It's Rak..ingh

I have my end terms coming the day after and i am scratching my head trying to understand how activity based costing can save the world :)
What has forced me to leave that noble task aside is a lecture that i am going to forget the day i forget my name. Ok a bad PJ i accept. On a more serious note, today has been a helluva day. Occasion-Great Lakes Financial Inclusion conference.Boy, i have never loved lectures so much in my life. Day starts with Union Bank MD Mr Nair describing his bank's efforts and achievments on Financial Inclusion. Then C.Rangarajan, former RBI governor on his ideas to provide credit to the rural,small borrowers. He talked about the Business Correspondent model using which banks can penetrate deep into villages and also understand their borrower's needs better. Then the current Deputy governor of RBI Mr. Subir Gokaran and finally Mr. R Bhaskaran, director of Indian Institute of Banking and Finance. All the lectures were highly enlightning and i am not being politically correct here. But i have not yet come to the lecture i want to talk..oops..write about. That lecture was of our Macroeconomics professor Dr Rakesh Singh, who to make a long story short has been there done that and is by far one of the best professors i have ever been taught by. Today was his last lecture and by word was his last lecture is generally the best in his course. Coz on that day he and only he talks for 2 hours straight and by the end of it would have seen a movie on the Socio-Politi-Economic history of India since Independence. This was the first time i had seen a prof being forced to give a lecture.Dr. Singh agreed even though he had to catch a flight for Mumbai in a few hours.And believe me even though i went in with high expectations, the lecture surpassed them by a long way. It covered everything from Indian Independence,emphasis on agriculture, 130% growth in agriculture, green revolution, shift to industrialisation, PSU's, corruption,neglect of punjab and agriculture,nationalisation of banks, license raj and much much more. I wish i could write down all that he wanted to say..i tried to but gave up midway and focused instead on enjoying the free flowing lecture. He came up with the example of Ralegan Siddhi of Anne Hazare(google if u have not heard of either) fame and told us that many such experiments and innovations are happening in India and it is these that will take us into the next orbit. Leveraging on Agriculture, he emphasized, was the way to go for India. We will be feeding the world market in due course of time and our manufacturing will be based on agriculture. He finished his lecture and walked away to catch his flight not even noticing the standing ovation that took place as he left. I cam back from the lecture wiser and a with new aim in life, which i wiil share in due coursse of time. Thank you Dr. Rakesh Singh

Happiness

Prof Veeravalli's calss on Deep Learning...
What is happiness he asks??
Not able to think anything better i utter "An emotionally high state"..his looks say he's not satisfied with the answer,as expected, and he moves on to someone else who has raised his hand..this continues till everyone who had raised their hands has had a try... but none are able to answer what he is expecting..he turns to the next slide on the big screen..it says
Happiness=Outcome-Expectation.
Its really that simple isn't it...if you are not convinced just rewind yourselves to the times when you have been jumped with joy...There was a discussion after that regarding whether we should lower our expectations and not be ambitious to which he answered quite convincingly but i am not going to discuss that..i m here just to share my joy at being a part of what will most certainly be in the coming 2-3 years one of the top 10 BSchools in the world..Great Lakes Institute of Management...Amazing faculty...excellent paedegogy and very good mix of students from various backgrounds with an avg GMAT score of 690...when i had zeroed in on the college i did have a fair amount of expectations but hats off to uncle Bala, Prof Sriram and all other faculties who just exceeded my expectations on every front...we have interacted with with the top CEO's of India within the first week of our arrival..had excellent team building activities..salsa lessons..mountain climbing..u name it..we have done it..and the focus on Indian values is what truly makes this college belong in the top league....it is difficult to understand from the outside how Indian Values can play a part in management education..but once you are here all doubts will be cleared..It is evident in the faculties..the guest lecturers..the curriculum..everywhere..
I thank God that he helped me take the right decision and and financed my study...
Love u GOD

Shiva and Shankar are not the same

I had been thinking about this as to even if shiva and shankar are not the same why do we always take their name in the same breath. And why confuse shiva with shankar only.
Found this link to be very useful in answering some of these questions
http://www.shivbaba.org.pl/en/?name=basic-shiva-shankar
Posting the contents of the link here for easy reference..

Shiva and Shankar - basic knowledge
It has been depicted here that actually Shiva is separate and Shankar is separate. By mistake we combined both of them. But it is not a mistake, but our misunderstanding. Due to this, the Brahma Kumars and Brahma Kumaris are entangled in that misunderstanding. Which misunderstanding took place? When the Supreme Soul, an incorporeal Point of Light [jyoti-bindu] comes in this world, he will definitely make someone equal to him and teach him. When he teaches, then a student would certainly emerge, who inculcates [understands] the knowledge cent percent. So that incorporeal Point of Light Shiva gets revealed in the world through this form of Shankar, and both become equal [as Shiva-Shankar]. You see, no one says that Shiva and Brahma are the same. Why the name of Brahma is not joined with Shiva? Why the name of Vishnu is not joined with Shiva? Why the name of only Shankar is joined with Shiva? It is joined because Shankar is so deeply immersed in the remembrance of Shiva that he immerses Shiva in him. The stage of merger, i.e., Shiva and Shankar are one, becomes famous all over the world. Actually, both are different souls. The Supreme Soul Shiva never comes into the cycle of birth and death. That is why his memorial is known as "Shiv-Ling [phallus like idol]. It is not known as "Shankar-Ling. His festival is known as "Shiv-Ratri [Night of Shiva] and not "Shankar-Ratri [Night of Shankara]. God Father Shiva is beyond the sins [paap] and virtues [punya]; whereas the bodily human beings get entangled in the cycle of sins and virtues. Now you see, Shankar is seated in meditation. If he himself is a form of Supreme Soul [Parmatma] then whom is he meditating upon? If you visit the old temples you will observe a Shivling [Phallus like idol] kept in an important place in the centre and the idols of all other deities including Shankar are placed around the Shivling. What does it prove? Among the 33krores deities, the deity Shankar is the Dev-Dev-Mahadev [Greatest of all the deities], but he is not the Supreme Soul. He is also sitting in front of Him and praying Him. In front of whom is he sitting? He is sitting in front of Shivling. Therefore, Shiva is the point of light [jyotirbindu], the Supreme Soul and Shankar is the one who plays the role of a Hero of this World Drama stage.

Two Legged Affair

Saying it's been a looong time since i updated this blog would be to make a long thing short....but there are quite a few valid reasons why i cudnt get the time to put any of my thoughts....and no...it is not that i have been too busy with my work...actually i have been trying to bell that feline being(CAT) that has kept many a mortals guessing. Now that things are more or less clear about what i am going to do for the next 1 year of my life i thought of taking out some time and scribbling something.
I have been thinking this for quite sometime now. Have any of you noticed any difference in the way couples used to travel on their bikes ,say about a decade ago. While even now it is the guy who is running the bike, it is the damsels sitting at the back that i am talking about. When i used to go to school i used to see a lot of bhaiyas and didis on bikes with didis sitting at the back in salwar kameez with both their legs on one side of the bike. That has changed now to legs on either side of the bike even in salwar kameez. And this is the question that has me thinking that what is it that this change represents. Have the ladies become more equal to men than they were earlier. Is it a sign of them bcoming more bold and carefree. Does this mean that ladies now think less of what others might think or see as long as they are comfortable with it. Or does this mean that i do not have anything else to think about.
Think about it while i go and do some work as my last day in office is fast approaching. 20th April in case anyone wants to know.