Tea boys in India
Tea boys are a common figure in India. Young boys working at a road side hotel and distributing tea to shops and businesses nearby. This phenomenon is so ingrained in the society that no one even cares about the illegality of it. They are under the legal work age.
There are a few reasonings I have heard in support of the tea boy’s being employed. First is that it is a reasonable safe job for the poor kids which at least provide them two square meals. In a society devoid of foster home culture and without working orphanages, these young boys have to provide food for themselves. Most of them are abandoned kids or runaway kids. Instead of working in factories under slave conditions, its better to work out in open.
Another reasoning is for the kids who have to support their families from the very childhood. Either a drunk father or dead parents and number of kid brother and sister. What else will they do but to work. Given the lack of qualification and young age, where else will they get employment?
As I am writing about this topic, I feel miserable as I don’t see any path for them. I remember having a conversation with Mahesh (name changed), a kid in city of Agra, who was a tea-boy. He had no parents and lived on the street. Income from serving tea was keeping him alive.
Unless we get rid of poverty and expand the welfare, more and more children would be deprived of the childhood and forced to be a tea boy. A silver lining is that our PM himself used to be a tea boy in his childhood. The hope is there.
Happy Happy Self
I was feeling it of late, but good that someone pointed it out. There is a kind of negative vibe I have been giving. A bit can be attributed to the novelty wearing off the school experience. But a lot can be attributed to not being intentional. Intentional, a funny but important word.
It’s very important to be clear in outlook in what you want to do. In personal life or career wise. Have something to drive you on. Since I folded up my startup, there was a sort of void that engulfed me. I spend time studying for GMAT, writing B-school essay’s, CFA, FRM etc. But all those were short term. Having finally arrived to school, I never planned what to do next.
I let myself be driven by what others were doing and let myself be herded in. As time went by, it became increasingly hard for me to admit it. And it feels nice to admit it and break the shackles. Feels fresh.
Have finally sat down and started to plan how I want to spend my next 1.5 years at school. Whatever it might be, I have promised myself it will be intentional and something that makes me happy happy.
अंत करो
मैं तो आखिर एक पंछी था,
जिसके पर थे कुतर चुके,
पिंजरे को घर था मन किया,
आह की चाह की टीस जिया,
पर तू ओ जालिम आयी क्यों,
अपने संग आस ये लायी क्यों,
अब पशोपेश में उलझा मैं,
कोई आये इसको सुलझा दे,
तब तक बैठा मैं तड़प रहा,
या शुरू या इसका अंत करो|
हँसना सिखा दिया
मेरे दिल ने दर्द के साथ रहना सीख लिया था,
आँखों ने हमदर्द का खोना देख लिया था,
बातों ने खामोशी का गहना ओड लिया था,
क्यों तूने इस सोते दिल को जगा दिया,
क्यों तूने घायल अरमानों को हवा किया,
क्यों तूने आंखों को टिमटिमाना सिखा दिया,
क्यों तूने बेगाने को पशोपेश में फसा दिया|
मेरे नासूर जख्मों ने तड़पाना छोड़ दिया था,
मेरे मन ने भारी गम से समझौता किया था,
मेरे सपनों ने अपनों का खोना भांप लिया था,
मेरे रातों ने ओझिल हो जाना मान लिया था,
क्यों तेरे स्पर्श ने घायल मुझको दवा दिया,
क्यों मुझको फिर से हँसना सिखा दिया,
क्यों मेरे सपनों की महफ़िल को सजा दिया,
क्यों रातों में फिर बातें करना बता दिया||
The charm of Star Trek
Even after 50 odd years, the charm and fan following of Star Trek is ever growing. Apart from the general attraction of sci-fi and the lure of the unknown, what is it about the Star Trek in particular that attract the fans?
The answer is not so simple. It comes from the 60’s, the race to the moon, improved film technology etc. The characters that Star Trek created and the format of space travel with a new adventure every week, was something that made Star Trek unique.
If you go back to The Original Series (TOS) from 60’s, even today you won’t find it too dated. And the credit goes to the issue based stories that Star Trek told. With the sci-fi genre, the series explored concepts of gender equality, racial discrimination, existence of God. It also gave cool new gadgets in phasers, technology such as transporters and the chance to meet the other intelligent organisms in the vast cosmos.
And the charm is still strong due to the fact that however advanced we have become, we still are bound by the speed of light and haven’t been contacted by any alien race. Thus, the attraction of meeting a new alien race in each new episode still sounds fresh.
The characters that were created are still fresh, be it Kirk, Spock or McCoy. Specially Spock, the pointy eared logical being was nerd of the nerds. No surprise that he is adored by nerds all over. An outcast and intelligent being, not able to understand that emotional people around him.
The flirty leader Kirk, the nagging McCoy, the loyal Scotty, all characters were rooted in stereotypes and hence easy to follow.
The era of race to the moon made common people informed about space. Star Trek came at the right moment. It monetized that curiosity and created a generation of space enthusiasts, many of them went on to become great scientists.
My advice to all developing nations is to have such shows on public broadcast regularly. It might be just the thing their nation needs to generate scientific curiosity amongst the children who will eventually help in nation building.
Blockchain for novices
Disclaimer: This is an over simplification of blockchain concept. Just for starters.
Since the story of bitcoin has picked up, there is a rousing interest in blockchain technology. I have put together a quick write-up for the novices.
Stop feeling intimidated, block chain is a very simple concept just like the concept of internet. Practical uses of that concept are something that makes blockchain awesome.
What is blockchain?
It is noting but a chain of blocks. Wasn’t that simple! For people having no knowledge of algorithms, consider 10 boxes, each box containing some data, and each box stacked on top of one another. This is blockchain in non-technical term for you. This information can be anything we store in a computer file. Or in terms of bitcoin, can be a digital currency.
If it’s just a chain of information. What’s so unique?
Well, the idea to make the digital information non-duplicable. Consider you have a file on your computer. If you copy and then paste that file, it creates a copy of that file. With blockchain, all information about a particular record is incremental. Which means the size of the file keeps on increasing with every passing second and every passing transaction (grows into a large chain of blocks). And the information is all in public domain visible to millions of people (just like a Wikipedia article). Ever tried putting some bogus information on any Wikipedia page. It gets corrected soon enough by one of millions of users just like you.
Block chain uses a similar logic, keeping data in check.
Use in bitcoin
Bitcoin uses block chain technology. When the digital currency was first visualized, problem was how to stop someone from copy-pasting the digital file. It was solved via blockchain. The information/transaction of a digital currency keeps getting added as a chain to the original file. Over the years bitcoin blockchain size has grown over 100GB in size, with every transaction being verified by millions of users on a distributed network. It still can be corrupted if we copy paste the entire 100GB file, but it’s very difficult due to millions of eyes checking and being in public domain.
Introspection
Have you ever wondered that you have already encountered the feeling that you are experiencing right now? People called it déjà vu. I call it cyclicity of life, borne out of out innate nature. It happens to me time and again and I start facing similar dilemma, similar choices that I have already faced few years back. I used to wonder why.
It is due to our characteristic behavior. We make certain decisions, take certain steps in our life which lead us to a certain point. And since we are the same person, we would come to the similar point in life if we keep taking similar decisions, making similar choices.
Question would be why as humans are we not able to change. Well the answer is not so simple. We keep on learning things, we feel we are changing, but not so much. We are born with certain genetic makeup which is not susceptible to change, however much we try. It’s true for us common folk at least. And it seems there is not much we can do about it.
So, what can be done? I think the best we can do is to take time out and introspect. Most of us get so caught up in the rat race of life, we never take a pause and recollect what we have done till now. It helps a lot if we do. It might not change that subconscious setup of ours, but would give too much fodder to build upon. Faced with similar choices, we might be able to tinker little bit and diverge from “what could have been”.
More than our deeds, the postmortem of the actions is useful. If we make it a routine to introspect, it would help us grow.
Destiny is what we build
Why I feel lost so much,
Why I am holding a grudge,
Where has the direction gone,
What is it that I mourn.
Seasons change round the year,
Phases of moon obscure clear,
Why I feel am in slump,
What is it that I grump.
I hate to make people sad,
I somehow feel myself bad,
Where do I find the way,
What is it that I betray.
Root of it all is in me,
Pathetic shield I cannot see,
Like a ship on auto mode,
What is it that I unload.
I have to get myself out,
Won’t help just to shout loud,
Bear in mind it might be tough,
Take a stand, enough is enough.
Day and Night, Night and Day,
Act now, don’t just sit and pray,
Destiny is what we build,
All dreams to be fulfilled.
Importance of Networking
Having studied and worked in India all my life, I never understood the importance of networking. Most of us from IIT get campus placements and from then on, any job change is driven by resume upload to a job portal which follows a smooth process. Even employee referrals are not too much networking driven.
In US, the script is flipped. Your background, education, work experience, only matter to a certain extent. The most important aspect is to reach out to people and keep the dialogue going. It takes time to adjust culturally. But once you give into it, you realize that it is indeed an excellent system.
The logic behind reaching out to people in various firms, meeting them, having discussions with them, is that it gives one insight into the culture of the firm and it also helps firm to know if you will be a cultural fit. The idea is to keep attrition rate low and find the perfect candidate for a job.
Any firm here is fine with hiring a less qualified individual over a more qualified one, if he/she shows more interest for the job. And it makes sense too. People with ample work experience will know that after a while all jobs becomes routine and only thing that keeps you going is if you feel at home at your office, if you like to work with people you meet and greet daily.
Hence society here stresses too much on networking. Let me explain this by another example. Ultimately any company is selling something to customers. All jobs boil down to relationship building. If you are good at building relationships before coming into the job, you will be better at it once you start with the firm.
For international folks in US, it sounds too alien. But the earlier we understand, the better.
Duke-Fuqua: One of the best decisions of my life
Couple of months have passed by and oh so quickly. Coming to Fuqua has been one of the best decisions of my life in a long-long time. Those who know me personally would know what I mean by that.
Especially for internationals, Fuqua is the best MBA school in US and certainly the rankings support that. Before going any further let’s be very clear, MBA is as much a technical program as it is about soft skills. As the name suggests, it has lot to do with learning about Administration. Here is where Team Fuqua culture helps big time.
It’s not for no reason that Fuqua ranks extremely high in employers list. After all, when you are working in a firm, 90% of yours and your firms’ success stems from how well you work as a Team. I will be very candid here and admit that there is hardly much difference among the intellect of people admitted to any of the Top Business schools. How we grow in those two years is what sets us apart.
I have felt a sea change in me in last two months and most of it has stemmed from being open to feedback. I have learned from Team Fuqua culture to get off my high horses and make people feel comfortable to provide feedback. Only if we get feedback can we work upon it. If you feel you are the best (which most people with high GMAT scores and Top 10 B-School admit think), it’s difficult for you to listen from others about your faults. It’s easy to shut doors under the garb of “Oh! I am perfect and everyone else are a bunch of fools”.
At Fuqua I have learned to go beyond that. Add to it one of the toughest curriculum you can find in Business Schools, has made me understand the importance of prioritization. Fall 1 is intentionally made hectic to wake us up from deep slumber of complacency induced by working as an individual in a big firm. An MBA has to be on his/her toes the entire time as we are responsible for running a firm not just playing a cog in the wheel.
I have made friends with some really intelligent and highly creative people and learn from them daily. I have learned to trust the process and trust the people around me (again an important aspect of running a business).
I will write a follow up soon and be more specific about my personal growth and how Fuqua has aided in that.
ArpitGarg's Weblog 