The con-mail and the fishy smell - The glittering diamonds of dumbness

A long mail with the title “Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Please do it - Microsoft Paying you - Not Fake” jerked me out of my unbreakable inner calm and rudely wakened me to a surprise revelation of the basic dumbness of even the so-called educated intelligent people. This is the dumbness that flows out of the fountainhead of greed that chunks out the basic logic and reasoning out of the people and makes them run towards even any remote hazy unjustified promise of easy money.

The basic mail says
“Dear Friends,
Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test..

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two week! s, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.”

There is no name of details of the sender or other details but there are some cut-out portions of some people (with no real contact details again except some hazy sketches of company names like Cognizant-TCS-Trident Hilton and a couple of designations like Front Office manager, no wonder, and dates like 15th August, 2005 -31st August, 2005 and 09/02/2005 and January 09, 2007). They have all said that they have got $10002 or $34271 or $9386 or $12545 or $30000 or $12121 etc.

Do I need to say more ? Since 19997, when I first got my internet access in office, I am seeing these kind of mails, usually sent by pranksters out to get a high or just with the good intent of jamming the network. Now the network is too big to be affected but the fun is still there (example are the mails with a picture of Jesus or Ganesh saying you should send it to so many people to get a lot of luck etc. and this and that will happen if you don’t send it etc. etc.). They sometimes play on your religiousness or emotion and sometimes with your greed. The result is that I am seeing many ids associated with the mail senders and many of the recipients are bulk ids (many also associated with the pharma co. raptakos). The height is that this has been forwarded to me by an ex-classmate of mine in IIM-C, a guy who used to do well in class, was good in strategy and was nicknamed “Professor” by us (naming credit to this poor guy). Don’t know if I should write to prof. Ranjan Das to strip him his diploma.

For quite some time I am after the question why and how do we act so dumb that we do not see the obvious? This is one of the case study. The next question is how many sympathy drinks can you get out of, "Well, this mail said I have own a big lottery and asked for my details and with login and password, so I gave it to them"? There's no epic story here, no melodrama, no classic twists and turns.

The con-men are everywhere, some of them are just pranksters, rest are con about whom I have recently written. In any case, the first step would always be to gain your confidence - the "con" in "con man" and to show you the sunrise of a few million dollars in the lottery you own. Some will brazenly ask for your personal details, the innocent ones at first and then the more private ones in a next step. Others will be more tacit and will politely ask if you are willing to accept the prize. They will try to gain your trust and even become your friend through an elaborate set of lies, set like a stepped garden and let you be in on the lifetime chance, something that your friends will beat you if you let it go by, Then finally, with flair and grace, they will turn the knife, rip the heart out and depart, with your money and your trust on mankind.

I repeat - You can cheat anyone, but con only a greedy man.

The lure of easy money - Survive from your own greed

For many yearsnow, I am getting the coveted mails - the ones informing me that I have own a lottery of XX millions of US dollars and whom should I send my so and so information to claim it. My 12 year old daughter saw one and demanded to know why I am not replying to it. I said whmmm.

Have you ever come across a person coming to your house wanting to sell a Gold chain at a throwaway price ? With a story that he came from another place and all his belongings are stolen and so he is trying to gather only the return fare by his last possession this chain and you can buy it at 1/10th the price ? One (otherwise very honest) gentleman I know even went to the extent of going to the local jewelers and tested it for purity before buying it (at double of what the man asked for, because by then he believed the story) and later found that even though he was alert, the man had replaced the gold chain by a steel goldplated one, priced at 1/50th of what he paid and is worthless.

As a principle, I never buy lottery tickets and never ever (except buying one of Rs. 5 long ago, pitying the vendor and throwing the ticket right afterwards) spent any money on the lotteries. I never subscribe to the free gifts of the products (for which you have to send the cutting or the label or sms or anything) or the sms campaigns. I always knew that nobody is there to give you anything for free and it is the conmen only who really understand the value of aggregation and devised all these schemes (and later passed on to the TV channels for devising the reality shows where they could get crores of sms-es at Rs.7 each and then manipulating the whole show so that contestants are from the regions where people will set up booths to do the sms-es in a frenzy so that their guy wins).

All my life, I have carried the view that I will try anything once. Generally I have tried to stick to that and till now failed only in a few areas (Having heroin – never could arrange one, going to a certain kind of women – never could manage the courage, doing bungee jumping – developed cold feet at the last moment in Blackpool pleasure beach many years before just before they tied the 100 mt long steel rope on my feet, going to the horse-races – but this I will definitely do some day, etc. ) . But certain areas are simply taboo. Buying lottery ticket for one. Gambling is another. I always fought the urge of the easy money and still do. It is the money with dignity that you can really enjoy. This is why I have brushed off any suggestion or proposal from different people from different quarters for taking an agency (??!!) of Amway or such other bubble kind of scheme, though I personally know some people doing it (and earning a lot if they went in early) and used some products (got them at 40% discount while they price it generally at 1000% markup scale) which were very good. What I always hated was the concept itself.

I did a project on the Ponzi bubble scheme variations for my Finance specialization and gathered enough knowledge to develop an ingrained hatred for the schemes, while gawking at the ingenuity of the variations spawned later and developing enough wisdom to stay away from all such kind of pyramidal bubbles that gives super profits to the schemers and their associates and sucks in all kind of greedy people, before breaking up like a pack of cards. The concept is that “A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from any actual profit earned. The Ponzi scheme usually offers returns that other investments cannot guarantee in order to entice new investors, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going”. Amway, though a slight variant and probably will not go away easily before it starts hurting too many people, is a good example of this scheme. One beautiful example of the scheme’s working is that : in 1979, a Chartered accountant (found out later) from Chennai came to Calcutta and took a room in a slum while he was looking for some small business opportunity. He was amiable and friendly with the slum people and gained their trust in a few months. Then he started a scheme that he will take a loan from anybody of Rs.10 every Friday and will give back Rs.12 the next Friday (but the upper limit of any one person lending was Rs. 100) provided the lender brings two more lenders of the same amount, otherwise he will get back Rs. 9 only. The return was nearly 90% monthly and people got interested. After a couple of months, the initial doubts and inhibitions also went away and every Friday there was a mad rush to give loans to him. After 5 months of running it, the guy disappeared, only to be found out in Chennai by a dogged journalist where the guy had bought a factory for Rs. 40 Lacs. At rough estimates, the guy had made about 70-90 Lacs in those 8 months he stayed out there. While nobody lost more than 100 rupees at a time and was not interested in going to the Police and get harassed.

For some of the best examples of the conmen, read “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldon where the protagonists, Tracy Whitney and Jeff Stevens shows the con trade in minute details. The main lessons are that “
1) You cannot con an honest person. It needs greed to be sucked into a con
2) But there is no dearth of people for them as most of the people are inherently greedy and is always on the lookout for easy money
3) The conmen are much smarter than the normal people, who, despite trying to be alert, can never stand a chance against a conman
4) Con depends on the innovations. But even the oldest ones like the sunken ship full of Gold, still works
5) Some people are inherently gullible and jump in any scheme that you set up, even selling the Tajmahal

Now, after I have spent so much time on you, best of luck on walking right into the next scheme you can find. Have an example of the mails I get (in the last one month, I received 23 mails).

From: pissa akaba
Subject: I NEED YOUR URGENT REPLY CONFIDENTIAL
To:
Date: Tuesday, 23 June, 2009, 12:55 AM
From Mr Pissa Akaba
Bill & Exchange Manager
Bank of Africa
Ougadougou Burkina Faso
W/Africa.
Dear Friend,
Pls i want you to read this letter very carefully and i must apologize for bringing this message into your mail box without any formal introduction due to the urgency and confidential of this issue and i know that this message will come to you as a surprise,

our customer a crude oil dealer MR.HUS BEN AN AMERICAN who was with the Iraqi oil industries and also an oil supplier to republic of Burkina Faso made a numbered fixed deposit for18 calendar months, with a value of Ten million United State Dollars(US$10m dollars) in our bank,

Upon maturity several notices was sent to him, even during the war which began in 2003. Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later find out that the oil dealer MR HUS BEN along with his wife and only daughter had been killed during the war in a bomb blast that hit their home. You can read more about the bombings on visiting these sites below: http://www.ccmep.org/usbombingwatch/2003.htm#3/19/03

After further investigation it was also discovered that MR.HUS BEN did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paperwork of his bank deposit,

And he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in our bank So I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of (US$10m dollars millions usd into your bank account within 7working banking days,

What bothers me most is that according to the laws of country A burkinabe cannot come out and claim this fund and I don't want the money to go into our Bank treasure as an abandoned fund,

So this is the reason why i contacted you so that our bank will release this money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer, Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interesting,

Upon the receipt of your reply and indication of your capability, i will give you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 35% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to handle this business with me while 55% will be for me and 10% for any expenses that may arise on the process,

And remember i don't want anyone here in our bank to know my involvement until you confirm this fund into your account and ask me to come over for the sharing as indicated, Then after i and my colleagues will visit your contry for disbursement acconding to the percentage indicated,

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as the next of kin of the deceased,
Please, dont entertain any atom of fear because the transaction is 100% risk free. Note that, to be relation with the deceased or not will not impose or prevent you to claim the money,

The fact is that whatever information we will present to the bank should be accurate. Rests assured that I will provide all the necessary information which the bank may require from you during the process to make sure everything goes well and fast.

Referring to the above explanations, await your urgent response,and fill those question below to enable us proceed this business
Your Full Name............................
Your Sex.................................
Your Country..............................
Your Marital Status......................
Your Age.............................
Your Occupation..........................
Your Personal Mobile Number....................
Your Personal Fax Number......................
To enable me locate you once i come over to your country immediately you confirm this US$10m dollars usd, into your nominated bank account, As soon as i receive your postive respond i will send you the text of application which you will use to apply in my bank as next of kin.

Thanks
Mr Pissa Akaba
B.O.A (Bank Of Africa)

A mentor - The Strategic necessity and why I became one

After all these months that people generally thought I am mad, I think the time has come to give an explanation of what I am doing and why. I have become a mentor, after leaving my job, my career and the positions that are quire a dream for most of the people. But the point is that I have done it after I have prepared myself for years on.

I’ve learnt most of the things I know the hard way on the streets of life, by trial and error in my endless personal search for a way of life. It was almost like being a steam engine, scooping up water as it runs. I also ran like that for decades, mostly to survive, in search of an identity, in other times to prove a point to myself or in pursuit of happiness, but sometimes with desire, mostly wild and not definite ones.

Now, after running with all I had for almost 20 years and achieving almost everything I could hope for, I know what I really lacked at the word GO. It was a mentor, a guide who would help to some basic facts of life – secrets which lay in the open yet very few people are aware of them or their importance for the success in all we try to do. Now I know that even while running with all the passions you have, you need a direction, a goal and a definite desire, not a mere one.

Let me go deeper on one point as an example. Talking about goal, have any of you have ever really given a deep thought about how do we decide? What kind of parameters we usually use or how dumb we normally act to take an all-important decision of life? I believe, 99% of the people take at least 95% of all their important decisions on the wrong notions and parameters and with an undue haste. Then they suffer patiently for years and decades as the fallouts of those hasty decisions they refused to delay for a few days to think.

I will give a few examples to make my point. I have seen a friend falling in love in 2 hours and then suffer in that relationship for 2 years. Another guy, a talented painter who wanted to go to the Art College, was pushed by his Businessman father to Commerce. Today, he is a CA, partner of a firm and spends most of his time painting. Another of my friends, a true music-lover, married a complete mismatch of a girl just because she was a Sangeet Prabhakar or something. As far as I know, in the 15 years of their marriage, she only shouted and never sang. Of course, she learned music for marriage, and now she is married.

Young people often try to set their dream career on a feeling of wild wish, say to be a Pilot as that seems the highest thing in the world, or according to parental wish, social respectability & probability of getting a plum job. Neither them nor their parents mostly care about their passion, flair & interest. Nowadays everybody wants to go into IT sector, where I have seen more than half of the people disillusioned, dissatisfied and remorseful but they go on toiling only for the money and for the lack of choice.

I spent most of my life to gather the pieces one by one, sucking up the experiences of a thousand people on the streets. I always learnt from mistakes, at huge costs. I understand now that a mentor could have given me much of these on a platter long ago and in a more structured way, and that too at a very little cost. It’s almost like an MBA from a top B-school being the Marketing manager at a salary of 10 Lacs at the age of 24 and another guy spending 20 years at the field to reach the Asst manager position at 42 at a salary of 6 lacs.

I have no regrets regarding my past. I do not have any more point to prove. I was born a fighter and I have fought well and valiantly, in spite of all odds. I have seen life from many angles and fronts and finally reached a level of contentment and enlightenment that has made my past irrelevant to me any more. It seems to me nowadays like a different birth or just looking at a different man. But now, I want to share my real life and enriched experiences with the next generations, the youngsters. For almost a decade, I am having this definite and strong desire to touch their lives and to transform them. Then at least they will not have to go through the hell that I have gone thro’, not live in the dark tunnels that felt like there was no light ever, not have to suffer the agony and pain that was my life at one time, like many other people, not have to sail without a proper hull or rations as the life will take them in line with the currents and the gales. But even as I decided to act on this definite desire, it took me nearly 8 years of hard work to be prepared., to reach the level of wisdom, to reach this level of control on my being, to reach this state of enlightenment where I have the power to touch someone’s life and transform it.

After I myself got a training somewhat on this line 8 years ago, this has been my passion and obsession. I have spent years studying, thinking, planning, writing, communicating, meditating, practicing, training and above all, being in complete contemplation under the BodhiTree, which is my own being. I have been in touch with many of the few Gurus who are there in the related fields in India, Sanjay Salooja, Shiv Khera, Shree Shree Ravishankar, Dr. Somesh Chaddha and also Richard Saldan in USA. I have trained under them, communicated with them and been blessed by their wisdom and powers. I did not care for the cost, in terms of more career opportunities, money, time or comfort, in search of this true wealth. But I was learning fast and my own attitude was being transformed. I became much more organized, energized, stable, clam, understanding, caring and balanced. I spent much lesser time with my family and friends but the relationships bloomed like they had received the necter. I had a new coat for an attitude and I had finally found the secrets of successful and beautiful relationships and needed very less but quality time with them.

After many hectic but fulfilling years, one morning, I woke up very early and saw the beautiful first light of the breaking dawn coming through the curtains and giving my room a mystic misty shade, I knew I am finally ready, at least to begin the journey. I have the light. I called up my friend Richard over at lunch and told him, he simply said “Yes, I had the same experience”. I resigned my very lucrative job, something that’s a final dream for too many people, and came back. Some people called me mad but I have little use of the opinion of those people who cannot even communicate with their own self that they will do it with my being.

I organized and stitched up a team of people who shared the passion and the desire to help the young people and had the brilliance to be able to do so. I was fortunate to find out experts as advisors in some key areas where I needed help and the areas where we needed more research. The uniqueness of the course was a challenge because nobody else conducts such a course. The few people who are the Gurus in this field, generally take up the seminars for the corporate people, who can pay the astronomical fees and the seminars were more tuned to polish up and fine-tune the middle and senior level employees, mostly by external motivators and techniques to improve their productivity, with the ultimate objective of indirect benefits to the Company. Those are the Personality Development and Soft Skills programs that work on the external characteristics rather than the internal basics of the people, the inner consciousness and the Value system that give rise to true success and happiness. I wanted to take a completely different view towards this all along, to take the deep-rooted value-based principle-centric approach of the older generations, professed by Napoleon Hill before the World war II and Dr. Stephen Covey in the recent decades, but that again had to be customized for the young people.

All these roadblocks had to be surpassed, but I knew I had to do that and so I did and here I am, today. I will not get back the beautiful years that I lost, and I do not need them now any more with the later enrichment, but I will ensure that the pain does not envelop anybody who will seek, who will submit and who will ask for my shelter.

Strategic resource view - Personal viewpoint

Many people have asked me in a titbit how somebody can handle a very bad situation. I have always answered “attack from another flank”. This is a favorite strategy for me all my life, even while driving in Kolkata, I deftly use the underused left flank of the bypass to overtake most of the cars.

But the strategy is deeper than it looks. Attacking from “another” flank is not easy, the first factor is the deeply ingrained beliefs and paradigms about oneself. If someone thinks he is only suitable for any job that someone will “give him” and then he will do it “somehow”, that he is not suitable for any bigger thing, then “attack” become a joke. The paradigm has to be changed first, which takes a lot of mental strength to begin with, and then takes some self-respect, self-worth and confidence, things that the average bengali parents fail to inculcate in their children – evident from the protectionist and patronizing attitude shown from the beginning. These children are also “taught” that the ultimate goal is to “get a job”, totally unlike the Marwari or Gujarati (and not all of them are rich, I must say) people who know from quite early ages that they will do their own business some day, even when many of them do well in the studies and become CAs or other professionals, these are stepping stones for them, a part of their strategy.

In my office and in many other places I have seen people working as office assistants and in other roles at a salary of 2/3 thousand rupees a month. I have watched some of them closely to find out that it is not the lack of intelligence, it is the lack of confidence, the mental strength to fight any piece of shit that is dished out to him. This is the reason why penniless Biharis and some oriyas come to Kolkata and open a paan shop somewhere and often earn many times of that amount. Initially there are some local Dada or police trouble which has to be handled by courage and some money, which is probably the only pre-requisite. These people will always ask “but where do I get the money?” as if money is the only constraint. Alas, they do not know how much those people selling water (& nimbu-water) in the esplanade area earn. In 1983, I and a close friend (has his own CA firm now) chatted with one for quite some time and later calculated that he earns (as per his estimates which we thought was conservative) a net of 3000 in season and about 1800 in off-season.

Bengali people are basically greedy and mostly look for easy money, something that will come from lottery or bribe or by middleman commission etc. and will not entail hard work. They love money but do not know how to give it the respect it deserves. So, any small businessman is “lower-class” in social terms but when he becomes rich, he becomes “established”, he is higher-class. I am obviously not talking about the minuscule upper class educated class who are well-to-do and learn to think big from the childhood itself.

Strategic management says that you have to consider the resource view, which is not necessarily money alone. I will take the competitive advantages like contacts, political connections, personal determination and proper planning regarding the location and type of the business etc. for resources too, even if it is a paan shop (some of them have strategic locations and they mint money). In the BD market, I am watching a guy for the last 6/8 years. He initially started selling chicken in a small pushcart. He was threatened and pushed around by the Bazaar authorities, on cue from the established chicken vendors of the market. He changed places often and looked for strategic places just outside the market boundary. Then the market became too competitive, he switched to this and that and settled for fruits and is doing fine since then. He never gave up and his wife is also involved in the shop. He has not got a shop till now, but he is established, I should say. His major competitors were finally tired of going after him and gave up a small market-share as out of their reach, which was enough for this guy.

Strategic resource view is fine, but the interpretation should consider the person-specific competitive advantages. Have courage, it can be your biggest resource.

Something about the state of Denmark – Tribute to another Gandhi

While trying to remain non-political, I watch all political events very closely as the environmental analysis is vital for survival strategy. Many people have asked me, an irritant actually, which party I vote for. I have a standard answer, “Opposition. Even if The Goat party was there, it would have been the same. To live in a democracy, you must always try to strengthen the opposition”. Freedom, I repeat, is the most important asset in a man’s life.

Any sane person in west Bengal will agree that for the health of the democracy and public interest, the Government should be changed at least once after a long long 32 years. Though I have a deep regard for the Chief Minister personally, in spite of his some arrogant remarks, I understand that he is not his party and definitely not the democracy which should be the supreme. With the arrogant anti-people Mafiosi style highly organized squeeze apparatus that is often run by the middle level leaders controlled at the top end, if the opposition was not fighting along against all odds, by this time we would have to get up in the morning and run to the queue in front of the “local committee” for permission to brush my teeth or to go to the loo.

It’s lovely that a single-point leadership-based and inconsistent Trinamool, which has some deep malady in it’s roots that they have started correcting of late, e.g. the lack of second line and presentable leaders and the lack of voice of all except Didi, whose guts and courage I revere, has own this round of election and has thrown off the Front in a disarray that will surely and eventually pave the way for a complete change. But Trinamool should as well understand that the votes were mostly negative rather than positive and if they try to run in the same demon alley, we will also fight that one day. Their political and unqualified backing of the hawkers and the “Kata tel”-run abusive hellish unlicensed autos are signs of the deeper maladies than is apparent from the politically correct lifestyle of our mercurial Didi. I am not sure that they have to vision or capability as of now to put the rail back in track in the most important areas of education, health, environment and industry.

In this “Oasis of peace”, where we the people have been caught between the devil and the deep sea, I have the deepest reverence for one person, our Governor Shri Gopal K Gandhi. In my experience of the last several years, he is the archetype of attitude that I have ever dreamt to inculcate in my students. Even if they can show a small fraction of it, my job will be considered well done. Gandhi, though the holder of a constitutional post and is as such bound by the protocols and codes of conducts, signifies all that is good, sacred and humane. He has defied protocol several times to open his mouth and protest, has shown remarkable statesmanship in breaking the political deadlocks, has shown the humane face of the state in gory and despicable situations which often forced the Government’s hand into more of restraint, and he has shown remarkable leadership and humility in all these uncertain times. He has avoided conflict and confrontation. He has remained silent against the despicable attacks on him when he has protested even more despicable events. He has waited for reasons to prevail.

He has a simple philosophy of life, it seems. He always looks for harmony, always look for situations that is a win win for everybody. It is the fire – the passion for human values that makes the difference in anything you actually do or want in life. My salute to him. I was never into hero-worshipping, but I am a Value and attitude coach and a strategist too. It’s a recurrent dream for me that one day, one day I will be able to meet the man, a combination of grace and elegance, sitting behind the constitutional wall, and shake hands.

Planning MBA ?? Explore, explore and RUN from the only A+ Institutes

I am seeing an ad of an MBA Institute EIILM in Star Ananda and also in the Print media for quite some time with the claim that they are the only A+ Institute in Kolkata.

I am not sure who gave the rating and how many pegs he had before that, but whenever someone will make a similar claim, do not go away, RUN away – otherwise, meet your own waterloo in the Waterloo street.

The Institute is controlled by a Marwari trust, a purportedly non-profit one but that’s a good laugh if you know how the tax avoidance is done on the huge profit they make. The Institute is on the first floor with very narrow and serpentine passages, small rooms and chambers and lots of students. Teachers are low quality as they were cheapest available and some are fake, just lending their names (and qualifications) for some money so that these people can show that this and this people are attached with us. Infrastructure – I have told enough and about the claims of placements – my advice is not to believe a word.

They have, for good business reasons, opened up another Institute, Bangalore School of Business, in Gokul Boral Street, a dingy lane near Hind Cinema. The connection with Bangalore is a painful understanding, it is just to gain some respectability by the city name. This one is supposed to be the Kolkata campus of the same. I had the good fortune of taking a few classes in the same, and when I was already habituated with lecturing in a real high class Institute like ICFAI. The experience was shocking, but thankfully I lasted only for a couple of days only as they presumed I would agree to the Durwan’s pay for the classes (many other people supposedly accept that) and I simply refused to lower my rates and walked away, feeling utterly relieved.

The Campus was a total of 1500 sft, with 2 classrooms and the miniscule rooms for the center manager, Faculty room (but they use only one greenhorn faculty as full-time, rest are all people whoever will accept the Durwan’s pay) and the accounts and placement officer, beside a Computer room cum library (a few books and 10 PCs placed with 6 inch gaps with each other on two sides of the same table). There were 51 students, sitting cramped in the classroom, after which there was very little place for me to stand and lecture. The AC used to be off while the Faculty (Me!) was not in the class, almost leading to the “Andhakup-Hatya-II). The students, who seemed eager, were mostly B.Com, BA or B.Scs, and would be held sub-standard for top Institutes. Their fees are 3.2 Lacs per annum i.e. a total of Rs.80 Lacs per batch per year. The cost for teaching alone is 15 subjects (of which 12 are taken by guest faculty) in 2 terms are about 2 + 3 + 2*36*500 = 7.16 Lacs (includes salary of the Center Manager who is a non-teacher but is made to teach Computers, soft skills etc.). I calculated their total running cost will be to the tune of hardly Rs. 16 Lacs a year.

Now get my point of the Non-profit nature ? They are non-profit purely cheating organizations. No materials are there nor provided (just one textbook for each subject!!), teachers are sub-standard, infrastructure non-existent, placement forget it (they are for the advertisements), diploma and degrees of low standards and recognition levels. They spend on advertisements, for getting the new “Murgis” (as my friend described it) using all types of false claims and utter lies. I have nothing against them because they did never torture me in the Non-AC rooms, rest were fine with me. But you should be warned. Not only this one, nearly 90% of all the Institutes which advertise a lot of things are of the same type. For example, The Annex School of Management or something in Salt Lake, is another ghastly story. I wanted to provide you with one example, but many other small institutes have mushroomed who are almost of the same level.

Alas, they still get a lot of students, for the people like – or rather love to be cheated, after paying the fees they start looking for information and not before that. If you want to survive, learn to explore anything or anyone whom you are going to pay a lot pf money and even more importantly, two crucial years of your life and the huge opportunity cost of letting go the real good Institutes you could have tried for.

Education sector is booming right now, at least in India, some of which are as replacement of the foreign university needs (e.g. ISB, Hyderabad) and the spirally competition is pushing people to the brink that they will even prefer to go near-bankrupt to give some education to their children that they think everybody else’s son or daughter is getting. This hype has led to the springing up of many sub-standard fake organisations and the effect is big marketing scam by the social net. We are being trapped and devoured in this mega-scam, in the people’s minds.