Misplaced trust?

One of my articles earlier this year said that trust is the currency of the future - that corporations who can command trust will be in a position of power.

Two things that happned last week, that made me rethink where I was placing trust in....

One was with my bank. I accidentially issued a cheque for 12k from my sister's account and the bank ACTUALLY cleared the damn cheque.......

It was an unbelievable error - really makes you wonder where you place trust :)

Cleaning up the past

Today I took up a rather brave task - cleaning up the attic....in the process I destroyed half of my personal history museum. Everything from letters to cards, gifts and keychains...everything that teenage is made up of....you know stuff you dont really wanna let go...

Hundreds of letters ;) ........ your own diaries and memorable trinkets you've collected from all over.....

I realised that it had been a memorable journey - these artifacts reminded me of so many forgotten adventures

And yet I realised that if it has been so memorable so far, there is no reason why the way ahead won't be so too....

And its also an attempt to get more present moment centric - when I destroy these artifacts, I literally disconnect from past memory traces....Not that I wont think of them ocassionally or cherish them, but just that I wont live in them...not brood in them

And the task was far tougher than I thought - almsot felt like a part of me going as I ripped each letter.......But at the end it did give me a feeling of being free....a sense of moving ahead.....and getting ready to create some new memories :))

A few good ideas...

I am basically an idea person - keep getting ideas and just cant help it! Here are some (about Mumbai) that people should think about

a. Any Mumbai railway platform is a asbestos roofing thing - There is so much of space above these platforms that if some dood of a builder can just pick up the contract to build on top of these stations, you'll have PRIME real estate - BANG ON THE STATION

b. The other was the mithi river -basically a literal nallah that flows across the city - again someone could just take the contract to channel all the dirty water into pipes to the sea, in return for the land that the river flows on - thats massive real estate just lying waste...

These thoughts come after I heard of the property prices for a new building in Borivali (just less than a 2 km from my place) - at a staggering 4200 bux a square foot - and think about a decent sized house and there - it costs you half a khokha!

Really makes you think how expensive it is getting to inch townside.....I'm happy with my Dahisar for now.....

Later I hope some of these wise builders will develop well connected to the city townships......you know with bunglows and stuff - I'll grab that piece :)

Real estate BTW is a great investment and a great business to be in - though with anything else - the entry barriers are high (especially the brushes with the underworld part of it)......whatever the case may be, for now these guys are having a ROCKING time :)

The 5 rupee something walk

The crawling traffic on Warden Road snarled at me and I decided to leave it alone, taking the 15 minute walk to Grant Road station.

En route I decided to try this unique experiment - called 5 rupee something. The rules were simple

1. Buy anything to eat which should necessarily be priced at Rs.5 or less
2. It should be something being tried for the first time
3. The whole process would be very spontenous and thought free - more like a shopping splurge....

My eyes first went to the Muchhad Panwalla stall - the guy had a website too! That fascination was enough for me to try a paan - the Kalwi, a sweet and rather tasty paan for five bucks....

As a chewed enjoying it, I marched ahead, wondering what would catch my eye next.......it was chana zor garam. It had been ages since I'd tried that spicy snack, and luckily the tiny packet was for five bucks. With fresh lemon squeezed, it was a spicy delight...

That left me wanting to have something to soothe it....i walked on ....fruits....some chocolate...nothing really appealing (remember the rule was that it has to be very instinctive)

So I pulled across in a good 'ol ganna juice shop and had an icy glass of juice, again five bux. Which was quite a relief.....

As I was walking out I could not resist the vadas .....picked a vada (at three bucks) and relished it going back to the spicy realm.

The original plan was to end it with the new Perk - I love it at 5 bux its any chocolate addict's regular shot...but chocolate miffins (@4 bucks) at the bakery caught my eye, and I hogged 'em......

By now I was quite full, and left with a feeling of having splured.....though the total bill was more like 22 bucks.....it was a great walk and before I knew it I reached the station :)

Sometimes there are simple things that can make a difference....and can be so very enjoyable :)

My ultimate addiction

There is something I got addicted to as a youngster ..... could not leave it for long. You know how an addiction is - it just gets over you, literally rules you....one drag and it feels so good!

For me that addiction, I realised today, is community work. Blue Ribbon (my youth NGO) restarted operations today with SMILE (Special Moments of Inspiration, Learning and Enjoyment). We took 25 odd economically underprivilged kids on a Mumbai Darshan (sight seeing tour) - the idea was to spend time with them. To interact with them. And to inspire them in the process.

I JUST LOVED IT!!!

It just brought out the best in me - talking to kids. There was this chap who absolutely refused to let a girl sit next to her! Reminded me of the time when I was 10-11 years old!

These kids were amazing - they could be happy at the tiniest thing. As a train passed under the flyover, the bus went into a roar! It was so much fun....

At the same time we had to be careful with a few things. Our attention had to be fairly divided. We decided to keep away from games that involved religious references (just to avoid any controversy, which in retrospect I think was more in our minds)

Screaming, singing, dancing - I said to myself, 'This is life'....and realised I had not said that to myself in a long long time....

Now how much ever people may rationalise saying my job helps people save their money or it helps people wear good clothes or so and so....ABSOULTELY NOTHING BEATS THE FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE. The sheer joy and satisfaction is an uncomparable high. I wouldn't feel as happy even if I bought the best car or a farmhouse or a bunglow.....I realise that the best joys in life are free..........and for now that jow is brewing and flowing out of my heart :)

Local train and lessons in corporate life

The local train, today, was deceptively similar to the "ride" in the corporate world.....or maybe it was my mind that was bringing out the similarities.....whatever the case may be, it left me thinking.....just as when you make a model of something much larger, and use it to explore what would happen, I used the trains to think about many issues.....

The first decision I had to take for my journey was WHICH train to take - one option would be the slowest and the most comfortable - Borivili slow train. Then would come the slightly more crowded and marginally faster, Borivali fast. And then would be the fastest and most crowded - the Virar. These are like different sectors - different types of jobs. The final destination could perhaps be a financial goal. A Virar train is like your consult investment banking job. Quite competitive (when you're about to climb on board of the Virar you know there are so many others!), quite crowded....and the fastest way to reach your goals. The Borivali fasts and slows could be like other career streams - you reach your destination and in a far comfortable manner, but it takes much longer. And you have to see many virar trains that started later than you overtake you.......

I decided to take the virar. (any reflection of the kind of choices I am going to make?) The crowded train is enough of a thrill - and the speed doesn't hurt either! I beat my co-passengers on the station to head for the doorway - almost like cracking placements to get the best job in these sectors....

The ride on the door is like that of a CEO - its filled with its ups and downs. Firstly there are perks that anybody would (quite literally) die for - full body ventilation, amazing view outside, no suffocation and no pressure as people climb on stations that come the other side. And yet the same position has its downsides as well - when there is a station right on the side that you're hanging out on, it is quite a struggle to stay on board. And then there are those few moments where you are about to fall off the train.....Someone like Pankaj seems to be living at this level, and enjoying every moment of it.

The second line, right behind the hang-outers is more peaceful. It doesnt have the risk of falling down. It doesnt face the crowds in times the station comes. Of course there is not enough ventilation (and once you're used to hanging out this seems too little) and lots of pushing....the trade offs are always there.....but for someone like my father, this is the most optimal combination to be (in fact in train too he prefers to travel at this position!)

There are people who are sitting comfortably - these are people who've had a head start....in real life similar to people who already have family businesses and wealthy or outstandingly intelligent backgrounds. For these guys, the ride is quite comforatble - and anyone would not mind switching places with them - but it should be remembered that these dudes had a headstart....

And as I finally get down at dahisar I see people right on the roof of the train - sitting and enjoying the breeze. And yet extremely risky and dangerous way to travel in my opionion. Someone like Vinod or Leslie are people who live life this way - totally doing what they love, and extremely meaninguful. But for someone like me it would give me the shivers!

Its interesting how its all there....and how for each train there will be all types of people.....some with a headstart....some prefering the thrill of the door and others prefering to stand just behind.....each with a different set of choices, and each with a different place he would think is the best (optimal ventilation-safety combination if you ask me!)

For now though the thought I'm left with is that switching trains too frequently is the slowest, most painful, and tough way to get to your destination......and for now I'm heading towards swithing my first train on the career track :)

How to become a millionnaire before 30 :)

Read something very interesting at quite an unlikely place....

I was reading "The hero myth and timeless mythical themes in the movie Matrix" - an extremely interesting look at how the Matrix merely reflects a standard path of stages that mythology across the world follows....

Anyways here was what I read

It was a study of 250 people who became millioniares by 30. The common things about them were

a. None of them wanted to make money
b. None of them made it on the stock markets
c. All of them loved what they did and excelled at it
d. Quite a few of them had a near-death experience!

Really interesting I'd say.....not that I dont know the basics but I guess near death experiences are the ones that really shake you up and make you LIVE this......

For now I am content being on the slow track to being a millioniare....but the post has surely got me thinking....

Why not so?

NLP (Neuro Linguisting Programming) rocks! It is a powerful technology of personal change that I would recommend to everyone.... I'm attending a 10 day workshop on the subject right now....getting a 10 day leave from work needs a lot of things. For one it needs an inner sense of responsiblity that your work will stay unaffected to whatever extent possible. It also needs a boss and a company that trusts you and lets you take that kind of a leave. And then you need something to do with the 10 days - a lot of people would go crazy figuring what to do with 10 free days! For others, it would probably be the first time in many months that they are doing that.....

But then I would love a job that lets me take time off - you know, work half the time. I ask my every-busy consultant friends, why are they so overworked? Why doesn't the company just hire a few more people! Of course easier said than done, they are apparently too expensive and so priced high (which also makes sure the client extracts the maximum value!)

But then with these IIM-type pay packets, I would really not mind a job that makes me work for 6 months and pays me half the annual salary, and gives me time off for the remaining six months to do as I wish. Write. Travel the world. Go fishing or camping or trekking. Whatever.

I know that sounds extremely silly and perhaps even romantic - but why not so? What would happen if the most talented people, say the cream at all the premier B Schools, simply refuse to take on anything but a six to ten months a year job? Would organisations, who compete for the sharpest minds also adjust to such a demand? Because I really think that the one dimensional analytical minds are not the best ones - the best minds are those that are constantly fed by new things and are infinitely curious......

If someone would offer me the deal, I'd take it without a second thought. Of course it would slow down my career considerably (but whose in da race man?) and might take me much longer to get good at the job.......but look at how much it will let me enjoy my life - every year and every month to the fullest. And who knows? I might just end up being even more prolific and productive at work too ;)

Is someone listening??

A new model for living

Debdutt Patnaik was a mythology expert I met at someone's birthday party. Having done a post grad in mythology, he was apparently quite an authority on Indian mythology - which was his passion. The next time he popped up was in some article, I guess in the Times which he had written. Then he was doing a lecture on 'Da Vinci Recoded : The mythological meaning of Da Vinci's symbolism' at NCPA

The n the other day at the airport I came across a book written by him - needless to say it was quite impressive.....seemed like the person I had met that day was one of India's leading historians, which was subsquently confirmed.

But what really got to me was what I discovered about him today. I got to know that Debdutt is not a full time mythologist. In fact, he has a normal day job with the Sanofi-Aventis group! And inspite of a nine hour a day job, he pens close to three thousand words a day - which makes him the prolific writer he is. Having published eight books, he's on his way to getting many more out!

Inspires me....so there are people after all, who are managing to negotiate the ultiamte question - doing what you love v/s doing what you get paid for. Becuase its very rare that what you love to do pays you enough to live a life that you want to......

Ditto feelings when I discovered Chetan Bhagat, of Five Point Someone was an I Banker at DB Singapore! I guess more and more of us will start to adopt this bread butter model - with basic money coming from a day job but the passion staying alive and kickin!

for me its very exiting simply because it gives me a new way to live - a new way to think about fulfilling my dreams.....

The latest worry

Raising expenses....increasing waistlines....decreasing hairlines.....meaningless lives.....junta finds a lot of things to worry about.

But my latest concern is that I call the increasing 'dream-do' gap.

The dream-do gap, simply defined is the ease with with you can fulfil what you set out to do. Its the gap between the dream that you have and

seeing it (or any progress towards it) in reality.

I remember a time when for me, almost nothing was impossible. We dreamt of a huge interschool fest - and we did it. We thought of an NGO

membership of 100+ and we did it. I dreamt of learning to swim - and did it.

However recently, this gap is increasing.....I mean there are things that I want to do but cant get down to doing them. The gap is increasing. My

promises to myself are going unfulfilled. And I need to do something about it.

So my typical self help POA will be to get started on some amount of meditation (quiet mind is a fertile ground for releasing your desires), some

actionable goal setting (and immediate rewards attached to that) and most importantly trying to keep the promises that I make to myself....I

guess its these small battles that will help me bridge that gap again.....

The changing face of celebdom

Two interesting things happened in the last few days......on one side, courtesy IIPM, IBM, JAM and ArinDAM, blogsphere had its new celebrity. Gaurav Sabnis was on every second blog that I visited, on forwarded emails and Yahoo Chats.....everywhere! More on Gaurav's choice in another post.....but all Gaurav did was an act in line with his principles - something that none of the mainstream media covered (until recently). And yet, the info spread like a wildfire on the blogsphere. From internal bullentin boards and posts, I am sure the discussion would have percolated to a lot of other places....

The other was my friend Dhaval Bathia making it to the front page of Education Times. Dhaval is a young prodigy - having trained 30,000 people in Vedic Maths and authored 2 books, he's 22. Dhaval inspired my first book, The Portrait of a Super Student. I was quite excited to see him appear there - and obviously assuming that others in my family would have seen it, I brought up the topic. To my utter surprise, my entire family had missed it.

Come to think of it they really had no reason to catch it - 100 pages of Times hit our home day after day. Education times comes twice a week. And there is so much of an information overload that there is really little that you can be sure will be read.

Which makes me think about how this whole thing is changing. Imagine a huge rally with just one stage - a leader with a powerful loudspeaker. You have no choice but to listen to that leader. However boring he may be. After all, he has the mic. This is pretty much like your DD era - just one channel - one group of people with the power to broadcast, and for the rest of us to bear the agony. I belive that Indian television reached its all time high viewership at the time of Mahabharat - why even the streets used to be deserted!

Slowly, other people in the rally start putting up stages of their own, and begin to get their loud speakers. Now as a listener you have a choice of whom to listen to. People naturally flock to the most interesting speaker. The power to speak - to broadcast is slowly getting democratized. And what is being talked is getting interesting. Noise levels too are rising. That's similar to your cable TV zamana. Channels are popping up and the most interesting ones are winning - viewership is diffused.

Eventually where this is heading though is interesting. Imagine now, in the rally, that anybody and everybody who wants to speak has a loudspeaker. The rally turns into a mini fish market. Everyone always has an intrinsic urge to say something - and now with a loudspeaker in each persons hand, its getting crazier by the day! Blogging is perhaps the start of a stage similar to this - a stage in when we would be able to literally broadcast our own stuff to the world. Not only with text but everything - audio, video and the works. It'll be a crazy world where everyone is talking, and listening only to those who are very interesting.

Imagine what would this do to the media as a whole. Advertising that depends on eyeballs and attention would obviously shift. From niche channels to super niche - forget about having just a family comedy channel. I could be broadcasting videos or programmes about my trekking experiences - for the trekking community. Or a nostalgic video for IIM Class of 2005. Downloadable on demand.

The first group of those who reach and hijack this sphere are going to become immensely powerful. Or atleast central to this revolution. Someday, I believe, Rashmi's blog will be read more than JAM. It wont cost her anything to publish. And possibly it will have advertising revenues too. Companies like Google see this already, and are in the process of ENABLING it - trying to help people broadcast, and grow in the process. 80,000 new blogs a day. The pace is simply scorching! And its happening as you read this - in the time you'd have read this, another 150 odd blogs would have started!

What does that mean for celebdom? I believe that becoming a celeb is going to become both easier and more difficult at the same time. For someone like Gaurav who took a once-in-a-lifetime decision, he was an instant celeb. In the blogsphere, he would have instant recognition for what he did. And he didn't spend a dime on PR or publicity.

And yet on the other hand the next time Dhaval appears in Education Times, I fear even fewer people are going to notice it. Simply because the rate at which information is going to be thrown at people is bound to increase. And attention spans are bound to fall. Which would possibly also mean that celebdom would be very very polarised. You would have a handful of really famous celebs - essentially in fields that have a cross appeal like films, politics or sports. And loads of field celebs known to junta connected to that field.

Of course all this might take years and years to happen - Gaurav is pretty much one of the first net celebs we have. And this network is still far far smaller given the sheer size of India. And we're talking about an India where people havent opened their first email accounts yet, forget blogging. They're still waiting for uninterrupted power, pure water and food. Till then we still have hope for the wannabe Page 3 celebs and Medianet type PR agencies!

Literally disco dandiya!

Navratri is almost like the desi version of a rock concert for junta around - you get to put your hair down and dance. Its a lot of fun and I've enjoyed watching cute chicks and some really great dudes dance the garba......

But this mandal at Anand Nagar (at Dahisar, Mumbai) took this too literally - turning what was perhaps the best dandiya-garba night around into a discotheque! The sight gave me a funny feeling - kind of a mix of amusement-disgust-surprise combo. You know its like seeing some traditional godess you worship suddenly appear in a jeans and a body hugging top.....she's still the godess, but its just not the same you know....thats the closest I can come to describing how it felt I guess....

I dont want to really pass a moral judgement on this one - all I can say is that our area desperately needs a disc, and that could be another business opportunity knockin away :)

The BIG "E" - Life as an entrepreneur

Here's something I posted on the IIM B internal board, where junta from our batch has been posting their job experiences....

The big "E" - Life as an entrepreneur

Take the most challenging job, the one that you think is the most thrilling and adventurous. Multiply its 'thrill' factor ten fold. Add oodles of uncertainity, a high stake pay off and the sheer joy and pleasure of working for something you love, and something you believe in - and there you have entreprenurship.

This is Abhishek Thakore, Class of 2005. Summers at DB Singapore.

Since I started putting total night outs 8 months ago on my venture, I haven't been a particularly successful entrepreneur yet. In fact I've screwed up at a lot of places! So while these views might be coloured by my own experience, these have also been shaped by many other ground realities and eco-checks....

So disclaimers apart, lets head straight in!

I'd say entrepreneurship has a glamour quotient that goes far higher than the hottest day 0 jobs on campus - I say this because somehow if you're from an IIM and trying to start something off, you're going to be in the roving eye of the press. Which means a lot of footage. Which means drunk dancers coming on L2 and getting senti about how they too would love to chase their dreams 'someday'. Which means profs giving long sessions on why not to take the leap. Which means a lot of people curious to find out whats up with you. Which means having to explain to a lot of people why its not taking off as you planned it to. Which means a lot of expectations.

I'll split dhandha into 2 types - one is where you have a family owned business running, and the other, where you startup. I dont know much about the former. But chances are that your dad is unlikely to be in something like nanotechnology or new age schools. From what I have seen family startups tend to be the not-so-attractive places - from building industrial dynamites to distributing liquor to jewellery stores. The typical MBA itch means most people would not want to get back to the business right away. Personally me thinks that
a. Having your family dhandha for one, means you can avoid a lot of dirty work involved in the startup stage
b. A one year crash course from your dad will teach you much more about the business than any MBA funda
c. Beyond that you have an amazing scope to grow and expand your business - using what's been learnt, and play it really big.

Coming back to those of us who want to start out. I think the earlier someone decides to venture, the better it is - I for one decided to opt out quite late, and lost out on a lot of campus time that could be used to build more rigour, more research into the idea. It also lets your team get in sync - we started as a team of 3 - another MBA from NMIMS and a CA.



Our basic idea was human technology distribution - there are ways and learnable skills by which human performance can be optimised. While these are available at corporate levels, providing these to students would help improve their overall effectiveness. These 'soft skills' have been largely ignored by traditional schooling and parents too feel this need. School never basically taught us to handle our relationships, manage our money, cope up with peer pressure or dealing with failure. So why not DISTRUBUTE this technology - value essentially lay in the distribution, since content is freely available all around in public domain.

We started out with summer camps as a distribution format - camps market in Mumbai is small and unorganised. The camps did decently well. Though far below expectations, the sheer joy of doing something we loved (and having so much fun doing it) sustained us. Then a few things simultenously crashed. The cash cow of our business was a coaching class we had been running since 5 years in partnership. Its expansion completely bombed and we had to close 2 locactions where we expanded into (for the lack of 'holding capacity'). Other formats - institutional selling, public seminars, week long courses - all bombed. In parallel, families of my team mates really started getting onto them, and we decided it would make sense for me to continue solo. I ventured into corporate training, working with an established trainer (corporate training being very company-personal brand driven) and currently am exploring that side of the business which can serve as a future cash cow. (While this may seem like a single para what it summarises is a mix of a few months of total fight, near-depression, multiple approach modifications and nightmarish failures....)

What does it take to start out by yourself? A 'keeda' to do something (compelling enough to make you forget opportunity cost calculations), a family that really really supports you, a strong team, decent money that will let you stay in the business for atleast a few years, a rigourously researched idea, the passion to go on after failing back-to-back, some past experience in starting out things, a firm grasp on the industry, an ability to execute and do 'dogwork' (right from paying phone bills to daily sweeping of office, haggling with carpenter to trying to recover stuck money back), a support system of contacts (its really WHO you know that makes a world of difference in this one and mentors are the real saviours)....and a deferred placement option, just in case you blow it up ;)

What you learn? I can't really compare but I can say the experience has taught me the life on the street. Its a funny world where cash is king. Being able to sell (and without a system around you), and most importantly its a great exercise in getting a reality check on your abilities. A job is like the typical mom. Your mom might get angry. Not talk to you or hit out at you. But at the end of the day you have a meal on the table at dinner time. A business on the other hand is like dad. There are no mercies. Whether you're screwing it up or doing great - the bottomline shows you then and there,right in your face. And its not funny when your team has a combined opportunity cost of 5000 bux a day and you make that much in a month, without knowing how things are going. So you learn to manage yourself, your emotions, your fears and more....other challenges seem surprisingly easier in retrospect!

How does it pay? Like the typical risk-return profiles, pay-offs tend to be exponential (for the enterprises that survive) and you dont know when the tipping point will hit. Typically struggling for years in an industry can give the dumbest people great insights. And interestingly the people I met in the world of entreprenurship were nowhere as smart as junta back on campus. Which is why perhaps, they were there,and they had made it! Yeah after a while if you're not doing too well, it can get to you - and the real big kill I guess for any entrepreneur is when he takes his company public!

Unlimited work hours and you dont complain. Funnily though the discipline to work from home is something that came as a challenge initially. There are also a lot of tough calls to take - which businesses to continue to focus on, whether to supplement your earnings through part time work (there was a month where each one of us made our 40k teaching CAT!). Clarity of thought helps a lot, especially in planning ahead too.

Starting a business is no big deal really. Any one of us could start say a CAT coaching class or a recruitment service, and perhaps make more money 5 years ahead. The deal is strating something that you can take to a scale you dream of - thats where the game is ;) For example, as a speaker I keep myself well occupied doing stuff all over the place and it is decent money and fun work. But there is no BUSINESS MODEL in that - its more like an Anand Kasturi kind of self employed. Eventually as I got busy doing that, I realised that this was not what I wanted. Again there are loads of 'intraprenurial' options - kind that let you do what you want FOR a company in a similar industry, for a share of the pie of what you do. But just not the same thing.

Finally the most challenging thing I've found is taking a call of when to stay and when to quit. While on one end is the self help paradigm of 'dont-give-up' and the romantic notion of continuing the struggle, on the other end is your family waiting for your first decent pay check and a bunchful of mentors asking you to stop for now. These are tough calls - because they're painful either ways.

For now having looked at both retail and corporate training I plan to get back to a job for a while (being thrown out of my home doesnt look too good an option!) . Its cost me a year trying this out, and I've not really tried to think how it would affect my 'career' prospects. Becasue over all it has made me a much stronger person. And someone who will not regret having tried. And statistically, the average entrepreneur fails 3.8 times. With just one screw up - I guess I've a long way to go :)
Its a bug that never dies :)


Final verdict :

If you've an idea or passion you're willing to bet your money on, I see no reason why you shouldn't take the leap right after campus. You've an option to defer your placement, a support network on campus and there's no better way to learn and test yourself than to really do it. On the other hand if you've reserved your 'dhandha' plans for later in life, know that quitting your job might just get more challanging as you get used to a lifestyle, have a family and grow older.....


For PGP2005:

Fellow buggers, I know a lot of us have plans of starting out. Whenever you do, make sure you pop in a mail. Apart from free initial startup phase consultancy, I'm always game for another ride!

The new mutiny on the Blogsphere

A modern mutiny

First there were full page ads from IIPM flashing a smiling Arindam Chaudhri. Then ads for his Rs. 40,000 -3 hour workshops. Which finally gave way to the more aggressive 'DARE TO THINK BEYOND THE IIMs' kind of ads. They apparently seemed to be working because IIPM expanded to 7 campuses and made even more ridiculous claims. Some ignored, while many others perhaps enrolled in Chaidhuri's fraud Indian dream.

Many such full page ads and self proclaimed economic theories, rankings and awards later, JAM did a full pager on IIPM. Frail defences failed to work. Meanwhile, Gaurav Sabnis, a regular Jammer and a vetran blogger linked his blog to the article. A frustrated IIPM sent him legal notices, which made even funnier stuff for Gaurav's blog.

Events cascaded to a really serious level when IIPM apparently threatened IBM that Gaurav (who was with IBM) was posting unpleasant stuff on his blog. If that would continue, the threat went, IIPM students would 'burn their laptops'. Sensing needless threat to his company, Sabnis resigned from IBM, standing for his own principles. The huge movement of mails and messages that rocked the blogsphere made him nothing short of a modern day Mangal Pandey - someone who sacrificed his career for his principles.

It had interesting similarities to the 1857 mutiny. On one end, like the British, was IIPM. With loads of money and mainstream media support. And a PR-marketing savvy wannabe new age guru to head it. There was brewing discontent. And then Rashmi's article was a spark. Gaurav, to me then fit in as the perfect matyr of this episode - with his career on sacrifice.

The 1857 mutiny we all know failed. The British won it. This one though might just be different. I would bet on IIPM eventually going down. And the reasons are the new rules of the game, which 'Prof. Chaudhuri' somewhere forgot.....in the analysis of this episode, some fascinating trends about our new world emerge as well.....

It all started with JAM. Its intent might seem extremely tehelka-like, but was a bit different. Tehelka has to expose plots to sell. JAM on the other hand wanted to make its readers aware. Its one of those magazines that shares a bond of trust with its 30,000 odd young readers all over the country. And so after waiting for a while for the mainstream media to take on the insti, JAM decided to do the honors. Now as a mag thats so young, and lead by an editor who is an IIM A pass out herself, JAM enjoys levels of trust that are rare to find in a media infested world. And perhaps that was the reason why it felt compelled to bring out the IIPM story in the open.

Gaurav is a regular on the cyberscene - his blog recently reached 2 lakh hits. In cyber world you're connected. As time passes, there are networks of people who link blogs to each other, forming huge webs where information can travel at unbelievable speed. While it cost AC some 5.5 crores for his print campaign of IIPM, it did not cost Gaurav a dime to post his thoughts on his blog. And while it was just the newspaper screaming at the reader in the case of the ad, in Gaurav's case, it was an entire network of people. People connecting to each other, and passing the word. Literally making each blog a mini publication, with its own readership base, and ability to influence other blogs. Sooner or later, the sheer numbers of the virus like message spreading on the web would out-grow the number of people who'd be influenced by the TOI ads.

But good 'ol Arindam was not to give up so easily - he took the battle to the blogsphere with his kiddos posting the greatness of IIPM on their blogs. Now it doesnt take much to figure that a blog that started yesterday, has one post and no links doesnt carry much crediblity. A blog is not about views alone. Its about the relationships - an entire ecosystem that cant be copied overnight. You cant have hundreds of other bloggers link to you overnight. Nor can you 'buy out' entire chains of blogs to carry your message. These desperate posts only added to the amusement of the blog community which was by now generating momentum in its support for Gaurav.

I recieved a mail in my mailbox - a forward that argued for the case of Gaurav and that his sacrifice should not be in vain. How much would it cost me, I wondered, to forward this mail to my 300 odd contacts? And even if 1 percent of them - JUST 3 do that to their contact lists, we'd literally have thousands of emails going all over the place - much much more than what AC could possibly ever control.

Just goes on to show how trust is shifting from mainstream media to democratic people-owned media. Blogs written by people like us. Just like with the printing press, the Bible reached the masses, with blogging, today, anyone can write his or her own Bible (literally) and have others read it too!

Will the message will reach the people who are really misguided enough to decide based on misleading press ads? Will the rich dads who pay fat fees for fraud instis ever surf these blogs or get dazzled by Chaudhuri's glittering psuedo smile? Will someone from the IIM gang ever stand up to the blatant misuse of the names of the intitute for cheap DARE-TO-THINK-BEYOND-IIM publicity stunts? Does this also show how desperate people are, to get a management degree - that they'd turn a blind eye and go gaga over anything that promises them 'placement'? Or does it show that wannabe gurus may have long pony tails and even longer theories but they cant outdo or outthing mass networks of connected people? Lets leave these questions for another post.....for now it seems that the time for the digital uprising has arrived!

The experience of falling ill

Surviving a terrible cold and the aftermath (read: bodyache and fecer) is a real test. It is a test of faith, especially if you're one of those who believe in natural healing.

I believe that the body is the best chemical factory ever - produces just what is needed to heal the disease, and in right quantities. It does not have an agenda to sell-more-medicine like the thousands of medical reps doing rounds of doctors or prescribe-more-and-get-goodies kind of doctors. I tend to trust my body and its healing power a little more.....

The downside of course is the pain and the temptation to immediately pop a few pills and mask it....but then thats really not the whole deal....

And almost like a conspiracy, either ways - whether you pop pills or heal naturally, you tend to increasingly live that way. If you let your body heal itself, its capacity to heal improves. On the other hand if you're popping pills, thats going to become your way to survive...

And of course there is the thin line between - knowing when to take medical help.......

The other good thing I did was to do nothing - and guilt free holidaying. Its so tempting to fill the day with SOMETHING - atleast something - maybe write something, catch up on a book or do something pending - I'm at home after all.....I realise that this cultural conditioning of do-something has also gotten to me - so yesterday not only did I take pure rest and do nothing, but enjoyed it too!

Finally I was wondering why was I so sneezy....and I guess its a combo of the climate and me putting my body to too much work by eating a lot of sweets and great food ;)

A day of eating right, resting right and giving my body its time to recover....thats all it took....and I'm back! :)

Identities that limit

I am always amused and curious about how our identities get shaped, and then become the limiting factor in the actions that we take.....

For me one such identity that I constantly try and battle with is the one I hold in my building....

Now Sonakiran is like one nice society - good people and all....and yet I just cant get myself to connect to them....not that I have to, but somehow what stops me is the fact that I've never really been there.....

And slowly then you start defining yourself through your actions....like if I am not talking to the people in my building I guess I'm an introvert or maybe too snobbish - but hey I am not!! I mean I could help so many people in my building in many ways....

That apart its Navratri.....and I love to dance - but I just cant get down to dirty dancing in my building.....

Its an identity thats limiting me....anyways one of the things I seek to accomplish this month is to do something that is totally in the discomfort zone - something that I am extremely uncomfortable doing....and this just might be it :)

A new beginning

I restart blogging again :)

Dont know how long will this stint last....hope it does....

I hope to share my personal issues as I travel the path of increasing my self awareness, stretching my limits and generally living life.....

One reason I am blogging is becuase I wanna share - wanna share my thoughts with others....hoping to get their perspectives, or perhaps approval too....

The other is perhaps its the cool thing to do - hey do you blog? yeah of course! Dont tell me you dont have a blog!!!

Yeah I would not really like to admit it but I guess a part of the reason is the coolness factor associated with blogging - its just kool to have a blog.....

Wonder how many other things I do just becuase they are 'cool' to do....I'm a wannabe ;) Always was one :D