Gateway Pundit: Deadly Market Blasts in India!

And India is debating cricket!

From Earthquake to Bomb Blasts

I was on train this Saturday, moving from New Delhi to South of the country. Due to cell phones these days we get to know news even on the move. And what terrible news it was. The news of blasts in New Delhi in places full of shoppers preparing for Diwali, the festival of lights, left me aghast. And the other news was about a full train getting washed away in water. It turned out to be a very ‘manhoos’ (dreary) Saturday.

It pains me so much so see these random acts of killings, all over the world, metro in Spain, metro and buses in the UK, and with so much frequency in various parts of India. It gives me a feeling that all of us are sitting ducks.

Today, I started reading news and usually I never agree with The Times of India, but today I found myself nodding in agreement with its editorial.

“We can either dismiss what happened in Delhi on Saturday as just another in a long line of terror attacks on Indian soil, and pray that there’s at least a decent interval before we are hit again. Or, we can send out a hard-hitting, unambiguous message: that we are not willing to accept such outrages as part of our fate, and are determined to do whatever it takes to protect our citizens. This is no occasion to be genteel and ‘civilised’ in our response. It’s time we got angry. Not a blind anger that lashes out at everything in its path—for that would play into the hands of the very people who perpetrate such acts of terror, and be self-defeating. But an anger that builds resolve, that ensures we do not forget the mothers, fathers and children who went shopping for Diwali and Id and whose pictures poured into newspaper offices a few hours later, except that they were disfigured and charred beyond recognition.”

The whole editorial can be read from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1280277,curpg-1.cms

I was also reading BBC and as usual they have the pictures of their devastation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/south_asia_delhi_grieves/html/1.stm

I was also reading their talking point

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4388352.stm

And of course I can identify with the relief expressed there by various people (after all, many of my family members are in Delhi and safe), I also have a foreboding that if we do not do something next time it could be anyone else, you, me anyone. I cannot even imagine the grief of the families.

For perspective, I again quote The Times of India

“NEW DELHI: The figure is startling. Since 1994, over 50,000 have died in terrorist-related violence in India. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 23,955 terrorists, 19,662 civilians and 7,320 security force personnel have been killed in such incidents between 1994 and June, 2005.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1280322.cms

It is time we woke up to the reality, even if it may have escaped by many of us personally.

While Sitting in Our Cozy Rooms, Let us not Forget the Earthquake Victims

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October 8, 2005 was a Saturday. I tend to wake up late on Saturdays. On this particular day, I suddenly felt as if my bed was shaking (and it is a solid wood structure). My first thought was that my naughty nephew is doing something and wants me to get out of bed. However, on looking around I could see him nowhere. I decided to turn and go to sleep. Again, I felt the bed shaking and this time my foggy brain told me to get out and run down where everyone else was. I told them I felt the bed shaking, my husband said he thought the chair was shaking and my nephew too had felt it. I decided to switch on the television. Sure enough there was a quake but the News channels at that moment were grappling with the issue of where the epicenter was?

We all know about the devastation that followed. Dr. Irfan Noor is one of the volunteers working in Pakistan’s affected areas and here is what he has to say:

So many hospitals and health facilities were damaged, and yet people still need the same basic day-to-day health care they needed before the earthquake.

We have lost track of these patients; people with heart disease, diabetes, and chronic illnesses. We also want full and proper care for pregnant women.

The full story can be read at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4347374.stm

Nature’s disasters strike at random and bring forth untold miseries. And the least we can do is to donate some money. There are others who are actively working with the victims. Even if all of us cannot do so, we can at least donate some money, it is the easiest thing to do.

I am putting down a list of charities that I have taken from www.desipundit.com

CARE
Oxfam
UNICEF
World Vision
Humanity First
Hidaya Foundation
SEWA International
International Rescue Committee
Pakistan President’s Relief Fund
The Human Development Foundation
The Association for the Development of Pakistan ’s Earthquake Redevelopment Fund

Of course, this list is short but please donates anywhere you feel like. There are people who need our support and the money donated could be as small as what we spend on a pizza! Still, if a lot of people do so, we will be able to make a difference.

If you wish, please join this call in support of the recent earthquake victims. You can find the details here

http://www.desipundit.com/2005/10/22/blog-quake-day/#more-1431

My First Trek: Sar Pass (Himanchal Pradesh)

My husband and I took a trek in the Indian Himalayas from May 17 to May 27, 2003. I still dream about it, it was so incredibly beautiful. As I am writing this, I can see this one is going to be really long! Have patience with me.

My husband has trekked before but this was the first trek for me. He didn't want to scare me off by taking on a very difficult one. Searching for options we stumbled upon YHAI (Youth Hostel Association of India). They offer choice of three locations in the Himalayas for trekking in summer and have various other programs. Their website is:

http://www.yhaindia.org/default.aspx

The trek starts at a base camp in Kasol, in the state of Himanchal Pradesh (HP). Kasol can be reached from India's capital New Delhi both by bus and train. By train one has to go to Chandigarh and then take a bus to Manali (a famous hill station) and get down at Bhuntar. From Bhuntar all the buses going to Manikaran pass via Kasol. Manikaran is famous for its hot water springs. Else, one can straight away take a bus from Delhi to Manali, get down at Bhuntar and follow the route.

After coming from the plains in the Indian summer where temperatures sore to 40 degree centigrade or more, I was greeted a view of tents pitched on a small flat piece of land, next to which river Parvati was flowing and facing it were snow capped peaks (Pin Parvati) looming high in a distance. And this was just the base camp. It was so soothing for our frayed nerves of metropolitan life. Whenever I was out of my tent (which was for most of the time) I would just keep looking at those peeks. On the day of reporting there are no activities scheduled though we were a day late for reporting but were accommodated in our original group.

The second day at base camp was spent in morning exercises followed by an acclimatization walk and a briefing in the evening about our route and expected behavior of us. Believe me, it is required as people seem so prone to leaving all kind of litter behind. The second is devoted to morning exercises and some rock climbing but this is not really required during the trek so they are pretty lenient about it. Third day and you are off to the actual stuff.

Before I start describing the trek, I will put in a quick word about YHAI and their organization of the trek. The whole show is run on a ‘not for profit’ basis and by volunteers, who themselves are experienced trekkers. They are called camp leaders. They are stationed at every stop, often two to three people along with the cooking staff. So at every stop we are greeted by ready tent and food for us. There cannot be any greater luxury than this after a day spent walking through the thick. There are camp leaders who have been coming every year since 1978! In the month of May every day batches leave in group of 50 and keep walking between these campsites. Such a crowd is managed every day in camps efficiently. I have a few peeves with YHAI but they are really minor and I will touch on them at the end.

An Old Lady in Village Grahan

A Waterfall on the Way to Grahan

Scene from Padari Base Camp

Crossing a Stream

The groups that trek with YHAI contain people who are novice and not really fit, to really good trekkers. It has been designed such that a person who does nothing much their day apart from normal school/office going activities and occasional walking, too can complete it. The food they serve is Indian vegetarian and they do not allow you to smoke and consume alcohol while on trek (people do it at higher altitudes, but if you are caught, you might be sent back). Every night there is a campfire if the weather permits it but no burning of wood.

So coming back to the actual stuff, on the third day we started at 8.30 in the morning from our base camp for our first stop from base camp Kasol was to Grahan.

Kasol to Grahan: When we started, we were asked to leave in a single file with all the girls in front (we were 12 in number) and we used to hate this arrangement, the view is blocked by row of rucksacks and for heaven's sake I wanted to walk with my husband. Well, after walking for 200 meters all of us would go to wherever we wanted and fall in our own groups. The route was around 9 km. and we had to reach our destination by 4.00 in the evening.

Grahan is actually a small village and the last populated place on the trek. The way is through lush green forest and we were walking upstream on a river, waterfalls could also be spotted along the way. The route was fairly easy and we had a nice time going close to the river wherever it offered a patch safe enough. At midday we had lunch in a group of around ten near the river. Imagine the joy of drinking cool water straight from it! However, we were in for a surprise as the last two kilometers were steep uphill. Being moderately fit, I had no problem in completing it. Upon arrival we were greeted by the camp leaders and were offered tea, snacks and a little later soup. The idea is to force us to drink plenty of water. It was still daylight when we had dinner. At sundown it was time for campfire and then bed. All the twelve girls were in one tent and my husband in another, but then we were on a trek and not a honeymoon, so I didn't mind. Next day after breakfast we were off to Padri.

Grahan to Padri: This was the easiest day we had in the entire trek. The route was again scenic, through forest, dotted with purple Iris and giving a better view of the snowcapped peaks that were visible through our base camp. In Padri there is grassland where locals graze their animals. We kept meeting them on the way. Our tents were also pitched in the same grassland. From here on, call of the nature has to be answered in the open. The view around this grassland was smashing. In the distance was Pin Parvati again looming high and covered in snow in patches. Watching sun set on it was an amazing experience. There were flat rocks throughout the ground and sitting on one, I was having my dinner with my husband watching the sunset. We were wondering what a resort would charge for a view like this! Then I guess for such views we have to take some trouble and go near them.

By this time all of us were settled in our own groups. My husband and I would keep together for most of the time but we would often walk between this group from Bhopal (a city in MP state) and another one from Gujrat and would join them whenever we wanted or they cared for. By the end of the trek we were exchanging addresses. Again after sundown it was time for bed and early off to next day to Ratapani. Till Padri we were following arrow marks and walking on our own.

Snow Snow Everywhere

Sliding Down at Sar Pass

Footprints on Snow

Walking Fron Nagaru to Biskeri Via Sar Pass

Padri to Ratapani: From here on, the way is uphill and the distance traveled roughly 10 kilometers everyday. The route becomes increasingly beautiful as we are gaining height. The flora has started changing again and there are flowers of different kind now. We are almost at the snowline. It has also started raining. We were enjoying ourselves at a stream when rain hit us hard for the first time. All of us went into our rain sheets but still it is uncomfortable. Fortunately the rain did not last long. From Padri up to this point of stream we had a guide with us (a local villager) as the forest was dense.

The local people set up small tea stalls along all the camps, and we were eagerly looking forward to this one. After hot cups of tea, we started again to our destination. The way was again uphill till the end but it was manageable. The view from the camp side was breathtaking. Tents were pitched in a flat piece of land. Next to it were rocks of medium size and beyond it stretched completely snow covered peaks of Himalayas. We were told that they look magnificent when the sun rises from behind, and I agree as I saw them in the morning.

It rained heavily in the evening but a few of us were in the tea stall tent next to our camp and we enjoyed the rain and the view for quite some time. We had to eat inside the tent as it was still raining till dinner time and we could see the snow falling in the distance. After sometime the rain stopped and we were out again till we felt like sleeping. The next day we were off to Nagaru, the most famous and feared campsite.

Ratapani to Nagaru: Ngaru is the gateway to Sar Pass. Nagaru is where wind speed is so high that at times it has blown off the tents (we were told this by none other than the Camp director at the base). Nagaru is where there is snow everywhere. We started from Ratapani around 9.00 am. The way is completely uphill. We had lunch at a particularly beautiful spot. What I remember most is watching an eagle circle below us is huge graceful sweep for quite sometime. I am used to looking up at them from the ground and not sitting above them! It was incredible. It was also along this route that we saw snow close at hand for the first time in this trek and for me in life! It was a dirty brown patch of old snow but still I went off route to touch it and stand by it for some time. It rained on this day too but not heavily. However, there were patches of snow that were melting and it caused some problem to get over it. As I turned one last bent for Nagaru, it was just white everywhere. We were finally in snow. I was jumping all over, but not literally, as it was so slippery. A few of our group members guided me through.

The view from the campsite cannot be described in words. I was told by someone “ma'am look that way, you are in heaven.” I had to agree with that young chap. The campsite is small, one way leads back to Ratapani, other to Saar pass. The rest were steep falls and miles and miles of snow and high peaks. Though initially the weather was full of mist it cleared eventually. Along the tents was freshly fallen snow. In middle a rock that is considered holy by the locals. All of us were fooling around in the snow and trying to learn how to walk on it without falling. The temperature was freezing. After the usual tea and soup, we were told to hurry up or it might start snowing again. The serving staff added maybe for ten hours. I replied that “it may, but why are you scaring us off?” He smiled and said “no, I can't see you scared.” Well I was not.

Frozen Sar Pass

Biskeri

Another View from Biskeri

In this camp we are packed off to bed at 7.30 in the evening as we have to get up at 3.00 in the morning and try to leave as early as we can, so that we can cross the pass before snow starts melting. So by 4.30 we were off and we had two guides with us, taking us every inch of the way.

Nagaru via Sar Pass to Biskeri: The initial part of the trek was smooth. The most stupid thing I did on this trek was not to wear a proper trekking shoe but a jogger. It was payback time.

The incredible thing is that a person puts a tea stall even in this region! He treks with us and goes back after a point. A stray dog came with us all the way from base camp to base camp!

After this tea stall I found that my grip was not so sure and at two spots, one of the guides literally held my hand and see me through, leaving a huge dent in my ego. I blamed my husband heavily for not advising me properly for the trekking shoes as he had walked on snow before and knew what it would be like. But what made me forget all this was the slides.

By this time we were walking in snow and all over were high peaks of snow and more snow. There was a very light snowfall along the way. Peaks of other famous mountains like Deo Tibba are visible from here. The highest point we touched was 14,000 feet. The climb at certain point in this route is such that we have to sit and slide down on the fall, it is impossible to walk on the other side of it. Sitting on snow and sliding through is to be experienced and not described. There were three such slides and the last one puts us on the way to the other camp Biskeri. It was the sliding that made me forget my miserable shoes and slipping on snow.

After this third slide we are on our own again and out of snow. The peaks are around but we are not walking on it. At the end of this slide is canteen too, where we hogged on Maggi (noodles) and omelet before starting again.

Biskeri is called the royal campsite of the Sar Pass trek. The small flat land of campsite is surrounded by snow covered peaks in a distance. The stream that we used for drinking purposes and cleaning had small flowers all around it, yellow and red. The setting sun would give glowing colors to the peaks. After dinner I lingered for a long time outside before going to bed.

Biskeri to Bandaktach: This was our last campsite. The route was downhill and we took it easy. The snow capped peaks were still with us. This campsite again is very beautiful with tents pitched in a small grass land and snow covered peaks all around. It rained for sometime but when it cleared it was beautiful. Late in the night there was a faint moon glowing and stars lit the sky. Next day we were off to our base camp again and back to roads and civilization. The funny thing is that river Parvati was still flowing as majestically and the Pin Parvati peaks were still there at the base camp but it was not enough. I had seen so much more, that I will surely return for another trek in the Himalayas, but in some other region as there is so much to see.

Before I wind off this one peeve that I have with YHAI, due to some reason I did not find them friendly to couples and by that I mean even married couples. Girls were always asked to walk in the front and men at the back. It was OK as we would walk as we please as soon as we were out of the campsite but I wonder why this was required. Anyway the magical pathway we took and the care YHAI took about our food, sleeping bags and tents (of course we would clean up the tent before leaving but that was the minimum expected of us), was an excellent introduction

Organizational Efficiency vs. Power: An Email Interview with Professor Charles Perrow

Charles Perrow is Professor Emeritus in Department of Sociology at Yale University. In his book, ‘Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism’ (Princeton University Press, 2002) Professor Perrow uses historical evidence (1800-1910) to address the debate on why organizations became large and hierarchal. In this quest, he traces the conditions prevailing at the time when organizations started to grow in size. Most of the attention is focused on development of the railroads, the first truly large organization in the USA. In the book, the more accepted factors for growth in organizational size like technological advances and efficiency are provocatively contrasted with factors like a weak federal state in the country, a compliant judiciary to the wishes of growing business corporations, corruption and power, factors for which extensive data exists yet rarely discussed in the mainstream management literature.

The book is an important landmark for everyone interested in developing a more robust understanding of the organizational landscape surrounding us, irrespective of the side of the debate one currently is. In this email interview, Professor Charles Perrow was kind enough to discusses his work with me.

Mridula: Why do you consider large economic organizations troublesome?

Charles Perrow: I consider all large organizations troublesome, including governmental and nonprofit organizations. They concentrate power in the hands of their top management; the larger the organization, the greater the power being concentrated. There are degrees of concentration of course, and some large organizations are so disorganized that they lose much of their potential power. But size is generally correlated with these kinds of power: By deciding where to locate they determine economic opportunities for some communities and deny it to others. Their hiring decisions affect the life chances of people, and can, unless checked, favor religious, ethnic, racial, and political affiliations. As consumers of resources, they can favor certain producers over others, and not necessarily on the grounds of "efficiency." They can mobilize political resources to insure favored treatment better than small organizations.
And finally, large organizations become societies in themselves, absorbing the social functions that otherwise would reside in the family, neighborhood, and local community. These social functions are then provided on organizational terms, serving the interests of the organizations. Health care and many other social goods become conditions of employment, rather than conditions of citizenship. Here are some absorption examples:
· personal interaction opportunities (you spend more of your time with organizational people rather than with people in your family and neighborhood or small independent social groups such as churches, clubs, and local associations)
· social support functions such as health care, day care, psychological services, educational opportunities, even travel agencies and entertainment functions are provided in the workplace. This dries up the opportunities for these services to be provided independent of the employment contract; civil society withers.
· political functions, which are made available on the employer’s terms and shaped by the employer’s political values, supplant those that reside in the community
(I have discussed these in several places. See, for example, (Perrow 1991; Perrow 1996)
Government organizations have at least some democratic check upon these powers; the heads of the government can be replaced. There are no such checks upon private, for profit economic organizations. Nonprofit organizations are not supposed to maximize profits or “shareholder values” (distributed profits), so they are less fearsome. However, in the U.S. nonprofit organizations are increasingly maximizing the wealth and political power of their top managements, and behaving more and more like for profit corporations, and enjoying large tax breaks. Corporations have the least check upon accumulating power and using it for private interests and gains. This began in the 19th Century, and most strikingly, in the U.S., as recounted in Organizing America. (Perrow 2002)
The vaunted “efficiency” of large organizations is not due to production efficiencies, which rarely require more than 1000 employees, but to market control, monopsony, and monopoly and oligarchy. Large organizations bundle together a variety of functions that could be outsourced to smaller, competitive organizations, such as R&D, accounting, human services, advertising, purchasing, legal affairs, training, food services, parking, religious facilities, recreational facilities and so on. They only do this to a limited extent now.


Q: According to the conventional wisdom, large organizations emerged because of technological advances that made them more efficient; whereas you argue that a weak federal State, compliant judiciary and corruption among other factors led to the rise of the first truly large organization in America, the rail roads. Why do you think the efficiency argument has remained the dominant and unchallenged explanation for such a long time?

A: I don’t have an elaborate answer to this excellent and challenging question. Some quick thoughts are:
The efficiency argument was challenged from the start in the late 19th century when people pointed out that what may be efficient for the owners, producing short run profits, might be inefficient for other parts of society, such as workers, local communities, environmental impacts, the class structure, and so on. This could be called “social efficiency,” a broader concern than economic efficiency.
But industry accumulated power, and this meant that in order to survive under market capitalism and in a society of wage dependent employees, the social efficiencies had to take second place. If this continues, it become accepted as “the way things are,” and the arguments for narrow economic efficiency get more repetitive and embedded in the culture. However, never completely so. We hear strong arguments today in the U.S. that corporate profits erode social efficiencies, so it is challenged.
Aiding the corporations in this case of creating a culture they favored is the rising importance of economic theories, and business schools in universities that utilize them. Corporations have a great deal of power over universities and especially their business schools, so the economists that support a “business culture” that emphasizes narrow efficiency arguments get published more, get ahead more, get consulting fees, and promote this ideology. I have addressed these issues briefly in a short article. (Perrow 1992)

Q: Wage dependency is a fact of life for many of us, yet your book points out that the number of people working for wages was zero percent in 1800 and it stands at around ninety percent today. What do you think have been the consequences?

A: I would say it was about 20 percent in 1800, and about 95 percent today. The consequences are immense. If 95 percent of the gainfully employed work for someone else, for their prestige, power, or economic gain, then these valued goods get centralized in the few that employ the many. In the 19th century it was hard to get people to work in factories owned by corporations; they called it “wage slavery” because they had little say over how they did their work, the kind of work they did, and the returns they received from their work. Once they were crowded into cities they had little opportunity to farm, hunt, or fish as an alternative to survival; they had to be wage dependent or starve. The first employees of the first big business in the U.S. were farmer’s daughters that went to the textile mills, such as in Lowell, MA, but they had to be treated well. They were not wage dependent; they could go back to their farms and survive. When the mills had access to the victims of the Irish potato famine, who were truly wage dependent, the mills cut the wages and allowed the handsome mill towns to degenerate into slums, and their profits increased. Wage dependency in the U.S. has been mitigated quite a bit since the factories of the late 19th Century and first half of the 20th. We have unemployment insurance, laws against unjust dismissal, retirement benefits, and freedom to move from job to job (blacklisting prevented this in the 19th century), and, for about 30 years only, strong unions. But we are still a society of wage dependent employees. Over half of the gainfully employed are employed in organizations of over 500 people.

Q: Organizing America covers the origins of corporate capitalism from 1800-1910. Can you give us a glimpse of the future covering the subsequent decades?

A: Once in place, corporate capitalism became the model for the rest of the world. The success of the U.S. was not due to it, but to the abundant land, labor supply, natural wealth, protective oceans, fewer wars, and so on. No other nation had these advantages. Almost any form of economic organization that might have developed would have succeeded under these circumstances, and if the form involved large, privately owned organizations, they would amass the power I spoke of initially, and out perform Europe. (The strong states of Europe insured that private centers of wealth would not arise, and when democratic governments came along, this meant a check upon the one powerful organization, the state. So government is stronger in Europe and private organizations are smaller and weaker than in the U.S.) With this hegemony, the absorption of society by large organizations continued in the U.S. throughout the 20th century. Their power was always challenged to some degree, but it is greater today in general (not in particulars; Standard Oil and the railroads at the end of the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th were more powerful than organizations today), and I expect it to continue to grow. Wealth centralization and political power have created our culture, and cultures are hard and slow to change. The extreme rise in our wealth centralization in the last 30 years is very disturbing, and more disturbing is its spread to other industrialized nations, who, in order to compete with us, are increasingly focusing upon narrow economic efficiency.
The rise of China is the most disturbing of all, since it is unlikely that in the next half-century it will become much of a democracy, and will outdo the U.S. in wage dependency, pollution and the destruction of natural resources. Today, 20 percent of the world’s countries command 80 percent of its income. In 50 years it is not too far fetched to predict that China will be one of the 15 percent who command 85 percent of the income. Privatization, corporations, and a market economy will do the trick.

Bibliography

Perrow, Charles. 1991. "A Society of Organizations." Theory and Society. 20 725-762.
—. 1992. "Organizational theorists in a society of organizations." International Sociology. 7.
—. 1996. "The Bounded Career and the Demise of Civil Society." Pp. 297 - 313 in Boundaryless Careers: Work, Mobility, and Learning in the New Organizational Era, edited by Michael B. Arthur and Denise M. Rousseau. New York: Oxford University Press.
—. 2002. Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

A Rough Count: Why So Many People Are with Desipundit in spite of some Favorable (past) Coverage in the Main Media for IIPM?

When you go to Desipundit’s page (http://www.desipundit.com/2005/10/08/lies-damned-lies-and-fake-blogs/#more-1218) on IIPM you get a huge block of names that have responded to the call made by them in support of Rashmi and Gaurav. Ever wondered how many people that block is worth? I counted them by pasting them in a word document. I took multiple posts by the same author (say Harini 1, 2, 3,) as one and I did not count the people listed in the updates (so accuse me of undercounting, and not over counting).

The total number of people if we start from Harini and end with ~J~ are 247 and that is by erring on the side of caution. You interpret the numbers for yourself.

To me, this raises a bigger question. Why do so many people choose to believe a small magazine claims rather than big established magazines and newspapers? After all, do a Google News search and apart from the topmost link that is recent and talks about this present controversy (which has been forced on mainstream media), rest 9 (of which I am quoting just 2) are from established sources and they talk about things as these:

Row over IIPM blogs
http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&slug=Row+over+IIPM+blogs&id=79968

IIPM completes 10 years
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=131152&cat=Business

IIPM sponsors free laptops for all its students
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/company_news/Corporate/5428.html

Still, more than 247 people from different corners of the globe choose to believe otherwise! What is happening?

So much information that is easily available on the net to ordinary citizens like me, yet the main media cannot find it or does not find it report worthy? After all if I can find these documents freely on the net and find them shocking (see this, but it is not about IIPM) why can’t the main media? They have started raising some noises but only after it became such a huge issue in the blogland. Are you and I better at investigating?

After all, what Arzan, Gawker or Sameer or Thalass_Mikra or Transmogrifier could do, why could main media not do it in spite of its vast resources?

Arzan’s post http://www.wadias.in/site/arzan/blog/archives/2005/10/iipm_a_web_of_m.html
Gawker’s post http://curiousgawker.blogspot.com/2005/10/something-fishy-this-way-cometh.html
Sameer’s post http://constructal.blogspot.com/2005/10/web-of-deception.html
Thalass_Mikra's post http://thalassamikra.blogspot.com/2005/10/iipm-indian-politics-and-why.html
Transmogrifier's post http://constructal.blogspot.com/2005/10/web-of-deception.html (look at the comments, they also give amazing insights)

Or is it that they know about it and do not find education sector important or newsworthy? Or is it they love the advertisement money too much and common public be dammed?

My take on why so many people choose to rally with Desipundit is that the word of mouth publicity of many private institutes is already rotten. But unfortunately, it was/is known only in small circles. For example, after my Ph.D. (and it was not from an obscure place, thought the institute is not in a metro) even I went by magazine ratings and joined a place that was/is ranked as No. 1 business school after 1990 by many magazines. After working there, I realized what a joke it was but I paid very dearly with my peace of mind for that period. That is when I stopped believing in these ratings. That is why I am so vehement about the issue.

But my concern is that there still might be people away from the places where word of mouth is bad, who might be taken in my mainstream media reports and I find it a very disturbing trend.

I have already stopped reading those papers that have turned into a tabloid but still; I am deeply disturbed by this trend of mainstream media. Do they want to be taken seriously?

Question and Answers: The IIPM Issue

Guys, I have seen a lot of comments from so called IIPM people. I bring to you some of them in one place (not the outright abusive ones). A few of you have suffered them in my name (Andy, went on copying and pasting them at many places) and here it goes.

dear mridula, your question is logical and i hope i can give an answer to it; though it might not be the official one. here goes.
your question is, why does iipm advertise full page ads and iims do not. there could be two straightforward reasons to the same as i see them. one is that iipm has seven branches across india compared to other institutes that have only one branch and need to advertise only once.

Well, I said it before; IIMs issue admission notices and not ‘Dare to think beyond IIPMs’ kind of stuff.

since i have been here, i have had almost around 15 ivy league professors who have come to iipm campuses and have taken seminars at iipm.

Are you sure they were seminars? Your ad says they teach courses, which is not one and the same thing.

to quote the case of iit kanpur, you can ask any of the professors of iit kanpur how they jumped up at journalists when their center for enterprise technology (cet), …

Give me a link.

“your first query: "Andrew, the majority of claims made by IIPM adverts come from one source Business Baron. Why?"

if i were to request you to calculate the percentage of space devoted in a typical iipm advertisement to the business barons source (and to the business today source too please), you would realise that the percentage space is less than 1.3% (you won't believe it, i actually calculated it). if you were to say that 1.3% space devoted to a ranking given by business barons is "majority of claims", i should (again "should", kill me) say that your query is misrepresented”

The question was not about advertising space but the number of sources given for the rankings. So how many magazines do you quote apart from Business Baron?

ask any iipm student in delhi and bangalore who andy is and they'll tell you. anyway, your post seems very genuine. you could join iipm if you wish to.

You are a student right? And you realize I am a faculty member somewhere else. Can you please explain the above statement?

All this can be seen in great detail at
http://patrix.typepad.com/nerves/2005/10/prove_it_to_me_.html

"At 2:50 PM, bj said...
Oooh Rashmi. Is it true? Just do a go google on Rashmi Bansal IIM A and you get allegations of fudged graduation certificates and tribade inclinations (Not that I am personally against lesbianism)Is it true? Should I start a blog title "Rashmi Astounds" Would make you feel good?

At 8:51 PM, Mridula said...
BJ, give us the link."

http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/06/amity-astounds.html

BJ you said Google, right? Give us a link or …

IIPM Planning and Research
have been assisting the faculty at IIPM in our journals (4P's - now a succesful magazine in Marketing - India's largest), our HR and FInance journals as well for almost six months now. I will pass out of IIPM this year, and will not stand for this mud slinging in the name of journalism.

Give us a source, which says so about 4P’s.

And you will not stand mudslinging but you will indulge in it, right? This is what you yourself say earlier

"In fact, maybe Outlook editor has a cut from revenue from website? Palety also publishes a book each year called India's best b-schools, with ex-Outlook editor... Telling, eh?"
http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/10/caution-notice-re-iipm-in-outlook.html#comments

If you too have seen a comment that you wish to share, please add it.

Google Vs. Yahoo! Where will You Search?

*Google results are better now, see at the end of the post

IIPM recently took panga with the Indian blogsphere by leaving filthy comments on a few blog posts and by serving legal notice to three bloggers. I could have given you the links but an excellent and extensive coverage of the issue can be found at Desipundit.

http://www.desipundit.com/2005/10/08/lies-damned-lies-and-fake-blogs/#more-1218

But I have already written about the issue and today I want to talk about Google and Yahoo! search. Now, if I have to do a search where will I go? Google, you will say. Till date, I would have agreed with you, but this may change and I may use Yahoo! first from now on. Let me explain, and now, I will slyly take you back to the IIPM issue.

My travel readers (the few that I have) are going to ditch me forever, Bo ho ho hu hu :( But I will take the risk and ask their forgiveness.

I searched IIPM on both Google and Yahoo! almost at the same time today (you know I had to click one ‘search’ in one window first and then go to the next one, hence a fraction of a second delay).

On Google the top ten searches are boring and like what one would expect of a big corporate giant (though their news search now picks up one of the newspaper stories about Bloggers Vs. IIPM now). These are the top ten links on Google (at 11.20 on October 13, 2005, IST)

http://www.iipm.edu/
http://www.iipm.com/
http://www.iipm.ac.in/
http://www.iipmindia.com/
http://www.iipm-mpri.org/iipm/
http://web.idrc.ca/es/ev-70315-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
http://www.iipmchennai.com/
http://www.nikhilkhade.com/iipm/
http://www.cflogic.com/Mgtindia/InstitutesProfiles/IIPMprofile.htm
http://www.domain-b.com/organisation/indian_institute_planning_management/20030702_ranked.htm

You see what I mean, no mention of the huge effort on the part of the blogging community.

Now let us go to Yahoo! and here is what we get for IIPM at the same hour:

http://www.iipm.edu/
http://www.iipmindia.com/
http://www.nikhilkhade.com/#top
http://www.iipmchennai.com/
http://www.jeffooi.com/
www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?p=dict&String=exact&Acronym=IIPM
http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/
http://www.desipundit.com/
http://www.chennai.iipm.edu/

Now you see the difference? Tou aap kaun sa wala search karoge? (Which one are you going to search?)

Me? Yahoo! has definitely got me interested with their idea of mixing blogs and regular sites.

Update I did a Google search just now (October 14, 2005; 12:31 PM) and the results are very different. Here it goes.

http://www.iipm.edu/
http://www.iipm.ac.in/
http://www.iipm.com/
http://www.iipmindia.com/
http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/10/im-disconnecting-my-cable-connection.html
http://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/2005/10/update.html
http://www.iipm-mpri.org/iipm/
http://technorati.com/search/iipm
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-70315-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
http://www.nikhilkhade.com/iipm/

Looks much better now. What say you?

Venice: A Good Experience with the Indian Bureaucracy and a Bad One with a Fellow Indian

Venice has been my dream destination since childhood. But my primary purpose for visitingItaly in the year 2003 was to attend an academic conference in Modena, and not tourism. The trip to Modena was possible because I got sponsorship from the University of Modena, Italy and Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) New Delhi.

During my Ph.D. days I remember (in 2000) I was looking for a grant and one of the professors told us to forget it if I did not know someone high up personally. Those days ICSSR had that kind of an image. But it was my good fortune to meet the then Director General of ICSSR in a conference in New Delhi in 2002. He was giving a talk on the changes implemented in ICSSR. I remembered I asked him during the question-answer session that “Why ICSSR does not have a website (it has one now), when its grant seekers are spread all over the country?” He answered me with patience. I was even then looking for a grant and somehow I approached him after the talk and gathered enough courage to tell him about a paper being accepted and would ICSSR look into it? He said his email is in the handout given to us and I should write to him directly, if need be. I thought it was a typical conference promise and such a senior bureaucrat will not remember my request. But when the time came to apply for the grant, I was so pleasantly surprised that Mr. Bhaskar Chatterji was true to his word. Of course, the conference was good (the best in my area) and I had prior conference and publication records but how many times such things do not carry any weight with the Indian bureaucracy. I would remain eternally grateful to him for handling my application so nicely and they never made me feel like a nobody, seeking a grant.

Flowers in a Window (Modena, Italy)

So, I went to Modena and when I realized Venice was two and a half hours away, I decided to go to Venice (of course, on my own money). But it was to be packed somewhere in my hectic schedule. I arrived in Modena on September 11, 2003 1.30 p.m. Italy time. September 12 was completely devoted to the conference and later in the evening was the conference dinner. September 13, I had my paper presentation and after the lunch the conference was over. On September 14, I was taking a flight back from Bologna at 10.30 a.m.

On September 11, though I was completely jetlagged I decided to visit Venice, so that if I got delayed on 13th due to some reason I would not be going back home without having seen Venice. Now a few of you might think- why not to stay back after the conference instead of this mad rush? Well, my conference organizers (University of Modena) paid my hotel rent. I live in Indiaand earn in Indian rupees and they do not go very far in Euro or dollars.

Venice from a Train Window, Italy

I checked the schedule and took a train to Venice (http://www.trenitalia.com/. The approach toVenice is really beautiful. Suddenly I found that every one in my car was standing up and pulling the windows down (it was non-AC train). That is how the approach to Venice affects people. There was only water as far as I could see and a faint outline of various objects of the city. I was quite awestruck by the view, so much so that I forgot to stand. I could hardly wait to get into the city.

As I got out from the train station and it was raining lightly. Right in front was a fountain and kids were playing near it. Beyond it was a canal, and I started wandering in just any direction that caught my fancy. I started walking on my left and there were a lot of shops selling various glass souvenirs and Venetian masks. The display windows of the mask shops look very curious and eye catching. I had no particular thing in my mind while I started my stroll.

Eye catching Venetian Masks, Italy

There were various boats (water taxies) and gondolas in the canals but I did not try any of those for the simple reason that I knew that gondolas are very expensive and I am very fond of walking. I really liked the atmosphere of the city a lot. I was so tired after my journey from New Delhi to Modena and then to Venice. But the sight of water, houses, churches and bridges large and small cheered me immensely. I went to the famous Rialto Bridge on foot and was barely back in time to catch the train back to Bologna.

On September 13, once again I came back to Venice and this time I rolled the windows down, stood up and watched the sunset as I approached the city. It was raining harder this time (but it stopped after a while) and it was dark as night was falling. I was really hungry and decided to try a colorful restaurant with seating arrangement outside. It was magnificent to sit by the canal and see boats and gondolas moving on the lake.

Then I tried to resume my walk to Rialto but there were very few people and with all those narrow empty roads somehow my courage failed. Instead I took a walk around the areas near the station and Venice looked different at night with all those lights on. I picked a few souvenirs from a shop at the train station.

Gondolas, Venice, Italy

A Quite Place, Canals and Bridges, Venice, Italy

Beautiful Venice, Italy

It was just before 11 p.m. and I decided to proceed to Bologna and spend the time at the airport and it was here that I was in for a shock. When I came to Venice on September 11, there were trains to Bologna from Venice Mestre after 11 p.m. but not on September 13. There are many trains going from Santa Lucia to Mestre. I decided to try my luck there. I reached Mestre around 11 p.m. only to discover that the next available train to Bologna is in the morning at 6.30 a.m. There were many people on the station and just for variety; I decided to spend the night there instead of checking in a hotel.

It was somewhat cold that night at Mestre. I had only a thin woolen sweater, which was pretty adequate for indoors in non-AC surroundings but not for a night at a station. One of the passengers waiting at the station was having a Heineken. After a while he tried to strike a conversation with me. I was not in a mood. He started the conversation in Italian and to put an end to it I said I speak English, which is true.

That was my undoing. He could somehow guess I was from India and so was he. He kept on getting drunk and speaking not very complimentary things loudly in Hindi, which only I could understand. I kept on ignoring him and feeling cold. I took a walk outside and saw many hotels just across the street including a Best Western. I stayed on the station but I would have moved to a hotel if at any point the station were to be deserted. That drunken Indian boarded a train after 2 hours or so. I caught my train at 6.30 in the morning and safely caught my plane back to New Delhi. In the plane, after the lunch I was so fast asleep that when I got up after some 2 hours I could not figure out where I was.

Third Time Lucky (Warning! This is a Long Post)

I walk into the examination hall and the students pay no attention. They keep on shouting on top of their voices. I somehow manage to get heard, and ask for order. They reluctantly lower their voices. I ask them to remove all the reading materials so that I can give them the question and answer sheets. This is a closed book mid semester exam. They remove a few things. Whatever they do not, I throw it in a heap. Five minutes into the exam, I find book pages and other notes with a student and I have to almost physically fight to take it away. The student taunts “Ma’am you know nothing is going to happen to us. What is the point?” Inwardly, I wonder, what the point is but with a brave face I tell him (or on many other occasions it was her) “You cannot do it if I am standing in the class. It does not matter to me, whatever is going to happen later.”

Sounds like a scene from a bad Bollywood movie? Well, this was my first job in a private management institute. No, it was not in a small city or in an obscure college. The place ranks at number 15 or thereafter in many so called reputed magazine surveys in India. It also claims (and so do many others) to be the top most business school established after 1990.

I was just out of my Ph.D. where I saw my instructors teaching for 6 to 8 hours a week and many had a passion for research that I also caught to some extent. Just before joining this job I had given an interview in a European university for postdoctoral fellow position. It did not work out for various reasons, but one main reason was that the country had absurd visa laws for the spouse and we had already spent almost two years apart during my Ph.D. We did not want to prolong this separation.

Hence, I joined the place that was/is ranked around 15th in the country. After a few days of joining the Program Director asked me to submit his check in the bank on campus! Two months down the line the HOD one day wanted some help with Microsoft word. She was facing a tight deadline and I offered to type it for her. From then on I became her typist. I wish they would have included these duties in my offer letter and job description!

The students used to pay a hefty fee, and were actively encouraged to misbehave. They could yell, kick on the doors if they were late and left out. Talking during the lectures was usual and lest of the offenses. I still remember the days when I used to come back and sit on the floor (I love doing this) and stare at the walls. My husband would cook food for both of us (my nephews had not joined us then) almost everyday. In fact, I should say everyday.

The management had the philosophy that ‘the students pay the fees, we give the degree and teachers are decoration pieces.’ If anyone tried to raise the issues, he or she was made to feel incompetent and many heavy weights like Program Director, HOD, etc. would act as if it was that particular individual only who was facing problems. I lasted there one semester and then we moved to a neighboring town as my husband changed his job.

I took a transfer to another of their business schools in the new town. It was better than the first but here I was required to teach 4 different courses in a semester and a total of 16 hours a week. And for the same position my salary somehow got reduced by 4000 rupees and they forgot to mention this fact before I joined them. I lasted two months here. But my students were better than the previous institute here.

My second job was at an engineering college where I used to teach Economics and Management (compulsory papers in even and odd semesters). Most of the students here came through state level engineering exams and were serious about their studies. When I left, they gave me a coffee mug that says ‘world’s greatest teacher.’ I enjoyed teaching them a lot. But I was forced to leave it after a year and a half. Why?

One Good Thing in this Horror Story: The Cup My Stuents Gave When I was Leaving the Engineering College

I used to teach 20 hours a week at this place in a five day week. We had staff room style sitting arrangement with no PC. I asked the management again and again that they hired me after looking at my CV and I have a few publications to my credit. How do they expect me to continue my research work?

They once held a meeting of the so called research committee, where the director (retired IIT Delhi faculty) asked us to do research. I asked them if they are willing to provide me a PC, as after teaching 20 classes a week, I need a PC on my desk rather than running to the common lab where the computers take 20 minutes to boot. They agreed in the meeting probably to save face. But later the so called dean (retired IIT KGP faculty) called me to his office, and told me that a computer costs 40,000 rupees and do I even knew to open and close a computer and asked me to demonstrate ‘how to close a window’ on his 1988 model laptop!

I was so taken aback that I could not even shout at him. After coming out, I locked myself and cried in the washroom and later raised a stink. I shouted at the management and told them I would never ever use a computer given by them. That is how I bought my laptop. But still I had good students here.

Push came to a shove on a particularly tiring day. I must have taken four classes that day and I was supposed to substitute someone at a short notice. I do not know why, maybe because the teacher gave the students a lot of rope, the students gave me hell.

The substitution system was so weird that I had gone to Physics and Chemistry classes too, and basically let students do whatever they wanted (the management understood the problem but still wanted to play this sham), as I do not know any Physics or Chemistry. I again shouted at the management and told them what I thought of taking Physics substitution classes. Things got heated and I threatened to leave. I was meaning it. The management fellow also got heated and said maybe I should. It was the last day of the month and I told him he could keep my salary in lieu of one month notice and I would not come from tomorrow. When he saw that I am serious he backed out and I stayed that day. But my search for a new job had begun.

What I wrote above are just a few samples. There were so many incidents, apart from what I wrote here. I can now understand why some books talk about toxic organizational environments.

Thankfully, though I still teach in a private institute, I teach only 6 hours a week and at this place research is appreciated and there is an atmosphere of academics. How I got this job? That is a story for another day.