Hey – What is Your Name?

Recently, I bumped into a former student of mine in the bank.  Nothing unusual about that, most certainly.  I was in the bank at our old campus and this student had come visiting the old campus for old times’ sake. When I suddenly bumped into her, the problem was that I could distinctly remember that she had been my student, I remembered where she was from, remembered some of the details about her- everything except her name! I could even remember which batch she belonged to and how she was in the class.  The silly thing with my brain was that it had her name somewhere but was not revealing it to me.  I talked to her for a few minutes and since it was time for me to get back, I excused myself and got back into my car.  Then suddenly her name popped up in my head! By then it was too late to be of any use. All throughout my conversation with my former student, I was distracted trying to get her name out of cold storage. And, somehow it didn't seem right to ask her for it. Maybe it was the effusiveness with which she met me and I did not want to pour cold water over her pleasure of bumping into me.  Perhaps it is the feeling that it is thoughtlessness or rude to forget someone's name.........

 

Is it that I am getting old? Is it that I am now meeting far more students than earlier?  I am sure many professors must be going through this agony every time they bump into their former students after some time.  Some faces are so clear in your mind and yet the name eludes you when you want it the most.

The dilemma one faces is that, sometimes, you may have spent some time with that student helping him/ her academically.  Maybe the student has been one of your advisees and one ought to remember them.  There could be a student who has been particularly memorable because one has pulled up that student time and again.  The student may have a dozen reasons to expect you to remember the name and details.   But the synapses do not always connect up in the professor’s mind!

I wish students would help out their forgetful former teachers and mention their names the first thing when they meet them.  Conversation and catching up could then be more pleasant for the professor rather than his being in the agony of trying to remember his student's name.  Please remember that your teachers are no longer as young as they used to be.

Bala@Ranchi

It is a Communication Gap!

The Congress party amazes me by the priceless way they work! It is a political party and they can do what they please.  If the voting public like them they will remain in power or else they would get booted out.  Why should it matter to others?

It would when they deal with people outside the party.  The Congress President is not a mere president.  She is now close to a monarch, an empress, whose wishes are commands for the people within the Congress.  Within the party, a glance from her would ensure that her desire shall be done.  Any one daring to question her would be immediately pensioned and put to pasture. Now, Congress party leaders and members know that very well.

So when Sonia Gandhi meets you, non-Congress fellows should understand this.  They should understand even before audience is granted to you, your case has been cogitated by the spin doctors and they also agree that an audience can be granted.  So the students from JNU and such organizations should realise that they have got a royal decree when she tell them that she would look in to it.  These kids do not understand that emperors and empresses are not to be questioned or doubted!!

When Shinde (Home Affairs Minister) tells us on TV that “Soniaji has met them, what more do they want?”, his surprise is genuine.  Even reasonably senior Congress men do not get to meet her.  So anyone who gets to meet her should consider it a blessing.  When an emperor promises you that you have been heard, you are supposed to genuflect and come away.  And wait for the minions to come to you with the purse.  One is not supposed to say things like “We have heard assurances before” kind of stuff.

While the Congress party is living in the feudal times of 18^th century, the youngsters are living in the 21^st Century.  Their incredulity is born of their natural scepticism of most establishments; the Congressmen’s amazement that anyone could doubt the promise made by Sonia Gandhi is also genuine.  The communication gap is understandable.

Bala@Panaji

Avoiding a Barbarian World?

I have no doubt in my mind that the maximum punishment under the law has to be given to the rapists in the most recent incident in Delhi. I am sure that the no judge is going to spare them if the evidence is presented. I have no issues in the India Gate protestors highlighting the issues connected with the recent rape and trying to broaden the debate to the wider issues of definitions and bringing about a more acceptable definition of rape or molestation. An FIR to be filed, police sensitisation is all necessary.

What I cannot understand is the cry for some punishment which sound barbaric.  Some of the banners hold out demands like “Hang them now”, “Castrate them” and the most horrific one “Treat them the same way they treated the girl”.  That to my mind is unacceptable.

The whole protest is to bring about some order in the society.  A society where each person is able to go about with his or her own life without hindrance. To go about without getting commented or molested or worse raped is a part of that.  More civilised we want the society to be, the more we need to respect the other person’s right. Right to go about the life and let other live their lives.  This also includes how we will correct the wrong doer.  What punishment we will give out and how we will give it out.

Remember, we as a nation got the admiration of the whole world in the way in which we treated Ajmal Kasab.  He waged war on India.  We did not just string him up on the nearest lamp post.  He went to a judge, had lawyers “prove” that he did do wrong and had lawyers defending (at least ensuring that the legal process was correctly done) and then it went all the way up to the Supreme Court and then the President and then he was hanged.  It was probably a forgone conclusion that he would be handed the death penalty. We could have just done it without too much of ado.  Then we would not be a civilised society and pretty barbaric.

In the distant past, before we became civilised, it was common for men to have sex with whomsoever he pleased? Rape was not an issue then.  It is in a civilised society that there is a concept of rape? So those who argue strongly for a civilised society should stop arguing for barbaric punishments? Even if we amend the laws we cannot probably make it applicable for this case? As they would have to be tried under the current rules. 

However we much we may detest them, however much we feel that they deserve more stringent punishment, we have to be law abiding.  Else the difference between the rapists and the rest would cease to exist.

Bala@Panaji

Some Hidden Dangers of Facebook Pages

When we were students in the seventies and eighties we parted at the end of the course with maudlin tears and promises to keep in touch.  Which we often broke and didn’t keep up with one another, apart from occasionally bumping into a few friends or trying to make it to the alumni meets, to talk about grey hair or the lack of it and who resembles Lord Ganesha the most! Today’s generation is luckier.  End of the course parties are only one more celebration and do not really mean you will not continue to meet each other.  It is also one more occasion to put up photos on Facebook, where you continue your interaction virtually.

Facebook pages, some secret and some open, also serve as an exchange of information about jobs.  It is a sort of good Samaritan act where former batch mates look out for each other by posting potential jobs opportunities in their own organization or other organizations.  This is especially the case with fresh graduates and those who have been out there for a couple of years.

The hidden danger in such groups is that the more senior batches are also members of the same group pages.  Say a guy, who is frustrated in his current position, writes in the e-group saying, “I am looking for opportunities in Finance and Analytics domains in Delhi. Have over 4 years of experience in financial services including equity research and investment banking support”.  He would be not only letting his classmates know that he is looking for a new job, but perhaps also his boss who may be from the same school. Or maybe not his boss, but someone on the Compensation Committee who would be deciding his pay increase;  may be someone in HR who would be handpicking a person for a plum assignment.

Another instance would be where someone posts a job vacancyoin the group page saying “ Hey – I have the following vacancy coming up in my company…..”.  Another guy then comments asking “Send me your email id” and yet another guy very helpfully tags a classmate or junior “Jumbo -- For your attention”.  Your intention to seek greener pastures would immediately become known to the bosses. Are you yet ready to let them know yet?

In the former case, at least the information is about the person himself/herself.  However, in the second case, “Jumbo” is probably not yet ready to tell the whole world.  He has, confidentially, reached out to some of his classmates but his privacy is breached by publicly telling the whole alumni group that he is looking for a new job.  Jumbo also could be, as part of his job, hiring from his junior lot for a position in his company.  With what level of credibility would he do that when it becomes known that he himself is planning to move – may be entirely for personal reasons? Would you want the world to know you are getting frustrated, or worse about to get fired from your present job?

Sounds far-fetched?  In a twenty year old business school where I teach, I know of a recent management trainee who is my student, his boss is my student from one of the previous batches and his one up manager is from one of the earliest batches of the same school. I also know that all three people are on the same e-group on Facebook (obviously they draw different meaning and purpose from belonging to the group).

                                                                                                        
Recently I posted a small note on this group page, which I belonged to as well, pointing out the danger of such breaches of information.   In response to this, another student wrote in saying that he enquired about a job from a consultant classmate about a job posting which the consultant friend was headhunting for.  It turns out that the job was in the same company that he was working for! It is a different matter that he was seeking out the information for a friend and not for himself.  But the embarrassment and the niggling feeling that your boss would think that you have become footloose may remain?

When Facebook pages are created for a particular graduating year, this may be not much of a problem. But its usefulness as information exchange would be rather limited? However, when a page reaches a few thousand members running across a couple of decades, it becomes as open as the PA system at Dadar station. One needs to think twice before commenting, and tagging on posts? It might be better to choose to send individual messages or emails?

Bala@Panaji

Two Young Girls and their “Mere Facebook Status”!

I was never an admirer of Mr Bal Thackeray.  Following the dictum “de mortuis nil nisi bonum”, I will not talk about him.  I will also keep quiet about the man and his politics. 

But there has been a furore of sorts about the two young girls who were arrested at the behest of a complaintant who apparently did not like the comments made by one of the girls on the events following the death of the Shiv Sena leader.  The girls were duly arrested, apparently illegally, and now the policemen who arrested them are facing trouble.  A couple of them have been suspended and the honourable magistrate has been given the heave-ho – possibly to some undesirable place.  TV channels and papers were arguing the case for the young girls. Now the Shiva Sainiks have taken up the cause of the cops by calling a bandh!

I think the channels and the papers were wrong in their assessment and the defence they put up.  They kept describing it as a “mere Facebook status”.  How can someone be arrested for “merely” liking a status on FB– went the refrain. And therefore, the arrest is such a big punishment for such a teeny weeny action. 

One cannot hunt with the hounds and run with the foxes.

Experience tells us that social media can be quite powerful.  Recall the “Pink Chaddi” campaign which started off as a family joke and then went on to become a small movement with a handful of people. We have seen how it spread all over the country through the social media, with Mr Muthalik getting far more undergarments than he would care for!  

We saw the potential of a single MMS which went viral in the city of Bengaluru and that had frightening consequences for our brethren from the North Eastern states.  So let us not understate the potential of a single status posted on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter or a single SMS.

The defence for the two young girls from Palghar cannot be that they merely posted something and so it is a “mere post” after all.  That sounds quite silly.  The question that needs to be answered is whether a status is judged as “mere” is based on the number of people who see it.

Just because a status is one that would be seen by her friends does the young lady has the freedom to say what she wants to say? Supposing that the status had gone viral, and a few thousand people had seen it, would it have made a difference to the defamatory nature of what she had said?  Similarly, it is the first “like” which makes a FB status go viral.  It is the proverbial match stick which makes a forest fire.

I do not wish to go into the merits of the post made by the young lady on Facebook, or her opinion about Mr Bal Thackery.  But I feel the standard of evaluation used to judge the “status” should be the same as if the young lady had gone on stage at a stadium full of people and made those statements.

 In other words, each one of us have to keep asking ourselves the question.    Would I make this sort of statement I am about to make on FB or Twitter if we were in an open place where not just our friends are standing, but  also a huge crowd of strangers are assembled.  Before “liking” a status, we also need to ask ourselves whether we would be willing to share that same stage where such statements are made.

Bala@Panjim

Reclaiming the Sixth Term

One of the things which I have been thinking is how the sixth term (typically most B schools have three terms every year and the sixth is the last term) and how it has become quite different from what it was.  Typically, students used to be gearing up for their placements in the month of February and March and they would get a job and walk out of the b school with the graduating ceremony happening in end March or early April.  So the students used to keep their load a bit down for the last term.  They would get their nose down to prepare for the job interviews.  Since they had no idea of the jobs they would get, usually were serious about all the courses they were doing.  This was the fairy tale where everyone – the faculty, students and employers all lived happily ever after.

Now the situation has changed.  Placement happens in all b schools any time starting October.  Employers cajole, blackmail or threaten the B schools for early dates in their anxiety to be the early bird to get the fat worms.  Since students are uncertain of the number of companies, they try and get the companies in so that the companies do not exhaust their requirements in other campuses.  B schools leadership (especially those which have larger batches to find jobs for) now shut their eyes to missed classes, disturbance to the general learning environment and accept the situation.  Faculty go around murmuring about academic rigour being flown to the winds.

Long and short of this is that most students in B Schools, barring the few struggling ones or the few choosy ones, have jobs under their belt and typically their interest in the classes seems to wane in the sixth term.  They plead with programme office that “heavy” courses should not be scheduled in the last term or “meaty” courses which are needed from a career point of view should be in the fourth term before placement.  Professors wanting to schedule an elective in the sixth term due to workload in other terms would find registrations low.  Typically, students seem to prefer courses by visiting teachers in the sixth term as these courses get over in shorter duration as visiting teachers come in short spurts and try and finish up the course.

It is only a question of some reallocation or it is a mere scheduling problem and why should we worry about this?  I am afraid that the long term impact is deleterious for the entire system.

First of all the professors jostle around to get their courses included in the schedule in the first two terms of the second year and specially in the fourth term itself when students are perceived to be serious.  In other words too many courses get offered in these terms.  Students are bound by upper limits for the courses they can take in a term.  This results in students making suboptimal choices for the courses they would be taking in to their portfolio?   

The fact that the sixth term is now considered by all people around to be a “light term” would soon mean that the teaching activities which happen in the sixth term would be crushed back to the fourth and fifth term.  The question is can most of the work, in terms of the mandated courses, be actually completed by the students over the two terms in the second year.  This results in classes having to be scheduled at odd hours; sometimes as late as 10 in the night. Students are occupied in classroom work sporadically in the day and this leaves them with little quality time to do any co-curricular activity due to the scheduling issues created by the large number of courses.   Spacing out of learning and such learning principles are given short shrift of?

Typically, new and experimental courses would get pushed to the sixth term.  Here students would, depending on how they view it to be light or heavy, would choose these or avoid these.  Excessive registration for a course which ideally has to have smaller classes would kill the course.  Perceived heavy courses would not take off.  In the long run, this would mean floating newer courses would become that much more of an uphill task?

Younger or newer professors are likely to get pushed to teaching electives in the sixth term.  This means that they would not get the comfort zone of teaching in a term when the students are more receptive to learning.  It makes life tougher for the professors who are new to the system. It also leads to unnecessary politicking inside the faculty group and newer professors would be eyeing courses (which they need not necessarily be the best to handle) just because it happens in the fourth or fifth terms.

Sixth terms in many B schools now seems to be less serious, more of fun and courses are done merely because of the need to complete the credits. Learning and development seems to have become a casualty here.  How do we reclaim the last and sixth term of MBA programmes?

 Bala@Panaji

Back!

I am back to this blog after almost a year!  My personal life was full of ups and down -- including the demise of a close family member, a change of city and going back to work in a different capacity and a change of apartment!  Not an excuse.  With so much happening, I just did not have the time. I hope to be more regular here.

Bala@Panaji