Vjbreathes

  Dear Friend,                             Congratulations! Welcome on board. You are now a part of the family of new MBA entrants having sailed through the rough seas of CAT/MAT/PGCET/KMAT/”X” AT (Any X Admission Test) and having joined various B-schools across the country. This is a huge family of nearly 8 lakh + students across India. This is a family having common ambitions and common problems. Unless you have secured a coveted seat in one of the High I M’s , or the top 10-20 B-schools in India, you have a tough life ahead. Having been a management student for 5 years in a tier 2 (as the pundits say) B-school, and having gone through all the allotted ordeals, I decided to write this letter as a word of advice (probably unsolicited but necessary). The challenges you face are galore. I don’t want to scare you. But I want to be factual. You are NOT...

  Your 'ex' is like your karma. Its impossible to wish her off. However hard you may try. She will at least take that 12.5 kb of space in your existence. Just like the desktop icon you may never use, but its a default icon, co-existing with the other icons you use. She can bring back old memories, act as a benchmark, act as a medicine, act as a warning/disclaimer, act as a motivator, act as an anchor, act as a virtual consultant, act as a reminder and act as an insulator from the reality of the world you exist in. She is a lesson. A lesson you did learn the hard way Yes, it hurts. But what's life without a little sorrow, without a little hurt and without a little darkness? Today, it doesn't matter what happened. But it was necessary. It was meant to be that way. No, its not God's way of humbling you. But its his way of giving you an orientation in detachment. The essence of life, the ultimate truth of life. Its not so much about companionship, love, feelin...

Getting Started...                                  Be it Love or War, getting started is an issue for a majority of the masses. Many a tasks we intend to do and accomplish get lost in the background noise of what is 'routine' and 'imminent' upon us. We are in a constant hurry to 'finish' what is urgent and mostly mundane. 'Unexplored talent' is no more a cliche'.  The need to discover the other side of you is now becoming a pressing need for many. Modes like reality shows have seen steady growth over the past few years in India. We are also witnessing a rapid rise in the number of dance classes, music classes, art classes and writing workshops happening across India.  This is certainly a significant development, because it goes on to show that the growing interest of people in discovering new hobbies and interests. ...

The biggest influence to productivity-People Hi,         Let's do a small exercise. Answer the following questions with a Yes or a No. Do you think your biggest influence towards growth at workplace is a process/system? Do you feel that people in your team are important in terms of helping you develop? Do you opine that mostly people influence they way you perceive your workplace? Well, if you have honestly attempted to answer the above three questions, undoubtedly you would know that "People Matters". I have overheard innumerable people blaming their bosses their failures. I have heard several people praising their bosses for the encouragement. I have seen several people saying that they extremely proud of the team members they work with. I have also heard several people say, "He makes our workplace, look like hell." Sample this: "Some people are just unfriendly ass-holes"- Fabiola Lenz "...

Preparation for meEATings.                                             I know preparation for meetings can be a pain. And the intensity of the pain depends on the duration of the meeting, the purpose,agenda, and more importantly the attendees;) for ex: If we have a performance review meeting with a stringent boss, it can be as painful as it can get.. In some rare cases, the meeting can be a pleasure too. Ex: If you have a strategy meeting with your crush from the other vertical , it just can't get better that, especially if she/he is seated bang opposite you. In such cases, its like ..The longer the better.  And meetings are also socializing sessions, an exercise of your vocal skills, your lingual skills and your acting skills too. I know a lot of people who act the...

Vince Lombardi once said, “Individual commitment to group effort-That is what makes a team work, a company work, and a civilization work.” As I ruminate on this quote, I can’t help but admire the effective moral that this quote summarizes. Getting the best, many a time means giving the best. For me, ‘giving the best’ to whatever, whoever, whenever is a form of considerable commitment. When you demand commitment, an automatic implication is to also commit commitment. Brilliant feats have been achieved through extraordinary commitment, in the fields of sport, social service, research and so on. Nadia Comaneci’s feat of the first perfect 10 in gymnastics, the example set by Red Cross society, having delivered humanitarian aid to nearly 600 million people in the last one year and the discovery of the God particle seem to reinforce the fact that extraordinary commitment is possible. But then, what are the issues confronting people who are not able to vouch commitment?   The a...

Look into the darkberry, you gotta see the pie, if you don't see the pie, then you're blind in an eye..... Hey look into the darkberry, you gotta see the sky, if you dont see the sky, then you are a dumb guy..... Now look into the darkberry, you gotta feel the high, if you don't feel the high, then you better go n die. Did you buy a phone , or did you buy the spy, Move on Darkberry, Welcome i-phone 5!!!!

I wonder, if free will were exercised fully, considering only the paramount consequences, our interaction with each other, our actions and deliberations would be so much different."The gullible human mind" is so used to behaving predictably and in a patterned manner. Amongst all my colleagues, I can predict the reactions and behavior of 90% of them with 99% accuracy. And, i don't enjoy it. Isn't this commonness UNAVOIDABLE? There needs to be some variety, you need to be irrational sometimes and you need to behave differently on occasions. I am not advocating "extremes" though. We need to develop an appetite for "outliers" and be comfortable with the idea of "outliers". When I wore a shade of pink to office the other day, some of my colleagues couldn't accept this deviation. They felt the color was "odd" and "girly". I felt devastated. I had spent 18 minutes(which is far above the average shopping time for men) in ...

Let Go The power to 'let go' is a very important for every human being. Especially in this age of ever changing lifestyles and priorities. At a philosophical level, it' s called "Vairagya" in Sanskrit.  Advancements in technologies like ICT have made it almost mandatory for people of this age to be able to 'let go'. To be able to 'let go' is now a skill and an ability, and an important one at that. 'Change or perish' is the need of the hour. Change from Windows XP to Windows Vista and then a shift to Windows 7 and finally Windows 8 is an excellent example of how the 'let go' principle has become a norm. Further, it is also being observed that companies are investing their time and energies in making people understand the importance of this principle, and they call it by different names like "re-skilling", "unlearning", "re-learning" and so on. This also holds true to conventions and beliefs of peo...