Why Women Cry?

Mom why are you crying?

Why are you crying? – He asked his mom.

Because I am a woman -- she told him.

I do not understand – he said.

His mom just hugged him and said –

And you never will……

Later the little boy asked his father –

Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?

All women cry for no reason – Was all his dad could say…

The little boy grew up and became a man,

Still wondering why women cry…..

Finally he prayed to God;

When God appeared, the man said –

God why do women cry so easily?

God said….

When I made women she has to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough

to carry the weight of the world;

yet, gentle enough to give comfort…

I gave her an inner strength to endure child birth and the rejection that

many times come from her children…

I gave her a hardness that allows her

to keep going when everyone else gives up

and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining…

I gave her sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances,

even when her child has hurt her very badly…

This same sensitivity helps her to make a child’s injury feel better and

Shares in their teenage anxieties and fears…..

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife,

But sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.

I gave her a tear to shed.

It’s her’s exclusively to use whenever it is needed. It’s her only weakness…

It’s a tear for mankind.

(A poem from the pages of my old diary. Collected during my initial days at insti. This was written by R.G. Keswani – in IEEMA journal sometimes in the month of August 2000)

Gitanjali

Gitanjali - An offering of Songs - is the name that has been synonymous with Nobel Award and Indian literature for decades.

 

I have been hearing about Gurudev (read Rabindranath Tagore) since childhood and his brilliant creation Gitanjali from my school days (“Gitanjali” had a mention in some text book in my school curriculum as I vaguely recall now). None of my teachers back then gave us a bird’s eye view on its contents and it remained as a concept in mind.

 

I did come across the hard bound book in many book exhibitions which were covered by a thin plastic and the folks were always unwilling to tear open the plastic for the buyers to have a look at the book before buying such a costly one.

Come on folks you have taken such pain to have the book displayed and if the buyer won’t see the contents of the book, how can he judge whether to go for it or not.

 

So end of the day I never got an opportunity to have a look at what’s so great about Gitanjali until a couple of evenings earlier, while rummaging through the internet I stumbled upon a link that had all the contents of the book.  My goodness, a whole world of beautiful things opened up before me. 

 

I am putting here the very first poem – Mind without fear from the book. The poems were originally written in Bengali (One of the beautiful Indian languages) and subsequently translated to English by Tagore himself.  

 

 

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up

into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action -

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

 

 

 

This book is an offering to the Lord – as the subtitle suggests an offering of Songs and once you read these small poems you’d love to see the things in different perspective – a beautiful amalgam of human spirit and divine blessings.

Please read the other heart rendering poems from the book here.

The McKinsey Way – My Takeaways

Anything that gets in the way of efficient communication is anathema to a strong organization. Fuzzy thinking, obfuscating jargon, impenetrable hierarchy, and playing the “yes-man” get in the way of adding value for customers or clients. Structured thinking, clear language, a meritocracy with the obligation to dissent, and professional objectivity allow an organization and its people to reach their maximum potential. Of course, McKinsey has its own word for this – it’s called “professionalism.”

– Ethan M. Rasiel, New York office, 1989-92, McKinsey (The Firm), Author of “The McKinsey Way”.

So, I am done with my first reading of this beautiful book by Ethan M. Rasiel. Even though I couldn’t relate to some concepts but it was one of the best things happened to me. I would suggest any professional particularly MBA folks read this book to have an analytical view of the McKinsey mystique and learn the secrets of the world’s most sought after consulting firm. Following are the takeaways for me from the book and I would say my experience of reading, fascinating.

Building the Solution:

Arriving at a solution should be through the following steps:

1. Fact Based – Facts are friendly. Facts are the bricks with which you will lay a path to your solution and build pillars to support it. Don’t fear the facts.
2. Rigidly Structured – Feel free to be MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive). To structure one’s thinking for any problem professional/personal one must be complete while avoiding confusion and overlap.
3. Hypothesis Driven – Solving a problem is like embarking on a long journey. And initial hypothesis is one’s problem solving map.

The Elevator Test:

Know your solution (or your product or your business) so thoroughly that you can explain it clearly and precisely to your client (or your customer or your investor or your boss) in 30 seconds. That exactly depicts one’s clarity of thought and views/issues on the problems/tasks at hand.

Pluck the Low-Hanging Fruit:

Sometimes in the middle of the problem-solving process, opportunities arise to get an easy win, to make immediate improvements, even before the overall problem has been solved. They create little victories for you and your team. They boost morale and give you added credibility by showing anybody who may be watching that you’re on the ball and mean business.

Make a chart:

During the problem solving process, you learn something new everyday. Put it down on paper. It will help you push your thinking. You may use it, or you may not, but once you have crystallized it on a page, you won’t forget it.

Just say, “I don’t know”:

Any world class organization demands a level of professional integrity on the job and rightly so. One important aspect of this professional integrity is honesty – with one’s boss, one’s team members and oneself. Honesty includes recognizing when you haven’t got a clue. Admitting that is a lot less costly than bluffing.

Make your boss look good:

In any hierarchical organization, the most important person in you world, day in and day out is your boss. Your boss may be the only person in the organization who can see you. You’d better make her happy. The best way to do that is to make her look good. How?

1. Doing your job to the best of your ability. If you produce high quality work, it’ll make your boss’s job easier.
2. Make sure your boss knows everything you know when she needs to know it. Keep the information flowing.

Conducting Interviews:

Be prepared: write an interview guide – When you go into an interview, be prepared. You may have only 30 minutes with a person whom you may never see again. Know what you’re going to ask.

1. When conducting interviews listen and guide – When you are picking people’s brains ask questions and then let him do the talking. Most people like to talk, especially if you let them know you’re interested in what they are saying. Keep the interview in track by breaking it when necessary.
2. Have the interviewee’s boss set up the meeting.
3. Interview in pairs – One for asking questions and other for taking down the notes.
4. Listen, don’t lead.
5. Paraphrase, paraphrase, paraphrase.
6. Don’t ask for too much – by narrowing down your goals to two or three most important questions.
7. Adopt the Columbo Tactic – A particular question you need the answer to, once the interview is over the atmosphere is relaxed. The interviewee’s sense that you have some power over him will have disappeared. He is far less likely to be defensive and will often tell you what you need.
8. Don’t leave the interviewee naked – Be sensitive to the interviewee’s fears.
9. Always write a thank you note – It’s polite and professional and could pay back in unexpected ways.

Internal Communication:

The success of team-based operation depends on open communication, both from top down and from the bottom up.

1. Keep the information flowing – Information is to you what gasoline is to a car’s engine. If you choke off the flow, you’ll stall. The team should be up to date with the broad outlines of the project which help the teammates understand how their work is contributing to the final goal, how their efforts are worth while.
2. Three keys to an effective message – Brevity, Thoroughness, Structure. All the three should be included in every voice mail, email, meetings you send or go through.

Brevity – The attribute of being brief – Think before you speak, voice mail, email. Write down your message in 3, 4 points that the audience needs to know.

Thoroughness – Message must contain everything the audience needs to know. “I’m doing X, Y and Z. Call me if you have any questions.” – This is a strict no no message you should convey to your boss. This is nothing but a waste of time for your boss (and you). Tell her not only what you are doing, but what your issues are and your thoughts on them.

Structure – A must for any message/meeting/one-one conversation/presentation.

Surviving Tricks:

Few tricks for surviving in any high pressure organization where one may need to give 90 hours per week.

1. Find your own mentor: Take advantage of others’ experience if you can. Find someone in your organization to be your mentor. It’s jungle out there – corporate jungle where one needs to be focused on the task at hand and be aware of the greasy pole and clear of the quicksand. Having a guide you trust and respect will help you make it through.
2. Surviving on the road: Treat everyone with tremendous respect. Flight attendants, concierges, assistances – these people have more authority than you realize and want to help those who show respect for them. It also keeps your stress level down – it’s easier to be friendly than frustrated – so it’s a win/win.

On the whole the reading was a very good experience. I’ll definitely go back to this book which gives few valuable tips of the interview process at the firm, if at all I apply for an associate job @ McKinsey down the line after getting my MBA degree.

Self Made man

This powerful image of the rugged ‘Self Made Man’, chiseling himself out of a solid block of rock captures the essence of the freedom philosophy (Free Will).

Essence of free will:

Left to his own devices, man will use his God-given talents to be creative, productive, and prosperous. Using free will, he will better his own situation and that of those around him, thereby influencing in a positive way his own destiny.

The “Self Made Man” is just one of many striking works of art created by the brilliant artist – Ms.Bobbie Carlyle. I am sure it’ll be a very pleasant experience for the visitors of her website.

Facts – They are important

Facts are very important. At one point of time, not so long ago, I used to think, attitude is more important than anything else. Well, people change, thinking changes and I am one among the people.

Coming to attitude, it is an abstract concept. Facts, proper structuring of the same give weight to the concept. And continuing the same, there has been a very profound change in my way of looking at things, courtesy – The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel.

Facts are friendly. Reason:

1. Facts compensate for lack of gut instinct.

I.e. A generalist can make a balanced decision for a particular problem with proper structured facts which a specialist (in a field) can do in seconds by sheer gut instinct. But the specialist should be wise enough to check the facts. And a generalist looks at facts first, which is somewhat a better way, my thoughts.

2. Facts bridge the credibility gap.

A structured set of facts act as an overwhelming weight to back up for lack of an extended experience. A fresh graduate armed with structured fact is as credible as a Chief.

End note – respect the facts, they are important. Period.

P.s:

The thoughts are from the book The McKinsey Way. A brilliant read for professionals in general and management students in particular. Do I need to say explicitly – A must read.

A different perspective

My inspiration for this blog, periodically jotting down my thoughts, came from reading various other blog rolls. But I am most influenced by Vijay’s write up.

After googling Vijay (Ah! I leveraged technology here) I found him to be a former ISBian and a successful Resolve Query activist. (I hope, I am correct here, calling the Resolve Query guys – activists.)

Vijay’s blog-roll “I, THE ABSOLUTE” documents his journey through days at ISB and his learning from the courses at the school and beyond.

Well, I am very much impressed (‘enlightened’ is the appropriate word) the way he related to his courses, how he sat back at the end of a hard day’s work, reflected his thoughts and jotted down the same for an easy understanding. His lucid style of writing simply reflects his clarity of thoughts. Did I forget to say something? – Yes, it’s amazing to learn the expanded base of his readings and the array of books he spends his time with.

I learned a lot, not only about studies but also about the application and implication of my own day to day activities and thier effect on my professional and personal life.

I strongly recommend any guy (girl implied) to visit (No! study) his write ups from the bottom. And this will definitely bring in a different perspective of thinking. Happy reading.  

And yes, thank you Vijay for maintaining your blog even if your plates are full due to increased responsibility at work.J By any chance you are reading this, you are sure to believe that, your thoughts and their expressions have become an inspiration for somebody. Do keep writing.

Am I a Poet? – No, A Shark – Definitely Not.

See I did it once again!

Saturday morning, beautiful sunlight on the front yard at my parent’s place warming up the place as well as the heart. I planned to study, yes, solve some quantitative aptitude problems. The Quants has been giving me a lot of problems during my B school admission tests. By the side was lying the latest issue of Harvard Business Review.

Contrary to the plan, impulsively I put all my energy in understanding the HBR concepts. My goodness! Spent three whole hours reading the magazine and the quant thing all squandered. 

In B-school lingo there are two categories of guys, one Poet and other Shark. The concept of Poet and Shark is very well illustrated by Vijay a former ISBian here. 

My thoughts tell me: I am some steps behind being a poet but miles away from being a shark. I just wonder how I can be nearer to if not a shark. May be the only way is, to think in numbers, spend more time with quant problems not listening to some stupid debate in news channels. 

But on a serious note I’ll plan this weekend, my coming month, in terms of my reading habits and my date with quant problems. Meticulous planning is to be done, with proper inputs from dad or may be some dialogues from mom, and then the time table for execution of the plan. Before all these things will do a bit of soul searching.

And so my Saturday is gone without a date (with Quant of courseJ).

Murphy’s Law and my state of Mind

This guy Edward Murphy kept me occupied the whole Sunday. I searched fanatically on web the writings about Murphy’s Law by googling and yahooing and sometimes doing a guruji*. Though I liked the witty one liner doing rounds in the web I came across some concepts very interesting.

 Fatalism and Free will: 

Fatalism is the idea that we are all powerless to the whims of fate. This notion says that the things that happen to us are unavoidable. It’s the idea that there’s some kind of universal law at work that takes a certain malicious satisfaction at toying with us. 

Fatalism contradicts another concept – free will. This is the idea that humans possess free will and that all of our choices, along with the consequences that come with those choices, are our own. 

For me, I am a believer of both fatalism and free will in my own life. When some thing good happens to me I feel proud of the concept free will and the how perfectly I could apply the same. But when things go wild, beyond control sometimes disastrous, I cling to the concept of fatalism. My usual excuse is, it’s beyond my scope, and I am just a pawn in this great stage of life. 

And probably my romance with Murphy’s Law is the result of collision between fatalism and free will. But yes, this Murphy hang over will remain with me for some more days ahead, and will try to chip in some more interesting information. 

* guruji.com, the Indian search engine, is more localised rather indianised.