The Last Pilgrimage

It’s almost two months since I was officially declared an Engineer and almost a year since I have claimed to be one. But the feeling of having left DAIICT, my Alma mater still does not sink in. I have been wanting to write this post since the convocation, which was one hell of a meet, but somehow I could not gather so many thoughts and emotions into words at the time. I guess, these two months have given me the time to put my thought together in a more coherent manner. So here’s something for the readers through the lens of “nostalgia”.

The Inevitable

About a year ago, at this time, I was preparing for my BTP presentation. The time was ticking and for the first time I realized what ‘the inevitable’ is. Leaving the place, the room and the friends was always a distant possibility. But in those last few days it was a fact, something that could not be avoided. There would be friends whom probably, I would never meet again in my life. The whole culture that I had started to like would fade away, no more AOE, no more barging into friends rooms to just do timepass, no more certainty about things in life… But then, I guess after a point, I became numb. I just took days as they came and all the time hoping against hope that the dreaded day, when I and my friends leave, would not come. But time does not stop, and I had to leave. It was not emotional, surprisingly, but it did leave a big hole in my heart. A feeling of emptiness.

Not Immortal

We youngsters have a problem. We don’t realise that we are mere mortals. At least, I never thought about things from that angle. That was till I heard about that the demise of my batch-mate, while he was planning to go back home. My second myth shattered. Within days, I faced the two biggest realities of this world. First that you cannot do anything to avoid the inevitable and secondly, there is an end to everything, even you.

Not Indispensible

Life came a full circle when I went for the convocation. I expected it to be fun, meeting all those people and being the old self once again. I knew the time was less but nonetheless, we had all the plans to utilize every moment to the maximum. I reached DAIICT and we went to to all those restaurants we wanted, to feel like those “good old days”. The convocation was a wonderful time. Was just great to meet all those people again, recalling those moments that probably none of us could ever forget. But what struck me was that things had changed at DAIICT. There were new faces, I did not have my room; the place was not mine anymore. It was as if I was being told that I was just a part of the institute. If I go, there will always be someone to replace me. It was comforting, in some sense, that there would be juniors who would carry forward the things we had initiated. But there was also this sad feeling of not being a part of all the “action”. I guess life has its ways of teaching its lessons.

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Weird Statues

http://www.toroller.com/2008/01/03/amazing-weired-statues-manuments-sculptures-of-the-world/

Humans and Environment

Being a regular user of Stumble Upon, I come across a lot of sites discussing about the future of our planet. Sure there is a realization, at least in the west, about the dangers of living the excessive lives that we have started to live. However, most of the sites, I think, are fundamentally wrong. The following cartoon brings out this point, and I do hope we see our actions in this perspective and the environmentalists also understand that it is no charity they are doing:

http://ryanpagelow.com/2007/12/08/2007-12-08/

The Dark Knight

The next batman movie:

http://www.atasteforthetheatrical.com/deathtrap/default.htm

After the amazing way in which Batman Began, I’m already waiting for the next movie in the series, namely, “The Dark Knight”. In this, as indicated towards the end of the previous movie, The Joker comes in to trouble the city of Botham and obviously, Batman would fight and expectedly defeat him. But then, the plot is not exactly the most important thing in superheroes movies. Its the special effects and the magnanimity of it. And I expect “The Dark Knight” to deliver on both accounts.

Just Amazing!

Thanks to stumble for this amazing video I got to see:

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Bastard+Fairies/+videos/2962609

The girl has a point!

In Class

I am blogging from class. Was just wondering if, on the lines of “Another Brick in the Walls” by Pink Floyd, classes are any good. What if we are all learning (due to the teaching methodology) something that is totally wrong? Scares me to sleep!

Are Diamonds Really Forever?

I recently got hold of this case study (http://www.danforthdiamond.com/education/diamonds/4cs/debeers_info.htm). It essentially talks about how a thing of no worth has been artificially made so highly priced that people think that it is a rare commodity. No prizes for guessing the commodity in question. It is diamond and the culprit is De Beers (Ya, the same one which has ads in India saying “hira hai sada ke liya” or “diamonds are forever”!). A perfect example of how people’s thinking has been manipulated by some very smart businessmen.

Freedom

The freedom fighters fought for the freedom of India for almost 100 years and I never understood the necessity. I mean, had we got independence a couple of decades later, probably we would have been much more developed, Hong Kong and Singapore are living testimonies to this fact. What then inspired a whole generation of youth to give up the possibility of comfortable lives for this seemingly abstract concept of freedom?

Contrary to what people say, I do not think that it was the wish to see their country being ruled by their own people that inspired them. It was rather about the freedom to think about that possibility. It was about being able to choose what they wanted to do, whom they wanted to work for, and most importantly, think the way they wanted to. These thoughts sometimes cloud my mind and I often wonder if in this race to beat the world am I (and for that matter many people) beating myself by compromising on that one thing for which millions of people gave their lives.

Managerial Communication – 3

Interpersonal communication is probably the most challenging area of managerial communication. This so happens because, every human being has the right to refuse to be part of a conversation. No amount of force can guarantee that the other party is actually listening. Hence, a managers communications style needs to have an element of persuasion in it. Only the tool of persuasion can increase the possibility of participation of the other party in a conversation. This has to be complemented by refined communication skills.

The case in point are interviews. Giving an interview is an art. Contrary to most of our thoughts, interviews these days are in no way a willingness of the interviewer to know you. Few jobs and many applications gives them this liberty (I am, of course, not considering the IT sector of India which is in need of a lot of talent). Hence, it is important that with each question, the interviewee puts forth her candidature with assertion. Interviewees commonly answer the questions put to them literally and hence fail. Only if with each answer a candidate proves a point about her characteristics can she, at the end of an interview, be sure of the success. At the end of each answer, the interviewer should have some additional information about the interviewee which reinforces her application for the job. This art of giving a convincing interview can be perfected by some persistent practice though, it must be admitted that interviews can place even the best in a spot. Hence all the more reason to develop this skill!

This is a good site to start off the interview preparations.