. He is merciless and brutal, beyond imagination. He is violent and bloody as hell.

But he has a mother who is proud of him. He has friends who are nothing but good friends. He has a dream to make it big. He is smart and cunning. He is a street fighter and a survivor.

I love his end most – the way he died, ok, the way he was killed. Sanjay Dutt was the good guy from the police. Police surround the building where Maya (Vivek) and his friends had holed up for some time. They kill his friends in the bad guys’ manner – without arms, in fake encounters. But his was not a usual ending. He and Sanjay Dutt fight with their arms deserted. He always had a pride that he was smarter than the good guys. But in the end, he was proved not to be. If he was killed with a weapon, he would still have been able to justify that good guys had better weapons than his. But Sanjay Dutt pins him with his throat on a long nail on the wall, which was used to hang cloths. He slowly dies bleeding though his throat and mouth…

Some times, we choose to end things with a false pride. We believe we are very good students and when our preparation is not good, we choose not to appear in exams. Or rejected in love, we think we are the best and don’t accept facts. Proven inferior in front of someone on the job, we resign rather than to compete with him for one more year. All these are good for your ego, but not for our soul. Sometimes a bit of a pinching defeat can do miracles in your overall growth. You grow wiser; smarter and a more stable one.

Let us choose to die mercilessly but fighting, as Maya did. Let us choose to be a loser but not the one who commits suicide. Let us choose to be a mediocre but not the one who won a Gold medal on doping. Let us have the guts to loose. Let us choose to fight another day!

I love my bad guy! :)

PS: I am a fan of both Vivek Oberoi and Sanjay Dutt :)

Books

Churchill on Leadership

Winston Churchill gave this world the "V" sign for victory. Prime Minister of United Kingdom during the World War II, Churchill was a self made man who made the history the way we read and repeat today. This book tries to point out leadership traits from this great political leader, as applicable to the business world. Although fighting a world war and competing in the business world are very different, both require brilliant leadership for success."

Churchill's leadership style was essentially about taking responsibility, facing bad news squarely, staying open to changing your mind in presence of new information and keeping fully informed. “Responsibility must be combined with authority” and “decisiveness depends on the person at the top” are two of his philosophies.

Though I found the book more useful for those who already have good insights into the war time history and British political system, it does describe some basics for the beginners like the difference between political and business leadership w.r.t risks. Also, we get to know and understand why Churchill's style of leadership worked at that time. And why it can still work in many forms. More information on the Book at [Rediff Books]

Books

Ten deadly marketing sins

Philip Kotler, Professor of International marketing at Northwester University's Kellogg School of management and author of 30 books is a God in marketing. In this comparatively new book, he describes the reason why 75% of new products, services and businesses fail. That is, he discusses the 10 deadly marketing sins:

1.               Your company is not sufficiently market focused and customer driven

2.               Your company doesn't fully understand its target customers

3.               Your company needs to better define and monitor its competitors

4.               Your company has not properly managed its relationships with its stakeholders

5.               Your company is not good at finding new opportunities

6.               Your company's marketing planning process is deficient

7.               Your company's product and service policies need tightening.

8.               Your company's brand building and communication skills are weak.

9.               Your company is not well organized to carry on effective and efficient marketing.

10.           Your company has not made maximum use of technology.

The language and approach by the author is very interesting and we get many good insights on the theme. A necessity for anyone in marketing…  More information on the Book at [Rediff Books]

Guest lectures

CK Prahalad on campus

On Saturday, 19^th of July, CK Prahalad was on our campus. The visionary professor of University of Michigan and author of ‘Fortune at the bottom of Pyramid’ was here in Mumbai to interact with the students of our university on the theme India@75.

I couldn’t attend this session due to some reasons (ok, my decisions) but I caught up with friends later on. They had found the session a bit boring as the speaker had not been able to connect with the audience on the core of the theme. When the best of the authors and speakers try to reach out to the audiences beyond a limit, there is always a risk of being