Slaying Demons

"So, how do we kill the monsters that plague our lives?

We don't, we fight them every day and keep fighting them and hope never to lose."


I once saw a movie with that dialogue worked into it and I cannot help but discover the relations that can be drawn between the idea behind the movie and the experience of giving management entrance tests. Of course, the movie had a much deeper concept of fighting the ill tendencies that crop up in our minds and behaving like decent, civilized human beings while really wanting to kill most of the people we meet every day, but it also rings a bell when describing how MBA entrance tests never seem to stop. The workload itself is pretty low. Close to 8 hours a day and you're good, considering the B.Tech. degree to my belt, that's peanuts, but what really gets you is the way it is dragged out from one month to the next. CMAT in one month, CAT in the next, IIFT and NMAT in another month altogether not to mention SNAP and XAT with their own unique schedules. At this rate, I'd rather have another go at the GRE. Now there was an exam. Easy in, get it over with and get out! If you have to retake the exam, the syllabus and the preparation remains the same, but in the case of management entrance exams, some exams have GK sections, some have more time, most have negative marking though not all. As a result, each tests demands not just a different strategy, but a completely different mindset or approach to prepare for them.

Well, now that my complaining is done, I'm off to slay demons once again.

The Big Cat !

Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, Panthers, Pumas, Cheetas, Lynxes and all the other creatures from the 'Big Cat' family pale in comparison to the one I'll be going up against day after tomorrow. At this point, a jaunt through the den of any one of the aforementioned beasts seems much more favourable.

The cat I'm talking about is The CAT, the "Common Admission Test". The natural habitat of course is not the African Savannah, the CAT preys on unwary students in air conditioned halls full of computers.

In every horror movie there is a moment when someone is being stalked by some malignant entity (take your pick, though Jaws and Freddie Kruger would be good choices) and there is a sort of 'predator' music going on in the background. Well, I guess if my life is ever to be put into celluloid, this would probably the time for all the creepy background tracks you can think of.

Well, wish me luck ! :)



P.S : Cinema fanatics, I am well aware of the digital videography revolution and that no one uses celluloid anymore. Don't give me grief over it as I used it merely as an expression.

The True Opressed Classes of India

I am a member of the most oppressed caste in India - The 'General' Category !


Dr. Ambedakar, the foremost champion of protection of the backward classes, decreed that reservations would be required for a maximum of ten years to bring about balance in the Indian society. Maybe his calculations were right, but his assumptions were most definitely at fault. He expected the national administrators to be upstanding citizens of impeccable character and erudition. Instead, our country has bred a generation of vote - bank politicians. It is with increasing alarm that I note how rapidly we are moving away from forming a Meritocracy. There are reservations for admissions into colleges, discounts in prices for competitive exams, reservations for placements and now reservation for promotion. So, all you 99%ilers can keep your resumes in your bag, because it lacks the single most important element to succeed in India and that is the Scheduled Caste/Tribe tag !

The reservation system is now trying not only to make sure that less deserving candidates get ahead but also that they stay ahead.Many people from scheduled castes and tribes instantly cry foul whenever they see someone from the general category move into a position ahead of them. The first thought that goes through their minds is "they were born privileged, I deserve just as much as them", what they fail to think is "they're better than me". It doesn't matter where you were born, those who deserve to get ahead, should be promoted.

Reservations are creating a rot right from the bottom to the top of the Indian social strata. This decay is harming not only the general category, but also the categories with reservations. Now, if you were to meet a genuinely talented person who belongs to one of the reserved classes, all one can think is that they are where they are not because of their own abilities, but due to the advantages (i.e. reservations) that they got.

Not only is the amount of reservations going up (just check reserved seats in government colleges), but the number of classes eligible for reservation is also increasing. If the oppressed are truly to be aided, there can be subsidies made for the poor, but nothing else. If we are to improve as a nation, the strongest MUST survive and the weakest MUST die out. It is the only way we can move forward. The very Theory of Evolution demands it.

Unfortunately, I am but one general category, male engineer trying his best to make some headway in Management Entrance Tests, and as far as the IIMs are concerned, I'm at the bottom of the pecking order (damn the diversity requirements !).......

Spain vs Argentina

This sounds like one of the best football matches possible. Lionel Messi against the entire spanish midfield, however, that is not what will be discussed here.

The company is called YPF. It started out as an Argentinian PSU (much like India's ONGC) but later on when crude prices hit rock bottom the Argentinian government disinvested its holdings as it did not want to continue subsidizing crude for the public. The majority stake of the company was bought by Repsol, a Spanish company with the minority stake remaining with the Argentinian government. Now with crude prices soaring and their economy in the doldrums, Argentina wants the company back. So what does it do ? It passes a bill which basically says, we own YPF. The problem is, Repsol was responsible for the great YPF growth in recent years and had invested a lot in the company. It gets nothing of that investment back. That is why an epic, national-economy-crunching legal battle is in the offing.

Maybe they should just play a football match to see who gets to keep the company. At the very least, we'll get to see some excellent ball play!

WTI Crude falls below 100 USD / Barrel

The end is near, It's time to despair, Crude oil is becoming cheaper, And it isn't fair.

While most of the world is complaining about rising oil prices, it is weird to find someone complaining about falling oil prices, but here I am, an out - of - work petroleum engineer. True, I'm still completing my bachelor's degree, but we can poke logic shaped holes in my arguments later.

When crude prices fall, oil companies make less profit and when they make less profit, they hire less students to work for them (see, it makes sense now, doesn't it!). There are three main reasons for the falling of crude prices right now:-

1. Spain files bankruptcy. They may have won the world cup (football that is for all my countrymen scratching their heads), but they have no money left to celebrate their triumph. Oh well, should have just let Germany have it after all.

2. The New French President. Ok, this one I don't understand. France is getting a new president, not only because of their rule of only 2 consecutive terms, but also because everyone becoming fed up of Mr. Sarkozy's flamboyant expenditure. With the new French president likely to be Mr. Francois Hollande, it is uncertain what policies he will follow. Even though he is part of the socialist party, he is opposed to the current trend of austerity gripping Europe. The uncertainty coupled with his opposition to the sound principle of austerity in the face of bankruptcy is probably the reason why no one wants to bank on French petroleum further devaluing brent crude.

3. U.S Job Scenario. The U.S rate of job creation has been far short as compared to predictions leading to destabilizing their economy. Being an oil economy, it is draining the value of American crude (WTI and NYMEX being affected here).

As crude oil invariably varies from one well to another, some standards have been set up in order to facilitate crude oil trading in mercantile exchanges.

Brent Crude -> European standard derived from the North Sea. Light crude, not too sour.
WTI -> 'West Texas Intermediate'. Average of many sampled wells of Texas. Very light, not at all sour.
NYMEX -> New York MErcantile EXchange. A synthetic standard created for trading (as the name makes it obviously clear) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Very light, not at all sour.

There are many other standards besides. For example, OPEC countries have their own for internal trade, but as a whole when it comes to international deals, these three are the ones most commonly referred to.

I do believe, it is time

Yes, I do believe it is time, time to return and post once more!

Now that we've done away with the overly - dramatic intro, let's get down to it. No, I have not been able to find a way to compress the video enough to display here. So, let's just all assume it was a nice short video full of lightning and lightsabers.

That being said, let me tell you that successfully submitting a B.Tech. project dissertation relieves more pressure from a person than a relief well does to an unruly formation.

This short post is just to shake off the cobwebs really. I'll start posting more regularly in the coming days.

Reaching for the Stars

George Lucas created something that has touched the lives of every human being who loves watching movies with great special effects. Yes, I'm talking about Star Wars. It is a much debated movie with many debates and sub - cultures surrounding it. I myself am a fan. So, why am I talking about it ?

Simple,I recently made a Star - Wars theme based movie for an Advert making competition. After doing so I can tell you that I have a new found respect for the guys who did the special effects. Though my work is nowhere near as stellar as that achieved by the guys working in Lucasfilms Ltd., I hope I will be able to share it with you a soon as I figure out how to compress it enough to upload it.

Until next time, MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU !!!

Up for Debate : India's 'much vaunted' Culture

I hear people singing praise of our nation and declaring that it is the best in the world. I cannot but stop and wonder like a few before me, "is it?"

Here is my view.

India has an undignified superiority complex. It mistakes history for culture. Yes, we have great ancestors, we have great architecture and we have all together too many traditions to speak of among other things, but does this really give us a cultural identity in this world ? What edge do these unique properties give us over other nations other than the ability to hold our noses to the sky and blindly proclaim that "We are the Best, forget the Rest !"

Truth be told, most of the people who make such proclamations have never taken the time to study or visit foreign lands to get a feel of their practices. Most people complain that India is becoming too "westernized" and we are forgetting where we came from. We hear that "megacities" are evil and India is losing its culture to their rapid growth. Might I remind everyone that India was one the first to show the world what a megacity truly is. Lets talk history. The Indus valley civilization may have been built after Babylon, but it was far greater by virtue of its meticulous planning and design and trust me, Mohen-jo-daro was most definitely a mega city.

Modern day cultural pandits fling vitriol at the adoption of foreign practices as our own while it is the oldest tradition of India to accept all foreign practices and make them part of a larger whole. I cannot for the world figure out how the same people can declare India 'The Melting Pot of the World' and in the same breath despise international cultural homogenization. The exchange of traditions and customs across borders and time is as old as the human civilization is.

The Taj Mahal, a national icon that shouts its Mughal beauty over every square centimetre of its marble clad being, is probably considered the world over as 'Indian' as it gets, but this form of architecture was once completely foreign to India.

Too often when the common man is asked to give an example of Indian culture, they will answer with some tale of some ancient deed. It is high time that we stopped being impressed by events long gone in favour of building a better future. We as Indians should not even take credit for those things we had no hand in doing. Harrold Hill once said that "You pile up enough tomorrow, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays".

Yes, our ancestors invented the number zero, get over it ! The Chinese used to come to Nalanda to learn, now they have more Ph.D scholars every year than India. All the best Indian students are looking overseas. We've already lost the race as no one has even cared to realize when the race began. India is stagnating and quickly becoming a spoilt child of generations now laid to rest. I'm not saying that significant progress has not been made at all, I'm saying that enough of it has not been made, at least not to the potential that we possess.

It's high time we got our heads out of the dirt, shook the sand from our ears and took a good look at the world around us. There is still hope, if only people read less history and actually understand the little that they do read.