How Higher Education Ruins You

While watching re-runs of one of my favorite TV series, the actors' expressions took a backstage for me, because this time all the MBA gyan that I have acquired/am acquiring took the fore-front

The Big Bang Theory Season 02, Episode 18- The Work Song Nanocluster

When Penny seeks Sheldon's advice on making her flower barrette making business a success:

1. No of flower barrettes produced per day
2. Price per Penny Blossom

easily prove that Penny needs modern marketing techniques and must optimize manufacturing process to turn it into a viable business.

To this Penny asks Sheldon to help her in making more money out of it. Here comes Sheldon's brilliant premise that "everything you have done until now is wrong".

When Penny makes one unit in 12 minutes and 17 seconds, based on cost of material and wholesale price, her profit comes out to be a meager $5/day. 

This may be resolved by the assembly line, not to be confused by the moving assembly line, as Sheldon points out. Penny remarks that since she cannot make snide remarks on Sheldon, he shouldn't be condescending. But as this was not the part of the original contract, he refuses to abide by it post-facto.

After a while, Leonard, Howard and Raj hear Sheldon and Penny singing and doing something, which is the rhythmic work song to increase the productivity. This is followed by the men discussing the product design. To add, Raj whispers in Howard's ears a good question- what are the marketing and distribution channels? Sheldon suggests hosting a server while Howard pitches in the idea of eliminating the middle man by setting up a small server and static IP within Penny's home.

As many questions arise, Sheldon gives optimizing the manufacturing process the highest priority. Brainstorming leads to an out-of-the-box idea of use of a molecular sieve.

Quicky the roles and responsibilities are identified and assigned- Raj and Howard procure the raw materials from Chem Lab, Leonard works on Web Design and Sheldon sets up the manufacturing at his apartment. Penny-the owner of the business meanwhile takes a nap!

When Leonard presents the website he has designed, the team is visibly disappointed. Sheldon takes Penny aside, and while he says it's Penny's enterprise and she must call the shots, clearly "recommends" to show Leonard the door.

The disappointments go away when they start getting online orders and positive comments about the product. Some of the customer views lead to expansion plans. 

Penny's excitement dies down because of a minor error by Web Design team (Leonard) mentioning "one day rush". Jumps in Sheldon, with his motivational speech reminding Penny of her goals of financial independence and entrepreneurial brilliance and innovation.

Moving on, while all the 5 of them are working, Raj complaints of his Saturday being ruined and he, Howard and Leonard end up talking in irritated tones. Sheldon points this to Penny as negative attitude on the factory floor. Penny the boss sees no problem here but Sheldon tells her "labor force is a living organism that should be carefully nurtured. Therefore, any counter-productive grumbling must be skillfully nipped out by the management... You here any union talk, you let me know!"

Schedule pressure can lead to overtime which can lead to fatigue. When Sheldon is the victim of overkill, Leonard uses big words like Sheldon's insight and failure without him to motivate him.

Ultimately the target is met. But the "one day rush" error was not rectified and tackled with a short term view... 

So yeah, once again I enjoyed a funny episode of a funny sitcom and this time though I saw it differently, the geek in me thoroughly enjoyed.

Higher education can ruin you. One can end up complicating the simple things. Or may be modern day TV aids the understanding of education.

Little Drops from Heaven

Behta hai mann kahin, kahan jaante nahin
Koi rok le yahin...
Bhaage re mann kahin
Aage ye mann chala
Jaane kidhar jaanu na aaaa

- Chameli (2003)

I mentioned about an year ago, rains bring out the romantic in me. This time the romantic me brought the rains <blush, blush>.
I don't know why but since Friday, I have been in a mushy mood. Which means Friday night I saw "While You Were Sleeping", a 1995 Rom-Com, and then it rained all Saturday; and so I watched "The Wedding Date", a 2005 Rom-Com on Saturday night.

Well I have also been playing the "Love" playlist on my laptop, on the auto-mode, but let's not go there.

So, "While You Were Sleeping" is a Sandra Bullock movie, and like Rajesh Koothrapalli says, "she is great in everything". It's a simple story of a plain Jane who has no one and has a huge crush on this guy she sees everyday for about 15 minutes to and fro on the train station. One (un)fortunate day, he meets with an accident, she saves him, gets him admitted to a hospital and through a misunderstanding, people take her to be the guy's fiancee.
It's a classic comedy of errors, and what with the movie's setting as Christmas and New Year's week, a lot of funny family stuff happens, while the guy is in a coma. The movie has a sweet and lovable feel to it and my favorite setting of the holiday season.

"The Wedding Date" is a movie full of beautiful people. I mean beautiful-looking. Gorgeous! There's Dermont Mulroney (yes, F.R.I.E.N.D.S.' guest star, Gavin Mitchell, Rachel's co-worker and balcony kisser from season 9). There's Debra Messing, who looks just so exquisite. There's Amy Adams, whose only other movie I have seen is American Hustle, another movie full of great-looking people.

It's a story of Kat, whose sister is getting married in London. Kat hires a "date" so that her family doesn't think she's miserable after her much talked about breakup with her ex. This movie is shot in England- a beautiful country (-from what I've seen in the various movies. I really want to visit Yorkshire someday).

In the first movie, the girl and the guy (not the coma guy, spoiler) become really good friends while taking a walk in the snow. In the latter, they start liking each other in various moments here and there. Enough appetite for the mushy me. While there's snow in case of Sandra Bullock, it's rain for Debra Messing. The way I see it, both fall in love when there are little drops of heaven, pouring down on them. :-)

Vinti Speaks

Maslow's Self Actualization Mode-

I never had a problem in being an introvert, I just regretted I didn't make friends easily. By friends, I meant people you go on trips with, a big group with many characters. With this, I regretted not having traveled to the places kids of such groups would frequent. I regretted not being one of those in weird poses in the photographs that got more likes than the number of people in my friend list. I always read all the comments on posts of such groups and regretted not being able to laugh with them. I never regretted being an introvert.
Soon I realized, I'm not an introvert. I just didn't make friends easily.
I was always proud of being "everyone's friend". Everyone called me their friend. It was easy to sit and eat and laugh with anyone on any table. It was always natural for me to be a part of every group. It was okay if I didn't know all the secrets, I knew just enough to enjoy the company. That's all friends are for, right? I did have my roommates as my best friends. Some said it was a convenient adjustment, but I always thought it was good luck my roommates turned out so well. Without them, no group, no conversation seemed fun. People would either laugh too hard, or crack jokes in gibberish or simply do better without me around.
So I guess I didn't make friends easily.

I used to write since ages. Everyone said I write stuff no one gets. I loved using words that would sound cool. It was good I developed a liking for alliterations, because in the first ever interview in NITIE, this is what the interviewer asked me about. Not about Supply Chain, not a thing about MBA, but he wanted me to come up with an alliteration on NITIE. Man o man! He did like what he heard and although I didn't get the job, I was happy I had developed a liking for alliterations.
I remember I wrote my first poem "Be cool and go to school" in class four. I am proud that I wrote an entire script of a play and enacted it in front of the teacher and other 12-year-olds, doing all the different voices of the characters by myself. Very proud that I was a star from class one to six, the first choice of lead actor in all school plays, all the debates, creative writing competitions and was every teacher's pet.

My mother encouraged me to read. Although I didn't read a tenth of what she used to when she was my age, and the ratio still remains the same, I always will be grateful my mother encouraged me to read. She also let me watch TV.
When other kids used to play in the streets, I used to watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on TV. I was all 11. Did I get it at that time? I don't remember. But I loved it nonetheless. And I have loved watching it over and over again. And then, I also watched all these other series, but when I share articles about F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and people like them, comment on them, share them and wish me in person, I'm glad my mother let me watch TV when I really should have been on the streets, running around and making friends. I'm glad my mother gave me the habit to read.

Now I have stopped counting friends. I have started counting the number of articles I write, the number of books I read, the number of movies I watch and the number of all the other things that I can learn about, because in this process I have made so many friends who write with me, read and quote, watch and share, teach me stuff, bring me smiles and laughter. 

Finally, A Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends! 10 11 days later? Later, not late. So it happened...

January1
The new year started with me waking up late, much like every other day of the month long vacation bestowed upon me by my Bombay wala b-school.

January 2-3
Nothing new.

January 4
Accompanied mummy to the dispensary. She went there to replenish her stock of medicines. I was sitting in the waiting room, next to the weighing machine. I do not blame the machine for what happened next. I'm very fat. Same old, same old :/

January 5
Pretty much involved liking and commenting on Facebook and posting "What are you guys up to" in the various WhatsApp groups I was not part of till the first half of 2014. Or I should say same as Jan 2 and 3.

January 6
My ex-roommate's birthday. Post the morning ablutions, made a Picasa-Collage birthday poster for Priya. Rest of the day was spent checking the notifications of people liking and commenting on that.

January 7
Charlie Hebdo attack happened. Honestly after so many days did I watch news on television and read all the tweets that were not just about TBBT, Ellen DeGeneres and Vogue.

January 8
Shopping. A day well spent ;)

January 9

My day started with me waking up at 10.43 a.m., walking outside to collect the newspaper, where I found this cute little greeting card, from a neighbour I don't even know. Sweet! Memories of bachpan when greeting cards still meant something were rushing in my mind. There's still a stack of un-sent "Season's Greetings" cards, next to old photo-albums with pictures from pre digital camera era. A huge leather bound card holder is just next to it which has so many yellowed visiting cards, easily 10-15 years old. This is when I decided to publish this blogpost.
But, the laptop battery died :(
And I lazed off...

January 10

Back to Mumbai. Dinner at Pop Tate's. This is where the curious case of "18 Till I Die Happened". I ordered, just for kicks, a drink by the name "18 Till I Die", which according to the menu was Vodka with Bubblegum. Had Fish, Chicken and Paneer, but the drinks came in late. Shots maare, #firsttime. It was too bitter and spicy, not at all bubblegum-y. While my aunt had ordered a drink called "Mind It", which she said tasted just wow.
I guess our drinks got interchanged. So we repeated "18 Till I Die" for both of us. The next set tasted better to me and worse to her. So I guess, either the bartender was drunk, or we had lost it. The hotel manager was afraid I'll put some bad review or something, so we got a free dessert. Now that's Happy New Year!

On the way back, Dev Anand sang "itna madir, itna madhur, tera mer pyaar.." on the car radio.

I hummed along, and decided to publish this blogpost finally. But on reaching home, I was suddenly too sleepy. So zzzz...

January 11

Attended the street festival #StreetConnect. These pictures will say the rest :-)

Bought many such jute bags :)

Tired? Have a seat on this bench of waste bottles :)

So finally, A Happy New Year to y'all.

I Did.

2014
Resolution to read a Wodehouse. Political blogs. Belling the CAT. Getting my article "The Gift of Time" published in AS WE ARE. Being nostalgic about AS WE ARE. And Renesa.  Hostel Day- LBD, check! Farewell to NIT Surat- Saree, check. And The Takeaways. 

Living in Mumbai . Space Crunch. Took part in a city-wide treasure hunt #FirstTime. Starbucks, Mumbai Local Train and BEST bus #FirstTime. Tweeting. Stage antics on-camera, in-front of whole college and Godrej executives ;)

Fracture :'(

Business Suits. Feel Harvey Specter-like. 100 stairs. Pond. Green Tea. Girlfriends. One-piece. Zumba. Garba Night in Chatak Gulabi Chaniya-Choli. Making friends over cuppa coffee and Lijjat Papad. Video-making. Wrote the first-ever article in insideiim.com series "Weekend Wordsmiths". Halloween themed Birthday. Composed the winning tweet for a marketing proposition of a new brand. 

Caught the selfie fever. I blame my Nexus 5.
Got as many as 5 friends to watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S. <PROUD OF MY SELF >
Latest Crush: Fawad Khan 
Can make breakfast for self. Omelette :D 
Doing household chores #FinallySaysMom 
Baking a Cake. 

J J J 
2015

Losing Sleep over The One

Today started in continuation to yesterday. I was burning the midnight oil, trying to watch “Moulin Rouge!” It was a movie I had wanted to see since forever, which is since I heard the song “Kaisi Paheli Zindgani” from Parineeta. No, since Monica Geller accused Chandler Bing of being gay to love a movie like Moulin Rouge! The movie is everything that can keep me awake: story set in the year 1900, set in Paris, about the Bohemian revolution, a musical, a dark dark film…

It’s 4.45 A.M. now. Some 23 minutes of movie are still left, but a voice inside me says classes from 11.30 A.M. till 9 P.M. It’s the voice of that devious biological clock inside me which bodes well for my health. My roommate is finally done with her assignment aka “Google Searching Random Cow Videos about McDonald’s and Supply Chain something.” Now she’ll sleep.

This is life. You watch movies or TV shows till 4am and complete your month long assignment in 40-45 minutes of searching the web.  As we switch off the lights, I blurt out the truth- “Moulin Rouge! wasn’t what kept me awake, it was my facebook ‘fan’”.

Let me introduce myself. I am a kiddo in front of all the other MBA students who are three-four years older than I. This means marriage on the cards for most them. My classmates talk of the impending doom and how MBA has helped avert the wedding for another two years. Since marriage is what they avoid and what seeks them with an equal force, they go delirious with happiness in believing that my fan is The One for me.

My introduction continues- I finished 12 years of school to go to four years of college to pursue two years of MBA. I am officially student-zoned. I am not looking for The One. Give me a break.

True, the love nest- our NITIE Pond calls out to me. But walks around the waters are a great source to check-out the budding romances between the naughty NITIE- junta. I constantly tell myself-“This is what I want; oxygen, adrenaline and gossip. Shaadi is an exciting prospect, way into future.”

The professor responsible for the assignment on those Cows pops into my mind. He told us during the first day in college that NITIE pond is where many eyes meet, many hearts skip a beat, many love stories blossom, many marriages happen. The pond is the last thing I see from my window before falling asleep.

No. After you have seen the clock saying 5A.M., your mom comes to your mind. You wonder how you are yet to go to sleep when she has woken up. And when you check again and the clock reads 5.17 A.M., you start a mental calculation of hours of sleep you can still hope of catching. It’s more than five. Great! You curse yourself for drinking that cup of tea when ideally one should brush their teeth and go to sleep. You curse yourself for the plate of Maggi along with that chai. You curse the mess food, you curse the weighing machine which is in disagreement with someone who climbs more than 100 stairs everyday to go to class, you curse the 100 steps and when you are out of breath, you curse yourself for having no stamina. You blame lack of sleep. Sleep!

I realize that its 5.37 A.M., a loss of sleep worth 20 minutes. So the last thing I see before dozing off is my mobile. That’s the first thing I see when I wake up. I am practically married, my mobile is The One. No, my bed is The One. The snuggly pillow is The One. This silk quilt is The One…

Yes, I am the one who missed her class. 

Of science and imagination

Yes, this is about Nolan's latest. It's also about Disney's latest. This Saturday, I saw two movies; both awesome. Interstellar and Big Hero 6.

Interstellar is about the future where our planet has literally turned to dust and schools have rubbished achievements like Apollo Space Mission to keep the last generation of human population in dark about the glorious past and the inglorious past that resulted in this present. While many of my friends (all of them engineers) are laughing at the walking-in-and-out-of-black-hole-feat that Nolan makes

Matthew McConaughey achieve, I see a powerful work of imagery excellently portrayed on-screen.

The story also ticks "a world with more than three dimensions" off my bucket list. Nolan loyalists

voice their disappointments about implausible track of the movie only because they expect absolute 

logic from the master filmmaker. Agreed. But since my knowledge about the black holes and laws

governing it are next to nil, I saw the movie as a story, and in stories there is no need to adhere to any

laws. Full marks to Interstellar. 

Big Hero 6 is a 3D cartoon film about a naughty genius who is astray until his good boy elder brother

dedicated to help the humankind dies. Then the genius uses his knowledge of robotics to avenge the 

death and the story is classic good v/s evil. Now, the lead robot Baymax is a balloon-like bot, made 

of carbon fiber, which is an extremely strong and light polymer used in aerospace auto-motives. 

This, in a way, validates the incredible amount of flying sequences this fat bot does in most of the 

second half. The use of laser beam to shred army of micro-bots and use of liquid metal embrittlement 

aide the young hero and his gang in their victory. Now considering the fact that the movie was

mostly watched by primary-school kids, like my cousin with whom I watched it, & most importantly

is a cartoon, use of science is not really needed. Thus the movie aces with kids despite a few technical

terms thrown here and there. And so, full marks to this movie too. 

JJJ