This pensieve of mine

Ignoring the social sciences

2011-09-21T23:39:00.007-04:00

Exams in India always called for a visit from the holy ghost of maths. Maxing every maths exam for an averagely intelligent male child was a very reasonable societal expectation. The maths exam was the ultimate test of how intelligent you were, how successful you would be and how well you carried the family pride forward. Post the exam, the high school maths question paper would be solved fully by full grown adults with about a 30 years head start on you in life and a judgement be passed of how easy it was and how a great opportunity to max the exam had been missed. Despite this all important test of self worth, I never understood what it meant to study maths or practice it. To me, maths meant understanding the underlying concept and then trying to apply it creatively to solve problems thrown at you on the day of the exam. Practicing potential problems ad nauseum before the exam till it became purely mechanical on D day was a thought which never occurred to me. The end result was that the mythical 100/100 was never mine. The anxiety to achieve the 100 had some behavioral offshoots, though, such as repeating a popular song in the mind over and over again during the exam. Others included procrastinating studying the subject till the last moment.

To stave off an impending dread of studying maths, I used to study social sciences. Unfortunately, however, studying social sciences meant trying to read it and memorize it till I could spill it out exactly as is from the textbook on paper. Social studies never meant a visit to Lodi gardens which was in the backyard of a friend, or even a visit to the Hauz Khas monument which was in my back yard. Tantrums before exams as to how I am being forced to study drab history and civics when I'm never going to ever use it in the future as a budding engineer or a scientist were commonplace. In retrospect, though, these tantrums betrayed a weird fascination for the subject and a denial for the impending boredom of maths. Social science remains an uncharted, fascinating academic area which never got its due from me. Looking back on my 30 years, I feel that most of my decisions in my life have been taken with a heavy dose of society and cultural influences. However a big gap in my understanding of the society has led to a peculiarly prescriptive and predictable life. The cost of ignoring social sciences is mine to pay.

Swami by Ranjit Desai : A book review

2011-09-17T22:31:00.005-04:00

"Swami" by Ranjit Desai is special as its the first Marathi book I have read. For me this is a start into a fascinating area of literature which I never explored. As I write this, I have finished about half the book, so some of my opinions may change as I finish it.

"Swami" is a historical account of the rule of Madhavrao Peshwe, based in Pune. The book remains focused on the character of Madhavrao, his rule and his various relationships - mainly focusing on his relationship with his wife Ramabai, his mother Gopikabai and his uncle Raghobadada.

The book progresses very quickly through the story line, keeping a firm grip on the plot. Within the first few pages of the book, Madhavrao's sense of justice is established through the scenes of his darbar in which he admonishes his uncle for not complying with the rules of the treasury. Madhavrao's love for Ramabai is explored through scenes of Theur where he orders that a garden be built for her pleasure. His love for his mother is described through letters exchanged with her. His relationship with his uncle remains defensive and then eventually goes south due to the constant competitiveness of his uncle. Madhavrao was severely compromised on several occasions due to his uncle's pettiness. Madhavrao's uncle was presented with many occasions when the choice was between his personal self and the Maratha empire. Most times he chose in favor of his own self causing severe damage to the Maratha empire.

Though quick in development, the book does stop and smell the roses through vivid descriptions. Most notable are the descriptions of the hunt that Madhavrao goes to along with his uncle and the Nizam while he is under arrest. The hunt is a metaphor for Madhavrao's state of mind while in his uncle's custody. The descriptions of the welcome party on Madhavarao's return to Pune from his battles offers a crescendo to an exciting first part of the book. The vividness of the "pangat" in the Shaniwarwada left me yearning for "varan bhat" with liberal toop on it with bhaji.

The book remains focused firmly on Madhavrao and the other characters remain subordinate in development. Most of the other characters are developed in response to Madhavarao's actions and decisions. The author has the tendency to introduce a large number of characters without clearly explaining their roles in the plot. The author has glossed over much of the details of wars with Madhavarao's opponents making his victories sound almost too easy and hence by consequence him almost divine in his military skills. Surely there must be some complexity of thought, some grey areas at play here which would have made interesting reading and presented a more complete and realistic picture of Madhavrao. Some of Madhavrao's controversial decisions are presented in very laconic, terse sentences such as his decision to appoint the Jadhavs (his uncles potential assassins) as Sardars or his over-reliance on rituals and religious ceremonies in the beginning of the book. Surely, some people would be at the receiving end of these decisions and would not view Madhavrao in the same divine spirit as did his supporters. Presenting these weaknesses would have painted a more complete picture of Madhavrao along with his fallacies making him a more human, believable character.

The complexity of thought of certain moments in the book could be explored a bit more. When Madhavrao decided to fine his uncle (Gopikabai's brother) when he allowed the Nizam to loot Pune, Gopikabai leaves Pune. At face value, this could be read as pure anger on her part. But she goes on to claim that her staying in her son's house when both Madhavrao and Ramabai were now adults would be inappropriate. This is interesting as extrapolating her train of thought one could conclude that she steps away not because she's angry but because her emotions and relationships should not influence Madhavrao's political decisions. Explorations of thought are lacking in the book and these remain exercises for the reader. Though I do believe that it being a historical novel, such explorations would have been conjectures on the author's part and would have compromised historical accuracy.

All in all, "Swami" keeps its promise of being a Marathi all weather classic.

Tyranny of the MBA application

2011-09-16T22:03:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe the farce that the whole MBA application process has become!

Diversity

Most schools apparently craft their class profiles so that they have a balanced cross section of society. This pretty much means that the poor Indian IT males are doomed - unless of course you are the CEO of your own company. But then doesn't that mean that among two exceptional individuals (lets say Einstein and Newton) from an Indian IT profile and an average third individual (Joe Schmo say an opera singer), chances are high that only Joe gets chosen? And then since the chances of Mr. Schmo becoming a CEO are high, if the school reports are to be believed, Schmo would eventually control the careers of Einteins and Newtons, wouldn't he?

Moreover the bar of diversity has now reached a prohibitively high level. Social service is no longer diverse. Most candidates who apply now have social service on their resumes - doesn't matter if it means serving soup at a soup kitchen for a day. This makes it very hard to distinguish between who has served soup for the sake of a line on the resume and who has spent real sweat.

Essays

Most essays center around having to wax eloquent about oneself through anecdotes. Most people I know have faked their way through this. Recurring applicants get to the extent of being able to precisely craft stories not only for themselves but for others too. Also, in most cases people who have suffered personal tragedies and issues have it made as it makes for impressive stories.

This also is a clear benefit to polished writers. Sure most people who have work experience should be able to communicate. But being successful at work does not necessarily mean that one would have superb writing skills as well.

Networking

Business schools apparently give you the unparalleled opportunity to network with CEOs and other successful individuals who may help you get jobs. Sure they may. But do they also ensure that you would do your job well? Merely getting a job because you can schmooze and have beer with the CEO does not mean that you are the right person for the job. Taking the wrong position not only affects your career but also all your subordinates careers as well.

In my opinion, the MBA is a huge industry to loot hundreds of thousands of dollars from largely mixed candidates (of course this is not a generalization) to land them in positions they may not deserve. These people then create a clique of exclusivity based on a false brand and ensure that the new people who get in are as randomly chosen as they were further propagating the mismatch of talent and jobs, jeopardizing careers and the economy.

Better off with Liberal arts

2011-09-16T21:40:00.000-04:00

A few years back, while at Stony Brook, I found myself on a train next to an undergrad student. We got talking and he said that he wanted to get a degree in Business Administration. Since he was decided about this at the undergrad level itself, he had apparently considered studying business as a major. However, his professor advised him against it. The reasoning was that for people who want to make a career in business or law, reading, analyzing and processing vast amounts of text/information is an essential skill. A degree in liberal arts would be a perfect choice for him and hence he chose liberal arts as his major. He could always get an MBA later in life.

I think the above argument makes perfect sense. Now that I think back, had I been in the 12th standard at this point, choosing a career with my 84 percent, I would probably have chosen liberal arts in a branded college such as St Stepehen's or St Xaviers over an engineering degree from VIT Pune, which mostly nobody has heard about.

The most precious asset

2011-09-11T17:39:00.001-04:00

Most companies in America pompously keep projecting how much they invest in their employees and how hard they work for them. Some even go so far as to say "people" are their best assets. Really? How come then whenever the stock market sneezes the headcounts of most organizations catches colds? And how can people be their best assets if the pool of people employed is not even constant?

Wouldn't it be a better strategy to not lay off people but just reduce the salaries of everybody across the board? Yes, everybody would have to live more frugally but wouldn't everybody get to eat and go to school? Wouldn't the economy be better if everybody earned less but more people remained employed?

Should companies be allowed to keep shareholders happy under any circumstance? even at the cost of larger economics?

Multi headed demons

2011-09-05T21:40:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the demons that we are all fighting are intertwined into a multi-headed hydra. This makes it tough to actually see what the real cause of the various symptoms is. As one grows, one has to first sort out each of these monsters from their knots and then slash each of them.

2011-09-05T21:12:00.000-04:00

Recently heard "Did you know that Jesus spent a long duration in Kashmir and picked up most of his philosophy from there? It has even been validated by the Vatican that some part of his life was undocumented! These people will never admit to it!"

Being part of one's roots is great. But I think this is jingoism... Is it really important who taught whom and who thought of it first? Do we even really understand our own core philosophies? Isn't it better to spread the core message and learn the message from other philosophies that to waste time on specifics of who got there first?

Where are the legends?

2011-09-05T20:17:00.000-04:00

Recently somebody commented that the history books in India had stopped at 1947. Is that because there has been no history after 1947?

There seems to be a lack of towering personalities/thoughts in almost every sphere of life. In politics there is no Shivaji, Gandhi, Nehru or even a Hitler. The last towering persona probably was Indira Gandhi. In literature, there doesn't seem to be another "Gone with the wind" or a "War and peace" being written. In music will there be a Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle again? (Though I do confess Shreya Ghoshal is right up there).

There seems to be a lacuna of those towers which sway humanity - makes me think, are we in the age of mediocrity?

2011-02-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

Soil from shoes
scrapes bare feet. Pending work
clouds sunny weekend.

2011-02-05T23:50:00.000-05:00

Glinting stale black snow.
Flowing Hudson awaits the
cherry blossoms.

2011-01-30T20:50:00.001-05:00

Clear crystalline
Water. Sparkling melody
Into saline streams.

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2011-01-28T11:33:00.001-05:00

Aching hands
Let go floating balloons
Tranquility

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2011-01-28T09:25:00.001-05:00

Sway violently
As train changes tracks. Hold on
To face the new day.

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2011-01-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

I worry about
rain on bright hot summer days
hot coffee gets cold

2011-01-26T22:23:00.000-05:00

soft snow on hard ice
have you been out all night?
have mercy on me

3WW, arresting, rhythmic, wicked

2009-06-18T07:48:00.000-04:00

Your arresting smile,
Your rhythmic swaying gait,
Your wicked, my love

Starry night

2009-05-07T21:16:00.000-04:00

Flash a malign grin,
On a night with cryptic stars,
it is sure to rain

Jaago re , Indulge, deceit and oath

2009-04-23T00:48:00.001-04:00

deceit and false oaths

a billion people vote

indulge for a day

Earnest, Reactive, Layer

2009-03-28T11:53:00.000-04:00

Could'nt resist this one. I apologize for this :)

Ernest Hemingway
How do I react to your
multi layered prose

Pregnant

2009-03-18T22:28:00.000-04:00

Ubiquitous wombs
bear burden of mother earth
natural childbirth