IIM Indore :: Alumni-Freshers Meet 2008

Education, IIM

Recently, I attended the Delhi chapter of  IIM Indore Alumni & Freshers meet. The last such meet I attended was in Chennai, 2005.

With each passing year, it’s a delight to see batches of enthusiastic youngsters push you further and further up in the echelons of seniority. Fortuitously, for my batch (1998-2000)  the tag ‘senior-most’ or ‘first batch’ came as the fringe benefit of being the first batch of IIM Indore! No matter how many batches get added, we will always remain — the ‘batch of origin’.

A few observations:

  • The recent batches are the strongest in terms of numbers, most visible, and not surprisingly, most vocal too :-)
  • The fresh batch of people joining the institute are invariably a mix of predictable profiles (Engineering and economics graduates) and some interesting ones too (MBBS doctors & people with etymology as a hobby!). Maybe it’s a figment of my imagination, but these youngsters, on the threshold of a career defining move, have a dreamy halo around them!
  • It’s good to see the presence of girls at such a gathering; and if they are smartly attired, even better! Why do I even need to make such a statement that has shades of sexist overtones? For the simple but stark reason that girls continue to remain a lop-sided minority in institutes of higher education in India. I don’t have the numbers, but the number of girls students would be less than 10% at IITs and less than 20% at IIMs. In our batch it would have been around 15%, but in the batch after us — it was 0% . Yes, no girls at all!
  • One of the easiest ice-breakers between various batches is a discussion on the faculty. “So, who taught Operations to you guys?” “Prof. Agarwal? Oh! He taught us too. Great guy!” “So, is he still around?”

The ‘batch of origin’ privilege ensured that I was asked to cut the cake and deliver a speech too ;-)

And since 1998 itself I was ready for such an occasion, and had this one speech drafted in my mind! :-p Borrowing extensively from Prof. Asopa’s (the then Director of IIM Indore) talk to us when we complained to him about sundry facilities not working. He had mentioned that building an institute is like building a big boat, that sails on high seas and charts new courses and discovers new horizons. We the first batch, were the bottom of the boat — the most critical part of the boat. That bears the brunt of choppy waters on behalf of the whole boat.

I used to wonder then (1998) why did he not use ‘foundation of a building’ as the cliched  metaphor to define the first batch. Today, I can see why. The bottom of the boat moves along with the boat to where ever the boat is headed. On the other hand, the foundation of a building lies buried underground and forgotten, once the edifice takes shape.

It’s been a decade. Time flies. IIM Indore soars.

Gizmode: Alternative narrative

Humour, Travel

If you have read my last post Gizmode, the bot in my pot, I hope you will appreciate this alternative narrative of the same.

If you have not read my last post Gizmode, the bot in my pot, I hope you will appreciate this post as is :)

Someday, given enough time, motivation & computing power I may make a video of the same too. Or maybe, even an audio podcast… but then the idea of suitable ambient sounds would gross you out, right? :-p

In the meanwhile, here goes…

Gizmode, the bot in my pot :: Toilet humour series

Humour, Travel

This post (also originally titled: An Ode To A Commode) is in continuation of two different threads of posts previously seen on Swadeshe:

  1. A vegetarian goes to Burger King, Korea
  2. Toilet humour series: World’s worst toilet

The intended continuity with the first link is Korea. (Any GIGO inferences are your own and not mine!) The intended continuity with the second link, has, of course, to do with the ‘substance’ of the post.

Ok, let me cut the crap (figuratively only) and get on with the post…

One could safely assume you have come across psycho-analytical articles on the power of the ‘remote control’. Remember the references to Shiv Sena supremo, Bal Thackeray, while Manohar Joshi was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Or in contemporary politics, the equation between Sonia (yet so far) ji and Manmohan ji. Or closer home, ‘who wears the pants at home’, being replaced by ‘who holds the remote at home’. Actual power vs. perceived power.

The essence captured in one word — CONTROL. Let’s admit, all remotes, consoles, dashboards are all about CONTROL.

Think Star Trek. Think Shakaal (in Ramesh Sippy’s Shaan). Think James Bond. Think Austin Powers in The Spy Who Shagged Me.

(Of course this is true only on one side of the great technology divide. On the other side of the great technology divide, jiski laathi usi ki bhains, still remains the power-defining adage!)

And now, presenting Gizmode, the ultimate seat of power and ‘control’.

Gizmode, the bot in my pot

Ironically this at a place where the main job is to let loose, and not to control! Control is what you do till the time you get there!

Gizmode, the bot in my pot Don’t waste your time looking for the mug, paper roll, hand shower, jet faucet or any other ‘means’ you’ve ever used at your ‘ends’!

The control is right beside you.

Gizmode, the bot in my pot Let’s start with the button that seems to be the most ‘not-wanted’ in the land of prolific production. It’s called ‘ECONO’. Let me ask you this, would you ever — EVER — want to try ‘econo’ and be at the receiving end of a feeble trickle or a faint shower? ‘Supply’ shouldn’t fall short of ‘demand’, you see!

The next set of buttons gives you an idea of the kind of control you get to wield here. It’s called ‘TEMP(erature) CONTROL’. Nice, you say. Immediately thinking of the water temperature options one has in Delhi. Icy cold in winters and scalding hot in summers!

Wait, there’s more. You also get to adjust seat temperature here! Again you think, that the closest you’ve come to temperature control on toilet seats is when the seat is left warm by the person using the toilet before you!

Gizmode, the bot in my pot Next. You can control the WATER PRESSURE! Ah! Now the delight starts. (Especially in contrast to the water canon that masquerades as a hand shower in my office toilet!) That’s not all. You can also control the DRYER TEMPERATURE! Oh! Does it mean there is a ‘dryer’ also there? Yessir, you got it!

Gizmode, the bot in my pot If you’re the kind who gets overwhelmed with choices. Play safe, go with ‘AUTO’. Which is touted as the option FOR CHILD(ren).

.

Gizmode, the bot in my pot Next up — NOZZLE POSITION. What’s the big deal with nozzle position, you ask? Everything, the sensitive ones would answer! :-)
[Read this interesting account of a similar Gizmode in Japan, by Xiaxue, arguably Singpaore’s biggest blogger celebrity]

Gizmode, the bot in my pot If you are already saying ‘bring ’em on, baby’ — the next set of buttons are MASSAGER and DRYER! :-D
I tell you, I don’t know of a real-life equivalent to this! The closest I could think of is a combination of the predominant Indian ‘technique’ and some amount of hedonistic perversion! Incidentally, this is first set of buttons with Korean sub-titles. Some cultural insights to be made here, eh?

Gizmode, the bot in my potThe button that comes next reminded me that all through my years of architectural studies at the School of Planning and Architecture, I never really got on top of a bidet — both literally and figuratively!

[If you are interested: Reference reading material here]

Gizmode, the bot in my potThe next button in a way is all you ever wanted to do here — WASH! Of course, if you had forgotten what you had wanted to do, the accompanying graphic reminds you suitably!

 

Gizmode, the bot in my pot

And not surprisingly the most prominent button that’s right at the beginning of the ‘control’ — especially if you’ve fumbled or got yourself into a mess with any of the preceding options — is STOP!

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So what else would I want from this robot in my pot?

Considering that I did not eat well — (read this) — if only it could do something about my constipation!

Toilet humour series: World’s worst toilet

Humour

This post (originally titled: An Ode To A Commode)  is about the men’s rest room in our office!

Disclaimer: This post had been in the ‘draft’ mode for months now, and some of the issues mentioned here might no longer exist.

The generous urinal
Just as you step up to the urinal, the infrared sensor triggers the spray. Noooo, not ‘that spray’ silly — but a fairly robust spray from the urinal itself that leaves you splashed even before you have splooshed! After several such trial and error attempts (your trials; urinal’s errors) you discover the one particular urinal (out of half a dozen) that does the least damage, and ‘aim’ for it each time! Noooo, not ‘that aim’ silly!

Murphy taps
Ostensibly these are state-of-the-art taps. The kinds that you see in TV ads or glossy magazines. You push them to start the flow of water. Start washing your hands and lo and behold, the tap times itself out. Invariably taking too long to time out if you just want a quick wash of the hands. And timing out too soon if you need to have a prolonged wash of the hands. Leaving you feeling guilty or grumpy respectively. Now you get it why I call them Murphy taps? After Murphy’s Laws of course!

Issues with tissues
The tissue dispenser (which has now been fixed) was magnanimous in its dispensation of tissues. Pull one, get four free! Sadly, the environmentally-conscious part of my brain always took off on a parallel stream of thoughts — where I would hear the thud of falling trees, with every wipe of the hand. Fortunately, I rediscovered my bevy of handkerchiefs because of this!

Know thy neighbour
WCs have traditionally been known to trigger reflective thoughts in people’s minds. However the WC enclosures here not only ensure self-discovery — but that of others occupying cabins adjacent to yours! All thanks to the polished granite floor (which is as reflective as a fashion store mirror) and the partition walls that end 6 inches above the floor. Again, the trick learned over time is to occupy the WC at the end of the row — so that with just one flank exposed, you reduce by half the probability of the guy next door and you exchanging acknowledging glances through the medium of the aforementioned floor while seated on your perches!

Hold that pose
The diameter of the toilet seat is so small that at the end of a declension session you have to have an uplifting experience. Literally! You have to get your body to be in a pose such that the angle between the lower part of your leg and its upper part is approximately 135 degrees! Yeah hold that pose; no need to say cheese; just swipe/wash please! Thank you!

May the force be with you
The hand shower releases water at a pressure that would put crowd control water canons used by riot police to shame! I swear, I’m not kidding! Needless to mention that using it results in shaming you — once you juxtapose this forceful performance with the pose you held in the point above. Oh! And if you’ve also used the urinal a little while ago (as mentioned in the first point earlier) you would now have, what we management types call — 360 degree feedback!

Mirror mirror on the wall
When you face the mirror — right behind you is a window that pours in enough light to give you a haloed reflection. The kind that’s used to depict ‘Samay the divine’ in mythological TV serials. Even the most die-hard hedonists amongst us have to contend with only appreciating our silhouettes! In all fairness though, for the non-self-obsessed ones amongst us, the mirror does suffice in broadly suggesting that it’s our own physical self being shown in the mirror.

Are you being served?
And if you thought the design and fittings of this place gave you nightmares — the cleaning staff (no, this ‘staff’ is not a fitting or fixture! And not even what the dirty among you are thinking!) scare the daylights out of you. They outnumber you 4 to 1! Each one lurking right behind you. And they are ready to pounce… on the water that you spill on the washbasin counter, to mop it off! Remember, on any typical usage day they would’ve been observing closely, how you struggle with point 2 & 3 above. How you got shamed by point 1, 4 & 6. And then this! Surely one can’t see them in the eye. Not surprising, since this is the same toilet where while you may not even see yourself in the eye (point 7 above), you can have ample eye to eye with your neighbour (point 4 above)!

Now that I’ve finally embraced toilet humour as a viable enough subject, my next post will be about the world’s gizmo-est toilet from my visit to Korea.

Till then..

My predictions for the Nano

Humour, Zeitgeist

Some may come true, some may not. I hope most may not. But remember you first read them here.

  • The first prediction: Every blogger who takes him/herself a little too seriously will write about the Nano!

  • 90% of the first 1 million Tata Nano’s sold will be bought by those who already have 1, 2 or more cars. And this proportion shall not change for quite some, as the Tata production lines will struggle to cope with the deluge of pre-booked orders. This would obviously lead to a premium being charged, and the car will be available only in ‘black’ (No, I am not referring to the Henry Ford Model T colour!), and therefore only the ‘haves’ will become ‘have-even-mores’

  • Pollution will get reduced dramatically after an initial upsurge. Obviously with traffic queues starting right at the doorstep of car showrooms only a fraction of the entire cosmos of cars on roads would actually move. The others would simply switch off. You don’t want to run out of fuel at a 5-hour stop, right? And with most cars thus switched off, pollution would obviously be past its glory days!

  • This will trigger a micro-retail boom. Micro-retail is MBA jargon for the universe of vendors who shove anything from balloons, magazines, paperbacks, or smelly backs into your face on traffic signals. More people in cars for prolonged periods of time would mean the market size for micro-retail would go through the roof. Befittingly we would now rechristen it as Nano-retail. And the category of goods that would get sold would now also include clothing, toiletries, soil-bags, batteries, mobile recharges. The next phase would also include McDonalds and ICICI Bank ATMs in the Nano behind you! Sanjeev Bikchandani apparently is already preparing plans for Naukri Nanos, so that you could switch jobs even before you switch signals!

  • Nano after having established a record as the cheapest car in the world, would now go on and set the world record for the largest number plates — with most number sequences getting too big for the number plates currently in use! I am also predicting this would give a fillip to national literacy!

  • Apple computers will file a trademarks infringement case against the Tatas. This would happen around the same time as Google search results for “nano” returning more cars than iPods! And the NRI cousin on being told, “I just bought a Nano” would stop asking “1GB or 4 GB?” Then next ‘big’ thing would then be to make Nano (the car) so small, as to be able to send it as an email attachment!

  • Tata Nano will record more sales the world over than India alone. And this will be stoutly resisted by the locals. “First you took our IT jobs, then BPO jobs and now you are taking away our cars too!” It’s a no-brainer to then predict that every time a Nano hits an Audi on a Sydney road, while the driver may or may not be hauled-up for rash driving, he will certainly have racism charges slapped on him!

  • Other predictions include:
    • A movie called ‘Nanoman‘
    • A restaurant menu offering you plain or butter nan-o
    • Sameer (the ‘dil‘ ‘jigar‘ lyricist) going into a ‘nano mein sapna‘ over-drive
    • A Sunny Deol dialogue, “Na yes, Na no. Sirf Nano“
    • A ZEE News programme ‘Nano ya na mano‘