To The Tails Of The Normal Distribution

History repeats itself, not in the exact same way, but in a way that reminds us of the tumultuous past. It was some fateful day in the 1850s when Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Dickensian period revived again in 2020. It is the kind of stuff the post-world war generations have seen in the movies. Pandemic breakout. People in-home quarantine. Schools and colleges shut indefinitely. The dementors came alive from J K Rowling’s pen and started sucking the happiness out of people’s lives. 

And we were doing an MBA during these times. 

The MBA journey in 2020. What in the name of Erebus was this all about? We were planning to go on Mars, but fate had something else in mind. Pandora’s box opened somewhere in Wuhan, and things took a turn for the worst.  

Who would have thought that things would pan out like this? What were the odds? Even the most pessimistic protagonist in his nightmarish prediction would not have imagined this kind of scenario. We had come here to paint our story on the canvas of imagination. To find our muse. To see the world through our lens. And to make the world our playground. 

Everyone had distinct ambitions when they opted for an MBA, but one thing was common. It was about finding the “Identity” among the crowd. Discovering who we are. To enjoy the campus life while going through the grind of the curriculum. Some of us were getting rid of the same old job, while some wanted to polish more of the same skills. Some were finding themselves misfit and opting for a change, and some of us were just going for a two-year holiday at the residential campus. One thing was common- everyone was exploring every horizon, looking after each opportunity to learn and expand their latitude of skillset. The first year of MBA delivered on its promises. It was all going according to plan until the devil hit the nail. Covid-19, the best candidate for the word of the year, spread like wildfire. 

Celebrating festivals, enjoying with Friends, campus life. Everything was a washout. The air was filled with despair and distress. We missed the classroom, missed the spirited case discussions at the dorms, missed cosy times with the closest ones, and missed going to our favourite hangout place at 4 am in the night. We missed the interaction with the juniors. We missed the club and committee activities. We missed a lot of things. But we did not give up and fought to get what we had dreamt of. 

Most of us achieved what we aspired for. We created new methodologies and reached new milestones. We adapted to the online platforms pretty fast. We fought and celebrated over the Zoom calls. The 2 am calls made us cheer after our hectic daytime schedule. Hats off to everyone who made it possible. We showcased that we were already Managers when the pandemic began. A heartfelt thanks to all the seniors, your contribution was crucial in all this. We did many things together. Now, let us add convocation to that list. Kudos to all the juniors for going through everything and facing everything with the chin up. It need not be said again, but we are always here for you, to help and support, to guide you through thick and thins and for the fun part too! Keep the traditions and rigour of MBA alive. 

Coming back to finding our identity, we do ask ourselves, who are we? We find answers in our learnings. We are the tail in the normal distribution. Is this an identity we wanted? No, it has been bestowed on us. We showed character. Not losing hope in the worst of times and not giving up when the odds were microscopic. We will be remembered in the MBA titbits. All the coming batches will talk about the journey we have had. Maybe someday, when we visit our campuses back, the batch will be reading an HBR Case Study on us. 

This is a final goodbye to all my classmates, to whom we shall not get a chance to say it for the one last time. This is the last toast over the fireplace at the Dorm parties to the ones we shall meet again. This is the celebration of our graduation ceremony. This is the mortarboard flying high in the sky. All the tails of the distribution, can you see it?

The War that Wasn’t

There is less water in the river this year. The river which was once mighty was flowing now through a shallow and narrow passageway. Like the river, all the lifeforms dependent on river except humans have shrunk too. Forest have died, birds have flown away and deep-water fishes have migrated.  But these are not the only thing bothering Mitthu. The prolonged, one-sided passive war with human kind (self-claimed Sapiens) had been the main source of distress and anguish.

The war had begun long time ago, probably millions of year before now. As always, economics was the basic reason for the face-off. Resource scarcity and competition makes the living tough and leads to confrontation. This war was no different than any other but for two things. First, the war had been continually going on for thousands of years. Second, humans who were actively capturing and decimating their counterparts were oblivious to any such war going on.

They have no written record of it. For when it started, they knew little about record keeping. But the nature always keeps record of everything. It is like a continuously operating camera with infinite record capacity, though most of recordings go directly into archive.

It all began with the evolution of sapiens. They started altering the course of nature and time. Unknowingly at first and deliberately later. They spread like a forest fire of Sahara with no rains coming as a savior. They changed the balance between natural forcing and anthropological forcing. Renaissance came as a blessing for human kind, but spelled disaster for non-sapiens. The successive industrial revolution added to the nightmare.

It was not like non-sapiens did not protest. They used various techniques to pressurize and persuade the sapiens. They first vacated niches to accommodate the extravagant needs of humans. But it only enhanced their self-indulgent nature. Many took sub-ordinate positions and serves them as masters, but only to further epicureanism. Some presented themselves as eatable, some as decorative and some as entertainers.

Mitthu was also one of the entertainers. She serves her master well, but serving was not the only thing she was doing. She was learning their ways. She spoke their languages, knew their preferences and way of living. She knew that one day she will have to use every trick up her sleeve for an everlasting, peaceful, and flourishing life that could perpetuate to eternity. But right now her priority was to serve her master and make him happy.

When these methods of serving seemed futile, they offered passive resistance. Some started hunger strike, some forego their duties, some limited themselves to very small ecumene. The hunger and drought made many weak and they suffered ill-fated death, totally uncalled for and untimely death. They biggest of non-sapiens had the largest heart and first they went extinct. Mitthu always felt that there is no such thing as extinct, the purest must be roaming amongst the Gods.

In spite of everything, the sapiens continued as if it was none of their business and none of their doings. Mitthu knew that all the efforts were falling on deaf ears. She knew that the Sapiens had forgotten the old art of responding to the songs of nature. Failure was all non-sapiens had to show for all the efforts and sacrifices. But they deserved better and that’s what she was preparing for and waiting for the right time to seal a deal towards a bright and wholesome future.

Even amongst the non-sapiens, many were apprehensive of methods of pleasing and path of passive resistance, as not everyone was willing to sacrifice their freedom and future of their kids to mis-deeds of sapiens. A few furious and fierce souls among them wanted to teach sapiens hard lessons for their unforgivable mistakes. This is coming in the form of wrath of nature and mass suicide campaigns (especially from sea living symbiotic creatures, the corals and fishes), Some had developed vengeful revolutionary weapons which were able to go through the defensive mechanisms of sapiens and had ability to wipe them out. Mitthu knew that this cannot be the way forward as humans have acquired many niches and it will have disruptive effect on the survival of every lifeform.

She was in favour of passive resistance along with constructive talks with them to reach at a possible compromise. Even she had some momentary lapses, especially when she remembered her unborn child who had perished to felling of a lush green tree where they nested. But she knew war of this magnitude cannot be fought for personal motives. She was aware of the real reason for the apathy of sapiens. Earlier sapiens had purposefully ignored the art of listening and understanding of nature of their comfort and unfortunately, the later had forgotten the history.

Sapiens were even worse than nuclear disasters and natural calamities. Once a friend from north, Siber the Carne, had told her about how life was flourishing at Chernobyl after nuclear disaster induced human evacuation. In her mind, she had thought about colluding with Microbe De Bacteria for waging a full scale war against them. After all, they cared about none. They have outwitted and eliminated even their siblings like Proto De Neanderthals.

These were the thoughts bothering the recently elected leader of non-sapiens, Mitthu De Parrot. She was sitting on the bank of river Sabarmati and pondering about her next move to stop all the madness that was slowly but surely pushing the world towards an end.

She was aware of the desperate cries of survival coming from the fish community of the river. After all, in a first, fishes were dying of thirst. She was mindful of the request of trees who were starving for the want of soil. She was cognizant of the plight of birds who were perishing for the want of air. She was aware of the dreaded outcomes of the full-scale war that might be just days away. Everything depended on her next move which she knew cannot be delayed anymore.

This wasn’t going to be easy, but what comes easy doesn’t last long. She wasn’t afraid. She was sitting where once the most inspiring and worshipped Mr. Gandhi used to sit and think. Sapiens have forgotten about him. She knew if she’s able to remind them of him, they will listen and negotiate. She wasn’t afraid as she already was at Sabarmati. She wasn’t afraid as she knew this is a war no one can afford to lose. She wasn’t afraid as she felt the divine presence of Mr. Gandhi with her. She wasn’t afraid as she was ready. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so she flies to a bare tree on the roadside to find the sleep which had eluded her for the past few days.

UPAY Writing Contest – Winning Entry

UPAY - उपाय

Theme: What makes a Good Teacher?

Winner: Ankit Anand

The cornerstone of human civilisation has been acquiring and propagation of knowledge since ancient times. The spirit of innovation and creativity separates human from other beings. The famous philosopher Rene Descartes, while saying- “I think, therefore I am”, has credited the existence of human beings on their thinking ability. He was talking about the individual human. Besides individual excellence, the essence of human society definitely is based on propagation of knowledge to the coming generations. This essential function is performed through the Teachers.

The role of teaching is divided among the components and institutions of society. The parents, and especially mother is the best teacher during early childhood phase. The role of society and institutions like schools, colleges, universities etc. comes next. Nearly everyone has to play the role of teacher in one way or another. Like the survival of a…

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Baal Sabha Diary – Karol Bagh Center

UPAY - उपाय

The Karol Bagh branch of UPAY family tree is now two-month old and has gradually shown glimpses of bright future to come. The core strength of the students is 50 while during certain days as many as 70 students attend the class. Six-day per week class has been fruitful as depicted by the performance of the students in the 11^th November test. Both curricular and extra curricular  learning are important for overall development of a child.  To nurture the special talent and build personality, a Bal Sabha was organized at the Karol Bagh Center on 20^th November,.

During Bal Sabha students gave several performances such as singing, dancing, storytelling etc which provided a platform for them to showcase their skills. This also gave them opportunity to express themselves freely. The performances was followed by a quiz session & parents – teacher interaction.  Finally, special performances were recognized and Bal…

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Parashar Lake

The land of Sage Parashar, a beauty of hills is nearly 50 km from Mandi. A pleasant trek through the forest. Must place to visit in Himachal. Here are some pictures.

The trek Starts from this place.

Frost on the grass…

View from the Top

 

 

The Sacred Parashar Lake and adjoining temple.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1960 novel by Harper Lee who has brought to life the happenings of Maycomb County. This is an unforgettable and touching story which presents an organic picture of the county life at that point of time. The author presents the story of contrasting human attitude for people of different races.

The prejudice and hypocrisy of human mind and few men’s fight to change the way of thinking is attempted by the author through character of Mr. Finch. The irrational and inhuman attitudes of that time have been countered strongly by few children. The free child mind could not understand the injustice being done on the basis of race. They saw everyone as equals.

Shoot all Bluejays you want, if you can hit them, but remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird. Here the Bluejays represent the guilty people irrespective of race, class etc. The Mockingbird are honest innocent section of people. The central gist of novel is to make it clear to readers that it’s not colour that makes one white or black. But it is character and deed. Mockingbird are sweet song birds. They do not hurt anyone. They should not become target of human ignorance.

Self Shelf

 

Introspection, putting yourself on the table and examining is what is the need of the hour at times. How do we introspect? Can we trust ourselves to be true judge of self? How can we remove any biases and preoccupation about self in judging our own activities?

Let’s take an example. Suppose we like any trait of character more over other such as if one values loyalty more over fairness and justice, he is less likely to whistle blow and go against his company than one who values justice more than loyalty.

Thus, there will always remain subjectivity to some extent depending upon the centrality of different values in our value system. But the same preoccupation and biases would remain when others judge us. It is true that when others judge you, it is their character that is reflected in the judgement. The subjectivity remains. The question remains then how can we introspect ourselves.

We can not be cent percent unbiased introspectors. What we can do is to minimize the prejudices. One theory given by John Rawl’s can be amended to help ourselves in introspection. The “Veil of Ignorance” concept in which we do not know our position or status can be used. In any situation or evaluation of steps taken by us, we should put ourselves in place of all the stakeholder. If every or most of the stakeholder considers the steps taken as rational and appropriate, we can conclude that we were right at that place.

So, when we put ourselves to the shelf to evaluate, we should keep in mind the preoccupation and prejudices. Also, we need not be very tough on the “Self”. We should put some minutes daily to introspect our days tasks to make a better Self.

To be continued..

Thanks for reading.

Shimla View from Mall Road

 

The queen of hills- Shimla. Very nice place to visit. Neat and clean city. Recommend to visit at least once. Christmas time would be most perfect to visit.

The view is from Mall Road. Some colonial structures are prominently visible.

Year of No Resolutions-2017

Happy New Year 2017 to all.

The Year 2016 has ended and the public, as usual, welcomed 2017 with open arms and all the hope they could have probably garnered. During the last few days of 2016, the people started contemplating the things they would do in the coming year. They year 2016 must have felt neglected. It must have remembered its beginning and the way it has treated 2015. It must have regretted the doctrine of karma.

One thing is constant in nature and that is Change. So the demise of 2016 and advent of 2017 was a fix. People have always worshiped the rising sun and neglected the setting sun. This led to a underrated farewell of 2016. We can say that it reaped what it sowed, but this tradition has continued for so long now. To blame the Year for this would be naive, rather it can help us understand an important aspect of human behaviour.

We usually tend to give more importance to what is coming than what there is. We like to procrastinate things. We let bygones be bygones. This attitude makes us welcome the future and under-utilize the present. We make resolutions for new year at the expense of what we could and should start any morning. This is the reason why most people can not realize their new year resolution and it become a cyclic feature to make resolution every year to not complete it.

2016 would have been a mixed bag for most, terrible for few and awesome for some. But one thing would have been common for all- the Lessons.

I, too, learnt a few important things. I learnt the true meaning of child is the father of man. I learnt the importance of small talks and how they can be all you need at times. I learnt that love can last longer than life. I learnt that resolutions started on new years are over-hyped and the daily resolutions have better chances of being realized. I learnt that we should be ready to welcome any opportunity if and when it knocks.

That is why, we should welcome 2017 with open mind and flexibility than a strict new year resolution and declare it as Year of No Resolutions. We should Take a day as it comes and let us venture into unknown frontiers than limiting ourselves in known boundaries of resolutions.

The feeling of accomplishment

Enlightening thoughts on Life and Accomplishments…

mithila malhotra

When do we strike that note in our life? When does that feeling make you feel Complete? Is it when you stood up for something which was wrong? Or was it when you achieved that goal of your life? Perceptions may be different, but feeling is the same. A small child feels accomplished by getting a toy he/she always wanted. A mother feels contented when she sees her children reaching the horizon.A person suffering from acrophobia, feels the heart fulness, when he/she reaches the top of that peak. The small things in life add up to make us accomplished. Different people with different perceptions, but at the end what makes you accomplished is you. That you, who has strived hard to get the toy always desired for, the goal always aimed for. Feel accomplished, feel contented in every small thing you do in life. Those tiny steps lead to the…

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