Lessons from without the cube – Perspectives

Ask my friends what my favorite word is. If they tell you “Perspective”, it is likely they have been subject to my torturous ranting more than once. It is a word that I hold close to my heart and my stint with this class has only brought it closer. So what about perspective?
If you are going into this MBA looking forward to learn business concepts, make friends and go places, good for you. But you know what would make it all worthless: If you go into this program with a closed mind and a chauvinistic attitude.
Over the course of your study, you will come across a myriad of people with very many opinions. Sometimes these opinions will conflict with your own. And how much you learn from this course will depend on how you handle these conflicts. I will talk about conflicts in another post but for now, it would suffice to say that in a bigger frame, conflicts are irrelevant.
Let me now flip this perspective. You will also come across people who will make you feel uncomfortable about beliefs that are close to your heart. Again, the future course of your life will depend on how you handle these encounters. If you spend a lot of time in another country, the peer pressure to confirm to their way of things can be great. You are probably there to learn about them and not to become one of them. However, this said, there is nothing wrong if you choose to become one of them. Just remember to make a conscious choice and not succumb to the pressure.
The following quote has been the guiding force for me for quite a long time now. Hope it can help you get where you want to go.
“If you had been born where they were born, if you had been taught what they were taught and if you had been where they were, you would have believed what they believed.”

Thinking out of the box: Reverse Gear?

When I was young; Roses could be green, and the fish could fly. Fairy tales were the way of life. I could glide on the ground, and drive the same car; Round and round. Now I am grown up; the days are dark, spent indoors. People bark and processes are adored. And then they tell me to think out of the box, and I wonder how I ended up in the box.
I had been reading an article about the importance of creativity and it set me thinking. Not about how I could be creative but about why we drive in reverse gear when it comes to thinking out of the box. Kids are born creative but somehow, by the time they grow up the creativity is lost. And we end up driving backwards to rediscover something that we are born with.
Let me tell you a story. This is a story about my young cousin, who had just started school. I was responsible for dropping him off to school. The first few days had been pretty much the same. We started from home with him skipping ahead of me, and then when we crossed about the half way mark, he would become silent and subdued. And as the school came into view, I could hear some sniffing and by the time we were at the gate, he would be crying his head off. “I don’t want to go to school, not today”. “I am having a terrible headache, please take me back”. But that particular day was different. That day he was skipping all the way to the school. Just before he snatched his water bottle from my hand to enter his class, I asked him why he was so excited. He told me “We have painting class today”.
No surprise there. He really enjoyed painting. When he was painting, the rest of the world did not exist for him. However, the day’s events did not end there. His return from school was usually marked with ecstatic screams and songs. But again, that day was different. When he came back, he looked as if he had lost the love of his life. A 5 year old kid loosing the love of his life may sound absurd. Not so much if you realize that painting was the love of his life. And he did not like painting anymore.
He didn’t like using ruler scales to make houses, where each side had to be exactly 6 inches; he didn’t like the fact that roses could only be red; he did not like that a circle had to be circular; he did not like that cars should always have four tires.
All this in just a two hour painting class! When I look at him today, I am not surprised at all but disappointed that he doesn’t paint anymore, loves mathematics and science and follows every process precisely. He is working hard to enter an engineering college and spend the rest of his life behind a desk. I guess, like the rest of us, he has been at school a bit too long.
What happened to him? Something changed deep within him. He lost his independence in thought. The problem lies in how we as parents, teachers and role models, set our expectations with kids. Look at the structure of education in the schools. In most schools around the world, science and mathematics come first. History, geography and civics come next and last come the arts (painting, singing and dancing). Why is this the case? Because our education system was set up to meet the needs of the industrial revolution. Are we still living in the same world? No! Today’s world needs independent thought and creativity. The education system is not the only problem. Each one of us is responsible. This is the age of prohibitions. All we ever say as elders to kids is:
Do not do this; Do not do that; Do not take fate; In your own hands; We will open the gates; And lead you to; The quicksand. And therein, my child you shall sink. Sink so deep that you will have but a faint recall of something that you were born with. Creativity!
This is not fair. We should not impose our own perceptions onto children. Time and again we have proved to ourselves that we are not always right and by enforcing our perceptions on the kids we are eliminating the chance of standing corrected. Let us stop driving in reverse gear.
As for my young cousin, I think he is long lost. You see he was born creative, but education ruined him. The choice, ladies and gentlemen, is yours.

S3 Asia MBA

I was asked to comment on the S3 (Read S-cube) Asia MBA Program. Here's what I had to say:

About my vision and expectations:

I am motivated by the growth potential of the Asian economies and the S³ Asia MBA, with its exclusive focus on Asia, addresses my aspirations perfectly. This program will prepare me to lead business ventures centered on Asia from the forefront. In my opinion, the real strength of this program is the opportunity to interact with students from all over Asia and the rest of the world, in THREE renowned Business Schools. This experience is crucial for companies planning to expand their businesses in Asia. Anyone who can proffer this experience to these companies will be an invaluable asset. Also, the AACSB accreditation to NUS and KUBS ensures the international recognition of the dual MBA. As a member of the first batch, I will share the responsibility of ensuring the program's success. I will not only be an ambassador in the corporate world, representing this unique program, but also be playing an important role in paving the way for future graduates. I am thrilled by this challenge and the prospect of living in three of the most dynamic cities of the world. I intend to make my presence at the three schools as unique an experience for the class as the class will be for me.

About me:

I hold a Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) degree in Computer Science from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. I am working with Oracle India as a developer on their SOA Suite offering. I have been honing my public speaking and leadership skills through Toastmasters International. I also play the bass guitar and enjoy reading both fiction and non-fiction.

Why do we sleep?

You snooze, you lose. It’s a catchy phrase. But sleep is not an optional enterprise. All mammals do it. So do birds, reptiles, and even fruit flies. Rats deprived of sleep apparently die faster than those deprived of food. In spite of these facts, we know very little about the purpose that sleep serves for us. Why do we sleep?

After sleeping over this question, I went in search of some theories. I came across a few. But first, let’s first get to know the two different types of sleep. “Two different types!” Initially, I was surprised as well.

A little more than a half-century ago, most scientists believed that sleep was an inactive state. Then in 1951, Eugene Aserinsky, a clever graduate student at the University of Chicago, hooked his son Armond to a retooled "brain wave machine" and monitored the boy's sleep deep into the night. Aserinsky observed sharp spikes of activity on his readout, suggesting that Armond's eyes were darting back and forth. This turned out to reflect the distinctive state within sleep dubbed rapid eye movement, or REM. Latter it was hypothesized that this movement was related to dreaming. When we are not dreaming but still sleeping, we are in NREM sleep, or Non REM sleep.

Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the two types, let us try and answer the question.

With sleep, as opposed to food, no one knows exactly what the underlying need is. However, to understand its relevance in simple terms, let us think of our bodies as a car. I presume everyone here, other than me, owns a car, or do I have company? Now you will all know that no car can keep going and going without a tune up or oil change. Well, the car may still run, but not as smoothly as it would have done if maintained properly. Scientists believe that sleep is like a daily tune-up for our bodies.

Now to get back to the theories: There are three theories that I am going to talk about today. The first among them is the Repair and Restoration Theory:

According to this theory, sleeping is essential for revitalizing and restoring the physiological processes that keep the body and mind healthy and properly functioning. This theory suggests that NREM sleep is important for restoring physiological functions, while REM sleep is essential in restoring mental functions.

Support for this theory is provided by research that shows periods of REM sleep increase following periods of sleep deprivation and strenuous physical activity. During sleep, the body also increases its rate of cell division and protein synthesis, further suggesting that repair and restoration occurs during sleeping periods.

The second theory is the Evolutionary Theory:

This theory is also known as the adaptive theory of sleep, suggests that periods of activity and inactivity evolved as a means of conserving energy. According to this theory, all species have adapted to sleep during periods of time when wakefulness would be the most hazardous.

Support for this theory comes from comparative research of different animal species. Animals that have few natural predators, such as bears and lions, often sleep between 12 to 15 hours each day. On the other hand, animals that have many natural predators have only short periods of sleep, usually getting no more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep each day.

The last theory that we are going to talk about is the Information Consolidation Theory:
The information consolidation theory of sleep is based on cognitive research and suggests that people sleep in order to process information that has been acquired during the day. In addition to processing information from the day prior, this theory also argues that sleep allows the brain to prepare for the day to come. Some research also suggests that sleep helps cement the things we have learned during the day into long-term memory. Support for this idea stems from a number of sleep deprivation studied demonstrating that a lack of sleep has a serious impact on the ability to recall and remember information.

While there is research and evidence to support each of these theories of sleep, there is still no clear-cut support for any one theory. So, although we haven’t answered the question directly, we now know that the stigma of laziness that comes with napping is not justified. I hope that from now on, everyone here will ensure that they get proper sleep everyday, particularly people who are involved in hectic physical or mental activities. These include mothers, (and fathers in some cases), industrial workers, doctors and many more. Remember, you snooze, you achieve.

A Ghostly Encounter.

RK, the shrewd one and DJ, the stout one were having an argument. "Well, if you are so sure, why don't you spend a night at that bungalow", RK taunted DJ. DJ looked totally dejected. Although he firmly believed that ghosts did not exist, he could not persuade himself to accept RK's challenge.

What was the argument about? Ghosts and their presence in a house in the village.

Sometime after the argument, DJ met another friend. "I am disappointed because I could not take up the challenge”, he said. “ I think we should go to the house. Will you accompany me?" His friend looked surprised and a little scared, but true to his character, he agreed.

They did not share their plan with anyone. “Tomorrow is a Saturday. Lets do it tomorrow morning.” Morning came and the weather was a little gloomy like it is in Bangalore just before heavy rains. The two friends started walking up the old overgrown path. "Yesterday, I was talking to my grandmother", DJ said absentmindedly. "She told me that this house was owned by a very rich family. The entire family died in a road mishap. There are rumors that this house is haunted by their ghosts." DJ felt his spines tingle as he finished the last sentence. The big house had just come into view.

They mustered all their courage and jumped over the boundary and entered the house. They explored the ground floor and all that they found was dust and rot. With time, pride started replacing fear in their hearts. And as they were about to leave, they heard a scurrying noise from the first floor. Curious, they ascended the squeaky stairs and entered the room where they thought the noise had come from. The room was empty but they noticed another door that was swinging. They opened it slowly and peered through it. The view from the balcony of that room was so beautiful that they were mesmerized and inadvertently drawn to the very edge.

And then, they had this feeling that someone was standing behind them. They turned around slowly and their hearts stopped beating. There was one old man standing behind them at the entrance of the door. He was looking very pale. His hair and beard both were all white and he was definitely more than ninety years old.

Their mouths dried up. Thud-thud—thud. Thud-thud—thud beat their hearts. It was as if the whole world could hear it. What were they witnessing? Was it a ghost? It couldn't be. The old man was smiling at them! "Welcome to my lovely home!" he opened his arms. His voice was unnaturally gruff and sinister. "Let me introduce myself" the old man took two steps forward. "I am the Nawab who lived here sixty years back" he waved his hands towards the house. A smiling ghost! They tensed up for an assault and were ready to jump over the balcony. As if the ghost read their minds, he spoke, "I am not going to trouble you. I always wanted people to visit my home."

“Come let me show you around" said the old man and started showing them around the house. He was behaving as if the house was fully furnished.

Once they finished the house, the old man took them outside and started talking about the invisible gardens. And then all of a sudden the old man started fidgeting around licking his lips.

"I need food. Give me some blood" The old man drew a small kitchen knife form his shabby cloths and approached the boys.

"Run Anand run…" DJ shouted. And the boys ran. They ran till they could run no more. And then they ran some more. All this time, the only thought racing through DJ's mind was how it could be possible. He was still not convinced. But he had seen the ghost with his eyes. Two people cannot both hallucinate at the same time. Finally, out of breath and with legs like lead, they stopped. They sat down and gulped in mouthfuls of air as if they had just surfaced from a deep sea.

DJ's belief was shredded but there were a few strands still holding. He could not believe that they had seen a ghost. Although he had run away in a fit of panic, he decided to go back to the house to solve the mystery.

He reached the house and started peering through the windows of the ground floor one by one. Just as he was about to give up, he saw the same old man. He could also see two other people with him. One of them was RK. "Oh My God!" thought DJ. "I must save RK. He is trouble. But wait. Why is he laughing? Why is he paying money to the ghost?" It was then that the whole prank struck him. He had learned a valuable lesson. Seeing is not always believing.

The walk to the gallows.

It is a chilly winter morning and I am walking down a street. I have to go across it so I head towards a zebra crossing. I notice a big red Hummer approaching so I stop. The Hummer stops as well. My expression goes from registering surprise to incomprehension to understanding. It dawns upon me that I have a right to cross the road and the driver honors it.

Cut to home: I am standing at an intersection; the signal indicates that I can walk. I gingerly step onto the road and notice a bike approaching, charging and honking like a enraged bull; my heart leaps into my mouth and I sprint to get to the safety of the other side.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, two silicon valleys: In Stanford I can shut my eyes and cross the road from any zebra crossing. In Bangalore, even if the signal indicates so, I have to be careful before crossing the road.

We live in the third-most dangerous city in the country when it comes to traffic. I understand that there are a myriad of traffic problems in Bangalore, but for now let us just concentrate on the plight of pedestrians. Let us pick one road in Bangalore: Richmond road. There is not one stretch from the Hosur Road junction till Richmond Circle where a pedestrian can cross the road safely.

I wonder why no one calls the Richmond road a 110 feet road given Bangalore-ans propensity towards using the width of the roads as their names. It is very wide. And what is worse is that there is no divider. So traffic is continuously flowing through the road like water in a drain after torrential rains. Some of it also overflows onto the sidewalk. There are zealous bikers who meander through traffic and believe that they can drive anywhere and everywhere. They honk at you if you are in their way. You jump out of your skin and forget about the fact that you are standing on a sidewalk specifically designated for you. One scene that I recall is more or less like this:

I am standing on a sidewalk on Richmond road. A very elderly person has somehow ventured into the middle of the road in the hope that people will slow down for him on noticing his frail shoulders and bent back. Guess what, no one gives a damn. They continue speeding around him barely missing him by inches. Eventually, I and two other friends venture into the sea infested with bull sharks and risk our limbs to get that person across.

What makes us so indifferent, so cold? Are we so naturally? To answer this question, let us take another example. I have an acquaintance, a lady, who I believe is sweet, very considerate and caring. Just the other day, I happened to be car-pooling with her. Everything went well except for the moment when she noticed a person stranded in the middle of the road. Knowing her, I expected her to slow down and let the person pass. She did not. A look of determination came over her face. She not only maintained the same speed, she honked at the person. It appeared to rattle his bones and he inadvertently took a step back. The lady had a triumphant expression on her face. As for the person on the road, fortunately for him, no there were no vehicles in the other lane otherwise a horrible thing could have happened. Latter I asked her why she did what she did. She told me that she was in a hurry. Hurry to get where? A place that is so important that a few seconds are worth risking a person's life. That is a silly reason.

Most of us are not naturally inclined to ram our cars and bikes into trees. And yet we are so heartless and callous when it comes to pedestrians. Please understand that when I talk about pedestrians, I do not just mean people like us who are agile and can sprint across the roads and jump to the safety of the sidewalks. Pedestrians also include small children and elderly people. If we are scared about our lives and limbs, imagine how young children cope up with this.

Some of you will say that pedestrians should be more careful. Careful? How many of us respect zebra crossings and slow down at one? Forget about zebra crossings, people jump signals. And then there are places where there are neither signals nor zebra crossings. So what are pedestrians supposed to do at such places? Wait endlessly or risk incapacitation to perform a simple activity as crossing a road.

Obviously, government is to blame as well. There is money to build elevated roads, put up hoardings, run Volvo buses and ironically, cut down trees but none to build pedestrian crossings. But we Indians are pretty good at this. Any ill in the society, and others, if not the government, are to blame.

So allow me to ask you: Are we a city of unfeeling individuals who are willing to handicap somebody to gain a few seconds in life? Are we, Toastmasters? No. We do care and we are going to do something about it, right? So please stand up and repeat after me:

I acknowledge that pedestrians are human like me.

I respect and will continue to respect the pedestrians' right to walk and will do my best to help them.

And I will never drive on sidewalks.

Great, I feel safer already. And just so that you know, I don't drive at all.

The Great Divide [Revised]

"The Great Divide" was my P4 speech. I delivered it last week at Orators Toastmasters Club. I have been asked to repeat it with more rhetorical usages. This is the revised version of the same.

The Great Divide

Dawn is breaking and the Sun stealthily peeps over the horizon. It appears as if the Sun is playing hide and seek with the world. Suddenly, the game is over and you can see glimmering rays reflecting off the tin roofs in Dharavi and the tinted windows in Juhu.

Our explorations start with this dawn. Fellow Toastmasters and guests, I plan to walk you through two different mornings in India.

In Dharavi, a cheerful chirruping of sparrows replaces the mournful squealing of rats. Daylight seeps through a small window in Vinod’s mud shack. It reveals a curly black head. Further inspection shows that this is attached to a man's sleeping body, perched on a slim metal ledge, 12 feet above the ground. That is twice my height. He is sleeping as if an Army general has commanded him to be at Attention all the time. Any movement sideways, and he will fall like a ripened mango.

All is quite in a posh, marble white bungalow near Juhu Beach. The Church like stillness is occasionally interrupted by the hum of the air conditioning unit. In a bedroom of the bungalow, you can see pink satin blankets shuffling around. Peeking through these is a milky white face radiating contentment. Natasha is almost like a newborn child in her sleep, free of all worries. But suddenly her expression changes. It appears as if somebody is poking needles into her eyes, stirring up uncomfortable emotions. These needles are actually beams of sunlight. The maid hadn’t pulled the curtains close enough the previous night. She will have to be warned about this.

On one side is a family of 12 living in room the size of one and quarter car parks. On the other, is a slim lady occupying a master double bed in a room of the size of 4 car parks. Night-sounds suggest that in the former case, the occupants include an arthritic old man with a painful cough, a wailing colicky baby and an active amorous couple. While in the latter case! Well, the bedroom had to be sound proof.

Soon after 6 A.M, ugly screeches can be heard near Vinod’s hut. It sounds like hoards of crows and vultures are descending on a dead body for a meal. These are women jostling over water taps. “It's my turn! My husband needs to get to work!” a woman shouts. In Shiva Shakti Nagar there is a tap for every ten houses, or roughly 100 people.

Natasha rings for her bed tea. She tells the maid that she would like a warm bath and apricot juice to wash down the English breakfast. Then she lays back and enjoys the sugarless herbal tea served in white china with bright blue patterns.

In Dharavi, water is flowing down the street in a rippling sheet like a mini flood. Bisecting it is an open drain, which gushes torrentially. The water in the drain is black like plastic sludge. From the stink of this, it includes a lot of human excrement—which tiny naked butts are busy adding to. The scene is reminiscent of a filthy conveyor belt transporting coal.

Natasha has been running on her Swiss treadmill. The bandana on her head is soaking wet with sweat. Content with her workout, she puffs her way to the bathroom. What a session! She tests the temperature of the water in the bathtub. Ah! It is just right. But wait, what is this! A black towel. With a black towel, you can never tell if your hair is breaking off and needs attention. She rings for the maid and a white one immediately replaces the black towel. While she relaxes in her bath, she thinks, let me ask the maid to dispose of all the non-white towels. That should solve the problem.

It is not almost 7 A.M. and the early shift begins in Dharavi's 15,000 hutment factories. These factories are like beehives and men working there like worker bees. Typically, the factories consist of one or two storeys, stuffed with young boys and old men melting plastic, hammering iron and moulding clay. There are others who head out with scantily filled carts to spend a day in the hot and humid streets of Mumbai.

Natasha has nothing much to do till 11 in the morning when she meets Nikki. It is nearly spring. Any delay in replenishing their wardrobe with the spring collections will leave them vulnerable to fashion jabs from their friends. When it is time, she calls for her chauffeur driven, red Mercedes S Class and heads out. At a traffic signal, she notices a frail young boy wiping windshields. The cloth in his hand is so dirty, that Natasha wonders if it does any cleaning at all. She doesn’t realize that that piece of cloth is the boy’s only shirt. He dabs at her car with it and gestures for some coins. The signal turns green and the car moves on leaving the boy disappointed.

Vinod’s nephew, Chotu, heads out on the road with his only shirt slung over his frail shoulders. He has a couple of hours before his uncle will need him at his vegetable stall. He decides to make some money wiping cars on the busy cross section. He tries hard not to damage his only shirt. He hasn’t had much luck and decides to try one last time. However, the signal turns green as soon as he finishes. He notices the stick thin lady in the car and wonders what keeps her from eating!

This citation of extreme cases may be a little difficult to swallow. My only defense: Both these categories are growing in number with time. This raises many questions.

First: Which of these mornings is characteristic of India?

Second: Are we doing anything to alleviate the plight of the poor? It is easy to get away with this question. So, let me twist it a little. How many of us ensure that we do not add to the plate of woes that is already overflowing?

To sum it all up, I leave you with a quote: “It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”