Face the Music. In life or otherwise too :)

He thinks it was speaker's bday yesterday and he is demanding toffee from her. 
Credit: TOI cartoon column

Game of Losing

Emails are an MBA’s best friend, when we wake up we check email, standing eating and even pooping we check them. They are our bread and butter, we are good email writer, and sometimes I wonder if MBA is all about effective email writing. And one of the most most important part of email is signatures, they are what follows

With Regards

——————

——————

——————

——————

They are supposed to define from whom the mail is and also identity of the writer. But amusingly if the emails are not forwarded they are longer than the body of the email. Interestingly signatures can be used to identify the anchor point of a person. The institution, organization or part of his life that defines him the most. It is most common in our professors, it has been decades since they have left IIT’s but still it finds mention in their signatures. 

On the complete opposite side, recently my cousin had a baby. She is 8 days old, still has not been christened but has the whole family after her. People like me are helping in baby shopping; my cousin has put her PhD on hold and whatever time anybody in the family gets is spent with her. She has no identity any signatures but she is looked after, cared and loved in all our capacity and beyond. 

Now, is this not what we seek all our lives “love, acceptance and recognition" from society, from our dear ones or with ourselves. And it was all there, we loved everyone and everyone loved us, however people around us we accepted them. All our desires and needs were fulfilled before us saying anything. Then what went wrong? What happened is that we grew up, we became something, we became the signature. It is the signature and the identity that has restricted us. So maybe life is not about creating identity, maybe life is a game of losing. Losing everything and becoming natural like a baby. 

With Regards

Love to Do.

My roommate is a staunch visionary, what I mean by visionary is that he requires purpose before doing any work. On the contrary, I am a highly objective person, give me task and the task shall be done. Don't talk to me about why or for what the work is being done, it has to be done. Now the conflict happened when we became roomies, for me it was a completely new dimension. Finding reason before doing things is difficult, and it is still sometimes highly confusing and frustrating. But over the year, I went over board his boat and have started thinking the purpose before doing something.

Last month, I was reading an article, it said that there are three motivational factors of doing anything, first is love, second fear and third greed. In events of our lives, we can commonly find these as the reason behind doing something. Let us take a simple task of dressing up for a party; a girl would most probably do it because she loves to dress up. Men with the fear of being laughed at dress up or with a greed of attracting the opposite sex. 

The purpose gets served in all three cases but the intention and the attitude differ in three. When we love to do something we are not looking for approval, we are in love of dressing up. Greed and fear also make you look pretty but the only thing that we look for in the party is compliment.

In Mahabharata, karna (the competitor to Arjuna) asks Krishna why he has to face defeat. Even though both had the same power and knowledge.Krishna tells him that his whole education is based on the purpose of defeating Arjuna. There is greed and fear in this education. Arjuna did it for purpose of gaining knowledge that is why he was invincible. Knowing purpose of doing thing is great and greater is doing something because you love to do it. Then you will become invincible. 

The curious case of "photos"

Recently a marriage took place in my family, a grand Indian affair with loads of ceremonies. So many ceremonies that i can’t still remember what was for what. Maybe the purpose being different and God too. Now curiously there was one person that was common in all this, No not the groom, the “cameraman”. Where the groom or the family went, the cameraman went. Especially the awkward moment of eating or drinking are captured to showcase to the world that “we served food too”. Now the funny thing is 3000 photos were clicked but even after three months the groom hasn’t seen them.

Now, I attended a seminar recently and have a habit of taking notes. During this seminar i wasn’t allowed to do take notes or record it. The said purpose was to keep my attention 100% there. The instructor said that when we take notes or record our mind relaxes as it has an option of backup. Now this is true because all the notes that i have taken till now are carefully kept in my drawer gathering dust and awaiting recall. And surprisingly, i still remember the key points from the seminar because i was there 100% listening. 

I want you to carefully combine both of these and imagine an event with no photos or a trip which isn’t photo shooted. It is like saying country without borders or world without fb but try to. Just like the old days when we had 30 reels to cover the whole trip.Now, those photographs are still cherished, the recents one just hog space on our laptops. Would we not be there 100% present trying to capture every sight to be told as a story later. 

Clicking photos is not bad but the point is let us restrict the invasion of camera in our life and number of photos that we click. Because if standing on Madagascar beach at dawn with your partner all you want to do is to click a pic then you have missed the point. Click photos which are essential or just forget that camera when you go the next time.

Dhoti Up

First year of my MBA has passed and it was really a roller coaster ride with the same intensity, speed and craziness. Thankfully for me it was a lot of learning experience and opportunities to reflect and grow. When I look back, CTRL C, CTRL V and then rephrasing the sentence is the most important learning of all. Jokes apart ego was crushed, leadership style challenged, managing people improved and broadening of knowledge in every aspect. 

Even though we are taught the same theories and concepts, we differ by laws of nature as human beings. Every manager has a distinct style of management, behaviour, thinking and conduct. But the one thing that binds us together across globe is our so-called uniform “business suits”. If we reflect carefully, suits are a British legacy to the world and it spread because of the extent of British colonising the world. But if you ever have transported suit from one place to another you would know the excruciating pain in the ass they are. It often reminds me of the rowdy kid of my aunt, whom you can’t scold and he just never ever ever listens to you. The purpose of them, besides looking formal, according to my roommate is that they keep manager’s conduct in check, they don’t eat, drink, sleep, (pun intended) anywhere.

Now imagine had India been the world conqueror like British what would have been the world’s business dress code “”Dhoti””. Dhoti has a lot of characteristics to replace suits; it is airy, fairy and generally dress code of the enlightened. It is one size fits all, no tailor or alterations to trouble you. Recently I worn one in a public function, I would agree that it is a task to wear one. But hell it is comfortable and breezy beneath. And unlike suits it does not have a lot of accessories to go with. I remember the time when I forgot my shoes for my job training in Himalayas. Just ask my friends how good suits look with sandals for 15 continuous days. 

So, in your next family function, wear a dhoti. Now I am not saying it would be a smooth going and you would not face difficulties, challenges await you but the end result will make you feel proud of yourself. I certainly felt good and elite. It would get you attention of every single soul in the function. So in your next function as my friend Barney would say “dhoti up”. 

P.S. I am not a sexist. This article is for both male and female. Just replace dhoti with attire of your choice.   

The wife and mistress of finance

Some time back my uncle was discussing with me the mistakes that he has made during his life. One of them was investing into stock market directly. Apparently, his wife (my aunt) was getting bored from the daily chores of life so to keep her busy they decided to invest in stock market. It was and seemed pretty lucrative with the markets churning out gold for everybody. But after the initial success the 2008 crisis happened and down went the market and my aunt’s profession. My aunt never looked in that direction again and the stocks are still worth half their value.

The story got me thinking that is the stock market for the ordinary like us or for the spectacle guy with 4-5 finance degrees. With all the moods, sentiments and tantrums is it not the like the mistress which can only be managed by some. Initially, She will show you the best of time, giving you hefty returns beyond your imaginations. But then something happens and your luck reverses and down goes your money, the classic case of beginners luck. Oh! And god forbid “that time of the month” where for no reason she goes on a rampage taking everything along. You give her your time, money, life and love but you always fear her leaving you for another guy. That is true because believe it or not if you are winning somebody else is losing that money or will lose.

Now accounting in finance is like a wife. She works hard for the complete family’s well-being. Day in and day out thinking about how to add value to the organization it is working for. And keeping good relations with her keeps the house in order and brings harmony. She looks after your profits, losses and manages assets. It is there in good and bad times to support and take you forward.

I believe that for business to work well and progress one should keep his wife happy. Pamper her and take good care of her. Well for the mistress, flirting with her once in a while is fine but don’t get involved. She will leave you empty handed and unsatisfied. She can only be understood by few, and let us leave it to them to handle her.