Personalities - Three Types

This may be the one of the many times that I will be iterating that every individual is different. One more factor that certainly embellishes this fact is the way we tackle problems in life. Right since birth we encounter various problems in life and we try to find a solution of those problems either with the help of people who are closely related to us or alone. In Erik Erikson’s (a neo-freudian psychologist) words, these problems are termed as ‘conflicts’. His idea of categorizing one’s development into stages also incorporates the significant role of conflict. Every stage, in his view, comprises conflicts which ideally need to be successfully accomplished. How well a person tackles them determines how his personality would be shaped up and also how well his other stages would be confronted. Anyways I don’t intend to discuss Erikson here. My idea of writing is to zero upon some of the ways I have seen people tackling their problems which says a lot about their personality.

I generally categorize people into 3 broad categories on the basis of how they confront a particular problem. We all know that socialization is something that has a great impact on one’s personality though heredity shouldn’t also be ignored. Now the first set of people when they come out of a particular problem sit with themselves and think about what all went wrong. Was there something lacking from their side that they could not handle the situation? What were the things that they lacked? What steps should they have taken to effectively handle it so that if it confronts them again they are all ready for it? Or was the situation something that they could never have handled or what steps should be taken so that it can be avoided if they come across the same problem in future? And finally they would end up doing a kind of SWOT analysis every time this happens to them. And these are the people who know themselves well because you can contemplate only when you know your strengths and weaknesses. This category, I would term, is the best of all because they don’t live their life in deception and also emerge as successful creatures in whatever they do.

The second category is one that doesn’t know anything about itself. They are total frauds as I would term them. They continue to deceive themselves all through their life and also end up deceiving others. They come across problems but since they have zero or near zero self awareness, it is highly likely that they don’t waste time on their failure (quite positive!) but they continue to face the same problems and hence commit the same mistakes. Since they are ‘lost in their own world’, they are the distanced very far from the word ‘Success’. They are poorly adapted to their environment and luck, if any, plays a very important role in their success.

The third category is one that can be really said to be ‘lost in its own world’. They do face problems and are very much aware of the things that go wrong but they consciously or unconsciously fail to act upon their failure. May be they are too lazy or too arrogant that they refuse to change. They may feel that they are right in their own way and there is no need to change and it was the problem’s nature that it can’t be solved and nobody could have solved it they way it came. They also live their life in deception (as seen from an objective perspective) but ‘their’ perception doesn’t term it as deception. This category may consider everyone else useless and itself to be of superior breed. And probably that is the reason that they don’t even try to change or act upon the problem so that it doesn’t bother them again. They are comparatively better adjusted than the second category because they find themselves comfortable only in the company of people who are similar to them in most of the ways.

Finally, if seen from a holistic picture the first category may appear to be an ideal one but it is hard to find oneself in one category all the time. I do agree that sometimes it happens that we jump onto other categories because human nature is hardly static but the major proportion of which category the person lies in ultimately decides what kind of person he is and a lot can be predicted about how he would be in the years to come. Anyways neither am I here to pinpoint anyone nor to tell that I lie in ‘x’ or ‘y’category. Its just that I wanted to give a concreteness to my observation.

Nothing Else matters (Metallica) - Main solo

Although I did this solo some years back, I thought i should put it on my blog. I ain't a professional guitarist. I just manage to play something on Guitar.

Perception is reality

One thing that I learnt from my Psychology lessons is that every person is different. And when I say that every person is different it is self explanatory that everyone perceives differently as well. Whatever we comprehend about the world completely depends on how we have perceived the world. The world may not in fact be really like that.

I have come across many people who say that they have been used by other people. But then a question comes did the other person force you to behave like that? It was you who gave yourself in to the other person’s requests. It was completely your choice that you succumb to that person. But then another question comes – What made you to succumb to that person? The answer lies in the perception. People perceive the world and of course its inhabitants as they themselves are. And therefore people who see themselves as ‘Can never do bad to anyone’ will perceive the world a fair place. But since I have told that the real world is not what you have perceived, you may come across people who take advantage of your innocence and when they are sure that you are not beneficial to them anymore they are ready to part with you giving excuses which have no logical basis. It becomes very late to realize that you have been used to hell and hence you waste time on repenting what the other person did although the fault lays largely with you. It is human being’s tendency to blame others for the wrongs that we try not making improvements in ourselves and tend to commit the same mistake again and again. One repercussion of this is that some people start taking a negative view of the things around them but this is not a good strategy to go with. The best thing is to consider every person as a good person but never expecting anything from him. The moment you start expecting and forcing other people to do what you feel is the right way, that very moment you have chosen the path of utmost ‘selfishness’. This is what my psychology teacher has taught me.

You must believe that people who care for you will never ask questions to you and the ones who don’t care, I don’t think you need to explain anything to them. So just be yourself giving importance to only those people who are selflessly tied to you. But it is hard to find people of this kind in this world. Bad experiences in one’s life should only be taken as a cue to caution you of what lies ahead and not develop any kind of prejudice against anyone. The moment we are able to carry out these things, our life becomes more meaningful and the rewards, if not now, will definitely come later in life.

The Philosophy of Life - 1

I am starting a series called “The philosophy of life” wherein I would pen down some of the aspects/events of life that are inevitable and aim at imparting a lesson to those who are ready to learn from the bitter/sweet realities in their journey from womb to the tomb. One of the aspect that has recently propelled me to share is centered on the importance we give to various people we meet in this journey.

Right from birth an infant comes across different people. Some have a profound effect on his personality and some just come and go without making a considerable impact on him. As a result of this direct or indirect interaction with people, he inculcates few of the things and that becomes a part of his personality and stay with him all through his life. Now when I say that the interaction has an impact on the personality of the person it is quite evident that he must have given high importance to that person and as a result he has borrowed something from him in the process. But when I look at this process from the perspective of the other person, the story of life seems to be a bit ironical. There also exist people who give a lot of importance to us (infant) but most of us don’t realize it and tend to ignore what the person has done to us. And these are the people who are least valued. We simply act/feel indifferent to most of his behavior. And this is not something that is very specific to Ram or Shyam. It happens to most of us. And when I say most of us, it means I am talking of the majority. One of the best examples I can give is that of parents. Parents, especially in India, do everything for us but how many times do we stop and think seriously about them or about what they have done to us. Some people would reject my argument saying that it is their duty to do that. I’ll half-heartedly agree with them but we can always thank them in a way that would make them special and make them realize that they hold a special place in our life.

This is just one example. It may be applicable to many others, be it friends, strangers, who has had tried to give a new meaning to our life. Simple ignoring them would simply be being selfish on our part. We must try to understand that in a world comprising selfish and self-centered creatures if someone is taking pains we must thank them. And thanking them doesn’t merely mean saying thank you and some of these things can’t be taught. People just run for bigger things without even knowing that those bigger things are the ones that are the most difficult to possess. And in the process we ignore the importance attached to the smaller things which are easy to get. It is well said that we attach less value to the war which is easily won. And unfortunately that is what the human nature is all about.

Old Habits Die Hard

After a long wait I finally decided to write something again. There have been lot of issues that are urging me to pen my thoughts down but I am choosing to write on something that introduces a more philosophical touch to my thoughts. Thanks to my good observation ability that I have begun to realize that habits die hard.

Now first of all how do we define Habits? Habits are actions that progress from our consciousness to unconsciousness and that is probably the reason why they die hard. Because we are hardly aware of those actions that we begin to feel comfortable. We know that the laws of physics state that every entity in this universe tries to attain a state of maximum equilibrium and minimum energy, so this partly explains most of the things. Whenever an individual tries or even thinks of trying for a change, upheaval is caused inside the individual. Obviously who would think himself of trying to unsettle himself even when the change is for something good? What people don’t realize is that after disequilibrium, a state of calmness prevails. We just try to see the things superficially and not think of what lies beyond and often go wrong in interpreting most of the life situations – All that glitters is of course not gold. Bringing about a change is something getting out from the comfortable shoes that we have been wearing for many years and switching to the new ones which of course pinch at first. We try to distinguish between comfort and boredom without realizing they are the two sides of the same coin. It is said that bringing about change in oneself is easier than to bring it in the other but I beg to differ because it is equally difficult to change ourselves. To bring about a change in oneself you need to first repudiate your mind set because you just can’t simply say that what I have been doing or thinking for so many years is faulty and believing that we are infallible creatures. To question ourselves would mean to question our identity and that becomes impossible when we have already formed our identity.

A very valid question crops up that ‘Is the change really required?’ I really don’t have the potency to answer it because this is something person specific. Not many individuals would accept that they are not living their life as per their expectations. We need to first identify our expectations and that is something which goes all through our life i.e, to know ourselves fully. We find all kinds of people – those who think a time to change is due even when everything is going fine and as expected because life hardly follows the same and those who think that nothing is going as expected. Miserable are those who lie in between. But we must understand that change is the law of nature. It is an inevitable part of our life. The moment we try to question our ability to change or resist change, we hold ourselves responsible for our sluggish future. In the process we forget that “After a storm comes calm”.

MBA - The Dark Side

Now since the MBA season is over, it is time to look back what happened in all these stressful months that have brought joy to some and disappointment to others. The MBA season as i define starts mid November when people sit for CAT and ends in mid-January immediately after FMS. This is keeping in mind that majority of people sit for these exams. Obviously, there are some other exams as well that lie outside the scope of my definition of "MBA season". And i won't be talking about the Do's and Don't's but i would like to bring to light few of the issues that everyone of us (being aspirants) are aware but as we say "Time is the best healer", we forget about them and move forward in life. I must say there are two reasons why i am writing this. First, because i too have failed in achieving what i had expected (let's be frank) and secondly, i have lost all the interest in getting myself an MBA degree. After the infamous fiasco pertaing to the unexpected/surprising scores of the candidates, one thing that surfaced was that i was sure that the colleges are less concerned about making a man out of a boy or woman out of a girl. I won't deny the fact that money is needed to run any institution or business but transparency and the inclination to be true to the intellectual society is something that was not very much present. When we talk of MBA, the word "Professionalism" needs to be attached to each and every activity that is associated thereof. The first time i sat for the MBA exams, i used to think why the institutes introduce the B-school forms before the result and infact even the last date to purchase. I was unaware of the power of the word "Business" at that time. I wanted an MBA degree but without knowing the deep meaning of the business itself. Students, every year, shell out thousands of rupees to purchase the forms and then when they get to know that an undesired event has taken place they see their money going down the drains and become helpless and disheartened. Why not the results come out and people get to know where they stand so that they shell out the hard-earned money of their parents (for those who are still not into job) according their potency and satiate themselves. But then a questions arises: How will the institutes satiate themselves? And this is not all. Another concept has emerged these days. And we call it - "The profile call". No one has ever tried to define it in absolute terms because of the simple reason no one understands it. Now tell me, if i am rejected on the basis of some parameter, then how would i come to know that whether i am fit to apply even when i sit for that particular exam next year. This happened to one of my friends last year. He was rejected by some XYZ college and when he inquired the reason he got the reply that he did not score enough in his class XII exams. Now this person can never apply to the college because he cannot defy time to go back and change his class XII marks. Whatever may be the case, i have come to believe that all this is beyond my comprehension and I trust the Almighty for this.

I feel this is not something that the student community should come forward so as to bring transparency in the system because i don't want to burden it with one more responsibility. The competition has increased by leaps and bounds and amidst this if i ask the youth to come and fight for the betterment of the system, i would be asking too much. If youth has to do everything, then where is the moral responsibility of people who claim themselves to be the Guardians of the society. I may sound too patriotic, philosophical and unrealistic but when one sees people who being utmost capable don't make it as per their dreams just because of these issues, one feels dejected.

CAT- It's new; It's different

So the time has finally come. It took 33 years to break that old convention. Yes, you are right - the CAT has become online. The IIMs have eventually selected Prometric ETS as their partner in delivering their computer assisted CAT. The things may look to be quite streamlined for the IIM people but i fear there are few things that would pose problems for the aspiring candidates. I won't be talking about the flaws in the execution of the process because i don't know anything about it. For that, we will have to wait for the prospectus and the guidelines issued by the IIMs.
The first thing that would catch an aspiring candidate's eye would be the institutes, i mean the coaching institutes. Since every coaching institute used to conduct mock tests before the actual CAT, this time the scenario would be a little different. Every institute would follow its own process and would try to move anywhere around GMAT because that is the only online exam and which caters to the admissions into MBA institutes around the world. May be a possibility is there that IIMs specify the structure of the exam and for that we will have to wait. And if not, institutes would do their best to experiment with the online CAT. So experimentation will be at its best on the assumption that IIMs won't disclose much. The new CAT may give a lot of surprises because GMAT aspirants have GMAT prep tests easily available on the internet that can be downloaded for free which give the exact feeling of how the test would be like. I mean the interface. And if CAT doesn't supply that, the surprise factor may be a little cumbersome for the first timers. So availability of online mock CATs by the authority will make a lot of difference.

Second aspect is attempting the test from monitor screen. I have seen people, the ones who have appeared for GMAT, who face problems attempting the questions from the monitor screen. Because our education system is such that for the past twenty or so years we have been reading from books and notebooks that it is most likely that people may face problems during the test keeping in view that last CAT attracted around 3.5 to 4 lac people. Underlining important lines from the RCs, solving the question at the question paper itself, eliminating options by putting a cross infront of the options are some of the factors that people have become well acclimatized and therefore can be problematic. So again practising questions and that too from the screen is something that the aspirants will have to keep in mind in the coming months. And consequently it is highly likely that a candidate may not be able to justify his potential during the test. And moreover, it is still undecided that whether the candidate has to attempt all the questions or he may revert to the ones he has left.

The next aspect is the type of questions. Seeing the GMAT pattern and the no of people who have appeared in the last CAT, it is quite predictable that the questions would be tricky wherein the logical type of questions would dominate. Again the basics would have to be in place in such a scenario otherwise the chances of failure would rise. Another thing that becomes important with the concept of online CAT would be the domination of profile based admissions into the colleges. If GMAT pattern is adopted, preparation of essays would become an inherent part of the admission process. Seeing this year's scenario when colleges like symbiosis etc have started to bend towards candidate's profile, it is predictable to some extent that people would be called for interviews only on the basis of the profiles and very rarely the marks scored in the exam. Obviously, when lacs and lacs of people appear, these things do stand out and colleges have taken a serious note of this. One consequence of this would be that the no. of applicants for exams like SNAP, JMET, FMS, IIFT, NMAT, XAT etc would rise.

Another factor is the application fee. I reckon that people will have to shell a bit more than what they had done last time for the simple reason that the infrastructure required to conduct the exam for so many people in the mentioned ten day window period would demand the costs to go a little higher.

Amidst all these obstacles pertaining to CAT, i can see some added advantages. If CAT adopts the GMAT pattern, then people will not have to prepare separately for GMAT and as a result the number of GMAT applicants from India is bound to rise. Moreover, the B-schools taking CAT scores may also rise. So just watch out and strategize to tame the CAT in a different way. All the Best!!

India, China and Outsourcing

First of all, let us first define what we mean by outsourcing. Outsourcing is getting your work done by someone else who can do it in a cheaper and better way. Now when it comes to outsourcing, the first geographical location that hits our minds is India. India, which has traditionally attracted most of the services outsourcing projects, is currently churning out engineers at the rate of approximately 4 lacs per year which comprises the majority of its skilled workforce. If we are talking about Asia another destination that has caught the attention of everyone is China. China is considered to be the hub of manufacturing. China’s economy is the second largest in the world after United States when measured on the Purchase Power Parity. With the growing influence of China on the world stage, it is considered to be the next IT destination but there are some of the factors that stand against the country and give India an edge.

The key factors that are worth mentioning when we talk of offshoring are:
1. Abundance of technically skillful labor force.
2. Low cost workforce.
3. Quality of service.
4. Regulatory environment.
5. Robustness of infrastructure.
6. Knowledge of English language.
7. Time zone attractiveness.

Now India has tremendous advantage in terms of these factors. Not only that, since India has been doing well on the offshoring front, it has got the knowledge of how the projects are handled and it can use this knowledge as well as experience in taking an active part in the designing stages of the new projects. Another important aspect is the emergence of KPOs where India with its intellectual capital can show its capability in areas like research, designing etc. This is something that China does not own. China is relatively new to this kind of situation. Moreover, China lacks on account of English skills, Mandarin being the local language, and western business practices. But there are some factors that favor the rise of China and they are:
1. Liberalization of Government Regulations.
2. Growing middle class.
3. Large-scale investments in technical education.
4. Vibrant economy.
5. Availability of cheap labor force.

Chinese, over the years, have shown themselves to be hard working, competitive, and dedicated, as a result of which they are able to overcome any odds by dint of labor. China’s Government on the other hand has chalked out a massive program on primary education with focus on training in English. So if we see the overall picture we can be very sure that China can definitely prove to be a threat to India in the near future and India must raise the bar in terms of providing quality services to maintain the current trend in offshoring.