Kodambakkam to Mylapore - A Fateful Encounter

It was the December of 1999 in Chennai, India. In my opinion the best time of the year to visit this wonderful city located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. It was Y2K time. Most people I met had either visited US or knew of somebody who was working there already. I for that matter was at that time working for a software company in Chennai.

Dressed in a black trouser and maroon shirt I stood at the bus stop waiting for the bus to take me to work. The commute from my home to work was about 45 minutes. The city bus was operated by the government's Pallavan Transport Corporation (PTC) and was the cheapest and reliable means of public transportation for most chennaites. I had been travelling on the bus ever since I was a kid and had witnessed many interesting incidents. But, today was different. It had repercussions in my life. So I think.

It was around 10:30 AM when I had made my way to the bus stop in front of Meenakshi College at Kodambakkam. The bus came around 10:40 AM and stopped with a screeching halt a few meters away from the stop. I ran and was the first to get in to the bus. As I made my way into the bus I was lucky to find myself a seat. Righh!.....preeeeee...... preeeeee......yelled and whisled the conductor and soon the bus was on its way again. The bus had to make numerous stops before it could reach my destination. A few minutes had passed and by now I had settled nicely and was already thinking about how my day would fold at work. Twenty five minutes into the ride the bus made its stop at Teynampet and there entered an elderly gentleman in his early 60's. From now on I shall refer to this elderly genteman as G.

G came forward and took the vacant window seat next to me. Random thoughts filled my mind as I was enjoying the breeze that December brings to this warm city. The breeze from the window of the bus had put me to sleep many a times and I almost succumbed to it. But not today. That was when G who was seated next to me turned sideways and looked at me. This happened three times in succession. I thought he probably wanted to ask me something. But for some reason I was not willing to let anybody disrupt the string of thoughts that was engaging my mind. But then, all of a sudden G interuppted me by asking as to whether I was an American! It took me by surprise and I found the question very funny. I felt as if G was poking fun at me...huh...what nerve? crazy old man.. so I thought. I did not bother to respond and so ignored him. Oblivious of the fact that I had ignored him, he went on to ask me this time as to whether I was from America. The question I thought was answerable. I responded by saying "NO". Now, I assumed that he was one strange old man indeed. The response from G surprised me. He told me these words "You will be in America in 6 months time". And I said ehhh??? Thinking that I did not hear him G repeated the same words again. This time it was loud enough that every one on the PTC bus must have heard him! I nodded and said politely "OK" with a sarcastic demeanour and smile. He thought that I did not believe him. So he went on to add that he was until a few years ago a sanskrit professor at a college in Mylapore, Chennai. He then spoke about similar predictions that he had made which according to him had come true. By this time my initial inhibitions about G had vanished and my demeanour towards him was of general respect. He then went on to ask me whether I will be able to recogonize him if I ever happen to see him again. Ofcourse! was my reply accompanied by a customary smile. This time it was not sarcastic. A genuine one. Thats when the bus made its stop at Mylapore and G suddenly excused himself to leave and made for the exit. I could manage only a quick "Thank You" before G made his way out of the bus. He smiled in return. And after a few minutes I reached my stop still thinking about the encounter I just had with G.

A few months later...on a bus again. This time travelling from Bellevue to my work in downtown Seattle, USA. It was June of 2000. Exactly six months since I had met G! The commute from home to work took the same 45 minutes. Though today....the window seat next to me was not vacant. I leave that to your imagination!

Take home exams and cheating!

The only thing constant in this world is change. We have seen profound changes in the social, economical and political aspects of life. This is reflected in the way we think, act and collaborate to keep up with the new innovations and changes happening around us. Keeping the above context in mind how should we see the recent cheating scandal that happened in the duke business school. In a nutshell it was a case of a group of students collaborating on a take home exam. Now, let me not address the duke episode in particular here. But let me tell you about collaboration and take home exams in general. Is it cheating? Is it really??

The world of myspace's, facebook's, twitter's and text messaging has made it increasingly convenient for people to come together and collaborate with one another. Moreover, the information that we get at the click of a button is simply amazing. Information of various forms is being shared with people around the world. We are being led to increasingly collaborate with one another like never before. Moreover, to work as part of a team is the mantra that is being preached in the upper echleons of the corporate world. Take home exams as a matter of fact gives students the chance to seek information from the web or from various other sources. How different is this from collaborating with ones fellow classmates. Both pertains to seeking information. A student who is able to collaborate with his peers and get his work done has shown the ability to work as part of a team. One can argue that the individual thinking process is lost here. But, not really. In this case individual thinking has only paved the way for collective thinking. Cheating is when students copy and paste information from the web or other sources into their answer sheets. Is the integrity and ethics of students in question? Not really again. If a student has collaborated and got the work done, why should it be held against him or her. It has rather addressed a vital skill that any student needs to be successfull in todays business world, namely collaboration. Collaboration is not cheating. But, then the rules for a take home exam dictate otherwise. If it is to restrict any sort of collaboration then there is always the option of keeping an in-class exam.

The rules that dictate a take home exam needs a revisit and has to consider the impact that innovations brought about by technology is having on society and its various bearings. Take home exams cannot escape the wrath of change. Bracing for exams? Start Collaborating!

Indian cricket in the aftermath of world cup 2007

The world cup of 2007 is finally over with the Australians winning it for the third straight time. Somebody stop them! And after a disastrous exit the Indian cricket team is bound for their tour of bangladesh. The reasons for exit has been numerous and rightly so although Greg Chappel’s comment on the Indian cricket board being run like the Zimbabwe and Gavaskar’s retaliation of the Australian cricket team with Greg Chappel as the coach being defeated by Ireland sooner rather than later seems slightly exaggerated.

I grew up playing and watching cricket and cricket is still my favorite sport. So I was disappointed like any other Indian cricket fan for the spineless show displayed by our team. The world cup of 2007 might be over but Indian cricket is far from done. There is still talent and experience in the team. It is only a question of putting the pieces together. I guess its easier said than done! The team still has in it to become world-beaters. But to realize the potential the BCCI, who also happens to be the richest cricket board in the world, has to implement a few important steps. Some of which will be in the likes of giving young performing cricketers a chance to play along with their seniors counterparts, preparing sporting pitches, creating a pool of players for one-day and test cricket, rotation policy for players and making fitness a priority. And please keep politics out of cricket!!!

The Bangladesh series is a fresh start to the season. A few younger players have been brought into the side for the series. A step in the right direction I should say. Shastri's interim appointment is also good, as he is known to be a keen observer of the game. His comment recently of having patience with experienced players seems to be correct. A player like Sachin is not done yet and still has a couple of years in him. Having said that there are a quite a few talented players waiting in the wings to break into the team and replace the senior players. After all isn’t it India that produced the likes of Gavaskar, Kapil and Sachin who with their brand of cricket gave joy to the millions of cricket fans? India sure has talent! But talent alone cannot win matches. It’s required of team India to now play as a team. And with that lets look forward to the year 2011 with renewed vigor and anticipation.