Looking beyond stereotypes and generalizations!

I was onboard Aeroflot flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Had dozed off and woke up with a start as the plane landed. As it taxied through the runway, instead of standing up and reaching out for their baggages as they do in India, to my surprise passenger on the flight started clapping. I was clueless as to what just happened.

Had it been just few weeks earlier, I'd have formed some opinion about this event and moved on. But today I'm an enlightened man. After attending the Cross-Cultural Management course, I know its important to know, why does it happen? Peculiarities of each country, their eccentricities, whims and fancies! It all happens for a reason.

Why are Indian always late? Why do Saudis treat women.. erm so badly? Why are Danes known for innovation?

All these and more can be explained. Cultural dimensions. It is possible to analyse each and every country's DNA using these dimensions and understand the nuances of their cultures.

Youth can have political aspirations again

As Arvind Kejriwal swore in as Chief Minister of New Delhi today, I could feel something changing within me. I knew million others of my age would be feeling the same change.

India is young. People talk about the country's demographic dividend. It has been benefiting us in some many spheres of life, the shiniest beacon of this success being the IT Services industry. It has grown at an unprecedented scale in recent past. One field of life which was nearly untouched by this energetic youth was Politics. The most crucial part aspect for any country's growth. Young people like me have been skeptic of joining politics. The reason isn't because they wish to play safe, or because they were no willing to serve the society/country.

I have a lot of talented friends, who are natural leaders. Who have the will to serve the society, but they don't want to join politics. They volunteer for NGOs. Teach in slums, orphanages. Do all sorts of things but do not have political aspirations. Even when they know that, it is the avenue to trigger the biggest change. I

When I turned 18, I was excited, I could vote. I could participate in electing the next government for my state, my country. I went to the polling booth, I was confused. There was no one who I could vote for. None of the contestants were pursuing an agenda which I was interested in. This is the reason why a lot of young people still don't vote.

There has been a buzz in the media. In next general elections there will 120 million first time voters. It is a huge number but wouldn't have been take seriously by the political parties hadn't it been to the turn of events in last 2 years. (An unintended revolution)

Before I delve deeper into what has changed, I would like to enumerate reasons why I couldn't participate in the elections when I was eligible for the first time to vote. There are a large number of political parties in our country, but they have been contesting elections of issues which were relevant back in 1980s. Some parties do stand up for things that look beyond the political horizon, talk about growth and progress, but their are other factors that would hinder an aspiring young leader from joining them.

• Congress is the undoubtedly the single largest party in country, with a rich legacy. But today it has degraded into a mediocre undemocratic organization, which bows before 'the chosen one'. The excellent cadre system destroyed, you need to know more about 'chamchagiri' than politics to rise through the ranks.
• BJP the only other national party, cannot distance itself from the fundamentalist sister organizations, VHP & RSS. The ideological narrow mindedness means that it will never have the country wide acceptance.
• Regional parties like RJD, BSP, SP who cater to a specific target group, generally identified by a caste.

In this political scene, a person would have to make a compromise with himself before actually entering in the fray to do good. I personally registered for membership two times, but couldn't do that.

Nitish Kumar in Bihar seemed the only person who didn't have these vices attached. Maybe a few others in Southern India.

In this environment Arvind Kejriwal has broken boundaries. There is a brand new politics, which focuses on contemporary issues. A person of middle class has reminded us again, that you don't have to belong to a particular family or caste to become a politician. Something which was lost after independence, sons & grandsons ascended constituencies from their fathers.

I'm hopeful again, that politics will once again become a passion, it has been a profession for too long.

This gives me hope: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/lal-bahadur-shastris-grandson-adarsh-shastri-leaves-job-at-apple-to-join-aap/articleshow/28022852.cms

It was not just another HR course

Second day of the second quarter it was the second lecture of the day. The time table said it was time for Individual Dynamics in Organization. An HR course! I had had an experience of HR courses in my engineering days. They were always theoretical, always monotonous, always boring. Whether it was Industrial Psychology or Industrial Sociology, most of them would look appealing in the beginning but after the initial few lectures there would be mass bunks especially planned for them. Not that they weren't interesting, but usually because the class would fail to see what value they would add to an engineering student. Credits and marks for these subjects required just a lot swotting, the last night before the exam.

On these lines were my expectations from this new course. At-least two credits would be easy to earn, one sixth of the quarter was only done. I expected myself to doze in the lectures.

With such stereotype already built in my mind I sat expectantly to see who the professor was, what would be her grading, was she more focused on end-quarter exams or there would be assignments? Will there group assignments or the boring individual ones.

The class started, the professor swept in with a smile on her face. Asked us to form groups of eight. We were to discuss about the best and worst class that we had ever attended. Focusing on those two classes, we had to recall what the professor had done, and what the students had done in those classes.

An end and a new beginning.

Last few weeks have flashed past so fast that I hardly remember any of the events in detail. A journey that began of September, 14th, 2009 ended. Everything that I put together in the period of four years in engineering fell apart in a flash. There was no time for emotions. The world was now glaring at me, it isn't too kind to a graduate. I was well prepared for this moment. I've been hunting down every opportunity that I could lay my hands on, preparing for this moment of realization.

I had secured a job at Tata Consultancy Services Limited through the campus recruitment process. So I wasn't gonna be jobless. But fours years in a private engineering colleges had already taught me one thing: never settle down for what you have. Once you're satisfied with your life; it is finished. This hunger wasn't there when I had finished schooling. At the point of time, I was content. But this time I was ready, I already has decided that before even appearing in the interview, that if I get selected in TCS, I wont join. The offer letter was supposed to be a trophy of my first kill.

I had planned it all through, if I didn't get an awesome job, I'd go for higher education. Get a tag from an Institute of National Importance and bask in the glory of being a part of it for the next two years. Life was kind to me, I fared well in the entire MBA admissions procedure, the CAT, the group discussions and the interviews. I hadn't left Lucknow for most part of the 20 years my existence. If I did, I was only to Allahabad.The whole process of B-School hunting took me to new places, alone. My parents supported me, bearing all the expenses of these trips to Delhi, the tickets, the hotel stays. This exercise gave me a lot of self-confidence. I always was poor in facing interviews in my college life, but those 30 minute sessions with the some of the best professors in country helped me get over this shortcoming.