Friday, July 8, 2011

4th Week @ XIMB

4th Week --- 3rd July to 9th July

3rd July: What a grand start of the week. Birthday of Kasturi Lal celebrated among great enthusiasm and pleasure. I was lucky one selected for accepting the fake proposal scene. Feeling lucky :)

It was followed by Cricket Match at 1:00 AM at Lawn Tennis Court. I also started jogging from today with Parthsarthy CR to improve fitness.

4th July: Class of Societal Analysis & Development Alternatives (SADA) with the topic Power of Imagination was innovative and entertaining in its approach. I saw the infinite possibilities of the words that can change the world in a blank page. I learned about Concept of Interbeing by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and Technology With A Human Face by E. F. Schumacher.

There was a special talk arranged by XIMB administration on biodiversity and conservation. The most absurd part was that only Rural management students were invited.  Does the responsibility for conservation of nature and awareness about poverty lies on our shoulders alone ? Either Business management and Human Resource Management will not be befitted by such talks or  its out of their ways of doing business. I hope that this should not be repeated again by XIMB administration.

Special talk on "Environment and Democracy: Cases on Biodiversity and conservation" by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Pankaj Sekhsaria is a member of the environmental action group, Kalpavriksh and in based in Pune. His main responsibility is editing, publishing and distributing the Protected Area (PA)Mr. Sekhsaria says, “We point the finger at the tribal carrying firewood on her head when our own aluminum-hungry lifestyles are the real cause of forest loss.”  Only 2% of Indians invest in stock market but the whole newspaper is filled with news about them. Parallel world exist all around us. There is a difference between low carbon foot print of tribal way of living and Use, Consume and Throw  lifestyle of us.  It is about the right of way of life that is more sustainable and environment friendly. There is fundamental paradox of our notion of development. Development for whom and on whose cost ? 

-Western environmental ethics are mostly post destruction and born out of guilt.

-Estimation of Life cycle (Recycled tax) should be made for each product to internalize the external cost. He talked about TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity).

He used a specific anthropological word Culture of Language that gives people capacity to engage with intra and inter cultural realm.Students were more focused on making slow and innovative way of integration tribal in them, while speaker was considering tribal and poor as mainstream and us as westerners.

5th July: I lacked the flow in presenting my ideas that became evident during group presentation in Rural Development Administration (RDA)class.

Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff



Today, I became frustrated over unprofessional attitude of few of my batch-mates. Few are considering MBA as an extension of their graduate studies. Work experience should be made mandatory before MBA. We learn more from peers, seniors and environment of the college than to the class room lectures as compared to our cool days graduation.

I even suspect over the selection procedure and criteria of the XIMB rural entrance pro-gramme. There are bulk of people who have no idea of rural or even intent to work with them. Threshold level should be more pushed towards concrete knowledge rather than jargon learnings. Few words like BOP and Inclusive Growth are most abused terms in classroom discussions by people without having any clue about them.

6th July: Have a fair discussion with friends on the vision and mission of XIMB. There are teachers here who are highly aid oriented than preferring trade with poor. Gaurish made a valid point that no one gives a person importance until he/she have some value attached to him/her. We need to create economic value for the people otherwise this game/illusion of development will go on forever. I thought in back of mind that as vote creates political value, how could we create economic value of poor in an economic system?

There was an innocent question asked by one of our batch-mates in an informal discussion with his/her friends : What is difference between slums and villages ? Last night rage became reignited inside me.

7th July: Interaction with seniors goes till 4:30 AM. It was boring and unwanted as per my perspective. Four classes mixed with photo schedule make a hectic day for me. The death news of our 2011 batch Arjit Ghosh was quite depressing and there was gloom all around.

8th July: Personality Test is given in the class of Organizational behavior. I am not spontaneous in the nature but too much analysis is paralysis in decision making. I participated but not selected in Brandstorm 2011 (MAXIM);

9th July: Saturday was a relaxing day. There was talk about Acara challenge; Acara Challenge is a social entrepreneurship event.The Acara Challenge is a unique way for the students to get involved in entrepreneurship and sustainable design for social change.

Quote of the Week : In the words of Alexander Pope, "In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity".