Some old pics of Lucknow and Sepoy mutiny

I am passionate about Lucknow history and plan to re-narrate and re-interpret it in a book that I started 4 years ago and plan to complete in another 4 years. Enjoy a few of the pictures from my collection in http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2413659453543.2134861.1012989103&type=1&l=3664f2db40

Notes on the associated picture : This picture was taken by Felice Beato, an italian photographer, in 1858. Sikander Bagh (formerly Secundra Bagh), a summer house on eastern side of Lucknow which is almost at the heart of the city now, had been occupied by mutineers who began firing on Sir Colin Campbell's troops. it was a scene of intense fighting in Nov,1857. Following the action, the British dead were buried in a deep trench but the Indian corpses were left to rot. Later, the city had to be evacuated and was not recaptured until March 1858 and it was shortly afterwards that Beato probably took this photo. One contemporary commentator described it: "A few of their [rebel] bones and skulls are to be seen in front of the picture, but when I saw them every one was being regularly buried, so I presume the dogs dug them up." A British officer, Sir George Campbell, noted in his memoirs Beato's presence in Lucknow & stated that he probably had the bones uncovered to be photographed. However, William Howard Russell of  The Times recorded seeing many skeletons still lying around in April 1858.

The British opened fire on the solid brick wall of the building. Holes pounded in the wall turned into wide gaps. The slaughter inside was appalling, and before long the ground was covered with both the dead and dying Indian soldiers. This is perhaps the most notorious photograph associated with the entire struggle and shows the pavilion within the garden where, as Beato's own caption dispassionately recalls that, 2000 Indians were slaughtered. In the restaging of the interior view 4/5 months later, Beato not only positioned the horse and Indians, but, even more chillingly, arranged for disinterred bones to be scattered in foreground to create a constructed image of military triumph and celebration. This is the conic image of the aftermath of the Mutiny. By the time that Beato reached Lucknow, the corpses of the rebels had been deposited in mass graves, and were disinterred so that he could only arrange the bones in front of the ruined building. Look closely enough and the arrangement of bones seems to echo the triangular pediment of the neo-classical façade above. Broken bodies echoing broken buildings in a staging of history to be consumed in the capital of the victor: from the outset, a self-conscious esthetics of violence has informed the production of war photographs as both document and art. The most notable point is that the savagery on the rebels were perpetrated by the Pujab and Gorkha regiments under the command of the British officers. In fact, it were the loyalty (to the British !! sic) of those regiments which were one of the major reasons for the failure of the rebelion.

Beside the previous visits, I went to Lucknow in 2010 for some work at IIM and kept a couple of free days to go over the old city all over again. Secundrabagh is now almost like any other park, except the gate which is still standing and a small memorial erected that tarsely says this is the place where about 2000 rebel soldiers were killed in fighting. The beutiful building was razed to the ground by the British themselves, as they did most of the superb Kaizer-bagh area where the main King's palace was situated and the whole area was overloaded with many beutiful buildings. The other structures have also given away, only a few remnants of the massive pillars are there.

Survive from being a "Nowhere man" – the goal-less state

Have you ever stumbled upon your internal question of what is a real success ? Have you ever dithered over the fact as to why, some people are much more successful and happy and content over the others ? What it takes to be happy ? A high-flying job or a lot of money is not success as a whole, otherwise there wouldn’t have been so much anger and politics and discontent, stress, marital discord, disintegration of relationships, adultery and lack of loyalty, and so much of tension with the friends and relatives for the top executives and the rich people. It is the lack of balance in life, a lack of direction in life that creates these symptoms.

Probably the biggest trouble with the youngsters today is the lack of direction. With the materialistic trend, their needs are very high, their expectations are very high, but they are not sure what they really want or how they will get those or if at all. Eternally standing at the crossroads all the time is what makes them angry and confused, stubborn and blaming, bewildered and hopeless – even suicidal. IITs have the highest suicide rate among all institutions in the country. One of the reason is that for years they took IIT as the final destination, a state of have-all, and when they understand that it is only the beginning of another journey, they find it hard to take. Defining success is not a part of the things that the parents try to teach their children, leading to all the trouble and the internal dilemma and confrontations in their lives.

As our vision is often blurred, and the future uncertain, all the more we need to know ourselves – our hopes, dreams, wants, likes & dislikes – self-knowledge is the highest form of knowledge and is the most potent tool in one’s hands. And there-from comes up the goals and objectives of one – the destination of a human being. Goals give us a meaning and something to live for. It inspires us and help us move. Active people age quickly after they retire.

The pathetic fact is that parents are generally aware of goals, at least most educated parents have a vague idea of it but most do not recognize the power and the crucial nature of it. The result is a disaster more potent than the 9/11 blast because it tends to make the lives meaningless in a certain way. If you do not know what you want, whatever you achieve cannot make you really happy, because you are never sure that you wanted just that. Success needs goals first and goals last – there is no shortcut. Sounds strange – but life will always give you what you ask – but you must be serious in asking.

It is said that if you are going to “nowhere”, any road can take you there. Living without a goal is like boarding a train without knowing where it is going. This is fine for the bohemians without a care, temporarily, but is a sure recipe for disaster for all others. People without goals just tend to wander through life, in a perpetual search of what will make them happy and content. A survey concluded that about 4-9 effective years are wasted in one’s life in average, for a person without a proper goal, when he dithers and roams around options - directionless -rudderless – valueless. Another survey by Harvard found about 85% of the people never find a definite goal in life, of the rest, 70% get it after the age of 25 (when the options of running after that goal becomes very limited). The whole point of Goal-setting is to facilitate success. There is an inseparable link between goal setting and performance, in any area. A goal is like the grain of sand which exists at the center of every pearl, and about which the pearly material has gathered. It is the ‘big idea’ around which one’s Constructive Imagination builds, deposits and accumulates its wealth of material.

Parents spend lakhs of rupees on their schooling and coaching centers to ensure they get in somewhere – typical craze are Doctors, Engineers, MBAs – with thousands of low-grade Institutes springing up, it is awfully easy now – with the big companies giving up the idea of people and seeing them as mere resources who can clean the shits of US companies, getting a job is also easy. But then ? Then the question comes, now what ? What about their internal strength and value base ? About their life skills (soft skills training are common for interviews) and survival skills ? What about their relationship handling skill ? Their resilience or survival skills that can make them survive thro’ a tough time or handle a major failure or setback ?

Even in Management, the whole idea stands upon the concept of Objectives and goals – of a company or of individual divisions and the associated managers. Peter Drucker started the modern management principles by the idea of MBA, Management by objectives. But people, including MBAs learn the tool, not knowing even this basic perspective and that makes them incapable of having and applying the power of goals in their own lives. A survey among the MBAs found, 93% know it is good to have goals, but only 3% have written goals and only 1% review them regularly. I have myself often done a quick survey among the different batches in my classes at the Management Institutes, and found the result tallies. After 15 years in schools and colleges and of course - expensive coaching centers, they still are not aware of their true desires or how to make those wishes and ambitions concrete – with concrete SMART goals that can truly unlock the potential and that can spawn the 5 Ds, direction – dedication – determination – discipline – deadlines.

Goal-setting is not just a theory, it is a practical process that can be learnt, but then to be implemented by practice. There are steps and techniques of it, which one can learn to do it successfully. Goals must be taken in balance between the 6 spokes of life : Family – Financial / educational – Physical – Mental – Social – Spiritual that will ensure an even balance when that wheel will run. But the path cannot be taken until you know where do you want to go, and that is the most crucial thing for success. The most painful fact is that either you will have a goal, or you will have to ever run – to meet somebody else’s goal

Survive from the parental apathy

My wife was elated and sad when she came back from the parent orientation in our daughter’s school, that I couldn’t attend. It seems Brother Mac, the invited speaker, had given an excellent lecture about parenting adolescent children, especially girls. She was gag a about it and sad at the same time because most parents were always complaining about “wastage of time”, “he hasn’t married even and lecturing us on parenting” and “what is there in these gyans & boring lecturing “ etc. My wife went to the Principal to specially thank her for the event and the visibly sad Principal smiled, “you are telling it should have been for more time, see .. most parents have even left before it ended”. My wife smiled back “If you arranged a lecture of which coaching center will be the best for Joint entrance , they would have asked for the whole day”.

It is extremely difficult to handle own children, this is not only my personal experience but I have heard it from some top-class motivational speakers of the country and abroad, many of whom are my Gurus and have confided this in private. Even Dr. Stephen Covey, arguably the best Motivational trainer in the world, has described in book after book, how he had painfully fought for years to handle few of his own children to keep them in proper direction. Everyone needs training, everyone needs guidance from people who are experts in their fields, and the parent community need this the most, but neither they are bothered, nor we have any societal awareness about how this thing is the most required to improve the society itself, beside the country. Parents handling of the children often sways between the extremes and that tilts the balance, the crucial factor in developing a well-rounded individual

The strange apathy of most parents toward proper parenting is strange and in a way dangerous. These people often look at their children as investments, even when not, they think their duty is to ensure success of their children and they spend like anything and do all other work to keep their children at studies. The trouble is that we have schools for every conceivable subject under the sun, but not for parenting. They don’t understand that to make his son a successful man, he has to be successful and even more, a man !! Alas, we do not have schools for making a man (or woman) out of a pupil, we have them to make Doctors or Engineers or MBAs (let’s not talk about the quality), who are what, they themselves do not know but definitely not men or women, they are rather happy to be treated as “resource” by the companies, and the Companies are more than happy to be expected to do that.

The parents normally think their duties are finished when their children get a chance in the IITs or IIMs or any good Institute, or even the bogus MBA Institute that takes a lot of money, because it is then their responsibility to get them jobs. The result is often disastrous. Dr. Aniruddha Deb (a top Psychiatrist associated with MON in Koikhali, who was invited by IIT-KGP to work on their student suicide problem), told me “The day we set foot there, we heard there was a suicide in the morning. We worked on them for 6 months, there was 5 suicides and 7 unsuccessful attempts, beside we must have been able to counsel and bring back from the verge at least 30 guys. But the real problem lies with their parents, they never taught them anything except studies. They simply can’t handle a failure. All these guys who reach there, were the first boys in their class all their lives, and suddenly now, in a class of 40, someone has to be the 39th or even 40th This becomes unbearable for them.

Beside the question of training the children for handling disappointments or failures, we push them towards a blind competition with almost no value or moral base (nowadays, after the breakup of joint families and the added pressures and so called liberal society, the value base of most parents themselves have eroded to a strange extent), no life skills and even any slow training on how to handle relationships.

I often ask a question to people, you want your son to be this.., then what ? This “then what” part they do not know, for them the story ends there. They expect their children to be happy ever-after, as the fairytale stories end. The problem is that the real story of life starts from there. The trouble in handling the office and the work cultures and politics (some learn that from their families though), the marital discords, trouble in handling relationships, lack of life balance, drinking and allied problems, lack of loyalty or caring.. the list are endless. The happiness quotient often goes down, and even often with enough income level or wealth, they live in an unhappy state. This make the ties break.

Brother Mac gave a heart to heart talk about the experiences of his own life and also from the ones gathered in the last 40 years when he has been working with different schools. He said, most children, particularly from the affluent and rich families, are going haywire because they feel they are neglected by their parents who are living their own lives and basically give a damn about them, even while giving a lot of money as they thank that can compensate. Internally, these pupils are angry, unsecure, hopeless and basically give a damn.. as they feel they have to give that back to all other people in this world. Nowadays parents are treating their children as co-habitants and do not even communicate their love for their children, which is there for sure, he said, but are often not even apparent.

There the problem lies, at least partly. Parents expect that while we are paying so much money, schools should take care of all things, which is impossible in a way, as some basic values are always inculcated by the parents and the family and that cannot be avoided. Previously, there used to be a lot of people in a family in a joint environment, and the children didn't feel lonely or neglected by parents, there were so many people to give her the love, caring and company. Children, particularly the adolescents, go through a difficult period - with all the questions, doubts, insecurity, new knowledge, fast-changing world, sudden changes in their bodies which they don'y know how to handle, unreliable and problematic friendships, and their ideas getting smashed everyday. This is the time when they start getting out of the protections and start getting the first feel of the real world - this is often frightening and they need the love and caring the most. This is the time they get angry, careless, reckless and love-hungry. Parents should understand that money isn't everything, love is - almost.

Parents also have a strange attitude towards anything not directly related to their children's studies, or rather, their chance of scoring in the Joint Entrance exams. They simply shut their eyes to the question of a balanced development and the fact that the concentration, memory, values, direction everything can be sharpened, increasing the overall effectiveness manifold, by some simple training. Even when they are told, they think it is a waste of time or money or both, and do not also try to replace the effect by themselves. But parents cannot know everything and cannot give the training on certain aspects and for that, motivational and behavioral trainers are there. But usually the parents should and must put forth some basic values and morals without which no external training really work. Most importantly, the best training in this regard is to set examples by their own lives

The empire strikes back - It's our country stupid

The Government, under tremendous public pressure, had to gulp the CIVIL Society demand on corruption and Lokpal Bill Committee, with the obvious political motive of undermining it and sabotaging it and backstabbing it later once the scene cools down a bit.

Anybody knows what is an ATM Ministry ? It is a ministry where you can get money on demand. In west Bengal it was traditionally the PWD or irrigation department that could supply unlimited money on demand to the people in power. In Delhi it was the Telecom Ministry. I have heard this sobriquet in Delhi at least 5 years ago and found out this is a very common joke in the capital, where you must be extremely good and big to earn a name in corruption, as everybody and their uncle are involved in it in a big way. So, we can safely assume that everybody in the streets of our capital knew about what was going on except, well, our dear PM and his cronies and their Madam and whoever were associated with them, (excluding Raja, he being the only fall guy - and see he is being punished!!) and nobody else ever knew anything about it.

I am happy that at least we have a PM who is spared of the fingers towards the unending streams of corruption stories, some of unbelievable proportions, come tumbling out of the closet. But then if he didn’t know about what was going on under his very nose in the Telecom Ministry, where every Tom, Dick and Harry knew something was amiss, for years on till the CAG – Media and the honorable Supreme court fights it out with the Government and forces some action, The PM should resign for absolute naivette and irresponsibility and intelligence failure and callousness, if not complicity.

We, the people of India, are not interested in the lame stories of the constraints of a coalition Government that you have to be a party to a huge and desperate cover-up of a huge loot of the country – equal to probably 40 years of all Bank heists in the whole country. The bottom-line of the story is loud and clear Mr. PM and your cronies like Digvijay Singh – a man who is talking to much- that you did not even lift a finger in this matter till you were absolutely forced and exposed by a huge effort by the Civil society in different forms and the judicial activism. Even after that, there were a lot of attempts at the beginning to scuttle the whole matter till the topmost court got angry and took the matter in their hands. Instances galore and the Suresh Kalmadis and Dayanidhi Marans and so many other people get a free run for years and usually get away with it unless the media or the judiciary takes cognizance of the lone fights of a few people and stand behind them.

The bill to ensure a watchdog to sniff out corruption in high places and force down some accountability is cooling in the back storeroom in the parliament for probably 40 years and now when under pressure, those very guys are saying that they have the right of self-regulation and they will do it !!?? Self-discipline is a good thing but the natural justice demand that the accused (or his father) cannot sit as the Judge too. When PM is ultimately responsible for the running of the entire Government, the backroom puppeteer Madam notwithstanding, how can he be absolved of all responsibility and be outside the purviews of a watchdog body ?

I am no big fan of Anna Hazare or for that matter, of anybody. But I am a patriotic Indian and fully agree that it is the new independence struggle for the country and it is only the first step that we are fighting for now. The Government will use every maneuver and weapons at its disposal to somehow scuttle the fight, in the name of caste- religion-destabilizing forces-communalism-holier than thou-who are representatives-right of the elected people etc. etc. and do not fall for it. Wake up and rise, my brothers and sisters, fight for the country. It is our country, stupid.

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Survive from the medical risks

For very long, I see a general apathy of people towards any awareness of insurance as an area. Everybody knows a few agents and a few life insurance companies and sometimes, a few policies and whaow, they think they know all and are ready to fight on all issues. The most dangerous attitude is a blind eye they turn towards the non-life insurance, the most key and varied areas of insurance.

As one of the non-life fellows(of Insurance Institute of India) among a few hundred s available in the country, I have an idea about the unbelievable level of general ignorance about the non-life sector. A bit of awareness has been created in the last few years thro’ the relentless marketing of the private players, but that’s still a drop in the ocean. The car insurance is the most popular because of the strict regulatory requirement (though I have seen fools like a Godrej manager buying a new car and taking only the regulation 3rd party insurance and his car was stolen after 3 months), and the medical insurance is gaining grounds mostly because of the lesions learnt at every steps of life, there is still a long way to go.

In the evening, I came to know about an acquaintance that he had a medical insurance for the last 5/6 years, failed to pay in this February (thought he was a bit tight, he will do it after a couple of months) and had a bike accident in March and since then was in the hospitals and nursing homes for nearly a month, his hapless parents and relatives arranging the money thro’ selling whatever they had. This is not a stray case either, I know of other highly educated people having this strange apathy towards insurance, as if it is like another mutual fund investment, that I will pay when I will be much surplus. The basic concept of avoiding the crippling or fatal risks by insurance against it is lost by this very idea of putting it on a low-priority thread. This was an obvious failure of his agent too that he did not warn against the possible consequences, though sometimes people just don’t want to take gyans. I continuously see students who always want people to give very good jobs and even better salaries but are very reluctant to bring themselves to a level where they won’t have to ask or beg, they can command. They are also very reluctant to take gyans. I hope it is better for them to be screwed first to learn a few things, it feels like a folly to try to save them from that experience.

I always advise people to give the highest priority to Medical Insurance among all investments and expenses even, for the simple reason that a failure to make payment before the date will simply nullify a policy running for many years even and there is no concept (as in life policies) of revival. You have to make a new policy that will not take care of any condition you have contracted in the intervening years and will take them as pre-existing, means any expense on account of those will be excluded from payment from now on. Also I tell them (but who listens) to increase the amount every year (ask fro 20/25% and they will resist and give hardly 10%). It is the same reason that I ask them to increase the amount that the companies resist in doing so. They (and those stupid half-educated agents – that is 90% of the agents and 90% of them always have their selfish motives in their advices) will try to show that you already have got 5% as bonus for no claims. That must be countered as even if you have a bonus of say 45% for no claims for 9 years, that will simply get wiped out in the year of the first claim and you will be left with the original amount, which adjusted for inflation, will essentially be a small amount, in view of the unholy nexus among the unscrupulous nursing homes and the insurance cos. Also, a floater type of policies in case it is done on a family basis, can go a long way to cover any kind of special situation where an extremely high amount may be required for the operation or treatment.

When I used to work for the big MNCs, I was well covered from their side also, even in world-wide coverage of huge personal accident policies, but still at least 2/3 years before I actually left the industry, just when I first started toying with the idea, I made my own insurance side by side and since then I fight every year to increase the sum by at least 20% and finally accept no less than 10% - this is beside the No claims bonus, mind it.

Many people often call me up for advice in insurance matters and I try to help them upto my small knowledge. Many others, even including many of my close friends, do not, which also I welcome. It may be because they do not think of me of any value or anything else. Giving free advice is a very tiring business and I am happy. But when a misfortune strikes and I have to be at their side and share the grief, I get angry sometimes. If people hold me of no account, they should not ask me at the after-effects of the accidents, that could have avoided at the first place. Often the after-effects are the real accidents, not the events themselves.

Survive from being at the mercy of the interviewer

We all give interviews. Even a KG student gives interview in another school. There is nothing much to know in it and we all know all of it. Or is it ? How many of us know how to give good or top-class interviews? How many of us can rise from the gully cricket to the world cup levels? How many of us do have the confidence that we can crack ANY interview?

Instead of that ANY attitude, people generally depend on the MANY factor. It means one will go on giving interviews with the background music of “We shall overcome some day”. The problem with this thinking is twofold. The dream jobs don’t understand probability and have to be just earned, they are never given (unless you have an illustrious father) – the competition is too much and fierce. Cracking them are like being on the India World cup team and needs tremendous talent – attitude - training at the least with a pinch of luck. For those jobs, one usually go and have a look at some of the competitors – they often look like God and speak like the Satan – and shhhhhhhhh, goes the confidence.

At the other end, the lower category jobs can sometime be given to someone amateurish, but at the mercy of the interviewer and at a much lower salary and benefit level than one deserves. The logic is simple, these companies are not bothered about quality and look for basement bargains and if they think of you as a basement, they will bargain for you at the lowest price possible. But then, the celebration can begin – ohhhhhhhhhhh, I have got a jooob. Means, the one knows all about interviews, till he/she goes on fails the ones which are the really worth fighting for, or killing.

The lower end positions also speak for the perception one leaves and the respect one commands at the interview table and the responsibilities are matching. How does one feel cleaning shit for their company? I have seen a lot of people so unhappy but continue doing just that, even without any future prospects or strategic reasons. Some others, I have seen many again including few of my own ex-students, leaving those jobs (most of them from campus placements) in a few months and cooling their heels for sometime in the family couch in their papa’s hotel.

Forget about the greats, even the really good offers never come to anybody who cannot command respect, who cannot match the wit gun to gun at the interview table, who cannot play the mind-game that is an interview. We constantly give interviews all our lives, not only the formal ones to get a job, also for the job-change every few years (without which one neither rises at a good pace nor can get the value he deserves), for the promotions, for impressing the client, stumping the Boss of the Boss, bowl out the Boss himself at times. Opportunity comes in many faces and the interview basics must be made the second skin of one who really wants to be successful. Each one also has to be customized because based on the customized research you must project the “fit”. Campus interview is often the easiest of the ones because often the companies come mentally prepared to take a small percentage of whatever they get here, and also sometimes they come with under-the-table understandings. They need people and here they come for a bargain of what they know they can expect. In all other situations, in a country of 121 crores, you must show you are pretty different from the others to get a differential treatment, anytime anywhere. Beside differentiation, you need some innovation in handling situations, subtle ways of communication mostly non-verbal, some techniques of selective projection and some clear and palpable value proposition that will take his off stump. But for all these again, one probably need months of practice even after he is provided with all the tools and techniques, the directions and the guidance, the insights and the wisdoms. Everybody needs his own customized document for the strategy and the answers to handle different kind of situations. But memorizing them cannot be the solution, when there can be thousands of questions and it’s varieties. The answer lies in creating strategies for each category of questions that takes care of a genre of situational handling. It is ultimately himself who will go to the ground and play, not the coach or the captain or anyone else. For all this, one need the highest form of knowledge, that is self-knowledge. The final thing needed is professionalism, the urge to be extra-ordinary. The game is not for the amateurs.

To become different, to be in the big league, one needs preparation on a different level that matches the league. It is the numbers that gets one to the door, then it is everything else that sails him through the door. It is like a dynamic stage performance where you simply cannot think of all your dialogs at the stage and get the oscar. Training is only a small but necessary part of it, an outside support that provides the guidance and the direction, the real core still remains to be the dogged and focused pursuit of excellence that makes the differentiation. It sounds like sheer stupidity to think that no training is needed. Nobody knows much before they are taught a bit. Everybody can sing or dance, at the family functions or festivals, then why do some people learn it? Even the Champions do it beside all others. The all time great tennis players like Bjorg, Agassi, Nadal all roamed around with personal trainers. Even the greats among the greats like Tendulkar thanks Gary Kirsten when the evening ends, as if Kirsten can teach many new things to Tendulkar after he rules the game for 22 years. No, it is the direction and objective assessment that he still needs.

One trouble is that trainers often need to be trained. An area which is a mix of science, arts and black magic beside a pinch of strategy and a tablespoon of psychology applications – it is often hard to get a good trainer. Most of them have never been through the process themselves, rarely been through the actual process from either side of the table – and then take the help of the google window, download some presentations among the million (out of which 99% are most ordinary if not bogus) and a swish of the wand – they become soft skill trainers. Good soft look will help, low salary will help even more and the responsibility of the Institute ends there – “what more do you want ? We have even kept a full-time soft skills trainer for you!!”. I will suggest let them train the faculties and not the students, on a “who needs it more” basis. A good trainer on this side needs to understand clearly the view from the other side of the table. The industry point of view not only includes what it says but also what it really wants from the employees – and that needs some clear crystal-like thinking and insight. The lack of original thinking and the understanding of dealing strategy kills the possibility of the real values of these junks. No real outstanding trainer worth his/her salt (and the peeper if you please) will easily take up a job of doing it unless he/she is getting a real fancy package. The market is huge, the need is absolute and it is only the lack of confidence on himself or herself that pushes him /her to do it on a fixed set of people. Those dealing at the industry side are far more capable are averse at teaching others of how to beat them at their own games, they consider it suicidal.

If one does not want to learn, it shows a nice confidence on his capabilities and the eagerness to take responsibilities of his life in his own hands. The only bad thing is that practically that confidence flies out of the window by the time you say Hello at the table and then the moment of truth comes and there is only one option left, the obvious one, submit to the mercy of the interviewer

MBA_The placement purple

The only worry it seems, for the MBA students nowadays, is placements. While this is even true for the top 20 Institutes of the country, where the season is mostly of fun and joy but still students are bothered about the quality and magnitude of the offers, it is more stark reality for the rest where the question is “will I or won’t I” get a placement at all ?

B-schools are getting lower-quality and more-unscrupulous-business day by day. At the time of Admissions, they show 100% placements and once the eager (read “stupid”) unsuspecting students anxious to be accepted for admission in “M B A !!!” put their heads in the Guillotine, the institutes start playing games to put all kind of conditions to the students for placement eligibility – e.g. At least 75% attendance, at least 60% marks all over their career, active participation in the placement initiatives etc. Even the choice of the specialization (a well known Institute in Kolkata is pushing it’s students to take only Marketing) – you just fail one of these and bang goes the responsibility of the Institute for 30/40% of the students. The question of why the Institute at all accepted the student with less than 60% of marks in all exams, is not relevant – it’s their ground, you have paid the fees and are an orphan now.

The students who finally get any placement interview, go through rounds of selection and quite often a small percentage get the cut. The students are often of intrinsic low quality, with “you have money to pay, come to our MBA” kind of admissions nowadays. While many of them have the intelligence and good potential, the problem is in the attitude and training as they are averse to any idea of self-improvement. World is still rosy and they came to MBA to have fun!! Then, in most of the institute, they are not even suitably trained to take on the serious business of interviews – no proper soft skill training, forget about the life skills. “They cost money and once our revenue is assured, we will cut off all expenses” – say the Institutes. For show, sometimes they keep a soft skill trainer, who definitely needs to be trained first – because those people come cheap and good quality people demand good money. Faculties for the other subjects are nearly the same. Private institutes mostly take the low quality-lowest pay kind of people who will make the numbers for the AICTE regulation (beside showing everybody from the Librarian, Placement executives, Systems admin, accounts people, admin people etc. as faculties to make the mandatory minimum 1:15 ratio) and keeping a few dummy (long retired super-senior citizen- many of them are so old that they don’t and can’t come to teach even) professors of fancy Universities to show as the crocodile babies to the world that these people teach here – AICTE and the University officials will look the other way, many of them are rumored to be on under-the-table payrolls.

The hype that had been created by the media and been kept alive by the Institutes was primarily responsible for the ruckus. Even 15 year ago, there were only a few Institutes and only the very serious students used to aspire for the MBA. Nowadays, seats are much more than the demand and the Institutes are taking anybody who has the money to pay or are so mad that they are ready to sell off whatever they have to pay for the MBA education of their children. The hype is always about the 1-crore plus salaries of the IIM pass-outs. But nobody cares to see that the 1 cr+ is only for the top 1% students and the other real fancy salaries are only reserved for the IIMs and that too their top 5-10%. I know of many people coming out of the IIMs who commands salaries which, by no imagination of the mind, are fancy and are easy targets of these land mafia Institute owners who take them to boast to their students to turn the Institutes into “IIMs”. The biggest spends of the Institutes nowadays are on their admission adverts and a fraction of that are being spent on the faculties. Research ?? what is that ? Consulting !! God save me. The abysmal standards of the faculties ensure any serious faculty being hounded by some of his insecure or devilish colleagues, because he becomes threat to them – once the students get the taste of Biriyani they will be less inclined to accept the stale rice. And the Institute is also prompt to push him out because anybody worth his salt has his confidence and will ask for a good and proper compensation, and not the piece of shit thrown to him by the owner. Who requires quality ? Students will not pay any more!!

Students themselves are also not bothered to learn, they have paid money, so they must be given jobs – simple. And mind it, the job must be of specific type, high pay, low work pressure (they need to be in facebook half the time), no going out in the Sun, no sales, no targets, high prospects and yes, I like the corner cabin, Thank you. Only the aspirations never match the capability or attitude. But please do not try to teach us a lot, do not give us “gyans”, we hate it. We are there, so smart and handsome people, aren’t that enough for these jobs ? Are you blind ?

Companies do not care, they know the levels and play ball. They take the better people among these (in any class, even in IIMs, 5-10% are excellent, 30% are very good, 40% so-so and the rest are unspeakable) at very good rates and down the line they have the option of throwing out the worse ones. In fact, many business schools give money to the companies to take some of their students (the salary or most part of it are paid by the Institute - who cares to pay Rs. 50K when you are charging Rs.5.5 Lacs each student) and telling them that after 6 months you choose which ones you want to keep. This is a win-win situation for the Institute and the Company, so all smiles, click click. The banks do not need money also, they need volumes of people to sell their myriad financial schemes and credit cards, don’t bother about quality because they pay the plain graduates or undergraduates the same rates (and often the commission basis is more than the salary), and the result – in 2-6 months, 80-90% of the people recruited get mad enough to resign and cool their heels in their homes – unemployed or get head on in search of another job. Then they head for another Institute to get their 3-6 monthly meals. The attrition rates for these banks and Insurance companies tell the story.

Students also know these stories, the reputation travels fast, but because of the “day order” policy, they often have to sit for these interviews and once selected, their names are struck off the list, pushing them to the brink. Many of them have low Morales and confidence and try to avoid the possibility of looking for jobs on their own, unless their parents have nice connections. While the obvious downside is there, they often do not understand the long-term advantage of trying. Life is not a one-time affair. Even if you get the job from the campus the first time, all the next ones you have to fight it out in the marketplace. So, it is always better to practice the preparation from the beginning.

But nevertheless, the Institute put those big names in their ads, to say that we have given placements in those. We have no objections, because in any case, most of the names put are bogus and are lies. Even if a Company ever sent a regret letter to the proposal of a Campus interview, that name is included. Institutes usually use the company names who ever came to their campus for the students of any stream, and use that list for all streams, good or bad. Beside, the Institute advertises the 100% placement achieved in it’s Engineering side in the ad for the MBA admissions (In MBA, the figure was less than 40% last year). Fraud ? – that is the name of the game everywhere.

Under these scenarios, many students start searching for the jobs much before the placement starts and many of them succeeds too, again they mostly belong to the upper two categories and they often do not depend on the Institutes and take their required trainings outside. They know they cannot learn everything by themselves. Some more confident ones, even reject the unsuitable offers and go into the market by themselves. Even the research needs some training and perseverance and attitude, and many of them lack one or all of these.

Another issue is the post-joining survival. Nowadays most students are fresh as flowers and simply do not have the idea of the corporate jungle. After joining, they get sucked into the huge vortex of the internal politics and many of them succumb to it without an option and their life’s happiness is gone. It’s a slightly better scenario in very big or MNC organisations (but they take people from the top-level Institutes or take some students for the lower positions from others) but there the people slowly develop a confidence in themselves also that enable them to take on the jungle rules slowly. Some students get indirect training from their family slowly and get more matured than the others to deal with the outside world, the major portion do not.

Pray that the placements come and give the corner rooms.

Strategic Interview Techniques - Command your price

We won’t promise to give you a job; we will just make sure you can command your price for the rest of your life

BodhiTree Academy
announces

3 days workshop on Strategic Interview Techniques

Interview is a mindgame that one finally understands after years of trying, by then losing many dream opportunities. Failing in a dream interview could cost you crores in future income and opportunities. You must play the game at their ground, to their ground rules and still beat them at their own game. To be the Master of your life, Be the Master of the Game. There is a lot to learn, and the best way is to get the insights of the true-blue professionals, celebrated Masters of the Game. You can spend a decade to learn the ropes, or you can come to the Masters and learn them in days.

Do you think you can really answer a simple question like “Tell me about yourself”? Did you know an employer makes 80% of the hiring decision in the first 30-50 seconds?
It could be the 1% X-factor that can make you lose the lifetime opportunities

People miss the golden opportunities because they only hope and do not learn. They make amateurish attempts at the interviews and then hope they will be selected with a fantastic offer. For a fantastic dream to come true, you must be fantastic at the first place – in the game of interview.

To manage an interview successfully, nothing new or magical is to be added to your personality. Only you must pick up the right tools of the game and have the right strategy. Even the interviewers are human and they can be managed and maneuvered. Just learn the techniques, prepare yourself, and turn the so-so interviews into solid offers.

The workshop will help you to float with ease in the shark-infested waters of the common fears associated with the interviews. Learn to harness your fear into excitement, energy, and enthusiasm

Workshop objectives : The workshop will give you the winning confidence that will sail you through. It will teach you
 To make a killer CV that stands out
 To research the organization and align your strategy
 Strategic view of the real industry wants
 Strategies to create the rapport
 To dress and impress in the first 30 seconds
 To leverage your unique capabilities and traits - your skill treasures
 Strategies to sell yourself, with a clear value proposition
 To guide them to your comfort zones rather than be led to your weaknesses
 Strategies to defend with the Q statements
 To use the positive and action words
 Strategic view – from other side of the table
 Strategies for different types of questions and the real questions behind them
 Strategies for image projection as a person and not just as a candidate for filling a position.

MOCK INTERVIEW FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS BY EXPERTS / INDUSTRY HOTSHOTS

Who should attend : The workshop will be immensely valuable and beneficial for
 all students who are going into the job market
 those who have entered the job market in the last two years and will plan for better prospects
 who are trying for higher studies and will have to sit in the selection interviews

Workshop design and delivery : The workshop has been designed and will be conducted by thoroughly experienced professionals and experts in the field – HR specialists, Management professors, hotshot top-brass from world-class companies like TCS/ CTS/ IBM/ DVC/ ICL/Siemens/Idea/L&T etc.

Keynote speaker : Prof. Sudip Bhattacharya, BE, MBA, FIII, ACII(UK), DSS(IIM-C), MSMF
Prof. Bhattacharya is a strategist and trainer with decades of experience in consulting with large entities and MNCs. An accomplished computer engineer and management professional, he holds some of the highest honors for India and UK in Insurance practice area.
Trained in Strategic Management in IIM-C and IIM-L under legends like Prof. Ranjan Das and Prof. Krishna Kumar respectively beside others, he has been teaching Strategy in several top B-schools and is a Life Member of the prestigious Strategic Management Forum of India.
A Lateral thinking trainer and NLP Master, trained by some of the World’s Top Masters, he is also passionate about the people dimension of strategy and is a blogger on Life and Survival Strategies. His first book on Survival Strategies will be published in end-2011 by a famous international publishing house.

Program Director : Dr. Arundhati Ganguly, B.Com, MBA (Symbiosis), PhD
Dr. Ganguly has significant contribution in the world of HR consulting and practices for more than a decade. She presently does consulting and training with several large corporate houses and heads a high-end placement consultancy house.

Workshop Dates : Please contact BodhiTree for the next dates
Workshop Timing : 9.00 AM – 5.30 PM
Workshop Venue : BD-72, Salt lake City, Kolkata – 700064

Investment : Rs. 6,995/- only (per participant) + Tax (includes lunch, refreshment, materials etc.)
Contact BodhiTree for any special / Group discount currently in place

You have to make a decision of a lifetime NOW

Call – 94339-11055/ 9477202742
Or write to : bodhitreeacademy@yahoo.in / sudipsam67@yahoo.co.in

Survive from the life's simplest traps

All of us take stupid steps in life, sometimes not even giving a proper thought to the possible consequence. Remember Alice found a little bottle and tied round the neck of it was a paper label with “Drink me” printed on it? But wise little Alice did not do that in a hurry and checked whether it’s marked “poison” or not, because
“she had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them : such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that, if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’, it is almost sure to disagree with you, sooner or later.”

Being a die-hard fan of the “Mad” magazine, I have been waiting with bated breath for the 2010 “Freak” award. It has finally come and I am putting it for my friends verbatim. Enjoy

Eighth Place
In Detroit , a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

Seventh Place
A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran", accidentally jogged off a 100-foot high cliff on his daily run.

Sixth Place
While at the beach, Daniel Jones, 21, dug an 8 foot hole for protection from the wind and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom, when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach used their hands and shovels trying to get him out but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Fifth Place
Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed as he fell through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth to keep his hands free rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

Fourth Place
Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

Third Place
After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather & Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers also drew their guns and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics
identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt.

Jury mention
Paul Stiller, 47, and his wife Bonnie were bored just driving around at 2 A.M. So they lit a quarter stick of dynamite to toss out the window to see what would happen. Apparently they failed to notice that the window was closed.

Runner up
Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from a local bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more excited, and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge, they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. They secured one end around Bingham's leg and then tied the other to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. Bingham's foot was never located.

AND THE WINNER IS....
Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt ( Paderborn , Germany ) fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally got relief. Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded. The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock as the elephant continued to evacuate 200 pounds of dung on top of him. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves... 'Shit happens'