How the education system in AP is creating economic inequalities

I happened to attend a meeting recently that had in attendance the district collector of a district in AP and MLAs belonging to the district. There was a discussion at the end of the meeting regarding the injustice meted out to some meritorious students by certain “corporate” colleges. The discussion got me thinking and some of the thoughts are presented below.

I have studied in AP for all my life except during my MBA. So, I am not sure if the flaws I have noticed are endemic to the state alone or are a common characteristic throughout the country. This is how the system basically works/worked. Most schools have a single-minded focus on one thing alone. Getting as many students they can in the class 10th top rankers list. So, the potential candidates are identified early. How early? As early as class 8th. The segregation begins as the entire strength in a class is divided into sections based on the performance of the students in say an entrance exam or based on their previous performance. The “top” sections are provided with the best teachers. They are focused upon and groomed as they are the keys to a goldmine. The thing here is that parents look at the top performers of a school before deciding to admit their kids into it. It doesn’t really matter if their kid is interested in or is really capable of securing a top rank.

So, while the toppers are taught by toppers, the other kids are under the custody of the second rung teachers. Capitalism is all about allocating resources to the people who will make the best use of them. But in fields like education this isn’t what is to be followed. If a kid is good at studies, he would be able to compete well enough even if the resources provided to him aren’t topnotch. But it is the kids who are usually not great with studies that need better resources. A level-playing field needs to be created. In fact, forget all that when your kid is being charged the same fee as the smart kid, he should have access to the same resources.

The bias plays a major role in the future as well. The top performers perform well in the class 10th exams and proceed to the +2 stage. Here all hell breaks loose. The toppers are given a “free seat” as they are again expected to top the various entrance exams. The rest of the pack shells out thousands of rupees for college and coaching. Again, the toppers are made to slog all day for 2 years under the guidance of the “best” lecturers. The others on the other hand are again served the leftovers. It just amazes me how mind-fucked thousand of parents must be to pour all their savings for availing the services of such cheap quality academicians.

The business model here is pretty straightforward. Thousand of dumb asses (read parents) will only look at the top rankers. It doesn’t matter if their kids can’t solve “2+2″, but they will pay thousands of rupees in fees for their kid’s college and coaching. They won’t really look at who is teaching whom at the college. If their kids fail, it’s the kids’ fault. The colleges are not to be blamed. Just look at the rankers list.

There is a reason why the toppers in school and junior college are usually the same. They have access to the best resources and moreover they are wired to study and perform well. But the kids who are not good are made even worse by the system. Access to inferior resources makes them far more inferior than they actually are. Due to this bias, they often end up in poor colleges after +2, resulting in serious economic disparities over their lifetime.

There is a very clear bias at the higher levels. IIMs prefer people from IITs/NITs over others. Some companies accept applications only from IITs/IIMs/ISB. The early differences are magnified over a period of time. Economic disparities occur not only due to differences in skill levels. There is a bigger systemic cause that needs to be addressed. Mind-fucked parents should realize that every penny spent on education should be worth the expenditure. Fight for access to the same resources as the smarter kids. Remember this, you may be the parent of a dumb kid, but never let the system make him dumber.

Tribute to self-The Finale

It was around Valentine’s Day this year that I started thinking. I realized that in about 3 months from then I would be 25 years old. 25 years is a lot of time indeed. I thought deeply about what I had done over the past several years, starting from my birth that I was really proud of. It came down to three little things that I mentioned in the previous three posts in this series. I wasn’t satisfied though. I wanted to do one more thing. Something crazy. Something that most people would think about at least twice before doing anything. For me there was only one thing that I could do within those 3 months. I wanted to fly to Omaha, Nebraska to meet Warren Buffett.

Part 4 – Meeting (Seeing) one of the greatest men I’ve ever known

I have always wanted to be rich. Bill Gates was one of the guys I admired because he was rich. When I started following the world’s rich list, I came across a person named Warren Buffett. I learnt that he made money through investing and that didn’t sound very impressive to me (Because back then I was dumber than I am today )

The first time that I took notice of Mr.Buffett was when he pledged the bulk of his wealth to charity in 2006. I was amazed by the gesture. How could someone just give away billions of dollars? Days passed and I got into IMT. Little did I know that a man operating hundreds of thousands of miles away in Omaha would have so much influence on me.

One fine afternoon at IMT, I was looking for files to download from DC++. I happened to find a file named “Warren Buffett.mp4″. I downloaded the file as I thought that I should spend some time of the day watching something other than porn. It was a Q&A session with Warren Buffett at the University of Florida Graduate School of Business. It was a 81-minute video recorded way back in 1999. It was a video that changed my life. Forever.

I will not go into the contents of that video here. But I am pretty sure that I became a better person after watching that video. After that I downloaded pretty much anything and everything I could find about him. I bought books about him and borrowed some more from the library. My presentations had quotes by Mr.Buffett and I started using the wisdom that I gained by following him. And he continues to inspire me till this day.

Coming back to this February, on the 12th of that month, I made a list of 10 things I wanted to do before I am 30 (Inspired by my good friend Venky). On top of the list was meeting Warren Buffett. And I wanted to meet him before I turned 25.

I sent a letter to Carol Loomis, editor-at-large of Fortune magazine, who is also one of Mr.Buffett’s very good friends. I expressed my admiration for her coverage of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. I told her that I would be flying to Omaha for the AGM of Berkshire. I told her that I hoped to meet her and Mr.Buffett there.

Within a few hours, I got a reply from her. She said that she would be happy to meet me. But a bigger surprise was yet to come. I got a mail from Warren Buffett’s personal assistant. Ms.Loomis had sent my mail to Warren Buffett and he agreed to meet me and get a picture with me. Jackpot!

I got one of my best friends to buy shares of Berkshire, I booked a flight ticket to USA and I scheduled my Visa appointment. I had little savings and I had only one way to fund the trip. My Provident Fund money. Unluckily, my Visa application was rejected. 15000 rupees down the drain.

But fate had another plans. Mr.Buffett was on his maiden visit to India and an event was to be held in Delhi for the launch of Berkshire Insurance in India, where he would be meeting policyholders. I didn’t have a car, but Venky came to my rescue and got his car insured. I flew to Delhi for my pilgrimage and I saw Mr.Buffett in person. Technically, it may not be called meeting him, but for the moment I will take it.

I have nine more things to do in the next 5 years. I am not sure how many of those things I will be able to accomplish successfully. But that is not going to stop me from trying. Make you own lists. Do some crazy shit. It will be worth it.

Tribute to self-Part 3

One day, when I was just strolling in the library at IMT, I happened to lay my hands on that day’s edition of the “Financial Chronicle”. I almost never read that paper. But that day for some reason I just happened to pick it up. The front page had a quote by a person called Samuel Butler. It read “All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.”

Unlike other posts in this series, this isn’t about proving people wrong. It’s about having fun and enjoying life.

Part 3 – IQC

The first time I ever participated in a quiz was in class 6th. It was conducted as a part of my school’s annual day celebrations. I was excited about participating in it and asked my dad to get me a GK book. I read almost the entire book. Each team for the quiz had 5 members each from classes 6th to 10th. I was the youngest. In the last round, a rapid fire round, each team was asked 5 questions each. I answered 2 of them and in the process ensured that my team won. I was elated. That was probably the first time I ever won something in a proper competition. I loved Quizzing!!

In the subsequent years, the quizzes I participated in were mostly similar to the one mentioned above i.e. the ones conducted during the school/college annual day celebrations. I ended up being a part of the winning team on most occasions. Other than that one day every year, nothing special happened with quizzing. But things changed and how!

When I got admission into IMT, I was delighted. I came to know to about the quizzing culture at IMT. About the achievements of SMS and Harkirat, who were legends in the b-school quizzing circuit. At last, I had a place where quizzing was a big thing.

The first thing I had to do was find a partner. The first fellow I asked was Satya (I think). We were in the same CAT coaching class and he was the only familiar face. Luckily, Satya agreed. He had never participated in a quiz before apparently, but he still obliged. As with everything else he does, Satya was completely dedicated to quizzing. To be very honest, in the 2 years at IMT, he was the only one amongst the two of us who actually prepared for quizzes. He adjusted to my style of quizzing, which was nothing but showing up and hoping for the best. He never complained about that and silently went about doing stuff the way he did. Not only in quizzing, but in any other thing, it is important to find partners who don’t hamper our way of working and give us space. I had found the best quizzing partner I could hope for.

IQC was my Disneyland. The only difference was that we were bigger cartoons than Disney’s . It was amazing fun. The thing about the IQC class of 2010 was this. You will never ever find such quality in such a huge quantity. We had our share of fun on Wednesday nights. We also went around the NCR region quite a bit and robbed other b-schools of all the quizzing loot.

Tata Crucible was like our backyard. For 3 years in a row, the Delhi round had one undisputed champion, IMT. So it was tremendous pressure when our turn came. However, I wasn’t quite worried because we were not the title favorites in my opinion. I just had one plan, the same that I had every time, which was to ensure that our team cleared the prelims. I simply hated sitting in the audience. As luck would have it, we topped the prelims and subsequently won the final round, in the process ensuring that the legacy was intact. We would be representing IMT at the national finals.

On the day of our convocation, Satya told me that he wanted to win the national finals. I laughed and I told him that I would give my best, which meant a couple of days of preparation for a couple of hours. My IQC buddy Siddharth had given me a diary, which had all his effort that he put in preparing for Crucible. It was the only material I looked at. Luckily, it was enough.

On the day of the nationals, I was delighted to see so many of my friends turning up at the Taj cheering us. I was indeed very happy to see that so many people cared. They say fortune favors the brave. I guess I am a very brave person coz during the 2 years I spent at IMT, there was nobody more fortunate than me. We ended up winning the national finals. Satya was very happy. My friends were very happy.

Happiness is often accompanied by other feelings. In most cases by relief or satisfaction. The happiness that I experienced that day was pure, unadulterated happiness. I was happy. No relief, No satisfaction, No sense of triumph. I was having fun and the result of that was making others happy too. What more could I ask for ? And, oh yeah, we made a lot of money and won loads of other stuff too.

Coming back to Samuel Butler’s quote. We often take our lives too seriously. Many of us are not enjoying our lives. And enjoying life doesn’t mean watching movies, TV or playing some sport. It simply is doing what you feel when you feel like doing it. If you feel like going out on a long drive at 1AM but aren’t able to do it because you have to wake up to go to office the next day, then FUCK office. You may not have that feeling everyday unless you are the Ghost Rider, but you will have office everyday.

Last part of the series….Meeting Warren Buffett….

Tribute to self-Part 2

Before I continue with the second part of the tribute to myself, I would like to inform the readers that this blog does not intend to inspire people or motivate them to do stuff. Any actions that seem to be a consequence of the stuff posted on this blog are purely coincidental.

Part 2 – Super Size Me

I was a fat kid. Anybody who saw me as a child would swear that I looked like a sumo wrestler in the making (Except my parents of course). Now I didn’t know that my size was a consequence of my fried-potatoes-are-the-only-vegetables-i-will-eat diet. I thought that just as some kids are tall, short, black or white, being fat was one of those things that just happened to you.

Now, being a fat kid is really tough. You are the object of fun for all the kids in class. As if the nicknames in your house aren’t enough, your classmates call you “Motu”, “Laddoo” amongst other things. You look different and people leave no stone unturned in making you realize that you are different ( I guess the seeds of misanthropy were sown in me during these times). Even grownups behaved like dumb kids. I distinctly remember that I was always punished after the school assembly (when I was in 3rd, 4th or 5th class), for not wearing the school belt. I had it in my pocket because it wouldn’t fit. But the pricks wanted me to wear it. I couldn’t. I was just too fat. Despite asking for another belt, that grownup kids were given, my request was refused and was continually punished for not wearing the belt.

As I grew up, so did my waist. By the time I reached engineering, I got used to the taunts. But after I fell in love things changed. I decided that I would lose weight. Not because I think that girls like guys who are fit, but because the girl I had fallen for had precisely wanted a guy who had a good physique. I told people around me that I was going to get in shape. I got the expected reactions. “It is too tough”, “People don’t lose weight, it’s just a myth”, “You are a Brahmin. Brahmins just talk, they can’t do anything”….were some of the things people told me. And as always, I wanted to shut people’s mouths.

So, after a few months of rigorous dieting and 2 hours a day workouts at the gym, I finally did it. From 105 kilos, I reduced my weight to around 74 kilos. At 20 years of age, I could fit into jeans that I wore when I was in class 7th (Imagine how fat I was in 7th ).

I was fat all my life. I thought that I was supposed to be like that by default. But when I realized that who I was, was standing in the way of what I wanted, I decided to change things. If I hadn’t fallen in love, I wouldn’t have probably had the conviction to lose weight and change myself physically. Sometime external stimulus is required to overcome internal inertia.

I have often heard people saying things like, “You shouldn’t change who you are for others”, “Be Yourself” and other stuff like that. There is no such thing as yourself. Your personality is created by your response to the numerous things around you. Those responses are again based upon umpteen factors. After you reach a certain age, your brain becomes unresponsive to change and your responses to things become more or less standardized. These standard responses are called your personality.

The important thing in life is what you want, not what you are. What you are often comes in the way of what you want. Choose what you want over what you are. As of today, I have again put on a lot of weight. But I am pretty sure I can pull of what I did 5 years ago once again. And yeah, the guy who said that Brahmins can’t do anything had to eat his own words. BTW..he too was one.

Next up….winning Tata Crucible…the most famous triumph of all…

Tribute to self-Part 1

On May 14th, 2011 , I will be 25 years old. As I approach my silver jubilee on this planet, I have thought about the things I have done so far that I am proud of. There aren’t many things that stand out. Some of them may seem insignificant to the readers of this blog. But the things that I will be writing about mean a lot to me. They represent my personal victory over my fears, some of which were as old as me until I decided to take them on and get rid of. They were obstacles that stood in the way of who I wanted to be, until I overcame them and in some cases destroyed them. The underlying theme in these posts will be a desire to prove people wrong. Proving people wrong is one of my favorite things and it gives me satisfaction that few other things can match.

Part 1 –  Fear of Maths

I had always been a good student. My mom tells me that unlike most kids who cried when they were sent to school, I used to cry when I wasn’t sent to school. Even when I was diagnosed with chicken pox, I apparently cried because I wasn’t being allowed to go to school. (Madness is a congenital phenomenon )

The earliest images that I can recollect of my love for studies are from UKG. I still remember it because that was the very first time I was ranked first in class. In my quarterly and half-yearly exams I was ranked second, but I had performed so well in the final exams, that I ended up as the top ranker. My domination continued for long. However, there was one major problem. I sucked at maths.

Though I was ranked first in class, my math scores were amongst the lowest. Unlike other subjects where I could write stuff on my own, without taking down any notes in class, maths required a different process. I was smart enough to write my own answers, but wasn’t smart enough to devise my own solutions to math problems.

As I entered a new school in class 6th, my domination was in serious jeopardy. The kids at the new school were not only better at math, they were also as good as me in other subjects. I lost my crown. I never reached the pinnacle in classes 6th and 7th. But this period was the game changer.

I scored 48 out of 100 during my quarterly exams in class 6th. Probably the lowest in class. My math teacher was furious. I was scared of Math. I never scored well. I had always covered things up by scoring well elsewhere, but now that wasn’t enough. For the first time in my life, I decided to take on my fears. I decided that I would do well in Math, even if I screwed up everything else.

I went to one of my uncles to ask him to teach me math. One day, I sat down with him as he taught me algebra. I didn’t go back after that. I don’t remember why and I also don’t remember what happened after that. The next thing I can recollect is going to school and collecting my report card after the annual exams. I had scored 98 out of 100 in Maths.

I don’t remember how I did it. But I did it. I was no longer scared of Maths. Now i couldn’t repeat that kinda performance in class 7th. But once I joined class 8th in a new school where I was taught by some of the most amazing teachers I have ever seen, I was sure that I could repeat that one-time marvel. I ended up scoring a 100% in Maths in my class 10th exams and Maths has been a piece of cake ever since.

You maybe lousy at something or many things all your life. Most people instead of helping you out will point fingers at you and mock you. But, if you really want to excel at something, I am sure nobody can stop you. One little victory can do wonders for your confidence. There is no better feeling in this world than shutting people’s mouths. But the fact that you have conquered your fears will beat even that feeling.

Coming soon…Part 2….How I overcame childhood obesity…

Are you a lizard’s tail ?

The common house lizard (Scientific Name: Hemidactylus frenatus) is found on the walls of many Indian households. Now, as many of the people know, every lizard has a tail. The tail’s primary function is to help the lizard maintain balance as it climbs walls, amongst other things (I am not sure of this, probably just making it up). Now, the peculiar thing about a lizard’s tail is that if it loses it, it ain’t much of a problem. The lizard can live for quite some time without a tail and in fact, after a period of time a new tail grows right back. Now, the new tail is quite similar in form and function to the old tail, except for the fact that it is younger skin. Just because it is a new tail doesn’t mean that it’s going to do things like spitting out fire or kicking ass of other predators. It’s just another tail. It may be new but it is just a replacement.

The professional life of most of us is like a lizard’s tail. We are hired to replace someone. To do a job someone else was doing before us. So, at the end of the day it is mostly about selling shampoos, soda or insurance policies, just like somebody did before us. The shampoos may come in bigger bottles, the soda may be packaged in a new slim can and the insurance policies may be providing cover for your whole family, but it is still the same old shit. If one day, like a chopped lizard’s tail, you too are axed, the company will find someone else to do your job. Just like the lizard would grow a new tail.

Most of us would not be missed if we quit our job this Monday. But, for a moment, just imagine if you were Godzilla’s tail. Could Godzilla have smashed all those buildings and choppers, if it didn’t have that tail? I am sure not. And from the Godzilla movies I have seen so far, I am pretty sure that Godzilla can’t really grow its tail back (Again, I am probably making this up). The tail is an important feature of Godzilla’s imposing presence. But, being Godzilla’s tail doesn’t mean joining a big company. It doesn’t work that way.

Not only should your contribution to your job be meaningful, it should also add meaning to your own existence. I am sure that being somebody’s replacement isn’t really an exciting proposition. And the only way I know of leading a meaningful life is doing what you love. (The doing what you love thing is going to be a recurring theme in many of my blog posts)

So, whose tail do you want to be, a little, creepy house lizard’s or Godzilla’s ?

Amor

It happened almost 8 years ago. I was this big, fat avuncular 17-year old, who ended up in a lousy engineering college, coz one of my best friends was studying in the college next to it. My plan for engineering was to build an operating system, sell it to Microsoft and become a millionaire ( I am being very honest when I am saying this…I never knew that I was supposed to get a job after engineering). But fate had other plans. I neither remember the date nor the time, but my plans were buried deep in hell, the moment I saw this girl.

It’s always the eyes. You look into the other person’s eyes and that is when you know that you are in love. But it took more than 3 years for me to realize that it was love. Nevertheless, she was the only reason I attended college. Of course, some of my actions were so noticeable that many people knew I was after her (This was a cause of major embarrassment for the girl, something that I later regretted a lot).

But what could I do. I was truly, madly, deeply in love. Love makes you forget everything around you. It brings a single-minded focus into your life. You go to any extent for your love. It is quite pathetic actually. To have no control over myself is a thought that I now dread (One of the reasons why I stay away from alcohol). But that is exactly how it is…intoxicating.

That is exactly how you should feel about your job. If you are not in love with your work, you will not last long. There is a reason why Microsoft was built by Bill Gates and Wal-Mart was built by Sam Walton and not the other way around. They did what they loved. You have to do what you love (I am talking about work here )

As for the girl, she is happily married to someone else now. Though I was disappointed, there is something else that I discovered about love. It happens more than once . More about that later.

P.S. I am not going to reveal the girl’s name and people who know please shut up.