Carruthers’ Cows

The limerick, courtesy our Finance Professor, describes, rather funnily, the effect of using debt in the capital structure of a firm.


There once was a man named Carruthers
Who kept cows with miraculous udders’
He said, “Isn’t this neat?
They give cream from one teat
And skim milk from each of the others!

NLP in action

NLP works (or was atleast made to work) on the premise that we can align our thinking, our daily actions and consequently change ourselves keeping in mind our larger objective in life. So, first you have to identify one personal problem that you face and would like to get rid of. These may include inabilty to focus, lack of courage in admitting something and such stuff.

Once the specific problem has been identified, we have to think and meditate to understand the environment, our behavior focussing on an instance of that problem. Jot down the feelings like anger, and behavior like shouting,screaming which you may experience when faced with the problem. Then try and correlate your experience with your skills, capabilities, beliefs and values.

Identify yourself with a symbol - something that defines you-like a bird in flight, a moon in the night sky or a star. Identify one phrase that would define you and your vision in life - like say, jack of all trades, or something like that.

Now work backwards towards your problem and revisualize the environment and your feelings and seek new insights into it. Do the whole thing slowly, taking about an hour.

This self-exercise is supposed to give one a better understanding of his/her self. For example, you drop a glass of water, your friend says, " How clumsy you are". Now, this is a comment relating to your behavior and many of us take it to the level of our identity and believe , "I am clumsy".

Though the exercise gave such insights into one's self, the class is still smarting under the psycho-babble that was delivered on a sleep-inducing Thursday afternoon and some have pledged not to attend such discourses which forced them to write "Child is the father of man","Pen is mightier than the sword" etc., for want of a better phrase, as their vision in life!!

Neuro - Linguistic Programming

Neuro - Linguistic Programming is one of the topics that we were experentially taught to us in the PDW course. Well, the idea of NLP is kind of abstract, but it makes sense nevertheless. It gives a structure to a thinking process to analyze your day-to-day behavior from the following perspectives:

1.Environment
2.Behavior
3.Skills and capabilities
4.Beliefs and Values
5.Identity
6.Vision

Ya, I know it sounds abstract. But, more importantly, I, like many others in the class felt that the idea of NLP is more of a research interest, or for academic pursuits, not for daily self-inspections.
Moreover, most of us, at this age would have a fair idea of ourselves, and our behavioral patterns. NLP as it stands, may give you few insights into something you do not already know about yourself.
Largely, the concept of NLP is just to bring a structure to our understanding of our actions.

Fast "Forwards"

Let me thank Rashmi for triggering my thought process which resulted in this post. This has got to do with the email forwards that almost all of us get everyday. I have tried to analyze what makes people forward these messages. The analysis involved splitting the forwards into two broad categories:
1. The forwards which involve funny pictures, anecdotes, or jokes.
2. The forwards that are more emotional and sentimental in nature.

The reasons I could gather for forwarding the emails are :

1. Each time you forward the mail, the previous recipients' email addresses also is seen in the message. So, it is quite possible that the person who initially triggered the mail was looking at collecting email ids to further his intent of forwarding. And chances are that you get to see a long lost friend's email id in the forwarding list. I myself have a found a few email ids of my old friends this way.

2. The other reason could possibly be based on the basic premise that the person forwarding has nothing to lose in forwarding the mail. The emails asking you to forward to some 'n' number of people within the next 'm' units of time play and expect rewards commensurate with your forwarding rate are usually the ones that carry some sad story, or of some miracle or some such similar stuff. The person who receives the forward normally feels that "thing" inside him which makes him/her forward it.

Largely the reasons for forwarding stem from the fact that its so easy to do it, and for people who sit in the cubicle whole day clicking the mouse might just be all the activity that they do for the day.

I am personally not very convinced with the reasons. I am also not aware of the psyche of the software engineers who forward such stuff in large numbers. I can derive no conclusion out of this analysis - it remains open. Looking "forward" to some better reasons!!

Binge Eating

The Americans have displayed a voracious appetite for borrowing.
In fact, according to a recent AC Nielsen survey, Americans are the worst savers on the planet. Many people now believe that the Great American Bubble, spurred on by the housing boom, will soon burst - which is only to be expected. The Americans are so paranoid these days. Everyone and anyone is suspect. From Bush to Bangalore, all seem problematic. When a person feels that the future is bleak, the obvious thing for him to do is to stretch the present to a limit. And the Americans have only one thing to stretch - their consumerism.

The US budget deficit is at record highs presently. Dick Cheney is busy convincing people that the Federal Government will have higher cash inflows through tax cuts ( such a dud!!). Soon, the bubble will burst and the dollar will depreciate rapidly. The great Omaha - Man, Warren Buffet has anyway lost faith in the dollar. The dollar's other cheerleader, Alan Greenspan is out.

George Bush should tax people so that they spend less. But, he will not do that. When he could see non-existent WMDs, he is well within his atrocious capabilities to ignore the warning signals this time as well. This time the binge eating will only spoil the American appetite.

Turn the clock back again because...

...I want to go to school on a Monday morning. I want to run around my school ground in white shorts. I want to balance those chemical equations. I want to watch Byomkesh Bakshi on a Tuesday night. I want to rush through my home work so that I can go and play. I want to sit on the floor cross-legged and read the Hindu Young World, with my brother on a Saturday afternoon. I want to score a goal. I want to play seven stones. I want to study Sanskrit at 5.30 am. I want to be the class monitor. I want to walk back home with my brother, and buy a Center-Fresh on the way. I want to ride my black and yellow Hero XS. I want to sleep at 10 pm.

I want to do all these and many more things all over again. Even if given a choice I would not do them differently. Beauty lies in imperfection.

Madame, vous êtes génie..

This female is so intelligent.
When asked by a reporter recently about certain news reports about her in the UK press, she replied saying," Its not in UK, its London". Somebody tell her where London is, please!!

See this, and you will realize that she is so inch perfect in giving same expression, day in and day out. Only her facial changes!!

Phew...at long last...

At long last I made it to a quiz final, at TATA Crucible 2006. Most definitely one of the biggest finals I have been to. Thanks to my team mate Praveen. It feels great to come 5th from among 125+ teams. And of course there were a lot of non-cash items (commonly known as goodies) to take home.

The fact that we decided to attend the prelims only 20 minutes before it started, I think the opportunity was grabbed with both hands very firmly. And business quiz is one of my weaker areas. With the kind of preparation we went in and ended up ahead of many seasoned teams, I am tempted to think of Bangladesh-defeating-Aussies type of a game. But, I have decided to take my business quizzing a trifle more seriously now.

Another thing that got reinforced today was having a great chemistry as a team. You need to have faith in your partner's intuition, and he in yours. That is so very important. Nitin, you know it all too well right!!

Book Review

I finished reading three books recently.

Fire and Ice by Diana Palmer:
This book is a truckload of avant-garde, sophisticated crap. No sense from the beginning to the end. Flop Govinda movies are far better. Sometimes, I fall into these traps of experimenting needlessly.

One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat:
First of Law of "the Second", the sequel is worse than the first. Chetan seems to have gone a bit philosophical after attaining fatherhood. A nice peek into the BPO life though.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera:
Not recommended for light reading. The story is set during the Soviet invasion of the then Czechoslovakia.Very open-ended thought projection. Leaves a lot to your imagination, which I gather is the trademark of Kundera's writing. Lots of philosophical insights into life,love and communism.

At the Saarang 2006 Biz Quiz

With mike in the hand, and a white T-shirt. From left - Balaji,PJ, myself,Protty,Kris - the men behind the Biz Quiz!! And yes, the teams sit on the floor! IIT M quizzing tradition!!



Putting Fundaes!!

No mom, please!!!

Look at Britney's baby,Sean Preston ( God knows, where from that name is derived. It sounds like some 200- year old mining/construction firm's name from the Industrial Revolution era).
He is like thinking, "Mama, no please, do not go the Godmother Madonna way. Just because you kissed her on stage does not mean you have to take up Kabbalah and the Hindu rituals. Look at aunt Aguilera, she appears fine. And why isn't that vermillion on my forehead too??"