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LIFE AT TAPMI

2006-07-19T07:18:26+02:00

It was 18 June 2005, the day when we all started our life at TAPMI. Everybody was so god damned decent! All were formally dressed in full-sleeved shirts and trousers or “salwaar kameez”. There was a bit of decent smile on every lip. So, that’s how we were lining up outside the PGP office to register ourselves and collect the PGP rulebook & the time-table of the THEME-I. Days went by…I mean ran by – mornings full of classes followed by a lunch followed by the afternoon grind. Slowly and steadily came those beautiful (or beauty fool!) assignments and presentations creeping into our lives. We slogged and within a fortnight, got dog-tired.

It was at this time that our senies pitched in, fresh from their summer internships. The first few days of the following week were spent giving our intros and hearing theirs. Then came a lot of gelling and group meets at the institute, the basketball court and CCD. Some non- group meets also started happening, some fires were lit and some smokes were seen rising from various locations namely the Ozone, Guzzler’s and not to forget nature’s very own- End Point. Well by the 42nd day in the calendar year of TAPMI came a big bang, the icebreaker “EPISODE”. Lots of interactions, lots of creativity. People here seemed to be drinking their lives to the lees.

The theme of life kept on changing gradually. Slogging increased by leaps and bounds. Came time for group work and so came the existence of ‘free- riders’ – a genuinely creative concept if you are an expert in it. Life rolled on amidst the surprise tests, quizzes and grades. Pressure started building up and we started learning how to bear the brunt. But, after all it was real fun and a good experience worth going through.

Seasons changed. It all stopped pouring and the bugle blew. We all packed our bags to answer the OUTBOUND cry. Come what may, but we have to keep going – through forests, caves, trenches, rivulets, ditches…….anything that you can possibly think of. We climbed mountains….I mean hills…. Reached our targets, read compass and got directed and re-directed and finally, reached backed the campus. ‘Never give up, never give in’ was the slogan we were taught to shout loud and amazingly it worked. Well there’s a lot more to this outbound thing and hope you all too enjoy that when you “Just Do It”.

At last came the mother of all themes, THEME-V. Lots of subjects, lots of quizzes and lots of surprises! We got a chance to scan the brands in BRANDSCAN and invited all b-schools to our TAPMI in our own ATHARVA. It was the QOTB (I mean…Quiz On The Beach) where Giri came in as the quizmaster and rocked the show.

Again it was back to square one – classes, quizzes, mid-themes and end-themes.
So what kept us moving through all these? May be parties, fun, learning and our gelling. Actually, that’s how we had spent our first year at TAPMI - by living life the TAPMI way.

Will I lose Kaz someday?

2006-04-01T22:40:00+02:00

“Hi folks!
Remember me? I am Mrids…I mean Mridul. Well, now I’ve grown up to be a teenager reading in standard IX. Mama and papa are as usual busy being the top honchos of big corporate houses. And let me tell you pals, I have got everything in my life….I mean all the luxuries – you name it and I have it. I have an Esteem, a Motorola razor thin cell phone, a handsome monthly pocket money of Rs.4K and a credit card of max Rs.50K for emergency purposes. It has been almost 4 years that Amma (my granny) passed away. Bruno (who was more of a brother than of a doggy) died a natural death. He was actually too old to live to live by the time he died. Moreover, I’m faring well in my studies. So, you see everything is spic and span, well set in the framework of life. Its just so picture perfect!

“But you know guys, I always feel so lonely. It seems that no one to listens to me. Papa doesn’t have time to look back on family matters. Mama, too, is quite busy these days with the financials of her company. Why on earth do people work? Is it to live happily or to draw themselves away from life and become some robots? Well, I think it’s a tough question to answer. Actually I’ve tried to answer this question since my childhood and have come to the conclusion that people start working to live a life of their choice and ultimately live a life chosen for them by their work – and believe me friends, it happens so furtively that people don’t even realize this!

“Well friends, time at school is the most enjoyable time that I usually have in a day. Lots of friends, lots of jokes and loads of fun! Though the classes tend to get boring sometimes but the presence of some of our teachers (who are pathetically hilarious!) make it nevertheless somewhat entertaining. You know people! Kaz (Kasturi) and I are the best of buddies. She understands me much better that the others. The other day when I got a bit too emotional in the games room, she controlled me in an unique way – so softly yet so firmly. She is simply great! At times when I look into her sea deep eyes and keep on searching myself, I feel completely cut off from the rest of the world. I just love searching myself in her eyes. Its far better than going back home and spending the rest of the day all alone.

“Last Sunday, Kaz gave me a buzz and we drove off to a lovely park outside the city. We had a nice time together. We freaked out, ate ice creams and also went on a roller coaster ride. There was a mono-act competition going on at one of the corners of the park. Kaz took part in it and won the third prize. I just don’t understand how some people are, God damn, so talented, yaar? Anyways, the rest of the time we sat together side-by-side and gossiped a lot. I shared a glimpse of my loneliness with her. I was so deeply immersed in my own story that I completely lost the track of the time. When I stopped, Kaz held my face amidst her soft warm palms, kissed my lips with a lot of care and asked me not to worry. She said she would be there with me by my side. It was after a long time that I started crying like a baby – I don’t know what happened to me on that day...

“It was almost 7 in the evening when I returned back home. I was surprised to see mama at her study. I walked upto her and quietly stood by her side. She was so absorbed in her paper work that she didn’t notice me. I broke the silence and asked her in a confused voice, “Mama, why is it that I lose all those who give me company, love and tries to understand me like Amma and Bruno”. She said, “Beta, it happens with everybody and that’s why we make new friends to go on in life”. I almost questioned her back instantly, “Does that mean that I will also lose my new friend someday in the course of life”. She looked at me very affectionately and kissed me on my forehead. Some answers are better left untold. Kaz’s face flashed in front of my eyes and a drop of tear trickled down my cheek.”

The Power of Deciding Creatively

2005-12-18T20:05:00+01:00

Introduction:
Throughout the ages, humans have been taking their decisions at every crossroad of their lives. These decisions are influenced by a wide range of factors as desires, values, deliberations, effectiveness of purposes, moral responsibilities etc. The impulsive nature of the humans has also contributed a lot to their process of decision-making. However, out of all these decisions, only those that we have taken by dint of our free will have succeeded to satisfy our creative unhappiness. Free will, by concept, refers to the choice of the first order desires – the desires that arise out of a fair balance of ownership, self-mastery and rightly ordered appetite. However, free will does not mean the predominance of animalistic instincts in taking our decisions. Rather, it indicates the involvement of our logical thinking, thoughtfulness and conscious choice. Simply speaking, it is our rational appetite, sensitivity to judgment and moral responsibility that leads to a decision for which we are accountable only to ourselves. Such a decision making, which is uniquely ours and leads to creative outcomes, is termed as creative decision-making. It is by dint of the power of creative decision-making that we actively choose one option from among a wide range of options without merely eliminating the others and passively opting for the one at hand.

Creative decision-making - an indispensable tool in the walks of life:
Creative decision-making is one of those powerful tools of the humans, which enables them to speak their mind, exercise their rights to freedom without causing any infringement of others’ free will. It allows a person to retain his/her own identity without endangering others’ individualities. It thus acts as one of the supports of social harmony. The act of creative decision-making can be practiced by any human in every stratum of his/her life namely, - personal life, professional life and social life in order to make his/her life creatively meaningful. This will thus show him/her a way out of the so-called banality and mediocrity. For example, when Hari was in a dilemma to choose between medical and engineering after his higher secondary examination, he passively opted for engineering by rejecting medical whereas Rohan, under similar conditions, actively choose engineering as he felt his calling there. Now, who scores more in his/her chosen field is a different question altogether, but who learns more is definitely a function of the conscious and rational decision that one has taken in choosing his/her field of study.
Not only in ones personal life, creative decision making is also a de rigueur in making ones professional life a successful one. It helps to make one’s professional life a real value addition in ones life. Decisions otherwise taken passively, leads to stagnation of the creative outflow of the employees’ across all the departments. They thus start treating their work as a mere dull and repetitive procedure. Work for them becomes more of execution and less of learning and fun. For example, Mr. Raghu, who happens to be an accountant of a public sector bank, feels disgusted to go and sit on the same wooden chair, open the same set of files and take his morning and afternoon tea in the same cup. He justifies this by saying that he has been doing this for the past twenty years. Job for him is nothing more than a mere way of earning some handy bucks at the end of the month. Actually, Mr. Raghu never chose his work; rather he opted for this job some twenty years back owing to a set of various internal and external factors that influenced his choice. Had he actively chosen his work at that juncture of his life, he would have contributed meaningfully to his organization and more importantly to his own life.
Society is a platform for interaction of a group of rational beings having some common cultures, emotions, hopes and purposes. People use this platform to interact, disagree, argue and then decide on several social issues which otherwise would affect their lives.
Such a decision making process thus requires an active participation from all walks of life. Each of the social entities is thus supposed to take a conscious and rational decision in which he/she is actively involved. Presence of creative element in such a decision is necessary owing to the fact that it is this creative element that helps the society to grow holistically. Creative decision making in a social context can help the social beings to choose the better way to live and let others live. For example, while choosing his/her own freedom, a social entity merely enjoys his/her rights without understanding the real meaning of the word. However, if the same person chooses his/her right to freedom more actively, consciously and rationally then he/she can understand the underlying responsibilities associated with it. Such a choice of freedom will actually lead to the harmonious flow of creative ideas in the society.

How to decide creatively?
The basic tenet of creative decision-making lies in the identification of one’s own free will. One has to have the power of intension. He/she needs to believe in himself/herself. External factors, influencing one’s decision, have been there since time immemorial. The challenge is to remain unperturbed by these external stimuli and yet remain responsive to the general flow of reasons around oneself. Learning from various sources helps in the awakening of the latent creativity in a human being. This in turn helps in taking decisions more creatively. Active involvement is another key that enables a person to take a decision creatively. One has to identify oneself with the decision that one is going to take. Thus, a conscious effort to decide things creatively backed up by a logical approach and tremendous beliefs in ones own choice is the ways that enables a person to decide creatively. The purpose of this article is not merely to jot down some ideas in black and white but to put the concept, thus explained, into action in every walks of life thereby bringing out new possibilities to make our lives more meaningful.
(Word count: 1027)
References:
Timothy O’ Connor, Free Will, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill.htm

“Mama and papa are successful. Why not I?” – A monologue.

2005-12-18T19:17:01+01:00

“Hi everybody! I am Mridul Arora. I study in upper K.G. in St. Mary’s school. I stay with my mom, dad, amma and my sweet doggy Bruno in our bungalow in Mumbai. Ours is a small family. I have heard papa saying so to Sharma uncle. He called it as nucle…. – I didn’t remember the word exactly. Does not really matter for me. I like to play a lot. I play with Bruno other than the school time. I also play with amma a lot. We three are real close friends.

“Papa and I leave the house everyday by 9 o’clock in the morning. We have got two cars – one is big and black, the other one is small and white. Papa usually drives the big one. He drops me at the school gate and then drives off to his work. Mama drives the white one to her work sometimes after that. My school starts at 9:30 in the morning and ends by 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Mama then picks me up and drops me home. She then drives off to her work again. I take my lunch with amma and Bruno and then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I play with both of them.

“Sometimes, amma asks me not to disturb her and even Bruno hides under the sofa too. Then I feel very lonely. I had asked papa a number of times to be my friend, to play games with me. However, he says that he is very busy. Everybody says so. Amma says that papa works at a higher post. I have seen the letters “CEO” written under his name on the top left hand corner of his writing pad. He says that on weekends we will be playing together. But such weekends never comes to me. Sometimes, he flies to other countries in an aeroplane! He brings so many chocolates and toys for me. But I want him to play with me. Rohan’s papa plays with him. Even Rakhi told me that her papa is her best friend. Then, why not my papa becomes my best friend?

“My teacher told me that if anyone prays to God daily then He listens to the prayer. Earlier, I used to pray to God once a day. Believe me, now I pray twice a day. Still then, nothing happens. So, next time I pray to him, I will surely tell him to get his ears checked by doctor uncle.

“Mama also says that she is busy. She returns home everyday by 9 o’clock at night, takes her dinner with amma and me and goes to bed. She hardly reads me a story. Amma also falls asleep soon after that. But I stay awake. Sometimes, I get out of my bed and look through the pictures of “Robin Hood”. However, I cannot read it. Amma does not all this, nor does mama. Sometimes, I talk to Bruno about all this. He listens to me and licks me. I love Bruno a lot.

“The other day I heard mama telling to Sharma aunty that she and papa are quite “successful”. I asked her the meaning of it. She said that when I get what I want, I become successful. Perhaps, papa gets what he wants and so he is successful. So is mama. However, I neither get to play with my papa nor get to listen to bedtime stories from mama. So you see, I am not successful. May be next time that I pray to God, I will keep my prayer short by asking Him to make me successful. Or can you all suggest me something? Please help me out folks, as I too want to become successful like mama and papa.”