The importance of the building and the unimportance of maintaining

Lately I have been noticing that my broadband speed has slowed down to such an extent that it appears like a narrowband. At early morning though say at 3:00 am the broadband starts working at its usual capacity. It was not the case earlier when I installed it 6 months ago. My guess is that the network is clogged up and things are going back to where it started.
A couple of years ago when NH2 was being four lane as part of Golden Quadrilateral scheme I was very happy. Now I am not. The highway like all other infrastructure is becoming clogged up and things are becoming as before.
Not to mention of the mobile networks at peak hours. The network is simply not available.
What does it point to?
If we are bad at building infrastructure then we are dismal at maintaining them. So, as my fixed capacity gets quickly filled up by a rapid pace I am unable to invest more in adding extra capacity.
The graph becomes something like this



I think for a country to develop the time taken should lessen as is the investment to increase the perceived capacity increase. This will require even more improvement in real capacity which means huge funds need to be allocated. For the time to decrease the productivity and the efficiency should be extremely high. Is it possible in this scenario?

Judge

Yesterday my friend commented about one of our professors being lazy because he gave questions from the book. And I started thinking not about the professor but the ability to judge.
We seldom judge when we are in school. But as we grow up we start judging. Judging in my view is an inherent ability of maturity. The ability to judge decides your mate, your job, your life. You judge because you start thinking of alternatives and benchmark the alternatives with reality. For e.g. - when you think of changing a job you start thinking of best alternatives. In a B-school there is a term I have learnt – it’s called opportunity cost.
The point is simple actually. In schooldays your parents judge for you and you consider your parents as God (I can even relate to something in Gita session here). So you take their words at face value but as you grow up you take your own decisions and so you need to judge.

What is the difference between talking and talking in writing?

Let’s rephrase the question. What is the difference between writing in writing and talking in writing. Regardless of whether you get it or not just carry on reading.
The difference can be easily noticed when you read a written piece. There is a person in my current batch of MBA who is a good orator. Words come to her mouth like air comes to the lungs.
The most noticeable thing about oratory is the seamless combination of spontaneity and depth. The more spontaneously the intellectual thoughts come out of you, the more you are perceived as a good orator. But there is another way to be a good orator. You have to connect the dots (i.e. gather ideas from other places) and present it in an eloquent manner. The person I mentioned above belongs to the second category.
There has been a timeless debate on content vs. presentation. If you are good at any one of them then you can be called a good orator. It is universally acknowledged that good orators have the capacity to move audiences.
Now, intellectual thoughts can emerge from three means:

From your imagination (start from the scratch type)

From other people’s imagination (books, movies etc)

A mixture of both (reading a book generates new ideas which can then lead to original thoughts- in our RM subject that original thought is taught as a gap)

In the first method merely the content will suffice to show your calibre. In the second event you have to be creative in linking the dots. The third method is an extrapolation of dots into virgin territories.
Getting back to the discussion on reading in writing, I once saw a write-up from the lady. Reading the document felt as if the lady was talking!!! When you write something on paper then you mean to write and not talk. Isn’t it? Words are meticulously put to arrive at a “proper” conclusion. The thought might be spontaneous but the way it is presented is not. In an oratory the way of presentation is spontaneous. Notice the examples below:

No one doubts the fact that good orators have the capacity to move audiences

Good orators have the capacity to move audiences. No one doubts that!!!

Which one conveys talking in writing and which one conveys writing in writing?
I think that when you mean to write something then you should stop talking. The two mediums are sacrosanct mediums and they should be mutually exclusive. I am disregarding the fact that you are preparing from a prepared text. I do not like that either. That one is writing in talking.
So, in my view let there be a ban on prepared speeches. Let there be a ban on talking in writing.

18 January, 2009

Today, I had a unique experience. I participated in the Mumbai Marathon. Dream Run to be precise. But that does not negate the significance of the marathon because I had a lot to see while running and walking. When you are running a half marathon or a marathon you tend to concentrate on yourself. But when you walk 6 kms you concentrate on what goes around you. And the fact that I did not have the camera to capture the euphoric and enthusiastic moments makes this post all the more significant. In fact, if this post comes even closer to the actual thing on the ground that is captured by a camera then I will call it a hugely successful post. I had wanted to run the Mumbai marathon for the sake of experience. I was curious about it and registered pretty early. Frankly speaking I had not done any preparation for it because the race did not need one. But then I look at the positives. And the best way I could have enjoyed the Mumbai marathon was to actually enjoy the sheer experience of running with a huge contingent of free human spirit. And the dream run (as it is called) went like a sheer dream. I reached the place at the scheduled time and saw a huge gathering. Seldom have I seen such gathering being managed in a disciplined manner. Kudos to the organisers!!! Learning curve at its best!!
I saw gatherings of people propagating different causes. Some were pretty esoteric, some were contemporary, and some were frankly silly. I saw pretty girls from high society of Mumbai espousing the cause of tribals. I saw dancing troupes carrying placards, I saw different companies showcasing themselves, I saw old people aptly advertising LIC, I saw body builders, I saw handicapped people. Some causes were relevant. Like girls from poorer neighbourhood exhibiting the cause of the girl child. School children promoting Literacy, patients from Dyslexia, AIDS and hug campaign, rock show. It was a huge jamboree with different colours. The dream run signified the wide variety of choices and being an individual who stubbornly supports free choice the sheer variety was as mind-boggling as satisfying. I saw Mumbai enjoying in that one moment of the year. The free spirit was in complete harmony with nature. Man at his best!!! This was the day when you could do anything and everything without being ridiculed. I believe that this must be the most satisfying day in the life of Mumbaikar. Can money replace the happiness that was in full-show today?
Like blood passing through the body enmeshing it with life the crowd ran in a continuous spirit enlivening Mumbai. Yes!! This is what I wanted to see.

The nature of propensity

A lot many times we deviate from things that are obvious to something that seem obvious but are not. Considering the fact that a guy circulated a mail in our college regarding the apathy towards the winner of second Olympic gold medal. This news was highlighted in the media and I don’t blame the media for that. It is their duty to highlight all sort of news. My problem is when the media starts playing the advocate as well as the judge. The thing is the news that an Indian had won a second medal was not highlighted as much as our apathy towards her. Why do we have to be castigated by the media everytime ? Again, there are a hundered of things happening in a nation of one billion. Will the world come to halt or have we committed a serious error. India is a nation of extremes. So, when sports are considered or especially when the topic of cricket versus others is considered we tend to take extremes. The problem with this approach is that we push ourselves away from solution with that kind of an attitude. We keep crooning about our apathy, blame cricket and so on and so forth but nothing actually happens on ground. The fact that India is a democracy worsens the scenario. That is because with a plethora of opinions available we ultimately don’t get to a solution at all. We hear only opinions.

Blasting away..

The series of serial blasts seem to be producing two prominent reactions among the masses. Some people seem to have accepted it as a part of their life, they have stopped caring, started taking them for granted and others seem to have accumulated some more revulsion, disdain and frustation at the current situation. Feeing that the state is hostage to some sinister plot they might blame the Government, blame themselves ( mostly the people who belong to the first group) and most definitely blame the terrorists.The Government keeps on repeating the same message - "calm, peace, communal harmony" but for both groups of people these phrases seemed to have lost their meaning.
There is also a subgroup among these groups- people who believe that things were so much better earlier. They fail to accept that the world has changed. They lead a life of hopeless existence.
Reactions apart, another aspect that has come up is the stagnant nature of democracy.It goes something like this:
Blasts !!! ----> Panic ----> Government asking people to calm down ----> Forensic experts to site -----> ISI, Jem, LeT etc ------> opposition attacks Govt about policy failures -----> Government attacks opposition and reminds them of Kandahar, Somnath, parliament attack ------> Attention diverted, Govt fails to undertake newer policy measures--->Blasts !!!....(cycle continues)

Individuality Vs Collective Enthusiasm

Basically this post has been divided in the manner mentioned above because MBA students who are at the beginning of their two year course will find a lot of common stuffs..
From an individual perspective Mumbai has been a revelation to me..This place is cooler in terms of environment, people mind their own business and an easy going attitude prevails.. This might be because I am still to see the busier parts of the city like Dalal Steet and so forth.. But when I tend to make a comparison then I am obviously taking Kolkata as a frame of reference.. The roads are broader and the per capita cleanliness is better.. I might be wrong since opinions are always subjective.. The fact though is Mumbai is expensive..
I have been in SPJIMR for the past 10 days and predictably the days are loaded with quizzes, lectures, assignments and group works.. But something tells me that this is not what I had expected..I thought that it would be painfully hard.. Maybe 4 years of experience has got a lot to do with it.. i am still chilling if not basking..and MBA I guess is a way of life .. You just have to manage yourself..4 years of office work has taught me just that..If we draw the graph as pressure and comfort then there is no better place to experience both than in a B school.. You just manage the two