Cheers to the tough times!

October is almost about to end without a single post this month and that is something one can't allow, can one? So after thinking about what to write, even going to the extent of trying to copy ideas from some of the blogs I have got into a habit of reading every day, I have sat down to write...well, something.

For starters, things are becoming increasingly mundane at work and have come to such a head that at times, I keep getting into one of those introspective moods thinking about the reasons for existence and all that. Broadly speaking, there is lack of enough work and even the work that is there lacks any amount of application of intellect, constituting things that any thirteen year old can sleepwalk through. There is a limit to which you can make excel sheets and send mails and sit angrily thinking about what is going on behind closed doors that does not need your presence and is yet obviously strategically important given the recent times.

I have even started questioning the reasons for joining this job in the sense that the expectations I had from it are perhaps not coming across the way I thought they would. In fact, while reading a book I recently picked up (more about the book in some other post), I realized how effective such a profile as mine has proved for many successful entrepreneurs when they started out post their MBAs. I had thought that it will be the same for me as well (even without the benefit of having read this book and known this fact earlier) but somehow, whether that will actually happen is now getting questioned.

On top of all this, financial services as a sector and even the equity markets are at an all time low and like always, I am short of confidence on job prospects in this area and more importantly, short of cash to buy anything at the bourses. It is so uncannily similar to such situations in the past that even my credit card bills at these occasions have been very close to each other with the difference between them hardly exceeding 5000 (the bills, as you may have guessed, are obviously in the higher thousands bracket for 5000 to be such a small difference).

The silver lining, of course is that it is festive season and Maa Papa are here with us in Mumbai to make my time at home real quality time. If things go right and Raj Thackeray and his counterparts in Bihar stop making a horrible mess of it, Baba and Bua should also be here before long and this Deepawali shall be one fantastic celebration for me...really looking forward to it all. Priya is super excited, as well and has already coaxed me into getting a 42 inches plasma and a home theatre system at home (there goes the secret of high credit card bills). In times of cost cutting, job layoffs, and job insecurity, here's to the Goddess of Wealth...cheers!!!

Something out of the way

In the normal course of events (even those related to summer placements) at IIMK, I would not have written such a post but the occasion is a little out of the way and deserves more than just the mere thought and a silent word or two. I have never really been able to appreciate the secrecy associated with the placements activities on campus (any campus, not just IIM Kozhikode) and have been one of the most ardent (though not as much vocal) critic of the entire exclusivity associated with the placement process. So when I get mails from the placements committee (directed to the entire batch, of course) that I should not put on a yahoo status message, or a blog post about placements till the official report is out, I say "what the heck! Who was going to put status messages and blog posts on the freaking placements anyways". But I was wrong and gladly enough, they (the placements committee, that is) proved me wrong!

Not that I don't understand the reason for restricting such a move or that I don't know that shouting one's mouth off even before something has been achieved has never been a good idea and in the extremely competitive arena of B-school placements, where students try every trick in the book to be one up on the others, it doesn't make any sense at all. However, all that holding fort, I am still compelled to write this post...not because I am allowed to do so now or because as a student of IIMK, it is my duty to do so now but because this is something I want to write about. This is because I am really happy about the professionalism showed by the people involved and the efficacy of the result generated.

All right, so there has been something seen by the campus this season that has never happened earlier. A batch of 160 people placed for summer internships in hardly five days is as amazing a news item that anyone associated with an Indian B-school would have ever heard of. What makes the entire thing more special, however, is the fact that it is always easy to place the first 50% of the class in perhaps even one day but what takes the toll is to put through the last person. I can say that because I know how difficult it had been for some people last year in so many campuses (including the very best in the country).

To know that IIMK has placed even the last guy/girl within such a short span is an awesome feeling even though I know that it might be an overkill to say that I am extremely proud of what IIMK has achieved and therefore, saying that it is only IIMK that has such talent would certainly be a blasphemy. I know that the economy is booming and that this year, the top 50% of the batch at any B-school worth its salt would be placed on the first day itself. I also know, at the same time, that not many of them would have had people in the placements committee devoted so much and working so hard to ensure that the last guy is placed for summers in the first five days of the process having started. Even if it is just for that, I am proud of the achievement (even though I may be guilty of using a cliche here).

To read the mails of juniors congratulating and thanking the placecom and the senior batch for the help and the seniors, in turn, congratulating them for the great batch they have been in achieving such laurels, is, for lack of a better word, heartening. What this brings forward in a more subtle manner, however, is the way in which the placements committee and the placements process at IIMK has contributed to the family feeling back in campus. I know that a lot of people might rubbish this idea as sentimental tomfoolery, but then they are welcome to their own opinions and have not been invited anyways (not by me, at least) to read this blog and tear their hair out in frustration (if at all, they don't have anything better to do).

Oh by the by, if you want to know more about what happened at IIMK's Summer Placements 2006, just click here.

Myriad Reflections

Talking to Animesh (my friend working for Infy in the US) last night, I just discovered something I had been feeling for quite some time but had never really understood fully. This does not have anything to do with anything concrete but is more of an abstract reflection on the way we tend to react to things. By we, I mean people belonging to distinct geographies, including, for my own point of reference, Indian sub continent, Europe, and the Americas (primarily the States).

We were discussing the IIPM issue in particular and as he laughed it away like probably any other Indian would, unless he/she is personally involved in the issue, he also told me about how serious the issue would have been in sue-happy US where such things would never have been taken lying down. Living in Europe for the last one month, I started reflecting on what the typical European (or at least, the typical French) would have thought about the entire thing. I don't think that they will be as dispassionate about it all like an average Indian but at the same time, they will not be as active about it as an average American will be. They will discuss the issue to no end but in terms of actually doing something about it, they will be far behind their American counterparts.

This, in fact, is also visible in other activities and attributes of the French and the Europeans, at large, who do like to keep their distance from controversy but all the same, do not mind talking quite passionately about the same. Even in the classes, there is hardly any intiative in terms of class participation from the French students (or most of other Europeans) but once the topic is started off (mostly by Indians since other Asians, seem to be, if it is possible, even more shy) and there is a possibility of any sort of argument, they do jump in with enthusiasm.

So while we Indians, owing mostly to our growing proximity to and acceptance of the American way of life have become increasingly confident but cynical at the same time, the Europeans are left with the cynicism alone and the rest of the Asians who do not belong to the Indian sub continent seem to be too unsure of themselves to give voice to their cynicism. One of the main reasons, perhaps, is that they have not really ratified the American thinking in such a big way as India has.

As for the Americans, they still rule the roost but are increasingly getting too bored with the proceedings to offer any voice to their own critical comments. It is not the confidence that they seem to lack but it has more to do with the boredom (due to lack of sufficient competition, perhaps) that is making them do what the rabbit did before the tortoise took over in the race. Amen to India being that tortoise but as has been pointed out recently, we need to take care of another competitor called China, but more on that some other time...

In other news, some great stuff has been happening on campus as the PPOs have started crystallising into job positions and salaries, and all of the ones that have come up so far, have been amazing, to say the least. More information, of course, shall be available once the placement committee receives more updates (which are coming in pretty fast and are expected to keep raining down for quite some time) and makes them public.

Freedom, responsibility, and the IIPM controversy: My take

The controversy on the mention (expose?) on IIPM in the JAM Mag and subsequent discussions on the Indian blogosphere is the news of the moment with probably more than a fair share of limelight being given to the institute and its supporters and detractors alike. In my opinion (you can not sue me for libel/slander now, can you...well, I don't really care even if you can), the matter may not be as simple and straight forward as it looks. I certainly do not support (in fact, I strongly oppose) what has been done unto the chief protagonists of the story (primarily Rashmi and Gaurav) but the overtly simplistic assumption that all this speaks badly of a particular institute or all of its students is actually taking the matter a little too far.

Perhaps I am getting a little ahead of the story without giving the background. So for all those who are unaware of what has been happening, refer this blog entry for details on the entire episode. By now, you probably know what Rashmi Bansal and her JAM Mag team wrote about IIPM, and how Gaurav Sabnis, an IIM graduate and ex-IBM employee journeyed from linking to Rashmi's blog on the topic to getting a ridiculous legal notice, supposedly from IIPM to finally resigning from IBM in a gutsy and much admired move that reflects his character and strength of conviction.

If you have also gone to the trouble of reading the hundred odd comments on this entry at Rashmi's blog, you also know about the foul language that is being used by some bloggers who have mushroomed in recent past and have been writing good things about IIPM and some really rotten stuff about those who dare to think beyond the IIPM (oops, please excuse the cliche!).

To complete the picture, you would also have gone through the posts (at least, some of them...it is not possible to read through all those who support Rashmi and Gaurav on the blogosphere...btw, I particularly liked one blogger's humorous take on the issue). All the same, you must have read what the supporters of IIPM (those who appear a bit more sane and have not reverted to street talk) have to say about the thing in some of the comments on Rashmi's post. Of course, some people think that IIPM is justified in doing what it does, despite the expose on JAM Mag and thus, there is no moral ground for either the supporters or detractors of IIPM.

So much for what has been happening and it is high time I gave my take on my blog, for whatever it is worth (especially in terms of the mind boggling libel/slander lawsuit amounts)

• First things first, I am proud of my institute, IIM Kozhikode, and believe that the IIMs have given a lot to India and Indians over the ages, and they shall continue to do so for a long time to come.
• I absolutely detest the people who have been commenting on Rashmi's blog, allegedly trying to defend IIPM by personally attacking Rashmi and in the process, actually destroying whatever reputation IIPM has.
• More than them, I detest those who called up IBM, claiming to be from IIPM (which, though not proved, has been assumed to be true because of no one from IIPM refuting the same), and threatened to burn laptops and blah, due to which Gaurav was put in such a difficult situation.
• I really admire Gaurav for what he has done to uphold what he thinks is right and thus, not fall in his own eyes. I know that I have failed myself in a similar situation once and I know just how difficult it is to not fail in standing up to what one preaches and I also know how degrading this failure is.
• I also admire the business (perhaps I have chosen the wrong word but nothing more fitting comes to the mind right now) sense of Rashmi in leaving the comments on her blog open and visible to all and in the process, having the last laugh by professionally letting the impossibly naive commentors defeat their own purpose and die their own death.
• Right from the moment it appeared in JAM Mag and on Rashmi's blog, I have never really agreed to the nature of expose on IIPM carried out by JAM Mag in its entirety primarily because it seems that although there had been efforts (that seemed to have ended in no results) to contact the IIPM administration for clarifications/details, they have not been full-hearted and sufficient journalistic licence has been taken to write rather too assuredly (and bitingly) of something that may have been ascertained in a better manner.
• I am a little wary about the high moral ground taken by the IIM junta and/or most of the Indi bloggers in criticizing IIPM (or Amity or any other non IIM B-school, for that matter) because ultimately, it ends up in the same My-school-best or My-community-most sensible logic that is at the bottom of this entire episode. As far as my understanding goes, while solidarity is appreciable at such a juncture, bloated placement figures or absurd facts and figures are not stigmas attached to merely non-IIM business schools.
• At the same time, I fully understand and support their contention that it is no longer about the IIM vs IIPM thing or about the JAM Mag expose either, but it is about the basic right of expression and its blatant suppression through means as pathetically low and ridiculous as personal attacks to as dangerous as apparent use of money clout to force decisions.
• IIPM is certainly not all that it says it is but that does not mean that it has not played its role, whatever little it has been, in the Indian education sector. There may be reasons for the full page ads or the tall claims, not more than a few of them sensible I admit, but rubbishing the very existence of the institute or its students is taking it a little too far.
• Any personal attack on Arindam Chaudhuri is akin to what the blogosphere is up against at this moment. None of what has taken place so far can be reasonably proved without doubt to have been guided directly or indirectly by Mr. Chaudhuri and the fact that he may not have a degree from some big place does not take anything away from his success as a best selling author or a name known in management society (so what if his self-promotions are too commercial for our tastes)

Although this issue started with the IIPM and might do more harm to the institute's reputation than some of the practitioners of low standard antics would have dreamed of, some implications are going to be even larger. With the fourth estate having been relatively mute amidst the show of strength by bloggers who have come out in the open against the traditional press, accusing them to be under monetary and business considerations other than and contrary to honest reporting, things can only move in one direction for blogs and bloggers from here. Indian blog world seems to be ready to see an awakening of sorts and if I am not wrong, it shall do so sooner, rather than later.

Getting a hold over my self

It has been four days since I joined PwC (as the HR guys requested, I must be careful how I write it, even if it is in the short form...in full, by the way, it is written as PricewaterhouseCoopers with only the P and the C in caps). These four days have been a little confusing, at times raising my hopes and at others, dashing them right down the ground. However, I am rushing myself in excitement of the new things that have been happening in my life without really being what could probably be called systematic.

So, let me try to be just that...a little systematic and try to recount all (or at least some of all) that has happened since I last wrote...will try to be brief about it but don't know how far I will succeed. For firsts, the Coorg trip happened and what an eventful trip it turned out to be. Apart from being a throughly enjoyable one in the first half, it had a night and an ensuing second day that forced me to write a blog entry that could not have got on to Mode C for anything, despite all my earlier pretensions (or that's what people think) of being honest and true to this blog. In fact, the post was so disturbing and end result of it all so personally frustrating that I decided to bring the curtains down on the blog itself. Incidentally, I must say that I realized later that there were actually quite a few people who actually read my blog quite regularly and enjoyed it, too. With suggestions and concerns coming to me dime-a-dozen, I was overwhelmed enough to change my decision of out right deletion of the blog.

Letting the blog remain, I kind of made it live my mood for many days, right till the end of the term. Though I did delete the last post that reeked badly of pessimism, frustration and what-not, I was still not prepared to revive the blog. Whenever I did come across to writing something new, so many things used to come to mind...admonitions by people in authority for writing what I shouldn't have...remarks by colleagues about the blog making too many of the things public, things that I had no right to make public...and of course, my own problems that were fast making life diffcult (especially with the exams approaching).

All this was nothing but an addition to the mental burden that I was carrying with myself to home but as someone intelligent said sometime, nothing like mom's cooking to get your tail up. Believe me or not, my tail is nothing but up right now. With three weeks of Ma's cooking behind me...a well spent Holi with Bhabhi and Bharat Bhaiya enlivening the proceedings at home...Anoushka, my one year old niece making life amazingly sweet and innocent (absolutely nothing can be compared to have a kid smile at you right after she wets herself all over you)...having Bua and Pallavi visit us for my last few days at home (Pallavi is quite excited about joining her new job and why not...a well paying one and a well deserved one after two years at GIM)...there couldn't have been more eventful three weeks to lift a person's mood and so it turned out to be for me, too.

And thus it was in absolutely good spirits that I landed in The City of Joy on the 10th of April at Howrah Junction, backdrop to the famous Howrah bridge and its screamingly mad, speeding traffic. With one foren-maal in front of me and another behind, even the queue for the pre-paid taxi was worth the time and of course, the sweat that Kolkata greeted me with. The next step was the PG place that was arranged for me by Rajesh, my friend at DPS who is now working with Cognizant in Cal. The owners of this place are interesting, especially the worse half (that is, the master of the house) who pasionately believes that he must entertain all those who have to listen to him (for any reason or compulsion, whatsoever) with tales of how PG places in the UK in his time were called digs and people who stayed there diggers (he actually expected me to laugh at this).

This place is quite close to the PwC office (about 3-4 kms away) and even the room and room-mates are cool...went for a roam-the-city trip the very first evening. Calcutta has grown from the last time I was here...there are some places (Forum, Crossword to name a few) that actually make the place good enough to be called a metro. Big Bazaar is amazingly cheap and good to shop. Though I had heard a lot about the sense in shopping at this place and how it has revolutionized the apparel industry, I never knew that things were changing this fast...trousers and jeans for as low as three hundred bucks...tees for a hundred bucks...wonders never ceased for the two hours that shopping and subsequent rain made us stop at the place.

The first day at PwC was interesting and not the least for the people from other institutes that I met at the place. Half a dozen guys from IIMC, a guy from IIML I knew to be a trainee right from the moment that I saw him at the bus stop, one apparently haughty female along with another long lost contact from the days at Infy, Chennai from XLRI, 2 Bongs from IIMA (one of them is also going to ESCP-EAP with us) and of course Sandipan added masala to a pretty uneventful first day as far as work is concerned.

More masala and a lot of nostalgia kicked in as I met Rajesh and Arnav for lunch. All the people at school, how each Dipsite is doing right now, where are the old flames of people sashaying nowadays were topics that kept the three of us busy for nearly two hours. I also met Debayan in the evening and I am really happy that he got through IIMC this time. He was really unlucky to miss out last time but this year, he got what he deserved.

I was briefed about the work on Monday and apparently, it has to deal with the business process mapping of the consulting practices of PwC as well as their internal HR policies and procedures. Although the HR aspect is a little off-putting right now, the project has all the potential to turn into something interesting once the consulting practices part comes in. In fact, while reading the Assurance division policy today (which was given to me after quite a lot of consultations with the HR head due to its secret and confidential nature ;-)), I could make out how much the events at Arthur Andersen have affected the consulting industry and its policies.

So far, the stage at which the project stands right now can, at most, be called initial and the heat has not really caught on yet. As the days progress, however, things are certainly going to be more eventful and hopefully, more interesting.

A theory of valuation

Having sat through the jokes of Dr. Panda in the first term and having actually enjoyed his classes (and of course, the jokes) for the most part, I had been more or less swayed towards Marketing as a specialisation. Coming into Term 2, and having heard so much of Prof. Uday Damodaran, I was prepared for another assault on my sensibilities in the form of something which I had absolutely no idea about. I mean...come on, marketing is more of common sense and related, in a lot of ways, to what I had been doing at college and work for the past six-odd years (festivals, talking to clients, and so much more). However, finance has been one fish I had never laid the line for.

As I write all this today, I am still under the effect of today's class, which to me, has been a revelation, both in terms of the content in absolute financial jargon as well as in a more philosophical way which I will talk about in a little while. As far as the basics of corporate finance go, my eyes have been opened (even literally :-) unlike Ravi, who was dozing off right in the next seat)...to ratios, like they were never opened in the accounting classes...to criteria for evaluating the financial health of companies, which never came across while doing the analysis of ITC for the marketing project. I just hope that this goes on for another little while and I don't have much to do in terms of thinking while making a choice for my electives...a Mark and Fin MBA...hmm...sounds good, what say?

As for the philosophy in today's class, as UD would say, with the relativity of things in Finance, most of the things are decided more on the basis of philosophy and intuition rather than plain science and logic. Perhaps so...however, that is not what I want to mention right now. It is more about an example that UD gave in today's class about why it is important to have a theory for valuation. He said that almost all of us are able to associate certain values to things, events, and people but as long as we do not really know the guidelines, the process, and the theory involved in making that valuation, we will never be able to succeed. He gave the example of how all of us gave up something or the other to come to IIMK...existing jobs...probable jobs...other security...so much more. It may be true that at some point, we may find that the decision we took in coming to IIMK was actually wrong (some people like Karfa rue leaving their jobs and coming to IIMK) but the real regret will not be felt at that realisation. The real regret will be caused due to the realisation that when we made the decision of coming here, we did not have a theory to value IIMK...no way to find a clue about why we are doing what we are doing.

I am not really sure if I did all this analysis before coming to IIMK, at least I did not do this on pen and paper, not in so many words. However, I did have certain things in mind, based on which I decided to leave Infy and come to IIM Kozhikode. Perhaps it makes sense (even now, after a term is over!!!) to just list them down so that if, at a later stage, God forbid, I regret my decision to come to IIM Kozhikode, at least I will know why I had taken that decision in the first place. So here goes, my reasons for coming to IIM Kozhikode and what I wish to achieve from this place:

I wanted to acquire an asset that will differentiate me from others 10 years down the line when I am competing for a position in a firm. I believed that because of its brand, IIMK will help me do that.

I wanted to get access to a network that is going to help me leverage my contacts when I need them the most...in getting a contract...an appointment...a favor. I believed that IIMK will make me a part of the IIM group, an elite gang of go-getters.

I wanted a job that is more than the mundane, a job that gives me more return, both in terms of the challenge as well as the compensation, as compared to what I could expect to get from Infosys in another two years and perhaps even later. I believed that IIMK had the reputation in recruiters' minds to give me that kind of a job and perhaps even more.

I wanted to do things that I had not been able to do during my college and professional life because of lack of knowledge...opportunity...reason. I wanted to be able to pursue things that are closer to my heart and not get bogged down by technical mumbo-jumbo but actually get down to brass tacks and work in the field. I believed that with the resources of IIMK, both material and human (especially the senior batch, alumni and faculty), I shall be able to achieve this.

This actually turns out to be quite a big list of expectations if one looks at it cynically. However, as far as philosophy goes, I can still hold my water, or at least that is what I hope. As UD says, I still have to see whether my decision turns out to be right or wrong vis-a-vis my valuation of IIMK on the above criteria...I just hope and pray that IIMK damn well sticks to what I had thought of it :-)

 

A story of contradictions

Ronald of senior placecom says that no one should do anything that harms the reputation of the college at this juncture, keeping in mind the placements. There might be frustrations but to take it out on a public forum or outside the college community really does not serve any purpose...it can only be a negative and is not really going to change anything because things don't happen that way.

Allwyn of PagalGuy fame says that all those people who had been regulars at PagalGuy (a forum for MBA aspirants) have changed drastically since they joined their respective business schools. The loyalty towards their school often overshadows their own character and as such, these people tend to over glorify/under present the facts to keep their school in good stead.

Does Ronald's request to the batch of 2006 on the eve of their vacations, a case in point from Allwyn's perspective? Can his statement be (mis)construed to believe that he wants us to change our basic character and behave as per the character of the community? Is he asking us to put community before self? Even if he is (for argument's sake), is he wrong in expecting us to do this? Does Allwyn's remark that people lose their individuality once they go to a business school hold any salt? Even if it does (for argument's sake), is it any better to put self before community in all cases.

Ronald recently wrote a blog post about how it has become fashionable to treat business schools as only entry and exit portals and nothing else. All that goes in between is not learning but just means to achieve an end...an end that they call the placements. I gathered from the tone of the post that he does not really like the way things are going on (I may have been wrong). Most of us, like him, believe that there should be more to an MBA than it just being a medium to increase your salary (or as in the case of freshers, get a good salary to start with). But then again, like him, most of us know that this is not the way things happen and actually, whatever any surveys may say, the basic, one and only criterion used to evaluate a business school is its placements statistics...how many job offers per student...how much is the highest salary offered...how many foreign offers...how many offers from the areas like consultancy, finance and so on...how many big names on the recruiters' list...how many days does it take to get a batch placed...

So many questions and who know the answers to all these...no, not the BW-Cosmode people, not even the AIMA people...it is the people in the top positions in the market who make or break B-schools in India. Let's go to this campus...let's take these many students...let's only take people suiting this profile...let's look at the institute first...let's look at the faculty first...let's look at the batch profile first...so many factors go into their decisions that even a minor spark is enough to start the fire. What can this minor spark be is open to subjective evaluation by these decision makers. They may decide to come or not come to a campus based on not only objective parameters, but can also consider a lot of other factors that really go into the making of an institute (especially a B-school).

This is where Ron and Allwyn come...both of them are saying almost the same thing but in entirely opposing ways. Allwyn talks about the character of students and it obviously follows that cowardly sissies who have to think twice before standing by their opinion hold as much a chance of building an institute as Kishan Kumar did of becoming a super hero (now don't ask me who Kishan Kumar is). But then again, how can you expect companies to avoid watching the dirty linen being washed in public and assuming that they do watch, how can you expect them to ignore the dirt completely when they make their subjective evaluation of the institute?

What is the answer, then? Should we or should we not? It is a question that can not really be answered for others...or so I feel. As far as I go, I earnestly believe that it is not what is communicated that matters but the way it is communicated, which is more important. If the intent of a communication is to malign the institute or its spirit, even a carefully worded, two line hint may spoil the efforts of so many others who have worked hard for the institute. However, if the intention is right, I am sure that even a full page letter to the editor in the Times of India's gossip section (if at all letters to the editor are published there) will not do any harm. But the next question comes...who decides what the intent is...isn't that again a subjective parameter open to misinterpretation? It certainly is...and that is why all the brouhaha about the entire secrecy thing.

But the point goes deeper...it is not just about not communicating even when you want to...it is more about creating boundaries around you and not letting one hand know what the other is up to. This is what defeats the pupose because despite the security that we enjoy within the walls of our respective institutes, it is ultimately the person within each one of us that we have to be answerable to. This is where the words of a Ronald may not pay as well as the apparently solid idea of an Allwyn. If we neglect that person within in order to attain our ends (the exit point from a B-school, with a good pay package in hand and a rosy career in mind), we are certainly taking a step backward.

Realistically speaking, however, there will be a zillion other ocassions in personal and professional life where we will be forced to do even worse. Perhaps, the argument of an Allwyn might not be able to surpass the practical judgement of a Ronald. It all depends, therefore, on what stage you are in and how much are you willing to give up and how...a decision that differs from person to person...from situation to situation.

In my case, I have been writing stuff about things that go on in this institute without too may inhibitions. Not that I have been reckless and irresponsible towards the community, but I have also tried to be true to myself and record a balanced picture for me to view when I pass along this moment of my history some years down the line. More than that, I have hardly found anything so drastically wrong in IIMK that demands a sensational disclosure, in the real sense of the term. Most of the things that I have been writing about have mostly been related to people and their reactions to situations and the community has still not had an offering from my frustrated pen...or better still, my pen has not been frustrated enough to build up smoke where there's not been much fire. However, I am sure that if and when it happens, I am going to record my frustrations in all faith and objectivity and whether that makes any difference to anything or anyone else or not, I believe that I will, at least, continue to have no qualms in looking at the mirror.