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Links of the month >> July 2011

Kinnar Shah — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:31:19 +0000

Howdy Folks!

Seeing the silky cobwebs on my blog, it’s time for some quick links!

Serious Stuff:

US Debt in physical $100 bills. An amazing visualization. It is possible that you will freak out on seeing this… especially if you are a US resident.

Read at: http://usdebt.kleptocracy.us/

Interesting Stuff:

The latest Idea 3G advert that is grabbing eyeballs through its tongue in cheek humour!

LOL Stuff:

An ode to nice guys!
Excerpt:
“This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.”

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60 Tips for a Stunning Life (by Robin Sharma)

Kinnar Shah — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:57:00 +0000

1. Exercise daily.

2. Get serious about gratitude.

3. See your work as a craft.

4. Expect the best and prepare for the worst.

5. Keep a journal.

6. Read “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”.

7. Plan a schedule for your week.

8. Know the 5 highest priorities of your life.

9. Say no to distractions.

10. Drink a lot of water.

11. Improve your work every single day.

12. Get a mentor.

13. Hire a coach.

14. Get up at 5 am each day.

15. Eat less food.

16. Find more heroes.

17. Be a hero to someone.

18. Smile at strangers.

19. Be the most ethical person you know.

20. Don’t settle for anything less than excellence.

21. Savor life’s simplest pleasures.

22. Save 10% of your income each month.

23. Spend time at art galleries.

24. Walk in the woods.

25. Write thank you letters to those who’ve helped you.

26. Forgive those who’ve wronged you.

27. Remember that leadership is about influence and impact, not title and accolades.

28. Create unforgettable moments with those you love.

29. Have 5 great friends.

30. Become stunningly polite.

31. Unplug your TV.

32. Sell your TV.

33. Read daily.

34. Avoid the news.

35. Be content with what you have.

36. Pursue your dreams.

37. Be authentic.

38. Be passionate.

39. Say sorry when you know you should.

40. Never miss a moment to celebrate another.

41. Have a vision for your life.

42. Know your strengths.

43. Focus your mind on the good versus the lack.

44. Be patient.

45. Don’t give up.

46. Clean up your messes.

47. Use impeccable words.

48. Travel more.

49. Read “As You Think”.

50. Honor your parents.

51. Tip taxi drivers well.

52. Be a great teammate.

53. Give no energy to critics.

54. Spend time in the mountains.

55. Know your top 5 values.

56. Shift from being busy to achieving results.

57. Innovate and iterate.

58. Speak less. Listen more.

59. Be the best person you know.

60. Make your life matter.

Jobs v/s Gates | The other side of the coin

Kinnar Shah — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:49:22 +0000

While the world bashes Bill G for being a ruthless capitalist and praises Steve Jobs as the ultimate believer and selfless innovator, it is equally interesting to see the other side of the story. Few business people have given as much to social initiatives in terms of money and voice as Bill Gates. Read the whole story at wired.

SPJIMR Interview Experience

Kinnar Shah — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:30:46 +0000

Fact File

SPJIMR:

Top 10 MBA Institute in India, good ROI with ~6.3L fees and average package of 10L+, Posh location in Mumbai

Me:

Applied for Marketing Specialization, CAT 96.6%ile, XII 91%, X 90%

Good extra currics, High involvement in social sector with a project spread across more than 25 cities

Zero formal work ex

The day before

A day to relax and focus on the day to come. Confidence level was good as there were just me, my past and my brain that would eventually matter.

Got things ready for the next day (read: portfoio etc) and hung out in Mumbai in the evening. Had fun with friends and met new people.

The D-Day

Reached SPJIMR a good hour early. Went to see my dad’s college(Sardar Patel College of Engg.) located just across the building. Came back at 10:15.

Interviewees were told to assemble in a classroom where we registered and were told to fill up a psychometric test (more on this later).

I got alloted batch 10D for the GI.

Batch Break up:

4x Marketing (includes me)

2x Finance

1x IT Management

Work Ex: 4

No Work Ex: 3

Males: 2

Females: 5 (gender inequality at its peak!!!)

3 from Ahmedabad (Strange coincidence)

The wait for the interview ensues.

Encounter # 1

Room NCR VI. A panel of 4 interviewers(2 Males, 2 Females) welcomed us. I have to say… the panel was very congenial and had us opened up in no time at all.

And the encounter starts.

Question # 1: Tell us something about yourself in 2 minutes.

Was easy to answer. Some people had quite clearly ratto-fied the answers and went on for much more than 2 mins (3-4 mins) ( ). Came to know the the group was more diverse than I assumed. Looked like it would be fun.

Spoke random stuff about myself for some 1 min 15 seconds.

Question # 2: As the gender ratio was oh-so-skewed, they asked us to discuss the Women Reservation Bill.

It was an amazing discussion with equal points being made for and against.

I was primarily against the situation of women being the front face while decisions ould be made by husband/father/party, etc.

Also, I emphasized the fact that if a woman is capable, she will rise in the political domain just like Sonia Gandhi and Pratibha Patil. You dont need reservation for this.

Also, I demarked the line between the need for academic reservation and political reservation.

Question # 3: Why an MBA and why in Marketing?? in 30 Seconds.

I explained my past work in event management and social sector and correlated it with my future goals with some flashy description like : “I will do a rewind and a Fast forward”

It went good and the look on the face of the panel was that of satisfaction.

Question # 4: If you had to select a person other than you for the position, whom would you select? in 15 seconds

I selected a very confident girl by the name of Sukita as she had very precise understanding of her future goals and had her path chalked out very well.

Suprise factors:

No tech questions

No Marketing related questions

Nothing from the profile sheet

No explanations of any kind asked

Encounter # 1 : The Killing

The results were declared after a few minutes. 3 of us had progressed to round # 2. Surprise Surprise… I was one of the selected people.

I was the only person without work ex to make it to the second round here.

And yeah Ms. Sukita was not.

A time for cheers, all-the-bests and bye-byes.

The Psycho-metric test

We all had to fill up a psychometric test for the second stage.

It contained 30 personality traits divided in 3 sections. The answers had to be graded as:

a)Strongly agree b) mildly agree c) mildly disagree d) strongly disagree

Also we had to select 2 important traits from each section and justify why we selected them.

Answering the test was total fun. \m/

Encounter # 2

The second GI for the lucky people consisted a discussion based on the psychometric test which we had just given. We were a batch of 6 people again from diverse backgrounds and specializations

Batch break up:

2x Marketing (includes me)

2x Finance

1x IT Management

1x Operations Management

Work Ex: 5

No Work Ex: 1 (poor me.. alone here)

Males: 5

Females: 1 (gender inequality at its peak… but in the opposite way!!!)

It was a pretty chilled out discussion in the beginning with the panel of 2 interviewers taking a trait and asking you to justify the response you have given.

All were pretty good in justifying their personality.

Things heated up a bit when they asked for a direct discussion between me and another guy with totally oppsite beliefs.

He believed that fate guides our lives. I believed that we guide out fate.

It was a heavy discussion which I rounded off by saying: “Good fate is an opportunity for which we were prepared. Bad fate is an opportunity for which we were not”

(Coincidentally, this is the gist of a book of Deepak Chopra, a fact that the panel told me)

Then I was asked if I would marry a girl of my parent’s chocie or my own.

I made the atmosphere a bit light by saying that both can be true if I find the right girl. On a serious note, I said I ould go for marrying a girl of my choice.

The next question: “Will your family approve??”. Me: “A: My family is very open in this respect. B: If the girl is good, my family has no reason not to approve.”

Another question asked was if I usually know whom to approach when I have a problem.

I answered in assertive and explained that once you get into any system, you get to know the machinery in a short time and then you do know whom to approach for what.

I also put in parameters like urgency of the situation, structure of the organization(amorphous or crystalline), attitude up the heirarchy, comfort zone, etc as things which influence my choice on the person to approach.

Also to make the most of the opportunity I put in the point that I dont have formal work ex. So things might be different in the corporate world.

I could not help but notice that the panel was happy.

The End

The amazing experience ended with an informal discussion mbetween us, the members of the second batch outside the room.

I got positive reviews for my performance and people found it hard to believe that I don’t have work ex.( something to be happy about )

We filled up another sheet which solicited feedback on the Psychometric test (shows how important they consider it to be).

So, like all exciting things, the interview process ended with us in anticipation of the results.

Lets hope all turns out to be super duper good…

Robotics Studio 2008 Workshop @ Teqnix

Kinnar Shah — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:59:07 +0000

Today, I had a very interesting session on Robotics studio 2008 at the annual techfest of LDCE, Teqnix 2010.

You, the diverse crowd coupled with enthusiasm made it an amazing experience.

Also embedded below is the presentation itself (as i promised… )

I am starting this thread specially for your feedback, queries, love, hate (!) or to share anything you have in your mind.

Feel free to freely comment

5 Phases of Caffeine Intake | For Every One of Us Coffee Addicts

Kinnar Shah — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:39:46 +0000

[Via: TheOatmeal.com]

Windows 7 Hidden Stuff | God Mode

Kinnar Shah — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:09:35 +0000

Well, everyone of us has heard about the “God Mode” in games which we use to cheat and win when we cant win in any other way. But ever though of a God Mode in an operating system??

Windows 7 comes with a well hidden mechanism that lets you access the God Mode. Follow the steps:

a) Open any Folder and create a new folder in it. Rename the folder to:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

b) Now your God Mode folder is ready. Just enter it to see the amazing stuff. Handy shortcuts for almost every stuff you may need to do as an admin.!

My system shows that it contains 283 items!!

Well this is what I call “Kick Ass!!” !

The New Year Beckons…

Kinnar Shah — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:23:09 +0000

I want you to Close your eyes and rewind your memory by 10 years and see…

What do you see?

The hype over the dawn of the new millenium…

The hoopla over Y2K…

The crashing Twin towers…

The wild Stock market…

The Mumbai Bomb blasts…

Riots in Gujarat…

Your amazing board result and the smile on your parent’s face…

The amazing time you spent with your loved ones…

Meeting someone special…

That crush… That heartbreak…

That frustrated day when you wanted to break everything in sight… x-(

That happy day when you wanted to hug everyone in sight… \m/

A decade gone by… as colorful as the rainbow… naah… the rainbow aint colorful enough..!!

With these thoughts in mind… with a smile on d face and a song in the heart…

Lets welcome the new year… the new decade… The time when most of us would be trodding the path of responsibility the first time… transitioning to a new life…!

Wish You A Very Happy, Successful and Prosperous New Year!!!

Yuva MSP

Kinnar Shah — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:25:05 +0000

[Please use the Fullscreen button. The player also lets you download the presentation.]

What is Yuva MSP???

Starting to make a change:

Its just a question of 2 hours a week…

Its these 2 hours that can shape the nation and empower people.

Do you have it in you???

Just fill up your contact at : www.tinyurl.com/yuvamsptracker and get started!!!

———————————————————————————————–

Combined Presentation you can share with fellow MSPs:

IIMs say no to Paper Pencil CAT retest | Aggrieved candidates to be rescheduled mid-January

Kinnar Shah — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:06:52 +0000

News update after the IIM meeting on Wednesday 16th Dec. :

Source: Times Of India

NEW DELHI: Despite a demand by HRD secretary Vibha Puri Das to IIM directors to explain the causes of disruption of online CAT and steps taken to remove the problems, IIMs have decided to go ahead with the online test

“IIMs have decided to continue with computer-based test for 2009. We also look forward to continue CAT through computer-based testing in future,” Samir Barua, director, IIM-Ahmedabad, said.

Claiming that 96% of students took online CAT successfully, IIMs have decided to organise another online test in mid-January 2010 for nearly 8,000 students who could not take the test due to technical failure. However, Satish Deodhar, convenor, CAT, said a process will be put in place to identify students who can take the test again. But he said the `process’ was not identified yet.

After the meeting with Das, IIM directors — Barua of Ahmedabad and Pankaj Chandra of Bangalore — played down technical problems and refused to find fault with Prometric, the firm that conducted CAT. They even denied that a section of IIM faculty wanted paper-pencil test after the failure. Barua only said, “The focus of IIMs is to complete the test in a fair manner. But the entire test will be reviewed to ensure that such problems do not occur in future.”

Giving a detailed analysis of eight-day online test that ran from November 27 to December 8, Deodhar said, “It is indeed our regret that a number of candidates faced difficulties during this test window and the execution of the exam has not been flawless.” About 24,000 students — a percentage similar to in previous years — did not show up for the test at the first instance, he said. Another 2,000 candidates, who were rescheduled from the first testing window, remain to be tested, Deodhar said.

There was divergence of views within the IIMs whether to scrap the computer-based system for this year. Prometric presented detailed data to the IIM directors on Sunday, explaining the nature of problems faced by students. “After analysing the fresh data, we now know the nature and extent of the problem. We are convinced the test has been done in a fair manner,” Baruah said. Based on data, feedback from students, site and audit reports, the CAT committee said the problems faced by students included complaints of premature exit through the Exit/End button, slowness of computers while reviewing and refreshing questions, rebooting of computers and disruptions, missing graphics and data.

Deodhar said, “About 500 students faced the situation of premature exit through use of exit/end button.” On allegations that questions were repeated, he said IIMs had developed a large number of questions with equal difficulty level.

Baruah said adequate precaution was taken before going ahead with the computerised test. Mock tests were conducted involving 500 dummy students. “But despite all precautions something goes wrong sometimes. CAT 2009 is a typical example of that,” he said. The faculty association of certain IIMs, including IIM-Bangalore, had supported scrapping of the computer-based test in view of the technical problems. But the directors analysed the data, including the log records and video footages. The analysis gave the evidence to go ahead with the testing. Asked whether the academic schedule would be affected as a fresh test would be conducted for the affected students in January, Chandra replied in the negative. “We have target to get our students by June or July. We will be able to do that,” he said.