Democracy is imperfect ; Cash is King

Dear loved ones back home,

Allow me to open with a quote

"China grows because of it's government, India grows in spite of its Government" - Quote by Nandan Nilekani in the book World is flat

Nothing depicts India's situation better than the above Quote.

Its been close to two months since I have been to HK and I have already begun to feel like a local resident !! I have been trying to learn Mandarin

and have made no progress at all ! Its one of the most toughest language in earth . The Chinese language uses a lot of symbolism in the speech, As a teaser let me tell you this

There is no word called Threat - its morphed as Danger+ Opportunity. This also shows how they view threat " as an opportunity". Even words like love is said in a round about fashion. foreigners actually go bonkers to learn the language. I don't hope to make too much progress myself.

HKU MBA and " Class elections"

The classes in the last week has reached a tipping point. Had 2 exams in the last week. My economics paper was the most unique. He gave us a newspaper clipping and asked us to derive economic theories from it. Some of us(Indian students) forgot it was an open book test and were literally trying to copy from the text book in a kind of a hidden manner.... It was a ludicrously funny situation. Accounting was a regular exam and tough by normal standards. We are on with the next set of classes. My Marketing prof is a fabulous speaker. He was formerly teaching for University of British Columbia and is Asia's 100 who's who list by Fortune and Barron. Has authored six books and thinks highly of Indians(That might be an exaggeration!). Have started using the library and its of world class standards.

Class election are thru and like the subject of the mail says : Democracy is imperfect. The best candidates don't win, however the popular candidates always take the cake. Good decisions are not always popular; Popular decisions are not aways good. You can pretty much see that I am not too happy with the result. The handsome and well mannered Italian won just because of the 2 stated virtues : handsome and well mannered. Guys with more experience and credibility lost by a huge margin. I am happy to note 1 Indian won but for an irrelevant position.The whole process was not too cut throat and was well conducted. Importantly it did not divide the class in factions. That probably is a testimony of the maturity of the MBA's.

Cash is king

Have been playing some football off late and have found India's third world status most highlighted.Obviously the Europeans, Americans and Chinese were more fit and agile, wore better shoes and sports gears and could often go for the costly energizer drinks from the vending machines. On the other hand Indians (I am one of them) wore a jeans and regular shoes, most unfit and sluggish chasing the ball and would only go for free water as a substitute for drinks. While I was running around the field in vain, I was quiet conscious of this third world status. The whole class understands that Indians are the most price sensitive guys and are often sympathetic about it. While we all can gloat about a growing economy we are still very far away from a superior lifestyle and inferior physique. This probably explains why we cant imagine winning an olympic medal but shine better in a slower team game like Cricket. While I am making an audacious claim I have found this to be true on an average. As a race - Indians still have a long way to go and yes Cash is the redoubtable King.

Part time work

I have probably found a part time work as a case writer for Asia Case Research Center (ACRC). All universities these days adopt a case based approach to take classes. ACRC researches on specific issues and writes cases. It then sells to other universities ( IIT Delhi and ISB is one of them). I wrote a sample article on outsourcing and had an interview with the ACRC Manager. If all goes well ( and that's a long way to go) I will be paid 1 Lakh INR if I write a case and it gets approved by the Chairman of ACRC. Its also a matter of pride to see your name in a case note. I am told its easier said than done will take at least 3-4 months of intense research. I will keep you posted on the progress


I don't miss home a lot, however I miss seeing the the growth of my niece Srishti, its a great joy to see a child growing and discovering, I deeply miss being part of her growth.

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