Hike n Learn!!

Fastest finger – A concept which I saw for the first time in KBC – Kaun Banega Crorepati , the Indian version of Who wants to become a millionaire ?

No doubt – being an ardent fan of Big B, I was always eager to see the way he would introduce the fastest finger to the 10 contestants every episode.

The next time I came across this fastest finger was when I received a mail from Dawn Dekle – Dean, Center for Leadership – back here at Singapore campus. She had indicated that there were 3 tickets for a show (don't remember exactly which one) and who ever replied to the mail first would be getting the free tickets. By the time, I checked this mail, the three people were already selected and that mail was also in my mailbox. It happened similarly for 3 times. Finally I shot out a mail to Dawn indicating my disapproval for the process. However, it was very kind of her to reply stating that she would make sure that everyone would get a chance to go out.

Then on a particular day she again sent out a mail, which told she would take 3 people for hiking to Mac Ritchie. It was already 45 min from the time she had sent the mail. I thought there is no use in replying, thinking that there are far more dynamic people than me. However, I observed there wasn't any selection mail from her – Hence I just replied indicating my interest. After around 20 min, I got a mail which told that Hrishi, Amey and myself would be going with her for the hike on 3^rd Jan – Sunday. Then I felt that – "Good Shravan... You aren't so bad; you can still win a fastest fingerJ"

Later in the evening I found out that our 1^st Term Exams were starting on 4^th Jan. I then realized why many had not replied. This is human psychology – I had mixed feeling – Feeling bad because my assumption that I was good at fastest finger was proved falseL; Feeling better because I wasn't alone, there were 2 moreJ.

On 3^rd Jan, I woke up at 6am for the first time in Singapore. Got ready and we were all down at the reception by 6:45am. Dawn was on time, exactly by 6:45am at the reception. We requested her to cut short the hike, owing to our exams, next day.

We entered the Mac Ritchie Reservoir, and it was like a blend of artificial beauty and natural ambience. We hiked through the forests and there were many people who were jogging and few were doing some kind of Chinese exercise. We came across a big tortoise, few peculiar types of fish and lots of monkeys.

The best part of the hike was Dawn – Her company added so much value to our hike that we hardly realized that we had hiked for 3hrs 15 min and covered almost 9.5 kms. She shared a lot of her experience, it may be teaching in IIMs or working in McKinsey or discussing the critical areas for Management Schools. Albert Einstein once said – "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." I am sure even if I forget the statistics/Economics/Quants, I would not forget this trip and the experience.

Thanks a lot Dawn, I am sure everyone would be eager to spend more and more time with you, as we have a lot to share and learn from you. We did take a lot of snaps – thanks to Hrishi and Amey, the slide show of which is embedded.

Finally we came back in Merc, to college by 10:30am. And the story continues – the part which we would forget, Managerial Economics Exam, the next day…….

Perception Matters!!!

Avatar –

One of the most successful movies of all time!

James Cameroon – Next only to God!

Most amazing movie of the year!

Must see – or Die!!



I must say Prof Solomon Asch's work on social pressure is an exceptional one. His did experiments on the how most people succumb to social pressure and might end up accepting the wrong thing even after being known what is right. Well after all human perception is all important.



It was night 11:25 show – I went for Avatar, with a lot of excitement, not because I am going for Avatar, but I am going for a movie, having a break from my regular routine. Well, it was the 3D version. The movie was everything but a feature film. The visual retreat was the best part that I adored about the movie. I went to the movie theater and realized that nothing much was going fast in the first 40-60 min, and as usually dosed off, with the glasses on, atleast let me dreams be 3D . However it was short nap. I realized that the story was going on with amazing cinematography, loved the hanging mountains, and all the nature which was splendidly shown across. Well, but I wanted to watch a movie and not an artificial creative forest.



The movie tested my patience, and the long screenplay made it a more painful. I did rather watch Deewar, Muttinahaara (one of my all time Kannada movies), or any typical South Indian movie where we see the hero fighting for the poor/ saving someone's life/ losing his family and he takes revenge in an anti-climax. The movie was finally over and I came out with my friends, and saw everybody so ecstatic and told profound comments. As I was about to open my mouth, I realized that I would be spoiling the aura around.



Next day I came to class and everyone were using adjectives which I even didn't know till that time. The perception so worked that I literally didn't tell many that I didn't like, but for my close aides. I was seeing amazing reviews popping up through various net sources and strong one-liners in the chat-messages. I almost made up my mind that I had actually missed out some major part during my nap in the 3D movie and decided that I would watch it again. But my exams started and I got busy with them. The day of the last exam, we had our group going to the movie, and I got going with them. This time I made sure I don't dose off, and frankly the pain was a bit more this time. But thanks to my group, it somehow was memorable, as we were mocking at many of the practices and was relating to many of our experiences.



People who have heard me giving light hearted comments about the movie, would consider me a hypocrite, but putting it in white and black, trust me I didn't like the movie the way I liked some of Cameroon's previous work. He deserves a lot of appreciation for putting across a simple concept of saving nature, in a complicated manner. But most of my heartfelt appreciation would go to the creative technocrats (it is not an oxymoron) who have worked behind the scenes for bringing out such magnificent scenery and its 3D effects.

Now what has Prof Solomon Asch got to do with this..?

It's been almost 2 days that I have seen it the second time, and this time with full conviction, I state my reviews, and surprisingly, considerable (not majority) people backed my opinion. Infact with the group when with whom I went the second time, most of them were pragmatic and enjoyed the movie as more of a comic style, than for what the movie was meant for.



I realized the impact of opinions which had sucked me into watching it for the second time, even though I had clearly realized that I didn't like it the first time. This is social pressure. After watching it for the second time, I realized that many were pulled into the majority opinion, the way I was. This realization did cost me an extra ticket & precious time (off course, I would have slept otherwise).



It is worthwhile to have a glimpse of Solomon Asch's psychological experiment –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Asch


 

Wake Up !!!

It was around 4:00 am, on a Tuesday. I was reading a case study for the morning session. Let me also confess that I wasn't doing just that - I was checking out some interesting websites for some information about financial crisis, along with chatting, etc. To hit the nail on the head - not all the time till 4:00 am was spent in a fruitful manner. Finally I made up my mind to sleep by 4.15 am. I set the alarm for 8:00 am and slept. I must say my crazy dreams were a bit more berserk, than normal. 


I opened my eyes in trouble and saw that my roomie - Chetan was still asleep, and so I again went back to sleep. Next time, I opened my eyes and out of sheer desperation, I took the mobile to check out the time. And it was 9:07 ................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The worst part was Chetan was also still sleeping - even though he had slept by midnight 12. I literally shouted - "Shiiiiittttttttt... 9........ 7......." and within seconds we both had to be in the class. The lift time was utilized in combing and finally for the first time ever in my life - I entered the class in slippers. The attire was mediocre and face was clearly indicating that I was totally sleep -deprived. Adding insult to injury, my program coordinator(This person is responsible for the smooth running of the class - She was also responsible for taking attendance and seldom sits in the class to check if the learning experience is really happening - Infact this is one of the good things that I like here. ) was sitting in the class. This is what I called destiny - She was on leave for the past 2 weeks and I had been punctual all through, but all of a sudden, she is sitting inside the class. Either ways, I didn't have time to talk to her and just ran to my place like a bull in a competition. The class was that of the Business Strategy - and I had actually prepared for the case-study that we would be discussing in  the class.  But what is the point in having prepared, when you are not in a position to know what was happening in the class, and whether your preparation is relevant to the class. 


Having already known for sleeping in the class, it was a bit difficult for me to digest this extra embarrassment.. Anyways, what is study if not for this..??!!!! That too for an engineer...!!


However, if this wasn't sufficient, destiny had a few more surprises lined up for me. During one of the case -study discussions, I had prepared myself for a particular question, and I desperately wanted to complete my turn that day itself, because, I was skeptical if I missed the chance that day, I had to prepare another case for the next day. Thanks to few irritating (pun definitely not intended) characters in the class, the number of nonsense questions were a bit a more and ate up everybody's air-time. Just in the last 5 min, i finally got the mike and I had my answer prepared on my laptop screen, destiny had a different story - Now our dearest professor had to leave a bit early and disbursed the class 5 min before time. The happy part however was that the prof told that he would continue with the same case n with me, the next day. So I didn't have to read another case- relieved :))


One more similar incidence, with my friend - Amey, it was a similar case-study discussion - and the question- answer session was to start with him and he was prepared to present his view on the first question. Now again, few unknown sources wanted a different climax - the professor started to ask from second question - His face was a mixture of emotions, which were waiting to flow out but he was holding on. Now this is what I say engineers, not everyone would find a strategy the way he found out - he said that the mike was not working and asked for another, there by gaining another 3-4 min, through which he could just push-through the question. 


A person's intelligence is actually tested in such situation handling and is more ridiculed in examinations...


Hail Engineers!!!!!!

Learn, Unlearn and Relearn

Let me start off with an incidence - In Singapore, I wanted to cross the road – I just looked across and observed that there were no vehicles coming in my way and I crossed it. Later, I was told that there would be a fine if anyone crossed the road when the signal is red (STOP), irrespective of whether the vehicles were plying or not. The next day I went again to the road, my legs started to cross again, just when I realized that we are not supposed to pass until the signal is green (GO). I had learnt a particular way to cross the road in India, now I had to unlearn and relearn a new way of doing the same thing.

This is a typical example of being able to learn, unlearn and relearn. Recently I was reading a book – “Why men can’t listen and women can’t read maps?” in which a small part debated on Nature v/s Nurture. It reflected the clash of the qualities that was developed by nature and those which were developed by nurture. It was indicating that the power of nature was stronger than that of nurture, based on some of the findings in genetics. It indirectly suggested that most of the information regarding the individual would be encrypted in set of proteins called DNA, and chances of altering this would be very rare.

Does that mean if we have learnt anything by nature/by genes, we cannot unlearn and relearn it? No, because we need to know that unlearning doesn’t mean to lose out everything that you have accumulated through your experience, but it is the quality of being open to outside ideas that can be analyzed and pursued. As long as you pursue this virtue of openness and thinking out of the box, the unlearning should not be a tough task. This is one of those qualities that make capable and dynamic leaders. Every person who is aiming to scale the heights of Level 5 executives should inculcate this character. They need to nurture this quality, gifted by nature and develop them to make themselves better.

This is important even in the context of a company. As globalization had changed itself to glocalization, adaptability became the attribute of expansion of companies to other developing countries.  As Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO of GE puts it – “With glocalization, companies develop great products at home and then distribute them worldwide, with some adaptations to local conditions.”

But now, the companies need to advance from glocalization to the next level – create products truly suiting the needs of the economy/demands of a particular country. This requires more than adaptation. They is a need to unlearn the way the things were done in the home country and relearn to do the same things in a different way, keeping the local customs and demands in mind.  Hence this mantra holds water in this era of rapid expansion and information exchange. This transformation at a macro level is neither simple nor an easy process. It is always easy to learn a new stuff than unlearning something and later relearning the same thing, in a different manner. Sometimes it could be a painful one. However this is a continuous process for any company or individual to progress.

When this process of unlearning does becomes very important? – When you know what you were doing previously was tested and gave very good results, but is not working to the current day requirements. It is at this stage that you need to unlearn the old ways and become open to new, rather innovative ways.  We need to be open enough to accept this process as a continuous one and not a one-time change.

We need to believe that we can unlearn the non-working stuff and relearn the new methodologies of doing things or getting things done. So let’s all make a list of the things which we feel is not working in the present day and make an effort to unlearn them for the benefit of all. 

My First Job - Nostalgia - 7 - Thank You All !!

As I move ahead, I would like to express 2 things -

1. My sincere apologies to all those whom I have hurt, if any. Trust me, my intensions are very clean.
2. My heart-felt thanks to all those who contributed to my considerably successful career in this company. Starting with the security staff till my managers, account managers, tech architects, peers, friends n all, every one have been part of my memories associated with my first job.

I am indebted to you all… Thanks a ton..!!!

My First Job - Nostalgia - 6 - Final Military Experience

Well before I close these chapters, I need to say about my second and final project, lets say - Military project (just that I don't want to get into any trouble by letting out the name).


I have a lot to say about this project, hence let me put across those in the point format (this is one my favorite way of putting down issues). Below were the things I learnt in this project - 

• Technically - I was supposed to excel in this field - being from a technical practice.
• Time management
• Value of doing things right the very first time - the amount of time, it would save. ( It doesn't mean I did every thing right the first time.. but I learnt the value)
• Working under pressure - This was not new to me, but here I got a better outlook towards handling things efficiently.
• Looking at things from a business perspective, working from the customer point of view.
• How can a simple task be complicated and finally buy time to solve the complexity.
• Working smart v/s Working hard.
• Putting up a tough stance, when you are sure that it is in the welfare of the project, irrespective of the person - Live the gut feeling.
• Convince yourself, before convincing others.

Having said all these, this project literally took my innocence away I had before, and matured me to handle tough situations. This was one project, where everyone (from top to the bottom of hierarchy) was a product of situation and most of them were understandably helpless. If there were anyone who could do something, they were the developers - hats off to their spirits. 

At a personal level, everything in this project has been a learning experience, starting from time when my manager used to call me to find out where I was, without realizing that I was standing just behind him, till the time when people appreciated good work. I have always tried to make work merrier and enjoyable. I take pride in most of the things I have tried to achieve.

In spite of all the tough aspects, there was no loss of fun here too. Frankly, this project was a kind of Tamilian's society - almost everyone conversed in Tamil and I was dumb initially but slowly started to understand and also speak some Tamil- though very bad. I have lost count of the times I have tried to pull Raji's leg. The vice-versa is also true. The number of Cadbury's Temptations that Raji owes me is infinite. The mimicking of Nandini had been a challenge to many, but I succeeded. Our pizza boy also gave considerable entertainment during night-outs and so on. The time when Sampath and myself tried to write an Ext JS code by just doing copy-paste, and later on realized that nothing works, the days when our boys gang were complaining for lack of inspiration with-in the project and were forced to search outside - all added to the fun quotient. Innumerable fun moments with Balaji, Sai, Muzzamil, Jerome, Sandhosh, Nandini, Ameena, Sampath, Dhivia, Saranya, Swagath, MM, Ravi, Vinod.. so on and so forth (Nobody is intentionally left out - Thanks to my bad memory) are all to be cherished. Our project trip was one big bang event - all thanks to the team spirit.


The patience of Arun, the discussions with Bagewadi, arguments with BA's, toughness of Raghavan, tracking by Shakeel and Gnana, fun-attitude of Arvind, and off-course the memorable mails from all the higher-ups (both appreciation and tracking) made this project experience an unforgettable one. 

My First Job - Nostalgia - 5 - Learning Unlimited

As I talk about my student life - work life continuum, I must attribute this to all my teachers (here - my heads and leads who constantly contributed by teaching me). I must be more than lucky to have worked under people like Elvyn, Anand, Rupam, Sara, Bala, Subbu, Arun, Bagewadi, Subash and so on..  
During SWAT activity, I still remember Rupam laying out a plan at morning 4:30 am about the activities that had to be carried out the following day, when I was actually thinking about when I would sleep (I was just 3 months in to my job). Those days were all the more exiting, because all of us worked as a team and counter-acting each other's work would always result in the best outcome.


I still remember the day when I just rushed into Elvyn's cabin and sat for more than 3 hours to learn UML - and he was kind enough to teach most of them that was required for me to start with my design work. The days when Anand corrected me for some of my silly mistakes - shared thoughts of better development, the days when Sara and Bala gave moral support during tough times shows the nature of people present there, irrespective of the positions they were in.