Rock ON

aasmaan hai nila kyun (wavelength of visible light,
paani gila gila kyun (property of liquids)
gol kyon hai jameen (rotating bodies tend to attain shape with minimum vol)
silk mein hai narmi kyun (molecular structure),
aag mein hai garmi kyun (energy)
do aur do paanch kyun nahi (mathematical convention)

ped ho gaye kam kyun, (deforestation)
tin hai yeh mausam kyun (environmental reasons)
chaand do kyun nahi (big bang provided only one satellite to earth)
duniya mein hai jung kyun, (human nature)
behata laal rang kyun (blood is a liquid, liquids flow)
sarhadein hai kyun har kahin (geo-political reasons)

socha hai, yeh tumne kya kabhi
socha hai, ki hai yeh kya sabhi
socha hai, socha nahi toh socho abhi

behati kyun hay har nadi, (liquids flow, gravitational effect)
hoti kya hai roshani (form of energy)
barf girati hai kyun (gravitation)
log kyun hai ruthate (human nature)
taare kyun hai tutate (gravitational pull of larger heavenly bodies)
baadalon mein bijali hai kyun (electrostatic)

socha hai, yeh tumne kya kabhi
socha hai, ki hai yeh kya sabhi
socha hai, socha nahi toh socho abhi

sannata sunayi nahi deta, (absence of vibrations)
aur hawaaye dikhaayi nahi deti (nature of constituent molecules)

socha hai kya kabhi, hota hai yeh kyun

aasmaan hai nila kyun, paani gila gila kyun (ref. to explanation(s) given above)
gol kyon hai jameen
sukh mein hai narmi kyun, aag mein hai garmi kyun
do aur do paanch kyun nahi
ped ho gaye kam kyun, tin hai yeh mausam kyun
chaand do kyun nahi
duniya mein hai jung kyun, behata laal rang kyun
sarhadein hai kyun har kahin
(socha hai, yeh tumne kya kabhi
socha hai, ki hai yeh kya sabhi
socha hai, socha nahi toh socho abhi) - (2)

Pat Down Searches

Indian Diplomat Meera Shankar was subjected to a pat-down search at Jackson airport in the USA. While some government officials are paying lip service in terms of apologies, the Transportation Security Administration does not seem to be apologetic.

Wonder what the reaction of the Americans would be should any of their officials (senators, ambassadors...) are subjected to a similar search in India?

On God and other earthly matters

I am not an atheist. I am not a believer either. Call me a confused agnostic.

I have always had mixed feelings towards matters pertaining to the existence of God and other religious matters. On one hand, I don't participate in many rites and rituals, while on the other, I have no qualms in performing certain symbolic rituals if it doesn't strike me as particularly offensive.

A few years back, my family and I went on a trip down south. In one of the temples there, I saw a sign proclaiming that non-Brahmins were not allowed into the temple premises. This in a country that is supposedly secular!

A new concept of premium entry was introduced to me in these abodes of God. If you were among the hoi-polloi and did not want to stand in queues and rub shoulders with the plebians in order to get a glimpse of God, you just paid the temple authorities for VIP entry.

A really offensive notice was one preventing menstruating women from entering the temple. Such women are supposedly impure! What's so impure about that? As far as hygiene is concerned, aren't we all aware about sanitary pads and tampons? The city of Mumbai was supposedly blessed by a Goddess who was given refuge there during her period - after she was asked to leave from everywhere else.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kerala-police-to-charge-sheet-actor-jayamala/134807-3.html?from=tn

The above article is an interesting read. The last line in particular is extremely realistic. I quote 'It seems in an election year, even the Communists can't afford to offend believers and their ancient beliefs.'.

Religion or politics?

Such incidents have left a lasting impression on me and firmed my resolve of not entering any sanctum sanctorum. The commune between my God and me is my own matter and I refuse to let any human put conditions to it.

A sporting nation?

A lot of books, magazines and other sources had created a belief in me that the Aussies were a bunch of sporting people; that the country itself was a sporting one - a belief that has been busted by recent events.

1. I was watching a wrestling match between India and Australia in the Commonwealth Games. When the Indian won the match and extended his hand to his opponent, the Aussie coldly ignored it and walked away. Sportsmanlike conduct? I think not. On the other hand, when an Indian defeated a Pakistani wrestler, the two opponents not only shook hands but also had a brief embrace! And people say that the two countries are at logger heads. Whatever it may be, my salute to the sporting athletes of Pakistan!

2. News reports came in that Aussie athletes created a huge ruckus and even dumped a heavy piece of machinery (a washing machine) from the eighth floor of a building. Destroying property of the host nation and recklessly endangering lives of innocent passer-byes did not exactly endear them to me.

3. Today's newpapers reported that an Aussie athlete who did not participate in the commonwealth games is now challenging the gold medal winner (Indian) to a match with a $20,000 prize stake. Why? Couldn't the athlete have participated in the CWG itself and legitimately vie for the medal? Did she have any problems coming to India?

All these cases have tarnished the reputation of Australia as a sporting nation in my eyes.

So Sad!

An old video

At IIT, we had made this video as part of the new student induction process.

Enjoy...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc94h7_about-doms-iit-madras-old_schoolundefined

On packages and experience

Just happened to view an interview on NDTV Hindu where Dr. L.S.Ganesh (my HoD at IIT M) was the guest speaker.

The typical queries ranged from the best course to the expected pay packages. LSG has always maintained that it is never your first salary that matters, for it is a long career that could potentially span 35 - 40 years.

True to his beliefs, in the interview, he hesitates naming any figure although he did reluctantly quote conservative numbers.

In the interview, he also stated his long held view that management aspirants should typically get some significant work experience before joining an MBA program as this would give the person a better appreciation of the management fundae being taught.

To view the interview, go to http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc8iu2_prof-ls-ganesh-s-interview-with-ndt_schoolundefined

Paucity of good MBAs

What's the definition of a manager? A person who is able to manage? If yes, then manage what? Resources? Time? People? (the last two are ultimately part of the first, innit?)

Anyway, a degree in management (from reputed institutes, that is) is supposed to equip you to do more than what a non-MBA could or would. These institutes are supposed to teach the young graduate skills that go beyond SWOT Analysis and Number crunching. A computer can crunch numbers, it takes a human to interpret them. Qualities such as Time Management, Innovative thinking, Stress Management etc. are part and parcel of a 'Manager's' life. A B-School is supposed to equip young professionals to handle them as well.

Long hours of assignments, projects, group work and other activities are designed to inculcate such qualities in the b-schooler.

But are B-Schools truly training students to imbibe these qualities?

Top B-Schools (IIMs, XLRI, IITs...) definitely do. The worth of the student who has passed out from their hallowed portals is unquestionable.

However, there are numerous run-of-the-mill institutes churning out 'Managers' by the dozen. With absolutely no regards as to quality control at the point of intake, they are victim to the basic principle of 'Garbage In Garbage Out'. MBAs from such institutions leave much to be desired. At times, one wonders, what did they learn during their time in the MBA programme. Was it just about clearing exams and getting grades? Have they even understood what a manager is expected to be like?

No wonder, companies are loathe to visit such campuses to get new recruits.

When will things take a turn for the better?

Epics

Inspired by Keerthy (mi espacio), here are a few tidbits from the epics that make good reading...

1. Bheema was once gorging on some sweets at night. Arjuna chanced upon him and asked him how he could eat without any light to guide his actions. Bheema replied that years of practice had enabled him to guide his hand to his mouth even in pitch dark. Arjuna was inspired to be a great bowman after this incident.

2. Once Yudhishthira was approached by a mendicant for some alms. Yudhishthira asked him to return the next day so that he may donate him some. Hearing this, Bheema leapt up in joy and started distributing sweets. Surprised at his reaction, the other princes asked him the reason for his celebrations. Bheema replied that Yudhishthira had mastered the art of foreseeing the future and possible conquered death. When asked for an explanation, he said, Yudhishthira had asked the mendicant to come the next day. No human can tell whether he would survive the next day or not. As Yudhishthira could never make an empty promise, he must be sure of living the next day. Yudhishthira understood Bheema's point. Never postpone anything, especially a promise for one never knows what is set in store for the future.

MORE TO COME...

Love Shmove and all that Jazz

I have recently come across a spate of reports and articles in popular media and online websites where young students agonise over their 'love affairs' and desperately seek advice. These young 'lovers' are often school students in their early teens. Do teenagers even understand what is meant by love or is it just mere infatuation?

From where do these young kids get such cues... is having a beau all that important? does a xiith standard chap really need a girlfriend?

Bandh

An All-India bandh has been called to protest against the price-hike in fuels. Media agencies report that the 'bandh' has turned violent at many places and destruction of public property is rampant. How can any sane person justify the 'burning' of any thing to protest against fuel price hikes?

Consider this: the price has been hiked by 2 Rs. per liter. (AFAIK)
If you use even 1 liter to burn something, you are wasting 55 Rs. worth fuel (Ahmd rates) + the cost of the property being burnt. Even if it is a simple Maruti 800, the cost of the car is around 1 lakh. (depreciation and all)

So you have burnt stuff worth 100055, for which you can have compensated for the hike in about roughly 50,000 liters of fuel.

And that's just 1 car!!! Imagine the loss to the exchequer due to a halt in the economy alone. And add to it the cost of all the destruction to property...

The protest is costlier than the hike itself... How does one justify this?

Celebrating Mediocrity

IPL (and all its associated fun - Tharoor-Modi et al) is over for now... and the media, it seems, is now short of stories... So what do we do? Take up a non-issue, spice it up from the human angle and serve it to the unsuspecting public...

Some chappie manages to get a call from IIMA at 80 %ile... hmmm... Must be on basis of reservation... and then fails to clear the interaction rounds... poor luck... Now that's a run of the mill kind of incident that happens every year, right? so what's so special about it? fails me... but apparently not the eyes of some reporter working for a tabloid (run by a leading newspaper)... The story is picked up and the kid is splashed all across the front page... not once... but on two consecutive days... WOW!

What I fail to understand is this... 80% is not a big deal in CAT... okay, so the chap is from a socio-economically backward class (my assumption based on the story put out by the newspaper) ... so what... there are literally hundreds of such students... and this chap did not manage to clear his interview... so did hundreds of others... so what it is that makes him front page news?

why do we celebrate mediocrity? Why do we tend to sympathize with the under dog? No odes are sung to the hundreds of middle/upper-middle/upper class kids who cracked these tough entrance exams and other related selection procedures and made it to the highest echelons of education in our country... Rather, nothing less is expected of them...

Then why devote so much valuable (?) print space to someone who failed to achieve something?

Beats me...

Exam 'Tips'

I recently happened to be the guest speaker at a seminar conducted by an organization for the students appearing for their school board examinations. The topic for the meet was 'Exam fear and stress: how to handle them'.

A teacher from one of the reputed schools of the city was also invited to be a co-speaker at the session. This gentleman is an examiner for the board papers and apparently knows the way papers are assessed. Some of the 'tips' given by him were not only shocking but also rudely eye-opening in nature.

1. There is a set 'length' for the answers depending on their marks. For example, 5-markers are supposed to be answered in between 2.5 - 3 pages.

Is this really the set standard by the board! What about taking things like quality of the answer, size of the student's handwriting etc into account? If a person has a neat and precise, but small (albeit legible) handwriting, does he still tend to lose marks if he does not drag into the set range of size?

Whatever happened to the saying that 'brevity is the soul of wit'? I have often found it easy to answer questions in a logical fashion with minimal amount of words. It does not matter how many marks a question has been allotted. If the student covers every relevant point in minimal words, my tendency would be towards awarding him the maximum marks possible a. for his knowledge and b. for his ability to condense and present the same.

2. If the student does not know the exact answer of a question and writes in anything from the same chapter, he still gets some marks!

Is this not an open invitation for students to spew garbage in the exam papers?

3. It was shocking to hear the gentleman 'advise' the students to make use of any opportunity that presents itself to use unfair means. Although he did not openly advocate using unfair means, he definitely hinted that should the opportunity present itself, why let it go?

Is this the 'education' that we are imparting to our school children? Is education just limited to the content between the covers of 'prescribed' books. Whatever happened to character building and moral values?

It was disheartening to hear the woes of students who have been forced into a certain stream just because their parents want them to do so.

When will we ever emerge from this mad race of 'educating' kids for marks and social status?

Atlas shrugged!

There used to be a time when students would get up in the morning, rush to school, study hard for their exams, and yet find enough time to indulge in various extra curricular activities. They did not have over a 100 television channels to surf, they did not have playstations and xBoxes, they did not have the Internet... and all was well.

But now, the modern child has been so exposed to a variety of things and new age jargon that he is now feeling the 'stress'. A word that was not even known by the children of yore is common parlance in the current generation. Is it truly a sign of stress or is it just some psycho babble picked up from television channels, news papers and yo-parents?

And the govt. is not helping things by contemplating the 'dumbing-down' of school exams. Grade children for that attitude as well! Hmm... so it does not matter if I don't know my multiplication tables and chemical formulae... I can still manage to score better than that nerdy intellectual in my class if I have a better attitude!

Hello people... it's high time we read and re-read Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Money for nothing... chicks for free!

I am not a political analyst. I am not a philosopher. I am not a keen follower of international affairs. Heck! Given a choice between two links, one stating the changing trends of global economy and the other about Rakhi Sawant's latest tantrums, I would invariable go in for the latter piece of news.

So I am the archetypal common man. And these are my views.

The Nobel prizes are given to people who have DONE a lot for the world in various fields. It is awarded as a sign of respect to people who have already contributed and not as an incentive to perform well.

So Obama's nomination and awarding of the Nobel Peace prize came as a huge shock. The first time I came across this gentleman's name was when he was projected as the first possible Afro-American candidate to be the President of the United States.

Great!

He is articulate. He is extremely presentable. His words portray him as a man of vision and action.

But isn't it too early to be felicitating him with such a prestigious award?

Having read several newspaper articles, blogs and tweets, here are some consolidated views on this issue.

Is he being awarded the prize just because he is not another George Bush? Or is it an incentive to keep him from attacking other nations a la Afghanistan?

Gandhi was never awarded with the prize with the argument being that he was too Indian and not on a global scale. Well, Obama apparently won the elections with promises that job outsourcing will not be encouraged and his citizens will have more benefits. If this is true, then isn't it a similar case with the gentleman being TOO patriotic?

I am not aware of the achievements of any of the previous award winners... in any field...

Hence I may be mistaken and Obama may have contributed more than I realise, towards world peace.

But I need evidence of actions taken rather than words spoken...

Maths n Moi

I used to hate Maths.

It is not surprising to hear this sentiment being expressed by lakhs of school students across the world. The only difference is that, they express the sentiment in the present tense!

When I was in primary school, one of my math teachers taught the concept of Highest Common Factor (HCF a.k.a. GCD – Greatest Common Divisor) and Least Common Multiple (LCM) in class. Try as I might, I just could not grasp the difference between the two.

That evening, when I came back from school and sat down to do my homework, I struggled valiantly with the two concepts but just could not get the suns right. The efforts to get through the text book exercise was so great that I was close to tears. Mom saw me sitting with a dejected look on my face and asked me what the matter was.

“I hate Maths! I don’t want to go to School. Why do I have to go there everyday when I can just sit back at home and learn the same on my own?”

Luckily, mom was among those select few parents who rarely took her child’s words at face value and always tried to probe for the underlying actual cause. After having sat with me for a long time, she realized that it was the frustration of not understanding a concept in math that was killing me. On one hand, I was the class stud in all subjects, consistently scoring well and on the other hand, here I was… unable to solve even one problem correctly in the new chapter that I was ‘taught’ that day in class.

Having understood the issue, mom patiently sat with me and first showed me what HCF was all about. She asked me to forget the LCM part of it. Having understood one concept, she made me do all the sums of HCF first to get my basics firmly in place. Unburdened by multiple concepts, I could steadily breeze through half the exercise. Then she took on the concept of LCM. At the end of a couple of hours, there I was with a completed homework assignment in hand and a grin on my face. I no longer hated school and all was well with the world again!

Years later, when mom was remembering this incident, I realized that many students start hating mathematics because of such similar experiences in school. They are burdened with too many concepts by teachers who simply ‘teach’ the ‘hows’ and not the ‘whys’. Had I not had my mom to explain me the basic fundamentals that day, I guess I would never had learnt to chuck my fear of mathematics.

Grapes are Sour!

Mum went to visit an acquaintance of ours a few months back. The acquaintances' daughter was preparing for the CAT. The girl was confident that with her level of intelligence and practice, she would definitely crack the CAT and get a call from the IIMs with her dream destination being IIM A.

She scored in the low 60s percentile.

Not the one to give up, the youngster started preparing for the GCET (Gujarat Common Entrance Test - a state level MBA/MCA test) and appeared for the first everr online edition of the same.

She failed to secure enough marks to get in any known college.

A few days back when mom went to their place, the girl had already taken admission in some run-of-the-mill 'MBA' institution. She was of the unequivocal opinion that the paper was too tough to allow students to score well. When mum informed her that her son (yours truly) had also appeared for the same and had topped the paper, the girl had the convenient excuse that as different question sets were given on different days, obviously I had got the easiest set and she had received the most difficult one. The paper was biased and hence the skewed results.

Ahem ahem...

How about the fact that I had also topped in 2006 when every single person was given the exact same paper?

Or how about the fact that I had scored pretty well in national level entrance exams, enough to have secured a seat at IIT Madras in their MBA program...?

None of that counts... According to her, she deserves a seat at the IIMs and the world is biased against her...

Talk about grapes being sour!

Trick or Tweet

These are the times of cut throat marketing and marketeers are not above selling their goods using any means possible, ethical or otherwise.

How many people in India actually have Internet access and what percentage of those users use a service such as twitter? I doubt the mango people 'aam aadmi' of this country even knew what 'tweeting' was before the entire 'Tharoor-tweet' issue was publicised. Had the media not blown the issue to such huge proportions, junta would not even realise about the existence of such a service, let alone track Tharoor's tweets.

Most of the people who robustly follow such online networks are well educated and relatively young. I would also presume that these people have either a good sense of humor or no time to make mountains out of molehills.

For all we know, methinks that the issue could have been trumped up just to bring twitter to the limelight. Call me a hardnosed cynic, however any such matter tends to send my antennae all a quiver. And news hungry politicians would not leave any chance to issue sound bytes and gain their 15 minutes of fame. yet again.

The best way to let such issues die is to ignore them. But no. With the advent of one million and one 24x7 news channels, the media thinks it is is their duty to let the citizenry know about every burp and fart issued by one and all.

Wah!

G.C.E.T.

The Gujarat Common Entrance Test (for MBA/MCA) is now online. And most test preparation institutes are cashing in on this. Flashy ads claiming their latest up-to-date computer labs which will help students gain that extra edge, tons and tons of mock/simulated 'online' test papers and what not!

Having cracked GCET '06 (in its pencil-and-paper avatar), I decided to attempt the first version of GCET-Online to get a feel of how different it is from the time that I attempted it. (Being a GCET Coach myself, it becomes all the more necessary for me to know from the test taker's perspective.)

Myths vs. Reality Check

1. The online test requires computer proficiency. A person who has had no 'computer experience' whatsoever is at a disadvantage.

Reality: What poppycock! The computerized version of the paper is no different from the pen-and-paper test. The only difference is you read the question with your neck straight instead of bent down and you mark on the screen instead of with a pencil on an OMR sheet. Infact, as you have to just click the right option, the problem of wrongly marking the sheet is eliminated!

2. You have to be good at oral calculations.

Reality: Yes, you have to be good at calculating things in your mind. But isn't that true for even the pencil-and-paper version? And GTU provides an endless supply of rough sheets for calculations at the test centre even for the online version. So if you cannot give up your habit of scribbling things, there is not much of a difficulty there, is it?

3. The online version is tougher than the other...

Reality: Yeah, right! The online version (my set) had no questions on data interpretation. There were no table based puzzles. The english questions (apart from the reading comprehension passage) were itsy bitsy one liners that a reasonable competent 10th grader could've attempted. Contrary to what I read in the newspapers, the GK questions were pretty straight forward and the mode of exam had no impact on them.

4. Only one question appears on the screen at a time...

Reality: Yes... but all the question numbers were present and you could switch back and forth at any point of time. You could distinctly mark the questions which were to be rechecked by you. And the color coding to mark the questions was awesome... something that was not possible in a pencil-and-paper test. And honestly, even if you could view only one question on the screen, did the pencil-and-paper question let you process more than question simultaneouly? Wasn't the student attempting only ONE question at a time there too?

All said and done, there was not much of a difference between the two versions of the paper. In fact, the online version had a lot of advantages. What really matters is that the student is pretty well prepared with his fundamentals. Do not stick to one question if it consumes too much of time. Just mark the same and move ahead!

A good strategy would help anyone score reasonably well in the test.

UPDATE: Day 1 topper
UPDATE: Overall Rank 2 (2009)
UPDATE: Rank 1 in 2006

Glorified baby sitting

After 10-12 years of education in an institution, if the kid does not perform well in a state level entrance exam, the parent does not blame the 'school'. However, a crash batch coaching center is blamed for the poor performance of the kid at a national level entrance exam.

Where is the justice in that?

A coaching center can teach the kid, the basics of the subjects. However, things like discipline and ambition are the chief driving forces behind success, qualities which are supposed to imbibed in a person by the parents... and yet no parent is willing to take the blame for the kid's dismal performance...

The rich cognoscenti have no time for the fruit of their loins and feel that if the kids are out of their hair for a few hours, it is blissful... and so they expect the coaching classes to keep the children occupied... what the f$#@

are we some sort of baby sitters?

Buffoons galore!

If you wish to try out for a state/national level entrance examination for a post graduate degree, you must atleast have the basics in place right?

Wrong...! Ask me about the umpteen number of idiots who think they deserve to bag a seat in one of the top ranking state institutes...

I train students for a state level entrance exam for MBA... now the paper consists of basic math, english and logic and as the paper is given by graduates, you would reasonable expect them to have atleast the basics like addition, subtraction, percentage etc in place.

But NO! I have more than my share of nitwits who have no clue what a percentage is.... who are simply flummoxed at the site of a calculation like 1/4 + 1/2 and who have no clue as to the basics of english grammar...

and yet they expect to get into nothing but the best institute... with less than 5 weeks of training...

help me dear lord!

The power of 3 - 3 toppers on 1 stage

Seminar given by 3 GCET (Gujarat Common Entrance Test) Toppers (Me 2006, James 2007, Tejas 2008)

I am akha ahmedbad mein ek dum phamous!

Sojji Bajji and more...

Recently read a blog where the writer writes her apprehensions about getting married... which set me on this thought process... If girls are scared about the entire ponnu-paakara (seeing-the-girl) process, then aren't boys equally fearful of the entire process?

Why the natural assumption that the prospective suitor is there on an acquisition hunt and has no fears in his manly chest? Believe me, there is nothing more fearful!

I would blatantly put all blame on tele-serials and movies where the boy is shown to be a confident dude who sits as if he is the lord and master of all he surveys and the girl is this shy and demure creature who is not expected to be more than an ornament to her lord...

Asking the girl questions like "Can you cook?", "Can you sing?", "Can you dance?" seems to be degrading another human being... Seriously, do guys think that the moment they reach home, they would expect their spouse to put on a song-and-dance routine for them? For all you know, with both the husband and wife working (and more power to the women who do have a job) it might be the husband who has to start the dinner... so it would be more prudent if the girl asks the guys if HE can boil rice and veggies :)

Which set me thinking... what sort of questions would make more sense?

1. Do you know how to drive? two-wheelers? four-wheelers? With girls being more independent and working, wouldn't it be sensible if they had independence of transport?

2. Are comfortable with computers and technology ... a no-brainer... most people in this time and era do use email and staff... but i guess asking this would make more sense than making the poor girl sing...

and there ends my capacity to ask more questions! I mean, this ain't no interview where you list down your strengths and weaknesses and assess a person on the spot... haven't our elders married without so much as seeing each other and then proceeded to know each other well after marriage and had a blissful life? I guess it is easier to accept people if you have an open mind...

Anyway, all said and done... the bottom line is... you never know what to expect till you actually go through the situation... till then... Dream on!

P.S. Sojji = Sooji Halwa, Bajji = Bhajiya... the typical combo that is served whenever a prospective suitor turns up to 'inspect' the bride at her place...

A Sordid tale of Roadies and more...

I had no clue what MTV Roadies was all about... But whenever I happened to visit the Orkut page of some friend, more often than not, I would find this black 'Roadies' theme adorning their page... which naturally piqued my curiosity... and just by chance, my sister happened to be watching Roadies on the idiot box one fine evening... so I just planted myself in front of the tube and watched... and watched... and watched... !!!

That one evening was enough to inspire me to present my version of this oh-so-popular show...

1. To be eligible for this show, you need to be 'dressed' (under, not over)... You may not be the best looking babe or hunk... but you definitely must have a few tattoos and be ready to show a lot of skin and some more... the guys should have a few piercings, ridiculous hair and figure hugging vests while the babes must show miles and miles of cracks (fore and aft)...

2. Forget the fact that your parents taught you to be polite, especially in public... you have the best chance of making it to the show if you are loud, arrogant and foul-mouthed... don't hold anything back, let it rip... Cuss words should freely flow and you should have a strong (preferably negative opinion) about every homo sapien in your vicinity...

3. It does not matter whether you have enough grey cells to add 2 and 2 together... you must be willing to publicly go through 'stunts' which are non-cerebral to say the least... and it does not matter if you can't do well... what matters is that you thoroughly abuse and ridicule the opposition... (something that many politicians seem to be good at... atleast when shown on television)

4. Trust and loyalty are passe... you should backstab every 'friend' that you made on screen ... nothing should stand in between you and the prize...

I wonder... aren't these participants aware of the fact that all their shenanigans are actually being shown on air... and that their family, friends and acquaintances are watching them... they may be young and reckless... for now... but some day in the future, they might be out there hunting for a job ... and what if the recruiter happens to be one of the 'Roadies' viewers?

My own class of buffoons!

Try teaching the fundamentals of marketing to a bunch of uninterested, dim-witted, party loving, acads hating fools... and you will redefine the word 'torture'.

I consider myself to be an academic and believe that education should never be easy... if i can easily understand what it being taught, then the subject isn't worth learning... I should literally be burning the midnight oil to feel that the course is worth its money...

But apparently, this is not a widely shared sentiment. In the brief given to me, it has been mentioned that the kids are not here to get any serious education... it is just for passing some time, spending some of daddy's hard earned money and showing some qualification on their resumes... alors!

The material that is supposed to be taught? 11 chapters each ranging from 1 page to 4... the entire course (for 11 sessions) is lesser that what SB, PVR or JI would expect us to do for a class... heck, I remember JI's reading material which would run into a couple of hundred pages... per class!

what do I do?