The Roller Coaster Ride

People enjoy roller coaster rides. They like the slow climb up and the huge fall down, the loops, and occasional splashes. Imagine if while on a roller coaster, you fall into a dream; you are driving a car, trying to steer it. You plan to take the highway, the faster route. You think you have control but the car goes on completely unexpected turns, drops and climbs. You feel exhilarated at times, but more often you feel anxious, nervous, scared and worried about the next curve.

Life is like the roller coaster. However, most of us dream we are driving. To be more precise, life is actually like a roller coaster park. You can choose between different models, some high risk big thrills one and some which look relatively less scary or bumpy. The only condition is that you always have to be on one or the other.

Whichever model you choose, and whichever path, profession or option you choose, it will invariably have highs and lows, ups and downs. There will also be plenty of turns and loops you never saw when you chose the model from the catalogue of rides. If you think you are in a car, there’s bound to be frustration, uncertainty and fear. If you realize that you are in a theme park and these are all rides, and accept that you have to be on a ride, you can enjoy yourself. You will still be on the same rides but you can take the ups and the downs, comfortable and safe and calm and happy.

Feedback from IESE

IESE Business School in Barcelona has a cool feature for their application process where you get feedback on your profile. Basically you enter in a few details about your undergrad university, GMAT scores, and work experience. Within a week or so you get a response as to their initial feeling about the strength of your application. Basically, you'll know if you're eliminated right away. For someone as impatient as me, this seemed like a great idea.

Anyway, I got an email from from them within around a week, offering to help me with the admission process and answer any questions that I had about IESE. I sent them back a long email with my detailed profile and so many questions that they thought it was just better to call me and answer my questions.

I had a very helpful telecon with Mr. Anjan, Associate Director of MBA admissions, where I got answers to all my questions and a very good idea of the process and criteria. I'm also meeting them for an interview in the MBA Tour in Bangalore.

Talking of the MBA tour, I'm also meeting the people from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College at the tour. Their focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, where they also say entrepreneurship is not necessarily about starting a business, that its also a state of mind. Anyway, the long wait continues.

Swadeshi for Industries

The Kerala state government is planning a new version of the Swadeshi movement used by Gandhi to encourage people from using home made cotton, boycott British made products and improve economic conditions by making India self sufficient. The Kerala state is hoping to revive the fortunes of ailing and sick industries in the state by assured demand for their products.

The idea is to buy requirements of government departments, as well as for the Kerala State Electricity Board from these sick industries, creating demand for their products and reviving them. Great Plan? I think not....

Firstly, why weren't these sick companies getting orders in the first place, and what caused them to be sick? In public sector companies in the state, the sickness would be primarily due to inefficiencies in the functioning, causing their goods to be more expensive or of a lesser quality for the same price as offered by a competitive unit. So is the normal process of inviting tenders and giving the order to the offer with the lowest price also going to be changed? Else, how would these industries get any orders?

Believe it or not, the state public sector units now get a 10% price preference in material supply to the government. This means, that the government is going to waste that much more of the taxpayers money, subsidizing inefficiencies in other public sector companies. If this was only for a period of say a year, where the ailing companies could utilize the fresh orders to revive themselves with the increased cash flows, and become competitive at the end of it, the plan might still have made sense. However, in this case, what is basically going to happen is that the public sector companies will use the 10% cushion to remain complacent and uncompetitive.

With KSEB and other government departments purchasing from these companies, they are sure to get lower quality products for the same price or even higher prices, making the service possibly even worse in the long term. Unless of course, KSEB et al could anyway afford to pay 10% more for purchases, and they are like sitting on piles of cash. In this case too, they could have opted to buy better quality stuff, rather than just pay for someone else's inefficiencies.

Just because an idea was good at one point in history, it does not at all imply that you can mutilate the same idea and implement it in a totally different context and hope to get results.

Passing the Parcel

The Employee State Insurance Scheme in India is basically the compulsory medical and life insurance policy which organizations are supposed to take for all their employees earning less than Rs. 8000/- p.m. This is a Central government authority, and they are pretty well organized and so on, though in my estimation at best 20% of the total employees must be getting covered by this. Anyway, they recently came out with a new scheme of Unemployment Allowance whereby a wage earner covered by the scheme will get Rs. 1500/- per month for six months on termination of his employment of permanent closure of the factory. Great!

In order to obtain the allowance, the company which was paying the insurance has to give a letter to ESI informing them of the closure. Simple enough. We went to the ESI office three days after the negotiations with the workers to enquire at the ESI office. Since it was a new scheme which was just passed by Parliament, they hadn't heard of it, and eventually looked through all the new notifications and confirmed its existence. We were given the format for the letter to be given and we gave it within a week.

The workers who had failed to get employment elsewhere (or weren't covered by ESI in the new place) were supposed to apply for the scheme and get it certified by the District Labour Officer or the Factories Inspector (both State Government officials) certifying their unemployment. The Factories Inspector refused since they said they would "know for sure" that the factory was closed and the workers no longer employed, if it was sold! The workers then approached me to accompany them to the labour office. I went first with them, thinking that the DLO would be more sympathetic since they are there to protect the interests of the workers from "exploitation from capitalists". The concerned official was not there and we left a letter for him. The next visit, the officer said he had never heard of the scheme and would have to consult his superior in the state capital. Each subsequent visit led me to another officer, each of whom said someone else in the department has to take the decision or that should have been taken by the Factory Inspector.

I wanted to help my workers out, 1500 bucks a month would be a big deal for them, especially since several of the older workers were now thinking of starting small shops or such, with the retrenchment compensation and gratuity which we gave them, which would take them few months before getting them regular incomes. Anyway, I even got the ESI people to call the Labour Office and tell them of the scheme and even send them a letter but nothing has come of it yet. Nobody is willing to take up any responsibility for their actions and in the process innocent honest hardworking people are getting penalised. The ESI office had initially given a deadline of two months to complete the application process but are willing to relax it a bit since they know of the functionings of government departments, but I don't know how long it can be extended. I've asked the trade union to take it up, but they are no longer interested since our workers are not employed anymore and not therefore giving any crucial support to the union. Should I take it up to ministers or to the press?

Our One-Time Settlement proposal with the bank is in another phase of passing the parcel with carefully crafted letters going between the Asst. General Manager and our Branch Manager. The bank had conducted a new valuation done by a different person than the previous 3 valuations done by them. This guy was a civil engineer and came out with a valuation stating that the replacement cost for the machinery is twice the original valuations, which works out to around 40% more than the price of new machinery. We requested a fresh valuation of our assets done by a Mechanical Engineer, since we know the only bank approved Chartered Mechanical Engineer in town is the person who has done the previous three valuations. Anyway, the passing of the parcel:

1. Our letter to the bank requesting a new valuation
2. The branch manager's letter to the AGM requesting a new valuation and asking the AGM to suggest a valuator.
3. The AGM sent back a letter saying that the Manager choose a valuator himself.
4. The Manager then sent a letter back saying that we had requested a Mech Engr and that he didn't know who was on the Bank's panel.
5. The AGM sends back a letter with the panel members list.
6. The Manager then sends a letter saying he thinks that the only guy is the previous valuator so asks the AGM whether its ok to take another valuation.

I'm still waiting for the AGMs reply to that. The main tactic in the letters is to try and corner the other person to make a decision. I think the Manager has got the AGM cornered now, so he'll probably have to take the decision, unless he finds some way to counter it without any decision being taken...

The parcel keeps getting passed and just sit and wonder when the music will stop. Btw, the 6 letters above are only a very small excerpt in the total list of correspondances between us and the bank and between the bank's office. The full list is much, much longer...

Only September and I already got my first "Ding"

I had applied to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad's new programme in Management for Executives, the PGPX. The interview shortlist came out yesterday and I wasn't on it. I didn't really want it so I wasn't disappointed but was kinda suprised, especially since they had contacted me the day after my GMAT via the GMASS service. Anyway, the application was also kind of limited since they ask for essays only at the time of the interview, and the letters of reccomendation only at the time of accepting admission offers. I feel particularly in my case, coming from a small business background, and that too closing the business down, the essays are my biggest tool to put everything in context. I also think my letters of reccomendation, one which I'm getting from a supplier and one from a customer since I don't have any supervisors, will be pretty good. They used to be very appreciative of my progress and efforts and the decision to stop.

Anyway, looking on the bright side, I got to use "ding," a word I just recently learnt from other MBA Blogs. I also know feel somehow like a reapplicant, which means I have a desire to make it "this time around atleast". I am able to use it effectively, I have a much better chance of getting in, since a higher percentage of reapplicants get in. The best part is that I saved a hundred thousand bucks since they have a much earlier timeline than everybody else and you have to send your acceptance (and the initial deposit) by November 25th. If I had got admitted, then I don't know whether I would have turned it down, and might have chosen to pay that, which I would have lost if I got admitted into some place I want to go to more. So I guess, as always, everything happens for the best.

Freedom of Choice, and Fear of Death

Beks and I watched "The March of The Penguins" last night. Anyway, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, these penguins brave like severe winters and 70 mile hikes in absolute darkness and freezing cold to have progeny. After the mother lays the egg, the father then looks after the egg for like 2 months of the harshest winter ever while the mother goes back into the water to feed. All the fathers then huddle up together to try and sheild themselves from the cold and protect their eggs, without eating anything for like a 120 days. Many of them lose their lives to the cold.

Anyway, animals do all this out of instinct. I don't think they consciously make a choice that they want to have offspring, it is imprinted into them. I don't think a male penguin will say "Bollocks to that, I just wan't to stay here and have some good food, or try to swim to warmer places". Jonathan Livingstone Seagull is just a story.... If there was a particularly harsh winter, I doubt whether the next year whether the number of penguins deciding to risk it and mate will decrease.

Freedom of choice is "God's greatest gift to man". Free will is what separates us from animals. But it also brings a whole lot of other problems. So many times in my life, I have thought it would be just easier if we didn't have to choose, if it was predetermined and we had no other choice but to do things in a particular way. I think the biggest obstacle which arises from free will is our clinging to life. The penguins try to protect themselves and their young from predators but I don't think they really "fear" death as we do. They understand that death is as natural as life, and even if they lose an egg or an offspring to the cold, they don't get tied down by it and move on with their lives, continuing the same process next year.

I find this clinging to life, and fear of death is a paradox. Especially since most people (i'm not sure of the statistics here) know that they are not just the body. Since every observation needs a subject and an object, and since we can observe the body, we know we are not it. The same logic also tells us that we are not the mind, that we are something beyond it. Anyway, so why do we fear losing something which we don't even believe is "us". Why do we grieve for those who die? It is only attachment, and we don't really grieve for the dead but for the loss we feel.

Teachings of Flu

Don't worry, I'm not turning this blog into a religous blog and Flu is not an ancient Chinese Scholar.

Anyway, been down with a mild flu for the past two days. Luckily it kicked in just the day Beks got back so it also gave me an opportunity to be exceedinly needy. Anyway, am stuck at home with nothing to do. No energy to really think creatively (a.k.a. finish my essays) and at the same time, not sick enough to just pass out the whole day.

Since I had mentioned that every experience teaches you something, I was wondering what (if anything) a flu teaches you... What can alternate bouts of shivers and sweats teach you about life? Perhaps patience, perhaps boredom, dunno really. At least if you're in school, or working for somebody else, a fever can be a couple of days to stay at home, watch movies and so on. Btw, I watched Almost Famous today morning. But right now, the flu is equivalent of getting sick during summer holidays for me. I'm going to try and finish my Lord of The Rings marathon, finished the first two, and now onto Return of the King. Got the special edition DVDs from a cousin and each movie is around 45 mins longer! Thats a total of 6 dvds for the entire series.

The last time I got the flu, in Feb, a week in bed, and much higher fever and severe chills somehow gave me the confidence to decide to close down our company. The decision was something the whole family had been too nervous to make, not sure how it would turn out. I'm not sure how the flu helped me in making the decision, but at some point between the half sleep and continuing dreams, I saw very clearly that it was the right choice, and that it could be done. Anyway, waited till I got healthy again before telling my father about it, so that he wouldn't take it just as a sick persons ramblings or fears. At first he thought that I was making the choice because he was putting too much pressure on me, and my uncles suggested that we run it in an even smaller scale, but I decided firmly that we would close down, and that it could be done. Anyway, we never thought things would work out quite so well, but it often happens that things thought to be huge problems are not so, and some things we dont think about at all, actually turns out more difficult. Anyway, having said that, let me also mention that I don't believe in problems: just situations, whether you see it as a problem or not is up to the observer.

The Fool on the Hill, and Karma Yoga

Day after day,
Alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning 'round.

The Fool on the Hill - The Beatles

The reply to juggler's comment in the previous post got me thinking more about detachment. A few years ago, I had an incredible urge to renounce the world, go off to the hills and live as an ascetic. But circumstances changed and things had to be done. Anyhow, I started work here, but was confused at times between "making money" and "self discovery". The fool on the hill is perfectly happy, and I would have been too, following a path of introspection and self discovery. Making enough to survive is really not that difficult.

On my recent trip to Spiti Valley in the Himalayas, I went to Kibber, a village which (somewhat dubiously according to the Lonely Planet) claims to be the highest village in the world. (The photo by the way is not Kibber, but Chandratal in Spiti). I met a Kibberite there and asked him how many people stayed in the village to which he quickly replied '420'. After a moments thought, he apologised and corrected himself saying there were only 418 people in the village. He said he had a family of four and around 1 1/2 acres of land where he farms peas mainly. (An acre of land there costs about Rs. 30,000/- he said). From that, he earns enough money to feed his family, pay all the bills and send his kids to school. He works for only around 4 months in a year during summer. I'm not saying that by having nothing you can be happy, I don't know whether he was happy.

Anyway, making enough to survive, I could have lived happily in contemplation. Since people who have "everything" are sometimes not happy, and sometimes people who have very little or nothing are happy, you can easily infer that happiness must be from within. Even in day to day life, things which make us feel happy or elated at a particular time might fail to do so the next time. So establishing that happiness is from within, then all we need are our physical needs.

So why does a person, who can easily have everything he needs to be happy, go out into the world? Why do we complicate our lives with all these things? Whatever the root cause was, we are now in a "material" world. It is impractical (and indeed impossible) to tell everyone to give up everything and "run to the hills".

This was obviously a dilemma faced by many people over many ages. The answer lies in Karma Yoga, the yoga of work. It basically says that to be an ascetic is relatively easy. It has its place in society, some people, at stages in their lives need to turn to that. But the most difficult yoga to practice is karma yoga. To live in the world, and yet live above it, not get dirty from it, to float like a lotus which grows in a muddy pond. It is pointless to say that we will live in the world and not use a computer or a tv, but one should see them only as tools, and not get attached to it. One can use all the luxuries in the world, but should be as happy if they are taken away the next second.

Krishna expounded the theory to Arjuna in the Mahabaratha. Arjuna was confused as to why he should engage in battle against his cousins. Krishna explains that one must do what one is called for. I believe this also to mean that one person should do what he has the skills to do. Arjuna had skills to be a great warrior, and he had a duty to his citizens to defend them. The Law of Karma, in my understanding, is exactly analoguous to Newton's Third law of motion; "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". The Law of Karma states also includes a desire as an action. A desire sets the wheel of Karma turning and it goes on, through several lives if needed, till it meets an opposite reaction or fullfilment of the desire. Krishna advices Arjuna to disassociate himself and his efforts from the results of the action, thereby acting only out of compassion for his fellow beings, and not from any desire for a particular result. The end result is God-given and one has no control over it. This teaches acceptance.

People have a misconception that Karma is just an excuse to make up for failure and that people use bad Karma from past lives to explain if bad things happen to them. I however feel that rather than being an escapist's approach, Karma Yoga teaches you to not get stuck in the past, to learn from your experiences and move on, without brooding over spilt milk. This prepares one to confidently handle any adversity.

After looking after the entire operations of the company I feel that any businessman has a responsibility to society. He is creating employment and generating wealth, as well as paying taxes for the development of the country, and looking after the welfare of his employees. I slowly understood the social responsibility of running a business. Further, competition has a role too, in ensuring that consumers get the most out of their money. I found I could reconcile my beliefs with my actions and felt much happier. I feel that if a person has a "skills" as a manager, then one should utlise it to serve society and help his fellow man. I'm not saying everone should start a charity, but do what they're best at, and be true to themselves.

I try to detach myself from the results of my actions by not feeling elated with "successes" or sad with "failures". Everything has taught me something, and in the long run there are no successes and failures, just experiences. I still obviously have a long way to go, perhaps several lifetimes, but its not just about the destination, and I enjoy the journey as well.

(Disclaimer: I'm not some kind of hardcore Yogi or anything, I have intellectual conviction and am working, sometimes haphazardly, towards being what I believe)

Essays and Blogging

After spending hours writing and editing essays, typing more might be the last thing that some people might think of. I however like to OD on stuff. I guess that blogging is also a contrast and relaxation thing compared to essays. You don't have to worry about planning out what to say, structure, relevance, editing out, or sticking to any word limit. And also, you dont have to worry about expectations.

Worries about expectations of people on the adcom are just creeping up on me. I did my essays for my first couple of schools quite quickly without too much editing, except making it more concise and clearer of course. The first times were easy because I have never worked on an application proces before and so didn't think too much about it, and just wrote from the heart. So I guess the essays are very true to who I am, but now that its done, I am starting to wonder about whether I am the kind of person that adcoms think are suited for an MBA.

There's a lot of talk on websites and discussions on "Indian Male Admit Ratio" and "what are adcoms looking for and so on". Meeting, or atleast hearing Mr. Thomas Caleel, Wharton Admission Director, at the Bangalore reception was reassuring. He seemed pretty much like a regular guy, and didn't seem like he was hiding some secret to how they actually choose candidates. Anyway, back on the web for a couple of days and thoughts are creeping back. The Wharton student2student discussion is a very good place to go for some reassurance again. Faith swings like a pendulum between the poles of certainty and doubt.

Back to blogging and essays, I guess writing the essays one always has to use "judgement" on what to write, and what is most relevant to the topic. But sometimes after you edit out something, you stil keep thinking about it, and building up on it, and finally have to write it down somewhere, without caring about it. And Blogger comes to the rescue.

I don't know whether I'm lazy but I don't feel I can plan out essays on what the adcom wants to hear. I think its too much work, and anyway, after all the research and reading, I still haven't got a clear idea of what they are looking for. I feel that the weakest point in my apps are possibly my college marks which are anyway too late to change. My goals and stuff can't really be changed much, and my personal qualities can't be changed at all. BTW, I put my slight obsessive compulsive disorder as the personal quality that will help the Wharton adcom know me better.

At the end, if I don't get admitted anywhere, maybe I am not cut out for it. I guess I have to trust the adcom's judgement in deciding that. I can just hope to give them as clear an idea as I can of who I am and what is important to me, in a total of around 3000 words.

A good "houseperson"

(I wonder whether houseperson is the politically correct form of househusband? )

Since Beks started with her full time job like a month ago, and since I have been more or less unemployed except for short stretches, winding up things, I have taken over charge of the house. I have been getting used to the role, and studying what is required.

Management, like Maths and logic, is I feel a general discipline and you can use the same principles in most things you do. To be a good househusband or houseperson, is practically running a company. One has to think of inventory and purchases (of food items as well as soaps and stuff), production planning (what to cook? when to cook), supply chain management (washing clothes as soon as one set is dry and getting it ironed), cash flows (utility bills) and stuff. Luckily most of the strategic decisions are taken as a team when you're married, but the day to day stuff is all up to me.

I have to make sure that Beks doesn't run out of clothes or underwear, is fed (with a balanced diet if possible) and that everything runs smoothly. In India, a houseperson is also particularly concerned with Human Resource Development, teaching your maid to cook your favourite dishes, and mapping out weekly schedules of when the books need to be taken off the shelf and dusted and so on. One also has to choose between outsourcing (getting a cleaning agency, or giving clothes to the dhobi) vs doing it in-house.

Anyway, I'm coping with it and doing pretty well. However, making rubber flip flops were easier in a lot of ways, at least i didn't have to think of producing different colours every day or anything. And sometimes, getting an order to be supplied is easier than having to decide on what to cook everyday.

Now I'm home alone though, while Beks is with her parents in Chennai. When the roles of the houseperson was reversed, when Beks went on a trip, I would do everything else except make the bed. This was my primary task at the time (or atleast folding the sheets) and I used to use the "freedom" to leave the bed messed up, sometimes for up to a whole week till she got back. I think it was also a semi-masochistic tendency, since it made me miss her much more.

But now, I have imbibed the responsibility of overseeing the whole house, and taken ownership of the project. This is the first trip she's taken since she started working, and now everyday in the morning, the first thing I have to do is take off the pillows, fold the sheet and make the bed, tucking it in tightly, and that the designs of the bed sheet are aligned with the bed, just the way Beks has taught me to do it. I guess I'm becoming a better houseperson.

The Basic Plan (or Managing the Government)

Though India is progressing, I can't wait for my grandchildren's grandchildren to get the full benefit of "progress". I am going to speed it up by taking over the country, as an elected dictator. Well, I hope to get elected by a large enough margin, and several consecutive terms so it'll be practically like a dictatorship.

On to my mandate...
I believe that a government should be run like a large corporate. Except that while in a corporation's case, maximising income will be the main goal, for a government the main aim should be at the welfare of its people. So how does that make a government like a company? The government should basically learn from the way a corporation is managed, and take the best practices from it.

To start with, a company will reduce always try to reduce overheads and maximise efficiency. The government should really learn from this. For a company, a customer will not be willing to pay for inefficiencies in it, and will switch to another brand or supplier. In India I feel people evade so much tax partly because they feel (rightly so) that the government is wasting a large amount of their money. I feel that if the government is made totally efficient and transparent, and awareness is created, citizens will willingly pay taxes, and look down on those who don't. Further, once it is completely efficient, and not a penny of the taxpayers' money is wasted, the government can justify imposing severe penalties for evasion.

A company will aim at customer delight, and for a government, its citizens should be treated as the customers. I am a socialist and I believe that the government should maximise efficiency and subsequently spend the income generated on welfare, education and employment generation. However, I am not an "old school" socialist. I understand that to share the pie, we have to first bake the pie.

So as the elected leader, I will generate wealth for the country, and give equal opportunity to everyone, and as equitable a standard of living as possible, by uplifting the poor, rather than simply trying to drag down the rich.

Now on to the plan of action:
I believe as the leader of the country, I should function pretty much as the CEO of the company. A successful CEO should not just balance the budget, or project the next year's targets. He should give vision to the company, and motivate the employees and make everyone take pride in the organization.

So first, I do the MBA, get it over with and join a consulting company, to help Information Techonology and Communications companies formulate strategies, as well as help any company implement IT related strategy. Why IT? Well, I believe that nothing can speed up progress and increase efficiency in a company as good implementation of IT. In the case of the government, proper distribution and penetration of IT will not only drastically improve efficiency, it will also empower people, particularly in our largely rural setting. It will give people more direct access to the markets and the government, and keep up to date with all relevant advances.

To build a company, or a nation, I need a strong team. Networking with trusted leaders in every field and region of the country, I will build a team of energetic people who want to make a difference. After building the team, we will do an in-depth "market survey", which any manager will know is the first step in any project. After the market survey, we will prepare a business plan, with the road map for the next 20 years. I don't feel that a five year term is enough for any government to achieve any real goals. We will have to get the complete trust of the people, by explaining our plan to them, with road shows in all parts of the country, with question and answer sessions and so on. I hope that if prepared enough, we will win the first elections that we stand for, with a large enough margin to effect real policy change. The country needs a leader, not a politician.

About the blog:
I hope to incorporate all my ideas on implementing various management practices in government organizations and functioning which I come across. I will also try to write about how to learn from the current government's mistakes. Further, I aim to also collect and document my thoughts on leadership, ethics, and so on. I know I am not a management guru or anything, but believe that with focus, hard work and God's grace, I can really make a difference. Like I said, I'm on the lookout for a good dedicated team. If anyone has any advice to give, or have any ideas on how to run the country, leave a comment, or join the team.

The Long Wait

Now that I've got most of my essays ready for my top business schools, most of the stuff I have to do is jut clerical. And then I guess I just have to wait. December end seems like such a long time away, especially for someone as obsessive as me. I guess the time will go even slower now that there's not much work, with the business almost completely closed down. Speaking about that, I wonder whether it will ever completely finish. I mean I know it will, at some point, but having no control over it is so frustrating.

Decided to close the company down in mid-Feb and things started happening really fast. There were so many things to plan out and do, and things were happening much faster than we had originally thought. I finished over 90% of the work by May, retrenching the workers, selling off most of the stocks, selling our brand, as well as find a buyer for the factory. Till then, things were happening as fast as I could do them, the only real limitation on it, being my time. Luck played a large role (as I feel it always does in everything) in helping get through that so fast. In May anyway, I calculated that since I accomplished 90% of the work in three months, the remaining 10% should take me 10 days, and giving time for unforeseeable developments, I gave it a month to finish everything.

But life continuously surprises you. If in Feb, someone had told me that I would finish the most of the work by May, I would have thought it close to impossible. If someone told me in May by September, I would finish less than 10% of the remaining work, I would have laughed. But here I am, alone at home, having had to rush back mid-holiday to meet with the Bank manager.

This part of the job is teaching me patience beyond my expectations. I have had to go to the bank every single day for the past two weeks, playing the chess game of negotiating for a One Time Settlement. Well it would be sort of like chess, if you played chess by moving one pawn forward and then back for three months straight, without making any other moves. The majority of my work now includes just waiting. Waiting on the bank to make some move.

Like I had mentioned, I will be putting up a detailed post on banking later, maybe after the settlement is over, but I just want to mention that it is impossible for an organization to become efficient without some risk-reward ratio. The same lacks in the civil service, and a bank manager in a public sector bank is more or less like a bureaucrat. And I'm not blaming him, (well not right now anyway) but he is not motivated to make a difference, to help people, or even his own organization. He is only motivated to keep his papers clear. As long as that is taken care of, the bank could write off our entire loan amount, or force us to sell our house, and neither makes a difference to him, or to anyone else in the bank.

Anyway, planning to do a Lord of the Rings marathon session on Monday and Tuesday since its anyway a holiday here. Luckily the special dvd editions are 45 mins longer, and I have to wait that much less for the MBA admission results.