Rakhi @ Kampus (IIMK)

Here I was, again out of home on Rakhi for the third consequent year. It all started with me spending the entire day 2 years back in Inductis solving the after training test, affectionately called One Day Case and it did took one full day, meaning I was in Delhi but could not celebrate Rakhi with my family. Flash forward one year, me in Singapore around this time. Couldn’t help it so no issues, hoped to be there for next year. But it wasn’t to be this year as well, as I am slogging here at IIMK.

I miss rakhi for the sheer fun of meeting the entire family together, quite a big family I must say. So get to catch up with everyone at the same place and time.

So rakhis were sent by post to me to tie them myself (I dare not ask a classmate hereJ ) around my wrist. But I was happily surprised by the idea of a few people here in my hostel to celebrate rakhi in almost the same here its done at home. We had snacks, sweets, teeka, the only different thing was the absence of sisters. We all tied rakhis to each other. A very novel idea to celebrate rakhi, afterall the spirit of brotherhood is what we celebrate. Looking at the pics I can say that this was a moment not to be forgotten. It made all of us sisters of each other and brothers vowing to protect each other J. Very interesting, right. Just imagine the sight, 6-7 boys tying rakhis to each other.

The pics corroborate what you imagine. All in all it was nice and fun. The entire evening could be summed up for the statement I made while leaving addressing the group, “Achcha bhaiyo aur behano, main chalta hun…” True, wasn’t it??

Team Work, Free Riders, Parasites and Leeches

The most overused phrase in corporate world is team work and team play. All organizations look for team players and only they are considered a good fit in an organization. Personally speaking I also believed in this concept till a certain extent because this allows proper work distribution and all that. I should say that this belief of mine was shaped by the people I worked with as a team in my corporate career. I had not worked with different kind of people till now who behave totally arbitrarily and are very interesting and simultaneously very irritating in their behavior.  

 An MBA teaches you many things, some explicit and some implicit. Learning from people and learning about people comes under the implicit part. 90% of tasks and assignments and tasks in MBA are group tasks which are supposed to teach you how to work as a team and cooperate. I don’t know if the primary objective behind these group tasks is to learn team play or to learn how to tackle non-contributing and negatively contributing team members and use this learning in your career. Before going ahead, let me explain the psyche of these two species in some more details and introduce one more category. 

Free Riders: Non contributing members who are a liability on the remaining team members are affectionately called free riders. Quite an apt description I must say. These are people who believe in the theory of symbiotic living but only partially. They will stick on with you, contribute nothing, take the benefit and move ahead. Their focus is solely on how not to come in limelight and how to hide their incompetency. They do not show any sense of self consciousness or shame in blatantly copying other’s work. They believe that it’s the duty of others to feed them as they themselves are so much incompetent. A true believer of social theory of justice they are: Distribute not in proportion of competency but of need.  

Parasites: Good thing about free riders is that if they don’t contribute, they don’t either disrupt other team members from working (incompetency is the reason), hence others can work and feed them considering them necessary baggage. Now imagine a case where some people don’t contribute and simultaneously spread negative energy in the group. These can be people who will work as well but will make sure that the team never works as a team. They try to show that others are wicked and shrewd and want to steal the credit which only they deserve. Everyone else in the team is a predator for them waiting for any opportunity to eat their hard work as if they are the only one who can contribute. Contributions made by others are insignificant and irrelevant for them. 

Leeches: The third kind of people you come across are those who are a combination of free riders and parasites. They dont work but keep on lamenting about what others are doing or have done. These act as critics to your work without knowing a bit about it. They try to show off about their knowledge but from the sidehelm only. They never enter the arena but try to make the rules of the games. Very interesting characters infact!!

Now why am I writing about people and their psychology is a question which can be asked. Reason: 2 months into an MBA and I have met and worked with all kinds of people. Sometimes it becomes so much irritating when you work and others either screw up your work (as a team evaluation) or others take credit for whatever you have done. I am not saying that everyone knows everything and ignorant and non-knowledgeable people should be ousted totally. What is more important is the will to learn and contribute in whatever way one can contribute to the team task, how much ever insignificant it may be. We all are here to learn and no one is perfect, what matters is how much are we willing to learn and add our bit to the team. Why should 3 people carry the burden of 3 other almost dead people on their shoulders when all 6 of them are equal and have same pressure to perform? Why shouldn’t they shrug and throw these people without caring for them? The reason can be only one, their own social life and attitude towards others. I don’t believe in social responsibility of carrying dead weight over my shoulders, but still I do it. I am ready to feed poor and helpless beggars who cannot do anything but not rats and cats who will tomorrow bite me if need be. Either they should publically declare that they are incompetent and need social help in order to survive or they should try to behave like respectable students at par with others.  

This might be a controversial topic to delve into but meritocracy and hard work is what I believe in. If all are considered equal, they should earn this status and not take this for granted. If they don’t, others have all the rights to consider them inferior and try to dominate them. Respect cannot be enforced; it can only be earned by your behavior and deeds. So try to earn your own self-respect and the world will respect you.

 

Who is more intelligent??? A friend’s dilemma

A friend’s tryst with reality wherein he actually realises what it means to be on the receiving end. Read his story in his own words yourself and don’t stop yourself from laughing;  

How much you think yourself to be a stud at knowing all about certain stuff, all that comes to naught when Mr Knowall personally experiences the situation. All the maturity and clarity of thought goes for a walk as the issues not pertaining to head cannot be ruled by head. but the issue is what to do, what not to do to help achieve the target ? especially since all that you considered as consequential to your “PERSONALITY- strengths” has been put to stake. 

If at all one could disassociate oneself from the present situations and think objectively. Alas once you give in to this temptation the cost you pay is your objectivity, so what’s the next best alternative; go to others, whom you couldn’t trust with such judgment earlier but now feel fraternally linked in such issues as personal experience is what counts not the result. and personal experience is what you don’t have . 

But then when you have put yourself in “okhal” why are you afraid of “moosals”. Its amazing how a clear weather could so suddenly turn so cloudy. The impervious being in you gets brutally and with no regard to self comfort gets dragged, sacked and repeatedly played around with. How much easier could all this would have been with some resource selling the uptodate information to help benchmark the expectations and efforts. But as bad luck would have it the only solace is the pleasure that someone is getting out of it and the only motivation the communication that was beyond senses…… 

60 years of Independence

Its a beautiful day today with sun shining in its full glory here at IIMK where the weather is generally gloomy and overcast otherwise. It seems that even the Sun god is congratulating us Indians on 60th year of our independence. All the gloom is gone, what remains is bright sunlight showing the path forward. Its now upto us to tread this path and take our country into a new era.

Today I purposefully went and attended the flag hoisting ceremony organised by the college authorities. It was quite a while since I had done this. Last year on this day I was not in country and believe me the feeling of not being with my people was unsurpassable. Working on 15 August in a foreign land can make you nostalgic and force you to realise the actual importance of events like these. And today, I can tell you that the feeling of standing with others and singing the national anthem is superb. The speeches made by faculty were inspiring but full of usual cliches like hardwork, sacrifice, dedication etc. But I should admit its all true. The onus is onto us to take the unfinished jobs started by our forefathers to their finishing point.

Yesterday while preparing a report for a subject called Social Transformations in India, I got to know that there are villages where there is still no electricity, no medical centre, no school, no sanitary facilities, no drinking water, and this in Kerala which boasts of the highest literacy rate in our country. This is a state where every 3rd person is an NRI or aspires to be one but still villages like these also exist. Our dream of becoming a developed country cannot be fullfilled unless villages like these join the mainstream. It doesnt make sense for some people to shout that our country is going great guns and its only a matter of time before we join the league of developed and powerful nations till the time people do not have access to basic amenities required for mere survival. I may be sounding to be too impractical and idealistic but believe me this is a change which should happen and the faster it happens the better it is.

So while celebrating our 60th Independence day and basking in the glory of this great nation, we should not forget that there is much more to be done and achieved before we can claim full independence. A political independence without independence from hunger, poverty and misery is just symbolic and not actual. But that shouldnt stop us from remebering the heroes who gave us this independence.

“Aye mere watan ke logo jara aanth mein bhar lo paani, jo shaheed hue hain unki yaad karo kurbani”