Recently Read

Inside the Crisis (The New Yorker) - A profile of Barack Obama's economic team, led by Larry Summers

Jet, set, no go: Highs and lows of Jet Airways (Forbes India, published by CNN-IBN) - Where Naresh Goyal's obsessive reliance on expat management has brought Jet Airways

Heckuva Job, Barack (NYT) - "Here was a chance to establish himself, definitively, as an American president — too self-confident to accept an unearned accolade, and too instinctively democratic to go along with European humbug. He didn’t take it. Instead, he took the Nobel Peace Prize."

The Real Peace Prize Will Be Elusive (NYT) - "Never on that night (in 2001), as we watched the might of the world’s most powerful nation rain down on the primitive army of soldiers clad in rags and sandals, did it occur to us that America so many years later would still be trying to figure out how to win — or whether it even could."

An Award Often Tinged by Politics (WSJ) - A look back at Nobel Peace Prize controversies.

Conservatism

Despite their opposite ideologies, the BJP and the Democratic Party occupy the same position in their countries' politics. As do the Congress and the Republican party.

Which brings us to the very idea of conservatism - the political philosophy of maintaining the essence of an entity (a society, a people, a nation). Because America and India are essentially political opposites, conservatism is then the political philosophy of the Republican party - as commonly held - and the Congress party, not the BJP - not so commonly held.

That because the BJP's philosophy of Hindutva harks back to values of an ancient time, it is conservative is inaccurate because our frame of reference is India as the political entity it is today. How far back in history will you go with the USA if you apply that same logic? The days of the Mayflower Puritans? The American Indians?

So, since the BJP has spent all of its existence trying to change India's core values, it is definitely not the country's Conservative party. That also means, finally, that conservatism isn't always center-right politics; liberalism isn't always center-left. That is at best a blinkered western world-view, and at worst a basic lack of understanding of the very meaning of conservatism.

Past parallels trump present philosophy

Even the NYT couldn't resist the tempation to draw comparisons between the BJP and the US Republicans (and their current woes):

It is an all-too-familiar political story.

First there was the electoral drubbing at the hands of a center-left juggernaut. Next came the recriminations, with party leaders taking nasty, public swipes at one another in dueling magazine articles, op-ed articles and talk show appearances. Then came the agonizing debate: should the party lurch rightward to consolidate its base, or rush toward the center to attract moderate voters? And finally, the purge: party members who do not make the ideological cut are cast out or pushed aside.

If the script sounds familiar to those who have followed American politics in the last year...

Just because they're both center-right? Naive. The state of the BJP in 2009 is in fact very much like that of the Democratic Party after the 2004 elections.

Take circumstance, for one.

Five years ago, the Democrats had failed to defeat the incumbent Republicans even after a four-year term without any stellar policy achievements and an unpopular presence in Iraq. Likewise, this year the UPA did better than the NDA even without any real gains from policy achievements. The challengers did worse than the incumbents did well; neither the BJP in 2009 nor the Democrats in 2004 provided a compelling enough alternative to the policies of the government, and the incumbents won. In contrast in USA 2008, the party in office lost.

More importantly, consider the politics of both nations.

The Republicans have always contested on the issues of liberty and freedom (which was what the war in Iraq was ostensibly about) and the upholding of moral values (which delivered the Mid-West to Bush in 2004). These are the very issues that the American nation was founded upon.

Likewise, the Congress Party proclaimed itself the guardian of the poor and dispossessed aam aadmi, the champion of threatened minorities, and envisioned a sarkar-directed set of programs for social upliftment - precisely the ideas the Indian nation was born of in 1947.

The idea of America is an economically capitalist, socially individualistic and (therefore) politically right-of-center nation.

The idea of India is an economically socialist, socially collectivist and (therefore) politically left-of-center nation.

No wonder, then, that the Grand Old Parties in America and India are the Republicans and the Congress Party. The Congress Party in India is the political equivalent of the Republican Party, and the BJP, of the Democratic Party.

No change, no gain, Nobel

From @vinayakh, about this:

Indian moves abroad. Does seminal work. Wins Nobel Prize. India reclaims and celebrates it's (sic) prodigal son. Same old story. We never learn.

The fallacy of the supposedly underachieving IIT student community

It's now fashionable, I suppose, to suggest that the IITian community has performed below its potential. Take this, for instance, from a IIT-KGP alum (Sandipan Deb, no less):

Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of IITians do nothing of note in their lives.

I think you'll find that the ratio of students that achieve 'something of note' to the student community size doesn't differ appreciably across universities - IITs/IIMs or Harvard. It's rubbish to suggest there's a causal relationship between how stringent the selection process is and how 'well' the student community will do - which is, unfortunately, what most people assume. Or between JEE rank/CAT percentile and subsequent 'achievement' in life [1].

There is, though, I think, a causal relationship between the selection process and how well the best students in that community will do. The average IITian will do about as well in life as the average Mumbai University grad. But the best IITians will do, in my opinion, far better than the best Mumbai U grads.

Put another way, the infrastructure (faculty, labs, alumni, courses) at the IITs/IIMs serves as a force multiplier for only those who make active use of it - who are, from that point of view, the 'best' among the lot. The rest, though having cleared the JEE/CAT, enter an environment that they don't make enough use of to yield any benefits - and end up more or less the same as the non-IIT/IIM grads.

Which is why the achievements of the IITians - even as a community - are quite in line with their potential. To better this potential will probably require bettering the IITs themselves (equally, the IIMs).

Now I'm much less sure about this, but the life achievement distribution curve for the IIT/IIM community might probably be sharper at the left extreme as well, than that for, say, the Mumbai U community; the weakest (worst?) students at the IITs/IIMs just might do worse than the comparable non-IIT/IIM students, perhaps as a result of a combination of peer/family pressure, tougher exams, more fierce competition for placements (compared to non-IIT/IIM students) without the associated benefit of the corresponding infrastructure.


[1] We'll have to have a completely different argument, btw, if you define achievement as service to the country (as opposed to "cushy MNC jobs")

Recently Read - Maharashtra Elections 2009

CNN-IBN commentary:

Rajdeep Sardesai on the probable hung assembly in the state

Suhas Palshikar from Pune University on the institutionalisation of dynastic politics across parties

Sudheendra Kulkarni on the mess that Maharashtra has become since the mid-1990s

How to build an article around a single sentence

The BBC shows how. Not only is the title of the article, "Can India's economy overtake China?" misleading, because it implies that India's economy could become larger than China's, which isn't what it's actually saying, but the entire body of the piece seems to have been built around this one sentence, which itself isn't original reporting:

In late June, the World Bank in its Global Development Finance 2009 report projected that in 2010, the rate of growth of India's economy at 8% would be faster than that of China, expected to be 7.7%.

See for yourself.

Recently read

One man's rumor is another man's reality (LA Times) - Dispelling conspiracy theories and untruths can be difficult when people only hear what they already believe.

Politics as religion in America (LA Times) - Right-wing fringe lunatics have become the new mainstream. "Compromise doesn't have a prayer." 

Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option (NYT) - How the Swiss healthcare system works and what compromises America might need to make to avoid the public option.

New Script for India on Climate Change (NYT) - India shifts to a more flexible position on climate change as it tries to distinguish itself from other developing nations which have much higher emissions.

From toxic waste to toxic assets, the same people always get dumped on (The Guardian) - The powers that protect those that dump toxic waste around the world

Celebrating a hybrid culture (The Hindu) - The rapid evolution of Doordarshan and private TV networks through the 80s and 90s.

What makes 'power' lists tick (The Hindu)

Silly spokespersons (Hindustan Times) - Karan Thapar asks what the Government is doing to make it safe for M F Husain to return to India

The Economist on William Safire

The Economist has an aptly-crafted obituary for William Safire, lexicographer (and conservative NYT op-ed columnist and Nixon speech-writer).

Austere politician, austere professor (updated)

Kapil Sibal says that IIT professor salaries can't be raised because the Government (himself included) has "taken austerity measures":

India, with a deficit of $84 billion -- or 6.8% of the gross domestic product -- can't afford to substantially raise the salaries of the thousands of professors in the nation's colleges, he said. The government has taken austerity measures, he noted, such as ministers like himself traveling coach on airplanes.

Annoyingly, the WSJ article states salaries in dollars throughout without comparing them to equivalent salaries in the private sector.

Starting professors earn salaries of $6,000 a year, rising to $15,000 for the most qualified, which is "not sufficient to attract high-quality, young faculty members," she said. The professors are demanding an increase in the minimum entry-level pay to about $9,000 annually...

The public sector - private sector disparity is appalling enough without the WSJ resorting to this to make salaries seem mind-bogglingly low to its non-Indian readers.

Update: Oh, Company Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid wove austerity into CEO compensation:

“I think when we are working on this (austerity), we can hardly say that we (will) shut our eyes on what salary the CEOs are going to take,”

Tolerance of Dissent

From Rediff.com (and it's all over the national news today)

Margaret Alva has resigned as an All India Congress Committee general secretary. Alva resigned in the  wake of her allegations over "sale" of party tickets in the Karnataka Assembly polls.

Rabid inter-party hostility has prevented meaningful policymaking for over a decade and a half, and increasingly, intolerance within is making a mockery of claims of intra-party democracy.

The US polity in the same 15 years has been accused of the same polarization and acrimony. But they've shown a level of tolerance for dissent that is unthinkable in India. Consider two examples:

Zell Miller, the former Democratic Governor of Georgia and former Senator, having delivered the keynote at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, also devliered the keynote at the 2004 Republican National Convention while still a Democratic Senator.

More recently, Joe Lieberman, Gore's nominee for VP in the 2000 campaign, spoke at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN, having endorsed George W Bush for reelection.

Last post

This is my last post on this blog. All future posts will be at www.rahulgaitonde.org. I have also imported all posts on this blog (all 92 of them) into the other.

This blog was intended to chronicle my twenty months at IIM Kozhikode. While that hasn't really happened, my course will be done in just over a month's time, and this blog too, must come to an end.

See you at www.rahulgaitonde.org. To subscribe to the new blog thru RSS, here's the feed URL.

IIMK Live dot com

Rarely have we undertaken so large a task, so bold an endeavor, and accomplished it with such aplomb. Today we unveil IIMKLive.com. Portal. Showcase. Blog. Photo Gallery. Email. Forum. Collaborative Calendar. Everything. Online. Accessible from all over, not just within the institute. We've come a long way in these last ten years, but very few things signify our drive to be the best there is, as clearly as this does.

IIM Kozhikode is a strange place. We're young, brimming with energy, yet unsure of who we are, what K is, how the world perceives us. We want to know what our identity is, yet script it at the same time.

There come moments, though, when one among us stands up, gives a damn about brand, perception, image and the like, and simply does what the institute needs, instead of what would be thought of as good. This is when something like IIMKLive.com is conceived and born.

post scrap cancel

Hobbled by an unmoving administration and bound by a demanding student life, the IIMKLive.com team has overcome indifference, doubt, even outright ridicule to create something we are all proud of.

Today, the team goes Live. K, you rock.

Tale from a Sunday morning

For PGP09/10/11:

You can see the machine in the CC through a glass door. But you can't touch it. It's sadistically, tantalizingly out of reach. You look, pray, beseech it to restart, but it won't. It stares at you, dour, grim-faced, unmoved, unblinking. You wish hard, oh so hard, that you could press that little white button.

Despondent yet desperate, you pick up the phone and dial The Number. You know what's going to follow. After several rings, the same unpleasant sequence of events from the past repeats. The voice barks. You swallow hard, and explain the proxy is down. The voice grumbles. You beg. It refuses. You sacrifice every bit of your self esteem to get the voice to acquiesce.

Hours later, a car winds its way uphill. Slowly, leisurely, mocking you as you egg it on. The door opens. He steps out. Sizes you up and down, disgust writ large on his visage. He marches into the CC, you in tow. Reaches into his pocket. Fishes out the Key. It glimmers in the diffused glow of the CC lights. You lick your lips. If only, if only you could have the Key.

He slips the key into the lock on the glass door. Walks in. Stops at the rack. The machine and he regard each other for a moment. Each aware of its power over the other. And their collective power over you. His finger moves towards the white button. It pauses. He looks at you, with a hint of a smirk, knowing that he could simply walk away right then. Involuntarily, wordlessly, your face pleads. The look of disgust returns. The finger moves towards the white button. Closer. Closer. Closer. Finally, contact. The machine whooshes, squeals, then settles into a reassuring whirr. It is done.

You mop the sweat from your brow. He walks towards his car. Slips in without as much as glancing at you. The tinted windows roll up. You watch the car as it winds downhill, and finally disappears behind the thicket of palm trees. You sigh. You trudge back towards the CC, inside. And freeze. And slump.

It stares at you, dour, grim-faced, unmoved, unblinking.

All the Best

Dear Menticles,

With the advent of Winter - mistier days and chillier nights - Kampus will begin preparing for Summers. Yes, as with so many things at K, this is completely counterintuitive. Several other paradoxes will make their presence felt too - a premier banking company will offer marketing roles, a marketing company will offer operations roles, a operations company will offer consulting roles, and a consulting company won't know what it wants to offer. Shortlists will rarely be short, and group discussions will little resemble either a group or a discussion.

Secrecy, mystery and intrigue will be rife. Placecom will convene meetings with news of "a major MNC consulting/IT/fin company That Cannot Be Named" (but which will leak out regardless). People will wonder whether a batchmate is tanking interviews because he/she has an offer, or whether he/she's just having a rough time. Junta will speculate whether the freebie at the end of a PPT will be a bag, notebook, burger or all three.

Placid personalities will turn brutal barbarians in GDs, the calm and confident into bungling buffoons (and vice versa, of course!) during interviews. Friendships will be forged in exhilaration and in adversity. It will be a new universe for a few days, completely unlike the life at K you have known until now.

But at the end, when the fur stops flying, the suits have been returned to their closets, shoes have been re-wrapped, CVs have been shredded, certificates have been filed, and all the tourist taxis have driven off into the sunset, Madhu will send another messed-up timetable, IP will resonate with curses again, classes will resume, and we will return to our lives - with one difference. A little bit, a tiny little piece - of the jigsaw puzzle of our careers - will have fallen into place.

Welcome to Summer Placements 2007.

All the very best.

Your Mentosauruses.

Taste of Heaven

Taste of Heaven is a collection of essays and reviews about everything that makes K what it is, things that are uniquely K. In sum, they are what define us, set us apart and transcend years.

Visualize the collection as an album of experiences, as opposed to a moving filmstrip that chronicles events in their current context. As trophies on our collective mantelpiece rather than treasures we find rummaging through our jewel-case of memories.

The NC, the walking trails, morning vistas, IPculture, eating out, exploring Kerala, the annual Lakshadweep/Andaman trip, the early years at NIT Calicut, the IIMK-IIMB sports meet, Backwaters, the IIMK band, K-lingo, K-dio, the Outrageous Ad Corporation, Wormhole, and so many many more - these are what make us, connect all eleven batches to have known IIMK.

Lofty ambitions indeed; Kappa is aware of the limits of language, that capturing these in words is only as effective as capturing the warmth of a smile in an emoticon. But he also realizes that for those not as fortunate as us, these pages are possibly the only way to understand what makes K the enigmatic paradise it is, to sample a Taste of Heaven.

Visit Taste of Heaven at iimk.wordpress.com

Of banners, signs, guilt and trips down South

From a one-day trip to Alleppey and a quick stopover at Cochin:

The locals have a surprisingly wide vocabulary, and do not hesitate to put it to good use whenever there's a chance:



At the same time, this travel agency in Cochin (close to Ernakulam North railway station) shocked, but did not impress:




Stuff yourself at the 2-storeyed Pizza Hut nearby, then walk right across the road to get rid of guilt:



Speaking of food, a restaurant at Ernakulam North station is very clear about who it wants in and who it doesn't:




Finally, the staff at Alleppey railway station were mostly clueless about train timings and platform numbers. Then we realized why:

Viva la Calicut!

From a trip to Calicut city this week:

They taught everyone in the state to read and write, and forgot to teach them to spell. So the locals simply use English, well, phonetically. Like this (click on images for larger view):



Why do locals wear clothes with hideously loud, bright colors? Because they paint their houses that way too. Such as this marvel on SM Street:



Regardless, they all have global ambitions, and they proclaim them loud and clear:

Boney M Dresses :)

Undoubtedly the funniest exhibit at the Calicut City Planetarium and Science Center was this sculpture of an extremely curvaceous woman. The sign in the foreground reads "Please handle exhibits with love and care. They are for enjoyment, not for destruction." :)

The more things change...

... the more they remain the same:

Tendulkar is the new Indian captain (10 Aug 1996)

Tendulkar offered Test, ODI captaincy (15 Sep 2007)