31st Jan 09
Today was the interview. I have prepared the
interview by talking with Mamta. I was prepared to answer most of the questions
found on the net. I reached ISB around 40 mins before the scheduled time. They
gave me a word “realm” to write a hundred word essay. I had no difficulty
writing an essay. By the time I finished the interview one guy took me to the
room for interview. There was a panel of two staff members and an alumni to
take my interview. I did not answer well to most of the questions and
completely failed to steer the interview to present myself in the way I
inteneded.
9th Feb 09
Disappointing day. I had hoped that EVDO card will be
activated today and ISB will give call today. Both of the things did not
materialize. I am tense, tomorrow is the last day of the decision by ISB. My
mind has started preparing for a rejection. I realize that I have lost that
willpower which used to make me come out of any crisis or make anything
possible for me. Maybe ISB rejection will put back that fire in me.
10th Feb. 09
ISB rejection is finally in as I expected. In reality, I had
not expected the rejection. I have at least expected wait listing. But maybe I
was this bad in the interview. I am in no mood to type anymore. Future seems so
bad. But it is probably an overstatement that I am all that broken. I am slowly
coming to senses that Indicorps is the perfect thing for me. Maybe this is the
blessing in disguise.
19th feb 09
Oh what a day. I worked all day on my computer. It is such a
nice feeling of fulfillment at the end of the day. Indicorps has so amazing
people. Staff people set out time with me to talk about my things. It is such a
nice way to show care for me. I am all but impressed with this bunch of
achievers. They work 10 in the morning to 2 in the night. Make their own food,
wash their clothes, and travel in buses or on foot. They are in themselves
living Gandhis. They set out on “be the change you want in the world”. And the
rest is as good if not less. The kids all around make it so natural a place for
me to stay and prosper. Sometimes insecurities bother me. I have no answers but
questions and search only. I am sending emails for the green paper and getting
reply back. It feels so nice to have this communication. I get a sense of power
people reply when I contact them.
23rd Feb.
Last week, we met Harris Wafford. Learnings –
And also two laborers who put sand in the GandiAhsram.
Wondered about the meaning of self-pity self respect and come to see it in a
different light. There are other migrants. But they seem to have better sense
of self. Doctor spoke about the 50% share in the body and that you can not take
care of your body. It is just that. Whether we take the responsibility of
ourselves or not. I am gung-ho on the concept of indijournal.
27th Feb 2009
The speak4 change class went real good. I could see point
coming from people. We showed MLK “I have a dream” speech. It generated a lot
of interest in people. We had a round on what dream we have. It was a surprise
to hear some of the point brought up by people. Maulik pointed out that the
speech was mostly forward looking and not backward looking. Most of the time
MLK’s thoughts were pointed to a brighter future rather than remembering the
past. Another point brought up by him during a discussion was that we are
invariably linked with the country in all of our actions. If we bribe that
actually goes into creating more corruption in the country. It is like we do
our bit to a larger problem. We are no less to blame even if we did a small
petty infringement of law.
I get a high out of a successful class. Siddharth gave a rousing presentation and I could see the favorable impression it made on people. They were excited and probably bring others to the class next time. After the class, I gave a lecture on bearing responsibilities to Jayesh. He was shirking responsibilities for quite some time now. He took the responsibility to create the class next time. After dinner we went to naturals icecream parlour to celebrate the success. I was wearing a kuch to karo yaar tshirt. There were some youg netas there smoking, drinking and chatting up. They made fun of us. I did not bother but instead of leaving the scene confronted them in their laughter by telling them which organization I come from. They did not bother much and I was off to have icecream.
Jan 9th,
2010
A lot of change in the first week of the January. We
(Mamta and I) went to the Diu to celebrate our anniversary and subsequently
moved to Delhi. Diu is closest you can get to a heaven on earth at least from
our standard. For one, there was no tout to take you around the island and second,
no hassle getting a hotel room like other places in India where you have to
prove that married people have to prove their marriages. Diu has bike rental
places where we got a scooty to set exploring beaches of this 40 square
kilometer island. What a vacation it was, day were spend exploring the island,
evenings on the moonlit beaches next to the fire listening music of the waves
and nights making love. We replaced bottled water with the coconut water available
everywhere, ate out at local Portuguese places and drank a lot and crated
scene.
Feb 28th 2010
I realize that life is an abyss. You can not fall enough.
This is such a valid reason for optimism. Any base is a self-made creation.
May 10th 2010
I learned at Indicorps that simplicity is viable. It is also
convenient to take a bus rather than wait for a taxi besides a bus present more
opportunities to observe and interact with people. Recently, during such a bus
ride an interesting thing happened. On the way to a certain destination, the
bus driver insisted on following rules and forced me to disembark a mile before
the destination. I found it strange that a bus wala in Delhi would follow
rules. On my return an hour later, I, incidentally, got the same bus, though I
was nowhere close to a bus stop. The same bus wala followed rules on my way to
destination and forgot about rules on my return. I thought hard about the
contrast in the behavior of the bus driver and finally discovered what is
called aligned incentives.
As far as I know buses are leased to bus drivers on daily
(weekly or monthly) basis and therefore, it is in the bus driver’s interest to
maximize earning. One of the ways to maximize earning is to not run buses when riders
are fewer. The lowered bus frequency could be experience on a hot afternoon
(apparently, when buses are needed the most). Also, the maximizing earning
effect could be experienced in how bus drivers treat people. Once a person
purchase ticket, the drive’s interest is fulfilled. There is no other value to
extract from the person. Thus, on my way to my destination, I was forced to disembark
because I have already purchased the ticket. Following rules was a convenient
way to achieve the intended outcome. However, on my return, I held the value as
a possible customer, and so rules were not followed.
This incident made me think about other things happening
around me. The world runs not because of rules but because of aligned
incentives.
No comments:
Post a Comment