Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, December 05, 2011
Bulls-eye | Vishal Badani's Blog
Bulls-eye | Vishal Badani's Blog
The right question at the right time — now that’s being bang on target. And how much could you afford to think about it? Surely, affordability in terms of time is what you rightly found more precious than ‘thinking’. And if you didn’t, you need some spare time to re-think. Read this piece again after you finish reading it all (specially that what you read above).
The issue arrives at the point when you encounter an answer that you didn’t anticipate. And whether the answer was never manipulated is the big question.
What could you have done about it? — Really, nothing. Its whom you asked (your sampling)should have been more important in the first place. Antagonists are handy, and they are needed by enterprises. Only the limit of irritation or non-duplication (or both) need be set.
The right question at the right time — is ‘now’, no matter how you felt while asking, no matter what others felt while hearing. Toss your thoughts out, but only for learning, for improvements.
Being apocalyptic for the wrong habit is the lowest low, do you believe?
Friday, December 02, 2011
Friday, November 04, 2011
Move your butt and brains, together
I’m not myself until time changes, until deadlines, pressures, targets, time-frames close in. You and I wait for the approaching zero hour. Where’s the imagination leading? No, I’m not that. Sorry.
Forecast, make changes, upgrade, then fail – acceptable. Don’t move, wait for the time to come, don’t change, don’t give up to move on to something better – that’s downgrading your existence. Your frequency of anticipating incorrect possibilities shall incrementally rise.
Critically true, life’s simpler with changes since you work towards it, making it more charming. You enjoy the complexity it brings along.
Bizarrely, I think of a Marilyn Monroe quote: “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring”. And that happens when you’re doing everything seemingly right, but virtually, contributing nothing.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Delightful Disbelief – We Won
Alright I’m still getting closer to believing that India has won the Cricket World Cup 2011. We won it on 2nd April 2011 and I am only still writing about it today. The feeling is taking sometime to sink in.
However, the one thing that I am sure of is I’m going to be able to tell my kids, and very proudly (mind you) that their Papa was in the stadium where India recorded a victory and became World Champions after 28 years; where a thoroughly deserving Sachin Tendulkar with 22 years of solid Cricket behind him was carried on his teammates’ shoulders right in front and most players acknowledged that they wanted to win the Cup for him; where a bold Captain MS Dhoni, not eschewed by his lack of runs in his recent run, was gutsy enough to come early on when needed perhaps against all odds, played an innings of his life and hit one of the massive sixes to announce the Win, a Captain’s innings truly; where Gautam Gambhir who scores consistently but never seems to be around on the pitch, plays another of his match-winning knocks, one of the finest Indian players in all formats of the game truly; where a non-Indian coach Gary Kirsten, a South African, was given as much respect as the greatest player on earth deserved and who was carried on World Cup winning team’s shoulders deserving every bit of the respect; where a playerYuvraj Singh who is one of the most stylish looking left handed batsmen, just sometime before the World Cup was about to quit Cricket, ‘roared’ in the middle of the pitch when the winning runs were hit and he became the Man of the Tournament, a supremely deserving reward for him; where a boy called Virat Kohli, supposedly the future Indian Captain in my books, stays at the pitch when required, against all odds in a World Cup final match.
Yes. My kids are going to have to listen to me, for not once but time and again.
I would also add that each Indian player cried, some like babies, like the way you’ll do. They didn’t know what and how it happened, but supposedly only knew that they deserved that win and had won. We (Indians) however did believe that India deserved that win, each one of us at the stadium with millions watching on TV and some estimated billion Indian fans, always did.
In the first half of the match, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene scored one of the finest centuries under pressure. Zaheer Khan who led the Indian bowling attack right through the Cup, started his bowling with three maiden overs. Harbhajan Singh did well andPaaji also bowled a couple of overs. Whether batting or bowling, whatever Sachin does, India stops paying attention to anything else. That’s the aura of the legend. India fielded brilliantly especially Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, and nearly all were diving and were doing anything that they could, to ensure India did it’s best. Virendra Sehwag took one of the excellent catches for India’s first wicket.
While I finish my chapter on the grand final that I watched, where I cheered, jumped, sang, shared Hi5s in and outside the stadium with probably 500 unknown people, hugged many unknown Indians who came my way, I’d want to add on to my experience of the India vs Australia match, which I saw at the stadium. And the next match against Pakistan, which I watched with my friends. All experiences were scintillating where the result was what dad always wanted to hear – “India win”. We did wait very long…..
I thank the Indian Cricket Team for bringing this kind of pleasure. A special thanks to MS Dhoni under whose captaincy, India has won everything there could ever be. Whether he has the ‘midas touch’ or he performs or anything that I don’t care about, he commands respect and he has delivered. As an Indian, in Cricket, I am proud to say that we have started to believe that “We Can Win”. We have won…..
And lastly, since 1992 since when I believe I was glued to Cricket, thanks to Sachin Tendulkar, whose innings I would have never missed since then – whether having watched the complete match or his innings only, or the highlights (and seriously I do mean, I haven’t missed any of the legend’s batting by far that I can recollect), all of us wanted that this World Cup was his. Thanks for bringing 20 odd years of pleasurable Cricket, especially some classy batting for us.
And for all I hear my kids, while everyone in the family was watching the match, with everyone you’ll were shouting: “shot”, “six”, “four”. It didn’t matter whether you’ll understood it, but the delight by itself was fulfilling. Well, that’s what everyone in our family says….. ask anyone, you’ll thoroughly enjoyed the matches that your father saw – the Cup that we won…..
There’s much more to say, but some other time.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Tattered Thoughts – The Education Addiction
It was a busy yesterday at one of Times Education Fairs in Mumbai. It’s also inspiring to see such a student crowd, many with parents, coming in to find career options. Sometimes I wonder if, more career options create confusions. But at the same time being an education consultant, I like to see students opting for enterprising options or at least taking the pains to find them. It’s unfortunate how the system runs here (in India) where a student who has done his Commerce after 10th std. will nearly never have a chance to study engineering and so many such other dead ends remain in existence. However, this is besides the point. The real wound lies in the consequence of the perceived competition between students. And truly, to much extent, this competition is between their parents. Parents cannot be entirely blamed for pushing their kids to do well who ultimately want their children to excel. But it’s sad to find the kids in stress on account of their parents’ thought process.
By afternoon, having met more than 50 students wishing to study in different countries, I watched a keen father of a very young student waiting to ask me a few too many questions (one could make out). His chance came and hurriedly, he requested his son to say what he had in mind. Looking at his face and height, I was assuming to hear some questions on possibilities of studying abroad after his 10th or 12th std. or seeking to understand more career options. And here goes the question:
“Sir, I want to do my MBA. I am in my 9th std. now. I know I will work hard in my 10th std. and score more than 80 % marks overall. What should I do and can I apply now?”
I only just managed to hold myself up. I must mention here that our position in the fair was somewhere in the centre, before which this family may have had a chance to easily speak to at least 10 other consultants. I was furious (which I didn’t show to them), not because at that stage my time was valuable, but simply because I failed to understand the kind of stress that this kid would be under or will have to go through for the next 7 to 8 years of his life. And what happens when the time comes for him to make out an application to one of the Top Business Schools and he would be denied admissions then because of the fierce competition. Rest aside, his career start after his MBA and the pay package and more. I simply smirked, then laughed and asked the student to just ‘enjoy’ his life and his current studies until the time comes for him to make a Masters level education application. Hearing my answer, the parent seemed dejected to whom I just mentioned that it’s too early for him now and that he should start thinking about this in the second year of his degree level studies.
After a couple of hours, I had a chance meet with this parent at the canteen, while sipping over a cup of coffee. I probably did not have to, but best found to explain to the parent that his child can come under terrible stress if everyone around him persists on pushing him further. It was just too early and let him enjoy his life. In the next 5 minutes, he politely addressed to the issues he was facing and a whole lot of sentimental happenings. He only seemed aversely passionate about seeing his son become a genius in the future. I gave up….. and moved back with a request to join my stall.
Parents can be very ignorant about the current situation. But it would be nice to identify and analyse a few facts before they get their kids to meet with the reality. Given, the unawareness and the incessant turn that education has taken in India, I do not entirely blame the guardians. A Masters level study here has become a compulsion. There seems to be a dearth of value-based vocational programmes (though these can be found in abundance, at least seen in newspapers). And I do not understand what is with the word: “MBA”? True, it provides “jobs”, “promotions” and to many, “reputation”. However, I would not be surprised to question a few HR Managers for their reasons to hire only an MBA graduate and many would reply in the affirmative about their lack of knowledge on Masters in a specialized field (like in Marketing, Finance and more). To top it up, every other Institution in India wishes to or are running an MBA and in most likelihood, all have enough students to run profitably and successfully for the subsequent years.
The irony is that some intelligent students too equally enjoy being ignorant. They would be happy to do an MBA program in India without having work experience and when similar opportunities are available in countries like the USA, the UK, Singapore and more, they simply start questioning why a foreign Institution would want to accept them when they are only a fresh graduate. This question arises before not having read the course content, not knowing where on the map that foreign university exists, which specialization to study – simply, they haven’t a clue!
Tattered thoughts – students enjoy spoon-feeding at the degree level studies in India; in most places their attendance in the lectures is pathetic (the least to say); most do not have access to libraries and if they do, they never carry their library cards; graduate level education may have become compulsion for ensuring that a resume looks appealing; and for some it’s a necessity to get married. Finally, is MBA an obsession? Is it that Indian Institutions should all start a 5 year integrated Masters (or with an MBA) to ensure students fight for more study levels?
Here we are with the whole new Education Addiction…..
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