Learning when to quit

A common question is - While preparing for a competitive exam like the UPSC or IIMCAT, when do I realise that I need to quit? I thought a lot about it, and this is what I feel.

• Quit when you wake up in the morning with a heavy heart, and can't face yourself in the mirror

  

  Quit to Win with right mindset

• Quit when you stop taking pride in the small learnings that happen continuously when you strive on a daily basis
• Quit if you see your scores in quizzes and mock tests just not improving despite all the efforts you could muster
• Quit if you are ashamed to face your family due to your first failure (in the Prelims) - I say so because you just have not learnt the lesson that success rarely comes to most people in the first or even the second shot
• Quit if you have had a history of similar behaviour since childhood (that you tried, failed, felt ashamed, lost all drive)
• Quit if you find something else that matches your aptitude and skills much better than chasing the IAS dream (or the IIM-CAT dream)
• Quit if you discover other facts en route - like you as a potential IAS officer will just not be able to take orders from others (especially half-literatenetas)
• Quit if your family is mature enough and will take that decision in their stride without feeling that the world has come to an end
• Quit if you are not shameless enough to stand the heat, burn the midnight oil again, & try, try and try
• Quit if you realise that there are other responsibilites that are getting seriously compromised in your personal pursuit

And finally, quit if your heart tells you so. Don't ask others. Take your call. And take ownership of that call, don't hide anything, face the world. Remember - 99% of us have faced failure at some point in time.

All the best!

MBA or UPSC - what to choose

The dilemma of selection

Ummm... which looks better?

A lot of bright young people find it rather trying to decide which option they will pursue from many good ones available. If you are facing the same, you are not alone. Since both require a lot of hard work, it is best if you spend some quality time differentiating.

Let us understand the difference in the type of work that these two careers entail. I'll put it simply, without too much of jargon.

Being an MBA - This is what most entrepreneur dreamers, high-personal-achievers, corporate-types, brand-builders, leaders, communicators would choose to do. They have a dream of either working for a large brand globally, or wish to start an enterprise of their own. They may even belong to a family that's running a large business. These are people who may wish to work across disciplines (HR / Finance / Marketing / Product design / IT). These surely are people who wish to be financially very very successful, live in big cities, own big fancy apartments, drive cool cars!

Being a Civil Servant - These are people who wish to spend their lives for the benefit of the nation, the people and the social system. They get immense happiness when they see a smile on others' faces as they solve some intractable problem. They get a huge kick by ensuring that projects are conceptualised and executed well, say for Garbage Disposal, or Solar Lighting, or Employment Camps in Remote Areas, or Primary Health Centres or ...  Of course, there are fancy options as well depending on the Service you choose. But largely, these are people who dirty their hands while working at the grass-roots level in teams that are extremely varied in social composition.

These two are entirely different mindsets. 

1. The first is centred on one's own self, and the second on others.
2. The first assumes tremendous personal energy for self-growth. The other requires energy for growth of others.
3. The first is likely to be full of nervous energy raring to prove itself. The second requires a patience that only deep, cool, thinkers may have.
4. The first is likely to seek permissions from the second for the projects they launch!

How to handle failure in competitive exams

Fearing failure is a bad idea

I am often asked by students who fail to clear some competitive exam as to how they can continue to maintain enthusiasm and energy for another attempt. I am also asked by students if they should actually continue, or give up totally. Recently, the UPSC Civil Servies 2015 Prelims results were declared. My answer below pertains to that, although you can apply this strategy to any other exam as well.

That's how it is

When you fail to clear the exam the first or the second time, ask yourself these questions:

1. How many aspirants crack the UPSC exam in the first attempt? If the answer is anywhere less than 100%, you are not on the wrong track.
2. How many crack the test in the second attempt? If the answer is again significantly less than 100%, you have hope left.
3. Do some people make it in their 3rd or 4th attempt? If the answer is Yes, you can be one of them.

The real questions to ask, post the above, will be

• Why did I fail in my two attempts? Where did I fall short? Which topics could I not master adequately? Can I master them now, given this background? Was I really sincere enough? What did those who got selected did right that I missed on?
• How badly do I aspire to be a top civil servant? If it's bad enough, striving for a couple of years more is a good idea.
• What do my parents think of it? Do they have faith in me? Will they support me emotionally, and if required, financially through the next few months/years?
• Do I have the energy left in me to go the whole hog again? Or am I exhausted? Was I exhausted even before the second attempt came through?
• If I do not make it even in the next 2 years, what are the other options I am looking at?

How do the companies like Microsoft appoint CEOs?

A great question
Someone asked this on Quora, and I felt compelled to try and answer.

A giant in transition

I think these giant companies follow this process:

Step  1. Identify potential talent within the organisation that can be ultimately elevated to the top post (the corner room, as it's called). 
Explanation. In some cases, outsiders can be considered, but that rarely proves to be a good decision.

Step 2. See if the identified talent has stayed long enough with the company. 

Explanation. Long enough can vary from a few years to a whole lot of years, depending on the type of work the company does, to have absorbed the company's culture (dna, as they call it!) And obviously if an outsider is chosen for the top post, then this step loses meaning.

The future of education

Putting thought to it

Education, in its broadest meaning, refers to the process of training, refining and growing someone’s mind and intellect. It assumes that the mind still has empty space ready to be filled, and that someone (the trainer or the educationist) has something of worth to be imparted.

Claude M. Bristol said prophetically – “Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement”.

This sums up what the purpose of education should ideally be. It points towards the components that educators should build into their processes and curriculum. And above all, it contains the promise of prosperity for the learner – a quintessential need if one is to really move beyond rote learning and its associated depredation. But it poses a challenge too – the difficult task of freeing minds to have the courage to think free thoughts.

Of course, the mind is the spiritual or metaphysical manifestation of the more mundane physical brain, which leads our modern society to easily categorise people using their IQ levels. And this dichotomy between the mind and the brain is neatly visible in the chaos of modern education, where the most educated can be seen indulging in acts most well-reserved for the uncouth and uncivilized.

Well, as far as the future of education is concerned, I feel it is here already. It will be obvious and apparent only to those willing to shed their cobwebs of legacy which blind, and chains of stale knowledge that corrode.

Shockers galore

Some months ago, while watching an episode of the Amitabh Bachchan led KBC, I was shocked to see a participant with a proper Bachelors in Computer Application (BCA) degree unable to answer the question “What does (dot)com in a website’s name refer to?” This person must have spent 3 full years attending a government approved degree college, replete with a Ph.D. professor as the Principal, and several other highly qualified individuals as faculty. And at the end of it, she cannot even begin to contemplate what (dot)com refers to. Her excuse “I never used the internet in my BCA course” makes the situation worse, and points to the core of our education system’s redundancy – outdated mindsets miraculously pretending to cope with challenges of today’s world. I further shuddered at the prospect, suggested by someone, that maybe the Principal himself may not have known the answer! Perhaps we educators really need to appreciate, in a changing world, what Mark Twain said - “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” 

The golden rules

Lessons from the Modi victory

No one, not even (I suspect) the BJP had expected a clear single-party majority like this one! But it did happen. There are strong lessons from this astounding victory. Though most poll-pundits were cautious enough in giving a victory to the BJP led NDA, but no one expected it to be a clean sweep like this.

Lesson No. 1 Astounding victories are possible
Irrespective of history and geography, a single national political party can drum up enough support to get a simple clear majority in the national Parliament of a fantastically diverse nation like ours. All excuses are out. Naysayers will crib about the funding and the flights, but it's all futile now.

Lesson No. 2 Leaders have to lead from the front
Rahul Gandhi would take full credit for Congress victory. Today, in defeat, he is nowhere to be seen. This went totally against him, and his party. People are not fools - they see and analyse things. On the same note, worthwhile to realise that Modi ji would have been in a soup had BJP not pulled it off - he had taken all onus on himself. That needs guts.

Lesson No. 3 Social media it is, all the way!
With 4 million Twitter followers, Modi ji was taking active lead in interacting with the youth and twitterati. Rahul is being shielded pathetically by partymen (at least till 4 pm when he apparently accepted his failure). With the 50 cr+ youth of India, this approach does not work.

Lesson No. 4 Remote controls are out
People are sick and tired of the double power structure with one pole enjoying 100% authority with 0% responsibility. Sonia ji's "plausible deniability" theory has led to the junta denying her chances totally nationwide. It has failed Madam. A great economist Dr Manmohan was wasted in the process.

Lesson No. 5 Jo Yuva Hit Ki Baat Karega ...
... wohi desh par raj karega. Young graduates are frustrated with the pace of jobs growth. They see no hope. No redemption at all. Hence, such a wave of support for Modi's simple promise - I will develop the GDP and generate jobs. Rahul also said the same thing but the youth thought "Why didn't you do it for the past decade" Why didn't you become a minister yourself"?

Lesson No. 6 No beating the RSS grassroots networks
It remains the largest organisation with grassroots reach in India. And when it pulls out all stops, miracles can happen. But then, a political icon at the top is needed to convert it into seats.

Lesson No. 7 Coalition governments are out, for the next 10 years
The people have decided - coalitions are bad for India. Let us give this gentleman a chance and see if he performs. We may choose local parties for local assembly seats, but no point sending them to the Parliament. The shameless greed of the octogenarian from Chennai in looting national resources did its bit in public disenchantment.

And what about the AAP? Well, for all their good intentions, the tremendous folly of spreading too thin has ruined them. At least Kejriwal should have fought from a seat in Delhi/Punjab and ensured an LS entry. India needs talented people like him. I think the party may splinter now, and all celebrity-faces may desert them faster than they joined. The no. of votes polled, though, was an impressive 1.1 crores. 

In an earlier article, I had discussed the dangers in raising expectations too high. Those dangers remain, all the more necessitating quick decisive economic action from the new government lest the mandate should fritter away like the Rajiv Gandhi govt's tragic decline in 1980s.

Go ahead Modi ji, ensure the release of all the latent potential that India has. Make us all realise that the potential is within us, and we should all take steps forward in unison. What an historic opportunity for India. Truly!

|| भारत बदलेगा पर याद रखना, भारत हमारे बदलने से ही बदलेगा ||
~

Why the Indus Valley civilisation remains a model worth emulating

Taught to most Indian kids as a chapter in an early stage History book as part of the curriculum in schools, the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) is forgotten as the students move on to higher classes. Neither do we hear about it anytime, nor does any teacher ignite the fire in our hearts about the miracle the IVC really was. I feel that the IVC is the strongest cultural gem we have, a proof of how mighty the Indian (Hindustani) minds were then, and how it still remains a model worth emulating. Not even the mass media covers the flurry of excavation activities still happening the way it should.

I feel the cold neglect that India has shown to the IVC is a big mistake that needs rectification.

Sample some startling IVC facts, first.

• It was an urban civilisation, not a rural one! So, in an age starting 3000 BC (that's 5000 years earlier!) our ancestors had perfected the art of building cities! That's not trivial at all.
• A minimum of 1000 settlements have been identified so far, making it the LARGEST civilisation of its kind. The two contemporaries - Egyptian, and the Mesopotamian - are not even half this size.
• Of the 100+ sites dug up, the cities show a remarkable similarity in conceptual layout, the citadels, the homes, the sewer lines (imagine!), the wells, the granaries, the fire altars (in later day cities), etc.
• The people were non-violent. Imagine, a 1000 settlements, all existing in mutual peace and harmony, not fighting, not developing weapons, but trading, and reaching out to each other - sharing! (we have no working model like that even today! We compete, destroy, raze.)
• They were global traders - in their small and medium sized boats, they reached out to the entire middle-Eastern cities then including the giant Mesopotamian civilisation which was to thoroughly impressed with the trading and material capabilities of the IVC people that it left many written accolades that archaeologists are discovering now.
• There was no forceful established religion for most of its duration of existence. Even the rulers (if there were any) were not megalomaniacs and lived in regular citadels, unlike the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians (and definitely every single one following that - what to speak of the violent marauders after the first century AD). That's the reason no huge temples, or pyramids are found. It's all generally egalitarian. Amazing, isn't it?