The 3 Mistakes of My Life

Don’t worry; I am not going to discuss ‘The 3 mistakes of MY Life’. It is the book titled ‘The 3 Mistakes of my Life’ which I read yesterday. The Book is written by our very own IIM Grad – Mr. Chetan Bhagat. I prefixed IIM rather than suffixing it mainly because that prefix says everything about the caliber of that person.
As I Said, I read it yesterday and I read it in one go. The book is very interesting. It is a typical Chetan Bhagat Book. After the humungous success of his ‘Five Point Someone’ and 'One night @ call centre’, the expectations of readers from his 3rd book was sky high. And let me tell you, the author has kept up with the expectations. The book is really very interesting.
The book tells a story about this young guy called Govind Patel from Ahmadabad, who has dream of owning a business. He takes help of his friends, Ish and Omi to start a business. But it’s easier said than done. To achieve their aim, they have to go through various troubles, pitfalls and above all their own mistakes. The book tells you how they face all these problems and come out of it.
The tag line of the book is – ‘The story about Business, Cricket and Religion’.
This shows that the author has touched those issues which are very important and close to almost every Indian. Thus, this is a book that every Indian can relate to.
The book has very interesting twist and turns that keeps you at the edge of your seat. The last episode or rather chapter where the three young lads fight with the people of their own community to save a kid from another community has been portrayed beautifully. The only negative aspect about the book is the timing of the narration of those 3 mistakes. They come when you least expect them. The last mistake is not very appealing as there are many other mistakes which are more important than the last one. The Book has a little bit of Vulgarity as you can expect it from a Chetan Bhagat Book. But all in all a must read for everyone. The most important aspect of any book is that it should never get boring and it should keep the reader on the edge of his seat. This has been beautifully executed by the author by his witty sense of humor and wonderful frame of sentences. The most important thing about the book is that the author has touched those issues that are relevant to majority of Indians .There is nothing important to learn from this book but as I said it’s a Chetan bhagat book . You expect more entertainment and less moral messages from his book .The NewYork Times apprised him by saying-‘The biggest selling English-Language novelist in India’s history’. And by reading this book, one can easily conclude that the author truly deserves such kind of admiration. If you start reading it, I am sure you will finish it off in one go.The book truly leaves an indelible impression.

Selecting an MBA college - A Herculean Task

Bye Bye ICFAI :-( . Since the last couple of weeks , I am completely in the state of dilemma. As you know I joined ICFAI Pune for pursuing MBA .It's been a great one month in ICFAI. I came across a few good friends who I thought would be friends forever. But last week I came to know that I am selected in K.J.Somaiya for Retail MBA. I was completely confused.To add to the confusion , my CET results are still pending. I have unjoined ICFAI Pune, as K.J.Somaiya is surely the better option than ICFAI, and I lost my 1st installment of INR 80,000 which is non-refundable(It hurts) .Now I have to pay INR 1,60,000 at K.J.Somaiya as 1st year fees. KJ.Somaiya is no doubt a good college and has a good brand name in the industry. But what if I pay the fees here and I get through a good college through CET whose results will come in a month’s time. I’ll have to sacrifice this 1,60,000 plus 80,000 of ICFAI totaling to almost 2.5 lacs(It hurts more badly).And what if i dont take an admision in K.J.Somaiya and to my dismay i also don't get a good college through CET . It would be like धोबी का कुत्ता ,ना घर का ना घाट का .I don’t understand what to do.I am completely perplexed. I think i'll have to take risk and take an admission in K.J.Somaiya. I still have time. I’ll think about it from all angles and try to analyze my situation and will come up to an optimal solution taking into consideration the fees, the college reputation, the pay packages etc. Lets see what's in store for me.
Leave this thing aside. what i actually want to tell is that this particular episode made me realized about a very important thing which I would like to share. In order to become a successful manager, along with good communication and persuasive skills ,you should also have following mentioned skills.:
-Decision Making ability

-Thinking from different angles or perspectives.

-Choosing a best alternative

I think before getting into an MBA college, the selection procedure, choosing the best college from the available, group discussion, interviews and all this stuff surely trains you to become a good manager. While selecting a college, we have to think a lot which improves our thinking ability from different perspectives. We choose the best college among the alternatives that we have.We analyze all the colleges based on different parameters and then finally get into the college that we feel is the best among the choices we have.This also enhances our decision making ability where we choose the best and optimal alternative among a number possible solutions and among the number of resources we have. I think a person who goes through such kind of situation while getting into an MBA college will surely do wonders in his course.

Traffic Sense of Indians

INDIA is known for its rich culture and traditions. India is one of the few countries that provides the best education and produces talented engineers, doctors, managers, entrepreneurs etc. Our standard of living has improved immensely in the last decade. We are known as one of the IT hubs of the world.

We say ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’,’Saare jahan se Accha, hinduatan hamara’, ‘India is great’ etc.Its easier said than done. Here we should ask ourselves that, “Is India really a great country? “.If yes, then why we are not a developed country even after 60 years of independence. Actually the answer is NO. We are not a great country. But we can be a great country if we want to. While uttering those above statements, we forget that a country cannot be Mahaan all by itself. It wholly and solely depends on people of that country. So, what is actually separating us from the citizens of other developed countries? Well, there are many things but the most important of all is ‘Discipline’. Discipline is of utmost importance in our life. The kind of people and the status of any country can easily be judged by the discipline of its citizens.
Unfortunately, discipline is lacking in our country and that is one of the reasons of disrespect of our country by citizens of other countries.

There are many examples where our citizens show indiscipline and the classic example of all is the traffic sense in our country. This is the main focusing point of this article. Our people don’t have a traffic sense which is very shameful and it depicts the kind of indisciplinary attitude that our people possess. Now let’s get into the details of this example.
Usually there are three kind of lights in our Traffic Signal each having a specific meaning. These lights are Red, Amber and Green.
Red means –STOP
Amber means – Reduce Speed
Green means – GO
But for Indians every colour has same meaning.
Red means – GO
Amber means – GO
Green means – GO

This is Indian mentality. People usually reduce the speed when they approach a signal which is turning amber. But Indians will speed up their vehicles when it turns amber so that they can cross the signal before it turns Red.

It is a very funny sight watching people with two wheelers drive in a road full of traffic. They create their own small lanes from here and there and some how reach at the starting point of signal. They also drive through a foot path which is meant for pedestrians. Helmet is a rare sight. You’ll hardly see any one wearing a helmet.

And if there are some disciplined citizens trying to follow the signals, then they won’t be allowed to do so from other people. Even if you wait on the signal for one millisecond after it has turned green, you’ll hear all kinds of sounds of horn that people behind you will blow. Some will blow the horn until you leave the signal; some will give you bad words as if you have committed a serious crime. This also happens even if you are waiting on a red signal and there is no one coming from the opposite side of road. Here, the citizens will not follow the rules and they won’t let some few disciplined citizens to follow it either. In India we have a saying: “Follow only one rule that is: don’t follow any rule.”

Many a times we complain that there are road accidents and government should take some primitive measures to control it. But if you ask me, I think we citizens are mostly responsible for these accidents. Government will set up systems at place. But what it can do if people don’t follow it. If we drive cautiously then numbers of accidents are bound to reduce immensely. Government has come up with many different types of systems in order to rein in road accidents and ensure smooth flow of traffic. But most of them have failed, not because there was a problem in system. It’s because people do not follow that system. They are not ready to change. And then they complain about the systems in place. The BRT system is really good system and it ensures smooth flow of traffic where lanes of heavy vehicles such as Buses is separate from four wheelers and two wheelers. But still people don’t follow the rules and two wheelers enter in the BRT lanes. Such kind of indiscipline is not expected from the matured citizens of India. Then accidents are bound to happen.Infact any new system will fail if it is not welcomed by the citizens. They themselves are to be blamed. The system should not be blamed. I also agree that government is also to some extent responsible but it is people of our country who are primarily responsible for condition of our country.

We call ourselves well educated masses. We have plethora of well educated engineers, doctors, MBAs etc. But when these people drive, they also show the same kind of indiscipline which is very appalling. We should call ourselves educated only when we become well behaved and discipline citizens who follow all the rules and regulations.

I hope that day will come soon and one day it will happen that people will respect traffic signal and they’ll follow the traffic signals according to the actual meaning of each colour of light and not the INDIAN meaning of traffic signals. I am waiting for that day to come. And I am sure that our country will progress if we are well behaved and disciplined citizens.

What do you fear ?

There are plethora of things which people fear of. These are called as phobias. On top of the list is 'fear of death' which is also known as 'necrophobia'. Second in the list , apparently ,is 'fear of failure' which is known as 'kakorrhaphiophobia'.(very difficult to pronounce i know but thats the way it is.) .Actually , all the fears and superstitions have not come directly from the sky.Actually , there is a story associated with every fear and superstition for instance ,fear of number 13.The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia.(My god!! how they come up to such kind of toungue twister words which are so difficult to pronounce).

The Number 13

It is believed that the fear for the number 13 stems from primitive man being unable to count past 12. Numbers beyond 12 do now have an individual and independent name but are a combination of the first 12 numbers. With 12 being the end of the line, 13 was moving into unknown territory. In Norse mythology the 13th number led to the death of Baldur, the beloved of the gods. When the 12 gods gathered for a banquet in Valhalla, Loki gatecrashed the party, increasing the number to 13, which led to the death of Baldur. It also happens that in Tarot cards, 13 is called "Death."

The Baker's Dozen

The "unlucky 13" is the reason why the thirteen loaves that bakers once supplied were never called by the number, but described as "a baker's dozen." The thirteenth loaf was regarded as a special bribe for the devil not to spoil the sale or the bread.

List of very intersting phobias : (I mean how can people have fear of the things that are mentioned below)

• Fear of Bathing - bathophobia.(Don't go anywhere near this person).
• Fear of clothes - vestiophobia.(Wow!!).
• Fear of Everthing - panophobia.(I want to meet this person).
• Fear of English - Anglophobia(I am the feelings very the sorry about this peoples).
• Fear of Fear - phobophobia (Howzthat now!! Fear of Fear).
• Fear of Good News - euphobia (Its a bad news for such people).
• Fear of Heaven - uranophobia (Go to Hell !!!).
• Fear of kissing - philemaphobia (Don't you ever marry this person).
• Fear of mother-in-law - pentheraphobia (Its a universal phobia).
• Fear of telephones - telephonophobia.(Hello!! Its a wrong number).

- I hope you don't have a fear of reading my articles. Otherwise it would be called as 'panksarticlophobia'.

Did you konw -Part2

- Leaning Tower of Pisa

Soon after building started in 1173, the foundation of the Pisa tower settled unevenly. Construction was stopped, and was continued only a 100 year later. It then became visibly clear that the Tower of Pisa is leaning, tilting to the south.

- The human brain consists of more than 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) through which the brain's commands are sent in the form of electric pulses. It can process many operations at the same time (such as thinking, talking and walking at the same time). This is called parallel processing. Computers follow sets of logic steps, procedures called algorithms. Fast computers perform roughly 10 billion calculations per second. Supercomputers use multiple processors to follow several algorithms simultaneously.

- Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).

- On every continent there is a city called Rome.

- Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.

- The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

- About 50% of Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. This is called propinquity.

- The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

First Day at ICFAI Pune

Aspiring to become an MBA , I got an admission to ICFAI Pune and today was the very first day of my college. Frankly speaking, it was awesome. First day is always about anxiety,nervousness and also a bit of excitement as you are going to a place you've never been and meeting people whom you've never met in your entire life so far. So it was a blend of feelings for me. But it turned out really good. Never expected such kind of opening.
The day started off at 9 am.I was not used to getting up so early .Actually last 2 months had been a good vacation period(The period after you get selected and before your college actually starts). I was very much in my lethargic state but somehow managed to reach college by 9.05 am (yaha pe bhi late ...) . I was really worried about being late. 'n' number of threatning thoughts started rubbing my mind. Late on the very first day itself . May be the director will berate me in front of whole college. May be he'll suspend me. My impression will go down on the very first day. All such kind of thoughts were troubling my mind. But somehow i helped myself and reached the college. Ironically,I was able to find a few students in the campus. Then i discovered that the college actually starts at 10.30 am and someone gave me the wrong information. I heaved a sigh of relief for a fraction of second before i realised that what i am goin to do till 10.30 alone. Luckily, i met one guy named sonil jain who also came early and we had a good chat ,we saw college building(There was hardly anything there worth seeing).At 10.30 ,we were given the schedule . It started with the registration , then an ice-breaking session and ended with an induction program and welcome tea(There were no lectures as this was the very first day).Ice-breaking session was a real fun .This session was specially conducted in order to get acquainted with your batch mates. We were given a list of questions related to our colleagues.There were questions such as 'Find a person in your batch who has same sun sign as you ' , Find a batchmate who has lived in pune for more than 15 years ' and so on . We had to interact with the batch mates and find the correct answers. The first three persons to finish all the questions were supposed to get a prize. I never thought that i would able to do it but to my surprise i was able to complete it third among around 70 students and won the prize. Wow!! ,i said ,howz that ?? A prize on a very first day . As the day progressed ,i was able to interact with more and more batchmates Everyone was very friendly and i already made around half a dozen of friends.That was more than expected for me. Campus was a bit disappointing , it doesn't feel as if you are in a college .Its a small three storeyed building. But the people, the environment and the culture overshadows the disappointment of a small campus.Aspirants from almost every corner of our country have taken an admission.There are people from Gujarat,Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh,WestBengal ,Tamil Nadu,Maharashtra and so on. On the whole, a good college and a great first day. I am looking forward to my 2-year long journey with ICFAI pune. Lets see whats in store for me.

Facts about India

-India is the largest democracy in the world.
-India invented the Number System and Zero (invented by Aryabhatta).
-The world's first university was established in Takshashila in 700 BC.
-Ayurveda of India is the earliest school of medicine known to the world.
-The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Navgatih'.
-Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun (5th century) as 365.259756484 days.
-The value of 'pi' was first calculated by Budhyana in the 6th century and also propounded the Pythagorean Theorem.
-Chess was invented in India.
-The place value system or the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
-India has the world's largest postal and rail network. Indian Railways is the world's single largest employer.
-India is a software power and leader in the knowledge based economy and has one of the largest pools of software engineers in the world. The country is also the largest manufacturer of tractors and leather goods.
-India ranks first in the production of milk and butter, mango, tea, raw sugar, jute, coconut, cashew and also in the cutting, processing and manufacturing of gems and jewellery.
-India is the second largest producer of vegetables and fruits, rice, groundnut, sugarbeet, tobacco, motorcycles and scooters.
-India is the third largest producer of wheat and the fourth largest producer of cement.
-The country is the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power.
-The number of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, at more than 6,000, is second only to NYSE.
-With 800 movies per year, India's film industry overshadows Hollywood.
-The Kumbh Mela festival, held every 12 years in the city of Allahabad, attracts 25 million people (more than the population of 185 of the 227 countries in the world). The Indian city of Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
-Six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years. No other country has won more than twice.

Did You Know - Part 1

• Where does the word Soccer came from?
  The first football club was formed in Sheffield, England in 1857. The Football Association was founded on 26 October 1863 by 11 clubs meeting in London. (The word association was abbreviated to assoc., which became "soccer.")
  So where does this word came from?In the 1880s students of Oxford University abbreviated words by adding "er" to the end; for instance, breakfast became "brekkers" and "rugby rules" was referred to as "rugger." When one student, Charles Wreford Brown, was asked if he'd like to play rugger, he was the first to abbreviate "association rules" (Football Association rules) by answering, "No, soccer." Brown later became an England international and Football Association vice-president.
• To make one kilo of honey, bees have to visit 4 million flowers, traveling a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.
• There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes.
• The ‘can opener’ was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.
• The Bee is a remarkable animal - flowers are pollinated mostly by bees. Bees do not have ears, but they have an excellent sense of smell with chemoreceptors in their antennae.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

IPL-More Than Just a Game

Indian Premier League (IPL) is a unique concept brought about recently by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), I believe, in response to the Subash Chandra's much controversial 'Indian Cricket League'(ICL). ICL received much attention before its inception due to its prudent marketing and a concept, which seemed quite lucrative for players. At one point of time, it was claimed to be a big threat to BCCI, but the BCCI president refuted this claim by showing skepticism to this concept. It was also not welcomed by the cricket lovers and eventually it didn't make much profit in its opening season. On the other hand, the BCCI's IPL has a completely unique concept.
The game of cricket will be taken to a different dimension altogether. It will completely change the way we look at the game. If we minutely observe the concept, we realize that it is literally much more than just a game. The game of cricket that was mostly the source of money-making for BCCI and players has now widened its spectrum. It has developed into a platform where not only BCCI but also the industrialists and the millionaires see it as a source of business. Yes, you are thinking on a right line; it’s a business where any millionaire can venture into. Couple of days back, I was just watching a news channel which had its breaking news as ' Dhoni Bik Gaya 6 crore mein' and 'Andrew Symonds sold for 5.4 crore’ as if these cricketers were displayed on a window of a shop and people looking to buy them. One news channel displayed breaking news as 'Cricketers ki mandi'. But the cricketers won't mind this news; I mean who would as long as he is given such a humungous amount. They would be much happier to play for their franchisee than for their country.
The real core cricket that is test cricket is hardly seen anywhere. It is almost replaced by 50-50 one day cricket. Now days, a short version of one day cricket that is T20 cricket has come into existence and is gaining the popularity among the audience. When asked a businessman about the T20 cricket, he said "Its very short and exciting game, gets over in 3 hours and people come to watch such games due to which the pockets of cricket board and players are filled and people also enjoy such entertaining matches". In all this, the real test cricket has lost its essence and it would not be longer that we see test cricket becoming extinct.
Let’s see how this concept works out and what kind of response it gets from the cricket lovers. It will surely produce exciting games and fill the pockets of business tycoons along with BCCI and players but I doubt whether it will do any good to the game. It may prove to be a nemesis for Test Cricket. Well, time will say everything and will answer all our queries.
All that I can say right now is: IPL, surely, is 'MORE THAN JUST A GAME'.