The benefits (or the tragedy as the case may be) of being a female in an Indian B School

For those of you have been to a B-school would surely agree with me that there are several benefits that are associated with being a female in an otherwise testosterone charged environment of a B school.

In both engineering (not talking about IGIT) and management education (not talking about XLRI or other HR management instis) there is a dearth of female candidates. Thus, all that the male candidates want is a more demographic representation of the countries’ male-female ratio in these institutes. In these hallowed institutions, sightings of a fellow homo-sapiens from venus is considered a divine sign and properly revered.

Here I will make but a mere attempt to list down some benefits which, inadvertently or otherwise, get bestowed upon our fairer counterparts.

During the GD/PI process of B schools: Being a female in a group of twelve people seated for a round of “Group Discussion” has its own merit. By an unsaid rule, most of guys; who would otherwise be at each others throat to put forward their viewpoint and gain the attention of the moderator, would fall silent like a lamb the moment any girl (NOTE: GIRL and not aunties) opens her mouth. Even if she had opened her mouth to yawn, everyone would be falling over each other to give her a chance to “prove” her in the discussions and “put forward” her views. The interviewers are always more favorable to the female applicants. While the questions to a male candidate may vary from quantum application of Freudian theory (abstract right?) to the heat transfer equation between two high friction bodies; the question world invariably be about hobbies, interests and generally insipid subjects for the female candidates.

Committees: During the numerous rounds of interviews and discussion for plethora of committees that each B school invariably has, females are given a preferential treatment in two ways: Firstly- a lot of time they are always preferred over male candidates as it is assumed to boost the morale of the fellow teammates; Secondly- The interviews starting from generally eight in the evening till the sun shines; inadvertently has early interview slots for females to avoid them any “discomfort”.

Project groups: I had a professor in my institute who reserved special attention for the female students with his favorite dialogue “LAA will take care of those who take care of LAA”. In fact, a lot many professors specifically request that each group MUST contain at least one female; leave aside the logic that there aren’t that many females in the entire campus to begin with (I am not kidding…. Seriously). It is particularly at such times that the females have the time of their lives as they just have to make sure they get into a good group. The work and other such trivial matters shall be taken care of by the fellow group mates. And nobody resents them for doing as such.

Placements: Unfortunately, the situation reverses at the time of placements when the odds are indescribably in the favor of fairer sex. In most of the cases, an educated (trust me even big names are not required) female from the institutes (even if they are from Baburao Ganpat Rao Apte Institute of Medical, Engineering and Commerce Studies), with decent “attributes” are amongst the first ones to land with the best of the jobs. That’s not to say that they are not qualified for the job, heaven knows I have seen more than my fair share of qualified females during both engineering and MBA, but that sometimes other glaring attributes may also play a significant role. It is at those times that all males rue the fairer sex and crib about them.

In general: Did I mention that close to 90% junta in a typical B school comprises of engineer who, for the sake of their lives, have never been close to a female colleagues of any kind. Except perhaps an odd She-male, which frankly isn’t saying much! So imagine their awe and wonder when a live female of their project group (well they don’t necessarily need to be that either) comes up to them and request for a simple thing such as making a project report overnight from scratch or getting a survey filled by some two hundred odd people. That awe and wonder, more often than not, forces these silly awestruck morons to bow down to the whims and fancies of her ladyship and do exactly as they are told. After all, who can refuse that sad puppy look?

These are but a few benefits that I have been able to capture. Please feel free to add more if you feel I have missed out some of the “aspects”

PS: I had written a short post on Stereotypes in a class, Do give it a read too!

PPS: This post inspired by a post I read here. DO go through. A very interesting read this one turned out to be!

Images courtesy: i.ehow.com, i.ehow.co.uk,  www.calacademy.org

Thrifty India

Couple of years back, I was watching an episode of Russel Peters in which he was proclaiming that Indians were cheap and proud to be so. View the video here.

Sometime back when I was in Kolkata, I did see people arguing over 25 paisa.

There was a time when all of us considered haggling and bargaining an essential aspect of the shopping experience. But, I guess, with the advent of the organized retailing format; that bargaining had gone out of fashion and that people considered it below them to bargain. I had written a post sometime back on The ancient art of bargaining. Do go through.

So I was pretty surprised by the latest advertisements from Future group.

The latest advertisements from Kishore Biyani’s Fairprice format emphasizes on this “cheap” aspect. They loudly proclaim being cheap and not having air-conditioning in their stores along with lack of lucrative furniture and even carry bags. With the result that all the saving is being passed on to the end consumer.

Guess things do come around a full circle.

Journey to the world

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 19; the nineteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

I don’t remember who I am. I gained consciousness only a few days back. My past is still a mystery to me. I try and try to remember something, anything, about my past but I keep on drawing a blank.

At times I hear voices around me… But when I try to see, I don’t find anyone around me.

Food and water mysteriously appears in my small room.

Okay, room is a slight exaggeration. It is a dark, dank, round kind of room. Humidity is very perceptible in the very air.

Days have been passing just like that. With each passing day, it seems that the room is getting a bit smaller… Or perhaps I am getting bigger. I can’t think straight. Don’t know what reality is and what is dream. I kind of feel like I am in a trance like state.

I can feel perceptible changes in my body too. My hair has grown longer. I have harder bits on my fingertips.

Of lately, I have been feeling kind of restless. All of a sudden, I feel an urge to move. I don’t know the direction but some primal instinct is making me move one way. Gradually, what seems like rays of light began to appear at one end.

Suddenly, I was lifted from my feet and I heard the person say “Congratulations. You have a healthy baby boy”.

Images courtesy: topicshare.net, island11.files.wordpress.com

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

The Prophecy!!!

This post is written for BLOGESHWAR and Anubhooti.

“I swear had I known that something of this nature was going around in his mind, I would have stopped him. But there was nothing. Even till that day he was fine. He was normal. We had dinner that day and as usual he complained about my chapatti but still ate five of them. Little did I know that he was thinking of killing himself” said a sobbing Anita.

“But that still doesn’t explain the one crore life insurance that he took last year and which he, obviously, did not have enough resources to pay premium for!” exclaimed inspector Tambe. “I am sure there is more to this than meets the eye. Make sure madam you have some answers for me when I come back next time.”

“Uff. That inspector is such a stuffy guy, bothering you and all. Would you like to have a cup of tea?” asked Mrs. Sharma, their next door neighbor.

“No thanks. I think I will take a quick nap now.” Anita tried to reply politely, being tired of all the conversation around Rajesh’s untimely demise.

“See now that won’t do! You have children to take care of now. If you get depressed now, what would happen to them? If you ask me, go to some babaji and satsangs for some time. Would help you take your mind off the entire issue. If fact, had we known about how Rajesh was feeling; I could have taken him to babaji who would have helped him a lot” ranted Mrs. Sharma. “Now I must get going, Sharmaji must be about to come home. Take care.”

Smiling at what Rajesh’s reaction would have been had he heard of Mrs. Sharma’s offer to take him to a babaji brought a flash of smile on Anita’s lips as she remembered very well the explicit views that Rajesh had on the ‘thugs and thieves’ that were the babajis and gurujis of the world.

This gave her some energy to sort some of the affairs at the home now that all the relatives and well wishers had gone back.

The “sorting” took well over three hours when Anita finally put the last utensil back in the topmost kitchen cupboard. She was about to close it when, suddenly, a small box hidden in the back fell down to reveal a yellowing sealed envelope.

Immediately her mind flashed back to that fateful evening fifteen years ago with Pandit Shyam Sunder when Rajesh had dared Anita to prove beyond doubt that Shyam Sunder was nothing but a fake.

“Please sir! I implore you to share it with me” said Rajesh.

“But son you do not know the true burden of knowing the truth about your death”.

“You will live your life in the fear of death. There will be no moment that you will not think about it.”

“I do not care about that. In fact, there is no better way to prove your genuineness than that.”

“But I can’t go on telling people when they will die!!!”

“OK! So why don’t you write it on a paper and give it to Anita. That way I won’t know it and it would still add to your credibility.”

Stuck like that, Panditji took out his sheaf of papers, started some calculations and wrote down something on a Parchment before sealing it in an envelope with hot wax and red ribbon and gave it to Anita for safekeeping and away from the eyes of Rajesh!

Curiosity gained the better of Anita, who bent down to retrieve the sealed envelope to confirm the written date… Only to find the envelope unsealed.

Slowly, she extracted the crackling parchment from the envelope and looked at the date on the parchment and could not stop the warm flow on her cheeks. Brushing away the tears, she casually turned over the parchment and a chill suddenly ran down her spine.

Back of the parchment was covered in a scrawl she had come to recognize so very well over the years and was often a teasing point between them; revealing the last words of her late husband.

Sorry! Spend money well

Images courtesy: www.bibleprophecyupdate.com

Change!

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton Season 2 edition 18; the eighteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Change the way you look;

Change the way you cook.

Change the way you talk;

Change the way you walk.

Change the way you touch and feel;

Change the way you injure and heal.

Change the way you talk to folks;

Don’t worry; sometimes you can have egg yolks.

For a change, don’t keep people in a lurch;

Once in a while, visit the church.

Ride a horse instead of a mare;

Change the world for all I care.

Change whatever others feel you mar;

Just don’t change who you really are!

 

Image courtesy: blog.mohmaya.com

PS: This marks my first attempt at writing something close to a poem. I generally write big articles and decided to write something lesser than a 100 words this time. Do let me know how this attempt fared.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.