Ginger & Cardamom

10 Oxymorons I learnt in Two years

Three year back when I started preparing for the CAT examination, I came across the word called ‘oxymoron’. Initially I thought it would be a word describing a huge aggressive moron, someone like me. The dictionary had some other opinions and it said Conjoining contradictory terms (as in 'deafening silence'). I never could really understand that why do one need to conjoin the contradictory terms. A year and a half into MBA and here are the 10 new oxymorons (for ppl like Irfan and Reens: I know it is a verb, but I don’t know the plural & noun form for oxymoron) I have learned during the “GRIND”.

1- Business School

2- MBA Education

3- Professional Relationship

4- Friendly Group Discussion

5- Cooperative Boss

6- MBA Babes

7- Interesting Subject

8- Great Faculty

9- Dream Company

10- Intelligent Question

11- This one is specially for my SIBM mates- Reena Sharma

For anyone of you who have a doubt or an argument that anyone of these is not an oxymoron may feel free to comment object. If you want to call me because I just remember one more of it, which speaks of me – Receptive Person.

First of all I think I should offer the creators of klueless2 my heart full condolences, because the way the ideas are being produced in their minds their soul would never be at peace. I must admit that never in my life I have worked harder to get a phone number, not even of the hottest chic I have seen and here I slog my butt off for 3 days to eventually to get phone number of Vivek Mishra (FYI: I haven’t turned gay but the goddamn game was so interesting). I am pretty sure the Satan would have been there side, because even god won’t keep me awake for 3 nights. The 3 nights that I have spent balancing my time between the studies and this game in a ratio of 20:80. The last night fighters for the examinations would know how difficult is to do such a feat in days of your exams. Anyways lots of ranting already I will come straight to the point, the 10 things which are something strange

1- Games like this are more of a man’s affair rather than anything else. I know some pretty readers of this blog would love to call me a male chauvinist pig. But the truth is that this game is created by 3 guys and by far majority of the people I came across on the blog were guys and even among the top 25 winners there have been all guys.

2- Sometimes looking upside down can change your world, its good for general health that when nothing works standing upside down with legs dangling in air might solve a lot of your problems. ( I will tell this to Arjun Singh about this, might solve a lot of problems)

3- Sometimes what you think is the most sensible and obvious thing in the world might not be the same for someone else. It matters a lot when the verdict of that “someone else” is deciding factor.

4- One should never leave spelling mistakes in the documents. Spelling mistakes can be quite a pain you all know where. For me the pain lasted for more than 12hrs and was quite a learning experience.

5- Sometimes ignorance is bliss, I would have never tried to solve a Rubik cube if I knew how tough it is, I won’t write further because it might spoil the game for many who are still struggling.

6- Sometimes knowing weird things like Japanese movies being remade and Pink Floyd is not only David Gilmour but Roger Waters too helps

7- Quitting or Failures cannot be options anywhere.

8- There are 19 a#*&s who have beaten me and I have to shoot them to be the best or will have to wait for the next year. And one of them is meeting me for dinner tonight…can someone lend me a pistol J (Ps. For those who don’t know I finished in top 20 in this game)

9- Next time some smart-ass tells you about an interesting game in midst of the exams shoot him there itself don’t leave a chance.

10- Forward the game to all the people in your class as still 3 exams are left….

Well that’s the story of me & klueless2.

DON

DON, has received a lot of media hype and I was ever since wondering that all this hype might be just an overdone publicity which would destroy the movie more than it would help it. Despite all the hype that had been created the movie got extremely varied response from the critics as well as the audience, people liked it very much, people hated it, and some found it just passé.

I believe that Farhan Akhtar this time again has done a brilliant job while (re)making DON. It has been fashion in the Bollywood directors & producers to pick up the themes and stories from Hollywood flicks or old movies, but it was Farhan Akhtar who introduced the innovative idea of remaking DON, taking cues from the old hit flick and present in his own way. The major problem in doing a thing like this is that u have a benchmark, and that too an objective one, every part, every aspect of your film with a film of all together different time. And no matter what you do there would be few cynics round the corner ranting “Beta, Kuch bhi keh lo, Purani DON ki baat hi kuch aur hai. Yeh bhi koi picture hai”. Not only Akhtar but also Shahrukh Khan has shown great guts by acting in the movie. It is really tough to enact a role type-caste and previously enacted by some one who is perceived to be the epitome in terms of acting in the present industry. It brings out him in a straight comparison with the BIG-B scene by scene, expression by expression. Especially in the songs which are again remixed and where Shankar Ehsaan and Loy have done a great job of reinventing the old music of the Bombay smugglers of 1978 theme to fit International mafia operating in south east of 2006. Though Shahrukh Khan has dominated tried to be very stylish and has grossly overacted and in no way compared to Amitabh Bachan’s acting in the older movie. But he has fitted in the movie and gelled with the character in the movie very well, he seems to be an absolute misfit in the context of 1978 DON but in the 2006 he seems to have a very good catch of the character DON, though he keeps saying “DON ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai”. In the end all I would say is that DON is a worthwhile movie, and kudos to Farhan Akhtar for such a bold experiment.

MBA: Mediocre But Arrogant

Since a long time I was wondering about the perception of the rest of the world about us MBAs. After reading the recent post about MBAs being silly shrewd pointless nothings on Rul’s blog I felt that I should also express my views on the same. Yeah you guessed it right this is going to be another long gyaan session.

I have seen a lot of jokes and acronyms expansion about uselessness of the MBAs. What I fail to understand that why people see us as a bunch of buffoons? Is it because most of us scored well on an aptitude test to be a part of this clan? Is it because after passing out most of us get really well paid jobs? Is it because we work really hard for all the moolah we get? I have heard the people complaining that MBAs are grossly overpaid; they are not worth what they cost. What I don’t understand is when in all the private enterprises the wages are set up by free market, there is absolutely no government intervention implementing a minimum wages (until and unless one decides to work as a physical labour) for the MBAs, then why this scorn against these people? Anyone who is actually is not worth the efforts will not be able to survive in the market place, but this doesn’t mean that all the MBAs can be branded as “silly shrewd pointless nothings”.

No matter what people say about us, the truth is that we are one of the major benefactors of the society. Apart from keeping the wheels of economy moving, we are also responsible for numerous things which have changed the face of society as a whole. Today people from rural India are having access to a lot of products which the urban India uses. A kamla bai from a village also has the option of exercising a choice between Ponds or Charmis because MBAs at both Lever’s and Colgate-Palmolive are struggling everyday to ensure the products reach her. A farmer gets additional money to buy seeds because the MBAs at ICICI bank are trying hard to make micro finance loans available. Raman uncle is tension free after he has put his money into a mutual fund, where the MBAs are everyday dealing with markets to give him a return to help him in his old age. A lot of people are being saved from being unemployed, because MBAs in investment banks and consultancies are working hard so that the companies employing so many workers don’t close down just sail through the troubled waters. Yes all this is not for charity, and each on of us is paid and paid well. But it is not that MBAs are getting all this money for free; they do their own bit for the world around.

I would say that it is not justified to look down upon the MBA junta for no real reasons. There is no reason for them to be branded as “silly shrewd pointless nothings”. It is a free world and let them do what they are supposed to do and judge them on the basis of the work they do. Al least do not brand them even before they actually get a chance to show what they are willing to do.

Humanity & Indians Prevail

Gandhigiri has been subject of discussion, in every nook and corner of the country. Lage Raho Munnabhai has revitalized the Gandhian school of thought with a fresh perspective. I have never seen Mahatma Gandhi so visible in India, before this movie except for the currency notes. The real essence of existence of Bapu was not in politics but in his philosophy of life. The movie has brought to the people of this country to understand path for the great Indian dream to evolve. The magic of the Bapu and his school of thought is so phenomenal that one gets overwhelmed by the wonders that can be achieved by simplicity. It is good to read that people actually in my city are giving roses to the signal skippers. But I feel that there is another important part which people have forgotten and need to be reminded. There is a common thread that links the two Munnabhai flicks together. The thread that we realize and feel in our heart. The thread of humanity, the thread of coexistence. Both of these flicks depict of things common man is forgoing; those basic values, the little pleasures of life. The ‘Satya’, ‘Ahimsa’ ‘Jadoo ki Jhappi’ attributes like these are not unknown to the people. It’s just that he is letting them go in the struggle of life, chasing the larger than life kind of dreams and paying for those dreams in reality. Though Gandhigiri rules through out the movie but I believe a fair amount of credit should also go to this little poem which starts the movie at exactly the right note.