Treatment of symptoms, not the disease

Yesterday, the Indian judiciary achieved a big milestone with the epic judgement which awarded the long deserved death sentence to 8 accused in Manjunath Murder Case in a short (by Indian standards) period of around 500 days.

Manjunath, an IIML graduate joined Indian Oil as sales manger and lost his life for being honest and not succumbing to the presssures of bribery and corruption, which has been so deep ingrained in our system that some people have started taking it as a part of the tradition.

This judgement may go a long way in deterring small crminals and petty petrol pump owners like Monu Mittal. But, this is only an application of ointment to the sore which manifested itself in the form of Manjunath Murder. The underlying disease is all pervasive corruption, which needs to be treated in a much more comprehensive manner.

I believe corrupton can be addressed in a top-down manner because if a senior is honest, there is an automatic pressure on his juniors to get rid of corruption. So, the treatment of the cancer of corruption needs to begin right from the top with the decriminalization of indian polity and immediate action against the greedy bureaucrats. I believe, to take the country on the path of progress, we need to immediately address this issue because rent-seeking behavior is deterimental to our economic progress.

Removal of corruption and adequate compensation (yes salaries will need to be increased once bribes are removed from the system) along with victory of justice in cases like Manjunath Murder, may influence the brightest minds of the nation to leave their plum dollar-salary jobs and join PSUs to make a greater change.

The best 5 hours of WIMWI life

WIMWI, Well known Institute of Management in Western India aka IIM Ahmedabad is known for its rigorous academics, hard core fighters but what people do not know is the life that resides in every heart that lives on campus. But what it needs to free that untapped talent, that unharnessed energy is a right moment, and what can be a better time than the start of the last academic week. (Yes, I know that it is only the end of my first year but no one studies in second year right?)

So, the mighty BOOZTERS (name of the 2006-08 Sec-B batch) took a well deserved break from all the pains of SFI, Fin, EEP and god knows what not...(Interesting fact: the height of first year course material at IIM Ahmedabad is more than that of a normal human being)

So, they gathered to break away all the shackles and send a message to maggu junta "Dude, go get a life".

The section which boasts of famoous sportsmen like Adrian (at an age of 30+, the guy is our sports secretary), Taid (the IITD footer captain), Piyush Zeka Surana (the ever-enthu guy) and Satack (or should I say Said up, pronounced as Satap) could not have started in a better way than a frisbee match.

Then, we proceeded on to the famous Poll of the Year (POTY) awards. All the people who had put in persistent efforts throughout the year were to be duly rewarded. I am going to list some of my favorites:

• Silence is Golden Award: Who says IIMA people are die-hard competitive, in a place where class participation fetches you a good portion of the pie, there are cool people who have never been heard to utter a word. And, keeping the tradition, our winner went away in style without a word.


• Rip Van Winkle Award: And who says IIMA gives you night-outs, early morning classes and a tough life, here come our winners. And one of them in his style, did not even bother to disturb his sleep to receive the award.

And, then comes the delicious food, followed by the yummy cake. I cannot share the cake, but would allow you the pleasure of watching it...tempting na...

And, then they sang. With due respect to elders, we began with Group-4 which boasts of senior citizens like Adrian, Mudit and Muthuselvan.

And, you know once these old men get enthused, nothing can stop them...so what next? CHANCE PE DANCE...our very own version of Amitabh Bachchan (Mudit Khandelwal) performing Beedi Jalaile..

In essence, one of the best times I ever had...I never thought I would be able to live such moments after leaving KGP but WIMWI, Sec-B and all these friends have proved me wrong...you can live to the fullest wherever you go, because life is not outside, it is inside.

PS: Thanks to Goga, Ranjit P. Ajaykumar for the pics

IS THIS ENOUGH?

The odds are deterring
The sky is warning
I am crazy enough
Not to be listening

The past is crying
The future is boding
I am insane enough
Not to be heeding

The scars are reminding
The sores are chafing
I am strong enough
Not to be bleeding

I have loved morning enough
Not to be afraid of the night
I have loved light enough
Not to be afraid of the dark.

I have loved HER enough
Not to be afraid of the world.

Prayaas Sports Day

We believe in "All work and no Play makes Jack a dull boy" and so do our friends from the Prayaas School who celebrated their sports day with us. The young warriors fought hard and gave a loud warning to the Marathon runners.

The ladies even tried the famous sack race, if you think it is easy, just try your hands once. This is from self-experience, I have been a consistent loser in this race since childhood.

And, then they graciously accepted their laurels won after battling it out among themselves.

And finally the teammates who made it possible.

For the non-IIMA friends, Prayaas is a school run by IIMA students to provide education to slum children. So, if you wish to help us in any way, feel free to contact us.

Holi Hai...the first at IIM Ahmedabad

The bare body CEOs in the making

Hey, this place never fails to amaze me....always strikes me with a surprise even after having been here for almost a year. I never thought that psued MBAs would throw away their corporate facade and be their ownself to enjoy the festival of colors.

Like the traditional style, we went for Holika dahan, the last night and today the show was all on. With the arrangement of environment friendly organic colors and 1500 L water tank, all enthu junta assembled right in the morning, 9 AM...after all these very people have been attending all the soporific lectures, by 08:59:59.

But, Holi is not a festival where people go in a civilized manner and shake hands saying Happy Holi....so what, these future CEOs do know how to dirty their hands. We had a wonderful mudpit which had an awesome power to attract people and once they have been immersed in mud, the person himself offers to get dunked in the tub and becomes an active participant in the show.

To add to show, the fun was multiplied after having Thandai and Bhole naath ka prasad...so, all in all, the best holi of my life. So, for your fun, I am adding a few pics.

They all had fun....

A morning walk

More often than not, we forget to appreciate the beauty spread around us. How often have you thanked God for the warm sunshine, for the relieving rain and for the singing birds which wake you up from the sweet dreams....almost never.

So, it happened with me. Despite living in the hallowed brick walls of IIMA, I never appreciated its world-class architecture, I never thanked Louis Kahn for endowing us with a gift which will be instrumental in scripting the stories of our dreams..and as a PGP-1, you do not even notice its beauty because the system keeps you engrossed in bloody WAC runs and short MANAC quizzes(for non-IIMA junta, these are the most terrifying courses in first year).

But not everyone is oblivious to the surroundings and it took an exchange student from US (one of my good friends, Kriti Bhandari) to prepare me for my first photo shoot of the campus on an idyllic sunday morning.

So, we roamed around the campus and took pics of the beautiful Louis Kahn Plaza and the famous Harvard Steps.

And here, in this pic is our dormatory structure, just the right balance of light and shadow. I simply am in love with IIMA.

Thanks Kriti for taking me with you on the photo session.